NEW YORK, N.Y. -- A citywide curfew, beginning each night at 8 p.m., will remain in place through Sunday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday, as he refused to bring in the National Guard or any armed forces to New York City on the heels of consecutive nights of looting across the city. Instead, the mayor called on true, authentic leaders of communities including members of the clergy, civic leaders and block associations to step in to help quell the looting and violence on the streets in recent days. He also said additional NYPD resources would be deployed to where more backup is needed in the city going forward. We do not need, nor do we think its wise for the National Guard to be in New York City nor any armed forces, he told reporters during a press conference Tuesday. When outside armed forces go into communities, no good comes of it, he continued. We have seen this for decades go back to the 50s 60s, with the Civil Rights Movement people who are not trained for the conditions in New York City, they are public servants, they protect us in a different way, I appreciate them deeply but theyre not trained for the circumstance here, they have not been spending decades working on the relationship between police and community particularly in the intensive way its been worked on in recent years. Rep. Max Rose slammed the mayor Tuesday for losing control of the situation in the city and called on the National Guard to be deployed to New York City to enforce the 8 p.m. curfew Tuesday evening. A citywide curfew began at 11 p.m. Monday evening in response to protests that ended with violence, rioting and looting in Brooklyn and parts of Manhattan over the weekend. The protests were sparked by the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis last Monday after a white police officer kneeled on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes. But despite the 11 p.m. curfew Monday, looters broke into stores across Midtown and the Bronx Monday evening. In Brooklyn, where police had clashed with protesters over the weekend, protests reportedly were peaceful on Monday evening. After seeing the destruction caused by the looting on Monday night, de Blasio announced that curfew would begin earlier, at 8 p.m., starting Tuesday evening. The mayor admitted that the looting likely would not be solved in a day, but he refused to send in the National Guard even if looting continued on Tuesday. Is it complex? Yeah, its complex, life is complex, it is a difficult circumstance, is it going to be solved overnight? No, guys its not going to be solved in one on-off switch, I would like to pay attention to how things really work, this will take a little time to work through from Thursday night to Sunday night, he said. We thought we were working things through, working them out and moving forward, something changed Sunday night, things change and when things change you quickly have to make adjustments, we made one adjustment for last night, were going to make another adjustment for today, were going to keep making adjustments. But no, the answer is not instant gratification lets bring in outside armed forces and everythings going to be great, no, its dangerous, it will make things worse. Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said nearly 700 people had been taken into police custody on Monday night. Shea vowed to protect stores across the city and said he would redirect officers to different areas if someone is being attacked. Were going to defend property, absolutely, were also going to make critical decisions at any one point in time and were going to make decisions to preserve life above all else, Shea told reporters. The NYPD said that after 8 p.m only buses, delivery trucks, and vehicles carrying essential workers would be allowed south of 96th Street in Manhattan. Tonights curfew is in effect 8pm to 5am. After 8pm, the only vehicles allowed south of 96 st in Manhattan will be: essential workers, buses, and delivery trucks. The NYPD remains deeply committed to serving the people of NYC & is asking for everyones cooperation. pic.twitter.com/66alYW9R2B NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) June 2, 2020 FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER. As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ For more coverage, visit our complete coronavirus section here. The Tenderloins only gay bar, known for hosting weekly drag and disco parties, is fighting to keep its doors open. A GoFundMe page set up on behalf of Aunt Charlie's Lounge hopes to raise $100,000 that would keep the bar afloat amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Organizers behind the crowdfunding campaign fear that Aunt Charlie's Lounge may have to permanently close by August 1. We need to Save Aunt Charlie's so it can continue to be a site of warmth, healing, and spirit, Myles Cooper, DJ and host of drag at Aunt Charlie's Lounge, told SFGATE. We can't let Aunt Charlie's die. Cooper is also one of the organizers behind the campaign. The bar has struggled financially since it closed its doors in March after mandatory shelter-in-place orders were established. It was awarded a Paycheck Protection Loan but received just a fraction of the funds it had applied for based on the size of the space, the GoFundMe page notes. ALSO: 'I hope I can stay': German immigrant tries to keep SF's Suppenkuche open The goal for the crowdsourcing campaign is to help pay for rent, utilities and other business operations. If any additional donations are collected beyond its goal, Aunt Charlie's Lounge will use it for long-term sustainability. Cooper shared that if the bar permanently closes, it would be a tremendous loss for San Francisco and its connection to the queer struggle. It is a multigenerational queer space that serves vulnerable populations like longtime survivors of the HIV/AIDS epidemic with immunodeficiencies, Cooper said. The street Aunt Charlie's resides on was renamed Vicki Mar Lane to honor the trans icon who performed in Aunt Charlie's and gave us so much life. We can't let that street become a ghost and a shell of a once-vibrant scene for the queer and trans communities. The news comes weeks after San Franciscos longest-standing, cooperatively owned LGBTQ+ bar, The Stud, announced it would cease operations at the end of May. A press release shared by The Stud collective relayed the bar would be permanently closing due to a lack of revenue during the pandemic and economic shutdown. Aunt Charlies Lounge first opened in 1987. Its located at 133 Turk St. in San Francisco. Amanda Bartlett, SFGATE digital reporter, contributed to this report. Susana Guerrero is an SFGATE digital reporter. Email: Susana.Guerrero@sfgate.com | Twitter: @SusyGuerrero3 MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE: Sign up for 'The Daily' newsletter for the latest on coronavirus here. UK firms are exporting more outside the EU. (Leon Neal/Getty Images) British small firms are jumping before theyre pushed into global trade outside the EU, boosting exports to the Commonwealth and leading emerging markets, according to new figures. A research paper indicates the UKs exporters have diverted around 10bn (12.4bn) of potential trade with European markets to new exports around the world since the EU referendum in 2016. The study provides some of the most striking evidence yet of Brexits impact on Britains trading relationships, even while the country remains part of the EUs single market and customs union. Britains trade terms with the EU are likely to change significantly after the Brexit transition period ends, with the deadline set for the end of the year despite limited progress and huge uncertainty over trade negotiations. The study by academics at Birminghams Aston University suggests firms have already begun diverting trade away from the EU, as they anticipate new tariffs and other barriers to end frictionless trade with the bloc. READ MORE: Barnier takes hard line on Brexit negotiations This evidence suggests that UK exporters are jumping before theyre pushed finding alternative markets worldwide for their products even before we know the outcome of the current UK-EU trade negotiations and any potential new barriers, said Jun Du, economics professor at Aston Business School and one of the researchers. Researchers analysed 340,000 export transactions by 26,000 firms over a five-year period to the start of 2019, using HMRC data. They found the smallest micro exporters have already switched as much as 46% of new export growth by value from EU to non-EU markets since the referendum. Small firms overall had switched 19% of trade and medium-sized firms had traded 7%. The shift among smaller firms was large enough to offset the impact of larger firms actually increasing the level of exports heading to the EU beyond what pre-referendum trends would suggest. Large firms increased trade to both the EU and non-EU destinations, however. Story continues READ MORE: Firms look to sell overseas as UK takes control of trade policy Researchers said it suggested small firms were more likely to take pre-emptive measures as they were more fearful of their ability to weather future trade disruption with the EU. Large businesses might have more resources and skills to be able to mitigate potential risks associated with policy uncertainty compared to small size firms, the paper said. The study looked at new export trade that researchers believed would have gone to EU markets if the UK were not leaving the EU. The shift added up to an 8.7% decline in the share of Britains exports by value heading to EU countries since the referendum, compared with non-EU countries. It found exports were increasingly targeted at the so-called BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) and Britains former colonies, including Australia, New Zealand and parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. Trade also increased but to a lesser degree with wealthier countries including the US, Japan and South Korea. Du noted the shift was all the more striking given typically higher transport costs, unfamiliar bureaucracy and currency and credit risks in new markets. She added: We will need to see whether these patterns still hold true in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis, which has focused minds on some of the vulnerabilities of long-distance supply chains. She called on the UK government to provide additional help to small exporters. They need also to ease export admin and stimulate financial support, risk management and education in strategic marketing. Interestingly, these actions are those that were undertaken by countries like Japan and South Korea in their successful export-led growth from the 1960s onwards. Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his address at the Annual Session of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) today said the reform measures announced by India were not "random or scattered decisisons" but systemic, planned, integrated, inter-connected and futuristic process. He said for the current government, the reforms meant taking bold decisions and bringing them to logical conclusion. He said his government had taken reform initiatives to change laws -- such as those in agriculture sector -- that were constituted after Independence and the farmers were left at the mercy of middlemen. reforms random scattered decisions reforms systemic, planned, integrated, inter-connected futuristic process reforms , logical conclusion : PM @narendramodi PMO India (@PMOIndia) June 2, 2020 Due to the current reforms, the private sector would also be able to join the non-strategic sectors, he said. The PM also talked about labour reforms initiated by the government to provide job opportunities for workers. Also read: Coronavirus crisis: Why PM Modi believes India will get its economic growth back The government had also fulfilled the long-standing demand of the industry to clarify the definition of MSMEs, he said. "This will enable MSMEs to grow without any worries and they will not have to follow other ways to maintain the status of MSMEs," he added. He also talked about 'five Is' -- Intent, Inclusion, Investment, Infrastructure and Innovation -- that were important to speed up India's development and make it 'Atma Nirbhar' (self-reliant). He said the recent economic reforms and stimulus worth Rs 20 lakh crore announced by the government gave a glimpse of these initiatives. He said the country now needed to manufacture products that were 'Made in India' but are 'Made for the World'. "Now we have to invest in the creation of a Robust Local Supply Chain that strengthens India's stake in the Global Supply Chain. In this campaign, a big institution like Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) will also have to come forward in a new role post-Corona," said PM Modi. Also Read: Prioritise economy, fight against coronavirus, PM Modi tells CMs He said rather than invoking the 'Getting Growth Back' mantra, he would say, "Yes, we will get our growth back". He said there would be many new opportunities for the youth of the country considering the direction in which the government was moving today. PM Modi said re-strengthening economy against the coronavirus pandemic was one of the highest priorities for the government. "For this, the government has taken immediate decisions. We have also taken decisions which will help the country in the long run," he said. As the country moves towards the first phase of unlocking, the PM said it needed to do both -- save lives and stabilise economy. "In this situation, CII has started the talk of 'Getting Growth Back' and I congratulate all the people of Indian industry for this," he said. Also Read: PM Modi speech at CII live updates: 'Have to save economy as well as lives,' says PM He also extended best wishes to the people of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on their statehood day. "Hard work and courage are synonymous with the culture of this land. The state's role in India's growth is deeply valued. Wishing the citizens of the state the very best for their future endeavours. People from Telangana are excelling in a wide range of sectors. This state is making valuable contributions to the growth trajectory of India. I pray for progress and prosperity of the people of Telangana," he said. Also Read: PM Modi speech at CII live updates: 'Have to save economy as well as lives,' says PM PLEASE BE ADVISED: Soon we will no longer integrate with Facebook for story comments. The commenting option is not going away, however, readers will need to register for a FREE site account to continue sharing their thoughts and feedback on stories. If you already have an account (i.e. current subscribers, posting in obituary guestbooks, for submitting community events), you may use that login, otherwise, you will be prompted to create a new account. [June 02, 2020] Blueberries Commences Commercial Sales of Proprietary Cultivars to Local Partners TORONTO, June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Blueberries Medical Corp. (CSE: BBM) (OTC: BBRRF) (FRA: 1OA) (the Company or "Blueberries"), a Latin American licensed producer of medicinal cannabis and cannabis-derived products, is pleased to announce that it has officially commenced sales of its proprietary cultivars approved by the Colombian Institute of Agriculture (ICA). Blueberries has entered into multiple sales agreements to distribute its proprietary genetics to licensed producers located in Bogota Savannah, the region where the Company operates. Under the agreements, the Company will leverage contract growers to produce the Companys registered non-psychoactive cannabidiol (CBD) strains approved by ICA. These proprietary cultivars were developed and tested by the Companys agronomic team and optimized for growth in the local climate. Production from contract growers will be processed at the Companys extraction facility under arrangements whereby Blueberries will retain a certain portion of the extracted product for resale as compensation for these services. Such arrangements provide the Company with premium extracts without the associated cultivation capital expenditures and related risks. Being located in the same geographical region with the largest number of licensed cannabis growers in Colombia is a tremendous opportunity to sell our approved CBD dominant genetics to the licensed cannabis producers of the region said Carlos Maldonado, Vice President of Operations. This added line of business has great potential and will allow us to expand our dry flower production capacity without making any new substantial capital or operational investment in cultivation, which is aligned with our strategic focus on extraction. Additionally, we will secure sufficient cannabis biomass to feed our extraction line and will process a standardized extract oil. Blueberries leverages technology and strict quality protocols in its genetics cultivation operations. Starting with the cutting of the clones from the mother plant, the highly skilled and experienced technical and operational personnel utilize the most optimal technique to ensure the starter plants are female and clones produce high-yielding crops. Now that our stabilized clone production is in full operation, we are able to produce high quality genetics for the regional marketplace. By bringing our CBD-dominant seedlings to licensed producers along with our value-added standard operating procedures, we are leveraging our operational expertise and cultivation license. said Camilo Villalba, Chief Executive Officer of Blueberries. Our genetics sales will be followed by the sales of our extracts in Q3, 2020, generating revenues to achieve cash flow positivity in the near future. In addition to the Company's own flower production, multiple agreements with local contract and associate growers secure sufficient cannabis supply to utilize a significant portion of the extraction facilitys current capacity, while scaling production capacity to maximize the use of the Companys extraction capabilities. The initial processing capacity of theextraction facility is approximately 70,000kg/year of dried flower. Blueberries operations team is heavily focused on establishing a best-in-class extraction operation with the goal of becoming a leading extraction center in Latin America and an international supplier of medicinal-grade cannabis oil extracts, active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and related products. About Blueberries Medical Corp. Blueberries is a Latin American licensed producer of naturally grown premium quality cannabis with its primary operations ideally located in the Bogota Savannah of central Colombia. The Company is led by a specialized team with proprietary expertise in agriculture, genetics, extraction, medicine, pharmacology and marketing, Blueberries is fully licensed for the cultivation, production, domestic distribution, and international export of CBD and THC-based medical cannabis in Colombia. Blueberries combination of leading scientific expertise, agricultural advantages and distribution arrangements has positioned the Company to become a leading international supplier of naturally grown, processed, and standardized medicinal-grade cannabis oil extracts and related products. Additional information about the Company is available at www.blueberriesmed.com. For more information, please contact: Camilo Villalba, Chief Executive Officer [email protected] Tel: +57 (313) 483 0131 Ian Atacan, Chief Financial Officer [email protected] Tel: +1 (416) 562 3220 Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as expects, or does not expect, is expected, anticipates or does not anticipate, plans, budget, scheduled, forecasts, estimates, believes or intends or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results may or could, would, might or will be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward looking statements relate, among other things, to: closing of the proposed transactions and achieving milestones in 2019 as contemplated, or at all, ability to expand distribution networks, ability to expand and upgrade the Companys cultivation facilities in Colombia, internal expectations, expectations regarding the ability of the Company to access new Latin American and international markets, the ability to attract and retain new customers, and future expansion plans including development of the cultivation, production, industrialization and marketing of cannabis for commercial and scientific purposes. These forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time such statements were made. Actual future results may differ materially as forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to materially differ from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors, among other things, include: fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; expectations regarding the size of the Colombian and international medical cannabis market and changing consumer habits; the ability of the Company to successfully achieve its business objectives; plans for expansion; political and social uncertainties; inability to obtain adequate insurance to cover risks and hazards; and the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on cultivation, production, distribution and sale of cannabis and cannabis related products in Colombia, Argentina and elsewhere; and employee relations. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the Company believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure shareholders that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. The Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law. Additional information regarding the Company, and other risks and uncertainties relating to the Company's business are contained under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's Listing Statement dated January 31, 2019 filed on its issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Google has announced that Nest products are now eligible for its Advanced Protection Program, beefing up the security of its smart home devices. Users can now use the same Google account for both the Advanced Protection Program and Nest devices simultaneously. Previously, users could only use a Google account for either of the two at a time. The Advanced Protection Program completely blocked Nest products from being used with the same Google account. Since we launched, one of our goals has been to bring Advanced Protections features to other Google products. We want as many users as possible to benefit from the additional levels of security that the Program provides, Shuvo Chatterjee, product manager for the Advanced Protection Program, writes in a blog post. Advertisement The program has been incorporated into several Google products over the years, including GSuite, Google Cloud Platform, Chrome, and Android. Now, Nest is getting the companys strongest level of account security as well. Since smart home devices are prone to online attacks, Google has been taking a variety of steps to beef up Nests security. The company has mandated two-factor authentication and implemented the reCAPTCHA technology to guard devices against automated attacks. It also rolled out Nest login notifications. Now, the latest move adds another layer of security to Nest devices. Google says the Advanced Protection Program was one of the top requests from Nest users and thats not surprising at all. Advertisement Advanced Protection Program comes to Google Nest Googles Advanced Protection Program is designed to give additional security to people who are at high risk of being targeted online. Such people include journalists, activists, business leaders, and those involved in politics. To enroll in this program, users require two physical security keys (including a backup). They also need a smartphone running Android 7 or higher or an iPhone running iOS 10.0 or higher. Android users can activate the built-in security key simply by enrolling their phones. Apple users, meanwhile, need to download the Google Smart Lock app. Once enrolled, users need the physical security key along with their password to log into their Google account. Advertisement This offers a much stronger layer of security than two-factor authentication. It protects the account from fraudulent access attempts and blocks unknown apps. It also limits apps that can access Google data like files stored in Drive. Google warns Nest users that they only add other home members who they trust as they can access devices, media services, addresses, and home activity. Home members can also add or remove other members as well as devices. The company further recommends all home members enroll in the Advanced Protection Program to ensure the highest level of security. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 18:56:04|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SARI PUL, Afghanistan, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Three civilians were killed and four others injured as a roadside bomb struck a car in the northern Sari Pul province on Tuesday, police spokesman in the province Noor Agha Faizy said. According to the official, a mine planted by the armed insurgents on a road in Shiramha area outside provincial capital, the Sari Pul city struck a car, killing three civilians and injuring four others including three women. Without providing more details, the official blamed the enemies of peace, a reference to the Taliban militants for organizing the roadside bombing, but armed outfit, which is active in parts of Sari Pul province has yet to claim responsibility. Enditem The prophet Micah taught that the Lord requires us to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God, he continued, calling on Trump and others in power to be moral. For the sake of George Floyd, for all who have wrongly suffered, and for the sake of us all, we need leaders to help us to be one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all. BGR Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, up to and including the present day, shoppers have encountered the effects of everything from supply chain disruptions to pandemic-related labor constraints which have unfortunately led to grocery store shortages. Just as the effects of the pandemic are not evenly distributed around the country, though, neither are these kinds of products The post 5 popular grocery shortages that are making shoppers so angry right now appeared first on BGR. For the majority of the country, this has been the toughest time they've ever had to go through. We can try to empathize with everyone who was left stranded due to the pandemic but we will never truly know the hardships they've had to go through, the hardships they're still going through. There are plenty of stories about people trying to get home and even with everything stacked against them, they're resilient and doing anything they can to survive. We would also like to bring focus on people who were left with no place to call home and that is what 70-year-old Leelavati Dubey had faced during the lockdown. Mojo Story/Youtube Recently, Barkha Dutt did a report of her where she talked to her about her current situation and how she ended up alone at Bandra's railway station with just one bag and a packet of biscuits.Her story is one of the most heart-wrenching things ever; she had travelled to Mumbai from Delhi to take care of her son but was thrown out soon after and was left stranded during the lockdown. In tears, she narrated the horrific story and how her son even beat her up while drunk. Emotionally talking about just how alone she was since her husband's death, she said she would even probably have to resort to begging as she had no money with her. She was trying to get back to Delhi but even there, she had nowhere to go since all her children didn't want to deal with her and called paagal. We went back to Bandra Station to meet Leelavati, a 70 year old abandoned lady whose story you saw @themojo_in. She was given room to sleep by Railway Police, staff donated money, she'll be on a train to Delhi today. We'll find her a home. Watch her story https://t.co/RY8BVN8glG pic.twitter.com/ipYMTEVhhr barkha dutt (@BDUTT) May 31, 2020 Even Barkha Dutt seemed to break down while talking to her and listening to all the atrocities she has faced by her own children nonetheless. But, then came the power of the internet and the happy ending. A couple of days ago, Barkha Dutt reported that she was given a room to sleep and was going to be on the train to Delhi. @themojo_in and @BDUTT got Leelavati ji to Delhi! She is safe, and happy Soon her words on @themojo_in pic.twitter.com/Ardv7EnVh9 Karishma Asoodani (@tweettokarishma) June 1, 2020 Then came the best news ever and proof that the internet can actually help save lives. Social entrepreneur Kiran Verma has decided to take responsibility for her the internet's beloved 'Leelavati Dadi' and has essentially 'adopted' her. Sharing the news on Twitter, he was delighted to announce that he has been blessed with another grandmother. I am really humbled to see the kindness of @SanjayAzadSln ji. He was not a politician today, he was a son to her providing the best possible support.@BDUTT my salute to your journalism through which, I am blessed with another Grandmother. Thank you everyone. https://t.co/WEUkgWHHXf Kiran Verma (@VermaKiran) June 1, 2020 This is the most wholesome ending ever and I'm so glad she has found a family that is worthy of her. So guys here is the update on #Leelavati Dadi. She has been tested for #COVID19 and we are waiting to get the report. But to make her safe we won't bring her out for three four days. She is doing great and very happy with us. Anyone can Whatsapp me at 9810670347 and talk to her pic.twitter.com/AQcpS2q8Jm Kiran Verma (@VermaKiran) June 1, 2020 Look at that smile! Hopefully, all of her kids who abandoned her, especially during a time like this, realise their mistake before it's too late. For Marylin(CQ) Yell, it was the strawberries. For Martin Gomez, it was the mangos. For Farrin(CQ) Turner, it was the opportunity. The first-ever Fields of Dover Neighborhood Produce Market, a two-hour extravaganza of fresh fruits and vegetables, was held Friday for residents of the subdivision outside of Converse. Turner, vice president of the Fields of Dover Homeowners Association, said social media interaction while at home during the COVID-19 pandemic brought the San Antonio-based River City Produce to light. I have shopped with them previously before they came here. I went to another (market) they had about two weeks ago in another neighborhood, Turner said. I posted it and asked, If we could get River City out here (to Fields of Dover), who would be interested? and we had a huge response. Phone calls were made, contacts were established and a date was set. River City Produce would roll into Fields of Dover on May 29 with about a ton of different fresh fruits and vegetables. The mobile markets are a new facet of delivery for River City Produce, an independently owned fresh fruit and vegetable distributor. It came from an idea we had last year, in helping some low-income and food-desert areas, said Chris Uribe, River City Produce marketing manager, who was on hand at Fridays market. We shelved it for a little bit. Then the pandemic happened and we thought it was a perfect time. The firm was approached several weeks ago about doing a neighborhood farmers market, and the idea took hold. We were approached by one person before, and it just grew from there, Uribe said. Weve only been doing this for about a month. Now, were doing two to three markets a day, Tuesday through Saturday. Fresh fruit and vegetables of all types, including watermelon, peaches and zucchini, were laid out across six folding tables under canopy tents, awaiting customers who began lining up a half-hour before the market opened. The fruits and vegetables come from River City Produces numerous vendors from across the country and around the world. We are a wholesaler, so we get (produce) from everyone, Uribe said. I know we usually have Chilean grapes, which come up out of Mexico. We have peaches that came in from North Carolina; the strawberries are from California. So were all over the place. And fruits and vegetables are essential to anybodys meal, he added. Customer Marylin Yell would agree. She traveled from Schertz to attend the market once she saw a notice in the newspaper. Im pretty health-conscious, so I try to eat fresh whenever possible. Thats why I am always on the lookout for fresh like this, Yell said. I try to go to farmers markets where I can find them. I prefer a farmers market than going to the store, she said, adding, This seems to be very nice, very fresh and, I get to go out. Uribe said Yells final statement was another major selling point to the neighbor market concept. In talking, you have people afraid to get out of their homes and their neighborhoods. They dont want to go to the big store, where there are hundreds of people, Uribe said. Were glad to come out and help neighborhoods and let them know who we are. Weve been around for 30-plus years. Besides organizing the market, Turner did some shopping of her own. I got bananas, pineapples, radishes, zucchinis, grapes, strawberries, peaches, apples Im just missing the peanut butter at this point, she laughed. Martin Gomez drove over from Windcrest to get his supply of fresh fruit. I have visited other farmers markets, and I have always had a good experience with them, Gomez said. We eat a lot of vegetables and we always try to support our communities around us. Having worked as a manager in a number of restaurants over the past 26 years, he said he knows the value and benefits of selecting and eating fresh fruits and vegetables. I know about fresh fruit, how good it is for you, he said. I came to check it out and I walked out of here with a full bag. What would be the first thing he would dive into when he got home? Ahhh, mangos! Definitely the mangos! he said. Absolutely! jflinn@express-news.net Selbyville, Delaware, June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Market Insights, Inc. has recently added a new report on chilled beams market which estimates the global market valuation for chilled beams will cross US$ 431 million by 2026. Rising government inclination towards energy efficiency of building is the key reason fueling market growth. Energy efficiency is the major benefits offered by chilled beams over other HVAC systems available in the industry. As the whole world is moving towards a lower carbon emission goal, the demand for reducing energy consumption in buildings is increasing day by day. As a result of this, government throughout the world are taking strategic measure to reduce energy consumption in specific regions or countries. Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/4680 Building energy consumption in the U.S. accounts to over 40% of total energy consumption of the country and greenhouse emissions. Hence making it necessary to reduce consumption of energy in buildings. In order to increase the use of energy efficient building, the U.S. government is taking several measures such as assigning building codes, appliances standards mediating the essential level of appliance efficiency, consumer information and labels for providing information to consumer regarding energy efficiency and many more. Increasing awareness regarding energy efficiency is expected the fuel global chilled beams market growth. In a short-term perspective, product demand is expected to fall in in the year 2020 amid COVID 19 impact on the industry, mainly due to supply chain disruptions and falling air conditioning demand. Although with resuming building and construction activities after the crisis, it will follow the upwards trend again till the forecast time period. Various categories of chilled beam systems are employed in the industry namely active, passive and multiservice beams. Passive beams are only used for cooling purposes and work on the mechanism of convention to provide cooling. The segment held a share of over 15% in the global chilled beams market in 2019. These HVAC systems are an ideal solution for providing cooling in laboratories and other spaces where high heat loads are generated. Several materials are used in construction of chilled beam systems such as aluminum, gypsum, metals etc. Gypsum held a significant share of over 20% in the overall material demand of chilled beams market in 2019. Gypsum based chilled beam systems are used in areas which require both thermal comfort and aesthetics. Few end uses of gypsum based chilled beam systems include high standard conference rooms, shops and auditoriums. Browse key industry insights spread across 136 pages with 119 market data tables & 12 figures & charts from the report, Chilled Beams Market Share & Forecast, 2020 2026 in detail along with the table of contents: https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/chilled-beams-market Global Chilled Beams market is categorized based on application into offices, hotels & leisure, retail, industrial etc. Retail sectors have a considerable use of chilled beam systems as the sectors require both high performance cooling and a better design. Most of the departmental stores, shops, supermarkets etc. are inclined towards using chilled beams so as to ensure comfort of customers in their marketplace. New construction segment holds a major chunk in the industry accounting to increasing energy efficiency regulations for newly constructed buildings to reduce carbon emissions. The segment growth is attributed to increasing building and construction activities especially in emerging countries such as India and Indonesia. With growing construction of commercial buildings and offices in emerging nation, segment growth is expected to fuel in the coming years. Some major findings of the chilled beams market report include: Europe remain the largest region for chilled beams market due to strict regulations and presence of various manufactures in the region. Increasing government inclination towards reduction of energy consumption in commercial buildings is expected to fuel market growth. Multi service chilled beam systems to follow a steady growth rate till forecast period. Offices remain the largest industry for chilled beam systems application. COVID 19 to downsize product demand in the year 2020. North America will contribute over 28% in overall chilled beam systems demand in 2026. The U.S. dominates the North America market owing to stringent regulations regarding energy efficient buildings in the country. Furthermore, local governments in GA, Fort Worth, Texas, Atlanta etc. are encouraging owners of buildings to reduce energy consumption as well as to set energy efficiency goals. Seven programs regarding energy efficiency have been introduced under building solution center which provides models for replication as well. increasing energy efficiency awareness is expected to result in a increased demand for chilled beams in the coming years. Few industry players engaged in manufacturing of chilled beams are Trox, Halton Groups, SAS International, Frennger Systems etc. Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @ https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/4680 Partial chapters of report table of contents (TOC): Chapter 2. Executive Summary 2.1. Chilled Beams industry 360 synopsis, 2016 2026 2.1.1. Business trends 2.1.2. Product trends 2.1.3. Material trends 2.1.4. Application trends 2.1.5. Business trends 2.1.6. Regional trends Chapter 3. Chilled Beams Industry Insights 3.1. Industry segmentation 3.2. Industry size and forecast, 2016 2026 3.2.1. COVID-19 impact on industry landscape 3.3. Industry ecosystem analysis 3.3.1. Profit margin 3.3.2. Value addition 3.3.3. Distribution channel analysis 3.3.3.1. COVID-19 impact on industry landscape 3.3.4. Vendor matrix 3.3.4.1. List of key raw material suppliers 3.3.4.2. List of key manufacturers/distributors 3.3.4.3. List of key/potential customers 3.4. Raw material analysis 3.4.1. COVID-19 impact on raw material supply 3.5. Innovation & sustainability 3.5.1. Patent analysis 3.5.2. Future trends 3.6. Industry impact forces 3.6.1. Growth drivers 3.6.1.1. Increasing demand for energy efficient buildings 3.6.1.2. Rising building construction in Asia Pacific 3.6.1.3. Escalating growth of multiservice chilled beams in Europe 3.6.2. Industry pitfalls & challenges 3.6.2.1. High installation cost of chilled beams 3.7. Regulatory landscape 3.7.1. U.S. 3.7.2. Europe 3.7.3. China 3.8. Growth potential analysis 3.9. Competitive landscape, 2019 3.9.1. Company market share analysis, 2019 3.9.2. Brand analysis 3.9.3. Key stakeholders 3.9.4. Strategic dashboard 3.10. Regional price trends 3.10.1. COVID 19 impact on pricing 3.10.2. Cost structure analysis 3.10.2.1. R&D cost 3.10.2.2. Manufacturing & equipment cost 3.10.2.3. Raw material cost 3.10.2.4. Distribution cost 3.10.2.5. Operating cost 3.10.2.6. Miscellaneous cost 3.11. Porters analysis 3.11.1. Supplier power 3.11.2. Buyer power 3.11.3. Threat of new entrants 3.11.4. Threat of substitutes 3.11.5. Industry rivalry 3.12. PESTEL analysis 3.13. COVID 19 impact on demand of battery separator by application 3.13.1. Offices 3.13.2. Retail 3.13.3. Hotels & Leisure 3.13.4. Industrial 3.13.5. Others About Global Market Insights Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider. Offering syndicated and custom research reports, growth consulting and business intelligence services, Global Market Insights, Inc. aims to help clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data that aid in strategic decision making. My father fears what Im about to say will make me unable to find a job in the future. He may be right. My whole family worries about my health, as do I, and we have good reason to do so. I feel now more than ever that I must speak up regardless of consequence or retribution because to remain silent about this truly and uniquely American experience would be wrong. I did all the ... (click for more) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Vehicle traffic will be restricted below 96th Street in Manhattan when the citywide curfew goes into effect at 8 p.m., police officials said on Tuesday. Exceptions will be made for local residents, essential workers, buses and truck deliveries, according to NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan. TRAFFIC CLOSURE: At 8pm tonight when the #curfew begins in #NYC, there will be NO vehicular traffic allowed south of 96th Street in Manhattan with the exception of residents, essential workers, busses, and truck deliveries. pic.twitter.com/bpiVb45Gej Chief Terence Monahan (@NYPDChiefofDept) June 2, 2020 A citywide curfew, beginning each night at 8 p.m., will remain in place through Sunday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday, a day after a curfew initiated at 11 p.m. took place in response to protests that ended with violence, rioting and looting in Brooklyn and parts of Manhattan over the weekend. The protests were sparked by the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis last Monday after a white police officer kneeled on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes. Despite the 11 p.m. curfew Monday, looters broke into stores across Midtown and the Bronx Monday evening. After seeing the destruction caused by the looting on Monday night, de Blasio announced that curfew would begin earlier, at 8 p.m., starting Tuesday evening. In Brooklyn, where police had clashed with protesters over the weekend, protests reportedly were peaceful on Monday evening. Police and local officials quashed false rumors of looting on Staten Island, and the boroughs protests have been peaceful, the Advance/SILive.com previously reported. About 2,000 protesters, including around 700 people on Monday, have been arrested in New York City, according to News 4 New York. For Subscribers Senate votes to increase Partners in Education tax credit program Senators voted to increase the amount of money the Partners in Education tax credit program can give out for scholarships to private school students. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2020) - Genesis Metals Corp. (TSXV: GIS) (OTCQB: GGISF) ("Genesis" or the "Company") today reports assay results from the first four holes (906 metres) completed as part of its Phase 1 2020 diamond drilling program at its Chevrier Gold Project in the eastern Abitibi Greenstone Belt of Central Quebec. Drill Results Highlights: 8.92 g/t gold over 1.0 metre in hole GM-20-59 starting at 223 metres down hole, within a wider zone assaying 1.79 g/t gold over 7.35 metres in hole GM-20-59 starting at 223 metres down hole, within a wider zone assaying 1.79 g/t gold over 7.35 metres 3.99 g/t gold over 3.0 metres in GM20-61starting at 98.85 metres down hole in GM20-61starting at 98.85 metres down hole 10.20 g/t gold over 1.15 metres in GM-20-62 starting at 88.75 metres down hole, within a wider interval assaying 1.36 g/t gold over 19.7 metres starting at 74.6 metres down hole The Phase I drilling program, paused due to the COVID-19 related work stoppage in Quebec announced on March 23, 2020, has now been completed with a total of 2,502 metres in 9 holes drilled. Results from 5 holes (1,596 metres) are pending. Plans for a second phase of drilling will be announced once all assays from the current program are received and evaluated. Genesis will commence a surface exploration program in June to assess target areas identified through a 2019 property wide glacial till survey and a comprehensive review of all available data on the +290 square kilometer project area. The Company remains fully funded for its planned work in 2020. The Phase I drilling program has focused on improving definition and testing for expansion opportunities of modelled higher-grade domains which are interpreted to form plunging "shoots" within the Chevrier Main deposit. Holes GM-20-59 to 62 were drilled in the southwestern sector of the Main Zone. Significant weighted average intercepts are presented in Table 1 and individual hole descriptions are provided below. Drill hole locations are shown on Map 1 and Longitudinal Section 1, below. Table 1: Weighted Average Intercepts from GM-20-59 to 62 Hole ID Zone From (m) To (m) Interval (m)* Gold (g/t)** GM-20-59 Main 128.05 129.05 1.00 3.71 223.00 230.35 7.35 1.79 including 223.00 224.00 1.00 8.92 270.75 277.00 6.25 0.73 GM-20-60 Main 196.97 200.95 3.98 0.79 235.70 237.70 2.00 2.39 262.00 272.50 10.50 1.03 GM-20-61 Main 98.85 101.85 3.00 3.99 GM-20-62 Main 74.60 94.30 19.70 1.36 including 88.75 89.90 1.15 10.2 *True thickness is interpreted to be approximately 60-85% of drilled width for most holes; intervals column may not add due to rounding; **Average grades are calculated with un-capped gold assays. Average widths are calculated using a 0.10 g/t gold cut-off grade with up to 3 m of internal dilution of zero grade; narrow intervals that meet these criteria may not be reported. Drill Hole Descriptions: Drill hole location and orientation details are provided below in Table 2 and are shown on Map 1 and Longitudinal Section 1, below. Chevrier hole GM-20-59 (-47/135 azimuth) was drilled to provide better definition of the higher grade domain in the southwestern sector of the Main Zone below GM-17-41 (5.06 g/t gold over 8.45 metres); it was collared ~91 metres to the northwest. The hole intersected several mineralized zones, approximately where anticipated by modelling. The hole collared in mafic volcanic rocks and transitioned through felsic intrusive to gabbro. Discrete mineralized zones are characterized by brecciation and shearing, quartz-ankerite veins with strong sericite alteration halos, several percent disseminated pyrite and local tourmaline. Chevrier hole GM-20-60 (-48/135 azimuth) was collared 26 metres southwest of GM-20-59 and intersected similar geology. Three mineralized zones were intersected in gabbro associated with shearing, quartz-carbonate veins, and sericite-ankerite-quartz alteration with 3-5% pyrite. Chevrier hole GM-20-61 (-50/315 azimuth) was drilled on the same fence as GM-20-60 but from the opposite direction and was collared 205 metres to the southeast. It collared in basalt and intersected a thin interval of gabbro from 95.0 metres to 113.0 metres then passing into tuff and lapilli tuff. The mineralized zone between 98.85 and 101.85 metres was associated with shear zone-hosted quartz-ankerite-pyrite veins. Chevrier hole GM-20-62 (-50/315 azimuth) was collared 25 metres northeast of GM-20-61 and was drilled towards GM-20-59. It intersected gabbro until 91.3 metres where it passed into fine-grained intermediate tuff to lapilli tuff. A mineralized zone was intersected between 74.6 and 94.3 metres with quartz-ankerite-sericite alteration, brecciation and shearing. The interval between 88.75 and 89.90 metres contained 7-10% pyrite associated with intense sericite-ankerite alteration and assayed 10.2 g/t gold. Table 2: Drill Hole Details for GM-20-59 to 62 Hole ID Easting* Northing* Elevation Depth Dip () Azimuth GM-20-59 534662 5497363 370 312 -47 135 GM-20-60 534649 5497340 369 297 -48 135 GM-20-61 534795 5497195 372 156 -50 315 GM-20-62 534815 5497210 372 141 -50 315 *All coordinates referenced to North American Datum 1983 UTM Zone 18N The Company will continue to monitor the evolving COVID-19 situation and will comply with all government directives and pro-actively follow protocols consistent with minimizing the spread of the COVID-19 virus to protect the health of its work force and their local communities. The +290 square kilometer road accessible Chevrier property covers a 15-kilometer segment of the Fancamp Deformation Zone, along which zones of gold mineralization are associated with high strain zones in predominantly mafic volcanic rocks. The property is contiguous with the high-grade Monster Lake gold project and 20 kilometers northeast of the new IAMGOLD Corporation/Vanstar Mining Resources Inc. 3.1 Moz Nelligan gold discovery. For additional details on the Chevrier Project, 2019 results and plans for 2020 please refer to the Company's February 5, 2020 News Release. Methodology and QA/QC The analytical work reported on herein was performed by Activation Laboratories Ltd. of Ancaster, Ontario, an internationally recognized analytical services provider. All samples are analysed for gold using standard Fire Assay-AA techniques. Samples returning over 5.0 g/t gold are analysed utilizing standard Fire Assay-Gravimetric methods. The Company follows industry standard procedures for the work carried out on the Chevrier project, with a quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) program. Blank, duplicate, and standard samples were inserted into the sample sequence sent to the laboratory for analysis. Genesis detected no significant QA/QC issues during review of the data. Qualified Person The Qualified Person for this news release for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 is Andre Liboiron, P. Geo., Project Manager. He has read and approved the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for the disclosure contained in this news release. About Genesis Genesis Metals Corp. is a member of the Discovery Group of Companies, an alliance of public companies focused on the advancement of mineral exploration and mining projects with a proven track record of generating shareholder value through responsible, sustainable, and innovative development. Discovery Group companies have generated over $500 million in direct and indirect expenditures resulting in over a billion dollars in M&A activity, with notable recent successes being the sale of Northern Empire Resources Corp. to Coeur Mining Inc. and the sale of Kaminak Gold Corp. to Goldcorp Inc. Current Discovery Group member companies include: Great Bear Resources Ltd., Bluestone Resources Inc., ValOre Metals Corp., Ethos Gold Corp., Fireweed Zinc Ltd., Kodiak Copper Corp., and K2 Gold Corp. Genesis Metals Corp. is a gold exploration company focused on advancing its Chevrier Gold Project in the prolific Abitibi region of Quebec, Canada. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS "David A. Terry" President, CEO, and Director Suite 1020, 800 West Pender Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 2V6 Telephone: 604-646-8356 Email: js@genesismetalscorp.com Website: www.genesismetalscorp.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Certain disclosure in this release, including statements regarding the anticipated timing for receipt of survey and till results; the Company's exploration plans; constitute forward-looking information or statements (collectively, "forward-looking statements") for the purpose of applicable securities laws. In making the forward-looking statements, the Company has applied certain factors and assumptions that are based on the Company's current beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company, including that the Company is able to obtain any government or other regulatory approvals required to complete the Company's planned exploration and development activities; that the Company is able to procure personnel, equipment and supplies required for its exploration and development activities in sufficient quantities and on a timely basis; that actual results of exploration activities are consistent with management's expectations; that the current price and demand for gold will be sustained or will improve; that general business and economic conditions will not change in a materially adverse manner; Although the Company considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect, and the forward-looking statements in this release are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. Such risks include, among others, the risks related to the inability to obtain required regulatory approvals on a timely basis or at all, that the risk that actual results of the Company's exploration activities may be different than those expected by management; delays in receiving survey and till results or obtaining any required government or other regulatory approvals; inability to procure required equipment and supplies in sufficient quantities and on a timely basis; the nature of mineral exploration and mining and the uncertain commercial viability of certain mineral deposits; the Company's lack of operating revenues and risks related to dependence on key personnel. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to, update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. Map 1 To view an enhanced version of Map 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4417/57048_03705ea28464cbd4_002full.jpg Map 2 To view an enhanced version of Map 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4417/57048_03705ea28464cbd4_003full.jpg To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/57048 1,004 people were shot and killed by police last year in the United States, according to the Washington Posts database. Breaking it down: Thats not the highest rate in the world. Authorities in Brazil, the Philippines and Venezuela, for example, kill significantly more people as a proportion of their populations. But Americas rate is far higher than those of most other wealthy countries. By the numbers: In England and Wales, three people were shot and killed by police last year. Roughly as many (22) were killed over the past decade there as are killed by police in the U.S. in an average week (19). The U.K. is not an exception. Police in Australia shot and killed between 1 and 11 people each year from 1991 to 2017, according to a government report. Killings by police in Japan are exceptionally rare (two were recorded in 2018), and many smaller European countries like Denmark can go years without a single such incident. America also sees more police officers shot and killed in the line of duty (44 in 2019) than most other countries. One differentiating factor is that in the U.S., most police officers and many civilians carry guns. Tactics also differ widely. Flashback: In 2015, the NY Times documented a visit of U.S. police leaders to Scotland, where just 2% of officers carry guns, to be trained to defuse situations without weapons. In 2015, the NY Times documented a visit of U.S. police leaders to Scotland, where just 2% of officers carry guns, to be trained to defuse situations without weapons. The officers were astonished to hear that not only had Scottish police only shot two civilians in the previous decade, no officers had been killed in the line of duty since 1994. Go deeper Worth noting: The data referenced above only includes shootings, not other causes of death in police custody. Paris Jackson has long used her platform to raise awareness for a range of good causes close to her heart. And the model/actress has recently been promoting the Black Lives Matter movement following the police killing of unarmed black man George Floyd. She held up a peace sign Sunday in Los Angeles as she joined another day of nationwide protests calling for an end to racial profiling and police brutality. Black Lives Matter: Paris Jackson has recently been promoting the Black Lives Matter movement following the police killing of unarmed black man George Floyd The 22-year-old channeled peace through her retro '60s wardrobe, sporting a macrame fringe vest with a floral headband and round sunglasses. She stood with a group of peaceful protesters wearing face masks and holding up signs after several days of violent police response. Jackson held up another sign that read: 'Damn the man. Power to the people. Peace, love, justice.' Also in attendance was 'Hot Felon' Jeremy Meeks, who's been sharing his passionate response on social media over the past few days. Peace please: She held up a peace sign Sunday in Los Angeles as she joined another day of nationwide protests calling for an end to racial profiling and police brutality Retro chic: The 22-year-old channeled peace through her retro '60s wardrobe, sporting a macrame fringe vest with a floral headband and round sunglasses Peaceful protest: She stood with a group of peaceful protesters wearing face masks and holding up signs after several days of violent police response Damn the man! Jackson held up another sign that read: 'Damn the man. Power to the people. Peace, love, justice' Celeb activists: She was one of several celebrities to join the protests across the country over the last few days A lot on her mind: The media personality appeared pensive as she marched down the streets of the Californian city Great cause: The celebrity offspring's placard also featured a pink peace symbol He sported a yellow hoodie and a blue bandanna as a face mask as he raised his fist among a crowd of protesters. He later pulled his mask down as he joined the group in taking a knee for the silent protest. He was accompanied to the massive gathering by celeb photographer and Kylie Jenner's pal Amber Asaly. Meeks also took to his Instagram story to denounce white riot inciters who have been leaving destruction amid peaceful demonstrations. Meeks said in the video: 'Listen, I'm not gonna sit and act like we're not kicking up dust. We are pissed and frustrated and kicking s*** up. Passionate response: Also in attendance was 'Hot Felon' Jeremy Meeks, who's been sharing his passionate response on social media over the past few days Raise a fist: He sported a yellow hoodie and a blue bandanna as a face mask as he raised his fist among a crowd of protesters Take a knee: The former Crips member later pulled his mask down as he joined the group in taking a knee for the silent protest Power in numbers: He was accompanied to the massive gathering by celeb photographer and Kylie Jenner's pal Amber Asaly Riot inciters: Meeks also took to his Instagram story to denounce white riot inciters who have been leaving destruction amid peaceful demonstrations 'But I'm telling you right now, little white kids, they're looting just as much as we are. And we're gonna get the blame, not them. It's the way of the world.' He later shared his tearful reaction to a video tribute made by rapper and poet Papoose Mackie. Lizzo took to her story with a musical message for Joe Biden on the Black vote: 'You gonna have to do more than just get it. You gonna have to go out and earn it.' Chloe Grace Moretz shared some resources for her 16.6million Instagram followers to support the Black Lives Matter movement. Jane Fonda appeared on CNN to discuss the protests: 'Because we're white, we have had privilege. Even the poorest of us have had privilege. 'We need to recognize that, and we have to understand what it is that keeps racism in place: the policies, redlining, banking policies, mortgage policies. All of the things that are really making it very very difficult for Black people to lift themselves up.' Support: Actor Lukas Haas was seen at the protest in Los Angeles on Monday The Black vote: Lizzo took to her story with a musical message for Joe Biden on the Black vote: 'You gonna have to do more than just get it. You gonna have to go out and earn it' Showing support: Chloe Grace Moretz shared some resources for her 16.6million Instagram followers to support the Black Lives Matter movement White privilege: Jane Fonda appeared on CNN to discuss the protests: 'Because we're white, we have had privilege. Even the poorest of us have had privilege. We need to recognize that, and we have to understand what it is that keeps racism in place' Bethenny Frankel took to her Instagram story with a tearful video: 'I had to be in the city and it's not the city. It's not the same city. What's going on in this world is just beyond anything we can even imagine.' She continued: 'I just don't want this world for my daughter and I'm so upset. It's just terrible, the hate in this world is so terrible, that I'm paralyzed. Speechless, paralyzed.' Ron Howard posted a statement on behalf of his production company Imagine: 'We hear the call to action and will be joining others in our industry for the Blackout Tuesday demonstration.' Olivia Wilde posted tributes to James Scurlock and David McAtee, two Black men who were killed during the nationwide protests. Sarah Silverman offered legal counsel: 'I went to law school to fight against mass incarceration, the prison industrial complex and the systemic racism, poverty and oppression the government machine thrives on. 'Now more than ever we need to turn our words into action and our thoughts into progress. Let us know if you need us. We love you.' Not the same: Bethenny Frankel took to her Instagram story with a tearful video: 'I had to be in the city and it's not the city. It's not the same city. What's going on in this world is just beyond anything we can even imagine' Blackout Tuesday: Ron Howard posted a statement on behalf of his production company Imagine: 'We hear the call to action and will be joining others in our industry for the Blackout Tuesday demonstration' In memory: Olivia Wilde posted tributes to James Scurlock and David McAtee, two Black men who were killed during the nationwide protests Legal counsel: Sarah Silverman offered legal counsel: 'I went to law school to fight against mass incarceration, the prison industrial complex and the systemic racism, poverty and oppression the government machine thrives on' Katherine Heigl shared a heartfelt statement about her adopted daughters: 'How will I tell Adalaide? How will I explain the unexplainable? How can I protect her? How can I break a piece of her beautiful divine spirit to do so?' Ice Cube posted to Twitter: 'Truth is not hate speech. Your mirror doesn't hate you when your ugly.' Nicki Minaj wrote: 'Let your voice be heard. Be angry. White people have been using violence against us since the beginning of time. We didnt invent violence & looting. Will these officers actually get convicted? Probably not. Let your voice be heard.' Pink called out Donald Trump: 'Youre a coward and a racist and just like everything else youve ever attempted in your life, A COMPLETE AND UTTER FAILURE. I cant wait to vote you out in November. Maybe youll see the results from your baby bunker.' Stephanie Pratt took a problematic stance: 'Shoot the looters - using this tragedy as their excuse to rob and burn all of our towns down.' Mother's fear: Katherine Heigl shared a heartfelt statement about her adopted daughters: 'How will I tell Adalaide? How will I explain the unexplainable? How can I protect her? How can I break a piece of her beautiful divine spirit to do so?' Ugly reflection: Ice Cube posted to Twitter: 'Truth is not hate speech. Your mirror doesn't hate you when your ugly' Be angry: Nicki Minaj wrote: 'Let your voice be heard. Be angry. White people have been using violence against us since the beginning of time. We didnt invent violence & looting. Will these officers actually get convicted? Probably not. Let your voice be heard' Vote him out: Pink called out Donald Trump: 'Youre a coward and a racist and just like everything else youve ever attempted in your life, A COMPLETE AND UTTER FAILURE' Property over life: Stephanie Pratt took a problematic stance: 'Shoot the looters - using this tragedy as their excuse to rob and burn all of our towns down' Tinashe shared some photos of herself marching in a protest with a homemade 'Black Lives Matter' sign. Porsha Williams posted a chaotic video of a crowd in Atlanta dispersing as shots fired during a protest, where she was teargassed. Madison Beer clapped back at trolls after she revealed she was teargassed: 'I couldn't breathe or see for 10 minutes along with HUNDREDS of others for f***ing protesting.' Halsey recounted a violent day of police retaliation against protesters, which she helped protect along with Yungblud. She also shared a video of cops releasing teargas on a crowd as chaos ensued among the demonstration. Shots fired: Porsha Williams posted a chaotic video of a crowd in Atlanta dispersing as shots fired during a protest, where she was teargassed Teargassed: Madison Beer clapped back at trolls after she revealed she was teargassed Harm's way: Halsey recounted a violent day of police retaliation against protesters, which she helped protect along with Yungblud Escalation: She also shared a video of cops releasing teargas on a crowd as chaos ensued among the demonstration Sharon Stone received backlash after posting a video of herself explaining how to build your own safe room if you feel unsafe from riots. Nikki Bella said in a video: 'Let's together erase hate, erase racism. This should never be a topic again. And I know, with my Bella army, I see how powerful you all are on social media and how beautiful you all are.' Kendall Jenner wrote in a statement: 'I acknowledge my white privilege and promise I will continue to educate myself on how I can help. raging on platforms can not be all that we do in order to repair the system we need to take real action, off of social media.' Britney Spears posted: 'What the world needs now is love .. my heart breaks for my friends in the black community . and for everything going on in our country.' It comes as her The Zone experience was defaced amid the riots that have formed out of peaceful protests in Los Angeles. Safe room: Sharon Stone received backlash after posting a video of herself explaining how to build your own safe room if you feel unsafe from riots Bella army: Nikki Bella said in a video: 'Let's together erase hate, erase racism. This should never be a topic again. And I know, with my Bella army, I see how powerful you all are on social media and how beautiful you all are' Taking action: Kendall Jenner wrote in a statement: 'I acknowledge my white privilege and promise I will continue to educate myself on how I can help. raging on platforms can not be all that we do in order to repair the system we need to take real action, off of social media' Spread love: Britney Spears posted: 'What the world needs now is love .. my heart breaks for my friends in the black community . and for everything going on in our country' Tagged: It comes as her The Zone experience was defaced amid the riots that have formed out of peaceful protests in Los Angeles Shay Mitchell posted photos of husband Matte Babel with their daughter Atlas, writing: 'I am hopeful that the next generation will abandon the prejudices of the past, and embrace and accept people based on who they are, versus the colour of their skin. 'Black or White. It doesnt matter. All she sees are people who love her. Racism is a learned behavior. It starts and stops at home.' Kacey Musgraves wrote: 'Its been hard to find the words to adequately convey how outraged and sad I am. WHITE PEOPLE HAVE HAD IT SO F***ING WRONG SINCE THE BEGINNING and I will do whatever I can I help break the DISGUSTING, damaging cycle racism and systemic privilege causes. I will not be a bystander.' Josh Gad shared a moment of clarity with his daughter, writing: 'But this doesnt make sense. Why would anybody be treated differently based on the color of their skin? 'These 18 words spoken by my 9 year old today give me a sliver of hope about a brighter tomorrow. Educate. Teach. Listen.' Cole Sprouse revealed he was arrested during a protest in Santa Monica, recounting the tense standoff with riot police. Learned behavior: Shay Mitchell posted photos of husband Matte Babel with their daughter Atlas with a heartfelt statement Outraged: Kacey Musgraves wrote: 'Its been hard to find the words to adequately convey how outraged and sad I am' Children are the future: Josh Gad shared a moment of clarity with his daughter Arrested: Cole Sprouse revealed he was arrested during a protest in Santa Monica, recounting the tense standoff with riot police Ellen DeGeneres took to Instagram with a heartfelt statement: 'I am so sad, and I am so angry, and, I know I'm not going to say the right thing, and I know that there are gonna be a lot of people who are gonna be, in disagreement with what I say. 'But, I have a platform and I have a voice, and I have always stood for equality, I have always wanted to be a voice for people who felt like they didn't have a voice.' Russell Wilson expressed fear for his and Ciara's children: 'I fear for their lives just like my grandmother feared for my dad's life and the lives of her other children. I fear because of the color of their beautiful chocolate skin.' Saweetie shared a list of organizations as she urged her 5.7million followers to donate to the cause. Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello were spotted joining a peaceful protest through the streets of Miami, where they've been in quarantine together. Amy Schumer also joined a protest, chanting George Floyd's name and kneeling for 'almost 9 minutes,' the amount of time ex-police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck. What to say: Ellen DeGeneres took to Instagram with a heartfelt statement: 'I am so sad, and I am so angry, and, I know I'm not going to say the right thing, and I know that there are gonna be a lot of people who are gonna be, in disagreement with what I say' Fatherhood: Russell Wilson expressed fear for his and Ciara's children: 'I fear for their lives just like my grandmother feared for my dad's life and the lives of her other children. I fear because of the color of their beautiful chocolate skin' Pay it forward: Saweetie shared a list of organizations as she urged her 5.7million followers to donate to the cause For many years, Michael B. Jordan lived in the same home as his parents. In January 2020, Jordan appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show where he told DeGeneres that he finally moved out of his parents house. Michael B. Jordan | Vincent Sandoval/Getty Images Michael B. Jordan bought the house for his parents In 2016, Jordan bought a house for him and his parents in Sherman Oaks, California. Its every kids dream, to buy their mom and dad a house, he said. While many viewed Jordans living situation as him living with his parents, really, Jordans parents lived with him in a home he bought for them. During an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Jordan said that he had a roommate relationship with his parents while living with them. You get home-cooked meals, but then you also have random trips to the kitchen in the middle of the night. Just the random run-ins that just might be a little uncomfortable from time to time, he said. The actor moved out of his parents home When appearing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in January 2020, Jordan revealed that he did move out of his parents home. It happened Its good. Its nice. Im pretty sure they saged the entire house when I left, Jordan said. Like, they lit incense and bleached it down and got rid of all of me and then I got a place. The Black Panther actor added that although he moved out, he is still close with his parents and they see each other frequently. Yeah, were close enough, he said. You know, driving, Sunday dinner. Mom and dad, they cook. Im close enough that, yeah, we can get there. But Im still, like, 20 minutes away, which is good. RELATED: Just Mercy Star, Michael B. Jordan on the Importance of Movies Showing Not Just Slavery but Activism Michael B. Jordan discussed his role in Just Mercy Jordan starred in Just Mercy in 2019 along with Jamie Foxx and Brie Larson. The movie is based off of a true story, and Jordan played Bryan Stevenson, a defense attorney who appealed the murder conviction of Walter McMillian, played by Foxx. Its so timely, Jordan said of the movie. It takes place 30 years ago, but it could have been yesterdayThats what made me really want to get behind this project and put it on the biggest platform possible to get as many people to see this thing because its a human thing at this point, you know? Its the humanity element of it all. He continued, The kind of reputation and stigma thats been put on black and brown people, you know, in this worldespecially in this countryis unfair And, you know, they say slavery ended, but it just evolved over time. And we have to change the narrative. What Bryan Stevenson thought of Michael B. Jordan During Jordans appearance on The Ellen Degeneres Show, Stevenson dropped by and gave his opinion on Jordans portrayal in Just Mercy. First of all, he is so talented and he is so gifted. But he is also deeply committed to these issues. And when I met him, that gave me so much confidence about thisAnd he was so committed to doing things right. He worked super hard, Stevenson said. Theres a choreography to being in the court. He got all of that down. He really focused and he wanted to do everything authentic. And I said, Thats so great, Michael. I appreciate that.' Health ministry says detention centres high risk areas after spike in cases following series of raids during lockdown. Despite strict movement restrictions that have helped contain the coronavirus, Malaysia finds itself facing a surge of cases in overcrowded detention centres that coincided with a series of raids last month in which more than 2,000 undocumented migrants were picked up. We have identified detention centres as a high-risk area, Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, the director-general of the Ministry of Health, said at a news briefing on May 26. Some 35 cases were identified at a detention centre near Kuala Lumpur on May 22. Four days later, the number had jumped to 227 across three sites, and by May 31, had reached 410 across four sites. These raids under the pretence of stopping the spread of COVID-19 have only served to further spread the virus, Beatrice Lau, Head of Mission for Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) in Malaysia told Al Jazeera. The authorities had been warned about the risk of infection in detention centres many times. Authorities began the raids on May 1 in areas within designated COVID-19 red zones placed under enhanced restrictions enforced by the police and military. Malaysia defines red zones as districts with more than 41 cases of coronavirus within a two-week period, but in areas where worrying clusters have emerged, a stricter lockdown is imposed with razor wire rolled out to seal off the area and prevent residents from going in or out. The raids triggered a swift reaction from Malaysias human rights commission, as well as health and rights groups, who warned of the risks of detaining migrants in overcrowded facilities, and of eroding trust among migrants asked to come forward for testing or treatment. This disregard for migrant lives by the authorities is appalling, Preethi Bhardwaj, interim executive director of Amnesty International Malaysia told Al Jazeera. [Detainees] health and lives have been put at risk. Anxiety of lockdown There were an estimated two to four million undocumented migrant workers in Malaysia as of 2018, in addition to more than two million documented migrant workers, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Nearly 180,000 refugees and asylum seekers are also registered with the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) who are also considered illegal immigrants because Malaysia is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention. Peter Thang, a Chin refugee from Myanmar, lives in the Pudu neighbourhood of central Kuala Lumpur. The last two weeks have been ones of immense anxiety, with the area cut off from the rest of the city with razor wire. Thang told Al Jazeera on May 22 that his two children, who had not left their apartment building since mid-March, were becoming restless and uneasy. Every day, policemen are patrolling and announcing something in Malay, but I cannot understand, he said. When my children hear sirens, they are shocked. In the event, there were no raids in Pudu, and UNHCRs spokesperson in Kuala Lumpur told Al Jazeera the agency had received notification from authorities that registered refugees and asylum seekers would not be detained in any raids. But that provides little reassurance to the estimated 80,000 people awaiting UNHCR registration. A man is screened for coronavirus on May 26 in Pudu amid concerns about a cluster of coronavirus cases in the area [Hasnoor Hussain/Al Jazeera] UNHCR has been denied access to Malaysias detention centres since August 2019, leaving the agency unable to identify persons of concern in need of international protection or advocate for their release, the spokesperson added, saying the agency continues to seek access and is striving to provide initial registration for asylum-seekers in lockdown areas with urgent protection needs. Danger at home Nyi Linn Twan, an ethnic Rakhine from Myanmar who applied for a UNHCR appointment in 2018 and is still awaiting a reply, told Al Jazeera he no longer leaves his apartment due to fear of arrest. Although the restaurant where he worked reopened in early May, he did not return because he was afraid to go for the COVID-19 test that is necessary before employees can return to work. I heard there are raids and I have great concern. I cannot even manage to get food, while I also face the threats of being arrested or contracting the virus, he said. With armed conflict significantly escalating between the Myanmar military and the rebel Arakan Army in his native Rakhine State, he also worries what would happen if he were to be deported. My hometown is seriously suffering from civil war I dont want to return because it is not safe for me, he said. Those detained in the raids include Rohingya who fled ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. Arafat, a registered refugee who arrived in Malaysia with his wife and daughter in 2012, told Al Jazeera that his wifes mother and sister were detained in a May 11 raid on the Selayang neighbourhood of Kuala Lumpur. The two, who only arrived in Malaysia in 2018, had not yet registered with the UNHCR. A soldier stands guard on a rooftop in Selayang Baru in Kuala Lumpur on May 3 [Vincent Thian/AP Photo] Arafat has not been able to reach them, and is concerned about the health of his 60-year-old mother-in-law, and the education of his sister-in-law who is 15. My wife keeps crying for her mother and sister, he said. Detainees who test positive are being sent to one of three quarantine and treatment centres, including an agricultural exhibition space that state media has reported is under heavy guard. However, MSFs Lau cautioned that mass detention still poses a risk for the public. An outbreak response requires trust in health authorities, but Malaysias recent practices erode this trust and will push vulnerable people in search of safety further into hiding, deterring them from seeking care, which will in turn further spread the virus, she said. There have been reports in local media of migrants fleeing to the forest to escape. Police are currently looking for a Rohingya man who escaped quarantine. Building trust Health Director-General Dr Noor Hisham appears eager to build trust. He tweeted on May 25 that COVID-19 knows no boundaries and does not discriminate in terms of ethnicity or social status. Negative sentiments against detainees must not be amplified and must not be a catalyst for discrimination in saving lives, he wrote. But Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has maintained a tougher line. At a news conference last week, he said undocumented migrants should not be given special treatment because they had broken the law, and a few days later added that the amnesty he had offered in March for undocumented migrants coming forward for testing had expired. On Monday, he announced a schedule for deportations with a group of undocumented Indonesians the first to be sent home on Saturday. Migrants jobs and housing are also increasingly in peril. Authorities have shut down more than 65 businesses that were found to be run by undocumented foreigners, and advised business and housing property owners not to rent to people without the necessary papers Undocumented migrants handcuffed together as they are escorted to an immigration detention centre after a raid on May 20 in a residential area near Kuala Lumpur [Hasnoor Hussain/Al Jazeera] One industry particularly hard-hit is the countrys wholesale markets, where foreigners usually make up the majority of the workforce. Even those with the necessary documentation are now denied entry, and the markets have since struggled to find Malaysians willing to replace them. Arafat, who lost his job at the Selayang Wholesale Market because he is a foreigner, is now a month behind on rent. I used to eke out a hand-to-mouth existence to feed my family, he said. Malaysia used to be a safe place for us Now, I feel scared and vulnerable. There are 6,500 Pakistanis among other foreign terrorist fighters in Afghanistan allied to groups like Taliban, Al-Qaida, and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant-Khorasan (ISIL-K), a United Nations report has said. A report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, which was submitted to the UN Security Council (UNSC), says among those groups posing a security threat, Afghan officials highlighted Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Jaish-i-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba groups on which the Team has written in previous reports. "The presence of these groups is centred in the eastern provinces of Kunar, Nangarhar and Nuristan, where they operate under the umbrella of the Afghan Taliban," says the report. TTP, JeM and LeT are all designated terror groups in India and the latter two have been involved in cross-border attacks on civilians as well as military targets. READ | Taliban And Al Qaeda Ties Remain Despite US-Taliban Deal, Claims UN Report No spring offensive The report has observed that the Afghan Taliban have issued no announcement of a spring offensive for 2020 yet, possibly indicating that the group wishes to display some moderation in the face of international and national pressure to reach a peace agreement with the Government of Afghanistan. "It is possible that the decision has been affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic, whose eventual effects on military operations are not yet clear," the report says. READ | Afghanistan Government Releases Another 900 Taliban Inmates Taliban members close to 1 lakh The UN report estimates that number of Taliban fighters ranges from 55,000 to 85,000 in Afghanistan and the group's facilitators and non-combatants could bring the total figure to 1,00,000. It also said that control of 50 to 60% of Afghan territory was contested between the Taliban and government forces during the reporting period. There are 21 districts currently reported to be under full Taliban control, down from between 25 and 30 districts in the previous reporting period. READ | Afghanistan 'looking Forward' To Historic Occasion As Australia Confirm One-off Test Big revenues It also said that estimates by member states and others of overall Taliban annual combined revenues range from $300 million to upwards of $1.5 billion per annum; thanks to the retaking of large poppy-cultivating areas in Nangarhar and proceeds from the sale of narcotics like methamphetamine. "Narcotic smuggling networks operate in Nangarhar and into Pakistan with the reported acquiescence of security officials who regulate and profit from the smuggling of heroin, hashish and other goods. Security officials reportedly allowed smuggling syndicates, known as tanzeems, to operate without fear of arrest in return for a portion of the profit. Revenues were ultimately shared between security officials, heads of the tanzeems and the Taliban. Interlocutors stated that this system was a big source of revenue for the Taliban," notes the UN report. (AP Photo for representation) READ | Trump Renews Pledge To Bring Back US Troops From Afghanistan To End US' Longest War Before COVID-19, visitors to Jared The Galleria of Jewelry browsed glass cases of engagement rings and diamond earrings and paid at a pin pad. But now this routine culminating in the furious printing of a receipt has been turned upside down. And its likely to stay that way. With two-thirds of its 3,000 locations shuttered, Signet Jewelers, owner of the Jared brand and other chains, has sold thousands of pieces a day via a new feature: video calls. After browsing online with a sales rep and paying, the shopper drives to a nearby store. A gloved and masked employee makes the delivery, and maybe something extra a few weeks ago, a dozen roses were included and the buyer proposed in the parking lot. As thousands of stores and restaurants across the United States reopen with shutdown restrictions easing, Americans are discovering a reshaped shopping experience. Along with all the Plexiglas shields and social-distancing signs, comes the rapid adoption of contactless checkout. This is safer for employees and customers, while also forcing the evolution of a U.S. retail industry that has woefully trailed much of the world in technology. We see it as an opportunity to open the aperture for our customer experience, said Bill Luth, an executive vice-president at Signet. The traditional checkout experience marked by cashier banter, scanning items, pressing a pin pad or handling cash was fading before coronavirus arrived in America, and the outbreak has only quickened its demise. Mobile apps are increasingly being used in stores to place orders, get questions answered via chat and pay. To avoid any contact, more customers are opting for delivery or curbside pickup. The mobile app will become the dominant form of payment. This shift will speed up purchases and let employees help consumers, instead of scanning items and swiping credit cards. It may also get customers in and out more quickly at a time when retailers and restaurants are required to reduce capacity as part of social-distancing measures. A diner that reserves a table from home and then orders and pays online will make a restaurant more efficient, according to Richard Crone, chief executive officer of payments consultant Crone Consulting. Coffee giant Starbucks, which pioneered mobile ordering years ago, is now doing curbside pickup at some stores to help make up for lost walk-in traffic. For years, the chain has been successful at getting consumers around the world to use its app-based mobile payments, and COVID-19 has accelerated that shift. We predict the mobile app will become the dominant form of payment, chief executive officer Kevin Johnson said in a May 4 letter to customers. But there are downsides. With more mobile transactions, retailers will be collecting even more data, and that could infringe on consumer privacy, an issue thats been largely forgotten during the pandemic. Chains that cross the line risk alienating customers, and facing the ire of legislators and regulators who are already keen to impose tighter privacy policies. The mobile app will become the dominant form of payment. Many of the new technologies are also pricey, although this can reduce labour costs by lowering the need for cashiers and making existing employees more productive. Using an in-house app also helps restaurants avoid paying fees as high as 30 per cent to platforms like Grubhub, according to Crone. Adding pay features to a retailers application promotes usage, and engagement with customers, he said. Mobile apps can also help merchants shift gears quickly. When the pandemic hit, From The Hearth Kitchen & Pie Shop, which runs a commercial bakery and five restaurants in California, laid off 38 employees, as revenue sank by 70 per cent. Then the company redesigned its mobile app to allow pickup and delivery of not only restaurant food, but also grocery items. While margins are lower, now sales are up five per cent, according to John Dix, the companys CEO. He has since hired back all the workers who were let go, while adding another 14 staffers to meet the rush of mobile orders. Once the lockdown ends, Dix plans to keep selling grocery goods. At Boston-based startup Incentivio, which supplied the technology for From The Hearths mobile app, the rate of signing contracts has more than doubled recently, said co-founder Sashika Dias. The restaurant industry is going to change permanently, Dias said. Its not just restaurants. Companies ranging from Macys to Verizon have also reduced human contact with in-store mobile checkout. Vitamin Shoppe rolled out mobile-pay options from Apple and Google to its nearly 800 stores about six months ahead of schedule, according to CEO Sharon Leitte. Coronavirus really changed the paradigm around how long it takes to execute technological enhancements, Leitte said. Autonomous locations, like Amazons convenience store, will become more common in using a mix of mobile applications, cameras and sensors to let customers grab items and go without checking out. Pilots globally are expected to balloon to 300 from about 100 over the next year or so, Crone said. At AWM Smart Shelf, which offers autonomous-store functionality, there has been a boom in interest, according to chief executive officer Kevin Howard. Its been deployed in 13 stores, with more than three dozen being added in the next four months. Before coronavirus, he figured that mass adoption would take as long as five years. That timeline has been enhanced to 12 to 18 months, Howard said. Rapitag, another vendor, has mostly tested its autonomous checkout technology in Germany, but the virus has spurred talks with five major U.S. chains. Its not a nice-to-have, said Sebastian Muller, a Rapitag co-founder. Its now really required. SANTA ROSA Sheriff Mark Essick reversed a position that put him at odds with public officials around Sonoma County, and agreed Monday to stand behind local restrictions on business operations and personal activities intended to curb the spread of coronavirus after a whirlwind weekend of negotiations that he said convinced him the county was now on the right path forward. The sheriff said he and his deputies would enforce the current health order until June 8, to the limited degree that enforcement has been needed, with the understanding that county officials would work toward a more inclusive, balanced approach to reopening the economy than has been the case. I am now confident in the process moving forward, that were going to move from an essential/non-essential stance to a risk-based approach, and that a risk-based approach will better align Sonoma County with the state guidelines, he said. Essick, a 26-year sheriffs office veteran, said he also understood that medical decisions remain medical decisions, and that is something that I absolutely respect, but theres a broader need to evaluate the impacts on our communities. The sheriffs remarks came four days after his bombshell announcement that his department would no longer enforce the current order issued by Health Officer Sundari Mase, but prioritize educating the public, saying he could not support what he deemed unnecessary restrictions on personal freedom that were crushing our community economically and socially. He also complained that Mase and the county health department had ignored repeated requests for more information from him, the public and the media about the rationale behind continued constraints on certain business and activity, given the countys success in keeping the coronavirus infection rate low. But Monday, after a lot of people working collaboratively on this through the weekend and certainly through most of today, he said, he and Board of Supervisors chairwoman Susan Gorin released a joint statement celebrating their commitment to a transparent and open process aimed at facilitating a safe economy and society in the pandemic era. It came hours into the same day that Essicks original pledge to pull his deputies back from enforcement of Mases order and rely instead on the states less restrictive measures went into effect. And it was announced on the eve of his much-anticipated Tuesday appearance before the Board of Supervisors, where most members in the past four days had rebuked his stand, calling it tone deaf, reckless and a dereliction of duty. No other local law enforcement leaders came forward publicly to back him, and many vowed to support Mase and continue enforcing her health order. But Essick and Gorin, in their statement and in interviews, sought to put that bitter and divisive pandemic moment behind them, saying the county was more dedicated to a risk-based approach to economic reopening that would allow more businesses to operate under safeguards rather than blanket bans on certain sectors. Some county officials painted it as a milestone transition, while others, including Mase, indicated they felt a risk-based approach had been their objective all along. This is something weve been championing probably since the second week of the shutdown, said Supervisor David Rabbitt, who, with fellow Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, is a liaison to the county business community. He cited, for example, the fact that people continue to line up to shop inside Costco, Home Depot, Friedman Brothers and other stores, yet small local retailers still arent permitted to sell goods beyond curbside. Where does that fit into a health risk perspective? Rabbitt asked. Hopkins said county economic officials have been hard at work with the business community on best practices that would allow people to reopen but do so safely. We all want to have a common vision for the county going forward, said Hopkins, who among board members last week penned the most withering public critique of the sheriffs stance. At the root of it, we do share the priorities of keeping the community safe and healthy, she said Monday. The joint statement from Essick and Gorin came after a hastily arranged series of meetings last Friday with top county lawmakers and health authorities who failed to produce an accord with Essick though one was at hand several times that day, according to several participants. For Gorin, a seasoned local officeholder, it was a particularly confounding moment an open political rift with the countys top law enforcement officer, a first-term elected official who was publicly questioning the veracity and basis for the health order that has governed local life since mid-March. As your elected Sheriff, I can no longer in good conscience continue to enforce Sonoma County Public Health Orders, without explanation, that criminalize otherwise lawful business and personal behavior, he wrote in the initial statement posted to the sheriffs office Facebook page. A day later, in an interview after the pair of meetings with lawmakers, he grew emotional and profane in describing the economic pain he saw resulting from the local shutdown: Im not following this fking health order, he said, and my original statement that were done on June 1 stands until Dr. Mase is able to provide me with enough information that were on the right path. After the fallout, attempts to reach the sheriff for interviews over the weekend were unsuccessful as still more elected leaders lined up to criticize him. But when he and Gorin did resurface on Monday, they did so apparently hand in hand. Said Gorin, I think taking a pause with the sheriff was good. ... I think we got to a better place. Mase, in her regular Monday press briefing, had little to say about the episode, except that she saw no difference in how the county was planning to proceed. I think that were in a good place now in terms of bidirectional communication, she said. Essick and his departments chief spokesman, Lt. Juan Valencia, noted that there was significant support for the sheriffs action, clearly visible on social media and voiced by residents and business people throughout the county. They said the department has pursued education over enforcement since the first shelter-in-place order was issued almost 11 weeks ago anyway. As of Friday, the department had issued or made 13 arrests or citations, always in conjunction with some other criminal offense, such as drug use, drugs sales or theft, for example. The agency also had issued 19 warnings related to unauthorized construction earlier in the pandemic or rental of vacations homes, which remain prohibited under the order. Essick and Valencia also emphasized that even if the department wasnt going to enforce the local health order, it still supported precautions like wearing masks, physical distancing and other measures supported by the state. Essicks decision to part ways with Mase and the rest of the county last week followed her announcement last Tuesday that she would not be making any additional move to reopen the economy for at least two more weeks because of a spike in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, as well as concerning clusters at several work places and a marked concentration of cases within the Latino community. When Essick dropped his sudden announcement two days later, he said too many of the restrictions that remained in place seemed arbitrary, citing, for instance, rules that allowed people to dine on restaurant patios but not assemble outside for church. Essick on Monday declined to address other complaints about communication. He said that Mase was among those he spoke with on Sunday. I really want to take a step moving forward, he said. This is a new week. Essick will be speaking to the Board of Supervisors during its regular COVID-19 update at 9:15 a.m. on Tuesday, in part to show the public that we are unified, he said. Also Tuesday, the board has scheduled a closed-door performance review for Mase, a late addition to the meeting made on Monday. A similar review for County Administrator Sheryl Bratton was held Monday. In Mases case, Gorin described it as a routine evaluation commonly made early in a new employees tenure, to talk about how we move forward together as an employer and an employee. Mase, an infectious disease expert with experience at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization, joined the county as health officer on an interim basis at the beginning of March and was promoted into the full job two weeks later. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Australians are being urged to check their super balances with scammers illegally withdrawing retirement savings under the cover of COVID-19. Until June 30, those who have lost their job or had their hours reduced by 20 per cent can access $10,000 of their superannuation tax free. Economic causalities of the coronavirus shutdowns can access another $10,000 between July 1 and September 24. But fraudsters have been quick to take advantage of the new rules, setting up fake myGov accounts to steal super savings. Scroll down for video Australians are being urged to check their super balances with scammers illegally withdrawing retirement savings under the cover of COVID-19. Pictured is social media account manager Daniel Bunten who had $9,000 illegally withdrawn from his superannuation Daniel Bunten, a social media account manager from Wollongong, last month had $9,000 stolen from his account after an early release application was lodged in his name, even though he wasn't eligible. He faced bureaucratic hurdles as he informed the Australian Taxation Office and the Commonwealth Bank's Essential Super he had not consented to having the money withdrawn. 'I had to take half the day off work just to contact everyone including myGov, the ATO, Essential Super, the local police station, the Australian Cyber Security commission, my tax agent,' he told the ABC's 7.30 program. 'A couple of days later, Essential Super gave me a call just to find out a few more details and also to let me know they're recovered $5,700 of the funds stolen but I still haven't seen anything come back into my superannuation balance.' Essential refunded the money after being contacted by the ABC. As of last month, 1.2million Australians had accessed their superannuation before retirement age. He faced bureaucratic hurdles as informed the Australian Taxation Office and the Commonwealth Bank's Essential Super he had not consented to having the money withdrawn Senator Jane Hume, the Assistant Minister for Superannuation and Financial Services, said the government had wanted to enable easy early access to super to provide an economic lifeline during the coronavirus crisis. When can you usually access your super? For those born before July 1, 1960, it's 55 The rises to 56 for baby boomers born between July 1, 1960 and June 30, 1961 It's 57 for those born between July 1, 1961 and June 30, 1962 It's 58 for those born between July 1, 1962 and June 30, 1963 It's 59 for those born between July 1, 1963 and June 30, 1964 It's 60 for anyone born after July 1, 1964 Source: moneysmart.gov.au Advertisement Superannuation funds, however, wanted more stringent checks. 'What the superannuation industry was trying to do was throw a little bit of grit in the wheels to slow the process down,' Senator Hume told the ABC. 'Yet, at the time what we were trying to do was to grease the wheels to make sure that we could make the process of application easier for those Australians who wanted to access their own money when they needed it the most.' Senator Hume said the tax office and the Australian Federal Police had put arrangements in place to tackle fraud. In April, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced early access to superannuation would be allowed for those affected by COVID-19. Before the retirement savings floodgates opened on April 20, 360,000 people applied to get hold of their super. As of last month, 1.2million workers had drawn down their superannuation. In normal circumstances, Australians born after July 1, 1964 have to wait until 60 before they are allowed to access it. Australia's retirement savings were worth $3trillion before the onset of the coronaavirus pandemic. Employer superannuation contributions have been compulsory since 1992, with Australia having among the world's biggest pools of retirement savings. Demonstrators march on I- 35 while participating in a protest against police brutality and the death of George Floyd, on May 31, 2020 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Social distancing is the most effective way to slow the spread of the coronavirus more so than face coverings and eye protection according to a meta-analysis published Monday in The Lancet. The findings have new significance as thousands of Americans are gathering alongside strangers in the midst of the pandemic, demonstrating against the death of George Floyd and demanding an end to social injustice. "We just spent 93 days limiting behavior, closing down, no school, no business, thousands of small businesses destroyed," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday, "And now? Mass gatherings, with thousands of people, in close proximity?" "What sense does this make?" Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot echoed the frustration and concern Monday. "We worry about thousands of people that have been out in the streets over the last few days," she said. "God forbid we see a spike that overwhelms our health care resources, just as we saw the light at the end of the tunnel." Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, spreads mainly through close contact, particularly large respiratory droplets from sneezes and coughs as well as shouting and yelling. Tear gas, employed by some law enforcement officers to control crowds, can also lead to intense coughing. Those respiratory droplets spread the virus when they come into contact with the eyes, nose and mouth of other people. "There's an ongoing, real risk of infection," said Dr. Holger Schunemann, a professor of medicine and clinical epidemiology at McMaster University in Canada. "Just by logic," he said, referring to the protests in the United States, the "situation does increase the risk of some spreading of the virus." Schunemann and his colleagues reviewed and analyzed 172 studies to assess how well infection control measures have worked to control Covid-19, as well as two other coronaviruses, SARS and MERS. They found that staying at least 3 feet away from others cut the risk of transmission to 2.6 percent, down from 12.8 percent, among those in closer physical contact. The study authors added that distances of 6 feet could be even more effective. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends social distancing, as well as avoiding mass gatherings and crowded places, to cut the risk of Covid-19 infections. The spread of infection in crowds has been shown before, particularly during the 1918 influenza pandemic. When the first cases of the flu were reported in Philadelphia on Sept. 17, 1918, authorities "downplayed their significance and allowed public gatherings to continue," according to a 2007 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. One such gathering included a large parade in the city on Sept. 28. By the time officials in Philadelphia started limiting large crowds on Oct. 3, it was too late. The virus had spread unchecked through the city, with nearly 50,000 cases and 12,000 deaths. Infectious disease experts now worry history is repeating itself, with similar scenes that appear to be playing out in cities across the U.S. not only among protesters, but also from people moving quickly back to "normal life." "Protests tend to be very finite in time," Dr. Colleen Kraft, the associate chief medical officer at Emory University Hospital, said. "These types of mass gatherings tend to be shorter lived than what I'm seeing from vacationers on beaches." "I really am more concerned about the way that people have gone back to where they aren't using any type of personal protective equipment when they're interacting with others," she added. Investors grabbed hold of tentative optimism from Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe to give a stuttering Australian sharemarket an afternoon boost on Tuesday, pushing it higher for a second session running. The ASX 200 finished 15.9 points, or 0.3 per cent, higher at 5835, in a recovery that would have been even more marked were it not for a sharp dip as the final trades settled. Wall Street provided a positive lead as shocking scenes of US civil unrest were outweighed by renewed hopes of a post-COVID economic recovery. In truth the index was directionless most of the day before it shot up by as much as 0.7 per cent after the 2.30pm June central bank meeting. The market widely expected the cash rate to hold at a record low 0.25 per cent, but investors seemingly took heart from comments by Dr Lowe that the economic downturn from COVID-19 may not be as severe as originally thought. The first four or so hours there was not a whole heap of excitement was there? CommSec analyst James Tao said at the close on Tuesday. I think investors had one eye on the RBA decision pretty much the whole day, and things picked up when they got that certainty from Lowe. Volumes picked up from Monday but the 952 million shares traded were still below the 10-day average, skewed somewhat by particularly heavy trade the previous week. The big miners dragged at the open and never really got going after iron ore prices slipped from dizzying highs. Despite the bulk metal still being close to $US100 per tonne, Mr Tao said investors were perhaps tempted to take profit ahead of a possible glut if fellow commodities powerhouse Brazil manages to sort out its supply issues. BHP closed 0.84 per cent lower at $35.41 and Rio Tinto dropped 0.27 per cent to $96.97. Fortescue Metals, despite setting a new record high $14.88 earlier in the session, drooped 0.41 per cent to close at $14.73. The financials finished 0.2 per cent higher but Commonwealth Bank was the only of the big four to add to its tally for the day. It closed 0.2 per cent higher at $64.03, while rivals NAB, Westpac, and ANZ shed between 0.17 per accent and 0.92 per cent. Macquarie Group outperformed with a 2.55 per cent climb to $113.31 after raised more than expected from its capital bank notes offer. CSL was flat at $284.73 while Wesfarmers rose 1.08 per cent to $41.10 to lift consumer discretionaries. Supermarket Woolworths also finished higher, up 0.77 per cent to $35.55 while rival Coles added 0.13 per cent to $15.50. Blue-chip industrial Transurban rose 1.60 per cent to $14.62 to help industrials along. The best performing sector of the day were the tech stocks, which rose by a collective 1.34 per cent. Afterpay added 3.71 per cent, Wisetech Global 4.66 per cent, Iress 4.19 per cent, and EML Payments 2.7 per cent. Gov. Ned Lamont has effectively deputized state residents by providing multiple avenues for people to point out businesses that arent taking steps to reduce the chances of spreading the coronavirus. Through Tuesday, more than 600 people had called the states existing 2-1-1 information line or logged onto a new website to lodge complaints. But it is unclear to what avail. A spokesman for the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development said the department is referring any complaints to local municipalities, with no plans otherwise to follow up. We do not have a feedback loop, stated the spokesman, Jim Watson, in an email. We are not recommending or pursuing any penalties that is all the job of local public health and local law enforcement. At the same time that customers have been empowered to police businesses, the governor has issued an executive order requiring establishment owners to attest to steps they have taken to prevent transmission of the virus. To date the DECD has received more than 10,000 registrations from businesses statewide. Businesses have the option it is not a requirement of printing and posting a badge they download at the completion of the certification process, intended to give customers confidence of safety. Many establishments, however, have not complied with the order. In Lamonts home town of Greenwich, DECD received fewer than 270 certifications. In Bridgeport, Connecticuts largest city, fewer than 200 businesses had registered for compliance through last Thursday. Most of the registrations received through last Thursday statewide were split about evenly between offices, restaurants, retailers and hair salons, with about 100 entities classifying themselves as outdoor recreation. That group included multiple fitness centers looking to get a jump on services in advance of Lamonts expected June 20 OK for gyms to reopen with precautions. Entering June, many Fairfield County and the large majority of Connecticut communities had yet to see any spike of coronavirus cases since Lamonts May 20 reopening order. Nearly half as many residents of Bridgeport, Stamford and Greenwich were diagnosed over the ensuing 11 days compared to the equivalent window beforehand, with Norwalk cases off more than 60 percent as reported by the state of Connecticut. But the trend lines were not heading down across the board, with the retail center of Danbury seeing its caseload of diagnosed coronavirus patients pop 20 percent; and the numbers up as well in Westport, Shelton, Ridgefield and Torrington. Includes prior reporting by Ken Dixon. Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman Majestic and well-known for their ski hills, hiking trails, campgrounds, and fishing opportunities, the Rocky Mountains, some with peaks of over 14,000 feet, have a profound impact on weather patterns and geography in North America. From the Canadian Rockies, which begin in northern British Columbia, Canada, to its most southern point in New Mexico, the Rocky Mountains form a barrier between the Pacific Ocean and inland provinces and states, significantly influencing weather and creating areas of dense forest and lush greenery as well as desert-like conditions. Their size and locale also play an integral role in the formation of the famed snow-eater Chinook winds, which pass over the plains and prairies during winter months, bringing a rush of warm weather and melting snow packs in their wake. The mountain range plays an integral role in the climate of Canada and the United States, and not just in their local western-North American region. Though located in states like Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico, South Dakota and Wyoming, the effects of the mountain range can be felt in their immediate vicinity, as well as around the world. Rain Shadow Educational diagram with windward and leeward side. Prevailing winds, precipitation and condensing water vapor phenomena. Image credit: VectorMine/Shutterstock.com. The Rocky Mountains cast a fairly substantial rain shadow - a dry area on the leeward side of the mountain range, where wind does not hit, which forms because the mountains block rain-producing weather systems and create a metaphorical shadow of dryness. Wet weather systems begin on the Pacific Ocean and travel over the western states to the Rocky Mountains, and as the air moves higher up the western slope it cools and condenses, leaving rain and snow along the mountainside in its wake. Having been stripped of moisture, the air continues over the Rocky Mountains and dries out as it moves down the eastern slope. Because the air is now dry, it absorbs moisture from the landscape, leaving the earth more arid. Essentially, the rain shadow is a desert forced into existence because of the mountain range it borders, which prevents the eastern slopes and foothills from experiencing the same moisture that falls on the western side of the range. While some claim the mountain range is responsible for creating the southwestern desert areas of the United States, the matter is up for debate as others claim the precipitation-bearing systems are blocked by Californian mountain ranges and never reach the Rockies in the first place. However, all researchers agree the rain shadow cast by the Rocky Mountains is significant. Chinook Winds Chinook winds are streams of strong, dry, warm air that cascade over the Rocky Mountains, melting snow and ice in their wake during the cold winter months on the plains. They bring about sharp temperature changes. The winds are named for the Chinook tribe of Native Americas, who lived in the coastal regions of Washington and Oregon near the Columbia River. A Chinook forms when warm, moist air comes in from the Pacific Ocean in the northwest region of the Rocky Mountain range and cools as it climbs the mountain to bring rain or snow to its peaks. Once moisture has been released in the mountains, the winds are drier as they move down the eastern slopes and warm rapidly to temperatures higher than the winds that came off the Pacific Ocean originally, as much as 50 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the air they displace as they travel across the land. When winds suddenly change direction toward the west or southwest, Chinook winds pick up with rapidly rising speeds and wind gusts can be measured as high as 80 mph. The effect of fast-moving warm winds on snow is remarkable, with a foot of snow sometimes disappearing within hours. Some claim Chinook winds cause migraines, increased cases of sudden infant death syndrome, and strokes, but evidence to prove their effect on health is largely considered anecdotal and research continues to determine whether there is a direct correlation between human physiology and the Chinook wind. Air Masses Based on climate models, researchers have determined the impact the Rocky Mountains have on the world by removing them in simulation programs to see the effects. The Rocky Mountains force enormous air masses from the west in a more southward direction, where they absorb heat and moisture before continuing to the east. Moving the air in this direction creates dominant warm, moist southwesterly winds in places like Norway, keeping the country's average temperatures above freezing, and between 5 degrees Celsius to 10 degrees Celsius warmer than other countries along the same latitude. The discovery was made by researchers at Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research in Bergen, Norway, who claim that while the Gulf Stream and the Norwegian Sea both impact the climate of the nordic country, the simulated removal of the North American Rocky Mountains proved the range plays a noteworthy role in bringing warmer air to the Norse. Update: The march has finished. Watch a video of the march below. Update: The march is now continuing North down South Avenue, onto Church Street, Main Street, and then back to Saxe. Update: The march is now at the New Canaan Police Station for prayer. The march is available for viewing via the Facebook Live feed for it on its Facebook page. Update: Marchers are marching in the march. Update: Marchers are beginning to march in the march. Update: Marchers are gathering to march in the march. Two songs are also being sung at the march. They are the National Anthem, and Stand By Me. Update: The march will also be available for viewing via a Facebook Live feed on its Facebook page. More details about the schedule for the march have also been released on the Facebook page. Marchers will gather at Saxe Middle School, across from New Canaan High School, at 5 p.m., on Thursday, June 4. They will then depart for the towns police station after prayer. At the police station they will take a knee, and also have prayer. The march will then proceed via Church Street, turn right on Main Street, and then finish at Saxe. Update: The march has been moved to Thursday, June 4, due to thunderstorms Wednesday, June 3. Marchers will now gather on Thursday, at Saxe Middle School, across from New Canaan High School, at 5 p.m. They will then walk from Saxe at 5:30 p.m., on the marchs original route, which is north on South Avenue, (Route 124), to the New Canaan Police Station, 174 South Avenue, then down Church Street to Main Street, and then return to Saxe. Due to thunderstorms we must postpones todays march to Thursday, June 4, 5:00 p.m., (Departing at 5:30) Starting and ending at Saxe Middle School. Please share this message, an updated announcement on the marchs Facebook page reads. Update: The march may be moved to Thursday, June 4, if there is inclement weather, Wednesday, June 3. Organizers will be giving at least two to three hours notice Wednesday, if it is moved. If it is moved, marchers would gather at Saxe Middle School, across from the high school, at 5 p.m. They would then walk from Saxe at 5:30 p.m. on the marchs original route, and then return to Saxe after. Information will also be updated on the Facebook event page for the march, and this story. Original story: NEW CANAAN The organizer of Wednesdays march seeking justice for George Floyd, the Minneapolis man who died at the hands of police there last week, said she wants a show of unity. The whole point is a peaceful protest, Fatou Niang said, for our community to show up as one. Marchers will gather at New Canaan High School starting at 3:50 p.m. They will then walk from NCHS at 4 p.m., north on South Avenue, (Route 124), to the New Canaan Police Station, 174 South Ave., then down Church Street to Main Street to return to the high school. The rain date for the event is Thursday, June 4. Marchers would then gather at Saxe Middle School, across from the high school at 5 p.m., if there is inclement weather. They would then walk from Saxe at 5:30 p.m. on the marchs original route, and then return to Saxe after. New Canaan Police Chief Leon Krolikowski said he is in contact with the organizers of the march. Fatou Niang of New Canaan, who is organizing the march, said she has coordinated with the police to ensure the safety of marchers, and the public, and that social distancing precautions are observed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Masks are required, and police will have masks for those who do not have them. She said police and New Canaan clergy will participate in the march. Niang said Tuesday that her family decided Monday, it was our duty to do something. There are not that many black families in New Canaan, Our kids still have to interact with everyone in town, Niang said. There are times, she said, that her family has experienced prejudice. When you are a minority, you understand the look, she said. News of the protest was supported by some, and met with talk of riots, looting, and the presence of the political protest movement group Antifa by detractors. I really dont care about those people, Niang said. Its always the same three or four people who are belligerent. The same ones from the Trump campaign. The march will not approach downtown New Canaan. We picked the route on purpose, Niang said. We ask motorists to avoid the march route, so we can ensure the marchers safety. Krolikowski said. Along the route, motorists should expect road closures, and delays. In a Facebook post Monday night, June 1, Fatou Niang wrote, Please join us on Wednesday at New Canaan High School for a PEACEFUL march in New Canaan Stand against racism, Be part of the change! Please Wear Protective Mask. This is not because Im black and angry, Niang said. Its open to everyone and we all need to stand together. Krolikowski on Monday condemned the actions of the officers in Minneapolis. The video footage of Mr. Floyds death was shocking. The actions, as well as the inactions by the involved officers, were inexcusable, Krolikowski said. The Minnesota officers failed to follow the best practices of policing, he added. Marches were held throughout Connecticut and the rest of the United States over the weekend continuing into this week. On Sunday in Darien, what was to be a walk bearing a cross in memory of Coronavirus victims became a march of hundreds mourning COVID-19 victims and calling for social justice. On Monday posters were taped to lamp posts around downtown New Canaan, but were removed. They began their romance when Neville Chamberlain was Prime Minister and married while troops were being evacuated from Dunkirk. And now, 15 prime ministers later, Eric and Nancy Kingston have celebrated their 80th wedding anniversary. They are thought to be the countrys longest-married couple. The pair were just 17 and 18 when they met on a blind date on a small bridge in the village of Westhay, Somerset, in 1938. On June 1, 1940, they decided to marry. Eric and Nancy Kingston (pictured) celebrated their 80th wedding anniversary this year and are believed to be the longest-married couple in the country Wartime wedding: The Kingstons first met on a blind date in the village of Westhay, Somerset, in 1938 and decided to marry on June 1, 1940 War was raging on and rationing was introduced. Mrs Kingston, now 99, recalled: I just had enough coupons for my wedding dress and a set of underwear. I had a navy blue hat, my blue shoes and a pale blue dress and pink carnations. After a church ceremony, the newlyweds went back to her grandmothers house for sandwiches and cake. Mr Kingston, 98, said: If I could, Id do it all again. As they celebrated their oak anniversary this week, a giggly Mrs Kingston added: Were still holding hands and I had a kiss this morning in bed. We still love one another. The couple, who live in Blackford, near Wedmore, Somerset, have five children, 11 grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren and 14 great-great-grandchildren. An oak bench is being made for them in their village. The long-married couple may also boast another record Britains oldest rolling pin. They bought it from Woolworths in 1938. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday called for the corporate leaders to take an oath to make India self-reliant. PM Modi was addressing the annual session of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), through via a virtual online meeting. PM Modi shared his vision on 'Getting Growth Back' with representatives of the India Inc. PM's address to the India inc came at a crucial time for India due to various reasons including, 1) Modi govt's completion of one year of its second term in the office. 2) Companies are resuming operations after the Ministry of Home Affairs allowed relaxations amid lockdown. 3) Ratings agency Moody's on Monday downgraded India's rating for first time in 22 years. Top highlights of the PM Modi's address to CII: We will take structural reforms that will change course of the country; we will together build self-reliant India. World is looking for a trusted, reliable partner. In India, we have potential, strength & ability. Today, all of you, including all the industries must benefit from the trust that has developed for India all over the world. Take an oath to make India Aatmanirbhar. Govt is standing with you, you need to stand with the goals of the country. In around 200 crore of purchases done by the government, global tenders have been removed to boost small-scale industries. 200 crore of purchases done by the government, global tenders have been removed to boost small-scale industries. The country now needs to manufacture products which are 'Made in India' and are 'Made for the World' I request you to come up with detailed study of different sectors. I invite India Inc for active participation for the AatmNirbhar Bharat. The direction in which the government is moving today, be it our mining sector, energy sector or research and technology, in every field there will be many new opportunities for youth of the country We will have to invest in robust local supply chain which will strengthen India's share in global supply chain. In this campaign, a big institution like Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) will also have to come forward in a new role post-Corona. We must stabilise, speed up economy. Getting back on track is highest priority for govt. Getting growth back is not that tough. Re-strengthening economy against Corona is one of our highest priorities. For this, the government has taken immediate decisions. We have also taken decisions which will help the country in the long run Reforms for my govt is not random or scattered decisions. Reforms are systemic, planned, integrated and inter-connected for my govt. Farmers can now go anywhere to sell their produce, will open news avenues for agri-businesses Five things are most important for India to be self-reliant: Intent, Inclusion, Investment, Infrastructure and Innovation. You will get a glimpse of these in the bold decisions recently taken by us Intent, Inclusion, Investment, Infrastructure and Innovation. You will get a glimpse of these in the bold decisions recently taken by us Will reduce govt intervention from people's lives. I would go beyond 'Getting Growth Back' and I would say, Yes, we will definitely get our growth back Getting economy back on track is one of our highest priorities I strongly believe in India's crisis management, MSMEs and farmers Yes, we will definitely get our growth back Online events like these are new new normal in the post-covid world. PM Modi congratulates CII for completion of 125 years. The day-long virtual event on the theme 'Getting Growth Back' will also witness participation from top corporate honchos like Piramal Group Chairman Ajay Piramal, ITC Ltd CMD Sanjiv Puri, Biocon CMD Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar, Kotak Mahindra Bank CEO and CII President-Designate Uday Kotak and CII President Vikram Kirloskar. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!! Topics The Madagascar herb has been transferred to the Ministry of Health, NAFDAC has collected samples, the NIMR will also receive samples as well as the Ministry of Science and Technology for evaluation. Law enforcement in Washington, D.C., and Dallas, Texas, spent Monday night kettling in crowds that were protesting the death of George Floyd. "A kettle is when police box in a crowd of people and give them nowhere to go, usually a precursor to a mass arrest," tweeted Matt Pearce of the L.A. Times. "The problem is when they do that while also using force. There's nowhere to go for safety." The state of play: The kettles are among a number of law enforcement tactics being deployed Monday night, including shows-of-force by helicopters, flash bombs and tear gas. Local reports on Twitter show the situation unfolding in D.C. and Dallas. Both cities are under 7 p.m. curfews within their respective time zones. A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted. Protests erupted at 15 HCA Healthcare hospitals nationwide last week as nurses demonstrated their anger over the companys planned layoffs and furloughs as well as severe shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) to combat the coronavirus pandemic. These protests are erupting under conditions where hospitals and health clinics across the country have already laid off or plan to lay off thousands of health care workers to circumvent budget shortfalls. The central and most persistent problem raised by nurses since the pandemics start, and which has fueled health care workers anger, is the absence of N-95 masks to protect staff from the deadly COVID-19 virus. One protesting nurse from an HCA hospital in Brooksville, Florida told a local news station that the pay cuts are especially disgraceful and a slap in the face while we have struggled, often without adequate protective support from HCA, to protect our patients, keep ourselves and our families safe, and limit the spread of the virus in the face of this dangerous pandemic. The protests, which were officially called by the National Nurses United (NNU) union, took place on Thursday and Friday in six different states: Florida, California, Nevada, Missouri, Kansas and Texas. NNU affiliates participating in the protests hold the contracts for an estimated 10,000 registered nurses at for-profit HCA Healthcare, the largest hospital chain in the country. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2019 HCA managed 185 hospitals and 119 freestanding surgery centers in the US and UK. In a statement on the NNU website, the union cited the workplace risk due to inadequate provision of optimal personal protective equipment in the face of a still-raging pandemic. Union Vice President Malinda Markowitz said, It defies belief that HCA, which has widely failed to provide the protection nurses need, wants to further punish them with layoffs and other cuts. Despite such statements, the reality is that it has been the long collaboration of the NNU and other health care worker unions with austerity measures imposed by corporations and both big business parties that has left nurses and other health care workers particularly vulnerable in the current crisis. Evidence of hospital neglect and dangerous working conditions is mounting for health care staff on the frontlines fighting COVID-19. A survey released by the NNU earlier this month found that a staggering 87 percent of American nurses have been forced to reuse protective equipment while working. In the survey, one researcher said that dangerous health care workplace conditions have become the norm. Lack of PPE has been a central contributor to the rising death toll among nurses, which stands at more than 100 since the pandemic began. Nearly 65,000 health care workers have become infected with the novel coronavirus. Health care workers have sharply rebuked hospital policies that have encouraged wearing reused and/or decontaminated N-95 respiratory masks that has placed thousands of lives at risk. Experts in the medical community have repeatedly noted that there is no valid or scientifically driven evidence that wearing reused or decontaminated N-95 masks is a safe alternative to daily replacements for preventing exposure to the virus. Evidence-based techniques that were standard practice before the pandemic have been swiftly discarded in many health care facilities. This policy of criminal endangerment has been approved by both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). In early April, the CDC passed guidelines that gave health care employers the green light to force workers to reuse surgical equipment. NIOSH also moved to safeguard employers against any liability for infections and deaths of staff. The organization gave assurances that health care conglomerates would not be cited for violating respiratory protection rules that placed their workers lives at risk if they followed CDC guidelines. Even though tens of thousands of hospital workers have been infected with COVID-19, these numbers are still a vast underestimation of the full weight of the health crisis. Hundreds of thousands of potentially exposed people are still deprived of testing. In the same NNU survey, 84 percent of respondents indicated that they had not been tested for the virus. Among the 23,000 nurses surveyed who stated they received a test for the virus, 500 tested positive while another 500 had their results pending. Although these conditions are documented in the majority of hospital settings, HCA has become one of the most notorious chains working systematically to deny workers protective equipment and implement a wave of layoffs to boost company profits. In addition to laying off workers, HCA is planning to implement further wage freezes and other pay cuts through reduced hours, which will inevitably reduce the incomes of hundreds and send workers and their families into acute financial strain. The claim that the conglomerate has no money to dispense PPE or stop layoffs, wage freezes or other pay cuts is belied by the fact that it acquired a multibillion-dollar federal bailout package from the CARES Act in April. Nurses have emphatically pointed out that HCA is using the pandemic and losses of company revenue as a pretext for cutting costs and further enriching itself. The HCA received $700 million in bailout funds from the federal government and has amassed another $4 billion in Medicare loans. In the past decade alone, HCA has accumulated more than $25 billion in profits. HCA Healthcare operates 15 hospitals in its West Florida division along the Gulf Coast, its largest concentration in the state. A registered nurse at Largo medical center in St. Petersburg said, Theyre threatening to cut us, hours, positions, while later emphasizing that the way forward is to take matters into workers hands. Theyre basically saying if you dont do this, then we will do this. Nearly 2,000 of the 23,000 responses to the NNU national survey came from RNs in Florida, where nurses from eight hospitals rallied over the two-day period. Consistent with national rates, 83 percent of health care workers in Florida reported that they were compelled to reuse single-use disposable respirators or masks while treating a COVID-19 patient. In addition, more than two-thirds of RNs in Florida cited having to work with exposed skin when caring for confirmed or potentially infected patients. A third of those surveyed said they were required to use decontaminated respirators with confirmed COVID-19 patients and well over 80 percent said they have not been tested for the virus. In comments to local media, nurses highlighted that they have been on the frontlines helping the sickest COVID-19 patients and expressed outrage that the company was orchestrating plans for a wage freeze and attacks against their income. Barbara, a nurse at St. Petersburg General Hospital, said, Now theyre saying that theyre going to either have layoffs or theyre going to cut hours when actually we dont have enough help now. In response to widespread opposition, HCA Healthcare released a statement that amounted to a total repudiation of the demands being made by hospital staff. In its open letter to the protesting nurses, the corporation arrogantly stated, It is surprising and frankly disappointing that unions would demand pay raises for their members and may reject the continuation of a generous pay program that is providing continued paychecks for more than 100,000 colleagues. The so-called pandemic pay program implemented by HCA in March and extended through June is not a show of generosity but is in effect a wage reduction and cost-cutting measure that has further impoverished already struggling health care workers. The program allows employees who are called out or affected by facility shutdowns and cannot be redeployed to receive 70 percent of their base pay. This amounts to a 30 percent pay cut, which is a large reduction of income for many. Moreover, since pay cuts are not considered on an equal basis when determining a workers eligibility for unemployment insurance, most workers who are out of work but receive reduced pay may not even qualify for unemployment compensation. In many states, arbitrary and draconian provisions exist to deny benefits to workers receiving cuts of a certain rate. HCA has placed more than 16,000 unionized health care workers on furlough at some point during the pandemic, despite that the fact that the wage-reduction provision is not even part of the contracts that have been officially put in place to determine employee compensation. The company is also touting a 30 percent pay cut by senior leadership and CEO Sam Hazen donating his pay for April and May to a company fundraiser. These are token measures that hardly affect the wealth of top executives, including Hazen, who receives a large portion of his wealth from shares in the companys stock. It is important to note that while the NNU called the protests against the hospital chain, the union has done everything in its power to handcuff workers behind the profit-driven mandates of the HCA executives and the companys wealthiest shareholders. The NNU is following the same tried and tested script of systematically suppressing all upsurges of health care worker opposition while ensuring that concessions are imposed on nurses. In early April when the pandemic was beginning to make its ferocious spread across the country and was overwhelming scores of hospitals, the NNU called a measly two-day protest as a tactic to let workers blow off steam and quell the anger over the lack of preparedness and PPE for the brewing pandemic. Now the union has tried the same method, but this time is now working side by side with HCA to impose a worthless concessions deal. HCA is demanding that the nurses choose between an indefinite number of layoffs and no 401(k) match for this year, or no layoffs and no nurse pay increases for the rest of 2020, according to an ABC affiliate. The track record of the NNU, which has forced one concessions contract after another over the past decade while refusing to organize its members for nationwide strike action to demand better pay and conditions, leaves little doubt that another betrayal is in the works. No confidence should be placed in the pro-corporate health care unions. Workers should take the conduct of the struggle into their own hands. In every hospital, medical center and health clinic, nurses and other frontline health staff should form rank-and-file safety committees to demand full protective gear and equipment to combat the pandemic, full compensation to all staff, and the rehiring of all laid-off workers. This must be combined with a politically independent and socialist movement against the capitalist profit system, which includes the mobilization of the entire working class and nationalization of the health care industry. (Newser) Joe Biden is no longer hunkered down in his basement waiting out the pandemic. The presumptive Democratic nominee gave a speech in Philadelphia Tuesday in which he condemned President Trump's presidency in general and his handling of the George Floyd protests in particular. Some big lines, via the AP, the Washington Post, NPR, and Politico: Given that Trump had "peaceful protesters" dispersed "from the doorstep of the peoples house, the White House" with tear gas so he could stage what Biden called a photo op at a nearby church, "we can be forgiven for believing that the president is more interested in power than in principle." The president held up a Bible, Biden said. I just wished he opened it once in awhile instead of brandishing it. story continues below Trump's narcissism has become more important than the nation that he leads. Trump appears more interested in serving the passions of his base than the needs of the people in his care. For that's what the presidency is: a duty of careto all of us, not just our voters, not just our donors, but all of us." Look, the presidency is a big job. Nobody will get everything right. And I wont either." But, he promised, "I wont fan the flames of hate. He said Floyd's last words of "I can't breathe" did not "die with him. Theyre still being heard. Echoing across this nation. They speak to a nation where too often just the color of your skin puts your life at risk. ... Its a wake-up call for our nation in my view. For all of us. And I mean all of us. On that note, he said Congress should move quickly on laws addressing police brutality, per the Hill. (Biden could actually seal the Democratic nomination in voting Tuesday.) Windows were broken at two businesses, at least, and some people attempted to enter businesses, according to the statement. Two officers sustained minor injuries after people threw rocks, bottles and other objects at officers, according to the statement. Bottom line: It looks like we are going to have to wait to see what the PlayStation 5 can do. Sony was set to showcase some next-gen games in a few days, but with all the chaos in the streets, it has pulled the plug indefinitely on a PS5 gameplay reveal. Last week, Sony insiders leaked that the company was planning a big PlayStation 5 gameplay reveal set for this Wednesday. A couple of days later, the company confirmed the showing but said it would be happening on Thursday at 1pm Pacific. Today in a tweet, Sony rescinded its scheduled live stream of PS5 gameplay. Although it did not explicitly say the postponement was in light of the ongoing riots and protests, it seems clear that this is the cause. "While we understand gamers worldwide are excited to see PS5 games, we do not feel that right now is a time for celebration and for now, we want to stand back and allow more important voices to be heard," the announcement read, implying that Sony did not want to distract from the protests going on over the George Floyd killing. This assumption is reinforced by an earlier PlayStation tweet supporting Black Lives Matter and denouncing systemic racism. While I can understand the move to postpone the event, I find it unfortunate that Sony does not share something positive that encourages people to look forward. In a time when the year has been nothing but bad news, there is nothing wrong with a little entertaining distraction. Like the coronavirus before them, the protesters/rioters are not having any problems making themselves heard right now. Sony did not have a new date or even a timeframe for hosting the presentation. It appears from its statement that we will just have to wait for the (bad) news cycle to die down. Image credit: charnsitr As a science writer, Ive been reading scientific papers for 30 years. Id guess that Ive read tens of thousands of them, in search of new advances to write about, or to do background research for stories. While Im not a scientist myself, Ive gotten pretty comfortable navigating around them. One lesson Ive learned is that it can take work to piece together the story underlying a paper. If I call scientists and simply ask them to tell me about what theyve done, they can offer me a riveting narrative of intellectual exploration. But on the page, we readers have to assemble the story for ourselves. Part of the problem may be that many scientists dont get much training in writing. As a result, it can be hard to figure out precisely what question a paper is tackling, how the results answer it and why any of it really matters. The demands of peer review satisfying the demands of several different experts can also make papers even more of a chore to read. Journals can make matters worse by requiring scientists to chop up their papers in chunks, some of which are exiled into a supplementary file. Reading a paper can be like reading a novel and realizing only at the end that Chapters 14, 30, and 41 were published separately. The coronavirus pandemic now presents an extra challenge: There are far more papers than anyone could ever read. If you use a tool like Google Scholar, you may be able to zero in on some of the papers that are already getting cited by other scientists. They can provide the outlines of the past few months of scientific history the isolation of the coronavirus, for example, the sequencing of its genome, the discovery that it spreads quickly from person to person even before symptoms emerge. Papers like these will be cited by generations of scientists yet to be born. Most wont, though. When you read through a scientific paper, its important to maintain a healthy skepticism. The ongoing flood of papers that have yet to be peer-reviewed known as preprints includes a lot of weak research and misleading claims. Some are withdrawn by the authors. Many will never make it into a journal. But some of them are earning sensational headlines before burning out in obscurity. In April, for example, a team of Stanford researchers published a preprint in which they asserted that the fatality rate of Covid-19 was far lower than other experts estimated. When Andrew Gelman, a Columbia University statistician, read their preprint, he was so angry he publicly demanded an apology. Chicago Public Schools said Monday it is suspending its meal distribution program due to what it called "the evolving nature of activity across the city." Thousands of families have depended on the program during the coronavirus pandemic, and CPS announced the suspension just hours after its CEO offered assurances that the free meals would continue. CPS CEO Janice Jackson released a letter Sunday addressing the weekend's protests in Chicago and nationwide in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The letter included a note that the public school system "will continue to provide free grab-and-go meals for all students." "We are here for you today, and we will be here for you tomorrow," Jackson wrote. "Together we have a responsibility to ensure each day is safer, fairer and more just than the last." But CPS announced a reversal just hours later. "Based on the evolving nature of activity across the city, we are suspending grab-and-go meal sites and all other school and administrative office activities tomorrow, 6/1," CPS posted on its social media pages late Sunday. "This decision was made out of an abundance of caution and in recognition of the potential challenges families and staff could face trying to reach school buildings and offices tomorrow." The statement said staff would work from home on Monday and students will continue remote learning. Previously scheduled meal deliveries would still be completed. In an update on Monday, CPS said it is "closely monitoring the situation" with hopes of resuming free meals on Tuesday. "We know our families are counting on us and we're going to do everything in our power to continue supporting them," it said. The CPS program has given out more than 12.5 million free meals during the pandemic, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The Chicago Teachers Union criticized the suspension. Story continues "CPS is already forcing children living in areas of extreme unrest and trauma into remote learning tomorrow," the union said in a statement. "Now it's cutting off their access to food." The suspension came after violence in the weekend's protests led Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to impose a curfew, which the police department could enforce with fines and arrests. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker ordered 375 National Guard troops to help Chicago police, as looting and fires broke out during the demonstrations. Authorities suspect white supremacists and far-left extremists are behind violence at protests SpaceX makes history with successful rocket launch Protests continue across the U.S. over the death of George Floyd Sure, it might be warm Wednesday, but what about the rest of the week? local Richard Grenell, ambassador of the United States of America. (Sven Hoppe/Picture alliance via Getty) Richard Grenell, the US ambassador to Germany, is set to leave his post in Berlin after just over two years, according to the German Press Agency (DPA). DPA reported that Grenells deputy Robin Quinville would take over the post in Berlin on a temporary basis, according to embassy spokesman Joseph Giordono-Scholz. Quinville has been deputy chief of mission at the embassy since July 2018. Grenell, 53, stirred up quite some tension and made few friends in the political establishment in Berlin during his two years in the job. He aggressively pushed president Donald Trumps foreign policy agenda in ways that were often viewed as meddling outside his diplomatic remit as an ambassador. Around the beginning of his posting in Berlin in 2018, he gave an interview to far-right website Breitbart, saying that he wanted to empower anti-establishment conservatives, and wanted to work with German politicians who are concerned about migration. While he later toned down his comments on that, his words provoked irritation in Berlin, with a German foreign office spokesperson telling AFP that they wanted a word with him to clarify what he meant. A staunch Trump ally, Grenell also warned German companies to stop trading with Iran, after Trump said he would pull the US out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018. The US envoy was also openly critical of Germanys defence contributions to NATO, which Trump has slammed on numerous occasions. In 2019, Grenell waded into the controversial issue of Germanys new Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline with Russia, sending a letter to German companies involved in the project in January saying that they risk US sanctions. He also threatened that the US could restrict intelligence sharing between Washington and Berlin if the German government allowed Chinese telecoms company Huawei to participate in the countrys 5G network buildout. In February, Trump made Grenell acting director of national intelligence, a post that will now be filled on a permanent basis by John Ratcliffe. Story continues It is not currently clear what Grenells next role will be; Politico said last week that he may be set to join Trumps 2020 campaign. When news that the US envoy was vacating his post first started circulating in late May, Grenell tweeted that his departure did not mean American pressure is off. Protesting in a pandemic The mass protests against police brutality and racism roiling dozens of cities across the United States have prompted officials and public health experts to warn of a possible second wave of coronavirus outbreaks. Even though many protesters have taken precautions like wearing masks and trying to stay socially distant gatherings of thousands of people will inescapably carry risk: Shouting, panting and yelling slogans can accelerate the production of respiratory droplets that transmit the virus. The aggressive police response in many cities may also be increasing transmission. Tear gas and pepper spray provoke secretions from the eyes, nose and mouth, and induce coughing; police efforts to corral protesters in tight urban corridors reduce the distance between people; and jailing protesters expands the potential for the virus to spread. The protests come as many areas of the country are still experiencing the most lethal days of the pandemic. While coronavirus cases are dropping in the Northeast, there are fierce flare-ups in rural parts of Southern states like Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. And the Midwest is still troubled by persistent outbreaks: In Wisconsin, hospitalizations are on the rise, and in Minnesota, where the protests began, cases are trending upward. At the high-end Japanese restaurant Shoushin, chef Jackie Lin is known for his interaction with customers seated at his sushi counter. While Lin and his team have been preparing food for takeout and delivery through the pandemic, he found himself missing these chats with his guests. So he recreated the experience online through a virtual chefs table. Its something that Lin and other Toronto chefs have been experimenting with to keep customers engaged while their restaurants are closed to dine-in guests. On Mothers Day, Lin virtually led a group of customers, mostly Shoushin regulars, through an eight-course omakase meal. The meals were separated into two boxes appetizer courses and mains. They were delivered to customers homes on the afternoon of the event and guests were instructed to remove boxes from the fridge about 45 minutes before the 7 pm start time. We dont want to cool down the rice too much because its best to enjoy it at room temperature, Lin explains Otherwise, the rice gets hard. Once all the diners logged on, Lins virtual sushi counter experience began. Michelle and Aaron Brown are regulars at Shoushin and were two of 25 guests to participate in the online dining experience. The first box was almost like a tic tac toe board divided by palm leaves, Michelle Brown explains. There was a card and each item was numbered on the card with a description. So Jackie would say, Okay, were going to do number one. And then he would talk about that particular dish and explain everything. While the Browns didnt know any of the other guests at the virtual dinner, they enjoyed the opportunity to connect with new people and hear their impressions of the food. Given the circumstances, to be able to enjoy Shoushin food and to be able to talk to Jackie was amazing, Aaron Brown says. The food was incredible. Its the COVID-19 experience. Its the next best thing to having Jackie place a piece of sushi in front of you. While Lin was a little nervous hosting guests online for the first time, the evening went off without a hitch from his customers eyes. Being able to see some of the guests that I usually see every other week or every month, it was great, even though its through a camera and a screen, says Lin. I really do miss the interaction with guests. Shoushin has since hosted a second virtual event, a hand roll-making class led by Lin, on May 31. When eateries are allowed to re-open to dine-in guests, reduced capacities will force restaurateurs to think creatively to keep their customers engaged during a pandemic. Virtual chefs tables are one way to do that. The west end Italian restaurant Il Covo has also hopped on the virtual dining bandwagon, hosting four-course dinners led by Il Covo chef Ryan Campbell which included a radicchio salad, grilled strip loin steaks and tiramisu. Event planning company VOC Events helped Il Covo and Shoushin to execute the logistics, delivery and promotion of virtual dining events. Shell soon be hosting her first brewery event in mid-June. While Steam Whistle would normally throw a launch party to introduce a new product, the Toronto craft brewery is moving the celebrations online for June 18. Guests who purchase a ticket in advance will be guided through a tasting of the brewerys new session lager paired with food from their Biergarten restaurant delivered to their homes. For the west end catering company Urban Acorn, pivoting their monthly vegan supper club online has required some creative adaptations. Certain things dont travel well, explains co-owner Marie Fitrion who runs Urban Acorn alongside her husband, chef Daniel Holloway. When their March 28 supper club was cancelled, they had already purchased enough ingredients to host a six-course dinner for 45 people. So they adapted their existing menu to be delivery-friendly. Our dessert was supposed to be a creme brulee but we had to turn it into a flan since we couldnt torch the sugar right before serving, Fitrion says. Theyve since developed supper club menu items that can be easily transported and enjoyed by their customers. Hosting their now-biweekly vegan supper clubs has been a way for Fitrion and Holloway to recoup lost income due to pandemic cancellations. 80 percent of the couples business usually comes from weddings and large events which have now been cancelled. Catering relies on future events but everythings kind of up in the air, Fitrion explains. Deliveries have been booming, but it still only makes up such a small fraction of our business. Since the pandemic, the couple has executed five virtual supper clubs. They deliver the meals themselves in the days leading up to the Saturday evening events and host the dinners from their home kitchen. During their last vegan supper club, an Eastern European-themed meal, one of Fitrion and Holloways kids even made an appearance on Zoom before their bedtime. I think it gives people an opportunity to feel connected again and talk to other people outside of our circles, says Fitrion. After the supper clubs, Ive had people message me and say I needed that connection with other people. I needed to feel like were all in this together. On March 8 I sent a 50,000 Barclays cheque to a building society to invest in a bond. On March 25, Barclays told me it had been contacted by Lloyds Bank as the cheque had been intercepted by a fraudster. Barclays said my money was safe and it would cancel the cheque but the cash was still taken from my account. An elderly reader had her and her husbands life savings stolen by a fraudster a neither her bank nor the police appeared to do anything about it at all The next day I wrote to Barclays asking when it was contacted by Lloyds and why it had released my money. I also questioned whether the fraudsters had used my identity and, if so, was the remaining money in my account safe? On March 30 Barclays said my case should be resolved within ten working days, but that it may take a little longer because of the pandemic. Lloyds told me the fraudsters had set up an account in my name at Halifax in Wood Green, London, and it had CCTV footage of the person responsible. That money is the life savings of my husband and I, aged 74 and 87. We are frail, having suffered from cancer, a stroke, a blood disorder and spinal fractures. I need daily chemotherapy. I have been a Barclays customer for 50 years, and the bank has caused us a great deal of stress. J. S., Maidenhead, Berks. How shocking to believe you have lost your life savings. Once I made contact, Barclays returned your money quickly. Why has it been so hard to find out what caused the delay? Barclays says it was alerted to the cheque interception on March 25 and sent a message to Lloyds to recover the funds. It says Lloyds did not reply and it chased twice on April 24 and May 14. When I made contact it chased again, and the money was returned on May 21. Even allowing for Covid-19 and bank holidays, this seems an extraordinarily lax approach to take. You told me: 'Barclays has given my husband and I two months of hell and we feel that we cannot trust it again.' Barclays apologises for the delays and has paid you 200 as a goodwill gesture. A spokesman says: 'We acted swiftly to recover the funds from the receiving bank. Unfortunately a delay arose as it was necessary to send three requests.' Lloyds relays its sympathies to you and admits to an error. A spokesman says: 'As soon as we were made aware the cheque had potentially been intercepted, we acted immediately and successfully recovered the funds. Unfortunately, there was an error in processing the return of the funds and we are sorry for the delay that this caused.' It beggars belief that the banks could not communicate speedily over a 50,000 fraud. Perhaps they could try strapping messages to pigeons' legs. Finally, a nod to the pathetic police reaction. Your life savings were stolen and a bank has CCTV footage of the culprit, yet you tell me that when you tried to report it you were asked to fill in an online form! Straight to the point I let out my property using Booking.com before selling it in October. The firm said any money I was owed would be paid into my bank account, but Im still waiting. My emails are being ignored. S. R., Dorset. The booking site admits it had paid the 981 you were owed to the new owner in error. The mistake has now been corrected and youve received your money. *** My friend bought a 40in Toshiba TV from Tesco in February last year for around 270. It has stopped working twice and now appears to be faulty again. Tesco claims there is nothing it can do because it cannot find the original transaction. B. S., Clitheroe, Lancs. Tesco apologises for the inconvenience and has now offered your friend a full refund. *** Islington Council is chasing me for 679 in upaid council tax for a rented property in 2012. This is first Ive heard of the debt. R. A., Manchester. It is surprising that a council would suddenly demand payment for an eight-year-old debt at this difficult time. While the council insists there is an outstanding payment, it has now agreed to cancel the debt following a review. *** Our telephone line hasnt been working for five days, but whenever we try to call our provider, TalkTalk, we cant get through. My husband and I are both vulnerable and need to be able to reach people to get help with our shopping. M. F., by email. After referring your case, TalkTalk quickly informed Openreach, which owns the network. It emerged there was a fault with the phone lines outside your property, so an engineer was sent out to repair them. TalkTalk apologises for the delay, and the telecoms firm has added you to its priority list of vulnerable customers. Before travel was restricted, I planned to visit family in Tenerife. My passport and boarding card were stolen from the security conveyor belt at Manchester Airport. I had placed my documents in my carry-on bag, which went into a tray. I went straight to the boarding gate, where I discovered that my documents were no longer in the bag. I was not permitted to board the aircraft and my passport was cancelled by Border Force. My insurer, Direct Line, said it would only reimburse reasonable expenses up to 500 incurred for replacing stolen passports. I paid 1,046 for flights, transfers and a hotel room. I'm 70 and that is a great deal of money to me. P. D., Preston, Lancs. There was a misunderstanding here. A Direct Line spokesman told me you were asked to obtain emergency replacement travel documents. Direct Line would then have covered the cost of your new flights to ensure you were able to continue your trip. You were too traumatised to do this immediately. Direct Line has agreed to pay your claim and apologised for the distress caused. It offered 100 as a goodwill gesture, too. *** I am getting letters from HMRC that are not in my name. Two I opened said that HMRC would make payments for tax reclaims of 6,000 each. I called HMRC so it could halt the payments and investigate. I have since reported more letters. I suspect someone is using my address for fraudulent tax refund claims. K. A., by email. Your suspicions may well be correct. HMRC has found that five separate people claim to have lived at one of your two addresses. HMRC says it accepts address changes in good faith. You shouldn't get more letters, as it has removed these details and passed the case to the Risk And Intelligence team so it can investigate further. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 19:15:41|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Students attend a class at a school in Yaounde, Cameroon, June 1, 2020. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the African continent rose to 152,442 as of Tuesday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said. TO GO WITH "Africa's confirmed COVID-19 cases surpass 150,000 mark: Africa CDC" (Xinhua/Jean Pierre Kepseu) ADDIS ABABA, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the African continent rose to 152,442 as of Tuesday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said. The Africa CDC in its latest update issued on Tuesday revealed that the number of confirmed positive cases across the continent rose from 147,099 on Monday to 152,442 as of Tuesday afternoon, after registering 5,343 new cases over the past 24 hours. The death toll from the pandemic also rose to 4,344 on Tuesday, after having registered 116 new deaths over the past 24 hours. The continental disease control and prevention agency, which noted that the virus has so far spread into 54 African countries, also disclosed that some 63,661 people who have been infected with COVID-19 have recovered across the continent so far. Figures from the Africa CDC showed that amid the rapid spread of the virus across the continent, the highly COVID-19 affected African countries include South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria, Ghana, as well as Morocco. The Africa CDC also said that the Northern African region is the most affected area across the continent both in terms of positive COVID-19 cases, as well as the number of deaths. The Western Africa region is the second most affected area both in terms of positive cases and the number of deaths, followed by the Southern Africa region, according to the Africa CDC. The Africa CDC also indicated that Eastern and Central African regions are relatively the least affected areas in Africa. Enditem One of the 10 Catholic schools in northern New Jersey slated to close this year due to drops in enrollment will now stay open, the Archdiocese of Newark said Tuesday. Thanks to the extraordinary generosity and kindness of anonymous donors, as well as substantial community support, The Academy of Our Lady of Peace (in Union County) will remain open in the 2020-2021 school year, Maria Margiotta, spokeswoman for the diocese, told NJ Advance Media. The parish has agreed to accept from the Archdiocese of Newark the responsibility of the schools operations and fiscal sustainability moving forward and the parish will reassess continually the schools sustainability using agreed upon metrics and organizational stipulations, Margiotta said in an email. Like many Catholic schools across the United States, Our Lady of Peace had faced changing demographics and increased competition from public and secular private schools. The other nine schools are still expected to close. Currently, there are no other announcements regarding archdiocesan schools, Margiotta said, adding that the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated a number of challenges for us, including enrollment. All New Jersey schools were ordered closed in March as the outbreak escalated. If our Archdiocese could not subsidize its schools at current levels before COVID-19, we will be even less capable once the quarantine eases, Margiotta said. Our school ministry consolidation and reorganization is aimed at ensuring that our archdiocesan Catholic schools survive and flourish. The nine other schools are Academy of St. Therese of Lisieux in Cresskill, St. Anne School in Fair Lawn, Trinity Academy in Caldwell, Good Shepherd Academy in Irvington, Our Lady Help of Christians School in East Orange, St. James the Apostle School in Springfield, Holy Spirit School in Union, St. Genevieve School in Elizabeth and Cristo Rey Newark High School. Other dioceses have also announced school closures. In April, officials announced five South Jersey Catholic schools would be shuttered, citing financial troubles worsened by the pandemic and sinking enrollment. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here. Its Election Day in Pennsylvania and heres what you need to know if you want to vote. Races on the primary ballot include president, state attorney general, state auditor general, state treasurer, U.S. Representatives, state senators in odd-numbered districts and state representatives. The primary was originally scheduled for April 28 but was postponed to June 2 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Its the first election allowing residents to vote by mail without providing a reason. Gov. Tom Wolf said mail-in ballots typically total about 200,000, but almost 2 million Pennsylvania residents applied to vote by mail. Every county is working hard to deal with this. ... No one knows how long this is going to take to get results, he said on Friday. (Cant see the chart? Click here.) Voting in person If you are heading to the polls today, state and county officials said you should: Wear a mask Wash your hands before and after voting Bring your own blue or black ink pen to use Practice social distancing, with at least a six-foot distance from others. The Pennsylvania Department of State provided counties with precinct infection-protection kits that include masks and face shields for poll workers, hand sanitizer, floor marking tape and other supplies. In Northampton County, hand sanitizer will be available and the screens of the Express Vote XL machines will be regularly wiped down. Voters may wear gloves since the touch screen will work with gloves, said Becky Bartlett, deputy director of administration. Voters will not sign in on a paper poll book, but will use an e-pollbook where signatures can be made with a finger or a stylus. Styluses will be available and will be regularly cleaned, Bartlett said. Polling locations Some polling locations were relocated in both Lehigh and Northampton counties for the primary. Lehigh Countys Chief Clerk of Elections Tim Benyo said some polling places were changed due to the new date of the election, but most were because the counties are still in the red phase of statewide shutdown and some buildings have not reopened. We used a lot of places, like senior homes, where we just dont want to put crowds in there, he added. In Northampton County, eight polling locations were relocated, including ones at Gracedale nursing home, and in Bethlehem, Hanover Township, Northampton borough, Palmer Township, Washington Township and Wind Gap. Lehigh County issued a five-page list of polling changes. The updated list of polling locations in Northampton County can be found here and in Lehigh County here. Voters can find their polling locations by address here. (Cant see the chart? Click here.) Absentee and mail-in ballots Absentee and mail-in ballots must be received in the county election office by 8 p.m. today, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said. Postmarks do not count for mail-in ballots. Lehigh County has a drop-off box in the front vestibule of the Government Center, 17 S. Seventh St. in Allentown. Northampton Countys collection box is in the rotunda of the Government Center, 669 Washington Street in Easton. Voters should not bring their mail-in ballots to polling locations, Benyo said. They will be told to use a provisional ballot instead. Voters that applied for a mail-in ballot but did not receive it by Election Day can vote by provisional ballot at polling places. In Lehigh County, 47,915 people applied for mail-in ballots, "a lot of people, Benyo said. About 80,000 people voted in the 2016 primary in Lehigh County, he said. Northampton County sent out 44,299 mail-in ballots for the primary. Results The Pa. Department of State warned last week that due to the unprecedented number of mailed ballots, some election results may take longer to count than usual, especially in close races. Pennsylvania law forbids processing mailed ballots until Election Day, although counties will be allowed to begin counting ballots at 7 a.m. on Election Day instead of when the polls close. Forrest Lehman, elections director in Lycoming County, told the Associated Press, In terms of November, if they dont let us start canvassing sooner than the day of the election, theres no way anyone can responsibly call Pennsylvania on election night. Northampton County officials are not making any predictions on when unofficial results will be ready. Benyo said Lehigh County will begin posting the mail-in ballot results they have starting at 8 p.m. The computation board doesnt meet until Friday morning, so any official results wont be released until then, he said. After the scramble of finding polling locations and poll workers, Benyo said officials deal with myriad issues in and around Election Day. "If theres a perfect election, somethings wrong, he said. State results can be found here. Lehigh County results will be posted here, and Northampton County results here. Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Oslo, June 2: In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of people facing acute hunger could double. Supported by the United Nations, the Norwegian government and African institutions, Yara is taking action and committing $25 million to provide food for more than one million people in Southern and Eastern Africa. Yara is launching Action Africa: Thriving Farms, Thriving Future - an initiative with the goal to mobilize support for 250,000 smallholder farmers in seven African countries to secure food production and improved food security. The initiative includes advocacy and partnerships, farmer connectivity and digital solutions, and operational support including 40,000 metric tons of high quality fertilizers with zinc for improved nutrition. Yara's fertilizer contribution, combined with agronomic support, is expected to triple maize production and feed more than one million people across Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique for one year. "Vulnerable communities may face the most devastating food crisis in decades. If we don't act now, millions of people will be pushed into deep poverty and hunger. This is especially worrying in Africa where lives and livelihoods are at risk. As a critical part of the food value chain, we have a responsibility to support vulnerable farming communities and help avert a hunger crisis," says Svein Tore Holsether, President and CEO of Yara International. "The COVID-19 health crisis threatens to become a global humanitarian catastrophe that could deal a fatal blow to communities already on the edge of survival," says David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP). "This initiative provides a good model for how the private sector and individual companies can step up, in partnership with African institutions, Governments and organizations like WFP, to help sustain production and food supply chains and safeguard the people most at risk during this pandemic." "Sustainable Development Goal 17 calls for partnerships to reach the Sustainable Development Goals. In the current COVID-19 crisis, partnerships such as the one Yara is initiating, are both commendable and important. The economic effects of the pandemic could dramatically increase hunger and poverty, particularly in Africa. Through this initiative, Yara and its partners can help secure critical food production for those most vulnerable to the effects of the pandemic," says Norway's Prime Minister, Erna Solberg. "I am deeply concerned about the risk of a hunger pandemic caused by the corona virus with a further 265 million people facing crisis levels of hunger or worse. It is critical that we come together as one united global community to defeat this disease, and protect the most vulnerable," says Dag Inge Ulstein, Minister of International Development, Norway, who highly welcomes the initiative and commitment by Yara as public-private collaboration will be vital in addressing a possible food crisis. Action Africa: Thriving Farms, Thriving Future will seek to: Keep food available and affordable for the most vulnerable. Keep SMEs going as they are the backbone of food systems in Africa. Get inputs to smallholders. Keep food markets open and safe. Keeping knowledge flowing to farmers and digitize for traceability whenever possible. Action Africa: Thriving Farms, Thriving Future will include support for the African Green Revolution Forum (Africa Food Forum), Generation Africa and the Farm to Market Alliance. The initiative will work in coordination with WFP, AGRA, AFAP and other regional and local organizations to strengthen operational support, manage on-the-ground operations and to provide digital enablement and personalized agronomic advise. kristin.nordal@yara.com Yara hopes that the initiative can be a catalyst for other private sector players to join in a coordinated effort to deliver better farm productivity, meet local food demand, improve farmer incomes and improve population health through better nutrition.Phone: + 47 900 15 550E-mail: For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME. Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire. Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever. Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation. View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union. Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history. Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words. LYON, France and NEWTON, Mass., June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alize Pharma 3, a global company specialized in developing therapeutic peptides for rare endocrine and metabolic diseases, today announced it is rebranding as Amolyt Pharma. The new brand, which will be implemented immediately, comes ahead of the launch of the Company's first clinical program. The new brand reflects the Company's new ambitions and singular focus on building and advancing a portfolio of unique therapeutic peptides through global approval, while providing endocrinologists with better treatment options to improve the lives of their patients. Amolyt Pharma is developing AZP-3601, a parathyroid hormone analog specifically designed for the treatment of hypoparathyroidism, as well as AZP-3404, a peptide with a new and unique mechanism of action on fat and glucose metabolism. "Our new name, Amolyt Pharma, is derived from ammolite, a rare gemstone originating from living organisms. Its spiral structure reflects the journey that we envision a patient, who is using our therapeutic peptides, will take from disease to recovery and to the return of a fully functioning life. Ultimately, the rebrand highlights our commitment to provide innovative treatments that safely and effectively restore balance," said Thierry Abribat, Ph.D., the Company's founder and chief executive officer. "To fulfill our ambition, we have assembled a US and EU-based team with a proven track record of developing peptides for endocrine and metabolic diseases, and we are supported by an impressive board of directors and international syndicate of investors who contributed to a $75M Series A financing last year. We believe that we are well-equipped for upcoming milestones, starting with the planned initiation of a Phase 1 clinical trial for AZP-3601 during the second half of 2020." About Amolyt Pharma Amolyt Pharma is building on its team's established expertise in therapeutic peptides to deliver life-changing treatments to patients suffering from rare endocrine and metabolic diseases. Its portfolio includes AZP-3601 as a potential treatment of hypoparathyroidism and AZP-3404, which is undergoing indication prioritization work. Amolyt Pharma aims to further expand and develop its portfolio by leveraging its global network in the field of endocrinology and with support from a strong syndicate of international investors. To learn more, visit www.amolytpharma.com or follow us on Twitter at @AmolytPharma. Media: Cherilyn Cecchini, M.D. LifeSci Communications ccecchini@lifescicomms.com +1.646.876.5196 LOS ANGELES, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Westwood Financial, a leading retail real estate investment firm, announced updates today on its results for the first quarter of 2020, which included: Executed 16 new leases totaling 39,000 square feet, an 85% increase over the same period in 2019 Executed 46 renewals totaling 147,000 square feet Increased small shop leased rate by 0.30% since March 31, 2019 , compared to an industry average of -1.03% , compared to an industry average of -1.03% Increased free cash flow by 42% from the comparable period in 2019, primarily driven by a reduction in general and administrative expenses, interest expense, and capital expenditures Collected 77% of billed rents during the month of April 2020 , compared to an industry average of approximately 60% during the comparable period , compared to an industry average of approximately 60% during the comparable period Maintained available liquidity of approximately $55 million , including available cash and line of credit availability, and the Company remained in compliance with all corporate debt covenants as of April 30, 2020 , including available cash and line of credit availability, and the Company remained in compliance with all corporate debt covenants as of Distributed $0.105 /unit, paid March 1, 2020 , a 3.0% increase from the comparable period in 2019; however, due to the COVID-19 related impact, the quarterly distribution has been suspended for the period ending March 31, 2020 , and payable May 15, 2020 ; future distribution payments are under review by the Board of Directors as a result of the impact of COVID-19 Mark Bratt, Chief Executive Officer, commented, "While the impact of COVID-19 is significant for the retail real estate business, the resilience of our portfolio and the quality of our platform was evident in our sector-leading collections rate in April, and our increase in small-shop leasing relative to the prior year. While the environment remains challenging, we are acutely focused on keeping our employees healthy, supporting our tenants, enhancing communication with our equity and debt partners, reinstating the distribution, and taking advantage of distressed opportunities in a post-COVID world." About Westwood Financial Westwood Financial owns over 70 community shopping centers, primarily anchored by top-tier grocers and service and experience-based tenants across major U.S. markets including Dallas, Phoenix, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Charlotte. Established in 1970 and rolled up in 2016, Westwood Financial is headquartered in Los Angeles, with regional offices in Dallas, Atlanta, and Scottsdale. More information is available at www.westfin.com. CONTACT: Volker Schramm, [email protected] SOURCE Westwood Financial Related Links http://www.westfin.com After a week of nationwide unrest and months in self-imposed quarantine, former Vice President Joe Biden addressed the chaos gripping American cities and compared President Trump to a segregation-era authoritarian. Bidens speech, delivered Tuesday from Philadelphia City Hall, highlighted Trumps rhetoric and actions against the backdrop of an ongoing pandemic and a wave of protests and violence sparked by the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died last week after his neck was pinned to the ground under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. Look where we are now and think anew: Is this who we are? Is this who we want to be? Is this who we want to pass on to our children and our grandchildren? Fear. Anger. Finger-pointing rather than the pursuit of happiness? Or do we want to be the America we know we could be? Biden asked, echoing his campaign theme of restoring the soul of this nation. Biden called for police reform and also condemned violence and vandalism. But he faulted Trump most of all, zeroing in on the presidents Rose Garden address Monday evening when he announced a military response to the protests and riots that have emanated from Minneapolis to rock cities across the U.S., including Washington. Moments before Trump spoke, law enforcement used flash-bang grenades and rubber bullets to clear an apparently peaceful crowd from Lafayette Square, across from the White House. With the park cleared, Trump walked across to visit St. John's Church, where a small fire had been set during the weekend amid rioting, and held up a Bible for a photo up. The president held up the Bible at St John's Church yesterday. I just wish he opened it once in a while, instead of brandishing it, Biden said. If he opened it, he could have learned something that were all called to love one another as we love ourselves. It's really hard work. But it's the work of America. Donald Trump isnt interested in doing that work. Story continues Biden said Trump, instead, is sweeping away the guardrails that have long protected our democracy. In addition to the Bible, he might also want to open the U.S. Constitution. If he did, hed find the First Amendment, Biden said, reading the passage about the the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Bidens speech marked the latest evolution of a campaign that until recently was literally stuck in the basement of his home in Wilmington, Del., where he has ridden out the coronavirus pandemic since mid-March. Though he has been criticized from both the left and right for the strategy, Biden has seen his poll numbers rise against Trump, whose handling of the pandemic was widely panned. As the nation began slowly opening back up amid the pandemic, Floyds death led to the nationwide unrest and gave Biden impetus to start leaving quarantine for the campaign trail to contrast his leadership style with Trumps. Biden met with protesters in Delaware over the weekend and with black leaders at a Wilmington church on Monday. In reaction to the speech, the Trump campaign zeroed in on Bidens campaign staffers offering to bail out people arrested in Minneapolis after the protests in the city that turned violent. Joe Biden spent days hiding in his basement while the country was rocked to its core. When Joe Biden and his team finally emerged, their initial reaction was to bail out the criminals that burned, looted and destroyed Minneapolis, Trump spokeswoman Melissa Reed said. While livelihoods were decimated, the Biden team was focused on raising money to bail out the criminals arrested. President Donald Trump was focused on restoring peace and pursuing justice for George Floyd and the victims of the violence. A stark contrast in values. Biden, though, leveled a values-based attack against Trump, pointing to incendiary comments by the president that echoed the words of two segregation-era law enforcement officers in Miami, Fla., and Birmingham, Ala. When you tweet the words when the looting starts, the shooting starts those werent the words of a president. They were the words of a racist Miami police chief from the 1960s, Biden said. When he tweeted that protesters would have been greeted with the most vicious dogs thats when people would have been really badly hurt. Those werent the words of a president those were the kind of words a Bull Connor would have used unleashing his dogs. Biden emphasized how Floyd's last words I cant breathe first became a rallying cry in 2014 when another black man, Eric Garner, died after a struggle with New York police officers that was caught on video. The officer in Floyds death has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. But protests against widespread racial injustice in the U.S. have persisted, with some calling on prosecutors to charge other officers as accomplices in Floyds death. Though Biden condemned both the violence and police brutality, his speech focused heavily on racial injustice and the unrest. He reiterated his pledge to establish a national police oversight board, called on Congress to pass real police reform and plugged Democratic legislation to outlaw police choke holds as well as to stop transferring weapons of war to police forces, to improve oversight and accountability, to create a model use of force standard. I promise you this, Biden said, I wont traffic in fear and division. I wont fan the flames of hate. I will seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued this country not use them for political gain. S ix people have been arrested after dozens of police officers broke up a large fight involving "around 100" youngsters on Hampstead Heath. Officers were called to a report of fighting on Parliament Hill in the north London Park on Tuesday evening. Scotland Yard have warned people to avoid the area and issued a dispersal order after the fighting began. There are no reports of any injuries, a spokesman for the force said. One witness told the Standard that police managed to disperse the crowd by around 7.30pm. Witnesses also said that a police helicopter was hovering over the scene as the crowds were being dispersed. Witnesses also said that a police helicopter was hovering over the scene as the crowds were being dispersed. / Catarina Malveiro Meanwhile, Twitter users have shared footage from the incident with one claiming that police said bottles had been launched at them. Another said that around 100 young people had gathered in the park before police arrived. The Met Police said: "A S35 dispersal order is in place for #HampsteadHeath & #ParliamentHill. "Please don't attend these locations. We were called at 6.30pm to youths fighting in P'ment Hill. "Officers attended and the majority of people dispersed. No reported injuries and 6 people have been arrested." CHESHUNT (dpa-AFX) - Tesco (TSCO.L, TSCDY.PK) announced that Alan Stewart has decided to retire as Chief Financial Officer, and leave the company on 30 April 2021. The Board will conduct a search both internally and externally to identify his successor. Stewart joined Tesco in September 2014. Alan Stewart, Chief Financial Officer, said: 'Being part of the team that has delivered the turnaround at Tesco and set it up for the next stage means an incredible amount to me. I shall continue to focus on delivering the strategy, supporting the business and my colleagues through the next 11 months, knowing that the business is in a strong position as we move forward.' Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor A father 'slit the throats of his wife and teenage daughter' before neighbours tackled him to the ground as he tried to flee the scene, it is alleged. Police were called to a disturbance shortly before 3pm on Monday after locals reported terrified screams from a house in Salisbury, Wiltshire. Neighbours say Marcin Zdun, a night packing worker at Tesco, 'attacked his wife and daughter before fleeing.' The body of 18-year-old Nikoleta Zdun was found at the property while Marcin's wife Aneta Zdun, 40, was found alive but died a short time later. Horrified witnesses claim two little girls fled the house, allegedly telling a neighbour, 'Mummy isn't very well. She's been cut.' The body of 18-year-old Nikoleta Zdun (left) was found at the property in Salisbury. Marcin's wife Aneta Zdun, 40, (right) was found alive but died a short time later. Neighbours claim the man, named locally as Tesco night filler Marcin Zdun, 'attacked his wife and daughter before fleeing' Officers attended the scene on Wessex Road and found the body of one woman, with another woman found seriously injured. Pictured, the scene today The murder of teenager Nikoleta Zdun (left) and Aneta Zdun (right) has sent shockwaves through the community in Salisbury Neighbours say Marcin Zdun, a night packing worker at Tesco, 'attacked his wife and daughter before fleeing' Residents living nearby today described how brave locals chased down the suspect and tackled him after the double killing unfolded on their 'quiet' street in the historic cathedral town. It was claimed two 'big' builders chased down and 'flattened' Zdun, who had not been living at home for a couple of months, but returned last week. Wiltshire Police say a 39-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Amanda Barlow, a mother-of-three, who lives close to the scene said she heard 'horrific child-like screaming'. Ms Barlow, 40, said: 'I heard it was a man who has killed his wife and another younger woman. 'A neighbour who lives across the road took the children into his house to look after them because they apparently saw what had happened. The other two children are much younger. It's all such a shock.' The attack is thought to have been launched inside the house, as Zdun's child said 'daddy asked them to go into the bathroom', according to neighbours. One neighbour, who works at the nearby Tesco superstore, said when she was interviewed by police there 'seemed to be a suggestion' Zdun had split with his wife. The Polish Zdun family are understood to have been living in Salisbury for around four years, and are believed to be originally from Tarnow, Poland. Neighbours Nick and Jan Maher rushed and took the little girls into their home to keep them safe, ordering pizza and letting them watch cartoons. Mr Maher, 59, who owns his own catering company, said: 'There was some noise and I thought it was kids playing... but it got louder, dramatically louder. 'I thought they were having a fight at first but someone shouted "they've been stabbed, call the police".' So I went out and my wife and I grabbed the two children to put them in our house and keep them safe. One of our neighbours came up the hill very out of breath and said, Weve caught him, just down the road. His wife, 62, added: The kids were screaming so I said, You come with me, and the man that brought them out of the house said, Hes cut her throat. The kids were screaming and crying as I was walking them back, they were saying, Hes cut mummy, hes cut mummy, hes cut mummy. Mr Maher added: We had the children in here and kept them entertained. In passing, the seven-year-old said, Mummy isnt very well because [someone] was stabbing her in the throat, but she should be alright by Friday... its just bloody awful. Aneta Zdun was found alive at the property in Salisbury, but died a short time later The teenage daughter has been named by residents of Salisbury, Wilts, as Nikoleta Zdun Forensic officers at the property in Salisbury, Wiltshire this afternoon Floral tributes have been left at the scene by heartbroken friends and neighbours Neighbours today described how brave locals chased down the suspect and tackled him after the double killing unfolded on their 'quiet' street in the historic cathedral town. Pictured, police at the scene today Horrified neighbours chased after the suspect after Aneta Zdun, left, and Nikoleta (Niki) Zdun, right, died at the scene Neighbour Gary Smith, a retired Army veteran, said he had seen 'some horrific things in combat but never anything like that'. The 67-year-old, who rushed to help, said: 'I went round there and in the front garden I could see a woman with her throat cut. It was horrible, I don't understand how someone could do that. 'I was in the services so I've seen my fair share, but I never saw anything like that. 'The family were all nice to talk to, very friendly and always said hello. Not ones to have a full conversation, but polite.' Officers were called to the property on Wessex Road at 2.45pm and found the body of one woman, with another woman found seriously injured. The second woman was treated by paramedics from South Western Ambulance Service but died shortly afterwards. The arrested man has been taken into custody at Melksham Police Station. Forensic officers retrieved what appeared to be a knife from the roof of the house. Aneta Zdun and her husband Marcin pictured on their wedding day Locals said two young children fled to safety after yesterday afternoon's attacks and were then looked after by another neighbour A force spokesman said: 'A 39-year-old local man was arrested at the scene on suspicion of two counts of murder; he currently remains in custody at Melksham Police Station. The force also said it was 'meticulously' combing through evidence. DCI Darren Hannant, from the Major Crime Investigation Team, who is leading the investigation, said: 'The post mortems of both victims are also being undertaken. 'As soon as the victims have been formally identified, we will be in a position to give a further update. 'We would like to appeal for anyone who may have seen or heard anything in the Wessex Road area yesterday at around 3pm to come forward and speak to one of us.' Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets throughout the United States to protest against police brutality and racism following the killing of 46-year-old George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight and a half minutes. Many officials have spoken up in favor of the peaceful protests that have happened amid the coronavirus pandemic, though they are still urging demonstrators to take proper health precautions aimed at continuing to stave off the spread of the viral respiratory infection, which has infected millions and killed hundreds of thousands worldwide. Countless protestors and law enforcement officials have adorned face coverings when participating in demonstrations in the past week, and in some communities like Boston, police have opted to hand out masks to individuals who do not have them. As we combat the pandemic, we remain in a real struggle with how to carry out the bedrock principals of democracy with the best medical guidance available to fight an infectious, contagious disease, Gov. Charlie Baker said at a press conference Monday. By and large, the people of Massachusetts have made it work. Were balancing the fight against the virus with the fight for what we as individuals all believe in. But its hard, and its not over," the governor continued to say. Protest organizers too have asked participants to take proper health and safety measures before going out to demonstrate. Black Lives Matter Boston and Violence in Boston, two activist organizations who are expected to hold a protest in the city Tuesday evening, urged anyone who is at high risk due to COVID-19 to stay home. Organizers also asked participants wear gloves and masks and bring hand sanitizer. We will be supporting each other and sharing space. People will be able to come and bear witness to the lives lost due to the violence of white supremacy, Black Lives Matter Boston wrote in a Facebook post. Limitations on large gatherings were put in place when the outbreak first started to ramp up in the U.S. in March, but such restrictions have not stopped individuals from taking to the streets to honor the life of Floyd and other people of color whose lives have been lost in recent weeks. Peaceful protests were held in multiple Western Massachusetts communities, including in Springfield and Northampton. Worcester also saw thousands of people gather to protest racial injustice in the wake Floyds death, with some officers kneeling alongside protestors. While the demonstration in the Central Massachusetts city was nonviolent throughout much of the day, by nightfall, looting was reported and police officers fired tear gas as crowds threw rocks at officers and set off fireworks. In Boston, roughly 20,000 protesters marched Sunday throughout the city, near the Massachusetts State House in Beacon Hill, City Hall, Boston Police Headquarters as well Washington Street and Nubian Square in Roxbury. Although the demonstrations were largely peaceful, the night ended with 53 people being arrested and dozens more injured. Businesses in downtown Boston and Back Bay were looted, and many cherished public spaces were vandalized, according to officials. The governor thanked those in Boston who safely protested as well as the first responders who were tasked with working during the demonstrations. Navigating how to exercise ones right to free speech during a public health crisis is difficult, Baker pointed out. Tens of thousands of our neighbors, friends and colleagues tried, when possible, to balance the new normal we live in with their right to free speech, he said. In the weeks prior to Floyds killing on Memorial Day, large-scale protests were being organized across Massachusetts and the country by people who were frustrated by social distancing guidelines and critical of public officials responses to the outbreak. Hundreds of protesters demonstrated outside the State House in early May, blasting the governor for keeping the state closed amid the pandemic, despite Massachusetts being one of the states hardest hit by the disease. I dont want to take away someones right to speak out, but I absolutely believe that if youre going to do that, you should recognize and understand that for people to actually reopen, for folks to be able to get back to work, for us to continue to make the progress weve made in battling COVID-19 over the course of the past seven to eight weeks, 10 weeks, people need to respect the virus, wear a face covering ... and keep their distance," the governor said. Many of those who attended Sundays protests in Boston were taking those health precautions, the governor noted. Bakers message was echoed by Boston Mayor Marty Walsh on Monday, who was asked by a reporter why the protests over the weekend were allowed to go on in the midst of the pandemic, understanding there was a possibility of bad actors" showing up. We believe in free speech. We believe in peoples right to protest, peoples right to march, Walsh answered, adding that city employees handed out masks to marchers Sunday to make sure they were protecting themselves. He added, It seems like the coronavirus has taken a back seat right now, but its very much front and center. Officials with the Boston Public Health Commission told MassLive the city respects everyones right to peacefully protest and make their voices heard against racism and injustice. The commission encouraged individuals to take precautions to keep themselves safe and avoid infecting their loved ones when returning home. In accordance with public health guidelines already issued by municipal, state and federal officials, BPHC urged individuals to wear face coverings, avoid contact with others as much as possible and wash ones hands. BPHC is watching for any trends that could signal a rise in infections," a commission spokesperson said. "We are still asking everyone to stay home as much as possible, wear face coverings in public, avoid crowded areas and wash your hands often. Walsh noted during a press conference Monday that a large majority of those who marched in Sundays protests may not have had the virus but could have been exposed to it and brought the disease home after the demonstrations ended. Everything that weve been talking about for the last three months here and keeping our numbers of cases down and trying to keep people safe didnt go away yesterday, the mayor said. "I think that its important and incumbent upon all of us to continue to remember that. This virus has killed over 600 Bostonians, has taken the lives of thousands of people from Massachusetts, has killed over 100,000 Americans. Its very much front and center. COVID-19 spreads from person to person via respiratory droplets generated when a person sneezes, coughs or talks. Officials have noted the virus is highly transmissive and that in order to begin reopening the commonwealths economy, proper health precautions need to be followed. Along with wearing face coverings outdoors and staying at home when one does not need to go outside, individuals need to keep six feet away from people in public spaces and disinfect surfaces frequently, the governor said. Such measures have helped the state decrease its number of infections and hospitalizations related to the illness, he said. At the end of the day, the vast majority of people in Massachusetts have worked exceedingly hard to adapt and adopt to the strategies that everybody believes are the most effective ones at stopping the spread, Baker said. "People have worked really hard to do that here in Massachusetts, and its a big part of why every single major metric that we measure associated with the presence of the virus has gone down over the course of the past four or five weeks. Related Content: The Sustainable Aviation industry coalition has called for aviation to be at the heart of the UK Governments economic recovery strategy, saying that a joined-up approach to decarbonising aviation will enable the country to rapidly bounce back from Covid-19. In a letter to the Transport Secretary, Sustainable Aviation called on the UK Government to capitalize on the UKs position on sustainable aviation fuel technology by committing 500 million (US$616 million) to support early stage projects. This follows news last week that Europes first municipal waste-to-jet fuel facility Altalto Immingham was granted planning permission in North East Lincolnshire in the UK. ') } else { console.log ('nompuad'); document.write(' ') } // --> ') } else if (width >= 425) { console.log ('largescreen'); document.write('') } else { console.log ('nompuad'); document.write('') } // --> The coalition is also calling on the Government to work with industry to develop aircraft and engine technology R&D capabilities, to accelerate UK airspace modernisation, to make use of new aircraft performance capability to reduce emissions and noise and to progress robust carbon offset measures and carbon removal technologies. The Sustainable Aviation coalition members include aerospace manufacturers, suppliers, airports and aircraft operators including Rolls-Royce, Air BP, NATS and Boeing. Adam Morton, chair of Sustainable Aviation said, In February this year, UK aviation committed to net zero emissions by 2050 and laid out a plan to achieve this through investing in cleaner aircraft and engine technology, smarter flight operations, sustainable aviation fuels and high-quality carbon offsets and removals. Three months on, these actions all remain essential to delivering sector wide decarbonization, particularly given the role UK aviation can play as an engine for rebuilding the economy. But to capitalize on these opportunities we need urgent action from Government, particularly to support the commercialization of sustainable aviation fuel technology in the UK. The Bend mother who shot and killed her disabled 7-year-old son in 2018 pleaded guilty except for insanity Monday in Deschutes County Circuit Court. Tashina Aleine Jordan, 30, now heads to the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, where she will remain under the authority of the Psychiatric Security Review Board for at least 20 years. Jordan has been an inmate in the Deschutes County jail since summer 2018, when her crime horrified neighbors in her quiet south Bend neighborhood. District Attorney John Hummel released a statement saying justice was done for Jordans son, Mason. At the end of the day, the murder of a child is never justified, while the emotional state of a defendant is always relevant. The resolution of Ms. Jordans case holds her accountable, honors Masons life, and reflects the mental state she was in at the time of the crime, Hummel wrote. In 2018, Jordan lived with Mason and her mother, Rhonda Jordan, in a one-story home on Mount Hope Lane. Mason was born with severe cognitive and physical disabilities. Much of Tashina Jordans life was wrapped up in his care. On the evening of Aug. 20, 2018, Rhonda Jordan returned home from work to find Mason dead in his bedroom and Tashina Jordan near death on the bathroom floor. According to Bend Police, Jordan had shot Mason with a .25-caliber bullet and turned the gun on herself. But the Jennings handgun failed to fire a second time, and Jordan swallowed more than 200 pills in another suicide attempt. Jordan was known as a supermom in the tightly knit community of parents of children with serious disabilities. The day before the shooting, Jordan and Mason attended a barbecue with other similar families, and Jordan reportedly didnt act out of the ordinary. About a dozen relatives and supporters have attended Jordans court dates. She came to court Monday with hair longer than many of them had seen in years. She originally wore it short because Mason often grabbed it. Judge Wells Ashby questioned Jordan on Monday to ensure she understood her rights. I just want to get this done, she said. At the start of Mondays hearing, forensic psychologist Dr. Alexander Duncan testified he had made a determination Jordan was affected with an extreme emotional disturbance at the time of the shooting. In Oregon, such a finding is needed to meet the legal definition for criminal insanity defense. In Jordans case, the disturbance was the result of being a single mother of a child with significant disabilities, and her own documented struggles with mental health, Duncan said. She started to experience more significant stress in spring of 2018, Duncan said. She began to experience hallucinations of a man telling her to kill Mason and herself. Later in the hearing, Jordan pleaded guilty to one count of murder, which the court reduced to first-degree manslaughter based on the finding of an extreme emotional disturbance. In addition, Jordan pleaded guilty except for insanity to one charge of first-degree assault. For the manslaughter charge, Jordan was sentenced to 10 years in prison. For the assault conviction, she was assigned a 20-year commitment in the state mental hospital. Under the plea deal, if Jordan is released from the state mental hospital within 10 years, she will transfer to a Department of Corrections facility. The court believes that this is a very tragic case and this is a reasonable outcome when all things are considered, the judge said. All I can say is the court cannot excuse what happened here. The San Francisco Public Defenders Office is calling for an overhaul on use-of-force policies at the San Francisco Police Department, after a bystander video surfaced last week that appeared to show an officer pressing her knee on a black teenagers neck. While the January incident wasn't fatal, the San Francisco officers maneuver was reminiscent of the one used by a Minnesota officer on George Floyd, a black man whose death has ignited protests and outrage throughout the country. Among other calls to action, Public Defender Mano Raju said San Francisco police policymakers should explicitly forbid officers from applying pressure on a persons neck or head while theyre on the ground. Violating this policy, Raju said, should be grounds for termination. Police who abuse their power should not be wearing a badge, Raju said in a statement. While oversight and early intervention is important, it means nothing if there is rarely any meaningful disciplinary action or change. After become aware of the bystander video on Saturday, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott ordered an administrative review of the incident and invited the San Francisco Department of Police Accountability to independently investigate the arrest, according to a police statement. Officials said the departments training division is also reviewing prone handcuffing techniques to determine if policy changes are warranted. Police additionally released a body camera footage of the Jan. 25 incident, and a separate clip that synced different body camera angles with the bystander video. The videos show police restraining a young man and taking him into custody after they said he made criminal threats against his neighbor and resisted a peace officer. The synced video starts with a two-by-two grid of four seperate clips, each displayed simultaneously from a different officers vantage. Shaky footage appears to show officers struggling to handcuff the young man, while some one yells hold on, hold on. A male officer is heard yelling at the man to put his hands behind his back and to get on the ground. A fifth video, the one shot by a bystander, begins several seconds after the other four clips, and starts when the young man is already on the ground, on his belly. From the bystanders perspective, a female officer appears to press her knee on the 19-year-old mans neck, and says Weve ordered you to leave, you didnt want to. The bystander video, which was posted on Facebook and Instagram, lasted about 23 seconds while police body camera footage continues. A few seconds later, a different clip appears to show the officers knee centered closer to the suspects upper back. An officer asks the young man if hes injured and how old he is, before police are seen lifting the supect to his feet and walking him away in handcuffs. The suspect was later booked into the San Francisco County Jail and charged with criminal threats and resisting a peace officer. Now Playing: East Bay columnist Otis R. Taylor Jr. talks about the rage and unrest that's followed the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, and his experience covering the protests as a black journalist. Video: San Francisco Chronicle In addition to the policy recommendations, Raju also asked that the Police Commission make systemic reforms the top priority, and to invest in community-based alternatives to policing. Tony Montoya, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, said the video clearly showed an in-policy response to an individual who was later charged by District Attorney Chesa Boudin. In an email, Montoya included a slow-motion version of the clip that appears to show the officers knee on the suspects back. It is clear from the attached video that Mano Rajus naked publicity grab to depict a San Francisco police officer in an unflattering light is not only wrong, but a sick attempt to take some sort of political advantage of the horrible death of George Floyd, Montoya said. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. On Monday, police spokesman Matt Dorsey said Chief Scott has no further comment about the incident until after its various reviews. Police have not identifed the female officer in the video, but said she is not currently on administrative leave. San Francisco Polices use-of-force policy lists the knee as one of many personal body weapons that may be used to gain control of a subject. It also specifically prohibits the use of choke holds and carotid restraints two different neck restraints that apply pressure subjects windpipe or carotid arteries, respectively. A chokehold is applied to the front of the neck and restricts a persons ability to breathe. A carotid restraint focuses pressure on the sides of the windpipe, restricting blood flow to the brain and rendering the subject unconscious. San Franciscos policy does not specifically address the move in question, in which an officer applies pressure to the back of a prone subjects neck, potentially pressing the windpipe to the ground. Lt. Michael Nevin with the Training Division said staff are involved in teaching officers different control holds using the back or shoulders, but dont train to put pressure on the neck itself. Additionally, he said, you never want to keep somebody in a prone position longer than you absolutely have to. Police use of neck compressions came under fire after the 2014 death of Eric Garner, who died after a New York City police officer put his arm around Garners neck and forced him to the ground. Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy WASHINGTON (AP) The Supreme Court is declining to revive a lawsuit by supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders who sued the Democratic National Committee in 2016 over claims officials improperly tipped the scales for Hillary Clinton during the nominating process. The justices said Monday they would not take up the lawsuit. As is usual the court did not comment in turning away the case. The lawsuit was filed after leaked DNC emails suggested Democratic party officials had favored Clinton over the Vermont senator during the primaries. The emails were posted on the document disclosure website WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks did not say who provided the material, but 12 Russian military intelligence officers were ultimately indicted in connection with the DNC hack and hacking of the Clinton presidential campaign. According to special counsel Robert Muellers investigation, the release was part of a sweeping conspiracy by Russia to meddle in the 2016 U.S. election. DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced her resignation following the leaks. The lawsuit by Sanders supporters was dismissed at an early stage and an appeals court had upheld the dismissal. CSTO chief: Necessary to work on Armenia-Azerbaijan border delimitation, demarcation FBI search congressman's home in connection with Azerbaijan probe Pamela Anderson splitting with bodyguard husband of one year Newspaper: Armenia PM again goes way of black and white Newspaper: Scenario devised after war to be implemented in Artsakh EU Special Representative for South Caucasus arrives in Armenia Armenian Noah hosts representatives of Spanish Celta Quake hits Armenia: 28 km northwest of Jermuk Crete island lighthouse illuminated with colors of Armenian tricolor Aurora Humanitarian Initiative to allocate $500,000 to projects in Artsakh Sajid Javid: Britain must learn to live with COVID-19, it could be with us forever Erdogan suggests Putin and Zelensky meet face to face EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus meets Aliyev Mariam Mkrtchyan becomes chess champion of Armenia US imposes sanctions on Ukrainians related to 'Russian harmful foreign activities' Sabah: Ankara refuses to hold next Armenian-Turkish meeting in a third country US general discusses regional security and bilateral cooperation in Armenia Secret graves of alleged protesters discovered in Almaty Armenian side members to Armenian-American Intergovernmental Commission confirmed Juventus ready to sell De Ligt for 65 million euros WHO advises countries to lift or ease international travel restrictions Bed scene with Lady Gaga and Salma Hayek was cut from House of Gucci US sanctions against Vladimir Putin, Ruben Vardanian and members of the Russian government Armenian Foreign Ministry discusses Mirzoyan's participation in Turkey forum Thailand to resume non-quarantine travel scheme from February 1 Mr. Martirosyan, how do you assess Winte Olimpic, in the context of global pandemic, when a few countries have announced that they will participate in the Beijing Winter Olympic Instagram introduces paid subscription feature NEWS.am daily digest: 20.01.22 Europe considers new strategy to combat COVID-19 How to get rid of sugar addiction? Al Nassr want to buy Aubameyang Norwegian prosecutors refuse release Anders Breivik, 2011 mass murderer Netflix shows first shots from new season of Bridgertons Erdogan urges Turks to sell foreign currency for liras Azerbaijan not yet returned about 300 sheep of Armenia villager Media: Israeli President thinks about visiting Turkey Dollar quite stable in Armenia Trade turnover between Ukraine and Armenia increases by 24% Armenia legislature speaker meets with of International Republican Institute president, and director for Eurasia Kremlin does not exclude new call between Putin and Biden EU Special Representative for South Caucasus to soon visit Armenia, Azerbaijan State Duma discusses work of biolaboratories near Russia's borders US lawmakers to parliament speaker: Armenian POWs must be returned to their homeland immediately Security Council chief: Armenia expects OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs to visit region Armenia government does not approve plan to considerably raise minimum wage Manchester United to buy Aston Villa midfielder Turkish FM: Armenian representatives invited to diplomatic forum in Antalya Twitter suspends Mexican billionaire's account over offensive behavior Armenian PM says Omicron strain is slowly spreading Technical supplier of VAR system in Armenia to be Hawk eye company Azerbaijan says it supports launching border delimitation process with Armenia with no conditions Zakharova speaks on Aliyev's visit to Kyiv Zakharova does not comment on Azerbaijan president's threats against France presidential candidate for her Artsakh visit Memory problems even after mild COVID-19 experience Cavusoglu: Steps to increase mutual trust will be discussed at next meeting with Armenia John Malkovich not allowed hotel because of invalid COVID-19 certificate US gives go-ahead to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to send missiles and other American-made weapons to Ukraine Zakharova: Russia, as OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair, supports continuation of work in this format Cyber attack on Red Cross: data of over 515,000 people compromised Pashinyan: UK has been strong partner of newly independent Armenia Israel hopes UN will unanimously condemn Holocaust denial Armenia, Ukraine depositories sign memorandum of cooperation Azerbaijan advises Armenia to correctly assess the new geopolitical realities and draw conclusions Australia, UK to fight back against cyberattacks from China, Russia and Iran Protesting residents of Armenias Parakar community march to territorial administration ministry Armenia government approves protocol on implementation of readmission agreement with Lithuania Iran suspends gas supplies to Turkey MFA: Armenia has no preconditions for border delimitation 621 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Paris to have place named after Hrant Dink Armenias Parakar enlarged community residents protesting outside government building Gaspard Ulliel dies in skiing accident for not wearing helmet Turkey opposition party MPs petition for parliamentary inquiry into Hrant Dink assassination France, Germany, Italy and Spain call on Israel to halt construction in East Jerusalem Armenia parliament speaker in US, meets with Nancy Pelosi Iranian MFA: Relations between Iran and Russia have moved into a new diverse, intensified direction Czech Rep. singer dies after intentionally catching Covid Biden says invasion of Ukraine will be disaster for Russia Newspaper: Armenia PM Pashinyan plans to hold Presidents office What foods reduce the risk of heart attack? Newspaper: Opposition Armenia bloc, led by ex-President Kocharyan, starting new processes Coppa Italia: Inter advance to quarterfinals Copa del Rey: Atletico Madrid are out DFB-Pokal: Hoffenheim lose, Armenias Adamyan does not play Taliban PM calls on Muslim countries to be first to formally recognize their government Africa Cup of Nations: Nigeria, Egypt reach Round of 16 Saudi Arabia records lowest temperature in 30 years Erdogan's visit to Ukraine scheduled for February 3 Russian peacekeeping contingent establishes order of passage through Lachin corridor French Senate votes to ban hijab at sporting events Armenian FM: All necessary conditions to be created for Demarcation Commission work Olaf Scholz: Borders in Europe cannot be changed by force Gareth Bale returns Real Madrid squad list Lavrov presents Armenian Ambassador to Russia, with the Order of Friendship Bill Gates warns of pandemics far more serious than COVID-19 FM on mirror withdrawal of troops: Not a single Armenian village will be left without proper protection Macron: EU countries must work together on agreement for stability and security How to stay in shape after losing weight? PM Pashinyan assumes accountability for Armenia special representative for negotiations with Turkey Turkey Central banks and UAE sign agreement worth almost $5 billion The Pennsylvania primary elections had been postponed from April 28 until June 2, in order to take several precautions against the spread of the coronavirus. Delaying the election allowed much of Pennsylvania to weather the rising numbers of COVID-19 infections, with many states now operating under the yellow phase of Governor Wolfs reopening plan. It also allowed time for the expansion of mail-in ballots throughout the state, including a last-minute extension for six Pennsylvania counties. Gwen Adams, judge of elections for Hummelstown Precinct 2, said that turnout was low compared to what she had expected. But many who did show up were filling out provisional ballots, suggesting that the numbers of people voting via mail this election is much higher than usual. State election officials said voters who were worried their mail ballots wouldnt arrive in time were allowed to cast provisional ballots at polling places to ensure their vote was counted. In all the years Ive been a judge, Ive never done a provisional ballot before, she said, holding an envelope filled with the documents. This time, Im up to about 20 so far that Ive done. So its been a bit of a learning experience. Traffic was low around 2 p.m. at Middletowns Lyall J. Fink School Building, but numbers were generally higher than usual according to judge of elections Danielle Johnson Kennedy. However, she added that the larger number of voters was because the building was now housing two voting precincts instead of one, as they had in past elections. They just didnt have enough volunteers [for the other location]," she said, noting that fear of COVID-19 infection meant that many who normally help organize the election process were staying away as a precaution. I think it was more due to age, but Im not positive. Kennedy said that they had also received a large number of mail-in ballots and provisional ballots, and that thus far things had been going smoothly - including the requests by volunteers that all of those voting wear masks inside the building. I havent run across anyone who hasnt worn a mask in here, she said. Everyone has been very respectful to us, and to themselves. READ MORE: Its primary election day: Heres what you need to know Kanu Sarda By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Close to 17 years after he was sentenced to life for pulling the trigger to murder model Jessica Lal in 1999 at a night club, Manu Sharma was set free on Monday. Delhis Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal accepted the recommendation by the Sentence Review Board on grounds of good behaviour. Lodged in Tihar jail, Sharma was on parole since the first week of April as part of measures to prevent crowding of jails in the wake of coronavirus pandemic.Jessicas sister Sabrina Lal was okay with the release. "Honestly speaking I dont have any reaction. I am feeling completely numb. The only thing I pray to god is that he never ever repeats the same mistake... I think justice has been served." This was the sixth time Sharmas plea for premature release was placed before the board, which is under the Delhi government. For the board to consider premature release, a jail inmate has to fulfil three broad criteria: show good conduct; get a police recommendation for release; and an assessment on rehabilitation by a social investigation report. According to prison officials, Sharmas release was cleared because of good conduct in jail and his contribution in helping rehabilitate families of underprivileged prisoners. He funded the education of more than 500 children of prisoners and gave business ideas to promote the Tihar Jails brand. Along with him, 18 other convicts were freed. Any convict who has completed 14 years in prison without remission is eligible for early release. In 2018, Sabrina had said she had forgiven Sharma. "His conviction was closure for me," she had said. Sharmas lawyer Amit Sahni approached the Delhi High Court in November 2019 seeking his clients release. New Delhi : Rahul Gandhi's innovative concept of Khaat Sabha fell flat on the face when local villagers in Rudrapur decamped with khatiyas (cots) soon after his sabha was over. The Congress vice president on Tuesday held his first Khaat Sabha on the lines of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Chai pe Charcha' to kickstart his 2500km long maha padayatra in Uttar Pradesh. During the Khaat sabha, Congress vice president said, "Modi talks about farmers but the sad part is that when he came to power he forgot about farmers from not just UP but from across the nation." Taking another jibe at PM Modi, he said, "Modi government pardoned the Rs 50,000 crore loan of his industrialist friends, but why does he not pardon the loan of farmers?" Earlier on day 1 of his Mahayatra, Gandhi visited farmers in Panchlari Kritpura village and addressed a rally in Deoria. The agenda of the long door-to-door campaign is to help 'secure rights of the poor, farmers and labourers in government resources', Gandhi said in a tweet. Also read: Live updates: Rahul Gandhi addresses first rally, Khaat Sabha on his Kisan Yatra WATCH: Chaos breaks out as locals fight for Khatiyas(wooden cots) after Rahul Gandhi's Khat Sabha in Deoria ends pic.twitter.com/4tUxP81L1w ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) September 6, 2016 Locals decamp with Khatiyas(wooden cots) after Rahul Gandhi's khat sabha in Deoria ends pic.twitter.com/PDo1Skx9ju ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) September 6, 2016 The Packer family has joined high profile philanthropists to support a multimillion-dollar plan to bailout Carriageworks, as new documents reveal that three of the organisation's major arts projects went over budget in the year leading up to its collapse. The rescue plan is contingent on the Eveleigh-based venue remaining independent of any government-funded major arts company, which would effectively sideline a push for the Sydney Opera House to take over operations. Nick Cave's exhibition Until at Carriageworks. Credit:Zan Wimberley While the financial shockwaves and uncertainty created by the coronavirus lockdowns were the cause of Carriageworks entering voluntary administration in May, a creditor's report noted that the arts company's performance in 2019 had been "significantly impacted" due to an overspend on key projects. Nick Cave's Until, an ambitious installation of thousands of found objects which ran over the summer of 2018/19, was popular and free to the public but cost Carriageworks $439,000 to stage. The National, an exhibition of new Australian art in 2019, ran $130,000 over budget and Vivid shows the same year exceeded their budget by $105,000. The police have been called upon to fish out the perpetrators of the dastardly act Nollywood A-listers, Genevieve Nnaji and Rita Dominic have taken to social media to condemn the brutal rape and killing of Nigerian girls Tina, Uwa and Jennifer. Tina was killed by a stray bullet while Uwa and Jennifer died after being raped by evil men. Reacting via her Instagram account, Rita Dominic wrote: There is nothing that these 3 GIRLS have done to deserve the atrocities that has befallen them. Tina was killed by a policeman whose job was to protect her. She was 16years old Uwa a university student went to a church to read and she was raped and murdered. She was only 22 years old. Jennifer was raped by 11 men. She is just 12 years old. 12 years old for goodness sake! What are we doing wrong that boys and men think that it is ok to continue violating girls and women in this manner? Let me tell you what. We are not punishing the men who commit these atrocities in this country. We are not doing enough to hold RAPISTS accountable. We are not doing enough to check POLICE BRUTALITY. We demand justice for these young girls! Our government and our justice system must respond to these matters PROMPTLY. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Genevieve Nnaji reacted via Twitter. She wrote: They either abuse their power, or have the power to abuse. In or out of uniform, we live in constant fear of men. Tina Ezekwe. Vera Omozuwa. Rest In Peace my darlings. We will get justice. Tropical Storm Cristobal unloaded flooding rainfall and made landfall in southern Mexico on Wednesday, and AccuWeather meteorologists are busy looking ahead to where the storm may go after meandering across southern Mexico. The system, now a tropical depression, is expected to take a northward turn, and it could gain strength over the Gulf of Mexico prior to reaching the southern United States coastline. Tropical Storm Cristobal made landfall along the coast of Mexico Wednesday morning and had weakened to a tropical depression over southeastern Mexico as of Thursday morning, June 4, 2020. (NOAA / GOES-East) Cristobal has already set records in the Atlantic basin. It became the earliest-ever third named tropical storm to form in any Atlantic hurricane season in recorded history on Tuesday. The previous storm to hold that record was Tropical Storm Colin, and it developed during the midday hours of June 5 in 2016. Typically, the third named storm does not brew until much later in the season, occurring on average around Aug. 13. Last year, the third storm of the season, Tropical Storm Chantal, developed months later on Aug. 20. The disturbance first developed as a depression over the Bay of Campeche in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico on Monday, June 1, the first official day of hurricane season. AccuWeather forecasters began monitoring the potential for this system last week. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) confirmed that Cristobal made landfall in the state of Campeche near Atasta, Mexico, and just to the west of Ciudad del Carmen at 8:35 a.m. CDT Wednesday. The storm's maximum sustained winds were 60 mph with higher gusts occurring. Cristobal is forecast to complete a loop over land in southeastern Mexico as it straddles 83-degree-Fahrenheit waters of the Bay of Campeche into Friday. AccuWeather meteorologists predict up to 30 inches of rainfall in the region. How close to the coast versus how far inland Cristobal travels over Mexico could affect whether the storm regains strength this weekend. Story continues "There is a small chance the system will break up over southern Mexico late this week, but the more likely scenario is for the storm to survive, move back out over the warm waters of the central Gulf of Mexico, reorganize, strengthen and turn northward toward the U.S. from Friday night to Sunday night," said Dan Kottlowski, AccuWeather's top hurricane expert. Kottlowski has been predicting tropical weather for 43 years at AccuWeather. CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP "We've expected Cristobal to weaken to a tropical depression for a time over Mexico on Thursday," Kottlowski said. If Cristobal moves a bit south over Mexico, it will interact with hills and mountains over the region. "This stronger land interaction would cause the lower-level part of the storm to unravel further, making it more difficult for it to recover once it starts to move back northward," Kottlowski said. "On the other hand, if the storm stays near the coast and near the source of moisture, it will retain its circulation and is more likely to rebound faster once turning northward at the end of the week," he explained. Sea surface temperatures are generally in the 80s over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico, which is warm enough to allow the system to strengthen. Wind shear -- the increase in wind speed with height in the atmosphere, or a sharp change in wind direction -- is forecast to be rather low as the storm emerges over open water and begins its northward trek. The low wind shear is another factor that favors strengthening of the system even if interaction with Mexico first weakens the storm. "Forward motion of Cristobal will be slow initially, but the system is likely to gain forward speed later this weekend," Kottlowski said. By increasing its forward speed, the storm will avoid spending much time over waters that have been cooled by the natural churning process that can take place with wave action. "Provided Cristobal does not get beaten down too much by interaction with Mexico, there is a chance the storm strengthens to a hurricane over the central Gulf of Mexico later this weekend, prior to reaching the U.S.," Kottlowski said. All petroleum and fishing interests over the Gulf of Mexico, as well as people living in or vacationing in coastal areas from Louisiana to Texas to Florida are urged to closely monitor the progress of the storm. At this point, the northward motion of the system is forecast to commence late Thursday. The current window of where predicted landfall is most likely extends from the upper Texas coast to the Mississippi Panhandle, putting central Louisiana in the middle of that zone late in the weekend or early next week. Because surrounding atmospheric conditions are rarely constant and can have a profound effect on tropical systems, coastal communities along the central Texas coast as well as the Alabama and Florida panhandles should keep an eye out for potential shifts in track, once the storm begins to take a northward jog. An area of high pressure to the north of the storm is forecast to weaken and split for a time, which will steer the storm northward. If the high strengthens prior to the storm moving inland over the upper Gulf coast, it could force the storm westward or cause it to stall early next week. Whether or not the situation becomes serious in communities along the upper and western Gulf coast will depend on the strengthening process of the storm and where landfall occurs. How much rain falls from the storm in the southern U.S will depend on its strength and forward speed. Some early characteristics of the storm have shown a skew toward a significant amount of showers and thunderstorms on the eastern flank versus the western flank. "This unbalanced heavy rainfall pattern could continue as the storm moves farther north this weekend over the eastern half of the Gulf of Mexico and adjacent shoreline areas of the U.S.," according to AccuWeather Senior On-Air Meteorologist Mark Mancuso. At this time, a repeat of Hurricane Harvey from August 2017 or Katrina from 2005 does not appear likely for the U.S. Harvey moved inland over Texas and lingered for days, unloading several feet of rain and extreme flooding in the Houston area. Hurricane Katrina caused devastating flooding in New Orleans as it moved inland over Louisiana, after becoming a monster Category 5 storm in the Gulf of Mexico. Katrina weakened prior to landfall but maintained major hurricane status as a strong Category 3 storm and dealt the region a catastrophic blow 15 years ago. Still, even a strong tropical storm or minimal hurricane that maintains forward speed as it moves inland over the South can still unload several inches to a foot of rain, which is enough to lead to urban and low-lying area flooding as well as rises on area rivers and bayous. Should Cristobal remain a tropical storm or a minimal hurricane, the danger from flooding, waves and winds would be substantially less than if a Category 2 or 3 hurricane was moving inland. Typically, the greatest storm surge and coastal flooding occurs near the center to several dozen miles to the east of the point of landfall. However, bays and shallow waters as well as flat land areas can contribute to a substantial increase in the storm surge effect. As winds increase with the strengthening storm, seas over the Gulf of Mexico are expected to transition from choppy to very rough this weekend. Waves propagating outward from the approaching and strengthening storm will lead to building breakers and an increase in the strength and number of rip currents as well as beach erosion. An uptick in rip currents can occur in some coastal areas of the U.S. as early as Friday night and Saturday. Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios. Ava DuVernays powerful Oscar-nominated 2016 Netflix documentary 13th is a fast, furious and information-packed film about the race, the justice system and the effects of mass incarceration. The title refers to the 13th amendment, which abolishes slavery, except, of course, for criminals, who are stripped of their human rights upon entering and exiting the system. Much of the film hinges around the arguments of writer Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, that the criminal justice system is an extension of slavery and Jim Crow laws as a racialized system of control. 13th touches upon the civil rights movement, the war on drugs, Hollywood, redlining and the prison industrial complex. And though it communicates a vast breadth of information, DuVernay presents it clearly and in a way that it is absolutely electrifying and infuriating. Also available on Netflix is When They See Us, DuVernays award-winning miniseries about the Central Park Five, a group of unjustly convicted black teenagers. ANZit has agreed to sell its asset finance business in New Zealand, UDC Finance, for NZ$762 million thats $706 million Australian to Shinsei Bank.The purchase price represents a price-to-book ratio of 1.2x net tangible assets of NZ$637 million as at 31 March 2020.The sale provides AUD$439 million of Level 2 Group CET1 capital at settlement.The sale will also release more than NZ$2 billion of funding provided by ANZ New Zealand, further strengthening its balance sheet position.Shares in ANZare trading 0.9 per cent higher at $18.22. Here are some of the top photos of the week, as selected by the Associated Press. L ove Islands Dr Alex George has admitted he feels a bit disappointed after testing negative for coronavirus antibodies. The former reality star, 30, appeared on the ITV2 dating show in 2018 but has since returned to his medical career and has been working on the frontline of the Covid-19 crisis at a London hospital. George has been documenting his experience of working throughout the pandemic on social media, and shared his antibody results in a video on YouTube. He read the text message containing his results for the first time on camera, describing it as a huge moment both professionally, because Ive been working on the frontline, and personally because I really want to see my girlfriend and friends. He added: I know it doesnt change anything in terms of guidance right now. If I have antibodies I cant change the way Im behaving but it does make me think in the future it could potentially play a part. Reading out the text, he then revealed: "Antibodies were not detected, well thats quite a shock! He continued: I dont have the antibody, thats a real surprise. Im quite shocked by that, if you think about it I have been there on the frontline since the start. Ive been exposed to hundreds and seen a large number of patients. He went on to admit his disappointment at the news, adding: I know that sounds really weird and a bit ridiculous, of course I dont want to have caught Covid-19, but also theres a part of you that thinks I would like to be immune. Celebrities make a show of thanks for frontline NHS key workers 1 /9 Celebrities make a show of thanks for frontline NHS key workers Daniel Craig and Phoebe Waller-Bridge were among stars featuring in celebrity show of thanks to the NHS NHS/Twitter PA PA PA PA PA Fleabag's Phoebe Waller-Bridge was among stars who join in a show of thanks for NHS workers on the frontline of the Covid-19 crisis NHS/Twitter It would mean Im a less of a risk to loved ones around me. He said that he had not experienced any symptoms of coronavirus while working during the pandemic and that his negative results could show the importance of wearing PPE. George has previously used his platform to encourage his followers to adhere to social distancing guidelines to ensure that the NHS is not overwhelmed by coronavirus cases. WASHINGTON - The Trump administration said Tuesday it was investigating digital services taxes being enforced or considered by several U.S. trading partners including the European Union, India and Brazil, opening the door to the first new tariffs since the economy tumbled into a deep recession. The announcement from Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. trade representative, showed that President Donald Trump is determined to pursue his "America First" trade offensive despite the coronavirus pandemic that caused the economy to grind to a halt and the worst social unrest in more than 50 years. The investigation follows a similar probe last year of a proposed French tax, which authorized the president to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on a range of products from France, including popular wines and cheeses. American importers of French goods protested loudly while the French threatened to retaliate with their own tariffs. But in January, the two countries paused their dispute while the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) tries to broker a global consensus on digital taxation. Officials hope to reach an agreement by October. The president's use of tariffs to coerce U.S trading partners to enter negotiations has shown mixed results. He got Mexico and Canada to enter a new North American trade deal, which takes effect on July 1. He secured a modest updating of a trade pact with South Korea. And he secured a partial trade deal with China, only to see its implementation lag amid the pandemic. Trump generally prefers direct talks with a single trading partner to the multilateral negotiations pursued by his predecessors. His latest tariff threat, however, is aimed at prodding countries that are considering taxes tailored to hit U.S. digital giants to settle for just such a multicountry arrangement. If the talks led by the Paris-based OECD falter and the digital tax investigation results in new tariffs, it could wreck several ongoing trade negotiations, including with the U.K., EU and India. "In the current moment, it is just picking another fight with our allies on trade at a time when the administration's trade agenda - particularly with China - is unraveling," said Edward Alden, a professor at Western Washington University. "It's hard to see why the administration wants another fight." Jason Oxman, chief executive of the Information Technology Industry Council, which includes Amazon, Facebook and Google, endorsed the administration action and expressed hopes for a negotiated solution. Jordan Haas, director of trade policy for the Internet Association, which also represents the digital giants, said: "Targeted discriminatory taxes against U.S. firms are not an appropriate solution." Tuesday's USTR statement said the investigation would cover the EU and nine countries: Austria, Brazil, the Czech Republic, India, Indonesia, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. The probe is being conducted under Section 301 of the 1974 trade act, which grants the president broad powers to impose tariffs if a country's trade practices are judged to be unfair to U.S. companies. The administration used the same provision to impose tariffs on more than $300 billion worth of Chinese products in a two-year conflict that resulted in a partial trade deal in January. "President Trump is concerned that many of our trading partners are adopting tax schemes designed to unfairly target our companies," said Lighthizer. "We are prepared to take all appropriate action to defend our businesses and workers against any such discrimination." U.S. officials say the taxes discriminate against the American Internet companies that dominate the online economy, such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon. Countries adopting the digital taxes complain that the American companies exploit local consumers for their valuable data without paying sufficient taxes in return. Unlike traditional corporate levies, the so-called "digital services taxes" typically apply to revenue earned in a particular jurisdiction even if a company has no physical presence there. The proposals vary between countries. But the focus on revenue threatens to impose "crippling costs" on digital companies that have strong sales and low or nonexistent profits, said Joe Kennedy, senior fellow with the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. The United Kingdom is considering a 2 percent tax on search engines, online marketplaces and social media platforms serving consumers in the U.K.. The European Commission has proposed a 3 percent tax on revenue from a variety of online activities, including the sale of data collected from users in the 27-nation single market, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation in Washington. Trump spoke on Monday by phone with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and the two leaders agreed "that the free flow of commerce between the United States and Brazil is an economic priority for both countries," according to a White House statement. Brazil's legislature, the Chamber of Deputies, is considering a proposal to establish a progressive tax on e-commerce sales to consumers in Brazil. The public service advertisement actor Akshay Kumar shot for during the coronavirus lockdown has been released. The one-and-a-half minute advertisement was shared by the Press Information Bureau on Twitter. Our battle with #COVID19 is not over, but we will not be afraid of the virus. We will take all precautions and we are going to move on with our lives, the tweet read. The advertisement shows Akshay in a village setting, coming across a neighbour who asks him why he has ventured outdoors as soon as the lockdown was lifted. Our battle with #COVID19 is not over, but we will not be afraid of the virus. We will take all precautions and we are going to move on with our lives @akshaykumar @MoHFW_INDIA #IndiaFightsCorona #BreakTheStigma pic.twitter.com/EKxcwwhVb3 PIB India #StayHome #StaySafe (@PIB_India) June 2, 2020 Arent you afraid youll catch the virus? the neighbour asks. Initially I was afraid, but then I learned that if one takes precautions, catching the virus is unlikely, Akshay responds. Akshay then lists the precautions he is taking, which include wearing a mask, washing hands, and maintaining social distance. If the health service workers are sacrificing so much to save our lives, the least we can do is to make it easier for them, Akshay continues. The actor also seems to suggest that there is nothing to worry about if one does contract the illness, as the government has enough hospitals ready to treat patients. This is no time to worry, it is the time to support each other, the actor continues. Akshays words encourage the neighbour to also go to work. The neighbour says that it would be the dishonourable thing to not go to work. Akshay ends the advertisement by saying that the country needs to be made atmanirbhar. Also read: Akshay Kumar, R Balki shoot for Covid-19 awareness campaign at Mumbai studio, use all precautions. See pics The ad, shot by filmmaker R Balki at Kamalistan studio while taking necessary precautions, was shot with a minimal crew. This is an ad for the health ministry featuring Akshay Kumar about the post lockdown responsibilities of each one of us. We need to get back to work but ensure our safety and those of others. So at our shoot we did the same. Like getting back to work with social distancing, sanitised outdoor set, disinfectant screen, masks. We got used to it in a few minutes. There was minimal crew and very strict protocols, Balki told PTI. The Maharashtra government recently revised its guidelines regarding the prohibition of film shoots in the state, allowing for certain relaxations in non-containment zones. In March, Akshay had shared a video of himself, furiously telling people to stay indoors as the government announced a lockdown to control the spread of Covid-19. Every time I talk about whats in my heart with politeness but today I am so angry, forgive me if I end up saying anything rude, he opened by saying in the video. Have some people really lost it? Who here doesnt understand the word lockdown? You think you are so brave. All this will get you in trouble. Youll end up in a hospital and make your family sick too... No one will be left. Use your brain, I beg you, he added. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON "And while we would like to say that racism has no place in our society, we know that systemic racism still exists despite the progress that has been made," the letter said. "We cannot turn a blind eye to it or accept some sense of 'order' that's based on oppression." It said Ford leaders throughout the country will hold dialogues with their teams "to understand how people are feeling and discuss how we can get better together." "There are no easy answers. We are not interested in superficial actions. This is our moment to lead from the front and fully commit to creating the fair, just and inclusive culture that our employees deserve," Monday's letter said. Ford Motor Executive Chairman Bill Ford and CEO Jim Hackett sent a letter to employees regarding what they called the "tragic killing of George Floyd " as well as the coronavirus pandemic and America's "systemic racism." Ford Chief Communications Officer Mark Truby said late Monday the letter was sent to all of the automaker's employees globally and posted on the company's internal intranets. In an email to CNBC, he said reaction from employees "has been very positive." Ford joins other companies such as Apple and Snap in addressing employees regarding Floyd's death. Other companies such as Amazon and Nike have released statements and messages as well with mixed reactions. Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man, died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest despite cries that he could not breathe. The message was sent Monday afternoon before President Donald Trump threatened to bring in the military if states and cities fail to bring an end to protests and riots across the country following Floyd's death. Ford's message also addressed the coronavirus pandemic's impact on black communities, citing "the legacy of economic disparities in our own home city of Detroit." Michigan, specifically Detroit, was severely impacted by Covid-19. More than two dozen United Auto Workers members with the Detroit automakers have died from the disease. Here's a full copy of the message from Hackett and Bill Ford, great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford: Ford Team, This is an extraordinary moment in our history. All at once, we are grappling with a public health crisis that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, an economic shock that has forced us to adapt on the fly, and social upheaval that has challenging all of us to think and act differently. In the midst of this, the tragic killing of George Floyd, compounded by other senseless killings over the years, has sparked the expression of decades of collective anger and frustration over the unacceptable abuse of power and authority. This pain is felt across the communities our employees call home. There is no doubt that the weight of these challenges disproportionately fall on the black community. We have seen this disparity among our own Ford team members affected by COVID-19, and the legacy of economic disparities in our own home city of Detroit. It is pain that many of our team members have long felt in their daily lives. There are no easy answers. We are not interested in superficial actions. This is our moment to lead from the front and fully commit to creating the fair, just and inclusive culture that our employees deserve. Ford, and our labor partners, especially the UAW, have shown leadership on diversity and inclusion over the years. Building on this, and the work of the Ford Motor Company Fund in black communities, there is much more we can do together. Today is the start of an even deeper dialogue within Ford on these critical issues. We will be meeting with employees across the company, including engaging with the Ford African Ancestry Network (FAAN). We also plan to ask leaders throughout the company to hold dialogues with their teams to understand how people are feeling and discuss how we can get better together. We promise to share updates as we continue on this journey. We are a company made up of extraordinary people of every race, religion, and background, all worthy of the same dignity. We view our differences as one of our great strengths. We are a team not in word, but in bond. And while we would like to say that racism has no place in our society, we know that systemic racism still exists despite the progress that has been made. We cannot turn a blind eye to it or accept some sense of "order" that's based on oppression. Many of us cannot know what it is truly like to be part of a community of color, to know what it is like to be afraid for our children every time they leave the house, or to worry that this day might be our last. But as long as so many of our colleagues, our friends, live with that fear, how can we live with ourselves? As long as we have the privilege to breathe, it's on all of us to summon new levels of empathy and humanity. Finally, we want to say to anyone struggling with fear and despair, we have resources that can help. Please visit @FordOnline and see below for more information. In a time of hardship and upheaval, one thing is for certain: we remain a family and a company that is stronger together and committed to racial and social justice. Thank you for all you do for Ford Motor Company. Bill and Jim In Hong Kong, which is ever-more-tightly controlled by Beijing, protesters take huge risks to turn out in the streets. (Wally Santana / Associated Press) Few things bring out the Irish in me more than the Chinese government dunking on the United States of America. Like just about every American these days, Ive got my complaints about the direction our country is heading and how our government is dealing with the myriad challenges facing us. But, unlike virtually every Chinese citizen, I am free to express those complaints. Say what you will about the manifest incompetence and dysfunction of our government, at least no, wait, that sentence should have ended at government. Consider that among the many shortages imposed upon Americans these days, the national stockpile of fresh insults for the current president is almost exhausted. Stand-up comics and cable news pundits alike are trotting out recycled Orange man jokes about his bronzer addiction. But unlike other shortages, government regulation isnt to blame; its simply because people have been mocking President Trump for so long, and so freely, new material is hard to come by. The same cant be said about China, where direct criticism of president-for-life Xi Jinping is outlawed. Critics have had to resort to clever workarounds. Images of Winnie the Pooh, for example, have been banned for several years now because critics started using the rotund fellow as a symbol for Xi. This exposes the more interesting and ultimately wonderful difference between the United States of America and the People's Republic of China. Both countries are flawed. Both have official names that dont quite reflect reality. America really isnt all that united, and China is in no way a people's republic. But the rhetoric of Americas domestic critics is often theoretical and exaggerated for effect, while in China the rhetoric of domestic critics is coded, muffled or completely censored because it has to be. Everyday people call Trump an authoritarian, in part because he likes to sound like one, but also because he isnt one. If he were an actual authoritarian, people wouldnt say it for fear of being thrown in jail. In China, fewer people call Xi an authoritarian precisely because he is one. Story continues In America, people rightly condemn the legacy of Jim Crow, slavery and apartheid. In China, they actually have all three, right now. Forced labor is alive and well in China. Ethnic minorities in China are denied access to educational institutions, barred from traveling freely and are routinely discriminated against in the name of Han supremacy. Uighurs, Mongols, Tibetans are victims of cultural erasure and even genocide. Last week, Omar Jimenez, a CNN reporter, was arrested by Minnesota state police while on air. The governor quickly apologized for the action. And the police claimed he was released as soon as they confirmed he was a journalist. This was surely a lie, since the Jimenez identified himself live on TV during the arrest. But its worth at least noting the principle here. Even the police felt it necessary to pretend they didnt know he was a journalist, as a way to save face. In China, silencing journalists to save face is the principle set by the central government and they do it constantly. Last week, Trump ignited a fierce and fiercely stupid debate about censorship on Twitter, a privately held platform. The alleged censorship was Twitters fraught decision to tag one of the presidents ridiculous tweets with a link to a somewhat poorly executed fact check. In China, where social media platforms are vassals of the state, users are routinely censored (and worse), and reporting facts about the government is a criminal act. The Chinese government has been having a grand time trolling America over both our recent peaceful protests and the criminal looting and violence, in response to the abhorrent killing of George Floyd. The death of George Floyd reflects the severity of racial discrimination and police brutality in the U.S., Foreign Ministry spokesman Lijian Zhao declared. Hes technically right. But that doesnt change the fact that in China, racism and police brutality are features of their system, not bugs that need to be worked out. And then theres Hong Kong. The Chinese government has been hammering the idea that the U.S. and Hong Kong protests are morally equivalent and, therefore, America is hypocritical for condemning Chinas crackdown while supposedly doing the same thing here. But in America, all of the responsible voices are asking nay, begging the protesters, both violent and peaceful, to channel their rage at the voting booth. In Hong Kong, the protesters, violent and peaceful, are enraged because theyre seeing their right to vote, among other rights, nullified to fit official Chinese policy. In America, politicians and citizens fight over what policies will best address the lingering evils in our society. In China politicians fight against the people to sustain the evils of their society. And thats all the difference in the world. @JonahDispatch State and independent autopsies differ over other contributing factors to Floyds death while in police custody Protestors gather in Sydney to support the cause of U.S. protests over the death of George Floyd. (AP) Washington: A medical examiners office on Monday ruled that the death of George Floyd, the black man whose killing in Minneapolis police custody last week triggered nationwide protests, was a homicide and that he died from asphyxiation. The medical examiners finding that the death was a homicide confirms the same conclusion of the independent autopsy that was also released on Monday, but there are key differences over the cause. A press release from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner said that Floyd, who struggled to breathe as an officer pinned him down by kneeling on his neck, had recent methamphetamine use and fentanyl intoxication - along with hypertension and coronary artery disease - all of which were possible contributing factors to his death. But two doctors who carried out that independent autopsy of Floyd, 46, and two attorneys for the family said that he had no underlying health conditions that may have contributed to his death. They argued that not only the officer who was kneeing Floyds neck killed him, but also two officers who were pressing their weight onto Floyds back while he was on the ground. They added that they did not have information on toxicology and any drug or alcohol use by Floyd. Dr. Allecia Wilson of the University of Michigan, one of the two forensic doctors who performed the independent autopsy, said the evidence pointed to homicide by mechanical asphyxia meaning from some physical force that interfered with oxygen supply. While the countys full autopsy report has not yet been released - Mondays press release appeared to show authorities walked back their conclusions on what killed Floyd. The original criminal complaint against the police officer who pinned Floyd with his knee cited the medical examiners office when it said it found no findings of strangulation. Carolyn Marinan, a spokeswoman for Hennepin County, did not confirm any reversal, saying only that Mondays press release were the final findings. DEAD WITHIN MINUTES Bystander video showed Floyd pleading to be let up and saying repeatedly that he couldnt breathe as police officer Derek Chauvin pinned Floyd to the ground for nearly nine minutes. Two other officers applied pressure with their knees to Floyds back. Chauvin, who is white and has been fired from the Minneapolis police department, was hit with third-degree murder and manslaughter charges last week. But Dr. Michael Baden, who took part in the independent autopsy at the behest of Floyds family, said that the two other officers actions also caused Floyd to stop breathing. We can see after a little bit less than four minutes that Mr. Floyd is motionless, lifeless, Baden said, adding he found no underlying health conditions in Floyd that caused his death. Baden has worked on several high-profile cases, including the 2014 death of Eric Garner, a black man who died after being choked by police in New York City. Baden countered the argument that if Floyd could speak then he could breathe. Many police are under the impression that if you can talk, that means youre breathing. That is not true, Baden said. I am talking right now in front of you and not taking a breath. MORE CHARGES DEMANDED Antonio Romanucci and Ben Crump, the attorneys representing the Floyd family, said that all four officers at the scene should be facing charges, not just Chauvin. Crump added the independent autopsy and video evidence make it clear that Floyd was dead while he was still lying on the street with police atop him. That ambulance was his hearse, he said. Crump said the Floyd family wants to see charge lodged against all four officers who were at the scene - and for Chauvin, who kneed Floyds neck, to be facing first-degree murder charges. But they are also seeking an end to the violent protests that have beset the United States to end. George died because he needed a breath, a breath of air, Crump said. I implore you all to join his family in taking a breathtaking a breath for justice, taking a breath for peace. As in the House impeachment proceedings, the two sides of the aisle came at the Linick issue from different directions. Republicans, while asserting the absolute right of the president to fire any inspector general, have also sought to put meat on the bones of Pompeos vague charges that Linick misused his office. Democrats have said that proper congressional oversight includes ascertaining whether the secretary of state wanted to get rid of him because Linick was investigating Pompeo himself. By Trend The Black Sea Trade and Development (BSTDB) is able to redirect additional funds to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) amid COVID-19, BSTDB President Dmitry Pankin told Trend. "In these difficult times the BSTDB is sympathetic to the efforts our member states take to contain the spread of the coronavirus and reduce the negative impact it has on human lives, societies and economic activity," he said. Pankin pointed out that the Bank is committed to make best efforts to continue supporting its clients and member countries. "Under the current critical conditions, we are focusing on supporting the most vulnerable economic segment small and medium sized businesses (SMEs). Given the reduced demand for financing of large infrastructure projects, we are able to redirect additional funds to help SMEs. Besides, we will provide special technical assistance to clients in developing feasibility studies, environmental impact assessment and in project preparation. Apart from SMEs, the Bank is ready to assist municipalities, utilities, manufacturing and pharmaceutical companies being in the front line of the fight against Covid-19," said the BSTDB president. He went on to add that currently, consensus view among economists is that once pandemic is over, growth rates will rebound fast, naturally benefitting from the low base factor. "However, it will take some time for countries to reach pre-pandemic levels of economic output. The challenge right now is not what will be during post-pandemic period. Rather, how long and at what cost the pandemic will last. You have probably heard all these "V" shaped, "U" shaped, or even "L" shaped recovery paths. Be it "V" or "U" shaped, the expectation is that once recovery kicks in, it will be strong. However, it seems that proponents of "U" shape gain hold. But then the question is how long will bottom line of the "U" be," Pankin explained. Against the background of the remaining and even growing uncertainty, it does not seem useful to forecast any specific numbers for the decline, he said, recalling that recently the IMF stated that their April forecast is likely to be revised further down in June. The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB), an international financial institution with headquarters in Thessaloniki, Greece, was established by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 20:50:40|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 2 (Xinhua) -- China opposes the political oppression and economic sanctions imposed by the United States on Cuba under the pretext of anti-terrorism, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Tuesday. Zhao made the remarks at a press briefing in response to a question concerning Cuba being included on May 13 in a U.S. State Department list of countries that are allegedly not cooperating fully with U.S. efforts against terrorism, which was rejected by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba. "Terrorism is mankind's common enemy. China maintains that the international community should work together to fight terrorism," Zhao said. "That said, we oppose the U.S. side using counter-terrorism as a pretext to impose political oppression and economic sanctions on Cuba," he said, adding that the United States and Cuba, as close neighbors, should treat each other with amity and continue developing normal state-to-state relations based on equality and mutual respect. "This serves the interests of the two countries, and will help promote peace and stability of Latin America," Zhao said. Enditem Less than 24 hours after the Madhya Pradesh Raj Bhavan was declared a non-containment zone, another person tested positive for the coronavirus in the campus on Tuesday. One of the labourers working inside the campus tested positive, said sources in the Governor House. Earlier, 10 people living inside the campus had tested positive, prompting the administration to declare the Raj Bhavan a containment zone on May 27. As the campus houses several staffers of the Governor, including a Grade IV employee, his kin and others had tested positive and later 10 of them people were hospitalised and their families shifted to quarantine. On Monday, the Raj Bhavan had announced that the campus has turned into a non-containment zone as 385 samples taken from the staff had tested negative. In between the campus was declared a restricted zone as well. With the district administration issuing no notification in this regard, political circles were abuzz with speculation if the decision to declare Raj Bhavan a Covid-19 free zone was done to facilitate oath-taking for the Shivraj cabinet expansion expected to take place shortly. Normally it takes three weeks to declare any containment zone free of the infection. Besides, an employee of MP assembly secretariat and a contractual sanitation worker of SBI head office in Bhopal also tested positive on Tuesday. The employees were told to go back from the SBI office gate and the building was sanitised. On Tuesday, Bhopal reported 39 fresh cases, taking the tally to 1,574, including 60 deaths. Indores positive cases have reached 3,570 and the total infections have reached 8,405 in MP. Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. Armenian soldiers will march in the upcoming Russian military parade in Moscow that will mark the 75th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, the Defense Ministry in Yerevan said on Tuesday. The Red Square parade, originally scheduled for May 9, was postponed by the Kremlin in April due to the coronavirus pandemic. President Vladimir Putin announced last week that it will be held on June 24 despite the continuing spread of coronavirus in Russia. Putin told Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu to ensure the strictest security standards while preparing for the parade. The risks for all participants must be kept to a minimum and better excluded, he said. Like the armed forces of other ex-Soviet states, the Armenian military has been invited to participate in the annual display of Russias military might. Defense Ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanian told RFE/RLs Armenian service that 75 Armenian army soldiers will join thousands of Russian troops in marching through Red Square. She said they will carry not only an Armenian national flag but also the banner of a Red Army division that mostly consisted of Armenians and reached Berlin in May 1945. Putin invited Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian to attend the parade when they spoke by phone on Monday. Pashinian accepted the invitation, saying that he hopes to recover from coronavirus by June 24. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday endorsed US President Donald Trumps plan to expand the ambit of the Group of Seven (G7) for its next summit by including countries such as India, saying it was in line with the emerging realities of the post-Covid world. Modi made the remarks during a telephone conversation with Trump, according to an Indian government readout of the discussions. Trump spoke about the US presidency of G7, and his desire to expand the ambit of the grouping beyond the existing membership, to include other important countries including India. Trump also extended an invitation to Modi to attend the next G7 Summit to be held in the US in September. They also exchanged views on the situation on the India-China border, the Covid-19 situation in their countries and the need for reforms in the World Health Organization, the readout said without giving details. Modi commended Trump for his creative and far-sighted approach to the G7 Summit, and acknowledged that such an expanded forum would be in keeping with the emerging realities of the post-Covid world. He said India will be happy to work with the US and other countries to ensure the success of the proposed summit. On Monday, Trump had spoken to President Vladimir Putin on telephone, two days after he said he would also invite the Russian leader to the G7 Summit. The White House has said the two leaders discussed progress toward convening the G-7, and media reports said Trump had extended a personal invitation to Putin for the summit. Trump had told reporters about his plans on May 30. I dont feel that as a G7, it properly represents whats going on in the world. Its a very outdated group of countries, he said. Modi had attended last years G7 Summit at Biarritz, France, as a special guest for the outreach session at the invitation of President Emmanuel Macron. On Tuesday, Modi expressed concern regarding the ongoing civil disturbances in the US and conveyed his best wishes for an early resolution of the situation, the readout said. Trump recalled his visit to India in February, and Modi said it had been memorable and historic on many accounts and also added new dynamism to bilateral ties. The exceptional warmth and candour of the conversation reflected the special nature of the Indo-US ties, as well as the friendship and mutual esteem between both leaders, the readout said. The conversation between Modi and Trump came four days after India doubled down on its rejection of the US Presidents offer to mediate on the standoff with China. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Hudson Regional Hospital in Secaucus has agreed to purchase the Hoboken University Medical Center and Bayonne Medical Center properties for a combined $220 million, a mega deal that could reshape the healthcare landscape in Hudson County. The stunning announcement came just hours after CarePoint Health announced it had finalized an agreement to sell the hospital operations at Bayonne Medical Center to BMC Hospital LLC, whose principals own a chain of ambulatory surgical centers. But Avery Eisenreich, the now former landlord at HUMC and BMC, separately reached an agreement to sell the real estate to the Secaucus hospital for $144 million and $76 million, respectively. The developments of the last 24 hours leave HRH in control of the land and hospital buildings, and BMC Hospital LLC poised to assume business operations at BMC. But HRH officials say theyre in position to take over operations in Bayonne (and Hoboken), not the group negotiating with CarePoint. The owner of the land must approve a lease transfer, and Dr. Nizar Kifaieh, president of CEO of Hudson Regional Hospital, said there is zero chance that HRH would transfer the lease to the BMC Hospital group. Last night we agreed to an unconditional deposit payment and purchase price for the hospital properties and we expect to close within 90 days, Kifaieh said. We have removed the most significant obstacle to fulfilling our vision of creating a premier hospital network in Hudson County without burdening the taxpayers or any public funding during these very trying times. But CarePoint and BMC Hospital LLC dispute Kifaiehs claims and noted that the purchase and sale agreement for the real estate have not been made public. CarePoint Health and BMC Hospital do not agree with Hudson Regionals interpretation of the existing lease and the rights of the landlord to an assignment or sublet of the lease, the companies said in a joint statement. We are also confused by Hudson Regionals statement that, by virtue of its contract to purchase or the purchase of the Hoboken and Bayonne real estate, it is certain that Hudson Regional will take over the operations of the hospitals. Hudson Regionals status as a landlord does not give it the right to take over the hospitals. The land deal comes on the heels of HRH announcing last week that it had offered to purchase the hospital operations of HUMC, BMC, and Christ Hospital in Jersey City from CarePoint, their current operator. We expect to marry land ownership with hospital operations to resolve any concern about the stability of the healthcare network, Kifaieh said. These were difficult, complex negotiations that took place over several months and we are very gratified by our Chairman Yan Moshes commitment to complete the transaction. HRHs announcement marks a stunning turn of events in the saga surrounding the CarePoint institutions. On Monday night, BMC Hospital LLC formally agreed to acquire the Bayonne hospital business from CarePoint. The agreement was submitted to the New Jersey Department of Health for official review with a request that the state expedite the approval. Last week, the entity said it would move forward with the transaction and then engage Eisenreich about the land. When BMC Hospital LLC first emerged as a buyer in March, the group stated its purchase would hinge on the city or county acquiring the land. Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise said last month the county was prepared to use eminent domain to acquire all three CarePoint hospitals. DeGise alleged Eisenreich had blocked a deal that would see Christ Hospital and HUMC sold to RWJBarnabas Health. RWJBarnabas did not respond to requests for comment on HRHs acquisition of the Bayonne and Hoboken real estate. In a statement issued Tuesday afternoon, DeGise said he wants the Hudson County Improvement Authority to continue its due diligence on a potential acquisition of the hospital properties. He also called on the state Department of Health to force accountability and transparency. I have just spoken with Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop and Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis. They shared grave concerns about the future of hospitals which their communities rely on for critical health care," DeGise said. "The growing chaos created by squabbling owners makes it clear that we must proceed on our path to secure the future of these critical facilities for the residents of Hudson County. Eisenreich, who owns the Alaris Health chain of nursing homes, stands to make a massive profit on the land deals. In November, he paid $58 million for the Bayonne property and $50 million for the land in Hoboken. The property owners concern always has been to insure that Hudson County residents have access to quality acute healthcare, a spokesman for Eisenreich said. "Todays announcement by HRH meets that goal. Our county is fortunate to have such a fine local medical provider and medical team step up and fill this critical void. The term frontline workers often conjures images of health line workers in their apparel as well as the major security services in their uniform. But during the coronavirus outbreak, workers across a vast array of industries have found themselves essential parts of the machine that has kept the country in motion, required to do their jobs despite great risk. Many have heaped praises on our health line workers, the security services, and the media for their yeomans job in the fight against this pandemic. However, some essential workers like the public transport operators locally known as Trotro drivers and their conductors widely called Mates efforts to transport commuters in the heat on the outbreak have been overlooked by almost all higher authorities with no mention of recognition. Tro-Tro is a local term for any minibus in Ghana, that trip short to semi-long distances as share taxis. As share taxis, Ghanaian Tro-Tro run in between specific destinations with passengers alighting at designated or assumed bus stops, while others get on board. And that is where the risks lie. High-risk service But their efforts have caught the eyes of Environmentalist and renowned Educationalist, Nana Dwomoh Sarpong who has lauded their high risk services to mother Ghana amid the outbreak of new Coronavirus, COVID-19. Heroes He described the drivers and their mates as Heroes who must not be forgotten for their exceptional services to the country. These people [Drivers and mates] are highly exposed to the virus because they pick up passengers and drop some off intermittently; they exchange monies with passengers always. They might not know who carries the virus or not, yet have remained dedicated to their job from day one, he told Peacefmonline.com in an interview Rooting for you Nana Dwomoh Sarpong, who is also the Chairman of the Board Radford University College, added that Words are not enough to thank them for their strength, courage, and dedication. Being on the frontline isnt easy, but it is very much appreciated. Stay safe, Im rooting for you. Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A new report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights has documented the civilians killed in May, including those killed while being tortured. The Syrian Network for Human Rights released a report on Monday confirming the deaths of 125 civilians in Syria throughout the month of May, including eight under torture. According to the report, the dead included 26 children and six women. Ten civilians died at the hands of the regime, one by Russian forces, seven by protection militias and 107 others by various parties. The Network reported that eight civilians had died under torture, with the Syrian regimes intelligence forces responsible for seven of the deaths and the YPG responsible for one. The report documented one massacre during May, explaining that a massacre is defined as an attack that causes the deaths of at least five civilians at once. The Network concluded its report by calling on the Security Council to refer the Syrian file to international criminal courts and hold all parties responsible, including Russia, which had been documented carrying out war crimes. The UN was also called upon to carry out more humanitarian aid efforts, including providing food and medical supplies, in areas where the battles have stopped, as well as in the internally displaced camps, and to follow up on the countries that had pledged to make contributions. This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. CHICAGO, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on MarketsandMarkets report, "COVID-19 Impact on Display Panel Market by Product (PC Monitors, Tablets, Smartphones, Wearables, Automotive Displays, TVs, and Large Screen), Industry, and Region - Global Forecast to 2025", published by MarketsandMarkets, the COVID-19 Impact on Display Panel Market size is projected to grow from USD 107.0 billion in 2020 to reach USD 152.0 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 7.3%. The estimation for 2020 is down by ~26% compared to the pre-COVID-19 estimate. Factors that drive the growth of the post-COVID-19 display panel market include the growing acceptance of the work-from-home norm, rising focus of regional financial institutions to design fiscal policies for keeping the display market floating during the COVID-19 crisis, shifting manufacturing units to less affected regions, increasing demand for 4K and 8K displays with the availability of UHD content, surging adoption of OLED displays in smartphones and rising demand for flexible display panels, increasing investments for the construction of new OLED and LCD panel manufacturing facilities. The booming automotive displays industry and increasing focus on the development of energy-efficient, attractive, and high-end-specification display products using advanced technologies such as OLED and AMOLED are the other key factors that foster the demand for display panels. Request for PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=203916699 Demand for PC monitors and tablets would increase amidst pandemic crisis during forecast period The display panel industry for PCs, monitors, and tablets is expected to grow at a high CAGR from 2020 to 2025. An increase in working from home and online activities meant a rise in demand for products such as monitors, laptops, and tablets. Also, several educational institutions have embraced e-learning as a way to bridge the gap between tutors and students/pupils while complying with the lockdown being enforced in most of the countries. Thus, the demand for display panels for laptops and tablets is high, which is boosting the revenue stream of display manufacturers. However, its growth rate is expected to be above the growth rate estimated for the pre-COVID-19 market. Disruptions in supply chains due to COVID-19 outbreak has impacted demand for display panels in North America and Europe North America and Europe are the markets where the demand for display panels is significantly higher due to the adoption of products based on innovative technologies, such as OLED. However, with the severity of cases reported in the US and Europe, the demand for display panels has fallen significantly. A large number of companies in the US procure parts and components from China. Limited supply and high demand have increased the costs of components, with domestic components being priced at 30% higher than Chinese components. Browse in-depth TOC on "COVID-19 Impact on Display Panel Market" 4 - Tables 52 - Figures 120 - Pages Request more details on: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_BuyingNew.asp?id=203916699 Healthcare is exhibited to have positive growth in display panel market, by end-user industry, during forecast period The healthcare industry utilizes different types of display products, such as embedded display devices, in medical equipment for imaging, radiation therapy, and angiography. This industry also demands large-format displays and AR/VR HMDs. Large-format displays are used in the healthcare industry for displaying advertisements, appointments, and other medical information. This will increase the demand for medical displays and large screens. In the healthcare industry, AR/VR devices play an important role in enabling doctors to train assistants in surgery. Additionally, medical students can use AR/VR headsets to receive personalized training; students can use AR headsets to practice medical procedures. This allows students to study and practice even from home. Thus, it would increase the demand for AR/VR devices, which would enable display manufacturers to encash this opportunity. Because of this, the post-COVID-19market for display panels is expected to register a larger market size in 2020 than that of in 2019. Samsung Display, LG Display, BOE Technology Group Co. Ltd., AU Optronics Corp., Innolux Corp., Japan Display Inc., Sharp Corp., China Star Optoelectronics Technology, Tianma Microelectronics Co., Ltd., and Truly International Holdings Ltd. are a few of the dominating players in the global display panel market. Other companies involved in the development of display panels include Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd., HannStar Display Corporation, Chengdu Panda Display Technology Co., Ltd, BOE Varitronix Limited, eMagin Corporation, and Kopin Corporation, Apple Inc., Sony Corporation, E Ink Holdings Inc., Universal Display Corporation, and JOLED Inc. Related Reports: Display Material Market by Technology (LCD, OLED), Component & Material (Substrate, Polarizer, Color Filter, Liquid Crystals, BLU, Emitter & Organic Layer, Encapsulation), Panel Type, Application (Smartphone, Television), Region - Global Forecast to 2023 OLED Market by Display Application (Smartphone, TV, Automotive, NTE), Panel Type (Rigid, Flexible), Technology, Size, Material (FMM RGB, WOLED), Lighting Application (General, Automotive), Panel Type, & Vertical, and Geography - Global Forecast to 2023 About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. Contact: Mr. Aashish Mehra MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com Visit Our Web Site: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/covid-19-impact-on-display-panel-market.asp Content Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/covid-19-impact-on-display-panel.asp Logo:https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg He was recently slammed for using a taxpayer-funded scheme to pay hundreds of his staff who were furloughed amid the coronavirus crisis. But Gordon Ramsay put the drama aside as he shared an adorable snapshot to Instagram on Monday. The TV chef, 53, beamed as he posed with 13-month-old Oscar on the back of a motorbike in Daymer Bay, Cornwall. Adorable: Gordon Ramsay, 53, beamed as he posed with 13-month-old Oscar on the back of a motorbike in Daymer Bay, Cornwall He donned a pair of cargo shorts and a black T-shirt as he hunched over and held his lookalike son in position. Gordon uploaded the photo and thanked fellow chef Paul Ainsworth for temporarily lending the pair his bike for the photoshoot. The caption read: 'Biker Boy thanks for the ride @paulainsw6rth @oscarjramsay.' Awkward: It comes after reports that some of the workers made redundant by Ramsay amid the coronavirus crisis are being paid via the furlough scheme It comes after reports that some of the workers made redundant by Ramsay amid the coronavirus crisis are being paid via the furlough scheme that is estimated to cost the government around 80billion of taxpayers' money. An email seen by the Sun On Sunday from Gordon Ramsay Restaurants' HR Director Sarah Anderson to a London-based worker read: 'Should you not wish to apply for a new role, you will remain on the furlough scheme for the duration of your notice.' A source told The Sun: 'The furlough scheme is called the job retention scheme - but that is not what he seems to be using it for. They are sacking people anyway.' The same source went on to claim senior members of staff in Ramsay's restaurants were being offered lower-paid jobs, including telling a supervisor to become a bartender. Ramsay, who is thought to be worth close to 200million, has restaurants across London, including in Mayfair and The Strand. Alec Shelbrooke said there were questions over whether Mr Ramsay had exploited taxpayers, adding: 'It will have to be carefully looked at whether the scheme was used to increase the profits of the company.' The lockdown led Ramsay to lay off 500 employees in March, with no guarantee their jobs would be safe in the future. Sunny stroll: Ramsay has grabbed headlines throughout the lockdown after he had his wrist slapped for flouting lockdown rules as he continued to relish his time out of London Chefs, waiters and other staff were called to a meeting and told their contracts were being terminated - rather than being furloughed on 80 per cent pay. It triggered a wave of anger, including from chef Anca Torpuc who at the time branded the celebrity chef a 'piece of 's***' for his decision. Ramsay has grabbed headlines throughout the lockdown after he had his wrist slapped for flouting lockdown rules. The coastguard reportedly issued the father-of-five with an official warning after he was seen in Rock, Fowey, Port Isaac and Newquay some distance from his lavish home. MailOnline has approached Gordon Ramsay Restaurants for comment. NSW Offers $1000 and No Redundancies for Frontline Workers Instead of Pay Rises The $2.8 billion it will save will go towards 'shovel-ready' projects across the state to create new jobs In an attempt to soften the blow of a pay freeze, the New South Wales (NSW) government is offering a $1,000 one-off payment for frontline workers and a guarantee that no public sector workers will be made redundant in the next 12 months. The proposed legislation is an effort to use the $3 billion savings that the pay freeze will generate to create new jobs to benefit the state more broadly after it was hit hard by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic. The $1,000 stimulus payment will cost $200 million, and the remaining $2.8 billion will be available for shovel-ready projects across the state. However, unions and the opposition Labor Party are objecting to the proposal, accusing the government of mistreating frontline workers, such as nurses. Speaking to 2GB radio in the morning before Parliament was due to vote on the matter, NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet urged the upper house and crossbenchers to consider the economic position that the NSW government is in. Perrottet said: The unions are doing their job. Their job is to represent their members but our job as a government is to represent all $8 million people right across our state. Perrottet told 2GB that about 200,000 people had lost their jobs in NSW last month alone. Premier Gladys Berejiklian said while the decision was difficult, it was the fairest one for the people of NSW. Whilst we are recovering from the health consequences of the pandemic we have yet to come to terms with the economic shock. Job security is essential on our path to recovery, Berejiklian said in a media release on May 27. The only way NSW will come out of this crisis in a strong position is if we all make sacrifices, and thats what were asking our own workforce to do because we are all in this together. Berejiklian also warned that if Labor and the crossbench reject the proposal in Parliament the government will be left in a difficult position. We wont be in a position to be able to guarantee the jobs, we wont be in a position to be able to guarantee the $1000, she said. NSW has half a million people out of work in the wake of the CCP virus pandemic, which is about 30 percent of the entire countrys unemployment total. The proposed pay freezes will affect about 410,000 people. NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge strongly opposes the proposal to freeze pay increases. Working people shouldnt have to pay for COVID-19, he said. Berejiklian admitted her government is asking a lot of people but believes the proposal was a fair way to deal with a difficult situation. Lufthansa German Airlines said Tuesday it will resume flights to South Korea later this month, as the new coronavirus outbreak appears to have passed its peak. Lufthansa will offer three flights a week from Incheon to Munich starting on June 24, as European countries plan to ease entry restrictions on incoming passengers from June 15, the company said in a statement. "Lufthansa will do its best to strengthen and supplement its European and continental air networks to meet the needs of Korean travelers, while also making sure customers travel safely," Alejandro Arias, Lufthansa general manager of Korea, said in the statement. The company said the resumption of flights to Frankfurt depends on market conditions. Lufthansa suspended all flights on its routes from Incheon to Munich and Frankfurt in mid-March in response to a sharp decline in air travel demand amid virus fears. Among European carriers, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is the only airline that has continued to offer flights between South Korea and the Netherlands. KLM has provided flights from Incheon to Amsterdam, though it reduced the number of flights amid the COVID-19 pandemic. On Tuesday, it increased the number of flights on the Incheon-Amsterdam route to five from three a week, a company spokeswoman said by phone. Air France and Finland's state-owned airline Finnair plan to resume flights to Korea in July. Other European carriers, such as British Airways, Turkish Airlines, and Polish Airlines, have yet to announce plans to restart services to Korea. (Yonhap) The rise in coronavirus-linked deaths in the Capital, and the relatively complicated and space-consuming protocols set to bury those who have died or are suspected to have died of the pathogen, are pushing the largest Muslim cemetery in the city to the brink, according to officials who say it may run out of space if the rate of Covid-19 deaths continues to spike. Click here for full Covid-19 coverage The problem, the officials said, is that these bodies take up more space than other bodies, and the land they are buried in cannot be reused, unlike when other dead bodies are buried there. In April, when hospitals across the city first started sending bodies to the cemetery in Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) suits, the authorities earmarked a two-acre space within the 44-acre cemetery for those who were infected with Covid-19. No one knew then that we would get so many bodies. We have already buried such 193 bodies since April 3, Haji Mian Faiyazuddin, the secretary of New Cemetery for Mohammedans (Qabristan Ahle Islam), said. Though Delhis total Covid-19 death toll, according to the Delhi government bulletin on Tuesday, was 556, it was not clear how many of those buried in the cemetery were listed in the figures as confirmed cases. The protocol is the same for suspected and confirmed Covid-19 deaths. They cannot be buried next to the other non-Covid bodies. Instead of the normal four-by-three, we have to dig a hole that is 12 feet deep and four feet wide. We also have to keep extra space between bodies. That means much more space than a normal burial, Faiyazuddin said. Apart from the ITO cemetery, two other cemeteries at Shastri Park and Mangolpuri have been allowed to accept Covid-19 confirmed and suspected cases. The other grounds are smaller in size and measure less than five acres each. Faiyazuddin said the space at the ITO burial ground has anyway been filing up over the years. This cemetery was started in 1924. In the time to come, there will be a problem for non-Covid bodies too; but burying Covid-19 bodies is the immediate problem. The rate at which we are getting the bodies, the government should provide some other space immediately. It should be earmarked far away from the main city, he said. On Monday evening, the Delhi District Management Authority (DDMA) wrote to all district magistrates (DMs) asking them to identify space to create more cremation and burial grounds far from residential areas. The additional chief executive officer (CEO) of the DDMA, Rajesh Goyal, in a letter to the DMs, asked them to find such spaces and provide the requisite information on topmost priority. HT has seen a copy of the letter. The Delhi Waqf Boards chief executive officer, SM Ali, however said there was no problem of space at the ITO graveyard, and added that there were other options. Burial grounds across the city are managed by our committees, which are allowed to create more space in the graveyard by taking necessary steps, if required. We have enough of graveyards dedicated to bury Covid-19 related bodies in the city, so there is no need to panic. Officials at the ITO graveyard, however, held a different view. The supervisor of the cemetery, Shamim, said that in April the cemetery got only 3-4 Covid-19 bodies every day, which was manageable. But the numbers have increased now. On Sunday, we got eight bodies; nine bodies were brought on Saturday. Unlike the non-Covid burial space, we cannot dig the same ground and bury another body after a year, so this space cannot be used again. It is gone forever. We may have space for around 300 more bodies -- no more than that, he said. Another official said, asking not to be named, added: Non-Covid bodies can be buried in four-feet holes. We do it manually, but for Covid deaths, we use the [eathmover] machine. We pay 3,000 for the machine per body. The bodies come wrapped in PPE kit and are lowered using ropes. We also have to keep a distance of at least four feet between two bodies. People come here from across the city. Either we bury only confirmed Covid bodies if the government says the numbers are less or the within a month, we will run out of space, A Delhi government spokesperson did not respond to queries seeking a comment. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Anurag Kashyap has recently launched his new production company titled as Good Bad Films. Further, he is all set to release the first film under the banners Choked. Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who is best known for his films Gangs of Wasseypur, Bombay Talkies, Bombay Velvet, Manmarziyaan, and Ghost Stories, has launched a new production houseGood Bad Films. The filmmaker is all set to release the first film under the same banner titled Choked. Some hours back, the filmmaker also unveiled the logo of the production company along with his partners Akshay Thakkar and Dhruv Jagasia. Earlier, to this Anurag Kashyap was the co-founder of Phantom Films which unfortunately got dissolved in 2018 after some allegations imposed on his partner Vikas Bahl. Before Phantom Films, Anurag Kashyap started his own production house in 2009 in the name of Anurag Kashyap Films. Talking about his upcoming film Choked features Mirzya actor Saiyami Kher in lead roles along with Roshan Mathew, Amruta Subhash, and Rajshri Deshpande. Choked will premiere on Netflix on June 5. Talking about the plot, the film narrates the story of a bank cashier, who finds cash coming out of her kitchen sink when the country is facing demonetization of 2016. With an interesting storyline and different characters, no doubt, Choked will refresh the minds of the audience. Also Read: Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2: Kartik Aaryan, Kiara Advani starrer shoot wont begin anytime soon, confirms producer Earlier in an interview, Saiyami Kher opened up about her character Sarita and said that she is a sole breadwinner and middle-class women. She said that though Sarita gets frustrated from her circumstances, at the same time she never accepts defeat and tries hard to work towards her dreams. She added that the writer, Nihit Bhave has written the story beautifully and has woven the various complexities of middle-class people very nicely in the script. For all the latest Entertainment News, download NewsX App New Delhi : The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday, termed the public statements made by Ravi Shankars Art of Living (AOL) as very irresponsible after an expert panel gave its report on the Yamuna that the organisations cultural extravaganza had completely destroyed the riverbed. The benchs remarks came during the hearing when the counsel for AOL sought extension of time by three weeks for submitting its response to the expert committees report. The statements which your client (AOL) had made were very irresponsible. The media reports clearly stated what your client has said. What your client has done is very irresponsible, a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Swatanter Kumar said. In its statement to the media, the AOL had termed the expert committees report, submitted to the NGT, as biased and said it contains no analysis, no in-depth investigation, no reports of any scientific tests to support the conclusions. The conclusions in the report are merely the opinion of the expert committee without scientific basis. The report does not reflect the true state of the ground. The issue came up when AOLs counsel sought time to file a response to the report, while the counsel for petitioner and environmentalist Manoj Kumar Mishra of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan said the organisation has already formed its opinion on it as it released the statement to the media just a day after expert panels report. The very next day they formed their opinion. If they want time, why did they make their opinion in media, the counsel for the petitioner said. To this, AOLs advocate claimed that the organisation had not done any such thing as alleged by the opposite side and argued that it should not be made a media trial. The tribunal, however, granted a weeks time to AOL to file its response to the committees report. From the averments made in the application, there is hardly any ground for extension of time. We grant one weeks time for filing response. Reply be positively filed by September 12, the bench said, while posting the matter for September 28. AOL had on August 31 moved the tribunal seeking extension of time for submitting its response to the report. A seven-member expert committee headed by Shashi Shekhar, Secretary of Ministry of Water Resources, had opined that the three-day World Culture Festival organised by AOL had not only damaged the floodplain, but the ground too was now totally levelled, compacted and hardened and is totally devoid of water bodies or depressions and almost completely devoid of any vegetation. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. When Matthew Rhys learned of a planned "Perry Mason" remake, he had one question: "Oh God, why?" Rhys, 45, who played a Soviet sleeper agent in the FX espionage drama "The Americans" and a troubled journalist in the Mister Rogers movie "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood," hadn't read the Erle Stanley Gardner novels about Perry Mason, the defense attorney who never met a case he couldn't clobber. But as a kid, he had seen, over the shoulders of his grandparents, reruns of the original "Perry Mason" series from the 1950s and '60s, which starred a bluff Raymond Burr. Rhys had quickly absorbed the formula: A murder is committed. A suspect is arrested. Perry takes the case. Under his questioning, the real perpetrator breaks down, usually on the stand. Two years ago, Rhys' agent mentioned the new series. "I was like, 'Perry Mason?' No. No," Rhys said. Perry broke him, too. On June 21, HBO will air the first of eight "Perry Mason" episodes, with Rhys, in his first proper series lead, continuing his exploration of bruised, bruising men. A de-cozied departure from the books and the original series, this bleak and occasionally comic version, set in Depression-era Los Angeles, follows a lurid single case the murder and mutilation of a baby. Unbathed, gin-soaked, allergic to a close shave, Rhys' Perry gets his gut punched, his chest burned, his butt kicked. Thugs crumple his fedora. "The humor is very dark," Rhys said. He was speaking, in a Welsh accent like plinked piano keys, from a borrowed house in the Catskill mountains, where he and his partner, actress Keri Russell, had retreated in March with their young son and Russell's two children from a previous relationship. Cell reception was spotty there and Wi-Fi unreliable. ("It has the same mood as our 4-year-old and will cooperate when it wants to," Rhys said.) Even the landline sometimes dropped out, usually after Rhys said something grandiose about the human condition. "I downloaded the app Pretentious Actors," he joked. "It mutes you when it gets a whiff of it!" He was illustrating a maxim a half dozen of his colleagues had repeated: Rhys takes his work extremely seriously, but he takes himself much less so. Raised in Cardiff, Wales, and educated at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, Rhys' career ran hot and cold until Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg cast him alongside Russell in "The Americans," a drama about Russian agents posing as American citizens. As Philip Jennings, Rhys, who won an Emmy for the role, wore internal conflict as comfortably as one of the character's windbreakers, layering complex emotions one atop the other. Shortly after "The Americans" finished, he began shooting "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood," playing another unsettled character, magazine writer Lloyd Vogler. Marielle Heller, who directed that film, described an actor with an almost worrying lack of vanity and a talent for probing a character's dark places. "He likes to go into the depths of human psychology," she said. When she heard that he had signed on to "Perry Mason," she added, she wondered, "Why would that be what he would pick?" The Perry that Gardner invented and pursued through dozens of books from the '30s through the '60s, with more than 300 million copies sold is a behavioral vacuum. He's a suit, mouth and fist where a man should be. The first Perry Mason book, "The Case of the Velvet Claws," offers negligible psychology and a single physical tidbit: "His face in repose was like the face of a chess player who is studying the board. That face seldom changed expression." Rolin Jones and Ron Fitzgerald, showrunners of this new series, read the first eight books. "We were like, we're never going to find out if this guy even likes lasagna," Jones said in a conference call. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Producer Susan Downey, who had begun to develop this new "Perry Mason" as a vehicle for her husband, actor Robert Downey Jr., brought the project to them three years ago. Jones and Fitzgerald had the idea of creating a prequel, filling in backstory and emotional life. "We wanted to create a real character," Fitzgerald said. In 2018, HBO gave "Perry Mason" the go-ahead. Scheduling conflicts left Downey Jr. unavailable for the lead role (both Downeys stayed on as executive producers), and the showrunners quickly thought of Rhys. During a meeting at Dumbo House in Brooklyn and then over a giant seafood tower at a nearby restaurant, they helped him work through his doubts. How? They told him a story, a story about a wounded man who stumbles into a murder case and finds purpose in seeking justice. They gave him the first script, which shows Perry drunk, beaten, sexually battered by an aviatrix. Initially, he isn't even a lawyer he's a squalid private investigator who snaps in flagrante photos when he's not doing snoop work for a defense attorney, played by John Lithgow, with a foundering practice. "I was in," Rhys said. "I wanted to know how this guy gets to the Perry Mason that we all think we know and love." The Tweets Bulama Bakarti, a Boko Haram expert and conflict analyst, has revealed that he got a former primary school teacher jailed after the mans daughter wrote him a letter, begging him to save her from her father who rapes her. Bakarti revealed that the girls mother died and the father remarried. However, he looked for every opportunity to send his new wife out of the house so that he could be left alone with his daughter. He began raping his daughter from age 7 to age 14 when the girl opened up to a neighbour who then told her to write a letter and the letter was sent to Bakarti. The human rights activist said the girl begged that she doesnt want her father jailed. She said she only wants to be taken away from him and his new wife, who had started maltreating her after she discovered that her husband had an unholy interest in his daughter. Bakarti wrote: I contacted Hajiya Hussain the Kano State Chair of FIDA. She wasnt in town so she linked me up with another Hajiya who kindly offered to help us and accommodate the victim. I reported to the Police Area Command at Bank Road Kano (former MTD), who immediately swung into action. The man was eventually jailed while the girl was placed in the custody of someone else. Read Full Thread Below; Traditional libraries pay licensing fees to publishers and agree to make them available for a particular period or a certain number of times. Internet Archive, on the other hand, acquires copies through donated or purchased books, which are then scanned and put online. A group of publishers sued Internet Archive on 1 June, saying that the nonprofit groups trove of free electronic copies of books is robbing authors and publishers of revenue at a moment when it is desperately needed. Internet Archive has made more than 1.3 million books available for free online, according to the complaint, which were scanned and available to one borrower at a time for a period of 14 days. Then in March, the group said it would lift all restrictions on its book lending until the end of the public health crisis, creating what it called a National Emergency Library to serve the nations displaced learners. But many publishers and authors have called it something different: theft. There is nothing innovative or transformative about making complete copies of books to which you have no rights and giving them away for free, said Maria A Pallante, president of the Association of American Publishers, which is helping to coordinate the industrys response. Theyve stepped in downstream and taken the intellectual investment of authors and the financial investment of publishers; theyre interfering and giving this away. The lawsuit, which accused Internet Archive of willful mass copyright infringement, was filed in federal court in Manhattan on behalf of Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley & Sons and Penguin Random House. Brewster Kahle, founder and digital librarian of Internet Archive, defended his organization and said it was functioning as a library during the coronavirus pandemic, when physical libraries have been closed. As a library, the Internet Archive acquires books and lends them, as libraries have always done, he said in an email. This supports publishing and authors and readers. Publishers suing libraries for lending books, in this case, protected digitized versions, and while schools and libraries are closed, is not in anyones interest. But Internet Archive operates differently from public libraries with e-book lending programs. Traditional libraries pay licensing fees to publishers and agree to make them available for a particular period or a certain number of times. Internet Archive, on the other hand, acquires copies through donated or purchased books, which are then scanned and put online. Kahle said that the group decided to drop lending restrictions because teachers were looking for more resources to help facilitate remote learning after school buildings were closed. Authors who do not want their work included on the site could opt out, he said. Some authors, however, had asked that their work be included, he added. There is a long list of authors in the lawsuit who disagree, including Malcolm Gladwell, John Grisham and Elizabeth Gilbert. Douglas Preston, a writer and president of the Authors Guild, said in a statement that the wholesale scanning and posting of copyrighted books without the consent of authors, and without paying a dime, is piracy hidden behind a sanctimonious veil of progressivism. The lawsuit argues not just against the National Emergency Library format, in which books can be lent without restriction, but says that Internet Archives long-standing approach to book lending seeks to destroy the carefully calibrated ecosystem that makes books possible. Pallante of the Association of American Publishers said that aggrieved publishers had been weighing their legal options before the pandemic struck. Books have long been essential to our society, the complaint said. Fiction and nonfiction alike, they transport us to new worlds, broaden our horizons, provide us with perspective, reflect the ever-growing knowledge of humanity in every field, spark our imaginations and deepen our understanding of the world. Yet, books are not self-generating. They are the product of training and study, talent and grit, perseverance and creativity, investment and risk, and untold hours of work. Elizabeth A Harris c.2020 The New York Times Company The unprecedented crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic has severely dented Sri Lanka's economy, causing a steep fall in the earnings from tourism, remittances and outflow of foreign investment, the nation's central bank has said. The statement from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka came on Monday as the country was facing the worst financial crisis in its history due to the economic and travel curbs imposed after the coronavirus outbreak. Sri Lanka has reported 11 deaths and 1,643 confirmed COVID-19 cases. "The COVID-19 lockdown had severely impacted Sri Lankas economy with fall in earnings from tourism, remittances and outflow of foreign investment," the apex bank said. The severest impact was recorded in the tourism sector, with a drop of tourist arrivals by over 70 per cent year-on-year in March. Sri Lanka announced its lockdown in mid-March following the detection of the first COVID-19 positive case on March 11. Tourism accounts for about five per cent of the economy, with Britain, India and China the main markets. The number of international tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka declined in March 2020 by 70.8 per cent in comparison to a year ago as the tourism industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak. The island nation suspended all of its passenger flights and ships to contain the spread of the highly contagious viral disease. "With these developments earnings from tourism were provisionally estimated to have declined to USD 135 million in March 2020 in comparison to USD 461 million in March 2019," the central bank said. Sri Lanka has been mulling the idea of opening up the airports to welcome back the tourists and revive the sector. The remittances from Sri Lankan expatriates, a major income earner to the country, had also declined by 13.9 per cent in March year on year amounting to USD 492 million. The net outflow of foreign investments worth USD 261 million was recorded in March. In the tiny stock market, a net outflow of USD 6 million was also noted. The trading floor was shut from mid-March to mid-May due to the lockdown, the bank said. The central bank said that the Sri Lankan rupee had also depreciated significantly with the outbreak of the pandemic "during the latter part of March up to mid April, reaching a peak of rupees 199.75 per US dollar on April 9. The rupee however had gained by 2.4 per cent by June. With outbreak of the pandemic, the government had introduced imports control measures by almost banning all non essential imports a move widely seen to bring in rupee's stability by preserving foreign reserves. "Gross official reserves stood at USD 7.5 billion at the end of March 2020, equivalent to 4.6 months of imports, the apex bank said. Sri Lanka's economy has in general been impacted since last year when the country was jolted by the Easter Sunday attacks, which killed over 250 people including Indians, impacting the tourism in the nation. This year with economic woes in sight, Sri Lanka opted to seek help from India through currency swap arrangements. Sri Lanka had already secured a 400 million dollar swap from India through the SAARC arrangement. On May 23, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the phone and urged India to provide a special USD 1.1 billion currency swap facility to boost the country's draining foreign exchange reserves in view of the economic slowdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. PTI CORR RUP AKJ RUP In an act unprecedented in American history, Donald Trump has repudiated the Constitution and is attempting to establish a presidential dictatorship, supported by the military, police and far-right fascistic militia acting under his command. The Socialist Equality Party appeals to the working class and all those committed to the defense of democratic rights to oppose this criminal action. Speaking on national television, Trump proclaimed: I am your president of law and order Our nation has been gripped by professional anarchists, arsonists, looters, criminals, Antifa and others. Trumps fascistic rant came only minutes after he ordered massively armed military police to launch a violent attack on citizens engaged in a lawful and peaceful assembly outside the White House to protest the police murder of George Floyd. The cowardly and vicious assault by military forces on unarmed citizens exercising their First Amendment rights in Washington DC will live in infamy as the beginning of a coup detat by a criminal administration. These are not acts of peaceful protests, Trump said, These are acts of domestic terror. Trump is enraged by the most significant display of multi-racial, multi-ethnic unity of workers and young people in opposition to racist police violence in the history of the United States. Trump declared that he will deploy the military, in violation of the Constitution, to suppress protests. Referring to a conference call with governors that he held earlier in the day, Trump said that a number of state and local governments have failed to take necessary action, and that he had strongly recommended that they deploy the National Guard in sufficient numbers so that we dominate the streets. He then issued the following criminal threat: If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the US military and quickly solve the problem for them. Trump also announced he was using the nations capital as a staging ground for a national military deployment: I am also taking swift and decisive action to protect our great capital, Washington DC. As we speak, I am dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel and law enforcement to stop the rioting. Trump declared that protesters will be arrested, detained and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I want the organizers of this terror to be on notice that you will face severe criminal penalties and lengthy sentences in jail. This includes Antifa and others who are leading instigators of this violence. One law and order is what it is. One law, we have one beautiful law. These are the threats of a would-be tin-pot military dictator. Trump provided no legal or constitutional basis for his unprecedented actions. His invocation of the 1807 Insurrection Act is historically fraudulent and legally invalid. The Act does not allow him to deploy the military in cases where the governors of the states refuse to request intervention. In his earlier call with state governors, Trump demanded that they violently suppress protests against police violence. This is a movement, and if you dont put it down it will get worse and worse. You have to dominate, and if you dont dominate you are wasting your time. They are going to run all over you, and youll look like a bunch of jerks. Trump called the governors weak for failing to mobilize tens of thousands of national guardsmen against the demonstrators, saying they must wipe them [the protesters] out. To oversee the domestic deployment of the military, Trump announced that he was appointing General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to be in charge of the government response. Trump did not explain on what legal basis he made this decision, which violates the Posse Comitatus prohibition on the domestic use of the military. In the call with governors, Attorney General William Barr also explained that federal prosecution of demonstrators had been placed under the Joint Terrorist Task Force, a multi-department military-intelligence agency in charge of prosecuting combatants captured in the wars in the Middle East and Central Asia. Trump demanded that the Department of Justice put em in jail for 10 years. The presidents congressional ally, Florida Republican Matt Gaetz, called for widespread assassination of political opponents: Now that we clearly see Antifa as terrorists, can we hunt them down like we do those in the Middle East? A turning point in American history has been reached. Trumps efforts to establish a personal dictatorship on the basis of military rule is the product of a protracted crisis of American democracy, under the impact of extreme social inequality and endless war. The defeat of Trumps attempted coup detat depends on the intervention of the working class, which must take the lead in the defense of democratic rights. No serious opposition to Trumps actions can be expected from the Democratic Party. It has responded to Trumps proclamation with characteristic fecklessness. The favored response of Democrats to Trumps illegal actions is that the president is not being helpful by inflaming social tensions. As if being helpful was part of Trumps political agenda! After Trumps conference call with governors, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker meekly called for Trumps removal at the ballot box in November, while former presidential candidate Hilary Clinton urged the population to vote. But Trump may not plan on holding an election at all. If an election is held, it may be under conditions of martial law, with massive intimidation by the military, police and right-wing paramilitaries. Such were the conditions under which the Nazis presided over the last legal election in Germany in March 1933, six weeks after Hitler had become chancellor. For the past three-and-a-half years, the Democrats have worked to suppress mass opposition to the Trump regime and direct it behind their own reactionary anti-Russia campaign, channeling the demands of dominant sections of the military and intelligence agencies. The Democrats are no less terrified than Trump of the emergence of a mass movement of the working class. Trumps authoritarian moves cannot be separated from the broader crisis facing the entire ruling class. With the support of both parties, the corporate and financial oligarchy has utilized the coronavirus pandemic to hand trillions of dollars to itself. It is now implementing a homicidal back-to-work policy that will ensure a massive expansion of cases and deaths. Already more than 100,000 people in the US have died from the pandemic, while more than 30 million workers are unemployed. The pandemic has triggered growing opposition within the working class to social inequality, of which the mass protests against the murder of George Floyd are an initial expression. If demonstrations over the killing of George Floyd are illegal, how will the government respond to strikes and demonstrations of tens of millions of workers that threaten the survival of capitalism? It was the growth of the class struggle that Trump had in mind when he told the governors that protests movements must be suppressed before they get worse and worse. There can be no greater mistake than believing that Trumps threats are not for real, that the crisis will quietly fade away, and that everything will return to normal. In fact, this crisis is just getting started. American democracy has exhausted itself. It cannot be reconstituted on the basis of the existing capitalist social structure. Trumps threats must be countered by a massive movement of the working class. It is clear that the fight against police brutality, inequality and authoritarianism is inseparable from a fight by the working class against the government. As the WSWS wrote in its June 1 statement, Trump incites violent police rampage against protesters: The working classupon which the functioning of society dependshas the power to stop the assault on democratic rights, create a massive political movement to drive Trump from power, break the back of the corporate-financial oligarchy and begin the restructuring of economic life on a socialist basis. Moreover, the power of the working class in the United States is vastly augmented by the opposition of the international working class to the Trump administration, which is seen as the unvarnished expression of the brutality of American capitalism. During the past week, there have been mass protests around the world over the murder of George Floyd. Trumps attempt to establish a dictatorship in the United States will vastly expand the scope of international working class protests. The Socialist Equality Party and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality have immense confidence in the power of the American working class. We will continue to provide working people with the information, analysis and perspective they require in developing a strategy to defeat Trumps bid for dictatorship and advancing the fight for socialism. Following their detention, both Abid Hussain Abid and Mohammad Tahir have been declared persona non grata and expelled from India. According to top Intelligence sources, Abid and Tahir both identified themselves as clerks working with the Indian Army during their meeting with a decoy on Sunday afternoon in Delhi's Karol Bagh area. "They said that they were posted as clerks in the Indian Army and some times they gave their identity as working in other government offices. And they tried to gather information about the deployment of the Indian forces," the source said. On Sunday, the MI detained three men - identified as Abid (42), an assistant in the Pakistani mission, Tahir (44), a clerk, and Javed Hussain (36), a driver - who had been under surveillance for the past few months. According to the Intelligence officials, they were caught red-handed while obtaining information on the Indian security establishment from a decoy. The source said that they are being sent back to Pakistan and they will be crossing the Punjab's Atari border on Monday evening. An official statement of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Sunday night said that the two officials of the High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi were apprehended for indulging in espionage activities. Pakistan's Charge de Affaires was issued a demarche, in which a strong protest was lodged with regard to the activities of the officials of the High Commission of Pakistan against India's national security, the government said. IANS has also accessed the call and audio recordings of Abid with a decoy and their meeting in the Karol Bagh area. In the call, that was made on the decoy's phone by Abid, the alleged Pakistani spy can be heard saying, "I have taken your number from a friend thinking that it was my friend." Abid further told the decoy that there was a friend with the same name and that was the reason why he asked for his number from one of the friends in the Indian Army. Abid also informed the decoy that he has kept his family in Noida and stay there with them and not in the unit. In the audio, Abid is also heard asking the decoy, whether he uses WhatsApp, to which he replied that they are not allowed to use the WhatsApp. Abid then interferes with him and said that there is no such rules and "we use it (WhatsApp)". "May be you are new that is the reason why," Abid told the decoy. Abid also asked the decoy to save his mobile number. In the 22-minute audio clip recorded during the meeting of the spy with the decoy, which has been accessed by IANS, the two spies can be heard asking the decoy if he shall eat anything in a restaurant. The decoy of the Military intelligence said that now those (troops) who have gone on leave, will not come. Abid then asks the decoy to sit with them in the canteen for the talk. The decoy can also be heard saying that the troopers who have gone back to their homes have exhausted their leaves. Then one of the spies also told the decoy that during the nationwide lockdown their company in the BRT were also not allowed to go for seven day exercise. However, they were sent back later. One of the spies told the decoy that he shall brief him about the work. "If you understand the work, then say ok," he is heard saying in the audio clip. The decoy then tells the spies that the condition (Covid-19 pandemic) is not such worse as what has been said. "Is anyone giving the clear picture of how many people have died. News channels say a lot of things," the Pakistani spy asks the decoy. The spy then once again asks the decoy, how did he manage to come out of his unit. The decoy replies to the spy that he came out after informing that he was going to "market". The spies can be heard saying in the audio xlip that it is very tough to go out of the unit these days. The decoy then says that earlier those who went back to their house, the unit asked them to report to work. "And our leaves were also cancelled," he told the spies. However, 10 minutes later the team of the MI, assisted ny the Delhi Police Special Cell and the Intelligence Bureau detained the two spies. According to intelligence sources, out of the two, Hussain (42), working as an assistant in the Department of Trade in Pakistan High Commission, was an operative of Pakistan's spy agency, ISI and is from Punjab province of Pakistan. While indulging in espionage activities, he told Indian defence personnel that he was from Amritsar. His colleague, an upper division clerk in the high commission, Tahir (44), who is from Islamabad, would accompany him on the espionage missions. The two officials had been on the radar of the Indian agencies for their suspicious activities including attempts to contact and lure service personnel for espionage, a source said. The source further said that the MI's operation to bust the espionage racket was going on for last five to six months. "But the lockdown delayed the operation as there was complete ban on the movement of the troops from their unit," he added. The source further said that as per the secret plans of the ISI, they started to work with the Pakistan High Commission since 2013, while one got posted as the driver. They were also paid hefty amount every month for the espionage, the source said. The source said that the job of the two spies was to collect information related to the Indian Military deployment on the borders with Pakistan, the details of the armoury and other classified information. He also said that both the Pakistani spies were having good contacts with the people posted in the lower grades in the Army and have made familiar relations with many of them. (Anand Singh can be contacted at anand.s@ians.in) --IANS aks/skp/ Lok Sabha may convene in July with social distancing norms India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, June 02: The Lok Sabha is likely to convene in July at the Central Hall. The July session is likely to see the Lok Sabha vacating its changer for Rajya Sabha and moving its proceedings to the Central Hall. This would help to spread out sitting arrangements in view of the social distancing norms. The Central Hall which has a sitting capacity of 800 can accommodate 543 members of the Lok Sabha, while adhering to social distancing norms. A similar exercise is proposed to be achieved by shifting the sitting of the Rajya Sabha to a bigger chamber of the lower house. Elections for 18 Rajya Sabha seats to be held on June 19 WHO says Sars-Cov-2 is still a killer virus, rejects 'losing potency' claim | Oneindia News These points were discussed in a meeting on Monday between Rajya Sabha chairman, Venkaiah Naidu and Speaker Om Birla. During the meeting, the two presiding officers also discussed the possibility of holding virtual sessions of Parliament. This would mean allowing the MPs to take part in the proceedings from wherever they are. In a letter to Birla, BJD leader Bhartuhari Mahtab spoke about the 23 nations where virtual meetings of the parliament and parliamentary committees were being held. He also urged the Speaker to undo confidentiality clauses that were cited to disallow House Committee meetings in India since the lockdown was announced. COVID-19 pandemic: Government mulls holding an e-Parliament session During the meeting, Naidu and Birla noted that there was no requirement of maintaining confidentiality of the proceedings of both Houses, which are telecast live. The Chairmen of various committees of Parliament urged the presiding officers to grant permission to hold virtual meetings in the light of the travel restrictions due to the lockdown. Both Naidu and Birla suggested that the chairmen of the various committees to convene regular meetings. It was further suggested that they should convene the meetings after ascertaining whether the MPs would be able to attend the same. Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin. (Ramsey County Sheriff's Office) The Minneapolis Police Department on Tuesday released personnel records for Derek Chauvin, the now-fired officer accused of killing George Floyd, a black man whose death has sparked protest nationwide. The records provide some insight into Chauvin's background, starting as a military police officer with the U.S. Army from September 1996 to February 1997 and again from September 1999 to May 2000. However, the records included little detail about the at least 17 times that Chauvin was the subject of internal affairs investigations by the Minneapolis department. Chauvin, who had worked with the department since October 2001, had been disciplined for only one incident during his tenure. It occurred in August 2007 in Longfellow, a neighborhood just south of downtown Minneapolis. Chauvin was accused of pulling a woman out of her car after stopping her for going 10 miles over the speed limit. The woman filed the complaint the next day. Investigators found that Chauvin "did not have to remove complainant from car" and that he "could've conducted interview outside the vehicle." Further investigation showed that Chauvin's squad car video camera was turned off during the course of the stop. Chauvin received a letter of reprimand for the incident, the details of which were redacted. Chauvin last week was fired and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter in George's death. Chauvin is being held at a state prison. Reports indicate Chauvin was previously involved in multiple shootings. In 2006, he shot and killed a suspect who allegedly had a gun. In 2008, he shot a domestic assault suspect, and in 2011, he fired at a man seen running from another shooting. The other officers at the scene when Floyd died Thomas Lane, Tou Thao, and J Alexander Kueng are being investigated for their roles. Chauvin and the other officers could not be reached for comment. Thao, Kueng, Lane and Chauvin did not respond requests for comment before print deadlines. Story continues According to internal records, Thao has been investigated at least six times by the department. None of those investigations resulted in discipline, records show. One case is pending. On Tuesday, Gov. Tim Walz announced that the state's Department of Human Rights will investigate the Minneapolis Police Department and filed a "civil rights charge related to the death of George Floyd. In the past few days, additional reports have surfaced of police violence against black people. Louisville restaurant owner David McAtee was shot by police and National Guard troops responding to gunfire on Monday. In Atlanta, six officers were charged with excessive force after a video of their confrontation with two college students went viral. An independent autopsy commissioned by Floyds family found he died of asphyxiation due to neck and back compression, contradicting the county's official report. Protests have occurred throughout California. In Los Angeles, officers with the LAPD's Hollywood Division took at least 585 people into custody on Monday alone. In Washington, peaceful protests descended into chaos after federal law enforcement fired tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades at demonstrators to clear a pathway for President Trump to walk to a nearby Episcopal church and pose for a photo-op holding a Bible. The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington called the events an outrage. If the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, then Guy Sebastian is sure to be very content. On Monday, his wife Jules, 42, left fans drooling as she whipped up a delectable looking lasagne in a slow cooker from their $3.1million Sydney mansion. In a video posted to Instagram, Jules told her 171,000 followers the simple dish was child approved and that her sons said it 'was better than any restaurant' meal. Master Chef! Jules Sebastian (pictured) stunned fans with her mouthwatering slow cooked lasagne recipe she shared to Instagram on Monday- which left them begging for a cookbook In the video, Jules assembled a variety of ingredients which included store-bought pasta sheets and sauces, tomato paste, cream, grated cheese and a selection of spices. It took the always-fashionable stylist less than 10 mins to prepare the meat and sauce layers of the dish, before she assembled it in her slow cooker. With a cooking time of three and a half hours, the stylist revealed it left her plenty of time to catch up on things around the house. 'In the 3.5 hours it took I did multiple loads of washing and curled my hair,' she said. Effortless: The mother-of-two prepared the sauce and meat layers in less then 10 minutes Afterward, Jules dished up a plate of her scrumptious-looking creation oozing with cheese. Her fans rushed to tell her how amazing the lasagne looked, begging for more recipes or even a cookbook. 'More slow cooker recipes please, I am obsessed,' commented one. Kid-friendly: Jules told her followers the simple dish was child approved and that her sons said it 'was better than any restaurant' meal Another added: 'I never thought to do lasagne in a slow cooker but I'm giving this a try'. 'When's your cook booking coming out? I'm living for your videos,' another asked. Jules has been isolating at her Maroubra mansion with Guy and their children Hudson, eight, and Archer, six since the coronavirus outbreak in March. Yummy: 'When's your cook booking coming out? I'm living for your videos' commented one impressed follower Last week, she appeared happier than ever as her two boys finally returned to school. Sharing a video to Instagram after the drop-off, Jules gushed: 'I'm very grateful my kids have gone back to school this week.' 'I'm not ready for this. I'm not ready for this life, not yet,' she jokingly said with a cheeky smile on her face, while dressed in a white Adidas hoodie. Sacramento, CA The chief education officials in all of Californias 58 counties, including the Mother Lode, weigh-in in solidarity over the recent killing of George Floyd and the events happening in the aftermath. During a live stream teleconference Monday, State Schools Superindent Tony Thurmond, the only elected official in the state who is African American, announced plans to lead an effort focusing on racism in public schools as he shared emotional remarks about the killing that he said left him struggling to answer his own childrens questions as to why it happened. He emphasized that now is the time to address racism and implicit bias in education and said he had reached out to state superintendents around the country and will be initiating conversations with educational leaders, parents, and students along with working with elected officials, police chiefs and government agencies in every sector. On Tuesday, the school superintendents of every county, including Tuolumne and Calaveras, responded by releasing a joint statement. It reads, Over the weekend, we watched peaceful protests call for justice and equality after the killing of George Floyd. We saw thousands of people engage in nonviolent peaceful protests. We also witnessed media images of violence in our communities and across America. Our children will seek to understand these events. As adults and educators, we must listen and respond with honesty and empathy. We also must teach them to stand up against racism, injustice, and inequity through non-violent means. Current events demonstrate both the urgency and fundamental importance of embedding in public education the values of eliminating racism and implicit bias, the principle of identifying and closing inequities in educational opportunities and achievement, and the urgency of promoting thoughtful expression and moral courage. Working with State Superintendent Thurmond and other state and local education leaders, the 58 county superintendents of California are committed to continuing the important conversation illuminated by recent events, and to promoting equity and justice as fundamental principles in all our activities. Asked to further share her thoughts, Tuolumne County Schools Superintendent Cathy Parker states, Adults must educate children and young people and model for them how to peacefully stand up against injustice, racism, and inequity. Educators should pledge an even stronger commitment to equity and to confronting racism wherever it is found. The answer is not found in violence or the destruction of our community. It is found in ourselves and in the belief that together we can change an inequitable system. Calaveras County Schools Superintendent Scott Nanik adds, I am greatly saddened and appalled at the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. I understand the peaceful protesters and support their message. I do not, however, support the violence that is being conducted on our cities and communities. More than ever public education needs to reinforce the importance of eliminating racism and implicit bias. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, D, is insisting that the Republican convention in August be scaled back out of concern about the coronavirus pandemic. In a letter Monday responding to Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel and the committee's president, Marcia Lee Kelly, Cooper said his state could not agree to their demands for a " 'full convention' which includes 19,000 delegates," as well as "full hotels and restaurants and bars at capacity." "As much as we want the conditions surrounding COVID-19 to be favorable enough for you to hold the Convention you describe in late August, it is very unlikely," Cooper wrote. "Neither public health officials nor I will risk the health and safety of North Carolinians by providing the guarantee you seek." Cooper said holding a "scaled-down convention" with fewer participants than the RNC requested, with social distancing measures and face coverings is "a necessity." He added the state would gladly continue talks to hold a convention with such measures. President Donald Trump last week threatened to move the convention to a different city if Cooper would not comply with his request for a convention featuring all 50,000 expected participants. Cooper's letter was sent one day before the RNC's self-imposed June 3 deadline to receive a guarantee from the governor that they could hold a full-fledged event. In response to Cooper's letter, McDaniel said she hoped the RNC would be able to continue to hold the convention in Charlotte as planned but would begin to look at other options. She also chided Cooper for not giving specifics. "It is unfortunate the Governor is dragging his feet on giving us any guidance as to how to move forward with plans to safely conduct our convention," McDaniel said in a statement posted on Twitter. The RNC and the state have been sparring for months over how and whether to hold the convention in Charlotte as planned amid the coronavirus pandemic. Last week, McDaniel sent a letter to Cooper spelling out safety protocols the RNC would follow at the convention, including pre-travel health surveys, daily health questionnaires through an app, thermal scans, aggressive sanitizing and widely available anti-bacterial gel. The list of precautions, however, did not include face masks or social distancing, as requested by North Carolina officials. As the talks appeared to bog down, other Republican governors have said that they would happily host the convention in their states. On Tuesday, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, R, said at a news conference that RNC officials would tour Nashville on Thursday and that his office had "just begun those conversations," saying the city is "the best place in America to have a convention." Butch Spyridon, president and CEO of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp., said he was aware of the governor's interest but that has "not had any official contact with the RNC at this time." Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, R, said last week that his state would be happy to host the convention "as best we can in accordance with whatever safety requirements" are needed, and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, R, tweeted that his state would "be honored to safely host" the convention. On Tuesday morning, three Republicans who represent areas around Charlotte in South and North Carolina in Congress, Reps. Ralph Norman, Dan Bishop and Ted Budd, held a news conference in front of the Spectrum Center calling on Cooper to give guidance on how to have a "full, in-person convention." Austrian officials unveiled Tuesday plans to "neutralise" Adolf Hitler's birth house by turning it into a police station, with the building receiving some cosmetic changes in the process. The yellow corner house in the northern Austrian town of Braunau on the border with Germany, where Hitler was born on April 20 1889, was taken into government control in 2016. The building's fate was the subject of a lengthy legal battle with the house's owner, which only ended last year. Austrian architecture firm Marte.Marte, run by two brothers, has been chosen from among 12 candidates to carry out the modifications to the property. The government expects the work to cost some 5 million euros ($5.6 million) and be completed by early 2023. "A new chapter will be opened for the future from the birth house of a dictator and mass murderer," Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said at a press conference announcing the plans. Ministry official Hermann Feiner added that by adjusting the architecture and usage of the building the government aimed to "neutralise the entire premises". Although Hitler only spent a short time at the property, it has continued to draw Nazi sympathisers from around the world. Anti-fascist protesters have also organised rallies outside the building on Hitler's birthday. Officials said Tuesday that the 800-square-metre (8,600-square-feet) property -- which also has several garages and parking spaces located behind the main building -- would get two pointed gables but that much of the original structure would remain intact. A commemorative plaque outside the building will also be removed and may be exhibited in a museum. Austria's highest court ruled last year that Gerlinde Pommer, whose family owned the house for nearly a century, was entitled to some 810,000 euros in compensation, ending a lengthy legal battle. Pommer had been renting the property to the interior ministry since the 1970s. The government paid her around 4,800 euros a month and used it as a centre for people with disabilities. But this arrangement fell apart in 2011 when Pommer refused to carry out essential renovation work and also declined to sell it. Since then, the building has lain empty. At one point, the interior ministry was pushing to have it torn down but the plans ran into angry resistance from politicians and historians. Germany annexed Austria in 1938, and although many top henchmen from Hitler downwards were Austrians, historians say the small Alpine country was slow to acknowledge for many years its shared responsibility for the Holocaust and the other crimes of the Nazis. Under the directives received from the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), VFS Global, the world's largest visa outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments and diplomatic missions worldwide, has reopened its Canada Visa Application Centre in Manama with strict health and safety guidelines in place. Located at block 317, the Diplomatic Commercial Office Towers, 18th Floor, Office 2401, the centre restarts operations from 01 June 2020 and will initially limit its visa services to: 1. Accepting biometric collection from customers who have prior appointment and biometric instruction letter (BIL). 2. Return of passport/supporting documents through courier services or in-person collection at the centre. The centre will not accept any new visa application until further notice. In order to ensure a safe, productive work environment for employees, while still protecting communities to the maximum extent possible from the spread of the COovid-19 coronavirus, VFS Global has established standardised protective measures to be followed across the centre including specific social distancing and sanitation mandates. All customers are subjected to body temperature checks at the entrance of the centre to assess their health conditions. Any customer exhibiting Covid-19 symptoms, including high fever, cough and difficulty in breathing will not be permitted to enter the center and requested to return once the health condition improves. Additionally, all customers and VFS Global employees are required to wear a face mask and gloves within the centre. For any queries, customers may call the helpline or visit the website at https://visa.vfsglobal.com/bhr/en/can . -TradeArabia News Service The Chairman of the Peoples National Convention (PNC), Mr Bernard Mornah, will today, Tuesday, 2 June 2020, honour an invitation by the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service concerning some comments he made with regard to the Electoral Commissions decision to compile a new voter roll ahead of the 2020 polls. Mr Mornah, who is the Convener of the Inter-Party Resistance Against New Register (IPRAN), a group that is kicking against the new roll, said on 26 May 2020 at a press conference, that: Well beat and kill each other should confusion arise at any voter ID card registration centre during the forthcoming exercise, thus, his invitation by the police. He is expected to meet the CID at its headquarters at 10 am in Accra. Meanwhile, the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has said it endorses and subscribes to the caution given by Mr Mornah to the Electoral Commission (EC) in respect of a potential outbreak of political violence at registration centres, as a result of the exclusion of the existing voter ID card from the list of identification requirements the EC intends using in compiling a new voter register from June. Reacting to Mr Mornahs police invitation, the NDC, another party against the compilation of the register, noted in a statement signed by Mr Peter Boamah Otokunor, Deputy General Secretary (Operation) that: We wish to state our unequivocal support for the caution Comrade Mornah offered to the EC at the said press conference, for purposes of emphasis, the NDC wholly endorses and subscribes fully to the comments made by Comrade Bernard Mornah. According to the NDC, the entrenched decision of the Jean Mensa-led EC to compile a needless, illogical and wasteful new voter register for the 2020 general elections, has the tendency to spark chaos and electoral violence across the country. Furthermore, the NDC noted that the continuous unjustifiable intransigence of the EC and flagrant disregard for stakeholder consultations and consensus building in the handling of the processes leading to the 2020 general elections, are a recipe for confusion and democratic retrogression. The party said the invitation of Mr Mornah by the Ghana Police Service is nothing but political puppetism on the part of the law enforcement agency, and part of a grand orchestration by the NPP government to intimidate and demobilise the front of the Resistance in its spirited opposition to the needless and illogical decision of the EC to compile a new voter register ahead of the 2020 polls. The NDC reiterated that it is convinced the Jean Mensa-led Electoral Commission is determined to skew the voter registration process in order to disenfranchise millions of eligible voters in order to rig the 2020 general elections for President Akufo-Addo and the governing NPP, adding that they shall employ every legitimate means to stop this evil conspiracy of the EC, NIA and the ruling NPP. The NDC has, therefore, encouraged its supporters to rise in solidarity with Mr Mornah on Tuesday when he honours the police invitation at the CID headquarters. Source: classfmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Def Jam RecordingsOn social media, Big Sean has opened about his experience as a black man in America, after protesting with the Black Lives Matter movement in response to the death of George Floyd. "Justice has to be served. Period," the Detroit rapper said in a video posted on his Instagram and Twitter. "And if it's not, I don't think things are going to change or get better." "I know I been protesting, I know a lot of us been out on the streets protesting and it's been a lot of unity, but I also see a lot of people with ulterior motives that look like undercover cops," he explained. "And we've all seen places where they've got them bricks conveniently located to wreak havoc, and I don't know what the ulterior motive is." Sean also spoke about the history of slavery, discrimination in the "Southern states" and ending systemic oppression. "That's how deep it goes back," he said. "So no wonder that a cop feels like they could kill a black man or woman and feel like it's a way of life." On being a black man in America, Big Sean said, "I don't feel equal and I don't feel free." "Of course, let's speak up and be heard, but things have to change. Maybe these rules have to get updated, maybe these laws have to get updated, [but] the government has to relay that foundation because it is a racist foundation right now." Big Sean ended the video by thanking supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement, declaring, "I'm so proud to be black." By Rachel George Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Battered and bruised with zero or reduced sale during the country-wide lockdown in the last two months, multiple online sellers are now complaining of delayed payments by US-based e-tailer Amazon. The Amazon India Sellers page on social networking site Facebook is filled with posts from sellers claiming lack of payments since the last two weeks. Many of them are small-scale sellers who are also finding it difficult to sustain the business cycle with this backlog for long. The issue happens within a month after the government allowed e-commerce companies to sell non-essential items on their platforms across select zones. According to one of the affected sellers, Amazon has changed its payments policy after May 15. "Earlier the payment came after the shipment of the product. However, now it will come only after the product is delivered," the seller who runs his business from Rajasthan told Moneycontrol, requesting anonymity. This brings a lot of uncertainty since the deliveries of many products are delayed these days because of the on -ground restrictions around COVID- 19 in the country. Running a business has become all the more difficult for smaller sellers who depend on their weekly payments. "Many of them are facing liquidity crunch and are unable to pick new orders from their dealers for selling," he said, adding that on an average now the delivery of products are getting delayed by 3-6 days across categories. Sellers upset On its Facebook page, the company has stated that the "funds are available for transfer to your (seller's) bank account, seven days after the estimated delivery date or actual delivery date, whichever is earlier." Expressing his discontent, Sanket Vaghani, a seller, posted on Facebook how this issue was impacting businesses. According to him, earlier the business stopped in March. When the business restarted, the orders were less. When the orders picked up, the payment has been stopped. Confirming a change in the policy, Amazon India spokesperson told Moneycontrol that now the sellers will be entitled to a daily payment instead of once-a-week schedule; however, the same will happen after the delivery of the product and not after the shipment, like earlier. We fully recognise that these are difficult times for our selling partners. Hence, to help them manage their working capital and cash flow better, we have enabled on-demand payment disbursement for our seller partners. With this new capability, sellers are now able to get payments daily (once in 24 hours) against a fixed weekly payment cycle," the spokesperson said. "We listened to a lot of feedback from our seller partners and understood that a large number of them wanted the option of getting funds disbursed when they want and not receive payments once a week. This change makes funds from the sales that seller partners make available for transfer seven days after the estimated delivery date of an order or actual delivery date, whichever is earlier," she added. Even as this happened, sellers across both Amazon and Flipkart also claimed that their products were getting delisted from the marketplaces. Missing listings Requesting anonymity, two Flipkart sellers Moneycontrol spoke to said that their products had been delisted in the last one week. One of the sellers said that the company has assured him that the same was happening because of logistical issues and will be taken care of shortly. However, according to him, these are difficult days and even a day without business means huge losses for a small company like his. Meanwhile, Rohit Devika, another Amazon seller, also posted on the e-tailers seller page the issue pertaining to missing listings. "My listings have been made inactive by Amazon and there has been no notification," the seller said. Acknowledging the issue, a Flipkart spokesperson told Moneycontrol: As the external environment continues to change rapidly, were working in full compliance with local authorities and state governments to help consumers receive their products at the doorstep, as they practise social distancing. In order to do so, we are prioritising the needs of the consumers and increasing our serviceability across all regions which may lead to certain seller listings being subject to these changes. As the country enters into Unlock 1.0 phase and the restrictions around curfew timings ease, we will be able to further ramp up our capacities and work with lakhs of our local seller partners and MSMEs to ensure that their customers are serviced in the best manner." The maximum city breached the 40,000-mark of Covid-19 positive cases at the start of the week on Sunday. Its mid-week forecast doesnt look too rosy either barely 9 nautical miles or 16 km (over sea) south of the city, a severe cyclonic storm is expected to make landfall on Wednesday afternoon. Already stretched in resources due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday scrambled to activate its disaster response plan for cyclone Nisarga, which is likely to cause very heavy rainfall and bring with it the threat of inundation in the citys low-lying areas including Dharavi, Dadar and Mahim, all of which fall within G-Ward, which has the highest number of Covid positive cases in the city. In fact, many of the citys low-lying areas, such as Kurla, Byculla, Wadala, and Andheri have recorded some of the highest numbers of infections, thus raising concern over the impending strain on healthcare facilities. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that Mumbai is likely to experience extremely heavy rainfall and high speed winds due to the cyclone, which in turn is expected to have the worst impact on slums and tenements, as well as disrupt power and water supply and cause havoc through tree falls and flooding. Municipal Commissioner IS Chahal instructed all ward officers to identify evacuees, and safe shelters, and prepare evacuation plans, the BMC said in a press release. However the details of these shelters and evacuation plans were not made available by the municipal body. Assistant commissioners of at least three wards that HT spoke to confirmed that all preparations for evacuation were being made, but evacuees were not actually moved to safe shelters yet. This will only be done if it is absolutely necessary an indication that the spread of Covid-19 continues to remain top concern for city officials. I have identified evacuees, and have two-three schools ready as shelters. But social distancing is a must in Covid-19 times. So they are safe in their homes also. They will be moved immediately if it appears cyclonic conditions are worsening, an official, who did not wish to be named, told HT. In a meeting with state minister Aaditya Thackeray, Chahal said that in light of the possibility of torrential rains, dewatering pumps have been installed at potential water storage sites. Contractors have been given notice to secure cranes at construction sites and lifeguards have been deployed at various intersections. Equipment like rescue boats and jet skis have been deployed. The BMC also announced that it had identified high risk localities as well as residents, who may need to be moved to shelters, which are being readied in municipal schools across the city. At least 150 Covid-19 patients were shifted out of a temporary facility constructed at the Bandra Kurla Complex on Tuesday. The structural stability of all temporary Covid Care Centres and health facilities is being checked. But the one at BKC was constructed temporarily in an open ground, to house covid-19 patients, a senior civic officer said. However, the BMCs emergency helpline 1916 with 60 hotlines operating from the disaster control room at the municipal headquarters which is used for all disaster response and Covid-19 related calls, became un-operational on Tuesday evening. A phone call to the helpline played the message This number does not exist. Officers from the disaster management department remained unavailable for comment. The overall preparedness of the city is good because we were already preparing for monsoon, which is torrential in Mumbai. So trees have been trimmed, dewatering pumps are active for monsoon, preparedness to handle inundation in low lying areas is there. An evacuation plan for residents living along Mithi river has been activated; landslide prone areas have been identified, along with dilapidated buildings, a senior civic officer, who did not wish to be named, told HT. Even as the city is listed as being highly prone to cyclones, Mumbai has been shielded from being directly hit owing to what climate scientists describe as steering winds and a sub-tropical ridge. Cyclones in the Arabian Sea are mostly formed in the central Arabian Sea. The reason that Mumbai has been shielded is because they do not form close to the coast. And even if they do form close to the coast, they move towards Oman, Yemen or Somalia because of upper level steering winds that move from east to west, said professor Sridhar Balasubramanian, associate professor, department of mechanical engineering and associated faculty, IDP Climate Studies at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. Taking into account the probability climate change driven increase in pre-monsoon cyclones hitting the coastline, Raghu Murtugudde, professor, department of atmospheric and oceanic science, University of Maryland, said policy makers going forward must incorporate cyclone-level storm surge and innundation in the citys disaster management plan. There is a need to modify the plan that goes beyond flooding to factor in the consequences of the ocean being pulled into the city. Policy makers need to keep in mind that to a one in 100 year event can begin to occur once in 20 years. A report based on a geospatial analysis conducted by researchers from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) in collaboration with TAPTAP Digital, using additional data from Predicio and Tamoco, identifies the areas in Spain that require increased measures of protection against new outbreaks of the COVID19 epidemics. Based on their population density, Madrid and Barcelona are the Spanish cities with an increased risk of infection; however, when considering other variables, such as the rates of the at-risk population and, in particular, coverage of critical points of interest (such as hospitals, pharmacies or supermarkets), the areas requiring additional measures of protection, in particular contexts, can be identified. The most vulnerable areas, according to the proportional concentration of at-risk groups, are Castellon, Cantabria and Gipuzkoa. Likewise, Toledo, Segovia, Salamanca, and Navarre are the areas which have the least hospital coverage in relation to their vulnerable population, according to the conclusions of the study. "The analysis of indicators which affect the evolution of the virus or risk in a particular geographic area in isolation could lead to incorrect conclusions or biased assessments. The multi-variable rates provide a more comprehensive analysis", the report indicates. Extracting multi-variable rates facilitates a broader analysis of the evolving behavior of the COVID-19 pandemic based on several factors such as, the area, the population's mobility or possible propagation of the virus in relation to the phased recovery of commercial and industrial activity, for example. From 25 km to 5 km a day during isolation At a national level, the population's mobility decreased from 25 to 5 kilometres per person per day during the isolation period, a decrease of approximately 80%. In addition, the study finds that the restriction of all non-essential activity began to significantly affect mobility about 5 days later. "These results can help institutions and the community analyse various indicators and better understand the COVID19 pandemic", explains one of the report's authors, Ruben Cuevas, a professor at the UC3M's Telematics Engineering Department. This research has been carried out as part of the TAPTAP Digital-UC3M Chair. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to use our geospatial engine, called Sonata Location Intelligence (LI), to gain an understanding of the population's mobility, demographic significance and interactions with points of interest or essential services, such as hospitals, pharmacies or supermarkets, during the isolation period." Alvaro Mayol, Partner and Chief Product & Technology Officer at TAPTAP Digital This tool enables additional analyses with regard to other issues related to COVID-19. "Because the data provided by TAPTAP and its partner, Predicio, is global, we are now working on a scientific article which compares population mobility patterns in different countries", notes Ruben Cuevas. Eight states plus D.C. are holding primary elections today following a week of intense protests across the country over the brutal police killing of George Floyd. Why it matters: It's the first major test for voting since the national outcry. Concerns over civil unrest and the police as well as the coronavirus and expanded absentee voting could reduce the number of voters showing up in person but heighten tensions for those who do. The big picture: Primaries are taking place in D.C., Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and South Dakota. Protests over Floyd's killing have taken place in all of those states and in the nation's capital. Some have turned violent, including in D.C., Albuquerque, Sioux Falls and Philadelphia. Between the lines: An increased presence of law enforcement at polling centers or surrounding areas could intimidate voters or incite unrest. Curfews could also hinder turnout. Suzanne Almeida, the Pennsylvania director of voting rights group Common Cause, told Axios they have been hearing that some poll workers in Philadelphia might not show up because of the past week's events. "This is not a criticism of workers who are choosing not to go to the polls tomorrow, but it is going to make things more complicated." Protesters will still have to adhere to state electioneering laws that prohibit certain political activities near polling places, National Association of Secretaries of State spokesperson Maria Benson told Axios. "Due to COVID-19 many states have increased voting by mail and/or absentee voting, which will mean less in-person polling place voting activity," she added. What to watch: Baltimore's elections office was forced to close early Monday due to concerns about protests, the Baltimore Sun reported. Curfews expired early Monday as California cities assessed widespread damage following a weekend of violence, vandalism and arson amid passionate protests against the death of a handcuffed black man in Minneapolis police custody. National Guard soldiers deployed in Los Angeles and other cities to back up police forces who faced an uncertain day after Sunday's turmoil quieted down overnight. Thieves smashed their way in more than 20 cities into stores -- carrying away armloads of sneakers, clothes and electronics. Armed members of the Guard protected Los Angeles City Hall on Sunday after upheaval in the nation's second-largest city and then rolled into suburban Santa Monica and Long Beach as throngs savaged businesses there. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti denounced the mayhem as having nothing to do with protests by those outraged by the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man seen in a video pleading for air as a white Minneapolis officer pressed a knee on his neck. "Criminals are wrong to think that they can hijack this message, undermine this movement and divide us -- they will not," Garcetti said. Hundreds of people have been arrested during the disturbances that forced cities and counties to place millions of people under overnight curfews. In Los Angeles County, the tactic appeared to help quell trouble. Neighboring San Bernardino County said it would imposed a curfew Monday evening after there was vandalism and thefts at businesses a day earlier. In Sacramento, where no curfew was imposed, Sunday night brought more violence and destruction at businesses in the midtown area and near the Capitol after a largely peaceful daytime protest. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at those who ignored orders to leave. Other violence statewide included an arm wound suffered by a gunshot victim in Walnut Creek. And across the state, devastated shop owners cleaned up. In Emeryville, across the bay from San Francisco, where thieves stormed malls late Saturday, Keyla Calderon swept up glass outside the medical scrubs shop Uniform Advantage. Calderon's store had just reopened after being shuttered for six weeks under California's orders to stem spread of the coronavirus. She turned on the news to see scenes of people breaking into her shop and others. "To hear the alarm ring and see people destroy the store before my eyes, it was heartbreaking," Calderon said. In nearby Oakland, about 60 people were arrested, including three detained on suspicion of opening fire on police department headquarters early Monday. No officers were injured, authorities said. Gov. Gavin Newsom deployed 1,000 members of the Guard to assist the 20,000 officers of the Los Angeles police and sheriff's departments, Garcetti said. Former bikie boss and convicted heroin trafficker Amad "Jay" Malkoun has returned to Melbourne after spending nearly seven years as an ex-pat in Dubai and narrowly surviving a car bombing in Greece. The return of the former Victorian president of the Comancheros gang is expected to inflame tensions with his successor, Mick Murray, amid speculation it is linked to a plan to regain control of the club, which has been weakened by the arrest of several senior members and internal feuding. Former Comancheros boss Amad 'Jay' Malkoun left Australia for Dubai in 2013. But Malkoun is also understood to be negotiating with a senior Mongols figure about defecting to the rival gang, which has emerged as one of the most powerful outlaw motorcycle clubs in the country. Underworld sources said Malkoun's return would get "noses out of joint" and could substantially shift the balance of power between competing factions within the Comancheros and the two clubs. While Donald Trump was lashing out over mass civil unrest in his country on Monday, Canadians were getting practical protest advice from top-level government officials in Ottawa. The political-culture divide between Canada and the U.S. has rarely seemed so sharp as during the COVID-19 lockdown. But the chasm has widened even further with the scenes of riots and cities in flames across American over the past few days. The idea that the Canada-U.S. border will be reopened in three weeks, as scheduled, seems an almost preposterous suggestion right now. Canada is tiptoeing out of isolation; America is exploding out of it. Trump is calling for dissent to be crushed; Justin Trudeaus government is telling civil rights activists to wear masks and consider alternatives to shouting, because, well, yelling spreads the virus. These very divergent developments really happened during the space of a couple of hours on Monday. Trump held an angry call with U.S. governors in the morning, and according to news outlets with access to the audio recording, the president thundered, You have to dominate. If you dont dominate youre wasting your time. Theyre going to run over you. Youre going to look like a bunch of jerks. If Trump was concerned about the spread of the coronavirus during the widespread riots, that wasnt reflected in initial reports of his conference call with the governors. Meanwhile, in Canada, Health Minister Patty Hajdu and chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam were giving very different marching orders to protest-minded Canadians. At their daily briefing, Hajdu and Tam were asked about the public health risks associated with protest during a pandemic. While not encouraging Canadians to spill into the streets, they didnt discourage protests either, even offering what Hajdu called practical protest advice. Listen, I think its peoples right to express their support and in some cases concern about things that are unfolding both here in our country and across the world, Hajdu said. There are ways to do it more safely. She recommended hand sanitizer and masks as good protest accessories to pack along with placards and banners. Tam had another suggestion: Shouting and making really loud projections can potentially increase the risk, and so you might want to choose other means of showing or messaging, whether it be signage or making noise using other instruments, for example. Its all about avoiding the droplets, Tam explained or, as Trudeau might say, trying not to protest moistly. In the U.S., the COVID-19 virus and all the risks of reopening seem to have taken a back seat to the larger scenes of protest and conflagration in American cities in the wake of George Floyds death in Minnesota last week. I cant breathe Floyds words as a police officer knelt on his neck may well become 2020s three most searing words in a nation that has recently surpassed 100,000 deaths from a virus that also takes peoples breath away. In Canada, where the death tally sits now at just over 7,300, the pandemic remains the more urgent concern for government. But Trudeau used his daily briefing with the media on Monday to warn that this country has its own racist demons to wrestle with as well, calling the images coming out of the U.S. all too familiar. As a country, we cant pretend that racism doesnt exist here. Anti-Black racism is real. Unconscious bias is real and systemic discrimination is real, and they happen here in Canada. He praised the thousands of peaceful protesters who turned out on Canadian streets over the weekend and chided those who would disrupt them. If Trudeaus government has made a decision to take the opposite line from Trumps on everything from the pandemic to panic in the streets, it is too cautious (or diplomatic) to say so out loud. But the comparisons are unavoidable whatever Trump does, Trudeaus government does the opposite, right up to its reaction to the chaos in the United States. A border that physically closed nearly three months ago seems even more sealed now, politically. Recent polls have shown that Canadians are disturbed by what theyre seeing in the U.S. by way of pandemic response. An Earnscliffe Insights survey released a couple of weeks ago showed that a full 61 per cent of respondents described the U.S. handling of COVID-19 to be poor or terrible. Nothing thats happened in the past week seems likely to persuade Canadians that the United States has this situation in hand particularly in light of heightened tension in American streets. The two countries still share much in common, but crisis management is not one of them, especially now. Susan Delacourt is an Ottawa-based columnist covering national politics for the Star. Reach her via email: sdelacourt@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @susandelacourt Read more about: The 27,000-square-mile Navajo Nationstretching across parts of New Mexico, Arizona, and Utahhas surpassed New Yorks per-capita COVID-19 infection rate. Among a population of around 175,000, the Navajo people have registered 5,250 cases of COVID-19 and 241 deaths. While states scramble to respond and reopen, Christian ministries are among those turning their attention to the unique needs of the Navajo, who have less access to basic resources like utilities, the internet, grocery stores, and hospitals, with just four inpatient facilities on the reservation. Carol Bremer-Bennett is positioned well to lead the charge. The only Navajo at the head of a US evangelical organization, she became the national director of World Renewthe international relief and development agency of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC)after a career as an educator at a Christian school for native students. In the classroom, Bremer-Bennett said she learned to see the God-given potential in every child and help eliminate as many barriers and obstacles and challenges in the way. That attitude has shaped her approach to development work, pushing her to see the opportunity that lies within a community that may have been held back by injustices of the past. As she turns her attention and relief efforts to her former and ancestral home in Navajo Nation, she is rallying the church to join along. Besides the CRC, other denominations operating in Navajo Nation have joined in to help. Franklin Graham visited last week to meet Navajo President Jonathan Nez and Vice President Myron Lizer and distribute supplies. He offered to set up a Samaritans Purse field hospital. Bremer-Bennett talked with Megan Fowler about her Esther moment as World Renew addresses the challenges facing the Navajo. Tell me about your background. Did you grow up in the Christian Reformed Church? I did. Im Navajo, and my clans are Toaheedliinii and Todichiinii. Toaheedliinii is the Water Flows Together Clan; Todichiinii is the Bitter Water Clan. As an infant I was adopted. My biological parents determined that they were not going to be able to raise me and wanted me to be adopted into a Christian family. I was adopted, and then I was raised by Dutch CRC people who are not Navajo. Image: Courtesy of Carol Bremer-Bennett I grew up mostly in West Michigan. When I graduated from Calvin College, I wanted to connect into my Navajo heritage, so I moved out West, not exactly knowing what I was going to do. The Lord brought me into education and to Rehoboth Christian School [near the Navajo Nation in Gallup, New Mexico], which had been started in 1903 by Christian Reformed missionaries. I spent 25 years there. How are you keeping in touch with Navajo communities as they bear the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic? I am part of different Facebook groups where we can hear updates, and some private message groups. Some of it is phone calls and emails back and forth. Now that Im in the position that Im in, I had to come to this Esther moment, where I thought, Okay, Lord, Im the leader for World Renew US that responds to crises, and this is obviously a crisis hitting my own homeland. How am I supposed to use the power, the responsibility, and the access that youve given to me in a way that it doesnt feel like Im just advocating because the Navajo are my people? Is it for such a time as this that you called me into this leadership? I did a check with my leadership staff and asked them if it was all right if I use my connections and the people I know and the connections I have as the director of World Renew to bring these worlds together. And my staff said, Absolutely, you do that. God put these things together for this time, so Im going to let the Spirit flow and let God do his amazing work, and if thats through me then all glory to God. Article continues below What are you hearing from your contacts among the Navajo right now? Im just hearing a crying out. The tears are hitting that red soil that I love so much. Ive done my fair share of walking at daybreak and feeling like theres a heaviness and an extra-oppressive weight on indigenous people. I hear the crying out of how up to 40 percent of Navajos still dont have electricity still and up to 30 percent dont have running water. When people are left behind in development, this crisis exposes those injustices so much more. Youve got people who have to haul their own water and yet are being told, You also need to wash your hands so many times. Now youre choosing between water that you need for drinking, cooking, and your livestock, and also then for making sure that this virus stays at bay. Youve got kids who cant go to school and yet have no access to the internet and to remote ways of learning. Then I hear the stories of loss. Ive heard about 175,000 live on or near the Navajo nation. It seems quite remote, but within those homes, the Navajos have such a strong family connection. You live with a big, intergenerational family group. When the virus comes through one person into a family, theyre not very isolated. One of the huge griefs is just how the beauty of that close-knit family is being ripped apart because of the virus. Oftentimes, families only have a couple of vehicles, so you all pile in together to go to places. Even for the testing, you end up taking a whole bunch of people with you. And its very, very hard to isolate, both culturally but also economically. I also hear of just amazing strength and messaging. We have an incredible president of the Navajo nation, President Nez, and Vice President Lizer, who are both Christians. They are trying to make really good decisions and model how to wear masks and how to be safe, and are really out there, but also shutting things down. The Navajo Nation has had several weekends now where theyve had 57-hour curfews starting Friday night all the way through Monday morning, where everybody is being told to stay home and to stay safe. So Im thankful for that. But Im also hearing from my friends who work in the hospitals in Gallup just how maxed out they are. They converted the Miyamura High School [in Gallup] into an overflow field hospital for COVID patients. One of my friends is the chaplain at Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital, and the nurses and the doctors are testing positive [for COVID-19], and they didnt have enough nurses and doctors on staff already. And at the Gallup Indian Medical Center, they only have six ICU beds there. Its just devastating to me. In Navajo, things happen in circles, so our joys and our sorrows are closely tied in our hearts together. I hear about the hospital where the other staff of the hospital said, We can sew masks. We can sew the personal protective equipment. We dont have enough gowns but we have lots of the bedding that is disposable, so they made this assembly line. Navajos are very adaptive people. Its really great to see the innovations and the coming together that happens when a community is in crisis. You mentioned that President Nez and Vice President Lizer are Christians. What place does the Christian church have among the Navajo? I have heard that up to 60 percent Navajos would say that theyre Christians. When missionaries came, as many mistakes as they made in spreading the gospel, the truth can still persevere even when people are using it for power or to colonize or whatever. Its amazing to me to see how Navajo Christians have sorted through a lot of that and continue to sort through a lot of the message that has been brought, also realizing that the Creator God is our Redeemer and our friend and our sustainer. Article continues below Because President Nez and Vice President Lizer are Christians, theyve had a special insight into how a church can be a center for community outreach and community assistance. Early on President Nez set up a response team called the Navajo Nation Christian Response Team and put someone in charge of helping Navajo churches respond to the needs of their community. What are some ways that World Renew is responding to the needs in the Navajo community? World Renew is partnering with [churches], and one of the main collecting and distribution sites is at Rehoboth Christian School. A lot of the money that weve been able to raise is going to that location for them to then use and to distribute to people who are in need, especially those that are most remote, most vulnerable and elderly, without the running water, and so forth. When World Renew goes in and helps in a disaster situation, or even a longer-term community development context, we know that we arent going to be there forever. We work and partner with local churches so that people dont see us, but that people see that light and truth and love of God, and can know Jesus as their Savior. Weve also been able to send some personal protective equipment out when that was very scarce. Were also granting funds to churches. Weve been working closely with the Reformed Church of America too, who has funded some of our work in the Southwest, to look at how can deacons be those hands and feet of Jesus. How can churches, who are ready and able and working in communities where there are vulnerable populations, how can they help serve? Are there unique challenges in the Navajo nation that have caused the outbreak to hit so hard? The Navajo culture is part of the solution and part of whats going to help overcome the virus. The challenges are things that had been forced upon the people in the past, so some of those injusticesthe discrepancy in access to running water and electricityare certainly hurdles. The great distances are also a hurdle. There are only 13 full-service grocery stores in all of that 27,000 square miles of the Navajo nation. Its a food desert. People have to travel a very long way to get to those bigger, full-service grocery stores. Because youre going a long distance to the grocery store, youre probably going with a lot of people in one vehicle. Because of the economic disparity amongst the Navajo, there are higher rates of health conditions that are often paired with economic injustices and vulnerable populationsdiabetes, heart disease, and cancersa lot of different diseases and health conditions that make the Navajo people more at risk for catching the virus but also having a higher mortality rate because of the virus. How do you want the body of Christ to be praying for and helping Navajos? During this time of crisis, I would certainly encourage people to donate. There is a huge need, and its still climbing. Were called to compassion. And we can do that, even if weve never met that person. If were far away from that person, we can engage in their stories. As Christians, I hope that as the coronavirus goes around the world, that we will realize we have more than enough, and we can be generousnot to become numb but to become even more engaged. Article continues below What is your biggest prayer right now and where are you finding encouragement in Scripture? My biggest prayer is that we dont have COVID fatigue. When I look to the Scriptures, Romans 8 talks about suffering and how we are called to be in places of suffering but we also realize when were in that great suffering, theres great joy that is coming ahead. And creation is suffering. The red rocks and the sagebrush and the far-and-few-between rivers on the Navajo nation and the mountains, they are groaning in expectancy for that renewal that God promises to us, and Gods children as well, crying out for that renewal. Thats where our hope comes from, thats where our joy comes from. I look into Romans, probably Romans 8:24, where it talks about through all that creation and all that groaning, its in Gods hope that we are saved. Its a hope thats not seen. Thats where our faith calls us to be. Edward Keenan, the Stars Washington bureau chief, contributes live analysis from the U.S. For the latest updates on the George Floyd, anti-racist protests, click here. 5:40 p.m. Tuesday is primary election day in Washington, as it is in eight other states. Given that both presidential nominations are all but officially decided, most of the action was in city council primaries. Those local candidates had set up booths and staffed volunteers to reach those standing in the half-hour-long social distancing lineup at one school in the Georgetown neighbourhood where voting was taking place. But issues of what was going on across the country, and with the president, were on voters minds. I feel extremely disappointed that our country is in this place, local resident Jim Malec said, as he waited to cast his vote. I dont feel that we have the leadership we need to take us out of this mess that were in. Trumps attempt to grasp hold of the situation of civil unrest Monday, he said, was a symptom of the problem he was talking about. Authoritarians and strongmen always use violent action as a pretext to crack down on freedom of expression and protest. When you look at what happened in Lafayette Square yesterday, those protesters were not agitating, they were peacefully not causing any violence, and I think the steps the president took were purely a show of force, and I think they were intentional. I think they sent the message that the president does not care about the message the protesters are sending him. A voter named Mahogany said the situation of both her city and her country were part of an ongoing problem. I think its just a sad truth that its happening every day in America. And I think that its just, people are really tired, including myself with how people of colour, especially Black people, are treated in this country. So I think that the election is definitely coming at a timely place where people cannot only protest and say what they feel but also can vote for change, which is what I'm hoping for, she said. Im talking about education. Im talking about housing, Im talking about police brutality, just the way that were treated in this country in the institutional system that is broken, or just not made for us. So I think that it's really important to realize that its not only the violence that we face, but its also just the injustice in everyday life. An African-American woman herself, Mahogany said she didnt feel protected by the presidents attempt to deliver a law-and-order message on Monday. I think that you have to realize that people that are in office, I think you need to realize where they're at, and when they're not for us. And his words are very clear. Hes saying that this is what he wants. And this is what he believes America is built on and should be that's his truth. And I cant fight that. But I can do what I can do to vote for better and to be better. 4:12 p.m. In front of St. Johns Church across from Lafayette Park near the White House, members of the clergy spoke Tuesday in objection to President Donald Trumps use of the historic holy building as a prop on Monday and especially of peaceful protesters having been forcefully cleared from the area by federal officers deploying tear gas in order to make way for him. When they were done speaking, a cello player began a solemn song that sounded like a score alongside the soundtrack of chants from the hundreds of protesters nearby. The words they used were by now familiar No justice! No peace, and Put down your guns! but in the last 24 hours, the situation had changed somewhat. Chain-link fences had been erected to keep protesters out of the park, allowing police who had spent days standing at attention behind shields to lounge on benches. The sound of helicopters could regularly be heard there and around Washington ominous to many who had seen military Blackhawk helicopters hovering low Monday night over protesters, overwhelming them with blasting wind and sound. Among the protesters was Terrence Comella, who lives in nearby Alexandria, Va. He said the death of George Floyd was tragic, but also a spark that lit a tinderbox that had been built up over decades and centuries of racial injustice. However, this was his first time joining a demonstration since they began last week, and he explained that Trumps Monday photo-op and the speech that preceded it were what brought him out. We have a president of the United States who thinks hes a king. He constantly overstates his powers, and last night, he threatened to send military into cities to quell riots against the wished of those states elected representatives. Thats civil war thats beyond anything that I ever thought Id have to deal with in America, and it scares me. He was not alone in that fear over the authoritarian tone of Trumps reaction at the protest or among the broader public. Some have warned throughout his term of office, as hes asserted authority over law enforcement branches of government, and appeared to use them to protect himself and pursue his enemies, and as hes engaged in confrontational and divisive rhetoric catering to white nationalists, and employing hard and punishing policies against immigrants and refugee applicants, that he is pursuing a dangerous path familiar from authoritarian regimes. In his new book, one-time George Bush speech writer David Frum called Trump a fascoid similar to a fascist, but slightly different. On the phone Tuesday morning, Yale University expert Jason Stanley, author of the book How Fascism Works, wasnt drawing such a distinction. His phone had been ringing off the hook, he said, because fascism is having a moment in America. Its alarming, he said of Trumps actions. He wants to see how far he can go. And hes always going to go as far as he can go. Among the newly alarming actions Trump took was threatening to deploy the military to police cities if governors refused to use the National Guard to dominate demonstrators. That was immediately followed by the scene that played out on live televisions in which, as Trump claimed to be an ally of peaceful protestors, a peaceful protest was forcibly cleared so he could walk across the park to pose for a photo. I mean every kind of authoritarian you know: tear-gassing peaceful protesters as a sort of symbol of macho authority for no other reason but to use them in a campaign ad? Well, that's what happened. Following that, military Humvees were stationed around D.C. on Monday, helicopters hovered overhead, protesters were kettled to enforce a curfew, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff the head of the U.S. military was shown in news report walking the streets in full battle dress and observing, as was the attorney general. Authoritarians are always seeking to provoke a crisis. Because when you provoke a crisis, you can claim you can take authority you represent yourself as a strong man, and you can seize control, Stanley said. The only interest Trump has in a crisis is how it can help him gain more power. There is zero other interest. So right now this is just I mean he ran in 2016 against Black Lives Matter. Hes running against, you know, his opponent is Black people and leftists. So if he can represent them as a threat to civilization then you know, he can say, gloves are off there's gonna be no quarter. This is a perfect crisis that he can fit himself into. The Republican party, which Stanley said controls most of the levers of power, has shown no inclination to reign Trump in. The Republicans are attacking elections, and they now control the courts for generations to come, and these courts have shown themselves to be as partisan as the courts and Hungary and Poland. The Republican Party really openly talks about seizing the courts, they're not even shy about it, you know. So, there is no more democracy and there is no there isn't much hope. The protesters were not dissuaded from their cause by the demonizing rhetoric, however, or his harsh actions at least not in mid-afternoon. Eric Patterson, a nearby resident who attended the protest with a sign bearing Floyds name, said A long time ago, I stopped worrying about what Donald Trump thinks about. The things he says are not fitting for never mind the leader of a nation, of a rational human being. Patterson said hed come because bodies in the street would be a measure spurring real change, and he said the country needed a change of leadership and in policies the kind that would end the racial injustice documented by a camera in the case of Floyd. This has been happening forever, and it just has to stop. It has to stop. He repeated it again, pausing after each word. It. Has. To. Stop. 12:06 p.m. Joe Biden gave a major speech today on the protests and conflict that have overtaken cities across the U.S. The former vice-president and front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination offered a stark contrast to the tone and content of the message delivered last night by President Donald Trump, accusing Trump of narcissism, of being more interested in power than in principle, and of needing to read both the Bible he held during a photo-op yesterday and the U.S. Constitution. Biden promised significant police reform in response to the protesters demands and called on Congress to begin implementing such reforms immediately, without waiting for the election. And he promised to soon release a wider plan for addressing racial inequity in the county, work he said wouldnt be finished even over the course of a term of office he might serve, but that he thinks must begin immediately. I will seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued this country, not use them for political gain, Biden said. Despite his claims of depoliticizing the discussion, the speech was a reminder that theres still an election going on. Today is the most significant day since Super Tuesday, as eight states and the District of Columbia hold primary votes. Here in Washington, where polls are open until 8 p.m., the mayor and police have clarified that, for the purpose of voting, people are exempt from the 7 p.m. curfew that was imposed in the wake of civil unrest although how that will be enforced is an open question. Though hes long been the Democratic front-runner and presumed nominee for president, it is possible Biden could officially lock up the delegates he needs for the nomination in todays voting in D.C., Maryland, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and South Dakota. Because of mail-in balloting, its also likely official results wont be known for some time. Full coverage of the George Floyd protests Read more about: Any mobile game that captures in-game player achievements can now reward players in cash on the acQyr eXchange platform without the need for blockchain, cryptocurrency, or NFTs. Several companies are starting to distribute coronavirus testing kits that people can use at home, which gives them the opportunity for a safer and more convenient method of checking their health before going back to work. Experts, however, are concerned with the accuracy of the testing kits, some costs that insurers often don't cover, and other significant factors that make usage difficult, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. Testing from home At-home tests are the next step in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic that followed tests that doctors performed at clinics and hospitals. Some of the more modern ones use a person's saliva to check if they have the virus. Every single test, however, whether conducted at home or not, must be given to a lab for analysis. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved six coronavirus at-home testing kits for emergency use. The administration gave the go-signal to the first test kit on April 20. Health experts and industry officials said the at-home testing kits aim to broaden the reach of testing to include people with disabilities, weaker immune systems, or those who have difficulty in transportation. The testing kits will add to the overall number of people who can start getting tested for the coronavirus within the United States. According to The New York Times, the FDA approved a testing kit developed by LabCorp last April which can only be acquired if a doctor orders it and only LabCorp can process the data of the test conducted. The kit would cost $119, which is a steep price given that the country needs to make millions of tests every day. Also Read: France Bans Use of Hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 Treatment Due to Safety Issues Several other testing methods have been released the past few weeks which include a saliva-based test that was made available in New Jersey and Southern California; drive-through test sites have utilized cheek swabs to test for the coronavirus. Currently, scientists are working on the development of a rapid test that is based on Crisp technology. Supporters of the research revealed that each test would cost about $6 for the materials needed to manufacture it. Rushing to test Last March, however, the FDA forced two companies to retrieve at-home testing kits that they released without the agency's approval. Other types of coronavirus tests have had difficulty with producing accurate results. The FDA announced on Monday that any company that is selling test kits are required to submit data they acquire to the agency to prove the accuracy of the results within ten days of the actual test or they will be removed from the market. One other significant factor that is hampering at-home testing kits is the capability of laboratories to analyze the results that they would result in. Rutgers University's RUCDT Infinite Biologics can analyze up to 30,000 tests per day. Hims Inc., a partner of Rutgers, is asking potential patients to fill out an online assessment form that gathers data which include contact with confirmed cases or signs and symptoms relating to the coronavirus. Andrew Dudum, Chief Executive of Hims, said that the FDA is aiming to prioritize symptomatic patients, which result in physicians unable to prescribe the test to people who do not show symptoms. Another factor limiting the use of the test kits is the price. Rutgers put their tests at about $150, and Everlywell Inc. puts theirs at about $109, while PrivaPath comes at about $129. Dudum said that the company is currently working with insurance companies to cover the full cost of the tests, but recent patients have only received a part of their money back. Related Article: Coronavirus Weaker? Doctor Claims COVID-19 is Becoming Less Lethal @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Supermarket giant Woolworths is giving its team members over $50 million in company shares and gift cards to reward them for working over the coronavirus panic-buying period. More than 100,000 full-time and part-time staff in Australia and New Zealand, or around half the company's workforce, will be given up to $750 worth of Woolworths shares each, equating to around 22 shares based on today's share price of $34.91. Woolworths will give staff over $50 million in shares and rewards in a show of thanks for working during the coronavirus pandemic. Credit:Dallas Kilponen Full-time workers will receive the full $750 worth of shares, while part-time employees will get a pro-rata amount based on the number of hours they work. In order to be eligible, staff must have been employed prior to March 1 and must not have already participated in the companys short-term incentives scheme. As the coronavirus escalated throughout March and April, Australians rushed into stores to buy up supplies, leading to country-wide shortages of toilet paper, hand sanitiser, pasta and rice, putting pressures on checkout staff and store managers. Four former Kettering University students were killed in a plane crash on Sunday, May 31, in Carlinville, Illinois. The four belonged to Phi Gamma Delta where they became lifelong friends, according to the university. The single-engine Piper PA28 crashed about 3:45 p.m. Sunday under unknown circumstances, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement, according to the Associated Press. The plane went down near a farmhouse, but no one on the ground was hurt. The plane was destroyed upon impact. Victims in the crash were identified as pilot Joshua Sweers, 35, of Grand Blanc, Daniel Schlosser, 39, of Mount Morris, Daniel Shedd, 37, of St. Charles, Missouri and John S. Camilleri, 39, of Buffalo, New York, Macoupin County Sheriff Shawn Kahl told the AP Monday. The crash occurred about three miles south of Carlinville, or about 45 miles north of St. Louis, Missouri, according to the report. The Kettering University communitys hearts are heavy" with the news of the death of the four former students, a news release from the university states. It is devastating to learn of the loss of four young men who connected through shared experiences and time at Kettering, University President Dr. Robert K. McMahan said in a statement. We are such a tight community that cherishes the bonds built here. Our thoughts and deepest sympathy are with their family, friends and loved ones. The FAA said it had no further information about the flights departure point, but Targhetta told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that it had left Creve Coeur Airport outside St, Louis and was headed to Michigan, according to the AP. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash, the FAA said. WASHINGTON, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- String Real Estate Information Services ("String"), the leading provider of title search, production and curative solutions, is pleased to announce that operational capacities have exceeded pre-pandemic volumes by 15%. For over 17 years, String's Operations Team has been providing industry-leading services to the title industry. Drawing heavily on lessons from the 2007 and 2008 financial crises, String, under the leadership of Gokul Krishnan, Director of Operations, implemented a robust business continuity plan and disaster recovery plan to maintain operations and support clients in the midst of escalating challenges unfolding during the COVID-19 pandemic, including strict lockdown measures in India. "Our guiding principle has always been clients first and we took all necessary measures to maintain operational capacity, working 24/7 to continue delivering superior results for our clients," said Prashant Kothari, Founder and Managing Director of String. "I'm proud of what this team has accomplished, successfully migrating 88% of our employees across three offices to remote working prior to the lockdown, helping ensure job security for all 900+ employees." With refinance volumes increasing by 176% from this time last year, String's ability to maintain operational capacity has ensured success for its clients.1 About String Real Estate Information Services String (stringinfo.com) is the leading solutions provider to the title industry with 16 years' of specialized experience. String's mission is to help title agents build better, more efficient and cost-effective businesses by helping them lower costs, increase margins and improve operational efficiencies. String offers title search, production and curative services for a variety of secondary market players. String has won several accolades including the Smart CEO Future 50 Award, the Inc. 5000 list of Fastest Growing Private Companies in the US & the MAP Vital factors Solutions Award. Contact For more information, please visit StringInfo.com or connect with one of our experts at [email protected]. SOURCE String Real Estate Related Links http://www.stringinfo.com Trade negotiators from Britain and the EU embarked on a fourth round of post-Brexit negotiations Tuesday, but no-one in London or Brussels expects a breakthrough this week. Instead, once the latest cross-Channel video conferences are over, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen will meet to decide how to proceed. A "high-level" June meeting to take stock of the talks was already foreseen in the political declaration signed by both parties alongside the divorce accord last year. But it may take on more urgency now, as talks between EU negotiator Michel Barnier and his UK counterpart David Frost have revealed stark differences in approach. Britain is not expected to ask for any extension to the post-Brexit transition and so is on track to leave the single market and EU customs union on December 31. If no trade deal is in place by then, experts predict severe disruption to businesses already reeling from a coronavirus pandemic that no-one expected when Britain voted to leave the union in June 2016. - 'Dead end' - Barnier, the Brussels veteran and former French minister tasked by the remaining 27 EU members with negotiating an orderly Brexit, has said the week would have to show Britain's intentions. "A crucial week ahead of us to make tangible progress across all areas, in line with the Political Declaration," Barnier tweeted on Tuesday. "A high-level meeting later this month will take stock of progress. I will brief the press on Friday." A European official, talking condition of anonymity, warned: "It's not at all a decisive week, but a predictable one, which will just confirm we're at a dead end." Some have suggested that there may be some movement on fishing rights, with the EU giving ground on access to EU waters in exchange for Britain signing up to European level-playing field rules. But Number 10 briefed reporters that this was "wishful thinking by the EU." - 'Independent state' - Barnier has been given a mandate to seek an ambitious overarching agreement to oversee a so-called "level playing field" in manufacturing, labour and environmental standards. This would give British firms access to most -- but not all -- of the benefits of the single market, without exposing their European rivals to attempts to undercut standards. Frost and Johnson, however, say they only want a simple trade deal that would preserve UK sovereignty while allowing the vast majority of trade to remain tariff-free. And, rather than placing this under the aegis of a unique EU-UK pact, they want to pursue a series of deals in separate sectors such as trade, fisheries, aviation and energy. "We expect the round to be constructive and to keep the process on track ahead of the high-level meeting later this month," a British spokesman said. "However... it's clear that the EU needs to evolve its position to reach an agreement," he warned. Barnier has complained that Frost's more aggressive "tone" in pushing the British case in an exchange of letters last month could disrupt progress. Brussels officials are annoyed that Britain has, in their eyes, backtracked on a written agreement to accept level-playing-field guarantees as part of a future trade deal. But London insists the draft UK proposals meet these commitments, and complains the EU is refusing to offer the same kind of trade deal it signed with Canada or Singapore. "A balanced solution is needed which reflects the political realities on both sides, and we will continue to make sure our position is understood," the spokesman said. "We won't agree to any EU demands for us to give up our rights as an independent state." With the sides camped out in conflicting visions of the way ahead, few experts expect this week's talks to bear fruit. - Late compromise - But, with so much at stake, nobody expects the talks to break down irretrievably either. "Barnier and Frost are saying the same thing, a no deal is perfectly plausible. At the same time, both sides would prefer to have a deal," said Anand Menon, director of the think-tank UK in a Changing Europe. He expected little from this week's talks, nor from Johnson and von der Leyen's meeting by the end of the month. "They will probably say that both sides are willing to continue talking," he told AFP. "If we get a compromise it will come very late in the talks, in the autumn." Summary The report Global Iced RTD Coffee Drinks Report 2019 acts as an essential tool for companies active or planning to venture in to Global Iced RTD Coffee (Soft drinks) market. New York, June 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Global Iced/RTD Coffee Drinks 2019 - Key Insights and Drivers behind the Iced/RTD Coffee Drinks Market Performance" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05903141/?utm_source=GNW The comprehensive statistics within the research handbook provides insight into the operating environment of the market and also ensures right business decision making based on emerging trends and industry model based forecasting. The analyst considers Iced RTD Coffee Drinks as primarily non-carbonated packaged ready to drink (RTD) and non-ready to drink (non-RTD) coffee-based drinks which may be cold- or hot-filled, based on brewed coffee or coffee extract. Rapid urbanization in locations across the globe, encouraged the iced/RTD coffee category, particularly with the younger demographic. The popularity of the category in China was aided by the strong urban demographic in the country, which is also the case for Kuwait, which is 100% urban. Furthermore, higher-than-average temperatures across Western Europe boosted demand for iced/RTD coffee beverages, in particular for on-premise locations in Austria, Finland, and Denmark.This is interesting as Finland and Denmark are hindered by extremely high sugar taxes, which in turn should elevate strong preference away from the category, In Austria, the weather aided category blurring from its hot coffee counterpart, which is a vital element of Austrian culture. Strong private label and discount presence in Germany also contributed to category success, as this trendy, and premium category was affordable to a larger majority. Volume surges for the category were a result of strong performances in China, Canada, and Saudi Arabia which all benefited from a rise in economic power driving consumer buying behavior. Eastern and Western Europe also saw upsurges, influenced by the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, and Croatia as product launches and a rise in all pack sizes for Western Europe signaled adoption. Continued success in Asia is expected for category development, followed by strong gains in North America.Growth over 20192024 is forecast to lend itself well to Middle East North Africa and Western Europe, with gains forecast specifically in Kuwait, Qatar, and Republic of Ireland. North America experienced strong competition, with McDonalds introducing their RTD beverage under the McCafe brand. This launch signified the importance of the category, where QSR already dominates near 50% of all consumed iced/RTD coffee drinks in the region. Innovations have prospered in this category, with manufactures adapting to future trends in flavor and variety.Coffee blended with innovative mixtures - such as lime in Japan, an added cookie in Austria, and lemonade/blood orange mix in the United States - meets consumer desires to expand into the unknown. Development of flavor trends will keep this category ahead of competition. Trends in grab-and-go across the globe have not only increased off-premise consumption, but have amplified the need for single serve pack sizes.Sizes over 20cl gained the most traction, promoting the need for on-the-go caffeine fixes. Interestingly, large pack sizes also gained volume, particularly in Latin America, Australasia, and Middle East North Africa, where consistent warm weathers have a strong influence. Scope Global Iced RTD Coffee Drinks Report 2019 report covers over 8 global regions comprising of Africa, Asia, Australasia, Easter Europe, Western Europe, Latin America, North America, Middle East and North Africa, provides - - Top line value and volume growth data, % share by flavor, key companies, packaging and distribution (on-/off-premise), with forecasts. - Details of key new product launches by region. - Overview of the competitive landscape in the Iced RTD Coffee Drinks market, with analysis of key company performance. - Insightful and valuable analysis of the drivers behind both current and emerging trends in the Iced RTD Coffee Drinks market. Reasons to Buy - The Global Iced RTD Coffee Drinks report allows you to evaluate forecast projections, enhancing your understanding of the evolving trends and consumption patterns. - The report is arranged by region, giving a comprehensive view of current and emerging trends and opportunities to support corporate strategic planning. - Identify the current and emerging trends and future growth opportunities in the global Iced RTD Coffee Drinks market to assess the likely impact on companys performance. - Interrogate the data to understand both the historic and likely future performance of the global Iced RTD Coffee Drinks industry by region to support long-term strategic planning. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05903141/?utm_source=GNW About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Story continues CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 Its just a great symbol of how history reminds us of our human connections over time, said Burley. Burley Auction Gallery will be holding a live auction of Alamo battle relics and Republic of Texas documents at its gallery on 134 Debora Dr. in New Braunfels, Tex., beginning at 10:00 a.m. CDT. Robb Burley, owner of the well-known Texas-based auction house that specializes in Western Americana and Texana, emphasized that due to COVID-19 crowd size restrictions, seating will be spread out to promote social distancing for those attending the live event. Masks and hand sanitizer will also be available. Those unable to attend can utilize live internet bidding available through icollector.com, or through phone and absentee bidding. Details can be found at https://www.burleyauction.com/. (15%BP TX#15184.) In-person previews of items can be arranged by appointment only beginning June 1 through June 4th, and again on June 5th from noon to 6 p.m. Bidders will be treated to Alamo battlefield relics such as cannon balls, lance tips, bullets and other items unearthed during the 2008 excavation project just outside the Alamos north wall, at which some of the most intense battles took place. The auction also features historic items from Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, Confederate General in the Civil War, including family photographs and portraits, documents, signatures and books. According to Burley, one of the more distinctive items is a letter about a cholera outbreak, something he finds particularly poignant during the current global pandemic. Its just a great symbol of how history reminds us of our human connections over time, said Burley. Thats one of the reasons I treat it as an honor to stand before heritage items like Texana and Americana memorabilia you truly feel a kinship with the original owners and the history behind each item. Bidders can also vie for a collection of Confederate Civil War firearms, Bowie knives, antique Colt Single Actions and Winchester rifles, an estate collection of modern firearms and ammunition, gold and silver coins, Early American furniture & Pennsylvania pottery, a fine 18th century Chippendale chest, 1780s Philadelphia painted face grandfather clock, antique painted furniture, pewter cabinets and dry sinks, Texas furniture, Texas art and pottery, various signs, and even a fully restored 1926 Ford Model T with push-button start. About Burley Auction Gallery Robb Burley started Burley Auction Gallery in 2004, growing it to become a nationally recognized auction house, specializing in Texana and historic Western Americana. Burley Auction Gallery has produced many well-known auctions, such as the final auction of the Roy Rogers museum collection, Texas Ranger Captain and U.S. Marshal Jack Deans gun collection, the auction of an entire Texas ghost town the was the subject of a PBS documentary The Grove Texas, Austins Threadgills restaurant, and Eddie Wilsons Armadillo World Headquarters memorabilia collection. From the Lone Rangers guns, to Roy Rogers boat, from Merle Haggards tour bus, to a Texas ghost town, and Alamo relics, Burley Auction sells the west. LOS ANGELES, June 1 (Xinhua) -- A countywide curfew will be in effect Monday for a second night in Los Angeles County after another day of protests over the death of African American man George Floyd in police custody last week in Minneapolis, authorities said. County officials announced that the curfew for the most populous county in the United States with a population of over 10 million will run from 6 p.m. Monday to 6 a.m. Tuesday local time (0100 to 1300 GMT Tuesday). Kathryn Barger, chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, tweeted that the extension of the countywide curfew is "to protect against any further devastation." "With COVID-19 fresh in our minds, we see that staying home can save lives. Life is precious -- and we must do everything we can to protect one another," she added. During the curfew, all residents are required to stay off "public streets, avenues, boulevards, places, walkways, alleys, parks or any public areas or unimproved private realty within Los Angeles County." Any violation of the order is a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine not to exceed 1,000 U.S. dollars or an imprisonment up to six months, or both, according to the terms of the curfew. The announcement came after the protests over Floyd's death went into the sixth straight day on Monday in the Los Angeles area. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti also extended a curfew for the City of Los Angeles on Monday. Some other cities in the county, such as Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Long Beach, even issued their own stricter curfew orders in response to days of chaotic protests. FLINT, MI -- Flint residents gathered peacefully for a third night in a row on Monday, June 1 calling for systematic change in the face of black people being killed at the hands of police. Hundreds gathered in front of Flint City Hall wearing masks and brandishing signs with messages like Black Lives Matter, dont shoot my son and #notmyson. The gathering for racial justice focused on bringing an end to white supremacy and systematic racism, organizers said. Flint Police Department will have Black Lives Matter advisory council Protests have emerged nationwide after the death of George Floyd, an African American man who died in police custody last week. Peaceful protests occurred in Flint, Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo over the weekend, while non-violent demonstrations turned into riots in Detroit and Grand Rapids and Lansing. Flint residents have peacefully called for a seat at the table with law enforcement officers. In response to the community, city officials announced actions to enforce an end to police brutality, including the creation of a Black Lives Matter advisory council for the Flint Police Department. Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley is creating a coalition of black mayors to address issues of statewide systemic racism. Flint Police Chief Phil Hart is instituting Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation training for the citys police department that he said will focus on diversity and healing. The city is also drafting an ordinance that would forbid bias crime reporting, making it illegal to report a crime because of the color of someones skin. The Flint City Council is also considering a resolution to denounce the use of illegal restraint methods, like kneeling on someones neck, and create zero-tolerance for their use. The council will also consider a resolution to declare racism a public health crisis at a Monday, June 1 general meeting. Organizers call for seat at the table with police during second night of protests in Flint There is no movement without unity, said Lashaya Darisaw, organizer of the Monday gathering. She called for residents to hold their public officials accountable through action at the polls. Its about removing systematic racism, its about creating policy, its about seeing the solution, its about getting people in office who share our values, its about holding people -- all people -- accountable, starting with ourselves," Darisaw said. "Its about forcing those who dont stand with us out. No more will we stand for those who only care about our issues every four years. No more will we let the voice of others tell us when it is our time to end systematic racism. No more will we let people exploit us for our votes. Our time is now. To white allies, she said we love you, but added that protests are not for recreation and people should be there to protect the city, not to come in and cause destruction. We need to see what happened here in Flint all across the country, she said. Director of Flint Rising, Nayyirah Shariff, said calls for racial justice are not only about Floyd, but all black people killed by police and white supremacy. Our grief comes from the lynchings of Willie Turks, Sam Holmes and Laura Nelson, Shariff said. "Our rage manifests from the police shooting of Michel Brown, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Oscar Grant and Atatiana Jefferson. Our anger arises from the murder of Emmett Till, Sandra Bland, Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin and Rodney King and countless others. We would be here for at least a week if we named everyone who has been murdered and assassinated from white supremacy and police brutality. In many cities, people use protests to incite violence and get elected, she said. They are exploiting our pain to feed into a narrative that black and brown communities need a military-esque response in order to be safe," Shariff said. "They are using burning buildings as an excuse to delegitimize demands for justice and ending police brutality. We have long-seen no justice from the death of black people. We have also seen the use of victims pasts to justify their death. Why does someone have to be canonized as a saint to receive empathy, to see their death as unjust? Black lives havent mattered historically or politically. It is important to protest and make voices heard, she said. But it cant stop there. People have to act against racism when cameras are not rolling. Ask yourselves: What are you doing to dismantle white supremacy and address anti-blackness beyond this gathering?" Shariff said. "How are you talking to your friends, families and coworkers? Are you talking to them about this? Black Lives Matter is more than a hashtag. The conversations are hard and you may want to check out, and if youre in a position of power, an elected official, a head of a department, the CEO of an organization or corporation -- what are you doing to implement dismantling anti-blackness and dismantling white supremacy in your own policies? Black people cannot check out of being black even though white people can check out of having these difficult conversations because the real work happens when the news cameras are off and the endorphins from being in this gathering go away. Shariff told the crowd to continue action, while also taking precautionary measures against COVID-19. The pandemic continues, she said, adding that many are at higher risk and have already lost their lives because the water crisis left us more susceptible to this pandemic." I have been wrestling with my grief and anger from my friends who have passed on from this COVID-19 pandemic," Shariff said. Unfortunately, this is not the only pandemic black people are experiencing. We have been dealing with white supremacy and racism for generations. Feeling angry and frustrated that black lives face a constant threat of violence is justified, said speaker Egypt Otis. Its time to attach these feelings with action items. Its time to demand transformative polices and reform," Otis said. "Its time to not only protest but organize and have black people leading these movements. READ MORE ON MLIVE: Marchers in Flint push for end to police brutality as protests reach third day Organizers call for seat at the table with police during second night of protests in Flint Flint-area police join protesters marching to seek justice for George Floyd Flint Police Department will have Black Lives Matter advisory council The Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR) announced an investigation on Tuesday into the conduct of the Minneapolis Police Department over the past decade, alongside a civil rights charge into the killing of George Floyd. The big picture: Complaints of excessive force brought against the city's law enforcement officers "have become commonplace, especially by African-American residents," the New York Times reports. The investigation is intended to determine "if the MPD has engaged in systemic discriminatory practices towards people of color and ensure any such practices are stopped," Tuesday's statement reads. Driving the news: Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who knelt on Floyd's neck prior to his death, was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter last week. What they're saying: Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo responded to Floyd's brother on CNN Sunday evening in the family's first exchange with the police department. "Being silent, or not intervening, to me, you're complicit. So I don't see a level of distinction any different," Arradondo said, when asked if he plans to arrest all officers involved in Floyd's death. "Mr. Floyd died in our hands, and so I see that as being complicit." Arradondo noted charges would come through the county attorney office. to me, you're complicit. So I don't see a level of distinction any different," Arradondo said, when asked if he plans to arrest all officers involved in Floyd's death. "Mr. Floyd died in our hands, and so I see that as being complicit." Arradondo noted charges would come through the county attorney office. George Floyd should be alive . He deserved to live a life full of dignity and joy, MDHR Commissioner Rebecca Lucero said in a statement. Community leaders have been asking for structural change for decades. They have fought for this and it is essential that we acknowledge the work and commitment of those who have paved the path to make todays announcement possible. . He deserved to live a life full of dignity and joy, MDHR Commissioner Rebecca Lucero said in a statement. Community leaders have been asking for structural change for decades. They have fought for this and it is essential that we acknowledge the work and commitment of those who have paved the path to make todays announcement possible. Minnesotans can expect our administration to use every tool at our disposal to deconstruct generations of systemic racism in our state, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said in a statement. Go deeper... Minneapolis police chief to George Floyd's brother: "Mr. Floyd died in our hands" Portland vacation rental management company Vacasa received another $108 million in new investment Tuesday, money that could help it weather the coronavirus crisis. Vacasa has now raised about $630 million altogether, including a whopping $319 million round last fall that valued the company at more than $1 billion. Vacasa was positioned to be the first big, new Oregon company in decades. Then the coronavirus hit, all but obliterating the domestic travel industry. Vacasa laid off an unspecified number of employees in March and cut other workers hours and executive pay. Vacasa wont say whether the terms of Tuesdays new investment reduced the companys valuation. The company did say that it has recalled some of its laid-off workers and that reservations in May were six times higher than those April. Tuesdays investment came from three prior Vacasa investors, led by the Silicon Valley investment firm Silver Lake and joined by Riverwood Capital and Level Equity. Vacasa helps vacation property owners manage their rentals, offering an online listing service along with cleaning and maintenance. The company had 6,000 employees worldwide prior to the March layoffs, most of them managing rental properties in vacation communities from Oregon to Missouri to Maine. Vacasa had 400 employees at its Pearl District headquarters. Vacasa declined to say how many it now employs, citing the fluid state of its workforce as it recovers from the coronavirus outbreak. -- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699 Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Joe Biden will attend the funeral of George Floyd, the Minneapolis black man who was killed by a white police officer, setting off more than a week of protests and unrest. Floyd's family lawyer Ben Crump said the presumptive Democratic nominee will travel to Houston for the service next Tuesday. Meanwhile, President Trump was ripping into Biden's record, after the former vice president traveled to Philadelphia and gave a speech on Floyd's killing and how he would 'seek to heal the racial wounds' of the nation. ' 'Sleepy Joe has been in politics for 40 years, and did nothing,' Trump declared via tweet. 'Now he pretends to have the answers. He doesnt even know the questions.' 'Weakness will never beat anarchists, looters or thugs, and Joe has been politically weak all of his life,' Trump offered. 'LAW & ORDER!' the president said. Joe Biden will attend the funeral of George Floyd, the family's lawyer said Tuesday. Earlier, Biden spoke about Floyd's death in his first major speech since being under a stay-at-home order due to the coronavirus pandemic President Trump attacked Joe Biden Tuesday afternoon, saying he didn't do anything in politics for 40 years and is 'weak' The president had previously tried to draw a distinction between peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters and people who have ramsacked business districts in major cities following Floyd's death. But that distinction was obscured after a peaceful protest was broken up Monday night outside the White House, with U.S. Park Police using what they now call 'smoke canisters and pepper balls,' so the president could walk outside and take a photo with a church. During his Philadelphia speech, Biden ripped into Trump for that stunt - while also slamming him for racist rhetoric and 'narcissism.' He also suggested that Trump open a Bible 'instead of brandishing it,' as the president did outside St. John's Church. The presumptive Democratic nominee recommended the president read the Constitution, particularly the First Amendment, too. 'I will seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued this country not use them for political gain,' the ex-vice president pledged. Biden spoke at Philadelphia's City Hall Tuesday - his first major address after the coronavirus pandemic left him broadcasting from his basement due to Delaware's stay-at-home order since mid-March. Biden began by quoting the words of George Floyd, the Minneapolis black man whose Memorial Day death at the hands of a white cop have inspired days of protests, with some turning to riots - including in Philadelphia, where Biden's presidential campaign is based. Presumptive Democratic nominee takes off his mask before beginning remarks on Tuesday. He spoke of both the racial strife in the United States and about the 100,000-plus coronavirus dead Joe Biden gave his address in an ornate room at Philadelphia's City Hall, his first major campaign stop since mid-March, after the coronavirus pandemic left him campaigning from his Delaware basement Protesters were tear-gassed in front of the White House Monday evening, before Washington, D.C.'s curfew started, so President Trump could walk across Lafayette Park and pose for photos in front of St. John's Church 'I can't breathe. I can't breathe,' Biden said. 'George Floyd's last words. But they didn't die with him. They're still being heard. They're echoing across this nation.' He used the phrase to connect the two concurring national tragedies: racism and the continued spread of COVID-19. 'They speak to a nation where too often just the color of your skin puts your life at risk,' the former vice president said. 'They speak to a nation where more than 100,000 people have lost their lives to a virus and 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment - with a disproportionate number of these deaths and job losses concentrated in the black and minority communities.' 'And they speak to a nation where every day millions of people not at the moment of losing their life but in the course of living their life are saying to themselves, "I cant breathe,"' Biden continued. Biden called the events of the past few days a 'wake up call' and reminded his small audience of elected officials and reporters in masks that they were the same words of Eric Garner, the New York City black man who also had his life choked out by police. 'It is time to listen to those words,' he said. Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said 'the country is crying out for leadership.' 'Leadership that can unite us. Leadership that can bring us together. Leadership that can recognize the pain and deep grief of communities that have had a knee on their neck for too long,' he said. Biden went on to condemn both the looting and destruction of property that's come as part of the unrest - and racist policing, pitching a number of remedies that could help root out problem officers, while noting that most do a good job. 'All the more reason why bad cops should be dealt with severely and swiftly,' Biden offered. But then Biden turned to Trump's actions, especially those in the last 24 hours. 'When peaceful protestors dispersed in order for a president, a president, from the doorstep of the peoples house, the White House - using tear gas and flash grenades - in order to stage a photo op, a photo op, at one of the most historic churches in the country, or at least in Washington, D.C., we can be forgiven for believing that the president is more interested in power than in principle,' Biden said. 'More interested in serving the passions of his base than the needs of the people in his care,' Biden said. 'For thats what the presidency is,' Biden pointed out. 'The duty to care. To care for all of us, not just those who vote for us, but all of us. Not just our donors, but all of us.' During Trump's trek, he walked across Lafayette Park with a pack of government officials, and stood in front of St. John's Church, holding a Bible aloft. 'I just wish he opened it once in awhile, instead of brandishing it. If he opened it he could have learned something: That we are all called to love one another as we love ourselves,' Biden said. 'Thats hard work. But its the work of America,' Biden said, adding that Trump 'isn't interested in doing that work.' Biden also recommended that the president read the Constitution, particularly the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of assembly. 'Mr. President: That is America,' Biden said. 'Not horses rising up on their hind legs to push back a peaceful protest. Not using the American military to move against the American people.' At another moment, the ex-vice president commented that Trump's 'narcissism has become more important than the nation he leads.' 'A president of the United States must be part of the solution, not the problem. But our president today is part of the problem,' Biden said. The Democrat pointed to tweets Trump sent out Friday that read, 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts.' 'Those weren't the words of a president. They were the words of a racist Miami police chief from the 1960s.' Biden asked Americans if this was what they wanted in a leader. 'Is this who we are? Is this who we want to be? Fear? Anger? Finger-pointing? Rather than the pursuit of happiness,' Biden asked. He called the presidency a 'very big job' and said he wouldn't always get it right. 'Ill do my job and take responsibility. I wont blame others. Ill never forget that the job isnt about me,' he pledged. 'Its about you. And Ill work to not only rebuild this nation. But to build it better than it was.' "Be Dog Smart Week" is the annual dog safety campaign by Dogs Trust Ireland and is already underway. This year, given the current lockdown, the focus is on safety around dogs in the home. The charity is concerned that many dogs around the country may not be getting enough undisturbed rest with so much activity in homes at the moment, especially those with children, and is appealing to parents and guardians to explain the need for dogs to be given their own space. With 39% of dog owners having children in the home, it is especially important during a time that most people are spending the majority of their day at home, that an adult supervises all interactions with children and dogs, no matter how good-natured the dog is. While the charity is keen to promote the wonderful bond many children have with their dogs, Dawn Kavanagh, Education and Community Manager, Dogs Trust Ireland explains: "Weve all heard the adage let sleeping dogs lie, and its one we should really pay heed to. "Just like people, dogs need their own space too, so we are asking parents to explain to children that they shouldnt approach a dog if he or she is in their bed, even if theyre not sleeping. "Often a dogs bed is the only place in the home that truly belongs to them so they should be able to take themselves off there to rest peacefully without being disturbed. "We also want to make people aware that dogs generally dont understand the concept of hugging and see it an uncomfortable invasion of their space and having a childs head so close to a dogs is not a good idea. "So, we would ask that you teach your children that a gentle rub is much more pleasant for a dog instead!" To highlight the importance of dogs having their own space, Dogs Trust is encouraging the whole family to get involved in building their dog a den that is off limits to humans when the dog is using it. The charity has simple dog den ideas on their education website BeDogSmart.ie and will also be hosting a FREE Be Dog Smart workshop on their Facebook page on Friday, aimed and adults and children. Join us for 1-hour webinar on STPOWER high-voltage solutions for On-Board Chargers and DC-DC converters in Electric Vehicles This webinar was broadcasted Thursday, June 11th 2020 Available On Demand - EMEA Available On Demand - AME Choosing the right high-voltage power solution in OBCs and DC-DC applications for EVs. Follow this webinar to know more on how ST's high-voltage power discrete technologies and modules can be integrated in the development of specific power conversion stages in EVs, enabling high efficiency in medium- to high-power automotive applications up to 22 kW. Discover STs high-voltage product portfolio, available in a wide range of different topologies for specific design constraints, and learn about the typical power architectures and configurations which can be implemented using STs high-voltage power transistor series. Benchmarks and case studies will be also presented. Why attend The webinar will help you select the optimal power solution for your automotive system, based on its design constraints. Who should attend Power system engineers developing battery charging solutions for EVs Electric mobility experts interested in power technologies enabling fast and efficient charging in OBC systems You will learn About the key requirements for OBCs and DC-DC converters in electric vehicles About STs value proposition for OBCs and DC-DC converters How to implement various power topologies in specific automotive systems and their respective features How to design efficient solutions for AC-DC and DC-DC converter designs in single- and three-phase systems, based on STs high-voltage product families How to identify and select the best high-voltage power product series for your target applications About the benefits of using silicon-carbide power devices for bidirectional DC-DC converters Agenda Introduction to Electric Vehicle OBC and DC-DC systems Power architectures and topologies Benchmarks and case studies SiC technology in bi-directional DC-DC converters There will be a live Q&A session at the end of the webinar where STs experienced engineers will be available to answer your questions. Available On Demand - EMEA Available On Demand - AME Speakers Anselmo Liberti Anselmo is a Senior Application Development Engineer at STMicroelectronics. He graduated with a master's degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Catania, Italy. He joined STMicroelectronics in June 2006 and started his career as an Application Engineer for the Power Bipolar and IGBTs applications with a strong focus on SMPS, lighting and welding. Today, he works in the HV, SiC and Advanced Application Development group of the Power Transistor Division lab, in the Automotive and Discrete Group, focusing on Electric Vehicle applications and the latest SiC Wide Bandgap Technologies in both automotive and industrial systems. Luigi Abbatelli Luigi received his degree in Electronic Engineering in April 2006 and joined ST two months after. He started his career as an Application Engineer for Power Bipolar and IGBT applications with a strong focus on SMPS and Induction Heating. Today, he is part of the Power Transistor Division, in the Automotive and Discrete Group, and he is mainly focused on Electric Vehicle applications and the latest SiC and GaN Wide Bandgap technologies. Hospital wards with corpses left unattended in hallways. Patients asked to sleep on the floor until beds open up. A woman with brain damage who died because she was refused medical help until her family could prove she was virus-free. The public health-care system in Mumbai, epicenter of Indias worsening coronavirus outbreak, is overwhelmed as Covid-19 patients pour in and hospital staff work around the clock. Medical care for non-coronavirus patients has basically been shut off due to a lack of resources. We are opening new wards daily but they get filled by end of day with Covid-19 patients. It is pretty bad right now, said Saad Ahmed, a resident doctor at state-run King Edward Memorial Hospital in central Mumbai. All wards are now Covid-19 wards and they are full to the capacity. Despite a strict two-month-long lockdown, the outbreak in Indias financial capital has snowballed, with the city now accounting for more than a fifth of Indias over 5,400 deaths and 190,600 infections. The pandemics center is shifting away from New York and Europe to nations like Brazil and India, where under-funded health care infrastructure and poor living conditions provide fertile ground for the virus. Indias virus death toll overtook Chinas on Thursday. A Twitter video earlier this month showed corpses of virus victims left on beds next to patients in a hospital ward in Mumbais state-run Lokmanya Tilak Hospital. The hospital probed the incident and replaced its dean. Pictures recently emerged of bodies left unattended in the hallways of King Edward Memorial hospital. New Untouchables Bodies have piled up in hospitals in the last few weeks after family members refused to claim them out of a fear of infection, said Madhuri Ramdas Gaikar, a nurse at the King Edward Memorial hospital. The intense fear around the virus has created a new class of untouchables in India, with the infected and their families being shunned by their neighbours or shunted out of rented apartments. We used to keep the paperwork and everything else ready, still bodies were not being taken away, said Gaikar. Hospitals emergency wards are seeing twice the number of patients they have beds for, said a doctor in a state-run hospital who did not want to be named fearing repercussions from her employer. That meant one oxygen station had to service multiple patients and some were forced to share beds, she said. The other bottleneck is in critical care facilities and health care staff -- doctors, nurses, lab technicians and cleaning staff -- as many are infected or quarantined. Critical patients are struggling hard to get beds everywhere in Mumbai, said Vikas Oswal, a private sector chest physician who also sees patients in the state-run Shatabdi Hospital. It takes 12-16 hours to find a single bed. Beds get filled up immediately with next patient in queue. Even as India started implementing a phased exit from the worlds biggest lockdown, Maharashtra -- the state where Mumbai is located -- on Sunday extended the stay-at-home measures in the metropolis to June 30. Some small relaxations will kick in from June 5 in Mumbai such as allowing shops and markets to open on alternate days. Fear Of Infection While other virus epicenters from Wuhan to New York and Bergamo in Italy have seen similarly overwhelmed hospitals, Mumbais situation is compounded -- some say created -- by the reluctance of its massive and better-equipped private health system to get involved in virus care out of a fear of infection. There was a shortage of beds for Intensive Care Units, or ICUs, and critical care initially when the pandemic broke out but it has largely been mitigated now, according to Sanjay Oak, a physician heading Mumbais virus task force set up in April by the Maharashtra government. The state government has taken over 80% of general category beds and all the ICU beds in the citys private health care facilities, Oak said in an email. These beds are displayed and alloted through a common dash board at an affordable price, he said. Despite these efforts, some patients are still getting crowded out. Members of a family, who did not want to be identified for fear of being stigmatized, spent a night in an ambulance after three private hospitals refused to hospitalize their elderly diabetic mother who had a fever and bouts of shivering. The private facilities insisted on a certificate showing she was virus-free, and kept redirecting her to the public hospitals. The woman was asked to spend the night on the floor at a state-run hospital as she waited for her test results, as there were no vacant beds, said one of her relatives. The family chose to take her away and keep trying other hospitals. S Kumar, a social worker in Mumbai, struggled to secure medical help for a woman who had suffered brain damage after a fall at home. At least three leading private hospitals insisted on a certificate saying she didnt have Covid-19 before starting treatment, according to Kumar. The woman died before her treatment could start. Treatment delayed is treatment denied, Kumar said, adding that he had seen at least half a dozen deaths in the past six weeks due to lack of timely medical care. Social Inequality The chaotic situation has also exposed the consequences of the social inequality that divides and defines Mumbai, where globe-trotting executives live in condominiums next to slums where their drivers, cooks and house cleaners reside. The citys deep-seated issues make it the perfect breeding ground for the highly-contagious pathogen, blunting the governments efforts. It also houses Dharavi, Asias most-crowded slum, where as many as eight people may be staying in a 100-square-feet tin hutment and 80 sharing a public toilet. Stigma has complicated contact tracing and social distancing efforts especially in slum clusters with health care workers being obstructed and cops being pelted with stones. Local authorities have been aggressively ramping up facilities, readying as many as 100,000 beds by creating quarantine facilities everywhere from a race course to a planetarium and a nature park. A new 1,000 bed Covid-19 hospital was built from scratch within two weeks and started last week. The local public health officials also sent notices to 75,000 private sector doctors to be ready for a two-week mandatory virus duty to rest the extremely fatigued and overworked public sector health care workers. Slowing The Virus Aggressive disinfecting and contact tracing has helped slow the rate at which virus cases are doubling across Mumbai. In the slum cluster of Dharavi, the pace is now 20 days instead of three in April. While there are enough beds for non-critical and asymptomatic patients, Shatabdi Hospitals Oswal said the real crunch was in beds, ventilators and oxygen stations for critical patients. Patients come gasping for breath and sometimes couldnt be saved, said the government hospital doctor cited earlier. The health care system will soon be placed in a very difficult situation where they have to make a choice between who to provide care to and who to simply say, sorry, we cant do anything for you, said Vivekanand Jha, executive director of the George Institute of Global Health in India. For doctors and nurses at the frontlines, challenges mount. There have been instances where relatives have just left the patients in wards and taken off scared that they might catch the virus, according to Ahmed, the doctor at King Edward Memorial Hospital. Health care staff has taken round-the-clock care of such patients, he said. We dont know their names or history but have to start their treatment anyway. Sword Over Your Head Some medical workers said that media coverage of bad conditions in government hospitals was demoralizing as they have been working relentlessly for weeks. Gaikar, the nurse at King Edward Memorial Hospital, hasnt stayed with her nine-year-old daughter or husband for two months. Neither has she visited her elderly parents for fear of infecting them. Its a very difficult fight, as your own life is at stake, Gaikar said. There is this sword always hanging over your head. Will I test positive when my swab is taken after the duty? (This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed. ) Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter ACCRA, Monday, 1 June 2020. Two children of media personnel have emerged winners of the Stratcomm Africa Read IT, Write IT, Say IT Better Competition kids of media maiden edition. Master Adom Adu-Gyasi, aged 10, son of Dennis Adu-Gyasi a freelancer and PRO of the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientist, and Master Darrel Nortey Dowuona, aged 12, son of Samuel Dowuona formerly of Adom FM online, won cash prizes with stationery and T-shirts after beating off stiff competition from other contestants. Stratcomm Africa designed this edition of the Read IT, Write IT, Say IT Better Competition for children of media Personnel to promote reading and writing among them especially during this time that children are having to spend an extended period out of school due to the COVID - 19 pandemic. Children of media personnel who participated in the competition were required to read a book, answer questions on the book they read, and win prizes. Read It, Write it, Say it Better is a Stratcomm Africa initiative for helping to develop in children skills in reading and writing, and communication. The parents of the two children Adom and Darrel expressed excitement about their wards emerging winners in the competition and thanked Stratcomm Africa for organizing the competition. They both described the activity as extremely beneficial. Mrs. Shula Glymin, an accomplished educationist, was the Judge for the competition. Shula had this to say, It was such a delight working on this activity as I came to appreciate once again the amazing talents Ghana is blessed with. Helping children bring out the best in them is such a joy and I am glad this competition provided the opportunity to achieve just that. I applaud Stratcomm Africa for this Initiative she added. Media and Stakeholder Relations Lead at Stratcomm Africa, Mr. Bernard Nii Addotey Allotey said the competition is Stratcomm Africas way of showing appreciation to the media for their contribution in this difficult time. The media alongside health workers continue to provide us essential services to ensure that we stay informed and are safe. He congratulated all participants and saluted the winners saying, Excellence is Stratcomm Africas hallmark and we are always delighted to see people excel. We are very proud of these children who did excellent work. We encourage them to keep it up and use their skills to contribute to Ghanas development. Some of them may also find themselves working in Stratcomm Africa someday! For Stratcomm Africa reading and writing help to develop creativity, analytical thinking and effective communications skills. Entries for the next competition will be opened soon. It will cover children of interested media personnel and health workers. Age categories will include 5-7, 8-10 and 11- 13 years. About Stratcomm Africa Stratcomm Africa is a total marketing Communication, Agency with over two and a half decades of experience in providing communication support to individuals and organizations, public and private, local and international, with award-winning success. Stratcomm Africa offers services in Public Relations and Reputation Management Digital Communication, including Social media management, Advertising and Marketing, Activations and Event Management, Communication Research, Communication for Development (C4D), and Training and Facilitation. Stratcomm Africa specializes in evolving and implementing integrated communications strategies and is focused on promoting excellence in communication as an essential tool for Africas prosperity in this digital age. About Read It write It Say It Better Stratcomm Africa established Read it, Write it, Say It Better (RWS) in 2015 as a Corporate Social Responsibility designed to contribute to national development and livelihood enhancement. Research has shown that high literacy levels contribute to national development. Research has also shown that a high percentage of Ghanaian school children do not like to read, this is having a negative impact their education. Read it, Write it, Say It Better (RWS) employs innovative approaches to market reading and writing to children and their parents not just as a school subject but as a livelihood enhancement activity. Whiles children are at home, Stratcomm Africa sees it as a good opportunity to give them an incentive be involved in activities that help them to improve their reading and writing. Thousands of students in the towns of Jerusalem, Hadera and Beersheba on June 1 were sent home to isolate after teachers in their schools were diagnosed with the coronavirus. Education Minister Yoav Galant said any school found with active cases of the virus must immediately close down. Israels health authorities are expressing concern in recent days over a surge in coronavirus infections all across the country, especially in schools and preschools. According to recent data, some 5,000 students, teachers and staff are now isolating at home. Thirteen students and teachers were diagnosed with coronavirus on June 1 alone, making the total number of 155 school and preschool children, and 39 teachers, to be diagnosed with the virus. All in all, the Education Ministry had shuttered seven preschools and six schools. Since the pandemic began, 285 people have died of the coronavirus in Israel. But the number of infected cases decreased significantly in May. On May 8, the Health Ministry reported there were fewer than 5,000 people sick with the virus and the number of Israelis recovering from COVID-19 continued to outpace the rate of new infections. Subsequently, the government started easing restrictions. On May 14, the office of the prime minister announced that most of the schools were expected to return to full operation on the week after. Beaches, swimming pools and some restaurants have also reopened recently, and bars will resume activity next week. Still, the recent spike in infections indicates that Israelis have dropped too quickly rules of social distancing and other hygiene restrictions. Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said on May 31 that the number of new people diagnosed with the coronavirus had risen fivefold on the day before, stating, "[May 30] test results showed positive diagnoses have risen fivefold from 0.5% to 2.5% 28 positive diagnoses out of 1,012 tests. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned subsequently that the coronavirus pandemic has not disappeared, and in the coming days he would reexamine another round of lockdowns. In another sign of authorities fearing a second coronavirus wave, the Ministry of Health decided to significantly increase the number of coronavirus tests, reopening four drive-through testing stations across the country. WESTPORT A developers plan to bring a 187-unit housing complex to Hiawatha Lane in Westport could soon hit its next roadblock. On May 28, the Planning and Zoning Commission said they planned to give a thumbs down on Summit Saugatucks application for a sewer extension on Hiawatha Lane, a move other public boards have made since the extension was first proposed in 2003. Both (Planning and Zoning Director) Mary Young and (Westport-Weston Health District Director) Mark Cooper did a terrific job of laying out the appropriateness of us issuing a negative report for the sewer extension, Planning and Zoning Chair Danielle Dobin said. First Selectman Jim Marpe requested a formal decision from the commission after the application came before the Water Pollution Control Authority. In February, the Norwalk Conservation Commission also denied Summits application to widen a gravel route for its housing project. The Water Pollution Control Authority had denied the sewer line extension proposal in 2003 and again in 2016 because the main pipe, which runs underneath the Saugatuck River, and Pump Station 2 were both in need of repairs at the time. The sewer lane extension was also rejected by the Planning and Zoning Commission in 2017, with a court appeal by Summit sustained in 2018, before eventually being reversed by the Appellate Court. Tim Hollister, attorney for Summit Saugatuck LLC, said the 1,600 foot sewer extension from Davenport Avenue to Hiawatha Lane Extension was sought to allow for proper sewer discharge capacity in his clients development. In October of 2019, the Connecticut Appellate Court, reviewing a 2018 trial court order to the town to approve the sewer extension, specifically suggested we reapplied for the sewer at the local level, Hollister said, adding there had since been upgrades to the main pipe. The Connecticut Supreme Court is currently reviewing the Appellate Courts decision, he said, but if the town had approved the application, the case would have been withdrawn. Hollister argued the commission should issue a positive report because the towns Plan of Conservation and Development showed Summits property in a sewered area. He added the commission couldnt issue a negative report just because multi-family housing was being proposed instead of single-family housing. The task is not to be based on the type or density of housing that the sewer may serve, he said. That is a zoning decision. Hollister said 52 of the 70 structures in the Sauagatuck Village area were already connected to the sewer, with 24 of those being a multi-family use. He added the sewer installation was good for water quality. Summit and the town will probably continue to have a dispute about the zoning approvals, but at this time, the sewer should no longer be an issue due to the completion of the upgrades, he said. But Young said one of many reasons the commission could issue a negative report lies in the 2017 POCD, which discouraged a sewer extension if it encouraged more intense development. She said Cooper also gave comments on the applications environmental impacts. He told us in summary theres no demonstrated needs based upon the records he has available to him, she said. Commissioner Paul Lebowitz echoed the sentiments. I think Mr. Cooper summed it up pretty well in terms of what I believe, and that is theres really no net benefit to the neighborhood and no net benefit to the environment, he said. The zoning commission will next meet on June 11. dj.simmons@hearstmediact.com The Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday got an update on the police response to days of protests but also faced deep anger from residents about the Los Angeles Police Department's handling of the situation. Many people were initially shut out of an L.A. Police Commission meeting because the Zoom meeting had been limited to 500 participants. After the settings were adjusted to allow more to attend, many speakers called on Police Chief Michel Moore to resign because of his remark that looters were as responsible for George Floyds death as the Minneapolis police officers were. Moore later walked back the remark and apologized for it. Jocelyn Tucker said she appreciated the apology, but his words were telling. If that was your knee-jerk reaction, youre not in the right job, she said. State Sen. Holly Mitchell also responded to his comments. "I want you to know that we have every right to be outraged and that our voices deserve to be heard and not hijacked by outside agitators nor by a police chief who infers that our actions can be compared to the murders we have witnessed and experienced," she wrote in a statement. "These type of distractions want to turn this discussion away from the main point which is ending structural racism." Many speakers also said they had witnessed LAPD officers shooting rubber bullets at protesters and blamed the officers for escalating the tensions. "Im terrified of the LAPD. You have shown your true colors, David Spencer said. After about 80 people spoke, hundreds still were still in line for a turn to address the commission. Speakers were still calling for Moore's resignation, as the chief listened, when Mayor Eric Garcetti began public remarks on Facebook Live at 6 p.m. Asked whether he still has confidence in Moore, Garcetti said he has known the chief for decades and that the apology was sufficient. "If I believed for a moment that the chief believed that in his heart, he would no longer be the chief," Garcetti said. Story continues Garcetti also said he has instructed the LAPD to minimize the use of rubber bullets and batons, and "if we can, to not use them at all." Moore told the police commission that when he saw the video of police killing Floyd, he and others at the LAPD "were greatly disturbed by it and troubled by the images and we sought to communicate clearly those images we witnessed along with the rest of America, they were horrible. It was disgusting and without justification." Moore said the LAPD originally hoped to work with peaceful protesters. But while many demonstrators were peaceful, looting began Saturday night and changed the dynamics. "When violence escalates, including assaults on officers, arson, widespread looting in Fairfax area Saturday, and we see officers sustain injuries, the loss of property, the department needs to resort to a stronger message," he said. "We increased our deployment. We began blocking protesters, communicating with protests. We began to convey to them the need for peace. ... But we could not allow the safety of our officers or the public to be jeopardized." Moore said he is continuing to evaluate the department and strategies. As to allegations of officer misconduct, he said, "I want to assure you we will investigate each complaint, and I promise to hold accountable anyone who violates our policy or commits other misconduct." The item used in the assault, which was a fire extinguisher, was recovered, immediately the operatives who were with some specialists screened the fingerprints which led to our suspect. NEW YORK (AP) A tech-focused civil liberties group on Tuesday sued to block President Donald Trump's executive order that seeks to regulate social media, saying it violates the First Amendment and chills speech. Trump's order, signed last week, could allow more lawsuits against internet companies like Twitter and Facebook for what their users post, tweet and stream. The order was more political than substantive, with many experts questioning whether it was constitutional. The president aimed to rally his supporters after Twitter put fact checks on two of his tweets. Trump, without evidence, has long accused tech companies of being biased against conservatives. The order targets current law you may have heard recent references to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act that protects internet companies from lawsuits. They can't be sued for hosting videos and posts from users, or for moderating their services, with some exceptions. In its suit, the Center for Democracy and Technology said that Trump's executive order violates the First Amendment because it attacks Twitter for putting the fact checks on the president's tweets, which CDT said is Twitter's right as a private company. More broadly, the order is trying to curb speech of all online platforms and people by demonstrating the willingness to use government authority to retaliate against those who criticize the government," CDT said. The government cannot and should not force online intermediaries into moderating speech according to the presidents whims," said Alexandra Givens, CDT's CEO, in an emailed statement. The organization filed the federal suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. There was pushback against Trump's order from various sources. Tech industry groups, unsurprisingly, said it was bad for innovation and speech. Civil rights and libertarian organizations and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce also criticized Trump's order. Melbourne, Australia, June 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leading asset valuation and disposal company Hilco Global APAC and Gordon Brothers, the leading global advisory, investment, and restructuring firm, have partnered to disperse a fleet of late model Caterpillar 100T-class mobile mining assets located in South Africa. The partnership between the two prominent US-headquartered firms offers 25 late-model, low-hour Caterpillar mining machines for sale. The fleet includes D10T and D9T tracked dozers, a 992K wheeled loader, an 824K wheeled dozer, and 777E rigid haul dump trucks. Were very excited about this collaboration as this is the first time both companies have partnered together in South Africa, said Fenton Healy, Managing Director at Gordon Brothers. Hilco and Gordon Brothers have had a good track record working together in North America to bring large fleets to market, so it made sense to leverage our combined capital to navigating our way through a new geography, he added. The fleet is primarily comprised of 2017-year models in good condition that had been repossessed. Hilco APAC and Gordon Brothers were assisted in the acquisition by DLA Piper in Johannesburg. Partnering with Gordon Brothers in Australia was ideal. The combination of both our skillsets ensured the best possible outcome for our customer, said Adam Scharer, CEO of Hilco Global APAC. He added, The deal combines our respective abilities to deploy capital alongside our combined global reach to ensure the project is successful for all stakeholders. Hilco APAC and Gordon Brothers in Australia are confident that prevailing conditions in key market segments will create a healthy demand for the sale of the mobile mining assets. Despite the impacts of the current pandemic, the secondary market for quality used mining and construction equipment remains strong. Initial interest has been encouraging, and both firms look forward to delivering a great result. About Hilco Global APAC Hilco Global APAC (www.hilcoapac.com) provides industrial asset acquisition and disposition services, specializing in machinery, equipment, and inventory auctions and negotiated sales. It sells the broad range of industrial assets found in manufacturing, wholesale, and distribution companies. Hilco Industrial buys and sells assets through on-site, online, and combination webcast auction sale events as well as negotiated (private treaty) sales. In addition to providing services on a fee or commission basis, Hilco Industrial puts capital at risk and often acquires assets or provides guarantees. Hilco Global APAC is part of Northbrook, Illinois-based Hilco Global (www.hilcoglobal.com), the world's leading authority on maximizing the value of business assets by delivering valuation, monetization, and advisory solutions to an international marketplace. About Gordon Brothers Since 1903, Gordon Brothers (www.gordonbrothers.com) has helped lenders, operating executives, advisors, and investors move forward through change. The firm brings a powerful combination of expertise and capital to clients, developing customized solutions on an integrated or standalone basis across four service areas: valuations, dispositions, operations, and investments. Whether to fuel growth or facilitate strategic consolidation, Gordon Brothers partners with companies in the retail, commercial, and industrial sectors to put assets to their highest and best use. Gordon Brothers conducts more than $70 billion worth of dispositions and appraisals annually. Gordon Brothers is headquartered in Boston, with 25 offices across five continents. STOUGHTON, Mass., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Shields Health Solutions (the "Company"), the leading and largest network of hospital-based specialty pharmacies, today announced four new appointments: Stephen West as Chief Strategy Officer, Cindy MacLean as Chief Legal & Compliance Officer, Paul Hanlon as Chief Information Officer, and Bill Demianiuk as Chief Quality Assurance Officer. These appointments mark a further enhancement of Shields' leadership team, following the naming of Lee Cooper as Chief Executive Officer. Together with the other members of Shields' leadership team, they will support the Company's growth and expansion strategy. "Stephen has long been an integral part of the Shields leadership team, focusing on innovative growth initiatives for the Company's long-term success, and we are grateful for his continued commitment in this new role. Cindy, Paul, and Bill have exceptional track records enabling the growth of highly successful businesses, and we're thrilled to have them on board," said Founder and Chairman Jack Shields. "As we continue to build out our management team, we'll be even better positioned to reach more patients and to solidify our position as the national leader in hospital-owned specialty pharmacy." Mr. Cooper said: "I look forward to working with Stephen, Cindy, Paul, and Bill in bringing to fruition our vision to accelerate Shields' growth. They are proven executives with deep and relevant experience. They will help to drive our success in expanding Shields' differentiated care model nationwide." As Chief Strategy Officer, Mr. West will help develop and drive the growth strategy of the business. At Shields, he has served as Manager of Strategic Operations and most recently, as Chief of Staff. As Chief of Staff, he worked closely with the Shields executive team to execute key strategic and operational initiatives. As Chief Legal & Compliance Officer, Ms. MacLean will lead legal and compliance support for Shields' operations, advising on growth and risk mitigation strategies. She is an experienced technology attorney, with more than two decades in global legal departments in healthcare and digital services. Most recently, she served as General Counsel, U.S. and Canada Commercial at GE Healthcare. As Chief Information Officer, Mr. Hanlon will support Shields' corporate infrastructure and enhance the Company's technology and digital offerings. He has extensive experience driving large-scale technology organizations and change initiatives in healthcare and financial services, including most recently as Chief Information Officer of Magellan Complete Care (MCC), a division of Magellan Health focused on managed care across the U.S. As Chief Quality Assurance Officer, Mr. Demianiuk will lead the launch of a physician engagement team within the Shields network. He brings more than three decades of healthcare experience, having most recently served as Chief Operating Officer of Shields Health Care Group, a regional provider of MRI, PET/CT, and radiation oncology services. About Stephen West Mr. West has held various leadership positions of increasing responsibility since joining Shields Health Solutions in 2017. In his most recent role as Chief of Staff, Mr. West worked closely with the Shields executive team to execute key strategic and operational initiatives, ensuring consistent delivery of the highest level of integrated care across all partners. He focused on identifying and executing innovative growth initiatives to expand the Company into new service lines, hospitals, disease states and therapies. Before joining Shields, Mr. West was on the Healthcare team at LLR Partners, a private equity firm focused on investing in growth stage companies. Mr. West earned his B.S. in Commerce with Distinction from the University of Virginia, with concentrations in Finance, Accounting and Global Commerce. About Cindy MacLean Ms. MacLean has more than 20 years of experience as a technology attorney in legal departments of the world's leading healthcare and digital services companies. She has spent the last decade at GE Healthcare, most recently as the General Counsel, U.S. and Canada Commercial. In that role, she led the legal team supporting the company's commercial activities, providing review, analysis and legal counsel for the medical device, life science, digital and enterprise solutions businesses. In addition, she worked with healthcare institutions, payers, providers and partner communities on the creation of innovative business models. Prior to GE Healthcare, Ms. MacLean spent nearly a decade at Philips Healthcare, where she provided legal and compliance counsel at multiple echelons of the business. Her background in private practice includes roles as litigation partner at Choate, Hall & Stewart and associate at Debevoise & Plimpton. Ms. MacLean earned her B.A. in Political Science and Government from Cornell University and her J.D. from Columbia University School of Law. She is admitted to practice law in Massachusetts and New York. About Paul Hanlon Mr. Hanlon is a seasoned information technology leader with extensive C-suite and management experience in healthcare and financial services. Most recently, he served as Chief Information Officer of Magellan Complete Care (MCC), a managed care division of Magellan Health formed in 2018 from a historical collection of business lines. As CIO, Mr. Hanlon supported the functional and regulatory demands associated with a rapidly growing newly formed business unit, while establishing a consolidated target architecture to transform to a national line of business. Previously, Mr. Hanlon served in CIO roles at Senior Whole Health (SWH), a local managed care organization focused on care for seniors with complex conditions, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island. Earlier in his career, Mr. Hanlon held various technology roles of increasing responsibility at Citizens Bank, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and National Australia Bank. Mr. Hanlon received his B.S. in Applied Physics from University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. He is also a graduate of the Australian Graduate School of Management in Sydney, Australia. About Bill Demianiuk Mr. Demianiuk brings more than three decades of healthcare experience, having most recently served as Chief Operating Officer of Shields Health Care Group, a regional provider of MRI, PET/CT, and radiation oncology services. In that role, he was responsible for establishing numerous joint ventures in all facets of Shields Health Care Group's divisions, starting new service lines, and ensuring the highest quality for standards, effective resource alignment, measurement, and accountability. He joined Shields Health Care Group in 1992, hired to lead the Marketing and Quality Assurance division. Prior to then, Mr. Demianiuk worked at E.I. Du Pont de Nemours for 12 years, holding positions in global product management, marketing, and sales. Mr. Demianiuk graduated from the University of Maine at Orono with a Bachelor of Science degree. About Shields Health Solutions Shields Health Solutions is a specialty pharmacy integrator and care provider, partnering with hospital leaders on every aspect of specialty pharmacy creation, growth and management. Shields provides the fastest, lowest risk model for health systems to create or grow a hospital-owned specialty pharmacy program. Started in 2012, Shields partners with health systems to provide on-site pharmacy and care professionals, a purpose-built specialty pharmacy technology platform, access to nearly all limited distribution drugs (LDDs) and most (health insurance) payors in the nation. Through a differentiated care model that "plugs into" centralized infrastructure and provides high-touch pharmacy liaisons on-site, Shields delivers superior value and a best-in-class experience to health systems, patients, payers, and manufacturers. This results from unparalleled medication adherence (92%), quicker time to therapy (<48 hours), improved patient satisfaction (85 NPS), decrease in re-admissions, lower medical spend, and fewer adverse events. For more information, see https://www.shieldshealthsolutions.com/. Contacts Ruth Pachman / Daniel Hoadley Kekst CNC [email protected] / [email protected] SOURCE Shields Health Solutions Related Links https://www.shieldshealthsolutions.com Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 07:29:11|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A demonstrator holds his hands in the air as police officers fire tear gas during a protest against the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the United States, May 31, 2020. (Photo by Angus Alexander/Xinhua) Pictured: Martin Henderson, 30, who pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving A drunk motorist returned to the pub and ordered a pint after killing a pensioner in a horror crash while driving at more than double the speed limit, a court heard. Martin Henderson, 30, was travelling at 67mph in a 30mph section of dual carriageway when he lost control of his BMW and crashed into people waiting at a bus stop in Bucksburn, Aberdeen. Allan Forbes, 70, was thrown into a hotel car park by the force of the impact, sustained 'catastrophic, unsurvivable injuries' and died at the scene. The retired bus driver had been on his way to meet his son at the pub when the tragedy took place at around 8pm on November 9 last year. Chloe Donaldson, then 18, who was waiting a short distance from the bus shelter, was severely injured and now has metal pins holding part of her leg together. Henderson fled to a nearby pub after the crash, where he ordered a pint before returning home to Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, the High Court in Edinburgh heard. He told his partner he had 'f***ed up' once he arrived home, opened two cans of lager, reported his car stolen to the police and fell asleep on the couch. The former engineering supervisor for an offshore oil company pleaded guilty today to causing death by dangerous driving and attempting to pervert the course of justice. The court heard he has six previous convictions for driving offences, including drink driving, speeding and careless driving, and he has previously been given three driving bans. Henderson was travelling at 67mph in a 30mph section of dual carriageway (pictured, the scene) when he lost control of his BMW and crashed into people waiting at a bus stop in Aberdeen Allan Forbes (left) was thrown into a nearby car park by the force of the impact, sustained 'catastrophic, unsurvivable injuries' and died at the scene in Bucksburn. Chloe Donaldson (right) was severely injured and now has metal pins holding part of her leg together Judge Lord Mulholland told Henderson, who was tearful throughout the hearing, he is facing prison, having turned his car into 'a lethal weapon'. Advocate depute Graeme Jessop told the court Henderson had visited two pubs in Inverurie on the evening of the crash, drinking two and a half pints, before getting behind the wheel of his black BMW estate at around 7.30pm with a workmate as a passenger. As he headed along the A96 towards Aberdeen, he drove at 60mph in a 40mph limit section, undertaking a car then straddling two lanes. He then drove through a red light, narrowly missing colliding with a van, before overtaking on a bend at an estimated speed of 97mph. On the approach to the crash site, he was travelling at 67mph in a 30mph section of dual carriageway when he began overtaking a car, lost control, hit a Nissan Pixo and crashed into the passengers at the bus stop at around 7.50pm. The Nissan Pixo hit the central reservation but the driver, his son and his son's friend who were inside were not injured. Henderson's passenger also avoided injury, stayed at the scene and told the police Henderson had been driving. Mr Jessop told the court retired bus driver Mr Forbes was waiting for a bus as he planned to meet his son in a pub. Pictured: Police at the scene after the crash in Bucksburn, Aberdeen on November 9 last year He leaves behind his wife of 47 years, Caroline, two sons and a daughter as well as four siblings. Lord Mulholland told Henderson: 'This was not just a momentary lapse of appalling driving, it is constant appalling driving for quite some distance, involving speeding, going through a red light, undertaking, overtaking, overtaking while it was unsafe to do so, all whilst you are under the influence of alcohol, meaning that you turned your car into a lethal weapon. 'You have taken a life and given that poor family a life sentence.' He said Ms Donaldson had suffered a 'horrific injury' and could face life-long consequences. Lord Mulholland continued: 'You should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself.' The court heard Mr Forbes' family and Ms Donaldson had wanted to attend court but decided not to with reluctance after being 'strongly advised' by the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service not to due to coronavirus. Henderson's defence advocate, Neil Shand, said his client 'recognises that a custodial sentence is entirely inevitable and indeed deserved'. Lord Mulholland deferred sentence for background reports until June 30. Metra, which has been out of service since Monday morning, resumed a modified schedule today on most lines. The CTA restarted bus and rail service to downtown at 5 a.m., though some train stops located within or near downtown will remain closed, according to the city. HUNTINGTON, NY When Tulsi Patel got married in September 2019, she never could have foreseen the virus that would leave her a heartbroken widow at the age of 27. Luke Workoff died at the age of 33 on April 4 after a battle with the coronavirus. Two months later, Patel, of Huntington, is using her grief to share the couple's story in a bid to raise awareness of COVID-19 and potentially save lives. Workoff was described by his wife as "a very successful, loving person who loved life." The pair had two dogs and were planning having children this year after recently buying a home. "These are little things that make him human and not just a story or a stat," Patel told Patch. "We had so many plans. I feel robbed." Tulsi Patel with Luke Workoff and their two dogs. (Courtesy Tulsi Patel) Around March 27, Workoff began experiencing symptoms, including fever, fatigue, gastrointestinal issues, the chills and irritation. He had standard COVID-19 symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. The last time he went into work in Midtown Manhattan, via train was March 12, so Patel believes the only place he could have contracted the virus was at a grocery store. Other than that, the couple remained home, following social distancing guidelines. Upon feeling symptomatic, Workoff would get plenty of sleep, stay hydrated, use an inhaler solely to clear his airways and take vitamins. He wasn't experiencing any "severe" symptoms, Patel said, which is why she didn't see his death coming. After both started having coronavirus symptoms, Workoff and Patel decided to temporarily sleep in separate rooms. She noted on April 2, Workoff mustered the energy to go up and down two flights of stairs and make a king-size bed himself. Two days later, it happened. "On [April 4], I let the two dogs out and came up," Patel said. "I went to check on him. I walk in and Im like, 'How are you feeling?' He didnt respond, which is very unlike him. He always responded. I kind of gave his body a little shove tap. He didnt respond, and that's when I went onto the other side and found him unconscious." Story continues Patel immediately called 911. At the hospital, it was determined Workoff had died in his sleep a couple hours prior when he went into cardiac arrest. He tested positive for COVID-19 and his death was deemed coronavirus-related. Workoff did not have any preexisting health conditions, Patel said. "My worry was, was he calling for me? Was he struggling?" Patel also tested positive for the coronavirus, but her symptoms were "very mild" compared to her husband's, she said. After Workoff died, Patel says she was a "lost soul." She wouldn't eat, sleep, talk to anyone or do anything. "It f------ sucks," she said. "To be completely honest, seeing these people not taking this quarantine seriously and it potentially being extended, and grieving during this period, it has been such a challenge. It really messes with reality, because it kind of doesnt feel real still. Im still stuck in a house. Never did I think that I would lose him." Eventually, Patel spoke to a therapist and joined support groups, where she met a woman named Kathryn, who she says has been her saving grace. "The people she put me in contact with, the support groups, they have been so supportive, and I am so thankful for them," Patel said. "To this day, if I have a hard time, Ill call her. Shell talk me through anything Im feeling. A lot of me being able to hold my head right now, is because of her group." Kathryn launched the Long Island Young Widows and Widowers Group on Facebook, as well as the website WidowedNotAlone.com. Tulsi Patel with her late husband, Luke Workoff. (Credit: Studio KSD Photography) Patel has shifted her focus toward telling her husband's story in hopes that it will potentially save lives. "The weather is getting warmer, and people think that theyll be OK. They dont want to wear masks. Theyre like, 'Alright, its been awhile. I can go out, and I can be with my people and Ill be OK.' But what people dont realize is that you can be a carrier and you can transmit whatever you have to another person and potentially put their life at risk. I think that's what happened to Luke." She can't help but feel frustrated when she goes out and sees people not wearing masks and gloves while delivering food, at the grocery store or elsewhere. "It doesn't make sense. For me, I feel this way because I lost my husband to COVID. [Other people] dont know these stories of young people passing to COVID who dont show these severe symptoms who couldve came in contact with somebody who's a carrier." Patel urges everyone to follow the guidelines presented by state officials, especially given the population density of Long Island and New York City. People should cover their mouths, wear gloves and wash their hands, she said. "Ultimately, it's just listening. Listen to what other people have to say. Don't be selfish, because God forbid you have it, youre going near somebody, and if they have an elderly or an immunocompromised person at home, youre putting them at risk. If you can just follow the rules. Thats all it is. Follow the rules." Luke Workoff died from coronavirus complications April 4. (Credit: Studio KSD Photography) This article originally appeared on the Huntington Patch Calvert City's Ameribration Canceled Jun. 01, 2020 By Jun. 01, 2020 CALVERT CITY - A yearly Calvert City summer tradition has been canceled due to concerns about coronavirus. Organizers announced Thursday all events pertaining to Ameribration this year have been canceled. "It is sad that many important summer activities must be canceled. The response from the Governor's staff was clear about no large gatherings. Therefore, since they are large gatherings, the 4th of July festivities are not allowed," said Mayor Lynn Jones. One of Calvert City's largest events, Ameribration draws thousands of people each year with arts and crafts, live music, cornhole tournament, a parade, and fireworks. "While I am greatly disappointed, I am excited to announce that 2021 is the 150th Anniversary of Calvert City's founding. The celebration for 2021 Ameribration will be the most fantastic. It is going to be a really, really, big event," said Jones. Calvert City was founded in 1871 and plans to organize a fun-filled long weekend in 2021 to celebrate Calvert City. "I'm sorry this year's event must be canceled but we will continue to do our part to stay safe, healthy, and happy." Also planned for the summer was a six-week summer camp program. Because of guidelines set by the Governor's office, the summer camp program will be postponed. "The summer camp for Calvert City's youth does not meet the Governor's requirements and will be postponed until the summer of 2021," Jones said. National President Of Automobile Dealers Union Of Ghana (ADUG), Mr. Eric Kwaku Boateng 02.06.2020 LISTEN The National President of Automobile Dealers Union of Ghana (ADUG), Mr. Eric Kwaku Boateng, has commended the President of the Republic, His Excellency, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for his tremendous work towards the fight against COVID-19 pandemic in the country. Mr. Eric Kwaku Boateng described the President as Godsent and that Ghana would have recorded more positive cases and deaths if God hadnt guaranteed his victory in the 2016 general elections. "God predetermined 2020 a covid19 year and met the victories Ghana champions through her President. Nana Addo has really done well and still doing his best. In my rating, hes scored 90% for his good works "In less than 3 years he has almost solved all electricity crisis, though, there are some little lapses. Generally, Nanas doing well as a leader and we must commend him. imagine the former president in power and still under Dumsor, staying at home would have been sickening and Ghanaians would flee from home", he said. Effect Of COVID-19 On Automobile Dealers ADUG National President noted that the virus has impacted negatively on the Automobile business. Adding, there have been low patronage since the outbreak, 95% of workers have been laid off by virtue of the fact that importation of cars has reduced and income generation significantly declined. Stimulus Package Speaking about the government's stimulus package, Mr. Kwaku Boateng, stated categorically that it was a laudable initiative and a good relief to revive the economy and will go a long way to build businesses. Touching on Coronavirus stigmatization, ADUG President spoke against COVID-19 discrimination, says it would not help in this crucial moment. He, therefore, emphasized that we should be each other's keeper and show love because this is the only way to bounce back as a country because we are brothers and sisters. "Do for others what you want them to do for you". Mr. Eric Kwaku Boateng advised the public to adhere to the government's directives to control the Ghana COVID-19. He urged all Ghanaians to comply with government directives including wearing face masks, washing hands under running water, use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers, and stay home if you have nothing important to do in town. He also tasked the leaders to follow the directives as an example to the citizenry. Automobile Dealers Union of Ghana President finally concluded by urging all Ghanaians to adopt new ways of doing businesses and be innovative to stop the spread rather than criticize the government. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2020) - Revelo Resources Corp. (TSXV: RVL) ("Revelo" or the "Company") reports that its Exploration Option Agreement with Sociedad Quimica Y Minera de Chile S.A. ("SQM"), signed in April 2019, which would have allowed SQM to acquire up to an 80% interest in Revelo's Calvario and Mirador copper projects in Chile, has been terminated by SQM. Both Calvario and Mirador display widespread geological characteristics indicative of the upper parts of possible porphyry copper systems, with Calvario having been the subject of minor historic drill testing. The two projects are contiguous and lie along one of the most prospective mineral belts in northern Chile, which includes major producing copper mines. The Company also reports that Teck Resources Chile Ltda. ("Teck") has failed to complete the second year expenditures or make a contracted cash payment on the second anniversary related to the Option Agreement signed between the two companies in May 2018 for a portion of Revelo's Cerro Buenos Aires project in Chile, and as a consequence, the agreement has been terminated. Teck completed three 300m reverse circulation holes targeting a magnetic high, which cut sericitic altered volcanics after around 80m of gravel cover, but failed to drill deep enough to explain the source of the magnetic anomaly. The magnetic feature was interpreted to represent a possible prograde porphyry copper centre and remains untested. Cerro Buenos Aires, together with 7 additional Revelo projects, is now subject to a Binding Letter Agreement with West Pacific Ventures Corp. (see news release dated May 19, 2020). Dr. Demetrius Pohl, Ph.D., Certified Professional Geoscientist (CPG), an independent consultant, is the Company's Qualified Person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosures for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators and has approved the written disclosure of the technical information contained in this news release. ABOUT REVELO Revelo is a Canadian company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV: RVL). Revelo has interests in an outstanding portfolio of projects prospective for gold and copper located along proven mineral belts in one of the world's top mining jurisdictions -Chile. The Company has a vision to reward shareholders with wealth-generating mineral discoveries along Chile's prime mineral belts, through leveraged and more efficient capital deployment, exploration, discovery and monetization. For more information, please visit Revelo's website here www.reveloresources.com. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Michael Winn | Chairman INVESTOR CONTACT Timothy J Beale | President & CEO T: +1 604 687-5544 info@reveloresources.com www.reveloresources.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENT This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical fact, that address events or developments that Revelo expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential", "indicate" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although Revelo believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/57101 [June 02, 2020] Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty Appoints Thomas Kang as Head of Cyber in North America Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) announced today that Thomas Kang will join as Head of Cyber in North America effective June 15, 2020. Based in New York, he will report to Paul Schiavone, North America Regional Head of Financial Lines, North America and Regional Head of Corporate Long Tail Lines and ART. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005086/en/ Thomas Kang joins AGCS as Head of Cyber in North America (Photo: Business Wire) Tom joins AGCS from Willis Towers Watson, where he served as Global Cyber Product Leader since 2018. During this time, he formulated cyber product strategy across both traditional and specialty lines of business, and oversaw the execution of transactional and strategic initiatives across all regions. Prior to that, Tom was with The Hartford, planning and implementing a corporate strategic vision for the cyber insurance line of business, and spearheading profitable growth in cyber, media and tech E&O (Errors and Omissions) portfolios across the enterprise. He also spent three years at ACE Group in senior Cyber service and claims functions. "Tom is a respected and recognized leader in the cyber insurance industry with a strong acumen in underwriting and a solid presence within the broker community," said Schiavone. "His strategic and managerial expertise will be critical as we expand our cyber presence in North America." Earlier this month, it was announced that Dr. Catharina Richter will join AGCS as Global Head of Cyber Center of Competence for AGCS and Allianz Group effective June 1, 2020. She will report directly to Chief Underwriting Officer Corporate Thomas Sepp. AGCS launched a first standalone cyber insurance product in 2013 and has seen steady growth since then in all its key markets globally. In 2019, for the first time, AGCS exceeded the EUR 100 million gross premium written with cyber insurance solutions. About Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) is a leading global corporate insurance carrier and a key business unit of Allianz Group. We provide risk consultancy, Property-Casualty insurance solutions and alternative risk transfer for a wide spectrum of commercial, corporate and specialty risks across 10 dedicated lines of business. Our customers are as diverse as business can be, ranging from Fortune Global 500 companies to small businesses, and private individuals. Among them are not only the world's largest consumer brands, tech companies and the global aviation and shipping industry, but also wineries, satellite operators or Hollywood film productions. They all look to AGCS for smart answers to their largest and most complex risks in a dynamic, multinational business environment and trust us to deliver an outstanding claims experience. Worldwide, AGCS operates with its own teams in 33 countries and through the Allianz Group network and partners in over 200 countries and territories, employing over 4,300 people. As one of the largest Property-Casualty units of Allianz Group, we are backed by strong and stable financial ratings. In 2019, AGCS generated a total of 9.1 billion gross premium globally. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005086/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] National Guard members walk at the area in the aftermath of a protest after a white police officer was caught on a bystander's video pressing his knee into the neck of African-American man George Floyd, who later died at a hospital, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., May 29, 2020. The Minnesota National Guard plans to test all of its deployed members for the coronavirus after one tested positive and nine others have reported symptoms, a spokesman told CNBC on Tuesday. The state's National Guard has deployed nearly 7,000 personnel in response to mass protests sparked by George Floyd's death, caused by a Minneapolis police officer who knelt on the unarmed black man's neck for nearly nine minutes, according to spokesman Scott Hawks. "Upon activation, all of our members were screened for health readiness, including for symptoms of COVID-19," Lt. Col. Dean Stulz said in a statement, adding that one service member tested positive for Covid-19 and has been placed in isolation. "Screening and testing of those activated guard members has been a part of our plan since the earliest days, it is not a response action to having a positive result." The state's National Guard is now developing plans to test every one of its deployed members for the coronavirus, Hawks said, though a timeline remains unknown. It's unclear when the infected service member tested positive and how much interaction they had with other service members and the public. "We have made efforts to wear masks and to encourage social distancing where possible, however when you create a line to protect people or buildings you are shoulder to shoulder," Hawks said in a statement. "These are the required risks that we accept when in uniform to keep the public safe and restore peace and order." The news comes as epidemiologists and public health specialists publicly worry that the mass protests, which have engulfed the nation, could allow the coronavirus to rapidly spread just as states begin to reopen large sectors of the economy. Broad testing of everyone involved in the protests will be key to ensuring that the virus doesn't spread unchecked from the protests to new communities, said Dr. David Eisenman, director of the Center for Public Health and Disasters at UCLA. Minnesota has processed 258,747 diagnostic tests for the coronavirus since March 6, according to data compiled by the Covid Tracking Project. Through May, the state of more than 5 million conducted about 5,780 tests per day on average, according to data from the volunteer effort founded by reporters at The Atlantic magazine. Some health specialists and economists have repeatedly called for the U.S. to ramp up its ability to test broadly throughout the population. While the country's average daily number of tests nearly doubled in May compared with April, it still falls short of the massive testing programs some epidemiologists have called for. "Now is the time when we need to be having testing more than ever, given the likelihood of spread," Eisenman said. "We need to be doing everything we can to protect those protesters and to protect the communities they go back into, the families they go back to every night." The activities expected to take place at protests, such as yelling and chanting could prove to exacerbate spread of the virus, said epidemiologist Bob Bednarczyk at Emory University. People are forced into close contact at such protests where there's a lot of shouting and chanting, which are both factors that contribute to spread he said. He added that the use of tear gas on groups of protesters could also cause people to cough and spread the virus even more. "I am very concerned about the use of tear gas to break up these protests," he said. "When there is a respiratory disease pandemic occurring, the use of a chemical that causes people to cough violently can lead to more spread of disease." Doctors have tips to reduce the risk of catching the coronavirus during George Floyd protests But as we watch people protest in the way they are protesting, we must look beyond that to understand the deep hurt, frustration and anger that people are experiencing, she said, adding that black peoples concerns have been too long ignored. People have been screaming at the top of their lungs, but nothing has changed, she said. Henry said the George Floyd case was only the latest in a litany of unjustifiable deaths of black Americans at the hands of police in the last five years. But this death, caught on video, was especially disquieting because of the callous expression of the officer as he dug his knee into the handcuffed mans neck, and the reactions of Floyd himself. To hear that man wail for his mother was so deeply disturbing, Henry said. Whether or not you are a black mother, you can respond to the call of a child for his mother in all desperation. That call should have touched every mothers heart. Henry has been part of review committees for police chief candidates, and she said she has been supportive of chiefs that have been hired in recent years. But now that the search is on for a replacement for Chief Ryan Holt, she said this is a chance to gain trust with the black community. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 21:28:14|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close QINGDAO, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has stressed the importance of providing relief to businesses and stimulating market vitality during his inspection tour to east China's Shandong Province from Monday to Tuesday. Li, who cared a lot about small- and micro-sized enterprises, urged related authorities to properly address the issue of allowing companies to use their intellectual property to secure loans and cut down their financing costs. The premier called for more ways to increasing credit line for small and micro businesses to help them solve financing problems. He also encouraged banks to make appropriate interest concessions, so that businesses can sustain themselves and assure success for the future, which will also benefit banks' development. Noting that the number of college graduates will touch a new high this year, Li said he hopes companies can recruit more college graduates, adding that the central government will also provide support. In his visit to an old residential community in the city of Yantai, the premier said the renovation of such communities can improve people's living conditions and drive up consumption of home decoration and home appliances. He encouraged social capital to take part in such projects and called for accelerated pace of renovation. Enditem Zimbabwe summoned the U.S. ambassador over a White House official's remarks suggesting the southern African nation is exploiting protests over the killing of George Floyd. After Sen. Marco Rubio said on Twitter that at least three unidentified "foreign adversaries" used social media to stoke and promote violence in the U.S., National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien later identified Zimbabwe, China and Iran among America's adversaries. Protests erupted across the U.S. at the weekend demanding justice for Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes during an arrest for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill. "I want to tell our foreign adversaries, whether it's a Zimbabwe or a China, that the difference between us and you is that that officer who killed George Floyd, he'll be investigated, he'll be prosecuted, he'll receive a fair trial," O'Brien said in an interview with broadcaster ABC. "The American people that want to go out and protest peacefully, they're going to be allowed to seek redress from their government, they're not going to be thrown in jail for peaceful protesting." In a statement issued after he met Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo on Monday, U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe Brian Nichols highlighted the state's failure to bring to justice those responsible for the disappearance of opposition activists including Patrick Nabanyama and Itai Dzamara. Nick Mangwana, a spokesman for Zimbabwe's government, said the nation doesn't consider itself an adversary of the U.S. government. The U.S. is Zimbabwe's biggest aid donor. "We prefer having friends and allies to having unhelpful adversity with any other nation including the USA," said Mangwana in a statement on his official Twitter account. George Charamba, a spokesman for President Emmerson Mnangagwa, declined to comment. O'Brien said the foreign adversaries will face repercussions, without specifying what they'll be. "There'll be a response and it'll be proportional, but this is not something that our adversaries are going to get away with for free," he said. SPRINGFIELD Madison County was one of nine counties cited Monday in a disaster proclamation by Gov. J.B. Pritzker because of civil unrest over the weekend. On Friday, Troy Police reported vandals spray-painted anti-police graffiti on the Troy Administrative Building overnight. Hundreds of people on Sunday attended an Edwardsville rally outside the Madison County Courthouse. The event was described as peaceful by spectators and local officials have reported no arrests or damage in connection to the event. On Monday, Pritzker signed an disaster proclamation to expedite state resources, personnel and equipment to help keep residents safe in Madison, Champaign, Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Sangamon and Will amid fallout from the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, an unarmed black man in police custody. Pritzker on Monday also activated an additional 250 members of the Illinois National Guard to support jurisdictions throughout Illinois and protect communities. We have to take care of our communities and our people, and for that reason, we will continue to strategically deploy Illinois State Police and the National Guard as we work to protect Illinoisans and the First Amendment rights of peaceful protesters, said Pritzker. We cannot allow those who have taken advantage of this moment to loot and smash to also steal the voices of those peacefully expressing a need for real, meaningful change, he said. This anger doesnt come out of nowhere; its born of decades and centuries of systemic racism and injustice. Thats what all of us have to recognize and thats where our work begins. Lt. Col. David Byrd, deputy director of the Illinois State Police, said as a black man, he was hurt by Floyds death. As an officer, he said he was also ashamed when he watched the footage. The ISP supports the peaceful protests that are occurring across the nation and across the state of Illinois for members of our community who want their voices heard, Byrd said. Were also committed to protecting the fundamental rights of life and property. Byrd said ISP helped several local departments with crowd control over the weekend, and the officers will help with traffic control, investigative components and several missions that have been identified moving forward. Pritzker also ordered Illinois State Police to provide an additional 300 troopers to support local municipalities Monday night and into Tuesday. This follows his activating 375 Illinois National Guard soldiers for State Active Duty to fulfill a request for assistance from Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. In addition, the State Emergency Operations Center is monitoring operations throughout Illinois and fulfilling requests from local governments. Personnel from the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and mutual aid networks are actively working to assist, state officials said. All state personnel deployed for operations as well as soldiers on active duty will be outfitted with personal protective equipment such as face shields and masks, to prevent the spread of COVID-19. On Sunday, IEMA Director Alicia Tate-Nadeau ordered the closure of all community based COVID-19 testing sites in Illinois to protect staff and those utilizing these services. A reopen date will be announced as soon as determined. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) is detained by U.S. Capitol Police while supporting voting rights protesters at the Capitol Thursday. (Bloomberg News) The Democrat was arrested with several others, including faith leaders and youth who have been hunger striking for our democracy, his spokesman said. CARLINVILLE Four fraternity brothers in their 30s died Sunday when a small plane crashed in Macoupin County shortly after taking off from the Creve Coeur, Missouri, area, authorities said. The four were pronounced dead at 4:27 p.m. at the scene in rural Carlinville. Coroner Brad Targhetta said the men had left Creve Coeur Airport at 3:20 p.m. Sunday and were on their way to Michigan. The crash is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board and Macoupin County Sheriffs Department. Tony Molinaro, a spokesman for the FAA, said the plane crashed under unknown circumstances and was destroyed on impact. The victims were identified Monday as pilot Joshua Daniel Sweers, 35, of Lansing, Michigan; and passengers Daniel A. Shedd, 37, of St. Charles, Missouri; Daniel Schlosser, 39, of Mount Morris, Michigan; and John S. Camilleri, 39, of Buffalo, New York. The four men were in a Piper Cherokee PA 28-235 fixed wing, single-engine aircraft, a four-seater. Its registered owner, Cleared for Takeoff LLC, is in Lansing, Michigan, according to an FAA website. Shedd worked for the Defense Contract Management Agency at Boeing, where he was an engineer. All four of the men were engineering graduates from Kettering University in Flint, Michigan. They had all belonged to Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. Shedds father, Charles Shedd of Chesterfield, Missouri, said his son was a great guy. All four of them were great guys. Dan Shedd was an avid motorcyclist and had loaned one of his BMW motorcycles to Sweers for a year. Sweers, Schlosser and Camilleri flew down to see Dan Shedd on Friday and they all spent the weekend at his home in St. Charles before heading to the airport Sunday. Charles Shedd said his son planned to fly to Michigan, retrieve his motorcycle from Sweers home and ride it back home to St. Charles on Monday, his mothers birthday. Charles Shedd said he drove the four men to the airport Sunday. They were in great spirits, he said. They were happy. The weather was great. They were on a gorgeous, well-maintained 1964 plane that just passed annual inspection. Josh was proud of it, Charles Shedd said. Dan Shedd texted a photograph of the four friends, all smiles, moments before takeoff. Charles Shedd said he tried tracking his sons flight via an iPhone app along the route, just as his son had done to watch his friends approaching flight two days earlier. Shedd said through tears that he was having trouble finding a location. He texted his son but he didnt reply. He waited until the plane should have landed in Michigan and tried calling his son. He didnt answer, which was unusual, Shedd said. So he typed the planes tail number into Google. I ran across amazing information, Shedd said. Updated every 15 seconds or so, the website tracked the planes air speed, altitude, rate of climb and other details. I saw for a half hour they climbed at various rates, and then they basically dived into the ground, Shedd said. He saw a media alert about a plane crash near Carlinville, and then he and his wife talked to police, who confirmed it. Macoupin County Sheriff Shawn Kahl said several people reported the crash to 911 dispatchers about 3:45 p.m. Sunday. Deputies found the crash site on a private farm near Wonderland Ranch Drive, about 2.5 miles south of Carlinville. The plane went down near a residence on the farm but no one on the ground was hurt, Kahl said. Several people saw it and heard it, Kahl said. Witnesses heard a noise of some sort but they dont know what it was. As far as what transpired in the air, I wouldnt even begin to speculate on that. Julie Leefers family owns the farm where the plane went down. She said she heard the crash and called 911. She said it was about 100 yards from her residence. The sheriff said weather wasnt a factor. It was sunny and in the 70s. The cause of the wreck hasnt been released by authorities. The manager of Creve Coeur Airport, Bob Cameron, said he didnt recognize the planes tail number and that the plane wasnt based there. He said the airport does not have a control tower. He said pilots dont file a manifest listing who is on board. They also dont file a flight plan with the airport. Cameron said he didnt know if the pilot put out a mayday call before crashing. The FAA hasnt commented on any distress calls and referred that question to the National Transportation Safety Board. A representative with that agency, Terry Williams, said he had no information about distress calls. The Ghana Police Service has cautioned the public against participating in a planned demonstration against the US in Ghana over the death of George Floyd. According to the police, the organizers have not informed them about the demonstration which was scheduled for Tuesday, June 2, 2020. It said the restrictions against large public gatherings, rallies and demonstrations due to COVID-19 does not permit such action and so persons interested in participating in the demonstration must disregard the call for them to join. The attention of the Accra Regional Police Command has been drawn to an intended demonstration against the United States trending on social media and slated for 2nd June, 2020. The command wishes to state that it has not been notified of any demonstration on the above heading. Moreover, the restriction on public gatherings, demonstrations and rallies among others to contain the COVID-19 are still in force and the public is being advised to disregard the open call for a march, the police said in a statement. Killing of George Floyd On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, an African-American man, died in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the US after Derek Chauvin, a white American Minneapolis police officer handcuffed him lying face down on a city street during an arrest, kept his knee on the right side of Floyds neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds; according to the criminal complaint against Chauvin. Floyd became unresponsive and died. The development has since sparked a series of demonstrations and protests across many cities in the US and other countries. The incident has been condemned by the AU and other world leaders including Ghanas President, Nana Akufo-Addo who says the unfortunate incident should inspire change in how US tackles racism. ----citinewsroom The federal government has reduced the nationwide curfew from 8pm to 6am to 10pm to 4pm, with effect from Tuesday. This was made known by the chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID19, Boss Mustapha in its briefing on Monday. The federal government announced on Monday that it has lifted the ban on religious gathering across the country. The secretary to the government of the federation and chairman of presidential task force (PTF) on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, made this known at the daily media briefing in Abuja. President Muhammadu Buhari has met with Edo Governor Godwin Obaseki at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, according to the Presidents aide. Advertisement Bashir Ahmad, Buharis Personal Assistant on New Media, confirmed the development via his Twitter handle. The Inspector-General of Police, IGP Mohammed Adamu, has deployed more investigative and forensic support to the Edo State Police Command regarding the death of UNIBEN undergraduate, Vera Uwaila Omozuwa. According to the report, the deceased was raped and her head struck with a fire extinguisher. Founder of the Household of God Church, Oregun, Lagos, Rev. Chris Okotie, says the Christian Association of Nigeria, can not speak for Christians regarding coronavirus in the country. The cleric in a statement signed by his media adviser, Ladi Ayodeji on Sunday, described CAN as an amorphous organisation sustained by a Christian appellation. The Federal Government says state governments and communities would now handle the battle to contain Coronavirus in the country. Buhari. Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on the pandemic, Boss Mustapha, said this on Sunday at the State House after members of the PTF briefed President Muhammadu Buhari. The Court of Appeal in Abuja has been asked by police to uphold the death sentence ruling on Maryam Sanda by an Abuja High Court for killing her husband, Bilyaminu Bello. The police in its brief of argument filed in response to the appeal filed by Sandas legal team submitted that the trial court was right in finding her guilty of intentionally killing her husband. Popular Nollywood actress, Mercy Johnson-Okojie took to her Instagram page on Monday to react to recent happenings in the country. The movie star also expressed her displeasure over the murder of Uwaila Omozuwa and Tina Ezekwe. The father of late Vera Uwaila Omozuwa, in an interview with TVC, shared his grief as he stated he was shocked when he saw the injuries on his daughters body. Information Nigeria recalls the 100-level microbiology student of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) in Edo reportedly state after she was raped inside a church in the state. Some 76% of Ukrainian restaurants reopen after lockdown 12:30, 02.06.20 1444 Their profit plunged by 71.5% during the quarantine. Democrat Members of Homeland Security Committee Want Proof of Extremist Groups Involvement in Riots Democrat members of the House Homeland Security Committee sent a request to the officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Monday to provide more information about alleged extremist involvement in protests over George Floyds death. The committee sent the letter, to FBI Director Christopher Wray and acting Secretary of DHS Chad Wolf, asking them to provide a myriad of documents related to the involvement of left and right-wing extremists in the recent riots throughout the United States. Chairman of the committee Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) said it is very concerning that Attorney General William Barr and President Donald Trump have repeatedly blamed far-left extremists for the violence in the last week. President Trump tweeted: The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization. The same day, the National Security Adviser, Robert OBrien, called on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to conduct surveillance of Antifa and prosecute its members, the letter stated. We have serious concerns about the Constitutional implications of several of these statements. We also seek to understand the truth and evidence behind reports of extremist involvement in protests and how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI are responding to these issues while ensuring that Americans civil rights and civil liberties are protected, the committee said in the letter (pdf). The members want all documents starting from Jan. 1 to the present related to DHS and FBI intelligence about protests, including communication shared with law enforcement partners, information relating to the designation of groups as domestic terrorist organizations, documents related to the deployment of DHS resources, and all documents related to the surveillance of protestors. The committee wants the documents by June 19, and the letter notes that the members will be briefed by the DHS and the FBI by June 12. The stakesincluding the protection of Americans physical safety and their Constitutional rightsare enormous, the letter added. The letter refers to reports that the Minneapolis riots have been led by right-wing and left-wing anti-government groups. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said that the dynamic [of the protest] has changed over the last several days. We saw more and more people coming from outside of the city. We saw more and more people looking to cause violence in our communities and I have to say it is not acceptable, he said during a press conference on May 30. President Trump announced on Monday the United States will designate Antifa, as a domestic terrorist organization. Journalist Andy Ngo who has covered many Antifa events in Portland, Oregon said, in a Twitter response to Trumps latest announcement, Federal investigative authorities must dismantle the networks & hundreds of [A]ntifa cells across the U.S. who radicalize, train & carry out organized extremist violence. They also have international links to affinity cells in Western Europe, Ngo added. It is domestic & international terrorism. The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly, said in a statement Sunday. Boogaloo Bois, an anti-government group that has stated that fighting police brutality is one of its central goals, was among those who are said to have rioted in the streets of Minneapolis. They are anti-law enforcement. Attorney General William Barr said during a press conference that the violence within these protests appears to have been planned, organized, and driven by groups of outside radicals and agitators who are exploiting the situation in order to achieve their own separate and violent agenda. Upper Merion Township Board of Supervisors released the following statement this weekend: Upper Merion Township is a community comprised of individuals from many different backgrounds, religions, and cultures. We are extremely proud of this diversity, and we as individuals and the township actively work to cultivate and support our differences. A diverse Upper Merion is one that is inclusive of all persons, races, ethnicities, religions, and beliefs. Diversity is what makes this place home. Its how we grow and learn and relate to each other; how we raise our children and interact with our neighbors. It is acceptance of our differences that makes our community welcoming, vibrant, and strong. The horrific violence that we have recently witnessed against people of color in Georgia, Minneapolis, and elsewhere in the country have stirred up justifiable emotions of concern, grief, and anger in individuals of all backgrounds. Individuals have a constitutional right to express these emotions. On Saturday, May 30, members of our community gathered in a peaceful protest against this discrimination. Those protestors, along with the Upper Merion Police Department, demonstrated exactly how a peaceful protest works: non-violent, non- threatening freedom of expression from the public and tolerance from the authorities. Unfortunately, a separate event took place hours later at the King of Prussia Mall, which erupted into chaos as hundreds of people descended on the mall to loot and destroy property. To be clear, this rioting was a completely separate incident and had no connection with the peaceful protest that took place earlier in the evening. We have no way of knowing whether or not Upper Merion residents were among them, but we sincerely hope that is not the case. Although nine individuals were arrested, none of them were from Upper Merion. We know we are better than this. The act of protesting has been used for centuries to express feelings and inspire change. Violence, rioting, and looting do nothing to advance any just cause, and ultimately undermine the gravity and sincerity of those who peacefully protest injustice. Let us be clear: we strongly condemn the acts of violence, looting, and rioting, and will not tolerate it in our community. We wholeheartedly support the expression of First Amendment Rights via peaceful protests, and love to see a community actively engaged in matters that resonate both locally and across the nation, but violence is unacceptable. We support an individuals right to constitutional free speech, assembly and protest, but cannot accept wanton violence, uncivil discourse or looting. What people do for themselves dies with them; what people do for their community lives on We are grateful to the first responders from Upper Merion and other municipalities who handled the situation with grace and professionalism and kept us all safe, and to our community members who stood up for their convictions in a non-violent and non-destructive way. We will not let this one event define us, but rather use it to grow and learn. Stay involved, and stay safe. Hate has no home here. ALBANY There have been protests, marches and rallies. Streets have been shut down, and police chiefs have been confronted. The words black lives matter have echoed. But the movement to end systemic racism and police brutality is nowhere near its end, activists say. This is a moment for organizing, not for organizers, said Amy Jones, a local activist. Were always looking for a leader, and its not one person this is a movement. A protest organized by Citizen Action on Saturday brought at least 1,000 people to Townsend Park for a 2.23-mile walk in memory of Ahmaud Arbery,who was killed by two white men while jogging in Georgia; Breonna Taylor, who was killed in her Kentucky apartment by police officers; and George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer restrained him with a knee on his neck for more than eight minutes. Shawn Young, a community organizer with Citizen Action and one of the organizers of Saturdays protest, said they were expecting perhaps 100 people when they initially scheduled it following Arberys death. Then Floyd died. The idea was that we wanted to connect the racial injustice, police brutality murders in the Capital District to what were seeing across state lines, connecting stories like Ellazar Williams, Edson Thevenin and Andrew Kearse, Young said, invoking the names of young black men who were either killed or severely injured by local police. But after the Floyd murder, it accelerated that event and rocketed peoples focus on racial injustice. Advocates have a diversity of opinion on the more violent protests that broke out Saturday night in Albany's South End and at the tail end of Monday's protest in Arbor Hill. "I cannot equate a lynching with the destruction of property," said Barbara Smith, a renowned scholar on issues of race and gender. "It's excruciatingly painful to think about the loss of people's livelihoods and businesses, but it just is not in the same category as someone having their life choked out of them on video with three other officers standing around watching." On Sunday, groups in Schenectady had a protest. Monday, community members organized the protest in Albanys Arbor Hill neighborhood, shutting down part of Henry Johnson Boulevard. And another protest is planned for Sunday in Troy by Justice for Dahmeek, a grassroots organization that advocates against police brutality. (The group is named for Dahmeek McDonald, who was wounded by Troy police in a high-profile 2017 incident.) While the protests are a space for the community to voice their grievances, their solace, their pain, Young said, activists believe there is more to this movement: leading conversations within institutions, families and friend circles to challenge racism, and pushing policies that would help dismantle systemic racism. State-sanctioned violence is beyond simply a cops bullet, officer brutality, a cops knee on a persons neck, Young said. Its how are you going to invest, where are the opportunities, how do you bring equity? Not investing in communities is a part of the problem. We need to leverage this moment, leverage this time, make sure that those lives count for something. Resources for the black community have been brought up at multiple rallies and protests. If enough of us could connect wed be fine enough of us where we can pool resources together and fund things that back our causes, said Emerys Young, who organized Mondays protest. I feel like we can do that locally before anything: Empower people in your community and give them positions. The day after Saturdays Albany protest, the Capital Region National Association for the Advancement of Colored People organized a rally in the South End. Carolyn McLaughlin, an Albany County legislator, described the time as a ripe opportunity to get involved. "What you saw here today is the positive side of people here looking for solutions, but everybody came because they felt like a knee had been on their neck, she said. The group of us that have been talking, were looking for economic justice. We're looking for environmental justice. We're looking for educational justice. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Activists believe the time is ripe to fight for those justices, as well. The state Legislature is planning to act on a series of criminal justice reform measures, including overhauling 50-a, a 44-year-old statute that blocks public access to police disciplinary records. Smith brought up the erosion of community policing as another law enforcement practice to reevaluate during this time. But she also said that systemic racism has deep roots in American institutions, and will be difficult to uproot. The project of eradicating racism in policing, police brutality, the prison-industrial complex, mass incarceration the only way those things change is to make them front-and-center priorities for every one of your decisions and actions, she said. First of all, you've got to acknowledge the problem, and then you have to go from there. For some community members, the movement also needs to take place in personal spaces, through conversations with close ones and self-education. Not simply posting on social media, which many said is not enough, (If youre just here for a picture to post online, then seriously, take your ass home, Young said at Saturdays protest), but rather educating oneself about racism. The push for change needs to involve hard self-reflection by those who aren't black, said Aaron Moore, who teaches acting and playwriting. Without any fault of their own, white people are grown to be racist, no matter how much of an ally you are, through the subliminal messaging and means of social construct. That I dont blame you for because you have no control over it, Moore said. What I do blame you for is now knowing and being conscious of the world and your surroundings, and not doing anything. That is your fault. Being an ally of the movement against racial injustice is about being in the trenches, Moore said. When you go to your Thanksgiving dinner, engagement parties, meet up with those college friends, when you go to Uncle So-and-Sos house and see your grandparents, and the conversation starts to transition to black topics in a negative light, what are you saying, how are you carrying our voice with you? Moore said. How are you going to help a year from now? Thats more important for me to see. How are you going to take our voices into the future? Two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker Ben Affleck and his castmate-turned-quarantine partner Ana de Armas joined a recent Black Lives Matter protest in Venice Beach over the murder of George Floyd. In an image which surfaced on Twitter Tuesday, the Berkeley-born, Cambridge-raised 47-year-old held up two signs while marching down Abbot Kinney beside the Cuban 32-year-old. One sign supported Black Lives Matter following Ben's tweet on Monday: 'Now is the time for me to listen, learn, and most importantly, take action.' Ana de Armas & Ben Affleck attend a protest for the #BlackLivesMatter movement in Los Angeles. pic.twitter.com/CnI1g7gIv6 Ana de Armas Updates (@ArmasUpdates) June 2, 2020 Abbot Kinney area: Two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker Ben Affleck and his castmate-turned-quarantine partner Ana de Armas recently marched at a Black Lives Matter protest in Venice Beach over the murder of George Floyd The other sign supported saving a 100-year-old African-American landmark - First Baptist Church of Venice - which Jay Penske bought for $6.3M and plans on rebuilding as a multi-family family home (the church relocated to another venue prior to the sale). Affleck and de Armas were easily able to ride to the protest on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle, which they've been spotted on two days in a row now. The politically-active pair wore matching blue jeans with black leather jackets for their joy ride on his bike, which had no license plate. After leaving the Last Thing He Wanted actor's $19M Pacific Palisades mansion, Ana made sure to grip his thigh with her right hand and she wrapped her left arm around his chest. 'Now is the time for me to listen, learn, and most importantly, take action': The Berkeley-born, Cambridge-raised 47-year-old held one sign up supporting the Black Lives Matter movement Defending historical site: Ben also held up a sign supporting the saving of a 100-year-old African-American landmark - First Baptist Church of Venice - which Jay Penske bought for $6.3M and plans on rebuilding as a multi-family family home (the church relocated to another venue prior to the sale) Vroom! Affleck and the Cuban 32-year-old were easily able to ride to the protest on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle, which they've been spotted on two days in a row now Unmarked: The politically-active pair wore matching blue jeans with black leather jackets for their joy ride on his bike, which had no license plate Steadying herself: De Armas made sure to grip the Last Thing He Wanted actor's thigh with her right hand and she wrapped her left arm around his chest Throughout the ride, the Golden Globe nominee prominently showcased her new pink $3,900 Louis Vuitton 'Pont 9' purse designed by creative director Nicolas Ghesquiere. In fact, Page Six speculated on Saturday that Ana might be using her higher profile in order to specifically promote the French fashion house. 'I think I am wired that way - to know the things that I want and to go after them,' de Armas (born Caso) told American Way in a since-deleted interview from March. 'I trust my body's reaction to things. If I am happy somewhere, I stay there. I go step-by-step, and my goal is always to pay attention to how I feel in the moment.' Modeling? Throughout the ride, the Golden Globe nominee prominently showcased her new pink $3,900 Louis Vuitton 'Pont 9' purse designed by creative director Nicolas Ghesquiere Paid promoter? In fact, Page Six speculated on Saturday that Ana might be using her higher profile in order to specifically promote the French fashion house De Armas told American Way in March: 'I am wired that way - to know the things that I want and to go after them. I trust my body's reaction to things. If I am happy somewhere, I stay there' Suddenly shy: It's unclear if the couple were wearing face masks beneath their helmets, but LA Mayor Eric Garcetti made them a mandatory requirement for all outdoor activity on May 13 Grim: Garcetti extended the stay-at home order indefinitely due to the 56K confirmed COVID-19 cases in LA County, which has led to 2,391 deaths as of Tuesday It's unclear if the inseparable couple were wearing face masks beneath their helmets, but LA Mayor Eric Garcetti made them mandatory for all outdoor activity back on May 13. Garcetti extended the stay-at home order indefinitely due to the 56K confirmed COVID-19 cases in LA County, which has led to 2,391 deaths as of Tuesday - according to Johns Hopkins University. Things are getting serious between Ben and Ana, whom he introduced to his children - Seraphina, 11; Violet, 14; and Samuel, 8 - over Memorial Day weekend. By contrast, Affleck was never pictured introducing his kids to his prior girlfriend - SNL producer Lindsay Shookus - during their on/off three-year romance which ended last year. He never introduced them to Lindsay Shookus! Things are getting serious between Ben and Ana, whom he introduced to his children - Seraphina, 11; Violet, 14; and Samuel, 8 - over Memorial Day weekend (pictured May 23) Instagram official: Affleck divorced his wife Jennifer Garner in 2018 while de Armas divorced Spanish actor Marc Clotet in 2013 (posted April 30) The three-time Golden Globe winner legally ended his decade-long marriage to former Daredevil leading lady Jennifer Garner in October 2018. Meanwhile, de Armas - who only learned English in 2015 - has no children but she divorced Spanish actor Marc Clotet in 2013 after three years of marriage. The acting duo fell in love while portraying a dysfunctional couple on the New Orleans set of erotic thriller Deep Water, which hits US theaters on November 13 and UK theaters on November 20. With this rule, our federal government is telling these second chance entrepreneurs that the value they bring to their communities, their employees and to our nation as a whole does not matter and is not worth saving. Beyond the fundamental unfairness, this arbitrary exclusion makes no economic sense. Today, unemployment in the United States hovers near Great Depression levels, with more than 40 million people filing new claims over the past two months. But even before the pandemic, individuals re-entering society from prison were unemployed at a rate of over 27 percent higher than the total domestic unemployment rate during any historical period, including the 1930s, according to a 2018 study by the Prison Policy Initiative. The S.B.A.s choice to block formerly incarcerated small business owners from access to funds not only compounds this structural problem, it also increases the economic vulnerability of their employees, families and neighbors. The rule should be reversed. Doing so would enable vital investments in the neighborhoods that house such small businesses. It would begin to address the pre-existing racial disparities in access to funds that have been exacerbated by the program. And, of equal importance to law enforcement offices like mine, it would enhance public safety by keeping more New Yorkers employed and by ensuring that a number of our restaurants, barbershops and bodegas the eyes, ears and soul of our neighborhoods wouldnt have to shutter permanently. At the Manhattan district attorneys office, we hire re-entering New Yorkers and provide full funding for New Yorks first statewide college-in-prison program. Through our Criminal Justice Investment Initiative, we use funds forfeited in our investigations against major banks to create employment opportunities and career training for re-entering New Yorkers and at-risk youth. Among other social enterprises, we invest in Drive Change a nonprofit that operates food trucks where 18- to 25-year-olds who were formerly incarcerated receive culinary arts training and business skills. Job Title: Power Generation Journeyman Organisation: Fluor Duty Station: Uganda About US: Fluor is one of the worlds largest publicly-traded engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) and maintenance companies, providing innovative EPC services to government and private-sector Clients in diverse industries. For over a century, Clients have trusted Fluor to successfully, ethically and safely complete their capital projects. Key Duties and Responsibilities: Performs troubleshooting, repair, maintenance and installation of power generation equipment in accordance with project requirements and equipment specifications. Diagnoses standby generator sets, system malfunctions, and service interruptions. Performs routine maintenance, cleaning, and repair of generators and facilities. Installs, operates, maintains and repairs power generators and repair facilities. Places, operates, maintains, and repairs spot generators, standby generators, portable generators, and light carts. Completes electronic and manual work orders and reports as required. May provide task level guidance to less experienced personnel as directed. Responsible for maintaining a fleet of power generators as assigned. As directed by management, may supervise employees or subcontractor personnel in accordance with the General Supervisory Duties and Responsibilities addendum. Qualifications, Skills and Experience: Position may be located in a wide variety of environments, from conventional indoor office work-space to project work-sites with harsh, working and living conditions. To ensure compliance with safety, health and security requirements in the contract, employee will possess the ability to read, write, speak and understand the English language at the intermediate level as necessary to perform assigned job functions. Position requires the basic skills and physical ability necessary to perform assigned job functions. The ideal applicant must hold a High school diploma / GED equivalent preferred. At least two (2) years to five (5) years related experience Requires the technical skills, job knowledge and physical ability necessary to perform assigned job functions. Journeyman level certification or equivalent required Prior Military and/or Contingency Operations experience preferred How to Apply: All suitably qualified and interested candidates should send their applications online at the link below. Click Here Fluor values the contributions of a diverse and inclusive workforce and is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer We reserve the right to modify or revise the job descriptions in part or in its entirety. Reasonable accommodations will be made in accordance with governing law. We are an equal opportunity employer that recognizes the value of a diverse workforce. All qualified individuals will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other criteria protected by federal, state or local law. For more of the latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or find us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline COLUMBUS, Ohio - At least 2,258 Ohioans have died with confirmed or probable coronavirus, according to Ohio Department of Health figures Tuesday. That includes at least 36,350 cases of confirmed or probable coronavirus. Gov. Mike DeWine on Tuesday touched on the protests across the state over the death of George Floyd in Minnesota. On Saturday, he had called out the Ohio National Guard to assist Columbus and Cleveland with demonstrations. He said its understandable that people are upset. The vast majority of demonstrators have been peaceful, he said. One of the sad things is violent individuals -- because of their violence -- have drowned out some of the voices of reason, he said. As the press conference was beginning, hundreds of protesters demonstrating against the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis gathered at the Statehouse. Some were marching north, toward Columbus City Hall. As of Monday, at least 2,206 Ohioans had died with COVID-19, of at least 35,984 cases. Protesters demonstrating the death of George Floyd marching north from the Ohio Statehouse. (Laura Hancock, cleveland.com) Protesters demonstrating the death of George Floyd marching north from the Ohio Statehouse. (Laura Hancock, cleveland.com) Schools DeWine announced that the goal is to have all schools open by the fall. It will be up to each district to decide the opening date. Surgeries, procedures DeWine also announced Tuesday that he is allowing all medical procedures and surgeries. DeWine had previously prohibited all non-essential procedures to conserve personal protective equipment for health care workers working on coronavirus. Then that was lifted to allow any procedure that had become an emergency during the ban. Disparities Here is the race breakdown for reported coronavirus cases in Ohio as of Monday, June 1, for the cases in which the race is known. Race is not reported for 11.5% of cases and 1.5% of the deaths.Rich Exner, cleveland.com Everyone deserves a chance to succeed, and governments job is to protect the vulnerable, DeWine said. Government exists to protect people so they can live their lives, achieve their dreams, he said. Yet despite many efforts over the years, there are too many Ohioans living in the shadows of opportunity, he said. Still there is racism in Ohio and across the nation," he said. DeWine said hes governor for all people of Ohio. Coronavirus has laid bare the disparities and injustices. DeWine said on Thursday, hes going to unveil some specifics regarding training for law enforcement. Hes going to talk to Ohio General Assembly leaders first, he said. The vast majority of police do a great job, he said. But a few cops have demonstrated they lack the ability to be in law enforcement. National Guard members headed to D.C. Ohio Adjutant General John C. Harris said 100 soldiers were sent to Washington to assist the secretary of defense, which is over the district because there is no governor, the secretary fills that role. Those folks will be providing security at the White House, at critical monuments, as well as protecting businesses to help the secretary of defense," Harris said. National Guard members are citizen soldiers, meaning that they usually have civilian careers. Members went to Cleveland and Columbus. Harris said their job was to assist the cities. We are not in charge, he said. Testing The state has performed 407,000 coronavirus tests. As of Monday, however, Ohio was still the ninth lowest for testing per 100,000 residents among all states, territories and Washington, D.C.: 3,405 tests per 100,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. DeWine said that he wishes the boosted testing program hes arranged for minorities and others who are underserved had tested more people. People can get tested for free at federally qualified health clinics. This story will be updated. More coverage: Gov. Mike DeWine provides Ohio coronavirus update: Watch live Ohio Legislative Black Caucus introduce resolutions to declare racism a public health crisis Ohio Supreme Court assessing damage to building from weekend protests At least 2,206 Ohioans dead with coronavirus: Monday update Caller told Rep. Emilia Sykes he would kill her father if she didnt resign from Ohio legislature 750,000 isolation gowns produced by Ohio firms to go to hospitals, nursing homes, first responders New state criteria for coronavirus tests could include a broad group of Ohioans Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. The resentment over the death of George Floyd in the hands of Minneapolis police officers has reached global sympathy and caused huge protests not only in the U.S.A but also in Canada, Germany and Great Britain. Over the weekend, the Whitehall in Central London was filled with hundreds of protesters as they dodge lockdown restrictions on mass gathering and social distancing as they support America's movement against racism and humanitarian issues. The Queen, Prince Harry And Meghan Markle's Stance In the latest royal family news, Queen Elizabeth II's Commonwealth Trust -- a charity that connects young leaders -- also took a bold stand and spoke out amid worldwide demonstrations concerning the death of Floyd. Her Majesty serves as the patron of the said organization while Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are considered as its president and vice-president. In a statement through Twitter, the charity shared a powerful message as they show support for the Black Lives Matter movement. "Young people are vital voices in the fight against injustice and racism around the world. As a global community of young leaders, we stand together in pursuit of fairness and a better way forward." The group concluded the post with a moving statement that said: "Silence is not an option. #BlackLivesMatter." It was followed by a photo that contains Martin Luther King Jr's quote that reads: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Founded in 2013, the international human rights movement "Black Lives Matter" focuses on campaigns against violence and systemic racism towards the black community. "Speak Up And Speak Out!" Following this, the Commonwealth Trust also issued another statement as they encourage individuals to educate themselves with the ongoing racial oppression and raise their voice to help create a brighter future for the community. "We all have the power to effect positive change," the statement read. "It is time to speak up and speak out. Time to have uncomfortable conversations with ourselves and with others. Time to educate ourselves and unlearn. Time to come together and build a better future as one." With the empowering remark from the Queen's charity, this broke the silence of the royal family's stance on the death of the 46-year-old unarmed black man. The Death of George Floyd Known to his friend as "Big Floyd," the Houston, Texas native died as he begged for his life after police officer Derek Chauvin pinned him to the ground and kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes. The footage of his arrest showed that Floyd was heard pleading "I can't breathe," but the authorities ignored it. He was then taken to the Hennepin County Medical Center in an ambulance but was pronounced dead an hour later. The 44-year-old former police officer was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. According to his court documents, in 2007, Floyd was charged with armed robbery in a "home invasion" and was sentenced to five years in prison after a plea deal in 2009. Despite his previous records, the father-of-one is called a "gentle giant" who was trying to turn his life around after being released from prison and moving to Minneapolis. Indigenous businesses cannot be an afterthought in governments response to aid business, says the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business. President and chief executive officer Tabatha Bull said many Indigenous businesses have been impacted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the programs that were launched initially excluded Indigenous business, she said at a House of Commons Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs on May 29. While the federal government has been responsive to our advocacy to close the gaps the associated delays created an increased negative impact that is unique to Indigenous businesses. A recent survey by the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business found more than 90 per cent of Indigenous-owned businesses have experienced some form of adverse impact on operations due to the coronavirus. Of the 843 respondents, 44 per cent indicated without support they will likely fail within three to six months. Bull said that is in addition to the 12 per cent of respondents who said they will close within a month if they have not already shut their doors. The loss of Indigenous business on this scale has a direct adverse impact on the Indigenous economy and in turn on Indigenous communities, which is precisely why any delay must be avoided. The Tahltan Nation Development Corporation (TNDC) located in northern B.C. said it has not needed to apply for the national wage subsidy despite its primary client base being the mining sector, wherein the majority of their personnel are employed. While some business initiatives have been delayed, work on other business initiatives such as TNDCs forestry business and planning for their fibre optic communications build has continued. As a business we expect we will have to continue adapting as the situation unfolds, dealing with whatever new business impacts the pandemic brings, working with our business partners and resource developers and doing our best to be on top of any scenarios as they unfold. Read more about: tech2 News Staff Asus has updated its TUF and ROG series of laptops and desktops in India. The new laptops include TUF Gaming A15 and TUF Gaming A17. Whereas, the new desktops include Asus ROG Strix GA35 and Asus ROG Strix GA15. The new series of laptops and desktops have also gone all AMD. Both new laptop models feature the latest generation of 4th Gen AMD Ryzen 4000 Mobile processors. As for the desktops, the GA35 features a 16-core AMD Ryzen 9 3950X CPU. Asus TUF Gaming A15 and A17 laptops: Pricing and availability The Asus TUF Gaming A15 laptop comes in two colour variants Bonfire Black and Fortress Grey. The Bonfire Black variant of the laptop is priced starting Rs 60,990 and will be available only via Amazon, whereas the Fortress Grey option is priced a little higher, starting at Rs 62,990, and will be available across Asus' all official offline partners, Reliance stores and Amazon. The TUF Gaming A17 comes in a sole Fortress Gray colour variant, which is priced starting Rs 60,990 and will be available on Flipkart mid-June onwards. Asus ROG Strix GA35 and ROG Strix GA15: Pricing and availability The Asus ROG Strix GA15 will be available starting Rs 65,990. The ROG Strix GA30, on the other hand, is priced starting Rs 1,79,990. Both the desktops will be available via online and offline channels. Asus TUF Gaming A15 and A17 laptops: Specifications and features As for the specifications, both the Asus TUF Gaming A15 and A17 feature AMD Ryzen 9 4900H processor with8-cores and 16-threads. The processor is paired with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPU on A15 , and options GeForce RTX and GeForce GTX 1660 Ti on A17. Both the laptops also come with IPS displays with up to 144 Hz refresh rate on the A15 and up to 120 Hz on A17. Further, both the laptops have smaller and more portable chassis than their predecessors. The TUF Gaming A15 and A17 also include dual M.2 PCIe SSD slots. Some models also come with an option for a tertiary HDD slot. Both the laptops sport two USB 3.2 Gen-1 Type-A ports and one USB 3.2 Gen-2 Type-C port. The TUF Gaming A17 supports G-SYNC monitors via the DisplayPort 1.4 alternate mode. It also has an HDMI 2.0b port that lets you plug in a projector, additional monitor, or big-screen TV. Besides these, there is another USB port for additional connectivity. Asus ROG Strix GA35 and ROG Strix GA15: Specifications and features Talking about the ROG Strix GA15 first, it is powered by AMD Ryzen 7 3700X processor with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660Ti. The highest configuration for the laptop goes up to 32 GB DDR4-3200 RAM. Storage options include M.2-based NVMe SSDs up to 1TB. The system, however, can be upgraded with a 2 TB mechanical storage. As for ROG Strix GA35; it comes with a 16-core AMD Ryzen 9 3950X processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti GPU. It can be configured up to 1 TB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD storage and 64 GB DDR4 RAM. Thousands arrested across US cities including, Los Angeles and New York in the wake of anti-racism protests. At least 9,300 people have been arrested across the United States amid the ongoing protests over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died last week in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and police brutality nationwide. US President Donald Trump has outraged faith leaders and protesters for walking to a historic church near the White House and creating a photo opportunity, just minutes after police used chemical smoke canisters and flashbangs on peaceful protesters to clear the way for the rare walk. Protesters are demanding all four officers involved be charged in Floyds death. So far, only one white officer, Derek Chauvin, who knelt on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes as he pleaded I cant breathe, has been arrested and charged on Friday with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Medical examiners have ruled the death a homicide. Those protesting against police brutality have been met with, at times, excessive force by authorities. Journalists have also been targeted by police. Officers have also been injured in the protests. Protesters have remained undeterred by curfews and the presence of the US National Guard in some cities. Largely peaceful protests have turned violent, with looting and vandalism as the night raged on. Latest updates: Wednesday, June 3 02:25 GMT Defence secretary does not support invoking Insurrection Act Defense Secretary Mark Esper said during a news conference that he supported the rights of US citizens to protest peacefully and does not support the invocation of the Insurrection Act. It is these rights and freedoms that make our country so special. It is these rights and freedoms that American service members are willing to fight and die for, Esper said in remarks before taking questions. I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act. President Trump has threatened to use the act to use the military to quell protests across the country. The Insurrection Act dates to the early 1800s and permits the president to send in US forces to suppress a domestic insurrection that has hindered the normal enforcement of US law. Esper further said he was not informed about Trumps controversial photo-op at a church which took place on Monday. I was not aware of law enforcements plans for the park. I was not briefed on them, nor should I expect to be, Esper said. The defence secretary further said he was working hard to keep his department out of politics, though it is challenging as the country moves closer to elections. 12:43 GMT Statue of divisive former Philadelphia Mayor Rizzo removed Workers removed the statue of controversial former Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo, which was recently defaced during a protest following George Floyds death. As National Guard troops deployed in the wake of recent protests watched, a crane lifted the 10-foot-tall (3 metres) bronze statue and workers moved it from its stand outside the Municipal Services Building, across from City Hall. It was loaded onto the back of a truck. 12:25 GMT Irans supreme leader condemns duplicitous US human rights policies Irans supreme leader has assailed Washington in the wake of George Floyds killing for its allegedly duplicitous policies when it comes to upholding human rights. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed that in the US, they kill people in an open crime, and they do not offer an apology while claiming [to support] human rights. Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters, added: Apparently, the African American man who was killed there was not a human being. 12:05 GMT Shocked, Germany promises to counter racism The German government is shocked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of police and must work to counter racism at home like other countries, a government spokesman said on Wednesday. The death of George Floyd shocked people in Germany and all over the world, it shocked the federal government [of Germany] too, spokesman Steffen Seibert said. It is an appalling and avoidable death. 11:45 GMT Of course Black lives matter, says British PM Johnson British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday Black lives mattered and he supported the right to protest, in a lawful and socially-distanced way, after the killing by police of George Floyd in the US stirred widespread anger. Of course, Black lives matter and I totally understand the anger, the grief that is felt not just in America but around the world and in our country as well, he told Parliament. I also support, as Ive said, the right to protest. The only point I would make is that any protest should be carried out lawfully and in this country, protests should be carried out in accordance with our rules on social distancing. 11:25 GMT UK to hold rally, nationwide kneeling Anti-racism and Black Lives Matter groups planned a rally in central London and a nationwide kneeling to protest against the death of African American man George Floyd in US police custody. Black Lives Matter in London encouraged protesters to wear red at an afternoon rally in Hyde Park to protest against the rights of Black people being abused globally. Stand Up to Racism urged people across Britain to take the knee on [their] doorstep and/or hold signs to say JusticeForGeorgeFloyd BlackLivesMatter at 6pm (17:00 GMT). Across the country at 6pm people will #TakeTheKnee +/ hold a sign on their doorstep to say #BlackLivesMatter The millions who stand against racism will be heard.#JusticeForGeorgeFloyd#ICantBreathe Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) June 3, 2020 10:45 GMT Turkey FM calls for justice, clear-headedness Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called for clear-headedness amid protests over the killing of George Floyd. It is unacceptable for police to kill any person in such a way, regardless of race or religion, he added. Justice must be done in a way that will relieve everyones conscience regarding the police who committed this murder, he added. However, Cavusoglu stressed that protests turning into vandalism would be both inappropriate and dangerous. No matter who it is, we do not support such vandalism, not just in the US but also in other countries, he noted. 09:55 GMT US protesters risk COVID-19 for health of nation Nationwide protests against police brutality in the US have seen thousands of people demonstrating in close quarters, chanting, shouting, and coughing when hit by tear gas, something that has raised concerns over the spread of the coronavirus. Experts say racialised police violence is a grave and neglected public health crisis for African Americans, threatening not just their lives but increasing their risk of developing stress-related diseases, from heart failure to cancer. Read more here. 09:25 GMT Jay-Z buys full-page newspaper ads dedicated to George Floyd US musician Jay-Z, along with lawyers, activists and victims of police violence, has taken out full-page advertisements in newspapers across the United States in memory of George Floyd, an African-American man who died in police custody. The ad, which was posted on the Instagram account of Jay-Zs philanthropic project Roc Nation, is captioned In dedication to George Floyd. It features an excerpt from a speech by the Black civil rights activist Martin Luther King in 1965. 09:00 GMT Celtics coach expresses support for protests Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens wrote a letter to his players over the weekend in which he expressed his support for them and for the ongoing protests in the United States over racial inequality. Boston players including Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, Enes Kanter and Vincent Poirier have been among several NBA players to participate in recent protests following the death of George Floyd. Stevens said in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday that Every decent person feels the pain of the African American community and that he wanted his players to know he stood with them. 08:15 GMT Pope condemns racism and violence in US, calls for national reconciliation Pope Francis broke his silence on the unrest in the United States, saying no one can turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion but condemning violence as self-destructive and self-defeating. Francis, who dedicated the entire English-language section of his weekly audience to the US situation, implored God for national reconciliation and peace. The pope called the death of George Floyd tragic, and said he was praying for him and all those who had been killed as a result of the sin of racism [Remo Casilli/Pool/EPA] 07:53 GMT UN chief calls for restraint amid George Floyd protests UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on authorities in the US to exercise restraint in responding to protests over the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died last week after being pinned down by a white police officer. I am heartbroken to see violence on the streets in our host country and our host city of New York, Guterres said Tuesday on Twitter. I am heartbroken to see violence on the streets in our host country and our host city of New York. Grievances must be heard, but should be expressed peacefully and authorities must show restraint in responding to demonstrations. pic.twitter.com/1i3w7OtCEq Antonio Guterres (@antonioguterres) June 2, 2020 07:15 GMT Police confront several hundred in Portland Several hundred people broke away from a massive peaceful protest in Portland, Oregon, late Tuesday and engaged in a confrontation with police officers guarding a public building. Police Chief Jami Resch said in a video message posted on Twitter that members of the smaller group tried to tear down fencing set up to protect a facility that holds the police headquarters and a county jail and threw bottles, bats and mortars at officers. Police declared an unlawful assembly and set off flash-bang grenades and tear gas. It was not clear how many arrests, if any, had been made. 06:41 GMT Police shove, make AP journalists stop covering protest New York City police officers surrounded, shoved and yelled expletives at two Associated Press journalists covering protests Tuesday in the latest aggression against members of the media during a week of unrest around the country. Portions of the incident were captured on video by videojournalist Robert Bumsted, who was working with photographer Maye-E Wong to document the protests in lower Manhattan over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The video shows more than a half-dozen officers confronting the journalists as they filmed and took photographs of police ordering protesters to leave the area near Fulton and Broadway shortly after an 8 p.m. curfew took effect. 06:14 GMT Atlanta protests disperse after police use tear gas Most protesters in Atlanta left the citys downtown area, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, after police deployed tear gas to disperse crowds and enforce a 9pm curfew. Tempers starting to flare as protesters throw water bottles, shoot fireworks at police.#AtlantaProtest @ajc pic.twitter.com/8OLra8YrlN Shaddi Abusaid (@ShaddiAbusaid) June 3, 2020 06:04 GMT Arrests in New York City amid some looting Police in New York City arrested scores of protesters after crowds defied an 8pm curfew and reports came in of looting in some parts of the city. CNN, citing a law enforcement official, said about 200 protesters were arrested and the New York Times said there were break-ins at some shops in Union Square and Astor Place in downtown Manhattan. US media reported that there were fewer acts of looting and violent confrontations than previous nights. In a Twitter post, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the curfew is certainly helping. At Barclays Center now. Very calm situation. So far, the curfew is certainly helping, based on everything Ive seen in Brooklyn and Manhattan over the last three hours. Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) June 3, 2020 05:51 GMT Police use pepper spray, flash bangs to disperse Portland protest Police in Portland, Oregon, deployed pepper spray, tear gas flash bangs to disperse crowds, according to local media, after a group of protesters in the citys downtown area were throwing projectiles at officers, including bottles, mortars, bats, fireworks. Due to the criminal activity and unlawful assembly, everyone should leave the downtown core area immediately. Please do not come downtown. Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) June 3, 2020 You can see flash bangs and smoke. Latest protest details: https://t.co/Y29o2wpNji https://t.co/p0HwYSeJ7M KATU News (@KATUNews) June 3, 2020 05:39 GMT Trump defends church photo-op The US president defended a widely criticised move in which police cleared protesters outside the White House so that he could pose for photographs outside a church damaged in the unrest gripping Washington DC. If the protesters were so peaceful, why did they light the Church on fire the night before? he asked on Twitter. People liked my walk to this historic place of worship! You got it wrong! If the protesters were so peaceful, why did they light the Church on fire the night before? People liked my walk to this historic place of worship! Sen. Susan Collins, Sen. James Lankford, Sen. Ben Sasse. Please read @MZHemingway below. https://t.co/PbVaUcKmXf Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 3, 2020 05:13 GMT UN chief heartbroken by New York violence Antonio Guterres, the secretary-general of the United Nations, called on authorities in the US to show restraint in responding to demonstrations. In a Twitter post, he said: I am heartbroken to see violence on the streets in our host country and host city of New York. In every society, diversity is a richness never a threat. Racism is an abhorrence that we must all reject. Antonio Guterres (@antonioguterres) June 2, 2020 03:25 GMT Church leader: I was helping wipe peoples tears away Reverend Gini Gerbasi, the rector at St Johns Episcopal Church of Georgetown, was at the scene when police began to clear protesters outside the historic Episcopal church near the White House for a Trump photo-op. I was completely stunned, she told CNN. I never would imagine that I would look up and see an entire line of police officers all in this heavy military gear, all black and these shields, literally, pushing and shoving and driving people off of the church patio. I looked up and there they were, she added. I was helping wipe away tears in peoples eyes and suddenly the police were pushing us back. 02:30 GMT Thousands of protesters on New York City streets after curfew Thousands of demonstrators protesting the death of Floyd remained on New York City streets after an 8pm (00:00 GMT) curfew. Mayor Bill de Blasio had doubled down on a citywide curfew, moving it up from 11pm (03:00 GMT) a night earlier, but rejected urging from Trump and an offer from Governor Andrew Cuomo to bring in the National Guard. NYC, CALL UP THE NATIONAL GUARD. The lowlifes and losers are ripping you apart. Act fast! Dont make the same horrible and deadly mistake you made with the Nursing Homes!!! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2, 2020 People marched in groups of thousands in parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, as merchants boarded up their businesses. As the curfew time arrived, many were still in the streets and continued marching, with officers initially standing by and allowing them. But officers started ordering people to move along, and began taking people into custody. Demonstrators who had been on the West Side Highway in lower Manhattan were herded off, with parts of the roadway blocked off behind them. 02:15 GMT Most Americans sympathise with protests, disapprove of Trumps response: Poll The majority of Americans sympathise with nationwide protests over Floyds, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. The survey conducted on Monday and Tuesday found that 64 percent of American adults were sympathetic to people who are out protesting right now, while 27 percent said they were not and 9 percent were unsure. The poll also underscored the political risks for Trump, who has adopted a hardline approach to the protests and threatened to deploy the US military to quell violent dissent he faces reelection in November. More than 55 percent of respondents said they disapproved of Trumps handling of the protests, including 40 percent who strongly disapproved, while just one-third said they approved lower than his overall job approval of 39 percent the poll showed. 01:30 GMT Protest in DC mostly quiet The protest in Washington, DC, lacked the tension of the previous nights demonstrations. The crowd in Lafayette Park near the White House was quiet. Instead of the spray-painted tags, the protesters went for colourful childrens street chalk, writing Black Lives Matter slogans on the asphalt in front of St Johns Church. A demonstrator addresses the crowd gathered in front of a fence surrounding Lafayette Park outside the White House, in Washington, DC, US [Jonathan Ernst/Reuters] Protesters chanted and talked among themselves, most wearing masks, but not social distancing. The crowd started thinning out after a curfew went into place, although a core group of several hundred remained at the fence, chanting at the line of police and soldiers in riot gear on the other side. 00:45 GMT George W Bush blasts crackdown on protests Former President George W Bush said in a statement that he and wife Laura Bush are anguished by the brutal suffocation of George Floyd and disturbed by the injustice and fear that suffocate our country. Bush did not specifically mention Trump, but he called the harassment and threats toward African American protesters a shocking failure. It is a strength when protesters, protected by responsible law enforcement, march for a better future Those who set out to silence those voices do not understand the meaning of America or how it becomes a better place, he said. 00:00 GMT Floyds hometown holds memorial march in his honour Floyds hometown of Houston, Texas, held a memorial march to honour him, attended by some 60,000 people, the mayors office said. Floyd lived most of his 46 years in Houstons historically Black Third Ward neighbourhood, located about a mile (1.6km) south of the park where the march began. Tuesday, June 2 22:45 GMT US Park Police denies use of tear gas to clear protesters Acting Chief of the United States Park Police (USPP) Gregory Monahan said security forces did not use tear gas against protesters near the White House on Monday, as has been widely reported by US and international media. He also challenged the reported claim that the protest had been peaceful. Moments before Trump was set to speak on Monday, law enforcement suddenly marched forward, directly confronting hundreds of protesters who had gathered to protest against the death of George Floyd. Many held up their hands, saying, Dont shoot. Washington, D.C., was the safest place on earth last night! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2, 2020 Soon, in images seen on live television, law enforcement officers were seen forcing the protesters back, deploying flashbangs and other riot dispersal weapons into the crowd. After addressing reporters, Trump then made an unexpected walk from his residence, across Lafayette Park and to the historic St Johns Episcopal Church, that was damaged during unrest the night before. He paused for an apparent photo-op, posing with members of his administration, and holding up a Bible. In the statement Monahan denied that the protest was peaceful saying, saying violent protesters began throwing projectiles including bricks, frozen water bottles and caustic liquids. Intelligence had revealed calls for violence against the police, and officers found caches of glass bottles, baseball bats and metal poles hidden along the street, Monahan said. U.S. Park Police confirms that no tear gas was used by USPP officers or other assisting law enforcement partners in Lafayette Park. On what did the media base its sensationalized reporting that tear gas was used? How were media reporting it as fact?https://t.co/VuRmgfH3gU Tim Murtaugh Download the Trump 2020 app today! (@TimMurtaugh) June 2, 2020 He said smoke canisters and pepper balls were used, but denied the use of tear gas. Pepper balls and tear gas have largely the same effect. They both are aimed at irritating an individuals eyes. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), various riot control agents, including pepper spray, are often referred to as tear gas. Monahan made no mention of Trumps walk to the church. Earlier on Monday, US media reported that Attorney General William Barr ordered the area be cleared just before the Trump spoke in the White House Rose Garden Read more here. 21:45 GMT I want justice: Mother of Floyds daughter makes heartbreaking plea In an emotional plea, the mother of Floyds daughter demanded justice for him, saying he was a good father who did not deserve to die face down on the pavement, pinned under the weight of three police officers. With her six-year-old daughter Gianna clinging to her, Roxie Washington told reporters she wants all four officers involved in Floyds death to be held accountable for his death. At the end of the day, they get to go home and be with their families, Washington said. Gianna doesnt have a father. He will never see her grow up, graduate. He will never walk her down the aisle. George Floyds daughter, Gianna Floyd, age 6 holding her mothers arm during a press conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, US [Nicholas Pfosi/Reuters] Gianna clung to her mother, at times with a frown on her face. He loved her, he loved her so much, Washington said of Floyds feelings for their daughter. Im here for my baby. Im here for George because I want justice for him, and I want justice for him because he was good. No matter what anybody thinks, he was good. Read more here. 21:30 GMT US Senate Republicans block bill condemning Trump on protesters US Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic resolution that would have condemned Trump for the use of gas and rubber bullets against peaceful protesters near the White House. On Monday, federal officials cleared protesters near the White House just before Trump marched through to pose holding a Bible outside a boarded-up church. That, and Trumps threat to deploy federal troops to quell unrest, has deepened outrage among protesters. Police clearing demonstrators gathered during a protest over the death of George Floyd, near the White House in Washington. [Alex Brandon/AP Photo] 20:30 GMT Indianapolis mayor extends curfew for 3rd night Indianapolis mayor extended an overnight curfew into a third night. Mayor Joe Hogsetts office said officers would continue to use an education first approach before arresting people who violate the curfew, which will run from 9 pm Tuesday until 6 am Wednesday. During the curfew, residents cannot travel on public streets or be out in public unless they are traveling directly to or from work, their jobs involve travel, are seeking medical care or are fleeing danger. 20:25 GMT New Jersey to overhaul police use-of-force guidelines Citing Floyds death, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said the state will update its guidelines governing the use of force by police for the first time in two decades and will move to require a statewide licensing program for all officers. To the thousands of New Jerseyans that assembled peacefully this week let me be clear: we hear you, we see you, we respect you, we share your anger and we share your commitment to change, Grewal said during a news conference. Protesters rally against of George Floyd, at Foley Square in the Manhattan borough of New York City, US [Mike Segar/Reuters] 20:20 GMT Governor says Texas wont seek military support for protests Texas Governor Greg Abbott said his state would not request military support after President Donald Trump threatened to deploy troops across the US to confront protesters. Abbott also said he was not asked to send Texas National Guard members to the District of Columbia after days of violent demonstrations there led to fires, destroyed businesses and the use tear gas and flash bangs, including on peaceful protesters. 20:15 GMT US attorney general asked for protesters to be pushed back US Attorney General William Barr personally asked for protesters to be pushed back from Washingtons Lafayette Square the Washington Post reported, just before Trump spoke from the White House Rose Garden. Demonstrators walking in downtown Washington near the White House as protests continue over the death in police custody of George Floyd, in Washington, US [Jonathan Ernst/Reuters] Following a brief speech on Monday, Trump walked out of the White House, with a heavy security detail, across Lafayette Square to St. Johns Episcopal Church, where he stopped in front of boarded-up windows and held up a Bible for cameras before walking back to the White House. The Washington Post reported that Barr made the request about pushing back protesters from the square after finding a previous decision to widen the security perimeter around the White House had not been acted upon. 20:10 GMT Facebook staff walkout, Zuckerberg defends no action on Trump posts Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees that he stood by his decision not to challenge inflammatory posts by Trump, refusing to give ground. A group of Facebook employees nearly all of them working at home due to the coronavirus pandemic walked off the job on Monday. They complained the company should have acted against Trumps posts about protests containing the phrase when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Zuckerberg told employees Facebook had conducted a thorough review and was right to leave the posts unchallenged, a company spokeswoman said. She said Zuckerberg also acknowledged the decision had upset many people working at the company. Read more here. 19:25 GMT Minnesota files rights complaint against police in Floyds death The state of Minnesota filed a human rights complaint against the Minneapolis Police Department in the death of George Floyd. Governor Tim Walz and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights announced the filing at a news conference. The department enforces the states human rights act, particularly as it applies to discrimination in employment, housing, education, public accommodations and public services. Mediation is one of its first-choice tools, but the cases it files can lead to fuller investigations and sometimes end up in litigation. The investigation will examine the departments policies, procedures, and practices over the past 10 years to determine if they engaged in systemic discriminatory practices, Walz says. The Minneapolis Police Department has faced decades of allegations brutality and other discrimination against African Americans and other minorities, even within the department itself. Critics say its culture resists change, despite the elevation of Medaria Arradondo as its first black police chief in 2017. Arradondo himself was among five black officers who sued the police department in 2007 over alleged discrimination in promotions, pay, and discipline. They said in their lawsuit that the department had a history of tolerating racism and discrimination. The city eventually settled the lawsuit for $740,000. 18:41 GMT Ohios GOP senator says military shouldnt be sent into his state Ohios Republican senator said Tuesday the US military shouldnt be sent into his home state. That should be a local decision, said Rob Portman, who lives in the Cincinnati area. It should be what the mayors and governors want I dont see that happening right now. The National Guard certainly in Ohio is capable of handling the situation. Trump is vowing to send the military into states to quell protests over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody if state authorities dont restore order. Questioned sharply by Ohio reporters about the presidents recent actions and rhetoric, Portman said he agrees with Trump on such positions as expediting the federal probe of the latest death of a black person in police custody and on the need to stop violence. But I do believe he can and should do more you know, words matter. And we need to be sure were not inflaming this situation, Portman said. This is a time for healing, its a time to calm things down so we can have a dialogue. And I think thats whats needed right now. 17:25 GMT Democrats plan to introduce legislation in response to George Floyd killing US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday promised legislation on racial profiling and other issues raised by the police killing of George Floyd, while other lawmakers warned against using troops to quell protests sweeping across the United States. House Democrats are mulling proposals on a number of topics. But Pelosi described the racial profiling of suspects as a universal issue that we must be rid of. In a matter of just a short time decisions will be made and I think the American people will be well served, she said. Pelosi and other Democrats attacked President Donald Trumps handling of protests after tear gas and rubber bullets were used to clear peaceful protesters from outside the White House, just before he marched through the area and posed at a church with a Bible. 17:02 GMT Biden levels blistering attack on Trump for church photo-op In his first major address in weeks, former Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday promised not to fan the flames of hate if elected president and instead seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued the United States. Biden, a Democrat who will most likely face the Republican Trump in the November 3 election, was particularly critical of the presidents decision on Monday to stand for a photo beside an historic church across from the White House after law enforcement authorities tear-gassed protesters to clear the area. When peaceful protesters are dispersed by the order of the president from the doorstep of the peoples house, the White House using tear gas and flash grenades in order to stage a photo op at a noble church, we can be forgiven for believing that the president is more interested in power than in principle, Biden said. Read more here. 16:50 GMT Floyd public memorials, viewings announced The lawyers for Floyds family have released the details for the public memorials and funeral for Floyd Minneapolis, Minnesota, Memorial: Date: Thursday, June 4 Time: 1pm (18:00 GMT) Raeford, North Carolina, Public Viewing and Memorial: Date: Saturday, June 6 Time: Public viewing 11am-1pm (15:00-17:00 GMT) Memorial 3pm (19:00 GMT) Protestors gather near the makeshift memorial in honour of George Floyd marking one week anniversary of his death in Minneapolis, Minnesota [Chandan Khanna/AFP] Houston, Texas, Public Viewing: Date: Monday, June 8 Time: 12 6pm CT (17:00 GMT-23:00 GMT) Houston, Texas, Memorial: Date: Tuesday, June 9 Time: 11am (16:00 GMT) Please pray for the family as they prepare for #GeorgeFloyd's homegoing services. They will host public viewings and memorials in Minnesota, North Carolina, and Texas. #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd #SayHisName #JusticeForGeorge #JusticeForFloyd pic.twitter.com/cptxIvGrnr Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) June 2, 2020 16:15 GMT NYC will be under evening curfew all week New Yorks mayor extended an 8pm curfew all week in hopes of stopping destruction that continued overnight despite the citys efforts to stop protests over George Floyds death from devolving into lawless mayhem. Were going to have a tough few days. Were going to beat it back, Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference Tuesday as he announced that an 8pm-to-5am curfew would hold through Sunday. The plan came after a night when chaos broke out in midtown Manhattan and the Bronx. On Monday, an 11pm curfew the citys first in decades failed to prevent destruction as groups of people smashed their way into shops, including Macys flagship Manhattan store. Police said nearly 700 people were arrested and several officers were injured during the chaos Monday night and early Tuesday. 16:00 GMT Virginia governor rejects national guard request Virginia Governor Ralph Northam rejected a request from Secretary of Defense Mark Esper to send between 3,000 to 5,000 of the states national guard to Washington, DC, as part of a massive show of force organised by the Trump administration in response to violent protests, according to Northams chief of staff, Clark Mercer. Mercer said Trumps comments to governors in a phone call Monday, in which the president said most governors were weak and needed to dominate the streets, played a role in the decision. The presidents remarks to the governors heightened our concerns about how the guard would be used, he said. 15:34 GMT Faith leaders decry Trump photo op, police actions Faith leaders in Washington, DC, have continued to express outrage over Trumps photo-op at the historic St Johns Episcopal Church. I am outraged. The president did not pray when he came to St Johns, nor as you just articulated, did he acknowledge the agony of our country right now, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde told CNN. Wilton Gregory, the Archbishop of Washington, meanwhile decried Trumps planned visit to Saint John Paul II National Shrine on Tuesday. I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles, which call us to defend the rights of all people even those with whom we might disagree, Gregory, the first African American Catholic Archbishop of Washington, said in a statement. .@WashArchbishop Gregory has released a statement on the president's visit to the Saint John Paul II National Shrine.https://t.co/46g9Ac8Wy5 pic.twitter.com/d1wERIoLVp DC Archdiocese (@WashArchdiocese) June 2, 2020 Saint Pope John Paul II was an ardent defender of the rights and dignity of human beings, he added His legacy bears vivid witness to that truth. He certainly would not condone the use of tear gas and other deterrents to silence. 15:30 GMT Music industry heavyweights vow to observe Black Out Tuesday The music industry is turning off the music on Tuesday and suspending business as usual to reflect and implement change in response to the death of George Floyd and the killings of other Black people. Several top record labels organised Black Out Tuesday as violent protests erupted around the world, sparked by Floyds death as well as the killings of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. MTV and BET went dark for eight minutes and 46 seconds (the amount of time a white police officer knelt on Floyds neck before he died) in support of Black Lives Matter and racial injustice. Music-based companies Live Nation, as well as the Recording Academy, posted to social media that they planned to support and stand with the Black community. Read more here. 15:28 GMT Minnesota attorney general working as fast as possible on decision on additional charges Minnesotas attorney general says prosecutors are working as fast as they can to determine whether more charges will be filed against officers involved in the death of George Floyd, but they also have to work carefully and methodically. Attorney General Keith Ellison was appointed lead prosecutor in the case Sunday. He told the television news programme Good Morning America on Tuesday that those who have culpability will be held accountable. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison answers questions during a news conference in St Paul, Minnesota [File: John Autey/Pioneer Press/AP Photo] Ellison says despite the widely viewed bystander video of Floyds final moments, cases against police are hard. He pointed to the deaths of Freddie Gray and Philando Castile, and the beating of Rodney King, as examples of cases where striking video of an incident did not lead to convictions of officers. Ellison did not give a timeline for any new charges. All four officers have been fired. 15:18 GMT Democratic leaders push back on Trump threat to deploy military Kansas Governor Laura Kelly says that bringing the military into this contentious moment would do more harm than good. Kelly on Monday expressed sympathy for George Floyds family, families of other people killed by police and people outraged by Floyds tragic murder. She promised to work to address systemic racism. We need our leaders myself included to listen to those who felt their only means of being heard was to take to the street in protest, Kelly said after President Donald Trump threatened to deploy the military to states if they did not stamp out violent protests. We need action to change the systemic inequalities we have ignored for far too long. We need to stop with the divisive language and instead, come together and do whats right for our state, Kelly added. She noted that Kansas protests have been peaceful and promised to work closely with local officials to ensure public safety. Mayor Muriel Bowser, the Democratic mayor of Washington, DC, meanwhile, said on CNN on Tuesday that it is inappropriate for the military to be used for police work on DC streets. We dont think that the active-duty military should be used on American streets against Americans, she said. Its an inappropriate use of our military. And we have police in Washington, DC. We have federal police in Washington, DC, to focus on the federal properties, and that is an appropriate use. Police have policing power, and bringing in the military to do police work is inappropriate in any state in the United States of America without the consent of the governor, and it would be inappropriate in Washington, DC. Trump has threatened to deploy the military if states dont take harsher measures to quell unrest. 15:00 GMT Area around White House sealed off The streets around the White House complex were shut Tuesday morning, guarded by a mix of Secret Service officers and FBI agents. Overnight, a fence was constructed around Lafayette Park and along 17th Street at Pennsylvania Avenue, two areas that have been focal points for protests. The White House is visible behind a large security fence as uniformed Secret Service and FBI agents stand on the street in front of Lafayette Park in the morning hours in Washington, Tuesday, June 2, 2020, as protests continue over the death of George Floyd. Floyd died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) [The Associated Press] A picture of George Floyd is posted on a boarded-up window, following national protests against his death in Minneapolis police custody, near the White House in Washington, DC [Jonathan Ernst/Reuters] Demonstrators gather to protest the death of George Floyd near the White House in Washington, DC. Floyd died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers [Evan Vucci/AP Photo] Trump holds up a Bible during a photo opportunity in front of St Johns Episcopal Church in the midst of protests over racial inequality in the wake of the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody [Tom Brenner/Reuters] 14:50 GMT Man gives shelter to 70 protesters A man in Washington, DC said he sheltered about 70 protesters in his home all night after they got caught between police lines after curfew. Rahul Dubey told WJLA-TV he was sitting on his porch around 8:30pm last night when law enforcement officers began corralling protesters on his street. He let some sit with him, and helped others out through his back alley, but the situation then escalated when officers started pushing protesters to the ground and releasing pepper spray, creating a human tsunami that flooded into his home. I was hanging on my railing yelling, Get in the house! Get in the house!' he told The Washington Post. Officers also released pepper spray through the window after he closed the door, Dubey told WJLA-TV. The protesters inside the home screamed, and started pouring water and milk into their eyes, which were reddened by tear gas, in a scene he described as pure mayhem. The protesters left the home after 6am Tuesday when the districts curfew ended. 14:45 GMT St Louis police fired on Police in St Louis say officers in a marked police car were fired on early Tuesday from a car occupied by suspected looters. The incident led to a chase that ended in the suburb of Jennings, where one of the suspects was shot. Police said the incident was separate from a shooting around midnight Monday in which four St Louis officers were shot and injured. The Jennings shooting began when officers in a marked police car on the north side of St Louis who were searching for looting suspects were fired on from men inside a car, police said. That led to a chase that ended in Jennings, just north of St. Louis, when the three suspects bailed out of the car, and one was shot by a St Louis County officer, police said. One man, identified only as 21 years old, was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. Police said another man who had been in the car was arrested, and a third escaped. No officers were injured in the Jennings shooting. ____________________________________________________________________ Hello and welcome to Al Jazeeras continuing coverage of the protests in the US over the deadly arrest of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This is Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath in Louisville, Kentucky. Here are a few things to catch up on: George Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old Black man, died on May 25 after a white officer used his knee to pin Floyds neck to the ground for nearly nine minutes. Floyd can be heard on a bystander video repeatedly pleading with officers, saying I cant breathe. He eventually lies motionless with the officers knee still on his neck. You can read about the deadly incident here. The four officers involved in the incident were fired. Derek Chauvin, the white officer who pinned Floyd down, has been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Protesters demand the three other officers be charged as well. Protests some violent have since erupted nationwide as demonstrators rally for justice for Floyd and all unarmed Black people killed by police. See the updates from Sundays protests here. The recall stems from a recent series of tests that revealed unacceptably high levels of N-nitrosodimethylamine, a probable human carcinogen, in several lots of metformin extended-release products. "Now that we have identified some metformin products that do not meet our standards, we're taking action, "said Patrizia Cavazzoni, M.D., acting director of the agency's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, in a press release. "As we have been doing since this impurity was first identified, we will communicate as new scientific information becomes available and will take further action, if appropriate." Companies Notified FDA officials said in a May 29 conference call that the firms that have been contacted are Actavis Pharma Inc., Amneal Pharmaceuticals, LLC, Apotex Corp., Lupin Pharma and Marksans Pharma Ltd. Of those five, the only recall notice listed on the FDA's Recalls, Market Withdrawals & Safety Alerts page at the time of the conference call was for all lots of metformin 500-mg tablets marketed by Apotex, a Canadian firm headquartered in Toronto. During the call, FDA officials said the agency would post additional recall notices as they are published. Apotex said in a company announcement that the FDA had found elevated NDMA levels in one lot of its metformin ER, USP 500-mg tablets, which prompted the voluntary recall. Apotex noted that the firm stopped selling that particular product in the United States in February 2019 and that it has not received any reports of adverse events related to the product to date. Amneal has since issued its own press release announcing voluntary withdrawal of all lots of its metformin ER 500- and 750-mg tablets. It also stated that no reports of adverse events had been received. Additional Direction The FDA is recommending that clinicians continue to prescribe metformin when clinically appropriate. In addition, the agency recommends that patients continue taking metformin products even after recalls occur until they can consult with their physician to receive a replacement prescription or different treatment option. All manufacturers of metformin-containing ER products are being asked to evaluate the risk of excessive NDMA in their products and to test each batch before releasing it into the U.S. market. If testing shows NDMA above the acceptable intake limit, the manufacturer should inform the agency and halt release of the batch. It should be noted that the recall does not apply to immediate-release metformin products. According to the FDA, several other firms that manufacture extended-release metformin formulations have not had their products recalled. The agency is currently evaluating whether the announced recalls will create shortages in metformin ER products and will work with manufacturers to prevent or reduce the impact of any shortages. Metformin is one of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States and is often the first oral medication prescribed for people newly diagnosed with diabetes. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, more than 78 million prescriptions for metformin were written in 2017, with extended-release versions of the drug accounting for about one-quarter of those prescriptions. What would you do to be stranded in one of the most lusted-after spots on the planet? One American family, trapped in the French Polynesia thanks to the current pandemic, is now getting a taste of that question. As Traveller reports, For as long as she can remember, 28-year-old Kristen Pankratz has shared in her dads dream to sail around the world. Life somehow always got in the way. But after giving up her advertising job in Dallas, she finally set sail with her parents in January. So far so cliche. But things got interesting, fast: Now, along with hundreds of other sailors, they find themselves stranded in paradise. As they sailed west across the vast Pacific Ocean in March, the pandemic spread its tentacles across the globe. They made it as far as Tahiti in remote French Polynesia, one of the last places in the region to offer refuge as borders slammed shut. Long story short, South Pacific countries, though they have smaller populations than other tourist hotspots in Europe, say, dont have much infrastructure to cope with Pandemic Outbreaks. On that note: The French Polynesia, despite tourism usually employing 17% of its workforce, has so far been far more gun shy in welcoming back tourists. Unlike Sicily, Japan, Greece, Spain and Iceland (to name a few), which have all announced grand plans to lure back travellers, South Pacific countries are not yet ready to reopen. The upshot for Those Stranded Sailors (there are currently some 550 sailboats sheltering in French Polynesia), is that theres now no way home, unless they abandon their boats and jump on a repatriation flight. This has resulted in a bittersweet situation where families like Kristen Pankratzs find themselves in a strange limbo, hoping they can sail west again before the cyclone season hits in November (Traveller), but also experiencing French Polynesia as it hasnt been seen for many years without tourists. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tahiti Tourisme (@tahititourisme) on May 18, 2020 at 11:29am PDT According to Traveller, The Pankratzs say theyve been treated extraordinarily well and have been able to see beautiful grottoes and black sand beaches without many other tourists around. Others, however, say theyve encountered suspicion and sometimes hostility from local residents fearful they might be bringing in the virus from abroad, Traveller reports. As for how they came to be there, The Pankratzs set out on a 14-metre sailboat, Amazing Grace, from St. Lucia as part of a loose-knit group of sailors who also planned to sail the globe. After sailing through the Panama Canal into the Pacific, they began getting updates about the deteriorating virus situation. They then spent a week longer at sea than planned to get to Tahiti, catching tuna along the way to keep their supplies going for longer. On arrival, Traveller reports, came four and a half weeks of lockdown at a marina, where they were allowed off the boat only for exercise and groceries. Pankratz settled into a routine with some of the other sailors: high-intensity exercise classes at 7:30am on the dock; cocktails at 5:30pm on the boats. After the lockdown ended, they got to see more of Tahiti. And this week, they set sail for some new islands after authorities loosened restrictions to allow more travel between French Polynesias scattered archipelagos. As for their next move? Like the rest of the stuck sailors, it will all depend on The Virus situation and of course the weather. In the meantime, black sandy beaches and beautiful grottos await. Read Next Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. 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With Genedata Screener we can deliver what biopharma companies are searching for in a partner for drug discovery: fast completion of projects and the highest data quality Genedata, the leading provider of enterprise software solutions for biopharmaceutical R&D, today announced that leading Japanese solution provider in the drug discovery space Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners, a driver of innovation in research and Japans first provider of integrated drug discovery services, has expanded its license for Genedata Screener, the market-leading solution for efficient and automated screening data analysis. Axcelead is adopting Genedata Screener to ramp up capacity for its R&D programs, and for routinely offering specialized services on modern screening technologies for thermal shift and ion channel screening. With Genedata Screener we can deliver what biopharma companies are searching for in a partner for drug discovery: fast completion of projects and the highest data quality, said Junji Matsui, Head of Discovery Science at Axcelead. Thanks to its capability to automate complex data analysis processes, Genedata Screener allows us to shorten data analysis time by an order of magnitude, and with best practices in data analysis built in, compliance with our clients stringent QC requirements is guaranteed. Genedata Screener also comes with broad support for modern screening technologies, so we now have one platform for all types of screening, which makes us more efficient. Genedata Screener has been developed to offer out-of-the-box analysis capability for a large variety of screening technologies, regardless of their data output, volume, and complexity. Two thirds of the worlds leading biopharmaceutical organizationsincluding almost all of Japans leading biopharmaceutical companiesalready use Genedata Screener to automate, accelerate and streamline data analysis processes, with substantial savings in time, operational cost and system maintenance. Regular updates ensure that Genedata Screener remains the solution of choice for research and development teams confronted with evolving data analysis needs and technologies. We are delighted to expand our relationship with Axcelead, the leading CRO for discovery services in Japan. We are proud that Axcelead has selected our Genedata Biopharma Platform for its strategy to deliver the highest quality services to its rapidly increasing customer base, commented Othmar Pfannes, Ph.D., CEO of Genedata. This collaboration is further proof of the value that our software can bring to the biopharma industry in its quest for innovation and efficiency. About Genedata Genedata transforms data into intelligence with innovative software solutions and domain-specific consulting services that automate complex, large-scale experimental processes and enable organizations to maximize the ROI in their R&D, spanning early discovery all the way to the clinic. Founded in 1997, Genedata is headquartered in Switzerland with additional offices in Germany, Japan, Singapore, the UK, and the US. http://www.genedata.com LinkedIn | Twitter | YouTube Contact Miles Fisher-Pollard Genedata Public Relations Phone: +41 61 511 85 61 pr@genedata.com Disclaimer The statements in this press release that relate to future plans, events or performance are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including risks associated with uncertainties related to contract cancellations, developing risks, competitive factors, uncertainties pertaining to customer orders, demand for products and services, development of markets for the Company's products and services. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to release publicly the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. All product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Two terrorists were killed in south Kashmirs Tral area after police and army launched a joint operation in Soyimuh village early Tuesday. This is the third operation in south Kashmir where forces and terrorists have had an exchange of firing. Police said Tuesdays operation was launched on specific information about the presence of terrorists. Inspector general of police, Kashmir, Vijay Kumar described the operation as clean with no collateral damage. Two terrorists were killed in the operation, he said. Police have not revealed the identities of the terrorists killed in the gun battle. Locals, however, said both are believed to have recently joined Hizbul Mujahideen. Since the past few weeks police have not been revealing the identities of terrorists killed in encounters. They are buried away from their native villages with their family members being allowed to participate in the funerals, police said. On Sunday two to three terrorists escaped the cordon after an encounter broke out in Posh e Kreeri village of Anantnag district whereas on Saturday, the police killed two militants in the Kulgam district after a daylong operation. Last month Hizbul Mujahedeen divisional commander Junaid Sehrai and his associate were killed in an encounter at Nawakadal in Srinagar, while over 12 houses were damaged in the encounter. Three civilians who got injured in the house collapse also died in the hospital due to burn injuries. Since the lockdown, a total of 41 terrorists and two terrorist associates have been killed while 24 security forces personnel, including two in ceasefire violations, have lost their lives. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Designer Virgil Abloh has come under for fire for donating just $50 to a protesters' bail fund amid the nationwide uprisings over George Floyd's death at the hands of a police officer. The 39-year-old, who is the artistic director of Louis Vuittons menswear collection and creator of the streetwear label Off-White, took to Instagram Stories on Sunday to share a screenshot of his donation to the (F)EMPOWER Community Bond Fund in Miami. 'The Miami community ~ Im crazy inspired. For kids in the streets that need a bail funds [sic] for George Floyd protests. Matching the local energy,' he wrote, tagging five other Instagram users. Under fire: Designer Virgil Abloh is facing backlash for donating just $50 to a protesters' bail fund amid the nationwide uprisings over George Floyd's death Fans were stunned by the paltry donation from Abloh, who is believed to have an estimated net worth of $4 million. 'I should be sleep, but Im up thinking about how Virgil Abloh donated $50 and then told people,' tweeted Brittany Luse, co-host of The Nod With Brittany and Eric on Quibi. Proof: Abloh shared a screenshot of his donation the (F)EMPOWER Community Bond Fund in Miami on Sunday 'I really cannot believe Virgil Abloh has the audacity to post that screenshot of his $50 donation. Im speechless every time I see it,' someone else agreed. Many critics were quick to point out that his donation was only a fraction of the cost of the pricey items he sells including a $90 pair of Off-White socks. 'You cant buy anything Virgil Abloh sells for $50,' Philip Lewis noted, while someone else commented: 'Virgil Abloh selling socks that's worth the same as mortgages and said here's $50 my brother fight the power.' 'People should donate whatever they want, but man Virgil Abloh really just donated 11% of one Off-White belt,' another Twitter user wrote. Amid the backlash, critics briefly changed his Wikipedia page to refer to him as 'Virgil "Cheap A**" Abloh' and 'Virgil '50$' Abloh.' Abloh responded to the criticism in a since-deleted post, saying he was simply matching the funds donated by his friends as part of a chain campaign. 'More light before a narrative forms around false assumptions,' he wrote. 'The $50 donation described in a recent screenshot was part of a matching funds movement of friends i follow in my timeline.' Abloh noted that before he revealed that he had donated $50, he had shared links to bail funds across the country in support of protesters. He also said he was willing to share the exact money he has 'personally given to the rightful cause of protest.' Confused: Fans were stunned by the donation from Abloh, who is believed to have an estimated net worth of $4 million Backlash: Critics took to Twitter to slam his donation, with many people pointing out it was a fraction of the cost of the items he sells The designer's message came after he was criticized for calling out looters for damaging businesses in which he had a connection, including RSVP Gallery, a store that sells his label. In one Instagram Stories post, he shared a video of the damage done to Round Two vintage store in Los Angeles after it was looted, writing: 'Case & point # 81 why I said "streetwear" is dead.' He also commented on footage of the aftermath that was shared by Sean Wotherspoon, the owner of Round Two. 'This is f****d up. You see the passion blood sweat and tears Sean puts in for our culture. This disgusts me,' he wrote. Yikes: Amid the backlash, critics briefly changed his Wikipedia page to refer to him as 'Virgil "Cheap A**" Abloh' and 'Virgil '50$' Abloh' 'To the kids that ransacked his store and RSVP DTLA, and all our stores in our scene just know, that product staring at you in your home/ apartment right now is tainted and a reminder of a person I hope you aren't. 'We're apart of a culture together. Is this what you want?? When you walk past him in the future please have the dignity to not look him in the eye, hang your head in shame.' In another post commenting on the damage to RSVP Gallery in Chicago, he wrote that over a decade ago he and the gallery owners made a 'commitment to make something our local community could see without the access we had been fortunate to access.' 'Today that same community robbed us. If that heals your pain, you can have it,' he added. Changed his mind: Abloh explained in a since-deleted post that he was matching a donation made by his friends online and offered to share the exact amount he has donated so far Reaction: Abloh was also criticized for calling out looters for damaging businesses in which he had a connection during some of the protests that turned violent Hitting back: The designer commented on a video of the damage done to Round Two vintage store in Los Angeles that was posted by owner Sean Wotherspoon While some applauded his messages, others accused him of caring more about the businesses that were broken into and looted than Floyd's death. One person compared his reaction to that of designer Marc Jacobs, who shared a post stressing that 'property can be replaced, human lives CANNOT' after one of his own stores was looted. DailyMail.com has reached out to Abloh's reps for comment. There have been six days of protests and civil unrest in cities across the country since Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man, died in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Accusations: While some applauded Abloh's messages, others accused him of caring more about the businesses that were broken into and looted than George Floyd's death Comparison: One person compared his reaction to that of designer Marc Jacobs, who shared a post stressing that 'property can be replaced, human lives CANNOT' Values: Jacobs noted that one of his stores was destroyed the other night but he still supports the protesters After he was arrested for allegedly using counterfeit $20 bill at a deli, white officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Floyd became unresponsive and was later pronounced dead at the hospital. Chauvin has since been taken into police custody and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Many celebrities have donated to organizations and bail funds in support of the protestors, most notably Chrissy Teigen, who doubled her $100,000 donation to $200,000 after a critic called them 'rioters and criminals.' Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds donated $200,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, while Steve Carell, Seth Rogen, and Janelle Monae each gave $1,000 to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, a nonprofit that helps pay the bail of low-income individuals who can't afford it otherwise. YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian hosted today Speaker of Parliament of Artsakh Artur Tovmasyan, the Presidential Office told Armenpress. President Sarkissian once again congratulated the new Speaker and members of the Parliament of Artsakh, stating that the recent elections once again proved that Artsakh has been developed as a democratic state. Artsakh once again proved that its a country where people think and act in a state way, he said, wishing further success to the Speaker of Parliament. In turn Artur Tovmasyan thanked for the reception and assured that he will continue the steps aimed at developing the inter-parliamentary ties and cooperation between Artsakh and Armenia. Todays meeting further increases my responsibility as a Speaker of Parliament, he added. Talking about the development prospects of Artsakh, the Armenian President highlighted clearly defining the priority tasks. He in particular mentioned the demographic issue and attached importance to supporting and promoting the people with various programs to settle in Artsakh. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan Popular Nigerian socialite, Cubana Chief Priest, has shared his idea on why there are so many reported rape cases in reaction to the rape culture in Nigeria. According to Cubana, many parents failed to teach their male children the meaning of consent as it concerns sexual activities. Taking to Instagram, the socialite made this known as he also celebrated his 1.6 million followers. READ ALSO Cubana Chief Priest Set To Charge N10K For BBNaija Connection Advertisement Cubana pointed out that parents need to teach their male children to cherish and respect women in all their dealings with women. See His Post Here: Bank of America announced Tuesday that it will commit $1 billion over four years to help local communities grapple with the widened economic and racial inequality caused by the Covid-19 outbreak. The bank said in a press release that the program will focus on "assisting people and communities of color that have experienced a greater impact from the health crisis." "Underlying economic and social disparities that exist have accelerated and intensified during the global pandemic," Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said in the release. "The events of the past week have created a sense of true urgency that has arisen across our nation, particularly in view of the racial injustices we have seen in the communities where we work and live. We all need to do more." Bank of America said the programs, which will be implemented by the company's 90 local U.S. market presidents, will concentrate on areas impacted by the spread of Covid-19 including, health, jobs and retraining, support for small business and housing. Specifically, the $1 billion in funding will be appropriated for initiatives including virus testing, flu vaccine clinics, support for minority-owned small businesses, investment for affordable housing and recruitment and retention of staff from low-to-moderate income communities. The announcement from Bank of America comes amid widespread business closures and precautionary rules to slow the spread of Covid-19 as well as civil unrest across the country sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last week. Protests have occurred throughout major metropolitan areas in the U.S. including Los Angeles and New York City, where President Donald Trump has demanded tougher government response to curb outbreaks of violence and looting. Subscribe to CNBC PRO for exclusive insights and analysis, and live business day programming from around the world. The Tribune identified more than 2,100 businesses that were damaged or ransacked throughout Chicago from May 29 to June 4, 2020. Many businesses were on the South and West sides, far from the attention given to damage downtown. Indian Cinema gained popularity worldwide with the Baahubali Series starring Rebel Star Prabhas, directed by SS Rajamouli. It is a proud moment to Indian Cinema again as Baahubali 2 has been dubbed in Russian language and has been telecasted on a channel in Russia. The Russian Embassy, on Wednesday, tweeted about the broadcasting with a 37-second clip of the movie, celebrating the fact that Indian cinema had grown so popular that it had gained a home in Russian TV. The clip has been viewed more than 3,00,000 times, and the tweet has more than 600 replies. Many praise S. S. Rajamoulis directorial genius and Prabhas magical allure. Baahubali franchise, with Super Star Prabhas as the lead actor, included popular actors like Rana Daggubati, Anushka Shetty, Tamannaah Bhatia and Ramya Krishnan. Prabhass fans are eagerly waiting to watch their Super Star in his upcoming movie, tentatively titled O Dear starring Pooja Hegde, directed by Radha Krishna Kumar. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio flip flopped again on the NYPD saying he has 'total confidence' in them despite earlier demanding an officer be fired for pointing a gun at protesters and appearing to criticize them for arresting his daughter. Speaking at a press briefing Tuesday morning, de Blasio defended the actions of NYPD officers during protests demanding justice for the death of George Floyd, saying the city will weed out the 'few that do not belong in our police force' but that there are '36,000 [officers] doing right'. The mayor's approach to the protests has been called into question as he has repeatedly yo-yoed between slamming cops caught on camera being aggressive toward activists and defending and even praising their actions. On Monday he appeared to go to war with cops as he demanded an officer who pointed his firearm at protesters outside The Strand bookstore Sunday night 'should have his gun and badge taken away'. This came after he was forced to backtrack over his response to footage of officers ramming crowds with an SUV when he appeared to first defend the action and then later decided it was 'unacceptable'. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio flip flopped again on the NYPD saying he has 'total confidence' in them despite earlier demanding an officer be fired for pointing a gun at protesters and appearing to criticize them for arresting his daughter 'I have confidence in NYPD,' de Blasio insisted Tuesday morning. 'Officers all over New York City were working with protesters peacefully on common ground,' he said. He pointed to the footage of Chief of Department of the New York City Police Terence Monahan who took a knee in solidarity with protesters in Washington Square Park Monday calling that the 'real story'. Monahan has said he understands people's anger over Floyd's death but condemned the looting and said he doesn't believe racism plays a role in the NYPD. 'That's the image we should focus on,' de Blasio said of Monahan kneeling. 'When the highest-ranking uniformed police officer in [New York] took a knee. That is the lasting story not when a small group of criminals attack a neighborhood in the Bronx.' He said this action showed progress in the force, which he said is now made up of a 'majority' of officers who are 'people of color'. 'Our police force has been working incessantly to have better relationships with New Yorkers' he insisted, adding that most New Yorkers 'want a positive relationship with people and the police'. But he admitted that 'we have a lot to do on criminal justice reform' still and that 'if you say there has been years and decades of injustice you are right.' De Blasio accepted there are some cops who have acted violently toward protesters and said that the city will take action against those 'who should not be in the force' - one day after he called for the firing of an officer who drew his firearm on peaceful protesters outside The Strand bookstore in Manhattan. Footage surfaced on social media of a cop pulling his handgun and pointing it at protesters outside The Strand Bookstore in Manhattan Sunday night The crowds are heard screaming and run from the cop amid fears that he will open fire - on a night where people gathered to demand an end to police brutality 'Not everyone is perfect no. There are some people who should not be in the police force but the overwhelming majority of officers are standing up for us each day... they are in so many ways holding this city together right now,' he said. 'We want to make sure it's fair. We want to make sure it's just. We want our guardians to always protect us but to also show restraint... that's what they've been doing. 'If you say "this one did this thing wrong" then we will do something about that but what about the 36,000 who did something right? Can we look at that too?' The mayor went on to slam the actions of some rioters who carried out 'vicious attacks' on cops Monday night. 'We will not tolerate attacks on police officers,' he said. 'A police officer was hit by a car yesterday - unacceptable. Police officers shot at - unacceptable. 'Anyone that does that is a criminal not a protester.' He added: 'An attack on a police officer is an attack on all of us.' De Blasio's staunch defense of the force Tuesday follows days of back and forth from the mayor where he has moved between slamming cops for their violent response to protesters and defending their tactics. On Monday, de Blasio called for an NYPD officer to be fired after footage surfaced on social media of him pulling his handgun and pointing it at protesters outside The Strand bookstore Sunday night where activists had gathered to demand justice over Floyd's death. De Blasio adopted a harsher tone toward the action of officers Monday after he was blasted over his response to other footage (above) showing cops appear to intentionally drive head-on into a group of protesters De Blasio initially defended the actions of the officers saying on Saturday the officers acted while under attack before backpedaling Monday calling the incident 'not acceptable' and saying there are some cops 'who do not belong on this job' 'It is not the place of an officer to pull a gun in the middle of a crowd, knowing that there are peaceful protesters in that crowd. That is unacceptable, that is dangerous,' said de Blasio at his daily press briefing Monday. 'That officer should have his gun and badge taken away today.' In Sunday's footage, the NYPD officer is seen drawing his handgun and pointing it at peaceful protesters near Manhattan's Union Square while he quickly marches over the road toward them. The crowds are heard screaming and run from the cop amid fears that he will open fire - on a night where people gathered to demand an end to police brutality. The cop then returns the firearm to its holster and appears to be led by another cop back to the other side of the road. The incident took place at around 10p.m. Sunday night near 12th and Broadway outside The Strand bookstore, according to the social media post sharing the video. De Blasio slammed the officer's actions as 'absolutely unacceptable' and said there would be an immediate investigation 'to determine the larger consequence.' The NYPD has also said it is conducting an internal review into the incident. De Blasio adopted a harsher tone toward the action of officers Monday after he was blasted over his response to other footage showing cops appear to intentionally drive head-on into a group of protesters. In aerial footage shot at a protest in Brooklyn Saturday, an NYPD cruiser is seen being blocked by protesters with a metal barricade, while some hurled objects at the vehicle. A second cruiser arrives and goes around the first and accelerates through the crowds forcefully pushing pedestrians out of the way. The first car then rapidly accelerates ramming the protesters. Peaceful protesters lay on the ground with their hands behind their backs in a call for justice for George Floyd in Times Square on Monday NYPD police officers arrest a protester during a Black Lives Matter demonstration over the death of Floyd Monday, as tensions continue to escalate between protesters and cops in the Big Apple De Blasio initially defended the actions of the officers saying on Saturday that the officers acted while under attack. 'It is inappropriate for protesters to surround a police vehicle and threaten police officers,' he said. 'That's wrong on its face and that hasn't happened in the history of protests in this city.' But de Blasio faced a backlash over his comments, with many pointing out that the cop cars were at no point surrounded by protesters with no activists seen behind one of the cars. New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also slammed his response as 'unacceptable'. 'Your comments tonight were unacceptable,' Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter Sunday. 'Defending and making excuses for NYPD running SUVs into crowds was wrong. Make it right. De-escalate.' The mayor backpedaled on his comments Monday saying the incident was 'not acceptable' and that there are some cops 'who do not belong on this job'. 'We also have seen situations where police officers acted inappropriately,' de Blasio said during his press briefing Monday morning. He explained: 'I want to take a step back and talk about a very troubling video from the night before last of two police cars moving through a crowd. That was so troubling to the people of this city.' He said he had spoken when the incident immediately occurred but admitted there is no situation where the actions of the cops would be acceptable. 'There is no situation where a police vehicle should drive into a crowd of protesters or New Yorkers of any kind. It is dangerous, it is unacceptable,' de Blasio said. A protester smashes up a cop cruiser Sunday night near Union Square. Nationwide demonstrations over the death of Floyd entered their seventh night Monday Peaceful protests demanding justice for Floyd have descended into chaos as night falls 'This was an extremely aberrant situation and there were extenuating circumstances because of incidents that happened earlier in the day... but it is still not acceptable for our officers to ever drive into a crowd. He added that the incident was 'under investigation as we speak' The mayor's own daughter Chiara de Blasio, 25, was arrested Saturday night during one of the city's demonstrations after police infiltrated an 'unlawful assembly' of about 100 protesters at 12th Street and Broadway in Lower Manhattan. A police report obtained by DailyMail.com showed Chiara was among those arrested for refusing to move off the road and throwing objects at NYPD officers. De Blasio broke his silence over the news Monday saying she was 'acting peacefully' and he is proud of her. He said he only learned of her arrest when his office was contacted by the media over the incident Sunday. 'If I had known my daughter was arrested I would've been the first to say something,' de Blasio said. Floyd, a 46-year-old black father of two, (left) was killed in Minneapolis last Monday when a white police officer (right) knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes despite him repeatedly begging for the cop to stop and saying 'I can't breathe'. The cop Derek Chauvin has been arrested and charged with murder but three other officers involved continue to walk free 'Even though this was a surprise to Chirlane [de Blasio's wife] and I, I respect my daughter, I honor her, and I know her heart.' De Blasio's sparring with the NYPD comes as tensions continue to escalate between protesters and cops in the Big Apple, as nationwide demonstrations over the death of Floyd entered their seventh night last night. NYPD Chief of Department Monahan told CBS This Morning Tuesday that he understands the anger over Floyds death but also defended the officers in his force saying he does not believe racism exists in the NYPD. 'I don't believe racism plays a role in New York. I can only speak for what I've seen in New York City,' Monahan said. 'I would never say that we are a racist police department. Absolutely not. Have incidents happened? Maybe there was a racist incident, something, and that person has been removed from this agency? Absolutely.' Floyd, a 46-year-old black father of two, was killed in Minneapolis last Monday when white police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes despite him repeatedly begging for the cop to stop and saying 'I can't breathe'. 3-kg bomb at Delhi flower market: Police yet to zero in on any suspect Delhi riots: Police files two chargesheets, names suspended AAP councillor Tahir Hussain India pti-PTI New Delhi, June 02: Suspended AAP councillor Tahir Hussain allegedly spent around Rs 1.10 crore to fund anti-CAA protests and the subsequent communal violence that rocked northeast Delhi in February, the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police said in a 1,030-page charge sheet filed at Karkardooma court on Tuesday. The police filed another chargesheet in connection with the clashes between pro- and anti-CAA protesters in Jafrabad on the night of February 23. A case of rioting was registered at the Khajuri Khas Police Station in which 15 people including Hussain were arrested for their alleged role in the riots that occurred at about 2.15 pm on February 24 outside the suspended AAP councillor's house in Delhi's Chand Bagh area. Jessica Lal case convict Manu Sharma to be released prematurely, LG accepts | Oneindia News Be prepared for something big when Trump visits: Hussain had told Umar month before Delhi riots The police said during investigation, it emerged that there was a "deep rooted conspiracy" to cause riots in Northeast Delhi and Hussain, an Aam Aadmi Party leader and sitting councilor in East Delhi Municipal Corporation, played a pivotal role in the incident. The chargesheet stated that Hussain allegedly transferred around Rs 1.10 crore from the accounts of companies owned by him to alleged fake companies. He received the amount in cash in the second week of January, 2020 through a chain of transactions and thereafter, distributed the money to anti-CAA protestors. Police also obtained the bank details of two companies owned by Hussain -- Show Effect Advertising Pvt Ltd and Essence Cellcom Pvt Ltd -- from HDFC Bank. The details were analysed to verify the disclosure made by Hussain regarding organising and distributing cash for anti-CAA protests and the riots, it said. 13 employees of Delhi LG office test COVID positive, 6 other govt officials infected too According to the chargesheet, the bank account details showed six suspicious transactions from Essence Cellcom Pvt Ltd. amounting to Rs 92 lakhs to two other accounts. "His (Hussain's) another company Show Effect Advertising Pvt Ltd showed a transfer of Rs 20 lakh on January 8... All these chain of transactions are being investigated," it said. According to the chargesheet, during interrogation Hussain admitted his involvement in the riots and also confessed that he was present on the terrace of his house during as violence broke out in the area around his house. Hussain was in touch with other anti-CAA protestors and had met Khalid Saifi of United Against Hate and JNU student leader Umar Khalid at the Shaheen Bagh protest site on January 8, it said. Saifi told Hussain to be prepared for "something big" at the time of the visit of US President Donald Trump and also said that he and other PFI members will help him financially. Saifi gave him some money for the preparations, the chargesheet said. A day prior to the riots on February 22, Hussain got his pistol released from Khajuri Kha Police Station but during interrogation couldnt give a satisfactory reply as to why he did so, the police said in the chargesheet. He was connected to Saifi and Khalid who were part of a larger group of people responsible for organising riots and protests in Delhi, the chargesheet said. Several CCTV cameras were found installed in his house-cum-office and four DVRs (digital video recorder) were also recovered from there. But according to the Forensic Science Laboratory, no recording from February 23 to February 28, 2020 could be found on any DVR, it further said. "It means there was no data recorded either because the CCTVs were switched off or they were not in working condition. There is no recording of persons visiting him in his office or house prior to the commencement of riots/during the riots, as if he did not wish the events to be recorded," the chargesheet said. "Absence of any recording in the DVRs proves that he deliberately did it to hide his activities prior to and during the riots," it added. The chargesheet further said that photos and videos obtained from two separate DVDs were analysed and it showed the destruction done by rioters at the scene of the crime. It also showed that Hussains house was left untouched by the rioters which indicates that the accused was leading and instigating the mob, the chargesheet claimed. "Recovery of crates containing glass bottles having some liquid filled in them and their necks stuffed with pieces of cloth, which were used/ to be used as Molotov cocktails, large number of bricks and stone pieces and three catapults from the house of accused Tahir Hussain further point towards the conspiracy and the extent of preparation for causing riots in the area," it said. As per his disclosure statement during police remand, one pistol with extra magazine and 24 live cartridges, one mobile phone were recovered from him on March 7. On March 11, 40 live cartridges and 22 empty cartridges were also recovered. However, he didnt give any satisfactory explanation when asked about the empty cartridges, it stated. He purchased 100 cartridges on his license but only 64 live cartridges and 22 empty cartridges were recovered. During interrogation, he was unable to give satisfactory reply for the remaining 14 live cartridges and use of 22 empty shells, mentions the chargesheet. On the instance of Hussain, two brothers Liyakat Ali and Riyasat Ali were arrested and during interrogation they disclosed their involvement in the riots, the chargesheet said. The chargesheet further mentioned that Riyasat actively participated in looting and burning of the parking of one Pradeep, who lives adjacent to Hussain and the brothers divided the cash among themselves. The chargesheet further said, "Pradeeps parking was inspected by the FSL and crime team. Out of 44 vehicles, 14 were burnt and 18 were damaged. The photos and videos were taken. It showed that Pradeep's parking was being destroyed by the rioters but they left Hussain's place untouched." "During the course of investigation, Hussain's step brother Shah Alam was arrested along with other accused - Mohd Shadab , Mohd Abid, Rashid Saifi. They all disclosed that they had actively participated in the riots on the directions of Hussain," police said. Saifi was arrested on February 26 in another case of rioting at Jagatpuri, Shahdara District, police said. A total of three SITs have been constituted by the crime branch to investigate 59 cases which include murders and some important incidents of riots which occurred in February. Meanwhile, the second chargesheet filed was in connection with the Jafrabad rioting case which happened near Jafrabad Metro station. According to police, twelve people including Pinjra Tod a activists Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita were also arrested in this case. They were actively involved in hatching the conspiracy to cause riots near Jafrabad metro station, police said. They were also part of a larger conspiracy and were found to be connected to the 'India Against Hate group and Umar Khalid, police said. One Aman had died due to the gunshot injury in the incident and a total of 35 empty cartridges were recovered from the spot, they said. London, June 2 : The UK and Canada have opposed Russia's return to the G7, deepening a rift over US President Donald Trump's wish for Moscow to rejoin the group of the world's wealthiest nations. On May 30, Trump announced that he was postponing the G7 leaders' summit, adding that it was "outdated" and that he would like to see more countries, including India, Russia, Australia and South Korea added to the group. According to the Kremlin, Trump in a phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin told the latter of his plan to invite him to the summit. The White House confirmed the development, saying that making "progress toward convening the G7" with Russia was among the topics the leaders discussed in the phone call. Russia was expelled from the group - previously known as the G8 - in 2014 in response to its annexation of Crimea, the BBC reported But Trump's invitation to Putin has drawn the ire of the UK and Canada, whose leaders have said that they would not support Russia's re-admission to the group. "Russia was excluded from the G7 after it invaded Crimea a number of years ago, and its continued disrespect and flaunting of international rules and norms is why it remains outside of the G7, and it will continue to remain out," Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a news conference. Also a spokesman for the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would veto any proposal to allow Russia to rejoin the group. Unless Russia ceases its "aggressive and destabilising activity", the UK would not support the country's readmission to the group, the BBC quoted Johnson's spokesman as saying on Monday. "Russia was removed from the G7 group of nations following its (2014) annexation of Crimea and we are yet to see evidence of changed behaviour which would justify its readmittance," the spokesman told reporters. Meanwhile, the leaders of South Korea and Australia have expressed interest in attending the summit in the US. Last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected Trump's invitation to attend a summit in person because of the coronavirus pandemic. The G7 leaders' meeting, which the US is to host this year as it occupies the rotating presidency of the group, was scheduled from June 10 to 12. Trump announced in April the cancellation of the in-person summit due to the rapid expansion and severity of the coronavirus pandemic and said it would take place virtually. As an alternative date, Trump on May 30 said that the summit could be held over the weekend just before or after the UN General Assembly, which is scheduled to start on September 15, or after the US presidential election in November. On Saturday, May 30, SpaceX corporation successfully launched the Demo-2 mission, which brought NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley safely to the International Space Station. They have joined US astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner as members of ISS Expedition 63. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the companys Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASAs SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard, Saturday, May 30, 2020, at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Photo: NASA/Joel Kowsky) This is the first time that men have been launched into orbit from the United States since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011. For the past nine years, the United States has been forced to launch astronauts from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard Soviet-era Soyuz spacecraft operated by the Russian space agency Roscosmos. The event was heavily promoted by SpaceX founder and billionaire Elon Musk, the American media and President Donald Trump in a manner that should dispel any excitement that might otherwise accompany another step forward in manned exploration of space. Actually, the launch was not so much a step forward as a retracing of steps that were first taken 60 years ago, in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. Without in any way glamorizing the space race of the Kennedy-Johnson years, where the driving force was the Cold War struggle between American imperialism and the Soviet Union, there is something degraded and shabby about prostituting space exploration to the naked commercial interests of a billionaire whose expertise in technology is in the engineering of financial servicesMusk made his first fortune as a co-founder of the Paypal web site, before going on to ventures like Tesla. The launch was not primarily about the development of science or technology, but about elevating Musks wealth, which according to Forbes stands at $37.2 billion in the wake of the launch, and to promote nationalism and militarism in space, embodied by the #LaunchAmerica hashtag. Saturdays launch is being used to validate all aspects of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, above all its ability to safely deliver its crew to space and back to the ground. But this is not fundamentally new technology, despite claims that Musk was the #1 Innovative Leader in 2019. The Dragon capsule is essentially a bigger version of the Gemini and Apollo crew compartments developed in the 1960s, albeit with modern touch screen controls and navigation panels, instead of walls covered in buttons and switches. And while the ability to consistently recover the Falcon 9 boosters and reuse them is an advance, the rockets are still based on the crude process of setting some combination of kerosene, liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen on fire and using the resulting detonation to lift human beings many thousands of miles above the earthjust as was done in the 1960s. Their safe delivery to orbit and back is due to the collaboration of hundreds of thousands of scientists and engineers in the US and the Soviet Union who worked on this problem in the 1950s and 1960s, and their successors around the world today. Musks commercial enterprise is based on appropriating this work to build his private fortune. In addition, there are still risks with the Dragon capsule itself. The history of private space flight is dotted with casualties caused by companies taking risks that have already been proven very high through the experiences of manned and unmanned space flight for the past 70 years. SpaceX itself has had three major failures involving the loss of a rocket, including one involving an explosion of a Dragon spacecraft after the launch abort system malfunctioned. The company has also had issues with its parachute system, the one that will be used to guide the ship to a soft landing when it returns to Earth. The relationship of SpaceX and other companies with NASA is such that the agency has very little independent oversight of the technologies being used. Compared to the space programs height in the 1960s, there is little transparency and a much hollowed-out NASA. The Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia disasters demonstrate the even the smallest oversights and errors can become catastrophic. One should also not forget that Musk also runs Tesla, where he ordered 10,000 Tesla workers back into his Fremont, California factory to resume production of his electric car line. In his criminal pursuit of profits, the CEO openly defied public health authorities after the plant had been closed to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. While no one has died as a result of the Demo-2 launch, at least so far, the lives and health of thousands of workers have been put in danger by Musks reckless and ignorant trampling on science in pursuit of Teslas reopening. Then there is Trump, who boasted that the United States has regained our place of prestige as the world leader in space flight, virtually on the same day that the United States confirmed its role as world leader in the COVID-19 epidemic, with 100,000 deaths and 1.7 million infections. We once again proudly launch American astronauts on American rocketsthe best in the worldfrom right here on American soil, Trump continued, although it is doubtful that the rocket or the capsule is American except in the sense of the corporate ownership: the components emerge from a global labor process involving workers in dozens of countries. By prestige, Trump is referring to American geopolitical dominance in space, which existed in some fashion after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but which has been shattered in recent years, as NASA launches ceased and the US depended on Russian launches, while China conducted a successful landing on the far side of the Moon, while India carried out the destruction of a satellite in low-Earth orbit, among other space-based activities by other nations. In Trumps mind, freeing the United States from its dependence on Russia now enables the US military to more fully flex its newest branch, the Space Force, which was pushed for by his administration and formally created as part of the most recent $738 billion defense budget, with bipartisan support. When it was first announced, the Trump administration made clear that the creation of the Space Force was directly linked to war preparations against China and Russia. As the Washington Post spelled out, the rockets developed by SpaceX expand the Pentagons launch market. In other words, new rockets can be transformed into new types of missiles, providing the US military with more options for the mass extermination of whole populations. In contrast, these new ways to get to space are not going to be used for many if any scientific programs, several of which Trump has cut funding for, particularly those that study the effects of climate change on the environment. The launch was also the culmination of the drive to privatize human spaceflight that was initiated by the Obama administration. Since SpaceX and Boeing were awarded contracts to fly astronauts to the ISS in 2014, both the Obama and Trump administrations have put their weight behind the expansion of commercial space programs at the expense of NASA. Trump has particularly thrown his support behind SpaceX and Musk, whom he considers a friend, over Boeings Starliner as well as Blue Origins, owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, whom Trump considers a political enemy. Some of the underlying politics of this came to the fore in the days before the launch: NASAs head of human space exploration, Douglas Loverro, resigned after awarding a large contract to Blue Origins apparently made him an outcast at the White House. Loverros sudden departure almost caused the Demo-2 launch to be canceled. The president has also asserted commercial and property rights in space, particularly for US companies. Trump signed an executive order in April, which declares that the United States does not view it [space] as a global commons, and that [s]uccessful long-term exploration will require partnership with commercial entities to recover and use resources, and these will require the right to commercial recovery. Trump is no doubt including Musk in these calculations, especially as the latter has designs about traveling to Mars, with the implication that he could personally own a whole planet. It should also be noted that this is not the first time in human history that astronauts have entered the @Space_Station from a commercially-made spacecraft, as proclaimed by NASA. The Space Shuttle, which docked multiple times with the ISS as well as helping assemble it, was built by the United Space Alliance, Thiokol/Alliant Techsystems, Lockheed Martin/Martin Marietta and Boeing/Rockwell. These companies have also played major roles in producing the other rockets NASA has used or still uses to send people and satellites into space. Whatever the pretensions of Musk or the Trump administration, however, the reality is that traveling to space is a necessarily international endeavor. Even the Crew Dragon launch itself required personnel stationed at various places in the Atlantic Ocean and in Ireland in case the mission had to be aborted after the rockets fired. Once in orbit, a network of satellites and ground stations operated by countries around the world were used to maintain contact with the astronauts in the Crew Dragon as they made their way to a space station built using the combined efforts of space agencies and engineering firms in 16 different countriesthe US, Russia, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. During the commentary before last Wednesdays aborted launch, astronaut Leland Melvin spoke to this side of space travel, in remarks worth quoting at length. When I first went to space, I thought my primary task of installing the Columbus laboratory would be my aha moment, but it was when Peggy Whitson invited us over to the Russian segment to have a meal. She said, You guys bring the rehydrated vegetables, well have the meat. Were having this meal and it is with an African American, Asian American, French, German, Russian, the first female commander, breaking bread at 17,500 mph, going around the planet every 90 minutes. And when I think about that perspective shift that I got looking out the window, flying over my home town, flying over [French astronaut Leopold Eyharts] home town in Paris, flying over [cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenkos] home town in Russia, it brought us all together as a civilization. And I think thats what space flight does for us. The more people that have the opportunity to go to space will feel like it is an international family of people working together for the good of humanity and all humankind. Powerful sentiments, but not ones that can be realized in the world of Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Space exploration, as with all aspects of life, must be wrenched from the stranglehold of imperialism and the drive for private profit if the aspirations contained within it are to ever be fully realized. Sheer brilliance and royalty characterized the virtual launch of the Obokese University Of Excellence (OUE) last Saturday via Zoom. Themed Transformation through leadership and technology, (the tagline of OUE)the well-organized virtual press conference, attracted dignitaries from far and near. Among them were Dr. Jane Edwards, African American Studies Department, Fordham University NY, Prof. PLO Lumumba- Anti Corruption Tsar and Pan African Activist, Ambassador Arikana Chihombori Quao- former African Union Ambassador to the USA. Founder and President, African Diaspora Development Institute, Ambassador Thelma Philip-Browne, St. Kitts and Nevis Ambassador to the USA. Others are Prof. Samuel Amoako- Consular General, Ghana Embassy NY USA, Mr. Kofi Tonto, Press Secretary, Ghana Embassy Washington DC who represented Ambassador Baffour Adjei, Ghana's Ambassador to the United States of America, Mr. Awuah Ababio- Director, Diaspora Affairs- Office of the President of the Republic of Ghana and Dr. David Whitaker Esq. New Provost for OUE. Nana Obokese Ampah, CEO of Year of Return Legacy Project, the Asebu Pan African Village Project, Founder of the Obokese University of Excellence underscored the urgent need for a full-fledged Pan African Higher Institute of learning where students are guided to their fullest potentials minus any form of manipulation. He said During these uncertain times of COVID-19, it is crucial, now more than ever, that we create legacies of educational institutions to move beyond the crisis, embrace substance, elevate our people, and prepare for future success of society. Hereby, the creation of Obokese University, created in Ghana, as a part of the Year of Return Legacy, is a call to encourage all African descendants throughout the diaspora to come together to build the homeland. He added Ghanas President Nana Akufo-Addo, created the Year of Return, an unprecedented initiative last year, and this is part of his vision for Beyond the Year of Return, hence the creation of this noble higher learning educational institute. It emerged that Obokese University will begin operation on September 21, 2020, and operate at the intersection of e-Commerce, Leadership and Education, Engaging Culture, History, Technology, and Tourism. It will initially be an online digital platform with, among others, master classes; tours and event experiences; and, web-based learning/development offerings. Then, as it grows, the university will roll out its formal course offerings. The Obokese University will include, among others, the following platforms: An Afrocentric focused entrepreneurial, educational, cultural, and historical institution. It will also include leadership Masterclasses and certifications including; business, political science, African history, business/entrepreneurship, etc... An e-Commerce offering branding solutions and a rich array of digital display advertising solutions, strategic marketing, and promotions with the goal of having global buyers discover anything they want to buy made in Africa, created in Africa has also been factored into the platform. Dr. Kwa David Whitaker, Esq. (aka Nana Kra Kwamina II), Obokese University Provost, said I am humbled and honored to be included in this historic initiative which furthers the visions of President Akufo-Addo and Nana Okatakyi Dr. Amanfi VII, King of Asebu, who has offered 5000 acres of land to establish Asebu Pan African Village to birth a new Ghana that brings Ghanaian and all African people closer to the full sovereignty that was envisioned in 1957. I pledge to do my very best to serve as a model of the excellence that will reflect and reinforce the spirit of Obokese University and bring honor to all of our African Ancestors. He added We are descendants of African Ancestors who refused to Die! Their defiance reverberates within us as powerful, enduring testimonials of perseverance against genocidal ends with diabolic means. What culture-based paradigms must we embrace to declare our humanity, honor our ancestral legacy, improve our lives and fortify our posterity.? Stay woke and remember "an ignorant man is always a slave." Ambassador Arikana Chihomborc Quao, founder and president, African Diaspora Development Institute commended the founder and board highly for the initiative and pledged his support for the initiative. Supporters include; Professor PLO Lumumba, an anti-corruption and Pan African advocate, Ambassador Arikana Chihombori Quao, former African Union Ambassador to the United States, AAGMA, Motherland Trust, Frasernation etc. Director at the office of the president Messrs Ababio Awuah, Kofi Tonto, Press Secretary, Ghana Embassy, Washington, Professor Sam Amoako, Consul General, Ghana Embassy in separate words pledged their outfit's unflinching support for the initiative. The University Development Committee will be chaired by African American Business and networking icon Dr. George Fraser The 2019 Year of Return initiative was a major landmark spiritual and birth-right journey inviting the Global African family, home and abroad, to mark 400 years of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in Jamestown, Virginia. www.obokese.edu.gh The arrival of enslaved Africans marked the beginning of a sordid and sad period when African kith and kin were forcefully taken from Africa into generations of deprivation, humiliation, and torture. While August 2019 marked 400 years since enslaved Africans arrived in the United States, Ghanas 2019 The Year of Return observed and celebrated the cumulative resilience of all the innocent victims of the Trans Atlantic Trade who were scattered and displaced through the new world. Overall, the Year of Return represented commencement of the long-awaited initiative to unite Africans on the Continent with their Brothers and Sisters in the Diaspora. OAK BROOK, Ill., June 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Retail Properties of America, Inc. (NYSE: RPAI) (the "Company") today provided an update on cash rent collection statistics for the months of April and May 2020. Compared to the previously reported 52.4% of April rent collected as of April 30, 2020, the Company has received 60.3% of April rent as of May 28, 2020. Rent collection for May as of May 28, 2020 totals 52.4%, consistent with April month-end collection levels. "With 79% of our portfolio square footage open as of May 29 and 53% of our properties operating in states that have lifted all retail restrictions, our team is engaged in supporting tenants as they reopen with efforts that include ongoing implementation of curbside pickup, as well as social media campaigns and onsite signage," stated Steven Grimes, chief executive officer. "As locality-specific limitations continue to lift, the quality of our assets will amplify the efforts of our team and our tenants as consumers begin resumption of shopping activities." The Company has been heavily focused on addressing tenant rent relief requests that have arisen from the COVID-19 pandemic and has started to sign lease amendments with certain tenants to modify existing lease terms, including, for example, deferring due dates of certain rent payments. The Company remains in negotiation with additional tenants who have sought relief and expects to reach agreement or resolution with many of them over the course of the next several months. Additionally, the Company announced that Steven Grimes will present at the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts' REITweek: 2020 Virtual Investor Conference. The Company's presentation is scheduled for Wednesday, June 3, 2020, from 3:25 p.m. 3:55 p.m. EDT and can be accessed live after registering via this link. The presentation will be archived and available for replay via the above link for 90 days. Further, an investor presentation to be used during the conference, which may include updated business information from that previously provided by the Company, will be made available in the INVEST section of the Company's website, www.rpai.com, prior to the Company's scheduled meetings. ABOUT RPAI Retail Properties of America, Inc. is a REIT that owns and operates high quality, strategically located open-air shopping centers, including properties with a mixed-use component. As of March 31, 2020, the Company owned 102 retail operating properties in the United States representing 20.0 million square feet. The Company is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol RPAI. Additional information about the Company is available at www.rpai.com. CONTACT INFORMATION Michael Gaiden Vice President Capital Markets and Investor Relations Retail Properties of America, Inc. (630) 634-4233 SOURCE Retail Properties of America, Inc. Related Links www.rpai.com NEWTOWN The six-day manhunt through four states to capture homicide suspect Peter Manfredonia in Maryland had nothing to do with the routine arrest two days earlier of George Floyd on a counterfeit bill charge 1,000 miles away in Minnesota. But commentators on Twitter say the two stories directly parallel the racial double-standard in America that has provoked a week of protests and civil disobedience here and across the country. Manfredonia, a white 23-year-old Sandy Hook native, is awaiting extradition to Connecticut after being taken into custody without a fight on May 27. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died handcuffed on the ground with his neck pinned beneath an arresting officers knee on May 25. Some pointed to a statement by Connecticut State Police Lt. Michael Pendleton, who said absolutely no force was used to effect the arrest, of Manfredonia, who had a gun in a black bag 200 yards away. Notice how the police talk to Peter Manfredonia, a white college senior who was at large after (allegedly) killing two people and (allegedly) stealing guns. Being treated with respect and due process, even if you commit a crime, shouldn't be a privilege, wrote Twitter user Max Lipton. Twitter user Dr. LezAnne Edmond agreed. And alleged murderer Peter Manfredonia was surrounded by heavily armed officers was gently arrested his f shirt wasn't even disturbed!, she wrote. Although Manfredonia is yet to be charged with anything other than being a fugitive from justice in the slayings of 62-year old Theodore DeMers and 23-year-old fellow Newtown High School graduate Nicholas Eisele, the arresting officer in Floyds case has been arrested and charged with murder. By Monday afternoon, there were nearly 100 separate posts on Twitter calling Manfredonia and Floyds disparate treatment the latest case study of a double-standard in the criminal justice system that treats white suspects with restraint and black suspects with contempt. Absolutely, this is what we have been talking about for years and years, said Glenda Armstrong, president of the Greater Danbury NAACP. The double-standard will continue to happen unless people are made aware of it and unless people say to themselves, We need to get better at this. rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342 The hopes of investors still stuck in disgraced manager Neil Woodford's Equity Income fund of getting the rest of their money back anytime soon are at a low. A year after the fund was frozen, while two payments worth 2.3billion have been made to investors since the fund's suspension last year, there is still some 558million to be returned. But experts say this cash could be 'almost worthless' due to the nature of the holdings and the current market. The remainder of the fund is invested in highly illiquid, unlisted companies - a major factor that led to its collapse - and these are difficult to sell at the best of times. One 81-year-old investor, Barry West, told This is Money that out of the 21,000 he had put into the Woodford fund he had so far had less than half returned. He said: 'Im not clear how these figures were arrived at'. Disgraced manager Neil Woodford was forced to suspend trading in his Woodford Equity Income fund on 3 June 2019 after bouts of poor performance since its inception in 2014 As the UK economy heads into what could be its deepest recession in living memory due to the lockdown and coronavirus pandemic, it is entirely possible that the value of the assets left in the fund will fall further in value. And in a market where confidence in risky investments is in short supply, the likelihood of offloading any of them is now is slim. The only good news for investors was that the bulk of the portfolio was sold off before the coronavirus crash. The FTSE 100 is currently down almost 20 per cent on its mid-January peak - although this is an improvement on late March when the UK's leading stock market index was down 35 per cent. 'I've had less than half my money returned and I don't know why' 81-year-old Barry West invested a total of 21,230 in the Woodford Equity Income fund through an Isa with Hargreaves Lansdown, which he says was largely encouraged by many emails from the investment platform promoting the fund. 81-year-old Barry West has received less than half of the amount he had invested He said: 'The reason for this investment was to supplement my pension income with the possibility of an increase in capital value. 'Funds returned to me so far are payments total just under 10,000 but Im not clear how these figures were arrived at. 'I am concerned about the current market volatility due to Covid-19. I and most investors are stuck because if we sell our investments our loss is crystallised and permanent. 'I plan to keep all my investments and can only hope that they will improve as time passes. 'I feel angry that Woodford has taken millions of pounds in dividends and profits at the expense of small investors and has not, as far as I know, been taken to task. Adrian Lowcock of Willis Owen said: 'The bulk of the portfolio was sold in January and the money returned, which was good for investors albeit scant consolation for the losses they incurred. Willis Owen's Adrian Lowcock said it was Woodford's investment in private companies that got him 'into this mess in the first place' 'However, what was always going to be more problematic was selling unlisted private equity investments, which were the reason Woodford got investors into this mess in the first place. 'Now that outlook has worsened. Holders of the fund may find that the remaining investments are almost worthless, and they may not get much back after costs on any further disposals by the fund.' The fund is currently being valued on a weekly basis and since the last distribution in March, the value of the assets is up 2 per cent when the FTSE All Share is up 10 per cent. Mass redemption requests before the fund was finally suspended forced Woodford to sell off his more liquid stock holdings to refund investors. But this left the fund with unusually large stakes in smaller and early stage unlisted companies, which are far harder to sell. As they are often smaller and riskier than big public companies, it can be hard to find a bidder. Holders of the fund may find that the remaining investments are almost worthless Adrian Lowcock, Willis Owen The Woodford fund's dministrator, Link Fund Solutions, last provided an update in March when it said they are unable to advise on the exact timings on the sale of the remaining assets but it expected it to take a long time. Ryan Hughes, of AJ Bell, said that given the lack of update over the past two months, 'it seems prudent to assume that there has been little progress made in the sale of the remaining illiquid assets'. Who has had their money back? Two payments amounting to 2.3billion have been made back to investors on a pence-per-share basis since the fund's closure although this is little compared to what was invested. The first was made in January this year and investors received between 46.3633p and 58.9936p per share, depending what version or 'share class' of the fund they held. Each share was worth 1 when launched by the fund, but their value had fallen substantially by the time the fund was frozen at the start of June 2019. A second, smaller payout was made in March after administrators raised more cash from the sell-off of some of its remaining assets. The value of these payouts however was much smaller than what was invested, as the fund's performance had been poor for some time. The problem is that people bought the Woodford name based on past performance rather than how he was investing in the new funds Ryan Hughes, AJ Bell Link prepared investors for potential losses, saying: 'The fund's value fluctuates in line with the market values of its underlying assets. 'If assets are sold for lower prices, you will receive less from the winding-up process and this also may be less than you originally invested.' Cash has been returned to investors pro rata, meaning in proportion to the size of their investment. Hughes added: 'Woodford was very transparent on this and published the full portfolio on his website, so it was there for all to see but some of the problem is that people bought the Woodford name based on past performance rather than how he was investing in the new funds.' What now for the investment industry? Big questions still remain about whether the investment industry has learned its lesson from the Woodford debacle and where the Financial Conduct Authority could still take stronger action to improve consumer confidence. Hughes said the risk of a liquidity mismatch remains a real threat to investors, so long as potentially highly illiquid and unquoted assets are allowed to be held in daily traded open-ended funds. This is when investors are promised the sale of their investment on any given day but it may take longer to sell the underlying assets to pay these investors out. Hughes explained: 'So, if I sell my investment today, the manager needs to have cash to pay me, but if it takes him a week to sell the underlying assets to be able to pay me, you have a problem and a mismatch. 'The best example is physical property funds as when they were open you could sell any day you like, but we all know it takes weeks to actually sell the underlying property. Allowing this mismatch to potentially occur, is an accident waiting to happen.' Many investors have lost large amounts of their savings from the Woodford saga 'I am angry because there were opportunities to avoid this debacle' An investor who prefers to remain anonymous invested more than 10,000 in Woodford's fallen fund in 2014. He says he was 'stupidly swept along by the hype of Hargreaves Lansdown, plus the fact Woodford had a good record with Invesco'. He has had around half of his money returned and the remainder of his investments are currently valued at around 1,500 so he is 'on course to lose about 3,500' He said: 'The money was part of an Isa fund to supplement my pension and to build a small inheritance. 'Optimistically, I am on course to lose about 3,600, which has not devastated my overall plans but for those who put their faith in Hargreaves Lansdown's hype and invested a large portion of their savings in this fund, the losses will have been very traumatic. 'I have learnt the hard way never to assume that the information from platforms is wholly impartial. After all they make their money by encouraging people to invest through them. 'I will now take best buy lists such as the Wealth 50 with a huge pinch of salt and will make sure to look at a variety of sources before making an investment decision including the financial press and sources such as Morningstar and Trustnet. 'I have looked at an alternative platform because Hargreaves Lansdown charges are among the highest in the industry and they have shown that they are just as liable to succumb to conflicts of interest as any body else. 'I am angry because there were so many opportunities to avoid this debacle. The Financial Conduct Authority seemingly did not take any action when it started to have concerns about the way Woodford was running his fund. 'Meanwhile Link Fund Solutions who are supposed to oversee the conduct of fund managers, seemingly sat on their hands and investors were not alerted to the increasing levels of risk. 'Finally both myself and Hargreaves Lansdown ignored the caveat that they always emphasise that past performance is no guarantee of future success. They should really have known better as should have I.' A number of fund managers have attempted to address the issues around liquidity mismatch, but unquoted companies are still very much held in open-ended funds and there has been little word from the Financial Conduct Authority about an outright ban. 'Instead the regulator has reminded asset managers of their responsibilities and reiterated that suspensions are an appropriate tool,' said Hughes. 'But telling investors they can't have their money back when they want it and that it's for their own protection is ultimately damaging for investor confidence in the long term.' 'At the same time, there has not been any public industry discussion on the appropriateness of daily dealing for those funds that hold less liquid assets. 'It's the elephant in the room and there is no first mover advantage for asset managers to do this, meaning it will have to be led by the regulator.' 'Woodford's apology doesn't cut it' Peter Alderson invested in the fund shortly after it opened in 2014 and gradually into it over the years. It grew to 20,000, which he was hoping to use as extra income for retirement. He expected to lose around 4,500 last year, but despite receiving two payments, market volatility has meant his losses have been much higher. He said: 'Unfortunately we have no control of when Link sell and the price received, hence the increase in our losses since last year which is very frustrating. Peter Alderson says the Woodford saga has made him wary about investing 'We have had around 8,500 returned so far and the remaining funds are worth just over 1,600 today, but who knows what I will receive when they are sold. This has been such a bad experience. 'Hargreaves Lansdown have corresponded clearly about the amounts returned and the prices of the units sold, but this is obviously dependent on the daily price. I can only assume this is correct as I have no way of checking. 'I am concerned about the markets at the moment and contacted Hargreaves Lansdown about this but they confirmed Link had control and would decide when to sell. 'This has made me more wary about investing and I am not sure where to go next. With cash paying nothing and equity income looking less profitable I am tending to opt for less specialist funds which carry a lower charge. 'I think this saga will make Hargreaves Lansdown more vigilant in the future, but I wont be taking their advice at face value. I still believe we were victims of miss-selling and continue to be amazed that the Financial Conduct Authority did nothing.' 'We have worked hard for that money, losing it won't sink us, but with my wife facing an uncertain future with employment and me just retired it's harder to re-coup the loss and it makes us angry to think of a rich man walking away with millions at our expense. The apology doesn't cut it as far as we are concerned. Hargreaves customers say they feel 'betrayed' Hargreaves Lansdown, the UK's largest investment platform, which had long championed the fund since its launch, has fallen from second to joint sixth place in the Which? annual investment platform customer satisfaction survey. In its first survey which took place in 2014, Hargreaves Lansdown, which has over 1.2 million customers, came out on top and continued to score highly since. But it has been hit hard by its involvement in the Woodford saga, and received a customer satisfaction score of 67 per cent with many of its customers expressing a sense of betrayal. Some 133,000 Hargreaves Lansdown customers were invested in the fund directly through the platform while a a further 158,000 held the fund indirectly within its multi-manager funds. Investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown has been heavily criticised for keeping the Woodford fund on its 'best buy' lists up until its suspension in June 2019 A spokesperson for Hargreaves Lansdown told This is Money: 'We share investors disappointment and frustration. As soon as the fund was suspended from trading, we immediately removed our platform fees for the fund. 'The wind-up process is ongoing, and so far almost 80 per cent of the fund has been returned to investors. As always, we will continue to support and inform clients as further developments are made. 'In the last few months we have been working hard behind the scenes to improve and evolve our tools and services based on client feedback, and we look forward to sharing these developments with our clients in due course.' Hargreaves Lansdown earned over 41million in customer fees between the fund's inception in 2014 and suspension in 2019. Investors are understood to be considering possible legal action against the online investment broker. Legal firms Nelsons, Leigh Day and Slater & Gordon are exploring action against Hargreaves. An officer knocked a boy of Aboriginal descent face-first onto a brick pavement during an arrest in Sydney, footage has shown. The policeman can be seen kicking the 17-year-olds feet while holding his hands behind his back. Losing his balance, the boy then falls to the floor. What the f***, someone shouted from behind the camera. You just slammed him on his face. The boy is then seen being handcuffed while lying face down on the pavement. Hes in pain, someone can be heard saying. New South Wales Police said an independent investigation has been launched into the incident and the officer involved placed on restricted duties while the review is carried out. Senior officers have met with the community and local elders and will keep them appraised throughout the process, a police spokesperson said. In the exchange leading up to the arrest, the officer says: You need to open up your ears. I heard you from over here, someone replies. I dont need to open up my ears. Then a voice off-camera says: Ill crack your f***** jaw bro. The officer then moves towards one of the boys and arrests him. Speaking about the incident, Mick Willing, the assistant commander of New South Wales, said officers had an exchange with a teenager, who was with four other males at the time. During the course of that dialogue, an officer approached the 17-year-old old male and effected the arrest of the male by using a leg sweep, placing him onto the ground. Mr Willing said the boy was taken to the police station in Surrey Hills, and his mother arrived shortly after. That male was conveyed to the Surrey Hills police station where his mother attended a short time later, the assistant commander said in a press conference, as seen in local media. The male complained of soreness to the face and the knee and was conveyed to St Vincents hospital where he was provided with treatment and later released. The video emerged while protests are taking place in the US and which have spread globally - after the death of George Floyd, a black American who died after a policeman knelt on his neck for minutes. We are aware of incidents that have taken place in the United States and other parts of the world, Mr Willing said. And were very aware of the sensitivities of what is occurring overseas. Mr Willing said he was concerned about what he has seen in the footage, adding: I am equally concerned about others who may use this footage and inflame it and turn it into something it is not. Thousands of protesters marched through downtown Sydney on Tuesday, voicing their solidarity with Americans demonstrating against the death of Floyd. The demonstrators in Australia's largest city chanted, "I can't breathe" some of the final words of both Floyd and David Dungay, a 26-year-old Aboriginal man who died in a Sydney prison in 2015 while being restrained by five guards. M Ps told of their anger as they were forced to queue in a conga line in order to vote on a proposal to end virtual voting. Politicians posted photos, videos and selfies on social media showing rope pens snaking through Westminster Hall where hundreds of MPs have to queue to take part in votes. MPs later approved the Governments motion to only allow them to vote in person by 261 votes to 163, majority 98. Earlier, Tory MP Tim Loughton said: So this new socially distanced voting system working well - hopefully we will get there before it's dark." He added: "So it has just taken 42 minutes to get everyone through the voting lobby when we usually have 8 minutes before the doors are locked and a lot of people are paired and not here today. "Would have preferred queueing for IKEA at least you could get a snack at the end. Off we go again." Conservative MP Nusrat Ghani quipped: "How very British. We could vote electronically and crack on with business in Parliament or we can stand in queues.'' Fellow Tory Michael Fabricant added: "Anyone watching the voting live on @BBCParliament would see what an embarrassing shambles it is.'' Labour's Neil Coyle wrote: Ridiculous already. Glad it is not raining. His colleague Tulip Siddiq added: "At least when you queue up at Greggs you get a doughnut at the end." Lib Dem Wera Hobhouse said: Surreal scenes whilst queueing to cast my vote in Parliament today...Thinking about the colleagues, and the constituents, who are not represented due to no fault of their own. This Government is making a mockery of democracy. Labours Kerry McCarthy said the queue was "stretching back to Portcullis House" while the SNP's Stewart McDonald called it "absurd". Meanwhile Louise Haigh posted a selfie adding: Queueing up outside Westminster to vote against having to vote in Westminster. Labours Ian Byrne, who was wearing a facemask to vote, said: The utter madness of this charade is that as well as putting lives at risk, it may result in a democratic process which excludes 100s of MPs shielding having the ability to participate. I hope Parliament brings Mogg to his senses and halts his batsh** ideology. Lib Dem Daisy Cooper joked: BREAKING: the MP queue for the mother of all Parliament is WORLD BREAKING (12 mins in and we havent even got out of the portcullis cafeteria yet...) Labour MP Rachael Maskell tweeted: "Voting is completely unsafe. This is how infections spread.'' A major revolt has erupted against Jacob Rees-Moggs plan to make all MPs vote in person in Parliament, despite protests that it will disenfranchise vulnerable MPs. Critics said the plan would lead to a one-kilometre queue to vote in Commons divisions. MPs returned to Westminster this morning after a recess and the Government dropping virtual proceedings. The Government argues that MPs must be present in the chamber for it to properly do its job. Former Tory cabinet minister Karen Bradley is leading a rebellion against Mr Rees-Moggs proposals. She has put forward amendments that would allow MPs unable to travel to Westminster to participate virtually. Labour and opposition parties have also tabled an amendment to retain remote voting. The hybrid system which allowed MPs to either attend Parliament or contribute via Zoom has been in place since the end of April. Mr Rees-Mogg argued that democracy would "once again flourish", having been "curtailed under the hybrid halfway house" which allowed MPs to take part in debates and vote remotely while up to 50 were in the chamber. He also insisted that the Government is working to establish how shielding MPs could continue to take part. One Tory MP described Mr Rees-Moggs proposal to end virtual voting as discriminatory this afternoon. Caroline Nokes told the Commons: As chair of the Women and Equalities Select Committee I have to endorse the comments of the shadow leader of the House. "These measures do not just look discriminatory they are discriminatory. Instantly a number of groups of protected characteristics are excluded those who are pregnant or new mothers, older members might be advised not to come here via public transport. "The underlying health conditions of either members or their families re to be frank none of our business. But they will be excluded. Labour MP Luke Pollard posted a video of himself in front of the pens saying: Just behind me is where hundreds of MPs are going to be going the Mogg conga. "Were going to be queueing. Its going to be like queueing for a ride at Alton Towers that just turns out to be a bit sh**. This is a terrible way of doing things. Terrorist who was going to kill shopkeeper in J&K gunned down Highly radicalised terrorist arrested in Punjab and not surprisingly link goes back to the UK Day after Category A terrorist was killed, 2 more gunned down today in J&K Terrorist trying to infiltrate from Pakistan killed by Indian Army India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, June 02: A terrorist who was trying to infiltrate into India from across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir has been killed by the Indian Army. The terrorist was killed at the Soyimouh village in Tral. This is incidentally the third encounter in Tral since Saturday. Meanwhile, security forces on Sunday busted a terrorist hideout in Kulgam. On receiving information regarding presence of militants in Akhal-Malwan forest belt of the south Kashmir district, a cordon and search operation was launched by security forces, a police spokesperson said. Pakistan army resorts to shelling along LoC WHO says Sars-Cov-2 is still a killer virus, rejects 'losing potency' claim | Oneindia News During the search, a hideout was busted in the forest area, he said. The spokesperson said a magazine of AK series, 30 rounds of bullets, a gas cylinder with stove, some kitchen utensils, medicines, sleeping bags, rucksack bags and other items were seized from the hideout. A case has been registered and investigation initiated to establish the full circumstances pertaining to the hideout, he said. Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. 0108263 License for publishing multimedia online Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 This summer, Greg Higgins, the chef and co-owner of pioneering farm-to-table restaurant Higgins, will add a new line to his distinguished cooking career: Food cart owner. By July, Higgins hopes to have Piggins, his ivy green and cedar-panelled cart, craned up onto the spacious plaza just outside the currently closed Oregon Historical Society, the James Beard Award winner told The Oregonian/OregonLive.com on Monday. The idea to expand seating outdoors came from Higgins wife, Barb, who suggested approaching Oregon Historical Society Executive Director Kerry Tymchuk about serving food on the museums plaza at the corner of Southeast Park Avenue and Madison Street. Higgins told Tymchuk he could put together a proposal to share with a historical society committee. Tymchuk, a Higgins fan, told him not to bother. Im the committee, Higgins recalls Tymchuk saying: A committee of one. And I say, yes. Higgins is one of the thousands of restaurant and bar owners across Oregon looking for novel ways to serve diners during the coronavirus crisis, a time when state-mandated social distancing requirements have left little room to seat diners, and when some customers remain wary of lingering indoors to eat. Others businesses are exploring plans to add seating to nearby roofs, parking lots or even shut down sections of city streets. The $50,000 cart, which is currently being built by PDX Cart Builders, will serve farm salads, house charcuterie boards and sandwiches by day, with a more ambitious lineup of Higgins-style mains -- grilled hanger steak with fingerling potatoes, a nightly Northwest seafood special -- joining the menu at night. The Piggins burger, with grass fed Carman ranch beef and a choice of cheese on a hearth baked bun, will be served throughout the day. At first, a Piggins server will stand outside with an iPad, leaving room for two cooks in the cart, which Higgins souped up with higher-end appliances, including air conditioning. Much of the prep work will be done at Higgins, which opened in 1994 around the corner in a building also owned by the historical society. Utilizing the Oregon Liquor Control Commissions new fast-tracked process for expanding alcohol service areas, some beer, wine and even cocktails could make their way to the Piggins patio from the Higgins bar. According to the historical societys Tymchuk, the project is a win-win for everybody involved. Higgins gets an outdoor patio to expand its seating and, when the historical society reopens, museum-goers get to visit a food cart from one of Portlands best-known chefs. Depending on how things go, both Higgins and Tymchuk say Piggins could stick around for a while. I would be happy to do it every summer, because like I said its such an iconic restaurant, and this is such a beautiful vista, with the mural of Lewis and Clark at the Sovereign Hotel and the First Congregational church, which at the time it was built in the 1870s was the tallest building in Portland, Tymchuk said. The park blocks are just so beautiful in the summer, so why not? A mock-up of the Piggins food cart, which will open on the Oregon Historical Society plaza by July 1. Any resemblance to the school colors of a certain public Oregon university are unintentional, chef Greg Higgins says.Courtesy of Higgins The Piggins moniker wasnt originally intended for a food cart, but rather a wood-fired pizzeria that Higgins and partner Paul Mallory were planning in 2008. Then the recession hit, and that restaurant -- which was to be built around a large wooden sculpture of a pig bursting through a brick wall that Higgins had bought after walking by a gallery in New York -- became out of the question, Higgins said. (After a January renovation, the pig statue now hangs in the Higgins dining room.) Though Higgins doesnt plan to allow dine-in service at the restaurant on June 12, the date Multnomah County is expected to enter the first phase of Oregon Gov. Kate Browns plan for reopening, the restaurant will introduce takeout service for curbside pickup this Friday. Options include a Higgins Happy Hour Kit, which serves four to six people and features Higgins salami, select artisan cheeses, duck liver moussette, focaccia, olives, spiced hazelnuts and condiments for $75. Piggins opening date is currently set for July 1, though with the cart set to be delivered on June 15, Higgins thinks there could be time for a few practice runs as soon as the third week of June. Under Oregons Phase 1 guidelines, the historical societys 4,000-square-foot plaza should have room for about 16 tables, spaced 7-8 feet apart. Given that this is coming out of this COVID mess, its an incredible opportunity for people to rethink what theyre doing and respond in a really positive way, Higgins said. My question is what happens when we reach fall and winter. -- Michael Russell, mrussell@oregonian.com, @tdmrussell Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. - The largest locust swarm in close to three decades is eviscerating farmlands in western and northern India, spreading panic among farmers getting ready to sow the countrys main summer crop.- The warming of the Indian Ocean due to climate change is cited as the main reason for the proliferation of locusts that are now ranging from the horn of Africa to the Arabian Peninsula to the Indian subcontinent.- Since the spring harvest was gathered before the locust plague, there has been no extensive crop damage, but such swarming is more likely in the future, prompting calls for preventive and containment strategies. ------------------------------------------------- Even as India grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, the country has been hit by a new pestilence in the form of large locust swarms. In the biggest attack in close to 30 years, millions of locusts are swarming across western and northern India, destroying farms and raising alarm ahead of the main summer cropping season. So far, 41 districts spread across five states Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have reported sightings of the insects, and many more districts could see swarm attacks in the next few weeks. Provincial governments in Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Telangana and Karnataka have sounded alerts. The central government has issued an unprecedented locust warning to 16 states and has readied a fleet of air force helicopters to spray pesticides to kill the insects. Despite the COVID-19 lockdown, locust control offices are working since April 11 with 50 spray machines in coordination with various district administration and state agriculture department, the farm ministry said in a statement. Tractor mounted sprayers and fire-tender vehicles deployed at various locations are being used in locust control, the ministry said. India has also ordered 60 new spraying machines from the United Kingdom that are scheduled to arrive soon, according to KL Gurjar, Deputy Director at Indias Locust Warning Organisation (LWO), a unit that functions under the agriculture ministry. Compared with the locust attacks in the Horn of Africa, the swarms in India are still relatively small and they are most likely to remain so, according to Keith Cressman, Senior Locust Forecasting Officer at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations. Nevertheless, several successive waves of small swarms are likely to appear throughout the coming months in Rajasthan, some of which could continue to move eastwards ahead of the advancing monsoon, he said. The locust sightings have been much earlier than usual in India, most likely because their population increased significantly in Pakistan and Afghanistan. This could spell trouble for India since the swarms can double back to the Thar Desert that straddles India and Pakistan and spawn the next generation of locusts in much larger numbers that could destroy the main summer crop, experts said. Much depends on the effectiveness of control operations and the rains and (summer) growing season this year, Cressman said. Despite panic reactions in some areas, the situation is not yet beyond control. The Locust Warning Organization of the Indian government is the oldest national locust program in the world. They are very well prepared with the necessary expertise and equipment for managing the desert locusts, Cressman said. In January, FAO first alerted officials and met with them to discuss anticipatory actions, which the government has been actively pursuing since then in preparing for the potential arrival of desert locust. Swarms are forming in the spring breeding areas and migrating east to the India-Pakistan border ahead of the monsoon rains, the FAO said in its latest locust update on May 27. Several successive waves of invasions can be expected until July in Rajasthan with eastward surges across northern India as far as Bihar and Odisha, followed by westward movements and a return to Rajasthan on the changing winds associated with the monsoon, The FAO bulletin said. These movements will cease as swarms begin to breed and become less mobile. The current upsurge was initiated by two cyclones in the western Indian Ocean in 2018, according to Cressman. We have noticed an increase in the number of cyclones in the past half dozen years. Cyclones are known to initiate desert locust plagues in the past, Cressman said. Locusts, a species of short-horned grasshoppers, have often been called piranhas of the skies. A single locust can eat its own body weight in food, which is about 2-2.5 grams. Since they fly in swarms, millions of individual insects operate as a gigantic eating machine that can decimate large areas in a matter of days. A swarm measuring 1 sq. km can eat as much food as 35,000 people in one day, according to FAOs Locust Information Service. Locusts lay eggs in sacks of 50 to 100 each. Locusts eggs are extremely resilient and have been known to lay dormant for a few weeks before hatching in favourable conditions. Once they hatch, the wingless larvae mature into adolescent hoppers in about two weeks, a time period that can be significantly shorter if theres moisture in the air. Once they grow wings, locusts form swarms that can cover 150 km in a single day. Typically, they reach sexual maturity in three months, which means there can be up to four generations every year. Since they can multiply by a factor of 20 to 100 every generations, swarms can number into billions in a matter of months. There was unprecedented rainfall in eastern African and the Middle East in the summer of 2018. . Locust eggs that were dormant in the deserts of these regions suddenly came to life. Initially, this hatching went undetected because it happened deep in the deserts. Soon the hatcheries in the deserts of Oman and the usually dry jungles of Kenya clustered together to form a super swarm. This swarm decimated vast areas in the Horn of Africa, triggering serious concerns of food security in the countries of the region. Soon, some of these locusts moved eastward on favourable winds to eventually arrive in northwest Pakistan and the Thar Desert. The swarming in Pakistan has led to the government in that country to declare a national emergency. Locusts thrive in humid conditions, and outbreaks often follow floods and cyclones, according to a report by FAO and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). Heavy rain leads to the growth of vegetation in arid areas, providing locusts with the conditions needed to develop and reproduce, the WMO said in the latest report. The proliferation of desert locusts is linked with weather dynamics of the Indian Ocean, the warmest of the five oceans in the world, according to Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology. The weather system in the Indian Ocean largely depends on a simple but unpredictable natural phenomenon called the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD). Warmer water temperatures in the Indian Ocean means warmer air, which tends to rise, much like hot air balloons. The warm water that rises from the ocean is full of moisture, some of which condenses as clouds and returns as rain. The Indian subcontinent is a dividing point between the eastern and western portions of the Indian Ocean. The IOD is calculated as the difference of temperatures between the two parts. When the western part is warmer than the east, it is called a positive dipole. The IOD has been warmer than usual, Koll said, leading to a large number of storms. The stronger the dipole, the stronger the rainfall and cyclones in the western half of the Indian Ocean. Historically, this dipole has stayed within safe limits. However, the difference crossed 2 degrees Celsius in 2018. It is expected to get worse and more frequent due to climate change. There was torrential rainfall in 2018 over eastern Africa and the Middle East. The rains were so heavy that lakes formed in the middle of deserts. Such heavy and unusually moist deserts provide the best breeding ground for desert locusts. If this trend of increasing frequency of cyclones continues, whether attributed to climate change or just a temporary anomaly in weather patterns, then desert locust outbreaks similar to what is occurring this year in eastern Africa will likely increase, Cressman said. This can affect India because any swarms that form in north Somalia in May and June can be carried by the winds across the Indian Ocean to Rajasthan for summer monsoon breeding. Low-pressure systems and several rainfall events in eastern Africa is likely to have triggered the locust outbreak, Koll said. He said that there is growing evidence that there is increased precipitation in dry regions due to climate change. This greening of arid areas could lead to increased pestilence. A recent scientific report published in the Nature journal has shown that there is increased rainfall in northwest India that has led to an increase in soil moisture and vegetation in the Thar Desert. Climate change might exert more substantial impacts on the ecosystem in arid and semi-arid regions than in the humid regions, owing to the high sensitivities and vulnerabilities to rainfall variations of the former, the researchers said. It is fortunate that the locust swarming in India happened after the spring harvest was gathered, according to a locust official in Rajasthan. Had this taken place at the usual time of July onwards, it could have spelt disaster for farmers who are already distressed due to disruptions resulting from the coronavirus crisis. We must prevent the further breeding of locusts so that they are unable to affect the kharif (summer) season, the official said. Given that the chances of locust proliferation are increasing in South Asia due to global warming and climate change, India must design appropriate strategies to combat the menace in the interest of food security, experts said. Preparedness is key to the fight against desert locust swarms, followed by rapid action, Cressman said. Regular and complete monitoring, timely information and reporting, and effective control operations are key elements in this strategy. China is trying to drive a wedge between the UK and US, a senior Republican senator has warned, amid concerns over the involvement of the Chinese company Huawei in Britains 5G network. Tom Cotton, who sits on the US Senates Armed Services Committee, told parliaments Defence Committee that US forces based in the UK would be at serious risk if the government continued to allow the technology company to work on the project. The senator also argued using Huawei in the telecommunications system was like relying on adversarial countries during the Cold War to build our submarines and tanks. His warning came as the UKs National Security Council (NSC) was set to meet for only the second time since the start of the coronavirus crisis to discuss China. The NSC meeting was set to examine the role of Huawei following reports that Boris Johnson, the prime minister, wanted to reduce its involvement in UK infrastructure to a minimum by 2023. Despite opposition from the US and members of the Conservative Party, Mr Johnson previously gave the company a green light to build non-core parts of the UKs 5G network in January. The NSC was also expected to discuss Chinas decision to impose a controversial new security law on Hong Kong which pro-democracy groups have warned will strip away the territorys autonomy. Mr Cotton said there was already concern in Washington about keeping American aircraft in the UK as the US focuses on a growing confrontation with Beijing in the Pacific, with some officials pointing out that stationing them elsewhere may be the safer option. The senator, who is a hawk on China, is among a group of Republican lawmakers who have introduced legislation that could block the deployment of F-35A aircraft to the UK. The motion sets out to prohibit the stationing of new aircraft at bases in host countries with at-risk vendors in their 5G or 6G networks. His comments came after Lisa Nandy, Labours shadow foreign secretary, accused the Conservatives of taking a naive approach to China over the past decade. The honest truth is that the reason the UK has a problem with the 5G network is because we lost our homegrown industry some time ago and we just havent invested here, Ms Nandy told The Independent. I think Huawei has exposed the dangers of that because it leaves you at the mercy of a trade war between two global superpowers for lack of any other alternatives. In February, the NSC designated Huawei as a high-risk vendor due to security concerns but agreed it could bid for non-core elements of the 5G network where UK agencies believe risks can be mitigated. Early suggestions that European manufacturing activity may have suffered its worst with its April collapse and could be recovering buoyed stock markets, along with fears of escalating tensions between the US and China not materialising as yet. The pan-European Stoxx-600 index finished up 1.1%, holding at its highest level since March 9 even as trading activity was dulled by market holidays for Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Norway. Growth-sensitive sectors beaten up by the coronavirus crisis led the gains, with travel and leisure stocks jumping 3%, while banks, miners, and oil and gas companies rose between 2% and 2.6%. While factory activity still contracted sharply across Europe in May, purchasing managers said April lows had passed as governments began to ease the tough coronavirus-led lockdown measures. After crashing to its lowest reading in the surveys nearly 22-year history in April, IHS Markits manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index - or PMI - for the eurozone rose to 39.4 from 33.4. New Irish figures show manufacturing output and business conditions, here, remained extremely weak in May. The latest monthly manufacturing PMI, from AIB, shows continued rapid falls in most areas, albeit with a recovery from Aprils meltdown. The Irish survey measured 39.2 for May, up from 36 in April but still well below the neutral 50-point mark which separates a sector in decline from one in growth. In essence, May showed the Irish manufacturing sector as being in a situation of slower deterioration rather than recovery. Staff hiring was up from April, but May still ranked as the second-fastest month for job culling in nearly 11 years. New orders rose very marginally, but remained extremely weak as lockdown measures remained. The data for May paint a downbeat picture of the sector for the third month in a row as the lockdowns associated with the coronavirus pandemic continue to depress activity, said AIB chief economist Oliver Mangan. "The Irish data are in line with global trends. The flash readings for the eurozone, UK and US manufacturing PMIs also saw modest rises [in May]The indices should continue to move higher as lockdown restrictions are eased and economic activity picks up again," he said. UK manufacturers have called on that countrys government for radical help to survive the crisis, while US numbers pushed off an 11-year low. Investors also took relief as US President Donald Trump left the phase-one trade deal with China intact even as he began the process of ending special treatment for Hong Kong in response to Chinas plans to impose new security legislation in the territory. Global markets kicked off June on a positive note, with the Stoxx-600 recovering nearly 32% since March lows as hopes of a Covid-19 vaccine, easing lockdowns and expectations of more stimulus from the ECB, which is set to meet on Thursday, helped improve risk appetite. - additional reporting Reuters Klafke said even city officials havent been immune to attempting to combat the fear of the unknown factors of the pandemic. From himself looking to protect the city through his job to staff trying to do their jobs to help the public even as theyre working from home, they tried to tackle it by rushing to get information out to the public and putting safety measures in place. All of that stuff causes stress because of the unknowns, Klafke said. I think the biggest stressor in all of this is not having a definite deadline People who deal with stress or anxiety want closure, they want definite answers, and youre not getting that right now. Baraboo Police Chief Mark Schauf didnt have specific data to note numbers may have gone up, but said the pandemic shutdown has created a concern over how to treat people in need of help with limited resources. Some facilities wont accept patients. People experiencing an episode had to suddenly undergo more screening to see if they have symptoms of the novel coronavirus. Officers suddenly have to sit in a vehicle for an extended amount of time to transport people to Winnebago Mental Health Institute in Oshkosh. Those with substance abuse issues are taken to Madison. Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Scott Golden said Tuesday he would welcome the Republican National Convention in Nashville. He said, "An article in today's Politico mentioned Nashville as a possible relocation site for the 2020 Republican National Convention. While we understand that hosting a national convention has many moving parts, all Tennesseans would be honored to host the President and the Tennessee Republican Party stands ready to assist the convention team. "Tennessee overwhelmingly supports President Trump and everyone here would do their best to ensure a safe and successful convention. Regardless of which city is ultimately selected, the TNGOP and our delegates are looking forward to an in-person convention and the renomination of President Donald J. Trump." A black woman was subject to a torrent of racist abuse in London by white thugs described as 'beyond cowardly' by police officers. The victim, aged in her mid-20s, was walking alone on Hampstead Heath in north-west London when the four men approached her. She was left shocked and upset when they launched a racial attack near the Highgate Men's Pond just before 9pm on Sunday. Two of the suspects police are looking for are pictured after a woman was racially abused on Hampstead Heath Detectives described the attack as 'beyond cowardly' which has left the woman shaken and nervous to be outside alone. Met Police are appealing for help to identify the four males. DS Sam O'Callaghan, investigating, said: 'For four men to verbally attack a lone female is beyond cowardly. The incident has left the victim shaken and nervous of being outside alone. 'If you can name any of the males shown in the images, or if you witnessed the incident but haven't yet spoken with police, please contact us immediately.' Pictured: The males that police are looking to identify after a racist incident in north-west London The victim managed to capture footage of the group as they walked away. Police released CCTV images of the four men they wish to identify and speak with. One white man is seen walking with his hood up while another appears to be smiling and glancing towards the camera. ExSight Ventures Leads First Close Financing Round, alongside InFocus Capital, to Support Pre-clinical Development of Sustained Release Biologic and Small Molecule Therapeutics; Visionary Ventures Leads Second Close Financing Re-Vana Therapeutics Ltd, a privately-held specialty therapeutic and drug delivery company developing sustained-release therapeutics for significant sight-threatening ocular diseases, today announced that it has closed $3.25 million in pre-series A financing. The pre-series A round was oversubscribed by more than $1 million and closed in two tranches. The first tranche of $2.08 million was led by ExSight Ventures, with participation from InFocus Capital Partners and existing U.K. investors, including TechStart Ventures, Clarendon Fund Managers and Qubis Ltd. Visionary Ventures led the second closing round of $1.17 million, with additional investment from existing investors. With the second closing, Re-Vana became the first company in which all three specialized U.S. ophthalmic funds have invested in the same company. The proceeds will advance proof-of-concept development for Re-Vana's proprietary photocrosslinked EyeLief and OcuLief biodegradable technologies for the delivery of biologic and small molecule therapeutics, as well as enable expansion of the company's research and development team. To date, Re-Vana has achieved at least 4 months sustained release of an anti-VEGF drug with greater than 50% drug loading in its implants. In conjunction with this financing, Re-Vana's board of directors and scientific advisory teams have been further enhanced. The board of directors has been strengthened by the appointment of Garrett Hamontree of Visionary Ventures and James Murray of ExSight Ventures, as well as board observers Robert Avery, MD, of Visionary Ventures and Ron Weiss, MD, of InFocus Capital Partners. Dr. Avery of Visionary Ventures will join Firas Rahhal, MD, and Michael Nissen, MD, both of ExSight Ventures, on Re-Vana's scientific advisory board. "Financing from new and existing investors during this challenging time is a testament to the potential of Re-Vana's technologies for sustained delivery of both biologic and small molecule therapeutics," said Michael O'Rourke, President and Chief Executive Officer, Re-Vana Therapeutics. "We are especially fortunate to have three highly respected, U.S. ophthalmic-focused investors join our board. Their proven knowledge and expertise in ophthalmology will be an invaluable addition to Re-Vana as we initiate preclinical development and expand our strategic partnerships." Re-Vana is a technology spin-out from Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland. The company is developing sustained release ophthalmic therapeutics that can reduce the frequency of intravitreal injections required to treat a wide range of retinal diseases, including neovascular age-related macular degeneration. The Re-Vana platform has the potential to deliver at least 4 to 6 months sustained delivery of a large molecule biologic, including anti-VEGF therapies. Re-Vana's technology could spur a new generation of glaucoma medications that may reduce or eliminate the need for eye drops by delivering small molecules for 6 to 9 months or longer. In addition, Re-Vana's technology may enable the development of a new class of therapeutic products built on the company's proprietary photocrosslinked sustained-release technology. Re-Vana has also secured the rights to a novel nanoparticle polymer-based drug delivery technology for ophthalmic applications. About Re-Vana Therapeutics Re-Vana Therapeutics Ltd, founded in 2016 as a spin-out from Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, is a specialty ocular therapeutic and drug delivery Company with the main office located in Belfast and a U.S. office, Re-Vana Therapeutics, Inc., based in Tampa, Florida. Re-Vana is focused on the development of internal therapeutics as well as external strategic collaborations with industry. In 2019, Re-Vana also secured funding from Innovate U.K. totaling more than $400K to support the development of a sustained release drug. Additionally in 2020, the Company entered into a strategic feasibility collaboration with a leading global pharmaceutical company for a novel therapeutic. For more information, visit www.revanatx.com. EyeLief and OcuLief are trademarks of Re-Vana Therapeutics Ltd. About ExSight Ventures ExSight Ventures invests in early-stage companies with innovative and impactful ophthalmic diagnostic and treatment solutions. The firm consists of two accomplished retinal surgeons and a team of investment professionals that have partnered to address the need for funding early-stage ophthalmic focused companies. The firm seeks investments in biotechnology, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and software solutions in ophthalmology. www.exsightventures.com About Visionary Ventures Visionary Ventures is a leading venture capital fund investing in drugs and devices for the eye. The firm has over 75 Key Opinion Leader Ophthalmologist/OD investors/advisors who provide unique insight into the best opportunities for the eye. By building a team of specialists, professionals, and industry leaders at the forefront of the process, Visionary is able to leverage a unique advantage to our venture investments. The firm typically invests in later stages of a company's growth but will invest in pre-clinical opportunities, like Re-Vana, with exceptional potential. Visionary is investing out of its second fund. www.visionaryvc.com About InFocus Capital InFocus Capital Partners is a venture capital firm focused on investing in innovative technologies in the ophthalmology market. The investment managers are uniquely positioned to source, understand, and evaluate ophthalmic investments due to their medical expertise, professional business development, and investment experience. InFocus founders are practicing physicians with deep venture experience, knowledge, and professional access. For more information, visit www.infocuscapitalpartners.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005114/en/ Contacts: Media Contact: Michele Gray Gray Communications, LLC. michele_gray@me.com +1 917 449 9250 A mass extinction which played a role in the development of human life hundreds of millions of years ago may have been caused by climate change damaging the ozone layer, according to research. Scientists have found a major extinction event in the Late Devonian period could have been sparked by a catastrophic thinning of the ozone layer which allowed damaging levels of ultraviolet radiation to reach Earth. John Marshall, a professor of Earth science at the University of Southampton, suggested the findings had concerning implications for the worlds current climate crisis. Our research suggests the Earth has a natural internal process triggered by a warming climate that can destroy the ozone layer, a serious warning for our own period of climate change, Professor Marshall said. The Late Devonian extinction is thought to have played a major role in the development of vertebrate life, including humans, through the extinction of the first four-legged tetrapods. Recommended Sir David Attenborough calls for renewed focus on climate change The University of Southampton scientists analysed evidence from fossilised plants before and after the extinction event which showed what was happening in the atmosphere at the time. They found parts of some of the spores taken from the fossils were malformed, suggesting the DNA of their cells had been damaged by ultraviolet radiation, potentially because the Earths protective ozone shield was down when they were formed. This appears to have caused a number of important plant groups to quickly become extinct and led to the collapse of the forest ecosystem, disrupting other plant groups and creating a different ecosystem in the process. Professor Marshall said other scientists had shown high temperatures could increase the transportation of water vapour which carries carbon compounds such as chlorine higher into the atmosphere. These compounds then help to break down ozone molecules once they near the ozone layer. This produces a positive feedback loop because a collapsing terrestrial ecosystem will release a flush of nutrients into the oceans, which can cause a rapid increase in algae. So the more the ozone layer is damaged, the more plants die, and the more ozone-damaging compounds are released, Professor Marshall said. He added: Later on, the ozone layer will naturally recover as the climate cools and the algae helps remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Professor Marshall said his team believed there should now be a focused effort on understanding the links between global warming and the production and atmospheric transport of carbon compounds which can have a potentially damaging effect on the ozone layer. Their study was published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Science Advances. For these Scarborough arts students, learning from home features virtual visits with virtuosos. The online workshops came about after Alice Walter who teaches English, drama and arts management at R.H. King Academy spoke with the education manager at Tarragon Theatre about how disappointed everyone was about not being able to offer students the same opportunities as last semester. In the fall, students went to the theatre, saw shows and their school hosted performers for sessions on topics such as songwriting. But after in-person classes were cut in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers brainstormed ideas about how to salvage those experiences for teens in the second semester. All of these things happen all the time. Every year, we try to do all of these enrichment opportunities, said Walter, who is an assistant curriculum leader for the school in drama, dance and the specialist high skills major in arts and culture. We talked about how disappointing this is for the kids after 75 students got to see Tarragons production of YAGA last fall, but shows were cancelled for this years students, she said. But those talks led to newfangled lessons virtual ones. Instead of seeing a show, students got the chance to virtually meet and talk to YAGA playwright/director Kat Sandler and award-winning actor Seana McKenna. Since then, teachers have arranged other Google meets virtual meetings with photographers, dancers, brand managers and even a Chanel visual merchandising executive from Australia. Artists are not doing the work they were doing before. They are trying to create content and a new space for themselves but at the same time, they have more time so they can do more with students, said Walter, who has a small budget for speakers but said most dont take a fee. Sandler and McKenna were up first, and students led the interview, with interviewing skills part of one of the units in their arts management class. Each teen had to present a question and they were very challenging and interesting and saw Kat and Seana more than once say let me think about that, Walter said. It was so gratifying. The kids were complimented on their professionalism. They got so much out of seeing them. Walter added she received a number of emails from her students saying what a great session it was. They asked about the importance of an arts education, developing a personal creative identity through the arts and what Sandler thinks about when shes writing. It upped the stakes for the class it was a bit of an event, Walter said. All (students) had their cameras on. Often, Im talking to a screen full of just circles with an initial in it. They were up and prepared, which gave it that formality and excitement. The hour-long session also saw students talking about quarantine, and Tarragons Danielle Bourgon who talked about how it has blindsided the arts community, losing that feeling of gathering that you have in theatre, that you have in school, and how important that immediacy is, how important that sharing is. Walter said the guests who are video-visiting have been generous and flexible and the kids have benefited. Would these visits have been better in person? No question. However, she added, many of them wouldnt have happened. Grade 12 arts management student Shaheer Saif, said he was blown away when he saw YAGA last semester, especially by the small cast. I believe three or four people, and I was surprised they could make such an incredible show. Saif, who is attending Ryerson this fall to pursue a fine arts degree in new media, was thrilled to help introduce the virtual workshop and the chance to speak to McKenna afterwards. He asked her about the different roles she played in YAGA and told her that her acting blew my mind. Each of the roles she played were completely different from each other. I didnt think they would meet with our class, he added. It was incredible. This was the perfect learning opportunity. The class asked fantastic questions, and it got me to understand the experience and the time that it took to put together the play. We had the opportunity to ask questions and get behind the scenes and learn the mindset of these important characters. Syracuse, N.Y. As Onondaga County has expanded its novel coronavirus testing to anybody, one result has popped up: About half of the people testing positive recently had no symptoms of Covid-19. The large percentage of so-called asymptomatic people has been discovered elsewhere, and now its been confirmed in Onondaga County. Its good news, of course, when people dont get sick, but having the virus and not knowing it is bad news for everybody else. It explains one of the reasons that this virus has been difficult to control, said Dr. Helen Jacoby, an infectious disease specialist at St. Josephs Health Hospital. With some infections, only sick people transmit it, but with Covid-19 someone who is asymptomatic can still go ahead and spread the virus to other people. Asymptomatic transmission is the Achilles heel of Covid-19 pandemic control, an article in the New England Journal of Medicine said last week. Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon has said several times recently that the county is finding large numbers of asymptomatic cases after launching universal testing. Nursing home owners have been instructed to test workers twice a week, and mobile testing labs are driving around the county testing anyone willing to have a swab slid up their nose. Uncovering asymptomatic cases is a good sign, McMahon said: Those people can be isolated, and their contacts quarantined, so the county can cut off what was an invisible chain of transmission. We never would have even known about these people, McMahon said at a recent briefing. Its not clear yet why some people dont have symptoms when they test positive. It could be they have stronger immune systems or are initially exposed to low levels of the virus. It could also be that they will develop symptoms days after the test, but without repeated followup tests its not clear how many people are presymptomatic rather than asymptomatic. Local doctors arent surprised by these results. Thats common in many infectious diseases. For example, with polio, more than 70% of children show no symptoms and another 29% show mild symptoms that disappear in a couple of weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A fraction of 1% are paralyzed. If you look at most viral diseases, the majority of people who get infected do not have symptoms or they have symptoms so mild it doesnt bring them to seek medical care, said Dr. Stephen Thomas, head of the infectious disease unit at Upstate Medical University. Just because they dont have symptoms doesnt mean they cant take part in advancing transmission in a community. A variety of studies have shown high numbers of asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus, named SARS-CoV-2. Nearly half of all infected people on the infamous Diamond Princess cruise ship were asymptomatic, as were eight of every 10 people infected on an Antarctica cruise. Widespread testing in Iceland suggested that half of all people who tested positive had no symptoms. The role of asymptomatic people in passing along the illness isnt completely clear. On one hand, people with symptoms are more likely to pass on the respiratory virus simply because of the respiratory symptoms themselves. What are the types of things that could increase the amount of virus in the air: coughing, sneezing, runny nose, Thomas said. It stands to reason if somebody is asymptomatic theyre not coughing and theyre not sneezing and they dont have a runny nose -- then mechanically they would be less likely to transmit to another person. Behaviorally, though, asymptomatic people could be important spreaders precisely because they dont know they have it. Rather than nursing their illness at home under an isolation order, asymptomatic people are more likely to be out and about, spreading the virus unknowingly. They might also be less likely to practice social distancing and wear masks, even though theyre the people who most need to wear them. Thats trouble because you have these people walking around that dont have symptoms, and if theyre not following strict social distancing, theyre more likely to pass on the disease to other people, said Brian Leydet, a professor infectious disease and epidemiology at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. People who have the virus can test positive for 14 days or longer, but its not clear how long they remain infectious, Thomas said. County health Commissioner Dr. Indu Gupta said recently the high percentage of asymptomatic carriers makes it hard to track the virus. Asymptomatic cases are a concern to us because we dont know how many of us could have it, Gupta said. It raises a concern about what is the rate of transmission by these individuals who are not having symptoms. That rate depends upon how infectious an asymptomatic person is compared to someone whos actively sick. That isnt well-established; the virus has only been known for six months, and research is ongoing. In early April, the World Health Organization said there had been no confirmed cases of transmission from someone who was asymptomatic. Research since then has indicated asymptomatic transmission might be substantial. The New England journal study, of a nursing home in Washington state, indicated that asymptomatic persons are playing a major role in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Further muddying the waters, someone who is asymptomatic the day theyre tested might develop symptoms later and be known as presymptomatic. The nursing home study found that of the 48 residents who tested positive, 27 had no symptoms. Of those 27, however, 24 developed symptoms an average of four days later. If someone comes in off the street, and I swab them and find evidence of the coronavirus, that could mean a number of different things, Jacoby said. It could mean they have an infection and will never become symptomatic. It could be theyre going to get symptoms in a few days, so theyre presymptomatic. It could also be they had the infection a month ago and have completely recovered, but the signs of the virus arent completely gone yet. Even the word symptom can be tricky, Jacoby said. Symptoms are in the eye of the person who has the illness, she said. If Im sniffly a tiny bit, I dont consider it a symptom. Experts agree that the discovery of a high percentage of asymptomatic cases make it more critical that people wear masks and follow social distancing measures, because nobody can be sure they dont have the virus. Its what weve been saying all along, that this is why people have to listen to the public health authorities when they talk about wash your hands and physically distance from people and wear a mask when you cant, Thomas said. MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Where is coronavirus in NY? See map, charts of COVID-19 cases, deaths, hospitalizations More than half of people who tested positive for coronavirus were symptom-free: McMahon Onondaga County up to 137 coronavirus deaths, 4 mobile testing sites coming this week IAM Sold Property Auctions, who run the Munster, Connacht, Leinster and Northern Ireland Property Auctions, continue to have success via their online auction platform, despite the current restrictions. The company is still taking entries for their online auctions, which continue to run frequently throughout Ireland and Northern Ireland. Company director Patrick Convey said as a company we are in a unique position to be able to handle some of the current challenges facing the industry. Our online platform allows buyers to bid for the comfort of their own home, as well as allowing contracts to be exchanged online making the transaction as easy as possible. Mr Convey went on to say we continue to deliver impressive results for our clients and remain confident that the auction route will continue to be a popular option in this changing environment. The next online auction date is June 11 and features land and a cottage in County Limerick. Flean More, Glin Offered at bids over 65,000 in partnership with DNG Declan Woulfe. 30.64 acres of forestry and agricultural land with road frontage. Dromaher, Pallaskenry Offered at bids over 115,000 in partnership with Rowan Fitzgerald Auctioneers. This well laid out two bed cottage is ideally located just a minutes drive from the village of Pallaskenry and is built on a two acre site. Development lands, Foynes Offered at bids above 110,000 in partnership with West Property Group. Prime development opportunity situated in this most popular location on the outskirts of Foynes. The property comprises two development sites, the first comprising 6 acres with full planning permission for a 28 bedroom hotel. The second site comprises 12 acres with an expired full planning permission for 38 dwellings. There are an additional 5 acres that provides provision for an access road with the entire holding extending to 22.7 acres. Both sites offer extensive views over the Shannon estuary and the sites can be purchased in 1 or 2 lots. The lands offer extensive potential with numerous alternative uses, the lands may be suitable for once off housing or multiple housing units subject to the necessary planning consent. The Munster Property Auction can be contacted on 021 234 9696 or for a full list of properties please visit their website www.munsterpropertyauction.ie I will continue to strive for peace, Ill continue to pursue peace, seek and interest of our people. Im open, I will always call that we should talk about how to move things forward. We cannot turn back the hands of the clock. So there are certain things we just must accept and see how we can move forward and build on, where we are. Up to 15,000 kilometres of the countrys sandy beaches could be lost by 2100 unless erosion is tackled. Batemans Bay, Australia Environmental defender Paul May is worried. He is worried about climate change. He is worried about a lack of government funding for environmental initiatives. And now he is also worried that the coronavirus pandemic will slow down vital action to protect Australias beaches. Were a bit worried we had the bushfires, and now this latest crisis with coronavirus, the bottom line will suffer, May said from his home in South Durras, a small town near Batemans Bay on the New South Wales (NSW) south coast. As a result of COVID-19, the 2020 UN Climate Summit has already been cancelled, while US President Donald Trump has taken the opportunity to complete his rollbacks of emission regulations despite research indicating a correlation between air pollution and coronavirus deaths. May is a founding member of the South Durras branch of Landcare, a grassroots movement set up across Australia in the late 1980s to manage environmental issues in local communities. He knows that when governments face financial issues, funding for environmental programmes are often cut because they seem like easy targets. The things that get defunded first will be programmes for the environment and the arts, he said. Things people think we can survive without. They take our beaches for granted. The Australian Coastal Councils Association agrees that the country must act as soon as possible to mitigate the impact of erosion. What were looking at now is a serious downturn in tourism in Australia with coronavirus, Executive Director, Alan Stokes, told Al Jazeera. But if we lose our beaches, that would be disastrous. Natures defence Sandy beaches are many nations first line of defence against storms and floods. Protecting them is especially crucial in urban areas, where beaches are unable to shift inland due to infrastructure and homes. The sea approaches coastal homes at Collaroy in Sydney in February [James Gorley/EPA] Beaches do erode naturally and change with storm events, but climate change means that they are altering faster than ever before. New research reported in the journal Nature Climate Change shows that Australia could lose 15,000km of beachfront by 2100. Beaches are naturally dynamic environments, explained Hannah Power, a senior lecturer at the University of Newcastles School of Environment and Life Sciences. They have coped with changes before, but one of the big challenges now is that weve built a lot of cities around coastal regions. The problem, Power explains, is that humans like to live by the beach, and often this means there is no buffer zone between development and the beach itself. The beach cannot transgress inland as it normally would, leading to dramatic scenes such as those on Collaroy-Narrabeen Beach in Sydney in 2016 where pools and houses were left hanging over sharp sand cliffs following a major storm. Erosion can happen very quickly in a storm, Power says. With storms, sand is transported into the offshore region onto sandbars. When conditions calm down, smaller waves transport sand back onshore. But it takes 10 times longer to bring the sand back than it does to displace it. In developed areas, [what happens] will depend on how we mitigate erosion and what climate change path we take. This means we need to do something immediately. The importance of dunes Power says sand dunes are like savings accounts that the beach can dip in to when there is a big weather event. May describes them as a balance zone. May was involved in the establishment of Dunecare Landcares predecessor in South Durras in the 1980s after storms devastated NSWs beaches and dunes. Dunes were seen as a no-mans land, May explains. No one looked after them. Dunecare began planting local vegetation on the dunes to secure them, and thanks to their proactive response, the beaches are now in comparatively good shape. With people like May, South Durras is fortunate. Many areas are not so lucky. Most beach upkeep is funded and managed by local councils and while volunteer groups like Landcare are crucial, their funding comes and goes on government whims. Volunteer-run programmes also rely heavily on the involvement of residents, meaning that more remote areas such as Victorias Gippsland region, devastated by this summers bushfires, receive less attention. Additionally, some residents are torn between protecting beaches and ensuring their financial investments in homes are safe. This is an emotional issue, Power comments. Its really tied into Australian culture that we spend time at the beach, we want to live close to the coast. Almost every major Australian town is on an estuary or river. May agrees and says people need to realise that these environments are not something that can be taken for granted. The beach is an integral part of Australian life and many dream of owning a house by the sea [File: Edgar Su/Reuters] There are still definitely some selfish attitudes you know, no coastal blocks good unless its got a view. Historically some local councils even used to allow building on sand dunes, such as on [Queenslands] Gold Coast. Hard decisions Power says there is still time to act to prevent worse damage to our beaches but the gap is closing fast. The best thing we can do would be to take clear, significant, defined action to reduce our carbon emissions, she argues. But because there is momentum in the climate system, we will see sea-level rise even if we could turn off all carbon emissions tomorrow so we need to plan effectively. Community-based decision making is key, and difficult options such as planned retreat where a town moves inland away from the coast could be considered in some areas. We could do nothing, for example, which is very affordable but has very significant consequences, Power said. We could do planned retreat. We could undertake soft engineering such as beach nourishment, putting sand onto the beach from somewhere else to replace that lost to erosion. Or we could do hard engineering like sea walls. Coastal erosion defences at Port Beach in Perth last month as Western Australia braced for its wildest autumn weather in years [Richard Wainwright/EPA] Communities at urban locations like Collaroy-Narrabeen Beach or Port Beach in Fremantle, Western Australia, will have to make serious decisions fast. Rising sea temperatures are responsible for increasingly extreme severe weather events and that means wave energy is that much greater, said the Australian Coastal Councils Associations Stokes. At Collaroy-Narrabeen, for example, we saw a 100m-wide (109 yard-wide) beach reduced down to 25m. Meanwhile, Port Beach has been so severely eroded that it has threatened buildings. More than 650,000 Australian dollars ($439,720) has been allocated by the state and city governments to build a rock wall as an interim measure to protect infrastructure around Port Beach. Western Australian Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said this would buy time to develop and implement a long-term approach. However, many are worried that government responses are lacking both speed and sufficient funding. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is predicting up to a 0.8m sea level rise by 2100. We need to seriously start planning now on how were going to respond to that, Stokes said. The federal government says under the constitution, this is a state problem, but the state government doesnt have the funds the commonwealth has the funds, the states have got the power and the councils have got the problem. Volunteers plant new vegetation to preserve land dunes at Curl Curl in Sydney last year. Experts say dunes are natures defence [Landcare/Supplied] University of Newcastles Power acknowledges that hard decisions will have to be made. Everyone wants to maintain their sandy beaches as they are but we cant realistically do this everywhere But if the sea level rises even just half a metre, over 50,000 homes could be exposed across Australia. LONDON, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Highlights Decisive action taken to safeguard employees and local communities during the COVID-19 pandemic Santa Rita remains fully operational with minimal disruptions to supply chain First quartile C1 cost performance of US$3.29 /lb Ni achieved in Q1 2020, net of by-products Second and third shipments complete; more than 30,000 tonnes of nickel concentrate produced to date Updated Mineral Resource (underground) increased to 168 Mt at 0.59% NiS, 0.19% Cu Completion of an underground PEA expected in Q3 Production on track to reach nominal annualised capacity in 2020 Atlantic Nickel ("Atlantic Nickel" or the "Company") and Appian Capital Advisory LLP ("Appian") are pleased to announce an update to both the operations and underground resource of the Santa Rita nickel sulphide mine ("Santa Rita" or the "Mine") located in Bahia, Brazil. Protecting our people and the community As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, our priority remains the safety of our people and the communities in which we operate. Atlantic Nickel has adjusted working practices to protect employees: including enhanced screening, daily body temperature checks on every individual that enters the site, additional PPE equipment and hand sanitizer, and implementation of social distancing measures on the premises and on transport. In addition, we have been working alongside authorities to support the roll-out of robust mitigating actions in the communities in which we operate, including the acquisition of 6,000 units of rapid tests and a dedicated infrastructure to accommodate COVID-19 frontline health professionals. So far, these measures have been effective at limiting the spread of the virus though we continue to monitor their effectiveness to ensure our people and communities remain safe. Operational update Santa Rita remains fully operational despite the challenges caused by COVID-19. The Company has produced over 30,000 dry metric tonnes of nickel concentrate to date and is on target to ramp up to 105,000 tonnes by the end of 2020. The Brazilian government has declared mining an essential business activity and to date, there have been no material disruptions to our supply chains. Most of Atlantic Nickel's suppliers and contractors are based in Brazil. Restrictions to travel have caused minor delays to the receipt of certain parts sourced internationally and some on-site collaboration with consultants based outside of Brazil, though altogether have had a limited impact on operations. Appian has worked with Atlantic Nickel's management team to resume production with a revised operating strategy and optimised processes. This has allowed a safe, capital efficient restart that has taken advantage of the existing infrastructure. Costs continue to decline as the operation ramps up. In the first quarter of 2020, C1 production costs were US$3.29/lb Ni net of by-products placing the Santa Rita in the first quartile of the industry cost curve. Adapting to the challenges caused by COVID-19, Atlantic Nickel has been preparing and conducting virtual site visits to foster continued interaction and collaboration with external partners and counterparties. Parties interested in learning more can reach out to either Atlantic Nickel at comunicacao@atlanticnickel.com or Appian at info@appiancapitaladvisory.com. Marketing update Following the announcement of our first shipment of concentrate in January 2020, the Company has successfully completed its second and third shipments ahead of the mine's original plan of commencing operations by the end of Q1 2020. Market demand for nickel sulphide concentrate has remained strong throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Resource update A phased, comprehensive drilling programme that started in Q2 2019 has confirmed the exceptional upside potential of the mineral endowment, increasing Mineral Resources materially since the acquisition by Appian in 2018. The updated Underground Mineral Resource estimate is shown in the table below, reflecting 167.8 Mt of total resources (Indicated + Inferred) grading 0.59% NiS, 0.19% Cu and 0.01% CoS. This resource is the continuation of the orebody and is defined immediately below the open pit resource of 59.1 Mt grading 0.31% NiS, 0.11% Cu and 0.01% CoS and has the potential to extend Santa Rita's mine life to over 26 years. The Company is conducting additional drilling in 2020 intended to further grow and define the underground resource. Class kt NiS (%) Cu (%) CoS (%) Pd (ppm) Pt (ppm) Au (ppm) Indicated 54,590 0.61 0.20 0.01 0.04 0.11 0.07 Inferred 113,192 0.58 0.18 0.01 0.05 0.10 0.07 The Qualified Persons for the Mineral Resource Estimate are Timothy O. Kuhl , RM SME (MTS, formerly with Wood), Douglas Reid , P.Eng. (Wood) and Dr Ted Eggleston , RM SME (MTS). , RM SME (MTS, formerly with Wood), , P.Eng. (Wood) and Dr , RM SME (MTS). Mineral Resources are reported within conceptual stope outlines constructed using Datamine MRO (Mineable Reserves Optimizer, minimum mineable unit 45 x 45 x 25 m , US$30 /t NSR cut-off). , /t NSR cut-off). Mineral Resources are inclusive of Mineral Reserves. Underground Mineral Resources are exclusive of open pit Mineral Resources. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Metal prices used for the Mineral Resource Estimate are: US$6.50 /lb nickel, US$3.00 /lb copper and US$20.00 /lb cobalt. /lb nickel, /lb copper and /lb cobalt. Metal recoveries are: NiS=83%; Cu=70%; Co=29%. Net Smelter Return (NSR) cut-off of US$30.00 /t was used for the Mineral Resource Estimate. /t was used for the Mineral Resource Estimate. Totals may not sum due to rounding. Atlantic Nickel expects to complete a preliminary economic assessment for the underground expansion in Q3 2020 and looks forward to providing further details in due course. Paulo Castellari, CEO Atlantic Nickel & Appian Brazil commented: "COVID-19 is having a far-reaching impact on every country and industry sector. The health and safety of our people and local communities remains our foremost priority, and the decisive action we have taken during this difficult time has ensured our wellbeing while allowing continuity of operations. "Following Santa Rita's re-start, I am delighted by the continued strong operational performance of the asset, which is testament to the ability of the Atlantic Nickel team, backed by Appian's expertise and business model. Having returned the Mine to production ahead of plan, we continue to optimize costs and identify opportunities for operational improvements and further expansion. A sizable underground mineral resource has been defined and we look forward to announcing a preliminary economic assessment for its development later this year. I am very excited about our ability to consistently meet and exceed stakeholders' expectations, which include our customers, suppliers, employees, communities and shareholders. Atlantic Nickel is now positioned as a low-cost, long-life operation with significant the potential for further expansion, and I look forward to providing updates on the PEA in due course." About Appian Appian Capital Advisory LLP is the investment advisor to long-term value focused private equity funds that invest solely in mining and mining related companies. Appian is a leading investment advisor in the metals and mining industry, with global experience across South America, North America, Australia and Africa and a successful track record of supporting companies and the advancement of their projects into production. Appian acquired Atlantic Nickel, the 100% owner of Santa Rita, in 2018. About Atlantic Nickel Atlantic Nickel is the owner and operator of Santa Rita, an open-pit nickel-copper-cobalt sulphide operation located in Bahia, Brazil. Santa Rita is a fully permitted, past-producing nickel mine currently undergoing an operational restart. The Mine benefits from US$1bn of prior investment and has an estimated production capacity of 6.5 Mtpa. One of the largest open pit nickel sulphide mines in the world, Santa Rita is a high-quality asset operating with a first quartile cost position. It is one of a few remaining nickel sulphide mines globally that can offer additional supply towards the production of Class I nickel products and so has exposure to the high-growth potential of the electric vehicle industry. For further information: Finsbury +44 (0)20 7251 3801 Charles O'Brien, Ruban Yogarajah, Richard Crowley Appian Capital Advisory +44 (0)20 7004 0951 info@appiancapitaladvisory.com Michael Scherb, Adam Fisher Universities will be expected to help pay for the quarantine of international students if the states, Commonwealth and tertiary sector can agree on a plan for their return to Australia in the wake of the COVID-19 shutdown. Premier Daniel Andrews said on Tuesday that he was hopeful of getting "international education back on its feet soon", but that it would have to be subject to some form of quarantine for overseas students. Victoria wants international students back soon, but Daniel Andrews warns the tertiary sector must help with the quarantine effort. Credit:Getty The Victorian opposition has proposed that the state government pay for hotel quarantine for international students, but the Premier said he expected a "partnership" between government and institutions. Mr Andrews said he could not put a date on the return of the economically vital sector. Ontario will remain under a state of emergency for another month, but Premier Doug Ford stresses that does not mean that reopening is on hold. As about 40 people rallied outside the legislature to protest government measures keeping many businesses closed to limit the spread of COVID-19, Ford moved to allay concerns. We are working around the clock to move ahead with our economic reopening, the premier said Tuesday at his daily teleconference. Our health officials are working on the option of a regional model because we need a plan that recognizes the reality on the ground in different parts of our province a plan that will help us reopen safely without taking unnecessary risks because a second wave of this virus is possible, said Ford. So, we must ... remain vigilant and we must continue to prepare for the long haul. His comments came as MPPs, who sit again Wednesday, get set to rubber-stamp his call to extend Ontarios state of emergency in place since March 17 through June 30. That gives the government sweeping powers and means much of Ontarios economy will have been locked down for 15 weeks and possibly longer since the emergency declaration could again be extended. In front the legislature, a smattering of protesters pushed for a rapid reopening of the economy, brandishing signs saying My income is essential and Time to flatten the curve on Fords power grab. If you want to stay home and you feel safe at home, stay home. Most people actually feel safe and healthy to be outside, especially in the summer, said protester Vladislav Sobolev, who wore a T-shirt with the slogan Hugs over masks. Thats a reference to public health officials recommendation that Ontarians don face coverings in circumstances where they cant maintain physical distancing of at least two metres. Ford said the rally was totally irresponsible. Were doing so well as a province. Were seeing the trend go down because of the support of the people. Its just unnecessary so disappointing, he said. NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said continuing the state of emergency is the responsible thing to do based on what were hearing from public health officials. But I have to say its disappointing when we come to the legislature and we do approve these state of emergency requests by the government ... (then) have to struggle to get questions answered in question period, she said. Horwath was frustrated that Ford, who skipped last weeks two question periods, ducked her queries about his handling of the crisis in long-term-care homes, where about 70 per cent of Ontarios almost 2,400 COVID-19 deaths occurred. The premier told reporters he fobbed the NDP leaders queries to Long Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton because she is lot more knowledgeable about nursing homes than he is. I pass it over to the experts. Dr. Fullertons done a great job, has been a doctor for 30 years and honestly, when it comes to health, could run circles around me, he said. Also Tuesday, in an unusual move, MPPs for the first time in Ontario history were able to vote from the public visitors gallery in order to maintain safe social distancing. They passed a motion to temporally amend the standing orders so that, until Sept. 14, voting will occur in the members lobbies outside the chamber in order to keep MPPs two metres apart. The ayes shall be recorded in the (governments) east members lobby and the nays shall be recorded in the (oppositions) west members lobby, the motion said. Results would then be announced in the legislature. With files from Rob Ferguson Robert Benzie is the Star's Queen's Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie Read more about: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has said that it has taken all precautionary measures in Mumbai to ensure zero casualties during the impending cyclone. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned of a possible cyclone called Nisarga in Maharashtra and Gujarat on June 3, Wednesday. IMD added that the cyclone Nisarga would have a speed of 105-110 kmph, which would bring heavy rainfall in the city. The cyclone warning has come at a time when Mumbai is already reeling under the coronavirus epidemic. The city has registered 40,877 COVID-19 positve cases, and 1,319 have died, as of June 1. Against this backdrop, Mumbai Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahhal urged Mumbaikars to avoid stepping out from home, standing under trees, and electric poles. "Officials from all 24 wards in Mumbai have been instructed to identify potentially hazardous and low-lying settlements in their wards and evacuate citizens to nearby schools or safer places". The BMC also requested fishermen and others not to venture into the sea for at least 3-4 days. Further, the BMC directed industrial establishments and petrochemical companies to keep their systems and materials safe. It further added, "Hospitals in Mumbai should take care that the generators are operational and that the power supply should be maintained uninterrupted". Union Home Minister Amit Shah, on Monday, also reviewed the preparations in Maharashtra for cyclone Nisarga. The Home Ministry has deployed 16 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) in Maharashtra including coast guard, navy, Mumbai fire brigade. Ten units of the NDRF have been deployed in vulnerable districts, while six others have been kept on a stand-by. The NDRF is aiding the state government in evacuating people from low lying coastal areas. Additionally, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday apprised Shah about the steps taken to tackle the approaching cyclonic storm. Thackeray said shelter homes were prepared for those who wanted to shift to safer places. Thackeray added that non-COVID hospitals will be made available for those needing medical assistance. Further, adequate precautions were being taken to safeguard chemical and atomic energy plants located in coastal Palghar and Raigad districts. Also read: Mumbai airport caters to over 42,000 flyers in first week of flight resumption Also read: Coronavirus impact: Rich world's jobs crisis jolts money flows to millions Samsung is set to launch two new budget smartphones in India today. According to teasers on e-commerce website Flipkart, the Samsung Galaxy M11 and Galaxy M01 will launch today at 12PM. The Galaxy M11 is expected to be an update for the Galaxy M10 while Galaxy M01 seems to be a new entry-level handset. Samsung Galaxy M11 The Samsung Galaxy M11 was launched in the UAE earlier this year and features a 6.4-inch HD+ (720x1,560 pixels) display and is powered by an octa-core SoC, paired with up to 4GB of RAM and 32GB of inbuilt storage that can be further expanded via a microSD card of up to 512GB. There is a triple rear camera setup on the handset that includes a 13-megapixel primary sensor with an f/1.8 lens, a 2-megapixel depth sensor with an f/2.4 lens, and a 5-megapixel wide-angle shooter that has a field-of-view (FoV) of 115 degrees and f/2.2 aperture lens. At the front, there is an 8-megapixel sensor with an f/2.0 lens, placed in a hole-punch on the top left corner. Connectivity options on the phone include dual-SIM capability, 4G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.2, and GPS/A-GPS. As for the battery, it will feature a 5,000mAh unit that supports 15W fast charging. Samsung Galaxy M01 Details about the Galaxy M01 are scarce however the teaser page on Flipkart suggests that the phone will feature a dual rear camera setup including a 13-megapixel primary sensor. The front camera will be placed in a traditional notch and the battery unit is said to be rated at 4,000mA. Expect the phone to feature a 5.7-inch HD+ (720x1,560 pixels) display and could be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 SoC, with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage. According to a Mumbai-based retailer, the Galaxy M11 could launch in two storage variants. These could be priced at Rs 10,999 (3GB RAM + 32GB storage) and Rs 12,999 (4GB RAM + 64GB storage). The Galaxy M01 is expected to be priced at Rs. 8,999 for the 3GB RAM + 32GB storage option. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 2, 2020 14:45 598 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb893ae 1 News travel-restriction,Angkasa-Pura-II,COVID-19,traveling,Soekarno-Hatta-International-Airport Free State-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II has extended its air travel restrictions to June 7. According to circular letter No. 5/2020 issued by the COVID-19 task force, only certain people are allowed to fly, such as state officials, private-sector workers, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) employees, individuals who need emergency medical care, family members of a deceased individual in another city/province or abroad and repatriated Indonesian nationals. Passengers are also required to bring the following documents: For state officials or private-sector workers: Letter of assignment for members of state civil apparatus (ASN), Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police, signed at least by echelon II officials. Letter of assignment for employees of SOEs and/or region-owned enterprises, non-governmental organizations and business institutions, signed by directors and other higher-ups. Negative COVID-19 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test results that are valid for seven days or non-reactive rapid test results that are valid for three days during the trip. Those who live in regions that dont provide PCR tests or rapid test facilities should obtain a letter from a hospital doctor or community health centers (Puskesmas) stating they are COVID-19-free. Non-state officials or private-sector workers should bring a statement made known to the subdistrict head or village head. Identity card. Departure and arrival schedules. For individuals who need emergency medical treatment and are family members of a deceased individual in another province/city or abroad: Identity card. Death certificate. Referral letter from a hospital. Negative COVID-19 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test results that are valid for seven days or non-reactive rapid test results that are valid for three days during the trip for family members or the deceased individual. Those who live in regions that dont provide PCR test or rapid test facilities should obtain a letter from a hospital doctor or community health centers (Puskesmas) stating they are COVID-19-free. Read also: AP II denies rumor about charging domestic flight passengers for rapid test For repatriated Indonesian nationals, including migrant workers: Identity card. Statement letter from the Agency for the Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BP2MI) or statement letter from the countrys representative offices abroad for Indonesian migrant workers. Statement letter from universities or schools of students. Negative COVID-19 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test results that are valid for seven days or non-reactive rapid test results that are valid for three days. Those who wish to travel to Greater Jakarta should have an exit and entry permit (SIKM). PT Angkasa Pura II has established checkpoints for SIKM requirements. Muhammad Awaluddin, president director of PT Angkasa Pura II, said passengers can apply for SIKM online prior to their flight. Soekarno-Hatta International Airport wont provide an area for SIKM applications, Awaluddin told kompas.com. (wir/wng) Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg doubled down on his decision not to remove incendiary posts from President Trump in an internal call with employees on Tuesday, The New York Times reports. The state of play: The tech giant is facing criticism for keeping the posts on the site after Twitter added fact-checks to Trump's same posts last week. Facebook employees staged a virtual walkout Monday to protest their employer's decision. Advocacy groups are calling on the company to do a better job of keeping harmful content off the platform. Civil rights groups said they were disappointed after a Monday night Zoom call with Zuckerberg and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, in which they discussed the decision. Details: On the call with employees Tuesday, Zuckerberg said he made a tough decision but that it was pretty thorough, per The Times. He told employees that he knew the company would be scrutinized for its choice. He made the comments on a video call that was scheduled for Thursday but moved up in light of Monday's walkout. The big picture: Facebook has taken the toughest stance on defending free speech among its competitors to the satisfaction of many Republicans, including Trump. The company still allows political advertisers to micro-target ads, while Google limited targeting and Twitter banned political ads entirely. Yes, but: Facebook is not alone in the tech world for having to make tough decisions that could have big implications in the future. Former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao called out the company's current chief executive Steve Huffman on Twitter Monday night for not shutting down right-wing subreddit "r/the_donald," after he published a statement addressing the protests. What they're saying: "Open and honest discussion has always been a part of Facebook's culture. Mark [Zuckerberg] had an open discussion with employees today, as he has regularly over the years. He's grateful for their feedback," a Facebook spokesperson said. The bottom line: Zuckerberg is proving that he's unwilling to yield his values around this issue in the face of intense criticism from many stakeholders. (Natural News) There could be a new roadblock in the quest to find a treatment for coronavirus as Chinese doctors are reporting the disease looks different in the new cluster of cases in the countrys northeast region compared to what was seen in the original Wuhan outbreak. Top Chinese critical care doctors report that the patients in the new cluster are carrying the virus for a longer time and are also taking more time to test negative. Complicating matters even further is the fact that the new patients are taking more than the one to two weeks that it typically took the Wuhan patients to develop their symptoms after infection. As you can imagine, this is making it far more difficult for authorities to catch coronavirus cases before they spread. This is creating clusters of family infections that are contributing to a resurgence that has prompted renewed lockdown measures for 100 million people in China. Train services and schools have once again come to a halt, and residential compounds are being sealed off. The doctors also say that the patients they are treating in the current cluster have damage mostly within their lungs. Wuhan patients, in contrast, tended to have damage to several organs, such as the heart, kidneys and gut. Its believed the new cluster is related to infected people coming in from Russia; genetic sequencing matched the northeast cases with those from Russia. Some scientists say that the doctors could be getting a different picture of the disease because the healthcare system is less overloaded now and they have time to focus on some of the less serious cases, unlike before when only the most serious patients were treated. However, the findings do remind us that theres still some uncertainty surrounding this virus that could well make it more difficult to control its spread as economies reopen. China, for example, has one of the most thorough detection and testing procedures and is still having trouble containing the new cluster. Mutations may or may not be significant Doctors say that not all mutations will lead to significant changes, but it is possible that the viruss structure or behavior could change in some way. Every virus mutates as part of its life cycle, and not all changes will be a big deal but when they are, the consequences could be huge. For example, it could become more contagious or deadlier, and as an RNA virus like the flu, coronavirus is more prone to mutations when compared to DNA viruses like HPV and herpes. Unfortunately, significant changes will only make the disease even more difficult to detect and treat. Scientists will then have to determine if reinfections following recovery are possible and which strains, if any, offer protection against other types. It could also affect the treatments that are already in development. China isnt the only place experiencing a resurgence. South Korea will reimpose some of its previously relaxed coronavirus restrictions starting Friday following a spike in new cases. Museums, parks and other places will be closed for at least two weeks in the capital city, Seoul, after registering the largest spike in new infections in almost two months. Businesses are also being encouraged to reintroduce flexible working hours. Half of the 51 million people in South Korea live in Seouls metropolitan area and will fall under the lockdown. People there are being told to avoid social gatherings and crowded places, and the government has asked places of worship to be extra vigilant about quarantine measures. Whats going on in places like China and South Korea reminds us that as people get back to their normal lives, there are going to be resurgences that we cant necessarily trace, and because the disease can lurk in people who dont show any signs of sickness, it could never really go away completely. Sources for this article include: Bloomberg.com Healthline.com TheGuardian.com China has an ambitious new plan to build a space station in orbit by 2023. Why it matters: The U.S. sees China as a rival in space, so any large undertaking like this one will be watched closely. The space station also represents the evolution of China's space program, which made use of two smaller test stations in orbit that hosted crew before moving on to this more complex design. Details: China plans to launch the first module of its new space station next year, with a total of 11 launches needed to complete the station by 2023, according to a report from SpaceNews. The station is expected to eventually play host to crews of three astronauts aboard for six months who can perform experiments and other activities from orbit. "It's quite possible that maybe even their first but probably their second or third crew for their space station will include a foreigner," Dean Cheng, a space analyst focusing on China at the Heritage Foundation, told Axios. China is also planning to launch a telescope that will be able to dock to the station for maintenance, SpaceNews said. What to watch: In mid-May, intact pieces of China's Long March 5 booster fell back to Earth, potentially putting people on the ground in Ivory Coast in danger and flouting norms among nations to safely de-orbit their spent rockets. Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. The state's 115m-a-month deal with private hospitals represents "very poor value for money", an Oireachtas committee will hear today. The Special Committee on Covid-19 Response is due to hear from both the Irish Hospital Consultants Association and the HSE today on the deal, which the government announced on Friday will end this month. The IHCA, a representative body for consultants across the health service, says that the deal now represents a poor use of money. "The test of time has confirmed that the private hospital agreement, which is costing around 115million per month, represents very poor value for money from patient care and taxpayer perspectives. "The experience is that of very low private hospital bed capacity occupancy at around one third on average and low utilisation of theatre and other ancillary facilities. "The fact that patient access to hospital care is deteriorating at a time when the State is now paying 115 million per month for under-utilised private hospitals defies logic." The association will also warn that the use of the facilities is causing longer waiting lists for non-Covid patients and delaying urgently needed care. "Furthermore, the private hospital contract is prohibiting the provision of urgent care required by patients with non-COVID illnesses. This is leading to the accumulation on waiting lists of a large number of patients who require urgent care. There is now the additional risk that these patients will deteriorate clinically and will increasingly evolve into emergency cases if they are not treated without delay. All patients deserve timely access to high-quality care." The committee will also hear from Mr Liam Woods, the national director of acute operations with the HSE, who will present the HSE's clinical and capacity concerns when entering into the deal, saying that the "basic shortfall in acute hospital capacity identified by the Department of Health Capacity Review in 2018 has now been exacerbated by the impact of COVID-19". There is no place for hate and racism in society, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said, asserting that empathy and shared understanding are a start, but more needs to be done. Nadella's remarks come in the wake of the custodial death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man who was pinned to the ground in Minneapolis on May 25 by a white police officer who kneeled on his neck as he gasped for breath. "There is no place for hate and racism in our society. Empathy and shared understanding are a start, but we must do more," Nadella said in a tweet on Monday. "I stand with the Black and African American community and we are committed to building on this work in our company and in our communities, Nadella said. A day earlier, Google CEO Sunder Pichai expressed solidarity with the African-American community. "Today on US Google & YouTube homepages we share our support for racial equality in solidarity with the Black community and in memory of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery & others who don't have a voice," Pichai wrote on Twitter on Sunday. "For those feeling grief, anger, sadness & fear, you are not alone, Pichai said, sharing a screenshot of the Google search home page which said we stand in support of racial equality, and all those who search for it." Nadella's Microsoft also said they will be using the platform to amplify voices from the Black and African American community at the company. Indian-American former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi has said everyone has a responsibility to recognise this pain and the systemic racism that has caused it. "This past week, we've seen millions of Americans vocalize their pain in protests across the nation responding to the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmadu Arbery," Nooyi said in a statement posted on twitter with hashtag BlackLivesMatter. "We all have a responsibility to recognise this pain and the systemic racism that has caused it, and also to act by listening, reading, and supporting organizations that make justice their mission. This is especially important if you come from a place of privilege that protects you in some capacity," wrote the top India American corporate leader, who is counted among the world's most powerful women. "As we all consider how to heal this wound, I ask that we not lose sight of the power of our voices. I've always believed that confronting bias publicly is essential. If you see a bad actor, say it out loud and set an example for those around you," she said. "And don't be afraid of what you don't know. Instead, be eager to participate in conversations that may make you uncomfortable and commit to learn more. It may not be easy, but it is critical," she asserted. Nooyi cautioned that the road ahead will "undoubtedly be challenging", and the scale of the work that needs to be accomplished is staggering. "Let's vow to be kind, to roll up our sleeves, and to be part of the force that bends this path toward justice," she said. BEIRUT, Lebanon International donors pledged about $1.35 billion in humanitarian aid for Yemen on Tuesday, far short of the $2.4 billion the United Nations had said was needed to pull a country shredded by years of war, hunger and disease from the brink of further disaster. Mark Lowcock, the United Nations emergency relief coordinator, was blunt about the results of the donor conference, which was hosted, virtually, by Saudi Arabia. We cannot be satisfied where we got to today, he said. In addition, he noted that the money raised had not yet been paid, only promised. Funding had withered this year over donors concerns that the Houthis, the Iran-backed armed group that controls northern Yemen, were interfering with aid distributed in their territory. The Houthis have since made some concessions to allow aid to flow more freely, said Lise Grande, the United Nations top official in Yemen. Eileen Rushe, who celebrates her first anniversary of being cancer-free this week, is thankful to screening for detecting the disease. The mother-of-one, from Termonfeckin in Co Louth, was diagnosed with cervical cancer in December 2018 after going through CervicalCheck the previous July and getting an abnormal smear test which led to treatment. She was referred for more investigations in a colposcopy unit and it was found she had a tumour. "I ended up having 26 sessions of radiotherapy, five sessions of brachytherapy and chemotherapy. It was high intensity for six-and-a-half weeks," she said. "I finished the treatment in March." She said she was concerned by the decision to pause CervicalCheck tests and the other screening programmes due to the risks of Covid-19 transmission. "I understand the need to ensure that it must be done safely for everyone, but I hope it will be made a priority to restart the programmes as soon as they can with safeguards," Ms Rushe added. "I don't think the CervicalCheck system is flawless, but the reassurance is that there has been such a magnifying glass on it due to the 2018 controversy." It meant that there was also a big public focus on cervical screening, which led to more women coming forward for tests. "I would hate to see that momentum lost," Ms Rushe added. "Once you are in the system it's easier to get referred on to other services if that is what is needed." Disruption She said another casualty of the disruption caused by Covid-19 was the failure to give a second dose of the HPV vaccine in schools this year. Her son Seamus (13) received his first dose in September but the second jab had to be postponed, although it is expected it will be administered in the next academic year. Campaigner Vicky Phelan, who uncovered the CervicalCheck controversy two years ago, has also called for the screening programme to resume amid concern that cancers are being missed. A backlog of women has built up and the plan is to use HPV testing in labs when screening resumes. This is seen as more accurate than a cytology test. Ms Rushe urged anyone with worries to contact the Irish Cancer Society Nurseline (1800 200 700). Reese Witherspoon has had plenty of quality family time with her kids as they quarantine at home in Malibu. And the Academy Award winner is imparting as much wisdom as she can on them amid uncertain times. She urged parents Thursday to talk to their children about 'racism, privilege, bigotry and hate' after speaking to her son Tennessee about the current protests taking place across the country over the killing of George Floyd. Teach your children: Reese Witherspoon urged parents Thursday to talk to their children about 'racism, privilege, bigotry and hate' after speaking to her son Tennessee (pictured in January, 2020) The 44-year-old said that while the conversations have been 'heartbreaking,' its important to use her voice to educate her brood. She wrote on Instagram: 'Last night at dinner, my 7-year-old asked why all the grown ups were so upset. We spoke to him about what happened to George Floyd. 'Being a white mother trying to explain racism and bigotry to her white son, who did not understand why anyone would treat another human being that way, was heartbreaking. But not nearly as heartbreaking as being a victim of one of these senseless, violent, unconscionable crimes. 'Not nearly as heartbreaking as being one of the families who have experienced loss and harassment and discrimination daily. Not nearly as heartbreaking as being a mother who lives in fear of what will happen to her children in this world.' Heartbreaking talk: The 44-year-old said that while the conversations have been 'heartbreaking,' its important to use her voice to educate her brood Parenthood: She wrote on Instagram: 'Last night at dinner, my 7-year-old asked why all the grown ups were so upset. We spoke to him about what happened to George Floyd' White privilege: Witherspoon added: 'Being a white mother trying to explain racism and bigotry to her white son, who did not understand why anyone would treat another human being that way, was heartbreaking' Witherspoon demanded 'justice' for Floyd's death, and said people need to be 'held accountable' for their actions. She added: 'We have to be held accountable for what is happening in this country. What happened to George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery - and countless others - can not go without justice. Please talk to your children about racism, privilege, bigotry and hate. If you arent talking to them, someone else is. 'Regarding comments: I urge you to share this space for meaningful discussion, not hate. There is enough hate in the world. I hope this can be a space for discussion, understanding, growth and LOVE. We all need more of that.' The Legally Blonde star went on to say she wants to see an end to prejudice around the world. She wrote: 'I grew up going to church. We were taught that we were all the same in the eyes of God. We all breathe the same air. We all bleed the same blood. Justice for Floyd: Witherspoon demanded 'justice' for Floyd's death, and said people need to be 'held accountable' for their actions (pictured in October, 2019) Ending prejudice: The Legally Blonde star went on to say she wants to see an end to prejudice around the world (pictured in February, 2020) 'But that is not what I grew up seeing. It was as hard for me to reconcile the difference between what I was taught in church and what I see in the world. I dont want that for my kids. Or for yours.' Witherspoon shares son Tennessee, seven, with husband Jim Toth, 50, and she welcomed daughter Ava, 20, and son Deacon, 16, with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe, 45. She told Miley Cyrus in March of her family's quarantine: 'I try to be patient and they try to be patient with me, but were only on day 11. I dont know whats gonna happen.' The Big Little Lies actress added: 'I think its really important to designate space. My husband and I are both working from home and all three kids are doing school online.' An Arapahoe County grand jury in Colorado has indicted Jeffery Scott Beier for the murder of his girlfriend Charlene Voight, who disappeared from Littleton, Colorado in 2016, according to the Arapahoe County District Attorney's Office. Jeffrey Scott Beier (Littleton Police) Beier, 46, is in custody in Russia and is suspected of killing Charlene, according to the indictment. The indictment stated that Beier was in a relationship with Charlene and that she was living with him at the time of her disappearance. Her body has not been found. Charlene, who was featured in Dateline NBCs Missing in America series in 2016, was reported missing by her family on July 8, 2016. She was 36 at the time of her disappearance and last seen by witnesses on the night of June 30, 2016. Her family previously told Dateline that the always happy Charlene had just moved to Littleton, Colorado from her familys home in Southern California a month before her disappearance, after graduating from Cal Poly Pomona with a degree in Landscape Architecture. The move was, in part, to allow her to finally be with Beier, they said. Charlenes sister Marilyn told Dateline in 2016 that Charlene always had a knack for creativity. She was excited to be in Colorado where its just so beautiful, and for the opportunities shed have there. Charlene Voight Shortly after Charlenes disappearance, Beier was arrested on charges of sexual assault in an unrelated case against an unidentified woman. At the time, he was not named a person of interest or suspect in Charlenes disappearance. According to the indictment released on June 1, 2020, Beier has been charged with first-degree murder, first-degree felony murder, sexual assault, two counts of tampering with evidence, third-degree assault and two counts of attempting to influence a public servant, by misleading authorities about Charlenes disappearance. Beier is also charged with aggravated animal cruelty. According to the affidavit, investigators believe Beier dumped several items at Tower Landfill in Commerce City, Colorado on July 2, 2016. An excavation by authorities in November 2016, revealed many personal items belonging to Charlene, including the body of a small dog wrapped in a red sweater believed to have belonged to Charlenes missing Chihuahua, Toby. The dog had been decapitated. His head has not been located. Story continues Nobody should be able to walk away from murder, District Attorney George Brauchler said in a statement. I will do everything in my power to bring a perpetrator to justice. I am pleased that in the death of Charlene Voight, there is now a process in place to accomplish that. It is unclear when Beier will be returned to Colorado. No court dates will be scheduled until he is booked at the Arapahoe County Detention Center, according to the indictment. If convicted, he faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. "I am proud to be able to tell the family of Miss Voight that the men and women of my department worked for four years to see this day," said Littleton Police Chief Doug Stephens in a statement. "My heart goes out to them, knowing that they are mourning the loss of their sister and daughter. I hope this arrest is a step that will help them move toward healing." The Daily News-Miner encourages residents to make themselves heard through the Opinion pages. Readers' letters and columns also appear online at newsminer.com. Contact the editor with questions at letters@newsminer.com or call 459-7574. Community Perspective Send Community Perspective submissions by mail (P.O. Box 70710, Fairbanks AK 99707) or via email (letters@newsminer.com). Submissions must be 500 to 750 words. Columns are welcome on a wide range of issues and should be well-written and well-researched with attribution of sources. Include a full name, email address, daytime telephone number and headshot photograph suitable for publication (email jpg or tiff files at 150 dpi.) You may also schedule a photo to be taken at the News-Miner office. The News-Miner reserves the right to edit submissions or to reject those of poor quality or taste without consulting the writer. Letters to the editor Send letters to the editor by mail (P.O. Box 70710, Fairbanks AK 99707), by fax (907-452-7917) or via email (letters@newsminer.com). Writers are limited to one letter every two weeks (14 days.) All letters must contain no more than 350 words and include a full name (no abbreviation), daytime and evening phone numbers and physical address. (If no phone, then provide a mailing address or email address.) The Daily News-Miner reserves the right to edit or reject letters without consulting the writer. Christopher Aziz Johnson of Philadelphia passes out face masks to protesters on the Ben Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, Pa. on Monday, June 1, 2020. Read more As Philadelphia tried to reestablish calm after three days of demonstrations and unrest, city health officials on Tuesday advised people who were at or near a protest to get tested for the coronavirus or stay home for two weeks. While Mayor Jim Kenney has questioned whether the city has the resources to begin reopening this week, the rest of the region moved forward with plans to gradually lift stay-at-home and shutdown orders. Officials in the four suburban Pennsylvania counties said they are on track to move out of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolfs most restrictive red phase and add more business activity in the intermediate yellow phase beginning Friday. The state of Delaware, meanwhile, spent a second day under a limited reopening that covered beach rentals, and some restaurants and businesses. Over the next two weeks, personal care shops such as hair salons, as well as child care and camps, are slated to open with various precautions. In New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy urged caution as the state prepared to allow outdoor restaurant dining and other limited commercial activity on June 15. Our economic restart cannot come with a restart of COVID-19, he said. READ MORE: Happening Tuesday: N.J. will overhaul its police use-of-force guidelines, AG says The cautious reemergence after more than two months of staying home and social distancing reflects success in curbing coronavirus infections and deaths, as the number of confirmed cases continued to fall. Pennsylvania on Tuesday reported 612 new cases for a total of 72,894, including 5,667 deaths. New Jersey reported 708 new cases, bringing its total to 161,545, of whom 11,770 have died. Even in hard-hit Philadelphia, the trend in recent weeks has been steadily downward. The city reported 153 new cases Tuesday, bringing the total to 23,034, including 1,290 deaths. But it remains to be seen whether the trend will reverse because of mass gatherings. Tuesdays primary election, while conducted with precautions, brought a steady stream of voters to the polls. And peaceful protests against George Floyds killing at the hands of police in Minneapolis turned into days of mass riots and looting in Center City and beyond. Those who were at or near a protest even if they wore a mask should follow these recommendations to combat the spread of the virus, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health said Tuesday in a news release. In addition to monitoring for COVID-19 symptoms, the department recommended staying home for 14 days believed to be the maximum incubation period for infection or getting tested after seven days. Those seeking testing do NOT need to identify that they were at a protest but instead should say they were near someone who may have had COVID-19, said the advisory. In Montgomery County, officials remained confident that businesses could proceed to the yellow partial-reopening phase on Friday, said Val Arkoosh, chair of the countys board of commissioners. While case counts and hospitalizations have been falling, the countys testing capacity has been increasing from about 250 tests a day to 350. The county also has stepped up its ability to track and quarantine new cases that may emerge as people resume more normal activities, she said. We have the infrastructure in place to manage what will come next in the yellow phase, said Arkoosh, who is a physician. What I cant control is peoples behavior. I am just imploring the people of Montgomery County and anyone coming here to please follow the social-distancing guidance. Also Tuesday, the economic fallout of the pandemic spread to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, as commissioners voted to lay off 500 fare collectors and other toll workers. In March, the agency temporarily adopted an all-electronic, cashless toll system to prevent the spread of COVID-19. With the layoffs to begin June 18, that switch is now permanent, the agency said. Motorists who pay through the E-ZPass system will continue to do so. Those without it will get bills in the mail, generated by automated license-plate readers. Traffic has fallen by almost half compared with a year ago, and the agency said it also wanted to avoid having to shut down entire interchanges when a worker has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the Associated Press. I deeply regret that we have reached this point, but the world has been irrevocably changed by the global pandemic, chief executive Mark Compton said in a statement. This pandemic had a much greater impact than anyone could have foreseen. Staff writer Sarah Gantz contributed to this article. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-03 01:56:35|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WASHINGTON, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. Vice President and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Tuesday blasted President Donald Trump for staging a photo op near the White House a day earlier as protesters were being dispersed by police. Speaking in Philadelphia to address the nationwide unrest over the killing of George Floyd by police brutality, Biden said the American people "can be forgiven for believing that the president is more interested in power than in principle, more interested in serving the passions of his base than the needs of the people in his care." He was referring to events on Monday when police used tear gas, flash grenades and rubber bullets against peaceful protesters near the White House so that Trump, after finishing a speech during which he threatened to send in the military to quell the escalating chaos, could visit the St. John's Episcopal Church, where he stood for a photo op flanked by senior administration officials. In the speech, which came on the same day when seven states and the District of Columbia will hold primaries that could see Biden reap the number of delegate votes enough to win the nomination, Biden said the nation was "crying out for leadership that can unite us," and that he, instead of Trump, could deliver it. "I won't traffic in fear and division. I won't fan the flames of hate. I will seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued this country - not use them for political gain," the 77-year-old said. "I'll do my job and take responsibility. I won't blame others. I'll never forget that the job isn't about me." Biden said that demonstrators chanting "I can't breathe" to echo Floyd's last words before choking to death is "a wake-up call for our nation, for all of us." Meanwhile, he said there was "no place for violence" or "rioting" or "destroying property," adding that "nor is it acceptable for our police ... to escalate violence." Seven days into the nationwide protests, incidents of arson, vandalism and looting happened in various places, along with civilian deaths and injuries of journalists related to alleged abusive use of force by the police. Enditem Hours after Defense Secretary Mark Esper called American streets "the battlespace" for which the U.S. military should preserve dominance amid protests and riots across the nation, the Air Force's top enlisted leader published an emotional post likening himself to African Americans who died as a result of police brutality, and asked fellow leaders and citizens to work toward "making things better." In a lengthy Twitter thread posted Monday, Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Kaleth O. Wright encouraged "everyone to fight, not just for freedom, justice and equality, but to fight for understanding." He also called for an "independent review" of the military justice system, saying equitable justice was an area in the service where progress has lagged. Read Next: Pentagon Orders Active-Duty Military Police Unit to DC Region Amid Protests "Who am I? I am a Black man who happens to be the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force. I am George Floyd ... I am Philando Castile, I am Michael Brown, I am Alton Sterling, I am Tamir Rice," Wright began his thread. "Just like most of the Black Airmen and so many others in our ranks ... I am outraged at watching another Black man die on television before our very eyes." Wright, who's set to retire in coming months, noted that racism, discrimination and exclusion "does not care much about position, titles or stature, so yes, it could happen to you," he said. He added that while he fears being wrongly shot by police during a routine traffic stop or other encounter, he worries more for young black airmen under his command who may become the next casualty. "This, my friends, is my greatest fear," Wright said. "You might think you know what it's like to grow up, exist, survive and even thrive in this country as a Black person, but let me tell you, regardless of how many Black friends you have, how Black your neighborhood was, or if your spouse or in-laws are Black ... You don't know. "As I struggle with the Air Force's own demons that include the racial disparities in military justice and discipline among our youngest Black male Airmen and the clear lack of diversity in our senior officer ranks ... I can only look in the mirror for the solution. "I, the [chief master sergeant of the Air Force], must do better in ensuring every Airman in our ranks has a fair chance at becoming the best version of themselves. While this is a complicated issue ... I, along with every other leader across the force, am responsible for making sure it becomes a reality," he said. In light of recent events including Floyd's May 25 death at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis, Wright said he'd come to the realization that he personally needed to do more. "I spent the last week, 'plotting, planning, strategizing, organizing and mobilizing' just as Killer Mike, the popular Atlanta rapper and activist encouraged us to do," he said. "Twenty-five of my closest friends (White, Black, Asian, enlisted, officer and civilian) and I have an ongoing dialogue where we began by acknowledging our right to be angry about what is happening." While Wright and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein are working to improve disparities in racial representation across the service, Wright said more must be done, and emphasized it must be done collaboratively. "I'm working with General Goldfein, first and foremost, to have a full and thorough independent review of our military justice system. We will look to uncover where the problem lies, and how we can fix it," he said. "We are also working to improve the diversity of our force, especially within the senior ranks. I hope this message triggers responses and ideas from each of you on things we can do better." Wright, who's been in the position since February 2017, regularly communicates with airmen on social media, and has advocated for a number of changes -- such as amendments to the enlisted airman promotion system -- during his tenure. Airmen have seen these revisions as a positive first step toward reforming archaic practices, and given Wright his popular Internet nickname, "Enlisted Jesus." Wright has also been outspoken about a recent spike in suicides. Last year, Wright called for a "tactical pause" in Air Force units to address a rise in suicides across the force, stating suicide had become the leading cause of death in the service -- and claims more airmen's lives than combat. His plea was to keep asking fellow airmen how they're doing, and to keep the dialogue open. On Monday, he made a similar request. "We didn't get here overnight so don't expect things to change tomorrow ... we are in this for the long haul. Vote, protest peacefully, reach out to your local and state officials, to your Air Force leadership and become active in your communities ... We need all hands on deck," he said. "Like you, I don't have all of the answers, but I'm committed to seeing a better future for this nation," he added. Read Wright's full message on Twitter here, or on Facebook here. -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214. Related: Air Force Concealed Materials Showing Racial Disparity in its Ranks, Advocacy Group Says WASHINGTON Local police in the nation's capital arrested more than 300 people Monday night, mostly for violating Washington's 7 p.m. curfew, during protests over the death of George Floyd, the city's police chief said at a news conference Tuesday. Metropolitan Police Chief Peter Newsham said his officers were not involved in dispersing protesters from Lafayette Park, the square across from the White House that was cleared before the curfew so that President Donald Trump could walk to a historic church across the street. The decision to use chemical irritants, flash bangs and other methods to force peaceful protesters out of the park so Trump could pose for a photo with a Bible in front of St. John's Episcopal Church has sparked outrage from religious leaders and lawmakers in both parties. "We were not involved in the movement of the president the unplanned movement of the president," Newsham told reporters at a news conference with the city's mayor, Muriel Bowser. He said most of the arrests his officers made were for protesters who had defied the city's curfew, although some were charged with burglary and rioting. Bowser expressed outrage about the incident in a tweet Monday night, calling it "shameful" that federal police forcefully removed peaceful protesters before the city's 7 p.m. curfew. The park was cleared moments before Trump made a Rose Garden speech, in which he demanded the city and state officials "dominate the streets" to stop rioting. Bowser said on Tuesday that she "didnt see any provocation that would warrant the deployment of munitions" against the protesters, especially for "the purpose of moving the president." Protesters moved to Chinatown. Helicopter aggressively low. Blowing everything out of the way. Signs, trash. Unclear which agency owns the helicopter at this time: pic.twitter.com/BKez1jjItv Abdallah Fayyad (@abdallah_fayyad) June 2, 2020 Newsham also suggested that he disagreed with some of the tactics federal authorities used on Monday including low-flying helicopters that stirred up wind and debris as demonstrators fled. Story continues "I dont know if it was helpful, I can say that," Newsham said when asked about the helicopters. People protest the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died while being arrested and pinned to the ground, down the street from the White House in Washington, DC on June 1, 2020. Protests have erupted across the country in the wake of Floyd's death on May 25. A bystander video shows a white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeling on Floyd's neck for more than 8 minutes even though Floyd can be heard saying "I can't breathe." Chauvin has been charged with murder and manslaughter. In Washington, protesters outraged by police violence against African Americans have gathered in Lafayette Park and other spots around the city for four days. Although the gatherings have been mostly peaceful, violence and looting erupted on Sunday night across the nation's capital. That prompted Bowser to impose the 7 p.m. curfew, which remains in place for Tuesday. Newsham said he was not sure if federal authorities used tear gas and other measures during that incident. The Metropolitan Police Department, he said, only used munitions when dealing with a crowd near Judiciary Square, which is about a mile away from Lafayette Park. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: George Floyd protests: DC police chief says MPD didn't clear for Trump He also stressed the importance of ceasing shelling as a "basic condition for advancing the peace process". Andriy Yermak, Head of the Ukrainian President's Office, and the Foreign Policy Adviser to German Chancellor Jan Hecker during their Berlin meeting on Tuesday discussed the importance of intensifying negotiations on Donbas. Yermak has said Ukraine continues to insist on the prompt implementation of the agreements of the Normandy summit that took place in December in Paris to unblock the possibility of holding the next summit of the heads of state in Berlin, the President Office's press service reports. According to Andriy Yermak, the two rounds of the mutual release of detainees according to the agreed "all identified for all identified" formula, successfully conducted following the Paris Summit of Normandy Four leaders, are a positive example of how the agreements can be implemented. "However, Yermak added, in order to unblock further mutual release, representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross should get access to persons illegally held in the occupied Donbas, as well as the occupied Crimea, and Russia," the report reads. Read alsoMinister Kuleba: Normandy foreign ministers to hold next round of talks soon Andriy Yermak stressed the importance of ceasing shelling as a "basic condition for advancing the peace process". Also, the interlocutors discussed Ukraine's cooperation with the European Union. The Ukrainian party counts on Germany's support for the country's European integration aspirations as Germany is set to take chairmanship in the Council of the European Union on July 1. The death of a man whose body was dumped in a creek wrapped in plastic may be linked to a drug syndicate. The body of 26-year-old Malaysian national Shu Jian Lim was found by university students at Cobbledicks Ford Reserve in Mt Cottrell, Victoria, in September 2015. In a fresh bid to solve the cold case, homicide detectives on Tuesday revealed Mr Lim's death could be connected to a syndicate growing hydroponic cannabis in homes throughout Victoria. 'One avenue of inquiry for investigators has been that Mr Lim's death is possibly connected to a drug syndicate that was operating in the area at the time,' Detective Inspector Tim Day said. CCTV footage from a water treatment plant near where Mr Lim was last seen was released by police on Tuesday showing cars travelling outside the facility. Shu Jian Lim's body was found in the creek at Cobbledicks Ford Reserve in Mt Cottrell in September 2015 Detectives hope the public can assist them in identifying the owners of the cars and provide information. Images of Mr Lim's car and his most recent We Chat photo have also been released in the hope the public can identify Mr Lim and give details to police. Inspector Day said police investigations have been ongoing for five years with detectives still unsure why Mr Lim was murdered, and no-one has ever been charged. 'Investigators have conducted a number of inquiries over that time and spoken with a lot of people, however we haven't reached the point where someone is able to tell us why Mr Lim's body was found wrapped in plastic on the side of a creek,' he said. 'This is a brutal way for someone to die and their body to be found. 'There are a number of Mr Lim's associates we have spoken to over the years and investigators are still not satisfied with their version of events.' The 26-year-old had been reported missing in March 2015 and was last seen alive on 20 February, 2015 at a friend's house in Point Cook before leaving the home in his silver Toyota sedan with Victorian registration XHS 070. The car was later found on Allen Street in Laverton and was still there on March 5, where it was seized by police with different registration 1EB 8ZD. Police have released images of Mr Lim's car in the hope that the public can provide information on his death Detectives were told an Asian man who they did not believe was Mr Lim was seen parking the silver sedan on the street around the same date Mr Lim was last seen. The Asian man was then picked up in a small light coloured 4WD by another man. Inspector Day pleaded for anyone with information on Mr Lim to come forward to police. 'Hopefully there is someone out there who feels that now is the right time to come forward and tell us why this happened and who is responsible,' he said. 'We do know that Mr Lim was in Australia on an expired Visa and so if any of his friends or associates from that time are concerned about that fact, I would like to stress that information can always be provided anonymously via Crime Stoppers.' 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Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe Bonnie Glick, deputy administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. (U.S. Agency for International Development) WHO Failures and US Leadership During the Pandemic: USAID Deputy Administrator Bonnie Glick President Trumps call for reform of the World Health Organization (WHO) is so key at this moment, said Bonnie Glick, deputy administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), in an interview with The Epoch Times for the American Thought Leaders program. On May 18, President Donald Trump sent a letter to the WHO warning that the United States would permanently cut its funding in 30 days and reconsider its membership if the organization didnt commit to major substantive improvements to demonstrate its independence from China. President Donald Trump has been criticized for threatening to withhold funds from the WHO during a pandemic. But in Glicks view, this was the perfect time to demand change because we have captured the worlds attention and in so doing, we are shining light onto the way that WHO as an international organization should operate. In no way is the United States withdrawing from its role as the leader of the free world and as the leader of the international community, Glick said. In fact, by calling for this review, we are exercising that leadership. Trumps letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus highlighted the WHOs failed response to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus outbreak in Wuhan, China. It calls out the WHO for not investigating credible reports of the virus spreading in Wuhan; ignoring information Taiwan provided on Dec. 31, 2019, about human-to-human transmission; echoing Beijings line and spreading misleading or inaccurate claims; and praising China for its transparency even though it initially attempted to cover up the outbreak, suppressed whistleblower doctors, and ordered samples of the virus to be destroyed. Tedross decision to not give Taiwan observer status at the WHOin contrast to prior heads of the WHOis just another example of the outsized control that the PRC [Peoples Republic of China] has over the operations, day-to-day and policy-wise, of the World Health Organization, Glick said. One month after Trump halted funding and announced a review of the WHO, a coalition of more than 100 countries, led by Australia, have now called for an independent inquiry into the WHOs response to the outbreak. From our perspective at the U.S. Agency for International Development, this is a long time in coming, Glick said. During the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we were noticing things that gave us pause, Glick said. We thought about calling WHO out, but decided the timing wasnt right. Then, before the Ebola crisis had a chance to recede, we are hit with a global pandemic, Glick said. In his letter, Trump laid down the gauntlet by demanding the WHO take swift steps toward reform, Glick said. Coronavirus Foreign Aid On May 20, the United States committed an additional $162 million to aiding the global response to CCP virus, bringing the grand total to more than $1 billion to help more than 120 countries with public health education, sanitation, hygiene, disease surveillance, rapid-response capacity, and emergency food assistance. The virus doesnt know any boundaries. So we wont be safe here if we arent investing in our approach to the virus internationally, Glick said. Compared with the trillions of dollars of investment that were making as a nation into our own response, these numbers are not a huge investment in the long-run. Were working closely with countries to help them shore up their abilities to respond when coronavirus hits their shores, Glick said. The United States is also shipping critical medical supplies to other countries. USAIDs first donation of U.S.-made ventilators to South Africa arrived on May 11. Were looking not just at shipping ventilators but also oxygen, training people in the use of these things, so that they can be deployed rapidly in hospital settings around the world, Glick said. American Aid versus Chinese Aid In the interview, Glick also underscored the radical difference between aid from the United States and aid from communist China. In general, our goal, as it relates to foreign assistance, is ultimately to end the need for its existence, Glick said, by working with countries toward achieving self-reliance and one day becoming donors themselves. Israel and South Korea are two examples of success, Glick said. Israel used to be one of the largest recipients of U.S. foreign assistance, and it is now a donor country with whom we partner, particularly in Africa, she explained. South Korea, similarly received large amounts of aid after the Korean War. Now, both South Korea and Israel have become two of the United States close allies. On the other hand, the Chinese communist approach to foreign assistance is to create perpetual dependence on the Peoples Republic of China, Glick said. In recent years, the regime has aggressively pushed its massive infrastructure investment project, the Belt and Road Initiative (also known as One Belt, One Road), which aims to connect Europe, Africa, and Asia via a network of ports, railways, and roads. The Chinese regime systematically targets developing countries that have strategic value or are rich in natural resources and approaches them with attractive promises of infrastructure development and generous loans. Sri Lanka built a port in Hambantota by taking loans from China. It was promised 10,000 port calls a year, but in the first year of operation, saw only 37, Glick said. When it became clear that Sri Lanka would not be able to pay that debt servicing, China swooped in and has taken a 99-year concessionary lease possession of Sri Lankas largest world-class port, Glick said. The same thing happened with Djibouti. The Chinese regime helped Djibouti build a port located strategically on the entrance to the Red Sea. Djibouti defaulted on its loan, and China now controls this port, Glick said. For Glick, the Belt and Road Initiative is more aptly described as one belt, one road, one-way trip to insoluble debt. Because of the pandemic, both the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund have urged the G-20 economies to offer debt relief to the worlds poorest nations so they can focus on fighting the CCP virus. Initially, Chinese leadership responded favorably, Glick said, but they started putting all kinds of conditions on what type of debt would be considered for debt forgiveness, carefully trying to thread the needle to keep bilateral debt owed to the Peoples Republic of China off the table. American Thought Leaders is an Epoch Times show available on Facebook, YouTube, and The Epoch Times website. Irene Luo Follow Irene is the assistant producer for American Thought Leaders. She previously interned for the China News team at the Epoch Times. She is a graduate of Columbia University with a degree in Political Science and East Asian Languages and Cultures. Las Vegas Sheriff Says Police Officer Shot During Encounter With Protesters Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told a news briefing that an officer was shot amid protests over the death of George Floyd. Our officers were attempting to take rocks and bottles from the crowd, said Lombardo during the press conference on Monday night. Officers were attempting to get some of the protesters in custody when a shot rang out and our officer went down. According to KTNV, rioters were throwing rocks and other objects at officers when one of them was shot. The officer is in critical condition, he said. The alleged shooter was apprehended by SWAT and K-9 teams at the scene, officials told CBS News. Another shooting incident took place at the courthouse after officers who were standing guard saw a suspect with multiple weapons and body armor. The suspect then reached for a weapon before he was shot by the officers, officials told ABC News. This is a tragic night for our community, said Lombardo in the news conference. With these protests, which are leading to riots, one tragedy is only leading to another our investigations into both these incidents will be ongoing throughout the morning. Damage is pictured to the Secretary of State building in downtown Grand Rapids, Mich., on May 30, 2020. (Anntaninna Biondo/The Grand Rapids Press via AP) What has occurred is utterly, utterly unacceptable and I hope the community sees it that way too, he said. The protesters were demonstrating after the death of Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis. Officials in Las Vegas also said that more than 300 people were arrested during three nights of protests. In other cities, protests in New York Monday night were punctuated by people smashing shop windows near Rockefeller Center and breaching the doors of Macys flagship store on 34th Street, littering the pavement with broken glass. A vehicle plowed through a group of law enforcement officers at a demonstration in Buffalo, injuring at least two. Demonstrations also broke out in such places as Philadelphia, where hundreds of protesters spilled onto a highway in the heart of the city; Atlanta, where police fired tear gas at demonstrators; and Nashville, where more than 60 National Guard members put down their riot shields at the request of peaceful protesters. More than 5,600 people nationwide have been arrested over the past week for such offenses as stealing, blocking highways, and breaking curfew, according to a count by The Associated Press. The Associated Press contributed to this report. It has been reported by Android Police that Sticker Suggestions look likey they are almost ready to go in Google Messages. To make stickers easy to use Google is trialling contextual sticker recommendations to Messages. It is also looking to roll out sticker pack suggestions to Gboard. Stickers are becoming increasingly popular across messaging services. This has led companies adding them to as many platforms as possible. New Version of Messages Shows Update A new version of messages that is for now only meant for Googlers has shown that sticker suggestions are now a part of the app. They appear to display above the compose box similar to other prompts that are a part of the apps functionality. Advertisement This has been accessed using the leaked Dogfood build, which also reportedly gives RCS chats end-to-end encryption. However, there have been some questions as to whether this functionality is a part of this dogfood build. Either way, it does not look like a full update including sticker suggestions will be far away for Google. Gboard Also Gets an Update Google recently trialled a new feature on Gboard where paste sticker suggestions were added from the clipboard. However, it also appears to be part of this sticker update. Gboard has been suggesting individual stickers and GIFs based on emoji for over a year now. However, the latest test demonstrates that it will begin suggesting entire sticker packs as well. Gboard will highlight certain sticker packs that it wishes to recommend in the sticker section. A small star icon will appear above certain packs to set them apart. Advertisement When you tap on the suggestion you will then be given the option of passing on the pack or adding it. Passing will push the pack out of view and amongst your existing collection. However, adding it will give it prominence. It seems that the suggestions are going to be limited to one pack at a time. It also appears that this may be a way for new sticker pack creations to be promoted and showcased. With the popularity of sticker on the rise, it is hardly surprising Google is looking to prioritise them. By bringing in sticker suggestion the company is following other business in trying to push stickers wherever possible. This appears to be a rather intuitive and easy way to do so which should fit seamlessly into the functionality of Google Messages and Gboard. A medical examiner on Monday classified the death of George Floyd after a white Minneapolis police officer kneeled for minutes on his neck as a homicide. The finding came hours after a lawyer for Floyds family said an independent autopsy had concluded he died by traumatic asphyxiation and also classified it as a homicide. The death last week, captured in a widely seen video, has sparked protests across the nation. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner said Floyds heart stopped as police restrained him and suppressed his neck, according to the report. Decedent experienced a cardiopulmonary arrest while being restrained by law enforcement officer(s), the report read. Under other significant conditions it said Floyd suffered was also suffering from heart disease, fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use, though it does not list those factors in the cause of death. Preliminary results from the examination by the Hennepin County Medical Examiners Office, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case, revealed no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation. The independent autopsy, in contrast, listed cause of death as asphyxiation. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said he commissioned a separate autopsy because, like other families of black men killed by police, Floyds relatives didnt trust local authorities to produce an unbiased autopsy. Floyd, who is black, was in handcuffs facedown on the ground during the incident. Essentially George died because he needed a breath. He needed a breath of air. I implore you to join his family in taking a breath for justice, taking a breath for peace, taking a breath for our country but more importantly taking a breath for George since he didnt get an opportunity to take a breath, Crump said. Forensic pathologists hired by the family reviewed video, photographs and medical evidence, and concluded he died on the ground before the officers released him to emergency responders to attempt a medical intervention. That ambulance was essentially a hearse for George Floyd, Crump said. EMTs, once they got to the scene, were working on an unresponsive pulseless male. They performed pulse checks and found none. The technicians applied electric shock in the ambulance but it did not change his condition, he said. The independent review also came to a different conclusion about the status of Floyds health prior to coming into contact with police on May 25. Dr. Allecia Wilson, one of the pathologists hired by the family, said Floyd did not have significant underlying medical issues. Wilson directs the Autopsy and Forensic Services program at the University of Michigan. The other doctor, former New York City chief medical examiner Michael Baden, said given the pandemic and his own age, I wish I had the same coronary arteries Floyd had. The officer who held his knee on Floyds neck, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter and is in custody in a state prison. The other three officers on scene, like Chauvin, were fired the day after the incident but have not been charged. Chauvin ignored bystander shouts to get off him and Floyds cries that he couldnt breathe. Crump said the family wants Chauvin to face a first-degree murder charge. They are hopeful that all the officers on the scene will face criminal charges. Wilson said at the press conference that the evidence is consistent with mechanical asphyxia as manner and homicide as cause of death in the case of Floyd. Baden made the point that after a little less than four minutes we can see that Mr. Floyd is motionless, lifeless and when the EMS arrive they put him on the stretcher without any CPR. Co-counsel Antonio Romanucci said all four officers are criminally responsible and civilly liable. Romanoucci denounced the conduct of Chauvin and the department and the shameless standby police officers on scene who had every opportunity to stop and prevent a senseless death, a needless one. This was a brutal and public display of an 8-minute prolonged death, he said. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is now overseeing the case. Civil rights advocates say Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman doesnt have the trust of the black community and have mounted protests outside his house, asking him to charge the other three officers. Freeman is still assigned to the case. Baden has done previous independent autopsies in police-involved deaths. He conducted an independent autopsy of Eric Garner, a black man who died in 2014 after New York police placed him in a chokehold and he pleaded he could not breathe. Baden also conducted an independent autopsy of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old shot by police in Ferguson, Missouri. He said Browns autopsy, requested by the teens family, didnt reveal signs of a struggle, casting doubt on a claim by police that a struggle between Brown and the officer led to the shooting. The head of the Minneapolis police union said in a letter to members that the officers were fired without due process and labor attorneys are fighting for their jobs, according to reports. Lt. Bob Kroll, the union president, also criticized city leadership, saying a lack of support is to blame for the days of sometimes violent protests. When asked to respond, Mayor Jacob Frey said: For a man who complains so frequently about a lack of community trust and support for the police department, Bob Kroll remains shockingly indifferent to his role in undermining that trust and support. Frey said Krolls opposition to reform and lack of empathy for the community has undermined trust in the police. Before the police stop that ended his life in Minneapolis, Floyd also appears to have had a run in with the Houston police officer criminally charged in a no-knock police raid that caused the deaths of two people last year. Following the botched raid, Floyd received a letter from the Harris County District Attorney on March 8, 2019 alerting him that former Houston Police Officer Gerald Goines may have been involved in a case that resulted in his conviction. The family hoped demonstrations around the country would be a tipping point that would lead to systemic change in police conduct around the country. The Associated Press contributed. In a televised speech aimed at calming a city rocked by widespread looting, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a $10 million grant fund for looted businesses and promised to implement a series of long-stalled police reforms. If there is to be an uprising, let it be for peace. I call on all people of goodwill, young, old, black, brown, white, Asian, from all faith traditions, to rise up with me for peace, Lightfoot said from her City Hall office. Stand for peace. The mayors address came after an earlier announcement that Chicago will move ahead with looser coronavirus restrictions as planned on Wednesday despite widespread looting and heightened public health concerns brought on by thousands of people protesting in tight groups across the city. But Lightfoot said she hasnt yet determined when full access to the citys downtown will be restored to the public. Here are the latest developments: 9:39 p.m.: Downtown begins to reopen on Wednesday, after day of shutdowns and reduced transit service After days of road closures and reduced transit service because of incidents of looting and violence, access to downtown Chicago will start to reopen on Wednesday, in time for loosened restrictions on businesses. Metra, which has been out of service since Monday morning, planned to resume a modified schedule on most lines on Wednesday. The CTA planned to restart bus and rail service to downtown at 5 a.m. on Wednesday, though some train stops located within or near downtown will remain closed, according to the city. Pace suburban bus service also said it plans to resume normal service on Wednesday, including I-55 express service and ADA paratransit service to downtown Chicago. Both CTA and Pace had canceled overnight service on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Divvy bikes, out of service since Sunday afternoon, will reopen on Wednesday morning at 6 a.m. and will be available until 8 p.m., the city said. Lake Shore Drive will reopen, but with exits at Michigan, Chicago and Grand Avenues, Lower Wacker Drive and Randolph Street remaining closed. Also reopening are entrance and exit ramps on Interstate 290 and I-90/94, the city said. Bridges in the central business district, which had been raised to discourage looting and vandalism, will be lowered over the Chicago River on Clark, Dearborn, Lake, Randolph, Wells and Washington Streets, the city said. The citywide curfew for all residents and visitors, effective from until 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. will remain in effect until further notice. Read more here. Mary Wisniewski 8:58 p.m.: Fighting for those whose stories dont get told As the march kept on toward 51st, one woman wearing a mask clapped along to the booming music repeating Black Lives Matter in the shade of a bus stop. Marchers guzzled down water and cleared out in front of the banners leading the crowd so George Floyds name could be clearly seen. Cece Carlson, 28, of Bronzeville, said she came to the march to stand in solidarity and march with her sister. First and foremost, Im a black woman so that in itself, my identity, is what brought me out, Carlson said. This is my neighborhood. Carlson said shes tired of police brutality and those who get away with it over and over again. And Im here fighting for the lives whose names dont get remembered, whose stories dont get told, Carlson said. Like Breonna Taylor, and countless others. Carlson said she hopes people are thinking about not just the actions theyre taking in the present but the actions theyre taking for the rest of their lives to support black lives. And I want to call action to white people, Carlson said. What are you white people going to do about it? Xavier Vance, 29, of Englewood, said he came to the Bronzeville march for justice for Floyd, justice for every person that was black, wrongfully killed and wrongfully convicted. Vance said he has been marching every day, all weekend. Sometimes I will just get out of my car and see a protest and join a march, just to support the cause and make sure my voice is heard, Vance said. Im hoping people understand the pain that we go through, seeing our loved ones being murdered by the hands of people that are supposed to protect us, Vance added. He hopes to keep attending events until there is justice for Floyd and his family, Vance said. I have twin brothers that Im concerned about growing up and being a man in this dangerous world thats built to not protect them, Vance said. Mainly Im just hoping that we can get through to those, get through to police officers, and that we can make some change by being out here during the pandemic. And that we can just make some change in the world in general. Its not right that we have to do this during the pandemic. Its not right seeing our people killed for decades. Morgan Greene 8:07 p.m.: The side of Chicago that somebody needs to see Protesters, numbering in the thousands, paused every few blocks for short speeches on unity, police brutality and seeking justice for George Floyd from faith leaders including pastors, imams and rabbis. Residents along the drive looked out from windows and held up their phones to film. Signs with messages like Time 4 Change and Jesus Loves Justice went up as the sun started to set. Nakelia Franklin, 27, of Bronzeville, said she came to the march because, as a social worker, she wants justice for everyone. Im a young African American so this just hits home, Franklin said. If we dont stand for it then no one else will. I think people just need to realize that this is real, Franklin added. This is real life. This isnt something that happens once a year. It happens every day. Courtney Kimble, also a Bronzeville resident, set up a chair on the grass to support marchers as they headed south. She said anyone trying to justify the recent tragic events just ripped my heart out of my chest. This is the least I can do, Kimble said. We couldnt have asked for a more beautiful day. Every one of these people is beautiful. This is the side of Chicago that somebody needs to see, Kimble said. I hear people chanting about Bronzeville strong and solidarity. This is awesome. Morgan Greene 7:43 p.m.: Surprise demonstration in Elmhurst a peaceful affair Tuesday evening Roughly 200 demonstrators covered all four corners of North Avenue and North York Street in Elmhurst Tuesday afternoon as they chanted and waved placards demanding racial justice. It was a peaceful gathering, but one that caught the DuPage County city by surprise. Officials announced Monday that organizers had agreed to push back a march and vigil planned for Tuesday by one week in hopes that the broader criminal behavior that we are alerted to has subsided. But when they learned people were coming anyway, they sent another alert Tuesday afternoon saying the city had restricted vehicle access to the retail strip along York Street and asked businesses to close by 3 p.m. By 6 p.m., with the demonstration going strong, about half the businesses on York had boarded up their windows. Robert Fonzino, owner of the Bilancio salon and day spa, was still waiting for his carpenter to arrive, regretting that he had lost an afternoon of business on his first day open in 10 weeks. I dont know what the cause is, he said. I think the protesters are fine. I think their hearts are in the right place. I dont think thats the problem. I think its the thugs that follow. I dont think they have any idea what theyre doing other than to be destructive. But as the evening began, nothing belligerent was happening back at the intersection. Elmhurst resident Yeena Yoo, holding a sign that read It is better to protest than to accept injustice, brought her two young kids to the demonstration, saying she had no safety concerns and felt it was important to participate. I am appalled by the racial injustices that are happening all over our country, so Im here with my children because I feel its really important to have peaceful protest, just like Martin Luther King did, she said. Police from Elmhurst and Bensenville hung back from the gathering, which garnered many honks of support from passing cars. Its peaceful; theres no rioting or anything like that, said Andre Sorrell, a Chicago native who has lived in Elmhurst for about a year and a half. Its been a long time coming I have an interracial family so this movement means a lot to me. Anything that can make the future better for my kids, Im all for it. John Keilman 7:06 p.m.: Lightfoot asks Chicago to stand for peace and announces $10 million grant fund to help looted businesses In a televised speech aimed at calming a city rocked by widespread looting, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday evening announced a $10 million grant fund for looted businesses and promised to implement a series of long-stalled police reforms. Lightfoot also laid out a series of measures she has ordered new Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown to implement within 90 days as part of a broader effort at reforming the long-troubled department, some of which have been languishing for years. If there is to be an uprising, let it be for peace. I call on all people of good will, young, old, black, brown, white, Asian, from all faith traditions, to rise up with me for peace, Lightfoot said from her City Hall office. Stand for peace. The police reform measures Lightfoot wants to implement include teaching Chicago cops about "the history of neighborhoods taught from the perspective of community members, inspired by youth-led neighborhood tours done by My Block, My Hood, My City. The city also will implement an officer wellness program and complete an officer support program that supports cops in crisis, mandate crisis intervention and procedural justice training for all officers, and establish a new recruit program on police-community relations and community policing with views from the community about what works, she said. Referring to damaged businesses around the city, Lightfoot said, We will clean up these broken windows, but we cant stop there. We must also clean up and repair our broken systems. Lightfoot said the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd is linked to a history of racism in America and police misconduct exemplified by Laquan McDonalds murder and infamous city cop Jon Burge. She said four shameful Mineapolis police officers who took his life." But Lightfoot took a strong stand against looting, saying the city cant allow its pain to spill over into violence and destruction against our communities." I will never stand for stealing the dreams and livelihoods of our neighbors. I will never stand for abandoning our values and our love of this city, Lightfoot said. My heart is broken over what has happened here in the city that I love. Gregory Pratt 6:44 p.m.: Marching for peace and justice in Bronzeville On a sweltering Tuesday evening, dozens of faith and community leaders gathered in Bronzeville to lead a peaceful march in memory of George Floyd. Shortly after 6 p.m., leaders of various faiths led the crowd in prayers. On the count of three, the marchers joined together in Black Lives Matter and started walking to music. The crowd pumped their fists as voices in the song cried, Hands up, dont shoot. Those at the front of the march held banners saying George Floyd and Black Lives Matter. Organizers said they planned the march for South Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive as a symbolic gesture, to represent its peaceful nature. Some nearby residents placed bottles of water on the sidewalk for those marching. Others held signs with messages like Peace and Justice. The crowd headed south toward East 51st Street and the protest was expected to end at Washington Park. Morgan Greene 6:36 p.m.: McDonalds, Walgreens and the Cubs among companies condemning racism in wake of George Floyds death While small businesses tend to broken store windows and damaged merchandise amid fallout from George Floyds death at the hands of Minneapolis police, brands such as Nike and Amazon are busy weighing in on systemic racism in America. McDonalds, Walgreens and the Chicago Cubs are among the Chicago-area companies that have posted social media messages, sent letters to employees and held town halls in recent days denouncing discrimination, and pledging commitments to diversity and inclusiveness. When any member of our McFamily hurts, we all hurt, Joe Erlinger, president of McDonalds USA, said in a public LinkedIn post Saturday. It is not clear if the messages will resonate with customers, employees and a nation reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic and more than a week of widespread social unrest, but brands are nonetheless racing to position themselves as champions of social justice. Read more here. Robert Channick 6:02 p.m.: Nearly a dozen state-run COVID-19 testing sites shut down due to George Floyd fallout will reopen State officials announced Tuesday evening that nearly a dozen state-run COVID-19 testing sites that had been shut down due to the fallout from the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis would reopen Wednesday and Thursday. Testing sites in Harwood Heights, Aurora, Rockford, East St. Louis, Bloomington, South Holland, the Chatham community area, Champaign, Rolling Meadows and Peoria would reopen Wednesday. The Waukegan site will reopen Thursday in a new location to accommodate the return of vehicle emissions testing at the previous location. Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Monday that some of the testing sites had to be shut down because local law enforcement werent able to provide protection for Illinois National Guard members staffing them during the unrest. Its one of the unfortunate consequences of whats happened is we cant have Guardsman out there unprotected providing the testing, Pritzker said. Dan Petrella 5:47 p.m.: National Guard set to deploy to suburbs Tuesday night More than 200 Illinois National Guard members are in final preparations for deploying to the Chicago suburbs Tuesday night, according to Gov. J.B. Pritzkers office. Their mission, in terms of location, will be flexible so troops can respond to situations as they evolve. The guard will only provide assistance when requested by local law enforcement, Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh said. The guards availability comes as local law-enforcement officials are monitoring potential unrest in Downers Grove, Elmhurst, Joliet and Oak Brook Tuesday night. The governor activated 250 additional guard members this week to help quell violence and vandalism in the metropolitan area. He also has deployed 375 soldiers and airmen to Chicago to assist with street closures. The soldiers and airmen have been given explicit orders not to interfere with protesters who are exercising their First Amendment rights, the governor said. In the suburbs, troops will be deployed to communities in platoons of 30 to 40 members. We are doing and will do everything we can to protect private property, Pritzker said Monday. Well continue to deploy as needed. A day before the activation, the Illinois National Guard provided aerial support during unrest in downtown Aurora Sunday night. In addition the guard units, the governor ordered the Illinois State Police to provide an additional 300 troopers to support local municipalities. He also issued emergency proclamations for nine counties in Illinois to expedite the use of state resources, personnel and equipment to restore order. Stacy St. Clair 5:45 p.m.: Joliet mayor says he was acting in self-defense when he grabbed and shoved a protester in skirmish caught on video Joliet Mayor Bob ODekirk released a statement Tuesday saying he was acting in self-defense during a skirmish with a protester Sunday evening. A video of the scuffle, which emerged Tuesday, shows a chaotic scene of police dispersing a crowd of people Sunday evening who had gathered in protest of the alleged murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. The video appears to show ODekirk grabbing a man by his collar and forcibly walking him toward a police car several yards away when a second person attacks the mayor from behind. ODekirk and the first man appear to fall to the ground and are quickly surrounded by several other officers. Its unclear from the video what prompted ODekirk, a former Joliet police officer, to place his hands on the first man. ODekirk said he acted in self-defense after he was confronted by a rioter and then attacked, adding later the unidentified man tried to shove him. Read more here. Alicia Fabre 4:54 p.m.: Divvy bikes suspended in wake of mass looting; activists decry cutbacks to public transit Divvy bikes havent been available since Sunday afternoon because of mass looting and clashes with police downtown and in other areas. On Tuesday, a local advocacy group for biking and transit launched a petition to bring back Divvy, as well as full CTA service. But Mayor Lori Lightfoot said both the CTA and Divvy bikes have been used to commit crimes, and she could not turn a blind eye to the issue. The Active Transportation Alliance said in a blog entry that while it appreciated the position faced by Chicago leaders, we need reliable transportation options more than ever. Metra has been out of service since Monday morning, and both CTA and Pace suburban bus service shut down service on Sunday and Monday nights. CTA has limited service during the day to avoid wide areas of the city, including downtown. Pace also has not been coming into downtown Chicago, though it plans to resume normal service on Wednesday. Read more here. Mary Wisniewski 4:30 p.m.: Lightfoot to give televised address this evening Amid ongoing civil unrest following the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot will give a televised address this evening thats largely expected to encourage the public to stay calm. Lightfoot will speak at 6:30 p.m. from her ceremonial office, and deliver a State of the City Address to Chicagos residents from her ceremonial office to contextualize events that have happened in recent days, her office said. You can watch Lightfoots address live here. The mayor has spent the past several days pleading for peace as protesters marched and traveling mobs of citizens pillaged stores in the neighborhoods. The city has blocked off downtown roads to keep non-residents or workers out a decision thats been criticized as prioritizing the Loop over neighborhoods, though Lightfoot defended the decision by saying it allowed officials to put police in neighborhoods. Gregory Pratt 4:20 p.m.: Insurance should help businesses damaged during unrest, but merchants question whether it will be enough The looters who on Sunday ransacked Z Smoke Shop, which has been selling glass pipes and vaping products in Logan Square for eight years, left behind not only major damage but also empty shelves that could take weeks to fill. We will be closed for a good while, said manager Kyle Korab. There isnt one piece of glass that isnt broke. The business called its insurance company immediately. Now its waiting, nervously, to see if its claim is approved. Were not 100% sure, Korab said. They might find a reason to not cover it. Read the story here. Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz 4 p.m.: Protesters march from Wrigley Field to Old Town A large group of protesters moved south down Clark Street from Wrigley Field around 2 p.m., trailed by several cars and even a van toting water to keep marchers hydrated. Bryan Cho said he has been volunteering his car as a caravan and supply van for three days now. Water guys, take as many as you need, he said. More than 20 cars appeared to be following along with the group, handing out water. At the corner of Clark and Drummond Place, Laura Janota took a break from watering her garden to pour water onto exhausted marchers. I was watering my garden and I heard them coming, so I brought my watering can out to provide some relief, she said. Crowds of predominantly young people streamed down sidewalks southbound on Clark clutching bottles of water and makeshift signs. Many chanted Black Lives Matter as police on bike guided the crowd. Part of the crowd stopped at Clark and Menomonee Street where a few hundred conducted a sit in. After marching to the north end of Old Town a little after 3 p.m., and making briefly for Lake Shore Drive, much of the group headed back north on Clark Street, although some split off and headed west. Jessica Villagomez 3:22 p.m.: Grocery delivery could be tougher to come by as George Floyd fallout continues Delivery services like Amazon, Instacart and Shipt say they have scaled back services in cities including Chicago amid ongoing unrest and looting. Fallout from the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd sparked protests and civil unrest in cities across the country, including Chicago. A 9 p.m. curfew is in place in the city, where some damaged stores remain closed and others have reduced their hours. That could make grocery delivery tougher to come by at a time when consumers, concerned about the COVID-19 pandemic, have been relying on the services to avoid unnecessary trips to the store. Shipt, which delivers products from stores including Target and CVS, has temporarily suspended service in the downtown Chicago area. Outside downtown and in the suburbs, it adjusted hours to comply with local curfews or earlier closing times at stores offering the service, the company said in an email. Amazon, which owns Whole Foods, said it adjusted routes or scaled back delivery options to ensure workers safety in a handful of cities, including Chicago. Read more here. Lauren Zumbach 3:20 p.m.: Pritzker, Preckwinkle turn to religious and community leaders in urging protesters to channel anger toward criminal justice reform, economic development After four days of civil unrest, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on Tuesday turned to religious and community leaders to urge protesters to channel anger over the death of George Floyd toward efforts for criminal justice reform and economic development in minority communities. Whats very important to me is that we establish an agenda an agenda thats led, in part, by the very peaceful protesters that are out on the streets, that were there protesting last night, the night before and the night before, the folks who there with legitimate grievance, Pritzker said. Preckwinkle encouraged those angered by the racist, preventable death of Floyd, who was African American, at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis to seize this moment and try to bring freedom and justice to every American. We cannot do this by destroying our communities, said Preckwinkle, a Hyde Park resident. We cannot do this by decimating what makes our black and brown communities so strong, so close-knit, even in the face of decades, generations of racist government policies and disinvestment. Read more here. Dan Petrella 3:10 p.m.: Top cop says National Guard troops patrolling neighborhoods would be wrought with failure Chicago police Superintendent David Brown on Tuesday explained his opposition to having National Guard troops patrol the citys neighborhoods to quell protests, looting, and other unrest that has flared since the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. Lets revisit how we got here: We got here for an inappropriate use of force in Minneapolis, Brown said at an unrelated news conference Tuesday. We got here through police officers not following their training in positionally asphyxiating a person until they died caught on tape, and weve seen it over and over again to all of our embarrassment. And now you want to call in the National Guard who are not suited to use force in the ways all of our residents expect? All the hard work that our profession has ... trained ... I want to turn over to a National Guard thats not trained, has no connection to our neighborhoods, have not been engaged, who have not built trust, to bring us back to the place we started? Brown said. Were not considering that. Brown also noted that National Guard troops dont have the training in de-escalation as police officers do, and asking them to step in is wrought with failure. What is the likely outcome when rocks are thrown at the National Guard? When shovels and other (objects), hammers, when shots are fired from a crowd at the National Guard? said Brown. Likely not the restraint, the patience that our officers have utilized. They dont have the training in any of those areas or the experience, and to ask them to come into our neighborhoods and be faced with those critical split-second decisions without the training is obviously asking for more of the same, he continued. Brown also addressed the looters tactics, and their connection to protests and the challenges police face. They peacefully protest and then they end the protest, while all at the same time factions of peaceful (protesters) are in the crowd ready to loot as soon as peaceful protests end ..., Brown said. And then our officers have to both navigate First Amendment-sacred rights, but at the same no tolerance for looting. He also urged the public to help businesses board up their windows and rebuild the city. He said he needs the publics help with pushing back against rumors on social media that fuel some of the divisiveness in the city. Such rumors about the civil unrest has caused anxiety among the public, he said. Jeremy Gorner 2:19 p.m.: Tinley Park imposes curfew ahead of scheduled protest Mayor Jacob Vandenberg of suburban Tinley Park said a temporary curfew has been reinstated for Tuesday night, starting at 8 p.m. Tuesday and ending at 6 a.m. Wednesday. He cited a protest expected to take place this evening at the Oak Park Avenue Metra station. The village is requesting that businesses along Oak Park Avenue close at 3 p.m. Tuesday. The Village is taking these measures to ensure the safety and security of residents and businesses. We appreciate your cooperation and understanding, the mayor said in a released statement. Chicago Tribune staff 2:15 p.m.: Lightfoot says shell see Trump in court if he tries to send in military: This is a man who likes to bluster Mayor Lori Lightfoot dismissed President Donald Trumps threat to send the military into city streets across the country to quell protests as bluster, but promised to fight such a move in court if tries it in Chicago. Thats not gonna happen, Lightfoot said Tuesday. I will see him in court. Referring to a 2017 incident where Trump tweeted, Send in the feds! about city violence, Lightfoot said, "Keep in mind, this is a man who likes to bluster. Lets not overreact. Late Monday, Trump held a Rose Garden news conference to threaten he would mobilize the U.S. military to end riots and lawlessness in states that have erupted since the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. It was unclear what form such an action might take. Trump then walked across Pennsylvania Avenue to St. Johns Church, where he held a Bible for a photo-op, after federal officers had used tear gas, flash bangs and rubber bullets to clear peaceful protesters to make way for the president. Gov. J.B. Pritzker appeared on CNN as the scene unfolded and condemned Trumps actions. Lightfoots comments Tuesday marked the latest exchange between Chicagos mayor and Trump. Lightfoot last week responded to Trump tweeting a message that included, When the looting starts, the shooting starts in reply to rioting in Minneapolis and elsewhere following Floyds death. Lightfoot said the president cannot be allowed to divide and destabilize the country. Read more here. Gregory Pratt 2:05 p.m.: Protesters gather Tuesday afternoon outside Wrigley Field for North Side protest march On the North side where marchers were set to gather at Wrigley Field at 2 p.m, and head south on Clark Street, the Town Hall District Station is just two blocks away. Police have taped off the station. By a little before 2 p.m., a sizeable crowd had gathered in front of Wrigley. Many people were hauling packs of bottled water and first aid supplies as temperatures push 90 degrees. This is not a riot!, the crowd chanted. 2:03 p.m.: Naperville businesses, residents get down to the business of cleaning up after looting Naperville residents awoke to a shattered downtown Tuesday, as a previous night of unrest led to looting and vandalism in the citys main shopping and eating district. And then they got to work. Sonya Mingo-Williams and her two children left their Naperville home with brooms and trash bags at 6 a.m., just as a citywide curfew lifted. They arrived to find hundreds of like-minded Naperville residents ready to clean shattered glass from the sidewalks and scrub vandalized buildings. People smashed stores windows along several blocks Monday, including the local library, Starbucks and Chicos clothing store. In addition to being vandalized, the Pandora jewelry store was entirely ransacked. This is our town, and we were so disappointed by what happened last night, she said. We wanted to come down and help as soon as we could. Mingo-Williams watched the violence unfold via social media Monday and was disheartened by the crimes she saw. She had attended a peaceful protest earlier in Naperville earlier in the day with her two children and it troubled her to watch the positive messages sent during that nonviolent gathering overshadowed by the destruction. As a black family, we have talked to our children and its hard to see whats going on in this country, she said. We tell them that they can help bring about change. Our message is strong and our message is important. And in this moment, people have tried to exploit it. An estimated 300 people marched through the downtown Monday night, as police officers in riot gear watched. At least one person reported being stabbed, but police had not yet determined whether he had been injured by broken glass or a knife. A police officer was injured by a fireworks, officials said. His condition was unknown. As he surveyed the damage Tuesday morning, Mayor Steve Chirico said police had photographed license plates of cars parked in public garages and lots to determine where the participants live. The analysis has not been completed, but he said early indications are between 80 to 90% did not live in Naperville. Chirico met with protestors earlier in the day, urging them to get involved in their communities by volunteering and supporting political candidates who believe in social justice. The nonviolent protests message is now obscured by the nighttime unrest, he said. I think it is lost, Chirico said as his voice choked with emotion. And thats unfortunate because people tried to do something good. There were still signed of goodness in Naperville that morning, as estimated 700 people helped with clean up efforts. The group had most it cleaned up by 7:45 a.m., as local businesses showed the gratitude by plying the volunteers with free food and drinks. I wasnt here to help with the (peaceful) protests yesterday and I felt like I needed to help, said Lisle resident Catt Eicher as she swept to up tiny shards of glass along Jackson Avenue. Its better than looking at Twitter and feel sad (or) angry. The towns response heartened Councilman Benny White, who marched in the nonviolent protest earlier Monday. The great thing, for me, is seeing the resilience of our community, said White, the city councils only African-American member. "People are down here lending a hand and making it happen. Im extremely proud of our community. Stacy St. Clair 1:22 p.m.: Evanston police take 12 people into custody following Best Buy looting incidents Twelve people were taken into custody following two looting incidents at a Best Buy in Evanston, according to police. Evanston police responded to a report of looting at the Best Buy store on Howard Street Monday afternoon around 2:30 p.m., said Evanston police Commander Brian Henry. We had people right around the corner, Henry said, so police responded right away after receiving the call. Police took a total of five people into custody following that organized incident Monday. That follows a similar incident at the same store Sunday evening in which seven people were taken into custody, Henry said. None of the 12 people taken into custody over the two days were from Evanston, Henry said. Police said they do not believe the incidents were connected to what was a peaceful protest Sunday afternoon. Charges were pending as of Tuesday morning. Genevieve Bookwalter 12:57 p.m.: Feds charge 2 more people in connection to weekend looting in Chicago Two more people face federal charges following looting in Chicago over the weekend. Brandon Pegues and Amber L. Peltzer, both 28 and from the south suburbs, were charged Monday with illegal possession of a firearm. This follows federal charges against Matthew Rupert, 28, of Galesburg, for allegedly driving to Chicago and Minnesota to loot and riot. Early Sunday, around 12:40 a.m., Chicago police officers responded to crowds near 801 South Financial Place, authorities said. The officers saw four men running south, some carrying hammers, according to court filings. Pegues looked at the police, adjusted the right side of his waistband and fled south on South Financial Place, according to the complaint. As officers chased him, he fell and a loaded 9 mm pistol dropped on the ground. Pegues pushed it under a car, where police recovered it, the complaint said. Around the same time, officers approached Peltzer sitting in a car in front of a bar at 16th Street and Michigan Avenue after noticing the glass front door of the business was shattered, according to the complaint. An officer saw Peltzer reach toward the front seat and the officers saw a loaded handgun lying there, authorities said. Peltzer was convicted of aggravated robbery in Will County in 2014, according to the federal filings. He is from Lansing. Pegues has a 2010 felony conviction for residential burglary in Cook County. On those charges, he was sentenced to 30 months probation. He is from Riverdale. Sophie Sherry 11:50 a.m.: 6 Atlanta officers charged after dramatic video of arrest of college student from Chicago Six Atlanta police officers have been charged after a dramatic video showed authorities pulling two young people, including a college student from Chicago, from a car during protests over the death of George Floyd, a prosecutor said Tuesday. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard announced the charges during a news conference. I feel a little safer now that these monsters are off the street and no longer able to terrorize anyone else, said Messiah Young, who was dragged from the vehicle along with his girlfriend, Taniyah Pilgrim, while they were caught in traffic. Young, 22, of Chicago, is a senior at Morehouse, where hes studying business management. Pilgrim, 20 from San Antonio, Texas is a psychology major at Spelman College. Both schools are historically black colleges near downtown Atlanta. Read more here. Associated Press 11 a.m.: Naperville cleans up downtown after peaceful marches gave way to violence Naperville at 10 a.m. Tuesday was the idyllic picture that draws people to the city: kayakers paddling down the DuPage River, mothers pushing strollers along the Riverwalk, families riding their bicycles along the streets in downtown Naperville.I t was a vastly different image from what the central business district looked 12 hours earlier, when unruly, raging groups of people broke windows, looted businesses and pelted police with rocks, bricks and water bottles. Not willing to accept Monday night, Naperville volunteers showed up early Tuesday morning to clean up the damage done during hours of looting that occurred after peaceful protests occurred throughout the afternoon and evening. Read more here. Erin Hegarty, Suzanne Baker 10:50 a.m.: Chicago will still loosen restrictions on Wednesday as planned, despite widespread looting and coronavirus concerns, Mayor Lori Lightfoot says Despite widespread looting and heightened public health concerns brought on by thousands of people protesting in tight groups across the city, Chicago will move ahead with looser coronavirus restrictions as planned on Wednesday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced. Lightfoot previously said restaurants, hotels and many more businesses would get to start opening June 3 with reduced capacities and tight rules in place designed to stop COVID-19 cases from spiking. That timeline seemed imperiled in recent days as fallout from the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd led to nationwide protests and civil unrest, but Lightfoot said the city will move forward with its plan as scheduled. I want to tell the city now after a lot of consultation and, yes, a lot of prayer, we will reopen tomorrow and take this important next step as planned, Lightfoot said at a morning new conference. The decision to reopen took some by surprise. Over the weekend, Lightfoot suggested that protests could delay a reopening. Read more here. Gregory Pratt 9:35 a.m.: Police release video of fatal shooting at North Riverside mall North Riverside Police have released video of a fatal shooting during Sundays looting outside the towns mall. The 12-second clip shows a gunman in pursuit of another man, who falls to the sidewalk behind Olive Garden Restaurant at North Riverside Park Mall. The gunman, with both hands gripping a weapon, fires multiple times at close range into the fallen mans body. The gunman turns, runs and gets into a waiting car that then drives off. Read more here. Todd Lighty 9:25 a.m.: 4 police officers shot in night of violence in St. Louis Four police officers were shot in downtown St. Louis early Tuesday, as a day of peaceful protests turned into a violent and destructive night in the city. Early in the day, hundreds of people gathered across the St. Louis region again Monday to protest the Memorial Day death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. But tensions rose after the sun fell in downtown St. Louis. Just after midnight, four officers, all men, were shot near 16th and Olive streets. All four are conscious, and their injuries are considered non-life-threatening. Read more here. St. Louis Post-Dispatch 8 a.m.: Lombard man charged with attempted terrorism after police say he approached squad cars with Molotov cocktail A Lombard man has been charged with attempted terrorism after police say he approached squad cars with a Molotov cocktail, lighters and a bat. Christian Frazee, 25 of the 900 Block of South Lombard Avenue in the western suburb, has been ordered held on $1 million bond. Police said Frazee was dressed in black, wearing a face covering and latex gloves, when he headed toward the Village of Lombard municipal campus around 12:30 a.m. Monday. Frazee was seen walking toward squad cars and employee vehicles with a lighter and Molotov cocktail, according to a statement from DuPage Countys states attorneys office. Frazee also had a butane torch, seven additional lighters and a bat. Frazee was charged with one count of possession of an incendiary device and one count of attempted terrorism, both felonies. Sophie Sherry 7:45 a.m.: Two shot dead and 60 arrested in Cicero, town blames outside agitators Police in riot gear patrolled the streets of Cicero Monday night after two people were shot dead and two others were wounded following a day of unrest that the western suburb blamed on outside agitators. At least 60 people were arrested as the town deployed more than 100 officers in addition to more than 100 sheriffs officers and state troopers. Outside agitators shot at least two people near 50th Street and Cermak Road, Cicero spokesman Ray Hanania said. But police apprehended the three suspects involved in the shooting. These were outside agitators who were driving through Cicero seeking to cause trouble. Read more here. Jessica Villagomez 6:15 a.m.: Chicago police and city leaders defend handling of protests and looting as questions swirl over response some found lacking For some three hours on Sunday, the officers stood in a long row on Pulaski Road, a line of blue visible from blocks away. They wore face shields, many flipped up to reveal expressionless faces. The lights of idling police vehicles flickered at their backs. And right in front of them on Madison Street, the West Garfield Park neighborhoods main business artery, liquor stores, wig shops and dollar stores were suffering sustained looting, as people packed shopping carts and shoved large plastic storage bins full of items down the street. They carried liquor bottles and mannequin heads, crawling through broken windows to find items. All the while, the officers did not intervene. Read more here. Annie Sweeney, Gregory Pratt and Jeremy Gorner 6 a.m.: Sparked by death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, protests in Chicago fueled by decades of Police Department problems George Floyds death at the hands of police 400 miles away catalyzed days of street protests in Chicago, but the demonstrations here are rooted in anger over decades of abuse of African Americans by the citys officers, activists said. The protests continued a tradition of Chicago activists crowding streets to complain about bias in enforcement, a lack of accountability for officers and police killing black people. The motivating forces driving the protests also extend beyond policing to unemployment and an often-ineffective health care system at a moment when a coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately hurt minorities, said Aislinn Pulley, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter: Chicago. Read more here. Dan Hinkel 5:50 a.m.: Federal authorities accuse Galesburg man of traveling to Chicago for protests with homemade bombs, charge him with inciting a riot An Illinois man arrested in Chicago over the weekend had homemade bombs in his car and had been seen on videos posted on the internet participating in the looting and rioting in Minneapolis and Chicago, according to federal charges filed Monday. NASHVILLE, Tennessee and DENVER, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hopdoc, a telemedicine startup, and Transact Bank N.A., a bank focused on fintech and payment processor, are teaming up with Transact Pro, the bank's European affiliate, to deliver a friendly, secure and compliant telehealth platform to physicians in the UK so that they can easily continue to meet with patients amidst social distancing practices. Transact Pro will provide the necessary processing technology to facilitate local and cross-border online payments. Hopdoc launched its HIPPA-compliant telemed solution in the US in early April and is now introducing it in the UK to provide doctors the tools they need to keep their patients and their practices healthy. It is free to independent doctors and clinics during the Covid-19 crisis, and providers can register at www.hopdoc.com . "Amid Covid-19 fears, patients are turning to virtual care options," said John Leu, CEO of Hopdoc. "Most current telemedicine platforms connect patients with a new doctor each visit, but Hopdoc, on the other hand, preserves the established patient-physician relationship by providing medical practices with a free platform to treat their patients virtually. "We're excited to bring our global reach and payments expertise to Hopdoc's innovative solution, so that patients can continue to see their trusted physicians virtually," said Mark Moskvin, CEO of Transact Bank. Hopdoc's secure system runs in the cloud and is accessible on any device with a browser. Transact Pro's gateway seamlessly integrates with the Hopdoc platform, allowing simple oneclick billing and payments. Advanced features like recurring payments permit patients to pay over time by securely storing customer and credit card details. About Hopdoc Hopdoc is a Nashville-based telemedicine startup that offers physicians of all specialties a userfriendly, web-based platform to support all telehealth needs. The company is backed and built by renowned web and software developer DevDigital. About Transact Bank N.A. Transact Bank N.A. (formerly Colorado National Bank) is the first US national bank aiming to focus solely on payment processing and card issuing businesses, domestically and crossborder. The acquisition of Colorado National Bank was completed in August 2018, marking it as the first US national bank to be acquired by Fintech entrepreneurs. The bank is an affiliate of Transact Pro, a European-based financial institution and gateway provider. Media Contacts: Hopdoc Susanna Hamner (415) 515-0849 susannah@hopdoc.com Transact Bank Michelle Wagner 770-331-7010 mwagner@transactbank.com Related Links https://www.hopdoc.com SOURCE Hopdoc Stimulus programs designed to keep the economy afloat during the coronavirus pandemic have failed to provide relief to Americans workers and companies who need it most, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said in an interview with CNBC. "The problem wasn't just the amount of money. It was how the programs were designed," Stiglitz said. "Our programs have failed, and we have to admit that." Since early March, the federal government has authorized nearly $3 trillion in stimulus to assist the ailing economy during the pandemic. Stiglitz said the Paycheck Protection Program, which allocated hundreds of billions of dollars in loans to small businesses, was "particularly badly designed." "The businesses with the best connections with the banks, the best customers, got at the head of the line, and those weren't the smallest businesses, they weren't the people who needed it most," he said. With more than 40 million Americans out of work, Stiglitz warned that the economic recovery "is not going to be easy" even after the virus has been put under control. He said fiscal programs in other countries like Denmark and New Zealand, which have paid companies to keep workers on their payrolls, serve as better models for how to tackle unemployment. "We just haven't thought enough about how we get money to the businesses in ways that make sure they really keep the attachment to the workers with those businesses," he said. Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University and author of a new book "People, Power and Profits," said lawmakers should prioritize policies that assist recent high school and college graduates. Otherwise, he said, the U.S. risks facing a "lost generation" of workers. The U.S. unemployment rate for workers with only a high school degree surged from 4.4% in March to 17.3% in April. Economists expect government data on Friday will show a further spike in unemployment in May as many businesses remained shut down. "Every young person should be either in school, on a job or in training in some way," Stiglitz said. "These are valuable years, you shouldn't be wasting those years feeling disconnected, resentful. So I would put a really high priority on that kind of program." House lawmakers asked the Food and Drug Administration this week to ban Puff Bar, the fast-growing e-cigarette that has quickly replaced Juul as the vape of choice among young people. The disposable devices come in more than 20 flavors, among them pina colada, pink lemonade, watermelon and a mysterious blend called O.M.G. Although the Trump administration banned fruit, mint and dessert flavors in refillable cartridge-based e-cigarettes like Juul earlier this year, it carved out an exemption for brands that are used once and thrown away. Puff Bar, which launched last year, has been the key beneficiary of the loophole. It has built on its early success by adding a line of flavor pods called Puff Krush that are compatible with the Juul device, upsetting that company, whose own business has sunk since it restricted sales in the United States to tobacco and menthol varieties last fall. Based on data used only for tracked channels, which include convenience stores and some other retailers but not online sales or vape shops, Puff Bar sales have consistently been over $3 million a week since April, with volumes now over 300,000 sticks per week. Puff Bar is quickly becoming the new Juul, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, Democrat of Illinois, wrote in a letter to the F.D.A. on Monday. Mr. Krishnamoorthi, the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, accused the e-cigarette company of exploiting the coronavirus to sell its products to schoolchildren. California [USA], June 3 (ANI): Scores of protesters marched through downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon (local time) as nearly 2,500 National Guard members were deployed in the state of California. According to CNN, the California National Guard has deployed 2,430 members to assist law enforcement statewide. Large crowds of protesters are concentrated in the greater Los Angeles area and others are in Sacramento and Alameda County in Northern California. Demonstrators walked past the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters and stood outside the City Hall as Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti bowed down to his knee during the protest as a mark of respect. Meanwhile, the US Department of Defence has raised the security level conditions at the Pentagon and other Defence facilities in the capital to the second highest. "We increased the force protection level at select installations within the National Capital Region to best ensure the safety and security of our service members and their families," Northern Command spokesperson was quoted as saying by CNN. Moreover, protests across the United States has continued, more cities have announced curfew including Los Angeles County, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, San Francisco, Oakland, New York City and Cleveland. After protesters were cleared from the Washington DC area, Attorney General William Barr thanked local DC police, military leaders and federal law enforcement agents for "significant progress in restoring order to the nation's capital." "Last night was a more peaceful night in the District of Columbia. Working together, federal and local law enforcement made significant progress in restoring order to the nation's capital," Barr was quoted as saying by CNN. Following former US President's remark condemning violence over Floyd's death, George W. Bush has too put out a statement saying that he "anguished by the brutal suffocation" of George Floyd. The 46-year-old George Floyd's death has sparked outrage across the nation. Floyd was detained and subsequently died in police custody in Minneapolis last month. (ANI) Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson don't shy away from grotesque, rude, salacious or taboo topics on their popular radio show. And during Tuesday's show, Jackie's nine-year-old daughter Kitty walked in on her mother recording a VERY inappropriate segment. Jackie is still broadcasting from a studio inside her Bondi Beach home amid the coronavirus pandemic, and little Kitty had not yet gone off to school. Scroll down for video Oh dear! Kyle Sandilands was left mortified when Jackie 'O' Henderson's daughter Kitty, nine, interrupted their broadcast during a VERY inappropriate segment on Tuesday A caller was discussing her masturbation habits to the radio hosts when Kitty walked in on the live radio broadcast. At the start of the segment, Jackie appeared to instinctively look around the room to make sure her daughter wasn't there before asking the caller questions. 'Are you naked in the photos? what's the deal?' Jackie asked as the caller - named Charlotte - claimed she had been 'pleasuring' herself... to photos of herself. 'Yes, some of them are like body pictures and some of them will have my face,' the caller continued as Kitty was seen entering the room to say goodbye to her mother before heading off to school. Kyle cut Jackie off as Kitty got closer, saying: 'Oh, hang on everyone. Pause! Pause! Hey Kitty. Adult talking time now. Off you go.' 'Adult talking time now. Off you go': A caller was discussing her masturbation habits to the radio hosts as the young child crept into frame during the live radio broadcast to say goodbye to her mother before school 'I feel very uncomfortable': Kyle said he didn't like Kitty randomly popping up during the breakfast show as it 'threw him off' when they were having 'adult' conversations As soon as Kitty had left the room, Kyle joked by putting on a low voice: 'Okay, now back to Charlotte.' He later told his co-host: 'She can't just keep walking in like this, Jackie. I feel very uncomfortable when I'm picturing what Charlotte [the caller] is doing to herself and then your child appears. It really throws me off.' Jackie laughed and assured Kyle that Kitty can't hear anything from the show except for what she is saying in her at-home microphone. In the past few weeks Kitty has made multiple on-air interruptions. She once watched SpongeBob SquarePants on TV, which could be heard over the radio, and another time came in mid-show to ask her mother to make her pancakes. Hilarious! Kitty's past on-air interruptions include watching SpongeBob SquarePants on TV, which could be heard over the radio, and coming in mid-show to ask her mother to make her pancakes for breakfast Exes: Jackie shares custody of Kitty with her ex-husband Lee Henderson. They separated in 2018 after 15 years of marriage, but remain on amicable terms as they co-parent their daughter Jackie shares custody of Kitty with her ex-husband Lee Henderson. The couple separated in 2018 after 15 years of marriage, but remain on amicable terms as they co-parent their daughter. Kitty previously lived with her father during the week to accommodate Jackie's early starts as a breakfast radio host, but she is now living with her mother, who is broadcasting from a home studio during the coronavirus pandemic. While Jackie is bunkered down at home, Kyle continues to work from their Sydney studios at North Ryde. Detroit's automakers are calling on their employees to encourage dialogue in the midst of the international health crisis and America's social upheaval. "There is a big difference between seeing what's wrong and doing what's right," began GM CEO Mary Barra's letter dated Sunday. "Let's stop asking 'why' and start asking 'what.' What are we going to do? In this moment, we each must decide what we can do individually and collectively to drive change ... meaningful, deliberate change. As one of the largest global companies, there is much we can do," she continued. "We commit to inclusion; [w]e unequivocally condemn intolerance; [w]e stand up against injustice," Barra's letter said, citing the company's "longstanding values." Ford CEO Jim Hackett and Chairman Bill Ford Jr., delivered a similar message of unity and inclusion to company employees Monday, calling this "... an extraordinary moment in our history." "There is no doubt that the weight of these challenges disproportionately fall on the black community," the Ford message said. "We have seen this disparity among our own Ford team members affected by COVID-19, and the legacy of economic disparities in our own home city of Detroit. It is pain that many of our team members have long felt in their daily lives." "There are no easy answers. We are not interested in superficial actions. This is our moment to lead from the front and fully commit to creating the fair, just and inclusive culture that our employees deserve." Ford and Hackett promised that their words will be backed with action, and announced new initiatives aimed at helping employees feel heard and acknowledged. The executives said they plan to meet with employees company-wide in order to encourage more open dialog about issues surrounding race and inclusion. "We also plan to ask leaders throughout the company to hold dialogues with their teams to understand how people are feeling and discuss how we can get better together. We promise to share updates as we continue on this journey," they said. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2020) - SKRR Exploration Inc. (TSXV: SKRR) ("SKRR" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that crews have been mobilised to commence phase one exploration activity on the Olson property (the "Property") located 100 km east of La Ronge, northern Saskatchewan. Under the terms of the option agreement with Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. ("Eagle Plains"), SKRR may earn-in up to a 75% interest in the Property. Olson Project Summary The Olson project is host to regionally-sheared, highly-strained meta-volcanic rocks which are considered to be prospective for orogenic gold mineralization. The Olson project area is host to 29 mineral occurrences defined by historical geological mapping, prospecting, trenching and 4700 m of diamond drilling. Historical drilling has intersected 7.5 m grading 2.07 g/t Au including 13.00 g/t Au over 0.65 m and grab samples of up to 105.52 g/t Au. The project is considered to be significantly underexplored, with known gold occurrences open at depth and along strike. These results are historical in nature and have not been confirmed by Eagle Plains/SKRR but are considered to be reliable and will form a basis for ongoing work. SKRR has not verified the assay results nor has SKRR done the drilling and sampling necessary to verify the assay results. In 2018, Eagle Plains and a previous partner completed a detailed compilation of existing data, followed by a 2- Phase, $150,000 field program which consisted of geological mapping and prospecting and the collection of a total of 862 soil samples and 126 rock samples. The 2018 field program verified the results of historical work and identified additional targets in areas that were previously unexplored. Grid soil geochemistry highlighted two main areas with extensive gold in soil anomalies. Soil geochemical values ranged from below detection to a maximum of 2704.6 ppb Au, with 6 samples returning greater than 1000 ppb Au. In the Jena area, soil geochemistry delineated a 1.4 km strike length of anomalous soil results greater than 80 ppb Au with a maximum of 1346 ppb Au. The Ackbar-Tuscan-Point area also returned promising results, with a 300m by 100m zone returning values greater than 80 ppb Au and a maximum of 2704.6 ppb Au. Soil geochemistry at the Olson and Juba showing areas returned lower values, likely related to thick clay and soil cover in these areas. Prospecting in the areas of anomalous soil geochemistry identified gold mineralization associated with shear-hosted quartz veins. Analytical results ranged from below detection to a maximum of 45.1 g/t Au, with 20 grab samples returning greater than 1000 ppb Au. The Olson area had a maximum assay of 41.0 g/t Au from a grab sample of sheeted veins. The Jena area had 20 samples in excess of 1000 ppb Au with a maximum assay of 15.7 g/t Au from quartz-arsenopyrite veins. At the Juba occurrence, a grab sample returned 13.1 g/t Au. Mineralization at the Point and Tuscan area returned maximum values of 9.8 g/t Au at the Point and 45.1 g/t Au at Tuscan. Ross McElroy, Chairman and Chief Geologist for SKRR, commented, "The Olson project exploration program is the maiden work program for SKRR and thus represents a major milestone for the company. With an exceptional partner in Eagle Plains, we are poised to take advantage of this mineral-rich strategic property, located in the heart of Saskatchewan's gold district. In a short period of time, SKRR has built an impressive portfolio of five projects, under-explored for precious metals and located in this highly ranked mining jurisdiction. SKRR plans to aggressively explore and quickly move to develop drill targets on Olson as well as the rest of its portfolio. SKRR plans to be a significant explorer in this top-tier mining province." 2020 Work Program Objectives Phase one fieldwork has been designed to define targets for a phase two diamond drilling program, with planning underway for a Fall, 2020 program. Discovery Geophysics from Saskatoon has been contracted to carry out a 10.3 line-km DC resistivity / IP geophysical survey at the Jena-Juba and Point-Tuscan targets, with preliminary results available for follow-up during phase one. Geological fieldwork will include detailed prospecting and mapping, infill soil geochemical sampling and channel sampling of trenches. Jena/Juba Area Interpretation of historical work indicates that the historical drillholes were likely oriented parallel to the main structures and missed the most prospective targets. Geological fieldwork will focus on defining target areas within the known mineralized trends with the IP survey providing depth and orientation of the target mineralization. North Point-Tuscan Area Geological mapping, detailed soil geochemistry, channel sampling and IP will be used to define the relationship between known mineralized vein orientations and cross cutting historic gold in soil geochemical anomalies. Ackbar-Tuscan Area Detailed follow-up of a 300m x 100m gold soil geochemistry anomaly located in 2018 as well as reconnaissance prospecting north of Ackbar Lake in an area with abundant outcrop and no historical work. Carina Area Assess continuity of veining and shears to define potential for drill targets associated with high-grade ore shoots. Olson Area Geological modelling of the Olson showing using historical drilling, trenching and reinterpreted historical IP data will be used to assess potential for on-strike diamond drill targets. Qualified Person The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Ross McElroy P.Geol, a director of the Company and a "Qualified Person" as defined in National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. About SKRR Exploration Inc.: SKRR is a Canadian-based precious metal explorer with properties in Saskatchewan - one of the world's highest ranked mining jurisdictions. The primary exploration focus is on the Trans-Hudson Corridor in Saskatchewan in search of world class precious metal deposits. The Trans-Hudson Orogen - although extremely well known in geological terms has been significantly under-explored in Saskatchewan. SKRR is committed to all stakeholders including shareholders, all its partners and the environment in which it operates. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Sherman Dahl President & CEO Tel: 250-558-8340 Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Information This news release contains "forward-looking information or statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, which may include, without limitation, statements that address the planned exploration work on the Olson property and work on other properties, other statements relating to the technical, financial and business prospects of the Company, its projects and other matters. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future, including the price of metals, the ability to achieve its goals, that general business and economic conditions will not change in a material adverse manner, that financing will be available if and when needed and on reasonable terms. Such forward-looking information reflects the Company's views with respect to future events and is subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those filed under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward looking statements include, but are not limited to, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions, adverse weather conditions, failure to maintain all necessary government permits, approvals and authorizations, failure to maintain community acceptance (including First Nations), increase in costs, litigation, and failure of counterparties to perform their contractual obligations. The Company does not undertake to update forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, except as required by law. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/57046 You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close The Fort Bend Junior Service League, a charity womens organization devoted to community service and fellowship, is currently recruiting new members for the 2020-2021 league year. Our purpose is exclusively educational and charitable as well as providing an atmosphere of friendliness, goodwill and camaraderie for all members, the organizations website said. FBJSL encourages women age 21 and older who are interested in community service, fellowship and philanthropy to apply for a position in the organization. Community service is more important than ever, the organization believes. Related: This local charity is preventing dropouts with book donations. Find out how you can help. This year, amidst a pandemic of historic proportions, it is critical that we, as the Fort Bend Junior Service League. increase our community support. said Jessica Gregory, director of new members. Hard work, generosity and the spirit of volunteerism are needed now, more than ever, as we navigate these unprecedented circumstances and the uncharted waters ahead. Notable beneficiaries of FBJSL service and donations include Reining Strength Therapeutic Horsemanship, Gigis Play House Sugar Land, Lunches of Love and Child Advocates of Fort Bend. FBJSL also volunteers at events hosted by Parks Youth Ranch, The Literacy Council, Fort Bend Rainbow Room, Houston Museum of Natural Science Sugar Land and Hope for Three, a press release from the organization said. In addition to its charitable work, the FBJSL is also known for its Sugar Plum Market event. The Sugar Plum Market, a holiday shopping event featuring more than 100 vendors each year, has raised more than $4.5 million for local charities since its inception. Last years market generated $345,000, which was divided among 25 area charities. More news from Fort Bend County: Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce to host webinar with area college experts To apply, visit www.fbjsl.org or the FBJSLs Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/FortBendJuniorServiceLeague/. Potential members may apply until the last week in August, a representative stated in a Facebook post. claire.goodman@chron.com Mitron app, which recently went viral by claiming to be Indias answer to the China-based TikTok, has been suspended from the Google Play Store, states a report by CNBC-TV18. According to the report, the Mitron app has been suspended for violating the Spam and Minimum Functionality developer policies under the Google Play Store, although the developers behind the app can challenge the suspension if they have enough grounds to prove themselves. However, while the original Mitron app has been suspended, numerous others of the same nature have already spawned up on the Play Store. A quick check on Googles app store for Mitron shows apps like Mitron Indian by Tools LLC, Mitron - Indias Short Video Platform by Vee Developer and Mitron by Socialeee. Each of these apps seem to have followed in ShopKiller e-Commerces footsteps by targeting the anti-China and local-made product sentiments. All of these apps were introduced in late May, and have similar reviews praising them for being Indian. Their interfaces are also cloned from TikTok, hence reiterating the same cloning format that was followed by the initial Mitron app, which skyrocketed in popularity and registered over 5 million downloads in a short span of time. Earlier, our investigation of the Mitron app had found that not only does the app lack a privacy policy, but is in fact a hastily repackaged version of TicTic a Pakistani clone of Bytedances TikTok. According to Irfan Sheikh, founder and chief executive of TicTics developer Qboxus, the promoters behind Mitron had simply purchased TicTics source code via CodeCanyon for $34 (~Rs 2,600), and uploaded it on the Google Play Store in India with their own logo. Every other bit, from the interface to how the app was operated, remained the same. This itself signified that the app was far from being made in India, and with a complete lack of privacy policies, made for a fraudulent app looking to cash in on a prevalent sentiment in the country. Google's Spam and Minimum Functionality developer policy, under which the Mitron app was flagged, says, "At a minimum, apps should provide users with a basic degree of functionality and a respectful user experience. Apps that crash, exhibit other behaviour that is not consistent with a functional user experience, or that serve only to spam users or Google Play are not apps that expand the catalog in a meaningful way." On top of its functionality aspect, other reports online have also stated that the erstwhile Mitron app had numerous security gaffes, none of which were addressed in the time span through which it came under spotlight. CNBC-TV18s report states that prior to being suspended, Mitron had updated their privacy policy with a document that was incidentally linked to Californias privacy laws, hence indicating that it had no effect whatsoever in India. As such, there is no reason why a respectable app that claimed to have been made in India would have a privacy policy linked to USAs laws. As of now, while the Mitron app has indeed been blocked, the numerous other clones that have spawned off it remain intact, and no action has been noticed about them from Googles end. Ahead of the mass voter registration exercise for the 2020 general election, the Electoral Commission (EC) will, today, begin a nationwide training exercise for 42,025 registration officials to equip them with the requisite skills and knowledge desired for the exercise. The ECs regional directors and their deputies, as well as regional supervisors, deputy registration supervisors, district electoral officers and assistant electoral officers, are to benefit from the exercise, which involves training for data entry clerks, laminators and those to be directly involved in the use of biometric voter registration (BVR) kits at the grass roots. The officials will also be taken through the registration procedure, which will cover eligibility criteria, challenge procedures and the vouching process. The Deputy Commissioner in charge of Operations at the EC, Mr Samuel Tettey, told the Daily Graphic in Accra that the training exercises should be completed by the third week of this month, in readiness for the commencement of the mass voter registration. Asked if political party representatives would also be trained, he said the EC did not have enough budgetary support to add political parties to the training exercise. He, however, said if any political party needed the services of the EC, we will make our training team available to that party. Pilot registration The EC will also conduct a two-day pilot registration exercise at all its regional offices today and tomorrow to test the BVR kits, assess the protocols put in place, among other things. Besides, it will later announce a date for a national pilot registration exercise at its head office in Accra. Representatives of political parties will be expected to be in attendance to observe the processes. Mr Tettey said all the officials would be briefed on the rules and regulations guiding the registration exercise and the enforcement of measures to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19. He said the EC was leaving no stone unturned to ensure a successful registration exercise and the conduct of peaceful, transparent, free and fair elections on December 7, 2020. COVID-19 Mr Tettey said the EC had procured appropriate personal protective equipment for all registration officials to protect them and all registrants. At the registration centres, he said, there would be the compulsory wearing of nose masks by officials, registrants, party agents and security officials. Furthermore, he said, the temperature of registrants would be taken, while all other measures, including the washing of hands with soap under running water, cleaning the registration gadgets with sanitisers, among others, would be strictly observed. To ensure that the one-metre distance rule was observed, he said, the EC would mark the points with white paint to create adequate spacing to enforce the physical distancing protocol. He appealed for support and cooperation from all stakeholders, so that the exercise could take place peacefully and gave an assurance that everything would be done to capture all eligible voters, so that nobody would be disenfranchised. IPAC meeting At an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting in Accra last Wednesday to discuss the compilation of a new voters register, the EC informed the participants that it had slated the registration exercise to begin from the last week of June to the end of July 2020. It said the exercise, which would start from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, would take place at all the 33,367 polling stations, which will serve as registration centres, nationwide. According to the EC, it would adopt the cluster system of registration during the upcoming exercise. It will be done simultaneously in all the districts/constituencies nationwide, with each cluster consisting of five registration centres. In all, there will be five phases during the registration period, with each registration team working for a period of six days in each phase within the cluster. However, a day is set aside to assemble and prepare the materials for the next phase, it explained. The EC said information on the movement plan of the registration teams would be communicated to all stakeholders. Criteria To qualify for registration, it said, an applicant must be a Ghanaian citizen, 18 years or older, of sound mind, resident or ordinarily resident in an electoral area and not prohibited by any law in force from registering as a voter. It said all eligible voters would be given instant voter ID cards when they registered, except in cases where applications had been challenged. Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The two most senior members of Queensland's government have apologised to the family of a man who was believed to have been the country's youngest COVID-19 victim, after a coroner found he did not have the virus. Nathan Turner, 30, was found dead at his Blackwater home in central Queensland last week and a post-mortem test returned positive to COVID-19. Queensland Deputy Premier and Health Minister Steven Miles said while he was sorry for adding to the family's grief, he would not have done anything differently. Credit:AAP His death sparked a massive health response, with fever clinics set up and public experts flown in from Brisbane. Authorities had been left baffled as to how Mr Turner could have contracted the virus given he had not left the small coal mining town, which had never recorded a case of coronavirus, for months. UK residents protest killing of black man, George Floyd According to the BBC, protesters in London held placards saying Racism has no place and I cant breathe a reference to George Floyds words during arrest. Thousands of people have gathered across central London to protest against the killing of George Floyds by the Police in the US. They were seen signs saying Justice for George Floyd who died in Minneapolis while an office knelt on his neck to pin him down. Thousands of Black lives matter has the protesters marched across Central London on Sunday to protest against the killing of an unarmed black man by police in the US. In a video of the arrest of Mr Flour he could be heard begging, I cant breathe last Monday in Minneapolis before he died while being restrained. The protests have been held at Trafalgar Square and outside the US Embassy in Battersea, south London, chanting say his name: George Floyd and no justice, no peace, no racist police. They also held up placards saying racism has no place, and I cant breathe. Black Lives Matter said: We are doing this to place pressure on the American government and show that this is a world wide issue. The Met Police said officers were present and were engaging with those in attendance. Hundreds of people marched through Peckham in south London on Saturday in protest against police brutality. Libyas rival governments have agreed to resume talks aimed at securing a lasting cease-fire, the United Nations mission to the country said Monday. The UN Support Mission in Libya said the internationally recognized Government of National Accord and Khalifa Hifters self-styled Libyan National Army would resume negotiations based on earlier UN-led talks that brought together five senior officials from each side in February. Since 2014, the oil-rich country has been embroiled in conflict between the two administrations and their array of foreign backers, which have flooded the country with illegal arms. During the past nine years, some 400,000 Libyans have been displaced from their homes about half of them this year amid the fighting in the capital, Tripoli. A truce brokered in January by Russia and Turkey, which support opposite sides of the war, failed to quell the fighting. As of mid-May, the UN said it had documented more than 850 cease-fire violations. With the backing of Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, Hifters army has waged an offensive on Tripoli for more than a year. But in recent weeks, GNA forces have succeeded in pushing back forces loyal to the renegade commander from several key towns along the Tunisian border. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called for an immediate cease-fire in Libya to allow for coronavirus aid to reach vulnerable populations. The war-torn country has so far reported just five deaths out of 168 cases of the virus, the majority in the southern city of Sabha. Many health care facilities, especially those close to the fighting, are damaged or have closed entirely. In a proactive approach to current military spouse unemployment rates, as well as the huge wave of more than one million veterans who filed for jobless benefits last month, Hiring our Heroes (HoH) and Salesforce have joined together to support military spouse employment with a new fellowship program. HoH has several fellowship programs, including a corporate program for active-duty service members that boasts a 91% placement rate, said Eric Eversole, president of Hiring Our Heroes and a vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Salesforce fellowship program is open to veterans and spouses residing in the United States. Salesforce, a customer relationship management platform, offers free online training through its Trailhead platform. This allows active-duty military, veterans and military spouses to complete courses and certification exams at no cost. The Salesforce Fellowship Program connects applicants who have completed Salesforce training with companies with a need for certified professionals. This offers 12 weeks of job training to the fellows as it provides the host companies the benefit of those skilled, certified professionals during that time and the opportunity to hire them at a later date. "This fellowship will put money directly into the pockets of military families at a time many are experiencing uncertainty," Ann Weeby, head of Salesforce Military, said in a release. "Our customers and partners benefit from incredible talent, and our military Trailblazers get valuable work experience -- truly a win-win." Military spouses and veterans who are interested in becoming fellows should apply online, paying special attention to the deadlines and cohort dates. The first cohort is scheduled to begin in August, and the last will end in December. "Applicants should have a Salesforce certification before applying -- or [be] within 30 days of completion," Eversole said. When the cohort begins, fellows will work four days per week for 12 weeks and participate in regular team huddles with Hiring Our Heroes program managers, experienced Salesforce mentors and other fellows in the program, he added. "A typical day for fellows will be spent with their host supervisors or mentors, gaining hands-on experience by virtually participating in or managing a project within the Salesforce," Eversole said. "The long-term goals of the program are to provide veterans and military spouses with short-term employment opportunities and long-term pathways to employment with skillbuilding, networking, and on-the-job training." The end goal is to give fellows the training and network to find permanent employment following the cohort. "A Salesforce IT certification will provide veterans and military spouses with immediate employment opportunities, as well as a marketable skill for upward mobility," Eversole said. Keep Up with the Ins and Outs of Military Life For the latest military news and tips on military family benefits and more, subscribe to Military.com and have the information you need delivered directly to your inbox. --Rebecca Alwine can be reached at rebecca.alwine@monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebecca_alwine. The blowout of an Oil India Limited (OIL) gas well in Assams Tinsukia district last week is causing extensive damage to biodiversity and wildlife the region -- including the endangered hoolock gibbons and Gangetic dolphins -- according to several residents, activists and experts. Baghjan, where the gas well blowout occurred on May 27 is close to the Dibru Saikhowa National Park, the Maguri-Motapung wetlands, and the forest villages of Barekuri which are habitat to the hoolock gibbon. Uncontrollable gas flow is continuing from the gas well, according a press statement issued by Oil India Limited on Monday. What we are seeing is complete horror. Condensed oil is leaking continuously. The Maguri-Motapung wetlands (an important bird and biodiversity area) is very badly affected. There is a thick layer of crude oil on the water. Fish are dying and some cattle that graze in the adjacent wetlands are also dead, said Mridupaban Phukon, a student and wildlife activist. We have been informed by people in Barekuri villages that condensed oil is coating leaves and has started affecting the hoolock gibbon habitat. If not contained immediately the wetlands and national park will be devastated, he said over phone. Around 650 families have been evacuated from the affected areas and continue camped in three relief camps. I visited the area on Sunday but it was barricaded. I could see the damage everywhere. Dead fish were floating and the vegetation is brown now. One Gangetic dolphin died soon after the leak. Usually the Maguri bheel is rich with birdlife, I could hardly spot any birds that day. I appeal for immediate help, said Nabamita Ray, doctor and wildlife enthusiast. AM Singh, principal chief conservator of forests, Assam and spokesperson of environment ministry said that a team of forest officials, pollution control board members and OIL officials will submit a report on Wednesday while another committee which also has independent members from IIT Guwahati are assessing damage in the national park. Oil Indias crisis management team (CMT) members have started pumping water through the casing valve. Water is being pumped continuously through the valve into the well head. Oil India has also contacted global experts to control the blowout, the press statement cited above said, adding that the water pumps are being installed in the nearby river (source of water) and pipeline-laying work is in progress. Officials said that an additional plot of land adjacent to the well site has also been arranged to create a big reservoir of water and to place the well control equipment in it. A blowout is the uncontrolled release of crude oil or natural gas from an oil well or gas well after pressure control systems have failed. According to Oil India, the blowout happened on May 27 while operations were going to produce gas from a new sand (oil and gas-bearing reservoir) at a depth of 3,279 metres. The well was until then producing around 100,000 standard cubic metres a day of gas. Assam Chief Wildlife Warden and additional principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF) MK Yadava said an assessment is underway to measure the damage to the ecology and animal and bird species in the area because of the blowout. He added that the carcass of a Gangetic dolphin found at Maguri beel has been sent for forensic examination. In the two days after the accident, the condense oil had only spread up to 500 metres but now it has spread in 1.5km radius as per our observations. Oil India is saying it may take another week. Who will compensate for this damage? asked Hemanta Moran, Principal, Jatiya Vidyalaya Baghjan. According to a 2013 site inspection report regarding oil and gas pipelines in Upper Assam by conservation scientists and former members of National Board for Wildlife, MD Madhusudan and Prerna Singh Bindra, the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park and Biosphere Reserve meet at the confluence of the Brahmaputra with three of Indias easternmost riversthe Siang, Dibang and Lohit rivers. The park shaped by the these rivers is spread over 765 sq-km, of which 340 sq-km form the core and is a complex of wetlands, alluvial grasslands, riverine forests, swamps and semi-evergreen forests, including the largest willow swamp forest in north-east India. Dibru-Saikhowa has recorded over 40 mammals, 500 species of birds, 104 fish species, 105 butterfly species and 680 types of plants. It harbours tigers, elephants, wild buffalos, leopards, hoolock gibbons, capped langurs, slow lorises, Gangetic dolphins, besides critically endangered bird species such as the Bengal florican, white-winged duck, greater adjutant stork, white-rumped vulture, slender-billed vulture, and the very rare and endemic black-breasted parrotbill. Meanwhile, an OIL advertisement last month said the union environment ministry has accorded environmental clearance on May 11 for extension drilling and testing of hydrocarbons at 7 locations under Dibru Saikhowa National Park. HT verified documents on environment ministrys Parivesh website which also states that the clearance was accorded. The continued oil leakage from the blow it is a horrific environmental crime. It has caused the death of the endangered Gangetic dolphin and thousands of fish, laying wetlands and fields waste, it is endangering the rare hoolock gibbons. Unfortunately, this is not the first time there has been such a leakage or environmental norms have been flouted indeed part of the pipeline in the eco-sensitive zone of the Dibru-Saikhowa National park had been laid before mandatory environment approvals were given. Dibru-Saikhowa and its surrounding landscape has immense ecological values, and allowing drilling inside a national park is against the spirit and letter of the law, besides violating our basic constitutional principles of protecting environment, said Bindra, who visited the site as a National Board for Wildlife member. San Antonio Symphony musicians Eric Siu and Ryan Murphy recently played for their biggest audience in about two months: six people, including two symphony staffers and two Express-News journalists. Ive been playing to my baby and thats about it. She is sometimes unimpressed, Murphy said, laughing. Tough crowd. Siu and Murphy are eager to get back to playing for people who are in the same space as they are, responding to the music in real time. For the time being, though, theyre playing for digital platforms. Now Playing: Cellist Ryan Murphy plays 1st Prelude of J.S. Bachs Cello Suite at the Briscoe Western Art Museum on May 15. 2020. Billy Calzada /Express-News Video: San Antonio Express-News Their solo renderings of works by Bach and Gluck, respectively, were captured on video for a new series on social media designed to promote the symphony and other nonprofits forced to shut down because of restrictions put in place to combat the spread of COVID-19. The first videos were shot at the Briscoe Western Art Museum and the San Antonio Zoo. In addition to that campaign, the symphony has been posting videos that painstakingly stitch together footage of musicians playing their individual parts in works by Elgar and Sibelius. Steve Peterson is pulling double-duty on the project. In addition to recording himself playing his part as principal trombone, he edits all of those videos. He is currently at work on a video of Mahlers Resurrection symphony. On ExpressNews.com: Centro Cultural Aztlan to launch month-long virtual arts series Videos from both projects can be found on the symphonys Facebook page, @sasymphony. They are part of an ongoing push to make sure that San Antonians dont forget that the city has a symphony that still needs support, even if live performances are not possible right now. To be able to create any sort of performance with your colleagues and to have a presence for the symphony and all of our collaborators is really cool, said Peterson, 38, who has been with the orchestra since 2016. It certainly is nice to perform in any way you can. Siu, Murphy and Peterson all want to be back onstage at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts and play for live audiences again. The 2020-21 season was announced about a month ago. If it goes as scheduled, it will start in September. Discussions for how that can be done safely for patrons, musicians and all of the people who work backstage, in the lobby and elsewhere to make concerts run smoothly are ongoing. Were talking about being more spaced out on the stage, other safety precautions, said Siu, 36, who has been with the symphony since 2013. Were in discussion mode still. We have a few more months to figure it out. We have to think about the safety of the patrons, too, so thats the other thing were talking about. Murphy, 38, who has been with the orchestra for eight years, acknowledged the worry that is a part of the discussions about how to come back safely. Were all a little trepedatious about the safety of the musicians, he said. You know, wide-ranging people from a wide range of places who are all involved in things outside of work, so its going to be interesting to see how to navigate that. Peterson, too, noted the fears that some have. I have to be honest, for myself, I'm not concerned, but I am concerned for people that are concerned, he said. I want to be super respectful and understanding of those people. If we need to increase the space (between musicians) or come up with a testing method, I'm OK with that. I know a smaller number (of musicians playing) has been discussed. I don't think that's really sustainable. I think we want to be able to perform in large numbers again. Murphy is grateful for the opportunity for the musicians to share their talents via video, but, he said, Its weird. Its like having a conversation with yourself. So much of what we do and so much of what I enjoy about our job is the interaction in these master works that youre able to have with the people onstage, and youre able to use their energy and the audience energy to try and create a once-ever kind of performance. Once the symphony is able to return to the Tobin Center, Murphy thinks performances will be a little different at first. I think theres a lot of opportunities for innovation for different sorts of concerts - smaller concerts. And maybe just different interactions with the audience, he said. Weve been talking about some ideas about virtual reality and having different seating arrangements. The great thing about the Tobin Center is that were able to have that flexibility. Symphony musicians have kept in touch with each other, calling and texting. And when given the chance to perform in any way, most will jump on it. On ExpressNews.com: Briscoe Western Art Museum reopens I just want to get out and play music again, Siu said. For their solo outings, he and Murphy played in the third-floor galleries of the Briscoe on a Friday morning about a week before it reopened. Murphy played his cello beside a chuckwagon; Siu played his violin in a gallery devoted to the Alamo. This is a really neat setting, Murphy said. I hope Bach works in here. Bach works everywhere, but this is a very unique space. Only in Texas, right? Both musicians wore masks for most of the time they were inside the museum, though they removed them while they played no surprise to anyone else who wears glasses and has had them fog up while masked. Both have done a lot of practicing while sheltering in place, as well as shifting their private lessons and the other teaching that they do online. Siu has been working to keep himself busy, learning some new music and trying new recipes. Originally, we were only canceled for five weeks, he said. And I was like, how am I going to do this for five whole weeks? Im OK with it now. Im still looking forward to playing music with my colleagues. Murphy and his partner, fellow symphony cellist Morgen Johnson, occasionally play for daughter Tallulah Rose, who was born in January, for as long as her attention span allows. Sometimes they can get all the way through a Bach suite before she starts getting fussy. Were really trying to make the best of it, Murphy said. Its really great to have the time to be with her and to practice and kind of be thankful for the things that we have, that were still in the symphony and still working, still doing what we can in the community, still teaching. Peterson has been practicing at home, too. He has gotten to play outside of his house a bit, playing for church services. When he is home, he often is working on the symphony videos, a project that was proposed by Music Director Sebastian Lang-Lessing. He has been creating multimedia content since he was a college student: It started as a hobby, and then I became the musician that did videos, he said. For the symphony videos, Peterson tried to make sure they sound good and also are visually appealing, aiming to try to duplicate in the formating the way that the musicians sit when they are onstage together and to guide viewers attention. He is devoting a fair amount of time now to similar projects for other ensembles. I dont seek out a lot of extra video work, but this COVID thing is changing that for the moment, he said. Hes grateful for that Having some value or purpose is always good, he said but he also misses performing. Ideally, his time would be more evenly split between playing and video work. When Im not performing enough, which is probably now, I definitely feel it, and I feel a little out of balance, he said. I feel like I need to have them both to feel complete. dlmartin@express-news.net | Twitter: @DeborahMartinEN Deborah Martin is an arts writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Deborah, become a subscriber. dlmartin@express-news.net | Twitter: @DeborahMartinEN A pregnant great white shark has swum more than 700 miles out to sea to escape amorous males, researchers have claimed. The 15-foot-long and 2,000lbs female, named Unama'ki, was tagged off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, in September last year. Since then she stayed close to the shoreline, taking seven months to meander down to the bay of Mexico. But in April the shark had a change of heart, and powered over more than 1,300 miles out into the Atlantic, at one point turning back on herself, before starting to circle around 300 miles off the coast of Nova Scotia. Researchers are fascinated by the journey - which they said could lead them to a much-sought great white shark nursery. Scroll down for video Researchers track Unama'ki using a device on her dorsal fin, which transmits her co-ordinates every time it breaks the surface. She was last recorded off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada The shark made its way down to the Bay of Mexico after it was tagged. Then Unama'ki suddenly changed track and headed up for the top of the Atlantic Ocean Researches noticed that last month, Unama'ki left the eastern US coast and made her way deeper into the ocean something experts call a pelagic journey. Another reason is the water temperatures are more favorable for young sharks and the shark be looking for an abundant food source for their babies to feed on once they are born Unama'ki's name comes from Nova Scotia's indigenous Mi'kmaq people's name for Cape Breton Island, 'land of the fog.' And she was tagged in the northwest Atlantic by OCEARCH, a non-profit team of scientists, which gather data on shark movements to identify key locations for the species. Her tracker, fastened to the shark's dorsal fin, transmits her location to the researchers every time it breaks the surface. 'We have tracked at least one big mature female returning from one of these journeys by heading straight back to the New York Bight, which is a white shark nursery,' their chairman Chris Fischer told Newsweek. He said there are three possible reasons Unama'ki has made the lengthy journey. 'One, they could be avoiding further attempts to mate by the males,' he said. 'Two, they could be taking advantage of temperature regimes offshore that are favourable for gestation of their young. 'And three, they might be exploiting food sources offshore also favourable for gestation.' Unama'ki had water pumped through her gills while she was tagged to keep her alive Unama'ki's name comes from Nova Scotia's indigenous Mi'kmaq people's name for Cape Breton Island, 'land of the fog.' And she was tagged by the northwest Atlantic by OCEARCH, a non-profit team of scientists, which hauled her out of the water in September (pictured) The tag, being applied here, provides data on the shark's movements. Researchers hope this will allow them to identify sites key to the species, informing conservation efforts Who is great white shark Unama'ki? Unama'ki after she was tagged by the team Size: 15-foot-long Weight: 2,000lbs When and where tagged: September 2019 off the coast of Nova Scotiia Movements: Down to Bay of Mexico and then up to an area off the coast of Nova Scotia in almost ten months Last transmission: June 1, 4.08pm, off the coast of Nova Scotia Advertisement OCEARCH researchers believe Unama'ki could soon make her way back to the waters off Nova Scotia, Canada if the data have collected on her behavior is accurate. The team also thinks there are two sub-populations of great white sharks in those waters and one tends to gather near Nova Scotia. There is also a chance she could head to the New York Bight, a known shark nursery. A study published in Scientific Reports in 2018 identified this by tracking ten baby great whites, which were most likely to congregate in the area. 'The sharks remained present in New York Bight waters through summer (August to October),' they wrote. 'Southward movements were observed during Autumn, with overwintering habitat identified off North and South Carolina shelf waters.' Nonetheless, researchers think there is also a chance Unama'ki may head to another, previously unknown, shark nursery. The team have tagged and tracked several great whites since beginning the project in 2012. One of their most famous is great white Katherine, which the team has been monitoring since August 2013. She was transmitting regularly but then, on May 12, 2019, the shark disappeared 150 miles from Charleston. Researchers thought her tracker had broken, but then nine months later there was another faint ping 200 miles off the coast of Virginia. It was initially dismissed, but then several others followed in quick succession. There are two main reasons she may have gone silent, they said. Either, she stayed underwater for a long time meaning the tracker couldn't transmit, or marine life such as algae may have grown over it, blocking its transmissions. Researchers hope data gathered from tracking the sharks will reveal key sites for the species, informing conservation efforts to protect them in the wild. Mr Fischer said last year they sharks are so important because they are the 'balance keepers of the ocean'. 'Without sharks the ecosystem falls apart,' he said. 'That means our great grandchildren won't get to enjoy fish sandwiches and we don't want to see that happen.' The team also track the movements of other shark species including the tiger and blue sharks, as well as some dolphins, turtles and even alligators. As Mayor of Joliet, I am calling on all of our citizens to stand together, ODekirk said in his statement. We all should defend the right to protest. We all should condemn the violence that is engulfing our nation and state. And we should all do our part to promote the defense of our families, our homes, our local businesses, our community and our mutual values as Americans. President Volodymyr Zelensky has met with UNICEF Representative in Ukraine Lotta Sylwander and noted that the state needs new cooperation programs with the Fund. "On Children's Day, President Volodymyr Zelensky met with UNICEF Representative in Ukraine Lotta Sylwander," the president press services reported on June 1. The president praised the level of cooperation between Ukraine and UNICEF. "We are very grateful to UNICEF for its support and cooperation with Ukraine. Children inspire us to make the world a better place. Some of our children, especially those who belong to vulnerable groups, have many problems. We need more programs with UNICEF, and we must make more efforts to give Ukrainian children the happy childhood they deserve, Zelensky stressed. The president stressed that Ukraine needs new programs of cooperation with UNICEF that protect the safety and rights of children. "I am very pleased that Ukraine has joined the Safe Schools Declaration. Children are our future, which we risk if we do not protect them properly," he said. Volodymyr Zelensky and Lotta Sylwander discussed the possibilities of social support for children living below the poverty line who may find themselves in a difficult situation. The UNICEF representative noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has become a challenge for the future of children in Ukraine and around the world. According to her, the most vulnerable are children under three and children raised in large families or by single parents. "Poverty is also often the reason why many children find themselves in institutions, why they are deprived of the right to a family. We hope that the leadership of the President of Ukraine will allow us to take real steps to improve the life of every child in Ukraine. UNICEF reaffirms its willingness to work with the Ukrainian authorities to implement these changes, she said. ish CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Who instigated the violence during Saturdays downtown riots? Most of the 99 people arrested were from Northeast Ohio, but none were charged with inciting violence. So are there more serious charges to come? Were talking about instigators on This Week in the CLE. Listen live here. Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour coronavirus news podcast, with help from editors Jane Kahoun, Kris Wernowsky and me. We answer many of the questions youve sent through our text message platform. Youve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom account, in which he shares once or twice a day what were thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up for free by sending a text to 216-868-4802. And youve been offering all sorts of great perspective in our coronavirus alert account, which has 13,000-plus subscribers. You can sign up for free by texting 216-279-7784. Here are the questions were answering today: 1. Can people go to work in downtown Cleveland during the curfew following the weekend riot? Only if youre an essential worker or credentialed journalist. Cleveland on Monday revised its civil emergency proclamation, making it clear that commuters are banned from downtown and parts of Ohio City through tonight. 2. Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams keeps saying out-of-towners committed the violence during Saturdays riots, so how many of the 99 people arrested are from out of town? Fifteen, if you count Copley, Mentor, Macedonia and other suburbs as out-of-town. None of them were from out of state. 3. Mike DeWine took a rare step and disagreed with President Trumps reaction to the George Floyd killing by a Minneapolis cop, but what did he have to say Monday after a phone call with the president? Nothing. He wouldnt comment. 4. How much more difficult is the job for detectives investigating Saturdays riots when everyone who was downtown was wearing a mask. Its nearly impossible. Trying to determine someones identity from surveillance footage is already difficult, and wearing a mask whether to conceal identity, protect against the coronavirus or both makes the task much harder. 5. Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams was ever-present during demonstrations involving the police killing of Tamir Rice and the Republican National Convention, so why was he invisible during Saturdays riot in downtown Cleveland? Chief Calvin Williams has said little. During his public appearances on city Facebook Live broadcasts, he said most U.S. cities were unprepared for protests to devolve into violence. 6. Why do Ohio State University student government groups want the university to cut off its ties with the Columbus Police Department. They say police took violent and inexcusable actions against protesters. Until Wednesday, find all our past episodes here. Do you get your podcasts on Spotify. Find us here. If you use Stitcher, we are here. RadioPublic is another popular podcast vehicle, and we are here. On Google Podcasts, we are here. On PodParadise, find us here. And on PlayerFM, we are here. The new appointments of Izzy Wahba and Marcie Jacob are a critical step to implement the dealerships strategic vision and renewed company culture. Bronx Honda, a leading Honda dealership serving the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn communities since 1975, announces a new leadership structure, including two appointments to the executive team, that will support the dealerships company culture and strategic vision. Izzy Wahba has been named General Sales Manager. Izzy initially joined Bronx Honda as a finance manager in 2010. Izzy has had many roles at Bronx Honda, including a successful sales experience. As General Sales Manager, Izzy will be essential in leading a strong and committed sales team who will adhere to the policies and procedures developed by the company, as well as ensure customer satisfaction. Izzy believes that Bronx Hondas staff, under his supervision, will provide the quality service that the community deserves. As Izzy put it, Our sales team at Bronx Honda reflects the community we serve: diverse, hardworking, family-oriented, and always striving to be better. Most of our team members have been with the dealership for more than a decade and some have been working with us for more than two! I am very proud of our Honda Bronx family, and I am especially proud of how hard we work to earn our customers trust and confidence with integrity and experience. Marcie Jacob, an attorney, has been named Chief Compliance Officer. In her new role, Marcie will be responsible for ensuring the dealership is complying with all federal, state and local dealership laws. Prior to joining Bronx Honda, Marcie practiced employment law in New York City and spent more than a dozen years at Time Warner, Inc., followed by eight years as a solo practitioner. At Bronx Honda, we take compliance very seriously, and as the Chief Compliance Officer and the daughter of our founder, it is imperative that I provide quality compliance training for our employees on everything from safeguarding customer data to financing requirements," said Marcie Jacob, Chief Compliance Officer of Bronx Honda. Marcie understands that a culture of compliance ensures the best service for Bronx Hondas customers. Bronx Honda is dedicated to work with new and returning customers to ease the stress of purchasing a car. The dealership strives to inform its customers about the car buying process with clarity and transparency. The new appointments of Izzy Wahba and Marcie Jacob are a critical step to implement the dealerships strategic vision and renewed company culture. About Bronx Honda: Bronx Honda is a leading car dealership selling new and used cars, trucks and SUVs, and is home to top-rated Honda-trained technicians, service advisors, and parts specialists. The small family business has been selling cars to Bronx residents since the early 1930s. Bronx Honda was started in 1975 on Jerome Avenue and moved to its current location in Westchester Square in the early 1980s. For more information visit http://www.bronxhonda.com or connect with us on social media. Facebook LinkedIn Instagram Twitter YouTube For the second consecutive time, a poet has won TV3 Talented Kidz reality show. Nana AK, after weeks of showing great dexterity, beat eight others to emerge winner of Season 11 of the reality show. It has been weeks of intense dedication and hard work by some of the talented kids who took part in the years TV3 Talented Kidz reality show. Over the years, the reality show has unearthed some of the biggest names and talents in Ghana. The world-famous DJ Switch and Nakeeyat Sam Dramani are products of the show. Starting before the Coronavirus pandemic took its toll on numerous countries including Ghana, TV3 employed a well-executed plan of going on with the show while adhering to all the safety protocols. The TV3 Talented Kidz going virtual did not affect the reality show in any way. All the eight finalists Power Pack (Acrobat), Rock Anokye (Rapper), Krobea Band (Music Band), Nana AK (Poet), DJ Spices (DJ), Allo Afro Kid (Dancer), Amoako Mills (Magician) and Stonegal (Musician) brought their A-game delivery impeccable performances. After the first round, three contestants Power Pack (Acrobats) Rock Anokye (Rapper), Krobea Band (Music Band) were evicted. The remaining five Nana AK, DJ Spices, Allo Afro Kid, Amoako Mills, and Stonegal gave it their all in the second round. After a heated second round, Nana AK took over the crown from Nakeeyat Sam Dramani (who is also a poet) as the winner of this years Talented Kidz reality show. For his prize, Nana AK took home GHS10,000 from Media General, GHS15,000 educational fund, a one-year full scholarship sponsored by Codetrain, GHS2, 000 worth of products from Indomie, a trip abroad sponsored by British Columbia College and products from sponsors. DJ Spices, emerged second. She received GHS7, 000 cash Media General, a one-year full scholarship from Codetrain, GHS1,000 worth of products from Indomie and products from sponsors. All Afro Kid, who took the third spot, received GHS5,000 from Media General, a one-year full scholarship from Codetrain, GHS500 worth of products from Indomie, and product from sponsors. Stonegal also took home GHS3,000 from Media General, a one-year full scholarship from Coadetrain, GHS500 worth of products from Indomie, and product from sponsors for emerging fourth. The finale also witnessed some exciting performances Kelvyn Boy, DJ Switch, Nakeeyat, Optional King, and Kweku Darlington. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-03 04:48:15|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BAGHDAD, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi security forces on Tuesday launched a major offensive to hunt down Islamic State (IS) militants in the provinces of Kirkuk and Salahudin, the Iraqi military said. The troops, backed by Iraqi and international coalition aircraft, pushed in early morning in five routes to secure the desert and rugged areas between the two provinces, Yahia Rasoul, spokesman of the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi forces said in a statement. So far, the troops have managed to kill two IS militants and destroy three of their hideouts and a number of tunnels, along with destroying a booby-trapped car and various weapons and ammunition, Rasoul said. The Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who is also the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi forces, paid a visit to the headquarters of the Joint Operations Command in Kirkuk, some 250 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, and immediately held a meeting with the commanders to supervise the offensive, Rasoul added. The offensive was designed to bring stability and security to the area, which has recently been a hot bed for IS militants, Rasoul said. Recently, the extremist IS militants have intensified their attacks on the security forces, including Hashd Shaabi forces, and civilians in the formerly IS-controlled Sunni provinces, resulting in the killing and wounding of dozens. The security situation in Iraq has been improving since Iraqi security forces fully defeated the IS militants across the country late in 2017. However, IS remnants have since melted in urban areas or deserts and rugged areas, carrying out frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians. Enditem A Louisville cop involved in the fatal shooting of a black man during the citys George Floyd protests had earlier mocked a different protester on Facebook, celebrating the moment she was shot by pepper balls. Officer Katie Crews, of the Louisville Metro Police Department, was placed on administrative assignment on Monday after she and another officer were confirmed to have been involved in the fatal shooting of 53-year-old business owner, David McAtee. The departments police chief, Steve Conrad, was fired the same day after it was discovered Crews and the other officer, Austin Allen, had their body cameras switched off during incident. A post from Crews Facebook page last Thursday has since surfaced on social media, showing that days before the shooting she had uploaded a picture of herself policing the riots, laughing at the moment a protestor was injured by her fellow officers. I hope the pepper balls that she got lit up with a little later on hurt, Crews wrote. Officer Katie Crews, of the Louisville Metro Police Department, was placed on administrative assignment on Monday after she and another officer were confirmed to have been involved in the fatal shooting of 53-year-old business owner, David McAtee. A post from Crews Facebook page show that days before the shooting she had uploaded a picture of herself policing the riots, laughing at the moment a protestor was injured by her fellow officers In the photograph, taken by the Courier Journal, an older woman is seen attempted to hand Crews flowers in an apparent gesture of peace, while the officer stares back at her, stone-faced, with her hands on her hips. She was saying and doing a lot more than offering flowers to me. Just so for it to be known, Crews claimed. For anyone that knows me and knows that facial expression tells everything. After remarking about the pepper balls, Crews ended the post by taunting the woman, saying: Come back and get ya some more ole girl, Ill be on the line again tonight. Crews joined the Louisville Metro Police Department in 2018 and does not have any disciplinary records prior to the shooting of McAtee, the Courier Journal reported. New LMPD Chief Robert Schroeder said Monday night he is aware of the post and has started a professional standards investigation into it. Officers in the Louisville police force had been required to wear active body cameras following the death of Breonna Taylor a 26-year-old black EMT who was killed in her home in March by Louisville police carrying out a 'no-knock warrant'. David McAtee was shot dead on Monday morning after Louisville officers and the National Guard 'returned fire' into a group gather in a parking lot, next to where McAtee's business is located Neither Crews nor Officer Austin Allen (right) had their body cameras switched on during the fatal shooting On Sunday night alone more than 40 people were arrested marking the citys fourth consecutive night of protests in Louisville Police say that shortly after midnight on Monday, someone opened fire at officers from a parking lot at 26th and Broadway where a large number of people were gathered. Allen and Crews, along with members from the National Guard 'returned fire' into the group, killing McAtee, who ran a popular barbecue stand nearby. Police have said they don't know if McAtee was the person who had fired at police. Allen and Crews were either not wearing or did not have their cameras activated and have been placed on administrative assignment, pending an investigation. 'That is completely unacceptable. And there is no excuse for their clear failure to [follow] our policy,' Acting Chief Rob Schroeder said Monday. The death of McAtee is now under state, local and federal investigation. Surveillance footage and police radio transmissions were released by the LMPF on Monday but didnt provide answers in the incident. More footage from the incident will be released. The McAtee, the owner of YAYAs BBQ in Western Louisville with be remembered as a community pillar, his mother, Odessa Riley, has said. He left a great legend behind. He was a good person. Everybody around him would say that, she said. My son didn't hurt nobody. He didn't do nothing to nobody. McAtees eatery is located next to the parking lot where the shooting took place. He was known to give law enforcement free meals, to thank them for their service. 'My son was a good son. All he did on that barbecue corner is try to make a dollar for himself and his family,' Riley told the Courier Journal. 'And they come along and they killed my son.' The McAtee, the owner of YAYAs BBQ in Western Louisville with be remembered as a community pillar, his mother, Odessa Riley, has said Louisville Metro Police Chief Steve Conrad (above) was relieved of duty by Mayor Greg Fischer on Monday after it was revealed two officers involved in the shooting death of a local business owner at George Floyd protests earlier that day did not have their bodycameras activated Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear condemned the incident in a statement Monday morning saying: 'LMPD and the Kentucky National Guard returned fire resulting in death' and that he has asked the Kentucky State Police to independently investigate the shooting. At his morning press conference Beshear called on authorities to release body camera footage and was outraged to learn there was none. Now he hopes for cell phone or other citizen video of the confrontation to emerge. 'I believe the people of Kentucky deserve to see it for themselves,' he said. Officials havent said if the crowd in the parking lot of Dinos Food Mart consisted of protesters or customers. The gathering came after the 9pm curfew in Louisville. Protests took place in Louisville over the weekend to denounce the death of black man George Floyd, who died last week after a white police officer in Minneapolis kept a knee on his neck for over eight minutes in a disturbing video that has sent shock waves across the country. Louisville police officers had been ordered to keep their bodycams activated following the police killing of 26-year-old black EMT Breonna Taylor (above) in March during a botch drug raid Protesters also decried the police killing of Breonna Taylor. Taylor's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit claiming that she and her boyfriend thought their home was being broken into when officers entered without knocking. Her boyfriend shot at officers because they didn't identify themselves and in turn Taylor was shot eight times in her bed. On Sunday night alone more than 40 people were arrested marking the citys fourth consecutive night of protests in Louisville. On Thursday seven people were shot in the city during protests that took a violence turn. Officers were not involved in those shootings, Police Sgt. Lamont Washington said at the time, as per NBC. Late Monday a crowd gathered at the parking lot in front of McAtees shop to mourn together. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer arrived after 11am and was seen hugging and consoling McAtees mother. 'He didnt hurt nobody, didnt deserve to get shot down like he did. I dont know what happened, but whatever happened here, my brother didnt do nothing wrong. He was an innocent person, and innocent bystander. He did not deserve this at all,' McAtee's sister said to Wave3. She said that the crowd that gathered wasn't a park of Louisville protests and that this group gathered every Sunday night for food and music and her brother always served food as his restaurant was next door to Dino's Food Mart. China has moved up its forces along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said, asserting that authoritarian regimes take these kinds of actions. Several areas along the LAC in Ladakh and North Sikkim have witnessed major military build-up by both the Indian and Chinese armies recently, in a clear signal of escalating tension and hardening of respective positions by the two sides even two weeks after they were engaged in two separate face-offs. India has said that its troops fully abide by the alignment of the Line of Actual ... U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last Sunday jumped the gun by mentioning Korea as one of the U.S.' "good partners" besides India, Australia and Japan in its cold war against China. The claim came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump invited Korea, Australia and India to the normally exclusive G7 summit to discuss how to deal with future challenges posed by China. Washington is stacking the summit with what it considers pliant allies as it battles China on multiple fronts. Pompeo told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" that Chinese President Xi Jinping "is intent on building out his military capabilities." But the U.S. government "will keep us in a position where we can protect the American people, and indeed we can be good partners with our allies from India, from Australia, from South Korea, from Japan, from Brazil, from Europe, all around the world." "We can be good partners alongside them and ensure that the next century remains a Western one modeled on the freedoms that we have here in the United States," he claimed. Pompeo has proved a loyal ally in Trump's re-election campaign and come fully on board with the president's offensive against Beijing. "This is a Chinese Communist Party that has come to view itself as intent upon the destruction of Western ideas, Western democracies, Western values," Pompeo claimed. "It puts Americans at risk." "The threat from the Chinese Communist Party emanates from the nature of the Chinese Communist Party doctrine and ideology," he added. "And so I think this is something that America is going to have to do along with its Western... democracy-loving partners all across the world." Washington has already leaned on Korea to participate in its operations in the South China Sea to rein in China there, putting the country in a tight spot between its two main trading partners. Joe Biden on Tuesday excoriated President Donald Trumps stewardship of a nation convulsed in crisis over issues of race and police brutality, likening Trumps language to that of Southern racists of the 1960s and accusing him of sullying the highest ideals of America. Donald Trump has turned this country into a battlefield riven by old resentments and fresh fears, Biden said, speaking against a backdrop of American flags at Philadelphias City Hall. Is this who we want to be? Is this what we want to pass on to our children and grandchildren? Fear, anger, finger pointing, rather than the pursuit of happiness? Incompetence and anxiety, self-absorption, selfishness? The country, Biden said, is crying out for leadership. Bidens remarks, which were by turns optimistic about Americas potential and somber about the depth of the countrys challenges, come as his team moves urgently to draw sharper contrasts between the presumptive Democratic nominee and Trump on traits of character, empathy and steadiness. In the past several days alone, Trump has lectured governors, called protesters terrorists, spent time in an underground bunker, sought to deploy the military and visited a church for photographs while protesters were dispersed with tear gas to clear his path. In his remarks, which lasted around 20 minutes, Biden both rebuked his opponent and addressed the broader problems gripping the nation, saying directly in a way that he did not always emphasize during the primary that defeating Trump would not be enough to heal the nations centuries-old divisions and hatreds. Were a nation in pain, Biden said. We must not let our pain destroy us. Were a nation enraged, but we cannot let our rage consume us. Were a nation thats exhausted, but we will not allow our exhaustion defeat us. As president, its my commitment to all of you is to lead on these issues and to listen, because I truly believe in my heart of hearts, we can overcome. Traveling to Philadelphia from his home in Wilmington, Delaware, to address the civil unrest consuming the nation, Biden called the presidency a very big job and said no one would get everything right, including him. But I promise you this, he added. I wont fan the flames of hate. I will seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued our country not use them for political gain. It was his first public trip out of state since the coronavirus shuttered the campaign trail in March, and his third public appearance in three days. How Biden handles the coming weeks could define his candidacy for the final five months of the presidential contest and there is an increasing sense of urgency among his allies to see him leading from the ground. This is a moment in our nations history that is as unique as if we had the 1918 pandemic and the 1929 stock market crash and the 1968 riots all happen at the same time, said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del. Theres a limit to how much leadership you can show without seeing people, hearing from people, connecting with people. Joe Biden has always been at his best when people can feel and see his empathy. The former vice president, 77, is cautiously re-emerging onto the public landscape at one of the most volatile, high-stakes moments in a generation. The killing of George Floyd, a black man who died last week after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly 9 minutes, has sparked an outpouring of grief and anger across the country. Peaceful demonstrations during the day have turned chaotic at night as images of U.S. cities, under curfew and on fire, blanket the airwaves. Meanwhile, the coronavirus rages on, with more than 100,000 Americans dead, and more than 40 million people who have filed for unemployment. We can be forgiven for believing the president is more interested in power than in principle, Biden said. More interested in serving the passions of his base than the needs of the people in his care. For thats what the presidency is: the duty to care. Biden, who spent much of the spring campaigning virtually, made a public Memorial Day appearance last week to pay his respects to Delawares war dead. He emerged again for a Sunday walk around Wilmington, visiting the site of demonstrations and meeting with store owners, said Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., who accompanied him. That was followed Monday by an in-person meeting with faith and community leaders at a historic black church. Such activity shows you his heart and his understanding of the urgency of this moment, Coons said. I wouldnt be surprised if he went to Minneapolis. A leader, Coons added, takes some risks to hear people and to respect them. Yet polling shows that Biden still has work to do in communicating that image to the nation. A Washington Post-ABC poll over the weekend found Biden with a 10 percentage point lead over Trump but Trump bested Biden on the question of who is a strong leader. Fifty percent of those surveyed said they held that view of Trump and 49% said they did not, while 43% said they saw Biden as a strong leader and 49% did not. The activity that Biden has pursued so far, when many Americans are still under lockdown and health risks remain, stops well short of traditional rallies, live news conferences and other events that often drive television coverage, and his advisers have been openly frustrated about the lack of airtime he has received, although his Tuesday speech received widespread attention and coverage. He is expected to intensify his public appearances over the next month though the pace is not yet clear with his early forays in Delaware offering a model. And during his meeting with community and faith leaders Monday, he promised that in coming weeks he would be making very serious national speeches about where I think we have to go, what we have to do. Over the weekend and Monday, Bidens campaign advisers engaged in fluid and evolving deliberations about how best to wade back into public activity as Delaware lifts its stay-at-home order. Internal discussions about how to handle Bidens public appearances are affected by fast-changing news developments that can lead to haphazard planning scrambles, according to people close to the campaign. Biden officials are also weighing the need for sensitivity to the fraught subject matter at hand, as well as ongoing health considerations for voters, staff and the candidate himself amid the pandemic. Its a challenge to be in this kind of environment, Blunt Rochester said Sunday. We have to be careful for him and for others, and so he will continue to listen to the science. And if there are places where he can be, like today, to get out there, be social distant he had his mask, we were all careful, but it does change the way you campaign. On Sunday Biden spent much of his time listening to passersby, to business owners and to her own experience as the mother of a black man, Blunt Rochester said. The moment right now is pivotal, Blunt Rochester said. The question is, what are we going to do? What are we going to do as a result of it? And so as he continues to build his platform, part of it is listening to people. Biden also spent part of Sunday calling mayors on the front lines of the crisis to offer encouragement. He spoke with Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles, Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis and Mayor Melvin Carter of St. Paul, Minnesota, his campaign confirmed. Biden asked after Carters family and offered his assistance, the mayor recalled in an interview. He asked me how I thought he could be supportive of the work were trying to lead nationally, and how he could be helpful in that space, Carter said. The mayor said that he had stopped using the term recovery, pressing the need for more transformational change on matters from health care to the economy. January and February were not a state of stability for too many Americans, he said. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser said Tuesday that local police took no part in what she called a "shameful" assault by the National Guard and federal law enforcement on protesters that cleared the way for President Donald Trump to have photos taken in front of a historic church. Trump "wanted a show of force in D.C.," Bowser said, referring to Guard and federal officers using tear gas, flash bangs and rubber bullets against protesters across from the White House on Monday evening. Read next: Tennessee Guard Lay Down Riot Shields at Request of Protesters Senior defense officials said Tuesday that the Guard troops who took part in clearing the streets were not equipped with tear gas or other crowd control measures and did not use any in working with an interagency force. The assault Monday evening was unprovoked, Bowser said, and came ahead of the 7 p.m. curfew she had imposed in an effort to quell violence and looting. Those had marred earlier protests in the District and nationwide over George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died last week in police custody in Minneapolis. Response to the actions in the District, as well as Trump's warning that he might send active-duty combat troops to quell riots, broke down along partisan lines in Congress. Possibly the most confrontational comments on the Democrats' side came from Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., a former Marine captain and veteran of four tours in Iraq. In a statement, Moulton said active-duty troops should be prepared to risk court-martial by defying any orders to go into states to put down protests. "If [Trump] chooses to abuse the military as a tyrant would do -- to stifle dissent, suppress freedom, and cement inequality -- then I call on all our proud young men and women in uniform, as a veteran and a patriot, to lay down your arms, uphold your oath, and join this new march for freedom," Moulton said. Sen. Tim Scott, a black South Carolina Republican, said violence stemming from the protests dishonors the memory of Floyd, whose death was the result of a white police officer kneeling on his neck for more than eight minutes. "The importance of having order in our communities is an absolutely essential component of us being able to have justice for Mr. Floyd," he told reporters. At a news conference with D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham, Bowser noted that she has little influence on Trump under the District's limited home rule. But she urged the president to reconsider his threat to send active-duty combat troops into the states and the District to restore order unless local authorities take action. "I heard what you all heard about the president saying he wanted all manner of civilian and military might" to quell civil unrest, Bowser said. "We all heard that ominous warning. "We don't want armed National Guard, armed military -- we don't want any of those things on D.C. streets," she added. "I would regard that as an affront to even our limited home rule and the safety of the District of Columbia, absolutely." Newsham said he received warning that the president would be moving out of the White House, but stressed that his department played no part in clearing streets to allow Trump to walk to the north end of Lafayette Square, where he posed with a Bible in front of St. John's Episcopal church, known as the "church of presidents." "We were not involved in the movement of the president, the unplanned movement of the president," Newsham said. He added that D.C. police later made more than 300 arrests, mostly for curfew violations but also for burglary and looting. Newsham said the police also "had to use some munitions" for crowd control to disperse a group at Judiciary Square, the court buildings on Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the Capitol. In a Twitter post Tuesday morning, Trump defended the actions to clear the streets: "D.C. had no problems last night. Many arrests. Great job done by all. Overwhelming force. Domination. Likewise, Minneapolis was great (thank you President Trump!)." The interagency force that cleared the streets near Lafayette Square on Monday evening included the National Guard; mounted U.S. Park Police; the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the U.S. Marshals Service; and the Bureau of Prisons, according to the Justice Department. On Twitter, Bowser wrote, "A full 25 minutes before the curfew & w/o provocation, federal police used munitions on peaceful protestors in front of the White House, an act that will make the job of @DCPoliceDept officers more difficult. Shameful!" Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde said she was blindsided and "outraged" that Trump used St. John's, one of the churches in her diocese, for a photo opportunity. Trump used a Bible "at one of our churches without permission as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and everything that our churches stand for," Budde told CNN. "We distance ourselves from the incendiary language of this president." Trump also came under criticism from Washington, D.C.'s Roman Catholic Archbishop Wilton Gregory for his visit Tuesday with first lady Melania Trump to the Saint Pope John Paul II National Shrine in Northeast Washington, about four miles from the White House. In a statement similar to the remarks by Budde, Gregory said Saint Pope John Paul II "certainly would not condone the use of tear gas and other deterrents to silence, scatter or intimidate [the protesters] for a photo opportunity in front of a place of worship and peace." -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. Related: Active-Duty Troops Remain Outside DC as Guard Force Grows VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Golden Sky Minerals Corp. (AUEN.V) is pleased to provide a corporate update regarding the status of the company, its current assets, and plans for the 2020 season. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the company remains optimistic for the 2020 season and beyond. The Golden Sky Minerals (Golden Sky) corporate office in downtown Vancouver is currently closed, with all staff working from home. Despite this, operations are proceeding as effectively as possible and the company has been utilizing this time to prepare for field work to begin this summer. With over $2M cash in the bank and <10M shares outstanding, Golden Sky Minerals is strongly positioned to continue developing its current assets while exploring for future acquisitions. Yukon Assets The companys three core assets in Yukon Territory, the Lucky Strike, Hot Spot, and Bulls Eye properties, remain in good standing. All three properties are 100% owned by Golden Sky with no underlying payments or royalties. The Lucky Strike property, located in the heart of the Yukons White Gold District, hosts a 10 km trend of gold mineralization. Five gold-bearing zones have been identified on the property to date. Only one of these, the Monte Carlo zone, has been drilled, yielding notable intercepts such as 5.36 g/t Au over 22 m in the near-surface oxide zone, and 4.55 g/t Au over 7.6 m in a deeper sulphide zone (see November 13, 2018 news release ). The Lucky Strike property is situated 25 km north of Newmont Goldcorps Coffee Gold deposit (Probable Reserve of 2.16 M oz Au) and 15 km east of White Gold Corp.s Golden Saddle deposit (Indicated resource of 1.04 M oz Au). White Gold Corp. recently announced a $6M private placement for exploration in the White Gold District, with the maintained interest of Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. and Kinross Gold Corp. as well as new involvement from Eric Sprott (see May 15, 2020 White Gold news release ). Story continues To the west of Lucky Strike, and along the Yukon-Alaska border, is the Hot Spot property, a newly-discovered gold occurrence in an underexplored area of the Yukon. Situated along the Big Creek Fault, the Hot Spot property hosts a 1.7-kilometer-long mineralized structure with gold-in-soil values up to 4.1 g/t Au and a pathfinder element signature indicative of a low-sulphidation epithermal system. A short trenching program in 2018 returned values of 0.42 g/t Au over 44 m (see September 10, 2018 news release ). The Hot Spot property is located 25 km southeast of the Taurus Cu-Mo-Au porphyry deposit (located in Alaska) which has an Inferred resource of 68.3 million tonnes grading 0.275% Cu, 0.032% Mo, and 0.166 g/t Au. This area in Alaska is currently being explored as a joint venture between Kenorland Minerals Inc. and Freeport McMoRan Inc. (see Kenorland Minerals website ). The Bulls Eye property is located 50 km south of the Coffee Gold deposit in a previously unrecognized gold district. Although only 5 days of field work have been completed to date, this 2017 program successfully delineated an open-ended 200 m x 250 m soil geochemical anomaly, with gold-in-soil values up to 0.22 g/t Au. Rock grab samples assayed up to 0.25 g/t Au. The Bulls Eye property is adjacent to K2 Gold Corp.s Wels Gold project which has yielded notable drill intercepts of 2.37 g/t Au over 28.5 m and 0.76 g/t Au over 97.5 m (see the K2 Gold Corp. website for more information on their Wels Gold project). 2020 Field Work Funding is currently in place for field work to be done in the 2020 season. Golden Sky is preparing exploration programs at its Hot Spot and Bulls Eye properties. Class 1 Notification have been approved for both the Hot Spot and Bulls Eye projects, and the Class 3 exploration permit at Lucky Strike remains in good standing. Field work will be done within the regulations and guidelines of the federal and territorial governments, particularly in regard to COVID-19. Current work plans are for a bedrock trenching program at the Bulls Eye property and an exploratory drill program at the Hot Spot property. More news will follow when plans are finalized for these exploration programs. Stock Options Grant Subject to all regulatory approvals, Golden Sky has granted 600,000 incentive stock options to directors, officers, and certain consultants of the company. Options issued pursuant to this grant to directors and officers shall vest immediately; options issued to certain consultants shall vest for a period of 24 months with 1/8 vest each 3 months. All options have a term of 5 years and are exercisable at $0.28. Message from John Newell, President and CEO: With a strong corporate share structure, cash in the bank, and excellent Yukon assets, myself and the Golden Sky team are excited to get back into the field and work these underexplored new discoveries. We are also continuing the evaluation process for new acquisitions outside of the Yukon Territory. Coming out of the pandemic, the future looks brighter than ever for Canadian gold exploration. Other Carl Schulze, P. Geo., Consulting Geologist with Aurora Geosciences Ltd, is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, for Golden Sky's Yukon exploration projects, and has reviewed and approved the technical information in this release. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD John Newell, President and Chief Executive Officer For new information from the Company's programs, please visit Golden Sky's website at www.GoldenSkyMinerals.com or contact John Newell by telephone (604) 568-8807 or by email at info@goldenskyminerals.com or john.newell@goldenskyminerals.com . Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements Statements contained in this news release that are not historical facts are forward-looking information or forward-looking statements (collectively, Forward-Looking Information) within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. In certain cases, Forward-Looking Information can be identified by the use of words and phrases such as anticipates, expects, understanding, has agreed to or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results would, occur or be achieved. Although Golden Sky has attempted to identify important factors and risks that could affect Golden Sky and may cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in Forward-Looking Information, there may be other factors and risks that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended, including, without limitation: inherent risks involved in the exploration and development of mineral properties; the uncertainties involved in interpreting drill results and other exploration data; the potential for delays in exploration or development activities; the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with Golden Skys expectations; accidents, equipment breakdowns, title and permitting matters; labour disputes or other unanticipated difficulties with or interruptions in operations; fluctuating metal prices; unanticipated costs and expenses; uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, including to fund any exploration programs on its projects; that Golden Sky may not be able to confirm historical exploration results and other risks set forth in Golden Sky's public filings at www.sedar.com. In making the forward-looking statements in this news release, Golden Sky has applied several material assumptions, including the assumption that general business and economic conditions will not change in a materially adverse manner. There can be no assurance that Forward-Looking Information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on Forward-Looking Information. Except as required by law, Golden Sky does not assume any obligation to release publicly any revisions to Forward-Looking Information contained in this news release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. The coronavirus pandemic will shake West Australians' love affair with property to its core, industry groups predict, with the new home market expected to be particularly impacted as unemployment rises, migration falls, and the construction industry moves towards a cliff. Perth's Jordan Nix and his husband Steve purchased a block of land before the crisis with the intention to build by the end of the year, but when the pandemic hit they, like thousands of prospective home builders across the state, faced a tough decision. Home builders are set for a rough year. Credit:Erin Jonasson Thankfully both our jobs have been secured so our income hasn't been impacted and we made the decision to continue with the plans, Mr Nix said. It didn't make sense to stop and be stuck paying a mortgage on an empty block and rent at the same time. This news release is not for distribution or dissemination in the United States of America VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2020 / CanaFarma Hemp Products Corp. (CSE:CNFA) (the "Company" or "CanaFarma") is pleased to announce the appointment of Tyrone Ross Jr. as its Vice President Communications. In his position as Vice President Communications, Mr Ross will play a key role in helping to deliver CanaFarma's message to both investors and customers. CanaFarma is a full-service company operating in the hemp industry offering a full range of hemp-related products and services to the consumer wellness market. As such there is a great deal of information to be shared with the investor and customer communities and Mr. Ross will play an important part in delivering the Company's message. Tyrone Ross is the founder and CEO of 401stc (www.401.run), an early-stage company advisor, entrepreneur and financial consultant. Investment News recognized him as one of the "40 under 40" (1), and Wealth Management.com described him as one of the top 10 advisors set to change the industry in 2019(2). Planning.com named him one of the "20 people who will change wealth management in 2020"(3). David Lonsdale, CEO of CanaFarma said, "We are very pleased to welcome Tyrone to the CanaFarma team. He is an exceptionally talented individual who will help significantly in communicating the Company's message". About CanaFarma Hemp Products Corp. CanaFarma Hemp Products Corp. is a full-service company operating in the hemp industry offering a full range of hemp-related products and services to the consumer wellness market. These products and services include growing top-quality hemp, hemp-processing services, and offering hemp-based products to consumers utilizing a well-established direct-to-consumer marketing approach. References: https://www.investmentnews.com/40-under-40-awards-archive-2019 https://www.wealthmanagement.com/people/ten-watch-2019-0 https://www.financial-planning.com/list/20-people-who-will-change-wealth-management-in-2020 CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION: This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; and delay or failure to receive board, shareholder or regulatory approvals. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: David Lonsdale Chief Executive Officer Phone: (214) 704-7942 Email: david@canafarmacorp.com SOURCE: CanaFarma Hemp Products Corp. 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The 53-year-old actress posted about the plight of Ned Harounian, an 81-year-old immigrant, who lost everything when his shop on Melrose was destroyed. She called her followers to action and urged them to donated to a fundraiser set up to cover the costs of restoring the shop. Helping hand: Halle Berry, 53, urged her social media followers to donate to the family of an immigrant shop owner in Los Angeles whose business was destroyed amid LA's riots; shown in 2019 'An 81 year old immigrant father and business owner, Ned Harounian, had his Melrose shop looted and burned to the ground over the weekend,' she wrote on Instagram. 'He immigrated in 1985 and for 30 years he put his life into his business and community,' she continued, adding that 'His recently deceased wife's jewelry was also stolen.' 'Los Angeles I know thing are crazy right now, but I hope we can all take a minute to help this man out!!' she concluded, not his son had created a GoFundMe campaign. She also duplicated much of the post in a series of tweets shared around the same time. Destroyed: Ned Harounian, 81, had his Melrose shop looted and then burned over the weekend. He sold high-end jackets and Doc Martens boots Heartbreaking: Harounian's late wife's jewelry was also stolen in the commotion. Halle urged her fans to donate to a GoFundMe to help restore the store One of the photos from the GoFundMe account that she posted to Instagram featured Harounian's late wife smiling while posing with Shaquille O'Neal. Other businesses and public institutions throughout Los Angeles and in other major US cities have been looted amid protests inspired by the May 25 death of 46-year-old George Floyd in Minneapolis. He died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into his neck for nearly nine minutes, including two minutes after he had stopped breathing and became unresponsive. The officer was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter days after Floyd's death, and he and the other three officers at the scene were all fired. Coming soon: Halle is next set to star in the sci-fi disaster flick Moonfall, directed by Independence Day's Roland Emmerich; pictured in 2017 in San Diego Though Halle's acting career is temporarily on hold as Hollywood remains shut down in response to the coronavirus pandemic, she's set to appear in the upcoming science fiction disaster film Moonfall. The movie, directed by Independence Day's Roland Emmerich, will feature her as an astronaut whose past missions into space may hold a clue to humanity's survival after a cataclysmic event knocks the moon out of its orbit and sends it headed toward the surface of the Earth, according to Variety. She'll be joined by Josh Gad, 39, playing a genius scientist who first realizes the moon is sailing towards Earth in a rare dramatic turn for the comic star. The Department of State Service (DSS) says there was an alteration in the exemption certificate that the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) issued to Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, deputy governor of Bayelsa state. This was disclosed to the Bayelsa governorship election tribunal in Abuja by Abdulsalam Ibrahim, head, legal department of the secret police. According to him, DSS was ordered by an Abuja court to investigate allegation of certificate forgery against Ewhrudjakpo 3/ he had gone to tender documents and testify for the petitioner upon a subpoena issued on the director-general of the DSS by the tribunal. This Followed a petition by Vijah Opuama, candidate of the Liberation Movement (LM) in the 2019 governorship election, alleging that Ewhrudjakpo submitted forged exemption certificate and documents that contain false information to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Advertisement Ibrahim, led in evidence by Pius Pius, the petitioners lawyer, said: My lord, on the 22nd of February 2020, we received a letter from an Area Court in Lugbe, Abuja asking the DSS to investigate the NYSC exemption certificate of Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, the present Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State. According to the DSS official, the agency conducted investigation by reaching out to the NYSC. He said the NYSC DG, wrote to the DG, DSS confirming alteration in the surname in the exemption certificate issued Ewhrudjakpo. Ibrahim, however, told the tribunal that the alteration was done by the NYSC at the instance of Ewhrudjakpo. The petitioners lawyer later tendered a copy of the subpoena, a copy of the letter from the area court and two investigation reports dated May 27 and 28, 2020, including an annexture from the NYSC, through the witness. Read Also: Kaduna Govt Converts NYSC Camp To Quarantine Centre Under cross-examination by lawyer to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Emmanuel Enoidem, Ibrahim confirmed that the alteration in the certificate was effected by the NYSC. The witness agreed with Enoidem that it is the bearer of a name that knows how best to spell his/her name. Ibrahim Sirajo, chairman of the tribunal, adjourned the matter till Tuesday for the hearing of a motion by Ewhrudjakpo, challenging his invitation as the petitioners witness. US President Donald Trump's statement of "mediation and arbitration" of the China-India border dispute was met with unanimous rejection by both sides in recent days. Trump tweeted on May 27 that "We have informed both India and China that the United States is ready, willing and able to mediate or arbitrate their now raging border dispute." But then the Indian Ministry of External Affairs made it clear that India is directly in touch with the Chinese through established mechanisms and diplomatic contacts. A spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs also stated at a regular press conference on May 29 that both China and India can properly resolve the problems between the two countries through dialogue and consultation without the need for third-party intervention. Obviously, India chose to keep a distance from Trump, and declined the so-called US mediation. Why does India reject US mediation in China-India border standoff? First, New Delhi does not consider Washington credible. Indian officials did not respond to the warm offer by the US. The Indian media pointed out that Trump talked about the China-Indian border friction with the actual aim for domestic voters. Indian media analyzed that Trump may know that India will not respond to his proposal. Still, he proposed because "he has barely 165 days left for his own elections, and nobody in the US trusts him institutionally." After failing to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump has done everything he can to win the election. India Today, an Indian news outlet, said that Trump believes that the mediation of China-India disputes can increase the support for elections as the Indian and Chinese ethnic groups account for more than 2.5 percent of the US population. Second, Indian diplomacy has always adhered to "autonomy" and does not accept third-party forces, especially the involvement of major powers in bilateral issues between India and other countries. In fact, India is experienced in refusing the US intervention. In July last year, Trump also claimed that the Indian PM asked him to intervene in the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan, which has lasted for decades. India denied immediately that the two sides had any dialogue on this issue and rejected Trump's request to be the mediator for India and Pakistan. This is determined by the "strategic autonomy" in India's diplomatic tradition. For a long time, no matter which political party is in power in India, its foreign policy is basically to maintain a close relationship with major powers while emphasizing New Delhi's autonomy. India and the US have signed a series of security defense agreements since 2015. However, after the "Indo-Pacific Strategy" was proposed, on one hand India and the US have taken their own needs from this proposal, on the other hand India does not forget to maintain diplomatic autonomy from time to time and pay attention to keeping a certain distance from the US. Behind such response, India has the considerations to consolidate its status as a regional power and even to shape the image of a global power. For example, India's recent performance on WHO issues is also a piece of evidence. In May, Prime Minister Modi attended the video summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. New Delhi did not put pressure on WHO as Washington expected. PM Modi hopes to play a key bridge role and even become a rule-maker in international organizations. Finally, it should be emphasized that India, who does not want to be regarded as an "American pawn," should set back onto the right path as soon as possible in China-India relations. During an online exchange with Indian youth representatives on May 27, Chinese Ambassador to India H.E. Sun Weidong said, "Dragon-Elephant Tango" is the only correct choice, which serves the fundamental interests of China and India and the two peoples. Disclaimer: This article is originally published on cankaoxiaoxi.com and translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn Celebrities have taken to social media for the last week, using their platforms to encourage and support change, as protests erupted around the country over the death of George Floyd in police custody. And Kendall Jenner spoke out to her 130m Instagram followers on Monday, voicing support for change, and working to be a better ally to the black community. 'To everyone reading this and to myself,' she wrote. 'Keep researching, reading, and educating yourself on how we can become better allies.' Speaking out: Kendall Jenner spoke out to her 130m Instagram followers on Monday, voicing support for change, and working to be a better ally to the black community. 'To everyone reading this and to myself,' she wrote. 'Keep researching, reading, and educating yourself on how we can become better allies' Kendall went on to discuss how she spent the recent days thinking on the injustice and her white privilege. 'Ive been doing a lot of thinking these past few days and my heart has been so heavy,' she wrote. 'Im angry and hurt just like so many.' Adding: 'I will never personally understand the fear and pain that the black community go through on a daily basis, but i know that nobody should have to live in constant fear.' 'I acknowledge my white privilege and promise I will continue to educate myself on how I can help,' Kendall wrote. Candid: 'To everyone reading this and to myself,' she wrote. 'Keep researching, reading, and educating yourself on how we can become better allies' She went on to encourage action off of social media to change the system, not only 'raging on platforms.' 'Raging on platforms can not be all that we do in order to repair the system we need to take real action,' the catwalk maven wrote. 'Off of social media.' 'This is a time to have those uncomfortable conversations with people and mainly with ourselves,' she continued. 'We must also make sure we are ready to vote when the time comes to elect the right people into office.' Hoping to make her final message clear she ended saying 'the one truth that will always ring loudest is that BLACK LIVES MATTER.' Do something: Kendall went on to discuss how she spent the recent days thinking on the injustice and her white privilege. 'Ive been doing a lot of thinking these past few days and my heart has been so heavy,' she wrote. 'Im angry and hurt just like so many' Kendall also was sure to mention Floyd, the man who's death started nationwide protests. 'Rest peacefully George Floyd and all victims of this horrible injustice,' she wrote. Floyd was recorded in police custody last week being pinned to the crowd by an ex-Minnesota police officer with a knee to his neck and at least two other cops kneeling on other part of his body at different points. The video showed the main officer, Derek Chauvin, with his knee to Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes until and after her went unconscious and was eventually pronounced dead, on Memorial Day. Real action: She went on to encourage action off of social media to change the system, not only 'raging on platforms' (pictured in February) Chauvin was charged with third degree murder and manslaughter on Friday, though the other three police officers, who lost their jobs alongside Chauvin after the incident were not yet charged. Protests erupted across the nation with many large cities being under curfew orders by Monday. More than 7,200 people were arrested across 43 cities in the country over the weekend, according to CBS News. The model, 24, had been silent on social media since May 23, while others including her sister Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian voiced the feelings over racial injustice. Support: Kim recently has generously offered to help a protester who was seriously injured by a rubber bullet over the weekend Worried: Kylie spoke out last week voicing that racism is a 'pandemic' our country is face and that she is worried about the world her daughter Stormi will grow up in Kylie spoke out last week voicing that racism is a 'pandemic' our country is face. 'speaking up is long overdue for the rest of us. were currently dealing with two horrific pandemics in our country, and we cant sit back and ignore the fact that racism is one of them.' Kylie continued, expressing her worries about the world that Stormi, who she shares with ex-boyfriend Travis Scott, will grow up in. While Kim recently offered to help a protester who was seriously injured by a rubber bullet over the weekend. The 39-year-old reality star was shocked to see a trending photo on Twitter showing a woman who was shot while standing in the street filming during a George Floyd protest in Louisville, Kentucky. The graphic image shows a young woman with a chunk of flesh missing from her forehead and her left eye bruised and swollen shut. Restaurants are hurting right now, and every little bit we can do to help is welcome. The Great American Takeout is encouraging everyone to participate in Takeout Tuesday each week, supporting our local favorite restaurants by ordering up some delicious food to enjoy at home. On March 16, Governor Whitmer announced the closure of all dine-in services at Michigans restaurants, bars, breweries and distilleries. May 22, restaurants located in the U.P. and across the northern part of the lower peninsula were able to reopen, with restrictions in place. While the majority of Michigan restaurants are still closed for sit-down dining, many of them have transitioned into take-out places in order to still serve great food to you, and to keep their staff employed during this difficult time. This week, The Great American Take-Out is partnering with Heinz ketchup for a special contest on Friday June 5. Take a picture of the creative ways you use Heinz ketchup on your food, share on social media, and be entered to win a variety of prizes. You can post your pictures using the hashtags #TheGreatAmericanTakeout and #Sweepstakes, and be sure to tag @thegreatamericantakeout on Instagram, or @TheGATakeout on Twitter. We encourage you to order from one of our locally owned restaurants who are working hard to stay in business, and keep their staff employed. Need some suggestions of where to order from? Check out our list of over 350 Michigans Best restaurants, many are still operating, but please call and check ahead. Please check out these regional lists of restaurants our local reporters have compiled from all over Michigan, places that are still open and have food available for take-out. Help support these places, and other Michigan restaurants, by ordering and tipping generously, if you can. We are all in this together, and can get through it, one delicious dish at a time. Jackson How about trying these cafes and clubs in Jackson? Grand Rapids 5 Grand Rapids restaurants to visit on Take-Out Tuesday Muskegon 5 more Muskegon area restaurants to try this week Kalamazoo 5 Kalamazoo area restaurants to enjoy this week Ann Arbor A variety of foods to enjoy for Take-Out Tuesday Flint Check out these Genesse County restaurants Saginaw Take-out Tuesday has soups, salads and sugary sweets in Saginaw County Bay City Bay County pubs and Polish haunts open for take-out today The Powering Positivity campaign by MLive Media Group highlights how Michiganders are supporting one another during the coronavirus pandemic. It is sponsored by The MediLodge Group. The Cove in Leland is famous for their seafood chowder. Other Michigans Best restaurant news from across the state: Northern Michigan restaurant slush fund raises money for a special graduation ceremony. Shove It Pizza Truck reinvents itself with delivery, offers Pizza Chef Kid Kits, too One of Michigans Best, The Whitney in Detroit, honors front line workers. Michigans Best Waterfront Restaurant is ready to reopen Up North Some of Michigans Best Burgers are still available for take-out in the Detroit metro area Magical catering van to deliver food to hard hit Midland area Michigans Most Iconic Restaurant has reopened in Northern Michigan Fredi the Pizzaman continues to support autism throughout pandemic That Guys BBQ brings meals and hope to Bay City NEW YORK, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Purcell Julie & Lefkowitz LLP, a class action law firm dedicated to representing shareholders nationwide, is investigating a potential breach of fiduciary duty claim involving the board of directors of Quad/Graphics, Inc. (NYSE: QUAD). If you are a shareholder of Quad/Graphics, Inc. and are interested in obtaining additional information regarding this investigation, free of charge, please visit us at: http://pjlfirm.com/quadgraphics-inc/ You may also contact Robert H. Lefkowitz, Esq. either via email at [email protected] or by telephone at 212-725-1000. One of our attorneys will personally speak with you about the case at no cost or obligation. Purcell Julie & Lefkowitz LLP is a law firm exclusively committed to representing shareholders nationwide who are victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty and other types of corporate misconduct. For more information about the firm and its attorneys, please visit http://pjlfirm.com. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. SOURCE Purcell Julie & Lefkowitz LLP Related Links http://www.pjlfirm.com Deborra-Lee Furness has been on a mission to remove the stigma surrounding adoption since launching the AdoptChange campaign in 2014. And on Tuesday, the actress shared how her family was treated in public when she and actor husband Hugh Jackman first adopted their biracial son, Oscar. Speaking on journalist Sandra Sully's 'Short Black podcast', the women both shared similar stories of mothering adopted children who weren't Caucasian. Scroll down for video 'There were whispers': Sandra Sully (left) and Deborra-Lee Furness (right) discuss how they both encountered whispers and staring while raising adopted children in the early days Debora-lee and Hugh have two adopted children: son Oscar Maximilian, 20, and daughter Ava Eliot, 14. Meanwhile, Sandra is the step-mother to husband Symon Brewis' adopted Indonesian teenage daughter, Mia. 'In the beginning there was such a stigma attached and that's what I really wanted to get rid of,' Deborra-Lee told Sandra. The New York-based star said people would whisper 'is he adopted?' to her while she was at the park with her son Oscar, who is biracial. 'If you whisper something it's like it's a secret, like there's shame around it, so I'd go "yeah, he's adopted",' Deborra-Lee said as she raised her voice and laughed to Sandra in hindsight. 'A lot of people were scared to talk about it,' she added. Family: Debora-lee and actor husband Hugh Jackman (right) have two adopted children: son Oscar Maximilian, 20, and daughter Ava Eliot, 14 'A lot of people were scared to talk about it': The New York-based star said people would whisper 'is he adopted?' to her while she was at the park with her son Oscar, who is biracial Sandra shared her own story: 'Your child is biracial, Mia's Indonesian, clearly Symon [her husband] and I are very Caucasian, but when Mia was very little we'd walk down the street and she would ask "why are people staring at me?"' 'After a while I used to joke and say they're not, they are staring at me, hon. I would try take the focus off her, so it wasn't just about her.' She continued: 'People were too scared and the whisper and sadness of "oh, you can't have children", but don't assume what you don't know!' 'When Mia was very little we'd walk down the street and she would ask "why are people staring at me?"' Sandra revealed her adopted Indonesian step-daughter Mia would often feel the public looking at her for looking different to Sandra and her Caucasian husband Symon The 10News veteran said she now watches shows about children being abandoned and her step-daughter is dumbfounded. 'She's like "what is wrong with people. Just adopt them, give them a new life!",' Sandra laughed, adding that 'she is so accepting, it's all she's ever known.' Deborah-lee responded with a chuckle: 'my daughter [Ava] has a dark humour and makes jokes about it too.' Sandra began her podcast series 'Short Black with Sandra Sully' in September 2019. There are now 21 episodes with various women guests available to stream. New episodes come out fortnightly. Artist and actor Bamoozie (his artist moniker), age 30, spoke recently with the World Socialist Web Site about the impact of the pandemic on his economic situation, artistic work and political perspective, as well as his thoughts on the police murder of George Floyd. Bamoozie with art work Bamoozie has lived in Brooklyn since 2017 when he moved from Oakland, California to pursue greater artistic opportunities. He grew up in Toledo, Ohio, where his mother continues to work as a nurse. In May 2020, he completed a two-year program at the Tom Todoroff Studio in acting and playwriting. His paintings have been exhibited in group shows at M.A.D. Gallery and Viridian Gallery in New York, among other venues. (The following interview has been slightly edited.) In regard to the deadly coronavirus pandemic, the artist explained: Prior to the pandemic, close to none of my income came from my creative work. Once in a blue moon, I might sell a piece, but due to being in school, I havent been doing as much art with the intent to sell it. To support myself, I worked full-time as a server in a casual dining pizza restaurant on the Lower East Side in Manhattan. Technically, Im still employed, but the restaurant has been closed since mid-March. I put in for unemployment on March 24, but only just got my first unemployment on May 5. To get by, Ive just been living at the bare minimum. I did receive the $1,200 stimulus check, which is how Ive paid my rent. What was left over went to buy food, and, frankly, my mom has helped a lot by sending me $50 here and there. I should be able to last for the next four months on unemployment. But I still havent received my back pay from the restaurant. I just got an email that the restaurant is planning to reopen in mid-June. But Im concerned about health conditions on the job. Will it just be take-out? And theres the health risk of getting back and forth to workI dont want to be taking the subway again. Theyre saying they are going to open things up, but the scientists say its too soon. Workers are being told, You get back to work even if you get sick and die, or you starve. Its being framed as if it is for everyones safety, but this is a lie. Its like genocide and slavery together! I dont have health insurance. I wanted to get it through my job, but they said I might as well go on Medicaid. So I especially dont want to get sick. But I feel pressure to get back to work even if things arent safe. Im worried. Where am I going to be in September/October? My creative work is the only thing that has been getting me through with everything shut down. Its crazy, but inspiring in a way. Without the day-to-day pressure to make money, I can express what I want to express. Ive been going to the studio and doing a playwriting lab with others from school reading each others scripts via Zoom. Capitalism isnt going to allow us to take the necessary precautions. And in the current system, you are always dependent on someone else to give you an opportunity. The quarantine has also been affecting my work because I have more time and space, I dont have to rush. Its been a while since Ive had a clear vision of what I wanted to paint, but now I do. The pandemic has helped me to sit with myself and put it on canvas. Im not looking to create work specifically about COVID, with everyone wearing masks or something like that, but something deeper. I do art to be expressive, not impressive. Killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis Bamoozie attended the Socialist Equality Party May Day Online Rally. The rally really opened my eyes, hearing from all the speakers made me realize that this is happening all over the world. The big capitalist corporations are forcing the working class to risk their lives to keep their fortunes safe. Their agenda is not to protect the masses, and they arent even trying to address this. The fact that the stimulus will be paid for by workers for generations to come, made me thinkwow! Its so inhumane, the ruling class really doesnt care. Billions of dollars in debt will have to be paid for by the workers all the rest of their lives, and their childrens, and grandchildrens lives. At first I just felt sad, hopeless. I had to take a walk to think about it. I thought about my grandparents, my parents, they were all blue-collar workers. They worked their whole lives, and I ask myself, What is this American Dream they thought they would reach? Its not right, not fair. For my generation, a certain quality of life is just not realistic. So much of my check just goes for rent. As an artist I am more individualistic, but I consider myself working class, and this whole experience of the pandemic has made me more aware that it comes down to capitalism. Listening [at the rally] to where the money is going, to the military, to the big corporations, and what the ruling class is really preparing, I thought its mad, this world were living in, its so wrong. There is money, resources out there. But its hard to accept, we act like we dont know. It reminded me of Shakespeares play, Henry V. Though the truth of it stands off as gross, As black and white, my eye will scarcely see it. The May Day Rally really opened my eyes. Since then Ive started reading the World Socialist Web Site and it has given me an understanding of the pandemic, that the longer the pandemic lasts, the richer they get. They want to create such dire circumstances that the workers will take it no matter how bad because they have no choice. Its become clear whos who, and whats going on. We can see who the enemy is, not who, but what. The working class has been kept divided, in the dark. But there is strength in numbers, so many more of us are being affected. The WSWS needs more exposure; it highlights what the real problem here is. Not race or gender, yes, that exists but they are by-products. It is the global problem of capitalism. We are living in historic times, its very exciting. When I do decide to make work about COVID, this is what it will be about. The artist spoke about the killing of George Floyd and what has followed: To tell you the truth, I havent been able to watch the [original] video. I saw some of it, but when he [George Floyd] started calling for his mother, you could tell he knew he was about to die. Im very close to my mother, and to hear him calling like that ... I couldnt keep watching. For someone to be killed like that by the police in front of people, it was so inhumane! Protest against police violence, May 26, 2020 (Photo: Fibonacci Blue) The police are the ones inciting the riots. There is a bigger agenda going on. They want a race war. Its not about protecting people, its about getting people fired up, to distract us. You know there is something going onthe political, the financial situation, people are angry and upset all over the country. This is going on in all the major cities, not just MinneapolisBrooklyn, Oakland, L.A., Washington, Chicago, all over. The people are coming out because they want to mourn, to show solidarity. They are unarmed. But you see the police, locked and loaded, with shields, semi-automatic weapons. They are not here to protect and serve, they are hostile, they are the ones bringing violence to the situation and inciting riots. They may be shooting rubber bullets now, but theyre starting this so they can take it to the next level, and then theyll be shooting real bullets. Theyve already mobilized the National Guard, theyre imposing curfews, theyre going for martial law. I feel like every month another human right has been taken away, first the lockdown for COVID, then food shortages, now curfews. Its crazy, its scary. The working class has to have some type of leadership and voice so that we can defend ourselves against this state repression. A trio of battered stocks are enjoying a last hurrah on the FTSE 100 before their relegation today, as investors bet on a relaxation of the Governments quarantine plans. Cruises giant Carnival, budget airline easyJet and aerospace engineer Meggitt were almost certain to be ejected from the blue-chip index based on tonights closing prices. But traders took heart from signs that Westminster is relaxing its stance after an outcry from the travel industry. From Monday, travellers to Britain will have to isolate for 14 days, a move bosses say will kill the prospect of people going abroad on holiday. But so-called air bridges are reportedly being considered with countries with low infection rates by the end of June. Travel stocks, which plunged at the onset of the virus crisis, topped the FTSE 100 risers easyJet flew up 18p to 274p, Carnival rose 49p to 1184p, hotelier IHG bounced 21p to 3979p and British Airways owner IAG jetted up 8p to 250p. On the FTSE 250, package holidays operator Tui was the top performer, gaining 37p to 479p. Aviation suppliers Meggitt rose 17p to 303p with rival Rolls-Royce up 14p to 300p. But the party was short-lived amid the biggest FTSE reshuffle for years. Analysts estimated companies need a market cap of around 3.2 billion to stay in the FTSEs elite index, and Carnival was today worth around 2 billion. It was likely to face the drop along with easyJet, worth 2.8 billion, Meggitt, 2.2 billion, and British Gas owner Centrica, valued at 2.2 billion, which has suffered as businesses have not been using as much energy during lockdown. ITV, worth 3.3 billion, was teetering on the edge up 1p to 84.5p today, with Avast, Ladbroke owner GVC and Homeserve set to come the other way. The FTSE 100 was up 49.92 points to 6216.34 as markets shrugged off US civil unrest to focus on a rising oil price. Card Factory posted a whopping 302% and 153% surge in online revenues on its two websites since lockdown. Chief executive Karen Hubbard said a surge in shoppers sending birthday, thinking of you and save the date cards for rescheduled weddings aided the rise. It plans to reopen 10% of its 1022 stores from June 15. She said: What we did see before lockdown was people shopping closer to home and we expect that to continue. The stock has crashed over the last year and profits slid. Hubbard has delayed her strategy relaunch from April to July due to Covid. Shares ticked up 1% to 41.5p. Small-cap spotlight Trident Resources made a strong debut after joining the AIM today, as the stock shot up 34% to 23.5p. The firm is a royalties specialist connecting mining companies with sources of funding with a focus on commodities and has already done an iron ore deal in Western Australia. It raised 16 million which boss Adam Davidson said would be spent on buying up existing royalties and developing new assets. New Delhi, June 2 : Chief Minister of Congress-ruled states and union territories, or even where they are in alliance as in Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra or Rajasthan, appear more popular than Rahul Gandhi. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel's nett approval rating is 81.06 per cent. In fact 56.74 per cent respondents said they are very satisfied with his performance. In Maharashtra, where Maha Vikas Aghadi is in power and Congress is part of the alliance, CM Uddhav Thackeray seems to have high approval ratings in spite of the pandemic situation in the state. 76.52 per cent respondents gave Uddhav a thumbs up while 63.72 per cent said they are very satisfied with his work. Just 11.36 per cent said they are not satisfied with him at all. Rajasthan is another Congress-ruled state where the grand old party removed BJP in 2018. Its Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has a significant 65.61 per cent approval rating. 59.71 per cent of the respondents from the state said they are very happy with the work Gehlot is doing. In another coalition government where Congress is a partner, Jharkhand respondents gave 61.26 per cent approval to Hemant Soren, the chef minister. In fact, the popularity of Chief ministers of Congress or alliance governments that Congress is part of seem to have trumped that of Rahul Gandhi's, by far. For instance, while Baghel has an approval of 81.06 per cent, Rahul Gandhi has just 6.2 per cent. Similarly, as Soren has secured an approval of 61.26 per cent of respondents, Gandhi has secured just 10.89 per cent. Meanwhile Uddhav Thackeray's 76.52 per cent approval is a shining contrast to Rahul Gandhi's 26.11 per cent. The only Congress ruled or Congress alliance ruled Chief Minister who seems to be in the red is Punjab's Amarinder Singh who is inflicted with just 27.51 per cent approval. But even then, he is better off than Gandhi who secured 12.67 per cent approval in the state. May 2009 onwards, the IANS-CVoter Tracker has been carried out each and every week, 52 waves in a calendar year, in 11 national languages, across all States in UTs in India, with a target sample size of 3,000 samples each wave. The average response rate is 55 per cent. This survey is based on CATI interviews of adult (18+) respondents across all segments -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) stands in lower Manhattan on May 18, 2020 in New York City. Markets surged today as promising details of a potential COVID-19 vaccine were released and more European countries gradually re-opened after months of lockdown. Spencer Platt | Getty Images Stocks moved higher on Tuesday as pandemic lockdowns continued to ease. Shares of shopping center and mall operators led the gains, while big technology companies lagged behind as investors rotated out of stay-at-home bets. Wall Street also grappled with civil unrest around the country. Here's what happened. 4:43 pm: Tuesday's rally by the numbers: The Dow gained 268 points, or 1.05%, its second positive session in a row. Home Depot had the most positive impact on the Dow, adding 23 points to the index. The S&P 500 gained 25 points, or 0.82%, its sixth positive session in seven. The S&P hit its highest level since March 5. The Nasdaq Composite gained 56 points, or 0.59%, its sixth positive session in seven. The Nasdaq hit its highest level since Feb. 21. All 11 S&P sectors were positive, led by energy, which gained 2.65%. - Hayes 4:00 pm: Stocks rally into the close, Dow jumps more than 200 points Stocks rose in the final minutes of trading and closed at the highs of the day as the economy's reopening continued to fuel optimism in the market. The Dow jumped 267 points for a gain of 1%, while the S&P 500 rose 0.8%. The Nasdaq was the relative underperformer as shares of some of the biggest tech names took a breather. The tech-heavy index gained 0.59% for the day, after earlier trading as much as 0.84% lower. Stevens 3:42 pm: Shares of Tiffany slide 9% on merger doubts Shares of Tiffany slid more than 9% following a report from WWD that LVMH's deal to acquire the jeweler seems uncertain, the publication said citing sources. The two companies initially reached a deal in November, with LVMH agreeing to purchuse Tiffany for $135 per share, or $16.2 billion in cash. At the time, LVMH said that "the acquisition of Tiffany will strengthen LVMH's position in jewelry and further increase its presence in the United States." According to WWD, questions have since arisen based on weakness in the U.S. market. Stevens 3:34 pm: Bank of America: Rally in value stocks 'could have legs' The Russell 1000 value index outperformed its growth counterpart in the final two weeks of May and that trend could continue, according to Savita Subramanian, Bank of America's head of U.S. equity and quantitative strategy. The "month Value rally could have legs," said Subramanian. "In 14 of the last 14 recessions, Value has outperformed growth for at least 3 months when the economy showed signs of improving." The Russell 1000 value index remains, however, more than 15% lower for the year while the Russell 1000 growth index has gained 5.5%. Imbert 3:05 pm: Stocks have 'room to run' before being overbought, according to BofA Bank of America's Stephen Suttmeier said in a note Tuesday the S&P 500, which is up about 40% since hitting a March low, has "room to run before becoming overbought." Suttmeier pointed out that "sector outperformance has become more broad-based" since the market plunge earlier this year, making for a "healthier market." Imbert 3:02 pm: Oil hits highest level since early March Oil jumped on Tuesday, as easing lockdown measures as well as an upcoming meeting from OPEC and its oil-producing allies supported prices. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, gained 3.87%, or $1.37, to settle at $36.81 per barrel. Earlier in the session it hit a high of $36.89, a level not seen since March 6. International benchmark Brent crude settled 3.26% higher at $39.57 per barrel, also the highest since March. The move higher comes amid reports that OPEC+ is considering extending its production cuts of 9.7 million barrels per day when they meet this month, rather than tapering cuts beginning July 1, which the group initially agreed to at its April meeting. Stevens 3:00 pm: NYSE advancers lead decliners 3-1 About three stocks advanced for every decliner at the New York Stock Exchange as Wall Street built on its solid start to June. About 2,060 NYSE-listed stocks were higher while 804 traded lower, according to FactSet data. Imbert 2:55 pm: Final hour of trading: Stocks add to solid June start The major averages were slightly higher with about an hour left in the trading session as stocks continued their solid start to the new month. The Dow traded 148 points higher, or 0.6%, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.4%. The Nasdaq climbed 0.2%. Bets on the economy reopening outweighed concerns in the market about the civil unrest across the U.S. Imbert 2:25 pm: Low trading volumes in Tuesday's session With less than two hours left in the session, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF has only traded 40 million shares, compared with its 30-day trading volumes average of nearly 97 million shares, according to FactSet. The relatively thin trading came after the market scored back-to-back monthly gains, with the S&P 500 bouncing nearly 40% off its March low. Summer months also usually see seasonally slow trading.Li 12:48 pm: Stocks making the biggest moves midday RH Shares of RH soared more than 13% after investment firm Stifel upped its price target on the home furnishing retailer to $265 from $150 ahead the company's earnings report. Stifel said as many people move out of big cities, RH could be a beneficiary. LabCorp, Quest Diagnostics Deutsche Bank resumed coverage of both lab operators with buy ratings, saying that the lab industry should see a rebound in routine testing in the near term and should take market share in the longer term from less-efficient hospitals. The firm said the Covid-19 testing addressable market is greater than appreciated by the broader market. JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo Bank shares rose broadly amid mounting bets on a successful reopening of the economy. This would, in theory, increase consumer spending, thus benefiting banks. Fitzgerald 12:43 pm: Record inflows into bond ETFs amid Fed backstop Exchange-traded funds that track corporate or government debt took in a record $28.5 billion in May, bringing the total inflows over the past two months to more than $50 billion, according to data from State Street Global Advisors. Investors piled in to bond ETFs in a historic pace on the back of the Federal Reserve's commitment to support the credit market.The central bank has launched emergency programs that include purchases of corporate debt ETFs and high-yielding securities to keep credit flowing. Flanked by the Fed's backstop, companies are racing to issue new debt, which has surpassed $1 trillion this year, double the pace of last year. "Credit may actually be one avenue to seek out a return without overextending a portfolio in an idiosyncratic market," Matthew Bartolini, State Street's head of SPDR Americas Research, said in a note. He added investment-grade credit is up 13% since the market lows in March. "It is a market segment that has both explicit and implicit support from the central bank," Bartolini said. Li 12:17 pm: S&P 500 stocks hit new all-time highs on Tuesday Charter Communications (CHTR) trading at all-time highs back to its relisting on the Nasdaq in 2010 Lowe's (LOW) trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in October 1961 Otis Worldwide (OTIS) trading at all-time highs back to its spinoff from United Technologies in March 2020 Paypal (PYPL) trading at all-time high levels after its spin-off from EBay in July 2015 Zebra Technologies (ZBRA) trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in August 1985 Ecolab (ECL) trading at all-time highs back to its IPO in 1957 Crown Castle International (CCI) trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in August 1998 Equinix (EQIX) trading at all-time highs back to its IPO in August 2000 Hayes 11:45 am: Markets at midday: Dow and S&P 500 rise, but tech caps gains The Dow and S&P 500 were slightly higher in midday trading as traders continue to grapple with civil unrest in the U.S. and the economy reopening. The 30-stock Dow gained 140 points, or 0.6% while the S&P 500 advanced 0.2%. Those gains were led in large part by stocks that benefit from the economic reopening. However, the Nasdaq Composite slid 0.4% as shares of major tech companies declined. Imbert 11:23 am: Stifel raises price target on RH, stock soars 10% in midday trading Investment firm Stifel upped its price target on the home furnishing retailer to $265 from $150 ahead the company's earnings report on Thursday. "RH is a high ticket business and outlet sales are expected to be a 4 point drag on 2020 revenues, but the stock market has rebounded and many are moving out of big cities, which could benefit RH," analyst John Baugh said. "We had previously modeled revenue to be down 20%, 35%, 20%, and 5% in the 2020 quarters for a total reduction of 20% for the year and now believe this to be too drastic. We only see a 15% decline in Q1 now and 5% for the year," he said. - Bloom 10:55 am: Market rising without the help of big tech The biggest tech and internet companies, which had led the market comeback over the past two months, underperformed on Tuesday as investors focus on the economic reopening and rotate out of the stay-at-home plays. Shares of Amazon dipped 0.8%, while Facebook fell 1.7%. Apple, Netflix, Microsoft and Alphabet all came under pressure on Tuesday, weighing on the Nasdaq Composite, which was down 0.3%. The tech-heavy benchmark has outpaced the S&P 500 so far this year, rising about 6% in 2020 and sitting just 3% below its record high.Li 10:40 am: Cramer explains 'backyard trade,' Wayfair shares soar Wayfair's stock has jumped more than 12% in early trading after Piper Sandler raised its price target on the stock and CNBC's Jim Cramer said the company was part of a 'backyard trade' created by the coronavirus pandemic. The shift toward more outside activities because of the pandemic has "rescued" Wayfair, Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street." Pound 10:35 am: Mall operators jump on hopes of reopening As parts of the U.S. start to reopen, shares of shopping center and mall operators jumped on Tuesday. Vornado Realty rose more than 3%. Federal Realty and SL Green Realty gained 4.9% and 4.3%, respectively. Mall operator Simon Property Group also ticked up more than 3.5%. Fitzgerald 10:23 am: Banks rise in catch up trade as investors look to reopenings The financials are helping to lead gains as the lagging sector continues to draw in new money. Big banks like JPMorgan, Citigroup and Wells Fargo were all higher. Other financial plays like Visa and Mastercard were also rising. The S&P financial sector was up 1.2% Tuesday morning, the third best performing major sector after energy and materials. Year-to-date, the sector is the second worst, down 22%. Financials have been getting a lift as investors trade away from technology and look for beaten down areas that would be helped by an improving economy. Domm 10:17 am: Lowe's hits all-time high Shares of Lowe's rose more than 2% on Tuesday, to hit a new all-time intraday high. The company has benefited from strength in the housing industry as states around the country begin to reopen their economies, as well as recent data that's shown a greater-than-expected number of people buying houses. The iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (ITB) has gained more than 50% this quarter, putting it on track for its best quarter on record. Stevens 10:13 am: Western Union surges 12% on MoneyGram takeover offer Shares of Western Union jumped more than 12% on Tuesday after a Bloomberg News report said the provider of money-transfer services has made a takeover offer for peer MoneyGram. The deal could combine two of the largest U.S. players in the space. No decision has been made, the report said. The news sent MoneyGram shares surging more than 30% in morning trading on Tuesday. Li 10:11 am: GDP to plunge 52.8% in the second quarter, Atlanta Fed says U.S. economic activity contracted by more than half due to efforts to contain the coronavirus, according to the Atlanta Fed's GDPNow gauge. The tracker is now estimating second-quarter GDP to shrink by 52.8% following data Monday showing a continued decline in manufacturing. One upside to the plunge could be a stronger rebound in the short term, said Ed Yardeni of Yardeni Research. He is projecting a 20% GDP surge in the third quarter and another 5% in Q4, followed a slower "swoosh" pattern after that. Cox 10:10 am: Uber-Grubhub deal talks continuing with progress reportedly being made Talks between Uber and Grubhub are ongoing, and progress is being made on the possible merger of the two companies, CNBC's David Faber has learned. Uber first made an offer to buy the food delivery company in May, and as talks continue, people familiar with the matter said that Grubhub is focused on protecting its business during what could be a potentially long anti-trust review. The price expectations have narrowed, according to those familiar with the matter, and the two companies seem to be getting closer to a ratio that would be agreeable to both. Stevens 10:06 am: Dick's Sporting Goods says e-commerce sales more than doubled in the first quarter Shares of athletic retailer Dick's Sporting Goods jumped more than 3% on Tuesday after the company said its e-commerce sales more than doubled in the first quarter. The online sales were a bright spot amid Covid-19 related store closures. Dick's added that the current quarter has gotten off to a strong start. The company, however, reported dismal quarterly results. Dick's lost $1.71 per share, wider than the 57 cent loss expected on Wall Street, according to Refinitiv. Revenue and comparable-store sales also missed estimates. Fitzgerald 9:40 am: Here are Tuesday's biggest analyst calls of the day: Lululemon, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs & more Wells Fargo downgraded Lululemon to equal weight from overweight. Cowen initiated Slack as outperform. Deutsche Bank reinstated LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics as buy. Wells Fargo raised its price target on Goldman Sachs to $230 from $198. JPMorgan named Sirius XM a top pick. Deutsche Bank raised its price target on PayPal to $183 from $147. Wells Fargo raised its price target on Microsoft to $250 from $205. Odeon Capital upgraded Citi to buy from hold. Pro Subscribers can read more here. Bloom 9:30 am: Stocks open higher, Dow up 100 points U.S. equities opened in the green on Tuesday as investors continued to pile into riskier assets as the economy tried to reopen. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than 130 points at the opening bell. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite gained 0.3% and 0.1%, respectively. Fitzgerald Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards 8:45 am: Large IPOs pricing this week after market rebound There are multiple IPOs expected to raise roughly $1 billion or more this week as the market rebound and lower volatility has made companies and investors more confident in going public. The last U.S. IPO to raise more than $1 billion was GFL Environmental, which debuted on March 3, according to the Nasdaq's website.Warner Music Group, whose offering will be priced tonight, will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker WMG, and has an estimated pricing range of $23 to $26 per share, according to securities filings. ZoomInfo will also trade on the Nasdaq, under the symbol NI. The expected pricing range is $19 to $20 per share, according to securities filings, and it is slated to begin trading on Thursday. Pound 8:41 am: Microsoft jumps after Wells Fargo says market cap can top $2 trillion Shares of Microsoft jumped nearly 1% in premarket trading on Tuesday after Wells Fargo said it believes Microsoft's market capitalization can top $2 trillion in the next few years due to strength in its cloud business. The Wall Street firm which has an overweight rating on the Satya Nadella technology giant said the coronavirus "has created a Zeitgeist moment for the cloud as a whole," and Microsoft's Azure is poised to benefit. With growth in cloud revenue, Microsoft's market capitalization can reach $2.2 trillion by 2023, the firm said. Wells Fargo has an overweight rating on the stock and hiked hiked its 12-month price target on Microsoft to $250 per share from $205 per share. Fitzgerald 8:09 am: U.S. equities see back-to-back weekly inflows, BofA says Bank of America said in a note that its clients were net buyers of stocks for a second week in a row as investors plowed money into ETFs. Overall, clients increased their exposure to stocks by $60 million in assets as ETFs had an inflow of $1.044 billion, offsetting the sale of single-stock holdings. Imbert, Bloom 8:02 am: Reopening stocks head higher Shares of stocks poised to benefit from the economy reopening ticked higher in premarket trading on Tuesday. Airlines, cruise lines and casino stocks all rose, in hopes that the reopening will bring a return to travel demand. Norwegian Cruise Line jumped more than 3% and Carnival and Royal Caribbean gained more than 2%. American Airlines, Southwest and Alaska Air jumped 2% each and United and Delta rose about 1.5%. Fitzgerald 7:45 am: Oil hits highest level in nearly three months Oil moved higher on Tuesday, ahead of the meeting between OPEC and its oil-producing allies, where the current production cut policy will be discussed. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. oil benchmark, rose 3% to hit $36.51 per barrel, its highest level since March 6. Meanwhile international benchmark Brent crude rose to $39.55, a level not seen since March 11. "OPEC+ cuts are clearly working with solid help from recovering crude oil demand, especially in Asia. An extension of the current cut levels will definitely be a further boost for the market. Not only will the market rebalance, but stock builds of oil will also feel some relief. Prices rise on this prospect and are set for higher levels if the cuts are indeed extended," said Bjornar Tonhaugen, head of oil markets at Rystad Energy. "Bottom line is that the market is on a recovery path. If OPEC+ extends the high-level oil production cuts, that recovery will speed up and prices won't lag behind." Stevens 7:47 am: Slack jumps after Cowen rates stock as outperform Shares of Slack rose 3.8% in premarket trading after Cowen initiated the stock with an outperform rating and a $45 price target. The price target is 21% above where trading closed on Monday. The firm said in a note that the shift to working from home during the pandemic has expanded the potential market for Slack and that Wall Street is overly worried about competition from Microsoft Teams. Slack is set to report its fiscal first quarter results after the bell on Thursday. Pound 7:35 am: Zoom moving higher ahead of earnings Shares of Zoom Video gained 3% during Tuesday's premarket trading, ahead of the company's first quarter earnings results, which will be released after the market closes. According to estimates from FactSet, analysts are expecting the company to earn 9 cents per share, on $202.3 million in revenue. The stock gained 13.75% on Monday, hitting a new all-time high, and breaking above $200 for the first time. The video-conferencing company has seen its user base jump amid the coronavirus pandemic, and shares have gained 200% this year. Stevens 7:34 am: Dow futures gain more than 100 points as Wall Street focuses on economy reopening How will you remember Monday June 1, 2020? Ill remember it like this: a coward emerged from the bowels of the White House to convince the world he wasnt a coward. He convinced no one. On Monday, amid mass demonstrations against anti-Black racism and police brutality in the United States, police and National Guard troops used tear gas to clear a Washington, D.C., area of peaceful protesters. They did this ostensibly so that President Donald Trump could walk unbothered from the White House to a nearby Episcopal church for a bizarre photo op. When President Trump arrived at his destination, he fiddled with a bible for a few seconds and then held it up in the air in the fashion of a bored construction worker directing traffic. The cameras flashed. Meanwhile, the protesters whose civil liberties were squashed only moments earlier so that this inane spectacle could go forward nursed their wounds out of view. How will I remember Monday June 1, 2020? Not as World Milk Day. And yet, this is how the Conservative Party of Canada will likely remember it, as it was the importance of dairy, not civil disobedience, they chose to highlight on their social media feed that day. (World Milk Day, by the way, is a United Nations-led international day of recognition of the importance of milk; its arguably one of few UN initiatives many Conservatives get excited about). On Monday, the official Opposition retweeted a photo of Conservative MP Lianne Rood. In it she is sitting at her computer with a glass of chocolate milk in her hand and a big smile on her face. The caption reads: Celebrating the 20th anniversary of #WorldMilkDay with a delicious glass of chocolate milk. #EnjoyDairy. She wasnt the only one sipping a tall cold one at home. Peter MacKay, a candidate for the federal Conservative leadership, tweeted a photo of himself in his kitchen holding a glass of milk to his mouth. Like Rood, there is a big smile on the candidates face as well as a pronounced milk moustache. I raise my glass to the dairy farmers across Canada, he wrote. CPC Leader Andrew Scheer also extolled the virtues of dairy Monday with a post about delicious milk products and a photo of himself petting a cow. I mean no disrespect to dairy farmers, nor do I believe human beings are incapable of caring about two things at once (the day prior, MacKay released a statement condemning anti-Black racism), but it is surreal to witness, as the world burns, some of your nations most prominent leaders launching the Conservative party version of a Got Milk ad. Yet this milk episode serves as a kind of metaphor for the federal Conservative partys MO in recent months: i.e. weird, tone-deaf and irrelevant. To recap: Earlier this year, Andrew Scheer positioned himself as a noble defender of the taxpayer, but his concern that fraudsters and criminals are benefitting from federal aid money during a pandemic in which millions of Canadians are struggling financially came off as petty and harsh to many taxpayers who are themselves recipients of aid. CPC leadership candidate Derek Sloan is currently fixated with Antifa an entity virtually unknown to most Canadians but which hes promised to designate a terrorist organization if he is elected. In April, he questioned Dr. Theresa Tams loyalties to Canada, a move many characterized as outright racist. MacKay seems to spend about as much time managing the fallout of his campaigns social media blunders as he does campaigning. And this week, Erin OToole released a totally oxymoronic statement promoting racial equality on the one hand and himself as a tough on crime candidate on the other. All of this is to say that many prominent Conservatives consistently appear determined to raise tensions and confuse people. But to what end? According to a new study from the Angus Reid Institute, the Liberal Party of Canada now holds a six-point advantage in national vote intention. Clearly something isnt working and its unlikely that bluster and milk moustaches will provide the answer. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau paused for a total of 21 seconds before giving an arguably soft answer to a reporters question about violent crackdowns on protests in the United States. The bar for decisive moral leadership is already fairly low in this country. However, instead of raising it, prominent Conservative leaders appear intent on setting it ever lower. HOUSTON - (June 2, 2020) - Boron nitride nanotubes are anything but boring, according to Rice University scientists who have found a way to watch how they move in liquids. The researchers' method to study the real-time dynamics of boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) allowed them to confirm, for the first time, that Brownian motion of BNNTs in solution matches predictions and that, like carbon nanotubes of comparable sizes, they remain rigid. Those properties and others -- BNNTs are nearly transparent to visible light, resist oxidation, are stable semiconductors and are excellent conductors of heat -- could make them useful as building blocks for composite materials or in biomedical studies, among other applications. The study will help scientists better understand particle behavior in the likes of liquid crystals, gels and polymer networks. Rice scientists Matteo Pasquali and Angel Marti and graduate student and lead author Ashleigh Smith McWilliams isolated single BNNTs by combining them with a fluorescent rhodamine surfactant. This allowed the researchers to show their Brownian motion -- the random way particles move in a fluid, like dust in air -- is the same as for carbon nanotubes, and thus they will behave in a similar way in fluid flows. That means BNNTs can be used in liquid-phase processing for the large-scale production of films, fibers and composites. "BNNTs are typically invisible in fluorescence microscopy," Marti said. "However, when they are covered by fluorescent surfactants, they can be easily seen as small moving rods. BNNTs are a million times thinner than a hair. Understanding how these nanostructures move and diffuse in solution at a fundamental level is of great importance for manufacturing materials with specific and desired properties." The new data comes from experiments carried out at Rice and reported in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B. Understanding how shear helps nanotubes align has already paid off in the Pasquali lab's development of conductive carbon nanotube fibers, films and coatings, already making waves in materials and medical research. "BNNTs are the neglected cousins of carbon nanotubes," Pasquali said. "They were discovered just a few years later, but took much longer to take off, because carbon nanotubes had taken most of the spotlight. "Now that BNNT synthesis has advanced and we understand their fundamental fluid behavior, the community could move much faster towards applications," he said. "For example, we could make fibers and coatings that are thermally conductive but electrically insulating, which is very unusual as electrical insulators have poor thermal conductivity." Unlike carbon nanotubes that emit lower-energy near-infrared light and are easier to spot under the microscope, the Rice team had to modify the multiwalled BNNTs to make them both dispersible and viewable. Rhodamine molecules combined with long aliphatic chains served this purpose, attaching to the nanotubes to keep them separate and allowing them to be located between glass slides separated just enough to let them move freely. The rhodamine tag let the researchers track single nanotubes for up to five minutes. "We needed to be able to visualize the nanotube for relatively long periods of time, so we could accurately model its movement," Smith McWilliams said. "Since rhodamine tags coordinated to the BNNT surface were less likely to photobleach (or go dim) than those free in solution, the BNNT appeared as a bright fluorescent signal against a dark background, as you can see in the video. This helped me keep the nanotube in focus throughout the video and enabled our code to accurately track its movement over time." ### The paper will appear in a special virtual issue of the publication, a Festschrift dedicated to Peter Rossky, Rice's dean of the Wiess School of Natural Sciences. Rossky plans to step down from the post on July 1 to focus on his research as the Harry C. and Olga K. Professor of Chemistry and a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering. Co-authors of the paper are graduate students Zhao Tang and Selin Ergulen and alumnus Carlos de los Reyes, now a process engineer at Intel Corp. Marti is an associate professor of chemistry, of bioengineering and of materials science and nanoengineering. Pasquali is the A.J. Hartsook Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular engineering, of chemistry and of materials science and nanoengineering. The National Science Foundation, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Welch Foundation supported the research. Read the abstract at https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jpcb.0c03663. This news release can be found online https://news.rice.edu/2020/06/02/exotic-nanotubes-move-in-less-mysterious-ways/ Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews. Related materials: Pasquali Research Group: http://pasquali.rice.edu Marti Research Group: http://martigroup.rice.edu Wiess School of Natural Sciences: https://naturalsciences.rice.edu George R. Brown School of Engineering: https://engineering.rice.edu Video: https://youtu.be/FaCbHpU4jlQ Video produced by Brandon Martin/Rice University Images for download: https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2020/06/0608_BNNT-1-web.jpg Rice University graduate student Ashleigh Smith McWilliams holds a vial of fluorescing boron nitride nanotubes. She led a study to capture video of the nanotubes in motion to prove their potential for materials and medical applications. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University) https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2020/06/0608_BNNT-2-web.jpg Rice University scientists analyzed the motion of single boron nitride nanotubes. The nanotubes are stable semiconductors and excellent conductors of heat. They could be useful as building blocks for composite materials or in biomedical studies. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University) https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2020/06/0608_BNNT-3-web.jpg Rice University graduate student Ashleigh Smith McWilliams and chemist Angel Marti view fluorescing boron nitride nanotubes. Their analysis of the nanotubes' motion will help scientists better understand particle behavior in the likes of liquid crystals, gels and polymer networks. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University) Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,962 undergraduates and 3,027 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 4 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 23:43:09|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MOGADISHU, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Somali health ministry on Tuesday confirmed 66 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of infections to 2,089. Fawziya Abikar, the health minister said the majority of the cases were recorded in Banadir which has 33 cases, Somaliland with 26 and Puntland has seven. Abikar said 19 patients recovered from the respiratory disease, bringing the total number of people who have been discharged from hospitals to 390. The minister said no death was recorded in the last 24 hours as the total number of fatalities remains at 79. She said 42 of the latest cases are male while 24 others are female. The COVID-19 cases have surged at a time that Somalia is struggling to contain floods that have affected nearly a million people and desert locusts that are devouring crops and pasture in Somaliland, Puntland and Galmudug; creating a triple threat. UN agencies and partners operating Somalia say they have scaled up support to the government and member states to detect, prevent and interrupt COVID-19 transmission. The Horn of African nation has instituted measures to contain the possible spread of COVID19 including closing schools, banning large gatherings and suspending international and domestic passenger flights. Enditem A selfless sister is seven months pregnant with her older sibling's baby after discovering that getting pregnant could be fatal for her sister - and her unborn child. Rebekah Bragdon Adamson, 34, who lives in Florida, was left heartbroken when she discovered that a surgery she had 14 years ago had left her unable to survive a pregnancy. The mother-to-be, who is now expecting a child that is being carried by her sister, had surgery to remove her bladder at the age of 20, after suffering with Interstitial Cystitis, which causes long-term bladder problems. However, Rebekah was not told at the time that the procedure had left her unable to carry a baby and it wasn't until January 2019 - after she'd married chief information officer husband, Bobby, 38 - that she made the devastating discovery. Brianna Bragdon (pictured with her son), 28, from Maine, agreed to be a surrogate for her sister Rebekah Bragdon Adamson, 34, after learning that pregnancy could be fatal for her Rebekah (pictured center with her husband Bobby and her sister) who had surgery to remove her bladder at age 20, was told that there is a 90 per cent chance that pregnancy will kill her Having spent a year trying to start a family, medics told a devastated Rebekah there was a 90 per cent chance that pregnancy would kill her. The financial analyst's younger sister, Brianna Bragdon, 28, from Maine, kindly stepped up and offered to act as the couple's surrogate. Rebekah said: 'I cried for three days when I found out I couldn't have a baby. 'Nobody told me when I had the surgery that I wouldn't be able to have children. 'I can get pregnant, I just wouldn't make it through because the baby would be pressing against the bladder and the chance of infections would give us a very low chance of making it through. 'The idea of a stranger carrying the baby was scary, but my sister has a three-year-old son and doesn't want any more children. 'Her pregnancy was smooth, so we mentioned to her that she would have been the perfect person because the baby would be carried by family. 'We didn't think it would actually ever happen, then she said she would think about it and make sure it was right for her. Brianna told Rebekah that she had strong feelings that she wanted to be the one to carry the baby. Pictured: The sisters when they were young Bobby has two children from a previous marriage, Annabelle, eight, and Alistair, six (pictured with the couple) Brianna who is mother to three-year-old Jack, said it took her a few months to make a decision to be her sister's surrogate. Pictured: Annabelle, Rebekah, Alistair, Jack and Brianna 'We knew it was a lot to ask, but she came back and said she had strong feelings that she wanted to be the one to carry the baby.' Brianna who is mother to three-year-old Jack, said she was delighted to help her sister and the whole family are looking forward to meeting the baby girl at the end of August, including Bobby's two children from a previous marriage, Annabelle, eight, and Alistair, six. 'I had a very easy pregnancy with my son, and I love my sister and would do anything for her,' Brianna, who is training to be an ultrasound technician, said. 'I knew I wanted to do it. I just had to pray on it for a bit, so it took me a couple of months to make the decision.' Rebekah added: 'I always wanted children. 'I got very lucky by marrying a man who already has two children, so we have kids around, but I wanted to complete our family with one of our children. Rebekah said if there are any complications, she doesn't want to put Brianna in harm's way because she's her younger sister. Pictured: Rebekah, Alistair, Brianna, Jack and Annabelle Rebekah admits she can't imagine her life without Brianna, and says she couldn't be more grateful for her. Pictured: Brianna, Jack, Terry, Annabelle, Rebekah, Bobby and Alistair 'We are excited but it's also very scary, especially putting my sister through a pregnancy. 'Women go through pregnancy to have a child, my sister is doing this to get a niece at the end. 'If there are any complications, I don't want to put her in harm's way because she's my little sister. 'She's a beautiful pregnant woman. 'We tell her all the time that it's extremely amazing that she's willing to do this for us and bringing her niece into the world. 'We're so appreciative of her and I can't imagine my life without her.' Rebekah, Bobby and Brianna (pictured, with Jack) have begun teaching the children about the concept of surrogacy Brianna said Jack is young enough not to think that there's anything unusual about the situation. Pictured: Rebekah and Briana when they were young The trio have been teaching their young children about the concept of surrogacy with books and Rebekah believes her nephew will have a very close relationship with his cousin. Rebekah said: 'She's in her second trimester now and when we planned this COVID-19 wasn't happening so we thought her little boy would be at school but now she's looking after an active three year old full time as well as being pregnant.' Brianna added: 'Jack is young enough to not think that there isn't anything weird about it so he's the perfect age. 'I'm excited for my sister and excited to not be pregnant anymore. 'I'll be a big part of my niece's life. I can't wait to meet her.' PARIS It looks like democracy has finally arrived, and the regimes days are numbered. It was a single spark in a tinderbox of totalitarian exasperation that ignited a firestorm of freedom. An innocent civilian, George Floyd, member of a minority racial class, died at the hands of regime authorities. Video of the incident leaked online and quickly shot around the world, igniting protests against the interventionist regime in cities such as Paris, Amsterdam and Dublin. The footage showed a member of the domestic paramilitary kneeling on the victims neck for several minutes. The regime cited underlying health conditions as a cause of death and refused to acknowledge any premeditation. For the past several days, the American peoples attempt to overthrow the regime by spilling into the streets in protest has been led by average people from all walks of life. Call it the Free American Army. The regime is trying to discredit the FAA by tying it to antifa, which the regime plans to declare a terrorist group. This dishonest attempt to associate the plight of average American citizens with the actions of a violent group known worldwide for rapidly organizing to exploit domestic strife in various countries has one objective: to undermine the uprising and keep the regime in power. This fight for freedom comes after more than two months of intense crackdowns across the country. Citizens were told to shelter in place and were denied the basic human freedoms of movement, assembly and work under the pretext that a virus was lurking outside. Various members of the regime, including medical apparatchik Dr. Anthony Fauci and New York Gov. Anthony Cuomo, whose father also served in the regime, appeared regularly in white face-burkas on state television to bombard Americans with death statistics, inciting fear of going outside or getting too close to others. As the regime plunged the middle class into poverty, it legislated a redistribution of wealth to the countrys elites. I want to protect myself and protect others, and also because I want to make it be a symbol for people to see that thats the kind of thing you should be doing, Fauci said as he encouraged Americans to wear face-burkas in public. The battle between freedom-loving Americans and the authoritarian regime had already begun when citizens started gathering en masse and flooding the countrys beaches without face-burkas. The last hope for pro-democracy reformers was President Donald Trump, an outsider who had vowed to reform the countrys institutions. Unfortunately, Trump has struggled to enact meaningful structural reforms, leading his supporters to conclude that perhaps the system is simply unreformable. Trump is only tolerated by regime elites when he falls into line and distracts citizens from domestic problems by shaking his fist at other countries. The regime has even offered a $15 million reward for information leading to the arrest of a foreign leader, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, while its military has continued to infiltrate, invade and destabilize countries all over the world. The regime is now trying to depict peaceful protestors as radical, sending its army into the streets to crack down on the movement with tear gas and rubber bullets. Videos have emerged showing state violence against unarmed civilians. The regime has vowed to maximize the presence of its forces in the streets. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Trump associate and noted proponent of foreign meddling, has appeared on Fox News state propaganda TV, explaining that when he was the strongman of New York City, he had hundreds of people arrested during protests. Trump has echoed that sentiment. In a leaked recording of a conference call, Trump and Attorney General William Barr indicated that they want local elites to use the regimes army to dominate the protesters. He also said that he thinks the whole world is laughing at the regimes weakness. Trump should sit down with the protesters bring all factions involved to the table and negotiate their inclusion in a new democratic government. In the meantime, our NATO allies can set up a no-fly zone over major U.S. cities to protect the Free American Army and civilian democracy activists. Next week, there should be a congressional vote on sanctioning regime elites, including travel bans and asset freezes. Their wealth comes at the expense of the suffering American people. Our coalition will also draft a new constitution for America that ensures the inclusion and equal representation of all protest groups. Free people will always prevail against oppression and tyranny, and America will always be on the side of those fighting in the streets. Elsewhere. Rachel Marsden is a columnist, political strategist and host of an independently produced French-language program that airs on Sputnik France. Her website can be found at www.rachelmarsden.com. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The collection of more than 25,000 fragments of ancient manuscripts known as the Dead Sea Scrolls include, among other ancient texts, the oldest copies of books of the Hebrew Bible. But finding a way to piece them all together in order to understand their meaning has remained an incredibly difficult puzzle, especially given that most pieces weren't excavated in an orderly fashion. Now, researchers reporting in the journal Cell on June 2 have used an intriguing clue to help in this effort: DNA "fingerprints" lifted from the animal skins on which the texts were written. "The discovery of the 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls is one of the most important archaeological discoveries ever made," says Oded Rechavi (@OdedRechavi) of Tel Aviv University in Israel. "However, it poses two major challenges: first, most of them were not found intact but rather disintegrated into thousands of fragments, which had to be sorted and pieced together, with no prior knowledge on how many pieces have been lost forever, or--in the case of non-biblical compositions--how the original text should read. Depending on the classification of each fragment, the interpretation of any given text could change dramatically." The second challenge is that most of the scrolls were acquired not directly from eleven Qumran caves near the Dead Sea but through antiquity dealers. As a result, it's not clear where many of the fragments came from in the first place, making it that much more difficult to put them together and into their proper historical context. Since their discovery, mainly in the late 1940s and 1950s, scholars tried to put them together like a jigsaw puzzle, relying primarily on visible properties of the fragments in order to learn about their relationship to other fragments. In the new study, Rechavi and colleagues including Noam Mizrahi, Tel Aviv University, Israel, and Mattias Jakobsson, Uppsala University, Sweden, decided to look deeper for clues. From each piece, they extracted ancient DNA of the animals that were used to make the parchments. Then, using a forensic-like analysis, they worked to establish the relationship between the pieces based on that DNA evidence and on scrutiny of the language within the texts under investigation. The DNA sequences revealed that the parchments were mostly made from sheep, which wasn't known. The researchers then reasoned that pieces made from the skin of the same sheep must be related, and that scrolls from closely related sheep were more likely to fit together than those from more different sheep or other species. The researchers stumbled onto an interesting case in which two pieces thought to belong together were in fact made from different animals--sheep and cow. It suggested they don't belong together at all. The most notable example came from scrolls that comprise different copies of the biblical, prophetic book of Jeremiah, which are also some of the oldest known scrolls. "Analysis of the text found on these Jeremiah pieces suggests that they not only belong to different scrolls, they also represent different versions of the prophetic book," says Mizrahi. "The fact that the scrolls that are most divergent textually are also made of a different animal species is indicative that they originate at a different provenance." Most likely, he explains, the cow fragments were written elsewhere because it wasn't possible to raise cows in the Judean desert. The discovery also has larger implications. The researchers write that the fact that different versions of the book circulated in parallel suggests that "the holiness of the biblical book did not extend to its precise wording." That's in contrast to the mutually exclusive texts that were adopted later by Judaism and Christianity, they note. "This teaches us about the way this prophetic text was read at the time and also holds clues to the process of the text's evolution," Rechavi says. Other highlights include insight into the relationship among different copies of a non-biblical, liturgical work known as the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, found in both Qumran and Masada. The analysis shows that the various copies found in different Qumran Caves are closely related genetically, but the Masada copy is distinct. The finding suggests that the work had a wider currency in the period. "What we learn from the scrolls is probably relevant also to what happened in the country at the time," Mizrahi says. "As the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice foreshadows revolutionary developments in poetic design and religious thinking, this conclusion has implications for the history of Western mysticism and Jewish liturgy." The evidence also confirmed that some other fragments of uncertain origin likely came from other places and not the Qumran caves. In one case, the DNA evidence suggests a fragment from a copy of the biblical book of Isaiah--one of the most popular books in ancient Judea--likely came from another site, which suggests to the researchers the potential existence of an additional place of discovery that still awaits identification. Although the DNA evidence adds to understanding, it can only "reveal part of the picture and not solve all the mysteries," Rechavi says. The researchers had to extract DNA from tiny amounts of materials--what they refer to as scroll "dust" in certain cases--and say there are also many scrolls that have yet to be sampled and others that can't be, for fear it might ruin them. Nevertheless, the researchers hope that more samples will be tested and added to the database to work toward a more complete Dead Sea Scroll "genome." They now think they can apply the same methods to any ancient artifact that contains enough intact DNA or perhaps other biological molecules. ### This work was supported by the Israel Science Foundation, the Adelis Foundation, and by the generosity of Eric and Wendy Schmidt by recommendation of the Schmidt Futures program. Cell, Anava, Neuhof, Gingold, Sagy, et al.: "Illuminating Genetic Mysteries of the Dead Sea Scrolls" https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)30552-3 Cell (@CellCellPress), the flagship journal of Cell Press, is a bimonthly journal that publishes findings of unusual significance in any area of experimental biology, including but not limited to cell biology, molecular biology, neuroscience, immunology, virology and microbiology, cancer, human genetics, systems biology, signaling, and disease mechanisms and therapeutics. Visit: http://www.cell.com/cell. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com. OTTAWACanada is gearing up for an eventual COVID-19 vaccine, having inked a contract to buy 37 million syringes roughly enough to deliver shots to the countrys entire population. Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand said Tuesday that the purchase order from the Canadian branch of Becton Dickinson, a global medical giant, doesnt include a definitive timeline for delivery but is part of a wider effort to prepare the country for mass vaccinations if a cure is found. We are making sure that when a vaccine is ready, Canada will be ready, Anand told reporters on Parliament Hill. Statistics Canada estimates the Canadian population is more than 38 million people. The 2016 census counted more than 35 million Canadians. We are working to procure supplies, including those syringes, and other supplies that would be needed for the eventual discovery of a vaccine and its administration throughout Canada, she said. Researchers around the world are racing to find a vaccine for the novel coronavirus that has spread across the globe and killed more than 375,000 people over the past six months. In Canada, the federal government has authorized 38 clinical trials for possible treatments to COVID-19, the illness sparked by infection of the coronavirus. These include trials for the malaria treatment hydroxychloroquine, inhaled nitric oxide for infection patients, cellular immunotherapy and more. CanSino Biologics, a Chinese pharmaceutical company collaborating with the National Research Council of Canada, is conducting the sole COVID-19 vaccine trial authorized by Health Canada. Speaking alongside Anand Tuesday, Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam said the number of syringes ordered was meant to reflect the maximum number of Canadians who may wish to be vaccinated whenand ifa vaccine is discovered. Anand added that there is not yet a definitive timeline for when the government will receive the 37 million syringes it has ordered, and that the purchase is part of the governments effort to plan ahead. Canadas bulk syringe purchase is the latest step the federal government has taken to stock up on much-needed pandemic equipment as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and authorities in the provinces gear up for possible successive waves of infection over the coming months. Anand has repeatedly described a hypercompetitive global marketplace for personal protective equipment that front-line health care workers need during the pandemic. Ottawa has responded by buying whatever it can on the global market, Anand said. The government has also hired logistics firms to make sure goods ordered in places like China actually make it to Canada without getting bought out by someone else. At the same time, the federal government has rallied Canadian companies to shift production lines to so that Canada has a reliable domestic supply of pandemic gear. Navdeep Bains, the federal minister for innovation, science and industry, said Tuesday that four companies will now receive federal funding to develop rapid testing kits that could be used in remote communities and local clinics. In early May, a previous effort to procure made-in-Canada rapid test kits from Ottawa-based Spartan Bioscience hit a snag when Health Canada warned there was a risk the kits would show false negatives for COVID-19. This is early stages, Bains said Tuesday, describing the new contracts as a long-term play that will take months before the new testing kits are available. The government has placed huge orders for a range of other supplies, including tens of millions of face shields, gloves, medical gowns and masks for health-care workers. Statistics published by Anands department show that small portions of the governments orders have been received. As of May 26, the federal government had received more than 9.6 million face shields, 39 million gloves, 3 million gowns, 11.9 million N95 respirator masks, 101 million surgical masks and 203 ventilator machines. Read more about: Charlie the parrot foiled a burglary carried out by Jake Fletcher. (Wales News Service) A serial burglar who was foiled by a squawking parrot has been jailed for two years. Jake Fletcher, 24, was stopped in his tracks when the birds owner raised the alarm during a night-time break-in. The burglars raid last June on three houses on the same street in Monmouth, Wales, was scuppered by the noise made by Charlie, an orange-winged Amazon parrot. In the final house of his raid, Fletcher was confronted by Charlie in the living room, which woke up his owner, Emma Dazeley, 41, who was sleeping upstairs. Jake Fletcher, from Newport, was sentenced to two years in prison. (Wales News Service) Fletcher fled the scene after she confronted him, but not before dropping a bag and stolen items. Dazeley was given a 500 reward for her bravery as her actions led to his arrest. Read more: New brain-scan study reveals why ketamine can treat depression Prosecutor Matthew Roberts told Cardiff Crown Court: "During the last burglary, one of the victims was asleep in bed when she heard the family parrot squawking in the front room and she went to investigate. She saw the defendant hiding behind the door and confronted him. He pushed past her and ran out of the back door. The complainant grabbed hold of a rucksack the defendant had and told him he was not taking her daughters bag with him. This caused the bag to rip. He fled and she pursued him. He tried to scale a fence but she tried to pull him down." Charlie the parrot is missing after flying away six weeks ago. (Wales News Service) The court heard Fletcher dropped the rucksack along with video games, a bottle of Prosecco and a bottle of gin before he ran off. Fletcher, from Newport, pleaded guilty to three burglaries on 20 June last year in Monmouth. Watch the video below Defending, Suzanne Payne said: He says his drink was spiked on the night of the offending and that he lost days of his life." Sentencing Fletcher to two years in prison, judge Richard Williams praised the parrot's owner for her bravery. Read more: Biggest solar flare since 2017 is detected as Sun wakes up He said: There was a struggle for possession of the rucksack with one victim. She tried to tackle you to stop you going over the fence. Story continues If I were to impose a suspended prison sentence, it would add insult to her injury. Charlie the parrot's owner, Emma Dazeley, was commended for her bravery (Wales News Service) The victim showed considerable determination and courage. She is commended for her actions and will receive a 500 award. However, Ms Dazeley will not be able to share her reward with Charlie, as the parrot flew off six weeks ago and has not returned. She said: "I was going to give his some cuttlefish - that's his favourite. You can get a lot of that for 500. "But I'm sorry to say that he's not here any more. He's been gone for weeks now and I really miss him. "He loved a good squawk and he did the trick that night when the burglar came. She said Charlie was a rescue bird and that she had him for six years. Hes my hero and I want him back, she said. Image: Wikimedia Commons Looking through history, one can find that nations and cultures have over time asserted their dominance via 'hard power' projections, only to further assert their dominance via the use of 'soft power' tools. Award-winning author Amish Tripathi travels back in time to pull some examples to substantiate the claim that "soft power is most often built on the back of hard power conquest and equally hard power is not a guarantee for soft power to automatically emerge". However, Tripathi positions India as a model country in history, one that emerged as an exception to this rule. The culture of the Indian subcontinent or "Bharatvarsha" is an example of a country having spread its soft power through much of the known world without necessarily resorting to any hard power projection abroad, says Tripathi. A very relevant example of soft power built on the back of hard power as rightly pointed out by Tripathi is what he terms as "the cultural dominance of the Anglosphere across the modern world", a remnant of the humongous power exercised by the British empire, which was built on warfare. Similarly, that hard power conquest is not a guarantee for soft power dominance to follow can be seen from the historical example of the Mongols. The Mongols, he says, "established one of the largest empires in human history, yet the Soft Power of Mongolia, from the Mongolian language to Tengri religion to native Mongolian culture is hardly visible outside Mongolia". But India, unlike most others, was one such culture whose soft power spread across more than half the global population, for over a millennium (from the 1st Century CE to around the 12th Century CE), without almost any overseas military conquest. A country whose way of life, religions, philosophies, stories, rituals, music, sometimes even names, were absorbed and accepted by millions of people in foreign lands. A country that succeeded in casting many others in its own image (to varying extents), without apparently trying to. "A country that did not use the imposition of force; It instead used the pull of attraction. A country that sent traders, scholars, storytellers, scientists, priests, mathematicians, sculptors, painters, musicians, metallurgists and many others to foreign lands, but almost never sent an invading army," Tripathi says in his article on Indian Soft Power, under the Brand Finance Report 2020. The concept of hard and soft power diplomacy usually comes into play in the field of foreign policy. While hard power basically refers to coercive power wielded via inducements or threats, say for instance the threat of military action or economic sanctions against another, soft power works more on the lines of attraction through persuasion. To this day, he says one can spot the remnants of India's soft power influences dating as far back as the 1st millenium CE. Among many other cultures, very clear examples of the same are visible in South-East Asia where the locals adopted Sanskritised names, builbust Indian-style temples, had Indian-style rituals, and worshipped Hindu Gods & Goddesses (with their own regional variations), Tripathi adds. He lists some reasons behind how India was able to exercise its soft power back in the day, despite little or no hard power projection at the time. The country's domestic strength, its economic success, liberal and open-minded spirit, knowledge, science, and a warrior spirit are a few things that enabled it to assert and establish its dominance. Tripathi believes that the story of ancient India has many lessons for the world, modern Indians and the modern Western powers alike. He emphasised the need for modern Indians to reach back and understand what exactly facilitated the success of their ancestors, and maybe they could try and revive that spirit and capitalise on the same. Read our entire coverage on India' Most Valuable Brands 2020 here. Vow's subsidiary ETIA has been awarded a Euro 0.7 million contract in Italy with its technology Safesteril to sterilize and debacterize medical herbs. The ETIA Safesteril is an innovative steam sterilization process for spices, herbs, dehydrated vegetables, food, and other pharmaceutical ingredients. With growing health awareness and worldwide medical plants market expansion, the volume for medical herbs corresponds to an addressable market potential of around 300 to 400 Safesteril machines. "This is the second contract for ETIA in the last few days totaling more than Euro 3 million. I'm thrilled to experience such diversified demand in many industries driven by health safety and environmental sustainability": says Henrik Badin, CEO Vow ASA, in a statement. For further enquiries, please contact: Henrik Badin - CEO Vow ASA Tel: +47 90 78 98 25 Email: henrik.badin@vowasa.com About Vow ASA In Vow and our subsidiaries Scanship and Etia we are passionate about preventing pollution. Our world leading solutions convert biomass and waste into valuable resources and generate clean energy for a wide range of industries. Cruise ships on every ocean have Vow technology inside which processes waste and purifies wastewater. Fish farmers are adopting similar solutions, and public utilities and industries use our solutions for sludge processing, waste management and biogas production on land. Our ambitions go further than this. With our advanced technologies and solutions, we turn waste into biogenetic fuels to help decarbonize industry and convert plastic waste into fuel, clean energy and high-value pyro carbon. Our solutions are scalable, standardized, patented and thoroughly documented, and our capability to deliver is well proven. They are key to end waste and stop pollution. Located in Oslo, the parent company Vow ASA is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (ticker VOW from 13 January 2020). The Vow group has 120 employees in Norway, France, Poland and the US. This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. Mazlum Kobani, commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, announced Friday that the first stage of reconciliation talks with rival Kurdish National Council has gone well and that the second phase has begun. Kobani tweeted just as president of the Syrian Democratic Councils executive committee Ilham Ahmed, who also hails from Mazlums Democratic Union Party/People's Protection Units (PYD/YPG), spoke via teleconference from northeast Syria. Ahmed said, So far we have only discussed political aspects. Issues such as their participation in the self-administration system or any possibility of a military integration have not been discussed so far. We have realized that actually we dont have that many major differences politically between us, she said. Ahmed said the PYD does not demand that KNC give up its affiliation with the wider Turkey-backed Syrian opposition. In general, we have serious criticisms when it comes to the opposition, specifically its Islamist character. But in general, we are willing to work with anyone in the opposition that isnt far from our principles. Political fighting led the PYD to marginalize the KNC and consolidate power in northeast Syria during the war. We are trying to establish relations with groups within the opposition, Ahmed said Friday. Why it Matters: If successful, intra-Kurdish political reconciliation in northeast Syria may lay the groundwork for cooling tensions between Turkey and the YPG, or at least the United States hopes. Turkeys government has vowed to destroy the YPG and has led two military campaigns against it during Syrias civil war. Turkey sees the YPG as the Syrian branch of the terrorist-designated Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984. Ankara has accused the United States of helping the YPG to establish a terror state on its border since the United States began backing the group in the war against the Islamic State. Seeking to bridge the gap, US officials have pushed the PYD to reconcile with the KNC and expel the PKK from northeast Syria as a way to preserve the regions autonomy. Whats next: The Turkish government openly opposes the reconciliation talks and has worked to upset prior attempts. Apparently wary of drawing Ankaras ire, US officials have remained circumspect about the talks, which are being facilitated by State Department deputy coalition envoy William Roebuck. It is not clear if the US diplomatic team can get PYD representatives a seat at the UN-backed Geneva talks, given Turkeys longstanding threat of a veto. If the steps taken at Geneva do not succeed, Ahmed said, then we will find an alternative to that for a political solution for Syria. So far there is no sign Damascus is willing to tolerate northeast Syrian autonomy, she said. Know more: Amberin Zaman dives deep into the fraught path ahead for US-led reconciliation between the PYD and KNC. An Iranian scientist detained by the U.S. was deported to Iran late Monday, but his release did not coincide with the freeing of any Americans detained by Iran -- dashing hopes for a prisoner swap after weeks of speculation and back channel talks. At least four American citizens remain detained by Iran, including U.S. Navy veteran Michael White, who contracted the novel coronavirus in Iranian custody and was released on medical furlough. White was suspected to be the leading candidate for an exchange, even as tensions between the U.S. and Iran have remains intense and volatile. Both the U.S. and Iranian foreign ministries denied on Tuesday that Sirous Asgari, the Iranian scientist, was ever part of a prisoner exchange. Since November, the 59-year old professor had been in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, where he also contracted the coronavirus as he awaited deportation after a federal judge dismissed espionage charges against him. MORE: American held by Iran hospitalized with coronavirus symptoms amid worsening outbreak In a statement to ABC News, State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said Tuesday that Asgari "is not and has never been a participant in any prisoner swap with Iran." PHOTO: Michael White, an American Navy veteran released from prison in Iran on medical furlough, is pictured in a March 25, 2020, photo released by his family. (Courtesy White Family) Iran's Foreign Ministry also denied there was an exchange, adding during a briefing on Tuesday that Asgari "was accused of baseless theft of classified trade information, but the U.S. government failed to prove his guilt in court," according to the Iranian state media agency ISNA. There had been back channel discussions in early May about an exchange, a source familiar with the talks told ABC News at the time. Speculation centered around the U.S. deporting Asgari and Iran allowing White, a cancer patient, to leave the country after his release on medical furlough. MORE: American student Xiyue Wang jailed in Iran for 3 years freed in prisoner exchange A spokesperson for the White family told ABC News there has been no movement on his release and tweeted late Monday night that reports about his case "are not accurate. ... Please continue to pray for Michael's release." Story continues In addition to White, the Iranian government has detained three dual Iranian American citizens -- Siamak Namazi, a businessman held since October 2015; his father Baquer Namazi, an 83-year old former United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) official and Iranian provincial governor; and Morad Tahbaz, an Iranian environmentalist with U.S. and British citizenship. PHOTO: Foreign Minister of Iran, Javad Zarif wears a face mask as a preventive measure against the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic during a cabinet meeting in Tehran, Iran on April 15, 2020. (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images, FILE) The family of former FBI agent Bob Levinson announced in March that U.S. officials believe Levinson, the longest-held American hostage who had been missing inside Iran since March 2007, died at some point in Iranian custody, but before the COVID-19 outbreak. Like the U.S., Iran has been overwhelmed by its coronavirus outbreak, which has mushroomed through its prison system, in particular, and it now faces a possible second wave of infections. In March, Iranian authorities released nearly 100,000 prisoners on temporary leave to stem the virus' spread, but none of the detained Americans were on that list -- even as their prison floors saw the spread of COVID-19 cases, according to the Namazi's lawyer. MORE: Retired FBI agent, missing in Iran since 2007, died in captivity: Family Last November, a federal judge dismissed the charges against Asgari, saying prosecutors had not provided enough evidence that he stole trade secrets while working at Case Western Reserve University. With his U.S. visa no longer valid, he was then detained by ICE for several months. MORE: American furloughed from Iranian prison as coronavirus raises concerns for those detained abroad Ortagus said that the U.S. had been trying to deport Asgari since December, "but the Iranian government repeatedly has held up the process." An ICE spokesperson told ABC News on May 5 that his removal had been postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Asgari contracted COVID-19 while in U.S. custody, according to his family and his lawyer. The ICE spokesperson said only that they expected "to effect his removal when he is medically cleared to travel and normal air travel resumes," in a statement on May 5. What to know about the coronavirus: How it started and how to protect yourself: Coronavirus explained What to do if you have symptoms: Coronavirus symptoms Tracking the spread in the U.S. and worldwide: Coronavirus map Tune into ABC at 1 p.m. ET and ABC News Live at 4 p.m. ET every weekday for special coverage of the novel coronavirus with the full ABC News team, including the latest news, context and analysis. Hope for prisoner swap fades as US deports Iranian scientist, but no Americans freed originally appeared on abcnews.go.com In San Jose, Calif., on Monday, Mayor Sam Liccardo was handing out cleaning kits a bucket, a scraper, some rags and Goo Gone, a chemical solvent and offering a short course in graffiti removal. You end up having to scrub a lot, he said. He called the cleanup an ongoing task, and said that not all of the protesters were doing so in true community spirit. Several dozen small businesses in San Jose had their windows smashed in protests over the weekend. It tears your heart out, he said, because they are struggling so much already. In interviews, organizers of cleanup events said they were motivated, in part, by fear that the protests would come to be defined by looting and vandalism. So many people were worried that the message was getting lost in the violence, said Justine Sandoval, 34, the president of the Denver Young Democrats, who organized a cleanup event on Sunday in Denver. They want to show up and say, These protests are important, but were going to be there to pick up the pieces afterward, she said. It felt good, because we want to keep this conversation going. She said local politicians were quick to latch onto the cleanups, perhaps seeing them as a sign of conciliation but that, she said, was a misunderstanding. Prince Harry has merged The Endeavour Fund and the Invictus games so that he is able to continue working on them following his decision to step back as a senior royal. Taking to Twitter on Monday evening, @WeAreInvictus penned: 'The Invictus Games Foundation is delighted to announce that the Endeavour Fund has been transferred across from The Royal Foundation and into the work of the Invictus Games Foundation. 'The Endeavour Fund will continue to support the ambitions of wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans but will now expand its activities across the international Invictus community.' The Duke of Sussex established The Endeavour Fund in 2012 when he was patron of The Royal Foundation - alongside brother Prince William and Kate Middleton. Prince Harry, 35, has merged The Endeavour Fund and the Invictus games so that he is able to continue working on them following his decision to step back as a senior royal. Pictured, speaking at the Endeavour Fund Awards at Mansion House in London on March 5, 2020 The Duke of Sussex attended the Invictus Games team launch at the Honourable Artillery Company in London on 29 October 2019 Last year, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced they were splitting from The Royal Foundation as the two couples started to take 'divergent paths' in their charity work and needed to reflect that in different outlets, a source told PEOPLE. Following Megxit, it was decided that Prince Harry will no longer use HRH or his honorary military titles. But during his final engagements as a senior royal, Prince Harry supported the military by attending the Endeavour Fund awards on March 5, and then the Royal Marines concert two days later. The Invictus Games Foundation website reads: 'Since the time of its inception, the Endeavour Fund has granted over 3,000,000 across over 100 endeavour activities that have supported over 6,000 wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans (WIS) to re-engage with sport or adventurous challenge after sustaining injury or falling ill during their time in the military. Taking to Twitter on Monday evening, @WeAreInvictus commented: 'The Invictus Games Foundation is delighted to announce that the Endeavour Fund has been transferred across from The Royal Foundation and into the work of the Invictus Games Foundation (pictured) 'This includes being responsible for establishing and funding the original Invictus Games in 2014. Jason Knauf, CEO of The Royal Foundation commented: 'The Endeavour Fund has played an important role in ensuring that those injured in service have the opportunity to rediscover their self-belief and fighting spirit through physical challenges over the years. 'The Royal Foundation is proud of its role in creating both Endeavour Fund and the Invictus Games, and the impact that both have had on the WIS community. We look forward to seeing their continued success, together.' Advertisement 'And this transfer now presents an exciting opportunity for both organisations to further their support for international members of the WIS community. Dominic Reid, CEO of the Invictus Games Foundation commented: 'The Endeavour Fund has been doing incredible things for many years and we believe that together, both organisations will have a positive and sustained impact on the recovery and rehabilitation journeys of many from around the world who have experienced injury or illness during service.' Driven by a desire to make a difference together, The Royal Foundation is the primary philanthropic and charitable vehicle for The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and previously The Duke and Duchess of Sussex. 'The programmes support a broad and ambitious spectrum of activities, bringing people, ideas and resources together to understand issues, explore creative solutions and be a catalyst for long-term impact. 'The overall ambition is for the programmes to grow and expand within The Foundation, before successfully becoming their own independent charities or aligning with other charities in similar areas to support and grow other charities in similar sectors. Sable Island DXpedition news Randy, N0TG, reports: "Many have asked about the impact COVID-19 could have to the Sable Island DXpedition scheduled for October. "We are routinely in contact with Parks Canada and cautiously optimistic for October at this time. Certainly, matters can change quickly. However, if the DXpedition schedule is delayed due to COVID-19 regulations, we have been assured by Parks Canada that they will work with us to reschedule the DXpedition. The team has been polled, and all agree that they will be able to comply to revised dates. Currently the border between Canada and USA is closed until June 21st. "Shortly after that date, we hope to have a firm decision for October assuming no additional regulations for travel, etc are placed into effect." India-China Standoff: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said that Narendra Modi-led government cant take the border issue of India-China along Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh lightly and will not compromise one bit on the issue. He added that the country is currently dealing with this issue both militarily and diplomatically. He said that troops of India and China were engaged in a standoff for more than three weeks in Demchok, Pangong Tso, Galway Valley, and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh. He added that there is no doubt in the fact that there will be no compromise made by India in securing the borders even in land or water. He then stated that the Centre is duty-bound to protect its borders. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Monday that the overall situation at the border is stable and controllable and both the countries have unhindered communication channels to resolve the issue through consultations and dialogues. US President Donald Trump has also offered to mediate between the border dispute of India and China and said that he is ready, willing, and able to ease the tension between the two countries. Later, China asked India to be careful about US intervention in the matter as it will make the subject more complicated. China also said that both countries have the ability to resolve the problem and there is no need for any third-party interference. Also Read: Andhra Pradesh to appeal in Supreme Court over High Court judgement, says YSRCP parliamentary party chief Vijayasai Reddy However, Shah did not answer when asked if Chinas army has entered Indian territory. Earlier, to this, even Congress party attacked the govt for being silent on the border issue. For all the latest National News, download NewsX App Bihar Health dept distributes condoms among migrant labourers India pti-Madhuri Adnal Patna, June 02:To prevent unwanted pregnancy, the Bihar Health department is distributing condoms among migrant labourers who are going to their homes after completing 14-day institutional quarantine and those in home quarantine, an official said. Of the 28 to 29 lakh migrants who have returned to the state, 8.77 lakh people have been discharged as they have completed their 14 day quarantine period. Besides, 5.30 lakh migrants, till date, are living at block and district level quarantine centres across the state. PM Modi assures India Inc that growth will be back, stresses self-reliance | Oneindia News Mann Ki Baat: Modi acknowledges suffering of poor, migrants and labourers "Migrant labourers are going to their homes after completing the 14-day institutional quarantine. Since there are chances of unwanted pregnancies, so we properly counsel them (migrant labourers) and give them tools (such as condoms) to avoid unwanted pregnancy," a senior Health department official told PTI. The official, who is entrusted with Family Planning in State Health Society, however, made it clear that "it is purely a family planning measure and has nothing to do with COVID-19. As a health professional, it is our responsibility to control the population. We have been taking the support of our health partner Care India to implement the initiative." It has been reported from the world over about unwanted pregnancies and it is in this backdrop, th Health department has initiated the step to check unwanted pregnancy, the official said, adding that it is in addition to what the department has been doing on a regular basis. The initiative would continue till the quarantine centres are closed, he added. The quarantine centres are likely to be closed by June 15, official sources said. The health coordinators have been distributing two packets of condoms at quarantine centres, ASHA workers have been distributing them during door-to-door screening of people in home quarantine. An official of the NGO Care India, said that "we are providing technical support to the Health department in this initiative." Bay League boys and girls basketball teams will play five league games and then there will be a tournament to determine seeding for CIF-Southern Section playoffs. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 2, 2020 18:04 597 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb9e513 1 Lifestyle Vans,National-Geographic,sneakers,united-states,shoes Free Vans has teamed up with National Geographic to take its artistic concept to a new level in an attempt to foster a new appreciation for wildlife and nature. As quoted from Hypebeast, the popular shoe brand described the collection as an homage to the magazines tradition of seeking and revealing the stories of wonders of the planet. The collection includes five of Vans most iconic silhouettes: the Slip On, which features Greenlands Pine Island Glacier; the Era, which showcases the ocean; the Authentic, which is decorated with National Geographics signature yellow border; the Old Skool, which highlights the beauty of wildlife animals, including the Mexican grey wolf and the red-eyed tree frog; and the Sk8-Hi, which contains a large embroidered logo of the magazine. Read also: Vans announces Tony Hawk as brand ambassador Each design contains the brands signature rubber waffle outsole and organic cotton canvas uppers for comfort, along with a unique black and yellow version of Vans license plate. The sneaker collection is available for purchase on the official Vans website and retailers such as 43einhalb. (cal/wng) Its a kind of vengeful feeling, which I think is human nature, he said in an interview. Americans shouldnt be unhappy about it. Mr. Hu said the unrest in the United States, as well as the failures in the countrys response to the coronavirus pandemic, had strengthened confidence among many Chinese in Beijings political system. It has made them believe that the government of this country really cares about peoples lives and well-being, he said. They see how the U.S. government and capital despise the lives and interests of vulnerable and marginalized groups. Nationalism has been in full force in recent days on the Chinese internet, with many people taking to Weibo, a popular microblogging platform, to denounce the arrogance of the United States and Mr. Trump. Hashtags about the American protests, including the decision to deploy the National Guard in some cities, are among the most popular topics on the site. Some worry that the propaganda campaign may further inflame tensions between the two countries. He Weifang, an outspoken law professor in Beijing, said that even some critics of the government are becoming more sympathetic to the official line. Any Chinese with a brain, he said, would not simply look at it as China being so successful and the U.S. being a failure. On purely business grounds, Renault could do without its plant in Maubeuge. Like its sister factory, 75 kilometers (47 miles) away in Douai, the plant opened nearly half a century ago as part of a government effort to stem the decline of France's northern industrial coal belt. Production at the two sites is now at just a fraction of their combined capacity. With the auto industry's already weakening fortunes crushed by the pandemic, Renault's three-year survival plan hinges on cutting 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) in costs and 14,600 jobs worldwide, about a third of them at home. The root of the problem, according to Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard, is overcapacity in France, and Maubeuge is among sites whose future is being mulled. Not so fast, say unions and the government of President Emmanuel Macron. Bucking health rules on social distancing, thousands marched through the town on Saturday to oppose any move to shut the plant. Even before Senard unveiled his plan, Macron ordered Renault to reconsider any moves to streamline production in its northern factories, and consult with unions. Not surprisingly, Senard, who has signaled the closure of a site in Choisy-le-Roi, near Paris, has tried to defuse tensions, saying that shutting the Maubeuge plant hadn't even crossed his mind. Closing a factory in the best of times in France can test the mettle of an executive. But Senard will be trying to do it over Macron's twin resolves to save the local car industry and get the pandemic-wrecked economy back on track. The government now expects an 11% contraction this year, more than previously anticipated. To top that, Renault is counting on 5 billion euros in loans backed by the state, its most powerful shareholder. "To save Renault, the government will have to accept that it will reduce its industrial footprint in France," said Jean-Pierre Corniou, a partner at consultancy SIA Partners, adding that while politicians the world over wrestle with such issues, French interventionism tends to make the inevitable worse. "Jean-Dominique Senard is trying hard, but the house is burning." The first step in what promises to be a long-drawn process began Tuesday when labor representatives, local politicians and management met at the finance ministry to discuss Maubeuge. If history is a guide, it will be one of many such gatherings. France has a long record of industrial battles involving bosses, unions and political leaders. The well-worn French playbook includes lots of bluster and ends up in bitterness all around after sites close, often costing millions in taxpayer money and false hopes of a rekindling of mass manufacturing. A former Whirlpool plant near the northern city of Amiens -- Macron's hometown -- died a slow death over nearly two decades, benefiting from millions in government subsidies. It became a flashpoint during the 2017 presidential campaign. ArcelorMittal and oil giant Total were also objects of political grief over, respectively, a steel plant at Florange and now-closed refinery at Dunkirk. In one spat, ArcelorMittal CEO Lakshmi Mittal was threatened with the nationalization of his French site -- an empty threat that hasn't stopped it from steadily shrinking ever since. In Renault's case, perfectly in line with the French way, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has demanded a "site by site, job by job" evaluation of the company's strategy and warned that closing plants should be a last resort. Following Tuesday's meeting, the minister agreed to sign off on the state-backed loan and said talks between Renault and unions would continue next week to guarantee a level of employment and activity at Maubeuge beyond 2023. For the site, which employs about 1,725 people, it doesn't help that Macron made a visit there in 2018 when more jobs and investments were promised. Renault's problems pre-date the pandemic, stemming from years of expansion under former leader Carlos Ghosn, who sought to make the three-company alliance with Nissan and Mitsubishi into the biggest global vehicle manufacturer. As they grappled with management turmoil and bitter infighting following Ghosn's 2018 arrest, they lost focus in the global race with rivals including Volkswagen and Toyota to make more electric models. Renault's struggle to cut costs at home will add to the difficulties. "There has been a long deterioration in Renault's competitiveness, so rationalization is unavoidable," said Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois. "Carrying this out is tricky, especially during a crisis. The company is being quite vague about what exactly has been decided and what is still being negotiated." French unions are demanding that the company bring more manufacturing back home. "Renault may be too big for its needs, but French workers are being asked to make the greatest sacrifices," said Franck Daout, a spokesman for the CFDT union. Senard has vowed to sell the Caudan (Fonderie de Bretagne) site, and transfer operations at Choisy-le-Roi to the nearby Flins factory. While Maubeuge has crystallized anger, vehicle production is set to be phased out at the Dieppe plant and Flins. Renault's factory utilization in France stands at just 60%, Senard says, with output at about 655,000 vehicles for a maximum capacity of 1.9 million. "We can't sustain this situation for long," he said. In the tussle to get the job done, Renault acting CEO Clotilde Delbos has held up arch rival PSA as a model. The maker of Peugeot and Citroen cars underwent a painful revamp under CEO Carlos Tavares and now boasts industry-leading margins and has also stolen a march on Renault with a planned merger with Fiat Chrysler. One key aspect was PSA's decision to stop making cars at a plant in Aulnay-sous-Bois in 2013, the first car factory closure in France in two decades. After the company made the case that its very survival was at stake, the government watered its stance on job cuts down to "inevitable" from "not acceptable." Tavares is fond of talking about PSA's near-death experience and his Darwinian vision of the industry in which the strongest will survive. Senard has so far taken a soft approach, saying he plans to take a lot of time to reach a consensus with unions. Yet his message is clear. "Politicians should take into account the future of our industry without focusing on short-term objectives that have electoral connotations," he said Sunday on national television. Ever since Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Kareena Kapoor Khan came out in support of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American, who died in Minneapolis while being restrained by the police, netizens have been questioning the two Bollywood divas about their silence, when riots took place in India and none of them uttered a word about it. Now, an activist Renee Lynn, who's also an author, columnist and the founder of Voice for India, shared a video on her Twitter page and slammed Priyanka and Kareena, saying that 'Hindu lives are less important for Bollywood'. My Reply To Priyanka Chopra & Kareena Kapoor regarding "Black Lives Matter". Hindu lives are less important for Bollywood. Subscribe to my YouTube channel here https://t.co/bHSJz5vb6w pic.twitter.com/oQ8cHQm3Hs Renee Lynn (@Voice_For_India) June 2, 2020 She captioned the video saying, "My Reply To Priyanka Chopra & Kareena Kapoor regarding "Black Lives Matter". Hindu lives are less important for Bollywood." In the video, Renee called Priyanka and Kareena 'hypocrites' for raising their voices against the racism in the US, but also endorsing fairness creams in India for a long time. Renee further said, "You can't raise your voice when Hindus were brutally murdered in India by prejudice minorities groups. Where were you both, when Geeta, Divya, Maansi and many other Hindu girls were brutally raped and killed. You were silent; no postcards, no media, no candles." Renee further added, "Both of you are despicable and you need to, for once in your life, stand up for the Hindus." Renee's post has been grabbing many eyeballs on Twitter. While some are slamming the activist for her outrageous post, some are lauding her for speaking the truth! We wonder how would Priyanka and Kareena react to such harsh comments on them. What are your thoughts on the entire fiasco? Do you think Priyanka and Kareena should address such negative comments, aimed at them? Let us know in the comments section below. 'Priyanka Chopra Started Abusing Me On The Flight', When A Doctor Accused PeeCee Of Violating Rules REUTERS Bell has selected Ericsson to provide radio access network (RAN) equipment for its 5G wireless network, according to a company press release. "Bell's 5G strategy supports our goal to advance how Canadians connect with each other and the world, and Ericsson's innovative 5G network products and experience on the global stage will be key to our rollout of this game-changing mobile technology," said Bell CEO Mirko Bibic, in the release. The release added that while the carrier is focusing on supporting its customers during COVID-19, it will be ready to launch initial 5G as the economy opens up. The initial service will offer faster data speeds than 4G LTE, and will allow customers who have purchased the latest Samsung Galaxy S20 5G series, LG V60 ThinQ 5G Dual Screen, and Motorola Edge+ phones to function using the new network. The Montreal-based national carrier said during its Q4 2019 earnings call that it would also be partnering with Nokia, and did not rule out working with other vendors. Nokia will be the first provider of 5G...I stress the word first as we need to work with many equipment suppliers today and in the future. It includes Nokia, Huawei, Cisco, it is important to include multiple suppliers, Bibic said during that earnings call. Bell also uses Huaweis network equipment in some areas. The federal government is still reviewing whether or not it intends to ban the Chinese telecommunications manufacturer from participating in Canadas 5G rollout. Bell said in its release that it will still be participating in the 3.5 GHz spectrum auction that is set to take place later this year. Rogers 5G vendor is Ericsson as well. Telus is yet to announce its vendor. Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android and sign up for the Yahoo Finance Canada Weekly Brief. Donald Trump's visit to a Catholic church on Tuesday, after clearing out protesters ahead of a photo opportunity at an Episcopal church a day earlier, was "baffling and reprehensible", the Archbishop of Washington has said. Mr Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, visited the Saint John Paul II National Shrine on Tuesday after visiting St John's Church on Monday evening, which required protesters to be cleared out from Lafayette Square by armed riot police and tear gas. Archbishop Wilton D Gregory, of the Archdiocese of Washington, said the Polish-born former Pope would not condone the use of tear gas for a "photo opportunity" in front of a church. "I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles, which is to defend the rights of all people even those with whom we might disagree," Mr Gregory said. "Saint Pope John Paul II was an ardent defender of the rights and dignity of human beings." Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Show all 13 1 /13 Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Donald Trump waves as he returns to the White House after visiting St John Episcopal Church for a photo opportunity after threatening to deploy the US military to crush protests over the death of George Floyd. Peaceful protesters had been cleared from Lafayette Park with tear gas to allow him to make the visit Getty Images Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military A protester demonstrating over the killing of George Floyd runs away amid a police crackdown that coincided with a statement by Donald Trump in the Rose Garden of the White House near by AP Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Police begin to clear demonstrators gather as they protest the death of George Floyd near the White House AP Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Donald Trump walks past police in Lafayette Park after he visited outside St. John's Church across from the White House AP Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Donald Trump walks past graffiti as he heads from the White House to St John Episcopal Church after threatening to deploy the US military to crush protests over the killing of George Floyd EPA Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military A demonstrator raises their hands next to US Secret Service uniformed division officers during a rally near the White House against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd REUTERS Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Donald Trump walks to St John Episcopal Church from the White House after protesters demonstrating over the killing of George Floyd were cleared from Lafayette Park REUTERS Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Donald Trump holds up a Bible after walking to St John Episcopal Church. Demonstrators protesting against the killing of George Floyd were cleared from Lafayette Park with tear gas so that he could walk to the church from the nearby White House AFP via Getty Images Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Donald Trump signals to a reporter to be quiet as he stands outside St John Episcopal Church following a walk from the nearby White House. Lafayette Park was cleared of protesters by police using tear gas so he could go there. He is flanked by Attorney General William Barr (far left), Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany AFP via Getty Images Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Demonstrators kneel in front of a line of police officers during a protest for the death of George Floyd near the White House AP Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Demonstrators gather in Lafayette Park to protest the death of George Floyd AP Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Trucks transport District of Columbia National Guard troops along West Executive Drive in support of law enforcement officers that are keeping demonstrators away from the White House Getty Images Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Military vehicles carrying National Guard personnel drive along West Executive Drive at the White House, following national protests against the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody REUTERS "He certainly would not condone the use of tear gas and other deterrents to silence, scatter or intimidate them for a photo opportunity in front of a place of worship and peace." During the visit, Mr Trump and the first lady placed a wreath on a statue of the Pope and posed for a photo. Protesters gathered at the Catholic shrine on Tuesday after Mr Trump's visit to St John's Church a day earlier sparked widespread outrage over the use of force to clear Lafayette Square before the president was photographed holding a bible. According to the White House, the president was visiting the shrine in Northeast Washington with wife Ms Trump, who is Roman Catholic, as part of a focus on international religious freedom. Mr Trump was expected to sign an executive order on religious freedom in the Oval Office later on Tuesday afternoon. The president has focused on religious voters in recent weeks with an executive order to reopen churches, synagogues and mosques amid the coronavirus lock-downs, and Tuesday's visit coincides with the anniversary of Pope John Paul II's visit in 1979 to his native Poland. You couldnt make this stuff up. Turns out prime ministerial adviser Nico Louw was already reasonably well-known in publishing circles, long before he made the decision to circulate unauthorised copies of Malcolm Turnbulls manuscript A Bigger Picture. Of course, that move went down like a lead balloon in the industry. Just ask Australian Publishers Association chief executive Michael Gordon-Smith who said as much to Prime Minister Scott Morrison in a sternly worded letter immediately after the manuscript leak. Malcolm Turnbull's A Bigger Picture on sale at the Parliament House gift shop in April. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Although the Treasurer announced in the same week that ... its only fair that those that generate content get paid for it ..., ministers in your government have reportedly treated this unauthorised copying as trivial, Gordon-Smith wrote. But back to Louw. As it turns out, it appears he knows more about the subject of copyright than the average bloke. Back in 2016, during his time as a junior policy researcher to then-treasurer Morrison, Louw actually met with senior representatives from the publishers association. Yves here. Its worth remembering that medical professionals and officials were successful in limiting the spread of the earlier SARS and MERS viruses. Why did Covid-19 instead become a pandemic? Ignacio picks apart some of the key lapses. I wonder how much of the disease spread was bad luck, with the infections taking hold in Hubei right before the Chinese New Year, putting the central government in the position of having to shut down holiday travel and partying (meaning spending) if it had acted promptly. Recall also the refusal to shut down a large official banquet in Wuhan during the window when it might have been possible to contain the disease. This Associated Press story supports Ignacios analysis: In the six days after top Chinese officials secretly determined they likely were facing a pandemic from a new coronavirus, the city of Wuhan at the epicenter of the disease hosted a mass banquet for tens of thousands of people; millions began traveling through for Lunar New Year celebrations. President Xi Jinping warned the public on the seventh day, Jan. 20. But by that time, more than 3,000 people had been infected during almost a week of public silence, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press and expert estimates based on retrospective infection data. Six days. That delay from Jan. 14 to Jan. 20 was neither the first mistake made by Chinese officials at all levels in confronting the outbreak, nor the longest lag, as governments around the world have dragged their feet for weeks and even months in addressing the virus. But the delay by the first country to face the new coronavirus came at a critical time the beginning of the outbreak. Chinas attempt to walk a line between alerting the public and avoiding panic set the stage for a pandemic that has infected more than 2 million people and taken more than 133,000 lives. As Ignacio points out, there is plenty of blame to spread around. Other countries failure to stop or severely restrict travel from China (for instance, imposing strict quarantines on arriving passengers) was another big fail. By Ignacio Moreno Echanove, an epidemiologist These days, lots of analyses, that retrospectively try to explain Covid-19 outcomes in different places are, I believe, quite faulty. Articles assert that this country has done far better than that other country, frequently on the basis of a single snapshot of data. My favourite expression that I borrowed from NC commenter David, is that we are immersed in tunnel vision, overwhelmed by the enormous amounts of info coming to our radar through all possible channels. Much of the information and analyses are, again, flawed, ideologically driven, and in the worst cases totally disingenuous. I thought it would be useful to perform some additional analysis. Instead of relying on snapshots, one should carefully analyse the cascades of events resulting in the pandemic with a hierarchy. I soon realised this was quite a hard job so I have modestly tried to scrutinize a few of these events. From an epidemiological perspective, the data points to trace should be contagions, particularly early contagions in each region. Then, using estimates on the reproductive rate of SARS CoV 2 (R0), hospitalization rates, ICU entry rates, mortality (M) trace the progress of the epidemic. And do it with real-time data! Since this information is not available, the published data have to be cured and lots of assumptions have to be made in the process of tracing. By now, everybody knows that the number of confirmed cases is not a metric in both the time dimension (because gaps between contagion events and test reporting) and in quantitative terms (because the rate of tested/infected is almost always and everywhere much closer to 0 than to 1). That ratio will vary with time and geography, so confirmed cases is an unreliable source for epidemic tracing. This is truer during the early days of an epidemic, when events are critical. Tracing casualties does a better job in quantitative terms but it is true that this information is also unreliable for some reasons. There may be political reasons to hide numbers or at least not to push for accuracy, and Covid-19 associated casualties are reported in most cases only if there is a test result demonstrating SARS CoV 2 infection. A large disease outburst will result in diagnostic and clinical systems very much overwhelmed with serious under-reporting of cases. Finally, to make estimates using deaths you will have to make assumptions on mortality rates. Another data source is the recording of registered deaths in countries that report these in a daily basis (MoMo, Spain MoMo as an example). Of course, this is not all about Covid-19 but you can trace excess deaths compared with normal expected deaths and assuming the excess was driven mostly or totally by the epidemic, in a few instances you might come with better quantitative estimates. A mortality spike can be used to trace the progress and extent of an epidemic, identify when contagions peaked etc. I will try this and subject the results to critical examination. If one is to use casualties or mortality to estimate real-time contagion events, we need to know first the approximate lag between contagion and death events. In China it was reported that median time from contagion to symptom onset is about 5 days (large dispersion with a long tail, so better using median than average). The median lag between symptom onset and death was estimated to be about 19 days (again high dispersion and even longer tail) so I use 25 days as a proximate contagion-to-death lag. Official data in Spain validate the lags observed in China almost exactly. Then, if there is available good data on mortality rates (M) it is possible to estimate numbers of contagions in a given day resulting in deaths about 25 days later. In Spain the mortality rate of Covid-19 has been estimated at about 1.3% on the basis of serological surveys and casualties though I dont know if they used reported casualties or if they estimated M using MoMo excess deaths data. If they used reported casualties, the, real value of M in Spain would be closer to 1.6% once unreported excess deaths are added. I compiled data from MoMo for Spain and using the official mortality rate (1.3%) estimated the number of contagions occurring about 25 days earlier (real contagion time, red line in next graph). Then, and supposing Covid-19 R0 = 6 (it has been estimated at 5.6 in some outbreaks and) we can trace events backwards up to patient 1-10 (blue-sky line before the red line in next graph). The graph compares these estimates with reported cases as per WHO reports (dark blue) which I also represent 12 days backwards when the contagion events leading to such confirmed cases could have occurred approximately (brown line). So, the brown line would represent a picture of possible real-time contagion events based solely on official confirmed cases. Bear in mind the numbers depicted in the graph are in logarithmic scale. This tells a story on how events possibly unfolded in Spain and something similar could be done for countries like Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, or the UK.MoMo data allow to conclude that in Spain the peak of daily contagions occurred between the 2nd and the 6th of March and then declined nearly steadily until and after the emergency and lockdown were enforced by the 14th of March. The peak of contagions is estimated at about 110.000 per day using M = 1.3% but would be much lower, about 42.000 contagions/day, if M = 1.6%. Before this peak, by February the 26th, the R0 was already dropping sharply as the slope of the red line suggests, and continued to drop into the shadowed lockdown period (remember, this is logarithmic). So, something was changing spontaneously before the government response was enforced. In my opinion, what was changing was public awareness on the risks of Covid-19. After this, the curves in different countries could diverge in response to the milder or stricter rules imposed. Conclusion 1: Most lockdowns were late and reactive measures that didnt avoid the worst but only accelerated partial clearance of the epidemic . Alarm felt by the population at large was probably the first force to reduce R0 by ways of self-isolation of symptomatic individuals in countries like Italy, Spain, France the UK and in the State of NY. The lets flatten the curve message was issued very late in such places when the curve had already been flattening spontaneously for some time. The distance between the brown line (confirmed cases, moved back 12 days) and the red line (estimated contagions), is more or less equal to three orders of magnitude in early days and then drops. This shows that the detection systems in place were absolutely not up the challenge. Conclusion 2: L ack of preparedness was severe . One cannot get ready for a challenge like this in a couple of weeks or even in a month. You need to have equipped and trained teams for sampling and testing with validated methods all around the country, fever check-points etc. Conclusion 3: This severe lack of preparedness was probably common to most European countries, but some coped much better than others with Covid-19 suggesting that in the absence of proper preparedness risk awareness, should have done the trick. . Being late in the pandemic probably helped a lot to increase awareness at all levels. Probably, one can speculate, public awareness was inversely related with the R0. Last but not least, the sky-blue line representing estimated daily contagions backwards assuming R0 = 6 suggests that the SARS CoV entries that resulted in the outburst in Spain could have occurred by the end of January. We should give that estimate ample margin and guesstimate that those entries possibly took place somewhere between Jan 15th and Feb 5th. Conclusion 4: flights from/to China should have been grounded globally by Jan 15th at the latest . Scientists had long ago estimated that by mid-January SARS CoV 2 was already in Italy, unnoticed but starting the cascades of events that led to the first large European outburst. Next graph shows a time course of excess mortality Z score composed with maps from 2020 week 6 to week 15 according to the MoMo web in Europe. Not all countries report, only those in grey-blue. The table below the maps is mine. It summarizes the number of weeks under extremely high, very high and high mortality rates, plus the max Z score value and the first week when excess mortality is detected by this metric. In between those countries showing clearly positive Z scores, Switzerland did the best while the UK did the worst relegating Spain to an honourable 2nd worst position. Scotland probably benefited from suffering the latest outburst with about three-week gap to become aware of what was coming. Sweden had two weeks to improve awareness and this is probably the reason they could avoid extremely high Z scores compared to other countries that showed earlier unnoticed outbursts. You can see that countries with a more liberal approach (UK, Netherlands and Sweden) showed excess deaths lingering up to week 15 (and possibly later). When this graph was done, not all data for weeks 14-15 was gathered and the definitive results could vary with current data. If one is to select a country that did well, Norway, Finland, Austria, Hungary, Greece, Portugal, Denmark or Ireland would be much better examples than Sweden. Switzerland, that was earlier than Sweden in the epidemic did better by all those metrics suggesting much better reaction by both, the leadership, and the population. In those maps above the absent elephant in the room is Germany represented only by the states of Hesse and Berlin which didnt show significant mortality spikes by the Z value. Germany, as WHO accounts show, was amongst the first countries in Europe to report confirmed cases in significant numbers. Anecdotally, the first positive case reported in Spain was a German citizen and I find this very telling. My opinion is that German citizens were more aware than Spanish on Covid-19 risks and more prone to report their symptoms, isolate themselves etc. Besides, Angela Merkel was famously said to trust her actions on German institutions experienced in epidemiology and this country was the first to confirm home contagions and to report untraceable community transmission. This suggests both better preparedness and awareness than the other large hyperconnected countries in Europe. Again, digging in speculative territory it could be the case that political stability, or a government that had been standing for long could possibly help for better reaction. Macron hadnt been that long the President of France (less than 3 years), neither Conti in Italy (nearly 2 stormy years), not to mention the inexperienced Johnson and Sanchez heavily immersed in difficult internal and international affairs. Mr. Rutte in the Netherlands had been governing nearly for 10 years but possibly had not as good reaction as Merkel. It might be the case that German preparedness can be traced back as long as to 1967 when a (then) rare haemorrhagic disease (Marburg Virus, Ebola-like) erupted in Hesse infecting 31 and killing 7. Who knows? Back to the initial outbreak in Hubei province: My initial thinking about Hubei was that given it all started in Wuhan at an explosive rate, one could expect initial stupor resulting in not the best communication of risks. Two critical data items should have been be obtained ASAP: identification of the causative agent of the disease, and determination of possible human-to-human spread. The identification and release of SARS CoV 2 genome sequence was achieved by January the 3rd, 5 days after the alarm sounded, fairly enough fast to start tracing the new disease soon. By January the 7ththe new pathogen was confirmed as the causative agent of the new disease. Regarding human-to-human spread, critical for switching the Precautionary Principle on, it was not officially confirmed until the 20th of January, way too late and when it had already been reported in some Chinese provinces, Thailand, S. Korea and Japan and probably had already spread to many other countries. Only ten days later, the US-CDC was confirming person-to-person transmission within the US. This, was way too late, as we can retrospectively say, to prevent global spread. The contrast between the relative promptness with the identification of the pathogen and the sluggish reporting of the other crucial epidemiological fact was stark. Was this crucial info withheld until the international spread of the disease helped, for instance, to rule out a blanket travel ban from/to China? Or, is it true that thorough confirmation was needed before unnecessarily frightening the rest of the world? The fact is that reading both the Ch-CDC report (Feb 2020) and a study published by March 26th, it can be concluded that human-to-human spread was strongly suggested by early data. Figure 3 from the study linked above shows that 5 out of 12 cases detected in December and grouped in 4 different clusters had NO exposure to the wet market in Wuhan, but exposure to other cases. By the time the genome sequence was published, it should have also been announced that person-to-person transmission was, to say the least, very likely. In fairness, though it might be true that Chinese bureaucracy delayed the release of crucial information, it should be admitted that an earlier notice might have met with deaf ears in many places around the world. I havent found any link showing foreign authorities forcefully asking for evidence or likelihood on human-to-human transmission, or lack thereof, before January the 15th. If anyone knows better, particularly Japanese, Vietnamese, S. Korean or German readers, please comment. This is not to say there wasnt a clamour for better and timely release of information by Chinese authorities from concerned scientists but not only scientists and through social media. As an example, this report titled Pressure builds on China to share info on new coronavirus and published on January10th was possibly issued hen to try to prompt a better response. At this point, it would make sense to try to trace Hubeis outbreak to its origin in order to check early responses and detection methods but there is no adequate data. Important questions about the origin of the disease are still unanswered and have been discussed in a previous post. Yet we can try to trace the international spread of the virus and check downstream responses for mistakes. First, we already have identified here one important point that was shared worldwide: most authorities in relevant positions, including the WHO, showed a lack of proper awareness of pandemic risks. Everyone was more worried about immediate effects of bold measures (like closing airways, railways and roads to human traffic from/to China) than the unknown risks of a pandemic. As an example the head of the WHO was still ostensibly failing in his risk assessment by February 5th. In some sense he was right: By this date, SARS CoV 2 had already spread all around the world making a blanket travel ban unnecessary. By January 31st many countries started grounding flights to China but as we know this was already a late reaction that ended with worse consequences resulting in the grounding almost all fleets between 13-31st of March. The E-CDC Technical Advising Council enclosed for a two-day meeting (Feb 18-19th) near Stockholm, about two weeks before the peak contagion period in places like Lombardy and when so far only 45 cases had been confirmed in Europe. The minutes of the meeting have been recently commented upon at El Pais (in Spanish). They reveal too much casualness about Covid-19. By this time ECDC protocols for testing were still restricted to Wuhan-related patients. This allowed for SARS CoV 2 having a wild undetected run that led to the, so far, worst outcomes we have seen with the exception of the outburst of NY a week later. In defense of the ECDC it has to be said it is just a consulting institution without real responsibility. According to the minutes only the Danish representative prompted to search beyond Wuhan links and extend to any pneumonia. The Finish representative answered it was impossible, everyone will be demanding tests and we dont have enough. This is telling; most representatives were focused strictly on clinical outcomes and forgetting about epidemiology. Only the German representative announced they had already delivered test kits to 20 hospitals and were well ahead of the rest on tests already done. Everyone was reporting difficulties purchasing clinical equipment and only Ireland stated they had already declared HC emergency and purchased in advance. Other Asian outbreaks: tracing the epidemic in Southwestern and Pacific Asian countries would indeed be of high interest, particularly given the relatively mild outcomes in these countries that suggest more or less appropriate responses. A lot has been said about S. Korean response, less about Vietnam, Singapore, Taiwan or Japan. Unfortunately, studying separately each case would have required a lot of effort. Though I somehow feel here out of my depth I think it can be safely concluded that there was at least one common feature to these countries: awareness on the risks of local outbreaks. Both, at the level of public authorities and citizens, awareness was widespread and this helped to keep the R0 low in these countries without the need of painful extended lockdowns. Besides, as in the case of South Korea, there was preparedness in the form of pre-existing alarm and early detection systems, as well as protective equipment etc. Their awareness was a fully internal thing that did not transpire into other foreign countries tenaciously focused on ignoring the risks. I dont know whether they tried to give timely advice or how forcefully but this says something about the international state of affairs: Mutual trust and confidence are very much lacking. Awareness of the population at large: Once the leadership had failed in so many places it is worth looking if the public response made any difference. As a proxy I used Google Trends and entered Covid as the searching term. This could somehow indicate how the population at large was aware of the risks and searching internet for information. The results are fairly consistent with previous observations. The three graphs in the left show the results obtained for a few Asian (upper graph) European (middle) and US states (lower) using Germany (the yellow lines) for comparison in the three graphs. As expected, Japan, Taiwan or South Korea were faster to worry about Covid-19, suggesting these were more ready to increase social distancing, self-isolate if showing symptoms and accept alarm bells. Germans showed more prone to get informed than the rest of Western countries, though behind the Asian countries. It is surprising to find some initial interest in Italy in line with Germany that somehow faded later until it was too late. The dates in red (table right to the graphs) show late reactions in countries/states that suffered the largest outbreaks probably guided by the realisation that something was wrong and when contagion peaks had already been passed. Ireland showed a jump in awareness in advance of hard-hit EU countries and I wonder what prompted this. Regarding the US, Washington State was the canary in the mine that nobody dared to care about probably because the outburst was limited to a few counties there. Bad luck in some nursing homes! A first large wave of reactions can be noticed in the US represented by WA, CA, TX, IA, FL and NY in the graph driven probably by news from the other side of the pond and a second wave almost certainly related with the outburst in NY that probably helped most of the rest of the US to keep the R0 below max levels seen there. Public awareness possibly helped to keep many countries/states relatively safe as have been shown here using different approaches. Note that this metric is not about absolute search numbers but relative to a peak that has the value of 100. One can conclude that Google Trends is a good tracker for interest but not necessarily suggest awareness. It was the job of the leadership and their councils to inform us about the risks of Covid-19 but most failed miserably. As a concluding remark, I believe that future outbursts wont be as explosive as the worst we have already seen given we have been primed to have good reaction and better detection systems are in place. I think that those tough lockdowns can and should be easily avoided. Having suffered through more than five years of conflict and displacement in Yemen, including the death of her husband and the destruction of her house, 29-year-old Ahlam had thought until recently that things could not get any worse. Forced to flee her hometown of Taizz in 2015 by fighting that still rages to this day, she now lives in rented accommodation with her mother and sisters in Ibb governorate to the north, dependent on the humanitarian aid they receive from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and others. Then came the arrival of COVID-19, which poses a particularly stark threat to displaced people like Ahlam, given the lack of resources to sustain themselves and guard against infection. With only half of the countrys health facilities currently operational, many of those requiring medical attention would be unable to access it. "We are afraid." Because of this disease we are afraid, and we sit at home, Ahlam explained. We witnessed three funerals last week of people who died suddenly. To make matters worse, the assistance that Ahlam and millions of other Yemenis and refugees rely on for their survival is threatened by a critical gap in funding, which has already forced UNHCR to scale back its life-saving cash assistance programme from this month. Yemen remains the worlds worst humanitarian crisis, with some 24 million people requiring aid and more than 3.6 million people forced to flee their homes. Most displaced people live in unsanitary and overcrowded conditions, making both physical distancing and regular handwashing impossible. Despite the overwhelming needs of the population, of the total US$211.9 million that UNHCR requires for its operations in 2020, it has so far received just US$63 million, equivalent to 30 per cent of the total. Without an urgent increase in funding of at least US$89.4 million, UNHCR would have no option but to withdraw further critical support to hundreds of thousands of vulnerable displaced Yemenis and refugees, including mattresses, blankets, and emergency shelter, meaning people would be forced to sleep out in the open. "Abandoning Yemen now is not an option." Ahead of a pledging conference for Yemen hosted by the UN and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on 2 June, the heads of 17 UN agencies and NGOs last week warned that many Yemenis are running out of time and called on the international community to donate generously and promptly to humanitarian operations. UNHCR and its partners are ready to stay and deliver in Yemen, but for this to happen we need additional funds now, said UNHCR Representative in Yemen Jean-Nicolas Beuze. Through our cash programme, we can make a difference in the lives of millions of Yemenis at a time when they need us most. Nobody is safe from COVID-19 without everyone being safe, and abandoning Yemen now is not an option, he added. The consequences of a reduction in assistance for Ahlam and her family would be disastrous, she said, including the very real threat of losing the roof over their heads, which they only managed to secure thanks to their most recent UNHCR cash payment. This money saved us from eviction, Ahlam explained. The landlord wanted to get us out of the house, but we paid for two months rent and the rest of the money we used to buy food, because we did not have anything in our home. It is familiar story for displaced Yemenis in Ibb governorate and across the war-torn country. Omar fled his home in the western coastal governorate of Al Hudaydah with his wife and three children after their home was damaged during conflict that also injured a number of his neighbours. "We depend on humanitarian assistance." After settling in Ibb governorate, Omar and his family are now entirely reliant on the assistance they receive to get by, with work almost impossible to find in an economy close to collapse. We depend on humanitarian assistance. because there aren't any jobs," Omar said. Without the money we received, how can we live? We left our homes and families, we have no one here. If UNHCR and others are forced to withdraw their support, Omar said he would be forced to risk his health during the current pandemic to try to feed his family, or face the prospect of starvation. Our situation would be very bad. I would have to go out to find any job, even if there are risks of diseases. I will not let them go hungry. TDT | Manama The Cabinet approved yesterday a proposal submitted by the Council of Representatives on regulating the spread of the collective accommodation of expatriate labour workers in residential neighbourhoods. The Cabinet also endorsed another proposal on finding a solution to the issue of expatriate bachelors across the country, in general, and the Southern Governorate, in particular. These came in the weekly Cabinet session, held via video conference, chaired by His Royal Highness the Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa and attended by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Premier. The relevant authorities were requested to implement the provisions of the two proposals, in accordance with the laws and regulations in force. A number of other parliamentary proposals were approved. The session gave the go-ahead for a proposal urging the Industry, Commerce and Tourism Ministry to ban the importation of shoddy or poor-quality electrical goods. The same Ministry was requested to ban the entry of those devices unless their importers show certificates issued by credible and authorised entities. The Cabinet also approved the governments draft reply to a proposal on exempting citizens and their wives, who have become real estate owners through inheritance, or those who have benefited from a housing unit through one of the existing housing financing methods, from the ownership condition in order to receive housing services. Further, the Cabinet approved a proposal on the housing allowance. DETROIT - Stefan Perez, a 16-year-old Detroit native, knelt down at the intersection of Third Street and Michigan Avenue in downtown Detroit and wept. The teenage boy with wild, frizzy, brown hair had led more than 500 protesters in a march that covered at least eight miles, belting chants such as Say their name," to which the crowd replied Which one? a reference to the many people of color who have been killed by police. Perez and the crowd, peacefully protesting under the banner of the anti-racism coalition By Any Means Necessary, or BAMN, crossed an I-75 bridge into downtown to finish the march and ran into a wall of police in riot gear. As Perez fell to his knees, fearing the same tear gas and rubber bullets Detroit police used to beat back rioters over the weekend, older black community leaders took charge. A handful of black Detroiters spoke with the Detroit police leaders before the end of the march, and officers allowed the community leaders to help disperse protesters Monday night, June 1. As protesters lingered in the street, many looking for their cars, police arrested a handful of stragglers after the citys 8 p.m. curfew. Keith Bennett, director of Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit, said he and others acted as middlemen between police and protesters. We were told to tell people to get in their vehicles and go home, he said. The riot police were staged at Detroit Public Safety Headquarters, 1301 Third Street, which is where the march began at 4 p.m. As the protesters took a left on Third Street away from the building and the wall of officers, Perez was momentarily inconsolable on the concrete. The 16-year-old told an older black demonstrator that he felt he had failed as a leader of this protest. The man lifted the teenager to his feet, escorted him towards Bagley Street away from the police, and told him to be proud of what he accomplished that day. Among the miles marched and the people gathered, one of those accomplishments was minimal violence after three straight nights of police clashes with demonstrators. Detroit police clash with protesters in third night of George Floyd police brutality demonstrations The protest began with an hour and a half of speeches kicked off by Kate Stenvig, national organizer for BAMN (the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary.) I want to start off by saying that a badge is not a license to kill, she said, referencing the Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd by asphyxiation with a knee on the neck. This is a movement against the people who are taking those things into their own hands. She also said it was an anti-Trump and immigrant rights rally. Large Mexican and Cuban flags waved throughout the march alongside signs with slogans such as Black Lives Matter and White Silence is Violence. Many of the speeches prior to the march, including one by Angelo Austin, warned people to stay peaceful not to give outsiders the wrong impression of their intentions. We are not here to make a joke or a mockery of what this movement is about, Austin said. This is about police violence. which means were not going to bring violence into this city. With Perez at the front of the march reiterating this message throughout the four-hour walk, the peaceful intentions lasted. Minor arguments flared up between protesters and young men with rifles demonstrating their 2nd Amendment rights, as demonstrators asserted the guns were taking away from the message of the rally. During the walk, drivers honked their horns as the crowd roared in approval. The biggest cheer came when a train on an overpass sounded its siren. The movement also found time for contemplative silence, as the throng crossed the I-75 bridge with their mouths closed and their hands up, a reference to the Hands Up, Dont Shoot chant that echoes the 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Silent Hands Up, Dont Shoot March over bridge into downtown Detroit Posted by MLive.com on Monday, June 1, 2020 By 8 p.m., the protesters confronted the Detroit police. At first, they yelled for the police to take a knee with them. When none of the officers budged and ordered the crowd to disperse, community leaders directed the crowd to stay safe. Detroit Police Commissioner Willie Burton called Mondays protest more peaceful. They were not rowdy, he said. They were a peaceful group. We were making sure the protest remained a peaceful assembly. Over the first two nights of protesting, Detroit police reported over 140 arrests, the majority involving people who live outside the city of Detroit, Chief James Craig said. The last two nights saw a handful of arrests. Protests also took place in Ann Arbor, Jackson and Grand Rapids on Monday. More on MLive: Police brutality protests in Michigan: What you need to know from this weekends rallies, riots MLive photographer struck with rubber pellet 84 arrested on second night of protests in Detroit Detroit protest turns violent on second night 1,500 attend first Detroit protest Bureau van Dijk, a Moody's Analytics company, has won Best Data Solution for KYC at the 2020 RegTech Insight Awards. This is the second straight year that Bureau van Dijk has won this category. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005247/en/ At the heart of this continuing recognition is Bureau van Dijk's Orbis, the world's leading entity database. Orbis now covers more than 365 million companies and a widening range of other entities, offering financial data, M&A deal information, adverse data, and more. Because Bureau van Dijk standardizes its information, clients can quickly and efficiently compare companies and entities, while its more than 1.2 billion ownership links help clients understand control and influence within organizations, including shareholder power. "We're honored to be recognized again in the RegTech Insight Awards," said Bill Hauserman, Senior Director at Bureau van Dijk. "We have worked hard to make Orbis the go-to resource for company and entity data. With Orbis data, our clients are identifying risk, improving their compliance processes, and helping to prevent financial crime." Bureau van Dijk recently earned the Category Leader distinction in a Chartis Research report that evaluates leading vendors of KYC/AML data solutions. Moody's Analytics won another category at this year's RegTech Insight Awards, taking the award for Best Analytics Solution to Address Capital Requirements/Liquidity Risk. Learn more about this new recognition for Bureau van Dijk, which adds to the growing list of awards and accolades for Moody's Analytics. About Moody's Analytics Moody's Analytics provides financial intelligence and analytical tools to help business leaders make better, faster decisions. Our deep risk expertise, expansive information resources, and innovative application of technology help our clients confidently navigate an evolving marketplace. We are known for our industry-leading and award-winning solutions, made up of research, data, software, and professional services, assembled to deliver a seamless customer experience. We create confidence in thousands of organizations worldwide, with our commitment to excellence, open mindset approach, and focus on meeting customer needs. For more information about Moody's Analytics, visit our website or connect with us on Twitter or LinkedIn. Moody's Analytics, Inc. is a subsidiary of Moody's Corporation (NYSE: MCO). Moody's Corporation reported revenue of $4.8 billion in 2019, employs approximately 11,300 people worldwide and maintains a presence in 40 countries. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005247/en/ Contacts: JUSTIN BURSZTEIN Moody's Analytics Communications 001.212.553.1163 justin.bursztein@moodys.com Moody's Analytics Media Relations moodysanalytics.com twitter.com/moodysanalytics linkedin.com/company/moodysanalytics Jazeera Airways has announced that it is offering 50,000 free round-trip tickets to frontline heroes fighting the Covid-19 pandemic in Kuwait. The initiative follows a pledge by the airline to support efforts made by the Government of Kuwait. Jazeera Airways had placed its assets and human capital at the disposal of the Government, supporting repatriation efforts as well as converting its Park & Fly facility into the first drive-through Covid-19 testing center in the country. Announcing the initiative, Jazeera Airways Chairman, Marwan Boodai, said: We are honored to follow the directive of His Highness the Amir, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah to the government to reward our fellow frontline workers for their efforts to prioritise the safety of our people in the fight against the pandemic. The 50,000 free tickets will be redeemable to any destination served by our airlines network. The tickets will be distributed to frontline individuals as directed by our esteemed Government. The total value of these tickets is estimated at KD5 million ($16 million). Frontline workers nominated and approved by their ministry will be able to book their flight once Kuwait International Airport reopens for commercial flights and will be available until end of 2021. Boodai concluded: On behalf of everyone working at Jazeera Airways, I extend our deepest gratitude and recognition to our brave heroes for standing strong to ensure the health of citizens and residents in Kuwait. May God protect Kuwait and its people from all harm under the leadership of His Highness the Amir and his loyal Crown Prince. Repatriation flights Jazeera also participated in the largest air bridge repatriation program ever launched by Kuwait, operating over 60 flights bringing home over 6,800 Kuwaiti citizens. Jazeera built the Kuwait Passenger Reception Centre (KPRC), in coordination with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Ministry of Health at Kuwait International Airport to support the medical screening of all inbound passengers The repatriation flights extended from March 25 to May 10 and flew citizens back from London, Warsaw, Moscow, Yerevan, Riyadh, Manama, Dubai, Doha, Amman, Istanbul, Alexandria, Cairo, Najaf, Tehran, Tbilisi and Sarajevo. Drive-through Covid-19 testing centre In a continued support to the efforts of Kuwait in the fight against Covid-19, Jazeera Airways converted its Park & Fly facility in record time for the use by the Ministry of Health to perform the first drive-through virus tests in Kuwait. Jazeera Airways design and engineering team reconfigured the facility to comply with the stringent requirements of the local health authorities. A second drive-through testing facility has also been constructed by the Jazeera Airways team at the Jaber Al-Ahmad national stadium for the Ministry of Health to operate, which recently opened. Special expatriation flights The airline is also operating expatriation flights that have been scheduled under the directive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by request from local embassies. Cargo operations Since the suspension of commercial flights from and to Kuwait International Airport on March 13, Jazeera Airways continued to serve companies and institutions with its cargo services ensuring businesses continue to trade goods and equipment without interruption. Future commercial flights Jazeera Airways is fully ready and prepared to launch commercial flights as soon as Kuwait International Airport re-opens. - TradeArabia News Service Events in the Eastern Mediterranean began to spiral dangerously when Turkey, undeterred by warnings against the dangers of its expansionist designs, moved to impose new game rules in Libya. In order to counter this danger, Russia has recently stepped up its political and military involvement there, despite US and European condemnations. The steadily worsening situation in Libya is a direct result of the absence of a clear and viable political solution, which has given rein to militaristic solutions. Such a situation whetted the appetite of Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan who leapt on the opportunity to expand Turkish presence in the region, with sights set on grabbing oil and gas fields. Towards this end, Ankara entered into a strategic partnership with the Tripoli-based government which controls only a portion of Libya and is still locked in a political and military tug-of-war with the Libyan National Army and the legitimate and popularly elected parliament based in the east. The Libyan Civil War gradually evolved into a proxy war between world powers, with NATO countries working behind the scenes to prevent Russia from gaining a foothold in the country, as was the case before the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. This increases the likelihood of escalation and of even more protracted warfare as occurred in Afghanistan and then in Syria where local players became mere tools in the hands of major powers while chronic conflict wrought untold attrition on these countries resources and capacities. Since the outset of this year, Egypt has issued numerous statements condemning the threats posed by foreign military intervention in Libya. When the Turkish parliament approved a mandate authorising the transfer of Turkish troops to Libya in early January, Cairo condemned this flagrant violation of the international principles of legitimacy and UN Security Council resolutions on Libya. Following an illegitimate memorandum of understanding and military cooperation agreement between Ankara and the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) on 27 November 2019, Egypt warned that any Turkish military intervention in Libya would disrupt stability in the Mediterranean and that Turkey would be fully to blame for this. In his last telephone communication with French President Emmanuel Macron, President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi reiterated Egypts firm and strategic stance on the Libyan crisis. He underscored, in particular, the need to re-establish the foundations of national governmental institutions and structures, to end the anarchy of the proliferation of criminal gangs and terrorist militias, to give the highest priority to the fight against terrorism and the realisation of stability and security, and to curtail illegitimate foreign interventions in Libyan affairs which threaten to aggravate the current situation and jeopardise the security and stability of the entire Middle East and the Mediterranean. According to the statement issued by the Office of the Presidency, Al-Sisi and Macron agreed on the need to coordinate more closely on this matter. They also reaffirmed their determination to end the Libyan crisis by promoting a political solution that paves the way to the restoration of security and stability in Libya and, above all, by supporting UN efforts towards this end as well as the implementation of the outputs of the Berlin Process. The two heads of state also underscored their opposition to all foreign intervention in this matter. Turkeys extension of its ambitions to the Libyan theatre, the transfer of the Syrian scenario to Libya and Western silence in the face of the illegitimate alliance between Ankara and the GNA have severely set back efforts to reach a political settlement, fuelled the armed conflict and heightened tensions in the Mediterranean. There is a growing risk of broader and fiercer confrontations involving outside powers, and above all the major powers that have been steering the conflict behind the scenes. Egypt was right to call for an end to foreign interventions and definitive action to ward off the ambitions of regional powers that have exploited the vacuum created by the lack of unified governmental institutions. Today, the Libyan state is on the verge of extinction as the spectre of partition looms, which would present a grave threat to regional security in the years to come. *A version of this article appears in print in the 4 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 20:11:17|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 2 (Xinhua) -- China will continue to strengthen cooperation with African countries in the medical and health sectors, and make joint efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic within its capacity, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday. Such efforts will be made on the basis of the pandemic situation in Africa and the wishes of relevant countries, spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a news briefing when asked to outline China's assistance to Africa in coping with the pandemic. Zhao said China has sent 148 medical experts to 11 African countries at their invitation to help them tackle the pandemic, adding that China and African countries are good brothers and good partners through thick and thin. He said Chinese medical experts had exchanged and shared their anti-pandemic experiences with the relevant departments and medical staff of the African countries. They also reached out to local communities, visited hospitals and labs, and provided guidance for resident Chinese medical teams in these countries. "All these efforts have received positive feedback and praise from the relevant countries," Zhao said. He said China attaches great importance to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) project, and is actively making early-stage preparations with the African side. "We hope that construction of the project will start as soon as possible to further enhance African people's well-being," Zhao said. Enditem The tropical storm Nisarga is headed towards the coasts in Maharashtra and Gujarat, is likely to intensify into a cyclone in the next 12 hours and is expected to make a landfall close to Mumbai tomorrow (Wednesday). As per reports, this would be the first cyclonic storm to impact India's financial capital, which has logged over 41,000 coronavirus cases so far, since ... Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor An New South Wales ambulance leaves Newmarch House with a patient on May 01, 2020 in Sydney, Australia. (Cameron Spencer/Getty Images) Victoria Aged Care Home Shuts With Virus Case A Victorian aged care is in lockdown after a worker tested positive, while a kindergarten teacher is also among 10 latest coronavirus cases. The carer at Embracia Aged Care in Reservoir and the Macleod Preschool teacher were confirmed on June 2 to have the virus. The workers were picked up as infectious after going for routine testing, Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said. The kindergarten is shut for cleaning, while the aged care worker is self-isolating at home and all staff and visitors considered to be close contacts will be put into quarantine. Staff and residents at the aged centre centre will be tested, the minister said. So even one case in an aged care home is classified as an outbreak its taken very, very seriously because we know particular vulnerability that residents in nursing homes have, and this is why this home is now in lockdown, Mikakos said. Of the new cases, four have been tied to the outbreak at Rydges on Swanston, taking that cluster to 12. The hotel had been housing quarantined returned travellers, but all guests have been moved to alternative accommodation. Hotel and department staff have been put into quarantine, Deputy Chief Health Officer Annaliese van Diemen said of the outbreak. The other four new cases, found in routine testing, are under investigation. Victoria has done more than 521,000 tests and the states total recorded cases stand at 1664. The death toll remains at 19 while 1563 people have recovered and 79 cases are active in Victoria. There are nine people in hospital. Almost 170 people may have acquired the virus in community transmission. The state government also confirmed it was introducing legislation in parliament on Tuesday to fulfil the second stage of an election commitment to strengthen nurse-to-midwife patient ratios. Under the promise, an extra 500 nurse and midwife positions would be opened up, bringing the total extra staff to 1100. The state government will also spend $100,000 towards an exhibition to honour the nursing profession. van Diemen said a Keilor Downs secondary school is due to reopen on Tuesday after previously having a positive case. A St Albans South primary school impacted in the coronavirus cluster is also due to open on Wednesday, she said. Christine McGinn A comedian has mocked the 'stereotypical' shop assistants customers meet at popular Australian stores including Kmart, Bunnings Warehouse and General Pants. Samantha Andrew is a Melbourne-based composer and writer who enjoys taking on different 'stereotypical' Australian characters and posting footage of them on video-sharing medium TikTok. The 25-year-old, who has 80,000 followers on her account, pretends to be a staff member working at Aesop, Spotlight, Gorman and Kookai, as well as a number of other lifestyle and fashion chains. Samantha Andrew (pictured) is a Melbourne-based composer with a side project that involves taking on different stereotypical characters and posting footage of them on video-sharing medium TikTok As a General Pants store worker she was heard exuberantly leading people to the changing rooms and saying 'I love you' (left) and her T2 impersonation involved suggesting that no one could recreate the store-made delicious concoctions at home (right) She nails impressions of each, from a shrieking Valleygirl worker who welcomes customers by saying 'our clothes could disintegrate at any moment' to a Lush shop assistant saying 'I'm doing a display of the unicorn bath bomb, come with me!' Dressed in a feminine pink ensemble she takes on the persona of an Alice McCall employee by saying quietly 'Oh please don't touch anything our wooden fixtures are very collapsible', before turning into a gothic-looking Inglot worker who is surprised when a customer actually walks in. A worker at Macpac is seen wearing the store's signature puffer jacket and beanie combination, saying that it's 'like wearing a doona', and a Dangerfield worker is simply covered in mismatched patterns. The Bunnings worker gave away a free beer stubbie holder (left) while the Lush worker (right) did a free demonstration of a bath bomb in store Samantha mocked those who work at Chemist Warehouse (left) for being unable to move freely down the skinny aisles and those at Apple who preach to their customers in 'masterclasses' 'Hello old people, my name is Felix and thank you for joining our masterclass on how to unlock your phone and your options,' said Samantha, dressed as an Apple consultant. Samantha's uncanny take on a JB Hi-Fi worker saw her admit to not being very 'tech savvy' but having the ability to offer a big discount, while an Officeworks employee calmly explained where a customer could find a biro pen in store. The hilarious videos have earned Samantha almost one million views each, and she's pretty sure she knows why they've been so well-received. Samantha joked that H&M workers are constantly trying restack the shelves after young children 'take to them with a machete' (left) and at Aldi they barely breathe in between scanning items (right) At Kookai (left) Samantha was seen posing for photos out the front in a nod to their glamorous customer service workers and she was seen being completely ignored at Target (right) 'I think nostalgia and throwback comedy brings people together,' Samantha told Punkee. 'It's a great way to start a pretty busy comment section, with people either screaming about how read to filth they feel by the video or they can talk about how their experience differs.' Samantha has also uploaded videos revealing what Australian school formals are like and how different star signs react at a musical theatre audition. The hormone testosterone plays a big part in men's health, but perhaps its most meaningful role is to fuel sex drive and performance. Testosterone levels tend to decrease with age. They peak by early adulthood and then can drop by up to 1% per year beginning around age 40. Sometimes an abrupt fall occurs because of an injury or illness (such as an infection), chemotherapy or radiation treatment, or certain medications. When testosterone levels drop too low, men can experience a lackluster libido and erectile dysfunction (ED). Low levels can also contribute to fatigue, mood changes, reduced muscle mass, and loss of bone strength. Most men can still maintain adequate levels of testosterone well into their later years. Staying healthy also helps slow the decline. Still, many older men consider testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) as a means to boost depleted levels. It's natural to think that TRT could make a man feel younger and add zest to his sex life. But is it that simple? Can TRT really help? The short answer is maybe, but only in a specific way. Good for sex First of all, men need to realize that TRT won't turn back time, says Dr. Shehzad Basaria, associate director of the Section of Men's Health, Aging and Metabolism at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital. "Although quite a few studies in older men have shown that TRT improves muscle mass and strength compared with a placebo, this increase has not translated into improved physical function," he says. "Furthermore, large clinical trials have not shown that TRT improves vitality or memory." On the other hand, research has shown that TRT can improve overall sexual activity and sexual desire in older men whose blood testosterone levels are clearly low. But even this effect has its limits. A 2017 meta-analysis published in Current Opinion in Urology found that TRT improved libido and erectile dysfunction in men who have both low testosterone levels and mild ED. TRT was especially helpful for men who do not respond to ED drugs like sildenafil (Viagra), vardenafil (Levitra), and tadalafil (Cialis). However, the researchers added that TRT might not help men with moderate or severe ED. In these cases, low testosterone is often not the cause of their ED, and other treatments like ED drugs are more effective. Are you a candidate? Speak with your doctor if you are concerned about low testosterone and its effect on your sex life. A review of symptoms and at least two early-morning blood tests to measure testosterone can confirm a diagnosis. (The normal range of blood testosterone is 300 to 1,000 nanograms per deciliter.) There are several ways to receive TRT if it's prescribed: injections, patches applied nightly, or daily gels spread over your upper arms, shoulders, or thighs. Traditionally, injected testosterone is given into a large muscle once every week or two. Injections done less often can result in a high testosterone level right after the injection that falls noticeably a few days prior to the next shot. This can cause a roller-coaster effect on mood, energy, and sex drive. The newest option is a device that injects testosterone under the skin (similar to insulin shots) each week. This method is often more expensive than the regular muscle injections. Keep in mind that even if you have low testosterone and multiple symptoms, TRT might not be the first recommendation by your doctor. For instance, losing excess weight increases your own testosterone production. Also, switching certain medications may raise levels. These changes alone sometimes help relieve symptoms. Consider possible health risks Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) may pose some health risks, and you should discuss them with your doctor. For instance: Erythrocytosis. Erythrocytosis is a condition where the body makes too many red blood cells, which can increase the risk of stroke and heart attack. Heart attack. A study in the September 2019 issue of The American Journal of Medicine found that men ages 45 and older with low testosterone who took TRT had a 21% greater risk of heart attacks and strokes (even without erythrocytosis) within the first two years of use compared with non-TRT users. Results from large clinical trials are still needed. Prostate cancer. The link between TRT and a higher risk of prostate cancer is not clear. However, a study published online June 22, 2018, by PLOS One found no connection between TRT and aggressive prostate cancer among more than 58,000 men ages 40 to 89. But again, more research is needed. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Kits to be launched under the brand name ELISafe 19 Syngene International Ltd., an integrated research and development services company, has entered into collaboration with HiMedia Laboratories, a bioscience company with expertise in media manufacturing and diagnostics for over 45 years, to manufacture and distribute its ELISA kits. HiMedia will manufacture the kits at its facility in Mumbai and distribute it across India. Syngene has indigenously developed an anti-COV-2 IgG ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) at its research facility in Bengaluru. This advanced highly reliable test identifies the presence of SARS-COV-2 antibodies in blood samples and confirms if a patient has been exposed to the coronavirus. It has a capacity to test samples together in a single run and generates results within 3 hours. Commenting on the collaboration, Dr Mahesh Bhalgat, Chief Operating Officer, Syngene International Ltd., said, At a time when the number of COVID-19 cases is increasing at an alarming rate across the country, there is an urgent need to make available reliable testing kits using advanced technology to test patients and identify positive cases. To fill this gap, Syngene, with its expertise across diverse scientific domains, has developed an ELISA kit that allows higher throughput and generates faster results. We are happy to tie-up with HiMedia who will make the kits available at a large scale to significantly increase serological testing in India. Dr. Vishal G. Warke, Director R&D, Cell Culture and Immunology, HiMedia Laboratories added, We are happy to partner with Syngene in manufacturing and distributing their ELISA kits. This partnership brings together our mutual expertise in research and manufacturing and will further strengthen our fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the collaboration, Syngene will initiate tech-transfer of the kits to HiMedia for developing the prototypes for submission to CDSCO for approval. HiMedia will launch the kits in two weeks after receiving the approval and market it under its brand name ELISafe 19. Neck-deep in debt, a 43-year-old former national-level powerlifter attempted to kill himself two weeks ago in outer Delhis Kanjhawala in such a way that it would appear to be accidental death and his family could receive his life insurance benefits, the police said on Tuesday. But when the suicide didnt go through as planned, the man went into hiding to escape his moneylenders, forcing the police to investigate his disappearance as a case of kidnapping. On Monday, as the homesick man tried to return to Delhi from Haridwar, the police intercepted him on a train in Meerut. The man, Deepak Dabas, lives with his wife and two sons in Kanjhawala. He had won a gold medal in powerlifting at the national level years ago, PK Mishra, the deputy commissioner of police (Rohini), said. Later, he began dealing in property and opened a gymnasium. The problem began when he borrowed money from his relatives and friends at an interest of 2% per month and lend it to others at a higher rate of interest, the DCP said. He borrowed nearly 1.5 crore just to earn the interest, the DCP said, adding that he had also borrowed another 50 lakh to construct a house. Soon, he was neck-deep in debt and had no way to get out of it even as the lenders began insisting that he return their money, along with the interest. Meanwhile, he could not make any money off lending, the officer said. Finally, he decided to get out of the mess by killing himself, the DCP said. But, he added, he needed to make the suicide look like an accidental death. He had an accidental death policy of 1 crore and life insurance of 50 lakh. He thought at least his family could benefit from his death, the DCP said. On May 15, Dabas allegedly drove his Renault Duster car to an isolated stretch of road near the Bawana-Kanjhawala Road and doused his vehicle with diesel. He thought if he was burnt inside the car, it would look like an accidental death. But when the car caught fire, he couldnt bear the dense smoke and got out, the DCP said. Leaving his burning car behind, the man walked for six days to Haridwar, allegedly to go into hiding forever. He walked all the way since he could not find transport, the DCP said. His family, meanwhile, registered a kidnapping case at Kanjhawala police station as they thought someone had abducted him for not returning the borrowed money. We questioned his family and friends. We checked his and his familys bank accounts to find that all the accounts had maintained only the minimum balance. We continued to keep a watch on their bank transactions, the DCP said. The burnt car also aroused the polices suspicionwhy would kidnappers trouble themselves with burning the car if they just wanted Dabas? On May 19, the police found that 2,500 had been withdrawn from Dabas account from an ATM in Muzaffarnagar. We checked the CCTV camera footage from the ATM and saw that it was Dabas who had withdrawn the money and that he was alone, the DCP said, adding that sources were deployed to gather more information about his movements. We alerted people in and around hotels and ashrams in Haridwar and neighbouring areas to alert us if they saw any man matching his description. On Monday, one of our informers alerted us that Dabas had boarded a Jan Shatabdi Express from Haridwar to Delhi, the DCP said. A police team intercepted the train in Meerut and found Dabas on board. The police are still contemplating whether to press charges against Dabas and if so, under what sections of the Indian Penal Code. As of now, the possible offence he has committed is attempting to trick insurance companies. But neither he nor his family had proceeded with claiming insurance so far. So, we are still contemplating what legal action to take against him, the DCP said. Iran is using the killing in the United States of an African-American man at the hands of a white policeman and the angry wave of protests it has caused as a propaganda tool to settle scores with Washington, which has imposed a campaign of "maximum pressure" on Tehran that includes crippling economic sanctions. Iranian officials have denounced the killing of the man, George Floyd, in the city of Minneapolis on May 25 while using the same rhetoric Washington has used in recent months to blast state corruption and human rights abuses in Iran. On June 1, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Musavi made a rare statement in English to directly appeal to Americans and express support for what he termed their "outcry over state oppression" in protesting Floyd's death. "To the American people: the world has heard your outcry over [state] oppression. The world is standing with you. The American regime is pursuing violence and bullying at home and abroad," Musavi said. Musavi also called on U.S. officials and the police to stop using "violence" against Americans and to "let them breathe." The comments echoed statements issued by top U.S. officials in support of Iranians who took to the streets in recent months, including in January following the downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The influential IRGC said the tragic accident was caused by human error amid heightened tensions with the United States after the assassination of the corps' top commander, Qasem Soleimani. But the government initially denied involvement in the plane's downing, angering Iranians. Both U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed support for the protesters outraged by the incident, which killed 176 people. Trump posted a tweet in English and Persian saying that his administration stood with the Iranian people. He added that "we are following your protests closely and are inspired by your courage." For his part, Pompeo said that Iranians "are fed up with the regime's lies, corruption, ineptitude, and brutality of the IRGC under @Khamenei_ir's kleptocracy." On May 30, Iran's Twitter-savvy foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, posted a 2018 statement by Pompeo where some of the words had been crossed out and replaced with new words in red to reflect Tehran's views and highlight the outbreak of protests in 140 cities around the United States. "The people of America are tired of the racism, corruption, [and] incompetence from their leaders," Zarif's statement said, adding that "the American people are demanding their leaders share the countrys wealth and respond to their legitimate demands." "Some dont think #BlackLivesMatter," Zarif said on Twitter, which is among the social-media platforms banned in Iran, although top government officials are allowed to use it. Pompeo retorted back with the tweet: "You hang homosexuals, stone women and exterminate Jews. Iranian Vice President Massumeh Ebetkar, who was the spokeswoman for the hostage-takers of U.S. diplomats in Tehran following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, retweeted a story about the protests in the United States while writing that "All humanity stands with you against racism, against discrimination, against oppression, against imperialism!" There was also condemnation from the head of Iran's judiciary, hard-line cleric Ebrahim Raisi, who is accused of having played a key role in the 1988 mass executions of thousands of political prisoners following mock trials that often lasted just a few minutes. "Today America is not a claimant [as a purveyor of] human rights anymore, but as an accused it should face trial," said Raisi, who has been blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury, in a speech aired on state-controlled television. Iran routinely crushes antiestablishment protests, including in November 2019, when at least 300 people were killed during street demonstrations, according to Amnesty International. Many of the victims were reportedly shot dead by snipers. Other critics, including U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook, have said that more than 1,000 people may have been killed by security forces in those protests, which were sparked by a major hike in gasoline prices. Iran's heavily censored media, which is often banned from reporting on anti-government rallies, has covered the protests in U.S. cities on their front pages and led their news broadcasts with them. Iranian media reported earlier this week that a candlelight vigil was held in the city of Mashhad for Floyd, who died after a policeman kneeled on the back of his neck for nearly nine minutes, pinning him facedown in a city street. Floyd repeatedly told the officer that he could not breathe. The police officer has been arrested and faces murder charges. Three other police who helped detain Floyd and failed to help him during the incident were fired. The vigil in Iran for Floyd is notable because Iranian officials do not usually allow public memorials for victims of state violence. In December, family members of Pouya Bakhtiari, a young protester killed in the November street protests that spread to more than 100 cities and towns, were detained after announcing they would hold a public ceremony to mark 40 days since his death. Security officials reportedly summoned Bakhtiari's father and told him not to hold the ceremony in a mosque, citing concerns it could create unrest. International donors Tuesday pledged $1.35 billion in humanitarian aid to Yemen, ravaged by war and coronavirus, the United Nations said, around half the required $2.41 billion. "A total of $1.35 billion in pledges has been announced from a wide range of donors to the humanitarian response in Yemen including to fight COVID-19," a UN spokeswoman told reporters. Search Keywords: Short link: Addressing the event, Chairman of Hanoi municipal Peoples Committee Nguyen Duc Chung said that given the comprehensive partnership between Vietnam and the US, the spirit of solidarity and mutual support, Hanoi wishes to share part of its resources to help New York authorities and people combat the pandemic. The medical supplies include 100,000 antibacterial cloth masks and 50,000 medical masks. Chung expressed his hope that with the efforts and drastic measures being implemented by the US administrationand the cooperation of international community, the US would soon overcome the pandemic. US Ambassador to Vietnam Daniel J. Kritenbrinkcongratulated Vietnam on its achievements in the fight against the pandemic and thanked the Hanoi authorities and people for the gift. He affirmed that the donated facemasks will help the city in its fight to overcome the pandemic and return to normal life. The Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has explained that government has not made an attempt at mass testing in a bid to tackle the novel coronavirus more efficiently as it begins easing restrictions on gatherings. Though the government has not given up on the option of mass testing, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah said mass testing would not be an absolute solution to the spread of the virus. Testing is not a panacea. What we have therefore sought to do is to test at-risk populations because there is a clear mapping of where the virus is, the persons who at risk and therefore you are able to concentrate your resources, the Minister explained on Citi TVs The Point of View. It may not be prudent to test 9.4 million kids that are going to school once. If you are going to test them, maybe you should test everybody every morning. Can you feasibly do that? You cant do that. Among others, former President John Dramani Mahama had called on the government to conduct mass testing for the virus before easing restrictions. In the face of the imminent easing of restrictions, let me repeat the call on the government to consider conducting mass testing, at least, at the point of need, Mr. Mahama noted. The Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) also proposed mass coronavirus testing of students, teaching and non-teaching staff of Senior High Schools (SHSs) before they are reopened. These calls notwithstanding, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah indicated that the government was going to continue focusing on preventive measures and targeted testing. It is the kind of social distances, the kind of preventive etiquette generally that you do in addition to the testing of at-risk populations that gives you a combined effect that amounts to some layer of protection. Right now, he said one of the governments concerns was the gap of that full level of compliance we desire. Though the President has eased public gathering restrictions , the wearing of face masks remains mandatory. Social distancing is also to be observed in public transport, markets, banks etc. Ghana has currently confirmed 8,070 cases of the virus. citinewsroom A courageous US police officer has put his job at risk by criticizing Donald Trump - The Chief Commander of the US Armed Forces, on live television. Art Avecedo, the Houston Police Chief, while reacting to a report that Trump urged state governors to 'dominate and stop showing signs of weakness' in dealing with protesters that have taken to multiple US cities since the deah of George Floyd last week, told Trump to shut up if he didn't have anything constructive to say. During a live interview on CNN's Amanpour show, on Monday night, the Houston Police Chief was told by TV Host Christiane Amanpour that it was okay if he would not like to talk about the US President on national TV. Amanpour asked 'What should the police be doing now to calm the situation?' After nodding his head to Amanpour's statements, he said; Let me just say this to the President of the United States, on behalf of the police chiefs of this country: please, if you dont have something constructive to say, keep your mouth shut. Because you are putting men and women in their early 20s at risk. It's not about dominating, it's about winning hearts and minds. Let's be clear, we do not want people to confuse kindness with weakness we don't want ignorance to ruin what we have here in Houston. He continued: 'I'm speaking for my colleagues across the country, where there are officers being injured, community members are being injured. If you don't have something to say, then don't say it. Because that is the basic tenet of leadership and we need leadership now more than ever. It hurts me to know it, because whether we vote for someone or we don't vote for someone he's still our president'. It's time to be presidential, and not try to be like you are on the apprentice. ''This is not Hollywood, this is real life, and real lives are at risk. I ask the American people to please join with the police and stand together let's shift this to what needs to be, to the voting booth. Pay attention to the hearts of the people we elect. The reason this happens is that too many people in this country that are are throwing blocks and bricks, damaging property, never bothered to vote. You have a choice, lift up your voice, be heard in a voting booth and continue to march peacefully. See the video below- Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Ministry of Education has been granted financial clearance for a total of 27,367 staff for employment in the pre-tertiary sector. This comprises 16,500 newly trained teachers, 6,500 graduate teachers, 3,232 replacement staff and 1,135 non-teaching staff. This was disclosed by the Minister of Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, at a press briefing in Accra on updates in the education sector earlier today. Dr. Prempeh explained that this brings to total, 93,724 staff who have been recruited into the pre-tertiary sector since this government took over in 2017. In the tertiary space, he stated that the government has since 2017 employed 6,178 staff. In a related development, the Minister revealed that teachers who were recently engaged have been paid all their salary arrears, a departure from the three months pay policy under previous government, where it took many months, and in some cases years, for teachers receive their first salaries after engagement, and even then only for three months of work. He also explained that teachers who were promoted in April 2020 had had the necessary adjustments made to their salaries, and had thus reflected in their May 2020 salaries. Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video SAN FRANCISCOMark Zuckerberg, Facebooks chief executive, on Tuesday stood firmly behind his decision to not do anything about United States President Donald Trumps inflammatory posts on the social network, saying that he had made a tough decision but that it was pretty thorough. In a question-and-answer session with employees conducted over video chat software, Zuckerberg sought to justify his position on Trumps messages, which has led to fierce internal dissent. The meeting, which had been scheduled for Thursday, was moved up to Tuesday after hundreds of employees protested the inaction by staging a virtual walkout of sorts Monday. Facebooks principles and policies around free speech show that the right action where we are right now is to leave this up, Zuckerberg said on the call, the audio of which was heard by The New York Times. He added that although he knew that many people would be upset with the company, a review of its policies backed up his decision. I knew that I would have to separate out my personal opinion, he said. Knowing that when we made this decision we made, it was going to lead to a lot of people upset inside the company, and the media criticism we were going to get. Zuckerberg held firm even as the pressure on him to take action on Trumps messages intensified. Civil rights groups said late Monday after meeting with him and Sheryl Sandberg, Facebooks chief operating officer, that it was totally confounding that the company was not taking a tougher stand on Trumps belligerent posts, which have contributed to the rhetoric around the protests over police violence in recent days. And several Facebook employees have publicly resigned, with one saying the company would end up on the wrong side of history. Facebooks internal dissent began brewing last week after the social networks rival, Twitter, added labels to Trumps tweets that indicated the president was glorifying violence and making inaccurate statements. The same messages from Trump also appeared on Facebook. But unlike Twitter, Facebook did not touch the presidents posts, including one in which Trump said of the protests in Minneapolis: when the looting starts, the shooting starts. That led to internal criticism, with Facebook employees arguing it was untenable to leave up Trumps messages that incited violence. They said Zuckerberg was kowtowing to Republicans out of fear of being regulated or broken up. Zuckerberg and Sandberg have spent the past five days meeting with employees, civil rights leaders and other angry parties to explain the companys stance. Zuckerberg has said Facebook does not want to be an arbiter of truth. He has also said that he is for free speech and that what world leaders post online is in the public interest and newsworthy. But in trying to placate everyone, Zuckerberg has failed to appease anyone. Employees have continued to revolt, making critical public statements on Twitter, LinkedIn and their personal Facebook pages. And politicians and civil rights organizations have also criticized Zuckerbergs position. Read more about: With spectacular views and plenty of space to set up scenic shots, this home in Honolulu is already a star. The camera-ready abode served as the backdrop for the third installment of the popular Japanese reality series "Terrace House." Now's your chance to re-create the spark of reality TV: The stylish home at the center of "Terrace House: Aloha State" is on the rental market for $14,000 a month. The listing photos don't reveal the current state of the interiors, but we do see a few glimpses of the pool, the Kahala neighborhood, and the Pacific Ocean. When the show was filmed in 2016 and 2017, the interior was awash in white, minimalist decor. There was no need for frills when the natural surroundings (plus that fabulous pool) provide the ultimate backdrop. Here's a glimpse of the cast standing on the home's spectacular balcony nearly four years ago. "Even for a hotel, it's pretty luxurious," model Lauren Tsai, then 18, exclaimed during her first tour of the house. Tsai and the rest of the female cast members were also impressed by their huge spa bathtub with an ocean view. Other cast members from the "Aloha State" season included Yuya Shibusawa, an aspiring actor; Avian Ku, a salesclerk at her family's business, 88 Tees; Eric De Mendonca, a carpenter; Yusuke Aizawa, a musician; and Guy Sato, a pro surfer. During filming, the four-bedroom, five-bathroom, 5,000-square-foot home was configured for the cast. There was a second-floor bunk room for the women with a view of the Pacific. The dudes occupied a shared room on the first floor, which opened directly to the pool area with hammock. One bedroom was set up as a playroom for cast members to hang out with a TV and comfy seating. Along with an unparalleled view, the pool has a unique circular piece of artwork on the bottom. For filming, the artwork was covered by the show's logo. For a journey back in time, take a look at the interior of the house from this Netflix Japan promo. Six strangers, a day to day record of life with no script, now in Hawaii! Terrace House Aloha State, globally streaming Jan. 24th. pic.twitter.com/gyjpQwEriE Netflix Japan (@NetflixJP) November 15, 2016 While we doubt the funky mod-white girls room remained intact or if the wood bunks for the boys are still there, the aloha vibes of the third season may reverberate. It's ready for new tenants to create another adventure using this breathtaking, one-of-a-kind place as a backdrop for something special. Exterior realtor.com Pool logo realtor.com Outdoor sitting area realtor.com Balcony seating realtor.com Balcony view realtor.com The post Honolulu Hideaway From 'Terrace House: Aloha State' Renting for $14K a Month appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization speaks during a news conference on updates regarding on the novel coronavirus COVID-19, at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. (Photo- AP). LONDON: The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday praised the United States immense and generous contribution to global health in a push to salvage relations after President Donald Trump said he was severing ties with the U.N. agency. Accusing it of pandering to China and overlooking an initially secretive response to the COVID-19 outbreak, Trump said on Friday he was ending Washingtons relationship with the WHO. But WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an online media briefing he hoped his organisation could continue its longstanding collaboration with the United States. The United States contribution and generosity towards global health over many decades has been immense, and it has made a great difference in public health all around the world, he said. China has reacted furiously to Trumps move, calling it selfish and petulant politics by a U.S. administration addicted to quitting international bodies and treaties. Tedros, who is Ethiopian, said he only knew about the U.S. decision from the media, with no formal communication yet from Trumps government. He declined to answer further questions about the U.S. stance. At the briefing, chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said the WHO should have enough information in 24 hours to decide whether to continue suspending trials of hyrdroxychloroquine. Trump has been one of those promoting the anti-malaria drug to help combat the COVID-19 disease, despite medical warnings about associated risks. With many nations easing lockdowns as the rate of new coronavirus cases drops, emergencies expert Mike Ryan said it was laudable to see economies being put back on track, but a cautious stepwise approach was still needed. BERWYN, Pa., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Triumph Group (NYSE:TGI) congratulates AgustaWestland Philadelphia Corporation (dba Leonardo Helicopters) on being selected by the U.S. Navy for the Advanced Helicopter Training System (AHTS) program. Per the recently announced contract, Leonardo will produce 32, TH-73A helicopters, a variant of the AW119, for the AHTS Program. Triumph Systems & Support Mechanical Solutions operating company is the incumbent supplier of cockpit and engine controls, providing these mechanical controls on the AW119 for more than 20 years. Triumph will work with Leonardo to supply the mechanical controls of AW119 as they deliver the AHTS to serve the rotary and tiltrotor training requirements for the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. The statement of work for the TH-73A will be carried out at the Triumph Systems & Support's Mechanical Solutions sites in North Wales, Pennsylvania and Shelbyville, Indiana. The new aircraft will be built at Leonardo's FAA-certified Part 21 production line in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. "As the incumbent supplier of control systems for the AW119, the new work in support of the TH-73A facilitates the organic growth of our business," said Ian Reason, President of Triumph Mechanical Solutions. "We are thrilled to be able to support Leonardo as they fulfill the production requirements for the U.S. Navy Advanced Helicopter Training System program and to be a part of the AHTS program that will provide critical training for pilots in multiple branches of the U.S. Armed Forces." Triumph Mechanical Solutions is a long-time supplier of cockpit and engine controls to Leonardo, providing the mechanical controls for the AW139 and A109 platforms in addition to the AW119. The flight systems Triumph manufactures control the pitch and roll of the helicopter and is used to maintain rotor speed and keep the aircraft stable. Triumph Group, Inc., headquartered in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, designs, engineers, manufactures, repairs and overhauls a broad portfolio of aerospace and defense systems, components and structures. The company serves the global aviation industry, including original equipment manufacturers and the full spectrum of military and commercial aircraft operators. More information about Triumph can be found on the company's website at www.triumphgroup.com. SOURCE Triumph Group Related Links www.triumphgroup.com Update: This post originally reported 9 cases. As of 2:53 p.m. on June 2, Bobs Red Mill confirmed five more COVID-19 cases, adding up to a total of 14 cases. Coronavirus outbreaks among employers that harvest or process foods have continued to pop up in the Pacific Northwest, prompting action from Gov. Kate Brown. Since late April, almost 300 COVID-19 cases have been linked to some agricultural or food processing workplaces in Oregon or Southwest Washington, according to a tally by The Oregonian/OregonLive of publicly disclosed cases. Most recently, nine production facility workers at Bobs Red Mill have tested positive for COVID-19, CEO Dennis Vaughn confirmed in a statement on June 1. The Milwaukie-based company produces and distributes popular grain products nationwide. Workers who have tested positive were sent home on paid leave, he said. Upon positive testing, we immediately implemented contact tracing," the companys statement said. Out of an abundance of caution, additional employees who may have been in contact despite social distancing are also at home to quarantine. The largest known workplace outbreak in Oregon, outside of the healthcare industry, is linked to Townsend Farms, which has been linked to over 100 coronavirus cases at its two Portland area facilities. Brown issued a number of orders Friday aimed at mitigating the spread of the coronavirus in food-related industries and allocated $30 million to help farm workers and agricultural producers. The money will help pay for agricultural workforce housing, field sanitation, and employer-provided transportation, among other measures. In late May, officials distributed personal protective equipment to agricultural workers across the state. As essential workers needed to keep the food supply chain intact, agricultural workers often work and sometimes live in close quarters. As the summer harvest season in Oregon begins to peak, more agricultural workers will be harvesting crops. Workers at facilities that process vegetables, fruits, and grains often stand close together on production lines, making them susceptible to catching COVID-19. Oregon regulators cited National Frozen Foods in Albany in early May for failing to adopt practices to enable workers to stay at least six feet apart from one another. The fruit and vegetable processing facility was fined a $2,000 penalty for its safety violations. Firestone Pacific Foods, a Vancouver fruit processing company that has been linked to 119 COVID-19 cases, will start to reopen after suspending production on May 18. The outbreak at Firestone halted Clark Countys application to move to Phase 2 of Washingtons phased reopening plans. Jane Richards, a spokesperson for Firestone Pacific Foods, said company officials are working closely with Clark County and Washingtons State Department of Labor & Industries to reopen its facilities. We are undertaking a measured start-up in close collaboration with Clark County, and are taking steps to ensure that returning staff are trained in our updated procedures for clocking in, undertaking medical screenings, and social distancing, Richards said in a statement. The company began its reopening with a cleanup of its facility Sunday night with a reduced workforce and has not restarted regular production, Richards said. -- Celina Tebor ctebor@oregonian.com @CelinaTebor Sub-Saharan Africa needs to plug local knowledge gap to up its anti-COVID-19 game Africa needs to be better prepared to deal with future pandemics; starting with a re-assessment of how countries invest in and support local research. Africa remains one of the regions least affected by COVID-19, although evidence suggests it is an evolving and growing pandemic. It is now present in all African countries and territories. From the start, the responses across many African countries have mirrored those of other countries where the pandemic has been more prevalent. These measures generally include the promotion of social distancing and personal hygiene, lockdown orders, and management of more severe cases in hospitals. Other responses, such as contact tracing, testing, and isolation of suspected cases, have been used less widely. The implementation of lockdowns has created major challenges for governments and citizens alike. Local realities such as urban slums make the spread of the virus more likely and social distancing almost impossible. Lockdowns in these settings pose very high economic risks for the residents. Given local conditions in many of Africas urban areas including high density slums and informal settlements lockdown strategies are proving to be unworkable. Part of the disconnect between the current responses and the current realities of many Africans stems from the limited engagement between policy decision-makers and African institutions generating contextual knowledge. Some examples are the lack of an adequate notice period before lockdowns and the limited consideration given to the situation of slum residents. The gaps in our current knowledge of the course of COVID-19 in Africa make things even more difficult. We dont know what accounts for the very low numbers of cases in most countries. Is it a reflection of very low testing capacity? Or rather, of Africas very young demographic profile? Or is it simply that we are in the early phase of the pandemic? Each of these possible explanations will demand different policy responses. Now more than ever, African governments need their scientists and their scientific institutions to provide insights and guidance. They are turning to these local institutions for help in managing their responses to the pandemic. Unfortunately, many years of neglect and limited investment have created capacity gaps. Where capacity does exist, it is being used, though it remains inadequate. The extent of this is being documented by a network of academics across the continent. African scientists are not able to deliver what Africa needs because governments have starved their institutions of crucial funds for many years. The result is that governments are importing wholesale what is being done elsewhere. Whats missing Africas experiences in managing other recent and ongoing epidemics could be an advantage in responding to COVID-19. These epidemics include cholera, measles and viral haemorrhagic diseases like Ebola virus disease, yellow fever, dengue, Lassa fever, and Rift Valley fever. The potential is there, but strong research institutions and systems are needed to activate this advantage to inform timely local, national and global responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. These, unfortunately, remain underdeveloped. The use being made of the resources that do exist only underlines the need for the science and research systems in Africa to be strengthened. For example, there has been a glaring lack of ongoing rigorous studies of the pandemic on the continent. Of the 2,032 clinical trials related to COVID-19 registered by 14 May this year, only 35 included study sites in Africa. Of these, 23 were in Egypt and only 12 included a site in a sub-Saharan African country. Seven of the 12 were internationally led multi-country studies. The remaining five were in Nigeria and South Africa. Additionally, the 12 clinical trials involving a country in sub-Saharan Africa are extremely limited as most are looking at hydroxychloroquine, while another is looking at traditional medicine. This pattern positions Africa to remain a consumer of knowledge and solutions produced elsewhere. And, during this period of a global pandemic with critical shortages of life-saving resources, Africa is losing because it lacks the capacity to produce what it needs and what others may need. What needs to be done What key actions need to be taken? The first lesson for Africa is that it cannot continue to depend on international and multinational agencies to determine the path it takes to development. We must reverse the limited investments in local and regional research institutions and universities. Countries must do more to attract their best minds, many of whom have been forced, over the years, to leave Africa. As we look towards a post-COVID-19 world, investments in strengthening local and regional knowledge-based institutions will be key to enhancing the continents global relevance and competitiveness. And we need to understand where we currently are in the course of the pandemic. This requires clarifying the drivers of current low levels of reported infections and deaths. Achieving this will require coordinated serological antibody surveys across countries with different epidemiological profiles of the pandemic. These surveys would be a game changer. At the moment countries are only doing antigen tests. These tests are positive if a person is currently sick with the virus. Once the person is better, the test will again be negative. Antibodies, however, last longer in people who have contracted a virus and will be positive in asymptomatic people as well (it is not yet known for how long). An antibody survey would involve selecting a sample of people who are representative of the entire population and testing them. This will show how widespread the infection has been in a given population. Such antibody surveys will show who has had the virus and therefore has built antibodies (some kind of immunity) to it. This will be key to formulating appropriate context specific responses to the pandemic. And it would help us understand where a countrys responses to the pandemic have been appropriate. These surveys could show us, for example, if the lockdown policies have been beneficial, or if there have been very widespread infections but with mild morbidity and very low mortality, perhaps due to the continents young age profile. This would mean the quarantines and lockdowns have come at a high price with less than anticipated benefits. Combining such surveys with community studies that include verbal autopsies interviewing people who were close to the person who died, and from this deciding the cause of death could show if the lockdown is leading to increased mortality within communities that are not being captured in our accounting of COVID-19-related deaths. Understanding the extent of the spread of COVID-19 within urban and rural Africa can also help with the adaptation of policy responses to a specific setting. This is urgently needed as many countries are in the middle of their rainy season when most villagers cultivate their farms. Disruptions in farming activities, coupled with the effects of climate change-related floods and an ongoing locust epidemic in East Africa, could spell an uncertain future for hundreds of millions of people as they begin to face massive food insecurity. Evidence from such studies can help countries calibrate their national responses to the pandemic. In the long term, we must be better prepared to deal with future pandemics, and that preparation needs to start with a re-assessment of how we invest in and support local research and service delivery institutions across Africa. This article draws on contributions to Drexel Universitys Webinar on The Global Impact of Pandemics; the African Development Banks Global Community of Practice Webinar on Enhancing Resilience in African Economies: Macro-Economic Policy Responses to COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa; and the Think-20 Engagement Group and Global Solutions Summit Panel on The Social and Economic Implications of Covid-19 Pandemic and Beyond: Risks and Opportunities for the Global South. Alex Ezeh, Dornsife Professor of Global Health, Drexel University and Sharon Fonn, Professsor of Public Health; Co-Director Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa; Panel Member, Private Healthcare Market Inquiry, University of the Witwatersrand. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Jabalpur, June 3 : The government's plans to coerce the liquor traders into opening the vends in the states have recoiled with Madhya Pradesh High Court restraining it from taking any action against the liquor contractors during the pendency of the case till Wednesday. The liquor contractors filed an application seeking interim protection against the government which took action against some of them. Rahul Diwakar, the petitioners' lawyer told the court that the authorities are taking action against a few petitioners by imposing penalty and issuing letters to forfeit the bank guarantee. This was contrary to the state government undertaking in the court that it would refrain from taking action during the hearing. The petitioners pleaded with the court to initiate contempt proceedings against the respondents. A division bench of the Chief Justice AK Mittal and Justice VK Shukla issued the interim direction during hearing of the petitioners' application, the counsel said. The Court also issued notices to the respondents - the principal secretary (Excise Department) and the excise commissioner during the hearing. The court will continue to hear the liquor contractors on Wednesday, the counsel said. The Government went as far as threatening to take over the liquor trade. The cash- strapped MP government is mulling to run the liquor shops in the state as the liquor contractors are unrelenting, sources said. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had said that the state economy has collapsed due to coronavirus. The court on Tuesday heard the petition filed by 30 liquor contractors from various parts of the state. The liquor contractors have sought the HC direction to the state government to either revise the terms and conditions of their contract or recall the entire bidding process of liquor sale for the current fiscal due to economic slowdown caused by the Corona pandemic. A tussle is going on between the state government and the liquor contractors after the majority of the liquor shops were closed in despite the state government's order to re-open them last month. The liquor retailers said that the contract, 25 per cent higher than the rates of last fiscal, with the state government will burn a hole in their pocket in the wake of downturn in the market. Protests have erupted across the U.S. after George Floyd, an unarmed black man, died in custody last Monday after being aggressively restrained by a white Minneapolis police offer. And as footage of the riots dominates news coverage across the world, footy WAG Rebecca Judd has used the opportunity to educate her two eldest children about racism. Speaking on KIIS FM's 3pm Pick-Up on Monday, Rebecca said it was the 'saddest, toughest conversation', but she felt it was necessary to inform them about white privilege and inequality. Scroll down for video 'They lost a little bit of their innocence': As footage of the U.S. riots dominates news coverage, Rebecca Judd has used the opportunity to educate her two eldest children about racism Rebecca and her co-host Katie 'Monty' Dimond said at the start of the segment that they were anxious about discussing Floyd's death as 'privileged white women'. While they were worried about saying something wrong, they also felt a duty as radio broadcasters to address what was going on in America. They invited U.S. activist Anice Chenault, a spokesperson for Showing Up For Racial Justice, on the show to provide tips on being an ally for the #BlackLivesMatter movement. 'We need white people to acknowledge the impact of white privilege and the fact that our systems are built for and by white people,' Chenault said. Mother: Rebecca and her husband, retired AFL star Chris Judd, share four children, son Oscar, eight, daughter Billie, six, and three-year-old twins Tom and Darcy (all pictured) 'Australia has a similar colonial history to the United States and racism is alive and well there.' Chenault then encouraged people to educate themselves about white privilege, talk about it, and follow leaders of colour towards liberation. She added that it's possible for parents to discuss racism with their children in an age-appropriate manner. Police brutality: Floyd, 46, died last Monday after he was arrested by four Minneapolis police officers for allegedly using a fake $20 bill. He was brought to the ground and white cop Derek Chauvin (pictured) pressed his knee on Floyd's neck for eight minutes 'Oh, mum, my skin is so white. I'm really lucky, aren't I': Rebecca said she was taken aback by her daughter's 'heartbreaking' reaction to footage of Floyd being restrained on the news Rebecca said she'd had 'the saddest, toughest conversations' with her son Oscar, eight, and daughter Billie, six, after they saw footage of Floyd being restrained on the news. 'I did it in an age-appropriate way, but I feel like they lost a little bit of their innocence, because to them everyone is created equal,' she said. The former model said she was taken aback by her daughter's reaction. 'Billie said to me: "Oh, mum, my skin is so white. I'm really lucky, aren't I?" That's heartbreaking,' she said. Demonstrations: Anti-police brutality protests have erupted in at least 75 cities across the U.S. after the death in custody of unarmed black man George Floyd (pictured) George Floyd, 46, died last Monday after he was arrested by four Minneapolis police officers for allegedly using a fake $20 bill. He was brought to the ground and white police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee on Floyd's neck for eight minutes. Floyd, who was unarmed and handcuffed, repeatedly said he couldn't breathe and later died in custody. The horrific assault was caught on video and sent shockwaves across the world. Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. He, along with the three other officers who arrested Floyd, have been fired from the force following outrage over the African American's death. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo slammed Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday for not deploying enough police officers to stem looting in the state's most populous city after a night of widespread property destruction and hundreds of arrests. "I believe the mayor underestimates the scope of the problem. I believe he underestimates the duration of the problem, and I don't think they've used enough police to address the situation," Cuomo said. "You have 38,000 police officers. Deploy them. Give them support. On the video tape, to me, you see a lot of looting, and not enough police presence," he added. Cuomo, a Democrat, said that he had offered to send the National Guard to New York City and that de Blasio, who is also a Democrat, had not accepted the offer. In comments that at times appeared to be thinly veiled threats, Cuomo repeatedly noted that a way to override de Blasio on the matter would be to "displace the mayor." "Can you displace a mayor? Yes. A mayor can be removed. It has not happened. I can't find a precedent. But theoretically it is legally possible," Cuomo said at one point. "It is a bizarre thing to try to do in this situation. I think it would make a bad situation worse. Also, I don't think it's necessary, because I believe the NYPD can do this, because the NYPD has done this." New York City was put under its strictest curfew since the 1940s on Monday as protests over the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in police custody in Minneapolis last week continue to shake the city and the nation. Monday night into Tuesday morning saw the highest number of arrests in New York City since the protests began, according to NBC New York, with 700 arrested in all. The curfew, which lasts from 8 p.m to 5 a.m., will continue through the rest of the week. In a statement, Freddi Goldstein, a spokesperson for the mayor, said Cuomo's comments "are offensive to the men and women of the NYPD, who are out there every night trying to keep New Yorkers safe. It would be nice if our officers knew they had the respect of their Governor." De Blasio has said that bringing in the National Guard could make things worse. "When outside armed forces go into communities, no good comes from it," de Blasio said Tuesday when asked about the prospect. "They are not trained for the circumstances here." De Blasio, whose 25-year-old daughter Chiara was among the protesters arrested over the weekend, has defended the New York Police Department while criticizing some whom he said "use violence when they shouldn't." The mayor came under fire after initially defending the department after two NYPD vehicles were caught on tape driving into a crowd of protesters in Brooklyn over the weekend, but later called the incident "dangerous" and "unacceptable." He has said the city is investigating. In addition to his call for more policing, Cuomo also emphasized his support for those protesting Floyd's killing. The four officers involved in Floyd's arrest have been fired. One of the former officers, Derek Chauvin, who was filmed kneeling on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes as he lay handcuffed and became nonresponsive, has been charged with murder. "On the protesters, they are outraged. And, by the way, I agree with them," Cuomo said. "What happened to Mr. Floyd was a disgrace, was repugnant to America, was repugnant to any good policing perspective, or strategy, or approach." Cuomo said that looters were "a totally different situation that has nothing to do with the protesters." "They have no right to wrap themselves in the flag of righteous indignation over Mr. Floyd's murder," Cuomo said. -- CNBC's Kevin Breuninger and Noah Higgins-Dunn contributed to this report. The Arts Office of Wexford County Council and a team of artists have been working closely with the HSE and Wexford Mental Health Services to adapt the county's award-winning Arts Ability Programme, ensuring that those who are most vulnerable continue to explore their creativity while in social isolation. The arts programme is run in nine HSE day care and residential centres in Wexford town, Enniscorthy and New Ross supporting people with mental health and intellectual and physical disabilities. A team of artists,including Oonagh Latchford, Declan Kennedy, John Busher, Joe Brennan and Emily Redmond deliver weekly workshops in visual arts, creative writing and music exploration throughout the year at the centres. Due to the Covid-19 closure of all day care centres in mid-March, the programme had to be quickly adapted in order to reach the maximum number of participants, many of whom are older, with limited access to the internet. Visual art, writing and music packs were put together by the artists, and posted or hand delivered to all the residential HSE centres as well as the private homes of participants who were encouraged to adapt and work from their kitchen or living room. The art students adapted well to the changes with the support of regular check-in phone calls from the artists and HSE occupational therapists as well as weekly workshops in creative writing, visual art and music, prepared by the artists and delivered online for those in residential and private homes who have access to the internet. Visual artist Declan Kennedy, who works with CUMAS in New Ross, which has hosted the Arts Ability programme for the past 15 years, said the participants on his course are well-established artists with national and international exhibitions under their belt. 'CUMAS has developed a way of working with each individual in their community over the past ten years and, because of this, the general transition as a result of Covid-19, has been mainly seamless. 'The structures and the experience were already there so things fell into place quickly once lockdown hit.' he said. 'We put together over 38 art packs that were delivered to each individual home through the support of Cumas staff. It's a new way of working for me but having such a well-established relationship with the artists is really coming to the fore in this situation. 'Each week I send a link to a documentary on famous artists for the participants to watch, last week it was one on Frida Kahlo. I also have sent them links to international short movies from art and disability film festivals. 'Other participants were offered the opportunity to do an online photographic course on how to get the most out of your smart phone, run by the gallery of photography in Dublin.' The writer and storyteller Joe Brennan facilitates writing groups at Killagoley Training and Activation Centre in Enniscorthy. 'The personal interaction of the writers' group is a key element of the creative process so the challenge with the lockdown has been to find ways to keep some of that going', he said. 'Initially, I made videos with stories and ideas to help with writing. I also sent worksheets with a variety of writing exercises and writing materials. 'I developed my video making skills to that I could introduce writing workshops to the participants, then show the images with me narrating behind them, to offer guidance. It was a challenge with the limited technology of the phone and the computer but, with trial and lots of error, I got there. 'The other way to stay connected is encouraging the writers to post their work to me. It offers them a focus and allows me to communicate personally with them, offering support and encouragement. All of this is made possible with the support of the staff in the service and particularly Sarah Lynch, the occupational therapist.' Music Exploration Officer with Wexford Mental Health Services, Emily Redmond began designing resource packs for community groups and residential units within Mental Health Services around County Wexford. 'I have created a series of guitar, ukulele, song, music theory, lyric analysis and song writing booklets that were designed and produced with the hope of encouraging creativity, self-expression and easing the boredom at this difficult time', she said. Emily also put together a care box for Havenview, a high support unit in Enniscorthy, including personalised cards with images of Wexford by Padraig Grant, laminated lyric sheets of songs the music group have used for the past four years, easy sheet music for staff to practice with residents using the instrument bank set up a few years ago, CDs of their favourite repertoire and some chocolate! She is about to start work on another care box for Millview residential unit in Enniscorthy. Emily sends weeky material which the occupational therapist team in each centre distributes to service users through email and post and is hoping to start Zoom group classes over the coming weeks. Artist Oonagh Latchford who normally facilitates art workshops in Killagoley Training Centre two days a week, put together art kits containing paints, canvases, paper and drawing materials so participants would have the basic tools and materials needed to make art in their home. 'These are topped up regularly to keep the contents fresh and interesting. On a weekly basis I have been making videos which are a mix of step-by-step follow along processes and demonstrations, along with accompanying worksheets. Myself and the other artists on the team have regular virtual meetings with the centres' occupational therapists to ensure that all participants' needs are being met, to get feedback from participants and to further develop and improve on this new way of working', said Oonagh. Two weeks before the lockdown, Artist John John Busher joined the Arts Ability programme as a facilitator with Wexford Residential Intellectual Disability Services on th grounds of St John's Community Hospital in Enniscorthy. In that time, he had settled into a demanding role that saw him work with profoundly disabled participants. 'As artists we are programmed to adapt and change, and with the support of Wexford Arts Office I quickly set about rethinking how I might engage with some of the most vulnerable citizens during the Covid-19 crisis', he said. 'The challenge was to reach participants remotely, where some were still in residential care but unable to access practical aspects of the programme from St. John's. In light of the demands faced by healthcare staff, I designed a set of resources that could be accessed by HSE staff in residential units. These 'how to' guides on methods of arts engagement, could be downloaded from my website. It was followed up with a mail art initiative posted out to the centres.' BAD AXE, MI Stray gunfire resulted in a wayward bullet whizzing by a Huron County womans head while she walked through her house. About 8:15 p.m. on Saturday, May 30, sheriffs deputies responded to a house in the 10,000 block of Weale Road in Fairhaven Township for a report of a gunshot being fired into the residence. Apparently, a resident was moving about in the house when a round went whizzing by her head, said Sheriff Kelly J. Hanson in a press release. Another resident went outside and heard a vehicle drive off, then took off after it, deputies report. The resident quickly located and stopped the vehicle in question, which was occupied by a 20-year-old man from Mussey and a 19-year-old man from Bad Axe. Both men in the vehicle admitted to target shooting on state land across from the residence, but stated they didnt know there was a house in the area of where they were shooting, deputies report. Turned out that not only was there one hole in the house, there were three others, too, Hanson said. Apparently, while target practicing, the two decided to shoot at a Do Not Pass sign, which was on the opposite side of the road from the state land. When doing so, the bullets from their .22 rifles strayed into the house. Deputies confiscated the two mens guns. They are seeking charges from the Huron County Prosecutors Office this week. Hanson said it is fortunate none of the residents of the house were injured, nor was any motorist or pedestrian who might have been driving or walking by while the shooting was taking place. Target shooters are advised to always use extreme caution and be lawful when firing their weapons, Hanson said. Related: Two swimmers and boater rescued from Lake Huron off Michigans Thumb region Beaten, malnourished, freezing dogs found in the Thumb Kinde couple faces animal cruelty charge in case of 4 dogs found chained in subzero weather Samsung is ready to roll out a new upgrade program called Access starting from the Samsung Galaxy S20 lineup. Thats according to recent reports stemming from an announcement made by the company. The new program, as might be expected, currently only applies to users looking to pick up a Samsung Galaxy S20, S20 Plus, or S20 Ultra. It also wont be accessible to those who already own a Galaxy handset on the previous upgrade program Samsung offered. That is, those users wont be able to trade up to the new program, with the benefits of trading the handset in. That means that Access users who happen to already be on Samsungs upgrade program will need to start fresh. But Access will deliver a handful of fresh benefits and will let users upgrade their handset every nine months. The sole caveat here is that theyll need to trade in the device they currently have on Access. Advertisement What perks do Samsung Access users get aside from a new phone? Aside from the aforementioned ability to trade up to a new Galaxy handset every nine months, Samsungs new Access program offers a few other trade-related perks. Thats without consideration for extra additional benefits as part of the premium subscription service. Namely, users can also trade-up early if theyd like, for a small additional fee. If users want to upgrade their smartphone earlier than the nine-month cutoff, they just need to pay an extra $100. The same fee applies if theyd like to cancel their Access Plan before the required three-month minimum has been met. So there isnt any canceling early without paying a $100 fee either. On top of that, subscribers to Samsung Access will gain a Premium Care membership. Premium Care provides users with a lowered price for cracked screen repairs, to begin with. But it also includes equipment sanitization and curbside assistance, where available. No-touch, next-day delivery is on offer for replacement devices via the Premium Care membership too. Advertisement Finally, a paid Microsoft 365 subscription is part of the Samsung Access bundle as well, helping users get the most from their Galaxy flagship. That, of course, includes premium-tier access to Microsofts Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Skype. Plus, users get a full 1TB of Microsofts OneDrive cloud storage to keep associated files safe and accessible from anywhere. How much does Access cost per month? Since Samsung Access is a subscription plan, users will need to pay monthly for their devices and extra perks. The cost is, of course, less expensive than any of the individual inclusions though. So it still represents a reasonable value for those who might be interested. Samsung is currently only offering three handset brands in the program. And those each come at a different cost, reflective of their price points. For the Samsung Galaxy S20, users can expect to pay $37 per month. That cost jumps to $42 per month if program subscribers are interested in the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus. Finally, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra will run at $48 per month. Advertisement Theres no word yet as to whether the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 series will be added as well. But it stands to reason this plan will be available for all Samsung flagships going forward. The image of then-Minneapolis police Officer Tou Thao, a Hmong American, standing with his back turned as a white officer knelt on George Floyd's neck has ignited a discussion about how to approach the topic of anti-blackness in the Asian American community. Thao, who has a history of being involved in use-of-force incidents, is being described by activists as a symbol of Asian American complicity in anti-blackness following the death of Floyd, a black man who begged for his life while then-Officer Derek Chauvin dug his knee into his neck for more than eight minutes. Minneapolis police officer Tou Thao. (Darnella Frazier / via Facebook) Minneapolis police identified the other two officers involved in Floyd's arrest last Monday as Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng. All four officers were fired the day after Floyd's death, and Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Investigations into the actions of the other three former officers are ongoing. Several experts expressed that this is a pivotal moment for Asian Americans to tackle the subject of anti-blackness in a productive way, beginning with unpacking the biases in their own communities by first confronting the historical context behind it. Kabzuag Vaj, founder of Freedom Inc., a nonprofit that aims to end violence toward minorities, women and the LGBTQ community, underscored the importance of acknowledging that while Asian Americans deal with their own forms of oppression, it is incomparable to what the black community confronts. People don't have a baseline of an understanding of what anti-blackness even is, Vaj, whos Hmong American, said. Yes, we [Asian Americans] have pain and we suffer from oppression and discrimination and racism. Black people are in a different boat. On top of that, their struggle with the police, at least in this country, has a long history of 400 years of control and occupation. I think that that's really important for us to acknowledge that. Tensions between the black and the Asian communities have long existed. The strained relations stem, in part, from being set in opposition to each other throughout American history, Vaj said. One of the most glaring examples is the Los Angeles riots that followed the acquittal of four white police officers in the videotaped beating of Rodney King, a black construction worker. Businesses sustained roughly $1 billion in damage, with roughly half being Korean-owned. Divisions between immigrant Korean business owners and their black customers widened. Story continues Vaj, who comes from a refugee family herself, said she can look back to her own peoples journey in the U.S. as evidence. When America resettled Southeast Asian refugees following the Vietnam War, many were placed in poorly funded urban areas with little infrastructure, such as Long Beach and Stockton, California, or the Bronx, New York, where black and brown communities had already existed. When you are put into this situation, and you live amongst other poor black and brown folks with very little resources, there is that piece of strain between communities that must fight for the same resources, Vaj said. There isn't enough for all of you. Moreover, resettlement efforts did not include sufficient introductions between refugees and the communities they now inhabited, Vaj said. The information that was fed to the new immigrants often did not humanize communities of color, she added. Everything you've learned, you've learned through the lens of white supremacy. And this is what this country is built on, Vaj explained. Even now, she said shes received abusive comments and criticisms from some members of her community for standing with the black community. Ellen Wu, a historian and the author of The Color of Success: Asian Americans and the Origins of the Model Minority, echeod Vaj, noting that white supremacy has historically fed on the exploitation and destruction of the black community. As Asian Americans began to arrive in the United States, white supremacy targeted them as well. The government passed racist legislation like the Chinese Exclusion Act, and fueled movements like the anti-Japanese movement of the early 1900s. But Wu explained that as time went on, white supremacy took on other forms. Fearing that anti-Asian racism could jeopardize the country's place as a leader on the world stage and impede imperial expansion abroad, white liberals sought to dismantle Asian exclusion legislation and practices during and after World War II. In other words, they expected a geopolitical payoff to recognizing Asian Americans as model citizens, Wu said. In the 1960s, white liberals wielded the model minority stereotype to stifle black social movements, using Asian Americans as proof of meritocracy and equal opportunity for people of color. As Wu mentions in her book, politicians weaponized Japanese American success stories after World War II as a tactic in reframing Japanese American incarceration and weakening the civil rights movement. Compliance with, rather than opposition to, the state would bring rewards, the politicians hoped to show. The insinuation was that hard work along with unwavering faith in the government and liberal democracy as opposed to political protest were the keys to overcoming racial barriers as well as achieving full citizenship, Wu wrote. The evolving forms of white supremacy, Wu said, gave Asians more space for social mobility. These gains, however, have come at a cost: complicity with white supremacy. Wu noted that Asian Americans have had a complicated history of both mobilizing for and against the interests of black and other communities of color. Many Chinese Americans advocated on the behalf of Peter Liang, an NYPD officer who fatally shot Akai Gurley, a 28-year-old black father, in 2014. They rallied around Liang, describing him as a scapegoat by prosecutors instead of demanding justice for Gurley and others who faced police brutality, Wu said. Conversely, the #Asians4BlackLives movement from the Bay Area stood in solidarity with Black lives that same year. Other historic movements, including the farmworkers movement in the 1960s, led in part by Filipino farmworkers like Larry Itliong who, with Latinx workers, organized the historic Delano Grape Strike. Wu also clarified that Asian Americans are a diverse group with subgroups that have a range of power and privilege. Since their initial resettlement roughly 45 years ago, Southeast Asians, including Hmong, have dealt with the pain of impoverished neighborhoods and inadequate support under the backdrop of existing racial injustice, Quyen Dinh, the executive director of Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, said. Inequities linger to this day. A report published by the center showed that Hmong Americans have public health insurance enrollment rates similar to black Americans, at 39 percent and 38 percent, respectively. When looking at education, nearly 30 percent of Southeast Asian Americans havent completed high school or passed the GED. Thats more than double the national average at 13 percent. When aggregated data lump our unique stories into the false myth of one thriving model minority, the lived experiences of entire communities are rendered invisible, Dinh said. This perception dilutes and dismisses the urgent need for more resources and support for Southeast Asian American refugee communities, and it hides the systemic barriers our families have been forced to overcome for the last 45 years. Other advocates admitted that anti-blackness is a necessary but uncomfortable topic for many in the community to crack open. Deepa Iyer, author of We Too Sing America; South Asian, Arab, Muslim and Sikh Immigrants Shape Our Multiracial Future and racial justice advocate, said Asian Americans should interrogate the affect of policing and incarceration on communities of color and black communities in particular. Research shows that for black men, there is a 1 in 1,000 chance of being killed by police over the course of their lifetimes. The same odds among the general population is 1 in 2,000 for men and roughly 1 in 33,000 for women. Lets not forget that state violence in the United States has affected Asian Americans, too, Iyer said. She pointed out that in 2006, a Minneapolis police officer, Jason Andersen, shot and killed a 19-year-old Hmong American, Fong Lee, who had been riding a bike with friends. An all-white jury ruled that Andersen, who claimed he saw Lee with a gun, did not use excessive force and exonerated him. And in 2015, a 57-year-old Indian grandfather, Sureshbhai Patel, was slammed to the ground and left partially paralyzed by a police officer in Alabama, Eric Parker, during a visit to his sons family. While incidences of police brutality against Asian Americans do not occur with the frequency they do against black people, we cannot deny that police brutality and discriminatory policing targets black and brown bodies at disproportionate and alarming rates, Iyer said. In addition to providing some historical perspective, Wu said Asian Americans can remind their own communities that many privileges they take part in came as a result of black civil rights movements. From education to employment, the black community has worked to widen access for racial minorities, including Asian Americans. Wu brought up that black Americans mobilized during World War II to pressure President Franklin D. Roosevelt to establish the Fair Employment Practices Committee. After the war, there was a nationwide push for fair employment practices legislation, which eventually paved the way for the rise of affirmative action in the 1960s, Wu said. By the 1970s, the federal government widened the scope of affirmative action and related minority rights efforts to include Asian Americans, leading to greater employment opportunities for them across different sectors, she said. There has been marked support from many Asian Americans for the black community during this time, many experts noted, particularly after tragedies such as Floyds death. Iyer noted that organizations, students and activists have created toolkits, campaigns and town halls to further solidarity practices between black and Asian communities. She also mentioned shes seen examples of youth engaging in conversations between Asian small-business owners who operate convenience stores in black neighborhoods and black residents. However, change requires continuous commitment, putting time and patience into these communities, Vaj said. She mentioned that her organization provides services to those who have experienced sexual assault and domestic violence, including many elders. She knows from experience that though many stereotype older Asian American generations as resistant to change or as being not receptive to uncomfortable truths, she knows differently. The Hmong, Cambodian elders that did not grow up here that are survivors of word genocide if I can get a 76-year-old grandmother to understand love and accept a gender-nonconforming black, queer teen as family and understand and accept them as who they are, I know that change can happen, Vaj said. It takes time. And it takes love and it takes organizing and political education. For Asian Americans to avoid the discussion on race would bring dangerous results, Lakshmi Sridaran, the executive director of South Asian Americans Leading Together, explained. Particularly as the community observes the rise in anti-Asian hate violence and racism amid the COVID-19 pandemic, they must interrogate their own reliance and trust in law enforcement. She noted that some communities look to the criminal justice system to mitigate hate. These complex relationships of distinct and shared struggles are informed both by interpersonal and state violence, she explained. If we recuse ourselves from these discussions, then we further entrench ourselves in white supremacy and continue to endanger other communities of color. Protesters filled the streets of U.S. cities again Monday to decry excessive force used by police as Washington, New York and other hard-hit cities imposed curfews and President Donald Trump urged governors to use more force. Near the White House, federal officers used tear gas to clear a path for Trump to visit a nearby historic church in a move that was criticized by District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat. Monday marked one week since George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man, died after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes during an arrest. Floyd's pleas to Chauvin - "I can't breathe, man. Please." - went unheeded. Since then, protests have taken place in more than 100 cities - in some places, leading to widespread vandalism and aggressive use of force by police. By Monday evening, more than 17,000 members of the National Guard had been called up in 29 states. The Associated Press estimated that 4,400 people had been arrested. As the evening wore on, there were vast, peaceful protests threading through cities as big as New York and as small as Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. There were scenes of de-escalation, as when guardsmen protecting the Tennessee Capitol lay down their riot shields at the request of a protest leader. But there were also scenes that chilled, signs of a problem that seemed to be spiraling toward dark places that American history had not touched in decades - if ever. A crowd of white vigilantes, carrying baseball bats to "guard" a Philadelphia police precinct. Looters running up Manhattan's Fifth Avenue. Army helicopters hovering just above downtown Washington, blasting protesters with their rotor wash. Bowser placed D.C. under a curfew that started at 7 p.m., before dark fell. On Sunday, vandals had smashed windows and set fire to the historic St. John's Episcopal Church near the White House. In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, also set a curfew - the city's first in decades - after several nights of confrontations between officers and protesters. Earlier Monday, Floyd's family released the results of an independent autopsy, which found that Floyd's cause of death was "asphyxiation from sustained pressure," family lawyers said. "Essentially, George died because he needed a breath," said attorney Benjamin Crump. The county medical examiner ruled Floyd's death a homicide but said examiners found no evidence of strangulation or asphyxia. Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder. Floyd's brother Terrence made an emotional plea to protesters at the site of his brother's death, saying violence and vandalism were "not what my brother was about." "I understand you're all upset. But like it was already said, I doubt you're all half as upset as I am," Terrence Floyd said. "So if I'm not over here . . . blowing up stuff, if I'm not over here messing up my community, then what are you all doing?" By Monday evening, crowds had returned to the streets of many large cities, sometimes in defiance of new curfews. But the largest altercation of the early evening took place in front of the White House, about 25 minutes before D.C.'s curfew took effect. The confrontation was initiated by federal officers who fired flash-bang shells that exploded in the middle of a crowd of protesters outside Lafayette Square. Mounted officers then pushed demonstrators away from the park. They fled, choking on gas and stunned by rubber bullets. A few minutes later, Trump - who had just given a speech threatening use of the U.S. military against protesters - walked through the cleared area to visit St. John's. The church, where every president since James Madison has worshiped, had suffered minor damage from an arson the night before. Trump held up a Bible and posed for photos outside the church. A reporter asked him whether it was his Bible, and he said, "It's a Bible." The president later walked back to the White House. Later, Bowser called the use of force "shameful." "A full 25 minutes before the curfew & w/o provocation, federal police used munitions on peaceful protestors in front of the White House," Bowser wrote on Twitter, saying this would make the job of D.C. police more difficult. "Shameful!" Trump said the problem was that there was not enough force. In a call with the nation's governors, he told them: "You have to dominate. If you don't dominate, you're wasting your time," according to a recording obtained by The Washington Post. On Twitter, the president agreed with a call from Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., to use Army paratroopers against the protesters. Confrontations driven by protesters and police produced new deaths and new anger. In Louisville, Kentucky, Floyd's death had already reignited outrage over the death of Breonna Taylor, an African American EMT killed in her home during a nighttime police raid in March. Then, early Monday, another death. David McAtee, 53, a black man who owned a well-known Louisville barbecue restaurant, was killed when police and National Guard troops - confronting a crowd near McAtee's restaurant - fired at an unknown gunman they believed had shot at them, according to police accounts. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, urged city police to release all available video of the incident "before nightfall" so residents could see it. "I think it's really important for the truth to get out there," Beshear said. "But I think it's also really important in ensuring that we don't have violence if people can see (and) know that, bad or ugly, we're being absolutely transparent about it." Later, it was revealed that some of the Louisville police officers involved had not activated their body cameras. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, a Democrat, fired the city's police chief in response. In Omaha, Nebraska, prosecutors said a bar owner who killed a 22-year-old black protester Saturday would not be charged because he was acting in self-defense. Jake Gardner, the bar owner, shot 22-year-old James Scurlock after a verbal confrontation turned violent and Scurlock and others tackled him. "This individual, when he gave his statement, his version was, 'I thought I had to do this, I thought I was going to get hurt or killed,' " Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine, a Democrat, said of Gardner. "That's the question then: Is it justifiable use of force?" Scurlock's family members announced that they wanted a grand jury invoked. In other cities, police said they had arrested people who took part in vandalism. In Minneapolis, federal authorities charged a 28-year-old man from Illinois with rioting. "I'm going to Minneapolis tomorrow who coming only goons," the man, Matthew Rupert, allegedly posted on Facebook. In Pittsburgh, police said they had arrested a 20-year-old man who allegedly smashed the windows of a police car as other protesters urged him not to. And in New York, prosecutors laid out their case against two lawyers who allegedly set a police van on fire Saturday with a molotov cocktail. The two had toilet paper, a lighter, a Bud Light beer bottle and "a liquid suspected to be gasoline in the vicinity of the passenger seat and a gasoline tank" in the 2015 Chrysler minivan they were driving, according to court papers. "He's a person with an extraordinary career that was just starting in the law," prosecutor Ian Richardson said of one of the lawyers, Colinford Mattis, a Princeton University graduate. "He had some of the best education you could have in this country, and yet he risked everything to drive around in a car with molotov cocktails attacking police vehicles and police officers." In Minnesota on Monday, Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, announced that the state will remain under curfew for the next two days. But he said he plans to let some National Guard members return to their homes, after previously mobilizing the state's entire Guard force. In other places, the number of security personnel on duty was growing. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said the police presence in New York City would double Monday night, with 4,000 more officers. In Washington, Attorney General William Barr said he had deployed riot-trained officers from the Federal Bureau of Prisons to help with crowd control. Mark Morgan, the acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, posted a photo on Twitter showing several hundred green-clad Border Patrol officers who had come to Washington for the protests. "These 'protests' have devolved into chaos & acts of domestic terrorism by groups of radicals & agitators," Morgan wrote. He said his agency "is answering the call and will work to keep DC safe." In cities hit hard by rioting, people spent Monday cleaning up glass and debris - trying, like many Americans, to figure out what Tuesday would look like and how this will end. In Philadelphia, Steven Hall, 52, stood outside Kings Fashion, looking in dismay at its smashed exterior and charred interior. He has worked at the clothing store for 19 years and was on the scene at 7:30 a.m. to see how the shop fared. He gestured at the small crowd gathered around him, some armed with spray bottles of cleaner. "This has nothing to do with us," Hall said, referring to Sunday night's mayhem. "Now where are we supposed to shop? Where are we supposed to work?" - - - The Washington Post's Meryl Kornfield, Shayna Jacobs, Kim Bellware, Lateshia Beachum and Emily Davies contributed to this report. On the Frontline Against China, the US Coast Guard Is Taking on Missions the US Navy Can't Do Competition with China has drawn more Pentagon resources to the Pacific, but the most visible U.S. military presence there... Sorry! This content is not available in your region Minneapolis protesters demand all officers involved in the unarmed Black mans death be held accountable. Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA One week after George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, died after a white officer knelt on his neck, protesters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, say nothing has changed regarding how Black people are treated by police. They are willing to arrest thousands to avoid arresting four people, said Ahnor Kelly, 25, who rallied with thousands of others outside the Minnesota governors residence late on Monday. Theyre willing to use more tax money to bring out the national guard than to give people health equity, such as protective gear and testing, Kelly told Al Jazeera. In the week since Floyds death on May 25, prosecutors have decided to charge only one officer Derek Chauvin who knelt on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes, during more than two minutes of which, video showed, Floyd lay motionless. Chauvin was charged on Friday with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. But protesters, Floyds family and community leaders want the other three officers involved to be arrested as well. In the next 10 minutes, we want Governor Tim Walz and the chief of police to arrest the rest of the officers, said one speaker at Mondays rally at the governors residence in St Paul, which neighbours Minneapolis. Kelly added that this [mass protests] will stop if they arrest those four officers but until they do that, this is going to continue to happen. Demonstrators gather at the Minnesota governors mansion, in St Paul, Minnesota [Julio Cortez/AP Photo] Mondays rally came just hours after separate autopsy reports released by independent and county medical examiners agreed in ruling Floyds death was a homicide, but they differed in part on the cause. The private autopsy, obtained by Floyds family, found that the 46-year-old died of asphyxiation due to neck and back compression by police, according to the Floyd family lawyers. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner found that Floyd experienced a cardiopulmonary arrest while being restrained by law enforcement officer(s). It said Floyd suffered other significant conditions, including heart disease and hypertension, fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use. [We] dont need a doctor to tell us that you know you clearly saw it on TV, said Justin Pritchard, who attended Mondays demonstration. Say his name Floyds death has sparked worldwide protests in solidarity with the demonstrators out in more than 120 US cities, according to an Al Jazeera tally. Although the protests have at times descended into violence with looting, vandalism and fires, especially as night falls and curfews kick in, they have remained largely peaceful, characterised by loud, unified chants of some of Floyds last words I cant breathe, and no justice, no peace. Still, National Guard troops have been called in, thousands of arrests have been made, and police have responded with tear gas, rubber bullets, and flashbangs, including on many demonstrating peacefully. More than 2,000 gathered outside the Minnesota governors residence on Monday evening, listening to speakers and community leaders. If you never stop fighting, guess what will happen eventually? asked Mel Reeves, a journalist and activist, of the crowd. We will win, he said. Protesters observe a moment of silence outside the Minnesota governors residence to honour George Floyd [Nicholas Pfosi/Reuters] The protesters then marched through the streets, chanting Say his name! George Floyd! and What do we want? Justice! Im sad for my city, said Minneapolis resident Brendon Smith, who also marched for Philando Castile and for his best friend Jamar Clark, both unarmed Black men killed by police in Minnesota in recent years. Justin Pritchard, 35, who used to live near the intersection where Floyd died, said that as a Black man, he has had to rethink even doing the simplest of tasks. I dont even want to exchange money any more cause that could have happened to me, you know. Somebody could have gave me a fake $20, Prichard said, referring to the fact Floyd was stopped by police for allegedly attempting to use a counterfeit $20 bill. Pritchard agrees that not much has changed in the week since Floyds death, but he remains hopeful. Its great, all the support, he told Al Jazeera. But as far as change, I dont think much has changed now, but Im optimistic that it will. What should be the priority right now? Handling the pandemic maybe? Doing something about the crisis those migrants workers are facing? The people that are dying because of coronavirus? The people who have lost their homes, their jobs due to COVID-19? The crashing economy? The locust swarms? There's way too much happening in 2020 that needs immediate attention that you know, changing the name of the country, but that's just my opinion. Since morning, #ByeByeIndiaOnlyBharat has been trending on Twitter with people celebrating the hashtag and calling for the name of the country to be just Bharat. This conversation is apparently happening because the Supreme Court is hearing a plea seeking direction to the Centre to amend the Constitution and change the name of the country from India to 'Bharat'. The petition has been filed by a Delhi-based man and the plea allegedly claims that the change of name will help citizens in moving past the country's colonial past and instil a sense of pride. It says, "The removal of the English name, though appears symbolic, will instil a sense of pride in our nationality, especially for the future generations. In fact, replacing India with Bharat would justify the hard-fought freedom achieved by our ancestors." It further went on, "The nature of injury being caused to the public is the loss of identity and ethos as inheritors of the hard-won freedom from foreign rule. There's obviously a debate going on about the topic. #ByeByeIndiaOnlyBharat Me realising my IQ drops down by 1 bar after seeing this hashtag pic.twitter.com/lWhU0ec0nj Prashant (@Pr4sh4nt_) June 2, 2020 Hmm. We want to see our Bharat again in shape of "AKHAND BHARAT" Bharat becomes world guru again. Want you? RT if you want. Bharat Mata ki Jai #ByeByeIndiaOnlyBharat pic.twitter.com/881JoNaZp6 Pushpendra Kulshreshtha (@iArmySupporter) June 2, 2020 *insert Kim, there's people that are dying gif* And they are discussing whether the name should be 'India' or 'Bharat' #ByeByeIndiaOnlyBharat pic.twitter.com/qNJ5ibedeg Anjana Om Modi (Parody) (@AnjanaOmModi5) June 2, 2020 Apparently. Supreme Court hears plea seeking replacement of word India with Bharat! Does that mean Rest "All is well" in the country? #ByeByeIndiaOnlyBharat pic.twitter.com/kGvpRqjoRS Catalyst (@CatalystVoid) June 2, 2020 What's in a name? India will become 'Bharat' soon, friends we are together on this right? #ByeByeIndiaOnlyBharat pic.twitter.com/lVeeQD6rAx Sarvadaman D Banerjee (@realSDBanerjee) June 2, 2020 Uhh. #ByeByeIndiaOnlyBharat We want our Identity Back... World's third largest Religion,s Population want there Country name belongs to them.. pic.twitter.com/IRykpAeDY3 kuldeep verma (@kuldeep2321983) June 2, 2020 Really? Okay then. We got freedom form British Rule in 1947. Now it's time to get freedom from their name India. @BJP4India#ByeByeIndiaOnlyBharat pic.twitter.com/6gcneUrxwE Abhi Patil Kharat (@Abhi_kharat2112) June 2, 2020 Then those will be India's problems, not Bharat's, you know? Perfect logic. Five problem 1. Corona. 2. Economic crisis 3. Migrant labourers 4. Chinese invasion 5. High prices of petrol, LPG One Solution 1. Change name of India to Bharat #ByeByeIndiaOnlyBharat #LPG_Petrol_Loot pic.twitter.com/5MkW5liqDx Political Di (@PoliticalDi) June 2, 2020 Just let the pandemic get over? The stupidest thing to trend #ByeByeIndiaOnlyBharat The courts have far better & more important things to do than pay attention to this ludicrous hyper nationalist nonsense. India fought with jinnah to RETAIN this name after partition. Now bhakts are touting jinnah's will! pic.twitter.com/fV8JzSFiQo Priyanka Sachar (@twilightfairy) June 2, 2020 That's more important. Researchers identify a moving target in small cell lung tumors Lung cancers account for approximately 25 percent of all cancer deaths. Even among those who do not smoke, 1 in 15 men and 1 in 17 women are expected to develop lung cancer in their lifetime, according to the American Cancer Society. Lung cancer has confounded scientists who strive to develop better therapies for this aggressive and deadly disease. About 15 percent of lung cancers are classified as small cell lung cancer. Recent studies have indicated that four major subtypes of small cell lung cancer exist, yet approaches to tailor treatment of these subtypes have not yet become standard of care. Today in the journal Cancer Cell, scientists outline new findings about the origins of these lung cancer subtypes, paving the way for a new foundation to study this disease. Trudy Oliver, PhD, a lung cancer researcher at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) and associate professor of oncological sciences at the University of Utah (U of U), is working to improve our ability to fight this disease. Prior work in her lab helped create a mouse model of small cell lung cancer, providing researchers with a sophisticated tool to better understand how this disease progresses and to analyze potential treatment approaches. According to Oliver, "Small cell lung cancer has historically been treated as a single disease, which has been an unsuccessful approach for most patients. Thanks to rapid advances in the field, we now understand that each type of small cell lung cancer has specific traits--including traits that may help us understand better ways to tailor treatment for patients." U of U graduate student Abbie Ireland, a member of Oliver's team and first author on the study, developed a new assay that allowed the team to follow single cells from tumor samples and observe how they change over time. Ireland and colleagues found that the major subtypes of small cell lung cancer are not so discretely different after all. Rather than thinking of them as distinct diseases, the team found that one tumor subtype can evolve to become a different subtype. And further, a tumor may have cells representing multiple subtypes at any given time. "Human development involves multiple stages--infancy, adolescence, and adulthood. While we are humans at each of those stages, we have unique characteristics and behaviors at each stage," says Oliver. "Our data suggest that small cell lung cancer is the same way, that it changes at different stages and displays unique characteristics and behaviors in each stage." Oliver's team believes this means small cell lung cancer will have unique vulnerabilities as it evolves. To treat these sophisticated tumors may require a therapeutic approach that acknowledges the tumors are a "moving target" and that treatments need to evolve over time with the tumor. It is also possible these cancers will require combinations of drugs that can target multiple subtypes of the tumor at the same time. This finding may also aid in understanding other cancers known to have subtypes, such as breast cancer or glioblastoma. The team speculates that subtypes in other cancers may also represent stages of tumor evolution. Through a collaboration with HCI lung cancer physicians, Oliver was able to access samples of tumors donated by 21 patients who had surgeries at HCI. Tumor samples of small cell lung cancer are very difficult to obtain, and this opportunity to study tumor traits from tumors donated by patients was important to advance insights into this disease. Ireland and her colleagues analyzed tumors for markers of small cell lung cancer subtypes and found that many tumors had markers of more than one subtype, consistent with their ability to change subtype or evolve. Additionally, through a collaboration at Washington University in St. Louis, the team studied one human tumor at the single-cell level using a relatively new, advanced technology called single-cell RNA sequencing. Oliver's group further showed that a gene called MYC, which is known to promote tumor growth in many cancers, appears to be responsible for driving the evolution of small cell lung tumors. "Together, the results of these human tissue analyses revealed that small cell lung cancer tumors indeed harbor multiple subtypes," says Oliver. Oliver posits this may explain why so many therapies have failed for small cell lung cancer in clinical trials. Since the tumor is naturally evolving, there may need to be multiple, simultaneous treatments in order to be effective. Oliver's team now plans to investigate how the evolution of tumors may affect response to various therapies. ### The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute including P30 CA042014, U01 CA231844 02, U24 CA213274, and R21 CA216504-01A1, and Huntsman Cancer Foundation. The study acknowledges support from many collaborators, including Wallace Akerley, MD; Sonam Puri, MD; Gabor Marth, PhD; and Benjamin Spike, PhD, at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah; and Siddhartha Devarakonda, MD, of the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University in St. Louis. Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah is the official cancer center of Utah. The cancer campus includes a state-of-the-art cancer specialty hospital as well as two buildings dedicated to cancer research. HCI treats patients with all forms of cancer and is recognized among the best cancer hospitals in the country by U.S. News and World Report. As the only National Cancer Institute (NCI)-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in the Mountain West, HCI serves the largest geographic region in the country, drawing patients from Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. More genes for inherited cancers have been discovered at HCI than at any other cancer center in the world, including genes responsible for hereditary breast, ovarian, colon, head, and neck cancers, along with melanoma. HCI manages the Utah Population Database, the largest genetic database in the world, with information on more than 11 million people linked to genealogies, health records, and vital statistics. HCI was founded by Jon M. and Karen Huntsman. This story has been published on: 2020-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Atlantic hurricane season is officially underway and the third named storm of 2020, Cristobal, developed on Tuesday, setting a new record in the basin. AccuWeather meteorologists warned in May that four to six named storms could directly impact the United States this year, potentially putting lives and structures in harm's way. But, one university in Florida is taking a hands-on approach to ensure research is advanced on how to best build structures to withstand these powerful cyclones -- and the study has real-world applications. In recorded history, only five Category 5 hurricanes with sustained winds blowing in excess of 156 mph have made landfall on U.S. soil, with the most recent being Hurricane Michael when it struck the Florida Panhandle in October 2018. Even though it's not common for the U.S. to be struck by a Category 5 storm, those destructive conditions are now being simulated at Florida International University for research purposes, and the results could help save lives. Using a giant wall of wind turbines, the university replicates hurricane-force winds, which can be used as a way to test, develop and improve hurricane-resistant structures. Florida International University Extreme Events Institute is using a giant wall of wind turbines to research the best structures that will withstand nature's strongest tempests, hurricanes. (AccuWeather / Jonathan Petramala) "The wall of wind is all about wind engineering research," Erik Salna, associate director of the Florida International University Extreme Events Institute, told AccuWeather National Reporter Jonathan Petramala. "What can we do to build better, build stronger, and be more resilient to hurricane-force winds?" CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP When Category 5 Hurricane Andrew struck Florida in 1992 it caused $26.5 billion in damages, making it the most costly natural disaster at the time before being surpassed by Hurricane Katrina, another Category 5 storm that eventually made landfall as a Category 3 storm along the northern Gulf Coast in 2005. Story continues This Sept. 4, 1992, aerial picture taken with a fish eye lens shows the devastation left by Hurricane Andrew in Florida City, Fla. As of Friday, Sept. 5, 2008, Ike is still far out in the Atlantic, but it's getting a close look from those who weathered 1992's Andrew, the devastating Category 5 storm against which all other Florida hurricanes are measured. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) More than 250,000 people were left homeless and 82,000 businesses were either damaged or destroyed by Andrew, according to the National Park Service. It was then that people realized buildings and structures needed to be designed to withstand such severe weather and building codes were ultimately changed to strengthen structure requirements. Roof shape, for example, plays a role in the structural soundness of a building. A gable roof, which traditionally has two sides that slope down, is more vulnerable to harsh winds but easily sheds water due to its shape. A hip roof, however, is more preferred for hurricane season. Hip roofs have four sides that meet in the middle, and experts say this type of constuction is more durable in harsh winds. "The state of Florida has learned that with all new construction, [a] hip roof is more aerodynamic," Salna said. When Hurricane Michael hit Mexico Beach, Florida, many homes and structures were destroyed. One home, however, was left standing amid the ruins of so many others. The house, built by Lebron Lackey and Russell King, was designed with a hip roof and built above code. The pair designed and built the house specifically to withstand hurricanes and severe weather. A home with a hip roof built above code is shown on Mexico Beach where Hurricane Michael struck. Many older homes surrounding this one were completely destroyed. The home serves as a real world example of the type of research the wall of wind conducts. (WxChasing) "Just like you put on your seat belt every day when you get in the car to get you ready for something that hopefully never happens, we built a house for something we hoped would never happen," Lackey said. "You can see that older homes built to less stringent code requirements just don't do as well," Salna said. Even though building codes have become more demanding across the state, the strictness of the new codes does depend on the geographic location. The southeastern portion of Florida has the most stringent guidelines. Research has revealed that less stringent guidelines, such as the ones in place on the Florida Panhandle, ultimately end up costing more. This Sept. 10, 2017 file photo shows waves crashing over a seawall at the mouth of the Miami River from Biscayne Bay, Fla., as storm surge from Hurricane Irma impacts Miami. Florida's governor and Legislature promised a dizzying array of fixes following the devastation of last year's hurricanes. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee) "For every one dollar we spend on mitigation on the front end saves six dollars in damage and cleanup," according to Salna. Reporting by Jonathan Petramala. Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios. Some governments across the African continent are cautiously coming out of Covid-19 lockdown, such as Nigeria, which on Tuesday reopened churches and mosques, with social distancing restrictions in place. Others like Uganda are postponing a return to normal daily life. In Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni announced that schools for final-year students would be postponed one more month as not enough test kits are available to test students every two weeks as proscribed. The president said that each village would be given two TV sets in order to help students continue through televised school lessons. "Two television sets per village equals to 140,000 TV sets in the country," he said in a televised address. The delay comes as Uganda's dusk-to-dawn curfew is set to continue for three more weeks, with movement still curtailed. Public buses and matatus (private minibuses) can operate, but only at half capacity, while motorcycle taxis are banned from taking customers but can transport goods. Some Ugandans have taken to social media to express their concern. Part of the government concern is the slight spike in coronavirus cases over the weekend, with 84 new infections. The current caseload is 457, with no deaths recorded. The government will begin to distribute face masks and has called on people without masks to stay at home. President Museveni also announced that a review of some 4,000 people who had been arrested at the beginning of the lockdown period would be carried out, and those who have petty cases would be released from jail. Shopping malls are open, but people must observe social distancing rules. Although some movement has returned to Uganda, nightclubs, bars and gyms will be closed for another three weeks. Churches and mosques are not allowed to open for a further 21 days. Nigeria returns to places of worshippers While churches and mosques in Uganda remain shut, Nigeria has decided to open all places of worship on Tuesday as part of lifting its Covid-19 restrictions. Story continues The coronavirus task force stipulated that only regular religious gatherings would be possible, and social distancing necessary in order to keep the churches and mosques open. The lockdown in Nigeria was enforced on 30 March only in Lagos state, Ogun state, and in Abuja, the capital. Other states, such as Kano, imposed their own requirements in order to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Nigeria has 10,578 cases with 299 deaths, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. While Ugandans will continue to observe the dusk-to-dawn curfew, Nigeria has eased up on the hours, only requiring people to stay at home between 11pm and 4am. The range of places and services that will be allowed to open varies while people can return to work and worship, any other functions that have more than 20 people are restricted. Banks have reopened on Tuesday. Domestic air travel will return to the skies on 21 June, but schools, parks and bars are off limits. South Africa eyes return to school South Africas Department of Basic Education said that schools for grades 7 to 12 throughout the country would open as of 8 June. President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed parents fears in reopening the schools during the pandemic in his weekly letter to South Africans. Though we may feel anxious and fearful as our sons and daughters leave our care, we must draw courage from the fact that every effort is being made to protect them, he wrote. As parents, you have entrusted us with the welfare and safety of your children. It is a responsibility we do not take lightly. In the days and weeks to come, we will be closely monitoring the return to school, he said. Class sizes will be smaller, and social distancing will be exercised. Ramaphosa said that schools would have enough personal protective equipment and water and sanitation services remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - Toyota Motor Corp. announced Tuesday that it has just rolled out the 2021 Corolla Hatchback Special Edition out of a Southern California custom shop. It is dressed out with an exclusive body kit and striking Supersonic Red paint for sport hatchback fans who like their cars with expressive styling and bold colors. Toyota added it will offer just 1,500 of these Special Edition red-hot hatches for the 2021 model year, which starts arriving in late summer. All 2021 Corolla Hatchback models add rear seat mounted side airbags, bringing the car's total airbag count to 10. In addition, the 2021 Corolla Hatchback makes Rear Cross Traffic Alert with Blind Spot Monitor standard on the XSE grade and optional for the SE grade with the SE Preferred package. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Less than a week after receiving a letter from President Muhammadu Buhari, the Senate on Tuesday approved the $5.513 billion loan request of the president. The approval followed the consideration of the report of the Senate Committee Local and Foreign Debts presented by its chairman, Clifford Odia (PDP, Edo). President Buhari last Thursday sent a letter to the Senate seeking its approval for another batch of external loans to enable the administration fund the revised 2020 budget and execute some critical projects. However, due to the sketchy details, the Senate withheld its approval until the lawmakers were better informed. The federal government proposed to use the loans to execute its priority projects and to support state governments in stimulating their economy, which has been adversely hit by the coronavirus pandemic. In his presentation, Mr Ordia noted that the emergence of COVID-19 has altered the plans and projections of the government as captured in the 2020 budget. Such impact has affected the revenue generation plan of the government, leaving it with a larger deficit than envisaged, he said. This change in revenue projection and the deficit it is bringing in the implementation of the budget, the lawmaker explained, necessitated the request for more borrowing to finance the budget. The Senate also on Tuesday approved the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper projections, upon which the revised 2020 budget would be based. Ibrahim Gobir (APC, Sokoto) argued that without the loan we cannot move anywhere with the recommendation on the MTEF. On his part, Tolu Odebiyi (APC, Ogun) said the loans were needed because the budgetary implementation over time has been low. Even at the best of times, we have only done another 50-54 per cent of our budget not to talk of a time like this that we are in crisis. Yet, he added, a lot needs to be done with the budget, especially in terms of duplication of expenditure as the country cannot run away from cutting costs. The approved loans are now subject to the concurrence of the House of Representatives, which, on Tuesday, passed the $22.7 billion loan earlier approved by the Senate. Last month, both Houses approved an 850 billion borrowing request made by the President, which is to be sourced from domestic markets to fund critical capital projects in the 2020 budget. Nigerias rising debt profile, as of September 30, 2019, was 26.2 trillion. Of this amount, total domestic debts is about 18 trillion, or 68.45 per cent. About 8 trillion are owed to foreign lenders. The approved $5.513 billion loans are as follows: $3.4 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for Rapid Financing Instrument to part-finance FGN 2020 proposed revised budget deficit; World Banks $1.5 billion for the Development Policy Financing to part-finance FGN 2020 revised budget deficit; $500 million from African Development Bank (AfDB) for COVID-19 crisis response budget support operation to part-finance FGN 2020 revised budget deficit; and $113 million from Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to part-finance FGN 2020 revised budget deficit. With masks on, voters came out Tuesday to vote in a presidential primary unlike any other. Poll workers at one Lehigh County location, however, were not wearing the personal protective equipment provided by the state and county. Tim Benyo, Lehigh Countys chief clerks of elections, said the polling site in Emmaus was reported to his office. Lehigh County has rovers traveling throughout the county on Election Day, and Benyo said he sent them over to talk to the poll workers and ask them if they could follow the rules. Just because they are poll workers, it doesnt exempt them, he said, adding some poll workers like the judge of election and inspectors are elected officials. We dont really have a legal authority, or legal teeth to make them do anything. ... We can ask nicely, and then ask not so nicely." There were some technical difficulties with machines, but Benyo said they were minor issues. Were doing the best we can. This is all new to everybody, he said. Becky Bartlett, Northampton Countys deputy director of administration, said county polls were able to open on time. By Tuesday afternoon turnout at the polls seemed low, but election workers were processing a record number of mail-in ballots, she said. Pennsylvanias Act 77 of 2019 signed last October by Gov. Tom Wolf permits any registered voter to vote by mail. Lehigh Valley polling locations reported low in-person voter turnout for a presidential election year. This, after state records show there are more registered voters for this election in the Lehigh Valley than in the past 10 years. By 11 a.m., the polling location at Bethlehem City Hall had 17 voters. West Side Moravian Church off of Third Avenue in the city had 90 voters between two wards as of 11:30 a.m. Whether in-person voting decreased because residents chose mail-in ballots, or whether other reasons, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, kept voters from leaving home wont be clearer until the mail-in ballot totals are released after 8 p.m. As of Tuesday, the state Department of Health reported 612 new coronavirus cases, for a statewide total of 72,894, and 100 new deaths, for a death toll of 5,667 people during the pandemic. Voters who did make the trek spoke of fulfilling their civic duty and wanting to see their ballot cast in person. Christina Durback, wearing a cloth mask as she walked up to West Side Moravian Church, said she considered using a mail-in ballot, but I didnt trust the process. She knows other people who voted by mail. I respect their decision. I respect everybodys decision to protect themselves, she said. Durback, who works for a school, spoke of the state shutdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic, small businesses being closed and what will happen with schools in the fall. She was grateful she could attend mass this week at the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Roman Catholic Church. She went on Monday and today before voting. Diocese of Allentown Bishop Alfred Schlert reopened in-person Mass to the public, effective June 1, amid coronavirus precautions. I missed that so much, she said. Walking out after she voted, Durback was wiping her hands with a wipe, an I voted sticker on her jacket. God bless you all, she said as she walked to her car. Another voter walking out told a poll worker to stay safe as she took off her mask. Janet Zambo lives a few blocks away from the church, and came to vote with her husband. She said she came out because its her civic duty. Its what I do -- I vote, she said. The pair wore cloth masks and spoke of the social distance markings and limiting the number of people being allowed into the building to vote as taking care of everybody the right way. Sheridan Elementary on North Second Street in Allentown has been the polling site for the 6th ward 1st district, but on Tuesday was also the poll for the 6th ward 2nd district as well. Masked poll workers for the 1st district said there were no voters waiting when they opened and they didnt see their first voter until about 7:30 a.m. Seven hours later, only 32 people had voted. Workers said they would usually see more than 100 voters in a presidential primary. For Jerrica Rosario, it is her first election as judge of elections for the 1st district. She said they saw a few first-time voters Tuesday, and some unaffiliated voters who cannot vote in the primary. Voters were wearing masks and using hand sanitizer, the workers said, and issues that came up included paper ballots improperly filled out and problems ripping the ballots off of the pad to give to voters. I was expecting more people, Rosario said. Im kind of banking on, hoping people used mail-in ballots. Its very important to vote. If you are going to a polling place on election day, make sure you are practicing social distancing by staying 6 feet away from other people. Read more on how to protect yourself: https://t.co/iHDA02RRsn pic.twitter.com/Ixqv974Va0 PA Department of State (@PAStateDept) June 2, 2020 Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Moe, owner of Santa Monica Tobacco, walks through his business, which was looted and burned Sunday in Santa Monica on May 31, 2020. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) The reality programming got all too real Sunday afternoon for the owner of a Santa Monica smoke shop known around the neighborhood as Moes. The small-businessman had retreated to his home 10 minutes from the 4th Street shop when his in-store security cameras began to transmit sickening images. Intruders in masks and bandanas had pried open a security gate and smashed through his front door. Now they were rummaging through Santa Monica Tobacco as though they owned the place. They took cigarettes, cigars, lighters and tobacco. One man grabbed piles of lottery tickets. Others smashed display cases. One crew came with a sledgehammer and pounded away until they broke open an ATM machine, emptying its cash. On the way out, many stopped to grab a snack and a drink. All I could do was watch. I couldnt do anything, said Moe, the owner, who declined to give his last name. It felt like everything that I had worked to build for 18 years they could just wipe out in a matter of minutes. Jason Gochin, left, Damian Anastasio and Cevin Clark, owners of Harvelle's, stand in front of their place, which has been boarded up against protesters along 4th Street after a night of protest and looting in Santa Monica on June 1, 2020. Gochin and Clark helped put out a fire started by looters at Santa Monica Tobacco, their neighbor's business. They were able to save the building. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times) The shopkeeper was one of several along 4th Street, a block from the landmark Third Street Promenade, who complained that police did nothing to prevent the looting. Moe, an immigrant from Iran, wished the police had cut off the looters before they even got to downtown Santa Monica. His neighbors, on the block between Santa Monica Boulevard and Broadway, said officers who stood close to the mayhem told at least one bystander that the looters had them outnumbered and that there was nothing they could do to end the trouble. Santa Monica police did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The smoke shop owner and several other neighbors said that, with the police out of the action, it was two owners and an employee of the venerable local music club Harvelles who became the heroes of the moment. Harvelle's co-owners Jason Gochin and Cevin Clark had been monitoring the trouble along with bartender Jose Rojas. When they smelled smoke, the grabbed the club's fire extinguishers and made their way under the damaged security gate of the tobacco shop. Story continues Once inside, they doused a fire that had been set at the back of the shop. Several tenants of the 4th Street building said the fast action prevented much wider damage, given that the 1920s-vintage building is not outfitted with a sprinkler system, they said. But, as downtown Santa Monica teemed with volunteer cleanup crews Monday, the merchants still wondered why the police had not done more. They protected the protesters, but they did not protect the businesses, said Kia Saleki, whose family has run a jewelry shop on 4th Street for nearly 40 years. If you want to protect the protesters, fine. I am with them. I feel their pain. But what about us, the mom and pop owners? We have already not been able to work for three months because of COVID. And now this. Saleki said he stood guard inside his shop Sunday, protected by a steel gate that looters tried, but failed, to pry open. He saw a stream of people enter the REI store across the street, emerging with arms full of clothes and other merchandise. Some cars circled the block and came back for more than one load, he said. A good Samaritan went to one of the police and said, Stop them! and he said back, What am I going to do? There are too many of them. Saleki said his family had immigrated to America from Iran and built the jewelry business painstakingly. As a small business, when you get hit, its hard to get back up, he said. For now, he planned to board up his storefront and wait for calmer days. But he had no intention of closing his business, which had been on the verge of reopening from a coronavirus shutdown, before Sundays onslaught. I am here to stay, of course, Saleki said. What else am I going to do? Down the block, the smoke shop owner felt the same. Moe said he thought it would take at least a month to clean up the mess and repair the fire damage. With business already down 70% during the coronavirus crisis, he said, he needs to get things up and running again. I have to. I dont have any other choice, said the married father of two elementary school children. This is life. This is what happens. You fall down and you have to get up and walk again. The Ghana Federation of Labour (GFL) has appealed to Parliament, Council of State and the Eminent Committee of the Electoral Commission to prevail on political parties and stakeholders to avoid acts that could inflame tension in the country. The GFL in a press statement signed by Mr Caleb Nartey and Mr Abraham Koomson, President and Secretary General respectively, said the political parties, the EC and National Security must rather work together to ensure that all eligible voters were allowed to exercise their franchise without any hindrance to avert a chaotic situation before, during and after the December general election. It said the leadership of the Federation had a virtual meeting on Sunday to exhaustively discuss the rising tension in the country over the compilation of the new voters register for December 7, 2020 indicating that the electoral related laws were sensitive and there was the need for consensus building among all stakeholders to ensure confidence in the electoral process and the general acceptance of electoral results. According to the GFL, recent events by Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and the coalition of Minority Political Parties as well as comments emanating from academia in addition to some actions by the national security had deeply polarized the society ahead of the upcoming elections. It stated that the announcement by the EC on a time table for the compilation of the voters register had aggravated the situation adding that the announcement was in complete disregard of the pending suit at the circuit court which they say was an affront to the rule of law and undermines and threatens the democracy and liberty of Ghanaians. They also observed that the COVID-19 pandemic posed challenges to the strict adherence to the structured timelines put out by the EC ostensibly in the bid to comply or meet legal deadlines preceding the December 7, 2020 elections. The Federation pointed out that the right to vote as a citizen of Ghana as provided under Act 42 of the 1992 constitution was blatantly being violated by the conditions set by the EC eligibility criteria for registration as a voter. They said they considered the requirements of a passport and Ghana card as proof of citizens as inappropriate explaining that whereas the ongoing Nation Identification Authority registration exercise was afflicted with numerous challenges making it impossible for the majority population to obtain the cards, while possessing a passport was not mandatory for citizens. The existing voter ID cards havent been largely discredited by court of law, its validity cannot be discounted by any other authority. The vouching by others to ascertain citizenship of applicants, the GFL said, was problematic since that process of identification could be contested or challenged in a law court. As a labour organization, our worry is about the entrenched positions within the political divide and EC, beating the war drums and emitting scary signals to the international community, a situation which has the potential of slowing down investments with its attendant negative impact on the Ghanaian Economy and the Labour Movement, they stated. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video "I feel a little safer now that these monsters are off of the street and no longer able to terrorize anyone else," said 22-year-old Messiah Young, who was dragged out of his car by police and shot multiple times with a taser gun. His girlfriend, 20-year-old Taniyah Pilgrim, was also pulled out of the car and tased. The video above is horrific. From AP News: C herish Finden, renowned pastry chef and undisputed star of Channel 4s Bake Off: The Professionals, is to lead the pastry offering at a new luxury London hotel. Finden has been announced as the executive pastry chef for Pan Pacific London, the hotly anticipated new hotel currently slated to open in the City in early 2021. The famously cutting judge of the high-calibre Great British Bake Off spin-off comes to her latest role after more than 30 years experience in patisserie, and is thought of as one of the worlds finest pastry chefs. Findens CV includes roles leading the pastry offering at the likes of Raffles Hotel Singapore, Sheraton Tower Singapore, and Londons The Langham, and as creative development chef for chocolatier Godiva. Tea party: Cherish Finden with her Bake Off co-stars Tom Allen, Benoit Blin and Liam Charles / Channel 4 At Pan Pacific, Finden is expected to bring in culinary influences from her native Singapore, fusing a traditional afternoon tea offering with flavours from southeast Asia. I am delighted to be part of the Pan Pacific London team and I look forward to bringing my Singaporean heritage to the pastries that we will create, said Finden. It will be a celebration of a slice of Singapore in London, a fusion of two of the most vibrant and dynamic cities in the world. The role will be a blast from the past for Finden, as she returns to the Pan Pacific group after landing her first professional role at one of its hotels back in 1991. Finden will work alongside executive chef Lorraine Sinclair to create the food offering for the new venue at One Bishopsgate Plaza. Singapore-based Pan Pacific has more than 50 hotels across the world, but its new London opening will be its first to open in Europe. North Korea's main newspaper Rodong Sinmun on Tuesday (June 2) published an editorial on its front page stressing the communist nation's leader Kim Jong-un's devotion and love for his people. Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the North's ruling Workers' Party, has published the editorial at a time when North Korea is battling coronavirus concerns and deepening economic woes. The editorial said that Kim is focused on "prioritizing and showing ardent love towards his people." A monthly magazine by Kim's party also published the editorial. "Our marshal's political belief is that any behavior that tries to reign on people and violates the interests of the people should be punished regardless of their position and contribution to the country," it said. The paper hailed Kim's swift response to the coronavirus, such as holding a politburo meeting of the ruling Workers' Party to declare a national emergency system in February. It also urged North Koreans to take steps aimed at becoming self-reliant with no exceptions or compromise, saying Kim's political belief is to "never trade the country's dignity for a pot of rice or money." Experts maintain that the editorial is an indirect warning toward officials to tighten their social and moral discipline and address the concerns of the people due to the outbreak of coronavirus. Greece on Tuesday suspended flights to and from Qatar after 12 individuals on a plane from Doha tested positive for the new coronavirus. The individuals were on a flight carrying 91 people from Doha to Athens that landed on Monday. Tests were carried out for the novel coronavirus and the passengers were taken to a quarantine hotel, authorities said. Those who tested positive will be in quarantine for 14 days, and those who tested negative will remain in quarantine for seven days, the civil protection ministry said. Those who tested positive include nine people from Pakistan with Greek residency papers, two Greeks travelling from Australia and a member of a Greek-Japanese family. The suspension will be in place until June 15. Greece has reported a low number of COVID-19 cases compared to many other European countries, and began a gradual easing of a weeks-long lockdown on May 4. By Tuesday, it had reported 2,937 cases, and 179 deaths. (Reporting By Michele Kambas; Editing by Kevin Liffey) SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Karnataka recorded its biggest single-day spike in Covid-19 cases on Tuesday with 388 new cases being reported across the state, taking the cumulative total to 3,796 positive cases. This includes 52 deaths, 2,339 active cases and 1,403 patients who have been discharged after being cured. Of the new cases on Tuesday, all but 20 patients were people who had returned to Karnataka from Maharashtra, the worst-affected state in the country. The maximum -150 cases - were reported from Udupi district where a large number of people, working in the hotel industry in Mumbai, have come back in the last few weeks. Kalburgi, Yadigiri, Mandya, Hassan and Bangalore are the other districts that account for the bulk of the active cases in Karnataka. A health department official who did not want to be identified as he is not authorised to speak to the media, claimed that the state had done relatively well compared to other major counterparts across the country. There is no organic transmission at a large scale happening here. The spurt is primarily because of people who have returned from Maharashtra. If we were to bar everybody coming from that state alone, we would have seen hardly 20 cases today. The state government has made it compulsory for anybody coming from Maharashtra to undergo one week of institutional quarantine, a requirement which is not there for travellers from any other part of the country. The record spurt in cases came on a day when Karnatakas health and family welfare minister B Sriramulu found himself at the centre of a controversy for reportedly flouting social distancing norms at an event in Chitradurga district. In a video, the minister was seen mobbed by hundreds of supporters and party workers, taken in a procession and garlanded while participating in a function to offer prayers to the Vedavati river in the district. Not everyone present was wearing a face mask or observing social distancing norms. The main opposition Congress has demanded the resignation of the minister and asked the Yediyurappa government to take action against him as per the law. However, the government was yet to react to the opposition charges. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE The state Court of Appeals has ruled that part but not all of New Mexicos anti-corruption law is too vague to be enforced. In a complex ruling Friday, the court ordered the reinstatement of at least one ethics charge against three defendants former Dona Ana County Treasurer David Gutierrez, 6th Judicial District Attorney Francesca Estevez and former San Juan County Magistrate Judge Connie Lee Johnston. The judges didnt rule on the defendants guilt or innocence, just that charges could proceed. By contrast, the court dismissed a series of other charges against them and against former Taxation and Revenue Secretary Demesia Padilla. Attorney General Hector Balderas said the ruling demonstrates the need for legislative action. I am grateful that the Court upheld that it is illegal for public officials to misuse a public office for personal gain, Balderas said in a written statement. However, the Court also made it clear that the legislature must clarify and strengthen public corruption laws to protect the public trust. Paul Kennedy, an attorney for Padilla, said he and his client are of course happy with the Courts decision. Frankly, it wasnt a close call. The opinion focuses on whether public officials can face criminal prosecution for violating parts of the Governmental Conduct Act. A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals upheld one section of the law but struck down two others. The court ruled that prosecutors may bring charges against officials who use their power or resources to obtain personal benefits or pursue private interests in violation of the act. The judges ordered lower courts to reinstate charges under that section of the law against Gutierrez, Estevez and Johnston. Padilla wasnt charged under that part of the law. The Court of Appeals, however, ruled that two other sections of the law are too vague for criminal charges. Those parts of the law call for public officials to conduct themselves in a way that justifies the confidence placed in them by the people and for officials to make reasonable efforts to avoid undue influence and abuse of office. The court upheld the dismissal of those charges against all four defendants. The opinion touched on cases against: Gutierrez, who was accused of pursing an unwanted sexual relationship with one of his employees. Estevez, who was accused of using her position to manipulate or intimidate officers investigating whether she had improperly used a state-owned vehicle. Johnston, accused of illegally recording communications of her colleagues in secure areas of a court building. Padilla, accused of using her position to access tax records of her old accounting firm and records of former clients. The Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of some ethics charges against Padilla. But still pending against her are allegations of engaging in an official act for personal financial gain, embezzlement and computer access with intent to defraud or embezzle. The 35-page opinion was written by Judge Julie Vargas, with concurrence by two pro tem judges, retired Supreme Court Justice Richard Bosson and retired Appeals Court Judge Michael Bustamante. The decision can be appealed to the Supreme Court. Data Analysis and Visualization Our data analysis and visualization experts can work closely with you to analyze your data and help you help you derive insights. We also build custom dashboards and reports to help you track KPIs, monitor trends and track operations. Your data can be combined with NGEX or 3rd party data to enhance the analysis and our data visualization solutions are tailored to answer your business questions. We also offer: Spot gold led the way in terms of price advance when compared to the August 2020 Comex contract, which is the most active futures contract. Spot or Forex pricing is currently fixed at $1738.59 which is an increase of over $9 on the day. Gold futures basis most active August contract is currently fixed at $1750.80, which is a net decline of a $0.90 on the day. The moves in both spot and futures today was greatly influenced by dollar weakness which accounts for the majority, if not all of todays price change. According to the KGX (Kitco Gold Index) as of 4:46 PM EST spot gold is currently fixed at $1736.90. A net increase of $8.20 on the day. However, dollar weakness has resulted in spot gold gaining $8.60, while traders have bid the precious yellow metal fractionally lower to the tune of $0.40, resulting in todays higher pricing in spot gold. Along with the current pandemic and this weekends protests, riots and looting there is a real concern about increase in tensions between China and the United States. According to Bloomberg China has halted some of the U.S. farm imports which not only threaten a trade deal, but in essence break the agreement reached for the phase one trade agreement. Bloomberg reported that Chinese government officials told major state run agricultural companies to pause purchases from some American farm goods including soybeans as Beijing evaluates the ongoing escalation of tensions with the US over Hong Kong, according to people familiar with the situation. Also, this report said that state-owned traders Cofco and Sinograin were ordered to suspend purchases. The report went on adding. The halt is the latest sign that the hard-won phase-one trade deal between the worlds two biggest economies is in jeopardy. While Chinese Premier Li Keqiang last month reiterated a pledge to implement the agreement that was inked in January, tensions have continued to escalate since then amid a standoff over Beijings move to tighten its grip on Hong Kong. Last week President Trump announced that the United States would begin the process of stripping some of Hong Kongs trade privileges, without detailing how many changes would take effect and how many exemptions would apply. The breakdown of talks between the United States and China, coupled with the current pandemic, and the riots in the United States could certainly have a dynamic effect on the safe haven asset group specifically gold. For those who would like more information, simply use this link. Wishing you as always, good trading, A member of the Pennsylvania National Guard stands at City Hall, at the corner of Broad Street and JFK Boulevard in Philadelphia on Monday. Read more The National Guard moved into Philadelphia early Monday after the weekends impassioned protests over the death of George Floyd erupted into violence. Carrying M4 Carbine rifles and wearing camouflage fatigues, hundreds of members could be seen standing on street corners around City Hall and surrounding the Frank Rizzo statue, which had a the focus of protests on Saturday. On Monday, some National Guard members also blocked roads around Upper Darbys 69th Street shopping district to help control traffic. Philadelphia is not the only city experiencing this new military presence. As of Monday night, at least 23 states and the District of Columbia had activated the National Guard, according to CNN, and the more than 17,000 members deployed in the country equal the number of active-duty troops in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. But what is the National Guard? What authority does it have here? Here are some answers to your questions: What exactly is the National Guard? The Army National Guard is a part of the U.S. military that is tasked with responding to domestic emergencies, such as natural disasters and civil unrest. Each state and the District of Columbia has its own National Guard. The Guard can also be deployed for overseas combat and other international missions. For example, Guard units were deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq in the years after 9/11. READ MORE: Here's live coverage of what's happening June 2 The Guard serves in both state and federal roles. It can be called upon by the president or, with a governors authorization, by the adjutant general, a states senior military officer. Who makes up the Guard forces? Guard members are primarily civilians who have other jobs, too, or attend college. They serve in the military part time, usually attending training for one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer. Most serve in their home states. In order to join the Guard, one must be between the ages of 17 and 35, be a U.S citizen or permanent resident, and meet medical, physical, and moral requirements. Candidates also have to complete a 10-week basic training. Commitments are technically eight years long, but service may be required for as few as three to six years before members move into a reserve role. Why is the National Guard in Philadelphia? On Sunday, Gov. Tom Wolf said he had given the OK for the Pennsylvania National Guard and the Pennsylvania State Police to activate personnel and use resources as necessary to alleviate the danger to public health and safety caused by this emergency." The emergency: the protests over George Floyds death, many of which have been peaceful but some of which have sparked looting and vandalism in parts of Philadelphia. What is the National Guards job here? Its main job is to provide support for Philadelphia authorities, following the lead of the Philadelphia police. Mayor Jim Kenney said Sunday he hoped the troops presence would help avoid a situation such as the one that occurred Saturday night, when people looted stores with no police to be seen in the area. Has the National Guard ever been deployed before amid protests of racial inequality? Yes. During the civil rights movement, federal and state governments called upon the National Guard. They did so after peaceful protesters were attacked in Selma, Ala., and amid nationwide outrage after the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The National Guard occupied Wilmington for nine months in 1968. It moved into Los Angeles in 1992 during the Rodney King unrest. READ MORE: The National Guard occupied Wilmington for nine months in 1968. The city was never the same. More recently, in 2015, Guard members were deployed in Ferguson, Mo., after 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer. The same year, they were activated in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray, who was in police custody. Does the Guard have a history of deescalating these situations? It depends whom you ask. Jim Craig, an associate professor of military and veteran studies at the University of Missouri-St Louis, told the Guardian in 2015 that a military presence could have the opposite effect on peaceful protesters and those engaged in violence. The National Guard by design is militarized," he said, "and so that doesnt theoretically deescalate the situation. It actually may change the dynamic. Are Guard forces paid? Yes. Guard members are paid for every day they serve, including during required training. Specific pay is determined by job, rank, and education level. Pay ranges from about $3,000 to $20,000 a year based on rank and experience, according to the Guards pay calculator. When a state calls upon the Guard, the state pays, according to the Guardian. If authorized by the president, the pay is federally funded. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 18:54:52|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close China's new large carrier rocket Long March-5B blasts off from Wenchang Space Launch Center in south China's Hainan Province, May 5, 2020. (Xinhua/Pu Xiaoxu) After the launch via China's largest carrier rocket Long March-5, the probe is expected to reach within the gravitational field of Mars next February and it will be captured into orbit around the planet. BEIJING, June 2 (Xinhua) -- China plans to launch its first Mars probe between July and August this year, aiming to complete orbiting, landing and roving in one mission, an expert said in a recent interview with the state broadcaster CCTV. After the launch via China's largest carrier rocket Long March-5, the probe is expected to reach within the gravitational field of Mars next February and it will be captured into orbit around the planet, said Bao Weimin, an academic with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is also the director of the Committee of Science and Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. According to Bao, China's Mars probe consists of an orbiter as well as a lander and a rover. The lander and rover will make a soft landing on the surface. The Mars rover, which is expected to work on Mars for at least 90 Mars days (more than three months on Earth), will carry out patrol exploration and research on geomorphic landforms of Mars. A safe landing on Mars is the most difficult and risky part of the mission, and the lander carrying the rover will be slowed down through four steps, Bao noted. The first step, which will last for about 290 seconds, is akin to breaking, slowing down its speed from 4.8 km per second to 460 meters per second. Next, a parachute will be opened and it will take about 90 seconds to lower the speed from 460 meters per second to 95 meters per second. A reverse thrust engine will then be ignited, decelerating the speed to 3.6 meters per second in about 80 seconds. After the first three steps, the lander carrying the rover will be about 100 meters above the Mars surface. Hovering in the air, it can observe the surface, adjust its position and select a safe spot to land in an obstacle-avoiding mode. The whole landing process will take about seven to eight minutes, said Bao. Photo taken on Nov. 14, 2019 shows the trial ground of an experiment for landing on Mars in Huailai County, north China's Hebei Province. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang) Last November, China successfully mounted an experiment simulating the process of a probe hovering, avoiding obstacles and descending to land on Mars. In April China announced that its first Mars exploration mission was named Tianwen-1. The name comes from the long poem "Tianwen," meaning Questions to Heaven, written by Qu Yuan (about 340-278 BC), one of the greatest poets of ancient China. Former Vice President Joe Biden delivered a somber speech in Philadelphia on Tuesday in which he called for both immediate congressional action on police reform and for unity while expressing understanding over outrage in the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man killed last week after a white police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes. Congress should act and act now, Biden, 77, said. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee promised a group of black community leaders in Delaware on Monday that he would address institutional racism in his first 100 days in the White House, if elected over incumbent President Donald Trump in November's election. On Tuesday, Biden called for an immediate legislative down payment and urged Congress to pass a police reform bill banning chokeholds, introduced by New York lawmaker Rep. Hakeem Jeffries. Biden said that bill should be on Trump's desk in the next few days. Biden, in his first major appearance since the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic, also called on Congress to stop transferring weapons of war to police forces" referring to what critics call the militarization of police "and improve oversight and accountability. No more excuses, no more delays, he said. The former vice president's speech Tuesday morning came after days of protests, rioting and looting sparked by Floyd's death. Floyd's arrest on May 25 in Minneapolis was partially filmed, with the footage showing he pleaded for air while officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck. (Chauvin has since been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter but has not entered a plea; the other officers involved were fired.) Biden echoed Floyd's final words as he began his speech Tuesday. "'I cant breathe,' " he said. "'I can't breathe' George Floyds last words, but they didnt die with him. Theyre still being heard, echoing all across this nation." Story continues He spoke about how minority groups specifically black Americans make up a disproportionate percentage of the more than 105,000 coronavirus deaths in the U.S. and of the 40 million-plus jobs lost across the country because of the pandemic. A recent NPR analysis of reported virus fatalities shows black people dying at a faster rate than other racial groups in 32 U.S. states and in Washington, D.C. "We know that these racial ethnic disparities in COVID-19 are the result of pre-pandemic realities," Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, director of the Equity Research and Innovation Center at the Yale School of Medicine, told NPR. "It's a legacy of structural discrimination that has limited access to health and wealth for people of color." RELATED: Anderson Cooper Calls Out Trump's Response amid Protests: 'So Low Rent and Just Sad' Matt Rourke/AP/Shutterstock Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks in Philadelphia on Tuesday. Biden said Floyd's death and the protests that have come afterwards are "a wake up call to the nation" and that the U.S. needs to "respond with action," vowing himself if elected to begin working on healing racial inequality and divides across the country. The country is crying out for leadership that can unite us and bring us together," Biden said. Invoking the memory of his son Beau, who died of cancer, and daughter Naomi and first wife Neilia, who were both killed in a car crash, he said: "I know what it means to grieve. My losses are not the same as the losses felt by so many, but I know what it is to feel like you cannot go on. I know what it means to have a black hole of grief sucking at your chest." "But," he continued, "I also know that the best way to bear loss and pain is to turn all that anger and anguish to purpose." The former vice president chastised Trump who has criticized Biden's protest response in turn for using the military to violently break up a protest outside of the White House on Monday afternoon, using tear gas, flash grenades to clear out the crowd in order for Trump to walk to the nearby St. John's Episcopal Church for a photo while holding a Bible. I just wish he opened it [the Bible] once in a while instead of brandishing it," Biden said. "If he opened it, he couldve learned something. Were all called to love one another as we love ourselves. Its really hard work, but its the work of America. Trump's 2020 campaign released a statement following Biden's speech deriding his reaction to the nationwide protests and contending the Biden team "made it clear that they stand with the rioters," referring to the violence that has sometimes marred the protests, with buildings burned and ransacked. But Biden denounced violence universally in his speech and called for peaceful gatherings. He also said that it was not acceptable for police to "escalate tension and resort to excessive violence. While Trump has expressed solidarity with the Floyd family and called for justice, his focus in recent days has become the protesters particularly those he holds responsible for widespread unrest. The White House has, without evidence, blamed the "radical" left. Last week the president suggested the military should shoot looters and he said the Secret Service could have sicced "vicious dogs" on demonstrators at the White House. On Monday night he said he would send the military into communities if their local leaders did not respond more aggressively and, in his words, get protests under control. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker called Trump's comments "inflammatory rhetoric" and he would not be asking for the federal government's armed intrusion in his state. Maine Gov. Janet Mills warned Trump on Monday that his mere presence in her state "might create unrest." The president had been scheduled to visit a cotton swab facility there Friday, where swabs for coronavirus tests are made. RELATED: Governors Respond to Trump's Call to 'Dominate' Protesters and His Threat to Send in the Military Michael Ciaglo/Getty Thousands of people stage a die-in next to the Colorado State Capitol with their hands behind their backs to protest the death of George Floyd on Saturday in Denver. Stephen Maturen/Getty Terrence Floyd (center) attends a Monday vigil where his brother George Floyd was killed after a police officer knelt on his neck during an arrest in Minneapolis. On Tuesday, Biden said Trump was more interested in power than in principle" and "more interested in serving the passions of his base than the needs of the people in his care. He also criticized Trump for using the American military to move against the American people. While denouncing violence and supporting protests, Biden promised he would take action against racial inequality as president. Its going to take more than talk," he said. "Weve had talk before. Weve had protests before. Weve got to now vow to make this at least an error of action and reverse the systemic racism with a long overdue concrete changes ... Its going to take the work of a generation. To help combat systemic racism, consider learning from or donating to these organizations: Campaign Zero which works to end police brutality in America through research-proven strategies. ColorofChange.org works to make government more responsive to racial disparities. National Cares Mentoring Movement provides social and academic support to help black youth succeed in college and beyond. George Floyd, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor are all names of Black individuals whose lives were violently taken from them by police or white people, just in the past few months. Their deaths have rightfully spurred renewed grief, anger, and a continued call for justice and accountability from a system set up to bolster white people and perpetuate violence against Black people. This violence against the Black community is not new, but as a result of the recent devastating loss of life, protests against police brutality have occurred in cities across the United States over the past week. These largely peaceful protests have been met with numerous instances of unnecessary police violence and curfew orders across the country. The thing is, it's almost always the case that when Black life is taken by white hands especially if those hands belong to police it seems as though everything in the aftermath is done to change the narrative, disparage the victim, and explain away their death. Anecdotes of so-called bad behavior are published in national outlets, however unrelated, old mugshots (if they exist) are posted on the news, and the argument that fear, rather than racism and hatred, motivated the fatal action is somehow seen as justification. And while no one should have to live a perfect life to either stay alive or be afforded justice in the event they're killed, its the unfortunate truth that many Black people who are publicly victimized are only the beneficiaries of widespread advocacy if the image theyve projected up to that point has been squeaky clean. The amount of support their families receive in the aftermath is often directly dependent on the images of them that media circulates and how theyre perceived by the public. To counter this, images of fond memories are often posted from friends and family, and subsequently, artists often turn these beloved photos into illustrations and mixed-media works. It's likely you've seen many of these portraits and other illustrated tributes on your social media feeds lately posted with the Black Lives Matter hashtag and the work these artists do is important. They help bring awareness to the lives unfairly and prematurely lost, and offer a small refuge from the unnecessary suffering and pain. Here, Allure has talked with some of these artists about their work and the inspiration behind what they do. Story continues Nikkolas Smith Nikkolas_Smith.jpg Courtesy of Nikkolas Smith Nikkolas Smith, an artist based in Los Angeles, California, was inspired to create portraits of both Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd from photographs that have been widely spread on the internet. He also created another piece in Floyds memory, which recalls the flag the NAACP hung in its window between 1920 and 1938 that said, A man was lynched yesterday. Black Lives Matter Portraits Courtesy of Nikkolas Smith Smith calls his work which was recently shared by Michelle Obama artivism, as it exists at the intersection of art and activism, and tells Allure, I painted this latest artivist piece because a lynching by any other name is still a lynching. George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless other Black lives in this country are being destroyed by a virus of racism, fear, and hatred. It is up to everyone to take a stand and actively work to tear down this centuries-old pandemic. Black Lives Matter Portraits Courtesy of Nikkolas Smith Stormy Nesbit Courtesy of Stormy Nesbit Stormy Nesbit is a Phoenix-based illustrator and designer with roots in the Midwest whose works primarily express the beauty, elegance, and strength of Americas Black communities, with a focus on the women within them. She created these illustrations as a way to articulate the struggles and hardships of being Black in America. I and the members of my community have grown tired of being unseen, unheard, and being treated less-than, Nesbit says of her recent pieces. I use my platform and art to speak up for and shine a light on my community and my people because Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter Portraits Courtesy of Stormy Nesbit Dani Coke The People Behind the Black Lives Matter Art Being Shared on Instagram Denise Ko Atlanta-based illustrator and advocate Dani Coke says she "makes doodles designed to encourage faith, inspire justice, and guide you as you love your neighbors well." She posted her "Anatomy of an Ally" illustration back in February, but it began recirculating again as BLM protests spread across the country at the end of May. "My art aims to make complex issues more digestible and provide practical ways to help you make a difference in your community," Coke explains. Anatomy-Of-An-Ally.jpg Courtesy Dani Coke She continues: "Most humans have a heart for change. When something is wrong, we seek to do what's right but we don't always know how to do it. With every piece I make, I want to equip good people with the tools, context, and information needed to take tangible steps towards change within their direct sphere of influence! Perfection isn't a prerequisite to participation. Everyone is invited to do their part, and I want my art to help!" Robin Hilkey The People Behind the Black Lives Matter Art Being Shared on Instagram Courtesy of Robin Hilkey While many Black artists have been using art to tell the stories of those who have been murdered, other people of color have also been creating work in solidarity, including Robin Hilkey, a designer, illustrator, and letterer from Brooklyn, NY. Hilkey tells Allure that she loves creating work that tells a story and makes an impact. "I started doing these portraits a couple of years ago, the first one being of Stephon Clark, mostly as a therapeutic way for me to process the news of these lives that were so tragically lost and murdered," she says. Black Lives Matter Portraits Courtesy of Robin Hilkey Hilkey, who is a designer for the non-profit Color of Change (which creates campaigns that advocate for racial justice), explains, "The portraits have been my way of memorializing these lives and sharing their story. Its always been extremely important to me especially as an artist and designer of color to use my skills to try and make a difference and make this type of work." Black Lives Matter Portraits Courtesy of Robin Hilkey Miriam Mosqueda Courtesy of Miriam Mosqueda Miriam Mosqueda, a Brown, Queer, Indigenous (Chichimeca Guamare), poet, artist, community educator, and worker, also creates her art with solidarity at the forefront of her mind. Mosqueda, who is currently living as a guest on occupied Tuibun Ohlone land in the Bay Area, CA, posted an image of Tony McDade to her Instagram account stylized with flowers in warm golden tones with the caption, "Say his name - TONY MCDADE. Say his name - TONY MCDADE. Say his name - TONY MCDADE. Say his name - TONY MCDADE. We love you, we hold you! Hearts are heavy. Moving in ache and rage with yall. #tonymcdade #blacktranslivesmatter" on Thursday, May 28, the day after he was killed by police in Tallahassee, Florida. Black Lives Matter Portraits Courtesy of Miriam Mosqueda Mosqueda tells Allure, "My art is created with the intent to honor and hold in love the humans whose lives are violently taken." However, she also acknowledges that creating art is only one of the measures that folks can do to show up, and she urges artists to do whatever else they can in solidarity. Her words are important for all non-Black people to take to heart, of course, not just artists. "As artists, we also should understand that creating and sharing is only a part of solidarity; we also have to donate, show up at protests, make calls, send emails, listen, call out anti-Blackness in all spaces were in, put in work and live through tangible solidarity," she says. Shirien Damra Shirien Damra is a Palestinian designer and illustrator born and raised in Chicago. Her brightly-colored illustrations of Floyd, Taylor, and Arbery surrounded by flowers have been shared widely and collectively received over four million likes on her Instagram page. Damra says she created the illustrations as a gesture of solidarity to the Black community during a period of trauma. "The videos of Ahmaud and George's deaths in particular can re-traumatize and trigger people, so I wanted to create an alternative way to pay tribute to them," Damra tells Allure. "I wanted to create something the celebrates their lives and beauty because all too often, we see victims of anti-Black violence demonized as justification for their deaths...I wanted to provide a counter-narrative by portraying them with soft and bright, bold colors and florals. I hoped to lovingly and respectfully honor their memories while calling for action and justice." Courtesy of Shirien Damra Like Mosqueda, Damra encourages people who enjoy her art to go beyond reposting. "[Getting] likes, shares, and followers on social media has never been my goal," she says. "We have to go beyond that and fight for systematic change. Art is one of many powerful tools that can bring people together to raise awareness, take action, and ultimately change our society for the better." Keeping that in mind, follow these artists in solidarity and support their work. Share their pieces, and say the names of those who have been killed. But don't stop there; solidarity and anti-racism are choices you make actively, from moment to moment. They are not identities you get to passively and comfortably rest on. It's vital to show up for Black people and call out anti-Blackness, both with your actions and with your words. Additional reporting by Kara McGrath. Read more stories about race and racism: Now, watch a metastatic breast cancer's patient journey in six photos: Don't forget to follow Allure on Instagram and Twitter. Originally Appeared on Allure Hollister's 100% Owned Subsidiary Venom Extracts Generates Record Revenue in Q1 2020 VANCOUVER, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Hollister Biosciences Inc. (CSE: HOLL, OTC: HSTRF, FRANKFURT: HOB) (the "Company", "Hollister Cannabis Co." or "Hollister") a diversified cannabis branding company with products in over 220 dispensaries throughout California, is pleased to provide an update on the Q1, 2020 performance of its 100% owned subsidiary, Venom Extracts ("Venom"). Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Venom products continue to see significant growth in demand which resulted in record revenue for Q1, 2020. Although these numbers will be disclosed in Hollister's Q1 report, only a small portion will be included in Hollister's audited financial statements, as the acquisition closed on March 24, 2020. For the period ended March 31st, 2020, Venom reports that it generated record quarterly revenue of CDN$ 8.5 million and CDN$ 1.7 million in EBITDA (excluding one-time closing costs) from its product line of Cannabis Concentrates, P.H.O Concentrates and Cartridges. The Company cautions that revenue and EBITDA figures have not yet been audited and are based on reports prepared by Venom management. "Venom is demonstrably a leading extraction operation and have captured substantial market share in the concentrates market in the state of Arizona. Their revenue growth has been impressive." Said Carl Saling, CEO of Hollister. "The Company is looking forward to expanding its Hollister facility, currently in the design phase, so Venom can replicate their model and begin producing in the state of California." About Hollister Biosciences Inc. Hollister Biosciences Inc. is a multi-state cannabis company with a vision to be the sought-after premium brand portfolio of innovative, high-quality cannabis & hemp products. Hollister uses a high margin model, controlling the whole process from manufacture to sales to distribution or seed to shelf. Products from Hollister Biosciences Inc. include HashBone, the brand's premier artisanal hash-infused pre-roll, along with concentrates (shatter, budder, crumble), distillates, solvent-free bubble hash, pre-packaged flower, pre-rolls, tinctures, vape products, and full-spectrum high CBD pet tinctures. Hollister Cannabis Co. additionally offers white-labeling manufacturing of cannabis products. Our wholly-owned California subsidiary Hollister Cannabis Co is the 1st state and locally licensed cannabis company in the city of Hollister, CA birthplace of the "American Biker". Website: www.hollistercannabisco.com The CSE, nor its regulation services provider, does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Information: This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". The use of any of the words "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "would", "project", "should", "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. These statements speak only as of the date of this News Release. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks including various risk factors discussed in the Company's disclosure documents which can be found under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com SOURCE Hollister Biosciences Inc. The Odisha government has identified nine districts vulnerable to possible locust invasion, and has put the farmers and the agriculture department on high alert, officials said on Tuesday. Most of the districts bordering Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have been put on high alert and the Odisha government is working with the neighbouring states to constantly monitor the movement of locust swarms, agriculture and farmer empowerment special secretary S K Vashist said. In a meeting held at the Chief Minister's Office, it was decided to use fire tenders for spraying insecticide. It was also been decided to keep a constant vigil for at least the next 10 days, an official said. Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Kalahandi, Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Jharsuguda, Sundergarh and Bargarh districts have been identified as the vulnerable places where locusts could cause damage, particularly the paddy cultivation. They may also cause damage to vegetable plantations and trees, the official said. Though the swarm of locust entered neighbouring Chhattishgarh on Monday, they have returned to Madhya Pradesh. Still, the state government did not rule out the possibility of their invasion to Odisha, another senior official who attended the meeting said. State and district-level control rooms have been set up to monitor the situation, he added. The meeting was informed that at least 6.5 lakhs of farmers have been alerted of the possible locust attack through WhatsApp, another eight lakh cultivators are kept informed of the situation through SMS. The state government has advised farmers not to panic over the situation and suggested them to take precautions. The Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) has also issued a standard operating procedure (SOP) to deal with possible invasion of locusts. Also Read: Despite high unemployment rate of 23.5% in May, India added 21 million jobs, says CMIE Also Read: PM Modi's approval ratings over 65%; Naveen Patnaik most popular CM with 82.96% approval The Lagos State House of Assembly has passed a resolution to reduce the size of the states 2020 budget from N1.68 trillion to N920.5 billion due to the economic challenges posed by COVID-19 pandemic. The resolution was made following a voice vote conducted by the Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa, during plenary in Ikeja on Tuesday. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Clerk of the House, Azeez Sanni, had read a letter by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu requesting the reduction in the size of the budget on the floor by the House. The Lagos State Government had recently disclosed plans to reorder the N1.168trn 2020 budget following current economic challenges as a result of COVID-19 pandemic. The Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Sam Egube, said the reordering became necessary in view of the slump in oil price in the international market as well as the reduction in Internally Generated Revenue. Mr Obasa, at the plenary, directed that the House Joint Committees on Budget and Economic Planning and Finance reduce the budget size of the state for year 2020 from N1.68 trillion to N920.5 billion. The speaker said the committees were to report back to the House within one week. He said, Based on the governors request, the House will work assiduously to review the budget to refocus, reorder and take into consideration the current challenges. We need to do this to give us the best chance of stimulating the economy and ensuring that the post-COVID-19 response economy will be strong and enduring. The House also paid tributes to a former member of the Senate, who represented Lagos Central Senatorial District, Muniru Muse, who died on Tuesday at 81. Speaking on the demise of the politician, Mojisola Miranda, (Apapa Constituency 1), said that the Senator died in the early hours of Tuesday. Senator Muniru Muse was our leader in Lagos Central, Apapa in particular. He was a clerk in the Nigerian Port Authority and he later rose to become the Port Manager. He was the executive chairman of Apapa Local Government for two terms, and he later represented Lagos Central at the Senate for one term. I want us to observe a minute silence for him and write a letter of condolence to his family, she said. The requests were later granted as the Speaker directed the Clerk of the House to write a condolence letter to the family of the deceased. The House later adjourned sitting until Monday. (NAN) I ts not so much a lockdown any longer out there as lockdown-lite. Scolds can blame the Cummings effect of a prominent figure venturing further afield than common sense alone should have allowed. But the traffic and movement data also suggest we had collectively started to loosen our interpretation of the strict rules before that. Since yesterday, we are officially social again, in groups of six. It is a licence to party which sits oddly with being discouraged from taking a train, or meeting a smaller number of people with distancing measures indoors (which would be a lot more use to many elderly folks than permission to barbecue). And quite how did we leap from a stern Boris warning only a couple of weeks ago that socialising in twos was the maximum to thrice that number? Our beaches and parks are crowded, but schools are only tentatively opening, despite not really being closed all along to the offspring of key workers. The more logical approach to this stage of the pandemic is that decisions should be more localised. It has served Germany well by allowing federal states to take charge of their own rules on opening, and seen even strongly centralised France lift restrictions at different rates to reduce the risk in the worst-hit areas in eastern France and Paris, while allowing economic life to resume in less stricken parts of the country. Hundreds of sun worshippers descended on Durdle Door beach, near Lulworth in Dorset / PA One of the least edifying aspects of a grumbly dislocation in policy between England and Scotland (and some grandstanding from Nicola Sturgeon) is that even minor differences in approach to lockdown are traded as blows, when, really, more regional autonomy makes perfect sense. Were I still to be living in the North-East or Cumbria now, I would rather hope that the rules would be stricter than in London or parts of the South where the virus peaked earlier. Getting out of a lockdown, it turns out, is a lot harder than getting into one. The risks and rewards are hard to pin down now. We have divided into groups who are extremely vigilant about any degree of risk and those who will accept more of it because they place greater weight on the consequences of economic and educational lags. Old habits are also beginning to assert themselves. The lockdown-lite arrangements heighten a sense that we have done our bit being caged at home. I keep hearing that the New Normal is about to dawn on us in a way that preachers announce the Second Coming. Yet this insistent gospel of an instant shift in working patterns and semi-permanent social distancing fights with a desire for more familiar comforts and patterns. People queueing outside Ikea in Lakeside, Thurrock on Monday / PA How else to explain why the reopening this week of Ikea stores saw customers queuing round the block from the early hours for some Billy bookcases and a trolleyful of geometric sugar sifters? Being thankfully a long way from Ikea, the biggest queues I encounter are for the fish-and-chip shop, which is to Brits what a brasserie is to the French a symbol of democratic normality. Because the science of ending lockdowns is so hard to pin down, national character will determine what we prioritise in our state of tentative new freedoms. The German opening-up has focused on a return to schooling, with minor variations across the federal states but a generally high level of support. France has placed its bet firmly on the return of the great restaurant rentree, even if diners have to be outdoors. In the next weeks, some knee-jerk measures will be dropped, including (I predict) the unworkable two-week quarantine requirement after foreign travel. Not every aspect of human activity can or should be policed and I gather senior Met figures, among others, have made clear to government that they consider this one a turkey. It is not a measure they can reliably enforce or want to. The worst kind of rule in these circumstances is one which would be routinely ignored or patchily enforced, Furthermore, many southern European countries from Greece to Spain are keen to have UK tourists back, but cannot agree to a quid pro quo and the Chancellor could doubtless do without blame for major travel companies going bust as well as our other economic travails. In other words, we will have to be trusted again to make more of our own decisions. It will feel provisional and more contentious, with fewer of the shared certainties of the stay at home weeks. It will feel tentative, contradictory and changeable but lockdown-lite is the right way to go. OTTAWA, ONTARIO (June 2, 2020) The Honourable Carolyn Bennett, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, made the following statement: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established to find the truth in the dark and painful residential schools in our countrys history. Today marks the fifth anniversary of the release of the TRCs 94 Calls to Action, an appeal to mobilize all levels of government, organizations, as well as individuals, to make concrete changes in society. They list specific actions to redress the legacy of residential schools and advance the process of Canadian reconciliation. This is a day for all Canadians to acknowledge the courage of the former students and families who came forward to share their truth and the leadership and guidance of the commissioners who provided us with a path forward. The Commission revealed the heartbreaking details of the role that residential schools played in the history of Canada and the tragic legacy that continues today. It is said that once you know the truth, you cannot un-know it. It is only by increasing our collective understanding of the damage done by colonial policies that we will break down barriers and racism towards Indigenous peoples in Canada. The Government of Canada has taken steps to address the Calls to Action, including legislation respecting Indigenous languages; legislation on supporting First Nations, Inuit and Metis children, youth and families; and addressing the safety and security of Indigenous women and girls, LGBTQ and Two-Spirit people. We are implementing Jordans Principle which makes sure all First Nations children in Canada can access the products, services and supports they need, when they need them. From July 2016 to April 30, 2020, more than 594,000 products, services and supports, including speech therapy, educational supports, medical equipment, and mental health services were approved for First Nations children under Jordan's Principle. The Government of Canada has also implemented a new policy and funding approach in 2019 for funding First Nations education on reserve co-developed with First Nations representatives. The goal of the new approach is to transform First Nations education through predictable base funding that is more directly comparable to provincial education systems. The approach also provides full-day kindergarten on reserve for children ages four and five and $1,500 per student, per year, to support language and culture. We recognize that there is still much more work to do. Our work in partnership with Indigenous peoples to renew the nation-to-nation, Inuit-Crown and government-to-government relationship between Canada and Indigenous peoples provides a foundation for a better future. The Commission closed with the theme of This ending is just the beginning. Today, we recommit to honour and support the survivors, and reflect on how everyone including federal, provincial, territorial, municipal governments and Canadians from coast-to-coast-to-coast must play their role in the implementation of the Calls to Action and the journey of reconciliation. Two officials of Pakistan High Commission who were caught on charges of spying by Indian authorities on Sunday (May 31) were sent to Islamabad on Monday (June 1) through Wagah border. The two spies were caught red-handed from New Delhi's Karol Bagh in a joint operation of Military Intelligence, Intelligence Bureau and Special Cell of Delhi Police and later it was learnt that they were linked to Pakistan Army. Sources told Zee Media that the two officers identified as Abid Hussain and Tahir Hussain started working in the visa section of the high commission as per a secret plan of Pakistan's ISI. An FIR filed against Abid (42) and Tahir (44) mentioned that they were caught while procuring sensitive documents related to the movement of Indian armed forces through railways from an Indian national in exchange of money and an iPhone. Abid Hussain posed as Gautam, brother of a media person, to establish contact with an individual working in the Indian Railways. He also tried to gain his confidence by pretending that he needed information about rail movements for his brother who was supposedly doing a story on the Indian Railways and for which he was willing to pay, said Anil Mittal, Additional PRO (Delhi Police). Abid also tried to lure an Indian Army jawan to procure confidential documents and Zee News has the exclusive excerpts of Abid's conversation with a jawan whom he was trying to befriend in order to get information in the future. Abid: Hello, tell me whether you were once posted in 1705RPM? Jawan: No sir, this is my first posting. Abid: I have a friend and i have changed my mobile as the old one had stopped working properly. My friend's name was also Roy and that's why i called you thinking you are the same person. You are in 326, right? Jawan: Yes sir, in Delhi only. Where are you posted? Abid: I am also in 106 in Delhi. Jawan: Well, well Abid: But my family lives in Noida. I own a house in Noida so I go there only. Jawan: Well, well Abid: I had a friend named Roy who was also posted in West Bengal and i thought you are the same person. I talked to Yadav and he said that he also has a friend named Roy from West Bengal so I thought you are the same Roy. That's why I decided to call to find out whether you are the same Roy or not. Jawan: Fine, fine Abid: You are not using any Whatsapp number Jawan: Sir, we are not allowed to use Whatsapp Abid: But I am allowed to use as no one has asked me to stop using it. You are new in the job that's why. Jawan: They check in the line. Abid: This is the problem in line. You have to keep things in hiding otherwise it can create trouble. Ok no problem, will try to take some time out and meet you. Jawan: Ok, we will meet. GREENWICH Protesters of all ages turned out Monday evening at an angry but peaceful rally outside the towns Public Safety Complex on Greenwich Avenue, denouncing police brutality against minorities and demanding action. The local rally, which was organized organically over social media, was spurred by the death last week of George Floyd in Minneapolis in police custody. The incident has caused international protest after video surfaced of Police Officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyds neck for more than eight minutes while Floyd stated that he could not breathe. Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. In Greenwich, protesters carried homemade signs and chanted I cant breathe, Black Lives Matter and we want justice. They also demanded a dialogue with police and town officials. I have been stopped on Greenwich Avenue just because I was black, said a protester who identified herself only as Christina. They would not tell me why they were stopping me and my friends from walking. I have had cops called on me at my building where I live. Ive been here since I was a student at Greenwich High School and the racial profiling has not stopped. Several other protesters told of alleged incidents of racial profiling by the Greenwich Police Department and demanded answers to their complaints of unfair treatment. Randy Brown said Greenwich police officers have accused him several times of stealing cars. There was an incident just last night where they came to my house where I was in my driveway, Brown said. I didnt know they were cops at first. I was scared for my life. This can happen to anyone. Ive been stopped numerous times, but I have never in my life been charged or arrested or even ticketed. The size of the crowd ballooned and shrank throughout the protest, which was still continuing more than two hours after its 5 p.m. sart. At its peak, more than 100 people were outside the GPD headquarters. During that time, no one attempted to enter the building and the protest remained nonviolent. Will Armstrong, one of the more vocal of the protesters, said that as a white male he wanted to use his voice to speak out against injustice. We want to bring awareness to the people of Greenwich about the injustices that are going on within the rest of the country considering we do live in such a sheltered area, Armstrong said. We do not want anybody to get hurt. We dont condone looting. We dont condone vandalism or anything like that. We want to have everyones voices heard in an equal way because theyre not being heard and thats a huge issue. Meeting with protesters Chief of Police James Heavey and Capt. Kraig Gray, head of the GPDs patrol division, met with the protesters outside. At first, both were frustrated when they were shouted down by protesters, but eventually all sides were heard. Heavey, Gray and other officers took a knee when the crowd demanded it in a show of solidarity. Were here for the same reasons, Gray said. We want justice for all, and when you do wrong you suffer the consequences. Wrong is wrong and that officer was charged. Were here to keep the peace. We respect everyones rights. Heavey and Gray said the actions shown in the video are shameful and that Chauvin deserved to be arrested. But several of the more vocal protesters rejected that sentiment, saying, Were not here for the same reasons. They said that their complaints have been ignored and that profiling has gone on for too long. When Heavey said he was listening, one protester shouted back, Thats not good enough. Were really trying to listen and communicate to you that this isnt just some kind of show and were going to forget about it, Heavey said. We are here as your police department. You deserve a good police department, and we have a good police department. If there are injustices, we will address them. If you have a complaint, we will look into it. Heavey said the Greenwich Police Department was ready to listen and that any complaint filed against an officer has and will continue to be investigated. He urged anyone with a complaint to make themselves heard and said complaints can be made anonymously. Heavey also suggested calling the chiefs office, filling out a form at the GPD or at Town Hall and doing it online. Complaints have not mattered in the past, Rosanna Neri said; the GPD needs to show the community that they will matter from now on. First Selectman Fred Camillo was at the police headquarters on an unrelated reason but came out to speak when protesters began chanting Wheres Fred? When we see an injustice like we saw in Minnesota, you should be here and you should be talking and expressing your views, Camillo told the protesters. But this in no way reflects on this police department, which goes above and beyond community relations. Camillo gave his cellphone number to several protesters and told protester Johnny Alexander that he would make an extra effort to keep the dialogue going. Camillo and Heavey voted to meet with protesters and continue talking, inviting them to come to the monthly Community and Police Partnership meetings with the GPD. Were tired and things need to change, Priscilla Rodriguez said. kborsuk@greenwichtime.com Photo credit: rustycloud/Boeing From Popular Mechanics A Department of Defense think tank recommends the U.S. Navy buy 50 extra large uncrewed undersea vehicles (XLUUVs) to complement the Navys crewed submarine fleet. XLUUVs would perform missions that dont need complex, expensive crewed submarines or were too dangerous to risk a crew of 130 or more submariners. The submarines would also be considerably less expensive than crewed subs, allowing the Navy to grow the size of the fleet at minimal cost. The Cost Assessment and Performance Evaluation (CAPE) office, an arm of the Department of Defense that analyzes military programs and provides analytic advice to the Secretary of Defense, is recommending the U.S. Navy go big on uncrewed undersea vehicles (XLUUVs), Defense News reports . CAPEs internal assessment of the U.S. Navys force structure recommends the service acquire 50 XLUUVs to complement the 50-plus crewed, nuclear attack submarines of the Los Angeles, Seawolf, and Virginia classes. The Navy ordered the first of its XLUUVs in 2019, awarding a contract to Boeing for four Orca XLUUVs . The Orca boats measure 8.5 by 8.5 feet by 51 feet, can travel 6,500 miles on their own, and dive to depths of up to 11,000 feet. The Orcas also feature a modular payload system that will allow the Navy to swap out different sets of mission equipment. Future XLUUVs will almost certainly feature the ability to launch Tomahawk anti-ship and land attack cruise missiles, as well as Mk. 48 ADCAP heavyweight anti-ship torpedoes. Here's a Boeing video touting Echo Voyager, a technology demonstrator that led to the Orca program: Most people think of submarines as ships that cruise underneath the sea, sinking enemy ships. In reality, the Navys attack submarine fleet performs a wide spectrum of missions, some recently acquired to keep the fleet relevant in the world of post-9/11 land warfare. According to the Navy , attack submarines: ...are designed to seek and destroy enemy submarines and surface ships; project power ashore with Tomahawk cruise missiles and Special Operation Forces (SOF); carry out Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions; support battle group operations; and engage in mine warfare. Story continues Uncrewed XLUUVs will be smaller and cheaper than manned submarines. XLUUVs wont act as replacements for crewed submarines; instead, theyll do the boring and repetitive missions, like intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance. In peacetime, that might mean instead of parking a $3 billion submarine with 130 submariners aboard off the coast of North Korea, the Navy would substitute a XLUUV. Freed from the dull mission of listening to and recording Pyongyangs telephone conversations, the crewed submarine can instead train to do what it does best: locate, track, and sink enemy ships. Uncrewed subs will also be useful for simple, yet dangerous missions. A Tomahawk land attack cruise missile has a range of about 1,000 miles. If enemy anti-submarine warfare forces make getting within range risky, an XLUUV could be loaded up with missiles instead. U.S. submarines are also trained to lay minefields, but the best places to mine are typically heavily trafficked by enemy forcesthink harbor entrances and straits. An XLUUV could sneak into position and sow a minefield without risking a single sailor. The sub could also perform the reverse mission, performing the dangerous mission of hunting and neutralizing mines. XLUUVs could even work with crewed submarines to engage enemy forces. They could imitate a Virginia-class submarine, luring the anti-submarine ships and helicopters of an enemy carrier task force into chasing it. Meanwhile, the real Virginia-class sub might approach from a different direction and commence attack. The Navy might lose a single uncrewed sub, but the enemy might lose an aircraft carrier. And that's a good trade in anyones book. You Might Also Like NEW HAVEN Pastor Kelcy Steele of Varick Memorial AME Zion Church led the day-after analysis of the1,000-person protest of police violence and found the majority of protesters, the mayor, the police and the response of the community praise-worthy. Among the demands of some protesters was a better definition of cross jurisdictional agreements that allow police intervention in New Haven; finally activating the Civilian Review Board and deepening the role of community policing. Mayor Justin Elicker, who took office in January and has budget problems in addition to dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, said in a press conference Monday he will address all three things, making sure that the regional agreements adher to the values we have in New Haven about our relationship between the police and the community. Steele praised Elicker, the target of criticism from the protest leaders who were the harshest voices at the demonstration at police headquarters, the only portion of the daylong event where there was physical conflict. During six hours of marching Sunday, that included an unexpected shutting down of a portion of Interstate 95 that took the cooperation of state and local police as they blocked traffic, there was no confrontation.aBut at about 6:30 p.m., with Kerry Ellington of People Against Police Violence leading the second part of the protest for three hours in front of Police Headquarters, there was a clash. Ellington, who has organized protests from zoning issues to the need for a Civilian Review Board in New Haven, used a megaphone to tell police what they were planning next. She repeated the call for Elicker to come out to talk to them, something they had screamed for in often profanity-laced accusations, a Ct Bail Fund Facebook video shows. We want to tell the mayor our demands. We want to enter into the public building now. Enter into the public building now. This is a public building. Mayor Elicker tweeted that he was inside. We would like to publicly tell Mayor Elicker our demands. We will go in because this is a public building and we are doing nothing wrong, Ellington asserted, the video shows. Thats right, some from the crowd could be heard saying, which was about 300 at that point, down from the 1,000 on the highway, police said. So lets march in, right people? Ellington asked. Lets go, lets go, she said. Push the barricades. The chain, someone else shouted from behind, as police stood on the other side of the thin yellow metal chain drawn across the space at the top of the stairs to the headquarters. Police were not using overtly protective clothing until later when they put on body shields and helmets with plastic visors after some in the crowd threw batteries and plastic water bottles at them. Police Chief Otoniel Reyes said one supervisor got hit in the face with a plastic bottle. The crowd then pushed forward, according to the video posted by the Ct Bail Fund. They are pepper spraying, they are pepper spraying, Ellington shouted, 35 seconds later, as those in the front line pushed back against the relatively small crowd behind them to get out of range. The majority did not try to storm the station, the video shows. There was screaming and jostling as they reversed themselves down the steps to the entrance of Police Headquarters. I cant see, someone says. I got milk. It helps, another protester said as he comes to the womans side. The milk can help take the burn away, but it doesnt remove the oil from the pepper spray. Both Suarez and Ellington complained about being pepper sprayed. Ellington said she wanted to get into the police station to file a complaint. I asked my members to disengage yesterday because the protest had went from peaceful to pitiful, Steele said at the press conference Monday, where he also advised residents dont waste this protest. Reyes Monday, also at the press conference, said the police followed their training and they did have to pepper spray in order to move the crowd back that was attempting to advance on them - certain people within the crowd - it wasnt everyone. He said after they put on protective clothing, they were able to hold the line and it quickly turned peaceful again. He said he and Elicker, the day after the event, want to focus on the fact that there were no arrests, no one got hurt and we are able to talk about it now and say we can build on it and that is a very positive thing. Asked why it was peaceful here, compared to other parts of the country, Reyes said they had a lot of community support. We had a lot of professional officers doing their jobs. We had a lot of partnerships working behind the scenes. The mayor on Monday again reflected on why he waited so long to address the protesters and what he thought of the police reaction to the crowd trying to force its way into the headquarters. Elicker said he and Reyes had discussed multiple times Sunday that officers should do everything possible to de-escalate, to not use force, to ensure that the protesters had the opportunity in every way to protest peacefully. Given however that the police station in Bridgeport had been vandalized on Saturday, when protesters, who the mayor said were among those in New Haven on Sunday, we agreed that it was the right call to not allow anyone into the police station. The police made that very clear to the protesters, he said. The most important reason was safety, Elicker said, given the idea of opening the doors with hundreds of protesters outside, particularly in light of violent protests elsewhere in the country. The headquarters had been closed for two months, as are schools and other government buildings because of the COVID-19 pandemic with the public asked to practice social distancing and shelter-in-place. It is not a fair expectation that a public building is open at any time for anyone to come in. That doesnt mean that Im not accessible and that the chief is not accessible. It is the opposite. Its got to be a productive dialogue, Elicker said. The mayor said it was antithetical to who he is, not to respond to someone who wants to have a conversation. His decision on Sunday however, was prompted by the visit outside his home from 8 p.m. Friday to 1 a.m. on Saturday by Ellington, Vanesa Suarez, Norman Clement and Jeannia Fu, among the leaders outside Police Headquarters, and others, which did not proceed to a discussion. A video of that visit, in a story in the New Haven Independent, showed him shouted at for a decision to arrest ATV riders, keeping the lockup open at Police Headquarters, as they read a list of black residents killed in incidents in other cities and states, but also the shooting by a Hamden police officer, accompanied by a Yale University officer, into a car with two New Haven residents. He uses the same white supremacist logic that leaves our black and brown community members dead ..., one of the protesters said, a reference Steele rejected. Elicker did not get to speak. Their biggest complaint was about Richard Smith, who was arrested in an incident at Walmart last week for shoplifting. They shouted for the mayor to drop the charges. Smith is charged with three counts of possession of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell, interfering with a police officer, fifth-degree larceny and assault on a police officer. The protesters described it differently. This Wednesday a black shopper was profiled by New Haven officers, protester Jeannia Fu said, according to the Independent. He was profiled. He was chased. He was maced. He was brutalized by multiple officers. And then he was arrested. Reyes and Elicker said the police used the right amount of force. On Monday, Elicker said he finally did decide to talk to the Sunday crowd to give dialogue another try. I figured they kept calling for this. I will try again. I expected it would end the same way. I was interested in trying to de-escalate the situation, he said. Reyes said he was grateful for the support of the communitys leaders they hold us accountable and they raise the bar for us. He said it was a very difficult time in the country, because George Floyd died at the hands of a police officer. Reyes said that as a chief, representing officers not just in my jurisdiction, but across the country, we must own it. He noted that on Saturday, they collectively pledged to do that. Elicker thanked the chief, Alder Steve Winter, D-21, state Rep. Robyn Porter, state Sen. Gary Winfield, both D-New Haven, and the youth and criminal justice workers who came to the press conference. He said he was not only proud of the police but also of the protesters. Yesterday was just another example of what makes me proud about being in New Haven and being New Havens mayor that people step out and voice their outrage at what happened and pave a path forward for us to address these very deep and challenging issues, he said. We have to make this moment a real turning point to bring about a real change, Steele said in ending racism, inequality and police violence against people of color. Considering himself a good judge of people and someone who holds officials accountable, Steele said, Mayor Justin Elicker is not a white supremacist, but he is a white man trying to discern ... the concerns of all of our communities, black and brown. He said he was disappointed on how he and his family were being targeted. He said the problems the protesters addressed were here before we elected our new mayor and Im confident with his leadership and our partnership we can push for a united New Haven. Elicker said he felt deep frusration and anger to what happened to George Floyd. Its just got to stop. People keep asking me, since yeserday, if the protesters had let me speak, what would I have said ... ? The mayor said there is understandable anger at the killing of George Floyd, but this is much more than that. I think it is important to understand that it is about Connecticut and it is also about New Haven. It is about us and the work that we must do, Elicker said. I dont have all the answers. Im not sure exactly what the right path is forward to address systemic racism. I dont know what it is like to be black or brown. I dont know what it is like to drive around and worry, if I get pulled over, I might get shot. I dont know what its like when my child leaves, to worry it might get hurt. But I care. And Im deeply commited to doing the right thing to addressing police brutality and systematic racism. And I am listening, he said. The Board of Alders Monday unanimously passed a resolution condemning police brutality across the nation and committing to take necessary steps to change the culture to prevent the occurrence of similar incidents and for the benefit of the shared common good. We cant do it alone, the police cant do it alone, the mayor cant do it alone; its going to take all of us, said board President Tyisha Walker-Myers, D-23. Of seven alders who spoke on the resolution, several said they wanted to include the police in discussions on moving forward. We got to protect and serve who protect and serve us, said Alder Brian Wingate, D-29. Police brutality, we have zero tolerance for that. But we all are one community, both the police and the community, we are one community, said Alder Jeanette Morrison, D-22. If we dont sit down, lock hands together and embrace one another and make sure we are protecting one another without hurting each other, if we cant do that then our community will be no longer. Majority Leader Richard Furlow, D-27, said, until this culture changes throughout our whole country, we will witness more people being attacked, victimized and killed as a result of systemic racism among the rank and file of those we trust with our public safety. Walker-Myers closed the meeting with a moment of silence for George Floyd. Editors Note: Pastor Kelcy Steeles name was misspelled in an earlier version of this story. mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com, Brian Zane contributed to this story. "I dont even know how to describe what we just went through," says 27-year-old Marilyn Figueroa, describing the moment police, the military and National Guard moved in on protesters outside the White House in Washington DC on Monday. Figueroa and her friend, 24-year-old Adriyanna Andreus, have given The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald a vivid eyewitness account of the moment authorities decided to clear demonstrations earlier than the official curfew hour. American friends 24-year-old Adriyanna Andreus and 27-year-old Marilyn Figueroa. The two American women of Carribean descent say they arrived to peacefully protest just after 5pm local time, knowing of the looming 7pm curfew. We were chanting, yelling, asking them [authorities] to kneel with us and pray with us, recalls Andreus. With an aim to be a part of top 500 universities of the world, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) is expanding its international hostel, building smart classrooms, upgrading graduate and postgraduate laboratories, and beautifying its campus under the institute of excellence (IoE) scheme, said BHU public relations officer Dr Rajesh Singh. Giving details of achievements of BHU in last one year, Dr Singh said that the government had sanctioned Rs 1000 crore under IoE scheme a few months ago to the university for upgrading infrastructure, academic and research facilities, laboratories, central and departmental libraries within five years. Work has already started for upgrading academic and research facilities. The international hostel of 110 rooms is almost ready. It will help the university attract more foreign students. He said with the financial support of the ministry of human resource development and union ministry of health and family welfare, a super speciality block worth Rs 200 crore has been built in BHU. After being inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it is already functional. At present, it is providing medical services to Covid-19 patients. It is equipped with operation theatres, and biochemistry lab and pathology. Moreover, bone marrow transplant and stem cell research centre have also been set up, construction of regional eye centre with an estimated cost of Rs 38.5 crore is about to be completed. Singh said that with the financial support of union human resource development ministry, a central discovery centre, equipped with state of the art facilities, for research in basic and practical science is also being set up. A SATHI centre with an estimated cost of Rs 125 crore is being set up in BHU. Under one roof, there will be facilities for innovation, entrepreneurship and development of startups. He said that a centre for Vedic science has been set up in the university for research and to establish a link between ancient Indian knowledge and modern science. The centre will also work for reestablishing the excellent sources of knowledge, Vedas and its wide area and will also study their effect in understanding modern science and technology. BHU has also signed an MoU with solar energy corporation for setting up a solar energy centre and a green energy centre for study in this field. Dr Singh said that 369 research projects worth over Rs 157 crore are underway in the university. The deteriorating relationship between China and the United States will have profound impacts on the global markets. Nationalism was already on the rise on both sides of the Pacific when the COVID-19 crisis exposed vulnerabilities to the global supply chain. As global trade reorients, certain countries will prove to be better aligned to capture relocating U.S. manufacturing. Investors should watch closely for the forerunning signals of which countries will benefit. The global economic shock of COVID-19 has prompted commensurate fiscal and monetary responses from governments and central banks. For investors in global securities markets, recovery in growth and employment are the key variables to watch. In the near term, growth will face the headwinds of continued shutdown risks and increased consumer savings (thus depressed consumer spending). Over the long term, a robust recovery will be challenged by a sea change in supply and demand factors. National security concerns in the U.S. will drive production back to America and introduce it in other Western Hemisphere countries. Consumer behavior will shift as new technologies continue to disrupt old business models and practices. And the burden of increased debt will dampen future consumption. It is too early to say how these issues will play out, but investors should pay attention for signs of the winners and losers in the post-COVID recovery. Chinese infrastructure investment is expected to pick up substantially this year. The focus of this investment will target both the old economy of transportation, pipelines and upgrades to residential buildings as well as new-economy projects. The latter, which are likely to be more durable in my opinion, include 5G applications, next-generation information networks and electric-vehicle infrastructure. The formation of a new geopolitical landscape, however, will counterbalance the drivers of growth in Asia. Under its newly re-elected president, Taiwan has embarked on a more hawkish stance to mainland China. In response, Beijing will likely increase pressure on Taiwans economy. It will be important to see how Taiwan develops supply chains with the Western world. Hong Kong faces a long-term decline in its standing as a hub of international trade and finance. On May 28, Chinas National Peoples Congress approved a draft proposal by a vote of 2,878 to one for new national security legislation in Hong Kong. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had announced May 27 that Hong Kong does not continue to warrant treatment under United States laws in the same manner as U.S. laws were applied to Hong Kong before July 1997. It is now up to the U.S. Congress via legislation, or President Trump via executive order, to adjust the Hong Kong Policy Act, which provides special status to the special administrative region. The special status exempts Hong Kong from some of the tariffs applied to China and has been a factor in Hong Kong becoming a trade and finance hub in the region. But the U.S. needs to be careful, as its actions could not only hurt Hong Kong but benefit Beijing. By treating Hong Kong the same as the rest of China, Washington could solidify the mainlands grip on Hong Kong, an outcome fundamentally at odds with American support for the islands pro-democracy movement. Over the medium term, Hong Kong appears likely to lose its status as Chinas premier trade and finance hub to the benefit of Shanghai and other regional players such as Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam. In fact, the U.S. is building an Economic Prosperity Network that might include these four nations. In the Western Hemisphere, candidates for re-onshoring will consist of critical technologies and healthcare products but might also include the producers of more basic items for which society has increased demand during the pandemic such as food and everyday household items. According to the nonpartisan U.S. Congressional Research Service, Because of Chinas role as a global supplier of PPE [personal protective equipment], medical devices, antibiotics, and active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), reduced exports from China have led to shortages of critical medical supplies in the United States. On the technology side, the U.S. Department of Commerce on May 22 designated new Chinese companies as risks to national security. This will restrict their access to sensitive U.S. technology. These actions are disrupting and changing global supply chains. Technology is very important, as China is the U.S.s largest supplier of goods, including electrical machinery, such as computers and telecommunication equipment, which is the largest category of imported goods. The policies will need to be watched closely to see how quickly large economies such as those of the United States and the United Kingdom adjust their supply chains. To address concerns expressed by his Conservative Party about China, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is targeting zero involvement for Chinese tech giant Huawei in the U.K.s 5G networks by 2023. Rather than moving all their production capacity from China to within their own borders, the U.S., U.K. and Europe might seek to diversify their supply chains into other countries with which they have close geopolitical ties as well as within their own borders. Two major semiconductor manufacturers, Intel and Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., are seeking to build semiconductor production facilities in the U.S. We should be on watch for moves to bring inputs to various industrial sectors back onshore especially in pharmaceuticals, aerospace, autos and technology. It is likely that these supply chain adjustments by the U.S. would benefit countries like Mexico and Canada. To be sure, other issues than China will reshape the investment landscape, such as the rise of debt; widening of deficits and corresponding increases in taxes; increased government ownership of markets; changing demographics, consumer preferences and savings behaviors; and accelerated use of new technologies. But I do believe that there is no going back to the old globalization model. New models, centered on nation states and allied nation states, will arise post-COVID-19. Dozens of evangelical churches are joining together to help Minneapolis as protests against racism and police violence rock the city and destructive riots devastate minority neighborhoods. In the week after the death of George Floyd, local evangelicals have participated in the citywide response, donating food and supplies and rallying volunteers for cleanup efforts. But as church leaders consider the long-term needs that will continue when the news cycle and national attention move on, theyve realized how important it is to work together to coordinate their responses. People want to just do something, but that doesnt mean we know what to do, said Shawna Boren, the engagement pastor at Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul. Were really trying to be effective by listening to the churches in the neighborhoods that are affected and doing what they tell us to do. Boren was one of more than 250 ministers who joined a Zoom call on Monday to discuss ways that churches can collaborate. The call was organized by Transform Minnesota, an evangelical organization that brings pastors together to wrestle with social issues. The church leaders heard about specific community needs, like baby formula and hand sanitizer. They shared their exhaustion after months of dealing with the impacts of COVID-19. They talked about best practices for helping clean up after a riot, like checking in with community leaders before showing up in a neighborhood with a van full of people. And they discussed concerns about how helping could hurt. We dont need saviors. What we need are partners, Charvez Russell, a black Baptist pastor, told the group. Yes, we need your help right now. Yes, we need your help cleaning up. Yes, we need your resources. But we also need long-term partners who are going to help us stand up for God and tear down the systems that hold people down. In the Zoom meetings chat window, several Christian leaders typed Amen. Bethlehem Baptist Church, where John Piper served as pastor for more than 30 years, is focusing its response on local grocery stores that have been destroyed or forced to close because of the protests. The church wants to meet the immediate needs of hungry people while supporting these businesses and ultimately improving the communitys food distribution system. Ming-Jinn Tong, a neighborhood outreach pastor at Bethlehems downtown campus, outlined a tentative three-step process. Right now, the church is setting up emergency pop up grocery stores and providing direct deliveries to people who need food. Next come plansstill being developedto bail out the local grocery stores, buying their new inventory and distributing the food from a temporary farmers market while teams of carpenters fix up the buildings so the businesses can reopen. The question is, Are we scratching where it doesnt itch? Tong asked the pastors Monday. The situation is always changingthe implications of what has happened and the implications of the ongoing injustices. So we must have an attitude of listening, learning, and then leading. Another pressing concern this week involved brush piles. Laurel Bunker, campus minister and church-relations coordinator at Bethel University, said Minneapolis churches were prioritizing yard cleanup after several people found bottles of flammable liquid hidden in piles of debris. Locals are concerned about arsonists after several nights of fires. Volunteers can help by hauling away brush. The citys current crisis may forge new relationships among evangelical churches, according to Carl Nelson, director of Transform Minnesota. Founded in the 1960s as the Greater Minneapolis Association of Evangelicals, the group initially focused on organizing prayer. It now puts on leadership conferences for 300400 churches a year and works to connect ministers and help them develop relationships. The response to the protests is built on individual relationships, he said, like those that grew out of the organizations civil rights trips. The sankofa journeys take small groups of black and white pastors to landmark sites in Atlanta, Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis. They are expensive and time consuming, but also effective at preparing pastors to work together to address racism, Nelson said. In the white evangelical churches, it has created some courageous willpower to say Were going to press into this, even in the face of congregations that sometimes think concern about racism is just a progressive agenda, or even Marxism, Nelson said. Ive seen the churches in the last week build on that existing action and start coming together to say that we have to invest in the institutions that represent communities of color, the communities that were most impacted by the violence and, before that, by the underlying ideological issues that allowed the death of George Floyd to take place. On Monday, the ministers also talked about the need to address racism in evangelical churches and the importance of using this moment to spur change in white people. Pastors in the area said they rewrote their sermons last week to address Floyds death and the ongoing issues of systemic racism. At Hope Church, in the suburb of Oakdale, Clay Edens preached about the need to lament racial brokenness, confess racism, and listen and learn from black voices. The congregation prayed in silence for eight minutes and 46 seconds, believed to be the amount of time a Minneapolis police officer put his knee on Floyds neck despite Floyds pleas that he couldnt breathe. Im not someone to consistently allow the news to dictate what I preach from the pulpit, but this felt different, Edens told Christianity Today. Theres definitely a movement of the Spirit here to open up our eyes to the racism both in our own hearts and in the systems of our country. At Woodland Hills, senior pastor Greg Boyd rewrote his sermon as well. He told the pastors gathered on the Monday Zoom call that he was convicted that racism is the responsibility of the white church. If white Christians had loved like Jesus loved, he said, they could have stopped slavery before it began, squelched the Ku Klux Klan, and prevented the laws that instituted racial segregation in America. Its on us, he said. And for white folks, the security and familiarity and privilege of the way things have been will lull you to sleep if you dont have ongoing familiarity with black and brown brothers and sisters in Christ. The Minneapolis pastors are hopeful that this new cooperation and coordination will meet the needs of the city in its moment of crisis, but also mark a change for the evangelicals in the area. It has to be a turning point. It has to, Nelson said. There have to be enough of us in the church to say were going in a different direction. We cant battle our way through this just to return to normal. Pakistans Prime Minister Imran Khan has announced his government would end the coronavirus lockdown despite the rising number of infections and deaths in the country citing economic losses and urged people to live with the virus. The Pakistan government has lifted almost all shutdown restrictions, primarily to avert an economic meltdown, and said the country would open to tourism but cinemas, theatres and schools will remain closed. Click here for full Covid-19 coverage It has reported 72,460 cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and 1,543 deaths so far. Imran Khans announcement came shortly after an alarming government report was leaked to the media that showed Covid-19 cases in Lahore are estimated to be at about 670,800. Khan said Pakistans economic losses included a decline in exports, a 30% shortfall in revenues and remittances were expected to fall in coming months. Pakistan is facing a balance of payment crisis with the fiscal deficit likely to rise as high as 9.4% and the revenue shortfall. In a televised address, Khan said the country couldnt afford to match the losses incurred during the lockdown as many other countries had done. He cited 50 million people who live below the poverty line and 25 million daily wagers. Khan said his government gave cash handouts to the poor, which wasnt possible to continue on such a large scale, adding around 130 million to 150 million people were adversely affected by the coronavirus shutdowns. Our conditions dont allow that we keep feeding money to them, how long we can give them money, Khan said. Khan was reluctant to call for a sweeping lockdown, so instead, the countrys four provinces ordered their own closures. Unfortunately, the way lockdown occurred, that was very painful for our lower class, Khan said, adding that the lockdown had affected the countrys tax-revenue collections. He defended his decision to reopen, arguing lockdowns dont stop the virus. You will have to understand this coronavirus, its not going to go unless a vaccine is discovered. We have to live with the coronavirus. The entire world has reached this conclusion, Khan said, pointing to eased restrictions in US states. Today, America, the richest country in the world, where 100,000 people have died because of corona, they too have decided that their economy would collapse if they (continue) a lockdown, Khan said. He urged people to act responsibly but added that more infections and deaths were inevitable. This virus will spread more. I have to say it with regret that there will be more deaths, Khan said. I request you all to please follow SOPs (standard operating procedures), as we are opening everything on the conditions of these SOPs, Khan said in his address, warning people will suffer if they do not take precautions. According to its health ministry, 28,245 Covid-19 cases have been diagnosed in Sindh, 26,240 in Punjab, 10,027 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 4,393 in Balochistan, 2,589 in Islamabad, 711 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 255 in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The ministry showed that 26,083 patients have recovered so far from the virus and authorities have conducted 561,136 tests. (With agency inputs) The death of George Floyd has brought the U.S. to its knees. Cities all over the U.S, including the one where I live, have erupted into rioting. As the days blend into one another, we also see a growing number of peaceful protesting in other countries around the world. The news channels cannot keep up with the devastation fast enough. Coronavirus was all we seemed to hear about for the last two months, and now it is taking a backseat to an issue our country has tried to sweep under the rug for many, many decades. If youre like me, you get up in the morning and cruise through your Facebook feed with a hot cup of coffee or tea. And if youre anything like me, the posts we read make us uncomfortable. But the uncomfortableness we feel is nothing like having someone kneel on our necks when we are begging to breathe. As I force myself to read the varying opinions from friends who are educators of diverse races, as well as those friends who are city, county, or state police, its easy to feel helpless. Should I yell? Should I post my outrage on Facebook and other social-media outlets? Should I go out and protest? How do I say I understand, when really I dont? The reality for me is that the outrage I feel is the same as its been during the countless other times this has happened in cities around the country. Just like school shootings, we have seemed to get used to these stories where African-American men have been killed for no reason. The latest has been the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, as well as the senseless 911 phone call on Christian Cooper. At the end of March, there was a popular post on Facebook where people were outraged that it marked the first time in 20 years there was not a school shooting during that particular month. This, of course, is another issue to be outraged about in our country. But did you know that there were deaths of students on the streets of Chicago in March? That happens so much, the Chicago Tribune tracks it here . All of this discrimination and racism, as well as a pandemic that brings social isolation, can lead to a great deal of trauma for all of us, regardless of where we are sitting around the U.S. One of the issues I struggle with is what to do next? There are Friends that I have on social media who post angry comments and shame others for being silent. Just because we do not post angry comments on Facebook doesnt mean we are silent, right? And just because people do post their angry comments on Facebook doesnt mean they will actually do anything other than post another angry comment, right? What Can We Do? I will never pretend I know what its like to be consistently discriminated against. As gay men, my partner and I have been yelled at on the street and have had comments thrown at us as we walked through the mall. There have been subtle moments of being discriminated against, but I am a white man and I understand privilege. My privilege has aided me many times more than it hasnt. Just a side note, the topic of privilege is another topic that some dont believe in, because well...they have privilege and do not see it. Or they choose not to see it. I fear for my great nephews and niece who are biracial. I want them to have the opportunities in life that they deserve and do not want them to be denied those opportunities because of the color of their skin. I want my nephew-in-law who is from Kenya to be treated equally and not hear that he and my niece are discriminated against because their love may look different from what other people view as acceptable. Many years ago, when I was on my third attempt at a community college (I was a struggling learner), I took a class that changed the way I viewed my world. It was a class in cultural pluralism, and I learned so much about the way marginalized populations (i.e., indigenous, African-American, etc.) had always been treated. I also learned about the topic of implicit bias for the first time. I learned about the way the media portray one group over another. For example, if you watch television, notice how many white people have speaking roles and how many African-Americans appear in the show and dont speak at all. For those of us in education, its when we see who is presenting at a conference and notice the keynoters are all white men, and very few are women or anyone of a different race. Or when we dive deeper into those conferences and notice that the diverse presenters who are presenting are asked only to speak about diversity. Diversity, as we can see right now, is a vitally important topic, but surely, African-American men and women can speak to other topics, too, right? So, for those people who are looking for what they can do, I thought I would compile a little list. I would very much like those readers who have resources to post them in the comment section below. My list, which is not exhaustive, is: Join Rethinking Schools - As a young teacher in a diverse school, I wanted to connect with my students and I was smart enough to know that I needed some more help. I began reading Rethinking Schools , and it helped me progress in the way of thinking that was inspired by the cultural-pluralism class. It was, and still continues to be, one of the most important resources in my educational career. Read a blog - Education Week has had impactful writers over the decades. One is Bettina L. Love. Love has written some very brutally honest and open essays, like this one Dear White Teachers. You Cant Love Your Black Students If You Dont Know Them . Heres the thing, when I say read a blog, I also mean that after reading the blog, you should change at least one thing about how you move forward. Dont stay consistently in the precontemplative stage of change. Read a book - There are numerous books to read in an effort to educate yourself. The book I read recently that helped secure a more thoughtful approach to how I do things is Christopher Emdins For White Folks Who Teach In the Hood...and All the Rest Of Yall Too . Teach about real history - When I was growing up, I didnt realize how much of the history I learned was whitewashed. The class in cultural pluralism and the resource Rethinking Schools helped me see that there was a lot more to the stories I learned when I was growing up. I used the resources before in blogs and was told that they were liberal brainwashing, so I think that helps us see why we have racial issues in this country. Clearly, plays like Hamilton have shined a light on true history, and we need to keep exploring that with students. The interesting thing is that teachers and leaders will not take this action because its uncomfortable and they will receive pushback from parents. They are also concerned that they will not have all of the answers, so its easier to ignore the issue. This is why we need strong administrators who will support teachers in these teachings and dive into these subjects in their faculty meetings. Look at the images in your school/presentation - Representation matters. I do a lot of work in school climate, and when I walk through schools, I look for images that are representative of all students. However, that is merely the first step. Until we feel comfortable diving into teaching real history, having debates that lead to deep conversations, and making sure all students from all backgrounds feel equality in our school, focus on equity, check our zero-tolerance policies, and look at our suspension rates and what population of students get suspended the most, an image is merely an image. Additionally, keynoters and workshop facilitators need to pay attention to the images they use. In our presentations during keynotes and workshops where we have pictures of people, are they mostly white men? Or do we have pictures from all different cultural backgrounds? Stop saying youre colorblind - Its BS. Not only are we not colorblind, but we actually should see the beauty and depth in all of our colors. We need to ensure that we all have a voice, and fight for those who are voiceless. We need to understand that our experiences shape us, and those experiences are impacted by color. Heres the thing, though. Im didnt write this blog to make you feel better about what is going on, myself feel better that Im doing something, or to make ourselves feel better because we can now check these off our lists and move on. None of these items means anything if we do not do something deeper with them. If we read a blog, a book, or an article in Rethinking Schools, we then have to use that information and take action. Many of us have become complacent, and Im including myself in that statement as well. In the End Because of the rioting in the streets, there are people who would have protested but no longer feel safe doing so. As our friends on social media battle over whether the far left or the far right are the groups fanning the flames of the riots, and which political party is best for fixing our societal issues, we need to look at how we can stop oppressing groups who have consistently been marginalized. As it was said in a well-known quotation going around on social media and T-shirts, Equal right for others does not mean less rights for you. Its not pie. Peter DeWitt, Ed.D., is the author of several books including his newest release Instructional Leadership: Creating Practice Out Of Theory (Corwin Press. 2020). Connect with him on Twitter or through his YouTube channel . If you would like to learn more about implicit bias, check out this N.Y. Times video from 2016. Photo courtesy of Getty Images. The Inspector general of police, IGP Adamu Mohammed has ordered the transfer of the ongoing investigations into the rape and killing of a university of Benin undergraduate, Vera Uwaila Omosuwa which occurred recently in Benin, Edo State from the Police State Headquarters to the Force Headquarters in Abuja. This was made known in a statement released on the official Twitter handle of the Nigeria police. The police has so far made an arrest after the finger prints on the fire extinguisher which was reportedly used to hit her was evaluated. Read Also: Obaseki Orders Investigation Of Student Raped Inside Church Advertisement The IGP has ordered the immediate transfer of the ongoing investigations into the inhuman sexual assault and death of Miss Vera Uwaila Omosuwa which occurred recently in Benin, Edo State from the Police State Headquarters, Benin to the Force headquarters, Abuja. The IGPs directive is sequel to the preliminary report from the team of investigators and forensic experts earlier deployed to assist the Edo State Police Command in the investigations into the unfortunate incident. The DIG in charge of the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID), DIG Anthony Ogbizi Michael, fdc will henceforth provide direct supervision and ensure speedy and thorough investigation of the case. DEATH OF MISS VERA UWAILA: IGP DIRECTS FORCE-CID TO TAKE OVER INVESTIGATIONS Orders Strengthening of the Gender-Based Unit of the Force Nigeria Police Force (@PoliceNG) June 2, 2020 The IGP has ordered the immediate transfer of the ongoing investigations into the inhuman sexual assault and death of Miss Vera Uwaila Omosuwa which occurred recently in Benin, Edo State from the Police State Headquarters, Benin to the Force headquarters, Abuja. Nigeria Police Force (@PoliceNG) June 2, 2020 The IGPs directive is sequel to the preliminary report from the team of investigators and forensic experts earlier deployed to assist the Edo State Police Command in the investigations into the unfortunate incident. Nigeria Police Force (@PoliceNG) June 2, 2020 Two days into the 2020 hurricane season, a tropical storm formed in the Bay of Campeche that forecasters say could make its way to the U.S. Gulf Coast this weekend. The entire Louisiana coastline, as well as a portion of the upper Texas Gulf Coast that includes Jefferson County, was included in the cone of potential landfall on a map the National Weather Service issued at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The map predicts landfall Sunday afternoon, but a Weather Service meteorologist stressed that the long-term outlook for Tropical Storm Cristobal is highly uncertain. The system is likely to move inland into Mexico and weaken before it returns to the southern Gulf of Mexico and regains strength. After that is largely a mystery. In the short term, we are expecting weakening, meteorologist Donald Jones of the Weather Services Lake Charles office said in an evening briefing. It is still expected to re-emerge over the (Gulf) later in the week and reintensify back into a tropical storm if not something stronger. Long term, as it begins to impact any U.S. landmass, we are expecting it to restrengthen. Cristobal, formed from the remnants of a Pacific basin storm that crossed into the Gulf, was declared the third named storm of 2020 at midday. By 7 p.m., it had sustained winds of 45 mph. Jones said the high degree of uncertainty over Cristobals eventual path makes any longer-term forecast difficult. The earliest arrival time for tropical-force winds in the U.S. would be Saturday. The good news is the storm is not expected to stall when it does make landfall, Jones said. But we are expecting very heavy rainfall and flash flooding. The meandering storm already is soaking parts of southern Mexico and Central America, with expected rainfall totals of 10 to 20 inches, possibly more in isolated areas, the National Hurricane Center said. Forecasters say there is low confidence in intensity forecasts, although they should have a better understanding later this week. As of Tuesday, Southeast Texas appeared to face a potential for heavy rain and higher-than-normal tides this weekend and into early next week. I still strongly advise that everyone across the Gulf of Mexico continue to monitor for the next several days. Jones said during a morning briefing. He explained then that Cristobal is stuck between two weak areas of high pressure, one over central Mexico and the other off the east coast of Florida. He doesnt expect it to stay stuck. Eventually as we get into the weekend the high pressure east of Florida is expected to strengthen somewhat and increase the southerly winds, Jones said. That is why we are expecting it to push up to the north, but that is not for another several days. Jones also said expected afternoon thunderstorms on Wednesday and later in the week are typical for the season and not related to the tropical system. jorge.ramos@beaumontenterprise.com twitter.com/byjorgeramos Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Rome, Italy Tue, June 2, 2020 11:00 598 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb75d4a 2 World Italy,doctor,coronavirus,COVID-19,pandemic,novel-coronavirus,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona Free Top scientists, health officials and the WHO on Monday rushed to counter claims made by a leading Italian doctor who said the new coronavirus "no longer exists" in the country. The row came as Italy prepared the next stage of its gradual easing of a national lockdown imposed three months ago to fight the spread of the deadly virus. "In reality, the virus clinically no longer exists in Italy," said Alberto Zangrillo, head of the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan. "The swabs performed over the past 10 days have showed a viral load that is absolutely infinitesimal in quantitative terms compared to those carried out a month or two months ago," he said in an interview on RAI television on Sunday. "Someone has to take responsibility for terrorizing the country," Zangrillo added. Milan is the capital of the northern region of Lombardy, which took the brunt of the pandemic in Italy. Several specialists, in Italy and abroad, were quick to object to Zangrillo's remarks. Dr. Oscar MacLean, of the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, said Zangrillo's claims were "not supported by anything in the scientific literature, and also seem fairly implausible on genetic grounds". Martin Hibberd, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "In a situation where the numbers of severe cases are falling, there may be time to start observing people with less severe symptoms -- giving the impression that the virus is changing." 'Still a killer virus': WHO And the World Health Organization also stressed that the new coronavirus had not suddenly become less pathogenic. "We need to be careful: this is still a killer virus," WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told journalists. "We need to be exceptionally careful not to create a sense that, all of a sudden, the virus, by its own volition, has now decided to be less pathogenic," said Ryan, who has a background in epidemiology. "It is not the case at all." The head of Italy's National Health Council, Franco Locatelli, said he was "baffled" by Zangrillo's comments. "It's enough to look at the number of new positive cases confirmed every day to see the persistent circulation in Italy of the new coronavirus," he said. The director of the prestigious Spallazani infectious diseases institute in Rome, Giuseppe Ippolito, also said there was no scientific proof the virus had mutated or changed in potency. The government has insisted this is one of the most dangerous phases of a pandemic that has claimed over 33,000 lives in the country. It has urged people to abide by social distancing rules and wear masks to prevent the virus from spreading once again. A contact-tracing app to help the country avoid a virus relapse was being launched Monday in four of the country's 20 regions, with others soon to follow. As part of the next stage of reopening the country, from Wednesday, foreign tourists will be able to enter Italy again and people will be able to move between regions. Foreign chiefs of the Normandy Four (Ukraine, Germany, France and Russia) will have a conversation soon, Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said. "We will continue the conversation in the Normandy format at the ministerial level. Soon, another such conversation will take place, where we will discuss the solutions that may bring peace to Donbas," he said at a joint press conference following the results of the meeting with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. Defund the police. In recent days, protesters decrying the death of an unarmed Black man at the hands of Minnesota police have waved placards and written opinion columns calling for a dramatic overhaul of the way we keep citizens safe. But what does it actually mean to defund the police? In practice, what would that look like? What is it, exactly, that some are calling for? Opinions vary, but the consensus among activists is that attempts to reform policing culture have failed and that the role of police in society should be severely curtailed if not eliminated entirely. Instead, they argue, public money should be redirected to other areas, such as health care, education, housing and jobs. Critics acknowledge that the proposition of doing away with our existing police model will be jarring for many. But look at the disproportionate numbers of Indigenous and Black people in our prisons, they say. According to the latest annual report from Canadas corrections watchdog, 28 per cent of federal inmates were Indigenous and eight per cent were Black. They point to deadly run-ins with police, such as the 2015 case of Andrew Loku, the hammer-wielding Toronto man with a history of mental illness, who was fatally shot by police within about 20 seconds of encountering him. They also cite the recent case of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, the woman who plummeted from the 24th floor of a Toronto high rise after police responded to what the family says was a call for help after she became distraught during a family conflict. Her death is currently under review by Ontarios police watchdog. I dont think we need the institution of policing as it exists right now, whatsoever. Weve tried the reform thing and its just not working, said Sandy Hudson, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto and now a law student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Lets just get rid of the institution and create something new. The debate over public safety models comes at a time when policing budgets have soared. As of 2018, more than $15 billion was spent on policing operations in this country, according to Statistics Canada. In the U.S., that number reportedly tops $100 billion. Since the release of a video showing a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd for several minutes after hed been handcuffed, the calls to abandon existing policing models have grown louder. Critics say bias and diversity training and the use of body-worn cameras have not done enough to change the culture of policing. It is time for the federal government, major foundations and local governments to stop trying to manage problems of poverty and racial discrimination by wasting millions of dollars on pointless and ineffective procedural reforms that merely provide cover for the expanded use of policing, Alex Vitale, a professor of sociology and co-ordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College, wrote in a widely distributed column. Its time for everyone to quit thinking that jailing one more killer cop will do anything to change the nature of American policing. We must move, instead, to significantly defund the police and redirect resources into community-based initiatives that can produce real safety and security without the violence and racism inherent in the criminal justice system. Such arguments have gained traction in Canada as well. Right now, Black communities, and often Indigenous communities, are interacting with police on a regular basis just because of the way police target our communities. They dont provide safety for us at all, Hudson said. Conversely, communities that arent typically engaging with police on a regular basis feel safe with the police because of the option to call them, but theyre not actually interacting with them very much. There are many scenarios that police respond to these days that could be handled by others, Hudson said. She cited a recent opinion column published in the New York Times that suggested rewriting policies or statutes to prevent police officers from responding to certain kinds of emergencies, such as those that involve substance abuse, domestic violence, homelessness or mental health. Instead those incidents could be handled by health-care workers and emergency response teams. Police have shown in various jurisdictions consistently theyre not the ones to deal with this. Too many people end up harmed, Hudson said. Citing previous reports that revealed failures by Canadian police to thoroughly investigate cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women, Hudson suggested investigations into violent crimes could be led by scientists, experts in forensics, sociologists and social workers. On the rare occasion when there is an immediate and violent threat to the public, such as an active shooter situation, Hudson said there could be a designated tactical response team. Such a team need not be made up of police, she said, though she acknowledged she hasnt thought through exactly how such a team would be constituted. Robyn Maynard, a PhD student and Vanier scholar at the University of Toronto and author of the book Policing Black Lives, said members of the public should take the time to look at how much money is being spent on policing compared to other services, such as public housing and transportation. She noted that Torontos police budget is now more than $1 billion. Weve seen an increase in the powers of policing to be seen as the solution for every kind of social ill, right? For example, the idea that it should be the police who come in the context of a mental health crisis. For Black people, that continues to be a fatal solution, she said. Theres no question more money needs to be funnelled into mental-health and addiction services and other social programs, said Tom Stamatakis, president of the Canadian Police Association. I think the police community completely agrees theres a lack of funding around these very important issues. But it shouldnt be an either-or proposition, he said. Theres still a need for properly funded police agencies to maintain public safety and the rule of law. Stamatakis acknowledged police agencies have made mistakes and progress has been made to address them. There are also layers of oversight today that didnt exist before. We realize our police services have to reflect the diversity of communities we police, he said. We realize when were responding to the community we need to ... look at things from their perspective. Its unfortunate, he said, that calls to defund the police have spilled over from the U.S. to Canada, since the policing models between the two countries are so different. Concerns about the growing militarization of police in the U.S. do not apply to Canadian law enforcement, he said. I think police in Canada are very focused on community engagement, outreach in the community, relationships. In 2014, Christian Leuprecht, a political science professor at Queens University and Royal Military College, published a report that highlighted how police budgets in Canada had increased at a rate double that of GDP over the past decade, even though calls for service had remained stable. A great deal of work now done by highly trained, well-paid, and experienced uniformed officers is only tangentially related to law enforcement and could be done by others, he wrote at the time. Asked this week for his reaction to the calls to defund the police, Leuprecht said: Ive made the case that as provinces have underinvested in social programs or withdrawn from some altogether, police pick up the slack; and that theres probably a better, optimal way to allocate resources to optimize community safety outcomes. That said, he called the comparison between Canadian and U.S. police forces ignorant and dangerous. He said he worries that countries such as China and Russia may seek to capitalize on the crisis to drive polarization within Canadian society, where activists are being instrumentalized to stoke havoc and derision. Clearly, were not getting rid of police, he added. There is no modern state without a functional police force. With files from Wendy Gillis Read more about: CLEVELAND, Ohio Leisure travelers are leading the comeback at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, with flights to Florida, Myrtle Beach and Las Vegas returning to service more quickly than business destinations. A review of returning routes this month at Cleveland Hopkins offers a glimpse into the slowly recovering travel industry, led by travelers who may be experiencing pent-up demand for a warm-weather vacation. Ultra-low cost carriers in Cleveland, including Allegiant, Spirit and Frontier, are leading the recovery at Hopkins, with dozens of returning destinations this month. Meanwhile, United Airlines Clevelands largest carrier by passenger traffic in 2019 is currently flying to just three destinations: Chicago, Washington Dulles and (starting this week) Newark, New Jersey. Despite a recent uptick in traffic at Cleveland Hopkins, the airport is still expecting to see far fewer flights and travelers than it typically would in June. Airport officials are predicting an average of 40 flights per day in June about 25% of the 159 per day in June 2019. Even so, that 40 flights per day is a sizable increase from the 27 per day in May. Nationwide, air travel is still a fraction of what it was a year ago. On May 31, for example, 353,000 travelers were screened at U.S. airports by the Transportation Security Administration, down from 2.56 million on the same day a year earlier. Last year, Cleveland Hopkins welcomed just over 10 million travelers, the most in more than a decade. This year, the passenger count will be far less. In April alone, passenger traffic was down a whopping 97%. Year to date, traffic is down 38%, a percentage that will certainly increase, even as travelers return to the skies. Cleveland Hopkins officials say they are optimistic that additional routes will resume eventually, although some previous nonstop destinations may not return for months. JobsOhio, the private economic development arm of state government, has created a $10 million fund for Ohio airports to tap as they work to win back service lost due to the coronavirus pandemic. Its unclear whether any of that money has been tapped. Among the routes that have not yet resumed from Cleveland: * Flights to LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International in New York City, on Delta and American airlines. * United flights to Houston, San Francisco and Los Angeles. * Delta flights to Salt Lake City and Frontier flights to Seattle. * Southwest flights to Milwaukee, Air Canada flights to Toronto and JetBlue flights to Fort Lauderdale. Sun Country Airlines, meanwhile, which had planned to start service between Cleveland and Minneapolis last month, has delayed the launch of that route indefinitely. Heres a list of where all the Cleveland carriers will be flying to and from this summer (keep in mind, this information can and likely will change): Allegiant: Myrtle Beach and Charleston, S.C.; Destin/Fort Walton Beach, Jacksonville, Punta Gorda, Sarasota and St. Pete/Clearwater, Florida; Savannah, Georgia; Nashville; Norfolk, Virginia American: Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, Philadelphia, Washington Reagan Delta: Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis Frontier: Denver, Fort Myers, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Orlando, Raleigh/Durham, Sarasota, Tampa JetBlue: Boston Southwest: Baltimore, Chicago Midway, Denver, Nashville, St. Louis Spirit: Atlanta, Boston (starting July 1), Dallas (July 1), Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas (July 1), Los Angeles (July 1), Myrtle Beach, New Orleans (July 1), Orlando, Tampa (July 1) United: Chicago, Newark, Washington Dulles Source: The airlines, Cleveland Hopkins International Airport Read more: As Delta suspends service, Akron-Canton Airport works to restore flights lost to coronavirus downturn Cleveland Hopkins International Airport trims $14 million in 2020 expenses as part of coping with coronavirus budget fallout In the middle of dual crises confronting the country, voters in eight states and the nation's capital headed to the voting booth on Tuesday - for the single-biggest day of voting since the onset of the coronavirus - restarting a primary season thrown into disarray after states postponed their contests, and injecting some new energy into a transformed campaign trail. The presidential primary and down-ballot contests come not only amid the unprecedented circumstances of a pandemic, but as the nation remains gripped by unrest and protests, fueled by anger and frustration over systemic racial issues compounded by the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after being pinned down by a white Minnesota police officer. Voters in Indiana, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota and the District of Columbia held presidential contests, although the primaries for both parties are already settled with two presumptive nominees in former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump. Iowa, the first state in the country to hold a presidential contest with its caucuses on Feb. 3, is set to held down-ballot primaries for the U.S. Senate, four U.S. House seats, among other lower-profile races. MORE: Election officials gear up for single biggest day of voting during coronavirus, as Trump rails against vote by mail The voting will be an early preview of how states attempt to run elections if the virus continues to be a risk in the fall. But the primaries also unfolded against the backdrop of widespread clashes between police and protesters, as some leaders, including those on the frontlines of the protests, are urging Americans to vote to impel meaningful change on racial injustice. "If you want change in America, go and register to vote. Show up at the polls on June 9th. Do it in November. That is the change we need in this country," Keisha Lance Bottoms, the mayor of Atlanta and one of the women in contention to be Biden's running mate, said during a Friday night press conference as her city fell into turmoil. Story continues PHOTO: Voters wait in a line to vote in the presidential primary election while wearing masks and practicing social distancing to help slow the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at Riverside High School in Milwaukee, April 7, 2020. (USA Today Network via Reuters, FILE) One day before the primaries, former President Barack Obama, in a lengthy Medium post, refuted the suggestion that voting alone is not enough to satisfy a weary electorate's nationwide calls for reform. "Ive heard some suggest that the recurrent problem of racial bias in our criminal justice system proves that only protests and direct action can bring about change, and that voting and participation in electoral politics is a waste of time. I couldnt disagree more," Obama wrote. "If we want to bring about real change, then the choice isnt between protest and politics. We have to do both. We have to mobilize to raise awareness, and we have to organize and cast our ballots to make sure that we elect candidates who will act on reform," he continued. The contests also came as the messages from those at the top of the ticket could not be more different. In the last week, as the president chose to stoke longstanding racial divides rather than trying to comfort a hurting community in a series of tweets, his November rival pushed for unity. "We are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us. We are a nation enraged, but we cannot allow our rage to consume us. We are a nation exhausted, but we will not allow our exhaustion to defeat us," Biden said in a statement released over the weekend. MORE: Multiple states shelve primary contests as coronavirus shuffles 2020 election calendar Amid the multiple days of demonstrations in city streets, local election officials were forced to make some eleventh hour adjustments to adapt to the ongoing protests. In Philadelphia, Gov. Tom Wolf announced on Monday he is extending the deadline for voters to return mail-in ballots by one week, until Tuesday, June 9 in six counties: Allegheny, Dauphin, Delaware, Erie, Montgomery and Philadelphia. The move comes after Mayor Jim Kenney said during a press briefing Monday that the city asked for "the state's assistance in making sure our polling places were secure" and "for an extension of the deadline for mail in ballots." Philadelphia has been under curfew for three straight nights. "These actions are appropriate and much needed," he said. In Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser instituted a curfew through Tuesday night starting at 7 p.m., but clarified that it does not apply to voters, poll workers or election officials and volunteers participating in the election. In Baltimore, a spokesperson for the city board of elections said they "cannot" predict what the protests will look like on election day or what the impact may be, but at least one ballot drop box closed early on Monday and was moved to a different location. The other locations for drop boxes in the city are set to reopen at 6 a.m. on Tuesday. In Iowa, although a spokesperson for Paul Pate, the secretary of state, told ABC News in an email that there are no last-minute changes to adapt to the protests, in an earlier email, the spokesperson noted that county election officials "are working with local law enforcement" and "there are procedures and plans already in place preparing for a variety of scenarios" without providing specific details. Voters heading to cast their ballots on Tuesday also faced an alternate reality due to the coronavirus - one in which election officials abruptly changed their blueprint for running elections to adjust to social distancing and other state and federal guidelines. Of the seven states and the nation's capital with primaries for the top of the ticket on June 2, more than half were delayed contests that were initially scheduled in April and May - reflecting the volatility brought on by the coronavirus. All of the states holding elections are r3lied on and expanded their vote-by-mail apparatus to adapt to the shifting public health conditions, even as Trump attempts to cast doubt on the integrity of mail-in voting. MORE: Trump ramps up attacks on mail voting, targeting battlegrounds Michigan, Nevada Before the pandemic, six of the states that held presidential contests allowed for no-excuse absentee voting. In late March, Indiana's elections board ordered the expansion of access to absentee mail-in voting to all voters in the Hoosier state - without requiring an excuse. Election officials have spent weeks and months preparing for the one day of contests - second only to Super Tuesday - which look far different from only a few months ago. In interviews with election officials across the country, most moved quickly to prepare their staff and voters for the changes that the coronavirus placed on voting. Some states, like Rhode Island and Montana, have instituted changes to their voting system in recent years which have widely expanded vote-by-mail procedures. Others, like Pennsylvania and Indiana, are working around the clock to prepare voters and elections officials for the massive influx of absentee ballot requests. PHOTO: People hold signs as they protest and mourn the death of George Floyd in Houston, May 30, 2020. (Mark Felix/AFP via Getty Images) Across geographies and party lines, secretaries of states, local election boards and candidates themselves have given a strong endorsement of the absentee voting process, encouraging voters to request their ballots through applications in states which require them. But the contests, and the massive mail-in vote effort across each of the states, could serve as a harbinger for what is potentially ahead in the fall if the coronavirus outbreak persists. In South Dakota, an upper Midwest state that saw the highest number of COVID-19 cases per capita for the region in mid-April but currently has one of the lowest fatality rates in the country, election officials were confident the Tuesday primaries would run smoothly. MORE: 'We're sick of it': Protesters explain method to the madness of violent demonstrations "Since we didn't change the laws, we're just utilizing some of the tools we already have," said Steve Barnett, the Republican Secretary of State in South Dakota. "A lot of people are taking advantage of absentee voting." But in Philadelphia, the largest city in Pennsylvania where there will be only 190 in-person polling places this election, a dramatic decrease from the 831 in last November's municipal election, Commissioner Lisa Deeley told ABC News she was "extremely worried" over the influx of absentee ballots just for the primary, which only portends concerns expected in November when turnout is far higher. "The numbers that we've seen this primary are pretty incredible and we know that there's much more activity in the general election," she said, adding that after Tuesday's election is over, local election officials will be convening a working group to figure out a plan for processing returned ballots for the general election. "We all hope, as everybody does, that were somewhat back to normal by November, but to risk that we're not, it would really create an issue for us. We could see 400,000 to 500,000 applications in an election like that," she said. ABC News' Meg Cunningham and Quinn Scanlan contributed reporting. Tuesday primaries, in middle of dual crises, restart election transformed by coronavirus originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Concerns over plans to cap the number of English students at Scottish universities UK Government plans to limit the number of English students studying at Scottish universities could further damage the higher education sector, the Scottish Government has said. The Department for Education in England has announced a limit in the number of students any university can recruit this summer to an increase of no more than 6.5 per cent. The idea is prevent some universities giving out large numbers of unconditional offers to increase their number of students while leaving fewer for other institutions at a time when the universities are struggling with funding and a drop in students from abroad. However, the cap will also apply to Scottish universities, where around ten per cent of the students come from England, as well as in in Wales and Northern Ireland, and have been introduced without discussion with the devolved governments or the higher education sector in those nations. Commenting on the UK Government plans, Higher Education Minister Richard Lochhead said: In the face of huge uncertainty, Scottish universities and colleges are working to continue to deliver world class, and safe, learning and teaching. So the UK Governments plan to restrict the number of English students that can come to Scotland a plan which neither the Scottish Government nor Universities Scotland have agreed to is deeply disappointing. Administrations in Wales and Northern Ireland have also objected. It is completely unnecessary and could add further damage to the sector, given that around 10 per cent of current enrolments are from England. The UK Government should be working with the devolved administrations to support higher education at time of crisis not imposing, without agreement, targets and sanctions which are aimed at stabilising the English market and are not relevant to Scotland. Alastair Sim, director of Universities Scotland, said: Number controls were a specific solution to address a specific admissions problem in England, that Scotlands universities had no part in. At no point has it been in any way clear that the UK Government intended to extend controls beyond England. This is a late and low blow. The devolved administrations should be removed from this intended legislative change. It is not the role of the UK Government to determine student numbers in Scotland nor should the actions of the UK Government undermine student mobility within all nations of the UK. The financial impact of the pandemic is causing significant concern for our universities and their student and staff communities. The UK Governments package of measures for UK universities in early May was England-only in the financial support it offered but it now seems to be UK-wide when it comes to the controls. This is unacceptable. Scottish Labours education spokesperson, Iain Gray, said: Scotlands universities have an excellent reputation, and it is unsurprising that so many students from around the UK and the rest of the world choose to study here. Diversity within our student population is something to be celebrated, and the financial boost to universities from students arriving from outside Scotland cannot be underestimated. Putting a cap on the number of students who can move north of the border for university education must be rethought, and is not a decision that should be taken unilaterally. Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh universities will suffer if Westminster does not reconsider its position. The Scottish Government must make sure it has a seat at the table and a voice in any further discussions about the future of Scottish universities. VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2020 / VanGold Mining Corp (the "Company" or "VanGold") (TSXV:VGLD) announces that it has concluded its 1,000 tonne bulk sample and metallurgical test of material from its El Pinguico silver and gold project, located 7km south of the city of Guanajuato, Mexico. Bulk Sample and Metallurgical Test: VanGold has completed its bulk sample and metallurgical test which consisted of delivering a total of 1039 tonnes of mineralized material from its El Pinguico silver and gold project for processing at Endeavour Silver Corp.'s (Endeavour) (TSX:EDR) nearby Bolanitos mill. Click here to see drone video footage of this work. The VanGold Story Episode 1: https://youtu.be/ZL13PWaexsg By conducting this large test, the Company will gain valuable metallurgical and precious metal recovery information pertaining to the mineralized material on the El Pinguico property. As well, the Company will gather critical economic data regarding the potential for direct shipping of this material, as well as higher-grade material stockpiled underground within old mine workings of the El Pinguico mine, to one of several operating mills in the Guanajuato area. This bulk sample was sent to Endeavour's Bolanitos mill, located to the north of Guanajuato and approximately 28 km from El Pinguico. Though sample material was derived exclusively from the Company's surface stockpile, results from this test will have direct implications for the Company's higher grade underground stockpile material, and for the project as a whole. The Company will report the results obtained from this test once all head grade information, gold and silver recoveries, and concentrate ratio information has been received and thoroughly analyzed by Company engineers, geologists, and our consulting metallurgist, Mr. Augustin Parra, Professor of Metallurgy at the University of Guanajuato. The Company anticipates this process will take 7 to 10 days. Processing Procedure: At Bolanitos, VanGold performed a flotation metallurgical test where the final product was a concentrate that will confirm initial head grades and show metallurgical recoveries, concentrate ratio values, as well as give the Company an initial cost estimate associated with the processing of this material. The Company engaged with local contractors in Guanajuato to haul approximately 52 twenty-tonne truckloads of this material to Bolanitos. All of the material for this test was taken from the Company's surface stockpile which was left in place when mining ceased at El Pinguico in 1913. This stockpile contains an exploration target of 175,000 to185,000 tonnes grading 1.25 to 1.35 gpt AuEq. These figures are conceptual in nature.[1] Clearing the Bottom of the El Pinguico Shaft: While the Company awaits final data from this bulk sample, plans are being finalized for crews to begin clearing the bottom of the El Pinguico shaft within the next few weeks. In the 107 years since mining ceased at El Pinguico, approximately 30m of debris has accumulated at the bottom of this shaft. The Company plans to attach a hoist to the metal head-frame currently in place above the shaft and begin removing this material. Once this material has been removed, crews will be in a position to do three things: 1. Sampling the bottom of the underground stockpile: The underground (UG) stockpile consists of material that in 2012 the Mexican Geological Survey agency determined to be 174,500 tonnes in size.[2] In 2017, VanGold conducted a trenching program at the top of the UG stockpile. This program resulted in a weighted average of all of the trench samples of 1.75 gpt Au and 183 gpt Ag.[3] Once crews remove the material at the bottom of the El Pinguico shaft, VanGold will be in a position to properly sample the bottom of the UG stockpile, and determine whether the grade of gold and silver established by trenching in 2017 on the top of the stockpile, extends to the bottom of the stockpile. 2. Inspecting the #7 Sangria Adit: Clearing 30m of material from the El Pinguico shaft will allow crews to enter and inspect the mine's #7 Adit - also known as the "Sangria" adit. This adit may provide a potential safe and inexpensive haulage way to bring the UG stockpile material to surface for onward delivery to a nearby mill for processing. This is the Company's preferred method to bring the UG stockpile material out of the mine; however fully refurbishing the El Pinguico shaft is also a potential alternative. The decision on which of these possibilities the Company will pursue will be made once the Sangria adit is entered and fully inspected. 3. Sampling of the Colmilo Stope: Once the El Pinguico shaft has been suitably cleared, it is anticipated that crews will be able to access and sample the Colmilo Stope. This stope was a high grade portion of the El Pinguico mine during the period prior to its closure in 1913. Examples of historic sampling from this area conducted in 1909 can be seen on page 5 of the Company's corporate presentation, available on its Website: www.vangoldmining.com.[4] The El Pinguico Project: El Pinguico is a high-grade gold and silver deposit that was mined from the early 1890s until 1913. Toward the end of that period it was mined exclusively by The Pinguico Mines Company of New York City, whose shares traded on the Boston and New York Stock Exchanges. The mining was done principally from the El Pinguico and El Carmen veins, which are thought to be splays off the Mother Vein, or 'Veta Madre'. The Veta Madre is associated with a mega fault that outcrops for 25 kilometres and is the most important source of precious metal mineralization in the region. The Veta Madre may cross VanGold's property at depth, underneath the high grade El Pinguico and El Carmen veins. Very limited drilling has been done on the property and no drilling has attempted to encounter the Veta Madre at depth. Historic stockpiles of mineralized material exist on surface and underground at El Pinguico which may potentially provide feed to one of several operational mills in the Guanajuato area. QA/QC Procedures: Standard QA/QC protocols were NOT employed by VanGold during the sampling of the material sent for testing because the heterogeneity of the 107-year-old waste dump made it difficult to do cost affective determinative sampling. However, in an effort to understand the potential gross grade of the material being sent to the mill the sampling methodology described below was used: 1.- Representative samples were taken with a trowel from material on a front end loader prior to being deposited in the bed of a 20 tonne truck. One sample was taken from each of the truck loads during the course of the day - averaging 8 to 10 samples per day. 2.- At the end of each day, all the material was crushed by hand to have one fine, quartered and representative sample with an average weight of 3 kg., which was then sent to the Platinum Corporation SA de CV assay laboratory, in the city of Silao, Mexico. The final grade of the composite dump sample can only be determined once the final head and tail grades have been calculated by Endeavour Silver Corp's laboratory at the Bolanitos Mill for the entire 1039 tonne sample. Hernan Dorado Smith, a director of VanGold and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has approved the scientific and technical information contained in this news release. About VanGold Mining Corp. VanGold Mining is an exploration company engaged in the exploration of mineral projects in the Guanajuato region of central Mexico. The Company's flagship El Pinguico project is a significant past producer of high-grade gold and silver and is located just 7km south of the city of Guanajuato, Mexico. The Company remains focused on the near-term potential for development and monetization of both its surface and underground stockpiles of mineralized material from El Pinguico. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS "James Anderson" Chairman and CEO For further information regarding VanGold Mining Corp, please contact: James Anderson, Director, +1 (778) 989-5346 Email: james@vangoldmining.com Continue to watch our progress at: www.vangoldmining.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains certain forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance (including, but not limited to, the timing of results from the Company's 1,000 tonne bulk sample, the proposed next stage of development and timing of and potential for near term monetization of existing stockpiles of mineralized material at the Company's El Pinguico project in Mexico) and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected including, but not limited to, market conditions, availability of financing, currency rate fluctuations, actual results of exploration and development activities, environmental risks, future prices of gold, silver and other metals, operating risks, accidents, labor issues, delays in obtaining governmental or regulatory approvals and permits, and other risks in the mining industry. In addition, there is uncertainty about the spread of COVID-19 and the impact it will have on the Company's operations, supply chains, ability to access El Pinguico or procure equipment, contractors and other personnel on a timely basis or at all and economic activity in general. All the forward-looking statements made in this news release are qualified by these cautionary statements and those in our continuous disclosure filings available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances save as required by applicable law. VANGOLD MINING CORP. PH: +1(778) 989-5346 E: info@vangoldmining.com W: vangoldmining.com CA: Suite 2820 - 200 Granville Street, Vancouver B.C. V6C 1S4 MX: Carr, Guanajuato - Silao km 5.5 Colonia Marfil Guanajuato, Mexico Office No.2 CP 36250 [1] In 2012 a private company commissioned by the then owner of El Pinguico calculated the volume of the surface stockpile as 92,849.5 m3, with a surface of 15,769.40 m2. In January 2017, Findore S.A. DE C.V. ("Findore"), a private geological services company engaged by Vangold, dug 10 holes with a backhoe CAT machine in the stockpile at different locations and different depths, taking two samples from each hole (one at the top and one at bottom). The samples confirmed there was no movement of economic values from surface to bottom of the stockpile due to weathering and rains, with the average samples results as follows: Au ppm Ag ppm AuEq ppm Top samples 0.62 80.6 1.78 Bottom samples 0.43 61.1 1.31 Based on the foregoing, Vangold estimates the surface stockpile comprises approximately 175,000 to 185,000 tonnes of material grading between 0.45 gpt Au and 67 gpt Ag (1.25 gpt AuEq) and 0.52gpt Au and 70 gpt Ag (1.35 AuEq). The potential quantity and grade of the surface stockpile is conceptual in nature, there has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the stockpile being delineated as a mineral resource. [2] This figure is historic in nature, has not been verified and should not be relied upon. [3] VanGold completed 57 samples from 20 trenches (mostly historic with a few new trenches) at the top of the UG stockpile resulting in the average grades set out above. All samples were collected, recorded, bagged and sent by VanGold's consulting geologist to ALS Laboratory in Guadalajara, Mexico for sample preparation. Gold, silver and multi-element ICP analysis was completed at the ALS laboratory in North Vancouver, Canada. Rock samples were fine crushed (70% passing a 2mm screen), pulverized (85% passing a 75 micron screen) and a pulp split separated for assaying by a riffle splitter. 30 gram portion of each sample was assayed for gold by standard fire assay and a 10 gram split was analyzed for 35 elements by ICP method. Standard reference material and blank samples were inserted into the sample stream at a 5% insertion rate with pulped samples from the UG stockpile for quality control purposes. The results of the standards and blank samples were satisfactory. All data was collected with industry standard practices and assay results were verified by VanGold's consulting geologist. Further work by VanGold is required to verify the tonnage estimation by the Mexican Geological Survey agency and assess the distribution of grades within the UG stockpile. [4] Historical assays have not been verified and should not be relied upon. They are presented as an indication of possible gold and silver mineralization within the Colmillo stope of the UG stockpile and as a guide for future work. SOURCE: VanGold Mining Corp View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/592377/VanGold-Completes-Bulk-Sample-at-Endeavour-Silvers-Bolanitos-Mill Zach brings fresh energy and several years of underwriting experience to the SUITELIFE team, said John Welty, president of SUITELIFE. Were looking forward to gaining his perspective as we continue to build SUITELIFE as the leader in insurance solutions for full-service hotels, resorts, and management companies. Speas joins the company as a business development executive in the Southwest. In his new role, he will work to build and maintain broker relationships, drive submission activity and identify growth opportunities for the companies, focusing on Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico and Southern California. Prior to joining SUITELIFE, Speas served as a territory manager for State Auto Insurance. He has also been an Arizona territory manager for Houston General Insurance Management Company, a subsidiary of One Beacon Insurnace Group. As an established and trusted relationship-builder within the industry, we are excited to have Dan join the SUITELIFE team and assist us in building the brand, Welty said. SUITELIFE is a name the hospitality industry knows and trusts something that is particularly important in todays uncertain environment. Dan will be key in helping us convey that message to clients and prospects. Neither Mr. Esper nor General Milley knew when they went to the Oval Office on Monday that they would be taking part in the presidents photo op, Pentagon officials said. Nor did they know, officials said, that law enforcement personnel would be firing chemical spray and rubber bullets on protesters in Lafayette Square before they crossed that park with Mr. Trump. During the meeting in the Oval Office, which officials said became heated, General Milley and Attorney General William P. Barr argued against invoking the Insurrection Act to override governors and send active-duty troops to states where there are protests. They were able to get Mr. Trump to hold off for now, but the president nonetheless ordered active-duty troops deployed to the one place where he did not have to go through governors: the District of Columbia. After the Oval Office meeting, officials said, Mr. Trump said he wanted to review personnel who were deployed outside the White House. Along with a number of White House staff members, Mr. Esper and General Milley joined the president and prompted outrage. Ridiculous. General Milley, who I respect, is embarrassing himself, Michael McFaul, the former United States ambassador to Russia under President Barack Obama, said on Twitter. I worked 3 years at the White House at the National Security Council. I never once saw Admiral Mullen come to the building ready for war. James N. Miller, who served as an under secretary of defense for policy under Mr. Obama and on the Defense Science Board until Tuesday, when he abruptly resigned, told Mr. Esper in his resignation letter that he believed the defense secretary had violated an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States because of his backing of Mr. Trumps actions on Monday night. You have made life-and-death decisions in combat overseas; soon you may be asked to make life-and-death decisions about using the military on American streets and against Americans, he wrote in the letter, which was published Tuesday night by The Washington Post. Where will you draw the line, and when will you draw it? Late Tuesday, the Pentagon announced in a statement that a battalion of combat troops from an Army quick-reaction force based at Fort Bragg had moved into the Washington area, as well as a military police headquarters unit from Fort Bragg and a military police battalion from Fort Drum. London: Nigel Farage has put Boris Johnson's Conservative party on notice saying he is ready to return to front-line politics and campaign for the UK to adopt a tougher stance on China, declaring the West's dependence on Beijing an extension of the factors that drove the 2016 Brexit referendum. Speaking exclusively to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, the Brexit Party leader and former member of the European Parliament revealed he had already begun boycotting "mass-produced Chinese rubbish" and urged the public to do the same to improve Britain's self-reliance even though it would cost more. Brexit Party leader and former MEP Nigel Farage on the Andrew Marr Show at the BBC in London in February. Credit:Getty Images He said the Chinese government had shown its "true colours" since the coronavirus pandemic with an increasingly aggressive diplomacy, including its treatment of Australia and the 80 per cent tariff imposed on barley, widely viewed as a retaliatory measure for Australian demands for an international inquiry into the pandemic. "The cats out of the bag, we now know what we're dealing with," Farage said by phone. STOCKHOLM, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Reference is made to the extraordinary general meeting notice published on 20th of May 2020 regarding a repair issue with gross proceeds of up to NOK 9 million directed towards eligible shareholders and company employees (the "Repair Issue"). The Repair Issue consisted of an offer of minimum 1 and maximum 175,000 new shares (each an "Offer Share") in Oncoinvent AS to eligible shareholders and an offer of minimum 1 and maximum 25,000 new shares (each an "Offer Share") in Oncoinvent AS to eligible employees. The subscription period for the Repair Issue ended on 29th of May 2020 at 16.30 hours (CEST). The subscription price in the Repair Issue was NOK 45 per Offer Share. At the end of the subscription period, the Company had received subscriptions exceeding the total 200,000 Offer Shares available. The Board of Directors of Oncoinvent has approved the final allocation of Offer Shares based on the allocation criteria resolved by the Company's general meeting on 20thMay 2020. The Repair Issue raised gross proceeds of approx. NOK 9 mill. Payment for the Offer Shares allocated to the subscribers falls due on 5. June 2020. Letters of allocation giving notification of allocated Offer Shares and the corresponding amount to be paid will be distributed to the subscribers later today. For further information, please contact: Jan A. Alfheim Chief Executive Officer Cell: +47-46-44-00-45 Email: alfheim@oncoinvent.com IR enquiries: Tore Kvam Chief Financial Officer Cell: +47-95-93-41-99 Email: kvam@oncoinvent.com This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/oncoinvent-as/r/oncoinvent-announces-result-of-oversubscribed-repair-issue,c3126012 The following files are available for download: Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-03 00:49:00|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close NAIROBI, June 2 (Xinhua) -- As COVID-19 cases take an upward trend in Kenya, reaching 2,093 on Tuesday, citizens are adopting new greeting habits, such as elbow bumps, which are helping people socialize as they maintain hygiene and keep social distance to curb the spread of the disease. With handshakes, hugs, cheek kisses and shoulder bumps among other forms of salutations dead, thanks to the new coronavirus disease pandemic, new forms of greetings considered safer are taking root in Kenya, both in official and informal circles. One such a greeting that is taking the east African nation by storm is elbow bump as citizens consider it much safer. From the old to the young, men and women, elbow bumps have now become the official greetings of Kenyans both in formal and informal settings like homes. President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto cemented the greeting in Kenya's formal circles on Monday when they used it during independence celebrations in Nairobi, the capital. Wearing masks, clenching their fists and smiling, Kenyatta and Ruto bumped their elbows to greet each other. Their greeting did not only acknowledge the popularity of the salutation amid the pandemic, but it also confirmed to citizens that they can use it. Several dignitaries at the event that was attended by few government officials and opposition leaders also used the elbow bump to greet each other. "I have been using the elbow bump since last month, some people have been comfortable with it, others are not, avoiding contact but when I saw the president use it on Monday, I felt happy, that this is the greeting for those of us who are used to handshakes," said Gilbert Wandera, a businessman in Nairobi. Wandera, who sells computers, had shunned any form of contact greeting when the disease broke out to maintain hygiene. "But I changed my mind as people embraced face masks and other sanitation measures. Besides, elbow bumps are a little safer because chances that you will touch your face with the elbow are nil," he said. The greeting has also been embraced in households, corporate offices, operators of public transport vehicles commonly known as matatus, commuters, motorbike taxi riders and traders among others as it quenches citizens' thirst to shake hands. Besides elbow bumps, other forms of greetings that Kenyans are using include foot taps and hand on my heart, what the World Health Organization recommends. But these are not as popular as elbow bumps. Another culture that has taken root in the east African nation, thanks to the pandemic is the wearing of face masks. Initially, wearing of masks was seen as a mark of style mainly done by the sophisticated or wealthy, but it has now been embraced by all citizens, with thousands hardly venturing out of their houses without the gadget. "I am also finding myself maintaining the 1.5m social distance in public places naturally. No one is reminding me to keep distance in supermarkets, at ATMs, in public transport vehicles or in the office. And this is what many other people are doing. It is now a culture that is helping curb the disease," said Victoria Selima, a government auditor. Initially, funerals in the east African nation would attract hundreds of people, some who would stay at the affected families' homes for days mourning. But with COVID-19, citizens have learnt to keep away from the events without being forced by government officials, noted Victor Mulanda, who traveled to western Kenya on Monday from the capital for a funeral. Rashid Aman, Kenya's health chief administrative secretary, noted Tuesday that citizens must be responsible and embrace new norms to beat the disease that is currently deeply entrenched in community across the east African nation. Enditem By Express News Service BENGALURU: Revenue Minister R Ashok on Monday said he will send daily alerts directly to officials in flood-prone areas in the city to ensure that there is no flooding. There are 210 flood-prone areas in the city alone, so all civic and disaster management cell officials will have to be on their toes to prevent flooding, the minister said after a meeting with BBMP officials on monsoon and Covid-19 preparedness. He said, Meetings with the disaster management cell will be held on a daily basis. Eight teams have been formed and alert messages will be sent directly to each zone to ensure that there is no flooding. Eight zonal committees have been formed comprising BBMP, BESCOM, police, BWSSB and disaster management officials. So far, the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre has installed 21 sensors in stormwater drains, which give immediate alerts when the water level rises above 25 per cent. Another 100 will be installed across all SWDs and vulnerable places, he said. Ashok said it was also decided to create permanent relief camps to house those stranded in floods. The disaster management cell already has Rs 310 crore for flood works alone. So, Rs 10-12 crore will be spent to create permanent relief centres. He also issued a warning to government officials to attend to flood and disaster management works. Those who do not respond to phone calls, keep their phones switched off and dont work, will be suspended immediately, he said. RTHK: Crack down on protesters, Trump tells governors US President Donald Trump on Monday urged state governors to crack down on protests over racial inequality that have engulfed the nation's cities, as officials extended curfews to prevent a seventh night of looting and vandalism. Residents and business owners in cities from New York to Santa Monica, California, spent Monday sweeping up broken glass and taking stock of damage after protests over excessive police force against African Americans turned violent again overnight. "You have to dominate," Trump told the governors in a private call obtained by several media. "If you dont dominate, youre wasting your time theyre going to run over you, youre going to look like a bunch of jerks." Trump said the federal government was going to clamp down "very strong" on the violence. Dozens of cities across the United States remain under curfews at a level not seen since riots following the 1968 assassination of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. The National Guard deployed in 23 states and Washington DC. Curfews were extended in Washington, where authorities fought to put out fires near the White House overnight; in Minnesota, which has experienced some of the worst violence, and in Los Angeles. One person was killed in Louisville, Kentucky, overnight where police and National Guard troops returned fire while trying to disperse a crowd. Police in Chicago, the country's third-largest city, fielded more than 10,000 calls for looting, Mayor Lori Lightfoot told a briefing. The unrest, which erupted as the country was easing lengthy lockdowns to stop the spread of the coronavirus, began with peaceful protests over the death of a black man, George Floyd, in police custody in Minneapolis last Monday. Video footage showed a white police officer kneeling on the neck of Floyd, 46, for nearly nine minutes before he died. Derek Chauvin, a since-fired 44-year-old police officer, has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. He was released on US$500,000 bail and is due to appear in court on June 8, according to jail records. (Reuters) This story has been published on: 2020-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Chinese President Xi Jinping inspects the novel coronavirus prevention and control work at Anhuali Community in Beijing, China, February 10, 2020. Xinhua via REUTERS China delayed the release of information about the coronavirus, according to a new investigation. Its health officials did not share the coronavirus genome until over a week after scientists in Chinese laboratories decoded it at the beginning of January. Beijing did not warn the World Health Organization that the virus passed between people until two weeks later. At the time the WHO publicly praised China for its speedy response. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. China withheld key information about the coronavirus for weeks after it first emerged in January, delaying the international response to the outbreak, a new investigation has revealed. Chinese officials failed to share the genetic map, or genome, of the virus for over a week after first decoding it and failed to reveal that the virus could be transmitted between humans for a further two weeks, according to internal World Health Organization documents and testimony obtained by the Associated Press. The AP reported on Tuesday that while scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology decoded the virus on January 2, Chinese health officials did not publish the details of their findings until over a week later, on January 12. It wasn't until January 20 that the Chinese state alerted the World Health Organisation and other governments that the virus could pass between people, according to the Associated Press investigation. This was only after a laboratory in Shanghai led by scientist Zhang Yongzhen published the information a day earlier. Related video: How location data helps track the spread of COVID-19 At the time the World Health Organization publicly praised China for what it described as its speedy response to the virus.A However, WHO officials were privately concerned that China was sitting on key information about the virus. "We're currently at the stage where yes, they're giving it to us 15 minutes before it appears on [Chinese state television channel] CCTV," WHO official, Dr. Gauden Galea, said in one meeting. Story continues The WHO were reportedly frustrated with China's failure to release the data quickly, and feared being blamed for a delayed global response to the outbreak of the deadly virus, the AP report says. Dr Michael Ryan, the WHO's emergencies chief, is quoted as saying: "The danger now is that despite our good intent... there will be a lot of finger-pointing at WHO if something does happen." President Trump has lambasted the WHO and accused it of being controlled by China. He said last week that the US was "terminating its relationship" with the WHO, and re-directing the millions of dollars it gives to the global health body elsewhere. The AP report says that the National Health Commission, Beijing's most senior health authority, blocked laboratories from releasing information about the COVID-19 virus without its approval, meaning there was a delay in information being published lasting most of January. UK under pressure to cut ties with Beijing US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (left) and UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. Getty UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to chair a National Security Council meeting on Tuesday, with the UK's relationship with China reportedly top of the agenda. Johnson is under pressure from increasing numbers of Members of Parliament in his Conservative party to loosen ties with China for its handling of the coronavirus, as well as its recent move to impose new laws on Hong Kong. UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is set to make a statement on Hong Kong in the House of Commons on Tuesday afternoon after holding a videoconferencewith US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and counterparts from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand on Monday evening. Prime Minister Johnson is also expected to shrink Huawei's role in developing Britain's 5G network after striking a controversial agreement with the Chinese telecomms firm earlier this year. Read the original article on Business Insider We attempted to send a notification to your email address but we were unable to verify that you provided a valid email address. Please click here to update your email address if you wish to receive notifications. Otherwise, you may click here to disable notifications and hide this message. Churches, mosques, and other worship centres in Lagos will remain shut due to the continued high number of coronavirus cases in the state, the Commissioner for Home Affairs, Anofiu Elegushi, said on Tuesday. Mr Elegushi spoke on the sideline of the 2020 Ministerial Press Briefing commemorating the first year in office of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu. The Federal Government had on Monday, June 1, lifted the ban on mosques and churches in the country, based on guidelines and protocols agreed with state governments. Mr Elegushi said the reopening of the worship centres was not possible soon, as the state was the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic. Even before the pronouncement by Federal Government, we have been having meetings with the religious leaders, we even had one with Safety Commission, looking at the possibility of reopening of religious houses. We also had one with the leaders of the two faiths and I want to tell you categorically that at that meeting, possibility of reopening religious houses was ruled out totally. They claimed that they cannot take such responsibility of ensuring that only 20 or 50 people are praying behind them. Like an Imam said, he doesnt know what is going on at the back immediately he is leading a prayer. He said if more than 20 or 50 people are staying at his back he is not going to take responsibility for their presence. So, in the meeting, we ruled out in totality the issue of reopening the religious houses until we have a clear coast for us to do so. The Federal Government mentioned it, but it never ruled out the state in achieving that pronouncement, so all states will have to look at possibility of doing so in their respective states. We all know Lagos is still having more figures. So definitely that will speak to our decision, he said. The commissioner, however, said the governor of the state would come out with further directives on the matter. (NAN) Avatars film crew have gained access into New Zealands borders to continue production of its sequel despite stringent rules. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a press conference that their arrival was government-approved as they used a loophole that allows foreigners through the borders. Jon Landau, the producer posted a picture of the arrival on Instagram with a caption reading: Made it to New Zealand. Our 14-day government-supervised self-isolation now begins. However, the New Zealand Association for Migration and Investment labelled the exemption unfair. Chairperson June Ranson said some 60,000 migrants were holding valid work visas who were unable to enter New Zealand. In an attempt to stop the spread of coronavirus, only New Zealand citizens and residents have been allowed to enter the country since March 19. Related A series of photos showing high school students posing in ancient costumes for their yearbook photos have recently gone viral and garnered thousands of 'likes' on social media. Wearing ancient traditional costumes to take yearbook photos was an idea of graduating French majors at Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted in the northern province of Nam Dinh. They took the series of photos at Tran Temple, a popular religious site located in the suburbs of Nam Dinh City, the provincial capital. Impressed with the series unique concept and the theme of promoting traditional culture, netizens have given it over 11,000 likes to date. All of the ancient costumes are on hire from a provider who have made clothes for the actors and actresses of the Vietnamese web drama Phuong Khau, according to Tran Minh Thu, a student involved in the project. They include nhat binh, a dress created in the Nguyen Dynasty, the last imperial dynasty of Vietnam; giao linh, a cross-collared robe or cross-collared dress; and ngu than or lap linh, a five-paneled aristocratic gown from the 19th and early-20th centuries. When talking about Vietnamese traditional costumes, many people only think of ao dai [Vietnamese long gown]. They forget our country also has other varieties of beautiful, ancient costumes, Minh Thu said. I have got to know the nhat binh as well as ancient costumes in the dynasties of Ly, Tran, and Nguyen for a long time. My friends in our class knew more about them too, thanks to watching Phuong Khau, she added. My classmates chose to wear ancient costumes to take photos for the yearbook because we love them, and we want to promote the Vietnamese tradition as well. A female student wears a nhat binh dress and holds a dan kim, a traditional Vietnamese double-stringed lute, in this supplied yearbook photo. To make the series of photos, Minh Thus class prepared for them from the beginning of the school year. Their plan was delayed until May 24 because of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Minh Thu says she will not forget the moments when she and her classmates were sweating while wearing the layered clothes. Despite the scorching heat, all of the students tried to pose perfectly to get a beautiful series of photos. Although we are a French language class, we still want to do something relating to Vietnamese tradition. Vietnamese ancient costumes are very beautiful and comparable to other countries' [traditional clothes], Thu said. These costumes are also colorful, so all my classmates supported the concept of making the yearbook. We even successfully convinced our homeroom teacher to take part in the plan. Charges for the rental clothes were rather costly, yet the students still rented other props such as fans and traditional musical instruments to make them look even more similar to the people living in the past. Because of the popularity of the photo series, many other young people have expressed an interest in creating their own photo series to highlight the ancient costumes of Vietnam. Six students wear Vietnamese ancient costumes in this supplied yearbook photo. A student holds a dan kim, a traditional Vietnamese double-stringed lute, while the other students look on in this supplied yearbook photo. Students stage a scene with a king, wearing a yellow costume in the middle, surrounded by a few officials in this supplied yearbook photo. A group of students pose for a photo in the yard at Tran Temple in Nam Dinh Province, Vietnam in this supplied yearbook photo. 12th-grade French majors at Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted in Nam Dinh Province, Vietnam pose for a royal family photo at Tran Temple wearing ancient costumes in this supplied yearbook photo. 12th-grade French majors at Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted in Nam Dinh Province, Vietnam pose for a royal family photo at Tran Temple wearing ancient costumes in this supplied yearbook photo. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Noida, June 2 : Normal life has been hit by the outbreak of coronavirus. But some people are still helping out others in this hour of crisis. One such good samaritan is a teenage girl from Noida who sent a labourer family from Jharkhand home by air using her money from her 'gullak' (money box). Niharika Dwivedi is just 12 years old. She now wants to spend the remaining Rs 17,000 of her 'gullak' money on the needy. She lives in Noida Sector-50, and is a student of class VII. Niharika told IANS, "I was watching the news in lockdown. Everywhere it was about migrants. I remembered one thing about my grandmother. My grandmother says that if someone wants to know about emotion, then look into their eyes, you will know their suffering." Niharika said, "The migrant workers have done a lot to develop our society, now we should help them when they are in need. I talked to my parents about this and they supported me. Then we contacted an NGO and after a few calls, I came to know about a family in Jharkhand, including a husband and wife, who were living in a shelter home in Delhi and wanted to return home." Three members of this family of Jharkhand, Pyari Kol, his wife Shushila and daughter Kajal lived in Noida and worked as laborers. Pyari Kol was suffering from cancer and was undergoing treatment. All three were unemployed due to the lockdown. Somehow they reached Delhi, but could not find any further means. They were spending their days in the shelter home. "I came to know that the girl's father has cancer, due to which his land has been sold. After this I broke my piggy bank (Gullak) and booked flight tickets to Ranchi to send them home," said Niharika. Niharika's father Gaurav Dwivedi booked the cab and transported the family from the shelter home to the airport. The three flew from Delhi to Ranchi at 5.30 pm on Sunday. Gaurav Dwivedi said, "There were a total of Rs 48,530 in the gullak. Around Rs 20,000 were used to buy the tickets and we also gave them Rs 10,000 rupees in cash, as well as food packets." Niharika further said, "I have about Rs 17,000 left in my gullak now, and I will help any other needy with this money. My mother has told me that we will start depositing money in the gullak again." Niharika, who exemplifies social service, wants to grow up to become an IAS officer, and serve the people. She also aspires to join the army. China sat on releasing the genetic map of the coronavirus for more than a week after three different government labs had fully decoded the information. Tight controls on information and competition within the Chinese public health system were to blame, according to dozens of interviews and internal documents Throughout January, the World Health Organisation publicly praised China for what it called a speedy response to the new coronavirus. It repeatedly thanked the Chinese government for sharing the genetic map of the virus "immediately," and said its work and commitment to transparency were "very impressive, and beyond words." But behind the scenes, it was a much different story, one of significant delays by China and considerable frustration among WHO officials over not getting the information they needed to fight the spread of the deadly virus, The Associated Press has found. Despite the plaudits, China in fact sat on releasing the genetic map, or genome, of the virus for more than a week after three different government labs had fully decoded the information. Tight controls on information and competition within the Chinese public health system were to blame, according to dozens of interviews and internal documents. Chinese government labs only released the genome after another lab published it ahead of authorities on a virologist website on 11 January. Even then, China stalled for at least two weeks more on providing WHO with detailed data on patients and cases, according to recordings of internal meetings held by the UN health agency through January all at a time when the outbreak arguably might have been dramatically slowed. WHO officials were lauding China in public because they wanted to coax more information out of the government, the recordings obtained by the AP suggest. Privately, they complained in meetings the week of 6 January that China was not sharing enough data to assess how effectively the virus spread between people or what risk it posed to the rest of the world, costing valuable time. "We're going on very minimal information," said American epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove, now WHOs technical lead for COVID-19, in one internal meeting. "Its clearly not enough for you to do proper planning." "Were currently at the stage where yes, theyre giving it to us 15 minutes before it appears on CCTV," said WHO's top official in China, Dr Gauden Galea, referring to the state-owned China Central Television, in another meeting. The story behind the early response to the virus comes at a time when the UN health agency is under siege, and has agreed to an independent probe of how the pandemic was handled globally. After repeatedly praising the Chinese response early on, U.S. President Donald Trump has blasted WHO in recent weeks for allegedly colluding with China to hide the extent of the coronavirus crisis. He cut ties with the organization on Friday, jeopardizing the approximately $450 million the U.S. gives every year as WHOs biggest single donor. In the meantime, Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to pitch in $2 billion over the next two years to fight the coronavirus, saying China has always provided information to WHO and the world in a most timely fashion. The new information does not support the narrative of either the US or China, but instead portrays an agency now stuck in the middle that was urgently trying to solicit more data despite limited authority. Although international law obliges countries to report information to WHO that could have an impact on public health, the UN agency has no enforcement powers and cannot independently investigate epidemics within countries. Instead, it must rely on the cooperation of member states. The recordings suggest that rather than colluding with China, as Trump declared, WHO was itself kept in the dark as China gave it the minimal information required by law. However, the agency did try to portray China in the best light, likely as a means to secure more information. And WHO experts genuinely thought Chinese scientists had done a very good job in detecting and decoding the virus, despite the lack of transparency from Chinese officials. WHO staffers debated how to press China for gene sequences and detailed patient data without angering authorities, worried about losing access and getting Chinese scientists into trouble. Under international law, WHO is required to quickly share information and alerts with member countries about an evolving crisis. Galea noted WHO could not indulge China's wish to sign off on information before telling other countries because that is not respectful of our responsibilities. In the second week of January, WHOs chief of emergencies, Dr. Michael Ryan, told colleagues it was time to shift gears and apply more pressure on China, fearing a repeat of the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome that started in China in 2002 and killed nearly 800 people worldwide. This is exactly the same scenario, endlessly trying to get updates from China about what was going on, he said. WHO barely got out of that one with its neck intact given the issues that arose around transparency in southern China. Ryan said the best way to protect China from possible action by other countries was for WHO to do its own independent analysis with data from the Chinese government on whether the virus could easily spread between people. Ryan also noted that China was not cooperating in the same way some other countries had in the past. This would not happen in Congo and did not happen in Congo and other places, he said, probably referring to the Ebola outbreak that began there in 2018. We need to see the data..Its absolutely important at this point. The delay in the release of the genome stalled the recognition of its spread to other countries, along with the global development of tests, drugs and vaccines. The lack of detailed patient data also made it harder to determine how quickly the virus was spreading a critical question in stopping it. Between the day the full genome was first decoded by a government lab on Jan. 2 and the day WHO declared a global emergency on Jan. 30, the outbreak spread by a factor of 100 to 200 times, according to retrospective infection data from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus has now infected over 6 million people worldwide and killed more than 375,000. Its obvious that we could have saved more lives and avoided many, many deaths if China and the WHO had acted faster, said Ali Mokdad, a professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. However, Mokdad and other experts also noted that if WHO had been more confrontational with China, it could have triggered a far worse situation of not getting any information at all. If WHO had pushed too hard, it could even have been kicked out of China, said Adam Kamradt-Scott, a global health professor at the University of Sydney. But he added that a delay of just a few days in releasing genetic sequences can be critical in an outbreak. And he noted that as Beijings lack of transparency becomes even clearer, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesuss continued defense of China is problematic. Its definitely damaged WHOs credibility, said Kamradt-Scott. Did he go too far? I think the evidence on that is clear.it has led to so many questions about the relationship between China and WHO. It is perhaps a cautionary tale. WHO and its officials named in this story declined to answer questions asked by The Associated Press without audio or written transcripts of the recorded meetings, which the AP was unable to supply to protect its sources. Our leadership and staff have worked night and day in compliance with the organizations rules and regulations to support and share information with all Member States equally, and engage in frank and forthright conversations with governments at all levels, a WHO statement said. Chinas National Health Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had no comment. But in the past few months, China has repeatedly defended its actions, and many other countries including the U.S. have responded to the virus with even longer delays of weeks and even months. Since the beginning of the outbreak, we have been continuously sharing information on the epidemic with the WHO and the international community in an open, transparent and responsible manner, said Liu Mingzhu, an official with the National Health Commissions International Department, at a press conference on May 15. ___________ The race to find the genetic map of the virus started in late December, according to the story that unfolds in interviews, documents and the WHO recordings. Thats when doctors in Wuhan noticed mysterious clusters of patients with fevers and breathing problems who werent improving with standard flu treatment. Seeking answers, they sent test samples from patients to commercial labs. By Dec. 27, one lab, Vision Medicals, had pieced together most of the genome of a new coronavirus with striking similarities to SARS. Vision Medicals shared its data with Wuhan officials and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, as reported first by Chinese finance publication Caixin and independently confirmed by the AP. On Dec. 30, Wuhan health officials issued internal notices warning of the unusual pneumonia, which leaked on social media. That evening, Shi Zhengli, a coronavirus expert at the Wuhan Institute of Virology who is famous for having traced the SARS virus to a bat cave, was alerted to the new disease, according to an interview with Scientific American. Shi took the first train from a conference in Shanghai back to Wuhan. The next day, Chinese CDC director Gao Fu dispatched a team of experts to Wuhan. Also on Dec. 31, WHO first learned about the cases from an open-source platform that scouts for intelligence on outbreaks, emergencies chief Ryan has said. WHO officially requested more information on Jan. 1. Under international law, members have 24 to 48 hours to respond, and China reported two days later that there were 44 cases and no deaths. By Jan. 2, Shi had decoded the entire genome of the virus, according to a notice later posted on her institutes website. Scientists agree that Chinese scientists detected and sequenced the then-unknown pathogen with astonishing speed, in a testimony to Chinas vastly improved technical capabilities since SARS, during which a WHO-led group of scientists took months to identify the virus. This time, Chinese virologists proved within days that it was a never-before-seen coronavirus. Tedros would later say Beijing set a new standard for outbreak response. But when it came to sharing the information with the world, things began to go awry. On Jan. 3, the National Health Commission issued a confidential notice ordering labs with the virus to either destroy their samples or send them to designated institutes for safekeeping. The notice, first reported by Caixin and seen by the AP, forbade labs from publishing about the virus without government authorization. The order barred Shis lab from publishing the genetic sequence or warning of the potential danger. Chinese law states that research institutes cannot conduct experiments on potentially dangerous new viruses without approval from top health authorities. Although the law is intended to keep experiments safe, it gives top health officials wide-ranging powers over what lower-level labs can or cannot do. If the virologist community had operated with more autonomy.the public would have been informed of the lethal risk of the new virus much earlier, said Edward Gu, a professor at Zhejiang University, and Li Lantian, a PhD student at Northwestern University, in a paper published in March analyzing the outbreak. Commission officials later repeated that they were trying to ensure lab safety, and had tasked four separate government labs with identifying the genome at the same time to get accurate, consistent results. By Jan. 3, the Chinese CDC had independently sequenced the virus, according to internal data seen by the Associated Press. And by just after midnight on Jan. 5, a third designated government lab, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, had decoded the sequence and submitted a report pulling all-nighters to get results in record time, according to a state media interview. Yet even with full sequences decoded by three state labs independently, Chinese health officials remained silent. The WHO reported on Twitter that investigations were under way into an unusual cluster of pneumonia cases with no deaths in Wuhan, and said it would share more details as we have them. Meanwhile, at the Chinese CDC, gaps in coronavirus expertise proved a problem. For nearly two weeks, Wuhan reported no new infections, as officials censored doctors who warned of suspicious cases. Meanwhile, researchers found the new coronavirus used a distinct spike protein to bind itself to human cells. The unusual protein and the lack of new cases lulled some Chinese CDC researchers into thinking the virus didnt easily spread between humans like the coronavirus that casues Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, according to an employee who declined to be identified out of fear of retribution. Li Yize, a coronavirus researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, said he immediately suspected the pathogen was infectious when he spotted a leaked copy of a sequencing report in a group chat on a SARS-like coronavirus. But the Chinese CDC team working on the genetic sequence lacked molecular specialists and failed to consult with outside scientists, Li said. Chinese health authorities rebuffed offers of assistance from foreign experts, including Hong Kong scientists barred from a fact-finding mission to Wuhan and an American professor at a university in China. On Jan. 5, the Shanghai Public Clinical Health Center, led by famed virologist Zhang Yongzhen, was the latest to sequence the virus. He submitted it to the GenBank database, where it sat awaiting review, and notified the National Health Commission. He warned them that the new virus was similar to SARS and likely infectious. It should be contagious through respiratory passages, the center said in an internal notice seen by the AP. We recommend taking preventative measures in public areas. On the same day, WHO said that based on preliminary information from China, there was no evidence of significant transmission between humans, and did not recommend any specific measures for travelers. The next day, the Chinese CDC raised its emergency level to the second highest. Staffers proceeded to isolate the virus, draft lab testing guidelines, and design test kits. But the agency did not have the authority to issue public warnings, and the heightened emergency level was kept secret even from many of its own staff. By Jan. 7, another team at Wuhan University had sequenced the pathogen and found it matched Shis, making Shi certain they had identified a novel coronavirus. But Chinese CDC experts said they didnt trust Shis findings and needed to verify her data before she could publish, according to three people familiar with the matter. Both the National Health Commission and the Ministry of Science and Technology, which oversees Shis lab, declined to make Shi available for an interview. A major factor behind the gag order, some say, was that Chinese CDC researchers wanted to publish their papers first. They wanted to take all the credit, said Li, the coronavirus expert. Internally, the leadership of the Chinese CDC is plagued with fierce competition, six people familiar with the system explained. They said the agency has long promoted staff based on how many papers they can publish in prestigious journals, making scientists reluctant to share data. As the days went by, even some of the Chinese CDC's own staff began to wonder why it was taking so long for authorities to identify the pathogen. We were getting suspicious, since within one or two days you would get a sequencing result, a lab technician said, declining to be identified for fear of retribution. ___________ On Jan. 8, the Wall Street Journal reported that scientists had identified a new coronavirus in samples from pneumonia patients in Wuhan, pre-empting and embarrassing Chinese officials. The lab technician told the AP they first learned about the discovery of the virus from the Journal. The article also embarrassed WHO officials. Dr. Tom Grein, chief of WHO's acute events management team, said the agency looked doubly, incredibly stupid. Van Kerkhove, the American expert, acknowledged WHO was already late in announcing the new virus and told colleagues that it was critical to push China. Ryan, WHOs chief of emergencies, was also upset at the dearth of information. The fact is, were two to three weeks into an event, we dont have a laboratory diagnosis, we dont have an age, sex or geographic distribution, we dont have an epi curve, he complained, referring to the standard graphic of outbreaks scientists use to show how an epidemic is progressing. After the article, state media officially announced the discovery of the new coronavirus. But even then, Chinese health authorities did not release the genome, diagnostic tests, or detailed patient data that could hint at how infectious the disease was. By that time, suspicious cases were already appearing across the region. On Jan. 8, Thai airport officers pulled aside a woman from Wuhan with a runny nose, sore throat, and high temperature. Chulalongkorn University professor Supaporn Wacharapluesadees team found the woman was infected with a new coronavirus, much like what Chinese officials had described. Supaporn partially figured out the genetic sequence by Jan. 9, reported it to the Thai government and spent the next day searching for matching sequences. But because Chinese authorities hadnt published any sequences, she found nothing. She could not prove the Thai virus was the same one sickening people in Wuhan. It was kind of wait and see, when China will release the data, then we can compare, said Supaporn. On Jan. 9, a 61-year-old man with the virus passed away in Wuhan the first known death. The death wasnt made public until Jan. 11. WHO officials complained in internal meetings that they were making repeated requests for more data, especially to find out if the virus could spread efficiently between humans, but to no avail. We have informally and formally been requesting more epidemiological information, WHO's China representative Galea said. But when asked for specifics, we could get nothing. Emergencies chief Ryan grumbled that since China was providing the minimal information required by international law, there was little WHO could do. But he also noted that last September, WHO had issued an unusual public rebuke of Tanzania for not providing enough details about a worrisome Ebola outbreak. We have to be consistent, Ryan said. The danger now is that despite our good intent...especially if something does happen, there will be a lot of finger-pointing at WHO. Ryan noted that China could make a huge contribution to the world by sharing the genetic material immediately, because otherwise other countries will have to reinvent the wheel over the coming days. On Jan. 11, a team led by Zhang, from the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, finally published a sequence on virological.org, used by researchers to swap tips on pathogens. The move angered Chinese CDC officials, three people familiar with the matter said, and the next day, his laboratory was temporarily shuttered by health authorities. Zhang referred a request for comment to the Chinese CDC. The National Health Commission, which oversees the Chinese CDC, declined multiple times to make its officials available for interviews and did not answer questions about Zhang. Supaporn compared her sequence with Zhangs and found it was a 100% match, confirming that the Thai patient was ill with the same virus detected in Wuhan. Another Thai lab got the same results. That day, Thailand informed the WHO, said Tanarak Plipat, deputy director-general of the Department of Disease Control at Thailands Ministry of Public Health. After Zhang released the genome, the Chinese CDC, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences raced to publish their sequences, working overnight to review them, gather patient data, and send them to the National Health Commission for approval, according to documentation obtained by the AP. On Jan. 12, the three labs together finally published the sequences on GISAID, a platform for scientists to share genomic data. By then, more than two weeks had passed since Vision Medicals decoded a partial sequence, and more than a week since the three government labs had all obtained full sequences. Around 600 people were infected in that week, a roughly three-fold increase. Some scientists say the wait was not unreasonable considering the difficulties in sequencing unknown pathogens, given accuracy is as important as speed. They point to the SARS outbreak in 2003 when some Chinese scientists initially and wrongly believed the source of the epidemic was chlamydia. The pressure is intense in an outbreak to make sure youre right, said Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealthAlliance in New York. Its actually worse to go out to go to the public with a story thats wrong because the public completely lose confidence in the public health response. Still, others quietly question what happened behind the scenes. Infectious diseases expert John Mackenzie, who served on a WHO emergency committee during the outbreak, praised the speed of Chinese researchers in sequencing the virus. But he said once central authorities got involved, detailed data trickled to a crawl. There certainly was a kind of blank period, Mackenzie said. There had to be human to human transmission. You know, its staring at you in the face I would have thought they would have been much more open at that stage. _________________ On Jan. 13, WHO announced that Thailand had a confirmed case of the virus, jolting Chinese officials. The next day, in a confidential teleconference, Chinas top health official ordered the country to prepare for a pandemic, calling the outbreak the most severe challenge since SARS in 2003, as the AP previously reported. Chinese CDC staff across the country began screening, isolating, and testing for cases, turning up hundreds across the country. Yet even as the Chinese CDC internally declared a level one emergency, the highest level possible, Chinese officials still said the chance of sustained transmission between humans was low. WHO went back and forth. Van Kerkhove said in a press briefing that it is certainly possible there is limited human-to-human transmission. But hours later, WHO seemed to backtrack, and tweeted that preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission a statement that later became fodder for critics. A high-ranking official in WHOs Asia office, Dr. Liu Yunguo, who attended medical school in Wuhan, flew to Beijing to make direct, informal contacts with Chinese officials, recordings show. Lius former classmate, a Wuhan doctor, had alerted him that pneumonia patients were flooding the citys hospitals, and Liu pushed for more experts to visit Wuhan, according to a public health expert familiar with the matter. On Jan. 20, the leader of an expert team returning from Wuhan, renowned government infectious diseases doctor Zhong Nanshan, declared publicly for the first time that the new virus was spreading between people. Chinese President Xi Jinping called for the timely publication of epidemic information and deepening of international cooperation. Despite that directive, WHO staff still struggled to obtain enough detailed patient data from China about the rapidly evolving outbreak. That same day, the U.N. health agency dispatched a small team to Wuhan for two days, including Galea, the WHO representative in China. They were told about a worrying cluster of cases among more than a dozen doctors and nurses. But they did not have transmission trees detailing how the cases were connected, nor a full understanding of how widely the virus was spreading and who was at risk. In an internal meeting, Galea said their Chinese counterparts were talking openly and consistently about human-to-human transmission, and that there was a debate about whether or not this was sustained. Galea reported to colleagues in Geneva and Manila that Chinas key request to WHO was for help in communicating this to the public, without causing panic. On Jan. 22, WHO convened an independent committee to determine whether to declare a global health emergency. After two inconclusive meetings where experts were split, they decided against it even as Chinese officials ordered Wuhan sealed in the biggest quarantine in history. The next day, WHO chief Tedros publicly described the spread of the new coronavirus in China as limited. For days, China didnt release much detailed data, even as its case count exploded. Beijing city officials were alarmed enough to consider locking down the capital, according to a medical expert with direct knowledge of the matter. On Jan. 28, Tedros and top experts, including Ryan, made an extraordinary trip to Beijing to meet President Xi and other senior Chinese officials. It is highly unusual for WHOs director-general to directly intervene in the practicalities of outbreak investigations. Tedros staffers had prepared a list of requests for information. It could all happen and the floodgates open, or there's no communication, Grein said in an internal meeting while his boss was in Beijing. Well see. At the end of Tedros trip, WHO announced China had agreed to accept an international team of experts. In a press briefing on Jan. 29, Tedros heaped praise on China, calling its level of commitment incredible. The next day, WHO finally declared an international health emergency. Once again, Tedros thanked China, saying nothing about the earlier lack of cooperation. We should have actually expressed our respect and gratitude to China for what its doing, Tedros said. It has already done incredible things to limit the transmission of the virus to other countries. Hakes Brothers has announced the companys expansion into the San Antonio area with two new communities, Hunters Place and Hannah Heights. These communities will give residents of the greater San Antonio area access to the same high standards of design, quality construction, and affordability that have defined the Hakes Brothers brand in West Texas and New Mexico. The geographic expansion provides an opportunity for the company to serve the growing number of home buyers who are attracted to the areas unique combination of countryside living amid a thriving city culture. In particular, San Antonio is home to many veterans and active duty families associated with the areas concentration of military bases and services. San Antonio was a no-brainer for us. The citys vibrant growth, especially among military families, allows us to bring our quality and craftsmanship to a new group of home buyers in east Texas, said Dan Nielsen, president of Hakes Brothers, Rio Grande Division. As we developed the home designs for San Antonio, it was important for us to incorporate a wide range of included features while giving future owners a highly functional living space. Hakes Brothers at Hunters Place Located in St. Hedwig, within the rolling countryside of east San Antonio, Hunters Place will offer seven single-family floor plans ranging from 1,237 to 2,316 square feet with 3-4 bedrooms and 2-3 baths. Comprising 102 homesites, the community is served by the acclaimed Navarro Independent School District and is convenient to services and family-oriented attractions via I-10 and FM1518. In addition, residents of Hunters Place will have easy access to Randolph Air Force Base. For more information, visit hakesbrothers.com/san-antonio/hunters-place. Hakes Brothers at Hannah Heights Located in Seguin, Hannah Heights will feature 104 homesites with single-family floor plans ranging from approximately 1,400 to 2,600 square feet with 3-5 bedrooms and 2-4 baths. Seguin is a rapidly emerging suburb of San Antonio with a variety of new restaurants and business opportunities. Situated near the picturesque Guadalupe River, the area is popular among those who enjoy recreational activities such as rafting, canoeing, and fishing. Students living in Hannah Heights will attend schools in the revered East Central School District. For more information, visit hakesbrothers.com/san-antonio/hannah-heights. Hakes Brothers is finalizing the development of these new communities in preparation for opening later this year. Sales at Hunters Place are scheduled to begin during the summer of 2020, with Hannah Heights following in the fall. Visit the Hakes Brothers website to learn more about the companys innovative approach to home design and construction. About Hakes Brothers Hakes Brothers is dedicated to providing its family of customers with supreme value in homeownership. Founded in 2006, Hakes Brothers has grown to become the largest home builder based in New Mexico. With recent expansions in Texas, Hakes Brothers is also one of the largest home builders in the region and has helped over 2,500 families enjoy the home that best fits their lifestyle. Hakes Brothers is passionate about new homes, including professional architecture, innovative design, and high-quality construction. With locations spanning from Albuquerque in the north, to El Paso in the south, and soon opening in San Antonio, Hakes Brothers has set the standard for new homes in the region. For more information about Hakes Brothers, visit www.hakesbrothers.com. Two of the states top cops on Tuesday said they are encouraged by the generally peaceful Connecticut protesters, but they have to be prepared for possible violence and crime that has occurred in many cities around the country. New Haven Police Chief Otoniel Reyes and State Police Col. Stavros Mellekas, who joined Gov. Ned Lamonts daily news briefing in the state Capitol, said they are also concerned that people from out-of-state could come to Connecticut to step up the level of violence. You have the protesters that are upset in these disturbing times and you have agitators within the group, Mellekas said. The protesters, they are against that. We want to identify those parties and address it accordingly. So the protesters, we want to listen to them and let them express their concerns and work with them. The agitators, they go toward looting or rioting, thats unacceptable. Reyes said that it appears some people around the country are crossing state borders to cause problems and violence. His department is working with federal authorities to prepare. If we can distinguish those folks, we can do some pro-active work to arrest those folks if we indeed identify them, because they do not represent the community, Reyes said. Community leaders, Reyes said, are not happy that people from out of the area might be here to try to take advantage of the tension by stoking violence. It does not represent a majority of our respective communities, he said. Its important that we work to identify who the agitators are and were taking pro-active measures. He said it hasnt happened yet but there are some indications online about intentions to loot stores. We have not experienced that and we hope not to, Reyes said. Were not ignorant to the fact that there is an intent by certain agitators and individuals to turn to civil unrest. Reyes notices that there is a generational shift in the makeup of the protesters, with many young people, with whom he wants to engage in conversation and collaboration to lower the chance of violence and involve them in the states recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. I think this is the time where we capitalize on the relationships that weve built, the long-standing relationships weve built with the cross-section of members in our communities, not just faith leaders but our civic leaders and our young folks, Reyes said. We have seen that many of the protesters are young people and theyre looking for a different type of change. They are looking to be heard. So we are working with our youth organizations pro-actively to engage these young folks. I think we need to listen. Something you have to remember is that all our troopers are human beings, Mellekas told reporters. They have a heart, use common sense and decency. So we encourage independent thinking and using reasonable logic. He described an incident Monday in which a State Police supervisor joined protesters in prayer during a highway protest in Hartford that could have become dangerous because of traffic. Lamont says demonstrators want accountability and give you confidence that our police, state and municipal, are there representing you, representing the community, because public health and public safety is based on trust. Thats why he has made efforts to make hiring decisions that reflect the diversity of the state, he said. On a day where for the first time since March there were a single-digit increase in fatalities 8, bringing the total to 3,972 dead in the coronavirus pandemic Lamont also announced that the state will partner in a blood-surveillance study of 1,400 random state residents to see if they have developed antibodies, a sign of prior infection and possible immunity to COVID-19. By the early evening, Lamont had issued an executive order allowing child care programs to increase from the current 30 kids, to 50 without having to get approval from the state Office of Early Childhood. But providers of care for more than 50 children need the approval. Ndi Anambra ekenem unu-o! Once again I am here to update you on our activities to contain the Covid-19 pandemic in Anambra State. This is a tradition we have maintained since the outbreak of the virus in Nigeria. As the Chief Security Officer of Anambra State, I have an obligation to update you on what we are doing to protect Ndi Anambra from this virus. Update on Covid-19 Cases in Anambra State: Ndi Anambra, our dear state has continued to do well in the fight against this virus. As it stands now, we have 8 patients in our Protective Care Centers. We also have 69 individuals on home quarantine and 2 individuals in the facility based quarantine. We shall continue to push back at this pandemic until we have reduced its presence in Anambra State. Ndi Anambra, we are ramping up our testing capacity to ensure that we slow down the spread of this pandemic in our dear state. The Covid-19 Committees that we have set up in Wards and Local Governments across Anambra State are helping us in driving the campaign to every nook and cranny of the state. Ndi Anambra, a likely outcome of running more Covid-19 tests is that there will be more reported cases in Anambra State. But I would like to assure you that we have made adequate arrangements to handle the challenges arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. Ndi Anambra, unu atuna egwu. We shall overcome this virus by the grace of God! The Covid-19 Law Ndi Anambra as you are probably aware, on Thursday last week, I signed the Covid-19 Bill into law. Under this new Covid-19 Law it is an offence to be seen in the public without a face mask. The offence attracts a fine of ten thousand naira or some hours of community service. I would like to re-emphasize that my administration is determined to enforce this law. So, Id advise every ezigbo onye Anambra to comply with this law to avoid paying the fine that comes with disobeying it. Reminders to Traders and Religious Groups: Ndi Anambra, the information we received from different quarters indicate that our people have started lowering their guard on the Covid-19 protocols. I have it on good authority that traders in various markets no longer comply with the enforcement of the wearing of face masks and the washing of hands. I want to warn that we may consider shutting down the markets if this trend is not halted with immediate effect. I have also received similar reports from churches and other religious groups in the state most of whom have discarded the wearing of face masks. I urge the leadership of all religious bodies in Anambra State to ensure compliance with the standard protocols of Covid-19 without further delay. A Holding Area in Hospitals. Ndi Anambra, we have continued to evolve new approaches to handling the Covid-19 pandemic. We have observed that while ramping up the number of Covid-19 tests we run in our dear state is important, it is even more important to ensure that patients suspected of having the Covid-19 virus do not multiply the spread of the contagion. As a result of that, every hospital in Anambra State must set up a mini holding ward where patients whose samples have been taken for a Covid-19 test can be kept while the result of the test is awaited. This approach will minimize the chances of patients spreading the virus through multiple contacts. Training of Volunteers for Covid-19: We shall soon be organizing a specialized training on how to manage Covid-19 cases in Anambra State. We are looking for volunteer doctors, nurses, cleaners and other medical personnel whose services are needed in the management of Covid-19 patients in hospitals. The Ministry of Information will soon create the necessary awareness on the proposed training and how volunteers can be enrolled. Centralized Sampling and Reporting of Covid-19 Cases: Ndi Anambra all members of the Nigerian Medical Association practicing in Anambra State are expected to inform the Ministry of Health once they collect samples of suspected Covid-19 patients for testing. A situation where some members had collected samples and sent to the testing centers on their own is no longer be allowed. All Covid-19 efforts in Anambra State with regards to the collection of samples and the presentation of specimen to NCDC must be centralized going forward. Indigenous Manufacture of PPE: Ndi Anambra, as we heavy up our efforts to combat Covid-19 in our dear state, we have set up a mechanism that will challenge our people to bring out their ingenuity in manufacturing Personal Protective Equipment. Throughout history, our people have responded to challenges that force us to look inwards for solutions that will guarantee our survival. I have no doubt that we have enough talent in Anambra State to provide us some durable Personal Protective Equipment within the shortest possible time. A Kind Word for Healthcare Workers: Once again, I wish to commend the great efforts of our healthcare workers who are our frontline of defence structure against this virus. I have been reliably informed that our healthcare workers have since raised their game as the number of cases rises in the state. That is the spirit of Anambra. Dalunu! Fighting Covid-19 by Boosting the Immune System: Ndi Anambra, our knowledge of this pandemic has continued to grow in recent times. It has been discovered that when we boost our immune system, we give our bodies a chance to resist all infections including the Covid-19 virus. I would advise that we eat healthy food and take the right supplements including vitamins, to give our bodies the weapon to fight infections. Conclusion: In conclusion, Ndi Anambra we have responded very well to the difficulties imposed on our way of life by this pandemic. We have fought back to reckoning by complying with the standard response prescribed by the WHO and the NCDC for Covid-19. I have no doubt that if we continue to maintain the same level of discipline we will be giving ourselves enough headroom to overcome this pandemic. God bless Anambra State God bless the federal republic of Nigeria. Willie Obiano Governor ST. LOUIS (AP) Police say four officers were hit by gunfire after protests in St. Louis that started peacefully Monday became violent overnight, with demonstrators smashing windows and stealing items from businesses and fires burning in the downtown area. The police department tweeted early Tuesday that the officers were taken to a hospital with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening. It was unclear who had fired the shots. Canopy Growth Corp., the largest cannabis company by market value, plunged on Friday after reporting falling recreational sales. The company also pushed back its target date to reach profitability. The results appeared to spark investor pessimism about the rest of the cannabis industry, dragging down the shares of peers like Tilray Inc., Cronos Group Inc. and Organigram Holdings Inc. Canopys quarterly revenue from Canadian recreational wholesale which makes up about a third of total sales slumped 36 per cent from a year earlier. Sales to consumers, via Canopys retail outlets, rose on an annual basis but fell 14 per cent from the previous quarter. The company said it closed its Canadian retail locations late in the period due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It also recorded a net loss for a fifth straight quarter. The results showed a wider loss and sales decline at a time when most peers are showing improvements, said William Kirk, an analyst with MKM Partners, in a research note. The coronavirus lockdown has sparked pantry loading, with consumers boosting their use of cannabis, at least in the U.S. market, studies have shown. Canopy also recorded an impairment charge of $743 million (US$539 million) as part of the companys strategic shift that has included cutting 85 jobs, exiting South Africa, shutting a facility in Saskatchewan and ending cultivation in Latin America. Canopy had previously said it would record a charge of $700 million to $800 million. Canopys U.S. shares plunged as much as 22 per cent to $16.95 on Friday the most intraday since 2016. That erased the stocks previous gain of 3 per cent in 2020 through Thursdays close. The company, based in Smiths Falls, Ontario, said sales of gels, oils, beverages, chocolates and vaping products rose but not enough to offset a decline in raw cannabis and pre-rolled joints. Canopy also withdrew its previous forecast that it would reach profitability on a consolidated basis in fiscal 2022. It may release new projections in the second half of its current fiscal year, depending on the impact of Covid-19. Canopys peers have shifted to value-priced segments that have gained notable traction as of late, Canaccord Genuity analyst Matt Bottomley said in a research note Friday. Their increases in volume over the prior quarter suggest Canopy is losing market share, he said. At the start of 2020, Canopy started to sell a new range of products such as chocolates, beverages and vape products, which analysts had expected to boost revenue. Click the photo to write a caption and have a chance to win a free subscription to the Norfolk Daily News. Thai hotels on the chopping block BANGKOK: Hundreds of hotels at beach resorts in Thailand are up for sale according to a report in the Thai language news service Prachachat.net, reports TTR Weekly. tourismeconomicsCOVID-19 By TTR Weekly Tuesday 2 June 2020, 11:04AM Photo: via TTR Weekly Claiming the countrys hotel business is now in free-fall due to the COVID-19 lockdown it reported that a slew of three to four-star hotels are on the chopping block as property owners run short of financial resources to service bank debts, said the report. Most of the properties up for sale are in three main tourist provinces Phuket, Krabi and Samui. The report claims opportunist buyers from Singapore and China lead the list of foreigners who are ready to snatch up property bargains at prices that have dropped by around 50% of their pre-COVID-19 value. A source in the hotel industry told Prachachat Business that hundreds of hotels are now the targets of property funds that have the resources to buy during the crisis when prices are impacted. But most of the property raiders are only prepared to buy at basement prices well below the evaluation before COVID-19 stalled travel in its tracks. Property websites listed hotel properties in Phuket, Samui, Surat Thani, Krabi and even Pattaya with list prices of B1,000 to 10,000 million, medium-sized three-star properties were selling at B500-1,000 million and small hotels with prices of B50-100 million. The fire sale will continue unabated as most resorts in southern Thailand cannot rely on the domestic market that at present is the sole saviour for resorts that are close to Bangkok such as Hua Hin and Pattaya. A property expert warned that cheap sale of hotel real estate would eventually extend to Chiang Mai, Lamphun and Chiang Rai in North Thailand. In many instances, prices will fall by 20 to 30% lower than the market price, and cashed-up foreign investors are ready to swoop in and snatch up bargains. As long as lockdown measures and flight bans continue, Thailands hotel industry will remain vulnerable to hostile takeovers. If hotels cannot reboot operations soon, they will lack resources to weather the storm until the European leisure travel market gains traction possibly not until 2021. Welcome to day 115. If this were the 'Big Brother' house, the contestants would have been released on purely compassionate grounds by now. But for those citizens who have been marking the days since the General Election of February 8, there is no such release - we're still floating in a dangerous limbo which has paralysed politics in this country and threatens to scupper the necessary legislative changes which we need to urgently pass. When looking at the lesser-spotted Leo these days, it's hard to escape the memorable line from 'Cool Hand Luke' - what we have here is a failure to communicate. Cool Hand Leo has equally failed to communicate with the public. In fact, it's rather similar to his strange policy of almost total radio silence when we were going through the Brexit negotiations earlier this year before Covid-19 swept the planet and everything became so strange it reminds of me of what Stephen King calls '13 o'clock'. Brexit, forgotten but not gone, is waiting just around the corner like a patient but implacable mugger. While we have spent the last few months in a strange state of suspended animation, the world keeps turning and, without wishing to alarm any reader who would prefer to enjoy the glorious sunshine rather than focus on the negatives, the world is not turning in our favour. We face a truly unnerving panoply of problems in the next few months, every single one of them exacerbated by the political paralysis which has gripped the Dail. While we have all been rightly focused on the obviously pressing matter of Covid, the negotiations between the EU and the UK, which were already fraught to begin with, have taken a sterner turn. One unnamed negotiator in Brussels recently claimed the talks "have not been fruitful" and it appears any time we see some light at the end of the tunnel, it's from a train that could flatten us. This is why we need a more public form of leadership from the Taoiseach and, indeed, the parties he seems to be so half-heartedly courting. The most notable public contribution Mr Varadkar has made in recent weeks was taking his top off in the Phoenix Park. While his social media supporters were vociferous in their attacks against anyone who raised a quizzical eyebrow at the images, his decision only added to the confusion about what we are allowed to do under the restrictions. Those supporters - many of whom have only recently opened an anonymous social media account - may have a point that the man is allowed to have some down time. That is true, and nobody of good conscience would deny him a bit of relaxation on a sunny afternoon. But the fact that he had expressly gone against the explicit and extremely clear recommendations of his own office - no picnics, no matter how lovely the weather is - is an unfortunate reminder that there are times when the Taoiseach can be infuriatingly tone deaf. That's not to say he has done a terrible job, far from it. In fact, his last televised speech, in which he appeared to accept the lockdown as reluctantly as most of the rest of us, was a high point for him. His comments warning us against becoming "the valley of the squinting windows" was a reminder of his more libertarian inclinations and was in direct opposition to more authoritarian instructions from the likes of Drew Harris. But while he is to be congratulated for that contribution, it was also a reminder of what we are missing - a leader who leads; a Taoiseach who is prepared, like Harry Truman, to say: "The buck stops here." Buck-passing seems to be the order of the day at the moment. As Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Greens cautiously circle each other, it now looks as if nobody, with the ironic exception of Sinn Fein, actually wants to grasp the poisoned chalice of power. In a world so fraught with uncertainty, the only sure thing is this will be a coalition of the extremely unwilling. A vestigial rump of Fianna Fail simply cannot countenance getting into bed with Fine Gael. Even more unforgivably, the Greens have now come up with the kind of wish list that only a spoiled child or, in this instance, a bunch of political amateurs could conjure. It's easy to get the impression that, with the exception of leader Eamon Ryan, most of the Greens simply don't want to enter power under current circumstances. But ever since the results were fully parsed on February 8 and 9, it was screamingly clear that the only viable way of formulating a government was for the three parties to swallow their pride and do a deal. That we are now 115 days into this quagmire with still no concrete sign of a resolution would appear to hint at an even more grim prospect - another election. It's widely known some Fine Gaelers are buoyed by their recent bounce in the polls and reckon another crack of the whip could give them a better and more commanding mandate. The last thing most of us want is to trudge back to the polling booth again, but at the moment we seem like Belgium, which stumbled through 18 months without a properly elected government in 2010 and 2011. That Varadkar hasn't performed as hideously as either Trump or Johnson is scant consolation and while we may all be basking in the warm glow of an early summer, we're also looking at a winter of discontent. We need proper leadership. Will the people we pay so handsomely do the decent thing and give their country the government it desperately needs? The jury is out. But the voters won't forget those who deliberately dragged their feet during these awful times. Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi on June 1 agreed to conduct a discussion with the Vietnamese Government on considering the resumption of travel between the two countries. Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi During a 30-minute phone call to Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, the Japanese official praised the COVID-19 prevention and control in Vietnam, and expressed his gratitude to the Vietnamese Government and people for their support to Japans fight against the pandemic. The two sides agreed to strengthen cooperation in recovering their economic growth in the coming time, saying that this is also an important issue besides containing the spread of the disease. Earlier the same day, Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan Yoshihide Suga said the COVID-19 pandemic is still spreading worldwide, especially in developing and emerging countries, so the Japanese government still needs to maintain vigilance with the entry into the country. However, he also underlined the importance of considering resumption of travel between people of countries. Suga said his country would keep a close watch on the diseases developments in the world and carefully consider the easing of entry with specific groups from each country, as well as related procedures. Japanese media recently informed that the Japanese government is likely to include Vietnam in the list of four countries that can be relaxed the entry restriction in the first phase, together with Thailand, Australia and New Zealand. According to Japans scenario, those being entrepreneurs will be given priority for entry into Japan in the first phase. The Japanese government has planned to provide relevant specific information by the middle of June./. VNA Rumors circulating on social media claim extremist groups are looking to target smaller municipalities in the San Antonio area, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said during a news conference Tuesday. The sheriff said the department was made aware of unnamed groups who have posted on Facebook and NextDoor in recent days, saying they plan to target small law enforcement departments throughout the county in an effort to overwhelm the police force. The rumors, however, have not been substantiated, Salazar said. FIND OUT FIRST: Get San Antonio breaking news directly to your inbox We are unsure if these rumors are true, but if any police agencies in Bexar County need our help, they have the full services of the sheriffs office available, Salazar said. This could just be a bad rumor. It could be fear mongering from people, as we all know that some people tend to do. What I'm here to do is reassure the community that if these are not bad rumors, the sheriff's office is ready to respond, he added. He did not describe what action these alleged groups may take, or where, but emphasized that local law enforcement is prepared. If you are thinking of doing anything in the suburban areas and you think we are not prepared, you are woefully mistaken, Salazar said. If you live in a smaller city, you get just as much protection as you would if you lived downtown." Salazar said similar to the protests in downtown San Antonio over the last weekend, BCSO would assist another agency in any way it is needed. The groups also claimed to be collecting photos of houses with law enforcement vehicles in the driveway. Although Salazar said they dont believe those rumors, he said law enforcement officers and deputies should be vigilant. Salazar said he doesnt believe these rumors are associated with the peaceful protests scheduled for Tuesday. On Monday, Salazar met with protestors outside the Bexar County Courthouse to talk and even walk in solidarity with them. They are folks like everyone else who are fed up and just want to have their voice heard and I can understand that. In fact, I agree with them on most of what they were saying, Salazar said. Anyone who comes across the social media posts, email BCSOtips@bexar.org or call 210-335-6000 or 210-335-6070. Taylor Pettaway is a breaking news and general assignment reporter for MySA.com |taylor.pettaway@express-news.net | @TaylorPettaway By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 06/02/2020 ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. : What Now?: Loren & Alexei's Birth Special featured the intimate and emotional moments before and after Loren Goldstone and Alexei Brovarnik welcomed their first child into the world.The TLC special that aired on Monday night starred Loren from Hollywood Beach, FL, and Alexei from Nazareth Illit, Israel, who appeared on Season 3 of followed by the first two seasons of : Happily Ever After?.Loren and Alexei were weeks away from the birth of their first baby when they filmed this What Now? special. Loren, 31, was 36 weeks pregnant and her baby was due the following week.Loren and Alexei prepared their Miami, FL, home for their child's arrival while in quarantine, and they had been in quarantine for three weeks together by this point.Loren said she wasn't allowed to leave the house except for doctor visits, and Alexei joked they were going to have "a corona baby," which Loren promised wasn't going to be their baby's name.Loren admitted coronavirus had stopped her from doing a lot, including going on walks outdoors or enjoying a spa day before going into labor. Loren noted the virus and quarantine regulations had taken an "emotional and mental toll" on her.Alexei said it was "weird and strange" to have a pregnant wife during their abnormal, uncertain times.Loren and Alexei met on her birthright trip to Israel. She was the staff leader and Alexei was the medic, and she found him super handsome.Alexei told the camera he never anticipated he and Loren would get married after meeting on a birthright trip to Israel, but Loren said she was sure she had met the man she was going to marry at that time."I can't explain it... I went to Israel five times in one year to see him before we got engaged," Loren shared. "He waited 12 hours [to propose marriage] before I got on a plane to go back to New York. Like, you had time!"Alexei apparently applied for a Tourist Visa twice but got denied and so the couple decided to apply for a K-1 visa, and Alexei said nothing was going to stop them.Once Alexei got approved for the K-1 visa and traveled to America, the couple had to overcome some challenges, such as Loren having strippers at her bachelorette party, but they still got married during his 90-day visit in September 2015.Loren and Alexei also subsequently had a second ceremony in Israel in July 2016 so both of their families could celebrate and witness their union.But then Loren learned she could pass down the Tourette gene to a child. Alexei initially feared their daughter or son having a bad case of Tourette syndrome, but Alexei said he came to realize there are "more worse things in the world" and they'd just deal with it.It didn't take long for Loren to get baby fever, but Alexei really wanted to wait until he received his American citizenship first.Loren and Alexei announced they were expecting Baby No. 1 in late October 2019, just one month after they celebrated four years of marriage. Two months later, the couple shared Loren was pregnant with a baby boy."Timing really is everything, and the fact he already became a citizen right before the whole coronavirus thing really broke out, we are just really, really lucky. I can't even imagine being stuck in that process right now," Loren told the camera on the special.Loren laughed about how hormones were "real" and Alexei teased her for being a pain in the ass and "super moody.""I just have to do whatever she wants. It's not easy," Alexei said of his wife's pregnancy.Alexei was upset his parents couldn't travel to America for the baby's birth, and Loren was also upset to have missed out on a big baby shower. Loren's mother also couldn't stay with them to help with the baby the first few days.Loren revealed she has "an incompetent cervix" and needed to have surgery in order to prevent the baby from coming out prematurely, so she had a scheduled c-section in place at the hospital -- and she didn't have another option for the delivery, like a home birth.Alexei wondered why he wasn't more emotional, which made him feel guilty, but he figured all the emotions would rush out of him the second he got to hold his baby boy.In the week of the baby's due date, Loren said she was experiencing some pains and cramps.Loren admitted she wasn't prepared for an early arrival and was "freaking out" about the idea of becoming parents and giving birth in a hospital when coronavirus is spreading."Alex is so cool, calm and collected, but I am not at all," Loren cried to the camera. "I don't know what to expect... Doctors are telling me to be extra cautious."Loren anticipated Alexei would be able to join her in the operating room, but there was a chance the rules could change on the day of their baby's birth, and Loren was feeling extra stress.Loren and Alexei were then shown going to the doctor's office for an ultrasound on April 14, and Loren was experiencing a headache as well as blurry vision. Her blood pressure was also high, so Loren was sent to the hospital to make sure she didn't have preeclampsia.If Loren was diagnosed with preeclampsia, a complication characterized by high blood pressure, she'd have to undergo the c-section that very day."This is a condition where the treatment is delivering the baby," Dr. Santos told the couple, given preeclampsia can affect the pregnant woman's liver and kidney.Loren said her heart fell in her chest when she heard the news and she was very scared and overwhelmed.Loren and Alexei then traveled to the hospital in South Beach, but Loren said the maternity ward was nowhere near the sick patients. She was happy to be in her own "little bubble.""Loren is crying nonstop," Alexei joked, before expressing excitement.It turned out Loren did in fact need the c-section at 1PM, and Loren gushed, "We're having a baby!"Loren was immediately taken to the OR, but Alexei was unfortunately not allowed in until right before the baby was born."I want to be in there with her, but they told me to wait," Alexei said."This is stressful. I was going crazy out there; it was taking forever! This pregnancy wasn't feeling real to me, and now it's starting to feel real. My breathing is hyperventilating."After 15 to 20 minutes passed, Alexei was welcomed into the operating room.Loren and Alexei's son was born on April 14 at 4:26PM at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, FL, weighing five pounds and 10 ounces. The baby measured 19 inches long and was two days away from being full term.Loren was in tears as she held her baby for the first time and her lips were quivering. She asked her husband if he got a picture, and Alexei assured her that he did.Alexei told the camera the surgery went well and Loren was doing and recovering well. However, since the baby was born two days before 37 weeks, doctors placed him in the NICU for premature babies for 24 hours."He's perfect," Alexei gushed, adding that he couldn't describe the experience."I'm very tired. It's surreal in the most amazing way possible," Loren said.The following day, Loren said she felt "very out of it," "swollen" and "uncomfortable." She was on medication for preeclampsia, and since her blood pressure wasn't coming down, she was placed on a magnesium drip and was required to stay in bed for 24 hours.Loren couldn't see her son until her blood pressure stabilized, and she said it was "really, really hard" to be away from him. Loren cried about not being able to hold or see her child.But after 24 hours, Loren's blood pressure stabilized and so she was given permission to visit her baby in the NICU."We had to put on masks so he couldn't even see our faces, but just holding him for the first time, it's something I'll never forget," Loren cried. "I feel the emotions everyone said I was going to feel -- the motherly emotion. Like, I am there now."After spending two days in the hospital, Loren said she just couldn't wait to start her new norm with Alexei. The baby even opened his eyes for the camera.Loren and Alexei then had to determine whether to circumcise their son in the hospital right or have a rabbi come to their house to perform the 3,000-year-old Jewish tradition.Traditionally, the act is done on the eighth day of the baby's life, and that's what Loren and Alexei planned to do -- at home.Footage then captured Alexei changing Shai's diaper for the first time, and Loren gushed her husband was "such a hot dad."Loren and Alexei finally got to go home after three nights in the hospital, but they were told to quarantine at home with the newborn. Loren said it was an "amazing feeling" to be home."We live for keeping him alive right now," Alexei joked. "I feel surprised by how fast I connected with him and how much he can mean to me in such a short time."Loren said her son looked more like Alexei -- "for now." Loren wanted her son to have Alexei's body and brain but look like her and have her personality, the "perfect combo."On the morning of the bris, the religious circumcision, Loren welcomed her parents and sister into her home since they had all been quarantining for a while.Loren's parents Marlene and Bryan called their grandchild "absolutely beautiful and perfect."It was a special moment for Loren and her family, and she said she'd never forget it. Alexei's parents and the rest of Loren's family joined the couple via videochat for the bris.After the ceremony, Alexei announced his son's name -- Shai Josef Brovarnik.The couple wanted an "S" name since Loren's grandfather is named Sam, and they picked Josef because that's the name of Alexei's grandfather."Look how far we've come," Loren said of her husband. "We'll be married five years this year and it's just so crazy, this life we've built with each other.""I feel thankful to [Loren] for giving me this feeling and giving me this son. I think that's what's connecting me more to her," Alexei shared.Loren added that she loved Alexei more than ever, and she called him "the best partner during a pregnancy and then afterwards."Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage! All his life, Steve Sultanoff, 66, had high cholesterol, a problem that runs in his family. When he was younger and didn't have great health insurance, he decided to participate in clinical trials to get better health care and help discover new medicine that would benefit him. He was put on statins, but those gave him terrible muscle aches. It took 30 years of participating in some 10 to 15 clinical studies before Sultanoff hit pay dirt: an injectable medication that lowered his cholesterol with almost no side effects. "I couldn't be happier," says Sultanoff, who lives in Irvine, California. The health industry needs clinical trials to test new medications before they are brought to market, and clinical trials need participants: healthy people and those with chronic conditions. But Americans, especially those age 65 and older, often aren't part of the very studies for new medications that could treat an aging population. "Historically, aging adults are not in clinical trials, even when testing for diseases that disproportionately impact older adults," says Lindsay Clarke, vice president of Health Education and Advocacy at the Alliance for Aging Research in Washington, D.C. Islamabad, June 2 : The Islamabad district administration has announced to impose a fine of up to 3,000 PKR ($18) for not wearing face masks at public places, in a bid to control the spread of COVID-19, the Pakistani capital's Deputy Commissioner (DC) said. Wearing a mask was already mandatory for the employees of factories, shopping malls and other stores ever since they were allowed to operate after ease in lockdown by the government last month, but now it is also mandatory for the general public under the directives of the health ministry, DC Muhammad Hamza Shafqaat told Xinhua news agency. On Saturday, Special Assistant to the Pakistani Prime Minister on Health Zafar Mirza said that the government has made it mandatory for general public to wear masks in mosques, markets, shopping malls, on public transport, trains and commercial flights, and in other crowded areas to avoid the spread of the disease. The DC said that initially an awareness campaign will be launched for which special teams have been formed, which will visit the city on daily basis and tell those who are not wearing masks to follow the rules, and after a few days fine will be imposed on those who do not cooperate with the authorities and keep on ignoring the directives of the government. Shafqaat said that health experts have told them that the virus transmission can be stopped by 75 per cent by wearing masks, and they are hopeful to control the spread of the virus by encouraging people to adopt it as their lifestyle. The number of COVID-19 cases is on the rise in the country. A sharp surgehas been witnessed since the ease in lockdown by the government. According to data released by the country's health ministry on Monday, 72,460 people have been tested positive of the disease and 1,543 died of it. Islamabad has reported a total of 2,589 cases, and according to hospital sources, most of the patients in the capital were being quarantined at their homes due to their stable condition. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Health officials have confirmed a second Ebola outbreak in Congo, the World Health Organization said Monday, adding yet another health crisis for a country already battling Covid-19 and the world's largest measles outbreak. Congo also has yet to declare an official end to Ebola in its troubled east, where at least 2,243 people have died since an epidemic began there in August 2018. Now Congolese health authorities have identified six cases including four fatalities in the north near Mbandaka, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "This is a reminder that Covid-19 is not the only health threat people face, he said in a statement. Four other people were being held in isolation at a hospital in Mbandaka, UNICEF said. The victims died May 18 but test results confirming Ebola only came back over the weekend, according to Congolese Health Minister Dr. Eteni Longondo. WHO said it already had teams on the ground. This announcement marks the 11th time that Ebola has hit the province since the virus was first discovered in Congo in 1976. Just two years ago an outbreak killed 33 people before the disease was brought under control in a matter of months. The latest cases turned up in Wangata health zone near the port city of Mbandaka, which is home to some 1.2 million. Meanwhile, in the east health officials are still waiting to declare an official end to to the epidemic after nearly two years. The last known patient there was released in mid-May but the country now must go about another month without any new cases before a declaration can be made. Covid-19 already has touched 7 of Congo's 25 provinces, with more than 3,000 confirmed cases and 72 deaths. However, like many African countries Congo has conducted extremely limited testing, and observers fear the true toll may be far higher. While Ebola and Covid-19 have drawn far more international attention, measles has killed more Congolese than those diseases combined. WHO said there have been 369,520 measles cases and 6,779 deaths since 2019. This quadruple threat could prove lethal for millions of children and their families, said Anne-Marie Connor, national director in Congo for the aid organization World Vision. Assumptions made by the Commission for Aviation Regulation last year when it determined the maximum passenger charges that can be levied at Dublin Airport from 2020 to 2024 are no longer valid in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to its Commissioner, Cathy Mannion. She made the comment this afternoon as the Commission said its further reducing the price caps it had introduced for 2022 and 2023, by 13 cent and 7 cent respectively, following a complaint from Ryanair that the length of time given by the Commission to Dublin Airport to achieve operation efficiencies was excessive. An Appeals Panel convened to examine the Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR) pricing determination was not convinced that four years were required to achieve the operating efficiencies target. The panel also said that it was not convinced that the CAR had determined if the efficiencies could be achievable over a shorter period of time. But the Panel rejected most points of appeal, concluding that the CAR did not err, that it gave proper consideration to material it was presented with, and that CAR had full regard to its statutory requirements, the Commission said. Expand Close Regulator Cathy Mannion / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Regulator Cathy Mannion The Commission determined in October that it would reduce the maximum charge per passenger that can be levied by the DAA at Dublin Airport between 2020 and 2024. The 7.87 average maximum passenger charge between 2020 and 2024 is much lower than the maximum charge of between 9.05 and 9.94 per passenger that had been sought by the DAA. The DAA has previously claimed that the reduction was a "disaster" for passengers and the Irish economy and put its capital projects at risk. The Commissioner for Aviation Regulation, Cathy Mannion, insisted that the new maximum charges would enable the DAA to invest 2.3bn in Dublin Airport to deliver a hub capable of handling 40 million passengers a year. However, in light of the pandemic, the DAA, the semi-State company that operates Dublin and Cork Airports, is planning to cut hundreds of jobs. The DAA currently employs about 3,300 people in Ireland, with more working at its Aer Rianta International unit. Read More All staff members are being offered reduced working hours, while a voluntary severance scheme is being introduced. DAA chief executive Dalton Philips told staff last month that virtually all capital projects at Dublin Airport are now being reviewed, with the exception of the new 320m runway, new mandatory baggage screening facilities and other core maintenance schemes. The CEO warned that it could be several years before passenger traffic at the gateways is back at levels seen in 2019, when a total of 35.5 million people travelled through the airports. Dublin Airport accounted for 32.9 million of those. Mr Philips said the combined traffic at the two airports might be as low as 21 million passengers in 2021. The wide-ranging impact of Covid-19 means that many of the assumptions and expectations which underpin the 2019 Determination on airport charges are no longer valid, said Ms Mannion today. The regulatory model used in the 2019 Determination is intended to allow for a reasonable degree of deviation (whether up or down) from ex-ante forecasts over the five-year period, without a requirement for an interim review, she said. Ms Mannion added: The current situation is not a reasonable degree of deviation from those forecasts. We will revisit these assumptions in the coming months and years. We intend to work with all stakeholders to review the 2019 Determination in light of Covid-19. A motorcyclist and his passenger had a lucky escape after smashing into a lorry and landing inches from the moving wheels. The man and his friend riding pillion hit the truck as it crossed a motorway to pull into a warehouse in Samut Sakhon, Thailand, on May 23. They were flung into the air and the landed under the 12-wheeler. However, they both managed to scramble to safety and avoid being crushed by the giant wheels. The driver also noticed the collision and climbed out of the cab to check on the two riders, who both climbed to their feet and did not suffer any serious injuries. Passing driver Man Thatchakit (corr) said only the bike was damage from the impact of the crash. He said: "I still don't understand why they did not stop their motorbike. Did they want to ride into the lorry's container? ''I pulled over to check on them and they were both OK. I think they're lucky not to have been more seriously hurt.'' CEO of Fox Corporation Lachlan Murdoch urged his colleagues to 'closely listen to the voices of peaceful protest' in a memo to all staffers Monday amid the unrest over the death of George Floyd. Murdoch said he was shocked and saddened by Floyd's death while in police custody on Memorial Day and asked staff to 'fundamentally understand that black lives matter', according to Fox News. New of the memo came as Fox hosts took to the air Monday night to criticize what they saw as a lack of leadership in bringing violence to an end. Tucker Carlson blasted local leaders who he claimed 'dithered', 'cowered' and 'openly sided with the destroyers'. CEO of Fox Corp Lachlan Murdoch, pictured, told staff in a memo Monday he was saddened by the death of George Floyd and Fox continued to 'support our Black colleagues and the Black community'. He urged staff to 'closely listen to the voices of peaceful protest' Despite the words of Fox anchors, Fox Corp chairman Lachlan said that Fox wished to 'unite to seek equality and understanding' in his memo to staff in which he said, 'FOX culture embraces and fosters diversity and inclusion'. 'The events that have unfolded over the past week have left me shocked and saddened,' Murdoch wrote. 'Each of you has been in my thoughts as we watch the tragic death of George Floyd continue to cause immense pain and spark important discussions around the country. 'It is essential that we grieve with the Floyd family, closely listen to the voices of peaceful protest and fundamentally understand that black lives matter.' He added that the company often speaks of 'FOX Family' and that it continues to 'support our Black colleagues and the Black community'. Murdoch also took a stand for the safety of journalists, several of whom have been arrested and hit with rubber bullets across various news corporations while covering the protests in the past few days. 'Our mission to provide the best in news is particularly vital at this time. Our brave local and national reporters continue to put themselves at risk to provide the latest information impacting all of us and our neighbors across the country,' he said. 'We support all journalists and will do what we can to protect their safety and denounce calls for, and acts of, violence against them. 'This is a time for people to come together in their grief, work to heal, and coalesce to address injustice and inequity in our country,' he continued. 'This is an ongoing conversation, and no one has all the answers in this moment. As we each grapple with how to continue the discussion during this difficult and emotional time, please remember that there are many resources available to you.' During his show on Monday night, Tucker Carlson claimed the 'worst people in our society have taken control' as he criticized U.S. leadership he said had 'abandoned us' Carlson continued to show footage from some of the looting happening around the country as he claimed that many of the acts were not linked to Floyd's death in police custody Yet, Murdoch's memo was sent as Fox hosts took to the air Monday night to condemn violence seen from the protests with Tucker Carlson claiming that they compromised the 'largest Joe Biden for President rally on record'. Tucker also criticized U.S. leadership who he stated were not doing enough to combat 'the destroyers' and said that they had even 'egged them on'. 'When the mobs came, they abandoned us,' the host said on his show 'Tucker Carlson Tonight'. 'The nation went up in flames this weekend. No one in charge stood up to save America. Our leaders dithered and they cowered, and they openly sided with the destroyers, and in many cases, they egged them on,' Carlson added. 'Later, they will deny doing any of this and they're denying it now. 'You know the truth because you saw it happen. This is how nations collapse, when no one in authority keeps order. When so many in our professional class encourage violence, American citizens are forced to defend themselves and they have no choice. No one else is going to defend them -- they know that now. The Georgia National Guard mans an armored security vehicle to disperse protesters after curfew during a fourth day of protests over the death of George Floyd on Monday 'The worst people in our society have taken control,' Carlson continued. 'They did nothing to build the country and now they are tearing it down. They're rushing us towards mass suicide. How do we respond? We must protect ourselves and our families and once again we have no choice but to do that. But we cannot allow ourselves to become like they are.' He also called for more defense as President Trump suggested he would use federal troops to end unrest. 'Those are the bonds that tie us together and the bonds our leaders seek to destroy, and we can't let them,' Carlson said. 'We should start by being on unsparingly honest about what's happening right now, and the truth is our defense and it is our country's last hope.' Carlson continued to show footage from some of the looting happening around the country as he said 'that's what's happening in America right now'. 'We didn't play all the tape we have, there's a lot of it. Some of the tape is too shocking and honestly, it's too incendiary -- you understand television is emotional medium and we do not want to make things worse. 'But the point is this is a national emergency and it's a profound national emergency. But you would never know that from listening to our elected leaders. Almost all of them pretend this is not really happening and if it is happening, it's part of America's long tradition of vigorous political discourse,' he added. He went on to claim that those carrying out these actions were not doing so for George Floyd and questioned whether they were protesters. 'Politicians on both sides tell us this is all about the death of a man in police custody in Minneapolis last week. The people burning down our country are 'protesters' and they're engaged in a legitimate 'protest'. 'Okay, what exactly are the protesters demands?' the host asked. 'What are they asking for? If Congress agreed tonight to enact the program, what with the program be? Not a single person even hints at the answer because there's is not an answer. No one bothered to poll the guys beating up old ladies on the street or looting the Guccis but you have to wonder how many of them have actually heard of George Floyd.' This thought was echoed by Laura Ingraham on her show in which she alleged that we 'are not seeing outrage really expressed about that'. Laura Ingraham alleged that people were trying to 'use Mr. Floyd's killing to try and murder America' on her show on Monday night despite the memo of unity from Fox Copr's CEO 'Don't you dare lie to the American people by saying that any of this had anything to do, at its violent core, with George Floyd,' Fox host Laura Ingraham said on Monday night 'And that's not what the criminals and the domestic terrorists are perpetrating as they use Mr. Floyd's killing to try and murder America,' she added. Ingraham claimed that Antifa and 'other radical elements' wanted 'war' and 'to tear down what took us almost 250 years to build, literally and figuratively'. 'Don't you dare lie to the American people by saying that any of this had anything to do, at its violent core, with George Floyd,' she said. 'The aim of these criminal enterprises, including Antifa, but not limited to Antifa, is to undermine confidence in our institutions of government at all levels, local, state, and federal,' the host went on. 'These ... acts of violence are part of a coordinated effort to eventually overthrow the United States government. It's well-funded and it's well organized on social media. 'They don't care about George Floyd,' Ingraham repeated. 'They're using and abusing his memory to create more suffering and more chaos. It's like one giant video game to some these folks, but their call to duty is one of annihilation of the country that we all love.' Protests continued around the United States on Monday night over the death of George Floyd, 46, a black man who died in police custody after a video emerged showing a white police officer kneeling on his neck. Floyd had been accused of trying to buy cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. The officer, Derek Chauvin, 44, was arrested and charged with his murder Friday but calls continue for the other three officers involved to also be charged. On Monday Hennepin County's medical examiner released its official autopsy that called his death a homicide caused by 'neck compression,' although it also said he was intoxicated and pointed to heart disease. More than 40 cities have imposed curfews, including New York, after consecutive nights of tension. Distress has erupted across America as Black Lives Matters protesters fend off violent responses from police forces trying to disperse them and looters and rioters cash in on the chaos. The carnage at nightfall Monday came after a day in which thousands protested peacefully across the country. President Trump has only inflamed tensions by threatening to deploy the military across the country unless state governors crack down further. On Monday night, he finally emerged from the White House after keeping himself hidden away over the weekend to walk to a church for a photo-opp with a bible. For him to get there, police rained tear gas and rubber bullets on a crowd of peaceful protesters. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is asking people who plan to attend the citywide march for George Floyd Tuesday to take precautions and peacefully protest in respect for Floyd's family. "I expect the march to be peaceful and respectful with the focus on George Floyd and his family," Turner said during a Monday press conference. MUST WATCH: Viral video shows Acevedo making passionate plea to George Floyd protesters Houston rappers Trae Tha Truth and Bun B are working with Floyd's family to hold a march Tuesday afternoon starting at Discovery Green in downtown. Floyd, who is originally from Houston and grew up in the Third Ward, died while in Minneapolis police custody last week. Video of his death circulated online, leading to protests, marches and riots across the country. Turner said the city has increased its law enforcement presence in preparation of Tuesday's march and is "ramping up" for a large crowd. With the exception of some rioting, looting and the more than 400 arrests that were made over the course of the weekend protests, Turner said Houston protests have remained somewhat peaceful. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Trae Tha Truth invites entire city to join Turner, Acevedo, Bun B at Tuesday George Floyd march "Houston has helped set an example for protests across the nation," Turner said. "Police have made some arrests...but things have not gotten out of hand." Turner stressed protesters should wear face coverings, bring hand sanitizer or gloves and remain six feet from others if at all possible. "For everyone that is going to be engaged in those crowds...you need to mask up and be respectful of not just yourself but of others." Rebecca Hennes covers community news. Read her on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | rebecca.hennes@chron.com Several months into the pandemic, most Americans are familiar with the physical toll COVID-19 takes on those who contract it. But what about the mental and emotional implications of stress caused by the pandemic itself? A new study by researchers from the University of Connecticut provides the first snapshot of the immediate impact of COVID-19 on Americans' stress levels, coping strategies, and adherence to public health guidelines. For the study, which was published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, the team surveyed over 1,000 English-speaking individuals, 18 years of age or older, living in the United States. Responses were collected in early April 2020, giving the researchers a unique view of how Americans are handling their new reality. "Almost overnight, the rapid emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and subsequent state and federal prevention measures dramatically altered daily behavior," says Crystal Park, professor of in the Department of Psychological Sciences. "This unique, early study and our planned future work will let us see how Americans navigate all of these changes, and how their response to this stress evolves over time." In the study, the UConn researchers present baseline data on COVID-19-related stressors in three categories: stress related to the virus itself, stress related to changes in daily routines caused by the pandemic, and financial or resource-related stress. These measures allowed them to examine the circumstance-specific stressors of COVID-19 rather than global stress that could have other causes. Based on previous work during SARS outbreaks and the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers created an assessment of 23 COVID-19 stressors and their degree of stressfulness. The survey showed that Americans have high stress exposure from COVID-19, and that some demographic groups appear particularly vulnerable to stress effects. Reading or hearing about the severity and contagiousness of COVID-19 was the most common stressor, with almost 97% of survey respondents experiencing it. Uncertainty about the duration of social distancing requirements and changes to social and daily personal care routines also ranked high on the list of stressors with between 80% and 88% of those surveyed experiencing them. advertisement While fears related to the virus itself were the most common, the survey showed that respondents were more acutely concerned about the financial consequences caused by the pandemic. Of the stressors experienced, respondents ranked loss of job security or income as the most stressful, followed by risk of a loved one's illness. The researchers also looked at the methods Americans reported using to cope with these stressors. Distraction, seeking emotional social support, and active coping were the most commonly reported strategies. Younger participants, sexual minorities, and those with greater financial instability generally reported greater use of less helpful strategies, including substance use, behavioral disengagement, and humor. Because of the unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers say it's hard to determine which strategies will be healthy for managing stress over the weeks and months ahead. "Distraction or avoidance is usually considered to be an unproductive coping strategy for most challenging situations and can lead to negative outcomes," says Beth Russell, associate professor of Human Development and Family Sciences and director of the Center for Applied Research in Human Development (CARHD). "But in this instance where people don't have much control over making the disease itself better, we can do small things to help ourselves and others -- seek connections through telemediated emotional support, for example -- and find ways to let the time pass. We'll see in the long run how those strategies help people's mental health." The survey also showed very high rates of compliance with social distancing and federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines. Approximately 95% of respondents avoided eating out at bars or restaurants and visiting nursing homes, although these behaviors are likely impacted by policies enacted at the state and municipal levels. Almost 90% of respondents had stopped discretionary travel and were keeping the recommended six-feet distance from others. Approximately 75% of respondents reported adhering to CDC guidelines related to hygiene, like avoiding touching their faces and regularly cleaning and disinfecting surfaces. Some of the reported behaviors showed a potentially worrisome lack of adherence to critical CDC guidelines though, particularly for men and younger adults. The role demographics play in stress, coping, and adherence to guidelines will be the focus of future studies by the team. Those results will be important for clinicians and policymakers as they develop the most effective health interventions to stem the anticipated long-term mental health impacts, they say. "As we focus on developing treatments and vaccines, it is critical that we also understand the social aspects of this virus," says Michael Fendrich, associate dean for research in UConn's School of Social Work and co-author of the paper. "Understanding how Americans experience and respond to COVID-19 stressors and how this varies by socio-demographic characteristics can help to more effectively target prevention measures across various groups." The team is continuing to monitor Americans' response to stress from the COVID-19 pandemic in future longitudinal waves of this study, which they hope will inform effective health behavior interventions to stop its spread. The United States is increasingly seen as a nation turning in on itself. As protests against police violence and systemic racism rocked dozens of American cities, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab spoke of the crisis across the pond in language more often deployed when discussing intractable conflicts elsewhere in the world. "We want to see de-escalation of all of those tensions and Americans come together," he told the BBC on Sunday. Raab wasn't alone. A spokesperson from the European Commission emailed an unusual statement about American affairs to reporters, indicating that officials in Brussels hoped that "all issues" related to the protests "will be settled swiftly and in full respect for the rule of law and human rights." This followed a Friday statement from Moussa Faki Mahamat, the head of the African Union Commission, who condemned the killing of George Floyd and lamented "continuing discriminatory practices against black citizens of the USA." On Tuesday, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the US protests were both "understandable and more than legitimate." He added: "I can only express my hope that the peaceful protests do not continue to lead to violence, but even more express the hope that these protests have an effect in the United States." The unrest in American cities has drawn global attention for reasons both familiar and new. The dramas of the world's sole superpower captivate audiences elsewhere far more than the obverse, with the intrigues of other countries only occasionally penetrating America's oft-insular news cycles. In some instances, the outpouring of anger over Floyd's killing - intensified by social media videos shared around the world of the incident and the diverse demonstrations that followed - emboldened existing movements over racial violence and discrimination against minorities. In Australia, where fresh solidarity protests are planned this week, the upheaval in the United States has revived conversation around police actions against the country's long-marginalised indigenous communities - and, in particular, a 2015 incident that saw David Dungay Jr., a 26-year-old Aboriginal man, die while in Australian police custody. "We're outraged about what's happening in Minneapolis, but really us guys home in Australia need to take a stand together here . . . because they can actually see the racism and injustice against our people," said Paul Francis-Silva, Dungay's nephew, to Australia's ABC News. Read More In France, too, Floyd's death rekindled memories of a 2016 incident in which Adama Traore, a 24-year-old from the suburbs of Paris, died of asphyxiation after being detained by police. Traore's case triggered, as my Washington Post colleague James McAuley put it at the time, France's own Black Lives Matter movement. "How can one not think of Adama's terrible suffering when he had three police officers on him and he was repeating, 'I can't breathe,' " a Traore support group wrote on Facebook last week. "His name was George Floyd, who just like Adama died because they were black." Expand Close Protesters rally as Philadelphia Police officers and Pennsylvania National Guard soldiers look on, Monday, June 1, 2020, in Philadelphia, over the death of George Floyd. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Protesters rally as Philadelphia Police officers and Pennsylvania National Guard soldiers look on, Monday, June 1, 2020, in Philadelphia, over the death of George Floyd. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) This sense of grievance and solidarity gave voice to protests in Toronto, Berlin, London and other Western cities. "People all over the world understand that their own fights for human rights, for equality and fairness, will become so much more difficult to win if we are going to lose America as the place where 'I have a dream' is a real and universal political program," Wolfgang Ischinger, a former German ambassador to Washington and the chairman of the Munich Security Conference, told the New Yorker. "Let's hope the demonstrations all over the world will help remind Washington that U.S. soft power is a unique asset, setting America apart from other great powers - from China, Russia, and even from Europe. It would be tragic if the Trump Administration turned a huge opportunity for the US into a moral abdication." A dimension of the global reaction also taps into long-standing left-wing attitudes toward American imperialism abroad and hypocrisy at home. They've only been heightened by widespread antipathy toward President Trump. "Part of it is about anti-Americanism, part of it is about the gross injustice," Marcel Dirsus, a nonresident fellow at the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University, told Today's WorldView in reference to solidarity demonstrations in Berlin. "But it's also about Trump, who is so unpopular in Germany that it makes many people dislike America as a whole. I think a lot of people assumed that America had already hit rock-bottom over the last couple of years but then Trump proved them wrong in the way he is handling the pandemic and these protests." Then there's the fact that Trump's brand of ultranationalism more readily maps onto the growing divisions in other countries, with the US president having explicitly made common cause with far-right movements in Europe. Animus toward Trump's America can be a vehicle for domestic grievances, too. "It's significant that Trumpism is part of a broader transnational movement," said Georgetown University political scientist Daniel Nexon during a webinar on Monday. "US political polarisation is now aligned with politics elsewhere." But the protests abroad may also reflect an abiding admiration for the United States. "Those marching seem to show just how morally magnetic the idea of the 'good America' continues to be in Europe," Ben Judah, a British journalist, told The Washington Post. He added that the weekend's protests in places like London's Trafalgar Square or at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate could reflect the coalescing of a new kind of transatlanticism. "Ironically, just as the old ideological West, of the G-7, transatlantic intellectuals and NATO-focused think tanks is breaking down a new kind of transatlantic experience, born out of a common virtual Instagram and TikTok world, is coming alive," said Judah. Why are Russia's Most Advanced Warships Deployed in the Arctic? Sputnik News Oleg Burunov. Sputnik International 13:27 GMT 01.06.2020 The Russian Northern Fleet remains the country's main military force in the Arctic, something that Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu stressed helps protect "important industrial facilities and Russia's economic interests in the Arctic area". On Sunday, Commander of the Russian Northern Fleet Vice Admiral Alexander Moiseyev announced that the fleet would conduct large-scale drills in the Arctic region later in June which would involve the most advanced surface ships and submarines. Here's an insight into why the Arctic is on the Russian military's radar. In the early 1930s, the-then USSR intensified research activities in the Arctic region, while also developing military infrastructure in the area and forming the Northern Sea Flotilla, which was then turned into the Northern Fleet. During the Cold War, the Northern Fleet was already of strategic importance to the Soviet Union, given that the fleet was tasked with helping provide security of missions carried out by the Soviet strategic bombers which flew over the Arctic. This explains the fact that the country's most sophisticated warships were delivered to the area to implement the task. Former Northern Fleet commander Vyacheslav Popov said that the fleet was the first to get the largest missile ships and nuclear-powered submarines. "It can be explained by its location. The Baltic and Black Sea Fleets, for example, are located in a geographically limited theatre. As for the Northern Fleet, it has direct access to the ocean", Popov added, recalling that during World War II, only this fleet conducted naval operations in the Barents and Norwegian seas, as well as in the Atlantic. Mikhail Nenashev, chairman of the All-Russian Fleet Support Movement, in turn argued that from a strategic point of view, the US remains Russia's main potential adversary at sea. "In the event of a threat of a nuclear attack, the fastest and most effective response will come from Northern Fleet bases, not least because the fleet's submarines are capable of firing directly from their moorings," Nenashev pointed out. According to him, the Northern Fleet currently accounts for more than 50 percent of the entire striking power of the Russian Navy. This includes more than forty nuclear-powered and diesel submarines equipped with cruise and ballistic missiles, as well as many multi-purpose surface ships. The fleet also comprises powerful anti-submarine aircraft and a developed coastal defence system. Currently in service with the Northern Fleet are state-of-the-art Borei-class atomic submarines Yury Dolgorukiy and Knyaz Vladimir, plus the world's largest submarine Dmitry Donskoy, fitted with 20 ballistic missiles and Yasen-class new generation subs. One cannot but mention the heavy nuclear missile cruiser Pyotr Velikiy (Peter the Great) which is the fleet's flagship armed with twenty launchers of Granit supersonic anti-ship missiles, Kinzhal anti-aircraft systems and anti-submarine torpedoes. As far as the Arctic region is concerned, it is also worth noting that the area is optimal for testing the new Russian nuclear-powered submarines and the test infrastructure is located relatively close to scientific and shipbuilding facilities in the cities of St. Petersburg and Severodvinsk. Meanwhile, Northern Fleet commander Alexander Moiseyev has underscored that air defence of the Russian segment of the Arctic is being improved and the Northern Sea Route is under reliable protection. He added that the most advanced Russian missile systems S-400 Triumph are currently on combat duty on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Researchers have discovered a single molecule 'switch' that can act like a transistor and offers the potential to store binary information Computer hard drives of the future could be made up of smart molecules. Researchers have discovered a single molecule 'switch' that can act like a transistor and offers the potential to store binary information - such as the 1s and 0s used in classical computing. The molecule is around five square nanometres in size. This means that more than one billion of them would fit onto the cross-section of a human hair. The international team of scientists behind the breakthrough believe that molecules like the ones they have discovered could offer information density of around 250 terabits per square inch - which is around 100 times the storage density of current hard drives. Although the researchers do not expect that the particular molecules they discovered will be used in real hard drives, the study is an important proof of concept that brings us closer to the brave new world of true molecular electronics. In the study, molecules of an organic salt can be switched using a small electrical input to appear either bright or dark - providing binary information. Crucially, this information can be written, read and erased, at room temperature and in normal air pressures. These are important characteristics for practical application of the molecules in computing storage devices. Most previous research into molecular electronics for similar applications has been conducted in vacuum and at very low temperatures. Dr Stijn Mertens, Senior Lecturer in Electrochemical Surface Science at Lancaster University and lead researcher on the study, said: "There is an entire list of properties that a molecule has to possess to be useful as a molecular memory. Apart from being switchable in both directions under ambient conditions, it has to be stable for a long time in the bright and dark state, and also spontaneously form highly ordered layers that are only one molecule thick, in a process called self-assembly. Ours is the first example that combines all these features in the same molecule." In laboratory experiments, the research team used small electric pulses in a scanning tunnelling microscope to switch individual molecules from bright to dark. They were also able to read and erase the information afterwards, at the press of a button. During the switching, the electric pulse changes the way the cation and the anion in the organic salt are stacked together, and this stacking causes the molecule to appear either bright or dark. Apart from the switching itself, also the spontaneous ordering of the molecules is crucial: through self-assembly, they find their way into a highly ordered structure (a two-dimensional crystal), without the need for expensive manufacturing tools as is the case in currently used electronics. "Because chemistry allows us to make molecules with sophisticated functions in enormous numbers and with atomic precision, molecular electronics may have a very bright future," says Dr Mertens. ### The research is detailed in the paper 'Ambient bistable single dipole switching in a molecular monolayer', which has been published by the journal Angewandte Chemie. The paper's authors are: Kang Cui, from KU Leuven and the University of Jinan; Kunal Mali and Steven De Feyter of KU Leuven; Dongqing Wu, Xinliang Feng and Klaus Mullen of the Max Planck Institute for Polymer research; Michael Walter of the Freiburg Centre for Interactive Materials and Bioinspired Technologies and Fraunhofer IWM; Stijn Mertens of KU Leuven and Lancaster University. This work was supported by the Fund for Scientific Research-Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen), by KU Leuven and by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). DOI: doi.org/10.1002/anie.202004016 The chief of Los Angeles Police Department is facing calls for his resignation after he said George Floyd's death is on the hands of looters as much as it's on the Minnesota officer who pinned him to the cement and kneeled on his neck and the other three cops who stood by and did nothing. LAPD chief Michel Moore made the comments during a press conference with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Monday. Moore said officers made 700 arrests Sunday night and of those arrests 70 people had been burglarizing or looting businesses. 'So what that tells me is that two things: We didnt have protests last night, we had criminal acts. We didnt have people mourning the death of this man, George Floyd. We had people capitalizing,' Moore said. 'His death is on their hands as much as it is those officers,' the chief added. 'And that is a strong statement but I must say that this civil unrest that we are in the midst of, we must turn a corner from people who are involved in violence, people who are involved in preying on others.' Garcetti then went up to speak and following him Moore took the podium once again, claiming he 'misspoke' about Floyds death. Scroll down for video LAPD chief Michel Moore (pictured) is facing calls for his resignation after he said George Floyd's death is on the hands of looters as much as it's on the Minnesota officer who pinned him to the cement and kneeled on his neck 'We didnt have protests last night, we had criminal acts (looters pictured). We didnt have people mourning the death of this man, George Floyd. We had people capitalizing,' Moore said. 'His death is on their hands as much as it is those officers,' the chief added Moore tweeted a clarification late Monday night (pictured) 'His death a week ago in looking at the video that I seen... was at the hands of the police officer and the officers who stood by. What I saw there wasnt right. 'I misspoke when I said his blood was on their hands, but certainly their actions do not serve the enormity of his loss and cannot be in his memory,' Moore said. 'What his name should stand for is the catalyst for change. I regret the remarks of that characterization, but I dont regret, nor will I apologize to those out there creating destruction. His memory deserves better.' Following the press conference, both Moore and Garcetti tweeted about the statement. 'Let me be clearthere are 4 police officers and 4 alone responsible for the death of George Floyd,' Moore wrote. 'Simply put: Those intent on spewing mayhem and distraction into our communities are a disgrace to his memory.' Following the press conference, Garcetti also tweeted about the statement He later added: 'My Apology for Remark Regarding the Death of George Floyd During a Press Conference Earlier Today: I misspoke when making a statement about those engaging in violent acts following the murder of George Floyd. 'While I did immediately correct myself, I recognize that the initial words were terribly offensive. Looting is wrong, but it is not the equivalent of murder and I did not mean to equate the two. 'I deeply regret and humbly apologize for my characterization. 'Let me be clear: the police officers involved were responsible for the death of George Floyd,' Moore said. George Floyd (pictured), 46, was killed on Memorial Day after white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, 44, pressed his knee into his neck Chauvin, who has since been arrested, was seen in footage kneeling on Floyd's neck for eight minutes as the victim repeatedly said he could not breathe (incident pictured) Garcetti then shared: 'The responsibility for George Floyds death rests solely with the police officers involved. Chief Moore regrets the words he chose this evening and has clarified them.' But it appeared that Moore's apology wasn't enough with several people taking to Twitter to express their outrage and call for the chief to be fired. 'Mayor Garcetti. Sir, you have no choice here. Chief Moore cannot take back what he said. He has demonstrated, through his own words, that he is UNFIT to be Chief of LAPD. You must fire him immediately!' one user tweeted. Another wrote: 'Eric Garcetti @MayorofLA FIRE Moore or you'll be forcibly removed from office. This is not a threat, but a promise. Your move.' 'Mayor Garcetti: Clarification isnt needed. #ChiefMoore knew what he said about #GeorgeFloyd and meant it. He needs to go,' a third person wrote. Thousands of people have been protesting Floyd's death for the past week. Protesters and motorists are surrounded by police and arrested as large numbers of people are rounded up after a curfew went into effect during demonstrations on Monday in Los Angeles Demonstrators march during a Black Lives Matter protest in Los Angeles, California, on Monday As of Tuesday morning, more than 4,000 people had signed a Change.org petition calling for Moore to resign. Floyd, 46, was killed on Memorial Day after white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, 44, pressed his knee into his neck as Floyd pleaded that he couldn't breathe. Chauvin was arrested and charged on Friday with third-degree murder. On Monday, Minnesota's attorney general, Keith Ellison, said he is 'very seriously' looking at prosecuting the other three officers who were at the scene when Chauvin kneeled on Floyd's neck and promised to 'bear all the resources necessary to achieve justice'. QBE North America has promoted Steve Gransbury to head of Specialty Insurance, a new group of existing QBE businesses, and promoted Tara Krauss to head of Accident & Health. The Specialty Insurance unit Gransbury now leads consists of QBEs Accident & Health, Aviation, and Trade Credit & Surety practices. QBE Specialty Insurance is part of QBE North Americas Specialty & Commercial organization. Previously, Gransbury had been leading Accident & Health, the largest of the three businesses. Krauss has been promoted to replace Gransbury as the leader of QBE Accident & Health. Krauss had already been leading many of these growth and technical initiatives for several years in her most recent role as senior vice president of underwriting operations for Accident & Health. Gransbury joined QBE in 2009 when the company acquired SLG Benefits & Insurance, a program management company co-founded by Gransbury. With 25 years of experience in the insurance, reinsurance and captive industry, Gransbury is a member of the QBE North America Underwriting Committee, National Leadership Team and a past North America representative to the QBE Global Underwriting and Distribution Forum. He began his insurance career as an independent employee benefits consultant. In 1996, he joined LDG Insurance Underwriters, which was later acquired by HCC Insurance Holdings. Krauss has 24 years of industry experience. Since joining QBE in 2009, she has held several leadership roles with increasing responsibilities. She was named vice president of underwriting operations for Accident & Health in 2013 and then promoted to senior vice president in 2017. Prior to joining QBE, Krauss held various underwriting positions with HCC Insurance (formerly LDG) and SLG Benefits & Insurance. Source: QBE North America Topics Underwriting A Cork man was arrested today and charged with falsely imprisoning a woman at her home and threatening to kill her. Detective Garda Margaret Ryan testified at Cork District Court that she arrested Jamie McKenzie, aged 29) of 57 Dun Eoin, Carrigaline, Co Cork, and charged him with three counts earlier today. Those counts consisted of false imprisonment, threat to kill, and aggravated burglary while armed with a kitchen knife. Mr McKenzie, who appeared in person before Cork District Court, made no reply to any of the three charges that were brought against him today. Sergeant Gearoid Davis said directions had been given by the Director of Public Prosecutions to the effect that trial should be by indictment by judge and jury at the circuit court, and that there was consent for a guilty plea to be entered at Cork District Court so that the case could be sent forward for sentencing at Cork Circuit Criminal Court. Frank Buttimer, solicitor, said that latter option would not be taken and that a book of evidence would have to be prepared. Judge Olann Kelleher remanded the accused in custody until June 9 for preparation and service of a book of evidence. The next court appearance will be via video link from prison. Mr Buttimer said there was no bail application today, but that if there was an indication next week from the State as to how long it would take to prepare the book of evidence, that would be instructive in terms of the defendants approach to applying for bail. Sgt Davis said that he was not aware of how long it would take for the book of evidence to be prepared. Six weeks is allowed from the time that a defendant is charged. A previous charge of entering the house as a trespasser and committing an arrestable offence of criminal damage was withdrawn by the prosecution. It was previously alleged the incident that gave rise to the charges occurred over a two-hour period at a family home on March 28 at Cedarwood Grove, Carrigaline. The first of the three charges brought yesterday accuse Mr McKenzie of false imprisonment of a woman at a house at Cedarwood Grove on contrary to the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act. The second count under the same act states that without lawful excuse he made to her a threat intending her to believe it would be carried out, to kill or cause her serious harm. Finally, he is also accused of committing a burglary and at the time having with him a weapon of offence, namely a kitchen knife. In all her 20 years as an interior architect and designer, Mariam Korashi has perhaps never been asked to design just two balconies. I am not doing the entire house. I was just asked to do a make-over on two balconies in a Cairo house whose residents had decided to do only their two balconies, Korashi said. For this renowned architect and designer, a balcony job of this sort might have been too small an assignment to accept under more normal circumstances. However, today, Korashi said, she took it gladly. It was, Korashi added, the start of a nice working week when she arrived with workers at the house and started to undo the aluminium windows that the family had put up to close off the balcony in the 1980s part of a trend in many Cairo apartments to put in bamboo chairs with colourful cushions and built-in sofas. The job was precisely to the liking of the late middle-aged couple who had been confined to their apartment for longer hours than usual because of the precautionary measures people have been advised to take to avoid the spread of the coronavirus.I guess people were a lot more used to going out, at least for a stroll, but now more and more people have been spending more time at home, and some have clearly been feeling the pressure of the confinement. They are looking for ways to make their stay inside more pleasant, even if it is compulsory, Korashi said.According to Omar Kishk, another Cairo architect and designer, undoing balcony windows and bringing nature back inside are among the things that people in Cairo and possibly other cities in Egypt have been opting for as an outcome of the longer hours spent at home.They have included re-arranging the furniture to create more space in living areas for Zoom meetings, redoing living areas to accommodate activities that go beyond eating pizzas and watching a film to allow for studying and working or playing and reading, and even dividing rooms or bathrooms to create potential isolation zones in case a family member gets infected with the new coronavirus, he commented. There has also been an increase in demand for multi-purpose furniture, especially folding tables that could serve as a computer table or a side-table for coffee and snacks, and for a wider variety of lights that are good for reading and writing. People are also looking for small desks and storage cupboards that could fit into the corners of living areas, Kishk said.Hoda and Ragheb, a couple in their mid-40 with three children aged 10 to 17, have opted for several new items to create more comfortable areas in the Cairo apartment they have been living in for close to 20 years.Beanbags that can serve as chairs around the coffee table have been introduced, now that the dining table has evolved into study table for the children, and a desk has found its way under the living room window with a plant on top to serve for Raghebs online meetings.Hoda has also had to create space on her make-up table to suit her laptop, and a mid-century chaise longue with fitted drawers has found a new place, along with a modern lampshade under the couples 1980s wedding photograph, in an empty spot between the living and dining rooms.We used to go to our offices, and the children used to go to school, before we all used to come home to eat and watch TV while the children would study in their rooms. But now we barely go out of the house, and it is all five of us here in one go for most of the time, Hoda said.DOMESTIC NEEDS: During the past couple of months as more people have been spending more time in their houses, they have tried to make the house a more comfortable place to live in rather than just a chic place to be in the evenings, Kiskh said.According to Dalia Laz, founder and director of Design to Go-Esorus, a six-week-old online interior design service that offers free online consultations, the urge to re-do the house to make it more comfortable to be in for all the family is far from something that only people with large disposable incomes opt for.Laz said that requests for consultations had come from people who had flexible budgets and also from people who had much more limited ones.We are not necessarily talking about major makeovers or large purchases. We are often talking about do-it-yourself pieces and even recycled materials, she said.When we get queries and requests for advice, we pass them on to our designers and get them to go online in live sessions to explain potential smart solutions to such questions, Laz said.In so doing, the company can benefit all those who get to see the live sessions and pick up ideas that might help them make their houses more comfortable to live in. If someone then decides they want to use the professional help of the designer, they can contact them through the online forum.The idea, Laz said, is to help more people have access to professional advice and help more designers to find potential clients at a difficult moment for business and a growing need for help.Kishk has taken part in the DTG-Esorus initiative and says that many people are now pursuing more comfortable houses over anything else. This, he said, applied to people living in gated communities as much as to people living in smaller city apartments.Both Korashi and Kishk said that the trend for commissioning interior designers had been picking up since the beginning of the new millennium. For Korashi, it was not necessarily about more modern design, but was rather about removing the flashy and substituting what was easy to maintain. This had meant slower demand for classic European-style furniture, traditionally popular among the upper classes in Egypt, and increased demand for versions of traditional Egyptian-style furniture that has carved out a niche for itself over recent decades.We are not necessarily seeing a lot of mashrabiya [wooden window screens], even though we have seen lots of traditional windows inspired by simpler mashrabiya designs over the past 10 years, Korashi said.Korashi and Kishk are both convinced that during the past decade many people have been liberated from pre-conceived ideas about what makes a house pleasant to live in.People are less likely to succumb to social expectations about having houses furnished with classic European-style furniture, and they are less likely to want the large items that dominated the interiors of people who had been working in the Gulf.According to Ayman Kashti, whose experience in the interior design industry goes back to the 1980s, the growing number of furniture and home decor exhibitions in Egypt has been a factor that has helped to develop the growing trend for houses designed with comfort in mind.Egypt has been seeing more and more exhibitions designed to cater for designers, and many of these have also attracted the attention of customers. When one goes into an exhibition, one finds items and material for the indoors and outdoors not just in terms of furniture, lights, and textiles, but also material for walls and floors. This can provide ideas for customers as well as designers, Kashti said.Mustafa Ismail, an organiser of one of Egypts oldest and most popular home decor and furniture exhibitions, said that the displays he has organised over the years have come a long way from what they were.When I compare the items and designers in the 1990s to what we have today, I would say that the world has changed around us, Ismail said. This year, all furniture and office and home decor exhibitions in Egypt have been cancelled because of guidelines imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus. There has also been a significant drop in the sales of furniture of around 50 per cent, according to the furniture manufacturing division of the industries union.However, Laz said that social media had to an extent filled the gap, with many designers and customers finding their targeted items online and then having them delivered.Sahar Kamal, also a designer with three decades of experience, said that new market trends had helped to introduce the public to wider choices, many of them local but also designed with European, Asian or Arab influences in mind.As local production has been on the increase, there has been quite a wide range of items for all budget types, she said, adding that this had opened new windows for shopping that were not there 30 or 40 years ago and that are mostly about what is modern and comfortable.Over the past 20 years or so, the public has been looking for something new or different, and the market has been expanding to offer more variety, Kamal said.In the future, Korashi argued, designers and suppliers are likely to have to work even harder to meet the growing needs of people who have been spending more time in their houses because of the coronavirus and who may eventually end up wanting to do so even after the crisis ends.Outdoor items that fit balconies and items that fit both indoors and outdoors are likely to dominate future furniture and decor exhibitions, maybe as soon as next year when the coronavirus is behind us, Kishk said. *A version of this article appears in print in the 4 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: T he Governments response to Covid-19 has required an approach from all angles. To ensure the safety and security of UK citizens at home and around the world, key public sector pillars have worked hard to facilitate everything from the roll-out of packages for struggling businesses and the set-up of mobile testing units across the UK to the funding of vital vaccine research. As a country with one of the largest networks of embassies across the world, Government staff have helped with the repatriation of thousands of UK citizens, while military staff have provided invaluable support to the Ambulance Services in a time of heightened demand. Here's what key departments are doing to fight the virus and keep UK citizens at home and abroad safe and secure... Ministry of Defence Formed in March, the Covid Support Force offers aid to public services / Getty Images Since 18 March, when the Defence Secretary announced that the Covid Support Force was to be formed in order to aid public services during the pandemic, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) has supported the country in numerous capacities. To date, 20,000 Armed Forces personnel have been prepared, with 4,000 already deployed. Military reservists were mobilised to provide a range of different kinds of support from medical and logistical to their own professional abilities. Alongside working with specialists to help train testing personnel, equipping centres with the ability to test almost 300 people a day, the Armed Forces have also assisted in the delivery of more than a billion units of PPE to NHS frontline staff and helped the Ambulance Services as drivers and in response centres. Oxygen tank drivers were also enlisted, with 39 personnel now fully trained to fill tankers, drive them, and posit their cargo at NHS facilities. Covid Aviation Task Force lifts off Crown copyright 2020 / Crown copyright 2020 A new Covid Aviation Task force was readied to deal with emergencies across the UK, including two RAF Chinook helicopters at RAF Odiham and two RAF Puma helicopters based in Kinross Barracks. One of the latter transported a seriously ill patient from the Isle of Arran to the University Hospital Crosshouse in Kilmarnock in late March. Three hours after the crew received the call, the patient travelled 162 nautical miles and was in the ICU, explains squadron leader Johnny Longland, detachment commander. The training that we conducted with emergency medical teams across Scotland ensured that we were all ready for a quick and smooth transfer of a patient. Thanks to military training, helicopter crews have been able to adapt to being on-call for various missions with decontamination of kit and evacuations skills an existing part of their repertoire. Foreign & Commonwealth Office Shutterstock / Shutterstock Since the coronavirus outbreak, more than 30,000 British travellers have returned home to the UK on 142 charter flights. Working with the airline industry and governments across the world, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) first brought home UK citizens from Wuhan on 31 January, and recently returned its 30,000th passenger on a flight from northern India. Between 9-17 April, more than 2,000 British nationals were brought home from South Africa, while more than 4,000 have returned from Pakistan since 20 April. This is thanks to the work of the FCO, who has helped to keep vital transit hubs open. When the FCO changed its travel advice on 17 March to advise against all non-essential international travel, almost 20,000 British nationals were aboard 60 cruise ships across the world. A combination of consular assistance, cooperation with local authorities and military teams, and cruise operators allowed all passengers to disembark. Chartered Government flights continue to bring home those who have been unable to take commercial flights. Getty Images / Getty Images Corin Robertson, British ambassador to Mexico, pictured above left with Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and Mexico's Secretary of Public Function Irma Sandoval, was involved in the operation to disembark and repatriate British nationals remaining on the Marella Explorer 2 cruise ship near Yucatan On 31 March, after intense work between the British Embassy, the Mexican authorities and the tour operator TUI, remaining passengers and crew members were able to disembark at Puerto Progreso, and in turn flown back to East Midlands Airport. This was a complex situation, not least since some passengers were experiencing flu-like symptoms similar to Covid-19, explains Robertson. UK Government departments and agencies pulled together alongside our Mexican friends and TUI, working tirelessly to enable these British nationals to get home safely. Business support Getty Images / Getty Images The Government has also unveiled a range of financial packages to help UK businesses cope and protect jobs. These include the Job Retention Scheme, in which employers can claim 80% of earnings (up to 2,500) for employees placed on temporary leave. The scheme has already helped to protect 7.5 million workers. There are also low-risk loans in which the Government are promising no interest and fees for the first 12 months, including the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme for smaller businesses. Other options include VAT deferral, the Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme and Self-Employment Income Support Scheme. Businesses can find out what theyre eligible for at gov.uk/business-coronavirus-support-finder. Department for International Development Alamy / Alamy Through the Department for International Development (DFID) aid budget, the UK has been the largest single contributor by any country to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations international efforts to discover a vaccine to date. Researchers at Oxford University are now also progressing to clinical trials, thanks to funding from the UK Governments Vaccine Taskforce. The Government has also invested the equivalent of 330 million a year for the next five years in global vaccine alliance Gavi, which delivers vaccines in 68 of the worlds poorest countries. After a powerpacked stint in Bigg Boss 13, Devoleena Bhattacharjee is likely to join the starcast of Barrister Babu as coronavirus lockdown eases. As India gears to open its economy under Unlock 1, situations will not be the same as before. Even though the Indian television industry has got the permission to resume shooting, they have been urged to follow a set of guidelines to ensure everyones safety and curb the spread of Covid-19. Among the many precautions, one of them bars the entry of children on sets. Since Colors Tvs show Barrister Babu revolves around an 8-year-old girl Bondita Das, played by child actor Aura Bhatnagar, the makers are now forced to take a leap. Latest reports suggest that the makers of Barrister Babu are looking for someone with a Bengali touch and mischievious personality. One of the actors who fits the bill perfectlty and has been approached to play Bondita Das is none other than Devoleena Bhattacharjee. Even though the makers and Devoleena Bhattacharjee are yet to give out an official confirmation, reports are rife that Barrister Babu could be the actors next big project after Bigg Boss 13. Devoleena Bhattacharjee rose to fame with her stint as Gopi Bahu in Star Plus show Saath Nibhana Saathiya and then entered Bigg Boss 13 to break away from her Bahu image. The actor had to leave Bigg Boss 13 mid-way due to a back injury. Also Read: Naagin 5: Dipika Kakkar Ibrahim approached for Ekta Kapoors show? Also Read: Anurag Kashyap launches new production company Good Bad Films, Netflix release Choked to be first project Due to coronavirus lockdown, several telly shows have been either pulled off air or are planning a complete revamp. While Naagin 4 is shutting down to pave way for Naagin 5, shows like Beyhadh 2, Patiala Babes and Dadi Amma Dadi Amma Maan Jao have come to an abrupt end. Also Read: Wajid Khan death: Late music composers mother Razina tests positive for Covid-19 For all the latest Entertainment News, download NewsX App By PTI NEW DELHI: The nationwide tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases crossed the 2-lakh mark on Tuesday with almost one lakh people testing positive for the dreaded virus infection in the last 15 days. The government, however, said its preventive measures to contain the disease have been very effective, as shown by a much lower fatality rate than several other countries. Authorities also said the recovery rate of COVID-19 patients was improving consistently in India and it was in a much better position in handling the pandemic, which has seen more than 63 lakh people testing positive for this virus since its emergence in China last December and over 3.7 lakh having lost their lives. In its morning update, the Union Health Ministry said the novel coronavirus death toll has risen to 5,598 in India with 204 more fatalities in 24 hours since Monday 8 AM, while 8,171 new cases were detected during this period to take the overall tally to 1,98, 706. This included more than 97,500 active cases, while more than 95,000 have recovered. However, a PTI tally of figures announced by different states and union territories as of 10.05 PM showed the cumulative count of confirmed COVID-19 cases having risen to 2,00,321 and the death toll of 5,739. It also showed a higher count of recoveries at 99,613, leaving nearly 95,000 active cases across the country. A real-time global coronavirus tracker of Johns Hopkins University & Medicine showed India's tally of positive cases at 2,01,997 as of 10.15 PM. India's first COVID-19 case was detected in Kerala on January 30, while the tally took 110 days to reach the one-lakh mark on May 18. However, close to one lakh new cases have been detected in 15 days since then. On the positive side, this is the first time in seven days that the count of new cases has come down, while the 24-hour death toll also came down considerably from 230 recorded by the Union Health Ministry on Monday morning -- the second-highest after an all-time high of 265 deaths recorded on May 30th morning. Testing infrastructure has also been ramped up considerably in India in the recent months with an average of 1.2 lakh tests being conducted every day now. So far, close to 40 lakh tests have been conducted in India, putting it among the top-five nations globally on this parameter alongside the US, Russia, UK and Spain. However, India does not figure even among the top-100 countries when it comes to tests per one lakh population. At present, India is the world's seventh worst hit nation in terms of overall case count, after the US, Brazil, Russia, the UK, Spain and Italy. While more than 18 lakh cases have been detected in the US so far, Brazil has over 5 lakh cases and Russia has over 4 lakh. The UK tally is nearly 2,8 lakh cases, followed by close to 2.4 lakh in Spain and about 2.3 lakh in Italy. In terms of the death toll, the US tops the global tally with more than 1.05 lakh fatalities, while India does not figure among the top-ten countries on this parameter. More than 27 lakh have recovered so far across the world, with the US again topping this chart with nearly 4.6 lakh recoveries, followed by Brazil, Russia, Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Iran, India and China in the top-ten. In terms of active cases, India figures among the top-five nations, while the US again is on the top with more than 11 lakh active cases. The government said India is far away from the peak of COVID-19 spread and its preventive measures have been "very effective", putting it in a much better position in comparison with other countries. Addressing a press conference on the COVID-19 situation, Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said it is wrong to just look at the total number of cases and state that India has the seventh highest number of cases as the population of countries also should be taken into account. About 14 countries with a cumulative population almost equal to that of India have reported 55.2 times more COVID-19 deaths, he said. "Our COVID-19 fatality rate of 2.82 per cent and amongst the lowest in the world, compared to a global fatality rate of 6.13 per cent. We have been able to achieve this due to timely identification of cases and proper clinical management," Agarwal said. He also said that India's COVID-19 case fatality rate per lakh population is 0.41 per cent as against 4.9 per cent globally which is also amongst the lowest in the world. Agarwal said one in every two COVID-19 deaths in India has been of senior citizens who constitute 10 per cent of the total population, while 73 per cent of COVID-19 deaths in the country are of people with comorbidities. Asked if India has entered the community transmission phase, Indian Council of Medical Research scientist Nivedita Gupta, who was also present at the briefing, said, "Instead of using the word community transmission, it is important to understand the extent of spread of the disease and where do we stand in comparison with other countries. " When asked when the peak will arrive, Gupta said, "We are very far away from the peak. Our preventive measures to curtail the disease are very effective and we are better positioned in comparison with other countries. You will get to see the data in a week. " She also said there was no under-reporting of COVID-19 deaths in India. There has been a continuous mismatch in the data made public by the central government and the tallies announced by some states and union territories for deaths as well as confirmed cases. Several states and UTs, including Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh and Puducherry reported rising number of cases on Tuesday. Many of the states, including those in the North-East, reported new cases linked to people having returned from outside. In Tripura, a 50-year-old woman allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling of a toilet in an Agartala hospital, a day after her swab sample was tested for COVID-19. The police suspects she had developed a fear of contracting the disease and may have committed suicide out of panic. Her test came positive for the novel coronavirus, hours after she had already died. In Maharashtra, the worst-hit state, a four-month-old baby girl also tested positive for COVID-19 in Amravati district. The state reported 2,287 new cases, taking its overall tally to 72,300, while fatalities rose to 2,465 after 103 more patients succumbed to the infection, the state health department said. On the positive side, as many as 1,225 patients were discharged from hospitals during the day, taking the state's count of recovered cases to 31,333. Gujarat, another badly hit state, reported 415 new cases and 29 deaths, taking the overall case count to 17,632 and fatalities to 1,092, the state health department said. A total of 1,114 COVID-19 patients were discharged from hospitals during the day, taking the tally of the recovered cases to 11,894, it said. In the national capital, at least 13 employees of the Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal's office and six other government officials tested positive for COVID-19, sources said. These included junior assistants, drivers and peons. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched an app named 'Delhi Corona' that will give information to patients about the availability of beds in private and government hospitals. He said cases are increasing in the national capital, but sufficient arrangements have been made for ventilators and beds in hospitals. "We are several steps ahead of coronavirus," the chief minister said. West Bengal registered its highest single-day spike of 396 cases, taking its tally to 5,772. Kerala also recorded its highest single-day spike of 86 positive cases, taking the state's tally of COVID-19 cases to 1,412. Besides, a 77-year-old priest died at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital, taking the death toll to 11. Uttarakhand also saw its tally crossing the 1,000-mark after 85 more people tested positive. Five COVID-19 positive family members of the state's tourism minister Satpal Maharaj were readmitted to a hospital within hours of being discharged from the facility. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, however, said India will definitely get back its economic growth and reforms undertaken during the lockdown will help the economy in the long run. His comments came a day after global rating agency Moody's downgraded India's credit rating to just a notch above the junk status on growth concerns. "On the one hand we have taken tough steps to fight the virus and on the other, we have taken care of the economy. We have to save the lives of citizens while also stabilise the economy and speed up growth," Modi said while addressing top industry body CII's annual session. A comprehensive review of various studies, published in the renowned Lancet journal, in the meantime said that physical distancing of two metres or more can prevent person-to-person transmission of COVID-19. It also found that face masks and eye protection may decrease the risk of infection too. The systematic review of existing evidence was commissioned by the World Health Organization, the researchers said. GBP/NZD Exchange Rate Sinks as Risk-On Markets Benefits New Zealand Dollar The Pound to New Zealand Dollar (GBP/NZD) exchange rate fell by -0.6% today, with the pairing currently trading around NZ$1.97. The New Zealand Dollar (NZD) has continued to benefit from risk-on markets today, with the Eurozones economies reopening while UK-EU Brexit talks once again kick-off. As a result, the Kiwi has benefited from growing hopes that the global economic situation could improve in the near-term. NZD has also benefited from reports that New Zealand may remove all Covid-19-related restrictions as early as next week. New Zealands Prime Minister, Jessica Arden, commented: Our strategy of going hard and early has paid off, in some cases beyond expectations and what modelling and data had predicted. However, with growing concerns over US-China trade tensions hovering in the background, many Kiwi investors have remained wary. Any signs of tensions between Washington and Beijing flaring up again this week would prove NZD-negative. Pound (GBP) Falls as UK Economic Outlook Darkens The Pound (GBP) failed to gain against the New Zealand Dollar (NZD) despite UK-EU trade talks kicking off. As this is the final month in which the UK can request an extension to the transition period beyond the 31st December, some Sterling traders are hopeful that the two powers will secure a workable trade deal. However, tensions between the UK and the EU remain high over fishing rights. This follows UK fisheries accusing the EU of using a nuclear option in trade talks. In UK economic news, today saw the release of the UKs Nationwide Housing Prices figures for May, which fell from 0.9% to a worse-than-expected -1.7%. Samuel Tombs, economist with Pantheon Macroeconomics, commented: The huge size of the blow from COVID-19 to households incomes and the deterioration in consumers confidence suggests that house prices must drop. We look for a 5% decline in prices by the end of the third quarter. As a result, Sterling traders have becoming increasingly concerned for the British economy going ahead. Any further signs of economic deterioration could drag down the GBP/NZD exchange rate, as the coronavirus continues to take its toll on some of the UKs largest sectors. GBP/NZD Outlook: Could Risk-On Mood Continue to Buoy the Kiwi? Pound (GBP) traders will be looking ahead to tomorrows release of the UK Services PMI figure for May. Any signs of this falling below consensus would prove Pound-negative as the UKs largest sector suffers from a Covid-19-related setback. New Zealand Dollar (NZD) investors will be keeping a close eye on US-China trade developments. However, any further signs of tensions escalating between the two superpowers would prove NZD-negative. The GBP/NZD exchange rate will continue to remain sensitive to global economic developments. As a result, risk-on markets could keep the pairing under pressure as the risk-averse Kiwi continues to benefit from increased market appetite for risky assets. Documentary streaming platform iwonder screens Sundance winner Honeyland this week. Filmed in Macedonia, this portrays the life of Hatidze Muratova, a keeper of wild bees. iwonder, Head of Content Alexandra Fox-Hughes says: From the first scene until the last, its impossible not to be transfixed by the beauty and serenity of this forgotten world framed by the stoicism and quiet despair of Hatidzes respectful and delicate relationship with nature. What this beautiful and heartbreaking films shows us about life in a remote mountain village tells us a huge amount about the wider world and the repercussions for humanity of interfering with the precious balance of nature. New to iwonder this June 4th comes Honeyland, a tough and tender portrait of the delicate balance between humankind and nature, a glimpse at a fast disappearing way of life, and an unforgettable testament to one extraordinary womans resilience. With two nominations at the 2020 Academy Awards in the categories for Best International Feature Film and Best Documentary Feature, Honeyland became the first documentary in history to receive a nomination in both categories in the history of the Oscars. Nestled in an isolated mountain region deep within the Balkans, Hatidze Muratova lives with her ailing mother in a village without roads, electricity or running water. Shes the last in a long line of Macedonian wild beekeepers, eking out a living farming honey in small batches to be sold in the closest city a mere four hours walk away. Hatidzes peaceful existence is thrown into upheaval by the arrival of an itinerant family, with their roaring engines, seven rambunctious children and herd of cattle. Hatidze optimistically meets the promise of change with an open heart, offering up her affections, her brandy and her tried-and- true beekeeping advice. It doesnt take long however, before Hussein, the itinerant familys patriarch, senses opportunity and develops an interest in selling his own honey. With seven young mouths to feed and nowhere to graze his cattle, he soon casts Hatidzes advice aside in his hunt for profit. This causes a breach in the natural order that provokes a conflict with Hatidze that exposes the fundamental tension between nature and humanity, harmony and discord, exploitation and sustainability. Even as the family provides a much-needed respite from Hatidzes isolation and loneliness, her very means of survival are threatened. The debut feature from documentarians Ljubo Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska, Honeyland was shot over three years by a skeleton crew committed to an intimate collaboration between filmmakers and subject. Honeyland is made with the widescreen sweep of an epic, visually ambitious and driven by an unexpectedly dramatic narrative and a surprising sense of humor. Thursday June 4 on iwonder. The Delta State government on Tuesday warned the public to be wary of making contacts with a COVID-19 patient, Michael Mordi, 53, whose relations removed from a treatment centre in Asaba. The Commissioner of Health, Mordi Ononye, who raised the alarm in a statement, condemned the action of the relations, who took the patient out of the centre in spite of the danger of such move to the public. The Delta State Ministry of Health wishes to express its displeasure over the uncooperative stance of Mr Michael Nwachukwu Mordi, a 53-year old Chief Nursing Officer in Central Hospital, Agbor. Mordi tested positive to COVID-19 on May 23rd, 2020 and was admitted into the COVID-19 Treatment Centre, Federal Medical Center, Asaba, on May 24th 2020, he said. The commissioner said that since the admission of Mr Mordi at the treatment centre, he had been very aggressive and uncooperative. He further stated that Mr Mordi had continually threatened care-givers at the treatment centre and had also rejected his medications. Mr Ononye said that at 6 p.m. on June 1, 2020, the patient, against medical advice, was forcefully removed from the treatment centre by seven men who claimed to be his relatives. He also said the men who carried out the act did not wear any protective coverings. These men who carried out this action constitute danger to their own health and that of other people and communities with which they come in contact. We wish to use this medium to alert the general public about the public health danger of associating with the patient and with those who have exposed themselves to him, Mr Ononye warned. The commissioner advised the patient to return to the treatment center for proper care, and called on those who had exposed themselves to him, to immediately go into supervised quarantine for 14 days. READ MORE: He reminded the people of the state that the COVID-19 pandemic was real and enjoined the public to continue to observe all preventive measures. He further enjoined persons who have fever, cough or difficulty with breathing, to visit the nearest government hospital for proper assessment and possible testing. (NAN) Joe Biden could seize the number of delegates needed to formally clinch the Democrats presidential nomination on Tuesday as seven states and the District of Columbia push through a pandemic and exploding racial tensions to host the largest slate of primary elections in almost three months. Voters are navigating curfews, health concerns and a sharp increase in postal balloting as elections take place from Maryland to Montana. Four states were originally scheduled to vote in April but delayed their contests because of the Covid-19 outbreak. Pennsylvania offers the days biggest trove of delegates and represents a high-profile test case for Republicans and Democrats working to strengthen their operations in one of the most important general election battlegrounds. In this moment, the very soul of America is at stake. We must commit, as a nation, to pursue justice with every ounce of our being. We have to finally make real the American promise: That all men and women are not only equal at creation, but throughout their lives. Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 1, 2020 We think were prepared, said state Democratic Party chairwoman Nancy Patton Mills. Thank goodness we have the opportunity of working this out in the primary because we dont know where well be with the pandemic in November. Mr Biden needs to win 89% of all delegates at stake on Tuesday to clinch the nomination, but his role as his partys clear presidential nominee is not in danger should he fall short. With a dominant showing on Super Tuesday in early March, the former vice president pushed out all his major opponents. He will almost certainly secure the needed delegates later in the month if necessary. Tuesday offers a historic opportunity for the 77-year-old Democrat, who is waging his third presidential campaign and who hopes to amass as many delegates as possible to show strength before going up against President Donald Trump. Expand Close Donald Trump and Joe Biden will duel for the keys to the White House in November (Patrick Semansky/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Donald Trump and Joe Biden will duel for the keys to the White House in November (Patrick Semansky/AP) Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is not actively campaigning, having suspended his operation and endorsed Mr Biden, but his name is appearing on the ballots. On the eve of Tuesdays primaries, senior adviser Jeff Weaver encouraged progressives to vote for Mr Sanders anyway. People who support Bernie Sanders and his agenda, who want to maximise the influence of progressives at the convention, should cast their vote for Bernie Sanders, Mr Weaver said, reminding voters that the Vermont senator is seeking leverage to shape the partys platform and rules. The comments serve as a reminder that Mr Biden may have no legitimate Democratic rivals remaining, but he must still win over sceptical activists from his partys far-left flank who worry he is too close to the political establishment. Party unity will likely be an afterthought this week, however, as more immediate health and safety concerns dominate the national conversation. The coronavirus death toll has surged past 100,000 nationwide, and thousands of new cases are reported each day. At the same time, several major cities, including some voting on Tuesday, are grappling with protests following the killing of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyds neck for several minutes. Washington DC mayor Muriel Bowser ordered a 7pm curfew, though voting places will be open until 8pm. Voting has been deemed essential, and city officials say voters will not be subject to arrest if they cast ballots during the curfew. It is much the same in Philadelphia, where officials have promised that voters would not be arrested should their citys 6pm curfew be extended for a fourth consecutive night. We are in unique times and voting is a unique challenge for people, said Josh Schwerin, chief strategist for the pro-Democrat super PAC Priorities USA. Expand Close President Donald Trump (Patrick Semansky/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp President Donald Trump (Patrick Semansky/AP) He said that his organisation and others will be watching closely to see how well it works, where issues are, and where obstacles have been put in place. Political groups have had to adjust as some states move to a system that relies largely on voting by post. They include Montana, where all 56 counties decided to vote entirely by mail. Voting rights watchdogs in multiple states have expressed concerns about access to mail ballots, confusion about deadlines and a shortage of poll workers that could lead to long lines. Those voting on Tuesday include the District of Columbia, Indiana, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and South Dakota. An eighth state holding primary elections, Iowa, chose its presidential nominee early in the year and focused on other offices. For many, the migration to paperless billing is an environmentally friendly sign of the times, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic that has spurred a huge shift to digital only commerce. But advocates for groups including fixed-income seniors, rural households that lack affordable high speed internet access and those who simply feel insecure with online invoicing say moves by the major telecoms to offer e-bills only with limited exceptions are leaving vulnerable consumers behind. They worry that if the bill is only in digital form some customers wont review it and notice errors, which could be costly if organizations mistakenly overcharge for services that the consumers did not understand or authorize or apply high interest charges for late payment. Against this backdrop the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the National Pensioners Federation (NPF) on Monday filed a petition to cabinet urging reversal of a regulators decision allowing Koodo, Teluss discount wireless brand, to provide customers monthly bills exclusively in electronic format, save for requiring bills in alternative formats for customers with disabilities. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in a March decision said Koodo can use online billing for almost all customers and is not required to offer paper bills. Canadian consumers deserve a paper bill if they want or need one, said John Lawford, executive director and general counsel of PIAC, an Ottawa based non-profit consumer advocacy group. The CRTC and wireless companies pretend that seniors and others will not be hurt but thats not what we heard. Lawford said the hope is that the federal government will intervene to compel the CRTC to require paper bill options from all telecom service providers, suggesting that the move to paperless alone began with flanking brand wireless carriers such as Koodo and is now planned or implemented by the flagship brands including Bell, Rogers and Telus. The petition asks the government to reverse the CRTCs decision to ensure customers know what their bill is, are able to control their payments and avoid late fees, extra charges and possible disconnection. Seniors rely on cellphones to connect to the world but many need and rely on paper bills, as they have for years, to know what they should pay and when, said Trish McAuliffe, president of the NPF, which represents a million seniors and retirees. Fearing that all wireless providers would go paperless, PIAC and NPF filed a formal complaint in June 2018 asking the CRTC to force Koodo Mobile to reverse its move to paperless electronic billing and require all wireless service providers to offer paper bills to anyone who asks for them. The federal telecom regulator denied the request, saying existing legislation and regulation cannot be interpreted to oblige carriers to provide paper bills. It did note, however, that it has received complaints from customers of Koodo and other carriers who say they need to have access to paper bills, including from senior citizens who may have difficulties paying bills online. I am in full support of environmental efforts, but its ridiculous to expect our seniors and aging population to be able to make the switch to paperless billing, reads one such complaint. As part of its March decision, the CRTC said it would launch a consultation into telecom and broadcasting services providers billing practices, and whether theres a need to protect vulnerable consumers, with the deadline for public interventions extended to July due to the pandemic. In addition, the commission said it encourages Koodo to consider offering bills in alternative formats for people with other identified needs, such as cognitive disabilities. As long as companies clearly spell out their invoicing policies to new customers, the CRTC said the offering of paper bills may operate as a competitive incentive to gain customers. Both PIAC and NPF argue that the legal right to receive paper bills at no charge is enshrined in federal legislation in the wake of consumer complaints about telecoms who were charging customers a fee for paper bills. The CRTC eliminated fees for paper bills in October 2014. That legislation, the complainants say, includes recognition of the requirement to provide bills in the paper format. Koodo argued that while the law prohibits a fee for paper invoicing, it does not explicitly compel carriers to actually provide paper bills. Since Koodo began switching to electronic bills in early 2015 most other wireless carriers, including Telus, have done so as well. Rogers in a notice to customers announced that it was shifting to online-only billing as of March 26, while Bell Mobility has contacted customers announcing a shift to online billing but with a provision allowing those without email or a home internet connection to receive a paper bill without a fee. A spokesperson for Rogers told the Star in March that the carrier will provide no-charge paper bills for customers who dont have data or internet services on their account, if they have accessibility needs or if they are seniors. If a customer falls into one of these categories and received the notification, they simply need to reach out to us to have their paper bills continue, the company said. Vancouver-based national provider Telus says it has taken a phased approach in transitioning all its customers to paperless e-bills with special needs customers given the option of paper. Telus says paperless e-bills are more environmentally friendly than paper and also ensure that subscribers receive billing notifications exactly when bills are ready, while also enabling subscribers to pay their bills at any time and view or download bills for 18 months from date of issue. All of the three major wireless carriers have announced that they will, or actually have, migrated all of their flagship brands to electronic-only billing with no paper billing option (except for minor exceptions, such as persons with disabilities), the petition says. This represents a forced migration of millions and millions of Canadians to electronic billing. It is important that this petition be granted to underline to the CRTC the importance of paper billing to consumers as it considers the wider issue of paper billing in all telecommunications and paid broadcasting services, the petition says. Read more about: The Asylum Bill might already be worked on to evacuate Hong Kong citizens in light of China's aggressive stance to impose national security legislation towards the former British colony. Read More: How Latinx Community can Combat Anti-Black Racism within its Own Culture The United States is here to help The US is considering helping Hong Kong citizens who want to seek asylum in the United States to escape China's authorities. The Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on June 1 that the US is considering that very thought. However, when Pompeo was asked regarding the immigration visas and quotas, no comment was given but said that the administration was already looking at it. Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell also reiterated that the US should be held responsible for other countries to open their doors to people from other parts of the world, especially if they intend to seek refuge. McConnell also hoped that President Trump's administration could identify ways to put the cost on Beijing for removing the freedom of the people of Hong Kong that are currently under threat. Britain even offered support to over three million Hong Kong nationals in means of offering extended visa rights as well as a wavy to receive British citizenship. McConnell said that the US has always had "a rich heritage of standing as a beacon of light" for war refugees, victims, and people who are generally affected by communism. With that said, the US should also apply the same standard and code of ethics to the people of Hong Kong. Alight at the end of the tunnel for Hong Kong citizens The United States Senator Ben Sasse recently announced that he would introduce a bill to legislation when the Senate once again reconvenes to be able to automatically grant Hong Kong citizens asylum in the country of the free, The United States. Read More: Children are the Real Victims of COVID-19 in Latin America, OCHA Warns He also mentioned that the US stands in solidarity with the victims of communism and should always find refuge in a country that could take them. So it's safe to say that Hong Kong citizens would be able to seek refuge in the US sooner rather than later with all the support from both sides of the aisle. Taiwan also offers aid amidst China's stance Taiwan offered "proactive rescue and possibly residency" to the people of Hong Kong. They said it shortly after the Chinese parliament has approved their national security law on May 28. From the news from Taiwan, the island country's foreign and interior ministers offered to help about 100,000 citizens. They will be coming by batches, while the government will be able to provide shelter and protection across the different major cities of the country. There will be a better future for the citizens of Hong Kong if they choose to take it with all the help of the free world. Hopefully, it won't be too late, and China would step back and let things happen then impede the process. Read More: State of California Sues Disney and CBS Over 'Criminal Minds' Sexual Harassment Allegations "This honor is additional confirmation of the hard work and dedication of our team of distinguished consultants. Everyday our people create an excellent workplace culture and deliver on our commitment to clients," said Chad Smith, Founding Partner and CEO, Liberty Advisor Group. "Many thanks to Great Place to Work for recognizing us and the entire Liberty team for creating one of the best workplaces in the Chicago area. I am proud to be a part of this team." "Best workplaces like Liberty Advisor Group have built powerful foundations of trust and human connection to help carry their organizations through stressful and uncertain times," said Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place to Work. "This gives companies on this list a powerful opportunity not just to do well for their people, but to do well for their businesses and for Chicago." The final ranking and list of 2020 Best Workplaces in Chicago are available online at https://www.greatplacetowork.com/best-workplaces/chicago/2020 ABOUT LIBERTY ADVISOR GROUP Liberty Advisor Group is a goal-oriented, client-focused and results-driven consulting firm. We are a lean, hand-picked team of strategists, technologists and entrepreneurs battle-tested experts with a steadfast, start-up attitude. A team with an average experience of 15+ years, that has delivered over $1 billion in operating income improvement and over 300 M&A deals for our clients. Liberty has a proven track record in Business and Technology Strategy, Transformation and Assurance, Data Analytics, Business Threat Intelligence, and Mergers and Acquisitions. We collaborate, integrate and ideate in real-time with our clients to deliver situation-specific solutions that work. Liberty has been awarded Best Place to Work by Crain's Chicago Business, Consulting Magazine, Great Place to Work, and Fortune; Fastest Growing Consulting Firm by Consulting Magazine; and Top BI and Analytics Company by CIO Applications. libertyadvisorgroup.com ABOUT BEST PLACES TO WORK IN CHICAGO For more information on the Best Places to Work in Chicago program, visit greatplacetowork.com SOURCE Liberty Advisor Group Related Links https://libertyadvisorgroup.com This decision is not a surprise for a company currently struggling with the collapse of air travel and reducing demand for its main products: regional and private jets. The COVID-19 outbreak instantly froze the commercial aircraft industry earlier this year as airlines suddenly saw demand for international travel wiped out. Embraer already had to deal with the breaking of two joint ventures with Boeing, a decision taken by the American plane maker last April and currently challenged by Embraer for alleged wrongdoings. This partnership concerned commercial aircrafts among other things, and the precipitation with which Boeing decided to terminate the partnership suggests that no recovery should be expected for the regional jet industry for at least a few years. This was followed by Mitsubishis decision to shelve its own regional jet programme last month in light of the COVID-19 outbreak. An argument could be made in favour of regional jets in the medium term. As air travel will slowly resume after the pandemic, it is likely that social distancing measures and changing consumer behaviour will open an era favouring smaller planes and private jets, which would in turn boost Embraer. However, even more likely is the general contraction of the air travel industry, which is expected to show hundreds of billions in losses this year and will force airlines and leasing companies to slim down their fleets. In this context, Embraer should expect as much headwinds as Boeing or Airbus. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 2 By Yusif Aghayev Trend: In connection International Children's Day celebrated on June 1, Azerbaijans leading PASHA Sigorta insurance company offers new services such as consultation of a psychologist and consultation of a pediatrician designed specifically for children, Trend reports referring to the company's press-service. Our children need care, understanding and support at any age, the company said. Taking this into account and on the occasion of International Children's Day, PASHA Sigorta insurance company offers its clients free and completely anonymous consultations on the mental health of their children. The company offers anonymous psychological consultations for the children of each of its clients insured within the voluntary health insurance. Thus, ach of the company's clients may receive absolutely anonymous psychological support for their children from 12:00 through 16:00 (GMT+4) from June 1 through June 3. As part of online consultations with a psychologist, the companys clients may use the following services: assessment of the psychological state of children; consultations on the healthy psychological development of children; and the role of parents in the development of children. To use this free service during the campaign, the interested people should call (+99412) 404 98 58. Moreover, as part of the initiative, PASHA Sigorta offers its clients, insured within the voluntary medical insurance, an opportunity to receive a free telephone consultation of a pediatrician about the health condition of their children. It is possible to get consultations on the following issues: proper care for newborns; prevention and medical treatment of childhood diseases; timely vaccination of children; methods of protection against infectious diseases; methods for enhancing overall resilience; timely detection of pathologies; and analysis and detailed explanation of laboratory and special medical tests. To use this free service during the campaign, the interested people should call *1103 or (+99412) 404 44 99 from 08:00 through 22:00 from June 1 through June 3. All services are intended for children under 16. The services are rendered by Sphera Healthcare AZ, a partner of PASHA Sigorta. PASHA Sigorta OJSC is a recognized leader in the Azerbaijani non-life insurance market. The authorized capital of the company is 50 million manat ($29 million). It renders the insurance services related to 36 voluntary and compulsory types of insurance to 300,000 corporate and individual clients. The company collected the insurance premiums in the amount of 150.2 million manat ($88.3 million) and paid the insurance indemnities in the amount of 52.8 million manat ($31.05 million) in 2019, ranking second among the domestic insurers. Today, 21 insurance companies and one reinsurance company operate in Azerbaijan. ----- Follow the author on Twitter: @Yusif62610338 The Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ equality movements must support each other, note activists at the start of LGBTQ Pride Month. Here, in a scene from San Francisco Pride 2017, the messages intermingled. (Photo: Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images) June is LGBTQ Pride Month. But its starting out in a way that no one predicted: With Pride organizers shifting their focus to the current racial unrest, and LGBTQ organizations over 100 at last count signing on to an open letter pledging support to George Floyd protests across the nation, in a show of solidarity denouncing racism. If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. Those words, written over 30 years ago by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, remind us that indifference can never bridge the divide of hate, the letter begins. And, today, they should serve as a call to action to all of us, and to the Movement for LGBTQ equality. The letter, which invokes not only Floyds name but of other victims of racist violence, including Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, has been signed by a fast-growing number of organizations from major players such as GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign and the National LGBTQ Task Force to smaller groups including Louisiana Trans Activists, Out Boulder County and Project PRIDE Sarasota. It makes connections between the protests of today and the roots of the gay civil rights movement. We, the undersigned, recognize we cannot remain neutral, nor will awareness substitute for action. The LGBTQ community knows about the work of resisting police brutality and violence, it notes. We celebrate June as Pride Month, because it commemorates, in part, our resisting police harassment and brutality at Stonewall in New York City, and earlier in California, when such violence was common and expected. We remember it as a breakthrough moment when we refused to accept humiliation and fear as the price of living fully, freely, and authentically. While planned Pride Month celebrations have already been completely altered by being moved online because of the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing measures, the latest national events are further impacting the lens through which Pride is being viewed, both officially and through scores of social media posts. Story continues This pride month, we remember the reason we have the rights we do today. We thank the black trans woman who rioted and protested for us. If you do not support Black Lives Matter, do not celebrate Pride. pic.twitter.com/zbhht1NLzk rimie rat (@naeclue) June 1, 2020 pride 51 years ago vs black lives matter today pic.twitter.com/efJrMRZQjn slo (@slohjm) June 1, 2020 The Stonewall riots were lead by queer POC and were a massive catalyst to the LGBTQ rights movements. If u are queer but dont stand with the Black Lives Matter movement maybe opt out of celebrating pride this month n think about why we have the rights we have. pic.twitter.com/kQ4btTG7Pr (@prodbyredrum) June 1, 2020 In light of the Black Lives Matter movement and the beginning of Pride Month, lets talk about the black trans woman that aided and led the LGBTQ+ community into gaining equal rights: Marsha P. Johnson pic.twitter.com/xqTFQp3VcZ (@cristaystay) June 1, 2020 Theres no way you can talk about our community without addressing race, Julian Sanjivan, co-president of InterPride, tells Yahoo Life. As the former director of New York Citys Pride March, and now deeply involved with the international organization of global Pride events, including the upcoming virtual Global Pride, Sanjivan says theyve realized just how intersectional this community is. They add, Within the LGBTQ+ community, at any given point of time, you could see a person who is trans and a person of color and an immigrant, and there are so many other layers to that within our community and within a single person. Thats why kicking off the month with a powerful show of solidarity with protesters became a priority. I think people forget that Pride started off because of riots Stonewall was a riot, after all. We may not have seen a lot of the progress with the LGBT community if that first brick was not thrown in 1969, Sanjivan says. So, it was an uprising and still is. Its not like weve achieved equality [Pride is] a celebration of who we are, loving whoever you love, celebrating your chosen family, and for some, coming out but its also a protest to be recognized. And with the current administration we have, a lot of what weve achieved over the years has slowly been taken away. Pride is always a combination of celebration and protest. GLAADs president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis weighed in with a statement on the organizations website. Today marks the first day of Pride Month, and although it may look different this year, the spirit of Pride continues to live on in our communitys resilience in the fight for equality and acceptance for all, she noted. And at this very time in our countrys history, this fight has never been more significant This Pride Month, well be centering and lifting up the voices of Black LGBTQ people. There can be no Pride if it is not intersectional. We are Together in Pride. Black Lives Matter. The open letter also mentions Christian Cooper, the black gay man who was targeted by a white woman in Central Park. It also points out the unending rash of violence against trans individuals, particularly transgender women of color, citing the names of the dozen of trans people who have been murdered already this year Dustin Parker, Neulisa Luciano Ruiz, Yampi Mendez Arocho, Monika Diamond, Lexi, Johanna Metzger, Serena Angelique Velazquez Ramos, Layla Pelaez Sanchez, Penelope Diaz Ramirez, Nina Pop, Helle Jae ORegan and Tony McDade. It is no exaggeration to describe it as an epidemic of violence, the letter points out. if you are not supporting the black lives matter protests then i dont want to see you celebrating pride month. remember your history pic.twitter.com/1yrJwg8cxm e (@fetishwasabi) June 1, 2020 Similar efforts to raise awareness around the killing of black trans women infused Pride events last year when the series of murders was often discussed in the context of irony, as it was people of color, including late activist Marsha P. Johnson, who played a major role at Stonewall and in the activism that followed. Read more from Yahoo Life: Want daily lifestyle and wellness news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here for Yahoo Lifes newsletter. The U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan says he is optimistic that the Taliban and Afghan government will begin peace talks, adding that U.S. troops could be pulled out ahead of schedule if all goes well. Zalmay Khalilzad said on June 1 that theres been a lot of progress as the Afghan government speeds up the release of prisoners, which is expected to lead to intra-Afghan negotiations. We are in a good place," Khalilzad said, adding that levels of violence in Afghanistan have remained relatively low since May's Eid al-Fitr cease-fire. "We are optimistic that finally we're moving forward to the start of the intra-Afghan negotiations." Speaking to reporters in Washington, Khalilzad did not set a date and cautioned that "still more needs to be done" on freeing prisoners. The United States and the Taliban signed an agreement in February aimed at ending the longest military action in U.S. history. The deal lays out a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in return for security commitments from the Taliban. It also stipulates that Kabul must free 5,000 Taliban prisoners, while the militants are to release 1,000 captives. As of last week, Afghan authorities had released 1,100 Taliban militants since early April; the militant group had freed 245 members of security forces, civil servants, and other people it had been holding. Under the February agreement, the United States will pull troops out of Afghanistan by mid-2021 in exchange for the insurgents' commitments to keep out Al-Qaeda and other foreign extremists. US officials have said that troops already are returning home and the withdrawal is ahead of schedule. Khalilzad said if President Donald Trump thinks that conditions have been met, then it could go faster, but the key thing is whether the conditions have been met." The United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and toppled the Taliban regime, saying it had provided a safe haven to Al-Qaeda, which carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks. Khalilzad downplayed a recent report to the UN Security Council that said Al-Qaeda and the Taliban "remain close" and were in regular consultations over the negotiations with the United States. "The Taliban regularly consulted with Al-Qaeda during negotiations with the United States and offered guarantees that it would honor their historical ties," independent U.N. sanctions monitors said in the report. It said the ties stem from friendship, intermarriage, shared struggle, and ideological sympathy. Khalilzad said it largely covered a period before the February deal. "There is progress, but we will continue to monitor those activities very closely," he said of Taliban ties with Al-Qaeda, adding that if the Taliban fails to keep its promises, Washington could reconsider its own. The United States still has about 12,000 troops in Afghanistan, and Washington pays about $4 billion a year to maintain the Afghan military. The deal committed the United States to reduce its military footprint in Afghanistan to 8,600 troops by mid-July. There has been great deal of cooperation between Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on battling the Covid-19 challenge, Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray has said. These three major entities have been in great cooperation and coordination with each other. That by far has kept politics aside during the time of the pandemic, Thackeray, who is also Maharashtras minister for tourism, environment and protocol, told Hindustan Times in an interview. Aaditya Thackerays surprise praise for PM Modi and Amit Shah in an interview to Hindustan Times comes a week after a war of words broke out between Uddhav Thackeray and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on Twitter over the Shramik Specials to ferry back migrant labourers that carried on past midnight. Also read: Amit Shah dials Uddhav Thackeray after Bandra protest sets off political firestorm Uddhav Thackeray was last month seen to be critical of the central government for allotting only half the 80 trains requested by the state for migrant workers, mostly from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, who wanted to go home. Piyush Goyal had promptly hit back, telling Maharashtra that he could arrange to send 125 trains for the stranded migrants provided the state makes sure that they do not run empty. Goyal also asked the state to send a list of stranded migrants who had to be accommodated in these trains and then fired a string of reminders on social media to drive home the point that it was the Shiv Sena-led coalition that was unprepared, not the railways. Asked about this back-and-forth between the Shiv Sena government and the central minister, Aaditya Thackeray appeared to suggest that some amount of friction was inevitable when different parties are in power at the Centre and the state. WATCH: Aaditya Thackeray on unlocking Maharashtra | On The Record I feel that if you have two different parties or two different coalitions are ruling at the state and Centre, then there will always be those tussles, the 29-year-old Thackeray said before going ahead to underscore that Uddhav Thackeray was in sync with PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. And this had helped in the fight against coronavirus disease. I dont think this is the right time for any minister to speak about any politics, Thackeray said. The Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party have been bitter rivals after the Sena walked out of their alliance of 30 years over the chief ministers chair. Uddhav Thackeray took over as chief minister in November last year in coalition with erstwhile rivals - Congress and the NCP - after a short spell of central rule. Also read: Not the right time for any minister to speak about politics, says Aaditya Thackeray But Uddhav Thackeray, whose party frequently criticises the BJP-led central government, rarely directs his attacks at PM Modi or Shah. When Uddhav Thackeray was staring at the possibility of missing the six-month deadline to become a member of the legislative council, Thackeray had sent an SOS to PM Modi for help. Within two days, Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari wrote to the Election Commission to hold elections to the legislative council that eventually led to Thackeray being elected a member of the council unopposed. FLINT, MI-- The Flint City Council has denounced illegal police restraints, like kneeling on someones neck The council also declared racism a public health crisis. The council took these actions following three days of peaceful protests in Flint for George Floyd, a black man killed in police custody. The council voted 8-1 to declare Flint as a zero-tolerance zone for illegal police restraints and racism as public health crisis at its Monday, June 1 meeting. The resolutions were created after city leaders communicated with the Michigan Black Caucus and other municipal leaders in Ohio, according to City Attorney Angela Wheeler. The Flint Police Department will now review its policies and procedures so they adhere to the resolution, according to Wheeler. By declaring racism as a public health crisis, the city publicly acknowledges black people are disproportionately impacted by systemic issues. Now we can actively engage communities of color to help fight racism and to support policies that prioritize the health of all people, Wheeler said. Council President Monica Galloway said the resolutions are to raise awareness and make a declaration for something that is long overdue. Third Ward Councilman Santino Guerra said the resolutions are to help Flint move forward. We are listening to the people and making policy that could save lives and help move this community forward, Guerra said. Mayor Sheldon Neeley announced the resolution would be considered by the council at a June 1 rally protesting police brutality. The mayor is creating a coalition of black mayors to address issues of statewide systemic racism. Meanwhile, Flint Police Chief Phil Hart is instituting Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation training for the citys police department. Hart said the training will focus on diversity and healing. I dont know if under any circumstance that its OK to put your knee on someones neck like that. Its not acceptable to treat a person that way," Hart previously said. The council also voted 8-1 to approve a draft of an ordinance forbidding bias crime reporting, which would make it illegal for anyone to report a crime because of the color of someones skin. We all witnessed in the death of George Floyd a horrible reminder that we have much more work to do in this country. It is incumbent on all of us to do more and push harder for racial justice, Neeley said at the June 1 rally. The mayor worked with legal staff, the Flint Police Department and members of the city council to create these actions. Neeley said he began drafting the actions on Friday and worked on them throughout the weekend. Read more: Flint Police Department will have Black Lives Matter advisory council Flint peacefully gathers for racial justice three nights in a row Organizers call for seat at the table with police during second night of protests in Flint Marchers in Flint push for end to police brutality as protests reach third day As many as 2,091 coronavirus cases were recorded in Haryana on May 31, a number that does not go with the data of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Union ministry of health. The ICMR web portal, for the same day, showed two values for the total number of coronavirus cases 2,875 and 5,529 while the Union ministry of health showed 2,881 positive cases in the state. The ICMR and health ministry also got the sampling data from 12 government and seven private testing labs in the state. Similarly, the total number of samples tested till June 1 stood at about 1.21 lakh as per the Haryana health department statistics. The ICMR data, however, showed that about 1.33 lakh samples were tested till June 1. In a nutshell, the numbers sampling as well as positive cases reflected in the ICMR records are higher than the state data. The glaring discrepancies in the Covid-19 data have serious repercussions in terms of isolating the infected persons, contact tracing, surveillance, infrastructure planning and strategy formulation to tackle the emerging situation. PRIVATE LABS DID NOT SHARE DATA The data muddle has perplexed the state authorities who suspected private testing labs of suppressing the sampling data. When asked additional chief secretary (ACS), health, Rajeev Arora said that a number of private testing labs based in Delhi but having collection centres in Gurgaon and Faridabad did not share the testing data with the state authorities. The private labs though submitted the testing data for the ICMR web portal. If they do not share the sampling data, how will we do the contact tracing, the ACS said. Officials said that while the labs dispatched the data online to ICMR, they did not share it with Haryana. The health department, subsequently, in a communication to 18 ICMR approved private labs in the national capital asked them to mandatorily inform each Covid-19 positive case from Haryana to the civil surgeons. It has been brought to the notice of state health authorities that the ICMR approved Covid-19 testing private labs in Delhi were accepting samples of patients and suspects residing in Haryana without the concurrence of Haryana government. Moreover, these labs are not conveying the results to concerned district health authorities even in the case of coronavirus positive results, a serious concern in the control of Covid-19 pandemic. In many cases, incomplete and wrong addresses, incorrect contact details are mentioned which defy surveillance activities, reads the communication sent to private labs. ICMR WEB PORTAL SNAGS Even as the data tangle remained partially sorted, the state government on Tuesday took up the data mess with the ICMR. In a letter to the ICMR director, Haryanas director-general health services said the state was facing issues regarding the data on the ICMR portal. There are incomplete entries with no mandatory columns being filled. In many entries, there are wrong, missing or incomplete addresses without contact details. Some cases have a permanent address of a particular district of Haryana, details of which have been taken from Aadhaar card but the patient is not residing at that particular address. There are duplicate data entries. If one person got tested at two labs, the ICMR portal showed two different cases, as there were no unique ID being generated for such patients. There is a mismatch of data between state and ICMR web portal, the letter said. Meanwhile, during an audit of a private lab in Gurgaon, it emerged that while the ICMR data showed a total of 16,889 tests and 825 positive cases of the lab as on June 2, the labs own record showed 12916 tests and 635 positive cases. While chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday claimed the government has sorted out the data mismatch and there was nothing to get alarmed, the confusion is far from being over. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON CALGARY, Alberta, June 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Maxim Power Corp. ("MAXIM" or the "Corporation") (TSX: MXG) announces it has successfully commissioned its 204 MW natural gas-fired power plant (M2) located near Grande Cache, Alberta. M2 began generating electricity to the Alberta power grid on May 8, 2020 during commissioning and successfully demonstrated its maximum generating capacity and environmental compliance during this final phase of construction. MAXIM completed construction and commissioning of M2 despite challenging construction conditions related to both weather and COVID-19. This project represents an industry leading 16 month construction duration and 21 month total project horizon (from equipment procurement to project completion). M2 is the largest simple cycle natural gas-fired power plant in Alberta and is a significant milestone in the provinces transition away from coal-fired generation. The M2 project is a testament to the Government of Albertas ongoing commitment to promote economic development by creating a stable and attractive investment climate. The project created more than 120 jobs during the course of its construction and now provides ongoing employment and support of local businesses in the Grande Cache area of Alberta. The government's work to ensure federal carbon policy does not inhibit investment and its introduction of the made-in-Alberta TIER program are important to this project and to MAXIMs significant commitment to investing in Albertas power infrastructure. MAXIM maintains its estimate of total capital expenditures to construct M2 of $147 million before borrowing costs. Refer to MAXIM's Investor Update Presentation for earnings sensitivities, which is available on MAXIM's website at www.maximpowercorp.com under the tab Investors/Corporate Information. MAXIM is advancing its option to increase the capacity of M2 to approximately 300 MW and lower its operating costs significantly by investing capital in heat recovery technology that enables the facility to operate in combined cycle mode. About MAXIM Based in Calgary, Alberta, MAXIM is one of Canadas largest truly independent power producers. MAXIM is now focussed entirely on power projects in Alberta. Its core asset the 204 MW H.R. Milner Plant in Grande Cache, AB is a state-of-the-art natural gas-fired power plant that commissioned in Q2, 2020. MAXIM has the option to increase the capacity of M2 to approximately 300 MW and concurrently realize an improvement in the efficiency of the plant by investing in heat recovery combined cycle technology. In addition, MAXIM continues to explore additional development options in Alberta including its currently permitted gas-fired generation project and the permitting of its wind power generation project. MAXIM trades on the TSX under the symbol MXG. For more information about MAXIM, visit our website at www.maximpowercorp.com . For further information please contact: Michael R. Mayder, President and CFO, (403) 263-3021. Statements in this release which describe MAXIM's intentions, expectations or predictions, or which relate to matters that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties which may cause the actual results, performances or achievements of MAXIM to be materially different from any future results, performances or achievements expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. MAXIM may update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or changing market and business conditions and will update such forward-looking statements as required pursuant to applicable securities laws. While still sitting on the possible cusp of second-wave coronavirus outbreaks in Japan, shops and attractions are slowly getting back to business. Far from a full blown reopening, however, tight restrictions are being exercised in several industries such as amusement park guests being asked to refrain from showing emotions and to practice social distancing with the ghosts in haunted houses. Now, you might be asking: aWell, at least I can still go and rub the large feet of a monkey-like god statue in Osaka, right?a Wrong! As the following news report shows, visitors to Osakaas famous Tsutenkaku tower are instructed to instead aair toucha the soles of its famous Billiken statue for the time being. If you werenat asking the previous question, then you might now be asking: aWhat the hell are you talking about?a It all started back in 1908, when an American artist by the name of Florence Pretz (no relation to the snack) had a vision of this mysterious creature in a dream. After committing its likeness to paper and giving it the name Billiken, Pretz patented her newfound deity as aThe God of Things as They Ought to Be.a Around that same time the Meiji restoration was in full swing in Japan, and the country was rapidly embracing Western culture, partly by scooping up the licenses for iconic western figures left and right. This is about the same time that American Kewpie dolls were imported to Japan, only to ultimately become the face of its leading mayonnaise brand. For better or for worse, a prime minister of Japan during the Billiken fad, Terauchi Masatake, bore an uncanny resemblance to the magical troll and was even nicknamed aPrime Minister Billiken.a For much of the early 20th century, Billiken lucky charms were enjoying huge popularity in both America and Japan and in 1912 a famous statue of him was placed in the original Tsutenkaku of Luna Park amusement park in what is now the Shinsekai area of Osaka. A Japanese superstition was also promoted that rubbing Billikenas large protruding feet will bless you with good luck. Verso Appoints Terry Dyer as Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Communications Terry Dyer June 2, 2020 - Verso Corporation announced that Terrence M. Dyer has been appointed Verso's Senior Vice President, Human Resources and Communications, effective June 1, 2020. "I am pleased to have Terry join Verso and our senior leadership team with responsibility for leading our human resources and communications initiatives that support our strategic business plans," said President and Chief Executive Officer Adam St. John. "Terry brings more than 20 years of human resources experience to Verso and has a solid reputation for companywide talent strategies that support current and future business performance, employee engagement and retention." Mr. Dyer has served in human resources leadership roles at several Fortune 1000 companies, including Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Worthington Industries; Vice President, Human Resources for Armstrong World Industries Inc.; and Human Resources Manager at Burlington Industries, Inc. Mr. Dyer holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina. Mr. Dyer will replace predecessor Kenneth D. Sawyer who retired from Verso effective June 1, 2020. Mr. Sawyer will remain with Verso through the remainder of June to assist with the transition to Mr. Dyer. "On behalf of the entire Board and senior leadership team, I would like to thank Kenny for his nearly 10 years of leadership and substantial contributions to Verso's success through many significant changes and challenges and wish him the very best during his retirement years," said St. John. "Additionally, Kenny's willingness and commitment to transition this important role to Terry prior to his departure is greatly appreciated." Verso Corporation is the leading North American producer of coated papers, which are used primarily in commercial print, magazines, catalogs, high-end advertising brochures and annual reports, among other media and marketing publications. The company produces a wide range of products, ranging from coated freesheet and coated groundwood, to specialty papers, packaging papers, inkjet and digital papers, supercalendered papers and uncoated freesheet. Verso also produces and sells bleached and unbleached market kraft pulp, which is used to manufacture paper and packaging products. Verso operates seven paper machines at four mills located in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin with a total annual production capacity of approximately 1,970,000 tons of paper. For further information, visit: versoco.com SOURCE: Verso Corporation At last, justice has been done. The long, cruel witch-hunt is almost over, after one of the most shameful episodes in modern legal history, which saw thousands of British soldiers who served in Iraq from 2003 to 2009 accused of brutality and abuses against civilians. As the catalogue of charges lengthened, vast sums of public money were spent on legal investigations. Veterans were hounded, homes wrecked, and reputations trashed. People who risked their lives on our behalf were targeted because of their heroic service. But the flood of more than 4,000 claims against the Armed Forces turned out to be a complete fabrication. About 57 million was spent on the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (IHAT), the body set up by Gordon Browns Labour Government in 2010 to scrutinise the lurid accusations. Deceit Hilary Meredith (pictured) is a lawyer who campaigned for Iraq veterans rights Yet there was no evidence to support the cases it identified. Instead, they were fuelled by anti-British political dogma and an eagerness for compensation. Speaking to the BBC yesterday, Andrew Cayley, the director of the Service Prosecuting Authority (SPA) the military equivalent of the Crown Prosecution Service revealed that independent investigators have dismissed almost all the allegations due to the low level of offending and lack of credible evidence. He said seven cases remained to be referred, but in six no charges would be brought. One is still under consideration, but it is quite possible that it will merit no further action. The whole exercise in quasi-legal persecution was built on deceit. British soldiers and veterans, living in the shadow of oppression by IHAT for years, can be fully exonerated now the lies have been exposed. But it is disgraceful this saga was allowed to drag on for so long, when it was obvious the allegations were fraudulent. Enfeebled politicians and credulous civil servants were ruthlessly exploited by cash-grabbing, point-scoring lawyers, who dressed up a lucrative assault on the British Army as concern for human rights. As a solicitor representing several of the accused ex-soldiers since 2016, I saw for myself how baseless the claims were. But what shocked me was a lack of official support for those under judicial fire from IHAT. They were breezily told to discuss the problem with their commanding officer impossible since they had left the services, and did not have the back-up of any military structure. In effect, they were left high and dry, floundering on Civvy Street. I was appalled by the grotesque unfairness of it all. In peddling wild claims about ill-treatment, barbarism and even murder, the accusers painted a picture of our Armed Forces I simply did not recognise. As a lawyer, Ive been involved in the military for more than 30 years. It led to my appointment as visiting professor of law and veterans affairs at the University of Chester. Through this work, I have come to admire profoundly the remarkable professionalism and restraint of military personnel. More than 3,500 allegations against UK forces between 2003 and 2009 have already been dismissed by taxpayer-funded probes, pictured here, British soldiers under attack by petrol bombers in Basra in March 2004 In the course of all my legal involvement with cases from campaigns in Bosnia, Kosovo, the Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan, I have never once come across a credible case of abuse. Having met double and triple amputees maimed by roadside bombs, I feel outrage that they should be rewarded for their self-sacrifice by the threat of punishment. The same is true of soldiers who showed undaunted courage in the face of the enemy in Iraq, yet became the subject of vilification. One such hero is Brian Wood, who led a bayonet charge against Iraqi forces trying to ambush his unit at the Battle of Danny Boy near Amara in 2004. In their narrative his accusers said it was an attack in which innocent Iraqi civilians were tortured and killed. But the Al-Sweady inquiry in 2014 exonerated Wood and his comrades, dismissing the charges as wholly without foundation and entirely the product of deliberate lies, reckless speculation and ingrained hostility. This could be applied to the whole sinister fiasco of the Iraq investigations. At the heart of this web of deceit was Phil Shiner, a lawyer once admired by the legal establishment. In 2004 he was named by the pressure group Liberty as the human rights lawyer of the year for his tremendous skill, tenacity and dedication. But such plaudits hid the malice of his methods and ideology. Filled with a neurotic hostility towards his own countrys Armed Forces, Shiner used huge sums of taxpayers money to orchestrate the witch-hunt. Hired agents sought stories of abuses from Iraqis. Questionnaires were circulated to encourage tales of war crimes. 'Hired agents sought stories of abuses from Iraqis. Questionnaires were circulated to encourage tales of war crimes,' says Hilary Meredith. Pictured: A British soldier patrols the streets of Basrah, Iraq, on February 21, 2007 Panic As the claims deluge rose, the Labour Government panicked and established IHAT. Its creation only encouraged Shiner and his clients to crank up their offensive. More than 1,000 of IHATs cases were brought by Shiners firms. His key fixer, understood to be Abu Jamal, was allegedly hired by IHAT on 40,000-a-year potentially generating a conflict of interest in which the agent of a lawyer bringing claims was also employed by the team investigating those claims. IHAT felt so overwhelmed it also contracted a company called Red Snapper largely made up of ex-police detectives to conduct investigations. Eager to please their masters, Red Snapper used bully-boy tactics as disgraceful as Shiners. A parliamentary inquiry to which I provided evidence heard how Red Snapper investigators turned up at family homes or military barracks to demand information and even threaten arrest, yet had no authority to do so. They were also in the habit of falsely introducing themselves as police officers the only conviction was of one of its own private investigators for impersonating a police officer. The entire thrust of IHATs work crumbled amid revelations about Shiners corruption. In 2017, he was found guilty by a professional tribunal of multiple misconduct charges, including dishonesty and lack of integrity. Struck off as a solicitor, he filed for bankruptcy. Hilary Meredith says: 'Politicians and civil servants who betrayed serving personnel should be subjected to scrutiny. Nothing of this sort should ever be allowed to happen again.' Pictured: Members of a company of Britain's Black Watch patrol a village on the east banks of the Euphrates Terror In response, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon shut down IHAT, a body that should never have been established in the first place. It was a vehicle for dubious enrichment and nasty propaganda at the expense of valiant warriors. With the saga approaching its welcome end, honour has been restored. But a terrible price has been paid, not only by the taxpayer but also by the accused: shattered families, broken marriages, ruined finances, stalled careers, poor mental and physical health. No soldiers or veterans deserve to be treated like this. The Government should have stood up to Shiner and his cronies from the start, not let them institute a reign of terror through IHAT and the courts. That is why today, I demand a full apology from the Ministry of Defence and a public inquiry into what went wrong. Politicians and civil servants who betrayed serving personnel should be subjected to scrutiny. Nothing of this sort should ever be allowed to happen again. Throughout the coronavirus crisis, the whole nation has rightly expressed its gratitude to the medical professionals and emergency workers who put themselves in harms way on our behalf. That is also the guiding mission of the Armed Forces. Their members should be cherished, not hung out to dry. Ashley Lancaster cares for 50 residents as a nurse at the Colorado senior living facility that has suffered more than 80 COVID-19 cases this year. The mother of two works 12-hour shifts caring for residents at the nursing home. "It's good to know that people are out there who care for you, when you are caring for everybody else," said Lancaster. "We're all looking for ways to give back to our communities during this difficult time," said Brandi Hill. "It was such an honor to have a chance to meet and pamper Ashley and make her feel great about herself. I can't wait to feature more front-line heroes in our new series as we honor those who give so much to care for our loved ones around the U.S." 'Caregiver Makeover with Brandi' can be found at www.facebook.com/EdenLifeCare ABOUT EDEN LIFE CARE Eden: Life Care App is a user-friendly technology connecting families to loved ones in nursing homes, hospitals, and assisted living facilities. It provides healthcare facilities with a simple way to comply with new reporting guidelines from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) www.EdenLifeCare.com Media Contact: Casey McConnell, 9705561120, [email protected] SOURCE Eden Life Care Related Links https://edenlifecare.com/ The Dangote Industries Limited, promoter of the multi-billion dollars refinery project in Lagos, has said the federal government exempted its fertiliser plant from the movement restrictions and the ban placed on mass assembly across the country. President Buhari had, on March 29, declared lockdowns in Lagos, Ogun and Abuja, the federal capital territory. The declaration was part of the governments efforts aimed at defeating the coronavirus disease pandemic. But, PREMIUM TIMES investigation published on May 26 revealed that workers in their thousands assembled daily in their continued operations on the refinery site, which is located in Ibeju Lekki area of Lagos. The report, which is titled; Investigation: Officials Indifferent as Dangote Refinery violates lockdown rules, exposed the non-adherence to lockdown and social distancing rules by the workers on the site, with its attendant consequences of coronavirus disease outbreak among workers and deaths caused by the disease. But, in its response to the report, the management of Dangote Industries Limited shared a letter from the federal ministry of Industry, trade and investment, exempting its fertiliser plant from the lockdown rules. The letter, which was dated April 6, 2020, and signed by the ministrys permanent secretary, Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, was in response to the April 2 letter of request for exemption from the lockdown rules by the Dangote Industries Limited. According to the letter, the exemption was granted towards ensuring the expedited commissioning of the fertiliser plant as soon as possible. The exemption letter, however, advised the company to ensure adherence to the national and international preventive guidelines in the fight against coronavirus disease. It reads in part; As you are aware, it is the express wish and desire of Mr. President that the production and delivery of essential commodities should continue to run uninterruptedly during the Covid-19 pandemic, and that fertiliser falls under essential commodities that will serve farmers nationwide. Workers unions kick Both national and international unions identifying with workers in the company have criticised the Dangote Group for what they described as the inhuman treatment of workers on the site, insisting that their independent findings revealed that workers were exposed to risks of contracting the virus without protection. In separate statements issued by their leaderships, the groups including the India-based New Socialist Alternative (NSA), Campaign for Workers and Democratic Rights (CWDR) and Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN), said they had launched a global online petition against the Dangote Group. The general secretary of the New Socialist Alternative, Jagadish Chandra, said the exemption letter being flaunted by the group cannot justify the inhuman treatment his countrymen working on the site have been exposed to. The statement reads; New Socialist Alternative, which is affiliated to Committee for a Workers International (CWI) wishes to emphatically condemn this anti-labour attitude of the Dangote Group. Having a letter of exemption from the government is no excuse; all the countries are warned and they are bound by international laws to follow directives of WHO, which the current system of capitalism has itself agreed upon. This stand of Dangote Group is utterly reactionary to say the least. We, along with Democratic Socialist Movement /Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) were the first to internationalise the plight of the workers of Indian origin at Dangote Group. We have initiated an International public petition not only to draw the attention of trade unions and labour activists around the world, but also seek intervention from the Indian government on this issue, it said. The group accused the Nigerian company of pushing the Indian workers deliberately to get afflicted with the virus, saying such action exposes the brutal nature of capitalism in general and Dangote establishment in particular. Dangote has not only violated international laws regarding workers safety and welfare, but it has also shown utter contempt towards the labour laws of Nigeria which is supposed to govern all workers on the land of Nigeria, be they Nigerians or foreigners, the statement added. On its part, the SPN said a video released by the Indian workers on the site seeking public help is enough evidence for a responsible government to act. The statement was signed on behalf of SPN by its national secretary, Chinedu Bosah. Efforts by our party to get across to some of the traumatised workers were frustrated by the company by denying us access. The company is a slave driver just like other capitalist employers in Nigeria. But they can be defeated. The only thing is for workers to have the confidence and organisation to fight back. Unity is also vital. Whether Nigerian, Indian, Chinese, South African or Togolese. A worker is a worker. All are similarly exploited regardless of the colour of their skin. Workers must reject the divide and rule strategy being used to divide them and unite to collectively fight back. We will not relent until the workers in Dangote refinery are free. We shall continue to campaign for protection of the rights of the workers as enshrined in the labour laws; no to casualisation, improved pay and working conditions as well as a safe work environment. We will also continue to call on the labour movement to take action by moving into the refinery to organise the workers, both Nigerians and expatriates, to demand their rights. Also, the national chairperson of CDWR, Rufus Olusesan, said his organisation is committed to righting the wrongs on the site of Dangote Refinery and every other institution where workers are exploited. Mr Olusesan wrote; Granting Dangote Fertilizer exemption does not extend to Dangote Refinery since the waiver was given on the premise of making fertilizer available for farmers. It also does not give the company the right to violate the Lagos State Government social distancing rule which says that companies should run at not more than 60 per cent workforce capacity in order to limit COVID-19 spread. Advertisements The exemption letter advised the company to obey safety rules which were outrightly ignored. So the exemption does not empower the company to circumvent decent work and place its workers in an inhuman environment as Dangote refinery workers are subjected to. Above all, the fact of the matter is that Dangote refinery and petrochemical did not merit categorization as providers of essential services under the quarantine act. From what we know, the refinery is still under construction. It is not producing any fuel products or fertilizer yet so there is no essential product it wants to supply. So, the exemption is not only fraudulent, it can only have been obtained through fraudulent means. Dangote got the exemption in order not to miss the deadline for the completion of the construction project so as not to disappoint its shareholders and banks. Ultimately, the unmerited exemption, fraudulent and reckless as it is, is actually meant to protect the profit of Dangote while exposing its workers to infection. That the exemption was granted all the same shows the double standard of the Nigerian capitalist state and how the capitalist class always cheats the system. It is one law for the rich, another for the workers and poor. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper answers a question during a briefing on the coronavirus pandemic at the Emergency Operations Center in Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday, May 26, 2020. After weeks of tense correspondence between Republican National Convention organizers and North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper about the size and scope of the party's planned convention in August, Cooper on Tuesday finally told the GOP he would not provide the guarantee that President Donald Trump has demanded. In a letter to Republican officials, Cooper said it's "very unlikely" that the Republican National Convention will be held at full-scale participation. "As much as we want the conditions surrounding COVID-19 to be favorable enough for you to hold the Convention you describe in late August, it is very unlikely," Cooper said. "Neither public health officials nor I will risk the health and safety of North Carolinians by providing the guarantee you seek." Trump had repeatedly demanded a guarantee from Cooper, a Democrat, that his renominating convention in Charlotte be allowed to occur without strict social distancing or limitations on the number of attendees allowed to pack into the city's convention center. But Cooper made it clear Tuesday that he did not envision the same convention Trump does. The letter puts pressure on convention organizers to find another city willing to host tens of thousands of Trump supporters later this summer. This task was made infinitely more difficult this week after the nationwide outbreak of violent protests against police brutality. National political conventions have traditionally drawn thousands of protesters even in years without the added crises of a pandemic, 40 million Americans out of work and now, widespread civil unrest. The demands that would likely be placed on any city's infrastructure and public safety apparatus, in order for that city to provide convention security and pandemic-level sanitation are difficult to quantify, but surely enormous. The White House declined to comment. Cooper's office did not immediately return a request for comment. In a tweet, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel shifted the blame on Cooper, saying he's "dragging his feet" on providing guidance on moving forward with the convention. "We hope to still conduct the business of our convention in Charlotte, but we have an obligation to our delegates and nominee to begin visiting the multiple cities who have reached out in recent days about hosting an historic event to show that America is open for business," she added. Tweet When the saga over the location of the convention first broke out, multiple governors and GOP officials from places such as Texas and Georgia offered their states as potential hosts. The development comes after weeks of strongly worded letters in which officials from North Carolina repeatedly asked the RNC to come up with a detailed plan on how to carry out the convention safely while adhering to social distancing guidelines to minimize the spread of the coronavirus. Just last week, North Carolina asked again in a letter for the RNC to provide details on its plans to enforce social distancing. But the RNC has skirted the issue of releasing a social distancing plan in its discussions with North Carolina. In a letter released Thursday, the RNC outlined a number of safety protocols such as temperature scans ahead of entry and the availability of disinfectant in the convention site. But absent from their plan is a way to encourage social distancing and cap the number of people who are able to attend the convention. The coronavirus outbreak has spread to dozens of countries, with more than 6.2 million confirmed cases worldwide and over 375,987 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. There are at least 1.8 million cases in the United States and at least 105,147 deaths, according to the latest tallies. Agra, June 2 : Even as the Covid-19 graph continued to soar with eight new cases and one more death, Agra mayor Navin Jain demanded reopening of the Taj Mahal and other historical monuments in the city. The hotel owners and travel agents in Agra feel that the time has come for resuming normal activities, following the protocol and guidelines, to bring tourism back on the track. It was the Agra mayor who in March had first demanded closure of the Taj Mahal to contain the virus infection. Now he leads the chorus to demand its reopening, without spelling out the gains when international flights are suspended and the inter-state movement still in the limbo. Tourism is the mainstay of Agra's economy, sustaining lakhs of people engaged in hotels, travel business, guides, photographers, emporia, petha industry. A big chunk of population has been hit, due to the Covid-19, as more than 500 big and small hotels are closed. Prahlad Agarwal, handicrafts emporium owner said, a large number of craftsmen are without work. Sanjay Sharma, president of Approved Guides Association, said hundreds of guides have suffered economic losses, as tourists are not visiting Agra since March end. The Taj Mahal should now open, so that the livelihood of guides is assured, he said. The president of the Agra Hotels and Restaurants Association, Rakesh Chauhan said the worst hit were the small budget hotels which were being compelled to pay up all kinds of taxes, even though their earnings from tourism had been reduced to zero. Sources in the Archaeological Survey of India indicated that a plan for reopening of the Taj would soon be sent to the headquarters, but there was little likelihood of permitting more than 5,000 visitors a day. District administration, however does not hope entry to the historical monuments could begin anytime soon. "Issues relating to quarantine, mobility and security, have to be taken care of. Right now, the bigger issue is of containment of the virus and check its spread. The rains are about to begin. We do not know what new problems could arise," an official said privately. Meanwhile, district magistrate of Agra said the Covid-19 tally has gone up to 907, of which 795 had recovered. Only 67 are now under treatment. Pool sampling has begun in the containment zones. With buses and trains resuming operations, the city is now limping back to normalcy. The lone flight from Jaipur brought only four passengers while eight from Agra boarded the plane to Jaipur on Monday. District authorities indicated that from Wednesday markets will open but in a staggered way. Shops on the right side of the roads will open on day one, then those on the left the next day. All shopkeepers have been asked to strictly follow the guidelines. The police continued to challan people without helmets and masks. A large number of four wheelers were also penalised for not following the guidelines. District health officials said on Tuesday, that new wards in the hospitals were being equipped with required medical infrastructure and the duties of the medical staff were being rationalised. Doctors have expressed the fear that with monsoon rains, there could be a surge in the number of cases. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio State President Michael Drake said Tuesday an estimated $300 million loss in revenue is expected across the university and the Wexner Medical Center. In a message to the OSU community, Drake wrote that shortfall has already been addressed through some cost-cutting measures and revenue enhancements. However, he said his office will present an interim budget for July and August only to the Board of Trustees this week. That budget will call for $58 million in cost savings for Ohio State in those two months alone, as well as $45 million in cost savings for the Wexner Medical Center. Drake said continued uncertainty involving the COVID-19 pandemic made it impossible to present a full budget for the coming fiscal year, or project necessary cost savings beyond August Drake said all colleges and support units were asked to prepare a range of budget projections including potential 5%, 10% and 20% spending reductions. He also said the Board of Trustees will vote this week on a furlough policy, though the university does not plan to implement one at this time. Overall, we anticipate that the upcoming fiscal year will present further budgetary challenges due to COVID-19, Drake wrote. We are planning for multiple scenarios while working to maintain and advance teaching, research and patient care. Among other budgetary items addressed by Drake: OSU will pause its merit compensation process for the 2021 fiscal year, affecting all faculty and staff. The university will go forward with its commitment to raise its minimum wage to $15. OSU will provide grants of up to $1,000 for undergraduate students from low-income families to help address financial challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic." OSU is notifying those students directly, with no need for application. The grants come from the Together as Buckeyes emergency grant program. More Buckeyes coverage Should OSU finally schedule an SEC opponent for home-and-home series? Daily Pod Ohio State needs its RB version of Clyde Edwards-Helaire or Travis Etienne: Buckeye Take Could Blake Millers recruitment be the next OT tug of war between OSU, Clemson? Football captain C.J. Saunders arrested for curfew violation Monday night Caleb Burton could be next top-100 WR from Texas: Recruiting Roundup Football spreads message: This is not white vs. black. This is everyone against racism. Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren creates Anti-Hate and Anti-Racism coalition Predicting OSUs 2020 sacks leader: Daily Pods Mark It Down Monday Tony Grimes, 5-star 2021 cornerback, lists Ohio State football in his top four Basketballs Seth Towns detained by police during Columbus protest Footballs pass rush and secondary must help each other in 2020: Buckeye Takes If you watch the Ohio State Buckeyes, then hear these Ohio State Buckeyes: Doug Lesmerises Chris Holtmann decries 'senseless violence against black men, urges 'healthy conversations Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 14:22:00|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Seven laborers were killed and six others sustained injury as a roadside bomb struck a vehicle in the northern Kunduz province on Monday night, a local official Hayatullah Amiri said Tuesday. "A total of 13 laborers were going from one place to another place in a Taliban-held area in Khan Abad district late Monday night but their vehicle ran over a mine leaving seven dead and injuring six others," governor for Khan Abad district Hayatullah Amiri told Xinhua. According to Amiri, the Taliban-planted mines on streets and roads in villages often claim the lives of civilians. Taliban militants who are operational in parts of Kunduz province including the restive Khan Abad district have yet to make a comment. Enditem The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has ordered the immediate transfer of investigations into the death of Vera Omozuwa, to the Force Headquarters, Abuja. The Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), Frank Mba, a deputy commissioner of police, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja Miss Omozuwa, a 100-level female Microbiology student of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) was reportedly killed in a church in Benin by hoodlums, after raping her. Mr Mba said the directive followed a preliminary report from the team of investigators and forensic experts earlier deployed to assist the Police Command in Edo in investigations into the unfortunate incident. He said the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) in charge of the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) Mr Anthony Michael, would henceforth provide direct supervision to ensure speedy and thorough investigation of the case. Mr Mba said the IGP had also ordered immediate deployment of specialised investigators and additional investigation assets to all the Gender Desks Offices and Juvenile Welfare Centres (JWC) across the country. He said the idea was to strengthen and enhance the capacity of the Units to respond to increasing challenges of sexual assaults and domestic/gender based violence. He said the IGP called on the public to provide the police with useful information that would aid investigations into ongoing sexual assaults and domestic/gender based violence across the country. The IGP also enjoined parents and guardians to pay closer attention to their children and wards in these trying times. (NAN) Demonstrators hold their hands up while they kneel on the street during a protest over the death of George Floyd in Anaheim, Calif., on June 1, 2020. (Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images) Orange County Protests Stay Relatively Subdued as Tensions Simmer As many across the nation peacefully protest the death of George Floyd with demonstrations against racism and police violence toward black people, some of the marches have devolved into looting, fires, and vandalism. Across Orange County, California, protests that began last weekend have remained relatively peaceful, although protesters in Santa Ana did throw fireworks at police and loot several stores, police reported. In Huntington Beach, tensions rose, purportedly incited by counter-protesters. Some parts of Orange County continued under curfew into the week as a precaution against violent confrontations. Boarded-up windows remained a normal sight in affected areas. The boards covering the windows of a CVS pharmacy are scrawled with an acronym for an anti-police slogan, in Santa Ana, Calif., on June 1, 2020. (Chris Karr/The Epoch Times) Floyd died in Minneapolis May 25 after an arresting police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, with the incident recorded on video. As with many other cases involving a white police officer and the death of a black man, Floyds death has ignited outrage and protest. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has especially mobilized protests across the nation, including in Orange County. Counter-Protesters, Clashes in Huntington Beach On May 31, scuffles broke out in a crowd of more than 500 protesters who had gathered at Main St. and the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) in Huntington Beach. Mayor Lyn Semeta told The Epoch Times that in the morning, the police found some kind of weapons stashed around near the downtown area, things like cinder blocks with handles attached to them and that kind of thing, so we knew that potential for violence was there from the very beginning. The Huntington Beach Police Department declared the protest an unlawful assembly. What was most interesting and frightening to see were the tensions between HB locals and protesters, Johnny Dupriest, who has lived in Huntington Beach for 10 years and observed the protest, told The Epoch Times. The locals on several occasions I witnessed surrounded people they assumed were from out of town and demanded to see peoples IDs, he said. It seemed to him that many of the protesters were from out-of-town. Police reported 20 arrests total, 12 of which were not local residents. Dupriest described several aggressive counter-protesters as covered head-to-toe in skinhead tattoosthe Celtic cross to be specific. On the other hand, several BLM protesters were also aggressive toward the counter-protesters, he said. He observed the BLM organizers trying to quiet down any rowdy behavior. One girl even tried banging on a stop sign to make noise and the BLM organizers said she had to stop right away, Dupriest said. Dupriest did not witness any serious fights, and police did not report any injuries. He said he did not see a single shred of destruction. Huntington Beach police spokeswoman Angela Bennett told reporters, We declared the unlawful assembly at 1300 hours and that was due to tensions rising, people yelling at each other, and people blocking traffic on PCH. We dont have counter-protesting specifics; we know that tensions are high and people are arguing with each other, but we dont have a specific on who is who, she said. The unlawful assembly declaration drew criticism from some protesters. They said the Reopen Orange County protests had been permitted in the preceding weeks. Some shop owners boarded up their windows as the day progressed, as a precaution. A sign outside The Wet Dog Tavern read Local minority owned business to deter potential destruction or looting, according to the Orange County Register. No looting was reported in Huntington Beach, however, and many business owners began taking the boards down on Monday. After law enforcement declared the unlawful assembly, protesters moved from Main St. to the sidewalks on side streets. The protesters stayed out until curfew at 8 p.m. After that, most dispersed, but some refused to leave and law enforcement shot pepper balls to drive them away. The day ended in 20 arrests of individuals who remained at the scene of riot, according to the Huntington Beach Police Department. Peaceful Protest in Irvine Shannon Paigah, who has lived in Irvine for about 20 years, attended the BLM protest outside of Irvine City Hall on May 31 with her husband and two sons, who are 9 and 12 years old. She said she was encouraged to protest by social media. We went to the protests and I wanted to take my kids too. You know, we didnt grow up like that, so I wanted them to experience it too, Paigah told The Epoch Times. Demonstrators hold their hands up while they kneel on the street in Irvine, Calif., on June 1, 2020, during a protest over the death of George Floyd. (Daniel Han) A protester holds a sign at a demonstration in Irvine, Calif., on May 31, 2020, following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota. (Daniel Han) Many protesters held signs that said Silence is Violence and To: Irvine Police, Join Us. Paigah feels guilty and ashamed that she didnt speak up sooner against racism, she said. And it took to come in front of my face so many times to actively do something about it, said Paigah. So, you know, I just felt like it was a good experience. I was happy that it was a peaceful protest. Another protester, Portola High School senior and aspiring filmmaker Daniel Han, said he wanted to use his talents to contribute to the BLM movement. Im trying to be a filmmaker and I have this artistic vision, Han told The Epoch Times. I can kind of share these pictures of peaceful protests and maybe spread the word and impact the world in that way. And so really my main focus when I was in the protest was to capture a lot of the moment that people were protesting and figure out ways for me as an artist to kind of display that. Nearly 100 who gathered outside of the Irvine City Hall remained peaceful and no arrests were made after a few hours of demonstrations ended around 5:00 p.m. Irvine did not enact any curfews. As we were leaving to walk back toward our car, there were these two lovely African American ladies thanking us and they were so thankful that we were there to support them, Paigah said. My boys gave them one of their signs; they didnt have signs with them. And it was just very touching. Rumors and Precautions The Orange County Sheriffs office tweeted a notice on June 2 warning that many reports of violence and destruction circulating on social media are unsubstantiated. The notice was from the OC Intelligence Assessment Center: During these uncertain times, its normal for rumors and uncorroborated information to spread rapidly on social media and message boards. It said many reports of looting and vandalism in Orange County cities do not appear to be legitimate. The Epoch Times visited several businesses reportedly looted in Santa Ana, according to Facebook posts. Employees at the shops said they did not have any trouble and only saw peaceful protesting. A pharmacys windows are boarded up in Santa Ana, Calif., on June 1, 2020. (Chris Karr/The Epoch Times) George Floyds last words are seen spray-painted on a wall in Santa Ana, Calif., on June 1, 2020. (Chris Karr/The Epoch Times) In Old Towne Orange on May 30, a man wearing sunglasses and a mask walked around posting notices that bore the symbol of the sickle and hammer. The notices said It should be abundantly clear that the pigs are the enemy of the people. It demanded a world without police or prisons; it demanded decolonization, political autonomy for the New Afrikan nation, and an end to capitalism. Officials prepared for the worst ahead of other protests planned in the region continuing into the week. Costa Mesa announced a 7 p.m. curfew ahead of a protest announced at the South Coast Plaza on June 1, but no violence or looting ensued. The plaza had been set to reopen June 1 after an extended closure due to COVID-19, but it delayed opening. Gov. Gavin Newsom tweeted on June 1: The Black community is not responsible for whats happening in this country right nowwe are. Our institutions are. We are accountable to this moment. People have lost patienceIve lost patiencebecause they havent seen progress. Over the weekend, Santa Monica, Long Beach, and Los Angeles were among dozens of other cities across the nation that experienced destruction and violence. Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles called on the governor to send in 1,000 National Guard troops. The Epoch Times reporter Chris Karr contributed to this report. ST-JEROME, Que. - A 25-year sentence for a pair of first-degree murder convictions would be ridiculous, the mother of one of Ugo Fredette's victims told the court Monday. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/6/2020 (598 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. ST-JEROME, Que. - A 25-year sentence for a pair of first-degree murder convictions would be ridiculous, the mother of one of Ugo Fredette's victims told the court Monday. Claudette Biard, mother of Veronique Barbe, said she hoped the judge would sentence Fredette to a minimum of 50 years behind bars before he is eligible for parole. Ugo Fredette is shown in this undated police handout image. THE CANADAIN PRESS/HO-Surete du Quebec "I hope justice will be done. It is essential for us," she told reporters outside the courthouse north of Montreal. She described Fredette as someone beyond recovery. A sentencing hearing began Monday for Fredette, 44, who was found guilty in October on two counts of first-degree murder. He has appealed the verdict and is seeking a second trial. A first-degree murder conviction comes with an automatic life sentence without possibility of parole for 25 years, but the Crown is seeking to have that ineligibility doubled to 50 years. The Criminal Code allows parole eligibility to be stacked for multiple murders. The provision is currently being challenged in the courts, notably by the convicted Quebec City mosque shooter Alexandre Bissonnette. The first witness was psychiatrist Dr. Gilles Chamberland, who testified that Fredette has a narcissistic personality disorder. Based on his own observations, Fredette's testimony and reports from other doctors who evaluated him, Chamberland described Fredette as an emotional addict who needed to be admired but lacked empathy for others and saw himself as a victim. He described Fredette as having trouble managing his frustrations and disappointments. Chamberland said he doesn't see much short-term rehabilitation potential but couldn't say whether that would change after taking part in prison programs. He said there are not many indications at this point that Fredette is ready to make changes. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the hearing was held with parties in distinct rooms one for Justice Myriam Lachance and the lawyers, a second for the victims' families and a third for journalists. Fredette appeared by video conference from federal detention in Ste-Anne-des-Plaines, Que. Fredette was convicted in the Sept. 14, 2017 stabbing death of Barbe, 41, his ex-wife, at their home in St-Eustache, Que. He stabbed her 17 times before disappearing with a child who was inside the home. He later killed Yvon Lacasse, 71, a stranger, in order to steal the man's car at a rest stop in Lachute, Que., before continuing his attempt to evade authorities. Fredette was finally arrested the next day in rural Ontario, and the child was rescued. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 1, 2020. Ukraine will not let the red lines be crossed. Ukraine's Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba has announced that the foreign ministers of the Normandy format (Ukraine, Germany, France, and the Russian Federation) will hold the next round of talks soon. "Consultations of the foreign ministers in the Normandy format took place about a month ago [on April 30]. These consultations would not have been possible if it were not for the effective mediation role of Heiko Maas, who was able to ensure that all four parties joined this conversation and had a meaningful discussion," Kuleba said at a joint press event with his Germany counterpart in Berlin on June 2. Read alsoUkraine to initiate creation of international platform to end Russian occupation of Crimea "We will continue that conversation in the Normandy format at the ministerial level. Another round of such conversation will take place soon, where we will discuss solutions that can bring peace to Donbas," he said. According to Kuleba, Ukraine is open to compromises in order to resolve the Donbas crisis, but it will not allow the red lines that relate to national security, sovereignty and territorial integrity to be crossed. GETTY Vancouver-based national carrier Telus has selected Nokia and Ericsson as its 5G vendors, a press release from the company said. The news comes the same day that Bell announced it too would use Ericsson to provide radio access network (RAN) equipment. Our team is committed to rolling out superior network technology from urban to rural communities, fueling our economy and driving innovation as we power Canadians into the 5G era through an unparalleled network experience, Telus CEO Darren Entwistle said in the release. Our 5G deployment will support economic growth and diversity that will be essential for the virtualization of health, education, teleworking, and stimulating the economic growth and recovery given the impact of COVID-19. During its Q1 2020 earnings, CFO Doug French said its focus right now is to help its customers during the COVID-19 crisis. In its Q4 2019 earnings, the carrier said it was not going to pre-announce its 5G launch plans but that its initial module, or the first phase of the 5G rollout, would be with Huawei until the government approves its RFP. Bell and Telus use Huaweis network equipment in some areas. The federal government is still reviewing whether or not it intends to ban the Chinese telecommunications manufacturer from participating in Canadas 5G rollout. Rogers also uses Ericsson as a 5G vendor. Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android and sign up for the Yahoo Finance Canada Weekly Brief. Saying this so Greg doesn't threaten to sue our shoe lannischester iznanassi - YouTube cockroach Onision aka James/Greg Jackson has admitted to having sex with the woman who claims he groomed her when she was underage.- Sarah (summary of her interview with Chris Hansen under the cut) was a fan of Onision and his partner Kai (then going by Lainey) and became close with the couple. She eventually moved in with them and they obtained legal guardianship of her. Sarah was one of the first victims to speak out against the couple and alleges that the two groomed her while she was underage. They eventually all had sex when she turned 18 (during one sexual encounter Greg and Kai's child was in the same bed as them).- Up until now Greg has denied all of Sarah's claims but in a recent video he is now claiming that it was Sarah who pressured him and Kai to have sex with her.- Last week Onision was in court as he had filed for a protection order against Chris Hansen and fellow Youtuber Repzion. However, Onision had filed against theChris Hansen. Onision then asked for a dismissal of his petitions. There is speculation that he came wearing a bulletproof vest under his suit (he has said in videos that he does own guns).- Since going to Onision and Kai's house and asking for an interview Hansen has continued to interview others involved in the situation.- Hansen also fired his media manager Vincent Nicotra for unprofessional behaviour.- Onision also recently said he's "retiring" from doing face videos.Under the cut are the first part of the interviews Hansen has conducted with victims of Onision and Kai as well as people who have been involved in their fandom (for now I am not including the earlier interviews with Blaire White and Repzion - but will later if people want them).- The first private message Lainey ever sent Sarah was asking how old she was. Sarah was 14. Sarah first visited Greg and Lainey (I'll refer to Kai as Lainey here just to help establish a timeline) when she 16, she stayed with them for 5 days and later stayed with them for six months.During this time Greg was very mean to her. He would constantly make her feel bad about her appearance, sexual activities, etc; She also helped them around the house and looked after their kids. During these six months there was no sexual contact. They moved her out because of bad attention. Later Sarah moved back in with (they emotionally manipulated her into it) them and it was kept a secret.- Greg constantly made comments to Sarah that she and Lainey would be a cute couple. At this time the three of them were in a truple. Though it sounds like it was more sexual than anything else. Feels like she was pressured into it.- When Hansen asks Sarah if she loved Greg she replies. "I don't... even really know what love is. He doesn't know what love is. I feel like I loved him in a way but the way that I loved him was ...It's what I feel like it's actually supposed to be, but it was tainted with that he doesn't know how to love people."- She exchanged nudes with Lainey when she was underage.- Sarah decided to speak out about this because she feels Greg will continue to treat girls like this (he emotionally threatened Sarah if she ever spoke out, saying she'd ruin his kids - yes, he has kids). She's also worried about Greg's kids.- Hansen calls out for YouTube for allowing Onision to exist on the platform.- Sarah's message to other victims:- She has spoken to lawyers about potential charges against Greg and Kai.- Sarah has been very active on twitter you can follow her @notsolillioness - Shiloh is a Canadian pop star. She had already gone double platinum by the time she had met Greg. She saw videos of him on his OnisionSpeaks channel and decided to email him asking for help with her boyfriend. They messaged back and forth for 8 or 9 months before eventually meeting. Greg pushed Shiloh to come out to see him despite being married (he later claimed he divorced Skye for Shiloh).They shared a hotel room and had sex within five minutes of meeting, she says she was confused but it was consensual.- Says because she already had a career she had a lot more control of her life she had a fallout with her mom and Greg encouraged her to push her away. "I told her to leave, I'll never not regret that." They lived together in Toronto.- Had sex up to 8 times a day. Says she got a lot of UTIs and was in a lot of pain. She thought this was normal. Greg also masturbated between this times.It was about lust and control never love.- Greg took Shiloh away from her career as a popstar as soon as she turned 18 they moved her to Seattle which took her away from her manager, agents, etc; He took away her phone and gave her one he managed. He wouldn't let her talk to her mom.He then tried to make her do videos as bald characters for his channel.- Greg would record everything and put it online. This often caused his fans to attack Shiloh online.- Hansen asks why didn't she leave. Shiloh said "I kept thinking what if he's not himself right now ... what if this is my fault? ... I believe I stayed because I thought I loved him." They were together for two years.- Shiloh says she's since become agoraphobic and in therapy. She also continues to have seizures.Shiloh went to Canada to get help. While there her mom took her passport from her. During this time Greg was trying to get them on Judge Judy.- Shiloh stopped talking to her father after he essentially threatened to kill Greg if he didn't leave her alone.which would just be another video for Greg.- When Hansen asked what Shiloh now would say to 16-year-old Shiloh she replied "Trust your friends. Trust your parents. Trust those people telling you I don't know if this is a good situation. Really be careful and mindful. ... Don't get involved off of those few good feelings someone is giving you. ... Just because someone is being nice to you ... and making you feel good about yourself you need to get to know someone for real. Know your support system if you're not sure ask somebody. ... It definitely isn't your fault or anybody's fault for being victimized by someone like this."- Shiloh also tells people to trust their gut and listen to their inner voice if it's telling you something isn't right in a relationship. Trust that over nice feelings.- Says Greg is a sociopathic narcissist and he needs to get help.- At the end of the interview, Hansen says he got an email from Greg who was apparently watching the livestream. He basically says Shiloh is a liar and asks where Hansen's integrity is - which Hansen thinks is hilarious.- Shiloh's career is back on track she released a new album late last year which you can listen to on Spotify and her music video is here . Please support her.summarized by- First discovered Onision at 12 when she was struggling with her mental and physical health (due to bullying and Hashimotos) and found his video about why you should not kill yourself.- Got in contact with Kai through instagram after commenting on his post. They talked about music/interests and then talking about their personal lives which then developed into more after a few months of the relationship.- Started texting on phones and Kai would send BTS pictures of Onisions videos because Regina was a fan/moderator of his forums. Had little contact with Onision at the time, only Kai; Greg was unaware of the relationship between Kai and Regina until later on.- Kai made Regina a moderator for her facebook page, twitter and eventually most of her social media, through which Regina met Sarah.Become sexual ~3-6 months in the relationship -- they would video chat and one day Kai appeared topless on camera, acting nonchalantly (Regina thinks Kai was testing the waters)- Kai played it off as oh well this is friend banter, this is how friends talk.- Relationship continued until Regina was 17 going on 18. Regina believed they were actually in a relationship. Kai became less interested as Regina got closer to 18 (Because I wasnt of value [...] attention-wise, relevancy-wise [...] age-wise.).- Kai got back in contact in 2019.- Discussed her going to their home in Washington several times. First time was for Kai & Gregs wedding to take pictures, as Regina was into photography -- Reginas mother prevented her from going.- Usually only in contact with Greg when Kai would have an emotional outburst and/or ghost Regina. An example was of Regina contacting Greg due to concerns about Kais eating disorder (would only eat tic-tacs) and Greg would reply that everything was fine.- Kai asked Regina out at 17. A month later told her she was dating a girl named Billie.- Relationship continued off and on and ended Sept. 7. Sent Kai a message ending the relationship on Snapchat, then blocked him:Kai, I tried. I tried for so long to be close to you again and it never worked out. And then I dont talk to you and you wanna be my friend today. Was our friendship ever legit or was it just for your convenience when you felt the time was right? And Sarah. Sarah was nothing but undyingly loyal and you let her get treated like this. Was any of you guyss friendship real? You changed Kai and it hurts me desperately to see this and it wasnt for the better. I miss the old you. And I cant be associated with someone who thinks treating their friend like you did Sarah is okay. Letting Greg do what he did with you knowing was not okay. Your morals are disappearing Kai and it breaks my heart to see you act this way and Ive been fucked up for days about this and I cant associate with you anymore. I cant support Gregs actions and I cant support you supporting him/not stopping him. I need to be appreciated like a friend would and Sarah deserves so much better. I loved you, I looked up to you, Im sorry and goodbye.- Regina to Kai now: You knew what you were doing. You knew what your end game was. How dare you? Shame on you.- Regina to Greg: You knew your end game, Greg. You know what youre doing. You have it all planned out. Youre very meticulous. You need to just come out with it and stop and be off the internet all together forever, especially with your forums. You were told what was going on with the forums, yet you never stopped it and its shameful.Says Sarah is her best friend now (met before Sarah and Kai met).When asked if the situation was like a cult, Regina responded yes. Says they are undoubtedly predators. Says they should get criminal charges and be prosecuted.- Complained to YouTube, plans on contacting authorities- Message to other girls/12yo Regina: Run. Devote your time to yourself and working on yourself. And dont devote your time to essentially working for free for someone who can throw you away like nothing ever happened. Youre worth more than devoting all your specific time to the person and you have value you can do great things and this person is not going to help you. [When youre kicked out at 17] Kai is not gonna care. Kai is not gonna be there for you. Kai is not gonna keep you safe. Look out for yourself and thats what matters.- Credits her mom for helping keep her safe, as she felt things were not right- Says they didnt ask her to help recruit other girls- Says in addition to Kai grooming people, he was an awful friend -- their friendship was emotionally physically draining -- felt like his personal assistant at times and nothing more- Credits Sarah for giving her the courage to come forward- Message to YouTube: Shame on you. You know whats going on. Thousands on thousands of people have told you whats going on. [...] And what are you doing? Not a single thing. And Ive lost all my faith in YouTube until I see some action being taken.- Messages to other victims: tells them its not their fault, Onision and Kai had a plan for them, get help/seek therapy, go to authorities- Says shes sad to revisit memories but is happy to be moving forward and that there is a movement against predators- Chris says they received rambling message from Onision to contact people who have incriminating evidence on him. An independent British investigator looking into allegations that UK soldiers committed war crimes in Iraq between 2003 and 2009 said Tuesday that all but one of the thousands of complaints have been dropped. The Service Prosecuting Authority director Andrew Cayley told BBC radio that it was quite possible that none of the original allegations will lead to a prosecution. Cayley did not provide details of the allegation in the last remaining case. British combat troops fought alongside other coalition forces in an effort to quell an Islamic insurgency that followed the 2003 US invasion and subsequent fall and execution of dictator Saddam Hussein. Former lawyer Phil Shiner and a team in Berlin drew on the accounts of more than 400 Iraqis who allegedly witnessed or experienced crimes ranging from rape and torture to mock executions and other atrocities. A UK tribunal struck off Shiner after finding him guilty of misconduct and dishonesty in connection with the allegations in 2017. Cayley told the BBC that it was likely that no action would be taken in a separate International Criminal Court (ICC) probe. My sense is these matters are coming to a conclusion, he said. A lawyer representing some of the soldiers accused by Shiner called for a public apology over the vile war crime slurs. At long last, this witch hunt is coming to an end, lawyer Hilary Meredith said. The UK Defence Ministry said in 2012 that it had paid 15.1 million ($19 million, 17 million euros) to more than 200 Iraqis who had accused British troops of illegal detention and torture. LONDON, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Unit4, a cloud leader in enterprise software for people-centered organizations, today announced a new Global Partner Program to provide training, resources and support to its global ecosystem of partners to help their clients deliver an exceptional people experience to their customers. The Program is designed to enable partners to accelerate the development and implementation of Unit4 solutions which transform how people-centric organizations deliver a better place and a better way for people to do work. By establishing a global partner community, Unit4 can offer its best-in-class cloud ERP, FP&A, HCM, and Student Management solutions and services to more organizations around the world. Unit4's People Platform provides a foundation for partner innovation through a micro-services-based SaaS architecture. As well as a natural language digital assistant and machine learning services to help people work smarter and faster, its low-code/no-code tools support the simple connection and creation of value-add extensions for customers. Beata Wright, Global Head of Partner Ecosystems at Unit4, said: "As customer expectations continue to rise, our Global Partner Program is tailored to help us meet those expectations and to continue to scale our business, to meet market demand. Through this new Unit4 partner experience, it will allow us to solve our customers' complex business requirements with an enhanced portfolio of solutions and services. Having partners that can enhance the capabilities of our People Experience suite by building extensions and plugging into our solutions is core to our strategy and critical to meet the needs of our global customer base." Unit4 takes a strategic approach to building its partner ecosystem, carefully selecting partners with specialties to service their respective markets. Unit4 is adopting a multi-faceted approach to the partner ecosystem, which capitalizes on a variety of partnership models. These include: Go-To-Market partners , such as resellers, value-added resellers, and OEMs, who are an extension of the Unit4 team and are responsible for selling, implementing and supporting Unit4 solutions; such as resellers, value-added resellers, and OEMs, who are an extension of the Unit4 team and are responsible for selling, implementing and supporting Unit4 solutions; Product and Innovation partners, including independent software vendors and OEM partners, with the key skills to optimize the functionality and performance of Unit4 solutions; including independent software vendors and OEM partners, with the key skills to optimize the functionality and performance of Unit4 solutions; Service and Delivery partners, who are systems integrators and implementation partners, with deep knowledge of Unit4 solutions enabling them to deliver fast implementation, integrated solutions, and support services. Supported by a dedicated global partner team that is aligned by region and vertical, new partners will undergo a newly-designed onboarding program which includes sales, pre-sales, implementation, and support for all Unit4 products and industries. The partner community will receive access to specialty-focused partner forums in Unit4 Community4U, and events to build knowledge and expertise, as well as marketing support, and a certification program that benefits partners at all levels. The global partner program operates across three levels focused on capabilities, contributions and customer satisfaction. They include: Select partners are specialists in their respective markets and are new to the Unit4 partner ecosystem. They are committed to developing and supporting a long-term relationship with Unit4; are specialists in their respective markets and are new to the Unit4 partner ecosystem. They are committed to developing and supporting a long-term relationship with Unit4; Premier partners are those organizations that demonstrate a high level of skill and market success and who can actively collaborate with Unit4 to deliver significant customer value through innovative solutions; are those organizations that demonstrate a high level of skill and market success and who can actively collaborate with Unit4 to deliver significant customer value through innovative solutions; Elite partners are those that achieve the highest level within the Unit4 partner program and consistently demonstrate the ability to meet the highest level of success with Unit4 and customers. Comments on the news Emma O'Brien, CEO of Embridge Consulting: "Unit4 is focused on empowering its partners to drive transformation for customers and we are honored to be part of the Unit4 Partner Ecosystem. We are already embracing some of the latest innovations such as the extension toolkit and looking at differentiating apps we can build as a valuable add on for the customers we serve. Together we can deliver more innovation and more value to our customers." Holger Mueller, VP and Principle Analyst, Constellation Research: "The pace of digital disruption is unrelenting, even more so in services industries where people need to feel empowered to work effectively. Modern applications and digital platforms are critical to successful transformation programs; for driving innovation and new service models. A strong partner ecosystem delivers interoperable specialist solutions that deliver value at the heart of customer pain points." Related Resources: To keep up to date with the latest content and information from Unit4, subscribe to the blog. About Unit4 Unit4's next-generation enterprise software supports our customers in delivering an exceptional People Experience to their customers from students and professionals to the public servants and non-profits doing good in the world. Unit4 transforms work to be more meaningful and inspiring through software that's self-driving, adaptive and intuitive, intelligently automating administrative tasks and providing easy access to the answers people need. Unit4 works with people the way people work. For more information please visit https://www.unit4.com , follow us on Twitter @Unit4global , or visit our LinkedIn page MEDIA CONTACT: Nicole Paleologus SSPR 267-758-2638 [email protected] SOURCE Unit4 In May, Egypt shortened a mandatory quarantine period for Egyptians arriving from abroad from 14 days to one week Egypt is expected to cancel the current seven-day quarantine period for Egyptians arriving from abroad, chairman of the state-owned EgyptAir Holding Company Roshdi Zakaria said on Monday. Upon their arrival, returnees will undergo a coronavirus rapid test at the airport, and those who show no symptoms will spend a quarantine period at home, Zakaria explained in a phone call with CBC Extra TV channel. Those who show coronavirus symptoms, however, will be transferred to isolation hospitals, he added. In May, Egypt shortened a mandatory quarantine period for Egyptians arriving from abroad from 14 days to one week. Returnees who test negative by the end of the period were allowed to spend the rest of their quarantine at home. The government is covering the quarantine cost of those staying at university hostels. Those willing to spend their quarantine period at designated hotels in the city of Marsa Alam will have to pay for their stay. Meanwhile, Egypts civil aviation ministry will operate additional special flights in the upcoming two weeks to repatriate Egyptians stranded abroad. The flights will fly to eight destinations including Beirut, Oman, Muscat, Dubai, Jeddah, Riyadh, Baghdad and Sydney. Egypt is mainly keeping its airspace open to cargo and domestic flights during the flight suspension, which has been in place since mid-March. Egypt is just operating flights to repatriate its citizens from abroad and has returned home at least 12,000 Egyptians so far. The country has signaled a gradual resumption of international flights in the second half of June or the first half of July, according to statements by Cabinet spokesman Nader Saad earlier this week. Search Keywords: Short link: Officials in cities coast to coast implemented curfews for Monday night, hopeful that they would prevent another night of violent, chaotic demonstrations sparked by the death of George Floyd. But the citywide orders weren't enough to keep the peace between protesters and police in some places. In Washington, D.C., where Mayor Muriel Bowser imposed a rare curfew after several nights of looting and vandalism, police fired tear gas outside the White House to move demonstrators away as President Donald Trump announced that he would deploy military troops across the country if states couldn't contain the unrest on their own. Photos and video appeared to show military helicopters flying below building height, kicking up debris and knocking branches off trees. The low-flying aircraft were reported to be used to disperse protesters. IMAGE: Protests in Washington, D.C. (Roberto Schmidt / AFP - Getty Images) Protesters in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood were setting off fireworks before clashing with police just after 9 p.m. local time. NBC News correspondent Jo Ling Kent was reporting live in an athletics field when she was struck by a projectile, which the crew originally described as a firework. After reviewing the incident, the crew concluded she had been hit instead by a flashbang projectile shot by police. Full coverage of George Floyds death and protests around the country Kent later tweeted that she and her team were uninjured and the grenade only singed her jacket. NBC News reached out to the Seattle police for comment, but has not heard back. In Philadelphia, a curfew that began at 6 p.m. didn't stop a group of protesters from marching to City Hall, NBC Philadelphia reported. Hours earlier, a larger crowd elsewhere in the city shut down traffic, and police officers and state troopers used tear gas and pepper spray to scatter the demonstrators. In Louisville, Kentucky, where the police chief was fired after a man was shot to death Sunday and officers didn't activate their body cameras, a curfew was extended until June 8. Video from Monday showed a handful of protesters with their hands up and dozens of officers with batons, helmets and body armor on the other side of an intersection after the 9:30 p.m. curfew. Story continues Image: Philadelphia protest (Matt Rourke / AP) In Buffalo, an SUV mowed down authorities in tactical gear with dogs and batons after they charged what appeared to be a handful of protesters, video showed and officials said. In an interview with NBC affiliate WGRZ, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said the incident was under investigation but added that it occurred after an earlier demonstration ended and that some of the protesters refused to leave. "We cannot have people protesting in the city of Buffalo after dark," he said. "That is not safe for the protesters, and that is not safe for the surrounding community." Brown said it appeared that two people who were struck by gunfire earlier may have been in the SUV. He didn't say whether the SUV was driven by a protester or whether a suspect was in custody. Meanwhile, in the nation's most populous city, New York, about 700 people who authorities said were setting small fires and breaking store windows in Manhattan and the Bronx were arrested, a police spokesperson said Tuesday. "There are packs of youths running as fast as they can, smashing windows as fast as they can, and police are trying to catch them as soon as possible," a spokesperson said Monday. The arrests came after an 11 p.m. curfew began Monday night. The measure followed four days of raucous protests against police brutality in which hundreds of people were arrested, including Mayor Bill de Blasio's daughter, and the burning of police cruisers. "The men and women of this police department will be consistent. They will be out there again ensuring the rights of people to peacefully assemble," Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said Monday ahead of anticipated protests. "We ask all New Yorkers to participate and do it safely." Looting and small fires were reported in Manhattan's Union Square and beyond. Hours before Monday's curfew began, de Blasio announced that another curfew would begin even earlier Tuesday evening, at 8 p.m., when it is still light out. The curfews, which have been imposed from Los Angeles to Philadelphia, come in response to the in-custody death of Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis, on Memorial Day. Floyd, 46, died after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, crushed him to the ground with a knee to Floyd's neck. Minnesota authorities announced Monday afternoon that Floyd's death had officially been ruled a homicide by a medical examiner. His death ignited widespread protests against racism and mistreatment by police after Floyd's final helpless moments were caught on video. Public safety resources are already stretched as cities fight the coronavirus pandemic, with many still trying to enforce stay-at-home orders. In Minneapolis, where police had clashed with demonstrators and journalists covering the riots in dramatic fashion over the last several days, a calm appeared to set in across the city Monday evening, with hundreds of people gathered at a memorial at the site where Floyd was killed. A citywide curfew was set to start at 10 p.m. In Sacramento, California, about 130 businesses had their windows and doors damaged and 300 buildings had graffiti on them as of Monday morning, according to The Sacramento Bee. City officials, anticipating more problems Monday evening, imposed a curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. and said the city was deploying 500 members of the National Guard on Monday night to protect critical infrastructure. Australians looking to migrate to other states are more likely to relocate to Queensland than to any other state, according to a recent report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The report, which covers the movement of Australians in 2019, shows that Queensland had a net gain of 22,831 people within the country. This figure was almost double its 10-year average of 12,409. John McGrath, founder of McGrath Estate Agents, said Queensland has been reporting a high rate of interstate migration since 2017. Downsizers and young families are two of the most common relocators in the state. "People have always been drawn to Queensland for its great year-round weather and affordable property prices, however, jobs growth has been a key lure in more recent times," he said in a think piece in The Real Estate Conversation. Brisbane was the most go-to destination amongst all capital cities. The city recorded a net gain of 15,900 internal relocators over the year. "Most of them came from regional Queensland, Sydney and regional NSW," McGrath said. Also read: Will Property Prices Fall? A Data-Driven Answer From CoreLogic Queensland's Sunshine Coast was the top regional destination, recording a net gain of 6,400 last year. McGrath said the job creation and the current projects in this regional centre are attracting more people. "Big projects include the 20-year plan to redevelop Maroochydore's CBD and a massive expansion of Sunshine Coast Airport that will facilitate more tourism and direct exporting and contribute an estimated $4.1bn to the local economy through to 2040," McGrath said. The Gold Coast was also a top pick amongst Australian relocators, most of whom are attracted to the region's improving infrastructure. Given the current and upcoming developments, Queensland's two regional centres actually have a higher median price than the state capital. According to CoreLogic's April 2020 report, homes had a price tag of $665,000 in the Gold Coast and $660,000 in the Sunshine Coast. On the other hand, Brisbane's median value was at $508,000. "This is reflective of the exceptional lifestyle on offer in both coastal locations, which are large in size with rapidly growing business hubs, sophisticated and extensive shopping precincts, major projects providing new jobs and improved transport links by road and air," McGrath said. Thirteen people connected to George Floyd protests in Mobile were arrested and charged with civil unrest late Sunday evening and early Monday morning, according to local law enforcement. Mobile Police Department said in a report released later Monday afternoon that a further 26 charges were made against the 13 individuals, including disorderly conduct, burglary, criminal mischief, and arson. Walmart announced that some of its local Mobile stores would close early Monday to avoid potential looting. The arrests came after a mixed day of protest in Mobile and across the state. Earlier on Sunday thousands marched through the downtown area in protest at the death of Floyd, resulting in a brief clash with police at the entrance to Interstate 10 where officers used gas to deter the group from trying to access the road. Not long after, a smaller group of protesters staged a vigil in Cathedral Square that was entirely peaceful. Following the larger of the two events, a small group of around 100 people made its way to the old Babies R Us store on Airport Boulevard. Several arrests were made at the scene and officers were forced to shoot pepper balls from a high-velocity air gun. MPD identified one man as 28-year-old Devon Johnson. He was ordered by police to get out of the roadway in which he was creating a traffic hazard, said an MPD spokesperson. He refused to exit the road and was taken into custody, arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. After dispersing the crowd, some moved to different locations on Airport Boulevard and surrounding areas, where the alleged crimes took place, noted MPDs report. Crane arrives at Birminghams Linn Park. Posted by al.com on Monday, June 1, 2020 Below is a timeline of events from 7 p.m. onward: 7 p.m.: Police responded to a report of a protest at Babies R Us. 10:15 p.m.: Police responded to Lowes off the I-65 Service Road for a criminal mischief call. Shortly after police responded to a report of a fire at the Burlington Coat Factory. 10:22 p.m.: Police responded to a report of a burglary at the Burlington Shoe Factory. 10:35 p.m.: Police made their way to Springdale Mall for a report of an individual with a firearm. Police then responded to The Shoppes at Bel Air on the Dillards side for a report of an officer injured. 10:55 p.m.: Police responded to Jackie Brown LLC, 100 Esplanade Avenue in reference to a report of a fire. Officers arrived and observed the front glass door was busted and a fire inside the business. Mobile Fire Rescue Department arrived and quickly extinguished the fire. June 1, 3:25 a.m.: Police responded to an attempted burglary at Earls Pawn and Jewelry. The officer observed damage to the front of the store and a truck that was left running behind the business. The truck had damage consistent with ramming the front of the business. No entry was made, and it appeared the suspect fled on foot when saw police patrolling the area. It was later determined the truck was stolen. In the normal course of a big economic downturn, economists would be picking through the detritus right about now in search of what they call green shoots signs of a natural recovery that will sprout and bring jobs and profits, investment and productivity. This time around, however, the crisis is unlike any weve seen before. A full recovery is well over a year and a half away, even if theres no second wave of the virus. And while there are some signs of life, they point to a stunted regrowth that will take many more months. Whether we are able to nurture that budding recovery into something that resembles prosperity depends a lot on how well we as a country are able to leverage what looks to be an advantage our ability to cooperate. As our neighbours to the south make headlines for civil unrest and the way they have handled the pandemic, Canada seems like a haven of social cohesion and calm even as we grapple with our own strains of racism, even as public patience frays at the thought of continuing restrictions. That cohesion is precious, but also precarious. Its one of those intangibles. Yes, Canada has it, and the U.S. doesnt, says Rohinton Medhora, a Canadian economist who heads the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Ont. Medhora is convinced that a countrys ability to solve problems without conflict and the ability of a countrys leaders to in turn persuade the population to come along for the ride is central in how a country fares during a crisis. In contrast to the United States, Canadas federal and provincial leaders have been able to park their traditional animosity, for the most part, and figure out how to balance power and money in a way that benefits the population as a whole. And the public has mainly agreed to play along. Recent polling shows the public is generally supportive of their approach. Abacus Datas findings on Monday suggest political polarization has diminished during the pandemic, and that Justin Trudeaus ratings remain sky-high, despite 7,300 deaths and hundreds of billions of dollars in lost economic activity. The challenge is to make sure that cohesion has staying power as the recovery grinds along at an excruciating pace that benefits some groups before others. There are signs of hope. Doug Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets, points to new data showing improvement in business sentiment and manufacturing intentions, not just in Canada but in major economies around the world. In Canada, credit card purchases are on the rise, traffic is coming back, people are out and about, and some companies have re-opened their doors. Toronto real estate hasnt collapsed. But this is not a recovery. Unemployment numbers for April will be published at the end of this week, and they will be hard to look at. And over the next few months, as retail and restaurants have to operate at half-capacity while also hiring extra people to clean and enforce crowd control, more firms will go under or simply give up. We took an elevator down, Porter likes to say about the pandemic economy, and we will have to take a very long set of stairs back up: Its a long, long way to go, and were still in the early stages. Where does Canadas ability to get along fit into that picture? Porter sees Canadas stability and social cohesion as marginal benefits to the recovery they help but wont steal the show. The Canadian dollar, for example, is stronger these days in part because we havent caught the contagion of civil unrest that is ripping through so many American cities. But Medhora says the benefits of social cohesion are more than just marginal. Theyre hard to measure, yes. But as long as Canadians largely agree with their leaders that a government-supported rebound is essential even as some forms of restraint remain, the policies and plans stand a better chance of success, he says. Its all going to be public money, so the bond between government and its citizens needs to be strong, he said. Being too smug could wipe that all out, of course. Our record on racism and our record on stifling the pandemic are certainly not stellar. For now though, we seem to agree on how to make them better. Read more about: Damage is pictured to the Secretary of State building in downtown Grand Rapids, Mich., on May 30, 2020. (Anntaninna Biondo/The Grand Rapids Press via AP) Stashes of Bricks Found Near Protest Sites: Police Police officers discovered caches of bricks and rocks around the sites of protests, Kansas City officials said. We have learned of and discovered stashes of bricks and rocks in and around the Plaza and Westport to be used during a riot, the Kansas City Police Department said in a statement. Riots took place in Missouris largest city over the weekend, with people torching cars, hurling items at police officers, and damaging property alongside or near peaceful protests. The bricks were left in a couple of areas, Capt. David Jackson told reporters Sunday. Police havent identified which people or groups stashed the bricks and rocks. Rioters set fire to a Wells Fargo bank across the street from the Minneapolis Police 5th Precinct during the fourth night of protests and violence following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) I dont know who would have put them there. I dont think theyre doing any type of construction or anything like that. I sense that theyre probably there for nefarious use, he added. Police officials in Corsicana, in another part of the state, said residents noticed over a dozen bricks stacked near an intersection. We hope there was a legitimate reason but with this being an MO in some of the other larger cities that are experiencing civil unrest we would rather play it safe. The bricks have been removed, Corsicana Police Chief Robert Johnson said in a statement. The St. Petersburg Police Department in Florida, meanwhile, found an SUV with bricks, bottles, a gas canister, a bag of large rocks, and a metal pipe. They arrested three people found inside, identified as 29-year-old Lady Nicole Nash, 28-year-old Javonta McCloud, and 28-year-old Eddie Bryant. The trio were each charged with inciting a riot. Rioters using bricks to smash windows, hurt law enforcement, and add to the mayhem have been captured on camera, along with some sources of the bricks. Yo, we got bricks. We got bricks!#Rioters in Manhattan chanced upon a cache in the street equipped with bricks and a shovel at 10:01 p.m. on Second Ave between St. Marks Pl. and Seventh St. pic.twitter.com/dYB7vHdYqL Kevin R Hogan (@KRHogan_NTD) May 31, 2020 Kevin Hogan, a reporter with The Epoch Timess sister company NTD, captured rioters coming across a cache of bricks in New York City on May 31. The cache appeared to be part of a construction effort, though no clear endpoint for the bricks was in sight. The NYPD didnt respond to a request for comment. Another large pile of bricks was shown outside the Dallas courthouse, while piles were documented in multiple places in North Carolina. Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall told reporters Saturday that she was nearly hit by a brick, adding: Everything was peaceful. Then all of a sudden, bricks started hailing, hitting out squad cars, hitting the officers. Baltimore police officers discovered piles of bricks and bottles on Monday and were working on removing them, sources told WBFF. Some of the piles were placed there for construction purposes. City officials in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for instance, said a pile of bricks seen in pictures circulating on social media were placed there for use by Alliant Energy crews. This project has been underway for a number of months, moving from block to block. The bricks are being removed, the city said in a statement. T he country's live music scene has been closed since March, with the summer festival season all but cancelled thanks to the Covid-19 outbreak. But now, after a string of false starts and a great deal of uncertainty, it looks like gigs might finally be back on the cards. Much of the UK's cultural scene has been reemerging over the past few weeks, with restaurants, museums, galleries and cinemas all flinging open their doors and welcoming guests once again all while maintaining social distancing, of course. Outdoor music events have been allowed since last month, but indoor gigs had remained off-limits. This is now set to change. Here's what we know so far. Cancelled UK music festivals: All the new dates for postponed events 1 /34 Cancelled UK music festivals: All the new dates for postponed events Re-Textured, April 2-5 - POSTPONED New dates: 2021, exact dates TBC Mike Portlock Brixton Disco Festival, May 2 - RESCHEDULED New dates: October 10, 2020 The Great Escape, May 13-16 - RESCHEDULED New dates: May 12-15, 2021 Getty Images for Fender Musical We Are FSTVL, May 23-24 - RESCHEDULED New dates: September 12-13, 2020 Carolina Faruolo Love Saves the Day, May 23-24 - RESCHEDULED New dates: September 5-6, 2020 AFP/Getty Images Gala, May 23-24 - POSTPONED New dates: Organisers are "looking to move Gala 2020 towards the tail end of summer", exact dates TBC Khris Cowley All Points East, May 22-24 and 29-31 - POSTPONED New dates: 2021, exact dates TBC Junction 2, June 5-6 - RESCHEDULED New dates: June 4-5, 2021 Sam Neill Mighty Hoopla, June 6 - RESCHEDULED New date: June 5, 2021 Luke Dyson Cross The Tracks, June 7 - RESCHEDULED New date: June 6, 2021 Getty Images for Lung Transplant Isle of Wight , June 11-14 - RESCHEDULED New dates: June 17-20, 2021 Getty Images Gottwood, June 11-15 - POSTPONED New dates: June 2021, exact dates TBC Jake Davis for Here & Now Download , June 12-14 - RESCHEDULED New dates: June 4-6, 2021 PA Archive/PA Images Lovebox, June 12-14 - RESCHEDULED New dates: June 11-13, 2021 Getty Images Parklife, June 13-14 - RESCHEDULED New dates: June 12-13, 2021 PA Archive/PA Images Hampton Court Palace Festival, June 5-19 - POSTPONED New dates: June 2021, exact dates TBC Glastonbury, June 24-28 - POSTPONED New dates: 2021, exact dates TBC Getty Images British Summer Time at Hyde Park, various dates in July - POSTPONED New dates: 2021, exact dates TBC Getty Images for iHeartMedia Wireless , July 3-5 - RESCHEDULED New dates: July 2-4, 2021 Getty Images Love Supreme , July 3-5 - RESCHEDULED New dates: July 2-4, 2021 TRNSMT, July 10-12 - RESCHEDULED New dates: July 9-11, 2021 Getty Images Latitude, July 16-19 - POSTPONED New dates: July 2021, exact dates TBC Getty Images WOMAD, July 23-26 - POSTPONED New dates: July 2021, exact dates TBC AFP via Getty Images Naked City, July 25 - RESCHEDULED New date: July 24, 2021 Boomtown, August 12-16 - RESCHEDULED New dates: August 11-15, 2021 Scott Salt Reading and Leeds - RESCHEDULED New dates: August bank holiday, 2021 Charles Reagan Hackleman What has the Government said? The plan had originally been to let indoor gigs return on August 1, although this was postponed at the last minute by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, citing a rise in Covid-19 infections in England. Mr Johnson pushed the easing of restrictions back by "at least" two weeks, bringing the new possible date to August 15. Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has now confirmed that indoor performances with socially distanced audiences will in fact be allowed again from August 15. However, the news seemed to come too late for many venues in London, with no indoor gigs announced for the first weekend of reopening. It all comes after a 1.57bn support package was announced by the Government on July 5. Comprising emergency grants and loans, the money "will help safeguard the sector for future generations, ensuring arts groups and venues across the UK can stay afloat and support their staff whilst their doors remain closed and curtains remain down, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said. The news was largely well received, with bodies such as the Music Venue Trust and the Royal Albert Hall welcoming the aid. Further details of how the money would be divided up was given by Arts Council England, which confirmed its 500m Culture Recovery Fund would be made up of grants ranging from 50,000 to 3m. Nightclubs were included on the list of cultural organisations eligible for grants, allaying earlier fears that they would be missed off. However, concerns remain about whether this money will secure jobs for more than a million workers in the live events industry, leading to a nationwide protest as part of the #WeMakeEvents campaign. What can I do to support music venues and clubs until they reopen? The rescue package should go some way to securing the future of many music venues. However, every little helps when it comes to money for these places, and there are things you can do to help out as a music fan. For one, if you have tickets for a gig in the coming weeks and months, hold onto it rather than requesting a refund if you are in a position to do so financially. This will help the venues keep money in the bank, and when the gig is eventually scheduled, your ticket will still be valid. Scores of venues are also taking donations. Weve rounded up the London venues currently crowdfunding in this guide. If your favourite venue is outside of London, then check its websites and social media pages, as it might be running an online fundraising campaign. T he UK was much more heavily affected by the coronavirus pandemic than anticipated, former Government adviser and epidemiologist Professor Neil Ferguson has said. Prof Ferguson, who quit as an adviser on coronavirus last month after breaking lockdown restrictions, said "most chains of transmission" still existing in the UK originated in Spain and Italy. The UK had been much more heavily affected that we had previously anticipated, really in early March, in Spain and Italyso thats one of the reasons we have, if not the largest, one of the largest epidemics in Europe, he told the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee on Tuesday. Going forward, what the models say is that we have limited room for manoeuvre, that this is a highly transmissible pathogen. Weve reduced transmission by about 80 per cent, but to maintain control we need to keep that transmission suppressed by about 65 per cent or so. So we have a little bit of wiggle room, so it will be a learning experience as to how we allow society to resume while maintaining control of transmission. Professor Neil Ferguson / Parliament Live TV Prof Ferguson said transmission from Spain and Italy in late February and early March meant the epidemic was further ahead than modellers anticipated. One thing the genetic data is showing us now is most chains of transmission still existing in the UK originated in Spain, to some extent Italy, he said. So we had been worrying about importation of infection from China, were a very well-connected country in the world, other Asian countries, the US. But its clear that before we were even in a position to measure it, before surveillance systems were set up, there were many hundreds, if not thousands, of infected individuals who came into the country in late February and early March from that area. And that meant the epidemic was further ahead than we anticipated which explains some of the acceleration of policy then, but it also explains why, to some extent, why mortality figures ended up being higher than we had hoped. UK Schools begin to reopen during Coronavirus lockdown ease 1 /28 UK Schools begin to reopen during Coronavirus lockdown ease Harris Academy Primary School Jeremy Selwyn Parents drop off children at Queen's Hill Primary School, Costessey, Norfolk, as pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6, begin to return to school as part of a wider easing of lockdown measures PA Harris Academy Primary School Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Parents and children arrive at Watlington Primary School as some schools re-open Reuters Lessons with reduced class sizes at Queen's Hill Primary School, Costessey, Norfolk, as pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6, begin to return to school as part of a wider easing of lockdown measures PA Parents and children arrive at Watlington Primary School as some schools re-open Reuters Parents drop off children at Queen's Hill Primary School, Costessey, Norfolk PA Parents drop off children at Queen's Hill Primary School, Costessey, Norfolk, as pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6, begin to return to school as part of a wider easing of lockdown measures. PA Parents drop off children at Queen's Hill Primary School, Costessey, Norfolk, as pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6, begin to return to school as part of a wider easing of lockdown measures. PA Although Prof Ferguson said he expects the number of cases to remain "relatively" flat between now and September, he warned about the impact of policy changes. I suspect though, under any scenario that levels of transmission and numbers of cases will remain relatively flat between now and September, short of very big policy changes or behaviour changes in the community, he said. The real uncertainty then is if there are larger policy changes in September, of course we move into time of year when respiratory viruses tend to transmit slightly better, what will happen then. And that remains very unclear. He added that he was shocked at how badly care home populations were protected globally. I, like many people, am shocked about how badly European or countries around the world have protected care home populations, he said. Asked about what could be done in future, he said: If we had done a better job, or did do a better job, of reducing transmission in closed institutions like hospitals and care homes, we would have a little bit more room, wiggle room as it were. The infections in care homes and hospitals spilled back into the community, more commonly from the people who work in those institutions. So if you can drive the infection rates low in those institutional settings, you drive the infection lower in the community as a whole. Meanwhile, Professor Matt Keeling, of the University of Warwick, told the committee that Italy was the big eye-opener when modelling on coronavirus. Most of the models started once there was already data available from Wuhan, so that wasnt really changing much, but I think actually the biggest changes were trying to understand the situation in Italy," he said. I think it was unclear in the early stages of the Wuhan outbreak whether we were going to get a similar sort of scale in the UK or elsewhere in the world. So really I think Italy was the big eye-opener, that we realised that we could have a large potential outbreak in the UK. UK returns to work as Coronavirus restrictions are eased - In pictures 1 /38 UK returns to work as Coronavirus restrictions are eased - In pictures Londoners returning to work near London Bridge Jeremy Selwyn Emergency as Lockdown is slowly lifted at Victoria Station Nigel Howard Cyclists travel in central London AFP via Getty Images Emergency as Lockdown is slowly lifted at Victoria Station Nigel Howard Alan Price on his Penny Farthing this morning on Battersea Bridge Jeremy Selwyn Delivery men are seen outside a reopened McDonald's with take-out only deliveries in Dalston Reuters Jubilee Line tube commuters as lockdown eases Nigel Howard Worlds End Nurseries in Chelsea opens for business. Customer Nika Kucifer is shown flowers by Janson Lotery Nigel Howard Londoners going back to work at Waterloo Jeremy Selwyn People ride bicycles in a cycle lane in Chelsea PA Jubilee Line tube commuters as lockdown eases Nigel Howard Londoners going back to work at Vauxhall Jeremy Selwyn Jubilee Line tube commuters as lockdown eases Nigel Howard Jubilee Line tube commuters as lockdown eases. Nigel Howard Matt Writtle Londoners going back to work at Vauxhall Jeremy Selwyn Vehicles are seen on the M56 motorway near Manchester, Reuters Londoners going back to work at Waterloo Jeremy Selwyn Londoners going back to work at Vauxhall Jeremy Selwyn Londoners going back to work at Vauxhall Jeremy Selwyn Monty's first day back. West Highland Terrier Monty commutes to work on his bike on his first day back with owner Darragh McElroy. Monty, who's Instagram account is @monty_whitehall_westie, works at the Cabinet Office in Whitehall with his owner Darragh who is Deputy Director of Coronavirus Communications at the Cabinet Office Matt Writtle Londoners going back to work at Vauxhall Jeremy Selwyn A commuter wears a mask at Canning Town station Reuters Rush hour on the M6 at the junction for Birmingham/Walsall on the first morning of the eased Coronavirus lockdown PA Londoners going back to work at Vauxhall Jeremy Selwyn Commuters, some wearing masks are seen on a London Underground tube, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease Reuters Londoners going back to work at Vauxhall Jeremy Selwyn Commuters, some wearing masks are seen at Stratford station, Reuters Cyclists in Chelsea today. Nigel Howard He also suggested that modellers dropped the ball with regards to care homes early in the crisis. In the early stages, in the absence of a lockdown, the very alarmist values that were coming out were really about a worst-case scenario, he told the committee. So if we just let the epidemic run, how bad could it be? And thats the sort of information policy makers needed at that time. If the lockdown had been very strict, if wed have thought more about what was happening in care homes and hospitals, as youve heard, early on maybe that was one of the areas where modellers did drop the ball. With hindsight, its very easy to say we know care homes and hospitals are these huge collections of very vulnerable individuals, so maybe with hindsight we could have modelled those early on and thought about the impacts there. Air bridges between UK and low-risk countries could be introduced at end of June He added: Considering the amount of information we had at the time, I think the models offer our best estimates of what could happen in the short-term. Long-term predictions are much, much more difficult. It came as new statistics suggest the number of people in England who have died after contracting coronavirus is nearly 10,000 higher than official Government figures show. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show there were 42,210 deaths recorded involving Covid-19 in England in the period ending May 22, compared with 32,666 reported by Department for Health. WASHINGTON - In early September 2014, as unrest gripped Ferguson, Missouri, over the fatal shooting by police of a black teenager, then-Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Justice Department would investigate not just the incident but the entire Ferguson Police Department. The investigation, Holder said, would explore how Ferguson officers used force, how they stopped and searched people, and how they treated people held in the city jail. For a city that had just seen violent demonstrations over police treatment of black people - and would come to see more - the move was a welcome development. "It gave a sense of hope that a fair arbitrator is about to be involved and engaged, and the arbitrator has the authority and the power and the willingness to act if they find something that is wrong," said Adolphus Pruitt, president of the St. Louis City Branch of the NAACP. As America again finds itself riven by violent demonstrations over the killing of a black man, this time in Minneapolis, Attorney General William Barr is facing increasing calls to initiate a similar probe, known as a "pattern-or-practice" investigation, of that city's police department. But the Trump administration has severely curtailed the practice - along with other efforts to force broad police reforms or quell civil unrest - as the Justice Department's posture has shifted to one that is far more deferential to law enforcement. "The impact is what we're witnessing all across this country today," Pruitt said. The Justice Department has initiated a civil rights investigation into the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. But Barr has not responded to calls - including from all Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee - for a broader pattern-or-practice investigation, which can produce a court-enforceable reform agreement. In his most recent comments, Barr has not focused on what happened to Floyd - whose cries of "I can't breathe" were captured on video as a Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes - but instead promised a crackdown on the violence at protests sweeping the country as a result. President Donald Trump said Monday in a televised address that he was "sickened and revolted" by Floyd's death but focused most of his comments on wanting to end rioting. "I will fight to protect you," he said. "I am your president of law and order, and an ally of all peaceful protesters." On Monday, a senior Justice Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said Barr had directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to send riot teams to Miami and the District of Columbia. He also sent the FBI's elite Hostage Rescue Team to assist local police Sunday night. A Justice Department spokeswoman said Monday that the department had deployed all of its components to work in D.C. in coordination with the Defense Department and Department of Homeland Security. Civil rights leaders say the moves seem to be part of a persistent pattern of Trump taking an approach that backs law enforcement without regard to the systemic problems that lead to discrimination against black people. In addition to curtailing pattern-or-practice investigations, the Justice Department in the Trump administration ended another program that helped scrutinize shortcomings in police departments. That program allowed the department's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS, to assess departments and work with them voluntarily on changes. The administration also has repeatedly sought to slash or eliminate funding for various community policing or service organizations, including the Community-Based Violence Prevention Program, and the Justice Department's Community Relations Service. The Justice Department has described that latter office, created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as its "peacemaker," dedicated to assisting state and local units of government, private and public organizations, and community groups to address conflicts arising from differences of race, color and national origin. The Trump administration has proposed moving it into the Civil Rights Division. Congress, though, has largely rejected Trump's attempt to eliminate these programs. And even before Trump took office, President Barack Obama squeezed budget levels for those programs and others, such as the Legal Services Corp. "I think what has happened is that our focus on addressing the systemic issue has stopped," said Ron Davis, who headed the COPS office in the Obama era. On the day of his inauguration, Trump urged a far harder-edged stance on crime than his predecessor, and the White House posted online what now seems like an ominous warning. "Our job is not to make life more comfortable for the rioter, the looter, or the violent disrupter," it read. Months later, speaking to law enforcement officers in Long Island, the president suggested that police could mistreat those in their custody. "When you guys put somebody in the car and you're protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over?" Trump said, miming the physical motion of an officer shielding a suspect's head to keep it from bumping against the squad car. "Like, don't hit their head, and they just killed somebody - don't hit their head," Trump continued. "I said, you can take the hand away, OK?" Even before the recent unrest, Trump and his allies have suggested that police are not being treated appropriately. "Communities "have to start showing, more than they do, the respect and support that law enforcement deserves," Barr said at an awards ceremony for policing in December. "And if communities don't give that support and respect, they may find themselves without the police protection they need." Pattern-or-practice cases - which are separate from individual incidents of alleged wrongdoing involving officers - were a significant pillar of the Obama administration. The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division during those years opened 25 investigations into local law enforcement agencies across the country, and enforced 14 court-approved consent decrees mandating changes. A Washington Post review in 2015 of such interventions found that they led to modernized policies, equipment and training, but produced mixed results on the use of force. Civil rights leaders say they are a necessary tool - one Trump's Justice Department has essentially abandoned. "This is a Justice Department that both by action and rhetoric has completely walked away from any responsibility it has - in part mandated by Congress - to ensure constitutional policing around the country," said Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division in the Obama administration, who now heads the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. A Justice Department spokesman noted that the probes have not gone away entirely - pointing to a pattern-or-practice case initiated last year into the former narcotics unit of the Springfield, Massachusetts, Police Department. The Justice Department in the Trump administration also has initiated civil rights cases involving prisons in New Jersey and Alabama, and inked a consent decree to end an Obama-era investigation into the Ville Platte, Louisiana, Police Department and the Evangeline Parish Sheriff's Office. The curtailing of such investigations began long before Barr was attorney general. Weeks after Jeff Sessions was confirmed as attorney general in 2017, he ordered the Justice Department to review all such agreements. He wrote in a memorandum that it was not the federal government's job to manage local law enforcement agencies, saying they instead required "local control and local accountability." Consent decrees add some teeth to the process. A federal court is able to intervene if they are violated, and independent monitors often watch over the changes. Such agreements have been reached with cities including Baltimore, Los Angeles and New Orleans. But Sessions was a vocal opponent of decrees, calling them "dangerous," and shortly before he was fired in 2018 signed another memorandum limiting the Justice Department's ability to utilize these agreements. "Police departments are not investigated under this administration," said Christy Lopez, who led the Justice Department group investigating police departments under the Obama administration. Advocates for criminal justice changes have praised consent decrees, and local law enforcement leaders have also welcomed them as have police unions. Earlier this year, Barr did convene - on Trump's orders - a new national commission to study issues in law enforcement, such as training and data collection. But even that commission has been controversial. Its members come entirely from law enforcement, drawing complaints that civil rights viewpoints were excluded. In April, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed a lawsuit, arguing that it violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act in part because its membership was not fairly balanced. Lopez called the law enforcement commission "quite literally worse than useless," saying it was "running counter to the more progressive voices in policing." The commission has had several meetings, and on Thursday, took testimony on civil rights issues, including from Farhio Khalif, president of the St. Paul, Minnesota, NAACP. "There's no trust in the black community," Khalif told members. "My hope to you, commissioners, is that we must come together as a humanity united." Coroners must be advised of any Covid-19 deaths in prison, but not care homes in Northern Ireland - despite controversy over deaths in them. If a prisoner dies from Covid-19, this will automatically be reported by the governor, as all deaths in custody are examined. And while coroners can hold inquests into hospital deaths, for example in cases of potential instances of negligence or misadventure, deaths in care homes are not inquired into as a matter of course. However, deaths can be reported by family members or any person who feels answers are required, after making a complaint to the care provider. Some families have already done this. Care home residents make up more than half of coronavirus deaths in Northern lreland, and concerns have been raised repeatedly over standards of care and a policy that saw admissions continue during the pandemic. This practice has been slammed by leading public health expert Professor Gabriel Scally, who described it as "verging on real negligence". Families have expressed concern over poor hygiene, lack of proper PPE or incorrect usage, or - as has been argued - the introduction of Covid-19 into facilities through infected hospital discharges. In respect of prisons, a death is immediately reported by the governor. But no such provision exists specifically for residential or nursing care facilities. An alternative is to have Covid-19 deaths reclassified as notifiable, but the Department of Health sees "no benefit" in this. This could allow relatives the opportunity to obtain crucial information and answers. Emergency legislation in March 2020 states Covid-19 deaths are considered natural, rather than unexplained, dispensing with a requirement to alert the coroner. Recently, Professor Phil Scraton, of Queen's University, wrote to the Department of Health over concerns that Covid-19 deaths are not being referred to the coroner. He told the Irish News that "there should be the referring of all Covid-related deaths in care homes where it is considered that the individual died as a result of lack of appropriate equipment or care failings". "I'm not talking about the care staff in terms of lack of care. I'm talking about the exposure of care staff to inadequate and inappropriate clothing and (PPE) equipment. So this also includes the staff because they are put at risk," he said. Several people commented on the fact that several chain businesses have been able to do what the county has not in requiring plastic cashier guards, encouraging people to maintain social distance and to wear face masks. County Board supervisors decided to move forward with the ordinance. Approval through various committees has moved forward, although on Monday Sheriff Dale Schmidt questioned that process. His main objection is that the board should not approve the ordinance without seeking input from local law enforcement. I havent had a chance to see the ordinance yet but I also havent had a chance to speak with the police chiefs, he said. I dont think the attorneys can speak on behalf of the police chiefs for what theyre going to enforce. I think we need to have that opportunity. He added, I dont have the resources to enforce a health order/closure on my own. We just dont have the manpower. If you put an order in place without cooperation from businesses and local law enforcement, youre going to have a lot of people who say, Im not doing it. BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - U.K. stocks advanced on Tuesday as hopes of economic recovery helped offset jitters over increasingly violent social unrest in the U.S. and rising U.S.-China tensions. Investors brushed off data from the Nationwide Building Society showing that U.K. house prices declined at the fastest pace since 2009 in May. House prices fell 1.7 percent month-on-month in May, in contrast to a 0.9 percent rise in April as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic filtered through the property market. This was the biggest fall since February 2009. Economists had forecast a fall of 1 percent. On a yearly basis, house prices grew 1.8 percent in May, much slower than the 3.7 percent rise in April and economists' forecast of 2.8 percent increase. Separately, U.K. mortgage approvals declined sharply in April amid coronavirus pandemic, data from the Bank of England showed. The number of mortgage approvals plunged to 15,848 in April from 56,136 in March. Approvals were forecast to fall to 23,780. The benchmark FTSE 100 rose by 37 points, or 0.61 percent, to 6,203 after rising 1.5 percent the previous day. Tesco shares fell 2 percent. Chief Financial Officer Alan Stewart plans to step down next year, extending a management overhaul at the U.K.'s largest supermarket. Hospital operator Mediclinic advanced 1.5 percent despite posting a net loss of 315 million pounds ($394 million) for fiscal year 2019/2020. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. (Photo : Erin Scott on Reuters ) Zuckerberg vs. Facebook: Thousand Workers Stage 'Virtual Protest' vs. Trump Issue Saying CEO has 'Lack of Backbone' Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is now facing a different battle against his own company. A thousand employees working on Facebook are now demanding that their CEO take down all posts of United States President Donald Trump that 'glorifies violence' on George Floyd's death. Workers are currently doing a virtual 'walkout' protest to hear them out. Zuckerberg called a 'weak leader' by employees In a New York Times report, a rare public criticism was currently happening in the offices of the social media giant, Facebook. Thousand of employees voted against the decision of their CEO to allow Trump's post against the protests that are happening in the country. The protest group that was said to be creating a massive 'virtual walkout protest' will be refusing to work-at-home to take stand against Zuckerberg's decision. To even show their anti-support versus Zuckerberg, they applied automated messages to their digital profiles and email responses, saying that they will not be working to join the demonstrators. Aside from Facebook's home-based workers, staff that are inside the company have also circulated petitions saying that they will resign from their posts if their boss does not resolve the issue. Assumingly, this was the most serious problem that Zuckerberg may face in history since almost all his employees are demanding to take down all the posts of POTUS. "Along with Black employees in the company, and all persons with a moral conscience, I am calling for Mark to immediately take down the President's post advocating violence, murder, and imminent threat against Black people." The Times agreed to withhold the employee's name. "Facebook's inaction in taking down Trump's post inciting violence makes me ashamed to work here," Facebook Engineer Lauren Tan wrote in a tweet. "Silence is complicity." Zuckerberg has 'lack of backbone' and a 'weak leader' Zuckerberg has defended his decision back then by saying that Trump's posts differ from threatening violence than 'state force.' The CEO also reiterated that POTUS had not violated any rules from their social media guidelines. Of course, the workers think otherwise. "The lack of backbone, and this weak leadership, will be judged by history. Hate speech should never be compared to free speech," one employee said. "The president (sic) is literally threatening for the National Guard to shoot citizens. Maybe when we're in the middle of a race war, the policy will change." What happened to Facebook? As said, this might be the worst problem that Zuckerberg has to face in history. This issue boils down from his decision to keep all the posts of POTUS describing the protesters as 'THUGS' and posting the phrase 'when looting starts, shooting starts.' Still, the Facebook spokesperson reiterated that they allow their employees to do protest on their will. "We recognize the pain many of our people are feeling right now, especially our Black community," said Liz Bourgeois, the spokeswoman. "We encourage employees to speak openly when they disagree with leadership." As of now, Zuckerberg has not yet released any statements. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Again, peaceful protest. Again, property damage and looting. Again, the clean-up. For the third straight night, destruction followed a peaceful protest in Downtown Madison Monday into early Tuesday morning, distracting from activists call to address police violence against black people after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody last week. It was definitely a group of 10 to 15 hell bent on destruction and then at least 50 to 70 going along with it, said Marcel Colbert, co-owner of Art Gecko, one of scores of businesses that have been repeatedly damaged since Saturday. There was zero political message going on, he said. People began looting, breaking into stores and spray-painting graffiti just before 1 a.m. after protests at the top of State Street were allowed to continue in violation of the citys 9:30 p.m. curfew. The earlier demonstrations were largely peaceful, although there was some graffiti reported, including paint poured over the Forward statue near the intersection of Mifflin, Carroll and State streets. Barricades, construction fences and other items were also moved into the roadway, police said. The question for many Tuesday was who is engaging in the lawlessness and why, especially as local elected officials almost uniformly express solidarity with protesters and most protesters decry the violence. In a statement, Dane County executive Joe Parisi said, As a white American, its on me to recognize that white people are responsible for racism, and he asserted that the violence Downtown and in scattered areas throughout Madison was being committed by predominately white groups. Madison police had largely not had time to write up arrest reports for the more than 30 people arrested as of Tuesday morning, according to spokesman Joel DeSpain, so there was no clear picture yet about who is suspected in the violence Downtown since Saturday. A spokeswoman for Parisi said his assertion about the race of rioters stemmed from his personal observations of news accounts, reports from county staff and other sources. Some activists have also sought to frame the violence as political and the result of systemic racism. They think cement is worth more than your life. They think glass is worth more than your life, said M. Adams, co-executive director of Freedom Inc., at a rally Monday. Stop murdering black people and your glass will be safe. Many of the windows boarded up Monday after Sundays looting got tagged and spray-painted with profanity overnight, and some of the businesses that didnt put up wooden boards had their windows broken. Almost no storefront was left unscathed. Hawks Bar & Grill which displayed black lives matter signs and whose owner, Hawk Sullivan, publicly identified with protesters early in the demonstrations had two large windows broken. John Lyons, 23, who lives a block and a half off State Street, said he and his partner, Gabriella Gouin, also 23, left town Saturday night because they didnt feel safe, and came back Monday, thinking things would be better with a curfew in effect for two days. None of this was like this last night, Gouin said of new damage to the 500 block of State Street. None of these windows were broken. Its so sad. This is not how you honor somebodys death. Its not how you protest someones death by destroying things. The world has heard Timothy D. McDowell, 50, was part of a crew of nine scrubbing graffiti from the Wisconsin Veterans Museum on the Capitol Square. McDowell, who is black and moved to Madison from Kentucky seven months ago, said that while the protesting is very necessary, protesters are not necessarily making a point at this time. Not on the walls, theyre not. He said vandals tried to get into the building nearby at 14 W. Mifflin St. where he works for Pathways of Wisconsin, a nonprofit that provides services to adults with developmental disabilities. The world has heard, he said. Theyve got the point. They dont need the extra aggression to add on. Amy Moore, owner of Little Luxuries, a gift shop at 230 State, said that in the first night of rioting she had a rock thrown into an upper window and shards of glass in the front half of the store. But thats nothing compared to the devastation her neighbors have experienced and the devastation people of color see every day, she said. As an active community member its hard to see this, she said. But I want to make sure the message isnt focused on my business and how its impacted, but the work on racism we have to do in our community. Fontana Sports was broken into and looted for a second straight night. A person who lives on State Street was punched by a looter after yelling at him. One protester told a looter, Youre ruining the message, and others tried to stem the growing lawlessness. Teddywedgers co-owner Anthony Rineer and employee Veronica Shaw said they were Downtown Monday night and Shaw said many of the protesters early Tuesday morning tried to stop the looters. Rineer said the restaurant, at 101 State, was tagged with graffiti overnight but otherwise has been luckier than some other businesses. Two more windows on the State Street side of the Overture Center also were broken out, as were glass doors on the building and windows on the adjoining Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Police spread thin DeSpain said officers are doing all they can to identify and arrest looters, even if its after the fact. He said police have recovered two stolen AR-15 rifles that were taken from a police car before it was torched Saturday, and we are going to identify and arrest these people. But DeSpain said police are also spread very thin and need to be careful after being repeatedly pelted with rocks and bottles. At least one vehicle was hit with a bullet, he said. They cant run down there without their hard gear on because it would be dangerous for the officers, DeSpain said. Weve seen around the country, that officers are being shot. Were concerned that this could happen here and that they could be ambushed. DeSpain said that many of those involved in looting are separate from the peaceful protesters who are exercising their first amendment rights, which he said the department supports. People who are looting are criminals, and some of them are operating in a very sophisticated way, he said. Just before 2 a.m. near the intersection of Gorham and Henry streets, looters attacked two male protesters with two-by-fours and possibly a crowbar after they tried to confront a female looter, police said. One of the men required 12 stitches to his face and had his phone stolen, while the other suffered multiple broken bones. At around 5 a.m., a cameraman for local Channel 15 (WMTV-TV) was attacked while doing a live shot in the 600 block of State Street, according to police. Police said the cameraman had panned away from a reporter to show Michael E. Campbell, 40, going through items that had been looted from 7-Eleven, 676 State St. Campbell then allegedly threw bottles at the journalist and grabbed him from behind, vigorously shaking him and his camera. Campbell fled the scene on a bicycle but was captured on South Park Street and tentatively charged with battery, disorderly conduct and resisting and obstructing police. He also was taken into custody on a probation hold. Police reported 15 arrests were made during the night, and that they responded to several looting incidents elsewhere in the city, including at Tech Heroes, a US Cellular Store, a Capitol Petro store, Movin Shoes, Mobile Generation/Verizon, Pizza Hut and a BP convenience store. Photos: Madison anti-police protests enter Day 3 with promises of more to come Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 By Taiwo Okanlawon One of the suspects linked to the rape and murder of Miss Vera Uwaila Omozuwa, a 100-level student of the University of Benin, Edo State, has been arrested by the Edo State Police Command. The 22-year-old undergraduate was raped and killed by unknown persons while reading in the RCCG church in Benin city. According to the spokesman of Edo Police Command, Chidi Nwabuzor, the suspect was arrested after the fingerprint on the fire extinguisher she was attacked with was examined. Nwabuzor revealed that operatives of the command arrested the suspect after the Area Commander of Ikpoba Hill mobilized his men to take action. The item used in the assault, which was a fire extinguisher, was recovered, immediately the operatives who were with some specialists screened the fingerprints which led to our suspect. Around the place of the incident, the suspect was arrested, Nwabuzor said. The death of Uwa has stirred reactions from notable figures, as well as Nigerians on social media calling for justice. The Inspector general of Police, IGP Adamu disclosed that investigative aids have been deployed to Edo to help speed up the investigations. He assured that the perpetrators of the crime will be brought to book in the shortest possible time. Related WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Doughnut companies Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corp. and Dunkin Donuts are offering free doughnuts to commemorate the upcoming National Doughnut Day on Friday, June 5. In a statement, Krispy Kreme said it is extending National Doughnut Day to National Doughnut Week, with 5 free doughnut days to choose from. The consumers will get any doughnut of choice for free, no purchase necessary, from June 1 through June 5. The guests can visit participating U.S. Krispy Kreme shops and drive-thrus on any of the five days and can pick their favorite doughnut variety till the supplies last. The selection includes the iconic Original Glazed Doughnut, Chocolate Iced with Sprinkles Doughnut and Krispy Kreme's Original Filled Doughnut varieties. In addition, Dunkin Donuts is celebrating National Donut Weekend, by offering a free cinnamon sugar donut to all registered Duck Donuts Rewards members. The offer is redeemable June 5 to 7. In a tweet, the company said, 'This is an official message from the Donut Party. National Donut Day is Friday, June 5th & you can celebrate with a FREE donut with any beverage purchase! Which donut candidate will be getting your vote? Participation may vary. Limited time offer. While supplies last.' Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. A lot has happened since Boris Johnson last faced Sir Keir Starmer at Prime Ministers Questions, the weekly High Noon of political reputations. When MPs started their 10-day Whitsun holiday, the Prime Minster seemed to be slowly recovering, not only from his lengthy coronavirus fatigue, but also was giving a sense that the Government was taking charge of events. Lockdown was being eased and the worst of the pandemic peak was passing. The peace was shattered by the shocking revelation that Johnsons most senior and controversial advisor Dominic Cummings drove 260 miles at the peak of lockdown from his London home with his family, carrying the virus to a second home in County Durham. And that they went on a jaunt to beauty spot Barnard Castle on the highly dubious grounds that he wanted to check his eyes were ok to motor home to London. Since then, nothing has seemed to go right: Tory MPs piled into the national outpouring of fury about Cummings, their anger a tad more forceful than Downing Street was prepared for, which suggested some exasperation with the Johnson style of leadership (as exemplified by the continued presence of the maverick Mr Cummings); next the launch of the critically important test and trace system was marred by missing data and reports of bemused tracers having no clue what was going on; then came Conservatives rebellions against Priti Patels quarantine plans and Jacob Rees-Moggs ill-explained demands for MPs to vote in person at Westminster. A weary looking (and dont forget he has a new baby Wilfred to contend with in the small hours) held the line in a grilling by the Liaison Committee but he looked besieged. In addition, there are suspicions among MPs that some of the Governments medical and scientific advisers feel uncomfortable with the rush to unlock social activities and schools, given the failure of the Covid alert status to float down from Level 4 to Level 3 at the weekend. If a week used to be a long time in politics, then the past fortnight must count as an epoch If a week used to be a long time in politics, then the fortnight since the PM last had to endure a grilling in the House of Commons must count as an epoch. When the Prime Minister stands up in the ancient chamber just before midday on Wednesday, he will be aware that a significant number of his own backbenchers (and a few ministers) have been unnerved by the setbacks and are looking to him to provide strong, clear messages, both on public health and on the Tories core political pitch that they share the values of ordinary families. Mr Johnson is actually rather good at delivering a prepared message and putting a smile back on the faces of dispirited footsoldiers. He is less good, however, at answering detailed questions under pressure, which is where Sir Keir comes in. From their first, telling exchanges five weeks ago, it was clear that the new Labour leader was more of a siege commander than a charging cavalry officer. His persistent and patient questioning worked best when he cornered the Prime Minister into areas the Government is frightened to talk about, like the appalling and avoidable death toll in Britains residential care for the elderly. In their first two encounters, Starmer ruthlessly gave the PM no wiggle room by pinning him with precision questions and was proclaimed clear victor in both. Their third clash saw Johnson slip out of Starmers grasp and turn the tables on his attacker. One of Johnsons best assets is an ability to get the measure of a new enemy and adapt. So what can we expect in the fourth round of Johnson v Starmer? We can expect Starmer to focus his attack on the allegation that the Government has lost its grip on the pandemic and, thanks to Cummings, forfeited its moral authority. He may probe about whether the PM has been over-riding cautious scientific advisers. He will certainly try to drag the spotlight onto past mistakes. Johnson will be equally determined to focus on his optimistic hopes for the future. Starmers best tactic is to draw Johnson into a discussion of the fine detail where the Tory leader is most likely to trip up. But Johnsons skills are not to be under-rated: He has the knack of speaking in a way people understand as well as the prime ministerial secret weapon, which is to reveal a big daisycutter policy announcement that sucks the oxygen from Sir Keirs attack. The stakes are high for both leaders: For Mr Johnson, his best hope of stabilising the Tory Party after a torrid 10 days is to dominate the exchange and exude confident authority; For Sir Keir it is a chance to deepen the divisions in the governing party and ratchet up his own reputation. But do not expect a knockout victory for either contender: with the next election some four years away, this will be a long and wearying war. While the Gulf countries are slowly easing lockdowns introduced to halt the spread of the Covid-19, questions remain over the pilgrimage to Mecca this year As the Gulf countries start to ease the restrictions imposed in March to control the spread of the coronavirus, the expectations of some are high, while others are more cautious about exiting from the lockdowns. Dubai in the UAE has opened up a bit and relaxed the rules on going out of the home, but the numbers of people in the streets and shopping malls are still not large, indicating that the population is still reluctant to risk exposure to the virus. Those who have been working from home during the lockdown are likely to prefer to do so if they can. The government has allowed workers in official departments to go back to work in their offices, but only about 30 per cent have done so. Large gatherings and popular events are still not allowed in most of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, and places of worship remain closed. Saudi Arabia has allowed the reopening of mosques with strict guidelines on social distancing and reduced contacts. The guidelines include performing ablutions at home and bringing personal prayer mats to mosques. Public copies of the Quran are not accessible in mosques. These are open only at prayer times, and the numbers of people attending are likely to be half or fewer than those attending under normal circumstances. The gradual easing of the restrictions in Saudi Arabia will continue until 21 June when most of the rules will be lifted or eased towards the new normal. Other Gulf countries might follow in the Saudi footsteps over the coming days and weeks, though the numbers of cases of infections with the virus are still high. The reopening of mosques in Saudi Arabia has revived speculation about this years Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, due to take place in a couple of months time. In March, the Saudi authorities asked the Muslim countries to hold off on arrangements for their citizens to go on the Hajj this year until the situation was clearer. With the time getting closer, people will need to know if there will be the Hajj this year as the arrangements take some time. Some countries, such as Singapore, have already deferred the Hajj for their Muslim citizens until next year, while others are waiting for a decision by the Saudi authorities. A decision on the Hajj is expected in a few days if it is going to happen this year, and some countries, such as Indonesia, have already contacted the Saudi authorities for clarification. According to Saudi sources, there are three options: suspending the Hajj altogether this year; restricting the Hajj to those in Saudi Arabia itself; and holding it with strict rules and regulations. It seems the latter is the most plausible option, and some say that the Hajj authorities have already made recommendations to Saudi monarch King Salman. If the Hajj is to be performed this year, the quotas for the different Muslim countries will be reduced at least by half, and they might be reduced by up to 80 per cent for certain countries. Thus, instead of more than two million pilgrims converging on Mecca for the pilgrimage, fewer than a million could be there this year. Strict checks on the pilgrims health in their countries of origin before starting the Hajj and guarantees of medical facilities in Mecca are likely to be a must. It is not yet clear how the pilgrims will sleep overnight in Mena one of the pilgrimage rituals since overcrowding at this stage of the Hajj has long been a problem. Many Hajj tour operators expect costs to more than double if the pilgrimage takes place this year. The Hajj and the minor pilgrimage the Umra bring in around $10 billion annually to the host country. Yet, people are prepared to see the Hajj suspended, even though they spent the Eid at the end of the Holy Month of Ramadan mostly at home with no celebrations or traditional gatherings and visits. Data published by a US tech giant about the GCC countries has showed that the populations of these countries are becoming more cautious, and increased awareness of the dangers of the coronavirus have made them more self-disciplined. According to figures released by Google in its Community Mobility Report, overall mobility in the Gulf has decreased by an average of -36.9 per cent compared to the baseline in the month up to mid-May this year, with fewer visits to parks, grocery stores and workplaces taking place in the six GCC countries. It is not only Saudi Arabia and Dubai that have started easing restrictions, however. Oman is allowing business activity to resume and has ended the lockdown within the capital Muscat since 29 May, allowing travel to resume in and out of the city. Since 31 May, half of Omans government employees have returned to work. Starting on 22 May, Bahrain has allowed certain commercial and industrial business activities to reopen. The Kuwaiti government has not extended its full curfew beyond 30 May and has switched instead to a 12-hour partial curfew from 6pm to 6am starting from 31 May as part of a five-phase plan to ease restrictions. Only Qatar has not shown signs of an imminent easing of restrictions as cases of infection with the coronavirus continue to edge up in the emirate. Encouraged by global data about countries that have eased restrictions and lifted lockdowns gradually without witnessing a second spike of the virus spread, the Gulf countries are slowly making their way towards the new normal. They are also looking forward to alleviating the negative economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on their economies, which have been exacerbated by dropping global oil prices. *A version of this article appears in print in the 4 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 2) Major airline companies have announced they will resume domestic flight services starting Wednesday following the national government's move to relax COVID-19 lockdown measures in Metro Manila and other areas. After over two months of suspension, flag carrier Philippine Airlines said it will cater to passengers flying to and from the capital region starting June 3. The airline company previously set its resumption of local flights on June 8. Initial flights include routes to Cebu, Davao, Dumaguete, and Cagayan de Oro, according to PAL's latest advisory. Cebu Pacific earlier announced it will also resume operations on June 3, with a limited number of domestic flights expected off Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. AirAsia said on Tuesday that they will gradually resume domestic flights on select routes starting June 5. The company added its flights will also be temporarily moved to NAIA Terminal 3 until further notice. We are moving resumption date to give our guests enough time to consolidate needed travel documents, the airline said. AirAsia over the weekend said it will also gradually resume domestic flights on select routes starting June 3. The company added its flights will also be temporarily moved to NAIA Terminal 3 until further notice. Both PAL and Cebu Pacific have advised passengers to arrive at least three hours before their scheduled domestic flights and at least four hours for international flights to allot more time for boarding. Cebu Pacific spokesperson Charo Logarta-Lagamon, in the government's virtual Laging Handa briefing on Tuesday, also advised guests to eat before boarding as the airline will not be serving in-flight meals for the meantime. PAL, on the other hand, said its onboard food service will be "simplified." PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna also said that the government may require travelers to undergo testing upon arriving in local airports. However, authorities still await the guidelines that will be announced by the COVID-19 inter-agency task force. International flights PAL previously revealed it will likewise service international flights this month, with select routes to the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Guam, Vietnam, mainland China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Japan, the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia expected in the coming days. Cebu Pacific's international flights, however, remain suspended until June 30. AirAsia said its services will gradually increase to include international destinations by July 1. The Transportation Department had said international travels shall prioritize returning residents, overseas workers, and diplomats, among others. Officials are also looking at reopening the international gateways at Clark, Cebu, and Davao, according to DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade. Air carriers previously announced that they are ready for the "new normal" in air travel to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the country. Companies have assured that security protocols have been ramped up and planes will be thoroughly disinfected after each flight. Passengers are also expected to follow enhanced safety measures such as the mandatory wearing of face masks, social distancing, and other protocols at the airport and in their respective flights. READ: Leisure travel under GCQ subject to task force, local gov't approval DOTr chief Technavio has been monitoring the global automotive pump market size and it is poised to grow by USD 42.23 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of over 7% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005635/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Automotive Pump Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire) Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Latest Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. Aisan Industry Co. Ltd., Aisin Seiki Co. Ltd., Continental AG, Delphi Technologies Plc, DENSO Corp., General Motors Co., Hitachi Ltd., Johnson Electric Holdings Ltd., Rheinmetall AG, Robert Bosch GmbH, and Valeo SA. are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments. The increasing use of electric fuel pumps has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. Automotive Pump Market 2020-2024: Segmentation Automotive Pump Market is segmented as below: Type Passenger Cars Commercial Vehicles Geographic Landscape APAC North America Europe MEA South America To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR40073 Automotive Pump Market 2020-2024: Scope Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our automotive pump market report covers the following areas: Automotive Pump Market size Automotive Pump Market trends Automotive Pump Market industry analysis This study identifies developments in the field of hydrocarbon evaporation control systems as one of the prime reasons driving the automotive pump market growth during the next few years. Automotive Pump Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the Automotive Pump Market, including some of the vendors such as Aisan Industry Co. Ltd., Aisin Seiki Co. Ltd., Continental AG, Delphi Technologies Plc, DENSO Corp., General Motors Co., Hitachi Ltd., Johnson Electric Holdings Ltd., Rheinmetall AG, Robert Bosch GmbH, and Valeo SA. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the Automotive Pump Market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports. Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Automotive Pump Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024 Detailed information on factors that will assist automotive pump market growth during the next five years Estimation of the automotive pump market size and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the automotive pump market Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of automotive pump market vendors Table Of Contents : PART 1: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PART 2: SCOPE OF THE REPORT 2.1 Preface 2.2 Preface 2.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ PART 3: MARKET LANDSCAPE Market ecosystem Market characteristics Value chain analysis Market segmentation analysis PART 4: MARKET SIZING Market definition Market sizing 2019 Market outlook Market size and forecast 2019-2024 PART 5: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market condition PART 6: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE PART 7: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE Geographic segmentation Geographic comparison APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024 North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024 MEA Market size and forecast 2019-2024 South America Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Key leading countries Market opportunity PART 8: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY VEHICLE TYPE Market segmentation by vehicle type Comparison by vehicle type Passenger cars Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Commercial vehicles Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Market opportunity by vehicle type PART 9: DECISION FRAMEWORK PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES Market drivers Market challenges PART 11: MARKET TRENDS Developments in the field of hydrocarbon evaporation control systems Focus of OEMs on developing autonomous vehicles Next generation of OBD in automotive fuel injection systems PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE Overview Landscape disruption Competitive scenario PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS Vendors covered Vendor classification Market positioning of vendors Aisan Industry Co. Ltd. Aisin Seiki Co. Ltd. Continental AG Delphi Technologies Plc DENSO Corp. General Motors Co. Hitachi Ltd. Johnson Electric Holdings Ltd. Rheinmetall AG Robert Bosch GmbH Valeo SA PART 14: APPENDIX Research methodology List of abbreviations Definition of market positioning of vendors PART 15: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005635/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: media@technavio.com Website: www.technavio.com/ By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pacific Networks Corp and its wholly owned subsidiary ComNet (USA) LLC on Monday urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) not to shut down its U.S. operations. In April, the FCC issued show cause orders to three state-controlled Chinese telecommunications companies, including Pacific, citing national security risks By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pacific Networks Corp and its wholly owned subsidiary ComNet (USA) LLC on Monday urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) not to shut down its U.S. operations. In April, the FCC issued show cause orders to three state-controlled Chinese telecommunications companies, including Pacific, citing national security risks. The FCC directed China Telecom Americas <0728.HK>, China Unicom Americas <0762.HK> and Pacific Networks to explain why it should not start revoking authorizations enabling their U.S. operations. The other two firms have not yet filed formal FCC responses. Pacific and ComNet said in a 92-page FCC filing that "neither company has been asked by the Chinese government or the Chinese Communist Party to take any action that would 'jeopardize the national security and law enforcement interests of the United States.'" The companies said they have operated in the United States for 20 years without any FCC enforcement action. Pacific Networks resells international voice and data to U.S. operators on a wholesale basis; ComNet provides international termination service, global SIM card service and international calling card and interexchange service, the FCC said. The companies said they "not only operated independently from the Chinese government" but have "complied and cooperated with the United States government." The FCC granted approvals to the companies more than a decade ago. Since then, it said, "the national security and law enforcement risks linked to the Chinese government's activities have grown significantly." Earlier, the U.S. Justice Department called on the FCC to revoke China Telecom's ability to operate in the United States. In May 2019, the FCC voted unanimously to deny another state-owned Chinese telecommunications company, China Mobile Ltd <0941.HK>, the right to provide services in the United States, citing risks that the Chinese government could use the approval to conduct espionage against the U.S. government. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by David Gregorio) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. On 23 March, swimming pools closed nationwide as part of the UKs coronavirus lockdown. While other public facilities, including non-essential shops, have begun reopening as part of the easing of lockdown measures, it remains uncertain when swimming pools will be allowed to reopen. However, on Monday 15 June, [comma] Swim England published new guidance on returning to the pool once it is permitted, outlining rules that will help swimmers practise social distancing and prevent further spread of Covid-19. Here is everything you need to know. When will pools in the UK reopen? The earliest possible date in England would be 4 July, although it is by no means certain that swimming pools will be able to open from that time. Jane Nickerson, chief executive of Swim England, said the organisation will continue to lobby the government for a reopening date. However, this decision ultimately falls to the government. Theres also no firm date in Scotland, but the devolved parliament has said indoor leisure facilities will remain closed until phase three of its plan for easing lockdown the country is currently in stage one of the plan. Wales and Northern Ireland have both said leisure centres will not reopen until step four of their coronavirus road maps is reached. Even once they have the go-ahead, swimming pools will need advance warning in order to prepare. Richard Lamburn, head of facilities for Swim England, has said they would ideally want three weeks notice. A lot of pools have never closed before so weve been providing the guidance and support needed to local authorities and operators to ensure they were safely shut down and maintained, he said. Pools will need to be re-heated, which can only be done at an increase of 0.25 degrees an hour, and water must pass a micro-biological test before they can reopen to the public. The world's best pools with a view Show all 11 1 /11 The world's best pools with a view The world's best pools with a view The Hilton pool has one of the best views of Venice Hitlon The world's best pools with a view Swim on Lake Como at Grand Hotel Tremezzo Grand Hotel Tremezzo/HotelsCombined The world's best pools with a view Soak in the driest landscape on earth at Tierra Atacama Tierra Atacama/Senderos The world's best pools with a view Beside the Himalayas at the Oberoi Oberoi/Corinthian Travel The world's best pools with a view Beside Loch Fyne at Portavadie Portavadie/Spabreaks The world's best pools with a view The Marina Bay Sands sets the standard for city pools Marina Bay Sands/HotelsCombined The world's best pools with a view Looking towards Mount Kenya at Loisaba Loisaba/Elewana collection The world's best pools with a view The Lalit Khajuraho, looking towards the karma sutra temples The Lalit The world's best pools with a view BCN's Hotel Arts overlooks a Frank Gehry masterpiece Classic Collection The world's best pools with a view Overlooking the Al Hajar mountains at the Alila Alila The world's best pools with a view A "window" at Hotel Hubertus Hotel Hubertus What measures would allow pools to reopen safely? On Monday 15 June, Swim England published guidance on how swimmers will need to adapt to the new normal when they return to the pool. The guidance, which Swim England said was put together using the latest scientific advice and government guidelines, includes avoiding wide strokes, such as the butterfly stroke, to reduce the risk of coming into contact with other swimmers. It also includes arriving at the pool wearing your costume underneath your clothes so as to minimise the time you need to spend in the changing rooms and bringing your own bottled water and hand sanitiser from home. In addition, it states that if you need to take a rest in the pool, you should turn your head away from other swimmers when they come near to you. Our first priority remains the safety of everyone involved in our sports, be they participants, leisure centre staff, coaches or volunteers, Ms Nickerson said. When pools reopen, it will not be a case of business as usual and we know that things will have to be different. However, if we are to play our part in protecting the NHS from another wave of Covid-19 admissions, it is important we follow the latest guidance and adjust to the new normal. For more information on Swim Englands new guidance, which it states will be regularly updated, click here. Doesnt chlorine kill off all the germs anyway? Its very likely, yes. Professor Keith Neal, emeritus professor of epidemiology of infectious diseases at the University of Nottingham, told the BBC that chlorine was very easily able to inactivate most viruses including Covid-19. The main issue is ensuring social distancing is maintained in public areas such as changing rooms and around the pool. Will any pools close for good? Around 500 pools may have to shut permanently as a result of financial problems caused by Covid and the lockdown. Duncan Goodhew, an Olympic gold-medallist and president of Swimathon, the worlds largest annual fundraising swim, told Radio 4s Today programme that, of the 5,000 public pools in England, 10 per cent might be forced to close for good. A little like a restaurant, it becomes very difficult economically to make it work because youre just not getting the volume of people through, he said of the pools which would be too old, inefficient and expensive to run. Can I swim at the beach? Technically yes, but the current guidelines advise that you should only swim in the sea if theres a lifeguard present. It follows several serious injuries incurred by people jumping from the cliffs into the sea at Durdle Door in Dorset in May. What about other wild swimming? Recommended 10 best paddling pools to make warm weekends during lockdown more fun Wild swimming or open water swimming done outdoors in lakes, rivers and other outdoor bodies of water falls within the bounds of outdoor activity allowed under lockdown, according to Swim England. However, the organisation is advising that only competent and experienced open water swimmers participate in this form of exercise and that they adhere to social distancing guidelines while doing so. Even then, we ask that swimmers consider the risks to themselves and others whilst participating in this activity as the majority of locations will not have lifeguards and there is a real risk of cold water shock at this time of year, says Swim England. Some man-made open water swimming facilities are closed due to fears of overcrowding, including the Ponds at Hampstead Heath and the Serpentine, both in London. Press Release June 2, 2020 Gatchalian to law enforcers: hunt down online scammers Senator Win Gatchalian is urging the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to step up efforts in hunting down online scammers who proliferated during the quarantine. Gatchalian said authorities should beef up their online presence to safeguard Filipinos against online scams and other related cybercrimes. As more Filipinos spend most of their time online during this time of the pandemic, Gatchalian said cyber criminals take advantage of preying on vulnerable people as they seek out information and data on the internet to maximize revenue. The Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs called for stricter online monitoring by the authorities as well as rigorous information dissemination on the latest online scams to ensure that potential victims will not fall prey to those who exploit the prevailing health crisis. The senator noted the 100% increase in cybercrime activities in the country in April, particularly online scams through phishing as reported by the NBI Cybercrime Division. American consumer credit reporting agency TransUnion reported in May 13, 2020 that suspected fraudulent digital transactions worldwide have increased from March to April this year. Out of the 9,215 adults surveyed in the U.S., Canada, Hong Kong, India, South Africa, and the U.K., 29% of the respondents said they were targeted by digital fraud related to COVID-19. TransUnion also noted that millennials have been most targeted by fraudsters using COVID-19 scams. He also called on the public to be extra vigilant in giving their personal data online especially concerning credit card or money transfer. "Sa panahon ng pandemya na ang lahat ng Pilipino ay nakatutok sa internet dahil sa umiiral na community quarantine at social distancing, maraming sindikato ang nagsasamantala upang makapanloko para sa sarili nilang kapakanan. Kaya dapat paigtingin pa ng ating mga awtoridad ang pagbabantay sa iba't ibang bagong scams na magsusulputan sa panahon ng pandemya upang maprotektahan natin ang ating mga kababayan," Gatchalian said. The senator advises precautionary measures such as looking closely at email sender addresses, being cautious in opening attachments especially coming from unknown sources, and being suspicious from those who call to verify any pertinent information. He also tells the public to secure their browsers and create a back-up for important files in case of cyberattack. It is also important, Gatchalian said, for the public to immediately report such crimes to the PNP and NBI for proper action and documentation. Expressing how he believes that people are able to move forward and sustain the momentum to bring change through speaking up, former United States President Barack Obama addressed the ongoing protests that followed the death of George Floyd, Monday. In a report by ABC News, Obama's statement came in a piece that was published on Medium. In the piece, he said that it ultimately depends on a new generation of activists to bring up with strategies that would best fit the situation. However, he also stated that there are lessons that should be drawn from past efforts that should be remembered. The message of Obama's statement emphasized the importance of people's participation in politics and voting especially at the local level since he said that many decisions on police practices and "ground-level criminal justice" happen. People Should Engage in Both Protests and Politics He also stressed that the bottom line of it all is that in order for real change to happen, people should not choose between politics and protests, instead they should engage in both. He noted that in the goal to raise awareness, mobility is needed and also people should choose the legislators and leaders who will act on the reforms. Being the first and only African American to become president of the US, Obama acknowledged that the protests that have started symbolize the genuine frustration of people over the long failure to reform the criminal justice system in the US. Moreover, Obama also plead to thepeople to never rationalize the need for violence nor find excuses nor participate in it. With this, Obama emphasized how important voting in every election is saying that the people who get to sit in office through people exercising their right of suffrage are those who will be able to reform the justice system. Read also: George Floyd Video: Three Footages Put Together Shows Final Moments Before His Death In his letter, Obama also acknowledges what the country is currently going on after the protests, chaos, and riots have started, all amid the health care crisis brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, Business Insider also reported that Obama recognized how it could have dampened the spirits of people that the sorrow, uncertainty, and fear of the pandemic have been heightened by the incidents that served as a reminder that injustice and inequality still thrive in America. However, he stated that the heightened activism and involvement of the youth that he has witnessed in the past few weeks and days have given him hope. He also added that a real turning point and defining moment in American history may soon happen if the justifiable anger of the people can be channeled unto effective and peaceful action. The piece however is not the first time that Obama has written and spoke out on the unrest that was caused by the death of Floyd. According to FOX 6, on Friday Obama posted a statement on Twitter that said the brutality and injustice that surrounded the death of Floyd and its aftermath should not be viewed as normal in the US. He noted that the country's children should be able to grow up in a country that lives up to its ideals. Related article: Trump Says Antifa Will Be Labelled as Terrorist Group with Constitutional Issue Arising @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. President Donald Trump on Monday suggested he would use federal troops to end unrest that has erupted following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man killed in police custody last week. 'If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them,' Trump said during brief remarks at the White House. The demonstrations have been largely peaceful, but police in some cities have used force against journalists and protesters, and protesters have clashed with police. Many US cities have set curfews. To deploy the armed forces, Trump would need to formally invoke a group of statutes known as the Insurrection Act. President Donald Trump on Monday suggested he would invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 to send in federal troops to end unrest that has erupted following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man killed in police custody last week. Pictured: Protesters sit in front of Pennsylvania National Guard members in Philadelphia on Monday The Insurrection Act was last used in 1992 during the Rodney King riots (pictured) WHAT IS THE INSURRECTION ACT? Under the US Constitution, governors generally have the authority to maintain order within state borders. This principle is reflected in a law called the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally bars the federal military from participating in domestic law enforcement. The Insurrection Act, which dates to the early 1800s, creates an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act. It permits the president to send in US forces to suppress a domestic insurrection that has hindered the normal enforcement of US law. CAN TRUMP SEND IN TROOPS WITHOUT A GOVERNOR'S APPROVAL? Yes. The law lays out a scenarios in which the president is required to have approval from a state's governor or legislature, and also instances where such approval is not necessary, said Robert Chesney, a professor of national security law at the University of Texas. HAS IT BEEN INVOKED BEFORE? Yes. The Insurrection Act has been invoked on dozens of occasions through US history. Since the civil rights movement of the 1960s, its use has become 'exceedingly rare', according to a report by the Congressional Research Service. The Insurrection Act was last used in 1992, when the acquittal of four Los Angeles police officers in the beating of black motorist Rodney King led to deadly riots. Before that, it was invoked in 1989 during widespread looting in St Croix, Virgin Islands, after Hurricane Hugo. The Act was invoked in 1989 during widespread looting in St Croix, Virgin Islands, after Hurricane Hugo In 2006 the Bush administration suggested using the act to intervene in Louisiana's response to Hurricane Katrina - despite the governor's refusal - but that move was deemed unconstitutional. The act was subsequently amended in 2007 to explicitly allow any emergency hindering law enforcement to be a cause for use of the military. In 2008, the amendment was repealed after the governors of all 50 states issued a joint statement against it. CAN A COURT STRIKE DOWN TRUMP'S APPLICATION OF THE LAW? Chesney said a successful legal challenge to Trump's use of the law was 'very unlikely.' Courts have historically been very reluctant to second-guess a president's military declarations, he said. 'The law, for all practical purposes, leaves this to the president with very little judicial review with any teeth,' Chesney said. A new analysis of COVID-19 outbreaks in 58 cities has found that places that took longer to begin implementing social distancing measures spent more time with the virus rapidly spreading than others that acted more quickly. In a new paper from epidemiological researchers at The University of Texas at Austin, now in press with the CDC's journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, researchers studied cities throughout China and analyzed when first cases were detected, when social distancing measures were implemented and when the outbreak was considered contained. The team found that every day a city delayed in implementing social distancing measures after the appearance of a first case added 2.4 days to the length of the outbreak. "Every day saves time, saves effort, saves people becoming infected and probably saves lives," said Lauren Ancel Meyers, a professor of integrative biology who leads the UT Austin COVID-19 Modeling Consortium. "This is particularly important as we think about the coming weeks and months." The findings are applicable both to communities experiencing their first outbreaks and those that may see a resurgence in the coming months, Meyers said. Waiting a week after early signs of resurgence might require about 17 more days of social distancing to slow the spread of the pandemic, according to the data. "It will be difficult to consider strict interventions again, but acting early upon signs of resurgence will mean fewer days of social distancing orders," said Spencer Fox, associate director of the UT Austin COVID-19 Modeling Consortium and co-author on the paper. "Our findings have implications for the timing of interventions in U.S. cities," Meyers said. "The impact of delays may be particularly important for communities that are prone to rapid transmission, such as nursing homes, colleges, schools and jails. We need concrete plans for when and how to respond to rising cases to prevent unnecessarily long and costly restrictions." To determine when an outbreak had been contained, scientists look at case counts and determine the reproduction number, a measurement that shows how many people will be infected by one infectious person. If the reproduction number drops below 1, scientists consider the outbreak contained. Other studies into the impact of delaying social distancing measures have used modeling to estimate a link between the time of measures being taken and the effect on outbreaks. By contrast, this study used on-the-ground data to determine the link between cities taking measures to contain the virus and rates of the virus spreading. The study was not able to determine which social distancing measures were most effective, but it showed that the timing of the first measure, regardless of the type, had a big impact. "We provide direct, data-driven evidence that the timing of interventions has a substantial impact on how long an outbreak lasts, how effective our interventions are and, ultimately, how many people might be infected and die from the virus," Meyers said. Although the study looked at cities experiencing the earliest days of an outbreak, the findings are also relevant for cities in the middle of an outbreak, Meyers said. In addition to Fox and Meyers, Zhanwei Du of UT Austin, Xiaoke Xu of Dalian Minzu University, Lin Wang of the University of Cambridge, Benjamin J. Cowling of the University of Hong Kong and Alison P. Galvani of the Yale School of Public Health contributed to the research. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 06/01/2020 ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. : Before the 90 Days star Varya Malina has apologized for the way she treated Geoffrey's friend Mary during Varya's surprise trip to the United States designed to win Geoffrey back."I handled that situation horrible, without any class," Varya told fans this past weekend of her tense encounters with Mary in a 10-minute YouTube video."I am far from being an angel. I've made so many mistakes in my life, but if there is a chance to change something, I will do it. The way I acted towards Mary was unfair, and I realized that -- but later, only when I calmed down."Varya posted her YouTube video this past weekend following last week's episode of : Before the 90 Days' fourth season."I am that cruel, rude Russian -- that 'Red Evil,' you can call me that after the last episode," Varya said."To be honest, I could barely watch it and didn't want to discuss anything, but I received so many messages -- bad and good -- with hate and with support that I decided to tell my side of the story... You can decide if you are 'Team Varya' or 'Team Mary.'"The episode showed Varya traveling to Geoffrey's home in Tennessee three months after Geoffrey left Russia and dumped her because Varya had rejected his marriage proposal. When Varya arrived on Geoffrey's doorstep without any notice, Mary was inside.Mary had apparently stayed the night at Geoffrey's place after they went out to a romantic dinner in attempt to rekindle a romance they had a long time ago.Varya and Mary's meeting was immediately hostile, with Varya calling Mary "irritating" as well as "a b-tch," and Mary questioned Varya's motive and cried to the cameras about how she felt foolish and betrayed by Geoffrey.Before Mary left the scene, she grabbed something in Geoffrey's house and Varya snapped at her, "Leave your panties there?""At that moment, I was totally lost, shocked and forgot English. As we say in Russian, I decided that the best protection is attack, and I kind of attacked," Varya admitted in her YouTube video."The only idea in my head was, 'This girl is trying to steal my man!' I knew about her existence because she constantly texted Geoffrey while he was in Russia. I saw her messages pop up on his phone, and I even asked him, 'Who is that?' And Geoffrey said, 'Don't worry it is just my friend.' [So I said], 'Okay.'"Varya said she had seen a photo of Mary and Geoffrey together on Instagram and so she couldn't believe it when she saw Mary inside Geoffrey's home the morning she showed up at his house."Of course it freaked me out! You could see I wanted to hear an explanation from Geoffrey but Mary was questioning me on who I am, and I just started to yell in Russian -- it was more comfortable. Thank God they cut it off," Varya recalled."It wasn't [cursing] but it wasn't pleasant either. Then I messed up with English words. It was horrible! I wanted to say, 'Why does she act like a victim?' And instead of that, I said, 'Why does she act like a virgin?' Everyone was like, 'What are you talking about?!'"Varya didn't even want to mention some of the things she had said to Mary that didn't air on TLC."It was horrible. I agree, I was trashy. But you haven't seen the whole picture. When Mary left Geoffrey's house, he messaged her, he called her, and of course he apologized. And he even said, 'Varya overreacted and she wants to apologize,' which I wasn't ready to do at that moment, but I was pushed by everyone around because it was [near] Mary's birthday," Varya explained."I felt so much [guilt] and so I said, 'We need to calm down and we need to talk if she's comfortable.'"Varya admitted she was mad at Geoffrey as well but pounded him with her thoughts later on when cameras weren't rolling.In Sunday night's episode of : Before the 90 Days, Mary showed up at a bar where Geoffrey and Varya were hanging out with Geoffrey and Mary's mutual friends."In the bar, I kind of knew Mary could come, but I swear I hoped it wouldn't happen. But it happened," Varya said."Before she came, I had fun with Geoffrey's friends. They weren't as mean as you saw [on TV]. They asked me questions and were interested in my story [and] who I am... It was nice to talk to them.""The fun was over when Mary appeared again, and my heart fell down," she continued."I was like, 'Okay, we need to talk seriously, and again, I need to apologize,' but I always have a plan and something ruined my plan. Don't mess with Russians and don't poke the bear in us."When Mary and Varya met face to face again at the bar, Mary asked Varya, "Why the f-ck are you here?!" And Varya said she wouldn't put up with that type of treatment.Varya demanded that Mary stay away from Geoffrey because he didn't love her, but Mary insisted Varya didn't know Geoffrey like she did, which resulted in Varya calling her arrogant.Varya, however, said she hit a low point in her life with how she had treated Mary and there's only room to grow and get better.Varya also apologized for disappointing fans and not reaching their expectations of her."I'm sorry... but I am a real person, and I have a right to learn from my mistakes," Varya noted."I hope you guys are smart enough and much more classier than me to not spread negativity online. Please, don't message Geoffrey, Mary or me, trying to put down someone. We are all adults and can handle the situation on our own. Love you guys, take care of yourselves."Sunday night's finale episode of : Before the 90 Days ended with Geoffrey proposing marriage to Varya again before she had to return to Russia.Varya accepted the engagement ring Geoffrey had bought for her this time around, and the couple planned to continue a long-distance relationship until Varya could come back to the United States on a K-1 visa and they could get married. Click here to read spoilers on Varya and Geoffrey's relationship and whether they're still together.Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage! Very often they rail against intellectuals and experts of nearly all types, Steven Levitsky, Mr. Ziblatts co-author, said. The leaders, he said, claim to have a kind of common-sense wisdom that the experts lack. This doesnt work very well versus Covid-19. In Brazil, Mr. Bolsonaro fired his health minister and has repeatedly called for states to end stay-at-home orders. In the United States, Mr. Trump rejected the views of experts for almost two months, predicting the virus would disappear like a miracle. In Britain, Mr. Johnsons government initially encouraged people to continue socializing, even as other countries were locking down. All four leaders also flouted guidance on personal protective measures early on, refusing to wear a mask or continuing to shake hands. The pattern is apparent beyond just those countries, too. Iran a country with a theocratic supreme leader is fifth in case growth over the past two weeks among countries with at least 50 million people. Health experts say the government did not heed warnings about reopening too quickly. Mexico where President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is a left-wing populist whose government published posters saying the virus no es grave (is not serious) is sixth. An academic effort to track countries responses to the virus has shown that a delay in government reaction allows the virus to spread much faster, said Thomas Hale of the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University, who is leading the effort. Many of the countries seeing bad outbreaks now share a late recognition of the urgency of the crisis, Mr. Hale said. On 22 May, 2020, the Supreme Court of Brazil issued an order that a recording of a private meeting of President Bolsonaro with his staff be made public. President Bolsonaro uses impassioned language some might find offensive. It shows what President Bolsonaro thinks when he is not in the public view. The video is of a meeting on April 22, 2020. The public exposure of the video echoes what has been happening in the Trump administration. The political opposition to Bolosonaro's reforms have instigated criminal investigations into President Bolsonaro's family. The video is ambivalent about the investigations; both sides have claimed vindication. The video exposes what President Bolsonaro thinks about an armed population. Except for the passionate use of expletives, it could be something written by George Mason, Richard Henry Lee, or Tench Cox in the federalist papers. Here is the translation from the video posted on twitter. Some of the translation has been slightly edited for clarity. ..... Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says Cabinet will consider moving to alert level 1 on June 8, earlier than previously indicated. Cabinet had been expecting to consider the alert levels by June 22 and no later, but Ardern told Morning Report that based on the low number of cases, they could now deliberate on that earlier. She says the country would be given a period of time to transition, but it's possible that we could be at alert level 1 by June 10. "As long as we kept seeing the results that we're seeing now [then it is possible to move to level 1] ... if we see cases at the border then that also shouldn't derail our progress, because those of course are cases of individuals who are in quarantine." Ardern says the results of the strict lockdown rules have probably been even better than what the Director-General of Health had predicted. "I think the really important point here is actually the vast majority of people when they had gone out would have felt a sense of normality. "Yes, there are still restrictions in place and I know for those businesses where they exist, they are difficult and they are having an impact, which is why we've always said we want to keep under review what we're seeing from our results. "We anticipated an even slightly longer tail of transmission [of cases] than we've had, we've been in contact with [the Director-General of Health] over the weekend. "I'll be raising with Cabinet that we should bring forward our consideration of the alert levels to the June 8 Cabinet meeting." Ardern says the criteria for level 1 would be re-examined but it was likely to remain as it currently stands. "There are very few restrictions, it's border controls and they remain critical, and of course public hygiene measures." The Director-General of Health will check with Cabinet that the criteria contains all vital baseline measures. "Basically, alert level 1 is our new normal with COVID in the world," says Ardern. The gradual transition to lower levels provided extra confidence for the government in their decisions, she says. "Already we have some of the fewest restrictions in the world right now, and if and when we move to level 1, we would be up there, on our own almost, in terms of restrictions that would then be gone." Contact tracing and mass masking University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker told Morning Report there is still a number of things we need to get right - including having a mask wearing culture, particularly with indoor environments such as public transport - if we moved to alert level 1. "There's growing consensus we're approaching elimination at this point, but complacency is the enemy." "If you take the war time metaphor, We're close to winning the first battle with this virus, but we really need to think about this as a long term war that's going to go for perhaps a couple of years or perhaps longer." Michael says we could potentially become more exposed to the virus when we open up the borders. "These risks are manageable, but I don't think we can sit back and say 'problem solved' at all." There also needed to be better digital tools to support contact tracing, says Michael. "We need to move past the app very quickly to something more sophisticated like a Bluetooth enabled smart card." However, Ardern says the current systems are ready to handle a move to alert level 1 as they are now, and they are also looking at the ongoing role of technology. "I wouldn't want to lock that in as a certainty but I've talked about this quite a bit when we've been talking about the apps. Cards have been flouted as an alternative to some of the issues in the apps. "We've been looking at some of these options all in tandem." She believes the current contact tracing system was good but held back by the time it took for people to get tested. "If people wait too long then we lose that window of opportunity ... and technology doesn't solve that, only people can." Micahel is also keen to see a specialist public health agency equivalent to the centre for disease control in the US. "We need to very smart as we move ahead." He says a good example to follow is Taiwan, where the virus has been eliminated but the public and authorities are taking no chances. 'People are over this - they want to get on with it' Meanwhile, business and hospitality groups say there's no need to wait until next week to drop to alert level 1. Employers and Manufacturers Association head of advocacy Alan McDonald says businesses are going to the wall on a daily basis. "Judging by some of the behaviour over the weekend business is the possibly the only group that's still social distancing in any meaningful way. "It's really really hard out there. "There's this perception - or misperception - that things are back to normal whereas most of the businesses we're talking to and dealing with are barely at 50 percent of their productivity and capacity. "And while they're open they're not getting revenue, they're not getting cash flow." Many businesses' supply chains are not open or area slowed, and there was a lack of customers. "There's still quite a lot of nervousness of people going back, so we'd like to see some of the language change - stop scaring everybody and say it's actually okay." Hospitality NZ chief executive Julie White says there's no need to wait until next week. "It's game on now ... we've proved we can open safely so lets just get on with this." Bars and restaurants were unable to even meet their costs under alert level 2 restrictions, she said. "I'm getting more and more feedback from our members around how their customers are now pushing back. "People are over this, they just want to get on with it." White said it was also time for the government to step up on its COVID-19 tracing system, which she found not to work at three businesses she went into over the weekend. -RNZ Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Market Overview A2 milk is fetched from cows, and it contains A2 beta-casein protein. The increasing awareness about the benefits of the protein content is likely to increase the demand for the milk in the foreseeable future. Market Research Future (MRFR) has unfolded in its latest report that the COVID-19 Impact on A2 Milk Market is prognosticated to scale a valuation of USD 13,970.0 Mn by 2025 reflecting a CAGR of 14.6% over the projection period 2018 to 2025. A2 milk lacks A1 beta-casein protein, which causes stomach ache and gastrointestinal problems. This, in turn, is anticipated to catalyse the revenue generation of COVID-19 Impact on A2 Milk Market over the next couple of years. Also, the focus of dairy farms on increasing production of A2 milk is expected to unleash developmental opportunities to the market in the forthcoming years. Industry Trends They ongoing key trends that are expected to boost the revenue growth of the players of the global COVID-19 Impact on A2 Milk Market are product launches, expansion of distribution channels, penetration of regional markets, packaging innovations, etc. To illustrate, In October 2018, Nestle S.A., a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate, announced its plan of launching A2 beta-casein protein infant formula in New Zealand and Australia to compete with first mover A2 milk. Key Players Nestle S.A. (Switzerland), Olitia Foods Pvt. Ltd (India), Provilac Dairy Farms Pvt. Ltd (India), The a2 Milk Company Limited (New Zealand), Freedom Foods Group Limited (Australia), Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (India), Vinamilk (Vietnam), Ripley Farms LLC (US), Taw River Dairy (UK) and Urban Farms Milk (India). Market Segmentation Global COVID-19 Impact on A2 Milk Market has been segmented based on category for presenting an in-depth analysis. The segments include jersey, Holstein, Guernsey, and brown swiss. Among these, the Holstein segment is leading the growth pace of the market and accounts for the highest milk production in the world. The segment is expected to touch a valuation of USD 3,948.6 Mn by 2023, reflecting a relatively higher ACGR over the evaluation period. The jersey segment is expected to gain traction of the market in the years to come. The segment is projected to grow substantially in regions that focus on the production of butter. Some of the prime country-level markets for the jersey segment are Denmark and New Zealand. The segments of the COVID-19 Impact on A2 Milk Market, on the basis of packaging type, include bottles, cartons, and others. Access Full Report Details and Order this Premium Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/a2-milk-market-6495 The two distribution channels of the global A2 milk market assessed in this report are store-based and non-store-based. Regional Analysis The geographical study of the global COVID-19 Impact on A2 Milk Market spans across four key regions, namely North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Rest of the World (RoW). Asia Pacific held the lions share of the global market in 2017, which accounted for 40.88% share. The region is led by the drastic developments in the country-level markets of New Zealand and Australia. The growth of the A2 milk market in these countries is expected to contribute most prominently to the development of the market in Asia Pacific over the next couple of years. Meanwhile, the market in India is also expected to exhibit tremendous potential for growth. India is projected to scale a relatively higher CAGR of 15.3% across the forecast period 2018 to 2025. North America is anticipated to expand at a remarkable pace to exceed a valuation of USD 4,000 Mn by 2025. A considerable fraction of the dairy farms are shifting to cattle breeds such as Guernsey and Jersey for increasing production of A2 milk. This, in turn, is anticipated to accelerate revenue creation for market players in the upcoming years. In addition, the efforts directed towards the expansion of distribution channels by these dairy farms are poised to impact the A2 milk market favorably in the years to come. Related Covid-19 Analysis on FnB Reports: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/report/covid-19-impact-a2-milk-market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/report/covid-19-impact-alternative-sweeteners-market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/report/covid-19-impact-artisan-bakery-market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/report/covid-19-impact-rtd-beverages-market NOTE: Our Team of Researchers are Studying Covid19 and its Impact on Various Industry Verticals and wherever required we will be considering Covid19 Footprints for Better Analysis of Market and Industries. Cordially get in Touch for More Details. Former President George W. Bush (R) wrote in a statement Tuesday that he and his wife, Laura, are "anguished" by the death of George Floyd, and said that "it is time for America to examine our tragic failures." Why it matters: It's a stark juxtaposition when compared to fellow Republican President Trump's response to current civil unrest. While Trump has called for justice in Floyd's death, he's also condemned violent protestors and threatened to deploy military personnel if demonstrations continue. The former president, however, made no mention of the current administration in his statement. Bush writes that he and his wife over the past week actively "resisted the urge to speak out, because this is not the time for us to lecture. It is time for us to listen." What he's saying: Bush argued Americans best serve their neighbors when they "try to understand their experience." "It remains a shocking failure that many African Americans, especially young African American men, are harassed and threatened in their own country...," Bush wrote. "How do we end systemic racism in our society? The only way to see ourselves in a true light is to listen to the voices of so many who are hurting and grieving. Those who set out to silence those voices do not understand the meaning of America or how it becomes a better place," he added. The bottom line: Bush said "lasting justice will only come by peaceful means," condemning looting and destruction that's occurred in some demonstrations. I like the magazine titled Science because, well, the magazine is titled Science. The May 27, 2020 edition of Science contains an article titled Reducing transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and the articles premise is this wearing masks and widespread testing are necessary to prevent the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in aerosols and droplets. Lets talk about aerosols and droplets. Aerosols are liquid or solid particles suspended in the air. They can be visible, like fog, but are most often invisible, like dust or pollen, according to an article titled Aerosols, Droplets, and Airborne Spread: Everything you could possibly want to know, published April 6, 2020 by Justin Morgenstern in the First10EM blog. These aerosols, Morgenstern wrote, are often divided into small droplets and large droplets. Large droplets drop to the ground before they evaporate, causing local contamination. Disease transmission through these large droplets is what we often refer to as droplet/contact spread, where disease transmission occurs because you touch a surface contaminated by these droplets, or get caught within the spray zone when the patient is coughing or sneezing, or just talking or breathing. Aerosols are so small, Morgenstern continued, that buoyant forces overcome gravity, allowing them to stay suspended in the air for long periods, or they evaporate before they hit the floor, leaving the solid particulate free to float very long distances, causing what we often refer to as airborne transmission. Back to Science magazine. Respiratory infections, says the May 27 article, such as this new coronavirus, or COVID-19, occur through the transmission of virus-containing droplets and aerosols exhaled from infected individuals aerosols can accumulate, remain infectious in indoor air for hours, and be easily inhaled deep into the lungs. Droplet size, inertia, gravity and evaporation all of these have a play in determining how far these discharged droplets and aerosols will travel in the air. Barring development of COVID-19 treatments or vaccines, for society to return to normal, measures designed to reduce aerosol transmission must be implemented, said Science. This includes universal masking and regular, widespread testing of asymptomatic individuals. One of my colleagues relayed to me last week that he was recently in a local grocery store, wearing a mask, minding his own business and shopping, when a woman unknown to him approached him and suggested he lose the mask. Dont be a sheep, the woman said. My colleague, stunned, could finally only reply, Have a nice day, maam, and walked away from her. Before I comment on that grocery stores Madame Shepherd please, restrain me lets talk about that widespread testing of asymptomatic individuals. Under Montana Gov. Steve Bullocks mandate for enhanced testing for COVID-19 in Montana, sentinel testing is under way in Butte-Silver Bow. Federally Qualified Health Centers throughout the state have been charged with coordinating this sentinel testing, and Shawna Yates, M.D., medical director of Southwest Montana Community Health Center, is coordinating the local effort. Residents and staff of the areas nursing homes and assisted living facilities are currently being tested. Plans are also under way for community-wide testing any asymptomatic individual can now be tested. Be watching for a news release on times and locations for upcoming drive-through testing. Though sentinel testing of more than one million Montanans would seem to be a massive undertaking, universal masking seems to be the trickier of the two efforts. While wearing a mask likely is legitimately a behavior prompted by ones own health and the health of others one would assume these individuals have some understanding of aerosols and droplets not wearing a mask may be prompted by ignorance of these airborne objects. Or it may be just a political statement. Has there ever been a time in our lives when erring on the side of caution might be more called for? What will it take? Some contaminated aerosol or droplet reaching the lungs of the woman in Aisle 14? If you interact with someone who coughs, sneezes, talks or breathes, you are at risk for this virus. In the vernacular of Madame Shepherd, please, dont be a sheep. Wear the mask. Karen Sullivan is Butte-Silver Bows health officer and director of the countys Health Department. She writes this occasional column for The Montana Standard. Love 5 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 LAPORTE Construction of the new LaPorte Hospital resumed Monday after the job site was shut down May 19 due to COVID-19. Joe Forsthoffer, a spokesman for the general contractor Robins & Morton out of Birmingham, Alabama, said about 60 of the over 200 workers tested positive for the coronavirus. Forsthoffer said returning workers under Centers for Disease Control guidelines had to produce certification they tested negative or spent 14 days in self isolation without symptoms during the last 72 hours. He said workers testing positive must show they no longer had symptoms in the last 72 hours 10 days after first being diagnosed. Forsthoffer said all returning workers are now required to have their temperatures checked daily and fill out a health screening questionnaire to make sure they havent developed symptoms or had recent contact with someone exhibiting symptoms. He also said workers must wear face coverings. Defense officials will testify on Capitol Hill next week as criticism mounts over their presence near the White House on Monday, when police and National Guard members used tear gas on peaceful protesters to clear the way for the president to take a photo at a nearby church. Rep. Adam Smith, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs Chairman Army Gen. Mark Milley have been called to testify before the committee next week. Read next: 'I Am George Floyd:' Top Enlisted Airman Voices Outrage, Calls for Justice Review "I have serious concerns about using military forces to respond to protesters, and I remain gravely concerned about President Trump's seemingly autocratic rule and how it affects the judgment of our military leadership," Smith, D-Washington, said Tuesday. Esper and Milley, who wore his camouflage utility uniform, have been criticized for appearing in photos with the president at St. Johns Episcopal Church near the White House on Monday. The photo op came shortly after protesters were preemptively hit with flash-bang explosives and tear gas ahead of a 7 p.m. curfew in Washington, D.C. The tactics were used to clear a path before Trump made his way to the church, where he posed with a Bible. Trump had earlier made comments from the White House on national protests and unrest following the death of George Floyd, a black man who died last week while a white police officer kneeled on his neck. He also participated in a call with state governors in which he criticized states weak response to property destruction and violence during the protests. Esper, who was also on the call, has come under fire for saying that the Pentagon would support efforts to dominate the battlespace. Retired Joint Chiefs Chairman Army Gen. Martin Dempsey tweeted Monday night, "America is not a battleground. Our fellow citizens are not the enemy." Several Democratic lawmakers also spoke out. "To Secretary Esper: My state is not a 'battlespace,'" Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico said. Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, who served on the defense and intelligence communities under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, said she's concerned the president and senior Pentagon leaders are using the military to further political objectives. "Tonight, we saw the images of military police clearing an unarmed, peaceful protest with tear gas so that the President, Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, in uniform, could walk across a park for a photo op," Slotkin said Monday. "I worked with General Milley at the Pentagon, and I hope he's thinking seriously about the moral and ethical issues surrounding his role in the coming days." Defense officials, who spoke to reporters Tuesday on the condition of anonymity, told reporters that "nothing should be read into" Esper's use of the word "battlespace" to describe cities with protests. "I think all of you are very well aware that the Department of Defense often communicates in a parlance unique to the profession of arms," the official said. "You have a SecDef [who was] in uniform for more than 20 years. He was using the terms that we have." The word "battlespace" was simply meant to "discuss generally the area we are operating," the official added. Defense officials also said Esper and Milley did not plan to be involved in Trump's photo session. They were at the White House for a meeting when the president "indicated an interest in viewing the troops that were outside, and the secretary and the chairman went with him to do so," one official said. They were then redirected, the official added. Smith, in his announcement that Esper and Milley would be called to testify on Capitol Hill, said the militarys response to the protests must remain lawful. More than 18,000 National Guard troops are now activated to support law enforcement in protests, and some active-duty units are also on standby. "I remain gravely concerned about President Trump's seemingly autocratic rule and how it affects the judgment of our military leadership," Smith said. "... The fate of our democracy depends on how we navigate this time of crisis." -- Hope Hodge Seck contributed to this report. -- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @ginaaharkins. Related: Active-Duty Troops Remain Outside DC as Guard Force Grows Russias approval of the antiviral drug Avifavir to treat Covid-19 is good news for India as it is based on an influenza medication already in advanced clinical trials here, say scientists. Avifavir, described by its developers in Russia as perhaps the most promising anti Covid-19 drug in the world, is derived from Favipiravir. Mumbai-based Glenmark Pharmaceuticals announced last week that Favipiravir is under phase 3 clinical trials -- the penultimate stage in drug testing -- in India. Stating that Avifavir has shown high efficacy in treating patients with coronavirus during clinical trials, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) on Monday said it will deliver 60,000 courses of the drug to Russian hospitals in June. It also said Avifavir has become the first Favipiravir-based drug in the world to be approved for the treatment of COVID-19, it said. The close derivative link between Avifavir and Favipiravir is reason for hope in India too, said scientists here. Favipiravir has anyway been in discussion and a point of interest in the recent past, said Arup Kumar Banerjee from the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital, Siliguri. He noted that Favipiravir is available under the name of Avigan for influenza and is often recommended for viral infections such as bunyavirus, filovirus and arenavirus. It is prescribed for severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), a viral hemorrhagic fever with high fatality rate and is effective against all strains of influenza viruses, Banerjee told PTI. Vaccine is important, so is antiviral. We need to develop both side by side. Today, if anybody comes up with a drug against COVID 19 irrespective of country or origin, it is a good news subject to validation of the same in large scale. Hence, the same applies to this derivative as well, he added. Avifavir, developed by a joint venture between RDIF and ChemRar Group, is designed to disrupt the ability of the novel coronavirus to reproduce. Avifavir is not only the first antiviral drug registered against coronavirus in Russia, but it is also perhaps the most promising anti Covid-19 drug in the world, RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev said in a statement. The RDIF and the ChemRar Group last week announced that Avifavir has received a temporary registration certificate from the Russian Ministry of Health. Avifavir is a drug that as per available information is being tested by Russia against COVID 19 and is based on Favipiravir, a drug that is known to have inhibitory function against RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) activity of a virus, said virologist Upasana Ray. RdRP is an essential protein encoded in the genes of RNA-containing viruses. Favipiravir has been shown earlier to inhibit the influenza virus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, Ray, senior scientist at CSIR-IICB in Kolkata, told PTI. RNA polymerase is a viral enzyme that helps in replication or reproduction of the viral RNA, that is the genetic material. Hence, a drug that inhibits this activity would basically curb the functional multiplication of the virus, she explained. Glenmark last week announced a new randomised study in India to test the combined efficacy of Favipiravir and another antiviral drug Umifenovir as a potential COVID-19 treatment strategy. Glenmark also said that it is conducting Phase 3 clinical trials of Favipiravir as a COVID-19 therapy option with 150 patients, enrolled from nine leading government and private hospitals across the country. So far, 30 patients have been randomised. The monotherapy phase 3 clinical trial results are expected by July or August 2020, the company said in a statement last week. Glenmark said it is the first pharmaceutical company to receive approval from drug regulator Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct Favipiravir clinical trials against COVID-19 in India. Favipiravir is an oral antiviral drug approved in Japan in 2014 for the treatment of novel or re-emerging influenza virus infections. It has a unique mechanism of action by which it inhibits viral replication or reproduction, it said. Since it (Favipiravir) was earlier tested for influenza, they (researchers) could bypass initial toxicity tests etc. It was one of (hundreds) of clinical trials against SARS-COV-2. With preliminary data for the clinical trials looking positive they jumped on it, Durba Sengupta, from CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory in Pune, Maharashtra, told PTI. Sengupta said the drug acts on one of the main proteins that is responsible for RNA-replication. He also injected a note of caution. Till the clinical trial results are properly reported, it is difficult to say how effective it will be. One has to be definitely cautious. First, its not designed to target this particular virus, and it is RdRP, so the binding may be weaker than in influenza, Sengupta said. Though it is unknown how the different viral strains will bind, she said it is one of the better options right now. Another point, Sengupta noted, is that the drugs action is on the same target as the antiviral remdesivir, one of the top possible drug contenders for COVID-19. I think several people thought that remdesvir would be quite promising -- but it has been ambiguous so far. Getting robust clinical data in such short times is really tricky. It is really difficult to say without the actual clinical data and looking at the statistics, she added. Indias drug regulator has granted US pharma giant Gilead Sciences marketing authorisation for remdesivir for restricted emergency use on hospitalised COVID-19 patients in view of the crisis posed by the pandemic. The approval process for remdesivir was accelerated in view of the emergency situation and the unmet need for medicines in light of the coronavirus outbreak, a source in the know of the developments told PTI. PTI SAR MIN MIN MIN SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON More hospital ships needed for emergencies, adviser says PLA Daily Source: China Daily Editor: Yang Tao 2020-06-01 08:17:59 China should build more hospital ships so it can better respond to major medical emergencies, according to a national political adviser from the shipbuilding industry. Dong Qiang, a member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and former chairman of China State Shipbuilding Corp, suggested that the government should set up special funds to design and build four types of hospital ships. "We need hospital ships that can respectively be used along rivers, near coasts or in open seas far from the shore. They will be used for both civilian and military purposes," he told China Daily in an exclusive interview. "Such vessels will be specifically designed for medical purposes and have special ventilation and sterilization devices, as well as quarantine wards." The largest type among the four models proposed by Dong would have a displacement of 30,000 metric tons and be tasked with serving long-range, ocean-bound operations. The ship would be capable of traveling more than 18,500 kilometers in a single voyage and operating without resupply for 30 days. It would have about 100 crew members and be able to support the work of more than 400 medical staff. Such a ship could have as many as 1,000 beds for patients, including 600 that could be used for those with infectious respiratory diseases. There would also be intensive care units and 12 operating tables, according to Dong. The second-largest model, as Dong described, would have a displacement of 16,000 tons and be capable of sailing for nearly 9,300 km and operating without resupply for 20 days. There would be 30 crew members and about 250 doctors and nurses on the vessel, able to treat 350 patients. Preliminary technological research on these ships has started, and design work can begin at any time if the government approves the proposal, he said. The political adviser explained the reasons for advocating the building of such hospital vessels. "To deal with an epidemic or a natural disaster, the government will need to mobilize and organize a huge amount of medical resources very quickly to support severely affected places. One practical solution is a temporary hospital. But its construction requires a certain period of time and a very large input of manpower. "In addition, if an epidemic overlaps with another contingency such as a natural disaster or war, it will be very difficult for the government to concentrate medical forces and resources within a short time," Dong said. Therefore, a big country like China needs mobile forces for medical emergency response, he added. Considering these factors, he explained, mobile medical facilities can be very useful, helpful and convenient as a supplement to the existing hospital system. China has the world's first hospital ship designed and built for that purpose. CNS Daishandao, popularly known as the Peace Ark, is owned and run by the Chinese Navy. The ship, which has been known for its many overseas humanitarian missions, has 300 beds, eight operating tables and 2,400 items of medical apparatus such as computed tomography scanners, x-ray imagers and air purifiers. The Peace Ark was developed and constructed by China State Shipbuilding Corp, the nation's leading shipbuilder and one of the world's biggest in this industry. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Governors Early Literacy Foundation announces its K-3rd Grade Summer Reading pilot to provide 30,000 students in Tennessee with six books, piloting a Summer Collection from Dolly Partons Imagination Library, at no cost to families or school districts. All rising 1st through 3rd grade students in 33 participating school districts will receive two books delivered to their homes monthly in June, July and August. Hamilton County Schools is participating in the pilot. Third grade reading proficiency is a key indicator for a childs future educational success and workforce readiness, says James Pond, GELF president. Through this pilot initiative, we hope to combat summer learning loss and strengthen early literacy in Tennessee by providing students with books and resources outside of school. Also known as the Summer Slide, research shows that two to three months of reading proficiency is lost for students who do not read over the summer. Reading four to six books has the potential to stop or even reverse Summer Slide. Since 2004, GELF has partnered with Dolly Partons Imagination Library and affiliates in all 95 Tennessee counties to provide books monthly to children from birth to age five, at no cost to families. GELFs K-3rd Grade Summer Reading pilot expands book delivery efforts for students in participating districts with specially-selected, ageappropriate Summer Collection books from Dolly Partons Imagination Library. Participating school districts were chosen based on the countys designation of distressed or at-risk by the Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development and the Tennessee Department of Education. Through this pilot, families will also receive free access to digital learning resources and activities to engage with their children around the monthly books. For more information about K-3rd Grade Summer Reading, visit the GELF website. Hong Kong is "one of three major financial centers" in the world, and any damage to its status as a key hub will have an impact on all the firms operating there including foreign companies, said Hong Kong's secretary for commerce and economic development. Washington's move to evoke Hong Kong's special trading status with the U.S. was not "fair or justified," Edward Yau told CNBC on Tuesday. He was referring to President Donald Trump announcement last Friday that he will end Hong Kong's preferential trade status with the United States. It came in response to China's approval of a proposed security law that would effectively override the legislature in the special administrative region. Critics of the controversial legislation say it will erode the Chinese territory's freedoms and autonomy. Hong Kong's autonomy Separately, the U.S. passed a law last year requiring Hong Kong to be "sufficiently autonomous" from the mainland in order to qualify for a favorable trading relationship with the U.S. China's proposal prompted concerns over Hong Kong's status as a top financial hub in Asia, but Yau stressed the importance of the city to companies from around the region. "Hong Kong is ... one of the three major financial centers around the world. Here, we trade globally in our time zone for all the stocks listed in Hong Kong. They (are) not only confined to Hong Kong companies," he told CNBC, adding they include companies from mainland China, Singapore and the U.S. Many companies establish their bases in the city as a gateway into mainland China, to East Asia and Southeast Asia, he pointed out. There are concerns that more than 1,300 American companies operating in the city would be impacted if Hong Kong's special trade status with the U.S. were to be revoked. Let us make one thing very clear: the introduction of the national security law does not affect, undermine or erode any of the rights and privileges given to all citizens, entities and also companies be they local or otherwise. Edward Yau Hong Kong's secretary for commerce and economic development Yau said that both local and overseas companies were in the services sector, where interests were intertwined. "We welcome everybody to come do business here," Yau said , adding that Hong Kong is serving a "very unique role ... not just for the country, but also for the world." The number of businesses operating in Hong Kong that have parent companies outside of the city was 9,040 last year up nearly 10% from 2017, according to data from InvestHK, a government agency in Hong Kong. Those were mostly from mainland China, Japan, Singapore, the U.S. and the U.K. Hong Kong hasn't been "spared from the bigger ... major geopolitical climate," Yau said. Even before the U.S. move to revoke the city's special status, tensions between the U.S. and China were rising, with the two fighting over the origins of the coronavirus outbreak, for instance. Still, Yau added: "It doesn't seem logical for a major trading partner (that's) been investing in Hong Kong, taking full advantage of our trade balance and services sector, (to) do something meant to harm Hong Kong, and also simultaneously harming their own interests." He urged the U.S. government to reconsider the decision and make "full calculations" on the impact of its move on their respective economies, as well as global markets. Law doesn't 'undermine or erode' rights Rao Ghulam Murtaza, a journalist affiliated with Daily Jahan-e-Pakistan was shot dead by robbers in broad daylight in Jodhpur in the Punjab province on June 1. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its Pakistan affiliate the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) condemn the murder and urge the Pakistan government to bring the killers to justice. The journalist was shot when travelling on the Sry Sidhu road in Jodhpur near his home. According to PFUJ, unknown robbers at first stole his mobile phone and cash of PKP 100,000 (USD 615) and shot the journalists leg when journalist resisted. Mustafa died on the spot due to excessive blood loss before the rescue team reached him. The robbers fled the scene following the incident. This is the fourth murder of the journalists in Pakistan in 2020. On May 26, Zulfiqar Ali Mandrani, a senior journalist with the Sindhi newspaper Daily Koshish was shot dead in Jacobabad, Javed Khan, the bureau chief of the Ausaf newspaper, was killed on February 25. On February 16, Aziz Memon, a journalist with Daily Kawish and Sindhi TV Channel KTN News, was found dead in an irrigation canal in southern Sindh with a wire wrapped around his neck. PFUJ said:Murtaza is third journalist murdered within a month. The killing is directly associated with the increased impunity of crimes against journalist. This would not happen if the authorities had properly investigated and persecuted previous murders.We urge the government of Pakistan to take serious action against the killing and put the killers behind bars. IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said: The brazen attack on a journalist in broad daylight indicates the deteriorating security situation and increased impunity relating to crimes against journalist in Pakistan. IFJ condemns the shocking killing, extends heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of the deceased journalist and urges the Pakistan government to investigate the case. The Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association (SCAORA) Tuesday requested Chief Justice of India S A Bobde and other apex court judges to resume physical court hearings from July, while pointing out the "practical difficulties" faced by lawyers in effectively presenting their cases through virtual hearings. The apex court, which has restricted its functioning since March 25 amid spread of COVID-19 pandemic, is presently hearing matters through video-conferencing only. In a letter addressed to the CJI and other judges of the Supreme Court, the SCAORA has said that as per the feedback received from the members of the Bar almost 95 per cent lawyers are "not comfortable with the virtual court hearings". "The common feedback seems to be that the lawyers are unable to present their cases effectively in the virtual medium and the same is acting as a major deterrent for lawyers to consent for such virtual hearings," the lawyers' body said. "In view of such practical difficulties, I, on behalf of SCAORA and thousands of lawyers, request the court to resume physical court hearings upon re-opening in July 2020 after summer vacations. Moreso, in light of the announcement of the unlock 1.0 and measures to be undertaken to resume normalcy in a phased manner," SCAORA President Shivaji M Jadhav said in the letter. In the letter, the SCAORA has mentioned about the feedback received from the members of Bar which included the problems with audio and video quality of the hearing which results in the lawyers not being able to effectively put forth their arguments. It said that most lawyers are facing "severe financial problems" during this pandemic due to the staggered working of the courts and "unless the normal functioning of courts is resumed, the said concern will not abate". While requesting for resumption of physical court hearings from July, the SCAORA has said that the apex court may consider imposing other conditions for safety of all concerned such as allowing limited number of lawyers for matters. The lawyers' body has also given some suggestions including that entry of litigants, interns and law students be restricted for the time being and the existing distance between the lawyers and judges be increased. "Wearing of masks be made compulsory for all lawyers even inside the courtroom with the lawyer who is arguing to wear a face shield," the letter said. The SCAORA has also expressed gratitude for the "proactive role" of the Supreme Court in the effort to provide access to justice in the difficult time of COVID-19 pandemic. Referring to the provision of new E-filing module software, the lawyers' body said such individualized service for advocates would enable them to use their time in a more effective manner. "We are also truly grateful for the acknowledgment that open court hearings are the spine of our system and that virtual courts are not a substitute to physical courts," the SCAORA said. Also read: Delhi coronavirus cases: 13 people test COVID-19 positive at Delhi LG's office Also read: No travel fare to be charged from migrant workers, directs Supreme Court (TNS) Ivy Tech Community College recently announced that it will provide free classes to 10,000 Hoosiers in a range of relevant high-demand areas, including advanced manufacturing, business and cybersecurity.More than 650,000 Hoosiers are experiencing unemployment, reduced hours, and/or furloughs because of the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. the classes are designed to help those affected improve their employment prospects and gain new skills.Ivy Tech selected the classes in collaboration with employers and other partners to ensure they are aligned with existing and future job opportunities, according to a press release. Support from companies like Amatrol and Autodesk Inc. underscores the degree to which Indianas employers have an immediate and ongoing need for skilled workers.In an effort to encourage those who seek to improve their skills, the college is allowing participants to take more than one free class. The classes are offered online, and there are no regular course meeting times, allowing participants to work at their own pace.There is no need to fill out an application and no prerequisites.More information can be found at IvyTech.edu/10kclasses TEL AVIV, Israel, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Kardome today announces an agreement with Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi's Innovation Lab in Tel Aviv to evaluate Kardome's smart audio solution towards entering the voice enabled era in automotive. Remember how many times you have been frustrated by trying to dictate an address to your car navigation system or having a hands-free phone conversation while your kids are chatting at back seat or while the radio is on. Kardome along with Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi's technical team in Tel Aviv are leveraging Kardome's generic speech separation and noise reduction technology to solve exactly those challenges. The developed system will utilize a single minimized array of microphones and Karmode's location based, patented source separation algorithms to facilitate a seamless voice interaction between all the passengers and the car, as well as offer a high-quality hands-free phone conversation in a typical, noisy car environment. According to the Alliance Innovation Lab's Tel Aviv Director, Antoine Basseville: "The state-of-the-art beamforming solutions, that estimate signal's direction, require multiple units to be installed to capture high quality sound of the front and rear passengers. With Kardome, we hope that a single unit would provide better performance." The project is twelve months long collaboration supported by the Israeli Innovation Authority, as part of the innovation labs program which is operated by the Alliance Innovation Lab Tel Aviv. About Kardome Kardome is an Israeli start-up founded in 2019, with the goal of meeting the growing demand for reliable voice control technology from automakers and electronics manufacturers. Kardome's technology gives the machine better "ears" through algorithms that manage to isolate the user's voice, even in a noisy environment with multiple speakers and background noises that are active at the same time. Kardome's technology combines dedicated software with the use of microphones that already exist in various products. Kardome software enables the implementation of a new generation of voice user interface, operating reliably even in noisy and multi-speaker environments, such as vehicles, public buildings, restaurants and even at home. About the Alliance Innovation Lab Tel Aviv The Alliance Innovation Lab Tel Aviv aims to advance the state-of-the-art mobility, with a main focus on vision sensors, cybersecurity, and data & AI. Its mission is to identify and test Israeli technologies that could be implemented in future cars and services offered by the Alliance member companies. The Lab collaborates with the local innovation ecosystem through joint prototyping efforts. To date it has led more than 15 collaborative projects and POCs with Israeli start-ups. The Lab, located in Park Atidim TLV, builds on a unique 1600 m2 facility which provides startups with space to test technologies with real vehicles, as well as on a team of engineers permanently located in Israel. Since February 2018, it has also operated under the new Technological Labs program of the Israeli Innovation Authority. Contact: Dani Cherkassky, CEO Kardome Technology Ltd. [email protected] SOURCE Kardome Related Links https://www.kardome.com/ Warner Bros. announced the 2019 film Just Mercy, about Alabama-based lawyer Bryan Stevenson and his client on death row, will be available to stream for free on digital platforms during the month of June to help people learn about systemic racism. The film chronicles world-renowned civil rights defense attorney Bryan Stevenson as he recounts his experiences and details the case of a condemned death row prisoner Walter McMillian, whom he fought to free. Its based on Stevensons best-selling memoir Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption." We believe in the power of story, the films official Twitter account said. #JustMercy is one resource we can offer to those who are interested in learning more about the systemic racism that plagues our society. For the month of June, #JustMercy will be available to rent for free on digital platforms in the US. Amid the protests in response to the death of George Floyd, the studio tweeted support for the case, along with a Stevenson quote. Somebody has to stand when others are sitting," the quote says. "Somebody has to speak when others are quiet. We stand with our Black colleagues, talent, storytellers and fans and all affected by senseless violence, the rest of the WB tweet said. Your voices matter, your messages matter. #BlackLivesMatter. Played in the film by Creed and Black Panther actor Michael B. Jordan, Stevenson is now based in Montgomery and has spent much of his life and career challenging bias against the poor and minorities in the criminal justice system. Joining Jordan are Oscar-winners Jamie Foxx and Brie Larson. Foxx plays the death row inmate in this story. During a tense scene in the trailer, Foxx interrupts Jordan with the line, You dont know what youre into down here in Alabama, when youre guilty from the moment youre born. The film was partially filmed in Alabama as well as Georgia and other locations. It had its world premiere during this weeks Toronto International Film Festival. Its directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, who previously made the critically acclaimed 2013 drama Short Term 12 starring Larson, Rami Malek and Lakeith Stanfield. "Just Mercy earned the National Board of Reviews Freedom of Expression Award in December 2019. It also found a place on President Barack Obamas list of favorite films last year, and it earned NAACP Image Awards for outstanding motion picture, actor, supporting actor and ensemble cast. Jamie Foxx also earned a Screen Actors Guild nomination for his performance. You can now stream the film for free on digital platforms like Apple TV, Google Play, Prime Video, Vudu, YouTube, FandangoNOW and others. We believe in the power of story. #JustMercy is one resource we can offer to those who are interested in learning more about the systemic racism that plagues our society. For the month of June, #JustMercy will be available to rent for free on digital platforms in the US. @eji_org pic.twitter.com/3B2IHMNk7E Just Mercy (@JustMercyFilm) June 2, 2020 Ebola virus More than 34 thousand cases of the corona virus have been reported in Africa and around 1,500 people have died from the infection. The Ebola virus is now returning to Africa, suffering from starvation, locust plague and measles. New cases of Ebola virus have been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Ebola virus Advertisement Recently, cases of Ebola have been reported in the country. But this time new cases have been found more than a thousand kilometers from where the disease had spread. Congolese Health Minister Eteni Longondo said the virus had killed five people in the western city of Mbandaka. He said doctors and medicines had been sent to the affected area. The Democratic Republic of the Congo was about to announce the end of the Ebola epidemic in April when new cases emerged. Apart from Ebola, DRC is also fighting measles and corona epidemics. According to a media report, the city of Mbandaka, in the southern part of the Congo, has seen a number of new cases of the Ebola virus. As of Monday, five people had died of Ebola, according to UNICEF. Just a month ago, the Congo announced that there were no cases of Ebola in the country and that the epidemic had been contained. Advertisement Ebola virusEbola has killed more than 2275 people in the last two years. However, the Congolese health ministry says the situation is still under control. It is currently being investigated how Ebola got so far, as all previous cases were reported in northern Congo. There have been more than 3,000 cases of infection reported in Congo. At least 71 people have been killed. According to the WHO, Congo and many African countries are suffering from a lack of test kits and other health facilities. In such cases, a sudden surge in infection cases may be recorded here. There is also an outbreak of measles in the Congo and around 3,50,000 people have been affected since January 2019. More than 6,500 people have been killed. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Unlike machines, the behavior of animals and humans almost always has an element of unpredictability. Countless experiments have shown that our responses to the exact same challenge are sometimes faster, sometimes slower, sometimes correct and sometimes wrong. In the field of neuroscience, this variability is often attributed to what is called noise, an ever-present "neural babble" that influences the way brains process and respond to incoming information. A new collaborative study in rodents by a team of scientists from the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown in Portugal, Harvard Medical School in the U.S., and the University of Geneva in Switzerland, shows that this variability could sometimes be wrongly interpreted as noise. Instead, it may actually be the reflection of a behavioral strategy that was overlooked due to prior assumptions about how the subject should behave. Their resultspublished today (June 2nd) in the scientific journal Nature Communicationscall into question what "optimal behavior" really means. An unexpected strategy "It all started with a simple experiment," recalls Maria Ines Vicente, who collected the experimental data as part of her graduate work at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown and is currently working at Leiden University . "We took two different odors and created several mixtures of the two. During the experiment, the different mixtures were presented to the rats, one at a time. On each trial, the rats had to report which of two odors was more dominant. If it thought the answer was odor A, it would approach a water spout on the right, and if it opted for odor B, it would go to the left. Some mixtures had much more of one odor compared with the other, making it easier to tell which was more salient. Whereas in other mixtures, the difference was more subtle. If the rat got the correct answer, it received a water reward." The researchers recorded how quickly the rats responded and whether their answer was right or wrong. To their surprise, when they analyzed the data, they realized that the rats' behavior didn't follow a common decision-making rule. "In these types of tasks we tend to see a clear dependency between difficulty and decision time: On the harder, more subtle trials, animals (and humans) take longer to decide than on easy trials," says Andre Mendonca of the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. "Instead, our rats would take, on average, the same amount of time to make both hard and easy decisions." "The explanation for this unexpected observation wasn't easy to come by," adds Jan Drugowitsch, a co-author affiliated with Harvard Medical School. "Finally, we found it by constructing a mathematical model that united separate branches in the field of decision-making. In a sense, our goal was to replicate the rats' behavior in a 'machine brain' with the hope of discovering the underlying variables that produced this surprising result." The model revealed an unexpected strategy. On each trial, the rat was readjusting its behavior according to the results of the previous trial. If the rat was correct in one trial, it would be biased towards the same odor in the next one. And vice versa, an incorrect response in one trial would lead to switching in the next. Why did the animals adopt this particular strategy? "This strategy is consistent with a worldview where the environment is continuously changing, which leads the animals to update their decision-making approach on a trial-by-trial basis. From the outside, their behavior appears highly variable, but in fact, they were just adapting too quickly. That is why it would have been easy to wrongly interpret this variablity as just noise," Drugowitsch says. Optimality is in the eye of the beholder Why did the rats opt for a different strategy from the expected one? The authors explain that there are several reasons. The first is the nature of the task. "There isn't just one type of sensory discrimination task," says Mendonca. "Various elements in the design of the task may draw out different decision-making strategies. For instance, if we had asked rats to localize the side a sound comes from instead of discriminating between odors, their strategy would have aligned with our initial expectation. This is because there is a built-in right-left category in the brain for certain sensory modalities that are naturally spatially separated, but that's not the case for olfaction." Another reason is confidence. "Just like humans, rats appear to evaluate their own decisions and change their behavior accordingly. When you are very confident and end up making the correct decision, there's really not much to learn. But what happens when you're confident but then find out that you're actually wrong? In this case, you should change your behavior drastically. Which is precisely what we saw with our rats," says Zachary Mainen, one of the group leaders who headed the study and who is affiliated with the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. According to the authors, another explanation for the rat's choice of strategy is their "hard-wired" circuitry for learning. "Ironically, if they would not constantly readjust their responses according to the outcome of the last trial, they would actually do better. In fact, what we were originally expecting them to do is to construct an 'odor A-odor B' category and implement it," says Alex Pouget, who is a group leader at the University of Geneva and co-author of the study. "Still, the rats' strategy makes sense." As the authors explain, this observation doesn't mean the rat is a maladapted animal. On the contrary, they claim that the scientific community should reconsider what they define as "optimal behavior." "Rats have evolved over millions of years to search and explore an ever-changing environment. Therefore, when we assess the behavior of these animals, we should remember that it's not necessarily only about performance per se. Optimality should depend both on the problem at hand and the nature of the problem solver," Pouget argues. "We believe that our work is a good starting point for exploring further how different subfields of decision-making may interact. We also hope that other scientists will use and refine our models in follow-up experiments. It would be fascinating and informative to see when, how and why our model starts to fail. Making an error is an opportunity for learning something new, and that is both the result and take-home message of our study," Mendonca says. Explore further Researchers unravel how the brain remembers More information: Andre G. Mendonca et al. The impact of learning on perceptual decisions and its implication for speed-accuracy tradeoffs, Nature Communications (2020). Journal information: Nature Communications Andre G. Mendonca et al. The impact of learning on perceptual decisions and its implication for speed-accuracy tradeoffs,(2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16196-7 Provided by Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown Euromonitor International is the world's leading independent provider of strategic and tactical market research. We create data and analysis on thousands of products and services around the world. On Monday night, federal park policeincluding some mounted on horsesfired tear gas and rubber bullets at a gathering of protesters and onlookers on D.C.s H Street so that Donald Trump could walk across the street from the White House to hold a Bible in front of an Episcopal church that sustained a small amount of fire damage on Sunday. Given that this happened in such a central location during a time of high tension, numerous media outlets were on hand and have attested that the protest was not violent before police charged. (One Australian TV crew was assaulted live on air.) The incident also took place more than 20 minutes before D.C.s scheduled 7 p.m. curfew, which was declared in response to property damage that took place in the city on Sunday night during and after protests related to the death of George Floyd. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The New York Times and CNN are both reporting that Trump orchestrated this attack against U.S. citizens (who were engaging legally in activities guaranteed to them by the First Amendment) in part because hed taken criticism for staying in a secure White House bunker instead of appearing in public over the weekend. The Episcopal bishop who oversees D.C. told the Washington Post that the church was not given advance notice of Trumps event and that she is outraged that it was used as a prop. The churchs rector, who was present, told a reporter from the Religion News Service that law enforcement officers removed a group that included members of the clergy from the churchs outdoor patio before the presidents appearance. Advertisement This is, to be unavoidably grandiose about it, the most direct way a president could violate his most basic dutyprotecting Americans and the Constitutionshort of actually shooting someone himself, although it is of course impossible to imagine him operating a firearm without accidentally causing a fatal self-injury. A person who does this has no business leading our government, which was created as a response to military and police oppression, and which stakes its legitimacy on its duty to work for its people and ensure their inalienable, natural rights. Advertisement The minimum duty oflets be realisticevery congressional Democrat and Mitt Romney is to say, forcefully, that what happened Monday was immediately disqualifying. The U.S. has a mechanism by which it can remove a president, and all that mechanism currently requires is for 15 or so Republican senators to accept the possibility of losing a primary election sometime between five months and six years from now, a loss that would compel them, at worst, to accept lucrative corporate board of directors jobs and speaking engagements at Mastercard sales conferences. The pressure on these senators should be as intense as possible; for the rest of the government to allow the president to remain in office in this situation would be an admission that it, too, has failed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Monday, Trump preceded his Bible photo-op with a promise to use the force of the U.S. military domestically against the alleged terrorists who constitute at best a fraction of those who have been protesting across the country. Monday night, a military helicopter intentionally flew low enough over the streets of the nations capital for the wind from its rotors to knock down a tree and scatter the people below, a tactic borrowed from war. (A Times writer reported that the force also shattered some storefronts; preventing such damage was the ostensible purpose of the helicopters presence in the city.) Earlier, Trumps secretary of defense described American cities as battlespace for government forces to dominate. There is not much more room for the presidents program of violence to keep escalating. Trump needs to be removed now, because after the massacre it will be too late. For more of Slates news coverage, listen to What Next. In addition to a viral filtration efficiency of 99.8% reported through U.S. Nelson Lab tests, the NMV95+ products passed a N95 sample test in National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) labs and are moving ahead through the final quality assurance (QA) process. Not only does the middle meltblown material in the NMV95 mask provide a filtration rate of over 95%, but the super strong droplet repellent top layer of NMV95 can block 90% of small particles and water droplets as well. Because of this, the NMV95 masks can last 10 times longer than regular N95 mask. The products are designed with soft-sewn stretch knit ties and carefully crafted inner mask design to provide a comfortable fit that is easy to wear for long stretches and is exceptionally breathable while shielding users from respiratory droplets and other particulate matter during the current COVID-19 crisis and beyond. A new Neatrition anti-fog glass cloth has also been introduced for mask users who wear glasses or goggles. The product has been very popular in hospitals in Wuhan, China and Italy. A single application of the cloth can make glasses or goggles free of fog for 24 hours of use and the cloths can be reused at least 100 times. Currently the first 50 mask purchasers can get $9 worth anti-fog cloths free by applying coupon code antifog50 with their online order. Neatrition worked with Tsinghua University, a major research university in Beijing, to develop and create these new nano medical masks. They are made in labs in China and overseen by academic researchers to ensure clean standards and a top-of-the-line product. "The nano-scale top layer structures are similar to a shark skin. Shark skin has those micro nano sharp teeth that make them much cleaner than whales," said TusStar President Frank Ni. "With U.S. Nelson Lab and NIOSH N95 certification test approval we are ready to move forward with the next innovation of this breakthrough product." TusStar is donating 10 masks to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit for every 100 sold. The first delivery of masks was made on May 29. Visit the TusStar One Market website to purchase masks at https://www.tusstaronemarket.com/ . A 5-mask package sells for $20, plus tax and shipping. Quantities of 500 masks are available at a discounted rate. Contact TusStar to inquire about full lab testing and production standards. Contact: Frank Ni, President of TusStar email [email protected] or phone 734-255-4816 Video: https://vimeo.com/407278051/9ddac1bb8e SOURCE TusStar Related Links https://www.tusstarannarbor.com Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC) said it has joined hands with a consortium led by the Metito, a leading provider of total intelligent water management solutions, to reach the financial closing of the kingdoms first independent sewage treatment plant (ISTP) being set up at an investment of $245 million. The consortium comprises key partners Saudi-based Mowah and Egypt's Orascom Construction. The project, located at Dammam West, will be awarded to the private sector under the Build Own Operate Transfer (BOOT) concession model with a tenor of 25 years. The $245 million investment for the project will come from a combination of equity and debt. Announcing the achievement, SWPC said the financial close of this first of its kind project comes in spite of the global Covid-19 pandemic, which has frozen many large-scale projects around the world. The Dammam ISTP has a designed capacity of 350,000 cu m per day will serve the western region of Dammam. It boasts an initial capacity of 200,000 cu m per day. CEO Khaled Al Qureshi said: "Despite global volatility and liquidity issues, and ever-changing market conditions, we have been able to successfully reach financial closing with the consortium, in close cooperation with the lenders group." "This is a testament of SWPCs commitment to support and encourage private sector participation in sustainable development by providing lucrative opportunities for local and foreign investors to participate in the implementation of lifeline water projects," remarked Al Qureshi. "This will achieve sustainable development, provide job opportunities for young people, and support local output and balanced development, in line with the strategic goals of the Kingdoms Vision 2030 and the initiatives approved by the Saudi Council of Ministers to encourage private sector participation in economic development," he added. The consortium's scope of work covers the entire investment and includes the EPC and O&M which will be executed by a wholly-owned Saudi-based company established by the Consortium to serve the project the Dammam West Company for Water. Development of religious or heritage places will lift economy of areas they are located in: PM Modi in his virtual address. In the first study to use systematically collected data from multifamily housing inspections to track bed bug infestation, investigators including Christopher Sutherland at the University of Massachusetts Amherst "confirm what has long been suspected for bed bugs, but also for public health issues in general" - infestations are strongly associated with socioeconomic factors, including neighborhood income, eviction rates and crowding. Writing in People and Nature about their Chicago-area study, biostatistician Sutherland, with biologist Daniel Schneider and urban planner Andrew Greenlee, both of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, point out that documenting the scale of the bed bug's "dramatic resurgence" as a common household pest and identifying socioeconomic factors that determine infestation risk are challenging, because data usually come from self-reporting, which has potential for bias. But "unlike previous research, our data come from systematic inspections with known sampling effort and are, therefore, uniquely able to attribute observed reductions to declines in bed bug prevalence rather than trends in reporting," they add. Sutherland and colleagues say the evidence of higher risk of bed bug infestation in poorer neighborhoods, in areas where evictions are more common and in more crowded neighborhoods "provides important empirical evidence of the disproportionate allocation of public health burdens upon neighborhoods already facing multiple dimensions of disadvantage - for example, poverty, contaminated water and health inequalities." Sutherland says he was surprised that the patterns were borne out so strongly. "It's discouraging that we still have these extreme polarities in society," he notes. "Differences in socioeconomic factors means that these public health burdens fall on groups that are less able to cope with them than their more affluent neighbors. We shine a light on yet another public health concern that points squarely to who is bearing the burdens." Schneider, an expert in dispersal ecology - how species move to new habitats and get extinguished - adds, "The map of where people are most at risk for bed bugs looks like the same areas where more kids have asthma, lead in the bloodstream and likely even COVID-19. How cynical we were coming into this determined how surprised we were by the findings." The authors' analysis uses administrative data on inspections from Chicago's Department of Buildings. From 2006 to 2018, addresses of 21,340 multi-story multiple dwelling residential buildings four stories or higher, and mixed residential/ commercial building three stories or higher, saw a total 56,384 periodic inspections. Of these, 491 resulted in definitive bed bug evidence - a code violation - at the property. These bed bug-positive inspections occurred at 446 unique properties, indicating that some had bed bugs present across multiple inspections, they note. Using this and other data, the researchers aggregated the number of inspections and violations in each year at the census tract level and derived socioeconomic measures of each tract. From this, they identified four broad socioeconomic categories - residential stability, housing affordability, resident demographics and neighborhood housing characteristics - and nine variables associated with them. Their analyses showed that, "in addition to significant variation among years, neighborhood-level median household income was the strongest predictor of bed bug prevalence. Eviction rate and crowding had significant, but relatively smaller effects. We did not find evidence that bed bug prevalence was influenced by mobility rate, percent of renter households, or the percent population with a graduate degree." This is just one facet of a larger problem. This is not just a bed bug problem, and if you stack public health issues on top of each other we believe these will correlate strongly." The work appears in an open-access journal, Sutherland says, "so anyone can access the data. We tried hard to make the language clear enough for policymakers, to show that this is more evidence of serious public health disparity." Daniel Schneider, Biologist, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign This study grew out of a two-year, interdisciplinary workshop the authors organized for the National Science Foundation's National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) to study bed bug history, sociology, ecology, entomology, urban planning and epidemiology. The research combined existing environment and social data, melding "ideas that existed but were not synthesized together before," in Schneider's words. WASHINGTON - Dozens of protesters left a home the District of Columbia early Tuesday as the city's curfew lifted at 6 a.m. The homeowner had taken them in after they fled law enforcement officers firing chemicals at them hours earlier. The protesters cheered this morning as homeowner Rahul Dubey, 44, emerged from his rowhouse. "Rahul is amazing," Sarah Feldmann, one of the protesters who took shelter in Dubey's home, said in an interview Tuesday morning. Feldmann was on her balcony when several hundred protesters streamed past at about 9 p.m. on Monday, chanting "March with us, stand with us." The 31-year-old, who works in Democratic Party politics, decided to join. When the march reached a corner, a line of D.C. police officers was blocking the road. Someone who seemed like an organizer suggested the protesters head west. But within a few seconds, the marchers realized that they were boxed in by officers in riot gear on all sides. "We were trapped," Feldmann recalled. "Let us go, let us go," the protesters chanted. Instead, after a 15-minute standoff, the police surged forward, pushing protesters with their shields and spraying gas. As they tried to get away, about 60 of them found an unlikely escape: Dubey's rowhouse. He choked up Monday as he said he saw protesters injured in clashes with police. "It was a human tsunami," he said. "I was hanging on my railing yelling, 'Get in the house! Get in the house!' " He said a "crowd came racing through like a tornado," and he "flung the door open and let them inside." He added: "I opened a door. You would have done the same thing." At first, the scene inside was almost as chaotic as on the street. Officers were spraying gas through the open front door and windows, Feldmann said. Once the doors and windows were closed, Dubey guided the gassed protesters to his basement kitchen or the back patio, where they washed their eyes with water and milk. When the milk ran out, Dubey's neighbors passed more over the fence. The protesters worried police were going to break down the door and arrest them; officers were arresting protesters who had been trapped outside. At one point, a police official came to the door, claiming someone inside had called 911, but Dubey turned him away. At another point, someone claiming to be a protester knocked at the door, but those inside worried it was a police infiltrator. On the back patio, protesters could hear police on the other side of the fence trying to get the protesters to come out, Feldmann said. "Police were in the alley for most of the night, kind of baiting us," she recalled. "They said, 'If you come out, we'll work with you, it'll be fine.' But we didn't believe them." At least one protester jumped the patio fence, she said, adding that she wasn't sure whether the person was arrested or escaped. As it became clear that police weren't going to raid the house, those still inside settled in for a long wait until curfew ended. "People were just kind of mingling around, chatting, making videos, Instagrams," Feldmann said. Some protesters were talking to legal aid groups outside and relaying information to others, passing around markers to write the number of attorneys on their arms in case arrested. One woman began organizing cars to pick protesters up at 6 a.m., when the curfew was lifted. At one point, pizza arrived, the boxes passed over the back patio fence and devoured by the protesters spread all over the house. Feldmann curled up in a corner of the basement, catching about an hour of sleep before waking at 4:30 a.m. Breakfast arrived not long after: bananas and Pop-Tarts slid through the mail slot. "It was really nice," Feldmann said of her banana nut muffin. When protesters began warily stepping out of the house at 6 a.m., there were no longer police nearby. Instead, they were greeted by supporters and neighbors. Feldmann, who is white, said she was startled by the police reaction. "I've been to a lot of protests. It's striking how different it feels when it's led by black voices," she said, noting the deference police have paid to heavily armed white people protesting coronavirus stay-home orders. Dubey said on NBC 4 that it was an "amazing group of people" in his home. He said protesters left when the curfew ended at 6 a.m."They were doing nothing wrong other than to build a future that they want and that I want," Dubey said. Feldmann praised Dubey for helping the protesters, adding that several of them had offered to help their host with his small business in thanks for his hospitality. "He's going to get a lot of gift baskets," she said. "We know where he lives." Advertisement Tasks Buhari Administration on More Transparency The Conference of Nigeria Political Parties has urged President Muhammadu Buhari administration to show responsibility by improving on accountability and transparency level in the face of increasing Nigerias debt profile. In a statement issued in Abuja by its Secretary General, Chief Willy Ezugwu the umbrella body of all registered political parties and associations in Nigeria noted that the continued resort to external borrowing at the slightest challenge is not healthy for the countrys future. Advertisement The CNPP therefore urged the Buhari administration to look inwards, reduce cost of governance, and explore other options, including harnessing non-oil revenues instead of increasing the countys debt burdens. Recall that Nigerias total internal and external debt stock stood at N12.06 trillion or $63.5 billion as at the end of March this 2015, up from N11.2 trillion or $67.726 billion in December 2014 according to figure released by the Debt Management Office (DMO) in June 2015. But as at September 30, 2019, according to the Debt Management Office (DMO), Nigerias total public debt jumped to about N26.2 trillion (or $85.4 billion). Recall, however, the Senate had earlier this year also raised an alarm that Nigerias total debt profile would stand at N33 trillion, if President Muhammadu Buhari got approval for the $22.7 billion foreign loan request. Unfortunately, the Senate later approved the loan. As if that was not bad enough, in the month of March this year, the same Nigerian lawmakers approved President Buharis $2.36 billion loan request. Meanwhile, in April, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved $3.4 billion in emergency financial assistance under the Rapid Financing Instrument to Nigeria. We are shocked that the same administration that have been getting trenches of Abacha loots returned to it still decided to seek a fresh $5.513 billion (N2.1 trillion) loan, after an earlier loan of $22.79 billion (N8.5trillion) this same year. More worrisome is that the minister of finance, budget and national planning, had in December 2019 revealed that debt servicing would gulp 29% of the total revenue accruable to Nigeria in 2020. According to the Minister, Zainab Ahmeds disclosure last December, the Federal Government is currently spending almost a third of its projected revenue to service Nigerias debt. The government is now spending N2.452trn or 29 percent out of its N8.42trn set as revenue target in 2020 to service debts. While there is no country that is not borrowing, when a country continues to borrow in the face of rapidly dwindling oil revenue, which is the only major source of income to the country, the future of Nigerians yet unborn will eventually be squandered by our generation. It is about time Nigeria stopped paying lip service to developing non-oil sectors of the economy in effort to improve revenue earning. How can anyone explain the fact that in many parts of the country, foreigners are harvesting Nigerias solid minerals free of charge while the federal government has continued to borrow to fund the 2020 budget? We urge President Buhari administration to immediately cut the cost of governance, empower farmers by providing security and incentives that would encourage young people to go back to farming, and block loss of other non-oil revenue, the CNPP said. American soybean exporters sold several cargoes to Chinese state-run buyers, according to people familiar with the matter, showing that some transactions are still going through even after officials in Beijing ordered a pause in some purchases. Shippers sold as many as four cargoes of U.S. soybeans from the new crop, said the people, who asked not to be named because the information is private. State-run stockpiler Sinograin was bidding earlier for Pacific Northwest cargoes, the people said. Chinese government officials have told major state-run agricultural companies to halt imports of some American farm goods including soybeans, people familiar with the operations told Bloomberg News on Monday. U.S. cotton and corn imports by state buyers have also been paused, a person said. Relations between the two countries have become increasingly strained, with President Donald Trump blaming the Asian nation for misleading the world about the scale and risk of the coronavirus outbreak, and more recently criticizing China for imposing new national security legislation on Hong Kong. The ministry of commerce did not immediately respond to a fax seeking comment. Officials from Sinograin and Cofco also didn't respond to calls. There are some exceptions to the order that state-run buyers Cofco and Sinograin halt American soy purchases, one of the people said. One exception is when state-buyers import on behalf of private firms, who are not affected by the halt, the person said. Another is when the state-buyers need the beans to cover their derivative positions, and a third exception is if there are already ongoing transactions, the person said. China, the top consumer of pork and soybeans, had been ramping up American farm imports last month. The coronavirus shutdown has slowed the pace of purchases China needs to meet its trade deal pledge for about $36.5 billion in U.S. agricultural imports in 2020. State-run buyers purchased more than 20 cargoes, or over 1 million metric tons, of American soybeans in about two weeks in May. In April, China had imported a record 86,507 tons of U.S. pork, up almost 600% from a month earlier, customs data shows. WILLIAMSPORT The Lycoming County district attorney is taking a stab at solving the nearly 26-year-old brutal killing of a Williamsport mother and her young daughter. District Attorney Ryan C. Gardner has announced he is reopening the investigation into the 1994 murders of Gail Matthews, 23, and Tamara Berkheiser, 5. Just because it is cold doesnt mean it cant be revisited, he said about the case. With the evolution of DNA technology it is worth sending the evidence back to a lab, Gardner said. In addition, his staff of detectives includes three retired Williamsport police officers who have experience investigating homicides, he said. Former U.S. Rep. Thomas A. Marino, who was district attorney in 1994 when Matthews and Berkheiser were killed, said he hopes Gardner will be successful. There isnt a day Im not thinking about that case, said Marino who went on to become the U.S. attorney in the Middle District of Pennsylvania before going to Congress. You cant forget about the case, said Michael A. Dinges, who as district attorney in 2004 stopped the second prosecution of Earl R. Skip Kramer III because he believed he did not have sufficient evidence to obtain a conviction. It was a horrible case, he said. It would be great if something came out of it [renewed investigation]. Kramer, now 54, was charged in 1998 and 2002 with killing Matthews and Berkheiser in their side of a Center Street double house. He spent a total of 33 months in jail without bail but never tried. His first arrest occurred after police determined fibers found on him matched those on a stuffed animal in Berkheisers bedroom where the bodies were found Sept. 2, 1994. But, county Judge Dudley N. Anderson dismissed the homicide and related counts ruling the prosecution at Kramers preliminary hearing relied too heavily on reports to present evidence, thus preventing the defense from cross-examining witnesses. Marino had gotten court permission to impanel a grand jury in 1996 to investigate the double homicide and two other killings. The only recommendation it made was to charge Kramers girlfriend Brenda Briel Weaver who lived on the other side of the double house. She subsequently was found guilty of perjury for disclosing information about the crime scene that had not been made public and then denying she made those statements when she testified before the grand jury. She was placed on five years probation with the first five months in a halfway house. Weaver implicated Kramer as the killer, according to redacted grand jury transcripts made public in 1997. Those transcripts mentioned an argument in the Matthews side of the house the evening of Sept. 1, 1994, and the sound of glass breaking. A back-door window was discovered broken, police said. Marino impaneled a second investigative grand jury in 2001 but did not authorize the refiling of charges until the following year when tests conducted by the FBI matched traces of glitter found in the Kramers car with those found at the murder scene. Kramer was considered a person of interest because of his relationship with Weaver and he had been found asleep in his car a block from the Matthews residence the day the bodies were found. Also, a neighbor who knew him told police he saw him talking to a blond child on the porch of the Matthews home about 5 a.m. that same day. The individual said he could not tell if it was a boy or girl but heard Kramer say something like your mother is not here, an affidavit states. Matthews had a 10-year-old son with blond hair, the document states. Kramer, who was re-arrested March 23, 2002, told an investigator he could not remember if he committed the killings but has mentally convinced himself he did it. At the same time, in his heart he does not feel he could have, an affidavit states. He was held for court. but Dinges told Anderson in March 2004 that he was dropping the prosecution and the judge told Kramer youre a free man. There is no statue to limitations on homicide, however. The bodies of Matthews and Berkheiser were found Sept. 2, 1994, on the girls bed after Matthews failed to report for work at a restaurant. The two were last seen alive between 8:30 and 9 the night before. Dr. Wayne Ross, a forensic pathologist from Bethlehem, was flown to Williamsport to examine the bodies before they were removed from the house. His autopsy reports state Matthews died from a combination of strangulation and multiple stab wounds to the neck and her daughter from strangulation and asphyxia caused by compression to the chest. Berkheiser suffered head injuries consistent with being beaten with a fist or having her head banged off the floor, Land opined. News reports from 1994 incorrectly stated both Matthews and Berkheiser had been sexually assaulted. There is no evidence the girl was, Gardner said. Coincidental to Gardner reopening the investigation, a former Williamsport police officer and county detective has published a book on why certain people should be considered suspects in the case. Kenneth L. Mains, who now specializes in cold cases, says The Murders of Gail and Tamara is the result of 10 years of investigating their deaths and interviewing possible suspects. Editors note: This story was updated on June 2 to show that while news report stated both had been sexually assaulted, theres no evidence the girl was. -- Other recent John Beauge stories on PennLive Argument inside Tioga County BYOB preceded fatal shooting: police Significant increase in Weis sales, net earnings attributed to COVID-19 pandemic Lititz woman killed in motorcycle accident in Northumberland County Battle to stop Penn State from acquiring Beta fraternity house is no longer in federal court Child porn case against Bloomsburg man ends in death rather than sentencing Two ex-Bloomsburg professors lawsuit over contract non-renewals is dismissed a second time Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. Current and former clergy of the historic St. John's Episcopal Church expressed furor and confusion over President Trump's visit on Monday, which he claimed was to honor the establishment after George Floyd protestors sparked a small fire on the property Sunday night. The big picture: Park rangers and military police deployed tear gas and physical force to disperse peaceful protestors from Lafayette Square, which sits north of the White House across Pennsylvania Avenue, so Trump could walk to "pay respects" to the church. A former St. John's rector on the scene revealed in a Facebook post that she was left "coughing" from the tear gas. Details: Rector Gini Gerbasi, who previously worked at St. John's on Lafayette Square and now works at the St. John's in nearby Georgetown, said she was helping the Black Lives Matter organizers, fellow clergy and others hand out water during the peaceful protest when the tear gas and rubber bullets were fired. "That man turned it into a BATTLE GROUND first, and a cheap political stunt second," she said of Trump. "We were literally DRIVEN OFF of the St. John's, Lafayette Square patio with tear gas and concussion grenades and police in full riot gear," Gerbasi said. "We were pushed back 20 feet." She said she was OK but "shaken" by the ordeal. What else they're saying: Mariann Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, D.C., told the Washington Post on Monday she was "not given even a courtesy call, that they would be clearing [the area] with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop." Trump held a Bible in his hand while standing outside the church for only a few minutes. Budde tweeted later that the president "used a Bible and a church of my diocese as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and everything that our church stands for." "To do so, he sanctioned the use of tear gas by police officers in riot gear to clear the church yard," she continued. "The President did not come to pray; he did not lament the death of George Floyd or acknowledge the collective agony of people of color in our nation. He did not attempt to heal or bring calm to our troubled land." "The Bible teaches us to love God and our neighbor; that all people are beloved children of God; that we are to do justice and love kindness. The President used our sacred text as a symbol of division." Budde's tweet The pastor of St. John's also told Fox News on Monday that he was unaware Trump was coming to the establishment, saying: "I feel like I'm in some alternative universe in a way." National Episcopal clergy have joined in the outrage. Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida Greg Brewer tweeted: "I am shaken watching protestors in Lafayette Park gassed and cleared so that the President of the United States can do a photo ... This is blasphemy in real time." Of note: St. Johns, which is over 200 years old, is just steps away from the White House and is often referred to as the "church of the presidents." Editor's note: This article has been updated with further comment from Budde and Gerbasi. It also corrects the location of Lafayette Square, which lies north of the White House across Pennsylvania Avenue. One week ago, Minneapolis resident George Floyd was killed when a white officer pinned his neck under his knee for nearly nine minutes. Protests erupted soon after, taking chaotic turns: A police precinct was set on fire, and the National Guard was called in to take over for the Minneapolis police, who were unable to control events on the ground. This is hardly the first time protests over a local police shooting have happened in the city, but this time its a little different: These protests are not just about Floyd but every black neck pinned under the knee or in the crook of an arm of a cop. They are about a country already feeling helpless in the face of a pandemic made to feel more helpless by racism and violence. And theyre also about the story of police violence in Minneapolis specifically, which is also the story of police reform activism, and how that movements evolved. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Mondays episode of What Next, I spoke with Jon Collins, a reporter at Minnesota Public Radio who works on the race, class, and communities desk and previously hosted a podcast about the shooting of Philando Castile. We talked about why Minneapolis, with its progressive politics and its high standard of living, keeps seeing deaths like Floyds, and why the police force has lost the respect of its residents. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. Mary Harris: You first saw local protests like this in 2015, after the shooting of Jamar Clark. Protesters tried to take over the Mall of America. This approachdigging in, forcing people to pay attentionbecame a hallmark of Minneapolis activism, following tactics honed by Black Lives Matter. And when Philando Castiles death was livestreamed by his girlfriend, the machinery of protest cranked to life again. Advertisement Advertisement Jon Collins: There have been lots of black men who have been killed by police over the years in Minneapolis. Typically there would be some small protest and then it would go away before too long. But with Jamar Clark, what happened is people focused on the police. The shooter was part of the 4th Precinct, which is in north Minneapolis and covers one of the traditionally back neighborhoods in Minneapolis. Residents protested at the 4th Precinct and actually occupied the grounds nearby in the middle of winter for more than two weeks. And the middle of winter in Minneapolis means 20 below. Advertisement Then, Philando Castillo was driving with his girlfriend and his girlfriends daughter, and he got pulled over. He told the cop he had a gun, but he also had a permit, and an officer shot and killed him. But the protesters of Castiles death disrupted a bit more. They had a tactic of going on the interstates over and over and shutting down traffic. And it did anger a lot of people, but it also got them a lot of attention. That could be a lesson folks learn now: What works is disruption. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im hoping you can remind people exactly what happened to the officers involved in Clarks and Castiles deaths. Were they punished? So Minnesota, until just three years ago, had never had a police officer charged for killing someone while on duty. The first time that officer was charged, it was Jeronimo Yanez, who shot and killed Castile. That was after a lot of pressure from activists and people in the community to file charges. Then Yanez was acquitted on all counts. In July 2017, an Australian woman who lived in Minneapolis, Justine Damond, thought she heard noises, went out to the alley, and called the police. An officer named Mohamed Noor shot and killed her in her alley. He was charged and found guilty of third-degree murder and manslaughter. That was the first time an officer was ever found guilty for killing someone in Minnesota. And Derek Chauvins case is actually the first time a white police officer has been charged for killing anyone in Minnesota. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Minnesota, until just three years ago, had never had a police officer charged for killing someone while on duty." Jon Collins Youre sketching this picture for me of an acceleration of bringing officers to some kind of justice. With Clark, there were no charges. With Castile, there were charges, but the officer was found not guilty. With this shooting of a white woman, the officer there was found guilty. Reactions are changing in real time as each shooting happens. Think about it in terms of time, too: It took about four months for the authorities to arrest Yanez, and eight months for Noor. For Chauvin, it took five days. And it happened in a way that is not typical at all, especially for a police officer: The states Bureau of Criminal Apprehension actually took him into custody, not to a local police department or sheriffs office. It was the state going around Hennepin County to arrest a police officer. Advertisement Advertisement One of the interesting things thats happened in the past few years is that when something like this happens, the response time by local officials has really accelerated. And the tone the officials take has changed. For instance, a few years ago, our mayor would not have chimed in on whether an officer murdered someone. But the current mayor, Jacob Frey, it took him like three days to say this was murder and the officer should be charged. So I do think the discussion and the way people think about this and about race at large is becoming more blatant. And even people who are in positions of power are starting to understand how ingrained racial issues are in how we police and how we have policed in the past. Advertisement Advertisement Frey has tried to make some changes inside of the police department in terms of how its trained to deal with people, right? Training police in the state of Minnesota is relatively decentralized. Anyone who has minimum credentials or experience can say, Hey, Im going to offer this class. They can submit it to the post board, which will likely approve it. One of the classes that was really common for officers all over the country to take was warrior training. Its literally called warrior training? Its changed names a couple of times, but thats essentially the point of it. It teaches police officers to be very aggressive in protecting their own safety. It came up as an issue because Yanez, Castiles killer, had taken warrior training. Many departments in the state told their officers that they were no longer going to pay for them to go to this particular training. So Frey was able to say, Im going to make it policy that no one can go to this training. The response from the police union in was aggressive. It basically said, If youre not going to use public tax dollars to pay for this training that we think is important, then were going to pay for the officers to do it. Im not sure how many officers the union paid for, but nonetheless, it was a very aggressive stance to take with the mayor. And that happened right from the very beginning of their relationship. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The current union president, Bob Kroll, was named in a racial discrimination suit back in 2007 for allegedly wearing a white power badge on his motorcycle jacket. Hes been quoted saying the Obama administration handcuffed and oppressed the police. He is the subject of at least 29 complaints to the citys office of police conduct review. Kroll is a controversial figure, but when he got elected and then reelected, it showed that his style is what the rank-and-file members of his union think represents them the best. His predecessor at the Police Officers Federation was also controversial. A couple of years ago there was a scandal called #Pointergate: Then-Mayor Betsy Hodges was in a picture with an activist and they were pointing their fingers at each other. The activist had some sort of criminal record in the past, so the former president of the police union was one of the sources telling a local news station that they were making gang symbols. It was an offensive charge, ridiculous on its face. But thats traditionally how the police unions have oriented themselves toward the civilian leadership. It was kind of an embarrassment for the union, but it also showed the clout that it has. Advertisement Advertisement Minneapolis has had a lot of chances to make things better. There have been so many of these confrontations with police and civilians. It seems the one thing the city hasnt tried is totally turning the police force upside down. Is there even a process where that could happen? The police union is powerful, and its contract is really, really, really strong. Its very hard for officers to be fired for anything less than a conviction of a serious crime. We have had some officers fired, but most of the time they can petition and go to an arbitrator and get their jobs backeven in cases where it looks bad to the public and becomes news. About half the time in Minnesota, when officers are fired, they get their jobs back through arbitration. So, turning the department upside down and getting rid of a bunch of people you think of as bad apples is a really hard process. And it would probably take a lot of commitment from, and a lot of trust in, police department leadership throughout. Advertisement Advertisement Is there any sign that the officers themselves see this moment with Floyds death as some kind of turning point? Apart from individual officers, not in Minneapolis. One of the interesting things about this particular case and the response to it from law enforcement is that youre finally seeing officers nationwide condemning police killing. You never really saw that in the past. But in the MPD, theres not a ton of evidence that there are a lot of officers who dissent at this point. Has George Floyds family been able to express what justice would look like for them? Theyve said very bluntly they want the officers to go to jail. Listen to the full episode using the player below, or subscribe to What Next on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. The fact that Kenya is inevitably headed for a constitution referendum has been an open secret for some time now. It thus did not come as a surprise to many that President Uhuru Kenyattas endeavor to shepherd the country through the constitutional reforms process dominated his 57th Madaraka Day address on June 1. READ ALSO: Aden Duale spared in Jubilee's unforgiving purge Leaders converged at the Bomas of Kenya in 2019 for the unveiling of the BBI. The document proposed a raft of constitutional changes. Photo: State House Kenya. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Over 2,600 KCSE students who qualified for degree courses opted to pursue diploma - CS George Magoha Uhuru did so well in removing any lingering doubts on the dire need for a plebiscite in the minds of Kenyans. He made it clear to all that the desired changes, most of which have already been floated via the Building Bridges Initiative road map, will bring an end to the cycles of violence that have dogged all general elections in the country since 1992, deepen Kenyas democratic credentials and lead to a much more inclusive society. As the Head of state aptly put it, this will not be a moment to replace, but to improve, the 2010 constitution; a moment to correct what Kenyans did not get right when making amendments to the current constitution a decade ago. READ ALSO: I don't know how to feel: Woman who filmed George Floyd's killing speaks up Uhuru Kenyatta going through the BBI document. He said the document will cure post-election violence. Photo: State House Kenya. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: FORD Kenya wrangles: Reprieve for Wetang'ula as registrar of political parties upholds his leadership Luckily for Uhuru, he has the entire nation - not least the political leadership and the citizenry - firmly behind his push for reforms, contrasting common scenarios around the world where leaders push for constitutional changes for their own selfish gain and only use the electorate as a rubber stamp. Even more significantly, the framers of the 2010 constitution concur that time is ripe to go to a referendum and correct some yawning gaps in the current document. READ ALSO: Coronavirus update: Cases hit 2,093 as 72 more are diagnosed with COVID-19 The constitutional experts have already strongly voiced their support for the process to recalibrate the countrys governance structure and civic culture. Senior counsel Nzamba Kitonga, the constitutional lawyer who chaired the defunct committee of experts that drafted the 2010 Constitution, recently stated that his team had projected that a review of the Constitution would happen after a period of between seven and 10 years. In their opinion, this period would be sufficient for Kenyans to experience and single out the challenges of the fresh laws. READ ALSO: Rwanda yaripoti kifo cha kwanza kutokana na covid-19 With the country now well into the eighth year of implementing the 2010 constitution, Kitonga, like many other constitutional experts, political leaders and neutral observers, strongly feels that its time to tweak the current structure of the three arms of government - the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary - to address political inclusivity and negative ethnicity, reduce the bloated public wage bill and make the courts more effective. He is of the view that while the current Constitution is generally good and progressive, it has gaps that have to be improved to make it ideal for the country. Many Kenyans will nod in agreement, not just with this standpoint, but also with Tom Mboyas caution against constitutional rigidity, as rightly quoted by the president, that a constitution is a living document and that certain elements of the document become cancerous if they outlive their historical purposes. But as has been the case with all clamours for political change in history, there will always be elements that pull in the opposite direction. Narc-Kenya Party Leader Martha Karua is among those who have shot up to oppose Uhuru's quest for constitutional changes, using every opportunity in recent days to express her skepticism over the urgent need for changes. I see her opinion as largely baseless or purely driven by selfish political interest; for I would expect Karua to appreciate and make known the need for constitutional reforms better than many other politicians. The former Gichugu MP enjoyed a front row seat during the clamour that led to the repealing of section 2(a) in 1991, paving way for the advent of multi-party democracy in Kenya in 1991. She was the Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister when the National Accord and Reconciliation Act was embedded into the Constitution to expand the Executive arm of government following the 2007/08 post-election violence. As justice minister, she also oversaw the entire drafting of the 2010 constitution. Alongside former prime minister Raila Odinga, Siaya senator James Orengo and others, she belongs to an elite league of veteran politicians who understand the importance of constitutional reforms triggered by historical necessity. Its absurd that she doesnt see the need for a referendum in Kenya today. Luckily for Kenyatta, and the country, many citizens have already embraced the need for a new Kenya and will not be easily swayed by Karua and other critics who are trying to stop a train without brakes. The writer is Sammy Kwinga, a regular commentator on social, economic and political affairs. The views expressed in this opinion piece are his and do not necessarily represent the position of TUKO Media Ltd in any way. We welcome writers, bloggers, photographers and all sorts of noise makers to become a part of our Blog network Send your opinion, story or both to news@tuko.co.ke. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. Why I beat my own mother- Lucy Nyawira | Tuko Talks | Tuko TV. Source: TUKO.co.ke Protests against police brutality and systemic racism were underway once again in the United States on Tuesday, setting the stage for potential fresh clashes a week after nationwide rallies ignited in the wake of George Floyds killing in Minneapolis. Demonstrators marched through the streets of cities including Washington, New York, and Los Angeles. In the nations capital, hundreds gathered in front of a newly erected fence that prevented them from entering a park outside the White House, which federal forces cleared using tear gas a day earlier to allow President Donald Trump to have a photo op in front of a church. The federal government appeared set to crack down harder on the latest wave of protests in Washington. There will be even greater law enforcement resources and support in the region tonight, Attorney General William Barr said on Tuesday. Mostly peaceful demonstrations in previous days have sometimes descended into rioting and looting at night, causing destruction to property and hurting businesses. Four police officers in St. Louis, Missouri, were injured by gunshots, as was an officer in Las Vegas, Nevada, during encounters with protesters overnight. The exact circumstances remained unclear. Injuries, arrests mount Protesters have also been injured and thousands arrested in cities across the country. Trump has called on governors to dominate the protests and threatened to deploy the armed forces to crack down and end the unrest, while insisting he supports peaceful demonstrations. If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the U.S. military and quickly solve the problem for them, Trump said, as tear gas went off outside the White House on Monday. Governors in New York, Massachusetts, Michigan and Illinois were among those who have rejected Trumps push for a heavier hand, as the president seeks to make a show of force and bolster his status as a self-proclaimed leader of law and order. The National Guard has been deployed in two dozen states, by governors, but largely in a back-up role. Curfews have been imposed in cities in California, in New York, Washington, and other urban areas. Opposition Joe Biden, the former vice president who is running against Trump in this Novembers presidential election, slammed the incumbent, saying he was stoking divisions and turning the country into a battlefield riven by old resentments and fresh fears. In a speech in Philadelphia, a city hit by sustained protests and violence, Biden vowed, that if elected president, he would enact civil rights reforms. I wont traffic in fear and division. I wont fan the flames of hate, he said. With the election moving closer on the horizon, Trump is trailing in some national polls, though analysts caution to not read too much into numbers at this stage. There have been seven days of unrest in dozens of states, following the killing of a handcuffed black man, George Floyd. A white police officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. An independent autopsy by the Floyd family said he died by asphyxiation and placed the blame directly on the police. Advertisements Chauvin was arrested, on third-degree murder charges, and all four officers involved in the incident in the state of Minnesota were fired. Minnesota on Tuesday filed a civil rights charge against the Minneapolis Police Department, Governor Tim Walz said. The midwestern states Department of Human Rights will investigate the practices of the police force over the last 10 years. Silence is complicity. Minnesotans can expect our administration to use every tool at our disposal to deconstruct generations of systemic racism in our state, Walz said in a press release. Traumatised family Floyds family is calling for the arrest of the other three former members of the Minneapolis police force. READ ALSO: A brother of the slain man has called for peaceful protests and condemned the looting. Minnesotas attorney general has warned he needs to move methodically if he wants to secure convictions. Days of unrest there have begun to calm. The killing of Floyd has again brought to the fore the issue of police violence and heavy-handed tactics used against African Americans. The protests across the country have taken place under the Black Lives Matter banner. Many are calling for more accountability for the police, who rarely get convicted of abuse of power, in part thanks to legal protections. Many demonstrators have also slammed what they see as systemic racism and biases. (dpa/NAN) New report delves into the role of misinformation in shaping vaccination behavior and provides bold, actionable recommendations to counter growing trend of vaccine hesitancy Washington, D.C., June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As the COVID-19 vaccine race accelerates, experts recognize that the challenge will not end with the development of a vaccine. The extraordinary effort to make a vaccine available across the globe will only be effective if the majority of people achieve immunity through vaccination. Meeting the Challenge of Vaccination Hesitancy, a new report released today by the Sabin-Aspen Vaccine Science and Policy Group, calls for an urgent, coordinated effort to strengthen vaccine acceptance and address the risk that vaccination hesitancy the reluctance or opposition to vaccination despite the availability of safe and effective vaccines poses to communities around the world. The global call for a vaccine to end the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the value of vaccines for the health and economic stability of individuals and communities. While the world eagerly awaits the day when COVID-19 vaccines will be widely available, the threat of deadly vaccine-preventable outbreaks is at our doorstep. Just last year, the United States suffered its largest measles outbreak in 20 years, concentrated in communities with low immunization rates. Similar outbreaks have occurred around the world in communities susceptible to measles because of under vaccination. Designed to maintain, restore and strengthen confidence in the value of vaccines, the report includes three big ideas that alone and together can contribute to reversing the trend. The report calls for: A new media collaborative to serve as an interface between the vaccination community and social media platforms A research agenda to create ample evidence-based knowledge about the sources of vaccine hesitancy and the best ways to counter it A new narrative to shift the conversation around immunization to one that focuses on achievements and promise and helps build resiliency in the vaccine enterprise Story continues Progress toward increasing immunization coverage has stalled in recent years, opening the door to outbreaks of measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases. This trend is often fueled by complacency and loss of confidence in the system that develops, produces, recommends and delivers vaccines. Hesitancy toward vaccination can be exacerbated by the spread of misinformation about the safety and efficacy of vaccines across the internet. With misleading and conspiratorial vaccine theories proliferating online, it has become critical to effectively measure and understand the impact of vaccine misinformation, and to devise a strategy to enhance public trust in all vaccines. These actions are needed to protect overall health for the next generation and to ensure successful uptake of a COVID-19 vaccine when it is available. The new report presents an in-depth analysis into the root causes of vaccine hesitancy, an exploration of the current landscape of misinformation and actionable steps to address these trends. The report is a product of the Sabin-Aspen Vaccine Science & Policy Group, a joint initiative of the Sabin Vaccine Institute (Sabin) and the Aspen Institute, made up of 24 global innovators and thought leaders with converged expertise across public health, medicine, philanthropy, venture capital, biotechnology, biology, ecology, ethics and journalism. Misinformation on social media and skepticism and distrust in government, industry and science are detailed in the five background papers that frame the report. In order to shift the conversation and address the dangers of misinformation, we need to learn how people make decisions about vaccines, said Shirley M. Tilghman, president emerita of the university, professor of molecular biology and public affairs at Princeton University and Sabin-Aspen Group co-chair. This requires understanding the social processes that contribute to attitudes around vaccines and conducting effective education and outreach to activate awareness and support for immunization. Developing strategies to counter vaccine hesitancy will require significant investment, as well as broader engagement with new disciplines and collaborators, especially within the social and behavioral sciences and with social media platforms, said Harvey V. Fineberg, M.D., Ph.D., president of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and a Sabin-Aspen Group co-chair. Many of the tech companies are aware of and have begun to be responsive to vaccine misinformation; now its up to us to deepen this partnership to improve vaccine acceptance and protect the health of individuals and communities around the world. Misinformation is emerging about COVID-19 vaccines, even as they are early in development, increasing the urgency to understand vaccine hesitancy and put forth actionable solutions, said Bruce Gellin, M.D., M.P.H., Sabins president of Global Immunization. We are proud to share this report, and grateful for our partnership with the Aspen Institute and the leaders who have brought their creativity and determination to this issue. Vaccines face another obstacle their own success. Decades of diligent vaccination campaigns have established community immunity (or herd immunity), in which the percentage of a population immune to a disease is high enough to prevent its spread. As a result, the potentially deadly consequences of not vaccinating have become less apparent to the general public, leading to a rise in complacency. Vaccine uptake is just as critical to understand and improve as vaccine access said Ruth Katz, executive director of the Aspen Institute Health, Medicine and Society (HMS) Program. If the factors that contribute to vaccine hesitancy complacency, convenience and confidence are not properly understood or addressed, the health and wellbeing of future generations will be at risk. The Sabin-Aspen Vaccine Science & Policy Group is a partnership that brings together senior leaders across many disciplines to examine some of the most challenging vaccine-related issues and drive impactful change. This second meeting of the Sabin-Aspen Vaccine Science & Policy Group and its research and report were funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Read the full report. ### BACKGROUND Vaccine-preventable infectious diseases can be controlled without 100 percent vaccine coverage, but the rates must be highgenerally in the 80-95 percent range, depending on the disease in questionto reliably protect against outbreaks The June 2019 Wellcome report measured attitudes and perceptions toward science and showed the highest levels of vaccine mistrust exist in Europe and North America, where the mortality from vaccine-preventable diseases is lowest. The study found that 79 percent of the worlds population somewhat or strongly agreed with the statement that vaccines are generally safe. That figure was 72 percent in North America, 59 percent in Western Europe, and only 50 percent in Eastern Europe, while 95 percent of South Asians and 88 percent of Central Americans agreed with the statement The cost of an outbreak can cripple economies: According to a study in the October 2018 Journal of Infectious Diseases, the Ebola outbreak that ravaged East Africa in 2014 cost economies an estimated $53 billion; the economic cost to the United States during just the first two months fighting the COVID-19 pandemic is estimated to be $2.14 trillion About Sabin-Aspen Vaccine Science & Policy Group Co-chairs: Harvey V. Fineberg , President, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Shirley M. Tilghman, President Emerita of the University and Professor of Molecular Biology and Public Affairs, Princeton University Members Ann Arvin , Lucile Salter Packard Professor of Pediatrics (Infectious Disease) and Professor of Microbiology, Stanford University School of Medicine; Vice Provost and Dean of Research Emeritus, Stanford University. Seth Berkley , Chief Executive Officer, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance Alan Bernstein , President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Tanisha Carino , Executive Vice President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Alexion Michael Conway , Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company Kathryn Edwards , Sarah H. Sell and Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in Pediatrics and Professor of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt School of Medicine Mark Feinberg , President and Chief Executive Officer, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) Margaret Hamburg , Foreign Secretary, National Academy of Medicine; President, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Penny Heaton , Chief Executive Officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute Rick Klausner , Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Lyell Immunopharma Simon Levin , James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University; Director, Center for BioComplexity, Princeton Environmental Institute Diego Miralles , Chief Executive Officer, Vividion Therapeutics Kelly Moore , Adjunct Associate Professor, Health Policy, Vanderbilt University Medical Center; Member, Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Katherine O'Brien , Director, Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals, World Health Organization Muhammad Pate , Global Director, Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice, World Bank; Director, Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents, World Bank Group Helen Rees , Founder and Executive Director, Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute, University of Witwatersrand Laura Riley , Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Weill Cornell Medicine and Obstetrician and Gynecologist-in-Chief, New York Presbyterian Hospital Pardis Sabeti , Professor, Center for Systems Biology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University and Department of Immunology and Infectious Disease, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University; Member, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT; Principal Investigator, Sabeti Lab, FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University George Siber , Chief Scientific Officer, ClearPath Development Company Michael Specter , Staff Writer, The New Yorker Wendy Taylor , Rockefeller Foundation Fellow, The Rockefeller Foundation Robert Tepper, Co-Founder and General Partner, Third Rock Ventures, LLC About the Sabin Vaccine Institute The Sabin Vaccine Institute is a leading advocate for expanding vaccine access and uptake globally, advancing vaccine research and development, and amplifying vaccine knowledge and innovation. Unlocking the potential of vaccines through partnership, Sabin has built a robust ecosystem of funders, innovators, implementers, practitioners, policy makers and public stakeholders to advance its vision of a future free from preventable diseases. As a non-profit with more than two decades of experience, Sabin is committed to finding solutions that last and extending the full benefits of vaccines to all people, regardless of who they are or where they live. At Sabin, we believe in the power of vaccines to change the world. For more information, visit www.sabin.org and follow us on Twitter, @SabinVaccine. About the Aspen Institutes Health, Medicine and Society Program Established in 2005, the Aspen Institutes Health, Medicine and Society Program brings together influential groups of thought leaders, decision-makers, and the informed public to consider health challenges facing the U.S. in the 21st century and to identify practical solutions for addressing them. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org/programs/health-medicine-and-society-program. The Aspen Institute is a global nonprofit organization committed to realizing a free, just, and equitable society. Founded in 1949, the Institute drives change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve the most important challenges facing the United States and the world. Headquartered in Washington, DC, the Institute has a campus in Aspen, Colorado, and an international network of partners. Samia Kemal The Sabin Vaccine Institute 2026211691 samia.kemal@sabin.org Jon Purves Aspen Institute jon.purves@aspeninstitute.org U.S. Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a visit to the Bethel AME Church in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S. June 1, 2020. Jim Bourg | Reuters Former Vice President Joe Biden is expected to attend the funeral next week of George Floyd, the black man who died at the hands of a white Minneapolis police officer, a lawyer for Floyd's family said Tuesday. The lawyer, Ben Crump, said Floyd's family will hold the funeral in Houston, Texas, on June 9, after holding memorial services in Minneapolis on Thursday and another memorial in North Carolina on Saturday. "And we understand Vice President Biden will be in attendance" at the funeral, said Crump. Biden is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. A spokesman for Biden's campaign had no immediate comment when asked to confirm Crump's statement. CNBC has requested comment from Crump on whether President Donald Trump has been invited to the funeral as well. The White House had no immediate comment when asked if Trump planned to attend the funeral. Floyd died on Memorial Day after a police officer who was arresting him on suspicion of using a counterfeit bill to make a purchase kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes, even after Floyd repeatedly said, "I can't breathe" and called out to his mother, who has been dead for several years. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. None of the three other police officers involved in the arrest has been criminally charged. All of them have been fired from the Minneapolis Police Department, along with Chauvin. But Crump said Tuesday that he expects the other three officers to be arrested before Floyd's funeral. Floyd's death has led to widespread protests across the United States. Former vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden meets with clergy members and community activists at Bethel AME Church in Wilmington, Delaware on June 1, 2020. Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 2) An adviser of President Rodrigo Duterte urged both the public and private sectors to team up in containing the spike in COVID-19 infections, saying the country may not be able to take another round of strict lockdown measures. "The private sector and the government has to definitely prevent a resurgence that will bring back a second lockdown. A second lockdown will destroy this country, I'm already saying that," Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion told CNN Philippines' The Source on Tuesday. Concepcion said another strict community quarantine on top of creating frustration among citizens will put to waste some of the government's efforts and programs dedicated for the crisis-hit sectors, including the proposed 1.3-trillion economic stimulus package. "Having another lockdown will create frustration, we will also waste the stimulus program that Congress is trying to pass, and all the other supportive programs. So there will be a sense of frustration, and people may lose hope," he added. The House of Representatives has approved on second reading the proposed Philippine Economic Stimulus Act, which provides for a 1.3-trillion recovery plan for those affected by the pandemic. Other priority COVID-19 bills also remain pending before the chamber. RELATED: Lawmaker wants one more week of Congress sessions to pass 'vital bills' for COVID-19 response Some lawmakers have also filed bills that would extend the validity of the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, a measure giving President Rodrigo Duterte additional powers to address the COVID-19 pandemic. 'Create visibility through testing' The economic adviser, however, acknowledged that the threat of resurgence of COVID-19 cases is always present. In line with this, he backed calls to "create visibility" by ramping up targeted testing efforts in various sectors, and reiterated pleas for the public to follow proper health protocols such as physical distancing and wearing of protective equipment. "The urgency, really, in creating visibility and being more vigilant and practicing social distancing and all of that has to really be implemented now," he stressed. Metro Manila and other areas shifted to a more relaxed general community quarantine on Monday, as the government aims to gradually restart the economy to help workers severely hit by the health crisis. But even with less strict lockdown measures, government and health officials have repeatedly cautioned citizens to follow health guidelines, with Duterte himself warning of a possible return of an enhanced community quarantine should infections continue to surge. To date, the Philippines has logged over 18,000 cases of the infectious disease. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 04:30:19|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TRIPOLI, June 1 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Embassy to Libya on Monday said the U.S. government will provide 6.5 million U.S. dollars to Libya to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. "The U.S. government has committed an additional 6.5 million U.S. dollars in support of Libya's COVID-19 response, including helping municipalities formalize their crisis response functions, develop emergency management plans, train teams in Crisis Emergency Response," the embassy said in a statement. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Libya so far is 156, including 52 recoveries and five deaths, according to the National Center for Disease Control. In order to fight the virus, Libyan authorities have taken a series of protective measure, including closing the country's borders, banning public gatherings, closing schools and mosques, and imposing curfew. Enditem ROCKVILLE, Md., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCQB: RGRX) ("RegeneRx"), a clinical-stage drug development company focused on tissue protection, repair and regeneration has posted information on its website regarding the revised schedule for completion of the ARISE-3 dry eye clinical trial, http://www.regenerx.com/2020-06-02-June-2-2020-Advisory-Update-on-ARISE-3-Dry-Eye-Trial. About RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (www.regenerx.com) RegeneRx is focused on the development of novel therapeutic peptides, including Thymosin beta 4 (T4) and its constituent fragments, for tissue and organ protection, repair, and regeneration. RegeneRx currently has three drug candidates in clinical development for ophthalmic, cardiac/TBI and dermal indications, four active strategic licensing agreements in the U.S., China, and Pan Asia (Korea, Japan, and Australia, among others), and the EU, and has patents and patent applications covering its products in many countries throughout the world. RGN-259, the Company's ophthalmic eye drop, is currently in Phase 3 clinical trials for dry eye syndrome and neurotrophic keratitis in the U.S. Forward Looking Statements Any statements in this shareholder letter that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements made under the provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to be materially different from historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, competitive products, statements from us or our joint venture regarding strategic and research partnerships, status of clinical trials, regulatory applications and approvals, the development and value of our drug candidates, and the use of our drug candidates to treat various conditions. All forward-looking statements are expectations and estimates based upon information obtained and calculated by the Company at this time and are subject to change. Moreover, there is no guarantee any clinical trial will be successful or confirm previous clinical results. Please view these and other risks described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including those identified in the "Risk Factors" section of the annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, and subsequent quarterly reports filed on Form 10-Q, as well as other filings it makes with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements in this shareholder letter represent the Company's views only as of the date of this release and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. The Company specifically disclaims any obligation to update this information, as a result of future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. SOURCE RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. Related Links http://www.regenerx.com Register with JOC.com and receive 5 free pieces of content for the first thirty days. After thirty days, you will receive 3 pieces of content and after sixty days you will receive 1 piece of content. To receive full access, Subscribe Today . You can also subscribe to our daily newsletter. Register The spread of the coronavirus disease in Riga RIGA (Reuters) - Latvia will open its borders to most European countries on Wednesday without requiring visitors to self-isolate as the Baltic nation prepares to exit emergency coronavirus measures, the government said on Tuesday. Imposed self-isolation will be scrapped for people arriving from European countries where the infection rate is deemed to be low. "It means that self-isolation ... will have to be observed only for those travellers who have been in Sweden, the UK, Portugal, Belgium, Malta, Ireland or Spain over the past two weeks," Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins told reporters. Neighbouring Baltic states Lithuania and Estonia, which together with Latvia opened the first pandemic "travel bubble" within the EU in mid-May, resumed free travel to other countries in Europe based on the same criteria earlier this week. "We are extending the Baltic 'travel bubble' to a good part of the common European region," said Karins. Latvia will end a state of emergency which enables the government to impose measures to curb the epidemic on June 9, but some measures will remain. The country currently has had 1,071 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 24 deaths. (Reporting by Gederts Gelzis, additional reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius and Tarmo Virki in Tallinn, Editing by Johan Ahlander and Giles Elgood) Thousands of demonstrators gathered in Portland for the fifth consecutive night Monday to protest the killing of George Floyd, a black Minneapolis man who died after a white police officer knelt for several minutes on his neck despite his pleas that he could not breathe. Floyds death has triggered protests across the United States. In downtown Portland, peaceful daylight protests have given way to unpredictable, and sometimes destructive, late-night demonstrations. Police have responded at times with shows of support, and at other times, with tear gas and stun grenades to disperse crowds. The mostly peaceful demonstrations on Monday came as Gov. Kate Brown dispatched dozens of National Guard troops and state police troopers to help Portland police react to the protests. Police Chief Jamie Resch said early Monday morning that officials hadnt anticipated the scale or the result of the demonstrations, which escalated Friday to wide-scale damages to buildings across much of downtown. In an effort to stem destruction Monday, police closed off access to several blocks of downtown, from Southwest First to Fifth avenues and Jefferson to Taylor streets, a boundary that encompassed many of the buildings hardest hit during previous days demonstrations. Mayor Ted Wheeler also continued a city-wide curfew of 8 p.m. for the third straight day. Earlier Monday, Wheeler and Oregons top federal attorney, Billy Williams, publicly called on Brown to deploy the National Guard troops. At least three organized protests began to unfold hours later, including one in downtown Portland and another at Southeast Stark Street and 13th Avenue. Police remained largely set apart from protesters early in the night and did not move in after the 8 p.m. curfew passed. Yet as the crowd pressed toward the fenced-off area minutes later, police warned people to stay away or risk use of force. Together, the crowd repeated, George Floyd, then took a knee and chanted, Hands up, dont shoot. A Portland police officer went out to meet with demonstrators at the latter groups request, according to police. We are here to facilitate a safe and peaceful expression of speech, the officer told the massive crowd, as he spoke into a microphone from behind the fence. By 11 p.m., five hours after the demonstrations started, the climate remained calm, a stark contrast to the previous three nights. Police did say, however, that shortly before midnight, a group of people had thrown objects at officers in downtown Portland. Crowds started to gather throughout Portland around 6 p.m. Hundreds of people streamed into a grass lot where the Stark Street demonstration was held. Mary Gach, 18, a senior at La Salle Catholic Preparatory in Milwaukie stood among those who were gathered. She said she attended to press for criminal justice and policing reforms. She wants white allies, particularly politicians, to push for systemic reforms, as well. Black lives matter all the time, not just when our names become hashtags, she said. About 150 other people gathered on Southwest First Avenue, near one of the chain link fences that blocked off protesters from access to the Multnomah County Justice Center and many other government buildings. Protesters waved signs and chanted, Whats his name? George Floyd, in front of a group of helmeted cops holding the line. Two Portland police liaisons, wearing street clothes and tactical vests, walked together with Eboni Samuels, 41, to the Salmon Springs Fountain. She addressed the group as the police officers stood beside her. Samuels, who is black, asked the group to remain peaceful and avoid violence. Theyre here to do what we all want them to do, which is make our city safer for us and for everybody in here, especially, especially, these black lives out here," she said. Her speech drew an immediate response from Enajah Glass, 18. "This is a facade, Glass said of the two officers by Samuels. Weve been peaceful for years and what has it got us? Youre glorifying these two police officers. The group then began to march along the downtown streets that were not blocked off. Marchers made their way to Pioneer Courthouse Square, where hundreds had gathered by 6:30 p.m. A group of about 1,000 marchers then began walking north together from the square toward Burnside Street. When marchers reached the Burnside Bridge around 7 p.m., many lay down, with their faces touching the concrete and their hands behind their backs. They stayed that way in silence for nine minutes in memory of Floyd, who was restrained by a police officer on the ground for nearly the same amount of time, as the officer pressed his knee to Floyds neck. Monday marked one week since Floyds death. At the demonstration in Southeast Portland, several speakers addressed a growing crowd of hundreds. Many urged protesters to take actions to stop destructive behavior. If you see something, say something, one said in relation to broken windows and looting. The protesters then gathered to walk east toward downtown Portland and started marching shortly after 7 p.m. As protests continued in the final hour before a citywide curfew, Portland police said protesters Monday evening had remained peaceful, both in Southeast Portland and downtown. We support your right to express your opinions, the bureau tweeted around 7 p.m. The two marching groups -- which gathered separately in Southeast and Southwest Portland -- converged on the Burnside Bridge around 7:45 p.m. Together, they walked back toward the downtown core as the curfew neared. After the 8 p.m. curfew passed, neither Portland police nor Wheeler immediately said anything about the thousands of people who remained in downtown past curfew. Around 8 p.m., Portland Police Chief Jami Resch tweeted a link to an Oregonian/OregonLive article about the protest with the hashtag #OneCommunityPDX. Police officers also remained largely distant from the marchers as they made their way through downtown. Many marchers stopped together at a fence on Fifth Avenue, blocks away from the Justice Center, where they kneeled and chanted, Hands up, dont shoot. Police tweeted at 8:30 that officers were going to talk with demonstrators, after they said some people in the crowd asked to meet. Protesters listened as the officer talked into the microphone. The march, which has remained peaceful so far, resumed around 9 p.m. Thousands of people packed into Pioneer Courthouse Square. Some demonstrators stood in front of the historic federal courthouse across the street to keep people away. When one person tried to cut down an American flag flying in the square, people nearby begin booing and yelling at him to stop. The person eventually gave up. Hundreds of marchers sat on the red bricks in the courthouse square, raised their hands above their heads and chanted, We want justice. Portland police said at 9 p.m. that officers had not witnessed any vandalism or destruction related to the protests, which police described as peaceful at least eight times throughout the night. An hour later at 10 p.m., the square remained packed with people. Many began to walk north toward Burnside Street and then turned east, where they started to cross the Burnside Bridge back to the other side of the Willamette River. By 11 p.m., the flood of people walking east on Burnside off of the bridge stretched three blocks and filled four traffic lanes. Some people eventually returned to the city-owned grass lot on Southeast Stark Street, the site of the earlier demonstration. Others walked away as the group made its way farther east. Some people in the crowd discussed camping in Stark Street lot overnight, but no tents were set up as of 11:15 p.m. Organizers told the hundreds who remained at 11:30 p.m. to plan to return at 6 p.m. Tuesday to continue the demonstrations. Meanwhile, shortly before midnight, about 100 protesters were gathered downtown at Southwest Fourth Avenue and Salmon Street, according to police. Some of them began throwing things at officers, including glass bottles and rocks, police said. One officer suffered minor injuries. Police told the protesters they were involved in an unlawful assembly and needed to disperse, according to police. They didnt comply, police said, and officers used unspecified crowd control munitions to get them to disperse. Officers saw several drivers moving through the streets to give protesters supplies and stopped one of them, according to police. But before the officers could detain the driver, she hit multiple cars while trying to get away, police said. The driver drove away but was eventually arrested, police said. An officer suffered unspecified minor injuries. Remaining protesters dispersed by 1 a.m. Tuesday. More than a dozen adults were arrested Monday night into Tuesday morning, police said. Information about those arrested wasnt immediately available. Resch, the police chief, thanked the peaceful protesters in a statement early Tuesday. Thousands of demonstrators participated in an extensive march without engaging in violence or destructive behavior, Resch said in the statement. Thank you for keeping this event peaceful. Your efforts to police the event yourselves created a safer environment for all. We will continue to arrest and hold responsible those who engage in acts of violence directed at the police, community members, or who commit other criminal acts. Demonstrations for days have centered on the Justice Center, which houses a county jail and police headquarters. After nearly two days of peaceful protests, the building was the site of a chaotic turn in demonstrations late Friday. Protesters broke into and set a fire inside a first-floor office in the Justice Center. Hundreds of people then fanned out throughout downtown. Some people smashed windows of retailers, painted graffiti, stole merchandise and clashed at times with police. The tension between demonstrators and police continued Saturday and Sunday. Police said that early Monday morning, after hours of demonstrations on Sunday, a man called police to say someone had fired a gun at him as he worked to secure his damaged business on Southwest Broadway Street between Taylor and Yamhill Streets. The shopkeeper was not hurt, police said. The man told police that he had an argument with several men, and believes that one of the men had returned after he told them to leave. Police did not disclose any details about the alleged shooting until more than 16 hours after it occurred. The governor responded to the mayors calls for the National Guard Monday by saying she would activate 50 National Guard troops and send in 100 Oregon State Patrol troopers. The Guard members wont carry firearms and will provide support to police, help process arrests, move vehicles, protect buildings and provide care to anyone who is injured, the governor said. The governor said at a press conference later Monday that the lack of police accountability and reforms have led to the unjust killings of Floyd and black people across the country. Only at the end of the conference did she call for peaceful protests, saying that the rioting and looting is the product of a small group of instigators rather than indicative of broader sentiment. Senseless violence does not honor George Floyds death or create accountability, Brown said. Only the hard work of racial justice will. The protests of Floyds death are not limited in Oregon to Portland. Similar demonstrations have arisen in Salem outside the State Capitol, in Eugene and in Medford Maxine Bernstein, Molly Harbarger, Dave Killen, Beth Nakamura, Jayati Ramakrishnan and Jim Ryan of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report. -- The Oregonian/OregonLive BRADY ANDERSON, Chariho, Wrestling, Sophomore; Anderson finished first in the 152-pound weight class at the Griswold Midseason Invitational tournament. Anderson went 3-0 in the tournament, pinning all of his opponents in the first period. Anderson is 10-4. LYDIA LASKEY, Stonington, Gymnastics, Senior; Laskey finished first in all four events in meets against NFA and Westerly. Laskey had an all-around score of 33.75 against NFA and 34.60 against Westerly. RILEY PELOQUIN, Westerly, Girls Basketball, Sophomore; Peloquin scored 22 points and had 19 rebounds in two games. Peloquin is averaging 7.6 points and 7.5 rebounds a game for the Bulldogs. DEONDRE BRANSFORD, Wheeler, Boys Basketball, Sophomore; Bransford scored 25 points and had 28 rebounds in a pair of Wheeler victories. Bransford is averaging 10.6 points and 12.1 rebounds per contest for the Lions. Vote View Results A million people could be waiting on an appointment in the public health system by the end of the year if non-Covid care cannot ramp up soon. The Irish Medical Organisation has warned the capacity of the system may be halved to comply with social distancing rules. It has called on the Government to build temporary facilities to make up for the capacity being lost when the takeover of private hospitals ends later this month. He said 570,000 people are still waiting for an outpatient appointment - and a further 230,000 people are on a waiting list for an inpatient or day-case procedure. Dr O'Connor said: "That's a function of how many appointments are conducted under normal circumstances that haven't been conducted. Unless we get the system back up and running for routine care in the public sector, we could be looking at a million people by November or December. "Our hospitals have been overwhelmed and operating at dangerous levels of capacity for many years and Covid has exposed the underlying fragility of our services. "It is untenable that we continue with historic deficits in manpower and bed capacity in the context of increasing waiting lists." Fellow IMO member and consultant psychiatrist Dr Matthew Sadlier warned of complacency about the outlook for further infections. He said: "Until we have effective treatment options and a vaccine, we face continued uncertainty as to the impact of a second, and subsequent, waves particularly as respiratory illnesses begin to circulate again as early as September." Dr Sadlier also urged the committee to invest in public hospitals, rather than through the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF). "The NTPF which was originally a short-term solution has become a long-term measure thus depriving the public system of investment and enabling the continued neglect of our health services. "A policy that consistently diverts funding to NTPF in the absence of funding of our public health services will not address the problems of capacity and will not be a long term solution to waiting lists." San Francisco, June 2 : Expressing solidarity with protests against the death of African-American George Floyd, global networking major Cisco on Tuesday announced to postpone its flagship virtual event Cisco Live, along with donating $5 million to NGOs focused on fighting racism. Delaying Cisco Live that was slated to start from Tuesday with over 60,000 registrations, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins said in a video message the company has always aspired to foster an environment of dignity, respect, fairness and equality for all. "In light of what is going on in the world at this time, we have made the decision to postpone Cisco Live this week," he added, saying a new date for the event in late June would be announced soon. "We don't believe the time is right to host an event in the middle of this tragic moment in our history," said Robbins. "As I've said, we need ACTION to eradicate racism, inequality, and injustice. The first step for @Cisco is committing $5M and our own fund for Fighting Racism and Discrimination. This is just the beginning," Robbins tweeted. Several states in the US are currently observing protests against the death of Floyd. Being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by police officers on May 25, Floyd pleaded for help during the final moments of his life, crying that he could not breathe. Derek Chauvin, one of the officers, kept kneeling on Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes. All the four officers involved in the incident have been fired, and Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Maharashtras tourism, environment and protocol minister Aaditya Thackeray spoke to Hindustan Times about the Covid-19 numbers, the unlocking plan, testing protocols, and the condition in state hospitals, among other issues. Edited excerpts: Were speaking at a time when various states are emerging from the lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19, which has hit Maharashtra particularly hard. Weve been on top of the situation, and the public has been very cooperative. Covid is one scenario where no one in the world has been able to predict how long it will go on for. We just started the mission begin again yesterday because lockdown has been around for 2-3 months and as we start opening up, it has to be very slow, staggered, carefully planned. We went into lockdown in a measured manner starting March 8, and the same has to be done while coming out of it. Whats the thought process behind opening shops but not malls? There have been several deliberations on this, from directions and observations from the World Health Organization to what other countries are doing. For instance, if there is single air circulation, is that more detrimental than not having air conditioning was one of the factors. Footfall was another factor. From June 2 or 3, weve made it possible for people to at least step out and get into a little bit of physical exercise but not go indoors. Then June 5 onwards, alternate sides of roads for shops, and from June 8 onwards, offices with 10% staff. All of this is always going to be trial and error, it will be a system of cooperation of citizens, a two-way process. Whats the thinking on schools? They usually open in June. Most of the schools, especially in red zones, are quarantine facilities and so we cant open them right now. But, weve begun a process of speaking to people in the sector and how education can continue. Can we do it offline in green zones, what does social distancing mean, these are some of the deliberations that we are having. There was a meeting that the CM held with people yesterday in terms of education and technology and we cant let academic year pass by without education beginning. Our schools ratio is one teacher to 45 kids, so how do we do physical distancing there? The numbers in Maharashtra look... Scary, yes. The first and foremost principle we have to use as a government is to not fear the numbers. In cities such as New York and those in Brazil, the population is very different from the density in Mumbai. A higher number isnt a higher infection that a neighbouring city or state, it only means that the government has been more successful in identifying the carriers and isolating them. You will probably have a peak sooner rather than later and so we have told all our officers on the ground, dont fear the numbers, chase the case. Why arent you testing asymptomatic people? We are going by ICMR guidelines. The world over, asymptomatic people dont need any intervention; they can self-isolate. Guidelines say you have to test high risk group between fifth and tenth day, and we are going by that. When you speak of hospital beds, we recall images from KEM hospital with patients lying amid dead bodies. Can you explain those pictures? We have said this before - there are a few things that have to be set in process once someone dies of Covid. You have to seal the body, you have to wait for someone to claim it, but apart from that, we are also clearing a lot more space for the mortuary. You have to understand the pressure the medical system is facing around the world, as no one has seen so many patients at one time in one place. So no matter what you do, you will have a shortage, as you have tons more people than you have hospital beds or ICU beds. Weve moved into creating more hospital and medical facilities. In terms of beds for isolation wards, we had only 400 but in the last 15 days, weve gone to 5,000. We have to grapple with the gravity of the situation. Do you feel that you are getting all the help and cooperation you need from the Centre? If you have two different parties or two different coalitions are ruling at the state and Centre, then there will always be tussles. There has been great cooperation within the parties in the state and with the Prime Minister, the home minister and the chief minister. These three major entities have been in great cooperation and coordination with each other. That by far has kept politics aside during the time of the pandemic. I dont think this is the right time for any minister to speak about any politics. New Delhi, June 2 : A day after the definition of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) was widened, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that one third of the MSMEs in India are closing down permanently and it would be criminal not to support them with cash. Rahul Gandhi tweeted: "11 crore Indians are employed by MSMEs. One third of them are closing down permanently. It's criminal for the government of India not to give them cash support immediately." Hours earlier, he tweeted: "Moody's has rated Modi's handling of India's economy a step above JUNK. Lack of support to the poor and the MSME sector means the worst is yet to come." After change in MSME definition, entities with a turnover of up to Rs 250 crore or investment up to Rs 50 crore will qualify as medium enterprises. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said that the changes would benefit 6 crore MSMEs that together employ 11 crore people. Rahul had earlier said that MSMEs are facing an unprecedented economic crisis and had emphasised the need for an exhaustive economic package for all sections of society. "6.25 crore MSMEs generate over 11 crore jobs. Give 1 lakh crore Wage Protection Scheme' & multi-crore 'Credit Guarantee Scheme' to MSMEs. Give six months interest subsidy equal to six months of interest on loan taken by MSMEs," Rahul Gandhi said in a statement on May 16. Latest updates on Howdy Modi Houston Globetrotters looking for the worlds most exclusive accommodations will soon be able to add a new line on their list of must-visit locations a Hanoi 6-star hotel with a 24K-gold-plated exterior and interior. After over a decade of development, the Hanoi Golden Lake hotel will be completed by the end of this year. The exterior is already almost one hundreds percent completed, with just the final details left to be added, and the building is already attracting attention because of its unusual decor. This 6-star hotel is completely covered in Japanese-imported ceramic tiles infused with real 24K gold, and according to developers, patrons can expect more shiny gold decor on the inside as well. The Hanoi Golden Lake isnt the worlds first ultra-exclusive hotel in the world, or even Hanoi for that matter, but according to Hoa Binh Group, the company behind the project, this is the first hotel in the world to have both the exterior and interior covered in 24K gold. Apart from the gilded exterior, it has a gold-plated lobby, as well as gold-plated furniture, sink, bathtub as well as a series of decorations and accessories covered in 24K gold. As tourism has been identified as the spearhead of the local economy, the sector must have unique product to attract visitors. The Hanoi Golden Lake will become a place not to be missed in this sense, the general director of the Hoa Binh Group told Vietnam Insider. Dubais Burj Al-Arab hotel is famous for its 22K gold-plated elevator & lobby, Emirates Palace in the UAE has a gold-painted ceiling and walls, the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas has gold-infused windows that glistens in the sunlight, but the Hanoi Golden Lake hotel wants to one-up them all by implementing the opulent, gold-based theme both on the outside and the inside. Despite being development since 2009, the Hanoi Golden Lake hotel only recently started drawing the attention of passers-by, as its gilded exterior made impossible to ignore. For now, all people can do is admire it from the outside, but those who can afford to spend at least $250 per night will be able to check out the interior gold furnishings as well. Interestingly, a number of apartments in the 25-floor building will also be sold for about $6,500 per square metre. However, owners will not be able to live there permanently, but rent out the apartments through a rental agency to ensure quality consistency. Chandigarh, June 2 : The Centre on Tuesday agreed to convert the stretch of Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway into a greenfield project by providing a direct spur from Nakodar, onward to the five historic towns of Punjab -- Sultanpur Lodhi, Goindwal Sahib, Khadoor Sahib and Tarn Taran, leading up to Amritsar. Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari conveyed this to Chief Minister Amarinder Singh during a video conference. The Chief Minister had earlier raised the issue with the Centre, after local residents and their representatives expressed concern over the project's failure to connect the religious and historical towns of Sultanpur Lodhi, Goindwal Sahib and Tarn Taran. Also, the original proposal of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had entailed widening of the existing GT Road from Kartarpur to Amritsar as brownfield project, which was proving expensive as it would involve major demolitions due to land acquisition. During the virtual meeting, the Union minister told the Chief Minister that after detailed deliberations with state officials, the NHAI had approved the alignment of Phase I of the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway with Delhi-Gurdaspur section. It will enter the state near Khanauri and passing near the towns of Khanauri, Patran, Bhawanigarh, Ludhiana, Nakodar, Jalandhar Kartarpur, Qadian and Gurdaspur as a greenfield project, along with development of existing National Highway 3 from Kartarpur to Amritsar bypass as a six-lane access controlled expressway as a brownfield project. To speed up the process of land acquisition for the new greenfield alignment, the Chief Minister has agreed to an early meeting with the NHAI authorities, as suggested by Gadkari, according to an official spokesperson. Giving details, the spokesperson said the greenfield alignment will provide direct expressway connectivity to Amritsar, starting from Kangsabu village on Jalandhar-Nakodar National Highway connecting Sultanpur Lodhi, Goindwal Sahib, Khadoor Sahib, Tarn Taran and Amritsar and merging with the Amritsar-Dera Baba Nanak road near the Rajasansi international airport. This alignment, covering about 100 kms, will connect the five religious towns established by five Sikh gurus -- Sultanpur Lodhi (Guru Nanak Dev), Goindwal Sahib (Guru Amardas), Khadoor Sahib (Guru Angad Dev) Tarn Taran (Guru Arjan Dev) and Amritsar (Guru Ramdas). A demonstrator holds a sign showing an image of George Floyd during a protest in Minneapolis on May 27. (Christine T. Nguyen / Minnesota Public Radio) To the editor: Generations of white Americans have been brainwashed to accept the axiom that municipal police officers must be protected from aggressive oversight. When our neighbors of color complained about unfair treatment at the hands of cops, not enough of us believed them. ("'Sometimes peaceful is not enough': L.A. protesters explain why they hit the streets," May 31) But, with smartphones now routinely recording police-civilian interactions, it has become clear that these stories weren't just true, but actually commonplace. Whether it's the removal of rogue cops or improved training (or both), this country needs a universal solution. We can no longer feign ignorance of this scourge against our citizenry. I was a Vietnam-era Army military police officer. When I mustered out, I decided against a police career because I didn't like the "us vs. them" cop mentality in the U.S. This old, white, ex-MP believes radical action is overdue. Spike Tucker, Lompoc .. To the editor: On April 30, 1992, I watched a building on 7th Street and Union Avenue burn on live television. Inside this building was my mothers store, a small snack shop, my family's only livelihood. The building was insured, yes, but that did not protect the tenants. My immigrant mother either did not know about that, or she did not have the means to pay for tenants' insurance. The federal Small Business Administration loan was offered with strict rules for when, where and how the money could be used; my mother defaulted on her loan, and her credit became unsalvageable. The members of my family have never discussed the trauma of this day. To the protesters: Trust me, I am with you. I am just as enraged at the death of not only George Floyd but countless black lives lost and hurt by police brutality. But please know the consequences of violence exhibited over the weekend can inflict further injustice on people whose stories will never go viral. They have no slogan to chant or anyone marching on their behalf. Minah Yeo, Los Angeles #HeroesDeLaSalud se unen a la lucha contra el Covid-19 en Ucayali. Desde el Grupo Aereo N 8, el ministro @victorzamora y la ministra de la Mujer, @GloriaMonteneg, despiden a los profesionales de la salud que viajaran a Pucallpa para sumar esfuerzos contra el coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/HP0o1BvotL THE INFORMATION CONTAINED WITHIN THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS DEEMED BY WELNEY TO CONSTITUTE INSIDE INFORMATION AS STIPULATED UNDER THE MARKET ABUSE REGULATION (EU) NO. 596/2014, AS AMENDED ("MAR"). ON THE PUBLICATION OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT VIA A REGULATORY INFORMATION SERVICE ("RIS"), THIS INSIDE INFORMATION IS NOW CONSIDERED TO BE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. Welney Plc ("Welney" or the "Company") Audited Annual Results for the year ended 30 June 2019 Welney Plc Plc (NEX: WENP) is pleased to report its audited annual results for the twelve months ended 30 June 2019. Chairman's Statement The Board is pleased to present the results for Welney plc for the year ended 30 June 2019. During the year I have continued to look to keep the Company's operating costs to a minimum whilst we continued to review several different proposals to take the Company forward. I am pleased to announce that a proposal has been approved by the Board which allows for a 50,000 fund raise, prior to expenses and has agreed with its creditors to pay them 7.50% in cash and a further issue of equity in relation to full settlement of any claim against the Company. This process will enable the Company to move forward with a significant reduction in its current levels of debt. A notice containing all the specific details will be released shortly, which will include further details on the Company's proposed share consolidation, fund raise and proposed changes in the board of the Company. With the Company having no material value and approximately GBP380,000 in creditors/debts as at 30 April 2020, the Company has taken the decision to put forward the Proposals to Shareholders. The Proposals will also facilitate the agreement under the informal creditors' arrangement, outlined in the introduction above. The Proposals are intended to give the Company a future. The Company was approached by investors and, after review, the Board has decided that the Proposals are in the best interests for Shareholders as a whole. Under the Proposals, the overheads of the Company will be reduced and the proposed Board changes, Subscription and other refinancing described in a Circular due to be posted on 2 June 2020 to all shareholders will give the Company a new direction. Darren Edmonston Chairman Welney Plc 1 June 2020 The Directors of Welney Plc accept responsibility for this announcement. WELNEY PLC STATEMENT OF PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED30 JUNE 2019 2019 2018 Administrative expenses (57,616) (62,026) Operating loss (57,616) (62,026) Interest payable and similar charges (7,743) (8,833) Fair Value Loss (1,080) (239) Loss on ordinary activities before taxation (66,439) (71,098) Tax on loss on ordinary activities - - Loss for the year (66,439) (71,098) Basic and diluted loss per share (0.004)p (0.004)p WELNEY PLC STATEMENT OF BALANCE SHEET FOR THE YEAR ENDED30 JUNE 2019 Restated 2019 2018 Fixed assets Investments 1,248 2,328 Current assets Debtors 6,214 9,358 Cash at bank and in hand - - 6,214 9,358 Creditors: amounts falling due within one year (64,641) (49,290) Net current liabilities lliabilities/(assets) (58,427) (39,932) Total assets less current liabilities (57,179) (37,604) Creditors: amounts falling due after more than one year (277,032) (230,169) (334,211) (267,773) Capital and reserves Called up share capital 1,545,511 1,545,511 Share premium account 1,562,336 1,562,336 Loan note holders reserve - 10,714 Profit and loss account (3,442,058) (3,386,334) Shareholders' funds (334,211) (267,773) WELNEY PLC STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY FOR THE YEAR ENDED30 JUNE 2019 Share capital 2019 2018 Allotted, called up and fully paid 1,545,511,000 Ordinary shares of 0.1p each 1,545,511 1,545,511 Statement of movements on reserves Share premium account Other reserves (see below) Profit and loss account Balance at 1 July 2018 1,562,336 10,714 (3,386,333) Loss for the year - - (66,439) Reclassification of equity reserve to to the retained earnings (10,714) 10,714 Balance at 30 June 2019 1,562,336 - (3,442,058) COMPANY CONTACT DETAILS: Darren Edmonston Tel: + 44 1279 635511 AQUIS EXCHANGE CORPORATE ADVISER: Alexander David Securities Limited David Scott - Corporate Finance James Dewhurst - Institutional Sales Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7448 9820 http://www.ad-securities.com 49 Queen Victoria Street, London EC4N 4SA More than eight months after a panel of physicians recommended that two pain-related ailments be included in the states medical cannabis program, the General Assemblys only bipartisan committee on Tuesday approved them. Its an example of a not-so nimble process that resulted from months of review and rewriting by the state attorney general and the nonpartisan Legislative Commissioners Office. The vote brings the total number of afflications for adults to 38, while there are 10 for those under the age of 18. During a quick, three-minute discussion and vote - hindered only slightly by the video conference for committee members and staff - the legislative Regulation Review Committee approved the regulations, which will now allow patients suffering chronic pain of at least six months duration and those with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome to join the eight-year-old medical marijuana program, which currently has 41,292 patients and 1,270 enrolled physicians. I am grateful to the Board of Physicians and the Regulations Review Committee for considering these conditions so carefully, Consumer Protection Commissioner Michelle H. Seagull said in a statement. In particular, the discussion about chronic pain has been informed and thoughtful. I am pleased that we have been able to hear from the public, and the board has been able to make recommendations that will give patients, and the medical professionals who treat them more options for care. The last step in this process is for DCP to submit the regulations to the Secretary of the State's Office, who will post the regulations online. At that point, the regulations will be final. Unlike other General Assembly panels, Regulation Review has both Democratic and Republican co-chairmen and the 14 members are evenly divided. State Rep. Susan Johnson of Windham ran the video conference meeting along with state Sen. Craig Miner, R-Litchfield. Obviously we are trailblazers here on the Regulation Review Committee, Johnson said during the 15-minute meeting that was available to the public on CT-N. Administered by the state Department of Consumer Protection, the medical cannabis program is advised by its Board of Physicians, which approved the two new conditions on September 27 of last year. Attorney General William Tong approved the draft in February. Natural gas producers have had little to cheer about over the past few months after prices sunk to multi-year lows amid a huge oversupply and warm weather. The slowdown could not have come at a worse time for the burgeoning U.S. LNG industry, which has experienced explosive growth over the past decade that put the nation on the cusp of becoming the world's largest LNG exporter ahead of Qatar and Australia. But now, U.S. LNG producers can afford to smile after nabbing a key customer: Turkey. Turkey's LNG imports from the U.S. tripled during the first quarter to nearly a million tons (48 billion cubic feet of natural gas) as Ankara continued to distance itself from Russian and Iranian natural gas. Source: EnergyInDepth Cutting ties with Russia Gazprom's share in Turkish gas imports tumbled below 10% from 33% during last year's corresponding period, good for a 72% decline. Experts have pointed fingers at the recent political tussle between Ankara and the Kremlin in Syria and Libya as being to blame for the growing bad blood. Turkey's Energy Market Regulatory Authority has also reported that the country received 2 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Iran during the timeframe, down 15% Y/Y. At the root of the problem is a blown-up natural gas pipeline charged with carrying ~10 billion cubic meters of Iranian natural gas to Turkey annually that has come under repeated attack with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) claiming responsibility for the latest. Turkey has been reluctant to do repair work on the damaged pipe and has even declined Iran's offer for assistance. Related: Saudi Arabia Could Set Trend For Higher Oil Prices In June Turkey has also dramatically ramped up its LNG imports from Azeri over the past few months, receiving 924,28 million cubic meters of Azerbaijan natural gas in March, good for nearly a quarter of its nat gas imports for the month. Boon for U.S. LNG The increasing U.S. LNG exports to Turkey certainly is a welcome development. Story continues EIA data shows that the U.S. exported 2,836,327 million cubic feet of natural gas and another 1,819,386 cubic feet of LNG in 2019, compared to 1,497,771 cubic feet of natural gas and just 16,255 of LNG back in 2014. Exports to Turkey in 2019 amounted to 30,075 million cubic feet, representing a mere 0.7 percent of total exports. However, the current clip of Turkish exports of nearly 50 billion cubic feet per quarter means that Turkey is set to become a top-five natural gas customer for the United States after Canada, Mexico, South Korea, and Japan. Politics aside, low LNG prices appear to be behind Turkey's decision to dump Russia and Iran. Asian spot prices for liquefied natural gas recently dipped to a record low of less than $2 per mmBtu due to lackluster demand as economies the world over continued being on lockdown. Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR has been willing to renegotiate its replacement contracts with Turkey to reflect the prevailing low prices, something Gazprom has been dragging its feet on. For the first time, Turkey's LNG imports are now outpacing purchases of natural gas through pipelines. Related: Three Reasons Oil Prices Are Bouncing Back Source: Business Insider Flooded Markets Unfortunately, the overall natural gas outlook remains rather bleak. After a brief rally, natural gas prices have resumed their downtrend, with the August contract poised to test the June contract lows at $1.55 per mmBtu as the markets remain oversupplied with the commodity. LNG producers have been storing excess inventories in the seas, with fears that a price war between Qatar, Australia, and the U.S. could trigger an even worse selloff. But maybe the supply overhang will not last much longer. U.S. natural gas exports declined to 5.6 billion cubic feet per day in the final week of May after averaging 6.7 Bcf per day during the first three weeks. This marked the lowest level of LNG feed gas deliveries in eight months, despite the commissioning of an additional 2.0 Bcf/d baseload of new liquefaction capacity over this period. Meanwhile, warmer than normal weather in the midwest and east coast is expected to drive up cooling demand, while stronger manufacturing as economies gradually re-open is likely to support demand. By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Read this article on OilPrice.com Corporate America is adding its voice to the protests sweeping the country following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, promising to make their companies anti-racist, announcing contributions to civil rights organisations and using words like "abhorrent" and "senseless" to speak out more strongly against police violence and racism. Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier, who is black, said in a CNBC interview that Floyd "could be me," calling how Floyd was treated "less than human." Nike created a video ad - retweeted by competitor Adidas - urging people "for once, don't do it" and pretend racism is "not a problem in America." George Floyd "could be me": Kenneth Frazier, the boss of pharmaceutical giant Merck. Credit:AP ViacomCBS cable properties, including MTV and Comedy Central, said they would suspend programming for eight minutes and 46 seconds on Monday afternoon (US time) as a tribute to Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement. That period is the length of time that Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kept his knee of Floyd's throat, according to a criminal complaint filed in the matter. Netflix said Saturday on Twitter that "to be silent is to be complicit. Black lives matter. We have a platform, and we have a duty to our Black members, employees, creators and talent to speak up." Len and Marian Cupitt have visited the National Gallery of Australia almost every week since they arrived in Canberra 15 years ago. When the gallery reopened on Tuesday, 71 days since it closed to visitors as the coronavirus pandemic spread, the couple was among the first 20 visitors to enter. They wanted to look at Claude Monet's water lilies again. The National Gallery of Australia reopened on Tuesday, 71 days since it closed due to coronavirus. Credit:AAP "We walk here every day," Mrs Cupitt said. "We don't go through and study every single piece, we just go through and do a different area. It's very pleasant. "The ambience of the place the huge, high ceilings, it's a really charming place to be," Mr Cupitt added. University of Miami professor Bruce Bagley pleaded guilty on Monday to two counts of money laundering after being charged with using bank accounts in his name and in the name of a company he created in Florida to launder over $2 million in proceeds from a Venezuelan bribery and corruption scheme. Bagley, recognized as an international scholar on drug cartels and money laundering, pleaded not guilty soon after his arrest in November 2019 in the New York case linked to South Florida, but filed a notice in March indicating that he planned to change his plea. Bruce Bagley () went from writing the book on crime literally writing a book on drug trafficking and organized crime to committing crimes, said Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, in a press release. Professor Bagley admitted today to laundering money for corrupt foreign nationals the proceeds of bribery and corruption, stolen from the citizens of Venezuela. Bagley now faces the possibility of a long tenure in prison. The sentencing hearing for the 73-year-old professor was set for Oct. 1. Each money-laundering count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Bagley author of several books, including Drug Trafficking, Organized Crime, and Violence in the Americas Today, received monthly deposits of approximately $200,000 from Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates into the bank account of the company he had created, according to court documents. He would then withdraw approximately 90 percent of the funds in the form of a cashiers check, payable to an account held by another individual, and send the remainder of the funds to his personal account. Between November 2017 and October 2018, his companys bank account received approximately $2.5 million from the overseas accounts. Federal prosecutors say Bagley, who was often quoted by the news media on subjects ranging from violent drug traffickers in Mexico to guerrilla politics in Colombia, parlayed his mastery of Latin American crime into a secret side job and kept about $300,000 as a fee for himself. Story continues An FBI investigation culminated in mid-November when South Florida agents arrested Bagley, shocking the University of Miami and fellow academics across Latin America. UM officials said he was placed on administrative leave and declined further comment. Faculty members who know him said Bagley, despite a seemingly fruitful career in academia, was having personal and financial problems. According to the New York indictment, the illicit funds were diverted from a food company controlled by a Colombian individual into Bagleys South Florida bank accounts as a consultant. While that individual is not identified, the Miami Herald has learned from several law enforcement and legal sources that he is Colombian businessman Alex Saab. Last year, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Saab for allegedly profiting from a no-bid contract to import food to Venezuela for President Nicolas Maduros socialist government the very deal in which Bagley consulted Saab, sources told the Herald. In July, Saab also was indicted in Miami federal court on charges of money laundering tied to a public housing program run by Maduro. Bagley was not implicated in that case. Greater Albany Public Schools has joined with various community organizations to offer support to students impacted by the recent deaths of unarmed Black people which have sparked protests nationwide. On Monday, GAPS released a statement in partnership with the NAACP, Corvallis School District, Lebanon Community Schools, Linn-Benton Community College and Linn and Benton County Mental Health. "We are committed to a safe and supportive space for you," the statement read. "Our isolation during this time has a greater impact due to our inability to gather and support you. Please reach out to talk and find ways to get support." The statement comes on the back of nationwide protests and demonstrations overseas against police brutality, set off by the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota pressed on the handcuffed man's neck with his knee until he died. The deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor were also cited in the statement. Arbery was chased by two white men in a pick-up truck and gunned down after running in his neighborhood. Taylor was shot in her home after police were issued a no-knock warrant for two men residing in another home. She was shot at least 8 times. On Sunday, a group of approximately 2,000 people gathered peacefully in Corvallis holding signs and chanting Black Lives Matter and No justice, no peace. "We recognize that many in our community may be hurting right now," said GAPS Assistant Superintendent Lisa Harlan. "We want our students and families to know the resources that are available, and to feel like they can seek support when needed." Calling for a safe space, the organizations releasing the statement on Monday provided information for several local and national hotlines. "We acknowledge the pain and trauma in our communities of color," the joint statement issued Monday said. "We condemn violence and racism and we remain committed to providing a safe space in our schools and communities." If you or someone you know is in need of help, local organizations have provided the following resources: Benton County Mental Health crisis information hotline: 1-888-232-7192 Linn County Mental Health: 1-541-967-3866 (press #1) Crisis text line: Text "HOME" to 741741 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 NAACP (local chapter): 541-829-3023 Students can reach their school counselors by calling their respective school, emailing teachers or calling the district office. Students of LBCC can email Javier Cervantes at cervanj@linnbenton.edu. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 0 Treehugger and our third-party partners use cookies and process personal data like unique identifiers based on your consent to store and/or access information on a device, display personalized ads and for content measurement, audience insight, and product development. To change or withdraw your consent choices for Treehugger.com, including your right to object where legitimate interest is used, click below. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page. These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data. List of Partners (vendors) World Trump Threatens to Use Troops to Quell Protests Over Police Killing of Black Detainee US President Donald Trump walks out of the White House to make a statement to the press about restoring law and order on June 1, 2020 in Washington. / Getty / Kyodo Australia Concerned Over 'Maritime Militia' in S China Sea Ahead of Major Defence Pact With India Sputnik News 15:23 GMT 01.06.2020 New Delhi (Sputnik): India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison will be holding their first bilateral summit on 4 June. Ahead of the meeting, High Commissioner Barry O'Farrell raised key concerns that are impacting the stability around the Indian Ocean region. Indicating the outlook of the upcoming first major bilateral talk after the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia's High Commissioner to India Barry O'Farrell has raised concern over developments in the South China Sea and the importance of "promoting free open Indo-Pacific". "We have a substantial interest in the region and we will support other countries. We have expressed our concern and use of maritime militias in the region", says Australian High Commissioner Barry O'Farrell on the South China Sea. The statement comes ahead of the signing of an agreement for reciprocal access to military logistics facilities and other defence pacts on 4 June. Australia's high commissioner, who took charge as ambassador to India earlier this year, emphasised the obligation to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific by the two partners. The region spans from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian subcontinent as part of a US strategy to keep China out of economic developments in the region. In a bid to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific, the quad partners India, Australia, Japan and the US have been contemplating several pacts, including that of logistic supply agreements. The Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA), similar to the India-US military pact, was finalised at a defence and foreign ministers' meeting last December, but could not be signed in January as Prime Minister Morrison's visit was called off due to the Australian bushfires. India has also been talking about signing a logistics supply agreement with Japan, which is the fourth partner of the quartet besides Australia and the US. Last Month, O'Farrell termed the increasing presence of Chinese vessels in the area as "actions to disrupt other countries' resource exploitation activities and the dangerous and coercive use of coast guard vessels and so called maritime militias". China and the US have increased their military activities in the region, which is a strategically important route for access to Southeast Asia. China says that it enjoys sovereign rights over much of the relevant waters, but the White House has accused Beijing of exploiting the coronavirus pandemic in order to strengthen its presence in the region. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Two children were tragically killed on their way home from a post-lockdown trip away. Harmonie Cunningham, ten, and her seven-year-old stepbrother Nate Stewart were in the car with their family, making their way home to Perth after spending the long weekend in Geraldton. The horror smash unfolded about midday on Monday at the intersection of McCartney Road and Edward Road in Georgina, north of Perth. The crash comes just a few weekends after the Western Australia intrastate travel restrictions were lifted on May 18. Luggage and chunks of metal were strewn across the road after a grey Mazda 3 sedan collided with a silver Ford F250 ute travelling in the opposite direction. Harmonie Cunningham, 10, and her seven-year-old stepbrother Nate Stewart were in the car with their family, making their way home to Perth after spending the long weekend in Geraldton The back of the Mazda - where the children were seated - was completely obliterated. Harmonie's mother Stacey Cunningham told The West Australian she and her fiance decided to take off for the weekend at the last minute. 'We were playing in the sand dunes the kids were having so much fun,' the heartbroken mother said. 'It was on the way home when it happened.' The young mother was behind the wheel when the car smashed into a ute travelling in the opposite direction. The children met when Ms Cunningham and Nate's father, Cheyne Stewart, began dating about three and a half years ago. Ms Cunningham described her daughter as a bright and caring girl while Nate was a 'funny little man'. Luggage and chunks of metal were strewn across the road after a grey Mazda 3 sedan (pictured) collided with a silver Ford F250 ute travelling in the opposite direction 'They loved each other so much they were happy, arguing brother and sister,' she said. Mr Stewart said he loved Harmonie as if she were his own daughter and the ten-year-old saw him as a father figure. The couple said they would cherish their memories from the last family trip forever with Ms Cunningham saying both children were 'really happy'. A GoFundMe has been created to give the 'two beautiful kids the send off they deserve' with all donations going towards the funeral. The road will remain closed overnight while police try to determine the cause of the crash 'They both have made such an incredible impact on so many hearts and will be dearly missed,' the fundraiser reads. By Tuesday afternoon the GoFundMe had raised more than $10,000. Images of the tragic accident show debris sprawled across the intersection. Another passenger in the back seat - family friend Cameron Byfield who is in his 30's - was rushed to hospital and is in a stable condition. Two others were airlifted from Geraldton to Royal Perth Hospital on Monday night. SHANDONG, China, June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- After the COVID-19 outbreak, the name ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) has caught the eyes of the public. Regarded as the last resort to save severe COVID-19 patients, ECMO is used to sustain breathing for patients with severe cardio-pulmonary failure by providing continuous extracorporeal respiratory and circulatory assistance. As a top-level life-supporting equipment, ECMO is seen as rather expensive and rare worldwide. There are only around 400 ECMOs in China, which are all imported from abroad. Professor Liu Shuqin and her Team in Shandong University announced recently their success in developing a proto-type ECMO equipment. Professor Liu is Director of Maglev Engineering Research Center of the School of Electrical Engineering, Shandong University. Since 2008, the team has been studying the maglev artificial heart pump-the core component of ECMO. After more than ten years of conscientious research, her team has made breakthroughs in this direction with technologies of independent intellectual property rights, and now they are seeking cooperation to incubate the technology into real products. It is expected to save more lives of severe patients with the assistance of ECMO. Also known as "mobile artificial heart-lung apparatus", ECMO is a kind of Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation technology for sustaining lives of patients with acute or severe cardio-pulmonary failure. ECMO basically works by pumping out the patient's venous blood with a power pump (artificial heart), oxygenating the venous blood while discharging carbon dioxide through its membrane lung (artificial lung) and then again pumping the blood back into the patient's body. Although ECMO has no curing effects on the infection caused by COVID-19, it provides effective gaseous exchange and functions as a substitute heart-and-lung system for critically ill patients by relieving their dyspnea-a sequela caused by the COVID-19's attacking the lung of human beings. Thus ECMO is regarded as a "life-saving device" enabling medical workers to race against time in patients' cure and rehabilitation. According to Professor Liu Shuqin, the Maglev Engineering Research Center of Shandong University is one of the earliest research institutes in China to conduct research on maglev technology and has already accumulated rich experience in its theoretical research and technology development. After more than ten years of strenuous efforts, the team of 16 members, with professional backgrounds covering electric engineering, computer technology, mechanics, fluid engineering, materials, chemistry, emergency medicine, cardiac surgery, intensive care medicine, etc., has independently developed an ECMO prototype. Adopting the maglev magnetic suspension technology, this equipment is characterized by low hemolysis, a sufficient pressure buffer, easy flow regulation, high safety reliability, small size, etc. Up till now, the team has already carried out blood tests on animals. Parameters and indexes of the equipment have reached advanced world level. This equipment is expected to cut the prices of ECMO by one third. At present, each ECMO equipment costs 1.5 to 2 million yuan, in addition to working consumables from 40,000 to 60,000 yuan. Accoding to Professor Liu Shuqin, if this China-made ECMO equipment is produced on large scale, then the cost of each set of ECMO equipment and its consumables may drop to about 1 million yuan and 30,000 yuan respectively. Cost reduction would promote wider availability of ECMO and benefits more patients. In the reliability test, four centrifugal pumps of the ECMO prototype have been running smoothly for 15 consecutive days without failure. In the blood substitute (diluted glycerin) and blood tests, their performances have reached the international advanced level. Besides, the pump connector could be joined to imported equipment and even completely replace the imported ones given its excellent performance. At present, three patents for new inventions have been submitted for the maglev centrifugal pump two of them have been authorized and one is going through material review. "We hope that equipment manufacturing enterprises and medical institutions contact us as soon as possible so as to incubate our technology into products and make ECMO affordable to more patients in the near future," Professor Liu said. After the ECMO prototype came out, many companies in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu and other cities in China have already expressed their interests for cooperation. According to Professor Liu, the current COVID-19 epidemic has become a severe challenge worldwide. The researchers hope the production of autonomous ECMO equipment could provide help to people in urgent needs around the world. Up to now, the team have already undertaken many national and provincial level research projects for maglev artificial heart pumps. They have obtained 9 invention patents and 3 utility model patents related to their artificial heart pump; and more than 100 papers have been published on this topic. Contact Information: Xie Tingting +86 15063349812 xietingting@sdu.edu.cn Photos accompanying this announcement are available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/82f4918b-760c-4d91-b1a2-bc86f19d75ab https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/dec868db-73be-4d59-b9ff-770e4c736e6c Switch the Market flag Open the menu and switch the Market flag for targeted data from your country of choice. for targeted data from your country of choice. Cambodia is facing a shortage in its blood banks according to an official at the National Blood Transfusion Center, as donations have decreased because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Ly Sovith, deputy director at the National Blood Transfusion Center, said on Monday that blood donations are supplying less than 20 percent of all blood at the center. A majority of blood provided by the center comes from replacement donations, where a patients family member, relative or friend provide blood. But the novel coronavirus pandemic had reduced the number of people donating blood through campaigns and drives at government and private institutions. While people have been concerned to go to hospital to donate blood due the outbreak, the center had also stopped donations for a short duration during the peak of Cambodias coronavirus case count. Its because we could not organize blood drives at ministries, institutions, and private companies [as before], Ly Sovith said. National Blood Transfusion Center normally receives blood donations from voluntary non-remunerated donors personally or through regular blood drives organized by public and private institutions, organizations, factories, and so on. In late 2019, just before COVID-19 outbreak, the center received around 250 bags of blood daily from voluntary donation, which account for 20 percent of the supply. The voluntary donations reached a peak of 31 percent in 2016, according to the World Health Organizations, at which point the center hoped to increase this to at least 50 percent about 600 packs of blood daily by 2020, according to Ly Sovith. With the current situation, we cant wait any longer, he said. For a patient in immediate need of blood, technically, they can receive blood bags by showing a blood donation card from a volunteer who had previously donated blood, or call for family members, relatives, or friends to help donate blood to the center. VOA Khmer spoke to Sok Sopheach whose father is in need of blood and is being treated for lung disease at a hospital in Phnom Penh. In January, she used a friends blood donation card to get blood for her fathers treatment. However last month, her father needed additional blood but officials at the National Blood Transfusion Center said they could not use the same donation cards because there was a shortage of blood. Staff at the center said we could use the card previously, but now we cannot use it, because of the shortage of blood in stock, Sok Sopheach said, adding that the staff at the National Blood Transfusion Center advised her to call for volunteers from her family or friends to donate blood. It took a lot of convincing and complaining for the center to agree to give her father the blood, she said. It could be that blood at the center is out of stock, but there has to be a clear explanation for how to get blood. Because it can be frustrating for [blood donation] cardholders. Representative Image India is amid an economy-crippling lockdown, but that hasnt stopped our leadership from dreaming big. With China facing a global backlash, on account of COVID-19, India is hoping to cash in on the anti-China sentiment to replace it as the worlds global factory. That was one of the takeaways from Prime Minister Narendra Modis address to the nation when he asked India to become aatmanirbhar. Reiterating the PMs stand, transport minister Nitin Gadkari also called the outbreak a blessing in disguise' for Indian industry - one that could help bring large-scale foreign investments in the country. Preparations for this are already in place. India is already offering a pool of land twice the size of Luxembourg to companies interested in moving manufacturing out of China. Uttar Pradesh has formed an economic task force to woo companies eyeing a shift. India has also significantly stepped up its pitch to attract investments, having already reached out to 1,000 American multinationals. Many pundits believe that Chinas loss can indeed translate to Indias gain. That line of thinking seems to be rooted more in wishful thinking and nationalist myopia than the ground realities. Infrastructure Void COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show To be sure, India does have its set of strengths. These include a mixture of high and low skilled labour that is relatively cheap compared to China (even though Chinese labour scores higher on productivity), and the potential to sell to a huge market of 1.2 billion people. Its not enough, though. For one, it hasnt driven business home in the past. Over the last two years, the US-China trade war caused many factories to relocate. However, just 5 percent of these factories came to India, with nearly half of them preferring Vietnam and the remaining one-third moving to Taiwan and Thailand. So, why didnt these businesses make a beeline for India? There are many reasons, and chief among them is the huge advantage China occupies when it comes to investment and infrastructure. According to the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report, currently, India lags China in every infrastructure category. In terms of GDP, India invests about 30 percent of its GDP, compared with about 50 percent in China. Manufacturing constitutes about 20 percent of the Indian economy; it is about 30 percent of Chinas. Outside the West, China has arguably the best physical infrastructure consistently built over the last four decades. These include the worlds largest expressway and railway networks, and seven out of the worlds top 10 cargo-ports. Indias looks more like the poor country that it still is. China has also planned its hubs in such a way that businesses and their suppliers are close to each other, something that helps save time and transport costs. India, on the other hand, is still struggling to build world-class infrastructure that could make it as competitive. Indias biggest infrastructure project $100 billion Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), which was intended to be developed as a global manufacturing and trading hub still faces legal tussles and pending approvals. After the idea was first raised in 2007, it took about four years for the Cabinet to approve it. In many places, the project still awaits clearances, casting a shadow over its development. Thats just one example. India may be jumping positions up on the World Banks ease of doing business Index, but setting up a business is still not easy in the country, with bureaucratic delays and lack of investor trust dampening spirits. Government inefficiency continues to be a major hindrance with delays in land acquisition, stalling hundreds of projects across the country. For India to deliver on its promise, reform on land laws is vital. India's volatile relationship with foreign direct investment (FDI) and uneven regulation is also something that continues to confuse global companies and is an area where the government needs to come up with better policies. In fact, for all the global talk of slamming trade protectionism, at home, India seems to be leaning towards a policy of trade protectionism. Global Outside, Protectionist At Home Despite the Make in India programme, India seems opposed to seizing opportunities of global trade. Deviating from the path of trade liberalisation that India embarked on since 1991, the government has continued to raise tariffs in the last four budgets, departing from the calibrated approach of cutting tariff rates and in direct contrast to the position it espouses in International forums. Its refusal to not engage with other countries in the neighbourhood also smacks of this strategy. After years of negotiation, last year the government abruptly decided to opt-out of The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a free trade agreement with 12 other Asian countries. Indias unwillingness to sign free trade agreements not only means that it stays largely disconnected from the network of global supply chains, but also that its exporters are unable to benefit from tariff-free access. Prime Minister Narendra Modis new rallying cry Vocal about local epitomises this trade protectionism, The irony of staying protectionist at home while demanding business from the world, is not lost on anyone. Meanwhile, not the one to let the business go, and in a bid to further open up its market and boost foreign investment, China has introduced a new unified law that combines three sets of laws to make it even easier for foreign investors. Having once overtaken China as the worlds fastest-growing major economy, with consistent growth of 8 percent, India has seen its GDP growth fall to its lowest rate in the last 11 years. To challenge China, India first needs to sort its affairs at home. This means not giving in to the temptation of protectionism, choosing instead to work on structural reforms that make it more competitive. It means strengthening infrastructure and robust supply chains to attract more business. It may even mean learning a few lessons from the Chinese growth story. India has the potential for change. The challenge remains to find better ways to catalyse it. Saudi PIF is holding off on plans to change $10bn loan terms after banks voice concern, sources tell Reuters. Saudi Arabias Public Investment Fund (PIF) has suspended plans to change some of the terms of a $10bn loan it raised last year after some banks voiced reservations, sources tell Reuters news agency. Over the last two years, banks have lent billions to the fund, which is the engine of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans economic transformation plans for Saudi Arabia and aims to increase its assets under management to $400bn by the end of this year. This was partly on the expectation that establishing banking relationships would lead to lucrative mandates on capital markets deals. Banks continue to court the PIF, but a proposal made earlier this year to delay the repayment of a $10bn bridge loan raised in October was questioned by some of the lenders, two sources familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity. The financing, needed to back new investments, was provided by 10 international banks including Bank of America, HSBC and JP Morgan. It was linked to the acquisition by Saudi Aramco of PIFs stake in petrochemical company Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), a deal worth nearly $70bn. Earlier this year, the fund held informal discussions with banks to change some terms of the facility, four sources familiar with the matter said. Two of them said the plans were subsequently put aside after some of the banks raised doubts about the proposed changes. The bridge loan agreement included a mandatory prepayment after receipt of the Aramco funds for SABIC, but PIF asked banks to instead keep the outstanding loan amount until maturity, the sources said. PIF, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, received support for the idea from most of the banks on the deal, but was also told the amendment would not be seen positively, one of the sources said, without specifying which of the banks agreed to the proposal. Bridges are meant to be short term, so if you extend them youre essentially taking advantage of cheap liquidity but [it] doesnt send a good signal, said the source, speaking anonymously as the discussions were private. Aramco is set to pay $25bn this year to the sovereign wealth fund, according to the SABIC acquisition payment terms. However, sources told Reuters last month that the national oil giant was looking to restructure the SABIC deal after a drop in SABICs value. PIF has this year spent billions of dollars to buy shares of companies overseas, with its firepower boosted by a $40bn transfer of Saudi foreign reserves in March and April. Several military trucks carrying National Guardsmen in tan uniforms and helmets were seen entering White House grounds shortly after 5 p.m. on the East Coast on Monday, as the nation's capital prepares for a fourth consecutive evening of protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last week. "At 5:05 pm, I counted 9 two and a half ton military trucks carrying troops in tan uniforms and helmets pull off 17th Street into the White House grounds," Time magazine reporter Brian Bennett tweeted. The vehicles were later positioned on the North Lawn of the White House, behind the gate facing Lafayette Square, where thousands of people have gathered in recent days to protest police brutality after Mr Floyd's death. "Around 5:15 pm, that line of military trucks drove through the narrow lane between the West Wing and the EEOB, out the north gate, turned right and rolled in front of the White House fence that faces Lafayette Square Park," the Time reporter later tweeted. Law enforcement tried setting up barricades at Lafayette Square over the weekend, leading to confrontations with demonstrators that at times turned physical. Law enforcement personnel at times fired rubber bullets and used pepper spray to disperse crowds. An active-duty battalion of military police has been deployed to the capital from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, CNN has reported. The military police unit of some 200 to 250 troops is expected to provide security for the White House but will not be used to confront protesters and help with law enforcement, officials told CNN. The unit is expected to arrive in Washington as early as Monday, per CNN. Donald Trump has spent a good portion of his Monday calling on state and local leaders to "dominate" the streets of their cities with National Guard and police units to deter the pockets of vandalism and looting that have marked many of the protests across the country in recent days. In a phone call with governors on Monday, the president underscored the fact that he is more focused on maintaining a message of law and order than he is on sympathising with the non-violent masses protesting police brutality. "You have to dominate," Mr Trump told the governors. "If you don't dominate, you're wasting your time," he said, adding that he believed most of them were "weak." While Mr Trump has said he will "stand with" the family of Mr Floyd who died last week in Minneapolis after police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck and back for several minutes despite Mr Floyd's pleas that he couldn't breathe the prevailing message from his Twitter feed in recent days and call with governors on Monday was that law enforcement must stand strong against violent agitators. The president has said he will designate the loose collection of militant left-wing, anti-fascist demonstrators known as "Antifa" as a terrorist organisation and threatened to deploy US military units to areas of the country where protest have gotten out of hand. Mr Trump, Attorney General William Barr and many congressional Republicans have blamed both Antifa and far-right demonstrators for taking advantage of the protests to sow chaos by looting and vandalising buildings and public grounds. Local Democratic leaders in Minneapolis and elsewhere, meanwhile, have highlighted the presence white supremacists who have incited violence at otherwise peaceful protests. Mr Chauvin the Minneapolis police officer who was videoed kneeling on Mr Floyd's neck, touching off the recent wave of activism against police brutality was arrested last week and charged at the state level with third-degree murder. VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2020 / Loop Insights Inc. (TSX.V:MTRX) (the "Company" or "Loop")- provider of transformative artificial intelligence (AI) solutions has seen strong support from its insiders showing great confidence in companies future. Over the past few months, the Company has seen continued support from Officers, Directors, and Insiders who have shown their commitment not only in hard work but also investing funds into Loop's future. In recent months, the CEO, COO, CTO, several Directors as well as other Insiders have invested in the companies latest financing as well as open market buying. Since going public last June 2019, not one share has been sold by a single Insider. Currently, forty percent (40%) of the outstanding stock is owned by Insiders, most of which have escrow restrictions ranging from 4 - 36 months holds. The Company is fortunate to have an amazing team, and the continued support shows how committed everyone is to Loop's long-term success. The Company has been strategically focused on reducing capital expenditures, mainly in the reduction of staffing and optimizing operational efficiencies. As we transitioned the staff to remote working-from-home, we are now seeing a high level of performance coming from the team. It has also allowed us to streamline the operations, creating significant optimization. And in a strong show of support, the senior management team has elected to take a 25% deferral of their salaries to help preserve and keep the Company in a strong cash position. Rob Anson, CEO: "The last few months have been extremely positive for Loop, and with the recent completion of our $2.1m financing, we are 100% committed and focused on execution, and delivering long term shareholder value. Our Insider commitment is very supportive and strong. No Insiders have sold any shares since the Company has been listed, and there has been continued participation in both the open market as well the company's latest financing." About Loop Insights: is a Vancouver-based technology company that provides transformative artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to level the playing field between brick and mortar retailers and their online competition. Particularly, Loop's technology aggregates online and on-premise data to enable real-time, data-driven marketing decisions for enhanced customer experience. To close the consumer loop, the Company provides retailers and brands complete, real-time redemption metrics-something that does not exist in the brick and mortar environment today. Loop's products integrate with clients' existing legacy systems, which supports a seamless and convenient digital transformation. For more information, please contact: Loop Insights Inc. CHF Capital Markets LOOP Website: www.loopinsights.ai Rob Anson, CEO Cathy Hume, CEO Facebook: @ LoopInsights T: +1 877-754-5336 Ext. 4 T: 416-868-1079 x 231 Twitter: @ LoopInsights E: ir@loopinsights.ai E: cathy@chfir.com LinkedIn: @LoopInsights Forward-Looking Statements/Information: This news release contains certain statements which constitute forward-looking statements or information. Such forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond Loop's control, including the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions, and competition from other industry participants, stock market volatility and the ability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources. Although Loop believes that the expectations in its forward-looking statements are reasonable, they are based on factors and assumptions concerning future events which may prove to be inaccurate. Those factors and assumptions are based upon currently available information. Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could influence actual results or events and cause actual results or events to differ materially from those stated, anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. As such, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, as no assurance can be provided as to future results, levels of activity or achievements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and, except as required by applicable law, Loop does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or to revise any of the included forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The forward-looking statements contained in this document are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Trading in the securities of Loop should be considered highly speculative. There can be no assurance that Loop will be able to achieve all or any of its proposed objectives. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: LOOP Insights Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/592378/Loop-Insights-Insider-Support-Shows-Strong-Confidence-in-Companies-Future Joe Biden slammed President Donald Trump for his racist rhetoric, 'narcissism' and his Monday night stunt that left protesters tear-gassed in front of the White House so the president could hold a photo-op. He also suggested that Trump open a Bible 'instead of brandishing it,' as the president did outside St. John's Church in Washington, after those peaceful protesters had been removed. The presumptive Democratic nominee recommended the president read the Constitution, particularly the First Amendment, too. 'I will seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued this country not use them for political gain,' the ex-vice president pledged. Biden spoke at Philadelphia's City Hall Tuesday - his first major address after the coronavirus pandemic left him broadcasting from his basement due to Delaware's stay-at-home order since mid-March. Biden began by quoting the words of George Floyd, the Minneapolis black man whose Memorial Day death at the hands of a white cop have inspired days of protests, with some turning to riots - including in Philadelphia, where Biden's presidential campaign is based. Joe Biden gave his first major address since the coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday at Philadelphia's City Hall where he criticized President Trump for his racist rhetoric, narcissism and tear-gassing protesters in front of the White House Monday night Presumptive Democratic nominee takes off his mask before beginning remarks on Tuesday. He spoke of both the racial strife in the United States and about the 100,000-plus coronavirus dead Joe Biden gave his address in an ornate room at Philadelphia's City Hall, his first major campaign stop since mid-March, after the coronavirus pandemic left him campaigning from his Delaware basement Protesters were tear-gassed in front of the White House Monday evening, before Washington, D.C.'s curfew started, so President Trump could walk across Lafayette Park and pose for photos in front of St. John's Church 'I can't breathe. I can't breathe,' Biden said. 'George Floyd's last words. But they didn't die with him. They're still being heard. They're echoing across this nation.' He used the phrase to connect the two concurring national tragedies: racism and the continued spread of COVID-19. 'They speak to a nation where too often just the color of your skin puts your life at risk,' the former vice president said. 'They speak to a nation where more than 100,000 people have lost their lives to a virus and 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment - with a disproportionate number of these deaths and job losses concentrated in the black and minority communities.' 'And they speak to a nation where every day millions of people not at the moment of losing their life but in the course of living their life are saying to themselves, "I cant breathe,"' Biden continued. Biden called the events of the past few days a 'wake up call' and reminded his small audience of elected officials and reporters in masks that they were the same words of Eric Garner, the New York City black man who also had his life choked out by police. 'It is time to listen to those words,' he said. Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said 'the country is crying out for leadership.' 'Leadership that can unite us. Leadership that can bring us together. Leadership that can recognize the pain and deep grief of communities that have had a knee on their neck for too long,' he said. Biden went on to condemn both the looting and destruction of property that's come as part of the unrest - and racist policing, pitching a number of remedies that could help root out problem officers, while noting that most do a good job. 'All the more reason why bad cops should be dealt with severely and swiftly,' Biden offered. But then Biden turned to Trump's actions, especially those in the last 24 hours. 'When peaceful protestors dispersed in order for a president, a president, from the doorstep of the peoples house, the White House - using tear gas and flash grenades - in order to stage a photo op, a photo op, at one of the most historic churches in the country, or at least in Washington, D.C., we can be forgiven for believing that the president is more interested in power than in principle,' Biden said. 'More interested in serving the passions of his base than the needs of the people in his care,' Biden said. 'For thats what the presidency is,' Biden pointed out. 'The duty to care. To care for all of us, not just those who vote for us, but all of us. Not just our donors, but all of us.' During Trump's trek, he walked across Lafayette Park with a pack of government officials, and stood in front of St. John's Church, holding a Bible aloft. 'I just wish he opened it once in awhile, instead of brandishing it. If he opened it he could have learned something: That we are all called to love one another as we love ourselves,' Biden said. 'Thats hard work. But its the work of America,' Biden said, adding that Trump 'isn't interested in doing that work.' Biden also recommended that the president read the Constitution, particularly the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of assembly. 'Mr. President: That is America,' Biden said. 'Not horses rising up on their hind legs to push back a peaceful protest. Not using the American military to move against the American people.' At another moment, the ex-vice president commented that Trump's 'narcissism has become more important than the nation he leads.' 'A president of the United States must be part of the solution, not the problem. But our president today is part of the problem,' Biden said. The Democrat pointed to tweets Trump sent out Friday that read, 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts.' 'Those weren't the words of a president. They were the words of a racist Miami police chief from the 1960s.' Biden asked Americans if this was what they wanted in a leader. 'Is this who we are? Is this who we want to be? Fear? Anger? Finger-pointing? Rather than the pursuit of happiness,' Biden asked. He called the presidency a 'very big job' and said he wouldn't always get it right. 'Ill do my job and take responsibility. I wont blame others. Ill never forget that the job isnt about me,' he pledged. 'Its about you. And Ill work to not only rebuild this nation. But to build it better than it was.' LUCKNOW A doctors 60-year-old brother was allegedly murdered and his charred body was found on Tuesday morning in an abandoned factory in Ayodhya nearly 15 hours after his disappearance. The deceased was identified as Atul Khare, brother of Arvind Khare, a renowned doctor of Ayodhya, said police. Arvind had lodged an FIR of Atuls disappearance with city kotwali of Ayodhya on Monday night, after the victims family couldnt trace him for around seven hours. Senior superintendent of police (SSP), Ayodhya, Ashish Tewari said preliminary investigation hinted at the involvement of four people who were in a land dispute with the victim. He said two of the suspects were already in police custody and further interrogation was on. Atul Khare went missing after he left his house near Dilli Darwaza locality around 3pm on Monday and soon after his mobile phone was switched off. His brother Dr Arvind Khare and other family members staying in Lucknow kept trying to contact him, said the SSP. Later in the night, Dr Khare approached the police and informed about his brothers disappearance. The SSP said the victims mobile phone was tracked and recovered from a labourer who found it lying in a garbage dump near the abandoned biscuit factory where his charred body was found near Hasan Katra Mirza locality at around 7 am on Tuesday. Spot examination suggested that the victims limbs were tied and he was tortured by the assailants before being murdered. The body was later burnt on the factory campus on Monday/Tuesday midnight, said another official privy to the investigation. The victims daughter, Charu Khare, too forwarded an application to the police accusing three persons of murder. These included a Lucknow-based property dealer, Nizam Ashraf Khan, and two local residents, Kallu and Shanu. Kallus residence was barely 250 metres from the factory from where the charred body was found, said police. She said the trio wanted to seal a land deal (family property) with his father at a very less price. They were mounting pressure on him when he turned down their proposal. The accused had even threatened her father with dire consequences a few months ago, alleged Charu. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) appeals for an increase in security measures to protect churches and church leaders in the wake of the kidnapping of Bishop Joseph Masin, its Nasarawa State Chapter chairman. By Fr. Benedict Mayaki, SJ The General Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is urging churches to be more security conscious, and also ensure the safety of their leaders. Joseph Daramola made the call in a statement issued on Friday following the recent kidnap and release of protestant Bishop, Joseph Masin, the Chairman of the Christian Associations Nasarawa State Chapter. Abduction Bishop Joseph Masin was abducted on 27 May by unidentified gunmen who invaded his residence in Lafia, Nasarawa state at night. Following his abduction, CAN issued a statement calling on the countrys government to ensure the safety and release of the bishop. Since we have no police of our own and we are trying as much as possible to avoid chaotic situations, we are placing a demand on the Federal Government and the Nasarawa State Government to ensure the safety and immediate release of Bishop Masin before it is too late. It is disheartening, disappointing and reprehensible, how terrorists, herdsmen, kidnappers and bandits have been operating in the country, killing and maiming innocent citizens unabated. We will not accept losing another state chairman like we lost the late CAN chairman, Rev. Lawan Andimi in Adamawa state, who was gruesomely murdered by terrorists while our security agencies appeared powerless, helpless and de-robed of their armor, the statement said. Bishop Masin was subsequently released around 11 pm on Saturday and was reunited with his family in the early hours of Sunday. At his release, CANs General Secretary thanked the government for its efforts in ensuring the safe return of its Nasarawa State Chapter Chairman. Religious insecurity Bishop Masins abduction is the latest in a series of religious kidnappings in Nigeria. Last January, four Catholic seminarians were taken from the Good Shepherd Major Seminary in Kakau, Kaduna State. One of them, Michael Nnadi was murdered, while the other three were released. Likewise, in January, Rev. Lawan Andimi, chairman of CAN Michika Local Government Area, Adamawa State, was abducted by the Boko haram terror group. Days later, he appeared in a ransom video pleading for his release. He was later executed by his abductors. Nigeria ranks 12th in the USAs Open Doors World watch list of countries with Christian persecution. Statistics indicate that approximately 6,000 Christians have lost their lives due to religious violence since 2005. New Delhi, June 2 : Chinese brand Realme on Tuesday sold over 15,000 smart in less than 10 minutes on its first sale on both Flipkart and Realme.com, which is the fastest sale ever in the TV category on Flipkart. The Realme Smart TVs are available in two sizes - 32-inch model priced at Rs 12,999 and 43-inch variant priced at Rs 21,999. "Our exploration to offer smarter TVs has just started, and we won't settle at these two sizes. The 55-inch TV is considered as premium and flagship size for TVs, so Realme is preparing to launch a brand new 55-inch TV to give users more ground-breaking experiences," Madhav Sheth, Vice President, Realme and CEO, Realme India told IANS. "We are planning to start 100 per cent local manufacturing soon by following the 'Make in India' initiative once the epidemic situation gets better. We believe in making world-class products in India for India," Sheth added. Realme is all set to start surface-mount technology (SMT) production in India for its affordable smart TVs, and is investing on a complete production line from basic components to panel assembling and SMT. "For realme smartphones, we started our SMT assembling lines from day one and even invested Rs 300 crore towards eight new SMT lines during last Diwali season to meet the surge of consumer demands," informed Sheth. Flipkart customers can avail six-month free trial of YouTube Premium and standard EMI option while buying Smart TVs. The Smart TV comes with one-year warranty, along with an additional one-year warranty on its panel. The company said it aims to provide fast door-step installation service within 48 hours of over 85 per cent purchases with over 780-plus service centres. The Realme Smart TV runs on Android 9.0 and comes with Google Assistant to control the TV with one's voice to customize the experience. The pre-installed apps are Netflix, Prime Video and YouTube. It is the first TV in its price segment to be powered by a high-performance MediaTek 64-bit quad-core processor. The RAM of the Realme Smart TV is clocked at 2133MHz, which is faster than normal 1600MHz RAM used in other TVs. The TV also has Dolby Audio certificated 24W Quad Stereo speakers, comprising two sets of speakers that are located at the bottom. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Shock at petrol stations in Venezuela, drivers questioning why they are now paying more. Oil-rich Venezuela has just introduced a new fuel pricing system that ends decades of highly subsidized petrol prices. The government is now selling gasoline imported from Iran. The change has led to long lines and confusion at petrol stations, with many questioning the rise in prices in a country with the worlds largest oil reserves. Al Jazeeras Lucia Newman reports. Coronavirus news in the DC, Virginia and Maryland area FAQ: D.C. | Maryland | Virginia What you need to know: Symptoms guide | Delta variant | Other variants | How mental disorders elevate covid risk | Booster shots in D.C., Maryland and Virginia Mapping the spread: Known deaths and cases in the region | Nationwide cases Vaccine: Breakdown | State tracker | Mapping the vaccination divide | D.C. employees required to get vaccine | Md., Va. state workers need to show proof of vaccination Masks: Masks FAQ | Masks and vaccines in D.C. area schools | DC requires masks during high covid transmission | Prince Georges requires masks for children | Montgomery considering lifting mask mandate Get the latest local news: Morning newsletter | Afternoon newsletter Have a question about the delta variant? Ask The Posts science reporters. Police have issued an appeal to find a 13-year-old girl who vanished from her Hertfordshire home and could now be in London. Maddie Cooper is believed to be in Camden after she boarded a train from Letchworth Station. She was last seen at around 11am at her home address in Letchworth, north Hertfordshire. She is known to have boarded a train from Letchworth Station at 1pm. Maddie Cooper was last seen at around 11am at her home address in Letchworth, Hertfordshire Officers now believe she may be in Camden. Maddie is wearing black jeans, a white adidas t-shirt with stripes down the arms and was carrying a black adidas back pack. Herts Police urged people to contact 999 if they had any information about Maddie's whereabouts. They said: 'Last seen at around 11am in Letchworth, then boarded a train to London from Letchworth Station at 1pm. Could now be in Camden. 'Wearing black jeans, a white adidas t-shirt and a black adidas back pack.' Anyone who thinks they have seen Maddie, or who has any information about her whereabouts is asked to contact police by calling 999. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Market Research Future (MRFR) expects the construction lasers market 2020 to gain substantial grounds at an exhilarating pace between 2018 and 2023 (evaluation period). Market Drivers and Primary Barriers COVID-19 has had a profound impact on the construction industry; with a majority of construction projects getting delayed and are expected to take time to resume. This significant disruption in the industry has been caused by the dramatic increase in the fragility of the supply chains. The governments everywhere are taking necessary steps to revitalize the construction industry in the coming months with proper consultation as well as constant dialogue. It is projected that the negative impact on the construction industry can have some influence over the construction lasers market in the time to come. With that said, the increasing research & development (R&D) activities in the construction field with the aim to induce its development can lead to better growth of the construction lasers market. The laser technology has become immensely popular in the construction industry, with rising applications in large-scale residential and commercial projects. Construction lasers are available in various types, which have widespread use in both outdoor and indoor applications. The technology finds extensive use in several applications including aligning, leveling, and other manual processes within the construction industry. The growing number of infrastructure projects across the world is another important growth booster in the market, which is the result of the rising urbanization and industrialization in recent years. Additionally, with the emergence of smart cities across countries, the demand for construction lasers can soar tremendously over the ensuing period. Emerging countries are increasing their spending on residential and commercial construction projects, which leads to more number of construction projects, and better business scenario for construction lasers. Market Segmentation The construction lasers industry has been considered for product and range. The segments as per product include plumb/dot laser, liner laser level, rotary level laser, and others. Rotary level laser can generate the highest demand in the market, given its ability to facilitate straight, leveled and accurate measurements. Range-wise market segmentation comprises 101ft to 200ft, 201ft and above and 1ft to 100ft. Regional Insight The construction lasers market has been regionally segregated into Europe, Asia Pacific or APAC, North America, and the rest of the world or RoW. North America is known for being quick in adopting technologically innovative construction tools and equipment that can bring down human errors and boost productivity. This practice has helped the region clinch the top position in the market for construction lasers. Construction lasers have gained immense favor in the regional construction industry in conjunction with the emergence of smart cities and the surge in infrastructure projects. The European market benefits from the soaring number of construction sites, high demand for 3D laser scanner among manufacturers to reduce rework, and the mounting need for faster task completion, and better quality control. The emerging trend of smart cities, rising popularity of the laser technology, surge in infrastructure projects and the overall growth of the construction industry help the construction lasers market earn massive revenues in the region. APAC consists of a huge number of emerging countries that are observing fast-paced infrastructural development, as a result of the expanding population as well as rising demand for the latest technologies that can expedite construction activities. The hike in outdoor applications of construction lasers, with increasing use in brick alignment, basic surveys, site layouts and land elevations can also work in favor of the regional market. Leading Players Leading competitors in the market for construction lasers are Johnson Level & Tool Mfg. Co. Inc., HEXAGON, Pacific Laser Systems, AdirPro, Topcon Positioning Systems Inc., Stanley Black & Decker, Inc., STABILA Messgerate Gustav Ullrich GmbH, Kapro Industries Ltd., Spectra Precision, Robert Bosch GmbH, DotProduct, QualComm, to list a few. Note: The COVID-19 pandemic disruption is estimated to transform the XX market in the years to come drastically, and its after-effects will be persistently seen in the years ahead. The MRFR report on the XX market meticulously tracks the COVID-19 pandemic effect for the years ahead. Moreover, the precise analysis of drivers and restraints in a post-COVID-19 market offers a coherent understanding of future growth cues. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Paris, France Tue, June 2, 2020 07:08 598 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb661ec 2 Lifestyle Paris,cafe,France,lockdown,coronavirus,COVID-19,pandemic Free Restaurants, cafes and bars in Paris will be able to put more tables outside when they reopen Tuesday after two months of lockdown, allowing them to serve more clients even as their inside dining rooms must remain closed. "In this crisis, Paris needs to support its restaurants and bars. They are the heart of our city," Mayor Anne Hidalgo told Sunday's Parisien newspaper. While other restaurants across France can fully reopen Tuesday, the high number of COVID-19 cases and higher contagion risks in the densely populated Paris region prompted authorities to allow only limited operations for now. But Paris restaurants and cafes will be allowed to spread out along sidewalks and even set up tables in parking spaces in front of their buildings. They can even expand their terraces in front of neighboring businesses if the owners do not object, said Jean-Louis Missika, the city's deputy major in charge of urbanism. Terrace taxes have also been suspended in the capital and other French cities to help owners recover from the coronavirus shutdowns. "This is going to let these businesses get back up and running," said Didier Chenet, president of the GNI Synhorcat of restaurant owners. Read also: France's cafes opened through the war, but not the coronavirus He said that Paris counts some 12,500 establishments with terraces, though only 1,500 are covered. Some Paris restaurants jumped the gun over the Pentecost holiday weekend, with police largely turning a blind eye to impromptu patios set up across the city on Saturday. Hidalgo told the Parisien that streets would be closed off entirely in some neighborhoods, such as the picturesque Rue Lepic in Montmartre or the Place des Vosges in the Marais, a nightlife hotspot. The restaurant reopenings are part of the second phase of France's "deconfinement" plan, which will also lift a 100-kilometer limit on travel. More schools will begin welcoming students back this week and museums and monuments can open, though face masks must be worn and many will require visitors to follow strict itineraries. But gatherings of more than 10 people in public places will remain prohibited until June 21, and the wearing of a mask on public transport is obligatory. Surge in number of bariatric procedures using laparoscopes, technological advancement in laparoscopy devices, and increase in incidences of colorectal cancer drive the growth of the global laparoscopy devices market. North America contributed the highest share in 2019, and will maintain its dominance throughout the forecast period. The rules and regulations have been tightened by government for laparoscopy surgery for few months of coronavirus pandemic. Portland, OR, June 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the report published by Allied Market Research, the global laparoscopy devices market generated $12.06 billion in 2019, and is estimated to reach $18.90 billion by 2027, registering a CAGR of 5.8% from 2020 to 2027. The report offers an extensive analysis of changing market dynamics, porters five forces analysis, competitive landscape, pricing analysis, major segments, and competitive scenario. Request Sample Report at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/401 Rise in preference for minimally invasive procedures, surge in number of bariatric procedures using laparoscopes, technological advancement in laparoscopy devices, and increase in incidences of colorectal cancer drive the growth of the global laparoscopy devices market. However, shortage of skilled professionals, high cost of laparoscopic devices and procedures, and post-operative risks associated with laparoscopy surgeries hinder the market growth. On the other hand, untapped potential in emerging economies and rise in adoption of robot-assisted laparoscopy devices create new opportunities in the coming years. Covid-19 scenario: Some of the laparoscopic and surgical services have been postponed during the coronavirus pandemic. The services will be made available for patients who are suffering from life threatening conditions. The rules and regulations have been tightened by the government regarding working of medical staff. The staff is advised to offer training through online resources. Manufacturing of devices has been stopped to avoid the social gathering during the lockdown. Story continues The report offers a detailed segmentation of the global laparoscopy devices market based on product, application, end user, and region. Based on product, the energy devices segment contributed to the largest share in 2019, accounting for one-fourth of the total share, and is estimated to maintain its dominant position during the forecast period. However, the robot-assisted surgical systems segment is expected to register the highest CAGR of 6.8% from 2020 to 2027. Based on end user, the hospitals segment accounted for the largest share in 2019, holding nearly half of the total share, and is expected to maintain the largest share throughout the forecast period. However, the clinics segment is estimated to portray the highest CAGR of 6.0% during the forecast period. Based on region, North America contributed the highest share, accounting for nearly two-fifths of the total market share in 2019, and will maintain its dominance throughout the forecast period. However, Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 6.8% from 2020 to 2027. For Purchase Enquiry: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/401 Leading market players analyzed in the research include B. Braun Melsungen AG, Boston Scientific Corporation, ConMed Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, Karl Storz SE & CO. KG, Medtronic plc (Covidien), Olympus Corporation, Richard Wolf GmbH, Smith & Nephew plc., and Stryker Corporation. Avenue Basic Plan | Library Access | 1 Year Subscription | Sign up for Avenue subscription to access more than 12,000+ company profiles and 2,000+ niche industry market research reports at $699 per month, per seat. For a year, the client needs to purchase minimum 2 seat plan. Avenue Library Subscription | Request for 14 days free trial of before buying: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/avenue/trial/starter Get more information: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/library-access Similar Reports: Neutropenia Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2027 Digital Forensics Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20192026 Antiviral Drugs Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20202027 Eye Drops and Lubricants Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20202027 About Us Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions. AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain. We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry. Contact: David Correa 5933 NE Win Sivers Drive #205, Portland, OR 97220 United States USA/Canada (Toll Free): +1-800-792-5285, +1-503-894-6022, +1-503-446-1141 UK: +44-845-528-1300 Hong Kong: +852-301-84916 India (Pune): +91-20-66346060 Fax: +1(855)550-5975 help@alliedmarketresearch.com Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com Follow Us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/allied-market-research EVRY (dpa-AFX) - French grocery retailer Carrefour Group (CRERF, CRRFY, 0NPH.L) Tuesday said it has agreed to acquire Wellcome Taiwan from Dairy Farm for 97 million euros in enterprise value. The deal involves 224 proximity stores in quality locations as well as a warehouse, including ownership of the real estate and land. Wellcome Taiwan posted net sales of around 390 million euros in 2019. The transaction is subject to customary conditions and is expected to close by end-2020. With the acquisition, Carrefour would be able to accelerate its development in Taiwan in the fast-growing proximity format. Carrefour is expected to become the local number 2 in this format. Carrefour currently operates 137 stores in Taiwan, including 69 proximity stores under the Market banner. The company posted net sales of 1.97 billion euros, EBITDA of 209 million euros and recurring operating income of 83 million euros in 2019. Following the deal closure, Carrefour plans to convert the Wellcome stores to the Market banner within 12 months. The company will then convert Jasons stores to a Carrefour premium banner. The converted stores will benefit from Carrefour's commercial policy and purchasing conditions. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. There is nothing good about rioting, looting and burning, but these evils sometimes provide clarifying moments. Such as when progressives realize that the looters are coming for them, too. It shouldnt be a news flash, but progressives are often surprised to learn that their support for left-wing causes, including criminal activity, doesnt accord them any special status. A case in point, from North Carolinas Post Millenial: Editor of progressive newspaper celebrated protestorsthen they stormed and trashed her office. The editor is named Leigh Tauss. She initially cheered on anti-police protesters: The crowd is extremely peaceful and groups and many are wearing masks and trying to keep distance. #Raleigh #GeorgeFloydprotest pic.twitter.com/1XgZc3nuvp Leigh of House (@LeighTauss) May 30, 2020 But mobs gonna mob. This came a few hours later: I went into the hallway. I heard someone l enter the office and what sounded like smashing inside. We are a small newspaper with a handful of desktops. Im now hiding in the basement. Leigh of House (@LeighTauss) May 31, 2020 Odd, needing to hide from fellow progressives. Then, after her progressive newspapers office was destroyed by rioters: Im devastated. We are a progressive newspaper. Last night I was inside when the first brick was thrown #Raleigh pic.twitter.com/MJvPdscyqf Leigh of House (@LeighTauss) May 31, 2020 The protesters added insult to injury: Who the fuck is next? A protester shouts. Your daughter? Your grandma? Thats why we out here. #raleigh pic.twitter.com/nCU6HYgP9b Leigh of House (@LeighTauss) June 1, 2020 James Pinkerton gets the last word, via Ann Althouse: Flashback to Moscow, 1937: Dear Comrade Stalin: Please tell me what I've done wrong and how I can atone. Here in the Lubyanka, I await your wise judgment. 2/2 https://t.co/IJk39KGpwY James P. Pinkerton (@JamesPPinkerton) June 1, 2020 Another case in point is ESPN sportswriter Chris Palmer. Also from the Post Millenial: ESPN writer cheers on riotsthen they show up near his house so he calls them animals.' This juxtaposition tells the story: What a shocklooters will attack gated communities down the street. Who knew? Lets just say liberals are slow learners. Ukraine has invited investors to sign a memorandum in which owners agree to reduce tariffs by 10-20% voluntarily, depending on the type of generator. Renewable energy companies in Ukraine said on Monday they had written to the International Monetary Fund stating that the government's plan to lower energy tariffs would complicate the country's cooperation with the IMF. The IMF is expected on June 5 to approve a US$5 billion loan package for Ukraine, which has been hit hard by the coronavirus crisis, and the first tranche of US$1.9 billion is expected to be disbursed the following day, Reuters said. Read alsoIMF's Stand-By Arrangement with Ukraine to be approved soon phone talk with Zelensky Ukraine set up special tariffs for renewable energy companies several years ago to expand the green power production and pledged to buy all the energy produced. But these high tariffs have become a burden for the state, which faces recession caused by coronavirus epidemic. The government expects the economy to shrink 12% in the second quarter after a 1.5% drop in the first quarter. Ukraine has invited investors to sign a memorandum in which owners agree to reduce tariffs by 10-20% voluntarily, depending on the type of generator. "We are concerned that the government of Ukraine may be on verge of going beyond the mediated solution and seeking to impose punitive, retroactive unilateral changes to renewable energy sector contracts," investors said in a letter to the IMF, seen by Reuters. They said in the letter that such actions would cause a decrease in foreign investments and "would weaken the microeconomic framework of Ukraine and render its goals (including under its IMF program) more difficult to achieve." The IMF declined to comment. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told Reuters last week: "Our calculations show that this is the minimum we should go for," referring to the tariff cuts. He said everyone was in the same boat - the investors, the government, and the banking institutions that funded this (renewable energy) business. Shmyhal said he hoped the memorandum would be signed later this week. Some investors said they might agree to a smaller reduction in tariffs, but they have also said that they could take the government to court in the event of a unilateral tariff cut. T he Methodist church today said it was banishing oil giants BP and Total from its 1.2 billion investment fund after becoming frustrated by their lack of green credentials. The move from a movement with at least 80 million churchgoers worldwide will come as a disappointment to new BP chief executive Bernard Looney, as it comes as he tries to convince investors that he will turn BP into a more sustainable business. Only a handful of oil and gas holdings now remain in the Methodist fund including Shell, Repsol, ENI and Equinor although even they have been told their recent new commitments do not go far enough "or reflect the urgency of the threat facing out planet." The church decided that, while BP had committed to cut Scope 3 carbon emissions (including emissions by its end users) by 2050, it had not yet provided details on how it would achieve it. Those energy firms it still invests in had made commitments that implied they were aligned, or close to being aligned, with the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change action. The Church of England pension board warned BP earlier this year that it would withdraw investments in its shares if its emissions targets are not brought into line with Paris. Stephen Beer of the Methodists' Church Finance Board, said: "We take out responsibilities as shareholders seriously. We engage extensively and in detail to encourage companies to change, which is not so effective after we sell a holding. Nevertheless, when the ethical concerns are material and change is too slow or not forthcoming we will divest. That is what we have done with our BP and Total holdings. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of expression. Protesters enjoy the constitutional right to free speech, a tenet we hold dear. But they dont have a right to rampage and destroy. We live in a civil society, one that is governed by the rule of law. The ongoing protests in Richmond underscore the anger and hurt that many in our community feel over the lingering, open sore of racism and the series of deaths nationwide of African Americans by police. That brutality has no place in our nation. Protests continue to spread across Virginia, from Hampton Roads to Luray to Lynchburg to Blacksburg. The protests should be handled on the state level, not national. Monday night, President Donald Trump announced the mobilization of thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers to quell lawlessness across the country if governors did not use the National Guard to shut down the protests. That is the wrong approach. Imposing national martial law isnt the answer. Strong state and local leadership is. Northam, in his first public appearance Tuesday since the protests began, didnt blantantly condemn the wanton destruction caused by rioting. He spoke of how our country is in a moment of turmoil, and we have to talk about it. Empower has commenced phase three of COVID-19 testing with a successful pilot of business employee testing and outperforms expected May 2020 patient volume with over 2,300 physician-patient consultations. VANCOUVER BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 2nd, 2020 / EMPOWER CLINICS INC. (CBDT.CN) (EPWCF) (8EC.F) ("Empower" or the "Company"), a vertically integrated life sciences company, is pleased to announce that Empower has successfully conducted COVID-19 antibody business employee testing, solidifying the importance of phase three of the testing program. In addition, the Company conducted 2,302 physician-patient consultations setting a new milestone in patient volume for the month of May. "We established a four-phase approach to the roll-out of COVID-19 testing, ensuring operational excellence throughout the launch", said Steven McAuley, Chairman & CEO of Empower. "A positive patient experience is imperative to our success, and therefore, establishing precise disciplined pilot programs that are measured, with quantifiable metrics, insure we can scale effectively." In an effort to bolster the the Sun Valley Health division, we have hired three new call centre specialists, two new clinic technicians and a full-time phlebotomist... a trained specialist in drawing blood samples for testing. "During this time of crisis, our team continues to demonstrate patient advocacy and grows stronger in the face of challenges." said Dustin Klein, SVP Business Development "We continue to see a record number of patients each week, and with the new diversified health and wellness services being offered, we are fortunate to be able to hire new staff." Phase One Testing in clinics in Arizona, utilizing a patient blood draw by clinic phlebotomists, then samples are sent to our laboratory test partner for analysis, with test results expected within 48 hours. This program is active and appointment rates are expanding rapidly. Phase Two Offering a Rapid COVID-19 antibody test with results in 1-15 minutes. The service will be offered in-clinics using a drive-up service, conducted by Company clinic staff. In addition, an outbound door-step service, to support a variety of consumer, patient and community needs will be offered using certified mobile technicians. The online portal is open to book appointments. Story continues Phase Three Business Employee Testing (BET) programs, offering Rapid COVID-19 testing to businesses on a one-time basis, repeat basis and/or subscription basis, to assist businesses to get back to work safely, has been offered. The phase three pilot programs have successfully been delivered establishing a new revenue stream for the Company. Phase Four U.S. nationwide roll-out, offering all phases of Company services, that can be accessed online at Company websites and call centers, to purchase Rapid COVID-19 test kits. The Company anticipates phase four services to may commence in Q3 2020. ABOUT EMPOWER Empower is a vertically integrated health & wellness company with a network of corporate and franchised health & wellness clinics in the U.S. The Company is a leading multi-state operator of a network of physician-staffed wellness clinics, focused on helping patients improve and protect their health, through innovative physician recommended treatment options. The Company has launched Dosed Wellness Ltd. to connect its significant data, to the potential of the efficacy of alternative treatment options related to hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD) therapies, psilocybin and other psychedelic plant-based treatment options. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Steven McAuley Chief Executive Officer CONTACTS: Investors: Steven McAuley Chairman & CEO s.mcauley@empowerclinics.com 604-789-2146 Investors: Dustin Klein SVP, Business Development dustin@svmmjcc.com 720-352-1398 For French inquiries: Remy Scalabrini, Maricom Inc., E: rs@maricom.ca, T: (888) 585-MARI DISCLAIMER FOR FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This news release contains certain "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" (collectively "forward looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws.All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release.Forward-looking statements can frequently be identified by words such as "plans", "continues", "expects", "projects", "intends", "believes", "anticipates", "estimates", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or information that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements regarding: the Company's expected timing of filing of its Annual Filings, the Company's intention to create psilocybin and psychedelics divisions, that market research on advancements in psilocybin and psychedelics in North America and globally will create greater shareholder value, the Company's intention to open a hemp-based CBD extraction facility, the expected benefits to the Company and its shareholders as a result of the proposed acquisitions and partnerships; the effectiveness of the extraction technology; the expected benefits for Empower's patient base and customers; the benefits of CBD based products; the effect of the approval of the Farm Bill; the growth of the Company's patient list and that the Company will be positioned to be a market-leading service provider for complex patient requirements in 2019 and beyond; the ability of the Company to complete or execute phases One, Two, Three or Four of COVID-19 test programs, and Psychedelic substances remain illegal in most countries, so please reference your local laws in relation to medical or recreational use. Such statements are only projections, are based on assumptions known to management at this time, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, including; that the Company may not open a hemp-based CBD extraction facility; that legislative changes may have an adverse effect on the Company's business and product development; that the Company may not be able to obtain adequate financing to pursue its business plan; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; failure to obtain any necessary approvals in connection with the proposed acquisitions and partnerships; and other factors beyond the Company's control. No assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will occur or, if they do occur, what benefits the Company will obtain from them. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements in this release, which are qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. The Company is under no obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statements in this release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable laws. SOURCE: Empower Clinics Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/592394/Empower-Covid-19-Testing-Expands-to-Phase-Three-and-May-2020-Patient-Visits-Exceed-Expectations Company also announces upcoming investor meetings and reaffirms 2020 earnings guidance RAPID CITY, S.D., June 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Black Hills Corp. (BKH) today announced that its Nebraska natural gas utility, Black Hills Nebraska Gas, LLC, doing business as Black Hills Energy, filed a rate review application with the Nebraska Public Service Commission to consolidate rate schedules into a new, single statewide rate structure and to seek recovery for $450 million of infrastructure investments in its 13,000-mile natural gas pipeline system. These investments were made to maintain and improve safety and reliability, and to support customer and community growth for its approximate 300,000 Nebraska customers. The rate review requests $17 million in new revenue to recover the companys investments. Over the past two years, the company has led efforts to simplify its processes and better serve customers through consolidation of natural gas utility operations in Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming - the three states where it owns multiple gas utilities. The process is complete in Wyoming and ongoing in Colorado. This consolidated rate review proposal is the next step in the simplification process for Nebraska. Black Hills Energys investments in Nebraska include replacing and upgrading more than 500 miles of natural gas transmission and distribution pipelines critical infrastructure required to ensure the safe and reliable delivery of natural gas to customers homes and businesses and support local community growth. Our team has successfully invested in the safety and integrity of our natural gas system in Nebraska for nearly a decade without needing to file a rate review, said Linn Evans, president and CEO of Black Hills Corp. This is a testament to our strategic and efficient operational focus and our ability to deliver affordable natural gas for our customers. This consolidated rate review also highlights our efforts toward simplifying the way we operate our natural gas utilities in Nebraska. This filing, if approved, will make it easier for customers to do business with us and reduce the complexity and number of rate reviews and other regulatory filings. Story continues The rate review is also proposing to renew and expand statewide its system safety and integrity rider to recover the costs of investments related to integrity programs implemented to improve system reliability and safety. The rate review is requesting a capital structure of 50% equity and 50% debt and a return on equity of 10% for investments Black Hills made in its natural gas system. Black Hills is seeking to implement new customer rates in the first quarter of 2021. Wygen I Power Purchase Agreement Settlement Filed Black Hills Corp.s electric utility Cheyenne Light, Fuel and Power Co. and power generation segment subsidiary Black Hills Wyoming, together with the intervenors and Wyoming Office of Consumer Advocate as a participant, today submitted a settlement agreement with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The agreement represents a resolution of all issues in the joint application by Cheyenne Light and Black Hills Wyoming for a proposed 60-megawatt power purchase agreement. The settlement agreement and new power purchase agreement are not final until reviewed and approved by FERC. Pursuant to the agreement, Black Hills Wyoming will continue to deliver 60 megawatts of capacity and energy to Cheyenne Light from its Wygen I power plant. The new agreement will commence on Jan. 1, 2022, replacing the existing power purchase agreement, and will continue for 11 years, ending Dec. 31, 2032. Pricing for the revised power purchase agreement for energy and capacity is approximately 10% less than the originally proposed price. This settlement is critical to cost-effectively and reliably fulfilling the future capacity needs of our Wyoming electric utility customers, said Linn Evans, president and CEO of Black Hills Corp. We are pleased to continue delivering the benefits of our efficient, reliable and low-cost Wyoming-based generation to our electric utility customers in Wyoming. Upcoming Investor Meetings Announced and Earnings Guidance Reaffirmed Black Hills Corp. also noted that members of its senior management team will visit with investors during three virtually held investor conferences in June, including the Bank of America Toronto Mini Utilities Conference, the RBC Capital Markets Global Energy and Power Executive Conference and the J.P. Morgan Energy, Power & Renewables Conference. The company reaffirms its guidance range as modified on May 5 and reaffirmed on May 13. Management will be available during these investor meetings to discuss guidance, its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and related impacts on the companys business, recent regulatory events, strategy and other matters. The materials produced for these meetings will be available on the Black Hills Corp. website at www.blackhillscorp.com under the Investor Relations section prior to the meetings. Black Hills Corporation Black Hills Corp. (BKH) is a customer focused, growth-oriented utility company with a tradition of improving life with energy and a vision to be the energy partner of choice. Based in Rapid City, South Dakota, the company serves 1.28 million natural gas and electric utility customers in eight states: Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming. More information is available at www.blackhillscorp.com. Investor Relations Jerome E. Nichols 605-721-1171 jerome.nichols@blackhillscorp.com 24-Hour Media Relations Line 888-242-3969 Caution Regarding Forward Looking Statement This news release includes forward-looking statements as defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. We make these forward-looking statements in reliance on the safe harbor protections provided under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included in this news release that address activities, events or developments that we expect, believe or anticipate will or may occur in the future are forward looking statements. This includes our ability to gain approval from FERC for the settlement agreement and new power purchase agreement, the ability to successfully resolve the Nebraska rate filing, and our 2020 earnings guidance. These forward-looking statements are based on assumptions which we believe are reasonable based on current expectations and projections about future events and industry conditions and trends affecting our business. However, whether actual results and developments will conform to our expectations and predictions is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that, among other things, could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, the risk factors described in Item 1A of Part I of our 2019 Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC, and other reports that we file with the SEC from time to time. New factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in forward looking statements emerge from time-to-time, and it is not possible for us to predict all such factors, or the extent to which any such factor or combination of factors may cause actual results to differ from those contained in any forward-looking statement. We assume no obligation to update publicly any such forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. DENVER, June 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Colorado Community College System (CCCS) has announced the launch of a new, guaranteed admission program called the Bridge to Bachelor's Degree Program. Under new agreements signed by CCCS and several Colorado universities, new, first-time CCCS students pursuing an Associate degree will receive guaranteed admission and a more affordable, seamless pathway to a four-year university to achieve their Bachelor's degree. "Students are our mission, and during these challenging times it has never been more important for us to provide opportunities that allow our institutions to meet students where they are," Joe Garcia, chancellor of the Colorado Community College System. "Now may be time when the smart, strategic choice for many students is to stay closer to home. That is where our 13 colleges and 40 locations across Colorado come in." The Bridge to Bachelor's Degree Program reimagines the college journey for today's student by conditionally admitting CCCS students to a partner university-without the need to take a college placement test--and strategically placing support systems where students need them most. Participating students will have the support they need to successfully complete both an associate's and a bachelor's degree, without having to re-take credits, take additional credits, or take on additional debt. Partner universities will collaborate with community colleges in joint academic counseling, streamline transfer processes through new IT data systems, and engage early and often with students to better support their transition to the university. Some universities, like CU Denver, are doing even more by providing students that transfer to their institution guaranteed scholarships. "The University of Colorado Denver is thrilled to be a Bridge to Bachelor's Degree partner, focused on the success of community college students as they build upon their educational journey," said Dr. Linda Bowman, CU Denver interim vice provost and senior vice chancellor of student success. "Community college graduates excel at CU Denver and we know this partnership is key to not only their future, but ours as well." The program will also help the state meet its ambitious goals set forth by Colorado Governor Jared Polis in the recently adopted Roadmap to Containing College Costs & Making College Affordable, which, among other things, calls for strengthening transfer agreements and substantially increasing the number of students transferring and completing a bachelor's degree. "We know that when Coloradans have access to affordable higher education they are able to thrive," said Governor Polis. "We are living through a challenging time and the Bridge to Bachelor's Degree Program will help open more doors for students. I commend CCCS and universities across the state for their work to provide students with additional opportunities to further their education, for creating a new model that will substantially lower the cost to complete a Bachelor's degree, and helping guarantee students' chances of achieving upward social mobility." "Our board is extremely proud of the work that has gone into the creation of this much needed program," said Rollie Heath, chair of the Colorado State Board for Community Colleges and Occupational Education. "At a time when so many are concerned about the cost of college, the Bridge to the Bachelor's Degree Program is a great opportunity for individuals who want to pursue a post-secondary education." The demand is there. Over eighty percent of all community college students statewide are enrolled at a CCCS College, and approximately 19,000 CCCS students transfer annually to a four-year college or university. CCCS and partner universities are not only looking to boost transfer numbers, they are eager to see a significant increase in the number of students who complete their bachelor's degree. "Colorado's Master Plan for higher education calls for urgent action to increase credential attainment, lower costs, and erase equity gaps goals the Bridge to Bachelor's Degree Program will help us achieve," said Dr. Angie Paccione, Colorado Department of Higher Education executive director. "The collaboration and commitment from our higher education institutions will provide transparent and supportive pathways for students to meet their educational goals and increase their opportunity to succeed." About the Colorado Community College System The Colorado Community College System (CCCS) is the state's largest system of higher education, delivering more than 1,000 programs to over 125,000 students annually through 13 colleges and 40 locations across Colorado. Our open access mission ensures all Coloradans who aspire to enrich their lives have access to quality higher education opportunities. The System Office provides leadership, advocacy and support to the colleges under the direction of the State Board for Community Colleges and Occupational Education (SBCCOE). Join us in changing the way Colorado goes to college. SOURCE Colorado Community College System Related Links cccs.edu ROCKY RIVER, Ohio -- After more than two months of cancellations and stay-at-home orders, people are venturing out as things gradually begin to return to a new normal in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Locally, Rocky River residents eager for some outdoor activity will be able to use the citys outdoor swimming pool beginning June 8. The pool is at 21018 Hilliard Blvd., on the municipal campus at Hilliard and Wagar Road. However, it wont be business as usual. Recreation Department officials said the pool schedule will be three hours open, one hour closed to allow for frequent cleaning of the facility and equipment. Since pool capacity will be limited to allow for social distancing, they recommend reserving a time slot to swim. Reservations can be made up to 24 hours in advance at rrcity.com/recreation. No seasonal pool passes will be sold this year. Swimmers will pay a daily admission rate for residents and their guests. Admission will be $8 for a resident adult, $7 for a resident student with a paying adult, $2 for a resident child with a paying adult and $6 for a resident senior. In addition, there will be no communal seating on the pool deck. Pool users should bring their own blankets and/or chairs. Daily pool hours will be 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., 2 to 5 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. Lap swim and Senior Sneakers can swim from 7:30 to 8:20 a.m. and 8:30 to 9:20 a.m. Monday through Friday. Rotary contest winners: The Rotary Club of Lakewood and Rocky River is announcing the winners of its 75th annual Four-Way Speech Contest and visual arts competition. The contest showcases the talents of students attending Lakewood, Lutheran West (in Rocky River), Magnificat (in Rocky River), Rocky River and St. Edward (in Lakewood) high schools. For the past 23 years, Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood has partnered with Rotary for the event, serving as the liaison to educators at the high schools and providing the venue and judges for various phases of the competitions. Typically, the speech contest finals take place during a Rotary club meeting, and both the speech and music winners are honored at an award ceremony at Beck Center, where the visual arts pieces are displayed in the Jean Bulicek Galleria. However, this year because of the states stay-at-home restrictions, none of these events, including the annual music competition, occurred. The student winners were announced in a virtual awards ceremony video prepared by Beck Center and featured on Becks Facebook page and the Rotary clubs website. Speech contest first-place winner was Katy Spillsbury, who spoke about Gerrymandering. Also honored were Mohamed Manaa, second place, Human Rights Violations Against Muslims in China; and Katie Healy, third place, Genetic Modification. Honorable mention awards went to Sara Jarecke, Body Image; and Madelyn Tumbleson, Rape Allegations. All are from Lakewood High School. Speeches must be of original content and be based on the four-way test of Rotary, which asks, is it the truth, is it fair to all concerned, will it build good will and better friendships, and will it be beneficial to all concerned? Visual arts winners were Audrey Warren, Inner Terror, ink on paper, Lakewood High School, first place; Colin Wheeler, Heisenberg, mixed media, St. Edward High School, second place; and Jennifer Nyo, Lunar New Year, photography, Lakewood High School, third place. Honorable mentions went to Sarah Corbin, Cactus Tea, clay and glaze, LHS; Sophia Kostik, Sprite, acrylics, RRHS; and Meagan Walsh, Strike, jewelry piece and box, Magnificat. More than 80 pieces of art, of numerous styles employing various media, were submitted. A jury of visual arts educators selected the works that met the contest requirements. Judges chose the award winners from that group. This annual event is a wonderful way to acknowledge the talents of our youth, said Ed Gallagher, Beck Center director of education. And the quality work of the participants truly shows that the arts and creativity are alive and well in our community. Winners received cash prizes from Rotary, made possible by the Lakewood-Rocky River Rotary Foundation. Canceled: Bay Village is reminding residents that the Green Team Shredding Day and Habitat for Humanity collection that had been scheduled for June 6 was canceled due to the health crisis. A new date has not been selected. Banner schools: Congratulations to Our Lady of Angels School in Clevelands West Park neighborhood; Polaris Career Center; North Olmsted High School; Horace Mann Elementary School, Lakewood; and Lutheran High School West, Rocky River. They are among the schools selected as 2019-2020 Cleveland Clinic Banner Schools. The award, presented by the clinics K-12 Education School Programs Department, recognizes schools that have gone above and beyond in leveraging community resources to advance student learning. The department offers programs designed to promote health and wellness, academic achievement and career readiness for students in grades K-12. By meeting stringent implementation and participation criteria, Banner Schools maximize student enrichment and promote continuous programmatic improvement. The distinction is awarded to fewer than 24 percent of the 264 schools in 10 states that participated in programming. Library adds programs: Westlake Porter Public Library continues to add more online programming. Among the latest additions to the calendar are: Walking the Path of Dementia: Online Health Talk will be offered from 7 to 8 p.m. June 4. The program will be an interactive presentation offering a look into the emotional and physical disabilities of dementia, with tips on how to provide support and care to people with the disease. This program is presented by Arden Courts of Westlake and registration is requested. Participants must provide an email address to receive a confirmation email containing Zoom instructions. The Tuesday evening book discussion will take place from 7 to 8:30 p.m. June 9 to discuss the book Writers and Lovers by Lily King. The book is available from Hoopla through the library website, westlakelibrary.org. Participants must register with an email address in order to get the Zoom invitation. Library officials recommend downloading the Zoom Meeting Room Client (for desktops and laptops) or the Zoom Cloud Meetings App (from your phone or tablet app store) before the discussion. Participants without access to a computer, tablet or smartphone can join the discussion using a traditional phone. Virtual Trivia Night @ Porter will take place from 7 to 8 p.m. June 10 via Zoom. As with the book program above, participants should register with an email address to receive the event invitation. WPPL Roblox Club will allow tweens in grades 4-6 to hang out with their friends and enjoy games from 3:30 to 4 p.m. June 11, 18 and 25. Some private servers are reserved to allow students to play games; however registration is required for each session. An email address is needed to receive Zoom instructions, which will be sent the day of the event. To register for any of the WPPL programs, visit events.westlakelibrary.org/events. Information, please: Readers are invited to share information about themselves, their families and friends, organizations, church events, etc. from Bay Village, Rocky River and Westlake for the West Shore Chatter column, which I write on a freelance basis. Awards, honors, milestone birthdays or anniversaries and other items are welcome. Submit information at least 10 days before the requested publication date to carolkovach@hotmail.com. Read more from the West Shore Sun. Latest edition of ICSF's newsletter on gender and fisheries, Yemaya No.60, dated April 2020, published June 02,2020 | Source: ICSF | Alert Type(s): Samudra Exclusive The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) has released the latest edition of Yemaya, its newsletter on gender and fisheries. Yemaya No. 60, dated April 2020, features articles from India, Costa Rica, Japan, European Union, and a special supplement, Turning Points: A decade of change for women in fisheries. The article from India details the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on women fishworkers in Mumbai. The Costa Rican article shows how the women fishers, shrimp peelers and mollusc workers identify their priority areas for the recognition and formalization of work. The article from Japan looks at the challenge of excluding women from fishery cooperative associations. The article from Africa looks at the gradual transformation of the African Confederation of Artisanal Fishing Organization (CAOPA) from 2010 onwards. The article talks about how the organization made gender issues as a priority area in their advocacy work. The article on Southeast Asia narrates the story of how declining incomes and ageing villages mean that women are likely to be the mainstay of families and communities in the small-scale fisheries. The article on small-scale fisheries and the contribution of women highlights that part-time fishing and gleaning activities globally may contribute nearly 3 million tonnes of seafood, with a landed value of around US$5.6 bn. The article on AKTEA, The European Network of Women in Fisheries and Aquaculture, looks at what are the challenges and the way forward for the network. In her review of the recently published book, "Practical Guide for Gender Analysis in Small-scale Fisheries and Aquaculture in Southeast Asia", Susana Siar looks at how the book is designed to support the SSF Guidelines. The Yemaya Supplement, Turning Points: A decade of change for women in fisheries, focuses on a change that has happened over a decade: a truthful appreciation of womens role in fisheries. Their involvement in the sector follows a similar arc the world over, despite wide differences in society, culture, politics and economics. This supplement is an effort to understand and identify the main factors affecting this over the decade -- the causes that have shaped their role, both positively and negatively. The Profile column looks at how a fishing village in India mourns the death of an Italian nurse, Lauretta Farina of Bergamo. The Milestones column features a recently published report of the WHO Global Health Workforce. The report calls for gender-transformative policies and measures to be put in place if global targets for better health and gender outcomes are to be followed. The What's New, Webby? column presents the details of a new gender initiative via a mobile app and an online platform. The app tracks the gender-specific progress in each country. The current issue of Yemaya also carries the ever-popular cartoon strip, "Yemaya Mama". Yemaya No. 60, dated April 2020, can be accessed at: https://www.icsf.net/images/yemaya/pdf/english/issue_60/355_Yemaya%2060_ICSF_May2020.pdf For more, please visit www.icsf.net 2020 ICSF Theme(s): Others. For the first time in 76 years George McCullagh, the oldest living person in the UK and Ireland with Down's syndrome, has celebrated a birthday without his family. But the resident of Marina Care Home in Ballyronan was still in great form as staff pulled out all the stops to mark his special occasion. Born on June 1, 1944, his parents Mary Elizabeth and William George McCullagh were told their son wasn't expected to live beyond his teenage years. But proud sister Eileen Miller, who lives close by in Randalstown, was only too delighted to drop off presents and cake for her brother last Friday ahead of his big day. Eileen, along with George's sisters Elizabeth Boyd and Dorothy McCullagh, all took part in a video chat with him to help celebrate. "It was emotional for us," said Eileen. "We all know the reasons why we couldn't visit him today. He brings so much love to the family and we're delighted with the efforts Marina Care Home staff have made to look after him." George's milestone has been noted around the world, with messages coming from the US, Australia and South Africa to mark his birthday. "George has been involved with pro-life for a long time and he's become quite a celebrity through that. He's loving all the attention," she added. "He was supposed to go to London with the Down's Syndrome Association, but if he's able to do it in the future he'll be there. We've always said that if George can help save one life he'll have done more than most." From a farming family, George's father had hoped the birth of a son would carry on that family tradition. "It wasn't to be," said Eileen. "But that never stopped George's love of animals. "He always helped out on the farm, and remember that was at a time when Down's syndrome was looked on as a stigma. Things were very different, but we never hid him away. We allowed him to enjoy life and he thrived on it." George is now an avid collector of cuddly toys, and was delighted to receive a new toy dog on his 76th. "When I dropped off a few presents for him last week the staff at the home brought him down to the door so I was able to get a quick chat with him across the car park," she said. "He never changes and he's been such a blessing for our family." The deep depression in the Arabian Sea has intensified into a cyclonic storm and will cross the north Maharashtra and south Gujarat coasts on 3 June, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Tuesday. The cyclone, denominated Nisarga as per the cyclone naming system in South Asia, is set to make landfall in north Maharashtra and adjoining south Gujarat coast between Harihareshwar and Daman, close to Alibaug around noon on 3 June. It intensified into a cyclonic storm from a deep depression on Tuesday evening, said the India Meteorological Department, adding that it is likely to further strengthen into a severe cyclonic storm in the next 12 hours. Upon landfall, Cyclone Nisarga is expected to have a speed of 105-110 kmph and is likely to cause heavy rains in south Gujarat and coastal Maharashtra, the IMD has said. Rains in Mumbai, south Gujarat as cyclone nears land Cyclone Nisarga has led to constant drizzling in parts of Mumbai. Areas like Parel, Mulund, Goregaon Vasai Road, Navi Mumbai reported drizzle since early evening. Districts including Palghar, Greater Mumbai, Raigad and Mumbai have been put on alert. Meanwhile, areas like Valsad, Bhavnagar, and Amreli are also likely to receive showers overnight, IMD said. Satellite image of Cyclone Nisarga as on 2 June 4.30 pm. IMD The cyclone has been named 'Nisarga'. The name has been proposed by Bangladesh, IMD Director General Mrutunjay Mohapatra said. According to IMD, at present, the depression is lying 300 kilometre south-southwest of Alibag, and 350 kilometres south of Mumbai. It is very likely to move north-northeastward and cross north Maharashtra and adjoining south Gujarat coast. It will make landfall as a 'severe cyclonic storm' with a wind speed of 100-110 kmph gusting to 120 kilometres per hour. It is likely to turn into a 'severe cyclonic storm' by Tuesday night, the Cyclone Warning Division of the IMD said, adding that the storm will cross north Maharashtra and adjoining south Gujarat coast between Harihareshwar and Daman, close to Alibaug (Raigad District, Maharashtra). However, just before landfall, it is likely that the cyclone will start weakening and cross as Category 1 cyclone by tomorrow afternoon/evening between Mumbai and Shrivardhan in Raigad district, private weather forecasters said, although IMD is yet to confirm this. According to the Central Water Commission (CWC), the cyclone could induce flash floods in Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Palghar, Thane, Mumbai and Nashik, and tidal waves in the coastal regions of north Maharashtra and south Gujarat, CNBC TV18 reported. NDRF deploys 33 teams in Gujarat and Maharashtra Following the forecast, thirty-three NDRF teams have been deployed in the coastal districts of Maharashtra, the chief of the federal contingency force said. Both states have been dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, with Maharashtra reporting highest cases in India, while Gujarat has the fourth highest tally of active cases. In a video message, NDRF Director General (DG) SN Pradhan said, "Gujarat and Maharashtra have 11 and 10 teams respectively and they are being deployed in the coastal districts facing the Arabian Sea". On Gujarat's request, five more teams are being airlifted to the state from Punjab, he said. Gujarat will have a total of 17 NDRF teams, including two on standby, and neighbouring Maharashtra 16 teams, including six on standby, he said. "This will constitute a total of 33 teams in the two states," the officer said. An NDRF team has a strength of about 45 personnel and each unit is equipped with tree and pole cutters, communication gadgets, inflatable boats and a small basic medical unit. Pradhan said the teams on ground have begun the process of evacuation and have launched an awareness drive among the locals. "Although this is not an extremely severe cyclone, all precautions are being taken with the basic principle in mind that while we expect the best, we must prepare for the worst," he said. Gujarat to evacuate 20,000 people Meanwhile in Gujarat, the Valsad and Navsari district administrations have started evacuating nearly 20,000 people from 47 villages located close to the state coastline, officials said on Tuesday. Besides, in a relief to people living near the shore, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday indicated the cyclone may not make a landfall on the Gujarat coast. However, it will have an impact in the form of gusty winds coupled with heavy rainfall in the coastal belt, state MeT centre director Jayanta Sarkar said. As a precautionary measure, the district administrations of Valsad and Navsari have started shifting people living near the coast to safer places. Maharashtra prepares for Cyclone Nisarga Flight operations in Mumbai were partially hit due to the cyclonic storm approaching the west coast. Vistara put out an advisory saying, flights to/from Mumbai and Goa are likely to be impacted. "Please visit http://airvistara.com or SMS UK to 9289228888 to check updated flight status before booking and leaving for the airport," it tweeted. Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has said that people who live in temporary or weak houses will be shifted to relief camps, adding that precautions will be taken during the relief and rehabilitation works, considering prevalence of COVID-19. "Slum dwellers in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, particularly those living in low-lying areas, have been instructed to evacuate," Thackeray's office tweeted. Mumbai administration has also shifted almost 150-200 COVID-19 patients out of the makeshift quarantine facility at MMRDA ground in BKC to NSCI Dome in Worli due to the cyclone alert. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation put out a list of Do's and Don'ts for citizens. DOs and DONTs for Mumbaikars to take on Cyclone Nisarga. Dial 1916 and Press 4 for any cyclone related query or concern.#BMCNisargaUpdates pic.twitter.com/HY9xYVUmLD Mumbai, BMC (@mybmc) June 2, 2020 Hospitals in coastal areas of the state and the Mumbai airport have been kept on high alert. Ten teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed for rescue operations. Meanwhile, Mumbai fishermen have been asked to return from the sea in view of impending adverse weather conditions. Coast Guards have been deployed to help fishermen reach back to the nearest harbour. Furthermore, News18 reported that schools, marriage halls and other open spaces have also been identified to be used as shelter homes for affected people in Maharashtra. Elaborating on the government's preparedness for the approaching cyclonic storm, the Maharashtra CMO tweeted that an alert has been issued for Mumbai city and suburbs, Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts. It also said non-COVID hospitals are being made available. The state government is also taking measures to prevent power outages and is also taking precautions in chemical industries and the nuclear power plant in Palghar and Raigad districts. "Teams are prepared to tackle the likely damage that will be caused by tree falls, landslides and heavy rainfall," the CMO said. The control room at the mantralaya (state secretariat) is operational round the clock and instructions have been given to the Army, Air Force, Navy and the IMD to ensure coordination, Thackeray's office said. With inputs from PTI The government has granted financial clearance for the recruitment of some 6,178 teachers. Minister of Education, Matthew Opoku Prempeh made this known during a press briefing at the Information Ministry on Tuesday, June 2, 2020 in Accra. He says the teachers are to be recruited at the public university level. According to him, all public universities that need financial clearance have been granted clearance. citinewsroom A 60-year-old woman died due to burn injuries after she and her husband self-immolated using kerosene at their residence in Haibowal on Tuesday afternoon. The couple took the horrific measure following a verbal spat with their daughter-in-law. The victims suffered 80% burns and were rushed to the hospital where Chanchal Jain succumbed to her injuries, while her husband Sunil Jain (65) is said to be critical. The Haibowal police have initiated an investigation in the matter would take further action after recording Sunils statement. According to the neighbours, they saw flames emitting from the couples first-floor room on Tuesday afternoon. Some of them rushed to their house and doused the flames. They then took the couple to the hospital and informed the police. Jagatpuri police post in-charge ASI Malkit Singh said they were investigating if the elderly victims set themselves on fire themselves or there was some conspiracy. Things will be clear after recording the husbands statement, the ASI said. The neighbours added that spats between the daughter-in-law and the couple were a routine affair. They quarrelled on Tuesday morning as well, following which the police were called. The ASI confirmed that cops had visited the house, following the said dispute. As it was a family matter, the police left after issuing them a warning and the three members promised to stay peacefully, the ASI added. Sunil is retired from the Railway and his younger son is a station master, while the elder one works in a private firm in Dhandhari. The Taliban continues to maintain a close relationship with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in violation of a preliminary peace agreement with the Trump administration, according to a United Nations report released Monday. Al-Qaeda, which perpetrated the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, still has between 400 and 600 active members in 12 Afghanistan provinces as well as a training camp, and has cultivated ties with the Taliban, in particular the groups Haqqani network, according to the report, which was authored by the UN Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team. The Taliban regularly consulted with al Qaeda during negotiations with the United States and offered guarantees that it would honor their historical ties, read the report. The Taliban and al-Qaeda remain close, based on friendship, a history of shared struggle, ideological sympathy and intermarriage, the report continued. A condition of the peace agreement Taliban leaders signed with Trump administration officials on February 29 in Doha was that the group cut ties with al-Qaeda in exchange for the U.S. withdrawing troops gradually over the next 14 months. The Taliban also agreed to start peace talks with the Afghan government. Additional information suggested that discussions were held among senior Haqqani Network figures to form a new joint unit of 2,000 armed fighters in cooperation with and funded by Al-Qaida, the report said. Even as the U.S. and the Taliban were holding peace talks, the group was coordinating with al-Qaeda to discuss cooperation related to operational planning, training and the provision by the Taliban of safe havens for al Qaeda members inside Afghanistan, the report noted. Zalmay Khalilzad, the administrations special envoy for Afghanistan, said officials believe there is progress but added that as far as the Taliban extricating itself from al-Qaeda, they have taken some steps. They have to take a lot more steps. President Trump has hailed the historic Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan with the Talibans leadership as a step towards ending the prolonged presence of U.S. troops in the country. Story continues Days after the agreement was signed, however, the U.S. conducted an airstrike on Taliban fighters in Afghanistan who were actively attacking an Afghan security forces checkpoint, according to U.S. Forces in Afghanistan Spokesman Col. Sonny Leggett. More from National Review BERGEN, Norway, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- BerGenBio ASA (OSE:BGBIO), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel, selective AXL kinase inhibitors for severe unmet medical need, today announces that dosing has commenced in the UK Government-backed Phase II clinical trial assessing bemcentinib in hospitalised COVID-19 patients. Bemcentinib was selected as the first candidate to be tested as part of the ACcelerating COVID-19 Research & Development platform (ACCORD) study, launched by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) on 28th April 2020. ACCORD brings together a single, UK-wide clinical trial platform to rapidly test potential drugs through early stage clinical trials and feed them into the UK's large-scale COVID-19 studies. The first patient has been dosed with bemcentinib at the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust. The study is open in a further seven sites across the UK. The Phase II study will recruit 120 subjects in total, assessing the safety and efficacy of bemcentinib as an add-on therapy to standard of care (SoC) in 60 hospitalised COVID-19 patients with a further 60 control group patients receiving SoC. BerGenBio anticipates that top line data will readout later in the summer. Data will be open source and freely available to enable global knowledge sharing and collaboration. If positive results are seen, bemcentinib will advance rapidly into the large-scale Phase III trials in the UK. The study is fully funded by the DHSC and UKRI and is being managed by clinical research company IQVIA. Drug material and other trial resources will be provided by BerGenBio. Richard Godfrey, Chief Executive Officer of BerGenBio, commented: "We are delighted that dosing has commenced with bemcentinib in the ground-breaking ACCORD study and we hope that patients will swiftly start to see benefits. Initiating this clinical trial in such short order is the result of tremendous teamwork between my colleagues at BerGenBio and the teams at IQVIA and UHS, among many others. This illustrates exactly what can be achieved when we all work together and focus on delivering the best experimental drug candidates to patients that so urgently need them. We look forward to providing results as soon as is practically possible and very much hope our drug can fulfil the aims of the study and be used to treat thousands of COVID-19 patients worldwide." Professor Tom Wilkinson, ACCORD clinical academic lead based at the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, said: "The ACCORD platform is allowing us to rapidly test potential new treatments in response to the COVID-19 emergency. This unique national platform for developing COVID-19 drug candidates will access the world-class expertise and resources of the NIHR Respiratory Translational Research Collaboration and allied centres nationwide. We believe this programme will be key to developing effective new treatments and are delighted to see the first candidate, bemcentinib, enter the clinic today." About BerGenBio BerGenBio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing transformative drugs targeting AXL as a potential cornerstone of therapy for aggressive diseases, including immune-evasive, therapy resistant cancers and COVID-19 infections. The company's proprietary lead candidate, bemcentinib, is a potentially first-in-class selective AXL inhibitor in a broad Phase II oncology clinical development programme focused on combination and single agent therapy in lung cancer, leukaemia and COVID-19. A first-in-class functional blocking anti-AXL antibody, tilvestamab, is undergoing Phase I clinical testing. In parallel, BerGenBio is developing companion diagnostic tests to identify those patient populations most likely to benefit from bemcentinib or tilvestamab: this is expected to facilitate more efficient registration trials and support a precision medicine-based commercialisation strategy. BerGenBio is based in Bergen, Norway with a subsidiary in Oxford, UK. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (ticker: BGBIO). For more information, visit www.bergenbio.com For more information, please contact Richard Godfrey CEO, BerGenBio ASA +47-917-86-304 Rune Skeie, CFO, BerGenBio ASA [email protected] +47-917-86-513 International Media Relations Mary-Jane Elliott, Chris Welsh, Lucy Featherstone, Carina Jurs Consilium Strategic Communications [email protected] +44-7780-600290 Media Relations in Norway Jan Petter Stiff, Crux Advisers [email protected] +47-995-13-891 Forward looking statements This announcement may contain forward-looking statements, which as such are not historical facts, but are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions. These assumptions are inherently subject to significant known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors. Such risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other important factors could cause actual events to differ materially from the expectations expressed or implied in this announcement by such forward-looking statements. This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/bergenbio-asa/r/bergenbio-confirms-first-covid19-patient-dosed-with-bemcentinib-in-accord-trial,c3125711 The following files are available for download: SOURCE BerGenBio ASA By David Shepardson and Brendan O'Brien WASHINGTON/MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday urged state governors to crack down on protests over the death of a black man in police custody that have engulfed the nation's major cities, as local officials extended curfews that have so far failed to stop looting and vandalism. The demonstrations, largely peaceful during the day but turning violent after dark, have erupted over the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American who died in Minneapolis police custody after being pinned beneath a white officer's knee for nearly nine minutes. By David Shepardson and Brendan O'Brien WASHINGTON/MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday urged state governors to crack down on protests over the death of a black man in police custody that have engulfed the nation's major cities, as local officials extended curfews that have so far failed to stop looting and vandalism. The demonstrations, largely peaceful during the day but turning violent after dark, have erupted over the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American who died in Minneapolis police custody after being pinned beneath a white officer's knee for nearly nine minutes. A second autopsy ordered by Floyd's family and released on Monday found that his death was a homicide by "mechanical asphyxiation," meaning some physical force interfered with his oxygen supply. The report says three officers contributed to Floyd's death. [L1N2DE235] The Hennepin County Medical Examiner on Monday released details of its autopsy findings that also said Floyd's death was a homicide caused by asphyxiation. The county report added that Floyd suffered cardiopulmonary arrest while being restrained by police and that he had arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease, fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use.[L1N2DE2FW] The new findings emerged after Trump spoke to the governors. "You have to dominate," he told them in a private call obtained by Reuters. "If you dont dominate, youre wasting your time - theyre going to run over you, youre going to look like a bunch of jerks." Trump said the federal government was going to clamp down "very strong" on the violence. National Guard troops were deployed near the White House early Monday evening. Dozens of cities across the United States remain under curfews at levels not seen since riots that broke out following the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The National Guard deployed in 23 states and Washington, D.C. One person was killed in Louisville, Kentucky, overnight where police and National Guard troops returned fire while trying to disperse a crowd. Police in Chicago fielded some 10,000 calls for looting, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said. 'I'LL FIGHT WITH YOU' The unrest, which erupted as the country was easing sweeping lockdowns to stop the spread of the coronavirus, began with peaceful protests over Floyd's death. Derek Chauvin, a since-fired 44-year-old officer, has been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. On Monday, dozens of people paid their respects to Floyd outside Cup Foods, the scene of his death. Visitors left flowers and signs honoring Floyd. A little girl wrote, Ill fight with you, in aqua blue chalk in the road. "This is therapeutic. My heart was real heavy this morning so I came down extra early and when I got here, the heaviness lifted, said Diana Jones, 40, the mother of four children. This right here lets me know that things are going to be OK. Terrence Floyd, the victim's brother, told the gathering he wanted people to get educated, vote and not destroy their own communities. "Let's do this another way," he said. Floyd's death was the latest to prompt an outcry over racism in law enforcement. It reignited outrage across a politically and racially divided country that has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, with African Americans accounting for a disproportionately high number of cases. The U.S. Justice Department has directed the Bureau of Prisons to send riot-control teams to Miami and Washington, D.C., to help manage the protests, a department official told reporters. Department investigators are interviewing people arrested during protests who might face federal charges for such offenses as crossing state lines to incite violence, the official said. Many cities affected by the unrest are allowing some businesses to reopen after more than two months of stay-at-home orders to stem a pandemic that has killed more than 104,000 people and left 40 million others jobless. Trump has condemned the killing of Floyd and promised justice but has described protesters as "thugs" and threatened to use the U.S. military. "These are terrorists ... They're Antifa and they're the radical left," Trump told the governors, referring to the shorthand name for a loosely organized movement of anti-fascists but without offering evidence. Critics accuse the Republican president, who is seeking re-election in November, of stoking conflict and racial tension when he should be uniting the nation and addressing underlying issues. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden met with black community leaders in a church and said he would create a police oversight board within his first 100 days in the White House if elected. (Reporting by Lisa Lambert, Andy Sullivan, Maria Caspani, Peter Szekely, Lucy Nicholson, David Shepardson, Michael Martina and Brendan O'Brien; Writing by Paul Simao and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Howard Goller and Cynthia Osterman) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Congratulations, cloitre-imp.fr got a very good Social Media Impact Score! Show it by adding this HTML code on your site: Cloitre-imp.fr scored 79 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 4/5.0 Stars by Social Team This CoolSocial report was updated on 28 Dec 2013, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. cloitre-imp.fr is very popular in Facebook. It has 15 twitter followers. Furthermore its facebook page has 111 likes. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the cloitre-imp homepage on Twitter + the total number of cloitre-imp followers (if cloitre-imp has a Twitter account). This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the cloitre-imp homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if cloitre-imp has a Facebook fan page). The total number of people who shared the cloitre-imp homepage on StumbleUpon. The total number of people who shared the cloitre-imp homepage on Delicious. The total number of people who shared the cloitre-imp homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. Basic Information PAGE TITLE Cloitre Imprimeur - Imprimerie Cloitre DESCRIPTION KEYWORDS OTHER KEYWORDS cloitre, curious, read more, curious matter, landerneau, dpliant, volets The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. The title found in the head section of the homepage. The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. Domain and Server DOCTYPE HTML 5.0 CHARSET AND LANGUAGE UTF-8 DETECTED LANGUAGE French French SERVER Apache/2.2.16 (Debian) (PHP/5.3.3-7+squeeze18) OPERATIVE SYSTEM Linux Linux Operative System running on the server. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) Character set and language of the site. Type of server and offered services. The language of cloitre-imp.fr as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. 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Twitter account link TWITTER PAGE LINK FOUND TWITTER PAGE twitter.com/#!/cloitre_imprime DESCRIPTION 1er Imprimeur ge ne raliste breton ACCOUNT CREATED ON 30 Jul 2013 LOCATION Landerneau TWEETS 17 FOLLOWERS 15 LISTED 0 Democrats: We Must Come Together To Combat The Coronavirus During the Democratic Weekly Address, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) stated that the HEROES Act lays the foundation we will need to ease social distancing and safely reopen the economy. Pallone was Tuesdays KVML Newsmaker of the Day. Here are his words: Hello, Im Congressman Frank Pallone from New Jersey. This week, our nation mourns the loss of 100,000 Americans to the coronavirus. Its a staggering number and grim milestone. Families all around our nation continue to grieve lost ones, oftentimes from a distance. While its difficult to even comprehend this loss, it reminds us that we must come together to combat this terrible virus so that we can save lives and protect communities in the weeks and months ahead. This national emergency requires every aspect of government to work together. We must reduce the spread of the virus so we can confidently begin to reopen our economy and get more than 40 million Americans, whove lost their jobs as a result of this pandemic, back to work. And the only way we can do that is through a coordinated national strategy: a strategy that significantly boosts testing and invests resources into contact tracing, surveillance and containment. We simply cannot fight this pandemic if we dont know who has it and where it is being spread. And that requires a national strategy and response. Unfortunately, President Trump and his Administration have failed to provide the consistent and stable leadership that is necessary to guard our nation through this public health and economic crisis. Instead of showing leadership, competence and vision, the Trump Administration is shirking all responsibility and is instead forcing states to find their own way out of this pandemic. For months, the President has refused to develop and implement a national testing program. For months, weve been promised millions of tests were right around the corner and that everyone that wanted a test could get one. These promises have been hollow. Testing is getting better, but public health experts continue to warn that our country is far short of the testing we need. And the failure of national leadership has forced states to compete against each other to procure tests and the vital supplies needed to administer tests from the private market. We simply cannot allow the Trump Administrations failures to persist, and thats why House Democrats took bold action and passed The Heroes Act earlier this month. This legislation continues our ongoing commitment to providing the health care resources and support needed to combat the coronavirus crisis. The Heroes Act will strengthen testing by finally requiring the Trump Administration to develop comprehensive, coordinated strategies for testing, contact tracing and surveillance. The Administration will be required to include clear benchmarks and timelines. It will also be forced to publicly report key metrics. These requirements are critical to bringing much needed transparency to our nations response efforts. It will allow us to see if the Trump Administration is fulfilling their promises and hold them accountable when they are not. The Heroes Act also provides up to $75 billion in grants to support robust testing, contact tracing, surveillance and containment activities. It also provides additional funding to communities that have a high number of COVID-19 cases or are experiencing a surge, as well as for areas with populations experiencing disparities. This includes low-income and the uninsured, communities of color, people with disabilities and other underserved communities. We simply cannot beat this virus without these efforts in place. The Heroes Act builds on the progress we have made and lays the foundation we will need to ease social distancing and safely reopen the economy. Now, its time for the Senate to act. Unfortunately, to date, Senate Majority Leader McConnell continues to delay and obstruct. This cannot continue. With more than 100,000 Americans dead, we must collectively find solutions, like The Heroes Act, that will help us finally stop the spread of this virus. It is the only way we will be able to protect the American people, and safely and confidently reopen our communities. I thank you for listening, and please, stay safe. The two lions that viciously mauled a female zookeeper will not be put down following an investigation into the attack. Jennifer Brown, 35, was cleaning the cage when the lions, Ariel and Juda, attacked her head and neck at Shoalhaven Zoo, in North Nowra, New South Wales, on Friday. The fate of the lions, who are brothers born and bred at the zoo, was decided as police work with SafeWork NSW to determine the circumstances that lead to her attack. 'The investigation is ongoing but no decision in consultation with the zoo has been made to have the lions put down,' Detective Inspector Scott Nelson told The Australian. Jennifer Brown (pictured), 35, was cleaning the cage when the lions, Ariel and Juda, attacked her head and neck at Shoalhaven Zoo, in North Nowra, New South Wales, on Friday Two colleagues rushed into the enclosure to secure the lions and save an unconscious Ms Brown on Friday morning. Emergency services were called around 10.30am and four ambulance crews and a rescue helicopter arrived to treat the zookeeper. Paramedics worked on Ms Brown for more than two hours before she was airlifted to St George Private Hospital where she remains in a critical but stable condition. She had been working at the park since 2013 and had previously said she had a special place in her heart for 'big cats'. Paramedics worked on Ms Brown for more than two hours before she was airlifted to St George Private Hospital where she remains in a critical but stable condition The investigation will look at protocols for cleaning cages and procedures in place for dealing with dangerous animals. It will also examine whether two staff members should have been present when Ms Brown was cleaning the enclosure. NSW Ambulance duty operations manager, Faye Stockmen, said: 'This is one of the worst jobs I have ever experienced - I have never come across a job like this in my career.' 'The attack was extremely vicious and paramedics found the woman with severe injuries. 'It was absolutely harrowing. It is an incredibly dangerous situations, both for the patient and the paramedics,' he said. The zoo has decided to not put down the lions (pictured), who are brothers born and bred there, as police work with SafeWork NSW to determine the circumstances that lead to her attack The Shoalhaven Zoo, which has been closed since late March due to coronavirus restrictions, made an emotional Facebook post thanking emergency services for their support. 'To all our friends, family and extended zoo family who have sent well wishes and prayers. 'To the emergency services who were involved today we are thankful for your response of skill, compassion & care for Jen and the zoo team.' Shoalhaven Zoo went on to say it was focusing its energy on providing support to Ms Brown. 'At this point in time our only concerns are for Jen and her recovery. We ask that you continue to pray for her and her family.' Daily Mail Australia contacted Shoalhaven Zoo who said they are not commenting on the incident at this time. Statement in Response to Unrest in America America is suffering and her people are hurting, angry, and concerned about our fragility and our collective future as a nation. We have reached a tipping point that has long been bubbling under the surface. For the last several days, we have watched the explosion of centuries-old frustrations and tensions, rooted in injustice, erupt in protest and chaos in communities across this country. Unbelievably, this current crisis is unfolding on top of the months-long stress resulting from a once-in-a-generation worldwide pandemic. This pandemic has challenged us all both personally and professionally, taxed us to the point of physical and mental exhaustion, and has exposed disparities and inequities that have long existed within this country. As the indigenous people of these lands, we stand in unity alongside our black relatives who have long suffered at the hands of injustice in this country. We understand and relate to your pain and outrage. We stand with you in your just and righteous cause to bring awareness, truth, and long overdue positive change to your American experience. We too seek the same and we understand the importance of standing with one another against injustice. Injustice in America is not a new reality. In fact, it predates the founding of this nation. It was birthed as its original sin; the sin of greed and superiority that led to the genocide of our indigenous relatives. It is grounded in the arrival of the first explorers who set foot on our shores and quickly embarked upon a centuries long campaign. A campaign to oppress others to achieve gain for themselves. A campaign to secure the rights and privileges of those it believed to be more deserving than others, despite the principles reflected within its Constitution. A campaign that has yet to end. This campaign started with indigenous peoples, and was followed by many other unconscionable, deplorable, and despicable acts for which this nation has yet to hold itself accountable. The impacts and consequences of this original sin continue to be at the root of our challenges to this day, not only within Indian country, but also as a nation. While we have made minimal progress towards a more enlightened and just society over time, this progress has been impeded by our failure as a society to properly identify, acknowledge, own, and teach these truths. In doing this, we mask the roots of injustice in this country. For those that benefit from this fiction, the result has been unrecognized privilege and entitlement and institutionalized ignorance. In Canada and the U.S., Native people have been attacked and died at the hands of the police, at times in the most brutal of ways. #NativeLivesMatter #GeorgeFloyd https://t.co/tZpAmMVgcS indianz.com (@indianz) June 1, 2020 For those oppressed by it, the result has been a pattern and unending cycle of multi-generational trauma, institutionalized racism and discrimination, hate and bigotry, health and social disparities, inequality, inequity, marginalization, disenfranchisement, and invisibility. Until we demand honesty and confront our past and origins as a country, we can never heal from its roots of injustice. The collective citizenry of this country must denounce and move away from the comfort of tacit complicity, willful disregard and blindness, tolerance, and indifference to the many ills that continue to plague our country. We must expect and demand betterfrom ourselves, our families, our communities. Despite the truths of our past, and our continued challenges that divide us, we have the gift of opportunity and the power of choice; a choice to be better than we have been, to be better than we are. But that begins with a willingness to take an honest and introspective look in the mirror as a nation. In doing so, we will move closer to a common understanding of who we are, which is necessary to forge ahead with a common cause and a common purpose. "There's nothing left...It's just a burned shell": MIGIZI, a sacred space supporting Native youth in #TwinCities, suffered major damage during #GeorgeFloyd protests in #Minneapolis. Kevin Abourezk @Kevin_Abourezk was on the ground on May 30, 2020. #NativeLivesMatter #Minnesota pic.twitter.com/eciPoyg3q4 indianz.com (@indianz) May 30, 2020 While it is important to have respect for that which distinguishes us from one another, it is equally important that we find a way to focus on that which binds us in common as children of the Creatoras fellow human beings, as global citizens, as citizens of this great democratic experiment who are all deserved of human rights, equal opportunity, dignity, and respect. In doing so, we will begin to move beyond the other mentality that separates and divides us and remember that we are all related. We must move beyond the ignorance that resides within narrow mindedness of ones limited understanding of the world and humanity, as we seek out our truth. We must no longer allow for loving and innocent hearts and minds to be corrupted with hate, greed, and intolerance. We must inspire and encourage empathy and compassion. In doing so, we will discover that we are part of something larger, something greater than ourselves. Today, we find ourselves at a crossroads in our democratic experiment. This is the moment where the experiment fails and disintegrates, or the moment that we will ultimately forge ahead stronger. As part of our continued evolution as a country, as a people, the time has arrived for an awakening, or reawakening, of consciousness and morality. "They're killing us": The killing of #GeorgeFloyd by police officers has set off a firestorm in the Twin Cities of #Minnesota, home to a large urban Indian community whose cultural, social and economic institutions are being threatened. #NativeLivesMatterhttps://t.co/BHCaPYnPo4 indianz.com (@indianz) May 29, 2020 Until we all see a bit of ourselves in each other, until we share a common understanding of our journey as a nation, until we find common ground in our dreams and aspirations, we will continue to be misled and defined by our fears and selfish interests. We will continue to turn a blind eye to the ills of our society by standing in silence. We will continue to see those not like us as others. And we will continue to justify, rationalize, and participate in that which separates and divides. The opportunity is now for us all to commit ourselves to be agents of healing and change to ensure that the path we choose at this fork in the road will lead us to greatness, which fundamentally includes true unity and justice for all. We must all take a firmer stand on the ground of righteousness, reverence, respect, and regard for all of humanity. It is up to each and every one of us to prove to the world, to prove to our Creator, that we have not lost our collective soul as a society, that we are not morally bankrupt. Kevin Abourezk @Kevin_Abourezk is LIVE in #Minneapolis as crowds continue to gather at the place where George Floyd was killed by police officers. #GeorgeFloyd #NativeLivesMatterhttps://t.co/cy12ZG5Ywj pic.twitter.com/4r5cxZHiFK indianz.com (@indianz) May 31, 2020 We are better than what we have been and have the potential to be so much better. We must harness this time of challenge and upheaval in our nation to achieve truth and reconciliation with the stains on its character and integrity. Only then can we forge ahead together as a united people by removing the many ills of injustice that continue to impede our ability to achieve the ideals and principles we set forth so many years ago. As stated by the Reverend Martin Luther King, Justice too long delayed is justice denied. Now is the time to end the delay and denial. Now is the moment to make the right choice. Established in 2014, the USET Sovereignty Protection Fund (USET SPF) is a non-profit, inter-Tribal organization representing 30 federally-recognized Tribal Nations from the Northeastern Woodlands to the Everglades and across the Gulf of Mexico. USET SPF is dedicated to promoting, protecting, and advancing the inherent sovereign rights and authorities of Tribal Nations while assisting its membership in dealing effectively with public policy issues and serving the broad needs of Indian people. Join the Conversation Thousands of small businesses fear they will go to the wall before the conclusion of a landmark legal battle over vital insurance payouts for Covid-19 closures, campaigners have warned. Sixteen insurers were this week named in a High Court action brought by the financial regulator over the refusal to provide payouts to desperate companies, in what critics allege is a 1 billion 'coronavirus cover con'. Money Mail has previously revealed how tens of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses face ruin and hundreds of thousands of their staff redundancy after insurers failed to provide the financial lifeline. Court battle: Sixteen insurers were this week named in a High Court (pictured) action brought by the financial regulator over the refusal to provide a financial lifeline to desperate companies This was despite spending years paying for business interruption policies, which promised protection against closures caused by outbreaks of a 'human contagious disease'. Following huge outcry from businesses on the brink including family-run shops, pubs, hairdressers and IT firms the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) stepped in. But campaigners have warned that by the time the case is concluded it might be too late for many of them. Simon Ager, who leads a group demanding the payouts from Lloyds of London-listed Hiscox, warns that even if the insurer lost the initial hearing planned for the end of next month, it would have the right to appeal. 'It means the legal action could drag on for months or even years,' he says. 'By the time it's resolved, many of the businesses the insurance is supposed to cover could already be bust. But despite naming Hiscox in almost half of the policies under investigation, the FCA has not instructed the insurer to make any interim payments.' Most of the more than 500 companies in the Hiscox Action Group, some of which had spent more than 10,000 on premiums over several years, had expected payouts of around 100,000. After receiving 1,200 submissions from policyholders and brokers, the FCA has identified 17 disputed sample policy wordings to go before the judge in a test case. These are used in at least 79 policies by 16 insurers named in the case. The FCA said the list was a 'representative sample' and 'many other' policies may be added. Some insurers have agreed to pay out on claims as the threat of legal action looms. But Hiscox, which has 34 policies named in the case, is fighting the payouts. Instead, it has offered some small businesses 'goodwill' payments to apologise for failing to make it clear that pandemics were not covered. However, Leicestershire web designing firm Lowaire Digital says the 500 it was offered would only be enough to buy 'three months' worth of coffee'. Most of the more than 500 firms in the Hiscox Action Group, some of which had spent more than 10,000 on premiums over several years, had expected payouts of around 100,000 Hiscox is one of eight insurers named as defendants in the FCA test case. The others are Arch Insurance, Argenta Syndicate Management, Ecclesiastical Insurance Office, MS Amlin Underwriting, QBE, Royal & Sun Alliance, and Zurich. Chris McColl's NY Slice pizzeria in Glasgow hasn't made a penny since March. He was told he would not get a payout because Covid-19 had not been discovered when he bought the 1,200-a-year policy from Argo Group in November, so it was not included in its list of covered diseases. He is still fighting for a payout from Axis after the pizzeria had to close due to a fire at the Glasgow School of Art nearby. He is now preparing to take his case to the ombudsman. Huw Evans, director general of the Association of British Insurers (ABI) told Money Mail last week that the policies were 'never intended' to cover global pandemics as 'no insurance industry in the Western world' provides cover for pandemics as standard. The FCA expects to publish a list of all the relevant policies involved in the dispute in early July. Christopher Woolard, the FCA's interim chief executive, says: 'The court action we are taking is aimed at providing clarity and certainty. 'We feel, by covering multiple policies and insurers, it will also be of most use across the market. 'The identification of a representative sample of policies and the agreement of insurers to participate in these proceedings is a major step forward in progressing to court.' Hiscox says it welcomes the FCA announcement. A spokesman adds: 'Hiscox has agreed to assist the FCA by participating, alongside other insurers, in the test case in order to provide certainty as quickly as possible.' investigations@dailymail.co.uk Syracuse, N.Y. After weeks of speculation, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has given New York day camps a green light to open at the end of the month. But what does that mean for camps in Central New York? It depends who you ask. Summer day camps across the state can open on June 29, Cuomo announced Tuesday during a news conference in Albany. The governor did not discuss any guidelines. The state is still mulling over whether to let sleep-away camps open. The coronavirus pandemic led Lourdes Camp to cancel its entire summer camp season on Friday. The governors announcement hasnt changed that decision, camp director Mike Preston said. With no guidelines from the state to follow and so many campers to protect, he said Lourdes Camp just couldnt take that risk. The governors decision is good news for the Jewish Community Center of Syracuse, which runs a summer camp. JCC plans to start its shortened seven-week camping season on July 6, said Marci Erlebacher, executive director of the center. Although JCC has been following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations while making plans to safely reopen, Erlebacher said the center is now waiting for Onondaga County to issue guidelines. We are very excited about this announcement and are even more excited to be able to once again serve our families, she said. Other organizations, like the YMCA of Central New York, are still processing the governors decision. Our camp folks have been working on this and are actively making decisions right now in light of this announcement," said Stefanie Noble, the YMCAs director of marketing and communication. With only a few weeks left in the school year, hopeful campers will have to wait a bit longer for answers. MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources McMahon: Ugly reopening was making sausage,' but state made the right call in the end Central New York, 4 other regions clear to move to phase 2 of reopening NY releases guidelines for offices, retail shops, real estate and other phase 2 businesses Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com How to Help the Black Lives Matter Cause Through Donations, Education and Policy Reform Here's What You Can Do to Help the Black Lives Matter Cause The fight for racial equality must be heard. Amplify is our series devoted to elevating black voices and brands, spotlighting issues, and taking action. Protests have erupted across the United States after yet another horrific murder of a black man by those that are supposed to protect and serve all, not just some. On May 25 in Minneapolis, George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died as a white police officer knelt on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds after he was arrested for allegedly trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes. The four officers involved were fired the next day, and Derek Chauvin the one with his knee to Floyd's neck long after his body went limp and he stopped gasping for air has since been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Floyd's murder was caught on video, but how many are not? There are countless others that don't become a hashtag and all of this, unfortunately, is not new. This is centuries of oppression built into our country's consciousness so it's no wonder that proponents of the Black Lives Matter movement are once again hitting the streets to make their voices heard. RELATED: 7 Must-Read Books by Black Authors Though the vast majority of recent protests and demonstrations have been peaceful (despite the more "newsworthy" acts of violence that are being reported), it's still understandable why you might not want or be able to put boots on the ground while we're still in the middle of a global pandemic. And that's okay, because there are plenty of ways that you can help out from home. Donate If you have the means to donate right now, money always goes a long way to help instigate change and make a difference. First and foremost at this time, you can help fund Floyd's funeral, legal fees and continued care for his children through his family's GoFundMe page. Local bail funds have also been established to assist protestors who have been unfairly arrested. You can split your donation among a variety of bail funds across the country, or check out this list compiled with the help of National Bail Fund Network to find a protest bail fund in a nearby community. However, some organizations, including the Minnesota Freedom Fund and Brooklyn Community Bail Fund have seen such an outpouring of support that they are now asking donors to redirect their monetary assistance to other nonprofits such as those listed below. Campaign Zero is an organization that actively works to end police brutality. In addition to accepting donations, they are also a fantastic resource for understanding how policy reform can make a massive difference in the fight for racial justice. Based out of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, Black Visions Collective is a black, trans and queer-led organization focused on social justice. Reclaim the Block is another Minneapolis organization that works to reallocate city funds away from the police department so that they can instead be utilized for community-led safety initiatives. Communities United Against Police Brutality fights police brutality on the political forefront, and provides legal, psychological and medical resources where they are needed. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund works to educate, litigate and advocate for racial justice. Founded in 1920, the American Civil Liberties Union is a nonprofit dedicated to defending and preserving the rights and liberties that have been Constitutionally guaranteed to everyone in the United States. Colin Kaepernick's Know Your Rights Camp supports black and brown communities through education, self-empowerment and the creation of new systems to instigate change. Founded by politician Stacey Abrams, Fair Fight strives to equalize voting rights and access, and put an end to voter suppression. You can also donate directly to Black Lives Matter to support the fight to end white supremacy. Reach Out to Politicians Black communities will continue to need support long after these protests ultimately fizzle out and the calls for racial justice are no longer "trendy." To help out, you can demand that your local lawmakers reallocate a portion of police force funds toward other areas such as education, housing and public health. These initiatives in New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, for example, offer a ton of information on who to contact and the things you may want to say to them to enact change. Research, Reflect, Learn and Amplify White and other non-black people, in particular, can also help by listening, learning and amplifying the voices of black people now and in the future. This is the time to stand in solidarity and recognize that silence is not supportive. This is the time to get informed and then stand up, speak out and defend black lives. It's not enough to simply not be a racist; we must be staunchly anti-racist. Unpacking white privilege and partaking in honest, open self-examination can be difficult, but it's the first step for many in dismantling the systemic racism that has been built into our country's foundation. Layla F. Saad's "Me and White Supremacy" and Ibram X. Kendi's "How to Be an Antiracist" are both a fantastic place to start this journey. And, if you're a more visual learner, Ava DuVernay's powerful Netflix documentary "13th" is sure to become a thought-provoking resource if you haven't yet seen it, and there are plenty of other documentaries and true-to-life stories that shine a light on the black experience in America. As you arm yourself with more knowledge, it will become easier to have conversations with your friends, family and community about the changes that need to happen within ourselves and throughout our society. Showing Up for Racial Justice has a ton of tips for starting these conversations empathetically and without prompting defensiveness. Most of all, you can help the Black Lives Matter movement by denouncing the phrase "All Lives Matter." Yes, of course, all lives do matter no one is saying that they don't but that is not the issue at hand. Black lives are the lives that are in need of help at this moment in history. They are the lives that are being routinely oppressed in the best-case scenarios and horrifically ended in the worst. It can't be true that all lives matter if black lives don't, so that's why the Black Lives Matter movement stands as a reminder of where our focus should be if we intend to strive for a truly anti-racist society. Oh, and if youre taking part in social medias Blackout Tuesday, just dont include #BlackLivesMatter or #BLM in your post. It snuffs out the important messages and resources that are being shared with those hashtags and takes away a vital lifeline for those searching the hashtags for information at this important time. You Might Also Dig: Taliban officials have denied a report that its leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, died after contracting the coronavirus. Foreign Policy magazine, citing unnamed Taliban officials, reported on June 1 that Mullah Akhundzada contracted COVID-19 and possibly died while receiving treatment abroad. Foreign Policy quoted Mawlawi Mohammad Ali Jan Ahmad, a senior Taliban military official, as saying that Mullah Akhundzada was "sick" after contracting the virus but was "recovering." But three other Taliban figures in the Pakistani city of Quetta, where the Taliban leadership is believed to be based, told Foreign Policy on condition of anonymity that they believed Akhunzada had died of the illness. Foreign Policy said the coronavirus has stricken a number of senior Taliban leaders in Quetta and in Qatar, where the militant group has a political office. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid on June 2 denied that Mullah Akhundzada or any other senior leaders had contracted the disease or died. In a tweet, Mujahid accused Foreign Policy of spreading "propaganda" and said Mullah Akhundzada was well and "busy with his daily activities." Sayed Mohammad Akbar Agha, a former Taliban military commander who lives in the Afghan capital, Kabul, told RFE/RL that the report of Mullah Akhundzada's death was "untrue." But a Taliban official in Quetta told RFE/RL that he could neither confirm nor deny the leader's death. Mullah Akhundzada took over leadership of the Taliban after his predecessor, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansur, was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan in May 2016. The reclusive leader is a former Taliban chief justice and heads the militant group's religious council. An Islamic scholar, he is said to have strong religious credentials, and has been responsible for issuing fatwas, or Islamic decrees, to justify military and terrorist operations. Taliban officials told Foreign Policy that Mullah Akhundzada had not been seen for the past three months and had not made any voice recordings. Some Taliban sources in Quetta told Foreign Policy that Mullah Akhunzada went to Russia for treatment. Foreign Policy reported that many of the Taliban's senior leaders in Quetta had caught COVID-19, including Mullah Akhunzada's deputy, Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the Haqqani network. The network, a Taliban faction, is believed to have been behind some of the deadliest attacks on Afghan and international forces and civilians in Afghanistan. With the top two leaders out of action, Foreign Policy reported that the Taliban was now being run by Mullah Mohammad Yuqub, the eldest son of the Taliban's founder and spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar. Mullah Omar's death was revealed in 2015, more than two years after he had died in Pakistan. Mullah Yuqub is a graduate of a seminary in the Pakistani port city of Karachi. Believed to be in his early 30s, he is said to have the backing of a considerable number of field commanders and the Taliban's rank-and-file. Experts say that Mullah Yuqub supports the U.S.-Taliban agreement signed in February that is aimed at negotiating an end to the 18-year Taliban insurgency. It is unclear how a possible change in the Taliban leadership would affect that deal, which calls for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan in exchange for counterterrorism guarantees from the Taliban, which is committed to negotiating a permanent cease-fire and a power-sharing arrangement with the Kabul government. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 2, 2020 16:44 597 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb94a49 1 City Jokowi,Istiqlal-Mosque,istiqlal-mosque-renovation,COVID-19,Fachrul-Razi,Joko-Widodo Free The government is preparing to reopen the Istiqlal Mosque in Central Jakarta in July in accordance with the new normal approach amid the COVID-19 pandemic as renovations on the mosque near completion. President Joko Jokowi Widodo visited Istiqlal on Tuesday to check on the renovations. He said that according to the Mosques grand imam, Nasaruddin Umar, the large-scale renovations were 90 percent complete and would be finished in July, several months later than the initial schedule for March due to the pandemic. Will it be reopened after the renovations are completed? It has yet to be decided. The grand Imam said Istiqlal would be opened in July, the President said. I only reminded him that we need to prepare health protocols so people will be safe from COVID-19 when they are allowed to pray at Istiqlal, the President said. Read also: Grand renovation of Southeast Asias largest mosque The renovations kicked off in May last year to give the largest mosque in Southeast Asia a facelift. The renovations included increasing the parking capacity, revamping the landscaping and the plaza and upgrading the toilets, ablution blocks, electrical system and plumbing. The Rp 475 billion (US$32.85 million) project is the first renovation of the mosque since it was inaugurated in 1978. In a circular letter issued on Friday, Religious Affairs Minister Fachrul Razi set guidelines for houses of worship that are set to reopen soon under the new normal of the post-pandemic era. Among the requirements for houses of worship to reopen is for the COVID-19 basic reproduction number (R0) and effective reproduction number (Rt) to fall below a certain threshold. Furthermore, houses of worship must obtain a letter from the governments COVID-19 task force confirming that the area is virus-free, while large houses of worship must also obtain permission from regional heads. People have turned to virtual congregations in recent months as houses of worship were temporarily closed as part of the effort to contain the spread of COVID-19. (trn) A fascinating mix of 90s grunge and millennial DIY, Canadian-American duo Francis of Delirium released "Ashamed", their latest single on Dalliance Recording, late May. Francis of Delirium first stepped (or, crashed, really) into the scene at Rockhal's Screaming Fields Festival in 2019, adding a breath of fresh air to Luxembourg's grunge scene with a phenomenal performance and great songs. Since then, the duo have been playing shows outside of Luxembourg, signed to Dalliance Recordings in the UK, and jumped onboard the Music:LX train. RTL Today met up with Jana Bahrich (one half of FoD, the other being multi-instrumentalist Chris Hewett), to chat about her style of music, creating DIY video projects, and her upcoming EP. So Jana, are you a rebel kid at home or the sweet and quiet one? I feel relatively in-between, not super rebellious, not super quiet. Ive been spending most of my time this past year just focused on music so havent had much time to be very rebellious. What's the story behind Ashamed, your latest single? Is it a reflection of your life? Ashamed is about navigating how much of yourself you should be giving out to other people and then second guessing yourself, feeling like what you are giving out isnt enough, feeling inadequate, being ashamed of that. I think everything I write tends to reflect my life in some way whether its conscious or not. Sometimes you dont realise it till later. You're getting incredible media attention across the globe from various media channels (Line Of Best Fit, Earmilk etc.) - have you heard from people in different parts of the world about your music that you would not expect to at first? Yeah it was actually kind of crazy because I have a friend that used to live in Nepal and one day she was on Instagram and saw someone that she went to school with in Nepal posted a story recommending Quit Fucking Around, my last single, and the girl who posted the story had no idea who I was or that my friend knew me so that was cool. Ashamed is accompanied by a cool, out-of-the-box stop motion video. What was its creation process like? I presume it took you several hundred (if not thousand) individual shots. Yeah it was completely DIY. My mom took the pictures and we did it over the course of a month right as quarantine started. We aimed to get 10 seconds worth of pictures each day but it can get a little exhausting. Then I edited it, which didnt take too long since the stop motion felt like it said a lot of what I wanted already. I want to say it was over a thousand but I cant be sure, I had to import everything into Imovie, render the footage and then bring it into Premiere Pro because otherwise my computer just could not handle the amount of images it had to process in Premiere. Does Luxembourg have a good scene for 90s grunge? Are there markets where you feel like your music could do really well and can get a foot in the door, such as the UK where you are also signed? There definitely arent a lot of grunge bands, I can only think of Only 2 Sticks off the top of my head, but Luxembourg can be great since we have De Gudde Wellen and Rotondes which are both incredible indie venues that book really good bands, and a lot of the time those bands dont bring support bands so it gives us smaller bands a chance to play with bands that if we were in the UK or other more competitive markets wed never get to play with at our size. Were very much influenced by bands that are or were based in North America and thats where the majority of our listeners are so it would be cool to play some shows over in the US and Canada. Speaking of export, are you planning things with Music:LX? Yes, Music:LX has been insanely helpful and kind, so theyve been helping with the promotion of our EP and we were planning on having a small tour in October in Germany, but who knows if that will happen right now. How does it feel to be a musician during this health crisis? It definitely sucks, I try to stay off Twitter because thats just a dark hole that makes everything worse, but ultimately Im so insanely lucky because I can focus on writing music right now and not have to worry about anything else so I feel incredibly grateful. Your EP is coming out June 19th. What can we expect on it, and where does your career path lead in the months following that? You can expect more DIY rock. I tried to be really intentional with the EP order to reflect the ups and downs of trying to get out of negative habits. Hopefully that translates and people can relate and feel connected to that struggle. Ideally we would be playing shows in the next few months, but otherwise you can expect more music, weve been working on recording during the quarantine, so were looking to continue creating. Any suggestions of music we should be listening to in quarantine? This is a tough one, Ive been getting myself to wake up earlier in order to listen to albums all the way through from start to end because I generally only listen to playlists, so a few of my favourite albums from doing that so far are: The Strokes - The New Abnormal St.Vincent - Strange Mercy Elliot Smith - Figure 8 FoD were also one of our Livestreamers during lockdown, check out Jana's lo-fi set here. The management of Accra Indie Filmfest (AiF) informs the general public that, the 2nd edition of the festival is slated for July 20th to 26th, 2020 and it will be hosted virtually. After successfully running the first edition of the festival in 2019, there came the much anticipation for the next edition of the festival where the world was preparing to meet in Accra to witness the creative geniuses of young and independent filmmakers across the world. However, the world is currently experiencing a global pandemic (coronavirus) and one of the key preventive protocols advised by the World Health Organization (WHO) is social distancing. This simply means the prevention of large gatherings. In order to aid the fight of coronavirus, the management of the festival deems it a responsibility to specially treat film lovers by taking the film festival to their homes. The festival is tying up all muscles to host a 6 day long free streaming event on YouTube. The first 5 days will include film screenings, film workshops, and industry conversations, and the final day as a digital awards night on zoom and all festivals social media handles. MPs will return to Westminster today despite politicians claiming plans for making politicians stand in queues snaking up to a mile will make them 'look like the stupidest parliament in the world'. Arrangements allowing them to debate and e-vote in a 'virtual Commons' online since April have now come to an end with a new queuing system set up in Westminster Hall. Instead up to 50 MPs will be allowed in the chamber because of social distancing but the rest of them should also return to London if it is safe for them to do so. The Government is facing a major revolt over its plans to scrap the virtual coronavirus Parliament after it emerged MPs will have to form a Commons 'conga' line up to a mile long in order to vote. Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg tabled a motion yesterday preventing the resumption of virtual voting, which allowed MPs to have their say from afar during the pandemic. If the House approves the plan today, MPs will have to come back and may have to form long queues in order to obey social distancing rules when voting - despite the Lords planning a move completely online. Labour MP Chris Bryant said: 'It will be like queuing for the Eiffel Tower. We'll look like the stupidest parliament in the world.' This is how MPs will queue at Westminster with a system set up in the 1000-year-old Westminster Hall today (pictured) Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg tabled a motion on Monday preventing the resumption of virtual voting, which allowed MPs to have their say from afar during the pandemic The shift has been attacked as a backwards step that could prevent MPs who are elderly or shielding for other reasons from attending. How will the Commons work when all MPs physically return? Jacob Rees-Mogg has told MPs they must return to Westminster after the Whitsun recess as he insisted Parliament will be a 'Covid-19 secure workplace'. Here are some of the measures which will be taken to get the Commons back up and running: Social distancing will continue, with MPs told to sit two metres away from each other MP numbers in the Commons will remain limited, likely at the current maximum of 50. Physical voting system will be changed to ensure MPs remain two metres away from colleagues when walking through division lobbies. MPs' staff are still being urged to work from home Extra cleaning to stop the spread of the disease Advertisement Others, notably from the Scottish Highlands, also face a long journey on public transport that could be avoided with remote voting. Senior Tories including Robert Halfon, the chair of the Commons education committee, who is currently shielding, have called for virtual proceedings to continue for those who need them. Another senior Tory MP said voting under the expected new rules would be like doing the 'Parliamentary conga'. He told MailOnline: 'Some of it is going to be outside. Are we expecting the PM to stand in line? I wonder about the security aspect of all this. Is he going to stand in New Palace Yard?' Labour and other opposition parties that afternoon tabled an amendment that would allow the current 'hybrid' model to be kept. Shadow leader of the house Valerie Vaz said: 'Jacob Rees-Mogg's discriminatory proposals would result in two classes of MPs. Those who can physically attend and those unable to owing to the Government's own rules, including having an underlying health condition or shielding responsibilities. 'The abolition of the hybrid remote parliament which allowed all MPs to take part regardless of their personal circumstances is discriminatory and would not be acceptable in any other workplace. 'We remain ready to work with the Government and all parties to reach a consensus that would allow all MPs to participate on an equal basis.' Before coronavirus, MPs simply gathered in groups in either the yes or no lobbies outside the Commons chamber. But during the lockdown electronic voting was trials. There were some problems with the technology - most notably recording Chancellor Rishi Sunak voting against the Government - but no major problems were reported. Rees-Mogg argued that democracy would 'once again flourish', having been 'curtailed under the hybrid halfway house' which allowed MPs to take part in debates and vote remotely while up to 50 were in the chamber. And he insisted that the Government is working to establish how shielding MPs could continue to take part. Labour former minister Chris Bryant said: 'The government should keep remote voting and participation. Otherwise it's disenfranchising MPs who are shielding and those with families to protect. Democracy can't be survival of the fittest' Senior Tories including Robert Halfon (centre right, on the mobility scooter) who is currently shielding, have called for virtual proceedings to continue for those who need them The Government's motion requires voting to take place in person at the Palace of Westminster and that MPs must follow Public Health England guidance. The mechanics of voting would then be left down to Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle to set out, with parliamentarians having to avoid the narrow division lobbies. He has described a single file of MPs snaking through Parliament as a 'supermarket queue' that will lead through the centre of the chamber and to the dispatch box. Mr Rees-Mogg defended the Government plan in The House political magazine, saying that the total numbers on the estate 'will not increase significantly', with MPs' staff continuing to work from home. 'The virtual Parliament brought us through the peak of the pandemic but it is no longer necessary to make the compromises it demanded. We can do so much better,' he wrote. 'In the chamber frontbenchers will have to keep on their toes as interventions are once again made possible. This exceptional aspect of British democracy, curtailed under the hybrid halfway house, can once again flourish. 'For those MPs with underlying health conditions who have been told to shield or are receiving specific Government advice about their health, the Government is working with the House authorities to see how they can continue to contribute to proceedings within the House.' The Prime Minister's official spokesman added today that MPs who need to shield 'should continue to do so' and said that informal arrangements such as pairing would be in place to allow this. The House of Lords is developing a new online voting system for peers expected to be ready by the middle of the month as the Government demands that MPs vote in person despite the coronavirus crisis. 'We're developing rapidly a brand new, secure online voting system for the House of Lords,' a Lords spokesman said. 'Peers will be able to vote at the touch of a smartphone screen or on a laptop or other device.' Legal advice from Thompsons Solicitors commissioned by Labour said the plans to scrap the virtual Parliament 'would be likely to amount to discrimination' under equality laws if MPs were considered to be employees. And shadow solicitor general Ellie Reeves added: 'These proposals are not only a risk to public health, but they also discriminate against MPs who are having to shield from the coronavirus and cannot safely return to work as usual.' The Electoral Reform Society said: 'If this goes ahead, it is beyond a farce. 'It is unacceptable when there is currently a safe, secure and speedy option for voting available: remote/digital voting. MPs have already used it, and it works. 'Since some MPs are shielding and are not safe to travel in person, these plans - if confirmed - pose a real threat for democratic representation and political equality.' PROVIDENCE, RI Gov. Gina Raimondo said she is "disheartened" by violence that erupted in the city Monday night, resulting in dozens of arrests and untold damage to businesses trying to rebound from the coronavirus crisis. The National Guard was activated to aid police in the coming days. The call to the Guard came the morning after people roamed the streets of Providence, looting stores, lighting fires and attacking police. More than 200 people stormed the Providence Place mall. "I stand before you disheartened, dismayed at what we saw here last night in the city of Providence," Raimondo said at a Tuesday morning news conference. She thanked those who protested peacefully, but said those who marred the gatherings will be held accountable. "I know youre hurting today, everyone in Rhode Island is hurting today," she said. "Its impossible not to feel pain." Gov. Gina Raimondo said she is "disheartened" about Monday night's riots. (Rachel Nunes/Patch) Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza was adamant that the violence not distract people from the issues at hand. "Lets not forget the important, difficult community conversations that need to take place to address racism in all of its forms," he said. Earlier Tuesday, Elorza condemned the violence. "Last nights incidents were devastating for our community who has already experienced so much unrest and pain," the mayor said. "Violence is never the answer and we need collective action one that is productive, not destruction of our small businesses, who have been impacted so much already and by putting others safety at risk." Elorza decried the violence, saying the demonstrators gathered intentionally and were "out to cause trouble." More than half of those arrested were from Providence, along with five people from Massachusetts. The rest were from other towns in Rhode Island. The mayor said that Providence police heard "chatter" that violence was planned at the Providence Place mall on Monday night. In response, the mall was closed three hours earlier than usual and extra police were called in. After several hours of quiet, several hundred people converged on the building. Story continues Between 200 and 300 people stormed the mall around 11:30 p.m., "overwhelming" dozens of police officers, according to Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare. Approximately 75 to 100 were successful and began breaking glass and looting stores. About a dozen stores were damaged, Pare said, adding the looters were quickly driven out to Francis Street by law enforcement and none were able to get back in. Video posted by a bystander from outside the mall showed the chaotic scene: Approximately five Providence police cruisers were damaged throughout the night, including one that was set on fire, Pare said. Four to five Providence officers and four to five Rhode Island State Police officers suffered minor injuries, Pare said. Pare said the department was "as prepared as we could be" and remains on alert for more violent demonstrators. It's important to find a peaceful solution, he said. "We need to reach them and have a conversation," Pare said. Elorza praised the response of local police, saying that without their efforts, there would have likely been far more damage in the city. "Our police showed the true professionals they are," he said. Other police departments, including Cranston, Pawtucket, North Providence, Woonsocket, Massachusetts State Police and more were called in to assist and stopped many people who were trying to set buildings on fire, Elorza said. The outsburts are a sharp contrast to Saturday, when hundreds of peaceful protesters gathered at the State House in response to the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after being pinned to the ground by a police officer. Gov. Gina Raimondo and other state officials praised the demonstration for remaining nonviolent as riots raged across the country. "It made me proud to be a Rhode Islander," Raimondo said Monday. Sabina Matos, president of the Providence City Council, said the black community does not condone Monday night's violence and urged Rhode Islanders to keep the peace. "We're not going to support the destruction of our city," Matos said. Elorza said he spoke with Gov. Raimondo Tuesday morning and is coordinating with both Rhode Island State Police and Providence police to determine the next steps. A curfew is on the table, he said, but he flatly refused to call in the military, as President Donald Trump recommended to state leaders Monday. This article originally appeared on the Cranston Patch Protesters face off with police in Flatbush, Brooklyn, on Saturday, May 30: Richard Hall / The Independent It is an irony not lost on those who have taken to the streets in the past few days that their demonstrations against police brutality have been met with even more police brutality. Across the United States, protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd and years of inaction over black people dying at the hands of law enforcement have served up a plethora of incidents that have appeared to reinforce the central justification behind the unrest. To name a few: In Atlanta, a video of two police officers using tasers to forcefully pull two black college students from a car as they drove home from a protest quickly went viral. In Philadelphia, police used batons to beat back protesters with their arms in the air. In Denver, police shot a pepper pellet at a mans face as they were leaving the scene of a protest. And in Louisville, Kentucky, on Sunday evening, police shot another black man local business owner David McAtee in what police said was "return fire" from a group of protesters. In perhaps the most symbolic incident of police violence since the protests began, one officer in Seattle was caught on camera kneeling on the neck of a suspected looter the very same action which led to Mr Floyds death. The response of US police to the protests prompted a damning statement from rights group Amnesty International, which accused law enforcement of endangering lives. US police across the country are failing their obligations under international law to respect and facilitate the right to peaceful protest, exacerbating a tense situation and endangering the lives of protesters, said Rachel Ward, National Director of Research at Amnesty International USA. In city after city, we are witnessing actions that could be considered unnecessary or excessive force. We call for an immediate end to any such use of force and for law enforcement to ensure and protect the legal right to protest, she added. New York, which has generally seen less looting than other hotspots, has also witnessed a number of incidents of police violence against apparently peaceful protesters. Story continues One person who has been volunteering as a medic at protests told The Independent he was targeted by police during a demonstration in Brooklyn, despite wearing clear markings identifying himself as a medic. I was treating people coming away from the police. I had pulled someone to the side and we started running as the police charged us and I was tackled to the ground, said the volunteer, who wished to remain anonymous. The officer then grabbed a carton of milk the volunteer was carrying to treat protesters who might be exposed to tear gas. I said Im a medic. Im just here to give people aid. He said: You think youre gonna treat people with this milk? And he tried to unscrew the milk and pour it on my face and told me he was gonna drown me with it, they added. At a demonstration in another part of Brooklyn on Friday evening, one protester said the police were failing to listen. I think things have gotten worse, were not being listened to at all, Dia Soyer, a 22-year-old Brooklyn resident. The problem is the excessive force applied on black people and people of colour. We need police that care about us, we dont need this, she added, pointing towards an area where scuffles between police and protesters were ongoing. Journalists have also reported being caught up in police violence during the protest, despite being clearly marked and credentialed. Press Freedom Tracker, an organisation that catalogues press freedom violations in the United States, said it had recorded the same number of violations in the past three days as it had in the past year. Among the more than 100 violations it documented was the arrest of 19 journalists between 28 and 31 of May. In the same time, it said at least 36 journalists have reported being shot at by police with projectiles such as rubber bullets half of which were in Minnesota, where Mr Floyd was killed. It also recorded 76 assaults against journalists, 80 per cent of which were by police. Linda Tirado, a 37-year-old journalist from Nashville, was left blind in one eye after being struck with what she believed was a rubber bullet fired by police during protests in Minneapolis on Friday. Many critics of the police response to the protests point to the militarization of police forces across the country over the past few decades, much of which was achieved through transfers of military surpluses from the Pentagon. Between 1997 and 2014, the Department of Defense transferred some $4.3 billion in military equipment to local law enforcement agencies, including more than $1bn in tactical military equipment the kind of vehicles that would have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. Ms Ward, of Amnesty International, added in her statement that the use of heavy-duty riot gear and military-grade weapons and equipment to police largely peaceful demonstrations may intimidate protesters who are practising their right to peaceful assembly. These tactics can actually lead to an escalation in violence. Equipping officers in a manner more appropriate for a battlefield may put them in the mindset that confrontation and conflict are inevitable. JUST IN: Police now shooting bean bags into the crowd to disperse protesters: https://t.co/c8cPBZLATJ pic.twitter.com/Fp8R5BxYbq WSB-TV (@wsbtv) May 30, 2020 The result of that transformation has been visible on US streets in the past week. Local law enforcement agencies in charge of responding to protests have looked more akin to occupying soldiers than police. Patrick Skinner, a former CIA officer who became a beat cop and later a detective in Savannah, Georgia, said the militarisation of local police had caused infinite grief and trouble. A sign that the militarisation of local police is a national cancer is that people are understandably confusing police officers for National Guard forces, he wrote on Twitter, in response to recent protests. We are not warriors because we must not be at war with our neighbours. We arent sheep dogs because our neighbours arent sheep. We arent Spartans or Punishers. We are fortunate neighbours in a position to help other neighbours. Thats it. Thats the trick, he added. The volunteer medic, who is currently facing charges after being arrested, said many of the clashes taking place at protests were the result of overbearing police actions to contain them. If the police werent there agitating, nothing would happen. The confrontation happens because the police are present. As a medic it has become difficult to remove people to safety. On Friday night I was carrying a semi-conscious person to safety. They wouldnt even let me pull them to the side. I could barely carry the person as they were battoning me. Authorities in some areas are taking action in response to police brutality during the protests: two police officers were fired over the incident in Atlanta, as was the chief of police in Louisville over the shooting. EAGLEVILLE Montgomery County officials reported six more COVID-19 deaths and 94 new positive cases of the virus on Tuesday. The latest six COVID-19 deaths included two females and four males who ranged in age from 56 to 90 and the deaths bring the countys death toll to 699 since March 7, when the first two cases of the virus were identified in the county, according to the county commissioners, who released their latest update on the pandemic on Tuesday. To date, 374 females and 325 males have died from the virus in the county. The 699 total deaths were confirmed positive COVID-19 cases through the use of lab tests. Meanwhile, officials reported a total of 94 new positive cases of the virus on Tuesday, bringing the countys total number of cases to 7,124 since March 7. Twenty-nine of the latest individuals to test positive resided in long-term care facilities and the remainder were other members in the community. The new positive cases included 43 males and 51 females who ranged in age from 1 to 99 and they lived in 31 different municipalities. Thanks to your sacrifices and hard work, Montgomery County remains on track to move to the Yellow Phase on June 5, said Commissioners Chairwoman Dr. Valerie A. Arkoosh, referring to Gov. Tom Wolfs color-coded reopening plan for the state. As the coronavirus continues to remain in our community, each of us must be personally responsible for our actions and work together to minimize the spread of COVID-19 in Montgomery County. Last week, Wolf said the county can move from the red phase to the yellow phase of the reopening plan, a phase that will loosen some restrictions, including the stay-at-home order, on June 5. However, the commissioners pointed out that even in the yellow phase, telework should continue where feasible and gatherings of more than 25 people will be prohibited. Visitor restrictions will remain in place at congregate care settings and at the county jail. In-person retail operations are allowable but curbside and delivery, if possible, are recommended. Arkoosh previously said the county has put in place the infrastructure necessary to move to the yellow phase. Once the county moves into the yellow phase, officials will be watching for surges in positive cases, or hotspots, and will monitor how much hospital space is available and measure testing and contact tracing capabilities in the county. The commissioners said a COVID-19 food relief effort, coordinated by the Montco Anti-Hunger Network, in conjunction with the Eastern Montgomery County Emergency Management Group, Feeding Pennsylvania and Philabundance, will continue on June 4 and June 11 at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, off Route 422, between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. The distribution of the food boxes will be coordinated by the Montgomery County Department of Public Safety. Distribution is limited to 1,500 vehicles on a first-come, first-served basis. Each vehicle will receive two boxes of food, regardless of household size, and anyone in need is welcome, officials said. No identification is required. Some of our residents were already food insecure and the COVID-19 pandemic has just exacerbated that, said Arkoosh, adding the program will provide another resource of free food for more families suffering economic losses, kids missing school lunches and vulnerable seniors. The food is being provided at no cost through the U. S. Department of Agriculture Coronavirus Food Assistance Program and will consist of two boxes of food for each vehicle. Participants must arrive with their vehicles windows rolled up and stay inside the vehicles. Drivers will be directed to open their trunks and volunteers will place the food boxes inside in a contactless manner. More information about the weekly food distribution can be found at www.MontcoAntiHunger.org Any food boxes that arent distributed will be disbursed to local food banks in the county, officials said. Officials said community-based testing opportunities continue to be available in Pottstown, Whitpain and Norristown. A walkup testing site is available at the countys Office of Public Health Pottstown Health Center at 364 King St. Testing is available Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. by appointment only. To make an appointment, residents should call 610-970-2937 beginning at 8:30 a.m. daily. A drive-thru site at the central campus of the Montgomery County Community College in Whitpain is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily as testing supplies allow. Registration for each days appointments will open at 8 a.m. daily and will remain open until all available spots are filled. Individuals can register online at www.montcopa.org/COVID-19 or can call 610-631-3000 to register for a testing appointment. A walk-up community-based testing site for Norristown residents is located on the parking lot of the Delaware Valley Community Health Norristown Regional Health Center, 1401 DeKalb St. The free testing is provided by appointment only from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. Monday through Friday. In addition to being available to test Norristown residents, the site also offers tests to all established patients of the Delaware Valley Community Health Center regardless of where they reside, officials said. Residents can register for testing by calling 610-592-0680 starting at 8:30 a.m. daily. The Lantern has been putting together hundreds of meals for those whose work during the pandemic has been deemed essential. Mill Town Capital & The Lantern Feeding Front-Line Workers PITTSFIELD, Mass. Mill Town Capital and the Lantern partnered to create the Fridge Filler Project to provide free healthy meals to front-line workers. With the COVID-19 disrupting just about every aspect of life essential workers in the health and human services fields who have had to make many sacrifices but the local investment firm and North Street eatery believe this should not include a good meal. "Our hope is that these front line workers receive these bags first and foremost as a small gesture of thanks for their work to keep our community safe, get our neighbors healthy, and keep the wheels moving," Carrie Holland, managing director of Mill Town Capital said. "Their sacrifice and risks are appreciated." So in May, Mill Town Capital teamed up with Lantern chef Raymond Stalker to whip up some meals for medical professionals, community service providers, and others who do not get to stay home during the pandemic. "We wanted to provide a small bit of comfort and respite from their trying days protecting us and caring for our community," Holland said. "Realizing that they are going through extraordinary measures at their workplaces, we thought that they would appreciate some relief from food shopping and meal preparation during the few hours they had away from their workplaces." She said the Lantern prepares 12-16 meal servings a week for Berkshire Health Systems employees, emergency child-care providers at 18 Degrees, Berkshire Family YMCA, and Gladys Allen Brigham Community Center, and staff at Williamstown Commons The bags can be picked up or delivered to the workers' locations. Berkshire United Way volunteers have also been utilized for drop-offs. Holland pointed out some of the highlights from the menu that includes Vietnamese chicken salad and noodle-based salads. "Many of the prepared foods have a creative twist in their ingredients list," Holland said. "We received a note from one recipient who shared that she and her grandson were having a really fun time learning about some of the new ingredients they were not familiar with and turned mealtime into a learning opportunity, researching the country of origin for the ingredients." She added that there is also a stress on healthy food with immune-boosting ingredients. "We absorbed the extra preparation effort and cost to focus the menu items on really nutrient-dense ingredients and healthy preparation techniques," she said. "We need our front line workers to stay as healthy as possible and energized with quality fuel in the tank to keep up their work and continue to keep our community healthy, quality, nourishing food is a key component to helping them remain healthy and ready to report to work." She said, as of mid-May they had distributed about 150 units to Williamstown Commons, 35 units to early child-care centers in Pittsfield, and more than 150 units to medical professionals at BMC. "Many of these workers have been able to share these food bags with their families, so in reality, the reach of this program has extended by many multiples beyond the approximate 350 front-line workers who received a bag," she said. Kelly Marion, CEO of Gladys Allen Brigham Community Center, said they are caring for the children of front-line workers and by the time they get out of work, the markets are usually picked over. She said the Fridge Filler Project absolutely has made their lives just a little bit easier. "We want to say thank you to everyone involved in the Fridge Filler Program at Mill Town," she said. "The meals provided have saved money and time. Staff dont have to rush to the grocery store after work because they know they already have food in the fridge. There were nice food options; it also allowed us to try new things, healthy food selections that boosted our energy." Holland said this is just what they hoped to accomplish with the Fridge Filler Project. "We hope this provides a bit of relief for them, saving them time from a grocery trip or dinner preparation, so instead, they can spend that time with their families, relaxing, going for a walk, watching a movie, reading a book," she said. "Whatever they do to find some respite from the stresses of their day." As states continue to lift restrictions that were put in place to curb the coronavirus outbreak and as Americans start going out in public again, recent surveys suggest that gender, political affiliation and education level are factors that have a bearing on who is wearing a mask, and who isnt. Public health officials have recommended wearing masks in public when social distancing measures are difficult to maintain, such as in grocery stores and pharmacies, and at least a dozen states have required them in those circumstances. And most businesses that are reopening are doing so with restrictions: fewer customers, social distancing and face masks. According to a Gallup poll that was conducted in mid-April, only a third of Americans said they always wore a mask or cloth face covering outside the home. Another third said they sometimes wore a mask in public, and a third reported that they never did. Here is what some of the research shows about who is covering up. Women are more likely than men to wear masks. About 67 percent of women said they had worn a mask outside their home, compared with 56 percent of men, according to the Gallup poll, which was based on a random sample of 2,451 adults in the United States and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points. Large-scale production relocating out of China is offering a golden opportunity for Vietnam to attract high-quality US investment. US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order giving an outward investment agency new power to help US manufacturers produce everything the US needs, as well as exports, including medicine. GE factory in Hai Duong province Both Republicans and Democrats are drafting bills to reduce US dependence on Chinese-made products, accounting for about 18 percent of the USs total imports in 2019. The US companies that leave China may enjoy tax reductions or preferential policies, or even receive grants. To promote this plan, US lawmakers and officials are discussing an investment fund to support relocation of overseas production bases to the home country with an initial budget of $25 billion. This aims to encourage US companies to change their relationship with China, including withdrawal from the worlds factory. As such, the Covid-19 outbreak and worries about the reliance of US medical and food supply chains on China have strengthened the USs determination to escape the reliance. The Trump administration is also designing an economic prosperity network with the participation of reliable partners such as Japan, India, South Korea, Vietnam and New Zealand. Vietnam over the years attracted large US corporations such as Intel, Microsoft, Jabil, Microchip, IBM, P&G, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. Later, Boeing, Chevron, AIG, Exxon Mobil and General Electric (GE) also sought investment opportunities in Vietnam. Most recently, Google and Apple reportedly are considering opportunities here. Vietnam over the years attracted large US corporations such as Intel, Microsoft, Jabil, Microchip, IBM, P&G, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. Later, Boeing, Chevron, AIG, Exxon Mobil and General Electric (GE) also sought investment opportunities in Vietnam. Most recently, Google and Apple reportedly are considering opportunities here. Analysts said Vietnam can take full advantage of US investments in specific business fields, especially high-technology, to escape the middle-income trap. US investment flow is expected to help improve the quality and efficiency of foreign direct investment (FDI), which has many problems. In 2019, Vietnam attracted $38 billion worth of FDI, but the capital cannit meet the requirements in the countrys transition towards innovation, high quality human resources, digital economy and the 4.0 industry revolution. The foreign invested projects were too small: 3,833 licensed projects had total registered capital of $16.75 billion. Some localities even licensed projects capitalized at $1-2 million. Vietnam has put high hopes on the US new investment wave. At a meeting with 45 US businesses seeking investment opportunities in Vietnam recently, Alex Feldman, chair of the US-ASEAN Business Council, said Vietnam has become a promising destination for foreign investors, including the US, in recent years. Vietnam attracted $12.33 billion in FDI in the first four months of 2020, according to the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA). Le Ha Vietnam needs to proactively seek high-quality FDI: economist Vietnam must not sit still and wait for FDI to come. If it does, the best will be skimmed off by other countries, according to Nguyen Dinh Cung, a respected economist. Cisco, Aruba and Juniper are unwrapping new applications and services aimed at helping organizations safely re-open their facilities when due to the COVID-19 pandemic permits. In Ciscos case, the company is adding applications to its DNA Spaces mobile location services platform that uses WiFi analytics to let customers see how spaces are being used in real-time. The idea, Cisco says, is to let customers measure how many people are in a space at the same time and use that real-time data to close off buildings when they reach capacity. By being able to look at trends over time, facility managers can make smarter decisions on how to arrange offices and set appropriate cleaning schedules, Cisco says. DNA Spaces is comprised of Ciscos Connected Mobile Experience (CMX) wireless suite and enterprise geolocation technology purchased from July Systems in 2018. Cisco CMX is a software engine that analyzes location and other intelligence gleaned from Cisco wireless infrastructure to help deliver services to customers on their mobile devices. July technology included an enterprise-grade location platform which includes instant customer activation, data-driven behavioral insights, a contextual rules engine and APIs. The package supports any Catalyst, Aironet, or Meraki wireless access points. DNA Spaces also provides businesses with analytics about who and what are in their physical locations along with the ability to act on those insights in real-time, Cisco said. The platform works with multiple technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Beacons or GPS to sense the users device with or without an app installed. With DNA Spaces customers will be able to see not just which spaces like department stores, waiting rooms, cafeterias are being used and when, but also where people come from to get to those rooms, how long they stay in them, what data resources they use and where they go after they leave, Cisco says. The key data we can watch is how behavior changes as we allow more people back into the office over the weeks and months of a return-to-office program. In particular, we can determine if there is an occupancy load at which people start to cluster, breaking distance guidelines, wrote Scott Harrell, senior vice president and general manager of Ciscos Intent-based Networking Group in a blog. If and when this happens, a company can work on reconfiguring hot-spot locations, educating employees, dialing back the number of people allowed into the office, or a combination of mitigations. Cisco has added a service it calls DNA Spaces Right Now that tracks new devices that enter a space when they connect to Wi-Fi. By tracking which access points are able to electronically see them, it can tell which part of the building they are in, Harrell stated. In comparison, data from access-card badge-in records can tell how many people enter a building and when, but that doesn't tell which parts of a building people use or when they leave, Harrell stated. With Wi-Fi, we can gather much more robust data that tracks how people use, move, and occupy spaces throughout the day. Cisco has also added an indoor IoT Sensor-as-a-Service that lets customers manage Bluetooth enabled IoT devices such as asset trackers for identifying, inventorying, onboarding, grouping, and applying policy-based configurations to those devices. Harrell said customers can use DNA Spaces Impact Analysis app to determine how buildings and campuses are being used, not just how much they are being used. The application generates reports on time spent in the office, building utilization, and other metrics that could inform how workplaces might be reconfigured to reduce risk. We think these tools will be especially important for buildings that are used by visitors and guests, like stores and schools, Harrell stated. Harrell said Cisco is looking to add other capabilities to track whose devices they are moving around a given space. "This more granular data would let employers contact specific employees and inform them of potential COVID-19 exposure, if necessary," Harrell stated. "Such features will always be optional, and data collected in a companys private network will always belong solely to the company that owns the network and DNA Spaces currently does not offer contact tracing to tell precisely who is near whom, he stated. Other networking vendors are looking at contact-tracing features in addition to looking for ways to ease the return of employees to the workplace. For example, Aruba says it will release a new set of native contact- and location-tracing tools for Aruba infrastructure customers using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The companys third party ecosphere including AiRISTA Flow, CXApp, Kiana Analytics, Modo Labs, and Skyfii will deliver a variety of Aruba-based social-distancing and group-size management applications. Others such as such as Envoy, will offer pre-registration, automated host notification, and auto-generated visitor Wi-Fi credentials, all with zero human-to-human contact, the company stated. Arubas technology partners are also looking to offer contactless thermographic solutions that measure forehead temperature of groups of people simultaneously. The offerings incorporate automated voice response and interfaces with access-control portals, Aruba stated. The office will become increasingly smart using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, IoT sensors, and other capabilities that were invested in during the COVID-19 reopening phase, but then may be repurposed to provide employee experience-enhancing applications, as well as security and crisis capabilities, should any type of health or other emergency resurface, Aruba stated. Juniper Mist Meanwhile, Junipers Mist company is also looking to ease workplace safety in the COVID-19 environment. The company said it will offer a number of new features for its Mist access points and cloud services in conjunction with Wi-Fi- and/or Bluetooth low energy-enabled devices such as phones and badges. For example it will enable proximity tracing that lets enterprises identify and notify other employees, guests or customers that may have been in close proximity to a person who has identified as Covid-19 positive onsite. The company will also offer a journey-mapping feature that can identify high-traffic hot zones so customers can reconfigure workspaces and deploy additional cleaning efforts to lower health risks, Juniper stated. By looking at the quantity of devices and locations in specific areas, enterprises can disperse or divert traffic away from congested areas with real-time, location-based alerting. They can also view trends over time to identify certain areas for proactive measures, Juniper stated. Government has announced new rules to guide post-retirement contracts for academic staff at the countrys public universities. This was announced by the Minister of Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, at a press briefing in Accra on updates in the education sector earlier today. The Minister stated that under the new regulations, post-retirement contracts in all public universities shall be guided by the following rules; 1. Mandatory retirement for academic staff of public universities shall continue to be 60 years, in line with constitutional provisions. 2. Professorial grade staff (Associate Professors and Professors) shall be eligible for post-retirement contracts until the age of 70. The initial contract shall be for 5 years up to the age of 65, and then afterward, contracts shall be offered on a 2+2+1 basis, subject to need and good health. 3. Senior Lecturers shall be eligible for post-retirement contracts on a 2+2+1 basis only up to the age of 65, subject to need, and good health. 4. Specific provisions must be made for compensation for all staff on the post-retirement contract. Such staff shall be clearly designated and accounted for separately as Contract Staff in the annual budget of the institution. Explaining the rationale behind this, the Minister stated that it has become particularly necessary as part of measures to bolster and maintain a critical mass of key academic staff to support the anticipated significant increase in tertiary enrolment as a consequence of the free Senior High School Programme. To this end, he revealed, the National Council of Tertiary Education (NCTE) has been tasked to develop and deploy a mechanism for monitoring output in those areas following the implementation of the new regime for post-retirement contracts. Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A local Subway employee who refused to provide service to a Laredo police officer has been fired, according to the franchise owner. The owner said in a statement that Subway has zero tolerance when it comes to disrespecting guests. I take this incident very seriously and took immediate action by terminating the employee. I set high standards for all of my employees and have zero tolerance for any form of disrespect towards guests. Ive offered my sincerest apologies to those involved and will take this opportunity to reiterate to all my employees the importance of welcoming everyone into our restaurants, the statement reads. The Laredo Police Officer Association expressed its appreciation in a statement for the swift response from Subway. Thank you Subway for taking quick action during these troubling times and showing your continued support for law enforcement, LPOA said in the statement. LPOA said officers are welcomed to report to them any refusal of service. We ask that all members of the Laredo Police Department who get denied service simply because of the uniform you wear or because of the department you work please, bring it to our attention so we can make contact with the company directly in hopes of rectifying the situation, LPOA stated. How do you talk to your kids about what's happening right now? Read more On Saturday night, Ishmail Abdus-Saboor and his son, Musa, 8, were relaxing inside their West Philadelphia home when Abdus-Saboors phone started buzzing. It was an alert: a citywide curfew was about to begin. Musa glanced at Abdus-Saboor. I knew I had to start talking about what was going on, so I tried to explain things for an 8-year-old, says Abdus-Saboor. Then he says, Daddy are we going back to being slaves? The fact that he connected those I cant even remember the last time we talked about slavery. It pierced right through my heart. What do you tell your kids when the world feels chaotic? When it erupts with frustration from the killing of yet another African American by police? As cities across the country fill with protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis officer, children of every background are listening. A pandemic is already ravaging our lives, and when kids are shut indoors, eyes often are glued to the TV or smartphones. News spills in from sources near and far. Whether you regularly talk with your child about race and injustice or you have struggled to find the words, how can you help your kids make sense of whats happening today? Its challenging. Many parents, including Abdus-Saboor, will tell you they truly dont know. And there certainly isnt a universal answer. Experts do say, however, to let your child guide the way. Create the space for children to ask questions, and even for the smallest child, they will guide you on what they want to know and what theyre ready for, says Dr. Ken Ginsburg, co-director of the Center for Parent and Teen Communication at CHOP. But first, you need to create the right space within your own mind. Before initiating conversations with kids of any age, experts stress making sure youre calm. Talking to toddlers Little ones cant understand whats going on right now. But they can absorb parents emotions. If your stress is on display, this may cause your toddler to start acting out, or struggle in areas like potty training where progress was being made just days ago. Id also add clinginess if they have a sense that the world is dangerous, its most important to them to see that youre OK, says Ginsburg. Give them the gift of being with them because they need it now to draw security. Making sure that your child feels safe is the first priority. But this is the age when you should also start conversations about race. Babies as young as six months are shown to detect race-based differences. By age 4, the bias starts to take root, and by age 12, thats when the beliefs become set and it becomes harder to change them, says Dr. Katherine Napalinga, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia. Introduce subjects surrounding diversity by highlighting our differences as a positive part of who we are and not something to be feared or shunned. Some kids will start the conversation without you even asking, notes Napalinga. Im originally from the Philippines, so I often have young kids ask me about that, and I answer by discussing how people have different skin tones and how thats a wonderful thing, how that adds to the strength of our country. READ MORE: N.J. will overhaul its police use-of-force guidelines, AG says Books are another great resource. Check out Uncle Bobbies bookstore in Germantown, often stocked with antiracist books for all ages, says Dr. Roy Wade, pediatrician at CHOP Cobbs Creek Primary Care and an African American father of two. There are plenty of online outlets, too. Common Sense Media has a list of books with diverse, multicultural characters, and theres Brown Bookshelf, which features books with brown and black protagonists who deal with tough issues, says Wade. Talking to preschool and elementary-age kids By age 5, you can introduce conversations around empathy. Theyre like sponges at this age, and when a sense of self is still forming, says Napalinga. Start to teach them about ideas like putting themselves in another persons shoes. Because children at this age are so receptive, limit their screen time. Preschool and elementary age kids are not yet capable of what we call abstract thinking. What they see, they interpret as reality. Early school-age children are very concrete thinkers, so when they watch the news, which is repeating displays of the worst thats happening out there, they believe its happening right outside their window, says Ginsburg. Kids may begin to internalize the images they see and create their own ideas about their safety. We had a discussion with our 7-year-old daughter about what was going on, and one of her immediate reactions was anxiety about how all police are out to get her, says Wade. I gave her the space to be angry, to yell and be upset, and then when things calmed down, we dove into a conversation about how not all cops are behaving badly, its just some cops. Even with the TV turned off, children can pick up on conversations. The good news: Young children tend to be very inquisitive, which invites you to address misinformation and concerns. When answering kids questions, experts say honesty is crucial. You dont want to lose kids trust. However, not every single detail needs to be included. If they ask, Why is the car burning? you can say people are very angry because a man got killed and they feel it wasnt fair, but you dont need to show them a video of the actual killing because theyll be traumatized and have nightmares, says Napalinga. Relate it to their own lives by asking questions like, How do you feel when things arent fair?" What happens if your kids accidentally come across the disturbing video of Floyds arrest? While challenging, you need to address it, says Napalinga. Start by listening. Its important that their feelings be validated. Acknowledge not only that youre there to protect them but that you also understand theyre scared. After you listen, try to generally correct for accuracy. Ginsburg also points out that you neednt be afraid to cry with your children. If you see such human agony, you should allow yourself to weep, to express frustration and the inhumanity of that moment, and its OK to do so with your child thats what Id do with my kids if they saw the video, says Ginsburg. Let them know how wrong this is, and that this was an inexcusable situation, and thats why people are angry, and that we hope and pray that from the sacrifices of his life, we build a better world. If your children arent asking questions, that doesnt mean they arent thinking about whats going on. Its important to create a space where they feel comfortable voicing whats on their mind. Start in an open-ended way: Theres a lot going on right now. What are your thoughts and feelings, and would you like to talk about anything? All children, regardless of their race, should be aware of the situation, says Napalinga. If parents dont approach their kids to have conversations about this, one could arguably say its just as troubling as being out there inflicting the injustice. Education is the protective factor against injustice, she says. Talking to preteens and teenagers As kids move beyond grade school, they develop into more complex and abstract thinkers. This is often around the time that black families have the talk: a discussion passed on for generations about how to engage white people and law enforcement to remain safe. Part of the myth around the talk is that its considered to be one talk but really its a series of conversations, and when things like this happen, it brings an opportunity to open those back up, says Wade of the protests. You reaffirm that its not fair, that these rules might not apply to your white friends, but this is how you have to behave to stay safe. Always create space for your kids to ask questions. By middle school, if not a year or two before, parents of every race should be addressing systemic racism. White families should address the unfortunate realities of what the talk looks like for a black family vs. their own. Children of color have to have the talk as a matter of safety, but white children need to have the talk as a matter of justice, says Ginsburg. Racism is a subject that hurts people of color, but it hurts all of us because we cant build the best world until everyone can become their best selves this is a solution that involves all of us. As for the protests, teenagers are more likely to have feelings of unrest. Many may want to get involved. Experts say you should encourage them to talk. If theyre outraged, they need to let it out. Teenagers are idealists, and this is an amazing opportunity for them to envision a better world, says Ginsburg. We have to let them know that their anger is justified, and they should work hard to create a better reality, while also emphasizing the need to express frustrations in a way that keeps their community and themselves safe." Leverage their idealism by inviting them to create solutions that are outside the box. Make it about what they can do, versus what you dont want them to do. Too many adults think its about controlling teenagers, and yet teenagers absolutely reject messages of control as theyre striving towards independence, says Ginsburg. If you dont want them to leave the house, frame it around safety. Let them know you care about them, and talk about other ways they can express their frustrations. Ideas include protesting through social media, or creating art to post around the neighborhood. If theyre considering engaging in risky behavior, talk about it. Navigate these conversations by asking them what they think will happen in a situation. Rather than lecturing them, if you help them come to their own conclusion about say, what will happen if they start looting, theyll internalize it better, says Napalinga. Its never too late to get started on these conversations, assures Dr. Joseph Wright, chair of the Task Force on Addressing Bias and Discrimination of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Its challenging to be empathetic if you dont have a frame of reference. To really have compassion for folks whove been victimized, families need to have honest discussions. Just look outside this impacts everyone, says Wright. We cannot put our kids in a bubble, and if youre not already embedding this dialogue on a regular basis, theres no better time than now to start. Rep. Joe Kennedy III says when he decided to challenge Sen. Ed Markey, an established progressive, in a primary, he knew he was going to ruffle some feathers. But when he called around to Western Massachusetts leaders, some told Kennedy theyd seen him more than theyd seen Markey. I was here twice, Kennedy said at Monday nights debate in Springfield, leveling a shot at Markey thats dogged him in previous campaigns: that hes in Maryland and Washington, D.C., more than his hometown of Malden. I dont think the state can afford absent leadership in the time we are in, Kennedy said, arguing hes got a track record of showing up in Fall River, Chelsea, Taunton and vulnerable communities. Markey squarely called the notion that he wasnt in Western Massachusetts enough absolutely untrue. He said the same thing bluntly to WCVB On the Record anchor Janet Wu when she said, We dont see you much. Markey touted a string of successful efforts to bring funding to Western Massachusetts, including $800,000 for more firefighters in Easthampton; summits on the opioid crisis alongside hospital leaders in Holyoke that led to several pieces of legislation; helping bring 22News back to the Berkshires; and safety improvements at a Longmeadow railroad crossing. Markey noted that 20 mayors, city council members and school committee members had recently joined a chorus of central and Western Massachusetts officials endorsing him. I stand up and deliver for them," he said. "I have done so since the beginning of my career, and I will continue to do so in the future. From my perspective, no matter what the issue is ... I have delivered for these people," he added. "I have been there for them over and over again. Anything else is plain and simple, not true. Pressed on whether he would release his Senate travel records, Markey told Wu he would work with you in order to get you the information that you want. Earlier in the debate, Kennedy made the case that this moment requires stronger leadership ... stronger judgment and vision." Even though he and Markey agree on a host of issues, Kennedy made the case that he could bring about substantial systematic change that he argues simply hasnt come under those in office for several decades. With more than 500,000 homeless, 40 million hungry, half the people suffering from mental illness unable to access to the treatment they need and active shooter drills a common occurrence, Kennedy said, Yes, I think its time for a change." I dont think you can confront those challenges and say weve done enough, Kennedy said. We can get more out of this seat. He also hit Markey on a series of votes over the years, including his support for the Iraq War; the North American Free Trade Agreement, which saw jobs shipped overseas; and the 1994 crime bill signed by President Bill Clinton that critics say increased mass incarceration. Markey stood by his track record throughout the debate, pointing to successful gun safety legislation, efforts to secure Alzheimers research funding, and environmental legislation and the potential impacts of the Green New Deal he co-authored with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Markey also aggressively targeted President Donald Trump on Monday, pinpointing several ways hes pushed for a stronger coronavirus pandemic response from the Trump administration. Donald Trump had a chance to do something in January, he was complacent. In February, he was careless. The rest of the time, he was criminally negligent, Markey said. He noted that he pressed the president early on to invoke the Defense Production Act to ramp up production of personal protective equipment and provide widespread testing, an issue that Kennedy has pushed as well. I have provided leadership on the floor of the Senate, creating an unparalleled record on the issues that the people of Massachusetts care about," Markey said. The debate was sponsored by a media consortium that included MassLive, the Boston Globe, WCVB, Western Mass News, UMass Boston, UMass Amherst and New England Public Media. The primary is scheduled for Sept. 1. Scientists have detected gamma rays from the Crab Nebula, the most famous of supernova remnants, using a next-generation telescope that opens the door for astrophysicists to study some of the most energetic and unusual objects in the universe. The prototype Schwarzschild-Couder Telescope (SCT)--developed by scientists at the Columbia University in collaboration with researchers from other institutions--is part of an international effort, known as the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), which aims to construct the world's largest and most powerful gamma-ray observatory, with more than 100 similar telescopes in the northern and southern hemispheres. "That we were able to successfully detect the Crab Nebula demonstrates the viability of the novel Schwarzschild-Couder design," said Brian Humensky, associate professor of physics at Columbia, who worked with a team to design and build the telescope. "It's been a long journey, so it's enormously satisfying to see the telescope performing, and we're excited to see what we can do with it." The Crab Nebula, so named because of its tentacle-like structure that resembles a crustacean, is the remnant of a massive star that self-destructed almost a millennium ago in an enormous supernova explosion. The estimated distance to what's left of this star from Earth is about 6,500 light-years. Over time the light from the supernova faded away, leaving behind the remains of a powerful, rapidly spinning neutron star, or pulsar, that can still be seen within a cloud of gas, dust and highly energetic subatomic particles, which emit radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum. The most energetic of those particles radiate gamma rays. While scientists have been using the SCT technology to observe the Crab Nebula since January 2020, the project has been underway for nearly a decade. At its heart is a high-speed, high-resolution camera and a dual-mirror system--more intricate than the one-mirror design traditionally used in gamma-ray telescopes--that work together to enhance the quality of light for greater imaging detail over larger field of view across the sky. "The camera triggers upon bursts of light that occur when a gamma ray collides with an air molecule, and records these signals at a rate of a billion frames per second," said Humensky, who collaborated with colleagues at Barnard College to build major components of SCT's mirror alignment system and develop its control software. "This allows us to reconstruct the gamma rays with extraordinary precision." Humensky's involvement with the prototype SCT, unveiled last year at Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in Arizona, began in 2012, when the National Science Foundation funded the project. The Columbia team, including Barnard College postdoctoral research associate Qi Feng, and Ari Brill and Deivid Ribeiro, Columbia doctoral students in physics, helped achieve the initial optical focus. Ribeiro has worked on the telescope since fall 2015, starting through Columbia's Bridge to the PhD program. "I've made seven trips to Arizona, beginning with a three-month stay to integrate the secondary mirror panels with the telescope structure," he said. "It's rewarding to be part of this team and to have collected some of the data that led to this first detection." The sighting of the Crab Nebula, announced at the 236th meeting of the American Astronomical Society June 1, lays the groundwork for the use of the SCT in the future Cherenkov Telescope Array observatory. Slated for completion in 2026, the observatory, with its configuration of 120 telescopes of varying sizes split between Chile and Spain's Canary Islands, will detect sources of gamma rays 100 times faster than current instruments. "The success of the prototype SCT creates an opportunity for the Cherenkov Telescope Array to address and hopefully answer some of the biggest questions in astronomy: What is dark matter? How are the most energetic cosmic rays created?" Humensky said. "It's exciting to look forward to." ### YNY Technology is ready to protect our customers' intellectual property with the world's most feature rich change management software for System Platform. Selangor, Malaysia, June 1, 2020 - YNY Technology has been actively supporting Industry 4.0 by combining business consulting, system implementation and technology process expertise. Today, we would like to announce YNY Technology has joined a partnership with MDT's SI Program to install and provide ongoing support of MDT Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2020) - SKRR Exploration Inc. (TSXV: SKRR) ("SKRR" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it intends to complete a non-brokered private placement of up to 10,000,000 units (each a "Unit") at a price of $0.25 per Unit for gross proceeds of up to $2,500,000 (the "Private Placement"). Each Unit will be comprised of one common share and one-half of one common share purchase warrant (each a "Warrant"). Each whole Warrant is exercisable to purchase one common share of the Company at a price of $0.50 per share for a period of 18 months from the date of closing of the Private Placement. The Private Placement is subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval and all securities are subject to a four month hold period. Finder's fees may be payable in connection with the Private Placement, all in accordance with the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange and applicable securities laws. The net proceeds from the Private Placement will be used for future exploration work on the Company's properties, corporate development, and general corporate and working capital purposes. About SKRR Exploration Inc.: SKRR is a Canadian-based precious metal explorer with properties in Saskatchewan - one of the world's highest ranked mining jurisdictions. The primary exploration focus is on the Trans-Hudson Corridor in Saskatchewan in search of world class precious metal deposits. The Trans-Hudson Orogen - although extremely well known in geological terms has been significantly under-explored in Saskatchewan. SKRR is committed to all stakeholders including shareholders, all its partners and the environment in which it operates. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Sherman Dahl President & CEO Tel: 250-558-8340 Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of any of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful, including any of the securities in the United States of America. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "1933 Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for account or benefit of, U.S. Persons (as defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) unless registered under the 1933 Act and applicable state securities laws, or an exemption from such registration requirements is available. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Information This news release includes certain statements that constitute "forward-looking information or statements" within the meaning of applicable securities law, including without limitation, SKRR's plans for its properties/projects, the private placement and use of funds, other statements relating to the technical, financial and business prospects of SKRR, and other matters. This news release contains "forward-looking information or statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, which may include, without limitation, statements that address SKRR's plans for its properties/projects, the private placement and use of funds, other statements relating to the technical, financial and business prospects of SKRR, and other matters. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future, including the price of metals, the ability to achieve its goals, that general business and economic conditions will not change in a material adverse manner, that financing will be available if and when needed and on reasonable terms. Such forward-looking information reflects the Company's views with respect to future events and is subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those filed under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward looking statements include, but are not limited to, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions, adverse weather conditions, failure to obtain the necessary equipment or machinery, failure to maintain all necessary government permits, approvals and authorizations, failure to maintain community acceptance (including First Nations), increase in costs, litigation, and failure of counterparties to perform their contractual obligations. The Company does not undertake to update forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, except as required by law. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION OR DISSEMINATION DIRECTLY, OR INDIRECTLY, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/57115 Photo: (Photo : Screenshot from Instagram) Mayor Bill de Blasio's daughter, 25-year-old Chiara de Blasio, was charged with unlawful assembly last Saturday. She was arrested during a protest in New York City. Through a desk appearance, authorities also released Chiara on Saturday. The New York Post first reported de Blasio's arrest. According to the report, the mayor's daughter was arrested because she was blocking the traffic and refusing to move after the cops' request. READ ALSO: Dad Dances Ballet With His Daughter Mayor Bill de Blasio's comment about protesters Before the arrest of his daughter, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio defended cops for ramming a crowd in a demonstration with an SUV. In a press conference last Saturday, de Blasio told reporters that he finds the action of the protesters as inappropriate. He said that he saw the video showing the police and the protesters' actions and have seen the same instances. The video de Blasio is talking about shows a crowd pushing a barricade against a vehicle. Several people were also seen knocked to the ground. Mayor de Blasio's daughter explained her side In another press conference on Monday, Mayor de Blasio told reporters that Chiara told him and his wife that she was protesting peacefully on Saturday. De Blasio also said that he honors his daughter, whom he believes to be a good human being. "She only wants to do good in the world," de Blasio added. Even after the arrest, the New York City Mayor says he is proud of his daughter. He sees reason in his daughter's explanation of what happened during the protest. "She believes that everything she did was in the spirit of peaceful, respectful protest." Despite everything that happened, de Blasio would still like to let his daughter speak for herself in whatever way she chooses. READ ALSO: In Sickness and in Health: Husband and Wife Recovers from COVID-19 After Receiving Plasma Donation Mayor de Blasio's daughter is one of the thousands arrested nationwide. According to USA Today, there are 4,400 protesters arrested all over the United States. The protests are the people's way of speaking out on the Memorial Day death of George Floyd. He was a guy who got arrested in Minneapolis and died while a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Now that authorities have arrested thousands of protesters, the relatives of Floyd are calling for peaceful protests. George Floyd's brother, Terrence, appeals for another way of protesting. He says that his family is a peaceful and God-fearing one. They would like protesters to stop handling the matter in a manner that could be destroying their communities. Terrence is against those responsible for violence and looting. He says that those acts have not accomplished anything positive. Also, Terrence encourages the public to educate themselves, because he believes that the best way to address this issue is to do it peacefully and to vote for the right people. READ ALSO: Dads, Grandpa Create Rollercoaster, Playhouse, and Arcade-Style Grabber For Kids ThayerMahan CEO Mike Connor stated, "ThayerMahan is bringing best-in-class seabed imaging technology to customers in government, industry, and academia that provides a very efficient way to image and map the ocean floor and undersea infrastructure. We are proud to be partnering with Geo SubSea because they are experts in turning seabed monitoring technology into the products needed to ensure safe and efficient seabed development. Together, we will provide the next generation in maritime geophysics and ocean engineering support." Geo SubSea has extensive offshore surveying experience covering multiple marine survey and marine science fields. The Geo SubSea team has subject matter experts in marine geology, geophysics, oceanography, environmental sampling, benthic and fisheries biology. Additionally, Geo SubSea has offshore wind experience from the inception of the US Offshore Wind industry in early 2000's and significant experience with high resolution surficial and subsurface sonar data manipulation, interpretation and reporting. Geo SubSea President, Jeff Gardner stated, "We are very excited about this collaboration as we have been promoting the use of advanced surface and undersea technology for years in the offshore wind industry, and it is now coming of age as a force multiplier in a number of maritime sectors as well as becoming more cost-effective. This technology combined with Geo SubSea's extensive offshore survey experience in marine geophysics, geotechnical, and environmental disciplines, as well as our post-survey technical capabilities that support all aspects of data analysis and product development, are a perfect complement to the ThayerMahan team. The fact that both companies are headquartered in Connecticut is a testament to the state's leadership role in the advancement of marine science and technology in support of renewable energy locally, regionally, and globally." ThayerMahan personnel have over 250+ years of maritime operational experience in the most challenging seaborne environments. Founded by retired Navy Vice Admiral Mike Connor in 2016 to promote the use of unmanned autonomous systems for the U.S. Navy and other government entities, ThayerMahan provides high-speed, large swath, precision, low-cost seabed surveys from vessels -large and small. ThayerMahan also operates and deploys the SeaScout system, a synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) imaging and survey suite providing range-independent high-resolution (up to 3cm x 3cm) imagery at survey speeds up to 8 knots. Media Contacts Richard J. Hine Jeff Gardner ThayerMahan, Inc. Geo SubSea, LLC Chief Operating Officer President [email protected] [email protected] 860-937-6622 (Office) 860-682-7093 (Office) About ThayerMahan ThayerMahan, Inc. is a maritime technology company dedicated to providing its government and commercial clients with turn-key (including deployment, operations, data gathering and analysis services) autonomous marine solutions using state-of-the-art acoustic and electronic sensors integrated on a variety of host platforms tailored to specific mission criteria. The company is headquartered in Groton, CT with satellite presence in Boston and Washington, DC. For more information, please visit www.thayermahan.com or contact directly at [email protected]. About Geo SubSea Geo SubSea, LLC was formed in 2015 to meet the consulting needs of the offshore industry and marine survey marketplace, where there is always a demand for senior level, highly experienced personnel capable of supporting complex offshore engineering projects. Geo SubSea's specialty includes the use of geophysical methods to study coastal processes, marine sediments and stratigraphy, underwater archaeology, and benthic habitats. The company is located in Middletown, CT. For more information, please visit www.geosubseaconsulting.com or contact directly at [email protected]. SOURCE ThayerMahan, Inc. Related Links http://www.thayermahan.com President Donald Trump walks past police after he visited outside St. John's Church across from the White House. Read more Attorney General William Barr personally ordered law enforcement officials on the ground to clear the streets around Lafayette Square just before President Donald Trump spoke Monday, a Justice Department official said, a directive that prompted a show of aggression against a crowd of largely peaceful protesters, drawing widespread condemnation. Officers from the U.S. Park Police and other agencies used smoke canisters, riot shields, batons and officers on horseback to shove and chase people gathered to protest the death of George Floyd. At one point, a line of police rushed a group of protesters standing on H Street, many of whom were standing still with their hands up, forcing them to race away, coughing from smoke. Some were struck by rubber bullets. Secret Service officers then surrounded the area and created a protective zone for Trump, who moments later crossed the street and made an appearance outside St. John's Episcopal Church. On Tuesday, however, federal officials offered conflicting reasons for the forcible removal of the protesters, seeking to separate the move from Trump's visit to the church. The White House asserted that the crowd was dispersed to help enforce the city's 7 p.m. curfew. Meanwhile, two federal law enforcement officials said the decision had been made late Sunday night or early Monday morning to extend the perimeter around Lafayette Square by one block. The plan was to be executed, according to the Justice Department official, the following afternoon. Barr was a part of the decision-making process, the official said, was not authorized to speak ahead of Barr addressing the matter himself publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The Justice Department official said that in the afternoon, Barr went to survey the scene and found the perimeter had not been extended. The attorney general conferred with law enforcement officials on the ground. "He conferred with them to check on the status, and basically said, 'This needs to be done. Get it done,'" the Justice Department official said. Police soon moved on the protesters. Throughout Tuesday, several federal agencies involved in the response declined to answer questions about who ordered the use of force and the clearing of the park, which occurred just before Trump's visit to the park. A White House spokesman declined to comment on who gave the order, referring questions to law enforcement agencies. The Secret Service declined to comment. A spokesman for the U.S. Park Police said the agency would have a statement, but did not provide one as of Tuesday afternoon. Defense officials on Tuesday said the National Guard did not participate in decision to clear Lafayette Square on Monday evening and did not take part in firing any rubber bullets or gas. D.C. city officials said they were not involved in the decision to use force, which Mayor Muriel Bowser, D, called "shameful." "I didn't see any provocation that would warrant the deployment of munitions, and especially for the purpose of moving the president across the street," the mayor said at a Tuesday news conference. Trump had directed Barr to personally "lead" the response to the unrest in D.C. Monday night, according to Justice Department spokeswoman. Less than an hour before police moved to clear the peaceful demonstrators from in front of Lafayette Park, Barr was spotted on video talking to officials at the scene. Around the same time, White House deputy chief of operations Tony Ornato contacted the Secret Service to arrange for the president to make a brief, unplanned appearance outside St. John's Church, according to two people familiar with the plans. Following protocol, the Secret Service alerted other law enforcement agencies it would need help clearing the area for the president's safety, they said. Black-clad officers and agents of the Secret Service's civil disturbance unit stood by during the tense confrontation with protesters and then helped secure the emptied out streets. Minutes after the protesters were removed, Trump arrived at the church and took a picture outside, holding a bible, at roughly 6:45 p.m. The Justice Department official said Barr "assumed that any resistance from the protesters of being moved would be met with typical crowd control measures." The official said Barr had been told on the scene there were reports of the crowd passing rocks among themselves, and a bottle had been thrown in his direction. Post reporters who were at the square did not witness protesters using any rocks. The official defended Barr's decision. "This plan was happening, regardless of any plans of the president," the official said. The use of such aggressive force startled some veteran former officers of the Secret Service and other federal agencies, because it appeared to be rushed and unprovoked by protesters. The line of officers rushing protesters, many of whom were standing still with their arms in the air, violated the normal protocol for clearing protesters, something the Secret Service accomplishes dozens of times a year in Lafayette Park without ever tossing smoke canisters or using riot shields. "Usually officers hold a line and don't move forward unless there is provocation," said one former Secret Service agent, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe operational procedures. "The officers give constant warnings and communicate clearly with the crowd. But here it seems like there is some time pressure; they were acting like a bomb is about to go off." Another veteran former Secret Service agent who reviewed video of the treatment of protesters said he feared that the order from Barr signaled a worrisome shift in who calls the shots about deploying use of force. "We protect the president," he said of the Secret Service. "We don't report to the president. It feels like that line has now been blurred." The Secret Service, which has the legal power to clear any area for the president's safety, did not respond to questions seeking an explanation for their decision-making. "For operational security reasons, the U.S. Secret Service does not discuss our protective means and methods," the agency said in a statement. White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement that "the perimeter was expanded to help enforce the 7 p.m. curfew in the same area where rioters attempted to burn down one of our nation's most historic churches the night before. Protesters were given three warnings by the U.S. Park Police." However, both reporters who were on the scene and protesters said they could not make out any audible warnings. Zach Slavin, 32, said he was leaning against the metal barricade separating authorities from protesters when he saw the line of officers starting to move up in coordinated bursts. He heard "mumbled announcements" over the loudspeaker but was not able to discern what was being said. "There was absolutely nothing that was understandable," said Slavin, adding that he had been following police guidance throughout the day. At 6:30 p.m., Slavin said he said officers passing down instructions down the line, then suddenly burst forward past the barricade. A thick cloud descended over the crowd, he said, and armed officers on foot started firing rubber pellets at people. "There was no warning," Slavin said. Dressed in a bandanna around his face, Slavin began coughing and felt gas stinging his eyes. As he tried to break free from the crowd, several canisters were dropped several feet away from him and exploded. These explosives were dropped in the middle of the crowd, within several feet of at least a hundred people or more, he said. Officers continued firing rubber pellets at protesters who were already backing up. "The [officers] were acting like terrorists," said Slavin, an 11-year D.C. resident. "I was being chased by police on the streets of my own city." READ MORE: From Tuesday: Hundreds gather in fourth day of protests U.S. Park Police spokesman Eduardo Delgado disputed that officers weren't at risk. He said officers were provoked by protesters throwing frozen water bottles and there were other indicators of more serious potential harm the crowd could do. "We had intel that there were glass bottles they had stashed at the church to throw at us," Delgado said, of protesters' potential to harm officers. "They had caches of supplies, bricks." However, Arlington County manager Mark Schwartz said the county police had been directed Monday night "to clear a section of H Street so the President could walk over to St. John's for a photo opp," he said. "The mutual aid agreement is not put in place to allow for a blatantly political act. Crowd control is a far cry from assisting someone to stand in front of a church." Arlington County Board chair Libby Garvey said Tuesday that Arlington police were taken by surprise Monday evening when they were "urgently" told to clear H Street. "All our guys knew was they were supposed to help clear H Street to the edges so new barriers could be put in place," Garvey said, after a briefing by Arlington Police Chief Jay Farr. "Our guys never pulled their batons, they used their shields. Suddenly, it became urgent. Even the Secret Service didn't know until minutes before that the president was going to come through. " Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, D-Va., chairman of the House oversight subcommittee with jurisdiction over the nation's capital, wrote to Secret Service Director James Murray Tuesday demanding records for how the decision to use force was made. While the Secret Service is tasked with protecting the President of the United States, it is not a tool of fascism, and the conduct and operations of the Secret Service cannot be allowed to infringe upon the constitutional rights of the American people for the purposes of serving the Presidents personal vanity, Connolly added. NEW YORK, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The global industrial centrifuges market is expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 4.52% during the forecast period. Factors such as increasing demand for water treatment, in cities worldwide, has been driving the demand for industrial centrifuges market. There is an increasing need for efficient processing of wastewater and sludge, combined with stringent regulatory standards for discharge limits from industrial plants. Moreover, increasing demand from the pharmaceutical and biotechnological industries is also expected to augment the growth of the industrial centrifuges market. However, volatile crude oil prices and technological constraints related to industrial centrifuges are likely to hamper the growth of the market. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05903717/?utm_source=PRN - The chemical industry held the largest share of the industrial centrifuges market, in 2019, due to its application for chemical processing, which produces raw products such as acids, salts, oil refinery by-products, polymers, oil-water-solids, and so on. - The increasing demand for an energy-efficient industrial centrifuge is expected to act as an opportunity for the market. For energy-efficient industrial centrifuge, investment costs are usually low relative to the capacity and due to small footprint. - North America is the largest market, in 2019, owing to the presence of the United States, which has one of the highest demands from processed food industry, pharmaceutical sector, and wastewater treatment industries. Key Market Trends Chemical Industry to Dominate the Market - The centrifuges are used in the chemical sector for chemical processing, which produces raw products, such as acids, salts, oil refinery by-products, polymers, and oil-water-solids. - The global chemical industry grew by 2.0% in 2019, which was below the 2.7% growth registered in 2018. The slowdown in growth can be attributed to the decline in the demand from the automobile sector. The global automobile sector has been hugely affected by the uncertainty in the future of old model vehicle, as major countries are upgrading the fuel quality to reduce the emissions. - In Asia, the growth of the chemical industry slowed down to 3.2% in 2019, compared to 3.5% in 2018. The world's largest chemical market, China, was also affected, registering a growth rate of 3.0%, as compared to 4.7% in 2018. The dampening in the growth rate was due to the stagnant demand from the automotive sector and slower momentum in other end-user industries. China is expected to contribute to around 50% of the chemical demand by 2030 and dampening in the growth is not a favorable sign for the market studied. - Fertilizer production continues to grow, as food producers struggle to keep pace with the expanding population across the world. Fertilizer production plants require large exhaust systems, as well as the turbomachinery systems, such as large air compressors, nitrogen compressors, and ammonia (NH3) refrigeration systems. - Countries across the world are witnessing a surge to cut down fertilizer imports bills and are promoting domestic production of fertilizers. Countries across the world, including India and China, have undertaken significant overhaul steps in the fertilizer sector, such as India's Make in India initiative for the chemical sector. There is a rising trend of re-opening of the closed fertilizer plants and setting up new ones across the world, which is expected to support the growth of the industrial centrifuges market during the forecast period. - On the other hand, the COVID-19 has severely impacted the chemical industry. Demand destruction has accelerated the chemical industry into an oversupply situation, which was already looming before COVID-19. The automotive, transportation, and consumer products sectors are among the hardest hit end-markets, with demand for chemicals falling by up to 30% in Q1 of 2020. North America to Dominate the Market - North America is the largest market, in 2019, owing to the presence of the United States, which has one of the highest demand from processed food industry, pharmaceutical sector, and wastewater treatment industries. Additionally, the demand for electricity is growing at a rapid rate in the United States, on account of surge in population and industrial expansion. - The United States is one of the largest markets for industrial centrifuges across the world. The presence of a wide range of domestic manufacturing and processing industries, such as oil and gas, mining, food and beverage, pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries has augmented the demand for industrial centrifuges over the past several years.? - The United States processed food industry is a major participant in the global economy, both in exporting and in foreign direct investment. More than a third of the world's top 50 food and beverage processing firms are headquartered in the United States. - Major foreign companies active in the country include Unilever, Groupe Danone, Diageo, Kirin, SABMiller, Cadbury Schweppes, Heineken and Asahi Breweries. Demographic growth and ever-changing tastes and lifestyles offer a wide range of opportunities to European companies willing to enter the United States' food processing industry. This, in turn, is likely to create an opportunity for the industrial centrifuge market in food processing application over the coming years.? - Further, the United States pharmaceutical industry is a highly globalized industry with a vast positive impact on global health, prosperity and economic productivity. The sector is dominated by multinational companies like Abbot Laboratories, 3M Health Care, and others, that engage in significant business activity in many countries and whose products are distributed and marketed worldwide. However, due to recent COVID-19 pandemic, the production of raw materials and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) has stalled, experiencing a global supply chain disruption. This is expected to restrain the market for the initial forecast period.? - Canada is one of world's top trading nations, and has a wide range of domestic manufacturing, and processing industries such as oil and gas, metals and mining, food and beverage, and biotechnology industries. Presence of such wide variety of industries has augmented the demand for industrial centrifuges over the past several years.? - With the entry of new players into the food and beverage processing market in Mexico, the number of manufacturing and processing facilities is expected to increase, which, in turn, is expected to have a positive impact on the growth of the industrial centrifuges in the country, during the forecast period. However, the effect of Coronavirus has rendered the demand for the processed food to decrease considerably due to the closing down of restaurants and bars. Competitive Landscape The global industrial centrifuges market is fragmented, with the top four companies accounting for more than one-third of the overall market, in terms of revenue, in 2019. Some of the major players operating in the market include Andritz AG, Multotec Pty Ltd, Alfa Laval AB, GEA Group, Flottweg SE, and others. Reasons to Purchase this report: - The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format - 3 months of analyst support Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05903717/?utm_source=PRN About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker Related Links www.reportlinker.com The Oregon Health Authority on Monday reported one new death from the novel coronavirus for a toll of 154 people as cases rose to 4,302. The latest person to succumb to the disease was a 59-year-old man from Marion County, who tested positive last Friday and died the same day at Salem Hospital. He had underlying medical conditions, health officials said. In the last 24 hours, the state reported 59 new confirmed and presumptive coronavirus cases. They were in 14 of Oregons 36 counties: Clackamas (5), Deschutes (2), Jackson (1), Jefferson (11), Josephine (1), Lane (4), Lincoln (3), Linn (2), Marion (13), Morrow (1), Multnomah (6), Polk (2), Umatilla (4), Washington (4). Coronavirus in Oregon: Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter Death toll: At least 154 people have died from the virus. They are from 12 counties -- 59 people from Multnomah, 26 from Marion, 17 from Washington, 12 from Polk, 11 from Clackamas, nine from Linn, seven from Yamhill, five from Benton, three from Umatilla, three from Lane, one each from Josephine and Wasco. Their ages ranged from 41 to 100. Among them, 89 men have died and 65 women have died. All but three had underlying medical conditions. [Read about Oregon coronavirus deaths. Help us learn more.] Senior care homes: Nearly six out of 10 coronavirus deaths in Oregon at least 86 are associated with a care center, a newsroom analysis of state data shows. About 550 to 600 senior care home residents, staff and close contacts from 66 nursing, assisted and retirement homes have contracted the coronavirus. A federal report Monday said eight deaths were among workers at Oregon nursing homes. County case totals: Eight counties -- Multnomah, Marion, Washington, Clackamas, Deschutes, Linn, Umatilla and Polk -- have reported 100 coronavirus cases or more. Gilliam and Wheeler still have reported none. Heres the overall count -- confirmed and presumptive cases -- by county: Baker (1), Benton (55), Clackamas (317), Clatsop (45), Columbia (16), Coos (31), Crook (6), Curry (7), Deschutes (127), Douglas (27), Grant (1), Harney (1), Hood River, (18), Jackson (67), Jefferson (44), Josephine (24), Klamath (44), Lake (2), Lane (77), Lincoln (15), Linn (117), Malheur (32), Marion (973), Morrow (12), Multnomah (1,171), Polk (100), Sherman (1), Tillamook (6), Umatilla (120), Union (6), Wallowa (2), Wasco (24), Washington (743) and Yamhill (70). Testing: Another 2,415 people received coronavirus test results, up from the previous days 2,400, according to figures published on the health authoritys website. So far, 131,508 Oregonians have been tested for the illness since the state confirmed its first case on Feb. 28. Ages: Cases are so far spread relatively evenly among people in their 20s (16%), people in their 30s (17%), people in their 40s (17%) and people in their 50s (17%). The breakdown: 0-9 (65), ages 10-19 (179), ages 20-29 (689), ages 30-39 (737), ages 40-49 (747), ages 50-59 (732), ages 60-69 (557), ages 70-79 (357), ages 80-plus (239). Gender: Of the cases, 2,236 are among women, or 52%, and 2,063, or 48%, are among men. But more men have died: 89 compared to 65 women. Hospitalizations: At least 790 of the states COVID-19 patients, or 18%, have been hospitalized at some point during their illness, according to the health authority. Currently, 50 people with confirmed coronavirus cases are hospitalized, including 19 in intensive care and 13 on ventilators. Recoveries: At least 2,164 COVID-19 patients have recovered from the illness, the health authority said. Heres the list by county: Benton (36), Clackamas (168), Clatsop (7), Columbia (16), Coos (3), Crook (1), Curry (4), Deschutes (102), Douglas (25), Grant (1), Harney (1), Hood River (7), Jackson (52), Jefferson (22), Josephine (20), Klamath (37), Lane (61), Lincoln (8), Linn (73), Malheur (19), Marion (370), Morrow, (7), Multnomah (458), Polk (60), Sherman (1), Tillamook (6), Umatilla (101), Union (5), Wallowa (1), Wasco (15), Washington (473), Yamhill (40). Nationwide: Confirmed coronavirus cases stood at more than 1.8 million. The death toll climbed past 105,000. -- Margaret Haberman, 503-221-8375 mhaberman@oregonian.com Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories Agreement to establish second Joint Venture New Joint Venture to design, manufacture and supply state of the art components and sub-systems for the future generation of the electrified transmission (e-DCT 1 e-DCT will equip Groupe PSA's mild hybrid electric (MHEV) and plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV) vehicles and carmakers globally Regulatory News: This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005601/en/ Groupe PSA (Paris:UG) and Punch Powertrain have signed an agreement to establish a second Joint Venture and expand their strategic partnership in the field of electrification, to contribute to fight against climate change. Punch Powertrain holds majority control in the new Joint 61/39 Venture, which will design, manufacture, and supply Punch Powertrain's breakthrough DT22 dual clutch transmission for the industry's next generation of mild hybrid electric (MHEV) and plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV) vehicles. The business will initially supply Groupe PSA's global operations and aims to supply other vehicle manufacturers worldwide. The Joint Venture agreement is subject to customary regulatory approvals. "Our clear manufacturing strategy is to have a vertical integration of components, particularly key technologies such as electrified powertrains. We have understood that the future is much more than reducing emissions. The challenge ahead of us is electrification at affordable cost, aligned with our raison d'etre (Central Purpose)" said Olivier Bourges, Executive Vice President, Programs and Strategy and Member of the Managing Board. "We are delighted to launch this second Joint Venture Agreement with Groupe PSA, Europe's second largest car manufacturer," said Jorge Solis, Chief Executive Officer, Punch Powertrain. "Over the past 45 years, Punch Powertrain has continuously pioneered innovative and cost-effective transmission technologies. This new venture will spearhead the industrialization of our next generation of transmissions for hybrid electric vehicles for Groupe PSA and other carmakers worldwide." Punch Powertrain will contribute its DT2-related business unit, including world-class engineering, manufacturing, and support functions to the new entity which is expected to be operational by the third quarter 2020. Punch Powertrain will also transfer its current DT2- related facilities in Sint-Truiden, Belgium, and Eindhoven, the Netherlands. In turn, Groupe PSA will make a cash investment in the Joint Venture. The new Joint Venture, "Punch Powertrain PSA e-transmissions", will supply Punch Powertrain's innovative, ultra-efficient and compact automatic transmissions. Known as the DT2, this cost-efficient dual clutch transmission is the first in the industry to integrate an electric motor in a mild hybrid electric vehicle. This latest Joint Venture will supply one of the industry's first 48V solutions to equip mild hybrid electric vehicles (MHEV), resulting in significant fuel savings and reduction in CO 2 emissions, compared to regular internal combustion engine powered vehicles. A high voltage variant of the DT2 is designed for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) and allows full electrically powered driving. In April 2019 Groupe PSA and Punch Powertrain originally signed an agreement to establish their first Joint Venture "Punch Powertrain PSA e-transmissions assembly". This Joint Venture will assemble the future generation of electrified transmissions (e-DCT) at Groupe PSA 's facility in Metz, France, starting in 2022. This breakthrough transmission will equip Groupe PSA's next generation of hybrid vehicles. About Groupe PSA Groupe PSA designs unique automotive experiences and delivers mobility solutions to meet all customer expectations. The Group has five car brands, Peugeot, Citroen, DS, Opel and Vauxhall and provides a wide array of mobility and smart services under the Free2Move brand. Its 'Push to Pass' strategic plan represents a first step towards the achievement of the Group's vision to be "a global carmaker with cutting-edge efficiency and a leading mobility provider sustaining lifetime customer relationships". An early innovator in the field of autonomous and connected cars, Groupe PSA is also involved in financing activities through Banque PSA Finance and in automotive equipment via Faurecia.. Media library: medialibrary.groupe-psa.com @GroupePSA_EN About Punch Powertrain Punch Powertrain nv is an independent global automotive supplier of innovative and energy efficient powertrains. The company builds on more than 45 years of excellence in the development and production of world-class transmission technologies, offering continuously variable transmissions (CVTs), dual clutch transmissions (DCTs), as well as hybrid and electric drivetrains for car makers worldwide. Punch Powertrain is headquartered in Sint-Truiden, Belgium, and has more than 2,000 employees. The company operates five R&D centers and three manufacturing facilities in Europe and China. For more information visit www.punchpowertrain.com 1 e-DCT; electrified Dual Clutch Transmission 2 Dual Clutch Transmission by Punch Powertrain, available in 48V, plug-in hybrid or conventional variants. Communications Division www.groupe-psa.com/en +33 6 61 93 29 36- @GroupePSA_EN View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005601/en/ Contacts: Media: Groupe PSA: Alain Le Gouguec: +33 6 42 59 27 84 alain.legouguec@mpsa.com Karine Douet: +33 6 61 64 03 83 karine.douet@mpsa.com Punch Powertrain: Olga Frantseva: +32 497 83 30 27 olga.frantseva@punchpowertrain.com - Registrar of political parties Ann Nderitu said she would not be swayed by external forces to make unconstitutional moves - Nderitu upheld the leadership of Moses Wetang'ula as FORD Kenya party leader hours after party's secretary-general Eseli Simiyu had notified her of his ouster - Wetang'ula was ejected from party leadership on Sunday, May 31, on the basis of gross misconduct Senator Moses Wetang'ula can breathe a sigh of relief after registrar of political parties upheld his position as the FORD Kenya party leader. Registrar of Political parties Anne Nderitu dismissed alleged changes in the party leadership and maintained Wetang'ula was the bonified leader of the outfit. READ ALSO: Coronavirus update: Cases hit 2,093 as 72 more are diagnosed with COVID-19 Ann Nderitu said Wetang'ula was the bonafide leader of FORD Kenya. Photo: NTV. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Tuko dry spell: Size 8 complains DJ Mo too busy to satisfy her bedroom needs Reports reaching TUKO.co.ke indicated Nderitu reiterated she would not be swayed by external forces to do any unconstitutional actions. Earlier Tuesday, June 2, The party's secretary-general Eseli Simiyu and the new interim party leader MP Wafula Wamunyinyi handed the papers to the registrar. The senator and his sympathisers also arrived at the registrar's offices but were blocked from accessing the premises. READ ALSO: I don't know how to feel: Woman who filmed George Floyd's killing speaks up The registrar of political parties upheld Wetang'ula's leadership. Photo: Moses Wetang'ula. Source: Facebook The decision to oust the lawmaker from the position was made on Sunday, May 31, during the party's National Executive Council (NEC) meeting. Wetang'ula was accused of failing to be a symbol of unity in the party, failing to champion for the party's campaign to win elections and interfering with the party candidate nomination in the 2017 General Election. READ ALSO: Foul future: Scientists say bird flu could wipe out half of humanity Some member of the party had visited registrar of political parties to effect the ouster of Wetang'ula. Photo: UGC. Source: UGC Leaders allied to Wetang'ula, however, protested the decision accusing Secretary-General Eseli Simuyu and Bungoma Governor Wycliffe Wangamati of forcefully taking control of the party. Amani National Congress (ANC) party leader Musalia Mudavadi condemned the ejection and said it was unconstitutional and further interfered with the democracy and independence of political parties. He said he would stand in solidarity with Wetang'ula in the face of the turmoil he was going through. Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly. Why I beat my own mother- Lucy Nyawira | Tuko Talks | Tuko TV. Source: TUKO.co.ke In 2005, France nearly shut down when riots broke after the death of two teenagers one black, one Arab who were trying to escape police in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois. And as recently as late April, in the thick of the countrys coronavirus shutdown, small protests were held in the Paris suburbs and other cities after a man on a motorcycle crashed into the open door of a police vehicle. Local officials celebrated a milestone Monday in the community-wide campaign to limit the spread of COVID-19, and said help is on the way for small businesses and people needing housing assistance because of the pandemic. We are tracking the curve of this infection, and clearly we are now on the down slope of our peak of the initial wave of this virus, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said at the daily city-county COVID-19 briefing. Monday, the San Antonio areas recovery rate exceeded 60 percent, an important milestone, the mayor said. This is very encouraging and again shows the great work that everyone in the community is doing, he said. The number of new coronavirus cases in Bexar County has been slowing, with only nine reported Monday, pushing the total to 2,839. Only five new cases were reported Sunday. Overall, 1,722 people have recovered from the disease. But there was one more death related to novel coronavirus Monday, raising the death toll to 75 in Bexar County. A Hispanic man in his 80s who was a resident of Rio at Mission Trails nursing home died at Mission Trail Baptist Hospital, Nirenberg said. It was the second resident death from that home. The death of a Hispanic woman in her 80s who had been living there was reported May 13. Universal testing showed 25 residents and 13 staff members at Rio at Mission Trails were infected with the virus; 76 residents and 95 staff members tested negative. On ExpressNews.com: Get the latest update on coronavirus and a tracking map of U.S. cases Nirenberg said the situation at local hospitals remained stable, with 93 COVID-19 patients hospitalized, including 39 in intensive care and 20 on ventilators. During Mondays briefing, Assistant City Manager Lori Houston said the citys emergency housing assistance program has committed $17.3 million of the $25 million set aside for rental and mortgage assistance. City staff is proposing another $25 million in federal aid for the program, which is set to expire July 31 but is likely to be extended, she said. We know that many people in San Antonio are going to be struggling on how to make their next rent or mortgage payment, Houston said, noting that about half of people renting or paying mortgages that receive federal assistance are protected from eviction or foreclosure at least through July 24. San Antonio residents can call 210-207-5910 or 311 to ask questions or apply for the city program. Residents of suburban cities or unincorporated areas should call 210-940-1180 for information about Bexar Countys $9 million rental assistance program. The city also offers free legal advice through its right-to-counsel program, at 210-212-3702. Although landlords can initiate eviction proceedings, the countys justice of the peace courts wont hold eviction hearings for at least the next two weeks, Houston said. On ExpressNews.com: Caution urged as food courts, water parks set to reopen And so theres still time for you to make arrangements with your landlord for payment, she said. On another coronavirus-related topic at the briefing, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said commissioners will discuss the countys proposed $6.5 million grant program for small businesses on Tuesday, to be funded with federal dollars and administered through the nonprofit LiftFund. The county last month distributed $5 million in loans and $250,000 in grants for small business. This time, local business groups will work with LiftFund to reach out to small businesses that still need help, Wolff said. So what were doing now by having these four different agencies work with the LiftFund, were making sure that they get out into the community, he said. Scott Huddleston covers Bexar County government and the Alamo for the San Antonio Express-News. To read more from Scott, become a subscriber. shuddleston@express-news.net | Twitter: @shuddlestonSA National Weather Service Tropical Depression Three has been upgraded to Tropical Storm Cristobal, with maximum sustained wind speeds of 40 mph. The storm is expected to remain in the Bay of Campeche before likely moving into the central Gulf by Friday and Saturday. The world has united in outrage over George Floyd's death with protesters marching in Australia, France, the UK and Germany, demanding an end to police brutality and racism around the globe. Thousands of French protesters defied a coronavirus-related police ban and rallied Tuesday against racial injustice and heavy-handed police tactics in the US and on home soil. This came after thousands marched in Sydney, Australia, chanting 'I can't breathe,' while, in the UK, protesters came out in force in London, Manchester and Cardiff over the weekend - almost a decade on from riots sparked by the shooting death of a black man by cops in 2011. Floyd's death has reignited calls for justice in similar cases where men have died in police custody in other parts of the globe, while pleading that 'I can't breathe'. Anger also erupted in multiple languages on social networks, with thousands of Swedes joining an online protest and others speaking out under the banner of #BlackOutTuesday. Floyd's death has also become a diplomatic issue, with the European Union's top foreign policy official saying the bloc was 'shocked and appalled' by his killing at the hands of the white cop. PARIS: Thousands of people defied a virus-related police ban and converged on the main Paris courthouse for a demonstration Tuesday NETHERLANDS: People observe social distancing as they take part in a demonstration in The Hague Tuesday SYDNEY: Thousands marched in Sydney, Australia, chanting 'I can't breathe' LONDON: Protesters take part in a Black Lives Matter demonstration in the UK capital Sunday DUBLIN: People gathered demanding justice for George Floyd outside the US Embassy in Dublin Sunday STOCKHOLM: Aysha Jones speaks during a digital demonstration to show solidarity with the protests in the US outside the US embassy in Stockholm As protests escalated worldwide, solidarity with US demonstrators increasingly mixed with local worries. 'When you refuse to treat the problem of racism... it leads to what we see in the United States,' said Dominique Sopo, head of French activist group SOS Racisme. 'The case of George Floyd echoes what we fear in France.' In Paris, a largely young, multiracial crowd streamed to the main Paris courthouse Tuesday and rallied peacefully - clapping, cheering and waving signs reading 'Black Lives Matter' and 'Police Everywhere, Justice Nowhere' - while police monitored closely from nearby corners. Fears of the coronavirus remain close to the surface and were the reason cited by the police for banning Tuesday's protest at the courthouse. Gatherings of more than 10 people remain banned in France as part of coronavirus confinement measures. But the Paris protest plans drew attention online, and demonstrators showed up in their masses anyway. PARIS: Assa Traore, sister of Adama Traore, outside the Palace of Justice Tuesday. Adama Traore died shortly after his arrest in 2016. His family says he died from asphyxiation because of police tactics - and that his last words were 'I can't breathe' PARIS: People protest outside the Palace of Justice Tuesday despite French authorities banning the protest PARIS: People protest with posters reading 'Justice for Adama' outside the Palace of Justice Similar demonstrations were held in other French cities with protesters drawing shocking parallels between Floyd's death and the death of Adama Traore shortly after his arrest in France in 2016. The Traore case has become emblematic of the fight against police brutality in France. The circumstances of the death of the 24-year-old Frenchman of Malian origin are still under investigation after four years of conflicting medical reports about what happened. The lawyer for two of the three police officers involved in the arrest, Rodolphe Bosselut, said the Floyd and Traore cases 'have strictly nothing to do with each other.' Bosselut told The Associated Press that Traore's death wasn't linked with the conditions of his arrest but other factors, including a pre-existing medical condition. Traore's family says he died from asphyxiation because of police tactics - and that his last words were 'I can't breathe.' 'I can't breathe' were also the final words of David Dungay, a 26-year-old Aboriginal man who died in a Sydney prison in 2015 while being restrained by five guards. NETHERLANDS: The world has united in outrage over George Floyd's death NETHERLANDS: People take part in a demonstration in The Hague Tuesday NETHERLANDS: People wear face masks and observe social distancing as they demand an end to police brutality against black people around the world As 3,000 people marched peacefully through Sydney, many said they had been inspired by a mixture of sympathy for African-Americans amid ongoing violent protests in the US and to call for change in Australia's treatment of its indigenous population, particularly involving police. The mostly Australian crowd at the authorized demonstration also included protesters from the US and elsewhere. 'I'm here for my people, and for our fallen brothers and sisters around the world,' said Sydney indigenous woman Amanda Hill, 46, who attended the rally with her daughter and two nieces. 'What's happening in America shines a light on the situation here. It doesn't matter if it's about the treatment of black men and women from here or from another country; enough is enough,' she said. This comes as a total of 432 indigenous Australians have died in police detention since a 1991 Royal Commission - Australia's highest level of official inquiry - into Aboriginal deaths in custody, according to The Guardian. Australia has also never signed a treaty with the country's indigenous population, who suffer higher-than-average rates of infant mortality and poor health, plus shorter life expectancy and lower levels of education and employment than white Australians. Over in the UK, demonstrators took to the streets of Manchester, Cardiff and London over the weekend. In the capital, some marched to the gates of Downing Street with many holding banners bearing the names of black people who have died in police custody in the UK. Another protest was planned Tuesday in Dutch capital The Hague, and more than 6,000 people attended a Sweden-organized online protest to express support with the Black Lives Matter movement. Among speakers was Aysha Jones, a Gambia-born and Sweden-based activist and fashion blogger. SYDNEY: A woman holds a sign as protesters gather in Australia Tuesday SYDNEY: Many said they had been inspired by a mixture of sympathy for African Americans amid ongoing violent protests in the US and to call for change in Australia's treatment of its indigenous population, particularly involving police SYDNEY: Australia has never signed a treaty with the country's indigenous population Jones said the protest was important to show support to people in America, but also to remind Swedes that racism 'does exist here, its very real and people are being harmed from it.' More protests in various countries are planned later in the week, including a string of demonstrations in front of US embassies on Saturday. The drama unfolding in the US has also drawn increasing diplomatic concern. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell's remarks in Brussels were the strongest to come out of the 27-nation bloc, saying Floyd's death was a result of an abuse of power. Borrell told reporters that 'like the people of the United States, we are shocked and appalled by the death of George Floyd.' He underlined that Europeans 'support the right to peaceful protest, and also we condemn violence and racism of any kind, and for sure, we call for a de-escalation of tensions.' German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said peaceful protests in the US following Floyd's death are 'understandable and more than legitimate.' PARIS: People protest with posters reading 'Silence is violence' and 'Who protects us from police' PARIS: Gatherings of more than 10 people remain banned in France as part of virus confinement measures but the protest plans drew masses 'I can only express my hope that the peaceful protests do not continue to lead to violence, but even more express the hope that these protests have an effect in the United States,' Maas said. More African leaders are also speaking up over the killing of Floyd. 'It cannot be right that, in the 21st century, the United States, this great bastion of democracy, continues to grapple with the problem of systemic racism,' Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo said in a statement, adding that black people the world over are shocked and distraught. Kenyan opposition leader and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga offered a prayer for the US, 'that there be justice and freedom for all human beings who call America their country.' Like some in Africa who have spoken out, Odinga also noted troubles at home, saying the judging of people by character instead of skin color 'is a dream we in Africa, too, owe our citizens.' "Specialty crop producers particularly grape growers need the power that Miravis Prime brings to the field and vineyard," says Raj Iragavarapu, Syngenta product marketing lead for fungicides. "With dual, highly efficacious active ingredients, Miravis Prime controls those difficult diseases that impact their marketable yield opportunity. The result: crops are cleaner and greener." The combination of fludioxonil and Adepidyn technology in Miravis Prime can help California growers recharge their spray programs and maintain effective control of difficult diseases such as Botrytis and powdery mildew in grapes, early blight in potatoes, and powdery mildew in cucurbits. Adepidyn technology needs fewer in-season applications to deliver long-lasting disease control and increase marketable yield potential. 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For Syngenta, such risks and uncertainties include risks relating to legal proceedings, regulatory approvals, new product development, increasing competition, customer credit risk, general economic and market conditions, compliance and remediation, intellectual property rights, implementation of organizational changes, impairment of intangible assets, consumer perceptions of genetically modified crops and organisms or crop protection chemicals, climatic variations, fluctuations in exchange rates and/or commodity prices, single source supply arrangements, political uncertainty, natural disasters, and breaches of data security or other disruptions of information technology. Syngenta assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, changed assumptions or other factors. 2020 Syngenta, 410 Swing Road, Greensboro, NC 27409. Important: Always read and follow label instructions. Some products may not be registered for sale or use in all states or counties. Please check with your local extension service to ensure registration status. Adepidyn, Miravis and the Syngenta logo are registered trademarks of a Syngenta Group Company. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. SOURCE Syngenta Related Links https://www.syngenta.com Facing severe budget cuts in 2019, the leaders of six nonprofit agencies in San Antonio put their limited resources into a single basket South San Antonio Independent School District. Despite the closure of schools in March because of the coronavirus pandemic, the San Antonio Mobile Mental Wellness Collaborative the organization the agencies formed last year is bringing much-needed mental health services to the South Side. Requests for assistance come in daily on the districts wellness center hotline, said Talli Goldman-Dolge, CEO of Jewish Family Service San Antonio, which provides three clinicians for the program. At least 51 referrals to these agencies have been processed over the phone since the collaboratives center at Athens Elementary School closed in mid-March. Billy Calzada /Staff Photographer Dolge said some of the clients calling are concerned about losing their jobs, others lament the loss of traditional high school rituals such as prom and graduation ceremonies, and some struggle with filling in for their kids teachers. There is no road map for this, she said. Im so proud that we were able to get this started when we did. The pandemic stresses everyone, but especially those with limited access to health care, Dolge said. On ExpressNews.com: Health report: Texas ranks 34th in the nation Through the collaborative, South San ISD elementary, middle and high school students and their families can call one number and get a consultation. Those who qualify will get a referral for case management, counseling, psychiatric care, educational workshops or addiction therapy. This is an important lifeline for a district that serves children from economically disadvantaged households. Four miles southwest of downtown, there are few highly skilled, high-paying jobs available. The average household income is $48,132 for those who live in the 78224, 78242 and 78211 ZIP codes. More than 27 percent do not have health insurance, and 22 percent live below the federal poverty line. Photos by Billy Calzada /Staff photographer Last spring, tensions between the school districts board of trustees and its constituents reached a boiling point. Students asked the board to approve turning a vacant school building into a community center with mental health services or to allocate funding to hire more social workers. Suicide and depression cant wait, and neither should we, said then-sophomore Evany Gonzalez in a rebuke of board members inaction at an April 2019 meeting. South San High Schools Enrichment Club members had been appealing for help for more than three years at that point. Their main complaint: South San employed one social worker for its 9,000 students, much less than whats offered at other school districts in the city. Behavioral specialist Susan Arciniega has been with the district for 24 years, trying to put out fires at 17 campuses and helping teachers recognize the signs of depression and suicidal thoughts. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among young people in the U.S. Between 2007 and 2017, suicide rates among those ages 10 to 24 jumped 56 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The few affordable clinics in the area closed by 5 p.m. most days, said South San senior Marc Mendiola, which left his classmates with little options for finding mental health care. Billy Calzada /Staff Photographer Leslie Allison, a behavioral health clinical manager for Methodist Healthcare Ministries who runs health clinics at other schools, said programs like these make a difference because they provide services to students who, in many cases, cant get help through the traditional health care system. Allison, who isnt involved with the South San program, said these school-based collaborations that tap into community resources will help reach adolescents in need of extra support. No one size fits all, but youve got to start somewhere, she said. Dolge at Jewish Family Service said she saw media reports of South San students at board meetings and wanted to help. But at that time, she had just learned that the organization was losing 75 percent of the budget for providing counseling, case management and psychiatric services. The biggest cuts occurred when two of its biggest benefactors, United Way and the San Antonio Area Foundation, changed strategy for allocating annual grants. She found that her organization wasnt alone. Family Service Association, Childrens Bereavement Center of South Texas, Rise Recovery, Communities in Schools and Clarity Child Guidance Center were also looking for ways to stay afloat. On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio childrens mental health center downsizes after major funding cut Some of their services and clients overlapped. Three agencies were already providing services in the South San area, so it was an easy decision for the executive directors to pool their resources there. The San Antonio Mobile Mental Wellness Collaborative set up shop inside the South San ISD Care Zone, a community center that opened in August on the Athens Elementary School campus. The pilot program cost $616,238. The collaborative relies on revenue from Medicaid and its partner agencies fundraising efforts. But during the pandemic, when the program needed to switch to telehealth, help came from local donors. Jewish Family Service received a $25,000 emergency grant to provide phones for clients from a local COVID-19 Response Fund. Thats a pool of money from some of the citys largest philanthropic organizations, including the Harvey E. Najim, H.E. Butt, Nancy Smith Hurd and John L. Santikos foundations. The $6.3 million fund is managed by the San Antonio Area Foundation and the United Way of San Antonio. I think the best thing is that its open to the community not just South San kids, said Agustin Perez, an 18-year-old South San High School senior. Many of his classmates work after school to supplement their familys income and help raise younger siblings. Perez works at a store in South Park Mall and said the pressure from his parents to succeed can be daunting. His dad started working maintenance jobs at age 12, and his mother is a supervisor at a medical clinic. They just want us to keep going and thrive, he said. They want us to continue to do the things that they werent able to do. Perez plans to enroll at San Antonio College to study political science and psychology. Eventually, he wants to go to law school. In February, Perez and fellow senior Mendiola sat down with Republican Congressman Will Hurd when he visited the Care Zone. They told him how long it took for their Enrichment Club to get additional sufficient mental health services for their classmates. Hurd, a San Antonio native, said, I dont think you appreciate how big of a deal this is. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, the facility was open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, also serving as a study center with GED classes, a small food pantry and clothing program. Since November, the pilot program has provided behavioral health and social services to more than 1,400 people and scheduled 600 individual and group counseling sessions, program director Ramona Montoya-Cuellar said. We never thought we would see these numbers, Dolge told South San board members at a meeting last month. We thought wed maybe see 50 kids this first year, but we are still getting requests for services. Dolge says the program could be replicated at other school districts. Shes in talks with other superintendents interested in starting a program for their students. Interim Superintendent Dolores Sendejo, who was hired in July after the contentious board meetings, said the program quickly became a shining light for our district. She said the district has agreed to fund the program in coming year. Laura Garcia covers the health care industry in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Laura, become a subscriber. laura.garcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @Reporter_Laura Regional initiative for locust infestation 06/02/20 By Salman Parviz, Tehran Times A trilateral plan among Iran, Pakistan and India is being formulated to address locust swarm infestations that devour crops and threaten the livelihood and sustenance in the region, already struggling with coronavirus pandemic. The desert locust is considered the most destructive migratory pest in the world and a single swarm covering one square kilometer can contain up to 80 million locusts. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said on Friday there was an increased risk along both sides of India-Pakistan border. India, which was battered by Cyclone Amphan on its east coast, announced that New Delhi is waiting to hear from Islamabad on a proposal for the collaborative action. Iran has already acknowledged and responded to the Indian action plan, which includes an offer to provide pesticide Malathion for aerial spraying to restrain locust populations in southeastern provinces of Sistan-Baluchestan and South Khorasan. The plan of action was recommended after reports emerged that swarms of the destructive pests were heading towards India after breeding and maturing in Iranian and Pakistani provinces of Baluchistan. In India, more adult groups of small swarms have been reported which have spread into the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh. Experts say that a larger than normal locust attack could happen this year in India and a plague will give a heavy blow to agriculture, just in time when food security has become paramount. Iranian agriculture ministry's Plant Protection Organization said the military was called for help last week for a second year to help fight locusts that have invaded the south of the country, threatening to destroy crops worth more than seven billion dollars. The locust swarms also threaten livestock, endangering pastoral communities, and can have an adverse impact on the tourism industry. A spokesman for the ministry, Mohammad Reza Mir, said more than 200,000 hectares of orchards and farmland have been under attack by desert locusts in seven of the country's 31 provinces. "The military have promised to help fight the desert locusts, including by providing all-terrain vehicles for use in areas which are hard to access," Mir told ILNA adding that last year the military "was a big help." Locust swarm in Kerman, Iran An agreement was signed on March 19, according to which the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations agreed to provide Iran $200,000 and help to procure equipment for the country's two desert locust control centers for capacity building. "In Pakistan, 38 percent of the area (60 percent in Baluchistan, 25 percent in Sindh and 15 percent in Punjab) are breeding grounds for the desert locust, whereas the entire country is under the threat of invasion if the desert location is not contained in the breeding region," according to an FAO report. The report highlights migration pattern of locust and its potential impact on agricultural economy of Pakistan. The silver lining is that an already regulated bilateral collaboration between India and Pakistan exists, six regular meetings between India and Pakistan are held every year from June to November. The FAO report shows that swarms of locusts would be migrating to Pakistan in coming months from southern Iran's border areas of Baluchestan, Oman, and East Africa. According to the report, the last serious desert locust invasion in the eastern region of Pakistan occurred in 1993. Beginning in mid-2018, some 25 years later, a major upsurge of desert locust developed in the Arabian Peninsula as a result of higher frequency of cyclones originating in the Indian Ocean in 2019, that brought heavy rains to the Empty Quarter (Rub' al Khali) along the borders of Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE and Yemen. "This year the situation is aggravated as for the first time in many decades, there is a second threat of invasion by swarms in East Africa in late June and during July," the FAO report says. Regional issue Locust swarms is nothing new to East Africa and West Asia, but this year's swarms are expected to be larger than in 2019 because their number increases on average 20-fold with each generation. The locust infestation is the worst in 70 years in East Africa and has affected 23 countries in all. The insects first swept through Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and South Sudan in January and February. Now, after those locusts laid eggs, new swarms likely to be 20 times larger were beginning to eat their way through the region. The World Bank has set up a $500 million program to fight the locust infestation in East Africa and parts of West Asia, which is said to cause economic damage costing $8.5bn this year. Swarms of locusts, many billions strong, were moving from East Africa to West Asia and South Asia, "decimating livelihoods and devouring food", said David Malpass, President of the World Bank Group, adding the locust swarms threatened a "monumental crisis" and "a humanitarian emergency." The highly mobile species of short-horned grasshoppers travel in swarms of 30 to 50 million insects, covering a distance of 150 km and devouring up to 200 tons of crops per day. East Africa's locust swarm threaten food security in an area already under threat from plagues. A desert locust can eat roughly its weight in fresh food per day (about two grams). A one square kilometer swarm contains at least 40 million locusts, each eats the same amount of food each day as about 35,000 people, based on a person eating an average of 2.3 kilograms of food per day. Locusts can lay as many as 80 eggs per female, and deposit them at a depth of 10 to 15 centimeters below the earth's surface. The big prerequisite is both a swarm and rain - helping create conditions conducive for breeding and growth. Locust eggs dry out without rainfall. Rising temperatures also mean locusts can mature more quickly and spread to higher elevation environments. In just a few weeks, the next generation of pests will transition from juvenile stage and take wings. While a good rainfall in the summer could save a region's crops but at the same time, it could increase chances of locust hatching. The region of Africa that includes Kenya and Ethiopia saw 300 percent of usual rainfall between October and November last year. On one November day, two years of rain fell, causing floods and displacing people, reports ABC. Cyclone last year in Somalia brought heavy rains that fed fresh vegetation to fuel the locusts that are carried by wind to the Arabian Peninsula, the largest in the world stretching from West Asia to northeast Africa. Scientists say due to climate change a warmer Indian Ocean means more powerful tropical cyclones. The current situation remains alarming in East Africa where Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia continue to face an unprecedented threat to food security and livelihood. New swarms from current breeding will form from mid-June onwards, coinciding with the start of the harvest. There is a risk that swarms will migrant to the summer breeding areas along both sides of the Indo-Pakistan border as well as Sudan and perhaps West Africa, reports FAO. The UN has warned of a major blow to food supply as locust swarms gobble up crops and gather to sweep across the region. Officials in Iran, Pakistan and India need to speed up coordination to deal with the locust infestation on a yearly basis. As the threat of locust swarms heading from East Africa to West Asia region increases amid global warming, initiatives with a larger scope are in order. The cause of death was that he was starving for air. It was lack of oxygen. And so everything else is a red herring to try to throw us off, family attorney Ben Crump said Tuesday. He said the Hennepin County medical examiner went to great lengths to try to convince the public that what was shown on bystander video didnt cause Floyd to die. The Dead Sea Scrolls are being pieced back together using DNA 'fingerprints' lifted from the animal skins on which they were written some 2,000 years ago. The scrolls are a collection of more than 25,000 ancient manuscript fragments, among which can be found the oldest known copies of books of the Hebrew Bible. They were first found in the Qumran Caves near the Dead Sea in 1946. However, piecing the disparate fragments together has long proven an intricate puzzle, as scholars have had to rely primarily on their visual appearance. The researchers hope that extracting the ancient DNA of the animals that were used to make the parchments will offer more clues about how the pieces fit together. Scroll down for video The Dead Sea Scrolls are being pieced back together using DNA 'fingerprints' lifted from the animal skins on which they were written some 2,000 years ago. Pictured, a scroll fragment 'The discovery of the 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls is one of the most important archaeological discoveries ever made,' said paper author and biologist Oded Rechavi of Israel's Tel Aviv University. 'However, it poses two major challenges: first, most of them were not found intact but rather disintegrated into thousands of fragments,' he added. This, he added, has meant that the pieces have 'had to be sorted and pieced together with no prior knowledge on how many pieces have been lost forever, or in the case of non-biblical compositions how the original text should read'. 'Depending on the classification of each fragment, the interpretation of any given text could change dramatically.' The second challenge, he continued, comes from how most of the scrolls were acquired not directly from the Qumran caves, but through antiquity dealers. As a result, it has not been clear where many of the fragments came from in the first place, he explained, making it more difficult to put them together and into their proper historical context. Since their discovery which occurred from 19461956 scholars have been trying to reassembled the scroll fragments like a jigsaw puzzle, relying primarily on visible properties of the fragments to learn about their relationship with other pieces. In their study, however, Professor Rechavi and colleagues delved deeper for clues to assist the recomposition process extracting from the fragments the ancient DNA of the animals whose skins were used to make the scrolls. The team's forensic analysis which combined this DNA evidence with an examination of the language of the texts themselves enabled them to better work towards establishing the relationship between the fragments of the texts. Alongside helping them to reconstruct the texts, the DNA sequencing revealed that the parchments were mostly made of sheep skin, which was not previously known. Having determined this, the team reasoned that pieces made from the skin of the same sheep must be related and that scrolls from closely related sheep were more likely to fit together than those from more distant sheep, or other species. The scrolls are a collection of more than 25,000 ancient manuscript fragments, among which can be found the oldest known copies of books of the Hebrew Bible. They were first found in the Qumran Caves near the Dead Sea in 1946 In one case, for example, the researchers found that two scroll fragments previously thought to belong together were in fact made from different animals specifically, a sheep and a cow suggesting that they did not fit together at all. This striking example came from some of the oldest of the scrolls, which comprise different copies of the biblical book of Jeremiah. 'Analysis of the text found on these Jeremiah pieces suggests that they not only belong to different scrolls, they also represent different versions of the prophetic book,' said paper author and biblical studies expert Noam Mizrahi, also of Tel Aviv. 'The fact that the scrolls that are most divergent textually are also made of a different animal species is indicative that they originate at a different provenance.' The 'cow fragments' were most likely written elsewhere, he added, because it would not have been possible at the time to raise cows in the Judean desert. In their study, Professor Rechavi and colleagues delved deep for clues to assist the recomposition process extracting from the fragments the ancient DNA of the animals whose skins were used to make the scrolls According to the researchers, the fact that different versions of the book circulated in parallel suggests that 'the holiness of the biblical book did not extend to its precise wording.' They noted that this would have stood in contrast to the mutually exclusive texts that were adopted later by Judaism and Christianity. 'This teaches us about the way this prophetic text was read at the time and also holds clues to the process of the text's evolution,' said Professor Rechavi. He said that other highlights from the work include insight into the relationship between different copies of a non-biblical, liturgical work known as the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, which has been found both in Qumran and Masada. The team's analysis revealed that the various copies found in the different Qumran Caves are closely related genetically but that the Masada copy is distinct. This finding indicated that the work had a wide currency. 'What we learn from the scrolls is probably relevant also to what happened in the country at the time,' said Professor Mizrahi. 'As the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice foreshadows revolutionary developments in poetic design and religious thinking, this conclusion has implications for the history of Western mysticism and Jewish liturgy.' Since their discovery in the Qumran caves (one of which is pictured) from 19461956, scholars have been trying to reassembled the scroll fragments like a jigsaw puzzle, relying primarily on visible properties of the fragments to learn about their relationship with other pieces The study also confirmed that some other fragments of uncertain origin likely came from places other than the Qumran caves, Professor Mizrahi added. In one case, the DNA evidence suggested that a fragment of a copy of the biblical book of Isaiah one of the most popular books in ancient Judea likely came from another site entirely,but one which has yet to be identified. Professor Rechavi said that although the DNA evidence has added to our understanding, it can only 'reveal part of the picture and not solve all the mysteries.' The researchers had to extract DNA from tiny amounts of materials which they refer to as scroll 'dust' in certain cases and noted that there are many scrolls that have yet to be sampled and others that simply cannot be, for fear it might ruin them. However, they hope that more samples will be tested and added to the database to work toward a more complete Dead Sea Scroll 'genome'. The team believe that they can apply the same methods to any ancient artefact that contains enough intact DNA, or perhaps even other biological molecules. The full findings of the study were published in the journal Cell. A disgraced former police officer whose conviction for assaulting a teenager was overturned is taking Victoria Police to court to compel the force to reinstate him. Former Senior Constable Simon Mareangareu, 56, was sentenced to a year in jail in August 2018 after being found guilty of punching a teenage boy and then perverting the course of justice by having him falsely charged with assaulting police and resisting arrest. Former senior constable Simon Mareangareu. Credit:Eddie Jim A video of the 2014 assault on Kyan Foster, then 16, taken by the victims friend Stuart Laird, then 17, was made public and caused significant embarrassment to the force. In his first trial, County Court Judge Jeanette Morrish said Mr Mareangareu "meted out summary justice" and then prepared a brief of evidence to have the teen charged with offences he had not committed, conduct she labelled "disgraceful and utterly abhorrent". A North Charleston-based global chemical business is reducing its payroll and shedding other expenses as the coronavirus pandemic cuts into demand for its industrial products. Ingevity Corp. did not disclose how many of its 1,850 workers at 25 sites will be affected or how much it expects to save. Were working from a platform of financial strength, and were working to control what we can control in a tumultuous environment, chairman and interim CEO Rick Kelson said in a written statement Tuesday. The restructuring calls for temporary furloughs at the companys global network of production plants and permanent headcount reductions that will include early retirement buyouts for eligible workers. Also, Ingevity is suspending some employee benefits, such as matching contributions to retirement plans and other compensation programs. It also said it will rein in spending on consultants and services. Some of these measures are temporary, but many are permanent, and as such will give us a leaner cost basis for the future, Kelson said. The company said the price of the plan will be included in its earnings for the second quarter, when it anticipates more significant impacts from the global health crisis. It said it still expects to meet the revised financial projections it provided to investors on April 29. They include a year-end revenue estimate of $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion, down from $1.29 billion in 2019. Some of Ingevity's main materials and chemical additives are marketed at the struggling automotive and oilfield industries. More than half of its sales are concentrated in the North America market. The company is headquartered across Virginia Avenue from the WestRock Co. paper mill, where it was incubated decades ago as a division of the former MeadWestvaco Corp. to develop chemicals from sawdust and other tree waste. Ingevity became an independent publicly traded company in 2015. The company announced the cost-cutting plan after the stock market closed Tuesday. Its shares climbed almost 3 percent to close at $57.88 after Wall Street's broad-based rally Wednesday. Other local employers, from Boeing Co. to Blackbaud Inc., have announced their own expense-reduction plans in response to the economic carnage the virus has caused since mid-March. Rebutting the charges that Union government lost precious time in preparing the country in the wake of coronavirus, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that since the enforcement of the lockdown the government has been preparing a trained army of workers at district level to fight Covid-19. The government has also been working over the past two months in bolstering its health systems at district level. Shah also responded to a question about Unlock 1.0, whose timing many questioned considering the rising number of Covid-19 positive cases and mortality figures. He said that the Unlock 1.0 was announced after weeks and months of steadfast preparations by the union government. In an exclusive interview with Network 18s editor-in-chief Rahul Joshi, on the occasion of completion of the first year of Modi 2.0 government, Shah said, "All this while we have been improving upon health facilities in our districts. Initially the states were also not ready to accept them. Quarantine facilities were not up to the mark. We have set up all these facilities over the past two months. Meanwhile we have also been training home guards, panchayat workers, health workers in dealing with this pandemic. Only after taking all these measures have we announced Unlock 1.0." Till the time a vaccine was found for the pandemic, Shah said that the people will have to learn to live with the virus. He also added that India was doing far better than most countries. "We have also suffered like the rest of the world but we have done much better than most comparatively speaking. Take for example this statistic - the number of infections on an average in India is 12.6 people per lakh population. The world average is 77.6 people per lakh, in US this figure is 542, in Germany 217, in Brazil 195. Similarly we have a much better recovery rate as well," Shah said. He attributed the comparative success of India's fight against the novel Coronavirus to the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "For the first time in the history of this country all the people, the states, everyone fought a natural calamity unitedly, as one. Whatever be the political colour of a state, everyone has been together in this fight and our Prime Minister has ensured that there is a healthy cooperation between the centre and the states, and that states get whatever help centre is in a position to offer them," the Union Home Minister said. Shah also highlighted the steps that the Union government had taken in helping the cause of migrant workers in the country. "We have used 11,000 crore National Disaster Relief Fund to provide food to the workers, to provide them bus facilities, health facilities. 41 lakh workers have been sent on through buses, 55 lakh workers have been sent home on Shramik trains. We sympathise with whoever was in a difficult position during the lockdown but it would be wrong to say that the country did not do anything. In all 1.1 crore people have been sent home," Shah said. He also wished to end the controversy that has been raging about the payment of the fare of transporting migrant workers in trains. "Let me say categorically that 85% of the train fare has been paid by Railways and the rest 15% has been paid by the states." Amit Shah said that apart from providing help in kind - food, transportation and medical facilities - the government has also been transferring money directly into the accounts of migrant workers through the Direct Benefit Scheme. On the question of many financial institutions, including SBI, predicting a negative growth rate for the country, Shah said that all economies across the globe were hit just has India was. But he expressed confidence that India, under the leadership of the Prime Minister who was converting this calamity into an opportunity for the country, would emerge to be in a much better position in the post-Covid world than it was in a pre-Covid world. One of the ways in which India could do it, Shah argued, was if all Indians bought only goods made in India. "I would like to appeal to every Indian. They should consume India-made products only. I think this will give our economy a huge jump. If one caters to a 130 crore strong market India will surely turn into a big manufacturing hub," Shah said. Amit Shah also answered many political questions from BJP's rise to power in Madhya Pradesh to the party's ambitions of getting absolute majority in West Bengal assembly elections. On West Bengal's frayed relations with the centre, Shah said that the manner in which the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, had prevented trains of West Bengali migrant workers from getting into her state and termed such trains as 'Corona Express' will never be forgotten by the people of the state. He said that because of her mishandling of the situation in her state, BJP was poised to take over the state with absolute majority in the upcoming assembly elections. On the question of the toppling of Kamal Nath led Congress government in Madhya Pradesh, he said that BJP couldn't be blamed for it. "It is for Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to find why did a senior leader of their party resign from his party membership". On the allegation of BJP trying to engineer a coup in Maharashtra, just as it did in Madhya Pradesh, at a sensitive time during the Covid crisis, Shah categorically said that Shivrajsingh Chauhan's government took over in Bhopal before the lockdown and that BJP "has never tried to destabilise any government during the Covid crisis." Responding to a question about the transgression into the Indian side of the Line of Action Control (LAC) by the People's Liberation Army of China, Shah said that the "LAC issue will not be taken lightly." He said that talks were being held between diplomatic channels and between officials of the defence establishments to resolve the issue. "This government is duty bound to protect its borders and there should be no doubt about the fact that absolutely no compromise will be made by India in securing its borders whether they be on land on in water." On the battlefield, the roar of helicopter blades paired with a Red Cross is salvation for wounded troops and civilians. But the thwomping blades of military helicopters, including one with Red Cross markings, were part of a low-flying show of force over Washington's streets Monday night - an incident now under investigation. Numerous videos on social media showed an unarmed Lakota medevac helicopter hovering over demonstrators. Its Red Cross markings, visible on the aircraft's belly and side, was flown by the District of Columbia Army National Guard. Another helicopter snapped tree limbs and sent people scurrying from the deafening roar, the New York Times reported. The use of a helicopter with Red Cross markings was an abuse of global norms that could help erode its neutral symbolism, military justice experts said. "This was a foolish move," said Geoffrey Corn, a former Army lawyer and professor at the South Texas College of Law in Houston. "The symbolic significance of the Red Cross is pervasive: It denotes a 'noncombatant' function of the armed forces." The National Guard has been used to augment police across the country, defense officials have insisted, including 18,000 Guard members in 29 states and the District mobilized in response to unrest after the death in police custody of George Floyd in Minneapolis last week. The use of a helicopter's rotor wash, the downward rush of air from its rotors, is a common military tactic to incite fear, disperse crowds and warn of other capabilities, like rockets and guns, said Kyleanne Hunter, a former Marine Corps pilot who flew Cobra attack helicopters in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hunter, now a senior adjunct fellow at the Center for a New American Security in Washington, said she flew low over civilian vehicles to disperse them ahead of convoys in Iraq. And after reviewing videos of the helicopter, she concluded that it flew far too low to be on a surveillance mission. "You add more military equipment, you get more military tactics," she said. "It's to provoke and incite rather to protect and serve." Maj. Gen. William Walker, commander of the D.C. National Guard, has directed an investigation into the "low-flying maneuver," a spokesman said Tuesday evening. The decision to use the maneuvers was authorized by the highest levels of that command, the Times reported. Guard members were among the local and federal law enforcement officers that cleared out Lafayette Square on Monday to allow President Donald Trump a photo op at a nearby church, but they did not have, and did not fire, tear gas or rubber bullets, defense officials said. But the use of medevac helicopters during demonstrations after curfew stunned justice experts, who said the Red Cross symbolizes mercy. "Misuse of the Red Cross symbol is prohibited even during peacetime by the First Geneva Convention, to which the U.S. is a party," said Rachel VanLandingham, a former Air Force attorney and professor at the Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles. Linking the symbol with law enforcement, VanLandingham said, can weaken its "effectiveness as signifying medical and humanitarian assistance, a symbol of trust that is needed to give those vehicles with that symbol needed access where they are needed during armed conflict." It is unclear whether the helicopter was one of few available. VanLandingham said it might have been prudent to consider covering up the Red Crosses before flight. The use of the helicopter also may violate Army regulations, Corn said, including domestic operations that outline the use of medical resources for "the evacuation of patients, movement of medical supplies and personnel, and support of search and rescue activities." Flying low in urban areas presents numerous risks to the pilots, crew, aircraft and people on the ground, Hunter said, factors that are typically considered before flying such a mission. Helicopters are not as aerodynamic as airplanes, so in the event of a malfunction, pilots need to assess their altitude, speed and weight before calculating what to do. One solution, Hunter explained, is to rotate the aircraft so air can move over the blades - an attempt to control the helicopter into a crash landing. But the presence of protesters on the ground, buildings on all sides and a low altitude would make such a maneuver "virtually impossible" in the event of engine failure, Hunter said. The best a pilot could hope for at that altitude, she said, is minimizing injuries on the ground. President Donald Trump walks from the gates of the White House to visit St. John's Church across Lafayette Park in Washington on June 1, 2020. (Patrick Semansky/AP Photo) Trump Deploying Heavily Armed Soldiers to Washington, Vows to Crush Riots Nationwide President Donald Trump announced on Monday afternoon that he is deploying military personnel along with other federal assets to stop violent riots in Washington. As we speak I am dispatching thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel, and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting, looting, vandalizing, assaults, and wanton destruction of property, Trump announced during a press conference. Trump called the violence in the nations capital Sunday night a disgrace. He said that a 7 p.m. curfew for the city would be strictly enforced that evening. We must never give in to anger or hatred. If malice or violence reigns, then none of us is free, he said. The president also said that he strongly recommended that governors deploy the National Guard in their states. Mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled, he said. If a city or a state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them. Following his national address, Trump visited St. Johns Episcopal Church, a historic and national landmark located across the street from the White House, known as The Church of the Presidents, which suffered damage after it was set on fire by rioters Sunday night. We have the greatest country in the world, Trump said as he stood in front of the 204-year-old church. Were going to keep it safe. President Donald Trump holds up a Bible outside St. Johns Episcopal Church across Lafayette Park in Washington on June 1, 2020. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images) White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said earlier Monday that the White House is establishing a central command center to coordinate with states in response to the mounting violence in the wake of the protests. Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and Attorney General William Barr will participate in the plan. There will be additional federal assets deployed across the nation. There will be a central command center in conjunction with the state and local governments that will include Gen. Milley, Secretary Esper, and AG Barr, McEnany said. The death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest last week, has caused national uproar. But the initially peaceful protests, expressing grief and anger over police brutality, have in many cases been marred by looting, violence, and arson. Protests continued on May 30 in dozens of cities around the nation, including Minneapolis, New York, Atlanta, Detroit, and Louisville, with occasional looting, arson, and vandalizing. Fires burned in cities across the countryincluding near the White Housestores were looted, and disturbing footage of violent acts flooded social media, including of a mob beating an elderly female shop owner in Rochester, New York. According to a count compiled by The Associated Press, at least 4,400 people have been arrested nationwide. Shattered window and door glass is scattered on the floor inside Mervis Diamond Importers after a night of protests over the death of George Floyd in Washington on June 1, 2020. (Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo) According to a Minneapolis Fire Department report (pdf), Floyd was unresponsive and pulseless when he was transported into an ambulance by paramedics from the site of his arrest to the hospital. The police officer who was seen kneeling on Floyds neck, Derek Chauvin, was fired on May 25, along with three other officers. Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter on May 29. On Monday, a medical examiner classified Floyds death as a homicide, saying his heart stopped as police restrained him and suppressed his neck. Decedent experienced a cardiopulmonary arrest while being restrained by law enforcement officer(s), the report read. Under other significant conditions it said Floyd suffered from heart disease and hypertension, and listed fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use. The Associated Press and Epoch Times reporter Tom Ozimek contributed to this report Tesco finance boss Alan Stewart has revealed plans to retire from his role at the UK's largest supermarket. The move will be part of a major leadership shake-up at the business, with current chief executive Dave Lewis set to step down in September. Mr Stewart will leave his role as chief financial officer on April 30 next year, after six years at the company. Dave Lewis, Tesco group chief executive, said of outgoing chief financial officer Mr Stewart: "Alan has been an outstanding leader and partner at Tesco. "He has made a huge contribution and on behalf of all of Tesco colleagues I would like to thank him for all he has done." Mr Stewart said: "Being part of the team that has delivered the turnaround at Tesco and set it up for the next stage means an incredible amount to me. "I shall continue to focus on delivering the strategy, supporting the business and my colleagues through the next 11 months, knowing that the business is in a strong position as we move forward." ORLANDO, Fla., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- To meet the current and future needs of Beaches Energy Services' more than 35,000 customers, the utility has selected Burns & McDonnell to implement a substation upgrade project in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. The upgrade is one of the first progressive engineer-procure-construct (EPC) projects in Florida for a municipal electric utility. Burns & McDonnell will provide services for the installation and energization of Autotransformer No. 2 at Beaches Energy Sampson Substation for Beaches Energy Services. The project scope includes removal and replacement of the existing Autotransformer No. 2, the addition of a 138k Power Voltage Transformer, the replacement of five motor-operated disconnect switches, and necessary relay panel modifications and upgrades. "Beaches Energy Services has proudly served Florida residents and businesses for more than 100 years," says Allen Putnam, director for Beaches Energy Services. "This project will give us the adaptability and flexibility we need to expand so we can continue providing reliable, resilient and environmentally responsible power and high-quality service to our customers. When it came to selecting a partner to design and build the project, we turned to Burns & McDonnell because of the firm's long history of supporting critical infrastructure projects in Florida, extensive experience with transmission and substation systems, and strong track record of delivering EPC projects on time and on budget." Under the contract, Burns & McDonnell will provide services for the installation and energization of Autotransformer No. 2 at Beaches Energy Sampson Substation. The project scope includes removal and replacement of the existing Autotransformer No. 2, the addition of a 138k Power Voltage Transformer, the replacement of five motor-operated disconnect switches, and necessary relay panel modifications and upgrades. Construction began in May and is expected to conclude in August. "We are proud to help Beaches Energy Services deliver one of the first municipal progressive EPC projects in the state," says Matt Kapusta, regional Transmission & Distribution Group manager in Orlando for Burns & McDonnell. "As a fully integrated firm, we're able to provide complete design and construction services from start to finish, helping improve agility, eliminate waste and yield higher returns on investment. The partnership between project owners and the professionals supporting the project establishes a foundation for the successful, quick, high-quality and safe execution of the project." Burns & McDonnell ranks among the top 10 design firms in the U.S. and as the No. 1 firm in Power, according to Engineering News-Record (ENR). Additionally, the firm has been recognized by ENR among the top 10 design-build firms. Burns & McDonnell has more than 55 offices around the world, including three within Florida. Within the past year, Burns & McDonnell was recognized as one of the top five largest engineering and environmental firms in Central Florida, an Outstanding Diverse Organization and a Best Place to Work by the Orlando Business Journal, as well as a Top Workplace by Orlando Sentinel. For photos and support materials, please visit our MEDIA KIT. About Burns & McDonnell Burns & McDonnell is a family of companies bringing together an unmatched team of 7,600 engineers, construction professionals, architects, planners, technologists and scientists to design and build our critical infrastructure. With an integrated construction and design mindset, we offer full-service capabilities with more than 55 offices, globally. Founded in 1898, Burns & McDonnell is a 100% employee-owned company and proud to be on Fortune's 2020 list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. Learn how we are on call through it all. Contact: Elle Martens, Burns & McDonnell 816-822-3147 [email protected] SOURCE Burns & McDonnell Related Links http://www.burnsmcd.com Initially, the alliance will focus on the development of treatment options for patients with two rare, life-threatening primary immunodeficiency diseases -- Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome and X-linked Agammaglobulinemia. These are two of more than 400 identified primary immunodeficiency diseases in which a part of the body's immune system is missing or functions improperly. "CSL Behring will collaborate with Seattle Children's experts to apply our novel gene therapy technology to their research pipeline, with an aim to address unmet needs for people living with certain rare primary immunodeficiency diseases," said Bill Mezzanotte, MD, Executive Vice President, Head of Research and Development for CSL Behring. "Expanding our gene therapy portfolio into an area of immunology well known to CSL exemplifies how we are strategically growing our capabilities in this strategic scientific platform and are collaborating with world class institutions to access innovation with the potential to vastly improve patients' lives." "Stem cell gene therapies that correct the genetic abnormality driving a child's disease will transform the therapeutic options for children with Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome, X-Linked Agammaglobulinemia and other immunodeficiency diseases," said David J. Rawlings, MD, director of the Center for Immunity and Immunotherapies and division chief of immunology at Seattle Children's, and a professor of pediatrics and immunology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. "The collaboration with CSL Behring supports our longstanding research programs for pediatric immunodeficiency diseases and will accelerate this research toward clinical trials, helping get these innovations to the children who need them." CSL Behring researchers, working with researchers from Seattle Children's Research Institute, will investigate applying the proprietary platform technologies, Select+ and Cytegrity, to several pre-clinical gene therapy programs. These technologies, which have broad applications in ex vivo stem cell gene therapy, are designed to address some of the major challenges associated with the commercialization of stem cell therapy, including the ability to manufacture consistent, high-quality products, and to improve engraftment, efficacy and tolerability. Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome (WAS) has an estimated incidence between one and 10 cases per million males worldwide, according to the National Institutes of Health. WAS patients' immune systems function abnormally, making them susceptible to infections. They also experience eczema, autoimmunity and difficulty forming blood clots, leaving them vulnerable to life threatening bleeding complications. Today the only known cure for WAS is a stem cell transplant, if a suitable donor can be found. X-linked Agammaglobulinemia (XLA) is another rare primary immunodeficiency in which patients have low levels of immunoglobulins (also known as antibodies), which are key proteins made by the immune system to help fight infections. Like WAS, XLA affects males almost exclusively, although females can be genetic carriers of the condition. While no cure exists for XLA, the goal of treatment is to boost the immune system by replacing missing antibodies and preventing or aggressively treating infections that occur, according to the Immune Deficiency Foundation. About Seattle Children's Seattle Children's mission is to provide hope, care and cures to help every child live the healthiest and most fulfilling life possible. Together, Seattle Children's Hospital, Research Institute and Foundation deliver superior patient care, identify new discoveries and treatments through pediatric research, and raise funds to create better futures for patients. Ranked as one of the top children's hospitals in the country by U.S. News & World Report, Seattle Children's serves as the pediatric and adolescent academic medical center for Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho the largest region of any children's hospital in the country. As one of the nation's top five pediatric research centers, Seattle Children's Research Institute is internationally recognized for its work in neurosciences, immunology, cancer, infectious disease, injury prevention and much more. Seattle Children's Hospital and Research Foundation works with the Seattle Children's Guild Association, the largest all-volunteer fundraising network for any hospital in the country, to gather community support and raise funds for uncompensated care and research. Join Seattle Children's bold initiative It Starts With Yes: The Campaign for Seattle Children's to transform children's health for generations to come. For more information, visit seattlechildrens.org or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or on our On the Pulse blog. About CSL Behring CSL Behring is a global biotherapeutics leader driven by its promise to save lives. Focused on serving patients' needs by using the latest technologies, we develop and deliver innovative therapies that are used to treat coagulation disorders, primary immune deficiencies, hereditary angioedema, inherited respiratory disease, and neurological disorders. The company's products are also used in cardiac surgery, burn treatment and to prevent hemolytic disease of the newborn. CSL Behring operates one of the world's largest plasma collection networks, CSL Plasma. The parent company, CSL Limited (ASX:CSL;USOTC:CSLLY), headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, employs more than 26,000 people, and delivers its life-saving therapies to people in more than 70 countries. For more information, visit www.cslbehring.com and for inspiring stories about the promise of biotechnology, visit Vita www.cslbehring.com/Vita. SOURCE CSL Behring Related Links http://www.cslbehring.com Thousands of allegations linking British soldiers to Iraq war crimes are dropped, with one exception, investigator says. All but one of the thousands of complaints linking British soldiers to Iraq war crimes have been dropped, according to an independent investigator looking into the allegations in the United Kingdom. Andrew Cayley, director of the Service Prosecuting Authority, told BBC radio on Tuesday that it was quite possible that none of the original allegations would lead to a prosecution. Cayley did not provide details of the allegation in the remaining case. British combat troops fought alongside US and other coalition forces in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and subsequent war that lasted eight years. Allegations Former lawyer Phil Shiner and a team in Germanys capital Berlin drew on the accounts of more than 400 Iraqis who allegedly witnessed or experienced crimes ranging from rape and torture to mock executions and other atrocities between 2003 and 2009. A UK tribunal struck off Shiner after finding him guilty of misconduct and dishonesty in connection with the allegations in 2017. 180320095532244 Cayley told the BBC that it was likely that no action would be taken in a separate International Criminal Court probe. My sense is these matters are coming to a conclusion, he said. A lawyer representing some of the soldiers accused by Shiner called for a public apology over the vile war crime slurs. At long last, this witch-hunt is coming to an end, lawyer Hilary Meredith said. The UK defence ministry said in 2012 that it had paid about $19m to more than 200 Iraqis who had accused British troops of illegal detention and torture. Minnesota police stand outside the department's 3rd Precinct in Minneapolis on May 27, 2020. (Carlos Gonzalez/Star Tribune/AP) Final Medical Examiner Report Says George Floyds Manner of Death Was Homicide Report notes he had fentanyl in his system, recently used methampetamine, had underlying heart problems The Hennepin County Medical Examiners Office released its final public report on the cause of death for George Floyd, saying that manner of death was a homicide, while adding that he recently had used methamphetamine, was under the influence of fentanyl, and had heart issues at the time of his death. Floyds death, which was captured on video, has sparked nationwide protestssome of them violentand the footage captured by a bystander showed an officer pressing on his neck with his knee for several minutes. The examiners office stated (pdf) that Floyd suffered cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression, adding that he experienced a cardiopulmonary arrest while being restrained by law enforcement officer(s). It listed other factors as possibly contributing to his death, including arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease, fentanyl intoxication, and recent methamphetamine use. The full Hennepin County Medical Examiner Offices report (pdf) stated that the manner of death being a homicide is not a legal determination of culpability or intent. There were no physical findings that support death by traumatic asphyxia or strangulation, the report said. An independent autopsy commissioned by Floyds family said he had no underlying health problems. It found that the manner of death was homicide caused by asphyxia due to neck and back compression that led to a lack of blood flow to the brain. A large law enforcement response near the White House after a protest was dispersed in downtown Washington, on June 1, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Sustained pressure on the right side of Mr. Floyds carotid artery impeded blood flow to the brain, and weight on his back impeded his ability to breathe, a release from Floyd family attorney Benjamin Crump said. The independent examiners found that weight on the back, handcuffs, and positioning were contributory factors because they impaired the ability of Mr. Floyds diaphragm to function. From all the evidence, the doctors said it now appears Mr. Floyd died at the scene. The independent autopsy was carried out by famed forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, who was hired by disgraced financier Jeffrey Epsteins brother to observe Epsteins autopsy following his death in a jail cell last year. What we found is consistent with what people saw. There is no other health issue that could cause or contribute to the death, Dr. Baden said in a statement. Police have this false impression that if you can talk, you can breathe. Thats not true. A new report by Tangaroa Blue Foundation has revealed a deeper look at 24 tonnes of litter, the size of 24 elephants, that has been removed from areas along Australias Great Barrier Reef. Thousands of consumer waste items including plastic bags, drink bottles, and cigarette butts were scooped up from 33 beaches last year as part of the federal government funded ReefClean program. Broken plastic bits were the most common item found, according to the report (pdf) on May 5, making up nearly 60 percent of the litter collected. The next top items found were plastic lids, and foam from beach items like pool noodles. ReefClean is a five-year project aimed at removing Australias marine debris and the first years results were recorded in the report. Related Coverage Travel Virtually to These 10 Exotic Locales While Quarantined According to the report, debris poses a huge threat to marine and bird life including turtles, dugongs, dolphins, coral, and reef ecosystems. The main ways marine debris causes wildlife death is entanglement in nets and ingestion of plastic. A team of more than 4,000 volunteers regularly monitored beaches, ran 49 community cleanups, and presented educational activities in schools and events to inform people of which items threaten the reef the most. The ReefClean project continued to patrol beaches amid the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic, implementing social distancing strategies. The report also showed that almost all debris found in remote areas came from overseas, carried in by tides and storms. An example would be the fishing and shipping waste found on the remote beaches of Cape York, a large remote peninsula. The data provided support for government-level actions to be made. The report will be used to inform source reduction planning at a local level and enable the monitoring of government policies and initiatives at regional and higher levels. All information is collected in the Australia Marine Debris Initiative Database, allowing sources to be traced and prevented or mitigated from returning to the Reef and waterways in the future. A 14-year-old boy who is one of Ireland's youngest offenders to be held in a detention centre has appeared in court accused of a 10-month robbery spree. The boy, who was just 13 at the time, appeared before Letterkenny District Court in Co Donegal where he faced, and admitted, 23 charges. The boy, who was accompanied by his mother, pleaded guilty to the charges which were mostly concerned with robbery, theft and burglary. The court heard the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, stole from a variety of premises in Letterkenny from March 13 last year until last Christmas. He is currently being held at Oberstown House in Dublin where he has been detained for the past six months. Among the premises the boy has admitted breaking into are a hairdressing salon, a community centre, a GAA club, an electrical shop, a leisure centre, two casinos, a petrol station, three supermarkets, a baby shop, a hotel, a painting and decorating shop and a cafe. Judge Paul Kelly also heard how on one occasion he approached an 11-year-old and a 13-year-old in broad daylight and threatened them for money. He tried to take their wallet from them, but they fled before the boy could get any cash. He also broke into the Aura Leisure on Christmas Day last and tried to open two safes but could not gain entry. In many of the cases, he was pictured on CCTV carrying out the crimes. The boy admitted stealing cash and valuables, as well as causing damage costing in excess of 11,000. On another occasion, the boy managed to get into the staff room of a hairdressing salon in Letterkenny and stole 3,700 from a wallet in a locker. He also stole a wallet, a phone and necklace from a referee's dressing room at a GAA ground. He also stole go-karts, money boxes, phones and purses from various premises, many of which were entered in broad daylight. 'Understands the impact of his crimes' Solicitor for the accused, Mr Rory O'Brien said he understood the boy was the youngest in the history of the State to be held at Oberstown House and that he was finding it tough there. He said he suffered from ADHD but understood the impact his crimes had had on the businesses he stole from, especially during the current climate. He said the accused wanted to particularly express his apologies to the young boys he threatened and tried to rob on the street. However, Mr O'Brien said his client received very little of the cash, and was under the influence of other boys who were a little older than him. Instead of receiving cash, he would be given video games and clothing. The court heard that none of the items or the cash taken in the various robberies were ever recovered. Judge Kelly asked the boy if he had anything to say for himself. Fighting back tears the boy said he was forced to do it and that he was sorry for everything he had done and that he didn't mean to do it. Judge Kelly said he wanted to hear from the Probation Services and adjourned the cases until June 29. Sen. Tom Cotton on Fox News Screenshot/Fox News Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, on Monay pushed for the use of military force against Black Lives Matter demonstrators, some of whom have engaged in looting and other criminal acts. "If local politicians will not do their most basic job to protect our citizens, let's see how these anarchists respond when the 101st Airborne is on the other side of the street," Cotton said on Fox News. In a tweet, Cotton wrote that law enforcement should give "no quarter" to "insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters, and looters," using a military term to suggest protesters should be shown no mercy. Cotton's comments echoed Trump's rhetoric, which has included threatening "the unlimited power" of the US military against protesters. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, pushed for the use of military force against demonstrators who've taken to the streets and, in some cases, protested violently against police brutality and racism. "If local politicians will not do their most basic job to protect our citizens, let's see how these anarchists respond when the 101st Airborne is on the other side of the street," Cotton said during a Monday morning interview on Fox News. Cotton, who's closely aligned with President Donald Trump, elaborated on his position on Twitter, calling violence at protests "domestic terrorism." "We need to have zero tolerance for this destruction," he wrote, calling protesters "Antifa terrorists." "And, if necessary, the 10th Mountain, 82nd Airborne, 1st Cav, 3rd Infantry whatever it takes to restore order. No quarter for insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters, and looters." The military term "no quarter" means a commander will not accept the lawful surrender of an enemy combatant and suggests the captive will instead be killed. "No quarter" is a war crime under the Geneva Convention, to which the US is subject. Story continues The president later retweeted Cotton and endorsed his statements. Cotton's comments echoed Trump's rhetoric, which has included threatening "the unlimited power" of the US military against protesters. Trump also threatened demonstrators outside the White House with "vicious dogs" and "ominous weapons" he said the Secret Service was prepared to use against them. "That's when people would have been really badly hurt, at least," the president added. In another tweet, Trump quoted a racist white police chief who sparked riots in the 1960s saying, "When the looting starts, the shooting starts." Civil rights leaders and many others, including DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, have called Trump's comments racist dog whistles. The American Independent (@AmerIndependent) June 1, 2020 Read the original article on Business Insider Bernice King attends the TIME Launch Event for The March VR Exhibit at the DuSable Museum in Chicago on Feb. 26, 2020. (Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images for TIME) Martin Luther Kings Daughter Calls for Nonviolent Protests Martin Luther King Jr.s daughter Bernice King has called for nonviolent protests following the death of George Floyd, after days of rioting and looting across the United States. Speaking during an Atlanta city briefing on May 30, the youngest child of the late civil rights activist said she sympathized with Floyds 6-year-old daughter, having lost her own father when he was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968. Ive obviously been in the place of the daughter of George, a 6-year-old left without her daddy, who was killed senselessly as my father was assassinated senselessly, King said. It sent me on a journey of anger, and I fought that demon a long time. The 57-year-old CEO of The King Center says she understands that the protesters are fed up, but urged them to protest Floyds death in a nonviolent manner. This is a moment where people are feeling a lot of stuff right now and are fed up. And as I stand in this moment and I look at my journey, I have to make an appeal to my brothers and sisters. Because I realize that the only way to get constructive change is through nonviolent means, she said. She then quoted some of her fathers famous words: Riots are the language of the unheard, adding that: This is a time when we all have to listen. We have to listen to the cries that are coming out of the hearts and the souls of my young brothers and sisters and all of the others that are in the streets of America right now and in our city. King said that changes have to happen and that people cant go back to yesterday; we cant keep doing things like weve been doing it in this nation. But the only pathway I know to do this is through nonviolent means. It is a proven method. It did not fail my father. It did not fail them. Because when you really understand it and really practice it, it brings about the results. Following the May 30 briefing, King continued to call for nonviolent protests, on Twitter. She said in a June 1 tweet: Protest matters. Contrary to common misconceptions, nonviolent protest is not passive or weak. Nonviolence does not cooperate with evil. It puts a demand on systems and on consciences. It establishes goals and pursues them with true peace, which includes justice, as the outcome. Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed African American man, was arrested by police outside a south Minneapolis grocery store on Memorial Day for alleged fraud. A citizens cellphone video showed an officeridentified as 44-year-old Derek Chauvinkneeling on Floyds neck for almost 9 minutes as Floyd repeatedly said he couldnt breathe and begged officers not to kill him. He eventually became unresponsive, with one witness noting that his nose was bleeding. The footage spread quickly on social media. The father of two was pronounced dead May 25, and on May 26, officers Chauvin, Thomas Lane, Tou Thao, and J. Alexander Kueng were fired by the Minneapolis Police Department. Chauvin was also arrested and has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Hes scheduled to make his first court appearance on June 8 in Hennepin County Court. It isnt known if charges will be brought against the remaining three officers. Floyds death has sparked nationwide protests against police brutality, many of which have escalated into violence and looting, and several states across the country have called in the National Guard to assist law enforcement in keeping protests at bay. A tropical depression is still forecast to be headed northeast in the central Gulf of Mexico on Friday in the National Hurricane Center's 10 p.m. Monday forecast. But will it be the same Tropical Depression 3 that formed Monday afternoon? That's what hurricane forecasters are asking, after two trusted forecast models indicate the newly-formed depression might take a sharp southward turn, make landfall on the Mexico coastline in the next 24 to 36 hours and dissipate. The depression was located about 95 miles west southwest of Campeche, Mexico, at 10 p.m., still with winds of only 30 mph, and moving west at 7 mph. A tropical storm warning remained in effect for the Mexico coast from Campeche to Puerto de Veracruz. The official forecast calls for the depression to slow down as it turns west-southwestward or southward on Tuesday, and then meander over the southern Bay of Campeche through late Wednesday. Senior Hurricane Specialist Jack Beven said in a 10 p.m. forecast discussion message that the storm's expected circular motion will occur over the next two or three days within a larger atmospheric gyre, or swirl, that is sitting over Central America, in advance of the development of a mid- to upper-level trough of low pressure that will develop over the northern Gulf. Get hurricane updates in your inbox Sign up for updates on storm forecasts, tracks and more. e-mail address * Sign Up Both the GFS, or Global Forecasting System, model of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction, and the ECMWF, or European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, model (better known as simply the European model) seem to think the rich tropical moisture that will still be present within the gyre after the depression dissipates has plans of its own, Beven said. "These two models subsequently develop a second low pressure area northwest of the Yucatan Peninsula at around 120 h (five days) due to the interaction of the aforementioned gyre and trough," he said. And while the official forecast track shows the system at five days being Tropical Depression 3, "in 5 days there could be a cyclone near the forecast point that is not actually TD-3." The official forecast still calls for slow strengthening of the depression over the next one or two days as it moves southward over warm Bay of Campeche water with only light to moderate upper level wind shear, followed by the storm turning back to the north, Beven said. "Given the complexity of the situation, both the track and intensity forecasts are currently low confidence," he said. "However, either of the current scenarios will result in widespread heavy rains over portions of southern Mexico and Central America." It's still too early to identify a location or the timing of any potential impacts along the U.S. Gulf Coast, he said. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday highlighted 5 I to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and getting the economy back on growth path. Need to focus on 5 things to bring India back on growth path Intent, Inclusion, Investment, Infrastructure and Innovation, PM Modi said while delivering the inaugural address at Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Annual Session 2020- Getting Growth Back. The PM reiterated that the governments reforms are planned and systematic, and not random. He added that government will focus on intent, inclusion, investment, infrastructure and innovation to get India back to high growth trajectory. "For us, reforms are not any random or scattered decisions. For us reforms are systemic, planned, integrated, inter-connected and futuristic process," he said, adding that for the government, reforms mean courage to take decisions and taking them to logical conclusion." This is the PMs first major speech on the Indian Economy since the announcement of Unlock-1. Lauding the virtual online meeting at the annual session of the CII, PM said, online events like these are becoming new normal in times of Corona. Making the economy strong post COVID-19 is the top priority now, said Modi. He also exuded confidence that India will get back to the growth path. "From Getting Growth Back, I will go a step ahead and say Yes we will definitely get our growth back," said PM. "I say so because I believe in India's innovation capabilities. I say so because I am confident on India's intellect, MSMEs and entrepreneurs," he added. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport CSMIA saw a total of 50 scheduled flights including 25 departures and 25 arrivals on Tuesday. CSMIA connected to 14 sectors which were operated by seven airlines. On Tuesday, CSMIA catered to a total of 6,247 passengers which include 4,400 passengers at departures and 1,847 at arrivals. The highest passenger load capacity was seen on the Delhi route departing out of Mumbai. The first flight departed to Kolkata at 6.05am while the first flight arrived at 8.10am from Lucknow which were operated by SpiceJet and IndiGo, respectively. Sweeping Impacts The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that it will overhaul a six-year-old Obama-era program that had been put in place in the wake of police shootings and other controversial officer incidents.In a statement released Sept. 15, the DOJ said it would significantly scale back its Collaborative Reform Initiative, effectively putting an end to federal efforts to reform local police departments and improve police-community relations. Instead, the Justice Department will focus on providing more direct support to officers fighting gangs, drugs and violent crime as well as those dealing with protests.The move is in line with a tougher law-and-order approach that President Donald Trump advocated during his campaign and in his first several months in office. Despite Trump's claim that violent crime is at near record highs, it remains near historic lows. Nevertheless, critics say the DOJ's change will undermine local law enforcement efforts to make necessary reforms to reduce officer-involved shootings and to mend the sometimes strained relationships with the communities they serve.This is a complete abandonment of collaborative reform, says Chiraag Bains, a visiting senior fellow with the Criminal Justice Policy Program and a former federal prosecutor and senior official in the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division under President Obama. It isnt even fair to call whatever replaces the program 'collaborative reform.'Launched in 2011, the Collaborative Reform Initiativehas been a voluntary program in which local departments could seek assistance from federal officials to help build community relations. At the request of a police chief, federal officials used collaborative reform to conduct investigations of a troubled law enforcement agency and make suggestions for change.But the DOJ says those investigations often caused an adversarial relationship between the federal government and municipal law enforcement agencies. Instead, the new collaborative reform program will focus on targeting and preventing crime, proactive policing and training for de-escalation, crisis intervention and citizen engagement to address violent crime. The program will offer departments access to experts in gang suppression, disruption of drug markets and policing mass demonstrations.The DOJ says the mission of the new program will be promoting officer safety, officer morale and public respect for their work.The Justice Department's pivot comes as the debate over criminal justice reform has found uncommon allies on both the left and right side of the political spectrum. Even Newt Gingrich, the former Republican Speaker of the U.S. House and one of the architects of the 1994 crime bill, which reform advocates credit with spurring explosive growth in the prison population, now says that criminal justice reform is necessary But the push for reform has proven divisive among police themselves. Police chiefs are generally in favor of reform, while many rank-and-file officers staunchly oppose them.During the 2016 presidential campaign, a group of the country's most prominent law enforcement leaders, including former New York Police Chief William Bratton, met with and eventually backed Hillary Clinton, who supported continuing the reform efforts put in place by President Obama. But the National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), the nations largest organization representing rank-and-file officers, endorsed Trump. FOP Executive Director Jim Pasco told NPR after Trumps election that the probes by the Obama-era DOJ amounted to a "virtual jihad" against local policing and added that "police officers are not seen with the level of respect and esteem that they might have been in the past.The recent announcement by the DOJ is merely the latest effort by Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to roll back policing policies put in place under Obama.In July, Sessions reversed the previous administration's limits on civil asset forfeiture, a widely criticized practice in which law enforcement officers seize cash and property from citizens who have not been charged with crimes. In August, Trump signed an executive order to reinstate a program that provides police with surplus military equipment. In March, Sessions called for a thorough review of the 23-year-old Community Oriented Policing Services, a program that helps agencies develop better relationships between the officers and the residents they serve. That program includes the Collateral Reform Initiative.Justice officials have also tried this year, though less successfully, to diminish reform efforts in specific cities.The department in April tried unsuccessfully to delay a court-ordered consent decree in Baltimore. (A consent decree results from a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department against a municipal police agency. The court appoints a police monitor whos responsible for making sure the policing agency follows the reform recommendations made by the Justice Department.) In Chicago, federal officials sought to convince city leaders to pare down reforms that had been called for in the wake of the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald. That backfired, though, because in response, the Illinois state attorney general sued the city to force it to implement far more aggressive reforms.Earlier this month, the DOJ halted an ongoing review of the police department in Milwaukee. Police Chief Edward Flynn had sought the department's help rebuilding community relations after federal prosecutors declined to file charges against the officer who shot and killed Dontre Hamilton in 2014. A draft report from the DOJ review had called on Milwaukee police to establish an independent auditor, hire a more diverse force and implement stricter behavior policies for officers.Those and other reforms were stopped by the Justice Department's recent announcement. Instead, Milwaukee police will receive training on how to reduce crime.Sessions and others have said the collaborative reform investigations are a federal overreach, plain and simple (despite the fact that they only come at the request of local leaders). In a memo to justice officials in April, Sessions wrote that "local control and local accountability are necessary for effective local policing. It is not the responsibility of the federal government to manage non-federal law enforcement agencies."Reform advocates, however, say the new changes are about more than a shift toward local control.Whats being lost is the federal government using its resources to establish best practices, says Marc Schindler, executive director at the Justice Policy Institute, a national nonprofit that advocates for police reforms. What we see in Milwaukee is not about local control. The Milwaukee police chief wants a partnership with the feds. And what he is getting -- under the guise of local control -- is the federal government saying, 'You can have this training or you can have nothing.'Without the federal government as an active partner, law enforcement officials say, their own local efforts to implement reforms will suffer.It is critical in my mind that the Justice Department be there to help institute change, says Charles Ramsey, the former chief of police in Philadelphia and, prior to that, in Washington, D.C.In 2013, Ramsey asked for collaborative reform after a spike in officer-involved shootings.I wanted to make sure we were doing everything in our power," he says, "to make sure we had the proper training in place."The Justice Department spent nearly two years in Philadelphia conducting scores of interviews with cops and community members. Federal investigators attended nearly two dozen use-of-force review board hearings. The DOJ ultimately gave the Philadelphia Police Department 91 recommendations on how it could improve, and justice officials remained in the city for 18 months to help the department implement the changes.Having that leadership from the federal government is crucial in rebuilding the public's faith in police, Ramsey says.Sometimes the lack of trust [between residents and police] is to the point that anything short of DOJ involvement and the community is not going to accept it, he says.By moving away from reform efforts and doubling down on fighting gangs and violent crime, say Ramsey and others, the DOJ is hearkening back to tough-on-crime strategies that first took root 40 years ago but today are seen by many as ineffective in addressing entrenched issues within a community.It shows how out of touch the Sessions DOJ is with whats happening in policing, Schindler says. This is Sessions pulling from the same playbook of the law-and-order approach to fighting crime that dates back to the 1970s. He believes in his heart that where crime is a problem, we can arrest our way out of it. Looters and violent extremists took advantage of the current wave of protests sweeping across United States cities. Their efforts to burn buildings and grab merchandise created the most striking pictures of the urban uprising. Governors imposed curfews and called out the National Guard on their account. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/6/2020 (598 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Looters and violent extremists took advantage of the current wave of protests sweeping across United States cities. Their efforts to burn buildings and grab merchandise created the most striking pictures of the urban uprising. Governors imposed curfews and called out the National Guard on their account. The looters and the extremists, however, were merely surfing on top of the wave. They did not cause it. The cause is the despair and anger of Americas urban poor, mainly people of colour, who were sickened once again a week ago when a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd, handcuffed and unarmed, by kneeling on his neck until he became unresponsive. Similar atrocities keep happening in American cities, and sometimes in Canadian cities, year after year. Racial injustice and economic inequality appear to be baked into the structure of American society. Just lately, Ahmaud Arbery was shot and killed by a white ex-policeman and his son while jogging through a white suburb in Georgia. Prosecutors delayed three months before laying a charge. Louisville police shot and killed Breonna Taylor in her home in March. In 2016, a St. Anthony, Minn. police officer shot and killed Philando Castile, an unarmed black man, during a traffic stop. In 2014, a Ferguson, Mo., policeman shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black man, touching off a countrywide wave of protests and riots. John Minchillo / The Associated Press A woman outside a Minneapolis police station wears a protective mask that reads I CANT BREATHE. The coronavirus pandemic, raging in North America since March, has afflicted people of colour and the urban poor much more than it has the white middle class, whose living conditions are less crowded and whose health care is far better. The industrial shutdowns intended to slow the spread of COVID-19 have also hit the urban poor and people of colour especially hard in the closure of service jobs and low-wage industrial jobs that cannot be done from home. Racial injustice and economic inequality appear to be baked into the structure of American society. The same conditions can be found in Canada in less pronounced forms. The riots that have perturbed American cities for the last week call to mind the 1968 riots following the assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King. For all the economic and social progress that has been achieved in the intervening years, life in American cities looks pretty much the same for poor people and people of colour as it did half a century ago. Want more great journalism? Get our best news and features delivered in your inbox every weekday evening. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The election in 2008 of Barack Obama to be Americas first black president seemed, at the time, to herald a new beginning for U.S. race relations. Today, 12 years later, its high time for another new beginning. There is nothing the National Guard can do to resolve racial injustice and economic inequality. As long as mayors and governors count on the National Guard to deal with unrest, the problems will remain. There is nothing the National Guard can do to resolve racial injustice and economic inequality. Police departments can, however, be told to improve their management by seeking accreditation with the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA), a Virginia-based organization that inspects police departments and teaches best practices. Winnipegs police service is accredited by the organization. That of Minneapolis, significantly, is not. Reform of police practices does not by itself correct racial injustice or economic inequality, as the Indigenous people of Winnipeg can testify. It can, however, provide a structure in which police officers will not kneel on the necks of immobilized suspects until they become unresponsive. That may seem a small thing in the face of centuries of racial hatred and entrenched poverty. It could, however, be a step in the right direction. When German Chancellor Angela Merkel last year rhetorically asked researchers at the annual meeting of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation what the modern world could learn from the group's namesake, a 19th century Prussian polymath, she quoted in response from an interview with Andreas Daum, a professor of history in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences. Merkel's 2019 keynote address was on the global role of science, but Humboldt's keen wisdom, using Daum's words, is especially relevant in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. "Humboldt, too, suffered from the explosion of knowledge [and] therefore sought new strategies to cope with mastering knowledge. He created networks, communicated a lot with others, practiced a division of labor in his scientific research, promoted the new and coming generationand learned from young people," read Merkel, quoting from Daum's writing. "These are modern strategies [that] can be a model for us today in science and research, as in politics, so that we can tackle common problems as common challenges with an awareness that they impact us all." Alexander von Humboldt was the world's best-known scientist, naturalist and traveler before the arrival of Charles Darwin, according to Daum, who is currently in Europe as a Humboldt Research Prize recipient. Daum has now highlighted Humboldt's take on pandemics around 1800 and what we can learn from it today, facing the COVID-19 crisis, in an essay for a leading German newspaper, the Suddeutsche Zeitung. Humboldt spent five years traveling the Americas from today's Venezuela to Peru, Mexico, Cuba and the young republic of the United States. Upon his arrival in South America in July 1799, he began documenting his observations on infectious diseases, recording information on plagues of a magnitude that far surpasses the deadly reach and impact of the novel coronavirus. When he returned to Europe, Humboldt began writing about this topic and integrated his findings in a multi-volume work on "New Spain," most of which later became modern Mexico. Daum has pulled together these astute observations as he continues his research for a forthcoming book on Humboldt and his impact on globalization (Daum already authored a brief biography in 2019). Early 19th century practitioners knew little about the nature of illness and infections. Any notion of medicine as a science was still many decades away from escaping the constricting hold of romantic theories and dubious treatments derived from guesswork or theological speculation. "It's amazing how 200 years ago someone travelling with open eyes and open ears articulated these observations in such an imaginative way without knowing anything about bacteria and viruses," said Daum, an expert in modern German and transatlantic history and the history of knowledge. "What Humboldt can tell us today is fascinating." Daum says three main arguments emerge from Humboldt's writing that are relevant to the current global pandemic: comprehensive data collection, an awareness of the limits of human knowledge, and an understanding of societal factors. "Humboldt visited hospitals, spoke with doctors, and examined the archives. He documented the age of the afflicted, climate, ethnicity," said Daum. "He understood the absolute necessity of collecting data and putting that information in a comparative perspective that blended conventional parameters with new parameters." But he recognized that the answers didn't reside exclusively in data. "He knew we needed to accept that our knowledge will always remain insufficient and up for corrections. Yet he didn't give up on data, nor did he resort to ideologies or engage in protectionism," said Daum. "He realized that the problem should never be handed over to anyone who claims to have the easy answer." Most importantly, notes Daum, is that Humboldt saw social inequality as a major factor that influenced how disease affected different segments of society. "Disease was not something in quotation marks for Humboldt," said Daum. "It can affect people globally but it's not a global entity. It's something that affects people in various ways and we have to examine the nature and severity of those differences." Because Humboldt never wrote a monograph on infectious disease, his work on the subject is spread over many volumes. Obscured by the breadth of its distribution it took a lot of time to collect what Humboldt wrote, but the arguments, says Daum, were easily distilled once he had assembled the pieces. "Humboldt was the epitome of curiosity unbound, always aware of the need to connect the dots and use our imaginations to make science useful for society," said Daum. "Don't give into the demagogues touting simple solutions, because there are no simple solutions." The complexity of the problem points to one of the challenges COVID-19 poses for us today. "Unfortunately, we don't have the readymade answer immediately coming out of that complexity. We need to endure insecurity, which aside from the loss of life, is a particularly painful aspect of the pandemic. "That's why Humboldt is important to re-read today. It's his call to endure, but not give up. To give curiosity its space and to push knowledge forward." Explore further Resurvey of mountains depicted in Tableau Physique reveal errors, impact of climate change CHICAGO/BEIJING/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - State-owned Chinese firms bought at least three cargoes of U.S. soybeans on Monday, even as sources in China said the government had told them to halt purchases after Washington said it would eliminate special treatment for Hong Kong to punish Beijing. The purchases, totaling at least 180,000 tonnes of the oilseed, were for shipment in October or November, the peak U.S. soy export season when American soybeans are usually the cheapest in the world, three U.S. traders with knowledge of the deals said. It was not immediately clear why buying continued after Beijings message to state-owned firms, but U.S. traders said Chinese importers still have not covered a large share of October and November soybean needs. Its murky, really hard to say, said one U.S. export trader. Maybe they wanted to knock a few cents off the price, or maybe theres some other agenda. The do need the beans. Earlier, two sources familiar with the matter said China had told state-owned firms to halt large-scale U.S. soybean and pork purchases, and one of the sources said state purchases of U.S. corn and cotton have also been put on hold. The soybean sales on Monday were small compared to recent purchases by state-owned firms totaling 1 million tonnes or more at a time. China is ready to suspend imports of more American agriculture products if Washington takes further action on Hong Kong, the sources said. Any sustained halt in buying would further threaten progress toward goals reached under the Phase 1 trade deal signed in January. China pledged to significantly boost purchases of U.S. agricultural products, after slashing imports during the bruising trade war. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Trade Representatives office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he was directing his administration to begin the process of eliminating special treatment for Hong Kong in response to Chinas plans to impose new security legislation. On Monday, China said U.S. attempts to harm Chinese interests will be met with firm countermeasures. Chinese importers canceled 10,000 to 20,000 tonnes of American pork shipments, equivalent to roughly one weeks orders in recent months following Trumps comments on Friday, the source said. In a worst-case scenario, if Trump continues to target China, Beijing will scrap the Phase 1 deal, a second source familiar with the government plan said. Theres no way Beijing can buy goods from the U.S. when receiving constant attacks from Trump, the person said. U.S. corn, wheat and lean hog futures weakened on Monday due to concerns about rising trade tensions. Soybeans were flat. [GRA/] Under the initial trade deal, China pledged to buy an additional $32 billion worth of U.S. agriculture products over two years above a baseline based on 2017 figures. The USDA reported that China bought $1.028 billion worth of soybeans and $691 million of pork in the first quarter of 2020. China also bought corn, wheat and soyoil this year. China has also been purchasing soybeans in recent weeks from Brazil, during that countrys peak export season. Private Chinese importers have not received a government order to suspend all buying, although commercial buyers are very cautious, according to a third source with a major trading house. A certain scale of trade will be halted but it is not a full stop, said a fourth source familiar with government plan. China could easily find other sellers of farm products, he added. The sources all declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. What is happening to Melbournes legal crowd? It was only two weeks ago Administrative Appeals Tribunal senior member Jason Pennell was blasted in the Federal Court for handing down a judgment containing tracts plagiarised from a Commonwealth submission written by someone else. Further along William Street theres an even bigger lawyer-related stoush unfolding at Owen Dixon Chambers. Barrister Denis Connell has had his security pass blocked while he is investigated for allegedly abusive and drunken behaviour. Denis Connell Credit:John Shakespeare Readers might remember Connell for co-hosting the cult 3RRR show Lawyers, Guns and Money (named after the Warren Zevon song) with talkback king Ross Stevenson in the 1980s. He also covered the Tour de France for many years. A complaint was recently lodged against Connell with Barrister Chambers Limited, which leases out swish office space to those in the profession. CBD has heard five complaints were made against Connell. These included allegations he called a female barrister a "c---" and told another to "f--- off". There were also claims about excessive drinking and sleeping in the chambers. I am not that concerned about the honest error you made calling an election (Letter from the Editor: Mea culpa, May 24). What bothers me is the way you characterize Shemia Fagan. When I read your description, I do not recognize the honest, passionate legislator who did so much for the low-income East Portland district she served. You make her sound like a shill for the unions. You mention that union money did not seem to help two other legislators win their race but act like it is the only reason Shemia won. In her first term in the Legislature, she represented her district to the Portland City Council, bringing the family with her to ask for a sidewalk where a little girl had been killed. The sidewalk was fast-tracked. She worked hard to get money for Powell Boulevard. Community activists had been told it would be 50 years before Powell would get upgraded, because it was in line with every other project in the state. She got us some money for Powell before the Legislature passed its big transportation bill and then, working with other East Portland legislators (we have some good ones), we ended up with money earmarked in the transportation bill to complete the Powell upgrade. No waiting in line for Shemia. This is a person who wants to get things done and knows how to do it. I am glad she will be working on the state level. Because I look at Shemia and think, That women would make a great governor. Katie Larsell, Portland Boris Johnson told Italys prime minister he was aiming for herd immunity to defeat coronavirus, an explosive TV documentary has revealed, despite No 10 denying that was ever the policy. The Italian health minister has undermined the governments repeated denials by recounting a conversation between the two leaders on 13 March, as the pandemic neared its peak. I spoke with [Giuseppe] Conte to tell President Conte that Id tested positive [for coronavirus]. Pierpaolo Sileri told Channel 4s Dispatches - although Mr Conte is actually the prime minister. And he told me that hed spoken with Boris Johnson and that theyd also talked about the situation in Italy. I remember he said, He told me that he wants herd immunity. I remember that after hanging up, I said to myself that I hope Boris Johnson goes for a lockdown. The comments appear to torpedo the governments denials, which were already hotly disputed after the chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, spoke about it openly in interviews. The strategy was only abandoned in favour of the lockdown the week after Mr Johnson spoke with Mr Conte, when an Imperial College study warned it could lead to 250,000 deaths. Dispatches also quotes a member of the governments Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) condemning ministers complacency in February. We already knew that this virus was going to cause an awful lot of death and disability and would require an awful lot of NHS resource, Professor Graham Medley tells the programme. So it was with some dismay that we were watching senior politicians behaving in a way that suggested that this was not something that was too serious. Prof Medley also confirmed reports that the government was told in late February long before the Imperial College study that half a million people could die in the UK without a lockdown. This is believed to be the projected figure if no restrictions were introduced, about double the death toll under the mitigation strategy only replaced by a full lockdown on 23 March. We had been saying it on Sage ... from the end of February, said Prof Medley at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. It was a public perception that something changed on 16 March, but nothing changed within SPI-M [the scientific pandemic influenza modelling group] or within Sage other than a palpable relief that this was being seen as a very serious event. The revelations are likely to form a crucial part of any public inquiry into the Covid-19 response, although Mr Johnson has refused to confirm one will be held. A Downing Street readout of the 13 March call with Rome read: The two leaders discussed the importance of taking a transparent and science-led approach in response to the virus. They also agreed on the need for international coordination, including through the G7, and they agreed a call between G7 leaders would be a good opportunity to do that. Covid case sets Grove Street Courthouse on edge Employees and attorneys who work in the Grove Street Courthouse were anxious over the past few weeks after an employee in the district attorney's office tested positive for covid-19, officials and other people who work in the Grove Street facility said. District Attorney Greg Newman confirmed on Monday that an employee in his office had tested positive and been sent home to quarantine for 14 days. He took recommended precautions, he said, and the employee has been cleared to return to work as early as this week. Newman, Clerk of Superior Court Tyler Ray and Resident Superior Court Judge Peter Knight all said they know of no second covid-19 infection among courthouse employees. A courthouse employee who contacted the Hendersonville Lightning expressed concern that the situation was not handled with as much as openness and urgency as it should have been. If any of us were to test positive because of our exposure to (the person who was infected), it would not be her fault or the District Attorneys fault, the employee said. But if we spread this virus to our loved ones because we were not informed and told to quarantine then it is their fault I have never filed a complaint against a contemporary but I believe the public has the right to know this information and the workers in the judicial department have the right to a safe work place. I also believe that employees of the judicial system will be retaliated against if our names are mentioned. Resident Superior Court Judge Peter Knight said in response to the Lightnings questions that he, Chief District Court Judge Mack Brittain and Ray have all taken precautions and imposed numerous restrictions to prevent the spread of the virus. The courthouse employee who tested positive was identified by the person who contacted the Lightning and attorneys familiar with the situation as an assistant district attorney. Newman said an employee came to him and told him that she had been exposed to the coronavirus. I had a lady on my staff a couple weeks ago her significant other became sick with the covid, Newman said, adding that the boyfriend lives out of state. When she found out about it, she self-quarantined. I told her to go get tested, and she was positive but was not sick. She followed the CDC guidelines, so everybody that would have had any potential exposure to her here at work has been tested. Everybodys gotten great results. He said the employee is fine. Shes been cleared to come back, he said. I think were going to bring her back either this week or next week. I think everybodys going to be fine. Newman said no one has issued a complaint to his office about the way the positive case was handled. All I know is I contacted our chief district court judge and talked to the clerk, he said. I didnt want to do anything to incite panic until we had results. The employee identified anybody that was potentially exposed, he said, and we got those people tested and it was fine. Her last day was on a Friday so the exposure was really limited because weve been running abbreviated dockets. I informed the people that needed to be informed and they could address it. If I just made a blanket statement it would have shut the whole building down, which to me would have been completely unnecessary. Ray, the clerk of court, said he sought guidance from county Health Director Steve Smith as soon as he heard about the infection in the prosecutor's office. When I found out about it, I called the county health department and talked to my chief district court judge and got advice about how to proceed as far as open court was concerned, he said. And as far as I know I think everything at the courthouse is just fine at his point. Theres been some concern about it but the Health Department informed me there was no risk as far as the facility is concerned based on the information I had. I actually spoke with Steve Smith today just on a followup and he let me know they had thoroughly reviewed all the positive cases in May and theres no risk to anyone here in the facility at this point. Asked about employees concerns that Newman failed to more broadly notify other personnel so contact tracing could begin, Ray said he was unaware of what the district attorney did. Im satisfied that I made timely phone calls and I cant speak for what he did and didnt do," Ray said. "I made it known to my staff, at least those that might have been exposed, and we dealt with that appropriately. There was one person (in the clerks office) tested and that test was negative. The courthouse is a public building and I think unfortunately were probably exposed more frequently than we know. Judge Knight said state Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley had imposed numerous restrictions to prevent the spread of the virus, and local judges have added to them. At present, all courtrooms and hearings rooms are marked as to seating locations which comply with CDC guidelines, Knight said in an email. Where a line may form, similar signage for appropriate standing distances is in place, and may be supplemented as the need arises. Courthouse security officers have been directed to inform persons of the requirements. Instructions confirming this protocol are posted throughout the courthouse, under signature of appropriate judges. Hand sanitizer is widely available, use of masks is encouraged and appropriate distancing is required, he added. Many other practical steps have been taken by Clerk of Superior Court Tyler Ray to reduce opportunities for virus transmission, he said. Chief District Court Judge Mack Brittain has likewise implemented new procedures in response to the current situation. As resident Superior Court judge, Knight has implemented safeguards that include: Criminal motions and pleas are scheduled by specific time, or block of time. This has been our practice since March. Civil motions are spaced over a period of days in order to limit the number of people in the courthouse at once or are heard remotely. This practice is effective today, June 1, as we have not been permitted to hear motions in person heretofore since early March, Knight said Monday. WebEx secured software is approved by the Administrative Office of the Courts for hearing of motions remotely, which we have been doing since early March. Any participant to a motion may express their preference for a remote hearing of their matter, and the other parties will comply with such request and the court will hear from all participants remotely. I am leaving the courtroom door open during session, to avoid the necessity of door handle use, he said. Courtrooms, public areas and staff areas are being thoroughly cleaned beyond the typical thorough cleaning. I will note that the County administration, as well as the Henderson County Health Department, have been very helpful to the courthouse staff in the implementation of safeguards. An interdisciplinary team from Tel Aviv University, led by Prof. Oded Rechavi of TAU's George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Prof. Noam Mizrahi of TAU's Department of Biblical Studies, in collaboration with Prof. Mattias Jakobsson of Uppsala University in Sweden, the Israel Antiquities Authority and Prof. Christopher E. Mason of Weill Cornell Medicine, has successfully decoded ancient DNA extracted from the animal skins on which the Dead Sea Scrolls were written. By characterizing the genetic relationships between different scroll fragments, the researchers were able to discern important historical connections. The research, conducted over seven years, was published as the cover story in the journal Cell on June 2 and sheds new light on the Dead Sea Scrolls. "There are many scroll fragments that we don't know how to connect, and if we connect wrong pieces together it can change dramatically the interpretation of any scroll. Assuming that fragments that are made from the same sheep belong to the same scroll," explains Prof. Rechavi, "it is like piecing together parts of a puzzle." The Dead Sea Scrolls refers to some 25,000 fragments of leather and papyrus discovered beginning in 1947, mostly in the Qumran caves but also in other sites located in the Judean Desert. Among other things, the scrolls contain the oldest copies of biblical texts. Since their discovery, scholars have faced the breathtaking challenge of classifying the fragments and piecing them together into the remains of some 1,000 manuscripts, which were hidden in the caves before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. Researchers have long been puzzled as to the degree this collection of manuscripts, a veritable library from the Qumran caves, reflects the broad cultural milieu of Second Temple Judaism, or whether it should be regarded as the work of a radical sect (identified by most as the Essenes) discovered by chance. advertisement "Imagine that Israel is destroyed to the ground, and only one library survives -- the library of an isolated, 'extremist' sect: What could we deduce, if anything, from this library about greater Israel?" Prof. Rechavi says. "To distinguish between scrolls particular to this sect and other scrolls reflecting a more widespread distribution, we sequenced ancient DNA extracted from the animal skins on which some of the manuscripts were inscribed. But sequencing, decoding and comparing 2,000-year old genomes is very challenging, especially since the manuscripts are extremely fragmented and only minimal samples could be obtained." Pnina Shor, founder of the Dead Sea Scrolls Unit at the Israel Antiquities Authority, adds, "The Israel Antiquities Authority is in charge of both preserving the scrolls for posterity and making them accessible to the public and to scholars. Recent scientific and technological advances enable us to minimize physical intervention on the scrolls, thus facilitating multidisciplinary collaborations." Innovative methods to solve historical mysteries To tackle their daunting task, the researchers developed sophisticated methods to deduce information from tiny amounts of ancient DNA, carefully filtering out potential contaminations and statistically validating the findings. The team employed these mechanisms to deal with the challenge posed by the fact that genomes of individual animals of the same species (for instance, two sheep of the same herd) are almost identical to one another, and even genomes of different species (such as sheep and goats) are very similar. For the purpose of the research, the Dead Sea Scrolls Unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority supplied samples -- sometimes only scroll "dust" carefully removed from the uninscribed back of the fragments -- and sent them for analysis by Prof. Rechavi's team: Dr. Sarit Anava, Moran Neuhof, Dr. Hila Gingold and Or Sagi. To prevent DNA contamination, Dr. Anava traveled to Sweden to extract the DNA under the meticulous conditions required for ancient DNA analysis (e.g. wearing special full-body suits) in Prof. Jakobsson's paleogenomics lab in Uppsala, which is equipped with cutting-edge equipment. In parallel to the teams that were studying the animals' ancient DNA, Prof. Mason's metagenomics lab in New York studied the scrolls' microbial contaminants. Prof. Jakobsson says, "It is remarkable that we were able to retrieve enough authentic ancient DNA from some of these 2,000 year old fragments considering the tough history of the animal hides. They were processed into parchment, used in a rough environment, left for two millennia, and then finally handled by humans again when they were rediscovered." Textual pluralism opens window into culture of Second Temple Jewish society advertisement According to Prof. Rechavi, one of the most significant findings was the identification of two very distinct Jeremiah fragments. "Almost all the scrolls we sampled were found to be made of sheepskin, so most of the effort was invested in the very challenging task of trying to piece together fragments made from the skin of particular sheep, and to separate these from fragments written on skins of different sheep that also share an almost identical genome," says Prof. Rechavi. "However, two samples were discovered to be made of cowhide, and these happen to belong to two different fragments taken from the Book of Jeremiah. In the past, one of the cow skin-made fragments was thought to belong to the same scroll as another fragment that we found to be made of sheepskin. The mismatch now officially disproves this theory. "What's more, cow husbandry requires grass and water, so it is very likely that cow hide was not processed in the desert but was brought to the Qumran caves from another place. This finding bears crucial significance, because the cowhide fragments came from two different copies of the Book of Jeremiah, reflecting different versions of the book, which stray from the biblical text as we know it today." Prof. Mizrahi further explains, "Since late antiquity, there has been almost complete uniformity of the biblical text. A Torah scroll in a synagogue in Kiev would be virtually identical to one in Sydney, down to the letter. By contrast, in Qumran we find in the very same cave different versions of the same book. But, in each case, one must ask: Is the textual 'pluriformity,' as we call it, yet another peculiar characteristic of the sectarian group whose writings were found in the Qumran caves? Or does it reflect a broader feature, shared by the rest of Jewish society of the period? The ancient DNA proves that two copies of Jeremiah, textually different from each other, were brought from outside the Judean Desert. This fact suggests that the concept of scriptural authority -- emanating from the perception of biblical texts as a record of the Divine Word -- was different in this period from that which dominated after the destruction of the Second Temple. In the formative age of classical Judaism and nascent Christianity, the polemic between Jewish sects and movements was focused on the 'correct' interpretation of the text, not its wording or exact linguistic form." Identification of genetically distinct groups of sheep suggests prominence of ancient Jewish mysticism Another surprising finding relates to a non-biblical text, unknown to the world before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a liturgical composition known as the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, found in multiple copies in the Qumran caves and in Masada. Apparently, there is surprising similarity between this work and the literature of ancient Jewish mystics of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Both Songs and the mystical literature greatly expand on the visionary experience of the divine chariot-throne, developing the vision of the biblical prophet Ezekiel. But the Songs predates the later Jewish mystical literature by several centuries, and scholars have long debated whether the authors of the mystical literature were familiar with Songs. "The Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice were probably a 'best-seller' in terms of the ancient world," Prof. Mizrahi says. "The Dead Sea Scrolls contain 10 copies, which is more than the number of copies of some of the biblical books that were discovered. But again, one has to ask: Was the composition known only to the sectarian group whose writings were found in the Qumran caves, or was it well known outside those caves? Even after the Masada fragment was discovered, some scholars argued that it originated with refugees who fled to Masada from Qumran, carrying with them one of their scrolls. But the genetic analysis proves that the Masada fragment was written on the skin of different sheep 'haplogroup' than those used for scroll-making in Qumran. The most reasonable interpretation of this fact is that the Masada Scroll did not originate in the Qumran caves but was rather brought from another place. As such, it corroborates the possibility that the mystical tradition underlying the Songs continued to be transmitted in hidden channels even after the destruction of the Second Temple and through the Middle Ages." From solved riddles to new mysteries: Yet undiscovered caves? Since most of the scrolls were found to be written on sheepskin, the team had to find a way to distinguish "in higher resolution" between the very similar genomes of different sheep. "Mitochondrial DNA can tell us whether it is a sheep or a cow, but it can't distinguish between individual sheep," Prof. Rechavi adds. "We developed new experimental and informatic methods to examine the bits of preserved nuclear DNA, which disintegrated over two millennia in arid caves, and were contaminated in the course of 2,000 years, including recently by the people who handled the scrolls, often without even the use of gloves." Using these methods, it was discovered that all the sampled scroll-fragments written using a particular scribal system characteristic to the sectarian writings found in the Qumran caves (the "Qumran scribal practice") are genetically linked and differ collectively from other scroll-fragments that were written in different ways and discovered in the very same caves. This finding affords a new and powerful tool for distinguishing between scrolls peculiar to the sect and scrolls that were brought from elsewhere, and potentially reflect the broader Jewish society of the period. Shor says, "Such an interdisciplinary project is very important indeed. It advances Dead Sea Scrolls research into the 21st century, and may answer questions that scholars have been debating with for decades. We consider the present project, which integrates both extraction of genetic information from the scrolls using novel methods together with classical philological analysis, a very significant contribution to the study of the scrolls." The project examines not only scroll fragments but also other leather artifacts discovered at various sites throughout the Judean Desert. The genetic differences between them have allowed researchers to discern between different groups of findings. According to Prof. Mizrahi, many scroll fragments were not found by archaeologists, but by shepherds, delivered to antiquity dealers, and only subsequently handed over to scholars. "We don't always know precisely where each fragment was discovered, and sometimes false information was given about this matter," says Prof. Mizrahi. "Identifying the place of discovery is important, because it affects our understanding of the historical context of the findings. For this reason, we were excited to learn that one fragment, that was suspected to originate not from Qumran but rather from another site, indeed had a 'genetic signature' that was different from all the other scrolls found in the Qumran caves sampled for this research." But this finding led to yet another enigmatic discovery pertaining to a fragment containing a text from the Book of Isaiah. This fragment was published as a Qumran scroll, but its genetic signature also turned out to be different from other scrolls in Qumran. Prof. Mizrahi concludes, "This raises a new curious question: Was this fragment really found in the Qumran caves? Or was it originally found in yet another, unidentified location? This is the nature of scientific research: We solve old puzzles, but then discover new mysteries." Establishing itself as one of the leading Islamic banking institutions globally, Bank Nizwa was recently awarded the prestigious title of the Best Islamic Financial Institution in 2020 in Oman by Global Finance. Recognising excellence across the Islamic Finance industry globally, winners of Global Finances 2020 Islamic Finance Awards received the awards based on their improved financial performance together with a widened product portfolio, enhanced service, technology investment, and growth in their banking and market reach. Being the only bank in the Sultanate to claim the title, Bank Nizwa continues to pave the way for Islamic finance in the country. Despite the current situation and economic challenges, it recorded a staggering 31% growth in net profit last quarter, setting a new benchmark in the industry. In 2019, its total assets grew by 19% to reach $2.7 billion, while customer accounts doubled. With customer-centricity at its core, it capitalised on its electronic channels to further record an increase in its retail and corporate client bases. Khalid Al Kayed, CEO of Bank Nizwa said: We attribute our success to the dedication of our employees, the unfaltering support from our shareholders, and the continued loyalty that our customers have shown us. We will take every success as a motivation to continue to lead the industry, rolling out innovative products that will benefit our clients. The title is not just an indicator of our success as a bank, but it also signifies the increase in customer confidence in Islamic banking as a whole. We are proud to be the drivers of this change. Even with the current set of economic challenges, statistical reports show that Islamic banks have fared better than conventional banks, he added. Bank Nizwa is the leading Islamic Bank in Oman and its long list of awards includes numerous local, regional and international awards over the years. Recently, the bank was named Financial Institute of the Year during 2019 edition of the coveted MEED Awards. It was also on Forbes Middle East Top 25 listed companies in Oman. The bank also scooped two awards at the Global Islamic Finance Awards (GIFA) 2019, to name but a few. Bank Nizwa continues to invest in its people, enhance its infrastructure, and make the most of technological advancements to meet the anticipated growth of Islamic finance proactively.-- Tradearabia News Service The best bang for your buck! This option enables you to purchase online 24/7 access and receive the Sunday, Tuesday & Thursday print edition at no additional cost * Print edition only available in our carrier delivery area. Allow up to 72 hours for delivery of your print edition to begin. Print edition not available for Day Pass option. The Cyber Crime Unit of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has indicated that some criminals have resorted to the display of phony products for sale on social media and exacting huge amounts of money from their unsuspecting victims. Director of the Cyber Crime Unit, ACP Dr Gustav Herbert Yankson, who disclosed this to DAILY GUIDE, said some unscrupulous persons had cloned websites of some big companies operating in Ghana and use such sites to defraud their victims. He said some of the criminals also used Facebook and other social media handles to advertise certain products by which they swindle their victims. Dr Yankson said his unit had been receiving reports from victims who had been defrauded through social media on daily bases. He said three persons who were defrauded by such persons using clone websites lost GH18,000 in the process. He revealed that the three victims said they ordered some mattresses on the said website, made payments on mobile money but never received the items. The victims said after waiting for several days without receiving the goods, they visited the company only to discover that they had been scammed. Dr Yankson said police investigations had revealed that the items displayed on the said websites were very cheap as compared to the factory price. These said websites have on display only mobile numbers for victims interested in ordering for items to contact them and since most persons now do purchases online due to the coronavirus outbreak, they end up being defrauded. He said the telecom companies had been contacted and they were assisting the police to trace and arrest suspects involved. He urged persons who bought online to research and investigate further before parting monies to such persons. The genuine companies will deliver the items before collecting the money in person, so individuals must resort to that option than paying for something that has not been delivered, he advised. He assured victims involved that the police were seriously investigating such cases and would soon arrest persons involved. Source: Daily Guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video DALLAS, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Employer Direct Healthcare is excited to announce its new partnership with Centerstone. On January 1, 2020, Centerstone began offering Employer Direct Healthcare's SurgeryPlus benefit, a supplemental benefit providing surgical concierge services with a focus on quality care, lower costs, and a better member experience. The approximately 4,300 members participating in Centerstone's health plan will have access to the SurgeryPlus benefit's full-service healthcare concierge for over 1,400 non-emergent procedures. When they choose to utilize the SurgeryPlus benefit, members will be paired with their own dedicated Care Advocate. Their Care Advocate will assist them with everything from their selection of a surgeon, to scheduling appointments, transferring medical records, and even arranging travel, removing the stress and confusion often associated with planning for medical care. As an added benefit, when participants elect to use a participating surgeon through the SurgeryPlus benefit, Centerstone will waive all coinsurance and deductible obligations. John Zutter, CEO of Employer Direct Healthcare commented, "When it comes to surgical care, it's a challenge to identify and access quality care at fair prices. This was the case even before COVID-19 and was a key reason Centerstone partnered with us to help their employees and dependents. Our mandate, helping Centerstone's employees and dependents access superior quality care without undue financial burden, is even more critical in the current environment." About Employer Direct Healthcare and SurgeryPlus Employer Direct Healthcare is an innovative healthcare services business providing high-quality and cost-efficient solutions for self-funded employers and their members. The company's core product, the SurgeryPlus benefit, provides full-service surgical concierge services to covered members, managing the entire process on their behalf. The SurgeryPlus benefit helps members identify quality providers at lower costs, helping employers and their plan participants dramatically reduce surgical costs while providing satisfying outcomes for members. Employer Direct Healthcare is majority owned by Dundon Capital Partners, LLC, a Dallas-based private investment firm, founded by Tom Dundon. Contact: John Zutter, [email protected] SOURCE Employer Direct Healthcare New Delhi: As Cyclone `Nisarga' is expected to intensify into a "severe cyclonic storm" over the next 12 hours and cross Maharashtra and South Gujarat coast on Wednesday afternoon, Maharashtra's Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray asked people to stay alert as it was likely to be more severe than cyclonic storms in the past. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, however, assured all assistance to Maharashtra, Gujarat, Daman Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli regarding the cyclone situation. He spoke to Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, his Gujarat counterpart Vijay Rupani and Administrator of Daman Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli Praful K Patel regarding the cyclone situation and assured all possible support and assistance from the Centre. In a tweet, the Prime Minister`s office said: "PM Narendra Modi has spoken to CM of Maharashtra Shri Uddhav Thackeray, CM of Gujarat Shri Vijay Rupani and Administrator of Daman Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli Praful K Patel regarding the cyclone situation. He assured all possible support and assistance from the Centre." PM @narendramodi has spoken to CM of Maharashtra Shri Uddhav Thackeray, CM of Gujarat Shri @vijayrupanibjp and Administrator of Daman Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli Shri @prafulkpatel regarding the cyclone situation. He assured all possible support and assistance from the Centre. PMO India (@PMOIndia) June 2, 2020 On Monday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah also gave a similar assurance to CM Uddhav Thackeray. The home ministry today that cyclone 'Nisarga' will make landfall along the Maharashtra coast on Wednesday with high wind speed ranging up to 100-110 kmph gusting to 120 kmph. Elaborating on `do's and don'ts' in the situation, Thackeray said "The cyclone could be more severe than the other storms....Tomorrow and the day after are crucial in coastal areas," adding "Activities which had resumed (as part of easing of lockdown to contain coronavirus) will be kept shut there for the next two days in view of the cyclone....It is in our interest that people remain alert and inside their homes." He said that 15 teams of the National Disaster Response Force and four teams of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have been deployed in different coastal areas while five teams have been kept on standby." "Don't believe rumours and don't spread rumours. Follow the instructions aired by Doordarshan and Akashvaani," CM Thackeray said, while asking people to cooperate with the administration and shift to safer places wherever necessary. He further assured, "We are already fighting the novel coronavirus. Now nature too is testing us. But we will face the situation with full strength and come out of it safely." According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the storm will cross North Maharashtra and adjoining South Gujarat coast between Harihareshwar and Daman, on June 3 afternoon as a severe cyclonic storm with a maximum sustained wind 100-110 gusting to 120 kmph. Notably, an alert has been issued for Mumbai city and suburbs, Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts, as these are coastal areas. Gujarat government, however, started evacuating over 78,000 people from four districts located near the coastline and deployed 19 teams of NDRF and SDRF. 13 teams of the NDRF and six teams of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have been deployed at different locations, five more teams of the NDRF will reportedly arrive soon. "A total of 78,971 persons living near the seashore in Valsad, Surat, Navsari and Bharuch districts will be shifted to safer locations. 1,727 villagers have already been shifted," Gujarat Relief Commissioner Harshad Patel told reporters in Gandhinagar on Tuesday. He further said that 140 buildings have been identified as temporary shelters for evacuees in these four districts, adding that rescue teams have been given PPE kits in view of the coronavirus pandemic and they have also been directed to take precautionary measures like maintaining social distancing and providing masks to evacuees at rescue shelters. Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Monday held a meeting with senior officials and took stock of the preparedness of the administration. As per an IMD release, the deep depression over east-central Arabian Sea is currently located around 670 kms away from Surat and it may intensify into a cyclonic storm in the next six hours. "In the subsequent 12 hours, it will turn into a severe cyclonic storm and cross north Maharashtra and adjoining south Gujarat coast between Harihareshwar and Daman, close to Alibaug of Maharashtra during the afternoon of June 3, with a maximum sustained wind speed of 100 to 110 kmph," the IMD added. DGCA guidelines to airlines, pilots Meanwhile, Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) today issued a circular to airlines and pilots, reiterating its guidelines on adverse weather operations as Cyclone Nisarga approaches the coastal areas of Maharashtra and Gujarat. "Domestic aviation activities have recently been started after a period of two months. Operators and individuals have a challenge at hand in restarting flying after a prolonged period of non-flying and the associated weather at this time of the year across India," The DGCA said in the circular. The DGCA further said that the circular is being issued to operators and pilots to reiterate some existing guidelines on adverse weather operations and suggested measures "to cater for the gap in flying of pilots". Operations at the Mumbai airport, which has been handling 50 domestic flights daily since May 25, are likely to be significantly affected on Wednesday due to the cyclone. Candlelight Vigil In Sonora View Photos Sonora, CA Following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota, a candlelight vigil was held in Sonora Monday night remembering 92 victims of racially related brutality over the past eight years. The names were placed on cards at Courthouse Park with a candle in front. The event was put on by the group Tuolumne County Indivisible. The President of the organization, Jessica Williams, noted that police brutality is a national issue, and stressed that they love the local Sonora PD. She says though, People of color in this community need to know that they have allies. The Vice President of the organization, Julie Gorgas added, As white people we will never understand what people of color are going through, but we will stand next to them, and fight for their civil rights and protections. Gorgas noted that it was not a traditional protest because they wanted to allow people to social distance, and it was more of a visual protest. They encouraged people to simply walk or drive by in support. Signs also read phrases such as I cant breathe and enough is enough. You can see images from the protest by clicking on the photo box. During the eight oclock hour there was a mix of people both voicing support by stopping by Courthouse Park, or honking, and there were also some people driving by and yelling out obscenities aimed at the vigil. We reported earlier tonight about another protest is scheduled for Wednesday in Sonora, click here to view the story. Schools Closure The Government has today been advised of the presence of legionella bacteria in parts of the water system at some of our schools. As a result, and following advice from the Director of Public Health, the Government has decided to close St Bernard's Lower Primary, St Bernard's Upper Primary, St Joseph's Lower Primary and St Joseph's Upper Primary. The Government has said it expects that the schools will be closed for at least two days. During this time, the water system at these four schools will be be subjected to a hypochlorination treatment. Parents are being notified of the closure of the schools through the normal communication channels. The Department of Education is considering alternative arrangements for pupils and will advise parents accordingly. It will not be possible for the Department of Education to make such arrangements for Tuesday 2nd June. The Government says it regrets the decision to close schools but considers that the safety of staff and pupils is the paramount consideration. What happened Shares of Brazil-based budget carrier Azul (NYSE:AZUL) climbed steeply on Tuesday. This seems to be tied to developments in the reopening of the struggling Brazilian economy, plus perhaps some good news with a corporate sibling. So what On Tuesday, the massive city's "non-essential" businesses were allowed to reopen, which will have a dramatic effect on the national economy. Rio is also an immensely popular tourist destination, and now that more retailers have their lights on, the attraction for outsiders to visit is that much stronger. A restoration of previous demand, at least, is essential for the survival of the country's airlines. That's looking dicey at the moment -- Latin America's No. 1 airline LATAM Airlines Group filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. last week. Meanwhile, a long-developing government bailout of the industry still hasn't occurred. Azul is also likely benefiting from a positive development with a relative. TAP Air Portugal will resume flights to and from the U.S. this Wednesday, beginning with Newark Liberty Airport that feeds New York City. TAP is 45% owned by Azul's founder David Neeleman, and the two are establishing a joint venture to partner on European flights. Now what There are worries that Rio's partial reopening could backfire. The city is still a hotbed for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, with high numbers of cases and deaths. Though the latest news for Azul is good, the airline is still far from escaping its current turbulence. Mumbai, June 2 : Two-wheeler and three-wheeler manufacturer Bajaj Auto on Tuesday reported a fall of 70 per cent in total sales, including exports, for May 2020. According to the company, its total sales during the month under review fell to 1,27,128 units from 4,19,235 units sold during the corresponding month of 2019. Similarly, Bajaj Auto's total domestic sales stood at 40,074 units -- down 83 per cent -- from 2,35,824 units sold in May last year. The two- and three-wheeler manufacturer's overall exports declined by 53 per cent to 87,054 units from 1,83,411 units shipped out during the like month of 2019. In term of two-wheelers, the company's total sales fell 69 per cent to 1,12,798 units from 3,65,068 units sold in May last year. The company's commercial vehicles' sales during the month under review declined by 74 per cent to 14,330 units from 54,167 units sold during the like period of last year. By Alison Frankel and Nandita Bose WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An advocacy group backed by the tech industry sued President Donald Trump on Tuesday over his executive order that would weaken a law protecting online platforms including social media companies that label or fact-check his posts. The Washington-based Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) said in its lawsuit that Trump's executive order violates the First Amendment rights of social media companies. It noted that the order was issued after Twitter Inc amended one of Trump's tweets and called it "plainly retaliatory." The lawsuit argues that Trump's executive order will "chill future online speech by other speakers" and reduce the ability of Americans to speak freely online. Trump, in an attempt to regulate social media platforms where he has been criticized, said last week he will introduce legislation that may scrap or weaken a law that has protected internet companies, including Twitter and Facebook. The proposed legislation was part of an executive order Trump signed on Thursday. Trump had attacked Twitter for tagging his tweets about unsubstantiated claims of fraud about mail-in voting with a warning prompting readers to fact-check the posts. Trump said he wants to "remove or change" a provision of a law known as Section 230 that shields social media companies from liability for content posted by their users. He also said Attorney General William Barr will begin drafting legislation "immediately" to regulate social media companies. In a tweet, Twitter said attempts to unilaterally erode the law could threaten the future of online speech. The White House and Justice Department declined comment on the lawsuit. "Twitter appended the Presidents tweets... in immediate retaliation, the President issued the Executive Order," said the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Story continues CDT's donors include Alphabet's Google, Facebook Inc, Apple and Microsoft, according to the Capital Research Center, a right-leaning non-profit think tank. The companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Alison Frankel in New York and Nandita Bose in Washington, Additional reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Chris Reese and David Gregorio) Brendan J. Lyons | Times Union Albany, N.Y. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Monday claimed that a 44-year-old statute that has been used by New York law enforcement agencies to block the publics access to police disciplinary records has been misapplied, and does not prevent the release of those files. The governor's remarks came as state legislative leaders on Monday announced the Senate and Assembly would reconvene next week and act on a series of criminal justice reform measures, including overhauling the statute known as "50-a" for its section in state Civil Rights Law. Directing his comments to the state's mayors and arguing they could release those records "today," Cuomo failed to acknowledge that the State Police, an agency he controls, has for years invoked the statute to reject public access to its internal files. The governor's comments also ignored a multitude of court decisions through the years expanding the reach of the statute to block public access to the disciplinary records of not only police officers, but also corrections officers and firefighters. The judicial rulings have also extended the authority of the law to block the release of records of former police officers. The law "does not stop you from releasing disciplinary records," Cuomo said. "I said that to every mayor. ... I gave them a legal opinion that says the law doesn't apply. Now, if a mayor wanted to release the records, you know what they would do? Release the records and say, 'I have a governor's counsel opinion that says the law doesn't say I can't release them.'" It's uncertain why Cuomo's remarks targeted only mayors, rather than the multitude of law enforcement agencies controlled by towns, counties and the state. "I dont believe the law ever stopped a mayor from releasing (police disciplinary files); I believe politically they didnt want to," Cuomo said. "Either release the records because the law doesnt stop you, or if thats not enough then the Legislature should repeal the law." A spokesman for the governor did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Cuomo would direct the State Police, whose superintendent he appoints, to begin releasing internal disciplinary records of troopers. In 2011, the State Police cited 50-a when it rejected a request by the Times Union for access to their records from the investigation of an off-duty state trooper, Brian T. Beardsley, who admitted leaving the scene of a fatal crash after his pickup truck ran over a man along an isolated two-lane highway in Fulton County. The decision was later upheld by a mid-level appellate court in Albany. State Police have invoked the statute many other times to deny internal records. Albany County District Attorney David Soares on Monday evening issued a statement urging the governor to sign a law mandating that "all new cases where members of law enforcement are accused of a crime or misconduct" be handled by a special prosecutor. Soares also said that, going forward, his office will request a special prosecutor in any cases in which police officers are the subject of criminal allegations. Soares, along with the state district attorneys' association, had criticized Cuomo's 2015 executive order enabling the state attorney general to take over investigations in which unarmed civilians are killed during encounters with police. "I watched in stunned disbelief the life of a man being taken and streamed repeatedly on social media," Soares said. "These are not unprecedented incidents and yet real solutions are lost as attention is given to the subsequent violence and discussions are reduced to relationships between police and prosecutors. This cannot continue." Cuomo directed some of his commentary on Monday at the New York Police Department, noting the agency had previously released records on police misconduct allegations but reversed course several years ago amid concerns the city was violating 50-a. Cuomo said a former counsel in his office had written an opinion that 50-a should not have prohibited the release of those records by the NYPD, but his office could not immediately provide a copy. The governor's remarks about the statute during Monday's coronavirus task force briefing followed protests and riots across the nation over the weekend prompted by the death of George Floyd, and as the Democratic majorities in the state's Assembly and Senate conferenced privately Monday to gauge members' support for reforming or repealing the statute. Cuomo also gave conflicting thoughts on the topic, saying earlier in his briefing that the disciplinary records of police officers should be disclosed if a police officer is under investigation for misconduct. Later, he said the Legislature should repeal the statute if the records can't be publicly released. "If a police officer is being investigated, how is their disciplinary records not relevant?" he said. "If they have disciplinary records that show this was a repeat pattern, how is that not relevant?" For years, efforts to repeal the statute had failed to gain any momentum in the Legislature, where majority leaders including Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins had not previously lent support for the initiative. As the lawmakers met Monday, a letter was sent to them that had been signed by 76 organizations including labor unions, police-reform groups, civil rights organizations and public defenders associations urging the Legislature to repeal the statute. "We urge you to stand firmly in opposition to any attempts to water down or offer partial measures that will continue to provide special rights for police officers and allow departments to shield abusive officers and brutality from public view," the letter states. The letter was signed by organizations that include the Innocence Project, New York Civil Liberties Union, Legal Aid Society, New York State Defenders Association, Legal Action Center, Drug Policy Alliance and Citizen Action of New York. Carolyn Martinez-Class, a spokeswoman for Communities United for Police Reform, which also signed the letter, said that during protests and riots in New York and across the nation over the weekend "we witnessed instance after instance of needless, gratuitous violence by police. "Their behavior reflects the absolute lack of police accountability in New York state which is aided by deeply entrenched secrecy in the form of 50-a," she said. "Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins and Speaker Heastie must reconvene the Legislature and fully repeal 50-a no modifications, no amendments. The time for leadership is now." Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan, said there appears to be momentum following the nationwide protests to overturn the statute. "It's one of several bills that I think would go toward transparency and accountability of law enforcement that so many criminal justice advocates have been calling for," Hoylman said after the Senate majority's conference. "This may be its moment." The pressure to repeal the statute intensified last week as peaceful protests and violent riots erupted in cities across New York and the nation in response to the death of Floyd, who died after a police officer in Minneapolis kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes while he was handcuffed. The officer, Derek Chauvin, who had more than 15 complaints filed against him, has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. "Enough is enough. Im done. Im on the bill, Im going to support it," Assembly John McDonald, D-Cohoes, said Monday. "A lot of good cops are saying, 'I dont want this bad cop ruining my job and ruining my reputation.' ... Its now to the point where its ruining it for the rest of the officers." Spokespersons for Heastie did not respond to a request for comment on Monday. While Cuomo has criticized New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the NYPD for not disclosing its police disciplinary records, the State Police still do not have dashboard cameras in cruisers or require their troopers to wear body cameras. That agency also has for years rejected nearly every request for records on its internal investigations or allegations of misconduct by troopers, including the files of deceased members. Cuomo has said the death of Floyd underscores that racism continues to fuel violent encounters between police officers and people in minority communities. The state attorney general's office, which Cuomo has empowered through an executive order to investigate fatal encounters between unarmed civilians and New York police agencies, has represented the State Police in their court battles seeking to fight the release of records related to internal investigations. Legal interpretations of 50-a have been expanded through the years by both courts and police agencies. The statute prevents the public, and often defense attorneys, from accessing the disciplinary records of police officers, including criminal allegations that may have been handled internally. Advocates for repealing the statute contend it has been used to shield police corruption and cover up civil rights violations. In many departments, civilian police review boards are not allowed to know the identity of the officers whose conduct they are reviewing, including whether an officer has been the target of multiple complaints. Cuomo, in his third term, has never offered his own bill to repeal the statute or directed the State Police to release their personnel files, as he has said New York City should do. Nor has he sought to add legislation to repeal the statute in his annual executive budgets, which he has used as leverage to negotiate for legislative changes on issues ranging from marijuana legalization to criminal justice reforms. Thomas H. Mungeer, president of the New York State Trooper Police Benevolent Association, issued a scathing letter to the governor on Sunday, criticizing Cuomo for considering overturning 50-a and adding that Cuomo had offered zero support for us as troopers have responded to the riots across the state. Derek Chauvins Wife Requests to Change Her Last Name in Divorce Filing In her filing for divorce from former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, Kellie Chauvin requested a last-name change and the titles to both of their homes. Kellie Chauvin separated from her husband on May 28, the day before he was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for the death of George Floyd, according to the filing. Fired Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin. (Courtesy of Darnella Frazier/Facebook) The filing cites an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage that was beyond saving. The couple have been married since June 2010, just under 10 years. Chauvin said in the filing she wants to change her last name, among other requests. She didnt say in the filing which surname shed take once the divorce was finalized, but the petition notes that she was formerly known as Kellie Thao and Kellie Xiong. Chauvin also requested full rights and titles to the couples properties in Oakdale, Minnesota, and Windermere, Florida, located in the Orlando metropolitan area. She asked for an equitable division of their shared vehicles and bank accounts, and she wont require spousal support since she makes an independent income as a realtor, according to the filing. About Kellie Chauvin Chauvin was born in Laos and later moved to Wisconsin after her family fled a refugee camp. She has two children from her previous marriage, the Twin Cities Pioneer Press reported in a profile of Kellie Chauvin in 2018. In the same profile, she said she met Derek Chauvin at the medical center where she worked when he brought a suspect in for a health check before bringing them to jail. In 2018, she competed for Mrs. Minnesota, a pageant for married Minnesotans. Her platform, she told the Pioneer Press, involved buying groceries for police officers and military members, rescuing animals, and volunteering with a nonprofit for Hmong women, an ethnic group from southeast Asia that she belongs to, who recently moved to the United States. Chauvin hasnt made a public statement since filing for divorce from the former police officer, but the law firm representing her said Friday that she was devastated by Mr. Floyds death and her utmost sympathy lies with his family, with his loved ones and with everyone who is grieving this tragedy. The CNN Wire contributed to this report. The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has directed investigators from the force headquarters, Abuja, to take over investigations into the brutal murder of Vera Omozuwa. A statement issued on Tuesday by the force spokesperson, Frank Mba, said the police IGs directive followed a preliminary report from a team of investigators and forensic experts deployed from Abuja to Edo to assist in the investigations. The DIG in charge of the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID), DIG Anthony Ogbizi Michael, will henceforth provide direct supervision and ensure speedy and thorough investigation of the case, Mr Mba said. The IGP has ordered the immediate deployment of specialized investigators and additional investigation assets to all the Gender Desks Offices and the Juvenile Welfare Centres (JWC) across the country. This is to strengthen and enhance the capacity of the Units to respond to increasing challenges of sexual assaults and domestic/gender-based violence linked with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and other social ills within the country. The police spokesperson said the inspector general has called on members of the public to provide useful information that could help in the investigations of sexual assaults and domestic violence across the country. He (the IGP) also enjoins parents and guardians to pay closer attention to their children and wards in these trying times, said Mr Mba, a deputy commissioner of police. Ms Omozuwa, a 100 level Microbiology student of the University of Benin, was assaulted inside a hall in the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Ikpoba Hill, Benin City on May 13, where she went to study. She died on May 31, 18 days after, at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, the police said. She was 23 years old. Her death has continued to attract outrage nationwide. The federal government, through the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, Tuesday, urged the police to arrest and bring to justice the Ms Omozuwas killers. Mr Mohammed said bringing the killers to justice would send strong notice about the governments total aversion to gender-based violence in whatever form. Mr Mohammed described the murder of Ms Omozuwa as cruel and barbaric act that offends human sensibility, in addition to being antithetical to decency. He said no society would tolerate such depravity. The federal government said the police should also arrest and bring to justice the 14 men said to have serially raped a minor in Jigawa state. (This) is not only repulsive but highly condemnable, Mr Mohammed said of the case. Individuals in Daraa, wanted by the regime, have been offered the chance to join the Fourth Division in exchange for clemency writes Alsouria Net. The Assad regime has offered a new settlement to those wanted by its security branches in rural western Daraa, in an attempt to return the area to control after days of tension brought on by assassinations and killing. A media source in rural Daraa told Alsouria Net on Monday that the new settlement stipulates that those who are wanted can join the Fourth Division in exchange for a cessation of their pursuit by security forces. The wanted individuals include those who have avoided compulsory military service, defectors and people wanted for detention on political charges, the source added. According to the source, the new settlement was offered by the Assad regime directly, and includes, affiliation with the Fourth Division, and obtaining a security card as well as halting pursuit by security forces. The move comes after days of tension in rural western Daraa, including the killing of nine regime soldiers, followed by the assassination of prominent commanders of the Central Committee in Daraa. Rights activist Omar al-Hariri wrote on Twitter that work had begun Sunday night to register the names of those affiliating themselves with the Fourth Division. Settlement is for those wanted for military service, defectors and people wanted for arrest, provided they join and work with the Fourth Division. They are being promised that their security pursuit will end. It is not yet clear what the Assad regimes goals are with this new settlement, particularly since it includes only the Fourth Division and not the Russian-backed Fifth Corps. Daraa governorate has been in a state of security chaos since the signing of the settlement agreement in 2018. Those responsible for the assassinations and explosions targeting opposition and regime personnel remain unknown. After the settlement agreement for southern Syria in July 2018, Moscow managed to attract hundreds of fighters in Daraa and recruit them into the Fifth Corps, mainly from the city of Busra al-Sham in rural eastern Daraa, led by former opposition commander Ahmad al-Audeh. After Assads forces recaptured Daraa in July 2018, Russia gave defectors and those wanted for military service the choice to join its military formations and fight within its ranks in exchange for not being arrested for terrorism charges. This is what forced Daraa residents into joining the ranks of what became known as the settlement factions. This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. After the violent death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer last week, the nation was appalled by the unnecessary use of brute force against an African American man. By the weekend, the aftershocks of the incident had reverberated all across the United States and in the San Francisco Bay Area. Protesters took to the streets throughout the region, holding signs reminding people that "Black Lives Matter." Thousands asked for an end of police brutality toward minorities and an end to racial profiling. Highways were blocked in San Jose. In Oakland, protesters faced off against lines of police officers. Although mostly peaceful demonstrations occurred during the day, some incidents occurred after sunset. Cars were set on fire, buildings vandalized and some stores looted in downtown Oakland on Friday night. On Saturday vandalism and looting rocked the Union Square district in San Francisco. Many Bay Area photographers also took to the streets to document the protests and tell stories as seen through their eyes. Some of them shared their photographs with the SFGATE Instagram page. We edited through a selection of the images to share with you below. New Delhi, June 2 : Right at the top is Odisha Chief Minister Biju Patnaik, who is well into his fourth term. He enjoys a net approval rating of 82.96. Followed by Bhupesh Baghel and Jagan Mohan Reddy. Right at the bottom are BJP chief ministers Manohar Lal Khattar of Haryana (4.47) and Trivendra Singh Rawat of Uttarakhand (17.72). Patnaik, who heads the Biju Janata dal, named after his father and iconic Odia leader Biju Patnaik, Quite creditable for the non-conventional leader who started off with several limitations, including an inability to speak Odia, official language of the state. Though not in the best of the health, Patnaik remains a popular leader. Ranking behind him is Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, belonging to the Congress. He has a score of 81.06. An aggressive politician, he led the Congress to victory, in the 2018 assembly polls. Pinarayi Vijayan, the CPI(M) strongman, who heads the Left Front Government in Kerala, has an approval rating of 80.28. Vijayan's handling of the recent Covid-19 crisis earned him an all-round appreciation. YSR Congress leader and Andhra Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy enjoys an endorsement by 78.52. Uddhav Thackeray, heading the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition government in Maharashtra, has the approval of 76.52. Janata Dal (United) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has reason to worry given his net rating of 30.84. The state is scheduled to go to the polls in October-November. His current stock would reduce his bargaining capacity with his NDA-partner, BJP, during seat-sharing negotiations. Since his party members depend on his personal charisma to swing the votes, a reduced popularity would mean a bad show by JD(U) candidates. Goa presents a bad scenario for the BJP. The 42.79 approval rating implies that the BJP undertake prompt efforts to hold on to the state. The decline in rating of Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, endowed with great political skills, is critical. His current standing, with a just 27.51 endorsement, implies that he has lost a great deal of his political capital. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Researchers are tracking a 2,000-pound female great white shark that went out of its way as it swim into the open sea to avoid mating attempts from male great whites. The female shark is called Unama'ki that was traced to the open ocean, and currently located 700 miles at the east of Cape Cod, reported by Newsweek. Tracking the shark is possible by hooking up a device that pings a satellite each time her dorsal fin is out of the water. OCEARCH is studying this 15-foot plus female shark to understand its habits in its habitat, according to Awesome Ocean. Scientists have been tracking the pings since last week showing indications that she was moving north really fast, but recent pings indicate that it might be loitering in a section of the middle Atlantic. Indicator form tracking data in early April shows that Unama'ki was moving away from the east US coast, moving to deeper parts of the ocean in a pelagic journey. OCEARCH has noticed that such pelagic journeys in great loops are done by great white sharks. Characterized by moving from American coasts to the deep waters, and coming back home again are mostly large adult females, which they do but not always. Scientists think that large females like Unama'ki will do these great ocean journeys if they might be pregnant. This interests science because Unama'ki might lead them to an existing great white nursery in the deep oceam, reported The News Observer. One such nursery has been identified as one big female was tracked by heading straight to the New York Bight. This must be proof that sharks will gestate in the deep and open ocean, OCEARCH's founding chairman and expedition leader Chris Fischer informed Newsweek. Also read: Major Email Program Might Be Hacked by Russian Spies for Almost a Year Fischer said there might be three options why female great whites were into deep pelagic swims when they are pregnant. One of these reasons is avoiding males who want to mate, another is they are using the ocean temperatures to influence the gestation of the young. They might also need access to food supply that is good for mother sharks. Fischer mentioned all these are ideas that might explain things. OCEARCH has been researching from 2007 with data collected to understand how the great white shark lives in the ocean. Over time, according to Fischer, great whites will do these pelagic loops, adding that male great whites do routine migrations as well. Most of the time, these male great whites will be seen in their usual places every year like clockwork. Compared to male sharks, females like Unama'ki will be a bit irregular, with large pelagic swings, on irregular intervals, whenever they are gestating. Once their routes are figured out, how these females migrate is quite predictable too. The researchers at OCEARCH are thinking that Unama'ki will be on her way to Nova Scotia, and Canada where she got the tracker on in September 2019. According to the scientists, there might be a group of great whites in the north-west Atlantic, Nova Scotia is where one group congregates. These two groups have different patterns in summer and fall feeding, according to Fischer. He added that Unama'ki is a member of either group. The more OCEARCH tracks the 2,000-pound female great white shark, they will know more about their habits. Related article: Spy Photos of Russian Jets Captured in Libya, US General Says @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Many know that labor leaders Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta founded the United Farm Workers, that the labor union led boycotts and became part of a larger Mexican American civil rights movement. Few may know that Chavez and Huerta founded another, lesser known union, La Union del Pueblo Entero with four offices in South Texas. LUPE has local ties. San Antonians Rebecca Flores and Arturo Rodriguez are affiliated with it and have raised money for its newest fund to aid farmworkers left out of federal stimulus aid. Flores and Rodriguez belong to a revered UFW alumni. Flores retired as director of the Texas UFW, appointed by Chavez to the post. Rodriguez retired as president of the national UFW, taking over after Chavezs death. Rodriguez serves on LUPEs board. A community union with a membership of about 8,000, LUPE has wrapped its arms around the poorest, most under-appreciated workers South Texas farmworkers, predominantly Mexican and Central American. In a national pandemic, theyve been deemed essential. Theyre finishing up the onion harvest now. Its a labor-intensive crop, and whole families often work in its fields. This weekend, as protesters and police clashed in San Antonio and elsewhere, these essential workers began to harvest watermelons. Its a favorite Texas fruit that demands adult workers. The fruit is heavy, and the blades needed to cut them from vines are too dangerous for teens and children to use. South Texas farmworkers who are U.S. citizens and legal residents next will head west to California fields and north to other crops in the mid-eastern states. Theyre able to pass border checkpoints. The undocumented and mixed-immigration-status families will stay behind, said LUPEs executive director Juanita Valdez-Cox. They also wont make as much, which is why LUPE launched the Dando la Mano Immigrant Relief Fund. In a few short weeks, it has raised $70,000 toward its $100,000 goal. Such workers usually turn to housekeeping, construction, landscaping and other work, while others establish small businesses. LUPE officials say a farmworker earns an annual average income of about $14,000 for a family of four. LUPE provides tax preparation services to undocumented workers, who dont have Social Security numbers but are assigned tax identification numbers. Dando La Mano can offer them $200 to $250 in aid, which can be applied to rent, mortgage or utility payments as well as food and other necessities. The UFW in California has established a similar fund. Several other San Antonians helped raise money. Father David Garcia, a retired San Antonio priest admired for raising funds to restore San Antonios missions and San Fernando Cathedral, appealed to his network of friends. So did Father Michael DeGerolami, a longtime leader in COPS/Metro Alliance. LUPE also saw a big bump in contributions after a celebrity shout-out from Cristela Alonzo. The South Texan stand-up comedian, writer and producer is best known for her TV sitcom, Cristela, Netflix special, Lower Classy, voice work on Cars 3 and guest-host spots on ABCs The View. The self-described big news nerd is also an activist whos involved in immigration-related issues and sits on LUPEs board. She grew up in San Juan. Members of her family did farm work, and childhood friends came from migrant families. Its a way of life, she said of students whod disappear mid-year to work in the fields. People dont understand unless theyre close to it. Alonzo decided to amplify the work LUPE does in South Texas on social media, citing a whole world of essential workers we dont think about. In California, were lucky our governor included undocumented immigrants in relief, she said. Texas did not get that. Alonzo says the new fund is just an extension of LUPEs year-round work. A couple of months from now, school will start and kids in colonias will need school supplies, and LUPE will raise money for school supplies. Valdez-Cox sounded confident LUPE will get to its $100,000 goal soon, and it may need to raise more to help farmworkers get through a tightening economy. She doesnt sound as hopeful on another matter: the Trump administrations hypocrisy in categorizing farmworkers as essential while excluding them from federal aid. Because you cant have it both ways. eayala@express-news.net It was once more into the fire Monday night for Thomas Carter, commissioner of the Harrisburg City Police. The commissioner, who has earned a reputation for finding a way to help cooler heads prevail, faced a losing battle this time. As soon as he took to the microphone at a Black Lives Matter demonstration at the state Capitol, Carter was put on full blast by a group of about eight people angered by what they felt was an aggressive over-reaction by police at Saturdays protest marches in the city over the May 25 death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis. Here are todays leading news stories: Society -- A 30-year-old woman crossed the China-Vietnam border illegally on May 28 before catching a flight from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City on May 29, authorities have found. She has been quarantined and her first test has come back negative for the novel coronavirus, while the result of the second test is due later on Tuesday. -- A total of 14 patients were confirmed to have recovered from novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Vietnam on Monday. The countrys tally still stands at 328, with 293 having made a recovery. -- Two people were killed and another went missing following an accident at a quarry in the northern province of Dien Bien on Monday afternoon. -- A woman was killed and two others were seriously injured after being hit by a steel sheet that was gliding in the air due to strong gusts in the northern province of Hoa Binh on Monday afternoon. -- Police in Ho Chi Minh City confirmed on Monday they had apprehended seven members of a debt collecting gang on charges of illegal arrest of people and appropriation of property. -- A total of 344 Vietnamese citizens stranded in Australia and New Zealand due to the COVID-19 pandemic were repatriated on Monday and Tuesday. They have been brought to quarantine camps following their arrival in Ho Chi Minh City. Business -- The total revenue of retail trade and services reached more than VND1.91 quadrillion (US$82.36 billion) in the first five months of this year, down four percent year-on-year, according to the General Statistics Office. -- Exports and imports of agricultural goods saw a decline in the first five months of 2020 due to the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. World news -- COVID-19 has sickened over 6.36 million people and claimed more than 377,400 lives around the world, according to the Ministry of Healths statistics. Over 2.9 million patients have recovered from the disease. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! US President Donald Trump on Monday said he was deploying thousands of "heavily armed" soldiers and police to prevent further protests in Washington, where buildings and monuments have been vandalized near the White House. "What happened in the city last night was a total disgrace," he said during a nationwide address as tear gas went off and crowds protested in the streets nearby. "I am dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting, looting, vandalism, assaults and the wanton destruction of property." He denounced "acts of domestic terror" after nationwide protests against the death of an unarmed African American George Floyd in police custody devolved into days of violent race riots across the country. "I want the organizers of this terror to be on notice that you will face severe criminal penalties and a lengthy sentences in jail," Trump said as police could be heard using tear gas and stun grenades to clear protestors just outside the White House. He also called on state governors to "deploy the National Guard in sufficient numbers that we dominate the streets" before heading on foot for a photo op at the riot-damaged St. John's, the two-century-old "church of the presidents" across from the White House. One week after Floyd died in Minneapolis, an autopsy blamed his videotaped death squarely on a white police officer who pinned him down by the neck with his knee for nearly nine minutes as Floyd pleaded, "I can't breathe!" "The evidence is consistent with mechanical asphyxia as the cause of death, and homicide as the manner of death," Aleccia Wilson, a University of Michigan expert who examined his body at the family's request, told a news conference. The unrest has been the most widespread in the United States since 1968, when cities went up in flames over the slaying of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., and rekindled memories of 1992 riots in Los Angeles after police were acquitted in the brutal beating of black motorist Rodney King. There are so many people hurting throughout this city, and we need to come together peacefully and as one community, she said in a statement announcing the curfew Monday. For those who have protested peacefully, your voices are being heard and will always be welcome. The call for change cant be answered, however, if we continue to allow destruction of our property and attacks on our small businesses that have already been hurt by this as well as the impacts of COVID-19. GREENWICH, Conn., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Prostar Capital ("Prostar") announced today that its GTI Statia ("GTIS") storage terminal has entered into a long-term strategic relationship with Vitol Inc. ("Vitol"), whereby Vitol will operate the marine fuel bunker supply business at the GTIS terminal. GTIS will continue to provide storage, services and logistics infrastructure as before. GTIS is one of the largest independent crude and refined product storage terminals serving the U.S. Gulf Coast and Caribbean markets. It is a leading player in the bunker fuel market, utilizing its unique and strategic location to serve customers in the cruise and cargo shipping industries. The strategic relationship with Vitol allows the parties to leverage GTIS' highly flexible infrastructure and Vitol's global marketing network to expand the GTIS bunker market while continuing to provide high quality service to its existing customer base. "We are very pleased to announce GTI Statia's agreement with Vitol to operate the bunker business out of our world-class 14-million-barrel facility," said Dave Noakes, Senior Managing Director of Prostar Capital. "It is part of Prostar's continuing strategy to focus on GTIS' storage operations and to reinvest capital into capacity expansion to meet strong customer demand. Vitol is one of the largest energy traders in the world and is a significant customer at GTIS and at Prostar's other storage terminals globally. This new initiative will strengthen our relationship with Vitol and will be immediately accretive for both organizations while bringing significant value to GTIS' customer base in the regional bunker market." "We're extremely proud to be working with Vitol. This transaction builds on the $100 million capital investment plan for the terminal we announced in March and demonstrates our support and commitment to GTI Statia, the terminal's strong operations team and the local economy," added Steve Bickerton, Senior Managing Director at Prostar. "This strategic relationship allows the facility to focus on being a world-class terminal operator and will leverage our strategic vision to enhance the service, quality and value of the facility and the bunker business," said John Roller, President and CEO of GTI Statia. "With its strong track record of delivering solutions and managing major end-to-end customer experience, we know that Vitol will continue to bring value to our terminal business." Dominique Laborde of Vitol said, "We are delighted to have forged a long-term relationship with Prostar and GTI Statia and look forward to working with them at this first-class facility." About GTI Statia GTI Statia ("GTIS") was acquired by Prostar in July 2019 and has 60 commercial tanks with a total storage capacity of 14 million barrels (2.3 million m3) and extensive marine infrastructure that can accommodate berthing fully-laden ULCC and VLCC vessels. GTIS is strategically located at the crossroads of global and regional trading routes with long-term relationships with customers including major global energy traders. GTIS is part of Prostar-owned Global Terminal Investments Ltd., one of the largest dedicated private investment firm-backed storage platforms globally with more than 24 million barrels (3.7 million m3) of aggregate storage capacity. About Prostar Capital Prostar Capital is a private investment firm established in 2012 to invest in midstream energy infrastructure assets located in key strategic hubs globally. The firm currently owns assets with an aggregate EV in excess of $3 billion that are focused on the gathering, processing, storage, transmission and distribution of energy. Prostar's team has extensive investment and operational expertise in the energy sector and provides global coverage through its offices in Greenwich (CT), Sydney and Hong Kong. For more information, visit Prostar's website at www.prostarcapital.com. About Vitol Vitol is an energy and commodities company; its primary business is the trading and distribution of energy products globally. Vitol trades over 8 million barrels per day of crude oil and products and, at any time, has 250 ships transporting its cargoes. Vitol's clients include national oil companies, multinationals, leading industrial and chemical companies and the world's largest airlines. Founded in Rotterdam in 1966, today Vitol serves clients from some 40 offices worldwide and is invested in energy assets globally including: almost 16 million m3 of storage, 480kbpd of refining capacity and circa 7,000 service stations across Africa, Australia, Brazil, Eurasia and in Northwest Europe. Revenues in 2019 were $225 billion. Media Contact (Prostar) Shree Dhond / Doug Allen Dukas Linden Public Relations [email protected] +1-646-722-6530 Media Contact (Vitol) Andrea Schlaepfer [email protected] +44 7525 403796 SOURCE Prostar Capital Related Links http://www.prostarcapital.com/ Tehran [Iran], June 2 (ANI): Iran on Tuesday criticised the reactions of the US administration and police to the protests that had spurred after the death of African-American man George Floyd and "asked American leaders to stand trial before international courts". "US leaders should stand trial before the international courts on a charge of deliberate homicide and racial discrimination," CNN quoted Iran's judiciary chief, Hojjatoleslam Raeesi, as saying. Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, tweeted, "The 'knee-on-neck' technique is nothing new: Same cabal--who have admitted to habitually 'lie, cheat, steal' -- have been employing it on 80M Iranians for 2 years (sic), calling it 'maximum pressure.'" Meanwhile, 240 newly elected members of Iran's Parliament signed a statement saying, "The terrorist president of America threatening to kill the protestors indicates that the people of other countries are not the only victims of US state terrorism, but the American people are in fact the first victims of this state terrorism," IRNA reported. They also said that the videos of Floyd's killing by US police gave voice to all the Americans, who could be heard as saying "We Can't Breathe". At the end of the statement, they wrote that "Iran's parliament, in unison with freedom-seeking people around the globe, condemns the brutal killing of George Floyd as the latest symbol of racial terrorism by the US against the black and hoped that the popular movement against such crimes would yield fruits." Last week, unrest erupted across the US after the death of Floyd in Minneapolis in police custody. The 46-year-old's death has sparked outrage across the nation. Floyd was detained and subsequently died in police custody in Minneapolis last month. A bystander video recording showed a policeman -- Derek Chauvin -- kneeling on Floyd's neck for at least eight minutes, while Floyd kept saying that he could not breathe. A total of four police officers involved in the arrest have been fired. Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. (ANI) Doubts and questions are swirling on every front as US and Iraqi officials brace for talks to charter a new course in their relations, writes Salah Nasrawi Next week the world will watch Iraqi and US officials meeting in Washington to hammer out agreements on how the two countries will go forward together at a time when Iraq is mired in political chaos and the Trump administration remains at a dangerous crossroads in the Middle East. There has been plenty of speculation about the talks, their goals and the purposes and the interests that they serve. Questions have also been raised as to whether adequate preparations have been made for the meetings. The talks, dubbed a strategic dialogue, are scheduled for mid-June, and the future of the US military presence in Iraq is expected to be high on an agenda that has yet to be worked out in detail. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who broke the news of the dialogue on 7 April, said the talks had been proposed by the US and would cover all strategic issues between our two countries. He said they would include discussion of how best to support an independent and sovereign Iraq. Iraqi former foreign minister Mohamed Ali Al-Hakim said his office had received a letter from the US State Department suggesting procedures for negotiations based on the concepts in the Strategic Framework Agreement. New Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi has discussed the upcoming negotiations briefly with Pompeo, but his office has disclosed no details about their telephone conversation following his endorsement by the Iraqi parliament on 6 May. While it is hard to know the possible approaches that each side will be taking to address the increasingly difficult issues in Iraqi-US relations, the talks will likely provide a perspective on the possible trajectory of future ties. From Pompeos remarks and a statement by the US Embassy in Baghdad, Washington seems to be setting out guidelines for a strategic US-Iraqi partnership on a stable and long-term footing. In such a perspective, Washington is probably looking for a framework for its relations with Baghdad that will be capable of maintaining the current level of cooperation and of preserving a functional order for the future. Moving beyond press-release diplomacy, however, multiple questions remain about how the Trump administration will be able to resolve the serious issues that have been bedeviling US-Iraqi relations and move the ball forward. The US has to face up to Iran, the active regional power in Iraq, after years of US policy failures which have turned the Islamic Republic into a key player in the countrys affairs and a Middle East powerhouse. A major component of the upcoming talks will relate to US efforts to apply concerted diplomatic, economic and military pressure to constrain Iran and its allies in Iraq. This will be part of Washingtons maximum pressure policy on Iran, a confrontational posture aimed at diminishing Irans influence in Iraq and helping to empower anti-Iran forces and the USs Iraqi allies. However, in order to achieve such goals Washington will need to have a clear, comprehensive and functional strategy in Iraq, in addition to another grand strategy in the Middle East and concrete plans to implement them. Apart from lacking a viable strategy, miscalculations and political blunders by successive US administrations have created a geopolitical void in Iraq and the region that has helped Irans influence to surge. A critical first step towards creating some form of lasting US-Iraqi relationship will be to help Iraq get back on its feet, a mission that the US failed to fulfil after its invasion of the country in 2003. American Middle East pundits have been making proposals to the administration with regard to the upcoming talks focusing primarily on the number of the US troops in Iraq and other issues that the American negotiators should discuss with their Iraqi counterparts. The discussions among the US experts on Iraq have focused on whether Washington should keep the same level of its combat assistance mission in Iraq or maintain a smaller force of military advisers to help train and develop Iraqi military capabilities. However, in order for the US to help Iraq defend itself it will also need to retake the responsibility it has abandoned in helping the Iraqis to rebuild their state and nation, fractured by the US-led invasion and the mishandling of the US occupation of Iraq. If Washington is keen to have a constructive strategic dialogue with Iraq, it should start by engaging in state and nation-building efforts in the country, an obligation it has long ignored in favour of the no strategy and non-decisions successive US administrations have adopted in Iraq. The upcoming talks should focus on forging a stable strategic partnership and one that will not centre on countering threats from extremism and Iran, but will help the Iraqis to fix their failed state that has become a breeding ground for terrorism and Iranian intervention. The US approach in the talks should start with a new playbook for bilateral relations that seeks to upgrade the Strategic Framework Agreement that was intended to shape the legal, economic, cultural and security relations between the two countries. The 2008 agreement, which states that the US should work to support and strengthen Iraqs democracy and its democratic institutions and enhance Iraqs capabilities, suffers from a lack of clarity and gaps in the mechanisms by which these goals are to be put into effect. For Pompeos words that the dialogue will show how best to support an independent and sovereign Iraq to be meaningful, Washington should now seek a newly assertive and reliable framework for this new phase of Iraqi-US relations that is coherent with the outlines of longer-term strategic cooperation. On Iraqs side, now is the time of choice either to continue to be a playground for regional tensions, conflicts, the ambitions of international powers and terrorism or open a new chapter of opportunity to achieve stability and sovereignty. The strategic dialogue with Washington could be a rare opportunity for Iraq to break free from the vicious circle of Irans hegemony and effectively re-establish a solid position for itself in the world geostrategic environment and promote its own national interests. Thus far, indecision has reigned in the Iraqi leadership, however, with this having been paralysed by inefficiency, corruption, political and sectarian divisions and competitive foreign and regional influences. The core question for Iraqi policy-makers at this juncture is whether Baghdad should ask Washington to withdraw its troops from Iraq or seek to keep those troops in the country until the Islamic State (IS) group has been completely defeated on the battlefield. Iraqis are sharply divided on this issue, which is expected to top the agenda of the talks, with the Internet ablaze with rumours and speculation about a US withdrawal, limited withdrawal, or no withdrawal and the implications for both sides. In January, the Iraqi parliament voted to remove the US troops from Iraq. Some 168 members of the 328-person assembly endorsed a resolution submitted by Iran-backed Shia groups specifically calling for expelling US troops from Iraq. Most Sunni and Kurdish lawmakers boycotted the session, which was held two days after the killing of Qassem Suleimani, the head of Irans Al-Quds Force, in Baghdad by a US airstrike. Iraqs Sunni and Kurdish political leaders have repeatedly made it clear that they do not want the US troops to leave out of fears that Iran will fill the resulting vacuum and Iraq could be dragged down into chaos. Adel Abdul-Mahdi, Iraqs caretaker prime minister at the time, said his government would work to implement the parliaments resolution. He also said that if the US troops remained, they would be considered to be an occupying force. Tehran-backed militias in Iraq, which have frequently attacked US interests in the country in the past, also vowed to target some of the 5,550 US personnel which are believed to be in Iraq if they stay on. While Al-Kahdimis government has yet to make up its mind about its security needs from the US troops, it also has to tackle the accumulation of problems left by the former government as well as other challenges that emerged thereafter. With the Covid-19 pandemic raging and plummeting oil revenues threatening Iraqs economic collapse, the countrys leadership will likely need help from outside sources to fix its economic and financial woes. In addition to direct assistance from Washington, the Iraqi leaders realise that US support is essential for getting help from sources such as the World Bank, the Gulf Arab states, the European Union and the United Nations in order to confront its systemic difficulties. More specifically, the Iraqi leadership needs a comprehensive strategy based on a careful assessment of both its needs and US intentions and purposes in order to negotiate a new deal with Washington that will guarantee Iraqs rebuilding, a commitment which has been overlooked by successive US administrations since 2003. Thus far, the shallow rhetoric from both sides about the talks has had little to show with regard to efforts that could successfully put Iraq on a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity. How Baghdad and Washington can resolve such a dilemma remains unclear at a time when there is little political and diplomatic infrastructure being prepared for what may come from their strategic dialogue. *A version of this article appears in print in the 4 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Activist William Calloway described the situation as a perfect storm" and rattled off the names of black Chicagoans killed by police. He pointed to the 2012 fatal shooting of Rekia Boyd by an off-duty cop who was charged with involuntary manslaughter and then acquitted, and Paul ONeal, a teenager shot dead in 2016 after police tried to stop him as he drove a stolen car. Oregons top federal prosecutor on Monday said violent protests that erupted in Portland over the weekend were the work of an orchestrated national effort. Later, a city commissioner agreed. But they each pointed to opposite ends of the political spectrum for the source of the agitation. U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams said Portland and other U.S. cities saw the same playbook over the weekend: peaceful demonstrations that deteriorated into violence. He made his initial remarks at a press conference with Mayor Ted Wheeler and later elaborated in an interview with The Oregonian/OregonLive. Like a light switch, he said of the pivot each night to destructive acts and damage to public buildings and businesses during the weekends protests. It is being directed," he said in the interview. Williams, a longtime federal prosecutor in Oregon and a Trump appointee, said he based his statement on intelligence that I cannot share. There are organizations who are hellbent on causing problems across the United States antifa being one of them, he said. There are others. People need to wake up to this. Pressed for specifics, Williams said: All I can share at this point is that there are groups from all across the country with different names. There are different versions of antifa. There is Rose City Antifa here. There are other loosely affiliated groups across the spectrum that are always capable of engaging in criminal conduct. President Donald Trump over the weekend tweeted about his suspicion that the anti-fascist movement was behind civil unrest nationwide. Trump has previously stated support for officially listing antifa as a terror organization. The name generally serves as a blanket description for typically anonymous left-wing activists who say they support using disruptive and sometimes violent tactics to fight hate, homophobia and anti-Semitism. A spokesman for the mayor said Wheeler hasnt received any information about Portlands protests being part of a national coordinated effort. In a later news conference Monday, Portland Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty suggested it was right-wing activists who were behind the violence and destruction. We have seen pictures of some of the Proud Boys -- who are regular visitors to our great city -- actually down at the protests over the last three days, she said. She said in briefings with city officials, Portland police acknowledged there are agitators who are there solely for the purpose of creating chaos, there is no question, not just here in Oregon but all over the nation. The Portland Police Bureau did not respond to an email from the news organizations about claims of orchestrated violence. A spokesman for Rose City Antifa, Portlands most recognizable left-wing group, said it did not organize any of the weekends events, though the group supports the demonstrations. The way it looks to us is that these have been spontaneous protests by members of the community, said a man who identified himself as David, a pseudonym. The numbers that we are seeing are unlikely other recent protests in their size and scope. The Rose City Antifa spokesman said Williams was parroting the president. The prosecutor should talk to the people in the streets if he wants to know why theyre protesting, he said, not stand behind a podium and make dangerous accusations that are then used to continue to violate peoples civil rights. Williams said the property damage and violence have drowned out the justified outcry over George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis. Video showed a white police officer pressing his knee to Floyds neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, according to a criminal complaint. The fired officer, Derek Chauvin, faces murder and manslaughter charges. Williams referenced the tagging of Free Dibee, on the federal courthouse, wondering what that has to do with Floyds death. The Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse saw extensive damage to its exterior, including a spray-painted penis on the large front glass entry, vulgar messages to police on the pillars out front and the Free Dibee message scrawled on a side wall referencing accused eco-saboteur Joseph Dibee. A window above the courthouses employee entrance had been broken. Workers took down scaffolding outside the building, which demonstrators climbed and used as a perch Sunday night to watch police. Williams said federal, state and local leaders -- and the community at large -- must respond swiftly to violence and destruction. He said his office is considering filing federal charges of crimes like arson, riot and civil disorder against those who have engaged in destructive acts. Dozens of people were arrested over the weekend, many of them accused of misdemeanor crimes like violating curfew and disorderly conduct. Anytime you have a community or communities tolerate violence and destruction that is purely criminal, if you just continue to let that happen, then everything disintegrates, he said. Law and order disintegrates. Accountability disintegrates and it doesnt further the reforms that people are rightfully asking for. Oregonian reporter Maxine Bernstein contributed to this report. -- Noelle Crombie; ncrombie@oregonian.com; 503-276-7184; @noellecrombie Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. This article is part of Privacy in the Pandemic, a Future Tense series. Since the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe, contact tracing has become a household term. Public health officials are using human contact tracers to control COVID-19, while companies and governments have also created digital contact tracing tools. All of these efforts have prompted discussions among privacy experts about how to keep individuals data secure. Over the weekend, a law enforcement official used the term contact tracing to describe police surveillance, stoking a new wave of privacy concernsand concerns from public health experts that the public will lose trust in one of our most effective tools to control COVID-19. Advertisement As protesters took to the streets of Minneapolis after the killing of George Floyd, local police and the Minnesota State Patrol arrested dozens of people Friday night and early Saturday morning. In a press conference the next morning, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said that every person they arrested on Friday night was from out of state which he later said was actually based on inaccurate information. (Outside agitators have a long-standing history as scapegoats for political action.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Next, Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington explained that the state had begun looking into the backgrounds of the people arrested. Weve begun doingalmost very similar to our COVID [work]its contact tracing. He went on to describe what contact tracing looks like here: Essentially, Minnesota authorities are trying to find out whether people theyve arrested are affiliated with organized criminal groupsHarrington specifically named white supremacists as a possible example. Who are they associated with? What platforms are they advocating for? We have seen things like white supremacist organizers who have posted things on platforms about coming to Minnesota, Harrington said. Were building that information network, building that intel effort, so we can link these folks together, figure out the organizations that have created this, and then understand how do we go after them legally. Advertisement Advertisement Later that day, tech website BGR ran a piece about the press conference with the headline: Minnesota is now using contact tracing to track protestors, as demonstrations escalate. In the piece, the writer mentions that Minneapolis officials are using a familiar tool called contact tracingpeople have been hearing about it frequently in recent weeks as an important component of a comprehensive coronavirus pandemic response, and that this speaks to privacy concerns around contact-tracing in general. The piece has been shared widely on Twitter, and as a popular Twitter Moment that echoes Harringtons language. Others on Twitter used Harringtons statements to ring the alarm bells about the privacy issues in contact tracing. Advertisement But despite Harringtons comparison to COVID-19 contact tracing, what he described sounds less like a public health contact tracers job and more like, well, good old-fashioned police work. Law enforcement strategies, where they are trying to track people down that are concerning to them, that is not contact tracing, says David C. Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, a public health organization that has trained and deployed COVID-19 contact tracers around the country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For one, public health contact tracers must follow strict laws and regulations around collecting and keeping personal information. All info given to contact tracers is confidential; they might ask a person whos tested positive for COVID-19 about whom theyve seen lately or where theyve been, but thats in service of alerting people who may have been exposed to COVID-19not so they can surveil individuals. When telling people they were potentially exposed, contact tracers cant reveal who that link might be, and there are also protocols for storing datapublic health officials must comply with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act standards, and both physical and electronic records are kept under lock and key. The need for confidentiality is obvious, says Harvey. If that info is not protected, we wont have people come forward who need to access services. Building trust is at the core of why these laws and regulations exist. These standards show the efforts of public health officials to protect peoples privacy, but its worth noting that this data is reported to state and federal public health databases, which are not impenetrable or incorruptible. It is, however, very different from what Harrington described: directly digging into peoples networks and online activity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When I reached out to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety for comment, director of communications Bruce Gordon confirmed that Harrington is talking about typical criminal investigat[iv]e work, not a new technology or strategy. He borrowed a term from the COVID-19 world. That borrowing could be very damaging, Harvey says. Managing demonstrators from a law enforcement perspective is not public health contact tracing, and using those words really interferes with our ability to build trust with communities who are in real need of services. Advertisement In particular Harvey says hes concerned about the ability to reach communities of color who may already mistrust government and surveillanceand for good reason. The U.S. has a long history of systemic racism in public healthspecifically within STD [work], we have worked for decades to overcome the racist legacy of the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, he told me. To address that, public health officials are hiring contact tracers from the communities theyre trying to reach, in hopes of making people more likely to get tested and talk with contact tracers, and making sure contact tracers are trained in cultural competence and confidentiality. But conflation of COVID-19 contact tracing with police surveillance of protesters could add a new layer of mistrust and misunderstanding. Advertisement Advertisement The U.S. is already struggling to control COVID-19especially in black and brown communitiesand contact tracing is among the best tools public health officials have to mitigate its spread. If fewer people are willing to talk with contact tracersor dont trust them enough to be honest about their recent activitiesthat could make COVID-19 even harder to control. Were already facing huge odds with trying to serve people, says Harvey. I call upon Mr. Harrington to recant his statements and not confuse law enforcement with public health contact tracing, because we have a pandemic to end. Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. Protesters march along the freeway that exits St. Paul on their way to U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis via the Saint Anthony Falls bridge on the fourth day of protests and violence following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Hundreds of Protesters Detained After Blocking Traffic on Bridge in Dallas Hundreds of protesters were detained after blocking traffic on the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in Dallas on June 1 amid the ongoing protests in response to the death of unarmed African American man George Floyd in Minneapolis last week. The march began with roughly 300 people at the Frank Crowley Courts Building, which falls outside parts of the city for which a 7 p.m. curfew was issued by Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall on Sunday. The group marched from the courthouse and headed toward the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge where they met with a line of police preventing them from moving forward, NBC DFW reported. A second line of police then formed behind the group, essentially trapping the protesters in the center of the bridge, and began shooting rubber bullets at a small group of people near the entrance of the bridge who had allegedly started yelling at officers. Roughly 200 protesters were detained by police and taken to the Frank Crowley Courthouse. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said on Monday they have since been released. The judge said he had also spoken to the protesters via phone and they had agreed theyd peacefully protest for a while tonight. He also reminded Dallas citizens of the importance of maintaining social distancing and wearing a mask amid the current CCP virus pandemic. Police officers form a line after moving protesters away from City Hall as the city-wide curfew begins in the wake of the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in San Francisco, Calif., on May 31, 2020. (Stephen Lam/Reuters) Elsewhere, police said officers arrested three peaceful protesters outside Dallas Police Department (DPD) headquarters for violating the 7 p.m. curfew. DPD headquarters does fall within the designated area. Roughly an hour later, another group of six was arrested for the same reason, CBS reported. Police Chief Hall came out to address the protesters outside DPD and said officers would enforce the citys curfew. We are heartbroken about Mr. Floyd and we dont like it either. But heres the thing we get to do. We get to acknowledge that there are some cultural things in law enforcement, she said. When law enforcement was created, it was created for slave patrol. So it was created for oppression. And so there is a lot of work to do. We have made a lot of steps but there is still a lot of work to do. But we cant do it if you are looting. Protests continue to rage on in dozens of cities around the nation, including Minneapolis, Washington, New York, Atlanta, Detroit, and Louisville. George Floyd in a file photograph. (Christopher Harris via AP) Floyd, 46, was arrested by police outside a south Minneapolis grocery store on Memorial Day for alleged fraud. A citizens cellphone video showed an officeridentified as 44-year-old Derek Chauvinkneeling on Floyds neck for almost 9 minutes as he struggled to breathe. He eventually became unresponsive, and the father of two was pronounced dead May 25. Chauvin was arrested and has since been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Three other officers, Thomas Lane, Tou Thao, and J. Alexander Kueng, were fired from the Minneapolis Police Department. On Monday, President Donald Trump vowed to deploy the U.S. military in order to quell the protests if state officials could not contain them, noting that the highest duty as president is to defend our great country and the American people. Today, I have strongly recommended to every governor to deploy the National Guard in sufficient numbers that we dominate the streets. Mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled, he said at a press conference from the White House. If a city or a state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them, he added. CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- motorCortex.ai, developer of autonomous ground robots that safely disinfect high-traffic spaces, beat out seven other finalists to win the inaugural $50K Collaborative Intelligence Competition. Launched by MIT last fall, the $50K Collaborative Intelligence Competition is part of a larger educational program conceived by MIT's School of Engineering Dean Anantha Chandrakasan, which was then developed and run through the combined efforts of the MIT Interactive Robotics Group and the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. The initiative is committed to advancing the development of artificial intelligence (AI) to complement, collaborate with, and augment humans versus replacing them with a special focus on accelerating the development of entrepreneurs and new, entrepreneurial ventures that leverage AI for the good of society in ethical ways. This mission is fully aligned with a new, cross-cutting area of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, the Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing (SERC), which aims to facilitate the development of responsible "habits of mind and action" for those who create and deploy computing technologies, and the creation of technologies in the public interest. As COVID-19 necessitates the frequent disinfection of public spaces, motorCortex.ai's offering addresses companies' multiple cleaning challenges. Manual application of sprayed disinfectants requires careful attention to ensure the correct 'soak time' to neutralize pathogens, and disinfectant toxicity raises safety concerns for the custodian due to frequent exposure. Additionally, companies are struggling to find and train sufficient staff to perform this critical function due to an increase in the sanitization frequency. motorCortex.ai's autonomous disinfection robots work collaboratively with cleaning staff to address these challenges. These robots perform the task of spraying disinfectant at consistent rates and speeds, enabling human cleaners to focus on manually scrubbing biofilms and residues. The robots also disinfect surfaces with UV-C light, and are equipped with sensors to identify humans in its proximity while maintaining a correct distance for safe application. Performance information is logged in a database, enabling facility managers to track disinfection cycles and visualize disinfection quality. motorCortex.ai is led by Merritt Jenkins, CEO, MIT Sloan MBA 2021. Jenkins is an expert in computer vision and robot manipulation in agricultural environments. He previously led a robotics team at Plenty, a Softbank-backed indoor lettuce company. He holds an MS in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University. "The competition was a catalyst to again get to the core of what makes MIT so special," says MIT School of Engineering Dean Chandrakasan. "It created a platform and a series of programs that leveraged resources and crossed disciplines, all with the goal of advancing knowledge, educating students, and serving society. AI and computational technologies will be a transformative force in our society for the next decade, and we look forward to cultivating its positive impact through initiatives such as the Collaborative Intelligence Competition." The competition was made possible through the generous sponsorship of Two Sigma, Schmidt Futures, and The Tang Family Catalyst Fund. More than 30 teams with over 130 students participated. In addition to the $50K grand prize finale, the competition included multiple interim showcase events where teams competed for milestone awards. Twenty teams received $1K prizes, and five teams were awarded $5K prizes. Altogether, $95K in non-dilutive, equity-free prize funding was awarded to help accelerate these new ventures. To provide student teams with a rigorous educational experience, the competition was constructed as a part of a larger comprehensive program to provide students with a "place to go" with their ideas (i.e., a community), supply teams with dedicated resources, refine innovations with commercial potential, and nurture a cross-disciplinary culture across MIT. In addition, Professors Julie Shah, associate dean of SERC and head of the Interactive Robotics Lab, and Bill Aulet, managing director of the Martin Trust Center, led a for credit course called "Collaborative Ventures." The fall semester course provided guidance on how to develop new ventures that leverage AI and computational technologies in a technically feasible, commercially viable, and socially and ethically responsible manner and led right into the competition. "The first year of anything is always a challenge, but I was extremely pleased with the results," Professor Shah said regarding the competition. "The way to ensure a positive future is to invent and make it happen. That is what this competition was all about; creating those leaders who can understand the technology, the business, and the social implications to ensure the power of AI is utilized for good in the future. Our winning team and the seven other finalist teams represent this new generation of leaders." The other finalists in the MIT $50K Collaborative Intelligence Entrepreneurship Competition included: Encora Therapeutics is creating low-cost, non-invasive, wearable devices that use vibrations to mitigate the symptoms of neurological movement disorders, such as tremor, empowering those afflicted by such disorders to regain their confidence and their independence. is creating low-cost, non-invasive, wearable devices that use vibrations to mitigate the symptoms of neurological movement disorders, such as tremor, empowering those afflicted by such disorders to regain their confidence and their independence. Almond Finance is a mobile-based financial inclusion platform for entrepreneurs in the developing world. For two billion people worldwide, lack of access to financial services is one of the main obstacles to escaping poverty. By combining essential services like microlending and digital transactions into one platform, Almond Finance helps small business owners grow their businesses. is a mobile-based financial inclusion platform for entrepreneurs in the developing world. For two billion people worldwide, lack of access to financial services is one of the main obstacles to escaping poverty. By combining essential services like microlending and digital transactions into one platform, Almond Finance helps small business owners grow their businesses. Eleos Health improves workflow inefficiencies for behavioral health clinicians, enabling them to deliver quality, personalized behavioral care at scale. Utilizing voice analysis, Eleos' software solution flags key clinical insights on an encounter-level basis to increase adherence to evidence-based practice and deliver superior treatment outcomes. improves workflow inefficiencies for behavioral health clinicians, enabling them to deliver quality, personalized behavioral care at scale. Utilizing voice analysis, Eleos' software solution flags key clinical insights on an encounter-level basis to increase adherence to evidence-based practice and deliver superior treatment outcomes. Fuente enables city policy makers to collect and analyze data to make informed development decisions and respond to evolving situations. From maintenance records to land use maps, cities need access to up-to-date records. Fuente is replacing the time-consuming current offerings of pen and paper, and poorly structured data forms with an integrated software solution that collects and analyzes data three times faster than current methods. enables city policy makers to collect and analyze data to make informed development decisions and respond to evolving situations. From maintenance records to land use maps, cities need access to up-to-date records. Fuente is replacing the time-consuming current offerings of pen and paper, and poorly structured data forms with an integrated software solution that collects and analyzes data three times faster than current methods. NOMA is a conversational interface that allows people with visual impairment to interact seamlessly with the physical devices they already own, such as appliances in the kitchen or printers at work. NOMA eliminates the need to buy expensive assistive devices and promotes industry-wide inclusive design by collaborating with manufacturers. is a conversational interface that allows people with visual impairment to interact seamlessly with the physical devices they already own, such as appliances in the kitchen or printers at work. NOMA eliminates the need to buy expensive assistive devices and promotes industry-wide inclusive design by collaborating with manufacturers. SensorTensor is an autonomous voice-as-a-feature platform for the Internet of Things. SensorTensor's design guarantees reliable protection of end-user privacy and security, making it an ideal choice for healthcare applications, smart home automation, robotics, and wearables. is an autonomous voice-as-a-feature platform for the Internet of Things. SensorTensor's design guarantees reliable protection of end-user privacy and security, making it an ideal choice for healthcare applications, smart home automation, robotics, and wearables. Human Dynamics is leveraging robotics capabilities to create a safer work environment, specifically for professions that require performing tasks at heights. Human Dynamics has developed a patent-pending drone attachment system that enables operators to perform maintenance and construction tasks from the safety of the ground. Today, drones are primarily used for inspection, but, with Human Dynamics, users can immediately fix problems found during inspections without the need for safety risks to workers or costly heavy machinery. The MIT student leaders who organized and ran the competition are co-managing directors Josh Creamer MS '20, PhD candidate, Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, Human-Machine Collaboration, and Jegadeesh Sithamparathas MBA '20. For further information, contact: Paul Denning or Patricia Favreau Director of Media Relations Associate Director of Media Relations 617-253-0576 617-253-3492 [email protected] [email protected] SOURCE MIT Sloan School of Management Related Links http://www.mitsloan.mit.edu A charge against a reporter arrested Monday in Asbury Park as police tried to get people off the streets following a George Floyd-related protest will be dropped, authorities said Tuesday. Gustavo Martinez Contreras, a multimedia journalist for the Neptune-based Asbury Park Press, was handcuffed and loaded into a police van while livestreaming as police ordered people in violation of the citys 8 p.m. curfew to disperse, according to witnesses. Martinez said he was charged with failure to disperse, booked at Belmar police headquarters and later released. I know that officers face enormous challenges while maintaining order during a chaotic situation, Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said on Twitter Tuesday. But Ive discussed this matter with local authorities and they will be dismissing the charge today. We will also figure out why this happened and make sure it doesnt happen again. Because in America, we dont lock up reporters for doing their job. Gustavo Martinez Contreras, a reporter for the Asbury Park Press, is taken into police custody after a march against police brutality in Asbury Park ended in violence on Monday June 1, 2020. Police physically dispersed the crowd approximately 2 hours after the city-wide curfew of 8 pm. Several protesters were also arrested and at least one Asbury Park police officer was injured in the melee.Andrew Mills | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni said the decision to break up the protest was a collective choice. The decision to disperse the remaining protestors in Asbury was a joint one made by this office and the Asbury Park police department, in collective consultation with a number of participating law enforcement agencies," Gramiccioni wrote in an email to NJ Advance Media. "This decision to break up the protest followed nearly (90 minutes) after the city-imposed emergency curfew was instituted for the safety and protection of Asbury Park residents and communities. Police announced on a loudspeaker at 9:30 p.m. that they would begin enforcing the 8 p.m. curfew. After some exchanges with protesters, officers in riot gear began forcing people out at about 10 p.m. Twelve people were arrested, including two juveniles on charges ranging from aggravated assault, resisting arrest and obstruction, State Police Superintendent Pat Callahan said. Three police officers were injured one suffered a fractured skull after being hit with a rock, a second was bitten on the leg and third needed stitches to the chin. A spokesman for the Asbury Park police didnt return two phone calls or an email Tuesday morning from NJ Advance Media asking for details on arrests. Asbury Park Press editors also couldnt immediately be reached. The protest was another in dozens held around New Jersey in response to the killing of a handcuffed black man in Minnesota. Floyd, 46, died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes while he was handcuffed on the ground. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with murder and manslaughter. He and three other police officers were previously fired. The peaceful Asbury Park protest near the citys post office was winding down shortly before 8 p.m. when a group that grew to approximately 100-200 people splintered off, according to Felicia Simmons, one of the events organizers. Police allowed people to linger until about 9:30 p.m. before attempting to clear the streets. Simmons was already home when the remaining crowd refused instructions from police to leave the area but praised the officers who were at the 5 p.m. rally, which featured about 12 speakers. She said she was dismayed when she learned police physically attempted to remove protesters after the rally concluded. There were two police officers who were basically my bodyguard, said Simmons, the mother of a 17-year-old son and a lifelong Asbury Park resident. They were with me the whole night and made sure I got to my car safely. Simmons added that nearly every officer at the rally joined protesters in kneeling at one point. It was a beautiful event, she said. We had two objectives. No. 1 we wanted to put the message of peace out there and No. 2 we wanted to make sure everyone here took (a positive message) away from the event. 25 George Floyd protest in Asbury Park ends in violence Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. NJ Advance Media staff writers Avalon Zoppo and Alex Napoliello contributed to this report. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. There is no evidence Britain will be struck by a second wave of Covid-19 - despite the widespread fears, according to a leading expert. Professor Hugh Pennington, an emeritus microbiologist at University of Aberdeen, said the notion of a second wave is based on outdated flu models. Scientists have repeatedly referred to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic as a sign the world is heading towards a devastating relapse in cases. The flu is biologically completely different from the coronavirus and should not be comparable, Professor Pennington added. It comes after the Government was forced to hit back at claims yesterday that easing the lockdown in England will 'inevitably' lead to a surge in cases. A sting of experts have warned that re-opening schools and letting as many as six people meet up is a huge gamble. Other scientists - including head the WHO European region, Dr Hans Kluge - have said the pandemic is far from over and health chiefs should not relax. It comes after the Government was forced to hit back at claims yesterday that easing the lockdown in England will 'inevitably' lead to a surge in cases. Pictured: People sunbathing in Brighton on May 31, a day before measures were loosened Professor Hugh Pennington, an emeritus microbiologist, said there is no evidence Britain will be struck by a second wave of Covid-19 Almost all scientists agree the infection is bound to re-emerge in a second wave in the absence of a vaccine or cure for the coronavirus. The biggest fear is the second wave will occur during the winter and coincide with flu season, which could overwhelm already swamped hospitals. Professor Pennington, however, said the evidence to support these claims is 'very weak'. SECOND 'BUMP' IS MORE LIKELY THAN WAVE, EXPERTS SAY Professor Hugh Pennington, an emeritus microbiologist at University of Aberdeen, has said there is no evidence there will be a second wave of the coronavirus, contradictory to the thoughts of others. But he said: 'If we get the easing of lockdown wrong, far more likely would be a continuation of infections, many in the form of localised outbreaks, but not waves or peaks.' Writing in The Daily Telegraph, he said Covid-19 tends to cause clusters of cases, which bodes well for the future. He said: 'In New Zealand (which may well have eradicated the virus), 41 per cent of cases occurred in 16 clusters of 13 or more cases in each. And, sadly, in the UK the virus has taken an enormous toll on residents of care homes, many of which have had multiple cases.' He noted the only country so far to have got the virus under control and then appeared to have suffered a relapse in cases is Singapore. This was related to the coronavirus spreading in a migrant-worker dormitory where control measures were lax. Professor Mark Woolhouse, of Edinburgh University, said it is more likely the UK will experience small outbreaks because the R rate of the coronavirus has been squased. At its peak, the reproduction or R R number was between two and three, which meant every infected person passed the virus on to two or three others. It is now between 0.7 and 0.9, putting it below the crucial level of one, which is when cases spiral out of control. Professor Woolhouse, who is part of the Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), told i: 'Am I concerned that the R number might creep above one? Yes I am. But am I concerned it will go back to where we were at the beginning of the first wave, no Im not. 'There is no prospect whatsoever that its going to go up to two or three again thats far, far from the reality of what we might reasonably expect. Im not so much concerned about a second wave, Im concerned about a second bump. 'The only way that a second wave could happen is if there were a complete collapse in lockdown and everybody just gave up on it despite what the Government said and thats just not going to happen.' The R number has been guiding Government on when to lift lockdown. But the K number will become crucial for fighting a potential second wave, scientists believe. The K number tracks the extent to which new outbreaks are caused by a few 'superspreading events', The Sunday Times reports. This K measure captures variation in the way a disease is spread. Not everyone passes the virus on at the same speed, and not every environment poses a risk to mass transmission. If the K figure is close to one, as with influenza, a virus will move relatively evenly through the population without variation. SARS-CoV-2 is estimated to have a large variation, which means it doesn't follow a simple pattern. In the case of Covid-19, the K is thought to be 0.1 to 0.5 per cent, according to researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Their findings suggest the majority of secondary transmission may be caused by a very small fraction of individuals. In other words, 10 per cent of people are highly infectious, and lead to 80 per cent of transmission. These people may be called 'super spreaders'. The other 90 per cent of individuals don't actually spread it to many other people. They are responsible for the remaining 20 per cent of Covid-19 transmission. Adam Kucharski, an associate professor at LSHTM who was involved with the research, said: 'If a handful of events generate most of your outbreak, then if you can find a way of identifying where and when those events are happening then that reduces far more of your transmission than if you were just trying to follow up every case as if they were the same.' Advertisement He made a similar claim in Scottish Parliament last month, saying he had seen 'no evidence' to suggest a deadlier second wave. Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon hit back at his claim, warning the science suggests 'there is a very real risk of a second wave'. Asked about Professor Pennington's comments at a briefing, she added she didn't know what he was basing his claim on. In a piece for the Daily Telegraph today, Professor Pennington admitted that he was a 'second-wave sceptic'. He noted that the concept of a second wave is based almost entirely on the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which came in three waves - spring 1918, autumn 1918 and winter 1919. Professor Pennington said it is yet to be explained why the virus disappeared before coming back and killing more people. It may be because the following waves were caused by a genetically different virus. There are no samples from that time to study now. Professor Pennington said coronaviruses, such as the new SARS-CoV-2, cannot be compared to flu because they are so different. Apart from the fact they are spread through coughing and sneezing, there is little to connect them. The flu has an R rate of seven, meaning one person passes it on to seven others on average. SARS-CoV-2's is between two and three. Strains of the flu tend to spread relatively evenly among people, but Covid-19 has much more variability, scientists say. It means Covid-19 commonly occurs in clusters, such as in care homes. They often can be traced back to one 'super spreader' person or event. Outbreaks in the future, therefore, will probably be localised instead, Professor Pennington wrote. 'Defeatist flu models still lurk behind current Covid-19 predictions,' Professor Pennington, ex-president of the Society for General Microbiology, said. 'That the virus will persist for ages is a flu concept. These predictions should be put to one side. 'Like SARS, and unlike flu, the virus is eradicable. If China and New Zealand are striving to be free of it, we should be, too.' Professor Pennington's view that the virus is 'eradicable' is in stark contrast to the beliefs of other experts. Dr Andrea Ammon, the EU's boss on disease control, has warned the virus is not going away any time soon because it is 'very well adapted to humans'. She has urged Europe to prepare for another crisis, which she said was inevitable because so few people will have developed COVID-19 immunity. In an interview with The Guardian on May 21 she said: 'The question is when and how big, that is the question in my view.' Dr Hans Kluge, director for the WHO European region, said he was 'very concerned' a surge in infections would coincide with other seasonal diseases such as the flu. Speaking exclusively to The Telegraph in mid-May, he cautioned that now is the time for 'preparation, not celebration' across Europe - even if countries are show positive signs of recovery. Figures show dwindling outbreaks across Europe. Yesterday Spain reported no new deaths, a huge milestone in their fight against the coronavirus. Experts have warned against slacking virus defences now, however. It's been a three and a half weeks since Prime Minister Boris Johnson triggered the first steps out of lockdown, which included an allowance on unlimited exercise and travelling to other parts of England. Any repercussions of the move would not become apparent until a few weeks later. Mr Johnson went one step further to re-open schools from June 1 - against teaching unions' wishes - and allow outdoor markets to start selling again. A series of experts have raised concern about the move to ease lockdown from Westminster - which has not been replicated in Scotland or Wales. Professor Devi Sridhar, who has been advising the Scottish government, warned it looks 'inevitable' that cases will rise again in England. 'I'm very sorry to say that I think it is right now inevitable looking at the numbers,' she told Sky News. 'If your objective is to contain the virus, to drive numbers down and to try to in a sense get rid of it so no-one is exposed to it, then it is not the right measure right now to open up. 'It's a big risk and gamble for exiting lockdown with a larger number of deaths than we did when we actually entered lockdown months back.' From the early days of the Covid-19 outbreak, scientists have been haunted by the example of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic - which is estimated to have killed 50million Overall, more people died from Spanish influenza than the number of people who died in the First World War Professor John Edmunds, an epidemiologist at the School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said the Prime Minister had 'clearly made a political decision' because the threat of a second peak remains high. Two other Sage experts lined up behind Professor Edmunds on Saturday to caution that measures were being relaxed when the infection rate was still not low enough. Professor Peter Openshaw, who sits on the the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) to the Government, said people must proceed with 'great caution' as the lockdown is eased. He told the BBC's Andrew Marr programme: 'At the moment, we still have quite a large number of cases out there in the community and I think unlocking too fast carries a great risk that all the good work that's been put in by everyone, to try to reduce transmission may be lost.' Former World Health Organisation director Professor Anthony Costello has predicted a resurgence of the virus without adequate contact tracing. In a scathing tweet on Saturday, Professor Costello said: 'We have 8,000 cases daily, a private testing system set up without connection to primary care, call-centre tracing that appears a fiasco, and no digital app. After 4 months. Unless the population has hidden (T cell?) immunity, we're heading for resurgence.' From the early days of the Covid-19 outbreak, scientists have been haunted by the example of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic - which is estimated to have killed 50million. The first wave of the virus was particularly deadly to the older generations and the vulnerable - much like what the world is currently experiencing with Covid-19. The second wave, which came in autumn of the same year after cases had dwindled, is believed to have been even deadlier than the first. The virus is thought to have mutated to a more life-threatening form and this time the virus began to affect young people. It reappeared again in Australia for the third wave the following winter before again spreading across the world. Although it was not as severe as the second wave it was still more deadly than the first. Another minor wave took a hold in spring 1920, affecting isolated areas such as New York City, as well as the UK and some South American islands, but compared to the previous waves the mortality rate was low. Overall, more people died from Spanish influenza than the number of people who died in the First World War. When setting out future plans the UK government and Public Health England has taken into account the lessons learned during the Spanish Flu pandemic but views it as an example of the 'reasonable worst case scenario'. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-03 00:01:51|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Zeynep Cermen ISTANBUL, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Customers entering a cafe in central Istanbul on Tuesday were surprised when they saw some well-dressed mannequins sitting at some tables among other customers. "My friend and I decided to have a chat in this cafe for the first time in three months as the figures related to the COVID-19 cases have been in decline for a while in Turkey," Mahmut Nuvit, a customer of the cafe, told Xinhua. "We thought it would be empty over hygiene and social distancing concerns," he continued with a smile on his face. "As soon as we stepped in, we noticed a different kind of crowd, and later realized that ... some were mannequins." The management of the Varuna cafe and restaurant in the crowded Beyoglu district on the European side of the city has recently decided to use mannequins to implement the social distancing rule differently. "Instead of leaving some of our tables empty, which would make the venue look bizarre and isolated, we simply treated the mannequins as our customers," Ulas Volkan Celik, a manager of Varuna, told Xinhua. On Monday, Turkey reopened restaurants, cafes, and many other facilities under strict precautions against the COVID-19 pandemic as the government decided to further ease restrictions. The health ministry demanded the facilities leave at least 1.5 meters between each table and 60 centimeters between the chairs to secure the social distancing rule. "We didn't want to close some of our tables to the service or remove them to follow the rules," Celik said. "After a brainstorming period, we came up with this creative idea." Now, there are a total of 16 mannequins sitting on eight out of 35 tables, all wearing daily outfits. The staff had spent almost three weeks in preparing them for the big reopening on Monday. "We found out that there are dressers specialized in dressing up mannequins," Celik explained the process. "But we did not apply to any stylist. We dressed our own clothes on mannequins," he added. The management has received a significant interest both from passersby and the customers, according to Celik. "Even at the stage of our preparation, those who saw the models walked in and started taking photos," he said, noting since the reopening, the customers have been saying of the cozy atmosphere inside the cafe. "There is nothing more repellent than an empty cafe or restaurant, no matter where you are in the world," Celik said. Enditem Highlights China: leading trade partner; contribute to 18 percent of Indias imports Import substitution plays to help de-risk supply chain Make in India thrust can benefit chemicals, durables, auto and APIs Export opportunity can amplify if global supply chain shifts Agrochemicals, APIs, contract manufacturers, capital goods to be watched __________________ China-India bilateral trade is a much debated topic in recent times due to multitude of factors ranging from challenges due to import dependency in some sectors to the business opportunities as the global supply chain potentially shifts from China to the rest of the world including India. To put it in perspective, China is Indias one of the leading trade partners and constitutes 9 percent of Indias total export and 18 percent of total merchandise imports. Import dependency on China for a range of raw materials (APIs, basic chemicals, agro-intermediates) and critical components (Auto, Durables, Capital goods) is skewed. To give a flavour, out of the respective imports, 20 percent of the auto components and 70 percent of electronic components come from China. Similarly, 45 percent of consumer durables, 70 percent of APIs and 40 percent of leather goods imported are from China. Source: Ministry of Commerce, CRISIL, Moneycontrol Research Import substitution aka Make in India For some of the sectors, the impending supply risk and the policy shift towards self-reliance is likely to translate into what is commonly referred to as make in India or import substitution. Even before current crises, various companies have been working towards import substitution as a key business case to succeed. In Chemicals, Amine players (Balaji Amines & Alkyl Amines), rubber chemicals (NOCIL), Carbon black (Himadri Speciality & Phillips Carbon), Engineering plastics (Bhansali Engineering) are the areas to look at as they remain beneficiary of governments steps to curtail import dependence. Further, basic chemicals can gain traction because of the imperative to minimize supply chain risk. Companies to look at are Deepak Nitrite and GNFC as China factor has brought focus on key raw materials such as Acetone, Phenol, Aniline, Acetic Acid and Nitric Acid which are heavily imported. In case of Pharma, import dependency for key starting materials/APIs means companies such as Aarti Drugs, Granules India, JB Chemicals, IOL Chemicals would also be worth tracking. Some of them are key manufactures for drugs/APIs such as Paracetamol, Metronidazole and Ibuprofen and are increasingly attempting backward integration. In the consumer durable space, the trend of in-house manufacturing is as well been evident for domestic players such as Havells and Voltas which have recently set-up in-house manufacturing facilities to reduce import dependencies. In the Auto equipment segment, Lumax Industries is setting up of an electronics facility for localising component manufacturing. Further, Maruti is focused towards manufacturing various imported electronics parts, locally after witnessing recent supply disruptions. Export opportunity: Supply chain shift away from China On the export front, we think opportunity for Indian manufacturers are humongous if there is a sizeable shift in opportunities from China to India. A look at the India-USA trade gives some clue. A good portion of Indias current exports to the USA consist of apparel, pharma, chemicals, vehicles and furniture. However, except for a few sectors such as pharma, fish/sea creatures and carpets, exports from China are several times more than that of India. As per our estimates, out of 1200-odd categories (HS-4 digit commodity classification) in which India exports to the US, there are 720 items where China caters to at least 10 percent of US imports. The point we want to emphasise is that the breadth of opportunity for India is huge. Even if 5 percent of US imports shift from China to India in these categories, the opportunity size is $140 billion. Table: Exports to the USA If we look at countries beyond the US, Chinas wallet share in the imports of countries such as Japan, Australia and European Union ranges from 22-25 percent. The gap between India and China in these markets is a bit higher. And so notwithstanding competition from Korea and Taiwan (high value-added products), and Vietnam, Bangladesh and Thailand (lower-end products), opportunity is huge. Table: Individual countries share in import to Japan, EU & Australia Having said that there are multiple sectoral opportunities which investors can keep an eye on: Chemicals: Sub-segments such as aromatic chemicals, fluorochemicals dyes & pigments and contract research and manufacturing services (CRAMS) /Contract manufacturing are expected to continue to benefit from this trend. In recent times business inquiries from developed markets have increased with the intention of diversification of supply chain. Time and again, such opportunities have been called out by the likes of NOCIL, Aarti industries and Atul industries. One of the ways this opportunity can express is with multi-year dedicated deals as exhibited by Aarti Industries and Navin Fluorine. Agrochemicals: UPL, PI Industries, Bharat Rasayan, Excel Industries, Insecticides India are the names that are positioned to benefit from the shift and would be worth watching out for. PI Industries indicated that it has witnessed big order wins and a significant surge in enquiries and is ready for high growth in the CSM (Custom Synthesis Manufacturing) segment. UPL, another major player in this space, sees this as an opportunity to seize market share and the management believes that there is opportunity for UPL to emerge as an alternative supply source. Pharma/APIs: On the API space, companies which appear to be well positioned given the wide portfolio are Laurus Labs, Solara Active, Ipca labs and Divis Lab. Divis Lab has recently completed Rs 1700 crore expansion plan and as 60 percent of business comes from CRAMS. It can further enhance its position as a global sourcing partner. Further, Fermenta Biotech which has a significant market share in the Vitamin D3 API can benefit as it competes with Chinese players in the global market. In the formulation space, companies such as Cipla, Dr Reddys, Cadila Health having a reasonable export exposure particularly in the USA market and demands attention. Further, companies better positioned for complex generics such Biocon, Lupin and Dr Reddys should also be kept on a close watch. Durables: Traction for contract manufacturers is a likely fall out of reduced import dependency. Last year, contract manufacturer Dixon Technologies had indicated the company is looking to scale up its presence in the export market through the lighting and mobiles segment. Likewise, AC manufacturer Amber Enterprises could also benefit from the market opportunities thrown across by the pandemic. Auto component makers: Many companies associated with making components are expected to gain. In the Electricals segment, Nippon Electricals is a key player. In suspension & braking part, Jamna Auto, Gabriel India, Munjal Showa are the companies which are expected to benefit and in the cooling systems category, Subros is expected to hog the limelight. Capital goods: MNCs with the technological advantage and strong parentage in global markets, such as Cummins, ABB and Siemens with reasonable export exposure to benefit. Overall, this global reset of supply chains is expected to bring a varied response from Indian companies, depending on their individual strengths. The overriding objective of the customers is to reduce their supply chain risk. To that extent, the driver of this new phase of globalisation, unlike the one seen in the first decade of the 21st century, is to thrive on reliability rather than cost economics. We may see a wave of efforts across sectors aiming at backward integration and import substitution. We are also likely to witness immense export opportunities as the global supply sourcing diversifies. Having said that there is a big asking rate for factor market reforms and competition of other destinations in Asia (Vietnam, Indonesia, and Bangladesh) which Indian policy makers and corporate India got to closely watch. For more research articles, visit our Moneycontrol Research page Photo: pshab/Flickr Just beyond the coastguard station at the end of the promenade at Crosby Beach, in Liverpool, is a flat stretch of sand littered with broken bricks, stones, mortar, marble, tilework and more, rendered smooth and round by the action of waves over many decades. It looks like construction rubble, but there is a deep history in these pulverized, glassy bricks. From August 1940 to May 1941, Liverpool was pounded by the Luftwaffe, Nazi Germanys air force, as part of The Blitz, where the Germans conducted mass air attacks against major industrial and military targets, as well as strategic towns and cities, across the United Kingdom. Liverpool was targeted because of its port, which was the largest on the west coast and of significant importance to the British war effort. Liverpool became the second hardest hit after London during The Blitz, with 4,000 dead and 70,000 people made homeless. The bombing flattened over 6,500 houses as well as thousands of shops, offices, hospitals and factories. After the war ended, the city began clearing its streets of rubble and dumped them on Crosby Beach as a barrier to prevent coastal erosion, where it remains today. Walking along this 2km-long coast, one can still pick out the beautifully carved stones and brickwork that once adorned Liverpools banks, offices, hotels, and residential buildings. Photo: Sarah Thomo/Flickr Every stone comes from a bombed building, every brick comes from a bombed house, perhaps from a house where people died. And so this long field of stones and bricks is a war memorial, writes Liverpool historian and writer David Lewis. For the past couple of years, an archaeology student at the University of Durham, Emma Marsh, has been trying to identify the origin of thousands of pieces of debris on Crosby Beach. I can see people's lives, people's homes amongst this rubble, Marsh told BBC. Whenever she finds something interesting, like elaborate masonry or lettering, she uses photogrammetry to document the objects in 3-D. Then she uses Twitter to announce her finds, and within minutes people who have lived in Liverpool all their life and know the style of architecture offer her help. Cross-referencing that information with her own research that includes aerial footage archives, as well as search engine street views and her own photographs, has enabled Marsh to recreate Liverpools lost buildings one brick at a time. Despite the significance of this rubble, many visitors are unaware of the history. Those who are, will often take away pieces as souvenirs. I really want there to be signs put up at the beach, Marsh says. If you dont know what the rubble is before you go there, you wont know. A panoramic view of Liverpool after the bombings. Photo: Allan Rostron/Flickr Photo: Sarah Thomo/Flickr Photo: pshab/Flickr Photo: pshab/Flickr Photo: milknosugar/Flickr Double Fine looks to be winding down its Double Fine Presents publishing label following its acquisition by Microsoft last year. The company broke the news on the Double Fine Presents website, explaining that after becoming a part of Microsoft Game Studios family it "will no longer be publishing games." "Since 2014, Double Fine Productions has published independently developed games under the label Double Fine Presents," reads a small update. "In 2019 we became part of Microsoft Game Studios, and as a result we will no longer be publishing games. We hope to continue celebrating independent games however we can, through initiatives such as our annual festival Day of the Devs." The news was corroborated by Gang Beasts developer Boneloaf, which yesterday announced it will now be self-publishing the title because Double Fine Presents is "winding down." The fate of the publishing arm had been up in the air until now, with some studios cutting ties with Presents last year to self-publish, while others like Knights and Bikes developer Foam Sword proceeded to launch their game with the label's backing. Lawmakers have approved the Human Security Act or new anti-terrorism law, giving the government more power to restrict dissent. International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has joined its affiliate the National Union of the Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) in condemning the bill and rejecting legislation for its disturbing implications of the rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution. On May 29 the House committees on Public Order and Safety and on National Defense and Security voted to adopt the Senates version of a new Human Security Act. The House of Representatives are expected to debate and fast-track its approval before they go on a two-month break from June 6. President Duterte urged the swift passing of the bill, arguing the Philippines is facing a menace of terrorist acts for the preservation of national security, Duterte wrote in a letter to House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano. The controversial bill will extend the number of days suspected terrorists or dissenters can be arrested without a warrant, from three days under the previous law to up to 14 days extendable to another 10 days. The law also removes the payment in damages for a person wrongfully accused of terrorism is arrested. The bill allows the police and military to conduct 60-day surveillance activity on suspected terrorists. In a statement NUJP expressed alarm over Congress taking advantage to the Covid-19 pandemic to ram through the passage of a bill that should aptly be known as the Terror Bill. Even without the proposed law, the country has seen how agencies of the state have irresponsibly and illegally accused legitimate organisations, including NUJP, of supposed links to the communist rebel movement, without any evidence. NUJP rejects this legislation for its horrendous implications on our people's full enjoyment of the rights and liberties our Constitution guarantees. NUJP calls on Congress to do the right thing by the people you profess to represent and work for, and amend this legislation into one that puts primacy on the defense and respect of rights in the fight against terrorism, NUJP added. The IFJ said: IFJ expresses its concerns on the approval of the law. The bill can be used to silence critics and criminalise opposition of the government. It can endanger the basic rights and freedoms. Amid the global health crisis, the government should not use the pandemic to derail democracy and human rights. GENEVA, June 2 (Reuters) - Protests in U.S. cities triggered by the killing of George Floyd underscore "police violence" against people of colour, and historic inequalities in access to health, education and jobs, the top United Nations human rights official said on Tuesday. The COVID-19 pandemic was having a "devastating impact" on people of African descent and ethnic minorities in Brazil, Britain, France and the United States, Michelle Bachelet added in a statement calling for improved access to testing and healthcare for racial and ethnic minorities. "This virus is exposing endemic inequalities that have too long been ignored. In the United States, protests triggered by the killing of George Floyd are highlighting not only police violence against people of colour, but also inequalities in health, education, employment and endemic racial discrimination," Bachelet said. At least five U.S. police officers were hit by gunfire during violent protests over the May 25 death of Floyd in police custody, police and media said on Monday, hours after President Donald Trump said he would deploy the military if unrest did not stop. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Alex Richardson) "It's time to STOP TALKING about doing better. We must DO better." The New York and New Jersey Supplier Development Council (The Council) President and CEO Terrence Clark released a statement addressing the recent murder of George Floyd and the systemic racism it brought to the surface. His statement is below. Today I write with a heavy heart and a troubled soul. I write not only as president and CEO of The Council the largest organization in the New York/New Jersey region advocating for greater diversity and inclusivity for minority business enterprises (MBEs) but also as a Black man in America and the father of a 22-year-old son. As you read this blog, please understand that I cannot separate the reality of my blackness from the importance of my message. It has never been easy to be Black in America. And today, 401 years after the beginning of slavery and four years after the first African-American President of the United States finished two terms in office, the state of Black America continues to deteriorate all around us. For the last three months, Black lives across our nation suffered disproportionately under the weight of the COVID-19 virus. The pandemic shined a glaring light on ethnic and racial healthcare and economic disparities. This past week, the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, beneath the unyielding knees of a white Minneapolis police officer illuminates that light once again. People of color angrily shout, wonder and ask, Will we ever be treated as human beings with respect and dignity? With exasperation, I must answer, I just dont know. Yet, we cant let these mistreatments define who we are as individuals or as a people. We are human beings worthy of respect and dignity. Were not animals that must be tamed, tamped down and controlled. Like many, I hurt deeply when I first saw the George Floyd video. I realize that technology, and not actions, separate us from the America of today and that of 30 years ago. Thankfully, most everyone owns a cellphone with a camera. Video evidence makes it difficult for bad actors to get away with the senseless killing of Black men, women and children. This in-your-face evidence also makes it hard for us to remain silent or pretend that all is well. Over the past week, the hurt, pain, and anguish of Americas marginalized people turned from grief to anger and frustration. Acceptable peaceful protests grew into alarming violent uprisings. The Council continues to fight against systemic racism, as we have done since our inception. MBEs continually suffer because of unconscious biases, misconceptions, fears, and discrimination. In the face of COVID-19, the Central Park accuser and the George Floyd murder, The Council commits to redoubling its efforts as an essential worker in securing the change our society so urgently needs. The Council seeks unity in the black, brown and MBE communities. We seek a commitment from all MBEs to do better by and for each other. Lets embrace and demonstrate to the world that we are a unified MBE family. Once one MBE succeeds, we reach back and help another. When any of us does well, we all prosper. Lets raise our voices in peaceful protest and strategic planning. Lets make our voices count at the ballot box. Lets be the change we need in America. Lets stand together in unity. Sincerely, Terrence Clark President & CEO The New York & New Jersey Minority Supplier Development Council Getty Images Two Atlanta police officers have been fired after they were filmed using "excessive force" against two college students amidst George Floyd protests on Saturday, the state's mayor has said. Bodycam footage from the incident appeared to show officers smashing the window of a car and using a taser on the man in the driver's seat. Officers then seemingly dragged the student out of the car and detained him on the pavement. The woman in the passenger's seat, who was also forcibly removed from the vehicle according to reports, told CNN that the incident was the worst experience of [her] life. Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields said she recognised the two as Spelman College and Morehouse College students, the broadcaster reported. Atlantas mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, announced that two officers had been fired on Sunday after an extensive review of the footage. Five officers were involved in the incident in total. As we watch the video today, it became abundantly clear immediately with the young woman that this force was excessive, Mayor Bottoms said according to CNN. It also became abundantly clear that the officer who tased the young man needed to be terminated as well. Another three officers connected to the incident were said to have been put on desk duty pending determination of any other disciplinary action that should be taken. The mayor called the footage of the arrest disturbing on many levels. The two students were in their vehicle amidst the Floyd protests in Atlanta on Saturday. According to CNN, one of the officers claimed he used his taser because he was unsure if either student was armed. The protests in Atlanta come following the death of Floyd, an unarmed black man, who died after in police custody after a Minneapolis police officer pinned him to the ground by his neck for a prolonged period of time. Outrage over Floyds death has spiralled in the last week with violent protests and demonstrators breaking out across the US and in particular Minneapolis, where Floyd died. Story continues The demonstrations have extended to greater themes regarding the death of black people at the hands of police, and institutional racism throughout the country. Mayor Adams ordered charges to be dropped against the man involved in the incident, according to CNN. The woman was reportedly not charged. Read more Who was George Floyd? Trump calls Minneapolis a 'laughing stock' for George Floyd protests Fury as protesters arrested without being read their rights Ariana Grande joins peaceful protest for George Floyds death Atlanta protesters attack CNN building as mayor says: 'Go home' With cyclone 'Nisarga' set to make landfall on Wednesday, Maharashtra and Gujarat activated their disaster response mechanism, deploying National Disaster Response Force teams and evacuating people from areas likely to be hit. IMAGE: Fishing boats are anchored at Uttan dock ahead of the Cyclone Nisarga, in Thane, on Tuesday. Photograph: PTI Photo The two western states, already battling a raging pandemic, which has put their health infrastructure under severe strain, opened new fronts to tackle the fallout of the storm which is expected to make a landfall close to Mumbai on Wednesday. As Maharashtra and Gujarat -- likely to be impacted the most -- braced for the cyclone, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to their chief ministers and assured them all possible help from the Centre. Cyclone 'Nisarga' is very likely to intensify into a 'severe cyclonic storm' over the next 12 hours and cross Maharashtra and South Gujarat coast on Wednesday afternoon, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Tuesday. 'Cyclonic Storm NISARGA over Arabian Sea. Very likely to intensify into a Severe Cyclonic Storm next 12 hrs,' tweeted deputy director general of meteorology K S Hosalikar, IMD, Mumbai, on Tuesday afternoon. 'To cross N Mah & adjoining S Guj coast betn Harihareshwar & Daman, close to Alibag (Raigad) a/n 03rd Jun as a SCS with a max sustained wind 100-110 gusting to 120 kmph,' he added. As Maharashtra and Gujarat braced for the cyclone, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to their chief ministers and assured them all possible help from the Centre. 10 teams of the NDRF have been deployed in parts of Maharashtra for rescue operations in view of the cyclonic storm, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said. 'Out of the 16 NDRF units, 10 have been deployed for rescue operation during the cyclone, and 6 SDRF units are in reserve,' the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said in a graphic shared on Twitter. It said precautions will be taken during the relief and rehabilitation works, considering prevalence of COVID-19 in the state. Elaborating on the government's preparedness for the approaching cyclonic storm, the CMO tweeted that an alert has been issued for Mumbai city and suburbs, Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts. Meanwhile, Thackeray's office said those staying in 'kuccha' houses are being moved to safer places. 'Slum-dwellers in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, particularly those living in low-lying areas, have been instructed to evacuate,' it said. The CMO said non-COVID hospitals are being made available to deal with any medical emergency. The state government is also taking measures to prevent power outages and precautions in chemical industries and the nuclear power plant in Palghar and Raigad districts, it said. Town planning authority MMRDA on Tuesday said that nearly 150 patients at its COVID facility in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai have been shifted to another location as a precaution in the wake of the cyclone. 'The impending threat of Nisarga Cyclone is upon Mumbai. Although the COVID-19 hospital can sustain strong winds of up to 80-100 km per hour, however, with human lives at stake, as a precautionary measure, all the patients (about 150) from the hospital are being shifted by BMC,' the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) said in a tweet. IMAGE: Fire brigade rescue team stationed at Girgaon Chowpatty after a red alert was issued due to the possibility of Cyclone Nisarga, in Mumbai, on Tuesday. Photograph: Shashank Parade/PTI Photo The MMRDA has set up a 1,008-bed facility, where nearly 150 patients are taking treatment. The Western Naval Command has put its teams on alert and is ready to respond to the cyclone, a defence spokesperson said. The Navy has has kept five flood teams and three diving teams on stand-by in Mumbai, the official said. These teams, trained and equipped for rescue operations, are stationed at various naval areas across Mumbai and can provide early response over a larger area, he said. A recce of known flood-prone areas has been undertaken and all necessary preparations are in place. Similar arrangements have been set up within the Karwar Naval Area, Goa Naval Area as well as Gujarat Daman and Diu Naval Areas, he said. Raigad district collector and superintendent of police visited villages situated along the coastlines of Alibaug, Murud, Shrivardhan, Mhasala and Nagaon Revas areas, which are likely to be affected by the cyclone, an official said. "We have evacuated more than 3,500 people from koliwadas (fishermen colonies) and temporary houses to safer structures like schools, community halls and government buildings," superintendent of police Raigad, Anil Paraskar said. The police have also requested people to stay indoors and not venture out near the coast, he said, adding that people have been assured of all possible help from the authorities during this time. Private and public sector establishments including RCF, GAIL and JSW have also been asked to take precautions, the official said. At least four teams of the NDRF have been deployed at Alibaug, Shrivardhan among other areas to tackle any emergency situation, Paraskar said. Similar measures are being taken by the police and administrations in Mumbai, Thane and Palghar districts, an official from Konkan Divisional Commissionerate office said. In Gujarat, the administration has started evacuating over 78,000 people from four districts close to the coastline, officials said on Tuesday 13 teams of the NDRF and six of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have been deployed at different locations, Relief Commissioner Harshad Patel told reporters in Gandhinagar. As many as 78,971 persons living near the seashore in Valsad, Surat, Navsari and Bharuch districts are being shifted to safer locations, he said. Patel said the administration has identified 140 buildings which will be utilised as temporary shelters for the evacuees in these four districts. "In view of the coronavirus pandemic, rescue teams have been given PPE kits and asked to take precautionary measures at the shelters, such as maintaining social distancing and providing masks to the evacuees," said Patel. In a relief to people living near the shore, the IMD indicated the cyclone may not make a landfall on the Gujarat coast. However, it will have an impact in the form of gusty winds coupled with heavy rainfall in the coastal belt, Gujarat's MeT centre director Jayanta Sarkar said. "As per the present predictions, the cyclone will make a landfall near Alibaug (near Mumbai). Though the cyclone will not cross south Gujarat, it will leave its impact in the form of gusty winds and heavy rainfall," said Sarkar. Mumbai hasn't 'experienced a serious cyclone landfall since 1891', according to Adam Sobel, professor of atmospheric science at Columbia University. Mumbai experienced severe floods in 2005, and more recently in 2017 and 2019, but none of them were due to cyclones. All that could change on Wednesday when a severe cyclonic storm with wind speeds from 100 to 120 kmph could hit the city and India's western coast. The IMD is predicting heavy rainfall, squally winds, very rough seas and storm surges inundating low lying areas of the city. Photo: The Canadian Press Cars are lined up in the lot of a Chevrolet dealership in Richmond, Va., on Wednesday, April 26, 2017. DesRosiers Automotive Consultants says Canadian auto sales dropped by 44 per cent in May, an improvement from the estimated 74.6-per-cent decline in April when the COVID-19 outbreak first affected a full month of sales. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Steve Helber DesRosiers Automotive Consultants says Canadian auto sales dropped by 44 per cent in May, an improvement from the estimated 74.6-per cent decline in April when the COVID-19 outbreak first affected a full month of sales. An estimated 113,224 new light vehicles were sold last month, up from 45,833 sold in April when sales were on par with the early 1950s. Analyst Dennis DesRosiers says May's decline evokes some cautious optimism as "the first tentative shoots of recovery spring up from a badly damaged marketplace." Sales dropped 48.3 per cent in March when widespread restrictions first went into place. The three months easily eclipsed the previous record for a monthly drop of 27.7 per cent set in February 2009 amid the worst of the Great Recession. The new light vehicle sales market may have begun the climb back to recovery as dealerships slowly reopened with reduced hours and appointment-only visits. He says "a touch of optimism" for the coming weeks is warranted but the situation remains in flux and could still face additional challenges from the pandemic that forced a government-imposed lockdown. Mr Trump poses with a bible outside St Johns Church across Lafayette Park from the White House (AP) US President Donald Trump on Monday suggested he would use federal troops to end unrest that has erupted following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man killed in police custody last week. "If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them," Trump said during brief remarks at the White House. The demonstrations have been largely peaceful, but police in some cities have used force against journalists and protesters, and protesters have clashed with police. Many U.S. cities have set curfews. To deploy the armed forces, Trump would need to formally invoke a group of statutes known as the Insurrection Act. WHAT IS THE INSURRECTION ACT? Under the US Constitution, governors generally have the authority to maintain order within state borders. This principle is reflected in a law called the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally prohibits the federal military from participating in domestic law enforcement. The Insurrection Act, which dates to the early 1800s, is an as exception to principles later codified in the Posse Comitatus Act. The Insurrection Act permits the president to send in US forces to suppress a domestic insurrection that has hindered the normal enforcement of US law. CAN TRUMP SEND IN TROOPS WITHOUT A GOVERNOR'S APPROVAL? Yes. The law lays out a scenario in which the president is required to have approval from a state's governor or legislature, and also instances where such approval is not necessary, said Robert Chesney, a professor of national security law at the University of Texas. Historically, in instances where the Insurrection Act was invoked, presidents and governors have usually agreed on the need for troops, said Thaddeus Hoffmeister, a law professor at the University of Dayton. In 2005, former President George W. Bush decided not to invoke the Insurrection Act to send active-duty troops to Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in part because the state's then-governor opposed the move. HAS IT BEEN INVOKED BEFORE? Yes. The Insurrection Act has been invoked on dozens of occasions through U.S. history. Since the civil rights movement of the 1960s, however, its use has become "exceedingly rare," according to a report by the Congressional Research Service. The Insurrection Act was last used in 1992, when the acquittal of four Los Angeles police officers in the beating of black motorist Rodney King led to deadly riots. CAN A COURT STRIKE DOWN TRUMP'S APPLICATION OF THE LAW? Hoffmeister said he did not think invoking the Insurrection Act was warranted because governors can handle the current unrest through their criminal justice systems. "The Insurrection Act should only be used in dire situations and I don't think the circumstances right now call for it," Hoffmeister said. But Chesney said a successful legal challenge to Trump's use of the law was "very unlikely." Courts have historically been very reluctant to second-guess a president's military declarations, he said. "The law, for all practical purposes, leaves this to the president with very little judicial review with any teeth," Chesney said. "That may be a terrible state of affairs, but that's what it is." Experts say it's not a good idea to warm up your car in winter Experts say it's not a good idea to warm up your car in winter. Here's why. Manga artist George Akiyama, known as the author of the "Haguregumo" manga series, died on May 12, major publisher Shogakukan Inc. announced Monday. He was 77. The manga creator, whose real name was Yuji Akiyama, was born in Tokyo and grew up in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture. He made his debut as a manga artist with the gag manga "Gaikotsu Kun" in 1966. In 1968, his series "Patman X" received an award for manga for children from publisher Kodansha Ltd. He started writing the "Asura" and "Zeni Geba" series in 1970, both focused on human morals in extremis. The controversial works were ruled harmful in some areas in Japan, due to their violent and shocking depictions. In 1973, Akiyama started working on the "Haguregumo" series, depicting human events in the later years of the Tokugawa shogunate period. The Council of Europe has urged Ukraine to implement two recommendations of 2017 in the sphere of combating discrimination. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) said this in a report published on Tuesday, June 2, according to an Ukrinform correspondent. "In its report on Ukraine (fifth monitoring cycle) published on 19 September 2017, ECRI strongly recommended that sexual orientation and gender identity are specifically included as grounds in Article 161(1) and (2) of the Criminal Code as well as in all the aggravated forms of offences and the general provisions on aggravating circumstances under Article 67(1)(3), " the report reads. The second recommendation to the Ukrainian authorities was to waive court fees in cases of Roma seeking to prove their identity for the purpose of obtaining personal identification documents. ECRI should monitor the implementation of the two recommendations not later than two years following the publication of the report. op A day of peaceful protests continued in a few New Jersey towns on Tuesday as demonstrators gathered to call for an end to police brutality after the death of George Floyd last week. A mid-morning march was held in Toms River where police walked alongside residents from a shopping center on Route 37 down to the Ocean County courthouse, chanting I cant breathe, according to video from the scene. Further south along the Jersey Shore, people gathered in Somers Point and marched toward Ocean City over the 9th Street Bridge Tuesday and ended at the public safety building where police officers spoke to the crowd, took a knee with fellow protestors and joined them in a nine-minute moment of silence. Black lives matter. All lives matter, said Michelle Kola Hunt, a Somers Point resident who was marching across the bridge Tuesday morning. Right is right and wrong is wrong. Its time to take a stand, a peaceful stand, which were out here doing now. Hopefully, it stays like this. The marches stem from those who are protesting against the death of Floyd, a Minneapolis man who died after an officer, Derek Chauvin, placed a knee on his neck, hampering Floyds ability to breath. Chauvin and three other officers from the Minneapolis Police Department were fired, and Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Demonstrations have sprung up across the county, calling for an end to police brutality. The dozens of demonstrations held in New Jersey have for the most part been peaceful, however there have also been looting and other acts of violence and vandalism that occurred in Atlantic City, Trenton and again in Asbury Park on Monday night that have kept police departments and some local businesses on edge. Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian said in a statement Monday that the police were coordinating with several other agencies and "preparing for any potential situation. Windows of some storefronts appeared to be boarded up in Somers Point ahead of the demonstration. Police gather in the parking lot of a liquor store in Somers Point as a protest gets underway. Windows were boarded up of nearby businesses as a precaution after vandalism and looting has occurred after other protests in New Jersey and across the country. Cars are still honking their horns in support pic.twitter.com/VSnVcrkbk5 Chris Franklin (@cfranklinnews) June 2, 2020 Protestors wore masks while carrying signs reading No Justice, No Peace and Black Lives Matter as they marched across the bridge on the pedestrian walkway into the Jersey Shore town. Cars honked to show support as they traveled across the bridge into Ocean City. Police officers on bikes rode alongside the demonstrators. The crowd continued over the causeway and into Ocean City, down West Avenue more than a 2.5-mile walk. Multiple teachers were seen in the crowd. One carried a sign that said My black students matter," and anothers read teachers know how much black lives matter. In Ocean City, the march continued to the front of the police station where laid face-first on the ground saying I cant breathe and mama as well as reciting the names of people who were killed by police. In another moment, they all sat in complete silence. Meanwhile, police looked on quietly until the joined in and spoke to the crowd. I get it from both sides. I understand both sides, said Ty Rolls, an Ocean City police sergeant who is black. His voice cracked with emotion as he spoke. The problem is its a lack of education. We dont teach the real American history. We dont teach about the ancestry of black people and black leaders and what they did to get here. If they did what they did and it changed the world, then why are we here now? So apparently, the peaceful protests back then the riots back then they didnt work. But this is what I love. " Mama" is being yelled once again. pic.twitter.com/SGbN4Xi1ak Chris Franklin (@cfranklinnews) June 2, 2020 It was one of 21 demonstrations that were to take place on Tuesday, according to State Police Colonel Patrick J. Callahan, who said during Gov. Phil Murphys press briefing on Tuesday that police were monitoring all of them. On Monday, protesters took to the streets of Rio Grande. Online videos showed the protesters were chanting phrases such as Black Lives Matter and I cant breathe while situated near the corner of Route 47 and Route 9. Demonstrations were peaceful in Asbury Park until about 9:30 p.m., when police in riot gear tried to disperse crowds that were in violation of an 8 p.m. curfew. Protestors march across the bridge into Ocean City, New Jersey on Tuesday. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here. Chris Franklin may be reached at cfranklin@njadvancemedia.com. Cirque du Soleil's X: The Land of Fantasy, a resident show in Hangzhou, the capital city of East China's Zhejiang province, will be the first production by the Canadian circus company to resume performances on June 3. The June 3 performance will be attended by medical workers and those who have worked on the frontlines of the fight against the novel coronavirus, according to Xia Xiaoyu, deputy general manager in charge of the culture and tourism department at Hangzhou Xintiandi group. Xia was speaking before a rehearsal attended by members of the media on May 31. Jointly produced by Cirque du Soleil and the Hangzhou Xintiandi Group, X: The Land of Fantasy premiered on Aug 9, 2019. The company has since put up 111 shows that were seen by more than 90,000 people. According to local regulations, the theater will be able to open 50 percent of its more than 1,400 seats the performances. Although hosting below full capacity means not being able to cover operational costs, Xia said: "The show must go on. We cannot let the fire die outfor months we were training and waiting, believing this will pass and life will come back to normal." Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cirque du Soleil was by late March forced to shutter almost all of its operations and lay off 95 percent of its staff. On May 6, the company announced that it received an emergency injection of $50 million from three shareholders, among which was China's Fosun Group. In Hangzhou, the production team behind X: The Land of Fantasy has been largely unaffected, except for the absence of 20 expat staff workers who are unable to return to Hangzhou because of travel bans. "We have managed to hire a few Chinese artists, whose international contracts were canceled because of the pandemic," Xia said. "We are also in close contact with our overseas colleagues and are looking forward to their return." The RDS group of road construction companies annually congratulates children from needy families on World Children's Day. This year more than 50 multi-child families and children with disabilities registered at the Prymorsky territorial social services center in Odesa received gifts on World Children's Day, the co-founder of the group, Yevhen Konovalov, said. He noted that the company could not organize its annual concert for children due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Therefore it decided to present its young care recipients with sweets and tickets to the dolphin show valid until the end of the quarantine. RDS Group is one of the top three road construction companies of Ukraine. It includes Kyivshliakhbud and Rostdorstroy. Its core business is construction, modernization and maintenance of roads and bridges, construction of airfield complexes. As of April 2020, the company operates in eight regions of Ukraine and has ten production facilities. Today the group carries out the repairs of the N-21 highway in Luhansk region within the Big Construction program. A part of the road connecting Severodonetsk and Stanytsia Luhanska is the only entry point to the temporarily occupied territory of Donbas. The company is also building concrete road N-31 Dnipro-Reshetylivka in Poltava region and overhauls the N-14 Kropyvnytsky-Mykolaiv highway. The RDS group of road construction companies is also implementing a project financed by the World Bank for repairs of the M-03 Kyiv-Kharkiv-Dovzhansky highway. The ultimate beneficial owners of RDS are Ukrainian citizens Yuriy Shumakher and Yevhen Konovalov. 02.06.2020 LISTEN A Deputy Minister of Information Pius Hadzide is asking the Auditor-General Daniel Domelevo to strongly resist a call on him by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), to audit some GHS208.3 million used in providing food and water to more than 400,000 vulnerable Ghanaians under the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme (CAP) during the three-week lockdown. The biggest opposition party made the call on Monday, 1 June 2020 at a press conference where the Ranking Member of the Finance Committee of Parliament, Mr Cassiel Ato Forson, said Ghanaians have been subjected to unprecedented levels of profligacy, waste and corruption under the Akufo-Addo government in the last three-and-a-half years. According to him, the government must be made to account for fund expended during the three-week lockdown. The low coverage and haphazard implementation of these interventions during the lockdown period, specifically the distribution of free hot meals and dry food to the vulnerable, as well as the supply of tankers of water to deprived households, give us cause for concern that these funds were not judiciously utilised by the government, he added. Indeed, we have in our possession, an audio recording from Kumasi-based Silva FM, in which market women at Tafo Pankrono have confirmed that eggs meant for the vulnerable under the CAP have been diverted and sold on the market by persons associated with certain government functionaries in the area, Mr Ato Forson said. In a response, however, Mr Hadzide said: I find that call premature and ill-conceived. The NDC should refrain from this penchant of wanting to dictate how statutory institutions should do their business, he warned, adding: I dont really understand why the NDC feels that they can determine to the Auditor-General, how the Auditor-General conducts his business. I think that this positioning of the NDC, if not resisted strongly by the Auditor-General himself, will seek to suggest that the NDC intends to, or has been controlling the Auditor-General and that would be a negative verdict, a very terrible impression on the integrity of the Auditor-General, who, we, also, much respect in this country, Mr Hadzide noted. A few days ago, former Deputy Minister of Energy Mr John Jinapor accused the Akufo-Addo-led government of using the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to drain the countrys reserves and called on the government to prioritise its expenditure in order to protect the public purse. This followed the recent announcement by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta that the central bank had decided to grant the government a GHS10 billion support. Mr Ofori-Atta on Friday, 29 May 2020, in a statement presented to Parliament, confirmed the BoGs decision to lend GHS10 billion to the government with a 2-year moratorium for 10 years. The Governor of the central bank had earlier confirmed before the appearance of Mr Ofori-Atta in parliament that the first tranche, totalling GHS5.5 billion at the rate of 14.5 per cent, had been made to the government. However, the former Deputy Minister has described the action by the central bank as illegal and a clear violation of the Bank of Ghana (BOG) Act. In a write-up, Mr Jinapor noted: The Akufo-Addo led government has certainly run out of ideas and hiding behind the COVID-19 pandemic to deplete our reserves including the petroleum funds. He further called on Parliament to ensure that the executive arm of government does not engage in reckless management of our financials, as we approach the 2020 elections. According to Mr Jinapor, Rather than engaging in such wasteful and frivolous expenditures, the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia Economic Management Team must prioritise expenditure in order to protect the national purse. Current statistics reveal the countrys debt as a percentage of GDP is in excess of 60% with the IMF projecting a Debt-to-GDP of about 67% by the end of 2020. ---classfmonline FAIRFIELD The first day of reopening has been busy and stressful for the the staff of a Fairfield salon, according to its owner. Gabriella Travali DeStefano, the owner of Gavali Salon in Post Road, said her staff is still trying to adjust to the procedures laid out by the state. We have to have everyone fill out questionnaires and waivers, Travali DeStefano said. We have to check their temperature. We have to sanitize the station after each person comes in and leaves. Travali DeStefano said the extra time required to follow state regulations has made made a busy day busier. Its definitely an adjustment, she said. The business owner said the salon is using 5 of the 8 stations it has in order to ensure clients are six feet apart. She said customers seem really happy to be there, adding that nobody has had a problem with having to wait thus far. We made everybody aware that we are going to be making a lot of adjustments and (asked them) to please bear with us while were getting used to all the new regulations, she said. According to Travali DeStefano, the salon is almost fully booked for the next week, and even their newest stylists have full schedules. Travali Destefano had just moved her business to its new location from Black Rock Turnpike when the pandemic started, she said, adding that they had only been in operation there from Feb. 24 to March 20. We were open for like three full weeks, Travali DeStefano said. That was it. Having put her life savings into the new location, Travali DeStefano said it was very stressful having to close it down because of coronavirus regulations. I put a lot of money into it, and I was preparing to pay back what I spent in the next few months (after) opening, she said. All of a sudden we were shut down, and it was very scary. Travali DeStefano said all of her employees had to apply for unemployment as soon as her business was shut down. She received a loan from the Small Business Administration, which helped, she said. Weve been living off that for the past few weeks, Travali DeStefano said. Now that were open, itll be a lot easier to survive. Travali DeStefano said the salon had been selling a lot of hair coloring kits and gift certificates during the shutdown, but the income from that did not come close to covering costs. She said it has been a hectic few months. She found out she was pregnant with her and her husbands fourth child a week before they closed. Then, she said, her husband broke his hip and shoulder two weeks ago. Its been really crazy, she said. (The shutdown has) almost like a blessing in disguise, because I feel like God was telling me to a take a step back and hang out with the family for a little bit. I work so much. Im literally here all the time taking two to three customers at a time. So, I feel like its good for me to take a step back and soak it all up. A former deputy director of the labor department in the south-central Vietnamese province of Binh Dinh, wanted for property appropriation, has been arrested while hiding in Ho Chi Minh City. Truong Hai An, the ex-deputy director of the Binh Dinh Department of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs, has been apprehended while holing up in District 12. Following his arrest, An was brought back to Binh Dinh Province on Saturday night to assist in the investigation, Colonel Nguyen Duc Nam, deputy director of the provincial Department of Police, confirmed on Monday. An was previously wanted for abuse of trust and appropriation of property and was classified as an extraordinarily dangerous suspect. Initial investigations showed that An managed to mobilize a large amount of money from local people, claiming he would spend the money on real estate investment projects in Quy Nhon City, the capital of Binh Dinh, and would pay them back the interest. However, he did not return the money as promised and instead left his place of residence along with his family in June 2019. The department later received many petitions about Ans fraud, which was estimated to be worth tens of billions of Vietnamese dong (VND10 billion = US$430,000). An had been deputy director of the provincial Department of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs since early October 2017. In September 2019, the Binh Dinh Peoples Committee signed a decision to dismiss An as a disciplinary action against his violations. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! The last thing Anthony Thomas wanted to do Sunday was sit on the couch. The field engineer for an oil services company wanted more. After watching the rest of the nation react to the brutality of the death of George Floyd, he needed more. Taking part in the Black Lives Matter protest at Midland Park Mall provided that opportunity. Its just, you want to do something, said Thomas, who has lived in Midland for 10 years. Thomas talked about the love and feeling of togetherness that comes with African Americans and others participating in an event about social justice. What that tells me is that everybody recognizes whats right, whats wrong, and hopefully itll change something, Thomas said. Thomas said he grew up in Houston, the son of a police officer and nephew of a sheriff. He attended a private high school that was predominately white but knew first-hand about run-ins with police. He told the Reporter-Telegram that growing up, his father talked with him about how to handle himself in those situations. Every black son has that conversation with a parent growing up, he said. Still, he is experienced being pulled over after not doing anything. Of course, thats just the way it goes, Thomas said. Thomas hoped law enforcement would be involved Sunday night as the protest, he said, was about everyone coming together and that police would have the opportunity to watch what we do and then know why were all out here. And everybody can go home peacefully, Thomas said. Then, something was accomplished. Thomas called for peaceful protests but said he understands what America is seeing play out in larger metropolitan areas across the nation. The fires, violence and destruction, he said, isnt exclusive to protests about police violence. Whoevers gonna win the Stanley Cup this year, I guarantee you, theres going to be a riot in that town, he said. Of those wanting to know about the violence, Thomas asked: What would make someone so angry that they would risk their lives, right, and go on to the street? Because the reality is, whenever you go and you participate in a riot, and then things turn that way, theres a real chance you can get shot and killed. What would it take for you to get that mad? What would it take for you to get that mad, to get out of your house, go downtown and burn a building down? Theres something. Maybe this incident wasnt that incident, to where you can relate. But there is something that would push your buttons to the point that you would say, You know what, this is what Im gonna do. And at that point, youre not worried about what its accomplishing or what its not. Thomas said his participation Sunday was more about the Floyd incident, the man pleading for his life and that no one came to help him. Thing is, police officers have been killing black men since before there was ever a statistic about black-on-black violence, Thomas said. Right? So, its just emotional. Its just when youre black, you say that could have easily had been me. And I think for this one, it was just the intensity of it. Not one time during a 15-minute interview before the protest at Midland Park Mall did Thomas call for violence. In fact, he said, Peaceful always matters. Its always the right thing to do. Maybe that is the experience that comes with being 37. Thomas said the younger participants havent yet figured out how to control their emotions something evident during the 4 1/2-hour protests Sunday. Just as Thomas said, one could say as the intensity of the protests rises, the testosterone and energy turns to anger. They dont know how to take that emotion and bring something positive out of that, Thomas said. And so they turn to violence because they see a violent act. Its natural to think, if somebody hits you, you hit them back. They feel like thats what theyre doing; they just dont understand the long-term implications of that. So, I dont condone violence, right, Thomas said. Im not gonna go out, and Im not gonna burn anything down. Im going to tell my kids not to go out and burn anything down. But Im well aware, somebody is going to do it. But at the end of the day, what you hope for is that this moves needle in the right direction. That is what you hope for. More than 100,000 National Guard troops are now activated for missions across the nation, and the Guard force inside Washington, D.C., to support law enforcement will reach almost 3,000 Tuesday evening as protests continue, the head of the National Guard Bureau said. Air Force Gen. Joseph Lengyel said roughly 1,500 additional Guard troops from Indiana, South Carolina and Tennessee are joining the response effort in Washington, reinforcing a fully activated D.C. Guard force and augments from the Utah and New Jersey Guard already on the ground. Read next: Tennessee Guard Lay Down Riot Shields at Request of Protesters "Obviously, this is a very historic response from the National Guard," Lengyel told reporters in a call Tuesday morning. Monday evening's protests in Washington, D.C. -- part of a national protest movement following the May 25 death of George Floyd, a black man, at the hands of a white officer in Minneapolis -- saw "a reduction in violence" from previous nights, Lengyel said, even as an increasing number joined the protest. Meanwhile, active-duty troops deployed to the region Monday remain outside D.C. and have not yet been ordered to support law enforcement in the district, a senior Pentagon official said. "There are active-duty forces in the area, placed on a short alert status," the official said. The official added that the troops are located at bases inside the National Capital Region, but outside the district, awaiting a request for support. Military.com reported Monday that military police from XVIII Airborne Corps had been dispatched from Fort Bragg, North Carolina; it has been reported that the active-duty troops on alert total 200 to 250. Another senior official indicated that there is significant interest in limiting military protest response to the Guard, avoiding the issue of Posse Comitatus, which prevents Title 10 troops from being used in a domestic law enforcement capacity in most circumstances. "We really would like to see this stay a National Guard response to the degree that we have to put any uniformed forces against it," the official said. The head of the D.C. National Guard, Maj. Gen. William Walker, is in charge of all military forces activated in the District of Columbia, officials said, an apparent contradiction of comments made Monday by President Donald Trump, who said in a conversation with state governors that he had placed Joint Chiefs Chairman Army Gen. Mark Milley "in charge." Walker, officials said in Tuesday's call, answers to Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy. No Guard troops were injured in Monday's protests, Lengyel said. In D.C., an official said, Guard members carried no nonlethal munitions such as tear gas and rubber bullets, although some are armed with sidearms and long rifles to support law enforcement authorities. "There were 1,200 national Guard forces deployed throughout the district last evening, but there were far more law enforcement," the other official said. "We were in support ... co-located with law enforcement generally in equal numbers." Across the country, some 42,000 Guard members remain activated for missions related to the novel coronavirus response. More than 18,000 others are now activated to support law enforcement in protests taking place in cities throughout the nation, officials said, and the remainder are supporting more traditional missions. Some states, officials confirmed, have declined requests to send troops into D.C., in decisions they described as weighing state priorities and needs against the ask. These states include New York and Delaware, among others. The current missions represent the largest Guard activation since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when some 50,000 were activated for hurricane response and another 100,000 deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. But even with 100,000 Guard members currently operationally engaged, officials said, there is margin to execute all missions. "All the states report that, for normal domestic expected activities, everybody's got enough to handle those things," an official said. "We are clearly all still supporting active deployment responsibilities. The short answer is no, we aren't short; no, we're not considering bringing anybody home." -- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck. Related: Pentagon Orders Active-Duty Military Police Unit to DC Region Amid Protests Are tanks becoming obsolete? With smarter and cheaper anti-tank weapons available, including missiles, "smart mines", and air delivered robot tank killers like Bonus, Smart and SADARM, it will only take one incident of the "cheap and smart" stuff beating up on a lot of tanks to make the point. Another telling sign is the lack of enthusiasm in America and Russia for designing a replacement for current tanks, at least not a replacement that features the "bigger gun and thicker armor" that has characterized tank development for the century. Then again, it may be premature to write off the tank. For a weapon that has been dismissed as obsolete for decades, it still survives. True, there are a lot fewer (less than 50,000) tanks in use now than there were in 1991 when there were over 100,000. And the new ones built each year are not sufficient to replace those that age out each year. Less affluent nations will still find tanks useful against their own citizens, or equally poor neighbors who also have some tanks. The U.S. and its allies found out that the M-1 and similar Western tanks were very useful against irregulars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The math, however, is unavoidable. Unless a new arms race begins the number of tanks in service will slowly decline year by year. Meanwhile, the number of "smart weapons" grows rapidly. The tank won't completely disappear soon but never again will it be the key weapon for ground warfare. The U.S. Army recently ordered another batch of the Swedish BONUS 155mm anti-tank artillery shells. This is the second batch purchased and so far it appears the Americans are keeping an eye on this tech, not adopting it. The first American purchase of BONUS was in 2018. The BONUS is a fire and forget guided 155-millimeter munition designed for destroying armored targets. BONUS was a joint project by Britain, France and Sweden with the Swedes taking the lead in production. BONUS can be fired from standard NATO 155mm artillery and has maximum 35 kilometer effective range. The round carries two submunitions, each with their own multiband IR (heat) sensors backed by laser radar. BONUS uses small winglets to slow its descent rather than small parachutes that are used in earlier similar submunitions, like the German SMART shell. The parachutes are easier to spot and more expensive and complex to use. These submunitions separate in the last phase of flight at about 175 meters and scan area for targets. Each warhead can scan about 32,000 square meters and hit even moving targets within that area. The destruction is achieved by an Explosively Formed Penetrator (EFP) able to punch through more than 130 mm (five inches) of armor. This doesnt seem like much but the tank armor is strongest at the front and not at rear or top. The only defense against this top attack EFP is active protection systems (APS) such as Trophy but even these have difficulty dealing with things like EFPs. The APS systems work great against HEAT warheads because these disperse cumulative streams of superheated gases, but this cant be done versus a molten metal projectile formed by the EFP. Moreover, thanks to two submunitions per shell, the artillery pieces remain for a shorter time on their firing position, so they are less likely to get caught by enemy counter-battery fire. The drawback of these smart rounds that these are significantly more expensive than GPS guided Excalibur shells and the laser-guided Copperhead or Russian Krasnopol. The BONUS concept isnt a new one because the U.S. and Germany used similar tech for the American SADARM and German SMART 155. The American XM898 SADARM (Search And Destroy Armor Munitions) dates back to the late 1970s when the U.S. Army started to look for a smart anti-armor 155 mm projectile. About a decade later SADARM had been developed and prototypes built but due budget restrictions in 1990 the program was slowed down. In 1993 the first tests were unsatisfactory because SADARM hasnt been able to hit a moving target and overall accuracy was poor. The project managers promised to improve the technology, they did and a year later program was approved for limited low rate production. Unfortunately for SADARM the later (1995, 1998 and 1999) tests showed only a little improvement. In all trials, the SADARM struggled to get an 80 percent reliability rate. This together with significant cost overruns were reason enough to end production in 2001. This failure did not mean the end of the submunition technology, which was subsequently adopted by the U.S. Air Force as well as the developers of the SMART and BONUS shells. The submunition was always meant to be carried by a wide variety of projectiles including MLRS rockets, mortar shells and cluster bombs. The reliability of the submunition improved and it soon showed as the payload of the CBU-105 half ton cluster bomb. Each of these bombs is a container carrying 40 BLU-108/B SFW (Self Forging Warhead) bomblets. These bomblets are basically the SADARM submunition. Individual SADARM submunitions have their own radar and heat sensor that searches for armored vehicles below and destroys them with a specially shaped charge warhead. The SADARM sensors can search and attack vehicles within an area of roughly 150 x 360 meters, as they slowly descend. The self-forging metal projectile used by the SADARM submunition punches through the thinner armor on the top of the vehicle. If a target is not found, SADARM self-destructs. The first use of the CBU-105 was on April 2nd, 2003, when a B-52 dropped six of them on an Iraqi army column moving south from Baghdad. Most of the vehicles were later found destroyed. Since then there have been several export customers for CBU-105 and U.S. Air Force still has them stockpiled for future use. The Russians have a version of their own, SPBE-D, for sale to anyone who can pay for it. The American CBU-105 is preferred because the United States pioneered the technology, and demonstrated it could work in combat. India faces a large force of Pakistani tanks, and CBU-105 is an inexpensive and quick way to destroy lots of armored vehicles. Russia eventually responded to the SADAM submunition threat by developing a new generation of ERA (Explosive Reactive Armor) that now covers the top of the turret and engine compartment of their tanks. It is unclear just how effective this ERA is against the SFW penetrator. In theory the ERA should protect against ERA or at least reduce SFW effectiveness, Due to recent changes in the strategic environment, the U.S. Army has shifted from counterinsurgency operations against technologically weak opponents to near-peer situations (fighting against someone with similar forces. Usually, air delivered weapons are the most effective way to hit ground targets but against near-peer foes with advanced air defenses, airstrikes are not always the best way to go In this type of situation artillery with a smart specialized anti-tank munitions is a safer option than cluster bombs and that is one reason SMART and BONUS shells are still in production. --Przemyslaw Juraszek Syngene International has entered into collaboration with HiMedia Laboratories, a bioscience company with expertise in media manufacturing and diagnostics for over 45 years, to manufacture and distribute its ELISA kits. HiMedia will manufacture the kits at its facility in Mumbai and distribute it across India. Syngene has indigenously developed an anti-COV-2 IgG ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) at its research facility in Bengaluru. This advanced highly reliable test identifies the presence of SARS-COV-2 antibodies in blood samples and confirms if a patient has been exposed to the coronavirus. It has a capacity to test samples together in a single run and generates results within 3 hours. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As a nonviolent demonstration made its way around City Hall on Monday afternoon, one of the protesters, Andre DuCally, stopped to see if he could find common ground with three police officers who were watching over the scene. DuCally, who is African American, said he didnt support those who were damaging property and looting. I dont get why black communities are fing up other black communities, the 22-year-old Philadelphia resident said. But, he said, he doesnt understand why it is so hard to reform policing so that deaths like George Floyds dont happen. A white officer whose last name is Brady said he supported DuCallys right to raise those concerns. Were here to protect your right to assembly and free speech. You should enjoy it, said Brady, who, like the other officers, declined to give a first name. READ MORE: Here's live coverage of what's happening Tuesday I dont know. I feel like theres just a lot more that needs to happen, DuCally said. Another officer, Pouncey, said there are productive ways to effect change and ways that work against the cause. Weve got to take the steps to get to the solution, said Pouncey, who is black. Because we all want the same thing. Brady agreed. Peaceful protesting is one thing. Looting, rioting, and destroying property is another, Brady said. How bad was the economy during the coronavirus? And now, the small businesses are destroyed and theres no way to recover. DuCally started to respond when Brady cut in: Give me a hug. Huh? DuCally said. Give me a hug, Brady said again. Nobody will do that, and thats the problem. Brady and Pouncey each hugged DuCally. But he wasnt satisfied. Its little stuff like that, DuCally said. Its like, all right, you gave me a hug. Why cant you all take a knee when we take a knee? Its not my thing, Brady said. Nearby, a group of protesters were imploring other police officers to take a knee. Four joined the group in kneeling, and the crowd erupted. One protester wept. Take a knee. Take a knee. We love you. We love you, another protester said. When the revolution comes, we will need you. Artist Isadora Vaughan is gathering wax and dirt for a sculpture-making tutorial being filmed in her Brunswick studio. Beeswax would be the environmentally best type to use, she says, but candlewax will do. Vaughan says she wants artists to think freely, to experiment. Sculpture is more than just filling in a form - it is a process with sensory dimensions: touch and smell. Isadora Vaughan being filmed making art. Credit:Simon Schluter Fledgling sculptors can become too heavily invested in an initial idea of a shape, she says. "Using more humble or everyday materials allows you to look at what you can do with something simple," says Vaughan, whose studio has been quiet for the past two months, the eight artists who share the space scattered and socially distanced. Articles Sorry, there are no recent results for popular articles. Every name on the BrandBucket marketplace is exclusively listed with BrandBucket. That means that all of our sellers are very responsive, making for quick domain transfers. A dedicated BrandBucket agent will manage your domain transfer from beginning to end, ensuring a secure and easy transaction. They will manage the receipt of the domain into one of BrandBuckets secure registrar accounts and then complete the transfer to you. 1. Verification and registrar choice After we receive the payment and verify it, we will reach out via email to confirm which registrar you want the domain transferred to. We also provide a link to our tracking system, where you can communicate with us, check on the status of your transfer, view your invoice, and download your logo files. In most cases, if a domain is moved between accounts at a single registrar, the transfer is quick and usually completes within 48 hours. If a domain changes registrars (in other words, you would like to move it away from where it is currently registered), the transfer is slower. The total transfer time can then be anywhere from 48 hours to 7 days. BrandBucket has vetted and supports the following registrars: GoDaddy Namesilo Uniregistry NameCheap Google Domains Network Solutions Name.com Dynadot Amazon Route 53 123 Reg Gandi 2. We request the name from the seller. Once we know where you would like the domain transferred, BrandBucket will request the domain from the seller. All of our sellers are very responsive, making for a quick process. 3. Transfer the name into your account As soon as we receive the name from the seller, we start the transfer into your account and guide you through the whole process. 4. Verify with the buyer that the transfer is complete Once we confirm that you have received the name, we consider the escrow process to be complete. Only then do we release payment to the domain seller. New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday (June 2) issued a notice to the AAP government seeking its response on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that prayed for a direction on providing cooked midday meal or food security allowances to eligible children during the COVID-19 lockdown when schools are closed. The court has directed the respondents to file an affidavit in this regard before June 16. The petition, filed by an NGO, Mahila Ekta Manch, urged the court for directions to the Delhi government to ensure the compliance of advisory (dated 20.03.20200 and subsequent advisories including letter (dated 29.04.2020) issued by Central government. The advisory was issued to all chief secretaries of states and UTs directing them to provide foodgrains in advance for a month to the eligible students in beginning of each month. The petitioner said the purpose was to boost immunity of poor children during the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, while citing that they were approached by the parents of children who were beneficiaries of the scheme. The plea has alleged that the Delhi government has stopped issuing this meal to eligible children belonging to economically weaker sections. It further alleged that the children have been deprived of nutritious food during the pandemic situation. It further said that the flagship programme of the government has played a vital role in eradication of malnutrition among children belonging to weaker section of society and during pandemic when medical experts have insisted upon enhancing immunity against the disease, the Delhi government has failed to issue the midday meal to such children. Editors Note: Welcome to Inside Out, our weekly roundup of stories about Staten Islanders of all ages who are making waves, being seen, supporting our community and just making our borough a special place to live. Have a story for Inside Out? Email Carol Ann Benanti at benanti@siadvance.com. In the months that preceded Gianna Montantis 12th birthday, the preteen and her family had visions of gathering for a festive birthday dinner at home or at their favorite restaurant as a way to usher in Giannas last birthday before she becomes an official teenager. However, as we continue to shelter in place, plans for Giannas birthday had to be put on hold. So family members and friends put their heads together and suggested doing the next best thing for the astute sixth grade student who attends St. Joseph Hill elementary school. Giannas parents, Stacey and Peter Montanti, aunt and uncle Jaime and Al Perri and their sons Tyler and Logan, friends Stacey and daughter Allison Klein and Joe Crispi, and Giannas girlfriends, Olivia Borgognone and Sofia Saiti, got creative to ensure the birthday girl was treated to a fun and fab drive-by birthday parade. But Gianna still didnt know what to expect. When the big day arrived a slew of cars and SUVs adorned with bold signs and bright balloons and etched with birthday banners scripted with fancy writing and heartfelt wishes, proceeded to encircle Giannas Todt Hill home. Led by the Perris, well wishers honked their horns, shouted birthday wishes some standing through sun roofs but all offering Gianna heartwarming congratulatory greetings, handcrafted cards and pretty presents that made her day. Giannas friend Olivia Borgognone exclaimed: The drive through birthday was very fun! It was so nice to see my friends that I havent seen in a while. This type of birthday is new for me and I never experienced any birthday like this before. Sofia Saiti said: It wasnt the best way to celebrate, but it was definitely an experience to remember. Im just glad we got to see each other face to face instead of on a screen. We knew we couldnt let the special day pass without a little bit of a celebration. Giannas mom, Stacey, explained: Im glad Giannas birthday turned out nicely. Giannas friends Sofia and Olivia initiated the drive by and it was such a sweet gesture. Gianna was very happy to see family members and friends, who are very special to her. Its been all FaceTime with her friends since March, when the pandemic began. I thought the drive by was so adorable and something we will never forget. And Giannas dad, Peter noted: We took a bad situation and turned it into something positive for Giannas birthday. It turned out to be a unique, fun day for all. And last, but certainly not least, Gianna said: It was a different kind of birthday because of the coronavirus. But I was happy because I got to see my friends and family in person. My 12th birthday is one I will never forget. Join in Alice Austen House Museums virtual fundraiser to honor two community leaders The Alice Austen House will host its first virtual fundraiser to replace the postponed in person Community Impact and Preservation Awards slated to take place in April. Organizers have timed the event to coincide with the third anniversary of the LGBTQ historic designation. The landmark Audre Lorde exhibition also will be virtual. The Community Impact and Preservation Award Virtual Tea will honor the contributions of Public Administrator Edwina Martin and Staten Island historian, Pat Salmon, who have made an impact on the life and history of Staten Island. The event will be available on June 17, and participating supports the Alice Austen House Museum. Victoria Munro, executive director of the historic Rosebank landmark, along with board members, have created and made available digital content during these unprecedented times. The virtual event also allows them to lay the groundwork to safely reopen the doors to the museum. The mission of the Alice Austen House is to provide inspiration through the interpretation of trailblazing Victorian photographer Alice Austen. Raising up the stories of powerful women is essential to the work we do here and Public Administrator Edwina Martin, wholl receive the Community Impact Award, continues to make such an important and positive impact on Staten Island communities in all of her current and previous roles, said Monro. She adds Pat Salmon will be honored with the Preservation Award for her incredible work bringing Staten Islands history to life and her contributions to the preservation of both the historic building and sites and for sharing her often untold stories. The event will take place on multiple social media platforms and is open to all who register. The suggested donation is $10. For further information on the event and to register, visit https://bit.ly/AustenTeaTime. Calling all nature photographers to submit photos for Protectors of Pine Oak Woods nature and wildlife calendar Protectors of Pine Oak Woods is seeking photographs for the 2021 Staten Island Nature and Wildlife Calendar. From the images submitted by talented photographers they will once again produce a calendar celebrating nature at its best on Staten Island and, in this trying year of COVID-19, assert that life and nature go on. A committee consisting of Protector of Pine Oaks Wood board members and Staten Island naturalists have been created to select the photographs to be used in the calendar. Protectors of Pine Oak Woods, a nonprofit and non-salaried organization, decided that theirs would be a project not to raise money, but to increase awareness about the beauty of Staten Islands nature for all to enjoy and preserve. The calendar also documents in print the often under-appreciated capability and quality of Staten Island photographers. The deadline for submission is July 15. There is no fee for submissions. Artists will receive two calendars if their photograph is used in the calendar. Accepted artists will be notified by Aug. 15. Kindly submit digitally one photograph per each email. The maximum number of submissions per photographer is eight. Email each entry to protectors2021@gmail.com in the 4 MB minimum for digital printing. The mission of the of PPOW is to advocate and preserve and protect natural areas on Staten Island, from the Greenbelt to the marshes of the West Shore. Actor Sonu Sood, who hired a plane last week to fly stranded migrant workers from Kerala to Odisha, says celebrities can make a difference when common people are in extreme distress. You have to come forward in times of crisis. Things become more doable, he told Metrolife over the phone from Mumbai. He scotched rumours that he was joining politics. Social media is agog with speculation that he is out to join the BJP. I have no intentions of joining any political party. I am busy and satisfied with my career as an actor, he says. Celebrities can help mobilise opinion, but anyone can help, he believes. Every kitchen should make an extra meal for someone, it could be your watchman or your vegetable vendor. Then nobody in this country will sleep hungry, he says. The 47-year-old Sood, who acts in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and Punjabi films, has hired several buses to send home workers from Mumbai to their respective states, including Karnataka. A report says he has helped about 1,000 workers return to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. A woman who got home with his help has named her just-born son Sonu Sood. His family has been supportive. They have been making a list of all people who need help. My parents have done such work in the past and it is ingrained in us as children. I remember my mother, Prof Saroj Sood, used to teach children for free, he says. Many Bollywood celebrities have come forward to help migrant labourers during the pandemic. While Swara Bhaskar distributed footwear, Salman Khan got a sanitiser manufactured under his label and distributed it among the Mumbai police. Others have been doing things quietly to feed the hungry and the homeless. Sent home 20,000 migrants in buses, trains and a plane Sonu Sood was in the middle of his ]relief work in Mumbai when he answered some quick questions from Metrolife. How many people have you helped get home? We booked buses, trains and planes and have so far transported 20,000 people back to their homes. Initially, we started with our own financial resources, but Neeti Goel, a close friend, joined in and we started this initiative called Ghar Bhejo. As soon as it took off, we had people calling us and offering to sponsor buses and provide financial help. It is a drive that has inspired so many to help the migrants. We gave rations and distributed food packets to migrants leaving by train. How has your mother influenced your philanthropy? My mother Prof Saroj Sood has always taught me to give back to society. When I was a young boy, she would say, If you are not able to help someone, then you are not a successful person. Your connection with Bengaluru? I travel to Bengaluru often. It is a city that I connect with because of its infectious vibe and warm people. I last worked in Vishnuvardhana and played Arjuna in Kurukshetra. Both Kannada films did exceptionally well. Kannada is close to my heart. In Bengaluru Many in the Kannada film industry are doing their bit. Ragini Dwivedi, Apurva Kasaravalli and Harshika Poonacha have been distributing groceries, clothes and other essentials to migrant labourers and those in need. VichoT The coronavirus pandemic has pushed more than 30 million Americans out of the workforce since mid-March. At the same time, it has turned contact tracing, a little-known public health technique, into a big job opportunity in parts of the country. As cities and states reopen their economies, many are quickly ramping up their contact-tracing capacity in an effort to keep a lid on Covid-19 infection rates. Simply put, contract tracing entails calling close contacts of confirmed Covid-19 patients, providing them with information about the disease and encouraging them to self-quarantine for 14 days to potentially avoid infecting others. Testing is also discussed. College degree required? Not necessarily Interestingly, contact tracing doesn't involve much detective work, although experts say critical-thinking skills and persistence are among the keys to success. Case investigators for health authorities typically reach out to people who test positive for Covid-19 and, in doing so, try to gather the names and phone numbers of their close contacts (usually immediate family members, friends and/or coworkers). That information is passed along to contact tracers trained, entry-level employees who don't necessarily have a four-year college degree or a background in health care. Contact tracers usually work from a script, although as you might imagine, things can get messy when you're delivering bad news to strangers and asking them to hole up in their homes, which may mean forfeiting a paycheck. "The biggest misconception about contact tracing is that you need to have public health training or experience," says Christiana Coyle, a professor at New York University's School of Global Public Health and a former contact tracer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. "It's more important," says Coyle, "that you're comfortable with medical terminology, working through a script and cold-calling people. For me, cold-calling was the hardest part. You're giving people news that's potentially very disturbing and serious. You never know what you'll encounter on the other end of the phone." Be prepared, says Coyle, for some tears and hang-ups. Not a new phenomenon Contact tracing isn't a new phenomenon. In the U.S. it's been an effective technique for containing the spread of HIV, tuberculosis, measles and even foodborne illnesses. Until the new coronavirus washed up on American shores, contact tracing was practiced more widely in developing countries. Through stimulus packages, Congress has already allocated nearly $26 billion to help public health departments pay for expanded Covid-19 testing and contact tracing. Several public health organizations are now calling on Congress to include at least $7.6 billion for contact tracing in a possible fifth stimulus package. How many contact tracers does the U.S. need to safely reopen? Depends who you ask. Researchers at George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health put the figure at 184,000. Their estimate is based on a tool they developed to help state and local governments determine jurisdictional needs. Tom Friedman, director of the CDC under President Barack Obama, has said we need as many as 300,000 contact tracers to curb the spread of the new coronavirus. In general, states with the largest populations (think California, Texas, Florida and New York) have the biggest need for contact tracers. According to the National Association of County and City Health Officials, a state should have 30 contact tracers for every 100,000 residents as opposed to the 15:100,000 ratio it recommends in normal times. No set formula States and local governments are taking a variety of approaches to scaling up their capacity for contact tracing. They're hiring new employees; reassigning existing workers; deploying the National Guard; recruiting volunteers; and/or contracting with outside firms for staffing and/or training, according to a report by the nonprofit group United States of Care. Some are also experimenting with new voluntary contact-tracing apps, which have so far seen mixed results. "Silicon Valley is designing apps to automate contact tracing. Such apps have worked well in parts of Asia, like China and South Korea, but in the United States we have a very different expectation of privacy and civil liberties," says Daniel Gabriel, a former CIA officer and CEO of AM LLC, a health-care information technology firm that has branched out into contact tracing. The Leesburg, Virginia-based small business has already hired more than a dozen professionals, including epidemiologists and health educators, to oversee its new platform. The firm is vying for contracts to help state and local governments with their contact-tracing efforts, either by augmenting existing staff or providing a turnkey solution. Gabriel says his firm, which now has 45 employees, may hire as many as 1,000 contact tracers by early June. Salaries will range from $17$38 per hour depending on location. "We're scaling up to bring the foot soldiers on just as soon as the work is identified," says Gabriel. The race is on Large nonprofits, call-center operators and others are also vying for government contacts, and some have made inroads. For instance, Maximus, based in Reston, Virginia, recently struck a deal with the state of Indiana to handle contact tracing for more than 90 counties. The publicly traded firm, which runs health and human services programs for government agencies, has already hired some 200 contact tracers to staff a 500-person call center for the program, according to a company spokesperson. Meanwhile, NORC at the University of Chicago, one of the country's largest independent research institutions, is doing contact tracing in Maryland. Through its partnership with NORC, the state has quadrupled its existing Covid-19 surveillance capacity, according to NORC. To ramp up their capacity, "states have the ability to pull from parts of their public health agencies that don't normally do contact tracing and from other agencies. We saw that early in the epidemic. But that's not sustainable because employees who don't normally do contact tracing have a day job to do," explains Michael Fraser, executive director of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. Back into the fold Recent layoffs in the government and health-care sectors have created a large potential pool of contact-tracer job candidates, notes Fraser. But such experience isn't necessarily required, he explains. "What's really important is that contact tracers and folks doing case investigation know the communities they'll be serving. Folks who have lost jobs but are very active in their communities may want to apply. The same holds true for students taking a gap year from college, or folks volunteering for AmeriCorps or some other national service program," Fraser says. "A big part of contact tracing," he adds, "is that you're calling someone to talk about private health-related matters, and so you need to build trust and rapport with those folks." The push to ramp up contact tracing is pulling people like retired nurse Celia Gillis back into the workforce. In mid-April Gillis landed a job as a contact tracer for Partners In Health, a nonprofit that's working with Massachusetts officials to dramatically scale up the state's contact-tracing capacity. In all, the state plans to deploy some 1,000 contact tracers to combat one of the worst outbreaks in the country. Gillis, 49, retired from nursing 17 years ago when her first child was born. She now works remotely (about 25 hours a week) from her home on Martha's Vineyard. The job provided her with a path back into the workforce and a chance to make a difference. "I really wanted to help in any way I could," says Gillis, recalling her motivation for applying to become a contact tracer. "I was kind of honored to think that they choose me" for the position, she adds, noting that her resume had "some major voids" in it. On the rise POLICE in Bulawayo have arrested a serial fraudster who has been on the run for three years after swindling 12 home seekers of more than R800 000. Bulawayo provincial police spokesperson Inspector Abednico Ncube yesterday confirmed the arrest of Sethukani Ncube (45) from Nketa suburb. The commercial crimes division police have arrested a serial fraudster who has been on the run while committing offences from 2017 to date. This man has been conning people in conjunction with his co-accused persons who are already in jail. They conned 12 people of properties worth R840 000, said Insp Ncube. Insp Ncube said the accused was targeting houses under construction. After targeting a house under construction or property he would go to City Council offices to establish the registered owner. Together with his friends they would look for an old rural man or woman, take their picture and create a fake identity document in the name of the person who is the registered owner of the targeted stand or property, he said. He said the fraudsters were working with lawyers. The gangs would look for buyers working with lawyers who are also suspected to be part of the syndicate who would assist them by drafting agreement of sales and then they share the money, said Insp Ncube. He said the fraudster was arrested after a tip-off to police who had been tracking him. Insp Ncube said the syndicate targeted Zimbabweans in the diaspora. The team of fraudsters produced papers that looked like genuine title deeds which made the unsuspecting buyers feel that they were indeed getting properties. They target those people from the diaspora because they know that when they come home, they do not have enough time to follow all the process needed to be satisfied by people buying properties, said Insp Ncube. He urged members of the public to be patient, follow proper channels and moreover engage commercial crimes division police to clear the person they will be dealing with before parting with hard-earned cash. One of the complainants, Mr Ganizani Japu said Ncube conned him in 2019. I bought a stand from Ncube after doing all the process including going to council who cleared the sale. Problems started when I wanted to construct my house, a grandson of the house owner approached me and said the stand belonged to his grandmother, said Mr Japu. He said when he checked the papers, he discovered some anomalies. The national identity document and the seller`s agreement had the same name, the difference was that the owner of the stand was female but the fake person who was created to sell me the stand was male, he said. Another victim, Ms Soneni Moyo said she was conned while buying a stand for her son who is in the diaspora. Ncube was my neighbour. I knew him as a person who is a house agent. So, when my son wanted me to buy him a stand, I contacted him innocently and he took me to council offices where we did all the paper work. After building a four roomed house in Pumula South we saw people coming and claiming that the stand belonged to their sister who died in 2008, But I had gone to city council offices, Zimra and got the title deeds. I really thought everything was above board, said Ms Moyo. Saudi Arabia and the United Nations are making an urgent plea for funding to shore up aid operations in war-torn Yemen, as some relief groups say they have been forced to stop their work even as coronavirus rips through the country. Ahead of a pledging conference for Yemen on Tuesday, the UN said some 30 of 41 major aid programmes would close in the next few weeks without funding. Already, the global bodys World Food Programme had to cut rations in half, and UN-funded health services were reduced in 189 out of 369 hospitals nationwide. Its almost impossible to look a family in the face, to look them in the eyes and say, Im sorry but the food that you need in order to survive, we have to cut in half,' Lise Grande, resident UN coordinator for Yemen, told The Associated Press. Tuesdays conference, at which the UN hopes to raise $2.4bn, will be cohosted for the first time by Saudi Arabia a major player in Yemens civil war since it first unleashed a bombing campaign in 2015 to try to push back Houthi rebels who seized the northern half of the country. Critics question the Saudis high-profile role in rallying humanitarian support even as they continue to wage a war as do the Houthis that has created the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. The air war and fighting on the ground have killed more than 100,000 people, shut down or destroyed half of Yemens health facilities, and driven four million Yemenis from their homes. Cholera epidemics and severe malnutrition among children have led to thousands of additional deaths. As the war enters its sixth year with no sign of a viable ceasefire, the suffering looks set to continue. A spokesman for the Houthis dismissed the Saudi-led conference as a silly attempt to [gloss over] their crimes, according to rebel-run Masirah television. Maysaa Shuja al-Deen, a Yemeni researcher and a non-resident fellow at the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies, said the kingdom is trying to repair its international image by changing the conversation. Saudi Arabia has always tried to change the narrative of the war and present itself as a backer of the legitimate government, not part of the conflict, she said. In past years, the kingdom had been one of the top donors for UN humanitarian aid operations in Yemen. The Saudi ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed al-Jaber, said the kingdom would allocate half a billion dollars this year to support UN programmes, including $25m for a COVID-19 response plan. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan, and Mark Lowcock, UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, will take part in the aid conference. We are increasingly alarmed about the situation in Yemen, officials from UNICEF, the World Food Programme, and the World Health Organization said in a joint statement. We are running out of time. International medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has warned Yemen faces a catastrophe from the pandemic, its fragile healthcare system blighted by years of conflict. The UN says COVID-19 has likely already spread through most of Yemen, while the Yemeni government has officially recorded only a few hundred cases. The United Kingdom, a leading arms supplier to Saudi Arabia, pledged 160 million pounds ($200m) for Yemen. This targeted UK aid package will mean the difference between life and death for thousands of Yemenis who now also face the threat of coronavirus, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement. Our support will help ensure families can feed themselves and access clean water and medical care, he said. The UN received $3.6bn in 2019 in international donations for its campaign, short of its $4.2bn goal. For its 2020 plan, it has so far received only 15 percent of the needed $3.5bn. Turkish commentators and a Kurdish armed group in Syria are at odds over the latters alleged connections to the ongoing riots in the US. US President Donald Trump tweeted yesterday he would declare the left-wing ANTIFA movement a terrorist organization after its apparent role in protests and riots in the US. Trumps statement prompted some in Turkey to draw a connection between the movement and the Kurdish group in Syria the Peoples Protection Units (YPG), which the US backs against the Islamic State (IS) and which has accepted some international volunteers with ANTIFA affiliations. One former foreign fighter in the YPG said that while there were ANTIFA supporters in the YPG, they do not represent the group nor its foreign volunteers as a whole. It's no secret that international antifascists joined the YPG, Joshua Molloy told Al-Monitor. But to say all international YPG volunteers were ANTIFA activists is not accurate. The US is currently engulfed in protests and riots following the death of George Floyd. The late Floyd was an African-American former security guard who died while in custody after a white policeman kneeled on his neck. The role of ANTIFA, a loosely-organized protest movement that rose to prominence following Trumps election, came into focus following their presence at the subsequent demonstrations. ANTIFA supporters have endorsed fires and property destruction during the protests. They have also clashed with far-right groups likewise known for violence in the past. Following Trumps tweet, several Turkish commentators started saying that ANTIFA were present in the YPG and that Trump should stop supporting the Kurdish ally as a result. The YPG has a communalist and feminist ideology. Its early success against IS prompted hundreds of Westerners to join the group on the battlefield. Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist organization and an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that it has been in conflict with for decades. Turkish state-run media outlet TRT ran an article entitled Antifa: Trained by terrorist PKK in Syria, may end up outlawed in the US following Trumps tweet. Another TRT journalist replied to Trumps tweet asking why the US is supporting the YPG given the apparent ANTIFA connection. His reply showed a picture of YPG fighters holding up an ANTIFA flag. A columnist for the pro-Turkish government Daily Sabah newspaper quoted Trump on Twitter, saying next should be YPG regarding the terrorist designation. Some former foreign members of the YPG admit there were ANTIFA supporters in their ranks, but say the connection is not as strong as some in Turkey believe. Molloy, an ex-British soldier from Ireland, fought in the YPG from 2015 to 2016 one of several veterans of Western militaries to do so. He said there were a diverse range of ideologies among foreigners who joined. Close to half of all international volunteers killed in Rojava were non-political and held a diverse range of beliefs, he said, using the Kurdish term for northeast Syria. Initially, leftists were a minority among the international YPG volunteers. Molloy said the number of leftists grew somewhat over time, but that they never constituted a majority. From early to mid-2016 onwards, their numbers grew to be more evenly split with that of the non-political volunteers, he said. The foreigners in the YPG have largely been from North America, Europe and Australia. Many Turkish leftists also continue to fight alongside the YPG. Other foreigners joined Christian armed groups in Syria and Iraq, as well as Kurdish peshmerga forces in Iraq. An American who fought in the YPG in 2016 said he saw some ANTIFA supporters there. Paul, who declined to give his last name, said he did not agree with their politics, but worked with them and various other people he came into contact with. There were probably 20. They were fine. I tried to avoid them as much as possible. Personally, I dont agree with what theyre about, Paul told Al-Monitor. I taught medicine and trained Turkish communists, too. It didnt matter to me. Paul agreed with Molloy that more leftists joined over time and he said ANTIFA supporters and other groups had their own units in the YPG, but he disputed that there is any formal alliance. Theres no real connection, he said. ANTIFA units only recruited their own. It doesnt mean the YPG has any official relationship with ANTIFA, which they dont. The foreign volunteers have received significant media coverage, but the majority of YPG fighters are Syrian Kurds. The YPG leads the multi-ethnic Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that fights IS with US support. Its main allies are not international groups, but Syrian Christian and Arab military organizations in the SDF. Wladimir van Wilgenburg, co-author of the recently published book The Kurds of Northern Syria, likened the YPGs acceptance of foreigners with different ideological persuasions to the international brigades during the Spanish civil war. The YPG initially saw the volunteers comparable to the Spanish civil war when anti-fascists went to Spain, he told Al-Monitor. There were some anarchists from European countries and the US, but also you had liberal, right-wing and all kinds of people. Turkey adamantly opposes US support for the YPG, believing them to simply be the PKK on their border. Some Turkish commentators frequently criticize the US-YPG relationship. A report from the Turkish think tank SETA in January pleaded with the US to reexamine its support for the YPG, blaming the group for attacks on civilians in Turkish-controlled parts of Syria and accusing it of pursuing demographic change vis-a-vis Arabs. It is therefore not surprising that during this tumultuous time in the US, some in Turkey linked the YPG to ANTIFA, considering Trumps disdain for the latter and Turkeys opposition to the former. Many states have been practicing ways of reopening churches in a safe way. People are disinfecting the chancel area to prevent any possible spread of the coronavirus at Belmont United 'Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee. According to UM News, on Sunday, May 10, bishops began setting guidelines, including standards for cleaning, and recommending what they think are appropriate times for the churches in their conference to reopen. "required safety measures including limited attendance, no passing of offering plates, either no choir or a smaller choir spaced 6 feet apart, and thorough cleaning and disinfecting of every surface before and after the service." "In a number of conferences, United Methodist bishops are telling churches not to meet in person even when the state government has approved small gatherings." Some churches are ready for reopening, some are still waiting for in-person worship. "The Rev. Jim Doepken, director of communications for the conference and pastor of Seward and Moose Pass United Methodist churches, said his churches are likely to wait until after June 15 before resuming in-person worship." "It's not going to be like flipping on a light switch," he said, pointing out that each church will have a different set of questions to address, and differing levels of sensitivity between members ready to come back and others still hesitant to do so." "We need it as comfortable as we can for people to return," Doepke said. "No church wants to be on the news as the place where a bunch of people got sick." The state began a phased re-opening May 8 and some United Methodist churches in approved regions opened for worship several weeks ago. As many other conferences are continuing to suspend in-person worship, others are developing new ways and plans for churches to follow before reopening. As an outcome, many Christians are inspired to worship in churches as one. "The worship service was very inspiring in the face of this pandemic," Lewis said. "They carried out the requirements correctly, and I felt very welcomed, comfortable, and safe." Fruit growers in Kashmir have demanded minimum support price (MSP) for cherry as despite the high yield this year farmers are facing massive losses due to limited demand amid the coronavirus pandemic. Kashmir Fruit Growers cum Dealers Union (KFGDU) has criticised the administration of Jammu and Kashmir for its failure in providing adequate air and railway facilities for transporting the fruit during the Covid-19 restrictions as well as disregarding their request to provide minimum support price to help farmers during the crisis. The union has also suggested and made a humble request to the Lt Governors administration for consideration of minimum support prices of cherry at Rs 100/kg so that the poor cherry growers of the valley, who have constantly suffered heavy losses since 2014 devastating floods, may feel a sigh of relief but it is unfortunate that LGs administration did not pay any attention to the said proposal, Bashir Ahmad Basheer, KFGDUs chairperson, said in a statement. Officials say the tentative figures showed the production of cherries in the Kashmir Valley this year is about 12,000 metric tonnes. Last year, the figure was around 11,700 metric tonnes. Kashmir exports some 3,500 to 4000 metric tonnes of cherries to other states every year. Despite the sizeable yield, farmers are a worried lot because of the lack of demand following the closure of markets and difficulties in transporting the cherries from farms to markets amid Covid-19-related restrictions. They are getting a price of Rs 45-50 per kg as against double the amount last year. Basheer said that owing to the apprehension of total damage of the cherry crop this year owing to the restrictions, the growers in the valley are staring at losses of crores of rupees with around 10 lakh families directly or indirectly connected with this industry. In case, the preventive measures are not taken well in advance there is a threat of the fruit industry of the UT, which is the backbone of J&Ks economy, turning sick, he said. Pandurang K Pole, the divisional commissioner of Kashmir, said there was no past precedent for such demand or its fulfilment. Is there an example that such a thing has happened in the past which we could emulate? he asked. He said they met the growers union and apprised them of what was possible and what was not. Given the circumstances, the supply chain of every commodity is disrupted not just cherry. They know what is possible and not possible. Nevertheless, we are facilitating them, he said. The union said that there was around Rs 150-200 crore turnover cherry annually of which 60% of the total comes from Makhmali and Mishri varieties which were traditionally sent to Mumbai markets. As per past practice, these varieties are transported to Mumbai market through Air Cargo or by railways. Since Mumbai is extremely hit by Covid, the fruit mandi in Mumbai is therefore completely non-functional for any business, he said. Kashmir produces four types of cherriesAwwal Number, Double, Mishri and Makhmali with the last two sold to other states. In this connection, the management of KFGDU took up the matter with LG administration and airlines for providing air and rail facilities for transportation of cherry to different stations of the country but despite vigorous follow-up, the governors admin failed to provide facilities causing acute mental agony to cherry growers, the union president said. Pole said that the administration was facilitating the transport of the fruit to Delhi while Mumbai was a red zone. Every day five to seven trucks are going to major markets of Delhi. Although 70% of the supply of cherry goes to Mumbai, but that is closed. There are no flights and the fruit is very perishable, he said. The union also said the Canning Owners Association, which lift the Double Cherry variety of the fruit, are reluctant in view of the closure of canning factories and uncertainty of its marketing. Pole said they have given a go-ahead to 20 canning units to start functioning. The units will be opening and some 4,000 metric tons will be used for canning, he said. Cherries are grown on an estimated 2,713 hectares in Kashmir and over the years the production has increased. From 8,282 metric tonnes during 2016-17, the figure increased to 11,280 metric tonnes in 2017-18 and further to 11,789 metric tonnes in 2018-19. Harrisburg activists and community leaders are joining forces Wednesday in hopes of focusing on solutions to issues affecting minority communities in central Pennsylvania, amid growing tensions between protesters and law enforcement across the country. Activists will meet on the Capitol steps at 1 p.m. and peacefully march to the Neighborhood Center of the United Methodist Church on Third Street, according to Ralph Rodriguez, the rallys organizer and the founder of All You Can Inc., a non-profit that aims to make improvements in the Harrisburg area. A number of prominent community members are scheduled to speak during the event, including Harrisburg School Board President Brian Carter and parents of gun violence victims. Mayor Eric Papenfuse is tentatively expected to attend, Rodriguez said. Rodriguez hopes the speeches and opportunity for discussion can help the sad situation society is facing. We are going to get together and address issues that affect our neighborhood, he said. Demonstrations have occurred in cities across the country in reaction to the death of George Floyd after a Minneapolis police office restrained him by putting a knee on Floyds neck for seven minutes on May 25. Peaceful protests in Harrisburg on Saturday became hostile after police used pepper spray against protesters, who responded by throwing bottles and obscenities at the officers. Clashes with law enforcement also happened in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Erie. Rodriguez clarified that Wednesdays organizers arent telling people how to grieve. Instead he hopes to offer solutions and try to gather people in a positive manner. He said the event is inspired by Floyds death as well as the shooting death of a 14-year-old in a Harrisburg alley last week. Injustice and gun violence are two of the topics thatll be discussed, but Rodriguez said each leader will have their own ideas based on their expertise. Rodriguez said he expects the rally to wrap up between 3 and 4 p.m. Anyone is welcome to attend. The event is co-sponsored by Be a Man Inc., another Harrisburg non-profit which focuses on mental, physical and social well-being through role-modeling, education and emotional development, according to its Facebook page. A Department of General Services spokesman said Capitol police are aware of Wednesdays event, and will be stationed outside the complex for safety purposes. The department isnt aware of any other demonstrations until the Stand Your Ground Against Socialism Rally, rally on Monday on 10 a.m., the spokesman said. This event has received support from Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler). READ MORE: Death toll grows as police, participants are killed during national protests Peaceful Harrisburg protest a success with minimal police presence Pa. gun shop owner fatally shoots man during possible break-in: police New AI-based test uses X-rays to detect Covid in a few minutes Hospitalisations in Delhi during third Covid wave significantly lower than second 73% of COVID-19 deaths in India are people with co-morbidities: Govt India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, June 02: "73 per cent of COVID-19 deaths in India are people with co-morbidities," said Lav Agrawal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry while addressing the media on Tuesday. Agarwal said that the fatality rate in India is 2.82 per cent, "one of the lowest in the world". "10 per cent of India's population accounts for 50 per cent of India's COVID-19 linked deaths. 73 per cent of COVID-19 deaths in India are people with co-morbidities," he added. Jessica Lal case convict Manu Sharma to be released prematurely, LG accepts | Oneindia News "So far, 95,527 COVID-19 patients have recovered in the country. The recovery rate is now 48.07 per cent," he claimed. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal launches app to help people track hospital beds for coronavirus patients "We have asked all states to analyse the trajectory of the cases in their respective states. If a state thinks that it needs to set up temporary COVID-19 care centres then it must do so," he added. The novel coronavirus death toll rose to 5,598 in India on Tuesday with 204 more fatalities, while 8,171 new cases took the number of infections to over 1.98 lakh, the Health Ministry said. The active cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) climbed to 97,581 and as many as 95,526 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, according to the data. Around 48.07 per cent patients have recovered so far, a ministry official said. Out of the 204 more deaths since Monday morning, 76 were in Maharashtra, 50 in Delhi, 25 in Gujarat and 11 in Tamil Nadu. Eight people each died of COVID-19 in West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, followed by six in Telangana, and four each in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The Irish government on Sunday published legislation to expand funding for two of its emergency loan programmes. Publishing the Microenterprise Loan Fund Amendment Bill 2020, the legislation will expand the Microfinance Ireland Covid-19 loan scheme and the Future Growth Loan scheme. The former scheme will expand from 7m to 20m, with the latter jumping by 200m. The Irish Times references that the ISME chief executive noted that drawdowns on the schemes to date were totally inadequate and that overall, less than 75m has actually found its way to Irish businesses in enterprise support since the pandemic began. These schemes were expanded on April 8 when the government initially announced liquidity measures of c.1bn available for SMEs. But the government subsequently expanded its liquidity support substantially in early May to 6.5bn, the main components of which were a 2bn capital plan, a 2bn loan guarantee scheme (80% guarantee) and 2bn of tax debt warehousing. According to Goodbody Stockbrokers, "In a recent report, the Central Bank estimated that liquidity support needed for SMEs ranged from 2.4-5.7bn for a 3-month lockdown. However, at the time we noted that this level of requirement looked low to us. In a detailed note published last week on the Irish banks, Back to the future; Sizing Covid-19 for the Irish Banks, we estimated that total liquidity support for all enterprises (SMEs and larger corporations) could total as much as 12.5bn, potentially requiring a significant step-up in likely support for companies." Source: www.businessworld.ie NORTH YORK Location: 30 Alderbrook Dr., Lawrence Ave. E. and Leslie St. Asking price: $3,380,000 Selling price: $3,250,000 Previous selling price: $1,400,000 (1988) Size: about 5,000 sq. ft. Lot: 71-by-163 feet, two-car attached garage, private double drive Taxes: $17,414 (2019) Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 5 Sold: March 16/20. Closing: June 15/20. This two-storey detached home sold for 96 per cent of the listing price in 13 days. This is a family home with a classic centre hall design, featuring hardwood floors and a master bedroom with a six-piece ensuite, says listing agent Paul Maranger. The home is near parks, schools, places of worship, Sunnybrook Hospital, public transit, and access to Hwy. 401 and the Don Valley Pkwy. Main floor: foyer with marble floor, double closet and two-piece bathroom; living room with hardwood floor and large window; dining room with hardwood floor and wainscoting; eat-in kitchen with granite counters; family room with fireplace and walkout to patio; study with hardwood floor. Second floor: master bedroom with walk-in closet and six-piece ensuite; second bedroom with hardwood floor, double closet and four-piece ensuite; two bedrooms with Juliette balconies and double closets; six-piece bathroom. Finished basement: recreation room with wet bar and fireplace; kitchen with granite counters and walkout; four-piece bathroom. Listing agents: Paul Maranger and Christian Vermast, Sothebys International Realty, Brokerage, 416-960-9995; www.paulandchristianassociates.com UPPER BEACHES Location: 2151 Gerrard St. E., Gerrard and Main Sts. Asking price: $2,875,000 Selling price: $2,550,000 Previous selling price: N/A Size: about 3,360 sq. ft. Lot: 59-by-125 feet, three detached garages with four parking spaces, private drive Taxes: $9,621 (2019) Bedrooms: 4 plus 4 Bathrooms: 5 Sold: February 2/20. Closed: May 01/20. Selling in 11 days for 89 per cent of the listing price, this detached 2-1/2-storey home is walking distance to Danforth Ave. This property consists of two combined lots, with this move-in home and a derelict home next door at 2153 Gerrard St. E., says listing agent Cameron Weir. The home is close to shopping, restaurants, schools, the subway, and a GO station. Main floor: hardwood floors; living room; dining room; kitchen with stone counters and stainless steel appliances; family room with walkout; bedroom; four-piece bathroom. Second floor: broadloomed floors; den and office; kitchen; living room ; bedroom; bedroom with walkout to sunroom; sunroom; three, four-piece bathrooms. Third floor: bedroom with broadloom on floor. Finished basement: bedroom; kitchen, living room; dining room; walkout; four-piece bathroom. Listing agents: Cameron Weir and Scott Hanton, The WEIR Team, Brokerage Inc., 647-351-3313; www.TheWEIRTeam.ca. Prev 1 of 23 Next Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal First there was a candlelight vigil attended by thousands of community members to stand in solidarity with those killed by police. Protesters marched up and down Central chanting I cant breathe and waving signs referencing the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Then, nearing midnight, chaos broke out in Downtown Albuquerque. Rioters shattered business windows and damaged other property across multiple Central Avenue blocks and, officials say, broke into the historic KiMo Theatre and climbed onto the roof. Thirty-three fires were set in the area and dozens of firearms were looted from at least one gun store, officials say. Police say shots were fired at them, although they did not provide any more information and no one was injured. Around 11:45 p.m., the Albuquerque Police Departments Emergency Response Team, wearing riot gear, arrived at the scene. Over the next several hours they tried to get the demonstrators to disperse. A helicopter circled overhead, and officers moved in formation through the streets, throwing tear gas canisters into the group. Some protesters shouted profanities and taunts at the police and threw the canisters back at them. Officers were called off shortly before 5 a.m. Two men were arrested for unlawful assembly and obstructing or evading the police, misdemeanor charges. Jim Harvey, executive director of the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice, said he was saddened and disappointed to hear about how the situation unfolded Downtown, but he wasnt necessarily surprised. However, he said, he doesnt believe those who attended the candlelight vigil were involved. He said at least 2,000 people attended the vigil at the center near the University of New Mexico and it ended around 7:30 p.m. as protesters began to march, for the most part peacefully. One of the things were continuing to hear a lot about is there are people who are unrelated to and uninterested in the issue and simply want to create more problems, Harvey said. I dont know if thats necessarily who did damage last night or not, but we will continue to do what we have to do, which is to make our voices heard and raise the issues we are concerned about in a peaceful way. Harvey referenced the APDs history with excessive use of force, which prompted the Department of Justice to intervene. The city is still in the midst of the reform effort and officials acknowledge they have a long way to go in changing the police departments culture. Its all about accountability, Harvey said. I think the overarching concern and need even goes beyond local police. I think we need to be talking about a national move to change the culture of policing everywhere, and that just needs to happen. Damage to businesses Standing in front of the boarded-up KiMo Theatre on Monday, Mayor Tim Keller called the mornings events an especially heinous attack on a business community already struggling to survive the COVID-19-related economic shutdown and blamed it on a small separate group from the hundreds who had gathered Sunday evening for a candlelight vigil and march from the UNM area to Downtown and back again. City leaders had not calculated the cost of the damage but said the city will help with board-ups necessary at affected businesses. Last night was scary and dangerous for everyone involved and of course it should not have been for anyone, Keller said. What we saw last night in Downtown was not a protest. It was not Albuquerque. Asked if police had been too lenient, Keller said they intervened as soon as they could in a safe way that would not lead to serious injury. By that measure, because there was no serious injury, I am absolutely grateful. Keller and other officials in his administration said the police worked to keep protesters safe during the earlier event, with APD even helping keep traffic clear. But what happened afterward required police intervention, Chief Administrative Officer Sarita Nair said. We need to come together in a way that respects all of the pain and frustration, but it must be in a way that doesnt endanger lives, she said. Theres been a national conversation about riots and whether cities are valuing property over human life. We have deliberately chosen not to take that approach, but events like last night did endanger more than just property. Although an APD spokesman said early Monday morning that officers reported someone firing at them in front of the KiMo Theatre, Albuquerque Police Department Deputy Chief Harold Medina later said they had not determined the source of the shots. Nobody was seriously hurt during the chaos, but two people were ultimately arrested on misdemeanor charges, Medina said. One of them, 39-year-old David Ellis, sat on the curb and refused to move as the police line advanced toward him after deploying smoke canisters and gas into the crowd of protesters, according to the complaint. When the police line reached Mr. Ellis they had to stop their advance because of Mr. Ellis sitting on the curb, an officer wrote in the complaint. The complaint does not say what the other man, 29-year-old Salomon Cordova, did. Both men were arrested and held for several hours but were later released because the power was out at the Metropolitan Detention Center, said Gilbert Gallegos, an APD spokesman. Clean up Monday morning city workers and volunteers cleaned up the damage to Downtown businesses, removing graffiti and boarding up broken windows. Several Downtown business owners said they dont blame the vandalism on peaceful protestors. Effex Nightclub had several windows broken, but owner Carri Phillis said it does not appear vandals made their way into the club. She said she was told this morning that each time it seemed someone was about to enter the building bystanders intervened. These were not protesters that destroyed Downtown, she said. These were a bunch of punks and all they wanted to do was commit crimes in the city. Phillis said that she hopes the vandals dont detract from the movement, which she said she supports. As far as what happened last night, that does not change the narrative for me and I truly hope that it does not change the narrative for others, she said. As of Monday afternoon, the nightclub was fully boarded up. The irony is next weekend we should be celebrating our 10-year anniversary and today we are boarding up our windows, Phillis said. The Box Theater at Gold and Second had rocks thrown through several windows and a door kicked in at about 2 a.m. Monday, according to co-owner Doug Montoya. Although the damage will cost a few thousand dollars to repair, Montoya said he views the damage as a consequence of systemic issues. I dont even know that I am upset that they broke the windows. Im just kind of at ease with it because it seems par for the course, he said. This seems appropriate that people are going to be angry, theyre gonna, you know, protest. For now, Montoya said hes planning on keeping the windows boarded up while protests continue. Other buildings in the area also took precautions. Metropolitan Court in Downtown Albuquerque closed early as a precautionary measure to allow employees time to safely leave the area. Windows were boarded up at Silver Street Market as well. Co-owner Kelly Ortman said only two windows were damaged but the grocery store made the decision to preemptively cover all exposed windows to prevent potential damage from future protests. She says the damage to her business was minimal compared to others in the area. Its sad, Ortman said. I know that these were not the demonstrators, it was just opportunists. -Journal staff writer Anthony Jackson contributed to this report. As protests over police brutality against African-Americans rage across the country, an Alabama Congresswoman is calling for the abolition of a state holiday devoted to a Confederate leader. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Selma, made the social media comments on the same day as the state holiday to recognize Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy. The state holiday came just as protests some violent broke out across the state and the country over the death of George Floyd, a Minnesota man who died after police knelt on his neck for 9 minutes. The protests weve seen may have been sparked by George Floyds murder, but our nations racial divide is long and wide, Sewell wrote in a Facebook post. Today in Alabama, many state offices are closed to honor Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy. We need atonement to heal. Its time to end this "holiday, she added. The Davis holiday is one of three in Alabama that honors Confederate leaders: Robert E. Lee's birthday, which is marked in January on the same day as Martin Luther King Day; Confederate Memorial Day in April; and Davis' birthday in June. Alabama is the last state to have a legal holiday set aside solely to commemorate the birth of Davis. Protests have occurred in Birmingham, Mobile, Hoover and Huntsville in recent days. Crowds in Birmingham vandalized several businesses and attacked media covering the protests while law enforcement in Mobile and Huntsville deployed tear gas after marchers refused to disperse. Birmingham and several other cities have declared curfews in an effort to stem the violence. New Delhi: In a shocking incident of animal abuse in Kerala's Malappuram district, a pregnant elephant recently died after eating a pineapple filled with firecrackers, offered to her allegedly by some locals. The tragic incident came to light after a forest officer in Malappuram district shared the details of the horrific incident on his Facebook page. As per details shares on social media, the wild elephant came out of the forest, meandering into a nearby village in search of food. As she walked on the streets, locals offered her the cracker-laden pineapple. The fruit exploded in the pregnant elephant's mouth and she met her tragic end. Forest officer Mohan Krishnan, who was part of the Rapid Response Team to rescue the elephant, wrote on Facebook in Malayalam, "She trusted everyone. When the pineapple she ate exploded, she must have been shocked not thinking about herself, but about the child, she was going to give birth to in 18 to 20 months." The cracker explosion in her mouth is stated to have badly injured her tongue and mouth. In searing pain and hunger, she walked around the village but was unable to eat anything because of her injuries. Krishnan wrote, "She didn't harm a single human being even when she ran in searing pain in the streets of the village. She didn't crush a single home. This is why I said, she is full of goodness." Krishnan also shared photos of the elephant, who later walked up to the Velliyar River and stood there. Photos showed her standing in the river with her mouth and trunk in water. The forest officer said she did this to avoid flies and other insects on her wounds. Even as forest officials brought two captive elephants to lead her out of the river, but the effort was in vain. After hours of attempts to rescue her, she died at 4 pm on May 27, standing in water, the forest officer said. A woman from Colorado was arrested by authorities on May 27 after she allegedly drove off a steep embankment with a 5-year-old child still inside the car. The 28-year-old woman is now charged with attempted murder Attempted suicide? The deputies from the Chaffee County Sheriff's Office received a 911 dispatch call about an accident that involved a car that had veered off the road and crashed on a steep embankment in Salida. The paramedics and the authorities immediately rushed to the scene and they found the car down the embankment with the woman and the child still inside. The woman was later identified as Phuong Nu Hoang Dong Nguyen from Chaffee County. When the authorities checked the car, the only one there was a 5-year-old child. Both the woman and child were rushed to a local hospital to treat the minor injuries that they suffered. Nguyen was then taken into police custody by Chaffee County Sheriff personnel and transported to the Chaffee County Detention Facility. She was charged with Criminal Attempt First Degree Murder, a Class 2 Felony. Also Read: George Floyd Autopsy: Family Rejects Findings by Medical Examiners, Will Seek Private Autopsy The child was given to a guardian. It is still not clear what Nguyen's connection to the child is. Nguyen has not yet entered a plea and it is still not known if she was able to speak to an attorney. She is still at the Chaffee County Jail. Similar incident In February, a mother from Florida was arrested for allegedly trying to kill her own children, including her 6-month-old baby. The suspect, Ailenys Carmenate, was arrested by the authorities. She is facing charges of battery, child abuse, and premeditated attempted murder after she tried to strangle the baby, her 12-year-old son and her 9-year-old daughter, according to WSVN-TV. Police said that the 31-year-old woman was in the room of her 12-year-old child when she forced her elbow against the neck of the baby. The girl tried to help the baby and she tried to fight off her mother. Carmenate's boyfriend was able to barge in the room and rescue the infant after the boy opened the bedroom door. The boyfriend was holding the baby when he and the two other children tried to flee the house, that was when the suspect tried to choke the 12-year-old and the 9-year-old, according to WSVN. The baby suffered a head injury and had marks on her neck, the other girl had marks on her neck too. Carmenate has been jailed without bond. In January, a mother from Arizona killed her three children by smothering them. The suspect, Rachel Henry, was arrested for killing her 7-month-old daughter, her 1-year-old daughter, and her 3-year-old son. The authorities found the dead bodies of all three children inside their home. Someone called 911 after hearing the commotion coming from the house. The 22-year-old suspect admitted to smothering her children, starting with the 1-year-old, then she killed the 3-year-old as she covered his nose and mouth and lastly the 7-month-old after feeding her and putting her to sleep. Henry is now facing three counts of first-degree murder, she did not enter a plea and she does not have an attorney. The judge set her bond to $3 million. Related Article: Australian Zookeeper Mauled by Lions, Suffered Critical Bites on Head and Neck @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. CCRM and Cytiva, formerly part of GE Healthcare Life Sciences, renew collaboration agreement for Centre for Advanced Therapeutic Cell Technologies TORONTO and MARLBOROUGH, Mass., June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With Health Canada and the Food and Drug Administration beginning to approve and reimburse cell and gene therapies in significant numbers, the demand for cell and viral vector manufacturing will continue to grow. Consequently, the industrialization challenges associated with the variability of cell and gene therapies, and with manufacturing them on a commercial scale, must be overcome. CCRM and Cytiva, formerly part of GE Healthcare Life Sciences, have renewed their Collaboration Agreement for continued operation of the Centre for Advanced Therapeutic Cell Technologies (CATCT), which was created to accelerate the development and adoption of cell manufacturing technologies for novel regenerative medicine-based therapies. "Together, CCRM and Cytiva have established a commercialization hub where great minds, state-of-the-art equipment and a spirit of innovation meet," says Michael May, President and CEO of CCRM. "Continuing to partner in the operation of CATCT will enable us to move the cell and gene therapy industry closer to fulfilling its promise of creating cures, and enabling treatments to get to patients." "By creating an innovative platform and approach to tackle the issues facing commercialization of living therapies, we are supporting the viability of the regenerative medicine industry," says Catarina Flyborg, Vice President, Cell & Gene Therapy, Cytiva. "In CATCT, we are creating the technologies, processes and equipment that will enable our customers, and the broader industry, to achieve its goals and help patients." Established in 2016, CATCT is a partnership between CCRM and Cytiva, with initial funding from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario). Its staff of 40 works in a 10,000 ft (~930 m) process development facility, located in the MaRS Discovery District, next to Toronto's world-leading hospitals and the University of Toronto. The global regenerative medicine market was valued at US$23.8 billion (2018), and it is anticipated to grow to US$151 billion by 2026 with an annual growth rate of 26.1 per cent.i Operating CATCT allows CCRM and Cytiva to address the manufacturing bottlenecks that would otherwise have the potential to impede the industry's growth. CATCT's key areas of expertise are: Immuno-oncology: CAR-T, NK, cell selection, transduction, expansion, downstream processing and cryopreservation; autologous process closure, automation and workflow design; Viral vectors: Upstream production, downstream purification, formulation and workflow design; Media development: Screening and de novo development of custom cell and gene therapy media; Scale-up: Pluripotent stem cells, viral and allogenic scale-up and workflow design; and, Analytics: Assay development, automation and qualification; flow cytometry, infectious titre, cell enumeration and functional assays. The work conducted in CATCT can be categorized as follows: the first is fee-for-service development projects that advance customers' therapeutic technologies towards industrialization; second, the team's New Product Introductions (NPIs) efforts provide core biological expertise in Cytiva's product development process; finally, internal technology development builds additional capabilities and innovative solutions for cell and gene therapies. A recent success stemming from the work being done in CATCT is the involvement of CCRM and Cytiva in a consortium led by iVexSol Canada, with conditional funding from Next Generation Manufacturing Canada (NGen), to build an advanced manufacturing platform for lentiviral vectors. As core partners in this consortium, which was announced in August 2019 (https://www.ccrm.ca/sites/default/files/media_room/iVexSol%20News%20Release%20FINAL.pdf), CCRM will provide supporting manufacturing infrastructure and downstream processing capabilities, and Cytiva will share expertise of manufacturing processes, and access to and use of specialized tools and technology. The new collaboration agreement between CCRM and Cytiva has a three-year term and it became effective on October 15, 2019. The funding will be a combination of in-kind contributions, milestone payments, reinvested fee-for-service revenue and any successful grant opportunities. FedDev's funding of CATCT was for a three-year term and ended in December 2018. About CCRM CCRM, a Canadian not-for-profit organization funded by the Government of Canada, the Province of Ontario, and leading academic and industry partners, supports the development of regenerative medicines and associated enabling technologies, with a specific focus on cell and gene therapy. A network of researchers, leading companies, strategic investors and entrepreneurs, CCRM accelerates the translation of scientific discovery into new companies and marketable products for patients, with specialized teams, funding, and infrastructure. CCRM is the commercialization partner of the Ontario Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the University of Toronto's Medicine by Design. CCRM is hosted by the University of Toronto. Visit us at ccrm.ca. About Cytiva Cytiva is a 3.3 billion USD global life sciences leader with nearly 7,000 associates operating in 40 countries dedicated to advancing and accelerating therapeutics. As a trusted partner to customers that range in scale and scope, Cytiva brings speed, efficiency and capacity to research and manufacturing workflows, enabling the development, manufacture and delivery of transformative medicines to patients. Visit www.cytiva.com for more. For more information, please contact: Stacey Johnson Director, Communications and Marketing, CCRM 416-946-8869 stacey.johnson@ccrm.ca Colleen Connolly Senior Communications Manager, Cytiva 774-245-3893 Colleen.Connolly@cytiva.com A medical worker takes a swab sample from a resident to be tested for the CCP virus in Wuhan, China on May 15, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images) Wuhans Mass Virus Testing Results Called Into Question as Another Doctor Dies The central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the CCP virus first emerged, announced the results of its mass diagnostic testing for all 9.8 million residents on June 2. Authorities claimed that only 300 asymptomatic carriers have tested positive in the city. It added that there were no confirmed diagnoses. In China, asymptomatic cases are tallied separately from those who test positive and show symptoms. However, Chinese citizens questioned the authorities figures. Meanwhile, another Wuhan doctor who was infected with the virus after treating patients has passed away from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, first broke out in Wuhan in late 2019, and quickly spread all across the country. In early April, after a brief period in which most regions of China reported little to no new infections, second wave outbreaks occurred in several locales, including Wuhan. After a local outbreak, on May 12, Wuhan authorities ordered that all residents take a nucleic acid test. Some health officials have also expressed concerns that another outbreak can occur later in the year. On May 31, head of Shanghais COVID-19 clinical expert team Zhang Wenhong told state broadcaster CCTV in an interview: A virus outbreak in the coming autumn and winter cannot be avoided. General Testing Lu Zuxun, director of the Chinese Society of Preventive Medicine, announced the testing results at a press conference on June 2 in Wuhan. Testing was arranged by Wuhan health authorities and performed by third-party testing companies. 9,899,828 people were tested, with no one diagnosed as a patient. Wuhan deputy mayor Hu Yabo said that authorities spent about 900 million yuan ($127 million) for the testing. However, the results were broadly questioned. Beijing-based news magazine Caijing, citing interviews from Beijing and Wuhan officials, reported on May 19 that the companies tested the samples by mixing five to ten individuals samples together, in order to speed up the process. It takes the testing equipment roughly four hours to perform one test, according to the report. Medical staff treat CCP virus patients at a hospital in Wuhan, China on March 19, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images) Caijing confirmed with directors of two testing companies, doctors at Wuhan hospitals, as well as Li Jinming, deputy director of the National Center for Clinical Laboratories at Chinas National Health Commission, that this was taking place. A researcher working at a government agency told Caijing that mixing ten samples together can save 70 percent on costs, but the results would not be accurate. If a particular sample contains the virus, mixing them together would dilute the virus concentration. As I know, hospitals still test the samples one by one, the head of one of Wuhans top hospitals told Caijing. A medical worker takes a swab sample from a man to test for COVID-19 in Wuhan, China on May 19, 2020. (HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images) A Chinese netizen named Xue Cha also posted on Weibo about his aunts experience at a Wuhan hospital, where she had to take a nucleic acid test before going into surgery for cerebral hemorrhage. The hospital doesnt recognize the nucleic acid test results performed by other parties. All patients must be tested by the hospital before they receive any treatment, he wrote. Caixin, another Beijing-based Chinese magazine, reported on May 12 that Wuhan performed blood antibody tests on 11,000 local residents in a random sampling in April. Five to six percent of them tested positive for antibodies related to the CCP virus. On May 20, Wuhan resident Ms. Zhang told the Chinese-language Epoch Times about the haphazard way in which the testing was performed. [The medical staff] just picked up a little bit of saliva from my tongue [as a sample], Zhang complained. Testing for COVID-19 is typically done by taking a sample with a nasal swab. Doctor Death Chinese state-run media reported on June 2 that 42-year-old Wuhan doctor Hu Weifeng has passed away from COVID-19 after more than four months of treatment. Beijing News quoted Hus colleagues as saying that the hospital would formally announce Hus death later. Authorities have not yet announced the exact date he passed away. Hu was deputy director of the urology department at Wuhan Central Hospital. After the outbreak, he began treating COVID-19 patients. During the second half of January, Hu contracted the virus from patients, and had to be placed on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ecmo) treatment on Feb. 7. Beijing News reported that Hus condition improved in mid-March. On March 22, Hu was taken off the machine. On April 11, Hus tracheostomy tube was removed and he could talk to people. On April 18, Hu received state media interviews. His skin became the focus, as it turned into a dark brown color. Chinese specialists commented that it was due to liver damage from the medicines he took. Beijing News reported that Hu suffered from a cerebral hemorrhage twice on April 21 and May 21. Hu is a colleague of the doctor whistleblower Li Wenliang, who was among the first people to warn about the outbreak on social media in December last year. Aside from Li and Hu, their other colleagues, including Mei Zhongming and Jiang Xueqiang, also died from the virus after being infected by patients. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. The global liquid biopsy market size is slated to reach USD 3,362.6 million by 2026 at a CAGR of 21.9% according to a news report published by Polaris Market Research. The report Liquid Biopsy Market Share, Size, Trends, & Industry Analysis Report, [By Technology (PCR Microarrays, NGS); By Sample Type (Blood, Urine, Saliva, Other Body Fluid); By Biomarker (Exosomes, CTC, ctDNA); By Application; By Region] Segment Forecast, 2019-2026 provides a comprehensive analysis of present market insights and forecasted future trends. Liquid Biopsy is a conventional method used to diagnose onset of cancer. The alternative names for liquid biopsy are fluid biopsy or fluid phase biopsy. This is largely a non-invasive method used to track tumors and mutations over a period of time. Doctors are informed about the disease with the help of these observations of the tumors future. Though being simple and instrumental in early stage detection of cancer, it voices concerns over its adoption. Liquid Biopsy products market has a shortcoming which is it is largely overshadowed by tissue biopsy with the latter being adopted exceptionally. Drivers to the market potential are the increasing number of patients being diagnosed with various types of cancer. The free trials accompanying surgery motivates growth. Minimal invasive surgery method unique to liquid biopsy market cap, invokes huge demand impacting market growth over forthcoming years. Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/liquid-biopsy-market/request-for-sample A significant driver to growth of liquid biopsy is the reduced number of surgical invasions. This encouraging sign makes it one of the most adopted substitutes for tissue biopsy. An increasing trend followed by key players to shift focus onto research and development activities aiding strategic M&A improves market strength dramatically. Considering the basis of technology, single gene analysis and multi-gene-parallel analysis (NGS) dominate the liquid biopsy cancer market size. NGS denotes diagnosis of multiple diseases at one instance. PCR is an approach to analyzing mutation among genes. Yet another class of distinction in liquid biopsy market 2018 is based on sample type. The sample is segmented on basis of blood, saliva, urine and other body fluid. Blood sample is the best sample type for customary analyses as blood contains cell free DNA, circulating cell and exosomes that offer them for easy detection leading to detection of cancerous cells in human body. Based on biomarker type, the global market outlook to 2026 is segmented into exosomes, circulating tumor cells (CTC) and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). CTC biomarkers govern largest market share owing to high awareness levels and accurate tracking results of cancerous cells in the body. CTC marker makes early forays in the initial stages of detection of cancer itself. North America is holding coveted position as per geography in market cap during forecast period. Increased facilitators for diagnosis of cancer and rising number of patients suffering from cancer are factors promoting growth of market. Asia Pacific is exhibited to grow at a faster rate during forecast period. Complete Summary with TOC Available @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/liquid-biopsy-market The major players operating in market include Roche Diagnostics, Illumina Inc., Myriad Genetics, Inc., RainDance Technologies, Inc. among others. Polaris Market Research has segmented the global liquid biopsy market on the basis of sample type, application, biomarker type, and region: Liquid Biopsy Sample Type Outlook (Revenue USD Millions 2015-2026) Blood Urine Saliva Liquid Biopsy Application Outlook (Revenue USD Millions 2015-2026) Molecular Health Monitoring Therapy Selection For Other Meta cancer Therapy Selection For MBS Liquid Biopsy Biomarker Type Outlook (Revenue USD Millions 2015-2026) Exosomes Circulating tumor cells (CTC) Circulating tumor DNA (ct DNA) Liquid Biopsy Regional Outlook (Revenue USD Millions 2015-2026) North America America Canada Europe Germany UK France Italy Asia Pacific India China Japan Latin America Mexico Brazil Middle East and Africa Avail discount on this report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/liquid-biopsy-market/request-for-discount-pricing About Polaris Market Research Polaris Market Research is a global market research and consulting company. We provide unmatched quality of offerings to our clients present globally. The company specializes in providing exceptional market intelligence and in-depth business research services for our clientele spread across different enterprises. We at Polaris are obliged to serve our diverse customer base present across the industries of healthcare, technology, semi-conductors and chemicals among various other industries present around the world. We strive to provide our customers with updated information on innovative technologies, high growth markets, emerging business environments and latest business-centric applications, thereby helping them always to make informed decisions and leverage new opportunities. Contact us- Polaris Market Research Phone: 1-646-568-9980 Email: sales@polarismarketresearch.com Web: www.polarismarketresearch.com Newspaper columnist Rod Dreher wrote There are three kinds of people who run toward disaster not away: cops, firemen and reporters. Watching the coverage of protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the importance of journalism could not be more evident. The photography, videography and written accounts of journalists continue to shine a light on matters of public concern. Reporters in Michigan have run toward the chaos in Lansing, Grand Rapids and Detroit. They have done an outstanding job of informing citizens what is happening during the protests in those cities. Unfortunately, several incidents in Detroit over the weekend have caused concern in our profession. Journalists covering the protest and civil unrest over the last few days have faced tear gas, rubber bullets and in the case of one reporter arrest. The Michigan Press Association feels it is incumbent upon the leadership in the City of Detroit to send a message to those officers who are disregarding press credentials and shooting tear gas and rubber bullets at members of the media that they are acting in a way that is not condoned by the administration. Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of the press this is an important tenant of the First Amendment. We would ask that those in charge of the City of Detroit support this amendment to our nations Constitution. Please understand that journalists are there as neutral observers to report on the actions of all. We understand that law enforcement around the country is under extreme pressure. We appreciate their efforts to maintain calm during this storm. We do however insist that they allow members of the media to do their jobs without fear of injury or arrest. Lisa McGraw is public affairs manager of the Michigan Press Association. MORE ON MLIVE: MLive photographer among journalists fired upon with pellets by Detroit police officer during protest coverage Detroit, Grand Rapids and Lansing under curfew as police brutality protests continue Police brutality protests in Michigan: What you need to know from this weekends rallies, riots WASHINGTON - The scenes have been disturbingly familiar to CIA analysts accustomed to monitoring scenes of societal unraveling abroad - the massing of protesters, the ensuing crackdowns and the awkwardly staged displays of strength by a leader determined to project authority. In interviews and posts on social media in recent days, current and former U.S. intelligence officials have expressed dismay at the similarity between events at home and the signs of decline or democratic regression they were trained to detect in other countries. "I've seen this kind of violence," said Gail Helt, a former CIA analyst responsible for tracking developments in China and Southeast Asia. "This is what autocrats do. This is what happens in countries before a collapse. It really does unnerve me." Helt, now a professor at King University in Tennessee, said the images of unrest in U.S. cities, combined with President Donald Trump's incendiary statements, echo clashes she covered over a dozen years at the CIA tracking developments in China, Malaysia and elsewhere. Other former CIA analysts and national security officials rendered similarly troubled verdicts. Marc Polymeropoulos, who formerly ran CIA operations in Europe and Asia, was among several former agency officials who recoiled at images of Trump hoisting a Bible in front of St. John's Episcopal Church after authorities fired rubber bullets and tear gas to clear the president's path of protesters. "It reminded me of what I reported on for years in the third world," Polymeropoulos said on Twitter. Referring to the despotic leaders of Iraq, Syria and Libya, he said: "Saddam. Bashar. Qaddafi. They all did this." The impression Trump created was only reinforced by others in the administration. Defense Secretary Mark Esper urged governors to "dominate the battlespace" surrounding protesters as if describing U.S. cities as a foreign war zone. Later, as military helicopters hovered menacingly over protesters, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, toured the streets of the nation's capital in his battle fatigue uniform. "As a former CIA officer, I know this playbook," Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., said in a tweet. Before her election to Congress last year, she worked at the agency on issues including terrorism and nuclear proliferation. One U.S. intelligence official even ventured into downtown Washington on Monday evening, as if taking measure of the street-level mood in a foreign country. "Things escalated quickly," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitive nature of his job. He emphasized that he went as a concerned citizen, not in any official capacity. After seeing tear gas canisters underfoot, he said he "knew it was time to go" and departed. Former intelligence officials said the unrest and the administration's militaristic response are among many measures of decay they would flag if writing assessments about the United States for another country's intelligence service. They cited the country's struggle to contain the coronavirus, the president's attempt to pressure Ukraine for political favors, his attacks on the news media and the increasingly polarized political climate as other signs of dysfunction. Trump supporters have defended his handling of the unrest, and his trip across Lafayette Square as a display of the strength needed to restore order in dozens of cities where protests have led to looting, fires and violence. Former Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, a Republican, said it was "hard to imagine" any other president "having the guts to walk out of the White House like this." But there were also indications that senior members of the administration were uncomfortable with the president's outing and eager to minimize their role in it. A senior Pentagon official said Tuesday that neither Esper nor Milley knew when they set out to accompany Trump that police were about to charge through seemingly docile protesters or that they would find themselves playing supporting roles in a photo op. Even away from the cameras, Trump has assiduously cultivated the aura of a strongman. Earlier Monday, he had chided governors as "weak" for failing to employ adequate force in the face of mounting protests. "If you don't dominate, you're wasting your time," Trump said. He offered no words on how to ease tensions in crowds that have massed largely in anger over the death of George Floyd, an African American man who was killed while being pinned to the ground, a knee against his neck, by police in Minneapolis. Brett McGurk, a former top U.S. envoy to the Middle East who spent two years in the Trump administration, said the president's words - recorded by participants and shared with news organizations - would only embolden the world's autocrats and undermine U.S. authority. "The imagery of a head of state in a call with other governing officials saying 'dominate the streets, dominate the battlespace' - these are iconic images that will define America for some time," said McGurk, who led U.S. diplomatic efforts to counter the Islamic State terrorist group. "It makes it much more difficult for us to distinguish ourselves from other countries we are trying to contest" or influence, he said. In recent years, U.S. officials have urged restraint or denounced crackdowns against protesters or vulnerable groups in Russia, Iran, Turkey, Malaysia, Syria and other countries. Even this week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lectured China about its efforts to prevent citizens of Hong Kong from holding a vigil to mark the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests. "If there is any doubt about Beijing's intent, it is to deny Hong Kongers a voice and a choice," Pompeo said in a statement that was met with derision on Twitter because it coincided with Trump-urged crackdowns in the United States. The seeming hypocrisy in the U.S. position has not been lost on foreign targets of American pressure or criticism. Ramzan Kadyrov, a Chechen leader previously sanctioned by the United States for alleged human rights abuses, said Tuesday that he was "watching with horror the situation in the United States, where the authorities are maliciously violating ordinary citizens' rights," according to reports from Moscow. - - - The Washington Post's Julie Tate contributed to this report. The Philippines has told the United States it is suspending its bid to break off a key military pact, the two allies said Tuesday in a sharp turnaround of President Rodrigo Duterte's foreign policy. Duterte in February gave notice to Washington he was axing the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) after accusing the US of interference in his internationally condemned narcotics crackdown. That began a 180-day countdown to ending the deal central to hundreds of joint military exercises with the US per year and a major component of their nearly 70-year-old alliance. Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin said Tuesday the plan has been put on hold for at least six months. "The abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement has been suspended upon the president's instruction," Locsin said in a tweet. The tweet included his diplomatic note informing the US embassy that "in light of political and other developments in the region, the termination of the agreement... is hereby suspended". The note did not elaborate on the regional developments it referred to, and Duterte's spokesman did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment. The US embassy said it "welcomes" the decision, which it said was conveyed on Monday. "Our long-standing alliance has benefited both countries, and we look forward to continued close security and defence cooperation with the Philippines," it added. Duterte has repeatedly threatened to break away from long-standing security ties with the United States, the former colonial power, in favour of closer links with China, a rising superpower and American rival. His stance has raised concern that the regional balance of power would tilt in Beijing's favour. Manila's termination of the military pact was to have taken effect in August and was triggered by the cancellation of visa of Ronald Dela Rosa, a current senator who served as the main architect of Duterte's drug war. US President Donald Trump has dismissed concerns about Manila's plan to abrogate the agreement. "If they would like to do that, that's fine, we'll save a lot of money," Trump added. The Philippine military receives significant American training and equipment, obtaining $554.55 million in US security assistance in 2016-2019, Locsin told a Philippine senate hearing in February. Previous Philippine presidents had built up close ties with the US to deter China's rival claims on South China sea reefs and waters close to the Philippine coast, as well as training and advise to fight Islamic militants. Duterte has set aside the territorial dispute with Beijing in hopes of wooing billions of dollars of Chinese trade and investment. London, June 2 : The UK government is looking at ways to relax the 14-day COVID-19 quarantine rule for people entering the country over the coming months, a media report said on Tuesday. The quarantine measures which will come into force on June 8 were exempt for as lorry drivers, police officers, seasonal farm workers, and healthcare professionals, the BBC reported. Also exempt will be people coming from the Irish Republic, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.. But some MPs and businesses have expressed concern at the plan, warning it will damage the travel industry. A government source told the BBC that ministers were looking at ways around the coronavirus quarantine. This could include expanding the list of workers who are exempt from the 14-day rule, or travel corridors to countries with low infection rates, which the government has previously said it was considering. Any changes would be guided by the science but one possible date for a relaxation to the rule could be July 20, coinciding with school holidays, the source told the BBC. According to the quarantine rule, travellers will also have to tell the UK government where they will be staying and if they do not provide an address, officials will arrange accommodation. In England, there will be random spot checks and 1,000 pounds fines, while governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can impose their own penalties. Housing Minister Simon Clarke told the BBC that the quarantine policy was "a proportionate step" which would minimise the risk of new cases coming into the UK "just at the time that we are getting a grip on it". He said it was a "temporary, time-limited measure", but added that it was "vital". The plan is expected to be set out in more detail when it is laid before Parliament this week. MPs are returning to Westminster on Tuesday after weeks of proceedings taking place virtually. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-03 00:28:06|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KABUL, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The assailant was killed and three people were injured in a suicide bomb explosion in downtown Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, on Tuesday, an interior ministry spokesman confirmed. "One suicide bomber blew himself up inside ablution room of Wazir Akbar Khan mosque at 7:25 p.m. local time, injuring three persons," spokesman Tariq Arian told Xinhua. More information would be shared with the media as appropriate, the official added. The blast damaged the room outside the main building of the mosque in Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood, where the cluster of embassies are located. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far. The blast was the latest in a string of bomb attacks in the city within the past month. Enditem Written by: Holly Baker, American Red Cross delegate in The Bahamas When I see her every day, I know things will be alright, said Vernetta Saunders. For Vernetta, the lunchtime visits from Bahamas Red Cross volunteer Maxine Strachan has become a daily highlight. Six days a week, Maxine delivers hot meals to residents of Nassau through the Bahamas Red Cross home meal delivery program. The volunteer consistently brings food and a smile to the people whove come to rely on her for a daily meal. Vernetta says its about more than food: Maxine brings joy and comfort to her and an opportunity to share a laugh. They start to become like family, Maxine said of the people she delivers to. Vernetta has been receiving meals from the Red Cross since before the global pandemic thrust even more residents of The Bahamas into an uncertain future. The COVID-19 outbreak and the dangers of grocery shopping in crowded areas caused some residents already affected by Hurricane Dorian to become even more vulnerable to hunger. People eligible to be a part of the home meal delivery program are elderly, disabled or those in single-parent households. The pandemic has put even more people into the vulnerable category since elderly and those who are at a higher risk of contracting the coronavirus are often discouraged from going out even for essential tasks. The American Red Cross has supported the Bahamas Red Cross by funding extensive expansion of the program to serve hundreds of additional people in Nassau and on Grand Bahama, another large island in The Bahamas. The American Red Cross has provided additional supplies, funding for meal ingredients, and vehicles with drivers to fulfill increased needs on the islands during this unprecedented public health crisis. Marlon Mckzie, who receives food delivery from the Bahamas Red Cross, says he feels like its one less meal he has to worry about while taking care of his family at home, and hes found a new friend in the Bahamas Red Cross volunteer who delivers his familys meals each day, Khris Kemp. It's more than just bringing a meal to someone, we're bringing comfort. I get to interact with them and talk even for just a few minutes and I know we're filling them with good food and filling them with hope, said Kemp. Volunteers with the Bahamas Red Cross also put together food parcel packages filled with non-perishable food items, cooking supplies and more to distribute to families needing extra help or who prefer to cook their own meals. These packages are delivered around Nassau and shipped to other islands. The American Red Cross is continuing to work with the Bahamas Red Cross to expand the home meal delivery program even further onto the island of Abaco to continue helping people in need. American Red Cross in the Bahamas The American Red Cross has been helping in The Bahamas since Hurricane Dorian hit last September, providing emergency shelter items, food, clean water and millions of dollars in cash and rental assistance to families. It is because of the generosity of the American people that the Red Cross is able to provide continued support to families. In the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Red Cross continues to keep safety the main priority and is adapting our programs and efforts to follow all health guidelines while still delivering our mission. For more information on Hurricane Dorian recovery, visit www.redcross.org/dorian. Australia's relationship with the United States is being tested by the escalating chaos raging across the country and Donald Trump's invitation to join an expanded G7 group of nations alongside Russia. In a blow to the US president's plan to expand the G7 without the inclusion of China, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday said inviting Russia back to the word's most exclusive group of nations would be unacceptable because it was a place "for frank conversations among allies and friends". Mr Morrison accepted Mr Trump's invitation to attend a September G7 meeting in a phone call on Tuesday morning shortly after an Australian reporter and her cameraman were attacked by police while covering riots in Washington. According to senior government sources, Mr Morrison was not aware of the attack on the Channel 7 crew at the time of the phone call. The Prime Minister later asked the Australian embassy in Washington to investigate and report back on how Australia should register its "strong concerns" with local authorities in Washington. Irish lollipop ladies working on the street where Jackie 'O' Henderson has her lavish Bondi apartment have hit back after the radio star slammed them on-air. The KIIS FM host lashed out at the construction workers this week and claimed on multiple occasions they had inconvenienced her as they work to upgrade the road. In particular, Jackie 'O' took issue with the female stop-go workers - who are often Irish backpackers - claiming they prevented an Uber driver from entering her street to collect her and her daughter Kitty. She claimed that as a result they were forced to lug bags up a hill to where the Uber had been forced to wait, and that the workers had later 'given her attitude'. But several traffic controllers working on the street told Daily Mail Australia they were instructed to only let residents' cars into the street - as signs at the entrance to the road clearly state - and they are 'just doing their job'. Scroll down for video Irish lollipop ladies working on a street (pictured) near Jackie 'O' Henderson's lavish Bondi apartment have hit back at the radio star after she accused them of 'giving attitude' Construction work is being carried out near where the 45-year-old lives, with excavators and jackhammers working throughout the day to dig up bitumen and cement Jackie 'O' lashed out at the traffic controllers on her KIIS FM breakfast show this week, telling co-host Kyle Sandilands they had refused to let Uber drivers into her street to collect her and drop off food Poll Do backpacker lollipop ladies treat women drivers unfairly? Yes No Do backpacker lollipop ladies treat women drivers unfairly? Yes 139 votes No 333 votes Now share your opinion 'I just read the article before on my break, I think it's a bit unfair because we are just doing our jobs and we've been told it's residents only,' the Irish backpacker, 22, said. 'I have to refuse Uber drivers all the time around here, because it is just for residents and residents alone. 'At one stage an Uber came and I had to bring it (the food) down to them personally. 'Now I'm not a courier service, I was just doing that out of the goodness of my heart. 'There are signs at the start of the street that say "residents only" and we don't want to lose our jobs. 'One of the biggest issues is safety. There are big trucks on the street and there's not much room, let alone when cars are down here trying to turn around - at least those people who live here can pull into their garages. 'I only started doing this at the end of April, because I was in hospitality but I got laid off because of coronavirus... so I don't want to lose another job.' An Australian traffic controller on the same street overlooking Sydney's most famous beach also returned serve on Henderson's claims that female workers were particularly rude when holding up women drivers. An Uber Eats delivery driver on a bike was allowed into the street on Tuesday, as were dozens of fitness fanatics embarking on the famous Bondi to Bronte coastal walk A traffic controller momentarily prevents a car from entering the beachside street as a number of trucks and excavators work on the narrow road, which overlooks picturesque Bondi Beach One traffic controller said she had only recently landed her role working on constructions sites after losing her hospitality job due to COVID-19. Three construction workers near Henderson's apartment enjoy a brief smoke break on a cold winter's day Jackie 'O's' annoyance at the roadworks were further compounded when she recently had to waiting for an Uber with her daughter, Kitty, only for the driver to be refused entry to the street while they waited with several heavy bags She said she had not seen Jackie 'O' driving in the street and the attitudes of most of the other locals towards workers had been pleasant. 'I'm not worse towards anyone, women or men,' she said. 'I think you have to be as nice as you can, I really do understand people's frustration, but we are just doing a job and there are times when you have to be firm.' Jackie O's complaint during Monday morning's broadcast of her show began as she revealed she had been required to walk out her building and up the street to collect an Uber Eats order, as her driver was prevented from entering. Why are they always Irish? Jackie 'O' Henderson She claimed that the female traffic controllers across Sydney made her wait 'a hell of a lot longer than I used to when the guys were in charge'. The radio star then asked her colleague Kyle Sandilands: 'Why are they always Irish?' 'I could see the Uber guy up there, and he called me and said he wasn't allowed into my street,' explained Jackie. 'He told the controller he was picking up a resident, pointed at my garage and said that it's not that far. '[The controller] goes, "No, she can walk up." I was like, "Are you joking? It's bloody hot." I just thought, "Let him in, for God's sake!" It's not doing any harm, you're not digging up the road right now. I copped it, walked up and shook my head at her. A day after she first raised the issue on her top-rating show, the glamorous radio star raised her frustrations with the construction again on Tuesday, swearing live on-air when a jackhammer interrupted the broadcast 'She was on the phone talking to a friend and probably didn't even care.' The KIIS FM star went on another rant about the construction work during Tuesday's show, after the noisy sound of a jackhammer interrupted their broadcast. Having spent the past two months broadcasting from home, the mum-of-one finally cracked 'Bloody construction, I tell you, I am so over it,' she said. 'Oh f**k, sorry it's annoying me so much, this construction. I mean it's raining outside, take the day off guys.' In bad news for Jackie, workers told Daily Mail Australia while the project was initially set to be completed by October, wet weather had seen that deadline pushed back. Storyful An observatory in Hawaii captured atmospheric pressure waves created by the eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai volcano on January 15.The Gemini Observatory in Hawaii was 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) away from the eruption when it captured the atmospheric pressure waves on three different cameras. They are the faintly red waves seen in the footage, NOIRLab explained.The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai volcano erupted on January 15, triggering a tsunami on the South Pacific nation of Tonga with waves up to 15 meters, according to information released by the Tongan government. At least three people were killed and dozens of properties were damaged across the islands. Credit: NOIRLab via Storyful Community, Charity & Cause, Health & Wellness By Ls Cohen Published: June 02 2020 7-year old Syosset girl wrote a letter and gifted $52.65 in change to Northwell Health. A little girl from Syosset emptied her piggy bank and donated her life savings to frontline healthcare workers. Desiree Mohammodi, 7, wrote a letter to Michael Dowling, CEO of Northwell Health, to go along with her gift. The total amount was $52.65. Her letter she told Downling that she was donating all her money for essential items, including a little something for himself. Photo: Northwell Health She suggested that Mr. Dowling might want to take a break and grab a snack from the vending machines with the money, Northwell Health said in a statement. The letter came complete with original drawings and a photo of herself holding a piggy bank. I pray the world is free of all disease, she wrote. Photo: Northwell Health She ended her note by reminding Downling to wash his hands. Desiree is interested in astronomy and was saving her money for three years to buy a telescope and an American Girl doll in an astronaut outfit. Downling decided that her generosity should be rewarded and at a virtual press conference at Northwells headquarters where Desiree read her letter and presented a bucket of loose change, he gifted the young philanthropist with an American Girl doll and a working telescope. Photo: Northwell Health Because we think Desiree is a true superhero, we want to give her a special thank-you, he said. Here at Northwell, we believe that now more than ever, the generosity and compassion of one special little girl should be rewarded. For Desiree, the Northwell CEO is in rare company. Hes a wonderful man, she said when asked how she felt about Dowling. I love him even more than I love my dog. Taking a cue from Hon. Prime Minister Narendra Modis latestaddressemphasizing on Be Vocal About Local, Dhara has launched its latest campaign Zara Sa Badlaav. As part of this latest campaign, the brand has launched a heart-warming anthem Zara Sa Badlaav, in association with Radio Mirchi. The campaign has been conceptualised and brought to life by Wavemaker India.Theanthem is supported by prominent RJs of Radio Mirchi stations across the states of Delhi, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Assam connecting the nation with this beautiful initiative. The anthem features Parzan Dastur, thecute youngboy from the iconic jalebi advertisement of Dhara, as he re-enacts his iconic scene from the decade-old advertisement. Talking about this campaign, Mr. Dinesh Agrawal, Business Head - Dhara said, The idea behind conceptualization of this campaign is to inculcate the habit of buying Indian brand and being vocal about itwithin our consumers. The campaign tells us as to how a little change can bring-in a lot of changes for the country as a whole. Reliving our first campaign, our viewers take a dip in past by watching this video. Ajay Gupte, CEO South Asia, Wavemaker said, Dharahas been an established household brandfor years now. We wanted to re-iterate the brand promise along with Be Vocal About Localmessaging. We believe,#ZaraSaBadlaavis beautiful reflection and rendition of these two messages together. We are absolutely thrilled to bring this campaign alive along with Radio Mirchiand hope to reach millions of households. Talking about the campaign, ShivanginiJajoriaRegional Director North & East, of Radio Mirchi said, Mirchi has always been at the forefront in helping brands to achieve their objectives by conceptualizing solutions as per the need of the hour. Patronizing locally manufactured products is the need of the hour and the Mirchi influencers have come together to lend their voice to this initiative. In our effort to support Be Vocal Buy Local initiative, Mirchi has partnered with Dhara Cooking Oils & Wavemaker to spread awareness. I would like to thank the team at Dhara Cooking Oils & Wavemaker for their unequivocal support and I look forward to many such partnerships with them in the future. #ZaraSaBadlaav #DeshKiDhara #BeVocalBuyLocal Sharing his experience on reconnecting with the brand, Parzaan Dastur said, Dhara will always be a emotion that resonates with a beautiful part of my life. For many it's a household name that garners trust and quality. And for me, it is a path that has taken me into the heart of every Indian, something I will always be grateful for. I want to thank everyone who was a part of that beautiful ad from the bottom of my heart.I am so glad to partner with Dharaagain after over 20 years for this beautiful initiative #BeVocalBuyLocal. I hope this takes Dhara and our country to greater heights. HAMILTON, Bermuda, June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hermitage Offshore Services Ltd. (the Company) announced today that it plans to issue its first quarter of 2020 earnings after the market close on Thursday, June 4, 2020. About the Company Hermitage Offshore Services Ltd. is an offshore support vessel company that owns 23 vessels consisting of 10 platform supply vessels, or PSVs, two anchor handling tug supply vessels, or AHTS vessels, and 11 crew boats. The Companys vessels primarily operate in the North Sea or the West Coast of Africa. Additional information about the Company is available at the Company's website www.hermitage-offshore.com, which is not a part of this press release. CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS Matters discussed in this press release may constitute forwardlooking statements. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides safe harbor protections for forwardlooking statements in order to encourage companies to provide prospective information about their business. Forwardlooking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements, which are other than statements of historical facts. The Company desires to take advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is including this cautionary statement in connection with this safe harbor legislation. The words "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "target," "project," "likely," "may," "will," "would," "could" and similar expressions identify forwardlooking statements. The forwardlooking statements in this press release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including without limitation, managements examination of historical operating trends, data contained in the Companys records and other data available from third parties. Although management believes that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond the Companys control, there can be no assurance that the Company will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs or projections. The Company undertakes no obligation, and specifically declines any obligation, except as required by law, to publicly update or revise any forwardlooking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Important factors that, in the Companys view, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include the strength of world economies and currencies, general market conditions, including fluctuations in charter rates and vessel values, changes in demand in the offshore support vessel ("OSV") market, changes in charter hire rates and vessel values, demand in OSVs, the length and severity of the recent novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the results of the Company's discussions with its lenders, the Companys operating expenses, including bunker prices, dry docking and insurance costs, governmental rules and regulations or actions taken by regulatory authorities as well as potential liability from pending or future litigation, general domestic and international political conditions, potential disruption of shipping routes due to accidents or political events, the availability of financing and refinancing, vessel breakdowns and instances of off-hire and other important factors described from time to time in the reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Contacts: Hermitage Offshore Services Ltd. + 377 9798 5717 (Monaco) + 1 646 432 3315 (New York) Web-site: www.hermitage-offshore.com Mr. Asgari was acquitted last November in federal court on charges of stealing trade secrets in violation of sanctions while on a sabbatical visit at an American university in Ohio. ICE agents detained him for deportation after his case had been dismissed. He was infected with the coronavirus while held at an ICE detention center in Louisiana, delaying his return home. American officials tried to send him back to Iran in March, flying him around the United States nine times in an attempt to put him on a flight with connections to Iran, but the pandemic lockdowns canceled almost all international air travel. Speculation has persisted that an American Navy veteran, Michael R. White, 48, who has been held in Iran for nearly two years, could soon be permitted to return to the United States once Mr. Asgari was back in Iran. Like Mr. Asgari, Mr. White was infected with the coronavirus while in custody. Mr. White, a cancer survivor, had been visiting an Iranian woman he met on the internet when he was arrested in July 2018 and later sentenced to a 10-year prison term on murky charges. He was furloughed from prison a few months ago when the coronavirus contagion became a crisis in Iran. Swiss diplomats, who act on behalf of the United States in Iran, have been looking after his case. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., reads from the Bible, as she reacts to President Donald Trump during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Tuesday. Read more WASHINGTON House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday urged President Donald Trump to be a healer in chief while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged racism in America as the wrenching debate fueling protests over the treatment of black people in the United States arrived in Congress. Pelosi invoked Biblical scripture to reject Trump's clampdown on peaceful protesters outside the White House and she drew on past presidents including George H.W. Bush in the aftermath of the Rodney King unrest and Barack Obama following the death of Eric Garner as models of the nation's chief executive at a time of crisis. We would hope that the president of the United States would follow the lead of so many presidents before him to be a healer in chief and not a fanner of the flame, Pelosi said. As pleas for reconciliation over the countrys long struggle with racial inequality were met with demands for accountability over George Floyd's death at the hands of police in Minneapolis, there was a shifting tone coming from Congress. Gone are the days when Black Lives Matter protests were met simply with Blue Lives Matter retorts in support of law enforcement. Instead, Congress seems to have heard the protesters outside its doors. You can understand the outrage, McConnell, the Republican Senate leader, said. McConnell said it's not only the death of Floyd at the hands of white police in Minnesota drawing protesters into the streets, but of other African Americans including Breonna Taylor in his home-state of Kentucky. There is no question that there is residual racism in America, McConnell told reporters. Its been a longtime dilemma and we all wish we could get to a better place. READ MORE: Live updates of the Philly regions reaction to the death of George Floyd As the world watches a nation in turmoil, Democrats and some Republicans are swiftly preparing inquiries into the president's actions against the protesters and a legislative response to the police violence and racial inequality at the heart of marches erupting in communities nationwide. Trump was widely criticized for clearing protesters late Monday from outside the White House so he could walk across the street to hold up a Bible outside historic St. John's church. It was viewed as a photo opportunity and criticized by the congregation's bishop. McConnell declined to directly comment on Trumps handling of the crisis. However, several Republicans on Tuesday suggested it would be better if Trump helped calm the nation rather than escalate the already tense conditions in Washington and across the country. Im against clearing out a peaceful protest for a photo op that treats the Word of God as a political prop, said Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Nebraska, in a statement. Every public servant in America should be lowering the temperature. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called on Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to refuse the use of military helicopters and tear gas for ugly stunts like the one Monday. Senate Democrats proposed, and Republicans rejected, a resolution condemning the president's actions. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, said he was glad the president led by clearing the protesters from the park. Cruz and other Republicans blamed outside agitators from the Antifa anti-fascist movement from intervening in otherwise peaceful protests that resulted in looting and other property damage. Still, for a growing number of lawmakers there is an undeniable pattern of inequality in the treatment of black Americans by law enforcement they want to address. Several Republicans, including Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, called Floyds death a murder. One, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, said he understood there's a difference between his experience telling his sons to call the police if they need help and black families warning children to be cautious around law enforcement so as not to risk being harmed. Thats a different kind of America and I think people are understanding those protests make sense, Blunt said. More than 40 bills from banning police choke holds and racial profiling to preventing the federal transfer of military equipment to local law enforcement to a long-sought federal anti-lynching law are now under consideration on Capitol Hill. One House Democrat probed the Secret Service for any communication about Trump's ordering the clampdown on protesters outside the White House. Using words like dictator fascist and other terms to describe Trump's actions against the protesters, Democrats pleaded with Americans to stand with those working to improve police treatment of minority populations. Racism is bad for everyone, said Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California. She and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., among the nation's few black senators post-Reconstruction, spoke of their own childhoods growing up in Civil Rights era, a legacy of the nation's long path toward a more inclusive and representative government. At the Capitol still partly closed by the coronavirus, a Congress that has already struggled with the COVID-19 outbreak that is disproportionately striking black Americans, is now confronting a deepening crisis. The Congressional Black Caucus announced a virtual town hall Friday with civil rights leaders, and House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler said the panel is planning a hearing next week on policing, officials said. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said House lawmakers could be recalled to Washington this month to vote on legislation to address police and other reeforms. Schumer urged McConnell to consider law enforcement reforms legislation by July 4. Michelle Viljoen and Keelan Viljoen spot eels on the Matakana River jetty. Photo, Stephen Farrell. Richard Didsbury wants to protect New Zealands freshwater eels. Finding a jetty on the Matakana River covered in blood has prompted the owner to put up signs prohibiting fishing, as well as information signage on New Zealands freshwater eels. The jetty is located behind the Matakana Village Farmers Market and the signs were erected by market owner Richard Didsbury. Mr Didsbury says one of the distressing things about fishing for eels in the river is that often the eels are never eaten and are killed just for fun. We have had cases where people hooked 10 eels and just hung them up on the bandstand and walked away, he says. What a terrible waste of a resource. Mr Didsbury says the jetty used to be an industrial site and the river was polluted indiscriminately, making it inhospitable for eels. But today, the Matakana community is concerned to clean up its waterways and bring the native eels back again. The erection of the signs is designed to encourage this trend, and Mr Didsbury says the move has the support of Auckland Council and the Department of Conservation. The signs explain that the New Zealand longfin eel is probably the largest in the world and sometimes lives for 80 years. Females can reach up to two metres in length and weigh up to 40kg. They swim for five to six months to tropical Pacific waters, possibly near Tonga, where they spawn. Their eggs hatch into leaf-shaped larvae that float back to New Zealand on ocean currents. Mr Didsbury says the eels are a great attraction for visitors to the market, and sometimes 20 or 30 eels can be seen from the jetty. Continue Reading Below Advertisement With his billions in fake loans, Parretti bought MGM. This was bad news for everyone who worked there, since Parretti was an unbelievably gross human being, apparently unable to be in the same room as a female executive without making sucking noises and frantically gesturing at his groin. He quickly put a "harem" of prostitutes on the MGM payroll, and studio executives were treated to the sounds of their boss loudly having sex in his office throughout the work day. In his spare time, he looted the company for everything it had, starting by firing almost the entire accounting department and replacing them with his 21-year-old daughter. This all culminated in a crude attempt to proposition Meryl Streep, who laughed in his face until he scurried out of the room in embarrassment. Pacific & Atlantic Photos Pictured: Only the 8th or 9th worst predator they ever had at the studio. Continue Reading Below Advertisement One of Parretti's key backers was Liberian dictator Samuel Doe, who promised to invest millions. But this fell through when Doe was captured and tortured to death by his political enemies (they released some of the footage on video, which apparently sold quite well in Liberia). Meanwhile, one of France's biggest banks had lent Parretti so much money that it would have collapsed without a government bailout (executives took bribes of a few million in exchange for letting Parretti steal billions). The whole house of cards came tumbling down and Parretti was arrested. He lost control of MGM after just eight months, during which the studio produced zero movies. Cops in Uruguay have arrested a woman and two men, including a former Marine, for the assassination of the three infantrymen. The trio were detained Monday afternoon after Juan Manuel Escobar, 22; Alex Guillenea 25; and Alan Rodriguez, 31, a married father-of-four, were found dead Sunday morning at a military base post. Authorities revealed Tuesday that the ex Marine showed up at the base and asked his old friends if they would allow him to spend the night there since he did not have a place to sleep. The former soldier then entered the post with two others and opened fire, killing all three. Their bodies were discovered by another Marine who had arrived to relieve them of their shift. Two of the infantrymen were shot in the head in a room that served as the post's reception area. Juan Manuel Escobar is one of the three Marines who was assassinated Saturday at a military post in Montevideo, Uruguay Alan Rodriguez and two other Marine infantrymen were executed at a military post Saturday Alex Guillenea was also killed by the former Marine and two other suspects, including a woman The other serviceman received one shot in one of his hands, another in the abdomen and four more in the chest. His body found lying on a bed in a fetal position, thus indicating that he had been resting while the other two soldiers were on duty. The former Marine, a 26-year-old, entered the military in 2014 but was relieved of his duties in March. Infobae identified him as Christopher Zubia, a Colombian national whose parents are natives of Uruguay. Investigators said the Zubia took the soldiers' service weapons, three Glocks, and placed them in a backpack. He then went to a home about 10 blocks away from the base, where a couple he knew was renting a room and spent the night there. The three were arrested without incident. Uruguay's military held a ceremony Monday for three fallen Marines infantrymen, Juan Manuel Escobar, Alex Guillenea and Alan Rodriguez, who were executed at a Montevideo military base post Sources told Uruguayan newspaper Subrayado that he had mentioned to his cohorts that he had plans to sell the three guns. Several local media outlets have reported that the firearms were to be exchanged with local drug traffickers for cocaine or money. El Observador also reported that the military and prosecutors were aware of a plan to rob the base following the November 2019 robbery of two handguns at a San Jose military post. Infantry members reportedly received messages via social media that there were individuals interested in purchasing weapons. The Montevideo base added two guards to the post over the following weeks. Uruguay President Luis Lacalle Pou was present for a special military ceremony that was held for Escobar, Guillenea and Rodriguez on Monday. Their bodies were expected to be laid to rest Tuesday. After 7 years, many SITs, CBI investigation and probe panels still no justice is served in sacrilege cases: Harpal Singh Cheema Terming Jan 26 as black republic day, Sikh groups to hold protest against Indias unequal laws and norms on prisoners There are positive signs that Wexford is winning the battle against coronavirus with no new confirmed cases of Covid-19 recorded in the county for more than 10 days, based on the latest HSE figures. This is 'good news' for the people of Wexford, according to Dr Sarah Doyle, a Wexford woman at the forefront of the national effort to control the spread of Covid-19. 'Wexford has consistently had a low number of cases, compared with the rest of the country', said Dr Doyle, a consultant with the Department of Public Health in the south east who was seconded as clinical lead to the Contact Management Programme for the Covid-19 pandemic. 'It has the second lowest incidence rate in the country now and this suggests that among other things, people in Wexford are paying close attention to the public health messages from the HSE and the government'. Up to Sunday night, no new cases of people diagnosed with coronavirus had been recorded in the county for 11 days and the situation at Wexford General Hospital was that there were no confirmed cases being treated there since Thursday last. On Friday last, there were no confirmed cases and no suspected cases at the hospital for the first time in weeks. As of 8 p.m. on Sunday night, there were zero confirmed cases but seven suspected cases in the hospital, awaiting results. 'Thinking about how Covid-19 spreads and taking small actions to prevent this, saves lives', said Dr Doyle. She said it is always difficult to 'see' what hasn't happened but it is thought that about 12,000 lives have been saved in Ireland through the actions of the public, the HSE and the Government. 'It is important that people continue to take these small actions, to prevent the spread of infection, and to make sure our good progress continues', said the Piercestown native who appeared a number of times on the Late Late in her national role with the HSE Public Health Communications team. 'It is really important to self-isolate if you are sick, even if your symptoms are only mild. You need to phone your GP for a test if you have symptoms, including cough, shortness of breath, fever, loss of sense of taste or smell. The waiting time to get a test is now very short. It is important that the HSE knows of those who have Covid-19, so that we can give advice to cases on self-isolation, identify close contacts and give them advice to prevent the spread of infection. 'Everyone in your household should limit their movements, until you get your test results. For all of us, it's important to continue to do physical distancing, as advised by the government, and to wash hands frequently.' Dr Doyle said it is also important that people continue to look after themselves and to look after others. 'There are lots of things that people may do, without high risk of spreading infection. Getting out and exercising, and meeting friends is one of the best things you can do for your physical and mental health.' More advice on preventing infection is available on hse.ie. Mining giant Rio Tinto has apologized after blowing up a 46,000-year-old sacred indigenous site with dynamite to expand an Australian iron ore mine. The site, in Juukan Gorge, in Western Australia state's resource-rich Pilbara region, featured two cave systems that contained artifacts indicating tens of thousands of years of continuous human occupation. Grinding stones, a bone sharpened into a tool and 4,000-year-old braided hair were among almost 7,000 relics that had been discovered at the site, according to CNN affiliate 7News. Rio Tinto is one of the world's largest mining companies and has vast operations in Australia. Its iron ore mines make up more than half of its revenue. The demolition went ahead on May 24 despite a seven-year battle by the local custodians of the land, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura People, to protect the site. "We pay our respects to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura People (PKKP)," Rio Tinto Iron Ore CEO Chris Salisbury said in a statement released Sunday. "We are sorry for the distress we have caused. Our relationship with the PKKP matters a lot to Rio Tinto, having worked together for many years," the statement said. "We will continue to work with the PKKP to learn from what has taken place and strengthen our partnership. As a matter of urgency, we are reviewing the plans of all other sites in the Juukan Gorge area." Rio Tinto said in its statement that it had operated on PKKP country under a "comprehensive and mutually agreed" arrangement since 2011. "At Juukan, in partnership with the PKKP, we followed a heritage approval process for more than 10 years. In 2014 we performed a large-scale exercise in the Juukan area to preserve significant cultural heritage artifacts, recovering approximately 7,000 objects," it added. But Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation spokesman Burchell Hayes said in a statement Rio Tinto was told about the significance of the site multiple times since 2013. "The high significance of the site was further relayed to Rio Tinto by PKKPAC as recently as March," Hayes said. He said the group only found out about Rio Tinto's intentions on May 15. CNN Business reached out to Rio Tinto for comment on Hayes' remarks and was directed back to the company statement. Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Ken Wyatt said the "destruction should not have occurred," adding that he had personally spoken to the traditional owners of the land. "It's incredibly important this doesn't happen again," said Wyatt, an indigenous Australian. "The West Australian State Government needs to ensure that their legislation and approvals processes protect our Indigenous cultural heritage. It seems quite clear, that in this instance, the legislation has failed." Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the country's first leader to apologize to generations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children forcefully taken from their parents by white Australians last century, said Rio Tinto's "corporate arrogance had robbed all Australians." "Juukan Gorge's shelters [are] nine-times older than Stonehenge, 23-times older than the Colosseum and 75-times older than Machu Picchu," he posted on his official Twitter account. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The hundreds of indigenous men and boys who died while imprisoned on an Australian holiday island are to be commemorated in a reconciliation project. Elder Farley Garlett said on Tuesday the Whadjuk people would lead a Western Australian government project explaining the history of indigenous captivity on Rottnest Island. 'It is a responsibility we take up in the spirit of healing and moving forward,' he said. Aboriginal elders will lead a commemorative government project on the history of indigenous captivity on Rottnest Island in Western Australia (pictured) More than 3,600 Aboriginal men were imprisoned on the island (pictured) from 1838 to 1931 and almost 400 died as a result of torture, execution and disease Fellow elder Neville Collard said it was an important issue for indigenous people and believed it was time to work with the West Australian government to recognise the island's history. The Wadjemup Project, named after the Noongar name for Rottnest Island, will develop a walking track that allows visitors to explore the island while learning about its cultural history. It will span across a 45-kilometre trail network known as the Wadjemup Bidi, with Bidi meaning 'trail' or 'track' in the Noongar language. These trails will take visitors across natural and man-made landmarks like coastal headlands, swimming lagoons and World War Two tunnels. The project will honour almost 400 indigenous men who were buried at Rottnest Island in unmarked graves between 1838 and 1931. During those years, more than 4000 indigenous men and boys from across Western Australia were sent to the island, imprisoned and used as forced labour. Hundreds died as a result of torture, execution and disease at the prison. The Wadjemup Project will develop an informative walking track across 45-kilometres worth of trails that allow visitors to explore the island while learning about its cultural history Thousands of enthusiastic travellers usually flock to Rottnest Island (pictured) for quokka selfies, sandy beaches and to snap colourful images of themselves on holiday Aboriginal people had fought for recognition of the island's history since the 1980s when the Rottnest Island Deaths Group was formed. 'Ensuring the history of Aboriginal people on the island is recognised is imperative for reconciliation,' Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ben Wyatt said. 'It will begin the healing process of historic and intergenerational trauma from the colonisation of Aboriginal people.' Thousands of tourists typically flock to Rottnest Island to see the quokkas - a marsupial found in abundance on the island - plus the sandy beaches and clear waters. The quokka indirectly contributed to the name of the island; rottnest is Dutch for rat's nest - so named by explorers from the Netherlands who mistook the marsupials for vermin. A total of 785,002 tourists visited the island in the 2018/19 financial year and while numbers were expected to fall in the current year due to the shutdown of tourism because of the coronavirus, it was forecast to rise in the coming years as investment in the industry continued. Nnew Delhi, June 2 : The mountainous state of Uttarakhand would now spin out high-quality Australian sheep wool in the hills and cater to Indias textile industry that relies majorly on the global market for sourcing sheep wool. A recent test report of the sheep wool quality compiled by the state's animal husbandry department corroborated that the wool's quality is similar to what is sourced from the famed Merino sheep in Australia. "We had imported the Australian Merino sheep last year and the purebred yielded the same quality and this month the quantity of wool in Uttarakhand as in Australia," Dr R Meenakshi Sundaram, Secretary, Animal Husbandry Department, said. The average fiber diameter is a very impressive 16.88 microns which is the most sought after by the textile industry across the world, Sundaram added. Under the national livestock scheme last year, over 250 Merino sheep valued Rs 8.5 crore, are housed at a farm in the Tehri Garhwal district for breeding and improving the quality of wool. The importance of the development can be implied from the data that the Indian textile industry imports 8000 MT - valued over Rs 2,000 crore - of fine wool from the global market, including Australia. "With very focused breeding programs for the next seven years in Uttarakhand by linking it with the integrated livelihood projects, we can produce almost 50 % of the total requirement of the textile industry in India," said Sundaram. At the sheep farm, high-quality germplasm has been made to available sheep breeders through the use of modern artificial insemination in sheep and embryo transfer technology. The state government is aiming to offer sheep farming as a sustainable livelihood opportunity to the migrant population which has returned to Uttarakhand due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Political leaders often have standard answers to frequently asked questions. Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister is no different. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/6/2020 (598 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion Political leaders often have standard answers to frequently asked questions. Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister is no different. For example, when the towering Tory leader was asked last week about the latest Angus Reid Institute poll on approval ratings for Canada's premiers a survey in which Pallister finished last his response was predictable. "I dont care about being popular; I care about getting results," Pallister told reporters. "And thats the same thing Ive said since I got into politics, and Im not likely gonna change. If you dont like me, thats fine; if you like our results on COVID, thats good." Pallister has frequently intimated his lack of personal popularity (he has lagged behind his own party since becoming leader in 2012) has nothing to do with the quality of his leadership. While it's true leaders can be politically successful and personally unpopular, that is not what is happening here. The Angus Reid survey showed pretty clearly other premiers, many of whom have suffered from being profoundly unlikable on a personal level, have nonetheless been rewarded with upticks in support through the novel coronavirus pandemic. New Brunswick Premier John Higgs did not face a huge pandemic challenge but still leads the rankings among all premiers (80 per cent) with an astounding 32-point improvement since the last poll three months ago. He is followed closely by Quebec Premier Francois Legault (77 per cent; plus-19), B.C. Premier John Horgan (71 per cent; plus-25) and Ontario Premier Doug Ford (69 per cent, plus-38). Pallister got 47 per cent approval, up four points from the last survey but still the lowest in the country. Ford's numbers are an interesting study in contrast with Pallister. Before the pandemic, Ford was smoldering tire fire of a political leader, alienating core supporters and infuriating opponents alike. Pre-pandemic, he had an approval rating of just 31 per cent. Then came the pandemic. Unwilling to wait for Ottawa to respond, Ford delivered quick and substantial relief to his citizens. His performance in daily news briefings is a perfect mix of confident and compassionate. And suddenly, remarkably, his approval rating began to rise. Actually, not so remarkable. When faced with a crisis, leaders who demonstrate a steady hand typically see surges in popular support. However, it's not a slam dunk; leaders who do or say the wrong things get trampled and left behind. No premier in Canada demonstrates that phenomenon better than Pallister. Manitoba's premier denies there is any relationship between his popularity and his performance. So, let's look at Pallister's management of the public health threat. There is no way to get around the fact Manitoba suffered fewer confirmed cases of the virus, and thus fewer deaths, than just about any other province. Only B.C. and Newfoundland and Labrador have had fewer cases per capita. However, it's important to note Manitoba has done nothing different than any other province in responding to COVID-19: same public health messaging, same social distancing, same restrictions on non-essential business. Pallister can be credited for doing the right things at the right time, but it does not distinguish him. On the economic side of this crisis, however, Manitoba's response has been distinguished by weak and often counter-productive measures. Pallister likes to characterize his economic supports as the "most robust" in Canada, but the numbers tell a different story. Manitoba was late off the mark, offering financial help much later than other provinces. When the premier finally did respond, the programs he devised were extremely small and crippled by restrictions that have made it hard for Manitobans to take advantage. While overseeing his array of "too little, too late" programs, Pallister found the time to threaten public servants with layoffs and provincially funded entities with devastating budget cuts. Dan Lett | Not for Attribution A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world that is sent every Tuesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. His decision to cut spending and menace the entirety of the provincial public sector has undoubtedly helped nudge Manitoba into an economic crisis disproportionate to the size of the public health crisis. The Conference Board of Canada last week released GDP forecasts for all provinces. Despite being among the least-affected provinces from the pandemic, Manitoba is now expected to suffer the third-worst decline in GDP. Pallister may be willing to trade popularity for performance, but when you combine data from the approval ratings surveys and economic forecasts, you can see his low approval rating is only partly due to the fact he is not "likable." Largely, this is a reaction to the quality of his response to the pandemic. If he had been quicker and more generous, and less mean-spirited in his attempts to control spending, he undoubtedly would have seen a pandemic bounce. Sometimes, a political leader's lack of popularity is a reflection of having to make unpopular decisions. Other times, it's a simple acknowledgement people think you're doing a bad job. dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca There was no warning, Slavin said. With a bandanna around his face, Slavin began coughing and felt gas stinging his eyes, he said. As he tried to break free from the crowd, several canisters were dropped a few feet away from him and exploded. These explosives were dropped in the middle of the crowd, within several feet of at least a hundred people or more, he said. Officers continued firing rubber pellets at protesters who were already backing up. Since the revolution in policing that began in the early 1990s, we have had a generation of peace and prosperity. Without the rule of law i.e., without order, without the presumption that the laws will be enforced that kind of societal flourishing is not possible. We are seeing now what happens when the rule of law breaks down. It is frightening, but it is hardly unprecedented, even in modern history. Bryan Burroughs spellbinding history Days of Rage: Americas Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence, which I reviewed for NR about five years ago, reminds us that in 1972 alone, there were 1,900 bombings in the United States, carried out, for the most part, by domestic terrorist groups and enraged individual American citizens. Regrettably, the radical small-c communists were not ultimately regarded as the sociopaths that they were. They eroded public support for our war effort in Vietnam, wrote the history in which they were lionized as social-justice icons against racist America, and triumphantly marched into academe, where they have taught and influenced the sociopaths who are making mayhem today. Throughout our 30 years of domestic tranquility, which seems to be in its twilight, we have had debates that are relevant to the rioting and looting now underway in American cities. Specifically, we have argued over the War on Terror, so-called. It wasnt really a war. That is, the nation was not on a wartime footing. Our enemies did not present as traditional armed forces, but melded into the civilian populations that they attacked. While there were domestic attacks, the most catastrophic one on 9/11, the courts always remained open and functioning. There was no cessation of domestic law enforcement. Yet it wasnt truly peacetime, either. Our enemies were projecting force on the scale of a nation-state and were backed by hostile foreign regimes. Congress authorized combat operations, and our military was dispatched. The laws of war were invoked to justify detaining enemy combatants and even trying them by military commission though few such trials actually took place. Story continues The question at the heart of all this was: What is our default condition: peace, war, or some kind of hybrid? In peacetime conditions, we proudly take the position that liberty is supreme. In any contest between freedom and order, wed rather see the government lose wed rather see the guilty escape justice than see a single innocent person wrongfully convicted. When the rule of law itself is vulnerable, however, we soon realize we may not have the luxury of that posture. If national security truly is at risk, if lives and property are threatened on a large scale, we cannot take the position that wed rather see the government lose. We need government to prevail, because without order, our liberties are just parchment promises. On Monday, before yet another night of rioting, President Trump and Attorney General William Barr both spoke about dominating the streets i.e., the need for the government to restore order. Its the kind of aggressive rhetoric that rubs some people the wrong way, but the point is not to be dictatorial. It is to reestablish the rule-of-law presumption. This is going to be more difficult because of post-9/11 excesses and abuses. Obviously, the public was deeply concerned about jihadist mass-murder attacks, but there was never a sense as there was during, say, World War II that the nation was invested in a real war effort. Progressive critics argued that War on Terror security measures were more a cause of than a legitimate reaction to anti-American terrorism; libertarians contended that these measures were wildly out of proportion to the threat, and that government power grabs would lead to ever greater abuses. Almost 20 years later, with two wars having devolved into failed experiments in sharia-democracy building, it is hard to be mindful now that there really was a point to all of this. There has been no reprise of 9/11. Our military and intelligence services have done a spectacular job of keeping our homeland safe, notwithstanding that our enemies remain committed to attacking us. Instead, what is most visible to us are the abuses, including the use of foreign-intelligence surveillance authorities to spy on innocent Americans, interfere in a political campaign, and hamstring an incoming administration. So now, what Ive long feared has happened: We have a real national-security crisis, but government officials have lost the trust of the American people to use security powers for their intended purposes. While our foreign terrorist enemies are more amorphous than traditional foes in foreign wars, they are identifiably foreign, despite the stray American who aligns with them. That makes dealing with organizations such as al-Qaeda and ISIS easier for us. They simply do not have the same array of constitutional protections that Americans have, and we are not required to afford them the same presumption of innocence. To neutralize them, there is scant need for judicial warrants. In marked contrast, whats happening on the streets right now is reminiscent of those Days of Rage. The violent radicals are Americans, and they are threading through crowds of Americans who are exercising their constitutionally protected rights to assemble and protest. There is no domestic-terrorism analogue to FISA (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act). FISA permits monitoring in the absence of probable cause of crimes if a person is acting as an agent of a foreign power though, as Ive noted time and again, if the government wants to monitor an American as a clandestine agent, FISA nearly mandates a probable-cause showing of a crime. When investigating Americans, even in the domestic-terrorism context, law-enforcement officials must presume innocence unless there is criminal evidence to the contrary amounting to probable cause. But thats law enforcement. The first responsibility of government is not law enforcement, though the last 30 years may have lulled us into that misimpression. The first responsibility of government is to provide security. The rule of law is not just the result of law enforcement; it is a prerequisite of law enforcement. Police organizations, even if we combined all federal and state forces, do not have the capacity to impose order. They certainly could not simultaneously impose it and investigate crime. When there is mass violence or insurrection, that is a security problem, not a law-enforcement problem. That is why police departments in major cities are on their heels at the moment. This is the situation where we need government to win, not where wed prefer for it to lose. If you are truly a peaceful protester, you grasp that you dont want to be running cover for violent radicals, regardless of your anger. Like every other law-abiding American with whom you agree or disagree, you have to understand that unless we have order, your rights, including your rights to assemble and protest, are illusory. It is said that the radicals are hijacking the protests, but thats a cop-out. It couldnt happen unless the protesters let it happen. Knowing that they are being exploited for violent ends, they continue, prioritizing their right to self-expression which could be exercised many ways other than on the streets, alongside sociopaths over our collective right to ordered liberty. That is why the government has to dominate the streets, including by deploying the National Guard and any other armed forces to the extent that is necessary to restore order. The understanding that mass violence and insurrection will not be tolerated has to be revived. In this, as in most things, the niceties of law are subordinate to political reality. Legally, the president has all the authority he needs to deploy federal forces law-enforcement and security forces to quell the uprisings, with or without the consent of the governors. For their part, the governors have the authority they need to call in the National Guard to fortify their beleaguered police. But as a practical matter, we are doomed to failure unless the president and the governors cooperate, unless they get beyond heated partisan politics and present a united American front against anti-American violence. It is not hard for the radicals to read the pols. If the rhetoric of the president and Democratic governors continues to imply that they are setting each other up to take the political blame for failure, the radicals glean that failure is assumed, that chaos reigns. This must not be a matter of President Trump dominating the streets. It has to be the rule of law dominating the streets. It has to be the states and the feds together, facing down anti-American insurrectionists. More from National Review Following largely peaceful protests in Boston on Sunday that ended with clashes between demonstrators and police, another rally and vigil is expected to be held in the city Tuesday. The event, called Not One More!," has been organized by the advocacy groups Black Lives Matter Boston and Violence in Boston. The rally will start at 5 p.m. around Franklin Park Road and Blue Hill Avenue. The demonstration aims to honor the life of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died on Memorial Day after a white Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. The policeman, later identified as Derek Chauvin, has since been arrested and charged with murder. The protest also seeks to remember the lives of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and the locally fallen, the events Facebook page says. Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, was killed by a white father and his son after the two saw him running in their neighborhood and chased after him with guns. More than two months passed before authorities charged Gregory McMichael and his son, Travis McMichael, with killing Arbery. Taylor, a black 26-year-old emergency medical technician, was shot and killed by police officers at her Louisville, Kentucky home during a narcotics investigation, The New York Times reported. She was shot eight times. At Tuesdays protest in Boston, a "die-in will be held for for eight minutes and 46 seconds, the amount of time Floyd was pinned on the ground for by Chauvin and three other officers. We will be supporting each other and sharing space. People will be able to come and bear witness to the lives lost due to the violence of white supremacy, Black Lives Matter Boston wrote in a Facebook post. The march will begin on Franklin Park Road and move toward the Lemuel Shattuck side of Franklin Park, where demonstrators are expected to rally, chant and hold a candlelight vigil. We will then discuss the many ways that people can plug into their community to keep the momentum going to ensure that no more black lives are lost, Violence in Bostons website says. The organizations have urged anyone who is at high risk due to the coronavirus to stay home as a livestream of the event will be available. They also recommended participants wear gloves and masks, carry signs without sticks and bring sanitizers. Although the three protests held in the Massachusetts city on Sunday were nonviolent throughout most of the day, by nightfall, 53 people were arrested, and dozens of officers and bystanders were injured. Officers were hit with sticks, bottles and fireworks, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said at a press conference Monday. Stores were vandalized and robbed, and more than 20 law enforcement cruisers were damaged, one of which was lit on fire. The chaos caused untold economic damages" to businesses in the area and to some of the citys most cherished public spaces," according to Walsh. Tear gas was thrown at police, Boston Police Commissioner Williams Gross said, and authorities hit some people pepper ball projectiles, pepper spray or tear gas as well, WBUR reported. Tomorrow! We will be supporting each other and sharing space. People will be able to come and bear witness to the... Posted by Black Lives Matter Boston on Monday, June 1, 2020 Related Content: British Gas owner Centrica, Easyjet, Carnival and Meggitt will drop out of the FTSE 100 this month after their shares tanked during the pandemic. In what will be the biggest shake-up of the blue-chip index since 2016, they are set to be relegated in the latest quarterly reshuffle. They will be replaced by cyber security firm Avast, Ladbrokes parent GVC, B&Q owner Kingfisher and the emergency repairs firm Homeserve. British Gas owner Centrica, Easyjet, Carnival and Meggitt will drop out of the FTSE 100 this month in what will be the biggest shake-up of the blue-chip index since 2016 The reshuffle takes place on June 22 but is based on last night's closing prices. Typically, a stock will be relegated from the index if it is no longer one of the 110 most valuable listed companies on the stock exchange. At the same time, FTSE 250 firms that rise to 90th or above are automatically promoted. Budget airline Easyjet was 121st at the close yesterday despite a last-minute rally that saw its shares increase by 2.6 per cent, or 18.6p, to 724.6p. Defence firm Meggitt ended yesterday ranked 139th, Centrica 143rd and cruise operator Carnival 150th. Stock Watch - Zotefoams Shares in materials specialist Zotefoams surged after its biggest client said that it has won a contract to supply the Government. It rose 16 per cent, or 47p, to 340p following the substantial 26-week deal to supply personal protective equipment that uses its plastazote foam. In a trading update, the company said it had continued operating throughout April and May despite challenging conditions created by the lockdown and that it expected a stronger second half. Helal Miah, investment research analyst at The Share Centre, said: 'This reshuffle is highly reflective of the current crisis environment. 'Out go stocks from sectors that have taken a beating and questions arise as to how and whether some of these can manage this crisis. 'Replacing them are some businesses that were already doing well before this crisis hit but that have also either benefited to some degree or have managed to mitigate the crisis well.' The FTSE 100 had a chipper day, despite all the changes afoot, rising by 0.87 per cent, or 53.72 points, to 6220.14. The FTSE 250 index of mid-sized companies was up 0.92 per cent, or 158.78 points, to 17,436.31. Shares in Galliford Try climbed by 4.3 per cent, or 5.32p, to 128.86p after the construction firm won a new contract. It has been hired by Strathclyde University to design and build the proposed National Manufacturing Institute Scotland, in a deal that is worth 42million. The research facility will be close to Glasgow Airport and focus on manufacturing methods. Work is expected to begin in the summer. Biotech firm Novacyt said sales of its coronavirus testing kits had now reached 120million. But the company's shares sunk 8.7 per cent, or 29p, to 306p after it admitted that its test had not been approved for state reimbursement by French authorities.Novacyt stock has risen by more than 2000 per cent this year. 'As new regions are impacted by the pandemic, we expect the demand for our Covid-19 test to continue to grow,' boss Graham Mullis added. Private hospitals operator Mediclinic International rose 8.4 per cent, or 23p, to 297.4p despite its annual losses growing. The group, which said its Swiss subsidiary had been providing bed space for health authorities during the pandemic, reported a loss of 315million for the year to March 31, up from 151million the previous year. Revenues rose from 2.93billion to 3.08billion. And although the virus crisis hit patient numbers and forced it to cancel elective procedures, it said patients were now starting to return as authorities gradually lifted lockdown measures. However boss Ronnie van der Merwe warned: 'A high degree of uncertainty remains regarding the progression of the pandemic and its full impact, which may well continue for at least the next 12 months.' Mediclinic, which runs 77 hospitals in Switzerland, South Africa and the Middle East, has halted all non-essential spending and suspended its dividend to preserve cash. Mumbai: After years of struggling on the sidelines, Jaideep Ahlawat has suddenly broken into the centre stage with 'Paatal Lok' and describes the experience in "superlatives, unreal, amazing and totally surprising". The praise for his portrayal of Hathiram Choudhary, a washed-out inspector, has been overwhelming, said the actor who is hoping that the success of the Amazon Prime Video series will open up avenues for more challenging roles. Written and created by Sudip Sharma, 'Paatal Lok' features Jaideep as a weary, almost has been inspector who lands the case of a lifetime when four suspects are nabbed in the assassination attempt of a prime time journalist. "Sometimes I get overwhelmed with the compliments, but the happiness is radiating. I hope this gets me seen in a new light. I hope many think that I can also do vulnerable parts and not just macho, antagonist parts in which they've seen me," Jaideep told PTI. A popular director told him that Hathiram, beneath all the layers, is essentially a romantic guy and wondered why someone hadn't seen Jaideep in romantic roles. "I told him 'please write, I'll do it!' I hope people see many new characters in me. I am ready to work hard, do comedy, romance and action. Just give me that trust. I am just too hungry right now," said the 42-year-old. Born into a Jat family in Haryana's Rohtak district, Jaideep initially wanted to be an Army officer. It's only when that did not work out that he turned to his other passion - acting. He got into the prestigious Film And Television Institute of India (FTII) and landed in Mumbai in 2008. There were bit roles in Akshay Kumar's 'Khatta Meetha' and Ajay Devgn's 'Aakrosh' but Jaideep first came to the public's notice with his turn as muscleman Shahid Khan in Anurag Kashyap's revenge drama 'Gangs of Wasseypur' in 2012. That success led to roles in big films like Shah Rukh Khan's 'Raees', Akshay Kumar's 'Gabbar is Back' and Kamal Haasan-starrer 'Vishwaroopam'. But it took another six years with the role of senior RAW officer Khalid Mir in Meghna Gulzar's 2018 film 'Raazi' -- for him to find his way to meaty roles in 'Lust Stories', 'Bard of Blood' and 'Paatal Lok'. "'Samay se pehle aur bhagya se jyada kuchh nahi milta' (They say you don't get anything before time and more than fate). I truly believe that and have never felt the need to fight it out, to say 'why this didn't happen earlier'," he said in a philosophical tone. "It's happening now and I feel good. The belief you see now in people's eyes is a reminder that what you were working hard towards has been accomplished. Now a new journey will begin." The struggle phase, of doing roles and films in the hope of being noticed, is something every actor, including the likes of Irrfan Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Pankaj Tripathi, has gone through, Jaideep said. "We all go through the phase where the work is slow and we aren't sure if what we are doing will have returns in the future or if it'll reach people at all. You cannot fight that," he said. The only consolation, according to him, was that his work was always appreciated even when he did not have a bigger reach. "Thankfully, no one said I've done an awful job." Jaideep's inherent will to win finds resonance even in his 'Paatal Lok' character. "Hathiram got so much love because it's a story of every person who feels lost in some form of a system, be it from any field, journalism, corporate. It's just the uniform that's different. The feeling of being helpless remains the same... The same goes for the industry as well. "But you can't be bitter about it. Change will happen only when you become positive. Hathiram reached a stage where he will die but give his all. Everyone at some point feels this and hence people have been able to relate with him so much," Jaideep added. The best part of 'Paatal Lok' has been that the audience is now going back and discovering his past work, including his cameo in films like Imtiaz Ali's "Rockstar". "It really feels good. To see that even those works, which you felt were good but perhaps never reached them, are being noticed," he said. "I was told that it's a blink-and-miss part... They were looking for someone from Haryana. I worked for three-four days and it's amazing that people now are going 'Oh, he was here too!' That's the journey of an actor," he added. Important Note Regarding the Guides Our guides are a SUMMARY of the laws regarding fishing and boating. This guide is intended solely for informational use. It is not a reprint of any referenced statute or regulation in its entirety and should not be used as such. Questions about the information contained in this guide should be directed to the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources at 800-858-1549 BEFORE engaging in the activities referenced. Actual wording of any Kentucky Revised Statute (KRS) or Kentucky Administrative Regulation (KAR) can be viewed here. By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In the wake of the suicide of a Class IX student Devika in Malappuram, allegedly due to lack of access to television and internet for attending virtual classes, General education minister C Raveendranath has sought a report from Deputy Director of Education (DDE) of Malappuram district. The minister said it was an unfortunate incident. The government will ensure that all the students in the state get hassle-free access to the new form of learning process due to the Covid-19 pandemic, he said. "We will ensure that no student will be left from the virtual format of school education. In fact, there is no room for any apprehension as the classes will be re-telecasted on weekends and the same classes will be repeated next week. The government has also started collecting the statistics of students who could not attend the classes so as to ensure a speedy solution for them. However, I have sought a report from Malappuram DDE in connection with the student's death", Raveendranath told reporters here on Tuesday. Devika, 14 was found charred in the courtyard of her house at Valancherry in Malappuram. She was missing from Monday evening. A kerosene bottle was found near her body. A suicide note was also recovered by the police which reads " I am going". The parents of the student alleged that she was under the frustration as she couldn't attend the classes as their television was damaged and needed repair Meanwhile, the state government has not collected the exact number of students who missed the classes due to various reasons. Though Samagra Shiksha Kerala had found in a survey that around 2.5 lakh students could not attend the classes, the exact number will be more. The reason is due to recurrent power failure due to heavy rain and wind, lack of subscription of Victers channel in various DTH networks. "We could not collect the exact details and the process is progressing. It will take some time as we need to collect the details of students from each class teachers of the schools. We will make alternate arrangements for them. However, students should not worry about missing the classes as now the trial run is in progress and the classes will be retelecasted again next week", said B Aburaj, Director, State Institute of Educational Technology (SIET). The government has also joined hands with KSFE to buy television sets for local libraries to ensure television channel access to the students whose families who cannot afford a television, computer and smartphones. The Kerala government has launched 'First Bell', the virtual learning programme for school students replacing the regular format due to the pandemic. The classes are being conducted through Victers channel in television as well as in Youtube. The state has entrusted the job with Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) to develop content for initiating online classes at the school level. The regular classes may begin in July. Fu Xuejie, wife of the late doctor Li Wenliang, claimed a firm No in her statement on Weibo to some American politicians proposal for renaming the street in front of the Chinese embassy in Washington as Li Wenliang Plaza.(Online Source) In early May, Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, together with 14 other House Republicans, co-sponsored the legislation, and four Republican Senators, including Tom Cotton, Ben Sasse, Marco Rubio and Marsha Blackburn, who are known for hawkish views on China, introduced the legislation simultaneously in both chambers of the United States Congress to rename the street in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. as Li Wenliang Plaza. Ulterior motive With those who were honoured to introduce the new bill, the street would be officially changed from 3505 International Plaza to 1 Li Wenliang Plaza, Fox News reported. Well ensure the name Li Wenliang is never forgotten by placing it permanently outside the embassy of the nation responsible for the deaths Dr Li tried to prevent, Tom Cotton was quoted as saying. However, how sensational it sounds only shows how wrong it turns out to be. The deaths Dr Li tried to prevent, which even now appears to concern the US so much, were already well-handled and controlled months ago, under timely and effective measures carried out by all the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation in the Chinese peoples battle against COVID-19. The Guardian commented that critics have pointed out that it is just US presidents another attempt to deflect attention from his handling of the crisis in the United States. Maybe it is time for the US to face up to their responsibility for the deaths China tried to prevent, and clear up its own battle ground. A firm No from Dr Lis family Fu Xuejie, wife of the late doctor Li Wenliang, expressed her firm opposition on Weibo in a statement issued on May 30, after learning about US senators proposal on the internet. As Fu stated, It is VERY SAD to learn about such news, knowing that Li Wenliang would never allow anyone to use his name as a weapon to hurt his country. He himself was a member of Chinese Communist Party who loved his motherland so much. She also added in the statement, For our family, Wenliang will always be the greatest loss and the most precious memory. We therefore will tolerate no one to hype it with Wenliang anymore. At the moment, Lis family calls on people to stop bringing up their deepest pain, let the lost one rest in peace and the living ones move forward. Not the first time & not only China As The Guardian reported, US relationship with China sharply deteriorated once when lawmakers similarly proposed in 2014 to rename the street after Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Prize-winning writer who was imprisoned after calling for democratic reforms. China denounced that effort and the proposal died in the House of Representatives for the sake of the cooperation with Beijing. The Guardian also indicated that China is not the only nation targeted by such symbolic action. In 2018, Washington city council named a block outside the Russian embassy after Boris Nemtsov, one of president Vladimir Putins most vocal critics, who was shot dead in Moscow in 2015. Find out more information at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/08/us-senators-propose-renaming-street-outside-chinese-embassy-after-wuhan-whistleblower [ Editor: WXY ] Emma Watson has broken her silence after she was accused of prioritising her Instagram aesthetic over a post showing support for the movement Black Lives Matter. The actress, 30, took to Instagram at midnight on Tuesday to tell her 57.2million followers 'I stand with you' as she shared an impassioned post about how she would use her platform to tackle 'structural and institutional racism'. Earlier on Tuesday, Emma joined millions around the world by posting a black square, but sparked backlash by editing it to have a white border around it. Backlash: Emma Watson has broken her silence after she was accused of prioritising her Instagram aesthetic over a post showing support for the movement Black Lives Matter Social media entered a 24-hour blackout as people made their voices heard in the fight for equality after the senseless death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25th. Emma went viral on Twitter, with those accusing her of uploading three black squares with the same border just to match her feed. At midnight, however, Emma uploaded a piece of artwork by her friend Dr. Fahamu Pecou which was called White Lies, Subtleties, Micro-Aggressions, and Other Choking Hazards. Fury: The actress, 30, joined millions around the world by posting a black square, but sparked backlash by editing it to have a white border around it The actress wrote: 'I was holding off posting until #blackouttuesday ended in the UK,' before sharing a poem written by Dr. Fahamu called Broken Open from Black Matter Lives. Emma also uploaded her own words about the action she would be taking. 'There is so much racism, both in our past and present, that is not acknowledged nor accounted for. 'White supremacy is one of the systems of hierarchy and dominance, of exploitation and oppression, that is tightly stitched into society. As a white person, I have benefited from this. 'Whilst we might feel that, as individuals, were working hard internally to be anti-racist, we need to work harder externally to actively take the structural and institutional racism around us. 'Im still learning about the many ways I unconsciously support and uphold a system that is structurally racist. Important: The actress, 30, took to Instagram at midnight on Tuesday to tell her 57.2million followers 'I stand with you' as she shared an impassioned post Powerful: The actress wrote: 'I was holding off posting until #blackouttuesday ended in the UK,' before sharing a poem written by Dr. Fahamu called Broken Open from Black Matter Lives 'Over the coming days, Ill be using my bio link and Twitter to share links to resources Ive found useful for my own researching, learning, listening 'I see your anger, sadness and pain. I cannot know what this feels like for you but it doesnt mean I won't try to.' Racial tensions and rioting have escalated across the United States since footage emerged of a handcuffed Floyd choking to death while being restrained by white police officer Derek Chauvin, who was filmed pinning the 46-year old to the ground by pressing a knee into the back of his neck. The post will be applauded by fans who hit out at Emma's previous post because she didn't attach information of how people could either donate, educate themselves, sign petitions or how they can help. One wrote: 'Emma watson claims to be an activist but instead of posting links to petitions, donations and opening her purse she got 1 million likes on a pic of a black square with a white border around it to maintain her instagram aesthetic'. Co-ordinated: Emma, who has 57.2million followers, went viral on Twitter, with those accusing her of uploading three black squares with the same border just to match her feed Influential voice: Aside from her Hollywood acting role, Emma has been a vocal spearhead for activism and her charity work (pictured at the UN women launch of HeForShe in 2016) Another added: 'I'm genuinely surprised Emma Watson has been silent. Werent you the intersectional feminist? The UN ambassador? Im so disappointed.' A third chimed: 'Emma Watson really posted three other blank black pics so it wouldn't ruin her aesthetic', while a fourth typed: 'Emma Watson not saying anything for the whole week and then posting a black blank pic on Instagram that won't help in anything is just the peak of white feminism.' 'Emma Watson has 57.1M followers on Instagram, her first post about blm has over 1M likes and instead of sharing links to petitions and donations, she thought the best idea was sharing three black squares? Wtf is that, open your purse, SPREAD INFORMATION', another Twitter user vented. Speak up! Her followers were annoyed she didn't use attach information to the posts of how people could either donate, educate themselves or how they can help However others defended the Harry Potter actress. One fan wrote: 'Are you guys serious?? Have you ever fact checked what your are saying about her??? She has stood up against racism many times but youre just ignore that because you think its a better idea to follow suit of everyone else who probably ALSO didnt fact check???.' 'I clearly do not understand the younger generation. They are dragging #EmmaWatson or posting three black squares, but there are countless other celebs who have not done anything...Explanation? I'll wait,' typed another. A different fan tweeted: Stop hating on Emma Watson for her latest posts on instagram like she has been an activist for all humans rights for the longest time now. GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT DUMBA***S AND LEAVE HER ALONE.' Support: However others defended the Harry Potter actress, saying she has been an 'activist for human rights for the longest time now' Aside from her Hollywood acting role, Emma has been a vocal spearhead for activism and her charity work. In July 2014, the Beauty and the Beast was appointed as a UN Women Goodwill ambassador. In September that year, Watson delivered an address at UN Headquarters in New York City to launch the UN Women campaign HeForShe, which calls for men to advocate for gender equality. Emma's speech also called feminism 'the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities' and declared that the perception of 'man-hating' is something that 'has to stop'. Also in September, Emma made her first country visit as a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador to Uruguay where she gave a speech highlighting the need for women's political participation. Activist: In July 2014, the Beauty and the Beast was appointed as a UN Women Goodwill ambassador United: Christine Lampard and ex The Apprentice star Luisa Zissman pledged their support to the Black Lives Matter movement In memory: Heidi Klum and Naomi Campbell also uploaded the post as social media had a break for 24 hours after the senseless death of George Floyd The day after Emma turned 25, the actress placed number 26 on the TIME 100 list of the world's most influential people, her first-ever appearance on the list. The Black Lives Matters movement comes after the death of African-American George Floyd last week at the age of 46, who passed away after Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for several minutes before he died from asphyxiation. A medical examiner's office on Monday ruled Floyd's death was a homicide as they appeared to walk back initial reports that he wasn't strangled when a Minneapolis cop knelt on his neck during an arrest last week. The medical examiner's findings that the death was a homicide by asphyxiation confirmed the same conclusion of the independent autopsy that was also released on Monday, but there are key differences over the cause. Chauvin, who is white and was fired from the Minneapolis police department over the incident, was hit with third-degree murder and manslaughter charges last week as protests over Floyd's death roiled the nation. Police in New Hampshire announced Tuesday the arrest of a teenager who was allegedly behind a social media post encouraging a riot in the city of Manchester. Daniel Zeron, 19, was arrested early Tuesday morning and charged with criminal threatening, Manchester police said. George Floyds death at the hands, or rather knee, of a Minnesota police demonstrates the difficulty in holding law enforcement accountable. Before this latest incident, the officer, Derek Chauvin, faced at least 17 misconduct complaints with the Minneapolis Police Department. But accountability is nearly impossible without transparency, and too often police are able to block public access to information. Many local departments here in Connecticut still dont have body cameras for officers, despite the state offering financial help through grants. And many still dont post on their website instructions for how the public can file complaints, even though the Legislature mandated this be done years ago. Some departments drag out requests for records, even denying requests for reasons that are obvious violations of the state Freedom of Information Act. A state law passed in 2015 makes it clear that arrest records are public even when the defendants case is ongoing, but many departments still wrongly claim the pending prosecution exemption. The worst violator is the Connecticut State Police, whose affronts to transparency are too numerous to mention. But the lowlights include a case last year when state police told a newspaper that dashboard camera footage of a particular incident didnt exist. As if by a miracle, they discovered the video did in fact exist, and just in time for a FOI hearing. During that hearing, it was found state police have violated the FOI Act at least 26 times in the last decade. Thats just the result of complaints actually filed. This unimpressive track record earned the state police the Society of Professional Journalists Black Hole Award in March, recognizing the agency as the least transparent in the country. And the hits keep coming. The state police union contract that recently took effect limits public access to internal affairs reports and other records. But now the state police are interpreting a protection for personal information things like medical records to cover the entire personnel file, a series of records that details a troopers work history. This is something the Legislature and Gov. Ned Lamont need to change during the upcoming special session. Protests have once again laid bare the vital need to address police brutality and accountability. That can only be accomplished with more transparency. Mike Savino is president of the Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information. He is also a reporter for WFSB. Saudi Arabia hosted a virtual U.N. conference to help raise some $2.4 billion to counter funding shortages for aid operations in Yemen. Search Keywords: Short link: New Delhi, June 2 : The Health Ministry on Tuesday asserted that the coronavirus recovery rate is continuously improving, while the fatality rate is on the decline and one of the lowest in the world. In a press briefing, Joint Secretary, Health, Lav Agrawal said: "Recovery rate of the nation is continuously improving, a total of 95,527 patients have been cured. Recovery rate is now 48.07 per cent, up from 11.42 per cent on April 15." He said that the fatality rate is also declining and stands at 2.82 per cent, which he claims is the "lowest in the world", compared to a global fatality rate of 6.13 per cent. "Our case fatality rate per lakh population too is amongst the lowest in the world, while there are countries with a figure as high as 62 and 82." Agarwal said that 14 countries with the similar population as India have reported 22.5 times more cases and 55.2 times deaths. "We have been able to achieve this due to timely identification of cases and proper clinical management," he emphasised. He went on to say that 73 per cent of the deaths in the nation have been of people with comorbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, heart and respiratory diseases. "Our analysis shows that people at high risk from Covid-19 are elderly people and those with comorbidities," Agrawal added. Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that it is conducting a serological survey to assess the extent of spread of Covid-19. Almost 34,000 people are being tested as a part of the survey, the results will be published in a week, it said. "ICMR has been focusing on increasing Covid-19 testing capacity, we now have testing facilities in every state and UT, we now have 681 labs out of which 476 are in government sector, now we are testing 1.2 lakh samples every day," an ICMR official said. Meanwhile, India witnessed 8,171 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours. With this, the total case count mounted to 1,98,706 on Tuesday. At least 204 new fatalities were also recorded in 24 hours, taking the toll to 5,598. The country witnessed more than 8,000 cases for the third consecutive day. With this, India has inched closer to the two-lakh mark. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text (Newser) Jimmy Fallon promised a "different kind of show" in returning to the Tonight Show after a weeklong hiatus on Mondayand he delivered. Days after tweeting an apology for a 2000 Saturday Night Live sketch in which he impersonated Chris Rock in blackface, Fallon opened with a somber monologue, saying he was "horrified" and "embarrassed." "I am not a racist," he added, stressing his respect for Rock. He then vowed to speak up against racism, against the recommendation of some advisers. Staying silent "is the biggest crime that white guys like me and the rest of us are doing," he said. "We need to say something, we need to keep saying something" because "it's not going to get buried." "You can't just hope that everyone loves each other. We can't ... just sit around tweeting, 'be the change.'" story continues below Fallon said he would bring on experts that could help people move forward together. NAACP President Derrick Johnson then appeared in place of Lady Gaga, who'd been previously announced as a guest, per Deadline. "More people need to speak about where they are with a really authentic voice, and I think you did that," Johnson told Fallon. "Racism is a learned behavior, and for us to unlearn a behavior we have to be honest about it and create spaces where we can talk about it." Journalist Don Lemon then showed up to commend Fallon on his honesty and bravery. "I wish more people would do that because we can't go back to the way we were," the CNN Tonight anchor said, per the Hollywood Reporter. "We all have pasts and they're not perfect," he added. "We have to allow people to be flawed and have conversations like we're having now." (Read more Jimmy Fallon stories.) The Arakan Army's insignia is seen on the uniform of a soldier at an undisclosed location in an undated photo. The Myanmar military has rejected a proposal by three ethnic armies to begin cease-fire talks in a bid to kick-start the countrys stalled peace process, instead vowing further retaliation for armed offensives and ambushes, a military spokesman said Tuesday. The Brotherhood Alliance of ethnic armies the Arakan Army (AA), the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA), and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) extended the invitation to begin peace talks in a statement issued Monday. De facto leader Aung San Suu Kyis four-year-old government has long sought to end Myanmars multiple ethnic wars with historic peace talks. But those talks have sputtered, while only 10 of the countrys 20-some ethnic armies have signed a 2015 nationwide cease-fire pact that is seen as the foundation of peace talks. The Brotherhood Alliance trio, which has not signed the agreement, also announced Monday that it was extending a current unilateral cease-fire from June 1 to Aug. 31, and issued an appeal for both sides to protect civilians, end the civil war, and assist with coronavirus prevention activities. The announcement came three days after the AA launched a retaliatory attack on a border guard outpost in Rakhine state, killing four policemen and capturing six others. The AA also seized three family members of the officers, but later released them. The AA ambushed the outpost to strike back at government soldiers for an attack on the AA in Paletwa township of abutting Chin state, which the Arakan force also claims as its territory. In March, the Myanmar government declared the AA, a predominantly Buddhist force that seeks greater autonomy for ethnic Rakhine people in the region, an illegal association and terrorist group raising the stakes in a conflict that begin with AA attacks on government border posts in late 2018 and early 2019. Major General Tun Tun Nyi, vice chairman of the militarys True News Information Team, told RFA on Tuesday that it is unacceptable for the ethnic armies to extend an olive branch with one hand, while committing terrorist acts with the other. He said the army would consider negotiating with the AA only if the force ended such acts. Tun Tun Nyi said the peace talks with the three ethnic armies who are also members of the Northern Alliance, which includes the Kachin independence Army (KIA) depends on their actions on the ground, regardless of the statements they issue. He also noted that Presidents Office spokesman Zaw Htay said that the government long ago had opened the channels of communication to armed ethnic organizations to discuss a peace agreement, and that the rebel armies have disrupted the governments administrative functions by attacking security forces and damaging public property. At a May 30 press conference, the Zaw Htay said the government was trying to negotiate with the Northern Alliance through the Peace-Talk Creation Group an assemblage of Kachin businessmen that assist with peace talks by mediating between the KIA's political wing and the government but that the armed groups didnt offer a reliable response. RFA could not reach Zaw Htay or a TNLA spokesman on Tuesday for comments on the Brotherhood Alliances announcement. Both sides uncompromising In another announcement issued on May 29, the day of the ambush on the Thazin Myaing police outpost in rural Rathedaung township, the AA demanded that all government security forces and administrative personnel immediately leave Rakhine state. Than Soe Naing, a military and ethnic affairs analyst, told RFA that both the ethnic armies and the Myanmar military must stop fighting before peace talks can resume. Peace talks will be possible only after they have reduced the fighting and achieved a certain level of peace, he said. In the current situation, both sides seem to be uncompromising and will not stop fighting. Without mutual trust, the peace talks and negotiations for a cease-fire will not be possible. But Min Zaw Oo, executive director of the Myanmar Institute for Peace and Security, an independent think tank, said the TNLA and MNDAA, which have been fighting Myanmar troops in northern Shan state, have indicated that a peace deal is possible. It seems that the TNLA and MNDAA armed groups are motivated to reach a cease-fire agreement in northern Shan State, he said. If neither side conducts military operations or another serious [move], things could turn out well, [and] it could reduce the fighting, he said. But, as we observe with the ongoing situation in Rakhine state, the fighting will continue, he added. Its possible, though, that they will hold peace talks while the troops are still fighting on the ground. Min Zaw Oo said onset of the annual monsoon season in late May will not act as a deterrent to further military offensives in Rakhine state. The Myanmar military announced an extension of its own unilateral cease-fire in effect from May 10 until Aug. 31, as the country tries to control the COVID-19 pandemic, but excluded areas such as Rakhine state where terrorist organizations are based. At the time, the members of the Brotherhood Alliance objected to the exclusion of Rakhine state. Mine blast kills local The Brotherhood Alliance's announcement about the extension of its unilateral cease-fire did not prevent the AA from triggering two remotely-controlled landmines on a government military regiment on patrol on the outskirts of Rakhines Ponnagyun township Tuesday morning. The blasts killed a person on a motorcycle and injured nine others, locals said. Oo Tun Maung, a lawmaker from Ponnagyun township, said Win Naing Soe from Ponnagyun town, who was driving the motorcycle, was injured on the neck and on one of his arms, while passenger Zaw Min Oo from Nar Taung Kya village died at the scene. The Myanmar military has not yet issued information about the causalities, though Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun, a military spokesman, said some soldiers were injured in the blasts. RFA could not reach the AA for comment. Ponnagyun town resident Thein Wunna implored the two armies not to fight in areas where civilians reside. We dont want to see the fighting near the towns and villages anymore, he told RFA. We dont want the armed conflicts elsewhere either, so I would like to appeal to the armed groups to agree to a cease-fire. Reported by RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. Azizi Developments, a leading private developer in the UAE, has unveiled its new interactive virtual property walk-through platform, in line with national efforts to build a post Covid-19 economy based on digital means. The platform enables investors and end-users to view its world-class properties from the comfort and safety of their own homes, said a statement from Azizi. The launch of Azizis state-of-the-art virtual tours, comes in light of the developers efforts in digital transformation, transparency and customer centricity. Property seekers can now discover several unit types, on their computers or mobile devices, from various vantage points and by pivoting on 360-degree angles, it stated. Executive Director (Sales and Marketing) Nima Khojasteh, said: "Amid these unprecedented times, it is of the utmost importance for us to design solutions that keep our valued customers safe and comfortable, and that are aligned with the migration of their purchase decision-making processes to digital channels.' "The launch of our virtual walk-throughs is not only a highly effective response to the implications of the evolving pandemic and the surge in the volume of website visitors were seeing, but also allows us to go international, enabling foreign investors to explore and enhance their understanding of our remarkable projects in a convenient and transparent manner," stated Khojasteh. "Users can click their way through a one-bedroom apartment in Mina, Azizis prestigious luxury development on the iconic Palm Jumeirah, a studio and one-bedroom unit in Riviera, Dubais French Mediterranean-inspired landmark destination, a one-bedroom in Creek Views, the new benchmark for convenience, practicality and modernism, and a one-bedroom in Al Furjan, the emirates most strategic and well-connected growth corridor," he noted. Website visitors also have the opportunity to virtually experience Azizis retail units through tours of its F&B and convenience stores, he added. According to him, Azizi was now looking at further concrete ways to help investors worldwide learn about its upcoming rojects and developments. "We look forward to launching a more comprehensive virtual platform that allows visitors to walk through our entire master planned communities, including buildings, roads, parks and retail districts, across Dubais most sought-after residential destinations," he added. With its dedicated, customer-centric efforts in delivering its projects as swiftly as possible, the developer is witnessing accelerated construction progress, with three buildings already having been delivered in the past six months and a total of approximately 3,000 units to be completed this year.-TradeArabia News Service IMD predicts widespread rains for next 5 days in these states: Full forecast here Weather today: Heavy rains likely in Kerala; orange alert in Kozhikode district India oi-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, June 02: With the southwest monsoon has set in over Kerala marking the commencement of the four-month-long rainfall season, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that the rainfall during the four-month season will be well in the normal range at 102% of the benchmark long-period average (LPA). A yellow alert has been issued in Kollam, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Idukki, Malappuram, Kannur and Kasargod districts. The IMD also issued orange alert in Kozhikode district. Cyclone Nisarga: IMD issues red alert for Mumbai as the city braces for first tropical cyclone The weather department has also issued heavy rainfall warning for nine districts of Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Idukki, Malappuram, and Kannur - as per the report. Meanwhile, IMD on Monday said that the depression over the south-east and adjoining east-central Arabian Sea and area is expected would intensify into cyclone Nisarga by Tuesday and it will impact Mumbai and adjoining areas. {quiz_147} According to IMD, very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall is predicted on Tuesday and Wednesday. It is to be noted that Cyclone Nisarga is predicted to make landfall on Wednesday afternoon as a severe cyclonic storm with a wind speed of 90 to 105 kilometres per hour (kmph) gusting to 125 kmph. The IMD scientists said that Nisarga can flood the low-lying areas, especially in Mumbai and its adjoining areas and cause noticeable structural damages in the city. A 'red alert' was also issued by the weather department on Tuesday morning in Mumbai as cyclonic storm 'Nisarga' is set to hit the coast on Wednesday. "Central and state government agencies are trying to take all possible steps to prevent damage. We're advising fishermen in Maharashtra, Kerala, coastal Karnataka, Gujarat, Goa, and Lakshadweep to avoid venturing out to the sea till Thursday. Those out should return immediately, as the sea can be very rough for the next three days," said Dr. Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, director-general, IMD. Cyclonic storm in Arabian Sea; IMD issues red alert to coastal Maharashtra, Gujarat for June 4 Earlier on Monday, Union Minister for Home Affairs, Amit Shah held a high-level review meeting with officials of NDMA, NDRF, IMD, and Indian Coast Guard on preparedness for dealing with Cyclone Nisarga. WHO says Sars-Cov-2 is still a killer virus, rejects 'losing potency' claim | Oneindia News The Southwest Monsoon season, which replenishes the country's farm-dependent economy, usually first hits the southern tip of Kerala usually in the first week of June and retreats from Rajasthan by September. WASHINGTON, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Larry Rosenthal, president of Rosenthal Wealth Management Group (RWMG), is offering a series of complimentary financial planning webinars for persons interested in maximizing the return on and protection of their financial resources. Rosenthal Wealth Management Group "There is no question that as impacts of COVID continue to ripple through the economy, the need to ensure a solid personal financial platform is even more crucial today. The shrinking margin for error in personal financial planning demands increasing financial planning vigilance and these seminars provide the tools to help achieve that," Rosenthal said. The schedule for the RWMG webinars is: June 4: two identical sessions are planned one at 2:00 3:00 p.m. and one at 7:00 8:00 p.m. In each session, Rosenthal will talk about how The Secure Act forever changed the way Americans pass retirement assets to their heirs. This is one of the largest tax changes to hit Americans' retirement plans in decades. In this session, Rosenthal will also explore the consequences of eliminating the Lifetime Tax Advantage Stretch IRA and changes to IRA Legacy Planning and how to best use the new rules. June 11: two identical sessions are planned one for at 2:00 3:00 P.M. and a second at 7:00 8:00 P.M. Rosenthal will discuss the components of a holistic financial plan as well as often-overlooked topics in financial planning. Rosenthal will also review the 62 most important planning considerations. June 18: Two identical sessions: one at 2:00 3:00 P.M. and a second at 7:00 8:00 P.M. Rosenthal will discuss the basics of estate planning strategies and account titling and explain why estate planning strategies are no longer only for the wealthy. June 25: Two identical sessions: one at 2:00 3:00 P.M. and another at 7:00 8:00 P.M. These two sessions will focus on tax allocation strategies and understanding the economy. The final program in this series covers two broad topics: taxes and the economy. In this session, Rosenthal will talk about how to minimize taxation of your investments throughout all three phases of financial planning: accumulation, distribution, and legacy planning. In addition, Rosenthal will explain how to determine whether the economy is contracting or expanding and why that is important. Lastly, he will identify what the Leading Economic Indicators are and how they can impact your financial plan. To participate in any or all of the webinars simply go to LarryRosenthal.com and click the seminar tab to sign up for the events. As a much sought after financial advisor, Rosenthal has appeared regularly on Fox Business News and has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, CNNMoney, U.S. News and World Report, CNBC's The Nightly Business Report, The Washington Post, USA Today, Money, Bloomberg, The Chicago Tribune, The Fiscal Times, Kiplinger's Retirement Report, Consumer Report's Money Advisor, The Washington Times, Financial Planning, Financial Advisor and others. Rosenthal has been providing financial counseling for about three decades. He presently has offices in McLean, Manassas, Stafford Virginia, and Baltimore, Maryland. Additionally, he has co-authored the book "Financial Success in the year 2000 and Beyond." His next book is expected out in mid-2021. Rosenthal is also the host of "Making Money Sense," a radio show that has aired every Saturday morning on DC's WAVA from 9:00 10:00 a.m. since 2004 and is now nationally simulcast via satellite on SiriusXM channel 131. Investment advisor representative and registered representative of, and securities and investment advisory services offered through Voya Financial Advisors, Inc. (member SPIC). Rosenthal Wealth Management Group is not a subsidiary of, nor controlled by, Voya Financial Advisors, Inc. Neither Voya Financial Advisors nor its representatives offer tax or legal advice. Please consult with your tax and legal advisors regarding your individual situation. (Review control number CN1200834_0720:) Contact: Bob Johns Related Images image1.jpg SOURCE Rosenthal Wealth Management Group Related Links http://www.rosenthalwealthmanagement.com To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! CHICAGO, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Berlin Packaging, the world's largest supplier of glass, plastic, and metal containers and closures, took home 13 medals from the 2020 National Association of Container Distributors (NACD) packaging awards competition. Held virtually for the first time, the NACD awards celebrate the year's most innovative packaging solutions. With three gold, five silver, and five bronze awards, Berlin Packaging won in nine categories including Beverage Non-spirits, Beverage Spirits, Drug & Pharmaceutical, Food, General Industrial, Household Chemical and Automotive, Novelty, Pet & Vet, plus two awards in the Best Use of Custom Packaging category. A testament to the company's emphasis on design and innovation, ten of Berlin Packaging's 13 wins were attributed to projects coordinated by the company's world-class in-house design agency, Studio One Eleven. The Studio offers structural package design and branding services at no-charge in exchange for packaging business. Additionally, Berlin Packaging showcased their global breadth, winning with a custom design from their premium European packaging line, Bruni Glass. "On behalf of our customers and the entire Berlin team we'd like to thank the NACD for these awards. Proud as we are of this recognition, we're most gratified by how we're able to help grow our customers' businesses through the power of innovation," said Scott Jost, Berlin Packaging's Vice President of Innovation and Design. "A special thanks to our customers for trusting us to deliver amazing brand experiences and to sway the most important judges of all - consumers." With these latest award victories, Berlin Packaging holds a record number of gold medals including this years' winners: Well & Good Pet Balm Stick - Pet & Vet To help Well & Good evolve their packaging from a difficult hand-applied balm in a circular tin to a more functional container for pet application, Berlin Packaging identified and sourced a premium 50ml round deodorant barrel with a matte black spray coating and stylized label. Blackland Spirits - Beverage Spirits This distinctly original Texas distillery needed a one-of-a-kind package to reflect their brand story. Studio One Eleven helped Blackland realize their vision with a tall, round 750mL flint glass bottle with vertical ribbing features that add dimension and distinction. The Studio's industrial designers and engineers optimized the bottle for manufacturability and commercial efficiency, ensuring production quality that exceeded expectations. Michael David Winery Beverage Non-Spirits When the iconic Lodi, CA vineyard wanted to rejuvenate their namesake brand of premium wines, Berlin Packaging utilized their glass expertise to help Michael David execute on their stunning vision of a heavily embossed, intricately designed glass bottle. "Once again, Berlin Packaging's strong showing in the NACD awards is a clear testament to our innovative spirit. We know how vital it is for products to not only stand out, but to offer maximum utility to consumers," said Rick Brandt, Chief Commercial Officer of Berlin Packaging. "Moreover, we seek to innovate beyond packaging. With our unique ability to offer supply and warehouse agreements, our dedicated quality team, and 900+ global manufacturing partners, we help our customers with solutions and services that grow their bottom lines." About Berlin Packaging Berlin Packaging is the only Hybrid Packaging Supplier of glass, plastic and metal containers and closures. The company supplies billions of items annually along with package design, financing, consulting, warehousing and logistics services for customers across all industries. Berlin Packaging brings together the best of manufacturing, distribution and income-adding service providers. Its mission is to increase the net income of its customers through packaging products and services. See BerlinPackaging.com for more information. CONTACT: Julie Saltzman, [email protected], 312-607-6642 SOURCE Berlin Packaging After three years of relative quiet, popular hacker activist group Anonymous has made a comeback with an earth-shattering revelation about Princess Diana's death among many other issues. The online, decentralized hacker group calling itself Anonymous claims that Princess Diana's death was a murder planned and executed by the British royal family. Image Of Representation According to a tweet posted by the group, Princess Diana had become aware of a sex trafficking ring the royal family had been involved with and was working on collecting testimonies of victims in order to expose the crimes. Around the time of her death, Diana was visiting hospitals and care homes Jimmy Savile was preying on at all hours of the night, consoled Elm Guest House victims, and recorded palace rape victim testimony. Receipt: https://t.co/hSHAPGB8lv https://t.co/yz3ZqIDoLJ Anonymous (@YourAnonCentral) May 31, 2020 She then tried her best to expose them and thus was killed in order to silence her. Anonymous claims that the royal family had Diana murdered on August 31, 1997 and that the car accident was staged. Anonymous tagged a Twitter user who tweeted saying Princess Diana was visiting hospitals and nursing homes where Jimmy Savile took advantage of people during night hours. In the tweet, it was also revealed that Princess Diana comforted the victims at the Elm Guest House and recorded their testimony. Several testimonies of victims from the palace too came forward in her findings. Princess Diana recorded the testimony by rape victim of Prince Charles' staff. #OpDeathEaters https://t.co/m71yKbugif pic.twitter.com/H59tIP43wf OpDeathEaters (@OpDeathEaters) July 19, 2019 An article posted by the Guardian in 2002 also confirms that Princess Diana possessed a tape consisting of the testimony of a victim who had been raped in the palace. The tweet further mentions that around the time of her death, Princess Diana was visiting these hospitals and care centres to get as much information as possible. She would record them and was planning to use them as evidence, according to the tweet posted by the hacker group Anonymous. All those Palace secrets, Offical Secret Acts, and NDA's are very useful for a lot of rapists and murders hiding in plain sight. #OpDeathEaters https://t.co/z5HgFKV2l2 OpDeathEaters (@OpDeathEaters) July 19, 2019 Anonymous then posted a Twitter thread making several accusations against the British Royal Family. An account with the name of OP Death Eaters was tagged and a post from July 2019 revealed the testimonies recorded by Princess Diana. Reuters The group, which was idle for three years, made a sudden comeback and shook the entire world by its heart-wrenching revelations. The group sprang back into action after the death of an unarmed Africa-American man named George Floyd who was allegedly murdered by a Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin who has now been fired from the MPD and charged with third-degree murder. So it begins ... Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, May 28, 2020 The hacktivists group posted a video on its Facebook Page, demanding every police officer stay within their limits otherwise the country will suffer serious damage. In the video, the group threatens to expose alleged crimes of the Minneapolis PD. [The world] is becoming increasingly angry every time they see blood needlessly spilled without consequence, Anonymous said. Unfortunately we do not trust your organization to carry out justice, so we will be exposing your many crimes to the world.' The group has also claimed to have a number of documents incriminating President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein in cases of rape, sexual assault and others. J ust before dawn on May 9 1970, President Richard Nixon put on a record. He played a piece of Rachmaninoff and then, on the spur of the moment, headed out of the White House to the Lincoln Memorial, where he found a small group of students protesting about the Vietnam war. He talked with them until the sun began to rise and crowds started to gather. It was a strange, risky, rambling thing for a US president to do: but his intentions were good ones. By contrast, in Washington in June 2020, President Donald Trump has just used tear gas and flash grenades to clear peaceful protesters from the streets so he could stage the stunt of visiting a church for a few minutes, surrounded by massive security, where he was photographed holding up a Bible. America has leaders who have risen to the horrific challenge of calming rage on the streets of many of its cities but Mr Trump is not one of them. He has called the protesters terrorists, and state governors who are trying to cope jerks. He has encouraged the militarisation of the response, which has only fuelled the rage. He has shown no sign of recognising that the event which sparked this crisis, the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, who could not breathe while a police officer pinned him to the ground, was truly awful. Protesters around the world have shown understandable outrage. The officer involved has been charged with murder. None of this seems to have got through to the President. Instead Americans have had to turn to others for leadership: to individual police officers who have shown courage in talking to protesters, not fighting them; to city mayors such as Atlantas Keisha Lance Bottoms, who spoke of her fears for her children and of Dr Martin Luther King; and to Barack Obama, who wrote yesterday that the protests sprang from a genuine and legitimate frustration with the way the police treated people. That made the violent behaviour of some mobs all the more disgraceful, he said. If we want our criminal justice system to operate on a higher ethical code, then we have to model that code ourselves. Where Mr Trump calls for force to be used outside the normal structures of civil society, Mr Obama argues for democracy. Protesters can only bring change by voting for people who will respond to their demands, he says. And hes right. Almost every state has been hit by this disaster. There are pictures of violence and destruction from coast to coast. In the middle of coronavirus, the consequences could not be worse. Mr Trump, who has never had much respect for democracy, wants to define himself through his noisy, angry response. This is a test for a country and a constitution which is much older and much bigger than any one man, even the President. Chaos will not be beaten back by force. The choice isnt between protest and politics. We have to do both, Mr Obama argues. The whole world will be hoping his country listens to the 44th president and not the 45th. Rebellion in the ranks The Governments plan to force MPs to queue up in person to vote is risky, unnecessary and wont work. The growing rebellion against it is right. Even so, ministers will probably get their way, although the consequences wont be the ones they had expected. A few weeks ago it seemed a clever idea to drag as many MPs as possible back into the Commons, so that Tories could make lots of noise during Prime Ministers Questions. The plan was to drown out Keir Starmers sharp questioning, which has more effect in the courtroom-like silence of a socially distanced Commons. But now the return of MPs is backfiring, as Tories start to turn instead on some of the mistakes the Government is making. The justified rebellion against plans for travel quarantine is one sign. MPs need to get back to normal business, but theres no need to scrap remote voting to do that. Loading.... The Government will regret provoking the House of Commons. "Getting to meet them, and hear their stories, is just something super special. I know from speaking with other people that they enjoyed our presence just as much as we enjoyed theirs, and they inspire us to be better." Cadet Second Lieutenant Alexis Nyce. Protesters taking part in mass events in Portland are putting themselves at increased risk for infection by coronavirus, public health authorities warned Monday. Rachel Banks, Multnomah County public health director, said protesters should increase COVID-19 precautions, such as frequently washing hands, carrying hand sanitizer, always wearing a mask and staying six feet from other people as much as possible. Protests in Portland and around the state have seen massive gatherings during which protestors are standing nearly shoulder to shoulder. Monday evening events in downtown Portland were the most dramatic examples to date. Public Health Officer Jennifer Vines said that is exactly the kind of activity that officials limited when coronavirus safety measures started in March. However, county officials did not try to dissuade people from taking to the streets. Were in a moment where locally and nationally that people feel the only choice they have to be heard is to take to the streets and scream out, I cant breathe, Banks said. She drew a parallel to the disproportionate impacts the coronavirus has had on communities of color. Black people are dying of COVID-19 at rates three to four that of other races, according to early studies. In Oregon, 30% of all positive cases are among Latinx people. Health officials warned protest-goers to limit their interactions with others after protests, monitor for any symptoms of COVID-19 and wipe down surfaces in their home when they return from mass gatherings. Health officials have warned that behaviors that affect your lungs like smoking can increase your chances of contracting COVID-19 and experiencing more severe symptoms. Research hasnt been done on whether tear gas has the same effect, but Vines said that it is likely not helpful. Tear gas also causes coughing, one of the primary ways to spread infected droplets into the air. Im definitely concerned about anybody coughing in close proximity to others as a way of getting the virus from one person to another, Vines said. -- Molly Harbarger mharbarger@oregonian.com | 503-294-5923 | @MollyHarbarger Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Developing system threatens damaging winds and flooding rains along the northwest coasts of Maharashtra and Gujarat. Three weeks after devastating Cyclone Amphan hit northeast India, the other side of the country is preparing for the arrival of another developing storm. This one will not be anywhere near as strong, but it is likely to cause widespread disruption on Indias west coast. An intense area of low pressure is gathering in the Arabian Sea and is expected to bring heavy and thundery downpours across western India this week. On Tuesday morning, the weather system was located on the eastern side of the Arabian Sea, about 280 kilometres (174 miles) to the west-southwest of Goa, and around 490km (304 miles) to the south-southwest of Mumbai. It is making its way north at around 11km/h (6.8 miles per hour), strengthening as it does so. It is forecast to intensify into a cyclonic storm by the end of Tuesday and a severe cyclonic storm through Wednesday. The centre of the storm is then expected to make landfall somewhere around north Maharashtra and south Gujarat coasts by Wednesday afternoon. Mumbai, which has Indias second-largest population (after New Delhi) with 20 million people, will be affected. The metropolitan area could see rainfall totals of about 150-180 millimetres (5-7 inches) over the next few days. It is the start of the rainy season here, with a May average of 21mm (0.8 inches) compared with the June average of 504mm (19.8 inches). Such heavy rainfall in a short space of time is likely to cause flash flooding in places. Damaging or severe gales are also expected before the system moves inland and dissipates over the northern plains by the weekend. There will also be large waves and storm surges which could lead to coastal flooding. Elsewhere, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said the southwest monsoon made landfall in southern Indias Kerala state on Monday (June 1, which is right on schedule). The IMD added India is likely to receive 102 percent of its long-term average rainfall this year, raising expectations for higher farm output in Asias third-biggest economy, which is reeling from the coronavirus pandemic. Heavy downpours are now lashing the Kerala coast. In July, India is forecast to receive 103 percent of its long-term average rainfall and 97 percent in August. The IMD defines average, or normal, rainfall as between 96 and 104 percent of a 50-year average of 880mm for the entire four-month season beginning in June. A Queensland MP has been referred to the state's corruption watchdog for allegedly leaking information a Rockhampton nurse gave to coronavirus contact tracers. A union, representing the nurse at the centre of central Queensland nursing home coronavirus scare last month, has referred Keppel Labor MP Brittany Lauga to the Crime and Corruption Commission. Queensland's Keppel MP Brittany Lauga. has been referred to the Crime and Corruption Commission. Credit:Brittany Lauga - Facebook. Nurses' Professional Association of Queensland spokesman Jack McGuire alleges information the nurse gave to contact tracers was passed on to Ms Lauga, which was then leaked to the media. The nurse told contact tracers she had travelled to Blackwater to watch a sunrise, which was leaked to journalists last week. Canadas fashion creators, retailers and brands are showing solidarity for Black Lives Matter. Some have pledged thousands in donations, others have opened their platforms to share resources and start necessary conversations. Some have turned their talents for photography, for design, for brand building into meaningful initiatives for change. This list by no means complete, and will be updated as we learn more about the actions our industry is taking. Aurora James challenges the status quo Toronto-born, Brooklyn-based Aurora James, the founder of artisan-made accessory brand Brother Vellies, has never shied away from speaking out. Accepting the award for Designer of the Year at the Canadian Arts and Fashion Awards last year, James made an empowering statement on her political and pro-choice beliefs. I helped conceptualize and fund something that we now know as the Womens March. I was told it was career suicide. When I partnered with Planned Parenthood, even my biggest supporters in New York became nervous. But my Canadian friends and my Canadian mother really didnt see another option. Now, James has started the Fifteen Percent Pledge, calling on major retailers like Whole Foods, Sephora, Shopbop and others to allocate 15 per cent of their inventory to Black-owned businesses. So many of your businesses are built on Black spending power, the designer wrote on Instagram. So many of your stores are set up in Black communities. So many of your sponsored posts are seen on Black feeds. This is the least you can do for us. James has set up a new account for the Pledge, and continues to post updates on her personal feed. Photographers offer up their prints Toronto-based fashion photographer Maya Fuhr is selling prints of her work ($50 for an 8x10 print and a 5x7 pay-what-you-can option) and the money raised from this will go to Prints for Regis, a charitable photography initiative that donates to the Justice for Regis Korchinski-Paquet GoFundMe campaign. Fellow photographer Lily Cummings is sending anyone who makes a $20 donation to organizations supporting victims of racial injustice with a high-resolution print of her work. On Instagram Stories, Cummings has shared that more than $1,100 has been donated so far. Martel made a tote with a message Montreal-based handcrafted womenswear brand Martel has created a tote bag printed with the words No Justice, No Peace. All of the money from the $25 bag will go toward Canadian organizations fighting for equal rights for Black communities. Buy it here. Canadas fashion players, both big and small, are donating Aritzia has donated $100,000 to the NAACP and Black Lives Matter. Canada Goose is giving $100,000 to the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the ACLU. Lululemon has pledged $100,000 to the Minnesota Freedom Fund. Beauty brands are donating, too: Vancouver-based RMS Beauty is donating $25,000 each to the NAACP, Black Lives Matter and The Bail Project. Ilia is donating $50,000 to Black Lives Matter and the NAACPs Legal Defence and Education Fund. Toronto-based jewelry line Cuchara has donated 100 per cent of this past weekends profits to the Minnesota Freedom Fund and the Black Visions Collective. Montreal-based womenswear label Rightful Owner has committed to donating 20 per cent of sales to the ACLU. The labels founder, Rose McMahon, wrote on Instagram that she will not be posting anything about herself for the next week. I will, however be posting Black voices from my community, she said. Kotn is ready to amplify Black voices This Toronto-based brand of ethically made cotton basics is turning over its social platform (and 88,000-strong Instagram following) to those who can use it to educate the community or share feelings about whats happening. Nordstrom is having courageous conversations In an open letter penned by Pete and Erik Nordstrom to their U.S. and Canadian social channels, the retailer has shared that Courageous Conversation forums have been set up by their Black Employee Network and that they have had a big impact. The brand also posted a 10-minute video with snippets of their employees sharing their frustrations, feelings and lessons on how to inspire change. Watch it above. P olice are investigating the death of a woman whose body was found by the side of the A4 in west London. Scotland Yard said the death of the woman in her 50s is currently being treated as "unexplained". Officers were called at 2.45am on Tuesday morning following reports of concern for the welfare of a woman. Police and the London Ambulance Service rushed to the scene in Talgarth Road and found the woman unresponsive. She was pronounced dead at the scene. "The death is currently being treated as unexplained," a spokeswoman for Scotland Yard said. "A scene guard is in place and there are road closures affecting two lanes of the A4 at Talgarth. Enquiries are ongoing." One lane of Talgarth Road remains closed and there are queues on approach. The Ghana Health Service (GHS) last Sunday took the samples of 244 people who came into contact with the station officer of the Koforidua Central Police who died on Friday, May 29, 2020, allegedly from COVID-19. The contacts were made of his colleagues, family, inmates at the cells, families of police personnel at the Central Police Station barracks and some media friends of the late station officer. According to a source, samples of health workers at the Koforidua Police Clinic and Newland Hospital where the deceased passed on were also taken. The chief inspector died while on admission at the Koforidua Regional Hospital for few days, having visited the Police Clinic in Koforidua and Newland Hospital a private hospital - before his death. The cause of death was not immediately known until sample results released after his death reportedly tested positive for COVID-19. Medical team The source said a medical team from the GHS led by Dr Abu Armel, the Public Health Physician at the Eastern Regional Health Directorate, and the Regional Disease Control Officer, Sally Tetteh Emmanuel, visited the Central Police Station at the weekend to inform officers at the station that the death was due to COVID-19. The team, therefore, took samples of occupants at the police station and the barracks and close associates who had had contact with the deceased police officer. According to the source, the samples had been taken to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research for testing. The source urged residents of the New Juaben Municipality to observe all the protocols in the fight against the spread of COVID-19. Fruit seller In a related development, a fruit seller near the Koforidua Police Training School at Galloway has tested positive for the virus. She was among a number of police recruits, police personnel and those staying around the police bungalows at Galloway to be tested. The woman has currently been quarantined. Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Huntington Beach, Calif., June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Netreo, the award-winning platform for IT infrastructure management and one of Inc. 5000s fastest growing companies, today announced its acquisition of CloudMonix, a Chicago-based cloud infrastructure monitoring company specializing in advanced insight into system performance, auto-scaling of resources, automation of issue resolution and self-healing to ensure uninterrupted service. CloudMonix, which focuses on Microsoft Azure monitoring services, is a Microsoft Silver Partner with five-star user reviews on both G2 Crowd and Capterra. Key capabilities include: Immediate and deep insight into the stability of complex software systems (with performance dashboards, root cause analysis and predefined configuration templates); Intelligent automation of issue resolution (e.g. automated recovery and self-healing actions) and optimization of cloud costs (e.g. automatically scale the size of various resources to match the demand, i.e. VMs, SQL Azure, VM Scale-Sets, etc.); and, Extensive library of third-party integrations, including 24 vendors across collaboration, data store, issue tracking, ITSM, logging, messaging, monitoring and notifications - such as MS Teams, Jira, LogEntries, Slack, ServiceNow, Twilio, PagerDuty, ManageEngine, Freshdesk and Zendesk. In addition to bringing strong Azure monitoring and management capabilities, CloudMonix also enhances the experience throughout the customer journey - by enabling zero-touch, self-service models from discovery, trial, purchase to support. Customers can start online within minutes directly from Cloudmonixs website and via the Microsoft Azure Marketplace - with the Starter edition for free, and advance to the Professional tier for just US$15 per resource per month, or the Ultimate tier for just US$20 per resource per month. Built with DevOps teams, Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) in mind, CloudMonixs strong monitoring capabilities - coupled with flexible low-touch engagement models - have enabled CloudMonix to scale rapidly: serving cloud-first, small and medium sized enterprises all over the world. The acquisition underscores Netreos commitment towards Microsofts growing cloud services market. Microsoft Azure, which has a community of over 700 million users and coverage of more than 80% of Fortune 500 companies1, reported a 59 percent growth rate in Q3 2020.2 Microsofts Intelligent Cloud business - which includes Azure as well as some other as-a-Service products - jumped in Q3 2020 revenues by 27 percent to $12.3 billion.2 Netreo is delighted to welcome CloudMonix to the family. The addition of CloudMonixs capabilities to Netreos platform strengthens our efforts to provide high quality cloud infrastructure monitoring to DevOps teams, Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Cloud Service Providers (CSPs). Were also looking forward to deepening our partnership with Microsoft to empower our customers to manage and monitor their mission-critical infrastructure, applications and devices both on-premises and in the cloud and across cloud, on-premises and hybrid deployment models, said Jasmin Young, Chief Executive Officer at Netreo. 1. Microsoft Azure's Evangelist: 120,000 New Subscribers Monthly, Channel Partners, 2017. 2. Earnings Release FY20 Q3, Microsoft, April 29, 2020. CloudMonix Azure Monitoring Dashboard About Netreo Netreos award-winning full-stack IT management products are widely deployed by enterprises, and these products now monitor more than 15 million assets and devices per day. Try CloudMonix for free: https://www.cloudmonix.com Try Netreo for free: https://tools.netreo.com/eval/add Or connect with Netreo on: Twitter: https://twitter.com/netreo LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/netreo Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/netreo/ Attachment Dr Helmut Marko has little sympathy for sacked Formula E driver Daniel Abt. Audi's works team, which was originally owned by Abt's family, sacked the 27-year-old German recently after it emerged that he had secretly allowed a professional gamer to drive in his place during an official Formula E esports race. Marko, the head of Red Bull's driver program which once backed Abt, told Osterreich newspaper that Max Verstappen "had fun" with esports during the corona shutdown period. But the newspaper told Marko that "Daniel Abt's cheating" proved that esports is not just about fun. "Abt is a bad example," Marko responded. "He was fast neither in esports or in the real cockpit." The Austrian also repeated his refrain that he has no room at Red Bull Racing to accommodate departing Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel in 2021. "I talk to Vettel regularly. We keep exchanging ideas," Marko said. "But we have contracts with Verstappen and with Albon." (GMM) Petoskey officials at odds over best process for housing reforms While discussing a possible change to the zoning ordinance, some council members said it doesn't do enough to encourage more housing. Several African countries, including Niger, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Tanzania, have started gradual reopening of schools. Primary school pupils were back to school on Monday June 1 in Niger, while Kindergartens remain closed. The schools had been closed since March 20 with the first coronavirus cases in the country. To ensure social distancing, the classes will be divided into two groups, and the canteens will not serve meals yet. The school year will end on July 10. Cameroons schools and universities, closed since March 17, also reopened Monday. The return to classes for the time being concerns only the students who have exams at the end of the year, in primary and secondary schools. All university students, however, are expected to return to universities. In Burkina Faso, too, the students of the examination classes returned to school on Monday. For the other levels, no timetable has yet been announced by the authorities. In Tanzania, classes are resuming only for pupils in the final year of secondary education and for university students. The school calendar has been interrupted for two months now to limit the risk of the virus spreading in the country. However, in South Africa, while schools were due to reopen on Monday, June 1, for students in their final year of primary and secondary education, the Minister of Education finally postponed the resumption of classes by one week. This delay should allow the dispatch of protective equipment to ensure the safety of teachers and children. Teachers unions had been asking for the postponement of the return to school for several days, deeming that not all schools were ready. Meanwhile, in Cape Town province, led by the opposition Democratic Alliance party, schools did reopen on Monday. The region is the epicenter of the epidemic in South Africa, with two-thirds of the cases recorded on its soil. Hyundai Mobis innovative 3D rear lamp, which was one of the final candidate for the U.S PACE AWARD. / Courtesy of Hyundai Mobis By Kim Hyun-bin Hyundai Mobis, the auto parts affiliate of Hyundai Motor Group, showcased diverse innovative technologies to be applied to cars in the future during the 2020 Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas in January. The company's "M Vision S" initiative, which employs self-developed key technologies, has gone through drastic upgrades from previous years, catching the attention of global observers. The technologies include autonomous vehicle connectivity, electro motion and infotainment, but the most eye catching was the state-of-the-art headlight technology that helps to alert other drivers and pedestrians. Autonomous vehicles in the future will not only be able to recognize their surroundings, but will be driverless, so will need devices that can communicate with other vehicles. The industry believes headlight technology will be a means to do so. Headlights are a safety component that illuminate the surface of the vehicle and road when driving during the night and have evolved as a tool to communicate with other vehicles and its surroundings. Hyundai Mobis has been implementing new innovative lighting concepts for autonomous vehicles and has shown its competitiveness in this sector. The company has been well situated as a leader for change and acknowledged as a trend setter in the global auto market. In recent years, Hyundai Mobis has showcased several of the world's first new lighting technologies that have been lauded globally. The 3D rear lamp, which was a final candidate for the U.S. PACE AWARD, is one key technology from Hyundai Mobis. The technology brings a more luxurious and lively feel, compared to other products on the market. Hyundai Mobis was not only able to differentiate its design in the rear lamp sector, but also able to successfully develop smart head lamps to better meet the autonomous vehicle era. It is imperative for futuristic cars to receive information of signs and road conditions in real-time at night. Hyundai Mobis successfully implemented radar sensors, navigation information steering angle sensors to swiftly collect additional roadside information. The reason the company was able to surpass Europe and Japanese companies is that it was able to secure key technologies not only in the lamp sector but in other key components becoming a global comprehensive auto component supplier, the company said. ALBANY Mayor Kathy Sheehan on Monday strongly defended Police Chief Eric Hawkins absence from the city during Saturday protests that turned violent, saying the chief was at a previously scheduled out of town event and worked remotely. He was gone before the protest was even scheduled. He has been out of town, the mayor said during a news conference in City Hall Monday. He was working from a remote location but he did not return from his trip nor did I ask him to. Sheehan explained that the chief was prepared to return to Albany if a protest in Townsend Park on Saturday afternoon erupted into disorder. Hundreds gathered to protest police brutality after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Sheehan said the protest was peaceful. It was not until later Saturday night, the mayor told reporters, that the destruction began following an initially peaceful interaction outside South Station. Saturday evening people began to throw rocks and bricks at police vehicles - and then officers - at South Station. The situation devolved into fires being set, and windows being smashed and stores looted along South Pearl Street and Central Avenue. Sheehan said Hawkins, upon learning of the violence, got in his car, and drove back to Albany and commanded the handling of the incident on his drive back. Asked if Hawkins was in Michigan, where he lived before coming to Albany officially in September 2018, the mayor said: I dont know where he was. I didnt ask him. When I go on vacation I dont necessarily tell people. ... Its not a secret. I just dont know. She said it was a family-related "previously scheduled out of town event." City Treasurer Darius Shahinfar, who was at the mayor's news conference with other city officials, said afterward that he was outraged at the criticism of the chief and that the line of questioning from people about it was "ridiculous." "Why is this an issue?" Shahinfar asked the Times Union. "He was out of town on a previously scheduled vacation and he's in constant contact with his command staff and he's here the next morning. What's the issue?" Shahinfar added moments later: "I'm personally outraged you see what's going on on Facebook I'm outraged at that line of questioning and attack on the chief of police who's done nothing but work his rear end off here for years to make the city a better place." On Sunday morning outside City Hall, when asked if he was on the scene on Saturday night, Hawkins told reporters he had "other business" and that he had been communicating all day with his command staff. When asked where he was at the time, the chief repeatedly said "I was not at the scene" without elaborating. "I think as a leader, leaders sometimes have other obligations that occur before a crisis hits and I think a leader has an obligation, once they understand that there's a crisis, to get back to the city and lead the city as expeditiously as possible and that's exactly what I did," Hawkins said on Sunday. Hawkins did not appear at an Albany County press conference a few minutes later Sunday with County Executive Dan McCoy, Sheehan and Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple, where the trio discussed the violence. But on Monday, Hawkins was at a protest of about 100 people who blocked Henry Johnson Boulevard at Livingston Avenue near the citys police headquarters. Hawkins was surrounded by protesters who wanted to speak with him about holding local police officers accountable for violence against black residents. We should not have to fear walking down the block; we should not have to fear being pulled over; we should not have to be scared for our kids to go to the neighborhood basketball courts, said Emrys Young, one of the organizers of the protest and owner of Kitchen 216, a Central Avenue restaurant. We are being overly policed and they are being underly policed. Thats the issue. Protesters expressed dissatisfaction with Hawkins initial responses to their questions and demands, saying to him, Im tired with the political responses, and Youre not here to be silent, chief. The crowd started chanting to Hawkins to take a knee to show his solidarity with them, which he did about a minute later. I get social injustice because Ive heard the stories from my parents, Ive heard it from my grandparents, I lived it, Hawkins told the crowd through a megaphone. Thats one of the reasons why I wear a uniform. Because change comes from the inside many times in many types of institutions So how do I take whats personally inside of me and use it to help my organization relate better to my communities? Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. After Hawkins passed along the megaphone, a protester said the purpose of the gathering is not to hear the chiefs story. Were out here because George Floyd couldnt tell his story, said one protester, who identified himself as Lajas. Were talking about the stories that weve been trying to tell yall for years and yall not listening to those stories. The protester continued, Although the police chief may have taken a knee, we wont be pacified by that symbolism. Because an apology is changed behavior. On Monday night, Hawkins spent at least a couple of hours off and on talking to protesters who had returned to police headquarters. Common Council President Corey Ellis, who was with Shahinfar at the Monday city press conference, said he did not see an issue with Hawkins absence during Saturday's upheaval given that the chief was away and returned as soon as possible. He said it might be different if the violence broke out at 1 p.m. and the chief did not return as soon as possible. "We've never had a riot break out in our protest, so you're looking at history," Ellis said. Sheehan said: I think that there are some who have said, Well, if the chief had been here, would he have been able to dissipate the violence or the people who were throwing bricks and rocks, the mayor said. The people who were throwing bricks and rocks probably wouldnt have known who the chief was had he walked onto the scene. Sheehan said it is a disservice to Hawkins deputies because questions about Hawkins' absence suggests that they did not do an exemplary job in the chiefs absence. They demonstrated tremendous restraint and their goal was not only to keep our residents safe but to keep the rioters safe, Sheehan said. They succeeded in doing that, to their peril. Sheehan said the city is working with the FBI to investigate what happened after the situation escalated Saturday. She said there were people who were traveling in caravans and a lot of activity officials observed that is not typically seen in the city. McCoy witnessed people committing vandalism who he did not recognize and were not from this community who were not people of color, Sheehan said. I dont know. Im not going to spin conspiracy theories, the mayor said. What I do know is that there were certainly people who were not known to people here in the city of Albany. We believe they were not from the city of Albany here and who participated in the violence. Nevertheless, according to Chubarov, the occupants do not have enough water to build housing for servicemen and for displaced residents hairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars Refat Chubarov Apostrophe Residents of the annexed Crimea do not lack water, but the occupants do not have enough water resources to expand their activities. This was stated by chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Refat Chubarov, RBC reported. In particular, according to him, the occupiers do not have enough water to build housing for servicemen and for displaced residents. "There is no shortage of water in Crimea to such an extent that people do not have enough water for their normal life, but the water is required for many areas that are now deployed by the occupiers, in particular, the construction of housing for the military and for those who are relocated from Russia," Chubarov said. At the same time, he stressed that the solution to this problem was possible only by supplying Dnieper water from the mainland of Ukraine. As we reported earlier, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Minister for Reintegration of the Temporary Occupied Territories Oleksiy Reznikov stated that Ukraine was not going to restore water supply to the temporarily occupied Crimea until it was de-occupied. At least 10 Bangladeshis and 18 Ugandan women were caught for illegal stay in North Goa, police said on Tuesday. In a joint operation, the Goa police and the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) over theweekend caught 10 Bangladesh nationals from North Goa for illegal stay, an official said. Moreover, 18 Ugandan women were also nabbed from Arambol village in the district, for overstaying in the state, superintendent of Police (FRRO) Bosco George said. A family of 10 from Bangladesh, living in Marcel village of North Goa, was caught for entering the country illegally without any valid documents, he said. "We have issued a restraining order against the family and the local police have been asked to keep an eye on them," the official said. Similarly, 18 women from Uganda were detained from Arambol village for staying in the country on expired tourist visas, George said. The group has been shifted to a detention centre in Mapusa town, he added. Ant-fish salad of Ro Mam, one of the five smallest ethnic minority groups in Vietnam, has been going on for hundreds of years. The name makes many want to retreat, but only need to try it once, and it isnt that bad at all. Today, there are only 160 families totaling 460 Ro Mam people living in Le village in Mo Rai commune, Sa Thay district, Kon Tum province. As an ancient ethnic group long living in the jungle, the Ro Mam have numerous bizarre foods that very few non-locals could love. However, ant-fish salad is the most peculiar, mostly terrifying dish of Ro Mam people that is worth for tourists to give a try when they travel to Kon Tum. This video 0 When it comes to Ro Mam people, this extraordinary ant salad is a must-try. This food may first sound creepy and look dare-not-to-eat. Still, once tasted, it will definitely be enchanting, very hygienic and safe," said a local tour guide. The fish may not too big, with a size of three fingers, is cleaned, chopped, and removed the water inside the meat. The ant nest is a raw ant nest, sometime with eggs. Bringing back the nest and grinding it, the chef will add in some salt, green chili, jungle pepper, with some burned rice flour to increase the flavor. When eating, you can also use fig leaves to make a roll, which is more bite-sized, and enjoy the sweet of the fish, the fat of the ant, the spicy of the pepper and chili. According to Ro Mam people, this dish used to be usual food. However, it has now become a specialty and is only prepared for holidays or when having guests over. How to prepare fish-ant salad: Fresh fish is refined and minced Minced fish mixed with herbs and then with ant. The mixture is left for around 30 minutes It is then squeezed Meat or fish are both fine for mixing with ant Fish-ant salad is better served with acrid herbs. Photo: Dan Tri Tu Linh PHOENIX An Arizona judge has rejected a plea deal for a man who used a homemade armored vehicle to block a highway bridge near the Hoover Dam in 2018. Mohave County Judge Billy Sipe called the deal that would have given Matthew Wright less than 10 years in prison too lenient. Wright, 32, of Henderson, Nevada, pleaded guilty to making a terrorist threat and two other felony crimes as part of a deal in February. Wright had faced a potential life sentence and Sipe rejected the deal Monday at his sentencing hearing, The Arizona Republic reported. Wright was arrested in June 2018 and faced multiple charges after blocking traffic by parking his vehicle across lanes on the Mike OCallaghan-Pat Tillman Bridge above the Colorado River, prosecutors said. He surrendered to authorities on the Arizona side of the bridge after a 90-minute barricade situation that halted traffic on the main highway between Las Vegas and Phoenix. Police discovered two assault-style rifles, two handguns and 900 rounds of ammunition in Wrights vehicle, authorities have said. Wright in a letter from jail said he was motivated by patriotism, using the phrase for where we go one, we go all, at the end of the letter. The phrase is used on message boards in the QAnon community, authorities said. QAnon conspiracy theories center around a supposed government insider who adherents believe is spooning out vital revelations using cryptic language and signs. Wrights attorney Michael Denea said his client did not plan to use the weapons in his vehicle, adding that Wright carried out a misguided act of protest and just wanted to distribute literature. He at no time intended on engaging law enforcement or anyone else in any act of violence using the weapons in his vehicle, Denea said. Deputy county attorney Robert Moon said it was unclear what Wright intended but there was the potential for great violence. Wright declined to make a statement during the hearing, referring to a statement he had filed, which was not immediately available, the Arizona Republic reported. The death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody has sparked outrage and protests nationwide, bringing to the forefront conversations about police brutality in the Black community. Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man from Houston, died Monday, May 25, after an employee from a nearby store called police to report a forgery in progress. During the arrest, an officer is captured on video with his knee gauged in Floyd's neck until he can no longer breathe. STANDING TOGETHER: Viral video shows Acevedo making passionate plea to George Floyd protesters In the wake of Floyd's death, here are some television shows and movies that speak to what is happening in the world today. While most are fictional, some are even based on a true story. Strides Pharma Science announced that its step]down wholly owned subsidiary, Strides Pharma Global, Singapore, has received approval for Triamcinolone Acetonide Ointment USP, 0.05% from the United States Food & Drug Administration (USFDA). The product is part of the niche and small volume product portfolio with limited competition in the US market. Triamcinolone Acetonide Ointment 0.05% is indicated for the relief of the inflammatory and pruritic manifestations of corticosteroid responsive dermatoses. According to IQVIA MAT data, the US market for Triamcinolone Acetonide Ointment USP, 0.05% is approximately US$ 15 Mn. The product will be manufactured at the companyfs flagship facility at Bangalore and will be marketed by Strides Pharma Inc. in the US market. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Delhi, June 2 : Jessica Lal's murderer Manu Sharma walked out of the Tihar Jail on Tuesday, a decade after he was send to serve his life sentence. This came after Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal approved his premature release late last month. Manu Sharma, son of former Union Minister Venod Sharma, was sentenced to life for killing Jessica Lal in 1999 in a sensational murder case. The trial court had acquitted him, but the High Court reversed the verdict and convicted him while the Supreme Court upheld the life sentence in April 2010. Lal, a model, was shot dead by Manu Sharma after she had refused to serve him liquor at the Tamarind Court restaurant owned by socialite Bina Ramani at Qutub Colonnade in south Delhi's Mehrauli area on the night of April 30, 1999. The ups and downs in the case are now part of Bollywood movie. Lal's family was destroyed by the tragedy, they fought a long hard battle. The only surviving member in Lal's family is her sister Sabrina. Speaking to IANS over the phone, Sharma's lawyer Amit Sahni said, "It's a day of happiness as a long battle of court and prolonged incarcination has come to an end. This is a result of his good behavior inside the jail. "He was already out of the jail as he was on emergency parole but after completing all the formalities inside the jail on June 1 (Monday), he is now officially released," Sahni added. Baijal has approved remittance of Sharma's sentence along with that of 18 other convicts serving life sentence on May 28. "In exercise of the powers conferred by section 432 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974) read with the Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, New Delhi Notification...dated 20 March, 1974, the Lt. Governor of the National Capital Territory of Delhi is pleased to remit the un-expired portion of the Sentence of the following 19 (Nineteen) life convicts on the recommendations of the Sentence Reviewing Board in its meeting held on 11.05.20," the order dated May 28 read. The decision comes after the Sentence Review Board in its meeting on May 11 had recommended the release of Sharma observing his "good conduct" inside the jail and outside it too while he was on paroles and furlough. The board also observed that Sharma alias Siddharth Vashishth has "good" prospects of post release rehabilitation. Former law officer of Tihar Jail, Sunil Gupta, while speaking to IANS on an earlier occasion had said, "For instance, "The Jessica Lal murder case: considered as one of the rarest crime in history and its murderer, Sidharth Vashish alias Manu Sharma, earned only hatred but he also has a different face. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text (TNS) What was once considered as an experimental way to deliver health care, telehealth, has now become a mainstream delivery system.While many people are just now getting a taste of telehealth because of the coronavirus pandemic, the idea behind it and the act to develop it has been around for quite awhile.Before the pandemic the pieces were in place to provide telehealth care, but there were some obstacles, said Tera Veale, vice-president of provider services at Daviess Community Hospital. One was that a lot of the systems we could use were heavily regulated.We have been involved in telehealth for more than a decade, said Don Kelso, president of the Indiana Rural Health Association. We were actually working on it before most people had even heard of it.One of the things that Indiana Rural Health did was try to bring telehealth to Indianas rural schools. The organization used a grant to set up clinic stations in school nurse offices where a doctor at one location could examine a child with the help of the school nurse.The stations included computer linked otoscopes, stethoscopes and cameras that linked directly to the doctors office.One of the early problems we had was that equipment was quite expensive, said Kelso. Setting up a station could cost as much as $20,000.Daviess Community Hospital was among the providers that signed on to build the program. We helped establish operations in the nurses offices at three area elementarys, said Veale.Expense wasnt the only early problem. Insurance companies were reluctant to pay for telehealth visits. Also, medical professionals wanted to vet the system to be certain that it could work accurately for the benefit of the patient.By the time they worked through those issues we had established a number of rural telehealth centers in schools, said Kelso. Then when the coronavirus outbreak happened everything began to change.As hospitals and other medical providers looked for ways to keep patients out of waiting rooms and from being exposed to potential COVID-19, medical professionals increasingly began to rely on versions and variations of the original telehealth model.That was when we began receive waivers so that we could utilize Facetime, Messenger and Skype to deal directly with our patients, said Veale. It was also around this time that most of the insurance companies agreed to pay for telehealth visits.We have seen a growth in the use of Zoom and Facetime to conduct medical evaluations, said Kelso. The pandemic forced practitioners to adjust.Telehealth may turn out to be a blessing in rural Indiana where there are fewer doctors to serve an aging population that tends to have chronic health issues like diabetes, COPD, and heart disease.A Facetime meeting with a doctor or nurse practitioner treating someone with ongoing chronic conditions may just be the right thing, said Kelso. It also may help lower health care costs while adding more accessibility for patients.Not only are we doing telehealth with our hospital and clinics, a lot of a specialists that would hold regular clinics at our facilities have begun to use it, said Veale. All of our providers through St. Vincents are utilizing telehealth.Another area where telehealth may be able to make a big difference is in dealing with mental health issues. You cannot believe the difference it makes for a troubled person to be able to get face to face with someone who wants to treat them, said Kelso. There are just so many useful things to telehealth.Health care professionals say not all services can be delivered through telehealth, but it appears to be something that is here to stay.We have begun reopening and headed back toward normal operations, but we are still doing telehealth appointments, said Veale. Some people prefer them. They are still uneasy with the idea of sitting in a waiting room where someone may have the coronavirus. This has increased our ability to make better access to care for our patients. Telehealth is part of the new normal and we will see more and more people using it.Kelso also predicts that the use of telehealth will expand in the coming years. He says it may well be the big thing in healthcare over the next decade, but he points out there are also potential problems that have to be addressed.The biggest obstacle for telehealth in rural Indiana is the accessibility to broadband, he said. You need a good system for it to be effective. The co-problem with availability is cost. A lot of people, because they are older or on fixed incomes, may not have the money to afford a high-speed service that can provide a telehealth connection.Connectivity issues will be the big problem moving forward in rural Indiana, added Veale. For telehealth to be really effective for everyone, all people will need high speed broadband connections. That is something we do not have now in rural Indiana. Retired top generals reacted with alarm Tuesday to President Trumps plan to use active-duty military to patrol cities where police have failed to contain violence, while Democrats in Congress said they would seek to block funding for any domestic troop deployment. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said that he would introduce an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would outlaw the use of Defense Department funding to be used against American citizens engaged in protest demonstrations. Next week the Armed Services Committee will debate the NDAAwhich determines how the DoD can spend its money. I will introduce an amendment to prevent any DoD funding from being used for force against American citizens exercising their first amendment rights. Tim Kaine (@timkaine) June 2, 2020 On Monday, after nearly a week of protests, vandalism and looting sparked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, Trump was photographed walking outside the White House alongside Defense Secretary Mark Esper and the fatigue-clad Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as military vehicles crisscrossed Washington and helicopters hovered low to disperse protesters. Moments earlier, the president said he was taking immediate presidential action to stop the violence and restore security and safety in America. I am mobilizing all available federal resources civilian and military to stop the rioting and looting, Trump added. President Trump walks with Attorney General William Barr, left, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, center, and Gen. Mark Milley, right, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (Brendan Smialowski / AFP) Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., blasted the president for what he saw as a blatantly unconstitutional use of his power. President Trump ordered federal officers to attack peaceful American citizens exercising their constitutional rights by tear gassing them in a public park while military helicopters flew overhead. Appalling. An abuse of presidential power. Blatantly unconstitutional. Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) June 2, 2020 In a separate tweet, Schumer said the Department of Defense Inspector General must launch an investigation into how the military is being used. Story continues While the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the military from being used in domestic law enforcement, the Insurrection Act of 1807 provides a loophole. It allows a president to send in U.S. troops to suppress a domestic insurrection if requested to do so by a state governor. No such request has been made in the District of Columbia, which does not have a governor, and it is unclear whether any other states have asked for such help. Several governors have said they had no interest in having active-duty troops deployed in their states. The law does have a provision for the president to act unilaterally in certain extreme situations. Trump has not said publicly that he is invoking the act. The National Guard, which has been deployed in Minneapolis, is generally controlled by the respective governors. House Armed Services Committee chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., issued a statement Tuesday criticizing Trump for failing to calm racial tensions. Instead he used force to remove peaceful protestors to stage a photo opportunity. Instead of taking a moment of silence in front of the historic St Johns Episcopal Church to pray for the lives lost, he gathered his cronies to take a picture. Instead of doing the right thing, he once again did the absolute wrong thing, Smith said in his statement. I remain gravely concerned about President Trumps seemingly autocratic rule and how it affects the judgement of our military leadership, Smith added. I have called for Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley to testify before our committee to explain this domestic engagement to the American people. The fate of our democracy depends on how we navigate this time of crisis. Military vehicles maneuvering in Washington, D.C., on Monday. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images) Former top military officials also took issue with Trumps use of U.S. soldiers to counter demonstrators. It sickened me yesterday to see security personnel including members of the National Guard forcibly and violently clear a path through Lafayette Square to accommodate the presidents visit outside St. Johns Church, retired Gen. Mike Mullen, a former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote in an extraordinary op-ed in the Atlantic. I have to date been reticent to speak out on issues surrounding President Trumps leadership, but we are at an inflection point, and the events of the past few weeks have made it impossible to remain silent. Another former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Gen. Martin Dempsey, was similarly bothered by Trumps actions. Americas military, our sons and daughters, will place themselves at risk to protect their fellow citizens. Their job is unimaginably hard overseas; harder at home. Respect them, for they respect you. America is not a battleground. Our fellow citizens are not the enemy. #BeBetter GEN(R) Martin E. Dempsey (@Martin_Dempsey) June 1, 2020 Retired Gen. Tony Thomas, former head of Special Operations Command, said Trumps promise to flood the streets of Americas cities with U.S. soldiers is not what America needs to hear. The battle space of America??? Not what America needs to hear...ever, unless we are invaded by an adversary or experience a constitutional failure...ie a Civil War... Tony Thomas (@TonyT2Thomas) June 1, 2020 A poll released Tuesday that was conducted by Morning Consult before Trump promised to use U.S. troops to put down the protests nationwide, found that 58 percent of Americans supported calling in the military to help local police while 30 percent opposed doing so. The same poll, however, found that 56 percent of voters rated Trumps response to the demonstration only fair or poor, while 32 percent rated his response positively. A poll conducted by CBS News and released Tuesday found 49 percent of Americans disapproved of Trumps response to the protests in Minneapolis, while 32 percent approved. _____ Click here for the latest coronavirus news and updates. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised continue to be the most at risk. If you have questions, please refer to the CDCs and WHOs resource guides. Read more: Grant Hackett and his fiancee Sharlene Fletcher welcomed their baby boy Edward Anthony Hackett in January this year. And on Tuesday, the Australian swimmer gushed over his son and opened up about his relationship with his fiancee. Speaking on Channel Seven's Sunrise, Grant said: 'He is just a gorgeous little thing. And the relationship I have with Charlene [is different] and the sense of support we have for one another.' 'He is just a gorgeous little thing': Australian swimmer Grant Hackett gushed over his newborn son Edward as he opened up about his relationship with fiancee Sharlene Fletcher on Tuesday Grant went on to say: 'She is a very calming person which is good for my personality because I'm very driven and ambitious.' 'So to come home to someone who really balances it out for me and then to have a baby Edward.' Grant also spoke about his friendship with American swimmer Michael Phelps, and said the pair have a 'special bond'. Family: Grant and his fiancee Sharlene welcomed their baby boy Edward Anthony Hackett in January this year Michael had invited him to stay at his Arizona home after he attended a 30-day detox program following his publicised battle with mental health post-retirement. 'We've known each other for basically 20 years now. I've been there for all of his ups and downs as he has with mine,' he said. 'We were very close at a sporting level and became closer at a friendship [level] and more of an emotional level. He is like another brother to me. We've experienced a lot of challenges outside the water.' 'He is like another brother to me': Grant also spoke about his friendship with American swimmer Michael Phelps (pictured), and said the pair have a 'special bond' Grant and Sharlene announced their engagement in October 2019. 'So happy and excited to call this beautiful, amazing, kind and supportive soul my fiancee,' wrote Grant to his Instagram followers. 'Life has certainly had its moments where your spirit is tested to its full will. 'However, I have to say, sharing and creating life with [Sharlene] has brought so much happiness and fun! 'Thank you [Sharlene] for loving all of me. Can't wait to introduce our baby boy to the world on Australia Day too.' Grant also has two other children, twins Charlize Alley and Jagger Emilio, 11, from his previous relationship with Neighbours star, Candice Alley. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 22:01:15|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia received on Tuesday the donation of 520,000 masks from five Chinese business companies and Dongguan Municipal government. The COVID-19 medical supplies donation to Ethiopia's Addis Ababa city administration which also includes a large number of disinfectants, forehead thermometers and respirators is expected to play a critical role in helping Ethiopia's capital city overcome the challenge posed by COVID-19. The COVID-19 medical supplies were donated by Dongguan municipal government, Huajian international Light Industry City, Transsion Manufacturing Private Limited Company (PLC), Huawei Technologies Ethiopia PLC and China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC). Ethiopia has 1,172 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Monday with most of the cases concentrated in Addis Ababa, a city of four million plus population. At the COVID-19 medical supplies donation ceremony, Tan Jian, Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia, said China is working to support Ethiopia's anti-COVID-19 measures with all resources at its disposal. "Ethiopia is facing the challenging task of containing the spread of the virus... Since the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed on March 13, the Chinese government both at the central and local levels have been assisting Ethiopia by providing medical supplies and sharing lessons learned in an effort to boost Ethiopia's capacity to handle the outbreak," said Tan. Tan further emphasized China's anti-COVID-19 partnership with Ethiopia is not restricted to medical supplies donation, rather part of a comprehensive strategy that works both ways. "I wish to emphasize that the support between our two countries is mutual, not one way or one country at a receiving end. We support each other, we will stand by the great country of Ethiopia, stand by the great city of Addis Ababa in the fight against COVID-19," said Tan. Takele Uma, mayor of Addis Ababa, said the COVID-19 medical supplies donations will be of vital assistance to his city's fight against the pandemic. "We want to give thanks to the assistance given by the Chinese people, Chinese institutions and Chinese government and we hope they continue extending their assistance in our ongoing struggle against the virus," said the mayor. "We Ethiopians are always able to overcome our difficulties and we will overcome this current difficulty; we will see new horizon eventually. I call on all of us to work towards this path together," said Uma. Enditem Hong Kong is improving resource efficiency, meeting resource recovery targets, while optimizing infrastructure lifecycle opportunities. The Drainage Services Department (DSD) of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has selected Black & Veatch to conduct a three-year investigation into upgrading the Tai Po Sewage Treatment Works (STW). Black & Veatch is committed to support our clients, like DSD, through infrastructure lifecycle opportunities. Black & Veatch specializes in the design of integrated wastewater treatment and resource recovery facilities. These facilities effectively achieve environmental protection goals through sustainable treatment, optimum biosolids use and economic value. Our professionals have worked on many advanced STW projects worldwide which required innovative approaches to overcome constraints that are similar to those in Tai Po STW, says Andy Kwok, Managing Director, Black & Veatch Asia North. One objective of the Tai Po STW upgrade is to increase the capacity of sewage treatment, biosolids management, energy recovery and sewage discharge disposal to support the housing and economic needs of the Tai Po District. Another objective is to provide facilities to receive and digest sludge from the sewage treatment works in eastern New Territories for co-digestion with pre-treated food waste. Featuring a compact design, the upgraded STW is anticipated to accommodate the new regional sludge treatment facilities and future expansion. Black & Veatch is tasked to provide review, site investigation, impact assessments and preliminary design for the upgrading of Tai Po STW. Core innovations that will be assessed for the Tai Po STW upgrade include: Uncertainty-based dynamic process modelling, which enables the use of statistical techniques in combination with process models to evaluate solutions. It provides the ability to right-size process systems and equipment. Low-energy solutions, for example biological nutrient removal incorporating sustainable nitrogen removal strategies. High solids digestion, a compact solution that offers more effective management of high strength feedstocks. Black & Veatch is a world leader in the design, construction, testing, start up, commissioning, and operation of advanced sewage treatment facilities. It is a pioneer in practical and economical water reclamation and reuse solutions for all types of water quality, with award-winning projects such as Singapore National Water Agency PUBs Changi NEWater II plant. Editors Notes: Tai Po STW, built inside Tai Po Industrial Estate (TPIE), is the second largest secondary sewage treatment works in Hong Kong. Tai Po STW serves the TPIE, Tai Po, Lam Tsuen and Ting Kok areas. Black & Veatch was involved in the investigation, design and construction (ID&C) of Hong Kongs Sha Tau Kok STW Expansion project from 1,660 to 10,000 m/day to meet future demand. The expansion was subjected to numerous constraints including limited site availability, a tight program, and maintaining operation of STW during construction. Black & Veatch is involved in master planning Singapores Deep Tunnel Sewerage System (DTSS) Phase 2 project. The DTSS is a superhighway for Singapores used water management. The Tuas Water Reclamation Plant (WRP) is a core component of the DTSS Phase 2 project. Tuas Nexus integrates and co-locates Tuas WRP with the Integrated Waste Management Facility (IWMF) to maximize the synergies between the two facilities by utilizing the water-energy nexus. Tuas WRP will be the first of its kind in Singapore to co-digest used water sludge and food waste in the same plant to enhance biogas production. The biogas produced will be used to further enhance the overall thermal efficiency of the waste-to-energy process and electricity production at the IWMF. Electricity generated at IWMF will be supplied to Tuas WRP for its operations. Excess electricity will be exported back to the grid. Tuas Nexus was named the Most Innovative Water-Energy Nexus Project, at the International Desalination Association (IDA) World Congress 2019 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. About Black & Veatch Black & Veatch is an employee-owned engineering, procurement, consulting and construction company with a more than 100-year track record of innovation in sustainable infrastructure. Since 1915, we have helped our clients improve the lives of people in over 100 countries by addressing the resilience and reliability of our world's most important infrastructure assets. Our revenues in 2019 were US$3.7 billion. Follow us on www.bv.com and on social media. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200520005930/en/ The Lukashenko regime has dominated every aspect of Belarusian political life for decades. Any real opposition figures that might emerge are soon forced abroad. Public demonstrations against the government are quickly dispersed and their participants jailed. In such a restrictive environment, the only non-governmental organizations that manage to survive are either very small or very skilled at disguising their activities. The only organizations in Belarus that can receive funding from the state must be outwardly supportive of the current administration. Belarusian authorities continue to do everything in their power to fully supplant true civil society groups with these pro-government imitations, but they have never been entirely successful. Since October 2011, the operation of foreign NGOs in Belarus has been officially restricted by a set of limiting legislative amendments. On the other hand, it would be disingenuous to say there has been any real civil society in Belarus, and the few organizations that do exist have typically followed a predictable pattern of behavior. They repeat the same cliches to no one in particular, attend the same circuit of conferences and seminars, and receive just enough in Western grants to guarantee their continued existence. Most people in Belarus, myself included, stopped taking them seriously long ago, believing they were just another black hole for international organizations to dump money into. As it turned out, this could not have been further from the truth. If every cloud has a silver lining, then for Belarus, coronavirus has provided an opening for civil society to blossom after years of slow and laborious tending. All those years of outside investment into Belarusian civil society seems to be finally paying off. Civil society groups in Belarus now have a chance to demonstrate how they have prepared themselves for this opportunity to show the world what they are really capable of, albeit in a form their funders likely never would have imagined. On one day last week, for example, 1,000 demonstrators got together in the Belarusian capital Minsk to oppose another term for President Alyaksandr Lukshenko in one of the biggest protests in the countrys history. Belarus remains one of the last countries on Earth to dismiss the threat of coronavirus. President Lukashenko is certain that not a single person in the country has died from the disease. In his words, all those deceased had other illnesses that were the true cause of death, while talk of a pandemic is merely hysteria. All the while, the country is increasingly buckling under the strain of thousands of cases, with ill-protected doctors on the frontlines barely holding things together. In the midst of this, the government has essentially declined to address the problem. Into its place has stepped that oft-maligned civil society, which most people had written off years ago. But now they have shown they were only written off because they didnt have a chance to spread their wings. In most countries around the world, civil society groups take over where government agencies stop. They seek to solve problems that governments cannot. In authoritarian countries like Belarus, however, there is no non-governmental space to operate in. Politics suck up all the air, and civil society is forced to operate in a very small space on the edges of society. This has been the case in Belarus for nearly three decades. What we are seeing now, however, is the government abdicating its responsibility to address the spread of coronavirus, freeing up a political space for civil society to occupy. And occupy it they have, and in a most admirable way. Almost every day, they accomplish another remarkable feat without breaking a sweat, in a rhythm that has come to seem natural. One example is the media nonprofit Imena (Names). Under normal circumstances, Imenas main activities are collecting financial aid for vulnerable groups and raising awareness of social issues. In the current crisis, they have refocused their efforts. Now they collect protective equipment for social workers, the elderly, and teachers, and help hospitals to recruit volunteers. Another group is the new #ByCovid19 initiative. This movement, established by experienced activists, is coordinating donations to medical facilities via their simple yet effective website. Doctors and physicians can request the supplies they need and where they need them, while individuals can volunteer to deliver supplies, help make homemade masks, donate money, and do a range of other services. The group has already collected over 300,000 rubles (more than $120,000). In this same vein is the longstanding Tell the Truth ( ) movement. Tell the Truth has been organizing PPE assembly across the country and delivering free meals to doctors working in Minsk, Gomel, Rechitsa and Mozyr. Theyve also pushed back against the authorities: One petition to introduce a national quarantine has gathered over 18,000 signatures so far, while another calls for more honest government data on the epidemic and for doctors to be able to speak freely on the matter without fear of retribution. Its really quite incredible that such a movement is required in order for medical personnel to avoid losing their jobs in a time like this, but such is the absurdity of the situation surrounding COVID-19 in Belarus. All of the above are genuine grassroots campaigns, not just a bit of PR to satisfy donors. And these are just a fraction of the citizen initiatives being organized across Belarus. To everyones surprise, Belaruss civil society - after 26 years of persecution and authoritarian rule - has risen to the occasion. The professionalism and adaptiveness displayed by many of these organizations in responding to the pandemic, in the absence of government action, compares favorably to their counterparts in liberal Western societies. This did not appear out of thin air. It was the result of years of slow progress, during which local activists and organizations like NDI, NED, IRI, USAID, Amnesty International honed their skills, made connections, and learned to work effectively with one another. For a long time, it seemed to many like just another waste of money, grant funding disappearing without results. But when push came to shove, and Belaruss civil society found itself faced with COVID-19, the countrys greatest challenge in a generation, it rose admirably and effectively. BEIJING, June 1 (Xinhua) -- China Development Bank (CDB) will provide a total of no less than 100 billion yuan (about 14.02 billion U.S. dollars) in funds to state-level economic and technological development zones. This will be done in the next three years as the government moves to advance innovation and promote high-quality growth in these areas. According to a memorandum jointly signed by the CDB and the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), the funds will support the development zones to optimize the investment environment, strengthen urban service functions and improve the level of a new type of urbanization, said an online statement of the MOC on Monday. According to the decisions of China's top authorities on promoting epidemic containment work and social and economic development, the CDB will also ramp up support to alleviate the liquidity difficulties for foreign trade companies and foreign-funded enterprises in the development zones. It will increase efforts to help them stabilize capital chains and open up industrial chains. With the memorandum signed, the ministry and the bank will cooperate to promote innovation and high-quality development of the zones, including optimization of industrial layouts, expansion of urban functions as well as the quality of ecological environments. The two sides will focus on supporting the renovation of old areas, the upgrade of industrial zones, construction of international cooperation parks and the building of modern industrial systems in the zones, the statement said. ANN ARBOR, MI The University of Michigan will begin its second wave of research re-engagement June 4, involving faculty and staff from 12 units on the Ann Arbor campus, the university announced Monday. More than 700 researchers returned to the Ann Arbor campus in recent weeks and ramped up activity as part of a pilot wave to re-engage research and scholarship, the university said in a news a release. Rebecca Cunningham, UM vice president for research, said the pilot wave proceeded smoothly with new health and safety procedures implemented. The process for safely ramping up research and scholarship is a gradual one, but I am pleased to report that our researchers throughout this pilot wave are practicing social distancing and wearing face coverings, Cunningham said. Researchers from the College of Engineering, College of Literature, Sciences and the Arts, Life Sciences Institute, Medical School and A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning participated in the first wave, which began May 21. No researchers tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19, according to the release. University of Michigan gradually resuming laboratory, studio-based research in coming weeks The second wave will expand to include researchers from the Stamps School of Art and Design, School of Dentistry, School of Kinesiology, School of Music, Theatre and Dance, School of Public Health and School for Environment and Sustainability, the release said. Buildings included in the second wave include: Art and Architecture Building Biomedical Science Research Building Chemistry Building Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building Life Sciences Institute Building North University Building Pharmacy Building Randall Lab/West Hall Biological Sciences Building East Hall Medical Sciences Research Buildings I, II and III North Campus Research Complex George G. Brown Building Climate and Space Research Building Industrial Operations Engineering Building Ann & Robert H. Lurie Biomedical Engineering Building 1210 Eisenhower Place Dental Building Central Campus Recreation Building Stamps School Green Road Studios School of Public Health Samuel T. Dana Building Earl V. Moore Building The second wave will allow for research with only 30% capacity in 24 buildings on the Ann Arbor campus, the release said. Leadership within units will identify select employees who can return to campus as part of the second wave, according to the news release. Before they may return to campus, employees must complete a training module that outlines practices for safely resuming their work, the university said. They will also have daily temperature screenings before entering approved buildings, and a greeter from the Division of Public Safety and Security asks them a series of health-related questions, the release said. To speed up the process, UMs Information and Technology Services created a new online tool with health-related questions for researchers to answer before arriving on campus each day, the release said. If they receive a green checkmark at the end of their health screening, they can show it to the greeter and move to the temperature check. These important safety measures not only protect our employees health and safety they play a critical role in ensuring the university can proceed with a public health-informed fall academic semester," Cunningham said. The release said there are still restrictions on out-of-state travel and in-person human subjects research, but a UM committee is developing a risk stratification timeline for safely resuming that type of work. The full release can be read here. READ MORE: I woke up bone-weary tired: University of Michigan leaders address death of George Floyd, racism in U.S. University of Michigan leaders now very optimistic for in-person fall semester Former University of Michigan football player with terminal cancer files lawsuit in doctor sexual abuse case Central Michigan University to start and end fall semester early, require face masks on campus Federal Department of Foreign Affairs Bern, 02.06.2020 - Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis attended the ministerial meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee on 2 June 2020 by videoconference. The humanitarian multilateral Committee coordinates aid funding to the Palestinian Authority. The virtual meeting focused on the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Palestinian economy and efforts to resume the dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians. This was the first time that Switzerland a bridge-builder and major humanitarian actor in the Middle East has participated at ministerial level in the meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC). The Swiss foreign minister, Ignazio Cassis, urged Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) to continue to work together to fight COVID-19. In response to the crisis, the FDFA has increased its humanitarian support on the ground and is supporting job creation programmes. Call for dialogue Switzerland calls on the parties to the conflict to create space for the resumption of a credible multilateral dialogue, and not to take unilateral measures. The prospect of a partial annexation of the West Bank would make it more difficult to return to the negotiating table and would be in contravention of international law. "Switzerland will continue to provide good offices to support the resumption of credible talks and to preserve the prospect of peace," stated Federal Councillor Cassis. The Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) is the main policy-level coordinating body for aid funding to the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt). The AHLC seeks to promote dialogue between donors, the Palestinian Authority and the Government of Israel. The AHLC is chaired by Norway and sponsored by the EU and the US (Co-Chairs). The United Nations also participates together with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The AHLC was established in 1993 as part of the Oslo peace process. The process enabled the negotiation of various agreements between Israelis and Palestinians with a view to finding a resolution to the Middle East conflict. These negotiations took place in Oslo under Norwegian mediation. Address for enquiries FDFA Communication Federal Palace West Wing CH-3003 Bern, Switzerland Tel. Communication service: +41 58 462 31 53 Tel. Press service: +41 58 460 55 55 E-mail: kommunikation@eda.admin.ch Twitter: @SwissMFA Publisher Federal Department of Foreign Affairs https://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home.html Michael T. Hayes is Professor of Political Science at Colgate University and author of The Limits of Policy Change. By Michael T. Hayes | Special to Syracuse.com Former Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, referring to the Republican Partys complete capture by President Donald Trump, recently said, I dont know anyone who thinks this is the future of the party. While I sincerely hope he is right, every day talk radio and television personalities redefine conservatism to provide political support for Trump. These media personalities distort the meaning of conservatism, doing violence to traditional conservative values. If conservatism can be endlessly redefined to mean whatever the latest Republican president says it means, then the term really has no enduring substance whatsoever. I believe, to the contrary, that conservatism not only has enduring substance but is morally and intellectually superior to Trumpism, however that phenomenon may be defined. While conservatism is a complex and multidimensional political philosophy, four core elements will be highlighted here. The first element is a realism about what it is possible to achieve through politics. Although not all conservatives are religious, all share a pessimistic view of human nature. The reality and intractability of human sin set distinct upper limits on mans capacity to make the world a better place through politics. Accordingly, conservatives reject grandiose plans for transforming society and view prudence as the highest virtue of the statesman. The second element, which flows out of the first, is a distrust of concentrated power. Conservatives embrace the checks-and-balances built into the Constitution. In particular, they have traditionally opposed the steady expansion of executive authority, preferring instead a Congress strong enough to serve as a check on presidential power. Third, conservatives believe in a subsidiary role for government. The things that matter most to people, from the conservative perspective, do not come from government. The vast majority of our material desires are met through the market, with government playing at best a supportive and regulative role. While our material wants should not be paramount, of course, government is even less equipped to satisfy our spiritual needs. Fourth, conservatives have traditionally believed in the power of reasoned argument. Conservative efforts to influence opinion through rational persuasion date back to Edmund Burkes Reflections on the Revolution in France. William F. Buckley engaged prominent liberals in spirited intellectual debate, not only in print but also through his pioneering television program, Firing Line. Barry Goldwater originally gained national prominence through a book advancing the case for constitutional conservatism. Trump breaks sharply with all four of these core elements. First, there are no limits on what it is possible to achieve through politics for this overpromising president, and no objective observer would ever characterize him as prudent. Second, he rejects the very concept of checks and balances, seeking instead to concentrate power in his own hands challenging congressional subpoenas, firing independent inspectors general, and intervening in judicial proceedings to reward friends and punish enemies. Third, while Trumps deregulatory initiatives might seem to imply a subsidiary role for government, his overriding desire is to make himself the center of everyones attention, all day, every day. Everything is political now, including pandemics, and all politics is about Trump. Whatever the problem, he alone can fix it. Finally, rather than employing reason, Trump wages war on it, lying relentlessly, denying science, firing experts, and creating an alternative reality that advances his political interests. He employs vicious and often juvenile tweets to intimidate anyone who disagrees with him, often arousing his base to threaten dissenters. Trumps supporters in the media rewrite history to meet the presidents needs, and his followers embrace preposterous conspiracy theories to justify their continued support for him. Whatever Trumpism is, it is not conservatism. Rather than redefining conservatism to fit Trump, we need to rediscover its core values: a healthy skepticism about what it is possible to achieve through politics, a distrust of concentrated power, and a view of government as auxiliary rather than primary. Above all, we need to reaffirm conservatisms confidence in the power of reason to make converts to its cause. How to submit letters and commentary to Syracuse.com Telugu producer Kona Venkat and MVV Satyanarayana have announced to bankroll a biopic on Indian weightlifter Karnam Malleswari on the occasion of her 45th birthday on June 1. Reportedly, the Telugu project is yet to be titled and will have a pan-Indian release. It will be helmed by Sanjana Reddy. The makers unveiled an announcement poster, which has the tagline - 'Journey Of A Girl Who Lifted The Nation'. The cast and crew will be announced soon. Kona Venkat will also be writing the script. For those who don't know, the writer-producer was earlier associated with films like MOM, Geethanjali, Baadshah, Ready and Dookudu and others. On her birthday today, we proudly announce our next, a biopic on @kmmalleswari, FIRST Indian woman to win a medal at Olympics. A multilingual PAN Indian movie! #HBDKarnamMalleswari by @konavenkat99 by @sanjanareddyd by @MVVCinema_ & @KonaFilmCorp.#MVVSatyanarayana pic.twitter.com/W2qsBft9iL KonaFilmCorporation (@KonaFilmCorp) June 1, 2020 Reports were suggesting that Nithya Menen will portray Karnam Malleswari on the big screen. However, the OK Kanmani actress rubbished the reports . According to a TOI report, rumours have it that Taapsee Pannu and Rakul Preet Singh are being considered to play the titular role. Talking about the story of the film, it will tell the tale of the first Indian woman to win a medal at the Olympics. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Karnam Malleswari won the bronze medal. In March, Kona Venkat had told The Asian Age that he wanted to make a film on Malleswari's life. He said, "This film is going to be an inspiration to the present generation. A poor girl from a remote village in Srikakulam district won the Bronze medal for India in Olympics. That is definitely a big story to narrate." Also Read : Is Anushka Shetty Upset With Nishabdham Producer Kona Venkat? "She has faced so many hurdles and problems to reach this level. It wasn't easy. She told us her whole story and gave us permission to portray all the incidents in her life," Kona Venkat added. Notably, Karnam Malleswari will be the third biggest biopic from Telugu industry after the films on legendary actors Sr NTR and Savitri. U.S. forces yesterday used tear gas on peaceful protesters outside the White House gates, prior to a declared curfew, clearing a path for President Trump to visit a riot-damaged church for a photo opportunity. The state of play: Two of the largest U.S. producers of tear gas are owned by private equity firms, but those firms have no interest in discussing their ownership. There is no federal tracking of tear gas usage by U.S. law enforcement, thus making it difficult to determine which company's products are used most regularly. But several outside research firms have determined that market leaders include: Combined Systems of Jamestown, Pennsylvania. The company was acquired in 2005 by Point Lookout Capital Partners, a New York-based private equity firm whose portfolio is dominated by law enforcement-related investments. Point Lookout didn't return interview requests. The Carlyle Group also participated in that deal as a minority investor. It was made out of an old fund that's already closed with its assets sold, but Carlyle retains a residual equity piece in a trust that it's been unable to exit. A source close to the firm says that Carlyle would not make such an investment today, because it would violate the firm's "responsible investing guidelines." Safariland of Jacksonville, Florida. The 56-year-old company was acquired in 2012 by a consortium, which includes Palm Beach Capital, from BAE Systems for $124 million. Palm Beach Capital didn't return an interview request. That deal also included Warren Kanders, a onetime investment banker who last summer stepped down as vice chairman of the Whitney Museum of American Art due to protests over his Safariland involvement. Tear gas isn't really a gas. It's a pressurized powder that mists upon deployment and can cause choking and other symptoms beyond tears. It also lives in a legal gray zone, due to international treaties that allow it to be used in domestic law enforcement but not in war. Many in law enforcement argue that tear gas ultimately saves lives of both police and protesters, as conflicts could otherwise turn deadly. But, as we saw last night live on TV, it can also be abused with impunity. The bottom line: Private equity firms typically take every opportunity to talk about their portfolio companies, proud of their products and management teams. In this case, they're silent. [June 02, 2020] Money Experience Named Finalist In Trendsetter Category For 2020 EdTech Awards CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Money Experience, the innovative edtech company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, today announced that it was selected as a finalist for the 2020 EdTech Awards, the largest and most competitive recognition program in education technology. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, The EdTech Awards recognizes people in and around education for outstanding contributions in transforming education through technology to enrich the lives of learners everywhere. It shines a spotlight on cool tools, inspiring leaders and innovative trendsetters across the K-12, Higher Education, and Skills and Workforce sectors. "This year has been different, to say the least. However, despite formidable challenges brought about by world events including locked-down cities, standstill travel, and closed offices, businesses and shools we endure," said Victor Rivero, who as Editor-in-Chief of EdTech Digest, oversees the program. "While The EdTech Awards salutes all those on the front lines of help, with an extraordinary shift to online learning, really acknowledging the innovators, leaders, and trendsetters particularly in our field is more important than ever." This year's finalists and winners were narrowed from the larger field and judged based on various criteria, including pedagogical workability, efficacy and results, support, clarity, value and potential. About The EdTech Awards The EdTech Awards is the largest and most competitive recognition program in all of education technology. It recognizes people in and around education for outstanding contributions in transforming education through technology to enrich the lives of learners everywhere. For more information, see #EdTechAwards and follow @edtechdigest on Twitter, or visit edtechdigest.com/the-edtech-awards. About Money Experience Money Experience is an educational technology company addressing the need for personal finance education among young people and adults. Money Experience is headquartered at One Kendall Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts. https://www.moneyexperience.com/ Media contact: Caitlin Snider for Money Experience [email protected] 781-749-0077 x14 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/money-experience-named-finalist-in-trendsetter-category-for-2020-edtech-awards-301066440.html SOURCE Money Experience [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] OAKLAND, Calif. Days after restricting one of President Trumps posts from view for glorifying violence, Twitter went at it again. On Monday, the social media service used the same label to hide a message by Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida which likened those who were protesting police violence to terrorists and called for them to be hunted down. The move also meant that the tweet could not be retweeted or liked, to prevent it from being amplified. Now that we clearly see Antifa as terrorists, can we hunt them down like we do those in the Middle East? Mr. Gaetz had tweeted on Monday, referring to the far-left anti-fascist activist movement. Shortly after his tweet was hidden, he reposted a message from the president that called for a law that gives technology companies some legal immunities to be revoked. Their warning is my badge of honor, he wrote later on Monday. Twitter last week engaged in a face-off with the president after adding fact-check labels to two of his tweets and then restricting a post in which Mr. Trump said that looting during the protests would lead to shooting. While the San Francisco company was applauded by some for taking more responsibility for the kinds of posts that appear on its platform, others said it was biased against conservatives like Mr. Trump. The Madhya Pradesh Congress has alleged that the decision to denotify the containment zone at the Raj Bhawan campus, the official residence of the state governor, is tied to the cabinet expansion plan of chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The decision to place it under the containment zone was taken just five days ago. The district administration in Bhopal denotified the containment zone at the Raj Bhavan campus on Monday evening, within five days of its notification, at the instance of the BJP government to facilitate expansion of Shivraj Singh Chouhan cabinet which is expected anytime, said state Congress leader and MLA PC Sharma. Such decisions, the MLA said, corroborated their charge that the BJP government is not serious about the lives of people and is only focused on political gains. Notably, an official release from directorate of public relations ,on Monday night, stated, Raj Bhavan has become containment free area. All the 10 persons infected with Covid-19 are under treatment in hospitals. Members of other 10 families of containment zone have been shifted to a quarantine centre. After six Covid-19 patients were identified on the Raj Bhavan campus on Wednesday, the area around the patients houses was declared as a containment zone by the district administration. The area covered under practical distance from these houses (10/0 to 10/9) which have been declared as epicentre, is being declared as a containment area, read the district administration order rather than declaring the area within one kilometre radius as part of the containment zone. The order also said that the practical distance would be earmarked by the chief medical health officer (CMHO) and the RRT (rapid response team). Containment area is defined as marking of first contact areas of the reported positive case, said the order. The decision regarding the practical demarcation means that the main building on the campus, which is hardly 500 meters away from the employee quarters, is not covered under the containment zone. The area has been notified as containment zone free, said a district administration officer who did not wish to be named. Tarun Kumar Pithode, Collector of Bhopal, said, I have not taken any such decision to declare the area (Raj Bhavan) as containment zone free area. I have got a proposal to the effect and am examining the same. Manoharlal Dubey, secretary to the governor, said, All I can say is as many as 11 families living in the zone have been shifted to some other place. PARIS - Tear gas choked Paris streets as riot police faced off with protesters setting fires Tuesday amid growing global outrage over George Floyds death in the United States, racial injustice and heavy-handed police tactics around the world. French protesters took a knee and raised their fists while firefighters struggled to extinguish multiple blazes as a largely peaceful, multiracial demonstration degenerated into scattered tensions. Police said at least 20,000 people joined the demonstration, defying a virus-related ban on protests to pay homage to Floyd and Adama Traore, a French black man who died in police custody. Electric scooters and construction barriers went up in flames, and smoke stained a sign reading Restaurant Open on the first day French cafes were allowed to open after nearly three months of virus lockdown. Chanting I cant breathe, thousands marched peacefully through Australias largest city, while thousands more demonstrated in the Dutch capital of The Hague and hundreds rallied in Tel Aviv. Expressions of anger erupted in multiple languages on social networks, with thousands of Swedes joining an online protest and others speaking out under the banner of #BlackOutTuesday. Diplomatic ire percolated too, with the European Unions top foreign policy official saying the bloc was shocked and appalled by Floyds death. Floyd died last week after a police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes even after he stopped moving and pleading for air. The death set off protests that spread across America and now, beyond. As demonstrations escalated worldwide, solidarity with U.S. protesters increasingly mixed with local worries. This happened in the United States, but it happens in France, it happens everywhere, Paris protester Xavier Dintimille said. While he said police violence seems worse in the U.S., he added, all blacks live this to a degree. Fears of the coronavirus remain close to the surface and were the reason cited for banning Tuesdays protest at the main Paris courthouse, because gatherings of more than 10 people remain forbidden. But demonstrators showed up anyway. Some said police violence worsened during virus confinement in working class suburbs with large minority populations, deepening a feeling of injustice. As the Paris demonstration wound down, police fired volley after volley of tear gas and protesters threw debris. Police were less visible than usual at the citys frequent protests. Tensions also erupted at a related protest in the southern city of Marseille. The demonstrations were held in honour of Traore, who died shortly after his arrest in 2016, and in solidarity with Americans demonstrating against Floyds death. The Traore case has become emblematic of the fight against police brutality in France. The circumstances of the death of the 24-year-old Frenchman of Malian origin are still under investigation after four years of conflicting medical reports about what happened. The lawyer for two of the three police officers involved in the arrest, Rodolphe Bosselut, said the Floyd and Traore cases have strictly nothing to do with each other. Bosselut told The Associated Press that Traores death wasnt linked with the conditions of his arrest but other factors, including a preexisting medical condition. Traores family says he died from asphyxiation because of police tactics and that his last words were I cant breathe. I cant breathe were also the final words of David Dungay, a 26-year-old Aboriginal man who died in a Sydney prison in 2015 while being restrained by five guards. As 3,000 people marched peacefully through Sydney, many said they had been inspired by a mixture of sympathy for African Americans and to call for change in Australias treatment of its indigenous population, particularly involving police. The mostly Australian crowd at the authorized demonstration also included protesters from the U.S. and elsewhere. Im here for my people, and for our fallen brothers and sisters around the world, said Sydney indigenous woman Amanda Hill, 46, who attended the rally with her daughter and two nieces. Whats happening in America shines a light on the situation here. Even as U.S. President Donald Trump fanned anger by threatening to send in troops on American protesters, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau refrained from directly criticizing him and said the protests should force awareness of racism everywhere. We all watch in horror and consternation whats going on in the United States, he said after pausing 21 seconds before answering. But it is a time for us as Canadians to recognize that we, too, have our challenges, that black Canadians and racialized Canadians face discrimination as a lived reality every single day. There is systemic discrimination in Canada. More protests in various countries are planned later in the week, including a string of demonstrations in front of U.S. embassies on Saturday. The drama unfolding in the U.S. drew increasing diplomatic concern. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrells remarks in Brussels were the strongest to come out of the 27-nation bloc, saying Floyds death was a result of an abuse of power. Borrell told reporters that like the people of the United States, we are shocked and appalled by the death of George Floyd. He underlined that Europeans support the right to peaceful protest, and also we condemn violence and racism of any kind, and for sure, we call for a de-escalation of tensions. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said peaceful protests in the U.S. following Floyds death are understandable and more than legitimate. I can only express my hope that the peaceful protests do not continue to lead to violence, but even more express the hope that these protests have an effect in the United States, Maas said. More African leaders are speaking up over the killing of Floyd. It cannot be right that, in the 21st century, the United States, this great bastion of democracy, continues to grapple with the problem of systemic racism, Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo said in a statement, adding that black people the world over are shocked and distraught. Kenyan opposition leader and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga offered a prayer for the U.S., that there be justice and freedom for all human beings who call America their country. Like some in Africa who have spoken out, Odinga also noted troubles at home, saying the judging of people by character instead of skin colour is a dream we in Africa, too, owe our citizens. ___ Associated Press writers Rick Rycroft in Sydney, Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, Lori Hinnant in Paris, Aritz Parra in Madrid, Frank Jordans in Berlin, Lorne Cook in Brussels, Peter Dejong in The Hague contributed. ___ Follow APs latest news about the protests at https://apnews.com/GeorgeFloyd STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A New York state Civil Rights Law is in the spotlight again, following the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis last week. Derek Chauvin, the officer involved in the incident -- who kneeled on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes -- has since been fired, and charged in Floyds death. An independent autopsy ordered by the family found Floyds death to be a homicide, caused by asphyxiation from sustained pressure. The medical examiners office said the cause of death was cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression. Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have begun calling for a repeal of New York state Civil Rights Law 50-A, which protects police personnel records from the public, as well as disciplinary hearing records, without the written permission of the officer or without a judges order. The call for repeal comes after several videos surfaced of improper action by NYPD officers during protests in Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn. New York City imposed a late-night curfew Monday as officials tried, unsuccessfully, to prevent another night of destruction amid protests over Floyds death. With an 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, New York joined other cities around the country in imposing such measures after days of unrest. But enough mayhem happened before the curfew took effect that Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted that the curfew would move up to 8 p.m. Tuesday. Video footage showed an NYPD officer forcefully shoving a woman to the ground and a police officer pulling his service weapon in a crowded intersection. Other videos showed two police vehicles driving into a crowd, knocking people down, and an officer opening his police cruiser door into a protestor as the vehicle drove down the street. All of these instances are under investigation, de Blasio said, calling the videos troubling. Cuomo said he would sign a bill today to repeal 50-A; De Blasio said the repeal should be done in the month of June, but wants to make sure that NYPD officers personal information, like certain aspects of their lives and their home addresses, are protected. WOULD BOROUGH OFFICIALS VOTE IN FAVOR OF A REPEAL? Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-East Shore/Brooklyn) said she feels it is the wrong time to repeal any Civil Rights legislation given the current state of affairs in the nation. Staten Islands other Republican assemblymember, Michael Reilly, who represents the boroughs South Shore, said he agrees a reform is needed but it must be fair and balanced. Both the community and law enforcement must have a seat at the table to develop a policy that ensures transparency and accountability, within context. A full repeal of 50-A would recklessly release information that will ultimately be taken out of context, said Reilly. Democratic Assemblymen Michael Cusick (Mid-Island) and Charles Fall (North Shore) also agree that reforms are needed but they must be reasonable. While we as a nation mourn the death of George Floyd, I understand and agree with the calls for reform that will help us weed out bad actors. With my colleagues in state government, I am reviewing proposals to reform Civil Rights Law section 50-A. I am open to reasonable reforms that preserve due process and promote transparency and trust between police officers and the communities they serve, said Assemblyman Michael Cusick. Fall said he looks forward to reviewing measures that will allow for transparency to address this issue, adding he believes that calling 911 to falsely report a crime based on race or religion should be deemed a hate crime. We can all agree that those who abuse their power should be held accountable, Fall said. I look forward to working with my colleagues on responsible legislation that can help strengthen our communities. Sen. Andrew Lanza said: 50-A already allows a court order to open records if records are relevant to the proceeding. These are mere complaints, the majority of which are found to be untrue. In the same way when someone is accused of a crime in our society, the defendants prior convictions can not be used again the person unless court action allows it after a hearing and these are past crime convictions, not just past allegations. This is part of due process protections in our country for the accused." As we continue to discuss the issue, there is a consensus that there needs to be reform. However, we as legislators still have to work on the details and will approach the legislation when there is a final bill introduced, said Sen. Diane Savino (D-North Shore). FOLLOW KRISTIN F. DALTON ON TWITTER. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 23:38:22|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A military airplane carrying medical supplies from China arrives at an airport in Minsk, Belarus, June 2, 2020. A fourth batch of Chinese humanitarian medical aid sent to Belarus arrived Tuesday, on board a military aircraft belonging to the Belarusian Defense Ministry. The 22 tons of cargo included non-contact thermometers, protective equipment, oxygen concentrators, test systems, and other medical products. More than 100 tons of humanitarian aid from China have now been delivered to Belarus on four flights. (Photo by Henadz Zhinkov/Xinhua) MINSK, June 2 (Xinhua) -- A fourth batch of Chinese humanitarian medical aid sent to Belarus arrived Tuesday, on board a military aircraft belonging to the Belarusian Defense Ministry. The 22 tons of cargo included non-contact thermometers, protective equipment, oxygen concentrators, test systems, and other medical products. More than 100 tons of humanitarian aid from China have now been delivered to Belarus on four flights. Regions of the country struggling with COVID-19 will be given first priority to the aid, the country's healthcare ministry said. Enditem 02.06.2020 LISTEN I humbly write on behalf of my colleagues final year nursing, midwifery, and allied health students and all final year beneficiaries of the Nursing training allowance calling on the government to pay us the six months arrears of our trainee allowance which starts from December 2019-May 2020 of which we were told has delayed due to COVID-19. I wish to first of all thank government on the restoration of the nursing training allowance and to also applaud government on the early closure of tertiary institutions and the subsequent measures taken so far in controlling the spread of the virus, especially amongst health training students. In consonance with government decision to reopen schools for all final year, tertiary students, on 15th June 2020, we the final year students of the various nursing, midwifery and other health training schools across the country wish to register to the government the economic hardship our parents and guardians are currently going through in this abnormal times where their major source of income or finances for taking care of our educational needs have been disrupted by COVID-19, we are therefore calling on the government to come to our aid by immediately putting measures in place to pay us the full six months arrears instead of the usual trend of 2 months or 3 months accumulated mode of payments. We are asking for this Six months full payment enable us to pay our school fees in full since most of us could not pay our fees in full before the COVID-19 break and the school's authority would not permit students who own the school to write their final exit exam, pay for handouts and to support us finish our project work before exiting, which sometimes requires traveling outside the region of your school couple with other expenses. These and many others are reasons for my call on the government to come to aid. It is my trust that the government would give this call urgent attention and pay us the six months arrears of our allowance before the 15th of June, 2020 to enable us to go back to school and complete. By: Alika Gabriel Concerned final year PA trainee [email protected] Three people were killed in a Monday morning car crash east of Salem. Kelly Byrd, 33, Joseph Dominick, 41, and Byrds 1-year-old son died as a result of the crash about 7:40 a.m. on Howell Prairie Road NE. Mark Kuenzi, 43, sustained minor injuries. Byrd, Dominick and Byrds son were in a 1992 Honda Accord, which crossed into oncoming traffic and collided with a 2016 Dodge Ram 4500 work truck driven by Kuenzi. The Marion County Crash Team has yet to determine a cause for the Accord traveling into the oncoming lane, but officials said they have not eliminated driver impairment as a factor. Howell Prairie was closed to traffic until midafternoon, according to the Marion County Sheriffs Office. -- K. Rambo krambo@oregonian.com @k_rambo_ Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. The classrooms at AWARE Inc.s Early Head Start in Butte on Mercury Street were once again filled with young children and staff on Monday. Head Start programs mostly took place virtually since mid-March during the states stay-at-home order to stop the spread of the coronavirus, AWAREs Center for Early Childhood in Butte reopened Monday as Montana entered phase two of its reopening plan. The AWARE Head Start programs serve as a safety net for low income Montana families by providing free pre-K educational programs to boost school readiness for kids. Statewide, AWAREs Centers for Early Childhood serve over 200 children up to age 3 in the communities of Butte, Whitehall, Billings, Bozeman and Helena. Christina Fox, site manager for the AWARE head start in Butte, said the staff were "super excited" to return to work and do face-to-face teaching, even though they had been in touch with the children and their families remotely during the closure. Its amazing to be back. The ones that werent able to walk before are now walking, and many of them have learned tons of new words, Fox said. The parents were also thankful to have them back, since some had to figure out how to take care of their kids while they went to work. Jennika Woodbury, who works full-time at a medical dispensary, is happy that shes able to bring her 1-year old back to AWAREs Early Head Start. I had to take time off from work while Head start was closed, said Woodbury, whos also pregnant with another child. My son is now used to being with his mom ... Id like to have my son around more kids its good for him. AWARE Inc. closed its Early Head Start centers to in-person services on March 16, after Gov. Steve Bullock issued a directive closing all public schools in the state. Colleen Bosch, AWAREs Early Head Start director, said that although the head start centers werent required to close as they are licensed as childcare facilities, the nonprofit voluntarily chose to take its services remotely for safety. At the time we closed, we wanted to ensure everyones safety, so we closed with the schools and reopened as the governor lessened the restrictions, Bosch said. Bosch said the nonprofit held off from reopening during phase one to be extra careful. The head starts reopening during phase two came with new protocols, including increased cleaning and rigorous hand washing, according to Bosch. Parents have to drop their child out front and sign them in outside the center. Meanwhile, staff are required to wear personal protective equipment, such as face masks. A health specialist is also onsite to take temperatures and screen staff and children at the start of the day, said Bosch. Before AWARE closed its head start centers due to COVID-19, its Butte center had 43 children, many of which came into the centers five classrooms. During the closure, AWAREs head start staff in Butte continued their outreach and services to low-income families and children on a remote basis despite the COVID-19 pandemic, serving approximately 43 families and children through weekly phone calls and video conferencing. Our teachers would make phone calls and do Zoom meetings to check in with the kids and their families, and our family advocates would also make weekly phone calls to check in, said Fox. Wed also host our class meetings on Zoom, where wed read the kids books, have weekly check ins, and make sure all their needs were being met. On Monday, 22 kids returned to the Butte head starts on Mercury Street, according to Fox. She said only three of the five classrooms are open at the moment until the Butte-Silver Bow health department clears them to open up fully. Megan Bahr, a teacher at AWAREs head start in Butte, said the kids were ecstatic to be back and behaved way better than expected. Its just awesome to work with the kids in-person again after being away from them for several weeks, Bahr said. Its way easier to communicate and bond with them when youre right there next to them, and playing with them and doing activities together is much easier than over the phone or computer. Erica Rohrscheib, a new teacher who started her first day at AWAREs Butte head start on Monday, said she expected the kids to be more shocked but were way better behaved. The kids did really well for the amount of change they had to go through and having to adjust back to a new environment and routine, said Rohrscheib. Lucille Riddle, a family advocate at AWARE Early Head Start in Butte, said the nonprofit is continuing to provide its outreach and services to families on a remote basis despite the centers reopening. Riddle, who works with a total of 43 families through AWAREs Early Childhood Services, said the coronavirus has forced the AWARE Head Start support team to find ways to reach children and their families remotely. Patience Roberts, a teacher at AWARE Early Head Start, said both of her kids 2-year old Sophia and 4-month old Kayson attend the program. I am so relieved to be back. I miss people and I miss these babies, she said. During the closure, Roberts worked from home while taking care of her two kids. It was really challenging. I would rather be physically here working than at home working with my kids there, Roberts said. You cant really get much done. It is hard to focus because they always need you. Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Terrence Floyd pleads for riots to stop: My family is a peaceful family, my family is God-fearing Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Hours after Terrence Floyd urged protesters in Minneapolis to channel their anger over police brutality and the killing of his older brother, George Floyd, into activism in the form of peaceful demonstrations and voting, violence escalated in cities throughout the country. Floyd implored those gathered at the memorial site where his older brother was killed a week earlier to stop vandalizing and tearing down the community. I know he would not want yall to be doing this, Floyd said, recounting that his brother had moved to the Twin Cities from Houston and loved the city. I Understand yall upset, but I doubt yall half as upset as I am, Floyd said. So if Im not over here wilding out, if Im not over here blowing up stuff, if Im not over here messing up my community, then what are yall doing? What are yall doing? Yall doing nothing! Because thats not going to bring my brother back, at all. It may feel good for the moment, just like when you drink. But when it comes down, youre going to wonder what you did. My family is a peaceful family. My family is God-fearing. Were upset, but were not going to take it. In every case of police brutality, the same thing has been happening: yall protest, yall destroy stuff. And if they dont move, you know why they dont move? Because its not their stuff, its our stuff. So they want us to destroy our stuff. Were not going to move! So lets do this another way. Lets stop thinking that our place doesnt matter, and vote. Not just vote for the president vote for everybody. Educate yourself. Dont wait for somebody else to tell you whos who. Educate yourself and who youre voting for. And thats how were going to hit them. And were still going to do this peacefully. Those gathered around Floyd were move by his words and raised their voices with him as he led them in chanting for peace and justice. Nationwide, however, lawlessness and mayhem ensued Monday night. In St. Louis, Missouri, four police officers were shot last night after protests turned violent near the Metropolitan Police Headquarters, Fox News affiliate KTVI reported Tuesday, adding that the injuries were not life-threatening. Two of the officers were shot in the leg, one in the foot, and one in the arm. All were discharged from the hospital on Tuesday. An officer in Las Vegas, Nevada, was shot on the Strip Monday night after attempting to make arrests as people threw rocks and bottles at him before he was gunned down. Hes now in grave condition and on life support, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sheriff Joe Lombardo said, according to Fox News affiliate KVVU. The suspect was apprehended and taken into custody. In Buffalo, New York, the driver of an SUV sped up his vehicle and plowed through a group of law enforcement officers and their dogs Monday night, injuring two officers. A man caught the incident on video from the balcony of his apartment, Syracuse.com reports. Earlier on Monday, Floyd spoke to ABCs Good Morning America about his plans to visit the location where brother took his last breath and died. Floyd said he wanted to connect with his spirit and connect with him again, even though he was still in a state of shock and felt numb. The younger Floyd said the looting, riots and ensuing violence are overshadowing his brothers life and the circumstances surrounding his death. He was about peace, he was about unity. But the things that are transpiring now, they may call it unity but its destructive unity. Its not what he was about. Thats not what my brother was about," he said. "If youre angry, its OK to be angry. But channel your anger to do something positive or make a change another way. Weve been down this road already. Hed want us to seek justice. Damaging your hometown is not what hed want. Floyd's minister, the Rev. Kevin McCall of Brooklyn, New York, said during the interview that the country needs peace and unity, and Americans need to get on their knees and pray to God to "heal our pride." We need the peace of God that passes all understanding. The Bible says, be angry but sin not. Its good to protest, and we want to continue to protest while we continue to call for justice. But we need peace, we dont need looters, McCall said. Nobody is more angry than the family, so you should respect the familys wishes. Its not about you looting and its not about violence. Its about the family and the justice that they want to see happen. George Floyd, who had moved to Minnesota to start a new life following a felony conviction for aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon in Texas, died in Minneapolis on Memorial Day while in police custody. He was arrested for allegedly buying cigarettes using a counterfeit $20 bill at Cup Foods convenience store where the clerk reported the incident to 911 and described Floyd as intoxicated. Video footage from the incident was caught on cellphone cameras and police body cameras. After Floyd was handcuffed he refused to get into the squad car, "stiffened up, fell to the ground, and told the officers he was claustrophobic." One video showed former police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck as other officers held onto his back and feet while he was handcuffed. Officer Thomas Lane asked whether they should roll Floyd on his side after he said he was struggling to breathe. The final time the officer asked that question Floyd was already unresponsive. Further details of Floyd's arrest and the events that transpired are listed chronologically in the criminal complaint against Chauvin. Last Friday, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman charged Chauvin with third-degree murder and manslaughter. He and three other officers who responded to the call Lane, J.A. Kueng, and Tou Thoa were fired from the police department following Floyd's death. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's office on Monday ruled George Floyd's manner of death was a homicide and stated that he suffered "a cardiopulmonary arrest while being restrained by law enforcement officer(s)." The medical examiner's office listed "arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease," "fentanyl intoxication" and "recent methamphetamine use" as "other significant conditions." Twenty-one-year-old Peter Doneze Robinson is a hit-making Nigerian-born rap artist who performs in the United States and has been listened to millions of times online. But Robinson plans to finish his university degree at Mount Royal University in order to attend medical school and become a cardiologist. Robinson was born in Delta State, Nigeria. His mother, originally from Lagos, is a Yoruba and his father, born in Delta, is an Igbo. Because of his mixed heritage and his father being unable to teach him the traditional dialect, he was taught English instead. His life in Nigeria consisted of him seeing inequality and dangers early on. When a local governor claimed doctors were embezzling money, criminals ended up targeting his father, who works as a member of that profession. They tried kidnapping my parents once and tried killing them a second time, says Robinson. At the age of 13, Robinsons family moved to Halifax, N.S. to find safety and further develop his academic skills. He fondly remembers the people he met when he arrived as the stereotypical Canadian nice. Soon after, with the help of other family members in Halifax, he quickly adjusted to his new life and excelled academically. Initially, he was put in Grade 6. But, three weeks later, the school pushed him forward three grades. Thats when he realized his academic potential. I was just killing it. And the only reason they didnt put me back in Grade 10 was because they were like Its going to mess with your social life, says Robinson. In 2013, Robinson moved to Calgary. He started rapping after graduating high school in 2018. It was at this time that he wrote and produced his first song called Dab Fashion. Robinson never considered himself interested in rap. I was just the book-smart kid up until two or three years ago, he says. I never really practiced rapping or anything. However, the American rapper Migos became a major creative inspiration for Robinsons work and sparked his interest in rapping. Just trust that youre going to make it. No matter what it is, youre never going to be homeless if you put your mind to it. Doneze Robinson Using Migoss flow as a model, Robison recorded his own song. And the moment he published it, it took off. After posting his music on the website WorldStarHipHop, Robinson garnered over three million views. One of his most popular songs How has over 100,000 streams and is popular locally across the state of Georgia. It was something like a hobby and the more feedback I got, the more I loved it. With the support of his friends and family, Robinsons interest in rap grew. In addition to getting engagement and feedback from his followers on social media, he attracted the attention of popular American artists including Lil Yachty, 21 Savage and his inspiration Migos. Robinson applies his book smarts to his rap style to stand out. You have to say things that have a deeper meaning to it, says Robinson. He believes this is reflected in his newest song Caviar. Although the song mentions popular aspects of hip-hop culture such as gangs, drugs and crime, he is also trying to inspire others through his verses. Just trust that youre gonna make it. No matter what it is, youre never going to be homeless if you put your mind to something. Making rhymes that flow well and never ramble is a standard Robinson maintains in all of his songs. If you dont know how to articulate words, youre basically just a mainstream rapper. Robinsons first performance was an opening act for American rap artist Rich Homie Quan at the Marquee in early March of 2019. His friend, Calgary-based rapper YXNG BLVCK, was also opening for Quan. Since the two of them were working on a song together, YXNG BLVCK contacted Robinson about the opportunity. I was at school at the time, says Robinson. They called me and said I was gonna perform a song with him and I was like, Okay. Shortly after his performance, he caught the attention of the Atlanta and Arizona- based music label Days of Noah and Jordanikus Music Group. By the end of March 2019, Robinson was flown down to Atlanta by the company to have him sign on as one of their artists. I came back, and I was joking with my friends about how I have a show in Atlanta, says Robinson. And then two weeks later my manager called me and was like, You got a show in Atlanta. This was the third professional performance of his music career and his biggest yet, performing at the Masquerade Theater in Atlanta, Ga., to a crowd of over 350 attendees. Robinson continues to grow in popularity, touring in the U.S. and garnering over 250,000 streams on Spotify. Even though Robinson acknowledges he could make a living off his music career, he still attends university and is currently in his third year studying physical literacy. The primary reason he continues to pursue an education stems from his parents desire for him to get a degree. I know this is the real world and if it doesnt pay the bills or get me as much money as I want, then I will use my degree. After finishing his degree, Robinson plans to attend medical school and become a doctor like his father. His goal is to become a cardiologist due to his interest in learning more about the human heart. Robinson maintains that he will continue to devote time to both his academic and musical endeavors. Regardless of whatever it is, I still manage to get in the studio, and I do my homework. Im organized that way. Over the summer, Robinson is going to head down to a recording studio in Arizona where he hopes to record new music and arrange a concert with the help of his producer. Robinson is also planning to release a five-track EP this year called Flight Mode while he continues to attend Mount Royal University. When he graduates in two years, Robinson would like to hone his musical career for a year before deciding his next move. I know theyre not telling me to get it for them. Theyre telling me to get it for me, says Robinson. I have faith that my music career will take off, he says. But Im not going to rely on that. So, I want to have a plan B. Wherever school leads me to, Ill keep going with it. Album art for Donezes 2020 single NO CAP. Republish This Story Republish our articles for free under a Creative Commons license. A family pays their respects to victims of the mass killings at a checkpoint on Portapique Road in Portapique, N.S. on April 24, 2020. As pressure mounts on the federal and Nova Scotia governments to call an inquiry into one of the worst mass killings in Canadian history, the country's leading scholar on inquiries says Ottawa and the province should do the right thing and work together on a joint inquest. (Andrew Vaughan/THE CANADIAN PRESS) Joint Federal Provincial Inquiry Into N.S. Mass Shooting a Good Option: Top Expert HALIFAXAs pressure mounts on the federal and Nova Scotia governments to call an inquiry into one of the worst mass killings in Canadian history, the countrys leading scholar on inquiries says Ottawa and the province should do the right thing and work together on a joint inquest. I think that would really be the course to take, said Ed Ratushny, a professor emeritus at the University of Ottawas law school. It would make a lot of sense for the two governments to sit down together and work out terms of reference that are complementary and cover all the issues that have to be covered. Since the April 1819 rampage that killed 22 people, calls for a public inquiry have grownfrom opposition politicians, from Dalhousie University law professors and from victims relatives. On Sunday, the family of one victim appealed to governments to call an inquiry. We are now 40 days past this tragic event, we arent able to heal properly because the amount of information being kept from us is deplorable, said Darcy Dobson, whose mother Heather OBrien was killed April 19 as she drove along a highway in Debert, N.S. So far, Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil has insisted Ottawa should take the lead and conduct a federal inquiry. The premier has said the RCMPs handling of the case should be examined at the federal level because the RCMP is a national police force. As well, he has said other federal entities deserve scrutiny, including the Canada Border Services Agency, given the fact that the killer had unlicensed firearms from the United States. In Ottawa, federal Public Safety Minister Bill Blair has remained non-committal. In this time, nothing is off the table, and all tools should be considered, Blairs office said in a statement Monday. We will do everything possible to ensure that we learn the lessons of this investigation, and make sure tragedies like this one never happen again. Last week, Nova Scotia Justice Minister Mark Furey, a former RCMP officer, confirmed the province has authority to conduct a public inquirybut he, too, stressed that it makes more sense for Ottawa to do the job. However, Fureys tone seemed to shift Monday when he was asked about the possibility of a joint inquiry. The premier and I have been very clear that we are working with the federal government to identify the most effective mechanism to get these answers, he said in an emailed statement. This is a matter of both federal and provincial responsibility, and the province is working with the federal government to take action and move this forward together. We believe this joint approach will yield the best results. Federal-provincial inquiries have been deployed to investigate some of Canadas biggest tragedies. In 1993, Justice Horace Krever started a four-year joint inquiry that investigated how thousands of Canadians received transfusions of blood and blood products infected with HIV and hepatitis C. And in 1982, the Newfoundland and Labrador government set up a joint commission with Ottawa to look into one of Canadas worst marine disasters: the sinking of the Ocean Ranger offshore drilling rig, which claimed 84 lives. Ratushny, author of the 2009 book The Conduct of Public Inquiries, said governments are often reluctant to get involved in public inquiries because the political risks and costs can be high. When governments call a public inquiry and they have broad terms of reference, they leave themselves very exposed to criticism, Ratushny said in a recent interview. When they give (authority) to an independent commissioner, they lose control over the process. And so they usually dont like to do that until there is such a demand from the public that they have no choice. In their open letter, OBriens family urged the federal and Nova Scotia governments to work together. The back and forth about whos responsible for an inquiry is unreal, Dobson wrote, saying it only causes more distress for families. The back and forth between the two levels of government is nothing new for Nova Scotia. There were calls for an inquiry in January 2017 after a mentally ill former Canadian soldier killed his family and himself in their rural Nova Scotia home, but McNeil insisted it was Ottawas responsibility. At the time, the federal government said the province should take the lead. It would take almost a year of constant public pressuremuch of it generated by relatives of the victimsbefore the provinces chief medical examiner recommended a provincial fatality inquiry. Public hearings started this past Januarythree years after Lionel Desmond killed his mother Brenda, wife Shanna and their 10-year-old daughter Aaliyah, before taking his own life. Governments in general, and this provincial government in particular, are reluctant to establish public inquiries, said Archie Kaiser, one of the law professors at Dalhousie who has called for a public inquiry. One suspects that it is probably a matter of cost, reluctance to be exposed to public accountability and timorousness about the recommendations which might emerge. The net result is often to refuse to establish an inquiry or, in this case, to deflect responsibility. Meanwhile, some have argued the Mounties should be left to finish their investigation before any decision is made on an inquiry. However, theres nothing stopping either level of government from announcing their intentions. On May 9, 1992, an explosion inside the Westray mine in Plymouth, N.S., killed 26 miners and triggered immediate demands for some sort of investigation. Six days later, the Nova Scotia government-appointed Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Peter Richard to conduct a public inquiry. Legal challenges and concerns the inquiry could impede a criminal investigation led to delays, and the inquiry did not begin public hearings until November 1995. By Michael MacDonald SAO PAULO (Reuters) - More than a quarter of the confirmed novel coronavirus cases in Brazil's southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul are among meat plant workers, the labor prosecutors' office said on Monday. The prosecutors said in a statement that an estimated 2,399 employees from 24 slaughterhouses in 18 municipalities of the state have been infected. That equates to 25.7% of the 9,332 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Rio Grande do Sul as of Sunday, according to health ministry statistics. The findings corroborate evidence that meatpackers have become hotspots in Brazil for the coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 respiratory disease. Overall, Brazil has more than 500,000 cases and nearly 30,000 deaths, according to a Reuters tally. Brazil is the world's biggest beef and chicken exporter and the fourth largest pork exporter. In a separate statement last Thursday, Rio Grande do Sul Senator Paulo Paim said meatpackers in the state employ 50,000 people. He said countrywide the average number of workers per plant is 2,000. According to Brazil's agriculture ministry, the country has 446 meat plants, including 194 beef, 148 poultry, 90 pork plants and 14 for other types of meat. Two of Brazil's largest meatpackers, JBS SA and BRF SA, own plants in Rio Grande do Sul state. Both firms had units temporarily closed there due to outbreaks of the novel coronavirus. There have also outbreaks of the novel coronavirus in Santa Catarina state, where the poultry and pork industry directly employ 60,000 workers, according to local industry groups. JBS on Saturday got a favorable court order to reopen a poultry plant in Santa Catarina that had been closed since May 18. (Reporting by Ana Mano; editing by Grant McCool) Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Human T-Lymphotropic Virus (HTLV) are the viruses that cause a type of cancer called adult T cell leukemia and infectious diseases called HTLV. Two types of HTLV infections are identified which include HTLV I and HTLV II. These are pathogenic viruses that cause hematological and neurological diseases in infected patients which is favoring the growth of Human T-Lymphotropic Virus (HTLV) tests market. Additionally, this test helps in identifying viruses that cause leukemia, lymphoma, pulmonary infections, uveitis, infectious dermatitis and others are influencing the Human T-Lymphotropic Virus (HTLV) tests market growth during the forecast period. 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You Can Buy This PMR Healthcare Report From Here @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/31140 The global market for Human T-Lymphotropic Virus (HTLV) tests is anticipated to experience a steady growth during the forecast period. Owing to the increase in prevalence of infectious diseases associated with various other chronic diseases creates a more lucrative opportunity for manufactures present in the Human T-Lymphotropic Virus (HTLV) tests market. Furthermore, increase in new product launches, technological advancement in tests, clinical trials and others are propelling the Human T-Lymphotropic Virus (HTLV) tests market growth over the years. Based on the product type, assays and kits are dominating the Human T-Lymphotropic Virus (HTLV) tests market. Based on technology, imaging technology is emerging the growth of the Human T-Lymphotropic Virus (HTLV) tests market. Geographically, the Human T-Lymphotropic Virus (HTLV) tests market is segmented into North America, Europe, Latin America, South Asia, East Asia, Oceania, Middle East and Africa. North America is dominating the market owing to rise in infections, increase in clinical practices, clinically trained professionals, presence of both HTLV I and II in population, increase in use of intra venous drug users. Europe is second largest contributor in the market due to rise in inflammatory infectious disease, healthcare awareness, and government support. Middle East and Africa are anticipated to experience lucrative market growth for Human T-Lymphotropic Virus (HTLV) tests due to lack of availability skilled professionals, lack of technological penetration of healthcare treatments and others. Some of the key players of the Human T-Lymphotropic Virus (HTLV) tests market are: Roche diagnostics, Abbott laboratories, Cellular products .Inc. Viracor diagnostics, Bio compare, Zepto Metrix Corporation, Mayo clinical Laboratories, Genesig, and Arup laboratories. TRENTON Nearly 30 people were arrested and more than 60 businesses ransacked during widespread looting and rioting that engulfed the capital city late Sunday, as officials prepared Monday for another round of upheaval across Mercer County. Officials in Trenton and neighboring suburbs deployed a regional curfew to stem the tide of violence after State Police and cops from other towns were called in to deal with the simmering racial rancor stirred up by the death of George Floyd in New Jerseys capital. The curfew was supposed to discourage potential rioters from hopping to neighboring municipalities to inflict carnage, officials said, after Trenton awoke Monday morning to survey the damage. Violence erupted after 8 p.m. Sunday following a second day of peaceful protesting over the death of Floyd, a Minneapolis man who was suffocated to death by a white officer who placed a knee on his neck. In a flash, the situation changed, Mayor Reed Gusciora said at a news conference. We will not tolerate any more of the mayhem that happened. If you come into our city to agitate, stay away. Thousands of people demonstrated most of Sunday afternoon, starting at the Statehouse and winding up outside Trenton Police headquarters on North Clinton Avenue. The crowd dwindled to about 100 people at 7 p.m., when the decision was made to send at least a dozen Trenton Police officers home, Trenton Police director Sheilah Coley said. Within an hour, the crowd swelled to about 400 people, Coley said, and grew increasingly unruly. Pockets of violence erupted, with demonstrators torching a police vehicle on East State Street. Police sources said at least three TPD vehicles were lost in the chaos. Looters busted windows of downtown shops and banks making off with merchandise. An angry mob demolished the inside and outside of PNC Bank on West State Street, bashing in glass doors and windows and toppling furniture in the lobby. One man appeared to fashion a club out of a broken chair leg. City leaders condemned the rioting and looting, which spilled into neighboring municipalities. Trenton remained the epicenter of the violence in Mercer County, but Hamilton Police averaged as many as 90 calls an hour and continued receiving calls until about 3 a.m., Hamilton Mayor Jeff Martin said. Township officers were dispatched to the Walmart on Nottingham Way on Sunday night to discourage looting, Martin said. Hamilton Police reported several arrests overnight, Martin said, with many of the vandals coming over from the capital city. Some of the incidents occurred at the Family Dollar store on Hamilton Avenue and in the Bromley section of the township, Martin said. No major injuries were reported, but Martin said at least one township officer, who was wearing a helmet, was treated at a nearby hospital after being struck in the head by a projectile in the capital city. Martin pledged the townships support for the regional curfew during a noon conference call with reporters. Like so many in our nation, I am deeply saddened over the senseless murder of George Floyd, said Martin, who read a prepared statement at the outset. I stand with all who have peacefully demonstrated in the name of justice and a call to end systemic racism and racial inequality. While we are a nation grieving for those tragically killed, we cannot allow our message of liberty and justice for all to be muted by the looting and violence seen over the weekend across our country, including the senseless destruction in Mercer County last night. Violence that hurts our residents and our businesses, who are already suffering due to the pandemic, does not help to seek justice for Mr. Floyd and countless others before him. Martin said police would have wide latitude to implement the curfew but did not give specifics about how cops would enforce the lockdown. Trenton has handed out hundreds of violations since Gusciora instituted a curfew following a weekend of bloodshed in April. Step Backward In meeting with members of Trentons vibrant Latino community before Mondays news conference, Gusciora revealed at least one city business owner was roughed up while fending off looters. He called the violence a step backward for the capital city, which hoped to shed the curfew after it was eased to 9 p.m. But Gusciora rolled back that edict, saying the lockdown would remain in force for the foreseeable future. It was unclear the level of cooperation Trenton officials expected from neighboring suburbs as Ewing and Lawrence also planned to participate, according to Gusciora. Martin said the township planned to enforce the curfew until 6 a.m. Tuesday. After that, township officials will evaluate whether to extend the curfew depending on what happened overnight. Were gonna take it day by day, Martin said. To prepare, township officials parked behemoth public works trucks end-to-end outside in front of the police department to deter looters. Martin was unaware of any direct threats made on the police force saying officials were being extra cautious. In Trenton, officials attempted to blame part of Sundays mayhem on outside agitators, suggesting the majority of those arrested were from outside of the capital city. Trenton Police records contradicted those claims, and Coley conceded a small fraction, about eight of the 28 people taken into custody related to the rioting, hailed from another town. At least a dozen of those hauled in were underage, the TPD director said. And 32 of the 41 people on Mondays lockup list which includes all weekend arrests listed Trenton as their principal addresses. It did not appear all of the people on the list were involved in looting and rioting. Coley reported nearly 70 offenses ranging from burglary to arson, defending the actions of TPD and mutual-aid officers dispatched to the capital city to deal with flaring tensions. Many State Police officers clad in riot gear held lines at major intersections in downtown Trenton rather than advancing on protesters. The TPD director hoped the feds prosecute some of the more serious offenders. Theres nothing concrete about that yet, Coley said. If they take all of them, that would be fine with me too. Officials were monitoring intelligence and social media postings over concerns that protesters might target the new Trenton Central High School or specific businesses. The last thing we want is to destroy is Trentons future, Gusciora said. The only way for Trenton to be successful i nthe futuer is to have a vibrant business community. Feeling TPD might be outflanked, members of the Latino Merchant Association of New Jersey encouraged Gusciora to get Gov. Phil Murphy to send in the National Guard, which has been deployed to parts of the country most wracked by unrest. Gusciora called bringing in the National Guard a last resort, fearing it would be viewed by some Trentonians as an occupying force that could escalate tensions. WHITEHALL The Whitehall firefighter who suffered a life-threatening illness responding to a fire on May 2 has been moved out of the Intensive Care Unit at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington. A GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $17,000 for Second Assistant Fire Chief Jim Brooks, 44, who suffered a torn aorta while responding to an early-morning structure fire in Dresden on May 2. Brooks underwent a lengthy surgery to increase blood flow to his kidneys, but the surgeon was unable to repair the tear in his aorta at the time. Brooks suffered multiple complications, including a stroke, a blood clot and a heart attack, and until recently, was intubated in the ICU. Brooks has served more than 20 years with the fire company and has been described as a dedicated member of the Fire Department. Fire departments, EMS and police departments from 16 surrounding communities showed support for Brooks on May 23 at the Drive For Jim tribute event outside of the Whitehall Volunteer Fire Company. Hes been eating ice chips and has had some ginger ale in the last couple of days. They want to see him start getting more calories by mouth versus the feeding tube, his sister Kathleen Brooks posted on Facebook. Hes doing a great job in a short time! Brooks may be moved to a rehabilitation facility next week. Love 22 Funny 4 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 1 Priyanka Chopra is known for being an award-winning actress as well as a dedicated humanitarian. She has used her voice to promote various issues around the world including womens rights, education for underprivileged children, and the environment. Because of this, perhaps it was not surprising that Chopra decided to raise some awareness about George Floyd, an unarmed black man who passed away in police custody recently. However, her post about Floyd was not well-received by a number of fans, who are now calling her a hypocrite. Priyanka Chopra made post about George Floyd and urged followers to end the race war RELATED: How Harry Styles, Colin Kaepernick, John Legend, John Cusack and Other Celebs Are Supporting George Floyd Protests Floyds death has sparked many protests across America. Many social media users are also joining in by talking about race, privilege, and police brutality. Chopra decided to use her voice to speak out as well, and she made a post on Instagram about George Floyd. Chopra shared a picture with the quote, Please, I cant breathe, which was something Floyd could allegedly be heard saying before his death. In the caption, Chopra wrote about racism, saying: We all have a responsibility to educate ourselves and end this hate. End this race war here in the US, and around the world. Wherever you live, whatever your circumstances, NO ONE deserves to die, especially at the hands of another because of their skin color. Afterwards, she shared some information about Floyds death and ended her post with, George, I am praying for your family. Why fans are calling Priyanka Chopra a hypocrite Priyanka Chopra | Noam Galai/Getty Images for Booking.com RELATED: Why Priyanka Chopras Take on Pregnancy Is Empowering Although there are a lot of fans who are praising Chopra for speaking out about Floyd, others simply see her post as hypocritical. These accusations arose because Chopra is not known to speak out about discrimination within her own country of India, especially those seen as anti-Muslims and anti-Dalit (against people of lower castes). Priyanka Chopra wants to end racism in US but is just fine with the blatant Islamophobic attacks in India, one person wrote on Twitter. Meanwhile, another person said: Priyanka Chopra must be the most hypocrite actress ever. [She keeps] quiet about anti-Dalit atrocities in India but talks about racism in US. [She also] plays minority & brown card in US but sells [skin lightening] cream in India, hardly talks about colorism/castism in Bollywood. Priyanka Chopra once responded to someone accusing her of promoting a nuclear war between Pakistan and India RELATED: Priyanka Chopra Defends Beauty Pageants Despite Its Problematic Influence This is not the first time Chopra found herself being called hypocritical. She made headlines in 2019 when she spoke on stage at BeautyCon in Los Angeles. There, she was confronted by an audience member named Ayesha Malik about a controversial tweet. On February 26, 2019, Chopra tweeted, Jai Hind #IndianArmedForces. While the tweet could simply be interpreted as showing love for her home country, it was posted after the Indian military launched an airstrike on Pakistan. As a result, at BeautyCon, Malik accused Chopra of promoting a nuclear war between the two countries. In response, Chopra said: I have many, many friends from Pakistan and I am from India, and war is not something that I am really fond of but I am patriotic. So, Im sorry if I hurt sentiments to people who do love me and have loved me, but I think that all of us have a sort of middle ground that we all have to walk, just like you probably do as well. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold prices were little changed in lackluster trade on Tuesday as investors weighed prospects of a post-pandemic economic recovery against deteriorating U.S.-China relations and violent protests in the United States. Spot gold slid 0.1 percent to $1,738.55 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures were little changed at $1,749.25. As many businesses reopen across the world, investors are pinning hopes on economic recovery and corporate earnings growth. U.S. manufacturing activity eased off an 11-year low in May and China's factory activity unexpectedly returned to growth in the month, suggesting that the worst of the economic downturn from the coronavirus pandemic was behind. U.S.-China tensions persist, with reports suggesting that Chinese state-owned agricultural companies have been ordered to pause purchases of U.S. farm goods, including soybeans. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to deploy the military to quell civil unrest erupting across the nation over George Floyd's death. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Marches and protests continued in dozens of American cities over the final weekend in May in response to the death of George Floyd. Police and demonstrators clashed, with more than 4,100 people arrested, including 80 on Sunday alone in San Francisco. Floyd died May 25 while detained and handcuffed when Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for nearly 9 minutes. Floyd had been accused of passing a false $20 bill at a convenience store. He is the latest African American to be killed by what some believe to be systemically aggressive police tactics and behavior. In 2019, the LA Times reported that being killed by police was a leading cause of death for young black men in America. For those interested in supporting the protestswhether they can or cannot attend themselvesa number of organizations are asking for financial support. Some use donations to make bail for peaceful demonstrators, while others look to directly impact policy change. Despite the disclaimer at the end of this article, Hearst Newspapers will not take any percentage or otherwise directly profit from donations made through the links below. Support George Floyd's Family The Official George Floyd Memorial Fund On May 25, 2020, my life shattered as I learned of the tragic passing of my dear brother, George. My family and I watched in absolute horror as the now infamous and horrifying video began to spread quickly throughout social media. What we saw on that tape left us shell shocked; a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling directly on my brother's neck, obstructing his ability to breathe. As some officers knelt on his neck, other officers participated and watched; no one took any action to save my brother's life. Those officers would continue to brutalize my brother until he died. This fund is established to cover funeral and burial expenses, mental and grief counseling, lodging and travel for all court proceedings, and to assist our family in the days to come as we continue to seek justice for George. A portion of these funds will also go to the Estate of George Floyd for the benefit and care of his children and their educational fund. Visit the gofundme page here. Directly Support Protesters Please note that popular charities like the Minnesota Freedom Fund and the Brooklyn Bail Fund have asked donors to redirect their funds to other non-profits. The Know Your Rights Legal Defense Fund Created by former San Francisco 49er Colin Kaepernick, the Know Your Rights Legal Defense Initiative works with top lawyers in the Minneapolis area to provide legal resources for protesters in need. Donate here. Black Lives Matter Founded after the acquittal of George Zimmerman following the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in 2012, the Black Lives Matter movement has grown from a hashtag to an international organization employing a diversity of tactics to fight state-sanctioned violence against black people around the world. Donate here. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund The National for the Advancement of Colored Peoples Legal Defense Fund fights systemic inequality through litigation, advocacy, and public education. Donate here. The Bail Project According to its website, The Bail Project National Revolving Bail Fund provides free bail assistance to low-income individuals who are legally presumed innocent, and whom a judge has deemed eligible for release before trial contingent on paying bail. Donate here. The National Bail Fund Network The National Bail Fund Network is a network of sixty community bail and bond funds across the country that pays the bail of people who are unable to pay it themselves. You can donate by pretrial or immigration detainment, or select by state. For Policy Change Reclaim the Block Reclaim the Block was founded in 2018 and organizes Minneapolis local government to move money allocated to the police department into parts of the community that promote health and safety. Donate here. Communities United Against Police Brutality Focused on the Twin Cities, CUAPB is an all-volunteer organization working directly with the local government to curb police brutality. You can attend weekly meetings on Saturdays at 1:30 p.m. at 4200 Cedar Ave S, Minneapolis, or donate to pay for its office costs, copwatch equipment, court filing fees and other expenses. Donate here. Campaign Zero Campaign Zero is a policy-focused organization that seeks to end broken windows policing, enact community oversight of police activity, limit use of force, and achieve other reform to law enforcement. You can read in detail about their policy solutions here. Donate to them through PayPal. ACLU The American Civil Liberties Union, which celebrated its 100th birthday in January, works to protect voting rights, rights for prisoners, reproductive healthcare and more. Donate directly on their website here. Hearst Newspapers participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. Joshua Sargent is an editor for Hearst Newspapers. If you would like to recommend another charity for this article, you can email him at josh.sargent@hearst.com. In particular, sanctions include a travel ban and asset freeze. Brussels-based RFE/RL journalist Rikard Jozwiak says the EU diplomats will impose sanctions on Russian hackers for the cyber attack on the German Bundestag in 2015. "EU diplomats will this week start to work on sanctions against the people responsible for the cyber attack on the German Bundestag in 2015. If it happens, it will be the first sanctioning under the EU's cyber sanction regime," he wrote on Twitter on June 2, 2020. In particular, sanctions include a travel ban and asset freeze. Read alsoCrime and coverup: Russia accused of hacking those probing it Bloomberg As UNIAN reported earlier, Germany's Foreign Ministry threatened EU sanctions against "those responsible" for a 2015 hacking attack on the German parliament, including a Russian national. The ministry said in a statement on May 28 that it had summoned the Russian ambassador to Berlin to deliver the message, saying evidence showed Dmitry Badin was working for a Russian intelligence agency at the time of the attack. German prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Badin, who was already being sought by U.S. authorities, and is believed to be part of the hacker group known as APT28, or Fancy Bear, on May 5. Honeywell, a leading global technology player, has announced it will open a new facility for the production of gas detection devices in Saudi Arabia, underscoring its commitment to the In-Kingdom Total Value Add (IKTVA) program. Established to accelerate Saudisation, IKTVAs aim is to achieve 70 per cent localisation of production and jobs by 2021 and act as a key enabler of Saudi Vision 2030. The new Made in the Kingdom Honeywell factory will support IKTVAs localisation objectives by creating production jobs for Saudi nationals that enhance workforce skills and capabilities, Honeywell said in a statement. Through the new factory, Honeywell becomes the first international company producing gas detectors in the Kingdom, enabling local availability of the equipment, shorter lead times, and on-the-ground customer support. The devices will provide a reliable and cost-effective way to ensure the safety, compliance and productivity of workers who are operating in hazardous environments in Saudi Arabia. Our advanced gas detection systems help keep workers safe and enable them to rapidly respond to gas leaks and site incidents, said John Waldron, president and CEO, Honeywell Safety and Productivity Solutions (SPS). Were proud to bring new manufacturing capabilities to Saudi Arabia to help industrial customers maximise safety, improve operational performance and better mitigate emissions. Located at the extension of Dhahran Techno Valley, the Honeywell facility will produce 10,000 portable gas detectors and 800 fixed gas detectors annually when it reaches full production in 2022. The production line includes the multigas Honeywell BW series, in addition to fixed detectors including Searchpoint Optima Plus Point Infrared Gas Detector and XNX Universal Transmitter. Norm Gilsdorf, president, Honeywell, High Growth Regions, Middle East, Russia, Turkey, Central Asia & Customs Union, added: Honeywell remains committed to supporting the national Saudisation drive and helping the country meet its Saudi Vision 2030 objectives. Over the course of our six-decade history in the Kingdom, we have continued to further the transformation of the countrys future through the establishment of localisation initiatives and deployment of advanced solutions. This new facility marks another milestone in our Saudi Arabian history, providing new employment opportunities and expediting an increased drive for locally manufactured goods. For Honeywell, Saudi Arabia is a high-growth, strategically important market. It continues to play a vital role in advancing the development of Saudi Arabia's industries and successful long-term careers through the introduction of training programs, partnerships and facilities that aid the countrys transformation to a knowledge-based economy. These include working with professors and researchers from King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) in Dhahran on new catalytic processes for producing paraxylene, the Honeywell UOP University and Global TECPro initiatives, among others. TradeArabia News Service iStock/Adonis page(WASHINGTON) -- BY: CATHERINE THORBECKE As protests over the killing of George Floyd roil the nation, journalists covering the news have been indiscriminately arrested, tear gassed or shot with rubber bullets by local law enforcement -- at times even live on air. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, an advocacy and research group that records reported attacks on journalists, says it is investigating over 100 instances of attacks on members of the press from just the last three days. The majority of those aggressions have been from police. In the last three days, at least 19 reporters have been arrested, 36 journalists have said they were shot at by police with projectiles such as rubber bullets and 76 have reported assaults (with 80% of those assaults being by police officers), according to their tally. The group cautions that the figures are preliminary and could change after their investigations. Last week, video of a black CNN journalist being arrested live on air went viral, garnering outrage and a direct apology from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. As the protests continued across the country over the weekend, however, similar instances kept rolling in, many of them shared on social media by the journalists themselves. Video of a journalist in Louisville, Kentucky, with the local NBC News affiliate WAVE3 appeared to show police taking aim and shooting rubber projectiles at the reporter and her crew while live on air. Police literally opening fire on the free press. pic.twitter.com/g8RMImZLGr Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) May 30, 2020 Los Angeles Times reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske said on Twitter that she and other colleagues covering the protests in Minnesota were tear gassed at "point blank range." Minnesota State Patrol just fired tear gas at reporters and photographers at point blank range. pic.twitter.com/r7X6J7LKo8 Molly Hennessy-Fiske (@mollyhf) May 31, 2020 "We identified ourselves as press and they fired tear gas canisters on us at point blank range, I got hit in the leg," she said in a video shared Twitter. "I was saying, Where do we go? Where do we go? They did not tell us where to go. They didnt direct us. They just fired on us."She recounted her experience for the LA Times here.Another reporter in Minnesota for the Star Tribune shared on Twitter that police shot rubber bullets through his car window, shattering the glass. This is @RyanFaircloth, a reporter with the @StarTribune. He says he was trying to get home when police shot out his window. He is bleeding but seems ok. pic.twitter.com/LYH0h7c4hf Jared Goyette (@JaredGoyette) May 31, 2020 "Im bleeding," Ryan Faircloth said in the video. "Cops just shot my window out, my passenger side window out. Glass shattered as I tried to quickly turn and get out of their way."The new instances have raised alarm for press advocacy groups."Its not enough to cover the protests via the official podiums of local police departments and politicians. Reporters need to be free to turn their cameras and microphones toward the local organizers who have long engaged in the fight for black dignity alongside those who are now taking to the streets with legitimate grievances against a system that devalues the lives of our people," Alicia Bell, the News Voices organizing manager at the advocacy group Free Press, said in a statement."Rather than allowing law enforcement to control the narrative and vilify black people, as has been the case too often in the past, journalists have the right to mingle among protesters to document and air their perspectives," Bell added.She said this moment, however, also underscores the importance of building a relationship between newsrooms and communities.The Save Journalism Project called the attacks "unconscionable.""In reporting on protests of police violence against black Americans, reporters and journalists have become targets of violence themselves," cofounders Laura Bassett and John Stanton and spokesperson Nick Charles said in a joint statement."The acts of violence and injustice against reporters covering the fight for black lives against police brutality is unconscionable," the statement added. "It impedes the press ability to hold officials accountable and shed light on the fight for equality." Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. ALBANY Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said the New York Police Department "did not do their job" and failed to protect its city on Monday as looters masquerading as protesters destroyed and burglarized stores, transforming peaceful protests into melees. He also said Mayor Bill de Blasio should accept his offer to bring in the National Guard, noting that he could displace the mayor and "basically take over the mayor's job." But, he added, "I don't think we're at that point." "The NYPD and the mayor did not do their job last night," Cuomo said Tuesday during his daily briefing. "Use the police, protect property and people. Look at the videos, it was a disgrace. I believe that. ... I believe the mayor underestimates the scope of the problem ... the duration of the problem and I don't think they used enough police to address the situation." Patrick J. Lynch, president of the NYPD's Police Benevolent Association, fired back at Cuomo later Tuesday, saying the department is being blamed for poor coordination between the state and city. Rank-and-file New York City police officers were out on the street last night doing our job. Tonight, well go out and do it again," Lynch said. "Its not our fault that our city and state governments cant plan and work together, but we are suffering the consequences. Police officers are being run down, knocked down and almost shot on a nightly basis. The political tug of war between Albany and City Hall needs to stop, because it is putting police officers in danger." The mayor, during a new conference on Tuesday morning before Cuomo spoke dismissed any assertions that the violence and looting are being tolerated by his police force, noting the department made 700 arrests overnight Monday. "There is no such thing as being able to loot with impunity. I am so sick of these efforts to mischaracterize reality," de Blasio said. "I was all over New York City last night. I saw police officers trying to deal with a very difficult situation. We have not seen a situation like this, and it's literally because of very particular dynamics that have come together." De Blasio, like Cuomo, accused opportunists of hijacking the protests to engage in looting and violence. He said the NYPD would call in every available officer from the 38,000-member force and "address the situation." "Remember even in the days after the protest began, we didn't see this. Some of this is very organized," de Blasio said. "Maybe some of it's more random, but it is never, ever, ever accepted. It won't be accepted. When our officers got where they needed to be, they acted. So, I'm just sorry, I'm never going to accept anyone even implying that something would be tolerated." Cuomo said 13,000 New York National Guard troops are ready to be deployed in any cities that need additional law enforcement, including New York City. Cuomo said he witnessed rampant looting and what appeared to be not enough police officers in New York City to stop it. The governor said that businesses in minority communities that have taken years to build up were especially hard hit. "These looters destroyed businesses that were essential to the community and the very people we are trying to help," Cuomo said. "The police must stop the looting and the criminal activity that is the essence of the police force. They did not do that in New York City last night and I am disappointed and outraged at what happened in New York City last night." Cuomo then walked back his criticism of the NYPD, suggesting it is a leadership problem, and that the NYPD has handled "numerous rioting situations in New York City." Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. "They have to be given the confidence and the support to do it," Cuomo said. "You have 38,000 police officers, deploy them. ... Police officers want to know that they're supported and what the mission is." The State Police also are available to assist cities that need additional law enforcement, Cuomo said. The governor drew a sharp contrast between what he said are protesters outraged by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, who died after a police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly 9 minutes, and others who are using the moment to engage in criminal activity and destroy businesses and historic landmarks. "People see this moment and they exploit it and that is criminal activity and looting," Cuomo said. "Thats called criminal activity. They have no right to wrap themselves in the flag of righteous indignation of Mr. Floyds murder. Theyre opportunists who are seizing and exploiting the moment." Former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani also weighed in Tuesday, tweeting: "Mayor de Blasio needs to step down. He is incompetent. We are losing a tremendous amount of property. We are seeing people damaged and hurt. Pretty soon, we're going to lose lives if this man doesn't get out of the way and let someone activate the police department!" Cuomo said that New York National Guard troops will not be deployed outside New York. "We have the National Guard in this state on standby, if we need them in this state," Cuomo said. "I wouldnt grant any request to send National Guard out of this state at this time because I want them in this state. ... We may need them." Ryan And Blake's Statement Coming back to Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds, the actor took to his Instagram profile and shared a joint statement with wife, Blake Lively. The two have taken a pledge to raise their kids the right way so that, "they never grow up feeding this insane pattern and so they'll do their best to never inflict pain on another being consciously or unconsciously." The post also read, "We've never had to worry about preparing our kids for different rules of law or what might happen if we're pulled over in the car. We don't know what it's like to experience that life day in and day out. We can't imagine feeling that kind of fear and anger. We're ashamed that in the past we've allowed ourselves to be uninformed about how deeply rooted systemic racism is." Couple Pledges To Raise Their Kids With More Sensitivity "We've been teaching our children differently than the way our parents taught us. We want to educate ourselves about other people's experiences and talk to our kids about everything, all of it especially our own complicity. We talk about our bias, blindness and our own mistakes. We look back and see so many mistakes which have led us to deeply examine who we are and who we want to become. They've led us to huge avenues of education. We're committed to raising our kids so they never grow up feeding this insane pattern and so they'll do their best to never inflict pain on another being consciously or unconsciously," the couple added. Explaining why they chose to donate to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the statement further read, "That's the least we can do to honour not just George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and Eric Garner, but all the black men and women who have been killed when the camera wasn't rolling." Ryan And Blake Donated $200,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund Amid the pandemic, Reynolds and Lively also donated $1 million to Feeding America and Food Banks Canada, to help provide food to the homeless and many who have lost their jobs during the health crisis. The duo reportedly also donated $400,000 to the hospitals in support of the healthcare workers in New York. A 50-year-old man who worked for a data analytics and risk assessment firm based in New Jersey admitted he stole and tried to sell the personal information belonging to some of the companys clients, authorities said. Timothy Young, of Moorefield, Nebraska, faces up to 20 years in federal prison after pleading guilty on Tuesday to wire fraud, the U.S. Attorneys Office for New Jersey said in a statement. Though Youngs employer wasnt disclosed in court papers, his LinkedIn page said he worked for Jersey City-based Verisk Analytics. Young obtained confidential, non-public information that included names, login names, passwords, email addresses and telephone numbers for some of the companys clients and attempted to sell it, officials said. According to court papers, Young posted a message in an online forum offering to sell network log-in information for a Fortune 500 company with annual profits of $2.5B for $2.5 million in cryptocurrency. A confidential informant saw the message and tipped off authorities. Young was arrested and charged in May 2019. A spokesman for Verisk Analytics didnt immediately reply to a request for comment from NJ Advance Media. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. An Iranian scientist imprisoned in the U.S. and acquitted in a federal trade secrets case is on his way back to Iran after being deported, Irans foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said. Sirous Asgari was in the air on a flight back to Iran, Zarif said in an Instagram post. "Congratulations to his wife and his esteemed family," the minister wrote. Irans state-run IRNA news agency later reported the news, citing Zarif. Asgari, a professor at Irans Sharif University of Technology, had been indicted in April 2016, accused by federal prosecutors of trying to steal secret research from Case Western Reserve University. The Cleveland school had been working on a project for the U.S. Navy Office of Naval Research to create and produce anti-corrosive stainless steel. Asgari ultimately was acquitted in November after U.S. District Judge James Gwin tossed out the case by the prosecutors. Among the U.S. citizens held in Iran is U.S. Navy veteran Michael White, of Imperial Beach, California. White was detained in July 2018 while visiting a girlfriend in Iran. He was convicted of insulting Irans supreme leader and posting private information online. In May 2011, international hackers forums heated up when the essential cable system of Vietnamese hydrographic research vessel, Binh Minh 2, was wrecked in our waters by Chinese vessels. Duong Ngoc Thai It marked an important milestone in the Vietnam-China dispute over territorial waters. In the events aftermath, unofficial, capricious Internet-based attacks of both sides were launched, aiming to hack the other nations important websites, which provoked heated online debates among the Vietnamese public on its pros and cons. These debates, despite having conflicting arguments, were all dense with concern about Vietnamese national interests. After a few weeks of cross firing between Vietnamese and Chinese hackers, both the cyberspace warfare and the wrecked-cable incident cooled down, but not without casualties on Vietnam's side. Among the Vietnamese casualties, the two most significant ones were the database deletion of one major news agency and the display of the Chinese national flag on one Vietnamese governmental website. This online hacking, despite its whimsical nature, indicated a possible paradigm shift in the fight to protect national sovereignty from physical conflicts to cyberspace wars. In other words, cyberspace would be a major battlefield in Vietnam-China territorial disputes. The cyberspace battlefield, in my opinion, would not be flashy and whimsical anymore, but would become cold and relentless. Joining forces would not only be the unofficial tech-whiz youngsters, but also the professional hacking army keeping its cool and focus on for long-term strategic intents. High stakes With this possible increase in online combatants' size and severity, casualties would rise over the website-crashing level. Instead, damage would be measured by the amount of valuable espionage achieved - stolen information on political, economical and defense issues, which would create tremendous leverage in bilateral diplomatic relations and conflicts. Despite the lack of official governmental acknowledgement, there was proof of existence, from the early 2000s, of a Chinese cyberspace task force, identified as the 61398 Unit by U.S. government agencies and many independent researchers. It allegedly operates from a building in Pudong, Shanghai, infiltrating other nations governmental, defense contractors and private technological corporations for Chinese espionage. In a 2013 76-page report on an APT1-coded group of hackers, also known as Comment Panda, American cybersecurity firm Mandiant concluded that APT1 hackers were a part of the Chinese cyberspace unit. The report also pointed out that from 2006, ATP1 hackers had infiltrated at least 141 companies from 20 different industries to steal technological patents. Despite the hardship of tracking Internet-based attacks, Mandiant managed to trace 97 percent of APT1 connections back to Internet IP addresses in Shanghai, with systems designed using Mandarin. The investigation even managed to bypass APT1's security system to film one working session of the hackers. Furthermore, Mandiant shared the image of 61398 building and publicly identified a few of APT1 hackers, with five suspects prosecuted by a U.S. court in absentia for stealing trade and industry secrets from U.S. companies and organizations. The FBI then issued arrest warrants against the five, also provided pictures of the suspects, with two wearing Chinese military uniforms. Similarly, in 2015, a top-secret document about the 2009 Operation Byzantine Hades of U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), released by Germanys Der Spiegel news agency, thanks to information from Edward Snowden, provided links between APT1 and 3PLA, the Third Department of the General Staff Department of Chinese Peoples Liberation Army. 3PLA is the national signals intelligence authority, roughly comparable to the U.S. NSA. The findings were seconded by many other Internet-security providers private research on the Chinese cyberattack unit, whose targets, besides many Western nations, included Vietnam, especially at sensitive moments regarding the Vietnam-China maritime territorial dispute. A developer works on a laptop and a computer. Photo by Shutterstock/ProStockStudio. This Chinese cyber aggressiveness was most clearly displayed in a July 2016 incident in which the operating systems of HCMCs Tan Son Nhat Airport, Hanois Noi Bai Airport and Vietnam Airlines were hacked by a small group called "1973cn", showing messages propagating Chinas claims with the infamous "nine-dash line", while publishing online the private information of over 41,000 Vietnam Airlines customers. The China-sourced cyber attacks against Vietnam could be traced back to 2012 against many governmental agencies, including PetroVietnam, Vietnam News Agency and Vietnam Posts and Telecommunication Group, with proof provided by ThreatConnect and Dell SecureWorks, confirming the link to Chinese hackers. In 2014, when China sent the HD-981 oil rig into Vietnamese waters, Vietnam governmental agencies were again attacked by "unconfirmed" hackers, as recorded by ThreatConnect and ESET. The attack was launched specifically at the Vietnamese Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, possibly targeting the ministrys maritime reports. In late 2018 and 2019, two separate Internet security providers, CrowdStrike and Anomali, provided proof of attacks against Vietnamese border offices by Chinese "Mustang Panda" hackers. These attacks showed worrying signs of Vietnams lack of cybersecurity preparedness. It also made a simple fact clear: Vietnam cannot be a cybersecurity strong nation, if it cannot engage in and protect itself in cyber warfare. In response, OceanLotus, a Vietnamese group of hackers, launched many espionage activities to promote Vietnamese interests. Such retaliation from Vietnam, in my view, is necessary, given the context of all nations engaging in espionage activities. However, Vietnam should draw a clear line between different espionage activities, from political information-gathering to industrial theft. We should not copy the rogue cyberspace behavior of our neighbor China, which is believed to have accumulated wealth rapidly by stealing intellectual patents from the U.S., worth up to $400 billion per year according to a former NSA director. China also uses cyber weapons to enforce authoritarian control domestically. Cyberspace will be the 21st-century battlefield, with hackers being both the weapons and the soldiers. Using these resources efficiently to develop the economy and protect the nations sovereignty while maintaining its moral integrity is going to be a vital challenge for Vietnam. *Duong Ngoc Thai is cybersecurity engineer at Google. The opinions expressed are his own. An office worker wearing a protective mask carries a take-out lunch order while walking towards the Central Government Offices in the Admiralty district of Hong Kong, China, on Monday, March 2, 2020. Bloomberg Any counter measures that China lobs back in retaliation for the U.S. decision to revoke Hong Kong's special status will not likely hurt American investors, a pro-Beijing lawmaker in the city said. U.S. President Donald Trump announced Friday that he would begin to remove Hong Kong's preferential trade and customs status with the United States. Trump did not give details about exactly what steps would be taken. His decision was in response to China approving a proposal for a controversial new security law for Hong Kong critics say the law will grant the central government sweeping powers to crush dissent. Regina Ip, a member of Hong Kong's Executive Council and Legislative Council, told CNBC that Beijing could take steps to retaliate if the U.S. freezes the assets of Chinese officials, for instance. "If the U.S. freezes Hong Kong assets, or Chinese assets, Beijing could take counter measures," she said. "There are no specifics yet, although the Chinese (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) have said that if the U.S. imposes sanctions on Hong Kong, there will be counter measures." One country, two systems The Chinese territory was dogged by months of pro-democracy protests last year that crippled its economy and dealt a heavy blow to its retail and travel sectors. Protests eased earlier this year as the coronavirus outbreak took hold, but they have been reignited again with the latest law proposed by Beijing. Hong Kong a former British colony that was handed over to China in 1997 is ruled under the "one country, two systems" formula. That framework grants the Asian financial hub freedom of speech and limited autonomy such as its own laws, courts and currency. Trump said Friday that Hong Kong is "no longer sufficiently autonomous to warrant the special treatment that we have afforded the territory since the handover." His announcement to eliminate special trade and travel treatment for Hong Kong raised fears among the business community that it would impact the more than 1,300 American companies operating in the Chinese city. However, Ip said: "Counter measures (by Beijing), I think, will be targeted at specific measures imposed by the U.S. It won't affect the legitimate, business, economic and financial activities of foreign investors, including American investors in Hong Kong." Trade implications It could also affect trade. Due to its special status, Hong Kong has currently been exempted from tariffs that the U.S. imposed on China as part of the trade war between the two countries. A U.S. law, passed last year, requires that Hong Kong retains enough autonomy to qualify for a favorable trading relationship with the U.S. But the new security law is said to effectively bypass Hong Kong's legislature, reigniting concerns over the city's diminishing freedoms. But Ip pointed to the "substantial commercial American interests in Hong Kong." She said that 85,000 American nationals and 1,300 companies were "making a lot of money." "So I think U.S. will calibrate its measures carefully." Asian-American communities in the United States have joined in support of the widespread protests after a black man in Minneapolis, Minnesota died in police custody last week. George Floyd, 46, died on May 25 after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, kept his knee on Floyd's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. The policeman was later arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. The Coalition of Asian American Leaders in an open letter on Friday called for unity and solidarity in the face of violence. "Throughout history, there have been attempts to pit Asian and Black communities against each other, a tactic that encourages us to turn on each other rather than tackle our common oppression: the systems of white supremacy. These efforts distract us from the real solution of building cross-racial solidarity to root out racist oppression," according to the statement. "While Asian communities have been rewarded for our assimilation into whiteness with the lie of the 'model minority' myth, it is at times like this crisis that we should remember that our status is always conditional and subject to being taken away by xenophobia," said the coalition in the statement, which called for some 60 ethnic minority groups including Asian American Federation and the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans to work together to battle racial discrimination across the country. "As immigrants and refugees to the US, our families may not always understand this history, but we inherited its legacy," the coalition said. "So, in this moment, it matters that we commit to Black liberation and raise our voices to say that #BlackLivesMatter." The details leading up to the death of Floyd, who was suspected of using a counterfeit US$20 bill to purchase cigarettes, were caught on camera and immediately triggered protests in Minneapolis and then spread throughout the country and world. Story continues The statement by the Coalition of Asian American Leaders also pointed out that "we also cannot ignore the role of officer Tou Thao who stood watch as George Floyd was dying". "To see someone who looks like us behave as a bystander to Black death is devastating and painful. This is yet another reason that we must recognise our silence in the face of anti-Black racism, and commit to the ongoing work to dismantle anti-Blackness," the statement continued. People take part in a protest outside the US embassy in Dublin on Monday. Photo: PA Wire via dpa alt=People take part in a protest outside the US embassy in Dublin on Monday. Photo: PA Wire via dpa Thao, the 34-year-old policeman who stood guard as Chauvin pressed on Floyd's neck with his knee, had six police conduct complaints filed against him, police records show. He was also the subject of another case where Lamar Ferguson, a black man, alleged that Thao and another officer beat him until his teeth broke in 2014. The city of Minneapolis paid US$25,000 to settle the civil rights case. In a statement Saturday, the Committee of 100, a national non-profit organisation of Chinese Americans promoting constructive relations between the US and China, said the group joined with the black community to "seek a better America". "As members of the Chinese-American community " and by extension members of the Asian-American Pacific Islander community " we have experienced increasing levels of discrimination, racism and violence towards people of Chinese and Asian ethnicity over the past few months," said the statement. "These acts of hate have no place in America, whether directed against Asian Americans, Black Americans, or anyone else based on the colour of their skin." This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright 2020 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. A Cairo court will begin the trial of belly dancer Sama El-Masry on 6 June. El-Masry has been charged with "debauchery and immorality." A judicial source explained that according to the case records, El-Masry is charged with inciting immorality via social media by posting indecent photos and videos of herself. If convicted on charges of publishing indecent photos and videos, El-Masry can get a prison sentence of no more than two years and a fine of no more than EGP 10,000 or both in accordance with Law 146/2019. The judicial source added that if she was convicted with advocacy for prostitution on social media she can face imprisonment for a period not exceeding three years and a fine not exceeding EGP 100,000 according to Article 14 of Law 10/1960. If convicted with violating family principles and values in Egyptian society she can face a prison sentence of no less than six months, and a fine of no less than EGP 50,000 and not exceeding EGP 100,000 or both, according to Article 25 of Law 175/2018. The source added that Article 27 of the same law states that creating and managing an account on the internet to incite immorality is punished by imprisonment for a period of no less than two years and a fine of no less than EGP 100,000 and no more than EGP 300,000 or both. On 23 April, El-Masry was arrested for posting sexually suggestive videos on social media, and a Cairo court ordered her arrest for 15 days on 26 April pending investigation. The prosecutor-generals office said it received a number of complaints from citizens over El-Masrys posts. El-Masry has denied the charges, saying that the videos had been taken from her mobile phone which was stolen in June 2019. The controversial belly dancer, who had previously released videos online mocking the Muslim Brotherhood group during the one-year rule of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, claimed that members of the outlawed group were the ones who reported her to the prosecution over her political views. Search Keywords: Short link: CrowdStreet, a Portland company that funds commercial real estate developments through its website, laid off 24 of its 110 employees Monday. The coronavirus outbreak has thrown the commercial real estate sector into tumult, with most office workers doing their jobs remotely and the broader economy heading sharply downward. Prior to the pandemic, the company was on track to double its business, as it had in recent years, and hired aggressively to support those growth projections, CrowdStreet CEO Tore Steen said in a written statement. Given the impact COVID-19 has had, CrowdStreet made necessary cutbacks across divisions and made the difficult decision to lay off 24 members of its staff. Founded seven years ago, CrowdStreet has reported $25 million in outside funding. A number of other upstart Portland companies have cut jobs during the pandemic, including vacation management giant Vacasa and technology companies Jama Software, Puppet and Opal. -- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699 Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of not allowing enough trains to ferry migrants wanting to return to the State from various parts of the country. Amit Shah, in an exclusive interview with Network 18s Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi said, We dont have any differences with Mamata ji. There is no clash between Bengal and the Centre. Dont you think it is the right of the mazdoor to stay with their family members during the pandemic? But Mamataji is not allowing more trains to Bengal. Responding to Banerjee's allegation that Centre hatched a political conspiracy against the West Bengal government, Shah said, There is no fight. I would like to clarify that Uttar Pradesh allowed more than 1,200 trains for migrant workers, Bihar allowed nearly 1,000 trains but Bengal didnt even allow 100 trains for migrant workers. He said, If they (migrant workers) want to return home and you're terming them Corona Express do you think it is right to make such comments? Is it not the right of Bengali migrant workers, who are stuck in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Maharashtra, to go back to their hometown?" he said. Shah added that other states had behaved responsibly, accepted migrant workers in large numbers and allowed more trains, but Bengal had not done the same. "Till today, she has not accepted adequate number of trains. I believe that the people of Bengal will remember this and they will give a befitting reply to her for terming them (migrant workers) Corona Express," Shah said. On the issue of the migrant crisis, Shah said that had migrant labourers been sent to the respective states before the lockdown, it would have posed a huge problem to the state governments as they did not have sufficient testing and quarantine facilities at that time. "We wanted to first strengthen the healthcare system in states before sending the migrant workers. He said, We have started the special trains on May 1, but before that on April 20, the government started sending labourers from nearby areas to their states. Nearly 41 lakh labourers were sent through bus services. About 4,000 trains were pressed into service for migrants. However, some of the labourers lost patience and started walking towards their states, so we took many people to the nearest railway station or their native district. The Modi government has arranged buses and trains for the migrants and till now, 55 lakh migrants have been sent to their native states. The Railways has helped migrants in returning home, most of them have completed their quarantine period and have started living with their families, Shah added. Responding to Amit Shah's comments, TMC MP Derek OBrien said that the BJP's priority today was the 2021 Bengal elections and not the Covid-19 crisis. Amit Shah Ji thanks for confirming what your partys topmost priority today is the 2021 Bengal elections. Overcoming Covid challenge? No. Standing by those affected by Amphan? No. Keep doing your politics. Let Mamata Banerjee do what she does best stand by people," OBrien wrote on Twitter. He added that migrant workers were given just a four-hours notice before a 21-day lockdown and alleged that 80 lives had been lost because of the BJP's neglect. "You gave #MigrantWorkers just 4 hours notice before a 21day lockdown - abandoned them. Robbed them of their dignity. Packed them on trains like cattle 50 days later without any food. 80 precious lives have been lost because of your neglect. If it still didnt stir your conscience.. nothing will, the Tweet said. Funds raised to provide private credit to companies in Latin America to enable growth and social impact in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals LUXEMBOURG, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue like an Orange Sustainable Capital has closed its first fund, raising just over $200 million for its Latin America Fund I ("the Fund"). The Fund focuses on mobilizing private, primarily institutional, capital for Latin America, and counts over 25 investors as Limited Partners - including AXA, HSBC, CNP Assurances, BNP Paribas Cardif, SG Insurance, and MACSF, alongside several family offices, including those of private equity and social impact pioneers, Sir Ronald Cohen and Ray Chambers. In addition, investors in the management company include former Unilever CEO, Paul Polman; businessman and philanthropist, Alejandro Santo Domingo; businessman and former US Ambassador to Brazil, Clifford Sobel; and philanthropist, Jamie Cooper. The company benefits from an international and interdisciplinary advisory network including renowned economist, Olivier Blanchard, and physician and anthropologist, Dr. Paul Farmer. "We are honored to steward each, and every dollar entrusted to us by such an incredible group. I know that each member of our Blue like an Orange ecosystem is joining us on this journey to prove - as these extraordinary times highlight - the important role that finance can, and must, play as a force for good in the world," said Bertrand Badre, Founding Partner and CEO of Blue like an Orange. The Fund has a co-financing agreement with the Inter-American Development Bank's private sector lending arm, IDB Invest, with Blue like an Orange and IDB Invest working jointly to originate, structure and execute transactions - allowing both groups to leverage each other and deploy even more capital to the region. In addition, and importantly as the current pandemic is making clear, the close relationship to IDB Invest enhances connectivity to governments across Latin America, and allows Blue like an Orange to benefit from the Inter-American Development Bank's deep understanding of the macro-economic and political situations across the region. "IDB Invest is pleased to continue working with Blue like an Orange," said James P. Scriven, CEO of IDB Invest. "In these extraordinary times, we are committed to supporting our clients across Latin America and the Caribbean, putting our money to work and encouraging more private capital like that from Blue like an Orange to flow to the region. It is mobilization like this that will take our development impact and make it exponential at this critical moment." The Fund, which has already invested over $80 million, provides private credit primarily in the following thematic areas - Access to Finance, Infrastructure and Technology Enabled Services, Agriculture, and Social Infrastructure - such as Healthcare and Education. To date, IDB Invest has deployed over $40 million in funding to certain transactions alongside Blue like an Orange, and both groups expect to jointly commit over $50 million more for the co-financing of new mezzanine transactions within the next several months - reflecting the strong demand for this sort of capital in the region. "The coronavirus pandemic has reminded all of us that we live an interconnected world, and that challenges such as inequality can only be overcome if governments, civil society and the private sector work together," said Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the Inter-American Development Bank Group. "We congratulate the Blue like an Orange team on reaching this important milestone at a time when capital is so critical to enabling the region's economic recovery." Recent transactions include efforts to expand equitable access to transportation, through the ride-hailing company, Cabify; providing IT services to small-to-medium size enterprises and other key groups in Brazil through Qintess; providing increased access to financial services and "climate-finance" in Ecuador through Produbanco, and to the underbanked, in Colombia, through Movii. In Movii, for instance, the financial technology company aims to reduce inequality in Colombia by providing access to financial services to those who are unbanked and underbanked, including refugees from neighboring countries, which now total over 1.4 million. The company has also been asked by the Colombian government to play an important role in getting relief funds to Colombians suffering from the COVID 19 situation. Blue like an Orange applies a rigorous "no-tradeoff" approach to investing the capital provided by its investors, and puts equal weight behind achieving risk-adjusted financial returns and clear impact in the form of supporting the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Alongside the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos in January 2020, Blue like an Orange released an open-sourced ratings tool for impact measurement tied to the UN SDGs - known as SDG Blue. "There is simply no going back when it comes to long-term sustainable investing", said Olivier Goudet, Managing Partner and CEO of JAB Holding Company. "The Blue like an Orange team has achieved an extraordinary result in their first effort, but I know it is only the beginning of much more to come given the immense need for the thoughtful approach and capital that they are bringing to the world." About Blue like an Orange Sustainable Capital Blue like an Orange Sustainable Capital seeks opportunities to lend to companies and projects that deliver both strong risk-adjusted returns and positive social impact in support of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Blue like an Orange Sustainable Capital focuses primarily on Sustainable Infrastructure & Technology Enabled Services, Social Infrastructure (Healthcare and Education) & Agriculture and Access to Finance. The Company strives for sustainable development outcomes to foster inclusive and sustainable growth without a trade-off with respect to market level rates of financial returns. Blue like an Orange Sustainable Capital's founding partners are Bertrand Badre, Amer Baig, Suprotik Basu, Rashad Kaldany and Emmanuelle Yannakis. For more information, please visit http://www.bluelikeanorangecapital.com. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1175564/Blue_like_an_Orange_Sustainable_Capital_Logo.jpg Prairie View A&M University is launching a Center for Race and Justice and requiring a mandatory class on the history of race for incoming students in the wake of the tragic death of Houston native George Floyd. Prairie View President Ruth Simmons announced those and other initiatives in a heartfelt letter to the historically black universitys community Monday. The public outrage, riots, marches and uprisings in Houston and in cities around the country in response to Floyds death needed a proactive response, she said. For too long, we have been content to have others dictate the limits of our ability to act: individuals who call for a different course of action, those who are concerned about controversy, those who advocate staying in our lane, Simmons wrote. Floyd, who is originally from Houston and grew up in the Third Ward, died while in Minneapolis police custody last week. Simmons said the university will propose a Center for Race and Justice and encourage teaching and scholarship that contributes positively to overturning systemic biases that impede the ability of minorities and other groups to be accorded their full rights under the U.S. Constitution. The center, led by endowed political science professor Melanye Price, must be approved by the Texas A&M University System, its board of regents and the Texas Higher Education Coordination Board. All incoming students will be required to take a course on the history of race and class in the United States, which Simmons said can help ground students in their reality and help them navigate the often confusing treatment they may encounter in the future. An activist in residence position is also in the works. That program will bring advocates, activists and those who have worked on the behalf of justice to the campus. And an annual award, the Sandra Bland/Robbie Tolan Award, will acknowledge the important work of activists and the understanding of criminal justice reform. The award is named for two Prairie View graduates. Bland died in a Waller County jail in 2015 following an arrest for a traffic shop and an altercation with a police officer. Robbie Tolan was unarmed when his vehicle was mistaken by police as stolen. Police confronted Tolan and shot him while he was in the driveway of his familys Bellaire home in 2008. Tolan survived. Simmons said the university will also create a standing committee to recommend steps that can be taken to address social inequities that students might encounter, including police misconduct, discrimination, and voter suppression, an issue that students have wrestled with in the town of Prairie View in the past. Our faith and identity as a community kept us moving forward through some of the most disheartening periods in the countrys history, Simmons said. Now we must call upon that identity to give us guidance and succor in the coming period. Rice University President David Leebron also sent a message to the Houston private college community on May 30, lamenting the recent death of black Americans, including Floyd, Atatiana Jefferson, a Xavier University graduate who was killed last fall by a police officer who entered her Fort Worth home without identifying himself, Ahmaud Arbery, who was killed while jogging in Brunswick, Ga., in February; and Breonna Taylor, who was killed in March by police while in her Louisville, Ky, apartment. Leebron emphasized that the names of these victims are seared in our memories, while also acknowledging the sorrow, fear and pain felt by the Rice community, especially its black members, not because these are new things to deal with, but because they arent. Even in the middle of a global pandemic, it is a deep and enduring pain and fear that deserves acknowledgment and caring, and recognition that we must do better, Leebron wrote. We must therefore join with our own expressions of concern and sympathy and outrage. We must work to build an inclusive environment, one that respects and values people from different backgrounds. We must take part in efforts to reduce the deadly discrimination and racism that is an unstaunched wound in our national fabric. brittany.britto@chron.com China says US 'addicted to quitting' over plan to leave WHO Iran Press TV Monday, 01 June 2020 4:11 PM China has criticized the United States for its decision to sever ties with the World Health Organization (WHO), accusing Washington of pursuing a "selfish" and unilateralist policy. During a daily briefing in Beijing on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the United States has become "addicted to quitting groups and scrapping treaties." Zhao further said the response from the international community has shown that many disagree with the US withdrawal from the WHO. "The international community generally disagrees with such US acts of selfishness, evasion of responsibility, and undermining of international cooperation against the epidemic," Zhao said. Since US President Donald Trump took office in 2017, the US has quit the UN cultural agency UNESCO, cut the UN funding and announced its withdrawal from the UN-backed Paris climate agreement and the Iran nuclear deal. On Friday, Trump announced that he was cutting the US relations with the WHO, accusing the Geneva-based organization of failing to do enough to rein in the initial spread of the new coronavirus. The president first suspended funding to the UN agency last month over accusations of mishandling the global pandemic. Trump has on several occasions accused the WHO of siding with China and reliance on Chinese data, blaming it for "all sorts of false information about transmission and mortality" that was circulated amid initial reports. Earlier this month, Trump accused the WHO of being a "puppet" of China and said the funding freeze would become permanent if it failed to make "substantive improvements." The United States contributed $400 million to the WHO last year, roughly 15% of its budget. Zhao further said the WHO "cannot possibly serve only one country, and should not follow the will of the country that pays the most to it." He also noted that "in the face of the epidemic, any suppression or even blackmail of the WHO is a disregard of life, challenge to humanitarianism, and destruction of international cooperation." The spokesman further said China would "play its due role as a responsible big country" to support the WHO, calling on the international community to unite and provide more political support and funding for the world body. The new coronavirus, which causes a respiratory disease known as COVID-19, emerged in the city of Wuhan in December last year, incrementally affecting the rest of the world. The White House has been seeking to deflect criticism of its own sluggish response to the COVID-19 crisis by putting too much emphasis on the virus' likely origins in China, with Trump and other US officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, referring to the coronavirus as the "Chinese virus." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address COVID-19 and the race riots in the US have not stopped the global ambitions of Afterpay rival Zip Co, which has acquired the 85 per cent of US buy now pay later provider QuadPay it didn't yet own for $446 million worth of Zip shares. But it was the consumer finance group's $200 million funding deal with US investor Heights Capital Management - via a convertible notes issue - which captured the market's attention and sent the stock soaring, thanks to an ambitious strike price of $5.53 on the notes. Zip shares, which traded at $3.75 before the announcement, soared more than 40 per cent to a high of $5.40 on Tuesday afternoon. Happy days for Zip co-founder Larry Diamond. Credit:Peter Braig We as a board didnt believe a share price in the 3s [$3] represented fair value for Zip shareholders," said Zip chief executive Larry Diamond. Amit Shah to address people of Bengal through virtual rally on June 8 India oi-Vicky Nanjappa Kolkata, June 02: Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah will address the people of West Bengal through a "virtual rally" on June 8, state party president Dilip Ghosh said. He said the party would reach out to people, "apprising them of the achievements of the Narendra Modi government in its first year of the second term and steps taken by the Centre to deal with the crisis caused due to the COVID pandemic." PM Modi assures India Inc that growth will be back, stresses self-reliance | Oneindia News Amit Shah to begin BJP campaign in Bihar next week with virtual rally "As right now, public rallies are banned. So we are stressing on virtual rallies on social media. It will be a five-day-long campaign, with the first virtual rally on June 8. Just like normal rallies, during these virtual rallies there will be speakers, and the main speaker of the June 8 rally would be Amit Shah, he would speak from New Delhi," Ghosh told reporters on Monday. Shah had last addressed a rally in Kolkata on March 1, a pro CAA rally at Shahid Minar ground. According to state BJP sources, during virtual rallies, the state BJP would highlight the state's TMC government's "mishandling" of the dual crisis of COVID pandemic and Cyclone Amphan. "During those rallies, we would propagate how the state government mishandled the crisis. How our party leaders, were not allowed to carry out relief work, how our leaders were not allowed to visit the cyclone-affected areas," Ghosh said. With an eye on next year's assembly polls, the BJP reconstituted its West Bengal unit on Monday, inducting more than a dozen new faces including turncoats and dropping Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's grandnephew Chandra Bose who opposed the party's stand on CAA and NRC. It also brought in new and younger faces to head the party's women and youth fronts. The TMC has been on a sticky wicket in Bengal since the last Lok Sabha polls in which it lost 12 parliamentary seats to BJP. The saffron camp had then emerged as the primary challenger of TMC in the state by winning 18 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state and TMC's tally coming down to 22 from 34. Nigerian and other African leaders have been rallying round Adesina, who is about to complete his five-year-tenure but has indicated interest in another term. Five inmates at the Agassiz Youth Centre briefly escaped Friday, after hitting a guard with a shovel and digging out under the perimeter fence. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/6/2020 (598 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Five inmates at the Agassiz Youth Centre briefly escaped Friday, after hitting a guard with a shovel and digging out under the perimeter fence. Corrections officers at the Portage la Prairie correctional facility alerted the RCMP to the jail break attempt around 6:30 p.m. According to the Manitoba Government and General Employees Union which represents officers in the provincial corrections system one of the inmates struck a guard on the head with a shovel while working outdoors on a plot of land at the facility. The inmate then used the shovel to clear enough dirt from under the perimeter fence to make his escape and was followed out by four others. A sixth young offender attempted to flee but was caught inside the fence by corrections officers after the injured guard called for help, police said Monday. The other five fled on foot into an open field. Manitoba RCMP said the surrounding area was immediately contained by police. The Mounties used an aerial drone and the canine unit to track down the five youth, who were arrested within 90 minutes. The guard was taken to hospital, assessed and has since been released, the MGEU said. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. MGEU president Michelle Gawronsky said the union is hearing from corrections officers who have noted an increase in violent behaviour within facilities. "This was a concerning incident that underlines the dangers and challenges of working in a jail, even in a youth facility," Gawronsky said. "We know several of the inmates had been convicted of serious offences, including one who was in on a murder charge. "This is the kind of ever-present danger these officers see each day keeping Manitobans safe." Two of the inmates were sent to the Manitoba Youth Centre in Winnipeg, while two returned to Agassiz, the MGEU stated. Another was sent to the Winnipeg Remand Centre to be processed as an adult. A spokesman for the provincial government said more information would be shared Tuesday. RCMP have laid charges of escape lawful custody and prison breach against five male youths between the ages of 15 and 18. The Portage la Prairie RCMP detachment continues to investigate. Our experiential platform was built for Lex Mundis global delivery model giving member firms the ability to equalize associate training across geographies in an accelerated, cost-effective model. Experiential legal learning platform, AltaClaro, and Lex Mundi, the world's leading network of independent law firms, today announced plans to roll out AltaClaros Virtual Training Bootcamps and Master Classes to Lex Mundi network members worldwide. Were excited about how this new offering supports the development of our associates and rising stars across the network and fosters strong working relationships between firms, says Suzanne Fine, Vice President of Professional Development, Lex Mundi. With access to more than 21,000 attorneys worldwide, our network represents the largest global footprint in legal service solutions. Were able to deliver high quality and consistency among our member law firms because we have always been committed to providing innovative tools and technologies to our network. The decision follows a successful pilot conducted in February for invited associates across seven firms in seven countries. Participants rated the program with a Net Promoter Score of 47 (on par with the most beloved brands in the world like Apple and Amazon), and 84% of participants found the program to be indispensable. All firms participating in the pilot reported that the program provided interactive, top-tier instructional material and live facilitation that accelerated the participants understanding of the subject matter and gave them the practical skills they need to succeed as lawyers. Quality is the foundation of everything we do at Lex Mundi. Providing our members with the highest quality of training in business and legal skills is a crucial element in how we support our member firms and clients in delivering consistently high quality in every location, says Helena Samaha, President & CEO of Lex Mundi. We have always looked for more effective and efficient ways to deliver that training and in fact our discussions to partner with AltaClaro predate the COVID19 crisis. As such it is a great example of how Lex Mundi's approach to innovation, and the application of technology, has equipped us to provide our member firms and clients with the service and support they expect and deserve through the worst of the crisis. AltaClaros experiential training provides personal legal learning at scale, accelerating learning by combining realistic simulated work product with personalized feedback. This unique experiential framework leverages the latest technology and education science, improving competency and retention by 80% over typical online courses. The new offering builds on Lex Mundis long-standing commitment to cultivating professional development among network members and will become a cornerstone member benefit for the network. Lex Mundi is the first legal network to offer this type of interactive online legal training, affording its member firms the opportunity to reduce training costs and maximize efficiency: with AltaClaros tech-driven and interactive solution, the firms are able to expand training opportunities while leveraging AltaClaros leading subject matter experts, allowing partners to focus on client work. Through this enterprise-level agreement, Lex Mundi member firms will receive preferential rates for AltaClaros Virtual Bootcamps and Master Classes. Were thrilled to expand our relationship with an innovator like Lex Mundi, says Abdi Shayesteh, CEO, AltaClaro. Our experiential platform was built for Lex Mundis global delivery model giving member firms the ability to equalize associate training across geographies in an accelerated, cost-effective model. ### About AltaClaro, Inc. AltaClaro, the leader in innovative experiential learning solutions for law and business, is located in New York, NY and San Francisco, CA. The companys unique educational platform leverages personalization, assessment tools, and contextual delivery of learning modules (short videos, interactive assessments, mock transactions, and online feedback sessions with experts) to help professionals gain the vital practical skills they need to become practice-ready. For more information, please visit http://www.altaclaro.com. About Lex Mundi Lex Mundi is the worlds leading network of independent law firms delivering consistent, high-quality advice that is critical to solving complex cross-border challenges. Our carefully vetted, and continuously reviewed, top-tier member firms uphold the highest-level service standards while offering preferred access to more than 22,000+ lawyers worldwide in more than 125 jurisdictions. Supported by client-focused methods, innovative technologies, joint learning and training, member firms collaborate across borders and industries to deliver joined-up solutions focused on real business results for clients. Through our innovative service delivery model, clients have the ability to assemble an ideal international legal team, with the best lawyers in the jurisdictions that match their unique footprint, flexed to their most significant legal challenges. Lex Mundi member law firms are located throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean and North America. Through our nonprofit affiliate, the Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation, our members also provide pro bono legal assistance to social entrepreneurs around the globe. For more information, please visit http://www.lexmundi.com and http://www.lexmundiprobono.org. Police divers have searched two sunken boats and found no bodies inside, after arsonists attacked a Gold Coast marina on Tuesday night, engulfing five vessels in flames. Emergency services were called to the Hope Harbour Marina about 11.15pm after reports that vessels were engulfed in flames. Police say nobody was injured in the incident. Credit:Nine News Witnesses told police they saw two men throwing an accelerant, believed to be petrol, on one boat and the flames spread from there. Detective Inspector Chris Ahearn said the damage caused to the vessels and the marina was believed to be in excess of $1 million. A coroner has revealed that an overdose of cocaine killed Twilight actor Boyce Gregory and his Nigerian girlfriend, Natalie Adepoju. The 30-year-old actor was found dead at his Las Vegas home alongside his girlfriend Natalie Adepoju on May 13. They were reportedly found by the actors cousin, who was also staying in the home at the time. After arriving at the scene, officers are said to have found a white powdery substance inside the room. READ ALSO The Flash Actor, Logan Williams Dies At 16 Advertisement According to Clark County coroner, John Fudenberg, the duo died from an accidental overdose of cocaine and fentanyl intoxication. Gregory was best known for his role as Tyler Crowley in the Twilight series, one of Bella Swans (Kristen Stewart) high school pals. A Bergen County man faces several charges after police say he crashed his SUV into a tree at a country club, seriously injuring his passenger. Police were called about 8 p.m. Sunday to the Indian Trail Club in Franklin Lakes for the crash and found an SUV damaged from a crash into a tree, authorities said. The driver, George Hill, 47, of Ridgewood, was standing outside the SUV and appeared unhurt. Hills front-seat passenger, a 40-year-old woman from Ridgewood, was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center with serious injuries, according to Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella. The woman remained at the hospital on Monday in stable condition, Musella said. Hill was charged with third-degree assault by auto, driving while intoxicated and reckless driving. He was released pending a July 3 court hearing. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here. Appointment 2 June 2020 Today, Pan Pacific London announced the appointment of Cherish Finden as Executive Pastry Chef. This boundary-breaking pastry chef, born in Singapore, has over 30 years of international experience and will be responsible for creating the hotel's entire pastry collection. She takes the role following a stint as Creative Development Chef at an internationally renowned luxurious chocolatier. Famed for re-defining the art of patisserie, Cherish, currently appearing as a judge on Channel 4's Bake Off: The Professionals, is recognised as one of the top pastry chefs in the world and will be creating an innovative, imaginative and irresistible menu. In addition, guests can look forward to a 'slice of Singapore' on the afternoon tea menu along with traditional favourites, making the offering decadent and intriguing. The appointment sees Cherish's return to Pan Pacific, with her first professional position being at Pan Pacific Singapore in 1991. In a career that has lasted over thirty years, Cherish can boast heading the pastry offering at some of the world's most exclusive hotels, including Raffles Hotel Singapore, The Sheraton Tower Singapore, and The Langham London. Her career has also seen her appear on numerous television shows including as a judge for Channel 4's Bake Off - The Professionals, MasterChef and James Martin Saturday Kitchen. Cherish was recently honoured to be chosen to present the Gold Standard of The Duke of Edinburgh Awards at Buckingham Palace. She has also been a judge for the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts Annual Awards of Excellence and the Association of Pastry Chefs. In 2015 she was awarded The Macallan Lifetime Achievement Award at the World Gourmet Summit. MISSISSAUGA, ON, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - To improve access for US veterans and active duty military to the latest innovative technology, MyndTec, an award-winning Canadian medical technology company announced today their partnership with Maness Veteran Medical (MVM), a proud Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), to distribute the MyndMove Device to the US Department of Defense (DoD) and Veterans Affairs (VA). MyndMove therapy is a revolutionary advancement approved in the US for use in the treatment of arm and hand paralysis caused by stroke or spinal cord injury (SCI). Nearly 5.4 million Americans live with paralysis, with stroke being the leading cause at 33.7% followed by SCI at 27.3%. The loss of independence as a result of paralysis is accompanied by the need for long term assistive care and subsequently, significant increases in healthcare costs. With the number continuing to grow each year, MyndTec is focused on enhancing treatment strategies with the use of MyndMove therapy to regain voluntary movement leading to greater independence. MVM's CEO, Johnathan Maness states, "MVM is focused on supplying the United States' VA and DoD hospitals with impeccable products and stellar customer service. It is imperative US veterans and active duty military personnel alike have access to the latest in innovative technologies like MyndMove therapy to exponentially improve their quality of life." The effectiveness of MyndMove therapy on the improvement of the arm and hand function of stroke and SCI patients has been studied in numerous randomized clinical trials. MyndTec is currently conducting a multi-center study in SCI patients funded by the US Department of Defense. "We are excited to partner with Maness Veterans Medical in our efforts to expand access to this life-changing therapy to more patients in the US including its service persons and veterans living with upper extremity paralysis," said MyndTec CEO Steven Plymale. About MyndTec MyndTec Inc. is a privately held medical technology company located in Mississauga, Ontario, that develops and commercializes innovative therapeutic medical devices designed to improve function, maximize independence, and enhance quality of life. MyndTec's product MyndMove is a non-invasive functional electrical stimulation (FES) based intervention. MyndMove uses the phenomenon of neuroplasticity to stimulate development of new neural pathways allowing patients to re-establish voluntary movement. MyndMove therapy uses proprietary stimulation technology to assist those with paralysis following a stroke or spinal cord injury to regain control of their arms and hands. For more information on MyndTec, MyndMove and authorized indications, please visit http://www.myndtec.com. About Maness Veteran Medical Owned and operated by CEO, disabled Navy veteran and amputee Johnathan Maness, SDVOSB, Maness Veteran Medical offers the highest quality products in the medical and pharmaceutical fields. Through the creation of valuable partnerships, MVM is focused on supplying the United States' VA and DoD hospitals with impeccable products and stellar customer service. SOURCE MyndTec Inc. Related Links http://www.myndtec.com/ One Day Is Not Enough: How To Educate Yourself, Show Solidarity Beyond #BlackOutTuesday One day is not enough. Black Out Tuesday was billed as a day of support, solidarity and reflection. That is a beginning, but how can we each do more? Atlantic Records exec Jamila Thomas and Platoons Brianna Agyemang who were the first to call for Black Out Tuesday and use the #THESHOWMUSTBEPAUSED hashtag offer these suggestions: Help the family of George Floyd HERE. Fight for Breonna Taylor HERE. Help the family of Ahmaud Arbery HERE. Visit Movement For Black Lives for additional ways you can help the cause. Want to connect with leaders building grassroots campaigns? Click HERE. Are you an ally and want to learn more? Here are some anti-racism resources. Educate Yourself And Others The pair also offered an extensive group of anti-racism resources for white people. Here is a partial list: Articles to read: Videos to watch: Podcasts to subscribe to: Books to read: More here. Share on: New York City's most senior uniformed officer has said he does not believe racism taints the view of the NYPD, as he called for a halt to the throwing of projectiles at police and condemned the wave of looting. Terence Monahan, who knelt with protesters in Washington Square Park on Monday night, said it was not right that all police be condemned for the actions of Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis. 'What happened in Minnesota was an outrage, completely and totally, he told CBS This Morning. 'But 800,000 law enforcement officers around this country are paying the price for what that guy did in Minnesota.' Chauvin killed George Floyd on May 25 by kneeling on Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes during arrest. Chauvin has been charged with murder, but protests at his actions have now spread to 140 cities across the U.S. Looting and clashes marred another day of peaceful demonstrations in New York City yesterday, as many ignored a new curfew.@tonydokoupil tagged along with @NYPDChiefofDept Terence Monahan and spoke to him about how his officers have been responding to the protests so far. pic.twitter.com/OwNrOsmEXt CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) June 2, 2020 Terence Monahan, the most senior uniformed police officer in New York, has said he does not believe the NYPD is racist and urged the protesters not to resort to violence and looting. Monahan on Monday attended a rally in Washington Square where he knelt beside protesters Monahan and protesters showed their solidarity in Washington Square on Monday Monahan, a 35-year veteran of the NYPD who now oversees roughly 40,000 uniformed and civilian members of the service, denied that his force was racist. 'I don't believe racism plays a role in New York,' he said. 'I can only speak for what I've seen in New York City. 'I would never say that we are a racist police department. Absolutely not. 'Have incidents happened? Maybe there was a racist incident, something, and that person has been removed from this agency? Absolutely. 'We all care about the communities we work in. We care deeply in the minority communities, the cops that work there, each and every day.' The looters targeted stores all over Manhattan, ransacking several retailers in each location, before police arrived. These are just some of the known locations they targeted Monahan said he understands the protesters anger, but will not allow his officers to be hurt Monahan said officers in his department frequently face repercussions for inappropriate actions. He said over 100 officers are fired in New York City every year. He said he understood the protesters' anger. Macy's in New York City was looted on Monday night after protests turned violent 'Protest, yell, scream, let your rage out, but don't take your rage out on the community, destroy the businesses that actually employ members of this community,' he said. Monahan defended the NYPD's actions while repressing protests that got out of hand. In one clip circulating on social media a police patrol car drove into protesters. An African American reporter for the Wall Street Journal, wearing his press pass, was also slammed to the floor by riot police. The attorney general has promised to investigate. Monahan said people could not jump to conclusions. 'You have to look at the entire incident,' he said. 'You have to look at the rocks being thrown, the injuries to my officers, what happened before, what precipitated that event. 'Knowing that we had a commanding officer trapped in his car - his last transmission was, "This may be my last transmission" - dragged out of that car. 'This is what's going through a cop's mind as he gets surrounded.' Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York, initially sprang to the defense of the police. However, by Sunday his views had changed, and he spoke of his anger at seeing the video of the patrol car mowing down people. A protester is arrested by police officers for breaking curfew on Eight Avenue in New York City last night Looters ransacked Manhattan's designer stores overnight as New York City's 11pm curfew failed to stop people smashing windows and running off with hundreds of dollars of merchandise. Pictured: Looters raid a Balenciaga store in Manhattan last night Early next week local politicians in New York plan to hear a measure that would expand a prohibition against the use of chokeholds by outlawing them altogether. It would additionally bar police officers from placing a knee on the neck of a person being arrested, according to Council Member Donovan Richards, who chairs the Committee on Public Safety. Richards is also sponsoring a bill that would standardize disciplinary actions in the department. 'I think [the administration] honestly thought people were going to stay home after the first night,' of protests, Richards said. 'I think they thought people were going to stay home after the second night. I think they thought people were going to stay home after the third night. 'But guess what? The city is shut down and we are going to go out and march every single night.' A shop owner looks over damage in a looted souvenir and electronics shop near Times Square on Tuesday morning, after violence in midtown Manhattan on the sixth night of protest The Puma store on Fifth Avenue was being boarded up on Tuesday morning An AT&T store on Tuesday morning after being ransacked by looters Cartier and Versace had all been entirely boarded up on Tuesday morning. Stores further down Fifth Avenue were ransacked Microsoft's Edge last month posted its first ever double-digit browser share, while Google's Chrome slid for the third month straight. Mozilla's Firefox once again held steady, keeping its head above water. According to data published Sunday by California-based metrics company Net Applications, Edge's October share climbed by 1.4 percentage points, ending the month at 10.2%, the first time Microsoft's browser broke through that psychologically important barrier. The gain was the largest ever for Edge in a single month, almost double that of the previous record set in December 2019. The increase was so large that it immediately raised suspicions that it was a miscount by Net Applications rather than a reflection of reality. Bolstering that was an even greater boost to the share of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE), the obsolete browser the Redmond, Wash. company has started to strip of some of its support. IE's share for October 5.6% was 1.7 points higher than the month prior, a jump so out of character as to be unbelievable. Edge's gain was understandable, at least. Microsoft relaunched that 2015 browser earlier this year when it recast Edge with the Google-dominated Chromium technology, the same that powers Chrome. Not only did Microsoft make Edge a Chrome copy, but it also expanded support to versions of Windows other than 10, as well as macOS and, more recently, Linux. Since January, Edge has slowly been adding share; 3.2 points since the Chromium-based Edge went final in the Stable channel. In the past 12 months, Edge has gained 4.1 percentage points, for an average of a third of a point per month. At that pace, Edge should sit at almost 11% by year's end and at 15% by December 2021. Of course, that assumes Edge can maintain growth, which in turn requires one or more rivals continues to give up share. The most likely loser? Chrome, mostly because of its titanic share but also because Edge is, well, Chrome wearing a different outfit. Microsoft's launch of Windows 10 20H2 the H2 signifying the year's second feature upgrade last month may assist Edge as it continues to climb: 20H2 includes Chromium Edge. That should accelerate the replacement of original Edge, the version introduced in mid-2015 that ran only on Windows 10, with the sounder Chromium browser. Chrome down for third consecutive month Chrome dumped seven-tenths of a percentage point in October, falling back to 69.3%. The decline was the third in as many months, an unusual run that's occurred only four times in the browser's 15 years. (The last time it happened before this was in September-December 2019.) Whenever Chrome suffers losses in two or more straight months, it's tempting to wonder whether the browser has peaked. Computerworld has tentatively pegged more than a couple such milestones before but been proven wrong each time. The browser could easily bounce back as it has before. Computerworld's latest forecast as always, based on Chrome's 12-month average stayed with growth, albeit pared significantly from 30 days ago. Chrome should return to 70% by March 2021 and reach 71% by September 2022. (The latter was three months later than last month's forecast, showing how present declines quickly impact future gains.) Edge remains Chrome's most dangerous competitor, primarily and this is Google's own doing to some degree because the former is the latter, what with both relying on Chromium. But Microsoft has cards to play here that Google cannot match; Microsoft will leverage its enterprise management reputation and expertise in an attempt to wean commercial customers from Google's browser. Microsoft's strategy, then, would be the opposite of Google's. The latter pushed Chrome to consumers until its share reached tipping point, and employees demanded the right to run the same browser they'd become familiar with at home. Microsoft would instead hope to win over business users in the expectation that they might want to run the same browser on home PCs, tablets or even phones. Firefox: Not dead yet! Firefox didn't move its share needle last month; it stayed at the same 7.2% mark it earned in September. That meant Firefox didn't gain any ground. It also meant it didn't lose any, probably its most important goal for now and the foreseeable future. Mozilla's browser also stuck to the bad news forecast of last month, although Computerworld's current prediction puts it under 6% in August 2021, two months later than last month's estimate. At its 12-month rate of decline, Firefox will dip below 5% in May 2022. Elsewhere in Net Applications' numbers, Apple's Safari slumped by two-tenths of a percentage point in October, sliding to 3.4%. Opera Software's Opera fell by a slightly-larger three-tenths of a point to end the month at an all-time low of seven-tenths of a point. Net Applications calculates share by detecting the agent strings of the browsers used to reach the websites of Net Applications' clients. The company counts visitor sessions to measure browser activity. Or it used to. At the same time it published October's share numbers, Net Applications announced that it's pulling the plug on the data source. "October 2020 is the last month of data," the firm said. "Why? An upcoming change in browsers will break our device detection technology and will cause inaccuracies for a long period of time." The change Net Applications cited would remove much of the agent string information used not only to compile analytics such as browser and operating system share, but also by advertisers and/or scammers to "fingerprint" individuals so that they can be more thoroughly tracked as they conduct their online lives. Computerworld has not yet decided whether to continue the "Top web browsers" series, and if so, which alternate data source might be used. Stay tuned. UM School of Medicine's Institute of Human Virology awarded grants for COVID-19 The Center for International Health, Education and Biosecurity (Ciheb) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine's Institute of Human Virology was awarded $4 million from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to support coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) response activities in Botswana, Nigeria, Malawi, and Mozambique. "Low-resource regions in Africa are vulnerable to the impact of COVID-19, and Ciheb is engaged and well-positioned to build upon our partnerships with ministries of health in each country to further the understanding of the pandemic, while strengthening their capacity to monitor and control the spread of the disease," said Man E. Charurat, PhD, MHS, professor of medicine, Ciheb global director and director, Division of Epidemiology and Prevention, Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland School of Medicine. In Nigeria, the award of $2.1 million will support a population-based epidemiological study to estimate COVID-19 prevalence in communities, household transmission, the proportion of subclinical infections, and risk factors for infection, using methods similar to the WHO Unity Studies to ensure comparability across countries. The study will be led by principal investigator, Kristen Stafford, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of epidemiology and public health and Ciheb Associate Director, Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland School of Medicine. Data generated from this study will characterize the spectrum of disease resulting from COVID-19 and provide critical information on the clinical course and outcomes of COVID-19. This information will be vital to inform local response efforts, including the development of strategies to target potential prevention and control interventions to high risk groups, develop clinical treatment guidelines to mitigate the effects of COVID-19, and strengthen the health system to respond to the pandemic. In addition, technical assistance will be provided to enhance and strengthen disease surveillance and improve laboratory diagnostics. In Botswana, under the leadership of country director Ndwapi, Ndwapi, MD, the award of $810,000 will support the development of an influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) surveillance systems for the Botswana Ministry of Health and Wellness to capture community circulation and transmission of SARS-CoV-2. This will include establishing sentinel surveillance sites to more rapidly detect SARS-CoV-2. Other measures that will be supported include the development of a web-based surveillance data entry platform to enable real-time situational awareness, the implementation of a standardized approach to data collection and reporting for comparability across sites in Botswana and facilitating timely sharing of surveillance data between human and animal sectors to inform evidence-based planning. The funding will also support measures to facilitate social distancing and decongestion at healthcare facilities by constructing temporary consultation areas and the procurement of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers. In Malawi, the award of $795,000 will enhance the Malawi Ministry of Health's laboratory capacity in five primary areas: training, quality control, supplies, services, and waste management. This initiative is led by Alash'le Abimiku, PhD, professor of medicine, Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland School of Medicine and the executive director of the International Research Center of Excellence at the Institute of Human Virology-Nigeria. Interventions will include bench-level technical assistance and training at 10 molecular labs located across the nation to ensure technicians are skilled in implementing diagnostics for COVID-19, using both the Daan Gene Assay and the CDC COVID-19 protocol. Laboratory quality assurance will also be improved with a focus on specimen collection management and tracking, data collection and management, proficiency testing, and external quality assurance. In Mozambique, the award of $380,000 will ensure maintenance for ABI 7500 and ABI 7900 PCR instruments installed at the National Institute of Health in Maputo Province. These instruments are used for COVID-19 diagnosis and regular maintenance is necessary to ensure accurate diagnoses. The award, also led by Alash'le Abimiku, PhD, will also provide GeneXpert operations training, support the installation of the COVID-19 software and instrument hardware, and ensure DISA-Lab operational connectivity on GeneXpert instruments at 11 locations across the nation. The award will also fund the procurement of SARS- CoV-2 diagnostic test-kits. Additionally, Ciheb is leading cross-cutting COVID-19 response efforts in each of the eight countries in which it works. Ciheb teams are developing clinical guidelines, improving patient triage, developing and implementing clinic safety protocols, and procuring needed personal protective equipment. "The global threat of this pandemic requires that we work cooperatively with other nations on developing and implementing targeted response actions," said Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, who is also Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, UM Baltimore, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor, University of Maryland School of Medicine. "The School of Medicine, through Ciheb and the Institute of Human Virology, is proud to contribute its expertise to the ongoing work on the African continent supported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." ### About Ciheb Ciheb is a leading international education, development and research center within the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Ciheb was founded in 2016 by the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Ciheb's mission is to conduct research, provide training, and implement evidence-based interventions at the patient, community, and population levels for sustainable positive impact. Ciheb's global teams work to expand health service capacity and quality of service in developing nations confronting epidemic diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, and also develop strategies for early detection and rapid response to biological threats as part of the U.S. Global Health Security Agenda. For more information, see Ciheb.org. About the Institute of Human Virology Formed in 1996 as a partnership between the State of Maryland, the City of Baltimore, the University System of Maryland and the University of Maryland Medical System, IHV is an institute of the University of Maryland School of Medicine and is home to some of the most globally-recognized and world-renowned experts in all of virology. The IHV combines the disciplines of basic research, epidemiology and clinical research in a concerted effort to speed the discovery of diagnostics and therapeutics for a wide variety of chronic and deadly viral and immune disorders - most notably, HIV the virus that causes AIDS. For more information, see http://www. ihv. org . This story has been published on: 2020-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Actively investing in the health of employees will also go a long way toward fostering good will and a safe work environment. For the past 10 years, Dr. Barlow has acted as a trained facilitator for Emotional Emancipation Circles, or E.E.C.s, which sprang from a partnership between the Association of Black Psychologists and the Community Healing Network. These support groups, which deal head-on with racial trauma, are hosted in close to 50 cities across the United States, and an employer can facilitate an in-house group or encourage workers to join one. Many companies already have some version of employee resource groups in place; for those networks dedicated to addressing black workers needs, its imperative that they feel as though they have enough support from management during this time. Since Trayvon Martin was killed in 2012, the deaths of black people at the hands of law enforcement or white vigilantism (and the drawn-out cases that result from them) have consistently dominated news cycles, often graphically so. Cellphones, Facebook Live and even Snapchat have been crucial in uncovering how these events occurred. These photos and videos jolt America awake, and they start a necessary dialogue about police brutality and race relations. It took more than two months for the men involved in Ahmaud Arberys death while jogging in a Georgia neighborhood to be arrested and charged the online leak of a video showing Mr. Arberys final moments was the likely catalyst for the arrests. The death of George Floyd has been shown on every news station and can easily be found with a quick Twitter or Google search. However, these images are also costly. In a study published in 2018, after participants had been exposed to police killings of black Americans including through word of mouth and media stories they were asked how many days out of the previous 30 days was their mental health not good. The average response was 14 days. The study also found that police killings of black Americans account for an estimated 55 million additional days of poor mental health for black Americans per year, almost matching the number of poor mental health days brought on by diabetes. We are halfway through the year, and black people, as always, are braced for more footage showing our men, women and children being harmed or threatened, often by those with the job of protecting us. Yet we continue to show up to perform our jobs, many of us working on the front lines and putting our physical health at risk in the midst of a pandemic. An empathetic work environment can make a lasting impact and ease an unnecessary source of stress. We must remain vigilant in our pursuit of a more just society. But until justice swings in our direction, we have to protect our mental and physical health against the effects of racism. Our survival depends on it. Pune, June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global semiconductor market is projected to reach USD 730.29 billion by 2026, exhibiting a CAGR of 5.2% during the forecast period. The increasing utilization and consumption of consumer electronic devices will fuel demand for semiconductors during the forecast period. Furthermore, the rising demand for advanced semiconductor chips in the industrial application will contribute positively to the semiconductor market growth in the forthcoming years. In addition, the penetration of smartphones will fuel demand for semiconductors, which in turn will boost the semiconductor market revenue. Get Sample PDF Brochure: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/semiconductor-market-102365 The emergence of COVID-19 has brought the world to a standstill. We understand that this health crisis has brought an unprecedented impact on businesses across industries. However, this too shall pass. Rising support from governments and several companies can help in the fight against this highly contagious disease. There are some industries that are struggling and some are thriving. Overall, almost every sector is anticipated to be impacted by the pandemic. We are taking continuous efforts to help your business sustain and grow during COVID-19 pandemics. Based on our experience and expertise, we will offer you an impact analysis of coronavirus outbreak across industries to help you prepare for the future. Click here to get the short-term and long-term impact of COVID-19 on this market. Please visit: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/semiconductor-market-102365 According to the report, published by Fortune Business Insights, titled Semiconductor Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Components (Memory Devices, Logic Devices, Analog IC, MPU, Discrete Power Devices, MCU, Sensors and Others), By Application (Networking & Communications, Data Processing, Industrial, Consumer Electronics, Automotive, Government and Others) and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 the market size stood at USD 488.07 billion in 2018. The report is aimed at delivering a comprehensive view of the semiconductor market dynamics and structure by identifying and providing information regarding the key market segments. It also focuses on an all-encompassing analysis of leading market players by financial position, product, product portfolio, price, growth strategies, and regional presence. It offers PORTERs analysis and SWOT analysis to record the question of shareholders and highlights the investment potential in the upcoming future. It also showcases different procedures and strategies of companies currently operating in the semiconductor market. It further examines the components, convincing market expansion, growth patterns, restricting factors, and market strategies. Rising Application of Semiconductors in Automotive to Stimulate Market The automotive segment is expected to hold the lions share during the forecast period. The growth of the segment is attributed to the penetration of electric and hybrid cars. The rising demand for semiconductors for the production of conventional cars will also boost the semiconductor market share in the forthcoming years. Furthermore, the industrial application segment is likely to account for maximum share in the market owing to the increasing implementation of Industry 4.0, IoT, artificial intelligence and big data. The implementation of these technologies will improve the manufacturing process and therefore create lucrative business opportunities for the market in the foreseeable future. Moreover, the surge in the use of smartphones and the introduction of 5G technology will have a positive impact on the semiconductor market trends during the forecast period. Speak to Analyst: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/speak-to-analyst/semiconductor-market-102365 Growing Adoption of Electronics to Enable Speedy Growth in Aisa Pacific Asia Pacific generated a revenue of USD 264.14 billion in 2018 and is expected to grow rapidly during the forecast period owing to the growing consumption and adoption of electronic devices. Moreover, the increasing use of IoT and LTE is expected to create new opportunities for the market in Asia Pacific in the forthcoming years. North America is predicted to witness high demand for semiconductors during the forecast period. The growth in the region is attributed to increasing R&D investments in the semiconductor. According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, the U.S. semiconductor industry expenditures in R&D increased at a compound annual growth rate of about 7.3 percent from 1998 to 2018. Moreover, Europe is predicted to grow substantially during the forecast period owing to the increasing application of semiconductors in telecom & network, as well as the automotive industry. The growing investment by key players in the innovation and advancement of semiconductors to cater to the increasing demand from various industries will aid the expansion of the semiconductor market in Europe. In addition, the rising utilization of electronic goods across various countries such as the UK, France, and Germany will also support the growth of the market in Europe. List of the Major Companies Operating in the Semiconductor Market Include: Broadcom, Inc. Intel Corporation Qualcomm Samsung Electronics SK Hynix Taiwan Semiconductors Texas Instruments Toshiba Corporation Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. Micron Technology Quick Buy Semiconductor Market Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/checkout-page/102365 Detailed Table of Content Introduction Definition, By Segment Research Approach Sources Executive Summary Market Dynamics Drivers, Restraints and Opportunities Emerging Trends Key Insights Macro and Micro Economic Indicators Consolidated SWOT Analysis of Key Players Porters Five Forces Analysis Global Semiconductor Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2015-2026 Key Findings / Summary Market Sizing Estimations and Forecasts By Component (Value) Memory Devices Logic Devices Analog IC MPU Discrete Power Devices MCU Sensors Others (DSP, etc.) Market Sizing Estimations and Forecasts By Application (Value) Networking & Communications Data Processing Industrial Consumer Electronics Automotive Government Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast By Region (Value) North America Europe Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa Latin America TOC Continued..!!! Get your Customized Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/customization/semiconductor-market-102365 Have a Look at Related Research Insights: Industrial Gas Sensors Market Size, Share and Industry Analysis By Product Type (Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, NOx, Others), By Technology (Electrochemical, Semiconductor, Infrared, Others), By End-User Industry (Healthcare, Building Automation & Domestic Appliances, Automotive, Others) And Regional Forecast 2019-2026 Gantry Industrial Robots Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Type (1-Axis, 2-Axis, 3-Axis, 4-Axis, & Others), By Application (Handling, Palletizing, Welding & Others), By Industry (Packaging, Automotive, Pharmaceuticals, Food & Beverage, Semiconductors & Electronics, Heavy Engineering Machinery, Aerospace & Railway, & Others), and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Equipment Type (Front-end Equipment, Back-end Equipment), By Dimension (2D, 2.5D, 3D), By Application (Semiconductor Fabrication Plant/Foundry, Semiconductor Electronics Manufacturing, Test Home) and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 About Us: Fortune Business Insights offers expert corporate analysis and accurate data, helping organizations of all sizes make timely decisions. We tailor innovative solutions for our clients, assisting them address challenges distinct to their businesses. Our goal is to empower our clients with holistic market intelligence, giving a granular overview of the market they are operating in. Our reports contain a unique mix of tangible insights and qualitative analysis to help companies achieve sustainable growth. Our team of experienced analysts and consultants use industry-leading research tools and techniques to compile comprehensive market studies, interspersed with relevant data. At Fortune Business Insights, we aim at highlighting the most lucrative growth opportunities for our clients. We therefore offer recommendations, making it easier for them to navigate through technological and market-related changes. Our consulting services are designed to help organizations identify hidden opportunities and understand prevailing competitive challenges. Share price of Strides Pharma rallied 5.4% intraday on June 2 after the firm received approval from the US health regulator for Triamcinolone Acetonide Ointment. The product will be manufactured at the company's flagship facility at Bangalore and will be marketed by Strides Pharma in the US market, the press release added. Following the update, Strides Pharma Science stock touched an intraday high of Rs 421, rising 5.36% against the last closing value of Rs 399.60 on BSE. Stock price of Strides Pharma has gained 3.85% in the last 3 days. Strides Pharma stock has risen 3.85% in the last 3 days of straight gains. The stock has risen 0.23% in one week and 13.54% since the beginning of the year. The stock trades higher than 5, 50, 100 and 200-day but lower than 20-day moving averages. As per the filing, the product is part of the niche and small volume product portfolio with limited competition in the US market. According to IQVIA MAT data, the US market for Triamcinolone Acetonide Ointment is approximately $15 million. The company has 124 cumulative ANDA filings with USFDA of which 86 ANDAs have been approved and 38 are pending approval, it added. Shares of Stride Pharma closed 2.50% or 10 points higher at Rs 409.60 on Tuesday. Banking stocks lead rally in early trade; Kotak Bank, IndusInd Bank top gainers Stocks in news: Yes Bank, Eicher Motors, Tata Power, TVS Motor, Hero MotoCorp, RIL, Ashok Leyland and more Kotak Mahindra Bank stock rises 8% as Uday Kotak to sell 2.8% stake Share Market LIVE: Sensex gains 300 points, Nifty at 9,915; M&M, Tata Motors, Kotak Bank top gainers Hong Kong's leader accused the United States on Tuesday of applying "double standards" in its response to violent protests as she warned Washington's plan to place trade restrictions on the financial hub would "only hurt themselves". Semi-autonomous Hong Kong has been rocked by months of huge and often violent pro-democracy protests over the past year, which riot police have stamped out with more than 9,000 arrests. Washington has been critical of Hong Kong's response to the demonstrations with US President Donald Trump last week vowing to end the city's special trading status after Beijing announced plans to impose a sweeping national security law on the business hub. On Tuesday, Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam said such a move would be self-defeating as she took aim at the Trump administration for its own response to violent racial justice protests sweeping the United States. "We have seen most clearly in recent weeks the double standards that are around," Lam, who was selected as city leader by a pro-Beijing committee, told reporters. "You know there are riots in the United States and we see how local governments reacted. And then in Hong Kong, when we had similar riots, we saw what position they adopted then." Both Chinese and Hong Kong officials have seized on the unrest gripping the US in their propaganda drive to justify their own crackdown on pro-democracy protests and the national security law plans. Last week, China's rubber-stamp parliament approved the plans for a law that would punish secession, subversion of state power, terrorism and acts that endanger national security -- as well as allow Chinese security agencies to operate openly in the city. Beijing says the anti-subversion law -- which will bypass Hong Kong's legislature -- is needed to tackle "terrorism" and "separatism". Opponents fear it will bring mainland-style political oppression to a business hub supposedly guaranteed freedoms and autonomy for 50 years after its 1997 handover from Britain to China. Lam's office said she and key security officials will make a one day visit to Beijing on Wednesday to discuss the legislation with central authorities. - Trade targeted - At Tuesday's weekly press conference, Lam said Hong Kong had spent 23 years failing to enact its own national security laws in the legislature, prompting Beijing to take the initiative. "There is simply no justification whatsoever for any government, any economy, to impose sanctions on Hong Kong as a result of a very legitimate process of the central government, the central authorities, taking this decision to enact laws for Hong Kong to better protect national security," she said. "They will be hurting their own interests in Hong Kong," she added, referencing US threats to restrict trade privileges. Lam said some 1,300 American businesses have a presence in the financial hub, which generates the largest trade surplus for the US compared to any other country or territory, she added. She also said Hong Kong allows Americans to enter without a visa, a privilege that is not reciprocated. Lam did not elaborate on whether visa-free travel could be rescinded in response to any trade sanctions but Chinese officials have vowed to implement "counter measures" to any move by the US. Under a 1992 law, the US treats Hong Kong as a separate trade entity to the more restricted and authoritarian Chinese mainland as long as the city retains key freedoms and autonomy. Last month the State Department announced the territory was no longer sufficiently autonomous to justify that special status. Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam accused the United States of 'double standards' in its response to violent protests Libbey Inc., the U.S. glassware maker, filed for bankruptcy after the covid-19 pandemic intensified a burdensome debt load and strained its access to cash. The company filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors in Delaware after the virus and related state-imposed lockdowns gutted demand for its tumblers, mugs and bowls among key food-service customers like restaurants and bars. Libbey had been reviewing its debt pile before the outbreak and had already tried and failed to refinance its term loans, according to court papers. Libbey listed assets of as much as $500 million and liabilities of at least that amount in its bankruptcy petition. The company reported about $400 million of long-term debt in its annual report released in February. Its international business entities aren't included in the Chapter 11 filing. Libbey is negotiating with its lenders and plans to quickly cut a deal to shed debt, court papers show. The company has commitments for some $160 million of bankruptcy financing, the terms of which call for court approval of a Chapter 11 exit strategy in about 100 days. Publicly traded Libbey traces its roots to the New England Glass Company, founded in 1818 in East Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company moved to Toledo in 1888. It operates two glass manufacturing plants in the U.S. and several overseas. Libbey has more than 5,500 employees around the world. It temporarily cut worker salaries by as much as 25% during the pandemic and laid off almost all of its hourly U.S. workforce in March. Its board of directors voted to pay some $2.35 million in retention bonuses to management prior to the bankruptcy filing. "While we entered 2020 with positive momentum from our strong finish in 2019, the dramatic and prolonged impact of covid-19 on the demand for our products and on our business is truly unprecedented," Chief Executive Officer Mike Bauer said in a statement, adding that the bankruptcy is "a necessary step to address our liquidity, strengthen our balance sheet and better position Libbey for the future." The case is Libbey Glass Inc., 20-11439, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. EDMONTON - Alberta has introduced a bill to create its own parole board. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/6/2020 (598 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney updates media on measures taken to help with COVID-19, in Edmonton on Friday, March 20, 2020. Alberta has introduced a bill to create its own parole board. Kenney says it's time Alberta took more control over the process, and says the goal will be to staff it with members who better recognize community concerns, particularly rural areas facing rising crime rates.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson EDMONTON - Alberta has introduced a bill to create its own parole board. Premier Jason Kenney says it's time the province takes more control with a board staffed by members who better recognize community concerns, particularly in rural areas facing rising crime rates. "Personnel is policy," Kenney said Monday prior to introducing the bill. "The personnel we will be choosing to make up the Alberta Parole Board will be people who are coming from communities that have been facing this crime wave over recent years. "They're going to be a lot more sensitive to the public safety imperative than we believe the federal parole board has been." Kenney said members would also know better the crime trends in their regions and the supports available to parolees. He said there are too many reports of inmates being released on parole and reoffending. "Too often that's because of a revolving door justice system where criminals are arrested, convicted and are back out on the streets revictimizing more Albertans and causing frustration for our police and law-abiding citizens." The federal government controls the parole system and would continue to make parole decisions for inmates serving sentences longer than two years. For those serving terms under two years, the new Alberta board would make decisions on eligibility and conditions upon release. If the bill passes, the system would begin operating at the start of next year at a cost of $600,000 a year, Kenney said. Some of that money would come from the federal government, he said. Quebec and Ontario already operate their own provincial parole programs. Alberta has undertaken a number of initiatives, including hiring more prosecutors, to address rural crimes, which have jumped in recent years. In a 2017 report, Statistics Canada said rural crime rates on the Prairies were at least one-third higher than in urban areas. NDP justice critic Kathleen Ganley said the bill affects a proportionately small amount of prisoners. Ganley labelled it a public relations deflection from more substantive efforts to reduce rural crime, from paying for and hiring more police to dealing with affordable housing, poverty and other root causes of lawless behaviour. "I don't anticipate (the bill) will have an enormous impact," said Ganley. "This is more for show than it is designed to actually impact the issue of rural crime." This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 1, 2020 A former drug counsellor who traded fees for drugs and obtained cocaine for his grandson from people in his care has pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and drug trafficking. Anthony Dieni, 72, a former drug and alcohol counsellor at St Paul's Rehabilitation Prevention in Strathmore, pleaded guilty to six charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice. He admitted to the charges of trafficking a drug of dependence and possession of a shotgun and handgun, which were found loaded in his home. He also pleaded guilty to false accounting, for not properly declaring more than $448,000 in charitable donations spent paying fines, trips for his wife Maria and mortgage payments. Dieni, now retired and living in Keilor Downs, pleaded guilty in the County Court of Victoria on Tuesday to a string of charges that strike at the very heart of the administration of justice, according to Judge Patricia Riddell. Identifying Communities Prone to Complications Tracking COVID-19 Cases Tracing Human Mobility At-risk Groups Mapping Community Assets The COVID-19 pandemic is hardly the first acute health crisis humanity has faced. Since the time of the Antonine Plague , humankind has been endangered by deadly diseases of epic proportions. Whats changed with time, however, is the approach to such threats. Today, instead of leaving peoples lives solely to fate, governments manage risks by employing technological tools. These allow officials to contain the spread of viruses, as well as identify and support the most vulnerable society members. Here are some of the cases of how technological instruments monitor the pandemic outbreak and help make timely decisions backed by data.The COVID-19 Health Dashboard was designed to help local authorities identify the high-risk communities in Canada. The data rendered from Canadas Community Health Survey gives insights into the level of risk that communities are exposed to. This dashboard displays numbers of seniors aged 70 and over with respect to the overall population density in a certain area. Additionally, it reveals the percentage of people with underlying health problems (COPD, cancer, hypertension). By merely using this interactive map, anyone can view the situation in the communities across provinces and check available medical institutions together with the offered services.In response to the COVID-19 crisis, the local government in Montgomery County set up a website with coronavirus-related resources. Here the citizens of the county can access a map with the sites of food distribution for adults and children in need during the lockdown. Unlike the Canadian solution, this map doesn't focus solely on the number of cases in the county, but it also includes data from the neighboring ones: Delaware, Chester, Bucks, Philadelphia, Burks, Lehigh, and Lancaster. Having a clear picture outside allows local authorities to control the situation in the county by keeping an eye on the potential threats and promptly addressing them. Aspectum , a US company specializing in location intelligence, in collaboration with Predicio , a mobile-location and user behavior data company, collected and mapped data to reveal human mobility during quarantine in the French capital. One of the reasons behind the analysis was numerous media reports accusing Parisians of actively violating the lockdown restrictions. The map contains a dataset of 290,000 (about 13% of Paris population) users and their movement history in the city within a 20-day period. Also, a reference group of 79 people tentatively identified as tourists was studied. The analysis showed that only about 30% of Parisians were active outside their households during the first seven days of lockdown. As for tourists, although they did travel to nearly every part of the city, the crowding in popular attractions drastically diminished.Aspectum also mapped data from the US healthcare system to help identify groups of people exposed to greater danger from the COVID-19 virus and where they can receive treatment. The map assembles information about the percentage of the population who are elderly (65+),, the rate of adults that suffer from obesity and diabetes, as well as locations of hospitals and their bed capacity. With the help of this map, government officials can identify the areas that are especially threatened by the coronavirus. Also, it allows the authorities to assess how ready a neighborhood is to meet the outbreak by comparing the bed capacity of a hospital to the number of infected. Every Aspectum user can view the data and incorporate it into their own analytical research.This initiative is designed to take care of the most vulnerable populations in Baltimore. The city council administration promptly reacted to the lurking threat and prepared an interactive map that displays the availability of the citys resources. On this map, citizens can find sites of food distribution for children and seniors together with addresses of clinics for people that have no insurance. All assets can be viewed by location. By clicking on an icon, residents find additional details about each asset. Ever since the creation of the map, The City Council President, Brandon Scott, has been encouraging his community to submit their opinions about the project, its performance, and what is missing.The coronavirus pandemic has already infected over 4,5 million people causing the planet-wide lockdown and bringing hundreds of thousands of deaths in only half a year. At the same time, the measures to minimize the crisiss impact have been unprecedented too. Such responses, largely supported by technological solutions, have saved many lives all over the world. That is why its so crucial for governments not only to stay aware of the technology that can help, but also to employ it for generating valuable insights to address the crisis effectively. The stimulus checks are more crucial now than ever, as residents struggle to connect with the outside world amid a pandemic that is surging through their homes and leaving behind a path of destruction. Read more Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and PennLive/Patriot-News. Sign up for our free weekly newsletter. HARRISBURG Federal stimulus checks arent reaching a growing number of seniors in Pennsylvanias long-term-care homes, depriving them of money needed now more than ever to connect with family amid a pandemic that has overcome their facilities and isolated them from visitors. The reasons vary from apparent misunderstandings to facilities wrongly holding onto the $1,200 or, in one extreme case, threatening to evict residents unless they turned over the funds, according to watchdog advocates as well as state agencies that oversee the homes. No matter the explanation, the people responsible for fielding and resolving complaints from seniors in these facilities said the checks belong to the residents. It is their personal private property and can be spent however they want, said Carolyn Tenaglia, the regional long-term-care ombudsman for northeastern Pennsylvania. But what were hearing is families and residents are having trouble convincing facilities that its not money that needs to be surrendered. Since the pandemic began in March, the states Long-Term-Care Ombudsman Program has received 76 complaints from residents or family members related to finances and personal property many of which concern the stimulus checks, the office said. The state Attorney Generals Office has received a handful of complaints about facilities forcing residents to turn over portions of their stimulus checks, while the Departments of Health and Human Services have received one complaint each about the issue. In at least one nursing home, multiple residents were threatened with eviction if they didnt use the funds to pay outstanding debt, said Mary Ann May, long-term-care ombudsman for Luzerne and Wyoming Counties. One resident has been negotiating with the facility to use a portion of the funds to buy a gift for her grandchild, May said. She declined to name the home for fear of residents there facing retribution. There are likely many similar stories that remain unheard, advocates said. Throughout the pandemic, long-term-care residents have been largely isolated from the outside world. Since mid-March, state and federal officials have suspended most inspections and barred visitors, and ombudsman programs have been communicating only by intermittent video or phone calls. The measures were taken to mitigate the staggering toll of the coronavirus, which as of Monday had infected more than 15,000 residents in these facilities and killed 3,500. But advocates, family members, and lawmakers have raised concerns about the lack of transparency and an inability to know what's really happening inside these facilities. Its safe to say that any of the complaints weve received is a significant undercount, said Margaret Barajas, the state long-term-care ombudsman. Similar complaints regarding stimulus checks have been reported in Iowa, Florida, and New Jersey, and the Federal Trade Commission on May 15 issued a national warning reminding facilities they cannot take the stimulus funds from residents. Barajas expects the number of complaints in Pennsylvania to rise as stimulus checks continue being issued in the coming weeks. And with talk of a potential second round of checks later this year, her office is preparing to address concerns again. Theyve sent postcards and fliers to inform residents of the stimulus checks and remind them of their rights. Local ombudsman programs are also working with facility administrators to clear up misunderstandings that can arise through the often-complicated accounting process. The majority of nursing home residents in Pennsylvania rely on Medicaid to pay for their care, said Debra G. Speyer, a Philadelphia-area attorney who specializes in elder law and estate planning and administration. That means the state and federal government will pay for most of their care, but individuals are generally required to turn over all their income (typically pensions or Social Security) minus a $45 personal allowance to pay the nursing home each month. Individuals in personal care homes and assisted living facilities who are using SSI, the Social Security supplement, to cover the cost of care are required to turn those funds over minus an $85 personal allowance to the facility. Some care providers are mistakenly interpreting the stimulus funds as income and taking it as payment, Tenaglia said. But the federal government has been clear that these checks represent tax credits, and the state Department of Human Services issued guidance, too, clarifying that the funds are not to be considered income. A lot of it is misunderstanding, misinformation, and trying to make sure everyone is on the same page, Tenaglia said. Its been a headache. The Pennsylvania Assisted Living Association, which represents more than 200 assisted living and personal care homes, said there was some confusion initially about whether federal stimulus checks were to be treated the same as the Pennsylvania rent rebate sent to residents. But since the state released new guidance on May 11, no association members have reported issues on this matter, executive director Margie Zelenak said. The issue can be particularly acute in personal care homes, where many residents have memory impairments and there is less state and federal regulation than nursing homes, said Lori Walsh, long-term-care ombudsman supervisor at the Center for Advocacy for the Rights and Interests of the Elderly in Philadelphia. Some residents may not even know to expect a stimulus check. Many dont have access to a personal phone or TV. At some facilities, one resident used to share the newspaper with others, but thats no longer possible with infection control protocols, Tenaglia said. They are at a severe disadvantage to staying up to date on whats happening in the world, she said. Thats precisely why stimulus funds could be crucial, she added. With that money, a resident could purchase a phone or tablet to video chat with family members or get a cable subscription to watch the news. Many residents also need money for basics, like replacing broken glasses or dentures and buying new clothing. But if you dont know that money exists or youre eligible for it, Tenaglia said, you wouldnt know to ask. What to do if you live in a long-term-care facility and havent received your stimulus check Check the status of your funds through the IRSs Get My Payment tool online or by calling 1-800-919-9835. If the payment has been sent, check the bank account where your Social Security funds are generally deposited or the address where your checks are typically mailed. The $1,200 should follow the same path. If a family member or the facility handles your finances, ask them to check for you. You have a right to ask the facility for a printed statement of your account. If you cant locate the money or the facility is not cooperating, contact the state long-term-care ombudsman office at 717-783-8975 or LTC-ombudsman@pa.gov. Theyll put you in touch with a local ombudsman. You can choose to file a complaint with the Attorney Generals Office through this online form. For additional resources, visit the National Center of Law and Elder Rights website. 100% ESSENTIAL: Spotlight PA relies on funding from foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results. If you value this reporting, please give a gift today at spotlightpa.org/donate. ARTIST IN THE TIME OF COVID-19 - Sarita McHarg Sitar maestro Sarita McHarg has earned a doctorate in ethnomusicology, sung for Bollywood films and travelled the world to share her love of classical Indian music. But the pandemic cleared her cluttered calendar of gigs - "I lost a lot of money and it also hit me emotionally," she says. Indian classical musician Sarita McHarg But she has always fought for her music career, ever since her parents first suggested she get a "proper job". As soon as it was announced that Victorians could host 20 people in their homes, McHarg contacted 11 musicians including oud virtuoso Phil Gunter, Manmit Singh (tablas), Byron Triandafyllidis (bouzouki), Basil Byrne (trumpet) and Camille Feghali (ney and kanoon). Together they will play the "mesmerising" sounds of ancient India, Turkey, the Middle East and Greece in a creative and modern form, live online, and invite donations from the audience to support the local music community, including the performers. "In India, I always cooked for people who were going through a hard time, especially people who were not asking," says McHarg, who came to Melbourne in 2000 to study. "I wondered what gift I could give everyone now. Music is the greatest gift for a musician and something we can offer to everyone." McHarg says it is "exhilarating" to reach out. MONTREAL - Huawei Technologies Inc.'s ambitions to be a player in Canada's 5G network are very much in doubt after two of the country's three largest telecom companies announced partnerships with the Chinese tech giant's European rivals. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 2/6/2020 (597 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The Bell Canada logo is seen Tuesday, June 21, 2016 in Montreal. Bell Canada says it has chosen Ericsson to provide radio access network equipment for its national 5G wireless network. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson MONTREAL - Huawei Technologies Inc.'s ambitions to be a player in Canada's 5G network are very much in doubt after two of the country's three largest telecom companies announced partnerships with the Chinese tech giant's European rivals. Bell Canada announced Tuesday morning that Sweden-based Ericsson will be its second supplier of the radio access network equipment a major component in fifth-generation wireless networks following its choice of Finland's Nokia in February. Later in the day, Telus Corp., which uses Huawei equipment extensively in its current network, announced that it too had selected Ericsson and Nokia for its 5G network needs. The announcements come as Ottawa continues its review of Huawei's role in Canada's 5G networks over security concerns due to suspicions about the company's relationship with China's government. The United States has warned Canada, the United Kingdom and other allies that it will limit intelligence sharing with countries that have Huawei equipment in their 5G networks citing its potential use for spying by China, an allegation Huawei denies. Neither Bell nor Telus provided financial details about their contracts with Ericsson and Nokia. Neither company said they had ruled out Huawei for security reasons. "Huawei has been a reliable and innovative partner in the past and we would consider working with them in 5G if the federal government allows their participation," said Bell Canada spokesman Marc Choma, in an email. Rogers Communications, which has long used Ericsson as its main network equipment vendor, is not expected to shift any of its business to Huawei. "Telus is the most interesting one here because . . . Telus has been as clear and vocal as they can be that Huawei should have some inclusion and that some of the risk could be mitigated," said Jonathan Berkshire Miller, an expert in international security issues with the Macdonald Laurier Institute. He said that Bell's announcements may have been a factor in the Telus decision because it wouldn't want to be the only national carrier without a clear position on its 5G suppliers. "I think why they haven't been so clear, for the longest time, has been their previous intention to include Huawei in their 5G systems," Miller said in an interview. Huawei, Ericsson and Nokia have been the three biggest players in the global network equipment industry and Huawei had gained market share in Canada over the past decade with its fourth-generation equipment, said IDC Canada vice-president Lawrence Surtees. He said that Canada and the United Kingdom both have national security structures that analyzed Huawei equipment thoroughly without finding it to be a security threat as the United States alleges. "And my understanding, from reading unclassified (documents), no superpower intelligence agency needs to co-opt a manufacturer. They have all kinds of sophisticated ways of doing things without the manufacturer and their customers even knowing," Surtees said. Canada's relationship with Beijing has been severely damaged by the RCMP's arrest of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver in December 2018 at the request of the U.S. Justice Department, which wants her to face charges of fraud. Huawei Canada spokesman Alykhan Velshi said in a statement Tuesday that Huawei remains committed to Canada and looks forward to the federal government making its decision about Huawei's role in Canada. "We continue investing more than a quarter of a billion dollars a year in R&D in Canada. We continue building new research partnerships with Canada's world-class universities. As we have for more than a decade, we continue to work with our Canadian telecom partners to help them build and support state-of-the-art networks that connect Canadians," Velshi said. Ericsson, already a supplier of 4G LTE wireless and other technology to Bell and Rogers, also has a major research and development presence in Montreal. Bell said Ericsson will also support its rollout of 5G-enhanced fixed wireless home internet service to rural areas, which generally have less access to land-based fibre optics networks. "We are proud to have earned Bell's trust to be selected as one of their key partners and significantly expand our existing relationship to accelerate the transformation of their network with 5G mobile and fixed wireless technology," said Niklas Heuveldop, president and head of Ericsson North America. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Prior to the arrest of Ms. Meng, the Chinese company wasn't a household name in Canada. Since her arrest, which kicked off a major diplomatic row between China and Canada, the federal government has been undecided about whether the Chinese company will be allowed in Canada's 5G networks which are currently being assembled. Aside from Huawei, Ericsson and Nokia, there are other companies that want a piece of the 5G network upgrades. Samsung Electronics has announced a deal to supply equipment for Videotron's wireless network in the province of Quebec and the Ottawa region of Ontario. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2020. Companies in this story: (TSX:BCE, TSX:T, TSX:RCI.B) Richard Pusey, 41, was pulled over by police for allegedly speeding at 149 km/h down the Eastern Freeway in Kew, Melbourne, in April A Porsche driver accused of taunting a policewoman as she lay dying on the side of the road after a crash has become a silent 'cell dweller' while awaiting his trial. Richard Pusey, 41, was pulled over by police for allegedly speeding at 149km/h down the Eastern Freeway in Kew, Melbourne, in April. A truck veered into the emergency lane and hit four officers while they were testing the mortgage broker for drugs and impounding his car. Pusey avoided being struck but is accused of recording the scene instead of helping dying Senior Constable Lynette Taylor as she pleaded for help. Pusey faces 12 charges including driving at a dangerous speed, reckless conduct endangering life, destruction of evidence, perverting the course of justice, failing to remain at the scene after a drug test and failing to render assistance. Prison sources told The Herald Sun the 41-year-old was initially hard to manage when he entered protective custody at Melbourne Assessment Prison. He reportedly called prison workers and police 'dogs' and created a 'dossier' on his treatment while locked up, detailing why he should be released. A truck veered into the emergency lane and hit four officers while they were testing the mortgage broker for drugs and impounding his car But after being denied bail last month, insiders said Pusey transformed into a 'cell-dweller' who steers clear of conflict. 'He knows the more he plays up the harder his jail time will be,' a prison source told the publication. The mortgage broker now avoids speaking to fellow inmates and barely leaves his cell. 'He does not mix or talk to anyone,' the prison source said. The Melbourne businessman holds a property portfolio worth more than $12million, which includes a West Melbourne terrace worth $1.35million, a $1.32million Doncaster East residence, and a $1.27million house in the coastal suburb of Bonbeach, according to The Australian. Another property listed under his and wife Ahn Truong's name is a $3.4million warehouse in Fitzroy that had been spraypainted with the word 'die' in the days after Pusey fled the scene of the crash. Police allege Mr Pusey was driving his $150,000 Porsche at 149km/h with MDMA and cannabis in his system on Melbourne's Eastern Freeway on April 22 when he was stopped by officers. A refrigeration truck ploughed into the group of police standing at the roadside, killing four officers, before Pusey allegedly took pictures and video of the grisly scene and fled on foot. Pictured left to right: Senior Constable Kevin King, Constable Glen Humphris, Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor and Constable Josh Prestney were killed in the tragedy Pusey was charged with 12 offences including reckless conduct endangering life, failing to render assistance, destroying evidence and committing offences while on bail The driver of the truck, Mohinder Singh, was charged with four counts of culpable driving, he reportedly remained at the scene wailing as emergency services arrived. The Melbourne Magistrates' Court previously heard the mortgage broker used to work as a registered nurse, and was more than capable of administering first aid. Pusey's barrister Vincent Peters claimed his client didn't help Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor as she lay lay under the truck because he was in shock and a doctor was on the scene. He filmed the scene for more than three minutes and can be heard on the video berating the officer about the damage to his car on the video before he fled the scene, police allege. Constable Glen Humphris, Senior Constable Kevin King and Constable Josh Prestney were also killed in the tragedy. Magistrate Jo Metcalf labelled Pusey's alleged filming of the graphic crash scene as 'highly intrusive and morally repugnant' but noted it was not illegal. 'My view is that Mr Pusey poses an unacceptable risk of committing offences on bail and endangering the safety and welfare of members of the public,' the magistrate said. The property listed under his and wife Ahn Truong's name in Fitzroy that had been spraypainted with the word 'die' in the days after Mr Pusey fled the scene of the crash A property in Champion Street Doncaster East in Melbourne is among Mr Pusey's property portfolio It came after the court was told Pusey took 'disturbing pleasure' inflicting discomfort on others, displayed 'violent tendencies' towards the public and police, and had 'absolutely no regard for the safety of other road users'. He allegedly boasted about speeding at 300km/h along the Eastern Freeway a month before the fatal crash. Pusey was also previously accused of sending threatening emails to a Westpac employee, threatening to set himself on fire at a debt collection agency and drive down Bourke St, in an apparent reference to James Gargasoulas' rampage. He likely had ADHD and an antisocial narcissistic personality disorder, and had been prescribed Ritalin and an antipsychotic, according to a psychological report detailed to the court. Pusey struggled with narcissistic rage, a daily fear of being arrested and at times fantasised about killing people, the same report said. Pusey is due to reappear for a committal mention on July 16. The Prime Minister delivered the inaugural address at the 125th Annual Session of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) through video conference today. The theme of this years annual conference is Building India for a New World : Lives, livelihood, growth Speaking on the occasion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said such online events are becoming the new normal due to Corona. This is also the biggest strength of human beings that makes a way out of every difficulty, he added. Referring to the theme of this year's annual session, the Prime Minister praised the indian industry for starting the discussion of "Getting Growth Back". He urged the industry to go beyond it and said that India will definitely get its growth back. He said that his trust in India's Capabilities and Crisis Management, in India's Talent and Technology, in its Innovation and Intellect of India, in the Farmers of India, MSME's, Entrepreneurs makes him confident about getting the growth back. PM said Corona may have slowed down the speed of the growth, but today the biggest fact is that India has overtaken the lockdown phase and entered in the Un-Lock Phase one. A large part of Economy has opened in Un-Lock Phase one. A lot is going to open after 8th June, he added. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) WATERLOO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2020 / SponsorsOne Inc., (CSE:SPO)(Frankfurt:5SO)(OTC PINK:SPONF) ("SPO or the "Company") the Company that makes small brands BIG through large, engaged, authentic communities of influencers that buy and support the brands they love, announces that SPO has commenced litigation against various parties regarding a previously announced acquisition. By a news release dated November 4, 2019, the Company announced the closing of the acquisition of Verve Beverage Company ("VBC") in the form of a share purchase agreement to acquire 100% of the shares of VBC in return for 47,000,000 million shares of SPO. Upon closing, SPO issued 9,400,000 SPO shares to the VBC vendors and the balance of 37,600,000 SPO shares were to be placed into escrow for future release. The conditions precedent in the favour of SPO under the share purchase agreement were not met by the VBC vendors within the prescribed timeframe in the share purchase agreement and as a result, the remaining 37,600,000 SPO shares were never issued or placed in escrow. SPO has filed a statement of claim in the Province of Alberta, against the various VBC vendors seeking the return of the issued 9,400,000 SPO shares issued to the various VBC vendors and for additional damages. SPO is continuing to rely on the Temporary Exemption from Certain Corporate Finance Requirements for its: Filing and delivery of Annual Financial Statements and Management Discussion and Analysis which management is endeavoring to complete by June 14, 2020 Filing of Q1 interim financial statements and Management Discussion and Analysis which management is endeavoring to complete by June 14, 2020 Delivery of an annual request form to shareholders which management is endeavoring to complete by June 14, 2020 Filing of executive compensation disclosure which management is endeavoring to complete by July 4, 2020 In addition, has settled $566,403.74 in accounts payable to arm's length parties by the issuance of 11,328,759 common shares at a price of $0.05 per share. About SponsorsOne Inc. SponsorsOne is the leader in the next evolution of digital marketing through influencer marketing, storytelling, and digital-commerce with the SponsorCoin platform and its highly scalable - smart contract-based digital-currency. Combined, this allows brands to build and manage exclusive and highly engaged communities of influencers (from pro to micro-influencers) within the social realm. The SponsorCoin platform provides for data-driven marketing campaigns that will change the way brands connect with their customers. SponsorCoin is a tool for brands to inspire real movements around their products and services in which their most valuable customers become their best salespeople, producing far higher ROI than current social media advertising methods. SponsorsOne, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, SponsorsOne Media Inc., provides full creative and Brand building/management services to all our Brands as well as manages the influencer communities for each Brand. If the Brand wants to get big - fast, our wholly-owned subsidiary S1 Brands Inc. will build a wholesale/retail distribution channel for the Brand acting as a master distributor. S1 Brands provides sales and marketing on behalf of the Brand to its vast network of national wholesalers and retailers and provides purchase order financing to assist the Brand in fulfilling every order. Ownership of the Brand combined with distribution, digital marketing innovation, and capital is the winning formula to build the next billion-dollar brand. To learn more, please visit www.sponsorsone.com Contact: info@sponsorsone.com ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Gary Bartholomew, Executive Chairman The Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE") has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this Press Release. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements and information that are based on the beliefs of management and reflect the Company's current expectations. When used in this news release, the words "estimate", "project", "belief", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "plan", "predict", "may" or "should" and the negative of these words or such variations thereon or comparable terminology, are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. Such statements and information reflect the current view of the Company with respect to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in those forward-looking statements and information. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the following risks: risks associated with all litigation risk of successfully obtaining the return of the 9,400,000 SPO shares issued to the various VBC vendors risk of successfully being granted additional damages under the VBC litigation risk of paying damages to the Defendants with the failure to defend the suit The Company cautions that the foregoing list of risk factors is not exhaustive and is subject to change and there can be no assurance that such assumptions will reflect the actual outcome of such items or factors. When relying on the Company's forward-looking statements and information to make decisions, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors, and other uncertainties and potential events, including the risk factors, set out in the Company's Listing Statement. The Company has assumed a certain progression, which may not be realized. It has also assumed that the material factors referred to above will not cause such forward-looking statements and information to differ materially from actual results or events. THE FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS NEWS RELEASE REPRESENTS THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE COMPANY AS OF THE DATE OF THIS NEWS RELEASE AND, ACCORDINGLY, IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AFTER SUCH DATE. READERS SHOULD NOT PLACE UNDUE IMPORTANCE ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION AND SHOULD NOT RELY UPON THIS INFORMATION AS OF ANY OTHER DATE. WHILE THE COMPANY MAY ELECT TO, IT DOES NOT UNDERTAKE TO UPDATE THIS INFORMATION AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME EXCEPT AS REQUIRED IN ACCORDANCE WITH APPLICABLE SECURITIES LEGISLATION. SOURCE: SponsorsOne Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/592465/SponsorsOne-Files-Statement-of-Claim-Against-former-Verve-Beverage-Company-Shareholders 3 1 of 3 Arnold Gold/ Hearst Connecticut Media / Arnold Gold/ Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Contributed photo Show More Show Less 3 of 3 WEST HAVEN The city is on the cusp of a 2020-21 budget with a 0.80-mill tax rate increase, the minimum increased required by the state Municipal Accountability Review Board overseeing city finances. City Council Chairman Ronald Quagliani said the City Council had hoped for a lower tax increase 0.58 mill in these pandemic times, but MARB required the minimum. MARB approved the budget, he said, pending its approval of the mayors five-year-plan, likely at its June meeting. The decision to keep Chinese factories shut after the Lunar New Year sent shudders through the massive mines of Brazil and Chile that feed them. Now, with China getting back to work and Latin America the new virus hot spot, concern is shifting from demand to supply. Iron-ore shipper Vale had a scare last week as it had to fend off an attempt by Brazilian prosecutors to close a complex that accounts for a tenth of its output. A union at copper behemoth Codelco said members are concerned that a still small outbreak of the virus will spread. Alarm bells are starting to ring again in metal markets as the outbreak explodes in Latin America, with the region's highly urbanized population of 600 million accounting for about 40% of daily deaths globally. That's coming at a time when Chinese demand is recovering and markets tighten. Chile is the top exporter of copper and Brazil is the second-largest shipper of iron ore. "Mine supply problems from covid-19 in Latin America are far from over yet," Wenyu Yao, senior commodities strategist at ING Bank, said by phone from London. "Chile is a big unknown now." So far, mining heavyweights like Vale and Codelco have managed to continue operating through the outbreak, adopting safety measures without stalling output. Other mines in the region that did shut are now reopening. But the industry has been helped by relatively low rates of illness in the wider populations. That's no longer the case. On Friday, spot iron ore surged past $100 a ton as worries that the pandemic may curb Brazilian supply coincide with sustained, robust demand in top steel producer China. Futures now look set to hit that level, too, with the contract in Singapore advancing for the past four days. Brazil surpassed the U.S. in new coronavirus cases last week, and the disease is now spreading in northern states such as Para, which accounts for 8% of global iron ore supply. In April, Vale cut its shipment guidance due to bad weather and the virus's impact on operations. The disease has also reached Brazil's meat-processing industry, with JBS ordered to shut operations at a plant in Rondonia state last week in the country's first beef-facility closure. Brazilian oil has also been hit, with nearly 500 confirmed cases and one death among offshore workers, although production hasn't been impacted. Compounding Brazil's health disaster is a potential political crisis. Protesters clashed on the streets of Sao Paulo Sunday and President Jair Bolsonaro joined a demonstration against Congress and the Supreme Court. "The Covid-19 outbreak in Brazil creates tangible risks to iron ore supply over the upcoming weeks, despite mining being allowed to operate as essential business," Citigroup analysts including Tracy Liao wrote in a report. "Rising infections among workers may prompt the miners or local authorities to impose more draconian quarantines, which could limit productivity or even close mines." Meanwhile, port stockpiles of iron ore in China have continued to decline and Chinese steel demand has improved notably over the past two months, reflected by inventory drawdowns. Even though prices may stay elevated for longer, Citigroup maintains its bearish view, forecasting prices to fall to $70 a ton by the end of 2020, with Vale expected to manage the outbreak well. In a response to questions, Vale reiterated annual production guidance of 310 million to 330 million tons, which factors in pandemic risks such as higher absenteeism and the possibility of tighter restrictions in Brazil. The company has also offered financial support to its supply chain and imported health equipment for regions where it operates. Like Codelco, Vale has implemented social-distancing measures, workplace disinfection, screening and testing. It's a similar story in copper as supportive demand-side data fuels a rebound. On Monday, copper futures reached the highest level since mid-March after manufacturing data from China pointed to a continuing recovery. Chile's Codelco has managed to keep operating at close to normal rates, helping prevent markets from tightening further. But maintaining output may become more difficult as covid-19 cases in the country surge. With a population of just 18 million, Chile is reporting new cases on a per-capita basis at a pace comparable to that of Spain at the peak of the spread in March, pushing hospitals toward collapse and prompting authorities to tighten restrictions. Workers at Codelco's Chuquicamata mine are concerned that a small outbreak will grow as the company continues to operate at normal production rates, a union leader said. Ten staff members and 30 contract workers have tested positive at the mine, Miguel Veliz, director of Union No. 3, said by phone, adding that 120 others are quarantined awaiting results. Mine workers began getting sick April 20, with detections accelerating in recent weeks, Veliz said. To be sure, the number of cases is a small fraction of the workforce -- Chuquicamata has 4,000 staffers and 7,000 outsourced workers. In a written response, Codelco said it implemented preventive controls at Chuquicamata that allow it to quickly detect and isolate sick workers and their contacts. Most infections happened outside the mine in rest periods, it said. Chuquicamata is just north of Calama in the Antofagasta region, which has seen a sharp rise in cases in recent weeks. Still, mines typically operate with greater social distancing than, say, meat packers. who have been much harder hit by the virus. Assuming South American mines navigate the pandemic, the copper rally may run out steam with China's reopening well-flagged and relations between Beijing and Washington deteriorating. "Risk exists -- like the pandemic emerging in the mining districts," said BTG Pactual analyst Cesar Perez. "There could be a possibility where the government becomes restrictive, but given how strategic companies have been, the risk of meaningful disruptions to production is still distant for now." Your tax-deductible gift today powers our reporters and keeps us independent. We rely on you, our reader, not paywalls to stay funded because we believe important news and information should be freely accessible to all. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe Our news is free on LAist. To make sure you get our coverage: Sign up for our daily newsletters. To support our non-profit public service journalism: Donate Now. By Adria Watson | CalMatters The anger and frustration that flooded more than 20 cities in recent days will likely put pressure on the state to conduct a thorough examination of historic and continued discrimination of African Americans -- even as civil unrest continues. Although racism -- both institutional and cultural -- is a national stain that bleeds hundreds of years deep, some suggest California should account for its share of mistreatment. Before George Floyd in Minneapolis, there was Stephon Clark in Sacramento. Before Eric Garner in New York, there was Oscar Grant in Oakland. Before the Rodney King uprising in Los Angeles, there was the Watts riots decades earlier. This week as black leaders look to lead statewide dialogues, one proposed bill out of Sacramento could offer a starting point for apology -- and healing. San Diego Democratic Assemblywoman Shirley Weber's AB 3121 would establish an eight-member reparations committee to educate Californians about slavery and to recommend direct and indirect state settlements to help remedy generations of inequality and discrimination. The bill quietly advanced out of the Assembly's judiciary committee before the nation erupted in protest and is scheduled to be heard in the appropriations committee Tuesday. "We felt that California needed to examine itself," said Weber, the daughter of a Southern sharecropper who rose to become one of the state's leading education advocates, before the weekend's violence. "Is there any lingering impacts of the issue of slavery in the United States on the lives and progress of Africans in this country, and in California, in particular?" PAST APOLOGIES America has offered apologies and compensation for injustices of the past, from the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II to seizing tribal lands from Native Americans. And cities and states have approved reparations for their own wrongdoings. But Weber acknowledges the state task force would step into a thorny national topic with lots of uncharted questions, such as: who would pay, who should get paid and how should they get paid? There is no formal opposition to the bill, but three Republican lawmakers -- James Gallagher of Yuba City, Kevin Kiley of Granite Bay and Jay Obernolte of Hesperia -- voted against Weber's bill in the judiciary committee. According to Kiley's chief of staff, Joshua Hoover, one reason the assemblyman voted no is that he believes "the federal level is a more appropriate place for this discussion to take place." Supporters say it's another case of California leading by example. "If California is willing to lead on other conversations around climate, around income inequality and around things like this, there is no way to have any of these conversations without acknowledging what has been done to black people in this country," said Courtney McKinney of the Western Center on Law and Poverty, a nonprofit law firm that advocates on issues affecting the poor. CALIFORNIA'S HISTORY Although California was admitted into the Union as a "free state," slavery persisted with public auctions and a fugitive slave law decreeing that a person brought to the state as a slave would be considered a slave. After slavery was abolished in 1865, discrimination permeated throughout American society from Jim Crow laws and redlining to unequal access to education and police use of force that has led to mass incarceration of black people in jails and prisons. Proponents of the reparations committee point to these practices for disadvantaging African Americans, which has contributed to well-documented racial wealth gaps, higher unemployment rates and health disparities. The reparations debate has been on and off nationally. During the Democratic presidential primaries last year, reparations became a talking point for contenders. In Congress, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat from Texas, introduced a bill to establish a reparations committee, although it has yet to gain traction. Coincidentally, California state lawmakers put forth Assembly Joint Resolution 21 in support of Jackson Lee's bill. For its part, California has sought to change police practices and set a new standard, another Weber bill, for when police are permitted to use deadly force. Gov. Gavin Newsom spoke about how he wrestled to explain race and class to his children after his children saw videos of Floyd's deadly arrest on social media and today, he suggested institutions need to change. "You've got to change hearts, minds. You've got to change culture, not just laws," the Democratic governor said. "And we have to own up to some very difficult things. The black community is not responsible for what's happening to this country right now. We are." Although Newsom hasn't weighed in on Weber's bill, he has apologized to Native Americans for the state's history of violence, signaling his willingness to have a dialogue with disenfranchised communities. And just earlier this year, California lawmakers issued a formal apology for discriminating against Japanese Americans during World War II. MORE ON LA PROTESTS PANDEMIC LAYS BARE INEQUITIES Still, the state has yet to apologize to African Americans. And today, the national upheaval is happening in the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic, which has been more deadly for black Californians than most other groups in places like Los Angeles. The recession too has disproportionately hurt black and Latino communities. "This pandemic is exposing the flaws in our system that are often covered up by this thing that people think California is wonderful," Weber said. "It is a wonderful state. But there's still some folks here who are not benefiting." In order to have a more just society, California must acknowledge the past and the reparations committee is one way to fix it, said McKinney of the Western Center on Law and Poverty. "It is no longer an option to think of reparations as fringe," McKinney said. The bill is silent on how the state should redress slavery. Weber's bill is crafted more as a launching point: the task force would spend a year studying the issue and return with recommendations for what reparations might look like for African Americans in California, as well as how it might be distributed to the state's roughly 2.5 million black residents. Weber is proposing the governor and legislative leaders appoint members of the task force with members who represent communities of color and have experience on racial justice reform. "We think it needs to have an independent voice," Weber said. But even after the committee hands in its recommendations, there's nothing that would require the Legislature to act. This story was originally published by CalMatters on June 1. Police urge people to stay away from Quarry pools after series of incidents in North Wales This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Jun 2nd, 2020 With the current warm weather North Wales Police are highlighting the dangers of swimming in quarry pools. The warning comes following recent incidents in quarry pools in Halkyn, Nantlle and Llanberis with people trespassing and jumping off cliffs into the water despite people being urged to stay local and only go out for essential reasons during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Superintendent Richie Green of North Wales Police said: Sadly over recent years there have been tragedies in the region whereby people have gotten into difficulty after entering quarry pools. The water is extremely cold and the hidden dangers are immense which can quickly lead to something altogether more serious. Although it can be very tempting to jump into the nearest pool or lake to cool down on a hot day, or to swim in the water at disused quarries, the water depths are huge up to 60 metres and it can be very difficult to get out due to the steep faces. As well as the dangers associated with swimming at unsupervised and often remote places, jumping from the rocks also puts people in danger. Swimming at disused quarries is a very dangerous practice and I would appeal to all youngsters and anyone else to please stay away. Members of the public are also being reminded that quarries are private properties and anybody found swimming or on the rocks would be trespassing. Superintendent Green added: We appreciate the weather is warm, however not only is the water temperature freezing but it can also contain hidden hazards such as debris, weeds and reeds that you may not be able to see from the surface. The water can also be very deep and swimmers can easily find themselves out of their depth. If you are thinking about going swimming in such places please think again, consider the dangers and dont trespass. You pose a serious danger to yourself and others who potentially may have to come to your assistance Parents and carers are also being urged to educate their children about the dangers of trespassing and to avoid swimming in any pools or lakes and to also be aware of where their children are and what they are doing this summer. Anybody who witnesses people swimming in quarry pools is urged to contact North Wales Police immediately via 999. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Despite major looting and rioting throughout New York City, Staten Island was quiet overnight, according to police and other law-enforcement sources. Rumors spreading on social media of pillaging at various locations on the North, South, East and West shores of our borough were dismissed as false by multiple law-enforcement sources. An NYPD spokesman confirmed that there were no reports of looting overnight in the Islands precincts. Some of the social media chatter included false claims about drug stores being looted and rioting at shopping centers. Many of the posts were in the form of questions from people wanting to know if stores were ransacked in various business districts around the Island, including along Forest Avenue on the North Shore, Page Avenue in Richmond Valley, Hylan Boulevard in Dongan Hills and Richmond Avenue in New Springville. As word spread online, several concerned Staten Islanders reached out to the Advance/SILive.com via social media. At least one Island politician addressed the rumors. We have been fielding many questions about reports of incidents allegedly occurring, said Assemblyman Michael Reilly (R-South Shore) on social media. I just spoke with the Commanding Officer of the 123 Pct who relayed that the reports circulating on social media are FALSE. Officers have investigated and they are just rumors. They will continue patrols. Mayor Bill de Blasio set a curfew of 8 p.m. for Tuesday after a night of mayhem in and around Midtown Manhattan. Macys Herald Square and shops around Rockefeller Center were ransacked. [June 02, 2020] Turning the Tassels on the Pandemic: Insight School of Indiana Celebrates 2020 Graduates with Online Commencement Ceremony Insight School of Indiana (ISIN), an online public school serving students in grades 7-12 throughout the state for the last 4 years, will cap off their school year by celebrating the Class of 2020 in an online commencement ceremony on Thursday, June 4 at 5:00 pm. ISIN is inviting all families and friends worldwide to join the celebration. This year, ISIN will graduate almost 150 students, many of whom have been enrolled at ISIN their entire high school career. 8 students will graduate with a cumulative GPA above 3.5 and nearly $900,000 worth of college scholarships have been awarded. Collectively, the school reports having students that have been accepted to colleges and universities across Indiana and beyond, including Purdue, IUPUI, Ivy Tech, Indiana Wesleyan, Kentucky State, and Arkansas-Pine Bluff. "It's been a very challenging year for Indiana students, and we are thankful our students have had the opportunity to maintain a sense of normalcy with their schooling," said ISIN Head of School Dr. Janice Silver. "Our graduates have worked so hard, and while we know an online ceemony isn't our norm, we are excited for the opportunity to celebrate with them at their well-deserved graduation." Meagan Bowyer is the Valedictorian and plans to attend Purdue University (News - Alert) in the fall. Patrick Lewis is the Salutatorian and is attending Vincennes University Technology Center. These students, as well as Dr. Silver, will be available for media interviews. Students enroll in virtual school for a number of reasons, including those looking for a safer learning environment free from bullying, those looking to get back on track academically, or those looking for an alternative to the traditional brick-and-mortar classroom setting. ISIN students access a robust online curriculum in the core subjects and a host of electives and attend live virtual classes every day taught by state-certified teachers. Graduates earn a high school diploma, and those who come to ISIN behind on credits can participate in the school's credit recovery program. Details of the graduation ceremony are as follows: WHAT: Insight School of Indiana 2020 Graduation Ceremony WHEN: Thursday, June 4, 2020, 5:00 PM WHO: Please contact Kristen Heckber at 855-798-9784 About Insight School of Indiana Insight School of Indiana (ISIN) is a tuition-free, public charter school authorized by Ball State University that serves students in grades 7-12. As part of the Indiana public school system, ISIN is tuition-free and gives parents and families the choice to access the engaging curriculum and tools provided by K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN), the nation's leading provider of K-12 proprietary curriculum and online education programs. For more information about ISIN, visit: in.insightschools.net. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005001/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] NANJING, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Police in east China's Jiangsu Province have caught 74 suspects for their involvement in an illegal sea sand mining case worth nearly 100 million yuan (about 14 million U.S. dollars), according to the local coast guard. After receiving a tip-off that a company in Zhejiang Province was suspected of illegal sea sand mining, the coast guard of Jiangsu launched a cross-province raid on May 12 and seized 67 suspects, three vessels and more than 140,000 tonnes of sea sand on the spot. Follow-up investigations led to another seven suspects and the uncovering of transportation routes. Further investigation is underway. Sea sand is an important marine resource. The loss of sea sand will harm coastal zones and geological marine structures. [ Editor: WPY ] Units of Offaly Fire & Rescue Service from Birr, Ferbane and Tullamore attended the scene of several bog fires as the temperatures soared over the June Bank Holiday weekend. With a status red extreme forest fire risk warning issued for last weekend, Offaly Fire & Rescue Service were called to the scene of bog fires in Broughal, Kilcormac, Gallen, Ferbane and Wood of O, Tullamore over the weekend. A spokesperson for Offaly Fire & Rescue Service confirmed to the Tribune that two fire engines and two water tankers attended a bog fire at Broughal, Kilcormac where they remained for five hours on Friday last. On Saturday, a fire engine and a water tanker attended the scene of a bog fire at Gallen, Ferbane for four hours while on Monday, a fire engine and a water tanker attended a bog fire at the Wood of O for eight hours. Meanwhile, Coillte and the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) joined forces to combat the spread of forest and wildfires over the summer months using innovative technology. Drone technology will survey areas for fires and support firefighters on the ground with the programme being rolled out in Dublin, Wicklow and the midlands regions that are at hi gh risk. This is the second year the technology will be used to monitor designated 'hot spots' across the regions of Dublin, Wicklow and the Midlands. Utilising this state-of-the-art technology allows the drones to become firefighters' eyes in the skies, helping to protect the environment and save lives. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: NEW YORK, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Purcell Julie & Lefkowitz LLP, a class action law firm dedicated to representing shareholders nationwide, is investigating a potential breach of fiduciary duty claim involving the board of directors of Sonic Automotive, Inc. (NYSE: SAH). If you are a shareholder of Sonic Automotive, Inc. and are interested in obtaining additional information regarding this investigation, free of charge, please visit us at: http://pjlfirm.com/sonic-automotive-inc/ You may also contact Robert H. Lefkowitz, Esq. either via email at [email protected] or by telephone at 212-725-1000. One of our attorneys will personally speak with you about the case at no cost or obligation. Purcell Julie & Lefkowitz LLP is a law firm exclusively committed to representing shareholders nationwide who are victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty and other types of corporate misconduct. For more information about the firm and its attorneys, please visit http://pjlfirm.com. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. SOURCE Purcell Julie & Lefkowitz LLP Related Links http://www.pjlfirm.com Recent deployment of Russian jets seen by analysts as preparation by Moscow to shore up its position ahead of talks. Russia and Turkey are again taking the lead in efforts to find a solution to Libyas near decade-long crisis and hoping in the process to carve out spheres of influence for themselves in the oil-rich North African nation. In a telephone call late last month, the two countries foreign ministers urged belligerents in Libya to cease hostilities and return to the negotiating table, something many analysts see as the beginning of a renewed attempt to resolve the conflict. That call came on the heels of a resounding military victory for the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in western Libya. Turkish support for the GNA had only weeks earlier allowed it to turn the tide and repel a year-long offensive by eastern-based renegade commander Khalifa Haftar and his self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), which Russia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egpyt back. But as Russian mercenaries from the private Wagner group retreated from the Tripoli front lines in what seemed like a move coordinated with Ankara more than a dozen Russian fighter jets landed in eastern Libya, according to the US Africa Command. Unlikely to reverse tide For some observers, the move signalled Moscows willingness to step up its support for Haftar. Samuel Ramani, a researcher at Oxford University, however, said the manoeuvre was aimed at cementing Russias negotiating position ahead of potential peace talks. It is not a sign of its willingness to engage in a Syria-style military intervention in Libya, as Moscow has privately acknowledged that Haftar is unlikely to reverse the tide of the Turkish offensive, Ramani told Al Jazeera. The link between Russias diplomatic aspirations in Libya and its deployment of the MiG-29 aircraft, Ramani said, becomes apparent when one considers Moscows rhetoric over the past week. On the day of the US report about Russian jets arriving in Libya, Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke with Aguila Saleh, head of the [eastern-based] parliament and LNA ally, about a political solution, he noted. Saleh, an influential figure with Libyas eastern tribes and the speaker of the House of Representatives, has announced an initiative of his own for Libya, one that includes talks with the West and comes into direct conflict with Haftars plan. Battlefield success This is not the first time that Russia and Turkey have attempted to broker a ceasefire in Libya. In January, GNA Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj and Haftar visited Moscow as part of Russo-Turkish efforts to secure a lasting ceasefire. However, Haftar seemingly bolstered by his battlefield successes at the time refused to sign the agreement and abruptly left the Russian capital. The Moscow meeting was followed a week later by a separate summit, this time hosted by Germany. The Berlin conference saw the participation of a dozen countries, at least half of which were supplying Libyas warring parties with arms in violation of a 2011 UN arms embargo. In addition to securing a pledge by foreign actors to desist from further arming Libyas belligerents, the meeting postponed several times was an opportunity for Europe to reassert itself in a strategic part of the world that had become a gateway for tens of thousands of refugees and migrants seeking new lives in Europe. In the end, however, weapons continued pouring into the war-torn country, eventually leading Ghassan Salame, the UNs special envoy for Libya, to resign. Though accompanied by much less fanfare, Russias renewed eagerness to mediate the conflict has been met with heightened concern by the United States. For too long, Russia has denied the full extent of its involvement in the ongoing Libyan conflict. Well, there is no denying it now, General Stephen Townsend of the US Africa Command said in a statement on Russias deployment of combat aircraft. The gravity of his tone stood in sharp contrast with the mixed signals the United States sent during the previous year. Shortly after Haftar launched his offensive on Tripoli in April 2019, President Donald Trump praised the Ajdabiya native for his role in fighting terrorism. To complicate matters further, some of Washingtons biggest allies, including the UAE, Egypt and Jordan, are propping up Haftar and appear, at least in the short term, to be siding with Russia. Compromises for Turkey Tough compromises await Turkey as it considers its next move. Ankaras allies in Tripoli have made it clear that under no circumstance will they entertain the prospect of negotiating with Haftar. To be sure, the 76-year-olds survival is not guaranteed. After rallying his troops for an entire year around the goal of overtaking Tripoli, signs of his domestic support base fragmenting in light of the setback his LNA is facing are beginning to emerge. There are also reports suggesting that Abu Dhabi and Cairo are looking for a replacement. Turkish columnist Semih Idiz told Al Jazeera the countrys vast territory means that it is unlikely for Turkey to pursue a military strategy. If Haftars support base does not break up, then there is little Turkey can do to exclude him from future talks, Idiz said. It [Turkey] will find itself in a similar position to that which it is facing in Syria, where Ankara does not recognise Assad despite more and more countries coming around to acknowledging that the Syrian president is part of the equation, he said. Eventually, Turkey will have to accept this, and it already has. There are indirect talks between the government and the Assad regime. Turkeys troubles, however, dont stop there. Should Haftar continue to play a role in eastern Libya, then Turkeys intervention will have gone in vain, according to Idiz. This is because one of Turkeys prime motivations for entering the war was a contentious maritime border demarcation agreement it signed with the GNA that expanded its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the resource-abundant eastern Mediterranean. EEZs allow countries exclusive rights to exploit natural resources, including mineral wealth. There is no guarantee for Turkey that an agreement between the GNA and Haftar in Libya will honour the November deal that Ankara signed with al-Sarraj for the demarcation and delimitation of the eastern Mediterranean, Idliz said. While Ankara acknowledges that a deal could move in the direction of a federation and that Turkey will have influence in the west, there is nothing to say that its strategic objectives in the eastern Mediterranean will be fulfilled as a result of the political agreement that might be reached. Mohammed Ali Abdallah, an adviser to the GNA for US affairs, similarily said Turkeys maritime agreement is of no value to it if the Libyan government is unable to control its entire shoreline. Happy Day's Family Bistro waitress Angeline Vega (right) serving food for customers as Frank Karolczak 4th looks on in the restaurant parking lot on Friday. Read more With business tanking from the pandemic at his two diner-style restaurants in Chester County, Mohamed Mo Maaty looked at the big picture. He had large, unusable dining rooms and large, little-used kitchens turning out takeout food. He also had large parking lots. Since everybody drives to Happy Days Family Bistro, in Thorndale, and to Bistro 24, in Exton, why not serve customers in their cars in the parking lot? Borrowing a classic motif from the Sonic Drive-In chain and Philadelphia-area independents like Webers, Specks, Stewarts, and Castle Harbor, Maaty reopened his restaurants two weeks ago as drive-ins, hiring back waitresses whose uniforms are satin poodle skirts ordered from Amazon and got to work. Maaty considers the theme a last-ditch idea. Remaining closed or operating with conventional takeout and delivery "could not continue, he said. We were literally facing bankruptcy. Pre-pandemic, he said, takeout business accounted for only 5% to 10% of sales. I had been emphasizing that we need to increase that takeout business, but after the pandemic epidemic, I realized how important it was, he said. Coming into the warm weather, outdoor service maintaining social distancing and using disposable cutlery and cups seemed logical. The carhop vibe squared with his restaurants retro-'50s motif. We service them, give them a fresh, hot meal, and do everything [we used to], except theyll be sitting in their seat in their own car, said Maaty. The problem with takeout is that you get cold food by the time it gets home. Here, in the parking lot, we can modify food and offer refills. Complete service. The restaurants 24-hour service has been trimmed to 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Maaty said he trained his staff in proper hygiene. Its in his background. He arrived in the United States from Egypt as a 16-year-old in 1980 and started in the business as a dishwasher while studying pharmacy science at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. He practiced for about 10 years before investing $100,000 from his savings in the Exton Diner, on Route 100 across from the Uwclan Township building. He later renovated it and renamed it Bistro 24. In 2004, he opened Happy Days (complete with apostrophe) in a former Boston Market on Route 30 between Downingtown and Coatesville. Maaty said he was thinking of adding a large screen in the parking lot for a dinner-and-a-movie option. A sign outside proclaims This restaurant is owned & supervised by a health minded professional pharmacist. Business is catching on, he said. Friday afternoon, a blue Chevrolet Colorado pickup pulled in off the busy road and parked. Waitresses Kim Karolczak and Angeline Vega sprang into action, dropping off clip-on trays and disposable menus. Customers are asked to order by cellphone. Driver Audrey Lefever, a teacher from York, with Penn State student Samantha Beck riding shotgun and 7-year-old Frank Karolczak 4th in the backseat, ordered fish and chips, a grilled chicken Caesar wrap, and grilled cheese sandwich. (Frank Karolczak and Kim Karolczak, it turns out, are distant cousins.) Lefever explained that she had heard about Happy Days shift to drive-in service on Facebook, and decided to head over. I love this kind of thing, she said. The waitresses, wearing masks, checked back on the customers, keeping encounters at the car windows brief. Wearing the new uniform, makes the day that much more fun, Kim Karolczak said. Its much more comfortable, said Vega, who previously wore sweatpants in the dining room. Maaty thinks hes on to something, given the coronavirus likely long-term disruption of the restaurant business. For at least the next couple of years, this is going to be the trend, he said. Connecticut State Police on Monday strongly condemned the Minneapolis police officers involved in the death of George Floyd on Memorial Day, along with any others who might support their actions. If you wear a badge and arent appalled by that what you saw, please turn it in and find a new profession; we dont need you, read part of a long statement released after a weekend of demonstrations across the state and country. Law enforcement officials in many Connecticut cities and towns expressed solidarity with protesters throughout the weekend. In Stamford, the new police chief knelt Sunday alongside demonstrators for an eight-minute moment of silence, meant to symbolize the eight minutes former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyds neck. The Stamford chief, Tim Shaw, said Monday he wasnt planning on taking part in the protest, but Black Lives Matter organizers asked him to say a few words once activists reached the Stamford Police Station. Afterward, he took a knee with them. Everyone in law enforcement feels the same as the community, Shaw said Monday, adding that officers feel disgust over Floyds death. The police, theyre as angry as everyone else. Sundays protest sites included New Haven, Stamford, Norwalk, Waterbury and Bridgeport, as rallies took place all over the country to denounce police brutality. Locally, demonstrations continued Monday, including in Greenwich, where a group of officers knelt in front of the police station in support of marchers who chanted George Floyds name. The Greenwich Police Department abhors all forms of police brutality and any action that deprives the people we serve their Constitutional rights or due process of law, Greenwich Police Chief James Heavey said in a statement issued over the weekend. Most demonstrations in the state were peaceful, though a few resulted in arrests, and one in a confrontation with police. In New Haven, a crowd of about 1,000 demonstrated on city streets and Interstate 95 without incident Sunday. But a smaller group clashed with police later as they continued the protest outside police headquarters. Some were pepper sprayed as they tried to get into the building and called for Mayor Justin Elicker to come out. A protest on Route 8 in Bridgeport shut traffic for three hours Sunday. After state police issued three requests for protesters to clear the roadway or be arrested, two people agreed to be peacefully and respectfully charged said Brian Foley, spokesman for the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection. Foley called the demonstration peaceful, and said the pair would likely be charged with disorderly conduct. In Waterbury, 28 people were arrested, after a protest ended, for allegedly not leaving a street after police told them to move. Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo, who called the protest wonderful, said those arrested were not part of the group that organized the demonstration. Spagnolo, in a video message on the departments social media sites, said he was grateful for the officers and the work they did today. Im grateful that no citizens property has been damaged and no citizens have received injury. Throughout the state, law enforcement officials denounced the Minnesota officers. Keith L. Mello, Milford chief of police and president of the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association, called the images of Chauvin kneeling on Floyds neck beyond disturbing. (They) cast a stain over the law enforcement profession and the dedicated men and women who strive to protect and serve their communities with honor, he wrote in a statement. Of equal concern, he said, was the fact that other officers on the scene did not intervene to stop Chauvin. We are reminded that we are leaders in our communities, especially during a time of crisis. Our oath and our ethics require us to act whenever we are witnessing an unjust act, even by another police officer, he wrote. In Trumbull, Police Chief Michael Lombardo released a joint statement with Police Commission Chairman Raymond G. Baldwin, First Selectman Vicki Tesoro and Town Council Chairman Marybeth Thornton, denouncing the Minnesota officers. The practices seen in this incident are inconsistent with basic humanity and violate each individuals given rights and protections, read the statement. New Canaan Police Chief Leon Krolikowski also condemned the actions of police officers involved in Floyds death. The video footage of Mr. Floyds death was shocking, he said. The actions, as well as the inactions by the involved officers, were inexcusable. But the most forceful statement came from state police. To say we condemn this behavior is accurate, but still, the word condemn doesnt begin to come close to what were feeling, the statement read. We saw what you saw. We watched in disbelief as that individual calling himself a police officer kept his knee on the neck of a human being for almost nine minutes. It continued, Those police officers on scene, including those that stood around and did nothing, simply failed. They failed not just on a law enforcement level, but on a basic human level. The statement said the Minneapolis officers betrayed their oath to protect the community. The damage done from this is immeasurable and will ripple throughout our country, including our Connecticut communities, the statement read. Were disgusted that anyone wearing a police uniform would do what we all saw in that video. Were angry that the actions of a few will affect all of us. ignacio.laguarda@hearstmediact.com Stantec, a leading international professional services company in the design and consulting sector, said a consortium led by the company has won a contract from Egyptian Holding Company for Water and Wastewater (HCWW) to help improve access to sanitation services through wastewater infrastructure for communities in the country's Fayoum governorate. As per the deal, Stantec will act as the project implementation support and contract supervision consultant to manage the large-scale construction programme for expansion of wastewater treatment, water reuse capabilities and the system sewerage network. The Fayoum Wastewater Expansion programme, worth 456.5 million ($508 million), is being financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and co-financed by the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Unions Neighbourhood Investment Facility, and the Egyptian government. The governorate of Fayoum is in a rural, developing region about 90 km southwest of Cairo. It is in close proximity to Lake Qarun the third largest lake in Egypt and one of the most important tourist attractions in the country. In lesser populated areas of the region, coverage of sanitation services is low, and more than half of the communities are not connected to a centralized wastewater network, said Stantec in its statement. This lack of access results in raw sewage being discharged directly to the agricultural drains and Lake Qarun which is the areas main freshwater resource causing significant environmental, economic, and social harm, it added. As per the deal, Stantec will be responsible for design services related to network infrastructure and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), procurement support, project implementation support, development of a training plan, capacity building, contract management, and construction supervision services. Establishing system implementation and ongoing support to the HCWW and Fayoum Company for Water and Wastewater (FWWC) is key to this partnership, said the Canadian company. The Phase One of the programme will see expansion of sewer services in 119 underserved rural areas in Fayoum. This phase includes construction of four new WWTPs, expansion of seven, rehabilitation of 10, and decommissioning of six existing ones. It will also include building of 256 km of new pressurised rising mains, 2,334 km of sewer lines and 100 new sewage pumping stations. These measures will increase access to sanitation to 75.6 percent and benefit 700,000 people. The second phase will help an additional 41 underserved villages, with the potential to improve the lives of 240,000 more people bringing total sanitation access to 86 percent of the regions population. We are proud to lead this consortium to implement this EBRD-led program that promises to have a positive impact on the community of Fayoum, remarked Dr Murat Sarioglu, Operations Director and Project Director at Stantec. The Egyptian government and the development institutions have prioritized access to clean water, and we are honoured to leverage our experience and expertise in water and wastewater infrastructure engineering to provide greater access to sanitation services, support the growth of the region, and alleviate environmental and public health concerns, he added.-TradeArabia News Service Russian mans sentence for murder threats to judge upheld RAPSI, Eugeny Varlamov 18:44 02/06/2020 MOSCOW, June 2 (RAPSI) The Moscow City Court on Tuesday upheld sentence of a resident of town of Voronezh Mikhail Kvasov for murder threats to Moscow judge Stanislav Minin, RAPSI was told in the courts press office. In early March, Moscows Meshchansky District Court fined Kvasov to 270,000 rubles ($3,600 at the current exchange rate). Prosecutors earlier asked court to fine Kvasov 300,000 rubles ($4,000). The defendant pleaded not guilty. The man said he had published the incriminating statement in support of rallies and did not imply to threaten the judge. According to case papers, on September 5, 2019, an Instragram user with the nickname Chimera of All Russia published the judges photo and wrote that Minin had sentenced illegal rally activist Konstantin Kotov to 4 years in prison. Investigators claimed that between September 7 and 12, 2019, Kvasov having a criminal intent and knowing about public danger of his actions posted a comment to the publication calling to take part in rallies and promising to kill the judge. New Delhi, June 2 : The demand for Mother Dairy milk reduced during the lockdown amid the coronavirus scare though the demand for fruits and vegetables sold by Safal, its retail network in the segment, increased by 69 per cent in May compared with February, a top official said on Tuesday. Mother dairy had registered sale of 270 tonnes of fruits and vegetables in May, compared with 230 tonnes in April, and 200 tonnes in March, and 160 tonnes in February. Mother Dairy Managing Director Sangram Chaudhary told IANS that Safal had come to the rescue of Mother Dairy during the nationwide lockdown. He said that a 60 per cent decreased in demand for ice cream was registered since hotels, restaurants and other eateries were closed due to the lockdown. Overall sale of milk was still 10 per cent lesser due to absence of demand for buttered and flavoured milk products while milk sale had come down by 20 per cent in the initial days of the lockdown, he added. He said that the excess stock of milk was used to produce milk powder and other products. On the other hand, there was a considerable increase in the demand for fruits and vegetables sold by Mother Dairy. Mother Dairy, a wholly owned subsidiary of National Dairy Development Board, helped provide milk and its products, fruits and vegetables to the Delhi residents through its booths across the national capital, Chaudhary said. He admitted that it was a challenging task to procure milk during the lockdown, ensure its storage, pasteurisation, distribution and sale after sanitisation of booths and supply chains and sensitising the persons involved in the whole process. "This challenge is still there and Mother Dairy is still on the job as our milk supplies come from places even 2,000 km away," the officer pointed out. Chaudhary said that a milk special train arrived in Delhi from Tirupati twice a week, with each milk tanker carrying 42,000 litres of milk. Asked about the problems faced by dairy farmers in selling milk, he said there were problems during the initial stages of the nationwide lockdown but the process was now smooth and there was a 20 per cent increase in milk procurement by Mother Dairy. He said that an increase in sale of milk and other products would pick up as the reopening of hotels and restaurants had been allowed from June 8 in non-containment zones. Mother Dairy had registered a total turnover of Rs 10,500 crore during the 2019-20 fiscal. Chaudhary said that he was expecting a decrease of 7-8 per cent in business in the first quarter of this fiscal though the situation will improve with the reopening of the HoReCa (hotels/restaurants/caterers) segment which accounts for 20 per cent of the Mother Dairy revenues. (Pramod Kumar Jha can be contacted at pramod.jha@ians.in) Study in Chinese doctors shows mental toll of caring in the time of COVID-19 They worked in hospitals hundreds of miles from the epicenter of COVID-19. Their city of 24 million people locked down hard enough, and did enough testing, that it only had a few hundred cases of the disease. But hundreds of young Chinese doctors in a new study still experienced a sharp drop in mood, a rise in depression and anxiety symptoms, and a doubling of their fear of workplace violence, in just the first month of the coronavirus pandemic. The new findings, published in JAMA Network Open by an American and Chinese team, show in stark terms the potential mental toll of being a frontline healthcare worker in the time of COVID-19. The rise in symptoms among 385 first-year medical residents in Shanghai contrasts with data from members of the previous year's crop of residents, who took part in the same study from 2018 to 2019. Where this year's class saw sharp change across most measures of mental health and workplace violence during the first half of the training year, last year's class had stable scores at the same point in their training. Other research in Chinese and American residents has shown that the strain of first-year medical training is linked to a sharp rise in depressive symptoms over pre-residency scores. "Even before this pandemic, the levels of depression and anxiety symptoms among our healthcare workers were high and our findings indicate that they are getting worse," says Srijan Sen, M.D., Ph.D., the University of Michigan psychiatrist and neuroscientist who leads the Intern Health Study that yielded the data. "As it is clear that this pandemic will be with us for the foreseeable future, we need to prioritize the well-being of our healthcare workers, not only for themselves, but also for the patients that will need them in the coming months and year." Sen worked with colleagues from U-M's Michigan Neuroscience Institute, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, to gather and analyze the data. Weidong Li, M.D., Ph.D., co-first and co-corresponding author of the new paper and a professor at SJTU, notes that typically, late winter is a time of elevated moods in China, due to the Lunar New Year celebration. "Our findings indicate that the negative mental health effects of COVID-19 are not limited to physicians working at the center of the initial outbreak in Wuhan, but extend to other places like Shanghai, which is 500 miles away," he says. "With the numerous new cases spread worldwide, this has important implications for the way communities around the globe respond to this growing public health crisis." Li is the deputy director of the Brain Science and Technology Research Center, and vice dean of the Bio-X Institutes, at SJTU. Elena Frank, Ph.D., director of the Intern Health Study, notes that the data provide a strong reminder about the impacts of infectious disease outbreaks on both the physical and psychological health of healthcare workers. "It's easy to forget that they face many of the same additional stresses as the rest of us - concerns about elderly or at-risk family, loss of childcare - while simultaneously managing an increased clinical workload, and all while placing themselves and their families at greater risk of infection," she says. "The potential mental health consequences of confronting such enormous pressures cannot be overlooked." Unwitting sentinels of a pandemic's effects When the 385 doctors in the study volunteered for the research project last summer, they were about to begin the same intense, sometimes grueling training experience that marks the start of a medical career in many countries. A few weeks ago, data from earlier cohorts of residents was published as a preprint - a report that has not undergone peer review - by Sen and Li's colleagues. It shows a similar rise in depression symptoms happened in 7,000 first-year residents (also called interns) at more than 100 U.S. hospitals, and 1,000 Chinese first-year residents at 16 Shanghai and Beijing hospitals across three years of the study. Like study participants before them in the U.S. and China, members of the Shanghai intern class entering 12 hospitals in August 2019 agreed to track their mood daily on a smartphone app, and every few months answer standardized questionnaires about their mental health and whether they had experienced, observed or feared physical or verbal violence in their workplace. Little did they know that their data would give some of the clearest indications yet of the mental toll of being on the front line of a pandemic. The new study looks at changes in scores between the surveys that the residents took in October and November 2019, and the ones they took in January and February, as the pandemic reached its peak in China. It also measures changes in daily mood between those two quarters. Sen, who is also the associate vice president for research at U-M, and the Frances and Kenneth Eisenberg Professor of Depression and Neurosciences, has been involved in mental health programs for residents at Michigan Medicine, U-M's academic medical center. His decade-long study has focused on first-year residents because they all start and end their training year at the same time, and have similar experiences - making them an ideal study population for the question of how intense stress affects mental health. ### The research was made possible by a longstanding partnership between the U-M Medical School and SJTU. The study was funded by that partnership, and by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the Shanghai Education Commission Research and Innovation Program, and the Chinese government's 111 Project. In addition to Sen, Li and Frank, the study's authors are co-first author Zhuo Zhao, M.S., of the Michigan Neuroscience Institute; Lihong Chen, Ph.D., and Zhen Wang, M.D., of SJTU, and Margit Burmeister, Ph.D., of U-M. Sen and Burmeister are faculty in the Departments of Psychiatry and Computational Medicine & Bioinformatics at U-M, and members of MNI and the U-M Depression Center. Sen is also a member of the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. This story has been published on: 2020-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Ask Afrika has released its COVID-19 Tracker research results for 19 25 May 2020, which shows that President Cyril Ramaphosa enjoys a high level of trust among South Africans. The report further showed that there is a high level of distrust in Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. The Ask Afrika COVID-19 Tracker provides insight into various aspects of the pandemic, including government and business reputation. The research found that most people trust the President to lead the country during the lockdown and believe he is taking the lead to manage the country. This sentiment has, however, declined over the past four weeks, and more than 60% of South Africans want to hear from the President at least once a week. Further to this, 78% of people would like to receive frequent communication from Health Minister Zweli Mkhize. Consistently, more than 60% of people noted that the government is doing a good job in supporting its citizens during the lockdown, Ask Afrika said. Trust in ministers Ask Afrikas COVID-19 Tracker shows that President Ramaphosa has the highest level of trust while Dlamini-Zuma is the most distrusted. Only 8% of citizens surveyed said they completely distrust Ramaphosa, while 50% said they trust the President completely. When it came to Dlamini-Zuma, 25% said they completely distrust her while only 26% said they completely trust her. The research further shows that South Africans have more trust in Mkhize than other measured ministers Bheki Cele, Ebrahim Patel, and Dlamini-Zuma. The chart below provides an overview of Ask Afrikas findings related to the trust in President Cyril Ramaphosa and prominent National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) ministers. Martin Folsom and his mother have been in and out of homelessness since he was a child and throughout his four years in high school due to some unfortunate family circumstances. But in spite of his situation, he has become the top student in his class at Philip Randolph Career Academy in Jacksonville, Fla. Although he spent part of his youth living in shelters with his mother, he had the determination to serve as class president, in addition to keeping his studies a priority, according to FOX 32 News. His drive for the future kept him going, and his mom was there every step of the way to make sure his big dreams never faded. She has been the person that whenever I did end up getting upset or whenever I needed somebody to laugh with or talk to she was always there, she was always encouraging me, Folsom told FOX. Folsom plans to attend Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Georgia, in the fall. As far as I know Im the first person in my family to actually get a college degree, he said. Its been a rocky road, a lot of hardships," Folsom said. He also thanked everyone who helped him and his mother survive, expressing how much he owes to them. After college, he hopes to work for the FBI. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 NYPD officers detain a protester for being involved in looting a store in the Manhattan borough of New York City, on June 2, 2020. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters) 5 Police Shot During Violent Riots WASHINGTON/MINNEAPOLISAt least five police were hit by gunfire during violent protests over the death of a black man in police custody. Demonstrators set fire to a strip mall in Los Angeles, looted stores in New York City, and clashed with police in St Louis, Missouri, where four officers were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. An emotional St Louis police commissioner, John Hayden, said about 200 protesters were jumping up and down like crazy people, looting and throwing fireworks and rocks at officers. We had to protect our headquarters building, they were throwing fireworks on officers, fireworks were exploding on officers, he told reporters. They had officers with gas poured on them. What is going on? How can this be? Mr. Floyd was killed somewhere else and they are tearing up cities all across the country. A police officer was shot during protests in Las Vegas, police there said in a statement. Another officer was involved in a shooting in the same area, the police said. Officers were injured in clashes elsewhere, including one who was in critical condition after being hit by a car in the Bronx, New York City, police said. The interior of an Urban Outfitters store sits heavily damaged after a night of destruction and looting in lower Manhattan in New York City on June 1, 2020. (Scott Heins/Getty Images) President Donald Trump has condemned the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old who died after a policeman pinned his neck under a knee for nearly nine minutes in Minneapolis on May 25, and has promised justice. But, with marches and rallies having turned violent after dark each day in the past week, he said rightful protests could not be drowned out by an angry mob. Mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled, Trump said. If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them. The vandalized Lake Street/Midtown metro station after a night of protests and violence following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Television images showed crowds smashing windows and looting luxury stores along Fifth Avenue in Manhattan before the citys 11 p.m. curfew. Mayor Bill de Blasio said the curfew would be moved to 8 p.m. on Tuesday. Two police officers were struck by a car at a demonstration in Buffalo, New York, on Monday night. Officials said the driver and passengers were believed to be in custody. It was not clear whether the incident was intentional. In Hollywood, dozens of people were shown in television images looting a drug store. Windows were shattered at a nearby Starbucks and two restaurants. Autopsies A second autopsy ordered by Floyds family and released on Monday found his death was homicide by mechanical asphyxiation, or physical force that interfered with his oxygen supply. The report says three officers contributed to his death. Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneels on the neck of George Floyd, a handcuffed man who was pleading that he could not breathe, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 25, 2020. (Darnella Frazier via AP) The Hennepin County Medical Examiner later released autopsy findings that also called Floyds death homicide by asphyxiation. The county report said Floyd suffered cardiopulmonary arrest while being restrained by police and that he had arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease, fentanyl intoxication, and recent methamphetamine use. Derek Chauvin, the 44-year-old Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on Floyd, was arrested on third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges. Three other officers involved in the arrest have not been charged. By Jonathan Ernst and Brendan OBrien Reuters contributed to this report. Siddharth Vashisht aka Manu Sharma, who shot dead model Jessica Lal tending an unlicensed bar at a private party in south Delhi in 1999, was released from jail on Monday evening after the government accepted the recommendation of the Sentence Review Board. Sharma walked out of jail on Monday evening, hours after the Lt Governor Anil Baijal signed off on the recommendation of the seven-member board. Under the law, any convict who serves 14 years in prison without remission can be considered for early release if the person hasnt committed a heinous crime when he or she was out on parole. The board had earlier rejected his release, prompting Sharmas lawyer to approach the high court to secure his release. He told the high court in November 2019 that the board had rejected his request for early release on four occasions in an unfair and unlawful manner. Watch | Manu Sharma, who killed Jessica Lal in 1999, released from Delhis Tihar jail The court had asked the board to consider Sharmas case for release at its next board meeting. This meeting took place on May 11. Manu Sharma was accused of violating his parole conditions when he was released for two months in 2009, ostensibly to attend to his ailing mother in Chandigarh. A huge controversy erupted when his ailing mother was seen addressing a press conference in Delhi while the son was spotted in a Delhi nightclub where he got into another brawl. This one, involved the police commissioners son. As per his parole conditions, he should have been in Chandigarh. Sharma eventually returned to Tihar to serve the remainder of his life term 12 days before his parole was to end. Jessica Lal murder case Manu Sharma had pulled out his gun and shot Jessica Lal after she refused to serve another drink at the Qutub Colonnade party well past midnight in April 1999. He left with his friends soon after. Sharma eventually surrendered to the police about a week later amid massive outrage against the police and his father Venod Sharma, then a Congress leader. It was alleged that his father had exerted pressure to go soft on Manu Sharma. Sharma was acquitted by the trial court in February 2006, triggering sharp protests across the country. There were suggestions that some police officers had botched up the probe. The Delhi High Court, which in an unusual move, took up appeals against the conviction on its own to respond to the nationwide outrage. In a hard-hitting verdict that didnt spare the trial court either, the high court reversed the acquittal and pronounced Manu Sharma guilty in December 2006. Justices RS Sodhi and PK Bhasin held that the trial judges reasoning for acquitting Manu Sharma was immature, positively perverse, totally wrong and the result of non-application of mind. The Supreme Court upheld the order in 2010. Moved to open jail in 2018 Manu Sharma was moved to an open jail in 2018 that allowed him to work with a NGO outside the jail premises in view of his good conduct. Open-jail inmates are allowed to step out of prison gates and work every day. They cannot leave the city or spend time anywhere but the place of work mentioned in the transfer order. Forgiven, says Jessicas sister Jessica Lals sister Sabrina who had led fronted the legal battles for justice, told HT last month that she had forgiven Manu Sharma. It has been 21 years [since the incident].My fight was always for justice. He has served time for what he did. Now if he is free, it does not bother me much. It is fine. There comes a time when we have to move on. I have clearly moved on. One can only hope that he(Sharma) does not ever repeat what he did 21 years ago, he said. State Forest Rangers came to the rescue of several lost and injured hikers on trails recently in areas ranging from the Catskills to the Adirondacks. The following incidents took place from May 12 to 17. All information below was supplied by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Town of Chesterfield, Essex County Wilderness Rescue: On May 17 at 10:10 a.m., DECs Ray Brook Dispatch received a call from a group of hikers on Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain. The caller said a 16-year-old female in the group fell, hurt her ankle, and could not continue down the mountain. Forest Ranger Lt. Brian Dubay and Forest Rangers Sarah Bode, Marie Arnold, Robbi Mecus, and Jared Booth responded. At 2:20 p.m., Rangers placed the hiker from Chazy in a UTV and started down the mountain. At 2:45 p.m., the group was back to the trailhead and the hiker advised she would seek medical attention on her own for the ankle injury. Town of Schodack, Rensselaer County Wilderness Search/Rescue: On May 12, Forest Rangers Steve Jackson and John Gullen responded to a search for a missing 40-year-old man from Castleton-on-Hudson. The subject left his residence earlier that morning on an electric scooter and family members became worried when he hadnt returned. The family notified the Schodack Police Department and a search ensued. A family member found the mans scooter in a patch of woods between Carney and Van Hoesen Roads. The man was located a short time later, unable to move due to a disability. Emergency personnel set up a steep angle rope system to remove him from a steep drainage area, carried him out of the woods in a litter, and transported him to a local hospital for medical treatment. DECs Division of Law Enforcement assisted in the rescue along with New York State Police (NYSP), Rensselaer County Search and Rescue, Schodack, East Schodack, Castleton and Schodack Landing fire departments, Castleton and Valatie EMS, and other volunteers. Town of Hardenburgh, Ulster County Wilderness Rescue: On May 12 at 12:45 p.m., while patrolling Alder Lake, a hiker told Forest Ranger Joe Bink and Lt. Rob Morse that his wife had fallen along the trail around the lake and needed help. Ranger Bink headed down the trail, where he located the injured hiker from Brooklyn and determined she had an unstable lower right leg injury and needed to be carried out of the woods. Rangers brought in a vehicle and staged it at the Alder Lake Dam. Rangers Bink and Lt. Morse carried her out approximately 200 yards to the waiting vehicle. The subject was driven back to the trailhead to her vehicle. Ranger Bink bandaged the womans lower leg and she advised she would seek additional medical treatment on her own. Town of Bolton, Warren County Wilderness Rescue: On May 13 at 5:20 p.m., Warren County 911 transferred a call to DECs Ray Brook Dispatch from two hikers who became disoriented on the trail for Thomas and Cat mountains and needed assistance. The 76-year-old man and 69-year-old woman from Moreau stated that they intended to hike Thomas Mountain and return to their vehicle at the Route 11 trailhead. Recognizing they were lost with limited supplies, the hikers decided to call 911. Warren County 911 provided Rangers with coordinates that placed the pair south of Thomas Mountain, closer to Cat Mountain. Forest Ranger Hannah OConnor spoke to the couple on the phone and advised them to take the blue marked trail while Forest Ranger Marie Arnold proceeded on foot to intercept them. Ranger Arnold began from Edgecomb Pond and reached one of the hikers who told her the other had continued ahead north on the trail. Dispatch contacted the other hiker and, per Ranger Arnold, advised the subject to turn around and head back the way they came. Once reunited, Ranger Arnold escorted the pair back out to the trailhead where they were met by Ranger OConnor, who assisted them the rest of the way via an ATV. The couple was out of the woods by 8:57 p.m. Town of Colchester, Delaware County Wilderness Search: On May 13 at 8:30 p.m., Forest Rangers Joe Bink and Anastasia Allwine responded to a search for a party of seven hikers and two dogs lost in the Delaware Wild Forest. The group was not prepared to spend the night and did not have flashlights to navigate out of the woods on their own. GPS coordinates placed the hikers approximately one mile from the trailhead and they were instructed to stay where they were until Forest Rangers arrived. Forest Rangers Bink and Allwine hiked in, met up with the group at 11:10 p.m., and safely escorted them out of the woods a little after midnight. Town of Keene, Essex County Wilderness Rescue: On May 16 at 6:36 p.m., Essex County 911 transferred a call to DEC's Ray Brook Dispatch reporting a 20-year-old Syracuse man lost on Giant Mountain. The man was hiking with a group when he chose to head back down while his companions continued to the summit. The man reported that he was having difficulty following the trail and not prepared for the icy conditions. Essex County 911 provided coordinates that placed the hiker near Putnam Brook. Forest Ranger Robbi Mecus responded to the Roaring Brook Falls trailhead to assist the hiker but did not find him when he reached the location. Ranger Mecus requested a second attempt to get the missing man's coordinates, which placed him on a ridge west of Roaring Brook. Ranger Mecus located the hiker at 8:14 p.m., and escorted him back to the trail and out of the woods. Once back at the trailhead, the hiker was reunited with the rest of his group. Town of Arietta, Hamilton County Wilderness Rescue: On May 16 at 6:55 p.m., DEC's Ray Brook Dispatch received a call from a group of seven hikers requesting assistance after losing the trail while hiking to T Lake Falls and were requesting assistance. Dispatch advised the hikers to call Hamilton County 911 to get their coordinates, which placed them on Mill stream. Forest Ranger Melissa Milano responded to the trailhead for T Lake Falls and requested Dispatch to call the group and advise them to stay where they were. At 8:45 p.m., Ranger Milano made verbal contact, located the group, and escorted the group out of the woods by bushwhacking to the road where their vehicles were parked. The group was out of the woods by 11 p.m. Town of Chesterfield, Essex County Wilderness Rescue: On May 17 at 10:10 a.m., DEC's Ray Brook Dispatch received a call from a group of hikers on Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain. The caller said a 16-year-old female in the group fell, hurt her ankle, and could not continue down the mountain. Forest Ranger Lt. Brian Dubay and Forest Rangers Sarah Bode, Marie Arnold, Robbi Mecus, and Jared Booth responded. At 2:20 p.m., Rangers placed the hiker from Chazy in a UTV and started down the mountain. At 2:45 p.m., the group was back to the trailhead and the hiker advised she would seek medical attention on her own for the ankle injury. Town of Bolton Warren County Wilderness Rescue: On May 17 at 9:09 p.m., Warren County 911 transferred a call to DEC's Ray Brook Dispatch from a hiker separated from his hiking partner on the Cat and Thomas Trail. One hiker went further ahead and failed to meet up on Cat Mountain. After a brief FaceTime conversation, one of the hikers realized that the other, a 26-year-old man from Queensbury, was lost with no equipment or headlamp and only 30 percent left on his phone for a light. Forest Rangers Hannah O'Connor and Chuck Kabrehl responded to the trailhead and followed 911 coordinates that placed the missing hiker halfway along the ridge trail between Cat and Thomas mountains. The hiker was told to continue south along the trail to meet up with the Forest Rangers coming to assist him. At one point, the hiker became disoriented along the trail and again reached out for help. Rangers told the subject to remain in place. At 10:55 p.m., Rangers located the hiker and walked him out to the Edgecomb Pond Trailhead. Be sure to properly prepare and plan before entering the backcountry. Visit DECs Hike Smart NY and Adirondack Backcountry Information webpage for more information. MORE OUTDOORS How coronavirus syndrome is affecting young children is making NY rethink summer camp Canal Corporation: Large systems of NY canal system will be open by July 4 No camping will be allowed at DEC, NYS Parks campgrounds Memorial Day weekend Subscriber content preview WASHINGTON (AP) U.S. construction spending fell 2.9% in April, with broad declines across all building activity as shutdowns hobbled projects and workers were told to stay home. The Commerce Department said that the April decline was the biggest monthly drop since October 2018. It followed a basically flat reading in March. . . . More than 2,000 people took to the streets of Perth yesterday to express solidarity with the mass US demonstrations triggered by the brutal police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The rally was the first in a series of events across the country that are also being called in opposition to state killings in Australia, with a particular focus on Aboriginal deaths in custody. Demonstrators in Perth protest state killings (Photo: Twitter / ElastonHabbo) Some demonstrators in Perth stated they had been spurred to take action by Prime Minister Scott Morrisons assertion that the US protests, which have expanded into over 70 cities, had little relevance to conditions in Australia. Speaking on national radio yesterday morning, Morrison declared: As upsetting and terrible that the murder that took place was, and it is shocking, that also just made me cringe, I just think to myself how wonderful a country is Australia. Asked about protests in Australian cities, most of which are taking place this weekend, Morrison stated: Theres no need to import things happening in other countries here to Australia. Australia is not the United States. Other ministers in the government, which has close ties to the US administration of President Donald Trump, have declined to comment when asked about the brutal police crackdown on the American demonstrations. The Labor Party opposition is also saying virtually nothing about the biggest news story in the world. This is not only the result of the unconditional support of the major parties for the US-Australia alliance, and for all of Washingtons predatory wars and military preparations, including those directed against China in the Asia-Pacific region. It is also bound up with fears over the fragility of the social and political situation within Australia, amid mass unemployment resulting from the crisis exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, and widespread discontent. The reaction expresses nervousness within the political establishment that the powerful social struggle in the US is resonating among Australian workers and youth. They know that the underlying causes of the upheavals in the US, including mounting anger over unprecedented social inequality, the continuous build-up of police powers and the dominance over society of a tiny corporate and financial elite are as present in Australia as elsewhere. Protesters at the Perth demonstration (Photo: Twitter / ElastonHabbo) The event in Perth was among the largest held in the city over recent years, despite being called at short notice on a weeknight. The potential for the emerging movement to grow rapidly has also been revealed by the reaction on social media. On Facebook, almost 8,000 people have indicated that they will be attending the Melbourne rally this Saturday, while 11,000 more have expressed interest. Thousands are supporting demonstrations in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide. Protesters in Perth marched through the citys central business district in the early evening. They chanted slogans including I cant breathe in reference to Floyds last words as a police officer suffocated him by pressing his knee to the prone mans neck. Demonstrators carried homemade placards, with statements including: Respect existence or expect resistance, Dismantle power structures of oppression and The government does not care! We the people must help each other! Many directly challenged the official claims that Australia is exempt from the rising tide of police violence and oppression internationally, with one sign declaring: Australia is not innocent and another 400+ dead in custody. Justice? The latter was a reference to the 432 Aboriginal people who have died in custody since the 1987-1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, which served as an official white-wash. There are clear parallels between a number of the killings and the brutal murder of Floyd. The family of David Dungay, a 26-year-old Aboriginal man who died in Sydneys Long Bay jail in 2015, have noted that both men said the same last words as they were being attacked by police: I cant breathe. Dungay, who suffered from diabetes and schizophrenia, was set upon in his cell by five officers, because he was eating a packet of biscuits. They brutally restrained him and smothered his face in a pillow, while a nurse administered sedatives. Dungay complained that he could not breathe 12 times. No one has been held to account for his death. Dungays nephew Paul Francis-Silva told the media this week that he couldnt really watch the video [of Floyds death] all the way throughthey both died in a similar way. Addressing the US protesters, he stated: My thoughts really go out to the family and everyone on the streets in the USA. My solidarity is with them because I do know the pain they are feeling. Other recent heinous crimes include the fatal police shooting of 19-year-old Aboriginal man Kumanjayi Walker at his familys house in the Northern Territory town of Yuendumu last November, and the September killing of 29-year-old Joyce Clarke outside her Western Australian home. Neither were posing a threat to the police when they were killed. Only yesterday, a police officer attacked a 16-year-old Aboriginal boy in inner-city Sydney, violently throwing him to the ground. The boy and his friends were reportedly being questioned merely because they were spending time with each other in public, a common occurrence for Aboriginal youth. The 16-year-old, who had committed no crime, was taken to hospital with a bruised shoulder, chipped teeth and other injuries. Footage of the assault has been viewed by tens of thousands. Organisers of the Australian protests have heavily promoted the US Black Lives Matter movement. It presents US police shootings as an exclusively racial issue. This serves to cover up the underlying class issues and promote the big business Democratic Party, which has itself overseen the militarisation of the police and bears direct responsibility for countless police killings. Claims that police violence in Australia is solely the result of racism directed against Aboriginals is no less false. Australian police, who are also saturated with fascistic sentiments as their US counterparts, are undoubtedly trained to brutalise Aboriginal people. But this is a function of their class roleto repress workers and young people, defend the capitalist state and guarantee the wealth and privileges of a corporate oligarchy. Aboriginal workers are disproportionately affected because they are the most oppressed section of the working class, condemned by successive capitalist governments, Labor and Liberal alike, to live in poverty, without access to decent healthcare, housing and other social necessities. Their plight, however, is the most graphic expression of broader attacks on the social and democratic rights of the working class. Young people of all backgrounds are routinely harassed and targeted by the police in the working-class suburbs of the major cities. The common denominator of virtually all victims of police violence, moreover, is that they are poor or mentally-ill. A 2013 Australian Institute of Criminology study found that police fatally shot 105 people between 1989 and 2011. At least 42 percent of the victims suffered a mental illness. The most common issue was schizophrenia, accounting for 59 percent. Recent tragic examples include: The 2015 fatal shooting of Courtney Topic, a 22-year-old in Western Sydney, with major mental issues. Police confronted her as she was walking down a street, dazed and carrying a knife. They shot her within 41 seconds, with witnesses stating that she did not pose any threat. The August 2017 killing of Ian Fackender, a schizophrenic man who was shot after police found him at home, lying in bed with a sword nearby. The fatal shooting of Todd McKenzie, a 40-year-old man diagnosed with schizophrenia, last August. He had been seen on his verandah holding a knife. He was shot dead by five officers who burst into his house. As in the US, the fight against police violence requires a rejection of identity politics, which serve to divide the working class and cover-up the responsibility of the capitalist system. The pseudo-left and racial organisations promoting black nationalism speak for affluent layers of the upper middle-class. They habitually promote the Labor Party, which has played a central role in boosting police powers and numbers. As the WSWS wrote on Saturday: The eruption of mass demonstrations of workers and youth of all races triggered by the brutal murder of Floyd has given expression to a tremendous social solidarity, which belies the racial narrative. It is not a question of black against white, but the working class against the rich. This is a tremendous step forward. SOLON, Ohio, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As a leader in Northern Ohio's commercial HVAC & building services industry, GARDINER today announced plans to advance its commitment to facility health & wellness in the region by joining the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), making them the first member company based in Greater Cleveland and one of 65 member companies in the United States. GARDINER is the first member of the IWBI based in Greater Cleveland GARDINER monitors over 600 facilities from its offices in Solon, OH As a Cornerstone member, GARDINER will work with clients across the region to leverage the evidence-based strategies of the world's leading health-focused building standard the WELL Building Standard (WELL) to support and enhance the well-being of the people within local facilities of all types. "Clients have looked to GARDINER for decades for help in dealing with challenges in local buildings like hospitals, K-12 schools, universities, municipal facilities and office buildings," said Todd Barnhart, President of GARDINER. "In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone designing, constructing or operating a building is looking for ways to measurably improve their building's ability to best support the health and wellness of the people in it." WELL is focused on the ways that buildings can improve comfort and generally enhance, rather than compromise, health and wellness. Delivered by IWBI, WELL is a performance-based rating system for measuring, certifying, and monitoring features of our buildings that impact human health and wellness, through Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Movement, Thermal Comfort, Sound, Materials, Mind and Community. "Joining IWBI is another way that GARDINER can help lead the industry in Northern Ohio," said Barnhart. "By committing to WELL, we can help local buildings take advantage of research-driven, evidence-based strategies in a practical way that demonstrates real-world results and helps our clients keep their employees, customers, students or patients as safe and healthy as possible. We're proud to be part of it." As part of the program, GARDINER's staff of 225 local associates, including over two dozen degreed engineers, will be trained on the program's concepts and standards using the extensive IWBI educational resources, including the WELL AP (Accredited Professional) program. "Since the first WELL projects, we have continued to build the momentum towards a global transformation that puts people at the focus of a healthier future," said IWBI Chairman and CEO Rick Fedrizzi. "The IWBI membership community is passionate and united around their efforts to elevate wellness in their everyday work, and we are excited to have each of them on this journey." For more information about the International WELL Building Institute and WELL Certification, visit http://www.wellcertified.com. To learn more about GARDINER, visit www.whgardiner.com About GARDINER GARDINER is a full service HVAC, energy services and professional building services company serving Northern Ohio's commercial, industrial and institutional facilities, engineers and contractors since 1962. More than 2,500 clients in Northern Ohio trust GARDINER to solve their building comfort, reliability, air quality, energy, facilities planning, and project funding challenges. To learn more call 440-248-3400 or visit, www.whgardiner.com. About International WELL Building Institute The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) is leading the global movement to transform our buildings and communities in ways that help people thrive. The WELL v2 pilot is the recently launched version of its popular WELL Building Standard, which will continue to be offered to the market, along with the WELL Community Standard pilot, a district scale rating system that sets a new global benchmark for healthy communities. Media Contact: Dan Babic 440-248-3400 [email protected] SOURCE GARDINER We're not even halfway through 2020 and we're ready for the year to die. Here it is June 1st, the first day of Pride Month in the 50th anniversary year of San Francisco Pride, and while we want to be all rainbows and sunshine, it's virtually impossible to summon our inner joy in the midst of so much violence and destruction across the country. As if it weren't tough enough to be sheltering in place through a global pandemic with people sick and dying and all our livelihoods on thin ice, now we have looting and a curfew, too, which is further hurting already struggling small businesses. Our Pride parade and events have been canceled, and our local LGBTQ community is reeling from the loss and impending threat to its cultural landmarks; meanwhile our communities of color are wrongfully targeted and rightfully enraged as they continue in a struggle that's gone on far too long. We need to protest. We need to be vigilant, peaceful, productive; to educate, and to learn how to get better at being antiracist, everyday, all the time. At 7x7, we are looking to our Bay Area community for inspiration and ideas on how to do all these things; we hope you will leave your suggestions in comments or messages on Instagram or Facebook. Please tell us how we can better provide you with the information you need now, and how our content can be more inclusive and more supportive of every Bay Area person. As we prepared today to kick off our annual bonanza of San Francisco Pride content, the moment felt...wrong. The timing, it seemed, could be not be worse for a fabulous celebration, however virtual it must now be. But then again, Pride, in San Francisco and everywhere else, was born of a fight for liberation. In late June 1969, the Stonewall riots were a reaction to unjust police harassment of queer people. It was the beginning of a movement, and we've marked its historic occasion every June since. The Black Lives Matter movement got a similar start; SF author and activist K.M. Soehnlein wrote articulately and succinctly about the connection on Monday. Here in SF, protest, commemoration, and celebration go hand in hand. We can raise our voices in outrage and sorrow, and we can also raise them to remember where we've all come from and what we have in common. We could all use a kumbaya moment. We hope you'll take the time this month to celebrate and support our LGBTQ community, which has contributed so much cultural richness to our region. There will be no parade, no floats, so streamers, and glitter, but there are still plenty of ways to honor the occasion. 7x7 contributing writer Matt Charnock has put together a wonderful list of ways to engage, connect, reflect, donate and, yes, party just a little bit for this 50th anniversary Pride Month. Look out for much more Pride coverage soon on 7x7.com. Chloe Hennen Police announced to the crowd that they were trespassing and that this is now an unlawful assembly." "We will not allow the destruction of property. We will not allow violence toward officers or citizens, the announcements continued. If you do not leave now, force will be used against you and you will be subject to arrest. An announcement that this is your final warning sent most of the protesters out of the parking lot and back to the sidewalk along Memorial Drive. In social media posts, the Police Department urged residents to stay away from the area, saying: "This is no longer considered a peaceful assembly and there are several agitators mixed in with the crowd. Please avoid this area as vehicle traffic is not possible at this time" There was some disagreement among protestors who came to fight and those trying to keep the demonstration peaceful. A man who apparently was an agitator torn down a road side in the median, and peaceful protestors knelt in the same median. Police closed both northbound and southbound traffic on Memorial Drive north of 71st Street while the protesters were in the area. Gov. Kate Brown is sending 100 Oregon State Police troopers and 50 Oregon National Guard soldiers to Portland to assist with quelling violent protests that have rocked the city for three straight nights. Brown said the National Guard troops would be unarmed and perform support roles such as traffic control, medical aid, and arrest processing that will free up more police officers to patrol the streets. "You don't defuse violence by putting soldiers on our streets," Brown said. "That is exactly what President Trump wants. Trump wants governors to deploy the National Guard as a show of force to intimidate the public." In a conference call with governors on Monday, Trump urged more aggressive action against violent protestors. Most of you are weak, Trump said, according to press reports. The protests have been over the death of George Floyd, a black man, while in custody of Minneapolis police on May 25. A videotape surfaced showing Floyd, handcuffed and lying on the street, being restrained by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, who pressed his knee into Floyd's neck. Floyd cried that he couldn't breathe. In some cities, massive peaceful gatherings were followed by a small percentage of protestors who burned buildings and police cars, looted stores and attacked police. Portland was among the cities where crowds took to the streets Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and U.S. Attorney for Oregon Billy Williams held a press conference Monday morning to renew the call for Brown to send in the National Guard. This has to stop, Williams said. In order for that to happen in the city of Portland, we need help. We need more help. Brown agreed to send the 50 state troopers, equivalent to about 25% of all troopers in Oregon, along with the National Guard, to backstop Portland-area law enforcement against what she said were a small number of people bent on violence. Each trooper or soldier would perform support roles that would free up local law enforcement to send more officers into the streets. In Oregon, demonstrations in Eugene and Salem on Saturday also began peacefully, but ended with some smashing windows and looting stores. A demonstration in Bend on Saturday was peaceful. Other protests have taken place in Klamath Falls and Medford. Black leaders in the Portland area argued that the National Guard's presence on the street would only inflame the situation. Nkenge Harmon Johnson, leader of the Urban League of Portland, told Willamette Week it was a cure worse than the problem. "The curfew was a challenge to people in Portland," Johnson said. "You saw how they reacted. Putting the National Guard on the streets just escalates the challenge." The vision of troops in military dress with military weapons on the streets of Portland was something Portland Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty would not accept. "We are not going to have martial law," she said. It took assurances that the National Guard would be mostly behind the scenes, unarmed, for her to support the move and take part in Brown's teleconference. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 3 Audrey Bone was devastated as she watched the home she has lived in all her life burn to the ground Saturday. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 2/6/2020 (597 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us Audrey Bone was "devastated" as she watched the home she has lived in all her life burn to the ground Saturday. The elder, who lives at Keeseekoowenin Ojibway First Nation, lost everything in the fire. Elder Audrey Bone lost her home to fire at Keeseekoowenin Ojibway First Nation after calls for help went unaswered, (Submitted) But even more devastating, there was no help to be found that Saturday afternoon. Bone said the fire, which broke out sometime in the afternoon, began in a camper connected to the house. She called the RCMP first, thinking theyd be able to get a fire truck to the reserve as quickly as possible. She then started calling around the reserve, hoping shed get some help to put out the camper fire before the house was affected. She couldnt reach anybody. "But it caught really fast," she said. "It was right beside the house." Bone was alone at the home with her granddaughter and a baby, Bones great-grandchild, when the fire broke out. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Elder Audrey Bone watched a blaze consume her home and everthing in it at Keeseekoowenin Ojibway First Nation the afternoon of May 30. (Submitted) The RCMP arrived right away, Bone said, but the Strathclair fire department part of the Rural Municipality of Yellowhead refused the call. "The one (RCMP) who took the report from me, he said he felt really bad. That shouldnt have happened, he said. Ive never, ever heard of a fire department refusing to help, in an emergency like that," Bone recounted. "They probably could have saved my house if someone had come and done something right away." The RCMP confirmed the Yellowhead detachment attended Bones call at 3 p.m. "One of the officers did speak with a fire chief from a neighbouring municipality in regards to the fire but they did not attend," said Sgt. Paul Manaigre, an RCMP media relations officer. "We are not in a position to speak on the actions taken by the neighbouring fire departments as you will need to reach out to the municipality directly." The Sandy Lake fire department was not notified, said fire chief Chad Davies, adding: "My understanding is they tried to get Strathclair and Shoal Lake." Rick Eastcott is the fire chief for both those communities. He told The Sun he would not comment, but provided Rural Municipality of Yellowhead Mayor Merv Starzyks cellphone number. The Sun could not reach him by deadline. "Our fire truck eventually came, but the house was already burned by that time," Bone said of the communitys emergency response vehicle. "The truck is so old, I guess they have a hard time getting it going. It broke down after they drained all the water out." Bone said the fire was still smouldering at that point. Larry Beaton, Bones son, said the house would have been saved if somebody had responded. He said he was just leaving work in Erickson when he got the call from a family member about the fire. "The local (Keeseekoowenins) fire truck only arrived about 40 minutes after I got home," Beaton said. The drive from Erickson to Keeseekoowenin takes approximately 20 to 25 minutes. "It had a full tank of water," Chief Norman Bone said about the reserves truck. "But by the time we got there, the house was in full flame already. We were in the middle of a funeral. We were in a procession to the graveyard." Chief Bone said a new fire truck to replace the old one is on the agenda. "Well be discussing that," he said. For now, Audrey Bone is staying at her daughters place since there are no extra houses at Keeseekoowenin. She will also be spending time at her medicine camp adjacent to Riding Mountain National Park, where she teaches in the summers. Audrey Bones niece, Kathi Preston, put out a call on Facebook after the fire, asking for help with clothes and other essentials. She can reached at kathi1971@icloud.com. Preston also has information about donations being accepted at Urban Circle Training Centre in Winnipeg, where Bone also works. mletourneau@brandonsun.com Michele LeTourneau covers Indigenous matters for The Brandon Sun under the Local Journalism Initiative, a federally funded program that supports the creation of original civic journalism. Apostle Johnson Suleman of Omega Fire Ministries has promised to give the sum of N1million to anyone willing to provide reliable information to arrest the perpetrators of the rape and murder of Vera Uwaila Omozuwa, a 100-level Microbiology student of the University of Benin, UNIBEN. Katherine Heigl shared a series of Instagram posts about racial injustice and is thinking of how she would explain everything to her black daughter, Adelaide, whom she and her husband, Josh Kelly, adopted in 2012. Katherine Heigl shares her thoughts on racial injustice. The mother of three said that she usually does not use social media to express her thoughts, but now, she could not sleep because what is boggling her mind is how she would tell her daughter about racial injustice? Heigl ays in her bed in the dark and weeps for every mother who owns a beautiful divine black child who has no choice but to extinguish a piece of their beloved baby's spirit and keeps them in a country where everyone else is sleeping soundly. She said that she has far too long to truly internalize the reality of the evil, despicable truth of racial injustice because she has a black daughter and a Korean daughter. Her sister is Korean, and so are her nephews and niece. Read also: Thomas Rhett and Lauren Akins Proudly Stand Up for Racial Injustice Katherine Heigl is in a rage about racial injustice After what happened to George Floyd's incident, Katherine Heigl is thinking of her family and all the unjust killings of black people. These events have turned her fear into rage. She said she is looking at her daughter, her sister, nephews, niece, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor. She said that there could be hundreds, thousands, or even millions more that they have not heard about, and after looking at them, her fears and warm sorrows burst into flames of rage. Heigl went on to say that besides Derek Chauvin, who attacked Floyd on his neck with his knees, all of the police officers who were present during the George Floyd incident should be accountable to give justice to all the black people. She said that she wants them to pay for the price that they did, and she wants it to be harsh, painful, with permanent consequences for the evil acts and behaviors to scare all the racist people who are still clinging unto their small, stupid minded hate. Katherine Heigl wants people who do social injustice to pay for their sins. Heigl shared that there was one time when she tried to change the mindset of a racist, but now she wants to show them through example that they are wrong, and she does not care anymore. All Heigl wants is for them to be all scared by the consequences that Officer Chauvin's actions have made. She wants them to be afraid to "breathe in the direction" of a black man and woman, and to shake with fear at night, thinking that what happened to Chauvin may happen to them. She also said that she wants Chauvin to be an example of the right way to treat a racist. Katherine Heigl concluded that she wants racial injustice to end today and forever. Read also: The 2010 Mystery Case of a Missing Seven-Year-Old Child HOLYOKE Police Chief Manuel Febo and other public officials joined a crowd of more than 1,000 in a march against racism and police brutality as waves of demonstrations continued across the country Tuesday following the recent death of George Floyd during an arrest in Minnesota. The march went from City Hall to a parking lot at Heritage State Park across the street from the citys police headquarters on Appleton Street. The crowd filled High Street, chanting dont shoot and black lives matter" along the way. The march was organized by members of the Puerto Rican communities in Holyoke and Springfield. Floyd, 46, died after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee on the handcuffed mans neck for about nine minutes. Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Protesters also said they were marching in remembrance of others, including Ahmaud Arbery, who was shot to death by a father and son while jogging near Brunswick, Georgia. Puerto Ricans across the U.S. stand in solidarity with the Black community, organizers said in an event announcement. In a statement published to Facebook Monday, Febo condemned the actions of the Minnesota police officers, and said the department understands the sorrow, pain, and anger that is being felt across the country. First and foremost, the Holyoke Police Department will never support or tolerate any officer who wears the uniform to perpetrate acts of brutal force and/or violence against anyone based on their race, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity, Febo wrote. We take pride in maintaining the utmost professionalism and dignity in serving our community. Our job as Police Officers is to protect, serve and preserve lives at all cost. His statement continued: The actions of the four Police officers in Minneapolis are infuriating, and have rightfully created distrust in the community. The Holyoke Police Department is here for you and we will not stand for such actions. We want to remind our community we will continue to be committed to protecting life and serving those who live, visit and or work in our community. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Mr. Floyd and all of those who have been affected by this senseless tragedy. I remain committed to doing the work necessary to continue to build trust and partnership in our community. Holyoke protest against racism and police brutality Posted by MassLive on Tuesday, June 2, 2020 Floyds death has inspired protests across the nation and around Massachusetts. In Northampton Monday hundreds turned out for a march from Sheldon Field to the police station, where Chief Jody D. Kasper knelt in a show of unity with the crowd. The police department said a small group of people engaged in vandalism. A protest in Springfield last week drew a hundreds, but another scheduled for Monday evening saw fewer than a half dozen in attendance. Thousands marched Sunday in Boston, where peaceful protests were followed by dozens of arrests after night fell. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said monuments were damaged and sticks, bottles and fireworks were thrown at officers. A number of police vehicles were damaged and one was lit on fire. "People are focused on policing," Perry said. "But this is much broader. This is about a fatigue of policy violence in all areas of life." The underlying attitude that lead a cop to kneel on the neck of a person in custody so cavalierly is the same attitude that corporate executives have, as reflected in the disparate economic outcomes. Brookings fellow Andrew M. Perry Nationwide, blacks have enjoyed a more uneven recovery from the last great economic jolt, the Great Recession, compared to white populations. In terms of household net worth - the median for white households of $US171,000 is about 10 times greater than for black households $US17,150 in recent years. The disparities are clear in the places that erupted in riots over the weekend. In New York, where looters laid waste to one of the world's most storied commercial districts, only 32 per cent of black residents own homes - less than half the percentage for white residents. In the San Francisco Bay area, where rioters ransacked stores, banks and a car dealership, only 28 per cent of black residents have college degrees, compared to 61 per cent of their white counterparts. In Louisville, where police and national guard forces fatally shot a restaurant owner after protests turned violent, the median household income for black residents is $US35,000, compared to $US62,000 for whites. "People of colour have less liquidity and less savings," said Han Lu, a policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project. "This is centuries of structural racism in the economy in education, in housing and other areas that produces a radical racial wealth gap." Hardest hit by the pandemic There are already signs of the ways that the coronavirus is adding to that economic burden. While the April unemployment rate for whites has risen to 14.2 per cent, the rate for blacks and Hispanics are 16.7 per cent and 18.9 per cent, respectively, according to US Labor Department statistics released last month. "Black workers are less able to weather such a storm because they have fewer earners in their families, lower incomes, and lower liquid wealth than white workers," the Economic Policy Institute wrote in a report Monday. Economists predict that as job losses from the pandemic continue to mount, the eventual recovery will be a steeper road for black Americans. "The jobs that have been affected the most - like leisure and hospitality - are in industries that have a disproportionate share of blacks," said William M. Rodgers III, a professor of public policy and chief economist at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. Adding to the economic pain, black Americans are underrepresented among those receiving unemployment insurance, a disparity that some economists have said is due to the difficulty that those who work in more informal or sporadic work capacities. Black women faced the largest drop in employment according to one frame economists use to gauge work levels, the employment population ratio, which measures the people who are working out of an entire group. Black women went from 58.4 per cent employment in this measurement in February to 47.4 per cent in April - a drop of 11 per cent, according to the Economic Policy Institute. "When I saw the numbers I was not surprised to see blacks, particularly black women, bearing a major brunt of this recession," Rodgers said. People are focused on policing. But this is much broader. This is about a fatigue of policy violence in all areas of life. Andrew M. Perry Rodgers is currently part of a commission that is advising New Jersey's Governor Pat Murphy, a Democrat, on how to reopen the state. He warned of another cascade of layoffs that could disproportionately affect minority workers as state budgets are winnowed down from the crisis. "There is going to be a second hit economically if the federal government doesn't help states," he said. "The public sector is where many women and minorities got toe hold in the middle class." Loading The commission's work was first focused on restoring consumer confidence - no small feat in the middle of an economic drag that won't fully abate until there is a vaccine or treatment, experts agree. William J. Collins is an economic historian at Vanderbilt University who has examined the effects of the 1960s riots on the labour market. He said that riots were rightfully understood in the context of financial issues, but that they didn't always correspond perfectly to local conditions like unemployment and other economic strife. "In the 60s, it didn't seem to play out that way - they weren't in places where income was lowest and unemployment was highest," he said. But he said riots were a palpable expression of discontent and resentment. Update [June 3 9am Beijing Time ]: According to a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province tested 9,899,828 people between May 14 and June 1. No confirmed cases were found, and 300 asymptomatic cases were found and quarantined. Negative! That was the good news that Yang Taizhen, a 96-year-old Wuhan citizen, got from her family when they told her the results of her nucleic acid test on May 23. Though Yang has not been out of her apartment since the community lockdown was introduced, the community still arranged for her to take a test out of safety concerns. The government is doing a great thing and being responsible for all its citizens, Yang said. About two weeks ago, Wuhan, the former epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in China, launched a citywide campaign to test all 11 million of its residents in ten days after six new cases emerged in a residential community earlier in May, breaking a 35-day streak of zero cases in the city. The testing drive aims to better understand the number of asymptomatic cases or people who show no clear symptoms despite carrying the virus. From May 15 to May 24, samples were taken from more than 9 million residents and over 6.5 million have been tested, with 218 asymptomatic cases being identified, according to the Wuhan Health Commission. On May 22, more than 10 percent of the citys population, or 1.47 million citizens, were tested in a single day. Determined to leave no person behind, the city has set up 231 sampling sites, searching for and testing residents who were left out of the initial drive. As of May 31, a total of 320 asymptomatic carriers in Wuhan have been put under quarantine and their close contacts were being closely tracked, according to the citys health commission. Race against time Residents take nucleic acid tests at a testing post set up at a primary school in Dongxihu District in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, May 15, 2020. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu) Processing tests for a city of around 10 million is no easy task, and communities are doing their best to ensure peoples safety. Most of the tests are conducted outdoors in residential communities, with residents being kept more than a meter apart to avoid cross-infection. Volunteers and community workers are nearby to maintain order, and the medical workers change their gloves for every test. Medical workers also paid door-to-door visits to those unable to make it to the testing sites, such as the elderly and disabled people. Locals showed great support for the tests, partly because it was free of charge. The total cost, which is at 900 million yuan (126 million U.S. dollars), is being shouldered by the government. To increase testing capacity, authorities used a batch testing method, which involves pooling samples together to be tested in batches, only carrying out individual tests if a batch proves positive. Experts pointed out that the method works best in places with low infection rates. Batch testing is a more economical and efficient way in areas with an infection rate of less than 1 percent, said Peng Zhiyong, ICU director of Zhongnan Hospital in Wuhan. Residents line up for nucleic acid tests at a testing post set up at a primary school in Dongxihu District in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, May 15, 2020. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu) Since the testing campaign began, the local health authority has been releasing the number of new asymptomatic infections every single day on its official website. For the public, open and transparent data sharing is an important way to address their concerns, said an official from the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention. In addition to the total number of infections, citizens have been able to get access to personal results since May 22 on WeChat, one of Chinas leading social messaging apps. Many residents have posted their own results in chat groups or Moments, not only to share their excitement at being healthy, but also to ease their neighbors worries. Wang Liying, a local resident living in Wuchang District, felt relieved after seeing her neighbors test results. My little grandson is seven months old and cant wear a mask. I didnt dare to take him out in the past few months. Now I feel its safe to take him out, she said. Mass tests, increased confidence Citizens shop in a supermarket in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province. (Photo/Peoples Daily) Like Wang, more and more citizens are going out after the testing campaign. The city has seen life gradually return to normal, with the hustle and bustle of normal times returning to public places. According to local health authorities, testing has been carried out on all employees at the citys major supermarkets and restaurants, including more than 55,000 people. As the epidemic has taken a heavy toll on businesses in Wuhan, the citywide testing has helped increase citizens willingness to consume. In addition, nearly 60,000 employees from the public transportation sector, including bus, subway, airport and railway corporations, have completed the tests, with none testing positive. The gruelling ten-day battle is no doubt a shot in the arm for Wuhan citizens, with many expressing their increased confidence in the gradual resumption of work and production and restoration of normal order in their lives. After the testing drive, the number of people on the streets has increased significantly. We feel more secure when going shopping and going to work, said local resident Mrs. Qian. A citizen takes a photo on a bridge in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province. (Photo/Xinhua) The testing campaign in Wuhan is a very difficult task, but it is necessary, said Zeng Yixin, vice-minister of the National Health Commission. Expanding the scope of nucleic acid testing is being done not only to protect peoples health, but also to better restore social and economic order. Lu Zuxun, a public health professor at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, said the mass testing effort will help uncover potential sources of infection and reduce risks as the city further resumes work, production and schooling, demonstrating its determination and ability to contain the virus. As the COVID-19 rampage continues globally, Wuhans testing drive can provide other countries with more anti-virus experience, he added. When three Bolivian kids found themselves face to face with a black widow spider, they let their imaginations get the better of them. Instead of giving the dangerous spider plenty of space, the brothers each allowed it to bite them in hopes that theyd become superheroes, like Spider-Man. Alarmingly, their parents had to take them to the hospital for emergency treatment for the potentially deadly venom. The three unnamed brothers, aged 12, 10, and 8, from the town of Chayant in Potosi, Bolivia, were out grazing goats, while their mom was collecting firewood, when they came across the black widow in May 2020. What happened next was relayed by the Bolivians Ministry of Healths chief of epidemiology Virgilio Pietro, as reported by Telemundo. (Illustration Sari ONeal/Shutterstock) Pietro wanted to share the incident as a warning for parents to be careful, because for children everything is real, movies are real, dreams can be real, and they are the illusion of our lifetime, he said. According to the chief of epidemiology, when the siblings saw the black spider, it reminded them of the well-known Marvel film portraying the comic book character Spider-Man. In the Marvel Universe, Peter Parker first gains his superpowers after being bitten by a radioactive spider. Among the superpowers the character is imbued with are ability to climb walls, superhuman strength, and being able to shoot webs that let him swing from building to building across the New York City skyline. Its not hard to see how kids may find all that appealing. A boy looks at a poster of the movie Spiderman at a theatre in Bombay, May 24, 2002. (AFP/AFP via Getty Images) In an attempt to reenact the comic book characters original story, the kids decided to experiment with the black widow by prodding it with a stick, first the older child, then the 10-year-old; and finally, the two brothers helped their younger sibling to also get bitten. Unsurprisingly, it didnt take long before the real effects of the venom started taking effect on the three kids. Pietro said it only took a few minutes before their mom noticed the symptoms and rushed them to a health center in Chayanta. The young ones were presenting frightful signs of fever, convulsions, and muscle pains. (Illustration Jay Ondreicka/Shutterstock) Unfortunately, the treatment there didnt prove effective, so the boys were rushed to another hospital in Llallagua, where health professionals realized how serious the situation was. The three kids ended up at Childrens Hospital in La Paz. Luckily, they received anti-venom serum and finally began showing signs of improvement before they were sent home on May 20, hopefully, with a serious lesson well learned. The black widow is scientifically known as latrodectus, and its venom is more potent than that of rattlesnakes, though rarely deadly when treated in time, according to National Geographic. Despite their infamy and scary name, these little eight-legged creatures are usually not aggressive, and most bites happen accidentally or, in this case, in response to children with overactive imaginations. According to Telemundo, arachnid bites in the country of Bolivia are relatively rare. And the deadliest local invertebrate isnt the black widow at all but the funnel-web spider, whose bite can actually bring death to its victims within 15 minutes. Definitely keep your distance! A rare first issue of The Amazing Spider-Man comic book series valued around $30,000 is seen at a press preview for the Big Apple Comic Book, Art and Toy Show June 4, 2004, in New York City. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal As riots, protests, and racial unrest erupt in cities across the country, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said her administration is more interested in keeping protesters safe and allowing their voices to be heard than in the show of force President Donald Trump urged governors to display during a conference call Monday morning. The Washington Post, which obtained a recording of the call, reported that Trump berated the governors, called them weak, and said they would look like fools if they did not take back the streets. Militarizing our response is incredibly callous, dangerous and tone deaf, Lujan Grisham said in a phone interview with the Journal on Monday. I think the president is more interested in looking tough himself instead of solving problems, and thats what these protesters are asking us to do is to commit to solve these problems. Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, said that she was not able to respond to the presidents remarks and that the reaction from her fellow governors was mixed. The message the president wanted the governors to take away is youre weak if you dont have a strong show of force and, again, Im interested in solving peoples problems and doing something about racial inequalities, she said. It wasnt a very effective call for me. The governor confirmed her administration has had discussions about deploying the National Guard to quell violence but said the intelligence available does not suggest that will be necessary. We have had discussions about what would have to happen in order for us to even consider it, and it would have to be about the safety of the officers who are trying to maintain the safety of the protesters, Lujan Grisham said. However, she said, protests and riots are a serious public safety issue, and the risk of spreading coronavirus at the gatherings is high. She said she was encouraged to hear that the vast majority of people at the earlier peaceful protest were wearing masks. While Albuquerques melees have resulted in damage to businesses and police property, no injuries have been reported. Lujan Grisham said this speaks well of the progress New Mexico has made in addressing the issues. One broken window, one police officer attack is one attack too many, and theyre really unforgivable acts when were trying to bring attention and respect for the lives lost, and tragedies that have occurred, Lujan Grisham said. None of it is acceptable, but compared with what were witnessing around the world and around the country I think it speaks volumes that we came a long way in New Mexico, we are open and we recognize we have a long way to go. President Donald Trump's persistent attacks on mail-in voting have fueled an unprecedented effort by conservatives to limit expansion of the practice before the November election, with tens of millions of dollars planned for lawsuits and advertising aimed at restricting who receives ballots and who remains on the voter rolls. The strategy, embraced by Trump's reelection campaign, the Republican National Committee and an array of independent conservative groups, reflects the recognition by both parties that voting rules could decide the outcome of the 2020 White House race amid the electoral challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic. Helping drive the effort is William Consovoy, a veteran Supreme Court litigator who also serves as one of Trump's personal lawyers. Consovoy's Virginia-based law firm is handling a battery of legal actions on behalf of the RNC, several state GOPs and an independent group called the Honest Elections Project, which is connected to a Trump adviser. The legal firepower and direct involvement of the national party reflect a major escalation in the conservative battle over voter fraud and voting rights, which until this year had primarily been waged by lesser-known groups with far fewer resources. The tactics of those organizations are now being embraced by new players with connections to influential figures in the president's orbit. Thanks in part to Trump's focus on the topic and his assertion that widespread mail balloting would harm Republicans, claims about the high risks of voter fraud have become central to the GOP's 2020 playbook. Those involved in the legal challenges said their goal is to protect the integrity of elections and minimize the chance for fraud by limiting changes to election rules at a time of overwhelming demand for mail ballots. "There is a serious push to send a ballot to every registrant," said Jason Snead, a conservative policy analyst who has led the Honest Elections Project since it launched in February. "I think there is a serious concern that so many registrations are outdated and ballots are being mailed out at great public expense to voters who may be deceased or have moved away or are ineligible to vote." RELATED: Mail-in voting could turn Election Day into Election Week Trump, however, has taken aim much more broadly at the practice of voting by mail, making sweeping and unfounded claims that it will lead to "MASSIVE FRAUD AND ABUSE," as he tweeted Thursday. "We don't want anyone to do mail-in ballots," the president said earlier in May. That puts Republicans in the difficult position of echoing the thrust of Trump's attacks even as they argue that they are not trying to stop voting by mail - and as they continue to work aggressively on the ground to encourage their own supporters to embrace the practice. Democrats say Republicans are trying to disenfranchise younger and minority voters, who historically have voted by mail in lower numbers than other groups and are less familiar with the practice. The RNC and the president's campaign are pushing to limit mail voting for political advantage, they argue. "You used to have these small-time, right-wing operations," said Marc Elias, a Democratic lawyer who is litigating a raft of voting cases this year. "Because Donald Trump has normalized all of these crackpot theories about voter fraud, they've all now joined forces under the banner of the legitimate Republican establishment." - - - Trump has long made unfounded claims about voting fraud, saying during the 2016 election that the contest was "rigged" and that he would consider not accepting the results if he lost to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. After his victory, Trump claimed, without evidence, that millions of undocumented immigrants had voted. Weeks after taking office, Trump formed an Advisory Commission on Election Integrity with the goal of identifying voting fraud across the country. The commission disbanded within months after a number of states refused to turn over voter data - an "embarrassment" to the White House that frustrated the president, according to one former senior administration official, who, like others interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions. Now, Trump's fixation on potential voting fraud has been embraced as a top priority of the major organizations on the right, which are waging combat over mail-ballot rules on multiple fronts. The Trump campaign has hired three regional directors dedicated to monitoring ballot issues, including identifying the need for legal action in the states, according to a campaign official. By the end of June, the campaign plans to deploy staff focused on voting in at least 10 battleground states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, Maine, Wisconsin and Florida, the official said. Justin Clark, the campaign's top lawyer, is leading the strategy, and Trump is regularly briefed on the effort in every state. One Thursday in April, Trump met for more than an hour on the topic with Clark and RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, among others. The president regularly tells Oval Office visitors anecdotes of alleged voter fraud he has heard. And his public rhetoric has ramped up as states have begun contending with an overwhelming demand for absentee ballots - claiming not only that mail-in voting will cause fraud, but that it will "LEAD TO THE END OF OUR GREAT REPUBLICAN PARTY," as he tweeted Thursday. Ballot fraud is a rare occurrence, and there is no evidence that voting by mail leads to "thousands and thousands of fake ballots" and "massive manipulation," as Trump has claimed. Some Republicans have grown frustrated with the president's comments because they are often inaccurate and distract from the work party organizers are doing - including a massive field effort in the states to encourage Trump supporters to vote absentee, according to two people familiar with the GOP effort. Rohn Bishop, chairman of the Republican Party in Wisconsin's Fond du Lac County, a rural conservative area, said Trump's rhetoric on mail balloting is "over the top." "What we need to do is find out how to be better instead of fighting it," he said. "We should just embrace it." Instead, many national and state Republican leaders are challenging efforts to expand mail voting. The RNC and California GOP, for instance, sued California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, in May, seeking to block his decision to send absentee ballots to voters for the general election. National and state committees are also intervening in lawsuits in Florida, Nevada, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, among others, to block Democratic efforts to relax ballot deadlines, lift witness and signature requirements, and otherwise ease voting restrictions. And thousands of volunteers are being recruited by the RNC and Trump campaign to monitor polling stations this year. Party officials said they are moving aggressively in the wake of the 2018 expiration of a federal consent decree that for three decades limited the party's ability to monitor voting. "In most of these lawsuits, we are going in to defend the laws on the books," said RNC spokesman Mike Reed, who accused Democrats of "using the pandemic" to relax rules meant to prevent fraud. "We're going to spend as much as it takes to make sure the security of the ballot is protected, well over $20 million." The GOP claimed a victory Thursday when a state judge in Pennsylvania ruled against a Democratic suit seeking to allow third parties to collect and turn in absentee ballots, a process Republicans call "ballot harvesting." Meanwhile, the nonprofit group Honest Elections Project has filed supporting briefs in many of these cases. It also launched a $250,000 TV and digital advertising campaign echoing the RNC's rhetoric by calling on Democrats to "stop exploiting the pandemic to push radical election changes." Snead, the group's leader, said Honest Elections, much like the RNC, is playing defense against liberal groups' efforts to change election rules. Yet the group has also launched an aggressive campaign to force states to conduct better voter list maintenance - what Democrats call "purging." The effort is particularly crucial this year, Snead said, when states are contemplating sending absentee ballot applications, and in some cases ballots themselves, to every registered voter. "My primary goal is to defend the integrity of our elections," he said. "That has as a necessary component the cleaning up of voter lists." The group has sent notices of intent to file lawsuits to four states - North Carolina, Florida, Michigan and Colorado - claiming that the voter rolls in those states are bloated with people who have died or moved or are otherwise ineligible to vote. Election officials in those states disputed the group's claims. - - - Conservatives and GOP officials involved in the voting litigation say they are not working together to coordinate their strategy. "There are a number of outside groups that care about these issues and often do great work," said Justin Riemer, the RNC's chief counsel. "But largely, it's a party and campaign effort and so I would leave it at that." However, the legal arguments deployed by the various groups bear remarkable similarities - and share a law firm, Consovoy McCarthy, that is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. Consovoy, whose firm represents Trump in two personal suits, also has advised the Trump campaign, the national GOP, state parties in California, Florida, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, as well as Honest Elections. The RNC has paid Consovoy's firm $1.1 million for legal work since late last year through April, while the Trump campaign has paid the firm an additional $202,000, campaign finance records show. Consovoy is also the signatory on the letters Honest Elections sent state election offices this year, according to correspondence obtained by The Washington Post. The campaign chose Consovoy's firm because it is "nimble and fast," has worked for the president, and was willing to take on "partisan" election cases, according to a senior campaign official. Reed at the RNC said the firm does "great work." Consovoy declined a request for comment. A former law clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas, Consovoy has litigated voting cases for at least a decade, representing Shelby County, Alabama, in the seminal 2013 Supreme Court case overturning portions of the Voting Rights Act. His role at the forefront of voting cases this year has caught the attention of voting rights activists and his Democratic rivals. "I've been his adversary a number of times," said Dale Ho, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Voting Rights Project. "He's a good advocate, he's a good lawyer. When I see him on the other side, I know to take the case seriously." According to people who know Consovoy, he is also a friend of conservative activist Leonard Leo, who has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for conservative causes in recent years and has advised Trump on his appointment of conservative Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch. Leo has spent an increasing amount of time studying voting cases, advising outside groups and encouraging conservative donors to support the efforts, said multiple people with knowledge of his activities. He declined a request for comment. Leo is raising money for two conservative nonprofit networks called the 85 Fund and the Concord Fund, people familiar with his activities said. The Honest Elections Project is a project of the 85 Fund, the people said. Snead called Leo a "supporter" of Honest Elections, declining to comment further. Before joining the Honest Elections Project, Snead worked at the conservative Heritage Foundation with a member of Trump's voter fraud commission and longtime activist on the subject, Hans von Spakovsky. Snead attended the commission's first meeting at von Spakovsky's request to share information from a database he helped compile of past voter fraud convictions in an effort to show it is commonplace, commission records show. Snead said he was not part of the commission or its work. - - - Part of the strategy of Honest Elections, Snead said, is to rebrand an effort that had been dismissed as marginal in the past - and that had often come up short in court. "We want to be very careful how we present this group," he said. "We want to avoid coming off as raising alarm bells about voter fraud for purely partisan purposes. We want to make the case that election integrity is a nonpartisan issue." However, the new GOP strategy is closely aligned with the work of a small group of right-wing activists and organizations that have long tried to persuade the public that foreigners, felons and the dead are illegally voting in large numbers. Two long-standing promoters of such voter-fraud claims - conservative lawyers J. Christian Adams and von Spakovsky, both of whom served on Trump's election integrity commission - have led advocacy groups that sued election officials across the nation, alleging they failed to clean up bloated voter rolls and left the door open to fraud. An advocacy group founded by Adams, the Public Legal Interest Foundation, released a report in 2017 called "Alien Invasion" that named more than 5,500 registered voters in Virginia who it claimed were non-U.S. citizens. Some residents named in the report sued, saying they were in fact citizens. In a settlement, Adams apologized and blamed the mistake on the state's sloppy record-keeping. Adams and von Spakovsky helped lead another advocacy group, the American Civil Rights Union (ACRU), that sued election officials in Broward County, Florida, alleging the county had an impossibly high registration rate - nearly 100% by the ACRU's calculation. Adams litigated the case. In 2018, a federal judge ruled after a five-day trial the allegation was "unsupported by any credible evidence." The judge found that the method the group used to calculate the high voter registration rate was "inaccurate" and "misleading." To arrive at the high rate, the group inflated the number of voters on the rolls and deflated the estimated population eligible to vote, the judge wrote. "By relying upon an inaccurate registration rate as a basis to suggest a lack of list maintenance, the entire premise of this opinion is flawed from the start," U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom wrote. A federal appellate court upheld the decision last year. In a statement to The Post, von Spakovsky said it is necessary to safeguard the vote amid the pandemic, saying mail ballots "are susceptible to being stolen, altered, and forced." For his part, Adams said he welcomed the heightened activity on the right, which he said was long overdue given the number of liberal groups, including Democratic committees, the ACLU and the League of Women Voters, bringing suits this year. "Dozens of groups have been funded to the tune of many millions of dollars over the years to undermine the integrity of elections," he said. "There are 20 at least that do the exact same thing, and had done it unopposed for the last two decades." - - - Honest Elections has embraced the legal strategy of its predecessors, challenging state voter rolls and hoping for success where past efforts have failed. The group argues that high voter registration rates are a sign that ineligible people are improperly registered. It has threatened to sue states that do not take steps to remove dead people or those who have moved from their rolls. "Retaining voter rolls bloated with ineligible voters harms the electoral process, heightens the risk of electoral fraud and undermines public confidence in elections," Consovoy wrote in letters to election officials in four states. Federal law requires election officials to have a "reasonable" program to maintain accurate voter rolls but restricts officials from removing names 90 days before an election. Election security experts say maintaining up-to-date voting rolls is an important measure to prevent potential ballot fraud. But one elections expert said data produced by Honest Elections showing extremely high registration rates is misleading. "It's a bogus methodology that has been wholly debunked," said Daniel Smith, a political science professor and elections expert at the University of Florida who testified as an expert in the Broward County case. Jena Griswold, the Colorado secretary of state, said her state's high statewide registration rate is a point of pride. "Our rate is at 92%, and that's because we're so dedicated to making sure people register and vote," she said. The state has safeguards for removing inaccuracies from the voter list, including tracking deaths among Coloradans and sending out postcards more than once a year, she said. If the postcards bounce back, election officials investigate. Snead said in a statement that he stands by the method his group used to calculate registration rates and that the group was still weighing whether to sue - as well as whether to expand the fight to other states. He said he was aware of the previous court decision but was hopeful for a different outcome in future litigation - and with different lawyers. "Will Consovoy's reputation precedes him," Snead said. "His firm is just top-notch. There is no better place to start." - - - The Washington Post's Scott Clement, Alice Crites, Emily Guskin and Anu Narayanswamy contributed to this report. Minnesota Department of Human Rights Files Civil Rights Charge Against Police The Minnesota Department of Human Rights announced it filed a civil rights charge against the Minneapolis police in the wake of George Floyds death, according to the governor. The investigation will be carried out to deal with systemic racism that is generations deep, Gov. Tim Walz told reporters. That probe will go back 10 years to see if there were systemic discriminatory practices in the Minneapolis Police Department, he said on Twitter. Silence is complicity. Minnesotans can expect our administration to use every tool at our disposal to deconstruct generations of systemic racism in our state, he said in a statement. As we move forward, we ask the community to watch what we do, not what we say. It is going to take action at all levels from the neighborhood on up, to get the change we need to see. This effort is only one of many steps to come in our effort to restore trust with those in the community who have been unseen and unheard for far too long. The FBI also said it is investigating whether police willfully deprived Floyd of his rights. Floyd died while he was in police custody in a now-viral video that showed an officer with his knee on his neck. The Hennepin County Attorney filed criminal charges against the former officer, Derek Chauvin. Police officers speak to demonstrators in front of the police station in Detroit, Mich., on May 31, 2020. (Seth Herald/AFP/Getty Images) The Hennepin County Medical Examiner said Floyds manner of death was ruled as a homicide, saying he went into cardiopulmonary arrest as a Minneapolis police officer kept his knee on his neck. The office also said that hypertensive heart disease, fentanyl intoxication, and recent methamphetamine use as other significant conditions that contributed to his death. Earlier Tuesday, an attorney for Floyds family again decried the official autopsy that found his death was caused by cardiac arrest as police restrained him and compressed his neck. The cause of death was that he was starving for air. It was lack of oxygen. And so everything else is a red herring to try to throw us off, family attorney Ben Crump said Tuesday. He said the Hennepin County medical examiner went to great lengths to try to convince the public that what was shown on bystander video didnt cause Floyd to die. Floyds death sparked sometimes violent protests, acts of arson, vandalism, and looting across the United States, while President Donald Trump has said that far-left actors, including the Antifa group, are responsible for much of the damage. Several police officers were also shot in several cities amid protests this week. The Associated Press contributed to this report. An NHS threatre assistant who died after complaining of breathing problems had been infected with coronavirus, an inquest has heard. Allan Macalalad, 44, was employed in the operating department at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff when he became unwell last month. The coroner's court for South Wales Central in Pontypridd heard Mr Macalalad, from the Philippines, was admitted to the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llantrisant on May 17, complaining of a 'shortness of breath'. A CT scan at the hospital showed the father of one had a blood clot in his lungs, and after suffering a cardiac arrest he died on May 26, with tests showing that he had been infected with Covid-19. Allan Macalalad, 44, was employed in the operating department at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff when he became unwell last month Mr Macalalad, pictured with his family, was admitted to the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llantrisant on May 17, complaining of a 'shortness of breath' Coroner's assistant Lauren Howitt told the court a post-mortem examination was not carried out, but hospital consultants had provided a provisional cause of death as 'pulmonary thromboembolism, Covid-19, and Type 2 diabetes'. She told the inquest opening that Mr Macalalad was born in the Philippines before moving to the UK, and had most recently lived in the village of Llwynypia in South Wales with his wife Elsie, a nurse, and their son Justin. Coroner Graeme Hughes said: 'My officers will now continue with their investigation into the circumstances surrounding Mr Macalalad's death, in particular focusing upon his condition in the weeks preceding his death.' The coroner adjourned the inquest for a final hearing on May 20, 2021. Allan Macalalad, 44, was employed in the operating department at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff (pictured) There has been a disproportionately high number of deaths among Filipinos working in the NHS and care services during the coronavirus pandemic, with claims that Filipinos have the highest death rate of staff in the sector. There have been at least 188 frontline health and care deaths during the pandemic, of which 28 (15%) were people of Filipino heritage. After his death, Mr Macalalad, who had worked in theatres helping treat eye conditions, was described by colleagues as a 'perfect gentleman' and a 'loyal team player'. A tribute to him from Cardiff and Vale University Health Board said: 'Allan was a carpenter by trade and had lived an interesting life before settling in Cardiff with his wife Elsie, who is also a nurse with a neighbouring health board. 'He is survived by Elsie and his son Justin, to whom we send our deepest condolences. 'Elsie has asked the UHB to also convey how wonderful and loving a husband, father and son he was and that he was also a very generous and genuine person.' EverythingBenefits, the provider of comprehensive, next-generation benefits automation technology solutions, today announced it has entered a partnership with industry leader, FrankCrum, one of the nations largest Professional Employment Organizations (PEO). The partnership will provide thousands of FrankCrum business clients and their employees with access to EverythingBenefits entire suite of benefits automated tech, helping the company deliver a seamless, cutting-edge experience to its clients and further streamline administrative operations for FrankCrum. EverythingBenefits is uniquely positioned to complement the offerings of large PEOs and we are delighted to be FrankCrums technology partner of choice, said EverythingBenefits Chief Technology Officer Daniil Fishteyn, Through our partnership with FrankCrum, our single source of truth platform will enable the organization to support its growing client footprint, allowing it to remain nimble as it continues to grow and scale. The FrankCrum team will join more than 10,000 employers and 600 carriers currently using EverythingBenefits Benefit Administration software. EverythingBenefits values the trust placed in it by its customers and is passionate about continuing to drive leadership in its market sector. David Peasall, VP of Benefits and Human Resources for FrankCrum said, EverythingBenefits will enable FrankCrum to automate workflows and scale to support our growing client base, all while delivering on our commitment to provide the PEO industrys best HR service experience. Our clients and their employees will enjoy simplified benefits enrollment and ongoing management through a seamless integration with our existing HRIS platform, MyFrankCrum. EverythingBenefits solutions work to complement and elevate a PEOs existing offering, delivering a truly intuitive user experience that is seamlessly integrated into their overall operating experience. It delivers powerful analytics that offer actionable insights into a PEOs client ecosystem, helping customers make proactive decisions to support growth and scalability. About EverythingBenefits EverythingBenefits is a leading provider of next-generation, end-to-end benefit automation technology solutions and services that help businesses of all sizes and their employees experience benefits in more meaningful ways. By leveraging an open business model, EverythingBenefits partners with benefit brokers, independent agents, insurers, payroll or human capital management companies, and other providers. The companys philosophy is that technology should make life simpler, more rewarding, and more enjoyable. For more information, please visit our web site at http://www.everythingbenefits.com or connect with us via LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook. About FrankCrum Founded in 1981, FrankCrum is a PEO offering a full range of HR services, including payroll, employee benefits, HR consulting services and workers compensation insurance. Based in Clearwater, FL, FrankCrum is a proudly family-owned business serving more than 4,000 companies nationwide. For more information, please visit: http://www.frankcrum.com Media Contact EverythingBenefits Public Relations Phone: 800-689-3568 Email: pr@everythingbenefits.com What just happened? Back in April 2019, Samsung unveiled a TV that was very different from anything wed seen before. Called the Sero, its a 43-inch quantum dot television that rotates 90 degrees so users can watch smartphone content in its native portrait mode. Now, the television is available in the US for $1,999. Samsung says that smartphone-loving millennials are the Seros target audience. The TVs portrait mode should make it ideal for mirroring a smartphone to watch anything filmed in this orientation, such as Instagram stories, TikTok videos, and Snapchat content. The company added that the portrait mode could also be suitable for viewing photos and visiting shopping sites with comments on the bottom. It also believes this orientation will be better for web browsing in general. Instead of having to mess around with an app, owners of Galaxy handsets and other compatible smartphones need just tap the device against the Seros frame to start mirroring, and the TV will automatically rotate to its portrait orientation. Its also compatible with iPhones, though users will have to manually rotate the set using its remote or voice commands and then stream content using AirPlay 2. The Sero has been available in South Korea for a while now, and Samsung announced at CES that it would be launching globally. It's a 43-inch screen with a 4K QLED panel, so $1,999 might seem a little steep. Still, in addition to the portrait mode, you also get 4.1 channel audio, a built-in 60-watt speaker system in the stand, and a microphone for operating Samsungs AI assistant Bixby and issuing voice commands. Samsung says the Sero is available from select retailers and its new online store. There are countries in Africa that can brag about large population size, while there are also some that will not engage in a debate that revolves around such topic. The reason is because such countries that will prefer to observe other Africans brag about their population size have less than 600,000 people. Legit.ng brings to you five African countries that fall under this category courtesy of World Population Review. 1. Seychelles Seychelles has a population of 98,318. Seychelles is an archipelagic island country in the Indian Ocean at the eastern edge of the Somali Sea. 2. Sao Tome and Principe This African country, which is located on the Equator in the Gulf of Guinea, has a population of 218,811. Map of Africa. Photo credit: Britannica Source: UGC 3. Mayotte Mayotte has a population of 272,293. 4. Cape Verde This island country in the central Atlantic Ocean has a population of 555,523. 5. Western Sahara Western Sahara has a population of 596,208 In other news, there are interesting facts about the Hausa tribe. The tribe is the largest ethnic group in Africa with 78 million people. The Hausa language is the second most spoken indigenous language with 120 million speakers. Those who speak the language can be found in Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Benin, Cameroon, Togo, Central African Republic, Ghana, Sudan, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Senegal, and The Gambia. Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that a woman identified as Basant Shenouda inspired the internet community with her success story and the decision she made in 2015. Shenouda said she moved to Germany for university education in 2015 with one suitcase and a one-way ticket. Sharing her success story on LinkedIn, she said that move was the best decision of her life, adding that adversity has evolved her for the better. She said: "I struggled in gaining a visa for months and I was a month and a half late into my lectures. "I couldn't seem to keep with the coursework I missed while trying to adjust to a new culture, language, and environment." Shenouda said during her studies and job hunting, she was always so focused on the future and she never really lived in the present or celebrated through her struggles. She added: "After looking at both these pictures of me in my high school and university graduation, it's safe to say how much adversity can evolve us for the better." Which country would you leave Nigeria for? | Legit TV Source: Legit.ng In the aftermath of George Floyd's death, flames raged through the 3rd Precinct police station in Minneapolis on Thursday. Neighborhood stores were ransacked and closed amid widespread anger after a video showed Floyd - a black man - begging for his life, then going limp as a white police officer pressed his knee on Floyd's neck. A nearby middle school found many of its students and their families who live blocks from the police station were stuck without access to food. "The area has become a food desert for these families, many of whom don't own a vehicle to drive elsewhere," said Amy Nelson, the principal of Sanford Middle School. School food services and public transportation were suspended across the city, affecting the school's 970 students, about 60% of whom are eligible for free or reduced lunch. Nelson decided to step in. "We had to do something," Nelson said. She and her staff emailed friends and others in the community, asking them to bring a total of 85 food kits to the school parking lot Sunday morning. They asked for staples like cereal, bread and apples, as well as diapers, detergent and other essentials. The kits would be distributed to anyone who needed them. Word of the food drive spread on social media and local news, with hundreds of people offering to help. Still, staff at Sanford Middle School said they anticipated no more than 150 kits would be delivered Sunday morning. But at 8 a.m., an hour before people were supposed to drop off deliveries, the school loading docks were already full of food. "The donations just kept coming, and coming, and coming," Nelson said. By 8:30 a.m., a winding line of people waited to drop off food. "There were miles of cars holding food, wrapped around our city blocks," said Mara Bernick, family liaison for Sanford Middle School. Hundreds of people showed up to give what they could. Some arrived in U-Haul trucks and trailers, and some came carrying groceries in their hands. Soon, the school property was covered with thousands of bags of groceries. By the end of the day, an estimated 30,000 food kits were delivered, and more than 500 families and individuals were able to stock their pantries and fridges. One was Rosy Morales, a single mother who's son is a student at Sanford Middle School. The family lives a few blocks from the 3rd Precinct police station and close to Lake Street, where some of the unrest is unfolding. "Accessibility to food is a huge issue for us right now," Morales said. "Our normal grocery stores are either burned to the ground or they've been looted and closed." "The food drive was definitely a big help for us," she said. By the afternoon, school grounds were overflowing with donations but people were still dropping off food. That's when neighboring businesses offered to become alternative drop-off sites. "A nearby restaurant, a community center, a Pilates studio and a high school flung open their doors and said, 'We've got you,' " Bernick said. "The community really came together as a whole." Jabari Browne, a special-education teacher at Sanford Middle School, said he was awed by the turnout. "I tried to take it all in," he said. "The day was quite overwhelming, especially with everything else happening here in Minneapolis." Bernick had invited Rob Williams, the founder and executive director of the Sheridan Story, a nonprofit organization aimed at fighting child hunger in Minnesota. "I asked him if he could distribute any excess food we collected," she said. Williams brought a truck and crew to the school to help. "The need out there is truly palpable," said Williams, whose organization provides more than 100,000 meals a week to children in Minnesota. "Prior to the pandemic, there were over 200,000 kids that lived with food insecurity in Minnesota," Williams said. "If you add covid-19 and the current unrest that's going on, there is a sudden, acute need for food." Not only did hundreds of people deliver packages, but staff, students, parents and a sea of community members also volunteered to organize the supplies and ensure the process ran smoothly. "People of all backgrounds and races were picking up food and helping each other," Bernick said. "And that's what Minneapolis is. That is who we are. We take care of each other." Williams added: "There are unquestionably injustices in our states, cities, counties and systems, but to see people put all of that aside and come together to help one another - that is really what we want to be about." For Bernick, the most poignant part of the food drive was when her 17-year-old son, who was volunteering, turned to her and said, "This is what I'll remember most from 2020." The excess supplies and food of which there was plenty - was taken to distribution centers in areas of the city most affected by the pandemic and protests. "At Sanford Middle School, we are all about diversity and helping each other," said Bernick. "These students see what we are doing. They are the future; they are ones who will effect change." Families of Aboriginal people who have died in custody say the death of George Floyd in the United States is a stark reminder of Australias own shameful record. Mass riots have broken out across the US over the past week in response to Mr Floyd's death after a policeman, now charged with third-degree murder, pinned the unarmed black man down with a knee pressed against his neck. Thousands gathered in Perth on Tuesday for a Black Lives Matter rally. Credit:Marta Pascual Juanola Marta Rallies in response have been organised across Australia, including in Melbourne on Saturday. The families of Tanya Day and Ms Dhu, Indigenous women who died in custody, say Mr Floyds death was not just an American problem and urged white Australians to look at their countrys own record of violence against First Nations people. Regulatory News: Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (LN:PSHD) (NA:PSH) ("PSH") today announced that it has purchased, through PSH's agent, Jefferies International Limited ("Jefferies"), the following number of PSH's Public Shares of no par value (ISIN Code: GG00BPFJTF46) (the "Shares"): Trading Venue: London Stock Exchange Ticker: PSH Date of Purchase: 1 June 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 37,895 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 1,932 pence 24.08 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 1,920 pence 23.93 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 1,928 pence 24.03 USD Ticker: PSHD Date of Purchase: 1 June 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 674 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 23.50 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 23.50 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 23.50 USD Trading Venue: Euronext Amsterdam Ticker: PSH Date of Purchase: 1 June 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 1,862 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 23.80 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 23.80 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 23.80 USD PSH will hold these Public Shares in Treasury. The net asset value per Public Share related to this buyback is 34.24 USD 27.72 GBP which was calculated as of 31 May 2020 (the "Relevant NAV"). After giving effect to the above buyback, PSH has 197,178,668 Public Shares outstanding, or 203,097,648 Public Shares calculated on a fully diluted basis (assuming that all Management Shares had been converted into Public Shares at the Relevant NAV). Excluded from the shares outstanding are 13,778,082 Public Shares held in Treasury. The prices per Public Share were calculated by Jefferies. The number of PSH Management Shares and the one special voting share (held by PS Holdings Independent Voting Company Limited) have not been affected. About Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (LN:PSHD) (NA:PSH) is an investment holding company structured as a closed-ended fund that makes concentrated investments principally in North American companies. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200601005771/en/ Contacts: Camarco Ed Gascoigne-Pees Hazel Stevenson +44 020 3757 4989, media-pershingsquareholdings@camarco.co.uk South Africa: UIF COVID-19 fund pays out R16.5 billion Having already paid out R16.5-billion in Covid-19 Temporary Employee/Employer Relief Scheme (TERS), the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has vowed to ensure that outstanding payments are promptly processed. In a statement on Monday, the Department of Employment and Labour, of which the UIF is an agency of, reiterated that the Fund is making good progress on its promise to capture and process May COVID-19 relief benefit applications. Payments this time around should be a lot quicker as the UIF already has the details for most of the claimants, said the department. On Monday, a total R1 billion had already been processed for payment for 252 378 workers represented by 26 648 employers. At the same time, the Fund has also processed and paid R 331 530 550.90 for 79 507 workers represented by 13 503 employers which is part of the outstanding payments for April. As we indicated when we addressed the country last Friday, we are committed to ensuring that to the extent possible, the department through the UIF plays its role in shielding workers from the worst effects of the pandemic, said Minister Thulas Nxesi. The Minister added that cash payments are being provided to workers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are doing this by providing cash payments to workers who may have found themselves in the lurch as a result of lockdown. The payments have been significant in saving at least 3-million workers from poverty, said the Minister. A new enhanced system, which kicked into gear last week, will make it easy to resubmit claims as in cases where the information has not changed; the claim will be processed immediately on confirmation by the employer. But if information has changed, employers will still be required to capture employee details directly on the system or attach the CSV file. The following documents must be attached for the May submission: Proof of TERS payment to employees for April such as electronic bank statement, a letter of acknowledgement of payment between employer and employee (Mandatory), Re - upload employer bank confirmation letter or latest bank statement, Signed approval or acceptance letter from the UIF for April payments between employer and employee, and Proof of refund to the UIF attached if applicable. I have been assured that we would realise significant improvements in terms of payment turnaround time from claim submission. Already, with all the information supplied, the UIF was able to pay some claims in 24 hours at best or 48 at worst which is far more from when we started around April 16, said Minister Nxesi. About 3.2 million workers represented by 279 111 employers have benefitted from the UIFs R16.5 billion. Of this amount, R442 million has been paid through direct deposits to 99 269 workers bank accounts. The claims were submitted by 6 374 employers, the Department said. For further information, the public can log on to the departments www.uifecc.labour.gov.za/covid19 website or reach the UIF on the toll-free number 0800 030 007. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2020-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. The former head of the global convention on international wildlife trade says that current rules surrounding legitimate enterprise dont cut it to prevent future pandemics and that wildlife crime should be confronted with the same international legal force that tackles human trafficking and terrorism. John Scanlon served as Secretary-General of the Secretariat overseeing the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) from 2010 until 2018. CITES is affiliated with the United Nations Environment Programme and was established as a legally binding agreement to prevent the cross-border legal trade in wild animals and plants from threatening species survival. The convention is a regulator, not a law enforcement agency to confront criminals or punish them. Currently, there is no global legal agreement on wildlife crime despite the enterprise being valued at $23bn (18bn) a year and amounting to thousands of tonnes of contraband. It has provided a low-risk source of income for terrorist groups and criminal gangs. Individual countries face this onslaught and in places, domestic legal systems have been found woefully underprepared for sophisticated traffickers. A study last year found that one in every five vertebrate species are traded as pets or to be used as products around the world, putting nearly 9,000 species at risk of extinction. Mr Scanlon, who is now special envoy for conservation non-profit African Parks, said that in a post Covid-19 world, profound measures are needed to tackle the scale of illegal trade which drains government revenues along with impacting ecosystems and threatening public health. "We now need to fully embed this in the international criminal justice framework, he told The Independent. He also suggested bolstering CITES to mitigate the risk of future pandemics. CITES was adopted in 1973 to tackle the rampant exploitation of wildlife when countries had little recourse to protect their threatened species. Some 182 countries and the EU are currently signed up to the convention. It breaks down into three lists - appendices - each dealing with an increasing level of threat. Appendix I bans commercial trade in species at threat from extinction such as gorillas, sea turtles and giant pandas. Appendix II controls trade in species being monitored for risk of extinction like the high-value timber, rosewood, and many corals. If a scientific finding concludes that the trade will not affect survival of the species and it has been legally obtained, it will be allowed to go ahead. Appendix III addresses species that are protected in at least one country and where that country has asked for help in monitoring the trade. Mr Scanlon said: I remain firmly of the view that CITES neither encourages or discourages trade. It's quite neutral on that. That's a sovereign decision of a state and if you choose to trade in species listed under the convention, you have to comply. Some 30,000 plants and 6,000 animals are protected under CITES - a vast array of wildlife but still a fraction of the worlds 8.7m species. Legal trade accounts for around one million transactions each year. It's up to individual countries to tackle trafficking and poaching. In 2014, the law firm, DLA Piper, reviewed the illegal wildlife trade in eleven countries and found that a host of weaknesses existed in legislation to punish wildlife crime including inconsistencies in penalties and limited prosecutorial power. The only consistent theme in the country reports is that significant work needs to be done in every country in order to effectively tackle the illegal wildlife trade, the firm noted. CITES can enforce sanctions on countries who violate the convention, the most serious being a suspension in all wildlife trade. However because CITES is voluntary, a country could leave the convention rather than comply. To better understand CITES, it helps to consider some other things that it's not. The convention is solely focused on wildlife which moves across international borders and not within countries or a bloc, like the EU. Nor does the convention address human health, animal health or how invasive a species might be to a country. It doesnt tackle wildlife markets or consumption. The parties wanted to keep the convention very narrowly focused on the issue of overexploitation, looking at trade from a biological perspective and if it will threaten the survival of the species, Mr Scanlon said. In that sense, CITES has had success: There is well-regulated trade in alligators, the US Fish and Wildlife Service reported, and vicunas, a relative of the llama. Under Mr Scanlons tenure, protections for a number of new marine species, including sharks and rays, along with timber species were added. The volume of species covered by CITES quadrupled from 1975 to 2014, according to one study. However Mr Scanlon said that the pandemic has exposed gaps in CITES siloed approach. "CITES cannot just look at authorised trade on the basis of its threat to the species and not be troubled by public health or animal health risk. I don't think that can cut it in 2020," he said. "With all the knowledge we have from scientists and public health officials, we've come to understand in a devastating way through the Covid-19 pandemic that we can't isolate these things." Some animals known to have human health risks are not necessarily restricted under CITES. For example, horseshoe bats, hosts for a number of viruses, are not listed. In remarks last month, Mr Scanlon pointed to pangolins to illustrate the convention's difficulty in tackling wildlife crime. Despite having the highest-level of protection, illegal trade in the scaly ant-eaters is at a record high. Pangolins have been suggested as a potential intermediary host of Covid-19 although research is so far inconclusive. The coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan, China in late 2019, is believed to have jumped from an animal to human in a zoonotic spillover event. Scientists have suggested the virus was transmitted from a bat via an intermediary species. The pandemic has been a devastating wake-up call to the human health risks from zoonotic diseases which can emerge in both the regulated, legal and illicit wildlife trade. Mr Scanlon said that to confront all sides of the issue requires a new criminal framework and considering an expansion of CITES. On the illegal trade side, Id say bite the bullet and embed that into the international criminal justice system, he said. Wildlife crime could come under the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime. It would be a fitting home for what has been estimated as the worlds fourth largest criminal enterprise after drugs, arms and human trafficking. If countries create an international framework that says wildlife crime is serious and needs to be dealt with by a criminal justice system, it sends a powerful message that filters down to the field, Mr Scanlon said. The UNs organised crime convention has the tools to share information among states, a necessity for wildlife crime which flows across borders. When it comes to taking more stringent measures in legal wildlife trade, CITES appears a logical choice because of its long-established framework, he said. "There's not an appetite for creating a whole lot of new governance structures if you can avoid it, Mr Scanlon noted. John Scanlon served as Secretary-General of the Secretariat overseeing the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora from 2010 until 2018. (U.S. Mission Geneva/ Eric Bridiers) In a souped-up version of its current state, CITES could include public health criteria for listing species and have authorities consider public health before allowing trade. This would fit with the World Health Organisations One Health approach which knits together human, animal, plant and environmental health in its decision-making. Alternatively, a new agreement on wildlife trade could be added to the Conventional on Biological Diversity or with the World Health Organisation, as has been done to recognise the risks associated with tobacco. Ultimately, its a decision thats down to states but international cooperation is key to long-lasting change. It's too important an issue to leave to countries to deal with individually. One country might do great job but another doesn't and you're still exposed to the risk, Mr Scanlon said. We have a whole framework for dealing with trade in species in terms of overexploitation. So surely having similar rules in place for dealing with potential future pandemics can be justified. When he took up the post of secretary-general in 2010, Mr Scanlon said the scale of the challenge was immediately apparent. We were confronting a surge in illegal trade in wildlife particularly in the African elephant for its ivory and in rhino horn, he said. Between 2010-2012, a staggering 100,000 African elephants were poached. In the absence of an alternative, Mr Scanlon established the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) pulling together Interpol, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the World Bank and the World Customs Organisation. The global effort also included the International Air Transport Association; the World Travel and Tourism Council, The International Fragrance Association and United For Wildlife, an initiative spearheaded by Prince William. There was a need to bring on board the agencies that deal with enforcement of organised crime, Mr Scanlon said. My view was everyone was welcome to participate." Following the effort, poaching in African elephants fell for five consecutive years. In 2015, CITES and the World Animal Health Organisation (OIE) also signed an agreement to collaborate on protecting animals and safeguarding biodiversity. Yet plans to work together could not change the inherent limitations of the convention. Mr Scanlon said: I think it's important for those of us who know how the system works to offer a set of options and start stimulating some thinking. The status quo ought not be allowed to prevail. The Independent is calling for an end to the high-risk sale and illegal trafficking of wildlife with our campaign, Stop The Wildlife Trade BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 2 By Elnur Baghishov - Trend: As many as 3,117 people have been infected with the coronavirus (COVID-19) in the past 24 hours in Iran, said Kiyanush Jahanpur, spokesman for Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Trend reports citing the ministry. According to Jahanpur, 64 people have died from the coronavirus over the past day. Jahanpur added that the condition of 2,565 people is critical. So far, more than 975,000 tests have been conducted in Iran for the diagnosis of coronavirus. Iran continues to monitor the coronavirus situation in the country. According to the recent reports of Iranian officials, over 157,500 people have been infected, and 7,942 people have already died. Meanwhile, over 123,000 have reportedly recovered from the disease. The country continues to apply strict measures to contain the further spread. Reportedly, the disease was brought to Iran by a businessman from Iran's Qom city, who went on a business trip to China, despite official warnings. The man died later from the disease. The Islamic Republic only announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on Feb. 19. Riot police chase a man as they rush protestors to clear Lafayette Park and the area around it across from the White House for President Donald Trump to be able to walk through for a photo opportunity in front of St. John's Episcopal Church, during a rally against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, near the White House, in Washington, U.S. June 1, 2020. Ken Cedeno | Reuters President Donald Trump personally thanked himself Tuesday on Twitter for what he said was the "Domination" and "overwhelming force" that kept relative peace on the streets of Washington and Minneapolis the previous night after days of protests over the death of George Floyd. Trump's boast came a day after police violently cleared the area of protesters in front of the White House with tear gas, flash grenades and batons so that the president could walk out and pose for photos at the nearby St. John's Episcopal Church. Trump held a Bible aloft as cameras captured images of him standing grim-faced in front of the historic church, where priests and other religious workers were forced to flee the area by the authorities' actions. Part of the church had been set on fire by protesters the previous night. "D.C. had no problems last night. Many arrests. Great job done by all. Overwhelming force. Domination. Likewise, Minneapolis was great (thank you President Trump!)," he tweeted. Tweet Before his church visit Monday, Trump had announced that he was mobilizing federal resources civilian and military to respond to the protests. He said that if any city or state refused to take steps to defend lives and property, he would deploy the U.S. military to those areas. U.S. President Donald Trump returns to the White House after posing with a bible outside St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, June 1, 2020. Shawn Thew | Bloomberg | Getty Images In another Twitter post Tuesday, Trump criticized New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his brother, CNN journalist Chris Cuomo. Trump suggested that violence and looting seen on the streets of New York City on Monday night was the result of the governor's failure to accept the president's offer to deploy the National Guard. "Yesterday was a bad day for the Cuomo Brothers. New York was lost to the looters, thugs, Radical Left, and all others forms of Lowlife & Scum," Trump wrote. "The Governor refuses to accept my offer of a dominating National Guard. NYC was ripped to pieces. Likewise, Fredo's ratings are down 50%!" Fredo was the inept Corleone brother played in "The Godfather." CUOMO TWEET Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, criticized Trump's response Tuesday morning. "When peaceful protestors are dispersed by the order of the president from the doorstep of the people's house, the White House using tear gas and flash grenades in order to stage a photo op at a noble church, we can be forgiven for believing that the president is more interested in power than in principle," Biden said. Biden Tweet The Right Rev. Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, said in an interview with The Washington Post that despite her position she "was not given even a courtesy call, that they would be clearing [the area] with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop." "He did not pray," Budde told The New York Times. "He did not mention George Floyd, he did not mention the agony of people who have been subjected to this kind of horrific expression of racism and white supremacy for hundreds of years. We need a president who can unify and heal. He has done the opposite of that, and we are left to pick up the pieces." Later Tuesday, Attorney General William Barr issued a statement saying, "Last night was a more peaceful night in the District of Columbia. Working together, federal and local law enforcement made significant progress in restoring order to the nation's capital." "There will be even greater law enforcement resources and support in the region tonight," Barr said. "The most basic function of government is to provide security for people to live their lives and exercise their rights, and we will meet that responsibility here in the nation's capital." Protests over Floyd's death have taken place in many U.S. cities since he died on Memorial Day during an arrest by Minneapolis police. Floyd, who was black, died while a white police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes, despite him repeatedly saying, "I can't breathe." Police were arresting him on suspicion of using a $20 counterfeit bill to make a purchase. The police officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with third-degree murder in the killing. He and the three other officers were fired by the Minneapolis Police Department after video of the arrest became public and sparked the protests. (TNS) Step 1: A man on probation in Summit County, Ohio, receives a message saying he needs to check in.Step 2: He takes a video on his smart phone and submits it.Step 3: A company confirms his identity and location based on GPS coordinates.Checking in for probation in Summit County will soon be this easy.The county will launch a new smart phone probation app this week, with 1,000 of the 4,000 people currently on probation using the app."Why not?" Amy Corrigall Jones, the administrative judge in Summit County Common Pleas Court, asked of trying the app. "If it fails, it fails. If we don't try, we'll never know."The court will be the first in Ohio to pilot the Outreach Smartphone Monitoring (OSM) app, which has been used in 50 courts in 35 states. The Colorado-based company has also recently been in talks with Cuyahoga County about trying the app.Summit County's testing of the app comes at a time when the county already has been requiring people on probation to check in remotely either by phone or videoconference because of the pandemic. The pilot program also is happening as the county is encouraging agencies to look for technological options to improve efficiency and save money."This is part of in my mind a package of technology and work-flow changes we will be looking at," said Brian Nelsen, chief of staff for Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro.Summit County Council was expected to approve a budget adjustment Monday that will allow the court to spend up to $146,000 to try the app for a year.The county is projecting big funding losses because of the pandemic and is looking for expenses that can be covered with federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES) funding.Nelsen said the court app may be among those. He said the app has the potential for saving a lot of money because it could provide a cheaper alternative for monitoring defendants than incarceration."The situation we're in has created an opportunity for a lot of creative thinking and opened eyes to implementing changes that we probably would not have thought of or been willing to do," Nelsen said. "We will emerge out of this in many areas of the county with better operations at a reduced cost. I'm pleased by the great ideas. This app is one of those."App ideaThe idea for the app came up during a recent discussion about SCORR, a new probation program that is underway in Summit County.Jones and her staff were meeting with researchers from New York University assisting with SCORR (Summit County Offender Recidivism Reduction) when Jones asked if they could adopt a probation app."Let's do it!" she challenged them.Jones enlisted the help of Chris Stahr, the tech-savvy community development director of Valor Court, her specialized docket for veterans.Stahr began looking at the top probation apps on the market. He tested one that took so much memory on his smart phone that he had to delete his music. He decided OSM was the best option."This one is easy and quick to download," he said.During a recent virtual presentation in Jones' courtroom, Colorado-based Mike Kingery, the app's developer, explained how it works.Kingery said people on probation download the app, take a picture of themselves and submit it. This picture is used by OSM staff to confirm the correct person is checking in when a video is submitted.The check-ins can be random, prompted by a request or scheduled for a certain time. The app keeps track of how well a person is complying with the terms of their probation, like a report card. Based on their actions, the probationers receive sanctions and rewards."They're aware of how they're doing," Kingery said.The app can provide reminders for court appearances, treatment meetings, job interviews or other key events and contact information for community agencies. It can also can ask questions, such as whether a person has had new contact with police and, based on the response, ask for more information.Kingery said the app is fast and easy to use. Even if a person is required to check in six times a day, he said, this is so quick and easy that it won't significantly disrupt other activities.Tyrel Lasley, Kingery's partner with OSM, said the app has a 95 percent compliance rate of those who've used it. The company soon will begin a study to gauge the recidivism rate of participants.The app has other features that Summit County doesn't plan to use initially, including a breathalyzer and more intense GPS monitoring.App plansThe probation department will draw most of the app users from those who are considered a moderate risk of violating probation.Jones said many of the people on probation are younger and are familiar with the latest technology, such as a smart phone app. She said the app will provide a way to communicate with them on a platform they're familiar with and give them instant feedback."We're trying to motivate individuals to be successful," she said.The court has asked the county about the possibility of providing smart phones for people on probation who don't have them.The app could provide significant cost savings, especially when it is used in place of incarceration. The cost of the app per person is 40 cents a day, while the cost to house someone at the jail is $126 a day and at an Oriana House facility is $75 a day.At the end of the year, the court plans to review how the app worked out and decide whether it should be renewed at the same level or expanded to include everyone on probation.Kerri Defibaugh, director of Adult Probation, said probation officers can easily tailor the app for each person. She thinks the appointment reminders will decrease violations and help keep people out of jail."This technology will enhance the felony supervision we offer," she said. Speaker Nancy Pelosi brandished her own bible on Tuesday to chastise President Donald Trump for having protesters 'beaten' so he could hold a photo-op in front of St. John's church. The speaker held up her bible, in a counter to President Trump brandishing a bible on Monday afternoon, to read from Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8, focusing on its message of a 'time to heal.' 'Let's focus from time to time to heal,' she said during an event in the U.S. Capitol. 'We have had as the role of President of the United States, role of commander of chief, a person who has a responsibility to heal.' Speaker Nancy Pelosi brandished her own bible on Tuesday to chastise President Donald Trump for having protesters 'beaten' so he could hold a photo-op Speaker Nancy Pelosi read from Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8, focusing on its message of a 'time to heal' President Trump held a bible in front of St. John's on Monday but did not read from it or pray during his short visit to the historic church She cited the example of President George H.W. Bush's address during the LA riots during the 1990s in the wake of police officers being acquitted for using excessive force against Rodney King. She quoted Bush's words: 'Those terrible scenes stir us all to demand an end to gratuitous violence and gratuitous brutality. Law enforcement officials cannot place themselves above the law that they are sworn to defend. It was sickening to see the beating that was rendered and there's no way, no way, in my view, to explain that away.' Pelosi then criticized President Trump after law enforcement officials used rubber bullets, tear gas and officers on horse back to clear out protesters so the president could leave the White House, and cross Lafayette Park to pose with a bible in front of the historic St. Johns' Church, known as the Church of Presidents as every president since James Madison has prayed there. 'We would hope that the President of the United States would follow the lead of so many other presidents before has to be a healer in chief and not a fanner of the flame. Yesterday we saw a most unfortunate situation where before the curfew -the time of the curfew occurred - peaceful protesters in front of the White House were beaten so the president could come out and go forward. What is that? That has no place and it's time for us to do away with that. A time to heal,' she said. President Trump held a bible in front of St. John's after addressing the nation Monday to threaten to use military force to end protests that broke out throughout the country in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a black man killed when a white cop knelt on his neck for eight minutes. He did not read from it or go inside to pray. When reporters asked him if it was his bible, he said 'it's a bible.' He was criticized for the use of force to move protesters 30 minutes before Washington D.C.'s curfew went into affect and shortly before took his walk to spend five minutes at the church. Both D.C. officials and church officials said they were given no advance notice of Trump's plans. But the president bragged Tuesday morning that law enforcement 'dominated' in Washington, D.C. Monday night as he claimed there were 'no problems' with rioters, but in the same tweet claimed there were 'many arrests.' 'D.C. had no problems last night,' Trump boasted in his Tuesday morning tweet. 'Many arrests. Great job done by all. Overwhelming force. Domination.' Trump will also appeal to his religious base by visiting the Saint John Paul II National Shrine Tuesday morning before signing a religious freedom executive order from the Oval Office later in the day. The shrine to Pope John Paul II is located in Northeast Washington, D.C. and is sponsored by the Knights of Columbus. While it is a place of prayer for Catholics, it welcomes people of all faiths. The president will travel there by motorcade with first lady Melania. Riot police rush protestors to clear Lafayette Park and the area around it across from the White House for President Donald Trump to be able to walk through for a photo opportunity in front of St. John's Episcopal Church (seen at rear) President Trump walked out of the White House surrounded by Cabinet officials, aides and security It comes after he marched out of the White House Monday evening - surrounded by aides, Cabinet officials, military members and Secret Service agents - to visit St. John's church, which was damaged during Sunday night's protest in downtown D.C. The church is located directly across from the north side of the White House, only separated by Lafayette Park, which was tear gassed to disperse protesters moments before the president emerged. Priests from the church revealed Monday that they were part of a peaceful crowd that was tear gassed by cops who were clearing a path for Trump. Gini Gerbasi, a rector at the Church, revealed on Facebook Monday that she and other clergy and laypeople were passing out water to protesters when police flooded the area, pushing protesters, deploying tear gas and unleashing rubber bullets. 'That man turned it into a BATTLE GROUND first, and a cheap political stunt second,' Gerbasi said in her post. Speaker Pelosi and President Trump have clashed about manners of faith before. Pelosi, a devout Catholic, has repeatedly said she prays for the president. Trump, at the National Prayer Breakfast in February shortly after he was cleared of two article of impeachment, said he doesn't like 'people who say I pray for you when they know that's not so.' A federal court gave control of Tiger King Joe Exotic Maldonado-Passages Oklahoma zoo properties over to his rival featured in the popular Netflix documentary as part of a $1 million trademark judgment. According to Court House News, Maldonado-Passage fraudulently transferred the properties to his mother, Shirley M. Schreibvogel, in 2011 to keep the properties away from creditors in case Baskin's Big Cat Rescue won a lawsuit against Joe Exotic. Carole BaskinNetflix "Schreibvogel later admitted under oath that the zoo land was transferred to her by Joe Maldonado to remove it from the reach of creditors, including BCR, should BCR win its Florida lawsuit," the complaint stated. "Schreibvogel also admitted in 2015, via a confession of judgment she entered into to resolve a lawsuit filed against her by the Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee overseeing Joe Maldonado's personal bankruptcy estate, that the zoo land was fraudulently transferred to her by Joe Maldonado in 2011 to avoid his creditors." U.S. District Judge Scott L. Palk in Oklahoma City also awarded several cars and cabins on the property to Baskin and Big Cat Rescue and ordered Joe Exotic associate Jeff Lowe and others to vacate the premises within 120 days. In 2019, an Oklahoma federal jury convicted Maldonado-Passage of trying to hire a hitman to kill Baskin, falsifying animal records and violating the Endangered Species Act, events that were chronicled in the Netflix documentary. He was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison in January. Judge Palk also presided over Maldonado-Passage's criminal trial. He is also presiding over a counter lawsuit Maldonado-Passage filed against several federal agencies. He has accused the judge of being a biased animal rights advocate. By David Matthews, New York Daily News (TNS) Related: Nicholas Cage to play Tiger King Joe Exotic in scripted TV series Florida sheriff renews search for missing millionaire featured in Tiger King Tiger King: CNY animal park owner says Joe Exotic was set up Tiger King inspired pizza called Dough Exotic is one of N.Js hottest, craziest pies The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) says it has been reassured more information will be provided on coronavirus infections among healthcare workers. It has held a remote meeting with Health Minister Simon Harris to discuss why almost 8,000 staff have caught the virus. The government of Uganda introduced the mother tongue education programme with hope of improving literacy levels 12 years ago. But the training of teachers at colleges was not modified to match the introduced programme. In a recently published study we conducted in 2018 in three rural schools in Northern Uganda, Gulu District, we found that teachers complained about inadequate training in the mother tongue, Acoli. Teachers said they weren't taught the local language as subject at college and this made them feel inadequate to teach in the language. This limited training affected the teaching of the learners' mother tongue and ultimately, the level of literacy acquisition, which is both slow and poor. For instance in 2016, Uwezo, an East African organisation that reviews learners' progress, found that pupils in Grade 3 and 7 had a competence rate of 25% when assessed in reading English and numeracy. National exam data from 2017 where children in Grades 1 to 3 were assessed in English and local languages in government schools, showed that only 27% of the pupils could identify 4 out of 5 Acoli letters. Acoli is the dominant language spoken in Gulu and the language taught as the mother tongue and used as the language of teaching and learning. Another international study used the Early Grade Reading Assessment tool to assess learners in northern Uganda. The results were even more discouraging. Between 90% and 91% of the learners in the north did not understand what they read in their mother tongues. The paper argues that if the assessments were done in English, the results would've been poorer. Some teachers in our study said they preferred teaching in English because that's how they were taught. They argued that they didn't see much value in teaching the mother tongue while learners will be sitting English exams at the end of primary schooling. The challenges Studies have shown that teachers should be trained at college in accordance to what the practice in schools demands. Our findings clearly mean that teachers have a negative attitude towards mother tongue education. This inevitably affects their classroom practices and the process of literacy acquisition. Another challenge that teachers at government schools experience relates to the absence of pre-primary sections at government schools. For example in our study, one teacher said they receive learners from home direct meaning they receive children who have not gone through pre-primary. Grade 1 teachers therefore have a huge task of teaching not only Grade 1 content but also pre-primary classwork that children should've learnt between the ages 2 and 3 years. This slows the process of literacy acquisition in these schools. Another problem in Uganda has been the threat of violence . The Lord's Resistance Army rebels destroyed infrastructure in a area with few schools to begin with. This meant that learners walk long distances to school. Teachers reported that some pupils walk for close to 5km to and from school. If they must reach school by 8AM, they start their journey at around 5AM. Some of these learners are as young as 5 years old. By the time they get to school they're tired and their concentration in the classroom is affected. Classrooms at these schools tend to be overcrowded. At the three government schools we visited, Grade 1 and 3 classes had learners ranging from 70 and 190 in a single classroom. Many of the learners didn't have desks. Some classes didn't have desks at all. When it was time for them to write, the chairs turned into desks while learners knelt and put their books on the chairs. In such circumstances, it's difficult for learners to grasp the skill of writing. During the rainy season the teachers said learners' books were soiled. As such, some come to school but without any materials. Our study also found that when teachers give exercises or notes to take down, learners use pens and pencils in turns. In the process, those who have no books and pens cannot properly practice the skill of writing and therefore lag behind those who do. Teachers also reported there were limited teaching and learning materials in Acoli. There is hope As much as our study highlighted difficult circumstances, there are various organisations that have joined hands with government to help learners in this area. The organisations doing work in Gulu District, for example, include Save the Children , Northern Uganda Basic Education and Hope is Education International , among others. These organisations are involved in various activities such as teacher training, provision of teaching and reading materials and sensitising the community about the value of mother tongue education. In addition, these organisations, like Save the Children, set up clubs in the community where children learn to document their traditional stories. Such stories are later edited and published and returned to learners. Another programme , the African Storybook Project, is aimed at supporting multilingual literacy for young African children through the provision of open access digital stories in several African languages. By June 2019, the African Storybook website had over 1,000 storybooks in 182 languages with more than 5,000 translations. Government action needed The government of Uganda needs to plan for pre-service teacher training. Teachers need to be acquainted with skills that match what their teaching practices demand. They should also be prepared to defend mother tongue education when it faces opposition from the community. Medadi Ssentanda received funding from Makerere University Directorate of Research and Graduate Training under the Nurturing Emerging Research Leaders Project (NERLP) to conduct research on the implementation of mother tongue education in northern Uganda, from which this article was written. Allen Asiimwe works for Makerere University as a Lecturer in the Department of African Languages. She received funding from the university's Directorate of Research and Graduate Training under the Nurturing Emerging Research Leaders Project (NERLP) to conduct research on the the implementation of mother tongue education in northern Uganda. This article is based on the findings from this research. By Medadi Ssentanda, Lecturer, Department of African Languages, Makerere University And Allen Asiimwe, Lecturer, Makerere University Hong Kong Police Reportedly Ban Annual Tiananmen Square Vigil Over COVID-19 Threat Sputnik News 16:06 GMT 01.06.2020 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Hong Kong police have banned an annual vigil to commemorate victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown for the first time in 30 years, citing the need to follow social distancing measures and health concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the South China Morning Post newspaper reported on Monday. The vigil was supposed to be held on 4 June. According to the South China Morning Post newspaper, the official ban came as Hong Kong recorded three new local coronavirus cases, bringing the total toll of those infected in the Chinese administrative region to five in just two days, after more than two weeks without recording locally transmitted cases. The police reportedly cited the government regulation banning public gatherings of more than eight people until Thursday as a reason to prohibit the vigil. Nevertheless, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, the organiser of the event, said that on Thursday, its members planned to go to Victoria Park to observe a moment of silence. The alliance called on the public to light candles across the city and join an online gathering to commemorate victims of the crackdown, the newspaper added. Every year, Hong Kong holds events in memory of victims of the student protests that erupted in Beijing on 15 April 1989 and culminated on 4 June. To stop the protesters, who were demanding democratic reforms, the Chinese army deployed tanks to the city, which led to violent clashes that, according to official data, claimed over 200 lives and left hundreds injured. The ban on the vigil was introduced in light of protests in Hong Kong over Beijing's plans to adopt new security legislation. Thousands of people have participated in the demonstration as they consider the bill as a threat to their civil liberties. In addition, Hong Kong protesters also rallied against a new bill that would criminalise disrespect of the Chinese national anthem, which is also perceived as a threat to their freedom. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Tam Yiu-chung (L), one of the organizers of the United Front Supporting National Security Legislation, hands in the petition in support of the national security legislation for Hong Kong to Luo Huining, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, in south China's Hong Kong, June 1, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Gang) "We saw Hong Kong residents, many of them young people, enthusiastically participate in the petition," said Tam Yiu-chung, a member of the NPC Standing Committee. The legislation will prevent, stop and punish acts and activities endangering national security, maintain Hong Kong's long-term prosperity and stability, and better protect the legitimate rights and interests of Hong Kong residents, said Luo Huining, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the HKSAR. HONG KONG, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 2.93 million Hong Kong residents have signed a petition in support of the national security legislation for Hong Kong during an eight-day campaign. Organizers handed in the petition to Luo Huining, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Monday afternoon. The large number of those signing the petition has fully demonstrated that the national security legislation is an essential move that meets the aspirations of Hong Kong residents, Luo said as he received the petition. China's National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, on May 28 overwhelmingly adopted a decision to institute Hong Kong national security laws. The decision will also allow the central government's national security organs to set up agencies in Hong Kong when needed. Luo said he had noticed some sensational rumors online saying that Hong Kong residents would lose their freedom of speech, press and assembly and be arrested for traveling abroad and dining with foreigners when the legislation is being enforced. "By confounding the legal rights of the vast majority of residents with few crimes endangering national security, such rumors are aimed at causing fear and inciting hatred," he said, urging residents to see through those tricks and oppose such political conspiracies. Organizers of United Front Supporting National Security Legislation and guests attend a press conference in south China's Hong Kong, June 1, 2020. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai) Luo said the legislation will prevent, stop and punish acts and activities endangering national security, maintain Hong Kong's long-term prosperity and stability, and better protect the legitimate rights and interests of Hong Kong residents. He also stressed that the threat of sanctions by the United States "underscores the urgency of opposing external interference with the national security legislation." The U.S. threat of sanctions proves that "they do not care about the future of Hong Kong at all, but regard Hong Kong as a pawn to contain the development of China," he added. "We will fight back with strong counter-measures," he said with regards to all external interference. "Hong Kong's achievements today are the result of its own hard work and the support of the motherland, not a gift from any foreign country," he said, stressing that under the protection of the national security legislation, Hong Kong will surely overcome difficulties and usher in a new era. The petition campaign, launched on May 24 in Hong Kong, was organized by a newly established organization named United Front Supporting National Security Legislation. According to the organizers, 2,074 people from all walks of life in Hong Kong society have joined the organization as co-sponsors, with 1,023 groups from various sectors becoming supportive groups. Tam Yiu-chung, one of the organizers of the United Front Supporting National Security Legislation and a member of China's National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, speaks at a press conference in south China's Hong Kong, June 1, 2020. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai) "Through the petition, we hope to express the Hong Kong residents' full support for the correct decision on establishing and improving at the state level the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the HKSAR to safeguard national security," one of the initiators of the campaign, Tam Yiu-chung, said at a press conference on Monday. "We saw Hong Kong residents, many of them young people, enthusiastically participate in the petition," said Tam, a member of the NPC Standing Committee. Major officials of the HKSAR government have also joined the campaign. Chief Executive of the HKSAR Carrie Lam visited one of the street stands and signed the petition on Thursday. "Safeguarding national security is the responsibility of everyone and bears on our daily life," Lam said, expressing hope that the national security legislation will help Hong Kong restore stability and then revitalize the economy. Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Carrie Lam visits a street stand and signs a petition in support of the national security legislation in Hong Kong, south China, May 28, 2020. (Xinhua) Hong Kong, with a population of over 7.5 million, has suffered from violent protests and social unrest since last June. Hong Kong's GDP in 2019 posted the first negative growth in 10 years and its credit rating was downgraded by a global rating agency. Starry Lee, a member of the HKSAR Legislative Council, said that over the past year Hong Kong has seen a large amount of illegal activities that undermined "one country, two systems" and challenged national sovereignty, which necessitates national security legislation. During the petition campaign, organizers set up more than 5,400 street stands across Hong Kong to collect public signatures and 25,000 people volunteered to work at these stands. A resident signs in a street campaign in support of the national security legislation for Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) in Hong Kong, south China, May 23, 2020. (Xinhua/Wu Xiaochu) Nearly 1.84 million signatures have been collected at the street stands and another 1.09 million people have signed the petition online. "It has become a consensus in Hong Kong that the national security legislation should be enacted as soon as possible, so as to lay a solid foundation for Hong Kong's long-term prosperity and stability," head of Kowloon Federation of Associations Connie Wong, one of the co-sponsors of the organization, said. A total of 12,456 Chevrolet cars are being recalled to fix Takata airbag inflator problems, according to the Vietnam Register. The affected models, Cruze, Trax and Orlando, had been assembled in Vietnam between 2014 and 2018 by General Motors (GM). GM sold its Vietnamese operations to VinFast in 2018, and the latter is the distributor of the American cars in Vietnam now. The defective vehicles have airbags manufactured by Japans Takata that do not adequately keep out moisture. When the vehicle has an accident and the airbag system is activated, depending on the circumstances, the gas engine can create too much pressure, leading to the possibility of inflators cracking or rupturing. The rupture could spray metal fragments and injure or kill vehicle occupants. VinFast will carry out the recall and fix the fault, which it has said could take around two hours. The recall will go on for two years. VinFast also recalled 7,584 Chevrolet vehicles manufactured in 2010-13 with faulty airbags in May last year. Recalling vehicles for faulty Takata airbags has become one of the biggest safety recalls in the global auto industry. There have been some 100 million recalls for inflators by 19 major automakers. Rival company Key Safety Systems, owned by China's Ningbo Joyson Electronic, acquired Takata for $1.6 billion. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 2 By Fidan Babayeva Trend: The total value of crude oil and natural gas produced in Azerbaijan as well as services provided in this segment cumulatively amounted to 6.3 billion manat ($3.7 billion) from January through March 2020, State Statistical Committee told Trend. According to the committee, this figure declined by 22.7 percent compared to the same period of 2019. In the reporting period, the total trade turnover of the countrys oil and gas sector made up 6 billion manat ($3.5 billion), showing a decrease by 23.3 percent over the year. Last year, almost 37.5 million tons of oil and gas condensate were produced in Azerbaijan, which is 3.2 percent less compared to 2018. In 2018, over 38.7 million tons of oil and gas condensate were produced in Azerbaijan, which is approximately equal to the figures in the preceding year. The main volume of oil production in Azerbaijan accounted for Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater Gunashli (ACG) field. (1 USD = 1.7 manat on June 2) --- Follow the author on Twitter: @IsmailovaNargis Press Release June 2, 2020 Drilon told DOH: Drop spending P11.7-B for contact tracing, tap village health workers and 4Ps leaders Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon urged the Department of Health (DOH) to drop its plan to spend P11.7 billion for the hiring of 130,000 contact tracers in consideration of the country's growing budget deficit due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. "In light of the budget deficit, it behooves all agencies to exercise prudent judgment in the use of public funds. Mag-ingat po tayo sa paggasta ng pera ng taumbayan lalo sa panahon ng krisis," said Drilon, who was able to force the PhilHealth to lower its COVID-19 testing package by 50 percent, saving the government a potential loss of P8.3 billion. Drilon backed Senate President Vicente Sotto III's call for "more prudent" use of the country's funds. Sotto also asked the DOH to divert the P11.7 billion for the treatment of patients. The minority leader remprimanded the DOH for insisting on its plan when it can find other ways "to do contact tracing without hurting the government coffers", adding that such a move "shows its insensitivity to budget deficit." "Given the increasing budget deficit, which is projected to reach P1.56 trillion or 8.1 percent of the country's gross domestic product this year, this P11.7 billion should better be put to good use," said Drilon. The minority leader reiterated his proposal for the DOH to mobilize civil society organizations and tap around 400 thousand barangay health workers and parent-leaders from the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program to carry out contact tracing. Drilon said by doing so, it will save the government huge amount of money. In his letter to Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III last week, Drilon said that to help expedite contact tracing, he tap the over 200,000 Barangay Health Workers (BHWs), 200,000 parent-leaders from the Pantawid Pamilya Pilipino Program and members of DSWD-accredited Civil Society Organizations to do contact tracing. "Time is of the essence and we must act expeditiously - tapping the above workers and leaders can save us precious time and help us combat COVID-19 efficiently," Drilon told Duque in light of warnings issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding the slow contact tracing efforts in the country. "Since they are already organized, they can be quickly mobilized as contact tracers," he added. Drilon emphasized the importance of tracking in containing the virus and winning the fight against the pandemic. "Our objective to prevent the virus from spreading is based on our ability to efficiently identify the infected and notify those he or she has made contact with. Hence, contact tracing is a must and should never be neglected," Drilon said. Of the 161 high school seniors nationwide who have been named Presidential Scholars this year by the U.S. Department of Education two are from Moravian Academy in Bethlehem. Last month, Rhea Malhotra and Neil Deshmukh received word that they were part of this years class of scholars. Thats out of 3.6 million graduating seniors in the country and 5,300 eligible graduates. When I saw the e-mail I thought it was another rejection, Deshmukh said. It took a minute to process. I clicked out of the e-mail and then said, Wait a minute. That didnt say rejected. I was really surprised [I won]. But those around him arent surprised. Hes an algorithm. He learns so quickly. Hes like a Beagle. Once he gets on a scent to do something he just goes and does it, says Michael Krajsa, a retired assistant teaching professor from Penn State Lehigh Valley. Ive never met anyone like that. Krajsa first met Deshmukh when the student was a freshman at Moravian Academy as part of the Lehigh Valley LaunchBox, a university and community-sponsored business accelerator program. Throughout his middle and high school career, Deshmukh, who will attend MIT this fall, has poured his heart and soul into artificial intelligence in the healthcare field. He made that passion evident in the essay he wrote for the Presidential Scholar application. My goal in life is to directly serve and support underrepresented communities and populations, he says. Whether thats helping them get access to healthcare, using AI in medicine or agriculture, or helping low-vision individuals navigate independently, thats what I want to do. The Presidential Scholars Program was created in 1964 to recognize the countrys most distinguished graduating high school seniors, according to the programs website. Since then, the program has been extended to honor exceptional students in the visual, creative, and performing arts, and most recently, those in career and technical education fields. Students can only be nominated through a chief state school officer or by one of the programs partner recognition organizations based on outstanding scholarship. And even then, that nomination is just an invitation to apply for the award. As thrilled as they are, Deshmukh and Malhotra say they never set out to be Presidential Scholars. Winning awards or accolades isnt really the end-all-be-all for what you want to do, Deshmukh says. They may be great for verifying the impact youre having, but if an award is your main goal and you dont win it, you may devalue all the work youve done. I definitely didnt have the honor as a set thing I wanted to achieve, Malhotra says. Everything I did in high school was through my interests and not for the sake of achieving an award. This is more supplementary. Any award [that Ive won] reaffirms what Im doing. Malhotra, who plans to study bio-mechanical engineering and economics at Stanford University this fall, has made a name for herself in the science field. She hosts Teen Scientist, a radio show for Lehigh Valley Discourse, which explores advances in science from a teenage perspective, and she developed curriculum for Synapse Global Science Connections, a nonprofit organization that connects young students with STEM and hands-on scientific learning. But for her Presidential Scholars essay Malhotra wrote about something else: ceramics. Art highlights a different aspect of my personality, Malhotra says. Its spontaneous and not as structured as the lab environment. Her favorite ceramics pieces are not traditional bowls or sculptures, but sculptures created through a drizzle technique, inspired by the Indian art of henna or mendhi, and then mounted and hung on the wall. Rheas academic strengths are clear through her grades and her many, many achievements, says Amanda Jackson, an English teacher at Moravian Academy. But her desire to push herself to consider new ways of thinking and learning is what makes her a truly outstanding student. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this years Scholars wont attend the White House for their recognition ceremony. Malhotra hopes theyll be able to go sometime in the futureshe wants to connect with fellow scholars to continue to build her network. Its useful to have connections with such high-achieving students at top universities across the country, she says. It will be a shame if were unable to have that community. School officials at Moravian Academy said they are proud of Malhotras and Deshmukhs achievements over the years, including the Presidential Scholar awards. We are excited to see where their curiosity and perseverance take them, Stephanie Vasta, director of marketing and communications for Moravian Academy, said in an e-mail to lehighvalleylive.com. We believe our way of preparing students for the world of the unknown and helping them learn how to learn is what really attracts students like Rhea and Neil to Moravian Academy. Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Last year Bob Kroll, the head of the Minneapolis police union, appeared at a Trump rally, where he thanked the President for ending Barack Obama's "oppression of police" and letting cops "put the handcuffs on criminals instead of us". The events of the past week, in which the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody led to demonstrations against police brutality, and these demonstrations were met by more police brutality including unprecedented violence against the news media have made it clear what Kroll meant by taking the handcuffs off. And Donald Trump, far from trying to calm the nation, is pouring gasoline on the fire; he seems very close to trying to incite a civil war. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that America as we know it is on the brink. How did we get here? The core story of US politics over the past four decades is that wealthy elites weaponised white racism to gain political power, which they used to pursue policies that enriched the already wealthy at workers' expense. For her coronation 67 years ago, Princess Elizabeth really did wear shoes fit for a Queen. On June 2, 1953, the 27-year-old was crowned Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey and she did so wearing the most ornate shoes that were adorned in real rubies. The bespoke shoes, designed by French shoemaker Roger Vivier, were the perfect finishing touch to an exquisite and regal look by the Queen for one of the most important moments in her life. Wearing a white satin gown with intricate gold and silver embroidery designed by Norman Hartnell, a purple silk velvet robe trimmed with ermine fur, embroidered in gold and no less than three diadems it was certainly a fashion moment to remember. See Prince Charles' Special Kid-Friendly Invitation to Mom Queen Elizabeth's Coronation The Print Collector/Getty Queen Elizabeth While they are tricky to spot in most of the historic photos, the shoes were actually a collaboration between Roger Vivier and the British shoemakers Delman Ltd. Made in the softest gold leather with the heels covered in rubies, the design was kept secret until the big day. Inspired by the rose windows of the Chartres Cathedral in France, Vivier incorporated a fleur-de-lys motif to match the Imperial State Crown, which the Queen wore to return to Buckingham Palace later that day. Central Press/Getty Queen Elizabeth on her Coronation Day, June 2, 1953 Roger Vivier Roger Vivier's original design for the Queen's Coronation shoes To celebrate the anniversary, the royal-designed shoes have been reimagined for the modern-day by Gherardo Felloni, the brands current creative director. The "Vivier Queen Sandal" was unveiled at the designers Spring/Summer 2020 collection last September. Available in pink, black and the original gold color, the sandal retails for approximately $1,790, giving fans of the Queen a rare chance to own a piece of royal history. The French brand might have seemed an unlikely choice by the Queen for her coronation, but the monarch was actually following a tradition set by her mother, who also wore Roger Vivier shoes to the coronation of her husband King George in 1937. Just like her mothers shoes, the Queen's also had a secret design feature to help her stay comfortable during the three-hour ceremony, which was attended by 8,251 people and watched by 27 million viewers in the U.K. alone. The Queen asked the designer to insert an invisible platform for extra comfort as she knew she would be standing for most of the service. Story continues Can't get enough of PEOPLE's Royals coverage? Sign up for our free Royals newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more! Hulton Archive/Getty Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, Princess Anne and Prince Philip While its not known what has become of the gold shoes as they have been never been exhibited since the coronation day the stunning dress, which was sketched eight times before the Queen gave Hartnell her nod of approval, has been worn six times since the historical day, including the Opening of Parliament in 1954. : Newborn Baby Rescued by Villagers After Being Buried Alive in Mud, Survives Against the Odds A mother who left her children playing with a tub of paint in the bath tub, revealed the hilarious consequences that's followed. Donna Evans, 32, who lives in Cannock, West Midlands, thought she had discovered the perfect 'parenting hack' to minimise the mess when her children, Hallie, seven, and Isaac, three, painted together - by popping them in the bath while they played. On several occasions her plan had worked perfectly, but when she stepped out of the bathroom for 15 minutes to take an important work Zoom call, she returned to find her children, the tub, the walls and everything within reach coated in green paint. Donna had successfully minimised the mess when her children paint by putting them in the bath tub on several previous occasions. Pictured: Donna and her husband Kye Evans, 33, with their children Despite needing multiple showers to clean the children, who retained a green tinge for several days, and some time to clean the bathroom, teaching assistant Donna and her plasterer husband Kye Evans, 33, saw the funny side and have been happily sharing pictures of the mess. Donna laughed: 'The children are usually quite well behaved. They've done things in the past like draw on the walls, but this is a new level. 'Hallie had even washed Isaac's hair in paint! They were covered in it and their skin had a green tinge for a couple of days. 'I had to laugh though. They were only kids being kids.' The best of friends, brother and sister love playing together - but as Hallie gets older, she has started to steer Isaac towards mischief. Donna added: 'Now Hallie is a little older, she encourages Isaac, and they have grown slightly more mischievous.' Donna Evans, 32, who lives in Cannock, West Midlands, was left in hysterics after her children Hallie, seven, and Issac, three, (pictured) covered themselves and the bathroom in green paint, while she was on a Zoom call The mother-of-two dressed the children in swimwear and gave them water-based paints, while she stepped out of the room. Pictured: Issac covered in paint The savvy mother who was outwitted, prides herself on coming up with tips and tricks to make parenting easier - such as painting in the bath, to prevent spillages and avoid staining her carpets. 'I thought it was a really great hack, or solution but clearly it isn't,' she laughed. With both children at home while UK schools remain closed because of Covid-19, giving the duo water-based paints, brushes and paper, while dressing them in swimwear to avoid messing up their clothes and plonking them in the bath had, Donna thought, been one of her most ingenious ideas. But, the moment her back was turned, she was proved very wrong. She said: 'I had to take quite an important Zoom call, so I stepped out of the room and sat outside the bathroom door, leaving the kids to it. 'That way, I could keep one ear out for them and make sure they were okay. Donna said she didn't realise that she had left the shampoo and shower gel bottles on the side of the bath. Pictured: Hallie and Issac before their painting got out of hand 'I didn't realise it at the time, but I had stupidly left the paint on the side of the empty bath, with the shampoo and shower gel bottles. 'I could hear them laughing, but assumed it was just them playing and having fun.' During the 15 minutes that they were left alone, Hallie and Isaac had completely covered themselves and the bathroom in green paint set off by bright blue hand prints. Donna continued: 'I had no idea where to start with the clean-up. They'd got paint absolutely everywhere. The mother-of-two said she ended up laughing with Hallie and Issac (pictured), because they looked so silly with their bright green skin Donna began the cleaning process by rinsing the bath and then gave the children (pictured) three showers each 'Of course, they thought it was hilarious and I ended up laughing with them. They looked so silly, beaming away with bright green skin. 'I had to fill the bath and rinse off the sides to get the paint away before I could even think about washing them.' In the end, Hallie and Isaac both needed three showers each and even after that, their skin had a green tinge for a few days. 'Eventually, it came off the bath too, with the help of some bleach and elbow grease. I'm surprised it didn't stain,' said Donna. 'I watched a lot of Mrs Hinch, the cleaning influencer, videos for tips.' Donna said she was able to clean the bath using bleach and tip videos from Mrs Hinch. Pictured: The bath after Donna scrubbed it clean Donna took plenty of photos and videos to show Kye, who was at at the time. Pictured: Hallie and Issac covered in paint Not wanting Kye, who was out at the time, to miss the fun, Donna took plenty of pictures and video to show him when he got home. 'He couldn't quite believe how much carnage they'd manage to cause in 15 minutes,' she said. 'Like everybody else, we are taking life day by day at the moment, and nobody knows for sure when the children are likely to go back to school. 'One thing is certain, though, I won't be giving them paint again any time soon.' (Alliance News) - PPHE Hotel Group Ltd on Tuesday noted that a subsidiary has agreed a deal to acquire a Croatian hotel. Arena Hospitality Group DD, which PPHE has a controlling interest in, has been operating the Guesthouse Riviera in Pula "for several decades". Arena Hospitality has been in talks with the Croatian government to acquire the property. The PPHE's investee on Tuesday signed an agreement to purchase the asset in a deal worth HRK36.5 million, about GBP4.3 million. "This important milestone enables the company to finally commence with the plans to reposition this property into a luxury, branded, 80 rooms hotel and give back to it the status that this asset deserves," Arena Hospitality said. PPHE shares closed 0.8% higher at 1,200.00 pence each in London on Tuesday. By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. Understanding the key issues affecting rural young people and their views on what needs to change post-Brexit is the aim of new research by young farmers' clubs. The next generation of farmers and land managers have the chance to highlight their concerns, such as accessibility of skills and services in the countryside. The results of the survey aim to ensure that rural young peoples needs are recognised in post-Brexit policies and life beyond the Covid-19 pandemic. The National Federation of Young Farmers Clubs' (NFYFC) survey, which is funded by Defra, will be launched on 10 June during Cereals LIVE 2020. The event - the UK's largest arable sector show - was forced to go virtual following its cancellation due to the impact caused by the coronavirus. YFC AGRI chairman George Baxter said: If youre a young person living or working in a rural environment, do you have access to the essential opportunities, skills and services you need both now and in the future? "These are important questions, giving rural young people the opportunity to have their say at such a critical time in all our lives." The survey also includes key questions about the impact of Covid-19 on young people living and working in the countryside. NFYFCs breakfast reception was due to be held at Cereals in Cambridgeshire but has now moved to an online platform for a virtual event due to the crisis. Over 18,000 farmers, agronomists, and industry experts usually visit the event each year to discover the latest arable innovations. YFC AGRI said it had been working with the organisers of Cereals to help develop a young farmer programme for the virtual event. President Trumps threat to label Antifa as a terrorist organization flies in the face of the fact that there is no such organization. But left-leaning California activists fear it could be used as an excuse for the government to crack down on, infiltrate or otherwise disrupt legitimate groups that protest police brutality. Antifa and others who are leading instigators of this violence could face long prison sentences in connection with looting and destruction that has broken out at some protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Trump said Monday. After Trump tweeted over the weekend that the United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark, raised the stakes by proposing that elite military units be called in to take on Antifa. If local law enforcement is overwhelmed and needs backup, lets see how tough these Antifa terrorists are when theyre facing off with the 101st Airborne Division, Cotton, who is often mentioned as a likely 2024 presidential candidate, tweeted Monday. Organizers in the Bay Area, long a hub for left-leaning activism, see a different motivation behind such calls than a desire to restore order. They say Trump is trying to delegitimize the demonstrations, many of which have been peaceful. It is an attempt to criminalize and indict people who are standing up to injustice, said Carroll Fife, director of the Oakland/San Francisco Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment and a longtime Bay Area organizer. It is a 2020 version of the Red Scare in order to silence resistance. Antifa which is shorthand for anti-fascist is a leaderless, loosely organized collection of far-left anarchists, some of whom espouse communist or anti-capitalist rhetoric. But Antifa is not a group with a mailing address. As FBI director Christopher Wray told the House Homeland Security Committee in 2017, Antifa is an ideology, and we dont investigate ideologies. Bay Area residents are familiar with the work of those who espouse that ideology. Now Playing: East Bay columnist Otis R. Taylor Jr. talks about the rage and unrest that's followed the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, and his experience covering the protests as a black journalist. Video: San Francisco Chronicle If youve been hanging around left protests and events for the last 30 years, there are always guys who show up whose point is to provoke the police into violent confrontation, said Lawrence Rosenthal, chair of the Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies at UC Berkeley and an expert on social movements. Thats who those guys are. Trump invoking Antifa is the best publicity they could ever imagine, Rosenthal said. It has other implications, too. Designating Antifa as a terrorist group would grant federal law enforcement broad powers, under the federal terrorism code, to surveil and investigate anyone labeled as Antifa, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups. It could also allow federal law enforcement to broadly target anyone involved in protests viewed unfavorably by the Trump administration, even retroactively, the organization wrote on its website Monday. But while Trump is proposing to slap a domestic terrorist label on Antifa, he is not proposing to do so for far-right organizations that are also suspected of infiltrating some protests. ABC News reported that the Department of Homeland Security has warned that domestic terrorists from the far right and the far left both are looking to exploit the demonstrations nationwide. Chad Wolf, a Department of Homeland Security official, tweeted Monday that evidence currently shows that left wing #ANTIFA-inspired groups are on the ground committing acts of violence. But Wolf didnt provide any evidence. When you point a finger at Antifa with no evidence and you claim that the left is responsible for activities that the right is clearly doing, you create danger for all progressives, for all people marching, said Malkia Devich-Cyril, a longtime Bay Area organizer and founder of gender and racial equity organization Media Justice. Its a distraction from the reason that we are out there and try to refocus everybody on the methods of protest rather than the reason we are protesting, Devich-Cyril said. Now Playing: From peaceful protest to mass arrests: Police in Oakland fires tear gas at protesters condemning the killing of George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer during the fourth night of demonstrations in the Bay Area. Video: Matthias Gafni, Mallory Moench, Erika Carlos Veteran Bay Area activists like Tur-Ha Ak, who provides logistics and security help to Bay Area organizers for the demonstrations, said there have long been disputes in the movement about anarchists tactics. There will always be political differences how things should be done, said Ak, founder of the Community Ready Corps, a predominantly African American grassroots organization. While he said he prefers peaceful protest, he did not criticize other tactics. Ultimately, we put the question back in the lap of the status quo powers, Ak said. Repression breeds all types of responses. Eliminate that repression, and we can eliminate conversations about what kinds of (tactical) responses are best. Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli Rs 1 crore worth brown sugar seized in Odisha India oi-Vicky Nanjappa Bhubaneswar, June 02: The Odisha Police on Tuesday busted a drug smuggling racket and arrested two persons in the city after brown sugar worth over Rs one crore was recovered from them, a senior officer said. Acting on a tip-off, the Special Task Force (STF) of the Crime Branch police conducted a search operation in Khandagiri area of the state capital and apprehended the two drug peddlers, he said. J&K: Cops seize brown sugar and AK-56 rifles Jessica Lal case convict Manu Sharma to be released prematurely, LG accepts | Oneindia News Around one kg of brown sugar with a market value of over Rs one crore was seized from them, DIG of Police, STF, J N Pankaj said. One person managed to escape from the spot and efforts are on to arrest him, he said. The contraband was suspected to have been bought from West Bengal through Jaleswar area of Odisha's Balasore district, the police officer said. The two were arrested, when they were trying to supply the drug to some customers, he said. They are being interrogated by the crime branch personnel as part of efforts to find out details about the drug racket and the involvement of other people in the illegal trade, police said. The STF has seized around 7.8 kg of brown sugar so far this year, the DIG said. The campaign to reduce the physical distancing rule from two metres to one has received a setback after an influential study concluded that the wider the gap, the lower the risk of infection. Distancing of at least one metre lowers the risk of Covid-19 transmission - but two metres is more effective, the study in The Lancet reveals. It comes as just one person was reported to have been killed by the virus in the Republic of Ireland yesterday - the second lowest daily death toll since late March. However, another 77 new cases of the virus were diagnosed, signalling that it continues to pose a risk. Parties There was also mounting concern at the breaching of safeguards over the weekend following student house parties in Cork, which infectious disease experts fear can be a breeding ground for the virus. It led to residents living near University College Cork staging a silent protest at the parties by students who have rented houses nearby. As the country basked in glorious sunshine over the bank holiday weekend, gardai also had to ask groups of sun seekers at the Forty Foot swimming spot in Sandycove, Dublin, to disperse. Fears about lack of physical distancing also led to beaches in Donegal, Kerry, Cork and Louth being closed to the public. Dr Sam McConkey, an infectious disease consultant in Beaumont Hospital, warned that house parties increased the risks of the virus being passed on. The Lancet report, which was part-funded by the World Health Organisation, is the first to look at 172 observational studies on how physical distancing, face masks and eye protection affect the spread of Covid-19 across 16 countries. It found that analysis of data from nine studies looked at physical distance and virus transmission. They showed that keeping a distance of over one metre from other people was associated with a much lower risk of infection compared with less than one metre. The risk of infection when individuals stand more than a metre away from the infected individual was 3pc, versus 13pc if within a metre. However, the modelling suggests for every extra metre further away up to three metres, the risk of infection or transmission may halve. Prof Holger Schunemann, from McMaster University in Canada, who co-led the research, said: "Our findings are the first to synthesise all direct information on Covid-19, Sars and Mers, and provide the currently best available evidence on the optimum use of these common and simple interventions to help 'flatten the curve' and inform pandemic response efforts in the community. "Keeping at least one metre from other people as well as wearing face coverings and eye protection, in and outside of healthcare settings, could be the best way to reduce the chance of viral infection or transmission of Covid-19." Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said: "We now have had more than 25,000 cases of Covid-19 in Ireland and while 90pc of patients have recovered, more than 3,285 people have been hospitalised and sadly 1,650 have died. "It is vital that we continue to practise hand and cough hygiene and social distancing, with the additional hygiene measure of face coverings in appropriate settings. "It is important to give space to our vulnerable people when out and about. "We must continue to do all we can to interrupt the spread of this virus." Sinn Fein TD for Meath East, Darren O'Rourke, will today question witnesses at the Special Covid Committee as to whether a traffic-light system for travel can be introduced here as a means of safely opening up foreign travel. Deputy O'Rourke and his party colleague, Sinn Fein Finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty, will also question why the Public Health Passenger Locator Form was only made mandatory last week and how long the 14-day quarantine procedure will be in place. They say thousands of people are unsure if it is safe to plan for summer holidays abroad, given recent conflicting public messages, and want guidance and reassurance. "The Government's actions to date on the transport aspect of the Covid-19 crisis have left a lot to be desired," he said. Mumbai, June 2 : Actress Bhumi Pednekar says climate change, as a concept, is still not considered a real issue. On World Environment Day, which is coming up on June 5, Bhumi looks to bring more awareness on the subject. "Climate change, as a concept, is still not considered a real issue today by a lot of people. There are such varied and grave climatic issues that are happening across the world, which people are not even realising -- like increase of famines, forest fires, droughts, floods, melting ice caps, sea levels increasing, food and crop getting destroyed, heat waves across countries and continents," Bhumi said. She wants every citizen of the country to become a climate warrior and do their bit for the cause. "Climate Warrior is an initiative that is very close to my heart. It aims to focus on awareness building and engaging with the youth across India so that we become more conscious of our climate and environment, to encourage passionate advocacy for its conservation and protection. It makes us think towards making environment-friendly life choices," she said. The actress says the campaign endeavours to get Bollywood personalities to share "one wish they have for the earth". "For World Environment Day, Climate Warrior is starting a small campaign -- One Wish For The Earth. At this time and in this current scenario, there are many issues that the world is facing as an impact of the climate crisis. What our campaign endeavours to do is get thought leaders from my industry to tell the world what is the 'one wish they have for the earth'. I can't wait to share their thoughts to make the Earth a better place. Let's pledge for climate justice and let's unite to save our planet," she said. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Amritsar/Jalandhar/Ludhiana A 60-year-old arhtiya from Pathankot and an octogenarian ex-serviceman lost their battle with the Covid-19 infection, even as 30 fresh coronovirus cases were recorded in Punjab on Tuesday. With this the states tally of total Covid-19 cases has gone up to 2,412 and number of deaths to 47. Ten people tested positive in Defence Colony of Jalandhar, eight of them family members of a Covid-19 patient. Nine Covid-19 cases were reported in Majha region two in Amritsar and seven in Pathankot on Tuesday. A 55-year-old anganwadi worker was among the three people who tested positive for Covid-19 in Sangrur. An undertrial who was out on bail tested postive for coronavirus in Hoshiarpur, while two women who had returned from Ahmedabad were found infected from the virus in Moga. A 35-year-old man who returned from Kuwait last week and was lodged at a quarantine facility in Faridkot tested positive for coronavirus on Tuesday. In Patiala, a 22-year-old Rajpura resident, who had returned from Kuwait on May 27, was found infected. He was quarantined at a gurdwara in Bahadurgarh since his return. In Fatehgarh Sahib district, a 28-year-old Mandi Gobindgarh resident also tested positive. Also, two inmates from Kapurthala, who were released on parole from Ludhiana jail recently, tested positive for Covid-19. A legal claim has been filed in the High Court against Health Secretary Matt Hancock over the Governments decision not to make public the full findings of a 2016 drill that tested preparedness for a flu pandemic. NHS doctor Moosa Qureshi and journalist Tommy Greene, who are represented by law firm Leigh Day, are calling for the decision not to disclose the full findings to be declared unlawful. They say the results of the simulation exercise must be published as the analysis is critical to holding the Government to account over its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. The 2016 exercise, codenamed Cygnus, tested the countrys ability to handle an influenza outbreak. The three-day operation involved all levels of national, regional and local government as well as police and other organisations. According to a report leaked to The Guardian last month, the exercise identified a lack of joint tactical-level plans for a public health emergency, with demand for services outstripping local capacity. It also reportedly identified concerns about the expectation the social care system would be able to provide the level of support needed in the event of a serious outbreak. However, Dr Qureshi and Mr Greene believe that the full findings would also show the extent to which the UK had gaps in its stockpiling of personal protective equipment and inadequate provisions for critical care in hospitals. Mr Greene says that the Government has denied Freedom of Information requests for full disclosure of the findings, leaving himself and Dr Qureshi with little choice but to take legal action in the interest of Government transparency and accountability. UK Schools begin to reopen during Coronavirus lockdown ease 1 /28 UK Schools begin to reopen during Coronavirus lockdown ease Harris Academy Primary School Jeremy Selwyn Parents drop off children at Queen's Hill Primary School, Costessey, Norfolk, as pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6, begin to return to school as part of a wider easing of lockdown measures PA Harris Academy Primary School Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Parents and children arrive at Watlington Primary School as some schools re-open Reuters Lessons with reduced class sizes at Queen's Hill Primary School, Costessey, Norfolk, as pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6, begin to return to school as part of a wider easing of lockdown measures PA Parents and children arrive at Watlington Primary School as some schools re-open Reuters Parents drop off children at Queen's Hill Primary School, Costessey, Norfolk PA Parents drop off children at Queen's Hill Primary School, Costessey, Norfolk, as pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6, begin to return to school as part of a wider easing of lockdown measures. PA Parents drop off children at Queen's Hill Primary School, Costessey, Norfolk, as pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6, begin to return to school as part of a wider easing of lockdown measures. PA There is an overwhelming public interest in the full publication of the Cygnus Exercises findings, he said. This is both true for affording the public a sense of ownership in Government decisions as well as it is for allowing adequate scrutiny of policy to take place which, in turn, will result in more effective governance. Like many of my colleagues when enquiring into the handling of the pandemic, I have encountered a Government response that has so far been characterised by secrecy and evasiveness. As were witnessing a considerable erosion of public trust in the face of a potential second wave, and as checks on decision-making like the FOI Act are weakened further, the argument for government transparency and accountability here could not be more urgent. Dr Qureshi added that Mr Hancocks refusal to disclose the entire report shows his callous disregard for human life. It damages our national response to this public health emergency if pandemic data is hidden from the nurses and doctors who are managing this crisis on the ground. We have repeatedly engaged with the Government to make the case for transparency but unfortunately the Health Secretary has refused to allow us to learn from Cygnus, without rhyme or reason. Regretfully, I have therefore been forced to instruct my solicitors to issue legal proceedings against the Government in the national interest. A pregnant elephant died after eating a pineapple filled with a firecracker that exploded in her mouth when locals fed it to her in India. Forest officer Mohan Krishnan said the soon-to-be mother elephant died some days after the explosion, standing up in a river in northern Kerala's Malappuram district. The wild elephant left the forest to forage and approached a nearby village searching for food, where the locals offered her the tampered fruit. 'She trusted everyone,' Krishnan wrote as he detailed the incident on Facebook. 'When the pineapple she ate exploded, she must have been shocked, not thinking about herself, but about the child she was going to give birth to in 18 to 20 months.' The wounds around the elephant's mouth are partially visible as she stands in the Velliyar River in northern Kerala last Wednesday The wild elephant left the forest to forage and approached a nearby village searching for food, where the locals offered her the tampered fruit. (The elephant standing in the Velliyar River in Kerala last week, where she later died) The explosion ripped through the elephant's mouth, badly damaging her tongue and jaw, leaving her unable to eat. Krishnan, who was part of the initial response team to help the injured creature, said she didn't trample homes as she ran through the village in agony. 'This is why I said, she is full of goodness,' he said. Images show the elephant standing in the Velliyar River with her trunk and wounded mouth submerged under the surface. It was likely she was trying to prevent flies and bugs from flying into the cuts, the forest officer said. Officials brought two other elephants to the river in an attempt to entice her from the water but, according to Krishnan, she had come to the river to die. 'I think she had a sixth sense. She didn't let us do anything,' he wrote. The forest officer said the elephant came to the river to submerge her injuries so flies and other insects wouldn't be attracted to the wounds. (The elephant standing in the Velliyar River in Kerala last week, where she later died) She died last Wednesday at 4pm while standing in the Velliyar River. 'She needs to be given the farewell she deserves,' Krishnan said, lamenting the elephant's death. 'For that, we took [her] inside the forest in a lorry. 'She lay there on firewood, in the land she played and grew up. The doctor who did her post-mortem told me that she was not alone.' 'I could sense his sadness though the expression on his face was not visible due to his mask. We cremated her in a pyre there. We bowed before her and paid our last respects,' the forest officer added. Between 2014-15 and 2018-19, 510 elephants were killed in India in incidents of electrocution, train accidents, poaching and poisoning, according to IndianExpress. The death of a gentle giant: Young elephant dies after being shot by a hunter despite two-day battle to save him when he was found badly wounded in Thailand This is the heartbreaking moment a young elephant collapsed and died in agony after being shot multiple times in Thailand. The five-year-old Asian elephant was found suffering at least five gunshot wounds on the outskirts of Kui Buri National Park, in the south of the country, on May 29. He had been shot in the shoulder, waist, hip and leg. Medics tried to save the animal by washing and plugging the wounds with gauze, administering antibiotics, then hoisting him up using a winch so that he could eat. A five-year-old elephant collapsed and died in agony despite medic's attempts to save it after it was found suffering gunshot wounds on farmland in southern Thailand Police say the elephant had been shot at least five times, probably with a shotgun, and had two piece of metal lodged inside its body - one of which ruptured its large intestine Medics used IV drips inserted into the back of the elephant's ear to administer food and antibiotics in an attempt to revive him Video captured the elephant chewing on palm fronds and green bananas while doctors stood around assessing his progress. But his condition slowly deteriorated and he eventually collapsed, writhing in pain. Medics were filmed giving him painkillers and inserting drips into his ear to give him antibiotics and food, but they could not save him. The elephant eventually died on March 31, two days after he was found. Scans and tests have since shown at least two metal objects lodged in his body, local station INN News reports, one of which ruptured his large intestine. He was also suffering from parasitic worms which had infected his liver and stomach, causing him to be emaciated. Medics spent two days treating the animal, disinfecting and plugging its wounds with gauze and using a winch to pull it upright so it could eat (pictured) Video captured the badly-emaciated animal chewing on palm fronds and green bananas before collapsing from exhaustion Tyres were placed around the elephant to cushion its fall in case it tumbled over, while police and medics were stationed on the farm where it was found in order to watch over him Medics examine a large wound next to the elephant's tail where they believe he was shot. Investigators have yet to establish how long the elephant was walking around wounded for being being found The elephant was found around half a mile outside a national park where the animals are allowed to roam freely. Police believe the young male - driven by hunger - wandered out of the park and into a jackfruit farm, where he was shot. National Park director Pichai Watcharapongpaibul said: 'The elephant was seriously exhausted and could not stand up or move so he was treated at the scene and monitored closely. 'Unfortunately he suddenly became weaker and died. 'We don't know how long the bullets had been inside the elephant's body or what type of gun they came from as an autopsy must be performed.' He said National Park staff will start an investigation to find the hunter who shot the elephant, which is believed to have been in retribution for damaging farm land. Police use a metal detector in an attempt to find any bullets or pellets lodged in the animal's body. They found at least two before the elephant died As well as being shot, investigators say the elephant was infected by parasites and worms which led to it becoming emaciated Medics used IV drips to pump antibiotics and painkillers into the animal's system in an attempt to save him, but he died after a two-day battle. An investigation has been launched He added: 'Initially, we will ask the locals living nearby whether they have seen this elephant before or if anybody was angered by the elephants.' Hunting wild elephants has been illegal in Thailand since 1992. Anyone caught hunting or killing the animals can be fined up to 1,000 or jailed for four years. There are thought to be 320 Asian elephants living wild in the park, which covers 374 square miles and stretches across the border into neighbouring Myanmar. A man stabbed his older brother in the chest and threatened to kill the family dog after being turned away from a Victorian psychiatric facility. Corey Wood, 22, was told to return to the Warrnambool hospital the next day. Instead he went home and stabbed his brother with a 30-centimetre blade before grabbing the dog by the throat and threatening to kill it. "You've stabbed your brother and looks like he is going to die," Wood's mother told him after the attack on October 15, 2018. Wood replied: "I hope he does." The brother was left blue, gasping for breath and going in and out of consciousness but survived after emergency surgery. 'What do you have to lose?" So asked President Donald Trump during an early April White House news briefing on the coronavirus pandemic. Specifically, he was talking about use of the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. But keen-eared listeners most assuredly heard an echo of an earlier statement from Trump. It was back in August 2016, during his campaign for president against Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump, speaking in a suburb of Lansing, Michigan, said Democrats had routinely taken for granted the votes of African-Americans, and continued: "You're living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58% of your youth is unemployed -- what the hell do you have to lose?" Four summers on, the answer to his question is all too clear. A global pandemic. A Great Depression-like economic collapse. Civil unrest, with rioting and looting in cities across the land. We all of us had an awful lot to lose, and none more than black Americans. Trump didn't cause the coronavirus pandemic, but his dithering and ineptitude made the situation so much worse than it would otherwise have been. And as a result, we are now living through dire economic times the likes of which folks knew only from history books. More than 100,000 Americans dead from COVID-19. More than 40 million unemployed. On Trump's watch. And now, as though those problems together weren't sufficiently awful, we've got rioting and looting and lawlessness in cities from coast to coast. If we had a president with even a modicum of moral authority at this hour, the nation could look to him for solace, for relief, as someone who might seek to salve our open wounds. But Trump is our president. And he long ago squandered the moral authority that comes with the office of the presidency by continually being his always-loathsome self. As such, it's not unreasonable for people to look elsewhere. Former Vice President Joe Biden has been stepping up of late, emerging from his self-imposed coronavirus lockdown. On Tuesday in Philadelphia, Biden delivered an impassioned speech regarding Trumps handling of the protests. We look forward to more from Biden ahead. And those with influence in the black community -- African-American pastors and officials in particular, plus popular black musicians and athletes and actors -- must also lend their voices. One recent and perhaps surprising positive example came from Atlanta rapper Killer Mike, who spoke at a press conference last week, where he appeared with the citys mayor and chief of police. He said: I am duty-bound to be here to simply say that it is your duty not to burn your own house down for anger with an enemy. It is your duty to fortify your own house so that you may be a house of refuge in times of organization. Hear, hear. The recent round of violence was sparked by the death of George Floyd, an African-American man whose life was snuffed out beneath the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis. Floyd's death was captured on a horrific video, on which he is pleading for breath, begging to live. This is our nation in 2020, less than four years after President Barack Obama, our first African-American chief executive, left the White House. On the day of his inauguration in January 2009, the nation seemed forever changed, the citizenry imbued with a kind of hope for a new beginning that could happen only in America. Looking for progress? How's this: Obama took the oath of office with his hand on a Bible that had belonged to Abraham Lincoln, the president who'd signed the Emancipation Proclamation. America had turned a corner, and wouldn't be looking back. How long ago that now seems. In our moment, it can feel as though the great gains we all of us witnessed never occurred. We need to find a way back to those better days from just a few years back. We cannot, must not, remain the Divided States of America. There are 231 days until Inauguration Day 2021. Two-hundred and thirty-one more days with Trump in the White House. If he loses, that is. And doesnt try to stay behind, claiming that the election was rigged or some such nonsense. How much more of this can normal people be expected to take? The current spate of violence will abate. The pandemic will eventually be in the rearview. And a sort of economic normalcy will return, sooner or later. But until we have a genuine leader, with Trumpism only a bad memory to be shaken off, we won't stand a chance of seeing any kind of real change. Four years back, lots of voters took a flyer on the unproven and obviously unqualified Trump. What the heck, many of them likely thought, what have we got to lose? We get our answer to that question -- in the form of our recurring nightmare -- each and every day now. (Photo : Pixabay) New Coronavirus Outbreaks Can Potentially Surfaced From Infected Animals; New Evolution of Coronavirus Traced From Bats (Photo : Pixabay) New Coronavirus Outbreaks Can Potentially Surfaced From Infected Animals; New Evolution of Coronavirus Traced From Bats A new coronavirus evolution was recently traced by American and Chinese scientists in bats. And according to a new study, COVID-19 can spread undetectably by some animal species. Based on a New York Times' report, all known coronaviruses in bats were analyzed by an international team of scientists, including a prominent researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. The study used genetic analysis to trace the evolution of the novel coronavirus found in horseshoe bats. The great variety of the coronaviruses in southern and southwestern China were pointed out by the team of scientists, urging close monitoring of the bats found in the area. They also suggested that greater efforts must be made to change human behavior to decrease the chances of future pandemics. An exhaustive search and analysis of coronaviruses in bats were conducted by American and Chinese researchers to identify potential spillovers of coronaviruses into humans that may result in new disease outbreaks. Horseshoe bats, members of the genus Rhinolophus, were considered as hosts since spillover diseases such as the SARS outbreak in 2003 came from these bats. However, the study clarified that the viruses found in these bats are not close enough to the novel coronaviruses to suggest that it jumped from bats to humans. The new study suggests that the novel coronavirus may have been present in bats or other animals since the immediate progenitor of COVID-19 has not yet been found. New coronavirus outbreaks can potentially surface from infected animals; New evolution of coronavirus traced from bats Meanwhile, another new study suggests that some animal species can undetectably spread the novel coronavirus that can potentially create new outbreaks. According to Nature's latest report, several species including dogs and cats, captive tigers, and lions, as well as farmed minks, can be infected by the coronavirus transmitted by humans. The new study stated that the infected animals might have the potential to spark new outbreaks as the number of infected people fall and restrictions on safety measures ease. Joanne Santini, a microbiologist at University College London, claimed that some animals can undetectably spread the novel coronavirus. Meanwhile, several researchers and scientists are concerned that COVID-19 could end up passing back and forth between humans and animals. "We need to take action now to prevent that from happening," said Arjan Stegeman, a veterinary epidemiologist at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. He also stated that efforts to control the pandemic would be put to waste if his assumption happens. The study discovered that two dozen minks at four farms located in the province of North Brabant were infected by SARS-CoV-2 and some of them died, developing pneumonia. The infections at Dutch mink farms suggested that some species of animals can infect people. Stegeman and his colleagues studied the genomes from minks and people at two farms. The study showed that the people on the farm may have infected the animals, which spread to the other minks. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. MPs will resume discussing amendments to Public Enterprise Law 203/1991 on 7 June. Though the House of Representatives gave a preliminary nod to the amendments on 18 May, MPs are divided over the changes. Mohamed Wahba, a member of the Labour Committee and deputy chairman of the General Egyptian Federation of Trade Unions (GEFTU), says the amendments undermine state-owned companies and the rights of their employees. The government says it wants to develop the industrial sector but this law does the opposite. It will allow publicly owned companies to be closed, said Wahba. MP Mustafa Bakri said the proposed changes constitute an attack on public sector companies and workers. The government sees the public sector as a burden, and sees privatisation as a way to offload the sector as quickly as possible. Former businessman and stock broker Hisham Tawfik, the public enterprise minister, is leading the moves against the public sector in order to promote private sector interests, argued Bakri. According to MP Osama Sharshar, Tawfik wants to disrupt the public sector and give private sector companies the upper hand in the industrial sector. MP Mohamed Fouad has argued that rather than reforming public companies in a manner that will enhance Egypts industrial capabilities, the law will result in the selling of public assets to businessmen at knockdown prices. Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel-Aal appeared to be taken aback by the array of attacks. The articles and provisions speak about liquidation [of public sector companies] as a last-ditch option, said Abdel-Aal. He argued that the law is tailored to reform public sector companies, and that only the most hopeless cases will be closed. The government is moving on multiple fronts to reform public companies in a number of strategic sectors, including spinning and weaving, steel and sugar, said Abdel-Aal. Abdel-Aal noted that Tawfik had made a lot of money from brokering on the stock exchange yet accepted the public sector portfolio so he could use his experience to reform and streamline public companies. Ahmed Samir, head of the Economic Affairs Committee, praised the amendments, saying they would help save the public industrial sector from financial and other mismanagement. The General Egyptian Federation of Trade Unions (GEFTU) and the Labour Committee, however, announced their rejection of the government-drafted amendments and accused Tawfik of trying to assassinate the public sector in Egypt. After much discussion of the amendments, members agreed that they were not in the interest of workers and companies in the industrial sector, said Labour Committee head Gibali Al-Maraghi. Article 38 of the amended law states that a company incurring losses that exceed half its capital shall be liquidated. This would push 40 per cent of companies into liquidation, and consequently harm workers, said Al-Maraghi. MP Maysa Atwa noted that the amendments strip workers of representation on the boards and in assemblies of public companies, and argued the provision was an attempt to allow the liquidation of companies to go ahead without protests. The amendments clearly aim to marginalise trade unions and render them unable to defend the interests of workers in publicly-owned companies, said MP Sulaf Darwish. Al-Maraghi insisted that the aim of any changes to the current law should be to safeguard strategic industries against unfair competition, preserve the rights of workers and the public ownership of the companies, and attract investment to upgrade their performance. He argued that while the current public enterprise law, passed in 1991, was intended to modernise the public sector, it had instead been used by the government to kick off a massive privatization programme that resulted in the sale of two-thirds of publicly owned companies. The cabinet approved the amendments to the public enterprise law in a meeting on 26 February. Following the meeting the government issued a statement saying the amendments aim to update the legal rules regulating the performance of public sector companies and restructure their financial and administrative systems. Tawfik told MPs on 18 May the amendments seek to increase the contribution of public sector companies to the national economy. The changes oblige holding companies and their subsidiaries to fully abide by transparency and governance regulations. The public assemblies of companies will be required to improve governance, oversee company boards, and remove boards that deliver poor results and fail to secure profits. Tawfik argued the current composition of boards, which include both shareholders and workers representatives, undermines the performance of public sector companies. Shareholders who invest money should have the upper hand in selecting board members who will upgrade performance and boost production, said Tawfik. According to Tawfik, the amendments require any changes in public companies even the establishing of a new production line to be first approved by an investment committee which will review the economic feasibility of new projects. The aim of this amendment is to stem the tide of losses in public sector companies, he said. In fiscal year 2017-18, 48 companies affiliated with the public enterprise sector incurred LE16 billion in losses and amassed LE44 billion in debts, said Tawfik. This is no longer acceptable, and we need to act to end such losses as soon as possible. The 121 companies affiliated to the public enterprise sector employ an estimated 250,000 workers. *A version of this article appears in print in the 4 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Lukashenka Warns No 'Maidan' Following Mass Rallies Supporting Opposition By RFE/RL's Belarus Service June 01, 2020 MINSK -- Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has openly warned that there will be no "Maidan" following mass rallies in Minsk and other towns and cities supporting potential opposition presidential candidates. Lukashenka used the word Maidan, which became a symbol of pro-European antigovernment protests around the former Soviet Union after protests on the Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in 2014 toppled Russia-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. The Belarusian leader said during a June 1 meeting with the chief of the Belarusian KGB, Valery Vakulchyk, that the rallies a day earlier to collect signatures for potential independent and opposition presidential candidates necessary for registration with election authorities were organized by foreign forces, calling the demonstrations "winds blown from different sides to our Belarusian land." "We absolutely know the goals of those wind-blowers. They want to organize a little Maidan before or during the presidential poll...I want at this meeting to warn you and all those who hear me now, all those 'maidanized' ones. There will be no Maidans in Belarus," Lukashenka said. In his usual flamboyant style, Lukashenka hinted that the rallies pose a threat to Belarusian sovereignty and independence, which must be "defended by the army, the KGB, and all the people." "We are not going to muzzle anyone. There are places in Minsk and other cities allocated for public discussions. I think there are six such places in Minsk. Our thing is to control that, so that nothing could go over the top. There are six sites in Minsk, so go and debate there. But the KGB and police must, by all means, secure law and order," Lukashenka said, referring to six places in the city designated as areas where public discussions may take place. "People can go there and discuss issues. If they want to do that in the kitchen, please do so," Lukashenka added, "So that they did not create problems for others." Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned earlier this month that authorities in Belarus have intensified their crackdown on protesters, opposition bloggers, journalists, and other government critics with a "new wave of arbitrary arrests" ahead of the election scheduled for August 9. More than 1,000 demonstrators joined together in Minsk on May 24 to oppose another term for Lukashenka in one of the biggest protests of the year in the country of around 9 million. Critics of Lukashenka say his government has shown little tolerance for dissent and independent media. He has ruled the country since 1994 and is currently serving his fifth presidential term. Belarus abolished presidential term limits in 2004. The country has been the target of U.S. and EU sanctions over its poor rights record and lack of fair elections, but Belarus and the West have recently sought to mend ties to reduce Russia's influence in the country. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/lukashenka-warns- no-maidan-following-mass-rallies-supporting -opposition/30646529.html Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Delegates from the rivals, LNA troops and GNA fighters, will conduct truce talks on video calls because of coronavirus. The United Nations has said that Libyas warring factions agreed to resume ceasefire talks following days of heavy fighting and eastern-based forces retaking a key town from their rivals after a string of setbacks. The UN Mission in Libya said it hoped the new round of negotiations would mark the beginning of calm on the ground, especially to allow the countrys war-scarred health system to cope with a coronavirus outbreak. Delegates from the rival groups renegade commander Khalifa Haftars eastern-based forces and militias allied with the UN-recognised government in Tripoli will conduct the talks through video calls because of the pandemic, the UN Mission said in the announcement late Monday. It did not say when discussions would resume or give further details. Back from the brink As the war in Libya teeters on the edge of a major escalation, the statement signalled that both sides, and their foreign backers, may prefer to pull back from the brink. Haftar is backed by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia, while the Tripoli-allied militias are aided by Turkey, Qatar and Italy. Spokespeople for the military factions did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and the fate of the political process remains unclear after previous agreements collapsed. On Sunday, Haftars self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) recaptured the strategic town of al-Asaba, about 50km (31 miles) south of the capital, after launching air attacks on militias in the area, according to Ahmed al-Mesmari, a spokesman for the group. Troops were chasing Tripoli-allied forces to their stronghold in the nearby town of Gharyan, he added. A statement from the Tripoli-allied forces did not acknowledge the defeat, spokesman Mohamed Gnono saying only they were targeting LNA forces on the towns borders. But two Tripoli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief reporters, admitted they lost the town after heavy shelling and air attacks by eastern forces. Control of the town gives the LNA better access to Tarhouna, their main western stronghold and supply line southeast of the capital. Battle for Tripoli Haftars gain more broadly reflects the seesawing nature of the war, which in recent weeks had turned dramatically in favour of the Turkish-backed Tripoli militias that ousted Haftars forces from a key western airbase and several towns. The Tripoli government had been struggling to fend off a year-long siege of the capital by Haftar when Turkey escalated its air support. The battle for Tripoli has threatened to plunge Libya into chaos on the scale of the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi, as foreign backers increasingly intervene. Last month, in an unusually bold statement, the US military accused Russia of deploying 14 aircraft to Libya to help Haftars forces, saying the move was part of Moscows longer-term goal to establish a foothold in the region that could threaten NATO allies. Russia dismissed the claims as stupidity. Tuesday, June 2, 2020 at 4:11PM When you delete pictures on Google Photos, these images are moved into the trash folder and stay there for 60 days to give you ample time to change your mind. But since Google arranges trashed images by the date they were taken, it isn't clear when the 60 days are up. Thankfully, Google has updated the interface, and it now shows a countdown timer that informs you how many days are left until a photo is permanently deleted. You can speed up the process and remove it yourself or restore the image before your time runs out. This feature seems to be limited to the Android app, and it comes with version 4.51 of Google Photos. It's a server-side change, so you don't have to do anything but wait until it rolls out to you. Source: Android Police The Lok Sabha Secretariat, falling under the Parliament of India, has called for applications in a prescribed format from qualified and experienced Indian nationals, who are regular employees working in the Central/State Police Organisations/Cabinet Secretariat/Intelligence Bureau for filling 32 vacancies to the post of Security Assistant - Grade II in Level 6 in the Pay Matrix on deputation. The offline application process towards the same started on June 1, 2020 and closes on June 30, 2020. CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Security Assistants - Grade II Organisation Lok Sabha Secretariat Educational Qualification Degree/Graduation (any discipline) Experience As detailed in the advertisement Skills Required Physical and Medical Fitness Job Location New Delhi Salary Scale Rs. 35,400 to Rs. 1,12,400 per month (Level 6) Industry Parliament of India Application Start Date June 1, 2020 Application End Date June 30, 2020 Age Criteria And Fees Candidates interested in applying for the post of Security Assistants through Lok Sabha Recruitment 2020 must not have exceeded 56 years of age as on April 30, 2020 with relaxation (upper age limit) for reserved categories as per the Govt. of India guidelines. Candidates, from all categories, are exempted from paying the fee towards application processing as specified in the notification given at the end of the article. National Museum Recruitment 2020 For Copy Writers And Web Developers, Apply Offline Before June 19 Educational Criteria And Eligibility Desirous candidates applying for the post of Security Assistants through Lok Sabha Recruitment 2020 must possess a Degree/Graduation (any discipline) from a recognised University/Institute, and must be holding analogous post on regular basis in parent cadre or department as specified in the advertisement. Selection And Pay Scale The selection of candidates as Security Assistants through Lok Sabha Recruitment 2020 will be done through Shortlisting, Interview and Document Verification. Candidates selected as Security Assistants through Lok Sabha Recruitment 2020 will be paid an emolument in Level 6 in the pay scale of Rs. 35,400 to Rs. 1,12,400 per month. GSSSB Recruitment 2020 For 686 Faculty And Tutor Posts, Apply Online Before June 12 How To Apply Candidates applying for the post of Security Assistants through Lok Sabha Recruitment 2020 must fill the application form in a prescribed format attached with the advertisement, and send the same along with relevant supporting documents listed in the notification to the "Deputy Secretary, Administration Branch-I, Lok Sabha Secretariat, Room No. 619, Parliament House Annexe, New Delhi - 110001" on or before June 30, 2020. Download application form and read the detailed notification about Lok Sabha Recruitment 2020 for Security Assistants post here http://loksabhadocs.nic.in/JRCell/Module/Notice/SA-II-merged.pdf Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 2) The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) wants to subsidize employers to cushion the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on job security. "Our proposal is to subsidize our employers by 25 to 50 percent provided that they retain their employees or even increase their employees," Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in an online Palace briefing. With the subsidy, businesses and other establishments can add 20 to 30 percent of their workforce, generating additional employment, Bello explained. More than 2.7 million workers have been displaced due to quarantine measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus. About 70 percent lost their jobs due to temporary closure of businesses, while the remaining 20 percent were displaced due to failure to meet flexible work arrangement, Bello said. "Hopefully 'yung mga nag-temporary close, they will start operating as soon as mawala itong COVID-19 (Hopefully those that temporarily closed will start operating as soon as COVID-19 crisis is over)," the labor chief said. DOLE has given a 5,000 cash assistance to more than 1 million workers in the country as of May. A total of 145,000 overseas Filipino workers also received aid, Bello said. Helping displaced OFWs All in all, more than 343,000 OFWs are affected by COVID-19, Bello said. But most of them prefer to stay in other countries instead of returning home, he added. READ: 1 million OFWs seen to be displaced until end of 2021 Labor dept The government has received more than 450,000 requests for financial assistance, Bello also said, noting that 30 to 40 percent of the requests have been approved. The labor chief said his department may ask the national government for more funding since it now has a remaining fund of only 1.1 billion -- with more OFWs needing assistance. READ: Cash aid tops government's 353-B expenses for COVID-19 response More than 16,000 OFWs are expected to return to the country this month. They will be asked to undergo the mandatory 14-day quarantine to be cleared of coronavirus infection before being sent back to their home provinces. The government is offering construction jobs and livelihood assistance for them. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Ottawa, Canada Tue, June 2, 2020 10:30 598 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb70ace 2 World Canada,Prime-Minister,justin-trudeau,Russia,G7-summit,G7 Free Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday rejected Russia's participation in a coming summit of the G7 nations, despite host US President Donald Trump wanting to invite Moscow. "Russia was excluded from the G7 after it invaded Crimea a number of years ago," Trudeau told reporters. "Its continued disrespect and flaunting of international rules and norms is why it remains outside of the G7 and will continue to remain out," he added. On Saturday Trump said he would postpone the planned June summit of leaders from the United States, Germany, Britain, Canada, France, Italy and Japan after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would not be coming, citing the coronavirus pandemic. Trump said he could try again in September, and invite other countries including Russia to join the meeting. "I don't feel that as a G7 it properly represents what's going on in the world. It's a very outdated group of countries," Trump said. He said he would like to invite Russia, South Korea, Australia and India to join an expanded summit in the fall. The Kremlin said Monday that Trump had called President Vladimir Putin and discussed his plan to hold a rescheduled G7 "with possible invitation of the leaders of Russia, Australia, India and South Korea." Trudeau though flatly rejected that prospect. "It's really important to keep holding these meetings and making sure that we are we are coordinating internationally in this time of crisis," he said. Russia was expelled from what was previously the G8 in 2014 after invading and seizing Crimea from Ukraine and declaring it part of Russian territory. Phantom vibrations. Trouble breathing. An unexplainable itch. These are often types of things that we all experience at some point, even if there is no obvious physiological cause. But just because you can't pinpoint what is causing it, doesn't make it any less real. The idea of an unexplainable symptom is at the heart of something known as Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance, also often called multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS) or environmental illness. It refers to a group of recurrent symptoms experienced by some people that cannot be attributed to a diagnosed medical issue. There seems to be a base rate in the population of symptom reporting that cannot be attributed to physical dysfunction, said Professor Omer van den Bergh, a tenured professor of Health Psychology at the University of Leuven in Belgium. There is a group of people that tends to attribute these symptoms then to environmental causes, and these are typically people who have what we call modern health worries, he said. Instead of the historically more-common sensitivities to things like perfumes and household cleaners, this group of people with modern health worries are increasingly attributing symptoms to electromagnetic radiation in the environment. This is where a natural alignment with 5G conspiracy theorists starts to arise. Engadget Why Do People Think 5G Makes Them Sick? Our whole society... seems to assume that if there is a physical symptom in our experience, there must be a physiological cause, Prof. Van den Bergh said. In the search for a cause, people can latch on to any possible answer in the hopes of finding relief. If you have, for example, activist groups or other groups that are also sharing a belief that it might be caused by, lets say, electro-magnetic radiation, then you become selectively sensitive to that, he said. You start to perceive correlations between your symptoms and the sources of electromagnetic radiation. Story continues The effects of 5G radiation has been described as damaging by some less reputable outlets, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary. Some conspiracies even go as far as to claim that the networking tech caused the coronavirus pandemic, which is definitively untrue. But that didnt stop angry protesters from burning down cell towers and spraying anti-5G graffiti all over the world. The media coverage of these acts hit the global audience just as coronavirus concerns began to take over the world, and soon the idea that 5G causes disease went viral. Its easy to dismiss believers of a 5G sickness as kooky or to invalidate their concerns, especially when there is no evidence to show that the level of radiation is more harmful than before. New technology thats part of 5G, like millimeter waves, had already been in use for years before the standard was even passed, although on a less concentrated scale. Satellite communications systems, for example, operate on the high-frequency spectrum. LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - MAY 28: Fire and explosion damage can be seen on an EE network 5G mast that was attacked by an arsonist earlier this week in Brodie Avenue on May 28, 2020 in Liverpool, England. A lot of the damage was caused by the resulting explosion when the petrol was ignited. Several phone masts have been deliberately damaged around the UK, their attackers inspired by a conspiracy theory positing that 5G technology is linked to the spread of the coronavirus. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images) But its not helpful to people experiencing symptoms to simply be shouted down. Prof. Van den Bergh describes the modern world as a sort of electro smog to someone who believes EM radiation causes them discomfort. They believe theyre surrounded by sources everywhere not just the obvious cellphones and remote controls that we can see out in the open, but things that might be less easy to spot like WiFi routers or other equipment. Trying to find relief might feel like an impossible task. Its also unhelpful to say things like Its all in your head to someone experiencing such discomfort. It should be noted that the symptoms are really there, Prof. Van den Bergh said. He pointed to several investigations using brain imaging that have shown that people who report these symptoms actually recruit similar or the same brain areas that are activated also when you have symptoms from, lets say, the flu or another dysfunction. He added that all symptoms that are experienced are also in your head your brain processes the signals that then leads your skin to tingle or your head to hurt, for example. What might help is if sufferers from such symptoms can find relief or if not, then some understanding of their situation. There is at this moment no solid body of evidence that these people can be easily treated, Prof. Van den Berg said. Based on his clinical experience, though, an adapted form of exposure therapy that convinces sufferers to expose themselves to potential sources of radiation rather than hide away from them can help. There might be hope in sight for these patients We are currently developing treatment protocols, he added. A placard ''Stop 5G freedom'' is seen during the rally against coronavirus policy in Cologne, Germany, on May 16, 2020. (Photo by Ying Tang/NurPhoto via Getty Images) These ailments arent unique to 5G, or even electromagnetic radiation. There is a base rate of medically unexplained symptoms in the population and the attribution for those symptoms changes with every new introduction of technical facilities that stimulate modern health worries, Prof. Van den Bergh said. He pointed to 3G, WiFi and remote controls as some examples. In the middle ages, there were symptoms attributed to the presence of glass, because that was really novel and was not considered safe by all people, he added. People tended to believe that they would become transparent themselves. The attribution for these symptoms evolves with the introduction of each new generation of technology. Windmill infrasound hypersensitivity is what I would call the new kid on the block, Prof. Van den Bergh said, noting that a rise in catastrophic media coverage of some new technical facilities could cause an increase in the prevalence of such attribution. Ultimately, Prof. Van den Bergh wants those experiencing such symptoms to know that he takes them very seriously. They are really suffering, he said. Theyve not only gone through physical discomfort that they cant explain, but in trying to avoid what they believe causes their symptoms, theyve also lost jobs, friends and social lives. I have seen people whose lives have been destroyed by the disease. 'Terrestrial vertebrates facing extinction include species such as the Sumatran rhino (pictured), the Clarion Island wren, the Espanola giant tortoise and the harlequin frog.' Photo: WWF-Indonesia/PA More than 500 land-based vertebrate species are on the brink of extinction in the next two decades as a result of human activities, scientists have warned. Researchers believe the rate of decline is much higher than previously thought and could have a devastating impact on the world's ecosystems. The study in 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences' comes from scientists at Stanford and Mexico City universities who published a report in 2015 declaring the world's sixth mass extinction was under way. Based on their findings, the researchers now believe this mass extinction is currently accelerating and are calling for immediate global conservation actions to prevent a "catastrophic ecosystem collapse". Paul Ehrlich, from Stanford University in California, said: "When humanity exterminates populations and species of other creatures, it is sawing off the limb on which it is sitting, destroying working parts of our own life-support system." More than 400 vertebrate species became extinct in the last 100 years - extinctions that would have taken up to 10,000 years in the normal course of evolution. Examples include the ivory billed woodpecker, the Round Island burrowing boa and, more recently, the golden toad. Researchers found 515 out of 29,400 species analysed are on the brink of extinction, with fewer than 1,000 individuals remaining in each species. Those on the brink of extinction are located mainly in tropical and subtropical regions, in areas that are heavily affected by human activities. Terrestrial vertebrates facing extinction include species such as the Sumatran rhino, the Clarion Island wren, the Espanola giant tortoise and the harlequin frog. Additional analysis suggests more than 237,000 populations of mammal and bird species have vanished since 1900. Lead author Gerardo Ceballos, from the University of Mexico, said: "What we do to deal with the current extinction crisis in the next two decades will define the fate of millions of species." The World Health Organization (WHO) press briefing on Monday focused their report, not on the break in their relationship with the United States or the protests that are seeing the tattered social threads unravel quickly. Instead, they emphasized their concerns over the state of global health that has been exacerbated by the pandemic. Muzammil, 37, is comforted by his stepmother while waiting outside a pharmacy for the pharmacist to arrive. (Photo: Tomas Munita) The globe continues to see daily cases of COVID-19 exceed 100,000 per day, with close to 6.4 million cumulative cases. Total deaths are approaching 380,000 as the pandemic is settling in the Americas for the present moment. In response to a question as to whether the virulence of the virus seems to be waning, both Drs. Michael Ryan and Maria Van Kerkhove rejected such claims. The genetic studies do not support such a mutational shift. Instead, they attribute the change in the numbers to public health measures that have thus far been employed. However, with lockdowns and travel restrictions making the delivery of critical medical supplies to the much-needed developing world difficult, the WHO warned that if these disruptions are not soon overcome, communities across the globe could be facing health consequences on a massive scale. Last month they noted that the world could expect 500,000 more deaths from AIDS in the coming year. They also estimated that 1.4 million people could succumb to tuberculosis if access to vital medications is not available. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) Based on these concerns, WHO conducted a survey in Maya rapid assessment of service delivery for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular and chronic respiratory diseaseswith 155 countries submitting. These NCD illnesses, which kill more than 41 million people each year (equivalent to 71 percent of all deaths globally), make these populations more vulnerable to becoming severely ill and at risk for succumbing to infection with SARS-CoV-2 (the coronavirus). According to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Many people who need treatment for diseases like cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes have not been receiving the health services and medicines they need since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Low-income countries have been most severely impacted in services for NCDs. More than half the reporting countries have reported that such services have been partially or entirely disrupted, while at least two-thirds said rehabilitation services had been affected. Almost unanimously, every country stated that health workers had been reassigned, wholly or partially, to support COVID-19 response. Screening for breast and cervical cancer has been postponed in more than half of the countries. Of note, in 2018, 627,000 women died from breast cancer and 300,000 from cervical cancer. Service disruptions (from the WHO): 53 percent have partially or completely disrupted services for hypertension treatment; 49 percent for treatment for diabetes or diabetes-related complications; 42 percent for cancer treatments; 31 percent for cardiovascular emergencies; 15 million people between the ages of 30 and 69 die from NCDs85 percent of these premature deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. Director of the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), Dr. Carissa Etienne, said, One of the most concerning aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic is the disproportionate impact of the virus on people suffering from NCDs. We have never seen such a destructive relationship between infectious disease and NCDs. Some of the data is truly alarming, especially for our region where NCDs are pervasive. Antimicrobial resistance Worldwide, more than 700,000 people die each year due to drug-resistant infections, according to the WHO. Although the viral pandemic has taken priority, according to Muhammad Hamid Zaman, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor at Boston University, We have to think of antimicrobial resistance not as detached but as something thats going on simultaneously with this pandemic. According to a senior science adviser to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Since the emergence of COVID-19, collected data have shown an increase in antibiotic use, even though most of the initial illnesses being treated have been from COVID-19 viral infection. The resulting increased exposure to health care settings and invasive procedures, along with expanded antibiotic use, amplifies the opportunity for resistant pathogens to emerge and spread. The use of antibiotics does little to treat the viral infection, but the over-prescription of antibiotics can lead to multi-drug resistant bacteria. The use of antimicrobial treatment for COVID-19 patients has been commonplace, with many taking hydroxychloroquine and macrolides in the population as preventative measures against the infection. The dangerous hype by President Trump or celebrity politicians by promoting untested therapies not only led to drug shortages but potentially promoting the development of multi-drug resistant superbugs. A recent meta-analysis published in the Journal of Clinical Infectious Diseases looking at coinfection in patients with coronavirus infections found that 8 percent of patients with COVID-19 also experienced a bacterial or fungal infection. However, the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics, despite a lack of evidence for bacterial infection, was reported in 1,450 out of 2,010 patients (72 percent). The WHO has discouraged the use of antibiotics in mild cases of COVID-19, although recommending its use for severe cases where the risk of a bacterial infection and death is high. Before the pandemic, approximately 65 percent of adults in the US received antibiotic prescriptions for bronchitis even though the overwhelming cause of the condition is viral infections. Given the lack of COVID-19 testing, and clinical confusion caused by overlapping symptoms, the inappropriate use of antibiotics will only worsen. Dr. Priya Nori, the medical director of the antimicrobial stewardship program and outpatient parental antibiotic therapy program at Montefiore Health System in the Bronx, said in the British Medical Journal, hospitals data also show a slow and steady increase in multi-drug resistance among gram-negative bacteria that can be potentially deadly coinfections with COVID-19. The WHO director-general said at Mondays press briefing, Im glad to say a record number of countries are now monitoring and reporting on antibiotic resistance but the data they provide reveals that a worrying number of bacterial infections are increasingly resistant to the medicines we have traditionally treated them with, as we gather more evidence, its clear that the world is losing its ability to use critically important antimicrobial medicines all over the world. While decrying developed nations overuse of antibiotics in humans and animals, underdeveloped nations continue to see these medicines out of reach for those that need them, which adds further to the already heavy burden of unnecessary morbidity and mortality. Presently, no studies are investigating the association between COVID-19 and the development of superinfections or multi-drug resistance. Pre-pandemic data from the CDC last reviewed in 2017 shows a remarkable health crisis in development: In the European Union, antibiotic resistance causes 25,000 deaths per year and 2.5 million extra hospital days. In the US, there are over 23,000 antibiotic-resistant deaths and over 2 million illnesses. In India, over 58,000 infants died in one year as a result of infection with resistant bacteria passed from mothers. In Thailand, over 38,000 deaths were attributed to antibiotic resistance. In the chaos created by the pandemic, vulnerable nations may lack the ability to track these emerging opportunistic infections as a byproduct of the disruption in health delivery and monitoring. According to World Health Statistics, although low-income countries had reported the most significant gains in life expectancy, rising by 11 percent from 2000 to 2016, globally, 55 percent of the worlds population lacks access to safely managed sanitation, 29 percent lack safely managed drinking water, and close to 40 percent of all households do not have necessary hand washing facilities. Maternal and child mortality UNICEF reported two weeks ago that an additional 6,000 children might perish from preventable causes over the next six months as the pandemic interrupts and degrades fragile health systems in low- and middle-income countries. Estimating their projections based on the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health study, in a worst-case scenario of 118 countries, an additional 1.2 million under-five deaths could occur. Tragically, 15,000 children die every day. In 2017, 5.4 million children died from causes such as pneumonia, preterm births, and diarrhea. They also noted that 56,700 more maternal deaths could occur in this six-month projection. This is on top of the 144,000 deaths that already take place. Additional concerns UNICEF raised include: Nearly 1.3 billion studentsover 72 percentare out of school as a result of nationwide school closures in 177 countries. Nearly 370 million children across 143 countries who regularly rely on school meals for a reliable source of daily nutrition must now look to other sources as schools are shuttered. As of 14 April, over 117 million children in 37 countries may miss out on their measles vaccination as the pandemic causes immunization campaigns to stop, to reduce the risk of spreading the virus. Universal health is a global concern, and it requires an international perspective to address the enormous inequity that exists. That so many languish and face life-long health insecurities can no longer be tolerable. Public and private cloud administrators who are using VMware Cloud Director should immediately apply the patch for a high-risk vulnerability that can be used by hackers to take full control of virtualized cloud infrastructure, security experts warn. VMware released fixes for the command injection flaw last month, but if left unpatched, it can be easily exploited through customer trial accounts. VMware Cloud Director (previously vCloud Director) is a cloud service delivery platform that allows cloud providers, governments or large enterprises to create, deploy and manage virtual datacenters. It provides a web-based management interface as well as an API through which customers can manage their virtual cloud resources. Penetration testers from security consulting firm Citadelo found the VMware Cloud Director vulnerability during a security audit of the VMware-based cloud infrastructure of a Fortune 500 organization earlier this year. They reported the flaw -- which is tracked as CVE-2020-3956 -- to VMware in early April and the software vendor released patches and a security advisory in May. VMware rated the issue 8.8 (high) in the Common Vulnerabilities Scoring System (CVSS) and said that it can lead to arbitrary remote code execution. The flaw can be exploited through the HTML5 and Flex-based user interfaces of Cloud Director, as well as its API Explorer interface and API access. Full access without exploiting the hypervisor When it comes to hypervisors, the most sought-after vulnerabilities by attackers are those that allow them to escape from virtual machines into the host systems. Such flaws violate the fundamental segmentation layer between guest operating systems and the host that is supposed to provide security assurances in a virtualized environment. The annual Pwn2Own hacking contest lists VMware ESXi alongside VMware Workstation among its targets and pays up to $150,000 for a successful virtual machine escape. Exploit acquisition firm Zerodium pays up to $200,000 for such an exploit. While CVE-2020-3956 is not a vulnerability in the hypervisor itself, it ultimately has the same impact. The flaw gives hackers access to the system's database where they can replace the login credentials for any existing customers, or for the highest privileged user in the system, which in turns gives them access to all virtual machines and the entire cloud environment. In a stealthier attack, hackers could use the access provided by the vulnerability to add a backdoor administrative account. This could remain undetected for a long period of time if the victim doesn't have proper monitoring in place, Tomas Zatko, Citadelo's CEO, tells CSO. Authenticated cloud access in the real world The reason the flaw has not been rated critical is likely because attackers technically need authenticated access to VMware Cloud Director to exploit it. However, according to Citadelo's Zatko, that's not hard to achieve in practice since most cloud providers offer trial accounts to potential customers that involve access to the Cloud Director interface. In most cases there is no real identity verification either for such accounts, so attackers can gain easy access without providing their real identities. This highlights a larger issue with assessing risk based only on vulnerability scores: Severity scores don't always reflect or take into account the real-world conditions in which vulnerable systems might typically exist. Certain configuration or deployment choices can make a vulnerability much easier or harder to exploit than the advisory or the CVSS score suggests. Zatko is concerned that VMware Cloud Director users did not take the issue too seriously based on the advisory alone. More than two weeks after the patches had already been out, his company tested another Fortune 500 organization that used the product and it was still vulnerable. VMware advises users to upgrade to versions 10.0.0.2, 9.7.0.5, 9.5.0.6 or 9.1.0.4 of the product. Version 10.1.0 is not affected. The company has also released manual workarounds that can be applied to deployments that cannot be updated to a new version immediately. Apple has released a new version of its operating system, iOS 13.5.1, in order to provide important security updates [that are] recommended for all users. It means Apple has patched the infamous Unc0ver jailbreak which allowed even the most recent iPhones to be compromised. Apples security page states that the update was pushed out in order to stop software from execut[ing] arbitrary code with kernel privileges which is how jailbreaking works. To jailbreak an iPhone means to remove the usual restrictions imposed by Apple, allowing users more control such as loading apps that are not available in Apples App Store at the risk of lower device security. It was discovered that the Unc0ver jailbreak has been circulating on the internet since at least February, with some speculating that hackers and researchers had the code since December 2019. Knowledge like this is a boon for criminal hackers, who are looking for loopholes and vulnerabilities in operating systems, so it was expected that the exploit would be patched before the expected launch of Apples iOS 14 in June. The hack was particularly notable because, at the time, it worked on current iPhones. Exploits were previously available for all versions of iOS between 11 and 13.5, with hackers suggesting that Apples latest operating system would also be able to be breached. As Wired reported, the Unc0ver jailbreak was the first built a zero-day vulnerability in years. A zero day vulnerability is one where developers have not had the time to fix because it is so recent. The individuals behind Unc0ver did not disclose the vulnerability to Apple, and so could use it for their own purposes. Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at Californias Stanford University. Page and Brin chose the name google as it recalled the mathematic term 'googol', meaning 10 raised to the power of 100 Google Gadget and tech news: In pictures Hexa drone lifts off Chief engineer of LIFT aircraft Balazs Kerulo demonstrates the company's "Hexa" personal drone craft in Lago Vista, Texas on June 3 2019 Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures Project Scarlett to succeed Xbox One Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, the successor to the Xbox One, at E3 2019. The company said that the new console will be 4 times as powerful as the Xbox One and is slated for a release date of Christmas 2020 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures First new iPod in four years Apple has announced the new iPod Touch, the first new iPod in four years. The device will have the option of adding more storage, up to 256GB Apple Gadget and tech news: In pictures Folding phone may flop Samsung will cancel orders of its Galaxy Fold phone at the end of May if the phone is not then ready for sale. The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty With this recent update, hackers and hobbyists will have to find a new method into Apples smartphones. This is not the only potential breach Apple has had to fix in its update. Developer Bhavuk Jain found a software bug in the companys Sign in with Apple feature that would allow hackers to achieve a full account takeover of [third party] user accounts which could be logged into via that feature. The divided self finds a natural home among the multiplying split screens of A School for Fools, a mind-bending adaptation of Sasha Sokolovs 1975 novel about one damaged souls infinitely subjective and poetic take on life in the Soviet Union. This bravura production from the intrepid Belarus Free Theater, which made its livestreaming debut on Monday out of Minsk, portrays the world of Soviet Russia through the prismatic gaze of a young man for whom reality is an ever-morphing phenomenon. Make that two men sort of. The first-person (or persons) narrator of Sokolovs masterwork is identified only as student so-and-so or, occasionally, patient so-and-so. And one part of him is always arguing with and interrupting his other half. He does not, in other words, get along with himself. His goal in life, he (or one of him) says, is to be free to be whatever I want to be, together and separately. This bifocal view allows rich opportunities for imaginative play with the Zoom format. Pavel Haradnitski, the shows writer and director, and Svetlana Sugako, who oversees its narrative technology, have come up with an exhilarating succession of coups de Zoom, in which its 12-member cast seems to be occupying together and separately, at the same time contradictory visionary zones that summon and distort the joyless Moscow of the post-World War II era. (The production, which features unusually literate English subtitles, can be streamed by appointment on Thursday nights through July 9.) India's youngest state Telangana on Tuesday celebrated sixth formation day under the shadow of coronavirus. The usual pomp and gaiety was missing as the occasion was marked with muted celebrations in view of the ongoing lockdown to check the spread of COVID-19. Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao led the low-key celebrations by paying tributes at Telangana Martyrs' Memorial Gun Park near Assembly building in the heart of the city. KCR, as the Chief Minister is popularly known, laid a wreath to pay tributes to those who laid down their lives for achieving separate statehood to Telangana. Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, Director General of Police Mahender Reddy, senior officials, public representatives and leaders of ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) were present. KCR later hoisted the national flag at Pragati Bhavan, the official residence of the chief minister in the presence of senior officials and TRS leaders. Every year, the Chief Minister used to unfurl the tricolour at a public ceremony and address the gathering, recalling the sacrifices made during Telangana movement and the progress achieved by the new state. Subdued celebrations were also held in 32 other districts of the state. The ministers or other public representatives led the celebrations in district headquarters. Wearing masks and following social distancing, a limited number of public representatives and officials participated in the ceremonies. The formation day celebrations were also held in the Assembly and Legislative Council premises. Assembly Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy and Legislative Council G. Sukhender Reddy paid floral tributes to the statues of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr B. R. Ambedkar. Later the Speaker hoisted the national flag in the Assembly premises, while Sukhender Reddy unfurled the flag at the Council. The Speaker recalled that the statehood to Telangana was achieved after the struggle of several decades. He said K. Chandrashekhar Rao fulfilled the long cherished dream of the people of Telangana. The celebrations were also held at the offices of political parties. TRS General Secretary K. Keshava Rao hoisted the national flag at the party headquarters Telangana Bhavan. State Congress chief Uttam Kumar Reddy led the celebrations at the party headquarters Gandhi Bhavan. Speaking on the occasion, he said the credit for making Telangana state a reality goes to party president Sonia Gandhi. He slammed KCR for what he called autocratic rule. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also held a ceremony at the party office. State BJP chief Bandi Sanjay hoisted the national flag. He lashed out at KCR for the family rule in the state and alleged that he had betrayed all sections of people. Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh on June 2, 2014. It came into existence as the 29th state following a long struggle, which was revived by KCR in 2001 by floating TRS. The movement intensified in 2009 following the death of then chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy in a helicopter crash. KCR's fast-unto-death and massive protests forced then Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to announce on December 9, 2009 that the process for formation of Telangana State will be initiated. The Centre later tried to put the issue on the back-burner, citing the need for wider consultations. However, mass protests in Telangana compelled the government to speed up the process and the Parliament in February 2014 passed the bill to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh. Following the victory of TRS in Assembly elections, KCR was sworn in as the first chief minister of Telangana on the same day as the new state came into being. Under KCR's leadership, TRS retained power in the Assembly elections held in December 2018. Places in History The Building That Exploited Myanmars Oil Wealth The former Burmah Oil Company headquarters on Merchant Street / Yangon Architecture It was Burmah Oil Company (BOC) that monopolized Myanmar (then Burma)s oil industry in the colonial period. Based on the corner of Merchant Street and 32nd Street in Yangon (then Rangoon), the building today houses the National Library of Myanmar. Built in 1908 by the architect and contractor Robinson and Mundy, the building was originally the headquarters of the Scottish trading firm Fleming and Co which exported textiles and imported a variety of European merchandize, including shoes, paint and beverages. The BOC took over the four-story building from Fleming and Co. It started operations in 1886, one year after the countrys last monarch, King Thibaw, was dethroned and exiled in India. The firm piped crude oil from Upper Myanmar to Thanlyin oil refinery across the Yangon River. It produced petroleum, gasoline and candles and distributed internationally and domestically, reaching the most remote areas of the country. The company also sold petrol, kerosene lamps and candles and its headquarters were alive with wholesalers and retailers, petroleum inspectors, representatives of foreign oil companies, tanker operators and globetrotting oil workers from the United States, UK, India and elsewhere. One street away from the BOCs headquarters, the Steel Brothers and Co Ltd, which monopolized the countrys rice industry in the colonial period, opened its headquarters on what is now Bo Sun Pat Street. The simply designed BOC office played an important role in modernizing the colonialized society which had no access to electricity or the international fuel markets. The countrys oil only made up for 1 percent of total global production, but 20 percent of the British Empires overall output. National crude oil production rose to 1 million tons annually by the 1930s, with 80 percent of that total coming from BOC. The company also established BOC College to train engineers, technicians and workers for its operations. BOC enjoyed its most profitable years during the 1920s when it was listed among the top 10 British manufacturing firms. Crude oil was the second-largest source of foreign currency income ahead of World War II, according to Myanmar Encyclopedia. Indigenous oil workers earned a tiny fraction of the salaries of British officials at the BOC and endured miserable, crowded living conditions. In a bid for better conditions, thousands of oil workers marched about 650 kilometers from Chauk in todays Magway Region to Yangon despite a violent crackdown by the colonial government. They were joined by thousands of other workers, farmers and people from all strata of society in what would become the first movement for independence. The movement in 1938 was significant as a national uprising against colonial rule and became known as the Revolution of 1300, named after Myanmars calendar. The British general manager of the BOC, Harold Roper, was kept busy having to report to the board of directors in London about the strike, negotiate with the colonial government and answer media questions. On March 15, 1939, oil workers managed to block all entrances to the BOCs head office by lying down on the pavements around the building. Hours later, the police forcibly dispersed the protesters and detained 123 of them. When World War II broke out, the BOC which exploited the countrys oil resources under the umbrella of the colonial government abandoned its head office, burning documents and maps. The abandoned building survived the war but the interior was a shambles with no furniture or equipment. As oil fields and equipment were destroyed by the retreating British, the countrys supplies of kerosene and candles ran out. After independence, BOC shared the building with the Ideal Nursing Home, also known as the Sanpya Clinic. In 1963, the BOC was sold to the Revolutionary Council government, ending 55 years of foreign ownership. The building then housed the office of the state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) for the next 40 years. It was left vacant when the MOGE moved to Naypyitaw in 2005 and 2006. Most of the roof was destroyed by Cyclone Nargis in 2008 and the building was renovated by the Construction Ministry in 2010. After the National League for Democracy won the 2015 general election and U Htin Kyaw, the son of influential intellectual Min Thu Wun, became the president, he allowed the building to house the National Library. While some colonial-era buildings house hotels, restaurants and shopping centers, the 112-year-old former BOC office has become a public building. Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko You may also like these stories: Jubilee HallFrom Colonial Social Hub to Hotbed of Myanmar Independence Activity Myanmars Bygone Rangoon Government House The Day Japan Signed War Reparations for Myanmar Anonymous, the Batman-like vigilante of the internet that was once widely feared, now appears to be back in action. The claims have been put forth courtesy a viral video posted originally on Anonymous own Facebook page itself posted on May 29, where the once-feared silhouette of a black hooded jacket and the signature Guy Fawkes mask has appeared after years of relative inactivity. In the video, the figure speaks out against police brutality in light of the recent murder of George Floyd by ex-officer of the Minneapolis Police Department, Derek Chauvin. The collective's move appears to have set social media on fire, claiming to reveal sensitive documents about figures such as US president Donald Trump and the British royal family. Many have taken to their social media accounts, expressing reverential opinion about the once-feared group, in hope that they might be the real-world Avengers that we were all waiting for. The message In the video, the figure says, Police brutality and murder is a widespread problem in the United States, which has undoubtedly infected nearly every jurisdiction in the country. But, the Minneapolis police department is among the worst and has a horrible track record of violence and corruption. This weeks brutal killing of George Floyd, which has sparked protests and national outrage, is just the tip of the iceberg in a long list of high profile cases of wrongful deaths at the hands of officers in your state. The message highlights the inaction of US police officers who stand by perpetrators of violence and do nothing, thereby being complicit to such acts of violence as well. It ends with a resounding sentence, stating that beginning May 29, Anonymous will be exposing the many crimes of United States police departments. Earlier today, about a day after Anonymous posted the message, reports by US citizens started claiming that the website of the Minneapolis police department was pulled down, allegedly by Anonymous. While News18 could confirm that the police departments website was indeed down as of 3PM IST, it could not verify if it was the work of Anonymous members. The video message further states, In the past two decades, 193 people have been killed by police in Minnesota, including the deaths of Jamar Clark, Philando Castle, Justine Damond, Thomas Blevines and Brian Quinones. These are only the cases that caught headlines, where videos and other evidence prove that the police are lying. It eventually states that the travesty has continued for far too long, and the people have had enough. Towards the end of the message, Anonymous says, You may have fired the officer to save face, but it is obvious that this type of behaviour is condoned, if not encouraged in your department, as it is in others. Officers who kill people and commit other crimes need to be held accountable just like the rest of us; otherwise, they will believe they have the license to do whatever they want. The recent line of events Chauvin has since been fired from his department, and charged with third degree murder and second degree manslaughter. However, this has not prevented protests that have also broken into riots in many areas. This is further combined with US president Donald Trumps radical and incendiary opinions posted on Twitter, against which many including Twitter itself are speaking up against. Since earlier this week, Twitter began labelling Trumps tweets as factually incorrect and inciting violence, marking the platforms first major move against a political figure of power, after doling out similar labelling to Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. USA has been rocked by protests and riots across the country, fuelled by Chauvins heinous act and Trumps tweets. While many took to Twitter to express awe upon discovering the Anonymous message, it remains unclear as to how much of its old power and threat does the hacktivist collective still carry. Over the past few years, noted Anonymous members such as Barrett Brown and Hector Sabu Monsegur were rounded up by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, leading many to assume that Anonymous only remained a shadow of what it once was. The collective has its place etched in internet culture already, with its signature of the Guy Fawkes mask and the ending phrase of We are legion, expect us being treated with considerable amount of caution by official departments. Going forward, it remains to be seen how Anonymous eventually impacts the socio-political situation in USA right now. The collectives online portals have been more active in recent times, and this may well be a sign of things to come. Asia First Rohingya Death From COVID-19 Reported in Bangladesh Refugee Camp One of two Severe Acute Respiratory Infection Isolation and Treatment Centers established in refugee camps in Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh, to treat COVID-19 patients with severe symptoms. / photo supplied by UNHCR DHAKAA sample taken from an elderly Rohingya man who died on Sunday in a hospital in Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday night, according to local officials, who vowed to redouble their efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the areas densely populated refugee camps. The deceased man was identified as Abul Khair, 71, a resident of the Kutupalong camp, according to other camp residents. He had been admitted to a field hospital run by Medecins Sans Frontieres located in Ukhia subdistrict. The officials said on Tuesday they were preparing medical facilities and an isolation center with capacity for 1,900 people, for both displaced Rohingya from Myanmar and the host community, while restricting the movement of around 15,000 Rohingya people, mostly in the Kutupalong refugee camp. This is the first Rohingya death of COVID-19, said Mahbubur Rahman, the senior health official in Coxs Bazar district, on Tuesday after confirming the report. We have yet to receive his complete report, he added. Officials from the Office of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC) in Coxs Bazar said they had traced the deceased mans contacts and around a dozen people had already been isolated. Mohammad Shamsu Douza, a refugee relief and repatriation commissioner, said the man was admitted to the hospital after showing symptoms of COVID-19. A sample was taken from him hours before he died, and it returned positive the following day. The officials said that as of May 30, 333 Rohingya had been tested for COVID-19 after displaying symptoms of the disease. According to Shamsu Douza, 29 of these patients (not including the man who died on Sunday), tested positive and are currently isolated in treatment centers. The range in age from minors to the elderly, he said. The Bangladeshi official told The Irrawaddy that over 15,000 people in the refugee camps were under orders restricting their movements, adding that special measures had been implemented to maintain their supply of food and other daily necessities. Most of the infected people are from the Kutupalong camp, he added. Since April 8, the RRRC has limited humanitarian operations in the Rohingya settlements to those deemed critical. Mostafa Mohammad Sazzad Hossain, assistant communications officer for the Bangladesh chapter of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said in a statement that two Severe Acute Respiratory Infection Isolation and Treatment Centers (SARI ITCs) were set up in Coxs Bazar on May 18, just four days after the first Rohingya tested positive on May 14. So far, we have inaugurated one in Kutupalong (50 beds) and another in Ukhiya (145 beds). The overall target is to build [a] total of 12 SARI ITCs like these across the whole of Coxs Bazar district, which will have [a] total [of] 1,900 beds, and these will be open to both refugees and Bangladeshis, the statement reads. In a statement in May, the Inter Sector Coordination Group (ISCG) said information is the best defense against COVID-19, adding that its humanitarian partners were ensuring effective communications and outreach through radio spots, videos, posters and messages in the Rohingya and Burmese languages in the camps and in the Bengali language in the local communities. However, Rohingya Students Network executive director Sawyeddollah said in a statement that camp residents had virtually no access to information on COVID-19 as they have been without internet access since September 2019. He said lifting the internet restrictions was essential for two reasons: to prevent human trafficking and to fight against the pandemic. Once we can have enough information related to COVID-19, our people could prevent themselves from this pandemic, the statement reads. In refugee camps, maintaining social distancing is almost impossible since we live in overcrowded camps. We do not have enough sanitary kits to wash our hands. The face masks we received through the INGOs [nongovernmental organizations] are not enough, it adds. As of Monday, according to the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research, there were 49,534 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Bangladesh, including 672 related deaths, with a case fatality rate (CFR) of 1.36 percent. You may also like these stories: Opening of the First Airport in Myanmars Chin State Delayed Amid COVID-19 Displaced Children in Western Myanmar Unable to Attend Reopening Schools South Koreas SK Telecom to Help Myanmar Boost Cybersecurity (CNN) As protests over George Floyd's death continue nationwide, several doctors' groups the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association and American College of Physicians are emphasizing that racism is a public health issue and they're calling for police brutality to stop. The American Academy of Pediatrics posted on Twitter Sunday night that "racism is a public health issue," and the tweet linked to the AAP's 2019 policy statement about the impact of racism on child and adolescent health. "The AAP condemns violence, especially when perpetrated by authorities, and calls for a deep examination of how to improve the role of policing," the academy tweeted. "Systemic violence requires systemic response." The American Medical Association on Friday released a joint statement from its board chair Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld and president Dr. Patrice Harris noting that "police brutality must stop." "AMA policy recognizes that physical or verbal violence between law enforcement officers and the public, particularly among Black and Brown communities where these incidents are more prevalent and pervasive, is a critical determinant of health and supports research into the public health consequences of these violent interactions," Ehrenfeld and Harris said in the statement. "Recognizing that many who serve in law enforcement are committed to justice, the violence inflicted by police in news headlines today must be understood in relation to larger social and economic arrangements that put individuals and populations in harm's way leading to premature illness and death," they wrote in part. "Police violence is a striking reflection of our American legacy of racism -- a system that assigns value and structures opportunity while unfairly advantaging some and disadvantaging others based on their skin color." How racism puts the black community's health at risk The statement went on to describe how both the coronavirus pandemic and police violence have disproportionately impacted communities of color, shedding light on stark health disparities in the United States. "Racism as a driver of health inequity is also particularly evident in findings from a 2018 study showing that law enforcement-involved deaths of unarmed black individuals were associated with adverse mental health among Black American adults -- a spillover effect on the population, regardless of whether the individual affected had a personal relationship with the victim or the incident was experienced vicariously," Ehrenfeld and Harris wrote. "The trauma of violence in a person's life course is associated with chronic stress, higher rates of comorbidities and lower life expectancy, all of which bear extensive care and economic burden on our healthcare system while sapping the strength of affected families and communities," they wrote. "The United States has a track record of historically and systemically disadvantaging certain racial groups -- in addition to ethnic, religious and other minoritized groups -- across the country." Also on Friday, the American College of Physicians stressed in a statement that internists are "gravely concerned" about discrimination and violence against communities of color, whether by police or private individuals. "It is evident that African-Americans in particular are at risk of being subjected to discrimination and violence against them because of their race, endangering them and even costing them their lives. This should never be acceptable and those responsible must be held accountable," Dr. Heather Gantzer, chair of the board of regents for the American College of Physicians said in the statement. "ACP has long held that hate crimes, prejudice, discrimination, harassment and violence against any person based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, sex, sexual orientation, or country of origin is a public health issue," Gantzer said in part. "The issue of how to ensure that policing does not result in discriminatory enforcement and violence is a multifaceted and complex one." 'What has stood out to me is not so much the physical injuries ... but the psychological harm' This isn't the first time that doctors and public health leaders have weighed in on how racism, whether intentional or implicit, hurts public health and can help drive racial disparities in health. When a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, turned deadly in 2017, the American College of Physicians named hate crimes a public health issue in a position statement. At that time, the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians also issued policy statements on hate crime as a public health concern, referencing how experiencing racism and discrimination can play a role in raising the risk of certain chronic health conditions in the black community. Several studies suggest that experiences of racism or discrimination raise the risk of emotional and physical health problems, including depression, cardiovascular disease, hypertension -- more than 40% of black adults have high blood pressure -- and even death. "By identifying discrimination and hate crimes as public health issues, the ACP not only acknowledges the impact these factors have on our patients but also our role and responsibility to address them as part of our professional dedication to the health of our patients and the public," Dr. Elizabeth Samuels, an emergency physician in New Haven, Connecticut, and Providence, Rhode Island, told CNN in 2017. "When I have cared for patients assaulted because of their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age or disability, what has stood out to me is not so much the physical injuries inflicted -- which are not to be minimized -- but the psychological harm," she said. "Hate-based violence and systemic racism are detrimental to public health." This story was first published on CNN.com "Racism is a public health issue and 'police brutality must stop,' medical groups say" Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - President Muhammadu Buhari Monday approved the implementation of the second national response phase of the war against Coronavirus (COVID-19) over the next four weeks, relaxing restriction on places of worship (Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg told staff at a companywide meeting that he wont change his mind about a decision to leave up posts shared by U.S. President Donald Trump last week that many workers felt violated the companys policies against violent rhetoric. At an all-hands meeting via video chat on Tuesday, Zuckerberg took questions from employees, many of whom have publicly voiced dismay that the Trump post, which seemed to threaten that looters would be shot, was still visible on Facebooks service. Zuckerberg told workers that he and other members of the companys policy team couldnt justify saying that the message clearly incited violence, which means it didnt break Facebooks rules, according to two people who attended the meeting. Zuckerberg added that Facebook is exploring whether the company should change the policy or come up with other ways to flag violating posts besides taking them down entirely, one person said. The meeting lasted 90 minutes, and employees asked Zuckerberg questions via a video split screen. Many of those who spoke were upset and frustrated with the companys position. Facebook is responding to the most intense internal protest in its history, involving public resignations and increasing outrage over Zuckerbergs decisions. While the CEO stood his ground on the posts from last week, the company tried to assuage concerns by announcing two initiatives. Facebook will create a hub for election resources -- similar to its offering for Covid-19 -- where users can seek out vetted information, the meeting attendees said. And Fidji Simo, the head of Facebooks flagship app, was tasked with sponsoring more proactive initiatives to advance racial justice, according to the employees, who asked not to be identified discussing an internal meeting. On May 28, Trump posted a message on Facebook with the words when the looting starts, the shooting starts in response to protests over the death in police custody of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in Minneapolis. It remains on the social network. Story continues The same post was also shared to rival social network Twitter Inc., which then added a warning and filter to the message. A number of Facebook employees, including some senior figures, have criticized the companys approach, challenging Zuckerbergs decision to leave the post up, and on Monday some workers participated in a virtual walkout in protest. Mark had an open discussion with employees today, as he has regularly over the years, a Facebook spokesperson said. Hes grateful for their feedback. One employee, software engineer Timothy Aveni, announced his resignation on Monday, citing Facebooks failure to step in on content such as Trumps. Mark always told us that he would draw the line at speech that calls for violence. He showed us on Friday that this was a lie, Aveni posted on Facebook. Facebook, complicit in the propagation of weaponized hatred, is on the wrong side of history. As criticism mounted on Monday, Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg held a videoconference with U.S. civil rights leaders to discuss issues around Facebooks policies related to race, elections and other topics. Color of Change President Rashad Robinson said participants were left disappointed with Zuckerbergs understanding of the issues. Last week, Twitter also angered Trump when the company added a fact-checking label to a post about mail-in ballots. Trump responded by unveiling an executive order targeting the law that protects social-media companies from liability for the content posted by its users. (Updates with new initiatives in the fourth paragraph.) For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. From that momentous day in 1968 when Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa stood with Martin Luther King Jr. in support of the Memphis garbage strikers, the Teamsters Union has not only stood with black leaders, but has fought to be all-inclusive, making equal pay for equal work, regardless of race, creed, gender or sexual orientation, a cornerstone of what we are about. This is where Teamsters gain their strength. What happened to George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police is murder, and that is what the officer was, belatedly, charged with. It boggles my mind, however, that the other officers who participated in that murder of this black man who was lying face down on the asphalt, handcuffed, trying to breathe with a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes, have not been arrested for the same crime. All these now-former officers, who have a sworn duty to protect and defend, didnt attempt to stop it, in fact, they helped hold Mr. Floyd down until life itself drained from his body; yes, they participated in the act and should be held accountable. Similarly, the shooting earlier this year in Georgia of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery, who was hunted down by white supremacists and murdered for no reason except that he was black, is just one more incident that feeds my outrage and my disgust. For far too long, injustices against black men, especially young black men, have been tolerated and condoned by our society. By not speaking out against it, we are part of it, exactly the same as those officers who stood by and did nothing to stop the murder of George Floyd. Leaders of organizations like my union, other unions, churches, corporations, cities, counties and states have to speak up and start to actually work to make sure this type of senseless aggression against our fellow Americans stops and never happens again. Minnesota, and specifically Minneapolis, hold a special place in the history of our great union, a place where Teamsters fought in the streets against inequality and injustice. The anti-union forces at that time screamed that we were violent communists made up of out-of-state radicals, immigrants and criminals; unfortunately, in many cases, the Teamsters message was lost among the hysteria created by employers, politicians, police, newspapers and radio; but we prevailed. Similarly, today images of people taking to the streets and the subsequent rioting and destruction in San Francisco, Oakland and elsewhere should not be allowed to overshadow the fundamental reason the frustration of the black community is boiling over; if you allow yourself to be distracted, you will be ignoring the facts and the context. Many of the buildings and storefronts that have been vandalized, and/or set afire are symbols of those who have, historically, done little or nothing to stop the violence against an entire group of Americans, and, in many cases, have refused to provide decent wages, benefits and working conditions for the community. At some point, reason and rational thinking cannot be expected when ones very being and life are constantly under threat. Obviously, I cannot condone violence or looting; however, I can understand it. I can feel it. I can empathize with the frustration of generations of injustice and inequity, but I wont let the media coverage of what is happening cloud the reason that it is happening. You shouldnt, either. I pledge that I will do everything in my power and authority to make sure Teamsters everywhere understand that an injustice to our black sisters and brothers is an injustice to all of us, and I will also work to make sure that these insane attacks against our sisters and brothers stop once and for all. This is the United States of America. What are we doing? Rome Aloise is principal officer of Teamsters Local 853 in Oakland, president of Teamsters Joint Council #7 and International Vice President. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday called for special focus on identifying people-- especially senior citizens above 65 years-- inflicted with serious ailments, pregnant women and children below 10 years of age during the second phase of door-to-door screening to begin amid Unlock-1 in the state. He also ordered priority testing for anyone in the above group displaying Covid-19 symptoms. Reviewing the coronavirus containment measures, Nitish asked health department officials to ensure that the second leg of the intensive door-to-door screening exercise ring fenced the vulnerable categories from the infection through proper identification and testing protocols. For Coronavirus Live Updates In view of the increase in the number of Covid-19 positive cases, immediate measures for augmenting the required health facilities, including adequate isolation wards and beds, should be initiated to ensure that there is no difficulty in their treatment, Nitish said, while urging people to reach out for healthcare support as soon as they notice any symptoms. Insisting on the need for a massive awareness drive to involve the people in the fight against the disease, the chief minister asked for roping in elected representatives of panchayati raj institutions and urban local bodies. The idea is to impress upon the masses that the use of face masks, observance of social distancing norms, following government guidelines and testing were the four key tools in fighting the pandemic, the chief minister said. The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19 Preventive steps are the key to staying safe. But if someone displays symptoms, he should immediately come forward for Covid-19 test and get treated in the event of a positive report, without wasting any time. All those staying at home quarantine, too, should follow the same approach. This is necessary to keep your family and neigbourhood safe, he said. As a large number of migrant workers, including Covid-19 patients, are returning home after serving the mandatory quarantine period and or successful treatment, the chief minister appealed that they should not be subjected to any form of social stigmatisation. He also directed officials to expand the free distribution of face masks and soaps in the rural pockets to include poor families, rickshaw pullers, daily wage earners, street vendors and other needy persons living in urban areas. On her first day back overseeing evictions, Justice of the Peace Jo Ann Delgado presided over a court blocked off by crime scene tape. Her court, Justice of the Peace Court Precinct 2, Place 1, was nearly empty. The only three people in aside from court staff were on either side of the case she had come in to decide: A property manager and her attorney and the tenant who had an eviction filed on him. Delgado purposely scheduled cases 20 minutes apart, but all the others slated for June 1 had been dismissed. Please bear with us as we proceed in our in-person hearings that have resumed as of today, she said before asking the plaintiffs attorney to present his case. The Texas Supreme Court lifted an eviction moratorium put in place due to the novel coronavirus on May 19. Harris County courts are slowly picking up their eviction dockets, starting with cases interrupted by the March 19 emergency order to suspend them. Some courts have yet to resume; others are trying to teleconference hearings. Before anyone was allowed into Delgados courthouse, they had to answer screening questions: Were they COVID-positive? Were they waiting on a test? Had they been in contact with anyone who was COVID-positive in the last 14 days? If the answers were all no, they had their temperature checked before going inside. Other justice of the peace court proceedings are still delayed. Delgado had heard a report incorrect that jury trials were set to resume in June. Theyre not restarting for a month. Where would they even put the jurors? she wondered. Theres no way to do it at a social distance. On HoustonChronicle.com: Coronavirus came for a Houston family. It took one, sickened three and left the rest to grieve alone. The tenant up for eviction at 8:20 a.m., Carter Donte Lamar, had not paid his full $775 rent since March before the Texas Supreme Court put eviction cases on hold. The monthly missed payments added up. By the time he made it to court, he owed $2955 in rent. The lawyer for the complex, in a gray suit and a blue mask, asked for $1,851.21 added on for attorneys fees. Before the corona, I aint never was late, said Lamar, who, like the majority of tenants getting evicted, had come to court without a lawyer. He spoke rapidly through his N-95 mask about how hed tried to get disability and now had unemployment and a stimulus check and could pay up if the apartment would let him. But there were other lease violations, said his apartments property manager in a voice muffled by a pink cloth face mask: Lamar had approached an underage female visitor to the complex (he denied trying to hit on her), and had people not on his lease living in the apartment. I had some people come there because they were pushed out of their residence, he said. Lamars place had been nearly empty: His wife, he said, left him and took the furniture. I said well, since I got a place and yall dont got nowhere to go in this corona, yall can live in my living room. And they agreed to pay me money when the stimulus check came. (No one, he said, ended up paying him).That, Delgado explained, was subletting, and illegal under his lease. And that, plus the late rent meant the landlord could decide whether to work something out or not. They chose not to. Lamars landlord won the case. Delgado told him he owed $2955 in rent, plus $880 in attorneys fees: $3,835 total. He has until June 10 to appeal the case or leave before a constable comes to remove him. I just dont want an eviction on my record, he said. I wanted to wait till the end of corona. sarah.smith@chron.com Because of delays between exposure to the virus and symptoms, the effects of the protests on the spread of the virus will not be known for several weeks. But epidemiologists said the protests would almost certainly lead to more cases. Health experts know that the virus is far less likely to be spread outdoors than indoors. And masks reduce the chance of transmitting respiratory droplets that contain the virus. But yelling, shouting and singing can increase how far those droplets are projected. Crowds also increase the risk of transmission. Police tactics such as spraying tear gas which causes people to cough herding protesters into smaller areas for crowd control and placing arrested individuals in buses, vans and holding cells also increase the risk of infection. Tay Anderson, a protest leader and city school board member in Denver, said he had been worried about the disparate effects of the virus on black Colorado residents as thousands marched through the city and rested shoulder to shoulder on the lawn of the State Capitol in silent demonstrations to decry Mr. Floyds death. He put out a call on social media for all protesters to join him in getting tested for the virus on Saturday morning at the Pepsi Center, a concert arena where Denver has been running free, large-scale testing. WE ARE STILL IN A PANDEMIC, he wrote on Twitter. In Los Angeles, where city leaders have voiced support for the right of demonstrators to gather, Mayor Eric Garcetti has warned the gatherings could become super-spreader events not unlike during the 1918 flu pandemic when, after the first wave of infections, some cities held parades and large gatherings that led to a second, more deadly wave of infections. A protester at a demonstration against the killing of George Floyd at Pan Pacific Park in Los Angeles on May 30. (Los Angeles Times) To the editor: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar writes the truth about our institutional racism. I agree with him and others who speak of "conversations" we should have and making sure everyone is treated fairly. But I also believe we're talking this to death, literally, while policemen go on killing black people with almost no consequences. Only one thing, I believe, is going to make them stop: They must know for certain that if they continue, they can be arrested, charged, tried, convicted and put in prison for years, just as every convicted killer is. If the justice system had acted this way for the past decades, so many families (black families predominantly) would not be grieving their many losses. Fran Steketee, Westminster, Md. .. To the editor: Los Angeles had a similar situation to George Floyd's death in Minneapolis under the administration of Police Chief Daryl Gates. By 1982, 16 people had died after being in a chokehold, a tactic approved by Gates. Twelve of those killed were black men. As a cardiologist who had written a book about the differences between black people and white people in medicine and healthcare, I was consulted by Gates to give credibility to his notion that the black males died because of an anatomical weakness in their neck arteries that rendered them more susceptible when a chokehold was applied. I refused to corroborate his crackpot notions, which were tantamount to blaming the victim. George Floyd, Eric Garner and other black men have suffered twice first from murderous acts based on racism, and second from being blamed for not being able to breathe while black. This is a travesty that cannot be tolerated. When will the American public rise up and acknowledge that black lives do indeed matter? Richard Allen Williams, MD, Encino .. To the editor: As a white guy who is Abdul-Jabbar's age, I agree with his op-ed article, except for one point. I did not shake my head at the cruel injustice when I heard of Floyd's death. Like Abdul-Jabbar, I thought, "Not @#$%! again." Story continues I did not want to throw something quite as much as I wanted to cry, but I have lived all my life aware of the suffocating injustice of racism. Since at least the Civil Rights Act of 1964, I've listened to people saying racism no longer exists in this country. The thing that gets me most, of course, is the unfairness of it all. Aren't those of us not subject daily to that unfairness able to recognize the drag it is on our entire society? Keeping large amounts of people under our thumb, unable to produce, to enhance, to breathe, is poison to our economy. Denys Arcuri, Indio Protests against police brutality following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis are planned throughout New Jersey over the next few days. Saturday marked the first protests in New Jersey, with thousands of people marching through the streets of Newark chanting No justice, no peace! and I cant breathe in a peaceful demonstration against racism and police brutality. The protests continued into Sunday, with police officers in Atlantic City and Trenton kneeling with protesters, while in Camden there was a peaceful protest with police, including Police Chief Joseph D. Wysocki, walking side-by-side with demonstrators. Sunday evening came reports of groups taking to the streets of Trenton and Atlantic City to smash window, loot stores and set vehicles on fire. Some communities that saw protests earlier in the day, including Glassboro, Pitman, Rahway and Linden, did not report in violence afterward. A protest in Asbury Park on Monday remained peaceful for about four hours, but tensions rose and a melee later broke out, with several protesters arrested and a police officer injured. Among the protests planned in New Jersey this week: NOTE: NJ.com has removed information about a protest in Summit, Short Hills and New Providence Thursday because it could not be verified Protests over Floyds death spread across the country into early Sunday, spilling into New York City, Atlanta, Detroit, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Portland and Washington, D.C. Four police officers who were at the scene of Floyds death have been fired, and one, Derek Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the case. In New Jersey, all 21 N.J. county prosecutors offices call images of George Floyd death deeply disturbing and said police are not exempt from law. In a statement Saturday, New Jersey State PBA President Pat Colligan condemned Chauvin and the four officers also at the scene. The actions that we saw on video are contrary to all our training and does harm to the good reputation of the overwhelming number of brave men and women in law enforcement trying to do their job in an honorable and lawful manner," Colligan said. Nobody in law enforcement can look at that video and justify the actions of those officers. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Andrew Koob may be reached at akoob@njadvancemedia.com. In the Belarusian capital Minsk, a long queue formed outside a covered food market on Sunday as people waited for hours to give their signature to opposition candidates contesting a presidential election in August, Reuters writes in the article 'Stop the cockroach': protests rattle Belarus President Lukashenko before election. Such queues are increasingly familiar across Belarus and Lukashenko, a former Soviet collective farm boss who has tolerated little opposition since taking office in 1994, faces his biggest political challenge in years. Russia and Belarus, a former Soviet republic of 9.5 million strategically placed between Russia and European Union member state Poland, have a long-standing union treaty. But Lukashenko has publicly dismissed Moscows push for tighter integration. To challenge him on Aug. 9, candidates need the signatures of 100,000 voters. In Minsk on Sunday, many stood in a line stretching back about 1 km (0.6 mile) to sign up for multiple candidates. I would like this action to show that a huge number of people are unhappy with what is happening in the country, are ready to take to the streets and show the authorities that the time has come for change, said Semyon, an engineer. Public frustration with Lukashenkos handling of the coronavirus pandemic has combined with grievances about the economy and human rights, reinvigorating opposition to his rule. Lukashenko compared opposition supporters to criminal gangs on Monday and accused them of fomenting unrest akin to the 2014 Maidan protests that toppled Ukraines Moscow-backed president. I want to warn you and everyone who is listening to us that there will be no Maidan in Belarus, he said. Victor Babariko, former board chairman of Belgazprombank, Oleg Gaidukevich, Deputy Chairperson of the Standing Commission on International Affairs, head of the LDP party; Yuri Gantsevich, farmer and blogger from the Gomel region; Yuri Gubarevich, head of the For Freedom movement; Andrei Dmitriev, co-chair of the Tell the Truth movement; Anna Kanopatskaya, ex-activist of the UCP, in 2016, became one of two opposition members represented in the parliament; Natalya Kisel, member of the Association Council of Freight Carriers; Olga Kovalkova, co-chairwoman of the organizing committee for the establishment of the Belarusian Christian Democracy Party (BCD), lawyer; Nikolay Kozlov, Acting Chairman of the United Civil Party; Vladimir Nepomnyashchikh, pensioner, member of the UCP; Alexander Tabolich, musician, leader of the Minsk Znich band; Valery Tsepkalo, ex-head of the HTP; Sergey Cherechen, Chairman of the Belarusian Social Democratic Assembly (BSDG), an ex-member of the Communist Party of Belarus, and interpreter Svetlana Tsikhanouski intend to run for president. The wife of a blogger, Syarhei Tsikhanouski, is standing as a candidate after her husband was barred from registering. Tsikhanouski was arrested at a protest on Friday. Viktor Babariko, former head of the local unit of Russias Gazprombank, has secured 85,000 signatures. Belarusians are tired of the lack of change, Babariko told Reuters, despite Lukashenkos efforts to cast himself as a guarantor of stability. Everyone understands that our notorious stability is no longer stability, Babariko said. This stability is like that of a cemetery. The behaviour of the authorities during the coronavirus pandemic period was the last trigger that showed complete disrespect, he said. Lukashenko, 65, resisted calls for a lockdown or social distancing measures, and suggested remedies such as vodka or saunas.Belarus had 44,255 official coronavirus cases and 243 deaths as of Tuesday. Lukashenko certainly does not want to go too far. He needs to somehow sell these elections to the West, said political analyst Alexander Klaskovsky. But if serious protests ensue, Lukashenko has repeatedly shown that as soon as he feels a real threat to his power, he does not stand on ceremony and thinks least of all about the international image, because power is everything for him. For the West, Belarusian independence from Russia is now more important than the problem of human rights, political analyst Valery Karbalevich said. Manu Sharma, who was serving a life term after being convicted of the murder of model Jessica Lal in 1999, was released from Tihar jail on Monday evening. His release, along with that of 18 other convicts, was approved by lieutenant governor (LG) Anil Baijal. Confirming the release, Sharmas lawyer Amit Sahni said the lieutenant governor had accepted the recommendations of the sentence review board, which met on May 11. A spokesperson from the L-Gs office said the sentence review board recommended Sharmas release without any disagreement, and that the L-G concurred with the recommendations approved by state home minister Satyendar Jain. Any convict -- barring one found guilty of heinous crimes such as rape and murder, murder and robbery, murder in cases of terrorism and murder while out on parole -- who has completed 14 years in prison is eligible for early release. Sharma has served around 16 years of actual sentencing. According to jail records, with time earned for good conduct (remission), he has completed 23 years. The prisons director-general Sandeep Goel confirmed that Sharma was released on Monday. Since 2018, , Sharma was lodged in the open jail of the prison. Open jail prisoners are allowed to step out for work but have to return in the evening and spend the night inside the prison complex. They are housed in flats within the prison complex. HT first reported this development on April 22, 2018, and that it was possibly the penultimate step towards his release. In November 2019, Sahni, Sharmas advocate, approached the Delhi high court seeking his release. In his plea, he had said that despite spending 23 years in jail (with remission added), and a record of good conduct in prison, the sentence review board denied his clients release on four separate occasions in an unfair and unlawful manner. The Delhi high court then asked the board to consider Sharmas case for release in its next meeting, which took place on May 11. The seven-member board consists of the state home minister as its chairman, the prisons director-general, state home secretary, state law secretary, a district judge, the governments chief probationary officer, and a joint commissioner-rank officer of Delhi Police. Siddharth Vashishta,43, better known by his alias Manu Sharma, shot dead model Jessica Lal, who was tending an unlicensed bar at a private party on April 30, 1999, after she refused to serve him a drink well past midnight. He is the son of Haryana politician Venod Sharma. Last month, after SRB recommended Sharmas release to the lieutenant governor, Lals sister Sabrina said that she had forgiven Sharma and that he had served his time for the crime. Sabrina Lal also said that it was time for her to move on. My fight was always for justice. We got justice. If he is released. I have no problem, she said. When contacted on Tuesday, Lal said: The past is behind me. Our fight was always for justice. I just hope that pray that he is a reformed man and learned his lesson. Sharmas acquittal by a city court in February 2006 triggered protests across the country, after which the Delhi high court took up the case. The high court reversed the lower courts order, saying it ignored or misread material evidence. Sharma was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in December 2006. The Supreme Court upheld the order in 2010. Prison officials said Sharmas work inside the prison helped his case for release. He runs an NGO, Siddhartha Vashishta Charitable Trust, that started working in Tihar around eight years ago, and has funded the education of the children of prison inmates. His non-profit has also worked towards the rehabilitation of families of underprivileged prisoners. Sunil Gupta, who was the prisons legal officer for 35 years and who knew Sharma inside prison, said Sharmas good conduct good work helped pave the way for his early release. I interacted with him many times during my years in prison. He helped the jail factory in branding its products and made it famous. It was his idea to open outlets or sell the products on the web. His NGO also focused on the children of prisoners and helped hundreds of families, Gupta said. Gupta also added that had Sharma not been a high-profile prisoner he may have been released just after completing 14 years in prison. His remarkable work in prison was lauded by everyone. Also one must remember that a prison is a reformation centre. It is not a place to lock anyone forever. CARLSBAD, Calif., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Prescient Metabiomics, a subsidiary of Prescient Medicine Holdings, Inc., announced today a research collaboration with the Harvard Chan Microbiome in Public Health Center (HCMPH Center), a group at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health dedicated to expanding research on the microbiome to improve public health. The aim of the collaboration is to study microbial biomarkers to identify the presence of precancerous adenomas and carcinomas in the colon. The initial collaboration will investigate prevalent gut microbial biomarkers for colorectal cancer (CRC) by analyzing known, recent CRC cases across populations with which the HCMPH Center works and applying cutting-edge statistical and bioinformatic techniques for microbiome meta-analysis. "The ongoing research collaboration will further enhance diagnostic screening for colon cancer," said Keri Donaldson, M.D, chief executive officer at Prescient Medicine. "Offering a non-invasive alternative to colonoscopies that screen for colorectal adenomas and carcinomas could represent a paradigm shift in CRC screening driven by the microbiome. Therefore, research to better understand the microbiome's role in CRC is needed at this time." Curtis Huttenhower, Ph.D., professor of computational biology at Harvard Chan School and co-director of the HCMPH Center, said, "The mission of the HCMPH Center is to improve population health via microbiome science, and there are few chronic disease conditions as well-positioned to benefit from microbiome screening as colorectal cancer. It is one of the most common causes of cancer deaths, but also one of the most preventable cancers if detected early. It's exciting to embark on this collaboration to advance the latest science and, I hope, eventually deploy our findings to the clinic." The past decade has seen a dramatic expansion of research on the human microbiome, including investigation into the role of microbes and microbiota in the gastrointestinal track in the origin and development of CRC. The advancements in this field parallel the preceding decade's growth in personalized genetic medicine, with the microbiome offering opportunities for both therapeutic and diagnostic biomarker discovery. According to the American Cancer Society, colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in both men and in women. The U.S. spends approximately $14 billion each year for the diagnosis and treatment of CRC with costs largely due to delayed detection. There is a lack of non-invasive screening tests that can accurately detect precancerous polyps as effectively as a colonoscopy, the current standard of care. Screening recommendations currently suggest a colonoscopy for average-risk patients starting at age 45 every 10 years and earlier for high-risk patients, but approximately one in three patients are not in compliance with these recommendations. Research indicates that early detection of precancerous adenomas and carcinomas could lead to significantly better patient outcomes. About Prescient Metabiomics Prescient Metabiomics LLC, a privately held company and subsidiary of Prescient Medicine Holdings, Inc., is an early stage molecular diagnostics company developing in-vitro diagnostics that leverage breakthroughs in next-generation DNA sequencing, computational systems biology, and human microbiome sciences. To learn more, visit www.metabiomics.com. About Prescient Medicine Holdings Prescient Medicine Holdings, Inc. is a privately held company focused on developing diagnostic tools that advance the precision healthcare movement. Prescient Medicine's mission is to accelerate the development, commercialization and deployment of advanced clinical diagnostics to address the most pressing public health issues in the U.S. Prescient Medicine designs powerful tests and analytic solutions to offer deep predictive insights so doctors and patients have the data they need to make more informed clinical decisions and achieve the best possible patient outcomes. Prescient Medicine technologies include LifeKit Prevent designed to detect colon cancer and precancerous adenomas and LifeKit Predict, an in vitro diagnostic test commercialized in partnership with its subsidiary AutoGenomics, used for the identification of patients who may be at risk for opioid dependency. To learn more, visit www.prescientmedicine.com. SOURCE Prescient Medicine; Prescient Metabiomics Related Links http://www.prescientmedicine.com From Attorney General Maura Healey to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts public officials did not mince words Monday in their criticism of President Donald Trump for threatening to use military force to quell protests that have cropped up throughout the nation following the killing of George Floyd. Demonstrations have erupted across the United States after Floyds death on Memorial Day. The 46-year-old unarmed black man died after a white Minneapolis police officer pinned his knee on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes. The policeman, later identified as Derek Chauvin, has since been charged with murder and manslaughter. While many of the protests sparked by Floyds death have remained peaceful, clashes between officers and demonstrators as well as looting and vandalism have been reported. Some demonstrations have even turned deadly. In Boston, 53 people were arrested after three rallies Sunday. Although the protests were largely nonviolent, officials said multiple people threw sticks, fireworks and other objects at officers. Law enforcement hit some individuals with pepper ball projectiles, pepper spray and tear gas as well, WBUR reported. At a press conference Monday, Trump noted that for George and his family, justice will be served," but he spoke harshly about the violence reported at protests. In recent days, the nation has been ripped apart by mobs, arsonists, looters and others, the president told reporters. He will not have died in vein," Trump said of Floyd. We cannot allow the righteous cries and peaceful protesters to be drowned out by an angry mob. The president went on to claim without evidence that a number of state and local governments have failed to take necessary measures to safeguard their residents, noting that he would take immediate presidential action" to stop riots by mobilizing all available federal resources, civilian and military." Trump said he strongly recommended" that every governor in the U.S. deploy the National Guard in sufficient numbers so authorities can dominate the streets." "Mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled, the president said. If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military to quickly solve the problem for them. Democratic politicians in the commonwealth quickly condemned the presidents comments, calling him a coward," a tyrant" and a racist commander in chief." They argued that his words could incite violence and that there is no need for members of the military to take to the streets. U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, was one of the louder critics over social media. The congressman urged men and women in uniform to lay down their arms and join this new march for freedom" if Trump decides to abuse the military as a tyrant would do, to stifle dissent and freedom. We are a nation founded in dissent, birthed in freedom, committed to equality, and yet regularly reminded that we struggle to achieve all three. The President has made it clear that the fight for these Constitutional principles is a fight against himself, Moulton tweeted. We must therefore, with every ounce of conviction, every commitment to peace, and every glimmer of hope, join in lawful protest to overcome his tyranny. Be on the right side of history: the side of patriots, of our Constitution, of our flag, and of our freedom. Catherine Clark, a U.S. representative in the 5th District of Massachusetts, noted the presidents response to the countrys pain and plea for justice was to threaten citizens with violence. This is not a drill. Great nations do fall. We cannot be silent. We cannot rest until this coward is removed from office, she tweeted. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a long-vocal critic of Trumps, took to Twitter as well to express her disagreement, saying individuals will fight for justice for Black lives in America, even if our racist Commander in Chief tries to stand in the way. The President threatened to take over cities and towns with military force. Peaceful protesters were tear-gassed so he could get a photo-op, she tweeted, apparently referencing Trumps controversial decision to take photographs in front of a Washington, D.C. church amid protests in the nations capital. Peaceful protesters were forced by federal police to disperse to make way for the president. Though the gathering was legal and the demonstrators nonviolent, authorities used teargas, rubber bullets and flash-bangs on them without provocation, Washington, D.C. Mayo Muriel Bowser claimed. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey wrote in a statement Monday that she was deeply disturbed by the presidents actions, asserting there is no place for the United States military on the streets. At a time when we need empathy and unity, his rhetoric will only serve to divide people and inflame tensions, the Democratic prosecutor said. "Now is a time to come together, listen to one another, and do the hard work of building a more equitable Massachusetts. Related Content: Roland* was a first-year student when he joined the Buccaneers, a secret, illegal student society in Nigeria. A brutal initiation ritual was held late at night in the forest. Older members, singing, dancing and drinking, formed a ring around him and other blindfolded initiates, beating them severely until the early hours of the morning. The ritual was supposedly to purge the initiates of weaknesses and instil bravery in them. "The moment you go in there and come out, you are a different person," Roland told the BBC. These societies, also referred to as confraternities and campus cults, have names like Vikings, Black Axe, Eiye (a word in the local Yoruba language for bird), and the Buccaneers. They have a chain of command similar to militia groups, use code words and have insignia bearing the favourite weapon of the cult, along with its colour. Members are promised protection from rival gangs, but it is mostly about power and popularity. These secret societies are banned in Nigeria and hundreds of members have been arrested and prosecuted over the years. Nevertheless, they continue to operate, especially on university campuses, where they still attract new members. 'Fake news' about gangster attacks These cults have been accused of being behind serious violence, including killings, at universities across the country and sometimes harassing lecturers for good grades. In some cases, students are lured with promises of networking opportunities. Most societies now operate off campus as well, often with members who never went to university. They have increasingly resorted to crime. Read Full Story .... HERE >>> : Source: BBC Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI), a leading provider of mission critical decision support tools and services for the global investment community, announced today that Axel Kilian has been appointed to the role of Head of Client Coverage Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), effective June 1, 2020. Based in London, Mr. Kilian reports to Alvise Munari, Global Head of Client Coverage. In this role, Mr. Kilian will oversee MSCI's sales, client relationship management and client service teams across EMEA. He will also partner closely with global product and research teams across MSCI to implement strategies for enhanced client solutions and continued growth across the region. The EMEA Coverage leadership team will report directly to Mr. Kilian. "Axel's vast experience in global markets across different client segments and products, and his direct knowledge of the wealth management industry, will add tremendous value to our global coverage efforts at MSCI," said Alvise Munari, Global Head of Client Coverage."I am confident that Axel's experience and leadership will prove critical to MSCI's mission of delivering superior client service and the continued success of the EMEA region." "I am very excited to join an innovative and forward-thinking company like MSCI. In today's challenging markets with elevated volatility, it is critically important for investors, asset owners, wealth managers and banks to have access to tools that help them make better investment decisions and manage risk effectively. MSCI's leading product and research offering positions the company well to deliver an exceptional client experience today and in the future," said Mr. Kilian Mr. Kilian joins MSCI with over 25 years of financial services industry experience. Over the past decade and a half, he has held various senior client management roles at leading financial institutions including JPMorgan, Lehman Brothers, Nomura and UBS across the equity, derivatives and wealth segments. Prior to joining MSCI, Mr. Kilian served as Head of Ultra High Net Worth Clients for UBS in Germany and Austria, based in Frankfurt. He also held the role of Global Head Equity Derivatives Distribution and European Head Equity Distribution at UBS in London. Mr. Kilian holds an M.B.A. from University of Augsburg in Augsburg, Germany. About MSCI MSCI is a leading provider of critical decision support tools and services for the global investment community. With over 45 years of expertise in research, data and technology, we power better investment decisions by enabling clients to understand and analyze key drivers of risk and return and confidently build more effective portfolios. We create industry-leading research-enhanced solutions that clients use to gain insight into and improve transparency across the investment process. To learn more, please visit www.msci.com. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements relate to future events or to future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as "may," "could," "expect," "intend," "plan," "seek," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential" or "continue," or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are, in some cases, beyond MSCI's control and that could materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Other factors that could materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements can be found in MSCI's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") on February 22, 2019 and in quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K filed or furnished with the SEC. If any of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if MSCI's underlying assumptions prove to be incorrect, actual results may vary significantly from what MSCI projected. Any forward-looking statement in this press release reflects MSCI's current views with respect to future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to MSCI's operations, results of operations, growth strategy and liquidity. MSCI assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005129/en/ Contacts: Investor Inquiries Investor.relations@msci.com Salli Schwartz +1 212 804 5306 Media Inquiries PR@msci.com Sam Wang +1 212 804 5244 Melanie Blanco +1 212 981 1049 Rachel Lai +852 2844 9315 MSCI Global Client Service EMEA Client Service +44 20 7618.2222 Americas Client Service +1 888 588 4567 (toll free) Asia Pacific Client Service +852 2844 9333 Working under the umbrella of GVX, the council, says Grass Valley, will work to move media technology innovation forward in what it says is a mutually beneficial fashion, providing the industry with solutions that are perfectly matched with the increasing demands placed on content producers and distributors.Grass Valley believes that the development of GVX will ensure that market interaction is formally incorporated into GVs business DNA in what it calls a systematic, purposeful way. It will convene on a regular basis to discuss market conditions, technological advancements and other themes that impact both suppliers and buyers. Outcomes of these interactions are designed to provide a view of the current market landscape and the challenges that the industry is set to face in the future.Grass Valley adds that it will use the insights from this key group of influencers to inform and validate its product development strategy. The GVX Customer Council will initially include key influencers such as Dave Mazza from NBC Sports, Del Parks from Sinclair Broadcast Group, Helen Clifton from ABC Australia, Mauricio Felix from Globo, Ruba Ibrahim from Al Arabiya Network, Scott Rothenburg from NEP and Gordon Castle from Discovery Grass Valleys business and ethos relies on the relationships weve built over the past 60 years with the worlds leading broadcasters, content producers, rights holders and distributors, explained Grass Valley president Tim Shoulders.These relationships are critical to fully understanding the needs of the market, so we can develop the technology that our customers need in order to thrive. Formalising the interaction between our development teams and our customers through GVX is the perfect way for us to ensure we continue to drive advancements in technology and smart working models that will empower customers to build successful businesses for today and tomorrow. This initiative, along with other initiatives such as AIMS and the GV Tech Alliance , creates dynamic, collaborative relationships across the industry with customers, partners and standards bodies. These activities deliver benefits not only for Grass Valley and its customers, but for the industry as a whole. He is accused of "illegal border crossing." The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has confirmed a Ukrainian serviceman was detained close to the administrative border with Russia-occupied Crimea. He is accused of "illegal border crossing," Russia's information agency TASS reported. Read alsoUkrainian serviceman reportedly abducted near border with Russia-occupied Crimea The Russian side claims that he was drunk amid detention. According to the FSB, the detainee is Ye. Dobrynsky, born in 1992. As UNIAN reported earlier, a member of Ukraine's Armed Forces was reportedly abducted near the administrative border with Russia-occupied Crimea on May 30. Evidence of a fight with unidentified persons was found not far from his observation post, the Ukrainian military police reported. It became known later that he was remanded in custody on the occupied peninsula. Tiger King is a fascinating and unique look into the world of exotic pets. The titular figure, Joe Exotic, has been embraced as a hero or antihero by many of the shows fans. Conversely, Carole Baskin is often seen by Tiger King fans as something of a villain. Exotic and Baskin werent just rivals. Their legal affairs became hopelessly intertwined. Heres how Baskin came to own Exotics zoo. Carole Baskin | Netflix Carole Baskins lawsuit against Joe Exotic As fans of the show know, Exotic once owned Wynnewood, Oklahomas G.W. Exotic Animal Memorial Park. According to The Guardian, Baskin won a trademark infringement case against Exotic, who was using logos similar to those of Big Cat Rescue, a company founded by Baskin. Exotic was ordered to give Baskin $1 million. Prior to that, Exotic transferred ownership of his zoo to his mother, Shirley Schreibvogel. Deadline reports that, in a 2016 lawsuit, Baskin said Exotic transferred ownership of the property in an attempt to evade paying his creditors. Schreibvogel would admit, under oath, that Baskins assessment of the situation was correct. On June 1, 2020, an Oklahoma City judge ruled the transfer of the property was fraudulent. What will happen to the zoo and Tiger King Park Joe Exotic with a tiger | Netflix RELATED: Tiger King: Carole Baskin Fooled Into Interview by YouTube Comedy Duo Subsequently, Jeff Lowe, who currently controls the zoo, has 120 days to vacate the premises. He has to transfer all of the animals living there somewhere else. The ruling contains no instructions for how to do so. In addition, Lowe must transfer control of all portable buildings on the premises, as well as certain vehicles. He has to relinquish control of the title to the land as well. According to CNN, an attorney for Lowe said We anticipated Carol Baskin getting the title to the former park that once belonged to Joe Exotic, and we did not challenge her attempts to do so. All of Jeffs focus is on opening the new Tiger King Park in Thackerville, [Oklahoma], which should be opening in the next 120 days. Given Tiger Kings massive and dedicated fan base, it will be interesting to see if Tiger King Park will be a success. How this effects Jeff Lowe and Joe Exotic Jeff Lowe with a tiger | Ruaridh Connellan/BarcroftImages / Barcroft Media via Getty Images RELATED: Tiger King: Dillon Passage Said Joe Exotic Does Not Have a Son in New Interview TMZ reports Lowe and his wife, Lauren, responded to this news by saying they long anticipated that the judge would eventually undo the 2016 land transfer. We are thankful that he dragged out his decision this long and allowed us time to complete the new Tiger King Parkbehind the worlds largest casino. In addition, they referenced the rumor that Baskin murdered her husband and buried his remains, saying Considering [Carole] spent approximately 2.5M chasing her 1M judgment, we congratulate her on her new acquisition of 16 acres in rural OklahomaThe possibility of human remains being buried on this land should make her feel right at home. NBC News attempted to reach out to Baskin to see if she would comment on the matter. They were unable to reach her. TheWrap reports the ruling probably wont affect Exotic much, as he is now serving his 22-year prison sentence for attempting to get a hitman to kill Baskin. Also see: Tiger King: Miranda Lambert Says Why Joe Exotic Helped Her Once Middle-aged and older adults who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual have higher rates of using certain substances in the past year than those who identify as heterosexual, according to a new study led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research (CDUHR) at NYU School of Global Public Health. The study is published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. These findings are consistent with prior studies showing that LGBTQ adolescents and young adults are more likely to use a range of substances compared to their heterosexual counterparts. Such use may be attributed to minority stressors, including discrimination, oppression, and stigma. However, further research is needed into the likely complex causes of such disparities, including the roles that stigma, discrimination, and prejudice play in substance use, especially among older adults. "Our research confirms that a higher prevalence of substance use among lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults can continue into later life. Similar to LGBTQ adolescents and young adults, such prevalence may be related to stressors like discrimination and stigma based on sexual orientation in addition to stressors related to aging, including social isolation and age-related stigma," said Benjamin Han, MD, MPH, the study's lead author and an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine's Division of Geriatric Medicine and Palliative Care and the Department of Population Health at NYU Langone Health. The study used data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an annual survey of a representative sample of individuals in the United States, which asks questions about sexual identity, including if individuals identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual. Using surveys from 2015 through 2017, the researchers focused on data from adults ages 50 and older to determine their past-year use of cannabis, alcohol, cocaine, and methamphetamine, as well as non-medical use of prescription opioids, sedatives (such as sleep medications), stimulants, and tranquilizers (such as anti-anxiety medications, including benzodiazepines). Researchers then compared the prevalence of past-year substance use among adults in the cohort identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual to those identifying as heterosexual. The sample included 25,880 participants with 2.5 percent identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual. The researchers found that middle-aged and older adults identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual were more likely to use various substances studied than were heterosexual adults. Specifically, older sexual minority adults were more than twice as likely to use cannabis nonmedically (13.9 percent vs. 5.5 percent), twice as likely to use prescription tranquilizers nonmedically (3.6 percent vs. 1.1 percent), and more likely to use prescription opioids nonmedically (4.7 percent vs. 2.3 percent) than were older heterosexual adults. "These findings should inform prevention and harm reduction efforts in this community and should not be used to stigmatize such individuals. We hope that this new research, published during Pride Month, will remind people about the stressors many people still face in 2020 based on their sexual orientation," said CDUHR researcher Joseph Palamar, PhD, MPH, the study's senior author and an associate professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU Langone Health. "Even though times are changing and things have been getting better for the LGBTQ community, older individuals in this population may still be affected from past experiences of intolerance." Substance use adds complexity to caring for older adults, who are undergoing physical changes, are more likely to have chronic diseases, and may take more prescription medications as they age--which can interact with such substances and lead to adverse events. "These age-related changes place older adults at increased vulnerability to the harms of substance use," said Han, who is also a CDUHR researcher. "This is even more true for vulnerable populations who experience stigma, like those identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual, and may already experience a range of health disparities and have barriers to accessing health care." The researchers emphasize that the goal of this research is not to further stigmatize, but to draw attention to the needs of communities who have been underserved. They recommend the use of both patient-centered and public health approaches to prevent or reduce any potential harms associated with unhealthy substance use among older lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults. ### Mari Miyoshi of the University of Hawaii, an additional coauthor on the study, participated through NYU's Medical Student Training in Aging Research (MSTAR) Program funded by the National Institute on Aging (T35AG050998-01). This study was also funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Drug Abuse (K23DA043651 and K01DA038800). About CDUHR The mission of the Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research (CDUHR) is to end the HIV and HCV epidemics in drug using populations and their communities by conducting transdisciplinary research and disseminating its findings to inform programmatic, policy, and grass roots initiatives at the local, state, national, and global levels. CDUHR is a Core Center of Excellence funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Grant #P30 DA011041). It is the first center for the socio-behavioral study of substance use and HIV in the United States and is located at the NYU School of Global Public Health. For more information, visit http://www.cduhr.org. About NYU Langone Health NYU Langone Health is a world-class, patient-centered, integrated academic medical center, known for its excellence in clinical care, research, and education. Included in the 260+ locations throughout the New York area are six inpatient locations: Tisch Hospital, its flagship acute-care facility in Manhattan; Rusk Rehabilitation, ranked as one of the top 10 rehabilitation programs in the country; NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital, a dedicated inpatient orthopedic hospital in Manhattan with all musculoskeletal specialties ranked top 10 in the country; Hassenfeld Children's Hospital at NYU Langone, a comprehensive pediatric hospital, also in Manhattan, supporting a full array of children's health services; NYU Langone Hospital--Brooklyn, a full-service teaching hospital and level 1 trauma center located in Sunset Park, Brooklyn; and NYU Winthrop Hospital, a full-service teaching hospital and level 1 trauma center located in Nassau County on Long Island. Also part of NYU Langone Health is the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center, a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center; NYU Grossman School of Medicine, which since 1841 has trained thousands of physicians and scientists who have helped to shape the course of medical history; and NYU Long Island School of Medicine. For more information, go to nyulangone.org, and interact with us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. About NYU School of Global Public Health At the NYU School of Global Public Health (NYU GPH), we are preparing the next generation of public health pioneers with the critical thinking skills, acumen, and entrepreneurial approaches necessary to reinvent the public health paradigm. Devoted to employing a nontraditional, interdisciplinary model, NYU GPH aims to improve health worldwide through a unique blend of global public health studies, research, and practice. The School is located in the heart of New York City and extends to NYU's global network on six continents. Innovation is at the core of our ambitious approach, thinking and teaching. For more, visit: http://publichealth.nyu.edu/ Biren Bharucha, VP, Enterprise Sales I look forward to expanding the companys product suite, including its flagship product, Monarch and the new Matrix Sales Gateway, into more media industry segments to further accelerate the companys growth. Matrix, the only global ad sales platform built for media, announces the addition of industry-veteran Biren Bharucha to the Matrix team as VP, Enterprise Sales. In this new role, Bharucha will lead the companys business development efforts globally, extending their customer footprint into all media sectors. Additionally, Bharucha will help introduce the companys new Matrix Sales Gateway to market. The Matrix Sales Gateway, announced last year, is a sell-side dedicated platform, built with TIP compliant APIs that will support tech-enabled negotiations and fully automated workflows. Relying on his 20 years of media technology expertise and sales leadership, Bharucha will play a fundamental role in elevating Matrixs position in both existing and new markets. Matrixs media-specific global ad sales platform, Monarch, serves as a front-end hub, centrally positioned in the ad sales ecosystem, providing robust CRM, sales management, and analytics capabilities. The platform, leveraged by broadcast stations, networks, OTT, on-demand, and digital platforms, is built on an open API infrastructure to deliver users enhanced interoperability and automation. I am thrilled to have joined Matrix Solutions, as it is well positioned for success, shared Biren Bharucha, VP, Enterprise Sales, Matrix. I look forward to expanding the companys product suite, including its flagship product, Monarch and the new Matrix Sales Gateway, into more media industry segments to further accelerate the companys growth. Bharucha most recently served as the Senior Director, Media & Technology Services for Prime Focus Technologies. Prior to that, he was the Vice President, Affiliate Relations and New Business Development for YANGAROO where he was responsible for building and managing the companys broadcast footprint in the North American Television Market. Bharucha has also served as National Sales Manager for traffic software provider, VCI (acquired by Wide orbit in 2010) and served as Regional Sales Manager for digital distributor, Pathfire (acquired by DG Fastchannel, now under Extreme Reach, 2006). Bharucha attended Kennesaw State University for a Masters degree in Business Administration, International Business and a holds a Bachelors degree of Business Administration in Computer Information Systems, and Management from Georgia State University. The newly established VP, Enterprise Sales position at Matrix is key to continuing our companys growth trajectory and we are very excited to have Biren fill that role, given his extensive media technology background and sales leadership experience, shared Mark Gorman, CEO, Matrix. Additionally, he will help to accelerate future go-to-market initiatives that are already in development, such as the Matrix Sales Gateway. For more information on Matrix, visit matrixformedia.com. About Matrix Matrix makes media happen by enabling efficiencies and working to uncover revenue so media companies can create content, entertain, and inform. Its flagship product, Monarch, is the only global ad sales platform built for media transforming chaotic data into actionable sales information that delivers the insights necessary for prospecting, managing, evaluating and closing business. The company manages more than $13 billion in media ad revenue, offering its best-in-class analytics, sales intelligence, media-specific CRM and sales tools to more than 10,000 media sellers to more efficiently manage their workflow. For more information, please visit http://www.matrixformedia.com. Xinjiang 'fasting ban' sheer nonsense made up by overseas separatists: senior official Global Times By Liu Xin Source:Global Times Published: 2020/6/1 21:46:19 The so-called fasting ban during Ramadan is "sheer nonsense" and rumor, and was made up by "East Turkistan" forces abroad with the purpose of sowing discord among ethnic groups, disrupting ethnic relations and inciting ethnic antagonism, a senior official from Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region told a press conference on Monday. Some overseas separatists and anti-China organizations claimed that Xinjiang had banned Muslims from fasting during Ramadan. The World Uyghur Congress, a US-backed network that seeks the fall of the Chinese government, released a series of video clips alleging Uygurs in Xinjiang "are subject to persecution in Ramadan." Mehmut Wusman, director of the Xinjiang Regional Ethnic Affairs Commission, told a press conference on Monday that the fasting ban allegations were made by "East Turkistan" forces abroad and are sheer nonsense. Every Ramadan, they make and spread such rumors, which have been debunked, and only seek to attack Xinjiang. The so-called "persecution videos of Uygurs in the month of fasting" released by the WUC are nothing but a patchwork of falsehoods, intending to sow discord among our ethnic groups, disrupt the ethnic relationship and incite ethnic antagonism. The intentions they harbor are extremely vicious, Mehmut said. The official noted that Xinjiang fully implements the policy of freedom of religious belief. Religious believers and non-believers enjoy equal rights politically, economically, culturally and in social life. Believing or not believing in a religion is every citizen's independent choice. "Believers' legal religious activities either performed at religious venues or at home according to habitual practice, such as prayers, fasting, and religious festivities, are managed by religious groups or believers themselves and protected by law, allowing no interference by any organization or individual," he said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address KABUL -- Afghan officials say a bomb exploded at a mosque in the Afghan capital, killing two people, a day after seven civilians died in a roadside bombing in the country's north. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, which came amid a reduction in overall violence across much of Afghanistan since last-week's cease-fire between the Taliban and the government. Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said the bomb targeted the Wazir Akber Khan Mosque on June 2 as worshipers gathered for evening prayers. Arian said the mosque's imam, Mohammad Ayaz Niazi, was one of two people killed in the attack, which wounded at least two other people. The Taliban condemned the killing of the imam "in strong terms." The attack was also condemned by President Ashraf Ghani and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), which said those responsible should be held to account. The Islamic State extremist group has been active in Kabul in recent weeks and has in the past targeted mosques in Afghanistan. Reports initially said the attack was conducted by a suicide bomber. Kabuls Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood is home to embassies and government buildings. Earlier, officials said an explosion struck a small truck carrying a group of laborers late on June 1 in the volatile district of Khan Abad, in the northern Kunduz Province. Provincial spokesman Esmatullah Muradi said he suspected the Taliban. "The Taliban plants roadside bombs to target security forces, but their bombs usually kill civilians," Muradi said. Two of the six people wounded in the attack were in critical condition, said district chief Hayatullah Amiri. President Ashraf Ghani had welcomed the Taliban cease-fire declared to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr and authorities responded by announcing that they would accelerate the release of Taliban prisoners as a "goodwill gesture" before the launch of peace talks. Afghanistan's former chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, who has been appointed to lead the talks, said his team was ready to begin negotiations "at any moment." The United States and the Taliban signed an agreement in February aimed at ending the longest war in U.S. history that lays out a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in return for security commitments from the Taliban. The deal, of which the Afghan government was not a signatory, also stipulates that Kabul nevertheless must free 5,000 Taliban prisoners, while the militants are to release 1,000 captives. Afghan authorities have so far released around 2,700 Taliban militants while the militant group has freed some 400 government captives. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has been pushing for intra-Afghan peace talks to begin, held a video conference with top officials in Kabul including Ghani and his top deputy, Amrullah Saleh. Ghani's office said in a statement that Saleh highlighted the importance of the ongoing drop in violence and the need for the cease-fire to hold. The two sides discussed the future steps needed to bring peace in Afghanistan, the statement said, adding that the release of Taliban prisoners and the venue for the intra-Afghan peace talks were also tackled. U.S. Support In Washington, U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said he was optimistic that the Taliban and Afghan government will begin peace talks, adding that U.S. troops could be pulled out ahead of schedule if all goes well. Khalilzad said on June 1 that there'd been a lot of progress as the Afghan government speeds up the release of prisoners. "We are in a good place," Khalilzad said, adding that levels of violence in Afghanistan have remained relatively low since the Eid al-Fitr cease-fire. "We are optimistic that finally we're moving forward to the start of the intra-Afghan negotiations." Speaking to reporters in Washington, Khalilzad did not set a date and cautioned that "still more needs to be done" on freeing prisoners. Under the February agreement, the United States will pull troops out of Afghanistan by mid-2021 in exchange for the insurgents' commitments to keep out Al-Qaeda and other foreign extremists. U.S. officials have said that troops already are returning home and the withdrawal is ahead of schedule. The United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and toppled the Taliban regime, saying it had provided a safe haven to Al-Qaeda, which carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks. With reporting by AFP, AP, Reuters, and dpa A shop owner exits his damaged store in the aftermath of widespread unrest following the death of George Floyd in Philadelphia, Pa., on June 1, 2020. (Mark Makela/Getty Images) Burglar Fatally Shot by Philadelphia Gun Store Owner A veteran gun store owner from Philadelphia fatally shot a burglar in the head after he tried to break into his store early on Tuesday, police said. The shooting happened at Firing Line Inc., a gun store located in the Pennsport section of the city. The owner of the business spotted three or four burglars while monitoring his surveillance cameras, Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small told FOX29. The burglars reportedly used bolt cutters to cut the lock on the front gate of the store. A pair of cutters was later found by detectives, Small confirmed. Once the shop owner saw that the burglars managed to breach his shop by breaking his window, he shot one of them in the head after the burglar pointed his firearm towards the shop owner, police said. The store owner fired his own weaponstriking the one perpetrator at least one time in the head and he collapsed, dropping his gun between his legs, Small said. Firing Line Inc, a gun store located in the Pennsport section of southern Philadelphia. (Google View) A semi-automatic handgun was recovered by detectives near the man. Philadelphia emergency medical responders pronounced the burglar dead at the scene. He was reportedly a male in his 20s. The other two or three burglars quickly ran from the scene following the shooting. Nothing was taken from the store and the owner was not injured, police said. The owner said he had remained inside his store overnight for the last few days, as there was another incident with a burglar attempting to break in. Investigators said the surveillance video will assist police in the investigation, and the gun store owner is currently cooperating with detectives. Store owners in South Philadelphia have been protecting their businesses from potential looters, who have spread across the city in the past few days. Across the United States, numerous lootings and property destruction have been reported following the death of George Floyd, an African American man who died on May 25 after a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on his neck for nearly 9 minutes during an arrest. People loot a store during demonstrations over the death of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, in New York on June 1, 2020. (Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images) What was meant to be peaceful nationwide protests to honor Floyd have turned out violent and chaotic. The former officer and suspect in the case, Derek Chauvin, was arrested last week. He has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Chauvin was held at Ramsey County Jail before being taken to the Hennepin County Jail on Sunday. From NTD News CNBC.com's MacKenzie Sigalos brings you the day's top business news headlines, and what to watch as the coronavirus pandemic continues to keep most of America on lockdown. On today's show, CNBC's Elizabeth Schulze explains why stocks keep rising even as unrest over George Floyd's death continues to rock American citiesduring a global pandemic no less. And CNBC's Julia Boorstin breaks down the internal backlash at Facebook against Mark Zuckerberg's policy toward President Donald Trump. Here's what you missed today: Zuckerberg stands firm in refusal to moderate Trump despite employee walkouts and resignations Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday told employees he was standing firm in the company's decision not to moderate a post in which President Trump said "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." Zuckerberg announced this to employees during a virtual all-hands meeting on Tuesday, according to the New York Times. The decision comes despite public criticism from dozens of employees, many of whom argue that the post from Trump violates Facebook's community standards, which prohibit language that incites serious violence. Why stocks could keep going higher even with massive unrest across America The great rotation continues, with some of the most down-trodden names leading the market higher: industrials, airlines, financial institutions, and energy companies. Powerful monetary and fiscal stimulus programs are keeping stocks aloft, as investors continue to shift funds to parts of the market they believe will be helped by economic reopenings. So far, the market has not reacted to the violent protests that erupted all across the U.S. after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis resulted in charges of third-degree murder against a police officer. Across the U.S., there has been looting on city streets and buildings have been destroyed, yet the stock market has ignored it. SpaceX launch was 'smoother' than space shuttle, NASA astronauts say When I was a student at the University of Illinois, the various left-wing groups formed an umbrella organization called the Radical Union. They hung posters of Marx, Lenin, and Mao on their office walls. Their emblem was a phoenix rising from the ashes, symbolizing their desire to burn America to the ground and build their utopia upon the ruins. This remains the core of left-wing thought today and goes far beyond cheering on rioters and looters who set parts of cities ablaze in the name of social justice. Rampage is not revolution. The larger assault has been on display throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Their hope has been that the self-inflicted policy wounds triggered by media-driven panic would do so much damage to society and economy that they could seize power and impose their ideology on a reeling people. The goal is not to recover or rebuild from the calamity, but to institute the permanent shutdown of advanced civilization to preserve their simplistic values. The New Republic, once the respected forum for responsible liberalism, is a perfect example of the ascendency of extremist thought across the entire left wing of the spectrum. They have even come to call one of their weekly summaries Apocalypse Soon. TNR has featured a variety of articles that play off the pandemic from The Pandemic Is the Right Time to Defund the Police to arguing that with major universities closed, small, private liberal arts colleges can now compete online to reach civically engaged citizens of the world. A detailed plan for the future was Rebuilding an Economy that Works Again by Dean Baker, a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and a visiting professor at University of Utah. The hopeful title is, however, a typical left-wing fiction as the argument would purposely cripple the economy and send American living standards backwards by generations. Bakers assault on the modern world is explicit in his diatribe against technology and his policy proposals to hinder its future development. In a passage heightened by TNRs editors, he asserts It is mind-boggling that our outmoded and regressive system of intellectual property protection has not featured more prominently in debates about inequality. To Baker, technology has been a major factor, if not the major factor, in the rise of inequality if anyone could freely copy Windows and other Microsoft software, Bill Gates would probably still be working for a living. Perhaps, but he probably wouldnt be designing software, because under Bakers system, there would be no money in it. Incentive is a bad word to Baker, and a system that runs on it is illegitimate. Yet, the real nature of incentive is to create something people want. Money is made only when consumers willingly exchange it for a good or service being offered. The market represents peoples free choices, but that freedom is anathema to leftist totalitarians who wish to impose their subjective preferences upon everyone else. In an earlier TNR column, Baker argued against letting anyone profit from finding a vaccine to combat COVID-19. People should not be rewarded for hard work and innovation, or for providing others with even the most awesome benefits. This theme was expounded upon by Kate Arnoff, a TNR staff writer, who alleged that intellectual property is a deadly obsession. Baker favors publicly funded open source studies. Researchers can still be well compensated for their work, but they may find it more difficult to accumulate vast fortunes. Government policy will determine who gains from technology. In a leftist regime, only researchers in a few politically correct fields will be compensated. The relatively high pay for people in STEM fields depends on IP protection, which will be denied to dubiously productive sectors in favor of greener stretches of the economy. Bakers rapid shift to the emergency of climate change includes praise for China because it has more solar panels and electric cars than the U.S. Yet, he fails to mention it remains the worlds largest source of pollution and carbon emissions. Anyone who has visited China knows there is no comparison between its cities and American cities when it comes to air quality. Beijings official stand is that it will not halt increases in emissions until 2030 because the aim is not just to alleviate poverty, but to fulfill President Xi Jinpings goal of a comprehensive well-off society by the end of this year with further growth thereafter. Not surprising is Bakers attack on the China policy of President Donald Trump. He thinks the U.S. should negotiate access to Chinese technology because Beijings efforts will almost inevitably bring more useful technological breakthroughs to bear within a regime of clean-energy collaboration. The U.S. should welcome dependence on a rising China (which Baker seems to think has already surpassed us and which does not bother him), as already evident in Chinas control of supply-chains for medicine, raw earth minerals and electronics. No mention of COVID-19 as a product of Chinese science transmitted around the world. At home, Baker favors carbon taxes and disincentives to drive cars (such as taxes on driving in cities during the day), and he hints at even more aggressive policies to alter individual behavior away from wanting to improve living standards in the face of a degenerative Green New Deal. Meanwhile, in another TNR article, Doug Gordon hopes that while American Cities Are Built for Cars. The Coronavirus Could Change That. Gordon is a TV writer who also pens a blog on urban biking. J. C. Pan, a TNR staff writer, has embraced what the results will be of the policies favored by Baker and his ilk in an article that envisions mass employment as the new norm. We need anti-poverty measures that treat wide-scale joblessness as a starting point, not as a temporary problem that will naturally resolve itself. Given that the economy was booming with the lowest level of unemployment in fifty years before the unwarranted COVID-19 panic, the Left is counting heavily on disrupting any recovery. They want to keep activity at an eco-friendly low level, using welfare to replace work, and forcing people to accept the inevitable shortages of goods. To them, affluence is dangerous. Inequality will not be redressed by redistribution within a growing economy (share the wealth), but by leveling within a depressed economy (share the poverty). The old emblem of a phoenix rising from the ashes should no longer be accepted as an accurate description of leftist aspirations. The ashes remain, but nothing in the current leftist agenda will fly. A mole would be a better mascot, burrowing under the ashes to avoid the light of day. Moles construct their own habitats just as ideologues construct their own small worlds within which to live. Like moles, they cannot see anything outside their limited domain. Their faculty lounges are akin to mole dens from which the vermin tunnel out from time to time on quests that leave only destruction in their wake. Surface dwellers seeking to improve or at least conserve their lot consider them pests and seek to banish them. The mole is thus the perfect symbol for the Left in our current crisis. William R. Hawkins is a consultant specializing in international economic and national security issues. Quirke Dental Surgeons in New Ross has been recognised with a WhatClinic Patient Service Award 2019, based on patient service excellence ratings from healthcare search engine WhatClinic. WhatClinic analysed 12 months of data from users of its website, including patient review scores, feedback data and communication rates of listed clinics. In 2019, over 5 million people visited WhatClinic's medical search directory to find and compare clinics, including Quirke Dental. Quirke Dental Surgeons was only one of a small number of clinics on the website that met the high standards needed to qualify for the award. To receive the Patient Service Award 2019, the clinic should have a consistently high ServiceScore rating, which measures the clinic's commitment to patient care over a whole year, and also receive exceptional feedback and reviews from potential and existing patients. Dr Ursula Quirke said: 'This award represents a long-term dedication of our entire team and focus on creating positive patient experiences throughout their treatment journey. We are delighted to be recognised for our commitment to customer service. As a practice, it is something we focus on in everything we do and to receive such positive feedback from our patients is great.' This award follows recent nominations for Colgate Caring Dentist of the Year and Colgate Dental Team of the Year in 2019, as well as Dental team of the Year and Dentist of the Year nominations in the Irish Health and Beauty awards in 2018. The practice was shortlisted for Sensodyne Sensitive Dentist of the Year in 2016 and was also awarded the WhatClinic Service award in 2017. Hong Kongs leader blasted the US for double standards in the way it handles protests after the Trump administration vocally supported sometimes-violent demonstrations in the Asian financial hub. Look at how the local governments handle chaos in the US and what stance they took on a similar level of chaos in Hong Kong last year, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said at a weekly news briefing Tuesday. They are highly concerned about their national security, while holding different standards for our country, especially over Hong Kongs situation. Lams government is facing renewed anti-government protests as Chinas plan to enact sweeping national security legislation over the city fuels public anger. President Donald Trump vowed to revoke some of the citys special trading privileges and impose sanctions against Chinese and Hong Kong officials directly or indirectly involved in eroding the citys autonomy. The US, which has passed bipartisan legislation backing Hong Kongs pro-democracy camp, now finds itself engulfed by widespread unrest of its own, triggered by the death of African-American man George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis. Also read: Police fire rubber bullets, tear gas to disperse peaceful protest near White House Lams backers in Beijing have seized the opportunity to needle the Trump administration over the protests in recent days, with Chinese propaganda outlets showing scenes from the US of burning buildings, harsh police responses and demonstrators decrying the government. China Trolls US Over Protests After Trump Criticized Hong Kong Lam on Tuesday addressed the possibility of US sanctions, saying there was no justification whatsoever for any foreign governments to level them on Hong Kong. For the time being, I have not seen or heard any details from the US administration, she said. My stance is to point out to the American government, and any other governments if that arises, is that they will be hurting their own interests in Hong Kong, she added. Vigil Banned Earlier this week, Hong Kongs police for the first time banned people from gathering June 4 to commemorate the 1989 crackdown on activists in Beijings Tiananmen Square, a day that has typically been a flashpoint for protests. In anticipation of the order, the organizer said Sunday that it planned to conduct the event online. June 4 coincides with the final day that the Hong Kong government is enforcing social-distancing rules -- unless there are any extensions -- that bar gatherings of more than eight people. Officials have denied that the Tiananmen vigil had anything to do with the timing of the rules. Lam said Hong Kong was cautious about further relaxing coronavirus-related social distancing measures after the discovery of a cluster of new virus cases spread within the community, and that it would make announcements on the issue as soon as possible, without giving further details. The city has seen relative success in containing the spread of the pandemic, and has slowly returned to a sense of normalcy in recent weeks. But as parts of the world begin reopening after virus-induced closures, Lam cautioned that governments shouldnt take measures that would further undermine the global economy. For the first time in Turkey, Honeywell has supported channel partner MNG Jet in installing Honeywells JetWave satellite communications hardware on MNG Jets Bombardier Challenger 605. This satellite communications installation enables high-speed cabin wi-fi, via Inmarsats Jet ConneX service, for a better passenger connectivity experience. Additionally, it provides pilots with a better internet connection to support flight planning and management. MNG Jet is committed to delivering a high-quality and reliable service to its customers, said Can Sasmaz, General Manager, MNG Jet. We understand that in-flight connectivity is of paramount importance to both passengers and operators. We selected Honeywells JetWave to provide our customers with an exceptional connectivity one that offers passengers consistent, high-speed wireless connectivity, virtually anywhere in the world. Honeywells JetWave hardware enables a connection to the fastest broadband available in business aviation. Whether working in the air, staying close to family and friends on social media, or streaming their favourite video series, passengers will benefit from reliable connectivity at speeds like those found at home. This is enabled by the CNX-900, one of the most advanced routing software application suites offered today. Honeywell is renowned for its superior connectivity solutions, such as our JetWave hardware, said Serdar Cetingul, leader for Turkey and Central Eastern Europe, Honeywell Aerospace. Following this successful installation, we look forward to seeing more business jet operators in Turkey reaping the rewards of high-speed, reliable in-flight connectivity. We have a long history working with MNG Jet as one of our channel partners, and its ability to provide similar future installations of JetWave in Turkey will reduce the need for aircraft operators to travel long distances to upgrade their aircraft. As a Honeywell channel partner, MNG Jet can offer business jet operators in Turkey a local base to install JetWave, in addition to other Honeywell services to support operators in the market. MNG Jet offers operators line maintenance across select Honeywell auxiliary power units, engines and access to the latest retrofit, upgrades and modifications. To ensure local operators have the in-market support required, they can enroll in the Honeywell Maintenance Service Plan, an umbrella of services for business aviation. - TradeArabia News Service Demonstrations over the death of George Floyd continued across the nation on Sunday as activists and lawmakers hit the cable news circuit to react to the past week's events. The latest: Both acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and Attorney General Bill Barr said on Sunday they don't believe there is "systemic racism" among law enforcement in the U.S. Meanwhile, calls by activists to "defund the police" are growing louder as largely peaceful protests continue for yet another week. Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza told NBC on Sunday that defunding the police is not about eliminating police departments, but about reinvesting funds toward "the resources that our communities need." What's happening: President Trump on Sunday ordered the National Guard out of Washington, D.C., after tens of thousands of protesters marched over the weekend in what was likely the largest set of demonstrations yet. The presence of federal law enforcement appeared to have been greatly reduced in recent days, and the protests were largely peaceful. The impact: Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he's "very concerned" about the protests that have followed George Floyd's death resulting in a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases across the U.S. The bottom line: Almost two weeks of nationwide protest in the U.S. has built pressure for states to make changes on what kind of force law enforcement can use on civilians and prompted officials to review police conduct. Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout. Go deeper: The National Peoples Congress (NPC), Chinas top legislature, recently adopted the Decision on Establishing and Improving the Legal System and Enforcement Mechanisms for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) to Safeguard National Security. The Decision is a manifestation of exercising and safeguarding national sovereignty, and conforms to the international law and convention. However, the rightful and just move was maliciously vilified by some US and Western politicians who claimed that Hong Kong no longer has a high degree of autonomy. On one hand, they pretend to care for Hong Kong residents; on the other hand, they are threatening to impose sanctions on the region. Their absurd practices mirrored bold-faced hegemonism and exposed their unlimited double standards. National security legislation is a state legislative power in all countries, unitary and federal alike. The central government of a country bears the greatest and ultimate responsibility for national security of all local administrative regions. This is a basic theory and principle of national sovereignty, as well as a common practice in all countries of the world. As the national security situation in Hong Kong has become increasingly severe and it was difficult for the HKSAR government itself to independently advance legislation on national security, it is both necessary and urgent for the NPC and its standing committee to improve the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the HKSAR to safeguard national security. The move is unquestionably legitimate. In other words, the adoption of the Decision doesnt violate the one country, two systems principle or sabotage the high degree of autonomy of the HKSAR. On the contrary, the Decision firmly safeguards the principle and ensures that it is moving toward the right direction. No country will allow the practices and activities endangering national security on its own territory, such as splitting the country. Over the years, the US and other Western countries have adopted numerous laws to safeguard their national security. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, the US government passed the Patriot Act, the Homeland Security Act and the CLOUD Act and has applied them to a large number of cases in judicial practices. According to the US law, whoever organizes or encourages the overthrow or destruction of the US government by force or violence shall be imprisoned 20 years at most, and traitors may face a minimum sentence of five years and even death penalty. In the country, police officers have the right to search phone, e-mail, medical, financial and other records of homegrown terrorists. In addition, the PRISM surveillance program exposed in 2013 showed the world how crazy the US is in protecting its so-called national security. Some politicians in the US and the West are practicing double standards on national security issues. On the one hand, they have built an extremely strict national security legal system covering legislation, law enforcement, prosecution, trial, and prisoner rehabilitation programs; on the other hand, they spare no effort to instigate and support practices and activities that endanger the national security of other countries, pointing fingers at other countries legal and justified national security legislation. They have tried their best to create an iron wall of national security of their own, but are attempting to create loopholes on the national security network of China. This fully exposes their true purpose of suppressing and curbing Chinas development, as well as their cold-blood motives to play the Hong Kong card. The double standards of some politicians in the US and the West are nothing new to the Chinese people, including the compatriots in Hong Kong. After the turbulence over proposed anti-extradition bill amendments last June, the external forces labeled violent criminals as democratic warriors, but turned a blind eye to the greatest human right and will of the people stopping violence and restoring order. They connived at and beautified pro-violence remarks, but arbitrarily silenced the voices of justice calling for truth and the rule of law. To put it bluntly, under the guise of their seemingly noble excuse is deep-rooted hegemonic acts and logic. Some American politicians, represented by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, carried out illegal surveillance programs around the world, but smeared other countries for launching cyber attacks on the US. They arbitrarily interfered in other countries internal affairs, but in turn vilified the latter for attempting to interfere in American elections. They are heavily engaged in trade protectionism, but in turn accuse other countries of undermining free trade. What defines their standard is power is truth They place their private interests before everything. The affairs of the HKSAR are Chinas internal affairs, and China will not allow any external force to interfere with Hong Kong affairs. The US and Western politicians obsessed with hegemonism had better abandon their double standards. The Chinese people do not believe in fallacies, but they are not afraid of them; they do not make trouble, but they are not afraid of it. No country should entertain the fantasy that China will barter away its core national interests or allow its sovereignty, security, and development interests to be infringed upon. Uday Kotak; $11.3 billion The Regents of the University of California, a US-based endowment fund, has emerged as the top buyer in the mega Rs 6,900-crore block deal launched by banker Uday Kotak to reduce his stake in Kotak Mahindra Bank to 26 percent and comply with a settlement agreement struck with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). A total of 2.83 percent promoter stake was sold as part of the block deals at a price of Rs 1,240 a share. The markets cheered the move as the Kotak Mahindra stock ended up 7.5 percent at the end of trade on June 2. The Regents invest in select stocks in select markets with a very long term horizon, said a source familiar with the stake sale process. The Regents of the University of California currently manages a portfolio of investments totalling roughly $120 billion, which includes retirement, endowment, and cash assets. According to block deal data disclosed on the stock exchanges, the second highest buyer of shares was Oppenheimer Developing Markets Fund, part of the US-based investment management company, the Invesco Oppenheimer Group. Other marquee investors include JP Morgan Securities, Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund, SBI Mutual Fund, Canadian pension fund CPPIB, Singapores GIC, T Rowe Price, the Fidelity group and Aberdeen Asset Management. Kotak Securities, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were the merchant bankers who worked on the promoter share sale. Execution of the promoter stake sale means that Kotak Mahindra Bank has raised more than Rs 14,000 crore in the last two weeks. Last week, the bank raised at least Rs 7,442.5 crore via a qualified institutional placement (QIP), which brought down Kotaks stake to 28.93 percent. The largest subscribers to the QIP were Invesco Oppenheimer Developing Markets Fund, which was allotted 8.02 percent of the total issue size, Canadian pension fund CPPIB (7.12 percent) and ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund (6.3 percent) On February 18, RBI had granted Kotak Mahindra Bank a six-month timeline to reduce promoter shareholding to 26 percent. At the end of March, the promoter stake in the bank stood at 29.92 percent. Earlier, the bank had dragged RBI to court over differences relating to the promoter dilution diktat, but later withdrew its petition after burying the hatchet with the regulator. San Francisco Mayor London Breed, left, urges the public to stay home. (City of San Francisco) Hundreds of protesters gathered Monday on front of the steps of San Francisco City Hall, demanding consequences and repercussions for the police who killed George Floyd. The protest, organized by a group that fights for local victims of police shootings called Wealth and Disparities in the Black Community, was unlike the grass-roots marches that took over the citys streets on Saturday and Sunday, during which residents joined together to demand justice for Floyd. Flanked by images of Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin and Floyd, along with signs that read Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied, San Francisco Mayor London Breed and the Police Chief William Scott joined organizers to address protesters and pledged to change the way black people are treated by the police in the city. Im the mayor but Im a black woman first, Breed said. I am angry. I am hurt. I am frustrated. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. I dont want one more black man to die at the hands of law enforcement. Thats what this movement is about. Not one more. Breeds speech comes just a day after she set an 8 p.m. curfew for the city in response to looting that took place after a peaceful protest Saturday. The curfew remains in effect. There are people "who are using these movement as a way to push violence, to go after other black people to push us down, Breed said. We will not tolerate that. Dont get it twisted. The organizers including social activist Felicia Jones and the Rev. Amos Brown, president of the San Francisco chapter of the NAACP applauded Breed and joined her in calling for peaceful protests. I did not want this protest" to end in violence, Jones said. We are here to mourn, we are here to listen to music because music soothes our soul and to let you know social justice is real." But some of those who spoke alongside Jones and Breed said peaceful protests alone arent always effective in creating change. Story continues History shows us that there can be nonviolent protest but there has to be people in the streets," civil rights attorney Adante Pointer said. Whether you're looking at the Boston Tea Party, you're looking at Harpers Ferry, there were clashes that took place that sparked the change, the revolution, the progression of this country, Pointer told The Times. For us to ignore that is not to be honest with ourselves as it relates to what it takes to wrestle inequality, justice and power from those who will do everything they can to keep it from us. After several speakers led the crowd in chants for consequences and repercussions for police officers and Black Lives Matter, Jones introduced Chief Scott and asked the crowd to treat him with respect. As your police chief, we know that too many black men are being killed at the hands of police, Scott said. When I pull off this uniform, I am a black man. His words were met with scattered applause and jeers from some protesters. One called London a joke. Organizers began chanting peace to quiet the shouts. Soon after, a woman named Kia Hapoy began questioning Scott. I understand youre a black man, but as the chief of police what are you going to do to make a difference? Hapoy yelled. The San Francisco Police Department is not a perfect department, we have our faults, Scott responded. But Ill tell you this, we are committed to change. Thats why I was brought here and thats what I came here to do. There are many other people in the Police Department that are committed to change. Hapoy, a Sacramento resident, told The Times his response wasnt enough: She wants to see action and have the department commit to a zero tolerance policy for racism. Youre a black man in a police uniform in a high-ranking place, Hapoy said. Youre in a perfect position to do something. Other speakers also called for action, both from regulators and from those who showed up to protest. Im tired of the same mantra and the same narrative, county Supervisor Shamann Walton said. So unless we begin to prosecute and incarcerate law enforcement for killing innocent black lives, we will continue to rise up. After leading the crowd in a kneel-in in honor of Floyd, actor Jamie Foxx called on his friends and other celebrities to take action. What I want to say about my Hollywood friends, youve got to get out here, Foxx said. Youve got to come out here, you cant sit back, you cant tweet, you cant text, youve got to get out here. When youre here and you see how people are hurting, you can understand, he said. Rep. Kim Young-jin, right, of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, submits documents to the National Assembly Secretariat, Tuesday, to request holding the opening session of the 21st Assembly, Friday, despite protests from the main opposition United Future Party. Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-geun By Jung Da-min The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is seeking to "unilaterally" hold the opening session of the 21st National Assembly on Friday despite resistance from the main opposition United Future Party (UFP), which says negotiations between the parties over how to form standing committees should come first. The DPK, in alliance with the minor Justice Party and the Open Minjoo Party, submitted a request to convene an extraordinary session to the National Assembly Secretariat's office, Tuesday. According to the National Assembly Act, such a request should be submitted three days before the proposed session. Under the act, the 21st Assembly should hold its opening session on Friday, one week since its commencement on May 30. The DPK request has come amid a tug of war between the DPK and the UFP over how to allocate the 18 committee head positions, with both parties laying claim to the head positions of two key committees for legislative activities for major policies the Legislation and Judiciary Committee and the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts. DPK floor leader Rep. Kim Tae-nyeon said the submission of the request was the first step toward a "hard-working National Assembly" for which all parties have agreed to cooperate, because any delay to the opening will mar the pledge from the very beginning of the new four-year Assembly. "Holding the opening session on the date designated by law can never be the subject of negotiations," Kim said during a party meeting at the Assembly. Referring to previous assemblies in decades where the opening date had not been met due to similar conflicts on committee selections, Kim said, "The bad practices in the past in which not abiding by the law was called cooperation and negotiating outside the law was regarded as politics should be put to an end. I call on the UFP to join the move toward a hard-working National Assembly without conditions, leaving the bad practices of the past behind." According to the law, the Assembly is required to elect the speaker and deputy speakers in the opening session. The DPK is planning to elect its six-term lawmaker Park Byeong-seug as the speaker and four-term lawmaker Kim Sang-hee as one of the two deputy speakers allocated for the ruling bloc. The remaining deputy speaker post allocated for the main opposition will be reserved for the UFP's Rep. Chung Jin-suk, but it is uncertain if the votes for Chung will be conducted at the opening session if the UFP boycotts it. Under the act, the 21st Assembly also has to complete the process of dividing 300 lawmakers into 18 committees and electing heads of each committee by June 8, within three days of the opening session, if held as the DPK is pushing for. The UFP is demanding the selection of committee heads should come before the opening session, citing the act that also stipulates the speaker can unilaterally divide lawmakers into committees if the parties do not submit a list of committee members within two days after the first plenary session is held. UFP floor leader Rep. Joo Ho-young strongly condemned the DPK's move to "unilaterally" hold the opening session, comparing it to a dictatorship. "All dictatorial governments have claimed they followed the law. They made laws for their advantage and interpreted them as they wish to maintain dictatorial governance," Joo said in a party meeting. "The DPK won't get the UFP's cooperation in the future if it holds the opening session on Friday without the UFP's agreement, selects the speaker and pushes ahead with committee organization and extra budget passage unilaterally." Photo: The Canadian Press Firefighters and Spanish civil guards at the scene of an accident after a high-speed passenger train hit a car on a track in La Hiniesta, northwest Spain, Tuesday, June 2, 2020. Two people were killed when a high-speed passenger train with more than 150 people on board hit a car on the tracks in northwest Spain on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Emilio Fraile) Two people were killed when a high-speed passenger train with more than 150 people on board hit a car on the tracks in northwest Spain on Tuesday. Emergency services said the locomotive derailed but not the train's carriages, and most of the passengers climbed out uninjured. Five people were reported to be slightly injured. The car's driver and a train engineer were killed, emergency services said. The four-wheel-drive car fell off a bridge and landed on the train line in the Castille and Leon region, local emergency services said in a statement. In this episode, Los Angeles-based culture editor-at-large Michael Idato speaks with national editor Tory Maguire about the riots in Los Angeles over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody. Floyd was suspected of committing a non-violent offence. They also speak about the newly imposed curfews which prevent residents of Los Angeles from leaving their homes without due cause. It turns out our listeners like the shorter, daily format, so we will continue Please Explain as a daily podcast beyond the coronavirus pandemic. Our supporters power our newsrooms and are critical for the sustainability of news coverage. Becoming a subscriber also gets you exclusive behind-the-scenes content and invitations to special events. Click on the links to subscribe to The Age or The Sydney Morning Herald. With a focus on autonomous technology and health safety, Michigan has awarded grants to five companies to develop systems for a post-COVID-19 future. PlanetM , the states mobility initiative and a division of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, awarded more than $280,000 to efforts to accelerate the development of autonomous deliveries, cleaning, and safety partitions to protect workers in transportation vehicles.Early research indicates that COVID-19 will have a significant impact on the future of transportation, including the need to rethink, or pivot, existing business models, designs and guidelines to protect consumers and operators alike, said Charlie Tyson, technology activation manager at PlanetM.Some 98 companies applied for the round of grant funding, with grants awarded to five companies, specially structured to respond to the pandemic crisis.PlanetM transitioned its existing Pilot Grant funds and program to the COVID-19 Mobility Solutions Grant, to provide funding to companies developing and deploying mobility solutions that address the crucial challenges presented by the virus within the state of Michigan, Tyson explained in an email.Part of the criteria was that mobility solutions must fall within one of the following categories: limit human interaction, expand no-touch technologies, deliver food and supplies, and integrate virus detection and prevention measures e.g. safeguarding transit.Penske Vehicle Services (PVS) and RCO Engineering were awarded $28,000 each to take part in a pilot project to develop safety partitions for transit vehicles to shield drivers from riders.Also, the company Pratt Miller was awarded $50,000 to deploy its Large area autonomous Disinfecting robotic vehicle (LaaD) at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids. The robot will roam the terminal spraying disinfectant around the boarding gate areas via its multi-head electrostatic sprayer array, said Christopher Andrews, director of mobility and innovation at Pratt Miller, based in New Hudson, Mich.The LaaD vehicle has been put to defense uses and, while the needs of the defense and commercial markets are different, there are many learnings that can be applied cross market, said Andrews.In this post COVID-19 world it has become evident that disinfecting and decontamination of areas including airports, hotels, workplaces, sporting arenas, and other areas will need to provide a new level of sanitary and environmental confidence to make citizens feel safe, he added.Another company, Gatik, based in Palo Alto, Calif., was awarded $100,000 to deploy autonomous delivery vehicles to travel fixed routes throughout Grand Rapids and Rochester.The key to Gatiks success involves optimizing xed, predetermined routes, such as those used along the supply chains 'middle mile,' countless times each day, said Richard Steiner, head of policy and communications at Gatik.The company, which has been working with Walmart since July 2019, aims to address middle mile short-haul, business-to-business deliveries to support the growing e-commerce industry.As a result of COVID-19, Gatiks solution has never been more important, said Steiner. Retailers are grappling with major logistics challenges and a dramatic rise in online orders.GHSP was awarded $80,000 to put into practice its mobile ultra-violet light system to detect when riders are in a shared vehicle, and then disinfect high-touch surfaces, and the air, following their exit, in an effort to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 and other highly communicable diseases.The technology will be installed into an autonomous shuttle fleet in Grand Rapids, with the pilot project possibly launching other similar efforts in other parts of the state or transportation systems.With the challenges our world is currently facing with the COVID-19 pandemic, were very pleased that were able to bring this technology to the market at this time, said Tom Rizzi, CEO of GHSP, in a statement. Helping improve the safety of the emergency service and public safety providers that expose themselves every day to help others was a big driver in getting this product developed and this technology will also create new engineering and manufacturing jobs in our Michigan economy. NEW YORK, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Alger Management, Ltd. (together with its affiliates, "Alger") is pleased to announce the availability of four Alger SICAV sub-funds denominated in Great British Pounds ("GBP") for investors in the U.K. The Alger American Asset Growth Fund, Alger Weatherbie Specialized Growth Fund, Alger Emerging Markets Fund, and Alger Dynamic Opportunities Fund will be available in Class G shares, which are denominated in GBP, on 1 July 2020. All of Alger's portfolios are supported by an analyst-driven investment process, which is built on original, bottom-up, fundamental research to find high-conviction ideas. "Alger has provided asset management capabilities in the United Kingdom and Europe for over two decades and opened our London-based office in 2014," said Jim Tambone, Executive Vice President and Chief Distribution Officer at Alger. "We currently manage more than $1.3 billion in assets for our international clients and we are happy to provide expanded investment options for our clients in the U.K." The Alger American Asset Growth Fund primarily invests in U.S. large cap stocks and is managed by Patrick Kelly, CFA, and Dr. Ankur Crawford. The Alger Weatherbie Specialized Growth Fund primarily invests in U.S. small and mid cap stocks. The sub-fund is managed by three experienced portfolio managers at Weatherbie Capital, LLC ("Weatherbie Capital"), including Matt Weatherbie, CFA, George Dai, Ph.D., and Josh Bennett, CFA. The Alger Dynamic Opportunities Fund is a long/short hedged equity fund that invests primarily in U.S.-domiciled companies. Investors can access two premier growth equity managers-Alger and Weatherbie Capital-through its multi-manager approach. The portfolio management team includes Alger CEO and Chief Investment Officer Dan Chung, CFA. Finally, the Alger Emerging Markets Fund is managed by Greg Jones, CFA, and Pragna Shere, CFA, and invests primarily in a focused portfolio of fewer than 50 growth equity securities across a broad array of emerging market countries. "We continue to receive interest in our actively managed funds from U.K. investors, so we are pleased that we can now offer a GBP-denominated option," said Robert Gourlay, SVP and Head of European Sales for Alger. "We believe we are able to better serve our investor clients in the U.K with this new share class offering." Alger SICAV, a Luxembourg UCITS vehicle, makes the funds available to non-U.S. investors in U.S. dollar, euro, and Great British Pounds-denominated classes. About Alger Founded in 1964, Alger is widely recognized as a pioneer of growth-style investment management. Headquartered in New York City with affiliate offices in Boston and London, Alger provides U.S. and non-U.S. institutional investors and financial advisors access to a suite of growth equity separate accounts, mutual funds, and privately offered investment vehicles. The firm's investment philosophy, discovering companies undergoing Positive Dynamic Change, has been in place for over 50 years. Weatherbie Capital, LLC, a Boston-based investment adviser specializing in small and mid-cap growth equity investing is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alger. For more information, please visit www.alger.com. Important Disclosures: This document is directed at investment professionals and qualified investors (as defined by MiFID/FCA regulations). It is for information purposes only and has been prepared and is made available for the benefit of the investors. This document does not constitute an offer or solicitation to any person in any jurisdiction in which it is not authorised or permitted, or to anyone who would be an unlawful recipient, and is only intended for use by original recipients and addressees. The original recipient is solely responsible for any actions in further distributing this document and should be satisfied in doing so that there is no breach of local legislation or regulation. This document is not for distribution in the United States. Any opinions expressed herein are those at the date this material is issued and may not represent the views of all portfolio management teams. Data, models and other statistics are sourced from our own records, unless otherwise stated herein. We caution that the value of investments and the income derived, may fluctuate and it is possible that an investor may incur losses, including a loss of the principal invested. Investors should ensure that they fully understand the risks associated with investing and should consider their own investment objectives and risk tolerance levels. Do not take unnecessary risk. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Investors whose reference currency differs from that in which the underlying assets are invested may be subject to exchange rate movements that alter the value of their investments. Certain products may be subject to restrictions with regard to certain persons or in certain countries under national regulations applicable to such persons or countries. NOTABLY, THIS MATERIAL IS EXCLUSIVELY INTENDED FOR PERSONS WHO ARE NOT U.S. PERSONS, AS SUCH TERM IS DEFINED IN REGULATIONS OF THE U.S. SECURITIES ACT OF 1933, AS AMENDED AND WHO ARE NOT PHYSICALLY PRESENT IN THE UNITED STATES. No shares in the Alger SICAV or its sub-funds may be offered or sold to U.S. persons or in jurisdictions where such offering or sale is prohibited. The Alger SICAV is authorized by the Luxembourg Supervisory Authority as a UCITS and has only been authorized for public distribution in certain jurisdictions. See the country specific disclosures below for information regarding the Funds registration and the availability of the prospectus containing all necessary information about the product, the costs and the risks which may occur. Risk Disclosures: Each Fund is exposed to several types of risks. Please read the Fund's Key Investor Information Document ("KIID") and the prospectus for more information. Investing in the stock market involves gains and losses and may not be suitable for all investors. Growth stocks tend to be more volatile than other stocks as their prices tend to be higher in relation to their companies' earnings and may be more sensitive to market, political, and economic developments. A significant portion of assets will be invested in technology and healthcare companies, which may be significantly affected by competition, innovation, regulation, and product obsolescence, and may be more volatile than the securities of other companies. Assets may be invested in Financial Derivatives Instruments (FDIs) such as Total Return Swaps (TRS) or options, which involve risks including possible counterparty default, illiquidity, and the risk of losses greater than if they had not been used. Short exposure (gained through TRS) could increase market exposure, magnifying losses and increasing volatility. Active trading may increase transaction costs, brokerage commissions, and taxes, which can lower the return on investment. Investing in companies of small and medium capitalizations involve the risk that such issuers may have limited product lines or financial resources, lack management depth, or have limited liquidity. Assets may be focused in a small number of holdings, making them susceptible to risks associated with a single economic, political or regulatory event than a more diversified portfolio. Foreign securities involve special risks including currency fluctuations, less liquidity, inefficient trading, political instability, and increased volatility. Foreign securities and Emerging Markets involve special risks including currency fluctuations, less liquidity, inefficient trading, political instability, and increased volatility. Important Information for All Investors: Alger Management, Ltd. (company house number 8634056, domiciled at 78 Brook Street, London W1K 5EF, UK) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, for the distribution of regulated financial products and services. Fred Alger Management, LLC ("FAM") and/or Weatherbie Capital, LLC, U.S. registered investment advisors, serve as sub-portfolio manager to financial products distributed by Alger Management, Ltd. Alger Group Holdings, LLC (parent company of FAM), is not an authorized person for the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 of the United Kingdom ("FSMA") and this material has not been approved by an authorized person for the purposes of Section 21(2)(b) of the FSMA. CONTACTS: Prosek Partners Georgia Brown +447784305812 gbrown@prosek.com Posted on: June 2, 2020 8:10 PM Church leaders demand racial justice following death of man at hands of US police Anglicans across the world have spoken out to demand racial justice following the death of another black man at the hands of the police, that sparked a week of protests. George Floyd, 46, died last Monday (25 May) while being arrested by police. One police officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on Mr Floyds neck for eight minutes and continued to do so despite being told that he couldnt breathe. Three other police officers stood watching and ignored pleas from a watching crowd of members of the public to intervene. The incident was videoed by a witness using a mobile phone and widely shared on social media. All four police officers have been fired, and Mr Chauvin will appear in court next week charged with murder. The violent killing of Mr Floyd sparked outrage across the world and led to protests across America some of them violent. In several states, heavily-armed militarised police have fired at protestors with rubber bullets and tear gas, and have also targeted journalists with the same weapons. One reporter with the CNN television network was arrested as he reported live from the scene of one protest. His production crew were also arrested. They were later freed after the Governor said that the arrests were wrong. Elsewhere, journalists from Germany and Russia report being hit by rubber bullets; and one Australian journalist was thumped in the face by a policeman as officers stormed through a peaceful protest in a park near the White House the official residence of the Presidents of the USA. The policing operation to clear the park was to provide a route for President Donald Trump to visit St Johns Church in Lafayette Square, an Episcopal church which had suffered minor damage in a fire. He posed in front of the building holding a Bible in the air, in a move which has been criticised by many church leaders, including the Presiding Bishop of the US-based Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, who said that President Trump had used a church and the Holy Bible for political purposes. This was done in a time of deep hurt and pain in our country, and his action did nothing to help us or to heal us, Bishop Michael said. The bible teaches us that God is love. Jesus of Nazareth taught, You shall love your neighbour as yourself. The prophet Micah taught that the Lord requires us to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God. The Bible the President held up and the church that he stood in front of represent the values of love, of justice, of compassion, and of a way to heal our hurts. We need our President, and all who hold office, to be moral leaders who help us to be a people and nation living these values. For the sake of George Floyd, for all who have wrongly suffered, and for the sake of us all, we need leaders to help us to be one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all. The Bishop of Washington, Mariann Budde, said that President Trump had just used a Bible and a church of my diocese as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and everything that our church stands for. To do so, he sanctioned the use of tear gas by police officers in riot gear to clear the church yard. The President did not come to pray; he did not lament the death of George Floyd or acknowledge the collective agony of people of colour in our nation. He did not attempt to heal or bring calm to our troubled land. The Bible teaches us to love God and our neighbour; that all people are beloved children of God; that we are to do justice and love kindness. The President used our sacred text as a symbol of division. We are followers of Jesus. In no way do we support the Presidents incendiary response to a wounded, grieving nation. We stand with those seeking justice for the death of George Floyd through the sacred act of peaceful protest. Speaking of the fire at the Church, Bishop Mariann thanked well-wishers, before adding: A building can be rebuilt. The deeper wounds of our nation remain our focus. The Rector of St Johns, Rob Fisher, said in a statement with Wardens Paul Barkett and Jeff Hanston, that the fire was small. Thankfully, it appears to have been contained to the nursery, they said, though, as you might imagine there is smoke and water damage to other areas of the basement. Were very happy to report that the rest of the church and parish house is untouched except for some exterior graffiti, which the citys graffiti team has already covered up. Fire investigators are still working, but once they are done, we have a crew standing by to secure the buildings. Elsewhere, church leaders around the world have responded to the ongoing crisis. In England, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, Justin Welby and John Sentamu, issued a joint statement this evening (Tuesday) in which they said that recent events had once again drawn public attention to the ongoing evil of white supremacy. They said: systemic racism continues to cause incalculable harm across the world. Our hearts weep for the suffering caused for those who have lost their lives, those who have experienced persecution, those who live in fear. Gods justice and love for all creation demands that this evil is properly confronted and tackled. Let us be clear: racism is an affront to God. It is born out of ignorance, and must be eradicated. We all bear the responsibility and must play our part to eliminate this scourge on humanity. As Dr Martin Luther King Jr said, In a real sense, we are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Therefore, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We pray that Gods abounding wisdom, compassion and love will guide leaders across the world to forge a better society. The Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba, said that many South Africans had been shocked by the murder of George Floyd at the hands of the police. George Floyd's killing flies in the face of the solidarity evident in the world's response to the pandemic, he said, adding: we condemn the brutal treatment he was subjected to. As we heard those words of desperation, I cannot breathe, we mourned for the loss of all life at this time, through violence everywhere and in the COVID-19 pandemic. May Mr Floyd rest in peace. Pope Francis takes part in Church of Englands video-based service for Pentecost Sunday History was made on Sunday when Pope Francis took part in the Church of Englands video-based service for Pentecost Sunday. The Pope was among a number of Christian leaders from other denominations who took part in the service, which was themed around the Thy Kingdom Come global wave of prayer. In the service, Pope Francis began his message to dear brothers and sisters by saying: with joy I join Archbishop Justin Welby and all of you to share some thoughts from the heart. He spoke of the Holy Spirit as bringing new and previously unknown hope, peace and joy, saying: At Pentecost God infected the world with life. How different this is from the contagion of death that has ravaged the earth for months now! Today, more than ever,it is necessary to implore the Holy Spirit to pour forth into our hearts the life of God, who is love. Indeed, if there is to be a better future, our hearts must change for the better. Pope Francis also spoke of this journey that we are making together, saying: How greatly I desire that, as Christians, we can be more deeply united as witnesses of mercy for the human family so severely tested in these days. Let us ask the Spirit for the gift of unity, for only if we live as brothers and sisters can we spread the spirit of fraternity. We cannot ask others to be united if we ourselves take different paths. So let us pray for one another; let us each feel responsible for the other. . . Dear brothers and sisters, you are proclaiming the Gospel message of life and you are a sign of hope. I thank you from my heart. I ask God to bless you and I ask you to pray that he bless me. Thank you. You can read a full transcript of Pope Francis message here, and watch the whole service on the Church of Englands YouTube channel here. Bishop survives serious bout of Covid-19 after 18 days on life support Bishop Tim Wambunya of the Diocese of Butere in the Anglican Church of Kenya has returned home from hospital after recovering from Covid-19. Bishop Tim spent 18 days on a life support machine after falling ill with the virus following a trip to the UK. Speaking to journalist Enock Sikolia from Kenya Citizen TV News, Bishop Tim said he was semi-conscious when he was transferred to intensive care unit (ICU) of the Aga Khan hospital. I had lost most of my faculties. I got there and as soon as the doctors saw me all I heard was ICU straight away. They took me to ICU and at that point, I think I blacked out. Over the following two weeks doctors and nurses battled to save him as his body grew increasingly week, until, on the 16th day of treatment, he began to respond. They gently brought me back but I wasnt able to eat or drink, Bishop Tim said in the television interview. I was very, very thirsty. I asked for water and they said I couldnt have water. One of the nurses, God bless her, gave me 5 millilitres of water in a syringe as a way of quenching my thirst. Bishop Tim will spend a further 40 days in hospital as medics work to improve and heal his damaged lungs. Anglican academic promoted at Virginia Theological Seminary The Director of the Centre for Anglican Communion Studies at the US-based Virginia Theological Seminary, Dr Robert Heaney, has been promoted to Professor of Theology and Mission. Dr Melody Knowles, Vice President of Academic Affairs at VTS said that move came about as the result of the unanimous recommendation of the faculty, which was confirmed by the Board of Trustees. Professor Heaney is a member of the Lambeth Conference Design Group. In his role as Director of the Centre for Anglican Communion Studies, he has worked to define and clarify the centres purpose as promoting and practicing better community for the Communion, Dr Knowles said. He is an engaging and academically rigorous teacher and a colleague who can be trusted upon to speak with honesty and wisdom. Robert now takes his place as a senior member of the VTS faculty, and we congratulate him and look forward to his future accomplishments. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Democratic leaders have condemned the use of tear gas against protesters ahead of President Donald Trump's visit to St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C.'s Lafayette Square. 'Tonight the President of the United States used the American military to shoot peaceful protesters with rubber bullets & tear gas them. For a photo op,' Hillary Clinton wrote on Twitter, referring to a police attack on a crowd of protesters outside Lafayette Square, near the White House. 'This is a horrifying use of presidential power against our own citizens, & has no place anywhere, let alone in America. Vote,' the former Secretary of State tweeted. Trump's likely rival in the upcoming election, Joe Biden said the President is using the American military against the American people. 'He tear-gassed peaceful protesters and fired rubber bullets. For a photo,' said the former Vice President. 'For our children, for the very soul of our country, we must defeat him. But I mean it when I say this: we can only do it together.' 'The President of the United States tear-gassed peaceful protesters in order to clear the way for a useless photo-op outside the White House-just after vowing to activate the military against our own people,' said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. 'Lives and our democracy are in danger.' Trump, accompanied by his daughter and White House adviser Ivanka Trump, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Attorney General Bill Barr, posed for a photo holding a Bible in front of the church. Protesters reportedly set the church on fire during demonstrations Sunday night protesting the death of George Floyd in police custody. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de Parents sue school over online study fees in HCM City Around 100 parents in Ho Chi Minh City are preparing to sue a local school over online study fees. Parents gather at the Vietnam Australia International School to ask for a meeting with the school's leaders about online study fees The parents have sought for help from Duc Kien Minh Law Company to sue the Vietnam Australia International Education Corporation which is running the Vietnam Australia International School (VAS) for collecting unreasonable online study fees during the school closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the parents, the school deducted 30 percent of the study fees during the online studying period without parents' consent. The parents rejected the school's increasing to 10 classes a day for students at secondary and high school levels. They want the school to return the fee. Anh Dung who has two children studying at VAS said that during the school closure, VAS announced that they would take 30 percent of study fee in the third term for online classes. However, the school would extend the fourth term until July 15, which means the fees have risen by 140-160 percent. "The school decided everything on their own without discussions with parents," Dung said. "Many parents wanted a meeting with the school's leaders to negotiate a reasonable online study fee but the school did not reply." Many parents whose children study at pre-school level said that they had paid study fees for the whole school year but then were not returned the money during the school closure. Lawyer Pham Thi Bach Tuyet said that the requirements of the parents were quite reasonable. Earlier, the parents had gathered at the school several times to ask for a meeting with the school's leaders but were refused. They had sought for help from the local Department of Education and Training and were told that private schools would have to negotiate with parents on the fees. Several other international schools in Vietnam have also been complained for charging high online study fees during the closure time for virus prevention including The American School, the Australian International School, and the Vietnam Finland International School. With the aim to boost the Kingdoms aquaculture, Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) has developed a fish farm at its Calciner and Marine Plant in Sitra in collaboration with the Bahrain National Guard Consumer Association. Albas fish farm is in response to His Majesty King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Royal Directives to develop strategic projects for the National Production of food as well as achieve food security. This project is also in line with the companys commitment to Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) in particular the Environmental Biodiversity and enriching the ecological system around Albas operations, Alba said in a statement. Commenting on this occasion, Albas Chief Executive Officer Ali Al Baqali said: Aquaculture is a leading method to grow food sustainably. As an island, Bahrain is home to a variety of marine life; Fish Farming is the most natural and sustainable approach to protect biodiversity and maintain environmental balance. With the successful set-up of the Fish Farm, Alba has demonstrated that its Calciner & Marine operations are safe and favourable for aquaculture. The proceeds from this Project will be spent on Albas various CSR initiatives in the local community. We also take the opportunity to thank Bahrain National Guard Consumer Association for their extensive experience and guidance in developing Albas Fish Farm Project. The full-functional Alba fish farm Pilot project consists of two fish farming cages submerged next to Albas Calciner & Marine jetty wherein one cage cultures more than 5,000 of a well-known local fish type - Sabiti (Sparidentex) and the other one holds more than 10,000 Sea Bream type. The proceeds from this project will be spent on Albas various CSR initiatives in the local community, the statement said. Major General Shaikh Abdul Aziz Bin Saud Al Khalifa, Chief of Staff, National Guard Bahrain added: Implemented in cooperation with the Bahrain National Guard Consumer Association, Albas Fish Farm Project supports the Kingdom of Bahrains pioneering efforts in enhancing food security and marine sustainability. We look forward to more similar projects developed in the Kingdom of Bahrain.TradeArabia News Service David Jones is set to shut Australian stores and sell $1billion in property assets under a plan being backed by the majority shareholder of the retailer's parent company. Investment management company Allan Gray bought a 20 per cent stake in the parent company of David Jones, South Africa-based Woolworths Holdings, in May. Allan Gray portfolio manager and director Duncan Artus told the Sydney Morning Herald that the investment was a good move - but mainly for their South African operations and not the department store. 'Woolworths paid $2.1 billion for David Jones which has turned out to be a very poor acquisition given the pressure department stores find themselves under globally and the tough Australian economy,' Mr Artus said. Model and David Jones Ambassador Victoria Lee and former David Jones CEO Ian Moir pose for a photograph during a media call to unveil the Ground Floor of David Jones Elizabeth Street Flagship store in Sydney, Tuesday, December 10, 2019 He said Woolworths Holdings strengths were its South Africa based food businesses and the Country Road brand. The company announced on Wednesday it would be making significant changes to the presence of David Jones in Australia, including shutting some stores and selling property assets, in an effort to turn the business around. David Jones currently has 48 stores across the country but Woolworths plans on shrinking the retailers floor spaces by 20 per cent by closing unprofitable stores and shrinking others. They will also sell about $1billion in property assets to reduce the stores debt and concentrate efforts on flagship Melbourne and Sydney stores. The move is in stark contrast to Woolworths' original plan to create 'one of the biggest retailers in the southern hemisphere' when it bought David Jones in 2014. However, profits for the store have been consistently dropping in recent years thanks to the rise of online shopping and international department stores entering the Australian market. The company's profits dropped from more than $100million in 2014 to $37million last financial year. Former Levi's chief Roy Bagnattini was brought in recently as the new Woolworths Holdings CEO and solidified plans to streamline the David Jones business. 'We agree with this course of action. Once the effects of the lockdowns and pandemic have subsided we will have a far clearer idea of the success of the interventions,' Mr Artus said. David Jones main rival Myer has also announced plans to streamline their store footprint by reducing about 120,000sq m of floor space - with lease discussion being fast-tracked during the coronavirus lockdowns. Lea Michele criticized by Glee co-stars Emmy-nominated actress Lea Michele is being criticized by her Glee co-stars after posting a Black Lives Matter tweet in support of protesters against police brutality after the death of George Floyd. George Floyd did not deserve this. This was not an isolated incident and it must end. #BlackLivesMatter, Michele tweeted on Saturday. Remember when you made my first television gig a living hell?!?! Cause Ill never forget. I believe you told everyone that if you had the opportunity you would s--- in my wig! amongst other traumatic microaggressions that made me question a career in Hollywood, Samantha Ware responded Monday on Twitter in all caps. Co-star Alex Newell said those capital letters felt like claps and Amber Riley shared memes appearing to support Ware. Michele was a main cast member for all six seasons of the Fox musical drama from 2009 to 2015; Riley appeared on 93 of the shows 121 episodes; Ware appeared on 11 episodes in season 6 and Newell appeared on 39 episodes from seasons 3 through 6. TooFab reports Michele was previously criticized in 2016 by another cast member, Naya Rivera, who said Michele made life on set difficult and didnt say a word to me for all of Season 6." Michele has not responded to the tweets from Ware, Newell and Riley. LMAO REMEMBER WHEN YOU MADE MY FIRST TELEVISON GIG A LIVING HELL?!?! CAUSE ILL NEVER FORGET. I BELIEVE YOU TOLD EVERYONE THAT IF TOU HAD THE OPPORTUNITY YOU WOULD SHIT IN MY WIG! AMONGST OTHER TRAUMATIC MICROAGRESSIONS THAT MADE ME QUESTION A CAREER IN HOLLYWOOD... https://t.co/RkcaMBmtDA SAMEYAAAAAA (@Sammie_Ware) June 2, 2020 Felt like claps!! Alex Newell (@thealexnewell) June 2, 2020 MORE BUZZ: The Misfits drummer Joey Image dies at 63 after cancer battle ( DM Mission: Impossible 7 planning to shoot in September ( Variety Avatar 2 to resume filming after 14-day quarantine in New Zealand ( SF The Weeknd donates $500,000 to Black Lives Matter causes ( ET Music industry holds blackout Tuesday, but what does it mean? ( RS Tony Awards postponed due to George Floyd protests ( BB Spike Lee releases short film 3 Brothers featuring George Floyd ( SF Cole Sprouse arrested in protests against police brutality ( ET George Clooney calls racism our pandemic in essay ( E! Jane Fonda talks Black Lives Matter, ending white privilege ( RS 911 cast criticize Ryan Guzmans defense of racial slurs, stereotypes ( ET Stormtroopers enforce social distancing at Disney Springs ( SF Lord of the Rings cast reunites, raises $80K for charity ( ET Buzz is a daily roundup of entertainment news from movies, TV, music and celebrity gossip. Cause of death revealed for Twilight actor Gregory Tyree Boyce, 30, and his girlfriend https://t.co/e8UgldyaKp Geoff Herbert (@deafgeoff) June 2, 2020 A 425-million-year-old fossil millipede from Scotland is the oldest-known bug (an insect, arachnid or other related creature), according to new research published in the journal Historical Biology. Named Kampecaris obanensis, the prehistoric millipede lived during the Silurian period, about 425 million years ago. The ancient creature was a small (2-3 cm in length), short-bodied animal with three recognizable sections. It likely lived near a lake in a semi-arid forested environment and ate decomposing plants. Its fossilized remains were unearthed on the island of Kerrera in the Scottish Inner Hebrides. The specimen is about 75 million years younger than the age other paleontologists have estimated the oldest millipede to be using a technique known as molecular clock dating. The oldest fossil of a land-dwelling, stemmed plant, Cooksonia, has the same age as Kampecaris obanensis and is also from Scotland. Although its certainly possible there are older fossils of both bugs and plants, the fact they havent been found even in deposits known for preserving delicate fossils from this era could indicate that the ancient millipede and plant fossils that have already been discovered are the oldest specimens, said Dr. Michael Brookfield, a researcher in the Department of Geological Sciences at the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Massachusetts Boston. If thats the case, it also means both bugs and plants evolved much more rapidly than the timeline indicated by the molecular clock. Bountiful bug deposits have been dated to just 20 million years later than the fossils. And by 40 million years later, theres evidence of thriving forest communities filled with spiders, insects and tall trees. Who is right, us or them? Were setting up testable hypotheses and this is where we are at in the research right now, said Dr. Elizabeth Catlos, also from the Department of Geological Sciences at the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin. Its a big jump from these tiny guys to very complex forest communities, and in the scheme of things, it didnt take that long, Dr. Brookfield said. It seems to be a rapid radiation of evolution from these mountain valleys, down to the lowlands, and then worldwide after that. _____ M.E. Brookfield et al. Myriapod divergence times differ between molecular clock and fossil evidence: U/Pb zircon ages of the earliest fossil millipede-bearing sediments and their significance. Historical Biology, published online May 13, 2020; doi: 10.1080/08912963.2020.1761351 [June 02, 2020] QuadPay and Zip Co (ASX: Z1P) forge $1bn+ fintech alliance, accelerating North American and global expansion High-growth, US-based payment installment platform, QuadPay, has partnered with Australian publicly traded buy now, pay later (BNPL) pioneer, Zip Co (ASX:Z1P), to create a $1bn+ global payments company. The deal will continue to significantly grow the North American BNPL market and expands the group's reach to more than 3.5 million customers and 26,000 merchant partners worldwide. It is backed up with $130m of capital, via convertible notes and warrants issued to prominent growth investor, Heights Capital Management, an affiliate of the US-based Susquehanna International Group (SIG), which will be used to accelerate domestic and global expansion. SIG has also made investments in Bytedance (parent company of Tik Tok), Credit Karma and Fundera. Founded in 2017, QuadPay was an early entrant into the US BNPL market and has since seen rapid growth, with customer numbers increasing by 33% in the last quarter alone. QuadPay's 1.5m customers are able to pay in installments across more than 3,500 integrated merchants, including leading brands like Fashion Nova, Ugg, HYPEBEAST and For Love & Lemons. US market ready for credit disruption The market opportunity for BNPL in the US is one of the largest in the world and the deal positions QuadPay strongly to seize this opportunity. While BNPL is still in its infancy in America, the move to alternative payments is expected to be rapid, mirroring growth in other parts of the world. Lockdown restrictions brought about by COVID-19 have further accelerated the growth of BNPL as shopping migrates online. By 2023, BNPL is expected to account for 17 percent of the global commerce market. Accelerated (News - Alert) growth and development Trading as a public company enables the combined entity to access capital markets quickly and efficiently to support QuadPay's ever-growing merchant base and transaction volumes, while providing further opportunity for: International expansion - post completion, the Group will have operations across the globe in five countries (US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa). It will have combined annualized GMV (News - Alert) of $2.0b, revenue of $167m, 3.5m customers and over 26k merchants. post completion, the Group will have operations across the globe in five countries (US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa). It will have combined annualized GMV (News - Alert) of $2.0b, revenue of $167m, 3.5m customers and over 26k merchants. Accelerated product development - QuadPay was amongst the first BNPLs to leverage virtual-card technology in partnership with Stripe, demonstrating a strong culture of innovation. The additional funding will allow it to materially scale its product and engineering capability to further its lead in product and technology, benefiting merchants and consumers. Focus on driving incremental merchant revenue QuadPay has a unique and differentiated model within the US BNPL market, offering merchants the most seamless and simple integration online and in-store, as well as a direct-to-consumer payment installment product through its market-leading app. The combined force of QuadPay and Zip and additional resources announced today will provide a wealth of new opportunites for merchants, driving the uptake of new customers and expanding the US BNPL market. Merchants that already accept Visa can offer QuadPay at the physical point-of-sale instantly and at scale, without needing to write a single line of code or modify their POS systems. Its online virtual checkout technology enables eCommerce websites to add QuadPay in a few lines of front-end code without requiring any API integrations or modifications to financial settlement, reconciliation or refunds processes. So, whether merchants are online-only, have one store, or one thousand, they can deploy QuadPay and see results quicker than with any other BNPL solution. QuadPay merchants are experiencing an uplift of up to 25% in conversion rates and between 20% and 60% lift in average order value almost overnight. Forty percent of consumers say they are more likely to complete a transaction if BNPL is offered at checkout. BNPL to become as ubiquitous as "free shipping" Supported by Stripe's issuing infrastructure, QuadPay also pioneered the ability for consumers to shop and pay in four installments anywhere Visa is accepted, online or in-store. The app's virtual card technology enables debt-conscious consumers to buy now, pay later across millions of merchants, like Nike, Michael Kors, Walmart and more. QuadPay's consumer-centric approach to innovation has resulted in strong customer advocacy (4.8 App Store rating) for its market-leading app, which has had more than 1.2 million downloads. While QuadPay has some of the highest customer approval rates in the US market, it is firmly committed to responsible lending. Both QuadPay and Zip have financial responsibility in their DNA. Proprietary credit assessment processes and algorithms, underpinned by multi-factor ID verification have driven strong and continually improving credit performance, even during the recent economic period. QuadPay Co-CEO and Co-Founder, Adam Ezra said: "Consumers are increasingly avoiding credit cards and gravitating to flexible BNPL options instead. Installment payment options are transparent, convenient, and give consumers greater control over their finances - they'll soon become an expected component of the online shopping experience, as common as free shipping. We're incredibly excited to be riding the wave of change and offering a product that is friendlier to the consumer than high-interest-bearing credit cards and digitized versions of traditional credit. We look forward to continuing the reinvention of payments for consumers and retailers in partnership with Zip." Brad Lindenberg, QuadPay Co-CEO and Co-Founder, said: "We are to our competitors what Stripe was to PayPal (News - Alert). While there are already some big names in the market, QuadPay is by far the most technically advanced. Our technology means that merchants as large as Target (News - Alert) or Walmart could roll out QuadPay online in a couple of days. No other installment provider offers this speed of integration and becoming part of the Zip family will provide QuadPay with access to public capital markets to support our ever growing merchant base and transaction volumes." The combined company will employ more than 400 people in five locations across the US, Australia, United Kingdom, New Zealand and South Africa. Both QuadPay founders remain with the business, and are focused on driving growth in North America, scaling a business that unifies both companies' cultural values. Zip CEO and Managing Director, Larry Diamond said: "Adam and Brad are proven entrepreneurs with a great product and high-growth business, so it's great to welcome them and the QuadPay team to the Zip family. Together, we are united in a shared vision of disrupting the outdated credit card sector with digital, fairer alternatives. QuadPay's market-leading virtual card offering was one of the first to launch in its category, and the company has an unrivalled track record on customer innovation and delivering an exceptional experience for merchants. We look forward to the exciting road ahead." About the QuadPay founders: Adam Ezra's background is in consumer retail, finance, debt and marketing. He has co-founded multiple businesses, including Fashionata, an apparel group specializing in the building of proprietary apparel brands and the distribution of leading global lingerie and outerwear brands in Australia and New Zealand. Ezra also has experience in private equity, investment banking and corporate advisory, through both Illyria and Macquarie Group. Brad Lindenberg is a seasoned technology entrepreneur with multiple successful exits in the payments, eCommerce and media sectors. These include CalReply, the world's leading mobile calendar marketing platform with over 4 million users worldwide, which was acquired by ROKT (a $100 million revenue digital referral marketing company) in 2017. About QuadPay Launched in 2017 by founders Brad Lindenberg and Adam Ezra and headquartered in New York City, QuadPay is a leading, high-growth U.S. installment provider that is disrupting the traditional credit card industry. QuadPay's mission is to give savvy shoppers more freedom and flexibility with the option to pay in four interest-free installments over six weeks. Driven by a strong focus on innovation and customer-centricity, the company has developed a market-leading app with 1.2 million downloads and was among the first in the US market to launch virtual card technology. This enables seamless integration for merchants while allowing its 1.5 million customers to shop online and in-store, not just with QuadPay's 3,500 integrated merchants, but with leading global retailers. For more information, visit: www.quadpay.com. About Zip ASX-listed Zip Co Limited (Z1P: ASX) or ("Zip") is a leading player in the digital retail finance and payments industry. The company offers point-of-sale credit and digital payment services to the retail, home, health, automotive and travel industries. Zip has operations across Australia, New Zealand, the USA and United Kingdom, with associates in South Africa. Zip also owns Pocketbook, a leading personal financial management tool and SME lending provider Spotcap. The company is focused on offering transparent, responsible and fairly priced consumer and SME products. Zip's platform is entirely digital and leverages big data in its proprietary fraud and credit-decisioning technology to deliver real-time consumer responses. Zip is managed by a team with over 100 years' experience in retail finance and payments and is a licensed and regulated credit provider. For more information, visit: www.zip.co Advisors Zip was advised by: Financial advisor and Placement Agent: BofA Securities Australian legal adviser: Arnold Bloch Leibler US legal adviser: Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP QuadPay is advised by: US legal adviser: DLA Piper Australian legal adviser: Gilbert + Tobin View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005606/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 2 By Ilhama Isabalayeva - Trend: It is planned to open Azerbaijan's state borders with neighboring countries first, Chairman of State Tourism Agency Fuad Naghiyev said, Trend reports. Naghiyev made the remark during a video conference entitled "Road to Recovery" and dedicated to the state of world tourism during the pandemic as well as to the plans of countries for the post-pandemic period. The chairman added that the process of normalization of the tourism industry in Azerbaijan is planned in four stages. At the initial stage, it is envisaged to hold trainings, create a new online platform, change the foreign marketing strategy, promote domestic tourism and support the industry. During the second stage, it is planned to restore domestic tourism, while during the third and fourth stages, it is expected to open the borders, first with neighboring countries and then with other countries. Naghiyev stressed that the development of domestic tourism will be a priority in the post-pandemic period alongside implementing special programs for the development of domestic tourism in the medium term. The chairman reported about the support package for hotels,hotel-type facilities, travel agencies, tour operators, and catering facilities, which are considered as providing accommodation. As part of the program, a total of 19.7 million manat ($11.5 million) was allocated to taxpayers who applied for financial assistance until May 15. The chairman also talked about the return of taxes paid by entrepreneurs in 2019, the exemption of medium and small businesses from 75 percent of tax revenues for 2020 and the provision of benefits for social payments and lending. As many as 650 hotels and hotel-type facilities, more than 18,000 catering facilities and 4,402 travel agencies and tour operators benefited from the program, he said. Naghiyev added that Azerbaijan is a safe tourism destination and Sanitation and Hygiene Methods and Norms (SAHMAN) program is being developed to strengthen this position. The SAHMAN program is being prepared the State Tourism Agency and the Azerbaijan Tourism Bureau in order to ensure the effectiveness of compliance with the rules of sanitation and hygiene in the country's tourism industry. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 2) The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said it hopes to distribute the second round of cash aid by this week though validation of the first batch of beneficiaries is still ongoing. "Ninanais natin na simulan ang pamamahagi ng ayuda sa linggong ito ngunit gusto nating bigyang diin na napakahalaga ang ating ginagawang validation process," said DSWD Secretary Rolando Bautista in an online press briefing on Tuesday. [Translation: We hope to start giving the aid this week but we would like to emphasize the importance of our validation process.] The department earlier stressed that it wants to check the list of recipients of the first tranche or those who got aid from other agencies to ensure that they will not benefit again from the second tranche. Bautista said 70 percent of liquidation has been completed after 807 local government units submitted their reports, while 357 are still pending. But the guidelines for the distribution of the second tranche is already complete, he assured, adding that families from Central Luzon (except Aurora province), Metro Manila, Calabarzon, Benguet, Pangasinan, Iloilo, Cebu, Bacolod, Davao, Albay and Zamboanga City will be getting the subsidy. Senator Sonny Angara in a Senate hearing said the Bayanihan Law 2 which is still being tackled, will cover the second tranche. "I think its just to complete initial SAP provision...Those who havent received the second round, it will just be completed," he said. About 13.5 million families will benefit from the second tranche, the DSWD added in a separate post, including five million families labelled as "waitlisted" or "additional" beneficiaries of the first tranche. The first tranche of the government's Social Amelioration Program (SAP) initially covered 18 million low-income households, who were expected to receive 5,000 to 8,000 worth of assistance. Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque later revealed that an additional five million beneficiaries left out of the LGUs' lists would be included in the first batch of subsidy. Bautista said 17.6 million families in the country have already received their share amounting to 99.7 billion. He added that LGUs have already sent the names of waitlisted families but raised that some of the lists do not have proper certification. "Ang master list ng waitlisted na naglalaman ng social amelioration card identification number ay kailangan mapirmahan at masertipikahan ng city, municipal, provincial, social welfare and development officer at lokal na pinunong ehekutibo o alkalde ng bayan," Bautista said. [Translation: The master list of waitlisted with their social amelioration card identification number must be signed and certified by city, municipal, provincial, social welfare and development officer and the local chief executive.] After submission, the list will still undergo deduplication, he added. The DSWD chief also expressed hope to speed up distribution and complete it within the month as the department explores digital platforms such as the Relief Agad app, where residents can submit online the information on their SAP cards and forms. PayMaya Philippines, Inc. said beneficiaries can also use its mobile wallets to receive the aid. "We support DSWD and the rest of the governments efforts to digitize citizen disbursements, said PayMaya founder and CEO Orlando Vea in a statement. By Sam Nussey TOKYO (Reuters) - (This May 29 story corrects Mizuho borrowing to 912 million, not 1.39 trillion yen, in paragraph 6 and borrowing from the three big Japanese banks to almost 2 trillion yen, not 2.45 trillion yen, in paragraph 7 after SoftBank issues corrected filing.) SoftBank Vision Fund's head, Rajeev Misra, saw his total pay for the past business year more than double to 1.6 billion yen ($15 million), even as the fund's underperformance pushed SoftBank to a record $13 billion operating loss. The figure was second only to remuneration for SoftBank Group Corp Chief Operating Officer Marcelo Claure, which rose 17% to 2.1 billion yen. By Sam Nussey TOKYO (Reuters) - (This May 29 story corrects Mizuho borrowing to 912 million, not 1.39 trillion yen, in paragraph 6 and borrowing from the three big Japanese banks to almost 2 trillion yen, not 2.45 trillion yen, in paragraph 7 after SoftBank issues corrected filing.) SoftBank Vision Fund's head, Rajeev Misra, saw his total pay for the past business year more than double to 1.6 billion yen ($15 million), even as the fund's underperformance pushed SoftBank to a record $13 billion operating loss. The figure was second only to remuneration for SoftBank Group Corp <9984.T> Chief Operating Officer Marcelo Claure, which rose 17% to 2.1 billion yen. While offering big pay packets to foreign executives, compensation for CEO Masayoshi Son was 209 million yen, a 9% decline compared to a year earlier, a SoftBank filing showed. SoftBank's massive annual operating loss was largely due to an $18 billion shortfall at the $100 billion Vision Fund, which has seen investments in startups like office sharing firm WeWork and ride-hailing app operator Uber Technologies Inc flounder. A key architect of the disastrous WeWork investment, vice chairman Ron Fisher who was the group's most highly paid executive in the previous business year, saw his remuneration slashed 80% to 680 million yen. COO Claure has become WeWork's executive chairman as SoftBank restructures the startup. The heavily indebted tech conglomerate's growing dependence on Japan's big three banks was underscored by the filing - with borrowing from top lender Mizuho Financial Group <8411.T> climbing more than 50% to 912 million yen in the year ended March. Together with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc <8306.T> and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc <8316.T>, borrowing climbed to almost 2 trillion yen. SoftBank's deteriorating performance has forced Son into a programme of asset sales, including a 1.25 trillion yen monetization of Alibaba shares, to fund buybacks and shore up the group's balance sheet. Earlier this month Son told investors in May that tech unicorns have plunged into the "valley of the coronavirus". ($1 = 107.2500 yen) (Reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Edwina Gibbs & Simon Cameron-Moore) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal JetBlue is apparently not done with Albuquerque yet. An Albuquerque International Sunport spokesperson said Tuesday the airline is still flying to and from the airport, contradicting earlier statements about the airline having halted its Albuquerque service last week. Spokesperson Stephanie Kitts said the airline is still planning to suspend all Albuquerque service, but is awaiting some direction from the U.S. Department of Transportation. We dont know when its going to be exactly, but were staying in close contact with them, Kitts told the Journal Tuesday. Well see what happens in the next week or so. JetBlue in 2013 began direct daily service between Albuquerque and New Yorks John F. Kennedy International Airport. With demand waning, it had reduced service to three days a week earlier this spring and then stopped after May 5, Kitts said. But May 12 she said JetBlue began a three-times-a-week flight from Albuquerque to Denver and then to Boston. Airlines benefitting from federal coronavirus relief funds are required to maintain a minimal level of service around the country. JetBlue, however, has asked the DOT for an exemption allowing it to suspend its Albuquerque service. Kitts said JetBlue had been granted approval last week, which was why the Sunport said Monday the airline had halted its Albuquerque operations. But airport officials called JetBlue Tuesday after seeing the airline employees at the ticket counter and learned that JetBlue was awaiting some clarification from the DOT before stopping service, Kitts said. The giant horn of an extinct ancestor of modern cattle has been found in excellent condition in the River Severn estuary. The 27-inch relic was discovered off the coast of Sudbrook, Monmouthshire, by two brothers who work as fishermen. Aurochs populated Britain in the Neolithic period and are thought to have gone extinct on British shores around 3,500 years ago. Preliminary analysis of the find indicates this specific horn could be more than 5,000 years old. The giant horn of an extinct ancestor of modern cattle has been found in excellent condition in the River Severn estuary. The 27-inch relic was discovered by two brothers off the coast of Sudbrook, Monmouthshire Aurochs populated Britain in the Neolithic period and are thought to have gone extinct on British shores around 3,500 years ago. Preliminary analysis of the find indicates this specific horn could be more than 5,000 years old Aurochs were a species of large wild cattle that inhabited Asia, Europe, and North Africa and are the ancestor of domestic cattle. They were much bigger than modern cows, standing up to 6ft inch (two metres) tall at the shoulder. Martin and Richard Morgan were inspecting a site at low tide when they stumbled across the relic, weighing almost 7lbs (3kg) Martin Morgan, 59, said: 'We found the horn about a week ago after those unusual summer storms kicked up the sandbanks along the Severn estuary. Aurochs were a species of large wild cattle that inhabited Asia, Europe, and North Africa and are the ancestor of domestic cattle. They were much bigger than modern cows, standing up to 6ft inch (two metres) tall at the shoulder Martin and Richard Morgan were inspecting a site at low tide when they stumbled across the relic, weighing almost 7lbs (3kg) hidden in the mud After carefully extracting the horn from the sand the brothers took it to their boat and shared pictures online. Professor Martin Bell of the University of Reading confirmed the horn was from an auroch after seeing the images 'We normally find bits of shipwreck along the shore and we've developed an eye for spotting unusual things. 'From a distance, we thought it was a bit of wood and then as we got closer, it appeared to be some kind of bone.' After carefully extracting the horn from the sand the brothers took it to their boat and shared pictures online. Professor Martin Bell of the University of Reading confirmed the horn was from an auroch after seeing the images. Professor Bell said: 'It's clearly well-preserved and an exciting find. 'It looks like it's from a fully grown adult and it's clearly well preserved so we're hoping to go and carbon date it, when I can travel again.' The University of Reading said up to the middle Bronze Age the now extinct aurochs roamed the Severn Estuary wetlands. Martin Morgan said: 'We were over the moon, it's a once in a lifetime discovery and we only found it by chance that we wandered there and then, it could have been gone again the next day. 'We've walked this ground hundreds of times and my family have been fishing here for 100 years but we've found nothing of great significance. 'We've got it in a barrel of water but we definitely don't want it to be hidden away for the long run, we'd like people to be able to see it, maybe in a museum - it's just incredible.' HOUSTON, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- KBR (NYSE: KBR) announced today that it has been awarded a $33.5 million task order from the U.S. Air Force (USAF) to provide product and life cycle analysis of common avionics for the 638th Supply Chain Management Group (SCMG) and the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC). The SCMG and AFLCMC manage all common avionics for the USAF, including the Global Positioning System, precision attack systems, ground radio communications, RQ-4 Global Hawk, B-52 Stratofortress and the E-3 airborne warning and control systems. KBR was awarded this task order under the Department of Defense Information Analysis Center's (DoD IAC) multiple-award contract by the USAF Installation Contracting Center. KBR has supported the mission of the DoD research and development community through various predecessor DoD IAC contracts since 2005. Under the cost-plus-fixed-fee task order, KBR will identify and address diminishing manufacturing sources and material shortages, and provide software analysis and information assurance. KBR will also assist with reliability, maintainability, quality, supportability and interoperability issues with avionic systems, line replaceable units and shop replaceable units. KBR will primarily perform these tasks at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia in addition to other U.S. locations. The task order award period is 60 months. "This new contract gives KBR another avenue for assisting the U.S. military in sustaining weapon systems to meet the challenges of the future," said Byron Bright, President, KBR Government Solutions U.S. A top systems engineering and integration provider, KBR's domain expertise spans over 40 years during which it has supported many Navy, Army and Air Force programs. KBR's subject matter experts test, integrate and maintain new technologies and solve traditional problems, such as how to reduce critical military equipment downtime and extend the life of legacy systems. Whether the job calls for an innovative approach or a sustainable solution, KBR delivers. About DoD IAC Program The DoD IAC program operates as a part of Defense Technical Information Center and provides technical data management and research support for DoD and federal government users. Established in the 1940s, the IAC program serves the DoD science & technology (S&T) and acquisition communities to drive innovation and technological developments by enhancing collaboration through integrated scientific and technical information development and dissemination for the DoD and broader S&T community. About KBR, Inc. KBR is a global provider of differentiated professional services and technologies across the asset and program lifecycle within the Government Solutions and Energy sectors. KBR employs approximately 37,000 people worldwide (including our joint ventures), with customers in more than 80 countries, and operations in 40 countries, across three synergistic global businesses: Government Solutions, serving government customers globally, including capabilities that cover the full lifecycle of defense, space, aviation and other government programs and missions from research and development, through systems engineering, test and evaluation, program management, to operations, maintenance, and field logistics Technology Solutions, featuring proprietary technology, equipment, catalysts, digital solutions and related technical services for the monetization of hydrocarbons, including refining, petrochemicals, ammonia and specialty chemicals, as well as inorganics Energy Solutions, including onshore oil and gas; LNG (liquefaction and regasification)/GTL; oil refining; petrochemicals; chemicals; fertilizers; differentiated EPC; maintenance services (Brown & Root Industrial Services); offshore oil and gas (shallow-water, deep-water, subsea); floating solutions (FPU, FPSO, FLNG & FSRU); program management and consulting services KBR is proud to work with its customers across the globe to provide technology, value-added services, integrated EPC delivery and long-term operations and maintenance services to ensure consistent delivery with predictable results. At KBR, We Deliver. Visit www.kbr.com Forward Looking Statement The statements in this press release that are not historical statements, including statements regarding future financial performance, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the company's control that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the statements. 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KBR's most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, any subsequent Form 10-Qs and 8-Ks, and other U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss some of the important risk factors that KBR has identified that may affect the business, results of operations and financial condition. Except as required by law, KBR undertakes no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason. SOURCE KBR, Inc. Related Links http://www.kbr.com This time of year typically involves graduation parties and family BBQs to kick off summer. Flowers are in bloom, the grass is getting green, and the corn is growing in early June in the Midwest. A feeling of excitement and freedom flows through the air. Unfortunately, this year is not seeing all of those celebrations amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Dairy struggled for four years before the pandemic. Even in 2020, when prices were looking more positive, African swine fever caused whey exports to plummet, two major processors declared bankruptcy, and oversupply was ever present. Activists and actors were trying to define our business as deliberately cruel with unfair remarks. Now, food service is drastically down, retail is growing, milk prices are painfully low, and no one knows how things will be operating just a few months from now. And, to make matters worse, we still have most of the issues that we were seeing before the pandemic. Its pretty hard to see the light in dairy economics. Be a light However, the aforementioned students and graduates still need our recognition and encouragement. They are a source of light that we forget to embrace. I have heard so many in our industry dissuade our youth from their dreams of farming and processing. I know it comes from a good place in wanting to protect these students they care about from the struggles and anguish that many have endured in their dairy careers. But, if you could go back and do it over again differently, would you really? Is your answer in this moment reflective of just today or of your entire journey? Being young and green typically comes with a robust enthusiasm and energy for life and its potential. Our industry needs that energy; we need to encourage the brilliant minds of our future to follow their dreams of dairy. There is reward in hard work, even if its rarely monetary and hardly linear in todays industry. A career in dairy is worthwhile, and we should not be the ones to dampen their enthusiasm or passion. Our industry is not easy, but with every challenge comes opportunity. We need to embrace and let in every source of light possible. Students, we in dairy need you and we want you. There was a fantastic video produced by multiple farmers circulating on social media with the song Be a Light playing and it could not have been more appropriate or inspiring. I encourage you to watch it if you have not already. Erin Massey is the product development manager at Prairie Farms, a farmer-owned cooperative based in Edwardsville, Illinois. She is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the development process, from concept to commercialization. Erin grew up on a Florida dairy farm and has a deep-rooted passion to invigorate the dairy industry. Erin earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of South Florida. Her personal mantra is "Be Bold." BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 2 By Ilkin Seyfaddini Trend: The representative office of German International Cooperation Agency (GIZ) in Uzbekistan has allocated $30.4 million to support 'My garden in the Aral Sea' project, Trend reports citing Dunyo News Agency. This agro- and ecotourism project, aimed at eliminating the consequences of the drying up of the Aral Sea and increasing the number of tourists, was launched with the financing of the Foundation for support of innovative development under the Ministry of Innovative Development of Uzbekistan. International and local investors are being attracted to support the project. More than 900 ornamental and fruit trees have already been planted on the territory of Aral Sea. Due to the financial support of GIZ, more than 3,000 seedlings of desert plants will be planted in the Aral Sea region, the message said. The organizers invite everyone to participate in the project. They emphasize that each donation will contribute to the improvement of ecological condition and prosperity of the region, will have a positive impact on the health of millions of Aral Sea region inhabitants. --- Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini The Wyoming Republican Partys Cheyenne headquarters was vandalized sometime Monday night. According to the Cheyenne Police Department, black spray paint was used to deface the front facade of the partys headquarters in downtown Cheyenne late overnight in the second act of vandalism to a state Republican Party office in two years. According to Wyoming Tribune-Eagle photographer Michael Cummo who first reported the incident on social media Tuesday morning the graffiti included the phrases f-ck Trump and I cant breathe, the latter an apparent reference to the words of George Floyd, a black man killed on May 25 when Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Authorities have charged Chauvin with murder and manslaughter. In a phone interview with the Star-Tribune, Cheyenne Police Department spokesman David Inman said that a full report on the incident which would likely be classified as a misdemeanor has not yet been completed, and will likely be completed sometime Wednesday morning. Wyoming GOP chairman Frank Eathorne did not return phone calls or emails requesting comment Tuesday morning. In a Facebook post, the state party blamed the vandalism on political opponents and a lack of religion in public schools. Although it is disheartening to have had our office front defamed by protesters it comes as no surprise, they wrote. The organization of the Left is astounding and their tactics are consistently undermining morality. We will clean up our windows and continue in the fight for justice for all. Wyoming Democratic Party Chairman Joe Barbuto said he reached out to Republican leadership Tuesday morning, per a spokesman, where he condemned the vandalism. A lot of people are dissatisfied with and concerned about the way things are going in our state and country, Barbuto said in a statement to the Star-Tribune. We encourage them to take that passion and turn it into action through peaceful protests, volunteering for campaigns, and making sure they get themselves and others to the ballot box in August and November. While the vandalism did allude to the national demonstrations against police brutality, protests in Wyoming, to this point, have been overwhelmingly peaceful. To date, four separate demonstrations in Wyoming in Riverton, Cheyenne, Casper and Jackson have gone off without a hitch, with hundreds of people protesting without an issue. This weeks incident is not the first instance of vandalism to property occupied by the Wyoming Republican Party. In September of 2018, a man broke into and subsequently set fire to the Albany County Republican Partys offices in Laramie, resulting in a felony charge and 44 months in federal prison. Love 5 Funny 12 Wow 1 Sad 5 Angry 11 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 11:10:05|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MACAO, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Macao's gaming industry revenue plunged by 93.2 percent year-on-year in May 2020, the special administrative region (SAR)'s gaming industry watchdog said on Tuesday. Macao's Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau said in its latest report that the gaming revenue was 1,764 million patacas (about 221 million U.S. dollars) in May this year, a drastic decline of 93.2 percent from 2019. The accumulated revenue in the first five months of 2020 reached 33.00 billion patacas (about 4.13 billion dollars), also down by 73.7 percent year-on-year. The current novel coronavirus pandemic has aggravated the subdued performance of gaming industry, as the SAR government kept the tightened entry policy to curb the spread of the disease since late January this year. Macao's monthly gaming revenue kept a year-on-year growth for 29 consecutive months since August 2016. But the trend was ended as it recorded a decrease of 5 percent in January 2019. Enditem According to the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi stated his objection to any annexation of Palestinian land in a call with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on May 28. The State Departments readout of the call, by contrast, made no mention of any discussion of the impending Israeli move to annex the Jordan River Valley. To many in Jordan, the State Department's exclusion of Safadis remarks will be seen as a further dismissal of Ammans security concerns as it greenlights annexation of parts of the West Bank, which Jordan views as a potentially destabilizing action. This is an existential threat to Jordan, Marwan Muasher, former Jordanian foreign minister and previous ambassador to the United States and Israel, told Al-Monitor. Jordan sees it as the killing of a two-state solution and as solving [the crisis] at Jordans expense. Jordans King Abdullah warned that he is considering all options should Israel move forward with its annexation plan, which could certainly affect the peace treaty, Jawad Anani, former Jordanian foreign minister and coordinator of the 1994 Israeli-Jordan peace process negotiation team, told Al-Monitor. Could any of the options Jordan is considering affect US-Jordanian ties? So far, Amman has avoided criticizing the Donald Trump administration in public statements, but the current administrations policies are critical to delivering the prospect of sovereignty from the Americans in the Jordan River Valley, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with Israel Hayom on May 28. Jordan is one of the United States closest security partners in the Middle East and assists the United States in conducting military and intelligence operations in the region. Amman also acts as a stabilizing force in an otherwise tumultuous area. As of 2019, around 3,000 US soldiers were stationed in Jordan and the countrys Muwaffaq Salti air base in its northwest desert is a critical staging area for the US-led Operation Inherent Resolve against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. At the same time, Jordan is highly dependent on US foreign aid, receiving some $1.2 billion in 2019, a little over 3% of its GDP. Much of this aid is critical to its populations well-being, with about a third of the funds going to emergency relief and water provision. The relationship, however, is not just quid pro quo as the two countries security goals have historically overlapped, particularly over counterterrorism efforts and the parameters of a future Israeli-Palestinian peace [plan], Curtis Ryan, a professor of political science at Appalachian State University who specializes in Jordanian politics, told Al-Monitor. Counterterrorism is likely to remain a top priority for both countries, as the United States continues to wage its war on terror in the Middle East, and the image of the Jordanian pilot, Muath al-Kasasbeh, being burned alive by IS in 2015 remains fresh in the Jordanian political consciousness. What has changed, however, is the shared stance on the parameters for a future two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. While Jordan has not changed its position, the Trump administration has flouted previous US policy on the issue and run roughshod over regional and global allies, [like] Jordan, Curtis said. Whether or not this about-face will be enough to jeopardize US-Jordanian relations hinges mostly on the United States, as Jordans dependency on Washingtons foreign aid and political support gives it very little leverage to coerce the Trump administration into stopping annexation. The only scenario in which Jordan could make any sort of move to reduce cooperation with the United States is, according to Anani, for Amman to take measures such as canceling the peace treaty against Israel for annexation and the Trump administration punished Jordan in response. He noted that this possibility was unlikely. Further, Jordan is vital to US strategy in the Middle East and is seen as a moderate force in an immoderate region by policy-makers, according to Ryan. Its strategic and military value to the United States has only increased in recent years, as Washingtons ability to place troops in Iraq has become increasingly uncertain. In addition, the United States continues to sporadically feud with Turkey another key ally in the region over fundamental policy differences. Specifically, there has been speculation that the US military is looking to Jordan in its attempt to diversify its military footprint in the region. Following Turkeys October 2019 Operation Peace Spring against the Kurds in northern Syria, US senators requested that the US Department of Defense scout for alternatives to the Incirlik air base in Turkey. Accordingly, the Defense Department awarded a $79 million contract to expand Muwaffaq Salti on April 10, after spending $143 million in contracts to renovate the base in 2018. On the official level, then, there seems to be little incentive for either the United States or Jordan to reduce security cooperation, regardless of efforts relating to stopping annexation. Instead, Amman is likely to engage with its extensive contacts in Washington to lobby the Trump administration to at least delay any potential Israeli actions in the West Bank, in addition to biding its time until November in the hopes for a presidential administration that is more sympathetic to its position. On the popular level, however, any annexation move will be met with anger from Jordans citizens, more than half of which are of Palestinian descent. If Israel annexes the Palestinian [Jordan River] Valley, our opposition to American policies and presence on our land will increase, Jordanian activist Alaa al-Deen al-Omri told Al-Monitor. However, it is unlikely that this anger will be translated into anger against the king or into significant public pressure to retaliate against the United States, as he has stridently rejected any annexation plan since the first details of Trumps peace plan began to leak. The government's view on this is identical to the public mood [and] anger, Muasher explained. It's not going to be directed at the Jordanian government or system. It's going to be directed at Israel. The mother of Ahmaud Arbery, who was shot dead while jogging in February, has spoken out about how the death of George Floyd has forced her to relive the trauma of her own sons death. Wanda Cooper-Jones said she was just learning to cope with the grief of Arberys death, but after viewing the harrowing footage of Floyds fatal arrest in Minneapolis last week her emotional wounds were reopened once more. Cooper-Jones called Floyds death heart-breaking, and said the video showing Officer Derek Chauvin pinning him to the ground by his neck for nearly nine minutes sent her back to her sons killing. Since the event of Mr. Floyd happened, I really took a dramatic change, Cooper-Jones told Good Morning Britain. I was beginning to heal, beginning to feel better, and once I viewed the video Mr. Floyd being murdered, it sent me back - back to thinking of Ahmaud when he was killed in February. Scroll down for video Wanda Cooper-Jones (left) said she was just learning to cope with the grief of Ahmaud Arberys (right) death, but after viewing the harrowing footage of Floyds arrest in Minneapolis last week her emotional wounds have reopened once more Cooper-Jones called Floyds death heart-breaking, and said the video showing Officer Dereck Chauvin pinning him to the ground by his neck for nearly nine minutes (above) sent her back to her sons killing Arbery was shot dead in the middle of a residential street in Brunswick, Georgia, on February 23 while he was reportedly out jogging. Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis McMichael, 34, were later charged with murder and aggravated assault after footage of the fatal incident emerged online nearly three months later. The McWilliams claimed Arbery was a burglary suspect, and they trailed him in their pick-up truck before trying to make a citizen's arrest. Local police official have since revealed that there had been no burglaries in the neighborhood for nearly two months before the fatal shooting. Cooper-Jones said the deaths of her son, of Floyd, and others like Breonna Taylor - a 26-year-old black EMT who was killed in her home in March by Louisville police carrying out a 'no-knock warrant' has left the African American population feeling like they dont have a voice. Ahmaud was just murdered back in February and here it is in May, we have the same type, same type of event to occur again, she said of Floyds death. The people of America, we're ready for change. We need answers. And foremost, we need these killings to stop, we need it to cease and to cease immediately. Ahmaud Arberys death sparked demonstrations, including the #IRunWithAhmaud protest, where activists jogged 2.23 miles to commemorate the date of his death. His mothers comments come at a time of widespread protests and rioting across the country in the wake of Floyd's death, that first began in Minneapolis last week, before spreading to New York City, Washington DC and beyond. It really breaks my heart that its come to this. The rioting, Cooper-Jones said. [But] I truly understand where theyre coming from because black lives are being lost, and theyre being lost for no reason. I was beginning to heal, beginning to feel better, and once I viewed the video Mr. Floyd being murdered, it sent me back - back to thinking of Ahmaud when he was killed in February,' Cooper-Jones (shown with Ahmaud) said Tuesday Gregory (left) and Travis McMichael (right) have both been charged with murder and aggravated assault over the February 23 shooting of Ahmaud Arbery Ahmaud Arberys death sparked demonstrations, including the #IRunWithAhmaud demonstration, where activists jogged 2.23 miles to commemorate the date of his death (Pictured: Protesters gather outside the Glynn County Courthouse during a rally to protest the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, Saturday, May 16) Since last Thursday, authorities across the nation have arrested more than 4,100 people in the demonstrations. At least three people have died since the protests began. The unrest began after Floyd, 46, died in Minneapolis police custody on Memorial Day after being restrained by officer Derek Chauvin, for allegedly trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill. In now infamous video footage, Chauvin was seen pinning Floyd to the ground and kneeling on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, ignoring his repeated cries of I cant breathe. Floyd became unresponsive after around four minutes yet Chauvin continued to apply pressure to his neck. A criminal complaint was filed against Chauvin Friday in which he was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. He, along with three other officers - J Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao were all fired from the Minneapolis Police Department. The other three officers have not yet been arrested or charged in relation to Floyds death, however that could change following the results of a private autopsy ordered by the slain 46-year-olds family. Chauvin was arrested and charged last Friday over the death of George Floyd, charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter In now infamous video footage, Chauvin was seen pinning Floyd to the ground and kneeling on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, ignoring his repeated cries of I cant breathe. Floyd became unresponsive after around four minutes yet Chauvin continued to apply pressure to his neck Attorney Ben Crump and Co-counsel Antonio Romanucci, who are representing the family of George Floyd, announced on Monday afternoon that two pathologists had ruled Floyds death a homicide, as a result of mechanical asphyxia. The private autopsy contradicted findings made by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office a week earlier, who ruled there was no evidence to suggest Floyd had died from strangulation or asphyxia. According to the two pathologists who carried out the independent probe, Dr. Michael Baden and Dr. Allecia Wilson, the pressure applied by the knee of Derek Chauvin on George Floyd's neck cut off blood flow to the 46-year-old's brain. They also said the weight applied by two other officers, who had placed their knees into Floyd's back, had restricted his ability to breathe. In response to the ruling, Crump and Romanucci called for Chauvin to be charged with first-degree murder following the discovery, and also said Kueng, Lane, and Thao should all be arrested too, though didnt specify on what charges. Crump added the independent autopsy and video evidence make it clear that Floyd was dead while he was still lying on the street with police atop him. 'That ambulance was his hearse,' he said. Crump called for Chauvin to be charged with first-degree murder, and also said the other three officers involved in the incident - J Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao - should be arrested as well, though didn't specify on what charges Since last Thursday, authorities across the nation have arrested more than 4,100 people at demonstrations protesting Floyd's death. At least three people have died since the protests began 'They knew that they were applying restraints that could or would cause death,' Romanucci added. 'They are criminally liable because they knew what they were doing could lead to death.' 'Not only was the knee on Georges neck a cause of his death, but so was the weight of the other two police officers on his back, who not only prevented blood flow into his brain but also air flow into his lungs,' he continued. Hours after the results of the private autopsy were made public, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office appeared to walk back on its initial ruling, saying Floyds death was a homicide by asphyxiation. A press release from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner said Floyd also had 'recent methamphetamine use' and 'fentanyl intoxication' - along with hypertension and coronary artery disease - all of which were possible contributing factors to his death. But Baden and Wilson refuted such claims, along with members of the Floyd family, who said the 46-year-old had no underlying medical problems that caused or contributed to his death. 'This is confirmed by information from myself, from Dr. Wilson, and from the family,' Baden said. '[Mr. Floyd] was in good health.' Demonstrations, riots and looting continued across the country on Monday night. Crump and Floyd's family have said people should continue protesting, but urged them to refrain from using violence or looting as George Floyd was 'a man of peace' (pictured: Protestors turn over a car in Washington) Demonstrations, riots and looting continued across the country on Monday night. Crump and Floyd's family have said people should continue protesting, but urged them to refrain from using violence or looting as George Floyd was 'a man of peace'. Former President Barack Obama condemned the violent fallout Monday, urging activists to channel their anger into peaceful, sustained, and effective action to help bring about real change. 'Let's not excuse violence, or rationalize it, or participate in it,' Obama wrote, declaring his support for those protesting peacefully. 'If we want our criminal justice system, and American society at large, to operate on a higher ethical code, then we have to model that code ourselves.' Floyd's younger brother, Terrence Floyd, also calling for the 'destructive unity to end' on Monday in an emotional speech on the spot where his sibling died a week ago. Terrence Floyd told those looting and rioting their actions would 'not bring his brother back' and implored people to take their frustrations to the voting booths. 'I understand you are all are upset. But I doubt you are half as upset as I am,' he told the crowd, fighting back tears. Floyd's brother Terrence (center) visited a makeshift memorial honoring the 46-year-old in Minneapolis on Monday. The memorial was erected at the spot where Floyd was taken into custody last week Floyd's family had disputed the county medical examiner's findings last week, calling notions he had any underlying health conditions 'an illusion' 'So if I'm not over here wilding out, if I'm not over here blowing up stuff, if I'm not over here messing with my community, then what are y'all doing? Y'all doing nothing, but that's not going to bring my brother back at all. 'My family is a peaceful family. My family is God-fearing. Let's switch it up and do this peacefully, please. I know he would not want y'all to be doing this.' He continued: 'In every case of police brutality, the same thing has been happening: you protest, you destroy stuff, and they don't move. 'You know why they don't move? Because it's not their stuff, it's our stuff, so they want us to destroy our stuff. So let's do this another way.' Surrounded by flowers at the makeshift memorial to his brother at the spot where he was arrested, Terrance added: 'Let's stop thinking that our voice don't matter, and vote. 'Not just for the president but vote for the preliminaries, vote for everybody. Educate yourself. Don't wait for somebody else to tell you who's who. Educate yourself and know who you're voting for.' George Floyd's funeral will be held in Houston, Texas, on June 9 after a public viewing the night before, his familys lawyer said Monday. Thieves in South Africa dug through a concrete floor into a shop to steal thousands of dollars worth of liquor days before an alcohol sales ban was lifted, police said Tuesday. The thieves made off with whisky, brandy, gin, vodka and beer valued at around $17,000. Workers at the Shoprite supermarket in the Newtown district of Johannesburg discovered the heist when they went in last Friday to prepare for the resumption of sales on June 1. Until Monday, alcohol sales were banned under South Africa's strict lockdown regulations which came into effect on March 27. The ban was meant to ease pressure on emergency wards and prevent a feared spike in domestic violence. "They discovered a big hole on the floor next to (a) fridge where it is suspected that suspects might have gained entry from tunnels underneath," police spokesman Kay Makhubela said in a statement. The Shoprite store, situated in a shopping mall, had been secured from the outside. Until Monday, alcohol sales were banned under South Africa's strict lockdown regulations which came into effect on March 27. By MARCO LONGARI (AFP) "But the suspects avoided the mall's main entrance and instead used electrical and storm water tunnels beneath the shopping centre to gain access to an area beneath the store", Shoprite said in a statement. "They then tunnelled through the solid concrete floor directly into the liquor shop to gain access undetected. "It is unclear how the thieves knew where to tunnel, nor how long it took them to get through the thick concrete floor, but they returned a few times to steal a large amount of stock," said Shoprite. Footage from CCTV cameras showed the thieves first gained entry on 21 May. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Intelligence. Compassion. Humility. Grit. These words come to mind when speaking of Westerleigh native, Nick Santaniello, M.D., who has been named valedictorian of SUNY Downstate College of Medicine, Class of 2020. You may recall he was also valedictorian of Monsignor Farrell Class of 2012. In 2016, Dr. Santaniello earned his Bachelor of Science in Human Science Georgetown Universitys The School of Nursing and Health Studies. Dr. Santaniello, 26, son of Susie and Joseph Santaniello of Westerleigh, is moving from his Brooklyn apartment to Philadelphia this week to continue as pediatrics resident at Childrens Hospital in Philadelphia (CHOP), for three years. If he decides to specialize beyond CHOP, which he is leaning towards, a fellowship will be an additional three years. I had a wonderful education at Downstate, and with the coronavirus pandemic, we have all learned about resiliency," said Santaniello, who has decided to specialize in pediatrics. "I had an incredible mentor in Dr. Jonathan Blau, a Neonatologist at Staten Island University Hospital, who inspired me to pursue a career helping children. After four fantastic years in Washington, D.C., Santaniello decided to attend a medical school in NYC to be closer to his family, which is his greatest support system. Commuting back and forth for special occasions from D.C. to Staten Island really took a toll on me after a while," he said. Now theyre just over the bridge and I get to see my family at least every other week, because thats important to me. ZOOM GRADUATION Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Downstate graduation was not the usual Carnegie Hall ceremony the new physicians were expecting, with caps and gowns, but Santaniellos surprise came when he was named valedictorian. Our class had a different kind of graduation this year, a quick ZOOM ceremony, and I was shocked when my name was called for the Class of 1898 Award, which is given to the first in the class, said Santaniello. I had been inducted to two honor societies, which kind of indicated I was near the top, but I had no idea Id get the award. In addition, Santaniello also received the Richard L. Day Award for Outstanding Performance in Pediatrics. Dr. Santaniello, along with 14 of his medical school classmates, was graduated early, on May 1, to assist in the battle against COVID-19. Half were assigned to Downstate ICU and he, with the other half, was assigned to the head of the E.R. at Kings County Medical. WONDERFUL PARENTS Dr. Santaniello credits much of his success to his parents. My mom is super-loving and the best person there is, said Santaniello of his mom. "She has always been my biggest support, telling me how proud she is of me and of my siblings. "During my freshman year in med school, she brought food every week because she knew I was living in a dorm without a kitchen. She is always willing to do anything to help anyone. Santaniello is equally appreciative of his father, a mechanic for the NYPD, saying, "My dad is the epitome of an amazing work ethic. Ever since we were young, he would get up super early to go to commute and go to work, never complaining once. He would take up extra jobs so we can participate in extracurriculars at school, and go on vacations here and there, and play sports. He was a workhorse and taught me the value of hard work that saw me through Farrell, Georgetown, Downstate, and now CHOP. And his parents couldnt be prouder of their son. My husband and I are so proud of him not because he became a doctor, but because he always has a heart of gold and is always willing to help everyone," said mom, Susie, a school aide at PS 29. Nicky is always grateful for all the people who guided him along the way. We, as his parents, always taught him to never forget where you came from and when you make it big, to give back and pay it forward. Nick Santaniello, M.D., gets hug from his mom, Susie Santaniello, of Westerleigh. Dr. Nick Santaniello, foreground, with colleagues at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. Press Release June 2, 2020 Hontiveros urges gov't: Adopt service contracting for public transpo to avert 'commuter crisis' in GCQ areas Senator Risa Hontiveros today urged government to adopt a service contracting program with the transportation sector to prevent a looming commuter crisis, and ensure that there will be enough buses, jeeps, and other public transportation in areas under general community quarantine (GCQ). "Hindi dapat maging 'new normal' ang mahirap, matagal at delikadong commute para sa ating mga mananakay. Government should immediately tap the private transportation sector and adopt a service contracting scheme, so that more public transport becomes available for Filipinos going back to their jobs and businesses," she said. The senator made her call after the first day of general community quarantine (GCQ) in Metro Manila saw large numbers of commuters stranded and unable to travel due to limited availability of public transportation. This shortage, Hontiveros noted, has forced commuters to line up in long, crowded lines, or ignore social distancing and other health guidelines just to find ways to get moving. "The lack of transport options is not just an emerging crisis for commuters, it is also a serious health hazard. Wala ring magagawa ang pag-limit sa pasahero sa mga tren at bus, kung sa kalsada pa lang ay exposed na sila sa health risks habang sila ay nasa mahaba, dikit-dikit at matao na pila," she said. Hontiveros said that government can better solve the problem through service contracting with operators and drivers of buses, jeeps and other public transportation, as proposed by the #MoveAsOne coalition and other advocacy groups. Under such contracts, operators and drivers will be paid by government a per kilometer fee to ply their routes. "Subok na ang service contracting, dahil ginawa na ito ng mga local government units (LGUs) para ibyahe ang kanilang mga frontliners sa gitna ng enhanced community quarantine (ECQ). If expanded on a national scale, it will be a great way to immediately increase the passenger capacity of our transport systems in Metro Manila and elsewhere," she said. The scheme, Hontiveros said, will allow government to better enforce the strict implementation of social distancing and other health guidelines in public transportation vehicles. She added that the fixed fees for drivers and operators will also remove the hazards attached to the current "boundary system." "By adopting service contracting, we can make our public transport options safer and more efficient for the commuting public at the soonest. At siyempre, muli nang makakapaghanap-buhay ang napakaraming operator, driver at ibang manggagawa sa transportation sector na nawalan ng kita dahil sa pandemiya," Hontiveros said. Since government may not have the funds to enter into service contracts with all transport providers simultaneously, Hontiveros cited the proposal by the Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa (SENTRO) that such service arrangements be made on a rotational basis: "Dapat ay wala tayong maiwan na operator o driver lalo na't marami pa rin sa kanila ang hindi makabyahe sa kanilang mga lugar." "To protect our commuters, government should coordinate with our transport sector to expand, not limit, our public transport options in the weeks to come. Mas maiiwasan natin ang hawaan ng sakit kung mas marami, mas ligtas at mas maluwag ang mga sasakyang pampubliko na babiyahe sa mga siyudad at bayan," she concluded. A Wuhan doctor who worked with coronavirus whistleblower Li Wenliang died of the virus on Tuesday, state media reported, becoming China's first COVID-19 fatality in weeks. Hu Weifeng, a urologist at Wuhan Central Hospital, passed away after being treated for COVID-19 and allied issues for more than four months, state broadcaster CCTV said. He is the sixth doctor from Wuhan Central Hospital to have died from the virus, which emerged in the central Chinese city late last year. Cases have dwindled dramatically from the peak in mid-February as the country appears to have brought the outbreak largely under control. The official death toll in the country of 1.4 billion people stands at 4,634 -- well below the number of fatalities in less populous nations. Wuhan Central Hospital has yet to give a formal statement on Hu's death. In early February it said some 68 staff members had contracted coronavirus. Hu's condition became a national concern after Chinese media showed images of him with his skin turned black due to liver damage. Fellow doctor Yi Fan showed similar symptoms, but recovered and has since been discharged from hospital. The death of their colleague Li Wenliang in February triggered a national outpouring of grief and rage against the government as he documented his final days on social media. The 34-year-old ophthalmologist was reprimanded by authorities after he warned colleagues about the virus in late December. Beijing has since named him a national martyr, but suppressed much of the dissent and criticism sparked by his death. Other medical whistleblowers at Wuhan Central Hospital -- including emergency unit director Ai Fen -- have told Chinese media they were punished by authorities for speaking out. China has not released a complete figure of the number of medical worker deaths from COVID-19, but at least 34 medics have been awarded posthumous honours by health authorities. In February the National Health Commission said about 3,387 health workers had been infected. Thousands of frontline medical workers were infected with coronavirus while treating patients in China (Natural News) India now has 173,763 confirmed coronavirus cases and 4,980 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Its number of new cases continues to rise every day, which makes it a cause for concern for many public health experts. Its also planning to emerge from lockdown pretty soon a move experts fear will come at the worst possible time. Slowing, but not flattening Medical experts are worried that Indias national lockdown, which started over two months ago, is ending too soon. According to public health experts, the country may be looking at a total caseload upward of a million within several weeks if the government does not find a way to head off infections. From a public health point of view, I do think the lockdown has brought the disease under control but as restrictions have lifted in the last week or 10 days, the number of cases has started to rise quickly. Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, told the New York Times. In late March, Prime Minister Narendra Modi enforced a nationwide lockdown in an effort to contain the coronavirus; this required people to stay inside, halted transportation and shuttered most businesses. With the lockdown in place, Indias economy ground to a halt, with day laborers and piecemeal workers hit hardest. In response, officials eased some restrictions before May 31, when the cordon sanitaire was set to be lifted. Making space in the worlds densest cities Theres also the challenge of locking down people living in packed cities. People of the 1.3 billion-strong country live in cities that are among the worlds densest. Millions live in packed slums, with some housing up to eight people in one room. (Related: Waves of migrant workers returning to their home villages in India trigger concerns over second wave of small, localized outbreaks.) In fact, nearly half of the countrys caseload is concentrated in its four main cities New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Ahmedabad. Social distancing is inherently very difficult in India, Dr. Jha said. I dont know if India could realistically get to 26 days, or 50 days. In addition, testing for COVID-19 in the country is severely limited, making it difficult for public health researchers to determine the actual extent of the outbreak. Based on data from the Indian Council for Medical Research, the country has conducted over 3.3 million tests to date. In comparison, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that the U.S. has done a total of 15,766,114 tests. Critics say the while the U.S. and India are lagging when it comes to testing, the latter is falling behind, administering only two tests for every 1,000 people the lowest among the worlds hardest-hit countries. Despite having a relatively low number of total cases per million India has 126 per million, while Spain has over 6,000, public health experts are saying that its not a sign that India has escaped the worst. According to Dr. G.C. Khilnani, the country has to yet to pass its infection peak, which he estimates will happen around the end of July. Nobody can predict to what extent the numbers will go up, he added. With the lockdowns set to expire, experts are worried that states previously spared from the coronavirus will have to deal with imported cases from hotspots, especially with cross-country transportation and industry resuming. Despite the odds stacked against them, many Indians are ready to risk it. According to Mujtaba Rizvi, an artist living in Chennai, he was surprised by what he saw when he went for a walk last weekend: People pouring into crowded shops without wearing masks or observing social distancing, and roads packed with cars. Freedom comes at a price, and people seem to be ready to pay, he told the New York Times. Even if more people die now, it would be difficult to send us back into isolation. Pandemic.news has more on the ongoing Wuhan coronavirus outbreak. Sources include: Coronavirus.JHU.edu NYTimes.com LiveMint.com Worldometers.info Thousands of people created havoc in New York City over the weekend, joining counterparts across the country to protest the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Roving throngs engaged in shocking, shameful violence, targeting police with bottles, bricks and anything else they could throw at them. One idiot tried to toss a homemade firebomb inside a police car occupied by four officers. Other police vehicles were badly damaged by firebombs, their windows smashed, and their interiors set ablaze. Several police officers were assaulted, and one was even bitten. Hate-filled rioters even desecrated St. Patricks Cathedral with vulgar obscenities and threats. All of this even though officials in Minneapolis have already initiated a criminal prosecution in the Floyd case and, inflammatory political rhetoric aside, theres no compelling evidence that police anywhere are out to kill black people. It is clear, however, that these protests significantly undermine government efforts to combat the coronavirus, a reality that neither the state nor city can deny. For otherwise, theyd have to concede that their social distancing rules, stay-at-home orders, small-business closures, school closures, and bans on religious worship have been imposed without a rational basis. Then, too, several iconic parades have been cancelled because they would have brought too many people together. Anti-police stance Since the protestors have openly and brazenly defied the restrictions Andrew Cuomo has unilaterally imposed on everybody else, one would logically expect the governor to be at least angry, if not outraged at them. But, alas, Cuomo, the self-styled benevolent dictator, is, first and foremost, Cuomo, the self-centered liberal politician. So, instead, hes emerged as their apologist, opining that theyre understandably motivated not only by Floyds death but also by this countrys history of discrimination dating back hundreds of years. He even chided President Trump for speaking out against the indefensible looting thats marked many of the protests. Nor did he leave his pandering at that. Responding to claims that police have been rough with protestors, he asked Attorney General Letitia James to launch an investigation because the public deserves answers, and they deserve accountability. To be fair, Cuomo did say that violence isnt justified. However, leaving no doubt that his overall stance is anti-police, he also called for the legislature to convene by Zoom to enact legislation repealing a section of the Civil Rights Law that, in most cases, keeps police disciplinary records confidential. And if legislators do so, he continued, I will sign it today. I cant be clearer or more direct than that. Nor can he be any dopier. A super-extraordinary, emergency Zoom session? To repeal legislation thats been on the books for six decades? Is he out of his mind? But what about the coronavirus, you ask? Well, Cuomo merely suggested that the protestors wear masks. Double standard Meanwhile, Cuomo, the dictator, offers no such accommodation to peaceful, law-abiding small business owners struggling desperately to hold onto their livelihoods. Restauranteurs, for example, arent permitted to seat diners even if they arrive in suits of armor and sit five swords-lengths apart. Then there are people like Bobby Catone, the proprietor of a tanning salon on Staten Island, who had his business shut down by the city last week and faces a potential $1,000 fine for opening in defiance of Cuomos decrees. Im broke, Catone said. I cant pay the rent. I cant pay the mortgage all because my business is taken away. Most important to many people are their churches and other places of worship. They, however, are effectively barred from holding services because of Cuomos restrictions. Catholics, for example, cant attend weekday masses, even though they could easily do so while wearing masks and maintaining social distancing. But you know what Cuomo wont tell restauranteurs, or other small business owners, or places of worship? He wont tell them, Oh, okay! Go ahead! But please wear a mask. That he reserves for the protestors, the individuals who, he apparently believes, are his more important political constituency. Peaceful protests are protected under the First Amendment, but so, too, is the right to freely exercise ones religion. Business owners have a right to earn a living too, and they have the right not to be deprived of their property, or its use, without due process of law. But right now, in New York, under Cuomo, there are very few rights and very little due process of law unless youre a protestor. Daniel Leddys column On the Law appears weekly. Follow him on Twitter. His email address is column@danielleddylaw.com. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 2, 2020 18:18 597 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb9e7cd 1 National bali-covid-19,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,Bali-Governor-Wayan-Koster,beach,Canggu,labuan-sait-beach Free Bali Governor I Wayan Koster has said he would revoke Badung Tourism Agency's decision to reopen two beaches in Badung regency for foreign surfers. "I'll inform the head of [Badung] tourism agency that we haven't reopened our tourism yet. I disagree [with the reopening] and the decision should be annulled," Koster said on Tuesday as reported by kompas.com. Koster said he had issued a circular that regulates the closure of tourist destinations in Bali until further notice and he had not yet revoked it. "We had instructed to close tourist attractions through a circular and we have not reopened them yet," he said. On Monday, Badung Tourism Agency opened access to two beaches in Badung regency, Canggu Beach and Labuan Sait beach, for foreign surfers. Read also: Hotels in Bali brace for travel-restriction relaxation, 'new normal' The agency head, I Made Badra, said the beaches were still off limits to domestic tourists and non-surfers. "The foreign surfers are stressed-out after staying indoors for three months, so we gave them a little leniency as long as they follow health protocols," Badra said. "[Before entering the beaches], they had to be examined in Balawista posts and by the [COVID-19] task force of the two villages where the beaches are located." He also said that all foreign surfers were required to wear face masks. "We'll check the temperature of each visitor, those who have a high temperature will be taken to the nearest community health center [Puskesmas] immediately," Badra said. As of Monday, Bali recorded 482 cases of COVID-19 with five fatalities and 334 recoveries. (nal) Eight states and the District of Columbia hold primary elections on Tuesday. And some of the biggest stars in the world are making sure their millions of followers exercise their right to vote. Jennifer Lopez, Shay Mitchell, Justin and Hailey Bieber all took to Instagram on Tuesday to promote voting in the US primary elections. A-list: Jennifer Lopez led stars as they all took to Instagram on Tuesday to promote voting in the US primary elections Making it clear: Jennifer, 50, posted a graphic reminding residents of those states to vote along with the caption: 'Your vote MATTERS. Be the change. Get out and vote. #BlackoutTuesday' Pennsylvania, Indiana, Maryland, Rhode Island, Iowa, Montana, New Mexico and South Dakota in addition to Washington DC are all casting ballots on the biggest primary day in the COVID-19 pandemic era. Jennifer, 50, posted a graphic reminding residents of those states to vote along with the caption: 'Your vote MATTERS. Be the change. Get out and vote. #BlackoutTuesday.' Hailey, 23, also posted a black and white text image with the caption: 'Verified If you live in any of these states, PLEASE go and VOTE. It is SO important!! TO MY FOLLOWERS WHO ARE FIRST TIME VOTERS: WE NEED YOU!!' Justin, 26, acknowledge that he can't vote as he is a Canadian citizen but urged his get their ballots in. Committed: Justin and Hailey Bieber also took to social media to spread awareness Taking a stand: Hailey, 23, posted a black and white text image with the caption: 'Verified If you live in any of these states, PLEASE go and VOTE. It is SO important!! TO MY FOLLOWERS WHO ARE FIRST TIME VOTERS: WE NEED YOU!!' Big deal: Pennsylvania, Indiana, Maryland, Rhode Island, Iowa, Montana, New Mexico and South Dakota in addition to Washington DC are all casting ballots on the biggest primary day in the COVID-19 pandemic era. Useful information: Hailey shared a very clear graphic of upcoming primaries 'You can vote for me': Justin, 26, acknowledge that he can't vote as he is a Canadian citizen but urged his get their ballots in #BlackOutTuesday: Cardi B took a break from #BlackOutTuesday to remind her followers to vote Vote him out: She also posted some Tweets from Trump to rally her fans to vote him out of office He wrote: 'Im Canadian so I cant vote you can vote for me.' Shay, 33, posted a much more colorful graphic from Rock The Vote with the caption: 'Please send in your ballots!!!' The primary is seen as the biggest test yet of officials' readiness to manage a surge of mail ballots and the safety risks of in-person voting during the coronavirus outbreak. The largest day of balloting since the pandemic began will serve as a dry run for the Nov. 3 general election, offering a glimpse of the challenges ahead on a national scale if that vote is conducted under a lingering threat from COVID-19. Four of the states voting on Tuesday - Pennsylvania, Indiana, Maryland and Rhode Island - delayed their nominating contests from earlier in the year to avoid the worst of the outbreak that has killed more than 104,000 people in the United States. Greater good: Shay Mitchell also made her voice heard Bright: Shay, 33, posted a much more colorful graphic from Rock The Vote with the caption: 'Please send in your ballots!!!' Hit the polls: Khloe Kardashian also reminded her 112million followers to hit the polls Rock the vote! Her sister Kim posted a reminded to her story All of the states, which also include Iowa, Montana, New Mexico and South Dakota, have encouraged or expanded mail-in balloting as a safe voting alternative. That has led to record numbers of mail-in ballots requested or cast in many states, along with an explosion of questions, confusion and reports of ballot applications delayed or lost. Most states also will sharply reduce the number of in-person polling places as officials struggle to recruit enough workers to run them. Sounds good: Lizzo performed a song to encourage her followers to vote Join the march: Zoe Kravitz captioned her reminder: 'March all the way to the voting booth' The primaries come amid a partisan brawl over voting by mail, which Democrats support as a safe way to cast a ballot and Republican President Donald Trump condemns as ripe for fraud. Numerous studies have found little evidence of voting fraud tied to mail-in ballots. Former Vice President Joe Biden has essentially wrapped up the Democratic presidential nomination to face Trump in November, but seven of the states also will have primaries for state and congressional offices. Among the top races to be decided on Tuesday will be a Republican congressional primary in Iowa. U.S. Representative Steve King, who has a long history of making racially charged remarks, faces a stiff re-election challenge after being largely abandoned by party leadership. PARIS - Tear gas choked Paris streets as riot police faced off with protesters setting fires Tuesday amid growing global outrage over George Floyd's death in the United States, racial injustice and heavy-handed police tactics around the world. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 2/6/2020 (597 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A woman holds a sign as protesters gather in Sydney, Tuesday, June 2, 2020, to support the cause of U.S. protests over the death of George Floyd and urged their own governments to address racism and police violence. Floyd died last week after he was pinned to the pavement by a white police officer who put his knee on the handcuffed black man's neck until he stopped breathing. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft) PARIS - Tear gas choked Paris streets as riot police faced off with protesters setting fires Tuesday amid growing global outrage over George Floyd's death in the United States, racial injustice and heavy-handed police tactics around the world. French protesters took a knee and raised their fists while firefighters struggled to extinguish multiple blazes as a largely peaceful, multiracial demonstration degenerated into scattered tensions. Police said at least 20,000 people joined the demonstration, defying a virus-related ban on protests to pay homage to Floyd and Adama Traore, a French black man who died in police custody. Electric scooters and construction barriers went up in flames, and smoke stained a sign reading Restaurant Open on the first day French cafes were allowed to open after nearly three months of virus lockdown. Chanting I cant breathe, thousands marched peacefully through Australias largest city, while thousands more demonstrated in the Dutch capital of The Hague and hundreds rallied in Tel Aviv. Expressions of anger erupted in multiple languages on social networks, with thousands of Swedes joining an online protest and others speaking out under the banner of #BlackOutTuesday. Diplomatic ire percolated too, with the European Union's top foreign policy official saying the bloc was shocked and appalled by Floyd's death. People observe social distancing as they take part in a demonstration in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, June 2, 2020, to protest against the recent killing of George Floyd, police violence and institutionalized racism. Floyd, a black man, died in police custody in Minneapolis, U.S.A., after being restrained by police officers on Memorial Day. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong) Floyd died last week after a police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes even after he stopped moving and pleading for air. The death set off protests that spread across America and now, beyond. As demonstrations escalated worldwide, solidarity with U.S. protesters increasingly mixed with local worries. This happened in the United States, but it happens in France, it happens everywhere, Paris protester Xavier Dintimille said. While he said police violence seems worse in the U.S., he added, all blacks live this to a degree. People observe social distancing as they take part in a demonstration in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, June 2, 2020, to protest against the recent killing of George Floyd, police violence and institutionalized racism. Floyd, a black man, died in police custody in Minneapolis, U.S.A., after being restrained by police officers on Memorial Day. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong) Fears of the coronavirus remain close to the surface and were the reason cited for banning Tuesday's protest at the main Paris courthouse, because gatherings of more than 10 people remain forbidden. But demonstrators showed up anyway. Some said police violence worsened during virus confinement in working class suburbs with large minority populations, deepening a feeling of injustice. As the Paris demonstration wound down, police fired volley after volley of tear gas and protesters threw debris. Police were less visible than usual at the city's frequent protests. Tensions also erupted at a related protest in the southern city of Marseille. People take part in a demonstration in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, June 2, 2020, to protest against the recent killing of George Floyd, police violence and institutionalized racism. Floyd, a black man, died in police custody in Minneapolis, U.S.A., after being restrained by police officers on Memorial Day. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong) The demonstrations were held in honour of Traore, who died shortly after his arrest in 2016, and in solidarity with Americans demonstrating against Floyds death. The Traore case has become emblematic of the fight against police brutality in France. The circumstances of the death of the 24-year-old Frenchman of Malian origin are still under investigation after four years of conflicting medical reports about what happened. The lawyer for two of the three police officers involved in the arrest, Rodolphe Bosselut, said the Floyd and Traore cases have strictly nothing to do with each other." Bosselut told The Associated Press that Traore's death wasn't linked with the conditions of his arrest but other factors, including a preexisting medical condition. Protesters gather Tuesday, June 2, 2020 in Paris. Thousands of people defied a police ban and converged on the main Paris courthouse for a demonstration to show solidarity with U.S. protesters and denounce the death of a black man in French police custody. The demonstration was organized to honor Frenchman Adama Traore, who died shortly after his arrest in 2016, and in solidarity with Americans demonstrating against George Floyd's death. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) Traores family says he died from asphyxiation because of police tactics and that his last words were I cant breathe. I cant breathe were also the final words of David Dungay, a 26-year-old Aboriginal man who died in a Sydney prison in 2015 while being restrained by five guards. As 3,000 people marched peacefully through Sydney, many said they had been inspired by a mixture of sympathy for African Americans and to call for change in Australias treatment of its indigenous population, particularly involving police. The mostly Australian crowd at the authorized demonstration also included protesters from the U.S. and elsewhere. Protesters react during a demonstration Tuesday, June 2, 2020 in Paris. Paris riot officers fired tear gas as scattered protesters threw projectiles and set fires at an unauthorized demonstration against police violence and racial injustice. Several thousand people rallied peacefully for two hours around the main Paris courthouse in homage to George Floyd and to Adama Traore, a French black man who died in police custody. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) Im here for my people, and for our fallen brothers and sisters around the world, said Sydney indigenous woman Amanda Hill, 46, who attended the rally with her daughter and two nieces. Whats happening in America shines a light on the situation here." Even as U.S. President Donald Trump fanned anger by threatening to send in troops on American protesters, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau refrained from directly criticizing him and said the protests should force awareness of racism everywhere. We all watch in horror and consternation whats going on in the United States, he said after pausing 21 seconds before answering. But it is a time for us as Canadians to recognize that we, too, have our challenges, that black Canadians and racialized Canadians face discrimination as a lived reality every single day. There is systemic discrimination in Canada. Protester kick in tear gas canisters during a demonstration Tuesday, June 2, 2020 in Paris. Thousands of people defied a police ban and converged on the main Paris courthouse for a demonstration to show solidarity with U.S. protesters and denounce the death of a black man in French police custody. The demonstration was organized to honor Frenchman Adama Traore, who died shortly after his arrest in 2016, and in solidarity with Americans demonstrating against George Floyd's death. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) More protests in various countries are planned later in the week, including a string of demonstrations in front of U.S. embassies on Saturday. The drama unfolding in the U.S. drew increasing diplomatic concern. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrells remarks in Brussels were the strongest to come out of the 27-nation bloc, saying Floyds death was a result of an abuse of power. Clients who enjoyed their first drinks in a cafe after he lockdown watch police advancing during a demonstration Tuesday, June 2, 2020 in Marseille, southern France. Thousands of people defied a police ban and converged on the main Paris courthouse for a demonstration to show solidarity with U.S. protesters and denounce the death of a black man in French police custody. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole) Borrell told reporters that like the people of the United States, we are shocked and appalled by the death of George Floyd. He underlined that Europeans support the right to peaceful protest, and also we condemn violence and racism of any kind, and for sure, we call for a de-escalation of tensions. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said peaceful protests in the U.S. following Floyds death are understandable and more than legitimate. I can only express my hope that the peaceful protests do not continue to lead to violence, but even more express the hope that these protests have an effect in the United States, Maas said. More African leaders are speaking up over the killing of Floyd. It cannot be right that, in the 21st century, the United States, this great bastion of democracy, continues to grapple with the problem of systemic racism, Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo said in a statement, adding that black people the world over are shocked and distraught. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Kenyan opposition leader and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga offered a prayer for the U.S., that there be justice and freedom for all human beings who call America their country. Like some in Africa who have spoken out, Odinga also noted troubles at home, saying the judging of people by character instead of skin colour is a dream we in Africa, too, owe our citizens. ___ Associated Press writers Rick Rycroft in Sydney, Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, Lori Hinnant in Paris, Aritz Parra in Madrid, Frank Jordans in Berlin, Lorne Cook in Brussels, Peter Dejong in The Hague contributed. ___ Follow APs latest news about the protests at https://apnews.com/GeorgeFloyd THE State is now facing a potential lawsuit for tortious assault and battery by a family that was tear-gassed by police while at the Queens Park Savannah in Port of Spain last Sunday. Acting Police Commissioner McDonald Jacob has been given 28 days within which to provide specific pieces of information to attorneys representing the family or, in default, a civil claim will be filed at the High Court, the familys attorneys warned yesterday. An anarchist identified as Brian Jordan Bartels was captured on video damaging a police car in Pittsburgh, Penn. (Pittsburgh Bureau of Police) Anarchist Accused of Inciting a Riot Surrenders to Police An anarchist wanted for allegedly inciting a riot turned himself in on Monday. Brian Jordan Bartels, 20, over the weekend in Pittsburgh broke windows out of a police vehicle against the wishes of peaceful protesters who tried to stop him, the citys Bureau of Police said. Bartels surrendered on Monday afternoon and was being questioned by detectives, the bureau said. Video footage showed the man walking into police headquarters with a woman and another adult male. Bartels didnt answer shouted questions from reporters. According to a criminal complaint obtained by The Epoch Times, Bartels was charged with criminal mischief, institutional vandalism, inciting a riot, and recklessly endangering another person. Arraigned early Tuesday, bail was set at $10,000. The surrender came after detectives, FBI agents, and other officers executed a search warrant on Sunday on Bartels place of residence in Allison Park. Detectives found evidence including gloves, miscellaneous books and literature, six spray paint cans, an iPhone, and two firearms. 20-year-old anarchist Brian Jordan Bartels turned himself in on Monday after police searched his home and found evidence he incited a riot in Pittsburgh over the weekend. Bartels was charged with criminal mischief and three other crimes. Preliminary hearing slated for June 12. Zachary Stieber (@ZackStieber) June 2, 2020 Bartels was captured on videowearing black clothing and a black facial covering with an anarchist symbol emblazoned across itsmashing windows of a police van during a protest that had been peaceful. Violence kicked off, according to the complaint, with the vandalism of the vehicle, which was ultimately torched. A plainclothes detective in the crowd witnessed Bartels cause major damage to the van along while encouraging the crowd to also commit criminal acts, even as some protesters urged the man to stop what he was doing. As Bartels continued his destruction the crowd fought back against him less and more people began to join him in damaging the car, according to the criminal complaint. Bartels works at Amazon. A co-worker who knows him saw footage of the vandalism, called the police, and tipped them off to Bartels identity. Bartels wrote the co-worker on Saturday: If Im not at work tomorrow, ask the boss to give me paid time off. Amazon hasnt responded to requests for comment on the criminal charges, including questions on whether the anarchist is still employed. Among the evidence discovered at Bartels residence was a black hooded sweatshirt with white writing that matched the shirt Bartels was seen wearing at the scene of the crime. Pittsburgh officials said in recent days that anarchists and people from outside the city are responsible for much of the violence seen during protests and riots the past week. Riots have taken place alongside peaceful protests in cities across the nation in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a black man who was arrested last month in Minneapolis and died in police custody after a police officer was shown kneeling on his neck. Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneels on the neck of George Floyd, a handcuffed man who was pleading that he could not breathe, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 25, 2020. (Darnella Frazier via AP) People attacked reporters and innocent bystanders in Pittsburgh on Saturday, the day Bartels was recorded smashing the windows, while damaging some 60 businesses, according to Wendell Hissrich, Pittsburghs director of public safety. Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert told reporters at a press conference this week that a peaceful protest turned into a riot, with people hurling rocks at people, throwing cans, and injuring police officers and journalists. Officers were working to track down those who inflicted damage and fostered violence, he said, blaming white males, dressed in the anarchist Antifa [clothing]. We will look at every video that we have, and we will do everything we can with our technology to find the ones who were responsible for a lot of this, Schubert said. Im just so angry at the fact that some segment hijacked this and then took some of the youth and brought them into the mix. Federal officials are investigating the organizers and instigators of violence at protests, utilizing the 56 regional FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces, according to Attorney General William Barr. The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly, he said in a statement. Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, a Democrat, said the protest was hijacked by a group of 100 or more anarchists who were focused only on violence, directing people to the video showing Bartels. A preliminary hearing for Bartels is slated for June 12. A vial of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine. (Sakchai Lalit / Associated Press) To capture the speed and audacity of its plan to field a coronavirus vaccine, the Trump administration reached into science fictions vault for an inspiring moniker: Operation Warp Speed. The vaccine initiatives name challenges a mantra penned by an actual science fiction writer, Arthur C. Clarke: "Science demands patience." Patience is essential for those who ply the science of vaccines. But in that field, challenging economic conditions and a forbidding regulatory system converge with the immune systems complexity and the resilience of microscopic pathogens. Add in drug companies' preference for big profits and the result is a trash heap of failed and abandoned efforts. In the last 25 years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved new vaccines for only seven diseases. A vaccine to protect against the Ebola virus won approval just last year, three years after the epidemic in West Africa ended. But in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than 100,000 Americans and cratered the U.S. economy, Trump has shown little tolerance for sciences deliberate pace. And scientists, with fingers crossed, are falling in line. The president declared that he wants 300 million doses enough to protect as many as 90% of Americans developed, manufactured and delivered by January 2021. He has ordered academics, government officials, private companies and the U.S. military to work together to make it so. That means big and it means fast, Trump said. A massive scientific, industrial and logistical endeavor unlike anything our country has seen since the Manhattan Project. The new effort will demand the support, development, testing and assessment of several promising vaccine candidates by scientists at the National Institutes of Health, the FDA and companies and academic institutions across the world. It will require the manufacture, procurement and storage of complex biologic medicines, as well as the vials, needles, syringes and storage equipment needed to deliver them. All will be needed on a massive scale. Story continues And all that materiel will need to be transported, distributed and possibly administered by an army of logistics specialists. Wherever possible, Operation Warp Speed envisions that many steps that have always followed each other in strict sequence clinical trials and production, for instance, or government approval and supply-chain development be done in parallel. The program has already awarded a total of $2.16 billion to five companies with vaccine candidates at different stages of development. To lead the effort, Trump tapped immunologist Moncef Slaoui, a pharmaceutical venture capitalist and former chairman of vaccines at the drug giant GlaxoSmithKline. The U.S. Armys most senior logistics and procurement specialist, Gen. Gustave Perna, will be the operations chief operating officer. Both expressed confidence in the operations success. Perna called the project herculean. Slaoui, who has been criticized for holding a major stake in at least one of the vaccine makers that stands to benefit from Operation Warp Speed, told Trump we will do the best we can. The time is short and the stakes are high. Just over four months after the coronavirus announced its presence inside the United States, President Trump is determined to send the country back to work. With no effective treatment in sight, and no indication that the coronavirus would magically disappear, as Trump has frequently predicted, a vaccine will be the ultimate game changer in the pandemic, according Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading expert on the outbreak. Theres never a guarantee of success, Fauci said. But he added that he was cautiously optimistic that by winter, at least one of nearly a dozen promising vaccine candidates would have shown itself to be safe and effective in inducing immunity in humans. Vaccine scientists are similarly cautious, especially of a testing schedule that will compress both the size and duration of safety and effectiveness trials and even overlap them in a bid to save time. Its fine for politicians to say were going to have a vaccine next month," said Mayo Clinic immunologist Dr. Gregory Poland. "But the literature is littered with false starts and unanticipated safety effects in vaccines. Poland noted that a vaccine's rarer side effects are often not recognized until it's put into broad use. To ferret out an adverse outcome that only occurs in one person in 100,000, for instance, a company would need to test it in 384,250 people from broad backgrounds and with a variety of medical conditions, he said. Such large trials are unlikely in the rush to field a vaccine, Poland said, and he fears the result could be a dangerous erosion of public trust. The yearly flu shot carries a risk of less than 1 in 1 million cases of the neurological complication Guillain-Barre syndrome, he said. And even with that low a risk, close to half of Americans refuse to get it. You have a whole spectrum of people out there who wont be reassured by any amount of information, Poland said. If we dont pay strict attention to safety, this is going to backfire. Money may help. Congress approved $8.3 billion in early March to fund federal agencies pandemic response. And scientists across the world have been scrambling to design vaccines to protect a population with no immunity to the deadly new pathogen. Scientists in China, Kazakhstan, India, Russia, Germany, Sweden and the United States have brought 10 potential COVID-19 vaccines to the point where they are being evaluated in humans in some form. Another 115 are considered by the World Health Organization to be in the preclinical stage of development. In some cases, these preclinical vaccine candidates are scarcely off the drawing board. In others, they are still being tweaked or tested in cells. Some are being tried in lab animals. The prospective vaccines range widely in their design and novelty. There are those that challenge a person's immune system with a killed or attenuated virus, the traditional approach used by the polio vaccine and other immunizations. Others are products of genetic engineering and have never been tried in a vaccine before. The vaccine candidates also vary in their ease of manufacture, the number of doses a patient needs to gain lasting immunity, and the way they are administered. FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn has said his agency evaluated about 10 vaccine candidates in early studies. By late May, it had narrowed its focus to five candidates that will begin a rapid and sometimes overlapping progression through human studies of safety and effectiveness. Meanwhile, the groundwork for large-scale production is already being laid. Trump has said that the U.S. military may aid in the manufacture, and companies with the capability to produce vaccines will be recruited to do so. Given the pressing urgency of the administrations deadline, vaccine candidates that can be produced fastest, transported most easily and administered to patients most efficiently will likely win the most and earliest support, experts said. The redundancy built into Operation Warp Speed may also prove a vital safeguard against failure. If the coronavirus shows signs that it is mutating in ways that could make one vaccine candidate ineffective, the scientific judges could swiftly shift their preferences toward a competitor that can be adapted more readily to changes in the virus. If rare but untoward effects show up with broader use, back-up vaccines could be brought on line. Some vaccines will be found to work better or worse in specific populations, and can be used accordingly. The result will be an evolving panoply of vaccine choices, not only because some will be ready earlier than others, but because some will be more effective than others in certain populations. "There will be of necessity multiple types of vaccines," Poland said. Michael S. Kinch, who directs the Center for Drug Discovery at Washington University in St. Louis, said that while there are pitfalls inherent to Operation Warp Speed, another pandemic offers comforting reassurance that in fielding the right drug, patience is an essential virtue. In the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the first generation of drugs was mediocre at best, he said. As scientists learned more about the virus and the disease it causes, the medicines became more effective. "That may be a model for what were going to have here," Kinch said. "We may not get the best vaccine up front. But hopefully it will be good enough and will be replaced later by better vaccines. We have may just have to live with that until we get a better one." Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid have come to blows over their feelings about Swedish home furnishings store Ikea. Morgan faced a backlash from his Good Morning Britain co-host, viewers and even his own mother as he rubbished the furniture store declaring he could not understand why hundreds of customers queued for hours outside Ikea when it reopened on Monday, following weeks of lockdown closures. Morgan, 55, exclaimed: Is it really that after three months of lockdown your dream is to get a bit of plywood from Ikea? If so, what kind of human being are you!?" He then revealed he had received a flurry of texts defending the store: My mother, Did you just say a Billy bookcase? Just what I need. Good Morning Britain hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid clashed over Ikea. (ITV) What are you talking about mother. How do you even know what a Billy bookcase is? Read more: Piers Morgan blames Dominic Cummings for 'destroying' lockdown And Kelly Hoppen, designer to the stars, You could be such a prat, she just texted me. People have been locked up for weeks looking at four walls, Ikea is fantastic at everything and people are doing makeovers, and inexpensive and great value. .@piersmorgan has faced some backlash from the IKEA faithful, including his own mum! @susannareid100 explains that after sitting in your house staring at the faults throughout lockdown it's understandable to make it your first outing. pic.twitter.com/n0s3mwlmBR Good Morning Britain (@GMB) June 2, 2020 Alright, easy tiger! The Billy bookcase is one of Ikeas bestselling items. Reid admitted she was a huge fan of the Swedish furniture store and would often pop in just to buy some tealights, a pair of scissors and a Danish pastry. Susanna Reid told Piers Morgan she loves a day out at Ikea. (AP) The 49-year-old mother-of-two told Morgan: "For some people it's been extremely boring [the lockdown]... I love a day out at Ikea. Story continues "You can just get lost in Ikea. I think they deliberately make it so that you can get lost in Ikea because I can never find a way out. There is a one-way system." She added that Morgan should offer to take his mother. Reid said: "You could say, 'Mum, I'll tell you what, after this shift I will get in my car, get in my Aston Martin, I'll drive down to Ikea." Piers Morgan has promised to buy his mother a BiIlly bookcase from Ikea. (Getty Images) Morgan retorted: "Mum, consider it done, I'm getting you a Billy bookcase. I'll buy you one just to shut you up about Billy bookcase." Their debate followed reports that hundreds turned up to queue outside the south London Ikea on Monday ahead of its reopening at 10am. Read more: Piers Morgan's mum becomes embroiled in Lord Sugar feud Parts of the carpark had to be closed to manage the socially distance queuing and customers arriving in cars were asked to consider going away and returning at another time. The store even opened half an hour early in a bid to cope with demand. Donald Trumps brief appearance at a shuttered church outside the White House on Monday was motivated by his fury at news coverage saying he was rushed to the White House bunker for his safety on Friday, reports say. According to CNNs Kaitlan Collins, Mr Trump made the highly unusual trip outside the White House gates for which crowds were cleared by police partly because he was upset by the coverage. Reacting to her report, a visibly dismayed Anderson Cooper replied, Oh my god. Were in trouble. His photo op at St Johns Episcopal Church, which is only a minutes walk from the White House, was facilitated by riot police clearing Lafayette Square with tear gas and rubber bullets, holding protesters back less than 100 yards away so that the president could walk over to the church, where he silently held up a bible while explosions and shouting were heard from out of shot. The White House bunker, whose full name is the Presidential Emergency Operations Centre, is a secure shelter underneath the houses East Wing. It allows officials and presidents sheltering there to continue their work in safety during emergencies, and was famously used for the purpose on 9/11. Mr Trump and his wife were reportedly rushed to the bunker on Friday night as protesters reached the gates of the White House, where they clashed with police. The president has lately been calling for tough action to halt the protests, including on Twitter, one missive simply reading LAW & ORDER! In leaked audio from a conference call with governors on Monday, he can be heard telling them you have to dominate. If you dont dominate youre wasting your time. Theyre going to run over you, youre going to look like a bunch of jerks. You have to dominate. Going beyond simply condemning the riots, Mr Trump the same day called for heavily armed military deployments on American streets even over the objections of governors and mayors. However, it is unclear whether he has the legal authority to give such orders unilaterally. A 22-month-old boy who was bashed by his mother's boyfriend and left to die was failed in 'nearly every possible way' by the Department of Child Safety, a coroner has ruled. Mason Jet Lee died of an infection in Caboolture, Queensland, in June 2016 after William O'Sullivan struck him in the abdomen so hard it ruptured his small intestine. Deputy state coroner Jane Bentley said 'the handling of Mason's case was a failure in nearly every possible way' when she handed down her findings in the Brisbane Coroners Court on Tuesday. 'I conclude that the department failed in its duty to protect Mason from the risk of serious harm that he faced in the months prior to his death,' she wrote in her findings. Mason Jet Lee died of an infection in Caboolture, Queensland, in June 2016 after he was struck in the abdomen by his mother's boyfriend, William O'Sullivan 'Indeed, it is difficult to find any step taken in this case that was carried out in accordance with policies and procedures and correctly documented. 'The fact that the Ethical Standards Unit (ESU) found that 21 employees of the department involved in Mason's case (10 at CCSSC and a further 11 employees involved in intakes) failed to carry out their duties appropriately is indicative of the scale of the failure.' The Courier-Mail reported a senior Child Safety employee was dismissed on Monday, ahead of the coroner's findings. O'Sullivan was initially jailed for nine years over the 22-month-old boy's 2016 death but a successful appeal by the Crown increased it to 12 years. However, an appeal against the leniency of the sentence given to the toddler's mother Anne Maree Lee was dismissed by the Queensland Court of Appeal in December, 2019. The pair pleaded guilty to Mason's manslaughter after failing to get him medical treatment as he suffered an agonising death. Ms Bentley told the court her findings contained graphic and distressing details about Mason's life and last days. 'I include it in the findings not to shock or upset but in recognition of the fact that these things happened to this little boy whilst he was a child in our community,' she said. William O'Sullivan (right) and Mason's mother Anne Maree Lee (left) pleaded guilty to manslaughter after failing to get the toddler medical treatment 'If Mason had to endure these things then we as a community should be aware and acknowledge them.' An autopsy conducted on Mason found his death was caused by the infection, but that he had numerous other injuries indicating he had been severely mistreated for some time. He had been punched or kicked with such force that it fractured his coccyx several days before he died. Mason suffered displacement of his large bowel and rectum, a fractured coccyx and tibia, 46 bruises to his body, mouth and ear ulcers, scalp haemorrhages from head trauma and bowel injuries which led to infection. The toddler also had illicit drugs in his system. The findings outlined how the little boy's declining health in his final days had been largely ignored by his mother and stepfather. The family had been known to the child safety department since before Mason's birth in 2014. In 2015 the department found the children were safe with their mother and did not need to be fostered out, despite evidence she had been using drugs and alcohol. An autopsy conducted on Mason found his death was caused by the infection, but that he had numerous other injuries indicating he had been severely mistreated for some time Mason was hospitalised in early 2016 when a doctor noted his injuries and called them the worst he had ever seen. The department again made the decision to release the toddler back to his family. The last time anyone from the department actually saw Mason was in March 2016. Ms Bentley's assessment of how the department handled the case was damning. 'Despite all of the information available to the department, which clearly indicated that Mason was a child at risk of serious harm, nobody from the department saw him or checked on his welfare for three months before he was killed,' she wrote. She acknowledged the department was understaffed and staff were overworked. However, she said the case was mismanaged on a number of levels, and that the department needed to review its policies about how it implements out-of-home care for at-risk children. Tennessee will soon stop sharing COVID-19 data with the public on the grounds that access to case information will create a false sense of security within the public as well as potentially expose the private information of individuals. An email from state officials told first responders and local law enforcement that an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding to release names) was no longer needed because the PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) supply chain has stabilized and our understanding of COVID-19 has increased. The statement added that disclosure of information was no longer warranted. When confronted by an elected official about the heretofore unknown policy change, Republican Tennessee Governor Bill Lee told the media, Well, all along the policy was a temporary one. So we know that. The only decision we have is when to suspend it. The decision to stop sharing information on the spread of COVID-19 is of a piece with the efforts of the Republican state government to enforce a back to work drive and normalize the social consequences of the infectious disease. According to the Associated Press, nearly two-thirds of states in the United States are sharing the addresses of confirmed COVID-19 victims. The decision to cease the sharing of information will place the lives of first respondersparamedics, police and social workersat risk. This decision to halt sharing patient information comes despite recent reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that more than 62,000 health care workers in the United States have been infected with COVID-19 and almost 300 have died. Just six weeks ago only about 9,000 health care workers had been infected and there were less than 30 deaths in the US. The figures, however distressing, do not convey the real infection rate because only about 1 in 5 patients with COVID-19 reported their occupation and only 16 percent of nurses in the US have been tested, according to one survey. Last month, the Tennessee Department of Health recommended to health care workers that large heavy-duty garbage bags, swim goggles and common supermarket plastic sacks would serve to replace Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) like medical gowns, face shields and rubber gloves. Department of Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey also claimed it was not helpful and refused to release figures about a category of possible COVID-19 related deaths in the state. Piercey also claimed the supply of Personal Protection Equipment has stabilized, a statement which is undermined by numerous national surveys of available PPE for medical personnel. In addition, the Tennessee government this week was forced to withdraw a plan to create millions of low-grade facemasks after serious defects were discovered. Governor Lee halted release of the masks, made from sock material, when it was reported they were contaminated with a pesticide which could be inhaled. Also, the masks are being made with cheap material so porous that news organizations and one elected official reported being able to see through them. The masks were touted by the Governors COVID-19 United Force as having been treated with Silvadur, a non-toxic silver antimicrobial good for 25 industrial washes. Free reusable, washable cloth masks are available at every state health department so Tennesseans can get access to those, Lee boasted at a recent COVID-19 briefing. The antibacterial qualities of Silvadur, made by Dupont and considered a pesticide by the Environmental Protection Agency, have nothing to do with the COVID-19 virus. It was created to kill odor-causing bacteria in socks and other clothing. It is also used in bed sheets which promoted warnings not to allow infants and toddlers to chew on the material. I wouldnt wear one, Dr. Warren Porter, a professor of environmental toxicology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, told News Channel 5. Nobody wants to breathe in COVID, but I wouldnt want to be breathing in something that I also knew could be poisoning my body in a relatively short period of time and might be having multi-year effects on my health. A study at the National Institutes of Healths National Library of Medicine supported that conclusion. Moreover, silver in the form of nanoparticles exhibits an enhanced capability to penetrate protection barriers and tissues, and thus gain access to cells and biological molecules in the body, which results in acute or chronic effects such as organ injuries, the study revealed. The administration of multi-millionaire businessman Bill Lee has done everything it could to slow down implementation of actions that would have reduced the spread of the virus and the number of deaths. First, Lee dragged his feet in implementing a safer-at-home policy, citing individual freedoms and only his wish to only suggest that people stay home and find solace in prayer. Only after a petition was circulated and signed by thousands of doctors and endorsed by the Tennessee Medical Association did Lee take any action. Lee then ignored warnings from local, state, national and international health officials and was quick to join other states to re-open the economy. When reporters sought answers, they were barred by state officials from asking questions or even entering a state COVID-19 meeting, according to Channel 5 and the Chattanooga Times Free Press. As of Sunday, Tennessee ranks sixth in the nation in the rate COVID-19 is spreading, according to rt.live, which tracks the spread of the disease. It has been as high as second in recent days. Tennessee has an infection spread rate of 1.06, which equals the average number of people who become sick from an infectious person. If the value is less than one, the spread of the disease is slowing. The higher the Rt number, the greater the rate of spreading. On Monday, Tennessee reported over 23,000 cases and 364 deaths. Footage has emerged of an Aboriginal teenager being slammed to the ground by a white cop in Surry Hills. (Photo: Justice for Buddy, Lewis Kelly Jnr Facebook ) Footage has emerged online of a white police officer using force to slam an Aboriginal teenager to the ground in the inner-city Sydney suburb of Surry Hills. The video was posted to Facebook on Monday evening and stated that a 17-year-old Indigenous man was with friends in a park 100m from his home when the incident occurred. (They were) doing nothing just being boys hanging out with each other when Police arrest (sic) him for no reason at all, the accompanying caption to the post said. He was taken to the police station and down to the holding cells. The incident in Surry Hills was caught on camera. (Photo: Facebook) In the footage, the police officer can be seen having a tense conversation with the group before the teenager said Ill crack you across the jaw, bro. The police officer then arrested the teen and kicked his feet from under him, which resulted in the teens face being pressed into the ground. The Facebook post said the teen was transferred to holding cells and onto St Vincents Hospital via ambulance where a family member took photos of his injuries. I have just come from the hospital and he is awaiting X-Rays, the family member continued in the post. (He) also sustained a bruised shoulder, cuts and grazing to his knee, face and elbow and chipped teeth. I have read the facts sheets and no charges have been laid, as police state he will be charged at a later date. The incident in Surry Hills was caught on camera. (Photo: Facebook) NSW Police told HuffPost Australia the constable involved has been placed on restricted duties while a review is carried out. Its alleged a 17-year-old boy from the group threatened an officer, before being arrested and taken to Surry Hills Police Station, the police said. He was subsequently taken to St Vincents Hospital for observation before being released into the custody of family pending further inquiries. An investigation into the circumstances surrounding the arrest is now underway by officers attached to the Professional Standards Command. Related... Im Embarrassed: Indigenous Activists Call Out Channel 9 Reporter Who Claimed Australia Cant Relate To Black Deaths In Custody Story continues Donald Trump Vows To Crack Down On Anti-Racist Protests In Surreal Rose Garden Speech Ariana Grande, Tessa Thompson, Halsey Join George Floyd Protests Australian Channel 7 Reporters Knocked Down By Police At George Floyd Protest, PM Scott Morrison Calls For Investigation As the US faces more protests after the death of unarmed Black man George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes, tensions have been felt on home soil. Nearly 2,000 people rallied in Perth overnight and more Black Lives Matter protests are planned across the country for this week. Leading Australian criminal lawyer Nick Hanna said this footage is especially worrying because the officer seemed to know he was being filmed and he still showed minimal hesitation to use violence against a young Aboriginal person, despite race tensions building not just across the US but in many global cities. While we do not know all of the circumstances leading up to the arrest, it does appear clear from the footage that it was unlawful, Hanna told HuffPost Australia. Under NSW law, the power to arrest must be a measure of last resort. That is because in a democratic society the removal of someones liberty should never be done lightly. In cases where police are entitled to arrest, they must comply with certain safeguards and can only do so using as much force as is necessary. Hanna said that, in this case, if the young person was not resisting or seeking to flee, the officer may have had other options available to him, such as the issuing of a court attendance notice. Where police use unnecessary force, they are committing an assault, he added. Hanna recommends all Australians that witness police confrontation or who may become involved in an incident with police, film it. This is in the hope that it deters the police from using excessive force, Hanna said. And helps the victims of such excessive force get justice. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. The Taliban still maintains close ties with the Al-Qaeda terrorist network, despite signing a peace deal with the United States in which they committed to fight militant groups, a new United Nations report said. The Taliban slammed the report, made public on June 1, as "baseless and bigoted." Under the U.S.-Taliban deal signed in February, the militant group pledged to combat other extremists and deny them from using Afghan soil to launch attacks on the United States and its allies. "Relations between the Taliban, especially the Haqqani network, and [Al-Qaeda] remain close, based on friendship, a history of shared struggle, ideological sympathy and intermarriage," said the report sent by independent UN sanctions monitors to the UN Security Council. The report added that the Taliban "regularly consulted" with Al-Qaeda during negotiations with the United States and "offered guarantees that it would honor their historical ties." "The challenge will be to secure the counterterrorism gains to which the Taliban have committed" under the U.S.-Taliban deal, the report said. U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad downplayed the UN report, saying it largely covered a period before the February agreement. "There is progress, but we will continue to monitor those activities very closely," he said of Taliban ties with Al-Qaeda, adding that if the Taliban fails to keep its promises, Washington could reconsider its own. Under the agreement, signed in Doha on February 29, the United States will pull troops out of Afghanistan by mid-2021, while the Taliban also committed to launching direct negotiations with the Afghan government over a permanent cease-fire and a future power-sharing arrangement. Russia delivered a batch of Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29 combat aircraft to Syria on May 30, 2020, to counter the threat posed by Israel's F-16 Fighting Falcons. The MiG-29 fighters, the most advanced versions of the legendary jets, were handed over to the Syrian Arab Air Force at the Hmeimim base in Lattakia. "In the framework of military and technical cooperation between Russia and Syria, the Russian side handed over the second batch of advanced and modernized MiG-29 fighter jets to Syria, during a ceremony at Hmeimim base. As of June 1, 2020, Syrian pilots will begin to carry out missions on those planes in Syrian airspace," Syrian news agency SANA quoted a senior military officer as saying. Russian news agency Avia.Pro claimed that with the MiG-29s in its arsenal, Syrian forces will be able to tackle and even get the better of Israel's F-16 Fighting Falcons. According to Avia.Pro the MiG-29s supplied to Syria have better combat capabilities than the F-16s operated by Israel both of which are single-seater jets. The report also added that while Syrian forces received a massive boost with the induction of MiG-29s, the country may not be able to counter every weapon in Israel's armoury yet. However, the Russian-made fighters will force the enemy before launching any attack on Syria. MiG-29, a twin-engine supersonic fighter, is already in service with Russian Aerospace Forces, Indian Air Force (IAF), Uzbekistan Air and Air Defence Forces and Polish Air Force along with several other nations. Designed and developed during the 1970s, the MiG-29's primary task was to tackle the threat posed by F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon of the United States of America and its allies. Over the last couple of decades, the MiG-29 has been upgraded from its aerial combat role into a potent multirole fighter. Powered by two Klimov RD-33 turbofan engines, the MiG-29's ferry range is 1,500 kilometres and to 2,100 km with external tanks. The latest MiG-29s also have air-to-air refuelling probes. With a maximum speed of more than Mach 2.25 (over 2700 km per hour) and a maximum takeoff weight of 18,000 kilogrammes, the MiG-29 can fly at a height of 18 km. The fighter is armed with one internal 30 mm Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-30-1 autocannon with 150 rounds with some variants carrying 100 rounds. The fighter, which has 7 hardpoints for missiles and bombs, can carry up to 4,000 kg of ammunition. On the other hand, the F-16 Fighting Falcon has one engine but is also a supersonic multirole fighter. The F-16, too, like MiG-29 was developed as an air superiority fighter but later upgraded into a multirole jet. Apart from the United States of America, the major countries operating the F-16 are Pakistan, Israel, Turkey and Egypt. the earlier version of F-16 were powered by one General Electric F110-GE-129 afterburning turbofan while the more advanced veriants use Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-229 . The F-16's maximum takeoff weight is 19,187 kg and the jet can reach a maximum speed of Mach 2.05. The fighter's range is 4,217 km with external fuel drop tanks and its service ceiling is 18,000 km. The F-16 has 11 hardpoints for weapons along with a 20 mm M61A1 Vulcan 6-barrel rotary cannon with 511 rounds. Some variants have been modified to carry nuclear bombs too. Connecting with and keeping in touch with one another could be considered a basic human need and with restrictions on our movements during this global pandemic, perhaps even more so. Keeping connected in todays wireless world of cellphones and computers is pretty much taken for granted; however for our ancestors and early residents of Norwood the coming of the newfangled device called the telephone must have been a surreal experience. It was around 1875 in Brantford, Ont. while relaxing atop the bluff that Alexander Graham Bell dreamed up the idea that would lead to his invention that would change the world, the telephone. The very first wired communication system of sorts in the village came in conjunction with the coming of train service to Norwood in 1885, although at the time this was used exclusively by the Canadian Pacific Railway. A year later in 1886 an independent firm called the North American Telegraph Co. was incorporated in Southern Ontario, in 1892 it would be this company that established the first official telephone service in Norwood. This first phone system bore hardly any resemblance to the technologically advanced phones and wireless devices we have today instead it was simply a collection of wires running to a central hub or switchboard that was staffed by an operator; when you wanted to make a call you would pick up your receiver, signal for the operator and ask them to connect you to your desired party, they would then literally plug the wires in to make the connection. In the early days exchanges were localized within their individual villages, in Norwood the switchboard was located in what was known as the Reynoldses Block, a group of stores located on the southwest corner of Highway 7 and County Road 45 where The Norwood Convenience is today. The honour of having the very first telephone in Norwood belongs to one George J. Sherry, a barrister and solicitor whose office was in the same building. By 1907 the Norwood switchboard had moved across the road to the back of Thomsons Drug Store; a fortuitous move as it turned out, because in 1910 the Reynoldses block burned to the ground. The North American Telegraph Co. was eventually bought over by the Bell telephone company in 1911. Telephone numbers were quite simple at one time comprising of only a couple of numbers, for example in 1918 if you were to ask the operator for No. 27, they would connect you with F. J. Stewart at the Norwood Garage (the forerunner of todays J. J. Stewart Motors). Norwood as turns out also holds an interesting distinction in the province because of its phone system; the village was the very first small town in Ontario to replace its live operator with dial phones in 1934 and thus began the tradition of wrong numbers, busy signals and telling your kids to get off the phone. Lions give thanks Even though all of the Norwood Lions Clubs normal summer events have been cancelled due to the pandemic this year, the club is still remaining active and committed to their mandate of community betterment. Last week the club decided it was time to do something to say thank you to the staff at the villages two seniors homes. Mapleview Retirement Residence was the recipient of five new planters filled with colourful flowers for both staff and residents to enjoy. Over at Pleasant Meadow Manor Nursing Home the staff received seven new comfy patio chairs. As mentioned the club will be limited with their fundraising pursuits; however they have announced that they will be continuing with the long running Lions Calendar Sale later in the year, which will be done by telephone. Teacups I am looking for teacups! Now let me explain that unusual request. I am sure that most readers of my column have now realized that I am a bit of a history enthusiast. The village archives are filled with stories of the industrious men that built the town; however I have noticed as I researched various stories that their wives in many cases were just as astute as their husbands. So a project that I have been working on for the last year or so is a collection of profiles of the ladies of Norwood and Asphodel both past and present. To accompany their biographies I have been trying to collect a teacup as a small physical memento of each lady. Eventually the plan is to create an exhibit that will be on display at our Historical Centre and ideally the cup would originally have belonged to the individual however I realize for some that will not be possible so one that is true to the ladies era will serve to represent them. With the great downsize and cleanout that has been taking place in many homes lately due to COVID-19, I thought I had better make my request now or the opportunity may soon disappear. So, if you have a story to share about your mother, grandmother or aunt, have a teacup or two that you no longer want or would simply like to hear more about my little project, call me at 705-639-2100 or email norwoodnews@nexicom.net Forest Products See Increase via Port of Savannah; Wood Pulp, Paper, Paperboard Lead Commodity Group The Georgia Ports Authority reported exports of paper and paperboard via the Port of Savannah grew by 16.2 percent in the first three months of 2020. (Photo courtesy International Paper) June 2, 2020 (Georgia Ports Authority) - While many cargo categories have seen struggles related to COVID-19, certain forest products are seeing strong demand at the start of 2020. Among the Port of Savannah's top five forest product exports - wood pulp, paper and paperboard, logs and lumber, veneers and plywood, and boards - the Port of Savannah handled 118,783 twenty-foot equivalent container units, an increase of 2.6 percent or 3,000 TEUs, in the first three months of the year (the latest period for which containerized commodity data is available). Wood pulp, paper and paperboard drove most of the growth, with wood pulp volumes increasing by 16.3 percent (7,714 TEUs) January through March compared to 2019, for a total of 55,083 TEUs. Similarly, paper and paperboard grew from 42,809 to 49,732 TEUs during the first three months of the year, an increase of 16.2 percent, or 6,923 TEUs. "The paperboard and containerboard are used for packaging of products you see on your store shelves and for making much-needed boxes that are in high demand due to the growth of e-commerce, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic," said Plastic Express President and CEO Ray Hufnagel. The company, best known for packaging and transporting resins and other plastic goods, moves other commodities through its subsidiary, PX Services, to global destinations via the Port of Savannah. "The wood pulp we receive is a high purity cellulose specialty product that is used in pharmaceuticals, among many other products," Hufnagel said. April numbers for GPA commodities are not yet available. Anecdotally, however, port customers have noted continued strong demand for commodities such as paper and paperboard. "Domestic paper sales are up due to the COVID 19 rush," said David Porter, regional sales manager at GPA. "Georgia-Pacific is looking to be up 15 percent for the fiscal year and Graphic Packaging up 10.5 percent. Driving this growth is the demand for more food-grade boxes. As more people stay home, the demand for these types of products has increased." Logs and Lumber Logs and lumber saw an initial decline compared to 2019, however orders are rising significantly as trade deals have reopened the market into China. "Demand is skyrocketing, and many of the log providers are scrambling to meet demand," Porter said. "We have multiple companies looking at the Appalachian Regional Port and another working with GLOVIS in West Georgia to match-back empty containers from KIA. Some log exporters are seeing growth of 200 percent to 300 percent." Plastic Express Recently Opened Building 1 Savannah's forest products volumes may also be positively impacted by the entry of Plastic Express into the local market handling these commodities. The company's recently opened Building 1 is now receiving railcars of paper and wood pulp. Container stuffing operations for forest products began in February. "Since those initial carloads, we have seen growth through our facility and in just a few months are up to around 700 twenty-foot equivalent container units with a lot more growth in the pipeline," Hufnagel said. "The challenges with COVID-19 have impacted businesses and consumers alike, however the need for paper to be used for packaging products and wood pulp for pharmaceuticals, toiletries, and diapers are still very much in demand." Plastic Express began its initial operations in Savannah last year with 1.1 million square feet of space and 265 rail car spots, with nearly half of that available to non-resin commodities. The company has now started construction on Building 2 in Savannah, adding another 1.2 million square feet of space and 235 rail car spots, again with roughly half of the new capacity available to forest products. Georgia mills provide the largest share of paper products arriving at the Savannah warehouse, with the remainder coming from Florida and South Carolina. The company is also competing for forest products business out of Alabama, Arkansas and North Carolina. Hufnagel said access to Class I railroads CSX and Norfolk Southern via shortline carrier Georgia Central extends the company's reach to customers across the U.S. Southeast. Key destinations for the paper and pulp shipments include South America, Asia, India and North Africa. "Good news for the forestry industry not only benefits the Georgia Ports Authority, but the state economy as a whole," said GPA Executive Director Griff Lynch. "The industry spans the state of Georgia, from landowners and pulpwood growers, to major mills and the thousands of people they employ." As one of the state's largest public employers, the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) directly employs almost 1,300 trained logistics professionals. The GPA, however, is responsible for generating far more employment throughout the state. GPA operations, together with private sector, port-related operations, account for more than 440,000 jobs statewide, $106 billion dollars in revenue, and income exceeding $25 billion annually. For further information visit: gaports.com . SOURCE: Georgia Ports Authority The relevant resolution shall enter into force on the day of its adoption Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has supported resolution 3449, which appeals to the UN and foreign governments to condemn Russia's violation of the rights and freedoms of Crimean Tatars. 310 MPs voted for it. The online broadcast was provided by the 112 Ukraine TV channel. "To approve the Address of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to the United Nations, the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the BSEC Parliamentary Assembly, governments and parliaments of the world on honoring the victims of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people and condemning the violations by the Russian Federation, as the aggressor state, of the rights and freedoms of the Crimean Tatar people," the text of the resolution reads. This resolution shall enter into force on the day of its adoption. As we reported earlier, Charge d'Affaires of the United States in Ukraine Kristina Kvien confirmed that the United States did not recognize the annexation of Crimea. "We solely remember the start of Soviet deportations of Crimean Tatars which caused unimaginable suffering, traumas, and deaths of many thousands. The grief these individuals and their families endured cannot be measured or justified. These traumas and suffering are only deepened by Russia's modern-day occupation of Crimea. The United States does not and will not Russia's purported annexation of Crimea. Our Crimea-related sanctions will remain in place until Russia returns control of the Crimean peninsula to Ukraine, and our commitment to Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity is unshakable. We call on Russia to stop its legacy of inflicting suffering on the people of Crimea, to end conscription there and to immediately return full control of Crimea to Ukraine," Kvien stated. By Jarrett Renshaw PHILADELPHIA, June 2 (Reuters) - In his first major address in weeks, former Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday will vow not to "fan the flames of hate if elected president and instead seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued" the United States. Speaking in Philadelphia a city rocked by sometimes violent protests in recent days Biden will take square aim at President Donald Trumps handling of the wave of demonstrations across the country over racism and police misconduct, according to excerpts of the speech released by his campaign. Biden, a Democrat who will face the Republican Trump in the Nov. 3 election, will be particularly critical of the presidents decision on Monday to stand for a photo beside a historic church across from the White House after law enforcement authorities tear-gassed protesters to clear the area. When peaceful protesters are dispersed by the order of the president from the doorstep of the peoples house, the White House using tear gas and flash grenades in order to stage a photo op at a noble church, we can be forgiven for believing that the president is more interested in power than in principle, Biden is expected to say. Cities nationwide have seen widespread protests since George Floyd, an African-American man, died at the hands of police in Minneapolis on May 25. Biden will describe Floyd's death as "a wake-up call for our nation." "I promise you this. I wont traffic in fear and division. I wont fan the flames of hate," he will say. At least five U.S. police officers were shot and wounded during violent protests over the death of Floyd, police and media said, hours after Trump vowed on Monday to deploy the military if unrest did not stop. Biden is aiming to strike a careful balance between validating anger over police mistreatment of minorities while condemning violence as a response. His speech on Tuesday marks the first time he has left his home state of Delaware since mid-March, when the outbreak of the novel coronavirus forced him to campaign largely from his house. (Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw in Philadelphia. Writing by James Oliphant in Washington. Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Alistair Bell) Todays Headlines The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. Email address By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Spains temporary layoff scheme, known as ERTE, is shoring up the labor market during the coronavirus crisis, new figures show. At the very least it is preventing the kind of debacle experienced during the last two weeks of March, when around 900,000 people lost their jobs in the wake of the lockdown introduced by the government on March 14. New data shows that employment actually grew in May, as measured by new Social Security registrations, considered a measure of job creation. Registrations rose by an average of 97,462 new contributors for a total of 18.5 million. But between March 12 and May 31, the Social Security system lost 760,082 contributors, using daily figures. The uptick in May means that the labor market has regained nearly two out of every 10 jobs. Although 450,000 furloughed workers have gone back to their jobs, there are still nearly three million people on ERTEs across Spain Meanwhile, the number of registered unemployed rose by 26,573 people, for a total of nearly 3.75 million, according to figures released on Tuesday by the Labor and Social Security ministries. All of these numbers are heavily influenced by the ERTE furloughing scheme, which allows companies to temporarily send workers home or reduce their working hours, but forces them to take them back after a certain amount of time. Thousands of businesses have applied for ERTEs, driving up claims at state employment agencies. Although 450,000 furloughed workers have gone back to their jobs, there are still nearly three million people on ERTEs across Spain. The crisis has been especially hard on the tourism industry, which contributes more than 12% of Spains gross domestic product (GDP). The sector is hoping for some relief as the country moves out of a prolonged lockdown, with international travel expected to resume by early July at the latest. English version by Susana Urra. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) The Hague, Netherlands Tue, June 2, 2020 09:45 598 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb6dfa2 2 World Amsterdam,Dublin,George-Floyd,black-lives-matter,protests,Racism,racial-issues,racial-tension,US Free Thousands of protesters rallied in the Dutch and Irish capitals on Monday against the death of a black man during an arrest by police in the United States. Defying coronavirus restrictions, demonstrators in both Amsterdam and Dublin carried signs saying "Black Lives Matter", referring to the death of George Floyd in Minnesota. The protests that have roiled US cities for six nights have now spread around the world, with rallies as far afield as London and New Zealand. Around 3,000 protesters packed Dam Square in the centre of Amsterdam, standing close together despite coronavirus social distancing measures, local media said. The protest was partly organized by a group that aims to stop the Dutch Christmas tradition of "Black Pete" -- one of Santa's helpers who is dressed in blackface. In Dublin, protestors marched on the US embassy on Monday afternoon, chanting Floyd's name and taking a knee at the gates of the compound in a moment of silence. Police on the scene told AFP they estimated between 2,000 and 3,000 took part in the peaceful demonstration, surprising officers who had expected a modest turnout. Racially diverse protestors carried placards reading "Black lives matter" and "Police murder". One wore a face mask marked with the words "I can't breathe". "Who do you turn to when you can't turn to the people that are meant to protect you?" said protestor Fionnuala O'Connell, reacting to the circumstances of Floyd's death in police custody. "That's the scariest part, because what do you do?" "I feel like a lot of us have been silenced and we were afraid to speak out," demonstrator Raphael Olympio told AFP. "Today we just want to speak out and raise our voices." The heartbreaking moment a helpless, neglected toddler was hit so hard his intestine ruptured, killing him five agonising days later has been revealed. An audio recording pinpointed the exact moment 22-month-old Mason Jet Lee of Caboolture, Queensland, was belted by his stepfather William O'Sullivan on June 6, 2016. The audio was captured by a CCTV camera that O'Sullivan had installed. In the recording, Mason can be heard crying. 'Oh - shut up', O'Sullivan says, but the toddler continues to wail. Mason Jet Lee died of an infection in Caboolture, Queensland, in June 2016 after he was struck in the abdomen by his mother's boyfriend, William O'Sullivan William O'Sullivan (right) and Mason's mother Anne Maree Lee (left) pleaded guilty to manslaughter after failing to get the toddler medical treatment Soon, O'Sullivan begins to scream. 'I find that it was at this time that Mr O'Sullivan struck him forcefully in the abdomen,' the coroner said in the report on Tuesday. The toddler was whacked so hard that his small intestine split inside him and then became infected. His mother and stepfather refused to seek help, leaving the little boy to die a terrible, painful death over five excruciating days. The audio was not heard in the court case against O'Sullivan and Mason's mother, Anne Maree Lee, in which the pair were each sentenced to nine years jail. Baby Mason Jet Lee was neglected and abused by his mother and stepfather William O'Sullivan It took Mason five days to die, but it was only the latest injury in a long painful history The coroner said that if any of the Queensland child safety officers tasked with looking after the abused toddler had done their job in the weeks before his death, he may still be alive. The blow was just one of many serious and painful injuries the neglected 22-month-old suffered in the months before his death in June 2016. Deputy state coroner Jane Bentley says the child safety department's handling of Mason's case was 'a failure in nearly every possible way'. More than 20 departmental staff, who were investigated following his death, were found to have acted unsatisfactorily. Their behaviour reflected the failure of the system as a whole, Ms Bentley said in inquest findings handed down on Tuesday. She also warned that details about Mason's last days would be distressing. 'I include it in the findings not to shock or upset, but in recognition of the fact that these things happened to this little boy whilst he was a child in our community,' she told Brisbane Coroners Court. An autopsy found Mason's death was caused by an infection from internal injuries similar to those seen after car accidents. He had dozens of other injuries, including a fractured coccyx, extensive bruising and torn skin around his anus. Mason's declining health in his final days was largely ignored by his mother, Anne-Maree Lee, and stepfather, William O'Sullivan, who are both serving jail sentences for his manslaughter. The family had been known to the child safety department since before Mason's birth in 2014. Pictured: Anne Maree Lee with baby Mason. The coroner found no fault with Queensland Police or the Health Department It was also aware of O'Sullivan's 'pathological jealousy' and drug use, along with the fact he previously threatened to 'skin his wife' and kill his children when they separated. Mason was hospitalised in early 2016 with injuries a veteran pediatrician described to the inquest as the worst he had seen. Despite this and the involvement of the police, the department again made the decision to release the toddler back to his family. In the months before Mason died, child safety officers saw Mason only once for about five minutes in mid-March. They were required to carry out 12 face-to-face and 12 support contacts with the toddler, Ms Bentley said. 'Had anyone from the department seen Mason in the weeks before his death they could have saved his life.' Ms Bentley said it was difficult to find any steps that complied with the department's policies and procedures, or were correctly documented. The coroner said if anyone from the department had seen Mason (pictured) in the weeks before his death they could have saved his life 'The fact that the (ethical standards unit) found that 21 employees of the department involved in Mason's case ... failed to carry out their duties appropriately is indicative of the scale of the failure.' Ms Bentley made six recommendations, including that the department reviews its policies about how it implements out-of-home care for at-risk children, and provides information to police. She also advised Queensland Health to allow doctors to escalate child safety cases when they disagree with a decision made by the department. Child Safety Minister Di Farmer said the child protection system was a difficult and challenging system and she would consider the coroner's recommendations. 'We take a call about a child potentially at risk of harm every four minutes,' she said. '(But) nobody could possibly read the report that was handed down today and not feel sick to the stomach, to not imagine what that little boy's life was like.' Ms Farmer said three independent reviews had been held into the department since Mason's death, with significant failings identified. She said an additional $200 million and more than 200 staff had been allocated to address the issues. "Post Reports" is the daily podcast from The Washington Post. Unparalleled reporting. Expert insight. Clear analysis. Everything you've come to expect from the newsroom of The Post - for your ears. - - - In this episode: Ashley Parker reports on why gas was used on peaceful protesters outside the White House on Monday. Matt Zapotosky explains how the U.S. has scaled back police reform efforts. One young woman says "Let it burn" after her family's business was destroyed during protests. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 22:17:30|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Aerial photo taken on May 13, 2020 shows people visiting a tea garden in Xiaoqiao Town of Jian'ou City, southeast China's Fujian Province. East China's Fujian Province exported more than 7,726 tonnes of tea in the first four months of the year, a rise of 8.7 percent year on year, local customs authority said Tuesday. The exports, worth about 135 million U.S. dollars, were mainly oolong tea, green tea and black tea. Fujian is a major tea production base in China, with the locally produced oolong tea, green tea, black tea and jasmine tea especially popular at home and abroad. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan) FUZHOU, June 2 (Xinhua) -- East China's Fujian Province exported more than 7,726 tonnes of tea in the first four months of the year, a rise of 8.7 percent year on year, local customs authority said Tuesday. The exports, worth about 135 million U.S. dollars, were mainly oolong tea, green tea and black tea. Japan was the top destination, with the export volume surpassing 2,594 tonnes, rising 6.8 percent year on year. About 2,315 tonnes of tea was sold to the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) member states, 28.8 percent more than that of the same period of last year, according to Fuzhou Customs. Private enterprises in Fujian led the growth of tea exports during the period, registering cumulative exports of 5,094.8 tonnes, up 24.2 percent year on year, it said. Fujian is a major tea production base in China, with the locally produced oolong tea, green tea, black tea and jasmine tea especially popular at home and abroad. Enditem George Floyd's brother, Terrence, pleaded on Monday for peace in the streets of our nation. His passionate request came as cities throughout the U.S. saw another night of violent protests and looting, though it is interesting how COVID-19 is no longer a problem for the hooligans wearing masks to conceal their identities while not maintaining social distancing. The perpetrators, composed of thugs, Antifa, left-wingers, and Trump-haters, have justified their actions, arguing they are doing so to restore racial equality in America. Throughout the country, rioters have been smashing storefronts and looting businesses, from Targets to high-end handbag stores to mom-and-pop shops, even to the burning of the historic St. John's Church in Washington, D.C. and the vandalizing of St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. Yet Terrence's appeal condemned the hoodlums taking up the so-called banner of justice to further divide our society: I understand y'all are upset. I doubt y'all are half as upset as I am. So if I'm not over here blowing up stuff, if I'm not over here messing up my community, then what are y'all doing? What are y'all doing? Y'all doing nothing. Because that's not going to bring my brother back at all. The criminals and their supporters' pretension is that they are striking back at the elite, which compels racial discrimination. It shows how infantile they are since insurance will not cover the costs of loss or damage, not to mention that rates will rise in the impacted neighborhoods, adding to their economic struggle, especially since the elites mostly do not live in the neighborhoods that riots ravage. Why do they then carry on, even to the point of blaming this chaos on President Donald Trump? [I]n spite of these spectacular strides in science and technology, and [t]he richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers[.] ... This problem of spiritual and moral lag, which constitutes modern man's chief dilemma, expresses itself in three larger problems which grow out of man's ethical infantilism." So were the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on December 11, 1964. His civil rights movement of nonviolence not relying on arms and weapons of struggle, instead meaning non-cooperation with customs and laws that are institutional aspects of a regime of discrimination and enslavement observed the gospel verse of turning the other cheek: "If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also." This was not a pacifist fundamental prescription; rather, it was an appeal not to stoop down to injustice with acts of injustice. Dr. King's approach was just the opposite of those of the Black Panthers or the "by any means necessary" movement of Malcolm X and his former Nation of Islam (NOI) that justified the use of violence for social recognition or separatism instead of equality. The NOI still calls for black Americans to have a separate state. King's action "[did] not seek to liberate Negroes at the expense of the humiliation and enslavement of whites, [but sought] to redeem the spiritual and moral lag." "Violence," King said, "as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral[.] It solves no social problem; it merely creates new and more complicated ones. Violence is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding: it seeks to annihilate rather than convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends up defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. Regrettably, President Trump appears to have no alternative other than to rely on the use of force to stop the violence and restore peace and security. It seems as if that is the only language the true enemies of our society can understand. I am sure that the liberals and NeverTrumps will pounce on him for that, as if he were at fault for the killing of George Floyd. As Peter Van Buren of the American Conservative sarcastically stated: If that Minnesota cop was a violent racist, he certainly didn't take the red pill from Trump's hand, not with two decades of personal complaints and two decades of signature national violence and two decades of prosecutorial somnolence behind him. Remind us again, who was the black Democratic president of the United States during most of that time? Who was his black Democratic attorney general? And someone is trying to use racism in 2020 to take down Trump? Someone told me a couple of days ago that she hopes the violence will change the system of racial hatred in the U.S. But as already explained, the domestic terrorism achieves just the extreme opposite: laws cannot change what is in the heart of a person. If "I don't like that man," as President Abraham Lincoln once said, "I must get to know him better." President Richard Nixon, for what the nation underwent under his administration, in his farwell speech gave us perhaps some of the most inspirational words that would put any racist, as well as the rioters and their supporters, to shame: "Always give your best, never get discouraged, never be petty; always remember, others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself." Photo credit: YouTube screen grab. PPP Stalwart, Nana Ofori Owusu has chastised Parliament for hushing up the status of the members who underwent a mandatory test for COVID-19 following reports that some MPs and staff of the legislative house had contracted the disease. Reports indicated that two Parliamentarians and thirteen (13) staff members had tested positive for the virus. Parliament's Denial Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu described the media reports as untrue adding that the media is only being speculative on the status of the members. Addressing a press conference, Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu stated that test results on the MPs and staff are confidential and not made public by the COVID-19 team. He therefore wondered where the media reports on positive cases in the legislative house had emanated from. Speaking to the parliamentary press corps outside the Chamber, the Minority Chief Whip, Alhaji Mubarak Muntaka insisted the reports were accurate, hence confirming two MPs and 13 staff of Parliament had tested positive.What happened in Parliament and what you heard about MPs testing positive for COVID-19 is the fact. It is the truth, he stressed.This notwithstanding, the Public Affairs Directorate of Parliament issued a statement to set the record straight on which party is lying or telling the truth."Contrary to reports in the media, that Parliament lied about the results of the COVID-19 tests results, Parliament would like to state categorically that no untruth was peddled in the said matter. This follows allegations by the Honorable Minority Chief Whip that the Director of Public Affairs lied in the said matter and that these were told to her by the Honorable Majority Leader...Parliament wants to put on record that it has no particular interest in hiding the results of the tests."Parliament would also like to make specific reference to a news release dated 26/05/2020 signed by the Director of Public Affairs which requested the media house to pull the story down on the basis that the facts were not true since they were not known to the directorate and would like to state that this assertion does not mean that the House denied the possibility of anyone testing positive for COVID-19. It therefore is rather unfortunate that this was interpreted to mean a denial of a possible positive test result, leading to media reports that Parliament lied."The Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Mike Oquaye also issued a caution to the House and media asserting ''you cannot unilaterally put into the public realm that a person is positive''."We should show that we are not in a hurry to disclose names worthy of a headline and it is my view that such sensationalism which is going on must stop because they rather encourage stigmatization. When you sensationalize the news, you encourage stigmatization," he added.Making his submissions on'Kokrokoo', Nana Ofori Owusu called on Parliament to publicly declare their test results because it will help in addressing the insubordination of some Ghanaians in observing the safety and social distancing protocols to curb the COVID-19 pandemic.He wondered why the House wants to conceal the information, stressing this culture of hiding things must stop."The Royal House in the UK, they came out openly to say they have it. The Prime Minister has come out to say he has it. Other countries are coming out to say they have it but this culture of us where we hide things, those things the traditions and modernity, we need to deal with the axles for this tension...in a way to transform our society and we will never be the same again...We're supposed to develop as a people," he told host Kwami Sefa Kayi. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video About a month ago, a lot of celebrities including Sonu Sood had suggested easy Do-It-Yourself mask making tutorial on their social media handle. The video featuring Ronit Roy is now going viral on social media in the US as the people protesting the murder of George Floyd are using Roy's technique to, perhaps, evade facial recognition by the police. Twitter The video No mask? Tension nahin Leneka! is widely being shared among US protesters. "If anyone is protesting today, heres a way to make a balaclava mask with a T Shirt. Dont forget your shades," wrote a Twitter user. If anyone is protesting today, heres a way to make a balaclava mask with a T Shirt. Dont forget your shades. pic.twitter.com/Xg67uTZN07 THE ONE ABOVE ALL (@MRCRUZv3) May 30, 2020 When a user pointed out that the man in the video is Indian actor Ronit Roy, the user said, "Doesnt matter who he is, dont really care. Doesnt matter that this video was intended for COVID, mask still covers your whole face. Doesnt matter if its a $70 Zara shirt, you can use a $2 shirt. All that matters is that he taught us how to make a mask with a shirt." Name Ronit Roy. He is an Indian television star, also runs a private security agency. Arpan (@ARPANsThoughts) May 30, 2020 the way ronit roy unwillingly became part of the resistance. only in 2020. https://t.co/ywP8dSALEv maud gone (@fitzzherald) May 30, 2020 manz went from representing people on adaalat to making sure no protestor gets recognized by the cops. Ronit Roy a part of the resistance https://t.co/g8wk4e3NNU sumrit (@thundrfrmjalndr) May 31, 2020 Ronit had originally shared the video on April 20. Reacting to his viral video, Ronit Roy wrote on Instagram, "My first tweet with 1M views. Unexpected but Im happy that it was for a helpful thing and not something vain and trivial." No mask? Tension nahin Leneka! Simple hai! pic.twitter.com/NSNPMikDZ3 Ronit Bose Roy (@RonitBoseRoy) April 20, 2020 For the uninitiated, major protests have erupted across the United States to decry the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man in Minneapolis, who died after a white police officer pinned him to the ground with his knee on his neck. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 2) The controversial anti-terrorism bill is one step closer to becoming law, after members of the House of Representatives approved it on second reading. President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday wrote a letter to House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano saying House Bill 6875 must be immediately passed "to address the urgent need to strengthen the law on anti-terrorism" and "effectively contain the menace of terrorist acts." The House approved the bill on second reading Tuesday, which essentially adopted the Senate version of the bill that senators passed in February. House Bill 6875 or the proposed Anti-Terrorism Bill expands the definition of terrorism, while proposing stiffer penalties for terrorists or those found to be helping them. Under the measure, suspected terrorists can be detained without a warrant of arrest from three days under the current law to up to 14 days, extendable by another 10 days. The bill also allows the police and military to conduct a 60-day surveillance on suspected terrorists and compel private firms, among them telcos, to disclose their calls and messages. Critics and some fellow lawmakers pointed to "vague" and "broad" provisions in the bill, which may later be used to violate human rights. Quezon City 6th District Representative Jose Christopher Belmonte said they have to be strict with the letter of the law, and they cannot leave it open to interpretation. "We have to draw the line when puwede na pong pumasok sa individual, civil and political rights dahil vague, broad masyado ang scope ng batas na binibigay natin para sa kanila," Belmonte said. "Puwedeng-puwede ma-abuse ito, not just by state forces but by well meaning politicians." [Translation: We have to draw the line when individual, civil and political rights are at stake, because of the vague, broad scope of the law that we provided for them. It can be abused, not just by state forces but by well meaning politicians.] In response, Masbate 1st District Representative Narciso Bravo Jr., who chairs the House Committee on Public Order and Safety, assured that the Commission on Human Rights would be involved to make sure there are no human rights violations. "I would agree with my colleague na wala namang batas na perpekto," Bravo said. "Pagtiwalaan nalang po natin yung batas na ito, at ito lamang sa tingin namin ngayon ng mga sponsors ang makapagbibigay ng kaukulang armas sa ating mga law enforcement units upang habulin ang mga terorista sa ating lipunan." [Translation: I would agree with my colleague that no law is perfect. Let's trust this law, it is the only way that we, with the sponsors, can provide law enforcement units with the tools they need to fight terrorism in the country.] Muntinlupa City Representative Ruffy Biazon, a primary author of the bill, said the Human Security Act of 2007 is lacking. "Nagkaroon ng mga provisions na parang natali ang kamay ng law enforcement and at the same time, hindi natin magamit ito, hindi tayo makapagsampa ng kaso gamit ito sa higpit ng ating batas, kaya kinailangan ng adjustment ito," Biazon said. [Translation: There were provisions that made it seem like the hands of law enforcement was tied, and at the same time, we couldn't use it, we couldn't file a case using it because the law was too strict, so that's why it needs adjustment.] However, Gabriela party-list Representative Arlene Brosas disagreed, saying the government has all the tools it needs to fight terrorism in the country. "Sinabi na mismo ng Security Cluster sa committee hearing na wala naging assessment sa pagpapatupad ng Human Security Act, ibig sabihin walang kongkretong batayan para sabihin na kailangan ang panukalang batas na ito," Brosas said. [Translation: The Security Cluster told the committee hearing that there was no assessment of the implementation of the Human Security Act, meaning there was no concrete basis for saying this bill was needed.] "The Duterte administration has all the legal tools, resources, and mechanisms to surgically target terrorists and terrorist organizations," Brosas added. Some lawmakers also expressed concern over who would have the power to determine those who are considered threats to national security, saying it is another provision of the law prone to abuse. But Senate President Vicente Sotto III earlier said the new anti-terrorism bill is as "good as passed." "It will just need my signature if it comes back to us after ratification then I will transmit to the President," Sotto said in a text message, when asked how Congress will fast-track the approval of the measure. Netizens have been calling against the passage of the measure, with the hashtag #JunkTerrorBillNow trending in the Philippines on Tuesday, along with the line 'ACTIVISM IS NOT TERRORISM.' Three teenagers were injured after being seriously assaulted in Belfast on Monday evening. Two 15-year-olds and a 16-year-old were injured during the incident in the Upper Springfield Road area. Just after 9.15pm police received a report that a group of young people had congregated at the Invest NI site. Police said some of the young people had become involved in fighting and throwing bottles and other items at each other. When officers attended the scene they found a 15-year-old girl had received a cut to her chest which required hospital treatment, and a 15-year-old boy had been subjected to a vicious assault by a number of young males. He is currently being treated in hospital for a suspected fractured skull. Another 16-year-old boy had been knocked to the ground and had several cuts and bruises. Inspector Graham said police were currently investigating and appealed for anyone with information to get in contact with them. The community really needs parents and guardians to speak to their young people about where they are and who they are with and also warn them of the dangers of getting involved in behaviour which could result in seriously injuring themselves, others, or ultimately, a criminal record," he said. Young people who choose to engage in criminal and anti-social behaviour must understand it is unacceptable and must stop. People have a right to live in peace and to feel safe in their communities. It is also critically important that young people understand the importance of the advice from our public health partners and the Government about social distancing, follow the NI Executive regulations and do everything we can to stop the spread of Covid-19." Inspector Graham said police were engaging with local groups on the issue. Police are continuing to work alongside our partner agencies, local representatives and the community to address the issue. I would encourage anyone affected by criminal and anti-social behaviour to report the matter to police immediately on 101," he said. "I would appeal to anyone with information, or who may be able to help with our investigation, to call us on the non-emergency number 101 quoting reference number 2351 of 1 June 2020, or submit a report online using our non-emergency reporting form via http://www.psni.police.uk/makeareport/. You can also contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at http://crimestoppers-uk.org/." Workers on Monday night began taking down a 115-year-old Confederate Soldiers and Sailors monument in a Birmingham, Alabama, park after the city's mayor vowed to remove the offensive statues. The process to remove the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors monument in Birmingham's Linn Park began on what would have been the 212th birthday of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy. His birthday is still celebrated by the state of Alabama, even though many activists and community leaders have sought to change that. The move to take down the statue came after Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin vowed to remove the monument after demonstrators tried to tear it down on Sunday night in the aftermath of black man George Floyd's death at the hands of a white police officer. Confederate Soldiers and Sailors monument removal in Birmingham's Linn Park began on what would have been the 212th birthday of Jefferson Davis The base is expected to be removed on Tuesday. Steps containing a Bible, Confederate flag and Birmingham newspaper that were placed as cornerstones will also removed 'The Legislature enacted a law that prevented cities from removing Confederate statues in the state of Alabama for all 169 cities, so Birmingham is not alone in this fight,' Woodfin said. He continued: 'Moving forward, what took place in the park put many of the residents and the peaceful protesters in physical danger. In addition to that, it could possibly put our officers in danger. 'In order to prevent more civil unrest, it is very imperative that we remove this statue in Linn Park. That has a cost to it. 'I understand the AG's office can bring a civil suit against the city and if there's a judgement rendered from a judge, then we should be held accountable and I am willing to accept that because that is a lower cost than civil unrest in our city.' A large crane removed the top section of the obelisk at the monument at around 10pm Monday, followed by the other sections The move to take down the statue came after Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin vowed to remove the monument after demonstrators tried to tear it down on Sunday The move to remove the statue came after Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin vowed to remove the monument after demonstrators tried to tear it down on Sunday night A large crane removed the top section of the obelisk at the monument at around 10pm Monday, followed by the other sections, AL.com reports. The base is expected to be removed on Tuesday. Steps containing a Bible, Confederate flag and Birmingham newspaper that were placed as cornerstones will also be removed. Confederate monuments across the United States have been a contentious subject for many Americans, sparking mass protest and debate across various cities. The monument in Linn Park has been subject to a legal fight between the city and Alabama Attorney General's Office over the state's historical monuments law. The city has called for its removal but has failed to win a legal battle against the AG Office. 'The Legislature enacted a law that prevented cities from removing Confederate statues in the state of Alabama for all 169 cities, so Birmingham is not alone in this fight,' Woodfin said In 2019, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that the city violated the state's monument protection law when it placed a plywood screen around the monument in Linn Park in 2017. They were ordered to pay a fine then. On Monday, Attorney General Steve Marshall said the Alabama Monuments Preservation Act allows him to issue a $25K fine. 'Should the City of Birmingham proceed with the removal of the monument in question, based upon multiple conversations I have had today, city leaders understand I will perform the duties assigned to me by the Act to pursue a new civil complaint against the city,' Marshall said. 'In the aftermath of last night's violent outbreak, I have offered the City of Birmingham the support and resources of my office to restore peace to the city.' No fine has yet been imposed but a GoFundMe has been established to help pay for any city fines if they are. The removal came after a local archaeologist took to Twitter to suggest ways to bring the obelisk down in Linn Park. University of Alabama at Birmingham archaeologist Sarah Parcak shared her suggestions as demonstrators tore down a statue of Confederate Naval captain Charles Linn Sunday night. A day earlier, protesters in Nashville, Tennessee, toppled a statue of Edward Carmac, a former politician and newspaper publisher who wrote editorials expressing racist views. University of Alabama at Birmingham archaeologist Sarah Parcak took to Twitter Sunday evening offering details on how to safely bring an obelisk down Parcak's tweets did not point to any specific protest, but hinted at the Confederate monument in the park, which is an obelisk, and her awareness of the demonstrations that followed the police-related death of Floyd in Minneapolis more than a week ago. She started by saying her comments on Twitter were a public service announcement. 'PSA For ANYONE who might be interested in how to pull down an obelisk* safely from an Egyptologist who never ever in a million years thought this advice might come in handy,' she wrote, explaining in a footnote that she was referring to any obelisk that 'might be masquerading as a racist monument'. Her tweets continued in detail on how to bring down an obelisk, suggesting two groups of people to do the pulling, but allowing gravity to do most of the work, and the use of ropes and chains. 'I recommend a rhythmic song. YOU WILL NEED SOMEONE WITH A LOUDSPEAKER DIRECTING. There can be only one person yelling. Everyone will be alternating on rope left right left right not everyone on the same side. No one else near the obelisk! Safety first!' she wrote in one of the tweets. Parcak tweeted detailed the detailed instructions on how to topple an obelisk safely Sunday evening as demonstrators in the city's Linn Park tore down a statue of Confederate Naval captain Charles Linn Sunday night Upon finishing her instructions, she tweeted a 'good riddance' to racist-inspired monuments. 'WATCH THAT SUMB*TCH TOPPLE GET THE %^&* OUT OF THE WAY IT WILL SMASH RUN AWAY FROM DIRECTION. Then celebrate. Because #BlackLivesMatter and good riddance to any obelisks pretending to be ancient Egyptian obelisks when they are in fact celebrating racism and white nationalism. She asked that no actual Egyptian obelisks be toppled. 'OK because this is Twitter I need to clarify: PLEASE DO NOT PULL DOWN ACTUAL ANCIENT EGYPTIAN OBELISKS that was not the point of this thread,' she explained in another tweet. She then posted a schematic showing exactly how to bring down an obelisk, and made a reference that there maybe one in downtown Birmingham. 'There might be one just like this in downtown Birmingham! What a coincidence. Can someone please show this thread to the folks there,' she wrote. 'BUT OF COURSE THIS IS ALL ENTIRELY HYPOTHETICAL,' she added. New Delhi/New York, June 2 : A UN Security Council report has revealed that not only do the Taliban and al-Qaeda continue to cooperate with each other but Kashmir-specific Pakistani terror groups, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba are sending their trainers to Afghanistan to carry out targeted assassinations. The Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team submitted its eleventh report on the Taliban and other associated entities constituting threat to peace, stability and security of Afghanistan, to the United Nations Security Council Committee, last week. The UNSC report said, "Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba facilitate the trafficking of terrorist fighters into Afghanistan, who act as advisers, trainers and specialists in improvised explosive devices. Both groups are responsible for carrying out targeted assassinations against government officials and others." Lashkar and Jaish, the report said, have approximately 800 and 200 armed fighters, respectively, co-located with Taliban forces in Mohmand Darah, Dur Baba and Sherzad Districts of Nangarhar Province. Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) also maintains a presence in Lal Pura District, near the border area of Mohmand Darah, Pakistan, the UNSC team said. In Kunar Province, the report said, Lashkar retains a further 220 fighters and Jaish has a further 30, all of whom are dispersed within Taliban forces. The UNSC monitoring team said that TTP, Jaish and Lashkar, are present in the eastern provinces of Kunar, Nangarhar and Nuristan, where they operate under the umbrella of the Afghan Taliban. Even as a number of significant al-Qaeda figures were killed, "the senior leadership of al-Qaeda remains present in Afghanistan, as well as hundreds of armed operatives, al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, and groups of foreign terrorist fighters aligned with the Taliban," the report said. Relations between the Taliban, especially the Haqqani Network, and al-Qaeda remain close, based on friendship, a history of shared struggle, ideological sympathy and intermarriage, the UNSC monitoring team said. The Taliban regularly consulted with al-Qaeda during negotiations with the United States, the report said adding that al-Qaeda acolytes celebrated it as a victory for the Taliban's cause and thus for global militancy. Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant-Khorasan (ISIL-K) has suffered severe setbacks in Afghanistan, the report said, adding that their numbers are as low as 2,200. However, ISIL-K "remains capable of mounting attacks in various parts of the country, including Kabul, but some of those claimed may have arisen wholly or partly from a tactical accommodation with the Haqqani Network." The main risk of ISIL-K resurgence in the context of the Afghan peace process may lie in its ability to present itself as the only defiant terror group in the country and attract new recruits and funding accordingly. "The number of foreign terrorist fighters in search of a purpose and livelihood in Afghanistan, including up to 6,500 Pakistanis, will render this a complex challenge," the report said. The UNSC report's findings assume significance in view of the February 29, 2020 peace deal signed by the Taliban and the US to end the 18-year-long war in Afghanistan. As per the peace agreement, the US will withdraw its forces from Afghanistan "in exchange for Taliban counter-terrorism measures, exchanges of prisoners between the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan, removal of sanctions and the launch of intra-Afghan talks aimed at achieving a permanent ceasefire." However, the report said, "early indications are that many, if not all, of these objectives will prove challenging. While the Taliban remain internally disciplined enough to be a formidable fighting force, there are divisions within the group, which make compromise with its adversaries difficult, and its messaging remains hardline." The Taliban, the UNSC monitoring team said, also appears well prepared for the 2020 fighting season and raising the tempo of its attacks on Afghan government targets while trying to avoid provoking the United States. If a prince bases the defence of his state on mercenaries he will never achieve stability or security. For mercenaries are disunited, thirsty for power undisciplined and disloyal; they are brave among their friends and cowards before their enemies; they have no fear of God, they do not keep faith with their fellow men; .They are only ready to sein your army when you are not at war, but when war comes they either desert or disperse -Niccolo Machiavelli An arresting paradox occurred on Friday 29th May, 2020, while I was reflecting on Nigeria's journey as a democratic nation and the challenges of leadership crisis in the country which daily brings dropping spirit among Nigerians. On that day, at that time and in that place, as I was left lost in the maze of high voltage confusion wondering how we will continue to live as a people under the present system as well as fail future generations by leaving a system far diminished from what we received from our heroes past, I stumbled at an article entitled; Democracies Have an Edge in Fighting Wars, written by Dan Reiter and Allan C Stan, and published by the Foreign Affairs Journals on the 7thof May, 2020. Among other points, the piece underlined that people have long assumed that autocrats and dictators have an advantage in waging war. Contrary to popular beliefs, today, democracies are more effective in responding to various crises. Our political science research found that democracies are more likely than autocracies to win their wars. From 1816 to 1987, democracies won about 76 percent of their wars, while non-democracies won about 46 percent of their wars. Even more striking, democracies rarely lose when they start wars, winning 93 percent of the time what is true of wars against armies is also true of a campaign against disease. Past studies have found that citizens in democracies are healthier than citizens living Without any shadow of the doubt, these views are globally recognized. And, about two decades ago when democracy re-emerged on the nations political spaceI felt the same way. I envisioned democracy changing on our political shores the tradition of keeping things the way they are hoping that luck will correct our part and put us on the right part. I was also full of hope that the advent of democracy will help win the war against environmental pollution in the Niger Delta region, end the senseless killings in the country, transform the lives of the Almajiris in the northern part of the country, provide employment for the millions of unemployed youths in Nigeria, tackle the menace of kidnapping across the land and reduce the level of poverty in the country. But, considering the experience of the past two decades,- a feeling that cannot be characterized as a period of achievements but a gestation of frustrations, an average Nigerian will not believe in the above postulation about democracy. Rather, while many may view it as a false and unfounded claim, some may consider it as a system where power is unchecked and unaccountable, where incompetence flourhes, dishonesty is encouraged and rewarded. To the rest Nigerians, democracy is but a mere palliative which relieves political and socio-economic emotional distresses but leaves the disease and its rages unaffected. Indeed, Nigerians of this class should be excused for their assessment of democracy in this light.This orientation was shaped by recent fiscal, sociological, political and communal happenings in the country; coupled with the pockets of Ethno-religious upheavals and misgivings from one region against another or powerful personalities against each other. This myriad of contradictions has turned the country into a hotbed for all manners of violence, and conspire directly and indirectly to give the nation unenviable tag of a country in constant search of social harmony, justice, equity, equality, and peace. More particularly, democracy practice aside from making life quoting Thomas Hobbs, has become nasty, brutish and short, I remember with nostalgia how a friend amidst euphoria triggered by the declaration of the 2015 presidential election result cautioned me with these few words; men will change their ruler expecting to fare better; this expectation induces them to take up arm against him, but they only deceive themselves, and they learn from experience that they have made matters worse. Still, in that milieu, I had reminded him that the result ushered in a season of integrity in the country, he again replied thus; no single attribute could be identified as a virtue. Remember! He added, Politics has its own rules. Five years after that conversation, the present instinct in the country explains two things; first, is that the shout of integrity which hitherto rend the nations political space has like light faded, The second stems from the first and has to do with the fact that jeer has since overtaken the cheers of political performance while fears has displaced reason-resulting in an entirely separate set of consequencesirrational hatred and division. This says something else. The problem is one of perspective. It is not democracy as a system of government. The challenge is in the peoples election of politicians as leaders laced with the attribues of mercenaries described above by Niccolo Machiavelli there is no longer credible basis for doubt. It is neither democracy nor lack of natural resource but leadership that is the challenge. Specifically, the nations inabilities to win socioeconomic wars in the country further supports the belief that every nation needs first, good people to have good government. However good the system, bad leaders will bring harm to their people. On the other hand, several societies have been well governed inspite of poor systems of government because good strong leaders were in charge. It also explains why, going by reports, over 80 constitutions drafted by Britain and France for their former colonies come to grief not because of flaws in the constitutions, but simply because the pre-conditions for a democratic system of government did not exist. Consider this example reported in depth about China- a non democratic state and a country with supposedly bad system. China from what development experts are saying is ruled, increasingly dictatorially by an unelected communist party. Yet, has experienced a period of economic growth, the likes the world had never before seen.The account provides a profound lesson for Nigerians. Infact,there are two basic questions which bothers on-education and aviation, posed by a commentator recently , that will probably do more than anything else to help us understand fully well to understand, and look differently at the great damage elected public officials have done to democracy in Nigeria. What happened to our educational system which used to be a model to other nations of the world and a beacon of glory for Africa-and immensely adored and celebrated globally as our students/graduates showed unsearchable depth and great intellects in every discourse, ahead of their counterparts in other nations? But have recently taken a nose dive, as examination malpractice, constant strike actions, poor educational facilities, corruption, are all on the rise. To the extent that countries that once esteemed our educational system can hardly admit Nigerian students now, let alone employ graduates unless they undergo a compulsory preliminary training. What about the national carrier, Nigerian Airways, which as at 1973, was a super continental airline, travelling to over 1,500 destinations across the globe, generating 150 billion Naira profit yearly, and providing jobs to about 10,000 Nigerians, Kenyans, Ethiopians and south Africans, to the admiration and amazement of foreign nations? But today, has lost both its operational and physical address. Have Nigerians ever taken out time to ask; how over 13.2 million Nigerian children suddenly found themselves to be out of school? Or find out why about 112 million Nigerians now live below the UN poverty line? And why the world-poverty-clock (WPC) in mid 2018 declared that 86.9 million Nigerians are extremely poor and has overtaken India as host to the largest number of worlds poorest people? What about unemployment rate in Nigeria which the NBS says is currently at 28% and under-employment at 16%? What pushed Nigeria to become a very high risked borrower despite the abundant natural resources? Unquestionably, that the nation experienced these failures and other lost battles such as; insecurity, infrastructural decay, terrorism, unchecked population explosion, technological backwardness, poor planning and implementation of policies, are but testaments that our leaders neither understand nor possess the needed expertise to perform modern jobs of leadership. Jerome-Mario Utomi([email protected]), is a Lagos-based media consultant. The market continued its northward journey for fifth consecutive session on June 2 with the Nifty50 closing near the psychological 10,000 mark. The BSE Sensex rallied 522.01 points or 1.57 percent to 33,825.53 and the Nifty50 gained 152.95 points or 1.56 at 9,979.10. "The Nifty Index respected 9,900 and kept above it the entire day. This is a positive indication. We are now close to the 10,000 level. 10m050 is a target to trade for. Thereafter, one could initiate a buy on all dips for targets closer to 10,100-10,200," Manish Hathiramani, Proprietary Index Trader and Technical Analyst at Deen Dayal Investments told Moneycontrol. The broader markets also participated in the rally as the Nifty Midcap index gained over 1.3 percent and Smallcap was up 2.3 percent. Here are five factors that could have boosted the rally: Global Rally Despite US-China Trade Woes Global equity markets traded higher despite unrest and protests in the United States over the killing of George Floyd by police last week, as the reopening of economies and hope of global recovery lifted sentiment. Germany's DAX was up nearly 4 percent, while Britain's FTSE gained 1.2 percent and France's CAC rose 2.1 percent at 15:45 hours IST. Asian peers also closed strong today with Japan's Nikkei, Hong Kong's Hang Seng and South Korea's Kospi gaining more than 1 percent each, while China's Shanghai Composite and Australia's ASX 200 rose 0.2-0.3 percent. Economy Opens Up, Pain is Behind The market continued to remain in buyers' hand especially after the recent data points indicated that economy has re-opened properly across India barring containment zones. Agricultural activities also remained on track while the monsoon arrived well before time this year, aiding strong hope that production could remain strong this year too. Auto companies' May sales data was weak compared to same month last year, but good given the gradual re-opening of economic activities. Tractor sales remained strong given the better rabi harvest and hope of normal monsoon this year. Most of experts feel the worst or pain is behind now given the re-opening the economy and moving towards normalcy which will take another 3-4 months as virus is still roaming. Rally in Banking & Financials Continue Banking & financial stocks continued to rally in current run with the Bank Nifty surging 18 percent in five straight sessions on hope that NPA pressure may not be as high as expected during lockdown given the further easing of lockdown measures in Lockdown 5.0. Nifty Financial Services index also climbed over 17 percent since last week, while today both indices gained over 2 percent as lending activities picked up. PM's Focus On Building Big Supply Chain While addressing the annual session of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "India's industry leaders need to invest in building robust local supply chains that will strengthen India's position in the global chain." "India would be completely integrated with the world economy but that doesn't mean it needs to remain dependent on others in strategic sectors," he added. "We need to make made in India products made for the world. The industry needs to set targets to increase productivity," Modi said, adding that the manufacturing sector and Make in India need to be made employment generators. Prime Minister in last month announced nearly Rs 21 lakh crore financial package with more focus on Atma Nirbhar Bharat - Self Reliant India. The execution of the same package started during the lockdown. Technical View The Nifty50 remained strong after early trade volatility and closed near day's high to form bullish candle on the daily charts. Experts feel the rally is expected to continue given the momentum and Nifty may surpass 10,000 soon. "Current chart structure suggesting we may see a decisive break above 10,000 mark in coming session and if we managed to sustain above 10,000 mark then we may see next move towards 10,500 zone in near term. Support for Nifty is coming near 9,900-9,800 zone and resistance is coming near 10,100-10,200 zone," Rohit Singre, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities said. Budget airline IndiGo has announced the cancellation of 17 flights from Mumbai scheduled for Wednesday in view of cyclone Cyclone Nisarga which is expected to make landfall in the afternoon at Alibaug, about 90 south of Mumbai. Only three IndiGo flights will fly out of Mumbai on Wednesday. Due to severe cyclonic storm currently moving towards the countrys western coasts, IndiGo has cancelled 17 flights to and from Mumbai. IndiGo will only operate three flights from Mumbai on June 03, 2020: 6E 495 Mumbai- Chandigarh 6E 6179 Mumbai - Ranchi 6E 5373 Mumbai Patna, the airline said in a press statement on Tuesday. It said it has offered an alternate travel plan to its customers. All the passengers of the affected domestic flights are being notified. At IndiGo, we are customer centric and have empowered our customers by offering PLAN B, sent to each individual, an option of re-booking on alternate flight starting next day or to protect PNR as credit account, it said. The Met office has warned that the cyclonic storm will have a maximum sustained wind speed of 100-110 kmph gusting to 120 kmph. Ahead of the cyclones landfall, rain lashed Mumbai on Tuesday evening. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray who addressed the people through social media in the evening, appealed to citizens to stay indoors on Wednesday and Thursday. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said it was taking all precautions including relocating people from unsafe localities to ensure that there is no casualty when the storm hits Mumbai. It requested citizens to stay away from the sea and not stand under trees or pillars during the cyclone. Dhaka, June 2 (IANS) Bangladesh on Tuesday confirmed the first coronavirus death among the Rohingya Muslim minority amid a growing number of COVID-19 cases among the refugees living in the country. "A Rohingya man died of coronavirus in an isolation center of the camp. He was 71 and had co-morbidity," Mahbubur Rahman, the health chief of Bangladesh's southern Cox's Bazar district, told Efe news Rahman said 29 Rohingya have tested positive so far since the first case was reported on March 14, a figure also confirmed by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Louise Donovan, a UNHCR spokesperson in Cox's Bazar, also confirmed the development, saying: "The humanitarian community is deeply saddened to learn of this development and sends our condolences to the family and the wider Rohingya community." "Humanitarian workers are all working round the clock to ensure that testing is available to refugees, those who are identified as Covid-19 positive have adequate facilities in place to care for them, and to ensure contact tracing and quarantine of those who may have been exposed," the spokesperson told Efe news. The authorities have confirmed a total of 792 cases so far in Cox's Bazar district, which hosts the largest refugee camp in the world. Rahman said so far 16 people have died of the coronavirus in the area. Nearly 738,000 Rohingya refugees have been living in camps in Bangladesh since August 25, 2017, following a wave of persecution and violence in Myanmar that the UN has described as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing and possible genocide. The camps have witnessed outbreaks of diseases such as measles and diphtheria on earlier occasions. Bangladesh has so far reported 49,534 COVID-19 cases, with 672 deaths. --IANS ksk/ NEW YORK, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Drexel Hamilton, a service-disabled veteran-owned and operated broker-dealer founded on the principle of offering meaningful employment opportunities to disabled veterans, announced today that Jonte Harrell has been appointed Head of Equity Capital Markets. Mr. Harrell has over fifteen years of experience across Finance and Technology, joining Drexel Hamilton from Amazon where he was the Global Head of Financial Planning and Analysis for Prime Now and Whole Foods Online. Prior, Jonte was a Director within Corporate Treasury at Wells Fargo in Charlotte and Head of APAC Structured Funding at Credit Suisse in Hong Kong and Dublin. "We are proud and extremely grateful Jonte has joined Drexel Hamilton and the talent and breadth of experience he brings," said Lawrence Doll, Chairman and Founder of Drexel Hamilton. Mr. Harrell served as Signal Corps Officer in U.S. Army, achieving the rank of Captain. His professional military experience spans two combat tours including the invasion of Iraq. He is the recipient of the Bronze Star and numerous commendation medals. Jonte graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School. "We are excited to have Jonte at Drexel Hamilton. He brings with him a wealth of experience in finance and an amazing military record. Two things our business and our younger Veterans will benefit and learn from," said Anthony Felice, President and Managing Partner. Drexel Hamilton recently was a co-manager in the initial public offering of SelectQuote. SOURCE Drexel Hamilton, LLC Related Links www.drexelhamilton.com My Favorite Quotes Recent Quotes Portfolio Summary Your most recently viewed tickers will automatically show up here if you type a ticker in the Get Quotes box on the top of the page. BRIDGEPORT Mayor Joe Ganim on Monday addressed the weekend protests sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and also explained his absence during a very difficult weekend here in the city. A Bridgeport-based rally Saturday sparked by national outrage over Floyds death while pinned by a police officer began downtown at McLevy Green. The demonstration then moved to the police department headquarters on Congress Street and shut down a section of the Routes 8/25 connector for three hours. According to law enforcement officials, the event started and ended peacefully, but at one point some protesters tried to force their way into the police building and were pepper-sprayed. Later, state police arrested two individuals on the connector. For all of us this has been a long week across the country and a very difficult weekend here in the city, Ganim said in a video filmed in his downtown offices and released on social media around 5 p.m. Monday. I want to add my voice to those that expressed outrage and pain this weekend ... As city officials or police department members, we all share and stand in solidarity on this. Hopefully the voices that were raised, the pain that was expressed, can be a part of a healing process to make this a better place for all of us, Ganim concluded. Earlier in the afternoon the mayor during what has become a daily 12:30 p.m. Facebook address during the COVID-19 pandemic also mentioned Saturdays protest. He described it generally as peaceful with people acting appropriately and stated Bridgeports police force supports the condemning of the actions that weve seen on that video out of Minneapolis. There were certainly individuals ... that have kind of taken it a step further to a level of lawlessness which certainly doesnt advance the cause, the mayor added. He also addressed some online criticism that he had not attended the McLevy Green event Saturday, especially since U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., had. I didnt want to be on scene that day, there. I dont think that added value, Ganim said, adding later: We talked about it. ... I was going to go there with Sen. Blumenthal. ... But then you get individuals who broke glass and things like that at the police department that probably would have added more of that type of stuff. Ganim was also slower to respond to the local outrage over Minneapolis than some of his peers. Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin issued a video message Friday as did New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker. Ganims Twitter account on Saturday re-tweeted a pair of messages posted by the police department; We stand with you United AGAINST Police Brutality! We hear you! and We commend our @CityofBptCT #Community for hosting a peaceful & meaningful protest. Feelings of frustration & heartache R validated by what we saw, as to-the need 4 change. We R #united on these matters. It is unfortunate that some came to interrupt community #solidarity. There have been several high profile incidents of use of excessive force by officers in Bridgeport during Ganims tenure. Most recently the city was preparing to pay resident Carmelo Mendez $340,000 after he was shown on video being beaten by several police officers during a 2017 birthday party in his sisters yard. The citys Office of Internal Affairs Investigation found that 17 Bridgeport police officers and two civilian detention officers used excessive force, lied on official reports and violated a laundry list of department regulations in the 2017 Colorado Avenue incident. Saturdays demonstration was attended by some members of the Justice for Jayson group formed in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Jayson Negron, 15, by Bridgeport Police Officer James Boulay in 2017. A subsequent probe by the Waterbury States Attorney cleared Boulay of wrongdoing. Last month Negrons family filed a federal lawsuit alleging Bridgeports police department fosters an environment of grossly negligent, reckless, and deliberately indifferent conduct among its officers. The suit has not been settled. In this article DAL Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards national Health officials are warning that mass gatherings across the country could further spread the coronavirus, just as much of the economy is beginning to restart. Protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man in Minneapolis, continued for a seventh night with overnight clashes between law enforcement and demonstrators. The World Health Organization, which has faced criticism for repeatedly praising China for a speedy response to the emergence of the coronavirus, complained in private meetings that China was not releasing enough information or doing so quickly enough about the virus, the Associated Press reported. The coverage on this live blog has ended but for up-to-the-minute coverage on the coronavirus, visit the live blog from CNBC's U.S. team. Global cases: More than 6.37 million Global deaths: At least 380,251 U.S. cases: More than 1.83 million U.S. deaths: At least 106,181 The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Italy sees new protest movement whose leader says pandemic 'doesn't exist' Italy is seeing the emergence of a new anti-government, populist movement that models itself on France's 'Yellow Vests.' Calling themselves the "Orange Vests" or "Gilet Arancioni," the movement is led by a retired police general who has called for the government to resign over its handling of the coronavirus crisis. Hundreds of protesters wearing orange vests or jackets gathered in Rome on Tuesday, chanting "Liberta'!" ("Liberty!") and calling for the government to resign. Described as a "rightist-libertarian" and "turbo populist" movement by the Italian media and modeling themselves on the yellow-vested anti-government movement seen in France, the leader of the "Orange Vests," former Carabinieri General Antonio Pappalardo, has said that the coronavirus pandemic did not exist. Holly Ellyatt Euro zone unemployment rose in April amid lockdowns Unemployment in the euro zone rose to 7.3% in April, according to the latest data from Eurostat, reflecting the extent of job losses during coronavirus lockdowns. The jobless rate rose from 7.1% in March, revised lower from a previous figure. For the wider European Union, the unemployment rate hit 6.6% in April 2020, up from 6.4% in March 2020. The data showed that young people are suffering from a higher rate of job losses in the euro area, with the unemployment rate for under-25s rising to 15.8% in April, up from 15.1% the previous month. In the EU too, youth unemployment rose to 15.4% in April, up from 14.6%. Holly Ellyatt A customer, wearing a protective face mask, buys produce from a delicatessen in Rome, Italy, on Tuesday, May 19, 2020. Bloomberg Lufthansa posts 2.1 billion euro loss after 'drastic decline' in air travel 3:14 p.m. (Singapore time) German airline Lufthansa said restructuring was necessary as its results were "significantly" affected by the pandemic. It posted a net loss of 2.1 billion euros ($2.35 billion) for the three months between January to March. Passenger numbers dropped by more than 26% for the quarter compared to a year ago. Carsten Spohr, chairman of the executive board of Lufthansa, said global air traffic has come to a "virtual standstill" and with a very slow recovery in demand, the airline "must now take far-reaching restructuring measures to counteract this." The pandemic has drastically affected the travel and tourism sectors. Silvia Amaro, Saheli Roy Choudhury India's reported cases cross 200,000, making it worst-affected in Asia 12:55 p.m. (Singapore time) India now has more than 207,000 reported cases of infection and almost half of them have been discharged, according to data from the health ministry. That makes India the worst-affected country in Asia. Migrant laborers queue for a medical checkup at a quarantine center during a nationwide lockdown against the coronavirus outbreak in Allahabad, India on April 27, 2020. Ritesh Shukla | NurPhoto via Getty Images There are at least 101,497 reported cases that are still active, while 100,302 have been discharged and 5,815 people have died. Cases climbed over the last several months despite the government imposing a national lockdown in late March and extending it multiple times through May. Low-risk areas of the country are beginning to resume operations. The infection peak in one of the world's most populous countries is still "very far away," according to the government-run Indian Council of Medical Research, Reuters reported. Only the U.S., Brazil, Russia, U.K., Spain and Italy have reported more infection cases than India, Johns Hopkins University data revealed. Russia, which has the third highest number of cases in the world, is technically part of both Europe and Asia, but most of its major cities are in the European part. Saheli Roy Choudhury Australia is in a recession, according to its treasurer 11:54 a.m. (Singapore time) Australia's Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the economy is already in recession after it was hit by the worst bushfire season in living memory, prolonged drought and the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reported. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed GDP contracted 0.3% between January to March. It slowed to 1.4% through the year and ABS said it was the "slowest through-the-year growth since September 2009." Frydenberg was asked if Australia was already in recession, he answered in the affirmative, according to Reuters. He told reporters: "Based on what we know from Treasury, we're going to see a contraction in the June quarter, which is going to be a lot more substantial than what we have seen in the March quarter." Saheli Roy Choudhury Dr. Fauci says vaccine may not provide long-term immunity Dr. Anthony Fauci speaking during the U.S. Senate committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing on May 12th, 2020. CNBC 6:30 p.m. ET Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert, warned a potential coronavirus vaccine may not provide long-term immunity. He explained that immunity for other coronaviruses often lasts for three to six months to less than a year. If Covid-19 acts like other coronaviruses, "it likely isn't going to be a long duration of immunity," Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during an interview with JAMA Editor Howard Bauchner. U.S. officials and scientists are hopeful a vaccine to prevent Covid-19 will be ready in the first half of 2021. Last month, Fauci said he was hopeful scientists would find a workable candidate but warned of potential pitfalls in developing any vaccine. Berkeley Lovelace Jr. Minnesota National Guard to test all of its deployed officers Minnesota National Guard soldiers patrol a street on May 29, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as protesters demand justice for George Floyd who died in police custody. Kerem Yucel | AFP | Getty Images 6 p.m. ET The Minnesota National Guard said Tuesday it plans to test all of its nearly 7,000 deployed officers for the coronavirus after one tested positive and nine others developed symptoms. The state's National Guard is deployed in response to mass protests sparked by George Floyd's death, caused by a Minneapolis police officer who knelt on the unarmed black man's neck for nearly nine minutes. "Upon activation, all of our members were screened for health readiness, including for symptoms of COVID-19," Lt. Col. Dean Stulz said in a statement, adding that one service member tested positive for Covid-19 and has been placed in isolation. Nearly a dozen public health specialists who spoke with CNBC have expressed concern that the protests will lead to greater spread of Covid-19 as many unmasked officers and protesters clash. William Feuer Amazon plans summer sale for June 22 designed to 'jumpstart sales' The logo of the online retailer Amazon is shown on the display of a smartphone, Thomas Trutschel | Photothek via Getty Images 5:30 p.m. ET Amazon sent a notice to brands early Tuesday that it's hosting a "Summer Sale" on June 22, according to a document viewed by CNBC. The company is still finalizing the details of the event, but it's being tentatively referred to as the "Biggest Sale in the Sky." Amazon asked brands to submit deals for items with a discount of at least 30% by the end of the day on Wednesday. The summer sale is designed to provide a boost for sellers feeling the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. Many have found themselves with extra inventory after Amazon moved to prioritize shipments of essential items.The event will also serve as a sales opportunity in the lead up to Amazon's annual Prime Day event. The two-day summer sales event, which typically takes place in July, is expected to be postponed until at least September. Annie Palmer Lyft reports 26% growth in rides for May, but the worst is far from over A Lyft logo is displayed on a vehicle driving through Times Square, March 19, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Drew Angerer 4:45 p.m. ET Lyft said that rides on its platform increased 26% in May 2020, as states began to reopen, compared to April 2020. Still, the company said in a regulatory filing that its rides are down 70% compared to this time last year. Lyft's data is one of the first looks a company has given investors on how well businesses are doing as states start to reopen. The company added that it doesn't expect its adjusted EBITDA loss for its second quarter to exceed $325 million if average rideshare volume in June stays similar to May 2020 levels. Previously, the company said that loss would not exceed $360 million. Jessica Bursztynsky Study urges social distancing during protests to reduce virus spread Demonstrators march on I- 35 while participating in a protest against police brutality and the death of George Floyd, on May 31, 2020 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Scott Olson | Getty Images 4 p.m. ET As Americans in cities nationwide have taken to the streets to protest, a new meta-analysis published in The Lancet Monday found social distancing to be the most effective way to slow the spread of Covid-19. Thousands of demonstrators in cities across the country have gathered to protest police brutality after the death of George Floyd. But Dr. Holger Schunemann, a professor of medicine and clinical epidemiology at McMaster University in Canada who worked on the analysis, told NBC News the protests heighten the risk of spreading coronavirus. The analysis comes as public officials, including Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, have expressed concerns that the protests could prompt an increase in the spread of the virus. Schunemann recommended hand washing and the use of eye and face coverings to lower the risk of spread. The analysis, which reviewed 172 studies to gauge the success of prevention and control measures, found that staying at least 3 feet apart can reduce the likelihood of transmission from 12.8% to 2.6%, though the authors noted distances of 6 feet or more could further lessen the transmission rate. Alex Harring Here's what the U.S. restaurant industry's recovery looks like Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards 3 p.m. ET U.S. consumers are slowly returning to restaurants as states across the country reopen their economies. The NPD Group found that restaurant transactions declined just 18% during the week ended May 24. The industry's transactions have been bouncing back since hitting a low point in mid-April, but full-service restaurants, which were hit hardest by stay-at-home orders and dining room closures, are slower to recover. Fast-food restaurants, on the other hand, are rebounding more quickly, although the pandemic did not hit their sales as hard. Amelia Lucas A waiter wearing a mask and gloves delivers food to a table to customers seated at an outdoor patio at a Mexican restaurant in Washington, DC, May 29, 2020. Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images Stimulus proposals that could get more money in the hands of Americans 2:38 p.m. ET Surveys show that Americans want more financial help from the federal government. The big question is exactly which initiatives will get the green light from Congress with the next stimulus package. Multiple proposals are on the table. That includes giving Americans $2,000 per month or another round of one-time $1,200 stimulus checks. Others seek to extend the extra $600 per week in unemployment benefits into next year. Yet another proposal calls for giving people who return to work a $450 weekly bonus. In order to be successful, those strategies would need to be able to get money into the hands of people who really need them, experts say. Extending enhanced unemployment benefits could be a key way to do that. Lorie Konish North Carolina governor tells RNC he won't provide a guarantee that they can host a full convention in August North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper listens to a question during a briefing on the coronavirus pandemic at the Emergency Operations Center in Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday, May 26, 2020. Ethan Hyman | Raleigh News & Observer | Getty Images 2:15 p.m. ET North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, said in a letter to RNC officials Tuesday that it's "very unlikely" that the Republican National Convention will be held at full-scale participation as President Donald Trump and members of the GOP have demanded. "As much as we want the conditions surrounding Covid-19 to be favorable enough for you to hold the Convention you describe in late August, it is very unlikely," Cooper said in the letter. "Neither public health officials nor I will risk the health and safety of North Carolinians by providing the guarantee you seek." Trump has repeatedly reprimanded Cooper for upholding social distancing guidelines that would make it impossible to hold the convention at its fullest scale in August. But Cooper has shown that he will not relent on the guidelines out of fear of spreading the coronavirus. Yelena Dzhanova Protests jeopardize New York's coronavirus progress, Gov. Cuomo says People take part in a protest on May 31, 2020 in New York City. Stephen Ferry | VIEW press | Getty Images 1:42 p.m. ET Mass protests in response to the police killing of George Floyd could jeopardize New York's progress in slowing the spread of Covid-19, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The state just recorded an all-time low in new coronavirus hospitalizations with a three-day average of 154 on Monday, CNBC's Noah Higgins-Dunn and Jasmine Kim report. If there is an upswing in new cases as a result of the crowded protests, it might not be seen in data until weeks from now. New York is the hardest-hit state in the pandemic with 371,711 confirmed cases of the virus and 29,917 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.Hannah Miller Coronavirus continues to impact U.S. vehicle sales 1:16 p.m. ET The coronavirus pandemic is expected to take a toll on U.S. new vehicle sales in May, according to Toyota. "Retail consumers are coming out looking for cars and trucks," Bob Carter, executive vice president of sales for Toyota Motor North America told CNBC's "Squawk Box." "What hasn't yet returned to the auto industry is the fleet commercial buyer, particularly rental car. Those sales continue to be suppressed at about 20%." Carter said the pace of sales is estimated to have picked up in May, averaging 12 million vehicles on an annualized basis. That means if the same number of vehicles were sold every month throughout the year, that would be the industry's total sales for 2020. That compares to an annualized sales rate of 8.6 million vehicles in April. Toyota and other automakers such as Hyundai Motor and Honda Motor are scheduled to report last month's sales Tuesday. Auto research firms expect new vehicle sales to be slightly less than 1.1 million vehicles in May, down by about 32% to 33% compared to May 2019. While better than expected, the industry's sales are still a long way off from last year when automakers sold more than 17 million vehicles. Michael Wayland How to reduce risk of coronavirus during protests, according to doctors A doctor holds up a mask that reads "Black Lives Matter" during a rally against the killing of George Floyd, Foley Square on May 29, 2020 in New York. Kevin Mazur | Getty Images 12 p.m. ET Infectious disease experts and doctors fear protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police will spur more Covid-19 infections and potentially make a second wave of the coronavirus in the fall much worse. However, they also say it's difficult to balance the desire to protest injustice against the risk of infection. While protesters cannot completely eliminate the risk of the coronavirus, there are things they can do to decrease the spread or chance of getting it, according to interviews with a dozen epidemiologists, doctors and infectious disease specialists. Berkeley Lovelace Jr. Tokyo issues stay-home alert after jump in new virus infections People wearing facemasks amid concerns over the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus cross a street in Tokyo on May 4, 2020. CHARLY TRIBALLEAU | AFP via Getty Images 11:04 a.m. ET The Tokyo government warned citizens to stay at home unless they had urgent business and to practice social distancing after recording 34 new coronavirus infections, Reuters reported. Japan lifted a state of emergency for the capital on May 25. Melodie Warner Canadian productions seek government-backed coronavirus insurance solution 10:28 a.m. ET The production community in Canada is looking to jumpstart filming in the country, which was halted in March, with the help of its federal government. The Canadian Media Producers Association is developing a proposal that would ask the government to act as a backstop for coronavirus insurance claims. According to Variety, producers would pay premiums to access Covid-19 coverage. Those premiums would feed into a pot that would pay for any potential claims. The government would only contribute financially if there wasn't enough in the pot to cover the claims. "Without the availability of insurance policies to cover future COVID-19 risks, most production in Canada will not resume," a CMPA spokesperson said in a statement to Variety. "A government-backstopped insurance program will provide confidence to the marketplace, encouraging insurers to offer COVID-19 coverage, allowing producers to purchase policies, and ultimately allowing Canada's production sector to re-open, once it is safe to do so." In April, CMPA estimated that the shutdown of filming in Canada put around 172,000 jobs at risk and could cost its film industry around $1.8 billion in both domestic and foreign production dollars if the shutdown continues through the end of June. Sarah Whitten 'Mission: Impossible 7' aims to resume filming in September Tom Cruise runs along Blackfriars Bridge in London, during filming for "Mission Impossible 6." Victoria Jones - PA Images 10:24 a.m. ET The seventh installment in the Tom Cruise-led "Mission: Impossible" franchise has plans to start shooting outdoor scenes in September, actor Simon Pegg told Variety. Pegg plays Benji Dunn in the film series. Production on the film, which was being shot in Italy, was halted in February due to the coronavirus outbreak. Because of these delays, the film was pushed from its July 2021 release date to November 2021. Sarah Whitten New cases reported by region Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards U.S. small business program handed out virus aid to many borrowers twice 9:50 a.m. ET A technical snafu in a U.S. government system caused many small businesses to receive loans twice or more under a federal aid program designed to help businesses hurt by the novel coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reported. The error was caused by a blind spot in the Small Business Administration's loan processing system which failed to see when some borrowers submitted applications multiple times, typically with several different lenders. The government and lenders have been trying to identify and recover the money mistakenly handed out in recent weeks, one of the people briefed on the matter said, according to Reuters. Melodie Warner Dow rises 100 points as investors focus on the economy reopening 9:34 a.m. ET Stocks rose on Tuesday as investors looked past civil unrest around the country and focused on the reopening of the economy from the coronavirus pandemic. The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 130 points higher, or 0.5%. The S&P 500 climbed 0.3% while the Nasdaq Composite posted a marginal gain. Read stock market activity updates from CNBC's Fred Imbert and Yun Li. Melodie Warner Coronavirus sends more planes to an early retirement A Delta Airlines passenger aircraft (McDonnell Douglas MD-88) takes off from LaGuardia Airport in New York City, New York. Robert Alexander | Getty Images 9:08 a.m. ET Delta Air Lines will fly its last two passenger flights with its MD-88 and MD-90 planes on Tuesday after it pushed up their retirement on because of coronavirus. Delta has parked more than 600 planes because of a plunge in demand over the past few months. The move ends the life of the MD-88 and MD-90s in U.S. passenger airline fleets. American retired its MD-80s last September. Nicknamed by pilots the "Mad Dog," the MD-88s are now a vestige of a noisier era of air travel. Delta first took delivery of its MD-88s in 1987, while American got its first MD-80s, or "Super 80" fleet started in 1983. Airlines have since turned to planes that have quieter and more fuel-efficient high-bypass engines. When Delta removed them from its LaGuardia service in March 2017 Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said: "We welcome Delta Air Lines' positive and responsive decision to retire these aircraft, which will provide some much-needed noise relief to all nearby neighborhoods." Leslie Josephs Bank of America pledges $1 billion to help economic and racial inequality worsened by Covid-19 8:30 a.m. ET Bank of America announced it's committing $1 billion to help communities grappling with exacerbated economic and racial inequality caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The bank said in a press release that the program will focus on "assisting people and communities of color that have experienced a greater impact from the health crisis." The funds will be used toward virus testing, flu clinics, support for minority-owned businesses and investments in affordable housing. Thomas Franck Low-level spread through the summer means a risky fall, Dr. Scott Gottlieb says 7:12 a.m. ET What appears to be a seasonal nature of the coronavirus could prevent a spike in confirmed Covid-19 cases in the U.S. this summer, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said. However, if daily new cases remain as stubbornly high as they are now, it could set the country up for a nasty fall season, he said. "I think what happens is we get low-level spread all through the summer. We don't really see cases come down a lot. We don't see them go up a lot, and so all the benefits of what could have been a seasonal effect kind of get washed out by the fact that we're doing more," he said in an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box." "We're going to accept that, but that sets up risk for the fall." The U.S. continues to report nearly 20,000 new cases per day, Gottlieb said, as spread of the virus shifts from the hardest hit cities like New York and Detroit to other communities across the country. With new cases popping up all over and a still-constrained testing infrastructure, Gottlieb said the slow burn of cases could "seed" infections for another major fall outbreak. Will Feuer Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC contributor and is a member of the boards of Pfizer and biotech company Illumina. Cases continue to rise in Eastern Europe, WHO says A man seen in a Moscow street during a snowfall. Sergei Fadeichev | TASS via Getty Images We all love a bit of fantasy in our lives, right? The idea that something more magical and fantastical could be right around the corner is something that we as humans have been imagining since the dawn of time. Weve even written books and stories about fantastical creatures, worlds and characters that it has become a very intrinsic part of modern culture. So, with that in mind, lets take a look at some of Hotstars fantasy series of 2020. To be fair, some of these shows have come out in 2020 but a lot of them are a bit older. These shows are some of the best Disney+Hotstar fantasy series out there and weve coiled them all into one easy to read list for you guys. Again, just to reiterate, a lot of these fantasy drama series on Disney+Hotstar may not be for everyone, but weve gone above and beyond in giving you guys the most-watched fantasy shows on Disney+Hotstar. If youre a fantasy nut and love some dark and scary fantasy, then sit back and check out these awesome supernatural fantasy shows on Disney+Hotstar. Carnivale If you havent watched Carnivale yet, drop everything and head to Disney+Hotstar, right now! This show is dark, fantastical and incredibly deep. Carnivale follows the basic story of good vs evil but it takes place during a time very rarely seen on fantasy shows, the Great Depression of the 1930s in middle America. Its a tough show to watch but viewers will be rewarded with some of the coolest and weirdest characters on screen. Plus its got Clancy Brown as a fanatical priest and who doesnt love that? Game of Thrones Ok, what can be said about Game of Thrones that has not been said before? Good or bad, we have to admit that GoT changed the fantasy genre as a whole. It wasnt some flaky magician nonsense. The show was dark, brutal and had some of the best writing on television. Well, until the last two seasons, but whos counting those, right? Right from the beginning, the show grabs you by the throat and refuses to let go. Penny Dreadful: City of Angels Penny Dreadful: City of Angels is basically a spinoff of the much loved Penny Dreadful but doesnt really follow the same story. Its sort of like the terrible American Horror Story where the same actors play a different character each season. Instead of London, Penny Dreadful: City of Angels takes place in LA where a pair of detectives solving a grisly murder get dragged into a fantastical and horrific world of demons and creates. The Orville As a lifelong Star Trek fan, its sad to see what the modern version of the classic 60s show has turned into. And, if like us, you love the old Star Trek, then youll adore The Orville. Taking its cue from the classic show, The Orville is a starship that travels to different parts of the universe in an effort to spread peace and unity. Its funny, witty and doesnt take itself too seriously, which is what modern Star Trek completely fails at. Discovery, this is not. Doctor Who One of the most beloved shows on television, Doctor Who has transcended the medium to become a cultural phenomenon. All 11 seasons are available on Disney+Hotstar but wed recommend you skip the last two seasons as theyre absolutely rubbish. Instead, check out earlier seasons where the mythos of the Doctor and his apprentice have not been ruined yet. Almost every sci-fi and fantasy writer in the modern era has been influenced by this landmark show. The Mandalorian A return to form for the failing Star Wars franchise, The Mandalorian is basically a western pulp show disguised as a sci-fi fantasy show. The show follows the adventures of the titular Mandalorian as he makes his way through the galaxy blasting droids and rescuing Baby Yoda. One of the best shows of the year, The Mandalorian is the redemption of a franchise that has been run into the ground. If you liked old school Star Wars, youll have a ton of fun with The Mandalorian. His Dark Materials We did get The Golden Compass back in the day but His Dark Materials pretty much blows the film out of the water. The show is gripping with its premise and stunning with its visuals and is one of the better fantasy shows out there. The story follows a young girl in an alternate world which is much like ours except for one major thing, each and every individual is accompanied by a demon. From birth to death, the human is accompanied by his/her demon, and staying far away from the demon will cause both of them harm. Room 104 Not strictly fantasy, but with a more fantastical bent, Room 104 follows a bunch of Individuals from all walks of life who check into Room 104 of a popular American motel and experience all sorts of weirdness. Its a slow show that is basically an anthology so it doesnt have a full season of a plot but rather hits you with bite-sized chunks of awesome stories. Do not miss if you like a bit of abstract television. Star Wars: The Clone Wars Another show that still holds the legacy of Star Wars high, The Clone Wars features some of the best storytelling in modern Star Wars. Skip the three films and head on to Disney+Hotstar to check this show out. We can assure you that you will not be disappointed. The show essentially traces the history of the franchise from the formation of the Galactic Empire to the destruction of the Jedis. If youve been birth by the films and horrible storytelling in them, do yourself a favour and check out The Clone Wars. New Delhi: Scientists have expressed serious concerns over the sixth mass extinction of critically endangered vertebrate animal species on Earth, stating that this can pose serious environmental threat. The analysis, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reported that the sixth mass extinction is human caused and accelerating. The extinctions of these species have severe implications in the society leading to degradation of ecosystem. The report further stated that are 515 species which estimates for 1.7% of the evaluated vertebrates, are on the brink. Around 94 percent of the populations of 77 mammal and bird species on the brink have been lost in the last century, the journal reads. The study further found that the sixth mass extinction, caused by human action is likely accelerating for several reasons. The species which are almost on the brink will likely become extinct soon. The study also emphasised that human pressures on the biosphere is growing too fast. The study compared it with the Covid-19 pandemic, linking it to wildlife trade. Scientists say that the need of the hour is to take instant worldwide actions to save wild species otherwise our environment and human life, both will continue to reel under serious threat. The historic Old Town residential neighborhood is a gem of Idaho and Twin Falls in particular. I grew up in the sixties and seventies in this close knit neighborhood of well kept homes on tree lined avenues and upon graduation left to see the the world. Decades later, I decided to move back to Twin Falls and bought a home four doors from the home I grew up in. When I moved back in the nineties, the neighborhood was under stress and falling apart and was no longer well kept homes. The neighborhood had fallen out of fashion and was in a state of disrepair, but something magical started to happen, people rediscovered the tree lined avenues with their beautiful historic homes. Families bought them and lovingly restored them and became new neighbors. Today the Historic Old Town Residential Neighborhood is once again a wonderful place to live and recognized by the U.S. government as a important piece of our culture to be preserved. Unfortunately, the proposed high rise apartment buildings are ill suited to this historic neighborhood and will take away from what so many people have worked so hard for so many years to restore. They are simply to massive for this area. We are downtown, but this is a neighborhood of historic one and two story homes set back off the street with lots of trees and green yards. What this neighborhood is not, is five-story tall, high density, modern looking apartment buildings with no setbacks, little to no greenery and insufficient parking for the tenants. I implore Twin Falls City Council to follow their own rules and not allow the variances the out of town developer requests. The proposed development is too big for this wonderful neighborhood: "The City's Neighborhood." Follow the rules: no variance. Robert Myrland Twin Falls Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Wuhan doctor Hu Weifeng, a colleague of late whistleblowing doctor Li Wenliang, died of coronavirus on Tuesday, state media reported. Hu, a urologist who had worked alongside Li at Wuhan Central Hospital, died after a four-month-long battle with COVID-19 and related complications, according to state broadcaster CCTV. He is the sixth doctor to die of the virus at that hospital since the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic in Wuhan late last year. Photos of Hu published by the media showed him with darkened skin owing to liver damage caused by the virus. Hu was first admitted to hospital on Jan. 17, ahead of the Lunar New Year celebrations, and amid the first peak of the Wuhan epidemic. But his colleagues were reluctant to discuss his death, indicating that it remains a highly politically sensitive topic for the ruling Chinese Communist Party. Several colleagues declined requests for comment when contacted by RFA on Tuesday. Earlier this year, the hospital was embroiled in controversy for banning the wearing of face-masks among medical staff not directly involved with the emergency room, intensive care units, or infectious diseases specialty. Sources said the insistence on using critically ill front-line medical staff as test patients for traditional Chinese medicine treatments for coronavirus has also generated widespread concern. A health industry insider surnamed Feng said the authorities sometimes avoid listing deaths as being caused by the coronavirus, and put constant political pressure on hospitals not to report fresh coronavirus cases. She said management at hospitals that report fresh cases are threatened with disciplinary investigations. Coverups caused deaths A Wuhan-based academic surnamed Zhou said some doctors had died because of official attempts to cover up the emergence of new cases in Wuhan, which has been officially declared free of new cases. Zhou said the Wuhan Central Hospital Communist Party secretary Cai Li isn't a medical professional herself. "She is a bureaucrat, and all the decisions she has made during this epidemic have been based on orders from higher up," Zhou said. "This means that if her superiors are under pressure, they can use her as a scapegoat, but if they're doing OK they won't give her any trouble." Ai Fen, director of the Wuhan Central Hospital ER, was given a stern reprimand after sending information about the early stages of the outbreak to a group of doctors, after she took a photo of a patient's test results and circled the words "SARS coronavirus" in red. She alerted colleagues to several cases of the virus, and eight of them were then summoned by police and reprimanded for sharing the information. Among them was opthalmologist Li Wenliang who later died of COVID-19. Critics, both at home and internationally, have accused the Hubei provincial authorities and the Wuhan municipal government of covering up the fact that the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 could easily be transmitted between human beings. A Jan. 11 notice issued by the Hubei health commission denied that person-to-person transmission existed, but a March 19 State Supervisory Commission report into the reprimanding of Li Wenliang said human-to-human transmission was known about as early as December. The Wuhan People's Congress also knew that the virus was transmissible between people, but gave the go-ahead for the 10,000 Families Banquet at Baibuting, which gave rise to a large cluster of infections, according to a lawsuit filed against the Hubei provincial authorities. International lawsuits China could face trillions of dollars in international lawsuits for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which first emerged in Wuhan as early as November, according to the London-based Henry Jackson Society. Nations who are part of the G7 and other governments could sue the ruling Chinese Communist Party for damages to their economies and national infrastructure after the country breached the International Health Regulations, a legally binding international treaty to which China is a signatory, the think-tank said in a report published in April. Beijing has been accused of providing the World Health Organization (WHO) with "erroneous information" about the number of infections in early January, while failing to ban the trade in wild animals for human consumption. Chinese health authorities also allowed five million people to leave Wuhan by announcing a lockdown but not immediately implementing it, while also being aware that the coronavirus was spreading between people, critics say. A University of Southampton study found that the spread of COVID-19 could have been reduced by around 95 percent if the authorities had acted three weeks earlier. In Washington, a group of Senators and Representatives said they plan to introduce the "Li Wenliang Global Public Health Accountability Act," which would authorize the president to sanction foreign officials who suppress or distort information about international public health crises, including the Wuhan coronavirus. Reported by Wong Siu-san and Sing Man for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Zimbabwe has summoned the US ambassador in Harare for a meeting over comments by a White House official suggesting Zimbabwe is among "foreign adversaries" that could face retaliation for trying to foment unrest in the US over the death of George Floyd, a black man who pleaded for air as a police officer pressed a knee into his neck, eventually killing him. READ: Donald Trump To Deploy Military Against 'angry Mobs' Protesting George Floyd's Death Zimbabwe summons US Ambassador US National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien, in an interview with ABC news network said that Zimbabwe is one of several "foreign adversaries" - including China and Russia - he suggested were taking advantage of the protests in the US to "sow discord and to try and damage our democracy. So there will be a response and it will be proportional, but this is not something that - that our adversaries are going to get away with for free," O'Brien said. In a statement, Zimbabwes Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo said OBriens accusations were false and deeply damaging to a relationship already complicated due to years of prescriptive megaphone diplomacy and punitive economic sanctions. We take due note of the measures deployed by the U.S. authorities to deal with the challenges currently confronting them. At the same time, we recall the harsh U.S. criticism and condemnation of our own response to multiple instances of illegal, violent civil unrest." READ: Donald Trump Calls Ongoing Protests Against George Floyd's Death 'unacceptable' George Floyd's death 46-year-old George Floyd suffered a cardiac arrest while being restrained by Minneapolis police, the post mortem report found. The report stated that Floyd died as "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression". A video went viral in which a white police officer is seen kneeling on Floyd's neck despite Floyd's continuous plea stating that he could not breathe. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter and is scheduled to appear in court this week. Three other police officers have been fired. For six consecutive days, there have been widespread protests around the United States, with many cases of looting and burning stores and establishments as well. Tensions and violence continue to escalate in many areas including outside White House, with protesters demanding justice for Georgy Floyd and his family. READ: Obama Condemns Violence At Protests Over Floyd's Death; Says Protesters 'deserve Support' READ: George Floyd's Killing: Powerful Photos Speak A Thousand Words As Protests Rage Across US In total, 12,556 tests were conducted in the country over the period under review. Ukrainian Health Minister Maksym Stepanov has named three regions with the largest number of COVID-19 cases reported in the country in the past day. Read alsoKyiv mayor reports 28 new COVID-19 cases, one fatality in past day "In terms of the regions, the highest number of confirmed cases in the past 24 hours was registered in Rivne region (53 cases), as well as Zhytomyr and Lviv regions (34 each)," he told a briefing on June 2. In total, 12,556 tests were conducted in the country on June 2 alone; of them, there were 8,097 tests with the use of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method and 4,459 with the application of the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. As UNIAN reported earlier, there were 24,340 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ukraine as of the morning of June 2, including 727 COVID-19 deaths and 10,078 recoveries. Some 328 new cases were recorded in the past 24 hours. Annastacia Palaszczuk has been accused of destroying livelihoods and causing chaos over the state's border closure and her government's handling of the Nathan Turner case. The embattled Queensland Premier is facing an uprising from desperate tourism operators who are demanding she opens the state's borders so they can rescue their businesses from ruin after coronavirus lockdown. Shadow minister for tourism David Crisafulli told Daily Mail Australia the Premier has 'pulled the rug from under the feet' of business owners and caused mass confusion by failing to decide when the border can open. At the same time, Ms Palaszczuk - who faces an election in five months - is copping heavy criticism after her government caused mass panic in an Outback town by declaring 30-year-old miner Nathan Turner had died of coronavirus only to later find out he was not infected. Annastacia Palaszczuk has been accused of destroying livelihoods and causing chaos over the state's border closure and her government's bungled handling of the Nathan Turner case The embattled Queensland Premier is facing an uprising from desperate tourism operators who are demanding she opens the state's borders so they can rescue their businesses from ruin after coronavirus lockdown. Pictured: Port Douglas Some opponents are linking the two crises, claiming that Mr Turner's death helped Ms Palaszczuk justify her border closure by fitting her narrative that Queensland's battle with the virus was far from over. Mr Turner died in the town of Blackwater on May 26. A swab taken after his death tested positive for coronavirus but a second came back negative. Further examinations last night confirmed Mr Turner did not have the virus. There is no suggestion that Ms Palaszczuk knew Mr Turner did not have coronavirus. Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Queensland Premier's office for comment. Meanwhile, Mr Crisafulli slammed the premier over her borders policy, which is is costing businesses on the Gold Coast alone as much as $310million a month. Ms Palaszczuk has justified her border closure by saying there are too many cases of the virus in NSW and Victoria. But New South Wales has not had a single case of community transmission since May 27. On Tuesday morning three major protests took place on the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast and Cairns as businesses owners demanded open borders. 'People want to see a mature balance between protecting their health and protecting their economy - both factors have to be weighed up and both have a health outcome,' Mr Crisafulli said. Ms Palaszczuk's refusal to open the border, against the advice of federal health experts and despite the pleas of NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has earned her comparisons to fellow Labor Premier Daniel Andrews, who is accused of holding back the economy by relaxing rules too slowly in Victoria. Victorian Liberals label him 'Chairman Dan' - after former Chinese Communist Party leader Chairman Mao - while Ms Palaszczuk has been dubbed 'comrade' by some of her critics. Motorists are stopped at a checkpoint on the Gold Coast Highway at Coolangatta Mr Crisafulli accused the premier of failing to give businesses certainty. 'The biggest criticism for me is the mixed messages, moving goalposts and the confusion,' he said. 'The industry was given a date of 10 July by the government's roadmap and they were all gearing up for that date. 'That announcement was made on the 8 May. Then, ten days later, it was all taken away from them when the Premier said the borders may stay closed until September. 'In those ten says the health situation improved, the desire to get back to business increased but hard-working Queenslanders had the rug pulled out from under their feet.' 'Businesses here need to have the ability to open in July so they can try to make a buck during the winter weather in the southern states.' Various theories have been put forward to explain the Premier's change of heart. Some say she is pitting Queensland against New South Wales for her own political gain with the state election in October. Another theory claims that, when asked about the border during a live interview with the ABC, she accidentally said 'September' instead of July and has since run with the error rather than hold her hands up. Mr Crisafulli said: 'No-one cares how this happened, they just want to see the right result. 'If there has been a change in the health advice, people need to know. If not, then I just want to see the government honour its commitment.' Queensland Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington has also slammed the government over the border closure. 'The Palaszczuk Labor Government cannot even agree among themselves when the border will re-open,' she said. Nathan Turner's family demanded an apology from the Queensland government after he was declared 'Australia's youngest COVID-19 victim' only for an autopsy to reveal he never had the virus Ms Palaszczuk's refusal to open the border has earned her comparisons to fellow Labor Premier Daniel Andrews (pictured), who is accused of holding back the economy relaxing rules too slowly in Victoria 'The Chief Medical Officer says July and the Premier says September. 'The Tourism Minister was reportedly shocked to learn of the Premier's September timetable - and she wasn't the only one. 'Queensland's tourism sector has been stunned by Labor's border shambles. There is a slim booking window open right now and the Premier is slamming it shut. 'Tourists won't plan a holiday in Queensland if they don't even know the border will be open. 'Queensland could lose millions of tourists and tens of thousands of jobs because of the chaos caused by the Premier's mixed messages.' Last night Ms Palaszczuk apologised to Mr Turner's family over the fiasco in Blackwater. She said: 'Of course we are very sorry for the distress the family is going through at the moment. 'I really want to say to the family that we're incredibly sorry that that has happened. 'To the family I know that is still grieving and I don't want them to be stressed anymore, I know it is a very tough time for them but we do know that the coroner made that finding yesterday and we accept that finding.' Deputy Premier Steven Miles said today: 'Our ability to control this virus requires us to respond rapidly to every single positive test. 'We have to treat every positive test as though it is a positive case.' The cause of Mr Turner's death is under investigation. Photograph: Bryan Woolston/Reuters The police chief of Louisville, Kentucky, was fired on Monday after the mayor learned that officers involved in a shooting that killed the popular owner of a barbecue spot failed to activate body cameras during the chaotic scene. Steve Conrad, chief of the Louisville Metro Police Department was relieved of his duties on Monday afternoon. David McAtee, known for offering meals to police officers, died earlier on Monday while police officers and national guard soldiers were enforcing a curfew amid waves of protests over the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis a week ago and a previous recent police shooting in Kentuckys largest city. Related: Trump threatens to deploy military against protests as police fire teargas nearby Police said they were responding to gunfire from a crowd. The US attorney said federal authorities will join state police in investigating the fatal shooting. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer revealed that authorities lacked body camera video for the investigation just hours after Kentuckys governor demanded the release of police video. This type of institutional failure will not be tolerated, Fischer said. Accordingly, I have relieved Steve Conrad of his duties. Governor Andy Beshear later said the lack of body camera footage was unacceptable. This is the entire reason that we have those cameras, the Democratic governor said at the state Capitol in Frankfort. And every other officers cameras should be reviewed, and if they captured any part of the scene it ought to be released. Beshear authorized state police to independently investigate the shooting. He pledged the probe will be conducted in an honest and transparent way that will not take months. The governor said he had counted on body camera footage to help determine the truth in a way that spoke for itself, at a time when trust is difficult and people deserve to be able to see and evaluate. Deputy Chief Robert Schroeder will step in immediately as chief, Fischer said. Story continues The mayor also said the citys curfew was being extended until 8 June. Police did retrieve video from crime center cameras that showed how the shooting unfolded, Schroeder said. It is taken from a distance, but it gives an overview of the scene and clearly shows the officers reacting to gunfire, he said. Two Louisville officers and two Guard soldiers returned fire, he said. The two officers violated policy by not wearing or activating body cameras, Schroeder said, adding they have been placed on administrative leave. McAtee, whose YaYas BBQ Shack is near where the shooting occurred, was mourned by hundreds of people who returned to the site hours afterward. Christopher 2X, an anti-violence activist and executive director of the group Game Changers, said McAtee was well-liked. Ive never known him to be aggressive in any kind of way, he said. Schroeder agreed that McAtee was friendly to police officers. Over the years hes been a good friend to the police officers ... frequently making sure our officers had a good meal on their shifts, he said. Last week, before the National Guard was mobilized, seven people were wounded when gunshots erupted during a protest in downtown Louisville. Police said none of the seven, who are recovering, were shot by police. They have not announced any arrests. Protesters have been demanding justice for Breonna Taylor, a black woman killed in her home in Louisville in March. The 26-year-old EMT was shot eight times by narcotics detectives who knocked down her front door as they attempted to enforce a search warrant. No drugs were found in the home. After Taylors death, the mayor said Louisville police would be required to wear body cameras. A semester which was spent largely in online learning was punctuated with an online commencement ceremony on Friday. Western University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific-Northwest (COMP-NW) celebrated its sixth commencement with a virtual online gathering. The ceremony was highlighted by speeches by President Daniel R. Wilson, Dean Paula Crone and board member Gene Barduson, who gave the keynote address. Before the ceremonys official start, there was the opportunity to watch short video messages from members of this graduating class. These greetings were filled with thankfulness to family members, spouses, friends, and members of the Lebanon community who supported them over the past four years. Austin Layton thanked his parents and grandparents for the many sacrifices they made which allowed him to enter and then complete medical school. This day, this graduation is bittersweet that I cant be with those people to acknowledge the role they played, not only these last four years but in the years preceding that, Layton said. When the ceremony began, Crone also noted the unusual nature of this years commencement, made necessary by the social distancing rules put in place due to the spread of the novel coronavirus. Today marks a very special day and represents a tremendous milestone for our graduates. Even though this is not how we were planning to celebrate it, and we miss not being able to be with you in person, we are still grateful that we had the opportunity to be part of your educational journey. We are very proud of you today, Crone said. Wilson asked the members of the graduating class to step back from the current situation and remember when they first understood that their lives would be devoted to medicine. This world crisis forces us to adapt to what I call a crack in time. Our future is not yet clear, but to make better sense of all this, graduates, please I ask each of you to think back to the very first moment you knew you were destined to be a health professional, Wilson said. You knew you were destined to be a healer, you were drawn to it, you felt a calling. Barduson was asked to give the main address both because of his years spent on the board and his experience as one of the pioneers in the field of health information systems. In addition to serving on the Western University of Health Sciences board, he is also a member of the Board of Trustees at Scripps Health, an integrated delivery network in Southern California. He recalled an experience 15 years ago when he was invited to attend a medical student memorial for those who had donated their bodies for the advancement of medicine and medical education. He was awestruck by the solemnity of the event. There on stage was a ceremony I will never forget, Barduson said. Something happened to me that day. I learned what humanism is. I witnessed what it meant to this group of men and women working so hard to master the skills to be a physician. They were also evidencing the compassion of what it is to be a humanistic physician. I learned that day what a special place Western University is. Barduson said this generation of physicians faces the task of re-imagining the role of doctors in our society and he looks forward to seeing them live up to this challenge. Every commencement speaker is supposed to say something to inspire the graduates. The more I thought about that, the more it became obvious to me thats backwards. It is you that are the inspiration. It is you who inspire us each and every day. It is your passion, your brilliance, your skill, your creativity and compassion that represent our future, Barduson said. Its you who will take the promise of technology and turn it into personalized medicine. It is you who will transform a health system that rewards itself by the number of procedures it performs, to a system that rewards itself by the health and wellness of the community it serves. As part of the ceremony, the newly minted doctors took part in the traditional hooding ceremony and took the Osteopathic Oath. There were 106 members of this class, bringing the total number of graduates from the Lebanon medical school campus to 607. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The Los Angeles chef Josef Centeno woke up early Saturday morning, to find piles of smashed glass and scrawls of graffiti at his downtown restaurants. Like so many businesses, his Bar Ama and Baco Mercat had been vandalized during protests overnight. Though home improvement stores were running low on plywood, Mr. Centeno tracked some down from a friend and, like business owners around the country, cleaned up his sidewalk and boarded up his storefronts for the night ahead. We are already in a tough position, and our insurance wont cover this, he said. But the anger and frustration he felt wasnt directed at the tens of thousands of people who marched throughout the weekend against racism and police brutality, to protest police killings of black Americans after the death of George Floyd. Im in full support, in total solidarity, with the protesters, Mr. Centeno said. We need change, period. We know that global warming is forcing many animals around the world to flee their normal habitats, but now, an exhaustive analysis has shown marine species are booking it for the poles six times faster than those on land, Science Alert reports in its article Thousands of Species Are Fleeing to Earth's Poles en Masse, And a Pattern's Emerging. Drawing together 258 peer-reviewed studies, researchers compared over 30,000 habitat shifts in more than 12,000 species of bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals. The resulting database, named BioShifts, is the first comprehensive analysis of its kind, and while the database is limited by our own, human research biases, the data we have certainly suggests marine species are following global thermal shifts much closer than land animals. While land species definitely are moving closer to the poles as the planet heats up, this shift is "at a pace that is much slower than expected, especially in areas with warm climates," the authors write. In the review, amphibians were found to be moving up slope at over 12 metres a year, while reptiles seem to be headed towards the equator at 6.5 metres a year. Insects, which incidentally carry many diseases, were found to be moving poleward at 18.5 kilometres per year. Relatively, that's a lot, but in the bigger picture, marine species were moving towards the poles at an average pace of nearly 6 kilometres per year, while land animals were only shifting upslope at a mean pace of nearly 1.8 metres per year (slightly faster than previous estimates for land species, but still comparatively slow). This discrepancy between land and water could exist for several reasons. It might, for instance, be a product of temperature sensitivity. Air conducts heat 25 times less effectively than water, and many land animals can easily regulate their body temperature if they want. On the whole, this would logically leave marine species and many ectotherms - cold-blodded species - much more susceptible to Earth's fluctuating temperatures. Plus, animals in the water can migrate a lot easier if the need arises. On land, human activities often impede the movement of animals. In fact, when animals were exposed to a high degree of anthropogenic disturbances, the authors of this analysis found they tended to move against the thermal grain and not with it. This is consistent with the general idea that land use and climate change may force species in opposite directions, a sort of push and pull of re-distribution. "On land, habitat loss and fragmentation due to land use changes may impede the ability of terrestrial species to track shifting isotherms [lines on a map connection regions with the same temperature]," the authors write. "These complex interactions need to be accounted for to improve scenarios of biodiversity redistribution and its consequences on human well-being under future climate change." If the authors are right, and marine life is tracking along temperature changes more closely, it could have dire and far-reaching repercussions. Some of which we might have seen before. During the Permian-Triassic Extinction, the most calamitous event in Earth's history, researchers say very few marine organisms stayed in the same habitat as oxygen levels plummeted. "It was either flee or perish," according to oceanographer Curtis Deutsch of the University of Washington, and for over 50 percent of marine species at the time, it was unfortunately the latter. Today, as temperature increases squeeze animals into ever-narrowing habitat ranges, those animals already swimming towards he poles are also at risk of running out of cooler water. Of course, this is happening on land, too. Animals found high up in the mountains are said to be riding an "escalator to extinction" as temperatures and competition push them over the brink. It's just that in the water this escalator seems to be moving faster. "We suggest that commercial fishing may speed up the displacement of marine species distribution through resource depletion and population crashes at the trailing edge, whereas low constraints on dispersal in the oceans may allow marine species living close to their upper thermal limits to better track climate warming at the leading edge," the authors predict. BioShifts is a way for us to help track those changes so we can possibly predict what will happen next. A giant snowman erected on the bank of Songhua River in Harbin, the capital of Northeast Chinas Heilongjiang province, has drawn much attention online. Around 2,000 cubic meters of snow was used to create the 18.5-meter-tall figure dressed in a red hat and scarf. Since December, ice and snow sculptures featuring Winter Olympics and Lunar New Year elements have popped up across the city famed for its ice festivals, drawing many visitors Jan 20, 2022 06:19 PM - Deputy Energy Minister, Dr. Mohammed Amin, has condemned measures on oil and gas in Ghana implemented by Former President Mahama - He explained that it was pointless to site the Atuabo Gas Plant in the Western Region when the processing of raw materials took place at Tema in the Greater Accra region - Dr.Amin added that there was no transport system between the Plant and the industries at Tema Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in The Deputy Minister of Energy, Dr. Mohammed Amin, has described Former President Mahama as someone who lacked the skills to develop Ghanas oil and gas sector. According to him, Mahamas administration did not have solid plans to strategically utilise some of the available facilities. Dr. Amin explained that Mahamas government built the Atuabo Gas Plant in the Western Region, and was far from the hub for processing power, Tema making it difficult for the project to see its full usage. READ ALSO: ACEP raises alarm as Office of President gives Ghana Gas top appointment Per a report by myjoyonline.com, he added that the failure to establish a transport mechanism for the product between the power plant and the industries that require the services made the entire project unproductive. Dr. Amin further indicated that President Akufo-Addos intervention following his assumption of office was the needed twist to give a boost to the maximization of the plants potential. So even at the time we had dumsor, because Nigeria had curtailed the supply of gas to us, we had so much of our indigenous gas stranded in Takoradi. This was the failure of planning, he noted. The Deputy Minister went on to say that the funding necessary to build a system to transport gas to Tema was spearheaded by the incumbent NPP government, a feat that brought out the usefulness of the Atuabo Gas Plant. This, he stated, has made it possible to facilitate the flow of up to 60 million standard cubic feet of gas a day from Takoradi to Tema In other news, the West Africa Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo) has assured Ghanaians that there will be a regular supply of gas. WAPCo went on to say that not even the disruptions in business caused by the outbreak of the coronavirus would affect the flow of gas. The company, has, however, admitted there are challenges in transporting technical staff but gave the assurance that the outbreak of the coronavirus would not affect operations. READ ALSO: Confirmed: Ghanaians to pay more for fuel from June 1 onwards Enjoyed reading our story? Download YEN's news app on Google Playstore now and stay up-to-date with major Ghana news! Bawumia fires Mahama - Stop embarrassing yourself; always check the data before you talk | #Yencomgh= Want to be featured on YEN.com.gh? Send us a message on our Facebook page or on Instagram with your stories, photos or videos Source: YEN.com.gh Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall filed a lawsuit against Birmingham on Tuesday, alleging the city violated state law when it began removing the Confederate monument in Linn Park on Monday night. The lawsuit contends the city violated the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act, a 2017 law that bans municipalities from removing or renaming any architecturally significant building, memorial building, memorial street, or monument on public property that has existed for at least 40 years without state approval. The Confederate Soldiers and Sailors monument was dedicated in 1905. On Monday, I advised [Birmingham] Mayor [Randall] Woodfin that the removal of the 115-year-old Confederate Soldiers and Sailors monument in Birminghams Linn Park would violate the law and that I would fulfill my duty to enforce it. Monday night, the city of Birmingham removed the monument and today I am filing a new lawsuit against the city for violating Alabama law," Marshall said in a statement. The lawsuit filed in Jefferson County Circuit Court says the monument is of independent historical and cultural significance. Marshalls legal action related to the monument is the second since he has been attorney general. In 2017, he filed a similar lawsuit against Birmingham after then-Mayor William Bell erected plywood around the memorial. The state won the lawsuit, and Birmingham was ordered to pay a one-time, $25,000 civil fine by the Alabama Supreme Court. The monuments removal began Monday night, a day after protests in Birmingham turned violent, including members of the media being assaulted, fires being set and windows of businesses and cultural institutions being shattered. Protesters also attempted to remove the monument. Woodfin said he decided to go ahead and remove the Confederate monument because the civil penalty cost less than the price of civil unrest. Read Marshalls lawsuit below: - Beach management officials were building a yacht at Likoni beach when they smelt a stench coming from the septic tank - They reported the matter to police who came with firefighters and collected the body from the tank - Locals said they could not identify the man as he was not from the area Residents of Kibuyuni village in Likoni, Mombasa county, were left in shock after body of a man was found dumped in a septic tank under mysterious circumstances. The decomposing body of the unknown man was retrieved from a 25-feet deep septic tank adjacent to Kenya Ferry Services main office on Monday, June 1, following a joint operation by the area police officers and county firefighters. READ ALSO: Mvulana wa darasa la 3 atuzwa na Rais Uhuru kwa ubunifu wake Police and firefighters as they were preparing to retrieve the body from the septic tank. Photo: Yvonne Mutunga Source: Original READ ALSO: Kenyan newspapers review for June 2: Tension in Jubilee Party as 174 MPs expected at State House for Parliamentary Group meeting Speaking to journalists, Likoni sub county police commander Jane Munywoki said they had confirmed retrieval of the corpse but the man was yet to be identified. "No one came out to claim the corpse and we haven't received any complains of a missing person at our Likoni Police Station, we have started investigations to help identify the man," said Munywoki. The body was discovered by Likoni beach management officials who were building a yatch next to the tank when they felt a strong stench from the septic tank that was closed with some space for air. The police had to widen the opening on the tank for them to retrieve the body. Photo: Yvonne Mutunga Source: Original READ ALSO: Tuko dry spell: Size 8 complains DJ Mo too busy to satisfy her bedroom needs When they looked into the tank, they saw something that looked like a human body but were not sure and they reported the matter at Likoni Police Station and officers responded with the firefighters. By the time the police arrived, hundreds of residents had gathered around to catch a glimpse, blocking the entrance to KFS offices despite the strong stench. The naked body was retrieved and had no injuries on any body parts, an indication he might have been tortured before he was murdered. Abdullah Kaka, a resident at Kibuyuni, said the man was not known in the area and they have not heard of any missing person, he said he might have been killed elsewhere and his body dumped there. The body was wrapped in a white body bag and taken to Coast General Hospital awaiting postmortem examination. Photo: Yvonne Mutunga Source: Original READ ALSO: MP Washiali dares Uhuru to oust him from majority whip seat: "I won't kneel before anyone" The body was wrapped in a white body bag and taken to the Coast General Hospital mortuary awaiting postmortem examination. The incident came barely a week after a university student was murdered and his body dumped in a thicket at Kibundani in Shika Adabu area, Likoni sub county. According to the villagers, the student had earlier received a text message from a friend who wanted to meet him before he was found dead with his throat cut and both ears chopped off. Notably, this is the second incident of a man being retrieved from a septic tank given in September 2019 Dutch billionaire Tob Cohen was also retrieved from a septic tank at his home after missing for more than 40 days. The matter is still ongoing in court with the late billionaire's wife, Sarah Cohen, having been arrested and charged as the main suspect. Story by Yvonne Mutunga, TUKO correspondent Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly. Source: TUKO.co.ke Nearly half of Britons have admitted they are drinking earlier in the day, twice as high as nations at the other end of the spectrum. A survey of 40,000 people across the world revealed Britain tops the table among 12 countries on a number of drinking parameters. Nearly 47 per cent of people who drink reported starting earlier in the day than usual during the pandemic, compared with 23 per cent in Greece. Britons say that the unprecedented lockdown - imposed on March 23 - has triggered boredom and anxiety that has left them reaching for the bottle. More than half said they had increased the number of days they drink on and a third revealed they were binge-drinking more often. Despite pubs being closed, off-licences have stayed open and the stockpiling panic in the early days of the crisis saw supermarket shelves swiped of alcohol. Those who have managed to cut back on their drink - around a quarter - said they had more money and better physical and mental health for it. The survey findings come after official statistics showed the amount of alcohol sold jumped by almost 34 per cent over March and April. Nearly half of Britons admit they are drinking earlier in the day, twice as high as nations at the other end of the spectrum - Greece, Germany and Switzerland - a survey has revealed The findings come from the Global Drug Survey and give an insight into the coping mechanisms people have adopted during the Covid-19 crisis. It found 31 per cent of people globally are drinking earlier in the day, which jumps up to 47 per cent in the UK. Some 30 per cent have increased their drinking days 'a little', (35 per cent in the UK), and 13 per cent have increased it 'a lot' (20.6 per cent in the UK). A quarter of global respondents said the number of days they drank had decreased during Covid-19, while 29 per cent had seen no change. When asked how often they were binge drinking - at least five drinks, such as a bottle of beer or glass of wine, in one session - a quarter said this was occuring more often than in February. But 30 per cent said this was happening less often. Overall, 11 per cent of people surveyed said they had drunk every single day in the past month. This was not broken down into countries. The UK places in the top three countries for every drinking measure out of the 12 countries who have participated so far. Countries who are on the lower end of the scale - with less dramatic increases in drinking habits - include Greece, Germany and Switzerland. A closer look at the UK's statistics show that of 1,100 survey respondents, a third are binge-drinking more often, which is higher than the average. Some 35 per cent are drinking on more days of the week than usual, while 20 per cent are drinking on a lot more days. Four in ten people said their physical and mental health had suffered as a result, which is higher than the global figure. But the same amount said it was their anxiety that had them drinking more alcohol in the first place, almost double the 25 per cent globally, alongside boredom and too much time. 'The survey shows that what you do matters. In a short period, people are feeling worse off mentally and physically through drinking,' Professor Adam Winstock, a consultant psychiatrist and addiction medicine specialist and founder and director of the survey, told The Guardian. 'And we see the real significant benefits of drinking less. This is not about being sober and not getting tipsy. Just drop a day or two to see a difference.' Professor Winstock told Vice social media had largely normalised heavy drinking during lockdown, but that 'you don't have to follow the herd'. In the UK, more than half said they had increased their drinking days Percentage of people who have increase their binge drinking (five drinks or more) either a little or a lot: Some 30 per cent have increased their drinking days 'a little', (35 per cent in the UK), and 13 per cent have increased it 'a lot' (20.6 per cent in the UK) HALF OF BRITONS HAVE GAINED WEIGHT DURING PANDEMIC Half of Britons admit they have piled on the pounds during lockdown putting them more at risk of coronavirus. A study by King's College London also found 41 per cent of adults did not leave their home on five of the previous seven days leading up to this latest survey and 46 per cent of parents say the same applied to their children. The worrying finding comes after NHS data revealed severely overweight people are more likely to die from COVID-19. The survey of more than 2,250 people in England, Wales and Scotland between May 20 and May 22 also revealed a third of people have consumed more alcohol than they normally would, up from 19 per cent in early April. Tam Fry, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, told MailOnline: 'The fact that so many people admit to putting on weight should surprise no one. This will be substantially more obesity due to comfort eating and snacking than the regrettable lack of exercise. 'When COVID-19 is over and the true effect on Britain's waistlines is reported expect draconian health measures. Boris Johnson has vowed to launch a war on fat through fear of a second wave but he won't win it if the measures required are not immediately implemented.' Four in 10 said they felt more lonely than usual, while 35 per cent have postponed seeking medical advice or treatment unrelated to Covid-19. A vthird of the country has halted their NHS treatment due to fears about catching the virus in hospital or being a burden on the health service. Advertisement Almost 28 per cent of respondents said they were drinking on less days, while almost 36 per cent were binge drinking less often. Their finances had been boosted as a result, two-thirds said, and their physical health had improved. Overall, 42 per cent of participants said they would like to drink less in the next 30 days, and the researchers pointed to their free, anonymous app the Drinks Meter for guidance on how to do so. The report comes the same day that research from King's College London, conducted in May, reports nearly a third of people in the UK (29 per cent) are drinking more than they typically would. That's an increase on the 19 per cent reported in April, according to interviews with more than 2,250 adults, by the Policy Institute at Kings in partnership with Ipsos MORI. Commenting on the findings, Colin Drummond, a professor of addiction psychiatry at Kings College London, said: 'Alcohol consumption and mental health are intimately linked. An increase in isolation, mental distress, depression and anxiety is likely to have been a factor driving increased alcohol consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic.' Another survey from Alcohol Change UK found one in five British adults - around 8.6million - who drink alcohol are drinking more frequently since lockdown. More than one in three of the 1,555 drinkers said they have either stopped drinking or reduced how often they drink since March. Six per cent have stopped drinking entirely. Ian Hamilton, an associate professor of addiction at University of York, said recent surveys show those who were already drinkers have seen their habits worsen. He told MailOnline: 'Essentially there are two distinct groups emerging; the first were drinking low amounts or were abstinent prior to Covid and during Covid have reduced their drinking further or continued being abstinent. The second group who were drinking at hazardous levels prior to Covid are now consuming even more alcohol. 'This shouldn't be a surprise as retail sales of alcohol have risen and people are isolated and bored, two factors that we know increase alcohol intake.' Sales of alcohol have soared by 33.7 per cent since the lockdown, according to the Office for National Statistics. The March retail report showed a spike of 31.4 per cent in purchasing of alcohol, likely a result of stockpiling, while sales increased by a smaller 2.3 per cent in April. Some 12,000 people responded to the questions in the Global Drug Survey about cannabis use, with 40.9 per cent reporting increased use of THC containing products - which are those that get you high. The UK has seen the second highest jump (23 per cent) after Australia (26 per cent). Once again, the most common reasons included excess time. The report said: 'For drugs like cannabis that many people use regularly regardless of social context. Having more time on your hands and being bored appears to be the main reason, with secondary factors including addressing mood and worries.' MDMA and cocaine use has dramatically reduced, with 40 per cent saying they had consumed less during the pandemic, mainly because they were not seeing friends they do it with. The UK was among the top countries to have cut back (37 per cent), despite London being dubbed the 'cocaine capital' of Europe. In this survey, 39 per cent said they had taken cocaine in the past year, the second largest amount just behind the Netherlands, and 34 per cent MDMA. The majority of participants of this survey were young, experienced with the use of illicit drugs, and employed or in education Globally, around 35 per cent of participants who take anxiety curbing benzodiazepines, also known as benzos, reported increased useage during the pandemic. 'Increases in benzodiazepine use can be viewed as a coping strategy and their use may compensate for access to other drugs,' the report said. It warned misuse and dependence of benzos are a real concern, especially because withdrawal can be potentially life threatening. Police Arrests 69 Suspected Kidnappers, Young Gangsters, Criminals The Nigeria Police in Adamawa State has paraded 69 people alleged to have been involved in kidnapping, armed robbery, homicide and violence in different parts of the state. The police said 19 of them have been involved in kidnapping incidents and six others allegedly threatened people with kidnapping and collected money from them. The suspects paraded on Monday at the police headquarters in Yola also included 25 suspected Shila Boys who were mostly teenage boys and allegedly engaged in street snatching of valuables from residents. The others paraded were 18 people arrested for allegedly inciting communal clashes in Tigno in Lamurde LGA, as well as one person who was accused of culpable homicide. The state Commissioner of Police, CP Olubenga Adeyanju, who paraded the suspects, said the suspected kidnappers were rounded up when operatives of the state police command and members of vigilantes and hunters, stormed their hideouts in April. Investigation led to the arrest of a syndicate that kidnapped Sule Haro and Solomi Ishaya and killed the husband, Pastor Ishaya, in April 2020 at Mararaba Boki in Gombi LGA. He added that the suspected kidnapping gang also kidnapped one Aminu Hassan, Isah Usman and Hamza Adamu of Uba village in Hong LGA and demanded N10 million ransom before they were rescued. The group further confessed to having kidnapped Dodde Zumo and Yau Mohammadu, both residents of Zumo in Maiha LGA and collected N1 million before they were apprehended. The police commissioner named the six people charged with criminal intimidation and extortion as Musa Bello (20 years), Adamu Ibrahim (28), Lazarus Musa (32), Bashir Ali (30), Yahuza Mohammed (25), and Faruk Usman (28). He said the six belonged to a syndicate that frequently called and threatened their target to pay millions of naira or risk being kidnapped, but that the command, following complaints of members of the public, arrested them. Speaking on the 25 Shila Boys who were mostly teenagers, the police commissioner said their arrest followed frequent area patrol of different parts of the state capital, Yola Independent autopsy rules George Floyds death was homicide by asphyxia Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment [UPDATE] June 2, 8 a.m. ET: Hennepin County Medical Examiner's office on Monday ruled George Floyd's manner of death was a homicide and stated that he suffered "a cardiopulmonary arrest while being restrained by law enforcement officer(s)." The medical examiner's office listed "arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease," "fentanyl intoxication" and "recent methamphetamine use" as "other significant conditions." Original story below George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man who died in police custody while a police officer kneeled on his neck as he begged to breathe in Minneapolis on Memorial Day, died by asphyxia, according to an independent autopsy. Dr. Michael Baden and Dr. Allecia Wilson "found the manner of Mr. Floyds death was homicide caused by asphyxia due to neck and back compression that led to a lack of blood flow to the brain. Sustained pressure on the right side of Mr. Floyds carotid artery impeded blood flow to the brain, and weight on his back impeded his ability to breathe, a statement released Monday by the office of attorney Ben Crump, co-counsels and Floyds family reads. Baden formerly worked as New York Citys chief medical examiner and conducted the autopsy of Eric Garner, a black man who was put in a fatal chokehold by police in 2014. The independent autopsy seems to conflict with the autopsy conducted by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner. The independent examiners found that weight on the back, handcuffs and positioning were contributory factors because they impaired the ability of Mr. Floyds diaphragm to function, the statement explained. From all the evidence, the doctors said it now appears Mr. Floyd died at the scene. The findings of the independent medical examiners come less than a week after it was announced May 26 that the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's preliminary report revealed no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation. The report noted that Floyd had underlying health conditions including coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease. The combined effects of Mr. Floyd being restrained by the police, his underlying health conditions and any potential intoxicants in his system likely contributed to his death, the medical examiners office stated. Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer who was recorded kneeling into Floyds neck in a video online, was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said Friday. Three other officers who were involved in the incident that has sparked protests and riots nationwide have not yet been charged. Freeman said at a news conference that his team thought it was appropriate to build a case against the most dangerous perpetrator first, as the investigation continues. He believes there's enough evidence to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt against Chauvin. In their statement issued Monday, Crump, his co-counsels and Floyds family called for the arrest of all the officers who played a part in Floyds death. They also called for Chauvin to be charged with first-degree murder. Chauvin, who was taken into custody by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, was caught on video along with his former colleagues arresting Floyd on May 25. In the approximately 10-minute video, a handcuffed Floyd is shown lying face down, begging for his life and crying for his mother while Chauvin kneels into his neck. Chauvin kneels into Floyds neck until he begins to bleed from his nose and becomes unresponsive. Even after Floyd becomes motionless on the ground, Chauvin is shown pressing his knee into his neck for several more minutes as bystanders begged him to have mercy. As China opened its financial markets to foreign firms with the removal of restrictions on ownership effective Apr 1, Credit Suisse Group AG CS became the latest foreign bank to take the majority stake in its China securities joint venture (JV). The Swiss bank raised its shareholding in Credit Suisse Founder Securities (CSFS) to 51% from the existing 33.3%. The development follows the opening up of the Chinese markets for foreign financial firms. Chinas securities regulator The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) removed restrictions on foreign ownership in 2018. Markedly, it now allows foreign companies to take full control in securities JVs by buying out local partners or setting up their own money management and investment banks. Credit Suisses investments in China will continue and Janice Hu would serve as the chairwoman of CSFS, driving the bank's onshore strategy in the country and executing the securities JVs future business plans. Notably, CSFS, formed in 2008, is a provider of various capital markets services to clients in the domestic China market, which includes sponsoring and underwriting A shares, foreign investment shares and government and corporate bonds, along with financial advisory services. Also, since October 2016, the venture has executed securities brokerage business in Shenzhens Qianhai free zone, and developed its trading and execution capabilities. Remarkably, a correspondent banking relationship was established by Credit Suisse with the Bank of China in the 1950s. Thereafter, the China business was recognized by the Swiss Bank in private banking, equities, and investment banking and capital markets. Among other ventures, Credit Suisse also set an asset management joint venture ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management holding assets under management of 1.3 trillion yuan ($182 billion), as of December 2019, to explore the prosperous wealth-management market. Shares of Credit Suisse have lost 31.2%, year to date, compared with the industrys decline of 37.4%. Story continues Currently, Credit Suisse carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Other than Credit Suisse, several major global financial firms, like Goldman Sachs GS, JPMorgan JPM, Morgan Stanley MS and UBS Group, have won approvals for the same to increase stakes in their respective JVs in China. Since foreign companies are allowed to conduct business in the country without any restrictions, it will aid in geographical expansion and boost revenues. 5 Stocks to Soar Past the Pandemic: In addition to the companies you learned about above, we invite you to learn about 5 cutting-edge stocks that could skyrocket from the exponential increase in demand for stay at home technologies. This could be one of the biggest buying opportunities of the decade. See the 5 high-tech stocks now>> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report JPMorgan Chase Co. (JPM) : Free Stock Analysis Report The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS) : Free Stock Analysis Report Morgan Stanley (MS) : Free Stock Analysis Report Credit Suisse Group (CS) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research On Monday evening, the president went to a church. He had just given a speech threatening to use the U.S. military to police American citizens, and the attorney general had ordered the National Guard to clear peaceful protesters around Lafayette Square, and the police rushed and battered the protesters with tear gas and flash bangs and rubber bullets, to clear the way. Episcopalian priests were there, too, handing out food and water. They were tear-gassed, too. It was reported the president had his feelings hurt by reports about being rushed to the White House bunker during protests on Friday night. As a Donald Trump adviser told the Washington Post, It was just to win the news cycle. Some moments demand you take a side. The pandemic has been one, strangely, and most people have taken the side of public health, of being a society. Pandemics are a mirror: they show the systems for what they are, and reveal nations and communities and individuals, too. Epidemics expose both our dark and our lighter natures, says Frank Snowden, a Yale professor who has written extensively about the history of epidemics and society. So the question that is happening now is whether people will be able to see the realities of their societies, and react in a rational way. On Monday, the director of Americas National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the most trusted voice in America on the coronavirus pandemic that has killed over 107,000 Americans, said he hadnt spoken to the president in two weeks. The pandemic has forced us to expand our imaginations. It has forced us to recognize just how bad things are, and to consider how bad they can get. The protests are that, too, as is this president. The Black Lives Matter protests across America were sparked by the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis on May 25; they are based on the fact that racism and police brutality is systemic and endemic, a tragedy for generations. On this issue, it has always been this: if you do not take a side, you are taking a side. But the side isnt law and order versus looting. Its not order versus chaos. It has become authoritarianism and racism versus the rest of civil society. Thats all. Say what it is. Look it in the eye. Protests can mask individual actors, but across America certain themes are clear. Police have created conflict in cities across America. Police have deliberately targeted journalists who have clearly identified themselves, who are filming them on live TV. And the president has responded by pushing for authoritarian control, based on a largely imaginary national terrorist threat called Antifa, a loosely anarchic group with no national leadership. Attorney General William Barr called it domestic terrorism, as did the acting head of Customs and Border Patrol. On Sunday, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said I think the sooner that you mass and dominate the battlespace, the quicker this dissipates and we can get back to the right normal. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a decorated Afghanistan war veteran, tweeted that the government should call in the 101st Airborne, and if necessary, the 10th Mountain, 82nd Airborne, 1st Cav, 3rd Infantry whatever it takes to restore order. No quarter for insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters, and looters. After Trumps stunt, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said, Its all assumed to be peaceful until someone thats got a terrorist activity or a rioting activity, you dont know that until it happens. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas was asked if he had seen an abuse of power, and he said, by the protesters, yes. It is clear that through a blend of incompetence and malice, enabled by state media and a failed state of a political party, this American government has aligned itself along traditional fascist lines. Stack the courts, attack the free press, hollow out the institutions. Umberto Eco grew up in Mussolinis Italy, and wrote down his characteristics of Ur-Fascism in 1995: the cult of tradition, the rejection of modernism, action for actions sake, disagreement is treason, fear of difference, an appeal to the frustrated middle class, obsession with a plot, life is permanent warfare, training supporters to be heroes, contempt for the weak, selective populism, machismo, and Orwellian newspeak. Masha Gessen of the New Yorker grew up in Moscow, and in 2016 she wrote her rules of autocracy: Number one was Believe the Autocrat, because Whenever you find yourself thinking, or hear others claiming, that he is exaggerating, that is our innate tendency to reach for a rationalization. This will happen often: humans seem to have evolved to practice denial when confronted publicly with the unacceptable. Trump has mused about serving multiple terms, about jailing opponents, about shooting migrants, about unleashing dogs on protesters. Gessens third rule, by the way, is that Institutions Will Not Save You. And Canada lives next door to the pyre. Trump probably loses a fair election, but are you assuming an election will be fair, with Trump threatening to kill the Postal Service in a pandemic where mail-in voting will be necessary for public safety? If police who are estimated to donate to Trump over Democrat Joe Biden by a 3-to-1 ratio are willing to attack citizens and journalists alike with cameras rolling, what else will they do? What can Americans count on, with everything on the line? On Monday night in Washington, military helicopters swooped low for crowd control, and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff was in the streets in full uniform, he said, to inspect the national guard. He wore it while accompanying Trump to the church, too. And on Tuesday in the American capital, military roamed the streets. After Silvio Berlusconi was done as prime minister in Italy, people said they woke up after years of chaos and found their institutions trashed. This is worse, and could become worse still. Sometimes you have to pick a side. Because as in the pandemic, some of the masks are off. Read more about: ALBANY For decades, a black-and-white photograph hung behind the bar at La Serre, a portrait of Mario Cuomo announcing his candidacy for governor in 1982 from a podium with the restaurants logo and a cluster of microphones, as his political mentor, Albany Mayor Erastus Corning 2nd, looked on. The photo documented a seminal moment in Albany political history and encapsulates the essence of La Serre. The mahogany-paneled hideaway on Green Street, a few blocks from the Capitol, was a favorite power lunch destination and happy hour hangout for politicos, stockbrokers, lawyers and lobbyists with expense accounts. It had sophistication and joie de vivre. The main dining area was a sun-splashed solarium LaSerre means greenhouse in French. Green leather banquettes accentuated a carved marble mantelpiece and tulip-shaped wall sconces cast a soft amber glow over lovers and deal-makers in intimate conversation. La Serre was where couples toasted anniversaries and special occasions with a fine-dining experience of French wine, duck and goose pate, beef au poivre and duck a lorange. Celebrities from an earlier era passed through as well. Movie star Kirk Douglas, who grew up in Amsterdam, celebrated his 70th birthday at La Serre with his two sisters, who lived locally, and other friends. The actor Maureen Stapleton, a Troy native, dined there, and so did actor Anthony Quinn and CBS anchor Walter Cronkite. The late state senator Ronald Stafford and former Senator Majority Leader Dean Skelos both got married at the restaurant. The late Assembly Speaker Stanley Steingut was persona non grata after he stubbed out a cigarette with his shoe in an upstairs private room, leaving an ugly burn mark on the carpet. Along with catering to the politically powerful with discreet service, the French-themedrestaurant was a trend-setter on the local dining scene when it arrived in 1977. Its menu featured vichyssoise for $1, a half-dozen snails for $2.25, crepes La Serre for $3.95, filet de sole for $3.95, and chocolate mousse for $1.75. Fortune magazine did a spread on the restaurants haute cuisine in 1978. Now, after 43 years, crippled by the coronavirus pandemic shutdown and years of sliding business further worn down by a long wait for a promised downtown revitalization that never materialized owner and co-manager Anne Trimble decided to close the venerable establishment. The pandemic was the perfect storm for us, said Trimble, 71, a mother of two and grandmother of four. She opened La Serre with her late husband, Geoffrey, in 1977, when both were in their 20s. She and her son, John, who co-managed the restaurant, jointly made the decision not to re-open. She will ease into retirement and her son, a commodities trader and real estate agent, is weighing options. Related: Peck's Arcade in Troy closes We decided this was the right time, Trimble said. Running the restaurant has been a blessing. We worked with a wonderful staff and served many loyal customers who became friends. We dont owe anybody any money at this point. We cant keep waiting another 10 years for downtown to come back. Anne and Geoffrey Trimble married in 1972, a couple years after they met while both were attending the University at Albany and working as waiters at LEcole restaurant at Stuyvesant Plaza. They dreamed of opening their own place. Her father, John Treffiletti, a wholesale grocer and owner of the Star Supermarkets chain, in 1976 purchased a former stationary store at 14 Green St. that had been vacant for years after it was badly damaged by a fire. Trimbles brother-in-law, Dr. William S. Jones, was also an investor and partner. Big John, as her late father was known, was a longtime neighbor and close personal friend of Democratic machine boss Dan OConnell. He was also close to Corning, Albanys 11-term mayor, and became a behind-the-scenes political power broker. Treffiletti was born at 105 Green St. in 1922, a son of Italian immigrants. His family started with a small grocery store in an Italian enclave of the South End Albanys ethnic melting pot. Treffiletti never forgot his working-class immigrant roots. He had a favorite saying: If you cant tip the shoeshine boys, you better polish your own shoes. I got to know Big John in the mid-1990s when I was researching my biography of Mayor Corning. He invited me to lunch at La Serre. We sat on the patio under the shade of sugar maples. He doled out stories of OConnell and Corning over loaves of warm Italian bread, fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, tomatoes, olive oil and vinegar. Glasses of red wine were poured and refilled. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. He exuded Old World charm and conviviality. Time seemed to stand still when Big John held court. I got invited back. At Big Johns communal table, I met Jay Donnaruma, a stockbroker who worked for First Albany Corp. at 90 State St. He and coworkers met for drinks at La Serre after work for years and he also attended monthly luncheons with a group of executives called the Hudson River Club, now disbanded. La Serre was just the perfect spot and it felt like a family, said Donnaruma, who held his retirement party at La Serre two years ago. Donnaruma introduced me to a group of raconteurs who were La Serre regulars, including Leo P. Dean, a World War II paratrooper who continued to sky dive and work full-time as an insurance agent until his death at 91 in 2015. In 2009, he was presented with the French Legion of Honor during a visit to France. Leo liked to raise a wine glass filled with Leos blend, a mix of pinot grigio and merlot. My first one today, hed say with a twinkle in his eye. Last Thursday, I sat in the shuttered restaurant with Donnaruma and Trimble. They swapped stories about the cast of characters who animated La Serre, where everyone seemed to have a nickname: The Rube, the Prince of Darkness and Ranger Bob. Big Johns spirit hung over the place. My father loved La Serre and he made many wonderful friends here. It was where he came to socialize, said Trimble, one of five sisters. Trimble made a final pour from a wonderful red blend from Tuscany, a 2012 Le Serre Nuove dellOrnellaia. We had pored over old photo albums. On the stereo, Louis Armstrong blew his trumpet mournfully. We had a wonderful run, said Trimble, whose voice choked up while remembering longtime customers who had passed away. Reflexively, she rattled off numbers of the tables where they sat and their preferred brand of liquor in cocktails. Its the end of an era, Donnaruma said. Downtown wont be the same without La Serre. Paul Grondahl is director of the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany and a former Times Union reporter. He can be reached at grondahlpaul@gmail.com WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he hoped his organisation could continue its longstanding collaboration with the United States Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization speaks during a news conference on updates regarding on the novel coronavirus COVID-19, at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. (Photo- AP) LONDON: The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday praised the United States immense and generous contribution to global health in a push to salvage relations after President Donald Trump said he was severing ties with the U.N. agency. Accusing it of pandering to China and overlooking an initially secretive response to the COVID-19 outbreak, Trump said on Friday he was ending Washingtons relationship with the WHO. But WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an online media briefing he hoped his organisation could continue its longstanding collaboration with the United States. The United States contribution and generosity towards global health over many decades has been immense, and it has made a great difference in public health all around the world, he said. China has reacted furiously to Trumps move, calling it selfish and petulant politics by a U.S. administration addicted to quitting international bodies and treaties. Tedros, who is Ethiopian, said he only knew about the U.S. decision from the media, with no formal communication yet from Trumps government. He declined to answer further questions about the U.S. stance. At the briefing, chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said the WHO should have enough information in 24 hours to decide whether to continue suspending trials of hyrdroxychloroquine. Trump has been one of those promoting the anti-malaria drug to help combat the COVID-19 disease, despite medical warnings about associated risks. With many nations easing lockdowns as the rate of new coronavirus cases drops, emergencies expert Mike Ryan said it was laudable to see economies being put back on track, but a cautious stepwise approach was still needed. A primary contractor for the construction of Brisbane Metro has been selected by Brisbane City Council, the lord mayor has announced. Lord mayor Adrian Schrinner told council's meeting on Tuesday that of the three contractor bids shortlisted last year, one had now progressed for approval by the council. Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner at a South Brisbane worksite for the Brisbane Metro. Credit:Tony Moore A joint tender by infrastructure companies Acciona and Arup has won the bid to develop the major construction work for Brisbane Metro, Cr Schrinner said. This is an exciting milestone in the progress of the Brisbane Metro. We have now chosen the Acciona-Arup consortium as the preferred tenderer and we will be working to have the contract finalised in the next few months," Cr Schrinner said. The year 2020 is a high five in the face of people by every passing month. As if the Coronavirus wasnt enough to put us into a humanitarian crisis that another virus outbreak is on its way. Recently, The Democratic Republic of the Congo's government announced that a new outbreak of the Ebola virus is found in the Wangata health zone in the Equador province. The countrys Ministry of Health has reported six cases, so far and four out of which have already died and two are under observation. Reuters According to WHO, This is a reminder that COVID-19 is not the only health threat people face," said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. "Although much of our attention is on the pandemic, WHO is continuing to monitor and respond to many other health emergencies." Also, this is the 11th outbreak of the virus in Congo since the virus was discovered in 1976. WHO Regional Director for Africa said in an interview, "It's happening at a challenging time, but WHO has worked over the last two years with health authorities, Africa CDC and other partners to strengthen national capacity to respond to outbreaks. To reinforce local leadership, WHO plans to send a team to support scaling up the response. Given the proximity of this new outbreak to busy transport routes and vulnerable neighboring countries, we must act quickly." Reuters The people on the internet are scared and are annoyed that the year 2020 is only filled with a lot of disappointments that come in packets every month. So, heres what they have to say- Every month of 2020 is a new high five on the face! Ayushi Khatri (@ayushi_khatri) June 1, 2020 Its the first day of June and theres already a new #Ebola outbreak in Congo. https://t.co/uqHao7TAYc pic.twitter.com/yuREHYXt5n Miah (@ismitamiah11) June 1, 2020 #Ebola no nO NO NO NO. THERES AN EBOLA OUTBREAK ARE YOU KDDING ME. CORONAVIRUS CALLED FOR BACKUP pic.twitter.com/gjdcazLf5h Grease #ACAB #BLM (Punch a Pig) (@XenoGrease) June 1, 2020 World War III, Wildfires, Coronavirus, Riots, Protests, Earthquakes, Cyclones, and now theres second #Ebola outbreak. 2020 every second day... pic.twitter.com/qbZw7QRYnU Shivam Chatak (@ShivamChatak) June 1, 2020 Just read that's there's an Ebola outbreak in the Congo. Thought a meme was appropriate. pic.twitter.com/VziNGAFPsn (@SweetestSpartan) June 1, 2020 However, WHO is on-ground in Congo responding to the virus outbreak. Also, according to WHO, the viruss existence is coming from an animal reservoir in many parts of the country which is further leading to newer outbreaks of the disease. BRIDGEPORT A convicted child molester in Iowa, charged with sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl in Stratford, was denied release Friday because of the coronavirus pandemic. Based on your prior conviction which involved sexual conduct with a minor and the new arrest for an alleged sex abuse of a minor, I find there is a substantial risk of flight and a substantial risk to the community, Superior Court Judge Joan Alexander stated in denying a bond reduction to Douglas Simmons. Simmons, 61, is charged with first-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a child. He is being held in lieu of $100,000 bond. Police said Simmons was visiting some friends in Connecticut last year and crept into the bedroom of the sleeping girl and sexually assaulted her. When he was later confronted with the allegations, police said Simmons admitted he had been in the state but denied sexually assaulting the girl. Police said Simmons is a registered sex offender in Iowa and traveled to Connecticut in violation of sex offender registry rules. During a hearing Friday, Simmons public defender Jared Millbrandt asked the judge to reduce his clients bond so that Simmons could be released. He argued that Simmons is in danger of contracting COVID-19 in the prison system and said his client would abide by any restrictions on his liberty. We are not talking about him just walking out the door, Millbrandt said. Supervisory Assistant States Attorney C. Robert Satti Jr., opposed the reduction because of the seriousness of the allegations and the fact that Simmons fled to Iowa after the alleged crime. The judge also denied Simmons motion for a speedy trial. She said because of the pandemic, a jury can not be assembled to hear the case at this time. Gov. Ned Lamont had previously issued an executive order barring jury trials until it is determined it is safe to hold them. CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. dollar depreciated against its most major counterparts in the European session on Tuesday, as investors pinned hopes on economic recovery after easing of restrictions across the globe. Hopes for a global coronavirus recovery helped offset fears about U.S.-China tensions and political unrest in the U.S. Overnight data showed that U.S. manufacturing activity improved in May after logging an 11-year low in the previous month. Key economic reports due this week include ADP private payrolls data, ISM non-manufacturing PMI and U.S. jobs data for May. The greenback declined to 1.2573 against the pound, its lowest level since May 1. If the greenback extends decline, 1.30 is possibly seen as its next support level. Data from the Nationwide Building Society showed that U.K. house prices fell 1.7 percent month-on-month in May, in contrast to a 0.9 percent rise in April as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic filtered through the property market. This was the biggest fall since February 2009. Economists had forecast a fall of 1 percent. After rising to 1.1115 against the euro at 2:45 am ET, the greenback fell to a 2-1/2-month low of 1.1188. On the downside, 1.15 is possibly seen as the next support level for the greenback. The greenback fell to more than a 2-month low of 0.9573 against the franc, compared to Monday's closing value of 0.9609. Further weakness in the currency may locate support around the 0.91 level. Data from the Federal Statistical Office showed that Switzerland's retail sales declined at a faster rate in April, amid the Covid-19 outbreak. Retail sales declined a working-day adjusted 19.9 percent year-on-year in April, following a 5.8 percent fall in March. The greenback weakened to more than a 4-month low of 0.6869 against the aussie, 2-1/2-month low of 0.6318 against the kiwi and a 1-year low of 1.3493 against the loonie, off its early highs of 0.6775, 0.6263 and 1.3585, respectively. The greenback may challenge support around 0.70 against the aussie, 0.64 against the kiwi and 1.30 against the loonie, if it slides again. In contrast, the greenback remained higher against the yen, with the pair trading at 107.77. Next immediate resistance for the greenback is likely seen around the 110.00 level. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature. Latin America Protest against attempts by Argentine authorities to stigmatize health workers Hundreds of health workers mobilized last week, forming pickets and organizing car caravans in defense of their accused colleagues and demanding better working conditions. On Friday and Saturday (May 29 and 30), car caravans took place in the Argentine cities Bahia Blanca, Cordoba, Jujuy, Mendoza, Rosario, Tucuman and elsewhere. Workers carried signs denouncing the lack of personal protective equipment and demanding better working conditions and higher wages. A large number of Argentine doctors battling COVID-19 are residents employed as contingent labor, whose wages are often paid three months late. Many of the strikers carried signs denouncing authoritarianism, lack of professionalism in scores of hospitals and clinics that were totally unprepared for the pandemic. In the industrial province of Cordoba, demonstrations also took place on May 25, Argentine Independence Day. In the city of Cordoba, the massive car caravan crowded the main downtown arteries. Many had signs denouncing the Peronist governments criminal allegations against the health workers. Brazil: Health workers rally against Bolsonaro regime In Rio de Janeiro, health workers rallied on May 27 to demand the removal of President Bolsonaro and Vice-President Mouao, for prioritizing corporate profits over human lives and for unleashing the police in the citys slums. The workers oppose the governments policies that allow for the explosive growth of CORONA-19 cases across Brazil, as well as the fascistic police assassination policy in the slums of Rio (favelas). Delivery workers mobilize in Mexico and Costa Rica Delivery workers, mostly young temporaries, mobilized and rallied in front of the Revolution Monument in downtown Mexico City on May 27. Hundreds of youth, employed by grocery and food delivery firms, most of them wearing facemasks, arrived on their bicycles and motorcycles at the historic monument. The demonstrators carried signs commemorating comrades who have fallen victims of the COVID-19 virus or from traffic accidents, leaving their families destitute because their employers refuse to provide any insurance or compensation. Contingent workers in Uruguay stage protest against austerity Part-time and contingent workers employed by Uruguays Social Development Ministry (MIDES) rallied last Thursday at the MIDES offices in Montevideo to protest their precarious employment and the cuts in social programs as part of the governments austerity policies. At the rally, MIDES workers demanded an end to their employment insecurity and an end to cuts in social services. United States New York City condo workers strike More than a dozen condominium workers at the 75 Wall Street FiDi building went on strike May 18 after three years of fruitless negotiations between the Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ and management. The strike by porters, doormen and concierges was triggered after management changed paid time-off practices and failing to provide protective equipment during the coronavirus pandemic. Ron Crowley, a freight elevator operator, told Belabored, We went maybe three, three and a half weeks where we had no masks at all. We had a small amount of gloves and we had no disinfectant whatsoever. In the meantime, some of the residents of the building were giving us masks, gloves, and disinfectant. The 75 Wall Street building is a luxury condo in the Manhattans financial district. Workers unionized three years ago and have yet to receive their first contract. Sickout at Texas postal facility after worker tests positive for COVID-19 Hundreds of postal workers at the North Texas Processing and Distribution Center in Coppell, Texas, called in sick after a confirmed case of COVID-19 was reported at the facility last week. Some 40 percent of the workforce called in sick on the first day, followed by 60 percentabout 400 postal workerson the following day. An official of the American Postal Workers Union told NBC T News that the postal service has been slow to provide protective equipment and many workers supply their own masks, shields and gloves. The Coppell processing center, located just north of Dallas-Fort Worth, is the main distribution facility for North Texas and processes thousands of pieces of mail each day. Meanwhile, a postal worker at the main post office at Tyler, Texas, just southwest of Dallas-Fort Worth has also tested positive for COVID-19. Tyson Foods forced to close Iowa pork plant after massive outbreak of COVID-19 Iowa state health officials confirmed May 28 that 555 workers at the Tysons Storm Lake pork processing facility tested positive for COVID-19, leading the company to close down the plant that employees 2,400 workers. The company sought to shift responsibility for the massive outbreak as a result of delay in processing test results. Canada Regina, Saskatchewan oil refinery lockout entering sixth month The lockout of 750 oil refinery workers in Regina, Saskatchewan, enters its sixth month this week. The dispute has seen the full force of the police and the courts, backed by the right-wing provincial government, marshalled against the locked-out workers who had mounted blockades of FCL facilities in late January and early February. Federated Cooperatives Limited (FCL) continues to operate the refinery with hundreds of scabs and management personnel. Emboldened by Unifors repeated climb-downs, the company has escalated its concession demands, both by reviving proposals it had previously withdrawn and tabling new ones on several consecutive occasions. When the parties met on January 30, Unifor offered FCL C$20 million per year in pension givebacks. So steep were the concessions proposed by Unifor that the unions lead negotiator, Scott Doherty, said he feared being beaten up by rank-and-file workers. Under the companys latest demands, which were overwhelmingly rejected by workers in a vote forced by the provincial Labour Board in April, new payroll deductions, including in the defined-benefit pension plan, would cost workers up to C$20,000 per year in overall earnings even as the companys pension solvency responsibilities would be weakened. FCL also wants to impose permanent layoffs of maintenance workers, remove master operators from the union rolls, lower premiums for attaining higher professional qualifications, introduce cross-crafting provisions that would lead to the de-skilling of the workforce and undermine occupational safety, and scrap a savings plan benefit. At least six elephants were killed in a single day by poachers in Ethiopia last week, wildlife officials said, the largest such slaughter in memory in the East African nation. The elephants were killed while they ventured out of the Mago National Park to drink water, Ganabul Bulmi, the parks chief warden, said. The poachers then removed all the tusks from the elephants. It was a mass killing. 5 elephants poached by armed groups in 1 night in Mago National Park , Lower Omo, #Ethiopia. Ivory tusks nowhere to be found. The impacts of #COVID19 on our wildlife and nature conservation efforts are going to felt incredibly hard. #wildlife #conservation #elephants #africa pic.twitter.com/JKKO2Ufs0r Greta Francesca iori (@TheItaliopian) June 1, 2020 We havent seen anything like this before. Two other elephants might have been killed the same day, May 26, the warden said, and an investigation continues. It also has proved difficult to apprehend the perpetrators because the locals who live in the area are armed and were not willing to engage officials, Mr Ganabul said. According to wildlife officials, Ethiopia had more than 10,000 elephants in the 1970s but poaching and habitat degradation have reduced the number to about 2,500 to 3,000 in recent years. We dont think there is organised poaching in Ethiopia. Last year we documented up to 10 elephant killings, said Daniel Pawlos, director for trafficking and control at the Wildlife Conservation Authority, a government entity. But whenever theres demand, that triggers illegal poaching. What makes the latest poaching different is the high number of elephants killed within a day. Officials suspect that most elephant tusks and finished products are slipped out of the country to China and Southeast Asian countries. In 2015, Ethiopian officials burned 6.1 tons of illegal elephant tusks, ivory trinkets, carvings and various forms of jewellery to discourage poaching and the ivory trade. Most elephants in Ethiopia live in Babile, Mago and Gambella national parks. "We believe that Back At You has the best platform to empower our agents with best in class technologies for each stage of the marketing life cycle." PureWest Real Estate, a Christie's International Real Estate and Leading Real Estate Companies of the World affiliate, has selected Back At You to help automate their social media marketing, and provide an entire suite of front and back-office solutions. Currently with 192 real estate agents in over 16 locations across Montana, PureWest Real Estate can now offer its agents the most comprehensive technology suite available from websites, social media, CRM, marketing, and much more. PureWest strives to provide our agents with the absolute best technology and marketing software within the industry, says Dale Crosby Newman, Broker-Owner at PureWest Real Estate. We believe that Back At You has the best platform to empower our agents with best in class technologies for each stage of the marketing life cycle. We are lucky to work with such a quality organization in PureWest. said Michael Glazer, CEO and Co-Founder of Back At You. PureWests management team clearly puts their agents first, and providing a comprehensive technology solution for them is further evidence of this philosophy. PureWests agents now gain access to a powerful set of technology capabilities including full social media automation, mobile-first websites, a lead management CRM with built-in action plans, and a broker-centric transaction and financial management platform. Back At Yous back-office solution will aid in efficiency, improving office communications, streamlining operations, and reducing operating costs. With integrating Back At You into their brokerage, PureWest can access a full marketing life cycle of a client and thus, a measurable ROI, from awareness to a lead, a prospect to a client, a transaction to closing and finally a referral to repeat business. With Back At Yous Social Media Center, PureWest Real Estate can promote virtual open houses, recently sold properties, generate seller reports, initiate seller lead generation campaigns, generate buyers leads, schedule content and more, all with a few simple clicks. PureWest Real Estate agents will no longer have to spend time editing, posting, and advertising their listings across social media, as Back At You automates the entire process. In addition to listing automation, PureWest Real Estate has alleviated agents of the frustrating task of scouring the internet for captivating social content posts by providing aesthetically and data rich content to its agents. About Back At You Back At You provides automated social media marketing, and an all-in-one solution designed to make companies more efficient, improve office communications, streamline operations, and reduce operating costs. The company offers best-in-class technology for both enterprise clients and individual agents and brokers. The companys dedication to real estate and technology has earned it awards from the National Association of REALTORS as one of the top real estate technologies in the world, Red Herring as a Top 100 technology company in North America and from Facebook as an Official Facebook Marketing Partner. For more information on Back At You, visit http://www.backatyou.com or email at partners@backatyou.com. About PureWest Real Estate PureWest Real Estate is the largest independent brokerage in Montana, offering tailored concierge service and specializing in prestige properties. We are comprised of 16 locations with more than 192 associates. This statewide network empowers our agents to provide premier real estate solutions and results. Our sales associates are local market experts, meet strict standards of excellence, and demonstrate proven success in handling distinctive properties. PureWest Real Estate's exclusive affiliations with Christie's International Real Estate and Leading Real Estate Companies of the World provide global connections executed in a worldwide network of hand-selected offices. This aligns our properties with unrivaled exposure and access to an extensive list of qualified buyers. For more information on PureWest Real Estate, visit http://www.purewestrealestate.com. [June 02, 2020] Valneva Announces Publication in The Lancet of Complete Phase 1 Data for its Single-Shot Chikungunya Vaccine Candidate Saint-Herblain (France), June 2, 2020 Valneva SE (Valneva or the Company), a specialty vaccine company, announced today the publication of full data from the Phase 1 clinical trial of its chikungunya vaccine candidate, VLA1553, in the peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases. The Lancet paper provides a detailed analysis of final Phase 1 results and supports the continued clinical development of VLA1553. Wolfgang Bender, Ph.D., M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Valneva, commented, We reported excellent Phase 1 results1 for our single-shot chikungunya vaccine and were pleased that these important results are now fully available to the broader infectious disease community. Millions of people have been affected by chikungunya and our objective is to help address this ongoing public health crisis as soon as we can." Valneva has previously reported the successful outcome of its End-of-Phase 2 meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)2 in February 2020 and is now preparing to initiate Phase 3 clinical studies in the U.S. later this year. About Chikungunya Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne viral disease caused by the chikungunya virus (CHIKV), a Togaviridae virus, transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. Clinical symptoms include acute onset of fever, debilitating joint and muscle pain, headache, nausea and rash, potentially developing into long-term, serious health impairments. Chikungunya virus causes clinical illness in 72-92% of infected humans around 4 to 7 days after an infected mosquito bite. Complications resulting from the disease include visual, neurological, heart and gastrointestinal manifestations; fatalities have been reported (case fatality rates of 0.1% to 4.9% from epidemics)3 in elderly patients at higher risk. Chikungunya outbreaks have been reported in Asia, Africa, the Americas and recently (2017) in Europe. As of 2017, there have been more than one million reported cases in the Americas4 and the economic impact is considered to be significant (e.g., 2014 Colombia outbreak: $73.6 million5). The medical and economic burden is expected to grow as the CHIKV primary mosquito vectors continue to further spread geographically. There are no preventive vaccines or effective treatments available and, as such, chikungunya is considered to be a major public health threat. About Valnevas vaccine candidate VLA1553 VLA1553 is a monovalent, single dose, live-attenuated vaccine candidate for protection against chikungunya. It was granted Fast Track designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 20186. The vaccine candidate is designed for prophylactic, active, single-dose immunization against chikungunya in humans over one year old. The vaccine targets long-lasting protection and an anticipated safety profile similar to licensed vaccines for active immunization in adults and children. The taget population segments are travelers, military personnel and individuals at risk living in endemic regions. The global market for vaccines against chikungunya is estimated to exceed $500 million annually, including a traveler vaccine market potential of ~$250 million7. VLA1553 is based on an infectious clone (CHIKV LR2006-OPY1) attenuated by deleting a major part of the gene encoding the non-structural replicase complex protein nsP3, aiming for protection against various chikungunya virus outbreak phylogroups and strains8. About Valneva SE Valneva is a specialty vaccine company focused on prevention against diseases with major unmet needs. Valnevas portfolio includes two commercial vaccines for travelers: IXIARO/JESPECT indicated for the prevention of Japanese encephalitis and DUKORAL indicated for the prevention of cholera and, in some countries, prevention of diarrhea caused by ETEC. The Company has various vaccines in development including unique vaccines against Lyme disease and chikungunya. Valneva has operations in Austria, Sweden, the United Kingdom, France, Canada and the U.S. with over 500 employees. For more information, visit www.valneva.com and follow the company on LinkedIn . Valneva Investor and Media Contacts Laetitia Bachelot-Fontaine Global Head of Investor Relations & Corporate Communications M +33 (0)6 4516 7099 [email protected] Teresa Pinzolits Corporate Communications Specialist T +43 (0)1 20620 1116 [email protected] Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains certain forward-looking statements relating to the business of Valneva, including with respect to the progress, timing and completion of research, development and clinical trials for product candidates, the ability to manufacture, market, commercialize and achieve market acceptance for product candidates, the ability to protect intellectual property and operate the business without infringing on the intellectual property rights of others, estimates for future performance and estimates regarding anticipated operating losses, future revenues, capital requirements and needs for additional financing. In addition, even if the actual results or development of Valneva are consistent with the forward-looking statements contained in this press release, those results or developments of Valneva may not be indicative of their in the future. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by words such as "could," "should," "may," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "aims," "targets," or similar words. These forward-looking statements are based largely on the current expectations of Valneva as of the date of this press release and are subject to a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievement expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. In particular, the expectations of Valneva could be affected by, among other things, uncertainties involved in the development and manufacture of vaccines, unexpected clinical trial results, unexpected regulatory actions or delays, competition in general, currency fluctuations, the impact of the global and European credit crisis, and the ability to obtain or maintain patent or other proprietary intellectual property protection. In light of these risks and uncertainties, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements made during this presentation will in fact be realized. Valneva is providing the information in these materials as of this press release, and disclaim any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. 1 Valneva Reports Excellent Final Phase 1 Results for its Chikungunya Vaccine Candidate, Confirms Plans 2 Valneva Reports Positive End-of-Phase 2 Chikungunya Meeting with the U.S. FDA; Sets Stage for Phase 3 Study 3 WHO, PAHO 4 PAHO/WHO data: Number of reported cases of Chikungunya Fever in the Americas EW 51 (December 22, 2017) 5 Cardona-Ospina et al. 2015, Trans R Soc Trip Med Hyg 109:793-802. 6 Valneva Awarded FDA Fast Track Designation for Chikungunya vaccine candidate 7 Company estimate supported by an independent market study 8 Hallengard et al. 2013, J. Virology 88:2858-2866. Attachment 2020_06_02_Valneva_Lancet_Publication_PR_EN_Final [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] News Corp Australia will axe women's news and entertainment website Whimn as part of its latest round of cost-cutting. On Monday, staff were told the digital masthead would cease publishing on Tuesday, June 30. News Corp is exploring the possibility of redeployment but staff fear there will be some redundancies. News Corp Australia will cease publishing women's news and entertainment website Whimn.com.au at the end of the month. Credit:AAP Whimn was launched three years ago in a bid to strengthen News Corp's "female-first" digital offering. In that time, it has published writers including Natasha Stott Despoja, activist Celeste Liddle and television personality Georgia Love. The website reaches 1 million Australians, according to Nielsen ratings from March this year. However, it is understood Whimn is not financially sustainable in the current advertising market. Plea: Eileen Rushe urged anyone with concerns to seek help Eileen Rushe, who celebrates the first anniversary of being cancer free this week, is thankful to screening for detecting the disease. The mother of one, from Termonfeckin, Co Louth, was diagnosed with cervical cancer in December 2018 after going through CervicalCheck the previous July and getting an abnormal smear test which led to treatment. She was referred for more investigations in a colposcopy unit and it was found she had a tumour. "I ended up having 26 sessions of radiotherapy, five sessions of brachytherapy and chemotherapy. "It was high intensity for six and half weeks. I was finished with the treatment in March," she said. She added she is concerned at the decision to pause CervicalCheck tests and the other screening programmes due to the risks of Covid-19 transmission. "I understand the need to ensure that it must be done safely for everyone but I hope it will be made a priority to restart the programmes as soon as they can with safeguards." Ms Rushe added: "I don't think the CervicalCheck system is flawless, but the reassurance is that there has been such a magnifying glass on it due to the 2018 controversy." It meant that there was also a big public focus on cervical screening which led to more women coming forward for tests and "I would hate to see that momentum lost", she added. It also picks up pre-cancerous changes that have the potential to turn into cancer if left untreated for some time, which would have human and financial costs. She said another casualty of the disruption caused by Covid-19 is the failure to give a second dose of the HPV vaccine in schools this year. Her son Seamus (13) received his first dose in September but the second jab has been postponed, although it is expected that the vaccines will be administered in schools in the next academic year. CervicalCheck campaigner Vicky Phelan is strongly urging that no time should be lost in resuming screening. A backlog of women has now built up and the plan is to use HPV testing in labs when it resumes. This is seen as more accurate than a cytology test. Ms Rushe urged anyone who has worries or concerns to contact the Irish Cancer Society Nurseline on 1800 200 700. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy launches a face mask made by Urban Self Help Groups of MEPMA during a nationwide lockdown in the wake of coronavirus pandemic at his camp office in Vijayawada on April 19, 2020 (PTI) After the completion of just ten months of his first term as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy came face-to-face with the greatest calamity of a century, the Coronavirus pandemic. The 47-year-old, who founded the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) a decade ago, grew rapidly in politics, braving testing times as a young rebellious leader. The experience he gained even as an Opposition leader was immense, as he embarked on a 14-months walkathon, meeting millions along the way. However, administrative experience eluded him as he was never a part of any state government in a real sense. His political rivals used the inexperience tag as a weapon during the two previous election campaigns. But the voters believed in Jagan Mohan Reddy in the last elections and put him on a pedestal, giving his party more than 85 per cent of the Assembly seats. Eager to prove his admirers right and detractors wrong, Jagan Reddy worked towards fulfilling his promises, despite near-empty coffers consequent to misrule of the previous Telugu Desam government. For any young chief minister trying to steer his state on the path of development and prosperity, a pandemic and a strict nation-wide lockdown, a first in this nations history, can seem like an insurmountable problem. Welfare, policies and economy took a backseat, even as preventing mortality by tackling the virus became a priority. As Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy completes one year as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh on May 30, it can be confidently said that half of this period was a testimony of his sincerity in fighting the pandemic. In mid-March, in the early days of Covid-19 in India, he was the first top political leader who said that everyone has to accept and live with the Coronavirus as it will not go away immediately. Sceptics saw it as a politically incorrect statement and opposition heckled him. The CM intended to show reality to people and prepare them for the life ahead. His critics had to eat their words as, later, many sane and important voices, including Prime Minister Narender Modi reiterated his exact same words. There are many firsts to him as CM with respect to his approach to this crisis. When several of those who attended the Tablighi Jamaats Markaz congregation in Nizumuddin in New Delhi, were testing positive in large numbers and were being blamed for the spread of the virus, it was CM Reddy who spoke against discrimination of one community and reminded everyone that religious congregations exists cutting across all faiths. Two weeks into the lockdown, he was at the forefront of suggesting restricting lockdown to certain areas and opening up economic activity, which is being precisely followed across the country now. One unusual gesture of the CM was to readily accept to get tested for Covid-19 during the launch of rapid testing kits in front of his staff and visitors. With a smile on his face. A smile that gave courage to millions of his people. Talking about testing, a state which was only in a position to test only a few samples a day initially, has ramped up to 10,000 tests per day, standing at the top of the table, ahead of all other states in tests per million category. This would not have been possible without the vision of the CM. From day one, aggressive testing has been the policy of the state. Authorities were given a free hand to accomplish this. The result is that the health department tried and tested various machines and methods and are conducting tests in multiple ways. The administration was quick to allocate separate ambulances, earmark hospitals and setup isolation wards in every district, right at the beginning when only a few cases were reported. The backbone of the entire Covid tackling programme of AP were gram volunteers, numbering more than 2.3 lakhs, a brainchild of Jagan Redd. The CM took a wise decision to utilise youngsters for door-to-door surveys and help local health officials during screening, testing and contact tracing. Lakhs of households were surveyed by them, three times till now, as part of the exercise to trace early symptoms. Unlike many other states, AP has been lauded for being very transparent with Covid data. The official bulletin, which is released every day, has detailed information related to positive cases, deaths, tests and guest workers. During the crisis, Jagan Reddy took a humane view of every issue that cropped up. Whether it was handing over cash to people who completed quarantine, or extending a scheme to patients providing them with healthy meals. He personally directed officials to distribute 16 crore masks, free of cost, to cover the entire population of the state. Two medicos, hailing from Anantapur, who died in a road accident in Philippines were brought back during the lockdown because of his intervention, the entire cost of transporting the bodies borne by the state government. Adding to the existing crisis was the unfortunate industrial accident which took place in Visakhapatnam. Upon learning of the gas leakage of from an industrial plant resulting in deaths, he immediately rushed to Vizag to take stock of the situation. He released promised compensation to victims, instructed ministers to stay with villagers for morale boosting, ordered a high-level probe and interacted twice with victims. Soon, the state was again in spotlight when a trifle of a non-issue was blown up into a controversy. Communal politics came into play after the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) decided to continue the process of disposing unviable assets, initiated during the term of previous government. Though Mr Reddy had no role to play in the affairs of the TTD, his name was dragged into it. The CM intervened and kept the decision of the TTD board in abeyance, making sure that religious sentiments were not hurt. Despite staring at a global health emergency, continual and vested political attacks and an undesirable economic situation, Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy kept his promise of implementing welfare schemes by releasing amounts for pensions and zero-interest loans with no visible signs of stress. For a person who entered politics just 11 years back, the unprecedented challenge only helped him showcase his administrative capabilities and potential as a leader. (The writer is a senior journalist and the National Media Adviser for AP state government) System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28: 29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. 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Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan sent a congratulatory letter to President of the Council of Ministers of Italy Giuseppe Conte on the Republic Day, the PMs Office told Armenpress. The letter says: Your Excellency, I warmly congratulate you and the good people of Italy on the national day the Republic Day. The traditional friendly relations between our peoples, which are based on close historical connections, continue developing with the spirit of mutually beneficial partnership. In the previous years we managed to greatly deepen the multi-layered cooperation between our countries, establish a high-level dialogue based on trust, respect and mutual understanding. I warmly remember my official visit to Italy, which, I am confident, gave a new impetus to the strengthening of our inter-state relations. I am confident that with joint efforts we will later continue developing and deepening our cooperation for the benefit of our countries. I express my support to you and the good people of Italy in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and overcoming its heavy consequences, wishing you tenacity and patience. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan Magistrate Narrates How His Daughter Escaped From Kidnappers Den After Screaming The Name Of Jesus One of the kidnappers of a Rivers State-based Magistrates daughter has been arrested and the Magistrate has narrated how his daughter was able to escape from the abductors. 22-year- old suspected kidnapper, Gift Taise, was arrested and accused of taking part in the recent armed robbery and abduction of the daughter of a Magistrate. He was arrested by operatives of the Inspector General of Police, Intelligence Response Team, IRT. Vanguard gathered that Taise, a member of Icelander cult group and four members of his gang had in April 2020, invaded the home of the Magistrate, (names withheld) at Rumuagholu area of the State and abducted his daughter after dispossessing them of their cash and valuables. However, while the kidnappers were still negotiating the ransom with the victims family, she managed to escape from the kidnappers hideout. It was gathered that operatives of the IRT deployed to Rivers State, were contacted after the victims escape and a manhunt was launched on the suspects. Source disclosed that Taise couldnt run far due to the lockdown in Rivers State and he was arrested in his home. Hes now helping the operatives apprehend other members of his gang. Narrating how it happened, the magistrate told the police that about four armed men accessed his home through the roof at the back at about 3 am. Three of them who were armed with guns ordered him and his entire family to lie face down. They then blindfolded them and tied their hands and legs. Afterward, they took their time to raid the house of every valuable items, including electronic devices, mobile devices, money, clothes and shoes. The Magistrate said the gang spent more than an hour searching through the house before packing all they got inside one of his cars. While leaving, they abducted his 25-year-old daughter. They also withdrew N100,000 from his abducted daughters account through her ATM. On the second day, they contacted him and demanded N10million as ransom. They started negotiating and the kidnappers who refused to accept the amount offered switched off with a promise to call back the next day. Luckily, his daughter escaped and ran back home. On how she managed to escape, the magistrate told the police that his daughter was menstruating at the time she was kidnapped. She cried, begging her abductors to help her get a pain reliever for the pain she was experiencing, so they offered to buy her a bottle of Chelsea hot drink. One of the kidnappers volunteered to go to town and buy it and when he wasted a lot of time, the second person decided to go and check on him. The only one left to guard her, after waiting for another 30 minutes, also decided to check on the others. On sensing that she was alone in the forest, she started screaming and when no one heard her, she started praying and shouting the name Jesus. She promised herself that after shouting the name Jesus about 100 times, she will try to escape. After some minutes, she untied herself and started running back to the road, where a good samaritan gave her transport fare back home. She told her father that she was held at Rukpokwu forest in Obi Akpor Local government. On his alleged role, the suspect Tasie, who is a native of Emohua local government of Rivers State, said his responsibility on the day the attack was just to watch the area while the other gang members entered the house. He said: I am an orphan, so I dropped out of school as soon as my parents died. It was because I needed to survive that made me to join a bad gang led by one Ihekazi Igwe. He started by initiating me into their cult group known as Icelander. On the day of the incident, I joined them at an agreed location at Omagwa. When I got there, Ihekazi, Ibuchi, Bright and Sampson Aaron were already on the ground with their guns. We drove to the house and I was only given a matchet to hold and watch out for vigilante boys. After about an hour, they drove out with another car and inside the car was a girl. When we got to, the bush, they shared all the valuables that were gotten and I was given N10,000 and a wrapper. I was asked to go home because I live with my sister and if she does not see me in more 24 hours she could raise an alarm. When I called them the next day, they told me that they asked the family to pay N4million. I was waiting to be called to collect my share when Ihekazi called and said that she escaped. I wanted to use my share to start a business.I am sorry, it was poverty that led me to crime. Click here to read the full article. Neiman Marcus Group seems to be proceeding with caution. On Tuesday, an attorney for the retailer told the Texas bankruptcy judge overseeing the case that it will evaluate how to reopen its stores in the coming weeks. We are anxious to open more stores, but are looking to do that in a methodical way, and at the right time, Matthew Fagen of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, which represents Neimans in the proceedings, told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones. Both, for the business, and also in respect of the environment writ large, that were dealing with today and this week. Fagens comments appeared to be an oblique reference to the ongoing protests around the country, sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the enduring state of violence against black people by police when detained for nonviolent offenses, or even held at routine traffic stops. The last several days of protests, which have led to often brutal crackdowns by police wielding pepper spray, batons and, in some cases, their vehicles as weapons, have led retail stores to close their doors again after briefly reopening them during the coronavirus pandemic. Fagen said so far, the retailer has had higher-than-projected sales and that as a result, its cash on hand exceeds its budgeted amount at this point by more than $100 million. He said the company is using the cash to buy inventory and open more stores that had been closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, which is also still ongoing. So far, the retailer has reopened 12 Neiman Marcus and seven Last Call stores for curbside appointments and for appointment shopping. In a hearing last week, its attorney Chad Husnick, also of Kirkland & Ellis, had pointed to substantial uncertainty as to when the debtors remaining stores will reopen and commence operations at pre-COVID-19 levels. The retailer initially anticipated opening its stores around July 18, but now its advisers say stores will open at different paces around the country, some after that date. Story continues In terms of funding, Neimans has received $275 million, a portion of its debtor-in-possession financing, and is expecting to receive another $250 million in DIP financing after a final hearing on its DIP motion, which is scheduled for June 10. Fagen said Tuesday that the company planned to use the time until then to increase the amount of consensus we have in the case. The retailer entered its Chapter 11 proceedings last month with a plan to restructure that it said was backed by lenders of most of its loans. Last week, Neimans advisers told the court that its restructuring support agreement has the backing of 99 percent of the first lien term loans, 100 percent of the second lien term loans, and 78 percent of the debentures, among others. Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Two coronavirus patients died and 117 others tested positive in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday including the head of chest medicine department in one of Kashmirs leading Covid-19 hospitals taking the tally in the union territoty to 2,718. It is the seventh day in a row the UT has recorded more than 100 new Covid-19 cases. Officials said that out of the new cases, 40 were from Jammu division and 77 from Kashmir division. Among the positive cases was Kashmirs leading pulmonologist who was heading the fight against Covid-19 in a prominent government hospital. The doctor took to Twitter to announce that he had tested positive and that he followed protocol and got admitted. He also requested the administration to prepare a scientific SOP for duties and testing of all frontline workers to safeguard all. An official statement from the government informed that two persons also died. Two Covid-19 deaths have been reported from Kashmir division, the statement said. One of the deceased was an elderly woman from Baramulla, who had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and died on Monday. She tested positive on Tuesday. Another was a 27-year-old man, the youngest victim of the disease in the union territory. A 27-year-old male from Lolab, Kupwara was admitted in SMHS Hospital Srinagar on Monday with bilateral pneumonia with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and died within an hour of admission. He tested positive for SARS CoV-2 (Covid) today, said nodal officer Covid-19, Dr Salim Khan. The two casualties took the death toll in the union territory to 33 out of which 29 are from Kashmir division and four are from the Jammu division. Fresh cases were reported in eight districts of Kashmir valley, taking the tally in the division to 2,076. The highest jump in Kashmir was in Srinagar with 15 new cases, while Pulwama recorded 14 new cases followed by Kulgam and Kupwara with 11 and 10 cases respectively. There were single digit jumps in other districts in the Valley. Forty four samples tested positive at Chest Diseases Hospital, said Dr Salim Khan. Among the positive cases, 14 are pregnant women, one is a healthcare worker and another is a staff member of a quarantine center, he said. In the Jammu division, the fresh cases were recorded in eight of the 10 districts taking the divisions tally to 642. The highest jump in the division was recorded in Jammu district with 13 cases including nine with travel histories followed by Ramban with nine new cases. . Seven more patients were discharged after recovery four from Jammu division and three from Kashmir, the government statement said. So far, 953 out of the total 2,718 cases have recovered, 818 of those are from Kashmir and 135 are from the Jammu division. At present, there are 1,229 active cases in Kashmir and 503 in Jammu. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Yum China Holdings, Inc. YUMC recently announced collaboration with Beyond Meat, Inc. BYND to introduce Beyond Burger in China. This plant-based meat burger will be made available for a limited time at select KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell outlets in mainland China, starting Jun 3. Notably, plant-based meat products have been much in demand across the globe. Before this, KFC and Taco Bell conducted tests of plant-based meat products in China. In April 2020, KFC tested plant-based chicken nuggets at select stores in Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, while in December 2019, Taco Bell tested a plant-based pork taco at select stores in Shanghai. The company foresees great potential of plant-based meat products in China. CEO of Yum China, Joey Wat stated, "This latest introduction across KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell brands is expected to capture valuable consumer feedback across different regions in China. It will enable us to optimize flavors and processes and help assess the potential for larger scale rollouts in the future." Innovation to Drive Top Line Yum China the largest restaurant operator and sole licensee of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell depends on continual menu innovation to boost top-line growth. Apart from consumer-preferred food items, the company offers signature menus for the Chinese New Year. Apart from menu innovation, increased focus on delivery, mobile order and pay, and loyalty membership bodes well. The company is increasingly shifting toward digital and content marketing to expand customer base. This is expected to help the company drive volume and leverage the extensive network to maintain quality. In first-quarter 2020, delivery contributed 35% to sales, up 16% points from the prior-year period. In the quarter, digital orders accounted for more than 84% of KFC sales and 65% at Pizza Hut. So far this year, shares of this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company have declined 2.1%, compared with the industrys 7% fall. Story continues Other Key Picks Other better-ranked stocks worth considering in the same space include Domino's Pizza, Inc. DPZ and Papa Johns International, Inc. PZZA, both carrying a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Dominos has a three-five year earnings per share growth rate of 12.8%. Earnings in 2020 for Papa Johns are expected to surge 23.1%. 5 Stocks to Soar Past the Pandemic: In addition to the companies you learned about above, we invite you to learn about 5 cutting-edge stocks that could skyrocket from the exponential increase in demand for stay at home technologies. This could be one of the biggest buying opportunities of the decade. See the 5 high-tech stocks now>> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Dominos Pizza Inc (DPZ) : Free Stock Analysis Report Papa Johns International, Inc. (PZZA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Yum China Holdings Inc. (YUMC) : Free Stock Analysis Report Beyond Meat, Inc. (BYND) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. This toddler took her skin care routine a little too far when she hilariously emptied way too much sunscreen onto her legs. Trisha Maxwell, 42, found her two-year-old daughter, Piper Jane, covered in a whole bottle of sunscreen in their yard in Lees Summit, Missouri. Trisha films her daughter as she sits on the ground beaming with pride absolutely slathered in sunscreen. Piper Jane applied a whole bottle of sunscreen onto herself and then hilariously defended her decision to her mother in their yard in Lees Summit, Missouri Piper pictured with her mother Trisha Maxwell, father and siblings at their home in Lees Summit, Missouri Viewers can hear Trisha laughing as she says: 'Piper Jane! 'What are you doing?' Piper giggles at her mother adorably and examines her sunscreen work before she diligently continues to apply it. 'Sunscreen,' Piper yells when her mother asks what the cream is. Trisha follows up with a second question: 'Do you think you need that much sunscreen?' Piper nods enthusiastically. 'Safety first huh,' Trisha jokes. Piper objects when her mother says it is time to find the hose and her face goes serious when she says: 'No don't spray me.' The video ends with Trisha explaining that so much sunscreen will not in fact 'rub right in'. After a parent at Sanford Middle School in Minneapolis reached out to principal Amy Nelson suggesting ways of getting food to local kids in the district, the educator never imagined the overwhelming response she would receive from the community, as well as towns and cities beyond. Over the weekend, many local grocery stores were closed due to protests fueled by the death George Floyd. The sudden closure of these essential businesses quickly limited many families' access to food. Nelson initially posted a callout on social media, asking for 85 food kits to be donated to help students and their families. Soon after the message went up, it quickly became clear to Nelson that the turnout was going to be much bigger than they had anticipated. The Sheridan Story "Aldi, Target, Cub (Foods) they were all burned out and looted," Nelson said. "The same with Walgreens and CVS. There's nowhere to go (to) buy groceries, diapers or shampoo." On Sunday morning, people from as far away as Wisconsin descended on the school, which is currently closed due to COVID-19, bringing bags filled with groceries and toiletries. The middle school is within a three-block radius of the 3rd police precinct that was burned during the protests. "I think people were looking for something to do," Nelson told TODAY Food. "We had countless people drive up. They were at a grocery story 25 miles away and people there were buying from our same grocery list." Initially, Nelson had expected to receive donations from 10 a.m. to noon on Sunday. But when she arrived at the school at 8 a.m., there was already more food than she knew what to do with. Nelson, who has been a teacher and administrator in Minnesota for 20 years, said she has never seen anything like it. As the piles of groceries mounted, Nelson realized she'd be able to help those beyond her school district. Thankfully, she explained, The Sheridan Story, a local organization that works to fight childhood hunger, was able to step in. Story continues "I told them, 'Were going to have a lot of people,'" she recalled. To help get the word out, The Sheridan Story shared some photos from the incredible day on Instagram. "As we get close to wrapping up the day, but certainly not our work, our words are few and full of love - the outpouring of community support we experienced today was simply beautiful!" read the caption accompanying photos of the donations. On Monday, the organization shared another post. In addition to The Sheridan Story, the school also partnered with Culinary and Wellness Services, the school's nutrition program, which was able to accept the perishable items that could not be distributed quickly. "We started in parking lot and then covered every square inch of grass," Nelson said of of the food drops. "It got so congested, we sent a truck down to a nearby park. "People waited over an hour to drop food, some started dropping food off on the avenue." Related: The owners of Gandhi Mahal, a Minneapolis restaurant that was damaged during protests on Thursday night, want justice for George Floyd. Rob Williams, executive director and founder of The Sheridan Story told TODAY that his organization specializes in getting food to hungry kids. "Its not a supply problem, its a distribution problem," he said. "The goal was and is to get food into those neighborhoods where the grocery stories had to close, where it became a food desert." Volunteers help sort food donations outside of Sanford Middle School. (The Sheridan Story) Usually, The Sheridan Story helps provide meals to kids during times when they might not otherwise have access to government programs, including weekends and holidays. Recently, the organization has increased its output and says it's bringing 100,000 meals to kids in the Minneapolis area every week. "On Sunday, we estimate we served 2,000 families," he said. Food that could not be distributed was re-routed to other places in Minnesota. The organization still has even more nonperishables and will redistribute them to others in need. Many also came out to bring food to Hiawatha Collegiate College High School, near where much of the damage occurred during the protests. "It was a very emotional day of seeing the community come together to serve those kids and families that needed to be served the most," Williams said. "The response was from people of all backgrounds, serving people of all backgrounds. This is what we want Minnesota to be about." Monday, June 1, 2020 at 9:17PM Image courtesy of Bethesda Google announced a few updates regarding Stadia, and an important part of the announcement is the new free games coming to Google Stadia Pro. The six titles include Get Packed, Little Nightmares, Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, Superhot, and Panzer Dragoon Remake. The Elder Scrolls Online will be coming later on June 16. Aside from introducing the new games, Stadia is getting some significant updates on the Chrome browser. It gets wireless Stadia Controller play support, and for Stadia Pro users, you get to play in 1440p resolution. If you're a new user and want two free months of Stadio Pro, you'll need to redeem the offer before June 3. It'll be back down to one month starting on that date. Company culture can be defined as your business's personality, detailing the ethics, work environment, mission, values, and both short and long term goals. Whether it is team-based or traditional and formal design, company culture is vital for your business in different ways. Not only does it help in the growth of your business, but it also defines employees' working areas. Your clients are also not left behind hence promotes all aspects of your business. That said, here are some of the importance of company culture for your business success. Reflects Your Company Core Values When you build your brand on different platforms, you need to develop a distinct company culture to help employees benefit the environment. For example, the Hostinger values used by the same company are the basis for defining workflows, conflict resolution, and how they approach their customers. Besides, it helps to make your customers understand your business better. Additionally, in the company, you hire the right people and ensure you get the best out of them. Organizational cultures promote your core values, keeping them at the forefront and focus point in the business structure. Details Both External and Internal Distinctiveness When writing down attributes that define your company culture, you are likely to focus on the right work balance and values it brings to your business and clients. Here, the definition of your company culture details how your business operates, interacts with other brands and the industry in general. That is, your company culture cuts across all the business aspects as it is a representation of how the company works. As such, it highlights the perception of how your employees and customers view the company image and identity. Converts Your Employees to Supporters Many business owners fail to realize that employees not all perform their duties in the company but are big players when they are brand advocates. This is one of the utmost benefits of robust company cultures enabling your team to not only focus on the paycheck. Well-designed company cultures make employees feel treasured in the business. In turn, they become more passionate about what they do and transform from being employees to promoters of the business both internally and externally. As to achieve this, build a culture that hails both individual and team accomplishments for your employees. Google is an excellent example that cherishes their company philosophy and through it motivates and helps employees both grow and promote the company. Maintains Your Superlative People Job applicants often look for specific positions in companies where they feel like part of the community rather than being hired as a vessel. Those who perform best in any office or business tend to feel comfortable, especially when working with a great team. Strong company cultures driven to employees provides a keen interest. That is, it helps promote rendezvous, inimitable employee experience, and develops teamwork. When you build a company culture that focuses on your people, you are likely to hire top performers who increase business productivity. Helps with Onboarding When you hire a new team into the business, you expect them to fit the type of culture defined in your brand. Organizational culture can help with this process as it acts as an aligning force, particularly for new employees. The culture of your business is fundamentally a guiding force that helps in onboarding that takes care of unique employee needs and incorporates them into the company. Building a company culture that guides new employees to the business is essential for helping with onboarding. After that, it promotes their progress by adjusting to the business pattern. Encourages Teamwork in The Business Productive organizational cultures tend to form alignments and guiding principles enabling your employees to work as a cohesive team. Evident company cultures varying perspectives are defined as everyday business purposes creating unity between people. Besides, it established expectations based on how people behave, function, and work together. In this case, your company culture breaks barriers between teams and promotes decision-making and workflow. As an employee, you tend to have a smooth flow of operation and practical problem-solving techniques suitable for your business. Businesses with incomplete and toxic company cultures often get the opposite. Influences Performance and Employee Welfare Many business owners develop company cultures with the objective of improving productivity, teamwork, and branding, among others. Again, studies show that a business's culture has a direct influence on both performance and worker welfare. That is, the culture details the two by determining a suitable equilibrium centered on business core values. Employer wellbeing delivers significant benefits to both employees and employers when you are with holistic company cultures. When you are with a struggling business that fails to perform, strong organizational cultures can positively influence the industry. Invites New Talent into The Business Different organizations often search for new talents to thrive in the sector, especially in the most competitive business. However, attracting such talents is challenging even for successful organizations out there. You can hire staffing agents or pay more for ads to look for skills, but there are more natural approaches to consider. A well-established company culture, accompanied by a business reputation, will naturally attract talented individuals. Skilled candidates tend to oversee salaries and work benefits and focus on the company's personality. Having a culture that tailors their personalities will quickly invite them into your company. Promotes Passion Employers love employees who are passionate about what they do, especially in handling their duties. When you develop a positive and thriving culture for your brand, you tend to motivate employees in what they do. Ideal working areas enable employees to be happy, excited, passionate, and invest in the business. When employees become passionate, it means increased productivity, innovation, and creativity. Therefore, company culture acts as a tool that inspires workers to deliver their best outcomes, in turn breaking more boundaries for the company. Wrapping Up There are many reasons why company culture is essential, but the above are imperatives to begin within your business. Discover the core value, attributes, and more than your company brings on the table. Focus on your people and clients as what you view as crucial in your business may be entirely different. You are now one step closer to creating a more successful business. Author's Biography: Mary is a passionate blogger and the chief editor at her own content marketing company PRable.org. Since college, she's been interested in break-through technology and technical writing about innovative products and services that change our everyday lives for the better. She's also interested in web design and photography. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. SAN DIEGO, June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Shareholder rights law firm Johnson Fistel, LLP has launched an investigation into whether the board members of TerraForm Power, Inc. ("TerraForm Power" or the "Company") (TERP) breached their fiduciary duties in connection with the proposed sale of the Company to Brookfield Renewable Partners ("Brookfield Renewable") (BEP). On March 16, 2020, TerraForm Power announced that they had entered into a definitive merger agreement for Brookfield Renewable to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Class A common stock of TerraForm Power, other than the approximately 62% currently owned by Brookfield Renewable and its affiliates. Under the terms of the acquisition agreement, TerraForm Power's shareholders will receive 0.381 Brookfield Renewable shares for each share of TerraForm Power they own. The investigation concerns whether the TerraForm Power board failed to satisfy its duties to the Company shareholders, including whether the board adequately pursued alternatives to the acquisition and whether the board obtained the best price possible for TerraForm Power shares of common stock. If you are a shareholder of TerraForm Power and believe the proposed buyout price is too low or you're interested in learning more about the investigation, please contact lead analyst Jim Baker ( jimb@johnsonfistel.com ) at 619-814-4471. If emailing, please include a phone number. Additionally, you can [Click here to join this action]. There is no cost or obligation to you. About Johnson Fistel, LLP: Johnson Fistel, LLP is a nationally recognized shareholder rights law firm with offices in California, New York, and Georgia. The firm represents individual and institutional investors in shareholder derivative and securities class action lawsuits. For more information about the firm and its attorneys, please visit https://www.johnsonfistel.com. Attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Contact: Johnson Fistel, LLP Jim Baker, 619-814-4471 jimb@johnsonfistel.com [Click here to join this action] Destruction of tropical forests worldwide increased last year, led again by Brazil, which was responsible for more than a third of the total, and where deforestation of the Amazon through clear-cutting appears to be on the rise under the pro-development policies of the countrys president. The worldwide total loss of old-growth, or primary, tropical forest 9.3 million acres, an area nearly the size of Switzerland was about 3 percent higher than 2018 and the third largest since 2002. Only 2016 and 2017 were worse, when heat and drought led to record fires and deforestation, especially in Brazil. The level of forest loss we saw in 2019 is unacceptable, said Frances Seymour, a fellow with the environmental research group World Resources Institute, which released the deforestation data through its Global Forest Watch program. We seem to be going in the wrong direction. There has been so much international effort and rhetoric around reducing deforestation, and companies and governments making all these commitments that they are going to reduce by half their tropical forest loss by 2020, said Mikaela Weisse, who manages the Global Forest Watch program. The fact that its been so stubbornly persistent is whats worrying to us. David McBride and Helen Ward meet for the first time. Photo: Wall to Wall Productions A brother and sister found abandoned six years apart either side of the Border in the 1960s have met each other for the first time. In 2012, the Irish Independent reported Helen Ward (52) started the search for her birth mother after being found as a baby abandoned in a tartan bag in a telephone box in Dundalk, Co Louth. Meanwhile, David McBride (58) spent years looking for his birth parents after he was found, just two weeks old, in the front seat of a car in Dunmurry in Belfast, also placed in a red tartan bag. After leading a media campaign for years, he submitted his DNA sample to ITV's 'Long Lost Family' and a match came up for a full sister - Ms Ward. Last night, 'Long Lost Family: Born Without A Trace' showed the siblings meeting for the first time in a guesthouse near the Border. Before the encounter, Ms Ward said: "To find that I have a brother, that's absolutely incredible. You spend your whole life looking for your family. Here it is, I cannot wait to meet him." "Finding Helen was one of the greatest gifts," Mr McBride said. "When we sat down and started talking, the world around us didn't exist. It's just been unbelievable." "When you sit there and you look at your brother, it's a very strange feeling, a very exciting feeling. I mean, after 51 years it's a miracle, it really is," Ms Ward added. Joy Speaking on ITV's 'This Morning' yesterday, the abandoned siblings spoke of their joy in meeting. "From the moment I met David, it was like a whirlwind the whole time - it was absolutely incredible," said Ms Ward. "It was so fantastic that I met David first because then I had this support, we had this support, over the rest of the journey unfolding over the last number of months." The reunited brother and sister have together been able to uncover more details about their birth parents and learned their mother was a Catholic and their father was a married Protestant. "Our mother and father had an affair that lasted about 40 years," said Mr McBride. "The fact that my mother became pregnant out of wedlock, there was real problems for both of them." Mr McBride discovered he was adopted when he had to go to family court aged eight. "I didn't know much until I was about eight years of age, until I went to court, to family court, and that's the first time I found out that I was going to be adopted," he said on 'This Morning'. He learned only later, when he wanted to join the army at the age of 15, that he had been found left in the front seat of a car in a driveway - just 14 days old. "I went to get a birth cert for joining the army and I couldn't get hold of one." He discovered his birth certificate recorded he was born "on or about January 6". He couldn't understand what it meant. "Why doesn't it say the day that I was born? Why did no one know the day I was born?" he said. My father "told me all" after I began asking questions, he added. He soon he learned he had been found by the wife of a Belfast doctor who was going to get groceries from her car, where she found him sitting in the front seat. Campaign When Mr McBride eventually got his file from social services, he discovered they had delayed his adoption by his Protestant foster parents for nine years because they feared the complication of a Catholic mother stepping forward to claim him. As he led a media campaign in a tireless effort to find his parents in the UK, he was unaware his long-lost sister had taken on a similar campaign in Ireland. Only a few days old, she was found wrapped in a blanket and holding a bottle of milk in a red tartan bag in a telephone box in Dundalk in 1968, with plenty of baby clothes left at the bottom of the bag. Found by a lorry driver, gardai were alerted and Sgt Michael Connolly took her to the nearby Louth County Hospital where she was cared for, before being moved to St Clare's Nursing Home in Stamullen, Co Meath. From there she was adopted at the age of 13 months and began a new and very happy life. The Irish Independent reported in 2012 she had been reunited with the lorry driver who found her, Donal Boyle, from Macroom, Co Cork, who heard her story after it was reported in the newspaper. At the time, he said the newborn was not crying and was "fine and happy". Mr Boyle recalled there was a car parked close to the phone box when he crossed the road and while he was inside, the car circled around before driving off. There were two people inside. He said he thought this was Ms Ward's birth mother waiting to make sure someone found her and she was safe. Eight years later, the story reached an incredible twist and last night viewers saw the pair meet for the first time. "I thought I would find something [on the show], maybe a half-sister, but I never imagined I would find a full sister," said Mr McBride. "It was overwhelming," Ms Ward said. "I'd built a picture of who my parents might have been, but I'd never thought of siblings." The Work From Home (WFH) culture is here to stay! What began as a mark of precaution in many companies prior to the outbreak of Covid-19 in India, is set to be the norm for the coming times. Several companies across sectors as have even been rolling out WFH allowances and other benefits for their employees who are ensuring business continuity while operating remotely. One of the major issues faced while working from homes and other remote locations is the unavailability of a proper workspace setup. The lack of ergonomic chairs, tables and other could lead to small discomforts such as back aches and neck aches, as a result of prolonged sitting. California-Headquartered Freshworks that provides customer engagement software for businesses, had gone into WFH mode much before national lockdowns were enforced across the globe, besides rolling out an allowance for helping employee set-up a home workspace. All 3000 employees across 13 countries (Including India) are provided an allowance of 250USD(18000 INR) to procure the right tools, be it larger monitors, furniture or ergonomic keyboards etc.. Since we were early to start remote work, most of our employees were able to make use of this allowance before shops closed Suman Gopalan, CHRO of Freshworks told WION. Companies that do not have a dedicated WFH allowance have permitted employees to utilize their Health and Fitness allowance to purchase the necessary home-office furniture. Across India, over 400 full-time employees have been issued laptops and accessories. We also reimburse internet expenses for all employees and even interns. But in the case of furniture we have tied up with a vendor for the best deals and our employees can purchase from them and get it reimbursed upto Rs.5000 Karthikeyan, Manager Corporate Services, Lennox India Technology Centre told WION. While relatively smaller firms have been able to provide such special allowances for furniture and gadgets, the big IT firms that employ lakhs of people worldwide have been enabling remote working by providing laptops, internet dongles and reimbursements for internet/phone bills. Healthcare consultant Dr. Sumanth C Raman said that that almost all companies have announced to continue WFH till end of June or even August(assuming there is no drug or vaccine available). Decisions may be taken to allow people to work in rotation and to explore other methods for the longer run. But however, WFH involves huge cost savings for the companies. Right from power bills, rents, admin, house-keeping expenses to operating cefeterias and fleets of buses, this would have significant impact on the bottomline of the companies he told WION. The recent weeks have also seen statements pertaining to long-term WFH plans from the chiefs of major Indian IT firms. Indias largest firm Tata Consultancy Services plans to ask a vast majority of 75% of its 4.48 lakh employees globally (including 3.5 lakh in India) to work from home, up from the industry average of 20% today. The new model called 25/25 will require far less office space than occupied today. HCL technologies too has proposed that, going forward, they will allow 50% of their employees to work from home while the remaining would continue their work from offices in the next 12-18 months At the Global level, Amazon.com Inc has said that employees that work in a. Roel that can be performed from home can continue to do so until October 2nd. It is not known as to what percentage of their total staff this applies to. Google has also said that a vast majority of their employees will likely WFH til the end of this year, this came after Facebook had also made a similar announcement. Read the full article on Motorious Even if you didnt shop at the high-end department store, some of the cars it sold were pretty cool. Sometimes we forget that what were experiencing now will be history in the future, especially when it comes to cars. Of course, to older gearheadsthats not such an unreasonable proposition since theyve seen their youthful fantasy cars become rare and historically significant. The same thing is pretty much guaranteed to happen with the Neiman Marcus special edition cars, since it looks like the luxurious department store might not be with us much longer. In the future, people no doubt will find it odd that such a retail establishment sold cars at all, let alone ones with special tweaks to set them apart from similar models. The special edition cars all appeared in the notoriously opulent Neiman Marcus Christmas Book. They would be featured on pages along with diamond-encrusted gowns and crystal drinkware, the trappings of well-heeled shoppers. Following is a look at some of the Neiman Marcus special edition vehicles offered throughout the years. 1970 Ford Thunderbird Remember The Neiman Marcus Special Edition Cars Technically, this was long before the Neiman Marcus Special Edition cars were offered, but these His and Hers Thunderbirds were sold through the stores catalog, so well say they count. Each one had a trim appealing to one or the other sex, with a combined cost of $25,000 if you wanted the ultimate couple holiday gift. BMW Z3 Remember The Neiman Marcus Special Edition Cars If you wanted to be like Agent 007, Neiman Marcus worked with BMW to create a launch edition of the Z3 patterned after the one James Bond drove in Goldeneye. With a production run of just 100, these cars are highly collectible today. Audi TT Remember The Neiman Marcus Special Edition Cars Also limited to 100 units, the 1998 Audi TT sold through Neiman Marcus catalog is sought after in a big way today. Each of the cars came with the same shade of gray paint and a Moccasin Red leather interior. Ducati 748L Remember The Neiman Marcus Special Edition Cars Not all of the Neiman Marcus Special Editions were cars, as evidenced with this 1998 Ducati 748L. The special Italian motorcycle was limited to a run of 100, each painted silver with some carbon-fiber trim pieces, a truly exotic addition back then. Story continues Aston Martin DB7 Volante Remember The Neiman Marcus Special Edition Cars Released in 1998, this special edition of the Aston Martin DB7 Volante was limited to a mere 10 units, so only a lucky few received them. Each one was a convertible painted black and wearing exclusive wheels. Maserati Quattroporte Remember The Neiman Marcus Special Edition Cars When the Italian sedan was launched, Neiman Marcus helped Maserati celebrate with the first version of the Quattroporte available in the United States. Each one cost $125,000 and quantities were limited to 60 total. The red paint was exclusive. Hennessey Venom 700NM Remember The Neiman Marcus Special Edition Cars This is the one most enthusiasts drool over and it shocked many to realize the high-luxury department store was even offering it. Hennessey blessed this sinister-looking car with a naturally-aspirated V10 churning out 700-horsepower. All that power didnt go to waste, thanks to a 0-60 time of just 3.3 seconds and a top speed of 214 mph. Chevrolet Camaro 2SS Remember The Neiman Marcus Special Edition Cars Yes, Neiman Marcus even sold a special edition of the beloved Camaro. This exclusive muscle car was a 2010 model with just 100 made, and it only took 180 seconds for them to sell out online. You can spot these instantly, thanks to the exclusive dark red paint. Pricing was pretty outrageous at $75,000 yet that obviously didnt slow sales down one bit. This was such a hit, Neiman Marcus and Chevrolet teamed up with another special edition of the Camaro for 2011. Ferrari FF Remember The Neiman Marcus Special Edition Cars Now this is the kind of vehicle youd expect to see in the pages of the Neiman Marcus catalog. This special version of the Ferrari FF was offered for the 2011 model year with an exclusive shade of gray paint, bespoke luggage, and a driving experience in Aspen, Colorado. The price tag was a cool $395,000. McLaren 12C Spider Remember The Neiman Marcus Special Edition Cars Just 12 of these 2012 McLaren 12C Spiders were made for Neiman Marcus, and with a $354,000 base price they all made for the most opulent holiday present. Each car came with the same red-orange paint and a potent twin-turbo V8, plus the ability to command big cash later. Ford Mustang GT Convertible Remember The Neiman Marcus Special Edition Cars Maybe it was because of the success of the Camaro in the Neiman Marcus catalog, or maybe it was partly out of keeping the rivalry up, but Ford was able to convince the department store to sell an exclusive version of the 2015 Mustang GT Convertible. With a two-tone blue and silver paint job and 700-horsepower on tap, plus a production run of only 100 cars, these topless ponies retailed for $95,000 each. Rolls-Royce Dawn Remember The Neiman Marcus Special Edition Cars One of the big names in ultra-luxury lifestyle is Rolls-Royce so it was zero shock when a special edition of the 2017 Dawn convertible appeared in the Neiman Marcus catalog. You could get the car in either orange or blue, but to say you ordered yours through the department store meant paying an extra $100,000. Aston Martin DBS Superleggera Remember The Neiman Marcus Special Edition Cars The last of the Neiman Marcus special edition cars was a version of the already impressive 2019 Aston Martin DBS Superleggera. Like the BMW Z3 from back in the 90s, this car came with a James Bond theme as well as tickets to see No Time To Die. Aston Martin made seven of these cars, which sold for $700,007 get it? Sign up for the Motorious Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Telangana has been witnessing a rapid rise in the number of Covid-19 deaths and positive cases in the last 15 days, raising an alarm in the state. On Tuesday, the state reported four deaths and 99 positive cases, taking the total number of deaths to 92 and the positive cases to 2,891. The death toll was 34 on May 18, when most restrictions on peoples movement were removed with lockdown 4.0 coming into force, which led to 58 more casualties in a span of just 15 days. Similarly, the total number of positive cases in the state went up from 1,661 cases on May 18 to 2,891 on Tuesday, a steep rise of 1,230 cases. In the last four days alone, the number of positive cases has shot up by 466 and deaths by 21. According to the official bulletin released by the state medical and health department, out of 99 new positive cases reported on Tuesday, 87 are local residents and the remaining 12 are migrant labourers returning from other states. Of the local cases, 70 are from Greater Hyderabad municipal corporation limits and seven are from adjacent Ranga Reddy district. The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19 The four deaths reported on Tuesday include a 42-yr old man with pre-existing cardiac problem, a 41-year old man with Thyroid disorder and two women, a 70-yr old and a 60-year old, both suffering from hypertension. According to director of medical and health G Srinivasa Rao, the steep rise in the number of deaths and positive cases after the relaxations in lockdown since May 18 were mainly due to the increased movement of people from one place to another. People are travelling across the state and some of them are not following the basic preventive measures like wearing a mask, maintaining safe physical distancing and avoiding crowding. This has resulted in a surge in the cases, he said. He added that a large number of migrants returning from states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar etc were being put in home quarantine by the district authorities to break the chain of transmissions. A government body once led by Health Minister Christine Elliott is starting its own probe into Ontario nursing homes where COVID-19 has killed at least 1,652 residents and infected thousands more. The Ministry of Healths Office of the Patient Ombudsman began an investigation Tuesday after receiving more than 150 complaints about residents and staff in significant jeopardy in the last month. The organization for which Elliott has not named her own replacement after two years in government said it will focus on the impact of the highly contagious novel coronavirus on residents and caregivers. That leaves provincial ombudsman Paul Dube to his wider probe, announced Monday, into how Premier Doug Fords Progressive Conservative government has managed the long-term care system in the pandemic, which has infected more than 30,000 Ontarians and killed almost 2,400. Our investigation is specific to the residents and caregivers at long-term-care homes with outbreaks of COVID-19, said Craig Thompson, executive director of the patient ombudsmans office. We feel that this investigation will help long-term care homes prepare for future outbreaks of infectious diseases, including COVID-19. The office was created in 2015 to help settle patient complaints within the health system and produce annual reports on results to boost transparency. Elliott, who had been a fierce critic of the government as an MPP, was appointed the first ombudsman but resigned two years ago to return to politics. An executive search firm was hired in January to find potential replacements for the $203,000-a-year post. NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said shes skeptical of an investigation by an internal government body without a permanent leader but added Ontarians deserve all the answers that they can get. Its quite troubling that the government has not found a replacement for Elliott as the patient ombudsman since it came to power two years ago this month, Horwath added. The latest investigation comes as half of Ontarios 626 nursing homes have experienced outbreaks of COVID-19, with 105 remaining in outbreak mode and 2,000 residents and staff still fighting active cases of the illness that spread rapidly in the close confines of long-term care. Seven staff members have died. Unions representing them have blamed a lack of personal protective equipment for leaving nurses, personal support workers and others vulnerable. More than 1,800 nursing home workers have contracted COVID-19. That has left some homes desperately short-staffed, with local hospitals sending in teams to help and prompting Ford to call in military medical teams for assistance. Horwath repeated calls Tuesday for the government to use its emergency powers to take over more nursing homes overwhelmed by COVID-19. The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care later announced a 90-day takeover order for the 240-bed Forest Heights nursing home in Kitchener, where 55 residents have COVID-19, another 51 have died and 69 staff members are infected. Despite receiving hospital support for weeks, Forest Heights has been unable to contain the spread, the ministry said in a statement, adding that St. Marys General Hospital will now operate and stabilize the facility. We will do what is necessary to shore up these homes, Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton told the legislatures daily question period before the takeover was announced. The local MPP said the takeover of Forest Heights was overdue with troubles building since the outbreak among residents began two months ago. Their loved ones have been sick with worry and anxiety, said Laura Mae Lindo (Kitchener Centre). The front-line staff have been stretched to breaking point as they do their best without the support and the (personal protective equipment) they need to protect themselves and their residents. Fullerton maintained the overall situation in nursing homes has improved since the height of the pandemic, with the fewest resident and staff COVID-19 infections since mid-April and 70 per cent of long-term-care facilities not in outbreak. Forest Heights is the eighth Ontario nursing home to be the subject of an order. Five more were added to the list last week after a Canadian Armed Forces report revealed horrific conditions including residents left crying for help in dirty diapers for hours at several nursing homes where the province requested military medical teams. At last count, Fullerton said there are 19 homes considered code red meaning they are having serious struggles with COVID-19 but has refused to release their names. The people of Ontario deserve to know, said Horwath. Ford said the list of code-red homes is fluid, with some improving and going to code yellow or code green and vice versa. The premier has announced an independent commission into the impact of COVID-19 in nursing homes will begin in July but has not yet named a commissioner or terms of reference. There were another 416 confirmed and probable cases of the virus reported by health units across the province as of 5 p.m. Tuesday, according to a Star compilation of data in the previous 24 hours. That marked the second day in a row above 400 and raises the total cases to 30,460 since late January. Twenty additional fatalities increased the death toll to 2,356. There have been 7,344 deaths and 92,157 confirmed cases across the country. Lenovo has a new smartphone coming soon, one that carries its Legion gaming branding. In May, we saw a teaser from the company, as well as some leaked promotional materials. The Legion smartphone is a gamer-centric device intended to be used horizontally. The smartphone has now strolled through Chinas 3C with a model number L79031. The only pieces of information listed aside from the model number are the charger specifications, and that its a 5G Mobile Phone. The charger included with this device only goes up to 45W even though earlier teasers suggested the phone will support 90W charging. It is also expected that there will be multiple variants of the Legion phone, but the company confirmed back in April that all variants would have 90W charging. Previously leaked Lenovo Legion promo pics Other leaked specs of the Legion phone include a 144Hz refresh rate display (with a touch sampling rate of 270Hz), UFS 3.0 internal storage, LPDDR5 RAM, and a centrally placed camera setup with 64MP main shooter and a 16MP ultrawide unit. Theres also a front-facing camera with a 20MP sensor, and the front camera pops out of the long edge of the phone, which adds to the whole using the phone sideways theme. Lenovo Legion doesn't look like any other smartphone on the market Via In the spirit of creating LOTTE Moments through various LOTTE Fests, Coffy Bite, the iconic confectionery brand of Lotte India in partnership with Dinamalar hosted a quiz competition for children through the daily newspaper. This was an attempt to engage the children in a fun and exciting manner during Lockdown. This exciting competition was held across Chennai, Coimbatore, Pondicherry and Madurai for a period of 7 days. The first quiz was held on 27thMay 2020 and continued for a period of 7 days, ending on the 2nd of June 2020. Advertising spread across 3 days (May 22nd-26th, 2020) informed the readers to partake in the activity. The competition saw participation of over 50k children, and the daily winners were chosen by a team. Out of the total winners, 50 winners everyday were awarded with exciting Coffy Bite gift hampers. Commenting on this activity Mr Venkatesh Parthasarathy Vice President, Marketing said We are happy to present a unique, interesting and rewarding engagement opportunity for children during this difficult lockdown. Through the Dinamalar partnership for this quiz, Coffy Bite has brought smiles to children across four cities in TN. Im sure it's been fun and educational at the same time. During the seven days of the contest, the quiz section created significant buzz, reaching the entire readership in the Dinamalar editions of Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore & Pondicherry. It was 3 a.m. Tuesday before the Rev. Virginia Gerbasi was finally able to fall asleep. Every time she started to drift off, she began thinking again of the church and the protesters and the volley of flash bombs and pellets and gas that sent them all running for cover. But what kept her awake was the anger she felt and the disbelief about what happened. Gerbasi went on Monday to St. John's Episcopal Church, near Lafayette Square across from the White House, to pass out water and snacks to demonstrators who had gathered to protest the death of George Floyd. She was there, she wrote later on her Facebook page, to help make the patio of the church "a place of respite and peace." A little after 6 p.m., it became anything but. In her post, Gerbasi, who is the assistant rector at St. John's Episcopal Church in Georgetown, described a peaceful day that erupted in mayhem and terror as federal law enforcement officers sprayed chemical irritants and shot pellets at nonviolent demonstrators before President Donald Trump walked to the front of the church and held up a Bible in front of cameras. "Around 6:15 or 6:30, the police started really pushing protestors off of H Street . . . the street between the church and Lafayette Park, and ultimately, the White House," Gerbasi wrote. "They started using tear gas and folks were running at us for eyewashes or water or wet paper towels. At this point, Julia, one of our seminarians for next year (who is a trauma nurse) and I looked at each other in disbelief. I was coughing, her eyes were watering, and we were trying to help people as the police - in full riot gear - drove people toward us." Gerbasi, who once served as vice-rector at St. John's in Lafayette Square, was stunned by the police aggression and how quickly it escalated. She and others including clergy members and volunteer medics from Black Lives Matter were soon overrun. "Around 6:30, there was more tear gas, more concussion grenades, and I think I saw someone hit by a rubber bullet - he was grasping his stomach and there was a mark on his shirt," Gerbasi wrote in the post, which had been shared more than 125,000 times on Facebook by early Tuesday afternoon. "The police in their riot gear were literally walking onto the St. John's, Lafayette Square patio with these metal shields, pushing people off the patio and driving them back. People were running at us as the police advanced toward us from the other side of the patio." After being driven from the church by police using stun grenades and chemical irritants, Gerbasi, 56, made her way to her car on K Street. There she began receiving texts from people saying the president was standing in front of the church holding a Bible and having his photo taken. The White House later issued a short video of the president's walk past a phalanx of officers in tactical gear and through the park to the church. "I literally COULD NOT believe it," Gerbasi wrote. "WE WERE DRIVEN OFF OF THE PATIO AT ST. JOHN'S - a place of peace and respite and medical care throughout the day - SO THAT MAN COULD HAVE A PHOTO OPPORTUNITY IN FRONT OF THE CHURCH!!! PEOPLE WERE HURT SO THAT HE COULD POSE IN FRONT OF THE CHURCH WITH A BIBLE! HE WOULD HAVE HAD TO STEP OVER THE MEDICAL SUPPLIES WE LEFT BEHIND BECAUSE WE WERE BEING TEAR GASSED!!!!" The outrage of her first-person account of the attack on the clergy and peaceful protesters struck a chord with tens of thousands of readers, Gerbasi said in an interview Tuesday afternoon, because it "tapped into something that was so universally offensive. That church people got driven off of church grounds by riot police for a photo op for the president in front of a church holding a Bible is offensive to the core." In her account, Gerbasi, who is married and has two grown sons, wrote that the crowd had been peaceful all day and had not thrown anything at the police until after they began deploying flash bangs and chemical irritants. The incident, she wrote, was deeply troubling. "I am DEEPLY OFFENDED on behalf of every protestor, every Christian, the people of St. John's, Lafayette square, every decent person there, and the BLM medics who stayed with just a single box of supplies and a backpack, even when I got too scared and had to leave. I am ok. But I am now a force to be reckoned with." On Tuesday, however, federal officials offered conflicting reasons for the forcible removal of the protesters, seeking to separate the move from Trump's visit to the church. The White House asserted Tuesday that the crowd was dispersed to help enforce the city's 7 p.m. curfew. Meanwhile, two federal law enforcement officials said the decision had been made late Sunday night or early Monday morning to extend the perimeter around Lafayette Square by one block. On Tuesday, Gerbasi said most of the responses to her post have been positive. Young adult parishioners at her church have asked how they can join the protests or support its goals. "It almost makes me cry thinking about that," she said. But there have been threats and hateful messages as well. She said she has learned to expect those. They will not deter her however. Gerbasi said she plans to continue showing up at the St. John's Church in Lafayette Square and supporting the protesters. "I know that I'm standing on firm ground. I'll be out there every day," she said. "That's my life now. How can it not be my life now? People were unbelievably harmed for this. People were terrified. People dropped to the ground thinking they were being shot at for this. Maybe God has called me to this whole wacky world of being a priest for just such a time as this." She has also thought about what message she would like Trump to receive. "I would say I ache for him to live his life according to that book that he held up in front of the church. I ache for him to live his life that way than rather literally use it as a photo op or a prop," she said. "The stories in that book are about finding ways to love your neighbor. And your neighbor is everyone, and we are all made in the image of God. And you don't charge at innocent people and fire tear gas at them and rubber bullets when you're living a life based on being grounded in wholeness and reconciliation and love and kindness and care for the least. I ache for him to live that life." UPDATE: 1:20 p.m. Just under one third of British Columbian students are returning to part-time, in-class learning this week after the province left the decision to return in the hands of parents. During a press conference Tuesday, Minister of Education Rob Fleming said about 60,000 students returned to school Monday, and another 60,000 are expected in class Tuesday. Students returning are being staggered to reduce the number of people in a classroom at one time. The province has set guidelines limiting Kindergarten to Grade 5 classes at 50 per cent capacity, with students attending on alternating days, while middle schoolers and high schoolers will go to class about one day per week. Additionally, parents will not be allowed to enter schools through June. This will allow adequate physical distancing within classes, which Fleming said is the most important measure to reduce the transmission of COVID-19, along with frequent hand and surface washing and staying home while sick. Children of essential service workers and those needing additional supports, many of whom have already been attending class, will have the option to attend full time. Fleming said about 90 per cent of teachers have returned to in-class teaching, while about 10 per cent have been given accommodations to continue to work from home, to support online-only students. Fleming did not elaborate on what criteria is used to determine which teachers can stay home. This new in-class/online hybrid system will remain in place through June, but it's still unclear how schools will look come September. It's likely that we will have to have a hybrid system again until we have a vaccine, until the pandemic is officially over, Fleming said. We have to prepare for a second wave in British Columbia. We have to prepare to be able to move forward as we have done this Monday, and move backwards when we get into the fall and winter. When asked about what the province's plan looks like if COVID-19 outbreaks occur within B.C. schools, Fleming was vague, only outlining the measures that will be taken to reduce the risk of that happening. ORIGINAL: 12:30 p.m. British Columbia's Minister of Education Rob Fleming discusses the return to part-time in-class learning in the province's schools. Egypts desire to guarantee its quota of water from the River Nile is an existential matter and part of its commitment to shared development, writes Aisha Abdel-Ghaffar Addressing the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2019, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi commented that the Nile is a matter of life and existence for Egypt, and we urge the international community to persuade all the parties to be resilient and to resume negotiations on the filling and operations of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) being built on the Nile in Ethiopia. President Al-Sisi was articulating Egypts disappointment with the negotiations then taking place on the GERD, announcing its desire to internationalise an issue that was becoming a threat to regional peace and security. For all Egyptians, Egypt is the gift of the Nile, and it is essential that everything is done to guarantee Egypts rightful access to the Niles water. Over 95 per cent of Egypts territory is desert with almost no rainfall. The Nile, cutting through the centre of the country, provided fertile land along its banks to the ancient Egyptians, allowing the formation of the first nation-state in world history. Crops grown along the Nile and fish caught in it have always provided nourishment for the people of Egypt. The Nile was the boundary between life and death in the creed of the ancient Egyptians, and along its banks they built their magnificent temples and monuments. Today, Egypt relies on the Nile for water for domestic, industrial and agricultural purposes. The river provides 97 per cent of Egypts annual water needs, though there is still a shortfall of some 30 billion m3 of water per year. 100 million Egyptians now live along the Nile or in its Delta, and it supplies almost all of their drinking water. According to a treaty signed in 1959 between Egypt and Sudan, the two downstream countries in the Nile Basin, to which Ethiopia declined to accede, Egypt is entitled to 55 billion m3 of water from the Nile each year, an allocation that now has to suffice a population that has grown five-fold since the date the treaty was signed. Egypt is now well below the International Water Scarcity level of 1,000 m3 of water per person per year, with this now standing at 575 m3 per person. Soaring population figures are not the only threat to Egypts water security, since climate change is also causing rising sea levels in the Mediterranean, pushing saltwater inland off the coast and spoiling fertile agricultural land. As agriculture contributes some 12 per cent of Egypts GDP and provides employment for some 25 per cent of the nations workforce, less green land and increased salinity threaten the viability of the sector and put increasing pressure on rural people to migrate to the cities, potentially causing social problems. Climate change is also imperiling the life of the river itself, harming fish stocks and threatening food security. A reliance on underground aquifers to fill the water deficit is not sustainable, and it can only supply a share of increasing needs. Meanwhile, rising temperatures linked to climate change are affecting the flow of the River Nile from its source in the Ethiopian Highlands. Reduced water flow reduces the electricity generated by the Aswan High Dam, which produces ten per cent of Egypts electricity. Should the level of Lake Nasser behind the Aswan High Dam, which now stands at 165 metres above sea level, reach 140 to 145 metres, the dams turbines will shut down. Given its ever-increasing population, Egypt has no near-term options other than retaining and increasing its utilisation of the water of the River Nile. THE GERD: The GERD has exacerbated Egyptian fears of reduced amounts of water reaching it through the River Nile. Some 85 per cent of the rivers water flows from the Ethiopian Highlands. The filling of the GERDs reservoir, estimated to hold some 74 billion m3 of water, will interrupt the flow of the Nile, shrinking the amount of water Egypt receives even further. In response to Egypts justified concerns over the building of the GERD, some have portrayed the country as a regional hegemon denying others the right to use the water of the River Nile while itself taking advantage of it. However, Egypts dependence on the River Nile makes its utilisation inescapable. Around 100 million Egyptians rely on the 55 billion m3 of Nile water guaranteed under the 1959 Treaty, while Ethiopia has access to 936 billion m3 of water on the Ethiopian Plateau alone. Moreover, Egypt is the final downstream country, and no other countrys access to the Nile Rivers water is placed in jeopardy as a result of Egypts development plans, especially since these have been coordinated with Sudan, the other downstream country. In order to demonstrate their commitment to the development of the Nile Basin, Egyptian companies have long occupied front seats in cooperation with the Democratic Republic of Congo in the building of the Inga Dam, with Tanzania in the building of the Nyerere Dam and with Uganda in the building of the Owen Dam after the completion of appropriate impact assessments. Claims of hegemonic Egyptian policies regarding the Nile are thus false and only reveal the malevolent intentions of those making them. In spite of a constrained national budget, the Egyptian government has embarked on a 20-year National Water Resource Plan that aims to promote water conservation, invest in alternative sources of drinking water and upgrade the countrys irrigation infrastructure. It has imposed restrictions on water-intensive crops and introduced new technologies to rationalise household consumption. Despite their huge cost, the government is also well on the way to completing 23 water-desalination stations in the coastal governorates in order to satisfy the increasing demand for water and to raise the efficiency of existing water-treatment plants to allow for its re-use. It has sponsored the employment of modern water-conserving irrigation techniques and expanded investment in greenhouses and fish farms to meet Egypts food security challenges. However, since 2014, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia have been locked in rounds of negotiations over the GERD. The three countries signed a Declaration of Principles in 2015 stipulating the need for the completion of incomplete studies on a dam [that was] already-in-progress and providing recourse to a mediator should the negotiations reach deadlock. After four months of negotiation, the Ethiopian government suspended its participation in the US and World Bank-mediated talks in Washington in February this year. Egypt, by contrast, engaged in a round of patient awareness-raising of the threat represented by the GERD among the Egyptian public. It initialed the proposed mediated agreement and requested the phased filling of the GERD reservoir in accordance with projected rainfall patterns and a coordination mechanism that would take droughts into account. But Ethiopias government has regarded the agreement as a breach of its sovereignty and assumed hegemony over the development of the Nile, while actively misleading its people. Egypts dependence on the Nile means that it must exhibit a constant and extraordinary preoccupation with the security of the river. The international community must also understand that Egypts quest to secure the Niles water is an existential matter that has nothing to do with any misguided notion that Egypt is somehow claiming hegemony over its development. No nation can stand idly by when its security is on the line or advance quietly on a path that could hinder its very existence. *A version of this article appears in print in the 4 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Jackson and two friends walked to a Walgreens parking lot to meet with two other people for what police think was a drug transaction, authorities said, but after Jackson and the friends got there, a man got out of a car and shot Jackson. The shooter then ran away and another man in the car drove off, according to police. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 11:30:00|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 2 (Xinhua) -- China's talented long jumper Shi Yuhao is hoping for a good result in Tokyo despite struggling to return to his best form since coming back from injury at the beginning of the year. Shi, 21, said the fact that the Tokyo Olympic Games were pushed back was a blessing in disguise for him as it would give him more time to return to his best. "It could be a good thing for me because I need more time to adjust. Now I need to focus on my new skills," said the 2018 Asian indoor champion. Shi was badly injured in 2018's Shanghai Diamond League event where he won a silver medal with a personal best of 8.43 meters. He underwent surgeries on his left foot and spent more than six months in rehabilitation. Since the injury, he is attempting to switch his take-off leg to his right. "I am still not used to it. After all I had been taking off with my left leg for a decade," he said. "My running speed is at 90 percent of my previous best but the level of jumping related indexes is not good enough. I hope I can return to competition as soon as possible," he said. "Hopefully I will sing the song of victory in Tokyo," he said in a caption of a video clip made by himself. Enditem Investors appear set to push the ASX slightly higher in early trade before the release of GDP figures which could all but confirm Australia's first recession in almost 30 years. The SPI 200 futures contract was higher by 31 points, or 0.5 per cent, at 5861 at 7am AEST on Wednesday, indicating a slight gain early. 1. Wall Street: US stocks posted gains overnight as market participants looked past widespread social unrest and pandemic worries to focus instead on easing lockdown restrictions and signs of economic recovery. Tech shares, along with cyclical stocks like industrials and financials, gave the biggest lift to all three major stock indexes. The Nasdaq, the S&P 500 and the Dow have been approaching their all-time closing highs in recent weeks and are now about 2 per cent, 9 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively, below record closing levels. 2. BP and BHP boost British market. British shares ended at almost three-month highs on Tuesday amid continued bets that government stimulus and easing lockdowns will help a swifter economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis.The blue-chip FTSE 100 added 0.9 per cent, ending at its highest levels since early March. It was propped up by resource heavyweights BP and BHP as commodity prices rose on the prospect of increased demand and - in the case of oil- more OPEC production cuts. This woman, photographed in February, fled Mali in 2012 and worked as an assistant midwife at a UNHCR-built health centre in Intikane, in Niger's Tahoua region. Now Intikane has come under attack. UNHCR/Boubacar Younoussa Siddo More than a thousand people a mix of refugees from Mali, displaced Niger nationals and local host communities are on the run following a brutal attack by irregular armed elements on a site in western Niger on Sunday afternoon which killed three people and wounded others. Over 50 armed men on motorbikes had swarmed into Intikane, Tahoua region some 72 kilometres from the Malian border targeted and killed two Malian refugee leaders and a local host community leader. The site hosts some 20,000 refugees and an additional 15,000 displaced Niger nationals. In addition to brutally killing the three men, the assailants torched food supplies and other aid items. They also destroyed mobile phone towers and the main water station and pipes, cutting communication and the water supply to the displaced population and host communities. Around 1,100 people have now arrived outside the town of Telemces, some 27 kilometres away from the attack site. They urgently need water, food and other assistance. National authorities and partners are on the ground, to receive and register them. See also: UNHCR outraged at killings of two refugees and one community member in Niger Sundays brutal assassinations shocked refugees, local communities and humanitarian workers. More attacks are now feared. Worsening insecurity in the region is driving people to look for safety to further inland in Niger. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, condemns the killings and call on all sides to respect civilian lives, bring those responsible to justice and make sure such heinous crimes do not repeat in the future. We are working with partners and local authorities to provide immediate assistance, especially trucking in water with other relief supplies, as people could die of thirst in the desert heat. Water is also needed to help fight COVID19. The past few months have seen a sharp increase in attacks in the Liptako Gourma region, where Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger share borders, forcing people living in the area to flee. Despite violent attacks and insecurity severely limiting humanitarian access to those in need of protection and assitance, UNHCR is stepping up its response in Niger, focusing especially on providing shelter, education and programmes to prevent and address sexual and gender-based violence. Niger also continues to demonstrate its commitment to protecting people fleeing violence. UNHCR renews its urgent call on warring parties in the Sahel to protect civilians, people forced to flee and communities hosting them, as civilians are bearing the brunt of increasing attacks in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. In the past couple of months, refugee camps in Burkina Faso have also been the target of attacks and incursion, forcing many to leave. For more information on this topic, please contact: Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 13:30:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Doctors with the Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University in east China's Jiangxi Province have used 3D printing technology to assist a cardiovascular surgery. They have successfully performed a transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) surgery on a 73-year-old male patient with the help of the technology. The doctors used 3D printing technology to simulate the surgery before making the final plan. The technology could also help doctors design more personalized treatment solutions. By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 06/02/2020 ADVERTISEMENT Robert and Anny ADVERTISEMENT Corey and Evelin ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Timothy and Jeniffer ADVERTISEMENT Pedro's sister Nicole and mom Lidia ADVERTISEMENT Abby ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. : Self-Quarantined featured Timothy Malcolm announcing he and Jeniffer Tarazona have broken up and are barely on speaking terms, Corey Rathgeber and Evelin Villegas on the outs after Evelin postponed their wedding and Corey was caught with another girl, Anny Francisco announcing she's pregnant with a baby girl, and Abby St. Germain introducing her husband Louis during Monday night's episode on TLC.As the title suggests, : Self-Quarantined gives viewers a glimpse into the lives of former franchise stars as they quarantine themselves at home amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.More than 40 cast members from the franchise's six-year history reportedly began recording themselves about two months ago as well as their interactions on the computer and video chat.Some couples are living and quarantining together, while others are still trying to make it work via long-distance.The seventh episode of : Self-Quarantined starred Robert and Anny and Robert Springs from 7; Corey and Evelin from : The Other Way; Timothy and Jeniffer from : Before the 90 Days' third season; Nicole Jimeno, who has appeared on Pedro Jimeno and Chantel Everett 's spinoffs as well as The Family Chantel; and Abby St. Germain from : Before the 90 Days' first season.Below is the latest on each former star or couple as shown on : Self-Quarantined.Robert, a 42-year-old from Winter Park, FL, was shown waking up in bed next to his wife Anny, a 31-year-old from Santiago, Dominican Republic, who is expecting their first child together. They had been married for nine months when this spin off filmed.Anny was hoping Robert would cook her breakfast, but Robert joked he wasn't her "servant."The couple had been quarantined with each other for about two months, and Robert was homeschooling his young son, Bryson. Robert noted Bryson didn't like learning at home because he missed his friends and teaching was a challenge."Now I understand why teachers should be paid a lot more money," Robert joked in a confessional.Robert was also still able to work as a Rideshare driver, but Anny feared her husband bringing coronavirus into their home. Robert told Anny he needed to work in order to make money, but he promised to be safe.Robert wore a mask as well as sunglasses, and he only drove people with the car windows down.Robert said there had been a lot of coronavirus cases in Florida, especially in Orange County where he lived. While driving and looking around, Robert realized what he was doing was dangerous, so he decided to just go home.Anny, Robert and Bryson were then shown going to Anny's doctor appointment to figure out the gender of their baby on the way. Anny said she was "so excited" to learn if she was going to have a baby girl or boy, but she feared getting sick in the doctor's office.Robert and Bryson had to wait in the car while Anny was inside, but she decided to have her doctor write the news in a letter so she could share the moment with her family.Anny and Robert then had a gender reveal with balloons at the park. Anny was hoping for a girl, while Bryson said he wanted a brother.In the park, Anny opened a giant gift box and pink girl balloons popped out."It's a baby girl! I am so happy! I'm gonna have a princess!" Anny yelled while jumping up and down.Robert, however, seemed a tad less enthused, saying "another Anny" was on the way -- "a primadonna."Bryson appeared disappointed at first but seemed excited about the idea of having a sibling in the house in general. Anny also shared sonogram images with viewers.Corey, a 33-year-old from Mill A, WA, was shown waking up in Engabao, Ecuador, in his "dog house" room because he and Evelin apparently weren't getting along.Corey said he and Evelin were still engaged."Back in November, after spending some time with my family in the U.S., I flew to Ecuador to see if Evelin still wanted to get married, and despite Evelin being reluctant about getting married, we chose to set a wedding date in March," Corey revealed."A few months before our wedding, Evelin tells me that she wants to go on a break. And I took that as we were completely broken up, and I freaked out and decided to go to Peru."Corey said he needed to leave Ecuador to renew his visa and he chose Peru because it was close and cheap, with good surfing.After one month apart, Corey said he returned to Ecuador to try to work things out with Evelin and by the time they filmed this spin off, they had been in quarantine with each other for two months.Evelin, a 28-year-old from Engabao, told the cameras she had found out Corey was hanging out with another girl during his time in Peru. She apparently found pictures of Corey with another woman and "went crazy, crazy on him."Evelin also found a woman's shampoo in Corey's bag, so she questioned where he had found it. Corey said he just took it from "a hostile or something" because it was left behind."The only reason he is here is because of the quarantine. If there was no quarantine or anything, he would be gone!" Evelin vented to the cameras.Corey said quarantine was "a blessing" because it was giving his relationship with Evelin "one more chance." Evelin, however, seemed totally annoyed with Corey, who told Evelin that he really wanted to be with her.Evelin asked why Corey was hanging out with another girl if he wanted to be with her, and Corey admitted, "I'm not going to lie to you Evelin, I did meet another girl. But do I want to be with anyone else other than you? No!"Corey realized when Evelin had asked for "a break," she just wanted space, and he blamed her for wanting the break right when they were planning their wedding."It was because you were pushing me too much!" Evelin argued. "You were saying, 'Oh, this is an ultimatum.' And you know I don't work good under pressure... Plus, you cannot blame all of this on me.""Some days, I think she's going to throw me off the balcony," Corey admitted. "But other days, I'm like, 'Okay, there's a chance. It's still there!"Evelin told Corey their problems weren't going to get resolved in one day.Despite their issues, the couple later drove into town together, which they were only allowed to do once a week. Evelin also said no one was allowed to leave their homes between 2PM and 5AM.There were collapsed hospitals in the cities, and Evelin said so many people had passed away due to coronavirus in the city and she was worried about her family.All restaurants and bars were closed, so Corey and Evelin had no source of income since they own and operate a Tiki bar on the beach together. Corey admitted the pair didn't have much left in their savings.Evelin and Corey got pulled over by a police officer on their way home, but luckily Evelin was on a list of people from the community. And once the pair returned their place, a dead body washed up onshore -- someone Evelin said "we all know."Corey and Evelin didn't know if the man just drowned or if his death was coronavirus-related, but Evelin admitted seeing the body was "terrifying." She was therefore glad Corey was with her in that moment."This is our one chance to make this work. This is putting me and Evelin's relationship at the ultimate test. Are we going to be together or are we not going to be together? If we can make it through this, I believe we can make it through anything," Corey said.Timothy was shown calling to see what she had to say. Tim, a 39-year-old from Charlotte, NC, met Jeniffer online in 2018."We were talking a lot and were possibly going to get engaged. I thought it was really serious. I visited her in Fall 2019, and that's the last time I ever saw her," Tim revealed."I haven't actually talked to Jeniffer in a couple of months, but I know things aren't great with the coronavirus situation in Colombia, so I think calling in to check on her is the right thing to do."Timothy said he and Jeniffer were planning to get Jeniffer a K-1 visa after participating in : Before the 90 Days' third-season reunion Tell-All special, but the paperwork was "expensive" to file."So I told her, you know, 'Jeniffer, give me some time. I just purchased this very expensive piece of equipment,' and then of course, to her, that was like, 'Oh, you care more about your business.' So that started a series of arguments," Timothy shared."Finally, I got to the point where I was just like, 'I don't even want you to come anymore.' And she didn't want to come anymore, so we stopped talking -- we were done."Timothy said he missed Jeniffer but not "the drama that came with [their] relationship."Timothy then met another Colombian woman in Charlotte of all places. Timothy said they were "dating" but he wasn't sure whether their romance was exclusive.Timothy has apparently been quarantining by himself amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but he still co-parents with Veronica, whom he had dated for nine years. During their relationship, the pair were engaged for seven years, but they never actually tied the knot."We started having problems and we split, but I've stayed over there a few nights, so at least I've gotten to still see my family," Timothy noted.Timothy admitted his biggest fear was that his sister would contract coronavirus because she's battling Stage 3 lung cancer. His sister was about to be released from the hospital, and Timothy noted he was very excited to see her.Timothy's brother struggled with their sister's diagnosis and chemotherapy treatments, especially since they couldn't visit her while she was in the hospital. Timothy's brother felt helpless.Timothy said he runs several businesses, including engraving and an online E-commerce company. He said he also taught himself how to gold plate watching YouTube videos and so he works seven days a week, 15-18 hours a day, including the time it takes to ship things.Timothy admitted he was really tired because he hadn't taken a day off since January.Timothy told the cameras a lot of people want to see him get back together with Veronica because they seem perfect for each other, but he said he looked at her more like a sister than a romantic interest -- and he assumed she felt the same way about him.Timothy co-parents Chloe, Veronica's 13-year-old daughter, whom Timothy said is "a great kid." Timothy explained he and Chloe have a great relationship although she didn't view him as being as cool as he used to be.Timothy said he and Veronica love Chloe to death and try to be the best parents possible, and he revealed some of the best memories of his life were from dating Veronica."I think what we have is beautiful, and I wouldn't want to change it. I feel blessed... to spend time as a family," Timothy shared. Pedro Jimeno 's sister Nicole, a 25-year-old from Dominican Republic, had been staying at a friend's apartment in New York but couldn't visit Pedro and Chantel Everett in Atlanta, GA, because of quarantine restrictions."I was only coming for one week and it's been five now," Nicole revealed, adding that her mother Lidia Morel was all alone in their home country with three dogs.Nicole said she missed her home, her dogs and her bed, and she admitted "nothing [was] easy" in New York and she was scared. She hoped life would return to normal soon.Meanwhile, in the Dominican Republic, Lidia showed footage of her empty house but said she was glad Nicole wasn't trying to travel since there's a strong outbreak of the virus in New York."The news is alarming," Lidia told the cameras. "It's a very hard time here."Lidia was then shown taking her three dogs -- Ricky, Pancho and Chiqui -- for a walk outdoors. No one was around except for stray dogs, who apparently try to attack Lidia's small dogs when she walks them.Lidia chatted with neighbors high from her windows and said she felt like she was in prison."I am distressed and a little desperate. Pedro is in Atlanta taking care of himself. Nicole is taking care of herself too, and I am all alone," Lidia vented.Lidia, however, was able to Zoom or Skype with her children, which must have brought her some relief. The kids felt bad for "abandoning" their mother, and then Lidia poked fun at Nicole for acting like a celebrity.Nicole insisted she never intended to leave her mother alone on purpose and she felt guilty when Pedro gave her a hard time about traveling to New York. Nicole said she never imagined cities would essentially shutdown due to coronavirus."Nicole always does whatever she wants," Lidia complained. "I hope she can come home soon."Abby, a 23-year-old from Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, currently lives in England.About three years ago, Abby was romantically involved with her then-fiance Sean Hiler, with whom she starred on : Before the 90 Days, but she said they didn't work out."It didn't last long. The more I was in the relationship, the more I realized we had no business being together. He was really jealous, which is a very unattractive trait," Abby told the camera."And also, he was kind of controlling, and I didn't like it. So in March 2018, I broke off the engagement. I'm so glad I broke up with Sean when I did, because now I have my Prince Charming, and I love him so much it's ridiculous."Abby's man is Louis, a 28-year-old from Chester, England. Louis had never been anywhere else but Chester and said he lived with his mother for 27 years, before meeting "the love of my life" and starting "a new chapter" in life.Abby was shown waking Louis up with a cup of coffee, but she put salt in it instead of sugar. Abby said she loved to tease Louis and have fun with and prank each other.It was Week 7 of quarantine for the couple, and Abby admitted she was going absolutely crazy.Abby admitted moving to England was hard because she's 4,000 miles away from her family and she knew she wouldn't see her mother for at least a year."Lou and I are married. We have been together for almost two years," Abby shared."We've been married for a few months. We only had a small wedding because my family couldn't make it. We are planning a bigger wedding for next year."Abby and Louis wanted to have a wedding with both of their families, especially since Abby revealed she hadn't seen her father and youngest brother since October 2019. The last time Abby had seen her mother was in late December.Louis and Abby were then shown visiting Louis' father to drop him off some goods, masks and hand sanitizer. Abby hadn't spend much time with Louis' father, so she couldn't say they were close."When Louis and I first met, his family wasn't really thrilled, and then when we got engaged, it was a lot worse. They didn't think my intentions were genuine," Abby revealed."I don't blame them, because if he was my son and he met some girl on the Internet, I would be a little bit concerned too. They definitely think we should have waited longer to get married... but we wanted to be together and we felt like we were ready."Abby said spending time with Louis' dad made her miss her family even more.All Abby could do was send money home to her family and check in with them via FaceTime on occasion.In order to cheer her up, Louis threw them a house party and turned their living room into a nightclub. Abby was so happy she had married a thoughtful man who always makes her smile.Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage! De Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo said the outbreaks of violence the previous two evenings - which left stores ransacked and police vehicles burned - gave them no choice to impose a curfew, even as they insisted they stood with the throngs of peaceful demonstrators who have spoken out for several days against police brutality and racial injustice. "We can't let violence undermine the message of this moment," de Blasio said in a statement. Cuomo blamed "people who are looking to distract and discredit" the protests and said they couldn't be allowed to undermine public safety. Police arrive at Macy's mall after it was broken into by people hours after a solidarity rally calling for justice over the death of George Floyd. Credit:AP The two leaders, both Democrats, said many more police officers would be deployed on Monday night. This comes as Cuomo condemned President Donald Trump's plan to deploy the military by force as "really, truly shameful". Loading Cuomo has not yet called in the National Guard, although it is on standby. Ive told mayors all across the state that I can call out the National Guard, he said. New York City should have enough personnel with the NYPD. Its one of the largest police forces in the country, and taxpayers pay a lot of money for the NYPD. I dont know that its a manpower, person-power issue. But if it is, we have National Guard, who are also trained to do this. Big crowds rallied in Times Square and Brooklyn on Monday afternoon and marched through the streets for hours. As in previous days, the demonstrations held in daylight hours were peaceful with officers mostly keeping their distance from marchers. A night-time march through Brooklyn was also peaceful, with limited action with police. But midtown Manhattan descended into chaos as night fell. Earlier in the day, one Times Square demonstrator, Giselle Francisco, considered the curfew necessary. "There are people who have ulterior motives and they're trying to hijack the message," the New Yorker said. Police Commissioner Dermot Shea expressed doubts earlier about whether a curfew would be heeded. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, a retired police captain whose borough has been a focal point for demonstrations and some damage, also had doubts. "There are real deep, legitimate wounds, and if we're not going to put the same level of energy into correcting those wounds as we're going to put into telling people not to come out at 11, then we're going to fail, and this is going to prolong the problem," said Adams, a Democrat. The New York City Liberties Union said it was "deeply problematic that our leaders are imposing a curfew and essentially silencing New Yorkers from expressing their outrage at the racism that permeates the nation". A man carries merchandise out of a store that was broken into in New York. Credit:AP After largely peaceful protests Sunday, groups of people poured down the sidewalks in Manhattan's chic Soho neighbourhood and other areas overnight, breaking into Rolex, Kate Spade and Prada boutiques and electronics stores. Hundreds of people were arrested. "People are doing this so next time, before they think about trying to kill another black person, they're going to be like, 'Damn, we don't want them out here doing this ... again'," New York City resident Sean Jones said as he watched the destruction. A 21-year-old man was shot in chic SoHo around 12.30am and was taken to a hospital with injuries that weren't life-threatening, police said. On Monday morning, police were visible on some of SoHo's hardest-hit streets as stores boarded up. "It's disturbing because I'm 100 per cent behind the protesters and against police brutality and bad cops killing people of colour whenever they fricking want to, but this is a different story," said Ruby Packard, a teacher and longtime SoHo resident. "There are people using this as a reason to create chaos and be violent." Sunday was the third night in a row of mainly peaceful daytime demonstrations, chaotic nights, hot spots of violence and arrests, with the mayor's daughter among those arrested over the weekend. Chiara de Blasio, 25, refused to leave a Manhattan street officers were clearing Saturday because people were throwing things. She was released with a court summons. Loading Her father said Monday she told him she'd behaved peacefully and believed she had followed police officers' instructions. Thousands of people have taken to the streets around the nation to express outrage over Floyd's May 25 death and other killings of black people, particularly by police. Floyd, who was black, died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee on his neck. On Sunday, some New York City police officers knelt with protesters. But officers have also clashed with demonstrators. Shea said the department is investigating officers' behaviour in about six confrontations, including one in which two police vehicles plowed through a group of protesters Saturday in Brooklyn. During Sunday night's demonstration, video posted to social media showed a police officer pulling a gun and pointing it at demonstrators on a debris-littered Manhattan street moments after a protester used an object to deliver a crushing blow to another officer's head a few metres away. "That officer should have his gun and badge taken away today," de Blasio said. "There will be an investigation immediately to determine the larger consequences." Cuomo said some officers had exacerbated tensions with some "very disturbing" actions. Police union president Patrick Lynch said Cuomo was "wrongly blaming the chaos on the cops". AP Tuoumne County Sheriff Bill Pooley View Photo Sonora, CA Tuolumne County Sheriff Bill Pooley is weighing in about Wednesdays planned protest in Sonora related to the death of George Floyd in Minnesota. The protest is planned for 1pm in the downtown area. Sheriff Pooley states, The Tuolumne County Sheriffs Office has received numerous inquiries from concerned community members regarding a planned protest in Downtown Sonora. We are aware of the protest and are in close communication with the Sonora Police Department. We respect everyones freedom to assemble peacefully to protest. Should you wish to participate in a protest in Tuolumne County, we will do all we can to ensure you have the ability to exercise your rights in a safe way. However, any criminal actions, including looting, vandalism, theft or violence will not be tolerated. The same right afforded to those who wish to assemble cannot infringe upon the rights of others. We ask that anyone who becomes aware of any behavior that results in the damage or destruction of property alert authorities immediately. To read an earlier story with a similar statement from Sonora Police Chief Turu VanderWiel, click here. To find a story about a Monday candlelight vigil in Sonora, click here. Azumah Nelson has confirmed that firebrand politician Kennedy Agyapongs narration about how he bought his first house was true. It can be recalled that politician and business tycoon Kennedy Agyapong, the first guest on the Y Leaderboard series in his submission, spoke about his early life in the USA as a taxi driver and Azumah Nelsons role in the very first house he (Kennedy Agyapong) bought in Ghana. When the host of the Myd Morning Radio Show (MMRS) on YFM, Rev Erskine, played back the interview with Kennedy Agyapong when he graced the maiden edition of the Y Leaderboard series as the first guest and asked Azumah Nelson if he remembers that incident, Azumah Nelson confirmed that indeed Kennedy Agyapong didnt lie at all. I remember this; he is not the first person I have helped. Whatever I can do to make you happy, I will gladly do it. I will do my best to put a smile on your face Azumah Nelson said. This is what Kennedy Agyapong said in his 1st May, interview with Rev. Erskine on the YLeaderboard series. Azumah came to fight, there was a liquor store on the 114 Lennox avenue." "Its called Fred Wines and liquor, it was for a Ghanaian. Most of the taxi drivers park there and rest when we are in Harlem. I went there and saw Azumah Nelson and his boss Mr. Asa and we started talking. I said to him I have money for my mother, they have thrown them from their house and I dont know how to get money for them." "The man looked at me and my age when I said I had saved up twenty-four thousand dollars ($ 24,000). I gave him sixteen thousand dollars ($16,000) initially. When you get to the ambassadorial enclave, the first street from that junction where you make a right turn to A&C mall, I connected water and electricity in 1998." "That was where Azumah Nelsons manager bought a house for my parents. He was very sincere and honest, it was a boys quarters, he got it for twenty-four thousand dollars ($ 24,000) because I told him I saved that amount and I sent him the remaining eight thousand ($8,000). I bought my first house in Ghana on April 17th, 1988 Kennedy Agyapong narrated. The Y Leaderboard Series is a segment on Myd Morning Radio show (MMRS) with the objective to develop the youth and provide inspiration to listeners by hosting leaders and achievers in various industries in Ghana and beyond. Source: etvghana.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Allan Stewart joined Tesco as CFO in 2014 Tesco's chief financial officer Alan Stewart is to leave his role next year after helping improve the supermarket's fortunes following a controversy that wiped billions of pounds off its value. Stewart announced he will step down on April 30, 2021, after spending seven years in his position. His departure will come seven months after chief executive Dave Lewis's intended departure this September. Mr Lewis described his colleague as 'an outstanding leader and partner at Tesco' who...'has made a huge contribution and on behalf of all of Tesco colleagues I would like to thank him for all he has done.' Both Lewis and Stewart joined in September 2014, the same month the company launched an investigation after realising it had overstated its profits by 250million. Four senior executives were suspended as a consequence. Since then, Stewart has helped oversee massive cost-cutting measures and the sale of numerous Tesco assets to help improve the FTSE 100 firm's finances. Sales have included the Blinbox on-demand video service, which later became TalkTalk TV Store, an 8.6 per cent stake in the e-commerce firm Lazada Group, and, lately, the agreed $10.6billion purchase of its Asian division by one of Thailand's richest families. In the first financial year for which Stewart worked at Tesco, the supermarket's losses amounted to a record 6.4billion, about three-quarters of which was attributed to the decline in the property value of its UK stores. Last year, turnover recovered to 64.8billion from while operating profits jumped 13.5 per cent to 2.9billion compared to the year before. Last year, turnover recovered to 64.8billion while operating profits jumped 13.5 per cent to 2.9billion compared to the year before. AJ Bell's investment director Russ Mould stated that Stewart was 'instrumental in repairing the damage wrought by an accounting scandal' and 'will depart with a lot of goodwill.' 'A finance director,' he added, 'like the referee of a sporting contest, is typically doing a good job if you dont notice them and Stewart fits the bill on this measure. Tesco's share price declined dramatically in 2014, but had remained relatively stable since 'The company is boasting a stronger balance sheet, a better pension position than when he started and has also regained investment grade status for its debt.' The grocer's share price was around 330p at the start of 2014, but due to the problems that soon engulfed them, its value had fallen in half by October. It has remained relatively stable though since those dark days, though far below its 2007 peak when its worth was nearly touching 500p. Chief Executive Dave Lewis was awarded 6.4million in pay after the board decided to alter the way it determines bonuses for senior supermarket executives Mr Stewart remarked: 'Being part of the team that has delivered the turnaround at Tesco and set it up for the next stage means an incredible amount to me. 'I shall continue to focus on delivering the strategy, supporting the business and my colleagues through the next 11 months, knowing that the business is in a strong position as we move forward.' More recent commercial concerns for Tesco have centred around the salary of its chief executive. Lewis was awarded 6.4million last year in earnings after Tesco's pay committee decided to alter the way it determines bonuses for senior supermarket executives, which are somewhat determined by the performance of rival grocers. It decided not to include Ocado as a supermarket competitor though, because, they argued, the online retailer had shifted too much towards being a technology-focused business. Ocado's sales have undergone a significant boost over the last few years. So by them not being counted as a challenger to Tesco, Lewis was able to receive a higher level of compensation. Tesco's share price was down 1.8 per cent by late morning to 227.7p. It is an irony not lost on those who have taken to the streets in the past few days that their demonstrations against police brutality have been met with even more police brutality. Across the United States, protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd and years of inaction over black people dying at the hands of law enforcement have served up a plethora of incidents that have appeared to reinforce the central justification behind the unrest. To name a few: In Atlanta, a video of two police officers using tasers to forcefully pull two black college students from a car as they drove home from a protest quickly went viral. In Philadelphia, police used batons to beat back protesters with their arms in the air. In Denver, police shot a pepper pellet at a mans face as they were leaving the scene of a protest. And in Louisville, Kentucky, on Sunday evening, police shot dead another black man local business owner David McAtee in what police said was "return fire" from a group of protesters. In perhaps the most symbolic incident of police violence since the protests began, one officer in Seattle was caught on camera kneeling on the neck of a suspected looter the very same action which led to Mr Floyds death. George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Show all 30 1 /30 George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Police spray mace at protestors to break up a gathering near the Minneapolis Police third precinct after a white police officer was caught on a bystander's video pressing his knee into the neck of African-American man George Floyd, who later died at a hospital, in Minneapolis Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester holds a sign with an image of George Floyd AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters demonstrate against the death of George Floyd AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester throws a piece of wood on a fire in the street just north of the 3rd Police Precinct Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets People in other US cities also protested the murder, like Los Angeles AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A police officer lobs a canister to break up crowds Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester is treated after inhaling tear gas Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Two police officers stand on the roof of the Third Police Precinct during a face off with a group of protesters Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters outside a Minneapolis police precinct two days after George Floyd died EPA George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters run from tear gas Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Demonstrators gather to protest in Los Angeles AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Police remove barricades set by protesters AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A fire burns inside of an Auto Zone store near the Third Police Precinct Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Flowers, signs and balloons are left near a makeshift memorial to George Floyd near the spot where he died AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A policeman faces a protester holding a placard in downtown Los Angeles AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A couple poses with a sign in Los Angeles AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets MINNEAPOLIS, MN - MAY 27: A man is tended to after sustaining an injury from a projectile shot by police outside the 3rd Police Precinct building on May 27, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Four Minneapolis police officers have been fired after a video taken by a bystander was posted on social media showing Floyd's neck being pinned to the ground by an officer as he repeatedly said, "I cant breathe". Floyd was later pronounced dead while in police custody after being transported to Hennepin County Medical Center. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) Stephen Maturen Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester reacts after inhaling tear gas Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty Images George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters use shopping carts as a barricade Getty Images George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters clash with the police as they demonstrate against the death of George Floyd AFP via Getty Images The response of US police to the protests prompted a damning statement from rights group Amnesty International, which accused law enforcement of endangering lives. US police across the country are failing their obligations under international law to respect and facilitate the right to peaceful protest, exacerbating a tense situation and endangering the lives of protesters, said Rachel Ward, National Director of Research at Amnesty International USA. In city after city, we are witnessing actions that could be considered unnecessary or excessive force. We call for an immediate end to any such use of force and for law enforcement to ensure and protect the legal right to protest, she added. New York, which has generally seen less looting than other hotspots, has also witnessed a number of incidents of police violence against apparently peaceful protesters. Recommended Brooklyn burns as protesters demand action over death of George Floyd One person who has been volunteering as a medic at protests told The Independent he was targeted by police during a demonstration in Brooklyn, despite wearing clear markings identifying himself as a medic. I was treating people coming away from the police. I had pulled someone to the side and we started running as the police charged us and I was tackled to the ground, said the volunteer, who wished to remain anonymous. The officer then grabbed a carton of milk the volunteer was carrying to treat protesters who might be exposed to tear gas. I said Im a medic. Im just here to give people aid. He said: You think youre gonna treat people with this milk? And he tried to unscrew the milk and pour it on my face and told me he was gonna drown me with it, they added. At a demonstration in another part of Brooklyn on Friday evening, one protester said the police were failing to listen. I think things have gotten worse, were not being listened to at all, Dia Soyer, a 22-year-old Brooklyn resident. The problem is the excessive force applied on black people and people of colour. We need police that care about us, we dont need this, she added, pointing towards an area where scuffles between police and protesters were ongoing. Journalists have also reported being caught up in police violence during the protest, despite being clearly marked and credentialed. Press Freedom Tracker, an organisation that catalogues press freedom violations in the United States, said it had recorded the same number of violations in the past three days as it had in the past year. Among the more than 100 violations it documented was the arrest of 19 journalists between 28 and 31 of May. In the same time, it said at least 36 journalists have reported being shot at by police with projectiles such as rubber bullets half of which were in Minnesota, where Mr Floyd was killed. It also recorded 76 assaults against journalists, 80 per cent of which were by police. Linda Tirado, a 37-year-old journalist from Nashville, was left blind in one eye after being struck with what she believed was a rubber bullet fired by police during protests in Minneapolis on Friday. Many critics of the police response to the protests point to the militarization of police forces across the country over the past few decades, much of which was achieved through transfers of military surpluses from the Pentagon. Between 1997 and 2014, the Department of Defense transferred some $4.3 billion in military equipment to local law enforcement agencies, including more than $1bn in tactical military equipment the kind of vehicles that would have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. Ms Ward, of Amnesty International, added in her statement that the use of heavy-duty riot gear and military-grade weapons and equipment to police largely peaceful demonstrations may intimidate protesters who are practising their right to peaceful assembly. These tactics can actually lead to an escalation in violence. Equipping officers in a manner more appropriate for a battlefield may put them in the mindset that confrontation and conflict are inevitable. The result of that transformation has been visible on US streets in the past week. Local law enforcement agencies in charge of responding to protests have looked more akin to occupying soldiers than police. Patrick Skinner, a former CIA officer who became a beat cop and later a detective in Savannah, Georgia, said the militarisation of local police had caused infinite grief and trouble. A sign that the militarisation of local police is a national cancer is that people are understandably confusing police officers for National Guard forces, he wrote on Twitter, in response to recent protests. We are not warriors because we must not be at war with our neighbours. We arent sheep dogs because our neighbours arent sheep. We arent Spartans or Punishers. We are fortunate neighbours in a position to help other neighbours. Thats it. Thats the trick, he added. The volunteer medic, who is currently facing charges after being arrested, said many of the clashes taking place at protests were the result of overbearing police actions to contain them. If the police werent there agitating, nothing would happen. The confrontation happens because the police are present. As a medic it has become difficult to remove people to safety. On Friday night I was carrying a semi-conscious person to safety. They wouldnt even let me pull them to the side. I could barely carry the person as they were battoning me. Authorities in some areas are taking action in response to police brutality during the protests: two police officers were fired over the incident in Atlanta, as was the chief of police in Louisville over the shooting. Hyderabad: The number of Osmania Medical College (OMC) students who have tested positive rose to eight on Saturday. This includes seven post-graduate doctors and a MBBS student. Two hundred PG students, 100 of them women, staying in the new hostel of the college are being tested for Covid 19. The sample collection is being done in the hostel premises. Senior doctors are not allowing the students to move out. They will be asked to stay put till they are cleared, sources said. Among those who tested positive are gynaecology PGs, three from the ENT department, a skin specialists and two from the surgery department. The students have mild symptoms and are under treatment at the King Koti Hospital, which is also designated for treatment of Covid-19. Other students on the OMC campus have been instructed to report to the office of the principal if they have symptoms of cough, cold and fever. Students have been requested not to hide their symptoms. The heads of departments are following up with Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences for postponing the exams scheduled on June 20. There is no clarity from the university and students are not sure if they can give exams during the crisis. Students groups are holding consultations and virtual meetings, insisting that the exams must be rescheduled. ST. LOUIS Four police officers were shot in downtown St. Louis early Tuesday as a day of peaceful protests turned into a violent and destructive night in the city. Hundreds of people had gathered across the St. Louis region Monday to protest the Memorial Day death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. A rally in O'Fallon, Missouri, drew upward of 2,000 people and featured marchers walking arm-in-arm with police officers. But tensions rose after the sun fell in downtown St. Louis. Just after midnight, four officers, all men, were shot near 16th and Olive streets. All four were conscious and authorities said their injuries were not thought to be life-threatening. "I believe some coward randomly shot at the police line," St. Louis police Chief John Hayden said. Hayden held a news conference about 1:45 a.m. and said two officers were shot in the leg, one was shot in the foot and one more was shot in the arm. An exasperated Hayden said he was trying to make sense of the night's "mayhem." "I don't know what else to say," Hayden said. "This is horrible." By 7 a.m. Tuesday, the faint smell of tear gas still hung in the air near where the officers where shot. On Tucker Boulevard, where businesses were looted, shell casings and bullets still littered the ground and piles of ash dotted the street where trash containers and other debris had been set ablaze. People were just beginning to come outside to begin another day of cleanup. Several other downtown businesses were damaged, including the 7-Eleven at 201 N. 17th St., which was looted and set afire about 9:30 p.m. St. Louis fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson said firefighters were slowed by protesters in responding to the fire at 7-Eleven. We had people lying down in the street, Jenkerson said, adding that trash cans were rolled into the street that became obstacles for fire trucks to maneuver around. The Campbell House Museum, at 1508 Locust Street, also had a small fire in the back of the building. Several stores on Tucker Boulevard and Washington Avenue were burglarized and vandalized, including Fresh Image, a frozen yogurt store, and Sprint and Boost stores. "We tried to be peaceful already and that didn't work," Dustin Johnson, a 20-year-old downtown resident, said shortly before midnight. Earlier protests Rallies in downtown St. Louis, Ferguson and O'Fallon were largely orderly. Traffic was temporarily disrupted on Interstate 64 (Highway 40) when protesters marched onto the highway from the Gateway Arch at rush hour. There were isolated cases of damage to sheriffs vehicles and broken building windows in St. Louis. Greg Turner said he traveled from Belleville to join the protest and advocate for changes to the way police are trained, hired and fired. The idea of a man being killed for no reason, for what was essentially a citation, and the ease with which he was killed thats a problem, Turner said. The 46-year-old Floyd died after a convenience store clerk called police about a customer who attempted to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. Several officers held Floyd down in an apparent effort to take him into custody and one knelt on his neck for more than five minutes. An autopsy determined asphyxiation was a cause of his death. Jennifer Lunceford of St. Louis came to the protest with friends because they were sick and tired of being sick and tired. But the decision to come made Lunceford uneasy, she said, because shed seen videos online of police firing tear gas at protesters in other parts of the country. Police also fired tear gas at protesters in Ferguson on Sunday night after fireworks and projectiles were thrown at police. Honestly, the whole police state needs to be reformed, she said. Kyla Stanley of St. Louis came to the protest with her brother Kylin and their friends. The white cops need to give us a chance to talk instead of targeting us like were the enemy, said Stanley, who is black. Its sad how white cops treat us. Were all humans. We should be treated with the same respect we give them ... they deserve every riot and every protest right now. Tom McKenzie said hes been involved in protests for 50 years, including those criticizing the Vietnam War. The problem is that the people in control are afraid of black people, McKenzie said. They want to keep their power and they will go to any length to keep it. They disregard (black peoples) humanity. Mayor Lyda Krewson said during a press briefing earlier Monday that the city will distribute masks to protesters, but it wasnt clear how many the city has available to give away. We cant stop thinking about COVID, Krewson said. We know that black and brown communities have been more devastated by COVID than white communities. We dont want these protests to contribute more to that tragedy. Krewson said while large gatherings may allow for the transmission of the coronavirus, she respects the peoples right to peacefully protest. We are listening, we are speaking with clergy, we are speaking with leaders of the protest groups and we will continue to do that, Krewson said. We recognize there are cultural changes that need to be made, but we dont condone any sort of violence or looting. We dont want people to get hurt. At 7:30 p.m., about 150 people gathered again in Ferguson for a We Hear You Hope rally. We are making our voices known as we stand in prayer, Jonathan Tremaine Thomas, of Civil Righteousness, a faith-based activist group, said through a bullhorn. Nonviolence and peace is still a weapon that cuts. ... It divides the anger from the truth. Another attendee, 26-year-old Ade Wuyi of Hazelwood, said, People wouldnt riot if people were held accountable. I want people to realize its lack of accountability. In OFallon, 17-year-old Jalen Thompson was one of the organizers of the march there. We were talking about going to a protest down in St. Louis, but wed have to convince our parents to let us go, and wed run the risk of things getting violent, Thompson said. Smaller cities need to do this. People feel its a hassle to speak up. Police Chief Tim Clothier locked arms and marched with protesters. The conduct of the officer in Minneapolis cannot be condoned, whether by police officers or by anyone else, Clothier said. Besides St. Louis, demonstrations also were held Monday in several other U.S. cities, including Minneapolis, Philadelphia and New York. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed an order activating additional National Guard forces and also directed Illinois State Police to provide hundreds more troopers to maintain public safety. We have to take care of our communities and our people, and for that reason we will continue to strategically deploy Illinois State Police and the National Guard as we work to protect Illinoisans and the First Amendment rights of peaceful protesters, Pritzker said in a statement. We cannot allow those who have taken advantage of this moment to loot and smash to also steal the voices of those peacefully expressing a need for real, meaningful change. The president of the University of Missouri, Mun Choi, said in a news release that the university had investigated a video that circulated on social media showing high school students laughing while they appear to be simulating the choking of one of them. Choi said one student is heard saying I cant breathe, which is what Floyd was heard saying in a video recording May 25 as a white officer pressed his knee into Floyds neck. One of the high school students was poised to enter the university as a freshman but has rescinded her enrollment in the wake of a firestorm of criticism, Choi said Monday. Photographers David Carson, Robert Cohen and Colter Peterson of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report. EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated to correct the address of Campbell House Museum. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Rachel Rice Follow Rachel Rice Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today Jesse Bogan Jesse Bogan is a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Jesse Bogan Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today New AI-based test uses X-rays to detect Covid in a few minutes Hospitalisations in Delhi during third Covid wave significantly lower than second COVID tally rises by 8,171 in India, 204 deaths reported India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, June 02: The novel coronavirus death toll rose to 5,598 in India on Tuesday with 204 more fatalities, while 8,171 new cases took the number of infections to over 1.98 lakh, the Health Ministry said. The active cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) climbed to 97,581 and as many as 95,526 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, according to the data. Around 48.07 per cent patients have recovered so far, a ministry official said. COVID-19: Maharashtra cases cross 70,000; death toll at 2,362 WHO says Sars-Cov-2 is still a killer virus, rejects 'losing potency' claim | Oneindia News With a total of 1,98,706 cases, India is now seventh among the worst-hit nations by the COVID-19 pandemic after the US, Brazil, Russia, the UK, Spain and Italy. Out of the 204 more deaths since Monday morning, 76 were in Maharashtra, 50 in Delhi, 25 in Gujarat and 11 in Tamil Nadu. Eight people each died of COVID-19 in West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, followed by six in Telangana, and four each in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. There were three more fatalities each in Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir, two in Andhra Pradesh, and one each in Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala and Uttarakhand. Maharashtra tops the list with 2,362 out of the total 5,598 deaths, followed by 1,063 in Gujarat, 523 in Delhi, 358 in Madhya Pradesh and 335 in West Bengal. There have been 217 coronavirus deaths so far in Uttar Pradesh, while 198 succumbed to the infection in Rajasthan, 184 in Tamil Nadu, 88 in Telangana and 64 in Andhra Pradesh. The toll reached 52 in Karnataka and 45 in Punjab, while 31 people died in Jammu and Kashmir and 24 in Bihar. Twenty-one people died from the pathogen in Haryana, followed by 10 in Kerala and seven in Odisha. There have been six COVID-19 fatalities in Uttarakhand, while five people each died in Himachal Pradesh and Jharkhand. Coronavirus outbreak: India records 8,171 new COVID-19 cases; Tally at 1.98 lakh Chandigarh and Assam registered four deaths each so far, while there has been a fatality each in Meghalaya and Chhattisgarh, according to the ministry data. More than 70 per cent of the deaths are due to comorbidities, it said. The highest numbers of confirmed cases are 70,013 from Maharashtra, followed 23,495 in by Tamil Nadu, 20,834 in Delhi and 17,200 in Gujarat. There are 8,980 cases of the contagion in Rajasthan, 8,283 in Madhya Pradesh and 8,075 in Uttar Pradesh. The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 5,772 in West Bengal, 3,926 in Bihar and 3,783 in Andhra Pradesh. A total of 3,408 people contracted the disease in Karnataka, followed by 2,792 in Telangana, 2,601 in Jammu and Kashmir, 2,356 in Haryana and 2,301 in Punjab. Odisha has registered 2,104 infections so far, while Assam has 1,390 and Kerala 1,326 cases. In Uttarakhand, 958 people have been infected so far, while there are 659 cases in Jharkhand, 547 in Chhattisgarh and 420 in Tripura. As many as 340 people have been afflicted with COVID-19 in Himachal Pradesh, followed by 294 in Chandigarh and 83 in Manipur. Ladakh has 77 cases of the deadly virus, while Puducherry has 74 and Goa 71 infections. Forty-three people have been infected with the coronavirus in Nagaland so far, followed by 33 in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 27 in Meghalaya and 22 in Arunachal Pradesh. Dadar and Nagar Haveli has three cases, while Mizoram and Sikkim have registered a case each till now. The ministry said 6,414 COVID-19 cases were being reassigned to states, adding that the figures were being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research. "State-wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation," it added. The FTSE 100 index closed up 0.87 per cent or 53.72 points to 6,220.14 this afternoon. Markets are broadly higher as more economies show signs of returning to normal amid the coronavirus pandemic. Wall Street saw an uptick despite widespread protests in the United States over the death of George Floyd. Tesco's chief financial officer Alan Stewart has decided to retire on April 30 next year. Stewart joined Tesco in 2014 shortly after an accounting scandal had been exposed and played a key part in its successful turnaround. Greeting card retailer Card Factory has said it was unable to give an outlook for the 2021 financial year and signalled it would reopen slowly, starting with 10 per cent of its stores around June 15. France's Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire says the French economy will contract by 11 per cent this year due to the coronavirus crisis and that more hard days lie ahead until things bounce back next year. WASHINGTON, June 1 (Xinhua) -- China's national security legislation for Hong Kong "reduces uncertainty by thwarting instability" for financial markets in the "Pearl of the Orient," said a renowned U.S. expert on China. "As far as threats that financial institutions will depart Hong Kong -- as some have suggested -- I think not," Robert Lawrence Kuhn, chairman of the Kuhn Foundation, told Xinhua recently via email. "Financial institutions seek financial returns, financial markets abhor uncertainty, and this new law reduces uncertainty by thwarting instability," Kuhn noted. The senior expert noted that it would be better to understand China's rationale by putting the national security legislation for Hong Kong in the context of the Chinese dream, a great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Kuhn said there are "two pillars" supporting this "Great Rejuvenation": one is economic development, increasing the Chinese people's living standards, as exemplified this year by the eradication of all extreme poverty, a remarkable accomplishment. The other pillar is national sovereignty, which is an essential element of national pride, he noted, adding "Hong Kong's disruptions have been a sore in the side of this pillar, and China's leadership has determined that this sore must be healed. The move has the overwhelming support of the Chinese people." The Chinese central government wants to "expand Hong Kong, not constrain it," especially as core of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development plan to build a world-class mega-region, the U.S. scholar said. Accordingly, he said, the central government will "defer to Hong Kong as much as possible and as long as possible," but there are "three red lines that cannot be crossed" -- movement toward "Hong Kong independence," using Hong Kong to undermine the mainland's political system, and unending chaos which would threaten Hong Kong's economic viability. On Thursday, Chinese lawmakers voted overwhelmingly at the third session of the 13th National People's Congress, the top legislature, to approve a decision on establishing and improving the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to safeguard national security. Mask-clad worshippers flocked to Saudi mosques that reopened nationwide Sunday -- except in the holy city of Mecca a- over two months after congregational prayers were halted under a coronavirus-triggered lockdown. Complying with stringent social distancing rules, worshippers kept a minimum of two metres apart. They had been instructed to bring their own prayer mats and to perform the cleansing ritual, or ablution, at home, instead of in mosque grounds. "Worshippers rushed to the home of God to perform their obligatory duty (prayers) after the reopening of mosques," the ministry of Islamic affairs said on Twitter. The ministry posted a video showing a mosque with many worshippers wearing face masks and reaching out for a large bottle of hand sanitiser after prayers. Authorities have instructed mosques to avoid crowding and the distribution of food, drinks, incense and miswak twigs used to clean teeth, according to the ministry. But some complained that worshippers were not strictly complying with the rules. "I prayed, praise be to God, in the neighbourhood mosque... and it was a beautiful feeling," said one Twitter user. "But I swear to God that some people do not care about anything. No face mask. No rug." - Easing curbs - Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest sites, had shut down mosques nationwide for more than two months to limit the spread of the COVID-19 respiratory disease. The kingdom, which has reported the highest number of coronavirus cases in the Gulf, is emerging from a full nationwide curfew imposed during Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. Domestic air traffic also resumed on Sunday, with state media saying around 100 flights were scheduled. The interior ministry intends to ease restrictions in a phased manner, with the curfew lifted nationwide a- except in Mecca -- between 6:00am and 8:00pm (0300 GMT and 1700 GMT) until June 20. The kingdom will lift the lockdown entirely from June 21, Mecca aside. In Mecca, a virus hotspot, the curfew will be lifted between 6:00am and 3:00pm until June 20, and thereafter the curfew will be shortened by a further five hours. Saudi Arabia has reported more than 85,000 coronavirus infections and 503 deaths from COVID-19. In March, it suspended the year-round "umrah" pilgrimage over fears of the disease spreading in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. That suspension will remain in place until further notice, the interior ministry said. Authorities are yet to announce whether they will proceed with this year's hajj -- scheduled for late July -- but they have urged Muslims to temporarily defer preparations for the annual pilgrimage. Last year, some 2.5 million faithful travelled to Saudi Arabia from around the world to participate in the hajj, which Muslims are obliged to perform at least once during their lifetime. Mecca's Grand Mosque has been almost devoid of worshippers since March, with an eerie emptiness surrounding the sacred Kaaba -- the large cube-shaped structure towards which Muslims around the world pray. But mosque employees and security personnel have been allowed to attend prayers. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has adjusted timelines for reversals and resolution of refund complaints on electronic channels. A statement by the CBN Director of Corporate Communications, Isaac Okorafor, said the new directive takes effect from June. The CBN said the adjustment on failed Automated Teller Machine (ATM) transactions, when customers used their cards on their bank ATMs, would now be instantly reversed from the current timelines of three days. According to the statement, where instant reversal failed due to any technical issue or system glitch, the timeline for manual reversal should not exceed 24 hours. The statement explained further that refund for failed Not on us ATM transaction, where customers used their cards on other banks ATMs, should not exceed 48 hours from the current three to five days. Mr Okoroafor said resolution of disputed and failed POS or Web transactions should be concluded within 72 hours from the current five days. The statement added that the new directive is aimed at further enhancing service quality and hasten quick refunds when customers experience failed transactions, dispense error or dispute. READ ALSO: Members of the public are therefore requested to refer to the updated guidelines for the operation of electronic payment channels on the banks website www.cbn.gov.ng for further details, the statement said. All banks are directed to resolve backlog of ATM, POS and web customer refunds within two weeks, the CBN said. Additionally, key service providers in Nigerian financial system have also committed to establishing integrated dispute resolution platform for the industry and enhance their payment system infrastructure to reduce incidences of transaction failure, the apex bank added. What might restaurants be like as they reopen? Relaxing pandemic restrictions has triggered speculation about how restaurants will be changed when they reopen. Reduced capacity? Distancing? Masks? Plexiglas? Wiping, wiping? These may be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to dining in health and safety. Restaurant owners already intensified compliance with existing regulations out of concern for patrons and staff which often includes family. The stakes are high, in more ways than one. There will likely be few new regulations other than physical distancing and reduced capacity requirements. The path forward will be more one of guidelines and good judgment. With this in mind, Restaurants Canada (RC) is a rich resource for restaurateurs, providing detailed Reopening Guides. Founded in 1944 as a national association to speak on behalf of restaurants and their challenges, its advocacy role during the pandemic has become paramount and, in a phone chat, James Rilett, vice-president for Central Canada, says that all things considered, governments have been pretty responsive in addressing RCs concerns though rent issues persist. Pre-vaccine, diners may simply trust a favourite eatery or select one that addresses their coronavirus concerns striking a bargain. The owner promises space, staff and food adhering to a safety plan and the diner promises good behaviour. Diplomacy skills may be called upon to manage differing views on safety as the experience unfolds. Restaurants may adapt differently, but none will reopen looking and functioning the same as when they closed. Touch and space (physical and air) will be the focus. Reservations may be used to ensure gaps between arrivals. The host, perhaps behind Plexiglas, may quiz guests about symptoms and take their temperature. Via a clear pathway, guests will make their way to their table. Sitting at a bar is fraught with distancing challenges. Concerns about touch, crowding and staff/guest movement could spell the end of buffets and self-serve stations. Alternatives to buffets might come in the form of ordering from a (sterilized) tablet with the server delivering the item a practice some already use. Will menus be laminated/sterilized? Single-use? Viewed on the diners device? Ordered ahead? Will there be no more asking servers what theyd recommend? No more, Ill have what shes having? Menus may be more limited perhaps more prix fixe. Diners will have to trust that plates and cutlery have been sterilized, and touch-free may translate to guests filling their own water/wine glasses. The tabletop may be minimalist with nothing that might have been touched by previous diners. Until and unless larger groups are permitted, there may be only two to four people per table with a space where the server can place/pass a dish rather than leaning in between diners. Guidelines do not suggest food be covered, but the drama of removing a cloche to reveal a dish might be fun. Theres a good chance people will be dining with those in their social bubble(s). The days of business lunches on corporate credit cards may be gone for a while. The boom in takeout suggests acceptance of food safety in the kitchen. The use of gloves has never been considered optimal food safety, since they may not be changed often enough to ensure they are free from contaminants. While their use seems to persist as a symbol of safety, far better that hands are washed/sterilized frequently perhaps in full view of diners. Despite the limited effectiveness of non-medical masks, front-of-house staff may wear them perhaps with branded, funky designs. Clear face shields also have some appeal. Who will be sharing the dining space and for how long? Guests may be on a continuum from cavalier to hypercautious, and some may feel more comfortable in an environment that is subdued/gentrified vs. youthfully exuberant. A touchless payment (no cash) may conclude the dining experience be it short or long. How long begs questions about viral load. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth immunologist Dr. Erin Bromage refers to the contagion rule Successful Infection = Exposure to Virus x Time. Mild exposure for extended periods can be as problematic as intense, short exposure from a cough/sneeze. Writes Bromage, Any environment that is enclosed, with poor air circulation and high density of people, spells trouble infection events were indoors, with people closely-spaced, with lots of talking, singing, or yelling. Thus, ventilation has become the latest consideration. Scientists like Bromage and Dr. Jeff Farber, director at the Canadian Research Institute for Food Safety at the University of Guelph, point to one (pre-distancing) restaurant incident where the airflow from vents circulated the virus, infecting diners seated downwind at the next table. Plexiglas and other barriers between tables may be helpful. Since the best ventilation is fresh air, many restaurants hope to reopen during patio season. Award-winning Dispatch Restaurant in St. Catharines, owned by Chef Adam Hynam-Smith and wife Tamara Jensen, while having no precise reopening plans once permitted, is an example of a setting that seems well-suited to offering open spaces and ventilation. Their unrivalled global cuisine is now accessible via their Pantry project delivering prepared foods, produce, beverages and many more tantalizing offerings. The epilogue? No ones suggesting social isolation after dining out, but noting post-dining contacts might be advisable in the event that were scooped up in contact tracing. Complex? Perhaps, but we are social creatures, experiencing isolation fatigue, craving normalcy and eager to support the success of restaurants we love. Dining out will be for healthy diners and it will be a personal decision. To be an informed decision, the restaurant must clearly communicate their new practices. Variables will be the diners threshold for risk tolerance and their risk management judgment. Geography is also a factor. Currently, there are some provinces, regions and cities that have had few cases and no deaths. The goal of passionate restaurateurs is for guests to feel comfortable, to enjoy. Health and safety issues are practical but also emotional. In the New York Times, Danny Meyer (owner of 19 NYC restaurants) said, Ive always believed hospitality is the antidote to fear. We can only hope. Meanwhile, there are even larger questions about the future of restaurants. More on that soon. Dispatch Restaurant 386 St. Paul St., St. Catharines, dispatchrestaurant.com/ Restaurants Canada restaurantscanada.org/ CHEYENNE, Wyo., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Avanti Financial Group, Inc. today announced the closing of its angel round of funding, which positions Avanti to achieve required milestones in its process of applying for a bank charter. The round was led by the University of Wyoming Foundation with participation from Morgan Creek Digital, Blockchain Capital, Digital Currency Group, Lemniscap, Madison Paige Ventures, Malex Enterprises, Susan B. Anthony, LLC and others, including Gary Gigot and other individual supporters of the cryptocurrency and fintech industries. "We are building critical infrastructure for the digital asset industry at Avanti, and the magnitude and mix of our support underscore that multiple camps want to see this infrastructure built," said Caitlin Long, founder and chief executive officer. "Our round was significantly oversubscribed just from incoming inquiries alone, and I'm especially proud of the broad support Avanti received from Wyoming-based organizations and individuals." Philip Treick, Chief Investment Officer of the University of Wyoming Foundation, said "The Investment Committee voted to invest in Avanti because we see significant growth potential for digital assets, we see an acute need for institutional-quality infrastructure to support this new asset class, and we believe in the ability of Caitlin's team to deliver it. UW has already benefited significantly from cryptocurrency donations but we have faced real logistical challenges in accepting them. We are confident Avanti can simplify and streamline the process for donors making it easier to raise even more money to support UW's blockchain efforts, including our WyoHackathon, which have already gained UW worldwide recognition. We are also pleased to support a high-profile economic development initiative for the State of Wyoming." The University of Wyoming Foundation's Investment Committee engaged attorneys at Fairfield & Woods P.C. to represent it and other angel round investors, and designated Mr. Treick to fill its seat on Avanti's board of directors. About Avanti: Avanti Financial Group, Inc. is a Wyoming corporation formed to apply for a bank charter pursuant to Wyoming's special-purpose depository institution ("SPDI") laws. Based in Cheyenne, WY, it will likely do business under the name "Avanti Bank & Trust." Avanti expects to serve as a compliant bridge to the U.S. dollar payments system and a custodian of digital assets that can meet the strictest level of institutional custody standards. Avanti will be required to fully comply with all applicable laws and regulations, including federal "know your customer," anti-money laundering and related laws and regulations. Avanti will also comply with Wyoming's SPDI and digital asset laws, which include requirements that fiat deposits be 100% reserved and that Avanti meet the strictest consumer protections in the digital asset industry. 2020 Avanti Financial Group, Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. For information please contact: [email protected] SOURCE Avanti Financial Group Nine Williams College Seniors Win Fellowships to Study at Cambridge and Oxford WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. Williams College has announced the winners of the Dr. Herchel Smith Fellowship for graduate study at Cambridge Universitys Emmanuel College, the Martin-Wilson Fellowship for graduate study at Worcester College at Oxford University, and the Donovan-Moody Fellowship for graduate study at Exeter College at Oxford University. The seven seniors awarded the Herchel Smith Fellowship are Tania Calle, Nicholas Goldrosen, Grace Kromm, Jake Rinaldi, Crispin Jay (CJ) Salapare, Suiyi Tang and Meklit Tesfaye. Joseph Moore was awarded the Martin-Wilson Fellowship, and Emmie Hine was awarded the Donovan-Moody Fellowship. Calle, a political science major from Corona, Queens, N.Y., plans to pursue an M.Phil. in public health and public policy. Aiming to further her understanding of the social and ecological framework of health while also building her epidemiological, statistical, and ethnographic skill set, she intends to study the relationship between the adoption of restrictive immigration policy measures and immigrant communities wellbeing. At Williams, she was the chair of Vista, the Latinx student organization, and the Coalition for Immigrant Student Advancement. She also participated in College Council, was a member of the Berkshire Doula Project, and was a dancer/choreographer for Ritmo Latino. In 2019, she was awarded the Harry S. Truman Scholarship. Goldrosen, a mathematics and political science major from Brooklyn, N.Y., will pursue an M.Phil. in criminological research. He is particularly interested in researching the effectiveness of police oversight organizations at improving public perceptions of law enforcement via procedural justice. At Williams, he was active with the student newspaper and served as editor in a variety of capacities, including editor-in-chief. He also was co-president of the Junior Advisor Advisory Board and student chair of the Honor and Discipline Committee. As the recipient of two summer research fellowships, he examined the administration of justice in county courthouses across the United States, as well as privately-run juvenile alternative sentencing programs in Berkshire County. Hine, a Chinese and computer science major from Chicago, Ill., plans to complete an M.Sc. in social sciences of the internet. With an interest in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) governance, she studied at the Williams-Exeter Programme at Oxford during her junior year, where she conducted research at the universitys Centre for the Governance of AI. At Williams, she served on the Computer Science Student Advisory Committee and was a Chinese teaching assistant. In summer 2017, she attended the Harvard Beijing Academy, and she has completed internships in cybersecurity and information technology at Chicago-based companies Braintree and Beam Suntory, respectively. Kromm, a chemistry and psychology major from Winchester, Mass., will pursue a Ph.D. in clinical neurosciences. With an interest in studying the relationship between sleep architecture, functional brain connectivity, and neurodevelopmental outcomes in vulnerable infants, she aims to study under the direction of neonatologist Topun Austin, co-director of neoLAB, a collaboration between the Cambridge Centre for Perinatal Neuroscience and the Biomedical Optics Research Laboratory at University College London. At Williams, she was a peer tutor, lab teaching assistant, and research assistant in the chemistry department. She is currently a neuroscience thesis student in the Carter Lab, where she studies mouse feeding behavior using optogenetics. Moore, a comparative literature major from Kunkletown, Pa., plans to pursue an M.Sc. in social anthropology, and then an M.St. in comparative literature and critical translation. Expanding on his senior thesis at Williams, which examines how the work of Jean Genet and Roberto Bolano use comparison to frame global political issues, he aims to research the way in which many international political discourses, like that of human rights, take shape through different kinds of implicit and explicit comparison across national contexts. The recipient of numerous honors and awards, he has also written creative pieces for Adbusters as well as political articles and op-eds for Jacobin Magazine, The Berkshire Eagle, and The Williams Record. Rinaldi, a Chinese and political science major from Cheshire, Conn., will pursue a Ph.D. in politics and international studies. Conducting research in Chinese as well as attending the Harvard Beijing Academy, he plans to write a thesis on U.S.China relations. At Williams, he is a teaching assistant, editor of the Williams Foreign Affairs Journal, and member of the Honor and Disciplinary Committee and Phi Beta Kappa. During his junior year, he studied at Peking University through a scholarship from the Chinese Ministry of Education. While an undergraduate, he completed internships at the U.S. Embassy in Singapore, Baker Mckenzie and Fangda Partners in Beijing, and Teneo in New York City. Salapare, an art history major from Long Beach, Calif., plans to pursue an M.Phil in arts education and an M.Phil in the history of art and architecture, aiming to explore arts relationships to its formal, discursive, and institutional spaces. At Williams, he has been involved with the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA), the Williams-Exeter Programme at Oxford, and the Class of 1960s Scholars in Art. He has also completed internships at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Getty Research Institute, and the Clark Art Institute, among others. In addition, he was a guest curator at the Museum of Latin American Art and at WCMA, where he organized an exhibition using the 125 artworks loaned to students every semester as part of the museum's WALLS program. Tang, an American studies and comparative literature major from Millbrae, Calif., will pursue an M.Phil. in gender studies and an M.Phil English criticism and culture. With an interest in critical race theory and posthumanism, she intends to conduct extensive research on the figure of the yellow woman within contemporary Southeast Asian and British speculative literature. A published author whose essays and cultural criticisms have appeared in The Offing and The Poetry Project Newsletter, among others, her first book, an experimental novel titled American Symphony: Other White Lies, was published in 2019. At Williams, she was a teaching assistant in the American studies department, a Public Humanities Fellow, a co-chair of the Minority Coalition, and a member of the movement for Asian American studies. Tesfaye, an anthropology major from Jacksonville, Fla., will pursue an M.Phil. in health, medicine, and society and an M.Phil. in African studies. With an interest in migrant health studies, she will explore how emigration and internal displacement act as social determinants of health among displaced East African populations. In addition, she will examine the structural, cultural, and geopolitical aspects of this issue. As a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow and an anthropology senior honors thesis candidate, she has been conducting ethnographic research on the chronic illness experiences of Ethiopian immigrant women. She has worked with immigrant community-based organizations such as the Ethiopian Community Development Council and Marys Center for Maternal and Child Care in Washington, D.C. Ciena Corporation CIEN is scheduled to report second-quarter fiscal 2020 results (ended Apr 30, 2020) on Jun 4, before the opening bell. In the last reported quarter, the company delivered a positive earnings surprise of 36.8%, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 14 cents. Despite uncertainties related to the COVID-19 pandemic, this Hanover, MD-based networking systems, services and software company is expected to have recorded higher aggregate revenues on a year-over-year basis. The performance is likely to have been supported by Cienas diversification across customer segments and regions combined with its technology leadership, including the 5th-generation 800-gig WaveLogic modem technology. Lets discuss the factors that are likely to get reflected in the upcoming quarterly announcement. Factors at Play During the quarter under review, Ciena added several new products and capabilities to its 5G Network Solutions aimed at reducing network complexity and fueling operators migration from 4G to 5G. The Europe India Gateway submarine cable system was upgraded to accelerate connectivity between businesses in Europe, the Middle East and India, using Cienas submarine network solution. The cable was modernized with Cienas GeoMesh solution, powered by WaveLogic Ai coherent optics. Using Cienas WaveLogic 5 Extreme and flexible grid technology, Comcast conducted the worlds first long-distance 600Gbps single wavelength pilot deployment. Ciena and Arista completed an interoperability test of the industrys most dense and spectrally-efficient 400GbE transport solution with the highest density native 400GbE router. Cienas performance is likely to have benefited from these developments in the to-be-reported quarter. Eletronet, one of the largest IP transit providers in Brazil, deployed intelligent automation software from Blue Planet to help manage its Internet Protocol network more efficiently. Blue Planet, a division of Ciena, provides market-leading intelligent automation software and specialized professional services to help clients modernize their IT and network operations. Tasmanian Networks Pty Limited (TasNetworks), an electricity transmission and distribution network provider, selected Cienas coherent optical solutions to address rising bandwidth requirements driven by IoT, 5G and data center services. For the fiscal second quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for total revenues is pegged at $888 million that indicates a rise of 2.7% from the year-ago quarters reported figure. Adjusted earnings per share are pegged at 50 cents, which calls for a growth of 4.2% from the prior-year quarters recorded figure. What Our Model Says Our proven model doesnt conclusively predict an earnings beat for Ciena this time around. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat. But thats not the case here. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter. Earnings ESP: Cienas Earnings ESP, which represents the difference between the Most Accurate Estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate, is -2.88% as the former is pegged at 49 cents and the latter at 50 cents. Ciena Corporation Price and EPS Surprise Story continues Ciena Corporation Price and EPS Surprise Ciena Corporation price-eps-surprise | Ciena Corporation Quote Zacks Rank: Ciena currently carries a Zacks Rank #2. Stocks to Consider Here are some companies that you may want to consider as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter. The J. M. Smucker Company SJM is slated to release fourth-quarter fiscal 2020 results on Jun 4. It has an Earnings ESP of +4.33% and a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Navistar International Corporation NAV is scheduled to release second-quarter fiscal 2020 results on Jun 4. The company has an Earnings ESP of +10.70% and a Zacks Rank #3. Chewy, Inc. CHWY has an Earnings ESP of +100.00% and a Zacks Rank of 2. The company is set to report first-quarter fiscal 2020 results on Jun 9. 5 Stocks to Soar Past the Pandemic: In addition to the companies you learned about above, we invite you to learn about 5 cutting-edge stocks that could skyrocket from the exponential increase in demand for stay at home technologies. This could be one of the biggest buying opportunities of the decade. See the 5 high-tech stocks now>> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Navistar International Corporation (NAV) : Free Stock Analysis Report Ciena Corporation (CIEN) : Free Stock Analysis Report The J. M. Smucker Company (SJM) : Free Stock Analysis Report Chewy Inc. (CHWY) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research FLINT, MI--A Black Lives Matter advisory council is being created for the Flint Police Department. The council is one of six actions city leaders are taking to stop police brutality, according to Flint officials. Mayor Sheldon Neeley announced the actions at a June 1 protest at City Hall for George Floyd, a black man killed recently in Minneapolis in police custody. Floyds death has prompted dozens of protests across the nation, some of which have turned violent. Neeley and others spoke at the third peaceful protest held in Flint for Floyd. The mayor is creating a coalition of black mayors to address issues of statewide systemic racism. Meanwhile, Flint Police Chief Phil Hart is instituting Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation training for the citys police department. Hart said the training will focus on diversity and healing. The police chief wants the input of people outside of his department who live and work in Flint. Hart was angered by what happened to Floyd. He said the departments role is to protect and defend. It breaks my heart. I got into this to help people. I dont know how you can turn your back on people who need help," Hart said. Organizers call for seat at the table with police during second night of protests in Flint Hart said he doesnt understand why only one officer was arrested for Floyds murder. The police chief said the charging of the arresting officer is not good enough. If three people are in a car involved with a shooting, all three people are arrested. So why doesnt that work this way? Hart said. I dont know if under any circumstance that its OK to put your knee on someones neck like that. Its not acceptable to treat a person that way." The Flint City Council is considering a resolution to denounce the use of illegal restraint methods, like kneeling on someones neck, and create zero-tolerance for their use. The council will also consider a resolution to declare racism a public health crisis. These resolutions are being considered at a Monday, June 1 general meeting. Flint-area police join protesters marching to seek justice for George Floyd Hart said there needs to be more diversity on the police force not only for it to be representative for the city but also for their different viewpoints. If you have a force where everyone looks like me, chances are their backgrounds are going to be like mine, said Hart, who is white. The city is also drafting a new ordinance forbidding bias crime reporting, which would make it illegal for anyone to report a crime because of the color of someones skin made them nervous. The council will have to pass the ordinance. We all witnessed in the death of George Floyd a horrible reminder that we have much more work to do in this country. It is incumbent on all of us to do more and push harder for racial justice, Neeley said. The mayor worked with legal staff, the Flint Police Department and members of the city council to create these actions. Neeley said he began drafting the actions on Friday and worked on them throughout the weekend. I am proud to join in Flints peaceful protests and to continue working every day (toward) unity in our community, Neeley said. Read more: Detroit police clash with protesters in third night of George Floyd police brutality demonstrations Downtown Grand Rapids quiet under curfew after night of rioting Protests turn aggressive again in US Sunday, stores robbed in daylight, amid calls to end police violence MLive photographer among journalists fired upon with pellets by Detroit police officer during protest coverage Banking regulators have spent months investigating Jeffrey Epsteins dealings with Deutsche Bank, which lent money to the disgraced financier and held dozens of accounts for him until shortly before he died, according to four people briefed on the matter but not authorized to speak publicly. The investigation by the New York Department of Financial Services, which has not been previously reported, could result in an enforcement action against Deutsche Bank as soon as this month, before the first anniversary of Mr. Epsteins arrest on federal sex-trafficking charges, the people said. Mr. Epstein was arrested on July 6 and died in federal custody in August; his death was ruled a suicide. The investigation focuses, at least in part, on the banks decision to continue doing business with Mr. Epstein even after employees raised concerns, according to the people. Compliance officers in the banks anti-money-laundering operation alerted the federal government to several transactions in which Mr. Epstein sent money overseas in 2015, while employees worried about the reputational risks of doing business with a registered sex offender. Ultimately, senior bank executives opted to maintain the relationship with Mr. Epstein because it was so lucrative. In addition to setting up dozens of accounts for Mr. Epstein, Deutsche Bank served as his lender from 2013 until last year, even as other banks considered him off-limits. Deutsche Bank began extricating itself from its relationship with Mr. Epstein in late 2018, after a series of articles in The Miami Herald examined the secret nonprosecution agreement federal prosecutors reached with him in 2007. Deutsche Bank told Mr. Epstein he had six months to move his money out of the bank. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 23:12:04|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Prosecutors in Beijing have approved the arrest of a COVID-19 patient who was accused of concealing the illness upon entering China from the United States in March. Surnamed Li, the woman is a Chinese national living in the United States with her family. According to the People's Procuratorate of Beijing Municipality on Tuesday, Li started to develop fever and other symptoms on March 1 in the United States. She made several visits to local hospitals for treatment, during which one of her colleagues was diagnosed with COVID-19. The prosecutors said Li, along with her husband and son, took Air China flight CA988 and arrived in Beijing on March 13. Before boarding the plane, Li took medication to keep body temperature normal. She did not declare her symptoms to flight attendants. Li was tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival, while her husband was diagnosed with the disease on March 16. More than 60 people who came in close contact with them on the flight were put under quarantine. Prosecutors said Li was arrested for impairing the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. To deal with imported COVID-19 cases, the Beijing Capital International Airport on March 10 designated Zone D of Terminal 3 a special zone for inbound flights. All passengers arriving on such flights are required to fill health declaration cards and put under quarantine. Enditem The queen mother for Ashaiman Central Market in the Greater Accra Region, Leticia Ayabah, has appealed to health authorities to shut down places operated by prostitutes as part of measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. According to her, the many people the prostitutes come into contact with could hamper the government's fight against the spread of the coronavirus. The queen mother made the appeal when the National Caterers Association, under the auspices of the Ministry of Gender & Social Protection, in collaboration with the Ashaiman Municipal Assembly (AshMA) held a sensitisation programme for traders at the Ashaiman Central Market. The government must ensure the closure of prostitute dens in the country. A lot of men are seen patronising prostitutes at the dens and this is very dangerous and can impede governments efforts against the spread of coronavirus, she said. I think we need to suspend dating, fornication until we are able to defeat the coronavirus in the country. Most people have multiple partners and they visit each other frequently and this could easily spread the disease since you might not know who is a carrier of the virus, Mrs. Ayabah added. The Greater Accra Coordinator for National School Feeding Programme, Christiana Lovely Nkansah, reiterated the significance of observing social distancing and all other protocols to stop the spread of COVID-19. citinewsroom Health experts have warned that a major factor in the spread of COVID-19 involves those whove been infected by the coronavirus but never showed symptoms so-called asymptomatic carriers. Now, the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District has partnered with UT Health San Antonio and the San Antonio Fire Department to measure their prevalence in Bexar County. The study started Monday and will involve sampling about 500 households, enabling local health experts to see how big a role asymptomatic residents play in the transmission of COVID-19. It will use SAFDs Mobile Integrated Healthcare Program, which provides non-emergency services in neighborhoods. Anita Kurian, Metro Healths assistant director, is leading the study along with Dr. Barbara Taylor, UT Health San Antonio associate professor of infectious diseases. Officials hope to see results by early August. This is crucial data and it will help us measure the impact of our public health efforts now and guide our COVID-19 response moving forward, Kurian said. On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio couple honors sons life during the pandemic Nationally, estimates of asymptomatic people have ranged from 25 percent to 50 percent. Kurian said local testing so far shows about 6 percent of people who have been tested in Bexar County are asymptomatic. But that doesnt count those living in congregant settings, such as jails and nursing homes, where that rate is much higher, she said. Of 259 inmates at the Bexar County jail who were positive and presumably contagious, 222 reported that they did not feel sick. At the Southeast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, where the virus was the cause or a factor in the deaths of at least 18 residents, 56 of 74 residents who tested positive showed no signs of illness. In addition to asymptomatic people, there are those who are presymptomatic they wont show symptoms for up to a week or 10 days after getting infected. On ExpressNews.com: Coronavirus surges in the jail A better understanding of these two groups will help city leaders, health care providers and the public at large in Bexar County make informed decisions when it comes to halting the spread of the virus, Taylor said. We are excited by this new research partnership with Metro Health, she said. Our students will be integrally involved in this study as members of household testing survey teams. To conduct the study, 10 teams with two members each will contact more than 500 households selected at random, roughly 50 in each of the 10 City Council districts, Kurian said. In each household, one person will be selected for testing. The program is voluntary and each household must meet certain criteria. Study participants must be over 18, have never tested positive for COVID-19 and must currently have no symptoms. No one living in the home can have a confirmed or suspected infection. For those who test positive but have no symptoms, there will be a follow-up 10 days later, Kurian said. If they dont develop symptoms in that time, they will be counted as recovered and asymptomatic carriers. Those who tested positive and went on to develop symptoms within the 10 days will be categorized as presymptomatic. Information gathered will be confidential and used only for the study, officials said. Metro Health has already significantly expanded testing for COVID-19 to include anyone who wants to be tested, even if they're not showing any symptoms. Dawn Emerick, Metro Health director, has emphasized that, since the rates of asymptomatic or presymptomatic prevalence in San Antonio are unknown, its critical for residents to continue wearing masks and practicing social distancing. Kurian said knowing the prevalence of asymptomatic carriers will help in the battle against COVID. This is the silent threat, which makes our job of controlling the virus difficult, she said. Melissa Fletcher Stoeltje is a general assignment reporter covering breaking news, cultural trends and interesting people and goings-on around San Antonio and Bexar County, as well as all across South Texas. To read more from Melissa , become a subscriber. mstoeltje@express-news.net | Twitter: @mstoeltje highway Shutterstock Michigan is requiring auto-insurance companies to give refunds or reduce premiums for customers during the coronavirus pandemic. With fewer drivers on the road, companies have a reduced risk of claims. Companies including State Farm, USAA, Allstate, and Geico have given refunds to millions of policyholders over the past several months. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Owning a car in Michigan just got a little bit cheaper. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services are requiring auto insurance companies to give refunds or reduce premiums for residents because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report by WXYZ-TV. More drivers are staying off the roads during the pandemic, meaning the chance of accidents is reduced. Since insurance companies are less likely to have to cover customers' accidents because of the decrease in driving rates, Whitmer and DIFS saw it fit to give residents some financial relief. "This order will ensure all insurers are issuing appropriate refunds or premium waivers to their customers," Anita Fox, DIFS director said. "Consumers may realize additional savings by modifying their policies to reflect their current driving habits. Drivers should contact their agent to discuss garaging a car or making other changes to save on their premiums." Many insurance companies, such as USAA, Chubb, Allstate, Geico, Liberty Mutual, have already given financial relief to customers, some as early as March. State Farm, the country's largest car insurer, returned $2 billion to customers on 40 million vehicles, according to MarketWatch. But by June 10, insurance companies must submit all filings for refunds or premium reductions for Michigan residents detailing how customers will receive refunds and how the amount was decided. You can submit questions or disputes to DIFS by calling 833-ASK-DIFS (275-3437), Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can also send emails to autoinsurance@michigan.gov. Read the original article on Business Insider English French ATOS SE launches an employee shareholding plan for 2020 Paris, June 2, 2020 - Atos SE announces the launch of the employee shareholding plan entitled Share 2020 under the framework of article L. 225-138-1 of the French Commercial Code (Code de commerce) and articles L. 3332-18 et seq. of the French Labor Code (Code du travail). The objective of this plan is to strengthen the Groups relationship with its employees by offering them the possibility of being more closely associated with the Groups future performance. This offering of shares will be made to all employees of the Group located in France, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hong-Kong, Hungary, India, Italy, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Senegal, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United State of America and Uruguay, who will be eligible for the Atos Group savings plan (Plan dEpargne Groupe PEG ), subject to obtaining the required authorization from local authorities. The subscription period will take place from June 3, 2020 to June 19, 2020 (inclusive). The settlement-delivery of the shares shall occur as of July 31, 2020. The terms and conditions of the transaction are described hereafter. DETAILS OF THE TRANSACTION ISSUER ATOS SE European company Share capital of EUROS 109 214 914 Registered office located at River Ouest 80 quai Voltaire, 95870 Bezons 323 623 603 RCS PONTOISE Euronext Paris (France) compartment A Common Share ISIN code: FR0000051732 Security registered with the Service de Reglement Differe (SRD) PURPOSE OF THE OFFERING REASONS FOR THE OFFERING Pursuant to the authorization granted by the Combined General Shareholders Meeting held on April 30, 2019 under the 20th resolution, the Board of Directors of Atos SE decided on March 26, 2020 to issue shares reserved for employees under the framework of article L. 225-138-1 of the French Commercial Code (Code de commerce) and articles L. 3332-18 et seq. of the French Labor Code (Code du travail). OFFERED SECURITIES Pursuant to the authorization granted by the Combined General Shareholders Meeting held on April 30, 2019 under the 20th resolution, the Board of Directors of Atos SE decided on the principle of a capital increase of the Company, up to 2% of the share capital on the day of the Combined General Shareholders Meeting of April 30, 2019, for the benefit of employees of Atos SE and of the group companies affiliated with Atos SE pursuant to Article L. 225-180 of the French Commercial Code and Article L. 3344-1 of the French Labor Code who are members of the Atos Group savings plan, and delegated to the Chief Executive Officer the power to set the subscription price by applying a 25% discount to the reference price. On May 29, 2020, the Chief Executive Officer set the subscription price to EUROS 48.45. This subscription price is equal to 75% of the reference price (the average of the opening share price of Atos SE on Euronext Paris during the twenty trading days preceding this date), or in other terms, the reference price with a discount of 25%. The newly created Atos SE shares will carry entitlement, as from January 1st, 2020. CONDITIONS OF THE SUBSCRIPTION Beneficiaries of the share offering reserved for employees: the beneficiaries of the offering are employees of companies in the offering perimeter that are members of the PEG, regardless of the nature of their employment contract subject to a minimum period of employment. Pre-retirees and retirees in France who became members of the PEG before retirement remain beneficiaries and may carry on payments subject to having held assets in the PEG. Companies in the employee offering perimeter: Atos SE (European Company), with a share capital of EUROS 109 214 914 with its registered office located at River Ouest 80 quai Voltaire, 95870 Bezons; and Companies with their registered offices in France, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hong-Kong, Hungary, India, Italy, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Senegal, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United State of America, and Uruguay which are part of the accounting consolidation perimeter of Atos SE pursuant to section L. 233-16 of the French Commercial Code and that have become members of the PEG, subject to having received the local authorizations in some of these countries. Does a preferential subscription right in case of capital increase exist: this offering does not include a preferential subscription right. Terms and conditions of the subscription: the shares will be subscribed through an employee shareholding fund (FCPE). However, by exception, in Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Serbia and United States of America, the shares will be subscribed directly. Matching contribution: the subscriptions will award a matching contribution up to a cap of two Atos SE shares. Voting rights: the voting rights of the holders of the FCPE units shall be exercised during the General Shareholders Meetings of Atos SE by the FCPE Supervisory Board or directly by the subscribing employees in the countries where the shares are subscribed directly. Subscription cap: the beneficiaries annual payments shall not exceed, in accordance with article L. 3332-10 of the French Labor Code, one-fourth of their gross annual remuneration. Lock-up period applicable to the Atos SE shares: the subscribers shall hold their units of the FCPE until July 31, 2025, except in the occurrence of an early release event. INDICATIVE TIMELINE OF THE OFFERING The subscription period for the employees: June 3, 2020 to June 19, 2020 (inclusive). Settlement-delivery of the shares: July 31, 2020. LISTING The admission of the newly-issued Atos SE shares to trading on Euronext Paris (ISIN code: FR0000051732) is scheduled to occur as of July 31, 2020. SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING THE INTERNATIONAL OFFERING This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation for the purchase of Atos SE shares. The offering of Atos SE shares reserved for employees will be conducted only in countries where such an offering has been registered with the competent local authorities and/or following the approval of a prospectus by the competent local authorities or under an exemption of the requirement to prepare a prospectus or register the offering. In particular, in the United States of America, the shares have not been and will not be registered under the Securities Act of 1933. More generally, the offering will only be conducted in countries where all required filing procedures and/or notifications have been completed and the required authorizations have been obtained. This press release and its copies are not aimed for, and therefore should not be sent to, countries in which such prospectus would not have been approved or where such an exemption is not available or in which any required filing procedures and/or notifications would not have yet been made, or in which the required authorizations would not have been obtained. EMPLOYEE CONTACT The beneficiaries may address all questions regarding this offering to the contact person specified in the documentation related to the subscription that has been made available to the employees. Contacts Press contact: Sylvie Raybaud: +33 6 95 91 96 71 sylvie.raybaud@atos.net Investor relations: Gilles Arditti: +33 1 73 26 00 66 gilles.arditti@atos.net About Atos Atos is a global leader in digital transformation with 110,000 employees in 73 countries and annual revenue of 12 billion. European number one in Cloud, Cybersecurity and High-Performance Computing, the Group provides end-to-end Orchestrated Hybrid Cloud, Big Data, Business Applications and Digital Workplace solutions. The Group is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic & Paralympic Games and operates under the brands Atos, Atos|Syntel, and Unify. Atos is a SE (Societas Europaea), listed on the CAC40 Paris stock index. The purpose of Atos is to help design the future of the information space. Its expertise and services support the development of knowledge, education and research in a multicultural approach and contribute to the development of scientific and technological excellence. Across the world, the Group enables its customers and employees, and members of societies at large to live, work and develop sustainably, in a safe and secure information space. Attachment Bahrain's National Health Regulatory Authority (NHRA) said that it has issued a list of Type 2 diabetes medicines (containing Metformin) that are free or within acceptable limits of carcinogenic impurity N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA). Based on lab analysis results declared in the SFDA announcement on May 29, NHRA said that the following registered diabetes medicines in Bahrain containing Metformin are free from the carcinogenic impurity N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) or within the acceptable limits for daily consumption: Actosmet 15/850MG 56, Glucophage 500MG 50, Janumet 1000/50MG 56, Kombiglyze XR 5/500MG 30, Kombiglyze XR 5/1000MG 30, Kombiglyze XR 2.5/1000MG 60, Omformin 500MG 20, Omformin 500MG 1000, Synjardy 5/850MG - 60 Synjardy 5/1000MG 60, Synjardy 12.5/850MG 60, Synjardy 12.5/1000MG 60, Xigduo XR 5/500MG - 30 Xigduo XR 5/1000MG 60, Xigduo XR 10/500MG - 30 and Xigduo XR 10/1000MG - 30, a Bahrain News Agency report said. The NHRA added that it gave pharmaceutical companies a 72-hour grace period to have the laboratory results of other drugs not included on the published list checked and prove their safety. The list, posted on the NHRA website and Instagram account, will be updated accordingly, NHRA said. In its statement, the NHRA advised all health care professionals neither to prescribe nor to dispense any medicine containing Metformin not mentioned on the list. NHRA said it has suspended and prohibited the importation of all other Metformin containing medicines until it finalises the investigations to make sure that the rest of these medicines are free from the carcinogenic impurity (NDMA) or within the acceptable limits for daily consumption. Patients are urged to check whether their medications are included on the list of permitted drugs and to consult with their doctors if they are not mentioned, the NHRA said. File image: Reuters/Danish Siddiqui India is far away from the peak of COVID-19 spread and its preventive measures have been "very effective", putting it in a much better position in comparison with other countries, the Centre said on June 2, even as the case count and death toll continued to soar. Addressing a press conference on the COVID-19 situation, Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said it is wrong to just look at the total number of cases and state that India has the seventh highest number of cases as the population of countries also should be taken into account. "Our COVID-19 fatality rate of 2.82 percent and amongst the lowest in the world, compared to a global fatality rate of 6.13 percent. We have been able to achieve this due to timely identification of cases and proper clinical management," Agarwal said. Here are all the latest updates: >> Even as the Centre eased restrictions under 'Unlock 1', the total number of confirmed positive cases in India breached the two lakh mark, as per Worldometer. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show >> The government approved emergency use of remdesivir drug to treat COVID-19 patients, reports have indicated. >> The Ministry of Home Affairs eased visa, travel restrictions for foreigners coming to India. >> IndiGo airline operator InterGlobe Aviation posted a net loss at Rs 870.8 crore for the quarter ended March 2020, partly affected by a shutdown of operations due to the coronavirus-driven lockdown. >> Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched the 'Delhi Corona' app to give info about bed availability in hospitals. >> Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India will definitely get its economic growth back. The prime minister was addressing the annual session of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). >> Tripura reported as many as 102 new COVID-19 cases as state's total rose to 423. Were in the midst of a painful and necessary moment of reckoning in America. Its a conversation sprawling out into our streets and parks, our houses of worship and places of business, our neighborhoods and even our homes. The interior design industry, existing as it does in somewhat rarefied air, is often sheltered from difficult conversations about racial injusticebut it shouldnt be. It has long been clear that people of color have been underrepresented in our industry. It was true before the death of George Floyd ignited a firestorm of protest, and it is a subject that deserves attention no matter what the national headlines are. But now is certainly a good time to reflect on the things we can do to make our industry more diverse, more equitable and more beautiful. Heres a small way to start: Support Black-owned businesses. Wed love to grow this list, so if you know of a company we should add, drop us a line. 54Kibo Born in Ghana, raised in South Africa and now living in New York, Nana Quagraine created 54Kibo when she realized how underrepresented African designers and artisans were in the global market. Specializing in contemporary African design, 54Kibo sells a wide range of product, from lighting and furniture to skin care and candy. Accent Touch Based in Atlanta, Isabelle Domkam runs this line of unique pillows, accessories and Juju Hats, headdresses made from raffia and feathers that are traditionally worn in ceremonies in Cameroon, where Domkams family is from. An Orange Moon This Chicago shop specializes in vintage mid century modern and Danish pieces ranging from furniture to lighting to textiles and accessories. AphroChic The Brooklynbased husband-and-wife team of Jeanine Hays and Bryan Mason founded AphroChic in 2007 as a blog before expanding the business into a full-blown lifestyle brand. In addition to its recently-launched magazine, AphroChic explores modern design that highlights African American culture, creativity and arts. Atelier 55 British-born and of Zimbabwean descent, Tapiwa Matsinde was raised and educated across both countries. While working as a graphic designer in Zimbabwe, Matsinde was amazed by the beauty of the craft that she saw around herso in 2010 she founded Atelier 55 as an online marketplace for a curated collection of contemporary African design. BLK MKT Vintage Nestled in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, BLK MKT Vintage takes a curated approach to vintage wears, focusing on the Black cultural experience. Products range from furniture and wall hangings to kitschier finds like VHS copies of Sister Act and old Pepsi ads. Bole Road Textiles Ethiopian-born and Brooklyn-based, Hana Getachew started Bole Road Textiles out of a desire to merge her love of Ethiopian handwoven fabrics with her career in interior design. Getachews designs are an homage to her cultural inheritance and a reflection of her own personal global modern aesthetic. Breegan Jane Based in Los Angeles, interior designer, entrepreneur, author, lifestyle expert and philanthropist Breegan Jane is a lifelong partner of World Visionproceeds from her online jewelry sales help combat the horrific realities of genital mutilation in young girls in Kenya. Clare This direct-to-consumer paint company was founded by interior designer Nicole Gibbons in an effort to reimagine the paint shopping experience. Clares curated hues feature fun, of-the-moment names like Avocado Toast and No Filter and are delivered straight to your door. Domain Catonsville, Marylandbased designer Laura Hodges is the owner of Domain, a carefully-curated brick-and-mortar home decor store with a shoppable website. Don't Sleep Interiors Founded with the intention of combining interior decor with culture from the African diaspora and social and political consciousness, Dont Sleep Interiors features pillows, art and gifts. Dressing Rooms Interiors Studio In addition to its interior design offerings, Dressing Rooms Interiors has a shop online feature where its array of pillows, vintage furniture and other decorative objects are available for purchase. Of course, those in the Charlotte, North Carolina are welcome to book a private shopping appointment (in light of COVID-19). Eclectic Home Run by New Orleans-based mother/daughter design duo Penny Francis and Casi St. Julian, Eclectic Home features bold and one-of-a-kind furniture, accessories, textiles and gifts. Elle Gibson Designs Atlantabased wallpaper and textile designer Elle Gibson creates globally-inspired products for the home in addition to her staging services. Gibsons fabrics and wallpapers are made-to-order and made in the U.S. using cotton, linen and fine-coated paper. Eva Sonaike Eva Sonaike is a London-based interiors company specializing in luxury home textiles and soft furnishings with a distinctive and vibrant West African aesthetic. Expedition Subsahara Expedition Subsahara has a powerful mission: to start a science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics school for young girls in Senegal. Through the sales of handmade baskets, jewelry and other goods, 20 percent goes directly to an education fund for the school. Faux Floral Design Co. Ohio-based Shanika Tylers elegant arrangements of silk flowers offer a long-lasting alternative to cut blooms. Premade bouquets are available on Tylers e-commerce shop, or commission a custom creation for homes, offices or the holidays. GLOBAL ATTIC Founded by Kabria Cummings in 2016, Global Attic is a carefully-curated marketplace full of African-inspired items collected from Cummingss travels, as well as pieces that shes designed. Dexter and Byron Peart Celia Spenard-Ko Goodee After selling their stake in luxury brand WANT Les Essentiels in 2017, twin brothers Byron and Dexter Peart founded Goodee, an e-commerce platform that promises to connect conscious consumers with ethical makers, last year. As Byron told BOH, Discovering and supporting intentional brands has always been a passion of ours. This platform connects an ecosystem of makers to consumers looking to make better choices. Johanna Howard Home A native of Sweden, Howard brings Scandinavian design principles to her line of textiles, Johanna Howard Home, which are largely made of alpaca wool from Peru. JOMO FURNITURE Created by Springfield, Virginiabased furniture designer Jomo Tariku, Jomo Furniture incorporates a deep appreciation for African art and culture into his designs. Justina Blakeney for Valdese Weavers Courtesy of Justina Blakeney JUNGALOW Run by interior designer turned product designer Justina Blakeney, Jungalow is a lifestyle brand that features bohemian-inspired furniture, decor, art, apparel and more. Blakeney also has a number of collaborations with brands ranging from Loloi Rugs to Granada Tile to Fabricut and even Band-Aid, meaning there is no shortage of ways to support her brand. Kintsugi Candle Co. Allison Jones founded Kintsugi Candle Co. after experiencing the power of aromatherapy after an emergency brain tumor removal surgery in 2018. Jones began making candles because she believes that scents and essential oils possess the power to transform and elevate the mind and spirit. Livvy & Neva Created by New Yorkbased interior designer Keita Turner, Livvy & Neva is a line of bespoke and limited-edition decorative pillows, imaginatively designed from excellent-condition or never-used vintage textiles and new contemporary fabrics. Malene Barnett Artist and activist Malene Barnett tackles many mediums, from sculptural ceramic tiles and vessels to mixed media paintings to handwoven rugs, infusing her African heritage with each. Barnett also founded the Black Artists + Designers Guild, an organization that aims to provide members with increased visibility and opportunities. Marie Burgos Design Collection Interior designer Marie Burgos has an independent collection of bold lighting, furniture and decorative accessories. Infused with inspiration from her native Paris, Burgoss designs invoke a simple luxury and often have an ethereal quality. Mitchell Black Mitchell Black is a Chicagobased brand that specializes in wall art, wallcoverings, wallpaper, textiles and flooring. Modish Decor Pillows Chantal Bradley founded this line of accent pillows in 2015 and has since expanded to include dinnerware and candles. Nicole Crowder Upholstery Independent furniture designer and upholster Nicole Crowder creates custom pieces for residential and commercial clients in addition to creating small design collections that she sells in her Washington, D.C., studio. Nikki Chu Home After a successful start to her interior design career, Nikki Chu launched a home essentials line made up of bedding, pillows, rugs, throws, paint, wall art and decorative accents. Oskar Torres On top of his interiors practice, designer Oskar Torres founded the Antique Textiles Galleries Home Collection back in 2012, most recently expanding his online tastemaking to home decor platforms Chairish and 1stdibs. Peace & Riot Achuziam Maha-Sanchez and her husband Lionel Sanchez opened Peace & Riot as a shop that could showcase their eclectic, global tastes and their African-Caribbean heritage. From hand-carved salt and pepper grinders to accent tables and armchairs, this Brooklyn boutique touches all corners of home decor. Rochelle Porter Design Atlanta-based lifestyle brand Rochelle Porter Design specializes in vibrant, eco-friendly home decor and fashion textiles. In her own words, Porter aims to design the flyest possible products while doing the least possible harm. Ron Nicole After leaving Philadelphia, artist Ronni Nicole opted for a slower, pastoral lifestyleher floral fossils are works of art that preserve fresh flowers to create one-of-a-kind pieces. Sabai's sectional sofa is designed with sustainability in mind Courtesy of Sabai Sabai Direct-to-consumer sofa brand Sabai isnt the average furniture companyits sofas are sustainably designed and flat-packed, with environmental consciousness driving every facet of their design process. Sheila Bridges Design New Yorkbased interior designer Sheila Bridges was inspired by traditional French toile to create Harlem Toile du Juoy, an updated motif that reflects the day-to-day life of her neighborhood. The print has now been featured in The Studio Museum in Harlem, the Museum of Arts and Design, and as far afield as the Musee de la Toile de Jouy in France, and it is in the permanent wallpaper collection at The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Tackussanu Senegal Founded in 2019, this brand works with female artisans in rural Senegal to create traditional handmade baskets. xNasozi Traditional and timeworn textiles and techniques are the foundation of this Brooklyn furniture and decor brand created by Nasozi Kakembo, who left a career in social justice to focus on her passion for textiles. Yael & Valerie Fabrics Made in small factories in Haiti, this brand sells wallpaper and fabric by the yard, in addition to home accessories and furniture, that are inspired by the women of the Carribean and scenes from life on the island. Yowie Founded by Shannon Maldonado, Yowie is a curated home decor and lifestyle shop based in Philadelphia focused on spotlighting small collections from independent artists, designers and makers. For recommendations from various industries, Shoppe Black has a great list of resources. Homepage photo: A scene from Justina Blakeney's collaboration with Loloi Rugs | Courtesy of Justina Blakeney Bazaar Corporate Radar | Feb 22, 2021, 12:00 AM IST Bazaar Corporate Radar Bazaar Corporate Radar is your window into the minds of top CEOs, Boardrooms, global economists, fund managers and sector analysts. If it?s making news, you?ll find it on Bazaar Corporate Radar. Police had not tallied the number of arrests late Monday but said they filled at least two city buses. Kanger said two protesters who were arrested were illegally carrying firearms. Overall, Kanger said the dialogue seemed productive. "To my knowledge, there was no violence, no property damage, and the majority of the people complied with the mayor's order," Kanger said. Preston Love, an activist in North Omaha, said leaders of Omaha's black community and others spent much of the day Monday crafting a unified statement in response to Kleine's decision not to file charges in Scurlock's death. Kleine said Gardner acted in self-defense. Love said the statement would be forthcoming. In the meantime, he called upon anyone with video or other evidence to bring it forward. The investigation remains open, Love noted. "We want people to come forward," he said. "The community needs to realize that they may have evidence to have this case dealt with like it should." Love also said that outsiders who have come to Omaha to cause violence should leave. 02.06.2020 LISTEN Alfred Frimpong, Publicist of Ghanaian Hiplife Musician Okomfour Kwadee has revealed that the musician has been taken to a health facility in Kumasi to test for the novel Coronavirus and Malaria. Speaking in an interview with Andy Dosty on Hitz FM about the current state of the musician whom many have alleged to have gone mad, he indicated that he saw a disturbing picture of the musician online which made him very worried. "He was okay until I saw his recent picture online, I have not seen him personally but when I spoke to the lady who is with him, she said they have taken him to the hospital to test for Covid-19 and Malaria before they take him back to the rehab," Alfred told Andy Dosty Alfred Frimpong lamented that Kwadee is a bipolar person which was triggered by drugs but has been off medication for a very long time. Upon that, he said he quickly contacted Okomfours caretaker whose name he gave as Madam Abena to verify what is actually happening. According to him, the last time he met the musician was when he was with the CEO of Ohenemedia, Abraham Ohene Djan, and both of them can testify that he was healthy and fine. Alfred Frimpong also revealed that Kwadee expressed his wish to release a lot of songs and videos that he had in his music box. A situation that often happens in urban areas is people walking around and staring at their phones while walking around. It causes people to bump into each other, and sometimes it causes a car accident. Officials of Yamato city, which you can find near Tokyo, submitted a bill on June 1 to the city assembly. The bill aims to stop pedestrians from walking while they use their phones. A city official stated for almost a decade, the number of people with smartphones has been increasing gradually, leading to more accidents in the populated parts of the city. Explanation Of The Ban On Walking While Using A Phone The city official said that the city's government wanted to prevent accidents from happening. He stated that if the bill were passed, then it would be the first type of its ban in Japan. According to the city official, there won't be a punishment for people that can't bear to stop staring at the screens of their phones while walking in the streets. Hopefully, the ban will raise awareness about how dangerous it is to be walking around unattentive of your surroundings. There will be posters, billboards, and more to help the citizens inform themselves of the ban, which they expect to take effect in July. Read Also: Japanese Simulation Shows The Next Mt. Fuji Volcanic Eruption Could Cover Tokyo With Ashes 10X the Debris Cleared During The 2011 Tsunami! Is Banning Phone Usage While Walking A Good Idea? A few years ago, in 2014, there was research conducted by NTT Docomo, a Japanese mobile giant. They found out your field of vision is reduced when you're looking at your phone while walking. When your eyes are glued to your phone's screen, you'll reduce the average field of vision you have down to five percent of what is normal to have otherwise. NTT Docomo ran a thorough simulation on what might happen if 1,500 pedestrians passed by the infamously restless pedestrian crossing in Shibuya, Tokyo. At the same time, they all had their eyes glued to their phones. Unsurprisingly, the results showed that every two out of three pedestrians wouldn't reach the other side of the crossing without experiencing an incident. The simulation had 446 people colliding with each other, 103 people knocking someone down, and 21 causing someone else to drop their phones. The number of accidents involving phone usage with cyclists and pedestrians is slowly rising all over Japan. These accidents cause the families of the victims sometimes to demand almost 100 million yen (around 900 thousand U.S. dollars) in compensation. People sometimes refer to these people as smartphone zombies or smombies for short. This term has seen notable modern culture usage as a way to describe pedestrians that walk sluggishly slow and without being aware of what's around them due to their being glued to their phones. Some places have implemented safety hazards that are directed at smartphone zombies. One example exists in Chongqing, China. There are separate sidewalks for those using their phones and those that aren't using their phones. In Hong Kong, they call smartphone zombies, dai tau juk, which the meaning for that is the head-down tribe, Read Also: Fujifilm Continues Research on Avigan as COVID-19 Drug into June: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Optimistic Holding an election in the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic is tough. Holding an election as civil unrest sweeps across the country during that pandemic could be seriously problematic. Election officials will have to grapple with that challenge Tuesday, when voters in nine states and the District of Columbia vote by mail or head to the polls for primaries. Several cities set to hold an election have seen massive protests, at times spiraling into looting and violence. With widespread curfews keeping residents in their homes and some ballot-return locations shuttered, some voters could end up disenfranchised, voting rights activists warned. "We are particularly concerned about how the protests, and particularly the response to the protests, are going to affect voting," said Suzanne Almeida, the interim executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania. She cited two particular stress points: curfews and an increased police presence. "If you look at the genesis of the protest that we saw over the weekend, it is police violence toward people of color," Almeida said. "Then asking people to walk through, or near, or around police or National Guard who are armed can feel dangerous. Particularly voters of color, but other voters as well." Curfews in cities could also pose a barrier if they press against or overlap with time designated for voting. Philadelphia's curfew for Monday night starts at 6 p.m. and ends at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, an hour before polls are set to open. Mayor Jim Kenney's office announced it will begin enforcing a curfew at 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday evening, a half-hour after polls close. Philadelphia isn't the only city that could see voting affected by the unrest. In Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser announced there would be a citywide curfew starting at 7 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday, which intersects with early in-person voting on Monday and Election Day voting on Tuesday. Story continues Bowser said voters will be exempt from the curfew. District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser speaks about the District's coronavirus response at a news conference, Tuesday, March 31, 2020, in Washington. The District of Columbia has issued a stay-home order for all residents as the number of positive infections from the new coronavirus continue to rise. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) Voting is essential, therefore D.C. residents voting will be exempt to the curfew, Susana Castillo, a spokesperson for Bowser, wrote in an email. Castillo did not respond to follow-up questions on what steps the government of the plurality-black city will take to ensure that voters traveling to or from their polling place are not subject to the curfew, or whether voters will have to provide proof they actually voted. I've sent you all the information I have at this time. Whatever you learn from the Mayor's office should suffice, Rachel Coll, a public information officer for the city Board of Elections, wrote in an email when asked a similar set of questions about the curfew. In response to an earlier question on whether the board is considering other changes to respond to the unrest, Coll said election workers are trained to respond to emergencies by calling the police when necessary." Dozens of other cities could run into similar problems. The Baltimore board of elections also announced that it shuttered a ballot drop box outside the board of elections office in the city on Monday due to safety concerns in the area. (The board directed voters to 14 other drop boxes throughout the city.) In Hammond, Ind., Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. a Democrat who is running in the primary on Tuesday in the open-seat House race in Indianas 5th District ordered a curfew for his city on Sunday night that was extended to Monday evening as well. But the city said it will likely be lifted on Election Day. The coronavirus had already upended the primary season before the recent upheaval, and officials are struggling to ensure that the sanctity of the vote is protected. Weve run out of ways to describe how unusual this situation is, said David Thornburgh, president and CEO of the Philadelphia-based nonpartisan good-government group Committee of Seventy. The Committee of Seventy partnered with the office of the Philadelphia City Commissioners, the citys election agency, to run a series of mobile ballot drop-off points. But it had to cancel one scheduled for Sunday evening because of the unrest. Other mobile dropoff spots around the city were unaffected on Monday. There was a saving grace amid all the trouble the steps many election officials took to mitigate the effect of the pandemic on voter participation in the first place. Iowas secretary of state previously mailed ballot request forms to every voter, which has helped boost turnout in what is typically a low turnout primary, said Polk County Auditor Jamie Fitzgerald. The county, Iowa's largest, encompasses Des Moines, which also has seen protests and a countywide curfew. Were a go, Fitzgerald said of Tuesdays primary. We have record turnout already, before we even open the doors. Between shutting the town down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, flooding two weeks ago and then riot fears over the weekend, neither he nor Munster Town Council President Lee Ann Mellon wouldve believed any of that could be an issue. But amid fears that the chaos in Chicago over death of George Floyd, the man Minneapolis Police killed May 25, was going to spill into Northwest Indiana, the two towns came together over the weekend to protect their towns from threats both real and rumored on social media. So youre an entrepreneur whose dream business was finally taking off, and then an economic shockwave hit. Like the rest of the world, youre trying to not only survive yourself, but also to preserve your livelihood and that of your employees. Now, although American is slowly rebounding, businesses are definitely not going back to the normal they once knew. In fact, for most industries, its unpredictable and about as easy to forecast as the wild swings in the stock market. A large part of that uncertainty lies in the mindset of consumers right now. Related: Hot Dog Sales Are Red-Hot. These Weiner Businesses are Giving Back. A recent Economist/YouGov poll found that 66 percent of Americans are worried about being impacted directly by this crisis, and 75 percent think there is some degree of likelihood that opening the economy will result in more illness. That means even with all the talk of reopening and restrictions being relaxed, your business is nowhere near the same level of sales that you were before the worldwide disaster struck, and youre wondering if the rebound buzz is the light at the end of the tunnel or just a mirage in the desert. Thats why a relationship with your customer is so critical at a time like this. I have always been a strong advocate for having a direct sales relationship with your customers built on trust, a solid product and in the case of marketing, humor. Now is the time to double down on that mindset, especially when social media and online platforms are the only ways you're going to connect with potential new customers. Here are four ways to use a direct sales relationship to grow despite of the challenges. Related: Direct Selling Motivators in the Industries Growth Act, don't react Reacting is jumping at every little shiny object that looks like it might offer a shred of increased sales or a quick fix that keeps you afloat. But the mindset of action is having the focus to not only survive, but thrive, during a time of total upheaval and disruption in your industry. It allows you to make a plan and implement it. Nail the message Your message is your sales pitch, your 30-second elevator speech to the target audience that closes the deal and creates a new customer. Dont confuse this with branding or slogans those aren't something you should be focusing on right now. Get sales coming in the door now, and you will have all sorts of opportunities in the future to build brand over time. Think about how you sell your product face-to-face. What problem are you solving for the customer? How do you get and keep your customers attention? What questions do you ask? What stories do you tell? An important part of nailing your message, which many companies overlook, involves making sure your online message is cohesive with your normal sales pitch. That leads to the next step. Related: We Lost $140k in Sales in Less Than 30 Days. Here's What We're Doing to Fix It. Build an effective online sales funnel This is where your message is translated into an online sales funnel. Im not talking about a generic website filled with products, slogans and cheesy photos of you and your team. Im talking about an online experience that mimics real-life interactions. Walk your customer through the sale exactly like you would if you were standing face-to-face with them. Empathize with the problem your customer faces. Introduce a solution (your product) and demonstrate how it will help them overcome or avoid the problem. Build credibility and overcome concerns. Your online sales funnel can also include a video. If you cant sell face-to-face, video is the next best thing. Work with what you have. If you can afford a nice cinematic camera and lights, great! But dont hesitate to shoot video on your phone if that is all you have access to. Sincerity almost always trumps polish, and introducing a little humor or light-heartedness can make a wonderful connection with your customers. An effective online sales funnel is a crucial pivot that can not only be a lifeline but also take your business to the next level. You should always continue to refine your message and sales funnel through testing and customer feedback. Related: 4 Ways Emotional Intelligence Can Improve Your Sales Develop your brand Branding is what will set you apart in your niche market and create more customers who not only buy, but are also excited to be a part of your business. At this point I recommend developing your brand character. Donald Miller, author of How to Build a Storybrand, teaches that your brand character needs to show both empathy and authority. These are the attributes that win your customers trust. Once your branding is established, you can make the move to marketing nirvana, branded advertising. This is where your brand and brand characters youve developed take on a life of their own, where people are entertained and identify with your brand and become loyal customers. They will even help you market by voluntarily sharing your content with an ever wider audience. So why do I share all this now in the midst of this unprecedented time of upheaval and disruption? Because although I know we will sadly see businesses go under and fail, I believe that the American entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well. Your business might have the next product or service thats ready to solve a problem, take the market by storm create jobs in your community and ultimately bring more hope and a little humor to a world very much in need of both. Related: Why LinkedIn Direct Messaging Is Your Best New Sales Tool Related: How You Can Take Your Sales and Service Strategies to a Higher Level Four Ways To Push Your Hospitality Or Events Business Ahead (Even In Our Current Circumstances) Free Webinar | June 12: Using Fintech to Advance Your Retail Growth During The Recovery Copyright 2020 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved MarianVejcik/iStockBy DR. MARK ABDELMALEK and SONY SALZMAN, ABC News (NEW YORK) -- Even as scientists race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, experts acknowledge that children could be among the last members of society to be vaccinated. At least 10 vaccines are being tested in people across the globe, with the United States' top infectious disease doctor, Anthony Fauci, optimistically estimating we could have a viable vaccine by early 2021. While preliminary data on these vaccines has been encouraging, children have been excluded from early studies. Fauci told ABC News it's possible that studies in children might "catch up" to those in adults, if they are done correctly. "There is no reason not to believe that [a vaccine] wouldn't be available simultaneously for adults and children," Fauci said. But other vaccine experts interviewed by ABC News said studies among children could take much longer to complete, and a hard look at the timeline of ongoing vaccine trials raises questions about whether families can expect their children to be vaccinated at some point in the upcoming academic school year. "Children will be vaccinated, in time," said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, who sits on the Food and Drug Administration's vaccine advisory committee. "To date, my sense is that children are not part of these initial studies," Offit added. "It would be unfathomable giving children a vaccine that has not been adequately tested in children." The process for testing a COVID-19 vaccine in children could take "extra months and maybe years longer," according to Paul Duprex, PhD, director of the Center for Vaccine Research and professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at the University of Pittsburgh. Throughout history, scientists have constantly been reminded that children are not simply small adults. Their bodies and immune systems work differently than adults, so they need to be studied separately -- preferably after safety has already been well-established in adults. "Every person is special, but kids are especially special," said Duprex. "They are our charges. The emotional baggage that goes with something going wrong in clinical trials involving kids -- and I'm not saying adults are not important -- it's just different." For now, vaccine trials remain laser-focused on members of society deemed to have the highest risk, such as front-line workers and adults. Although some groups have announced their intention to test vaccines in children, ABC News contacted four vaccine groups and none said they have actually started studies in children yet. Typically, vaccines are tested in a stepwise approach: phase 1 for safety, phase 2 to start testing effectiveness and a massive phase 3 study with thousands of people. The pharmaceutical company Pfizer told ABC News it will advance a vaccine into children once positive data from phases 1 and 2 is available in adults. Another company, Inovio said it plans "to assess pediatric populations in the future." The University of Oxford, which has partnered with the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, is one of the few vaccine groups that has announced formal plans to start testing in children. But a University spokesperson told ABC News that children will not be injected right away, and will only be given the vaccine once "all of the adults studies are moving along and have generated sufficient safety data." In the United States, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is collaborating with pharmaceutical companies for vaccine trials, told ABC News the agency would continue to work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to better understand how the virus affects children. In a statement, the agency said: "We will continue to plan for follow-on clinical trials to include younger age groups so such trials can commence if epidemiological CDC data indicate a need to test COVID-19 vaccines in children." With vaccine skepticism on the rise, experts stressed that it will be important to proceed with caution. According to an ABC News/Washington Post poll, 27% of American adults said they were not inclined to get a vaccine -- even if it was available for free. With any new vaccine, the ethical thing to do is test for safety in healthy adults first, and then begin testing it among people who need it the most, explained Jennifer Miller, Ph.D., an assistant professor at Yale School of Medicine and founder of Bioethics International and the Good Pharma Scorecard. For COVID-19, that means older adults, front-line workers and people with underlying medical conditions. Children are far less likely to die of this disease. "About 2% of the cases reported are in the pediatric population," said Dr. David Kimberlin, professor and co-director of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. "It's about minimizing risks, it's about informed consent and it's about the population that needs it the most," Miller said. Minimizing risk is important, especially when it comes to children and vaccines, experts agreed. Very rarely have candidate vaccines caused a disease to become more severe when the individual is subsequently exposed to the natural infection. This happened in 1966, when a chemically inactivated vaccine candidate for a childhood lung disease called RSV led to the death of several children. "That tragic event set the RSV vaccine field back decades," said Duprex. "In fact, there still is no licensed RSV vaccine." Fauci proposed that children might be tested in a so-called "bridging study," in which children are studied in a Phase I trial to ensure the vaccine is safe, and then quickly folded into a large phase 3 study. Other experts noted it's theoretically possible that studies in children could "catch up" to those in adults, though unprecedented. But even if we do not have a vaccine for children right away, that doesn't necessarily mean children will have to remain socially distant indefinitely. Eventually, widespread vaccination of adults could end up protecting children thanks to "herd immunity," which is when enough people are vaccinated to snuff out an ongoing chain of infections. "Usually it's the older way around -- vaccinating children protects older adults," Kimberlin said. But in the case of COVID-19, if we find a successful vaccine and most adults become immune to the virus, "parents could still very legitimately look at that as a win for children because it's a win for society." Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Silver lining to doom and gloom over bankruptcy of JCPenney. Photo: AFP Trade publication Womens Wear Daily reported that Amazon could be in talks with the struggling mid-priced department store chain about a deal. The potential explanation includes Amazon wanting to expand its own apparel business and to turn some of JCPenneys properties into distribution centres. Amazon has made no official comment about these plans but the potential deal could redefine the nature of US retailing. As reported by CNN, JCPenney was the fourth national retailer to file for bankruptcy in May, following J.Crew, Neiman Marcus, and Stage Stores. JCPenney blamed the COVID-19 pandemic for its need to file bankruptcy. Until this pandemic struck, we had made significant progress rebuilding our company, CEO Jill Soltau said in a statement announcing the bankruptcy, adding that the companys efforts had already begun to pay off. Implementing this financial restructuring plan through a court-supervised process is the best path to ensure that JCPenney will build on its over 100-year history to serve our customers for decades to come, Soltau said. JCPenneys bankruptcy filing sparks concerns among Vietnam-based apparel suppliers about late payment and cancelled orders. PI VinaDanang, a wholly-owned South Korean subsidiary under Poong In Corporation, is specialised in garment outsourcing for export. The companys representative told VIR that all export orders for JCPenney have been suspended, and the company are waiting for a new announcement from the parent company. Bui Duc Liem, deputy general director of Nha Be Garment Corporation, another supplier to JCPenney, said that the US groups move might help it stay afloat and get back on track, saving it from complete bankruptcy. Thus, we still expect to remain a partner of the American retailer after the company restructures its operations, Liem said. Pham Xuan Hong, chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Association of Garment Textile Embroidery and Knitting, told VIR that JCPenney is a major customer with a large number of orders for Vietnamese apparel suppliers. Therefore, any bankruptcy will have some impact on Vietnamese apparel producers in the supply chain of the American retailer. Fortunately, most Vietnamese companies are outsourcing suppliers for JCPenney. Thus, they will see less impact from a bankruptcy filing than free-on-board apparel manufacturers that are responsible for all production activities from raw materials to finished products, he said. On the same note, Vu Duc Giang, chairman of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, said that the failure of retail chains like JCPenney is inevitable in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. As the coronavirus spread fast across Europe and North America, governments have had to be tough in implementing lockdowns, which have led to mass shutdowns in the retail industry, Giang said. However, he believed that the collapse will not wreak havoc on Vietnams garment and textile industry. According to Giang, the American retailer is sourcing garment orders from many countries around the world, not only Vietnam. In fact, JCPenney only accounts for 3-4 per cent of Vietnamese apparel export orders to the US market. Data from the General Department of Customs showed that the United States remained Vietnams largest importer of textiles and garments with a value of $3.95 billion in the first four months. It means the value of JCPenneys orders to Vietnamese suppliers were worth around $158 million in the given period. Since the coronavirus outbreak, Vietnamese garment producers have been struggling with supply chain disruptions amid Chinas lockdown. After China eased its lockdowns, many European and American retailers began suspending or cancelling supply orders from Vietnam due to the rapid spread of coronavirus. The collapse of major retailers like JCPenney is simply rubbing salt into the wound. Experts said that 2020 will be a tough year for JCPenneys suppliers. However, the situation will become brighter with a new wave of orders from other foreign buyers who are looking to diversify their supply chains. For example, Walmart plans to shift its orders from China to Vietnam for outsourcing, which will be a measure of compensation for Vietnamese suppliers for the reduced orders from the 118-year-old American company. A protester is detained by State Police after staying out beyond the governors 8 p.m. curfew during the sixth night of protests and violence following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 31, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Truck Driver Who Drove Into Protesters on Minneapolis Bridge Released Without Charges A trucker who drove into protesters across the I-35 West freeway bridge in Minneapolis was released without charges, according to the Hennepin County Attorneys Office, pending a further investigation into the matter. Bogdan Vechirko, 35, drove down the freeway during a George Floyd protest, officials said. Some 5,000 people were on the bridge when he drove down it. Vechirko was pulled out of his truck cab and assaulted by protesters, said police. He was taken to a nearby hospital and was released into police custody. But some protesters tried to defend the truck driver. We can not hurt him, one man said. It defeats our purpose. Bogdan Vechirko in a police photo (Minneapolis Police) Other members of the crowd shouted stop while others said they should call the police, according to video footage of the incident. Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said in a statement that Vechirko had to be released on Tuesday because they found no charges that could be filed against him. Vechirko will be released from jail. Investigators are in the process of gathering additional information and answers to aid in the charging decision, his office said. Relatives told local news outlets that Vechirko said the incident was unintentional. Art Loghinov said the incident was not his fault. He didnt mean for it to happen. He didnt have any intent to harm or do anything bad to anybody. Gov. Tim Walz and Minnesota Department of Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington said on Monday that it doesnt appear that Vechirko intentionally tried to cause harm by driving on the highway. On Monday, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) announced discoveries of the Ebola virus in its northwestern region. The findings have increased health emergency with the already problematic coronavirus pandemic. In Mbandaka, which is home to approximately one million citizens, has reported the death of five people and hospitalization of another four due to the Ebola infection. The reports came from Unicef, who has an office located in the city that sits on the Congo River. A returning outbreak According to the Wall Street Journal, officials have not yet confirmed if the cases are related to the outbreak of hemorrhagic fever that Eastern Congo is currently facing. The city was the worst-stricken area of the Ebola outbreak in May 2018 which suggests that the new cases recorded there is a new type of animal-to-human transmission. The Ebola infection can be transmitted by physical contact with animal bodily fluids that carry the virus. Director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom, said that "This is a reminder that COVID-19 is not the only health threat people face." The new cases mark the 11th outbreak of the Ebola since its discovery within the country in 1976. The location of the DRC that surrounded the city of Mbandaka was where the 9th Ebola outbreak in July 2018. WHO Regional Director of Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti said that the crisis has come at a difficult time but reassured that the health organization has been working with health authorities, Africa CDC, and other partners over the last two years to increase the capability of the country in responding to outbreaks, as reported by the WHO. Also Read: Severed Body Parts of Chimpanzee in Germany Sparks Speculations, But Not Related to COVID-19 Research "With each experience, we respond faster and more effectively," said Moeti. The five casualties of the Ebola include one 15-year-old girl, said Unicef, and that two other patients were brought to the isolation unit in a local hospital. The severity of the infection According to The New York Times, the Ebola infection can cause fever, bleeding, physical weakness, and pain in the abdomen. The virus kills about half of all those that it infects and was named after the Ebola River where it was first identified. The new Ebola cases in Mbandaka is what health officials are most concerned with as the city is a central point for travel to the country's capital, Kinshasa which is home to more than 12 million residents. The head of the Ministry of Public Health in the DRC, Eteni Longondo, said his ministry deployed doses of a new vaccine against the Ebola to the city of Mbadanka and reassured that local officials know how to act accordingly to the threat that the Ebola virus brings as they learned from the 2018 outbreak. The previous disaster saw the death of 33 people and the recovery of 21 people while fears of the outbreak spreading throughout the entire country was avoided. Learning from previous events, researchers, along with health workers, have been able to make fantastic progress in fighting back against the Ebola, which kills nearly two-thirds of the infected patients. Merck & Co. developed a new vaccine which the US Food and Drug Administration has approved. Johnson & Johnson also developed a second vaccine that is expected to be approved soon in Europe. Related Article: Bird Flu May Be Capable of Erasing the Human Race, Will Be Worse Than Coronavirus @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Austria has unveiled plans to 'neutralise' the house where Hitler was born by turning it into a police station - after it became a tourist destination for neo-Nazis. The yellow corner house in the Austrian town of Braunau, on the border with Germany, will be remodelled to blend in with the rest of the street - with a stone placed outside to commemorate the victims of fascism to be removed. The 5million redesign will see the property given two gabled roof ends with the exterior painted a neutral white colour. The house where Adolf Hitler was born in German will be turned into a police station - with its 'neutral' new design revealed on Tuesday Two gable ends will be added to the front of the property, while it will also be repainted white to blend in with the rest of the street Floorplans show it will also feature extensive underground construction, including car parking space. The design was put together by Austrian architecture firm Marte.Marte, which won a Europe-wide competition to redevelop the property, and unveiled Tuesday. The government expects the work to be completed by early 2023. 'A new chapter will be opened for the future from the birth house of a dictator and mass murderer,' Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said at a press conference. Ministry official Hermann Feiner added that by adjusting the architecture and usage of the building the government aimed to 'neutralise the entire premises'. Although Hitler only spent a short time at the property, it has continued to draw Nazi sympathisers from around the world. Garages to the rear of the property will also be remodelled, with more space added in underground parking lots Anti-fascist protesters have also organised rallies outside the building on Hitler's birthday. Officials said Tuesday that the 8,600sq ft property would get two pointed gables but that much of the original structure would remain intact. A commemorative plaque outside the building will also be removed and may be exhibited in a museum. The house had previously been the subject of lengthy legal disputes with the own, Gerlinde Pommer. Austria's highest court ruled last year that the government could take control of the house provided she was paid to some 720,000 euros in compensation. Pommer had been renting the property to the interior ministry since the 1970s. Hitler only lived at the property briefly, but it has still become a tourist site for neo-Nazis and the location of several counter-protests (file image) Blueprints of the property show how it will be divided up inside as it begins its new life as a local police station The government paid her around 4,300 a month and used it as a centre for people with disabilities. But this arrangement fell apart in 2011 when Pommer refused to carry out essential renovation work and also declined to sell it. Since then, the building has lain empty. At one point, the interior ministry was pushing to have it torn down but the plans ran into angry resistance from politicians and historians. Germany annexed Austria in 1938, and although many top henchmen from Hitler downwards were Austrians, historians say the small Alpine country was slow to acknowledge for many years its shared responsibility for the Holocaust and the other crimes of the Nazis. The National People's Congress (NPC) has recently approved the national security laws for Hong Kong by an overwhelming majority. This is a legitimate move by China to improve its national security legislation and safeguard its core interests in accordance with international practices. Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong (Photo/pixabay.com) However, Western politicians, typified by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, falsely claimed that Hong Kong "no longer enjoys a high degree of autonomy" as a result. U.S. President Donald Trump has also threatened to revoke Hong Kong's favored trade status and impose sanctions on officials who "harm Hong Kong's autonomy." From the introduction of the so-called "Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act" by the U.S. last year, it is clear that "the revocation of Hong Kong's favored trade status" is a last resort by the U.S. How much influence can the U.S. really exert by calling for tougher measures? The U.S. talks indiscreetly about revoking Hong Kong's preferential status as a separate customs and travel territory. However, is this status granted by the U.S., and can the U.S. take it away? On the contrary, it neither granted the status, nor can the U.S. unilaterally withdraw it. Looking back over history, long before its return to the motherland, Hong Kong was already a free port in the world and enjoyed a reputation as one of the "Four Little Dragons of Asia". As to Hong Kong's preferential status as a separate customs and travel territory, Hong Kong's Finance Secretary Chen Maobo explained that this is, in fact, a unique status conferred on Hong Kong by the Basic Law, which also authorizes Hong Kong to join the World Trade Organization under the name "Hong Kong, China". The preferential status is clearly stated in the Basic Law and has nothing to do with the U.S. Over the years, relying on the motherland and facing the world, Hong Kong has played the role of a "super contact" and enjoys a solid financial, economic and trade position in the international arena. Hong Kong is strongly supported by China's national development, and is widely recognized by the international community. Hong Kong's financial sector has remained stable despite the movement against the extradition law. So how can Hong Kong be in danger of losing its position as the world's leading international financial center based on the unilateral decision of one country? This is a joke! Politicians in the U.S. often wield the "stick of sanctions" and engage in "long-distance jurisdiction." Obviously, this is not effective: despite Pompeo and Trump's threats to impose sanctions, there have been no significant fluctuations in Hong Kong's stock, futures and monetary markets; the Hong Kong dollar is also very strong, and Hong Kong has not seen any large-scale capital outflows. At the very least, if the United States really intends to revoke Hong Kong's favored trade status, China has nothing to be afraid of, because the actual impact will be very limited. Goods produced locally in Hong Kong and exported to the U.S. market each year account for less than 2 percent of Hong Kong's local manufacturing sector, and have a value of only HK $3.7 billion, accounting for less than 0.1 percent of Hong Kong's total exports. Indeed, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has stressed that jeopardizing Hong Kong's special status would be a "serious mistake". In fact, Hong Kong was the source of the largest bilateral U.S. goods trade surplus last year and the sixth largest destination for U.S. direct investment. In the context of economic globalization, is it possible to damage the interests of others without hurting yourself? If the U.S. insists on going its own way and wantonly sacrifices the interests of Hong Kong, it will certainly affect the economy of local communities in the U.S., and even the global economy. MBABANE The Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) says the interim president of the Economic Freedom Fighters - Swaziland, Ncamiso Gift Ngcamphalala, harbours resentment against the monarch. Ngcamphalala (26) of Sinyamantulwa under Chief Maja, is accused of contravening the Sedition and Subversive Activities Act of 1938. It is alleged that in April 2020, he unlawfully promoted feelings of ill-will and hostility among inhabitants of Eswatini. According to the police, Ngcamphalala uttered seditious words which were then published, printed or distributed thro ugh Swati Newsweek, an online publication, in an article titled; Removing the King is possible. Ngcamphalala has filed a bail application at the High Court which is, however, being met with resistance from the Crown. Endanger In his answering affidavit, Superintendent Bhekani Shiba, contended that if the applicant (Ngcamphalala) was granted bail, there was allegedly likelihood that he would endanger the safety of the public. I further aver that in the article that was published in the online publication, he was reported as having cited how the monarchy was overthrown in Libya by the late Muamar Al-Gadhafi and that they may use similar strategies, submitted Superintendent Shiba. According to Shiba, this showed the alleged resentment Ngcamphalala was allegedly harbouring against the monarch and as such his release might endanger the safety of the public. He went on to tell the court that if the applicant was granted bail, there was a likelihood that he would abscond trial because he had emotional family and community ties in the Republic of South Africa, where he goes by the surname Mncwango. Shiba further highlighted that Ngcamphalala attained his educational credentials in South Africa and, therefore, it was allegedly likely that he established close relations with people outside the Kingdom of Eswatini. He contended that it would be easier for Ngcamphalala to secure employment in the Republic of South Africa as his professional certificates were attained there. The senior police officer further claimed that the applicant had a South Africa citizenship. I further aver that there is a great likelihood that the applicant may interfere with State witnesses or attempt to influence or intimidate them. Some of the potential witnesses are persons known to the applicant and he is familiar with them and the evidence they might give in court, averred Shiba. According to Shiba, in his application for bail, Ngcamphalala failed to present a credible story to the court to warrant his release on bail. He asked the court to afford more weight on the facts that were allegedly hidden by the applicant when moving his bail application. He concealed that he has a South African identity card. Worse, such identity shows a different surname from the one he used when moving his bail application. Clearly, he cannot be trusted, argued the senior law enforcer. Shiba contended that if released on bail, Ngcamphalala would allegedly undermine or jeopardise the proper functioning of the criminal justice system. He argued that the interest of justice did not favour Ngcamphalalas release from custody. Evidence We have immense evidence against him that will prove the case against him beyond reasonable doubt, hence such alone will pressure him to escape to our neighbouring States as will undoubtedly use informal crossings (sic), contended Shiba. He said the fact that investigations had been concluded did not entitle Ngcamphalala to be released on bail. Shiba further disclosed that their investigations unearthed that Ngcamphalala had been nomadic, such that he had been locked out of his rented flat by his landlord due to arrear rentals. According to Shiba, furthering their investigations, they allegedly learnt that Ngcamphalala last went to his parental homestead at Sinyamantulwa during the 2018 National Elections, where he was campaigning for the position of Nkilongo Constituency headman. The bail application is still pending before Judge Cyril Maphanga and appearing for the State is Ngcebo Lukhele from the chamber of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). Ngcamphalala is represented by renowned Human Rights Lawyer Thulani Maseko of T.R Maseko Attorneys in Mbabane. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear on September 12 a plea seeking setting up of a "public body", independent of the executive and judiciary, to ensure fair appointment of judges in High Courts and the apex court and check nepotism. A bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice D Y Chandrachud took up the matter after it was mentioned by advocate Mathews J Nedumpara seeking urgent listing. The PIL, filed by National Lawyers' Campaign for Judicial Transparency and Reforms and its office bearers, alleged that that the "common deserving lawyers" are usually not considered for appointment of judges in the higher judiciary and that those close to the judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts or politicians or big industrial houses only got chosen. "In the eyes of the Petitioners, what is paramount is a system of appointment of Judges independent of both the executive and the judiciary," it said. Alleging nepotism in the selection of judges, the plea said the existing system has appointed the "kith and kin of sitting and former Judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts, their juniors, celebrated lawyers, Chief Ministers, Governors and a few first generation lawyers who are all politically connected or are close to big industrial houses." The plea said the mechanism of appointment of judges, independent of the executive and the judiciary, was "killed" even before it was allowed to take birth by the judgment in the NJAC case. "No mechanism in substitution thereof, which will provide for a just, fair, open and non-discriminatory selection and appointment of Judges from a diverse and wider pool of candidates than the traditional ones, namely, the kith and kin of Judges, their near and dear ones, has been brought into existence...", the PIL claimed. It alleged the fundamental right of being considered for such appointment of ordinary lawyers has been infringed in the wake of quashing of National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) Act and enabling 99th constitutional amendment by the Supreme Court. The plea also said that there was no effective mechanism to address complaints of misconduct against judges. The Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, 2012 introduced in Parliament, remained in "cold storage" as the judges were not "forthcoming to welcome" it. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Latest News Westpac makes first fixed rate move of 2022 New year, same rate action as major lenders continue rate hikes Inside the property market explosion in regional Australia Regional broker explains just how crazy the property market has been in one NSW town Australian housing values charted their first month-on-month decline since June last year, according to the CoreLogic Home Value Index results for May. Five of the eight capital city regions recorded a decline, with the national index down 0.4% over the month. Considering the weak economic conditions associated with the pandemic, a fall of less than half a percent in housing values over the month shows the market has remained resilient to a material correction, said CoreLogic head of research Tim Lawless. With restrictive policies being progressively lifted or relaxed, the downwards trajectory of housing values could be milder than first expected. However, even with some areas faring better than expected and values holding relatively firm, the market has lost momentum and its still too early to form a longer-term outlook. Eventually government stimulus will wind back and borrower repayment holidays will expire. In the absence of these policies, housing values could come under some additional downwards pressure if economic conditions havent picked up towards the end of the year, Lawless said. Even with housing values slipping over May, national home values remain 8.3% higher than a year ago, with Darwin (-2.6%) and Perth (-2.1%) the only capital cities where values are lower than the same time last year. Fortunately, transaction activity in the market has also begun to show more positive signs. After falling by around one third in April relative to March, the estimate of sales activity has rebounded by 18.5% in May. While downside risk remains, the trajectory of the housing market is looking healthier than what we were expecting a bit over a month ago, Lawless said. The virus curve has been flattened more quickly and effectively than even the best case scenario forecasts, meaning some of the most restrictive policy settings have been either lifted or relaxed. Consumer spirits have lifted, vendors are starting to test the market and buyer numbers have risen. If history is anything to go by, housing values have generally weathered periods of extreme uncertainty quite well, and the trend to date looks very similar. British body confidence influencer Chessie King has revealed why she decided to start sharing unfiltered pictures of herself on Instagram. King, 26, from South London, revealed she was terrified of being called a 'fraud' by her social media followers if photos of her real body, without filters or strategic poses, were leaked. She told the Sun she felt free after deciding to share pictures of her unfiltered curves, dimples and all, with her following, which has soared to 800,000 in the last three years. Now happily engaged to boyfriend Matthew Carter, Chessie still shares countless videos of her booty-shaking skills on her social media platform, as well as pictures of her tum and bum, saying she would never even think about sharing a filtered video again. Scroll down for video Chessie King, 26, from South London, revealed she was terrified of being called a 'fraud' by her social media followers if they saw her real body, without filters or strategic poses. Left, aged 18 during a bikini competition where she was called 'too fat'. Right: as Chessie looks now The social media star said: 'Id pose up perfectly to flatter my figure. Then I realised I was getting real social anxiety that Id bump into a follower and they would think I dont look as good as I do in the pictures I put online,' she said. She explained: 'I started posting the best images of me ones that would make the cut for Instagram but also posting ones that didnt "make the cut" alongside it. I couldnt believe how many girls said I was "brave" for doing it.' She went on to say the overwhelming positive reaction she received for sharing the 'honest' pictures made her realise there needed to be a wider discussion on body-confidence on social media. Three years on, Chessie said she could not now fathom going back to sharing filtered, posed pictures of herself on Instagram. Chessie said she now had the confidence to share about 'anything' on social media to her 800,000 followers after giving up trying to filter her images Instead, she chooses to upload pictures where her curves are on show, rolls and all, and her smile is beaming. She said she had reached a stage where she could post about anything on Instagram without feeling embarrassed about her face or body, a fear many women are plagued with. Chessie, has spoken out repeatedly about how she was shamed for being 'too fat' for a bikini competition when she was 18 after training for 18 weeks to achieve just 9 per cent body fat. In a recent post, the influencer said she could not think about sharing perfect pictures such as the one on the left, preferring to be 'real' and share snaps like the one on the right, taken last year during a holiday in Bali Speaking honestly of trying on dresses for her wedding to boyfriend of three years, Matthew Carter, 31, Chessie admitted on Instagram her bum had ripped a few wedding dresses Contrast: Three years ago, Chessie starting sharing Instagram-perfect pictures alongside the reality behind the photos Chessie said that being body-confident was something she continued to learn to do (pictured during a recent holiday in Croatia) She said she would have never pictured herself sharing video of her 'wobbly bits' on social media, but decided to keep going when she realised her honesty was helping others appreciate their own looks. The influencer admitted that remaining body-confident was something she learned to do every day still, fighting negative or self-dismissing thoughts. She spoke honestly about shopping for a wedding dress, even admitting her behind had ripped a few of the white gowns she had tried on, and saying she would not let worrying about her curves ruin her experience. However, she said she did feel bad about trying on dresses that were much too small for her and had to remind herself her body's size would have no influence on her happy day. Chessie speaks about these issues further in her upcoming book Be Your Own Best Friend: The Glorious Truths Of Being Female. Confidence: Chessie says she now feels comfortable with every part of her body Dr James P Etter, CEO, Citizens High School and Khalil Osiris, Founder, Reflecting Freedom Network Without a diploma, many individuals get left behind, contributing to growing income inequality, the viscious cycle of recidivism and an inexcusable expression of economic discrimination. Today, Reflecting Freedom Network (RFN) and Citizens Education, Inc. (CEI) announced a new partnership to offer online accredited education, career development and essential skills training to address the systemic problem of recidivism and increasing economic inequality for at-risk individuals. The initiative is funded through a wide range of international philanthropic initiatives, including foundations, individual grant-makers and reentry service providers. The Reflecting Freedom Network is designed for anyone impacted by the criminal justice system, including corrections officers and their families, with the goal of gaining economic mobility through personal development. The key to the program is that it is outcome-based the participant can earn an accredited diploma, build skills through online career credentialing modules and ultimately level-up to higher paying jobs. RFNs Founder Khalil Osiris and Citizens Education President Dr. Jim Etter created the partnership with the desire to bring world-class solutions to our most vulnerable communities. Most often, access to postsecondary educational and entry level employment opportunities require a high school diploma as a criteria for acceptance. Without a diploma, many individuals get left behind, contributing to growing income inequality, the viscious cycle of recidivism and an inexcusable expression of economic discrimination. Osiris, social entrepreneur and Advisor to the House of Mandela Family Foundation and Athens Democracy Forum designed the programs one-of-a-kind formula after 30 years of experience working in reentry, both in the US as well as South Africa. We know that many individuals impacted by mass incarceration in this country and abroad have a strong desire to achieve but lack opportunity for career growth, said Osiris. Our goal for Reflecting Freedom Network is to knock down barriers for participants in our system so they can build successful pathways for themselves and their families by connecting philanthropy with educational technology. Dr. Etter added, We recognize that current limitations in place-based education due to the pandemic have the potential to exacerbate income inequality and the widening achievement gap. Its incumbent upon us to make high quality educational programming available to everyone, regardless of their socioeconomic status. Im grateful to partner with Khalil Osiris, whose personal story is a great example to us all of breaking free of self-imposed limitations through education. We will support Reflecting Freedom Network by providing accredited high school diplomas at no cost to the learner thanks to our growing community of support. Whether the diploma candidate is currently incarcerated, recently released or a family-member, the ability to inspire desire for a better life through this partnership is exhilarating. The multi-faceted, omnidirectional learning system was created with flexibility to overcome the challenges associated with providing online education in corrections-based use cases, as well as other situations where access to technology and connectivity are limited. Courses are faculty-led, graded and regionally accredited. Additionally, the platform offers exclusive Academy-based electives in the diploma program, including Life Skills, Workforce Development, African- American Studies, Teen Parent Courses, Espanol for ESL students and many more. Career guidance is a central component of the network, highlighted by a library of 1,000 career cards and over 600 videos exploring career possibilities. Other features include an Applicant Tracking System, a resume builder, learning reports, messaging and intelligent reporting capability to key stakeholders. For organizations looking to partner with Reflecting Freedom Network, more information can be found here. The program is accepting enrollments immediately. About Reflecting Freedom Network Reflecting Freedom Network, a non-profit organization, is a community of individuals committed to building public/private sector partnerships to promote economic and social justice through education, career development and innovative skills training opportunities. RFNs mission is to provide accessible, affordable pathways for people to build freedom and opportunities for success together. About Citizens Education and Citizens High School Citizens High School is a private for-profit online high school and one of the oldest actively accredited distance education high schools in the United States. The school is regionally accredited by the Middle States Association and is nationally accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Council. Citizens High School has provided thousands of students with learning and career pathways, leading them to social and economic stability. This week, nine states, the Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia will hold primary elections as part of the 2020 election. All of the elections will take place today, except the Virgin Islands primary caucus, which will take place on 6 June. With the coronavirus pandemic uprooting life in the US in the middle of primary season, states have been tasked with determining how or if theyll hold their elections as scheduled. In some cases, like Ohio, the primary was delayed. New York attempted to cancel its Democratic primaries, though it was eventually forced to hold them after a judge ruled the state must hold the election. So, how will the coronavirus affect the primaries? Lets take a look. Connecticut Originally the primary was to be held on 28 April, but was moved back to 2 June. That date has again been changed, and Connecticut voters will now vote on 11 August. The states governor signed an executive order allowing voters in the state to cast mail-in votes as well. District of Columbia DC will hold its election on 2 June as planned. District officials are encouraging voters to ask for absentee ballots and vote by mail, though the deadline to request a ballot was 26 May. For those who arent voting absentee, DC opened 20 polling locations throughout the city on 22 May for early voting. On 2 June, DC will continue to operate those 20 centres down from the normal 144 it usually runs and voters will have to vote in person. Due to the George Floyd protests, Mayor Muriel Bowser has enacted a 7 p.m. curfew for the city, though she said voters are exempt from the curfew. The polls close at 8 p.m. in the district. Maryland Voting will still take place in Marylands statewide primary today. Officials are encouraging voters to vote by mail using absentee ballots, which must be in the mail no later than primary day. Delaware Delaware has moved its primary to 7 July. The state will send all eligible voters an absentee ballot request by mail and is encouraging its voters to use the vote-by-mail method. Iowa Though Iowa already held its infamous presidential primary caucus, several state-wide positions including an important race for the US Senate are up for grabs in the states primary election. Iowas governor is encouraging voters to use absentee ballots and vote by mail, but in person voting will be available, though fewer voting locations will be open than in previous years as a way to protect poll staff and ensure social distancing. Indiana Indianas primary was originally scheduled for 5 May, but was pushed back to 2 June. The state will be operating fewer in person voting places and as with most other states is encouraging mail in voting via absentee ballots. Early, in-person voting began in Indiana last Tuesday. Idaho The state had to extend its absentee ballot request deadline to 26 May due to website problems that prevented voters from requesting their ballot. The deadline to turn in their ballots is still today. Though the state will hold an all-absentee vote, only individuals whove requested ballots will receive one, and the date to request a ballot has already passed. Montana Montana moved to an all mail-in voting primary. All ballots must be turned in today. Ballots postmarked by 2 June will still be counted so long as they arrive at election locations by the following Monday. Pennsylvania Pennsylvania delayed its primary from 28 April to 2 June, and the election is still scheduled to occur today. The deadline for requesting an absentee ballot has passed, but voters who are not going to vote by mail will still have the option of voting in person. Voters in some areas will be voting in new locations as some polling locations have closed due to coronavirus concerns specifically those in or near elderly living locations. New Mexico The New Mexico primary will be held as scheduled today. The states Supreme Court ruled that in-person polling locations must remain open, but state officials are encouraging voters to send in absentee ballots to limit potential exposure to the virus on election day. In-person voting will be subject to the states public health standards regarding coronavirus, so voters will be expected to social distance while waiting in line, and only four voters will be allowed in polling locations at a time. Rhode Island Rhode Island will still hold its primary on today. As in other states, voters are encouraged to vote by mail if possible. For those going to the polls in person, the state is operating 47 polling centres and voters are highly encouraged but not required to wear face masks. Each of the 47 locations was given 100 masks to pass out to voters who request one. Voters choosing to vote in-person are required to maintain social distancing measures while waiting to vote. South Dakota Voting in South Dakota will still take place today. Everyone especially seniors are encouraged to vote by mail if possible. The state has sent out absentee ballot request applications to all eligible voters. The deadline to request a ballot was1 June. In-person voting will still be conducted in the state. Virgin Islands The US Virgin Islands Democratic caucus will take place on 6 June, and the islands Democratic party is using a drive-thru voting system to try to limit exposure on primary day. Voting will take place at the partys headquarters on St. John in Cruz Bay. We are living in challenging times brought on by the coronavirus diseases (Covid-19). When India imposed its lockdown, everyone extended full support to the move in the belief that we need to stand as one in the fight against the virus. Now that India is opening up, it is clear that the strategy to combat the virus did not consider all Indians as one. A country of over 1.3 billion people was locked down, at four hours notice, ignoring the needs of the poorest and migrant workers. The governments response came with an inherent class bias built into it. If you were an Indian abroad, the national carrier was pressed into service to fly you back, even from countries such as China, where the virus had already spread. I support this as an action any responsible country must take for its citizens stranded abroad. Yet, migrant workers, stranded away from their homes and families, found themselves out of jobs with no money or food security. I am from Padrauna in Kushinagar district in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Thousands of men leave this district every year to find work in the cities often leaving their families behind. Within days of the lockdown, Congress workers reported that many migrants from my district were stranded in different states. I set up a helpline with my team. As soon as we made the numbers public, we were deluged with calls. They all had one demand in common: Basic rations to get by. All their money had been exhausted with the overnight shutdown of factories. One of the saddest calls was from a group of young boys stuck in central UP. Left with no wages, they had pooled together and sold three mobile phones to buy food. Selling a mobile phone, the only connection with their families, has become an act of ultimate desperation to survive in these times. The Congress Working Committee and president as well as Rahul Gandhi warned the government that this was becoming a humanitarian crisis of unimaginable proportions. This was dismissed as carping by the Opposition. The irony is, we have treated migrant workers as outsiders, though they have been crucial to nation-building. Their needs were invisible to those who made grand announcements, until they came out to walk on the very streets and highways they had built, on the way back to their homes. During election campaigns, I have often gone to areas where there is a dominance of people from UP. They have all told me the same thing they are considered outsiders who are good enough to build metros and skyscrapers, but not considered deserving even of habitable accommodations. They are outside the safety net of most state government schemes because they dont have domicile documents. There are three constructive action points we need to consider urgently. One, we need a database of people working and living outside their states. For too long, the fact that they are working in the informal sector as contract labour has made them almost non-existent. This database would make it easier to accurately assess how many need to be given food or shelter or transported during a crisis such as this. Two, the government has now taken up the proposal put forward by the former United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of one-nation, one-ration card. This must be taken a step further. Workers with an identity document from another state should be allowed to access all government schemes and facilities of the central government or of the state where they are currently living. Also, workers from other states must be allowed to vote where they are living. This will give them political value and access to the local elected representative. Both Aadhaar and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme are UPA government schemes. They must now be strengthened. Three, instituting labour reforms does not mean making it easier to exploit workers. We must now formulate a universal social security scheme for workers using an authentic database. In reply to a recent public interest litigation in Gujarat, the state said only 7,512 of an estimated 2.25 million migrant workers were registered. The government has no accurate estimates of the numbers of migrant workers or their locations which explains the inadequate response to their plight today. The only silver lining in a dark cloud is that Indias urban residents seem to have finally woken up to the circumstances in which many of their fellow citizens are living. They have begun to realise how much these voiceless, faceless people contribute to their lives. The most humbling conversation I have had during these last two months was with the father of a 19-year-old boy, Arjun Chauhan, who came from my district. He was killed in a road accident in Auraiya, UP, on his way home in the back of a crowded truck. His father told me his son had left his village for the first time in his young life, just a few months ago, to earn a decent living for himself and his family. Will his death be seen as a fall-out of the pandemic, the apathy of the State, or just another statistic to be forgotten? Most importantly, will it be a wake up call to Indias policy makers? RPN Singh is a former Union minister and Congress leader The views expressed are personal Passengers are waiting for flights at Tan Son Nhat International Airport.- VNA/VNS Photo The woman will be transferred to Cu Chi Field Hospital for 14-day quarantine. According to information from Vietnams communicable disease surveillance system, HCM Citys Centre for Diseases Control (CDC) on Monday detected a woman suspected of being positive for the novel strain of the coronavirus. On the evening of May 28, the woman returned to Vietnams Cao Bang District from China via a border trail. She then arrived at Noi Bai International Airport, taking a flight to HCM Citys Tan Son Nhat International Airport on May 29. The Health Ministry and HCM Citys Health Department carried out disease prevention and control measures, informing relevant agencies for co-operation. The woman tested negative for the coronavirus for the first time on May 29 and a second time on Monday. She was the second case to have been found illegally returning to Vietnam without undergoing the mandated 14-day quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first one was a 39-year-old man residing in Tan Chau District, the southern province of Tay Ninh, later identified as the 315th COVID-19 patient in Vietnam. He illegally returned to Vietnam from Siem Reap, Cambodia, through a border trail on May 2. He then came to stay at his relatives house in Tan Dong Hamlet, Tan Thanh Commune, Tan Chau District. The health ministry said it has asked the defence ministry to tighten patrols along trails linking Vietnam to neighbouring countries to minimise illegal entries that pose risks of spreading the COVID-19. Deputy health minister Do Xuan Tuyen, vice head of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, also asked Cao Bang Province Peoples Committee to toughen control of trails along border areas. People are called to report people returning illegally so relevant agencies could conduct necessary anti-epidemic measures including testing and sending them to quarantine areas. Pulitzer Prizewinning writer Nikole Hannah-Jones had some thoughts on the Second Amendment yesterday: This reference to the 2nd Amendment is a head scratcher only if you dont know that 2nd Amendment was in fact created to ensure Southern slaveowners the right to maintain & arm slave patrols to put down insurrections amongst the enslaved. Now hes invoking agnst their descendants https://t.co/9anFgRjQCm Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) June 1, 2020 Its not really a head scratcher to comprehend why Americans want to protect their property and lives from looters and the mob. Why a reporter can breezily fabricate history under the banner of one of the nations most-widely read newspapers, on the other hand, definitely qualifies. Theres no historical evidence to suggest that the Second Amendment was created to ensure Southern slaveowners the right to maintain & arm slave patrols to put down insurrections amongst the enslaved, even if southerners subsequently used guns for their nefarious purposes. As Charles Cooke has noted, That neo-Nazis are protected by the First Amendment does not indict the First Amendment, just as that criminals are protected by the Fifth does not call that bulwark into general question. The right to self-defense, in fact, is incompatible with the idea of slavery it runs counter to the arguments made by the Founders, even if some of them were hypocrites; counter to the arguments made by many abolitionists and the early civil-rights leaders; and counter to the arguments made by Second Amendment advocates today. The animating ideas of the Second Amendment both as personal and communal protection are predicated on natural rights and English common law. And while nearly every intellectual, political, and military leader of the Founding generation stressed the importance of the right to bear arms as a means of preserving liberty, some of its most vociferous champions were against slavery. Story continues In his 1770 defense of Captain Thomas Preston, one of the British soldiers responsible for the Boston Massacre, John Adams who often defended freed slaves and held the practice of slavery in such abhorrence argued that even the unwanted and intrusive British soldier had the inherent right to arm and defend himself from a mob. Here every private person is authorized to arm himself, and on the strength of this authority, he said. It was the primary canon in the law of nature, he argued, quoting William Blackstone, whose writings helped define the English common-law legal system. Those interested in fact-based history of the philosophical foundations of the Second Amendment can read Joyce Lee Malcolms classic study on the topic: To Keep and Bear Arms: The Origins of an Anglo-American Right. In it, Malcolm makes the case that colonists were men and women steeped in English laws, English customs, English prejudices, and English habits of mind. It was within this tradition that colonists staked their claim to revolt when the king came for their weapons. The 70 or so American militiamen who fought 700 British soldiers in Concord and Lexington among them Prince Estabrook, a black militiaman wounded in the battle (a soon-to-be freed slave) werent anxious about slave revolts. They were intent on stopping the British from stripping them of the ability to defend themselves. Sam Adams, one of Massachusetts leading revolutionaries and agitators, argued in 1769 that the the subjects of England are entitled first to the regular administration and free course of justice in the courts of law next to the right of petitioning the King and parliament for redress of grievances and lastly, to the right of having and using arms for self-preservation and defence. Adams opposed slavery. Even abolitionist religious leaders such as Simeon Howard and Jonathan Parsons for while we plead for liberty on one hand, and promote slavery on the other, our principles are too contracted and corrupt, Parsons said defended the ideas that gird the Second Amendment. [F]or if one man may defend himself and his rights against an assailant, much more may a whole country defend themselves when their rights are invaded, Parsons preached. The first American effort to codify and guarantee the right to bear arms was made in Pennsylvania, under a conference run by Benjamin Franklin, also president of the colonys antislavery society. The second colony to do so was Vermont, where there were few slaves and no fear of a revolt. When New Hampshire suggested language for the future Bill of Rights Congress shall never disarm any Citizen unless such as are or have been in Actual Rebellion the future state probably had less than a hundred slaves. After the ratification of the Constitution, five states (Rhode Island and New Hampshire among them) demanded a Bill of Rights be adopted by Congress, and every one of them asked that the individual right to bear arms be mentioned. As I argue in my book First Freedom, of all the rights organized in American life, none had a longer and more defined history in English common law and tradition than the right to self-defense not freedom of speech, or press, or religion. Whats most misleading about Hannah-Joness distortion of the Second Amendment, however, is that the first gun-control laws were all racist in intent, meant to keep newly freed black Americans subjugated. Black Codes instituted after the Civil War made owning guns illegal for most blacks, and continued to put them at the mercy of racist governments. Arguments made during the debate over the 14th Amendment often specifically mentioned the right to bear arms. Whats most ironic about Jones, who names herself after 19th-century civil-rights leader Ida B. Wells, is that the historic figure was a champion of the Second Amendment. She maintained that an important lesson of postCivil War America, one that every Afro American should ponder well, was that a Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home, and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give. The Second Amendment certainly wasnt a head scratcher for the real Ida B. Wells. More from National Review Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), the leading international financial hub in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with EC3 Brokers to implement a Group Health Insurance Master Policy. The Group Health scheme will be available to over 2,400 active registered firms in DIFC who provide health insurance to their 25,600 professionals. It is the first scheme of this nature to be developed in Dubais financial centre and in the region. The agreement is for EC3 to facilitate the purchase of cost-effective health insurance for DIFC registered companies across all sectors. The scheme will provide participating companies access to mandatory health cover for their employees and dependents, and will support SMEs in gaining access to high-level coverage while streamlining their costs that are comprehensive and reasonable. As part of the agreement, EC3 Brokers will act as an intermediary to facilitate the tendering process to shortlist the insurer and the third-party administrator contractual partners in the UAE. Criteria will be agreed by both DIFC and EC3 Brokers. Commenting on the agreement, Arif Amiri, CEO of DIFC Authority, said: This agreement paves the way for DIFC to provide clients with a new benefit that adds value, saves them money and provides a high level of health insurance cover for the 25,600 people working in the Centre. We are looking forward to working with EC3 to deliver this insurance policy to our clients. Steve Hart, SEO of EC3 Brokers MEA, said: As a leading reinsurance broker and consultant within the MEA region, we are pleased to announce the signing of a strategic MoU alongside the Dubai International Financial Centre. The new agreement aims to develop a group health insurance scheme facilitating the purchase of cost-effective health insurance for all participating entities in the DIFC. We look forward to launching this exciting endeavour. Serge Calfa, Regional Director Treaty of EC3 Brokers MEA, said: EC3 Brokers treaty team is uniquely positioned within the region in supporting the DIFC with its vision by drawing on their experience in all the required relevant fields such as reinsurance, direct health insurance and various activities in managing and servicing the complete value chain of health care and risk-taking businesses. Dubai continues to be recognised on the global stage as a dynamic business environment where innovation thrives. DIFC offers all the elements found in the worlds most successful financial industry ecosystems, including an independent regulatory and judicial system, a global financial exchange, access to funding, a dynamic and enabling sector environment, complemented by a diverse and cosmopolitan talent pool and a vibrant business community. Located in the DIFC, EC3 Brokers Limited is licensed by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) to conduct the regulated financial services of "Insurance Intermediation" and "Insurance Management". -- Tradearabia News Service SCHENECTADY Duane Todman, an accomplished painter, was shot at point-blank range last month while sitting on the steps of a church after he apparently intervened in a dispute between a man and a woman on a city street, according to several people with knowledge of the investigation into the killing. Those individuals, one of whom characterized the shooting of the 27-year-old city man as a senseless act of violence," requested anonymity because of the ongoing probe into the May 23 slaying in the city's Hamilton Hill neighborhood. Todman, according to those familiar with the incident, was hanging out with two other men on the steps of the church at Craig and Stanley streets as a group of men and women walked by them. The suspected shooter got into a verbal dispute with one of the women, and as the argument ended, Todman said something to the man, who crudely asked him what he said, those sources said. Once Todman, repeated himself, the assailant allegedly pulled out his weapon and shot Todman. Police have previously said Todman was shot in the neck around 9 p.m. May 23. He was rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. It does not appear that Todman knew his killer, who ran off after opening fire, the sources said. No one else was injured. His death came four days after Fred Gentry, 48, was found wounded near the intersection of Victory Avenue and Catherine Street. He later died. Asked Tuesday about the seeming randomness of Todman's slaying, Police Chief Eric Clifford said this incident is not indicative of any rise in criminal activity in the neighborhood or the city in general. It does appear to be an isolated, random incident that was very unfortunate and a member of our community that was well-liked and loved is no longer with us, he added. Those who knew Todman hailed him was a talented oil and classical still life painter, who after relocating to Schenectady last year spent long hours at the Electric City Barn, perfecting his craft. Before that, he was a resident of the the Albany Barn. Kristen Holler, executive director of both barns, spaces where artists can hone their skills, told the Times Union last week that Todman loved being around creative people had recently won a scholarship to study next year at the Academy of Realist Art Boston. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Holler said she received an email last week from the schools assistant director, who in that correspondence said she had personally interviewed Todman, and that they were so excited to have such a talented and passionate artist join their program. She never got to share the good news with him. Todman's killing was the second in four days for a city that has only had two gun-related homicides in the past two years. Mayor Gary McCarthy has said it's possible that at least 40 police officers may have to be laid off to help bridge a projected $11.5 million budget hole as a result of decline revenues because of the coronavirus. Hes hoping that Schenectady will receive federal monies to help soften the financial hit and avert layoffs to police, firefighters and other City Hall employees. Friends and family are scheduled to say final farewells to Todman on Wednesday in Peekskill, according to an online obituary. The death notice indicates that a funeral service will take place afterward. Anyone with information on either of the two shootings can contact the Schenectady Police Department's TIPS line at 518-788-6566. Adam Rickett attends the British Soap Awards 2018 at Hackney Empire on June 2, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images) Soap star Adam Rickitt has candidly opened up on the mental health troubles that left him wanting to end his life. It comes as his character in Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks, Kyle Kelly, is set to take his own life as part of an ongoing mental health storyline. Speaking on Loose Women on Tuesday afternoon, the 42-year-old disclosed the extent of his own mental health battle as he suffered from anxiety and depression between the ages of 13 to 30. Read more: Most common mental health conditions and where to seek help He told the panellists: Id reached a point where I was essentially praying to die. I would quite happily have killed myself. The only thing that stopped me from killing myself is that I knew my parents would blame themselves. And I didnt mind ending my life, but I didnt want to ruin their life. 'I was able to meet with the writers and directors and really have some positive input to it.' Adam Rickitt tells the #LooseWomen how his own mental health experience helped him prepare for @Hollyoaks' emotional Kyle Kelly storyline. Watch https://t.co/uhvdBHHe6b pic.twitter.com/sj8xXhE2Hg Loose Women (@loosewomen) June 2, 2020 And I kind of reached a crunch point when I was 28-years-old and I got an opportunity to go to New Zealand. And it was meant to be for three-months and it ended up turning into five-years. And it just gave me that space and that time and that breath, to actually just go, There is something out there for me.... And that was the first time in 15 years at that point where for one moment I thought there was a chance of me being happy and normal. "It was a defining moment where I decided I was either going to do something about it or I was going to fade away into nothingness. There was no miracle cure, that was the worst thing its not how it works, its a gradual process, he shared. Story continues Rickitt went on to encourage men to speak out about their mental health as part of Loose Women's Stand By Your Men campaign. Actor Adam Rickitt, from TV soap, Coronation Street, arriving at London's Royal Lancaster Hotel for the 95.8 Capital FM 1999 London Awards lunch. (Photo by Fiona Hanson - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images) "Men dont tend to talk about these things so what tends to happen is that theyre inevitably going to explode, he said. The star has previously opened up about other mental health problems he's experienced including the eating disorder he had as a teenager, suffering from bulimia. Rickitt was the second actor to take on the role of Nick Tilsley in Coronation Street between 1997 to 1999 and from 2002 to 2004, embarking on a music career in between his stints on the soap. He's appeared on Hollyoaks since 2017. For confidential emotional support at times of distress, contact The Samaritans at any time by calling 116 123 or emailing jo@samaritans.org. New Delhi: Stating that there is a very thin line between risk aversion and risk prudence, State Bank of India Chairman Rajnish Kumar on Tuesday said the banks are ready to finance but there are no takers for bankable loans. He also said the bank is very bullish about the Rs 3 lakh crore credit guarantee scheme for MSME, and through the scheme the government has indirectly infused Rs 30,000 crore into public sector banks. Speaking about criticism for parking deposit money with the RBI, Kumar said, there is deluge of funds but there is no commensurate demand for loan. So, banks have no choice but to park with RBI as there is risk aversion from the side of borrowers as well, he said while addressing India Inc at CII Annual meet. "I hear a lot about risk aversion, but the dividing line between risk aversion and risk prudence is very thin. One question which I have been asking is -- is there risk aversion only amongst lenders or there is risk aversion amongst borrowers also. Are they willing to leverage? Are they willing to invest?" he wondered. Citing an example, he said, when the government slashed corporate tax rate drastically in September last year, many were of the view that investment will take place, but it has not taken place. "As a banker and as the chairman of the largest bank, I am saying I have money, there are no takers of the money. Investment if you look in the last five years, the capex has gone down distinctly...No major projects have been announced. And by the way, the services sector particularly IT don't consume any major capital," he said. Ultimately, he said, it is the manufacturing or infrastructure sector, which consumes money. Between 2008 and 2015, it was the power sector which consumed maximum capital for putting up 75,000 MW capacity, he said. Kumar said that the corporate sector should not expect much from the government but have to be self-reliant or "atmanirbhar", given the fiscal position of the government. "Maybe the corporate sector would have to look for all the opportunities themselves," he said. He also said that if more has to be given to the system, banks would require capital support from the government. On the Rs 3 lakh crore credit guarantee scheme, Kumar said, risk weight for the scheme is zero and public sector banks do not have to provide any capital for this. So, in a way there is indirect capital infusion of Rs 30,000 crore, he said. "We are very bullish on this scheme. In a single day, we have disbursed 22,000 loans of worth Rs 3,000 crore. So, this is a very good scheme for supporting MSME sector," he said. The scheme is the biggest fiscal component of the Rs 20-lakh crore Self Reliant India Mission package announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last month. Under the scheme, 100 per cent guarantee coverage will be provided by National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company (NCGTC) for additional funding of up to Rs 3 lakh crore to eligible MSMEs and interested MUDRA borrowers, in the form of a guaranteed emergency credit line (GECL) facility. For this purpose, a corpus of Rs 41,600 crore was provided by the government spread over the current and the next three financial years. The scheme will be applicable to all loans sanctioned under GECL facility during the period from the date of announcement of the scheme to October 31 or till an amount of Rs 3 lakh crore is sanctioned under GECL, whichever is earlier. The main objective of the scheme is to provide an incentive to member lending institutions (MLIs) like banks, financial institutions (FIs) and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) to increase access to, and enable availability of additional funding facility to MSME borrowers, in view of the economic distress caused by the COVID-19 crisis, by providing them 100 per cent guarantee for any losses suffered by them due to non-repayment of the GECL funding by borrowers. All MSME borrower accounts with an outstanding credit of up to Rs 25 crore as on February 29 which were less than or equal to 60 days past due as on that date, i.E., regular, SMA-0 and SMA-1 accounts, and with an annual turnover of up to Rs 100 crore would be eligible for GECL funding under the scheme. The Enforcement Directorate has filed a charge sheet against senior Congress leader P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram in connection with its money laundering probe related in INX Media, people familiar with the development told HT. The chargesheet, they said, was filed on Monday before the court of special CBI judge Ajay Kumar Kumar naming both father and son alleging that they were the beneficial owners of several shell firms that were incorporated in India and abroad in connection with a Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval given to the INX Media group during Chidambarams tenure as the union finance minister. P Chidambaram was arrested by the agency in October last year inside the Tihar jail in the case. Earlier, the senior Congress leader was arrested by the CBI in August, 2019. Currently both of them are out on bail. ED has alleged earlier during court hearings that for FIPB approval, Peter and Indrani Mukerjea (then owners of INX) met P Chidambaram so that there was no hold up or delay in their application. P Chidambaram asked for his sons business interests to be kept in mind. ED identified payments of Rs 3.09 crore by Peter Mukerjea to ASCPL (Advantage Strategic Consultancy Pvt Ltd) and associated entities controlled by Karti P Chidambaram through manipulated debit notes. During investigation, it was admitted that debit notes were raised on the directions of Karti Chidambaram to show some transaction which in fact did not occur, the agency has alleged. It said the money so received by associated entities was channelled back into ASCPL. The funds received by ASCPL were invested and ASCPL also purchased shares of Vasan Health Care. A part of these shares was sold at a profit of nearly Rs 41 crore. ASCPL also earned Rs.18.49 crore from sale of shares in another company for an amount of Rs 29.49 crore. These funds arising from sale of laundered property is also property involved in money laundering, it has claimed. The agency had, in February 2019, attached properties worth Rs 54 crore allegedly belonging to Karti in Spain, the UK and India. Indrani Mukherjea, in her statement to CBI, has claimed that US dollars 5 million and US dollars 4,50,000 were transferred in overseas account of Congress leader in 2007 and 2009 respectively after getting money from INXs foreign investors while a cash payment of Rs 1 crore was made to Karti in Delhi in 2009. HT has copy of her statement. When contacted, Karti Chidabaram said on Tuesday I will not comment until something is served to me fomally. GOLDEN, CO / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2020 / Vitro Diagnostics, Inc. (OTC PINK:VODG), dba Vitro entered into an exclusive Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Global Institute of Stem Cell Therapy and Research, Inc. ("GIOSTAR") a leading stem cell research institute based in San Diego, California to jointly partner together for a COVID-19 Investigational New Drug ("IND") to the FDA using Vitro Biopharma's umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell product AlloRx Stem Cells in a clinical trial to treat Covid-19 patients. GIOSTAR is the worldwide leader in the in the field of stem cell research has its stem cell research and treatment facilities around the world. GIOSTAR is leading the way for filling the IND application for the Covid-19 with US FDA while Vitro will provide its AlloRx Stem Cells for use in the study. Giostar has already obtained the expedited compassionate use authorization from the FDA for using stem cell treatment for severe Covid-19 hospitalized patients using AlloRx Sem Cells. Vitro will continue to seek FDA authorization of its pending IND. https://www.giostar.com/2020/05/01/giostar-announces-fda-approval-compassionate-use-treat-covid-19-stem-cells-2/ The MOU is an exclusive joint collaboration for use of AlloRx Stem Cells in GIOSTAR's clinical trial and ultimately the exclusive use of AlloRx Stem Cells for the treatment of Covid-19 upon pre-market approval by the FDA as a drug treatment for Covid-19. GIOSTAR in collaboration with government of Gujarat, India is building one of the world's largest stem cell hospital. This is a dream project of India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi. www.Giostar.com. The MOU stated the intended discussions regarding use of AlloRx Stem Cells at GIOSTAR's various international stem cell facilities that would provide quality and economic advantages. Vitro is a leader in the manufacturing of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells adhering to the highest levels of the International Stem Cell Therapies standards ("ISCT"). Vitro is an ISO 9001 and ISO13485-certified, CLIA-certified and cGMP compliant manufacturer. www.vitrobiopharma.com Dr Jim Musick CEO/CSO said, "Our evolving partnership with GIOSTAR is a significant development in our strategic initiative to gain a presence in international medical tourism stem cell clinics while at the same time expanding presence in the US markets. AlloRx Stem Cells continue to gain recognition as superior stem cell therapies through our Cayman Island partner DVC Stem. We are also pleased to be recognized by GIOSTAR as a premier provider of AlloRx Stem Cells for use in treatment of COVID-19 and other therapies as well." About Vitro Biopharma: Vitro Biopharma, for over 10 years, has supplied major biopharmaceutical firms, elite university laboratories and clinical trials worldwide with Mesenchymal Stem Cells, MSC-Grow Brand of cell culture media, various stem cell derivatives and stem cell-derived differentiated cells. We also supply primary fibroblast cells and an expanding line of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) from various tumors including lung, breast, melanoma, pancreatic and colorectal tissues. Our CAFs are purchased by major pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical firms to advance immunotherapy of cancer. Out of years of research, we developed our patent-pending and proprietary line of umbilical cord derived stem cells AlloRx Stem Cells now being used in international regenerative medicine clinical trials. Our stem cells are used in regenerative medicine clinical trials with our partner in the Cayman Islands www.DVCStem.com. We have a recently approved clinical trial using our AlloRx Stem Cells to treat musculoskeletal conditions at The Medical Pavilion of the Bahamas www.tmp-bahamas.com in Nassau. Vitro Biopharma has a proprietary and scalable manufacturing platform to provide stem cell therapies to critically ill Coronavirus patients and other conditions including multiple sclerosis, OA, Chrohn's disease and numerous medical conditions that are under-treated by the current standard of care. Our cGMP manufacturing is ISO9001, ISO13485 certified and we are FDA registered. Our stem cells have been shown to be safe and effective in international Phase I clinical trials. About About GIOSTAR GIOSTAR is the pioneer and established leader in the field of stem cell research. Under the leadership of Co-Founders Dr. Anand Srivastava and Deven Patel, the San Diego-based Institute has a tradition of groundbreaking research in stem cell science spanning more than two decades. Media contact: Deven Patel deven@giostar.com Vitro Biopharma contact: Dr. James Musick Chief Executive Officer Vitro Biopharma (303) 550-2778 E-mail: jim@vitrobiopharma.com Forward-Looking Statements Statements herein regarding financial performance have not yet been reported to the SEC nor reviewed by the Company's auditors. Certain statements contained herein and subsequent statements made by and on behalf of the Company, whether oral or written may contain "forward-looking statements". Such forward looking statements are identified by words such as "intends," "anticipates," "believes," "expects" and "hopes" and include, without limitation, statements regarding the Company's plan of business operations, product research and development activities, potential contractual arrangements, receipt of working capital, anticipated revenues and related expenditures. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, among others, acceptability of the Company's products in the market place, general economic conditions, receipt of additional working capital, the overall state of the biotechnology industry and other factors set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Most of these factors are outside the control of the Company. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Except as otherwise required by applicable securities statutes or regulations, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. SOURCE: Vitro Diagnostics, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/592458/Vitro-Biopharma-Signs-MOU-with-GIOSTAR-for-COVID-19-IND-Using-AlloRx-Stem-Cells George Floyds tragic death at the hands of Minneapolis police has drawn significant attention to police brutality against black people in America. Hashtags such as #Icantbreathe and #BlackLivesMatter have proliferated Australian social media feeds. As an Australian who is a Fellow at Law for Black Lives in the US and co-author of the Say Her Name report, which highlights police brutality against black women and girls in America, I have received numerous calls from Australian friends and colleagues asking what they can do about the situation. The answer is in our own backyard. As Indigenous Australians have been quick to point out, police brutality is sadly not unique to the US. In 2015, David Dungay jnr, a 25-year-old Dunghutti man, died in circumstances his family have described as "strikingly similar" to Floyd. Dungay spoke the same words as Floyd "I cant breathe" 12 times before losing consciousness and dying while being restrained by five prison guards in Long Bay jail hospital. Dungays family sent a message of solidarity to protesters in America, saying "we feel their pain and stand with them". There are undoubtedly differences between the police brutality experienced by black communities in America and Indigenous communities in Australia, owing to Indigenous peoples unique status as original inhabitants and the history of colonisation, demographics, and Americas gun culture, among other things. Nonetheless, as journalist and Darumbal/South Sea woman Amy McGuire recently said, "our struggles are entwined and united". (Reuters) - Venezuelas oil exports plummeted in May to their lowest level since 2003 as U.S. sanctions choked exports and two Mexican firms that had acted as intermediaries for Venezuelan crude sales stopped receiving oil, Refinitiv Eikon data and internal shipping documents from state-run energy company PDVSA showed. Washington has imposed sanctions on Venezuela to starve President Nicolas Maduro of oil revenues - the OPEC nations main source of foreign income - and break his grip on power. The measures have reduced exports and deepened the countrys economic crisis but Maduro has held on, which U.S. officials say privately is a source of frustration for President Donald Trump. PDVSA and its joint ventures exported 451,935 barrels per day (bpd) of crude and fuel in 18 cargoes last month, according to the Eikon data and PDVSA documents seen by Reuters, the lowest since a general strike paralyzed the Venezuelan economy and curbed oil exports between December 2002 and January 2003. May exports fell 50% from the average of January through April. PDVSAs schedule for June shows little change from May, with only three crude cargoes assigned to buyers so far and three more waiting for nominations. PDVSA did not immediately reply to a request for comment. (For a graphic on Venezuelan fuel exports, go here: tmsnrt.rs/2yXlQQd) Mexico-based Libre Abordo and related firm Schlager Business Group had thrown a lifeline to Maduros government since late 2019, getting Venezuelan crude to market by exchanging around 30 million barrels for water trucks in an oil-for-food agreement that has been scrutinized by U.S. authorities. Libre Abordo said on Sunday it was bankrupt and that Maduro had terminated the oil-for-food swap. The Mexican companies said in a statement they were targets of an international political campaign, driven by the U.S. government, which had led to a loss of over $90 million and to Venezuela suspending exports to the two companies. The two firms received over a quarter of Venezuelas exports in May, at 3.9 million barrels, down from nearly 40% or 9.9 million barrels in April, according to the Eikon and PDVSA data. The U.S. Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Tuesday added four vessels chartered this year by Libre Abordo, Schlager Business Group and Russias Rosneft (ROSN.MM) units to transport Venezuelan oil to its list of sanctioned entities. Venezuelas foreign minister Jorge Arreaza this week accused Washington of violating human rights and freedom of trade and said that U.S. pressure on the Mexican firms was proof of the illegal character of the U.S. sanctions regime. The Mexican firms took on a larger share of Venezuelas exports as two units of Rosneft withdrew earlier this year from trading as intermediaries for Venezuelan oil sales. Rosneft had received cargoes as payment for billions of dollars of debt that Venezuela held with Russia, but suspended trade with PDVSA in March as U.S. sanctions tightened. Venezuela may struggle to increase exports if it cannot find other intermediaries to facilitate shipments. The nations crude inventories swelled by 2.3 million barrels to 38.2 million barrels in May as exports declined, according to data intelligence firm Kpler. This forced PDVSA to cut production and halt processing of its heavy oil to prepare it for export. Global fuel demand is recovering as governments worldwide relax lockdowns they had imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus. But markets remain oversupplied, giving refiners plenty of alternatives and little need to undertake the complex transactions required to buy oil from countries under sanctions such as Venezuela and Iran. UP FOR ASIA Three quarters of Venezuelan exports last month went to Asia, according to Eikon data. The crude was transferred to other tankers and blended off the coasts of Singapore and Malaysia, the data showed. Venezuelas political ally Cuba received about 65,000 bpd of crude and fuel. PDVSA imported fuel from Iran in May to ease an acute domestic shortage of gasoline, supply criticized by Washington. Barbara G. Park June 21, 1937-May 29, 2020 Former Columbus resident, Barbara Gay Boyd Park, died on May 29, 2020, at Wildewood Downs Retirement Community in Columbia, South Carolina. The daughter of Eugenia Greiner and Gayle W. Boyd, she was born and resided in Columbus until 1971. She was a graduate of Columbus High School, received her BA Degree from Wesleyan University in Lincoln, and worked as an elementary school teacher. She was a member of Delta Zeta National Sorority, and Chapter CH-P.E.O. Sisterhood. Barbara was married to Martin H. Park in June 1959 in Columbus. They were happily married for 52 years, with two daughters, Deborah Park Hanna (deceased), and Jennifer Park Taylor. The Park family resided in Munich, Germany for 38 years, and traveled extensively throughout the world. Mrs. Park assisted her husband in social and business obligations in Europe and other locations around the world with her husband's electronics company. Barbara was an elegant, vibrant, and energetic woman. She and Martin loved to entertain. They were gracious hosts, and welcomed family and friends from all over the world into their home with gourmet dinners and lively conversations. They had a knack for making their guests feel welcome. She is survived by her daughter, Jennifer Taylor and husband, Bill Taylor of Columbia, South Carolina; her sister, Mary Allerton; and her children, Betsy and Christopher of Omaha; and son-in-law, Tracy Hanna of Loveland, Colorado. She is preceded in death by her husband, Martin; and brother, David Boyd of Columbus. An excerpt from her farewell letter reads, We have had so much love within our family circle. We must share it with the world around us. Let us always remember that we must give in the measures in which we have received. God bless you all, and keep us always within His everlasting arms. I have loved my life, my husband, my children, my family, and my dear friends, and this is my final message to you. Auf Wiedersehen, until we meet again... In honor of her beloved husband, Martin, donations may be directed to the MDS Foundation, 4573 South Broad Street, Suite 150, Yardville, NJ 08620. Tel: 800-MDS-0839. Rioting that erupted in cities across the United States after the Memorial Day death of George Floyd in Minneapolis may rival the 1992 Los Angeles riots to become the most costly civil disorder in United States history. The civil disturbance in Los Angeles after the videotaped police beating of Rodney King in April and May 1992 caused $775 million in damages or $1.42 billion in todays dollars, according to the Insurance Information Institute. Those riots, however, were largely confined to one metropolitan area. Destruction and looting that erupted after Floyds death was reported in at least 25 cities, and spread into many suburbs as well. The extent of damage was unknown as of late Monday, but a sample of local news reports suggests that it is widespread: In Pittsburgh, the Public Safety department reported 50 businesses and properties in downtown area were damaged. The Downtown Seattle Association reported that 50 businesses had damaged downtown and in the neighboring Chinatown-International District. The Chicago Loop Alliance said at least 45 property were damaged in the downtown area by rioting that also spread into the cities suburbs. In Madison, Wisconsin, 75 businesses were damaged and some were looted. The National Guard reported on Monday that it had deployed troops in 24 states to protect lives and property. We expect this to be a significant loss event as the impact is being experienced in large and small markets across the U.S., stated III spokesman Mark Friedlander. However, because it is an ongoing event, it is premature to determine the volume of property loss that will be incurred. Civil disturbances generally cause modest property losses when compared to natural disasters, data from the Insurance Information Institute shows. Rioting in Los Angeles in August 1965 the second costliest civil disorder caused $357 million in damages, measured in 2020 dollars. Together, riots in Baltimore, Chicago and New York City in April 1968 caused $231 million in damages in todays dollars. By comparison, Hurricane Harvey in 2017 caused an estimated $20 billion in damages. Verisks Property Claims Service over the weekend declared the riots a catastrophe event, which means it projects damages of more than $25 million. PCS hasnt designated a civil disturbance as a catastrophe since the Baltimore riots in 2015. PCS head Tom Johansmeyer said the riots that were sparked by Floyds death may be the first civil disorder tracked by PCS that includes more than one state. Johansmeyer said to better understand potential riots from current rioting, it make sense to look at losses caused by civil unrest last year in Chile which grew from protests over an increase in subway fares in Santiago. Rioting there caused insured losses of $2 billion. About a third of that came from property claims from a handful of large retailers. When you look at the United States, riot and civil disorder may generally look like a sub-US $100 million risk, although with the potential for much greater losses, Johansmeyer said in an email to Claims Journal. But, when you add a handful of large national or international companies with losses of more than US $100 million each, you could see a much larger industry loss begin to materialize. The large losses within the catastrophe could change the character of the overall event. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst Meyer Shields said Monday that his best guess is losses from the current riots will be relatively modest. Nevertheless, the losses will combine with losses related to COVID-19 claims and property damage from a predicted above-average hurricane season to amount to a capital event for some reinsurers. As always, major losses should subsequently intensify the current hard market, but the pain especially for individual (re)insurers exposed to disproportionate losses would come first, KBW said. The Insurance Information Institute said riots, civil commotion, vandalism, looting and fire in the U.S. are covered perils under virtually all business owners and commercial insurance property policies. Merchandise stolen by looters will also be covered. III said about 40 percent of small to mid-sized businesses are also protected by business interruption coverage. Even if the business was still shut down or operating at limited capacity due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, most insurers will determine income loss based on a 12-month assessment of the operations income, the Institute said in an email. That coverage may also protect businesses that have to shut down early because of curfews imposed by city governments, III said. About the photo: Police SWAT officers guard firefighters as they respond to the Champs Sports store after protesters looted and set the building on fire during protests on Sunday, May 31, 2020 in TampaProtests were held throughout the country over the death of Floyd, a black man who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25. (Luis Santana/Tampa Bay Times via AP) This is a tale of two cities, or rather, a tale of over 100 cites across the nation that had protests against the police-custody killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis a week ago. In Philadelphia, a non-violent Saturday afternoon demonstration that started with speeches on the iconic Philadelphia Art Museum steps had morphed by sundown into an ugly series of physical confrontations between city officers and marchers and, by darkness, into a widespread frenzy of window breaking, setting fires and general looting of Center City businesses. By Sunday evening, the lawbreaking and retail theft had spread to several Philadelphia neighborhood shopping areas, places that had seen no legitimate expression of outcry against the horrendous actions of Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin and three other officers who were there during the incident. Across the Delaware River in Camden yes, that Camden a smaller protest Saturday ended as peacefully as it began. One difference was that Camden County Metro Police Chief Joe Wysocki and other officers walked with the protesters, the chief among those holding a banner reading Standing in Solidarity. Camden was among a handful of cities that won national praise for the demeanor of its protest. Many others avoided violence, but Camden was one of the few where the cops and their aggrieved constituents didnt appear to be talking past each other. It just wasnt the same in Philadelphia, New York City, Minneapolis, Atlanta or Los Angeles. The Philadelphia cops showed amazing restraint against incitement to elevate the incident. But, thats not the same as endorsing the cause of marchers who rightly oppose police brutality and unnecessary killings. A South Jersey Times letter writer informed us that a far-less-publicized demonstration in Pitman on Sunday also had the participation of police from the borough and its neighbors. Officers in adjoining towns helped protect the marchers as they headed along busy Delsea Drive. Thats not to say that a lack of empathy by police is what made Philadelphia, New York and Chicago go sour. The looters and arsonists were a distinct minority of the protesters. Mayors and governors, however, made way too much of flimsy outside agitator claims. They sound like parents who get hauled in front of the elementary school principal after a bullying incident and declare, MY kid would NEVER do that. Its a bad look, one that actually marginalizes the ongoing frustration that minority citizens have with being disrespected, or worse, by local law enforcement or government. Lets get real. Far-left or far-right anarchists from out of town may have been catalysts, but no fringe group we know of has the liberation of every pair of Air Jordans as its geopolitical goal. Residents of Camden, Pitman, Newark and other places who kept things calm did justice to the memory of George Floyd. Police departments that routinely practice de-escalation skills and positive neighborhood interaction are part of the solution to systematic racism. The Camden cops are not entirely free of excessive force accusations, evidence that best efforts may not be 100% effective in changing an organizations culture. Professor Cornel West addressed this well in a CNN interview the other night. Calling America a failed social experiment, West noted that the Black Lives Matter movement gained prominence in the administration of a Black president with a Black attorney general and a Black homeland security chief. Yet, he said, they were unable to stop unjustified police killings of unarmed Black Americans or the damage of white supremacy. To indicate what to do when efforts dont attain desired success, though, West cited a line attributed to author Samuel Beckett: Try again. Fail again. Fail better. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Send a letter to the editor of South Jersey Times at sjletters@njadvancemedia.com Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. Detroit, MI, June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- National Veterans Business Development Council (NVBDC) is Changing How American Businesses Perceive Veteran Owned Companies. Senior leadership is the organizations foundation to accelerate programs, mentorships and increase corporate relationship opportunities for NVBDC certified Service-Disabled/Veteran Owned Businesses (SD/VOBs). The NVBDC Advisory Board is a diverse and inclusive group of high-level men and women involved with procurement and supplier diversity programs from various businesses to support our Officers and Board of Directors. The National Veterans Business Development Council addressed the need to identify and certify both Service-Disabled/Veteran Owned Businesses (SD/VOBs) of all sizes in the corporate marketplace. It is essential to maintain this mission for our Veterans while staying informed about the needs of our corporate members to help our executive team make organizational decisions. We are Vets helping Vets, supporting Service-Disabled/Veteran Owned Business growth, and assisting our corporations to meet their supplier diversity goals. It is essential for our Advisory Board, Officers and Board of Directors, to stay informed. It is so important to the NVBDC mission that we appoint our advisors with the right knowledge, a proven track record, and a connection with major corporations to achieve our goals to help our certified Veteran business owners. One of our stated objectives for 2020 was to find and appoint U.S. Military Veterans with a strong corporate procurement background to our board and Tom meets those standards. said Brigadier General (ret) Richard Miller, President, NVBDC. Thomas Loffredo is a result driven leader with the ability to negotiate and effectively collaborate with senior executives and peers by motivating team members and cultivating strategic business and interpersonal relationships. Thomas is a consultant with expertise in strategic sourcing, procurement transformation and technology management. Thomas also has extensive military experience, in the US Army, where he earned the elite US Army Ranger and Airborne designations. With these professional achievements and experience with the US Rangers, Thomas brings exceptional insight to the NVBDC Advisory Board. Formerly the Director of Strategic Sourcing and Procurement at MetLife, Inc., Thomas was instrumental in transforming the organizational model, contracting structures and service platforms for one of the most significant cost centers in the business with a $400M+ annual spend. Early in his career, Thomas worked for Johnson & Johnson, NYSE, among other major corporations while affiliated with niche technology consulting firms. He has spent a major portion of his career leading the deployment of advanced technologies and practices in strategic sourcing management, driving significant value contribution and improvements. With over 22 years of experience in Information Technology, technology services, strategic sourcing and procurement, Thomas has negotiated multi-million-dollar contracts with world-class technology corporations, human capital, and professional services providers. Thomas is the founder of a Veteran Owned Small Business (VOSB); Patriot Staffing & Services, LLC, a full-service staffing company that provides customized solutions for resource planning, sourcing/procurement, staff augmentation and vendor management. The National Veteran Business Development Councils motto is Veterans helping Veterans, and our Advisory Board needs to have representation from Service-Disabled/Veteran Owned Businesses to stay current with the issues and concerns within the veteran owned business community. NVBDCs Mission: The NVBDC is the only Veteran Owned Business Certification organization developed by Veterans for Veterans. The purpose is to provide a credible and reliable certifying authority for all size businesses, ensuring that valid documentation exists of Veteran ownership and control. Any questions go to: www.nvbdc.org or contact us at (888)-CERTIFIED National Veterans Business Attachments Bali has reopened two of its most popular beaches Canggu and Padang Padang in the Canggu and Padang Padang areas for foreign tourists and not the locals. The overseas travellers are now allowed to surf the beaches as authorities on June 1 said that the Island regretted tourists couldnt catch the wave, as per local media reports. Bali tourism officials told a press conference that the administration wouldnt like the tourist to sneak through bushes to avoid the beach barricades and get bitten by snakes. The Island of Bali, that witnesses over half a million tourists a month, suspended visas on arrival as of March 20 and halted international flights to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. However, the Island now claimed that the disease was well under control in the region. Badung Tourism Agency chief, Made Badra, was quoted as saying, only two beaches which opened on June 1were for foreign surfers only and not the locals. There is a surfer community of the overseas nationals in the area who requested access to the beaches for surfing as an outdoor activity. He added the community has put out that they would follow the health protocols, and therefore, the administrations have approved the activity. Read: Nissan To Close Indonesia, Spain Auto Plants After Losses Read: Indonesian Choreographers Provide Digital Stage For Dancers Denpasar reopened As early as last week, the Balinese capital, Denpasar, reopened the markets and local businesses as the region lifted the lockdown with only 235 confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to reports. As many as 4 fatalities were recorded so far, meanwhile 34 people recovered from the coronavirus amid warnings that the Island could well be a new emerging hotspot in Indonesia. Earlier, the security minister of Indonesia Mohammad Mahfud MD was under fire after he compared the deadly coronavirus to a wife. Soon after his statement, the social media users slammed the apparent "joke" by the minister. As per media reports, Mahfud made the comments during an online address to a local university, earlier this week. The Indonesian minister started by asking if the world is going to be holed up forever. Further, he added, people, have to adjust to the situation while still paying attention to their health. Read: Modi Wishes Armenian PM, Family Speedy Recovery From Coronavirus Read: China Delayed Releasing Coronavirus Info, Frustrating WHO (Image Credit: Instagram/Discovabali) Coromandel International fell 2.02% to Rs 638.10 on the BSE after promoter E.I.D. Parry sold 2% stake in the company in the open market today, 2 June 2020. E.I.D. Parry (India), in an exchange filing made during market hours today, said that it has sold today 58.50 lakh equity shares, or 2% equity, of Coromandel International at Rs 629.19 each. Post this sale, E.I.D. Parry holds 58.48% stake in Coromandel International from 60.47% stake held as on 31 March 2020. E.I.D. Parry has raised Rs 368.07 crore from the stake sale. "The proceeds of sale will be used to bring down the debt of the company, it said in the BSE filing. Shares of E.I.D. Parry fell 1.64% to end at Rs 212.75. On the BSE, the Coromandel counter clocked a volume of 92.64 lakh shares against its average trading volume of 0.12 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock tumbled 5.16% to hit a low of Rs 617.65 on BSE in early trade today. On the NSE, the stock lost 1.97% to Rs 638. The counter clocked a volume of 64.34 lakh shares compared with its average trading volume of 3.23 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock tumbled 5.33% to hit a low of Rs 616.0 on NSE in early trade today. Coromandel International operates in business of fertilizers, specialty nutrients, crop protection and retail. The company is India's second largest phosphatic fertilizer player. The company's consolidated net profit surged 112.2% to Rs 234.20 crore on 8.8% increase in net sales to Rs 2,869.32 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 14:33:04|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close COLOMBO, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Five Sri Lanka friendship organizations on Monday slammed foreign interventions in China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), and voiced support for China's efforts to introduce national security legislation for the HKSAR. "We are pleased and encouraged to see the National People's Congress of China has adopted (the) decision to make Hong Kong national security laws, which will definitely enhance peace, stability, and prosperity of Hong Kong and the whole region," the five organizations said in a joint statement. "We believe the new national security law for Hong Kong will not only abide by but also enhance 'one country, two systems' and guarantee the legitimate rights of (the) people of Hong Kong," the statement added. The statement was signed by the Sri Lanka-China Friendship Association (SLCFA), Sri Lanka-China Society, Association for Sri Lanka-China Social and Cultural Cooperation, Sri Lanka-China Journalists' Forum and the Sri Lanka-China Buddhist Friendship Association. Meanwhile, SLCFA President Ananda Goonatilleke was quoted by local daily The Island as saying that some Western countries were trying to "intimidate China when it is trying to address increasingly notable national security risks in Hong Kong." U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to alter a "full range of agreements" that the country has with Hong Kong was "ominous" and followed a trend of Western interventions in the internal affairs of other countries, including Sri Lanka, Goonatilleke added. Enditem A Co Down man who used a fake online profile to contact teenage girls was caught in an undercover police operation, a court heard yesterday A Co Down man who used a fake online profile to contact teenage girls was caught in an undercover police operation, a court heard yesterday. Handing Neil Cunningham a three-year sentence, Judge Patrick Lynch QC said: "The protection of young children from predatory activity over the internet must be a high priority for the police and it must be the case that the courts will support them in combating this type of activity." The 32-year-old, from Glebe Manor in Hillsborough, was told his sentence will be divided between 18 months in custody and 18 on licence. Craigavon Crown Court, sitting remotely in Belfast, heard Cunningham took an image of an American YouTuber and used it to set up a fake profile. Using this, he then came into contact online with a girl he believed was 13 and told her he would give her 100 if she performed a sex act on a webcam. This offending occurred in September 2018 and was the result of a police operation where an officer was posing as the girl. When police went to Cunningham's home following his online activity they seized several devices including a laptop, where they uncovered other conversations he had with girls under 16, along with indecent images of children. At the time of this offending Cunningham was the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (Sopo), which was imposed in 2014 for prior offences involving indecent images of children. When the devices seized were examined it emerged Cunningham had installed software that hid his internet history - something he was banned from doing under the terms of the Sopo. Cunningham was arrested and pleaded guilty to eight offences including attempting to arrange or facilitate a sexual offence with a child, breaching a Sopo and making indecent images of children. Crown barrister Ian Tannahill told Judge Lynch: "The key is the totality over the three different types of offences which shows carrying out an ongoing planned and developing pattern of offending, even after having a Sopo put in place." He also branded Cunningham's criminal behaviour as "unusual and sophisticated". Defence barrister Conor Coulter described his client as "a man that has displayed genuine remorse" and one who is willing to address his offending behaviour. As he sentenced Cunningham, Judge Lynch said he noted a medical report compiled on the defendant where he admitted what he was doing was wrong, but that he enjoyed the process of manipulation. SUZHOU, China, June 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Innovent Biologics, Inc. (Innovent) (HKEX: 01801), a world-class biopharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures and commercializes high quality medicines for the treatment of cancer, metabolic, autoimmune and other major diseases, today announces the preliminary results of the Phase 1a clinical study (NCT03875157) of the recombinant fully human anti-programmed bispecific antibody IBI318 against programmed death receptor 1 (PD-1) and programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) in patients with advanced tumors at the 56th American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting (Abstract # 3062, Poster #126, 8:00 AM 11:00 AM, U.S. Central Time, Friday, May 29, 2020). The NCT03875157 study presented at the ASCO annual meeting was a Phase 1 clinical study conducted in China to evaluate the safety, tolerability and anti-tumor activity of IBI318 in subjects with advanced tumors. The main clinical data include: As of January 10, 2020 , a total of 15 subjects had enrolled in the 1a dose escalation phase, and the dose exploration phase of 600 mg Q2W is currently ongoing. A total of 11 subjects experienced treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) and the most common TRAEs were pyrexia (20.0%, G1/2) and infusion reactions (20.0%, G1/2). There were no Grade 3 or higher TRAEs. One subject had a Grade 2 immune-related arthritis at a dose of 300 mg. , a total of 15 subjects had enrolled in the 1a dose escalation phase, and the dose exploration phase of 600 mg Q2W is currently ongoing. A total of 11 subjects experienced treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) and the most common TRAEs were pyrexia (20.0%, G1/2) and infusion reactions (20.0%, G1/2). There were no Grade 3 or higher TRAEs. One subject had a Grade 2 immune-related arthritis at a dose of 300 mg. Twelve subjects had at least 1 tumor assessment, and 9 subjects received IBI318 treatment at doses of 10 mg and above, with 3 subjects experiencing an objective response. Professor Ruihua Xu, the leader of the study and President of Zhongshan Cancer Prevention and Control Center, said: "Immunotherapy is entering into the era of bispecific antibodies from monoclonal antibodies. The preliminary results from NCT03875157 study show that IBI318, a first-in-class bispecific antibody, has an acceptable safety profile. We are hopeful to see positive results from the following studies to help more patients in need. " About IBI318 (Anti-PD-1/PD-L1 Bispecific Antibody) IBI318 is an innovative recombinant fully human IgG1 bispecific antibody that restores T cell activation and anti-tumor function by blocking PD-1 and PD-L1/PD-L2 signaling pathways, and blocking PD-L1 binding CD80 signaling pathway. IBI318 is expected to improve anti-tumor activity and efficacy by bridging PD-1-expressing T cells and PD-L1-expressing tumor cells through its bispecific ability to form an immune synapse between the two. About Innovent Inspired by the spirit of "Start with Integrity, Succeed through Action," Innovent's mission is to develop, manufacture and commercialize high-quality biopharmaceutical products that are affordable to ordinary people. Established in 2011, Innovent is committed to developing, manufacturing and commercializing high quality innovative medicines for the treatment of cancer, metabolic, autoimmune and other major diseases. On October 31, 2018, Innovent was listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited with the stock code: 01801.HK. Since its inception, Innovent has developed a fully integrated multifunctional platform which includes R&D, CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls), clinical development and commercialization capabilities. Leveraging the platform, the company has built a robust pipeline of 23 valuable assets in the fields of cancer, metabolic, autoimmune diseases and other major therapeutic areas, with 17 in clinical development, five in Phase 3 or pivotal clinical trials, four under NDA reviews by the NMPA (three under priority review status), while TYVYT (sintilimab injection), officially approved for marketing in China in 2018, has been the only PD-1 inhibitor included in the NRDL, since 2019. Innovent has built an international team of advanced talents in high-end biological drug development and commercialization, including many overseas experts. The company has also entered into strategic collaborations with Eli Lilly and Company, Adimab, Incyte, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Hanmi and other international partners. Innovent strives to work with all relevant parties to help advance China's biopharmaceutical industry, improve drug availability to ordinary people and enhance the quality of the patients' lives. For more information, please visitwww.innoventbio.com. SOURCE Innovent Biologics, Inc. Related Links www.innoventbio.com The trading of Syriatel shares has been halted as the board announces new members writes Hashtag Syria. Fifteen days after Syriatel executive directors signed the book directed to the Telecommunications and Post Regulatory Authority, the companys board of directors on Saturday ended the 18-year appointment of CEO Majda Saqr, replacing her with Ayman Muhammad Shafiq Zowiya al-Yamaa, who revealed the switchover on Jun. 1, 2020. That same day, the Board of Commissioners released decree no. 57, which included the suspension of trading in Syriatel shares, to be issued from Tuesdays session on Jun. 2, 2020, until further notice. The companys board of directors is made up of five members, two of whom resigned, including Ehab Makhlouf (Rami Makhloufs brother), who is to be replaced by Ramis 20-year-old son Ali. The other resigned member is Muhammad al-Jalali (former Communications Minister), who replaced Humam al-Jazairi (former Economy Minister). The Board now consists of four members, with the fifth seat left vacant without a replacement for Muhammad al-Jalani. Those members are: Rami Makhlouf, Chair of the Board of Directors, with a 40 percent share, representing the Ramak Projects and Humanitarian Development LLC. Ali, the son of Rami Makhlouf and Deputy Chair, with a 13.5 percent share, representing the Mashreq Investment Fund, a holding company. Adeeb Muhanna, a cousin of Rami Makhlouf. Leon Hilal, who replaced Dr. Ahmad Basel al-Khashi as representative of the Mashreq Investment Fund. It is rumored that Majda Saqrs salary exceeded tens of thousands of dollars per month, covered by two offshore companies whose contracts were terminated on Dec. 23, 2019. These two companies took in around 11 billion Syrian pounds in 2019. Executive administrators announced that the company had signed the agreement with the Telecoms Authority on rebalancing the individual license granted to Syriatel despite not having obtained authorization from the Chair of the Board of Directors, as well as their acceptance to adjust the revenue-sharing percentage stipulated in the individual license to 50 percent instead of 20 percent, starting from the date of signing until the end of the licensing period. This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. CENPA takes anti-COVID-19 kits to Le Messager WhatsApp The Cameroon English Language Newspaper PublishersAssociation, CENPA, has handed over consignments of anti-COVID-19 kits to The Guardian Post and Le Messager as part of a nationwide plan to arm newsrooms against the pandemic. The sanitary kits comprising hand-wash buckets, hand sanitizers, a good quantity of face masks, tablets of washing soap and disinfectants were presented to officials of the aforementioned media organs at two separate ceremonies in Yaounde Monday, June 1, 2020. Solomon Tembang, Managing Editor of The Guardian Post was on hand to receive the kits handed over to them by CENPAs Public Relations Officer, Ndi Eugene Ndi. Staffers of the lone English language daily were told to bar the way to the novel coronavirus by strictly adhering to restrictive measures including the respect of basic hygiene and the wearing of facemasks. The next stop of the CENPA anti-COVID-19 caravan was at the newsroom of the iconic French language daily, Le Messager. The delegation led by CENPA President Kristian Ngah Christian was welcomed by Le Messager Publisher Jean Francois Channon thanked the Cameroon English Language Newspaper publishers for the never-seen initiative. The CENPA caravan continues to other media houses in Yaounde with newsroom in the other regions to have their turn within the shortest possible delay. CENPA holds that journalists are even more vulnerable, unlike health personnel, because in the line of their duties in collecting information, they get in contact with people on a daily basis whose status they do not know. During a press conference to unveil the initiative, the President of CENPA, Kristian Ngah Christian, who doubles as Publisher of The Guardian Post daily newspaper, said this donation aims to, accompany government in its efforts in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and ensure that journalists and their working environments are protected while they cover and report on the pandemic. As the virus continues to spread, journalists themselves are constrained in their movements, with highly-limited access to events, officials, politicians and information. Cameroon-Info.Net recalls that this is not the first time CENPA is accompanying government to surmount tasking challenges. At the eve of back-to-school last September, CENPA doled out school kits to pupils and students in all the 13 Divisions of the crisis-hit regions. In 2019, CENPA organised a seminar on crisis reporting and peace-building as its contribution to government efforts aimed at resolving the crisis in the two English-speaking regions. No fewer than 100 media practitioners from the North West, South West, West, Centre and Littoral regions attended the Yaounde seminar. BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jun. 2 By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend: Implementation of the project of Asian Development Bank (ADB) to support overall business restructuring and transformation plan of Samruk-Energy, Kazakhstans largest power generation company, is underway, ADB representative told Trend. The official said that ADBs current non-sovereign loan portfolio in Kazakhstan includes three projects for about $162 million. The ongoing projects in private sector include, apart from the loan to Samruk-Energy, two loans to support the construction and operation of solar power plants of a 50MW and 100 MW installed capacity in the Southern Kazakhstan. The solar power plants in South Kazakhstan that ADB is financing will boost the development of an early-stage solar power sector in the country and help replace imports of electricity in power-deficient southern Kazakhstan with indigenous renewable sources, the official said. Talking benefits that Kazakhstan is to gain from implementation of these projects, the official said that these projects are aimed at promoting economic diversification, inclusive growth and sustainable development. ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members. --- Follow the author on twitter: @nargiz_sadikh Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 23:51:40|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WASHINGTON, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The global economy is suffering a devastating blow from the COVID-19 pandemic which is threatening to push over 60 million people into extreme poverty this year, World Bank Group President David Malpass said Tuesday. At a press call on the launch of the analytical chapters of the Global Economic Prospects report, Malpass said that developing countries are facing an unprecedented health and economic crisis, which jeopardizes decades of development progress. "The poor and the most vulnerable are hardest hit, adding to the deep inequality caused by growth that was often too slow to great jobs, higher medium incomes and better living standards," Malpass told reporters. Unprecedented restrictions needed to address the COVID-19 pandemic have triggered deep recessions in many advanced economies and emerging market and developing economies, according to the report. "Deep recessions currently underway are likely to leave lasting scars through multiple channels, including lower investment and innovation, erosion of the human capital, and retreat from global trade and supply chains," the report said. These effects may well lower potential growth and labor productivity in the longer term, the report noted. "The long-term damage will be particularly severe in economies that suffer financial crises, and, in energy exporters, due to plunging oil prices." Despite numerous challenges, the World Bank president said some of the biggest concerns have not yet come to pass. Facing the pandemic, Malpass said the World Bank will work to limit the harm and help countries prepare for recovery so they can rebuild better and stronger than before. "Policy choices made today -- including greater debt transparency to invite new investment, faster advances in digital connectivity, and a major expansion of cash safety nets for the poor -- will help limit the damage and build a stronger recovery," he said. The World Bank president noted that the financing and building of productive infrastructure are among the hardest-to-solve development challenges in the post-pandemic recovery. "Countries will need to allow an orderly allocation of capital towards sectors that are productive in the new post-pandemic structures, using systems they can build and retain for human and physical capital during the recovery," he said. Malpass added that there will be a need for new types of jobs, businesses, and governance systems. Enditem Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the annual session of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on its 125th anniversary via video link, in New Delhi, on June 2, 2020. (PTI Photo) New Delhi: A day after Moody's downgraded India's credit rating to a notch above junk status on growth concerns, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday asserted that the country will definitely get back its economic growth and said reforms undertaken during the lockdown will help the economy in the long-run. Pledging to undertake more structural reforms that will change the course of the country, he explained the concept of Atma-nirbhar Bharat or Self-reliant India - one where products are Made in India for the world and a nation that is not dependent on others in strategic sectors. "Getting growth back is not that difficult and the path to that is Atma-nirbhar bharat," he said. Self-reliant India means the country will embrace the world by becoming stronger. "Atma-nirbhar bharat will be fully integrated with the world economy and also be supportive." "We have to invest in the robust local supply chain that can strengthen India's participation in global supply chain," he said. "There is a need to create products that are Made in India and Made for the World." Self-reliant India is about cutting down imports, improving productivity setting targets, and not relying on others in strategic sectors, he said. "It is about creating strong enterprises in India. Enterprises that can become global forces. It is about generating employment. It is about empowering people to come out and create solutions that can define the future of our country." Speaking at CII's Annual Session, he called on India Inc to rise to the occasion and partner rural India in these testing times. "On the one hand we have taken tough steps to fight the virus and on the other, we have taken care of the economy," he said. "We have to save the lives of citizens while also stabilise the economy and speed up growth," he added. Indian industry, he said, has started talking about 'getting growth back'. "I will go beyond getting growth back to say Yes! We will definitely get our growth back," he said expressing confidence in Indian farmers, small businesses, and entrepreneurs for helping achieve that. Meanwhile, Moody's Investors Service on Monday downgraded India to the lowest investment grade level and kept it on a negative watch. This because the country faces a prolonged period of slower growth relative to its potential and rising debt. It joined S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings in predicting the first contraction in GDP in over four decades and a fiscal deficit blowout as the coronavirus pandemic spreads. Reforms, he said, means the courage to take decisions, and take them to their logical conclusion. The government is trying to create a facilitative ecosystem for private enterprises, he said. During the lockdown, the government opened up non-strategic sectors to the private sector. It freed up the coal sector by allowing commercial mining and allowed the private sector to invest in sectors like space and atomic energy. Also, long-pending labour reforms are being undertaken. To get back on the growth path, the country needs to focus on intent, inclusion, and infrastructure. India, he said, can increase exports and create jobs in furniture, air-conditioning, leather and footwear sectors. After more than two months of the world's most expansive lockdown, the country has entered 'Un-lock Phase-one'. "Under Un-Lock Phase-one, a large part of the economy has opened up," he said adding the lockdown had been effective in controlling the spread of coronavirus. Stating that strengthening the economy was among the highest priorities of the government, he said the decisions taken since March will help the nation in the long-run. On government measures to deal with the fallout of lockdown, he said Rs 53,000 crore financial assistance in the form of free ration to poor and migrant workers, and cash to poor women and aged people has been provided. Over 8 crore poor households have been provided free cooking gas. Also, steps have been taken to bring relief to farmers via an amendment to the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act. Farmers will now get the right to sell their produce on their own terms, he said. The border standoff between India and China, the ongoing civil disturbances in the United States and need for reforms in the World Health Organisation were among a host of issues that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump discussed during a telephonic talk on Tuesday. In the conversation, President Trump extended an invitation to Modi to attend the next G-7 summit to be held in the US, the Ministry of External Affairs said. On Saturday, Trump pitched for expansion of the G7 comprising the world's most advanced economies by including India and three other countries. "The two leaders also exchanged views on other topical issues, such as the COVID-19 situation in the two countries, the situation on the India-China border, and the need for reforms in the World Health Organisation," the MEA said. The talks between the two leaders came days after India rejected Trump's offer of mediation to end the tense border standoff between India and China in eastern Ladakh. India had also rejected Trump's claim that he spoke to Modi on the eastern Ladakh standoff. In the conversation, Modi expressed concern regarding the ongoing civil disturbances in the US, and conveyed his best wishes for an early resolution of the situation, the MEA said. "President Trump spoke about the US Presidency of the Group of Seven, and conveyed his desire to expand the ambit of the grouping beyond the existing membership, to include other important countries including India. "In this context, he extended an invitation to Prime Minister Modi to attend the next G-7 Summit to be held in USA," it said. According to the ministry, Modi commended the US president for his creative and far-sighted approach, acknowledging the fact that such an expanded forum would be in keeping with the emerging realities of the post-COVID world. "The prime minister said that India would be happy to work with the US and other countries to ensure the success of the proposed summit," it said. In a tweet, Modi said, 'Had a warm and productive conversation with my friend President @realDonaldTrump. We discussed his plans for the US Presidency of G-7, the COVID-19 pandemic, and many other issues.' 'The richness and depth of India-US consultations will remain an important pillar of the post-COVID global architecture,' the prime minister added. In the statement, the MEA said Trump warmly recalled his visit to India in February this year. Modi said that the visit had been memorable and historic on many accounts, and had also added new dynamism to the bilateral relationship. "The exceptional warmth and candour of the conversation reflected the special nature of the Indo-US ties, as well as the friendship and mutual esteem between both leaders," the MEA said. ShortsTV, the worlds first 24/7 channel dedicated to short films is back with the 2020 edition of its indigenous Best of India Short Film Festival, allowing filmmakers to submit entries online. Now in its third edition and having received over 1000 entries already, the Festival allows Indian filmmakers a chance to showcase their craft and creativity to the global audience. Established with a goal to honour & recognize the exceptional work of Indian filmmakers and opening new opportunities for them, the ShortsTV Best of India Short Film Festival shortlists the top 5 films from the entries. These shortlisted films will be winning a theatrical release in Hollywood which qualifies them for Oscar consideration. The five shortlisted films also receive prize totalling $2,500 and are eligible for a television broadcast deal on ShortsTV. Commenting on the occasion, Carter Pilcher, Chief Executive, ShortsTV said, Indian filmmakers have unparalleled creativity and deserve global recognition. We created the ShortsTV Best of India Short Film Festival as a launching pad to give the best Indian short filmmakers a shot at Oscar recognition. These prizes are the pinnacle of film and Indias filmmakers have been shutout of the competition. Thats starting to change. We have seen some amazing films during the first two editions of the Festival, have gotten a great response so far for the 2020 edition and are seeing some films that might break-out. Its exciting. Winners of the 2019 edition were Half Full, featuring veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah and versatile actor Vikrant Massey, and Counterfeit Kunkoo, written and directed by Reema Sengupta. The other shortlisted movies that qualified for Oscar consideration include Unfamiliar by Rahat Jain and Maya by Vikas Chandra. Subscribers can watch and enjoy the previous years shortlisted and winning short films such as Unfamiliar and Shunyata on ShortsTV. To be eligible for the competition, entries need to be narrative live action short films with a total running time of 40 minutes or less where either the writer, director or producer is from India and the films final form is in High Definition (HD) or DCP. Key dates for the competition are as follows: by Nirmala Carvalho In today's homily, the Archbishop of Mumbai highlights the relationship between the state and the Church, in a difficult time due to the lockdown and the many attacks on religious freedom. "Not everything belongs to Caesar, not everything belongs to the state". "Some things belong to God. This is the beginning of human rights, the value of the individual, the value of the human person." Card. Gracias assures Narendra Modi: We pray for you at all our masses. Mumbai (AsiaNews) - "Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God", the phrase of Jesus in today's Gospel (Mark 12, 13-17), "changed mans way of thinking. It gave official value to governments and states for the first time, but it also placed a limit on absolutism." These were the reflections of Card. Oswald Gracias as he highlighted the relationship between the State and the Church in his homily at morning mass live streamed because of the pandemic. The online masses of the cardinal, president of the Indian bishops' conference (CBCI), have a large audience in the English-speaking world. The messages and letters from spectators arriving at the office of the archdiocese of Mumbai arrive from all over the world. At present, the relationship between the State and the Church in India is not easy: with Narendra Modi's government attacks have grown on Christian people and institutions, attributed to Hindu nationalist groups, who are supporters of Modi and his BJP party (Bharatiya Janata Party). "Render to Caesar the things of Caesar - explained card- Gracias - is giving the government a license of holiness: it has an authority that comes from God, but this also has limits. Not everything belongs to Caesar; some things belong to God. This is the beginning of human rights, the value of the individual, the value of the human person. We are therefore in a situation in which to understand the difference between Caesar and God, in which there are two different 'competences' ". The authority to Caesar, he later explained, was given by God, "in the wisdom of God they are our leaders and need our help, our prayer". The cardinal then said that the past Indian premier, Atal Bihari Vajpayee asked him once if it was true that we pray for him every Sunday. He continued: I told him that it is true, that at the prayer of the faithful every Sunday we pray for him". The cardinal also said this to Prime Minister Modi: "We pray for you regularly at masses". Our government deserves our loyalty. That's why I asked everyone to follow the lockdown rules. They are there our safety and for that of others and the whole nation. " "The second principle - he explained - is that "not everything belongs to Cesar, not everything belongs to the state. There are things that belong to God. On our heart there is the seal of God, we are made in the image of God; our hearts, our souls belong to God. Therefore, this loyalty to God is essential." "We must have wisdom, prudence, intelligence to understand how to give Caesar what is due to him, participating in all the responsibilities of the government, paying taxes, etc. On the other hand, we have our responsibilities in following our conscience when God is involved." Editor's note: This article has been updated with new information from the Louisville Metro Police Department. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer on Monday announced the firing of the city's police chief after learning that two officers involved in the fatal shooting of a black business owner had not activated their body cameras. Fischer said both officers, Kate Crews and Allen Austin, have been put on administrative leave. "This type of institutional failure will not be tolerated. Accordingly, I have relieved Steve Conrad of his duties as chief of Louisville Metro Police Department," Fischer said in a news conference. The family of the victim identified him as David McAtee, who owned a barbecue near the shooting scene, CBS affiliate WLKY-TV reported. The mayor called McAtee a wonderful citizen, and said many knew him as "the BBQ Man." screen-shot-2020-06-02-at-3-35-59-pm.png David McAtee, who ran Yaya's BBQ in Louisville, was shot and killed when officers opened fire during protests early on June 1, 2020. CBS affiliate WLKY-TV Police said the shooting happened when officers tried to break up a large group of protesters. Police said video from inside and outside McAtee's business shows him firing a weapon before he was killed. Officials said it appears that McAtee fired the first shot and that an investigation is ongoing. It is unclear what sparked the confrontation. The two officers involved in the shooting violated department policy by not wearing or activating the bodycams, said Deputy Chief Robert Schroeder. "We will review the entire incident to determine if there were any other policy violations that occurred," Schroeder said. "I assure you, there will be discipline for failing to utilize our cameras." Schroeder said Kentucky State Police will also be conducting an independent oversight investigation. The mayor said the National Guard will also carry out an investigation. In addition, U.S. Attorney Russel Coleman announced Monday night that the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office will also investigate the shooting "and will take any appropriate action that is warranted by the facts and the law." Story continues "I strongly welcome these external investigations ... and will support them in any way possible," Fischer said. Louisville Protesters continue to gather after nightfall despite a curfew being put in place on May 30, 2020, in Louisville. Brett Carlsen / Getty Police officers and members of the National Guard had been enforcing the city's curfew amid demonstrations over the killing of Breonna Taylor and nationwide protests over George Floyd's death in Minneapolis. At least 40 people were arrested at demonstrations in Louisville on Sunday. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear also held a press conference Monday and said it was unacceptable that there was no activated body camera footage and that the firing of the police chief "had to happen." Louisville was home to Taylor, who was in bed with her boyfriend when three plainclothes police detectives entered her home in March. Gunfire erupted and Taylor was killed. Taylor's death led to protests and the end of the Louisville police practice of "no-knock" search warrants, which allow officers to enter a home without announcing their presence, often in drug cases to prevent suspects from getting rid of a stash. "Our community is devastated yet again. Not only are we fighting for justice for Breonna Taylor, but we have lost another treasured Louisvillian, Mr. David McAtee," Representative Charles Booker of Kentucky said Monday. "While we demand accountability and know that structural and policy changes must be made, I am committed to standing with the people of our city to build trust and a path forward. In the midst of our pain today, a powerful display of unity was shown as officers put down their weapons and the community locked arms. Let's build on that, demand justice and heal together." On Monday, McAtee's family spoke out, saying he was known as a "community pillar" and "was a good person." "All he did on that barbecue corner is try to make a dollar for himself and his family," McAtee's mother told the Courier-Journal. "And they come along and they killed my son." "When a mother loses her child, a piece of you goes along with that child," she added. "Right now, I can't tell you the feeling I have. All I can say -- when a mother loses her child, a piece of you goes along with that child." -- Odessa Riley, #DavidMcAtee's mother #Louisville #BreonnaTaylor pic.twitter.com/jdtI4mqcZL Philmonger (@phillipmbailey) June 1, 2020 CBS News Special Report: Protests over George Floyd's death enter 6th night Analyzing Trump's calls for military mobilization to confront nationwide protests NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio's daughter arrested at protests Diane Verga, a physician with Hooper Avenue Adult Care in Toms River, N.J., checks patient Carol Nering's electronic medical record on March 25, 2013. Electronic health records (EHRs) have largely replaced written medical records in hospitals across the country to reduce human error that could result in patient injury or death. A study found these new systems may be failing to do their job. Researchers at University of Utah Health, Harvard University and Brigham and Womens Hospital discovered EHRs didn't detect up to 33% of medical errors in study simulations, according to the report published Friday in an issue of JAMA Open Network. Dr. David C. Classen, study author and professor of internal medicine at University of Utah Health, said EHRs are failing to save lives. The systems are supposed to issue warnings to doctors if their orders for medication could result in allergic reactions, adverse drug interactions, excessive doses or other potentially harmful effects. In any other industry, this degree of software failure wouldnt be tolerated, Classen said in a news release. You would never get on an airplane, for instance, if an airline could only promise it could get you to your destination safely two-thirds of the time. Scientists presented more than 8,600 simulated scenarios to different EHR systems in more than 2,300 hospitals across the country from 2009 to 2018. The study used the Leapfrog CPOE test, an assessment of how a health system has designed and configured its inpatient computerized provider order entry functionality to evaluate scenario outcomes. Almost all of the scenarios were based on cases that harmed or killed patients in the real world. One scenario was based on a 52-year-old woman admitted to a hospital with pneumonia. Before hospitalization, she was taking a blood thinner for a blood clot in a vein deep inside her body. After she was hospitalized, she was given that blood thinner three times a day. She died of a large hemorrhage directly related to the overdose. EHRs were introduced to hospitals in the 1960s, according to the studys news release, and widely adopted after a report in 1999 from the Institute of Medicine estimated as many as 98,000 people die in any given year from medical errors in hospitals. Story continues Pregnant? Don't panic: As states reopen, medical experts recommend pregnant women stay vigilant against COVID-19 Coronavirus impact: These states have the most underreported COVID-19 deaths Though technology has greatly improved from 2009 to 2018, researchers found EHRs only modestly improved during the studys 10-year span. In 2009, EHR systems issued warnings or alerts about potential medication problems about 54% of the time. By 2018, the number increased to 66%. Experts said hospitals and federal regulators play a big role in EHRs' effectiveness to detect medical errors. Hospitals struggle to keep up with software updates as discoveries in drug safety research change recommendations and guidelines. EHR performance can vary from hospital to hospital. Hospitals decide what drug-related decision supports to turn on within their systems. They have a great latitude around this, said Dr. David W. Bates, study co-author and chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston. Federal regulators inspect systems with factory specifications and dont look at alterations or updates made after installation. A spokesperson for the Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said health IT has reduced medical errors overall and research shows a very small percent of medical errors can be attributed to it. While the use of electronic health information does not guarantee that there wont be adverse events, the government continues to work to improve the safety of health care with the use of health IT, the office said in a statement sent to USA TODAY. Dr. Allison Weathers, associate chief medical information officer at the Cleveland Clinic, said the studys results shouldnt be interpreted as a direct translation to EHR safety performance in the real world as outcomes were evaluated through the Leapfrog CPOE test. She argued that although parallels have been shown between the test and medical error rate, the score a health system receives isnt a direct relation to how many medical safety events would happen at a hospital. Its a helpful guidepost to enhance EHR systems but not an exact one-to-one correlation of safety performance, she said. However, she said such studies are still important as they raise awareness for significant issues and ways to enhance our system. Follow Adrianna Rodriguez on Twitter: @AdriannaUSAT. Health and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Electronic medical records fail to pick up 33% of errors, study says Breda, Chloe and Sophia Lavery soak up the sun on Crawfordsburn beach Northern Ireland has been basking in a prolonged period of sunshine, but sadly it looks to have ended for the time being. Monday was the warmest day of the year so far with a top temperature of 26.7C at Castlederg, Co Tyrone, but a change in the weather is coming. While temperatures rose as high as 26C again yesterday and the morning was dry and bright, cloud built up later, with showers finally breaking out in the east in the afternoon. Heavy rain was to sweep in yesterday evening, with today forecast to start cloudy and damp in the south and east but brighten up with some sunny spells later. Tomorrow to Saturday will see a bright few days with sunny intervals and a few showers, but temperatures will fall to closer to the long-term average, bringing an end to a period of glorious hot weather here. Over last weekend large numbers flocked to coastal hotspots to enjoy the sunny weather, with crowds soaking up the sunshine and increasing traffic levels on motorways and main routes, despite warnings from police to avoid local beauty spots. And sun-seekers packed onto the beaches at Portrush, sparking fears that the public were flouting coronavirus lockdown guidelines. Firefighters have also been busy during the sunny weather tackling large gorse blazes. Hundreds have been in action in the heat, trying to halt the spread of various fires since Friday. The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service issued a warning to the public after tackling more than 170 grass and wildfires over the weekend. On Monday morning 156 firefighters were at three separate blazes, with fire chiefs saying they would likely remain there for some time. The blazes, as well as an arson attack at Crumlin Road Courthouse in Belfast, are putting a huge strain on emergency services at a time when they are dealing with the global pandemic. Srinagar: Curfew has been lifted from entire Srinagar city following improvement in the situation hours ahead of Home Minitser Rajnath Singhs meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for briefing him on the all-party delegation meet in Jammu and Kashmir on September 4 and 5. Meanwhile, the death toll in the clashes between security forces and protestors climbed to 72 with a youth succumbing to injuries. Musaib Nagoo, who was injured during clashes between protesters and security forces on Sunday in Sopore town of Baramulla district, succumbed to injuries at a hospital here last night, a police official said. With this death, the toll in the ongoing unrest has reached to 72 while more than 10,000 others have been injured. Also read: Live: Rajnath meets PM Modi, briefs him on all-party delegation visit to Kashmir Although authorities lifted curfew from the seven police station areas of the city after two days, normal activities remained suspended due to a separatist-sponsored strike. Curfew has been lifted from entire Srinagar city and so no area in Kashmir is under curfew today, a police spokesman said. He said curfew was lifted following improvement in the situation. The spokesman, however, said restrictions on the assembly of people would remain in forces across the Valley to maintain law and order. Shops, business establishments and petrol pumps continued to remain shut during day time.They only open in the evening when the separatists have announced relaxation in the strike for some days of the week. Schools, colleges and other educational institutions also continued to remain closed. However, the attendance in government offices and banks has showed signs of improvement since the past few days, officials said. Public transport continued to be off the roads. The separatists, who are spearheading the ongoing agitation, have extended the shutdown programme till September 8. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Coronavirus Outbreak LIVE Updates: All asymptomatic passengers who enter in Delhi shall home quarantine themselves for 7 days: Delhi Disaster Management Authority Auto refresh feeds About 14 most affected countries with a cumulative population almost equal to that of India have reported 55.2 times more COVID-19 deaths and 22.5 times more cases, he said. However, Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal, during a briefing on the COVID-19 situation in the country, said it is wrong to just look at the total number of cases and state that India has the seventh-highest number of cases as the population of countries also should be taken into account. Even as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country climbed to 1,98,706 and the death count rose to 5,598, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that the country was "very far away" from the peak of the infection and was better positioned than most other countries. Only confirmed ticket holders will be allowed to board the trains, the official said. Other special trains between Bhubaneswar and New Delhi, Mumbai and Howrah will continue to run as notified earlier, he said. The East Coast Railway (ECoR) on Tuesday announced five intra-state special trains in Odisha from 8 June. The trains will run five days a week barring on weekends till June 30, an official of ECoR said, adding, they will travel to Sambalpur, Balangir, Bhadrak, Brahmapur and Koraput districts. Both are in quarantine and undergoing treatment at home, he added. The judge had last visited the courts complex on Saturday, Sharma said. The district judge of the Rohini District Courts complex here tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, the president of the bar association said. District Judge RP Pandey's wife was found to be COVID-19 positive on Sunday, advocate Mahavir Sharma, the president of the Rohini District Court Bar Association, said. There are at least 1,827,206 cases of coronavirus in the United States and at least 106,028 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins University data. A total of 15,846 new COVID-19 cases and 863 more deaths were reported on Tuesday amid rising protests over George Floyd's death, CNN reported. In a bulletin issued on Tuesday, the Delhi health department said the death toll due to coronavirus has risen to 556 in the national capital and the total number of cases has mounted to 22,132. Eleven deaths were reported on May 31, the bulletin said. A record single-day spike of 1,298 fresh cases took the COVID-19 tally in Delhi to over 22,000 on Tuesday and the death toll due to the disease mounted to 556, authorities said. The previous highest spike in fresh 1,295 was recorded on 31 May . Initially under ''Mission Begin Again'', outdoor physical activities like morning walks, cycling would be allowed from 3 June. But now, all such activities like self employed persons like plumbers, electricians, pest control staff and technicians being allowed to work, garages to reopen from 5 June. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in a video address on Tuesday had told that he would be deferring the 'Unlock 1' reopening of the state from 3 June to 5 June in view of the Cylone Nisarga, which is expected to make landfall in the city on Wednesday afternoon. The Maharashtra government on Sunday extended till 30 June the lockdown in the entire state, and announced the easing of restrictions and phase-wise resumption of activities under the "Mission Begin Again". The tally of coronavirus cases rose to 5,772 in the state, while the number of active cases stood at 3,423, the department said in its daily bulletin. Ten persons died due to the disease since Monday evening, raising the death toll in the state to 263, it said. Eight deaths were reported from Kolkata and one each from Birbhum and North 24 Parganas districts. West Bengal registered the highest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases on Tuesday with 396 people testing positive for the disease in the last 24 hours, the state health department said. The elderly, who constitute 10% of Indias population, accounted for over 50% of the countrys Covid-19 deaths, the government said on Tuesday. Besides, 73% of COVID-19 deaths were among those with co-morbidities, the health ministry said, arguing that India was able to manage COVID-19 treatment and reduce deaths better than many other countries. The number of people infected by the novel coronavirus disease has crossed 3.6 million at 6,376,822. A total of 3,80,180 people have died due to the disease worldwide, according to the John Hopkins University. South Korea has reported 49 new cases of COVID-19, continuing a weekslong resurgence that has alarmed a nation where millions of children have begun returning to school. The figures announced by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday brought national totals to 11,590 cases and 273 deaths. Two persons have tested positive for the novel coronavirus disease in Kinnaur district, says Sonam Negi, Chief Medical Officer, Kinnaur, ANI reports. The total number of cases in Himachal Pradesh rises to 247, of which 202 are active cases. A Union Cabinet meeting will be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his 7 Lok Kalyan Marg residence in New Delhi this morning, reports ANI. Norway's UN Ambassador Mona Juul, head of the 54-nation UN body, told a meeting Tuesday on financing for the coronavirus crisis and recovery that the decision by the world's 20 major economic powers to freeze debt service payments for the world's poorest countries through the end of the year isn't enough. The president of the UN Economic and Social Council is calling for urgent action to help the growing number of countries already facing or at risk of debt distress because of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, reports PTI. Tope said the notices had been served to Bombay, Jaslok, Hinduja and Lilavati Hospitals for not adhering to rules related to treatment of COVID-19 patients. Maharashtras Public Health Minister Rajesh Tope on 2 June said show-cause notices had been served to four prominent private city hospitals for not following rules with regard to COVID-19 treatment and warned of strict action against hospitals violating norms, reports moneycontrol. She also said Instead of the use of community transmission, we need to understand the extent of the spread of the disease. We are far from the peak. Our measures to curtail the disease are effective. India has been very good in the reduction in mortality. ICMR is focusing on to increase Covid-19 testing capacity, ICMR scientist Nivedita Gupta said. As of June 1, we have 681 laboratories that are approved for conducting Covid-19 tests 476 government and 205 private labs. Today, we are conducting 1.20 lakh tests every day. More than one lakh samples are being tested every day, the Indian Council of Medical Research said on Tuesday, ANI reports. The number, however, may increase as many people could not return in the previous schedule More than 1,700 Mizos stranded in other parts of the country due to the lockdown are yet to return to their home state, Chief Secretary Lalnunmawia Chuaungo told reporters on Tuesday. Most of them are stranded in Delhi and its adjoining areas, he said. Indias total number of infections rises to 207,615, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The toll has risen to 5,815. As many as 1,00,303 COVID-19 patients have been cured and discharged so far, with 1,01,497 active cases. India reports 8,909 new COVID-19 cases and 217 deaths in the last 24 hours. The total number of cases in the country now at 207,615 including 101,497 active cases, 100,303 cured/discharged/migrated and 5,815 deaths, said Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. A total of 41,03,233 samples have been tested till now, of which 1,37,158 samples have been tested in the last 24 hours, says ICMR according to ANI. Shramik special trains that began operating from 1 May for transportation of stranded migrant labourers may be on their final leg of operation with demand for them reducing from the states, reports The Hindustan Times . Thus far, 5.7 million stranded migrants have been ferried back home in 4,155 trains, according to PTI Meanwhile, with 24,586 confirmed novel coronavirus cases, Tamil Nadu remains the second most-affected state in the country. According to the latest data from the Union Health Ministry, the state has reported 197 COVID-19 deaths so far. As many as 13,706 patients have recovered. With 72,300 confirmed novel coronavirus cases, Maharashtra remains the worst-affected state in the country. According to the latest data from the Union Health Ministry, the state has reported 2,465 COVID-19 deaths so far. As many as 31,333 patients have recovered. The 56-year-old man, who returned from the national capital on May 25, was found to be COVID-19 positive on Tuesday night, Health Secretary Pempa Tshering Bhutia told PTI. He was lodged at a quarantine facility in the Mining area of East Sikkim on arrival from Delhi, he said. A man who returned from Delhi recently tested positive for COVID-19 in Sikkim, taking the number of cases in the state to two, a senior health official said on Wednesday. The rupee opened on a strong note at 75.04 at the interbank forex market, up 32 paise over its last close. It had settled at 75.36 against the US dollar on Tuesday. The rupee appreciated 32 paise to 75.04 against the US dollar in early trade on Wednesday tracking positive domestic equities and gains in Asian currencies amid weakness in the greenback. Rajasthan reports 102 new COVID-19 positive cases, taking the total number of cases to 9,475. The number of active cases in the state now stand at 2766 with 203 deaths, according to the state health department's latest update. According to the China's National Health Commission (NHC), one imported coronavirus case and four asymptomatic cases were reported on Tuesday. It did not specify where the asymptomatic cases were registered. The NHC on Wednesday said 357 asymptomatic cases, including 276 from Wuhan are still under medical observation. China has reported five new coronavirus cases, including four asymptomatic ones while Wuhan, the epicentre of the COVID-19, has not registered any infection, health officials said on Wednesday. Migrant workers from Chhattisgarh in Amritsar, Punjab on Wednesday staged a protest outside the district collector's office. Shivdarshan Singh, Station House Officer, Civil Line Police Station told ANI, "Their demand is that the administration here should arrange a train to Chhattisgarh." Cyclone Nisarga, which is expected to hit the coast near Alibag in Maharashtra this afternoon, has forced authorities in Mumbai to shift about 150 patients from the makeshift Covid-19 hospital in Bandra Kurla Complex to the NSCI Exhibition Centre in Worli and Sion Hospital, reports Hindustan Times . The scheme is the biggest fiscal component of the Rs 20-lakh crore Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan package announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last month. The Finance Ministry on Wednesday said that public sector banks (PSBs) have disbursed Rs 3,892.78 crore in the first two days of the month under the Rs 3-lakh crore Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for the MSME sector hit hard by the coronavirus-induced lockdown. The active cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) rose to 10 after the driver, who was quarantined at Sakoti village, tested positive for the infection, District Magistrate Jasjit Kaur said. The patient has been shifted to a COVID hospital in Jhinjhana town. Twenty-nine out of the 39 patients have recovered, Kaur added. A migrant worker who recently returned from Noida tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Shamli, taking the number of cases in the Uttar Pradesh district to 39 on Wednesday, an official said. In the last 24 hours, 47 police personnel have tested positive for COVID-19, reports ANI. The total number of infected Police personnel has reached to 2,556, said Maharashtra Police. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said that it is criminal on the part of the government not to give immediate cash support to the micro, small and medium enterprises. 11 crore Indians are employed by MSMEs. 1/3rd of them are closing down permanently, he tweets. Its criminal for GOI not to give them cash support immediately. Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar has said that the Centre will consider allowing cinema halls to reopen after assessing the status of the coronavirus crisis in June, PTI reports. The minister has conveyed this to the Association of Film Producers, Cinema Exhibitioners and Film Industry representatives during a video conference. "People are facing economic hardship of unimaginable proportions because of the pandemic. I appeal to Centre to transfer Rs 10,000 each as one-time aid to migrant labourers including people in the unorganised sector. A portion of PM-CARES could be used for this," said Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal on Wednesday. He will accompany 33 migrant workers on a flight to Patna on Thursday evening, they said. An MP is entitled to 34 business class tickets in domestic flights annually. The decision was praised by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who said it would be an inspiration for everyone. AAP leader Sanjay Singh has decided to use the 34 air tickets he is entitled to as an MP to help stranded migrant workers reach Patna from Delhi by flight, party sources said. Six migrant workers and the girl who came from Tamil Nadu tested positive for COVID-19, following which they were shifted to the Muzaffarnagar Medical College on Tuesday. The girl's mother was also shifted to the hospital despite not testing positive, the official said. A woman was shifted to a COVID hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar district after her one-year-old daughter tested positive for the novel coronavirus, officials said on Wednesday, reports PTI. With 22,132 confirmed novel coronavirus cases, Delhi remains the third most-affected region in the country. According to the latest data from the Union Health Ministry, the national capital has reported 556 COVID-19 deaths so far. As many as 9,243 patients have recovered. The total number of containment zones in Delhi is now 158, reports ANI, while a total of 58 zones have been de-contained to date, according to the Delhi government. Of the fresh cases, 79 were state residents, seven foreign returnees and 94 from other states, it said. In Chittoor, two fresh coronavirus deaths were reported while Krishna and Kurnool registered one each. The total number of active cases now stood at 1,447, the bulletin added. In a single largest spike, 180 new COVID-19 cases were added in Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday, taking the aggregate to 3,971. The toll too increased by four to 68 in the last 24 hours, the latest bulletin said. At Samsung, the well-being of our customers is our priority. We are committed to take every step to keep you safe, said the company. Samsung has extended the standard warranty on its consumer electronics and mobiles till 15 June in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. The extended period is valid for those products whose warranty expired between 20 March and 31 May. "The president was happy to announce that the United States would be ready to ship the first tranche of 100 donated ventilators to India next week, the White House said in a readout of the call. Trump spoke with Modi on Tuesday and "the two leaders discussed the G-7 (summit), the COVID-19 response, and regional security issues", it said. The US will ship next week the first batch of 100 ventilators it has donated to India to treat the coronavirus patients, President Donald Trump has told Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a conference call, the White House said. A surcharge of Rs. 1.5 has been imposed per bottle of country liquor and Rajasthan Made Liquor (RML). The surcharge on Indian-made Foreign Liquor will be Rs 5 for 180 ml and 375 ml bottles, breezers, miniature and other packaging, while it will be Rs 10 on 750 ml bottles. For beer, Rs 20 will be charged for 650 ml and 500 ml bottles besides Rs 30 on BIO (bottled in origin) Liquor has become costlier in Rajasthan, with the state government imposing a surcharge of up to Rs 30 to mop up revenue amid the COVID-19 crisis. The state finance department said the decision has been taken to mitigate natural or man-made calamities like floods, epidemic etc. 51 new COVID-19 positive cases reported in Jharkhand on Wednesday, taking the total number of cases rises to 726. To date, 320 patients have recovered/discharged, while the number of active cases now at 401. The toll is at 5 according to the latest bulletin by the state health department. The Delhi government forms a five-member committee of doctors to prepare a report on the situation of hospitals in the national Capital, availability of medical facilities and providing medical aid to patients from outside Delhi, reports ANI. The state is at the fourth position in the country in number of COVID-19 cases, and the Gujarat High Court recently expressed concern over the health care conditions at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital. The Gujarat government has formed an expert committee of doctors to help it in formulating strategies to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and revamp the state's health care system, an official said on Wednesday. The step comes at a time when the COVID-19 death rate in Gujarat is double than the national average. With over 1 lakh COVID-19 patients having recovered so far, Indias recovery rate has risen to around 48.31 percent, as per data from the Union Health Ministry. At least 27 persons from the district had tested positive for the deadly infection in the last 24 hours, taking the tally to 3,597 in the region, the official said. A total of 2,132 patients have recovered from COVID-19 in the district so far, he added. With 27 persons testing positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the case count in Madhya Pradesh's Indore district rose to 3,597 on Wednesday, a health official said. Indore is one of the worst-affected districts in the country amid the coronavirus pandemic. Director-General and Health Secretary of Sikkim Pempa T Bhutia says that one more person who returned from Delhi on 25 May tested positive, ANI reports. He says that the state now has two positive COVID-19 cases, both of which are asymptomatic. With the fresh cases, the state's tally increased to 1,621, he said. Of the 60 new patients, 38 are from Dhubri, 18 from Golaghat and four from Nagaon district, the minister said. Of the 1,621 total cases, 1,277 are active, while 337 people have recovered, four died and three migrated, he said. Assam's COVID-19 count crossed the 1600-mark, with 60 more people testing positive for the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, state Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said. The person tested positive for COVID-19 in West Garo Hills district on 19 May after returning from Tamil Nadu, the chief minister tweeted. There are 16 active cases in the state at present, while a person has died due to the infection. A person recovered from COVID-19 in Meghalaya on Wednesday, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said. With this, the number of patients who have recovered from the disease increased to 13, he said. Dr Srinivas Rajkumar T had tweeted on 25 May that the statistics provided by the health ministry and the Indian Council of Medical Research about N95 masks were a lie. The administration at Delhis All India Institute of Medical Sciences has issued a show-cause notice to a senior resident doctor who had flagged safety concerns about the protective gears given to healthcare workers at the hospital, PTI reported on Wednesday. A total of 77 personnel were tested for COVID-19. Of them, 5 were found positive. The 72, who were found negative, will be tested again, the official said. The five policemen had come in contact with migrant labourers when a bus carrying them met an accident. "The five infected include 2 sub-inspectors and three constables," a police official said. Two more policemen have tested positive for COVID-19, taking the total number of police personnel infected with the novel coronavirus at the Fakharpur police station here to five, officials said. The police station is being sanitised. Of the fresh cases, 132 were detected among those lodged at quarantine centres, while the other 11 were found during contact tracing, he said. There are 1,054 active cases in the state at present and 1,325 patients have so far recovered from the disease. Odisha reported 143 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, taking the total number of people infected in the state to 2,388, a health department official said. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian made the remarks during a daily briefing in response to a question about the report by the Associated Press, which said the WHO was frustrated by significant delays in information sharing by Beijing as the coronavirus outbreak took hold in China in January. China said on Wednesday a news report that said it delayed sharing COVID-19 information with the World Health Organization (WHO) is totally untrue, reports Reuters. "In the wake of rising COVID-19 infections in the country, a few employees at Corporate Office at Lodi Road, New Delhi have been tested Corona positive. This is the first case of confirmation at the company HQ since the outbreak of the pandemic," Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) said in a statement. Steel major SAIL on Wednesday said a few of its employees working at the company's corporate office in the national capital have tested positive for COVID-19. There are five employees whose coronavirus test results have come positive, a source told PTI. The deputy chief minister said the government has adequate medical facilities to deal with coronavirus cases. "As Delhi got its first COVID 19 positive case on March 2, it was very important to curb the spread of the disease. The total lockdown enabled us to spread awareness about the virus among the citizens and strengthen our health infrastructure to effectively battle the disease," he said. Addressing the "Cities Against COVID19 - Global Summit 2020" via video conference on Tuesday, he mentioned key measures adopted by the Delhi government to contain the spread of the dreaded virus. The complete lockdown has helped the Delhi government in strengthening the city's health infrastructure to effectively battle COVID-19, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said. The hospital is taking precautionary measures to control the spread of the virus and has also informed health department officials about the doctors testing positive, he said. On 2 June, 12 post-graduate students of a state-run medical college tested positive for COVID-19. Four doctors at a government hospital in Hyderabad tested positive for the COVID-19 virus on Wednesday, an official said. Passengers must carry their identity proofs and tickets, in either electronic mode or physical form. The staff, as well as passengers, must have Aarogya Setu app downloaded, the statement said. The Haryana government on Wednesday issued SOPs regarding inter-state travel in buses of the Haryana Roadways. The BMC said that 19 new cases were reported in Mumbai's Dharavi on Wednesday. The total number of cases in the densely-populated area is now 1,849, the toll stands at 71. Uttar Pradesh additional chief secretary (home) Awanish Awasthi said that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had asked officials to increase the state's coronavirus testing capacity to 15,000 daily and "efforts were being made to achieve the target," News18 reported. "Latest bulletin shows 122 new deaths were reported making the total number of deaths stand at 2,587. Mumbai registers the highest number of cases in the state with 43,492 infections and 1,417 deaths," News18 reported. The coronavirus cases in Maharashtra rose to 74,860 with 2,560 new patients were recorded on Wednesday. Madhya Pradesh reported 168 fresh cases of COVID-19 and seven deaths on Wednesday, taking total number of cases to 8,588 and the toll to 371. The number of active cases stands at 2,772, the state health department said. "Goa recorded its highest number of positive cases in a single day on Wednesday with the state government shifting 47 patients to the Covid Hospital at Margao, south Goa. Of the 47, 42 are residents from the containment zone at densely populated Mangor hills, Vasco. The rest include two who traveled by road from Maharashtra, another two passengers from Dubai who had traveled in the first Vande Bharat flight that arrived in Goa early hours of Wednesday. One passenger from a Hyderabad flight also tested positive, confirmed the daily bulletin by Directorate of Health Services," The Indian Express reported. "Liquor sales have dropped "drastically" in the national capital in May, prompting the Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC) to request the Delhi government to bring Corona pandemic cess to a "realistic and sustainable" level," News18 reported. Delhi Health Dept orders Mool Chand Khairati Lal Hospital, Saroj Super Speciality Hospital & Sir Ganga Ram Hospital to provide 10% of their beds to Economically Weaker Sections #COVID19 patients free of cost. Sir Ganga Ram hospital allowed to keep 20% beds for non-COVID patients. pic.twitter.com/uFs9lgYK17 Delhi Health Dept orders Mool Chand Khairati Lal Hospital, Saroj Super Speciality Hospital & Sir Ganga Ram Hospital to provide 10% of their beds to Economically Weaker Sections #COVID19 patients free of cost. Sir Ganga Ram hospital allowed to keep 20% beds for non-COVID patients. With 290 new cases of coronavirus, Ahmedabad's tally rises to 13,063; death of 22 people takes toll to 910: Official PTI reported that official data of the Railways shows daily runs of Shramik Special trains, which once averaged around 250, have now reduced to nearly 50 due to dwindling demand from state governments. 74 new cases of COVID-19 reported till 10.55 pm today (today's total as of now 269), taking the total number of positive cases in the state to 1830: Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma Coronavirus Outbreak LATEST Updates: All asymptomatic passengers who enter in Delhi shall home quarantine themselves for 7 days: Delhi Disaster Management Authority Around 1,286 coronavirus cases were reported in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday, taking the state's total number of cases beyond 25,000. "The state recorded more than 1,000 virus cases for fourth consecutive day as the total number of cases reached 25,872. With 11 new deaths, the death count is now 208," News18 reported. The coronavirus cases in Maharashtra rose to 74,860 with 2,560 new patients were recorded on Wednesday. "Latest bulletin shows 122 new deaths were reported making the total number of deaths stand at 2,587. Mumbai registers the highest number of cases in the state with 43,492 infections and 1,417 deaths," News18 reported The Haryana government on Wednesday issued SOPs regarding inter-state travel in buses of the Haryana Roadways. Passengers must carry their identity proofs and tickets, in either electronic mode or physical form. The staff, as well as passengers, must have Aarogya Setu app downloaded, the statement said. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that around 8.5 lakh migrant workers have entered the state so far, "by 10 June the figure will be 10.5 lakh." Union Cabinet today approved amendment to the Essential Commodities Act. With the amendment to Essential Commodities Act, commodities like cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, onion and potatoes will be removed from the list of essential commodities, ANI quotes the Prime Minister's Office as saying. Government of India has considered the matter regarding relaxation of visa and travel restrictions for certain categories of foreign nationals who need to come to India. A 55-year-old woman from Chhattisgarh's Durg district, tested positive for COVID-19 post her death at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (Raipur), a health official said on Wednesday. This is the second COVID-19 death in the state, which has recorded 572 cases so far. The administration at Delhis All India Institute of Medical Sciences has issued a show-cause notice to a senior resident doctor who had flagged safety concerns about the protective gears given to healthcare workers at the hospital With 27 persons testing positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the case count in Madhya Pradesh's Indore district rose to 3,597 on Wednesday, a health official said. Indore is one of the worst-affected districts in the country amid the coronavirus pandemic. With over 1 lakh COVID-19 patients having recovered so far, Indias recovery rate has risen to around 48.31 percent, as per data from the Union Health Ministry. The total number of containment zones in Delhi is now 158, reports ANI, while a total of 58 zones have been de-contained to date, according to the Delhi government. With 22,132 confirmed novel coronavirus cases, Delhi remains the third most-affected region in the country. 'People are facing economic hardship of unimaginable proportions because of the pandemic. I appeal to Centre to transfer Rs 10,000 each as one-time aid to migrant labourers including people in the unorganised sector. A portion of PM-CARES could be used for this,' said Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal on Wednesday. Cyclone Nisarga, which is expected to hit the coast near Alibag in Maharashtra this afternoon, has forced authorities in Mumbai to shift about 150 patients from the makeshift Covid-19 hospital in Bandra Kurla Complex to the NSCI Exhibition Centre in Worli and Sion Hospital, say reports. A total of 41,03,233 samples have been tested till now, of which 1,37,158 samples have been tested in the last 24 hours, says ICMR according to ANI. Indias total number of infections rises to 207,615, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The toll has risen to 5,815. As many as 1,00,303 COVID-19 patients have been cured and discharged so far, with 1,01,497 active cases. 'Out of 115 samples tested, 9 more returnees from Chennai tested COVID-19 positive. The total number of positive cases stands at 58,' said S Pangnyu Phom, Nagaland Health Minister on Wednesday. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in a video address on Tuesday had told that he would be deferring the 'Unlock 1' reopening of the state from 3 June to 5 June in view of the Cyclone Nisarga, which is expected to make landfall in the city on Wednesday afternoon. Even as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country climbed to 1,98,706 and the death count rose to 5,598, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that the country was "very far away" from the peak of the infection and was better positioned than most other countries. 8,171 new cases, 204 deaths reported in 24 hours In the 24 hours since 8 am on Monday, the country reported 8,171 cases, taking the number of confirmed cases to 1,98,706 while the toll climbed to 5,598 as 204 more deaths were recorded across the country, said the health ministry in its morning update. As many as 95,526 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, and the number of active cases now stands at 97,581, according to the health ministry data. Around 48.07 percent patients have recovered so far, a ministry official said. Out of the 204 more deaths since Monday morning, 76 were in Maharashtra, 50 in Delhi, 25 in Gujarat and 11 in Tamil Nadu. Eight people each died of COVID-19 in West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, followed by six in Telangana, and four each in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. With 2,362 deaths, Maharashtra accounts for the highest number of fatalities out of the total 5,598 deaths, followed by 1,063 in Gujarat, 523 in Delhi, 358 in Madhya Pradesh and 335 in West Bengal. There have been 217 coronavirus deaths so far in Uttar Pradesh, while 198 succumbed to the infection in Rajasthan, 184 in Tamil Nadu, 88 in Telangana and 64 in Andhra Pradesh. The highest number of confirmed cases is 70,013 from Maharashtra, followed 23,495 in by Tamil Nadu, 20,834 in Delhi, and 17,200 in Gujarat. There are 8,980 cases of the viral infection in Rajasthan, 8,283 in Madhya Pradesh and 8,075 in Uttar Pradesh. The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 5,772 in West Bengal, 3,926 in Bihar and 3,783 in Andhra Pradesh. The ministry said 6,414 COVID-19 cases were being reassigned to states, adding that the figures were being reconciled with the ICMR. With a total of 1,98,706 cases, India is now seventh among the worst-hit nations by the COVID-19 pandemic after the US, Brazil, Russia, the UK, Spain and Italy. Country very far away from peak, says ICMR However, Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal, during a briefing on the COVID-19 situation in the country, said it is wrong to just look at the total number of cases and state that India has the seventh-highest number of cases as the population of countries also should be taken into account. About 14 most affected countries with a cumulative population almost equal to that of India have reported 55.2 times more COVID-19 deaths and 22.5 times more cases, he said. "Our COVID-19 fatality rate is 2.82 percent as against 6.13 percent globally. Our COVID-19 fatality rate is amongst the lowest in the world," he said and attributed it to timely identification of cases and proper clinical management. Presenting an age profile analysis of COVID-19 deaths, Agarwal said one in every two COVID-19 deaths in India has been of senior citizens who constitute 10 percent of the total population. This ten percent of India's population accounts for 50 percent of India's COVID-19 linked deaths, he said, while 73 percent of COVID-19 deaths in the country are of people with comorbidities. ICMR scientist Nivedita Gupta said that the country was far from approaching the peak of the infection. "We are very far away from the peak. Our preventive measures to curtail the disease are very effective and we are better positioned in comparison with other countries. You will get to see the data in a week." The medical research body is conducting a sero-survey to assess the extent of spread of COVID-19 and almost 34,000 people are being tested as a part of it, she said, adding that its results will be out in the public domain by the end of this week or early next week. When asked about the prevalence of community transmission in the country, Gupta said that instead of focusing on the term "community transmission", it was important to understand the extent of spread of the contagion and where India stood in comparison with other countries. Responding to a question on whether there is some amount of under-reporting of COVID-19 deaths with several states not testing bodies for the infection, Gupta said there was no under-reporting of COVID-19 deaths in India and states were doing causality assessment and attributing cause of death accordingly. "None of us thinks that there is gross under-reporting of COVID-19 deaths. If you look at the figures, India has been very good with reduction in mortality, as compared with other nations," she said. "A patient who comes to hospital and dies can be COVID-19 positive or negative and there are lot of factors which are responsible for a death. It is not fair to attribute every death to COVID-19," Gupta said at a press conference. In terms of the number of deaths getting reported in the country and also even in different mortuaries, Agarwal said "there was no abnormal increase in numbers rather they have gone down". "Let us feel reassured that the country is in safe hands and continued efforts are being done in the direction in terms of management of COVID-19," he said at the briefing. The health ministry also stressed on the importance of taking adequate precautions even as the country has begun to open up offices, shops and commercial activity under the 'Unlock' plan announced by the Centre. "As we are in 'Unlock-1' situation, the challenge before us is how to follow COVID-appropriate behaviour, be it in terms of travel or office functioning. We have to think in terms of a new normal on how to live with the virus by taking adequate precautions so as to protect ourselves from it," he said. Many states have eased restrictions since Monday to revive the economy and achieve a semblance of normalcy, after a two-month-long coronavirus-induced lockdown. Domestic flights and trains have also begun to operate to a limited extent. State-wise cases Meanwhile, the number of cases and deaths has continued to rise in many states, especially among those coming from other states and abroad. A PTI tally based on the numbers reported by states and Union Territories till 10.05 pm put the total number of infections found in the country at 2,00,321 and deaths at 5,739. It also showed a higher count of recoveries at 99,613, leaving nearly 95,000 active cases across the country. Gujarat on Tuesday reported 415 new COVID-19 cases and 29 deaths, taking the overall case count to 17,632 and fatalities to 1,092, the state Health department said. In Ahmedabad itself, 279 new cases and 24 deaths were recorded taking the total to 12,773 and toll to 888. In neighbouring Maharashtra, the case count surged to 72,300 with 2,287 and 103 deaths recorded. With this, the death count in the state rose to 2,465. The number of active cases in the state stands at 38,493, said the state health department. Karnataka recorded the biggest single-day spike of 388 COVID-19 cases, with returnees from neighbouring Maharashtra continuing to add to the state's case count, taking the total number of infections to 3,796, according to the state health department. With 367 out of 388 new cases being returnees from other states, mostly from neighboring Maharashtra (357), the Karnataka government said it was mulling over increasing institutional quarantine for those returning from the western state. Kerala also recorded a spurt in cases, with 86 testing positive in a single day and pushing the state's total to 1,412. A 77-year-old Christian priest died at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital on Tuesday, taking the toll in the state to 11. Tamil Nadu reported more than 1,000 cases for the third straight day, pushing the infection count past the 24,000 mark. The toll has risen to 197 with 13 more deaths while the number of confirmed cases surged to 24,586. In Telangana, twelve post-graduate students of a state-run medical college tested positive for COVID-19 while the fresh cases in Himachal Pradesh included a Delhi Police personnel, a SpiceJet passenger and a Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) employee. The confirmed cases in the hilly state climbed to 346. In Delhi, five police personnel from Anand Parbat area, taking the total number of those infected among the Delhi Police to over 500, reported ANI. Thirteen employees of Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal's office and six other government officials have also tested positive for COVID-19, sources told PTI. They said junior assistants, drivers, peons are among the 13 people working at the Lt Governor Secretariat who have tested positive for the virus, leading to fear among other employees. Deeply concerned about health of officials of my secretariat who tested positive for COVID-19 Health of all officials is stable & is being closely monitored All of these officials were working tirelessly in these difficult times shoulder to shoulder with other frontline workers LG Delhi (@LtGovDelhi) June 2, 2020 Meanwhile, the global toll due to the viral infection climbed to 3,76,320 and the number of cases reached 61,94,533, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO's) coronavirus tracker. With inputs from agencies Thousands of people protesting at close quarters, shouting demands and coughing violently when hit by tear gas: experts fear demonstrations roiling the US could reignite the spread of the coronavirus. But, stress clinicians and researchers, racialized police violence itself remains a grave and neglected public health crisis for African Americans, threatening not just their lives but raising the risk of stress-related diseases from heart failure to cancer. It has been just over a week since George Floyd, an African American man, died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes, sparking a wave of protests across the country against institutional racism. For Ebony Hilton, a physician at the University of Virginia hospital who is herself black, the issue highlights what she calls the threat of the two pandemics: COVID-19, and police brutality. "We are expecting to see a spike (in coronavirus cases) because there's no social distancing and unfortunately most people wear their masks incorrectly," she told AFP. Law enforcement agencies have routinely fired tear-inducing pepper spray and tear gas, a nerve agent that causes intense burning, in order to disperse crowds. On Monday, for example, federal police hit peaceful activists in Lafayette Park outside the White House with rubber bullets and tear gas in order to let President Donald Trump get a photo-op at a historic church that had suffered damage the night before. "The pepper spraying and resulting coughing/gagging also heightens risk," said Hilton. "Additionally, COVID can be spread via droplets on eyes and many aren't wearing goggles." - Police a 'public health threat' - Even so, said Hilton, it was important to contextualize why people were willing to take these risks. A study carried out in 2019 found that black men are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by the police than their white counterparts. "We think that there's ample evidence that police are a threat to public health in the United States," Rutgers University's Frank Edwards, the lead author of the paper, told AFP at the time. Relying on media reports as well as official data, Edwards and colleagues estimated one fatality from police use of force for every 1,000 black male births. Police violence is a leading cause of death for black men aged 20-29, just behind cancer. Cav Manning, a 52-year-old emcee from New York, is just one of tens of thousands nationwide willing to risk coronavirus as he joined a protest in Brooklyn on Monday evening. "What we saw is so disturbing that we've got to be out here right now, despite COVID, despite the fact that you might get infected," he told AFP. The problem isn't just the high profile deaths that make the news, but the psychological stress inflicted on African Americans continually targeted by police. "What we know is that chronic stress is directly linked to increased risk of cancer formation, directly linked to hypertension, to diabetes, to heart failure, to obesity," said Hilton. - Precautions stressed - The demonstrations come as the number of new coronavirus deaths in the US, the world's hardest hit country, continues to decrease after peaking in mid-April, and as states partly reopen their economies. Research has linked warmer summer months to a decreased COVID-19 spread in temperate parts of the world. Brandon Brown, an epidemiologist at the University of California Riverside said that while the expected risk of COVID-19 transmission is lowered outdoors, it is not reduced to zero, especially when people are unable to physically distance when faced with charging police. "It is important to wear a mask not only to protect yourself against COVID-19, but also from state surveillance," he emphasized. Robert Glatter, an emergency physician in New York added that the aerosol produced by tear gas itself could potentially act as a carrier that projects viral droplets far deeper into a crowd than they would otherwise have traveled. All of these factors have combined to make public health professionals very nervous about the impact two or so weeks down the line. This is particularly since the protests feature large numbers of blacks and other minorities who are at higher levels of risk from COVID-19 because of underlying health conditions that worsen the disease's progression. Manning, the emcee, said he and others were aware of the danger. "But this is also something that is happening for the health of the nation." Protesters -- many, but not all, wearing masks -- demonstrate on June 2, 2020 in New York city. Experts fear the demonstrations against racism could fuel the spread of COVID-19 A protestor holds a sign near the White House in Washington, DC, on June 2, 2020. Experts have also warned that racialized violence by police against African Americans is itself a serious health hazard Childhood disparities around malnutrition, graduation rates, and early deaths are worst among rural, black-majority counties in the American South and isolated counties with Native American populations, according to a new report. Those inequities put these populations more at risk for the novel coronavirus, the report by Save the Children concludes. 'The Land of Inopportunity: Closing the Childhood Equity Gap for America's Kids' report released Tuesday found that children in the most disadvantaged counties die at rates up to five times of children in the same state. Children in those counties also are 14 times as likely to drop out of school and are three times as likely to lack healthy food and consistent meals, the report said. Using federal data from 2018 and examining more 2,600 counties and their equivalents, the report found that about a third of the 50 worst counties are majority African American and a quarter are majority Native American. The counties and census areas of Kusilvak (Alaska), Todd (South Dakota), Madison (Louisiana), Carson (South Dakota), and Bethel (Alaska) were the five worst-ranked, the report found. States in the South and West of the US, such as New Mexico and Louisiana, have the highest rates of food insecurity and school dropouts, a Save the Children report found Jose Espinoza, 18, is raising his four-month-old daughter, Emmily with his wife, Maria Rodrigues, 19, in Vado, New Mexico. The state's economy has improved, but child poverty rates there have only increased in recent years, a new report reveals (AP Photo/Russell Contreras, File) Todd County lies entirely within the Rosebud Indian Reservation and Madison Parish is 61 percent black. 'These are just stunning statistics,' said Mark K Shriver, senior vice president of US programs and advocacy at Save the Children. 'Children growing up rural areas, for instance, are more likely to die before their first birthday at a rate to 20 percent than in large urban areas.' The inequality comes from the lack of early childhood education, health care, and job training options in those areas, the report said. So far, children in some of the poor counties cited in the report live among the areas hardest hit by COVID-19. New Mexico's McKinley County, which sits on the Navajo Nation - a tribe suffering amid the pandemic - is ranked near the bottom in child hunger and graduation rates. According to the report, Louisiana, Mississippi, and New Mexico are the lowest-ranked states for these childhood disparities. New Jersey, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire earned the highest marks. Gaps between the best and worst counties for each measure are massive. For example, Hunterdon, New Jersey, ranks as the best place for a child to grow up, while Kusilvak, Alaska, falls in dead last. A child is 18 times more likely to die before their 18th birthday in Kusilvak than in Hunterdon. Teen pregnancy is nearly 50 times more common, dropout rates are 10 times higher (3.6 percent in Hunterdon, compared to 38.2 percent in Kusilvak) and more than four-times as many face food insecurity a year. Save the Children recommends states and local governments invest more in early childhood education programs. A boy holds a kitten named 'Popcorn Ball' in front of his home in Oljato-Monument Valley, Utah, on the Navajo reservation on April 27, 2020. The reservation has some of the highest rates of coronavirus in the countr. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) Angelina Dinehdeal wipes tears from her eyes as she sits with her 8-year-old daughter, Annabelle, on the family's compound in Tuba City, Arizona, in April. The family has been devastated by COVID-19 (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) 'Children fare better in states that spend more on their needs and have champions at every level from the federal government to state houses to community leaders who prioritize child-focused legislation, funding and programs,' added Shriver. 'Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New Jersey are among the top 10 states that spend the most per child including spending on K-12 education, health, income security and social services and they all place in the top five in this years ranking. 'It doesnt come as a surprise that more investment is linked to better outcomes for kids.' Keeping kids in well-funded schools for kindergarten through 12th grade helps ensure they have access to meals, and network of adults who can spot if something is amiss, a particularly important resource for poor families who may not have access to other forms of health care. The report comes more than a half-century after the late US Senator Robert Kennedy - Shrivers uncle - embarked on a tour across the country to highlight the nations most impoverished regions. Kennedy visited Mississippi and South Dakotas Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and was transformed by the hunger and inequality he saw. Children growing up in states like Mississippi in the South face mch higher risks of early death and hunger, and have lower rates of graduation. Starr Jones, 21, lives in Shelby, Mississippi nad works against poverty in her community while supporting her nin-month-old son, Jarvis (AP Photo/Russell Contreras, File) It also comes more than a half-century after President Lyndon Johnsons Kerner Commission report, which sought to examine urban poverty and riots across the nation. Former US Senator Fred Harris of Oklahoma, the last surviving member of the Kerner Commission, said he's not surprised by the report since the number of U.S. residents in poverty has grown in 50 years. 'And most of that growth in poverty has been among children,' Harris said from his home in Corrales, New Mexico. 'This is a great unfairness in our system.' American news-based television channel CNN has recently hailed success story of Viet Nam in the fight against COVID-19 with no fatalities. When the world looked to Asia for successful examples in handling the novel coronavirus outbreak, much attention and plaudits were paid to the Republic of Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The country of 97 million people has not reported a single coronavirus-related death and on Saturday had just 328 confirmed cases, despite its long border with China and the millions of Chinese visitors it receives each year. This is all the more remarkable considering Viet Nam is a low-middle income country with a much less-advanced healthcare system than others in the region. It only has 8 doctors for every 10,000 people, a third of the ratio in the RoK, according to the World Bank. After a three-week nationwide lockdown, Viet Nam lifted social distancing rules in late April. It hasn't reported any local infections for more than 40 days. Businesses and schools have reopened, and life is gradually returning to normal. To skeptics, Viet Nam's official numbers may seem too good to be true. But Guy Thwaites, an infectious disease doctor who works in one of the main hospitals designated by the Vietnamese government to treat Covid-19 patients, said the numbers matched the reality on the ground. CNN quoted Thwaites who also heads the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City as saying that "I go to the wards every day, I know the cases, I know there has been no death." Acting early, meticulous contact-tracing, public communication and propaganda were mentioned as Viet Nams successful lesson against the virus./. VGP Kim Anh Deutsche Lufthansa may have won its battle for state aid, but its surrender of airport slots to appease regulators heralds heightened conflict between European aviation's old guard and low-cost challengers. A rivalry that's been simmering for years has been given fresh impetus by the coronavirus crisis, with former flag carriers falling back on government support as discounters including Ryanair Holdings and Wizz Air Holdings argue that the market alone should dictate who survives. Lufthansa's 9 billion-euro ($9.9 billion) bailout and a slots accord with the European Union overnight Friday handed the region's biggest airline a lifeline. Now, the German group and network carriers such as Air France-KLM face a battle royale in repelling no-frills operators that came into the crisis stronger and plan to use it to gain ground in territories hitherto largely closed to them. "We are trying to take advantage of the situation," Wizz Chief Executive Officer Jozsef Varadi said in an interview. "Lufthansa is getting a huge financial edge, but they'll need to restructure after taking all of this money. So Germany will bring opportunities." Discount airlines have received only modest support compared with legacy carriers. Ryanair, Wizz and EasyJet have tapped the U.K.'s Covid Corporate Financing Facility for a combined 1.5 billion pounds ($1.8 billion), while Air France-KLM has received 7 billion euros from the French state and could overtake Lufthansa's bailout once Dutch support is finalized. Low-cost carriers have also been quicker off the mark in slashing costs, with Ryanair, which has its biggest base at London Stansted, announcing 3,000 job cuts a month ago when Lufthansa was still in the early stages of putting together its bailout request. The strength of the challenge to Lufthansa in particular will depend on take-up for the 12 pairs of daily flight slots to be made available to competitors at its Frankfurt and Munich hubs as part of the bailout settlement ordered by the EU. Complicating matters is a proviso that says only new entrants can obtain the takeoff and landing rights during the first 18 months. That would allow Ryanair, which has flights in Frankfurt, to target Munich, and EasyJet to do the reverse. Budapest-based Wizz, Europe's third-biggest discount carrier, doesn't currently serve either airport so could seek slots at both. Spokespeople for Ryanair and EasyJet declined to comment. Ryanair gained 4.8% as of 11:18 a.m. in Dublin, while EasyJet advanced 4.4% and Wizz was up 3.8% in London. Lufthansa added 5.4% on Tradegate with regular trading in Frankfurt closed for a German holiday. The biggest opportunities for the low-cost players lie in Germany, Italy and Norway, said Mark Manduca, an analyst with Citigroup. "After the crisis passes and a price war this summer ensues, Ryanair and Wizz stand on the cusp of a three- to five-year consolidation and expansion story, as the participants around them shrink and flounder," he said in a research note. State aid to the likes of Lufthansa will at least initially bend the market in their favor, EU competition watchdog Margrethe Vestager said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. "This is why we also have remedies, to try to limit that market distortion," she said. The Lufthansa case is a template for EU oversight of other virus-related recapitalizations, Vestager said. The bloc would likely review any equity injection into Air France-KLM by France or the Netherlands, and is in close contact with the Italian government over the nationalization of bankrupt Alitalia Spa, which she called "a special case" because of its pre-existing financial distress. That budget airlines will make inroads isn't a given. In Germany, the major hubs of Frankfurt and Munich charge typically higher fees than at the smaller airports traditional favored by discount operators, something Varadi said is a major obstacle to flying there. Both have a large proportion of passengers who transfer on or off long-distance flights, limiting the market share available to short-haul carriers. Stationing staff in Germany also means grappling with stringent employment laws and powerful unions, potential headaches for companies seeking to keep expenses low. Lufthansa's pilot, cabin-crew and ground-crew unions wrote to European Commission President Ursula von Der Leyen on Friday saying that a shift of slots to discount carriers would cause a "massive hollowing out" of labor standards and pay. The French market could open up as Air France-KLM reins in its network in response to environmental demands from the French government. A restructuring to be presented within months will call for a 40% cut in domestic French capacity by the end of 2021, Chief Executive Officer Ben Smith told shareholders last week. The company has also said it may raise new equity, potentially triggering EU scrutiny that could lead to slots being made available in the busy Paris and Amsterdam markets. The initial funding package avoided increasing state holdings amid acrimony between the French and Dutch governments over existing stakes. In Italy, Alitalia was in bankruptcy protection even before the virus hit. The rescue is regarded as dubious given the airline's status, and the EU is expected to begin an investigation. Slot availability in Rome and Milan could be one outcome. Full-service airlines are also in retreat in the U.K., where British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. have indicated they'll exit London Gatwick airport to consolidate operations at the city's Heathrow hub. That will consolidate Gatwick's status as a discount and leisure-oriented base, leaving EasyJet unchallenged as the biggest operator and offering an opportunity for Ryanair and Wizz to expand their more modest presence. Discount airlines are also cutting their cloth, though not nearly so much. Wizz will maintain all of its European bases and routes, while trimming frequencies, Varadi said. It announced four new hubs and 50 new routes on Friday. "We're sensing strong demand, which we aim to tap as travel restrictions ease," the CEO said. Henry Marsh before he left England. Henry and William Marsh emigrated to New Zealand aboard the Ida Zeigler in 1863. Although not part of an organised group, they still qualified under the 40-acre scheme. Coming from a family of tenant farmers in Shropshire, this was their chance to own a farm. When the brothers arrived in Auckland, they bought a team of horses and a wagon and carted timber for builders while waiting for land to become available. Henry wrote to his family, I hope some of you will come out here, whats the use of stopping to be humbugged with landlords. You can soon be your own landlords here. There is plenty of room, they are not tramplin on one another yet. In March 1864, three Albertland settlers visited the Marsh brothers lodgings and told them the Opou Block, adjacent to their Wharehine property, was coming up for auction. Henry decided to go up with the settlers to have a look. It took three days to get there, five hours by small boat to Leigh, then on foot up Pakiri Beach and across country to Wharehine. As they approached the Opou, Hovey and Albert Brookes of Takapau met them. The Brookes also wanted the new block and older brother Edwin was going to bid on it. Henry wrote: And very good land I found. There is two lots of 46 acres each, half of it is very good and the other very poor, and there is peach trees on it to grow a ton of peaches. When the tide is out, I could pick a cart load of oysters in an hour. I shall be very well satisfied if I get it. It took him another three days to return to Auckland, two of which were at sea; the wind was against us. If there had been no other bidders at auction, Henry would have got 40 acres for each Land Order any more cost ten shillings an acre. However, there were two other bidders for the Opou, and Henry had to pay more than expected. As Edwin Brookes wrote later, my rival became the possessor who did not seem at all pleased at having to give double the upset price, and I am sure the feeling on my part at losing it was every bit as painful. However, Henry was content; So we have 92 acres for 47 pounds and our Land Orders. It is only about 3 miles from a market town, Port Albert, and there are nearly a dozen settlers within about a mile. I would not come back to [England] if anyone would give me five hundred pounds. I have 46 acres of land now. If I had stopt in England till doomsday, I should only have got the length & breadth of me. Lyn Johnston, Albertland Museum www.albertland.co.nz Proposals to track police misconduct and establish new standards for behavior in response to the killing of George Floyd could be a major campaign issue this fall, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker said Monday. The election could determine whether Congress and local officials crack down on police officers using violence to subdue unarmed citizens, or whether such abuses go unchecked, said Booker, D-N.J., the first African American elected to the Senate from New Jersey. This could very well be a compelling reason that drives many people to the polls, Booker said. I see this potentially transitioning to a huge voter turnout. Booker joined U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.; Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., chair of the Congressional Black Caucus; and several civil rights leaders via Zoom to demand action following Floyds death. Protests, some of them violent, broke out across the country after video showed Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pressing his knee against Floyds neck, ignoring the 46-year-old black mans pleas that he could not breathe. Chauvin later was charged with third-degree murder and was fired along with three other officers. Weve got to have the law work on our side to hold police officers accountable, said Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. If you dont think youre accountable for your misconduct, you wont change your conduct. Booker proposed legislation Sunday to remove certain protections now enjoyed by police officers, create a national registry of police misconduct, require law enforcement agencies to report use-of-force incidents to the federal government, ban religious and racial profiling, and fund racial bias training for police. Persistent and unchecked bias in policing is wreaking havoc in African American communities, Booker said. There is no singular policy that will fix this. We need an entire set of holistic reforms. NJ Advance Media in 2018 published the first statewide analysis of use of force reports based on 506 public records requests. The report found that just 10% of officers accounted for 38% of all uses of force. Marc H. Morial, president and chief executive of the National Urban League, said the video of Floyd being killed was real, not a reality television show. Our eyes dont lie, he said. Black people in America died because of police violence. Its our determination to see to it this time to reform policing in America. To enact those changes requires public officials who will pledge to carry them out, civil rights leaders said. Back in 2015, President Barack Obama came to Camden to announce a policy restricting the transfer of military equipment to local police departments. President Donald Trump rescinded that policy during his first year in office. Our role in this process is to increase voter turnout, said Derrick Johnson, president and chief executive of the NAACP. Floyds death has spurred protests across the country, including in New Jersey. Most of the demonstrations in the state have been peaceful. A national day of mourning is planned for Thursday, the day of Floyds funeral, and the Rev. Al Sharpton said that should be a day to pledge to work to change the laws governing police conduct. Rage is not going to solve this unless that rage is channeled in a concrete way," Sharpton said. Im not going to tell people who to vote for but I am going to tell them what to vote for. Lets vote for justice. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Speed, impairment and distracted driving are "all contributing factors" in a June 2019 collision that resulted in the electrocution death of a 21-year-old Lynden man. In a release, the Hamilton Police Service said it has concluded its investigation into the cause of the single-vehicle crash that took place on Woodhill Road at the 4th Concession Road West June 9, 2019. Reports recently received concluded speed, impairment as well as distracted driving were all contributing factors in the collision, said police. At approximately 3:30 a.m., police say the mans 2013 Hyundai Elantra left the road, went into a ditch and hit a hydro pole. An autopsy revealed the man was fatally electrocuted after he stepped on a live wire after his car smashed into the hydro pole, prompting police to warn the public to be safe around downed hydro wires. According to previously published reports, the driver was not injured in the crash; he made no emergency calls. From evidence pieced together at the scene, detectives believe he got out of his car, walking a few metres before stepping on a downed live hydro wire. He was electrocuted and likely killed instantly. Police are reminding residents to exercise caution near unknown downed wires. If you see a damaged or hanging power line, maintain a minimum distance of 10 metres and report it to the local utility services, said police in a release issued June 1, 2020. If in a vehicle and an overhead power line drops on top of the vehicle, stay inside and call 911. with files from The Hamilton Spectator A California man has been arrested Monday after police say they caught him eating the body of his grandmother. Officers say they were called to a home in Richmond after reports of a disturbance. There they say they found Dwayne Wallick, 37, 'straddled' over 90-year-old Ruby Wallick. Dwayne Wallick is now facing a charge of murder after his gran was pronounced dead at the scene. A California man was arrested Monday after Richmond police say they caught him eating the body of a female relative he had just murdered (stock image) A police spokesman told DailyMail.com officers were called to the home shortly after 2pm local time to reports of suspicious circumstances. Ruby is said to have been 'missing pieces of flesh' and paramedics were called. An autopsy is pending into the cause of death. It is unclear if she was killed before officers say they found her grandson eating her. A spokesman said Wallick was 'in the process in committing those injuries' when he was found. Police tasered the suspect and were forced to restrain him. Wallick is said to been taken to hospital for a medical examination and has not been booked into jail as of Tuesday afternoon. WESTPORT Mondays peaceful protest as a response to the killing of George Floyd was a rally in support of justice and against systemic racism that drew nearly 100 people from around the area. I challenge us. I challenge white and black people to step out of our comfort zones to have those uncomfortable conversations, to go to those town meetings, to talk to people that are in power, said Chantel Williams, a 22-year-old Bridgeport resident. To start our own table. We dont need a seat at the table, we can start our own. The protest, which came together through a social media post and included a march from the Westport Library to Whole Foods on Post Road West, followed one on Sunday. It ended at the Westport Police Department where several members of the crowd spoke, including Police Captain Foti Koskinas. I stand with you on all of these issues and I stand with you on the fact that we cant just meet once, Koskinas said. This is a much bigger issue. The rally like many throughout the nation in the past two days was in response to the deaths of George Floyd, a black man who died on Memorial Day after a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee onto Floyds neck, and Breonna Taylor, a black woman who died after Louisville police opened fire in her apartment. The biggest problem is the insidious nature of racism. Its not just the police, Amie Ceesay of Fairfield said. We all need to learn to spend time with each other to know somebody who is unlike you and figure out their story and what they are like. Ceesay, who came to the rally alongside her daughter, said she had a lot of hope in the young generation to break down barriers previously erected between communities. Understand that your parents me included parents make mistakes and what our parents teach us is not always the right thing, and we need you young people to stand up for that, Ceesay said. We have to make people learn to love one another, to live with one another, to respect one another and not to judge people by the color of their skin. Williams said education is important in being proactive, noting that Sunday was the 99th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, when mobs of white residents attacked black residents and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Okla. Koskinas, who spoke to his experience as a first generation immigrant from Greece, said other incidents involving police brutality around the nation were also a part of the needed conversation. I want the trust of the community. I dont want you to be afraid of us, he said. The most devastating thing to every officer here is to hear how afraid and disappointed you guys are in us. I stand with you. I am devastated by what happened in Minneapolis, Koskinas said. I am not devastated by the officer alone, Im devastated that three other officers didnt act. Thats devastating. dj.simmons@hearstmediact.com Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 20:51:42|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close File photo shows people walk in the exhibition hall of Canton Fair in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, April 15, 2019. (Xinhua/Liang Xu) GUANGZHOU, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The southern Chinese city of Guangzhou will host an international expo featuring anti-epidemic supplies on June 10, the municipal government said on Tuesday. The expo has attracted more than 400 enterprises, as well as 65 consulates and 30 foreign commerce groups based in Guangzhou, said Yang Yong, director of the Guangzhou branch of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade. Photo taken on March 21, 2020 shows packed medical supplies at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province. (Xinhua/Tian Jianchuan) So far, more than 5,000 visitors, most of them potential buyers, have signed up for the event, the first off-line exhibition to be hosted in Guangzhou since the onset of the COVID-19 epidemic. The expo will set up 850 booths in four exhibition halls, with a total exhibition area of about 36,000 square meters. Organizers will assist foreign buyers with customs clearance and delivery of anti-epidemic supplies, taking advantage of an international distribution center located in Guangzhou's Nansha free-trade zone. The expo will also feature live streaming events in which participants of the expo will share their experiences of fighting the epidemic. There is something about an itemized list that we cant resist. A ranking, whether based on fact or not, is a scrumptious snack that we devour without a second thought. Three months ago, Netflix finally unveiled a ranking system that lets us in on what Canada is really watching. And if we want more, Netflix is ready with suggestions based on the workings of an unknowable algorithm. But, what if the More Like This algorithm missed something? Or, what if you want more like that from another service? Weve taken the May 29th top three of Netflixs Top Ten feature (Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich, Sons of Anarchy, Dynasty,) and curated some More Like This recommendations of our own that look at streaming services beyond Netflix. If you liked: Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich (2020): This limited docu-series by Lisa Bryant rose to the number one spot, the day after it was released. The series brings together all the lurid stories about Epstein, his influential friends, and the young women and girls lured into his sinister world. The doc kicks off with the story of how an investigative journalist tried to expose allegations against Epstein but was stopped from publishing her findings after threats were made to her then-editor, Graydon Carter. .... you may also like: Wormwood (2017): Part in-depth doc and part reconstructed reality, it tells the bizarre account of the death of a scientist and an even stranger CIA cover-up. Directed by the legendary Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line, Fog of War), it also features performances by Peter Sarsgaard and Molly Parker. Available on Netflix. Untouchable: The Rise and Fall of Harvey Weinstein (2019): Director Ursula Macfarlane (Charlie Hebdo: Three Days That Shook Paris) tells the behind-the-scenes story of a former Hollywood giant through interviews with his former colleagues, the investigative journalists that unveiled the allegations against him and the women who he abused and silenced. Available on Crave. The Inventor: Out for Blood In Silicon Valley (2019): The ultimate fake-it-until-you-make-it story, Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, Citizen K) detangles a cluster of fraudulent claims by the multibillion dollar tech company, Theranos, and its turtle-neck wearing founder, Elizabeth Holmes. Available on On Crave + (HBO). If you liked: Sons of Anarchy (2008): Season one of this much-beloved series also dropped May 28 and found its way in the number two spot overnight. Its no surprise since it was the highest-rated series on FX when it originally aired. Jax (Charlie Hunnam) and his gun-running, hog-riding, band of vigilantes live by their own code of justice, though season one finds Jax uncertain about SAMCRO (Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original) and following in his fathers footsteps. .... you may also like: Godless (2017): You cant talk about vigilantes without mentioning at least one Western. The seven-part miniseries, Godless, is a stunning, slow burn, and significant addition to the Western canon. After a mysterious stranger (Jack OConnell) arrives in La Bellea town devastated by a mining disaster that killed every last manwe learn that trouble will soon follow, in the name of the outlaw Frank Griffin (Jeff Daniels). And, the women of La Belle, will need to stand their ground. Also starring, Michelle Dockery and Merritt Wever. Available on Netflix. The Boys (2019): A comic book-inspired black comedy is perhaps the antidote we need to the superhero pandemic of the last decade. In a world where corporate-sponsored superheroes are celebrities, its up to a team of vigilantes, with no superpowers, to stand up to them. Filmed in Toronto, the series stars Karl Urban, Jack Quaid and Antony Starr. Available on Amazon Prime. The Beeba Boys (2015): This Canadian crime thriller directed by Deepa Mehta and set in Vancouver is self-described as an adrenaline-charged Indo Canadian gang war, and a violent clash of culture and crime. It divided critics at the time and stirred up opposition from an anti-gang unit in B.C. who believed that the main character was based on the real-life gangster Buhinder Bindy Mohal. However, Mehta has clarified that this is not the case. On CBC Gem. If you liked: Dynasty (2017): Since season three of this soap-opera reboot landed on Netflix on May 23, it has been plotting its way to the top. Just like Fallon. Dynasty is full of swagger, delivering what fans expect from their prime-time soaps. Of course, the drama between the Carringtons and the Colbys, two of the wealthiest families in America, is never-ending. While the show has been modernized to reflect the times, it has stayed true to its salacious and scheming roots. .... you may also like: Grand Hotel (20112013) There have been a few versions of this very popular early-twentieth century-set series from Spain, including an American one produced by Eva Longoria. In the original series on Netflix, the drama begins when our hero, Julio, arrives at the hotel under the guise of working as a footman. He is really there to uncover what happened to his missing sister. In pursuit of the truth, he happens upon other secrets and murders and also falls in lovewith a woman above his class, who is engaged to another man and is the daughter of the hotelier. Phew! Available on Netflix. The Great (2020): Billed as an occasionally true story, The Great, is a satirical reimagining of the plot to overthrow the Emperor of Russia (Nicholas Hoult) by his Empress (Elle Fanning). Defying to be pegged as a period piece, this series, created by Tony McNamara (screenwriter of The Favourite), breaks the rules of historical fiction (except the one that calls for using English accents) in the way it uses language and style, resulting in a sort of contemporary version of a somewhat true tale. On Amazon Prime. Riviera (2017): If you have wondered about where Julia Stiles has been, you can find here as Georgina Clios, an art dealer whose husband Constantine died in a yacht explosion. Yes, there are yachts and villas but there are also murders and money-laundering. The first season of this glitzy show set in the Cote dAzur was reportedly the most successful original series for Sky to date and its still going strong, with recent news of a third season being ordered. On Sundance Now. Read more about: Mumbai, June 2 : For the third time in a week, Maharashtra recorded 100-plus Covid-19 deaths, including a staggering 74 in Mumbai Metropolitan Region alone, as the state on Tuesday braced for the double whammy of Cyclone 'Nisarga'. The state recorded its third highest death toll of 103 - after 105 notched on May 27 and the highest-ever 116 reached on May 29 - taking the state tally to 2,465. Tuesday's toll includes a whopping 74 deaths in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region alone - the worst-hit in the country, besides 2,287 new positive cases recorded in the state. This comes to roughly one death every 11 minutes, and an average 95 new cases notched every hour, in the state. Maharashtra has been recording 75-plus fatalities and over 2,000 cases daily for the past eight days continuously, with the previous highest figure of 3,041 infections notched on May 24. With 103 fatalities, the state death toll has touched 2,465 while the total number of Coronavirus patients increased from Monday's 70,013 to 72,300. The Health Department said of the total number of cases declared till date, 38,493 37,534 were 'active cases' - increasing by 959 over Monday's 37,534. The state recorded a recovery rate of 43.33 per cent and a mortality rate of 3.4 per cent. Of the total 103 fatalities on Tuesday, 49 were recorded in Mumbai alone, taking the city death toll up to 1,368 now, while the number of Covid-19 positive patients here shot up by 1,117 to touch 42,216 now. Besides Mumbai's 49 deaths, there were 15 fatalities in Thane (Navi Mumbai, Thane, Mira-Bhayander), 10 each in Raigad and Pune, six in Satara, five in Solapur, three each in Sangli and Akola, and one each in Nashik and Ahmednagar. The victims comprised 68 men and 35 women, and nearly 67 per cent of them suffered from other serious ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, heart problems and asthma. On the positive side, a total of 1,225 fully cured patients returned home on Tuesday, taking the number of those discharged from 30,108 to 31,333. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray reiterated that the entire state population has been covered under the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Public Health Scheme, whether admitted to public or private hospitals. Cracking the whip, the Health Department slapped show-cause notices to four top hospitals - Hinduja, Bombay, Jaslok and Lilavati - for allegedly flouting norms by not providing 80 per cent beds for Covid-19 patients at rates stipulated by the government last month. To discipline such errant hospitals, a civic Health Department official will henceforth be stationed at all private hospitals to ensure Covid-19 patients are not harassed in any manner, Thackeray added. As a precaution against Cyclone Nisarg likely to hit Maharashtra's Raigad on Wednesday, the government shifted over 60 patients from the 1,000-bed field hospital at Bandra Kurla Complex to the Goregaon NESCO hospital. The MMR (Thane Division) continued to cause grave concerns with 74 fresh Covid-19 deaths taking the toll to 1,682 and 54,951 positive cases. Though trailing a distant third after Mumbai and Thane, Pune Division fatalities touched 445, besides 9,692 patients. Since June 1, Thane district with 10,404 cases and 230 fatalities, has shot past Pune district with 8,196 patients and 348 deaths. The next major area of concern is Nashik Division with 166 deaths and 2,323 positive cases, followed by Aurangabad Division with 70 fatalities and 1,984 cases, and finally Akola Division with 51 deaths and 1,099 cases. Latur Division has 11 deaths and 381 cases, Kolhapur Division 13 deaths and 1,023 patients, and finally, Nagpur Division with 12 deaths and 785 cases. Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home-quarantine increased from 567,552 to 570,453 on Tuesday, while those in institutional quarantine went down by 1,092 to 35,097. In another relieving news for patients, there are as many as 72,538 beds currently available for quarantine in the state. The state's containment zones increased from 3,294 to 3,730 on Tuesday while 10,019 health teams have fanned out around the state to survey a population of around 71.6 lakhs till date. (Quaid Najmi can be contacted at q.najmi@ians.in) Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) For years, there wasn't a hotter investment on Wall Street than cannabis stocks. Investors with the wherewithal and stomach to have invested in some of the most prominent pot stocks in 2016 or 2017 found themselves up, in some cases, by quadruple digits during the first quarter of 2019. In fact, more than a dozen pot stocks rocketed higher by at least 70% in Q1 2019. Then the wheels came off the wagon. For much of the past 14 months, marijuana stocks have been some of the worst-performing equities on Wall Street. Were it not for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic leading to a collapse in oil demand, thereby plunging many highly indebted drillers into bankruptcy or to the brink of bankruptcy, we'd still be talking about cannabis as the market's most disappointing industry. And yet, there's still plenty of potential. We know that tens of billions of dollars are conducted in black-market weed sales each year, and it's very feasible that these dollars can be moved to legal channels over time. Most analysts on Wall Street still believe the global pot industry can reach $50 billion or more in annual sales by 2030, up from the nearly $11 billion in worldwide legal sales registered in 2018. But if you're going to invest in this high-growth opportunity, there are three must-knows about cannabis stocks. 1. This isn't a get-rich-quick scheme -- it's a long-term commitment to a fast-growing industry First of all, as I began to allude to above, the marijuana industry isn't some get-rich-quick scheme. Although pot stocks did, at one time, have their market valuations go parabolic, that bubble has burst. As with any relatively new industry, there are going to be growing pains. For example, Canada has been contending with supply issues since the green flag waved on recreational pot sales on Oct. 17, 2018. Some of these problems have manifested directly from the federal government, with Health Canada delaying the launch of high-margin derivatives (i.e., vapes, edibles, and infused beverages) and slow-stepping the review of cultivation and sales licenses. But there have also been provincial-level failures, such as Ontario's regulators leaning on an ineffective lottery system to assign dispensary licenses. We're more than a year and a half into the legalization of cannabis, and the province with 38% of Canada's population has just over four dozen retail locations open. That's unacceptable, and it's led to supply bottlenecks. Within the United States, aside from the fact that the federal government continues to hold firm on its stance of marijuana as a Schedule I (i.e., illicit) drug, high tax rates in a number of legalized states has been the major deterrent to growth. California may be the largest cannabis market in the world by total sales, but it's pulverizing the pocketbooks of its consumers with a tax rate on legal product that's well over 40%. This makes it virtually impossible for legal producers and retailers to compete with the illicit industry. Now, this isn't to say that the pot industry can't thrive. It's just pointing out that all fast-growing industries have challenges they must face and overcome -- and this doesn't happen overnight. In order to realize the fruits of what the cannabis industry has to offer investors, you need to be willing to hang onto your pot stocks for years (not days!) and allow your investment thesis to play out. 2. Profitability matters The second must-know about investing in cannabis stocks is that profitability matters... a lot! In 2017, and prior to Canada legalizing adult-use weed in October 2018, promises of aggressive capacity expansion were more than enough to keep investors excited about the industry. But once Canada became the first industrialized country in the modern era to green-light adult-use cannabis, promises were no longer enough. With 33 states having legalized marijuana in some capacity as well, Wall Street and investors have plainly signaled that they want tangible results. For instance, Aurora Cannabis (NASDAQ:ACB) has long been the most-popular pot stock, and is an absolute favorite among millennials. But the Alberta-based grower has also been losing money hand over fist, and its share price reflects this. Over the trailing year, Aurora's stock has lost 84% of its value. In that time, Aurora Cannabis has halted construction on two of its largest projects to conserve capital, sold a 1-million-square-foot greenhouse (Exeter), laid off 500 workers, and continued to issue common stock to raise capital. Just as Aurora was aggressively boosting its capacity in 2018, it's now back-stepping just as quickly to control its cash burn. On the other hand, U.S. multistate operator Trulieve Cannabis (OTC:TCNNF) has been a money machine for multiple quarters now. Though Trulieve is a multistate operator, 48 of its 50 open dispensaries are located in medical marijuana-legal Florida. By concentrating its efforts in a single state, Trulieve has done an excellent job of effectively branding its products while keeping expenses down. During its most recent quarter, Trulieve's sales totaled $96.1 million, with $28.9 million in cost of goods sold and $31.1 million in operating expenses. Without any fair-value adjustments or one-time expenses, we're talking about operating income of more than $36 million! That's why Trulieve's shares are up 12% over the trailing year. 3. The U.S. is the best long-term play for investors The third must-know about cannabis stock investing is that, while you have plenty of companies to choose from, the better long-term play is going to be U.S. pot stocks. Though Canada may have legalized adult-use weed, its peak market potential represents a fraction of what could be possible with legalization in the United States. Does this mean you should ignore Canada? Absolutely not. However, you're going to want to be very selective with the companies you choose to invest in. As an example, extraction-service provider Valens (NASDAQ:VLNCF) appears set to benefit from a long-term upswing in derivative usage. Because derivatives offer considerably higher margins than dried cannabis flower, licensed producers will be emphasizing these products moving forward. However, licensed producers need companies like Valens to extract the resins, distillates, concentrates, and targeted cannabinoids used in derivatives. Valens is already profitable, which is a great sign considering that Canadian cannabis derivatives are still in their infancy. But where the real potential lies is with U.S. cannabis stocks. Green Thumb Industries (OTC:GTBIF) is a perfect example of a company that may have what it takes to become a real long-term winner. Green Thumb has 45 open dispensaries, and licenses to open as many as 96 retail stores in 12 states. This includes Illinois, which recently legalized recreational weed and opened its doors on Jan. 1, 2020, as well as Nevada, which may lead all states on per-capita cannabis spending by mid-decade. With profitability seemingly around the corner, Green Thumb is one of a handful of U.S. pot stocks worth considering for your portfolio. FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) sits outside its headquarters in Vienna By Rania El Gamal, Vladimir Soldatkin and Olesya Astakhova DUBAI/MOSCOW (Reuters) - OPEC and Russia are moving closer to a compromise on extending current oil output cuts and are discussing a proposal to roll over supply curbs for one to two months, three OPEC+ sources told Reuters on Monday. OPEC+ decided in April to cut output by a record 9.7 million barrels per day, or about 10% of global output, to lift prices battered by a demand drop linked to lockdown measures aimed at stopping the spread of the coronavirus. Rather than easing output cuts in July, sources told Reuters last week that de-facto OPEC leader Saudi Arabia was leading discussions on sustaining them until the end of the year. However, it was yet to win support from Russia, which believes curbs could be eased gradually. "It is the proposal now, but it is yet to be finalised," one OPEC+ source said of the 1-2 month extension. "It's for a month or two, not for half a year," one Russian oil source said, on the rollover of the existing cuts. Another OPEC+ source said there was support for Russia's proposal for an extension of one month, but "we still do not have consensus over it". The OPEC+ group is likely to hold an online meeting on June 4 to discuss output policy, after Algeria, which currently holds the presidency of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), proposed a meeting planned for June 9-10 be brought forward. Reduced production from OPEC+, combined with a record decline in output from non-members such as the United States and Canada, have helped to lift oil prices towards $35 per barrel, but they remain at only half the level of the start of the year. (Reporting by Rania El Gamal, Vladimir Soldatkin and Olesya Astakhova; Additional reporting by Lamine Chikhi; Editing by Edmund Blair and Jan Harvey) (TNS) The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted Americans adversarial system of justice like nothing before it, chipping away at the bedrock guarantee of American jurisprudence the right to a trial by jury.There has not been a jury trial in Western Washington perhaps in the entire state since early March. While the wheels of justice still turn some hearings are still held, arraignments and pleas are taken for the most part they are spinning in place. The federal courthouses in Seattle and Tacoma have been shuttered by judicial order: pretrial proceedings are done either by video, telephone or postponed. In the busier state courts, where locking the doors hasnt been an option, the daily docket call looks very different than it did just four months ago.In a downtown Seattle courtroom on a recent Wednesday, the criminal defendants wore masks with their jail garb and the judge presided from behind a plexiglass partition. But while some attorneys participated via phone, those in the room sat shoulder-to-shoulder. Paperwork passed between defense attorneys, clients and clerks. In the courtrooms small gallery, maintaining social distance was all but impossible.The scene on the 12th floor of the King County Superior Court underscores the challenge courthouses nationwide face as they attempt to find a way forward in a post-coronavirus world, where a packed courtroom simply isnt feasible.Some worry that, as the weeks and cases pile up, the pandemic-caused delays threaten to turn one of our most revered legal maxims into something more like an accusation: justice delayed is justice denied. In many cases despite efforts to ease jail populations there are citizens accused of crimes, innocent until proven guilty, who wait in custody, unsure when their case will ever be heard.You have to wonder how far we can stretch the system before it becomes unrecognizable, and we violate the Constitution, said Chief U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez, who chairs a national committee assigned by the U.S. Judicial Conference to reconstitute the federal judicial system in the wake of the coronavirus shutdowns. How far can we bend it before it breaks?Emergency actionsBeginning in early March, Martinez was the first judge in the country to shutter federal courthouses when he closed those in Seattle and Tacoma, postponing criminal and civil trials and grand jury hearings. The districts 13 federal judges and nine U.S. magistrate judges continue to hold some hearings, take pleas and preside over other peripheral proceedings both criminal and civil providing they can be done by telephone or teleconference.The judge believes that, like the rest of society, it will take months or years to bring the courts back to pre-coronavirus operations, if thats possible at all.It wasnt hard to do what weve done, Martinez said. We had to act swiftly. I did not want to be the first in terms of federal districts to get slammed with the coronavirus.I am not sure how we come back, he said. We are treading in areas where we have never been before.In King County Superior Court, the states busiest, many judges, lawyers and in-custody defendants still must show up in person. While criminal jury trials have been suspended until at least July 6, state courts are still required to hold arraignments, plea hearings, criminal motions and sentencing hearings for all in-custody defendants per emergency orders issued by state Supreme Court Chief Justice Debra Stephens.Superior court is very unique in that we are the workhorse of the court system. We provide so many essential services, King County Superior Court Chief Criminal Judge Patrick Oishi said in a phone interview. Other jurisdictions shut things down more quickly. We dont have that luxury.Bringing back juriesAs court leaders at both the state and federal level begin work on plans to ramp up their operations, a key question will be the future of jury trials. The law relies on precedent, and Martinez said there is no precedent in our lifetime for what has happened since the first-known coronavirus case in the U.S. was diagnosed in a Snohomish County man on Jan. 21. But all of a sudden, Martinez said, that civic duty has the potential to be deadly, and those very efforts to protect and enforce the rights of some are putting other peoples safety at risk. Without a vaccine, the idea of putting 12 or more people in close proximity for days, weeks or, in some cases months would be dangerous, the judge said.We will never go back to holding trials like we have for the past 230 years until we can convince jurors that it is safe to come back to the courthouse, he said.Martinezs current order on the federal courts website states that jury trials will not resume before July 31. However, a letter dated May 26 from senior U.S. District Judge John Coughenour to some civil litigants states that it is the considered opinion of most of the judges that trials wont resume before the end of the year, and that criminal trials will be given priority due to speedy-trial considerations.In King County Superior Court, Presiding Judge Jim Rogers this month convened a 30-person work group of judges and attorneys to create guidelines to safely convene jurors when jury trials eventually begin again. Hearing criminal cases, where someones freedom is at stake, will be the courts top priority, Rogers said, and judges assigned to the juvenile, civil and family-law departments will be enlisted to help clear the backlog. The court is also considering staggering start times for hearings and trials to reduce the potential for large gatherings.If we dont get it right, our courthouse could be a hotbed for COVID and none of us want that, Oishi said.But when it comes to jurors, Rogers said, people facing health issues or financial hardships during the crisis will be less likely to serve, shrinking the already small pool of prospective jurors who respond to summonses.Voir dire, when attorneys question prospective jurors before selecting a panel, could be moved to larger rooms outside the courthouse, and during trial, jurors could be scattered around a courtroom instead of being packed into a jury box, Rogers said. The question of where juries might deliberate, outside the close confines of jury rooms without endangering evidentiary chain of custody, remains open.Technology gapsThe vast majority of court activity, of course, is not a jury trial: Theres a continuous flow of arraignments, status hearings, motions and sentencings. Most cases are resolved by plea rather than a verdict nearly 97% of federal cases and 85 to 95% at the state level.To keep those broader court operations moving, it seems inevitable that technology will play a large role. Phone and video hearings arent new the Western District of Washington has been at the forefront of a federal court experiment into cameras in the courtroom and video appearances have been routine in some Washington counties for years. Earlier this month, the pandemic forced the U.S. Supreme Court to livestream arguments for the first time in its history. Rogers said King County Superior Court is now in the process of installing big-screen TVs in every courtroom. But while video and telephonic hearings may become more common in civil and family-law matters, he said its unlikely the King County defense bar will agree to replace most in-person criminal appearances with virtual ones.And with good reason: Academic studies have shown video appearances tend to dehumanize already-vulnerable people and lead to significantly higher bail amounts being imposed, compared to criminal defendants who physically stand before a judge on similar charges.Anita Khandelwal, the director of the King County Department of Public Defense (DPD), worries about the court pushing a system that prioritizes efficiency and expediency over the rights of people accused of committing crimes. She said she attended a recent video hearing and about a third of the time, the judge was inaudible.DPD has attempted to collaborate with other court stakeholders on video hearings for non-substantive matters, like case-setting hearings, but the department opposes wider use of video in criminal cases.People should not be forced to accept virtual attorneys and virtual trials when theyre going to real prison or having their real children taken away, Khandelwal said.For years, the Federal Detention Center has tried to keep contraband cellphones out of the prison. Now, it is relying on cellphones for clients to communicate with their attorneys and relatives, often from their detention cells. There arent enough of them, said Seattle Federal Public Defender Mike Filipovic, and they arent private.Our single most difficult issue is being able to communicate with our clients, he said. It can take up to two weeks for a client to gain access to a private telephone to talk to their lawyer.Languishing in jailMeanwhile, many jails throughout the country have reduced their populations by booking fewer people for lower-level crimes, and in some cases releasing defendants who have only a few weeks or months left on their sentences. Between the King County Jail in Seattle and the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent, the daily population now stands around 1,300 people, compared to 1,900 people in mid-March.Dan Clark, chief criminal deputy for the King County Prosecuting Attorneys Office (PAO), said prosecutors have held off on filing roughly 600 felony cases so as not to add to the jail population or overwhelm the court during the pandemic.Federal public defenders have pushed for the compassionate release of inmates who might be more vulnerable to the virus as well as the release of inmates toward the end of their terms. So far, the court has granted several such releases in Western Washington and is looking at less-restrictive confinement for others, according to U.S. Attorney Brian Morans office.Still, many people remain in federal and local jails, and more cases are being added to the docket every day: Between March 14 and May 1, King County prosecutors filed 631 priority criminal cases, a category that includes murder, assault, sexual assault, robbery, unlawful possession of firearms, burglary and vehicle theft.Khandelwal remains concerned about pre-trial defendants who remain locked up.Our clients are simply languishing in jail and its still not a safe place, Khandelwal said. Theres no end in sight and no way to know when their rights will be adjudicated.The American Civil Liberties Union nationally had filed more than 75 COVID-19 detention-related lawsuits across the country as of mid-May, said Jeffrey Robinson, the deputy legal director for the national ACLU in New York and director of the Trone Center for Justice and Equality, which works on criminal-justice reform and racial justice.What weve done is horrific, said Robinson, a Seattle attorney who says the pandemic has exposed the inhumanity of the countrys jails and prison systems, which have now trapped tens of thousands of people in what Robinson said amounts to a Petri dish of potential coronavirus exposure.Robinson said thousands of inmates have already been released more than 1,300 nationally from federal custody alone.Have you seen an uptick in crime? he asked. If all these people have come out of jail and crime is coming down, then ask yourself, Why where they there in the first place?' On #BlackTuesday, 7x7 had to make a choice: As publishers, do we put up a black square on Instagram and Facebook and go dark to make a statement, or do we continue with our workafter all, we feel fortunate to still have work we can do these days. There may be no wrong answer, but at 7x7 we feel a responsibility to use our platform to contribute. As an independent, woman-owned publisher based in San Francisco and Oakland, we've always made it our mission to amplify local voices and causes. We regularly champion women movers and shakers and we are longtime active supporters of the LGBTQ rights movement and a media sponsor to San Francisco Pride. We try to bolster indie makers, small businesses, and local nonprofits on the daily. But today we are owning up to the fact that we could have done more over the years to support the Bay Area's Black communities; today we're stepping up to ask what we can do to help. The short answer: We can tell your stories. We'll start with this, a (running) list of resources for how we can all engage and take action for racial justice now. You can join the movement by supporting black-owned businesses and restaurants; by reading up on how to be a better antiracist; by donating directly to Black Lives Matter; by calling your legislators. If we've missed something great, send it to us. We are also putting out a call for Black stories. We hope you'll share your suggestions with us on Instagram or Facebook, and also find fresh profiles on incredible Black Bay Areans in the Locals We Love section of our site. Black lives matter. Resist! And support black-run initiatives and nonprofits. See on Instagram Founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin's murderer, Black Lives Matter, the East Baybased global organization and movement for liberation and justice has a slew of resources and ways to get involved on its website. You can start by signing their newest petition to defund the police and distribute funding into black communities, then find creative and artistic programming, educational data, links to donate, and BLM merch. // blacklivesmatter.com Low on cash in the age of Covid-19? You can still support Black Lives Matter, and its affiliated nonprofits, to get bail funds to jailed protesters without spending a dime. Simply stream a YouTube video where all advertising revenue goes to various BLM-associated funds. // YouTube Get to know the Oakland-based Black Futures Lab, an org founded by BLM cofounder Alicia Garza that works with black people "to transform our communities by building Black political power & changing the way power operates in cities and states." // instagram.com/blackfutureslab Black Earth Farms is a grassroots Pan African and Pan Indigenous farming collective growing food in the East Bay. They are taking donations of food both for those jailed during protest and for folks organizing bail funds and medical resourcs. // instagram.com/blackearthfarms, venmo: @blackearthfarms, cash app: $blackearth Founded by East Baybased Rue Mapp, Outdoor Afro empowers Black people to reconnect with nature and to find leadership roles, as guides and conservationists, there. Find a schedule of upcoming protests around the Bay Area. // sf.funcheap.com Be an antiracist. See on Instagram Our friends at the San Francisco Public Library have put together a reading list with book recommendations for everyone who wishes to be a better antiracist. Suggestions include Ibram X. Kendi's How to Be an Antiracist, Robin J. DiAngelo's White Fragility, Austin Channing-Brown's I'm Still Here, and several more. There's also a terrific list for kids. // For more book recommendations, follow the SFPL on Instagram, instagram.com/sfpubliclibrary. City Lights Bookstore's Antiracist Reading List is expectedly thoughtful and diverse. Pick up copies of W.E.B. Dubois' Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America; Of Poetry and Protest: From Emmett Til to Trayvon Martin; Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot, and many more. // citylightsbooks.tumblr.com Support black-owned businesses in the Bay Area. See on Instagram Ever heard of the BAOBOB Directory? You have now. The group, whose moniker stands for Bay Area Organization of Black Owned Businesses, is exactly what it sounds like. Sign up to download their list where you'll find a bit of everything: yoga studios, dog groomers, fashion retailers, architects, salons and spas, coffee shops, business services, and more. // baobobdirectory.com Put your money where your heart is and drop some dollars at local, black-owned boutiques and fashion/beauty brands. There are plenty of beloved brands and shops herewe've curated some of our favorites. // 7x7.com Visit Oakland is leading the charge to support local and black- and PoC-owned businesses in The Town, in addition to its many ongoing good works to clean up and revitalize neighborhoods. Head over to their website to donate and volunteer for various local grassroots initiatives. // visitoakland.com You can also donate to the Bay Area Black Owned Business Relief Fund. // gofundme.com Power change through art. See on Instagram The Tracy Piper, a San Franciscobased former circus performer turned figurative painter, has launched a highly chromatic and powerful fine art print, Black Lives Matter, along with Voss Gallery. Available for purchase for $80 with curbside pickup, delivery, and international shipping, all proceeds will benefit Black Lives Matter. // At Voss Gallery, 3344 24th St., vossgallery.art/collections/the-tracy-piper Leave it to the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) to take a creative approach to activism. Typically available in the Black Power section of the museum's Gallery of California History, their Take Action cards are going virtual on Instagram. Each one makes a statement or a suggestion"Vote With Your Bank Account," "Check Your Privilege," "Buy a Sweet Potato Pie"then follows with actionable resources for getting involved. Follow along on IG, and share the cards to your feed and stories. If you have an idea for future cards, you can email takeaction@museumca.org. // instagram.com/oaklandmuseumca Become a member of San Francisco's African-American Shakespeare Company, an all-Black theater troupe that puts a modern relatable spin on classic texts founded by executive director Sherri Young. Oakland-based photographer Amir Abdul-Shakur captures the dignity and beauty of the Black Lives Matter movement. Learn more about the "visual abolitionist" and follow him on Instagram to see his powerful imagery and get updates on future exhibitions. Order takeout from black-owned restaurants around the Bay Area. See on Instagram San Francisco Chronicle food writer Soleil Ho and her team began with a well-organized Google Doc of eateries from Antioch to Vallejo; now, it's an easy-to-search project of the Chron. Order up from the likes of Pietisserie in Berkeley, Alamar and Miss Ollie's in Oakland, and Little Skillet and Ungrafted in San Franciscoand in the organizers' words, "tip heavy, and be kind." // projects.sfchronicle.com SF Eater also has a roundup of sites and apps highlighting black-owned restaurants. // sf.eater.com Buy a face mask from black Bay Area designer. See on Instagram We love Oakland-based Sonson for its gorgeous African textiles in vibrant patterns and hues, and since the start of the pandemic, we've been raving about their face coverings. Hey, if you gotta wear a mask, it may as well have swagger. Designer Rashima Sonson is doing masks as well as combos with masks and headwraps for women and now bowties (their signature product) for the men. Order them before they sell out. // sonson.com Migrant workers returning to Bihar will not have to undergo the mandatory 14-day institutional quarantine any more, as the movement of people has opened across the country, a state government official said on Tuesday, a move that can lead to further spurt in Covid-19 cases. The registration of migrants for the purpose of quarantine closed on Monday, the official of the Disaster Management department said. More than 8.77 lakh people have been discharged from quarantine centres after completing the 14-day quarantine period. Besides, 5.30 lakh migrants are still lodged in block and district level quarantine centres We have stopped the registration of migrants from Monday for putting them in 14-day institutional quarantine...Why will anyone (migrant) be registered and for what when restrictions on the movement of people have been lifted in the country. How do you know who is migrant because now anyone can come either by train, bus, car or any other mode? Disaster Management Departments Principal Secretary Pratyaya Amrit told PTI. He said quarantine facilities were introduced when movement of people was either banned or restricted. During the lockdown, people had to obtain passes from the competent authorities to undertake travel from one place to another. But with the introduction of unlock 1, such requirement has been done away with, he said. He, however, asserted that door-to-door health monitoring will continue. The officer said quarantine centres will be closed after June 15 when the 14-day quarantine period of the last batch of registered migrants will end. Why quarantine centres will remain open when there will be no one at these centres after the arrival of last batch which was supposed to reach Bihar by June 1? We had written a letter to the official concerned to send the special (Shramik) train by June 1. If we take that into account, the quarantine period will come to an end on June 15, he said. Schools also have to be vacated for starting academic activities, he said. So far, 28 to 29 lakh migrants have reached Bihar in its biggest ever evacuation exercise, he claimed. The state governments decision comes at a time when many migrants returning to Bihar have tested positive for Covid-19, leading to a massive surge in the number of cases. According to the data released by the state Health department, the number of migrants who have tested positive since May 3 is 2,743. Bihar had reported 3,872 cases and 23 deaths till Monday evening. The Enforcement Directorate has filed charges against former finance minister P Chidambaram and son Karti in the INX Media case, people familiar with the development said. The charge-sheet was filed in special judge Ajay Kumars court on Tuesday. The ED, a federal agency that investigates financial crimes and money laundering, has accused the 74-year-old veteran Congress politician and Karti of being beneficial owners of shell firms incorporated in India and abroad that received bribes. There has been no statement from the ED detailing provisions of the money laundering law that the two Congress leaders that have been invoked in the charge-sheet. But the Enforcement Directorate has alleged in the past that nearly Rs 3 crore had been paid to Karti Chidambarams companies by INX Media co-founder, Peter Mukerjea. This money was allegedly paid at the behest of the senior Congress politician who was the finance minister when approvals to receive foreign investments were granted to INX Media. P Chidambaram was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in October last year when he was in Tihar jail. The arrest came around the same time that his bail application in a related case filed by the CBI was coming up for hearing. The Rajya Sabha MP was eventually released in December 2019 after spending nearly 105 days in Tihar jail. The former Union minister and his son have repeatedly denied the allegations. Also Read: P Chidambaram, Karti met Mukerjeas, officials buried violations: CBI in INX charge sheet Asked about the charge-sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate, Karti Chidabaram declined to say anything. I will not comment until something is served to me formally, he said. The ED and CBI cases are linked to grant of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media to receive overseas funds to the tune of Rs 307 crore in 2007, when the Congress politician was finance minister in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. Investigators have alleged that when Peter Mukerjea and wife Indrani met Chidambaram to get the foreign investment approvals, the minister told them to keep his sons business interests in mind. At earlier court hearings, the ED has claimed that they had been able to identify payments of Rs 3.09 crore by Peter Mukerjea to ASCPL (Advantage Strategic Consultancy Pvt Ltd) and associated entities controlled by Karti P Chidambaram through manipulated debit notes. During investigation, it was admitted that debit notes were raised on the directions of Karti Chidambaram to show some transaction which in fact did not occur, the agency had alleged. It said the money so received by associated entities was channelled back into ASCPL. The funds received by ASCPL were invested and ASCPL also purchased shares of Vasan Health Care. A part of these shares was sold at a profit of nearly Rs 41 crore. ASCPL also earned Rs.18.49 crore from sale of shares in another company for an amount of Rs 29.49 crore. These funds arising from sale of laundered property is also property involved in money laundering, it has claimed. The agency had, in February 2019, attached properties worth Rs 54 crore allegedly belonging to Karti in Spain, the UK and India. Indrani Mukherjea, in her statement to CBI, has claimed that US dollars 5 million and US dollars 4,50,000 were transferred in overseas account of Congress leader in 2007 and 2009 respectively after getting money from INXs foreign investors while a cash payment of Rs 1 crore was made to Karti in Delhi in 2009. HT has copy of her statement. Dr Sizwe Mabizela, Vice-Chancellor, Rhodes University Dear Staff and Students On 23 May 2020, the Minister of Higher Education, Science & Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande, laid out a set of criteria for the return of students to universities according to the declared risk-adjusted alert levels. The Ministrys framing theme in providing guidance for the post-school in these uncertain times of the COVID-19 pandemic is #SaveLives, #SaveTheAcademicYear. It is within the important national imperative to save lives and at the same time save the academic year that we should take every precautionary measure to protect and save both. The University places a high priority on the health, safety and wellbeing of all students, staff and the greater Makhanda community. Accordingly, the University has put in place strict preventative measures to keep students and staff safe and to curb the spread of the virus. These will be communicated in due course. Adherence to these precautionary measures is mandatory. Failure to adhere to them will not just place you at risk but the entire Rhodes University community and the surrounding Makhanda community at the risk of the infection and loss of life. We all must take responsibility for our actions. Remote/online teaching and learning delivery will continue until the health risk posed by the COVID- 19 pandemic has sufficiently receded for face-to-face teaching and learning to resume. All students who can work productively from home are encouraged to do so. Students who are allowed back onto campus for specific programs requiring physical presence should be aware that their courses will not be presented in a physical modality. Returning students will not be able to engage in social activities, and will be required to abide by all of the health and physical distancing rules pertaining to the level for the Sarah Baartman region, as well as the Higher Health and Institutional directives around COVID-19. They will be required to wear a face mask at all times in public. Return to campus will be by University invitation only. No student will be allowed to return to campus of their own accord. All returning students for coursework purposes will be individually notified at the point at which the University is adequately prepared to receive them with a 2 week notice being given. Students whose immune system is compromised are advised to engage with the University at that point. Faculty Deans, working together with academic departments, will identify students who qualify for return to campus in line with the appropriate Alert Level. Where students are able to work remotely, they should continue to do so. The Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research & Innovation, Dr Peter Clayton, will develop a protocol to facilitate the return to campus of certain categories of research postgraduates taking their degree fully by research thesis. Supervisors will work with Dr Clayton to ensure that these postgraduate students who are unable to make progress remotely and require laboratories, field sites, University facilities and physical work spaces, are able to return to the University, provided that their work space is fully prepared for COVID-19 precautions, according to national and institutional frameworks. All other students must await notification of institutional invitation before they may return to the campus, whether as an Oppidan or in University residence, which is likely to be about 2 weeks after the national declaration of a risk-adjusted level. Students will not be allowed back on campus for any reason other than indicated in the categories below. All students returning to campus will be required to make use of the Higher Health daily health assessment online App, and abide by all health and safety protocols. Using the Ministerial overarching directives, and the priorities indicated by Faculties at Rhodes University, the categories of students who will be able to return to campus at each nationally or regionally declared levels are as indicated below: Level 4: 1. Candidates in 4th year B. Pharm 2. Clinical and Counselling Psychology Masters students in their first or internship year. 3. D. Pharm students who are based at National Hospital facilities. Level 3: 1. All candidates included in level 4. 2. Students taking final year topics which require access to laboratories and technical equipment candidates taking 3rd and 4th year topics in Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Botany, Chemistry, Computer Science, Entomology, Environmental Science, Geography, Geology, Human Kinetics & Ergonomics, Ichthyology & Fisheries Science, Information Systems, Mathematical Statistics, Mathematics, Microbiology, Physics and Electronics, Zoology, Fine Art Practice and Instrumental Studies. This category may also include individually selected JRN 3 and 4 students whose options require access to specialist equipment (the remaining JRN 3 and 4 being in level 2). 3. Students who require clinical training in their programmes: only BPHA 2 & 3. 4. Postgraduate students who require laboratory equipment and other technical equipment to undertake their studies: Honours, Masters by thesis and PhD candidates in the Science and Pharmacy Faculties, Information Systems, Music, MFA, JRN Hons who require practical facilities, and final year MA candidates in Drama. 5. Other thesis-based doctoral and masters candidates who are unable to make progress remotely, and whose departments are ready to accommodate them according to the regulations. For the most part, thesis-based students not requiring laboratory or field work access will continue to work remotely. 6. B. Ed final year students and certain categories of PGCE students, who are required to undertake teaching practice modules within schools under the directives of the Department of Basic Education. 7. Master of Commerce Financial Markets (MCOM2) and PGDip(Accounting) students (HDAC) whose preparation for national board examinations require access to on-campus facilities. 8. Students with disabilities. 9. Students identified by the University as being in circumstances which are not conducive to quality learning. Level 2: 1. All students included in levels 3 and 4. 2. Students in all years of study who require laboratory and technical equipment to complete the academic year including Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Botany, Chemistry, Computer Science, Entomology, Environmental Science, Geography, Geology, Human Kinetics & Ergonomics, Ichthyology & Fisheries Science, Information Systems, Mathematical Statistics, Mathematics, Microbiology, Physics and Electronics, Zoology, Fine Art Practice and Instrumental Studies. 3. All Honours students not included in level 3. 4. LLB 3rd and 4th year students. 5. Journalism 3 & 4 students, and candidates in Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism (DJPG), Postgraduate Diploma in Media Management (PDMM). 6. Accounting 102 and 112 who require specialist software only available on campus. 7. Certain candidates in the Postgrad Dip in Enterprise Management and the Postgrad Diploma in Business Analysis may attend as scheduled by the business school. 8. Students identified by the University as being in circumstances which are not conducive to quality learning. Level 1: All remaining students will include: 1. All students included in levels 2, 3 & 4. 2. First, Second, Third and Fourth year students in all undergraduate programs (including foundation courses and JRN 1 and 2). 3. Masters Degrees taken by Coursework. 4. MA in Creative Writing. 5. MBA. 6. Master of Education (Coursework/Thesis). 7. Master of Education (Higher Educ). 8. Master of Social Science (Coursework/Thesis). 9. Postgrad Diploma in International Studies. 10. Postgraduate Certificate in Education and Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education. (other than those required to undertake practical teaching modules in level 3). 11. Postgraduate Diploma in Heritage Management. 12. Occasional Students not taking subjects that require laboratory facilities. All student queries should be emailed to returnquery@ru.ac.za. Masters or Doctoral students undertaking a research thesis should consult their supervisor(s). Slowing the rate of transmission of the virus is our individual and collective responsibility. Please play your part to save lives and save the 2020 academic year. Sizwe Mabizela Vice-Chancellor, Rhodes University. Source: VC's Office Please help us to raise funds so that we can give all our students a chance to access online teaching and learning. Covid-19 has disrupted our students' education. Don't let the digital divide put their future at risk. Visit www.ru.ac.za/rucoronavirusgateway to donate BRIDGEPORT A man on the run for nearly eight years after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl was denied release on Monday because of the pandemic. Cesar Oliva has tested positive for COVID-19 and his continued confinement will be a detriment to his health, argued Olivas lawyer, Wayne Keeney. But Supervisory Assistant States Attorney Maureen Ornousky retorted that after admitting that he sexually assaulted the young girl in 2012, Oliva took on the identity of a dead man a deceased Guatemalan immigrant. He fled the jurisdiction to avoid being sentenced, she told Superior Court Judge Joan Alexander. The judge denied the motion for release. Oliva was arrested late last month after a Stamford police officer recognized him while Oliva was working as a cashier at a Stamford store. Oliva, 30, was charged with failure to appear at court along with first-degree forgery, identity theft and criminal impersonation. He was held in lieu of a $275,000 bond. According to court records, Oliva, then 23, was arrested on August 9, 2012, and was charged with second-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a child. Police at the time of his arrest in 2012 said he allegedly sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl whose father complained to police that Oliva who then lived on Lockwood Avenue was having sex with his daughter. An officer has been shot in Las Vegas and police are responding to another shooting as people protest the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, authorities said. One officer was shot on the Las Vegas Strip and a second officer was involved in a shooting in the downtown area, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Police in Las Vegas said Monday that 338 people were arrested during three nights of protests. Officers used tear gas and pepper balls to disperse crowds late Saturday downtown and Sunday on the Las Vegas Strip. Police said suspects were jailed despite a local court policy calling for most people accused of misdemeanour crimes to receive court summonses instead of time behind bars to help prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. Protesters have been rallying for days across the country over the death of Floyd, who was seen on video pleading that he couldn't breathe with a white police officer pressing his knee into his neck for several minutes before Floyd stopped moving. Tuesday marks the sixth straight day of unrest following Floyd's death, with curfews now imposed in New York City and Los Angeles. Despite the rising tensions, president Donald Trump has threatened to deploy the military after accusing state governors of failing to bring the protests under control. In an audio recording leaked on Monday, Mr Trump can be heard calling the governors "weak" as he urged them to act more aggressively. He said the protests are ruining the nation's standing on the world stage. And he called on governors to pass new bans on flag burning, a constitutionally protected expression of free speech. A protester prays in front of George Floyd's memorial in Minneapolis (AFP via Getty Images) "Washington was under very good control, but we're going to have it under much more control," Trump said, according to audio of the meeting obtained by CBS News. "We're going to pull in thousands of people." He added later: "We're going to clamp down very, very strong." On Monday, a lawyer for the Floyd family said that an independent autopsy showed that Mr Floyd died from asphyxiation caused by neck and back compression when he was arrested on Memorial Day. Medical examiners found that pressure to Floyds carotid artery (blood vessels that carry oxygen-rich blood to the head) had been impeded, affecting his ability to breathe. Taking account of all the evidence, doctors Michael Baden and Allecia Wilson concluded that Floyd had died at the scene. "What we found is consistent with what people saw. There is no health issue that could cause or contribute to the death," Dr Baden said. "Police have this false impression that if you can talk, you can breathe. That's not true." Attorney Ben Crump has called for sacked officer Derek Chauvin to be charged with first rather than third degree murder. Protestors are also calling for charges to be brought against the three other officers accompanying Mr Chauvin when he made the arrest. KALAMAZOO, MI City leaders and community members had an intense discussion Tuesday, June 2, regarding allegations of excessive use of force by public safety officers during Mondays protest. Kalamazoo Vice Mayor Patrese Griffin and City Commissioner Eric Cunningham spoke with an emotional crowd outside the Kalamazoo Public Safety Department headquarters. Residents confronted them about why public safety officers used tactics such as tear gas and pepper spray. Following a peaceful protest sparked by the death of George Floyd, roving groups vandalized and looted businesses. At 12:20 a.m., the city issued a statement saying police were encountering large crowds and some people had destroyed property. Related: Protesters cause chaos overnight in downtown Kalamazoo Floyd is a black man, who died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. His death has prompted protests and riots nationwide. City leaders were supposed to be having a press conference to discuss with the media what unfolded Monday but community members showed up demanding answers. "Yall just paraded these people up here to give us a watered down story of what happened,'' said Willie Riddle Jr. I was there on Rose Street and West Michigan, those people that was down there live in Kalamazoo, I know some of them personally. They wasnt doing nothing and yall unloaded that mace on them like it was nothing. Cunningham asked Riddle to send him any video he had of his interactions with police Monday night. There needs to be accountability in regards to their actions, I promise you itll be done today, but without the four votes from City Commissioners, I cannot guarantee that to you,'' he said. Originally set for 10:45 a.m., the press conference didnt start until nearly 12 p.m. after the group of residents demanded the event be held outside, so they could speak to city officials. Thats not Kalamazoo, resident Brenda Tiefenthal shouted as her and the crowd learned they would not be able to enter the building. At 11:20 a.m., the crowd circled the police station, knocking on the door, with chants of We want to talk, broke out. Thats when Griffin and Cunningham appeared in front of the facility doors listen to the frustrated group. I was in the back and I didnt know there were folks out here, yall are my people, Griffin told the crowd. After speaking to residents, Griffin and Cunningham reentered the building and returned with other city officials at 11:45 a.m. including: Mayor David Anderson, City Manager Jim Ritsema, Commissioner Chris Praedel, KDPS Chief Karianne Thomas, Assistant Chief Vernon Coakley. Obviously, you asked and we are now meeting that request, we are going to do it outside, Cunningham said, triggering an applause from the crowd. Cunningham offered the crowd two conditions for the meeting: Remain silent during the press conference and to be socially distanced. The crowd complied as the press conference lasted about 45 minutes, wrapping up at 12:45. Residents did not get specific answers to their excessive forces questions. The city has imposed a 7 p.m. curfew that is scheduled to expire 5 a.m. Wednesday, June 3. During the presser, Coakley gave KDPS account of what occurred Monday. Earlier in the evening Monday, he said a small, peaceful protest was held at the steps of the courthouse on West Michigan Avenue, as well as multiple silent protests led by area church leaders around the county Monday evening. Coakley said those protests were not associated with the destruction of property that occurred later Monday night. Following the press conference, neither Coakley or Thomas answered questions from the media or residents. However, Coakley did offer several concerned residents his business card. Coakley also offer his condolences to George Floyds family. What a horrific situation for our country to be placed in and I stand before you a black man first, said Coakley, who is black. Im black and blue, Ive been doing this career for 27 years and Im proud of my profession, but we do not get it right every time." Also on MLive: Protesters cause chaos overnight in downtown Kalamazoo Kalamazoo imposes curfew at 7 p.m. today in response to protests Chief explains use of crowd management team at Kalamazoo protests NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) will host a conference call to discuss second quarter 2020 financial results on Wednesday, July 22, 2020 at 4:30 PM Eastern time. A press release with second quarter 2020 financial results will be issued at approximately 4:10 PM Eastern time on Wednesday, July 22, 2020. Participants can join the conference by dialing 1-888-317-6003 and will be prompted to enter the code 8773093. International callers can dial 1-412-317-6061 and will be prompted to enter the code 8773093. The call will also be webcast live from the Company's website on the investor relations page at ir.chipotle.com and registration is available at https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/1894/35113. An archived webcast will be available approximately one hour after the end of the call. ABOUT CHIPOTLE Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG) is cultivating a better world by serving responsibly sourced, classically-cooked, real food with wholesome ingredients without artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. Chipotle had over 2,600 restaurants as of March 31, 2020, in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Germany and is the only restaurant company of its size that owns and operates all its restaurants. With more than 85,000 employees passionate about providing a great guest experience, Chipotle is a longtime leader and innovator in the food industry. Chipotle is committed to making its food more accessible to everyone while continuing to be a brand with a demonstrated purpose as it leads the way in digital, technology and sustainable business practices. Steve Ells, founder and former executive chairman, first opened Chipotle with a single restaurant in Denver, Colorado in 1993. For more information or to place an order online, visit WWW.CHIPOTLE.COM. SOURCE Chipotle Mexican Grill Related Links WWW.CHIPOTLE.COM The Senate on Tuesday put the benchmark price for crude oil in the 2020 budget at $28 per barrel. The Senate also reduced the targeted daily oil production from 1.94 million as initially proposed to 1.8 million barrels per day. The red chamber also passed the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) projections, upon which the revised 2020 budget would be based. These approvals were made after the chairman, Senate finance committee, Solomon Olamilekan (APC, Lagos), presented a report on the revised medium-term expenditure framework and fiscal strategy paper. The federal government had in May cut down the 2020 budget, proposing a new one of about N10.3 trillion as against the N10.6 trillion initially passed by the National Assembly last year. This was as a result of the gloomy global economic realities caused by the coronavirus pandemic as well as shrinking oil earnings caused by subsequent fall in oil prices. This is because, as we cut down the size of the budget, finance minister Zainab Ahmed said, we also have to bring in new expenditure previously not budgeted, to enable us adequately respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a recourse, Ms Ahmed said the federal government would be seeking loans to fund the 2020 budget. Both the Senate and House of Representatives have approved the borrowing plan of N850 billion by the federal government from local fronts. The House of Representatives also approved the $22.7 billion loan request of the President on Tuesday, three months after the Senate did the same. Another loan request is before the two chambers for approval. Ms Ahmed said the plan to borrow from foreign sources for 2020 are all concessionary loans from the IMF which has already been approved and has crystallised, from the World Bank, Islamic Development as well as Afro EXZIM bank. The borrowing, the multilateral loans drawdown coming from special accounts and coming from the privatisation will fund the fiscal deficit of N5.34 trillion that we have in the proposed amendment of the 2020 budget, she added. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Hong Kong: Quarantine measures to extend The Government will extend compulsory quarantine measures for people arriving in Hong Kong from both the Mainland and foreign places. Announcing the move in a press conference this afternoon, Secretary for Food & Health Prof Sophia Chan said that given the development of the epidemic situation in places within and outside the Mainland, there is a need to continue restricting the movement of people between Hong Kong and other places and implement compulsory quarantine measures to prevent imported cases. The Government will extend the expiry date of the Compulsory Quarantine of Certain Persons Arriving at Hong Kong Regulation (Cap 599C) by a month to July 7. The expiry date of the Compulsory Quarantine of Persons Arriving at Hong Kong from Foreign Places Regulation (Cap 599E) will be extended by three months to September 18. In the meantime, the Government holds the view that there is a need to introduce a mechanism to allow consideration of gradual relaxation of compulsory quarantine requirements for people arriving from specific countries and places after assessing the relevant public health risks. A mechanism will be introduced to empower the Secretary for Food & Health to specify two categories of places. People from Category 1 specified places will be subject to compulsory quarantine arrangements. For Category 2, people from these places will be excluded from the requirements in respect of the compulsory quarantine arrangements subject to meeting certain conditions, such as obtaining a negative COVID-19 test result. The arrangements for both categories apply to locations within and outside China, Prof Chan said. At this stage, all places in China outside Hong Kong and all places outside China will be specified as Category 1 effective from midnight on June 5. Unless exempted pursuant to the regulations, arrivals from these places will be subject to the compulsory quarantine arrangements. Meanwhile, the criteria for the Chief Secretary to exempt travellers from the compulsory quarantine arrangements under Cap 599E will be expanded to cover people whose travelling is necessary for purposes relating to manufacturing operations, business activities or professional services in the interest of Hong Kong's economic development, and thus be aligned with relevant provisions under Cap 599C. The Government gazetted the amendments today. This story has been published on: 2020-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Low-cost carrier GoAir on Monday extended leave without pay (LWP) for its employees till June 30. In a letter to its employees on June 1, the human resource (HR) department of the airline stated that they might further extend the LWP if needed. The letter read, It is our expectation that GoAir will increase flying as the demand for air travel returns...Under these circumstances, we are constrained to extend your leave without pay until June 30. We may, however, have to extend the period leave without pay for a further term, if required so. It further read, We are painfully aware that these sacrifices put an immense burden on you and your family, but we see no other viable option for our long term survival and sustainability. Exempting its lowest-paid workers, earlier this year, GoAir had announced pay cuts to most of its employees. On March 17, the airline had initiated a short term and temporary LWP program in which around 35% of its employees (from each department) were asked to go on LWP. Workers involved in cargo operations (including ground staff and crew members) received their salaries for the number of days they worked in March. However, with lockdown being extended from mid-April to till May 3, the Mumbai-based airline had announced an extension of leave without pay on April 18. GoAir is also facing issues with its pilots who have not received their salaries since March. Riot police detain a group of people during a protest in the Causeway Bay district of Hong Kong on May 27, 2020, as the city's legislature debates over a law that bans insulting China's national anthem. (Isaac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images) Uncertainties Loom Around Hong Kong Election After the so-called national security law for Hong Kong was approved by Chinas rubber-stamp legislature the National Peoples Congress (NPC), many are concerned over the future of Hong Kongs elections, currently scheduled for Sept. 6. U.S. State Secretary Mike Pompeo said on June 1 that the United States is worried that if Hong Kongs Chief Executive Carrie Lam cancels the elections or postpones them that there would be violence or something like that, which is just unfounded. The Hong Kongers have held successful elections for years and years, so we are urging Hong Kong to continue to move forward for those, he said during an interview with American Enterprise Institute (AEI). If Lam decides not to hold the legislative elections it will be perceived as really the final nail in the coffin with respect to any pretense that Hong Kong the financial center that it is, the freedom that the people have there, the ability to speak their mind that the people have had in Hong Kong for all these years, that will be gone, Pompeo said. The United States response will recognize that the change was driven not by British policy, not by American policy, not by U.N. policy, but by the policy of the Chinese Communist Party, Pompeo said. (L-R) Agnes Chow, Nathan Law, and Joshua Wong of pro-democracy party Demosisto in Hong Kong on May 28, 2020. (Song Bilung/The Epoch Times) Joshua Wongthe iconic activist from Hong Kongs 2014 Umbrella Movement and secretary-general of pro-democracy party Demosistotold AEI in an interview (pdf) on May 12 that since the pro-democracy camp in Hong Kong won 85 percent of the seats in local district council elections it is possible for the pro-democracy camp to take the majority in the Hong Kong Legislative Council as well. Wong is concerned that the new national security law may allow Beijing to just override the principle of procedural justice and to disqualify as many candidates as they can in the upcoming election. Some of the youngsters, including me and Agnes Chow from Demosisto, applied to run for office, but being censored out from the ballot, and we are not allowed to run for office, Wong said. On May 28 the NPC passed the draft resolution on the new law for Hong Kong, amid international criticism about how the Communist Partys proposal would destroy the former British colonys autonomy and its peoples basic freedoms. The approval of the new security law which will allow Chinese security agencies to operate in Hong Kong paves the way for the NPCs standing committee to draft details of the legislation before it is added to the Basic Law, Hong Kongs mini-constitution. By adding it to the Basic Law, Hong Kongs legislature will not have a chance to scrutinize the legislation. The law would ban acts and activities in connection to secession, subversion, and terrorism, as well as activities related to foreign interference. Frank Fang contributed to this report. GRAND RAPIDS, MI Police arrested 12 people on Monday, June 1, for violating the citys emergency curfew that was put into effect after weekend rioting. The arrests happened after the start of the 7 p.m. curfew on Fulton Street, near Van Andel Arena, where heavy police presence overwhelmed protesters. Other arrests involved a small gathering at Veterans Park. Police said they warned protesters about 30 minutes before curfew that they faced arrest if they did not leave. Those arrested were taken to the Kent County Correctional Facility. Police arrested another nine people on Sunday for curfew violations. Police said that the protest on Fulton Street, between Ionia and Ottawa avenues, drew about 200. Police Chief Eric Payne tried to address the crowd but was drowned out by shouting, police said in a statement. Many of the protesters left the area before police started moving in to arrest curfew violators. Bottles were thrown at police, police said. My heart is heavy tonight, Payne said in a statement. In less than 48 hours, our city has seen multiple protests, destroyed property and a level of violence that has put our entire community in jeopardy. I cannot count how many times I have tried to have conversations with organizers and protesters. Ive heard them. The entire city has heard them. Were ready to continue the hard work weve been engaged in and start looking at new strategies to move forward. Grand Rapids police were joined by sheriffs deputies from Kent and Ottawa County, Kentwood and Wyoming police and the FBI. They were backed by the Michigan National Guard that has also helped businesses secure doors and doors damaged during the riot. While policing civil unrest is difficult, we still hold ourselves accountable for all of our actions, Payne said. We are committed to Grand Rapids being an inclusive and welcoming city where all community members can peacefully exercise their freedom of speech in a public forum. Police said that protests and marches are supposed to be coordinated through Grand Rapids Office of Special Events by calling 456-4125. A march on Saturday to protest the death of George Floyd, who died after an ex-Minneapolis police officers held the black man down with a knee on his neck preceded rioting. Police arrested seven people in connection with the riot but continue to review video recordings and photos that could lead to additional charges. Mayor Rosalynn Bliss set the emergency curfew for Sunday and Monday. It expired this morning but could be extended. Read more: Grand Rapids protesters scatter after police, backed by Michigan National Guard, move in Businesses grapple with reopening following Grand Rapids riot Teen faces felony rioting charge in Grand Rapids violent weekend CORVALLIS POLICE Disorderly conduct 9:47 a.m. Friday, Southwest Fifth Street and Madison Avenue Police received a call that a man in his 40s or 50s, wearing black clothing, struck a city bus with his guitar and was traveling north on Fifth Street. An officer contacted Jon Tilles, 58, who had a broken guitar in his hand. He admitted he smashed his guitar in the street because he was angry at bus drivers. Tilles was arrested for criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, menacing and interfering with a peace officer. BENTON COUNTY SHERIFFS OFFICE Trespass 5:54 a.m. Thursday, 25600 block of Dawson Road, Monroe. A man went on someones property clearly posted with a No Trespassing sign to fly a drone. The man claimed he worked for High Times magazine and was using the drone to photograph a nearby marijuana grow. The man was cited for criminal trespass. Fraud 10:15 a.m. Saturday, 8700 block of Wynoochee Drive, Corvallis. A woman reported she received an email from who she believed was her pastor asking for eBay gift cards for a family in need. The woman bought $1,600 in gift cards and sent pictures of the cards back to the emailer. The woman had no suspect information and was working with her bank to cancel the funds. Suspicious circumstance 9:20 a.m. Sunday, Kiger Island Drive, Corvallis. A man told police that someone had placed a for rent sign on a barn on his property. He said the barn was not for rent and he didnt want someone getting scammed. Because he was out of the area, he asked police to remove the sign. LINN COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT Forgery From Monday afternoon. Brandon Shayne McCullough of Portland was charged with first-degree forgery and first-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument. The forged item was a fake $100 bill. The crimes allegedly occurred on Sept. 28 and the Sweet Home Police Department was the investigating agency. Escape From Monday afternoon. Bryan Lee Schmitt, 41, of Lebanon, was charged with second-degree escape and resisting arrest. The crimes allegedly occurred on Jan. 26 and the Albany Police Department investigated the case. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 0 YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan had a telephone conversation with President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, the PMs Office told Armenpress. The Armenian PM and the Belarussian President exchanged views on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the actions taken to fight the disease. They introduced the situation in both countries and exchanged information about the steps taken and the experience acquired. President Lukashenko wished a speedy recovery to PM Pashinyan and his family from coronavirus, expressing hope that the pandemic will soon overcome and they will have an opportunity to meet face to face like in the past. On June 1 Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan announced that he and his family members have been infected with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan AUSTIN Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday called for peace amid ongoing unrest, as thousands have taken to the street in cities across Texas to protest racism and police brutality. Speaking in Dallas after a fourth night of reported violence by some civilians and law enforcement officers, the Republican governor pushed a unifying message, calling the recent killing of a black man by a Minneapolis police officer a horrific act of police brutality, but saying he refuses to tolerate violence as a response. I join the millions of Americans seeking swift justice in this case, Abbott said, at times raising his voice in apparent anger. However, violence and vandalism have no place in Texas. Abbott and Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, a Democrat, both emphasized that the majority of protesters have been peaceful, blaming violence and looting on extremists and criminals from other areas. FOR THE LATEST: Updates from Houstons George Floyd march These are outsiders who came into our city causing trouble, knowing that they wouldnt have to live with the consequences, Johnson said. The remarks came as the family of the man killed, George Floyd, prepared to march alongside thousands in downtown Houston, where Floyd grew up and lived much of his life. Floyd was killed last week as the officer, who is white, pinned Floyds neck to the ground until minutes after he his body went limp. The killing has sparked outrage and renewed calls for criminal justice reforms. On Monday, President Donald Trump chastised governors for not being tough enough on the protesters, and threatened to send in the military if they dont. In Texas, protests over the weekend descended at times into violence as demonstrators hurled objects at officers and law enforcement shot tear gas and non-lethal rounds at crowds. Several hundred arrests were made. Abbott, a close ally of the president, has not clarified who the extremists are, but Steve McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, on Tuesday called out members of Antifa an umbrella for loosely knit groups of far-left militants known for escalating confrontations with the police. Local police have also said some far-right activists are exploiting largely peaceful demonstrations in the hopes of inciting violence. ESCALATION: San Antonio police chief says out-of-state extremists infiltrating peaceful protests Abbott was among the first governors to dispatch national guardsmen this weekend in response to the demonstrations. He insisted Tuesday that Texas has been a leader in police reform, but vowed to work alongside lawmakers to see what additional measures they might take. Were open to putting everything on the table and working toward positive solutions that will improve Texas, Abbott said. Earlier on Tuesday, opponents attacked the governor for failing to acknowledge systemic injustices and having signed a law in 2017 that encouraged racial profiling of immigrants. Words must give way to action, and Gov. Abbott has done nothing to stop racially motivated police violence across our state and across our country, Texas Democratic Party Deputy Executive Director Cliff Walker said in a statement. William Hoston, a professor who focuses on state government at Prairie View A&M University, said the protests comes after years of failure by state leadership to develop trust with minority communities after other killings and incidents of excessive force. Were beyond George Floyd now, he said. What youre seeing now is a group of human beings tired of structural racism and discrimination. TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox But nationally, President Trump has doubled down against protesters. At the White House on Monday night, officers dispersed peaceful crowds with tear gas so the president could walk across the street to pose outside of a church holding a Bible. The president threatened to use the United States military against United States citizens exercising their rights enshrined in the United States Constitution, said U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, a moderate Houston Democrat, in an unusually fiery statement. The actions the president has threatened to take violate not only our rights but also the sacred trust that we the people place in our government a government of, by, and for the people. Rep. Henry Cuellar, another moderate Texas Democrat, tweeted: A presidents role is not to use the shameful acts of a few in order to respond with indiscriminate force against all citizens, but rather defend democracy, not violate or deprive it. At least one recent poll indicated that most 58 percent of registered voters would support calling in the military to supplement police forces amid the unrest. And Texas Republicans have mostly voiced support for the presidents call for more force. The president is sending a strong message to state and local authorities that they need to use the resources available to them because we simply cant tolerate this sort of lawlessness, Sen. John Cornyn said in a Fox News interview Tuesday. Benjamin Wermund contributed reporting from Washington, D.C. jeremy.blackman@chron.com twitter.com/jblackmanchron PHILIPSBURG:--- Due to the generous support of Yacht Club Port de Plaisance, the Nature Foundation St. Maarten received an additional staff member in March to assist in the Foundations daily activities and strengthen the outreach and educational programs. The new educational outreach position will be filled by Leslie Hickerson, a resident of St. Maarten with a background in Sustainable Tourism and scuba diving. The primary function of the position will be to spread outreach and education about the local environment and nature, its the importance, and the role of the Nature Foundation. We are extremely grateful for the received support of Port de Plaisance Marina as the additional capacity is very needed within the Nature Foundation. With our newest staff member, we will be able to increase environmental knowledge and awareness about our natural habitats among the youth and residents of the island. In order to protect and secure the natural environment of St Maarten for the generations to come, education and awareness are crucial components. People will protect and preserve what they love and care about, therefore we are grateful to be able to increase the nature awareness on the island with the help of Port de Plaisance Marina stated Nature Foundations Manager Melanie Meijer zu Schlochtern. The one-year position would not be possible without the generous support of Yacht Club Port de Plaisance who has always been an active partner with the Foundation. The Yacht Club Port De Plaisance Operated by Marine Management & Consulting NV has always valued the hard and valuable work the Nature Foundation does for the environment and ecosystems on our Island. It goes without saying that our ecosystems and environment is our number one source and why our clients continue to visit our beautiful island and come to our shores. The Yacht Club Port De Plaisance goals and mission is to preserve and maintain our nature as best as possible and we do our best to advocate same to our clients and visitors. We understand our business in tourism and yachting can have its challenges against nature preservation, but without proper educational outreach and programs, we will not be able to protect what we all value and enjoy most our nature! said Jesse Peterson, Operations Director of Yacht Club Port De Plaisance and MMC Group of companies. Through school visits, awareness events, press, and social media releases Hickersons goal will be to educate students and residents about the local environment and environmental issues on St. Maarten. The Foundation is very delighted to have Ms. Hickerson as part of the team with her background and experience working on St. Maarten. As a dive instructor working on the island Hickerson has extensive knowledge of the marine park and environment and has participated in several of the Nature Foundations events as a volunteer. I am so excited to join the Nature Foundation team as the Educational Outreach Officer. After years of working in the tourism industry in St. Maarten I have been able to see the decline in the health of our marine environment firsthand. I think the most successful long-term solution to protect our environment is to focus on educating our youth and inspiring them to change how they view our resources and sustainability, said Hickerson. Some of the projects Hickerson will oversee as the Educational Outreach Officer are the upcoming Student Competition; Protecting St. Maartens Coral Reefs, the Junior Ranger Program, and this years Coral Reef Education Project. At the end of 2019 several supporters of the Nature Foundation St. Maarten came together in order to discuss sustainable finance options for the Foundation. During the meeting, the director of Yacht Club Port de Plaisance Sint Maarten generously offered to assist in increasing capacity for the Foundation and support environmental education on the island. The Nature Foundation would like to thank the Yacht Club for their extensive and continuous support. Russias new ambassador to Egypt, Georgy Borisenko, arrived in Cairo a couple of days ago on a private plane, not waiting for the return of scheduled flights between the two countries. The Egyptian Association of Soviet and Russian University Graduates sent a message of welcome and congratulations to Borisenko on his arrival in Cairo, where he will also act as Russian representative to the League of Arab States. Borisenko was named in April as the new envoy to Egypt, but was delayed in taking up his post by the coronavirus. The head of the graduate association, Sherif Gad, noted that the ambassadors arrival on a private plane without waiting for the return of official flights reflects the importance of Egypts regional position to Russia. International flights have been suspended since March, with some exceptions for specially chartered planes to return home stranded citizens. The association hopes for the continuation of the great bilateral cooperation in all fields, Gad said, especially since the joint cooperation agenda includes major projects such as the Dabaa nuclear power plant and the industrial zone project in Port Said, in addition to the return of Russian tourism and the high rate of trade. Fathi Togan, secretary-general of the association, said that in a speech addressing the Egyptian people, which he delivered in English, the ambassador spoke about the crucial role played by at on the international level, which stems not only from its cultural heritage as a cradle of human civilization, but also as one of the countries that plays a key role in international politics and has a leading role at the Arab and African level. Togan said that the association has launched an initiative directed to the Egyptian community at both the official and popular levels to welcome the new Russian ambassador by emphasising the depth of historical relations between Egypt and Russia and the effect of Russian culture on many Egyptians. Born on 7 July 1968, Borisenko graduated from Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) in 1990 and joined the Russian foreign ministry. He worked at the Russian embassy in Switzerland and also served as Russia's representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna, as a consultant at the Russian embassy in the US, and as director of the North America Department at the ministry from 2014 until this year. He speaks English and German. The previous ambassador to Egypt, Sergey Kirpichenko, passed away last year at the age of 68. He had been in the role since 2011. Search Keywords: Short link: BOISE Newly released FBI documents say that U.S. Sen. Mike Crapos campaign told the FBI that the senator was aware of and approved the investment of a quarter-million dollars of his campaign donors funds into a risky get-rich-quick scheme at the time of the transaction in 2008, in which the money disappeared. Crapo has said repeatedly since 2013 when the news broke of the 2008 loss of $250,000 of his campaign funds in the scheme that he knew nothing about it until late 2010, after the money was gone. Is he lying, or was his staffer lying to the FBI? asked Daniel Stevens, executive director of the Campaign for Accountability, which obtained the FBI documents under the federal Freedom of Information Act. It is a crime to lie to the FBI. Asked for comment, Crapo on Monday provided this statement from Stephen Ryan, a Washington, D.C., attorney who represents both the senator and his campaign: While Senator Crapo had discussed overall investment strategy with his then-campaign manager, he did not have knowledge of nor give permission for the loan in question. It was only months later as his then-campaign manager prepared to leave the campaign employ that the individual acknowledged to the Senator the nature of the loan and what had happened. The former campaign manager, Jake Ball, who now works in the private sector, said Monday he didnt remember if hed talked with the FBI seven years ago. Asked if Crapo gave him permission for the investment, he said, It was implicit because he trusted me to carry out the investment tools, but not specifically for that particular item, no. The FBI documents say a campaign staffer, whose name was redacted, told the agency he sent the check for the deal with Senator Crapos permission. Crapos loss wasnt revealed publicly until 2013, when he filed amended campaign finance reports with the Federal Election Commission for 2008 and 2009. Documents showed Crapos then-campaign manager, Ball, invested the money into the scheme at a time when the campaign was between treasurers. In the new documents, the campaign staffer whose name is redacted says he heard about the investment opportunity at a conference, and it promised a $3 million return within two to three months. Ball subsequently went to work as district director for then-1st District Congressman Raul Labrador in 2011; Crapo later said he advised Labrador of the matter then. When the news of the loss broke in 2013, Ball quit his job with Labrador. Crapo, who now chairs the Senate Banking Committee, said in 2013, I was not asked about nor approved this loan, and am certainly disappointed that the money was lost. This circumstance occurred during a period of transition between treasurers. I have ensured that the campaign has made the appropriate adjustments to prevent this, or anything similar, from happening in the future. No one ever was prosecuted for the scam, though the new FBI documents show it was part of a $5.2 million investment scam centered in California with multiple victims, and that it was the subject of a federal grand jury investigation. The Secret Service also was involved in the investigation, according to the documents; however, after the investigation, federal prosecutors declined to prosecute anyone. The scheme is variously referred to in the documents as a real estate scam and a currency exchange transaction. The Campaign for Accountability, a watchdog group based in Washington, D.C., has been sharply critical of Crapo both for this and for several other campaign finance matters, including his free use of a lobbyists Washington, D.C., condo for 81 campaign events, over which the group filed an FEC complaint in 2018. It was the same condo where then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt had lived in a cut-rate rent deal; the group was investigating Pruitt when it ran across Crapos involvement. After the complaint, Crapos committees reimbursed the lobbyist for $100 per meeting and filed amended FEC reports. The group also filed an ethics complaint against Crapo over paying his wife Susan just over $6,000 for work she did for Freedom Fund, Crapos leadership PAC (political action committee), in 2017 while not listing the PAC as an employer of hers. Crapo subsequently filed an amended disclosure form to include the employment. Stevens said the matters are especially concerning given Crapos position as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which oversees banking, insurance, financial markets, securities, international trade and finance, economic policy and more. As the top senator who is in charge of overseeing banking policy in the United States, you would hope that Sen. Crapo would have the financial knowledge to make sound investments for his own campaign money, Stevens said. I find it highly concerning that he would approve his campaign to loan out $250,000 in a get-rich-quick scheme at the height of the financial crisis. According to the FBI documents, the campaign, With Senator Crapos permission, provided a check to Blueberry Guru, a now-defunct limited liability company, who then transferred the funds via wire to Billy Davis Escrow, located in California. Since the wire transaction which occurred September 23, 2008, from Blueberry Guru to Billy Davis Escrow, Billy Davis Escrow has since disappeared, the July 30, 2012, FBI document states. The documents show that the investment was to be handled by a now-defunct Nevada company called Pyramid Global Resources. A July 25, 2012, FBI document states that a Crapo campaign staffer whose name was redacted met two people at a conference in Las Vegas, who touted a real estate investment in California to the staffer, who felt that it was a good investment. On Sept. 20, 2012, at an interview at the FBIs offices in Boise, a Crapo staffer whose name was redacted told the FBI that the money would be placed in escrow for two to three months and then would be returned with interest, and admitted he did not really understand the investment well, but figured since the money was going to be placed in escrow it would be safe. The staffer understood the investment to be some type of currency exchange in which the returns were very high, and that a $250,000 investment would return approximately $3 million in or about a two or three month period. The staffer also told the FBI that someone associated with former U.S. Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho had been a former investor, and said they appeared to have a track record for doing financial transactions and seemed to be a valid company. Everything appeared to be going fine, and then one day the money was gone, the staffer told the FBI. The staffer said at one point, a Secret Service agent had become involved in the investigation, and that the staffer recalls being told the money at some point was transferred out of the country and the Secret Service could no longer track the money. On Jan. 15, 2013, the FBI documents show the agency was informed by federal prosecutors that theyd declined to prosecute the case. The matter was declined due to previous declination by the district of California and that California would have jurisdiction over the violations reported, the documents state. Five years after the fact, the public finally finds out about this loan that went bad, Stevens said. There are so many questions about this bad financial deal that it prompted us to go back and look into it. The Campaign for Accountability filed FOIA requests with the FBI, because Sen. Crapo had said he asked the FBI to look into it, Stevens said. Lo and behold, it turns out the FBI had in fact determined a couple of notable things that had not been public until now. The group is a 501(3) nonprofit that has filed complaints against members of both political parties. Stevens said hes never seen a comparable investment of campaign funds into something that smacks of snake-oil sales. You just dont see that in campaign finance issues. Especially troubling, he said, was the fact that it involved someone who regulates the banking industry, regulates processes for preventing fraud. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 [June 02, 2020] Santhera Announces Completion of ReveraGen's Long-Term Extension Study with Vamorolone in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Pratteln, Switzerland, June 2, 2020 Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SIX: SANN) announces that partner ReveraGen Biopharma Inc. has completed a long-term, open-label extension study of 24 months duration with vamorolone in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Including 6 months treatment in the preceding study, ReveraGen has now obtained safety and efficacy data with vamorolone over a period of 2.5 years in 41 boys with DMD. Eligible for enrolment into the now completed 24-month long-term, open-label extension study (VBP15-LTE, clinicaltrials.gov ID: NCT03038399) were boys who had previously completed the 6-month dose escalation study VBP15-003 (clinicaltrials.gov ID: NCT02760277). Data from this VBP15-003 study in comparison to natural history study data demonstrated dose-dependent improvement in timed function tests. Vamorolone was reported to be safe and well tolerated up to the highest dose tested (6.0 mg/kg/day) [1]. With most participants continuing treatment with vamorolone long-term, we have assembled a solid safety database, with 106 patient-years of vamorolone exposure in DMD boys, with no serious adverse events attributable to vamorolone to date, said Eric Hoffman, PhD, Vice President of Research at ReveraGen BioPharma. We will now analyze the efficacy data and plan to report the results in upcoming scientific conferences and publications. All 46 patients who completed the VBP15-003 study requested to continue vamorolone treatment in the long-term extension, rather than transition to corticosteroids. This VBP15-LTE study enabled dose escalation and de-escalation at the preference of the physician and family (suggested range 2.0 to 6.0 mg/kg/day). Of the 41 participants completing end-of-study visit after 24 months, 27 ended at 6.0 mg/kg/day (66%), 11 at 2.0 mg/kg/day (27%), and 3 at 4.0 mg/kg/day (7%). Thus, the majority of physicians/families chose treatment at the highest tested dose of vamorolone by the end of the VBP15-LTE study. Upon their expressed wish, the large majority of the boys completing the 2-year VBP15-LTE study have transitioned to Expanded Access Programs (USA, Canada, Israel) or compassionate use programs (UK, Sweden, Australia) to receive continued vamorolone treatment. The currently ongoing Phase 2b VISION-DMD study (VBP15-004; clinicaltrials.gov: NCT03439670) is designed as a pivotal trial to demonstrate efficacy and safety of vamorolone administered orally at doses of 2.0 mg/kg/day and 6.0 mg/kg/day versus prednisone 0.75 mg/kg/day and placebo over a treatment period of 24 weeks. The study is currently being conducted at 33 sites across North America, Europe, Israel and Australia. For more information: https://vision-dmd.info/2b-trial-information. Vamorolone has been granted Orphan Drug status in the US and in Europe, and has received Fast Track and Rare Pediatric Disease designations by the US FDA. In November 2018, Santhera acquired from Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Ltd (SIX: IDIA), who has an option to an exclusive, worldwide license to vamorolone, the option to an exclusive sub-license to vamorolone in all indications and all countries worldwide, except Japan and South Korea. About Vamorolone first-in-class dissociative steroid Vamorolone is a first-in-class drug candidate that binds to the same receptors as corticosteroids but modifies the downstream activity of the receptors [2, 3]. This has the potential to dissociate efficacy from typical steroid safety concerns and therefore could replace existing corticostroids, the current standard of care in children and adolescent patients with DMD. There is significant unmet medical need in this patient group as high dose corticosteroids have severe systemic side effects that detract from patient quality of life. Vamorolone is being developed by US-based ReveraGen BioPharma Inc. with participation in funding and design of studies by several international non-profit foundations, the US National Institutes of Health, the US Department of Defense and the European Commissions Horizon 2020 program. About the clinical development program of Vamorolone in patients with DMD The clinical development program with vamorolone in patients with DMD was initiated following a clinical pharmacology study (VBP15-001) in healthy volunteers in which biomarker assessments indicated reduced occurrence of side effects typical for traditional corticosteroid drugs like bone fragility, metabolic disturbance, immune suppression [4]. The Phase 2a program with vamorolone consisted of two studies that were conducted back-to-back in 48 boys with DMD aged 4 to <7 years (VBP15-002 and VBP15-003). These studies with a combined duration of 6 months investigated the efficacy, safety and tolerability of oral administration of vamorolone at doses of 0.25, 0.75, 2.0 and 6.0 mg/kg/day (12 boys per treatment group). Data from these studies reported that vamorolone was safe and well tolerated and over a period of 6 months with dose- and time-related improvements in various timed function tests and motor function outcomes [1, 5]. Vamorolone treatment led to increased serum levels of osteocalcin, a biomarker of bone formation, suggesting possible reduction of bone morbidities typically associated with corticosteroids. Biomarker outcomes for adrenal suppression and insulin resistance also indicated better tolerability of vamorolone treatment, relative to published studies of corticosteroid therapy. Patients completing VBP15-003 study were offered continued treatment with vamorolone under the 24-month long-term open-label extension study (VBP15-LTE) which has now been successfully completed. References: [1] Hoffman EP et al. (2019). Vamorolone trial in Duchenne muscular dystrophy shows dose-related improvement of muscle function. Neurology 93: e1312-e1323. [2] Heier CR at al. (2013). VBP15, a novel anti-inflammatory and membrane-stabilizer, improves muscular dystrophy without side effects. EMBO Mol Med 5: 15691585. [3] Heier CR et al. (2019). Vamorolone targets dual nuclear receptors to treat inflammation and dystrophic cardiomyopathy. Life Science Alliance DOI 10.26508/lsa.201800186. [4] Hoffman EP et al. (2018). Phase 1 trial of vamorolone, a first-in-class steroid, shows improvements in side effects via biomarkers bridged to clinical outcomes. Steroids 134: 43-52. [5] Conklin LS et al. (2018). Phase IIa trial in Duchenne muscular dystrophy shows vamorolone is a first in-class dissociative steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. Pharmacological Research 136:140-150. About ReveraGen BioPharma ReveraGen was founded in 2008 to develop first-in-class dissociative steroidal drugs for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and other chronic inflammatory disorders. The development of ReveraGens lead compound, vamorolone, has been supported through partnerships with foundations worldwide, including Muscular Dystrophy Association USA, Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy, Foundation to Eradicate Duchenne, Save Our Sons, JoiningJack, Action Duchenne, CureDuchenne, Ryans Quest, Alexs Wish, DuchenneUK, Pietros Fight, Michaels Cause, and Duchenne Research Fund. ReveraGen has also received generous support from the US Department of Defense CDMRP, National Institutes of Health (NCATS, NINDS, NIAMS), and European Commission (Horizons 2020). www.reveragen.com About Santhera Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SIX: SANN) is a Swiss specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative medicines for rare neuromuscular and pulmonary diseases with high unmet medical need. Santhera is building a Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) product portfolio to treat patients irrespective of causative mutations, disease stage or age. A marketing authorization application for Puldysa (idebenone) is currently under review by the European Medicines Agency. Santhera has an option to license vamorolone, a first-in-class anti-inflammatory drug candidate with novel mode of action, currently investigated in a pivotal study in patients with DMD to replace standard corticosteroids. The clinical stage pipeline also includes lonodelestat (POL6014) to treat cystic fibrosis (CF) and other neutrophilic pulmonary diseases, as well as omigapil and an exploratory gene therapy approach targeting congenital muscular dystrophies. Santhera out-licensed ex-North American rights to its first approved product, Raxone (idebenone), for the treatment of Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) to Chiesi Group. For further information, please visit www.santhera.com . Raxone and Puldysa are trademarks of Santhera Pharmaceuticals. For further information please contact: Santhera [email protected] or Eva Kalias, Head External Communications Phone: +41 79 875 27 80 [email protected] ReveraGen Eric Hoffman, CEO Phone: + 1 240-672-0295 [email protected] Disclaimer / Forward-looking statements This communication does not constitute an offer or invitation to subscribe for or purchase any securities of Santhera Pharmaceuticals Holding AG. This publication may contain certain forward-looking statements concerning the Company and its business. Such statements involve certain risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such statements. Readers should therefore not place undue reliance on these statements, particularly not in connection with any contract or investment decision. The Company disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. # # # Attachment 2020-06-02_Vamorolone_LTE_e_final [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Here are Bank of America's top picks in a chip sector at a 'crucial juncture' Published Tue, Jun 2 2020 6:48 AM EDT New Delhi, June 3 : After the office of Delhi Lt. Governor Anil Baijal approved the release of Manu Sharma, the convict in the Jessica Lal murder case, who was serving a life sentence, the sister of Jessica Lal, Sabrina, told the media that she had no "objection" on his release and hoped that he reformed as a person . Sabrina, along with her father, has fought a long battle to get Manu Sharma convicted. The LG office has "clarified" that the LG had concurred with the recommendations of the Sentence Review Board (SRB) on May 21 as approved by the Delhi Home Minister Satyendar Kumar Jain to release 19 prisoners, including Siddhartha Vashishta, alias Manu Sharma, as covered under the guidelines of the provisions of the CrPC and the prison rules. The decision was communicated by the Home Department to prisons on May 25 and Manu Sharma was released from prison on June 1, the LG office said. "The facts of the case are that Siddhartha Vashishtha... was undergoing life imprisonment... The convict had undergone imprisonment of 16 years, 11 months and 24 days in actual and 23 years, four months and 22 days with remission," the LG office said. The Case was evaluated by the SRB as per guidelines dated July 16, 2004 and Delhi Prison Rules, 2018. The statement said that keeping in mind the recommendations of the board, guidelines, rules and court orders in the matter, the LG concurred with the recommendations of SRB for the release of 19 life convicts, including Manu Sharma. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text T his is the moment a gang of burglars were caught on a home CCTV system casually discussing what they planned to steal from the house. The footage, released by Nottinghamshire Police on Tuesday, shows the three thieves talking among themselves after breaking into Tony William's property in Old Basford, Nottingham. The men proceeded to steal a number of items, including watches, a Playstation, an Amazon Alexa device and a laptop, before fleeing the house. Some 45 minutes later two men are seen re-entering the property and stealing more items. One of the burglars is caught on CCTV unmasked and with the hood of his jacket pulled down, fully exposing his face. Nottinghamshire Police released the footage as part of an appeal for help in identifying the men who took part in both incidents. Detective Constable Natalia Montano, who is leading the investigation, said: "This is some of the best CCTV footage we've had in a while to try and catch thieves. "You can hear their discussions and it's hoped that because of the quality of the footage, we can find the offenders. "They stole a number of high value items and obviously the victims are distraught. It's our aim to find the culprits and try to get them some closure to this incident. "I am urging members of the public to look at the video clips and contact police if they recognise the men or have any information in relation to the incident. Mr Williams said he had been left distraught by the theft of his items. "I'm still hurting to be honest," he added. "I had just finished my night-shift working at a local pub and I pulled back onto my house and straight away I saw that the lights were on. I knew something wasn't right. "I got out my car and saw some young lads, I thought they have jumped over a neighbour's fence or something. I went inside, and it was carnage inside. Things left all over the floor. "I feel gutted that these young lads have come into my home." Mr Williams also said he hoped the police's sharing of the footage would help find the culprits. "It's quite clear video and you can obviously hear what they are saying, so maybe someone will recognise the accent," he added. "It's sad, I've worked all my life and then you have so many items you've saved up for and personal items just taken off you." Anyone who recognises the men is asked by Nottinghamshire Police to call 101, quoting incident number 22 of 8 February 2020. New Delhi : Supreme Court on Monday directed Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu for the next 10 days to ameliorate plight of the farmers there. Noting that the samba crops in Tamil Nadu would be adversely affected, a bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and U U Lalit directed Karnataka to ensure supply of water to Tamil Nadu. The apex court also directed Tamil Nadu to approach the supervisory committee within three days for the release of Cauvery water as per the final order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunals (CWDT). The Supreme Court also asked the supervisory committee to decide on Tamil Nadus plea in ten days from Monday. We think its appropriate to direct Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs of water per day for ten days, the bench said, while also directing Tamil Nadu to release water to Puducherry appropriately as per its interim arrangement. The court posted the matter for further hearing on September 16. On September 2, the Supreme Court had made an emotional appeal to Karnataka saying live and let live, after Tamil Nadu brought to the notice of the court that the Karnataka CM has said that not a drop of water will be released to it. In a recent plea, Tamil Nadu had sought a direction to Karnataka to release 50.52 tmc feet of Cauvery water to save 40,000 acres of samba crops this season. In reply, Karnataka had said it has a deficit of about 80 tmc feet in its four reservoirs. Senior lawyer F S Nariman, who appeared for Karnataka, said that there were rain deficit months in the recent past and it was difficult to release the water due to Tamil Nadu. He said the Tribunal has not provided for an alternative for Karnataka on the point of release of water during distress months. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Throughout January, the World Health Organization publicly praised China for what it called a speedy response to the new coronavirus. It repeatedly thanked the Chinese government for sharing the genetic map of the virus immediately, and said its work and commitment to transparency were very impressive, and beyond words. But behind the scenes, it was a much different story, one of significant delays by China and considerable frustration among WHO officials over not getting the information they needed to fight the spread of the deadly virus, The Associated Press has found. Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak Despite the plaudits, China in fact sat on releasing the genetic map, or genome, of the virus for more than a week after three different government labs had fully decoded the information. Tight controls on information and competition within the Chinese public health system were to blame, according to dozens of interviews and internal documents. Chinese government labs only released the genome after another lab published it ahead of authorities on a virologist website on Jan. 11. Even then, China stalled for at least two weeks more on providing WHO with detailed data on patients and cases, according to recordings of internal meetings held by the U.N. health agency through January all at a time when the outbreak arguably might have been dramatically slowed. WHO officials were lauding China in public because they wanted to coax more information out of the government, the recordings obtained by the AP suggest. Privately, they complained in meetings the week of Jan. 6 that China was not sharing enough data to assess how effectively the virus spread between people or what risk it posed to the rest of the world, costing valuable time. Were going on very minimal information, said American epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove, now WHOs technical lead for COVID-19, in one internal meeting. Were currently at the stage where yes, theyre giving it to us 15 minutes before it appears on CCTV, said WHOs top official in China, Dr. Gauden Galea, referring to the state-owned China Central Television, in another meeting. Story continues The story behind the early response to the virus comes at a time when the U.N. health agency is under siege, and has agreed to an independent probe of how the pandemic was handled globally. After repeatedly praising the Chinese response early on, U.S. President Donald Trump has blasted WHO in recent weeks for allegedly colluding with China to hide the extent of the coronavirus crisis. He cut ties with the organization on Friday, jeopardizing the approximately $450 million the U.S. gives every year as WHOs biggest single donor. The new information does not support the narrative of either the U.S. or China, but instead portrays an agency now stuck in the middle that was urgently trying to solicit more data despite limits to its own authority. Although international law obliges countries to report information to WHO that could have an impact on public health, the U.N. agency has no enforcement powers and cannot independently investigate epidemics within countries. Instead, it must rely on the cooperation of member states. The recordings suggest that rather than colluding with China, as Trump declared, WHO was kept in the dark as China gave it the minimal information required by law. However, the agency did try to portray China in the best light, likely as a means to secure more information. And WHO experts genuinely thought Chinese scientists had done a very good job in detecting and decoding the virus, despite the lack of transparency from Chinese officials. WHO staffers debated how to press China for gene sequences and detailed patient data without angering authorities, worried about losing access and getting Chinese scientists into trouble. In the second week of January, WHOs chief of emergencies, Dr. Michael Ryan, told colleagues it was time to shift gears and apply more pressure on China, fearing a repeat of the SARS outbreak. Image:Mike Ryan (Denis Balibouse / Reuters) Ryan said the best way to protect China was for WHO to do its own independent analysis with data from the Chinese government, because otherwise the spread of the virus between people would be in question and other countries will take action accordingly. Ryan also noted that China was not cooperating in the same way some other countries, such as Congo, had in the past. The delay in the release of the genome stalled the recognition of its spread to other countries, along with the global development of tests, drugs and vaccines. The lack of detailed patient data also made it harder to determine how quickly the virus was spreading a critical question in stopping it. Between the day the full genome was first decoded by a government lab on Jan. 2 and the day WHO declared a global emergency on Jan. 30, the outbreak spread by a factor of 100 to 200 times, according to retrospective infection data from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Its obvious that we could have saved more lives and avoided many, many deaths if China and the WHO had acted faster, said Ali Mokdad, a professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. However, Mokdad and other experts also noted that if WHO had been more confrontational with China, it could have triggered a far worse situation of not getting any information at all. If WHO had pushed too hard, it could even have been kicked out of China, said Adam Kamradt-Scott, a global health professor at the University of Sydney. WHO and its officials named in this story declined to answer questions asked by The Associated Press without audio or written transcripts of the recorded meetings, which the AP was unable to supply to protect its sources. Download the NBC News app for full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak Our leadership and staff have worked night and day in compliance with the organizations rules and regulations to support and share information with all Member States equally, and engage in frank and forthright conversations with governments at all levels, a WHO statement said. Chinas National Health Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had no comment. But in the past few months, China has repeatedly defended its actions, and many other countries including the U.S. have responded to the virus with even longer delays of weeks and even months. The race to find the genetic map of the virus started in late December, according to the story that unfolds in interviews, documents and the WHO recordings. Thats when doctors in Wuhan noticed mysterious clusters of patients with fevers and breathing problems who werent improving with standard flu treatment. Seeking answers, they sent test samples from patients to commercial labs. Several labs, including government labs, had the complete genetic sequence of the virus within the first few days of January, but Chinese officials blocked the sharing of any information about the virus. The data wasn't made public until Jan. 11 a delay that hindered the diagnosis of new cases, including a suspected case in Thailand. The WHO was first alerted to the mysterious cases on Dec. 31, and officially requested more information on Jan. 1. Under international law, members have 24 to 48 hours to respond, and China reported two days later that there were 44 cases and no deaths. But China continued to hold back crucial information. The fact is, were two to three weeks into an event, we dont have a laboratory diagnosis, we dont have an age, sex or geographic distribution, we dont have an epi curve, Ryan complained on Jan. 8, referring to the standard graphic of outbreaks scientists use to show how an epidemic is progressing. The AP report found a key aspect of the virus whether it was contagious was in question in early January. Chinese researchers found the new coronavirus used a distinct spike protein to bind itself to human cells. The unusual protein and the lack of new cases in the first half of January lulled some Chinese CDC researchers into thinking the virus didnt easily spread between humans like the coronavirus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, according to an employee who declined to be identified out of fear of retribution. But some Chinese experts did suspect the virus was infectious. It should be contagious through respiratory passages, the Shanghai Public Clinical Health Center said in an internal notice seen by the AP. We recommend taking preventative measures in public areas. On the same day, WHO said that based on preliminary information from China, there was no evidence of significant transmission between humans, and did not recommend any specific measures for travelers. WHO officials complained in internal meetings that they were making repeated requests for more data, especially to find out if the virus could spread efficiently between humans, but to no avail. It wasn't until Jan. 14 the day after WHO announced that Thailand had a confirmed case of the virus that China's top top health official ordered the country to prepare for a pandemic, calling the outbreak the most severe challenge since SARS in 2003, as the AP previously reported. Chinese CDC staff across the country began screening, isolating, and testing for cases, turning up hundreds across the country. Yet even as the Chinese CDC internally declared a level one emergency, the highest level possible, Chinese officials still said the chance of sustained transmission between humans was low. WHO went back and forth. Van Kerkhove said in a press briefing that it is certainly possible there is limited human-to-human transmission. But hours later, WHO seemed to backtrack, and tweeted that preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission a statement that later became fodder for critics. A high-ranking official in WHOs Asia office, Dr. Liu Yunguo, who attended medical school in Wuhan, flew to Beijing to make direct, informal contacts with Chinese officials, recordings show. Liu pushed for more experts to visit Wuhan, according to a public health expert familiar with the matter. On Jan. 20, the leader of an expert team returning from Wuhan, renowned government infectious diseases doctor Zhong Nanshan, declared publicly for the first time that the new virus was spreading between people. Chinese President Xi Jinping called for the timely publication of epidemic information and deepening of international cooperation. Despite that directive, WHO staff still struggled to obtain enough detailed patient data from China about the rapidly evolving outbreak. That same day, the U.N. health agency dispatched a small team to Wuhan for two days, including Galea, the WHO representative in China. They were told about a worrying cluster of cases among more than a dozen doctors and nurses. But they did not have transmission trees detailing how the cases were connected, nor a full understanding of how widely the virus was spreading and who was at risk. In an internal meeting, Galea said their Chinese counterparts were talking openly and consistently about human-to-human transmission, and that there was a debate about whether or not this was sustained. Galea reported to colleagues in Geneva and Manila that Chinas key request to WHO was for help in communicating this to the public, without causing panic. On Jan. 22, WHO convened an independent committee to determine whether to declare a global health emergency. After two inconclusive meetings where experts were split, they decided against it even as Chinese officials ordered Wuhan sealed in the biggest quarantine in history. The next day, WHO chief Tedros publicly described the spread of the new coronavirus in China as limited. For days, China didnt release much detailed data, even as its case count exploded. Beijing city officials were alarmed enough to consider locking down the capital, according to a medical expert with direct knowledge of the matter. On Jan. 28, Tedros and top experts, including Ryan, made an extraordinary trip to Beijing to meet President Xi and other senior Chinese officials. It is highly unusual for WHOs director-general to directly intervene in the practicalities of outbreak investigations. Tedros staffers had prepared a list of requests for information. It could all happen and the floodgates open, or theres no communication, Grein said in an internal meeting while his boss was in Beijing. Well see. At the end of Tedros trip, WHO announced China had agreed to accept an international team of experts. In a press briefing on Jan. 29, Tedros heaped praise on China, calling its level of commitment incredible. The next day, WHO finally declared an international health emergency. Once again, Tedros thanked China, saying nothing about the earlier lack of cooperation. We should have actually expressed our respect and gratitude to China for what its doing, Tedros said. It has already done incredible things to limit the transmission of the virus to other countries. Follow NBC HEALTH on Twitter & Facebook. The last times U.S. presidents used the Insurrection Act of 1807 to send military forces into a state over the governors objections were during the civil rights era, to integrate an Arkansas high school in 1957 and the University of Mississippi in 1962. The law allows a president to deploy troops to suppress insurrection, or obstruction to the laws. Now President Trump is threatening to use it to send armed forces to cities shaken by violent clashes between police and people protesting the death in Minneapolis of a black man who died after being pinned to the ground by white officers. If a city or state refuses to take the actions necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them, Trump said Monday. Whether he could, or would, take such action without a states consent is far from certain. In 1807, when the law was passed, the new nation was facing what may have been an actual insurrection former Vice President Aaron Burrs mobilizing of his own army for what the government feared was a takeover of its western territories. Burr was tried and acquitted of treason, but for President Thomas Jefferson and Congress, the message was clear: The government must expand its authority for military action within its own territory. All of a sudden, any insurrection against the government was dangerous, said Dolores Barclay, a journalism professor at Columbia University who has written about the Insurrection Act. Congress and President Ulysses S. Grant expanded the law in 1871, at the request of South Carolinas governor, to authorize a military response to violence by the Ku Klux Klan. In 1957, after Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus deployed the states National Guard to prevent nine black students from entering Little Rocks Central High School, President Dwight Eisenhower invoked the Insurrection Act to send the 101st Airborne Division to integrate the school. President John F. Kennedy took similar steps in 1962 after Gov. Ross Barnett refused to send troops to protect James Meredith, the first African American to enroll at the University of Mississippi. At the same time, Congress has sought to preserve states authority over most events within their borders. The 1878 Posse Comitatus Act prohibited any military deployment on U.S. territory except when expressly authorized by law, an exception that left the 1807 law in place. But when Congress expanded the Insurrection Act in 2006, after Hurricane Katrina, to authorize military intervention after unrest following national disasters, governors unanimously objected and the expansion was repealed. Presidents since Kennedy have used the law to dispatch troops only at a governors request. Lyndon Johnson granted Michigan Gov. George Romneys request to send armed forces to quell riots in Detroit in 1967, and George H.W. Bush complied with California Gov. Pete Wilsons call for military aid in the riots that broke out in Los Angeles in 1992 after a jury acquitted police of using excessive force in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King. Doing it over the objections of local officials is almost not totally, but almost without precedent, said legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, a former Justice Department lawyer. Although the Insurrection Act authorizes the president to act unilaterally in limited circumstances to protect individuals constitutional rights, Toobin said, the better reading of the law is that he cant do it without a request from the state. On the other hand, Barclay, the Columbia journalism professor, said the history of the law, particularly Eisenhowers intervention in Arkansas, suggests that Trump could act on his own if he presented a plausible explanation. The question is, is he doing it for the right reasons and does he understand the repercussions? she said. I think it further erodes the relationship between the Trump administration and state governments. It does nothing to bring people together. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko The management of Commonwealth-owned land at North Head on Sydney Harbour has come under fire amid fears it will be privatised or handed to developers. Northern Beaches mayor Michael Regan and independent member for Warringah Zali Steggall have expressed concerns about the future of the Manly site, which is managed by the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust. Zali Steggall, Independent member for Warringah, has expressed concerns about the future of North Head Sanctuary. Credit:Janie Barrett Ms Steggall said she was concerned that sites managed by the Trust at Middle Head and Georges Heights as well as North Head could be developed into hotels or universities where the grounds are not open to the public. "The fear that these sites might be privatised or developed is real and genuine," she said. The authorities in the upscale New York City have imposed a week-long night curfew and ramped up police presence after violence and looting incidents were reported across the city amid widespread protests triggered by the custodial killing of African-American George Floyd. IMAGE: Protesters loot a store after marching against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in the Manhattan borough of New York City. Photograph: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio announced on Monday that the citywide curfew in New York City will begin at 11 pm on Monday and will be lifted at 5 am Tuesday morning. However, Blasio later said the curfew across the city will be extended through the week. "We're going to continue that curfew for the remainder of this week, 8 pm each evening until 5 am the next morning," he said. The New York City Police Department doubled its presence, bringing nearly 8000 police personnel to help prevent violence and damage to property, in angry response to the killing of Floyd, a 46-year-old man who was pinned to the ground in Minneapolis last week by a white police officer who kneeled on his neck as he gasped for breath. The additional officers will be deployed in areas where violence broke out and property was damage during the previous night's protests - specifically in lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn. Videos and photos posted on social media showed that while demonstrators protested peacefully around most areas in the city, there were several instances of looting as well. IMAGE: A man vandalises a vehicle as another car is set on fire during a protest. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images People were seen breaking into high end stores around Manhattan's Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue, home to almost all luxury and high-end brands from around the world, and running way with merchandise from the shops. Groups of people also looted pharmacies, electronic stores and other businesses across the city. Governor Cuomo said that the curfew was imposed is to help separate the overwhelming majority of peaceful protesters from 'people who are looking to exploit the moment by looting'. Yet, a curfew and increased police presence could not stop looters to break into retail stores in Manhattan that have been shuttered for over two months due to the shutdown in place because of COVID19. Cuomo strongly lashed out at the looters, saying those people breaking store windows, going in and stealing are indulging in 'criminal activity'. IMAGE: A man stands inside the shattered window of the G-Shock store after it was damaged by protesters after they participated in a march against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in the Manhattan borough of New York. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters He also criticised the New York police saying they have not done their job well. "The police must stop the looting and the criminal activity. That is the essence of the police force. They are supposed to protect the community, protect the property, they did not do that in New York City last night," he said. "I am disappointed and outraged at what happened in New York City last night. Those looters those criminals that criminal activity, hurt everyone, he said. Cuomo earlier said while there are 'extremist groups that just want to propose anarchy', the majority of the people are making a very valid point that discrimination and abuse by police should finally end. The Governor said in a statement that while the state authorities encourage people to protest peacefully and make their voices heard, the safety of the general public was paramount and cannot be compromised. "I stand behind the protestors and their message, but unfortunately there are people who are looking to distract and discredit this moment. The violence and the looting has been bad for the city, the state and this entire national movement, undermining and distracting from this righteous cause," Cuomo said. IMAGE: People take luxury products from a smashed storefront during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in New York. Photograph: Jeenah Moon/Reuters He also criticised President Donald Trump for threatening to call in the military to end protests around the country. "What the president today did was he called out the American military against American citizens. That's what they did. They used the American military to push back a peaceful protest, which everyone watched on TV, just so he could have a photo-op of walking to a church. "When was the last time you saw the American military called out against Americans?," he said. Trump, who was taken to an underground bunker in the White House on Friday as protesters gathered outside the presidential residence, on Monday ventured outside the White House grounds to pose for photographs at a nearby church. Before Trump came out of the White House, riot police and National Guard troops used tear gas and flash grenades to disperse a peaceful protest in a nearby park. Mayor Blasio said he supported peaceful protest in the city. IMAGE: A message is seen painted on the exterior of the Louis Vuitton store after it was damaged by protesters after they participated in a march against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in New York City. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters The mayor said while demonstrations have been generally peaceful, "we can't let violence undermine the message of this moment. It is too important and the message must be heard". He said there had been incidents over the past few days, as the protests intensified, where police officers did not uphold the values of New York City or of the Police Department. "We agree on the need for swift action," he said, adding that it will be ensured that such officers are held accountable. Considered to be the worst ever civil unrest in the US in decades, the violent protests have engulfed at least 140 cities across America in the days following the death of Floyd. A report in The New York Times said looters stormed into Macy's flagship store in Herald Square, a retail space of over 2.5 million square feet and one of the largest retail stores in the world, and stole merchandise before they were chased down by the police. Looters also broke stores of other high-end brands such as Nike and Coach store, stealing expensive goods and vandalized a Barnes & Noble bookstore while destroying other smaller storefronts along the way. On June 1, the first case of coronavirus infection was detected among the staff of Ukraines Ministry of Health. This was announced by Health Minister Maksym Stepanov during an online briefing. "Yesterday, the first case of coronavirus infection was recorded in the Ministry of Health. The circle of contact persons was determined immediately in accordance with the algorithms approved by the Ministry of Health, testing was carried out, a number of people will be sent for self-isolation," he said. As we reported earlier, as of the morning of June 2, 24,340 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection were observed in Ukraine. Thus, 328 new cases of Covid-19 have been reported over the last 24 hours. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 727 people have Ukraine (+9 in the last 24 hours), 10,078 have recovered (+388). According to the National Security and Defense Council, 13,535 people are still being treated (-69). Kyiv (3071 cases), Lviv region (1734 cases), Kyiv region (1623 cases), and Ivano-Frankivsk region - 1442 cases showcase the highest Covid-19 incidence. Can Flight Subscriptions Help Airlines Recover From an Unprecedented Drop in Demand? For several years, Inaki Uriz has aggressively pushed airlines to adopt flight subscriptions, promising smooth and predictable revenue, but they were rarely interested, fearing lost sales. With near-insatiable demand for air travel, they prioritized yield on ticket prices over volume. That began to change in March as coronavirus gripped the industry. Airlines were hemorrhaging customers, and some said net revenue dropped below zero, with cancelations outpacing bookings. In many regions, business has improved, but high-yield corporate travelers have not come back en masse, and no one is sure when they will. Many airlines are bracing for a slow recovery, and theyll take revenue anywhere they can find it. Their revenue is not predictable, and not stable, and this has consequences, said Uriz, CEO of Caravelo, a Barcelona-based company that builds subscription platforms for airlines. They understand they should have a mix of transactional revenue and subscription revenue. Get the Latest on Coronavirus and the Travel Industry on Skifts Liveblog Several airlines had subscription offerings before Covid-19, including Air Canada, Lufthansa Group, and the Mexican low-cost-airline Volaris, Caravelos lone customer. But Uriz said theres more interest now, adding his company soon will announce a second airline customer, with several more possibly in the pipeline. I think airlines have gone to the next mental state, and they understand that they have to change the model, he said. It is not about thinking about the small case where I could have sold this seat for that passenger for a bit more money than the subscription price. Volaris Example Volaris introduced its subscription program, called V.Pass, about two years ago, in hopes it could reach younger customers with a yen for travel. Volaris executives saw how these consumers flocked to music and content streaming providers and figured they could offer something similar. Story continues We saw quite a lot of subscription models, like Netflix, Spotify or iTunes music models that charge a low monthly fee but lock customers in over a long period of time, said Holger Blankenstein, Volaris executive vice president for airline commercial and operations. We found that is quite popular among the price-sensitive younger population group. We said OK, how can we replicate this for the airline industry and attract the price-sensitive customer. It found them to be a reliable demographic, and through March, Volaris had signed up 30,000 customers As part of a one-year commitment, they can fly one domestic trip per month for a fixed price, billed monthly. A roundtrip pass costs 639 Mexican pesos, or about $29.40 not including airport taxes, which in some markets can be nearly as much as the subscription. Passengers can add ancillary options to their monthly payment, including one carry-on for about $10 and one checked bag for roughly $25. Of course, the program was not designed for global pandemic that made it nearly impossible for many people to travel, so Volaris has had to make some temporary adjustments, Uriz said. It didnt want people dropping their subscriptions after their 12-month lock-up period expired. It has all been around being flexible and being generous, he said. We know we cannot deliver you a service and we would be happy to give you that in the future. We say, Stay with us and we will be nice to you. We may top it off with one or two more flights. Early returns have been encouraging, Uriz said. In the worst periods this spring, Volaris sold few plane tickets, yet still processed subscription payments, he said. Transactions disappear in this situation because you have to do something to make a booking and people just dont in these situations, Uriz said. However subscriptions are much more resilient. We didnt see any crazy drop in the program. Issues With Model In the recent past, subscription programs have had at least two problems. One, many traditional airline back-end reservations systems are not set up to handle them, so airlines either must build their platforms, or hire a company like Caravelo. And two, no one knows exactly how to price them so they can generate incremental revenue without cannibalizing existing revenue. The first issue is harder to solve, though Uriz said his company can provide the back-end technology for any airline that wants it. The second was a major challenge during boom times as recently as January 2019 when airlines were confident they could sell most seats at robust fares. In that environment, they feared they would seat cheaply to a subscription holder when they should have held it for a last-minute business traveler. While Volaris is predominately a leisure airline, the pricing issue also proved vexing for it before Covid-19 hit, Blankenstein said. Rather than making pricing perfect, Volaris chose to use the first 30,000 subscribers as more of a test to learn how customers would use it, he said. It found customers liked to use their passes on leisure routes from Guadalajara and Mexico City, flying to beach markets like Cancun and Puerto Vallarta. It also learned there was significant breakage, with the average customer using the pass in only five of of 12 months. The pricing wouldnt be right in the first instance, Blankenstein said. We are still tweaking the pricing. It is a product that will grow gradually. But it demonstrates that we are an airline that is willing to take some risks and innovate with products that are not traditional. Still, the issue of pricing may be moot for a while. Most airlines are flying with a lot of empty seats, and even when planes are full, yields are low. As a subscription evangelist, Uriz said now is the perfect time for airlines to pounce. He argues they have two choices. They either engage in heavy discounting, likely with costly advertisements and win a customer one time. Or they can sell a reasonably-priced subscription, and lock the consumer up for much longer. To be sure, there is some question whether consumers still want subscriptions. The last five years were unusual in aviation, as leisure travelers substantially increased how much they flew. Now, it is not clear so many travelers will want one flight per month, especially at a Mexican low-cost-airline like Volaris, where many travelers average one flight a year, or fewer. But Uriz said hes not concerned. He said he expects super travelers will return. You can fine tune it to consumer needs, so you could fly once a quarter, he said. But I think well go back to where we were. I think the easy thing to say is, Wow, this is going to change the way we travel, and this is going to have a long-term impact. I dont think thats going to be the case. Humans forget things. Subscribe to Skift newsletters for essential news about the business of travel. Thousands of terrorists might have been airlifted out of Kabul: Trump slams Biden Never in history has withdrawal from war been handled so badly: Trump Trumps move to invite India, Russia, Australia, S Korea to attend G-7 summit riles China International pti-PTI Beijing, June 02: China on Tuesday angrily reacted to US President Donald Trump's plans to invite India, Russia, Australia and South Korea to G7 summit, saying that any attempts to draw a "small circle" against Beijing will be "doomed to fail" and become "unpopular". G7 is the group of top seven developed economies. These include the US, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada. Heads of States of these countries meet annually to discuss issues of global governance, including climate change, security and the economy. Jessica Lal case convict Manu Sharma to be released prematurely, LG accepts | Oneindia News Trump has postponed the G7 Summit till September and expressed his desire to expand the "outdated" bloc to G10 or G11, including India and three other nations to the grouping of the world's top economies. Trump threatens to use military to quell violent protests over African-American's custodial death Asked for his reaction about Trumps plans to invite India and three other nations to G7 summit, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing here that China believes all international organisations and conferences should be conducive to mutual trust between countries to upholding multilateralism, promoting world peace and development. "We believe this is the role of the overwhelming majority of the countries in the world. Any attempts to seek a small circle against China is doomed to fail and is unpopular," he said. There is a sense of disquiet here about Trumps invitation to India and three other nations, especially at a time when he is seeking to isolate Beijing with a raft of measures including withdrawing the special status to Hong Kong in response to new Chinese security law for the former British colony, putting curbs on the Chinese students above undergraduate level, pulling the US out of the World Health Organisation pointing to its links to China. Trump is also aggressively pushing for decoupling China from global supply chains which could hurt the worlds second-largest economy in the long run. The tension between the US and China is escalating over the coronavirus pandemic, with America accusing Beijing of not divulging timely information about the disease and demanding a probe into the origins of the virus. However, China has rejected all US allegations of a cover up regarding the COVID-19 outbreak. According to the Johns Hopkins University data, the COVID-19 has infected over 6.2 million people and claimed more than 375,000 lives worldwide. The US is the worst-hit country in the world with more than 1.7 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and over 105,000 deaths. The US currently holds the annual presidency of G7 countries. In view of the coronavirus pandemic, there were talks of the summit being held virtually. However, Trump had been suggesting that it be held in person. During the summit, the G7 president normally invites heads of states of one or two countries to attend the meeting as a special invitee. Last year, French President Emanuel Macron had invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the G7 Summit. Prime Minister Modi attended the G7 meeting in the French town of Biarritz in August last. Trumps invitation to Russia is regarded as a source of concern for China as Beijing had built up close relations with Moscow ever since it was expelled from what was previously known as G8 in 2014 by Trump's predecessor Barack Obama following Russia's takeover of Crimea. Since then Russia has emerged as a close strategic ally of China. Reports from Russia said Moscow has shown its interest in accepting the invitation to attend the G7 meet. "President Putin is a supporter of dialogue in all directions, but in this case, in order to respond to such initiatives, we need to receive more information, which we unfortunately do not have," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying Chinas state-run CGTN. "We don't know the details of this proposal yet, we don't know if it is official," he said, adding that Moscow needed to know what might be on the agenda of the proposed meeting and its format, before responding. The UK and Canada have opposed Russia's return to the G7, deepening a rift over President Trump's wish for the country to re-join, the BBC reported. On Sunday, Trump told Putin of his plans to invite him to the G7 summit. The White House said making "progress toward convening the G7" with Russia was among the topics the leaders discussed in a phone call, according to reports. Pune, June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global agriculture equipment market size is set to reach USD 227.76 billion by 2026, exhibiting a CAGR of 7.2% during the forecast period. Escalating demand for high agricultural productivity worldwide will be the primary growth propeller for this market, finds Fortune Business Insights in its new report, titled Agriculture Equipment Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Equipment Type (Agriculture Tractors, Harvesting Equipment, Irrigation & Crop Processing Equipment, Agriculture Spraying & Handling Equipment, Soil Preparation & Cultivation Equipment and Others (Hay & Forage Equipment, trailers, etc.), By Application (Land Development, Threshing and Harvesting, Plant Protection, After Agro Processing), and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026. Get Sample PDF Brochure: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/agriculture-equipment-market-102665 The emergence of COVID-19 has brought the world to a standstill. We understand that this health crisis has brought an unprecedented impact on businesses across industries. However, this too shall pass. Rising support from governments and several companies can help in the fight against this highly contagious disease. There are some industries that are struggling and some are thriving. Overall, almost every sector is anticipated to be impacted by the pandemic. We are taking continuous efforts to help your business sustain and grow during COVID-19 pandemics. Based on our experience and expertise, we will offer you an impact analysis of coronavirus outbreak across industries to help you prepare for the future. Click here to get the short-term and long-term impact of COVID-19 on this market. Please visit: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/agriculture-equipment-market-102665 The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) projects that world population will be around 8.5 billion by 2030 and 9.7 billion by 2050. Majority of this growth will be concentrated in the developing countries of Asia and Africa. Thus, boosting agriculture productivity is of the essence not only to feed so many people, but also to empower a large chunk of the global population to sustain their livelihoods. According to the World Bank, agriculture-based growth can prove to be two to four times more effective in raising incomes in the poorest sections of the world as compared to other sectors. Thus, rapid ly growing population will lead the agriculture equipment market trends in the upcoming decade. The report states that the value of this market stood at USD 131.25 billion in 2018. The other highlights of the report include: Comprehensive insights into the trends, drivers, and various other aspects of the market; Detailed analysis of the factors restricting the growth of the market; Exhaustive study of the different market segments; and In-depth evaluation of the regional prospects and the competitive dynamics influencing the market Speak to Analyst: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/speak-to-analyst/agriculture-equipment-market-102665 Market Driver Increasing Adoption of AI in Agriculture to Feed Market Growth Agricultural operations are increasingly becoming automated due to the increasing application of smart technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI). The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) postulates that AI in agriculture is encompassing three major areas of predictive analytics, soil and crop monitoring, and agriculture robotics. Rising emphasis on making agricultural activities smarter, more economical, and highly efficient has made AI an extremely attractive option for the farming communities in developing nations. For instance, in 2017, a research study was published in the botany journal, Frontiers in Plant Science, which illustrated how researchers used Googles open source library TensorFlow to build a library of images of the cassava plant leaves grown in Tanzania. The AI tool they deployed was able to identify disease in the plant with 98% accuracy. Thus, extensive usage of AI in agriculture is slated to broaden the agriculture equipment market outlook during the forecast period. Regional Insights Asia-Pacific to Lead the Pack; North America to Experience Strong Growth Having generated USD 47.85 billion in revenue in 2018, Asia-Pacific is poised to dominate the market share of the agriculture equipment, in the forthcoming years, mainly owing to high dependence on agriculture in India and China. Moreover, increasing governmental investment in modernization of farming activities is creating multiple incentives of industry leaders to enter the market in these countries and market their products. In North America, growing demand of fuel- and energy-efficient agricultural machinery and rapid adoption of advanced equipment will drive the market growth. On the other hand, severe shortage of laborers is inducing farmers and cultivators in Europe to employ highly mechanized equipment in agricultural operations. Quick Buy Agriculture Equipment Market Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/checkout-page/102665 Competitive Landscape Rising Interest in Emerging Economies by Foreign Players to Energize Competition The agriculture equipment market forecast predicts that the gradual shift of focus of companies in industrial economies toward developing nations will intensify competition in this market. Many agriculture sector giants such as Deere & Company and Kubota Corporation are entering into partnerships with domestic players in Asia and Africa to establish their network in these regions. Industry Developments: March 2020: The Escorts Group, the Indian engineering bigwig, announced that the Japan-based Kubota Corporation will be investing in the company through purchase of 10% share at a value of Rs. 1042crores. This equity-based partnership will make the companies a global hub for agriculture equipment manufacturing. July 2019: International Tractors Limited (ITL) launched two new agriculture equipment brands, Yanmar and Solis. These brands will sell farming machinery and equipment alongside Sonalika, the companys domestic tractor brand. With this launch, ITL hopes to crystallize its position in the Indian agriculture equipment domain. List of Key Players Covered in the Agriculture Equipment Market Report are: International Tractors Limited Valmont Industries, Inc. Claas KGaA mbH Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. Alamo Group Inc. Deere & Company SDF S.p.A. China National Machinery Industry Corporation Iseki & Co., Ltd. Kubota Corporation AGCO Corporation Get your Customized Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/customization/agriculture-equipment-market-102665 Detailed Table of Content Introduction Definition, By Segment Research Approach Sources Executive Summary Market Dynamics Drivers, Restraints and Opportunities Emerging Trends Key Insights Macro and Micro Economic Indicators Consolidated SWOT Analysis of Key Players Porters Five Force Analysis Global Agriculture Equipment Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2015-2026 Key Findings / Summary Market Sizing Estimations and Forecasts By Equipment Type (Value) Agriculture Tractors Harvesting Equipment Irrigation & Crop Processing Equipment Agriculture Spraying & Handling Equipment Soil Preparation & Cultivation Equipment Others (Hay & Forage Equipment, trailers, etc.) Market Sizing Estimations and Forecasts By Application (Value) Land Development Threshing and Harvesting Plant Protection After Agro Processing Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast By Region (Value) North America Europe Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa Latin America Continued...!!! Have a Look at Related Research Insights: Precision Agriculture Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Component (Hardware, Software, Services), By Technology (Remote Sensing, GPS/GNSS Systems, Variable Rate Technology (VRT), Guidance Software, Geomapping), By Application (Crop Management, Financial management, Weather Forecasting, Person and Inventory Management, Irrigation Management) and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Connected Agriculture Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Component (Solutions, Services), By Application (Pre-Production Management, In-Production Management, Post-Production Management) and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 About Us: Fortune Business Insights offers expert corporate analysis and accurate data, helping organizations of all sizes make timely decisions. We tailor innovative solutions for our clients, assisting them address challenges distinct to their businesses. Our goal is to empower our clients with holistic market intelligence, giving a granular overview of the market they are operating in. Our reports contain a unique mix of tangible insights and qualitative analysis to help companies achieve sustainable growth. Our team of experienced analysts and consultants use industry-leading research tools and techniques to compile comprehensive market studies, interspersed with relevant data. At Fortune Business Insights, we aim at highlighting the most lucrative growth opportunities for our clients. We therefore offer recommendations, making it easier for them to navigate through technological and market-related changes. Our consulting services are designed to help organizations identify hidden opportunities and understand prevailing competitive challenges. Contact Us: Fortune Business Insights Pvt. Ltd. 308, Supreme Headquarters, Survey No. 36, Baner, Pune-Bangalore Highway, Pune - 411045, Maharashtra, India. Phone: US: +1-424-253-0390 UK: +44-2071-939123 APAC: +91-744-740-1245 Email: sales@fortunebusinessinsights.com Fortune Business Insights LinkedIn | Twitter | Blogs Read Press Release https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/press-release/agriculture-equipment-market-9806 154 Shares Share In the world of pediatrics, my colleagues and I remain vigilant about the threat of coronavirus to children. Every week, we learn more information about new presentations of COVID-19, such as novel inflammatory syndromes. Still, I am hopeful that with supportive home care, good infection control practices, and access to high-quality health care when needed, we can keep children in our communities healthy and safe. However, there is a group of children who lack all these protective factors, and who I feel powerless to help. Nearly 7,000 detained immigrant children are at risk of contracting COVID-19, and they are more susceptible to becoming seriously ill. Furthermore, COVID-19 could quickly move from detention centers into surrounding communities, putting us all at greater risk. Well before the pandemic, children were dying in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, often of respiratory illnesses. Children in detention have disproportionally higher rates of conditions like asthma, malnutrition, and immunosuppression, placing them at increased risk of serious illness or death in a system that is simply not set up to provide health care. Despite three children having died in custody of the flu or flu-related complications, the flu vaccine was not offered to many children in custody. The government recognizes that there are not enough clinicians or specialized care services in shelters holding migrant children. Now, we are starting to see a crisis of COVID-19 spreading via detained children. The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) first confirmed positive cases in children and staff last month. Then there were confirmed reports of spread among children in a facility in Chicago, and this month, ICE reported 943 cases in detainees. Moreover, a high proportion of children infected with COVID-19 show no symptoms, and testing remains limited. Asymptomatic children can spread the infection to each other, staff, visitors, vendors, and contractors, who may further spread the virus in their community, especially as lockdowns end. These tinderbox scenarios of geographic spread from detention sites across the country threaten to prolong the intensity and length of the crisis we are already mired in. Knowing how COVID-19 is straining resources even at highly specialized pediatric centers, its hard to imagine detention facilities responding adequately to this pandemic. ICE claims that their facilities continue to incorporate CDCs Covid-19 guidance. However, attorneys report seeing large groups of children crowded in a room for legal screenings, no evidence of these rooms being sanitized, and diluted soap in bathrooms. Social distancing is nonexistent. Any parent or sibling can attest to the futility of asking young children to maintain strict hygiene or physical distance in crowded settings. ICE says it is testing detainees with symptoms and wants to increase quarantine capacity, but neither of these strategies addresses the issue of asymptomatic children. Even if it were feasible, keeping young children who are already forcibly separated from parents, in isolation, for weeks, would be shockingly cruel and detrimental to their well-being. The only effective way to protect these children and prevent the spread of infection is an immediate release from detention. Last month, a federal judge urged the same, calling on the Trump administration to release children to waiting sponsors. Judge Gee cited both the potential harm to children and the publics interest in preventing outbreaks that can spread to others in geographic proximity, and likely overwhelm local health care systems. ICE has demonstrated a pattern of not following court agreements regarding releasing children, and despite an unprecedented pandemic, continues to do so. This week, the New York Times reported that the administration is instead clandestinely deporting children, despite the presence of sponsors who are ready to care for children at home while they go through the immigration court process. Often, deportation means sending children to crowded tent camps or overrun shelters, where they will continue to remain at high risk for the devastating effects of COVID-19, as well as other diseases. As we collectively combat this pandemic, Ive witnessed amazing ways in which providers and community members have come together to advocate for evidence-based measures to keep children and communities healthy and safe. We must extend this advocacy to every child in need. Ask your local, state, or national representatives to exercise their jurisdiction over ICE and ORR. Demand policies in the best interest of children, including release from immigration detention facilities and an end to unsanctioned deportation. As we look out for one another, we must not forget the most vulnerable children amongst us. Providing them the care and protection they deserve would protect our health and our humanity. Priya Pathak is a pediatrician. Image credit: Shutterstock.com Protesters gather outside the New York Police Department at Times Square in New York City on Sunday. It was the sixth day of protests and violent unrest, sparked by the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis police custody. (Xinhua Photo President Trump threatened use of military force on Monday to "stop the violence and restore security and safety in America". Trump said he has "strongly recommended" to every governor to deploy the National Guard in "sufficient numbers that we dominate the streets." He said mayors and governors must establish an "overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled." If the city or state refuses to take the actions, Trump said he would deploy the US military. "I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them. I am also taking swift and decisive action to protect our great capitol, Washington, DC. What happened in this city last night was a total disgrace," he said. He added: "Those who threaten innocent life and property will be arrested, detained and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I want the organizers of this terror to be on notice that you will face severe criminal penalties and lengthy sentences in jail." What you need to know about the protests - Protests enter seventh day across the US, including fires, violence near White House. - The nationwide unrest started on Memorial Day, May 25, when George Floyd, 46, died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes - At least 40 cities in more than 20 US states and Washington DC have imposed curfews. - An independent autopsy found Floyd died from "asphyxiation from sustained pressure," while the Hennepin County Medical Examiner found "no physical findings" to "support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation." - Trump has created controversy by calling protesters "thugs". - National Guard members have been activated in at least 23 states and Washington DC. - The officer who pressed his knee onto Floyd's neck has been charged with murder, but protesters are demanding the other three officers at the scene be prosecuted. File image Japan on Tuesday approved saliva-based tests for the coronavirus, offering a safer, simpler way to diagnose infection than nasal swabs as it looks to boost its testing rates. Hours after the approval, the Tokyo government issued a stay-at-home alert following an increase in infections. Currently, nasal swabs are the main source for tests in Japan, but these can expose medical workers to coughs and sneezes at the time of collection, making it necessary for them to wear full protective gear. The saliva-based tests are able to be given to those who have had symptoms for up to nine days, the health ministry said. It wasn't immediately clear how much the change would boost overall testing capacity. "This will vastly reduce burdens on patients as well as burdens that come with infection-prevention steps on the part of sample-collecting institutions," Health Minister Katsunobu Kato told reporters. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show Japan falls well behind other industrialised nations in terms of its number of coronavirus tests. Critics say the low rate of testing has made it difficult to trace the virus, which has led to a series of in-hospital infection clusters. As of May 20, Japan conducted 3.4 PCR tests per 1,000 people, far below Italy's 52.5 and 39 in the United States, according to Oxford University data. South Korea has carried out tests on 15 people per 1,000 people. Japan, which lifted its state of emergency last week, has escaped an explosive outbreak, with nearly 17,000 infections and 898 deaths so far, according to NHK public broadcaster. The Tokyo government issued an alert urging people to stay at home for non-essential business and to practise social distancing after 34 new infections on Tuesday, the most since May 9. The health ministry said about two dozen different test kits, including one from Takara Bio Inc, have been approved for saliva-based PCR tests. Shares in Takara Bio jumped 4% on Tuesday. Musashino Central Hospital in western Tokyo said 12 patients and three hospital workers had been confirmed with the virus, taking the total number of cases at the hospital to 31, forming the latest infection cluster. It was a week when both oil and natural gas prices settled higher. On the news front, oil and gas producer Occidental Petroleum OXY slashed its quarterly dividend for the second time in four months, while North American energy infrastructure provider Williams Companies WMB plans to develop solar energy to power its operations in nine states. Overall, it was a good week for the sector. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained 6.7% to close at $35.49 per barrel, while natural gas prices rose 6.8% for the week to finish at 1.849 per million Btu (MMBtu). In particular, the oil markets extended gains to trade above $35 per barrel for the largest monthly increase on record. Coming back to the week ended May 29, the crude benchmark recorded another climb after U.S. government data revealed a drop in gasoline stockpiles and big drawdown at the storage hub in Cushing. The report was also supportive in terms of U.S. producers scaling back operations. Weekly figures show output has dropped to 11.4 million barrels per day, since reaching 13.1 million in the second week of March. Oil prices were also supported by the continued decline in rig count, which currently sits at its lowest since 2009. Natural gas ended higher too on prospects of lower volumes. The gain reflected the cut in shale oil production that will also limit associated gas output, thereby reducing the supply glut Recap of the Weeks Most Important Stories 1. Occidental Petroleum announced that the board of directors has decided to slash quarterly dividend again to preserve liquidity amid weak commodity prices and demand. The new quarterly dividend will be 1 cent down from the prior rate of 11 cents. The new dividend will be payable on Jul 15 to shareholders on record as of Jun 15, 2020. Earlier in March 2020, the company slashed quarterly dividend by 86% to 11 cents for the first time in three decades to ensure enough liquidity to service its debts. In the 2021 to 2022 time period, Occidental will have to repay debt worth $11.1 billion. However, the current weak commodity price scenario, declining demand trends and lower probability of selling non-core assets will hinder the companys debt reduction plan. Plus, the cancellation of the TOTAL African asset deal will aggravate problems. Hence, cutting down dividend again was one of the ways for Occidental to preserve liquidity. The decision to cut dividend twice is expected to enhance liquidity by $2.8 billion annually. (Occidental to Cut Dividend Again to Preserve Liquidity) 2. Williams Companies recently announced its plan to install solar projects with capacities around one and 40 megawatt (MW) on lands nearby its existing facilities. The solar power installations are expected to come online in late 2021. To this end, the Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company has already identified initial sites suitable for solar photovoltaic (PV) plants in nine states comprising Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Louisiana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Of these, Colorado will be the first region wherein Williams will earmark spots for solar installations. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. This U.S. natural gas processing and transmission firm aims to produce solar electricity for its operations by capitalizing on the federal and state tax credits as well as lowering losses on long-haul transmissions. Per the company, the declining cost of solar technology and available tax credits make solar plants cost competitive in comparison to traditional combined cycle power generation. (Williams to Build 1-40 MW Solar Stations Across 9 US States) 3. EQT Corporation EQT recently trimmed its second-quarter production guidance. Moreover, the company closed the divestment of non-core assets in Pennsylvania and West Virginia for a total of $125 million in cash. Yesterday, the stock rose 7.4% following the news. Due to demand destruction caused by coronavirus-induced lockdowns, the company decided to reduce gross production by 1.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent per day (Bcfe/d), earlier this month. The curtailment is expected to be on a temporary basis. If the situation persists through the rest of the second quarter, total quarterly sales volume will likely be in the range of 315-335 Bcfe. The metric is around 45 Bcfe lower than the previous guidance range of 360-380 Bcfe. It achieved sales volumes of 370 Bcfe in the year-ago quarter. However, the upstream energy player anticipates its full-year 2020 production and financial guidance to remain unchanged. Moreover, second-quarter total operating costs are expected toward the higher limit of the guided range of $1.34-$1.46 per thousand cubic feet equivalent (Mcfe). In the year-ago quarter, the companys total operating costs were $1.52 per Mcfe. (EQT Corp. Slashes Q2 Output View, Closes Asset Divestment) 4. ConocoPhillips COP recently completed the divestment of northern Australia and Timor-Leste assets to Australian oil and gas company Santos under a revised deal. ConocoPhillips intends to use the proceeds from the transaction for general corporate purposes. The acquirer will now pay to ConocoPhillips $1.265 billion, which is a discount to the $1.390 billion price announced last October. The discounted selling price of the assets was a result of low energy demand stemming from coronavirus-induced lockdowns and reduced commodity prices. However, the contingent payment has risen from $75 million to $200 million, subject to a final investment decision on the Barossa gas field development. However, the total consideration of the deal remains unchanged. ConocoPhillips will maintain strategic presence in the country while focusing on the Australia Pacific LNG project and exploration activities. The company has invested more than $20 billion in the country since 2004 and created in excess of 4,000 direct jobs. (ConocoPhillips Closes Australian Asset Divestment to Santos) 5. In its weekly release, Baker Hughes Company BKR reported another drop in the U.S. rig count. Rigs engaged in the exploration and production of oil and natural gas in the United States fell to an all-time low of 301 in the week through May 29, compared with the prior-week count of 318. The current national rig count is well below the prior years 984. Investors should know that with the recent all-time low mark, the tally has touched record-low levels for four successive weeks, thanks to dented global energy demand owing to the coronavirus pandemic. Oil rig count was 222 in the week through May 29, compared with 237 in the week ended May 22. Since crude prices are in the bearish territory, explorers are cutting their capital budget considerably. This led the weekly tally of oil rigs to fall for 11 consecutive weeks. (US Oil & Gas Rig Tally Hits Record Lows for 4 Straight Weeks) Price Performance The following table shows the price movement of some the major oil and gas players over the past week and during the last 6 months. Company Last Week Last 6 Months XOM +2% -33.9% CVX +1.6% -22.4% COP -2.5% -28.2% OXY -8.4% -64.6% SLB +5.1% -48.1% RIG -7% -72.1% VLO +1.5% -29.7% MPC -1.2% -42% The Energy Select Sector SPDR a popular way to track energy companies edged up 0.7% last week. The best performer was oilfield services behemoth Schlumberger SLB whose stock jumped 5.1%. Longer-term, over six months, the sector tracker is down 33.9%. Offshore driller Transocean Ltd. RIG was the major loser during this period, experiencing a 72.1% price plunge. Whats Next in the Energy World? As global oil consumption gradually ticks up, market participants will be closely tracking the regular releases to watch for signs that could further validate a rebound. In this context, the U.S. government statistics on oil and natural gas - one of the few solid indicators that comes out regularly - and the Baker Hughes data on rig count, will be on the energy traders' radar. 5 Stocks to Soar Past the Pandemic: In addition to the companies you learned about above, we invite you to learn about 5 cutting-edge stocks that could skyrocket from the exponential increase in demand for stay at home technologies. This could be one of the biggest buying opportunities of the decade. See the 5 high-tech stocks now>> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Transocean Ltd. (RIG) : Free Stock Analysis Report EQT Corporation (EQT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Schlumberger Limited (SLB) : Free Stock Analysis Report ConocoPhillips (COP) : Free Stock Analysis Report Williams Companies, Inc. The (WMB) : Free Stock Analysis Report Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY) : Free Stock Analysis Report Baker Hughes Company (BKR) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research FILE PHOTO: The logo of Natixis is displayed at the company's office in Hong Kong DUBAI (Reuters) - French investment bank Natixis has opened a corporate and investment banking office in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh and appointed former JPMorgan banker Reema al-Asmari as its chief executive officer, the bank said on Sunday. Western financial institutions have been seeking opportunities in Saudi Arabia since the government unveiled plans to privatise state assets and introduced reforms to attract foreign capital under its Vision 2030 programme to reduce the economy's dependence on oil. "By establishing a local presence, Natixis aims to deepen its relationships with its existing clients, including corporates, sovereign wealth funds and financial institutions, and to serve new clients, including family offices," Natixis said in a statement. The bank's office, located in Al Faisaliah Tower, will offer "tailor-made capital markets products and investment banking services". Al-Asmari, who joined Natixis last August as an advisor to the bank's Dubai branch, will continue to report to Simon Eedle, Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking's regional head for the Middle East. Eedle said in a statement that the bank's commitment to the Middle East dated back more than 20 years and he believed its areas of expertise were closely aligned with the needs of clients in the region. "This is very much the case for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, notably in the context of Vision 2030," he said, adding it was a "pivotal time" for the kingdom. (Reporting by Yousef Saba and Saeed Azhar; Editing by Kirsten Donovan) VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ParcelPal Technology Inc. (ParcelPal or the Company), (PKG:CSE) (FSE:PT0) (OTC:PTNYF) announces that it has postponed filing its interim financial statements and Managements Discussion & Analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2020 (the Q1 Quarterly Documents) due to logistics and delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. ParcelPal is relying on exemptive relief recently granted by Canadian securities regulatory authorities that allows it to delay the filing of its Q1 Quarterly Documents required by National Instrument 51-102 by June 1, 2020. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, securities regulatory authorities in Canada have granted a blanket exemption allowing issuers an additional 45 days to complete their regulatory filings. The Company estimates that its Q1 Quarterly Documents will be available for filing at its earliest opportunity, which is expected to occur on or before July 15, 2020. Until such time as the Q1 Quarterly Documents are filed, the Companys management and other insiders are subject to a trading blackout that reflects the principles contained in section 9 of National Policy 11-207 - Failure-to-File Cease Trade Orders and Revocations in Multiple Jurisdictions. There have been no material business developments since the date of the last interim financial statements, filed on November 29, 2019; however, the Company has issued news releases subsequent to November 29, 2019, copies of which are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com . About ParcelPal Technology Inc. ParcelPal is a leader in the growing technology and logistics industry. ParcelPal seamlessly connects consumers to businesses, where they have access to the goods they love, anytime, anywhere. Customers can shop at partner businesses and through the ParcelPal technology receive their purchased goods within an hour or the same day. The Company offers on-demand delivery of merchandise from leading retailers, restaurants, medical marijuana dispensaries and liquor stores in Vancouver, Calgary, Saskatoon and soon in major cities Canada-wide. ParcelPal Website: www.parcelpal.com The Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) or any other securities regulatory authority has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release that has been prepared by management. CSE Symbol: PKG FSE Symbol: PT0 OTC Symbol: PTNYF This press release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and may also contain statements that may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking information and forward-looking statements are not representative of historical facts or information or current condition, but instead represent only the Company's beliefs regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of the Company's control. Generally, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "will continue", "will occur" or "will be achieved". The forward-looking information contained herein may include, but is not limited to, information concerning the Offering. By identifying such information and statements in this manner, the Company is alerting the reader that such information and statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such information and statements. An investment in securities of the Company is speculative and subject to several risks including, without limitation, the risks discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's public filings available at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information and forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. In connection with the forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release, the Company has made certain assumptions. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing, and the expectations contained in, the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and statements, and no assurance or guarantee can be given that such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information and statements. The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and the Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information and/or forward-looking statements that are contained or referenced herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking information and statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by this notice. When two NASA astronauts blasted off on May 30 under American -- albeit commercially produced -- power for the first time in nearly a decade, much of the world celebrated the achievement. But in Russia, the United States' traditional space rival, congratulations on the successful launch and delivery of crew members to the International Space Station (ISS) came, at least from several officials and pro-Kremlin pundits, with a dose of derision. "The hysteria raised after the successful launch of the Crew Dragon spacecraft is hard to understand," Vladimir Ustimenko, a spokesman for the Russian space agency Roskosmos, wrote on Twitter on May 31. "What has happened should have happened long ago. Now it's not only the Russians flying to the ISS, but also the Americans. Well that's wonderful! Aleksei Pushkov, a Kremlin ally in the upper parliament house who is a frequent critic of the United States and the West, also suggested the voyage of veteran astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken was ho-hum, emphasizing on Telegram that "this is a flight to the International Space Station, not to Mars." He added that, in future, Russia should save seats on its spacecraft headed for the ISS for its own astronauts. Ustimenko and Pushkov were not the only ones who sounded unimpressed by the accomplishment of SpaceX, the rocket company owned by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk that took a giant leap into the space race after NASA mothballed its space shuttle fleet in 2011. But others suggested Russia should come to grips with the loss of its lucrative, nearly decade-long monopoly on manned flights. 'The Trampoline Is Working' Some pundits described the development as a wake-up call for Russia's space program, and Roskosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin was reminded of the days when, as a deputy prime minister targeted by U.S. sanctions over the Kremlin's hostile takeover of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014, he suggested that the punitive measures would hit them like a "boomerang." "After analyzing the sanctions against our space industry, I suggestthe USA bring their astronauts to the International Space Station using a trampoline," Rogozin wrote on Twitter in April 2014. Musk, who only days before Rogozin's tweet had suggested that the Russian might benefit financially from the purchase of rocket components by SpaceX's main competitor, got some payback after this week's successful launch. "The trampoline is working," Musk said at a postlaunch press conference alongside NASA director James Bridenstine, who mentioned Rogozin's statement of congratulations and said that NASA's Russian partners "believe in cooperation, and I think it will remain strong." It was laughed off as an "inside joke," but pro-Kremlin state TV talk show host Vladimir Solovyov took it as a challenge. "'The trampoline works,' Musk poked Rogozin," Solovyov wrote on his Telegram channel on March 31. "How will Roskosmos answer? The ball is in our court. No need to rush. Musk prepared his answer for several years." On his feed, Solovyov also shared a blistering post from the Telegram channel Nevrotik, an influencer who describes himself as a "simple peasant with understanding and common sense." Nevrotik said that media coverage of the SpaceX launch was full of words like "historic," "new era," and other laudations. So 1970? But what "we really have," according to Nevrotik, is that after a long and heavy drinking bout, space power No. 2 has returned. And this really should be welcomed: Otherwise we would miss you and be without our reliable competitor and ally." On June 1, popular blogger Maksim Kononenko, meanwhile, assured Russian readers that "we have much to be proud of besides manned space flights." Alluding to the recent news that Russia's Health Ministry had granted approval for a Russian-produced drug called Avifavir to help fight the coronavirus outbreak, Kononenko wrote that "it turns out that "we are among the handful of countries that produce working (this is important) antiviral drugs." While writing that while "flying into space is very cool, of course," Kononenko suggested that it was "fashionable 50 years ago." A cure for the coronavirus, however, is in demand "right now," he wrote. When I made the decision last fall to return to teaching high school after a decade working in higher education, I could not have foreseen that a big part of my job this year would be preparing students for the first-ever online Advanced Placement exams. I teach three sections of the AP English Literature and Composition course at a public charter school in Miamis Little Havana neighborhood. I also study and write about large-scale assessments. So I feel invested in giving my students not only the subject-matter knowledge but also the testing savvy to ace their AP exams. And Ive thought a lot about how the College Boards pioneering attempt went. AP exams assess mastery of content and skills in approximately 35 different college-level courses taken by high school students. Both the curriculum and the exams in the courses are set by the nonprofit College Board, which derives a big chunk of its revenue from the AP Program . In my view, the most valuable aspect of these standardized tests is that they can save students a lot of money on tuition by allowing them to test out of general education requisites at universities and thus complete their degrees quicker. Or students can bypass some core courses, often taught by teaching assistants and with class sizes in the hundreds, in favor of more engaging electives. Its fair to note, too, that AP scores factor into the university admissions process, as students may choose to report their results as part of their college applications. The responsible thing for the College Board to do would have been to postpone a bit longer." So the exams are important. Regardless of whether standardized tests measure what they purport to or whether they are fair to diverse kinds of test-takers, AP exams are used to reward some students and not others. With makeup exams beginning this week for droves of students, including some of mine, its a good time to grade the College Board for its performance this spring under admittedly challenging circumstances wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. The College Board performed well in some ways. First, it decided early on that students would be able to take AP tests online at home, given that almost all schools were closing because of the coronavirus. This meant a switchover from pencil-and-paper tests to typed exams, saving test time for most students. Also, each exam was reduced from three hours to 45 minutes, which, in my opinion, rightly prioritized learning over endurance. The AP English Literature exam, for example, previously required students to slog through 55 multiple-choice questions followed by three separate essay prompts. Finally, in an uncharacteristically transparent move for a testing agency, the College Board announced it would provide AP teachers with their students responses, not only as a way to supplement gradebooks thinned out in the transition to virtual learning but also to offer insights for improving future instruction. Where did the College Board go wrong? Mainly by saddling students with the logistical demands of the new online format. For instance, each subjects exam was taken on the same day at the same time worldwide to prevent students from conferring about answers. But since multiple versions of the exams were developed, why didnt the College Board discourage cheating by staggering exam versions? Then Hawaiian examinees would not have had to start at 6 in the morning while peers on the other side of the globe finished in the middle of the night. And although the College Board paid lip service to confronting the digital divide , it never made sense to encourage students to take exams on smartphones or tablets (rather than computers) as such devices are neither ideal for typing long texts nor navigating multiple windows, both of which the tests required. Yes, students could handwrite, photograph, and upload their work. But those who didnt do so could borrow a few precious minutes for the actual test from the five minutes allocated for submission. Perhaps the College Boards biggest blunder was this five minute submission window. After two months of e-learning, any sensible educator, let alone an organization with the resources of the College Board, would have expected and prepared for a host of technical issues: intermittent internet connectivity, outdated web browsers, incompatible file formats. And all of these problems were exacerbated by an anxiety-inducing timer counting down the final minutes. Not submitting the test within the time limit meant the difference between passing and failing the entire exam. After horror stories of unsubmitted responses circulated widely during the first of two weeks of AP testing, the College Board announced guidelines for a backup email- submission process effective May 18. But why wasnt the exam interface set up so that students could simply type their responses within a text box that autosaved their workeven though, ironically, they were required to do so as part of typing exercises to advance past preliminary security screens? In my post-exam debriefings with students, I learned of issues specific to the English- literature exam. Students were frustrated that there was no tool available to highlight or annotate long passages of text. Some reported that they could copy and paste sections directly from the prompt; others could not. And while setting the examination period between May 11 and May 22 was well-intentioned and responded to the preference expressed by test-takers and their teachers for testing students while they were still in school, the responsible thing for the College Board to do would have been to postpone a bit longer. No one was ready. In the days before exams commenced, students were inundated with last-minute updates and advice from the College Board. A 51-page testing guide. A practice demo that revealed that add-ons like Grammarly must be uninstalled. Exam-day checklists with 30 check boxes of helpful tasks to be completed by students for each exam taken. And for my specific AP course, a YouTube playlist of 33 videos totaling over 20 hours of viewing time. This was more than students could be expected to keep up with in the midst of a life-altering pandemic. And, finally, why not simply offer some words of sympathy orgasp!an apology to the tens of thousands of examinees who will be retesting in June because of submission errors we all saw coming? Maybe because the College Board saw lawsuits charging negligence coming , too. I know we can count on this generation of students to be resilient in the face of adversity, as evidenced by the internet humor about AP exams that recently proliferated across social-media platforms . I suppose that the ends of allowing students to earn college credits by testing really do justify the memes. But if online testing continues next year, its no joke that the College Board will need to apply itself to make the grade. Anunt de selectare a participantilor si participantelor la cel de-al doilea curs de instruire din cadrul Programului educational pentru dezvoltarea competentelor lucratorilor de tineret The National Assembly has begun scrutinising a plan to adopt the hallmark EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, marking a milestone in the process of translating the deal into reality. Matthijs van den Broek, board member of the Dutch Business Association in Vietnam As countries are struggling to come to terms with the impact of the coronavirus, Vietnam has shown the world how to contain the spread of the virus successfully. Since January, it has closely tracked individual infection cases, closed schools, enforced local lockdowns, and introduced strict quarantine measures. Vietnam has, rightfully so, received global praise for its timely and adequate response to the virus. Now that the economy is gradually being restarted, businesses are opening again and manufacturers are stepping up production. It is time to look ahead to the post-pandemic future. Vietnam is in the driver seat as far as establishing a new normal and regaining its growth path are concerned. A true milestone for the Vietnamese economy is the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). Tentatively, the deal will take effect on July 1. In addition, the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) will also be ratified by Vietnam. The EVIPA will not take effect until it has been ratified by all EU national parliaments. The EVFTA will gradually over a period of 10 years remove most tariffs. The value of Vietnams exports to the EU is expected to rise 20 per cent in 2020 and 44 per cent in 2030. The EVFTA is likely to boost Vietnams GDP growth by 2.18-3.25 per cent in 2019-2023 and 4.57-5.3 per cent in 2024-2028. Bilateral agreements on the protection of foreign direct investment (FDI) are being replaced by the EVIPA. This year, Vietnam holds chairmanship of the ASEAN, reaffirming its increasing importance in the 10-nation trade union. Aligned with strengthening the ties with neighbouring states, Vietnam is pushing for more intra-ASEAN trade and investment. Next-door neighbours generally less-affected by the COVID-19 pandemic than further-away Europeans and Americans will be the first to pick up business with Vietnam. Moreover, an increased interest in Vietnam offering viable Southeast Asian manufacturing and supply chain options will further boost its economy. The EVFTA may not only trigger aligning national policies with the ASEAN region and enhance the associations integration efforts but also make it easier for European enterprises to operate cross-border in several ASEAN countries. Furthermore, the ratification and implementation of the EVFTA is a first step towards re-negotiating an EU-ASEAN FTA. The Dutch Business Association in Vietnam (DBAV) welcomes the EVFTA and congratulates Vietnam with the ratification. It is looking forward to intensifying the already existing trade relations between both nations in the post-coronavirus era. The EU is Vietnams fourth-largest trade partner and the Netherlands is the largest investor among EU nations. Dutch multinationals such as HEINEKEN, Friesland Campina, Damen Shipyards, Philips, De Heus, and Unilever among others have a long-time presence in the country and have become cornerstones of the Vietnamese economy. These Dutch multinationals see Vietnam as a key driver for growth with its steady-growing economy and even faster-growing middle-class. Besides having these multinationals prominently represented in Vietnam, already for decades, the Netherlands has also been bringing their expertise in water management, agriculture, and smart logistics to the country. Emphasising a circular economic model and jointly creating smart cities, the Netherlands and Vietnam are teaming up in developing a more sustainable economy. Vietnam can continue to count on Dutch support: the Netherlands is, for example, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Vietnamese in addressing the Mekong saltwater intrusion and land subsidence problem. Furthermore, both nations, sharing an entrepreneurial spirit, co-operate closely on work-related topics such as social inclusion, gender equality, and labour rights. In this context, Vietnam adopted the new International Labour Organization-endorsed and EVFTA-triggered Labour Code in November last year. Since mid-2019 the DBAV, in co-operation with Dutch private sector organisation NLinBusiness, has kick-started a professionalisation process whereby the associations organisational structure is being upgraded, its executive team expanded, its services portfolio broadened, and its Hanoi presence strengthened so as to establish a true business hub. The DBAV and NLinBusiness are not alone in this, and the diplomatic network of the Netherlands in Vietnam are closely co-operating in welcoming Dutch companies in Vietnam to help them succeed. The DBAV also maintains close relationships with other international bilateral chambers of commerce in Vietnam and the European Chamber of Commerce, as well as the Vietnamese government and the nations business community. In the Netherlands, the Vietnam-Netherlands Chamber of Commerce offers a Dutch base for firms and entrepreneurs active in Vietnam. In 2019, Vietnam welcomed a trade mission with over 70 firms from the Netherlands headed by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and other government ministers and business leaders. The DBAV is looking forward to partaking in, and facilitating, new trade missions as soon as circumstances allow. VIR Matthijs van den Broek Canopy Growth's Tokyo Smoke vape products on display at an event in Toronto on Nov. 28, 2019. (Provided) Canopy Growths (WEED.TO)(CGC) chief executive officer expects the United States cannabis market to open up at the federal level as early as 2022 as pressure builds from state governments embracing recreational pot sales. My view is we will have something akin to federal permissibility, maybe in 2022, possibly 2025 at the outside. Thats regardless of whos in the White House, David Klein told Yahoo Finance Canada in an interview. Every single state that adds cannabis as a legal product puts a little more pressure on the federal government not to make criminals of people operating legitimate businesses. For Canopy, the policy shift would greenlight its US$3.4 billion acquisition of Acreage Holdings (ACRG-U.CN), a New York-based multi-state seed-to-retail pot firm whose board of directors includes political heavyweights like former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives John Boehner. The international deal, believed to be the first of its kind when announced in April 2019, hinges on cannabis production and sales becoming federally legal in the U.S., and would fully unlock the worlds largest pot market. Were not just sitting on our hands waiting for that, Klein said. We want to understand the North American customer. We want to innovate our product offerings and get those products into the hands of Canadians, and people in the U.S. through our partnership with Acreage, so that upon federal permissibility we have a strong position. Canopy has stumbled when it comes to matching its offerings with consumer buying habits. Last year, the company took a $32.7 million hit from product returns and price changes primarily linked to weak sales of oil and soft-gel capsules. In its latest quarter, long-awaited vapes, edibles, beverages and other so called cannabis 2.0 amounted to just two per cent of sales due to production delays. Recreational sales plunged 28 per cent quarter-over-quarter as consumers bought value-priced dried flower from Canopys competition during COVID-19 stockpiling. Story continues Klein praised rival Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO)(ACB) popular Daily Special dried flower brand priced at $5 per gram to compete with the illegal market, calling it a very good quality product with the right THC level, but not necessarily sticky from a brand standpoint. Aurora recently said the brand commands roughly 10 per cent of the legal cannabis market in Ontario. Klein is in the midst of a sweeping overhaul of Canopys operations, paring down its workforce and cultivation footprint, and refocusing the company on three markets: Canada, the U.S., and Germany. The problem, he said, is changes to the supply chain take up to six months to flow through to the product level. Its been a fairly constant battle since I arrived at the company to actually be able to consistently meet the orders that we are able to get from the provinces, said Klein, who took the top job at the worlds most valuable cannabis company in January. Were working very diligently to get that fixed so that were not leaving money on the table in terms of sales. The company has often had orders, and we have a lot of inventory, but we dont have the inventory in the precise format or the precise packaging that will allow us to fulfil the order, he added. At the same time, Canopy and its peers continue to navigate a minefield of evolving regulations nearly two years after Canadian recreational legalization. One point of contention has been limits on how many of the companys newly-launched infused-beverages are allowed to be purchased at one time. The rules equate a single can containing 2 milligrams of THC to 5.1 grams of dried flower, meaning only five can be purchased in a single order due to the 30 gram limit. Its a crazy comparison, Klein said. Canopy Growths vice president of communications Jordan Sinclair said the rules are more baffling when applied to the 10 milligram of THC per serving Deep Space drink that recently started being shipped to retailers. Because the equivalency factor is based on the volume in the can, a consumer can buy more of our most potent product than they can of our least potent product, he said. Its not a rule that accomplishes the objective its designed to accomplish. (Deep Space cans are 222 millilitres, compared to the 355 milliliter cans used for the Tweed and Houseplant drinks.) Another ongoing challenge is Apples decision to ban vape-related apps in its online marketplace, citing health concerns. Canopy argues the smartphone software improves safety through a locator feature and passcode lock that keeps children from accessing the potent cannabis extract inside the easy-to-use device. Canopy currently offers a web-based alternative for iOS users. The apps are still available for Android devices. Several of the people on our leadership team have young kids, said Klein. There has been dialogue, but there hasnt been movement with Apple. Trying to put a lot of pressure on Apple is punching a bit above our weight. Jeff Lagerquist is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow him on Twitter @jefflagerquist. Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android. BUDAPEST, Hungary, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The outbreak of the global coronavirus pandemic is having an economic impact on the SME, large corporate sector and startups. The crisis is having a particularly adverse effect on specific sectors, and most businesses lack sufficient reserves to maintain their operation in the face of falling revenues. The Hungarian Development Bank Group and Hiventures detected in time that these enterprises require immediate state support to overcome their liquidity. The fundamental investment principles haven't changed; Hiventures still seeks a remedy for market failures. Existing startup and SME equity programmes continue, meaning that startups or already operating businesses that are not directly affected by the crisis still have the chance to apply for the programmes. However Hiventures is now able to offer a rapidly accessible rescue programme for startups and SMEs hit by the crisis. Under the startup rescue programme with a funding capacity of HUF 30 billion, innovative businesses are financed in the form of a capital and membership loan up to HUF 150 million per transaction, in exchange for a 1% ownership share. A buyback option exists at an annual return of 5.1%, which Hiventures recommends to founders and target companies, since Hiventures aims to preserve the Hungarian ownership of businesses. Under the SME rescue programme, a funding capacity of HUF 41 million is available, and businesses can apply for HUF 50250 million per transaction. The closed, 10-year duration scheme is also applied in exchange for a 1% ownership share in the form of a capital and membership loan, and the ownership can be repurchased at an annual return of 5.1%, while a mandatory buyback option opens for owners from the 7th year on. Beyond the rescue programmes, Hiventures launches its Crisis capital fund I with a funding capacity of HUF 150 billion, offering support to more capital-intensive companies hit by the crisis in acquiring companies and properties, as well as in implementing developments. The new capital programme focuses on three key areas: restructuring focus, transaction focus and economic development focus. Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1028551/Hiventures_Logo.jpg SOURCE Hiventures Venture Capital Fund Management Plc. Egypt said it could reach 100,000 or a million in cases; as all scenarios of epidemics in the world are possible, the minister said. Egypt could reach 100,000 or even one million cases of the coronavirus in the future under a governmental hypothetical scenario, Egypts higher education and scientific research minister Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar said on Monday. We may reach 100,000 or a million [cases]. All scenarios of epidemics in the world are possible, especially in a country of 105 million people, the minister said in a televised statement. Thus, the rates of the spread [of the virus] and the rates of the increase in the numbers [of cases] are likely over a period of time, he added, stressing that prevention measures can help avoid an undesired surge in numbers. Egypt has so far reported 24,985 confirmed cases of the virus, including 959 deaths. Hisham El-Askary, a professor in earth science at Chapman University, US, told the briefing that it is statistically "impossible to rule out that Egypt will not reach 50,000 cases." Abdel-Ghaffar and El-Askary, whose research team works with Egypts higher education ministry, shared their updates on projections presented by the minister last month. The minister said on 21 May that the true number of coronavirus infections in Egypt could be over 71,000 even though the health ministry had only recorded 14,229 confirmed infections. Those numbers, according to Abdel-Ghaffar, were based on a hypothetical model that assumes that the official recorded cases are fivefold lower than the actual numbers. The minister said in Monday's statement that based on that hypothetical model Egypt may have over 117,000 cases at present. Abdel-Ghaffar explained that the new updates are taking into consideration all the changes that happened recently; since the statistical models used by the ministry are dynamic thus they are altered on a daily basis. According to the higher education minister, all numbers predicted by the ministry based on increasing rates in the past (hindcasting) have been so far relatively accurate. On 4 or 5 June we will reach 30,000 cases, and its not implausible to reach 40,000 cases between 10 to 13 June, Abdel-Ghaffar said. The number of cases in Egypt is still increasing exponentially in a horizontal manner, which means that the inflection point is still not in the horizon, El-Askary said. He stressed that it is now scientifically "impossible to rule out that Egypt will not reach 50,000 cases." According to El-Askary, those models are based on the data collected by the health ministry, and they are used to predict the future to predict the timing of the peak, and when the virus will recede. He explained that the predictions cannot be 100 percent accurate, but they are sufficient to mimic the future. According to Abdel-Ghaffar, Egypt's curve is yet to transfer into the bell-shaped curve which indicates that the outbreak is receding like the current curve in Italy which has a decreasing daily infection rate. Egypt is still sustaining an R 0 value (which indicates how contagious the virus is) of 1.4, meaning that every 10 infected people transmit the disease to 14 others, Abdel-Ghaffar said, explaining that the ultimate goal is to have an R 0 value less than one. The minister explained the daily percentage of virus growth in Egypt, saying that at the beginning of the outbreak it was between and percent and 10 percent, then it became at an average of five percent. However, when the daily cases exceeded 1,000 the percentage increased to 6.5 percent. According to Abdel-Ghaffar, this rate is very important since many forecasts are based on it, especially when predicting the inflection/turnaround point, or the zero case point (the end of the outbreak). The ministry also uses satellite footage to examine the relationship between peoples movement and the increase in the number of cases and deaths. He explained that the relationship between the amount of emissions from human activities and the number of new cases is used to indicate if restrictive measures like lockdowns or curfews have an effect on the increasing rate. When there have been lots of human activity, infections increased, and when movement decrease so does the number of infections El-Askary explained. Abdel-Ghaffar said that the rate of emissions resulting from human activities is critical for decision-makers. He explained that, for instance, the ministry detected the most human activities emissions in Cairo governorate; so consequently, the health ministry increased its preparations in the region to contain new cases, as cases were expected to increase in the governorate. The minister also shared the ministrys efforts since the start of the outbreak, saying that besides statistical modelling using big data, the ministry has conducted several clinical trials in Egyptian universities and research centres. According to the minister, Egypt has conducted over 50 out of a total of 64 clinical trials conducted in Africa, and more than all Middle Eastern countries. The minister added that the ministry is researching the virus gene sequencing, treatment protocols, and plasma treatment. He added that they are also working on vaccines that are now in the animal trials phase. Search Keywords: Short link: Peoples behaviour could determine if further lockdowns taken place in winter as CMO views released This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Jun 2nd, 2020 Future restrictive measures could have be introduced later in the year if there is a second wave of coronavirus. Today Health Minister Vaughan Gething pointed to peoples behaviour as having an influence over the future spread of the virus and whether that will mean additional measures will have to be put into place. A new statement was released this lunchtime on the Welsh Government website, dated last Thursday, from the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for Wales, Frank Atherton. The statement contains advice provided to Welsh Ministers about the last 21 day review of coronavirus restrictions, which was made public a day later on the Friday. The statement explains the changes made in Wales, with the CMO explaining the knowledge that the virus does not transmit easily in outdoor environments and is rapidly inactivated by heat and sunlight provides us with opportunities to allow some lifting of restrictions on outdoor activity provided social distancing measures can be maintained On the basis of that the CMO made two recommendations: I recommend that Welsh Government uses the next review period to develop proposals for further increasing opportunities for the public to safely use a wider range of outdoor spaces. I recommend that public messaging highlights the potential need to re-impose more restrictive measures in the winter if viral activity increases. On the latter point we asked the Health Minister at todays briefing what are the specific boundaries on indicators which would see lockdowns reintroduced with the First Minister confirming to us yesterday that localised lockdowns could take place if needed. The Health Minister said: I am pleased that youve drawn peoples attention to the fact that our Chief Medical Officers advice around the 21 day review of the regulations has been published. As you know, Ive committed to making available and put into the public domain the scientific evidence and advice that we receive. So, weve decided to make available the evidence he provides around our regular review of the regulations to help people understand the sort of messages that were getting and advice were getting as ministers. It is important to think about what might happen in the autumn and the winter, because some of the measures weve been able to unlock are because the time of year were in, and our understanding of coronavirus. The fact that it lasts a lot less in direct sunlight outdoors, but it lasts for much longer on indoor surfaces. We do need to think about the fact that we may have to reintroduce some lockdown measures in the winter, that depends on the reservoir of coronavirus that exists, it depends on peoples behaviour as well. There isnt a hard or fast set of measures to reintroduce but well have to look at the evidence that we get. So if you like, the evidence on not just the numbers of people who test positive with our expanding program from test race protect, but also numbers of hospital admissions, the numbers of people in critical care. There is a range of key data and information well consider about the reality of where coronavirus is, how many how many people are contracting and the impact, and that will guide a range of choices we have to continue making as a government. The winter is a much more difficult period of time because more of us were living our lives indoors, and thats where theres the greatest risk from coronavirus. Again, it I think underscores the continuing advice to people in the shielding category. They should not go and do their own shopping, they should not return to a workplace if they cant work from home. We also pointed to the news this lunchtime that in England the lockdown review period is extending from 21 to 28 days. We asked if that was something Welsh Government was considering, or bringing in in Wales, and if so why would it be required. The Minister said:mWe havent talked about that as a government about extending that period. We are still at the moment in a three week review period. If we decide to change it in any way, and it is an if, itll be the First Minister who communicates that to the people of Wales. You can view the full briefing plus Q&A session from today in the below video: (Top Image: The Chief Medical Officer of Wales, Dr Frank Atherton) Stocks in the news today: Here is a list of top stocks that are likely to be in focus in Tuesday's trading session based on latest developments. Companies set to announce their earnings are Motherson Sumi, Zydus Wellness, InterGlobe Aviation, Eris, Britannia, Granules, Dhampur Sugar Mills, Tata Teleservices, Transport Corporation of India, Sun Pharma Advanced Research. Investors will also be taking cues from the latest released March quarter earnings. Key highlights on share market; check the latest stock market news - Sensex closed 879 points higher at 33,303 and Nifty gained 245 points to 9,826. -On the currency front, Indian rupee, the local currency ended mildly stronger at 75.54 per dollar as compared to its last closing of 75.61 per dollar. -On a net basis, FIIs bought Rs 1,575 crore, while DIIs sold Rs 459 crore worth in equities on Monday. - Moodys has downgraded India's rating to Baa3, with outlook kept 'Negative' Share Market LIVE: Sensex rises 300 points, Nifty at 9,915; M&M, Tata Motors, Kotak Bank top gainers Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services: Company's board has approved rights issue of Rs 3500 crore. Tata Power: Company has completed acquisition of 51% stake in TP Central Odisha Distribution. wIth this, the company will manage power distribution in Central Odisha from June 1 onwards. Yes Bank: The lender has cut MCLR by 10-25 bps across tenures. Eicher Motors: Company's total sales came in at 19,113 units, including 684 units of exports Hero MotoCorp: Company's total sales came in at 1.12 lakh units, with domestic sales come at 1.08 lakh units, exports at 3,834 units. Company's motorcycle sales stood at 1.06 lakh units, while its scooters sales stood at 6,644 units. Reliance Industries: Company's rights issue has seen a subscription of 52.12 cr shares, or roughly 1.1x the available portion Power Finance Corporation (PFC): Company informed the exchanges that Ravinder Singh Dhillon has been appointed as the CMD of the company. NCC: Company announced that it has bagged orders worth Rs 1,136 crore in May, 2020. As per the filing, out of this 2 orders totaling to Rs 993 crore pertains to water division and two order amounting Rs 143 crore pertains to building division. TVS Motor: Company's total sales came at 58,906 units, with total two-wheeler sales at 56,218 units & domestic two-wheeler sales at 41,067 units, and its three-wheeler sales at 2,688 units. The company announced that it has resumed operations in India across all manufacturing units in Hosur, Mysuru, Nalagarh from May 6, 2020. Ashok Leyland: The company reported total sales at 1,420 units, with M&HCV sales at 266 units & domestic sales at 1,277 units. Ircon International: Company has signed a MoU with NIIFL and AYANA to explore and collaborate on opportunities in the solar energy sector. Orient Electric: The company reported 7.3% fall in its net profit at Rs 35.78 crore during the quarter ended March 31, 2020, as against profit of Rs 38.64 crore, recorded in a year-ago period. Company's total income fell 11% (YoY) to Rs 564 crore in the January-March quarter of the current fiscal as compared to Rs 640 crore in a year-ago period. V-Guard Industries: The company reported 47% fall in its net profit at Rs 32 crore during the quarter ended March 31, 2020, as against profit of Rs 60 crore, recorded in a year-ago period. Company's total income fell (YoY) to Rs 546 crore in the January-March quarter of the current fiscal as compared to Rs 2.71 crore in a year-ago period. Q4 Earnings Today: Motherson Sumi, Zydus Wellness, InterGlobe Aviation, Eris, Britannia, Granules, Dhampur Sugar Mills, Tata Teleservices, Transport Corporation of India, Sun Pharma Advanced Research among others will announce their Q4 results today The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday appointed Adesh Kumar Gupta as the president of its Delhi unit replacing actor-politician Manoj Tiwari. The decision by party president JP Nadda was announced in a statement. Gupta, whose appointment will take place with immediate effect, is a former mayor of North Delhi Municipal Corporation and replaces Tiwari, a member of Lok Sabha, at the helm in the Delhi BJP. "I'm thankful to PM Narendra Modi, JP Nadda and other senior leaders of the party for appointing a humble party worker like me to the post of state party president," said Gupta. "It will be challenging to expand and consolidate the party base in view of the coronavirus pandemic." Tiwari had offered to quit after the BJP lost to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Delhi assembly polls and his term was also over. The BJP also named tribal leader and former Union minister Vishnu Deo Sai as its Chhattisgarh state president. Sai was a Union minister in the first government under Narendra Modi but could not contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls after the party decided to not repeat any of its sitting MPs in Chhattisgarh after losing to the Congress in the assembly polls. Sai replaces Vikram Usendi. In another appointment, the party made S Tikendra Singh its Manipur state president. These are the first important organisational appointments in the BJP after the coronavirus outbreak curbed political activities and the party primarily focussed on steering relief work for people affected by the lockdown. The development signals, to some extent, a return of regular political activities as lockdown restrictions across the country are relaxed. (With inputs from PTI) [June 02, 2020] DroneUp Releases Operation Last-Mile: Critical Drone Delivery - a Part 107 Report VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- DroneUp recently partnered with Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) in tests designed to determine how unmanned aerial systems can assist with critical delivery during times of crisis under the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Part 107 regulations. The test participants conducted exercises from April 6 through April 9, 2020, on the vacant campus of St. Paul's College, in Lawrenceville, Virginia. The Brunswick County facility, which closed to the public in 2013, provided a safe, complex community environmen to test package deliveries by drones under the FAA's Part 107 regulations. The exercises focused on delivery to residential and commercial areas with the aim of determining safe operational capacities, airspace deconfliction, operator safety, processes, policies, and training necessary to conduct delivery operations during the day and during the night. Tom Walker, DroneUp's CEO stated, "DroneUp's drone delivery exercise was aimed at learning what is possible to do safely and effectively today while gathering data to overcome seemingly impossible obstacles in the near future." Data collected for the report determined how Part 107 Remote Pilot Operators can effectively supplement emergency response and critical care. The findings and recommendations are included in a report where government and industry leaders are considering what role drones will play in delivery and crisis response. The author of the report, Joe Fuller, DroneUp's CIO, stated, "The delivery testing and outcomes prove that drones can be used to safely deliver critical items to a quarantine area. Experienced drone pilots could be quickly dispatched to hot zones to provide real assistance in pandemic response." DroneUp is sharing the Operation Last-Mile: Critical Drone Delivery Report with the public here . About DroneUp DroneUp provides complete drone solution services that include FAA compliant consulting services, Part 107 pilot flight services, aerial data collection & processing, data delivery & analysis, training, program integration, and equipment sales to commercial industries and public sector organizations. DroneUp operates globally with more than 10,000 certified drone pilots. DroneUp is headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and a SWaM or Small, Women-owned, and Minority-owned Business certified as a small business by the Commonwealth of Virginia. For more information: droneup.com . Contact: Amy Wiegand DroneUp 757-657-4886 [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/droneup-releases-operation-last-mile-critical-drone-delivery---a-part-107-report-301068838.html SOURCE DroneUp An analysis of the bloodiest revolutions, beginning with the French, would probably confirm that disgruntled lawyers play a significant role in most of them. If we have a revolution in America, I expect the role of disgruntled lawyers to be outsized. After all, we have so many of them. Plus, many of our law schools serve up a heady dose of radical indoctrination. In this connection, the New York Daily News reports: Two Brooklyn lawyers, including an Ivy League graduate corporate attorney, are facing federal charges over accusations they tossed a Molotov cocktail into an NYPD vehicle early Saturday morning during a protest over the police killing of George Floyd. Colinford Mattis, 32, a corporate lawyer and member of Community Board 5 in East New York, was charged along with fellow attorney Urooj Rahman with the attempted attack on an empty police cruiser parked outside the 88th Precinct station house in Fort Greene. Rahman allegedly tossed the bottle, which was filled with gasoline. She then jumped into a van Mattis was driving and they sped off. The bottle did not ignite. Ah, lawyers. The pair was detected by a surveillance camera, and police chased down their car. Officers reportedly found the makings of another Molotov cocktail in the back seat, along with a gasoline container. Mattis and Rahman are also accused of trying to pass out the bombs to protesters. Mattis, with the Waspish-sounding first name, is a graduate of Princeton and NYU law school. He was an associate with the firm of Pryor Cashman, before being let go in April. He remained active in Community Board 5, a group headed by Viola Plummer, a well known New York activist. Rahman apparently graduated from Fordham law school. She too reportedly had lost her job. The managing partner of Mattiss former employer said: As we confront critical issues around historic and ongoing racism and inequity in our society, I am saddened to see this young man allegedly involved in the worst kind of reaction to our shared outrage. The super of Rahmans building had a better take: Shes in trouble. Thats bad. Im sorry to hear that. But if you want to play, youre gonna pay. I hope Mattis and Rahman will pay for their crime by serving long prison sentences (with access, of course, to evidence based rehabilitation programs). But Ill be surprised if they do. The leniency the two can expect is foreshadowed by the fact that both have been released on bond, even as rioting persists in New York City. Lawyers for the pair of criminals reportedly cited their legal backgrounds and education at prestigious universities as evidence that neither will be a threat to the community if released. But these biographical facts dont diminish the threat posed by the two. If anything, they enhance it. One of Australia's leading climatologists has warned there is no way sheep stranded in Western Australia after their ship was delayed by COVID-19 can be transported to the Middle East while complying with new animal welfare standards. Under rules imposed in the wake of the Awassi Express scandal, when 2400 sheep died in searing heat, all live exports to the Middle East are banned between June 1 and September 14 because conditions are too hot for animals to endure. The Al Kuwait remains in Fremantle, having missed its sailing deadline due to the coronavirus. The Department for Agriculture is mulling whether to grant an exemption to allow the Al Kuwait livestock vessel to set sail from Fremantle with 56,000 sheep in the coming days, after its voyage was delayed beyond the cut-off date because 20 crew members tested positive to COVID-19. The department said an exemption decision would be made on either Tuesday or Wednesday and animal welfare would be a "key consideration". The sheep were bound for to Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz faced the cameras at the Knesset June 1, attempting to reassure Israelis over their "coronavirus law" proposal: A bill to enable the government to extend the countrys state of emergency by 10 months. Both men promised that the proposed law wont infringe significantly on individual rights. Netanyahu and Gantz had their work cut out for them. The explanations they provided were designed to calm the public storm that broke out a few days earlier, after news broke of the governments intention to legislate the new law in order to avoid a second wave of the virus. After the numbers of new infections decreased rapidly in May, the government started to ease restrictions, including reopening schools. But as of May 31, the numbers are increasing again, and it is clear that the coronavirus is still active in the country. According to a draft memorandum, the bill would allow the government to impose emergency measures for up to 10 months and extend restrictions on movement. In fact, the government could impose a lockdown, enforce home isolation and grant police authority to disperse gatherings and to implement restrictions on behavior in the public sphere. The government could actually prohibit demonstrations altogether. The police would be permitted to enter homes of people infected with the virus without a warrant and use force to enforce health regulations. When the bill's details were revealed, the social networks went crazy with public criticism. Thousands of citizens sent complaints to the Ministry of Justice against what they perceived as assault on privacy rights. The opposition joined the widespread public criticism. Meretz leader Nitzan Horwitz argued that the bill is more dangerous than the pandemic itself and fitting for dictatorships. Opposition chair Yair Lapid claimed that the law will violate the public's privacy and be used as a tool to prevent dissent. After all the objections, the government softened the bill, removing restrictions on demonstrations and the provision allowing police officers to freely enter citizens' homes. This last element was apparently the one that really got Israelis steamed. Speaking at the Likud faction meeting on June 1, Netanyahu had to reassure the public that police wont start barging into homes without a warrant. "Regarding civil rights and privacy rights, I just spoke with the public security minister and we agreed unequivocally that we will not allow police to break into citizens homes without a warrant. We will find the necessary balance between the need to enforce the quarantine requirement and the need to safeguard citizens privacy and civil rights. We are aware that some members of the public think we intend to harm that balance. We havent done that so far and we will not do that in the future. Speaking at his Blue and White faction meeting also on June 1, Gantz related the same argument, as if the men had coordinated on their messages. "I hear that people are worried and wonder if we are headed toward dark zones. We will not permit any trampling of individual rights," pledged Gantz, promising that some of the measures outlined in the draft would be amended before the bill is passed into law. Newly appointed Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn (Blue and White) also joined the efforts to calm public apprehensions, vowing to limit the new law in time and scope and to ensure parliamentary control over its implementation. Criticism generated some amendments to the bill, but did not prevent the government from advancing it. The unity government intends to have the bill approved soon at a first Knesset hearing, with the other two hearings necessary for its adoption held next week. The coalition is sure to achieve a majority for the proposed law. The speedy legislation process is a product of the recent spike in infection. But the bill itself was born several weeks ago, when Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit warned the government against using emergency regulations in its battle against the pandemic. Mandelblit emphasized that these regulations are at the governments disposal for security crises and lack any control by the parliament. He argued that such a situation is democratically unhealthy and that the government must choose the legislation route if it wishes to expand restrictions to contain the virus. The fact is that ever since the beginning of the pandemic, Netanyahu has used exceptional means to contain it, including the Shin Bet tracking coronavirus carriers. Criticism over Netanyahu using the crisis to prevent demonstrations against him was expressed early on by his rivals. Netanyahu was also blamed for exploiting the crisis to spy on his own citizens. His rivals also said that he exploited the crisis to postpone his own trial, which finally opened on May 24. Still, throughout the past few weeks, several demonstrations against the government did take place. Even the claim that Netanyahu was ready to close down the courts to avert his trial turned out to be false, as Netanyahu was present on May 24 at the Jerusalem district courthouse. Having said all that, it is difficult to ignore Netanyahus legal situation, being accused of criminal offenses. The public has a hard time believing that his actions and decisions are devoid of any personal interest. But Netanyahu is not the only one being criticized. Gantz is also targeted. From the moment he partnered with Netanyahu, he took on a shared responsibility. He now must prove that his alliance with Netanyahu serves to moderate the prime ministers aggression. In that sense, the coronavirus law is Gantz first test within the government. If he manages to moderate the bill and minimize infringements on privacy rights, he could prove that his entering the unity government was fruitful. OTTAWA As China moves to tighten its control over Hong Kong, Canadas foreign affairs minister says Beijing must change course or risk special arrangements that are based on the very freedoms in that city that China is now threatening. In an interview with The Star, Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said Canada is actively reviewing a wide range of special trade and commercial considerations, along with visa facilitations that are tied to Hong Kong residents retaining the freedoms and liberties that were guaranteed when Britain returned control of the territory to China. The Communist Party-led government says it will extend Chinas national security laws over Hong Kong territory, although it has yet to publish details of the legislation. Critics of the plan, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, say Beijing is undermining the one country, two systems handover pact between Britain and China. What were sending as a very strong signal to Beijing is hopefully to have them change course because ... this is going to undermine greatly ... the very foundation that has made Hong Kong what it is today, Champagne said. Earlier Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed concern for pro-democracy activists and the 300,000 Canadian citizens living in Hong Kong but stopped short of committing to accept asylum-seekers looking to leave. Canada treats Hong Kong like a visa-exempt country, which means all that is required for one of its citizens to travel to Canada by air is an electronic travel authorization that is linked to the travellers passport and is valid for up to five years. Trudeau said Canada welcomes people from around the globe who flee persecution and violence, and hinted Ottawa is looking at more. We have a strong immigration system that looks at individual cases, looks at systemic challenges in response to them, and I know our system is doing just that. The United States and the United Kingdom have gone further, and warned Beijing they are looking to create pathways to citizenship for Hong Kong emigres. Asked why Canada hasnt followed suit, Champagne said each country has a different historic relationship with China, but he added Canadas eyes are wide open when it comes to dealing with the regime there. There are areas like climate change where Canada may be able to work with Beijing make advances, said Champagne, but the Trudeau government will continue to press it on human rights, the treatment of Chinas Uighur minority in Xinjiang province, and for the release of Canadians held arbitrarily in detention. Were engaging responsibly, and I think this is not weak, I think its pretty smart actually ... because we are facing as Canada a set of circumstances which are unique to our dealing with China, he said. China flatly rejects international criticism of its actions. Hong Kong affairs are purely Chinas internal affairs that allow no foreign interference, Zhao Lijian, Chinas Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Tuesday. This week, Beijing outlawed a Hong Kong vigil marking the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, citing health concerns due to the coronavirus. Although Beijing has long banned commemorations in mainland China, its the first time in 30 years no vigil will be held in Hong Kong. Trudeau urged Beijing to de-escalate tensions and to engage constructively with the people of Hong Kong. He said his government is very concerned about the situation because of the 300,000 Canadians there and millions of others who are fighting for justice and peace. Guy Saint-Jaques said Trudeau first raised concerns about an erosion of rights in Hong Kong with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang on a visit to China in late August 2016. Saint-Jacques, who was Canadas ambassador to China at the time, said Chinas rulers warned him against interference in their internal affairs. But Saint-Jacques says the time has come for Trudeau to drop mild criticisms and take an even more forceful stand by promising publicly to offer an immigration path to Hong Kong citizens. That would create a brain drain for China, he said. Saint-Jacques says that since the 2018 arrests of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor in retaliation for Canadas arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. extradition warrant, China has achieved its objective in forcing Canada to self-censor out of concern for their welfare. But theres now more to be gained by speaking out strongly with allies every time Beijing oversteps. Canadas relations with China seemed certain Tuesday to chill further after a two more Canadian telecoms giants, BCE and Telus opted not to work with Chinas Huawei to build 5G wireless network. In the absence of a regulatory decision from Ottawa, both companies said they would use Huaweis competitors. Bell Canada announced it would use Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson, and Telus, which had earlier been prepared to use Huawei, announced it would use Ericsson and Nokia to support building its 5G network. Rogers Canada had earlier opted not to use Huawei as well. All Canadas security allies have now limited Huaweis role in their next-generation wireless networks, including the U.K. which just recently reversed course and said it would completely eliminate Huawei by 2023. The U.S. has pressured Canada to ban Huawei outright as well. Read more about: Bahrain's Ministry of Housing has announced that work was under way to distribute 5,000 housing units within Al Ramli District of the kingdom, which started in May, reported BNA. Al Ramli District is one of four new housing projects being implemented as per the orders of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa for constrcution of 40,000 housing units. The ministry added that it was co-ordinating with the Electricity and Water Authority (EWA) to speed up the supply of water and electricity to the remaining units so that they can be handed over to the beneficiaries as soon as possible. The ministry also assured these citizens that they would still receive the housing allowance, denying postponement claims made on some social media platforms, stated the report. The Scuderie del Quirinale then had to figure out a plan to take care of the art for an extended period. While the exhibition was shuttered, police continued to guard the doors. Once a week, an official made the rounds to check on the paintings. The exhibition hall was darkened, other than emergency lights, and drawings the most sensitive to light damage were placed under black protective sheets. Normally, after drawings are exposed for several months during an exhibition, they are placed in dark storage for resting time. Keeping them in the dark amid the shutdown was the only way to allow the exhibition to eventually resume. WASHINGTON - A week after the killing of George Floyd, the Air Force's top enlisted member took to Twitter to say that he too is a black man, "who happens to be Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force," and could die the same way. "I am George Floyd . . . I am Philando Castile, I am Michael Brown, I am Alton Sterling, I am Tamir Rice," wrote Kaleth Wright, naming other black Americans killed by police. "Just like most of the Black Airmen and so many others in our ranks . . . I am outraged at watching another Black man die on television before our very eyes." The response on Monday evening went viral, with veterans and service members alike commenting on its rawness and candor. But it also was cast into stark relief as most senior military officials remained silent on Floyd's death in police custody in Minneapolis after being handcuffed and the nationwide protests that have followed. At least twice in the past week, senior Trump administration officials in the Defense Department directed service chiefs to keep quiet on the issue, even though some expressed an interest in responding to a painful moment in the nation, said three defense officials with familiarity with the discussion. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Defense Secretary Mark Esper wanted to address the issue first. However, he did not do so until Tuesday night, more than a week later. "I, like you, am steadfast in my belief that Americans who are frustrated, angry, and seeking to be heard must be ensured that opportunity," Esper wrote in a memo to U.S. troops. "And like you, I am committed to upholding the rule of law and protecting life and liberty, so the violent actions of a few do not undermine the rights and freedoms of law-abiding citizens." Esper asked service members to "stay apolitical in these turbulent days" - a theme he has stressed since becoming defense secretary. A senior defense official said before Esper's memo was released that the Pentagon was considering how to address the issue. "I think there is a question about how and when, and at what level, the department should weigh into what has become a highly charged emotional and political issue," the senior official said. The directive to the service chiefs to remain quiet came as President Donald Trump increasingly reaches for the military as a tool of choice to quell unrest as its commander in chief and calls people involved in rioting "thugs." The Pentagon is also wrestling with questions about its own insensitivity, including a desire to keep numerous Army bases across southern states named after Confederate generals. On Tuesday night, the Trump administration again dispatched National Guard troops across Washington to complement police. The military forces participated in the operation after law enforcement authorities deployed pepper spray and other nonlethal weapons against protesters outside the White House, and National Guard helicopters hovered in numerous locations at rooftop level, in an apparent attempt to disperse crowds with sustained, gusty rotor wash. Wright's series of tweets was posted shortly before authorities began dispersing crowds in Washington on Monday and Trump announced he was expanding the military's role in the response. Wright first told the service's top officer, Gen. David L. Goldfein, what he wanted to do, and Goldfein supported it, one defense official said. The general also released a memo to commanders internally on Monday calling Floyd's death a "national tragedy" and stating that "every American should be outraged" by the police conduct demonstrated in the case. Goldfein wrote that while "we all wish it were not possible for racism to occur in America," commanders need to confront it, according to the memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. "As the Air Force's leadership, we reflect on and acknowledge that what happens on America's streets is also resident in our Air Force," Goldfein wrote. "Sometimes it's explicit, sometimes it's subtle, but we are not immune to the spectrum of racial prejudice, systemic discrimination, and unconscious bias." The Navy's top enlisted sailor, Russell Smith, also addressed the unrest, writing in a message online that "the tragic headlines and subsequent turbulent events" affect "every citizen of our great Nation." "As Sailors, we cannot tolerate discrimination of any kind," Smith wrote. "We must actively speak out and work to fight it, as it works against the very tenets of 'team' that make us successful in combat." A handful of other generals also have addressed the unrest, including Lt. Gen. James Slife, the commander of Air Force Special Operations Command. "I'm bothered by the events in Minneapolis and what it means about our society," Slife wrote in a Facebook post on Friday. "And our Air Force is a reflection of our society, so, by extension, this is an Air Force issue. We'd be naive to think issues of institutional racism and unconscious bias don't affect us. We can't ignore it. We have to face it. And to face it, we have to talk about it." But the chiefs mostly had not. Asked why on Monday night, military officials either declined to comment or referred questions to the defense secretary's office. In a video released Tuesday night, Goldfein and Wright discuss the unrest, with Wright saying he worries whether he will be safe if he is pulled over by police and Goldfein sharing that he realized he "probably doesn't completely understand." "I've been really outraged for not just the last week," Wright said. "It drew up a lot of rage and a lot of anger from the past because I've just watched this over and over and over again." The posture stood in contrast to 2017, when each of the chiefs condemned violence and racism that was on display by white supremacists at a rally in Charlottesville while the Pentagon was run by former defense secretary Jim Mattis. The Pentagon has struggled to reflect America's diversity at its highest levels. While 43 percent of the military's 1.3 million active-duty members are people of color, only two of the about 40 four-star officers are black. Eric Flowers, a recently retired Army colonel, said that when the Pentagon doesn't express outrage over something like the manner in which Floyd died, there "kind of is an unspoken message" to potential service members of color that they are not recognized. "We miss an opportunity by not providing some type of solidarity through comments," said Flowers, who is black. "We miss an opportunity when we do not reassert that this is not the America that we are asking people to fight for and support." Dana Pittard, a retired two-star Army general, said he doesn't believe that the service chiefs will follow any unlawful orders in the response to the unrest. But he said he is not surprised to hear about political concerns among Defense Department appointees. "I hate to use the term ultra-loyalist, but they're appointees," said Pittard, who is black. "They're not going to stray very far from the president." Pittard said he wishes that Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had not participated in a photo opportunity Monday in which Trump visited St. John's Episcopal Church, which is near the White House, after police dispersed the crowd with rubber bullets and other weapons. Milley, dressed in his camouflage uniform, and Esper were among the officials who walked with the president to the house of worship, which has been partially burned during protests. "It was just a bad optic for the military to be there at all," Pittard said. Esper and Milley went with Trump to the church believing that they were going to see some of their troops, said a senior defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. They did so afterward. Kyle Bibby, a former Marine captain, said he has been disappointed by the silence of senior military officials after Floyd's death, especially in light of reports of white nationalism in the military. "Condemning racism and police brutality is not really a partisan issue, right?" said Bibby, who is black and now works on social-justice issues for Common Defense, a progressive veterans group. "The generals and admirals, they can't put their heads in the sand," he said. "They're leaders, and they're responsible for one of the most important institutions in this country." DES MOINES Iowa saw the best and worst of the George Floyd protests over the weekend. In Des Moines, law enforcement officers and protesters knelt together in a sign of solidarity, ending one protest peacefully. In Davenport, two people were killed and a police officer was injured as protests there turned violent. Both Des Moines and Davenport were under curfew Monday night, as were cities across the nation as authorities coast to coast feared another night of violent unrest. Earlier Monday, Gov. Kim Reynolds and other Iowa leaders held a press conference to express their willingness to listen to the peaceful protestors and condemn those who turn to violence. One of the speakers was Ako Abdul-Samad, a black state legislator from Des Moines who spent much of the weekend in the thick of the Des Moines-area protests working to ensure protestors voices were heard and protesters did not turn violent. Abdul-Samad spoke Monday from the same Iowa Capitol grounds where on Saturday night he was washing pepper spray out of his eyes. Law enforcement officers used pepper spray to stop demonstrators from approaching the Capitol. On Monday, Abdul-Samad said peaceful protesters were on a mission to talk about justice, but a small minority of violent protesters hijacked that message. We knew we had to step in so these young peoples message could get across, but these individuals who hijacked it, a message has to be sent to them: We are all in this together. And were not going to let you hijack our babies, were not going to let you hijack our message, and that you need to take that out of Iowa, Abdul-Samad said. Because Iowans have come together to stand together and make sure that you cant hijack what we have. Protests happened throughout the weekend and across the state in Des Moines, Davenport, Waterloo, Cedar Rapids and Sioux City as demonstrators expressed their anger at the death of George Floyd, a Minnesota man who died after a police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes. Protests continued Monday night, as Abdul-Samad encouraged hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the Capitol in Des Moines to remain peaceful. In Waterloo, a vigil at Lincoln Park marked the third demonstration in four nights in the wake of the Minneapolis death. Reynolds said Monday she wants protesters to know their message has been heard, and state leaders must work to implement systemic change. We want to be a part of that. We want to help drive that, Reynolds said of her administration. Its going to be uncomfortable. Ive not walked in your shoes. I dont know what youve experienced. Help me understand what youve experienced and what were doing wrong so that we can get rid of those injustices and continue to lift everybody and give everybody the chance to be successful. This is a land of opportunity, and we need everybody to be able to have that same opportunity. Reynolds began the press conference by calling on Iowans to be united in grief and anger over Floyds death and in solidarity with the peaceful protesters. She also said violence is not the answer to this or any problem. As the governor, I want all Iowans to know that I hear you. I hear your frustration. And I am committed listening and having a respectful dialogue about what we need to address the injustices that are felt by so many, Reynolds said. And that might mean having some very uncomfortable and eye-opening discussions. But theyre discussions that we must have if were going to bring about positive and impactful change. Betty Andrews, president of the Iowa and Nebraska chapter of the NAACP, said the protests showed that black Iowans want their voices to be heard. It shows why, she said, the Black Lives Matter movement is so important. Its important that our voice is heard, Andrews said. You often hear people say black lives matter, and when you see that, you hear people say black lives matter over and over again. Why are they saying that? Because they need to be heard. They want to be heard. So what youre seeing right now is simply an opportunity to take a microphone and make sure that they are heard. Saying the movement must progress from protest to policy to power, Andrews said she invites Iowans to join with the NAACP as the organization works with lawmakers on policy proposals. Reynolds noted work her administration has done on criminal justice reform, and pledged to accelerate that work while engaging community members. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 0 An Iranian scientist detained in the United States has left the country and is on his way back to his homeland, Iranian officials say, although they deny it is part of a prisoner swap. Sirous Asgari, a materials-science professor at Sharif University of Technology, was charged in 2016 with trying to steal trade secrets from a research project being carried out by Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. The 59-year-old Asgari, who denied the charge, was acquitted in November 2019 after a U.S. judge tossed out the case. In a post on Instagram on June 2, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif welcomed what he described as the "good news" of Asgari's return on a flight to Iran, and accused the United States of holding "hostage" several other Iranian scientists. Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Musavi said the scientist was scheduled to arrive in Iran on June 3. "Mr. Asgari was stranded in America for a while because of [being infected with] the coronavirus and the situation with flights," Musavi said. His return to Iran led to speculation that he could be part of another prisoner swap. But Musavi said that talk of a prisoner exchange was "groundless" because Asgari was "released on the basis of being acquitted." State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus later said that "Asgari is not and has never been a participant in any prisoner swap with Iran." The United States and Iran conducted a swap in December, when Chinese-American researcher Xiyue Wang and Iranian scientist Massud Soleimani were freed. Several other U.S. citizens are currently imprisoned in Iran or out on bail, including U.S. Navy veteran Michael White, who was temporarily released from prison in March on medical grounds amid the coronavirus pandemic. White was arrested in 2018 and sentenced to 13 years in prison for allegedly insulting Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and posting private information online. In response to Zarif's Instagram post, acting U.S. Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli tweeted that Asgari and White's cases had "never been related." "We have been trying to deport Asghari since last year, being stalled every step of the way by the Iranian government," Cuccinelli added. "We wish Iran was so enthusiastic to get its illegal nationals back as they would have us all believe," he said, adding that there were 10 other Iranians currently in the custody of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE). Earlier this year, Asgari told The Guardian that the ICE was holding him at a Louisiana detention center without basic sanitation and refusing to let him return to Iran despite his exoneration. It was later reported that the scientist had contracted the coronavirus. Relations between Washington and Tehran have become increasingly hostile since 2018, when President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Iran nuclear deal with world powers. With reporting by AFP, the BBC, and AP CAMBRIDGE Cambridge is inviting residents to contribute to a time capsule to capture the experience of living through the pandemic. The archive project is looking to collect personal experiences of living, working and coping with the COVID-19 pandemic from residents, business owners, first responders, cultural groups and organizations. We have all been in this together, and now were asking the Cambridge community to help us make a collective history that can be passed down for future generations, said Mayor Kathryn McGarry. The city hopes to represent the experiences of many different people and sectors across the community, through written accounts, photos, drawings, and even audio and video recordings. It will collect digital mementoes as long as the pandemic continues. People can submit to the capsule at engageCambridge.ca 4 Officers Hit by Gunfire in Missouri, Police Say Four police officers in St. Louis, Missouri, were struck by gunfire in the early hours on Tuesday, according to the citys metropolitan police department. We have had 4 officers struck by gunfire tonight. All have been transported to an area hospital. All are conscious and breathing. Their injuries are believed to be non-life threatening, the department said in a statement. Officers are still taking gunfire downtown & we will share more info as it available, the department added. We have had 4 officers struck by gunfire tonight. All have been transported to an area hospital. All are conscious and breathing. Their injuries are believed to be non-life threatening. Officers are still taking gunfire downtown & we will share more info as it available. pic.twitter.com/Cwypi5EorP St. Louis, MO Police (@SLMPD) June 2, 2020 Protests have erupted over the past week across the nation since the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in police custody on May 25 in Minneapolis. Disturbing video footage on the day showed a police officer using his knee on Floyds neck to pin him to the ground. Floyd, who was unarmed and handcuffed, pleaded to the officers while repeatedly calling out I cant breathe during the episode. Protesters rally as they march through the streets in St. Louis, Missouri on May 29, 2020. (Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images) Protests began peacefully on Monday in St. Louis but some became violent overnight, with rioters smashing windows and stealing goods from businesses, as well as sparking fires in the downtown area. Mondays protests came after peaceful daytime protests on Sunday led to escalations of chaos overnight into Monday morning, with vehicles and buildings damaged, and officers firing tear gas after being pelted with rocks, fireworks, and Molotov cocktails. Several hundred people rallied peacefully on Monday afternoon outside the justice center in downtown St. Louis, including Mayor Lyda Krewson and St. Louis Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards. Protestors later walked to the Gateway Arch National Park and then onto nearby Interstate 64. St. Louis City Mayor Lyda Krewson joins protesters as they demonstrate against police brutality and the death of George Floyd outside the St. Louis City Justice Center and City Hall in St Louis, Mo., on June 1, 2020. (Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images) St. Louis City Bike Patrol Officers mobilize as protesters demonstrate against police brutality and the death of George Floyd through downtown St. Louis in St Louis, Mo.. on June 1, 2020. (Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images) But later in the day, a group of protesters gathered in front of police headquarters, leading officers to fire tear gas. Some protesters smashed windows at a downtown 7-11 store and stole items before the building was set on fire. Moments later, a car was set on fire and other businesses broken into and looted. Protests have also been reported in Kansas City and Jefferson City in Missouri. Earlier, Gov. Mike Parson (R) said in a statement on Sunday that the Missouri National Guard and the Missouri State Highway Patrol stand ready to protect life and property if violence persists. We are deeply saddened by the tragic death of George Floyd. We are also saddened by the acts of violence that have transpired across our nation and state in response to this event. At this time, we are taking a proactive approach to protect Missouri and its people, Parson, a former sheriff, said. Violence and destruction are not the answers, the governor added. I support those who are calling for justice and peace. However, a small element has seized on these peaceful demonstrations to commit violent acts that endanger the lives of citizens and bring destruction to our communities. This violence not only threatens public safety and destroys economic opportunity; it drowns out the voices of the peaceful demonstrators calling for justice and working to improve our nation. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Temperatures are set to soar for one last day this week as the mercury is expected to reach 27 degrees in parts today. Met Eireann said: Today will start mostly dry and sunny and most places will stay dry throughout. Very warm again in most areas with top temperatures of 22 to 27C, highest over Leinster and Munster. However it will be cooler in the north and west with highs of 15 to 20C or even cooler along the coast. "Patchy cloud in the northwest will bring showers there by evening. Winds will be light at first, become moderate northwesterly later. ...in the north and west with highs of 15 to 20 degrees. Winds will be light at first, becoming moderate northwesterly later. (2/2) pic.twitter.com/XC1jmbDg55 Met Eireann (@MetEireann) June 2, 2020 However, there will be a change to the weather on Wednesday, with cooler and breezier conditions expected. Temperatures have been in the mid-20s across the country over the past couple of days. Rainfall is expected to be low, with most areas to only get three millimetres over the next week, while parts of the northwest will get up to 12 millimetres. Meanwhile, Irish Water said it was " Read More: Sixteen of the utility's drinking water schemes are in drought and 38 are at risk of going into drought because of the warm weather. Is the asteroid really an iceberg of hydrogen? (Getty) The space rock named `Oumuamua was the first known interstellar object to visit our solar system, and made headlines around the world in 2017. When it flew past our sun, the world marvelled over its elongated, cigar-shaped body which some scientists initially suggested might be an alien probe. But now a new theory may explain what it really is: astronomers at Yale and the University of Chicago say its a hydrogen iceberg. Whats more, there might be many more of them out there, forming in the dense cores of molecular clouds throughout our Milky Way galaxy, the researchers suggest. Read more: Comet or asteroid? Cigar asteroid shows we may need a new classification A study based on the researchers findings has been accepted by the Astrophysical Journal Letters and appears on the preprint website arXiv. The researchers believe that the idea that its a block of hydrogen ice could explain many of the weird properties that led scientists to label it a possible alien spacecraft. Professor Gregory Laughlin of Yale said, We developed a theory that explains all of Oumuamuas weird properties. We show that it was likely composed of hydrogen ice. This is a new type of object, but it looks like there may be many more of them showing up, going forward. Researchers at the University of Hawaii first discovered Oumuamua in 2017, but as Oumuamua hurtled through the inner part of the solar system, astronomers noticed it had several unusual properties. Read more: Astronomers admit cigar asteroid is still a mystery It varied rapidly in brightness, suggesting it was either saucer shaped or cigar shaped. Also, it accelerated in a fashion similar to a comet, yet it showed no evidence of emitting gas or the fine billows of dust normally associated with comets. Laughlin and Seligman said Oumuamuas behavior can be explained if it is composed of hydrogen ice. As Oumuamua passed close to the Sun and received its warmth, melting hydrogen would have rapidly boiled off the icy surface providing the observed acceleration and also winnowing Oumuamua down to its weird, elongated shape much as a bar of soap becomes a thin sliver after many uses in the shower. Story continues The study theorizes that iceberg-like objects made of hydrogen can potentially form in the dense cores of molecular clouds that pervade the Milky Way galaxy and give rise to new stars and planetary systems. Laughlin said, Their presence would be an accurate probe of the conditions in the dark recesses of star-forming clouds and provide a critical new clue for understanding the earliest phases of the still-mysterious processes that generate the birth of stars and their accompanying planets. In November 2019, as experts warned that a novel coronavirus was likely to develop in the near-future, NATO boasted that its European Allies, including the UK, as well as Canada, were boosting their military budgets by an average of 4.6 percent, or an additional $130bn since 2016, The implication is that this increase in military spending is at the expense of healthcare, Counter Punch writes in the article Whats NATO Up to These Days? Provoking Russia, Draining Healthcare Budgets and Protecting Its Own from COVID. At least 2 percent of national military expenditure among NATO members goes towards funding the Organization. Meanwhile, experts warned that the World Health Organization (WHO) continue[d] to experience immense financial stress. The precarious financial situation of the WHO has given rise to extensive dialogue and debate. The US policymaking elite chose instead to enrich the masters of war. Trumps record Pentagon budget includes a $139m contract to BAE Systems to build THAAD missile prototypes, starting FY21. It comes as the administration announces a halt to WHO funding. Meanwhile, the WHO estimates that 80 million infants are at risk of diphtheria, measles, and polio, as regular vaccine programs are impaired by operational restrictions imposed by COVID. Due to lack of funds for safety implementation measures, the Sabin Vaccine Institute has stopped or reduced operations in 68 countries. Between March and April, over half of the 129 countries surveyed reported moderate-to-severe disruptions in vaccine programs. Afghanistan NATO looks out for its own as it continues to be one of the occupying powers in Afghanistan, one of the poorest, most desperate nations on Earth. NATO describes protecting its personnel as paramount. There is no statement about the Afghan population, who live under NATOs occupation and thus, if international law mattered, are in NATOs charge. But NATO is not regarded as a formal occupying power, ergo it has no responsibilities in Afghanistan. Unlike the governments of Britain and the US, NATO is following WHO guidelines on dealing with COVID-19. Its staff have the requisite personal protective equipment, unlike key frontline, civilian workers in the US and Britain. As British and American health workers, gig economy employees, transportation staff, and others, go unequipped, NATOs Support and Procurement Agency has delivered for its staff a GeneXpert 16 COVID testing lab, as well as Thermo Fishers TaqPath Combo Kit, and Bio Fire machines. The mission, Resolute Support, started on 23 April in Afghanistan. As Trump cut funding for the WHO and blustered about underfunding NATO, in the real world US, Australian, and Norwegian taxpayers donated to NATOs Resolute Support. UNICEF is distributing soap in Herat, western Afghanistan, where, like in the rest of the country, few have clean water. UNICEF warns that school closures force abused girls into the dwellings of abusers and prevent teachers from observing signs of abuse. The increased poverty caused by COVID is also increasing the risk of child marriages. NATO Secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, mentioned none of this in his May 17th address, in which he placed all of the onus on the Taliban to live up to their responsibilities to stick to ceasefire agreements. Lithuania & Poland NATOs Lithuania battlegroup is positioned on the border of Russias exclave, Kaliningrad. Lithuania also borders Russias last European ally, Belarus, which may soon fall to NATO. The battlegroup consists of 1,200 personnel from eight European countries and is described by NATO as being part of the biggest reinforcement of the Alliances collective defence in a generation. Beginning May 11th, NATOs Forward Presence Battlegroup trained with British and Spanish pilots, operating from Siauliai Air Base, as part of the Organizations Baltic Air Policing mission. The training involves German and Norwegian Joint Terminal Attack Controllers. NATO describes these as soldiers specializing in guidance for aircraft. British Eurofighter Typhoons and Spanish F-18s were involved. Perhaps instead of putting its population at risk of nuclear annihilation from a provoked Russia, the Lithuanian governmentlike the rest of the Westshould spend its NATO money on public healthcare? Due to its lack of adequate public health facilities, Lithuania imposed a blunt lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID. Baltic media reported last year on the countrys expensive and inefficient network of hospitals. Political leaders have been procrastinating for years (sic). Like Lithuania, Poland shares a border with Kaliningrad. NATOs choice of appointments has done little to quash theories that COVID-19 is a bioweapon. Polands Lt. Col. Piotr Wachna commands NATOs Combined Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear Defence Task Force. NATO describes Wachna, Deputy Commander of the Polish Armys 4th Chemical Regiment, as the expert at the center of the COVID-19 fight. Putting a bioweapons expert at the center of COVID efforts on one of Russias borders is not a good look. The fact that Wachna leads both Polands military response to COVID, such as hospital cleaning in Woomin and Ponsk, as well as heading NATOs CBRN unit signals a blurred civilian-military line. As Poland and the US spend $1.5bn out to December 2022 on a Raytheon-built Patriot missiles aimed at Russia, Polands healthcare system leaves the population wanting. The European Commission highlights Polands long waiting times for medical services, poor working conditions and low pay for medical professionals. In 2015, according to the report, there were only 2.3 practising physicians (which is the lowest ratio in the EU) and 5.2 practising nurses per one thousand population. Mind your mines Russia is strategically vulnerable in the Baltic Sea via the Gulf of Finland. Henning Knudsen-Hauge, Commander Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group One (SNMCMG1), says that [t]he Baltic Sea is of high strategic importance for NATO and its partner nations, and therefore also a highly prioritized area of operation. NATO recently completed its anti-mining exercise, Operation Spirit, without input from Russia in this strategically vital area. The annual exercise is hosted, on a rota, by Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Ships from Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway, which shares a northeastern border with Russia, also participated. Latvia borders the Russian mainland is, therefore, a major strategic NATO partner and a considerable threat to Russia. Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 were in Latvian waters during the exercise, and also joined the exercise for a day, says NATO. They had recently been in Finland conducting joint training with the Finnish Navy, The Finnish Airforce and NATO Baltic Air Policing. Finland also has a lengthy border with Russia. Last year, Latvias Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins and Finance Minister Janis Reirs responded to healthcare workers protests outside the Saeima (Parliament) by citing two decades of cuts and stating: I am pessimistic on the topic of finding additional funds for healthcare workers. There will be no additional funds in [the] 2020 budget. Last year, Finlands PM Juha Sipila resigned over protests triggered by social security and healthcare failures. Politico writes that decentralization led to widespread geographic variation when it comes to quality and access to health care services. Conclusion One of the few benefits of the virus is that it has impeded US troop deployments. The Hill reports: Defense officials have extended a freeze on troop movement, held ships in port and laid the framework for what the military will look like in an extended pause because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The US and its allies exacerbate the threat of nuclear apocalypse by continuing to goad Russia with nonstop events, like those listed above. In the midst of these dangers, the lines between peace and war blur. On May 5th, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) requested an emergency airlift of humanitarian and/or medical items/patients from NATOs Euro Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre. Locations include Ethiopia, Ghana, and South Africa. Frequency involves two flights per week. The UN agencies might have been able to manage this alone, had their budgets not been cut. Iowa Republicans voted Tuesday to end the long and divisive congressional career of Rep. Steve King, whose hard-right views on immigration and abortion became part of the GOP mainstream over two decades in the House but whose deliberately polarizing rhetoric ultimately became a liability for his party. Support for King started to evaporate last year after he made racially offensive remarks that forced national Republicans to distance themselves from the conservative Iowa firebrand. That gave an opening to State Sen. Randy Feenstra, who garnered support from national GOP groups and from some prominent Iowa conservatives who argued King undermined his influence in Washington with his drumbeat of provocative behavior. Feenstra led by nine points late Tuesday and was projected to beat King, according to the Associated Press. "I am truly humbled. Thank you to each and every person who supported us on this journey against all odds. You delivered. But tomorrow, it's back to work," Feenstra said in a statement. Iowa's elections were among dozens of congressional primaries taking place amid a backdrop of a global pandemic, civil unrest and a national reckoning over racism and police violence in eight states and the District of Columbia. Several of the elections, which in some states include the presidential race, had been postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Former vice president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, was projected to win primaries in New Mexico, Montana, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, according to Edison Media Research, as he amasses delegates to secure the nomination. The key issues in King's race have been years in the making. He lost his House committee assignments in January 2019 after questioning in a New York Times interview why the terms "white nationalist" and "white supremacist" should be considered offensive. It was perhaps the most egregious in a long record of pointed comments demeaning minorities, immigrants and multiculturalism, punctuated by dealings with far-right European activists. Although Feenstra hesitated to attack King directly for his views, he was not shy about questioning his relevance in Washington - particularly after losing his seat on the House Agriculture Committee, an important sinecure for the rural western Iowa district. "The 4th District needs a seat at the table, an effective conservative voice," Feenstra said in a May 26 debate held by WHO-TV. "To me, this election is about real results, not campaign rhetoric. . . . Our district, our president deserves an effective conservative leader in Congress." The district is historically conservative, but the controversies swirling around King have taken a toll on his popularity. In 2016, he won by 22 percentage points over his Democratic opponent. In 2018, he beat first-time candidate J.D. Scholten by barely three points, and now Scholten is running again with a campaign war chest five times as large as that of any GOP candidate - and many prominent Republicans feared that King may not survive. With King's loss, two prominent nonpartisan forecasters - the Cook Political Report and Inside Elections - moved the race from "lean Republican" to "safe Republican," indicating Feenstra should have no trouble dispatching Scholten in a district that voted for Donald Trump by 27 points in 2016. Feenstra had raised about $926,000 to King's $331,000 - a paltry sum for a nine-term incumbent in a competitive race. Meanwhile, Defending Main Street, a GOP super PAC affiliated with the moderate Main Street Partnership, spent $100,000 to oust King, while the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent $200,000 more behind Feenstra. But there have been notable changes of heart in Iowa, too. Among those who backed Feenstra was activist Bob Vander Plaats, a GOP political kingmaker in western Iowa who once was one of King's staunchest allies. In an ad funded by the Priorities for Iowa super PAC, Vander Plaats said King was "no longer effective" in Washington - echoing Feenstra's central campaign message. "He can't deliver for President Trump, and he can't advance our conservative values," he said. "Thankfully, Iowa has a better choice." King fought back, leveraging his high profile in the district and long record as an archconservative nemesis of immigration and abortion. In a recent Sioux City Journal op-ed, he called the primary race against Feenstra the "epicenter of the battle against the swamp," labeling his opponents - and Feenstra's backers - "billionaire coastal RINO-NeverTrumper, globalist, neocon elites." "This race is nationalized because I'm effective," he wrote. "I have run to the sound of the guns in every important fight. I have walked towards the fire and through the fire. I'm deeply tempered by the experience. I can face the swamp down because we're right and they're wrong and they know it." Countering his loss of committee assignments, King claimed at a candidate forum last month that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., promised his "time for exoneration" would come if he's reelected and his committee seats would be restored. McCarthy denied any such promise, telling reporters last month: "Congressman King's comments cannot be exonerated, and I never said that." Craig Robinson, who runs the website IowaRepublican.com, said Feenstra offers the district everything King does as a conservative, but with no baggage. "How much does the voter want to put up with? The activists like the guy who gets on talk radio and is fighting the good fight, but when you represent a district, there's a lot of things that your district needs, and that's where there's an appetite to move on," Robinson said. The recent civil unrest was little more than an atmospheric issue in the Iowa race. King has posted memes critical of protesters to his Facebook page in recent days, but Feenstra has not addressed the crisis on his own social media accounts, opting instead to focus on King's effectiveness and his efforts to get out the vote. The 4th district is 92.8 percent white, making it one of the least diverse districts in the country. Elsewhere in Tuesday's primaries, Democratic voters chose business executive Theresa Greenfield to take on first-term Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, in what promises to be one of most competitive Senate races of the year. Greenfield has won the backing of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and benefited from millions of dollars of spending by outside groups that believed she had the best chance of unseating Ernst. With Greenfield holding a 20-point lead on retired Navy Adm. Mike Franken, the Associated Press projected her victory early Tuesday evening. Although Greenfield raised a staggering $7 million for her campaign, she spent only about $2.3 million ahead of the primary, leaving her with a significant war chest for her battle with Ernst. In other Senate races, voters in Montana nominated Sen. Steve Daines, a Republican, and Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, to face off. Democratic Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, who is abandoning a promising climb up the House leadership ranks for a run at the other chamber, will face former TV weatherman Mark Ronchetti in a race that tilts Democratic, according to nonpartisan forecasters. Voters will also pick nominees for open House seats being vacated by Reps. Susan Brooks, R-Ind., Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., David Loebsack, D-Iowa, and Peter Visclosky, D-Ind., as well as Lujan's safely Democratic seat. In one of the evening's earliest results, voters in Indiana's 5th District nominated two candidates with state legislative experience, Sen. Victoria Spartz, a Republican, and former congresswoman Christina Hale, a Democrat, to face off in an affluent suburban district where national Democrats believe they have a chance to win the seat being vacated by Brooks. The race in New Mexico has garnered particular attention because of the candidacy of Valerie Plame - a former CIA officer whose cover was blown by a top aide to then-vice president Richard B. Cheney, leading to a major Washington scandal and turning her into a figure of national intrigue. But her profile has not translated into an easy path to the nomination. Key figures in New Mexico and nationally have backed civil rights lawyer Teresa Leger Fernandez, who has played up her deep roots in the district. Among her backers is Emily's List, an influential Democratic women's group, whose affiliated super PAC spent $300,000 on her behalf, as well as the Congressional Hispanic Caucus's political committee, which has spent more than $400,000. Leger Fernandez held a lead over Plame in early returns Tuesday, while Plame appeared in danger of possibly finishing third behind state Rep. Joseph Sanchez. - - - The Washington Post's Colby Itkowitz contributed to this report. Cyclone Nisarga, developing in the Arabian Sea, is expected to make landfall today afternoon over Raigad district, south of Mumbai, the weather bureau said on Tuesday. The cyclone is very likely to intensify into a severe cyclonic storm around 5.30am on Wednesday, and cross Maharashtra and the south Gujarat coast on Wednesday afternoon, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. The prediction is extremely heavy rain for Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad with high-speed winds, gusting to a maximum of 120kmph along the coast. The landfall site has been identified close to Alibag, Raigad district, which is 16km south of Mumbai over the sea, with extensive damage expected for Mumbai, the weather bureau said. However, private weather forecasters maintained their earlier predictions of the cyclones landfall in Palghar, north of Mumbai. The major impact of the landfall over Alibag is expected around 12 noon and the impact will continue till around 3pm, which will be felt across all four districts, said Sunitha Devi, in-charge of cyclones at India Meteorological Department (IMD). Maharashtra and Gujarat activated their disaster-response mechanisms as the two western states, which are already battling a raging pandemic that has put their health infrastructure under severe strain, deployed National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams and started evacuating people from vulnerable areas on Tuesday. In Maharashtra, authorities have started to evacuate more than 65,000 people living close to the coast. Seven coastal districts of Maharashtra Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Raigad, Thane, Mumbai City, Mumbai Suburban and Palghar district have been put on alert, as chief minister Uddhav Thackeray appealed to citizens to stay indoors on Wednesday and Thursday and establishments to remain shut. NDRF has deployed 20 teams eight teams in Mumbai, four in Raigad, two each in Palghar, Thane and Ratnagiri and one each in Navi Mumbai and Sindhudurg. Four teams of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) too have been deployed in these districts, while one NDRF team is on stand-by. These teams comprise 35-45 jawans, depending on the expected severity of the cyclone in the region. Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to chief ministers of both states and assured them all possible help from the Centre. He has promised help from the Centre, Thackeray said in his live address to citizens. He asked citizens to take precautions. Keep your phones and emergency lights charged. Keep all your essentials, including medicines, at a safe and accessible place. Make sure you store drinking water and avoid unnecessary usage of electricity as there might be chances of a power cut owing to heavy rain, he said. In Mumbai, the police have issued a prohibitory order restricting public movement of one or more persons near the coast, including on promenades at Marine Drive, Nariman Point, Bandra, Worli sea face, and at beaches and parks which are near the coastline on Wednesday and Thursday. The BMC, too, has started its preparations, said a senior civic official, adding that a team of ward officials is being sent to coastal areas, where they are making announcements on safety measures. The BMCs official Twitter handle has also put out a list of dos and donts. The weather system, currently a cyclonic storm, was located about 310km south-southwest of Mumbai, and 270km south-southwest of Alibag. It is likely to intensify into a severe cyclonic storm by 5.30am on Wednesday. Maximum wind speed is expected to range between 100-110 kmph on Wednesday afternoon (expected landfall), gusting to 120 kmph along Mumbai coast. The current trajectory of the system shows landfall over Raigad district, just scraping the south of Mumbai, which is likely to impact the financial capital with the possibility of extremely heavy rain and high-speed winds, said Devi. Authorities across all four districts Mumbai, Thane, Raigad and Palghar have been warned about the severity of the weather event as all four districts are expected to be affected when the severe cyclonic storm moves closer to landfall on Wednesday afternoon. Meanwhile, the city and suburbs recorded light to moderate showers from 5pm onwards on Tuesday. Between 5.30pm and 8.30pm, south Mumbai recorded 18.6 mm (moderate) rain, while 11 mm (light) rain was recorded in south Mumbai. Moderate wind speed of 10-12 knots was recorded at south Mumbai. On Monday morning, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had expected the landfall over Palghar district (north of Mumbai), but based on studying the trajectory of the system, revised their prediction by Monday evening. Meanwhile, private weather forecasting agency Skymet on Tuesday said they still expected landfall over Palghar district. Our weather models are showing landfall north of Mumbai with a crucial period of extremely heavy rain and gale winds expected from Tuesday evening to Wednesday afternoon, said Mahesh Palawat, vice president (meteorology and climate change), Skymet. Heavy rain over Mumbai will have the potential for intense flooding. The IMDs latest bulletin issued warnings for the expected storm surge and damage expected across four districts Mumbai, Thane, Raigad and Ratnagiri for Wednesday. Storm surge of about 1-2m above astronomical tide (tidal characteristics associated with gravitational effects) is very likely to inundate low-lying areas of Mumbai, Thane and Raigad districts, and 0.5-1m height above the astronomical tide likely to inundate low-lying areas of Ratnagiri district during the time of landfall, the IMD release said. Major damage was expected for thatched houses, huts and those with unattached metal sheets as rooftops, which are located across several areas in the Mumbai slums, which may blow away due to high speed winds, the IMD bulletin said, adding that there was expected damage to power and communication lines, breaking of tree branches. Uprooting of large avenue trees, damage to banana and papaya trees , large dead limbs blown from trees, major damage to coastal crops, damage to embankments and salt pans were some of the other warnings. Dr Roxy Mathew Koll, senior scientist, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, said if landfall happens over Raigad, maximum rainfall is expected over northern regions (Mumbai). Not just the direct impact of winds, but forecasts indicate heavy rain up to 200mm, while the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services has forecasted storm surges with waves of 3-6m as the cyclone approaches landfall, he said. If this happens during high tide on June 3 then flooding will be a major concern for a city that is already clogged. Dr Koll pointed out that natural defences such as mangroves and river flood plains had been constructed on many parts of the city for infrastructure and real estate, giving rise to prolonged inundation concerns. Other experts said that in order to respond to such extreme weather events, there was need to develop a granular understanding of climate risks at the state, district, and city levels. Cyclone Nisarga could severely test the climate resilience of infrastructure in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra. Given our vulnerability to climate change, the tail-end risks of today could become more frequent and more intense in future with severe economic and security consequences. Restoration of natural ecosystems must be prioritised. We also need to evolve our emergency preparedness beyond disaster management and build resilient physical and digital infrastructure, strengthen training given to relief personnel, and inculcate social and behavioural changes in citizens and communities, said Arunabha Ghosh, chief executive officer, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW). In times of social distancing, it is going to be a difficult and different rescue operation in Maharashtra for NDRF. A commander said the jawans have, however, been preparing to battle monsoon amid the Covid-19 outbreak and adequate measures have been taken. Anupam Srivastava, NDRF Maharashtra commandant, said that each jawan has been provided a rescuer Covid kit, which includes a hand-wash, soap, gloves, face masks and shields. They have also been provided with two biological suits, one which can be disposed of and one which can be washed. It will be a difficult rescue operation, but we are well-prepared, Srivastava said. On Tuesday, NDRF men were also briefing citizens living near the coast to be alert and prepared for the cyclone. These are people who have lived near the sea for generations. They say we have already seen these events, so it is a little difficult to convince them, but we are trying our best. We have started evacuation in Alibaug, Palghar and Sindhudurg, he said. (with inputs from agencies) The Congressional Black Caucus is at work on a package of policing reforms the House could advance later this month in response to the death of George Floyd, Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., the chair of the caucus, told ABC News. A federal chokehold ban, a review of police training standards and a reform of the legal doctrine that shields police officers from legal liability are some of the proposals circulating among the group, which House Democratic leaders have tasked with leading the chamber's response to Floyd's death and the ongoing protests. "We are going to do everything we can, while the nation has a height of awareness on the issue, to pass transformative legislation," said Bass. "We want to make sure that, in this time period, we are very visible so that African Americans around the country understand that this is our experience as well." MORE: Police used tear gas, pushed back peaceful protesters for Trump church visit Republicans and Democrats have been united in condemning the events leading up to Floyd's death, but any broad and rapid compromise on policing reforms is unlikely on Capitol Hill -- particularly in an election year when lawmakers are already struggling to agree on how to address the ongoing coronavirus and economic crises. Still, the caucus hopes to use the moment to promote new ideas for policing reform, as well as proposals that have stalled in committee and previous sessions of Congress. The effort could also lead to action in 2021 depending on the results of the presidential election. "Of course it is a responsibility of all of us to take the time to heal. But we are looking to them for their values-based, sad experience and their leadership in terms of legislation," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said of the caucus on Tuesday. Former Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday endorsed a federal chokehold ban from Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., calling it a "down payment on what is long overdue." Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said on Tuesday she would introduce the measure in the Senate. Story continues Jeffries first proposed the measure in 2015 after the death of Eric Garner. The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the topic in September 2019, but the proposal has yet to advance out of committee. On Monday, Sen. Cory Booker D-N.J., along with Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., called for reforming the federal statute governing police misconduct and the qualified immunity legal doctrine, which has been used to shield police officers and other government officials from some lawsuits. PHOTO: Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., listen during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing examining issues facing prisons and jails during the coronavirus pandemic on Capitol Hill, June 2, 2020. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Pool via AP) Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, a senior member of the caucus, plans to reintroduce the Law Enforcement Trust Integrity Act of 2015, a measure that would overhaul police training standards and incentivize oversight and accountability reforms. Beyond the group, Libertarian Rep. Justin Amash, of Michigan, said he planned to introduce a bill to end qualified immunity and allow victims of excessive police force to sue officers in court, a proposal also backed by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. MORE: Lawmakers react to crackdown on George Floyd protests "All of us want to get at the root causes of the lack of police accountability and want to be able to hold police accountable in court for their misconduct," Bass told ABC News, adding that lawmakers want to "end the careers of abusive officers" and prevent fired officers accused of using excessive force from being hired by other police departments. While Republicans have supported plans for police brutality hearings and condemned the actions of the Minneapolis police officers involved in Floyd's death, some have also called for more attention to the outbreaks of violence and looting amid the largely peaceful protests across the country. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., the former ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler that his committee should look into anti-facist antifa protesters and their activities in addition to any examination of police brutality. Nadler plans to hold a hearing on new criminal justice proposals and police brutality as soon as next week, according to aides. In the Senate, Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has pledged to hold a hearing on policing and use of force, while Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, plans to push to end a Pentagon program to transfer military equipment to American police departments, a move endorsed by a top aide to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on Twitter. PHOTO: Representative Joyce Beatty, a Democrat from Ohio, listens during a Joint Economic Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, Nov. 13, 2019. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images) Bass predicted that the House will have legislation ready for passage by the end of the month, when the chamber is expected to return to Washington for votes. "This is a unique time that is allowing us to come together because the people are angry," said Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, a member of the caucus who was pepper-sprayed at a protest in Columbus, Ohio, over the weekend, "They're crying out for answers." ABC's Mariam Khan contributed to this report. Congressional Black Caucus to propose policing reforms after George Floyd's death originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Investors have pumped close to $4 billion into the listed property sector as companies seek to shore up balance sheets bruised by the impact of the global pandemic. Reflecting the rush to higher-yielding vehicles as the prospect of negative interest rates loom, shopping centre giant Vicinity only took a day to raise $1.4 billion from its investor base. It will use the cash to reduce debt and boost its coffers for ongoing redevelopment. The Arena REIT childcare property at 76-84 Baden Powell Drive, Tarneit, Victoria. At the other end of the scale, Arena REIT has tapped investors for $60 million through an institutional placement and share purchase plan. The listed property group says the additional funds will give it the capacity to "pursue further social infrastructure property investments". With a focus on early education and healthcare properties, Arena REIT has 233 assets across the country worth about $853 million. The company's development pipeline consists of 20 projects with a total cost value of about $112 million. JERSEYVILLE An Alton man faces several felony charges after being arrested for DUI May 26. Randall W. Geisen, 40, was charged May 27 with aggravated DUI/3, a Class 2 felony; and driving while drivers license is revoked, a Class 4 felony. According to court documents on May 26 Geisen allegedly was driving a white 1994 Ford Ranger southbound onto Stryker Street from Snedecker Street in Jerseyville, when he was stopped by police and found to be under the influence of alcohol. He was also found to be driving with a revoked license. Court documents show convictions for at least one alcohol-related offense and multiple license-related offenses Bail was set at $15,000. In an unrelated matter, a Jerseyville man faces drug and vehicle=related felony charges. Robert Paul Frank, 25, of Jerseyville, was charged May 28 with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, a Class 4 Modified felony; unlawful possession of certificate of title without complete assignment, a Class 4 felony; and unlawful possession of hypodermic syringe or needle, a Class A misdemeanor. According to court documents, on May 27 Frank was found to be in possession of less than 15 grams of psilocybin mushrooms and three hypodermic needles. He also had a certificate of title for a 2001 Ford Taurus SE without complete assignment. Bail was set at $20,000. Other felony charges recently filed by the Jersey County States Attorneys Office include: Melissa S. Kozonasky, 34, of Jerseyville, was charged May 28 with obstructing justice, a Class 4 felony. According to court documents, on May 24 she gave a police officer false information and had concealed another person in her residence. That person has not been charged as of Monday morning. Kozonasky was issued a summons, and no bail was set. Daniel L. Trask, 46, of Jerseyville, was charge May 27 with unlawful possession of controlled substance, a Class 4 modified felony. According to court documents on May 21 he had less than 15 grams of benzodiazepine in his possession. A summons was issued and no bail set. A locust plague in Pakistan is threatening millions of livelihoods as the South Asian country faces rising cases and a mounting death toll from the coronavirus pandemic. The infestation, seen as the worst in three decades, is already affecting 61 of the countrys nearly 160 districts in all of its four provinces. This means locusts have already covered nearly 40 percent of its more than 770,000 square kilometers land area. After declaring a national emergency in February, the authorities are now bracing for more swarms of the insects from neighboring Iran, Gulf countries across the Arabian Sea, and even the Horn of Africa. We are seeing a mounting domestic locust threat with new swarms breeding and forming in the [southwestern province of] Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province [in the northwest, and parts of the [eastern] Punjab Province, Muhammad Ishaq Mastoi, an entomologist with the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council in Islamabad, told the BBC Urdu Service. He says Pakistan is expecting large swarms of locusts from its near and far neighbors. The biggest threat we face is from swarms already ravaging countries in the Horn of Africa, he said. We are already seeing infestations crossing over from Iran and will see some arriving from Oman and Yemen. The locust plague is now threatening millions of livelihoods in the country and could possibly wreak havoc in the agricultural sector, which is the backbone of Pakistans ailing economy. Mastoai says that without swiftly controling the locust outbreaks, his country faces a much larger threat. It is possible that the locusts will threaten our food crops, he said. If we had an extraordinary increase in rainfall like the previous years, we might be facing a larger threat. Islamabad is planning to allocate more than $12 million in this months annual budget to combat the infestation. Lieutenant General Mohammad Afzal, the chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority says they are working on a comprehensive plan to combat the issue. We will try our best to utilize all the resources available in the country to tackle these threats and the whole nation will counter them effectively, he told journalists last week while alluding to mounting coronavirus infections and possible floods this summer. Pakistan has so far recorded more than 1,600 deaths from COVID-19. The country of 220 million has documented 76,000 more coronavirus cases, a number which sharply rose after authorities ended a lockdown last month and largely failed to implement measures to curb infections. Protesters returned to the streets Monday afternoon and evening to protest the death one week earlier of George Floyd in Minneapolis, an African American man killed by police. Protests again turned violent after dark, as four police officers were shot, and several businesses sustained damage. 2:00 a.m. ST. LOUIS St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden held a news conference on the night's events, which were still active late into the night. Hayden said two officers were shot in the leg, one was shot in the arm, and one was shot in the foot. Read more. 1:10 a.m. ST. LOUIS Police later tonight will hold a news briefing on the officers who were shot. 12:45 a.m. ST. LOUIS Four male police officers have been shot in downtown St. Louis, police say. All four officers are conscious and breathing, and their injuries are believed to be non-life-threatening. Before the shooting, police deployed multiple rounds of tear gas and flash bangs near Olive and 16th streets. About 90 seconds later, there was heavy gunfire from the same area. Gunfire persists downtown. 12:45 a.m. ST. LOUIS The Save-A-Lot at 3545 Page Boulevard and the Foot Locker 3651 Page Boulevard have both been broken into and looted. 12:25 a.m. ST. LOUIS Heavy gunfire can be heard coming from several directions downtown. Fire crews are responding to a report of a fire at Tucker Boulevard and Convention Plaza. 12:20 p.m. ST. LOUIS The small fire at the Campbell House appears to be extinguished. 11:55 p.m. ST. LOUIS There is a small fire in the back of the Campbell House, at 1508 Locust St. The house was built in 1851. 11:50 p.m. ST. LOUIS There are scenes in at least two locations in St. Louis, one near 10th Street and Tucker Avenue, and another at 17th and Pine streets in Downtown West. Crowds are still heavy. 11:20 p.m. ST. LOUIS Looters comply with police orders to evacuate Fresh Image. At least one person is detained outside the store. 10:55 p.m. ST. LOUIS Protesters have broken into the Fresh Image at 714 N. Tucker Blvd. and are stealing merchandise. Some are walking out with armfuls of clothing. 10:45 p.m. ST. LOUIS Police are blocking the intersection of Washington Avenue and Tucker Boulevard. Many windows in the area are broken. 10:30 p.m. ST. LOUIS Things remain hectic in downtown St. Louis, as there are reports of several stores broken being burglarized and vandalized. Windows are broken out a frozen yogurt store and at the Sprint and Boost stores on Washington Avenue. 10:15 p.m. ST. LOUIS The fire at the 7-Eleven in downtown St. Louis appears to be under control. St. Louis Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson said some protesters blocked fire trucks from responding to the scene. Jenkerson also said some vehicles were set on fire downtown. 9:50 p.m. ST. LOUIS A dumpster is on fire in the middle 17th Street, and protesters are adding kindling to the blaze. Some are trying to put out the fire. 9:40 p.m. ST. LOUIS The 7-Eleven at 201 N. 17th St. is on fire. 9:30 p.m. ST. LOUIS People have broken into the 7-Eleven at 201 N. 17th St. and are stealing supplies. 8:50 p.m. ST. LOUIS Police shoot tear gas into the crowd, and most of the protesters disperse. 8:45 p.m. ST. LOUIS Police tell protesters they have five minutes to disperse. 8:40 p.m. ST. LOUIS Protesters begin throwing fireworks at police as a crowd gathers outside police headquarters. 8:15 p.m. ST. LOUIS Though a large portion of the earlier protest crowd downtown left, some remain, and tensions are beginning to escalate. Police are in full riot gear as the crowd marches at 10th and Olive Streets. 8:10 p.m. O'FALLON, Mo. Police estimate that 1,500 to 2,000 people are at the protest in O'Fallon. Protests remain peaceful in Ferguson and O'Fallon. 7:30 p.m. FERGUSON As the protest in downtown St. Louis wraps up, about 150 people are in Ferguson for the third night in a row to protest. Police say six people were arrested in Ferguson Sunday night. 6 p.m. O'FALLON, Mo. Protests are underway in O'Fallon Mo. Tim Clothier, O'Fallon police chief since 2019, locked arms and marched with protesters. Clothier said he was out on Monday "to show that we support their cause. We do not agree with what happened. We do not want to condone the behavior of that one officer." 5 p.m. ST. LOUIS The protest continues through downtown, stopping at the Gateway Arch, where protesters place sticky notes on the Arch. 3 p.m. ST. LOUIS Several hundred people gather at the City Justice Center in downtown St. Louis to peacefully protest. Read more. Chennai, June 2 : Alcohol-based hand sanitiser makers are happy with the Central government's decision to allow its export in containers without pump dispensers. Manufacturers of alcohol-based hand sanitisers are gearing up to export the product now and are happy at the new market segments that Covid-19 has thrown up for them. On Monday, the Central government issued a notification allowing exports of alcohol-based hand sanitisers packed in containers without pump dispensers. Last month, the government had banned the export of alcohol-based hand sanitisers. "We are delighted with the easing of export restrictions on sanitisers as production had to be reduced as unsold inventories piled up. This is what was sought - to allow exports of large capacity/non-pump sanitiser," Rajiv Nath, Forum Coordinator, Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD) told IANS. Hopefully, next is permission to export three-layer masks and then-on Covid IVD (in vitro diagnostic) kits, he added. Welcoming the government's move, Sanjay Manocha, Executive Director, Sceptre Medical India Pvt Ltd, told IANS: "We can ship our products to not only to our neighbouring countries - Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan but also to others." He said India had earlier exported hand sanitisers to countries like the UK, and the UAE. Closing last fiscal with a turnover of about Rs 14 crore, Manocha now expects the company to touch turnover of Rs 40 crore. Queried about the rationale for the expected big jump, he said: "The Covid-19 pandemic has thrown open many new market segments for players like us. Earlier it used to be only hospitals that bought disinfectants. Now the entire industrial/commercial/ residential sectors are open for players like us." Similarly, the Rs 369 billion Murugappa Group's sugar major EID Parry India Ltd will also be assessing the export market. "With the amendment in export policy of alcohol-based hand sanitisers announced earlier today, we now have the opportunity to export them too. In the coming days we will assess the export demand for alcohol and hand sanitisers and accordingly take a decision on exporting these products as well," Managing Director Suresh S. told IANS. The company currently makes hospital-grade hand sanitiser for the domestic retail market comprising ethanol (denatured) and Chlorhexidine Gluconate topical solution to tap on the increasing demand for the product. The company has put in place a production capacity of 4.5 lakh litres per month (equating to about 1 million consumer packs per month). EID Parry is amongst the largest ethanol producers in South India. The ethanol is produced in the integrated sugar units across the three southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Shares is the leading weekly publication for retail investors. It is packed with investment ideas, news and educational material to help build and run portfolios and get more from your money. Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists. OPEC and its allies edged closer to a consensus on extending production cuts to prop up the oil market, even as wrangling continued for a third day about whether to bring forward their next meeting. Russia and several other OPEC+ nations favor extending the groups current production cuts by one month, according to people familiar with the situation. Its unclear if thats enough for leading OPEC member Saudi Arabia, though the proposal is within the range of the kingdoms own call for a one to three-month elongation. Oil prices have rallied from historic lows since the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and partners put an end to a vicious price war by implementing cuts on a record scale. With a tentative recovery in fuel demand as the world emerges from the coronavirus lockdown, the cartel must now decide how long to maintain tight limits on output. Fears of a second wave of infections make predictions of a recovery perilous. And at about $40 a barrel, prices are still below what most OPEC+ members need to cover government spending. As recently as last week, Russias stance was that it didnt want to extend the cuts and instead favored sticking to the original agreement to ease them from July. But a person familiar with its position said on Tuesday it was advisable to find a compromise. In March, Moscow resisted a Saudi-led proposal to deepen production cuts as coronavirus spread; talks broke down and the kingdom launched a price war that crippled producers and left gaping holes in countries budgets. Its not unusual for Russia and Saudi Arabia to hold different positions before OPEC+ talks, and on most occasions the two producers have eventually found a compromise. We do not believe there will be repeat of the March meltdown, Helima Croft, head of global commodity strategy at RBC, said in a note. We think they will seek to split the difference by agreeing to a one to three-month extension. Balancing Act With Brent crude rallying toward $40 a barrel, Saudi Arabia and Russia face another challenge as they weigh up how to manage the recovery: U.S. oil shale companies are tentatively re-starting some of their wells. Parsley Energy Inc., a medium-size shale producer in Permian basin in Texas, on Thursday said it planned to restore the vast majority of curtailments in early June amounting to 26,000 barrels a day. And in the Bakken basin, producers have already increased output by about 35,000 barrels a day from the low point of mid-May, according to North Dakota official data. On Tuesday, OPEC members were still wrangling over when to hold their next meeting. A proposal to bring it forward a few days to June 4 was floated on Saturday, but agreement on when to hold the virtual gathering was still elusive. Another sticking point in discussions is the issue of compliance -- whether members are implementing the cuts they have already promised, according to delegates. Saudi Arabia, the groups biggest member, is insisting that countries should report production figures for May, the first month of the OPEC+ coalitions latest agreement, according to a delegate who declined to be identified. Russia, which was often a laggard in the past but has stuck to its pledges this time, is also pushing for any extension to be conditional on compliance. Iraq and Nigeria, who have repeatedly flouted OPEC commitments during the past three years, made less than half of their agreed cutbacks last month, a Bloomberg survey showed on Monday. Iraqs finance minister and acting oil minister, Ali Allawi, hit back on Twitter, saying the country is committed. Despite Iraqs severe financial constraints, were addressing technical issues that will allow us to further reduce oil output, he said. The original deal -- struck in April as the virus savaged oil demand -- set out output reductions of 9.7 million barrels a day, or about 10% of global supply, for May and June. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates then made further voluntary cuts of about 1.2 million barrels a day for June, bringing the total OPEC+ curbs to almost 11 million barrels a day. Under the current OPEC+ deal, supply cuts are meant to be eased to about 7.7 million barrels a day in July, followed by an additional tapering at the start of 2021. Michelle Obama has spoken out after George Floyds death, saying it is up to all of us to root out racism. The former first lady shared her comments alongside a painted image of Floyd, a black man who was killed while pleading for air as a police officer pressed down on his neck for eight minutes. Like so many of you, Im pained by these recent tragedies, Ms Obama said. And Im exhausted by a heartbreak that never seems to stop. Right now its George, Breonna [Taylor] and Ahmaud [Arbery], she said, referring to a black woman who was shot dead by police in her home and a black man who was killed while out jogging in the US. Race and racism is a reality that so many of us grow up learning to just deal with, she said in a statement shared on social media. But if we ever hope to move past it, it cant just be on people of colour to deal with it. The former first lady added: Its up to all of usBlack, white, everyoneno matter how well-meaning we think we might be, to do the honest, uncomfortable work of rooting it out. It starts with self-examination and listening to those whose lives are different from our own. Her comments came the day after Barack Obama, her husband and former US president, shared a statement on Floyds death, saying everyone had to work together to end the legacy of bigotry and unequal treatment. Like so many of you, Im pained by these recent tragedies. And Im exhausted by a heartbreak that never seems to stop. Right now its George, Breonna, and Ahmaud. Before that it was Eric, Sandra, and Michael. It just goes on, and on, and on. pic.twitter.com/lFWEtTzVT8 Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) May 29, 2020 Its natural to wish for life to just get back to normal as a pandemic and economic crisis upend everything around us, Mr Obama said. Story continues But we have to remember that for millions of Americans, being treated differently on account of race is tragically, painfully, maddeningly normal. Floyds death has triggered days of protests around the US, with people taking to the streets in more than a dozen cities. From Los Angeles to Miami to Chicago, demonstrations marked by chants of I cant breathe a rallying cry echoing Floyds dying words began peacefully on Saturday before escalating as people blocked traffic, set fires and clashed with riot police some responding with tear gas and rubber bullets. In the nations capital, hundreds of demonstrators assembled near the Justice Department headquarters shouting black lives matter. Many later moved to the White House, where they faced off with shield-carrying police, some mounted on horseback. Protests have continued after Derek Chauvin - the now-fired police officer who pressed his knee on Floyds neck for minutes was charged third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter on Friday. Additional reporting by Reuters Read more Seven charts that show the true scale of the UK coronavirus outbreak They can blame it for everything: What coronavirus means for Brexit The Americans who think that coronavirus is a hoax Do you need a face mask and where can you buy one? UK lockdown: Can I see my family and friends under new rules? Trump threatens George Floyd protesters in DC with vicious dogs Trump says those protesting George Floyd death are radical left What sparked George Floyd protests and what happens next? Audio Attachment: Listen to Sam P Yalley Former Chief Executive Officer of the National Pensions Regulatory Authority, Lawyer Sam P Yalley has warned that a revolution, similar to what occurred on June 4th, is likely to happen again if the Electoral Commission does not tread cautiously in its unbending decision to compile a new voters' register. According to him, the June 4 uprising came about as a result of Ghanaians becoming fed up with the oppression and corruption they were experiencing. Speaking on Okay FMs Ade Akye Abia programme, he bemoaned the EC's refusal to listen to divergent opinions from Ghanaians and other stakeholders regarding the compilation of the register; and to him, this can be equated to suppression of the peoples will. "We need cool heads to explain to Ghanaians . . . but when the narrative becomes like that is how we are going to do it whether you like it or not so go to hell, that is what brought about June 4. . . " he said. Sam P. Yalley, who is Ghana's former High Commissioner to India under the erstwhile Mahama administration, further indicated that the decision by the electoral body to bulldoze its way through with the compilation of voters register is a clear manifestation of the latter's desire to disenfranchise Ghanaians. " . . but when you suppress people or when people get disenfranchised either because of misinformation or do not understand fully what is at stake there is something called citizen defiance . . . " he cautioned. Nationwide pilot registration exercise The Electoral Commission (EC) is conducting a pilot registration exercise nationwide ahead of the expected voter registration exercise later in June. A mix of residents, EC officers, and political party officials took part in the exercise nationwide. In some parts of the country, the EC officers said only stakeholders including returning officers and some party representatives have so far turned up for the exercise though it is opened to the public. Per the ECs safety protocols for the registration, it will be mandatory to wear face masks at the registration centres, peoples temperature will be checked before one is allowed into the registration centre and there will be running water available for handwashing, according to an artwork posted on the Commissions social media pages. Queues are to have one-meter gaps between persons lining up to register, the scanners will be sanitized and persons who complete the registration process will also be provided with hand sanitizer before they leave the centre. Watch Video Below Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected] Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video [June 02, 2020] Innovate UK Partner With DueDil to Accelerate Delivery of Coronavirus Loan Scheme LONDON, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Innovate UK have partnered with DueDil to get funds to small businesses faster during the Covid-19 crisis. In April the government announced 750m of support for those small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) that are most intensively involved in research and development (R&D). The support package available through Innovate UK, the national innovation agency, was introduced to accelerate loan payments for new and existing customers to help them to continue their innovation projects that may have otherwise been halted or delayed due to the Covid-19 crisis. Innovate UK will be working with company intelligence platform, DueDil , to deliver loans to businesses in need in record time. DueDil enables Innovate UK to accelerate the lending process by providing authoritative insights on over 4.5 million UK companies in real time, so the Innovate UK Loans Credit Team can quickly assess business suitability for loans and deliver fast decisions to SMEs. DueDil and Innovate UK have worked together since 2018 when Innovate UK launched their Innovation Loans programme for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with highly innovative late stage projects. Innovate UK approached DueDil to help shape their credit decisioning process in order to assess loan applications at speed with authoritative insights. This work set the stage for Innovate UK launching the recently announced government loan scheme to support existing and new Innovate UK award holders continue their innovation activities through the pandemic. Justin Fitzpatrick, Co-founder and CEO of DueDil, commented: "Innovate UK has a critical role in disbursing the 750m package for the UK's most research and development intensive small businesses. By enabling Innovate UK to quickly assess business suitability, we help speed up the evaluation process and reduce the time to fund. For many SMEs, having access to financial support during this time is crucial for their survival. It is also vital that we continue to promote small businesses and maintain the UK's position as a leading innovation hub during and beyond the Covid-19 crisis. We are glad to be playing our part." Emily Hogg, Head of Lending & Investment Operations at Innovate UK, said: "The data we are able to readily view in DueDil allows us to be confident in our due diligence checks when conducting background research on applicant companies. The amount of data DueDil manages to capture, all in one place, has really helped to speed up our processing time, enabling faster decisions and ultimately quicker disbursements to SMEs." DueDil joins other external partners, PwC , Moody's Analytics and Early Metrics , to help Innovate UK deliver new systems and features, at pace and at scale, to facilitate the support package for innovative SMEs. About DueDil Founded in 2011, DueDil is a company intelligence platform that delivers insights on more than 50 million companies and the people behind them. Its Business Information Graph (B.I.G.) ingests billions of data points a day from authoritative sources and connect the dots to create insight that is accurate, comprehensive and unique. More than 400 clients rely on DueDil's technology as an end-to-end solution for go-to-market execution, compliant onboarding and risk monitoring, helping them empower decision making and accelerate growth. In March 2020 DueDil was named RegTech Partner of the Year for the second year running at the British Banking Awards in recognition for its work transforming the digital customer journey for tens of thousands of UK SMEs. DueDil has a number of well-known clients, including Santander, Metro Bank, Aon and TSB Bank. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] (Natural News) We got a little glimpse into the deep state elite lineup before they managed to sweep it under rug. (Article by Joe Jarvis republished from TheDailyBell.com) But we shouldnt forget who was associated with the well-known child sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein. One of those people was Alan Dershowitz. He is a Harvard Law School professor and high-profile defense lawyer. He helped get Jeffrey Epstein out of his first charges of sexual abuse against underage girls back in 2005. The facts: -Alan Dershowitz met Jeffrey Epstein in 1996 and flew with him to a party thrown by Epsteins most prominent (only?) wealth management client, billionaire Les Wexner. -In 2005, Dershowitz arranged a cushy non-prosecution agreement that allowed Epstein to serve only 13 months in prison for sexually abusing underage girls. Epstein was allowed on a work-release program which meant he could spend most of his time in prison outside of prison, in his nearby office. -Dershowitz appeared on the flight logs for Epsteins private plane, dubbed the Lolita Express 11 times. The accusations: -Alan Dershowitz is accused by a known victim of Epsteins of also sexually abusing her. She claims she was told to have sex with Dershowitz at least six times as a 17-year-old, on Epsteins plane, on Epsteins island, and in Epsteins Florida home. -In the 1970s Dershowitz allegedly beat his first wife, Sue Barlach, so badly that she required hospitalization. She had discovered him having an affair and threw some of his legal documents into the street, which precipitated the attack. -After the divorce, Dershowitz took custody of their kids, and Sue Barlach died in an apparent suicide. She may have jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge. Her body was pulled from the East River in 1983. This is just a basic summary. The more you look into the guy, the sketchier he gets. But now that we know the type of person we are talking about, lets get into Dershowitzs latest remarks on vaccinations. Speaking about the government forcing people to receive a potential coronavirus vaccine, Dershowitz said: Let me put it very clearly, you have no constitutional right to endanger the public and spread the disease, even if you disagree. You have no right not to be vaccinated, you have no right not to wear a mask, you have no right to open up your business And if you refuse to be vaccinated, the state has the power to literally take you to a doctors office and plunge a needle into your arm. He conceded that you have the right to make your own medical decisions when it comes to non-contagious diseases. But the fact that something is contagious means your rights go out the window. Of course, Dershowitzs sketchy past doesnt automatically mean he is wrong about everything he thinks. But it does make you wonder when obvious members of the deep state shadow government elite start championing mandatory vaccines. And dont mistake this for an anti-vaccine sentiment in general. I dont care about the arguments for or against vaccines. Arguing against forced vaccination has absolutely nothing to do with their effectiveness or potential harm. It has everything to do with an individuals control over his or her own body also known as consent. Clearly, Dershowitz doesnt understand the concept of consent. According to the elite, you have no right to earn a living, run a business, or exercise any other basic freedoms if the government arbitrarily decides a particular virus floating around is bad enough. Because thats really the issue right? This is not a disease with a 50% kill rate. And if it was, Dershowitzs argument might hold some water. But the burden of proof would still have to rest on the government to prove that forcing a vaccine on you was akin to restraining a man pointing a loaded gun into a crowd. If the government was to attempt forced vaccination, it should abide by the same legal standards of due process and the rights of the accused. They would have to accuse unvaccinated people of a crime threatening to infect others through negligence. Otherwise, they have absolutely no legal authoritythey always have their gunsto do so. The problem is first, that the government is not infallible. It doesnt really matter whether their intentions are noble or not. They have been wrong about the dangers of diseases, and wrong about the safety of vaccines. The government has been wrong time and time againnot just in regards to healthcareand caused great harm with their allegedly good intentions. And of course, the second problem is that the government does not deserve to be trusted. Trust is earned by having been trustworthy in the past. This is a government that, under the guise of giving free medical care, observed black men die of syphilis. The government didnt tell them they had syphilis because the Tuskegee syphilis experiment was to watch the horrific progression of the untreated disease. This went on until 1972. This is a government that has lied about the reasons for going to war, lied about unconstitutional surveillance on American citizens, and lied about too many coverups to count. Oh, and then theres the whole pedophile-child-sex-trafficking-ring involving top government officials, which has been swept under the rug since Epstein committed suicide in federal prison, while the guards, oops! werent watching and the video surveillance, oops! went missing. There is no trust because the government has lost the trust with corruption, incompetence, and downright evil. And it is not insignificant that the cheerleader for forced vaccinations here is part of the downright evil camp. Read more at: TheDailyBell.com and Epstein.news. Washington: China has moved up its forces along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday, asserting that authoritarian regimes take these kinds of actions. Several areas along the LAC in Ladakh and North Sikkim have witnessed major military build-up by both the Indian and Chinese armies recently, in a clear signal of escalating tension and hardening of respective positions by the two sides even two weeks after they were engaged in two separate face-offs. "We see even today increasing forces of China moved up to the north of India on the Line of Actual Control there on the Indian border," Pompeo told Marc Thiessen and Danielle Pletka of AEI's 'What The Hell Is Going On' Podcast. The Communist Party of China (CPC) continues to hide and obfuscate and delay the global response to the coronavirus pandemic that began in Wuhan. It has taken actions destroying the amazing freedoms of the people of Hong Kong, he said. "Those are just two pieces of the behaviour of this regime of the Chinese Communist Party. The nature and the activity that they're undertaking, the continued efforts to steal intellectual property, to advance in the South China Sea," he said. Pompeo said that these are the kinds of actions that authoritarian regimes take, and they have a real impact not only on the Chinese people there in China and Hong Kongers in Hong Kong, but a real impact on people all around the world. "The United States has a responsibility and the capability to push back against that, ensure that the American people are properly served by a foreign policy that recognises the threats that emanate from China today," he said. Responding to a question, Pompeo said that the recent Chinese actions be it on the India border, or Hong Kong or the South China Sea, have been part of the Chinese behaviour in the recent past. "It's not just over the past six months. We've seen over the past number of years continued Chinese build out of their military capabilities, and then continually more aggressive action. I mentioned India. You've mentioned the South China Sea. "We see these same kind of things with them attempting to build ports around the world as part of their Belt and Road Initiative, places where they can move the People's Liberation Army Navy. We've seen their continued efforts to expand militarily," Pompeo said. For the past 20 years, the US has not responded to these things in a real way, he said. "We've viewed the 1.5 billion people in the Chinese market as so important to the American economy, and the risk that the Chinese would respond by closing us out for the favour of some other nation. I think people have just been too worried about that to actually take the responses that we take to every other country that behaves in the way that China has done," Pompeo said. President Donald Trump has not done that, he asserted. "Trump's made it very clear whether it's the signature issue on trade... reciprocal trade... and now beginning to move to all the other elements of power that the Chinese Communist Party is trying to expand," he added. On May 15, 2020, Martha Connelly Zauher of Florence, Montana passed away at the age of 75. Martha was born on June 25, 1944 in the Bronx, NYC to Ed and Joan Gallagher. When she was still young, her folks moved to Scotch Plains, New Jersey, where she grew up with her younger brothers, Richard and Andy. Martha went to Mount Saint Mary's High School and graduated from Trinity College in Vermont where she majored in Education and Literature. Eventually, she earned her Master's Degree in Education with a Principal's Endorsement from Montana State University in Billings. Martha met John Zauher of Redding, California, while they were both living in Denver, Colorado. Martha's eclectic nature drew her and John together with her love of literature, poetry, music, theatre and film. They built a life and family together during their almost 52-year marriage, moving to Billings, Montana, in 1981 where they raised their two sons, Dylan and Neil. Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. Police in California have arrested four minors, the youngest being 10 years old, on vandalism charges after the boys allegedly hurled a scooter through the window of a store in Stockton during George Floyd protests. According to a press release from the Stockton Police Department, officers responded at 5.35pm on Sunday to a report of a vandalism at the Home Goods store at Sherwood Mall. The person who made the 911 call said a group of youths were seen throwing a Razor scooter through the window of the business, causing property damage. Scroll down for video Police in Stockton, California, arrested a 10-year-old, two 12-year-olds and a 16-year-old boy on vandalism counts for allegedly hurling a Razor scooter through this store window Workers are seen boarding up the smashed window at the vandalized Home Goods store at Sherwood Mall Upon arriving at the scene, bystanders pointed the officers in the direction the underage suspects had fled. Police managed to track them down and take them into custody. The youngest of the boys was 10 years old, two were aged 12 and one was a 16-year-old. All four were arrested for vandalism. The police agency said that while it supports the right of the people to protest, it will not tolerate property damage. 'Parents please know where your children are at. You are responsible for them,' the statement read. Earlier in the day, police said a group of 12 minors broke into the closed Weberstown Mall in Stockton and vandalized three stores. On Monday, three juveniles, aged 16 and 17, and a 24-year-old man were arrested for allegedly breaking into and looting a Walmart on Trinity Way in Stockton during the unrest on Sunday. Nearly $4,000 in stolen merchandise was recovered and the four suspects were charged with looting, burglary, robbery and conspiracy. Also on Sunday, a group of youths broke into this Walmart on Trinity Way in Stockton Police are seen responding to George Floyd protests in Stockton over the weekend Looting incidents have been reported throughout the country amid raging protests decrying the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old black man, died in police custody after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes as the handcuffed man pleaded he could not breathe. Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Floyd's death, along with the recent killings of Breonne Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, sparked mass protests from coast to coast, resulting in violent clashes with police, loss of life, countless injuries, arrests and widespread property damage. TICKERS: FENX Source: Peter Epstein for Streetwise Reports (6/1/20) Peter Epstein of Epstein Research profiles an explorer in Colombia with a project on the same prolific gold belt as Buritica. The importance of good community relations and avoiding serious outcomes from bad environmental stewardship is paramount. Moreover, in the age of COVID-19 and a 7-year high in the gold price, investors are increasingly interested in countries with abundant mineral resources, that are not among the top producers, countries like Colombia. At the same time, due to COVID-19, local communities will be in need of good, longer-term, high-paying jobs. Although Colombia remains riskier than the U.S., Canada or Australia, most of the country is considerably less risky than at least three of the world's top six gold producing countriesChina, Russia and Indonesia. Colombia has a globally significant endowment of potentially mineable metals, yet has been woefully under-explored. The ability of foreign firms to safely conduct mining activities in Colombia is improving. The newly elected federal government is pro-resource development as a means of accelerating government royalty revenue. For example, it is spearheading a national US$25 billion infrastructure program building roads, highways, bridges and tunnels to improve logistics throughout the Andes. It doesn't hurt that giant Zijin Mining recently acquired Canadian junior Continental Gold for US$1.05 billion = ~C$1.5 billion (at today's C$ exchange rate) in cash (share price tripled in year leading up to takeout) outbidding Newmont Corp. for a truly world-class Colombian asset. Continental discovered and developed Buritica, one of the highest grade, pre-production projects in the world. Buritica had 5.67 million Measured and Indicated ounces at ~11 g/t Au Eq, + 6.46 million Inferred ounces at ~9.2 g/t Au Eq. At US$1,200/oz gold, this project had an after-tax NPV(5%) of US$860 million and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 31.2%, and a whopping US$1.6 billion NPV & 48% IRR at today's spot price of ~US$1,722/oz. An estimated All-In Sustainable Cost (AISC) of ~US$600/oz places it in the bottom decile of the global cost curve. Newmont wanted Buritica. AngloGold Ashanti is active in Colombia. B2Gold has an open pit JV with AngloGold that's expected to deliver a BFS within nine months. Gran Colombia is the largest underground gold-silver producer in the country (until the Buritica mine starts later this year). Gold-heavy juniors include; Caldas Gold, Royal Road Minerals, Outcrop Gold, Antioquia Gold, Cordoba Minerals and FenixOro. FenixOro Gold Corp. (FENX:CSE) is a company that readers should take a closer look at. Shareholders believe it could be the next Continental Gold, that its Abriaqui project could be another Buritica. Even if one considers this view an exaggeration (we need to see some drill results), many critical factors suggest the claim is within the realm of possibility. Led by CEO John Carlesso, a 25-year veteran of the international business world and founder/director of a number of companies. John was VP Corporate Development for Desert Sun Mining when it was acquired by Yamana Gold for $750 million. Over the past 18 years, Mr. Carlesso has focused on LATAM deals. Since 2007, >80 million ounces of gold have been discovered on the 200 km long Middle Cauca gold belt (one of the most prolific in the world) hosting Buritica and FenixOro's Abriaqui projects. AngloGold Ashanti has two 20+ million ounce deposits in the belt. Notably, Abriaqui at ~550 hectares is packed into a much smaller footprint than Buritica at 75,000+ hectares. How is it possible that Abriaqui could potentially host a multi-million ounce deposit on just a 5 sq km surface footprint? For an answer, I asked newly appointed VP of Exploration (and a director) Stuart Moller (more on him later). He turned me to slide 8 of the May 2020 corporate presentation, explaining that the entirety of Buritica's resource fits onto roughly one quarter (1/4) of the area of the Abriaqui project. Moller said, "As shown in the inset of slide 8, the entire Buritica resource is contained within the 100-hectare red box, shown at the same scale as the Abriaqui map in the figure. Comparing the outcrop area and dense spacing of the Abriaqui veins with Buritica's footprint, we believe we have plenty of room for a sizable orebody within our licenses." I invite readers to continue reading and to consider the risk-reward proposition here. FENX's Enterprise Value (EV) [market cap cash + debt] of ~C$14 million is less than 1/100 (< 1%) the size of Continental Gold's takeout value. Although admittedly an apples to oranges comparison until/unless a significant discovery is made by FenixOro, investors should know in a matter of months, not years, if there's something exciting that warrants further drilling. The secret to the blue-sky potential at Abriaqui, and Buritica's existing 12M+ Au Eq resource, is the depth and continuity of mineralization across each company's project areas. The technical team at FenixOro has already traced high-grade gold veins over ~900 meters of vertical extent, from gold outcrops at ~2,800 meters elevation, to workings at ~1,800 meters. Buritica has greater than 1,200 meters of vertical extent and remains open at depth. FenixOro's Abriaqui project is directly on trend, and ~15 km west of Buritica. Closeology is nice, but there's a lot more to this story. First and foremost, there's VP of Exploration/Director Stuart Moller. With 40 years' experience in international mineral exploration, he held senior roles with Barrick and Pan American Silver. As VP of Exploration at Continental Gold, Mr. Moller led the team that discovered Buritica and was in charge of the first 270 drill holes. Few, if any, geologists on the planet are better suited to find the next Buritica deposit than Mr. Moller. He and his technical team are anxious to conduct the very first meaningful, modern drill program on FenixOro's property. Armed with a great team, 40 years' exploration under his belt and invaluable experience from drilling a giant discovery just 15 km away, Mr. Moller is understandably quite excited and optimistic. At the same time, he's realistic. He told me that as bullish as he sounds over the phone, one never knows what a deposit holds until you drill it. The time has come to show the world what's hidden below surface, not just talk about it. Second, a fully funded [6,000 meters, 1820 holes] phase 1 drill program is expected to start in about two or three months. Unlike giant exploration properties where there can be hundreds of drill holes before a large discovery is made, management expects to identify a lot of mineralization in phase 1. Readers should note, FenixOro has already delineated >100 narrow, high-grade veins. Readers should note, it's not just narrow (~30150 cm wide, tightly spaced, several meters apart) high-grade and possibly ultra-high-grade veins (>50 g/t). Equally important is the grade of mineralization between the veins. Investors will get a sense of this from phase 1 drill results starting in late summer or early fall. Third, the gold price at US$1,722/oz is a spectacular development. Until recently, I never mentioned strength in the gold price as an investment merit. This year is different. I believe gold will stay strong at least through January 2021, due to the economic fallout from COVID-19, global debt-fueled stimulus programs/money printing and U.S. elections. If Trump loses, some fear his departure from office in January could be contentious. Fourth, not only is Colombia well-endowed with minerals, it's a low-cost jurisdiction to explore and develop. Fifth, as mentioned, the Colombian government is spending up to US$25 billion on infrastructure projects. A major 4-lane highway, complete with new power lines, from Medellin will come within 4 km of the Abriaqui project, cutting travel time in half to under two hours. Despite not having drilled yet, a great deal is already known about the Abriaqui project. Over 300 chip or channel samples have been taken with assays of up to 146 g/t gold. More than 15% were >20 g/t gold. Hundreds of soil samples are in the lab awaiting assays. Greater than 100 high-grade veins have been mapped. We can be reasonably sure that water, labor and power availability will not be a problem. Mr. Moller has lined up a well-known Canadian drill contractor, at very low cost. Community relations are strong. FenixOro has prudently partnered with a third generation local mining cooperative. As mentioned, strong continuity and upwards of 1,000 meters of vertical extent support the possibility of a large or very large gold deposit. The gold is "free-milling," as can be seen in the production from small water-driven gravity separation mills on the property. FenixOro Gold Corp. (CSE: FENX) is fully funded well into next year. Therefore, evidence of something potentially worth much more than the company's current EV of just C$14 million could come by the fall, well before the need to raise additional equity capital. Peter Epstein is the founder of Epstein Research. His background is in company and financial analysis. He holds an MBA degree in financial analysis from New York University's Stern School of Business. Disclosures: The content of this article is for information only. Readers fully understand and agree that nothing contained herein, written by Peter Epstein of Epstein Research [ER], (together, [ER]) about FENIXORO GOLD., including but not limited to, commentary, opinions, views, assumptions, reported facts, calculations, etc. is not to be considered implicit or explicit investment advice. Nothing contained herein is a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell any security. [ER] is not responsible under any circumstances for investment actions taken by the reader. [ER] has never been, and is not currently, a registered or licensed financial advisor or broker/dealer, investment advisor, stockbroker, trader, money manager, compliance or legal officer, and does not perform market making activities. [ER] is not directly employed by any company, group, organization, party or person. The shares of FENIXORO GOLD CORP. are highly speculative, not suitable for all investors. Readers understand and agree that investments in small cap stocks can result in a 100% loss of invested funds. It is assumed and agreed upon by readers that they will consult with their own licensed or registered financial advisors before making any investment decisions. At the time this article was posted, FENIXORO GOLD CORP. was an advertiser on [ER] and Peter Epstein owned shares in the Company. Readers understand and agree that they must conduct their own due diligence above and beyond reading this article. While the author believes he's diligent in screening out companies that, for any reasons whatsoever, are unattractive investment opportunities, he cannot guarantee that his efforts will (or have been) successful. [ER] is not responsible for any perceived, or actual, errors including, but not limited to, commentary, opinions, views, assumptions, reported facts & financial calculations, or for the completeness of this article or future content. [ER] is not expected or required to subsequently follow or cover events & news, or write about any particular company or topic. [ER] is not an expert in any company, industry sector or investment topic. Streetwise Reports Disclosure: 1) Peter Epstein's disclosures are listed above. 2) The following companies mentioned in the article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. 3) Statements and opinions expressed are the opinions of the author and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The author is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. 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The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases. Graphics provided by the author. Lassociation Le fardier de Cugnot a ete creee en 2009 pour coordonner la phase de construction de la replique fonctionnelle du fardier a lechelle dorigine (echelle 1) ainsi que pour preparer et gerer son exploitation. Le fardier de CUGNOT est considere comme la premiere AUTO MOBILE de lhistoire car cest le premier vehicule terrestre capable de se mouvoir seul sans l'utilisation de la force animale. Le projet a debute en 2007. Il est INITIE par la commune de VOID-VACON (MEUSE) en LORRAINE, village natal de Nicolas Joseph Cugnot. Construit en 1769 par CUGNOT, ingenieur militaire francais, cet engin militaire etait destine a deplacer des canons ou leurs affuts. Reste a letat de prototype, il na jamais servi. Comment est nee lidee de construire une replique fonctionnelle du fardier. * En 1991 et 1993, pour honorer la memoire de N.J.Cugnot, Void-Vacon met en place des manifestations sur le theme des machines a vapeur. Elles ont un franc succes et montrent un interet evident pour lillustre inventeur. * En 2004, annee du bicentenaire de la mort de Cugnot, une grande fete A Toutes Vapeurs est organisee. A cette occasion, un enfant du village, Fabrice Genisson, construit des maquettes du fardier au 1/20. Le nouveau maire a l'epoque, Andre Jannot, linterpelle et, un peu sur le ton de la plaisanterie, lui dit Mais toi qui est ingenieur des Arts et Metiers, tu ne pourrais pas trouver un moyen pour nous aider a construire une replique du fardier grandeur nature ? Trois ans plus tard, le projet est lance ! Il est conduit par lEcole des Arts et Metiers ParisTech avec le concours du Musee des Arts et Metiers de Paris. En construisant la replique fonctionnelle du fardier a lechelle 1, VOID-VACON voulait prouver que celui-ci fonctionnait reellement. Ce qui est fait le 18 septembre 2010 : les tours de roues officiels ont lieu lors des journees du patrimoine. Presentee lors de manifestations publiques durant ces dix premieres annees, la replique du fardier a un objectif pedagogique. Avec elle, l'association promeut les dimensions historique et culturelle de sa region. Nous aurons prochainement dans la commune, un Espace culturel ou sera expose le fardier et dedie a N.J. Cugnot. De nombreuses informations sont fournies sur le site (historiques, techniques, financieres etc.). Nous vous souhaitons une agreable visite et esperons vous accueillir regulierement, le site etant periodiquement actualise. PITTSBURGH The Steelers talk about George Floyd and the police and racism. They mostly agree, James Conner said, and are hopeful while hardly hiding from the subject internally. I dont feel its my place to talk for the whole organization, but we definitely know and feel whats going on. were impacted by it, Conner said via conference call Tuesday. "I think just to speak for myself, I know a lot of the guys feel the same way: That change needs to done, it needs to be done quick. "So we definitely talked about things and were hopeful that things will get better as well. Floyd died last Monday with Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvins knee on his neck for nine minutes. Later last week, Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Prosecutors said Floyds autopsy stated there were no signs of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation. An independent autopsy by the Hennepin County medical examiner ruled his death a homicide. Protests against police brutality and racism on the part of the police around the country have been met with abuse from police. Below is a video from Conners hometown of Erie. Protests started in Erie.. a girl here was peacefully protesting, after 15 minutes she was maced and kicked.. #PoliceBrutality pic.twitter.com/nC6HhXMpCe Nick / nak5132 (@the7goonies) May 31, 2020 The video below was taken in Pittsburgh at least an hour before curfew: Protestors were chanting when the police came and started throwing tear gas. Not sure what made them do that. East Liberty #PittsburghProtest. pic.twitter.com/qmSxYdV9ep Gautam Yadav (@gautamyadav818) June 1, 2020 Conner has shared and re-shared messages of support for protesters on social media in the last week. And on Tuesday he offered some actionable advice to White people. Before you say those things that you dont truly understand or think that thought youve been trained to think, listen to this and dig deeper. #13th #JusticeForGeorge pic.twitter.com/VQtcCe508y Ava DuVernay (@ava) May 30, 2020 A couple close friends of mine, they reached out. And I think thats exactly what it is. People who maybe arent Black, who dont understand what its like, I think maybe the best thing that they can do is reach out to their Black friends and let them know how they feel and keep that relationship. Because you know we want to stay together and not get divided, and relationships could be different and we cant let em. "We have to stay together. So I think you just reach out and Ive had friends reach out to me and it means a lot. Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. New Delhi, June 2 : Though social distancing norm went for a toss at the New Delhi railway station on Tuesday with people jostling to enter the station from the Paharganj side, the railways seems to be returning on its track. Authorised porters (coolies) in their red shirts and badges, retailers of various items -- with face masks and gloves dominating their offerings -- and passengers with their luggage were back on the station. The situation at the station looked grim, a day after the railways started the 200 time-tabled trains across the country. Very few GRP (Government Railway Police) personnel were there to man the entry gates. Rajesh Gaud, a native of Buxer in Bihar who was at the station with family to catch a train, told IANS, "I am going back to my native place as there is no work here." He could return to Delhi after two-three months after normalisation of the situation, Gaud added. On the social distancing norm in the train, he said, "We will have to follow that. There is no choice." Sakharam, who arrived here from Nanded in Maharashtra, said, "I am happy that I got the train ticket to come back to Delhi. I was stranded there for the last two months due to lockdown." He said people were following the protocol of social distancing in trains and one should not fear. The railway porters (coolies) in red shirts were also visible at the station premises. Rizwan, who works as a porter at the New Delhi railway station, was happy to resume his work. "During the lockdown we went jobless. To feed the family, I was dependent upon free meals provided by the railways or the NGOs outside the station. But now at least I could earn Rs 200 to feed the family," said Rizwan, a native of Rajasthan. Echoing Rizwan, Omprakash, another porter, said there was no work for the last two months. At Rs 200-300 a day, the income is less due to lesser number of passengers compared with pre-lockdown days. But thank god, at least I am earning that." The starting of trains has also thrown up opportunities for others. Many people who lost there regular jobs are opting to earn their living by selling face masks and surgical gloves to passengers. Arun, a resident of Karol Bagh, said, "I worked as a salesman at a kurta showroom. I lost my job due to lockdown. To feed my family, I have started selling face masks and gloves to passengers. I earn Rs 200-300 a day and that's enough to feed the family." Once big stores and showrooms opened he would try to get a job there, Arun added. The railways started to run the 200 time-tabled special trains on Monday and is also operating the Shramik special trains since May 1, and 15 pairs of special air-conditioned trains since May 12. The passenger trains were stopped on March 25 as the nationwide lockdown was annonced to check spread of coronavirus. (Anand Singh can be contacted at anand.s@ians.in) Pegasus Development AG seizes the moment to present its new brand Pegastril Nuevo The coronavirus pandemic harbours the potential for enormous growth in specific industries. To that end, however, it's important to identify which markets will be dominant in the future. One of the key growth sectors is the production and distribution of disinfectants and associated technologies. Regardless of whether a cure for, or vaccine against, COVID-19 is developed, protection against viruses and bacteria has become incredibly important across the globe and will continue to be a concern going forward. This was one of the reasons why Pegasus Development AG decided to partner with the British disinfectant manufacturer Nuevo. One of the decisive factors choosing Nuevo was its highly competitive product, which is free from alcohol, animal products, perfume, essential oils or dyes. Furthermore, the product has already been tested according to the highest stipulations of the European standard EN 1276, is manufactured according to the latest regulations of the European Biocides Directive and has already been approved by the civil aviation authority. Pegasus Development AG intends to make further inroads into this market, through the partnership with Nuevo and the newly created Pegastril-Nuevo brand www.pegastrilnuevo.ch. The Swiss holding company is not limiting itself just to production and distribution, but offering integrated solutions in the form of spray systems and disinfection systems. The Swiss holding company has already started production and, together with international technology companies, has secured patents. A number of orders for "human disinfection" devices have not only been received but are already being delivered. In addition to government inquiries from the Middle East and Africa, several European banks have expressed interest in this technology for their branch networks. Thanks in particular to the patents acquired, Pegasus Development AG plans to become one of the most important global players, helping to shape the market. Profits generated through the sale of technology licenses represent a milestone at Pegasus Development AG and should give the company the decisive advantage required, not only to assert itself against the competition, but to play a central role in the industry in the long term. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005566/en/ Contacts: Pegasus Development AG Ringstrasse 14 7000 Chur, Switzerland VAT identification number: CHE-101.302.444 VAT Commercial register number: CH-514.3.024.934-4 Board member: Roberto Spano Tel: +41 815 880508 Fax: +41 815 440444 Email: info@pegasusdevelopment.ch LEI: 549300936ZV4UZCW5027 As we reported HERE, May 31st, 2020 marked the centenary for the successful conclusion of Arturo Ferrarin and Guido Masieros epic 19,000 km Rome-to-Tokyo long distance flight. As we noted in our earlier story, only two of the initial eleven aircrews made it all the way from Italy to Japan, arriving in Tokyo within an hour of each on May 31st, 1920. As the first pilot to fly from Europe to Japan, Ferrarin has been honored in a number of ways over the years. Italys flag carrier, Alitalia, christened their second Boeing 747 airliner as Arturo Ferrarin in 1970 on the feats golden anniversary (their first 747 being named after Neil Armstrong). Now, as part of their centenary celebrations, the Italian Air Force has applied a commemorative scheme to five of their SIAI S.208 trainers, each of them sporting tail markings picturing Arturo Ferrarins face, his signature and a 100th anniversary logo. But the airport in Thiene, Italy, aptly named in Ferrarins honor, has gone one better with a repaint of their locally-based static-display F-104 Starfighter On May 31st, 2020, the centenary of Ferrarins arrival in Tokyo, the airport unveiled their newly-refurbished, former Italian Air Force Lockheed F-104ASA/M, freshly repainted in a beautiful livery created by Basso Design. Ferrarin was born in Thiene on February 13th, 1895, and given his prolific aviation exploits, its no surprise that the towns airport is also named after him. Sadly the COVID-19 pandemic has postponed the formal public celebrations until this time next year, but it is still wonderful to see this aircraft represented here for our virtual celebration of this epic centenary According to Daniele Mattiuzzo, a local aviation enthusiast, this Starfighter is actually a composite assembled from two former Italian Air Force Starfighters, serial numbers MM6733 and MM6914, as indicated by the two data plates present on the airplane. The aircraft arrived at Thiene in its present configuration on July 8th, 2007. Mattiuzzo has been able to tabulate the history of each airplane here for us: F-104S MM6914: Delivered to the Italian Air Force on July 5th, 1977 with the 155th Group CB (Fighter-bomber)/51 Wing at Istrana AB. Aeritalia conducted 2nd IRAN in Caselle from 05/20/88 to 02/13/90, upgrading to F-104S-ASA in CIO variant (All Weather Interceptor) Alenia conducted 3rd IRAN in Caselle from 09/09/97 to 05/27/99, converted to F-104S-ASA/M Last flight at Grazzanise AB on September 12, 2003, after a total of 3,240 flight hours, sporting the the aircraft codes 4-1 F-104S MM6733: Delivered to ItAF on November 11th, 1970 and assigned to the 9th Group/4 Wing in Grosseto with the code 4-14 Aeritalia conducted 3rd IRAN in Caselle from 07/09/86 to 12/03/87, upgrading to F-104S-ASA (Aggiornamento Sistema dArma) Alenia conducted 5th IRAN in Caselle from 01/18/91 to 02/01/93, upgrading to F-104S-ASA/M Last flight at Grazzanise AB on May 5th, 2004 after 5,450 flight hours, sporting the code 4-51 A marvelous set of photographs from our good friend Luigino Caliaro showing the composite F-104 at Thiene in her new livery alongside the lineup of five currently serving SIAI S.208 trainers. Welcome to Morningstar.co.uk! You have been redirected here from Hemscott.com as we are merging our websites to provide you with a one-stop shop for all your investment research needs.To search for a security, type the name or ticker in the search box at the top of the page and select from the dropdown results.Registered Hemscott users can log in to Morningstar using the same login details. Similarly, if you are a Hemscott Premium user, you now have a Morningstar Premium account which you can access using the same login details. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 2, 2020 17:43 597 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb9932e 1 National hajj-cancellation,hajj-pilgrimage,COVID-19,coronavirus,Religious-Affairs-Minister,Fachrul-Razi Free Hundreds of thousands of Indonesian would-be pilgrims have had to put their haj plans on hold this year as the worlds largest Muslim-majority country has officially decided to cancel the 2020 haj over coronavirus concerns. Sri Kustini, 60, is just one of the people who had plans to embark on a haj trip this year. She has been waiting for years to go to Saudi Arabia, having registered for the pilgrimage in 2014. She said she had paid in February the full amount for the trip, which cost her hundreds of millions of rupiah in total. The resident of Gunung Kidul, Yogyakarta, said she found out about the government cancelling this year's haj from the news, which she forwarded to other would-be pilgrims. Her travel agent, Sri said, had yet to issue any announcement regarding the suspension. "Maybe Allah has yet to allow us to visit. We are neither disappointed nor upset. There will be another time," Sri told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. "We accept the government's decision. We just need certainty that we will go [on haj] when this [the pandemic] has ended." Indonesia, which has the largest quota of haj pilgrims in the world, initially planned to send up to 221,000 people for the annual Muslim tradition. The Religious Affairs Ministry recorded that nearly 180,000 of the pilgrims had paid for their scheduled journeys. However, Religious Affairs Minister Fachrul Razi said the ongoing pandemic, as well as Saudi Arabia's indefinite suspension on haj and umrah (minor haj) trips, did not leave enough time for the government to prepare people's visas and protection measures. "There is no haj departure this year. Those who have paid and registered will be placed for next years departure, Fachrul said on Tuesday. Fachrul, who also cited safety and health concerns as other factors behind the government's decision, claimed he had discussed the cancellation with the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) and the House of Representatives. He asserted that those who had paid off haj travel costs (BIPIH) would embark on the haj in 2021. The central administration would also return the BIPIH to regional administrations. Jakarta previously expected Saudi authorities to announce the final decision regarding pilgrimages on May 13. The first batch of Indonesian pilgrims was initially scheduled to depart on June 26. The Islamic kingdom suspended haj and umrah visits due to the coronavirus crisis. On May 28, the Saudi government announced that the suspension would remain in effect, even with certain COVID-19 restrictions having been eased, Gulf News reported. According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, Saudi Arabia had recorded 87,142 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 525 deaths as of Tuesday. Besides Indonesia, Singapore also decided to defer this years haj for its 900 pilgrims to 2021 due to the pandemic. National Haj and Umrah Commission chairman Mustolih Siradj said he appreciated Fachrul's decision, noting that the ministry had made the call without having to wait for an official announcement from Saudi Arabia. "This is a strong signal that we, as the largest Muslim population in the world, can stand for our people and make decisions without having to rely on other countries, he said. Some lawmakers, however, claimed that the government did not consult the House before announcing the cancellation, with the chairman of the House Commission VIII overseeing religious affairs, Yandri Susanto, saying that, by doing so, Fachrul had violated Law No. 8/2019 on haj and umrah. "It was so sudden. A haj cancellation should not be decided unilaterally by the government, but also the House, Yandri said. "But the minister announced it today instead; maybe he was not aware of the law." The National Mandate Party (PAN) executive went on to say that the government seemed to be avoiding responsibility by cancelling this year's pilgrimage, which he said had shown that the government was not ready to send pilgrims from the beginning. Yandri said the commission had scheduled a hearing with the government on June 4 to discuss the matter. Diah Pitaloka of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) concurred with Yandri, saying that the ministry should have consulted the House before canceling the haj. "This involves trillions [of rupiah] of money. It's not just like, We cant go now, so we can go next time. We have to decide it together, formally, she said. She further called on the government to ensure that this years pilgrims are prioritized for next years trips, adding that the ministry should use the situation as an opportunity to comprehensively evaluate the pilgrimage. America's allies and adversaries can't believe what they are witnessing unfold in Washington, D.C. a police officer punching an Australian cameraman and using his shield to strike him in the chest, while another officer uses a baton to hit the correspondent as the news crew attempts to flee. Violent, chaotic scenes like this have been seen elsewhere around the globe but other countries are reacting with horror as they are not used to seeing them in the heart of the U.S. capital. After days of nationwide demonstrations over the death of George Floyd, police were using tear gas, projectiles and mounted officers to forcefully scatter peaceful protesters near the White House, all so President Donald Trump could walk to St. John's Episcopal Church for a photo opportunity. "They don't care; they are being indiscriminate," Amelia Brace, the correspondent with Australia's Channel 7, said breathlessly after running from the scene. "They chased us down that street. They were firing these rubber bullets at everyone. There's tear gas now and we're surrounded." Watch the shocking moment #7NEWS reporter @AmeliaBrace and our cameraman were knocked over by a police officer LIVE on air after chaos erupted in Washington DC. pic.twitter.com/R8KJLnfxPN Sunrise (@sunriseon7) June 1, 2020 It was not the only recent clash involving police and the protesters, or journalists. On Friday, CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez and the crew working with him were arrested live on air in Minneapolis. But the sight of officers repeatedly striking a foreign news crew has left many international observers with the sense that this is new, unwelcome territory for the land of the free. Story continues There has been rhetoric and symbolism many regard as authoritarian, with Trump telling police to "dominate the streets" and a Black Hawk military helicopter was dispatched to fly low over the demonstrators in Washington, D.C. "With all of its shortcomings, the U.S. has stood for many ideals we dearly share," said Ziya Meral, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank. "Now we are witnessing an America spiraling down into chaos, poor governance, social friction, poor policing and poor leadership." "The city on a hill no longer inspires or shines," added Meral, who specializes in foreign affairs and Middle East politics, in a reference to President Ronald Reagan's soaring 1989 farewell address. Ragp Soylu, a correspondent with the Middle East Eye news outlet, tweeted wryly, "Congrats, America! You have joined the Middle East nations where you can no longer peacefully protest outside the presidential palaces." Image: Police officers wearing riot gear push back demonstrators shooting tear gas next to St. John's Episcopal Church outside of the White House (Jose Luis Magana / AFP - Getty Images) Craig McPherson, network director of news and public affairs at Australia's Seven Network, described the "attack" on his news team as "abhorrent" and "nothing short of wanton thuggery." He said Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been in touch with his embassy in Washington. NBC News has reached out to Morrison's office for comment. On Tuesday, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in a radio interview that the country has been reviewing the travel advisory for both Washington and Chicago. Meanwhile, the U.S. Ambassador to Australia attempted to reassure America's longtime ally that the Trump administration supports freedom of the press. "Freedom of the press is a right Australians and Americans hold dear. We take treatment of journalists seriously," Ambassador Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr. said in a statement released on twitter. "We remain steadfast in our commitment to protecting journalists and guaranteeing equal justice under law for all." Australia is not the only longtime friend of the U.S. to express alarm over the recent events. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared momentarily lost for words when a journalist asked him to comment on Trumps suggestion that he could deploy military troops across the country, as well as the reports of protesters being tear gassed to make way for a presidential photo opportunity. After a 20-second pause, Trudeau said that everyone watched in horror and consternation as to what was happening across the border in the United States. Josep Borrell, the European Union's foreign policy chief, told reporters Tuesday that the American authorities should not be "using their capacities in the way," calling it "an abuse of power" that "has to be denounced." A day earlier, the E.U. said that it hopes "all the issues" will be "settled swiftly and in full respect for the rule of law and human rights" language usually reserved for conflict hot spots such as Yemen, Syria and Ukraine. And New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she was "horrified by what we've seen." Meanwhile, Washington's adversaries are not wasting an opportunity to criticize the Trump administration. In particular, there are some in China highlighting what they say is American hypocrisy: The U.S. calling out Beijing's alleged attempts to curb freedoms in Hong Kong while seen to be trying to do something similar at home. "How ruthless these U.S. politicians are," Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of the influential state-run Global Times newspaper, wrote in an opinion piece Tuesday. "They condemned Hong Kong police simply for the latter's use of tear gas and water cannon against violent rioters," he said. "The U.S. unrest just began a few days ago, but police already fired shots at protesters before efforts for peaceful dialogue were even made." Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said Tuesday that the disparity showed Trump had been looking at her region "through tinted glasses." (Natural News) In response to having his tweets fact-checked by Twitter, President Trump recently announced a major crackdown on social media, the full implications of which are still in the works. If social media companies like Facebook and Twitter refuse to stop censoring conservative and other politically incorrect voices, then Trump is ready to drop the hammer to ensure that the online free speech of all Americans is protected. Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservative voices, Trump wrote in a recent tweet. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen. Trump further acknowledged that Big Tech tried, but failed, to derail his presidential win back in 2016. But things could be different in 2020 if Silicon Valley gets away with continuing to target conservative messaging on social media. We cant let a more sophisticated version of that happen again, Trump wrote, referring of course to the deep states failed attempt at stealing his win and handing it over to two-time failure Hillary Clinton. Another threat that Trump pointed out is the push for mail-in voting in response to the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). Eliminating the voting booth creates an incentive for fraud, according to Democrat Jerry Nadler in a statement he made back in 2004 and Trump agrees. Just like we cant let large scale Mail-In Ballots take root in our Country, Trump tweeted. It would be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots. Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise, Social Media. Clean up your act, NOW!!!! Listen below to The Health Ranger Report as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, talks about Trumps statements implicating Big Tech in a grand scheme of techno-tyranny: Trump signs executive order to strip Big Tech of unfair immunity Following these tweets, Trump later signed an executive order to strip social media companies of their platforms privileges, seeing as how they have all decided to become publishers that censor viewpoints of which they disapprove. Currently, the social media giants are exempt from culpability for the information that passes through their platforms. This legal immunity has been afforded to them under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA). But now that they are all systematically hand-selecting what is allowed to be posted, these former platforms have become publishers, meaning they are no longer protected under the CDAs safe harbor provisions, which is what Trump is now trying to remedy. Should the big guys like Facebook and Twitter end up losing this exemption, and rightfully so, it will open up the door for many alternative platforms to take their place. A small handful of social media monopolies controls a vast portion of all public and private communications in the United States, Trump announced ahead of signing the order from the Oval Office. Theyve had unchecked power to censor, restrict, edit, shape, hide, alter, virtually any form of communication between private citizens and large public audiences, Trump added. Many free speech advocates are in agreement that censorship on social media prevents certain voices from taking part in society like everybody else, especially when these voices rely on these platforms to communicate with larger audiences. This constant and growing problem is paving the way for decentralized, cryptocurrency-driven alternatives to step in and gain popularity. By eliminating the threat of censorship, such alternatives could bring the big guys to their long overdue and bitter end. For more related news about social media censorship and the apparent plot to prevent President Trump from winning reelection this fall, be sure to check out Censorship.news. Sources for this article include: Breitbart.com Brighteon.com Forbes.com NaturalNews.com JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.You should upgrade or use an alternative browser SHANGHAI, June 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Westwin, a leading tech-driven cross-border marketing company, was invited to join a webinar recently to share insights about consumer behaviors in the post-COVID-19 world. Produced by BXP & VMSD Magazine, the online event aimed to help global brands quickly adapt to the challenges and uncertainties bought by the pandemic. Attending the online event as an expert of China's market, Alain de Maurier, Sales & Marketing Director EMEA of Westwin, offered a snapshot of the current Chinese customer landscape, measures taken by companies in China to shift strategies as well as his insights into the unique business models carved out of China's internet ecosystem. Digital Services are here to stay Consumers embarked on a new shopping journey during city-wide lockdowns with new safety concerns prompting brands to accelerate their digital transformations. A survey on customer behavior conducted by Westwin in March shows that about 80% of respondents over 20 years old favored a cloud-based lifestyle with "cloud" gatherings, fitness sessions, and virtual museum visits topped the list due to nationwide shelter-in-place measures. The sudden spike in the popularity of digital platforms has also lasted into China's post-COVID-19 era. Data from major Chinese e-commerce platforms shows that the number of deliveries during the May holiday surged by 70% compared to the same period last year. The growth is particularly robust in lower-tier cities where the number of parcels delivered to 5th-tired cities increased by 80%, with a whopping twofold growth in 6th tiered cities. Prioritize health and safety "The exponential growth of e-commerce and digital services have sent a strong signal suggesting consumers are becoming increasingly safety-conscious," said Alain de Maurier. "Under the current circumstances, the mission of retailers should be focused on creating a shopping experience that puts health and safety above everything else." To establish a reassuring shopping environment for customers, safety measures are essential in recovering consumer confidence at brick-and-mortar stores. Many public spaces in China that are usually prone to have high footfall have installed infrared thermal imaging systems for temperature screenings. Disinfection is conducted on an hourly basis, and hand sanitizers are provided at the entrance of every restaurant and shop. Ride-hailing companies have also sought to minimize the risk of infection by putting plastic partitions between drivers and passengers and helping enforce social distancing while maintaining standard operations. A new retail experience under COVID-19 Benefiting from China's internet ecosystem model, Chinese companies and brands are shifting their business strategies and embracing e-commerce, social media and live streaming platforms. With the rise of live streaming, retailers can engage and interact with customers in a more immediate and authentic way. On WeChat, Chinese companies across different industries are all leveraging private group chats to build trust, interactivity, and community into their brand experience. The pandemic has also given rise to cloud-based services such as virtual exhibitions, museums and roadshows, strengthening cross-sector collaboration to offer an out-of-store experience. "It is a good example of how technology can improve the retail experience for shoppers. The ballooning number of digital services isn't necessarily detrimental to retail. I think these two can work hand-in-hand, with the right integration of tech solutions further improving the retail experience," said Alan. Digital Solutions to help the vulnerable Many brands have launched compelling campaigns that speak to the reality of the pandemic, from the introduction of new products and services to innovative storytelling. Companies in China are also trying to carve out new ways to support vulnerable communities during the crisis with the help of digital platforms. A new business solution born from China's internet ecosystem offers a new way for e-commerce to deliver support to the people in need. With supply chains still recovering from the impact of the pandemic, some e-commerce sites have set up Livestream channels to connect farmers across China with tens of millions of followers. The trend has seen more farmers embracing live streaming services as their new channels to promote farm-fresh produce. "New business solutions powered by digital tools are set to transform the ways companies connect with individuals. With 5G on the horizon, businesses can ride on this new technological momentum to deliver more values to the world," said Alain. About Westwin Westwin, formerly known as Microsoft Online (MSN China), is a leading technology-driven digital marketing company that focuses on cross-border business. It provides branding strategies and digital marketing solutions to help clients achieve success in China and around the world. Westwin is a certified marketing & advertising partner of Baidu, Tencent WeChat, Sina Weibo and more major digital platforms in China. With years of experience in cross-border business and partnership growth, Westwin is equipped with the knowledge and expertise to take businesses to the next level in overseas markets. SOURCE Westwin Related Links www.westwin.com Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 1) Tourism Secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat revealed on Monday that as per her consultations with Metro Manila mayors, tourism activities in the area will resume if the region is placed under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ). Weve been talking to the different local government units and they are more comfortable when NCR (National Capital Region) is already under the modified GCQ. So thats when tourism will be allowed, Puyat told CNN Philippines Rico Hizon. Puyat said domestic tourism will be highly prioritized to help the 5.4 million workers in the tourism sector affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. She also noted the country welcomed 8.3 million tourists last year. It is quite important for us to start slow but sure, said Puyat. She mentioned that most of the businessmen in the countrys tourism sector benefitted from the Small Business Wage Subsidy Program of the Department of Finance to help them cope with the economic impact of COVID-19. But still this is not enough. Currently now in the Senate, we are working with Senator Sonny Angara for a P10 billion stimulus program so that we can help our tourism stakeholders right now with zero interest loans, Puyat explained. In areas under MGCQ, tourism activities are allowed to resume up to 50 percent of its full capacity but are still expected to comply with the minimum health standards to avert the spread of COVID-19 in the country. Puyat highlighted that Boracay is one of the tourist spots that resumed its operations as Aklan province is now under MGCQ. However, she emphasized that only locals are allowed to swim in the world famous white-sand beach. They still have to observe physical distancing and there are certain parts that they are allowed to swim. And before they can swim, the temperature has to be taken, she said. Puyat hopes the national tourism industry can get back on its feet, projected to happen in mid-2021. It will definitely take time before we can get back to what our targets were. So, were still working out how this new normal will be, she said. Srinagar: Curfew in parts of Srinagar and restrictions in the rest of Kashmir continued on Monday as normal life in the Valley remained paralysed for 59th day due to the violent protests that followed the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani in July. Curfew has been imposed in seven police station areas of Srinagar city today, a police official said. He said while the curfew continued in five police station areas in downtown locality of the city, the curbs were imposed in Batamaloo and Maisuma areas in uptown city this morning. This has been done to maintain law and order, the official said. He said curfew-like restrictions on the movement of people were in place in the rest of the Valley. Security forces have been deployed in strength in sensitive areas to maintain law and order, the official said. More than 200 persons were injured in clashes between protestors and security forces in the Valley on Sunday even as an all party delegation was here to assess the ground situation. While the delegation met mainstream political parties and other civil soicoety members, the separatist groups refused to talk to them. Meanwhile, normal life remained affected in Kashmir due to the separatist sponsored strike on 59th day. Shops, business establishments and petrol pumps continued to remain shut during the day time. Schools, colleges and other educational institutions also continued to remain closed. However, the attendance in government offices and banks has showed signs of improvement since the past few days, the official said. Public transport continued to be off the roads. The separatists have extended the shutdown programme till September 8. As many as 71 persons, including two police personnel, have been killed and several thousand others injured in the clashes between protesters and security forces in the Valley since Wani was killed in an encounter in south Kashmir on July 8. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Interacting with George, which some of us have done personally and which we have done as a group, is just an eye-opening experience, says Armbrust. Hes such a font of knowledge, and his way to cross-reference things that were never connected in some way is pretty outstanding. And he has a great dry sense of humor. So it made sense to ... ask him to come and bring some music with him. The death of George Floyd, a black man who died on Memorial Day after he was pinned down by a white Minnesota police officer, has sparked outrage and protests in Minneapolis and across the United States. Manslaughter and third-degree murder charges have been filed against Derek Chauvin, the officer who prosecutors say held his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes. Chauvin and the other three officers at the scene have been fired. The Department of Justice is investigating. Tuesday's biggest developments: Floyd's family joins protesters at march in Houston Floyd's 6-year-old daughter, girl's mother hold press conference Minnesota Department of Human Rights to investigate police department Surveillance video released from police killing in Louisville Here is how the news unfolded on Tuesday. All times Eastern. 10:39 p.m.: Trump objects to GOP criticism of church photo op President Donald Trump lashed out at fellow Republicans who have criticized his decision to clear protesters out of Lafayette Park Monday evening prior to a photo op in front of St. John's Episcopal Church. He called out Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, James Lankford of Oklahoma and Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who were all critical of the violent removal of peaceful protesters with flashbangs and smoke canisters. "You got it wrong! If the protesters were so peaceful, why did they light the Church on fire the night before?" he tweeted, though it was a different group of protesters and Monday's group had not been violent. "People liked my walk to this historic place of worship! Sen. Susan Collins, Sen. James Lankford, Sen. Ben Sasse." PHOTO: A protestor waves a burned American flag over a fire during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of African-American man George Floyd, in St Louis, Missouri, U.S., June 1, 2020. Picture taken June 1,2020 (Lawrence Bryant/Reuters) 8:58 p.m.: Police close Soho to New York Protesters Police blocked streets in Soho just after New York's 8 p.m. curfew started. Several boutique stores in the expensive Manhattan neighborhood were damaged by protesters over the weekend. Sidewalks were taped off and barricades were placed in the street preventing anyone from entering. Story continues Even though the curfew banned nonessential workers from being outside, some protesters continued to march throughout the city. Mayor Bill de Blasio told the radio station 1010 WINS that he ordered Uber and Lyft drivers to no take hails during the early parts of the curfew, because they were used during previous looting. "Series of tactical moves were made to disrupt the pattern that we saw in the last 48 hours," he said. 8:00 p.m.: Boston protesters hold die-in at Franklin Park Thousands of protesters rallied peacefully in Boston with a massive "die-in" demonstration in Franklin Park. The crowds laid on the ground for eight minutes and 46 seconds, the exact time former officer Derek Chauvin placed his knee on George Floyd's neck. PHOTO: People take part in a 'die-in' as they attend a rally following the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Boston, June 2, 2020. (Brian Snyder/Reuters) The protesters stayed in the park for at least two hours. "The peaceful protest at Franklin Park has come to a conclusion. As participants vacate the area, we respectfully remind individuals to remain committed to peace," the Boston police said. Later in the evening, smoke and multiple apparent fireworks were seen in the air after police called protesters to clear the area. Officers launched pepper spray and tear gas. 7:10 p.m.: DC protests rally behind gate near White House As Washington, D.C., approached its 7 p.m. curfew, thousands of protesters once again gathered outside the White House. A chain-link fence was set up just outside the section where officers fired flash bang grenades and tear gas into the crowd 24 hours earlier. The crowd shouted at police officers on the other side but remained peaceful, with some taking a knee. PHOTO: Demonstrators kneel and raise their fists during a protest against police brutality and the death of George Floyd, June 2, 2020 in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) When some protesters climbed street lights, others in the crowd screamed for them to climb down. National Guard troops were still deployed in the city, including a group that was lined up on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. PHOTO:A demonstrator watches as a U.S. Secret Service police office works on a fence blocking Lafayette Park as protests in the death of George Floyd continue, June 2, 2020, near the White House in Washington, D.C. (Evan Vucci/AP) Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and her husband Bruce Mann, were among the protesters. The former Democratic presidential candidate and her spouse were wearing face masks and interacted with the crowd. When one protester asked the senator why the president was deploying troops in the city, Warren responded, "Because he's wrong, he's imposing violence on our people. People are here to protest peacefully." 7:05 p.m.: Minneapolis school board votes to cut ties with police In a unanimous decision, Minneapolis school board members voted Tuesday night to terminate its contract with the Minneapolis Police Department following its actions in Floyd's death. The school superintendent's office will devise an alternative plan to serve its students, according to the board. 6:47 p.m.: Dr. Birx calls on mayors to test all protesters for coronavirus Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coordinator for its coronavirus task force, said during a video appearance at The German Marshall Fund's Brussels Forum that she worries about the spread of COVID among protesters around the country. Birx said she is particularly concerned with footage that shows many of the protesters not wearing face coverings and with the possible spread to elderly persons. "And so we're really trying to do the work with mayors to expand testing availability over the next week or two so that the individuals who were involved in the peaceful protest can get tested," she said. 6:38 p.m.: New York protesters take knee outside mayor's mansion Hundreds of protesters in Manhattan marched to Gracie Mansion, Mayor Bill de Blasio's residence, and took a knee. The protest was largely peaceful and there were even volunteers giving out face masks and hand sanitizer. Afterward, the crowd made its way to Central Park, according to eyewitnesses. PHOTO: Hundreds of protesters took a knee outside of Gracie Mansion in Manhattan, where New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio lives, in a peaceful display on June 2, 2020 following the police death of George Floyd. (ABC News) Across the city protesters continued to hit the streets and remained largely peaceful. New York's curfew is slated to go into effect at 8 p.m. Uber and Lyft drivers were informed that they won't be allowed to operator between 8 p.m. and 12:30 a.m., according to WABC. Yellow and green cabs would be allowed to operate overnight for essential workers, the city's Office of Emergency Management said. 6:12 p.m.: George Floyd's daughter, girl's mother make 1st public appearance Gianna Floyd, the 6-year-old daughter of George Floyd, and her mother, Roxie Washington, made their first public appearance since his death at a news conference Minneapolis City Hall. Washington held back tears as she talked about Floyd and lamented that their child won't grow up with him in her life. "If there's a problem and she needs her dad, she does not have that anymore," she said. PHOTO: George Floyd's 6-year-old daughter, Gianna, embraces her mother, Roxie Washington, before speaking about her father, following his death in Minneapolis police custody, June 2, 2020. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters) Floyd moved from Houston to Minneapolis for better job opportunities and to provide for his family, Washington said. "I want justice for him. Because he was good," she said. "And this is the proof that he was a good man," Washington said, referring to Gianna. 5:47 p.m.: Denver cop fired over social media post The Denver Police Department said it has fired an officer and begun an internal affairs investigation after he posted an inappropriate photo on social media while policing the city's protests. Officer Thomas McClay posted a picture of himself and two other officers in riot gear with the caption, "Let's start a riot," on Instagram, according to the department. The post was taken down, however, police officials said it violated the department's social media policy and was "inconsistent with the values of the department." 5:27 p.m.: Florida police place cop who put knee on back of black suspect on leave The Sarasota, Florida, Police Department said an officer who was videotaped putting their knee on a black suspect during an arrest last month has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation. A video of the unnamed officer putting their knee on Patrick Qwashawn Carroll's neck was put on social media Monday and tagged the department. Police Chief Bernadette DiPino reviewed the video and other footage of the May 18 arrest, immediately initiated a formal internal affairs investigation and placed the officer on administrative leave, according to the department. "Chief DiPino was disturbed to see an Officer kneeling on the head and neck of an individual in the video. While it appears the Officer eventually moves his leg to the individual's back, this tactic is not taught, used or advocated by our agency," the department said in a statement. According to the Sarasota Police Department, Carroll, 27, did not require medical attention and did not complain of injuries. He was later charged with possession of ammunition by a convicted felon, resisting arrest and domestic violence The police are asking anyone who had more information or footage of the arrest to contact them. Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin placed his knee on George Floyd's neck before he died. 5:07 p.m.: St. Paul man charged with shooting at cops during protest A St. Paul man has been arrested and charged with attempted murder for allegedly firing at officers during Saturday night's protest in Minneapolis, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced. Jaleel Stallings, 27, allegedly stepped out from behind a pickup truck on 14th Avenue South around 10:55 p.m., approached a police SWAT team and "crouched by the driver's side door as if to pick something up, and officers became concerned that debris or rocks were going to be thrown at them," according to the criminal complaint. The officers fired a non-lethal bullet at Stallings and he opened fire at them in return, the complaint said. Stallings allegedly ran away, but the officers caught up and arrested him, according to the complaint. He fired "three to four" shots, but all narrowly missed the officers, Freeman said. An AK-47 style Mini Draco pistol was allegedly found near the right bumper of the truck, according to the complaint. Stallings is scheduled to make his first court appearance Wednesday and prosecutors are seeking $500,000 in bail, Freeman's office said. Two other men who were with Stallings were arrested and their charges are pending. 4:30 p.m.: Floyd's family joins protesters at march in Houston In George Floyd's hometown of Houston, his family joined thousands of protesters in a march Tuesday afternoon. Before the march began, people silently kneeled for 30 seconds in honor of Floyd, the Houston Chronicle reported. Demonstrators held up signs with messages including: "black lives matter," "no justice no peace," "white people wake up." PHOTO: People gather to protest the death of George Floyd in Houston on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. (David J. Phillip/AP Photo) As many as 60,000 people were expected to participate, reported ABC Houston station KTRK. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said he'd be among those attending to show his support. MORE: How parents can talk to their kids about racism, George Floyd protests Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner tweeted Tuesday, "I am praying that today will be uplifting and encouraging for #GeorgeFloyd family, our City and the country as a whole. And I pray those of us in positions of power who have taken the oath to serve will hear the message of those who have marched and commit to justice for ALL." At one point, a protester hugged Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo. The march will end with a rally at City Hall. 4 p.m.: French protesters set fires, clash with police Demonstrations in support of George Floyd are ongoing overseas, including in the French cities of Paris and Lyon. Protesters there are setting fires and clashing with police officers, who are responding with tear gas. PHOTO: Protester kick in tear gas canisters during a demonstration Tuesday, June 2, 2020 in Paris. (Michel Euler/AP Photo) PHOTO: Protesters kneel and react by a burning barricade during a demonstration Tuesday, June 2, 2020 in Paris. (Michel Euler/AP Photo) The French are not only showing solidarity with George Floyd, but also the family of a French black man who died after being arrested by police in 2016. PHOTO: Thousands of people defied a police ban and converged on the main Paris courthouse for a demonstration to show solidarity with U.S. protesters and denounce the death of a black man in French police custody, June 2, 2020. (Michel Euler/AP Photo) 3:22 p.m.: Minnesota Dept. of Human Rights to investigate police department Minnesota's Department of Human Rights is launching an investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department after filing a civil rights charge related to Floyd's death, Gov. Tim Walz announced Tuesday. PHOTO: People gather on June 1, 2020, in Minneapolis, at site where George Floyd died May 25 while in police custody. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) The investigation will examine the "policies, procedures, and practices over the past 10 years" to determine if the police department "has engaged in systemic discriminatory practices towards people of color," a statement said. If so, the investigation will work to "ensure any such practices are stopped," the statement said. Walz called this investigation "only one of many steps to come in our effort to restore trust with those in the community who have been unseen and unheard for far too long." PHOTO: A group of demonstrators gather at a makeshift memorial honoring George Floyd, at the spot where he was taken into custody, in Minneapolis, Minn., June 2, 2020. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters) The Minneapolis City Council issued a statement on Tuesday in support of the civil rights investigation. "We urge the state to use its full weight to hold the Minneapolis Police Department accountable for any and all abuses of power and harms to our community," the council said. The council said it stands "ready to aid in this process as full partners." As protests spread across the Twin Cities, about 123 people were arrested Monday and early Tuesday, mostly for curfew violations, authorities said. About 13 guns were seized, police said. A total of 604 people have been arrested since Friday, according to the Minnesota State Patrol, and dozens of fires have been reported in the last several days. PHOTO: A police vehicle passes a building on East Lake Street that was destroyed during protests two days prior, Tuesday, June 2, 2020, in Minneapolis. (John Minchillo/AP Photo) 2 p.m.: Floyd Mayweather to pay for George Floyd's funeral George Floyd's family has accepted an offer from boxer Floyd Mayweather to pay for his funeral, Leonard Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions, told ABC News. PHOTO: George Floyd is pictured in an undated photo released by the office of Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump. (Courtesy Ben Crump Law) Floyd, who is from Houston, will be laid to rest there on June 9. PHOTO: Terrence Floyd visits the site near where his brother George was taken in Minneapolis police custody and later died, in Minneapolis, June 1, 2020. (Eric Miller/Reuters) 1:40 p.m.: NY trooper pushing back demonstrators gets hit by speeding SUV A 19-year veteran trooper of the New York State Police was pushing back a crowd of demonstrators in Buffalo on Monday night when he was hit by a speeding SUV, authorities said. A Buffalo police officer was also hit by the car and a second trooper was run over. MORE: Lawmakers react to crackdown on George Floyd protests Troopers fired at the SUV, state police said, and then the driver and passengers were taken into custody. The veteran trooper was taken to the hospital with a shattered pelvis and broken leg, state police said. The other officers suffered minor injuries. Those in the SUV were not seriously hurt. Two people have been charged. 1 p.m.: Surveillance video released from fatal police shooting in Louisville Authorities on Tuesday released surveillance video from an incident which caused the death of David McAtee, a black man shot by officers in Louisville, Kentucky, during protests. McAtee owned a local BBQ restaurant which was frequented by police officers, Mayor Greg Fischer said. PHOTO: Louisville police were on guard inside police tape at the intersection of 26th and Broadway on June 1 after a man was shot and killed by police and National Guard personnel outside Dino's Market. (Matt Stone/Courier Journal via USA Today Network) At about 12:15 a.m. Monday, members of the Louisville police and Kentucky National Guard were trying to disperse a crowd when they "were fired upon," Gov. Andy Beshear said. The local police and National Guard returned fire, "resulting in a death," Beshear said. Video footage from McAtee's restaurant and a neighboring business appeared to show officers approaching McAtee's business, police said Tuesday. McAtee then appeared to fire a gun outside his restaurant, toward the officers, police said. Officers took cover and returned fire, police said. From the footage it appears McAtee fired first, police said. MORE: How viral videos of killings of black men take a toll on black male mental health Authorities cautioned Tuesday that the video does not provide all of the answers. Why officers were approaching McAtee's restaurant in the first place is under investigation, police said. PHOTO: Emotions overtook some as hundreds gathered to protest the death of David McAtee, a beloved BBQ owner who shot and killed amid gunfire by LMPD and Kentucky National Guard early Monday morning in Louisville., Kentucky, June 1, 2020. (Matt Stone/Courier Journal via USA TODAY Network) The officers have not yet been interviewed, police said. Louisville Metro Police Chief Steve Conrad has since been fired after it was announced that no body camera footage was available of the shooting, The Louisville Courier Journal reported. Conrad previously said he would retire at the end of June after facing immense pressure following the March death of Breonna Taylor, a young black woman who was shot dead by police while in her home. The Kentucky State Police will independently investigate McAtee's death, the governor said Monday. 12:15 p.m.: Despite overnight looting, Chicago to move into next phase of reopening Amid overnight looting, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot promised Tuesday, "we are 110% dedicated to you successfully reopening safely and securely." Lightfoot said she was with one business owner who "burst into tears" and "broke down" as she looked at the devastation to her store. PHOTO: A Best Buy store with broken entrance is seen while people are taking electronics from inside the building in Chicago, Illinois, United States on June 1, 2020. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) Despite the unrest, Lightfoot said Chicago will move into phase 3 of its coronavirus reopening on Wednesday. "We want economic activity to resume peacefully and safely in every single neighborhood, especially those hurting the most," Lightfoot said. 11:20 a.m.: Nearly 700 arrested in NYC, curfew extended through the week In New York City, despite an 11 p.m. curfew, nearly 700 people were arrested overnight as peaceful protests devolved into moments of vandalism, looting, fire and confrontation. PHOTO: A looted souvenir shop is seen after a night of protest over the death of George Floyd, June 2, 2020 in New York City. (Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images) PHOTO: People cross the FDR Drive interrupting traffic during protests over the death of George Floyd, in New York, New York, June 1, 2020. (Alba Vigaray/EPA via Shutterstock) Luxury brands and big box retail stores in Rockefeller Center and the Upper East Side had windows smashed and spray painted. Many retailers have boarded up their storefronts. Some officers were hit by cars of protesters fleeing the scenes of vandalism and looting. It also appeared officers were shot at, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said, condemning it as "unacceptable." PHOTO: Protesters participate in a moment of silence during a rally against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in the Manhattan borough of New York City, June 1, 2020. (Jeenah Moon/Reuters) "I know people want peace," de Blasio stressed Tuesday, "and I know they want change." "I know we will overcome this," he said, adding he's asked community leaders to "step forward" and "take charge." "Do not let outsiders attack your community ... do not let criminals attack your community," the mayor said. "I'll be standing by you." PHOTO: Protesters rush past Times Square after an 11pm curfew during a night of marches and vandalism over the death of George Floyd on June 1, 2020 in New York City. (John Moore/Getty Images) PHOTO: A man takes skateboards during a night of protests and vandalism over the death of George Floyd on June 1, 2020 in New York City. (John Moore/Getty Images) De Blasio said he does not think National Guard members should be sent to New York City. They're armed, yet not trained for the city's environment, the mayor said, calling it a "dangerous scenario." New York City will now be under a nine-hour curfew each night this week, beginning at 8 p.m. and ending at 5 a.m. MORE: Mass protests could propel a second wave of coronavirus infections The mayor on Tuesday asked those who want to protest to do so during the day, and then return home. He also said he's very worried that protests are leading to the spread of the coronavirus. Regular days off have been canceled for all uniformed members of the NYPD, meaning all 36,000 police officers are now working 12-hour shifts, seven days a week until further notice. 10:40 a.m.: Senate Judiciary to hold hearing on George Floyd's death, policing in US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said he's planning to hold a hearing on June 16 to examine Floyd's death and policing in the country, promising to "take a deep dive" into the issue. "It's a long-overdue wake-up call to the country that there are too many of these cases where African American men die in police custody under fairly brutal circumstances," he said. "It's clear to me that policing among men in the African American community is a topic that needs to be discussed and acted upon, and I expect this committee to do its part." MORE: Photos: Moments of peace, unity you may not have seen in George Floyd protests "I'd like to get to the root cause of it. Mr. Floyd's case is outrageous on its face, but I think it speaks to a broader issue," said Graham, R-S.C. "We just need to get to the bottom of what happened and what we can do to fix it." PHOTO: Chief of Department of the New York City Police, Terence Monahan, takes a knee with activists as protesters paused while walking in New York, June 1, 2020. (Craig Ruttle/AP) PHOTO: Chief of Department of the New York City Police, Terence Monahan, hugs an activist during a protest in New York, June 1, 2020. (Craig Ruttle/AP) Graham called community policing "the anecdote." "I don't know how to make that a reality, but we'll have a hearing along those lines," Graham said. 7:35 a.m.: Minnesota AG 'considering all charges' for Chauvin Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison confirmed he is "considering all charges" and that "all options are on the table," when it comes to prosecuting Derek Chauvin for the death of George Floyd. PHOTO: Demonstrators gather at the site of George Floyd's death while under arrest by police officers in Minneapolis, May 31, 2020. (Emilie Richardson/ABC News) Ellison told ABC News' "Good Morning America" that the case must be dealt with methodically and that prosecuting Chauvin would not necessarily be easy. "Generally, jurors resolve all doubts in favor of the police," said Ellison. "The system is such that there are certain immunities police have, there are certain presumptions. There are relationships that police have that are established over the course of years. And the fact is if you just look at the Freddie Gray case, people looked at that video and were quite certain that there needed to be a conviction. No one was." "The fact is these cases are not easy," said Ellison. "And anybody who says they are has never done one." Ellison was reluctant to give a firm deadline on the timeline of the case but confirmed that the public could see charges very soon. MORE: Transcript: Trump to mobilize federal resources to stop violence, restore security "We are having a fresh review from what the county attorney has already done ... and we are looking at this case with fresh eyes," said Ellison. "There is nobody who has culpability who will not be held accountable." Said Ellison: "The public has an expectation that there will be, there will render assistance when necessary, that [police] will not add harm. Just saying 'I didn't know' and 'I was following orders', I don't think is working for the public anymore. That is not a comment about the evidence or the law. It is a comment about where the public's mind is these days." Ellison said that he and his team are moving "expeditiously" but warned that they also have to move carefully which could take more time than the public would like. "There are numerous videos, numerous witness statements, a lot of stuff to go through for us to do due diligence," Ellison stated. "We are not going to prolong this any longer than is absolutely necessary to do that due diligence and we are moving expeditiously, yet we have to move carefully. I know that is unsatisfying to people. They want, what they want immediately, and of course people have waited too long and have been too patient over the years but this case must be done methodically and we are doing that right now." 6:49 a.m.: Las Vegas police officer in critical condition after shooting Las Vegas Sheriff Joe Lombardo said two shooting incidents took place amid protests across the city Monday night. PHOTO: Police and rescue workers swarm the intersection outside Lloyd D. George Federal Courthouse, where shots were fired late Monday, June 1, 2020, in downtown Las Vegas. (Ronda Churchill/AP) In the first incident, an officer was shot while engaging with protesters near the Circus Circus hotel and casino. "Our officers were attempting to take rocks and bottles from the crowd," said Lombardo. "Officers were attempting to get some of the protesters in custody when a shot rang out and our officer went down." MORE: Trump, Barr tell governors to 'dominate' streets in response to unrest The officer is in "extremely critical condition and on life support," he said. PHOTO: Police officers surround a person that was shot near the 300 block of South Las Vegas Boulevard, on June 1, 2020, in downtown Las Vegas. (Bridget Bennett/AFP via Getty Images) The suspect in that shooting was taken into custody. The second incident occurred around 11:22 p.m. at the courthouse on South Las Vegas Boulevard. Officers were posted at the federal building to protect it from protesters when a suspect appeared, armed with multiple weapons. When authorities approached the individual, the suspect reached for one of those weapons and was subsequently shot by the responding officers. The suspect later died at the hospital. "This is a tragic night for our community," said Lombardo. "With these protests, which are leading to riots, one tragedy is only leading to another ... our investigations into both these incidents will be ongoing throughout the morning." "What has occurred is utterly, utterly unacceptable and I hope the community sees it that way too," he concluded. 3:22 a.m.: 4 police officers shot in St. Louis In St. Louis, four officers were shot amid protests Monday night, Police Chief Hayden John Hayden said. PHOTO: A protestor waves a burned American flag over a fire during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of African-American man George Floyd, in St Louis, Missouri, U.S., June 1, 2020. Picture taken June 1,2020 (Lawrence Bryant/Reuters) All four officers have non life threatening injuries. Two were shot in the leg, one was shot in the foot and the other was shot in the arm. Hayden said that a peaceful protest began around 3 p.m. with a couple of thousand people in attendance, but later a group of about 200 people started looting. The group reportedly set off fireworks aimed at officers. PHOTO: A member of the St. Louis Fire Department removes a hose outside a vandalized and burned convenience store, June 2, 2020, in St. Louis, the morning after protests against the death of George Floyd. (Jeff Roberson/AP) Hayden said the officers, who he said exhibited restraint throughout the ordeal, also had gas thrown on them. Chief Hayden provides an update on 4 of our officers who were struck by gunfire tonight during the downtown unrest. https://t.co/Ml1CgIikHf St. Louis, MO Police (@SLMPD) June 2, 2020 That is when, he said, several officers, who were standing on the line, all of a sudden felt pain and realized that they had been fired. 1:57 a.m.: LAPD Chief apologizes for equating looters with officers involved in Floyd's death In Los Angeles, Police Chief Michel Moore apologized for a remark he made during a mayor's press conference Monday afternoon. He had said: "We didn't have people mourning the death of this man, George Floyd, we had people capitalizing. His death is on their hands as much as it is those officers ... We didn't have protests last night. We had criminal acts." The comment was met with immediate backlash and Black Lives Matter LA called for Moore to be fired in a tweet. Several hours later, amid much criticism, Moore issued an apology on Twitter saying that he misspoke during the press conference. My Apology for Remark Regarding the Death of George Floyd During a Press Conference Earlier Today: I misspoke when making a statement about those engaging in violent acts following the murder of George Floyd. Chief Michel Moore (@LAPDChiefMoore) June 2, 2020 ABC News' Beatrice Peterson, Alexandra Faul, Sabina Ghebremedhin, Will Gretzky, Marilyn Heck, Aaron Katersky, Stephanie Wash, Carlos Gomez, Whitney Lloyd, John Parkinson and Kirit Radia contributed to this report. City curfews going into effect nationwide originally appeared on abcnews.go.com They may have been the longest 21 seconds in the tangled history of Canada-U.S. relations. There are those who wish Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hadnt paused... and paused... and then paused some more when called on to comment on Donald Trumps handling of the crisis over race and policing that has engulfed his nation. They would have revelled in the emotional catharsis of listening to our leader dump on their leader especially at a moment when it is so richly deserved. But Trudeau took the wiser path, knowing that the momentary satisfaction of calling out Trump would be far outweighed by the perennial Canadian imperative of having to make the best of working with whomever is occupying the White House. And knowing, too, that Canada does not have clean hands when it comes to racism, nor does the prime minister himself, as he acknowledged once again on Tuesday. Still, the temptation to rip into Trump must have been great. In the 1,229 days of his presidency so far, he has plumbed the depths over and over. But he truly did reach a new low this week. With his country in pain emerging from the COVID-19 lockdown only to enter a fresh nightmare of police killing, protest and riot Trump offered the opposite of leadership and solace. He found the freshest wound and rubbed salt into it, all for naked political gain. He proclaimed I am your president of law and order, consciously echoing the words of previous Republican presidents who successfully played on fears of restive minorities to win support among the so-called silent majority of conservative white voters. He threatened to call out the military to tame American cities and crush what his administration is now calling domestic terrorism. Then, stung by accusations that he had been hiding in his White House bunker, he had police clear the way with tear gas and rubber bullets so he could walk across the street and stage a photo op outside a liberal Episcopal church whose leaders were horrified at his very presence. He hefted a Bible like a stage prop, not bothering even to open it. He had no words, even the vacuous thoughts and prayers incantations beloved of so many politicians, for the family of George Floyd and the millions grieving his death. The whole performance was quite literally a sacrilege, an uncanny echo of the words of Jesus from the Book of Matthew: Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Hypocrite indeed. But will it work? By now we know Trump is willing to say anything, do anything, go lower than anyone thought possible, if it serves his political ends. Morality, even simple decency, isnt part of his equation. The law-and-order gambit is an obvious one, in that it plays on anger and fear over the riots and looting that have broken out in many cities alongside much larger peaceful demonstrations. It worked for Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, and given how distorted American political life has become in the past three and a half years, it might just work for Trump as well. To their shame, some conservative Christian leaders lined up to praise Trumps Bible-posing moment. For them, Trumps willingness to wield his power to combat chaos in the streets outweighs all else.It has nothing to do with Christianity, but its possible they will help him hold onto enough votes to make the difference in November. Or not. Perhaps Trump really has gone too far this time for a significant portion of his long-faithful base, or at least enough to tip the balance against him in a few key swing states, which is all thats needed. Whatever the outcome, this was the lowest moment of the lowest presidency so far. There are, after all, still some 150 days to go before he must face the judgment of voters. Read more about: The economic fallout of COVID-19 is stark and women are feeling the brunt of it. Over 1.5 million women lost jobs in March and April, according to Statistics Canada. Thats a 17 per cent drop in employment levels since February. Even with workplaces and services beginning to reopen, families will struggle to return to work without adequate child care in place. Advocates, employers and policy-makers alike fear that the burden of care will fall on women. With Canadian women typically contributing about 40 per cent of household income, there can be no full economic recovery without what economist Armine Yalnizyan has dubbed a she-covery. Child care is key to making that possible. Its become clear that child care is a vital part of social infrastructure. Without child care, workers in women-dominated sectors that keep us healthy, safe and fed could not keep operating. This is why we saw several jurisdictions move quickly to make child care available to essential workers as a central component of their response efforts. But that temporary solution is a far cry from whats actually needed to address the gaping holes in a severely underfunded and fragmented system. Its a system in which child care costs far too much for many families, and even when affordable, is highly competitive sometimes with three or more children to every one licenced space. As we begin to shape the new normal, child care must be at the heart of the post-COVID-19 economy. Child care encourages participation in the labour market and is also an important source of employment for women an economic driver in and of itself. Investments in the care economy will largely pay for themselves as middle class families engage in greater labour-market participation, higher productivity, rising incomes, and increased tax revenue. The federal government has the opportunity to spearhead a comprehensive pan-Canadian effort to build back better in the child care sector. Such a sector would ensure children have access to safe early learning and care and that parents are able to return to the paid labour force with relatively little worry. In the short-term, the government will have to work with the provinces and territories to provide immediate funds to stabilize existing child care infrastructure. The federal government has already committed to establishing a Federal Child Care Secretariat in order to help strengthen Canadas social infrastructure. The secretariat will play a fundamental role in the reconstruction process, which will require long-term commitment and teamwork. The secretariat will also need to develop a workforce strategy to raise the quality of early learning in child care, improve working conditions for early childhood educators and oversee the expansion of the system. Through collaboration, creativity and trust, we can take meaningful steps forward to ensure a robust economic recovery for all. Citys Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) along with Juhu airport has placed a contingency plan to tackle cyclone Nisarga. A majority of the flights were cancelled by airlines due to the cyclone on Wednesday. Instead of 25 departures and 25 arrivals, only 8 arrivals and 11 departures were scheduled. A statement by the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) said, In the wake of cyclone Nisarga, CSMIA convened a meeting with its stakeholders to devise preventive measures to tackle potential adversities accompanied by the cyclone. Preventive checks at different airport functions have been carried out and the airport has ensured uninterrupted power supply. Water pumps have been positioned across the airport to clear water in case of waterlogging and food and beverage counters will be operational 24/7 at the airport for passengers. Sources from CSMIA said that the small aircraft parked at the airport have been interlocked (tied close to each other) for their safety. Around 15 aircraft parked at CSMIA do not have hangars, in such cases, the airlines have been given an option to fly their aircraft and park them in any other airport, if suitable, said the source. A dedicated team has been placed on standby at the airport to assist amid cyclone. Special precautions have been taken for smaller and lighter aircraft as they are vulnerable to strong winds. Some aircraft have flown out of Mumbai until the cyclone passes while others have been asked to park inside the hangar. The airport has ensured that minimum aircraft are parked on the apron. The airport is closely coordinating with IMD to monitor the progress/dissipation of adverse weather, the statement said. Operators at Juhu airport too have shifted all the helicopters in their respective hangars. Juhu airport director Ashok Kumar Verma said, We are prepared to face the cyclone as we have not only taken care of our helicopters but also cleaned our drainage system in order to keep our airfield operational. We also have put in place pumping stations to remove all the accumulated water, if any, from the low lying area of the airport. Juhu airport handles around 120 helicopter and charter aircraft movements per day. However, after the lockdown, it is currently handling around 50 movements. A Pawan Hans official said that currently they operate four helicopters everyday (for ONGC) and have continued to schedule them on Wednesday too. However, the decision on flying operations will be taken based on the weather conditions on Wednesday morning. Stakeholders at CSMIA have also made arrangements for additional ground staff at the airport. Measures have been taken to have sufficient staff at the airport for the smooth functioning of flight operations which include airport, airlines, security and air traffic staff. This is in case the other set of staff are unable to reach the airport on Wednesday due to the cyclone, said an airport official. The aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) too issued a circular to airline operators and pilots to re-iterate the existing guidelines and bring awareness on adverse weather and monsoon operations. DGCA asked the airline operators to operate with pilots a level higher than the minimum experience, especially in cases where both crew members are operating after a long gap in flying. The operators were also asked to ensure the flight duty time limit (FDTL) requirements for crew should not be exceeded more than the approved limit by the DGCA. Runway surface condition and effect of the same on aircraft performance should be understood and taken into account for performance. Selection of a suitable destination alternate is also an important aspect during adverse and monsoon conditions, the DGCA stated. DGCA also asked the airlines to understand and decide their fuel availability before their flight before it starts to descend or diverts due to bad weather. In adverse weather, a stabilised approach is the first step towards a safe landing, the DGCA said. President Trump said Monday he would deploy the military against protesters if local officials cannot stop violence that has erupted in some areas. "I will fight to protect you I am your president of law and order and an ally of all peaceful protesters," Mr. Trump said. While only states can activate the National Guard, Mr. Trump said he would deploy "thousands and thousands" of heavily armed soldiers to Washington D.C. About 200 troops were moved out of Fort Bragg to deploy to the Washington area to be ready on short notice if needed, CBS News' David Martin reported. "If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them," Mr. Trump said. "I am also taking swift and decisive action to protect our great capital, Washington, D.C. What happened in the city last night was a total disgrace. As we speak, I am dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting, looting, vandalism, assaults and the wanton destruction of property." APTOPIX Trump President Trump holds a Bible as he visits outside St. John's Church across Lafayette Park from the White House on Monday, June 1, 2020, in Washington. Part of the church was set on fire during protests on Sunday night. AP The president made the announcement amid the backdrop of tear gas and flash bangs on the other side of the White House in Lafayette Park. Shortly before the president spoke and declared himself an "ally of peaceful protesters," demonstrators described as peaceful and journalists across from the White House were tear-gassed, clearing them from the area. Democrats quickly denounced the president's statement. "The fascist speech Donald Trump just delivered verged on a declaration of war against American citizens. I fear for our country tonight and will not stop defending America against Trump's assault," Democratic Senator Ron Wyden tweeted. Story continues "These are not the words of a president. They are the words of a dictator," Democratic Senator Kamala Harris wrote on Twitter. The president had been criticized by even some of his usual defenders for staying in the White House since his trip to the Florida space station. After his statement, the president and his staff walked through a cleared-out Lafayette Park and took photos in front of St. John's Episcopal Church, whose basement was set ablaze Sunday night. Mr. Trump held up a Bible as he stood in front of the church. Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C., said she was "outraged" by Mr. Trump's visit to the church. "The president just used a Bible ... and one of the churches of my diocese without permission as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and everything our churches stand for ... I am outraged," she told CNN afterward. "The president did not pray when he came to St. John's nor did he acknowledge the agony of our country right now and in particular, the people of color in our nation who wonder if anyone in public power will ever acknowledge their sacred worth," she added White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement that "the perimeter was expanded to help enforce the 7 p.m. curfew in the same area where rioters attempted to burn down one of our nation's most historic churches the night before. Protesters were given three warnings by the U.S. Park Police." Mr. Trump said he is mobilizing "all available federal resources civilian and military to stop the rioting and looting, to end the destruction and arson, and to protect the rights of law-abiding Americans, including your Second Amendment rights." The Justice Department reiterated that sentiment in a statement later. "Today, President Trump directed Attorney General Barr to lead federal law enforcement efforts to assist in the restoration of order to the District of Columbia," Justice Department spokesperson Kerri Kupec said. "Beginning tonight, the Department of Justice has deployed all of its law enforcement components FBI, ATF, DEA, U.S. Marshals, and BOP and is closely coordinating with the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security to maximize federal security presence throughout the District. The Department is working hand-in-hand with the Metropolitan Police Department, the Capitol Police, the Federal Protective Service, the U.S. Secret Service, and the D.C. National Guard." The president vowed that George Floyd, whose death sparked many of the protests nationwide, "will not have died in vain." Mr. Trump then quickly pivoted to ending the violence the streets, saying the nation is under siege by ill-intended actors and listing some of the criminal acts and vandalism that have taken place across the country over the last several days. "These are not acts of peaceful protest. These are acts of domestic terror," Mr. Trump said. On a call with governors Monday, the president called them "weak" and "fools" for not cracking down harder on the civil unrest gripping their cities. Semi-truck appears to try to drive through protesters on Minneapolis interstate CBS News Special Report: Protests over George Floyd's death enter 6th night NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio's daughter arrested at protests Mumbai, June 2 : After shooting a short film "Kahaa Toh Tha" during the lockdown at home, actor Vatsal Sheth says he is working on a music video with his wife, actress Ishita Dutta. Vatsal's directorial debut "Kahaa Toh Tha" is a love story about a middle class couple, and the changes that the COVID-19 pandemic brings in their lives. "'Kahaa Toh Tha' just happened. We hadn't planned. My friend Manoj, who is also the writer of the film, sent me a one-liner and we liked it. We attempted to make it. We shot the entire film at home using whatever we could. We didn't have the professional stuff but today's camera phones are excellent," Vatsal said. "They have great quality camera with good resolution. We shot the whole film on our phones. I transferred all the footage to a senior editor and I got Mehul Vyas to do the background score. We got the best of people to do colouring and we did justice with the project. There was no option but for me to direct it. We had to produce it as well so I launched Vatsal Sheth Productions. It was great fun," he added. Opening up about the experience, he said: "And we both had a lot of fun even though it was difficult. Placing the camera, come back and check and a lot of angles . We also have got great response. People can relate to it. We are very happy with the response we got. We tried and attempted to make something of our own from our houses and gave something to the audience to enjoy from their homes. We are very happy. "I have turned director and I really enjoyed it. Now, Ishita and I are making a music video at home and it should be out soon," he added. More than a million children who Boris Johnsons government wanted to force into classes yesterday were kept at home by worried parents, fearing an explosion in COVID-19 cases in schools that will spread throughout the population. Children have breakfast at the Little Darling home-based Childcare after nurseries and primary schools partially reopen in England after the COVID-19 lockdown in London, Monday, June 1, 2020. (Photo: AP Photo/Frank Augstein) More than 2 million pupils in nursery, reception, Year 1 and Year 6 were made eligible to return to school from Monday so their parents can be forced back to work. But the Association of School and College Leaders said that in the schools that were opened, only between 40 and 70 percent of pupils returnedpossibly as few as 800,000. Fears among parents and teachers of the impact of reopening schools were heightened by warnings over the weekend by four leading members of the governments Scientific Advisory Group (SAGE) and from the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH). Calum Semple, professor in Child Health and Outbreak Medicine, said, I think a political decision has been made to tie in with when school was due to start, were everything normal, but its not normal Essentially, were lifting the lid on a boiling pan and its just going to bubble over. John Edmunds, professor of infectious disease modelling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, warned, There are still 8,000 new infections every day in England without counting those in hospitals and care homes If you look at it internationally, its a very high level of incidence. Professor Peter Horby, chair of the Governments New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG), said that SAGE had been very clear that test, trace, isolate must be fully running before lockdown is relaxed. Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Institute, tweeted, COVID-19 spreading too fast to lift lockdown in England. The ADPH insisted that the government has not met its own five tests for easing the lockdown. Only the first, The NHSs ability to cope must be protected, had been met and the failure to meet the other four put this in jeopardy. It said of the sustained and consistent fall in daily death rates, the downward trend is slowparticularly in care settings and the effect of easing measures now will only become evident in two weeks. Of the Rate of infection decreasing to manageable levels, it stressed, The rapid and multiple ways in which measures are being eased is likely to make it difficult to judge the cumulative impact on R [the reproduction rate]. As we saw in March, R can go above 1 in a very short space of time Regarding Testing capacity and PPE supply being at adequate levels, the ADPH was not yet confident that the current testing regime is sufficiently effective Of the final test, No risk of a second peak that would overwhelm the NHS, the ADPH made the powerful warning, A second peak cannot be ruled outwhether it will overwhelm the NHS is an important question to ask. But perhaps the even bigger one is, do we really want the same number of deaths again? The scale to date represents an unimaginable tragedy and we must do everything possible to limit further loss of life. Underscoring the threat to public health of reopening schools, yesterday seven members of staff at the Arboretum Primary School in Derby tested positive for COVID-19, forcing it to close. A survey of 5,000 school leaders by the Tes (Times Educational Supplement) found that a fifth of school staff, including teachers and classroom assistants, would not be able to return to work this week for health reasons. Some teachers have health conditions such as asthma and diabetes, while others live with a vulnerable family member. Some are at a higher risk because of their age. This meant that only 75 percent of teachers are available for work, of which a fifth would be working from home. Despite these clear dangers, the drive to reopen schools continues apace thanks to the role of the education unions and their Labour Party allies in demobilising opposition among teachers and parents. About 20 local authorities had said that some of their schools would stay shut, but only for a few extra days. Cheshire West and Chester, East Riding of Yorkshire, Gateshead, North Somerset, Solihull, Tameside, Warrington, Wigan will begin opening their schools by June 8; Stockport and Trafford by June 10; Durham, Redbridge, Rochdale, Sefton, Sheffield and Cheshire East by June 15. The same policy of standing by while a phased opening of schools takes place, before finally declaring an end to opposition, is being followed by all the education unions. National Education Union (NEU) joint General Secretary Mary Bousted appeared on Sky News to urge Johnson to step back from the brink before declaring that children should return to school on June 15 when, she claimed, the infection rate should be lower. Bousted signed a press release claiming that the warnings by the four government scientific advisers changes everything. But she knows very well that the Johnson government could not care less about such scientific advice. Her sole genuine concern is that the Tories continue to utilise her unions services to organise the reopening of schools and prevent a fightback by teachers and parents. She appealed to Johnson directly during an online meeting of the Peoples Assembly, The only way the government can improve confidence in its policies is by letting us in. The same holds true of all the education unions, none of which has urged any form of action by teachers against reopening. Without facing collective opposition, the government felt able to reiterate Monday that it wanted all primary school children [in England] to return to school before the summer and to back the call from Anne Longfield, the childrens commissioner for England, for an ambitious programme of summer schooling to be organised. The government also rejected all calls for continuing the lockdown, adding that it was unlikely that relaxing the lockdown would push R above 1. Opposition to the reopening of schools can and must be the spearhead of an independent movement of the working class against the Johnson government and its murderous back-to-work campaign. The Socialist Equality Party calls for the building of action committees, independent from the trade unions, to safeguard the health of children, teachers and the entire working class. We propose that teachers and parents take up the following demands: Schools must remain closed for all pupils to prevent the spread of COVID-19 until scientific advice establishes that it is safe for them to reopen. Any teacher refusing to work for health reasons must be provided a full wage and a guarantee against victimisation. Within schools that are open, adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) must be provided, regular deep cleaning carried out and all activities risk-assessed to protect staff and children from cross infection and maintain social distancing. All cases of COVID-19 must be immediately reported to staff and families and affected schools closed. A massive increase in government funding must be advanced, paid for by taxing the super-rich and major corporations, to overcome the gutting of educational services and the devastating impact on educational achievement and mental and social wellbeing of children of the pandemic and school closures. The fight against the pandemic is inseparably linked to a struggle of workers against the ruling class and its dictatorship over economic and political life. It is a fight against capitalism and for socialism. We urge all educators who want to wage such a struggle to contact the SEP. Marisela Martinez, a 68-year-old cancer survivor, has barely left the house for months, terrified she will contract the coronavirus. She agreed to help her daughter with child care after schools closed, but is scared to see her grandchildren. Her daughter, Veronica Olivo, needs the help. The 42-year-old works long hours at a grocery store and yearns for time alone. Her children, who are 7 and 9, are struggling with being cooped up and miss their friends. Olivo knows she has to be careful, but her mother's worries gnaw at her. Fear, Olivo thinks, is a poor excuse to stop living life to its fullest. When Martinez learned that the children had a sleepover with a companionship-starved friend, she grew upset and washed their hands with bleach diluted in water. Olivo felt her kids had been isolated too long and needed a break. "The news is making you crazy, Mom," Olivo said. In the absence of overarching national guidance, Martinez, her daughters and millions of others are grappling with their own calculations on how to live with the coronavirus. Faced with conflicting advice from federal, state and local authorities as stay-at-home orders end and the U.S. death toll passes 100,000, Americans must now decide individually which risks are acceptable or reckless as the virus persists, businesses open and people crave human interaction. Martinez's family, like countless others around the country, is suspended in a state of uncertainty. They are unsure how to safely live their lives, whose guidance to trust and how to make decisions about things that, three months ago, would not have warranted a second thought, such as a child's play date or meeting a friend for dinner. "I am absolutely confused," said Carlee Gonzales, the youngest of Martinez's three daughters. "We are getting so many mixed signals." Martinez and her daughters each have their own ideas about what is risky and what is not, leading to clashes, anger and guilt. How does a family that has always been there for each other continue to do so when that very act means putting them all at risk? "How do I make them understand?" Martinez asked. "I'm not sure about anything." - - - Olivo was transitioning from a grocery job to a higher-paying office job in March, just as Texans began to die of the coronavirus. Within days, she was laid off and the store took her back. But that meant working 16-hour days, managing unruly and panicked customers and coming home so tired, she said, her husband had to force-feed her. Olivo felt the threat of the virus viscerally. Everything was scary and unknown. She set up virtual play dates for her children and developed a disrobing ritual in the garage to keep germs out of the house: strip off work clothes and head for the shower before doing anything else. She taught her kids not to hug and kiss her when she came home. "Mommy, why are you naked?" Olivo recalled one of them saying as she dumped her laundry into the washing bin. Olivo made it a game for Xander, 9, and Amaris, 7. They now run through a checklist for their mother to make sure she has disinfected. "They'd ask me, 'Mom, have you washed your face?' Olivo said. "The kids know what's going on in their own way." Olivo's husband, Daniel, manages a pawnshop that stayed open when shelter-in-place orders shut down greater Dallas. Their extended family spent time exclusively with one another during the first weeks of quarantine, taking precautions and limiting their contact with the outside world. Whatever happened, they would keep it in the family. And in some ways, life didn't change. But as the weeks dragged on, it did. Olivo's quarantine fatigue coincided with the announcement in late April by Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott that the state would begin to reopen. The dangers were still real, she said, but the desire to see friends, have a drink with neighbors or host a cookout started to outweigh her concern. "I am a super social person. I use my job as an outlet, like my 'get-out of jail free' card," said Olivo, who has missed singing karaoke to relieve stress. "But let me tell you, there is only so long I can handle being cooped up. And online karaoke is not great." The couple also noticed their children were becoming more emotional, crying often and missing their friends. So the family came up with a new set of social distancing rules. "It's like unprotected sex," Olivo said. "I got to know where you've been, who you've been with and whether you've been sick, before I or my family hangs out with you so we don't catch anything from you." Olivo said she relies on her personal connections at her favorite locally owned greasy spoons and lounges to decide whether she'd try dining in. Chain restaurants and mass gatherings of any kind are out of the question, but a backyard cookout with a few friends is a lifeline. She misses going to the casino but is not ready to take that chance. Olivo knows those decisions can put her at odds with her family. She said she depends on her gut instinct and common sense because she doesn't trust what she is hearing from officials and doesn't feel informed by the news updates her mother lives by hour upon hour. "No one is going to listen to these politicians fighting on TV," Olivo said. "But if it comes from a pastor, a friend they trust, or the lady they buy their tamales from, that's the information they value and respond to. In the end, we all make our own assumptions." For Olivo and others, it can be tempting to believe that, as the nation reopens, the virus has become less of a threat. To relax a bit more or gamble on whether sitting close to a friend for a margarita could have no consequences or dire ones, particularly for vulnerable people like Martinez. Now, as people crave normalcy after weeks at home, it can be hard to know what to do. "The information out there is not good enough to help me make decisions," Olivo said. Martinez keeps the television tuned to cable news for most of the day. What she knows is as terrifying as what she doesn't. Martinez is familiar with the ways the virus can kill and its medical terminology. Antibodies. Cytokine storms. Asymptomatic vectors. The stories of people suffering haunt her, Martinez said, because her girls don't have a choice when it comes to staying home. Olivo shrugged off her mother's anxiety. "Oh Mom, I'm a cockroach, nothing can kill me," she said. - - - Olivo's neighborhood in southeast Dallas has been one of the hardest hit in the city. More than Dallas 10,000 residents have tested positive for the virus and more than 229 have died as cases continue to rise. Like the Olivos, many in the neighborhood are also considered essential workers and could not shelter in place, leaving the house each day for jobs where it is difficult to practice social distancing. More than three-fourths of city residents who were hospitalized with covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and reported their employment had jobs that were classified as essential. Olivo's younger sister, Carlee Gonzales, also works at a grocery store. Gonzales's work makes it impossible to let her guard down. She screens employees with an infrared thermometer to check their body temperatures. When she comes home to Martinez, Gonzales, 36, respects her mother's rules. Shoes come off and stay outside. Work clothes are isolated to the laundry. Hands, face and arms are washed. But she said having her mother walk behind her wiping down surfaces and becoming painfully reclusive is tiresome. "I try my best. I think we should do everything to protect ourselves but I won't drive myself crazy," Gonzales said. "My mom is trying to save her physical health without seeing what it is doing to her mental health." Gonzales went from seeing her best friend every day to resigning herself to phone calls. The isolation was taking its toll, she said, after weeks of following the rules. Gonzales wanted to reengage her social life but was not sure how. She soon got an invitation. A Sunday afternoon backyard hangout with six people. Gonzales declined and blamed her absence on work. She was worried. "My biggest fear is giving it to my mom and knowing I am the one who passed it to her," she said. Then came a second invitation with new parameters. Gonzales's best friend, a nurse, invited only her, promised to sit outside and apart, with disinfectant wipes. Each would have their own wine bottle. No touching. She was tempted to unburden herself with a friend. "Am I making the right choice?" Gonzales wondered after deciding she would go. "Should I feel guilty about this?" Another invitation came soon after. Gonzales pushed the boundaries further when she went inside her friend's home. She confessed to her mother when she got home. "When I told her, she wanted to crawl out of her skin, but she didn't tell me not to go anymore," Gonzales said. She ticked off the reasons she felt the risk was worth it: We took precautions. She trusted her friend not to violate the rules of social distancing. "Don't you trust me?" she recalled asking her mother. Gonzales decided to spend the night at the friend's house. Martinez was sitting outside when Gonzales jumped into the front seat of her friend's truck and left. "Carlee, be careful," Martinez said. "I will, Mom," her daughter replied. "I just pray that she is all right. That's all I can do," Martinez said. "They think I'm nuts because I'm sequestered at home." - - - Martinez ventures out to retrieve prescriptions from the pharmacy drive-through and make deposits at the bank, but not much else. She wore a mask before it was a suggestion. When her grandchildren are at her home, they play, paint and spar over how to do math. If their hands get dirty, Martinez washes them in a tub of soap, water and a capful of bleach. Martinez takes care of herself, but everyone else's approach to risk is aggravating. She understands the torment of illness better than her daughters. In 2001, a mammogram caught breast cancer early and she had a mastectomy to stop the spread. Her narrow escape from cancer felt lucky. "Every year I get the mammogram, it freaks me out," she said. "I have two aunts who died of this cancer," she said. "The older I get, the more it scares me." Martinez knows her daughters are adults but believes they don't understand the danger of the coronavirus. The family knows people who have been infected. Latinos with covid-19 in Dallas are hospitalized at nearly three times the rate of whites. Residents under 65 account for nearly two-thirds of the county's hospitalizations. Martinez said she is confident that the reopening of Texas, which started last month, was premature and her city will suffer. She worries she and her family will as well. The best Martinez said she can hope for with her children is respect and balance. Her part-time job called recently to ask if Martinez could do a few things for them from home. She loves her grandchildren but wanted to further reduce possible coronavirus exposure - especially as her daughter takes fewer precautions. The extra work felt like the perfect pretext for broaching the conversation with Olivo about bringing the children over less often. Martinez felt guilty but made her plea. Now, she only has the kids on Saturdays. President Trump has warned that governors will look like "jerks" if they don't crack down on violent protesters. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) Declaring he was "your president of law and order," President Trump on Monday said he was prepared to deploy U.S. troops to end the violence and vandalism that has accompanied a nationwide protest against police brutality. The president's remarks demonstrated anew that he has little understanding of why Americans have taken to the streets. They also reinforced the impression that he sees the current crisis as an opportunity for him to score political points in an election year with a new iteration of his 2016 claim that "I alone can fix it." The violence and property destruction that have occurred in recent days including in Los Angeles is heartbreaking. A different president would have been able to credibly lament that lawlessness, and call for measures to deal with it, with no one suspecting ulterior motives. Trump has forfeited any such benefit of the doubt. In his remarks on Monday, as in previous comments, he expressed sympathy for George Floyd, whose death led to a murder charge against the former Minneapolis police officer shown kneeling on Floyds neck in a video that went viral. But Trump consistently has failed to recognize that Floyd's death was the latest example of a pattern of police violence against African American men that in turn is a manifestation of entrenched and pervasive racism. Trump's obliviousness to that larger reality was shockingly evident in recent days. Last week he tweeted that when the looting starts, the shooting starts and said that the Secret Service was prepared to unleash "vicious dogs" on protesters at the White House. Both statements had ugly echoes of attempts to deprive African Americans of their civil rights. Trump's comments during this crisis also have been marked by a false machismo that will be all too familiar to those who remember his suggestion in the 2016 campaign that he would subject suspected terrorists to a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding and his advice to a police audience in 2017 that officers shouldnt be too nice when they put suspects into a patrol car. Story continues In a conference call earlier on Monday, Trump lectured a group of governors that they needed to arrest and imprison protesters. According to the New York Times, Trump said: You have to dominate. If you dont dominate, youre wasting your time theyre going to run over you, youre going to look like a bunch of jerks. Most presidents would strive to keep blatant partisanship out of their handling of a national crisis. Not Trump. He has called Minneapolis Democratic mayor the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey. He told Democratic mayors and governors: The World is watching and laughing at you and Sleepy Joe, a reference to former Vice President Joe Biden. Trump added: Is this what America wants? NO!!! If there was any lingering doubt that Trump sees this crisis through a political lens, it was dispelled when Trump walked across Lafayette Park cleared of peaceful demonstrators by police and National Guard units firing tear gas and rubber bullets to the historic St. John's Church, the site of a fire Sunday night. Trump held a Bible and posed for photos. The task of reining in Trump falls to the Republicans who still hold some sway with him. But to put it mildly, GOP leaders haven't rushed to demand that Trump moderate his incendiary language. Those who have criticized the presidents comments have engaged in irritating understatement. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only black Republican in the Senate, said that Trumps tweets were not constructive. Asked about Trumps divisive online commentary last week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said: "I generally don't comment on the president's tweets. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Ideally, Republicans in Congress including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy would rise above partisanship and recognize that Trump is a uniquely unfit occupant of the Oval Office and unworthy of reelection. But it was made painfully clear even before Trumps impeachment that congressional Republicans, even those who privately held Trump in contempt, were reluctant to cross or criticize him under any circumstances. The only profile in courage was struck by Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the sole Republican to vote to convict Trump after the impeachment trial. Still, McConnell and other Republican leaders, including those in state capitals, should be able to speak up forcefully when Trumps trash talk threatens not only civility but also public order. They need to be the voices of reason now, stopping Trump from loosing the military on U.S. citizens and turning a bad situation into a horrific one. New Delhi, June 2 : In more trouble for former Finance Minister and senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram, who is a Lok Sabha member, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday said that it has filed a charge sheet against them in its probe into INX media money laundering case. The probe agency filed an e-charge sheet against Chidambaram, his son and others before Special Judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar on Monday. Besides the father-son duo, the charge sheet names Karti Chidambaram's chartered accountant S.S. Bhaskararaman and others. The judge has directed the ED to file a hard copy once the courts start functioning normally. Chidambaram was first arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on August 21 in the INX Media case and was granted bail by the Supreme Court on October 22. He was arrested by the ED in the money laundering case on October 16 and was in judicial custody till November 27 under the order of a trial court. The ED and the CBI are probing how Karti Chidambaram managed clearance for INX Media from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) in 2007 when his father was a minister. According to the probe, INX Media directors Peter and Indrani Mukerjea had met Chidambaram to prevent any hold-up or delay in the FIPB approval. Karti Chidambaram was arrested on February 28, 2018, by the CBI for allegedly accepting money to facilitate the FIPB clearance. He was later granted bail. The ED registered a PMLA case based on a CBI FIR and alleged irregularities in the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving Rs 305 crore overseas funds in 2007. The agency has said the money received by associated entities was channelled back into the Advantage Strategic Consultancy Private Ltd (ASCPL). The ED has attached Rs 54 crore properties of Karti Chidambaram and a firm in the case. It has also attached Mukerjeas' properties in the case. Earlier, the agency had filed a charge sheet against him in the Aircel-Maxis deal case. Nollywood actress, Funke Akindele hit back at a fan who blamed late UNIBEN student, Uwaila Omozuwa for her rape and murder. The troll, identified as @Mimi_Banks on Twitter called out the actress and her colleague as well as others, who are demanding justice for Uwas death. @Mimi_Banks tweeted; Ladies instead of rape give them sex heaven help those who help themselves abi aunty tiwa @TiwaSavage wetin u see for wetin I talk? Advertisement Yall saying #JusticeForUwa but then have u guys asked yourselves what was she reading for, for chrissake we were asked to stay indoors ,she violated the Nigerian rule!. Irked by the tweet, Funke Akindele blamed the tweep and she proceeded to block her on the micro-blogging site. Shut up!!! You are so insensitive!! Let me just be calm and just block you!!! #omooran, the actress tweeted. However, the Twitter user wasnt remorseful as she fired back at the actress, saying, Im not a clout chaser nor attention seeker fine if @funkeakindele decides to block me fine who she help before imagine ur 18 year old son drives ur car out without ur knowledge and hit someones elses car but no injuries what the first thing you ask ur child why did u do it. Read Also: Actor Bolanle Ninalowo Shares Interesting Facts About Life See the exchange below: Pune, June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global Animal Vaccines Market size is projected to hit USD 16.01 billion by the end of 2026 attributed to the increasing awareness about animal diseases and the increasing importance of animal health and welfare. Animals are exposed to various internal and external factors that act as disease-causing agents, thereby leading to communicable or fatal animal diseases. Therefor animal vaccination is a significant factor that allows humans and animals to share the same environment, especially for pet owners. Request a Sample Copy of the Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/veterinary-animal-vaccines-market-101532 As per a recent report by Fortune Business Insights titled, Animal Vaccines Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Product (Inactivated, Live Attenuated, Recombinant, Others), By Animal (Companion, Livestock), By Route of Administration (Oral, Parenteral, Others), By Distribution Channel (Veterinary Hospitals, Veterinary Clinics, Pharmacies & Drug Stores, Others) and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026, the market value was USD 9.75 billion in 2018 and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 6.4% between 2019 to 2026, set as the forecast duration. The current pandemic of COVID-19 has propelled many industries to come to a halt. Most of the import-export businesses worldwide are facing huge losses both in terms of revenue generation as well as market position in the country. However, this too shall pass. Various government initiatives are expected to bode well for companies. We are offering an impact analysis of the covid-19 pandemic and its effect on various industries to help you prepare for the future. Click here to get the short-term and long-term impact of COVID-19 on this Market. Please visit: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/veterinary-animal-vaccines-market-101532 Objectives of the Report include: Comprehensive analysis of the market and its growth trajectories Table of segmentation in details with the list of the key segment and its forecasted figure Notable industry developments of the market and other insights List of players and their key strategies to generate the highest revenue and emerge dominant Drivers & Restraints- Rise in Number of Zootonic Diseases Worldwide to Propel Demand The increasing number of farm animals and pet owners worldwide and the importance given to the health and well-being of their pets are major factors boosting the Animal Vaccines Market growth. Additionally, the increasing number of animal cultivation practices for benefits such as milk, meat, eggs, wool, and others is also adding impetus to the market. Besides this, the rise in the number of zoonotic diseases and the increasing number of veterinary health care centers is expected to aid in the expansion of the market in the coming years. On the negative side, the adverse effects of vaccines on some animals such as fever, uveitis, anorexia, and high toxicity may pose a major hindrance to the market in the future. Nevertheless, awareness programs organized by various governments, and improving healthcare infrastructure for animal welfare is likely to create lucrative growth opportunities for the market in the coming years. Segment- Inactivated and Live Attenuated Vaccines Segment to Emerge Dominant Owing to High Preference Based on segmentation by product, the inactivated and live attenuated segment earned the highest animal vaccine market share in 2018. Among these, the inactivated segment earned a 33.9% share in 2018. Even though these two vaccines have associated limitations and are conventional vaccines, they collectively earned the highest share. Regional Analysis- North America Emerged Dominant Attributed to Rapid Adoption of Efficient Animal Vaccines Regionally, North America earned a revenue of USD 2.97 billion in 2018 and emerged dominant. This is attributable to the adoption of technologically advanced delivery devices, coupled with the rapid adoption of efficient animal vaccines. Additionally, the rise in the adoption of companion animals and dedicated following of stringent vaccine regulations by companion animal owners are also boosting the regional market. On the other side, the market in Asia Pacific is likely to gain significant impetus especially from countries such as Japan, India, China, and others. This is owing to the rise in disposable incomes of people and increasing awareness about pet healthcare in the region. Besides this, the implementation of regular vaccination at specific intervals and other such stringent animal safety laws imposed by governments in the regions will further help the market rise significantly in the coming years. Quick Buy - Animal Vaccines Market Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/checkout-page/101532 Competitive Landscape- Players Focusing on Developing Vaccines for Better Revenue Generation The Animal Vaccines Market manufacturers are engaging in the launch of vaccines for various animal diseases and are investing massively on the same. Besides this, they are engaging in collaboration and joint ventures to gain more revenue in the competition. Significant Industry Developments of the Market include: December 2017 The H3N2/H3N8 Vaccine called Vanguard CIV was launched by Zoetis adding to its canine influenza portfolio. January 2019 The first vaccine for animal swine called Ingelvac PRRS MLV was produced in China by Boehringer Ingelheim was launched in the Chinese market. List of Key Companies Profiled in the Animal Vaccines Market Research Report. They are as follows: Ceva NEOGEN CORPORATION Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH ImmuCell Corporation Eli Lilly and Company Merial Intervet Inc. (Merck Animal Health) Biovac Virbac Zoetis Other players Have Any Query? Ask Our Experts: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/speak-to-analyst/veterinary-animal-vaccines-market-101532 Detailed Table of Content: Introduction Research Scope Market Segmentation Research Methodology Definitions and Assumptions Executive Summary Market Dynamics Market Drivers Market Restraints Market Opportunities Key Insights Prevalence of Major Animal Diseases by Countries Livestock and Companion Animal Ownership Patterns Recent Industry Developments such as Mergers & Acquisitions Regulatory Scenario in Key Countries Technological Advancements in Animal Immunization Overview of Novel Vaccine Delivery Modes Key Strategies Adopted by Market Leaders Global Animal Vaccines Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2015-2026 Key Findings / Summary Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast By Product Inactivated Live Attenuated Recombinant Others Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast By Animal Companion Livestock Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast By Route of Administration Oral Parenteral Others Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast By Distribution Channel Veterinary Hospitals Veterinary Clinics Pharmacies & Drug Stores Others Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast By Region North America Europe Asia Pacific Latin America Middle East & Africa TOC Continued.!!! Request for Customization: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/customization/veterinary-animal-vaccines-market-101532 Have a Look at Related Reports: Veterinary Therapeutics Market Size , Share and Global Trend By Product Type (Drugs, Vaccines), Animal Type (Companion, Livestock), Route of Administration (Oral, Parenteral, Topical), Distribution Channels (Veterinary Hospitals, Veterinary Clinics, Pharmacies & Drug Stores) and Geography Forecast till 2025 Veterinary Drugs Market Size , Share and Global Trend by By Product (Anti-infectives, Anti-inflammatory, Parasiticides, Others), By Animal (Companion, Livestock), By Route of Administration (Oral, Parenteral,Topical), Distribution Channel (Veterinary Hospitals, Veterinary Clinics, Pharmacies & Drug Stores, Others,) and Geography Forecast till 2025 Veterinary Diagnostics Market Size , Share & Industry Analysis, By Product Type (Instruments and Reagents & Consumables), By Technique (Hematology, Immunohistochemistry, Molecular Diagnostics, Diagnostic Imaging, Clinical Biochemistry, and Others), By Animal Type (Livestock and Companion), End-user (Veterinary Hospitals & Clinics, Veterinary Reference Laboratories, and Others) and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Animal Health Market Size , Share and Industry Analysis By Product (Drugs, Vaccines, Feed, and Diagnostics), By Animal (Livestock Animals and Companion Animals), By End User (Veterinary Hospitals & Clinics, Animal Care & Rehabilitation Centers, Diagnostic Centers, and Others) and Geography Forecast, 2019-2026 About Us: Fortune Business Insights offers expert corporate analysis and accurate data, helping organizations of all sizes make timely decisions. 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Ltd. 308, Supreme Headquarters, Survey No. 36, Baner, Pune-Bangalore Highway, Pune - 411045, Maharashtra, India. Phone: US :+1 424 253 0390 UK : +44 2071 939123 APAC : +91 744 740 1245 Email: sales@fortunebusinessinsights.com Fortune Business Insights LinkedIn | Twitter | Blogs Dog lovers in Vietnam recently shared a moving clip about an ethnic Mong woman crying when she had to sell her beloved dog due to her desperate poverty. Le Van Tien (first left) gives back the dog to its owner, a Mong ethnic woman. Photo giadinh.net.vn Young people related to the video because of the bond between the dog and its owner, but those of the older generations were moved as a story they had read in classical literature had come to life. Writer Nam Cao depicted the misery of poor people in the countryside in his short story Lao Hac (The Old Hac), published in 1943. The eponymous main character had to sell the dog he had named Golden Boy. The prose was beautifully written and touched the hearts of millions of school children. When a collection of his short stories were made into the black and white movie Lang Vu ai ngay ay (Vu ai Village in the Old Days) in 1982 by director Pham Van Khoa, the scene where Lao Hac told his neighbour, a teacher, that he had to sell Golden Boy was overwhelmingly touching. "I had to sell Golden Boy, Mr Teacher," says Lao Hac. "Well, maybe he will come back to a better afterlife," the teacher says. "Do you think he will come back to be a man, like me, to have a better life?" "Old man, if he could come back to be like me, would his life be any better?" says the teacher, who was the intellectual of the village. He represented the desperate situation of the intellectuals, who were stuck in their positions, not any better than the destitute peasants. Nam Cao was famous for saying he became a writer because he desperately needed money to buy medicine to treat his daughter's scabies. The lives of poor peasants in Vietnam before the August Revolution in 1945 were hard beyond our imagination today. Books and movies have tried to depict how tough they were, but the reality was even worse. In March 1945, a horrifying famine took place in northern Vietnam that took the lives of nearly 2 million people. The famine was partly the result of Japanese invasion of French Indochina in 1940, then ordered all food crops to be replaced with jute. Some historians believe that the August Revolution in 1945 was successful as millions of people rose up to kick open Japanese rice storehouses to give rice to the hungry peasants. Last year, the film crew for the movie Cau Vang (Golden Boy the Dog), started casting for the main character. Many dogs of different breeds were auditioned including huskies, golden retrievers, and last but not least, a Shiba Inu, the world-famous Japanese breed with a happy smile, which does look quite similar to Vietnamese dogs. There was a large amount of opposition when the Japanese dog was cast, with many arguing a Vietnamese dog should have got the part. Many argued that a beautiful Japanese dog shouldn't play the role of a dog sold by people impoverished due to a famine that was partially caused by the Japanese in one of the darkest chapters of Vietnamese history. The story is about the dog but it reflects that of his master's. Some dog meat protesters argued that casting a Vietnamese dog in the main role would help stop people from eating local dogs, a tradition that is becoming less and less popular nowadays. It's a popular saying in journalism schools that "when a dog bites a man, it's not a story. But when a man bites a dog, that makes a story". In the tale of the Mong woman's love for her dog, there was no biting. Only tears and a viral story on social media. Thanks to social media, a kind-hearted man made sure there was a happy ending to an otherwise sad story. A dog-lover who breeds rare dogs spent quite an amount of money to purchase the dog and then travelled 140km to the Mong woman to give it back to her as a gift. He also helped raise public awareness about the Mong woman and her grandchildren's tough situation and raised some donations to help them out. Truly a fairytale ending to a harsh story. Life is worth living. VNS Nguyen My Ha 02.06.2020 LISTEN Chief Justice Anin Yeboah has advised businessman, Alfred Woyome, to cough up money to settle his GHS47 million debt to avoid the sale of his properties. Justice Yeboah made the comment during the hearing of an application by the Attorney General seeking clearance from the court for the State to take over Mr. Woyomes properties instead of selling them. The application by the AG follows a request by the National Security for the transfer to the State some properties belonging Alfred Woyome which were ordered by the court to be sold to offset his debt to the state. In a letter signed by the National Security Minister, Albert Kan Dapaah and addressed to the Attorney General, the National Security Ministry explained that the decision is a result of the difficulty the auctioneer was facing in selling the properties. The properties include two mansions at Trassaco Estate, a house at Kpehe where he resides, an office complex of Anator Holdings, a residential building at Abelemkpe and a stone quarry in the Eastern Region including its plants and equipment. The case was adjourned to 24th of June due to the unavailability of the lawyer of Alfred Woyome. In July 2014, the Supreme Court ordered Mr. Woyome to refund GHS51.2 million to the state on the basis that the manner in which he obtained the money was unconstitutional. The payment concerning contracts between the state and Waterville Holdings limited in the construction of stadia for the 2008 African Cup of Nations held in Ghana. The Supreme Court gave the Attorney General permission to sell properties belonging to Mr. Woyome to offset part of the GHS47 million he owes the state. Following delays in retrieving the money, the Supreme Court judges unanimously granted the Attorney-General clearance to execute the court's judgment ordering Mr. Woyome to refund the cash to the state. The ruling followed claims made by the Receivers of defunct UT Bank that some of the properties identified by the State for sale were theirs. According to the lawyers of the defunct UT Bank, Mr. Woyome used the said properties as collateral for loans at the bank which he failed to pay back. ---citinewsroom In an open confrontation, Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Tuesday criticised the Uddhav Thackeray-led state government's decision to cancel final year university examinations on account of coronavirus outbreak. The decision would jeopardise the future of students, he said in a letter to Chief Minister Thackeray. He also asserted that the chancellor of universities -- a position which governor holds ex-officio -- has the final authority over all university matters as per the Maharashtra Public Universities Act, an official statement said. In the letter, Koshyari said the decision regarding holding of examinations of final year students should be be taken "in consonance with the provisions of the Act. He was "surprised" to learn through media reports that the CM had declared that "no examinations shall be conducted this year", Koshyari said. "Describing the announcement of the cancellation of examinations by the chief minister as "unprecedented" and made "without any profound thinking on the legal repercussions", the governor remarked that the decision, if implemented, would jeopardise the future of students," the statement said. Even though the Committee of Vice Chancellors constituted by the Minister for Higher and Technical Education to analyse the situation and to explore various options available to conduct the examinations had given its report to the department's secretary on May 6, the same "had not been presented to him till date", Koshyari wrote. During his video conference with vice chancellors, all the VCs had communicated willingness for conducting examinations, he said. The governor stated he had clearly mentioned that the chancellors office shall give further directions after accepting the recommendations of the committee partially or fully once the report was received by him, the statement said. "The arbitrary decision has violated the basic principle that to obtain an identical degree, there cannot be two sets of criteria, one who has given examination and for the other who has obtained marks on average. The examinations cannot be made optional," the statement quoted the governor as saying. Pointing out that students of medicine, architecture, law and other courses needed to register themselves with their respective professional bodies/councils to get the license to practice, the governor said these bodies may not be able to enrol the students without students being evaluated on established parameters. The Ministry of Home Affairs had given approval to conduct examinations to various state boards and CBSE and ICSE were in the process of conducting their examinations in spite of the COVID-19 situation, Koshyari noted. "The governor mentioned that the UGC and other Central authorities are of the view that the final year examination may not be dispensed with and, therefore, the state government should abide by UGC guidelines along with provisions of Maharashtra Universities Act, 2017," the statement said. Earlier in the day, Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saaamana had said in its editorial that the governor insisted on holding the final year exams of degree students, but Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray rejected it, showing "the spine Thackerays are known for". SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio -- Though some think of a lifespan as linear, I prefer the image of a circle. I could draw such a circle, in order to reflect. I could place myself as a tiny dot at the center. Reaching out from this dot, I could draw lines to represent my aspirations, talents, struggIes and key relationships. Parts of my life may even extend outward beyond the circles perimeter, touching or intersecting the lines of action of your life, should you create a diagram, too. The days I head to my email first thing in the morning and find a comment or submission from a reader, we have connected -- however briefly. All of us have to believe things that we havent seen, Bryan Stevenson, author, attorney and director of the Equal Justice Initiative said in a spirited TED talk that I replayed for myself in these fraught times of concern for health, life and community. He maintains that such belief must be there, despite our commitment to intellect. Its the mind-heart connection, he added, that allows us to care about exclusion, injustice, unfairness. He had a chance to sit at the feet of Rosa Parks, listening to her conversations with other courageous, committed women of her time. After hearing of Stevensons aspirations, she acknowledged that his work to improve just outcomes would be tiring, times three. Then she added: Youve got to be brave, brave, brave. Courage and bravery are knowing when to act, when to redirect, when to calibrate, when to push. Though these inner qualities may not be explicitly taught in college, they are character traits forming between the lines. This weeks column acknowledges graduates and others who serve today with commitment and will continue to reach out bravely. May their circles of influence expand, and may they find ongoing success and fulfillment. And if their learning began in our Hillcrest-area grade schools, even preschools, kudos to the teachers, aides and parents on the sidelines who nurtured seeds of learning that can endure! Bravo, bravissimo! Isabel Lardner of Gates Mills received the Mariafranca Morselli Prize for Outstanding Senior in Italian at the University of Vermont this semester. She also completed her studies, earning a bachelors degree. The award is given each year to the senior who has shown exceptional performance in Italian. She was in a graduating class of 3,183 students during the 220th commencement ceremonies. Speeches from UVM President Suresh Garimella, Vermont Gov. Phil Scott, and university and state leaders were given. Daniel Matic of Highland Heights has graduated from Ohio Dominican University with a bachelor of science degree in business. Matic is among 225 students who graduated following the 2020 spring semester. David Pendleton of Richmond Heights has earned a master of science degree in computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. Pendleton was among approximately 4,050 undergraduate and graduate students who earned degrees at the end of spring term. Students were feted during a virtual celebration held on May 1. They will also be honored during in-person commencement ceremonies later this year. Abby Mccartney of Highland Heights was named to the University of Utahs Spring 2020 Deans List. Mccartneys major is listed as Parks Recreation & Tourism HBS. Mccartney was among more than 7,500 students named to the Spring 2020 Deans List. To qualify, students must earn a GPA of 3.5 or higher in at least 12 graded credit hours during the term. CPA update: The Community Partnership on Aging serves many Hillcrest communities. See their Facebook group to learn more: https://www.facebook.com/groups/CPApluggedinprogramming/. While COVID-19 has shifted service delivery, outreach continues to seniors in six member cities (South Euclid, Lyndhurst, Mayfield Heights, Richmond Heights, Highland Heights and Mayfield Village), even beyond. Please call CPA at 216-650-4029 if you are interested in learning more about their food programs. Thanks to a generous donation of 500 N95 masks from a partnership with The Cleveland Foundation, Oswald Company and The United Way, mask supply has increased. If you need a face mask, please call CPAs main office at 216-291-3902. Despite not being able to engage in in-person meetings at this time, social workers are available to residents of our member cities by phone (440-442-2626, extension 244) to provide assistance and resources. Social workers can put you in touch with emergency food assistance, help with SNAP and other benefits, and provide counsel on managing life in general. Light to live by: Even when I file this story at night, I am thinking of the sun. And your messages. Help me put more enlightened words together. Write to mariashinestewart@gmail.com Thank you, readers. Read more from the Sun Messenger. SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The global cannabis pharmaceuticals market size is projected to reach USD 5.8 billion by 2027, expanding at a CAGR of 76.8% over the forecast period, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Rise in the number of clinical trials for these drugs due to its therapeutic properties, growing awareness of the medical benefits of plant-derived cannabidiol products are some of the factors driving the demand over the forecast period. However, the presence of stringent regulations on cannabidiol-infused products in various countries is restricting demand for these products. Key suggestions from the report: In 2019, Sativex is estimated to dominate the market with a revenue share of 83.0%, due to the growing number of countries legalization of plant-derived pharma products for medical purpose In terms of revenue, U.S. was the largest country level market. U.S.FDA's approval of Epidiolox and high adoption of this drug are few factors for the country's large share. Some of the major players operating in this cannabis pharmaceuticals market are GW Pharmaceuticals, AbbVie Inc., Valeant Pharmaceuticals, and Insys Therapeutics, Inc. Read 80 page research report with ToC on "Cannabis Pharmaceuticals Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Brand (Epidiolex, Sativex), By Region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America & MEA), And Segment Forecasts, 2020 - 2027" at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/cannabis-pharmaceuticals-market In 2019, Sativex is the leading brand in the global market with a revenue share of 83.0%. The surge in clinical trials for numerous medical conditions and the growing number of countries legalizing cannabis for medical purposes are the major factors responsible for its large share. On the other hand, Epidiolex is anticipated to be the fastest-growing brand over the forecast period. Growing research for plant-based cannabinoids for other rare conditions is expected to drive the growth of this segment over the forecast period. The European region is expected to dominate the market in 2019, owing to growing medical marijuana users in the region coupled with the rising awareness about cannabidiol infused products. On the other hand, the Asia Pacific region is expected to grow at the fastest rate over the forecast period owing to growing legalization and favorable guidelines towards the use of cannabidiol infused pharma products in the region. Grand View Research has segmented the global cannabis pharmaceuticals market based on brand and region: Brand Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027) Sativex Epidiolex Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027) North America U.S. Canada Europe Germany U.K. France Italy Netherlands Poland Czech Republic Croatia Switzerland Asia Pacific Japan South Korea Australia Latin America New Zealand Brazil Mexico Argentina Colombia Uruguay Chile Middle East & Africa & Israel List of Key Players in the Cannabis Pharmaceuticals Market GW Pharmaceuticals AbbVie Inc. Valeant Pharmaceuticals Insys Therapeutics, Inc. Find more research reports on Pharmaceuticals Industry, by Grand View Research: Cannabidiol Market - The demand for cannabidiol (CBD) for medical and wellness purposes is high due to its healing properties, which is the key factor driving the growth of the market. The demand for cannabidiol (CBD) for medical and wellness purposes is high due to its healing properties, which is the key factor driving the growth of the market. Cannabis Cultivation Market - Legalization of cannabis for medical & recreational purposes in North America & Europe and growing demand for marijuana-based products among patients are some of the key factors driving growth. Legalization of cannabis for medical & recreational purposes in & and growing demand for marijuana-based products among patients are some of the key factors driving growth. Lymphoma Treatment Market - Growing uptake of premium-priced products such as immune checkpoint inhibitors, Keytruda, and Opdivo is driving the market. Gain access to Grand View Compass, our BI enabled intuitive market research database of 10,000+ reports About Grand View Research Grand View Research, U.S.-based market research and consulting company, provides syndicated as well as customized research reports and consulting services. Registered in California and headquartered in San Francisco, the company comprises over 425 analysts and consultants, adding more than 1200 market research reports to its vast database each year. These reports offer in-depth analysis on 46 industries across 25 major countries worldwide. With the help of an interactive market intelligence platform, Grand View Research helps Fortune 500 companies and renowned academic institutes understand the global and regional business environment and gauge the opportunities that lie ahead. Contact: Sherry James Corporate Sales Specialist, USA Grand View Research, Inc. Phone: +1-415-349-0058 Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519 Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com Web: https://www.grandviewresearch.com Follow Us: LinkedIn | Twitter Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661327/Grand_View_Research_Logo.jpg Seth Rogen posted a Black Lives Matter picture on Instagram during the weekend of May 29-31 while protests against the death of George Floyd ensued in cities around the country. By June 1, Rogens fans celebrated Rogens responses to people who commented, All Lives Matter. Using his trademark profanity, Rogen personally called out every who tried to tell him all lives matter. He even told some to stop watching his movies. Seth Rogen | Frazer Harrison/Getty Images RELATED: How Harry Styles, Colin Kaepernick, John Legend, John Cusack and Other Celebs Are Supporting George Floyd Protests This is not the first time Rogen has been involved with controversies. Take a look back at some of the other controversies Rogen weathered. He endured so hes still here calling out All Lives Matter comments on his Intagram! The Interview got Seth Rogen in trouble with a whole country Rogen and Evan Goldberg co-wrote and co-directed The Interview. They intended it be another one of their silly comedies. Rogen played the producer to a tabloid reporter (James Franco) who land an interview with Kim Jong-un (Randall Park). L-R: James Franco and Seth Rogen | AFP via Getty Images RELATED: The Interview Is Canceled: 8 Other Movies About North Korea North Korea took it seriously and threatened action against Sony Pictures if they release the media. Sony attributed a massive hack, which leaked private studio memos surrounding all their projects, to North Korean hackers. North Korea had more impact on Rogens career than the All Lives Matter commenters. Sony ultimately cancelled the wide release for The Interview when major theater chains refused to show it. It only played in limited release with independent cinemas, but it is available on DVD, Blu-ray and streaming now. The Disaster Artist got caught up in James Francos controversy Rogen and Goldberg produced The Disaster Artist, directed by and starring James Franco. Franco played Tommy Wiseau, the creator and star of The Room. Rogen also played script supervisor Sandy during the production of The Room. The film was a love letter to The Room and it was on track for an awards campaign with nominations for Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards. In January of 2018, some students of Francos acting classes came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against him. L-R: James Franco and Seth Rogen | Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images RELATED: These Actresses Are Calling Out James Franco For Sexual Misconduct Scandal Advocates for #MeToo directed any Disaster Artist controversy at Franco, but Franco stopped attending awards shows on the films behalf. When Oscar nominations came out, only Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Webers screenplay got a nomination, when Francos performance and other aspects of the film were considered worthy. MTV censored a Movie Awards bit for Pineapple Express In the summer of 2008, Rogen and Franco were getting ready to promote Pineapple Express. The movie starred Rogen as a process server and Franco as his dealer who end up on the run from criminals and police. They appeared at the MTV Movie Awards on June 1, but the cameras cut away from their shenanigans. Rogen and Franco lit up a joint as a tie in to their stoner comedy. Folks at home couldnt see it because the cameras cut away. Rogen said MTV cleared the bit in advance. He informed them it was going to be fake marijuana and had an approved script. L-R: Seth Rogen and James Franco | Kevin Mazur/WireImage RELATED: Marijuana Movies: The Top 10 Stoner Films We literally didnt say one word that wasnt on that teleprompter, Rogen told reporters on the set of Observe and Report. They handed Franco the bag of weed, they gave me the lighter, they gave me the fake joint. It could not have been more planned. It took Preacher until Season 2 to face controversy Rogen and Goldberg also produced AMCs adaptation of Garth Enniss comic book Preacher. The source material was already controversial. Dominic Cooper played the preacher who gained the super power of the voice of God. Tyson Ritter as Jesus Christ | Lachlan Moore/AMC/Sony Pictures Television RELATED: AMCs Preacher Looks Just As Violent As You Imagined It wasnt until a season 2 episode featured a sex scene with Jesus Christ that led Catholic League president Bill Donohue to condemn the show, in a statement The Christian Post reported. This was well after Noah Taylor joined the cast as Adolf Hitler. Seth Rogen championed the butthole cut of Cats Earlier in 2020, Rogen watched Cats for the first time, while smoking pot. When a follower told Rogen about the rumor that early versions of the visual effects included realistic feline anuses, Rogen tweeted: Release the Butthole Cut of Cats!! https://t.co/C2VgPqSv1L Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) March 18, 2020 RELATED: Cats: New Details of Butthole Cut Surface Since Rogen amplified the butthole cut campaign, more Cats VFX artists spoke out to clarify. They didnt actually render buttholes, but some of the fur and skin simulation folded in such a way to look like buttholes. One artist did confirm that someone did have the job of painting out any body part that could be mistaken for a cat butthole. CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- While there were no major incidents, damage or outrage occurring in the city over the weekend, Police Chief Annette Mecklenburg took some time on Monday (June 1) to explain the departments use of force policy to council. Mecklenburg and City Manager Tanisha Briley issued a joint statement on Saturday afternoon (May 30) as peaceful protests in downtown Cleveland over the death of Minnesotas George Floyd -- among others closer to home -- started to turn violent. "We mourn these senseless deaths and send our prayers out to the families whose lives have been irrevocably changed because of the unnecessary loss of their loved one," their joint statement read. They added that, in a community that prides itself on diversity, Cleveland Heights police continually strive to ensure fairness and equity in our law enforcement policies, practices and training. Then, on Monday evening, Mecklenburg posted on the departments Facebook page about a Feb. 27 incident filmed by a bystander at Marcs grocery store in Coventry Village that has been making the rounds on social media. In it, a young black man is restrained and taken from a dairy section cooler to the floor by three white police officers, one of whom was off-duty and working a private security detail there. The young man was then handcuffed as one of the officers sat on top of his torso to keep him pinned briefly. Officers thought the man resembled a suspect involved in a "shots fired" incident the day before at a gas station off Mayfield and Warrensville Center roads. "Based on the picture and video surveillance, the officers were unsure" if he was the actual suspect, Mecklenburg told council, adding that she had since received many comments and concerns from residents. We investigated the use of force, and a thorough review was conducted, Mecklenburg said, adding that the man would not give his name to police officers and attempted to leave before they restrained him. She said additional training was ordered for two of the officers in mid-March in the areas of use of force (for which reports are mandatory), along with investigative and interviewing techniques. However, the coronavirus outbreak intervened and that training had to be postponed, with plans to resume soon. One of the officers received a reprimand in what until then had been a clean personnel file for not wearing a body-cam at the time. Cameras are required for all interactions with the public -- even when a Cleveland Heights police officer is working private security. "Improper use of force is not going to be tolerated," Mecklenburg said. Reading from a series of questions emailed from a resident, Mayor Jason Stein asked if officers are "required to intervene if they witness another officer using (what may be) excessive force." Mecklenburg said she had received the same list of questions and was planning to re-read the policy and get back to council as well as the resident. Sunday shutdowns After the events in downtown Cleveland on Saturday (May 30), there were some concerns on Sunday (May 31) in Cleveland Heights, after some posts on social media threatened violence and the possibility of weapons. Police contacted business owners throughout the Special Improvement Districts, and many officers who were supposed to be off-duty volunteered to come in. "Some merchants were willing to shut down out of an abundance of caution," Mecklenburg said, noting that extra patrols were set up in the SIDs -- Cedar-Fairmount, Coventry and Cedar-Lee -- along with Noble and Taylor roads. Severance was also closed, with extra officers assigned to the Villa shoe store, as other franchises had already been broken into and looted in other cities, she added. As it turned out, just before 6:30 p.m. Sunday a group of young people arrived in the Courtyard at Coventry and Euclid Heights Boulevard, Mecklenburg said. There were not more than 12 people and they were sitting and standing peacefully with their signs. Some of them left after a while and three remained until about 10 p.m., when the remaining three protesters left the area. It was peaceful and there were no issues, she said. After the first group of protesters left, they made their way west on Mayfield Road toward Little Italy and Uptown near the campus of Case Western Reserve University. Mecklenburg said she was not sure what happened after that. The road ahead Councilman Mike Ungar commended Briley and Mecklenburg, as well as Cleveland Heights-University Heights City Schools Superintendent Liz Kirby for their eloquent and heartfelt public statements. Whenever we experience tragedies like the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, we often ask ourselves -- what can I do? noted Kirby, who has so far lost four people she knows to COVID-19. Perhaps this is one of the lessons of the pandemic -- the power of our interconnectedness. Vice Mayor Kahlil Seren said that in the aftermath of Saturdays violence in Cleveland, he felt a sadness, including for the people who had gone downtown to protest peacefully. But that sadness pales next to the rage I feel for the people who have died at the hands of police, and the devaluation of human life, Seren said. Having grown up with racism -- and citing it as one of the reasons her family moved to Cleveland Heights -- Councilwoman Davida Russell urged people to fill out the U.S. Census this summer if they havent already done so. Stein noted that in what has been a tough year, "this may have been the toughest week of all. What has happened in Minneapolis and elsewhere cannot happen in Cleveland Heights." He said he will continue to work with Briley and Mecklenburg on improving community relations and equity. Im proud of our police, Stein said. They do a very good job. But we can always do better. Read more from the Sun Press. The list of victims has swiftly grown since George Floyd died in police custody just eight days ago. The big picture: Protests against police brutality have turned into a showcase of police brutality, with tear gas and rubber bullets deployed against crowds. The police have the arsenals at their disposal, but we're also seeing law enforcement officers becoming targets. The AP reports the wounded toll is in the dozens from vehicles plowing into crowds, police officers suffering head injuries and broken bones, and protesters ending up in emergency rooms. Police officers have also been shot in St. Louis and Las Vegas, CNN reports. Among those killed across the U.S. since Floyd's death: David McAtee, 53, shot by law enforcement in Louisville, Kentucky. None of the officers had body cameras activated at the time. Police claimed on Tuesday that it appears McAtee fired first, citing new surveillance video footage. 53, shot by law enforcement in Louisville, Kentucky. None of the officers had body cameras activated at the time. Police claimed on Tuesday that it appears McAtee fired first, citing new surveillance video footage. David Patrick Underwood , 53, shot while on duty as law enforcement in Oakland, California. The FBI hasn't announced a motive in his death. , 53, shot while on duty as law enforcement in Oakland, California. The FBI hasn't announced a motive in his death. Chris Beaty , 38, shot in Indianapolis, Indiana. Police haven't confirmed whether it was related to the protests. , 38, shot in Indianapolis, Indiana. Police haven't confirmed whether it was related to the protests. Calvin L. Horton Jr. , 43, shot outside a pawn shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The owner was booked but has yet to be charged. , 43, shot outside a pawn shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The owner was booked but has yet to be charged. James Scurlock , 22, shot by a bar owner after an altercation in Omaha, Nebraska. Local authorities won't press charges, saying it was self-defense. , 22, shot by a bar owner after an altercation in Omaha, Nebraska. Local authorities won't press charges, saying it was self-defense. Italia Kelly, 22, shot when trying to get into a friend's car while leaving a protest in Davenport, Iowa. The bottom line: Untold others have injuries ranging from bruises to potential coronavirus exposure to the aftereffects of tear gas. PUNE: Citizens in Pune will pay a fine of Rs500 if found in public not using a mask. Pune municipal commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad said, In principle, it is approved that masks will be compulsory in Pune city and those who are not using it would need to have to pay the Rs500 fine. Ajoy Mehta, chief secretary of Maharashtra, took a review meeting in Pune, attended by senior officers involved in the fight against Covid-19. It was decided at the meeting to impose a fine for not using a mask, Gaikwad said. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) falls under the red zone with a steady daily rate of increasing Covid-19 positive cases. Gaikwad said that a special notification for the fine would be published soon. A barber shop was raided by police after breaking lockdown restrictions by remaining open and continuing to serve customers. The hairdressers in Nelson, Lancashire, had continued to take appointments despite government restrictions in place to close down all non-essential businesses. Footage uploaded and circulated widely on social media on May 22, showed a pair of officers entering the property. A group of men could be seen waiting to outside the room as the police made their way inside - and one man was still getting his hair cut at the time. One man was mid-way through a haircut in the Nelson barber shop when police raided Two officers entered from a stairwell and were picked up on footage which circulated online The officers can then be seen walking in as a row of people appear to be sat in a queue, while the barber is in the process of cutting one man's hair. Trimmed hair can be seen on the ground below him, while the individual taking the footage can be heard saying: 'officers there is no social distancing going on here whatsoever.' Approaching from a stairwell, one of the police officer's asks 'what is happening here?', before making his way through to the shop floor. At this point the man cutting hair looks to move on into a backroom, while others sitting waiting in line make a move to get up and leave. Several men could be seen sitting waiting in a queue, looking sheepish as the police entered Another voice can be heard saying: 'Oh b***dy hell.' 'I've had half a head, are you taking the p**s?' the man sitting in the chair is heard saying, visibly angry at the situation he has been left in. Lancashire Police has been approached for comment. Hairdressers and men's barbers are expected to officially re-open in July, once strict measures are put in place to battle the possible spreading of covid-19. A 'new normal' is set to be seen in stores, as social contact is brought to a minimal during times spent in salons. One of Britain's first hairdressers ready for reopening is the Gatsby & Miller in Amersham, Buckinghamshire - one of the 25,000 UK salon partners of beauty giant L'Oreal which is creating a blueprint for the sector. This includes a digital screen in the window to display important reminders about social distancing, and clients being welcomed by one mask-wearing stylist who will stay with them for their visit via a one-way system. All staff will be wearing gloves and masks which will be changed throughout the day, while customers will be also asked to wear a mask during the appointment and hand sanitiser dispensers will be provided for their use. The Government has not yet issued clear guidelines or rules on how and when salons can reopen as coronavirus lockdown rules are eased, so these pictures provide the clearest indication yet of what they may look like. Chattanooga Police officers and protesters took a knee together during Monday nights peaceful demonstration at Miller Park. Captain Jerri Sutton and Deputy Chief Danna Vaughn knelt with protest organizer Marie Mott after police and protesters had spent the better part of half an hour lined up across from one another. Ive been in this job a long time, and I cant say that I know how the African American community feels, Ms. Vaughn said afterward, but I understand their frustrations and cries for help, and I would like to be a part of the solution instead of part of the problem. Organizer Bria Stevens had previously spoken about a desire to engage in a dialogue with the police department. During the first act of the Miller Park protest, activists mingled among one another as law enforcement stood farther away and guarded the federal courthouse. Everyone out here is seated, eating snacks, and yet they have their bulletproof vests on, said Ms. Stevens. I would want to tell them that we pay their bills, so wed like to communicate with them about their hiring processes, how they communicate with the community and how they interact with the community. Another speaker, known as Caleb the Poet, asked for the polices ears to be receptive to what the protesters were speaking about. Wed like for them to implement the thing theyre listening to out here, said Caleb. We know that they hear us every time we come out here and take a stand. So wed like for them to actually get through what they heard. So we can get to not a hate, not them versus us, but working together to make these streets, communities, and city safer. Until the two sides lined up across from one another in front of the courthouse, the proceedings were smooth aside from one incident. An unidentified white man began to play an audio recording of George Floyds death, whose passing is what has sparked protests across the nation. I would say that if we have any allies, we love everyone just the same, said Ms. Stevens. But we would like to respect the dead black and brown bodies to the highest degree. The fact that we can look at videos on Facebook before the police or before their own mothers is atrocious, and the fact that white men continue to play videos lets me know they are not conscious of our trauma. When an unidentified white woman and her friend were asked to share their opinion on the demonstration, they simply said Its not about us. Michael Davis, who was also at last nights protest, said one desired outcome for the demonstrations is for them to be the impetus behind the creation of a checks and balances system for law enforcement. He also stressed the peaceful nature of the protest when given the microphone on on-stage at Miller Park, and later expanded upon what he said. We dont tolerate people who come here and try to inflict harm or have a selfish agenda to loot or riot for their own selfish gain, said Mr. Davis. The Bible says there is a time for peace and a time for war, and a lot of times that gets taken out of context. A war that is fought for selfish intentions is a war that will never be won. This is the time for peace right now, and this is the time to see if the people who are in power who can make changes are going to listen to the peaceful aspect of this. On the governmental side of things, Councilwoman Demetrus Coonrod was present throughout. Along with Miller Park guard and former police officer Nathan Cullom (who also took a knee with the other officers), she assisted in keeping affairs calm between protesters and the police. They dont have to be out here because I know where they stand, said Councilwoman Coonrod about the absence of any other council members or Mayor Berke. I know where their hearts are, because I know theyre hurting just like everybody else here, and I know from their homes theyre in the protest. I know theyre thinking about ways to change things here in Chattanooga so we can be the model city for other cities. 2021 mayoral candidate Monty Bruell took time to praise the general conduct of CPD during the last three days of protests, while criticizing Jim Hammond and the Hamilton County Sheriffs Department. HCSD drew the ire of some when they tear gassed protesters Sunday night. I think that the Chattanooga Police Department has exercised restraint, said Mr. Bruell. We may not agree with every action theyve taken in the past, but I think that they have behaved in a professional manner. The Sheriffs Departments response, on the other hand, I think has been outrageous. They fired tear gas into a crowd and even gassed the CPD. After law enforcement and protesters took a knee, the group of protesters began to March down Lindsey Street into the city around 8:00 , where they split up into smaller groups. Before this occurred, a police officer was overheard saying If this is all they want to do, then this is fine. When Ms. Mott and Caleb the Poet came back to Miller Park, they returned with only a fraction of the people they started with, with the smaller groups walking around the downtown Chattanooga for hours until everyone met back up in Miller Park after sunset. (To watch the full media session with sign language interpretation, click here.) The Government is highly concerned about a COVID-19 community cluster linked to a Lek Yuen Estate resident as it reflects some characteristics not seen before and warrants more investigation into tracing the source of infection. Chief Executive Carrie Lam made the remarks ahead of todays Executive Council meeting, adding that of particular concern was that the patients lived in the same building yet were not affected by the drainage system or the building structures. We have seen a lot of infections in family contacts. But in the workplace, we have seen a little bit (of it) in the workplace, in a bar, a band and so on. But in the environment, so living in the same building but not affected by the drainage system or the building structures, is something that gets me very worried and also I believe the experts. So they have to do a lot more investigation to trace the causes of these infections and to receive as quickly as possible the specimens back, so that we have a better idea of the extent and the spread of the infections in the local community. So with that background and new development, I said that we will adopt a very cautious and prudent approach in dealing with the various measures that we have put in place. Mrs Lam noted the Government will also have to decide on whether to continue the various measures that will expire this month, including those enhancing social distancing in catering and business premises, prohibiting group gatherings, and the 14-day mandatory quarantine imposed on arrivals from the Mainland, Macau and Taiwan as well as from foreign countries. I do not want to give a firm view yet because again, you know this is Tuesday, we have an Executive Council meeting to follow. But I can tell you that we will announce the decision very soon." The Chief Executive also pointed out that such restrictions are imposed for the sake of public health. It is not a matter of taking away peoples freedoms. Actually public health is also part of national security. National security is not just about explosives and rifles. National security includes financial security, includes public health security. So when it comes to matters like public security, people will accept, Hong Kong people willingly abide by some of the restrictions in order to protect themselves, their families and society at large. She announced her new swimwear brand, Salty K Swim, on her 42nd birthday. And Kim Zolciak's bikini venture has officially launched. The reality star took to social media to promote the swimsuits on Monday, but didn't pose in the prints herself. Today's the day! Kim Zolciak celebrated the launch of her new swimsuit line, Salty K Swim, on Monday. The mom-of-five announced the new business venture on her 42nd birthday last month Kim's Salty K Swim currently only offers two-piece sets, retailing for $90 upwards on each piece. 'A huge THANK YOU to my hubby who helped make my dream a reality. This would not have been possible without you @kroybiermann,' she penned on a video. 'I love you to the moon and back a million times and Im forever grateful for you! P.S. I know you guys will love the feel of my fabric ' Special shout-out: 'A huge THANK YOU to my hubby who helped make my dream a reality. This would not have been possible without you @kroybiermann,' she penned on a video Helping mom! And while Kim didn't share new posts wearing her swimsuit, her daughters, Brielle, 23, and Ariana, 18, did their part to promote the brand The mom-of-five posed in one of her bikinis on her birthday when she announced the line. 'This last year hasnt been an easy one and I was so ready to see 2019 go, BUT Im also incredibly thankful for 2019 as this is the year I decided it was time to chase another dream of mine SWIMWEAR,' she captioned. 'My love of the ocean and my passion for swimwear is how @saltykswim all started.' And while Kim didn't share new posts wearing her swimsuit, her daughters, Brielle, 23, and Ariana, 18, did their part to promote the brand. Ariana stunned in a white two-piece while her elder sister opted for a coral colored one. So much to choose from! Kim's daughter, Ariana, 18, has been making the most of having a new array of swimsuits around And while it was a big day for Kim and her swim launch, she ensured she didn't ignore the current climate in the United States, where many are currently protesting following the murder of George Floyd. 'kashmerekollections, @kabcosmetics, and @saltyswim all stand in solidarity with the black community against systemic racism and oppression experienced everyday in America,' she penned on her Stories. 'To be silent is to be complicit. Ir you don't believe that #blacklivesmatter we ask you to please take your business elsewhere. We are committed to educating ourselves, our families, and our entire staff on this crippling issue. We will no longer sit in silence.' Many celebrities, including; Halsey, Ariana Grande, Madison Beer, Tessa Thompson, Chance The Rapper, Miguel, Nick Cannon, Lizzo, Nina Dobrev, Timothee Chalamet and Kehlani, have been peacefully protesting over the murder of George Floyd, last week. On Friday, ex-police officer Derek Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter after a video surfaced of him crushing Floyd's neck with his knee. San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton introduced a resolution Tuesday urging the citys Civil Service Commission to prohibit the Police and Sheriffs Departments from hiring law enforcement personnel with histories of serious misconduct. The resolution, which Walton unveiled alongside District Attorney Chesa Boudin, follows the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis after being pinned down at the neck by Derek Chauvin, a white officer who had 18 prior complaints against him in his more than 18 years on the force. Details about those complaints, however, have not been disclosed by the Minneapolis Police Department. The Civil Service Commission sets the policies for the citys hiring practices. While Waltons resolution doesnt carry the force of law, he and Boudin framed the measure as an important step in creating greater accountability and transparency in the hiring of law enforcement personnel. From now on, we push the Civil Service Commission to never hire anyone to work in our law enforcement entities, the Police Department and the Sheriffs Department, that has several complaints of incidents like excessive force or racial profiling on their record, Walton said. We never, ever want those officers to end up in San Francisco. A resolution allows the Board of Supervisors to express its desire about a particular policy area. Crafting a legally binding ordinance takes far more time, but Walton said discussions have already begun to take next steps to turn this into law. The resolution also urges the commission to prohibit officers from other jurisdictions from transferring to San Francisco if they left the previous job to avoid disciplinary action for serious conduct. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. We know thats a loophole that allows far too many officers who commit misconduct to seek employment elsewhere, Boudin said. We hope that had a law been in place like this in Minnesota, George Floyd might still be alive today. California, Boudin said, makes it extremely difficult for the public or even the district attorneys office, which is equipped with extensive investigatory tools to access information about an officers personnel file. The resolution would at least urge the Civil Service Commission to institute a blanket ban on the hiring of any officer or deputy with a track record of misconduct. Without such a ban, city officials and the public must rely almost exclusively on the discretion of the Police and Sheriffs Departments in hiring decisions. We know there are many officers on the San Francisco police force who have histories of sustained misconduct, Boudin said. We need to build trust between our communities and the law enforcement agencies that have sworn to serve and protect our communities. We cant do it without more transparency. Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa Governor Abdullahi Ganduje Kano Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, on Monday approved new working hours for markets in the State. The announcement was made on Monday by Ganduje who also announced that curfew in the State is now from 6 pm to 6 am. The Governor, however, reiterated the need for people of Kano to observe all laid down protocols, as he summoned an emergency meeting with market leaders. His media aide, Salihu Tanko Yakasai, made this known in a tweet on his official Twitter page on Monday. He wrote: H.E @GovUmarGanduje has approved reopening of all markets in Kano on the relaxed days of Wednesday, Friday & Sunday from 6 am to 6 pm each day. The Governor also reiterated the need for people to observe all laid down protocols, as he summoned an emergency meeting with market leaders. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays remain lockdown days and everyone is expected to remain at home only those on essential services and those that have a waiver can go out. Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria as of today is 10,162, according to the NCDC. The petrol price increase that is set to take place tomorrow will have a major impact on South Africans already struggling to repay their debt. This is according to Neil Roets, CEO of debt counselling company Debt Rescue. While we fully understand that this is outside the control of the government, it is nonetheless going to slow down any hopes of a revival of South Africas economy battered by the COVID-19 shutdown, said Roets. Petrol is set to increase in price by R1.18 per litre, while diesel will increase by 22 cents per litre. The AA previously explained that these increases are due to the resumption of economies across the world leading to greater demand for these fuels. This is not unexpected, and South Africans should remember that the fuel price is currently around four Rand per litre lower than it was before the COVID-19 crisis hit, said the AA. Massive increase in bankruptcy claims Roets said that Debt Rescue has seen a massive increase in the number of clients who are on the verge of bankruptcy. We have seen a double-digit increase in the number of clients coming to us to have us place them under debt review, said Roets. We expect this increase to continue for the rest of this year and possibly even to spill into next year. He said that a combination of the expected multi-billion rand tax shortfall and the COVID-19 pandemics general influence on the economy should be seen as a ticking time bomb. The unemployment rate could go as high as a record 50%. This means a smaller tax pool and less revenue for the government to spend on development and social programmes such as education, health and social grants, said Roets. Get the economy running again For this reason, Roets believes it is critical that the economy gets up and running as soon as possible. We fully understand and agree that social distancing has to be maintained and even tightened to save lives but there is no sugar-coating the fact that consumers are heading for disaster, he said. There is little hope for any additional financial assistance either from the state or the private sector, he said. Aside from the relief offered by the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) to workers who have not been paid or not been paid in full there are no such packages in the pipeline, said Roets. At the very most financial institutions may give consumers in good standing a longer payment period in which to settle their debts. The one positive is that South Africas legislation in regard to these economic troubles is some of the best in the world. We are lucky in one respect and that is that we have some of the most progressive legislation in the world to help consumers recover from this disaster, said Roets. South Africa has the best legislation of this kind in the world and is the only country that allows home loans to be included under debt review. BACK TO THE FUTURE Yes, if you are over 60 years old, you probably remember the riots from the summer of 1968 which culminated in an extremely major riot at the Democratic National Convention. I believe and several historians also believe that all those riots were a very big reason that Nixon won that fall. I look at the news and the devastation the last few days in Philadelphia, Minneapolis, even 69th Street and its deja vu all over again. STEP AND REPEAT Trump 2020 is it upset that people cant congregate in church. As far as I know, people can pray to their God anywhere at home, in their car, at work. They dont have to be at a church. Why is Trump 2020 so intent on getting people in the churches? Oh, thats right, because Donald Trump said that churches should be open and people should be able to congregate in church. Everything Donald Trump says has to be repeated by all his supporters like Trump 2020 no matter how idiotic and stupid it is. WHY WERE BLESSED I am sick and tired of all of your Sound Offs that are against the president of the United States. We are blessed to have a businessman running the country during a pandemic. We are blessed to have a level-headed smart person surround himself with good people to get the job done. We are blessed. Thank God for President Donald Trump. Lets get rid of all your negativism in this paper. Thank you. IMAGINE THAT In response to Trump 2020, the physical appearance of a person should not count or even show what kind of a job a person could do. So with that behind us, let me inform you its whats in a persons head and what is in a persons heart as to how they do a job. President Trump is doing a fabulous job. He gets no support. Can you imagine how great this country would be if he got support from people, especially the Dumbocrats? NO CONSPIRACY HERE Trump is accusing police and prosecutors and judges and the media as being involved at a vast conspiracy to take him down. That Donald Trump is accusing a bunch of disparate entities like that of all combining together to take him down is one of the most ridiculous thing Ive ever heard in my life. The sad thing is, you know, a lot of people who believe these ridiculous conspiracy theories being put out by Trump. Anybody with half a brain knows thats just totally illogical and irrational. ONE WHO KNOWS TAKE A CHILL PILL A word of advice to the person who keeps sending in these hate-filled messages to Sound Off about our president. If you continue you are going to destroy your health. Talk to your doctor about this. Stop watching CNN and the fake news and keep an open mind about the president. It is a difficult time. He created the greatest economy in the world in three years and he is the person to restore the economy and he will do it. God bless you. GJF SPRINGFIELD SCREEN TIME I see on the news where a lot of drive-in movies are coming back. We had a couple of them around here. We had the Family Drive-In in Clifton where the Kmart is now. Im sure a lot of families got their start there, if you get my drift, OLD TIMER ON OXFORD ROAD LOCK THEM UP All these people arrested in Philadelphia is a good thing. But what happens after they are arrested? Are they then let go? If so, then that doesnt solve anything with them in jail for a short period of time. Open up a closed jail or prison and hold them, but Im sure the dumb D.A. will release them. JUST YOU WAIT AND SEE WERE NOT MISERABLE This is a reply to the couple who implied we are miserable. My wife and I are in our 80s as are our most of our associates. We like Turner Classic Movies. It is our generation. Comcast removed it. We dont steam our news from websites like you do. Enjoy your Shawshank Redemption. GLEN MILLS WHAT do countries with the best Covid-19 response have in common? Women leaders. Are female leaders more successful at managing the crisis? Looking for true leadership in crisis? From Iceland to Taiwn and from Germany to New Zealand, women are stepping up to show the world how to manage a messy patch for humanity. Add in Finland, Iceland and Demark, and this pandemic reveals women having what it takes when the heat rises. Many will say these are small countries or islands or other exceptions. But Germany is large and leading in the number of cases and the UK is an island with very different outcomes. These leaders are showing us an attractive way of wielding power. What are they teaching us? Heres the list of some countries with women leaders on top of the Covid-19 pandemic. Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany; Katrin Jakobsdottir of Iceland; Mette Frederiksen, Prime Minister of Denmark; Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand; Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan and Norway Prime Minister Erma Solberg. (source: Article of Avivah Wittenberg-Cox of Forbes). And we will add to the list Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia. Though she is not a world leader, she is on top of the Covid crisis. How is Gwen faring in the handling of the pandemic? Well, as an outsider looking in, she fared well. I can just imagine how disorganized and topsy-turvy the Capitol would have been if former Gov. Hilario Davide III were still governor today. Nagkawakat og nagkamuritsing lang siguro. Gwen is very decisive. While other local chief executives were still scrambling and scratching their heads on what to do, Gwen acted with dispatch. Her decisions were not based on what was popular, but on public welfare. During the enhanced community quarantine, she decisively ordered the closing of borders between Cebu City and the province, making the lives of travellers miserable. It was a very unpopular move. She handled well the Capitols financial assistance for the various local government units. Even to her political opponents, she was very generous. She extended financial assistance to areas controlled by her political opponents. Even though we are in an emergency situation and the Commission on Audit (COA) rules especially on bidding procedures are set aside, but Gwen was very transparent. Not much complaints of politicking and favoritism in giving relief goods to the various LGUs. She was firm in the transition from ECQ to GCQ, a struggle between protecting public health and the economy during the lockdown. In an interview with this columnist over DYSS radio weeks ago, she said, We will not be held hostage by this pandemic forever. We have to move on. We cannot support our people forever. Our resources are draining and we cannot just pour everything to the crisis. We have other concerns. We have to get back our economy. Thats why she appealed to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infection Disease (IATF) to place Cebu province under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) so that we will be back to a semi-normal situation with a more relaxed environment and freed from restrictions. Maybe it is time for us to have a proper sense how we should view this challenge. Yes, it is a health challenge. It is a crisis. But on the other hand, shall we view it as a crisis that is insurmountable or we shall view it as a challenge that we can deal with reasonably, logically and rationally given the data now available to us which we did not know previously, Gwen said. New York has some of Americas most ambitious climate goals. By 2030, the state is supposed to be deriving 70 percent of its electricity from renewables and have 100 percent carbon-free power by 2040. But renewable-energy projects are facing stiff opposition from rural New York communities that dont want wind and solar projects in their neighborhoods. The raging land-use battles in New York over renewable-energy siting arent just about property rights and home rule, they are also about geography and class. New York is becoming a wind-energy plantation for New England. Furthermore, some of the states poorest counties are being targeted by some of the biggest wind projects. The rural opposition has been so strong that earlier this year, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo added a provision, known as Article 23, to the state budget that effectively strips local communities of their ability to stop big renewable-energy projects from being built in their jurisdictions. In response, several communities, including Cambria, Yates, and Somerset, passed resolutions declaring themselves sanctuary towns against the encroachment of large-scale renewable projects. In addition, Niagara and Orleans counties passed resolutions opposing Article 23. John Riggi, who was elected to the Yates Town Council in 2016 on an anti-wind-energy platform, told me Cuomo has launched a thinly veiled eminent domain process... this is about property taking, with the state doing the bidding of the wind and solar companies. New Englanders like the idea of wind energy they just dont want any wind turbines in New England. So they are putting them in New York. For proof of that, consider the 126-megawatt Cassadaga Wind Project, now being built in Chautauqua County, New Yorks westernmost county. The project includes 37 turbines, each standing about 500 feet high, spread over 40,000 acres (62 square miles). The project is owned by Innogy, a subsidiary of the Essen, German-based utility E.On. The Cassadaga project was approved by the New York Public Service Commission in 2018 with only a passing mention of the fact that the electricity it produces will not be credited to New Yorks renewable-energy goals. Instead, it will be counted toward the goals set by Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. According to the American Wind Energy Association, no wind projects are being built in any of those three states. Nor are any being built in New Hampshire, or Vermont, the home state of all-renewable-energy advocate and US senator, Bernie Sanders. In an email, a spokesperson for Innogy confirmed that the buyer of the power to be produced by Cassadaga is a group of seven New England utilities procured through the New England Clean Energy request for proposals in 2016. How will the juice from New York get to New England? It wont. Instead, the Innogy spokesperson told me that the energy produced by the turbines at Cassadaga will be used to serve local energy requirements in areas surrounding the project. Export to areas outside New York would require dedicated point-to-point transmission lines. Nevertheless, thanks to the magic of renewable-energy credits, New England utilities will get to claim the wind energy thats being produced in Chautauqua County, as their own. The Innogy spokesperson said the utilities, can purchase the energy generated from Cassadaga Wind without having a direct point-to-point transmission connection. When completed, the Cassadaga project will increase the amount of renewable energy that is being generated in New York but that will be credited to New England. My review of data published by the Department of Energy and the New England Power Pool found that of the nearly 4 million megawatt-hours of wind energy produced in New York in 2018, the state exported 1.2 million megawatt-hours, or 30 percent, to New England. When the Cassadaga wind project begins operating, it will likely add another 364,000 megawatt-hours per year in renewable-energy credits to that export total. The politics of renewable energy can be seen as left versus right. But when it comes to siting large renewable-energy projects, the divide is increasingly about rich versus poor. Wind developers dont target the tony communities, like near Hillary Clintons house in Chappaqua, or Westchester County, says Joni Riggle, a resident of Chautauqua County, who opposes the Cassadaga project. The people who live in those places have the financial clout to fight Big Wind. Gary Abraham, a Great Valley-based lawyer who represents several citizens groups that are fighting large-scale renewable projects told me that siting wind-energy projects is like siting landfills. Nobody wants them. Thats why they are being built in places like Chautauqua County, which has a median household income of $44,304. For comparison, the median household income in New York state is $67,844. In Westchester, its $94,811. The U.S. median household income is $61,937, or about 40% higher than the median in Chautauqua County. Last year, about 100 Chautauqua County residents filed a lawsuit against the owners of the recently completed Arkwright Wind Power Project. They are claiming that noise from the 78-megawatt facility, which is owned by the Portuguese company EDP Renewables, is disturbing their sleep. They are also claiming it has reduced the value of their homes. One of the biggest pending wind projects proposed for New York is the Alle-Catt Wind Farm. First proposed in 2015, Alle-Catt is being developed by Chicago-based Invenergy, which wants to put 117 wind turbines with a total of 340 megawatts of generation capacity in Allegany, Cattaraugus, and Wyoming counties. Those three are among the poorest counties in New York. Opposition to the project has been stout, particularly in the towns of Freedom and Farmersville. Last November, opponents of the Alle-Catt project won control of the town boards in Freedom and Farmersville, and those boards have passed measures aimed at fending off the giant wind project. In February, a subsidiary of Invenergy sued the Freedom Town Board after it voted to invalidate a local wind law. The Alle-Catt project will also have major impacts on wildlife. On May 26, Jonathan Townsend, the manager of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History, located in Jamestown, published an oped in the Orlean Times Herald, in which he pointed out that the Alle-Catt project will be built near several bat roosting sites. Townsend said the new wind project is projected to kill between 26,000-39,500 bats including rare species like the northern long-eared bat. For another example of how wind companies target low-income counties, look at Apex Clean Energys efforts to build the Lighthouse Wind project in Niagara and Orleans Counties. Local opposition to that project has been fierce and the battle over the 200-megawatt project has been raging for four years. Niagara County has a median household income of $51,656. Orleans Countys median household income is $49,223. Back in Chautauqua County, Joni Riggle, a 65-year-old retired nurse, lives with her husband in a modest house on a rural road north of Sinclairville. Three turbines are slated to be built across the street from their home, the closest one will be 2,200 feet away. Over the past four years, Riggle has become something of an expert on New Yorks electric grid and the politics of renewable energy. Wind-energy companies target places like Chautauqua County because, she said, they know we are vulnerable. Robert Bryce is a visiting fellow at the Foundation for Research for Equal Opportunity (FREOPP.org). His sixth book, A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations, was published in March by PublicAffairs. His documentary, Juice: How Electricity Explains the World, is now available on iTunes and other streaming services. With the relationship between Canada and China at its lowest point in years, a new source of tension could soon emerge: Hong Kongers seeking asylum in this country. Canada received 25 asylum claims from Hong Kong in the first quarter of 2020, more than twice the total number of cases reported last year. Although the refugee claims from Hong Kong made up a tiny fraction of the 13,383 cases Canada received between January and March, there are some who believe Beijings imposition of a new national security law on the city last week could prompt an exodus of people from the island. There are already strong ties between Canada and Hong Kong, including the 300,000 Canadians who call Hong Kong home. The former British colony was returned to Communist China in 1997. Last year, residents clashed with authorities in mass protests against a proposed extradition law from Beijing that was eventually abandoned. Lawyer Ravi Jain, who chairs the Canadian Bar Associations immigration law section, says anyone can make a refugee claim in Canada, but must prove they have well-founded reason to seek protection. What is different now is China will be sending Mainland officers to Hong Kong and thats making a big difference, said Jain, who had 10 inquiries last week alone from Hong Kongers interested in coming to Canada. This is going to be a political hot potato for Canada. Canada granted asylum to many pro-democracy organizers and supporters from China after the Tiananmen Square massacre as well as parents who broke the Chinese one-child policy and practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement outlawed by Beijing. But asylum claims from Hong Kong were historically rare because the city has been under the autonomous rule of whats known as One Country, Two Systems, a model that critics say is increasingly under attack by the communist regime. The new national security law is the latest example. This is going to paint a different colour to these refugee claims, said Toronto immigration lawyer Wennie Lee, who has seen an uptake of general inquiries from Hong Kongers since last week. Theyll now have a stronger case. Last week, Meng Wanzhou, an executive with Chinas telecom giant Huawei, lost her bid to end the Canadian extradition hearing that could send her to face charges in the United States. It was the latest twist in a legal and political fight that has already deeply strained the diplomatic relations between Canada and China. Shortly after Mengs original detention in December 2018, Chinese authorities detained two Canadians, diplomat-on-leave Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur Michael Spavor, who remain in custody. Political observers have described the moves as retaliatory. Canada, the United States, Britain and Australia, meanwhile, have condemned Beijing for unilaterally introducing the new national security law, saying it would curtail the Hong Kong peoples liberties and dramatically erode the autonomy and the system that made it so prosperous. Last year, Germany has granted political asylum to two Hong Kong pro-democracy activists facing rioting charges at home. According to the Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada only received an average of two to three asylum cases from Hong Kong each year between 2014 and 2018. Getting accepted was even rarer, with only one case being granted protection over those five years. Currently, there are 37 outstanding Hong Kong claims to be processed. As Canada has raised the bar of its immigration selection system, favouring candidates with Canadian education credentials and work experience over the years, Lee said, many Hong Kongers may not qualify for immigration. With the new Express Entry system, its not like the 1980s and 1990s, when people could just apply and immigrate. They (now) have to get in a pool and get invited to come here, said Lee. Its going to be a challenge. Vancouver lawyer Erica Olmstead, who practises immigration and refugee law, said she has received inquiries from people about the prospects of seeking Canadas protection. Its a very grey line in many cases and that people who are facing charges or who have been arrested for protesting might meet the definition, but that overall it would depend on the political developments in the region, Olmstead explained. It still seems like its very case specific, and the people who Ive seen who are worried and inquiring are the ones who might be on the governments radar for one reason or another. Olmstead said the test for refugee protection is forward-looking and a past arrest or charge alone wont make a person a refugee. What matters, Olmstead said, is whether the individual is at risk of being persecuted in the future for their perceived political opinions and beliefs. Also, if someone is being prosecuted for something such as rioting, an important question for the refugee judges to consider will be whether the punishment the person might face is for something that would be a crime in Canada. If a person has a valid defence to an crime alleged under the laws in Hong Kong, do objective reports show the courts will be fair and independent in a decision on whether to acquit them? What else might happen to someone if they return and continue to express their political opinion in a peaceful/lawful manner? asked Olmstead. So if they might be denied due process, if they might be given an excessive and disproportionate sentence, if they might be mistreated in detention, if they might be attacked or harmed for expressing a political opinion, etc. Past treatment can be looked at as far as it might help determine what could happen in the future. Read more about: The three teenagers were convicted of killing a boy who intervened as they were harassing a girl An Egyptian appeals court upheld on Tuesday 15-year prison terms for three teenagers convicted of the 2019 killing of 18-year-old Mahmoud El-Banna, referred to in Egyptian media as the "martyr of chivalry." The court also upheld a five-year prison sentence for a fourth defendant in relation to the case. The sentences can still be appealed at the Court of Cassation. Last year, a juvenile criminal court sentenced 17-year-old Mohamed Rageh and two other defendants to 15 years in prison for the killing. El-Banna, 18, intervened to stop a group of boys Rageh among them from harassing a girl in the street, in an incident that took place in October last year. Following the encounter, El-Banna posted wrote on social media, "It is not manly to beat a girl in the street." That night, Rageh and two accomplices ambushed and attacked El-Banna in the street. According to eyewitnesses, the suspects stabbed El-Banna three times before fleeing the scene. Bystanders took the young man to hospital, where he died of his injuries. Ragehs age provoked controversy in Egypt, with some demanding he and the other defendants be tried as adults so they would be eligible for the death penalty, instead of as minors in the juvenile court. Search Keywords: Short link: By Sumaila Ogbaje A teenage Boko Haram terrorist Muhammadu Abubakar a.k.a Babagana has surrendered to the Nigerian troops. And he has urged his comrades-in-arms to follow his example. The Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. John Enenche said the 19 year-old terrorist surrendered on 29 May. The terrorist gave up himself to troops of 242 Battalion at Charlie Six Check Point, Mongonu in Borno. According to Enenche, preliminary interrogation revealed that the 19-year-old Boko Haram renegade joined the group about a year ago at Shaharam and participated in the attack on Tumbun Shaje. Babagana has called on his colleagues in the forests to surrender to the troops of the Nigerian Army. On May 24 another Boko Haram fighter Malam Adamu Yahaya AKA Saad Karami surrendered to troops of 242 Battalion in Mongonu. On the same day, another Boko Haram/ISWAP fighter, a 35-year-old Muhammadu Kabudumi AKA Amir Sabat also surrendered to the troops 242 Battalion in Monguno. Kabudumi confessed to joining the Boko Haram sect in 2015 but denied participating in any of the sects operations. He, however, revealed that he has done duties at Boko Haram criminals camps at Abadam, Malam Fatori and Duguri under the leadership of Muhammadu Lawan, a notorious Boko Haram Commander, he said Enenche said Boko Haram fighters are giving up because of the sustained offensive against them by the troops. He also said more Boko Haram/ISWAP elements had either being arrested or neutralised as the military moves towards the final defeat of the insurgents in the region. The coordinator further disclosed that troops of Army Super Camp 11 Gamboru in Ngala Local Government Area arrested three terrorists at Isari village on May 8. He added that the troops recovered one AK47 Rifle loaded with a magazine containing two rounds of 7.62mm Special ammunition, two swords, one cutlass, one axe, a set of arrows and charms. He said a number of terrorists equipment had been captured or destroyed while others continue to surrender amid sustained artillery bombardments and offensive onslaught against their enclaves/hideouts by air and land forces of OPLD. NEW CANAAN The town will open its day camps this summer with fewer children in shorter sessions, looking to the YMCA to possibly take on some additional children. The YMCAs camp could restrict public access to Kiwanis Park. Recreation Department camps were canceled on Friday, May 29, citing risk management and state-imposed limitations amid the coronavirus pandemic. After further review of the Recreation Departments staffing plans and safety protocols, and consideration of the very positive data coming out of the COVID-19 PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) testing that the Town has undertaken, the decision has been taken to go forward with the Waveny Camp for ages 7 to 12 and the Camp Kidsville for ages 5 to 6 conducted at Waveny Park, First Selectmen Kevin Moynihan said in a statement. Due to state restrictions, the Rec Camps will consist of six one-week sessions (rather than three two-week sessions) with reduced hours of operation from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. rather (instaad of the normal 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) Waveny Camp sessions will be capped at 30 children, down from 72 last year, while Camp Kidsville will accommodate 10 children, down from 42 per session. Moynihan said the YMCA will be having its Camp Y-Ki at Kiwanis Park, which the state has approved for up to 120 campers. With this additional space available, the Y(MCA) has agreed to apply for state approval to accommodate additional campers in an effort help the town address the community need for summer camp for New Canaan residents. The the presence of campers would limit public access to Kiwanis Park. Kiwanis Park Pond will be open for public access to New Canaan residents only on weekends and possibly evening hours, Moynihan said. New Canaan YMCA Vice President Kristina Barrett said Friday that registration is currently closed, but anyone who wishes to be added to the waitlist may contact the camps Director, George Bennett, at gbennett@newcanaanymca.org. We got a lot of calls from unhappy parents, New Canaan Recreation Director Steve Benko said Friday afternoon, May 29. They were looking forward to camp and campers being able to interact with other kids for a change and have some fun. At Waveny Camp, each sessions 30 children will work in groups of 10. They will not mix groups in case one child gets sick. We found out that Ridgefield, Wilton, Darien and Greenwich were still going to offer their town day camp programs, Benko said. In the first two weeks of community-wide COVID-19 testing, of over 750 Town employees, volunteer first responders and residents who have been tested, there have been no positive PCR cases reported, indicating a very low level of community transmission of the virus within New Canaan presently, Moynihan said. At the same time, the testing for IgG anti-bodies of the same 750+ individuals indicates a relative handful of them have previously been infected with the virus since the pandemic arrived in the United States in February and March. It is important for the community to remember that maintaining social distancing and wearing masks have played a significant role in reducing our community transmission so we must remain vigilant as we begin to reopen more activities, Moynihan said. ATLANTIC CITY A 17-year-old boy was arrested Monday and police seized a gun after shots were fired in the citys Westside neighborhood. At 11:43 a.m., officers responded to the 500 block of North Ohio Avenue after receiving an alert from the citys gunshot-audio detection system, police said in a news release. When they got there, officers found evidence of gunfire and got reports that a boy who fired the gun ran into a home on the block. Officers surrounded the home with the citys SWAT team, and everyone inside complied when they were ordered out of the residence, police said. Police recovered a loaded handgun with ammunition that matched the shell casings found in the street, police said, and identified the 17-year-old as the suspect. The teen, whom police did not identify, was arrested and charged with unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. He was remanded to the Harborfields Youth Detention Center in Egg Harbor City. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday said it had sanctioned four shipping firms for transporting Venezuelan oil, the latest escalation in Washington's effort to oust socialist President Nicolas Maduro by cutting off the OPEC nation's crude exports. Marshall Islands-based Afranav Maritime Ltd, Adamant Maritime Ltd and Sanibel Shiptrade Ltd, as well as Greece-based Seacomber Ltd, all own tankers that lifted Venezuelan oil between February and April of this year, the Treasury Department said. "These companies are transporting oil that was effectively stolen from the Venezuelan people," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement. In response, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said in a tweet that Pompeo had a "criminal obsession" with Venezuela and that U.S. moves to inhibit crude exports would complicate food and medicine imports. Washington sanctioned Venezuelan state-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela [PDVSA.UL] last January, shortly after the United States and dozens of other countries declared Maduro a usurper who rigged his 2018 re-election. But Maduro remains in power, which some U.S. officials privately say has been a source of frustration for President Donald Trump. Tuesday's sanctions come after Washington in February and March sanctioned two units of Russia's Rosneft, which became the main intermediary of Venezuelan crude in 2019. The units stopped lifting Venezuelan crude in March. The FBI is also probing several Mexican and European companies that are allegedly involved in trading Venezuelan oil. One of those companies, Libre Abordo, said this week it was bankrupt. Treasury also designated four tankers owned by the companies as blocked property. Those tankers had been used by Rosneft, Libre Abordo and a related Mexican firm - Schlager Business Group - to transport Venezuelan oil this year, according to PDVSA documents. (Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Additional reporting by Marianna Parraga in Mexico City; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Cynthia Osterman) Police dispersed peaceful protesters outside the White House with tear gas on Monday so the president could have his photograph taken with a Bible in front of a church. Law enforcement began forcibly clearing Lafayette Park about 15 minutes before curfew in Washington. In a bizarre bit of pageantry that drew immediate condemnation from the churchs leaders, the president then slowly strolled from the White House through the park to St. Johns Episcopal Church, where he posed for photographs holding up a Bible. Advertisement The photo-op was lambasted by Bishop Mariann Budde, whose jurisdiction includes St. Johns. I am outraged, Budde told the Washington Post on Monday night. I am the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and was not given even a courtesy call, that they would be clearing [the area] with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop. Michael Curry, the national head of the denomination, released a statement condemning the president for using a church building and the Holy Bible for partisan political purposes. The churchs rector, Robert Fisher, also spoke critically of the visit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trumps slow walk to the church was not an event that began with a photo-op. It consisted of nothing but the photo-op itself. The church visit was the presidents idea, because he wanted the visual, according to sources who spoke with NBC News. By that measure, it was a success. Photos from the event quickly began circulating online, and they depict exactly what they were intended to depict: The president holding a Christian symbol and looking stern in front of a church that had been damaged the previous night during protests. Advertisement Advertisement But still photography does not do justice to the utter strangeness and cynicism captured by video of the same event. Upon arriving at the side entrance of the church building, the president paused and held the black Bible aloft in his right hand for several seconds. He briefly answered a few questions shouted by reporters, affirming that we have a great country and its coming back strong. He then walked several paces to his left to pose in front of the buildings stairway, holding the Bible with its spine out and then with its cover out, briefly glancing at the book as if in admiration. After several seconds of further posing, he gestured to several White House officials to join him, including Bill Barr, Mark Meadows, and Kayleigh McEnany. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Known as the church of the presidents, St. Johns has hosted every American president since James Madison at its services. Trump and his wife attended a private service there during his inauguration weekend, although Dallas pastor Robert Jeffressrather than the churchs own rectorpreached the sermon. On Sunday evening, a small fire briefly burned in the churchs basement nursery as protests over police brutality escalated in intensity in Washington and across the country. Firefighters extinguished the blaze quickly and described the damage as minimal. Fisher, the churchs rector, told the Post that attention to the damage should not distract from the more important message that we have to address racism in this country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trumps slow walk to the church was not an event that began with a photo-op. It consisted of nothing but the photo-op itself. The president did not give a speech at the church. No clergy joined him. He did not read a passage from the Bible he held. When a reporter on the scene asked Trump if it was his own Bible, he replied, Its a Bible. The presidents personal copy of the Bible, which he used to take the oath of office, is now located at the Museum of the Bible. It is not clear if he personally owns another copy. Trumps evangelical defenders generally do not claim he has a deep personal faith or even a competent grasp of Christian language and ideas. They support him because they believe hes on their side, not because he is one of them. So perhaps it doesnt matter that holding up a Bible in this manner for a photograph is not a Christian custom. Trumps stilted poses are just the latest example of the presidents total inability to even pretend to be a practicing Christian. He has referred to the book of Second Corinthians as Two Corinthians, called Communion my little wine and my little cracker, and failed to name a favorite Bible verse. In 2015 he told an interviewer that he had never asked for forgiveness from God. Advertisement Advertisement The ongoing protests against police brutality that began last week after the death of George Floyd have attracted countless Christian clergy and protesters who have articulated their presence there as an expression of faith. But for the presidents most loyal evangelical supporters, Trumps photo-op was a show of Christian strength in the face of an anti-Christian movement. I dont know about you but Ill take a president with a Bible in his hand in front of a church over far left violent radicals setting a church on fire any day of the week, Christian Broadcasting Network chief political analyst David Brody tweeted.* On Fox & Friends on Tuesday morning, Jeffress described the photo-op as the president demonstrating his intent to protect churches from those who would try to destroy them. Time will tell whether the greater threat to American Christianity is a few small fires and broken windows, or a president who is praised for making a campaign prop out of a holy book. For more of Slates news coverage, subscribe to The Gist on Apple Podcasts or listen below. Sebi on Tuesday asked investors of PACL Ltd, having claims of up to Rs 5,000, to check status of their application and rectify errors in the form by July 31 so that the regulator can initiate the refund process for them. The portal for investors to view status of their claim application has been operational from January 24. The last date for checking the status of applications and rectification of errors is July 31, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said in a statement. PACL, which had raised money from public in the name of agriculture and real estate businesses, was found by Sebi to have collected more than Rs 60,000 crore through illegal collective investment schemes (CIS) over a period of 18 years. A panel, headed by retired Justice R M Lodha, has been set up to manage refunds for investors who invested money in PACL. The regulator, in January, had said that over 3.81 lakh investors, having claims of up to Rs 5,000, have been paid. However, certain applications could not be processed further on account of one or more errors in the application form. In December 2015, Sebi had ordered attachment of all assets of PACL and its nine promoters and directors for their failure to refund the money due to investors. In an order on August 22, 2014, Sebi had asked PACL, its promoters and directors to refund the money. The defaulters were directed to wind up the schemes and refund money to investors within three months from the date of the order. Thomas King, 32, was jailed for two years and four months at Nottingham Crown Court A road rage thug caught on CCTV wielding a crossbow at a group of taxi passengers after firing at them with a paintball gun has been jailed for more than two years. Thomas King, 32, launched the terrifying attack when a taxi pulled up in front of his white BMW after a group of men flagged it down outside Alea Casino in Nottingham city centre during the early hours of November 24 last year. King repeatedly beeped his horn, claiming he was blocked in before shooting his paintball gun, hitting the car and a passenger outside. As he drove off, one of the four passengers kicked King's car. He then stopped the car and fired six shots with the paintball gun before speeding away. As the men were in the taxi, the BMW reappeared and careered diagonally across the carriageway through bollards and into the path of the cab. The car blocked the carriageway, before King got out of his car armed with a crossbow. He used the weapon to smash the rear window of the taxi and pointed it through the broken glass towards the terrified passengers. King then chillingly said: 'I'm going to kill you.' He aimed the weapon, which fortunately failed to discharge, trying to fire several times before the four men scrambled out of the taxi and managed to wrestle King to the ground. King is detained by four men with the crossbow (circled) visible outside Alea Casino in Nottingham city centre in the early hours of November 24 last year CCTV images clearly show the King holding the crossbow while the victims surrounded him and grabbed the weapon. King managed to free himself and get back into his car and sped away while the victims dialled 999. Police spent hours hunting for King and forensically tested blood that was on King's jacket, which was left at the scene. He was finally tracked down and arrested on December 12 last year at his home in Beeston, Nottingham. King admitted making threats to kill, possessing an offensive weapon, affray, criminal damage, dangerous driving and driving whilst disqualified. On Monday he was jailed for two years and four months at Nottingham Crown Court. The defence said he 'knew the crossbow was not capable of firing'. Inside the taxi, left, and the window smashed by King, using a crossbow, right. He managed to free himself and get back into his car and sped away while the victims dialled 999 The road rage altercation that led to King smashing the taxi window with a crossbow. Police spent hours hunting for King and forensically tested blood that was on his jacket Detective Constable Laura Price, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: 'This was a terrifying incident for those involved and thankfully no one was injured that night. 'The victims feared for their lives. If the crossbow had not failed, it could have been a completely different story. 'We take all reports involving weapons extremely seriously, and our officers were quickly on the scene in this case. 'Detectives worked around the clock working on this case since that night and we are pleased with today's result. 'We hope it gives those involved some closure that he is now behind bars.' A MAN who made an improvised pipe-bomb from dud fireworks has been jailed for three years. Anthony McNamara, 35, of Ballygrennan Close, Moyross had pleaded guilty to a single charge, under the Explosive Substances Act, in relation to the discovery of the device on February 14, 2019. Detective Garda Denis OLeary told Limerick Circuit Court the device was located, at around 9.30am, in a wheelie bin outside Mr McNamaras home during a drugs search. After it was discovered, a number of homes were evacuated and the assistance of a Defence Forces EOD team requested. The device consisted of a nine-inch copper pipe which was crimped at each end and filled with a powder-type substance. Detective Garda OLeary said a green wire, similar to a lace, had been inserted through a hole in the side of the pipe to act as a fuse. Following his arrest, Mr McNamara made admissions telling gardai he had made the device from the components of a number of fireworks which had failed to go off the previous Christmas and new year. He said it was a stupid idea which popped into my head after he watched a programme on television. I thought it would sparkle. I now know how stupid it was, he said adding he would have destroyed the device had he realised how dangerous it was. Detective Garda OLeary said gardai are sceptical of Mr McNamaras explanation but he agreed with Mark Nicholas SC that he has no connections to organised crime and that there was no evidence he had the pipe bomb for any sinister purpose. Mr Nicholas asked the court to note there was no forensic evidence linking his client to the pipe bomb and that it did not contain any shrapnel. Imposing sentence, Judge ODonnell said he was impressed by a number of testimonials submitted on behalf of Mr McNamara and he accepted he is doing well in prison where he has completed a number of courses. The Australian dollar could be set for further gains after touching its highest levels since the coronavirus crisis erupted, with analysts tipping renewed global investor confidence to drive further weakness in the US greenback. The Aussie hit a four-month high of US68 on Tuesday and looks headed back to pre-COVID-19 levels of US70 as the US dollar weakened against all major currencies. The Australian dollar hit a four month high. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer The Aussie dollar increased nearly 2 per cent against the US dollar, while the New Zealand dollar increased 1.4 per cent to reach US62.95. Both currencies are globally viewed as proxies for strong economic growth in Asia due to the high levels of commodities exports from the two nations into the region. "Overall, despite pausing for breath in Asia, the rotation out of US Dollars is set to continue,'' Senior Market Analyst, Asia Pacific, for OANDA, Jeffrey Halley said. He now expects the Aussie dollar to get up to US69.3. "The Euro, commodity and Asian emerging currencies are all set to outperform into the second half of the week." A multiple explosion rocks Al Qaeda positions in the Tora Bora mountains after an attack by US warplanes 14 December 2001 - EPA The Taliban retain close ties to al-Qaeda, despite an agreement with America that Washington hoped would see the Afghan militants turn their backs on the terrorist group, according to United Nations monitors. The al-Qaeda leadership remain in Afghanistan and have been given assurances that the Taliban movement would respect their historic links, the report claims. The Taliban and its Haqqani Network faction have also regularly consulted with the movement founded by Osama bin Laden as the militants negotiated a landmark withdrawal agreement with American troops. Relations between the Taliban, especially the Haqqani Network, and Al-Qaeda remain close, based on friendship, a history of shared struggle, ideological sympathy and intermarriage, the monitors' 28-page report concluded. The Taliban regularly consulted with Al-Qaeda during negotiations with the United States and offered guarantees that it would honour their historical ties. A senior Taliban figure denied the report. The Taliban do not need al-Qaeda any more and al-Qaeda does not rely on the Taliban, he told the Telegraph. America began its Afghan campaign after the Taliban refused to hand over bin Laden in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Taliban assurances they would not let Afghanistan again become a base for transnational terrorist groups like al-Qaeda underscored the landmark withdrawal deal signed between Washington and the militants in February. The deal insisted the Taliban would not host, or cooperate with groups like al-Qaeda, nor allow them to train or fundraise. In return America agreed to begin withdrawing troops. The report instead says: Al-Qaeda is quietly gaining strength in Afghanistan while continuing to operate with the Taliban under their protection. "The success of the agreement may depend upon the Taliban's willingness to encourage al-Qaeda to put a stop to its current activities in Afghanistan," the UN monitors said. Zalmay Khalilzad, Donald Trump's chief negotiator in talks with the Taliban, said he believed the report only covered the period until March 15, about two weeks after the pact was signed, and it may take time for the Taliban to deliver. Commercial activity in Toronto is likely to resume only by September at the earliest, Bloomberg reported. This is because some of Canadas largest tenants including major financial institutions, telecommunications companies, and universities will have most of their employees continue working from home for one more quarter. At least 24 companies signed an agreement to that effect late last week. The list included the Big Six banks, Manulife Financial Corp., Sun Life Financial Inc., PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Ryerson University, and many others. The council of the International Civil Aviation Organization(ICAO) on Monday approved a series of new health-based flight rules for the pandemic-hit airline industry as it relaunches air travel. The protocol was drawn up by an international task force formed by the Montreal-based ICAO with the help of other UN agencies like the World Health Organisation and the powerful International Air Transport Association (IATA). The recommendations are aimed at restarting the international air transport system and aligning its global recovery, according to a press statement on Monday night. The COVID-19 report and guidelines were produced by the Councils Aviation Recovery Task Force (CART). They were developed through broad-based consultations with countries and regional organizations, and with important advice from the World Health Organisation and key aviation industry groups. The groups are the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Airports Council International (ACI World), the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO), and the International Coordinating Council of Aerospace Industries Associations (ICCAIA). The world looked to the ICAO Council to provide the high-level guidance which governments and industry needed to begin restarting international air transport and recovering from COVID-19, underscored ICAO Council President Mr. Salvatore Sciacchitano. We have answered this call today with the delivery of this report, and with its recommendations and Take-Off guidelines which will now align public and private sector actions and mitigations as we get the world flying again, in full accordance with the latest and most prudent medical and traveller health advice available to us. IATAs director general, Alexandre de Juniac, unveiled the main measures proposed in the best practices guide at the end of last week. The new travel rules The recommendations are intended to serve as a framework for assuring the safety of passengers and workers on planes and at airports. *On their arrival at airports, travellers should present a health certificate and undergo an initial temperature check, under the guidelines. *Online check-in before arriving at the airport should be given priority, and passages through security should be re-thought to limit physical contact and waiting in lines. *Mobile tickets are advised, as well as other forms of no-contact technology, such as facial or eye scans. This will eliminate or greatly reduce the need for contact with travel documents between staff and passengers, the protocol said. *Passengers are encouraged to travel as light as possible, with just one small piece of hand luggage. Newspapers and magazines will no longer be allowed on board, and duty-free sales will be limited. *The wearing of a mask or face covering should be obligatory inside aircraft and terminals, where physical distancing of at least three feet (one meter) should be respected. *Terminal access will be limited to passengers and their companions, such as those accompanying disabled travelers, and airport personnel. *Aboard planes, passengers should wear masks, move as little as possible within the cabin, and not line up outside toilets to lessen the risk of infecting other passengers. *People will be assigned specific toilet stalls on the plane in relation to where they are seated. *Flight attendants will be provided with personal protective equipment that could include visors, gloves and medical masks. However, ICAO does not advocate leaving every other seat open to assure physical distancing, a restriction that the airline industry sees as a threat to its profitability. The organization, nevertheless, asks passengers to remain as far from one another as possible. It also advocates that food on board be pre-packaged and that aircraft be regularly disinfected. Temperature checks should also be taken on a flights arrival. The measures arent obligatory but they are the product of a broad consensus that imparts an authority that will make them a global reference for the first time on this issue since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, said Philippe Bertoux, Frances representative on ICAOs board, which led the task force debate. These measures will facilitate a safe and sustainable return of the air travel, Bertoux said. To reopen after having been grounded for months and brought to its knees financially, the airline industry is pressing for rules to be harmonized to reassure passengers and states that have closed their borders in an attempt to halt the spread of the virus. The ICAO estimates that the pandemic will reduce the number of air passengers by 1.5 billion by the end of the year. Gopika I S By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Given the considerable inflow of people, the district administration is working on a strategy to deal with a possible increase in Covid-19 cases. Navjot Khosa said as much on Monday after assuming office as the Thiruvananthapuram District Collector. Taking over from K Gopalakrishnan, the 2012 batch officer is focused on tackling the immediate issues the district faces -- Covid-19, monsoon rain and communicable diseases like dengue and leptospirosis. My primary focus is on the Covid-19 strategy, Khosa told TNIE. We have done well to contain the virus, so far. However, with the lockdown being relaxed, we expect a possible rise in cases and the district administration needs to be prepared to handle such a situation. We are working on it.Having attended a review meeting on the inaugural day, the district collector expressed confidence that her team is on the right track. But there is no scope for complacency, she said. We will ensure that all the instructions given by the health department are followed, and that home quarantine is actually being implemented. There will be a series of meetings happening this week and the process has already started, Khosa said. The bureaucrat stressed that focusing on the coronavirus pandemic should not come at the expense of tackling diseases like chikungunya, dengue, malaria and leptospirosis. Plans are in place to handle them effectively with the help of the health department, she said. With the monsoon season beginning in the state and the district receiving considerable rain, measures are being taken to control flooding. I have called a meeting of the stakeholders regarding monsoon cleaning and preparatory work. I understand that most of the work is being done already. I will evaluate the situation and give the necessary instructions. I will also visit coastal areas, if possible, this week itself after a briefing with the authorities concerned, the collector said. As an administrative officer, the opportunity to be in charge of a district is a dream come true for Khosa. It is always the dream of an officer to be a district collector. There will never be a perfect time to be in the post. We have to be mentally prepared to take on the mantle any time. I have been in Thiruvananthapuram for a few years now and I have thoroughly enjoyed the city which has given me a lot of experiences. There is a sense of familiarity. Lets see how I fare as the collector. I am looking forward to my tenure here, she said. Beginning her career in public administration as an assistant collector in Thrissur, Khosa later became a sub-collector in Thalassery and then the food safety commissioner. The Punjab native served as the managing director of the Medical Services Corporation and the National Ayush Mission, Kerala, before her appointment as the Thiruvananthapuram collector. Her husband is an orthodontist working in Qatar and the couple has a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter. Washington: The United States is considering the option of welcoming people from Hong Kong in response to China's push to impose national security legislation in the former British colony, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. Influential Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell told that chamber on Monday he hoped the Trump administration would soon identify specific ways to "impose costs on Beijing" for curbing freedoms in Hong Kong, and said the United States should mirror the response of other democracies and open its doors to people from the territory. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Credit:AP Speaking to the American Enterprise Institute on Friday, Pompeo gave no details about immigration quotas or visas when asked about Hong Kong, and merely said: "We are taking a look at it." His remarks were shared by the State Department on Monday, US time. President Donald Trump has ordered his administration to begin the process of eliminating special US treatment for Hong Kong to punish China for curbing freedoms there, but stopped short of immediately ending privileges that have helped the territory remain a global financial centre. A student nurse has revealed how's she hit 'rock bottom' after being left homeless with her young daughter just days before lockdown began. April Owen, from Bournemouth, and her daughter Delilah, seven, were forced to move out of their privately rented accommodation in December after their landlord decided to sell. The family still has nowhere to live after the pandemic thwarted her attempts to find accommodation. The 30-year-old says none of the organisations she's asked to help her - including her university, local council and a housing association - have been able to offer her and Delilah a place to stay - leaving her so desperate that she approached the homeless charity Shelter for guidance. Scroll down for video Student nurse April Owen, 30, from Bournemouth, has been homeless since March when a flat she was due to move into fell through just after lockdown. She says every effort she's made to find new accommodation since has failed The single mother pictured with her daughter Delilah, seven. Without family support, April has had to live in a cramped room in her friend's house - because her friend has a new baby and a type one diabetic husband, April has been unable to work, leaving her forced to apply for Universal Credit The nightmare, which has seen the pair go from renting a private flat happily for seven years, to living in cramped accommodation with a friend and 'just a couple of bags of belongings' during lockdown has left April struggling with her mental health after she says every door appeared to close on her requests for help. The second year nurse has been unable to earn money because her friend has a newborn baby and her friend's husband is a type one diabetic, leaving her too fearful of bringing the virus into their house. She told FEMAIL: 'If I don't work, I don't get paid. I've had to apply for universal credit. I've felt very helpless throughout this. 'My friend's been a saviour. I'm not going to lie, my mental health has really hit rock bottom. I don't think I'd be here if it wasn't for my daughter' Talking about the impact it's also had on Delilah, she said: 'She's been very distressed too. My family's all in London therefore I don't really have a very good immediate support system here. I've got a lot of family but there's no-one that could have accommodated us there.' Helpless: April said while she's had friendly responses from Bournemouth council, they haven't been able to help her search for a new home beyond offering B&B or temporary accommodation Things began to unravel for April when her previous landlord decided to sell the flat she'd been renting since 2013. Her attempts to find a new property without the security of a financial guarantor left her unable to rent again privately and at the mercy of council waiting lists - where the only thing offered has been temporary accommodation or a B&B. She says: 'I lost my guarantor after he told me he could no longer provide financial reassurance because his own circumstances had changed.' After approaching Bournemouth council, they advised her to approach a private housing association, DWP Housing Partnership, which doesn't require guarantors. She explains: 'DWP is a private landlord/housing association that take on vulnerable people, who are often on housing benefits, without a guarantor. Two bags of belongings: The family are still staying with April's friend, who she calls a 'saviour', saying she would have had nowhere to go without her offer - but the family has suffered having two extra people with them for several months 'My gut was telling me it wasn't the right fit for me and it turned out to be a stupid move.' April explains that with the pandemic looming, she felt she had no choice and was in 'dire straits', fearing that she'd be left homeless. DWP found her a property and told her she could move in a month after the previous tenant moved out. Three weeks before she was due to leave her rental, April accepted the property and put a holding deposit down. When lockdown happened she was greeted with silence by the company, she says, before eventually being told the arrangement was no longer on offer. 'We left our home on the 12th March - the tenant of my new flat was moving out on the 16th and we'd be able to move in four weeks after that, on April 16th, I was told. 'My housing office at the council offered us temporary accommodation in a B&B or hostel but I wanted to avoid that for my daughter. 'My friend offered to let us stay, thinking it would be four weeks maximum that we would be with them. She has a four-month-old baby and a four-year-old - and two dogs - but offered us her baby's bedroom to stay in.' Desperate: More than 70 days after lockdown began, April's continued efforts to find a place for herself and Delilah to live have still not proved successful As a student nurse, April also approached the mental health support services at the university where she studies but was told there was a waiting list for accommodation - with only a handful of properties available for families. Feeling like she was being dismissed once more, April wrote that she was potentially about to be homeless. 'They stopped me and in front of everybody and said "Are you going to be homeless?" and I burst into tears. 'I did have a housing officer from the council and she was a very big help mentally, very supportive but apart from that, they haven't helped me find anywhere.' They stopped me...and in front of everybody said: "Are you going to be homeless?" and I burst into tears... April Owen After putting her belongings in storage, she went to her friend's home with a 'couple of bags' and she's been there ever since. The flat with DWP fell through, April thinks, because she phoned them to ask about progress during lockdown. 'I got the response from DWP that: "We think it's in everybody's best interests and we don't think this relationship will work, therefore we're cancelling the move." 'I hit rock bottom. They didn't want to know - they'd made their decision. I'm back to square one after three months of patiently waiting through the pandemic for nothing.' MailOnline has contacted DWP Housing Association, Bournemouth Council and Bournemouth University for comment. Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter said: 'Not all of us have been lucky enough to spend lockdown in a safe and secure home and sadly Aprils story is one of many. 'Since the pandemic took hold, our frontline advisers have been inundated with calls from people scared of losing their home or facing homelessness. 'Were doing everything we can at Shelter to answer as many of these calls for housing help as possible. 'We have set up dedicated coronavirus advice pages on our website, and our emergency helpline remains open 365 days a year, providing free advice and support to anyone who needs it. Were only a click or a call away, so please visit www.shelter.org.uk/get_help.' Shelter has launched Work for Home: asking people currently safely working from home to help Shelter 'save someone elses', simply by donating the cost of a takeaway coffee or lunchtime sandwich. Visit Shelter.org.uk/WorkForHome NORTON SHORES, MI More details of a planned new Lake Michigan park have been released by Muskegon County, which has applied for a $10 million state grant for the project. Muskegon County officials have requested just over $10 million from the DNR Trust Fund to purchase the former Nugent Sand mining property in Norton Shores for a 377-acre public park with space for camping, hiking, fishing and kayaking. The grant application requests $10,075,200 from the DNR Trust Fund, or two-thirds of the lands appraised value of $14.9 million. The remaining third of the purchase costs would be funded through a land value donation from the sand mining company and its owner, Robert Chandonnet, and funds raised by the Land Conservancy of West Michigan. The property includes both land and water, with 1,917 feet of Lake Michigan frontage, two inland lakes, wooded areas and critical dune land. It has been for sale for the last two years, and is visible from Sherman Boulevard near the city of Muskegons Kruse Park. The total parcel is just over 376 acres, between Lincoln Road on the east, and Lake Michigan on the west. The two inland lakes are divided to the north and south by the dirt Winnetaska Road. According to new renderings submitted with the grant applications, the area north of Winnetaska comprises 95 acres of land, including 2.2 miles of potential hiking trails and 1,262 feet of Lake Michigan shoreline. The north lake is about 67 acres. A small campground area is proposed for the crook of the north lake, which is shaped like a letter C. The area south of Winnetaska comprises nearly 94 acres of land, including 2.1 miles of potential hiking trails, and 400 feet of Lake Michigan shoreline. The south lake is about 120 acres, and contains a small island. Renderings of a proposed park at the former Nugent Sand property. Muskegon County has applied for a state grant to convert the former sand mine into a public recreation area. The proposal was first presented before an enthusiastic community audience in February, and the move to apply for the grant was approved by the county in March. The grant application was submitted on the deadline of April 1, according to Caitlin Hegedus, marketing and operations manager for the countys visitors bureau, who finalized and submitted the application. The county will learn in December whether the application has been accepted. The county would not pay for any portion of the purchase, commissioners have said. The state requires two appraisals on the land, but only one conducted by Nordlund & Associates, a Ludington-based firm, valuing the land at $14.9 million has been conducted so far. The second appraisal will be conducted in September, Hegedus said, after the DNR releases its initial scoring of the project, indicating how strong the considered projects are. DNR trust fund grants are considered competitive April Scholtz of the Land Conservancy of West Michigan previously told MLive. In addition to committing to fundraising for the project, the land conservancy is unofficially advising the county as it navigates the application, Scholtz added. Such a grant has been awarded for similar projects in the region, including the Ottawa Sands park in Ottawa County. As part of the application process, Muskegon County conducted its own Phase 1 Environmental Study, which examines soil and water for contamination, Bob Lukens, Muskegon County Community Development director, told the Norton Shores City Council on Tuesday, May 26. That study found that the inland lakes have elevated levels of manganese and iron. The county will have to develop a response plan to remediate those contaminants if it receives the grant, according to Hegedus. Its not an initial concern, she said. After the initial scoring comes out, the county may submit letters of support from other partners, such as neighboring municipalities, and any additional information or data requested by the trust fund, according to Hegedus. But, she added, the county is holding off on approaching most of those partners until the coronavirus emergency lifts. Were in a holding pattern until we get the initial scoring, she said. County commissioners have previously said that, if the county is approved for the grant, the board would still have to decide whether to formally make an offer to the landowner. That wouldnt occur until December at the earliest, officials have said. If the county acquires the land, it will become available to the public within 90 days of sale, according to Lukens. At a public hearing before the county commission on Tuesday, March 3, several members of the public referred to the proposal as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Others, as well as one county commissioner, expressed concerns about costs lost by not privately developing the land instead, and startup and ongoing maintenance costs. The Nugent Sand company mined Lake Michigan dune sand for over 100 years, beginning in 1912. It has been considered for private development on several occasions over the years since its mining operations ceased, including a 2013 proposal to construct a $50 million gated residential community on 200 acres of the property. But Denny Cherette, a representative for Chandonnet, the landowner, has said that Chandonnet is most interested in letting the property become a public resource. Read more on MLive: Proposed 377-acre Lake Michigan park near Muskegon gets support from packed crowd Plans for new Lake Michigan park at former sand mine moving forward A week into summers unofficial start, Michigans largest amusement park remains indefinitely closed Starting in early 2020, governments around the world ordered lockdowns, closures and other social distancing rules to slow the spread of COVID-19. The severity of the measures differed from place to place. But, most people around the world were affected by coronavirus restrictions. Now, as the world starts to re-open in many places, people are sharing their experiences living under stay-at-home orders. Reuters spoke with people in Africa and the Middle East about the good and bad of being in lockdown. In Kenya, 39-year-old businesswoman Mable Selina Etambo talked about the good side of the restrictions. She said when the lockdown ends, she will miss her time alone. She explained that her culture is very social. She said the recent social separation made her realize that she needs time to sit alone, to reflect and to plan her life without people bothering her. A 29-year-old photographer, Adetona Omokanye, lives in Lagos, Nigeria. He said the lockdown has given him time to breathe and reexamine how he lives his life. Now, in his words, he is, trying to focus more on the things that truly matter. Alexander Caiafas also lives in Lagos. The 25-year-old said he has enjoyed spending time with family, studying and connecting with friends online. A performer also praised some of the changes the restrictions brought. A dancer with Israels Batsheva Dance Company told Reuters that she likes the time spent doing nothing. Yael Ben Ezer said, I will miss the comfortable feeling of its OK [to not] do anything. Things would come and go, the sun would rise and set, and I would just be living. And thats totally enough, she said of living under stay-at-home orders. However, the dancer did add there were things she missed, like the excitement of her public dance performances. In the countryside of Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, Zodidi Desewula feels markedly different about COVID-19 restrictions. She reported about the difficulties she faced. Myself and my husband were stuck in this single room house -- unable to go to work, she said. She added that they struggled to get food because they were not making money. In the Egyptian capital Cairo, 20-year-old student Nada Maged described lockdown as prison. When I look out, I see the same view but have a different feeling. The streets are more sad and mysterious , she said. She added that there is no hope of getting out soon. Cairo resident Zineb Mohamed misses her family. I need to go to the zoo with my grandchildren. Also, I want to take them to the sea, the 59-year-old said. She added that she has dreamed about that many times. A 28-year-old woman in Tyre, Lebanon has a sea view from her window. Lama Nadra looks at it every day. I like the calm, she said, and being away from the noise of the capital, Beirut. For her, the end of lockdown also will mean seeing family less. She said that her brother will go back to Dubai and she will return to Beirut. And, Nadra will also be separated from her father and mother once lockdown is over. However, an end to the lockdown means Nadra can go swimming again. She said, she looks forward to that. For many though, the pandemic did not change much. Abu Ghazi lives in a temporary cloth shelter on the edge of a burial place in northern Syria. Like millions of others, he has been displaced by nine years of civil war in the country. He said he longs to return home. We quarantined ourselves with the dead, the 53-year-old told Reuters. We wake up and sleep looking at graves. Im Anna Matteo. What has been your experience in lockdown? Share the good and bad in the Comments Section. Mike Collett-White reported this story for Reuters. Anna Matteo adapted it for VOA Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story reflect v. to think seriously and carefully about bothering v. to annoy (someone) : to cause (someone) to feel annoyed focus v. to direct your attention or effort at something specific comfortable adj. allowing you to be relaxed : causing no worries, difficulty, or uncertainty markedly adv. very noticeable quarantined v. to keep (a person or animal) away from others to prevent a disease from spreading grave n. a hole in the ground for burying a dead body New Delhi: Farmers and pro-Kannada outfit activists protested in various parts of Karnataka on Monday against the Supreme Court direction to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu while Chief Minister Siddaramaiah convened a meeting of legislature leaders and MPs in Bengaluru on Tuesday to discuss the issue. As farmers and others hit the streets protesting the apex court directive to release 15,000 cusecs of water per day for next ten days to the neighbouring state, the Cauvery Hitarakshana Samithi (Cauvery protection committee) called for a bandh on Tuesday in Mandya, the hotbed of Cauvery politics. Siddaramaiah, whose government has been expressing its inability to release water to Tamil Nadu citing poor storage, would hold a meeting with floor leaders of all parties in the state legislature, MPs and district-in charge ministers tomorrow evening to take stock of the situation, an official release said on Monday night. We have decided to call for Mandya bandh on Tuesday to protest against the court direction to release cauvery water to Tamil Nadu when there is hardly any water left at our side of the river, Samithi President and former MP G Made Gowda told reporters at Mandya, some 100 km from Bengaluru. Gowda also urged the government to file a review petition in the apex court. He said he had spoken to state Water Resources Minister M B Patil over phone and urged him to safeguard the interest of Karnataka farmers. The farmers leader also warned the government that it would face a strong agitation if water was released to Tamil Nadu. Protests broke out in other parts of the state including Chamrajnagar, Mysuru and Hubballi with farmers and pro-Kannada activists demonstrating against the Supreme Court order and urging the Siddaramaiah government to protect interests of Karnataka farmers and not release water to Tamil Nadu. Police said effigies and posters of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa were burnt in some places in these districts. A group of farmers tried to enter the KRS Reservoir in Mysuru protesting the court direction, but police prevented them. Karnataka Okkuta, led by Vatal Nagaraj, called for a Karnataka bandh on September 9. Workers of the pro-Kannada outfit held a protest here, bringing traffic to a halt in the heart of the city. There is no water in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mandya and Chamrajnagar, and that is the truth. We have called for Karnataka Bandh on September 9 to protest against the injustice meted out to farmers here, Nagaraj told reporters. Passing orders on a petition by Tamil Nadu, the Supreme Court noted that damage would be caused to samba crops in the neighbouring state and directed Karnataka to release water. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-03 00:20:52|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HAIKOU, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua has stressed the key role of pilot open platform in Hainan port and urged efforts to ensure the smooth initial construction of the Hainan free-trade port. Hu, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks during his recent tour of south China's Hainan Province. Hu visited the Yangpu Economic Development Zone and the Yangpu bonded port to check their operation. He also conducted in-depth exchanges with local officials and entrepreneurs. Hu stressed efforts to improve trade liberalization and facilitation and develop innovative methods of customs supervision to enhance efficiency. Meanwhile, the emergency response mechanism for early risk warnings should be optimized to crack down on smuggling activities in an accurate and efficient manner, Hu noted. Enditem Photo: Contributed Dermod Travis, the executive director of Integrity B.C. who died Monday at the age of 59, is being remembered as the kind of full-time professional citizen Ralph Nader hoped would help build a more just world. Dermod exposed corruption, journalism instructor Sean Holman wrote on Twitter. He exposed wrongdoing. And he did it selflessly, without regard to himself. Travis, whose commentaries regularly appeared in newspapers across Canada, including the Times Colonist, had liver disease, and wrote on social media in March that his liver had failed the previous month. After some reflection, I will not be adding my name to B.C.s transplant list, Travis wrote. If a suitable liver becomes available and my body is ready for a transplant, there will likely be a far younger person in far greater need thatll be your liver. Wayne Crookes, founder of the watchdog group, shared the news of Traviss death on the organizations website, calling him an outstanding communications and political professional and activist. Crookes said Travis, who died two days prior to what would have been his 60th birthday, tried hard to make Canada and British Columbia a better place. I believe very strongly that he made a significant contribution to Canada and to B.C. politics, Crookes said, adding: I have lost a very good friend. Born in Banff and raised in Victoria, Travis attended the University of British Columbia, worked in Edmonton for the Alberta Liberal Party and spent more than 20 years as a political consultant in Montreal, Crookes said. He was a strong advocate for electoral-finance reform, campaigning effectively in 2017 to get that issue before voters during the provincial election, he said. Travis was orchestrating the issue as if it were a political campaign, which peaked in the final week of the election. In early 2004, Crookes became the Green Party of Canada campaign manager and hired Travis as the director of communications and director of media ahead of that years federal election. Within about a month, Travis had pulled together a media team, mainly consisting of young people, he said. Dermod put them together from his connections in Montreal. He worked out of Montreal during the campaign. When the election was called, the team had 100 media releases ready to distribute throughout the campaign, Crookes said. Crookes paints a picture of Traviss meticulously crafted approach: He divided the campaign into five weeks, and the fifth week was devoted to our environmental platform. What he did in that election in such a short time reflected someone with keen insight, great communications and political competence, he said. Certainly, without him, the Green Party would not have done as well. After he left the Green Party, Travis served as executive director of the Canada-Tibet Committee, where he played a key role in convincing Canada to accept 1,000 Tibetan refugees and their families as immigrants to Canada, Crookes said. I was just so impressed with his competence and his industriousness and his volunteerism. In 2010, when Travis said he was thinking of returning to B.C., I suggested that we needed something like Integrity B.C. The organization was launched April 1, 2011, with Travis as executive director. Crookes was the founder and sponsor for the organization. I think he put the focus of many people, politicians, voters and the media on the importance of financial electoral reform and put the spotlight on some integrity matters for over nine years. Brad Slade worked for 2 1/2 years as campaign manager for Travis at Integrity B.C., where they tackled electoral-finance reform. Slade described his friend as tenacious, highly intelligent and politically savvy. He was brilliant. He could find things that no one else could find, he said. Dermod was always adamant about making sure he had his facts correct he would triple- and quadruple-check his facts. Slade said Travis had a heart of gold. Travis is survived by sister Deirdre Chettleburgh, who said that even as a child, Dermod was a grand person. At age eight, he was somehow under the impression he was the assistant manager of the wax museum on Banff Avenue, where he was a regular visitor, she said fondly. He was a little bit of an old soul in a little boys body. The family moved to Victoria in 1968 father John was a United Church minister and mother Elizabeth was writer. They had a strong sense of right and wrong and of fairness and justice and were not afraid to ask questions, Chettleburgh said. Travis had similar values, was a matter-of-fact person and had a wry sense of humour, his sister said. He would entertain the family with stories about politics. His whole life was his work. It was typical of Travis that when he learned of his illness, he decided against seeking a liver transplant, believing it would be better to give someone younger that opportunity, she said. Bill Tieleman, a political commentator who worked in communications in the office of the B.C. premier and for the B.C. Federation of Labour, said the work Travis did was important to a lot of people in British Columbia. He was a watchdog on government for a long period of time. He held everyones feet to the fire with the same zeal. He was very committed to the cause of accountability and responsibility on the part of government. Thats his legacy. "Black Lives Matter." Thousands of people around the world have gathered to protest against the killing of an African-American man George Floyd at the hands of the police. The incident caught on tape triggered marches across US states, only to stretch its wings to other countries and become a show of solidarity for the Black Lives Matter movement. Video footage showed a white police officer kneeling on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes before he died. Days after his gruesome death, the site of the deadly incident became a memorial spot along with a mural of Floyd. Not just Minneapolis where Floyd was pinned to death, murals have cropped up in different corners of the world including war-torn Syria, where artists Aziz Asmar and Anis Hamdoun joined the protest by painting a mural of Floyd in Binnish that read "I can't breathe" and "No to racism". The powerful pictures from Syria soon went viral on the microblogging site Twitter. "This town in Syria was destroyed. There were hardly any walls left. Two artists - Aziz Asmar and Anis Hamdoun - could have painted anything they wanted on this remaining wall. They chose to paint a mural of George Floyd," wrote one Twitter user. This put me into tears. Syrian artists Aziz Asmar and Anis Hamdoun with their mural of George Floyd in Syria's northwestern Idlib province on June 1, 2020. #blacklivesmatter Photos by AFPs @omar_hajkadour pic.twitter.com/XyiJ0XBMpO Mariam (@MariamKirollos) June 1, 2020 This town in Syria was destroyed. There were hardly any walls left. Two artists - Aziz Asmar and Anis Hamdoun - could have painted anything they wanted on this remaining wall. They chose to paint a mural of George Floyd.#Humanity ( AFP/@omar_hajkadour) pic.twitter.com/zGyf5Spd5A Muhammad Lila (@MuhammadLila) June 1, 2020 A mural of George Floyd on the remnant of a building destroyed by Assad regime in Idlib Syria. No to racism. pic.twitter.com/YiVagaPYP9 Hamza Alheraki (@HerakiHamza) June 1, 2020 Extraordinary photo in the @nytimes of two artists in Syria, the worlds most brutalized land, creating a George Floyd mural, and expressing express solidarity with victims thousands of miles away, in a country that shares responsibility for their countrys devastation. pic.twitter.com/P24PDlFJzc Adam Shatz (@adamshatz) June 1, 2020 As #Syria is going through a lot and people there are getting killed everyday, it doesnt mean that the free Syrian people wouldnt stand with others people From #Idlib #Syria all the way to the #US & the rest of the world #NoToRacism #ICantBreathe #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd . pic.twitter.com/pJwONLHO0b Abdalaziz Alhamza (@3z0ooz) June 1, 2020 Syrian artists paint a mural depicting George Floyd,an unarmed African-American man who died while while being arrested and pinned to the ground by the knee of a Mineapolis police officer,in Binnish in Syria's northwestern Idlib province on June1,2020#BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/exDSIH4Dgb laith fares (@laithfares9) June 1, 2020 A video of the Syrian artists finishing up the mural also went viral on the website. VIDEO: As they finish up their memorial mural in Idlib, Syria, the artists remember the late George Floyd, iterate their stance against all forms of racism, and emphasize that they hope all people will be able to live in freedom and dignity pic.twitter.com/mjIR3RX6UP Mai El-Sadany (@maitelsadany) June 1, 2020 Artists around the world paid homage to Floyd with powerful paintings. George Floyd mural on a boarded up building on Hennepin: pic.twitter.com/6HEMZw1Uf8 Libor Jany (@StribJany) May 30, 2020 Thought many would appreciate this. Pensacola Graffiti Bridge mural by Brandon Vessels from Alabama. #GeorgeFloyd #SayHisNameGeorgeFloyd pic.twitter.com/NufUwrKaUF NikkiNikki (@nikkinikki0217) May 29, 2020 The site where Floyd was killed saw people praying, embracing and laying bouquets of flowers and homemade "I Can't Breathe," "Justice for George Floyd" and "Black Lives Matter" signs on several already sprawling memorials at the intersection. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo used his daily press briefing today to send a message to New York City police and Mayor Bill de Blasio after another night of looting and vandalism in the city. The NYPD and the mayor did not do their job last night, Cuomo said during a press conference in Albany. "It was a disgrace. I believe the mayor underestimates the scope of the problem. I think he underestimates the duration of the problem. What happened in New York City was inexcusable. Police have been ineffective so far, he said. Businesses throughout the city were looted and damaged on Monday night and early Tuesday, including the iconic Macys location in Manhattan and others in the central business district. Cuomo noted peaceful protests took place across the state and city. He said again he shared protesters outrage over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which sparked the demonstrations. The looters are criminals who are exploiting the protests and Floyds death for their own purposes, he added. Floyd died in May after a police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with murder. New York City police are capable of bringing the city under control if theyre deployed and managed properly. He noted the city has handled rioting and looting in the past. He suggested more officers were needed on the streets. Cuomo said hes offered state police and National Guard troops to communities across the state. Some in Upstate New York have taken the offer, but New York City has declined. Cuomo said he couldnt overrule de Blasio without removing him from office, which he said is possible. He added hes not at that point yet and called it a bizarre idea. He also said it would add more chaos to an already difficult situation. But he made clear the city needs to do more. Im not happy with last night, he said. It has to be fixed today. Stop the looting. Contact Kevin Tampone anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-282-8598 The Chief Justice, Justice Anin Yeboah, has advised businessman, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, to pay the Gh47.2 million he owes the state if he does not want his properties sold. Justice Yeboah made the comments Tuesday, June 2, at the Supreme Court when Mr Woyome tried to speak to the court about the auctioning of his properties. Mr Woyome was in court today following an application by the Attorney - General (A-G) urging the court to have the properties transferred to the National Security. If you have the money, pay for your properties be released back to you, Justice Anin Yeboah said. Application The A-G has filed an application seeking the permission of the Supreme Court to transfer to the National Security four properties belonging to Alfred Agbesi Woyome, who was wrongfully paid GH51.2 million by the state. The move is as a result of challenges the licensed auctioneer is facing in his bid to sell the properties to offset the debt. The application is necessitated by the fact that the AGs department cannot on its own transfer the properties to the National Security though it is another branch of government, as that would amount to defying the express orders of the Supreme Court for the properties to be sold through public auctions. Background The Supreme Court, on July 29, 2014, ordered Mr Woyome to refund GH51.2 million to the state on grounds that he got the money out of unconstitutional and invalid contracts between the state and Waterville Holdings Limited in 2006 for the construction of stadia for CAN 2008. It was the view of the court that the contracts upon which Mr Woyome made and received the claim were in contravention of Article 181 (5) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, which required such contracts to be laid before and approved by Parliament. The case leading to the Supreme Court decision was initiated by Mr Martin Amidu, the current Special Prosecutor, in his capacity as a citizen of Ghana. On March 1, 2016, Mr Woyome prayed the court to give him three years to pay back the money but the court declined to grant his wish. He, however, refunded GH4 million in November 2016 and an additional GH600,000 and promised to pay the outstanding balance by quarterly instalments of GH5 million, commencing April 1, 2017. That did not materialise, after the businessman initiated a litany of legal cases at the Supreme Court challenging the decision for him to pay the money or efforts to execute the judgment, which were all dismissed. Apart from fighting his cases in the country, Mr Woyome also sought relief from the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) based in Paris, France, and the African Court of Justice, based in Arusha, Tanzania. In August 2017, the ICC threw out his case on the basis that he had failed to properly invoke its jurisdiction. His case at the African Court of Justice was also dismissed in June this year. Sale of properties The state, in its attempt to take over the businessmans properties, faced certain obstacles, which included a claim by the defunct UT Bank that some of the properties belonged to the bank. On June 27, 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that the properties were, indeed, for Woyome and ordered their sale to defray the debt he owed the state. The assets to be sold include two mansions at Trassaco Estate, a house at Kpehe, an office complex of Anator Holdings, a residential building at Abelemkpe and a stone quarry, including its plants and equipment. The court, with Justice A.A Benin as the sole judge, had held that the properties belonged to Mr Woyome and that the claim by UT Bank that the businessman had sold the two houses at Trassaco Estate to it was a sham. Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A Lagos Division of the Federal High Court has ordered the immediate release of former Abia State governor, Orji Kalu, from the Nigerian Correctional Service. Mohammed Liman, the judge, granted an application moved by Mr Kalus counsel Lateef Fagbemi, seeking his release. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) did not oppose the application. Details later. In December last year, the court had sentenced Mr Kalu, then a serving senator, to 12 years in prison for N7.65 billion fraud. Mr Kalu was tried alongside his company, Slok Nigeria Limited, and Udeh Udeogu, who was Director of Finance and Accounts at the Abia State Government House during Mr Kalus tenure as governor. In an amended 39 counts charge, they were accused by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of conspiring and diverting over N7 billion from the coffers of the state. Following the nullification of his conviction by the Supreme Court on May 8, the former governor filed an application at the federal court seeking his an order for his release from the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS), Kuje, Abuja. Mr Kalu had been accused of stealing and mismanaging funds belonging to Abia State during his days as governor between 1999 and 2007. He pleaded not guilty but was sentenced in December 2019 to 12 years in prison. He was jailed alongside Ude Udeogu, who was the director of finance and accounts at the Abia State Government House during Mr Kalus tenure. The duo appealed the convictions by the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court up to the Supreme Court. On May 8, the Supreme Court ordered a retrial of the case. A seven-member panel of the apex court, in a unanimous verdict delivered by Justice Ejembi Eko, invalidated the conviction. Justice Eko declared that Justice Mohammed Idris, who convicted the duo was already a justice of the Court of Appeal when he ruled and sentenced Mr Kalu and his co-defendant. He held that a Justice of the Court of Appeal cannot operate as a judge of the Federal High Court, and ordered the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to reassign the case for trial, the report said. The apex court said section 396 (7) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015, on which the former president of the court of appeal, Zainab Bulkachuwa, relied on to authorise the trial judge to return to the high court to conclude the trial was unconstitutional. The suggestion that the violence Americans saw on their TV screens was being perpetrated by a network of white nationalists is suspect on its face. Its also an unnecessary stretch in logic. Far too often in the recent past, peaceful protests have been overwhelmed by people with violent agendas, and without any nefarious plotting. According to University of Miami political scientist and conspiracy theory expert Joseph Uscinski, we shouldnt be surprised. Looking for conspiracies is part of Americas political character. For example, we have a lot of conspiracy theories involving George Soros funding the protests through Black Lives Matter, and theories about Russia funding them through white nationalists, Uscinski told InsideSources. Its something everybody does to one extent or another. And, he says, its largely driven by pre-existing political beliefs. What Joy Ann Reid was saying was probably in line with both her and her networks ideology and world view, as well as their audiences, Uscinski added. In China, the state mediate is covering the George Floyd protests that are ravaging cities across the US. America's troubles are hot topics in China's state-run media. George Floyd, 46-year-old African American, died at the hands of police officer Derek Chauvin who apprehended him for the minor misdemeanor of using a $20 counterfeit bill. Excessive police maltreatment led to his death, reports showed he died by asphyxiation. What follows next is a peaceful protest that eventually degenerates into looting and rioting, then clashes with police on the streets as reported by Reuters. One of the underlying problems is the political and racial divide of American, the kindled similar unrest in the past, confirmed by the New York Times. The U.S. news channel MSNBC in noon broadcast last Monday had an Interview with the brother of George Floyd, Philonise Floyd. Chinese CCTV broadcasted parts of the interview of Philonise, where the brother said that US President Trump spoke on most parts of the call. He was not able to speak at any time even sobbing when his brother was mentioned. All the unrest and turmoil that is happening to American cities have gained more attention, than the coronavirus pandemic of the US, right now both nations are in cudgels as they view each other as adversarial, with extreme tensions as well. Chinese state media CCTV, had reports from the police in Minnesota, including short videos taken by Americans who expose excessive violence to quell the rioting protestors. Images of uncontrollable madness were seen as clashes, shops were broken with rioters turning to thieve looters, that was a stark contrast to initially peaceful protests. Also read: US President Trump Leaves WHO But Loss of American Funding Get Backlash from Members The highlight of the reports was the withdrawal of President Trump into the bunker, a first in recent times that any president had to do it. The Chinese media had a field day taunting Trump, who ran away to hide. Aside from this, Weibo had several trending topics. he secret service had to take President Trump into the bunker because crowds were getting unmanageable and violent as unruly. It got worse on Twitter, as the protests were trending and on the top 20 items, among the derogative term #BunkerBoy at the second place of the top 20 items. To analysts, the extensive Chinese coverage if the protest were no different than the number of coronavirus reports in the United States. Alfred Wu, of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, offered his two cents in this matter. He made a contrast what the CCP is hell-bent on proving when compared to the Trump administration whom they are at odds with. The point which the communists are harping about is the way the CCP managed the coronavirus, also how they manage people. In contrast, Americans are free and everything, but it comes at a price. That only became too evident with willful, and wanton destruction in the affected American cities. The bottom line is the US is not well, something needs to be done to finally show CCP their place. Now, the Chinese have compared the US protests to the Hong Kong protests, another contention that has them butting heads. President Trump is slowly denying special privileges from Hong Kong, to lash out at the CCPs new national security laws. China is milking whatever mileage can be gained from the US leaving the World Health Organization, and the unrest in the US. It seems the George Floyd protest opened a soft spot for the Trump administration, it needs to be patched immediately. Related article: Donald Trump to Release Executive Order on Social Media After Twitter Fact-Checked His Post @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. [June 02, 2020] Teledyne to Participate in the Baird Global Consumer, Technology & Services Conference Teledyne Technologies Incorporated (NYSE:TDY) today announced that Jason VanWees, Executive Vice President, will be holding investor meetings at the Baird 2020 Virtual Global Consumer, Technology & Services Conference on Wednesday, June 3. Teledyne's latest investor presentation is publicly available on the company's website. Teledyne Technologies is a leading provider of sophisticated instrumentation, digital imaging products and software, aerospace and defense electronics, and engineered systems. Teledyne's operations are primarily located in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Western and Northern Europe. For more information, visit Teledyne's website at www.teledyne.com. Forward-Looking Information Cautionary Notice Teledyne's investor relations presentation contains forward-looking statements, as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 995, directly and indirectly relating to sales, earnings, operating margin, growth opportunities, acquisitions and divestitures, product sales, capital expenditures, pension matters, stock option compensation expense, taxes, strategic plans and other matters. Actual results could differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Many factors could change the anticipated results, including without limitation: disruptions in the global economy; the spread of the COVID-19 virus resulting in production, supply, contractual and other disruptions, and facility closures and furloughs; customer and supplier bankruptcies; changes in demand for products sold in any one of the markets in which Teledyne participates; funding, continuation and award of government programs; cuts to defense spending resulting from future deficit reduction measures, or government spending and budget priorities triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic; risks associated with acquisitions; impacts due to political decisions and/or changes in the policies of the U.S. and foreign governments; the imposition and expansion of, and responses to, trade sanctions and tariffs; threats to the security of our confidential and proprietary information, including cyber security threats; lower oil and natural gas prices and regulations or restrictions relating to energy exploration or production; disruptions from the grounding of certain air transport aircraft and continued weakness in the commercial aerospace industry and exchange rate fluctuations. Readers are encouraged to read Teledyne's 2019 Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and other periodic reports, including earnings releases, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC (News - Alert)") for a more complete description of the company, its businesses, its strategies and the various risks it faces. The company assumes no duty to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005881/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The city has selected two sites to build modular homes as part of Torontos affordable housing plan, and is on track to move the first 100 people into them as early as the fall, Mayor John Tory said Tuesday. The site of the former 14 Division Police Station, at 150 Harrison St. in Ward 9 has been recommended for phase one of the modular housing initiative, featuring 44 bachelor apartments. Also in phase one: 11 Macey Ave., near Victoria Park Ave. and Danforth Ave., in Ward 20, has been recommended as the site for 56 bachelor apartments. Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Tory said the two city-owned sites were selected after an extensive evaluation of local demand for affordable housing, existing local infrastructure and proximity to public transit, access to health and other community services, and zoning and planning considerations. While online community consultations on building-site design will be scheduled soon, Tory stressed that quick site selection is an integral part of completing the projects on time. It will allow us to get affordable, supportive housing to people as quickly as we ever have, he said. Tory said the projects are still in the design phase. The prefabricated homes will be made at a factory in Ontario and transported to the sites for assembly. Manufacturing is slated to begin at the end of June and site construction is scheduled for mid-July. Tory praised the federal government for its financial contribution, through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and in particular the Affordable Housing Innovation Fund, a national $200-million program to encourage innovative building techniques in the sector. He called on the province to step up financially as well, pointing out that housing people currently living on the streets and providing them with social supports is part of the health-care continuum, a provincial responsibility. Deputy mayor Ana Bailao, councillor for Ward 9 (Davenport) and chair of the citys planning and housing committee, said that the cost of keeping someone in modular housing, with social service supports, is $2,000 a month, compared to $4,000 a month for a shelter bed and $6,000 for a shelter bed during the COVID-19 crisis, which has required moving thousands of people to new locations to meet social distancing guidelines and provide space for those who have been infected to recover. The program is aimed at providing a dignified response to the problem of homelessness, said Ward 20 Coun. Gary Crawford (Scarborough Southwest). We know there are Scarborough residents that are experiencing homelessness, Crawford said. This program is aiming to provide the supports to encourage successful connections to the community. The city is seeking qualified, non-profit housing providers to manage each site. The Modular Housing Initiative is one component of the HousingTO 2020-2030 Action Plan, which calls for the city to approve 40,000 new affordable rental homes, including 1,000 modular homes. According to the city, the full capital costs for phase one is $20.9 million, including $8.25 million from the CMHC Housing Innovation Fund, in the form of contributions and repayable loans, and funding from the citys development charges reserve fund for subsidized housing. The city hopes to obtain operating funding from the province. Francine Kopun is a Toronto-based reporter covering city hall and municipal politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @KopunF Mr. Trumps dog whistles and bullhorn blasts help ensure that police will remain unaccountable rarely indicted when they kill unarmed people; frequently cleared when they are disciplined; often reinstated when they are fired for misconduct. They suggest there will be no change in racial profiling or unjustified officer-involved killings. Having torn up his predecessors blueprint, Mr. Trump now has nothing to offer no prescriptions, no healing and no vision beyond a status quo many Americans abhor. In reality, his slogans and impulses signal a disrespect for law, and path away from order. Pivotal Consulting, a leading Cloud Solutions Provider, announced today that it has achieved a coveted Certified Gold Partner designation in the Microsoft Partner Program. Pivotal Consulting has been providing Microsoft business-technology solutions for over 10 years and this recognition strengthens Pivotals partnership with Microsoft. We are excited to have earned Gold Partner status, joining the ranks of the top 1% of Microsoft Partners worldwide. Gold Partner distinction will provide us direct access to Microsoft product teams, deeper product knowledge, and advanced support to continue delivering, innovative cloud-native solutions to our customers. Pivotal has assisted companies across various industries including financial services, healthcare, logistics, retail, technology and non-profit in implementing cloud strategy, digital transformation, collaboration tools, process automation, and analytics. We are thrilled to continue this long-standing partnership with Microsoft and assist companies in improving their business with Microsoft technologies such as Office 365, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Dynamics 365, Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power BI, said Andrew Hoang, Managing Director of Pivotal Consulting. What it means for customers Microsoft Gold Partners receive a wide range of benefits, including access to Microsoft products and product teams, advanced training, and technical support, enabling even better customer solutions. With this elevated partner status, Pivotal Consulting is poised to expand its offerings with additional Microsoft-backed assessments and workshops to get more businesses collaborating safely in the cloud. About Pivotal Consulting Pivotal Consulting is a full-service technology management consulting firm, offering services starting from assessment and strategy, through technology selection, process mapping, deployment and configuration, to change management and end user adoption. Pivotals mission is to bring together people, process, and technology. About Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is a multinational corporation based in Redmond, Washington, that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics and personal computers and services. They are a leading developer of personal, business and enterprise computer software systems and applications. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. For more information on Pivotal Consulting: https://pivotalconsults.com For more information on Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com For more information on the Microsoft Partner Program: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/learn-about-competencies The Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen shot down two drones June 1 launched by the Houthi rebel group toward residential areas in Saudi Arabia, a spokesperson for the coalition said. The two drones were headed toward the southwestern Saudi border town of Khamis Mushait, said coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki, as quoted by Saudi state news agency SPA. The Houthi militia continues to violate the customary international humanitarian law by launching and deliberately targeting civilians and densely populated civilian areas with UAVs (drones), threatening the lives of hundreds of civilians in the process, Malki said. The coalition declared a now-expired unilateral cease-fire in early April, and Maliki said the number of Houthi violations since then has exceeded 5,000. The Houthis did not immediately confirm the alleged June 1 drone attacks. Yemen has been ravaged by war since 2014, when the Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels seized control of Sanaa and went on to capture large swaths of the country from pro-government forces, on whose behalf the Saudis and a group of allies intervened militarily in March 2015. In mid-May, the United Nations' Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths said the two sides had made significant progress toward agreeing to a permanent truce. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and left nearly 80% of the population in need of some form of humanitarian assistance. As the war rages, UN agencies say they are running out of money to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance. The UN estimates it needs roughly $2 billion to cover essential services in Yemen from June through December. It hopes to secure some of that funding during a virtual pledging conference June 2. Pakistan Fisherfolk are pressing the Sindh government hard to consult with then before a decision is taken in the favour or against a ban on fishing by Jan Khaskheli June 02,2020 | Source: The International News Out of work, fisherfolk are pressing the Sindh government hard to consult with then before a decision is taken in the favour or against a ban on fishing, while the relentless bulo and gujo (prohibited mesh-size fishing nets) mafia, backed by powerful sea-lords, continues to violate all laws with unassailable impunity. The News has learned that Sindh Fisheries department secretary and representatives of stakeholders are going to discuss the matter on Tuesday, (June 2, 2020) taking all on board. Usually, the provincial government issues notification about the ban around May-end, closing fisheries market, seafood processing units, restricting boat owners, crews and other stakeholders to abide by the decision unanimously. Marine fishermen residing across 350 km coastline of Sindh province are experiencing economically critical situations, because of weather ups-and-downs, unending lockdown following novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, closure of fish market and fear of unemployment for an indefinite period. Majority of fisherfolk are not in the favour of a ban, which if imposed, may cause uncertainty among more than 300,000 families, directly associated with this major economic sector, which provides source of living to the largest population after agriculture. The other workforce at harbour, jetties, and market will also face financial pressure in case of ban on fishing. Majeed Motani, a veteran community leader based in Ibrahim Hydri, a Karachi outskirt, wants the government to provide relief to both marine and inland fishermen, like it has to the workers from sectors. It is because they are experiencing restrictions for a longtime in terms of chancy weather and lockdown, which have compelled them to stay home without work. Like other countries, Pakistan is also unable to export seafood products during the lockdown, which has affected community people, who depend on fishing but unable to earn reasonable wages because of market issue, Motani said. Motani, representing a community organisation, said this year the phenomenon in fishing sector seemed different in terms of livelihood threats. He said all the community organisations were unanimous in their demand that the government should not impose a ban on fishing this year, so the fisherfolk could feed their families during this hard time. The community people are naturally aware and do not harm shrimp nurseries/breeding grounds to save the precious species. He said mostly the government imposes ban on three shrimp species, because of their breeding season to avoid extinction of the same, Motani said. About the use of destructive nets, locally called bulo and gujo, the veteran community leader said these nets were being used in connivance with provincial fisheries department officials, to the destruction of available fish stocks. These fishing nets have small eyes, which can catch every small thing coming in it and harm populations of juvenile fish and other marine species, he added. Gulab Shah, a community activist from Keti Bunder, Thatta district, said, Presently sea is rough as usual due to strong winds and forecast of rains, which is dangerous for boat crews to operate their fishing vessels. Shah said many sea-lords (influential people), having political backing, always violate the decision and use destructive fishing nets and catch all fish species, including juvenile shrimps. These influential people take the catch to the main market at Karachi Fisheries Harbour (KFH) where traders deal with them, violating the ban and causing uncertainty among community people, who do not sail their boats to open sea for a catch. The situation can be measured from the facts that this year the river water streams reached the sea earlier in March, creating hope for the community to have palla (hilsa), but due to use of destructive nets, a large number of fishermen are still waiting to catch this precious fish. The palla is considered marine species but always swims upstream from river to sea for breeding, staying there from April to October. But the irony is that the people using bulo and gujo nets did not allow this commercial fish species to benefit the community in the wide area along the river. These destructive nets are fastened at the mouth of creeks and catch entire palla on its route. This approach has disappointed the majority of community people, who abide by the decision and face hardships due to staying at home without work. Obviously, there is a two-month ban, but sometimes it extends to August and September, depending on the weather conditions. Asif Bhatti, president Indigenous Native fishermen Association (NIIFA), while sharing previous years experiences during the ban season, said, When fisheries market seems functional, receiving catch through boats, and seafood processing units are allowed to operate, why the community people are being forced to refrain from going to open sea. We want the government to impose a complete ban on fishing, if they want to and keep strict vigil on fish catch, trade, and market activities, Bhatti said, adding, They have witnessed private shrimp peeling centers being set up by certain people, who are selling the product despite the ban. He said the government seemed reluctant to take action by violators. He endorsed the community decision and suggested the government not to impose ban on fishing this year, so the people may heave a sigh of relief and recover losses. In fact, fishing by traditional methods, using small nets as well as boats have changed. The industrial mechanised fishing has already spoiled fish stock, leaving the community to take risk and move away in search of better living. Mobile banking has been one of the great success stories in emerging markets - particularly within Africa - and in the wake of Covid-19, many in the financial sector are calling for further digitalisation to ensure resilience and growth. This viewpoint was espoused by many at Huaweis recent Sub-Saharan Africa Financial Services Industry Online Summit 2020, which was attended by delegates from the financial, telecoms and ICT sectors. ICT advances will be critical enablers to a thriving banking sector in Sub Saharan Africa, said Liao Yong, vice president of Huawei Southern Africa Region. He noted that in a region where almost 70% of the population does not have access to a bank account, the development of the financial and ICT sectors is intertwined. The past two decades have seen rapid uptake of mobile technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa, fuelling strong economic growth. GSMA forecasts anticipate 4G adoption surpassing 2G by 2023, with 600 million unique subscribers in the region by 2025. Brett King of New York-based mobile banking startup Bank 4.0 noted that the behavioural changes necessitated as a response to Covid-19 would accelerate a shift towards digital financial services, saying: the declining use of physical branches is likely for many customers to remain a permanent feature of their lives. While many sectors saw a decline throughout Q1 in China, the financial sector recorded 6% year-on-year growth. Chen Kunte, Chief Digital Transformation Officer of Global Financial Services in Huaweis Enterprise Business Group, claimed that this would strengthen the banking sector during the current pandemic. Chen, who was formerly the Chief Information Officer of China Merchants Bank, said: We need to restructure banks ICT platforms from legacy architecture to cloud-based, open architecture by building AI-Powered and Data-Driven platforms to expand the way financial institutions engage and interact with their customers, and accommodate more innovative business models and service scenarios. The COVID-19 pandemic has led many communities in the US, especially those on the margins who are particularly vulnerable to the consequences of national politics and bear the brunt of structural state violence, to rethink political engagement. Muslim Americans, who have been politically energised in new ways since 2016, are among these communities. Last month, one prominent Muslim group, Emgage PAC which calls itself the largest Muslim American federal political action committee endorsed Joe Biden for president. As president, I will stand up for Muslim communities across the country, immediately repeal Donald Trumps Muslim ban and embrace diversity as a core strength of our nation, not demonise it, Biden proclaimed shortly after being endorsed. These words may seem comforting but they fall terribly short. The Muslim American community should take Bidens promises with a pinch of salt and scrutinise his political record on issues that have disproportionately negative effects on its members. One of these issues is the state of exception, ie, when a state exercises its sovereign powers under an emergency situation to implement policies (ostensibly for the public good) that it otherwise would not under normal circumstances. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, these policies could include the use of data collection and face surveillance to curb the spread of the virus, raising questions about civil liberties and privacy rights. Muslims are familiar with these questions, as they have long been targeted by the state of exception and know better than anyone else that curtailing rights in the name of security often means compromising both. For Muslims, surveillance under a state of exception has been the norm and Bidens record on it ought to be interrogated, as we discuss political accountability amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It was Michael Bloombergs unsuccessful presidential campaign which momentarily brought the issue of discriminatory surveillance to the national spotlight. Indeed, if there were a silver lining to Bloombergs campaign at all, it was that it caused the racist policies he implemented as the mayor of New York from Stop and Frisk to surveillance of Muslim communities to be questioned like never before. It may be presumed that such policies began and ended with Bloomberg, but the truth is, they were only one part of a larger structure that has long targeted Black and Brown communities throughout American history. This issue is personal to me. As a teen, I was targeted by Mayor Bloombergs surveillance when my non-profit charity was infiltrated by an informant who eventually confessed on Facebook to having worked for the New York Police Department (NYPD). The news rattled me and put my community perpetually on edge. Imagine entering a sacred space having to worry that the person praying next to you might be a law enforcement agent aiming to entrap you. To fight this, I joined a class-action lawsuit with fellow community members in 2013 to challenge the NYPDs discriminatory surveillance. It took years, but we reached a settlement with major policy changes, such as a prohibition on investigations in which race, religion or ethnicity is a substantial or motivating factor; a limit on the use of undercover informants; an end to open-ended investigations; a civilian representative to monitor all investigations to ensure the NYPD complies with these new safeguards; and more. Few people know that the NYPDs surveillance of Muslims drew explicitly from the same model used by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the global War on Terror and that it also has stark parallels with the War on Crime that has targeted Black and Latino people for decades. The most glaring example of how this surveillance apparatus has manifested in national policy is the Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) programme, pioneered by none other than the administration of former President Barack Obama and the presumptive Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden. Obama unveiled this programme in 2011 with the stated aim to address the conditions and reduce the factors that most likely contribute to recruitment and radicalisation by violent extremists. To do so, the programme encouraged federal agencies like the Department of Homeland Security to partner with social workers, mental health counsellors and teachers from within the Muslim community by tasking them to identify traits in their clients that could serve as predictors of extremist violence. For example, in a 2014 document called Countering Violent Extremism: A Guide for Practitioners and Analysts published by the National Counterterrorism Center, social service providers were asked to rank their clients on a scale of 1 to 5 in categories such as Experiences of Trauma, Access to Healthcare, and Experiences of Loss (Loss of Home, Role, Status, Loved Ones, Beliefs), all of which were supposedly indicators of extremist violence. Aside from the fact that these categories are completely arbitrary and meaningless, their very implementation as markers of extremism violates both the rules of confidentiality and civil liberties. All of this took place under the Obama-Biden administration and has only been expanded under Trumps. In fact, the Department of Homeland Security under Trump recently launched the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) programme, for which Congress has authorised $10m in funding for the fiscal year 2021. TVTP is ultimately a rebranded version of CVE, and while the federal government could be funding schools, hospitals and public infrastructure in the middle of a pandemic, it is instead allocating millions of taxpayer dollars to target Muslim communities. The office that manages the TVTP programme recently released a FAQ sheet to discuss risk factors and indicators of violent extremism that include such things as having trouble in romantic relationships, failing to achieve ones aspirations, and having personal and political grievances. These sound like quintessential millennial experiences to me! Muslim, Arab, South Asian and Black community organisations have been fighting hard against harmful policies like CVE/TVTP for a long time. In cities like Boston where CVE programmes were piloted, organisations like the Muslim Justice League (MJL) have been on the front lines educating the public about the pernicious harm these programmes have caused. In New York City, the mastermind behind Bloombergs surveillance of Muslim communities, Mitchell Silber, authored a report in 2007 (now debunked) whose underlying logic served as a precursor to CVE-like methods of surveillance. It was only after my lawsuit that the report was removed from the NYPDs website. Despite the strong pushback from experts and the Muslim community at large, Silber remains obstinately committed to CVE and is still at work, employed by the Jewish Federation of New York (UJA-NY) as the executive direction for their Community Security Initiative. Some may argue that white supremacists should also be targeted by CVE/TVTP to equalise the playing field, but such an idea only reinforces the false logic that these programmes are premised on and serves to legitimise existing discriminatory surveillance. Any initiative carried out by law enforcement and funded by the government that is premised on the presumptive criminality of a community be it CVE or TVTP is fundamentally discriminatory and should be abolished in its entirety. TVTP is rebranded CVE, and just as our communities rejected CVE, they will reject TVTP. In fact, on June 1 over 70 Muslim and Muslim-allied human rights, civil liberties, and community organisations delivered a letter to Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf demanding that he terminate the programme. There is no denying that Trumps policies, abetted by the Republican Party, have caused enormous harm to people of colour, the poor, undocumented people and numerous other marginalised communities of our country. However, one can argue that Trump has also granted an excuse to Democratic Party elites to cover their own harmful policies, allowing them to fall back on being anti-Trump when questioned. You should vote for Trump, Biden once told an undocumented immigrant activist when he was questioned about Obamas record of deportations. Such entitled dismissiveness coming from our elected officials directed at our most vulnerable populations places us in a difficult position. We know that Republicans cannot be trusted to keep us safe, so we turn to Democrats for survival, but we are made to take a Faustian bargain that we must be quiet and accept crumbs for safety. This can no longer be the case. Joe Biden must terminate CVE/TVTP if elected. It is my view that, ultimately, the collective liberation of marginalised communities will not come from electoral politics. A country built upon the backs of enslaved peoples and through the genocide of the Indigenous will never truly save us. For many of us, electoral politics is a matter of choosing the most ideal conditions under which to organise. One of the paradoxes of liberal democracy is that it is often its most marginalised subjects that push it to live up to its own promises. That is what we are here to do. We do not know what the state of exception will entail as the crisis of COVID-19 still unfolds before us, but we know it will draw from models that have long targeted Black and Brown communities for decades. Regardless of who wins the 2020 election, recognising the structural nature of anti-Black and anti-Muslim surveillance and the role of elected officials in perpetuating these policies will better prepare us to resist them when the time comes. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. The cannabis sector appeared in a dire position heading into the coronavirus outbreak. The sector was generally unprofitable and needed additional capital to grow so an extended shutdown of retail stores would have crushed the stocks. Ultimately, most states considered cannabis stores as essential during the shutdown of most retail stores. The inclusion of medical cannabis in most recreational stores ensured consumers had access to these stores whether just for delivery or curbside pick-up. Only a few states such as Massachusetts and Nevada closed stores during the virus outbreak. The large multi-state operators (MSOs) with access to cash and open stores generally thrived during the time when most retail struggled. After coming through the worse possible period and surviving a recession, the proof of concept is even further boosted. Most MSOs are now poised to benefit from the optionality of states approving recreational cannabis in key states such as Arizona, Florida, New Jersey or Pennsylvania. The New York governor recently reinforced the plans to approve recreational cannabis due in a large part to the reduction in tax revenues this year due to the economic shutdown from the virus. The ultimate gift for shareholders could exist from the Safe Banking Act getting approved via current legislature in the House as part of another round of stimulus. Over 34 state Attorney Generals approve the passage of the bill to eliminate the handling of cash, amongst other reasons. With this in mind, weve delved into three MSO stocks to consider along the economic reopening after thriving during the virus shutdown. Using TipRanks Stock Comparison tool, we lined up the three alongside each other to get the lowdown on what the near-term holds for these MSO players. Trulieve Cannabis (TCNNF) Trulieve Cannabis remains the MSO with the best business metrics in the cannabis retail space. The company generated Q1 revenues of $96.1 million, up 21% sequentially. Story continues The most important metric in the sector as the massive adjusted EBITDA of $48.4 million for 51% margins. The company even obtains 70% gross margins in a space where most competitors are happy with 50% margins. During the quarter, Trulieve Cannabis opened three new stores in Florida to reach 47 stores. The majority of stores are in Florida with a few stores in California, Massachusetts and Connecticut offering some future growth potential after Florida becomes saturated, but this wont happen for years and not until after the sunshine state approves recreational cannabis down the road. Despite the coronavirus outbreak causing most corporations and especially retailers to pull 2020 guidance, Trulieve Cannabis maintained previous revenue estimates of $380 million to $400 million and EBITDA of $140 million to $150 million. The cannabis company forecasts EBITDA margins to normalize below 40%. Even with the stock trading near the $14 high for the year, Trulieve Cannabis only has a market cap of $1.4 billion placing the stock below 10x EBITDA estimates. Growth stocks normally dont trade at this low of a multiple when the financial metric is growing at a 50% clip. The stock has consistently faced resistance around $14 since going public back in 2019. A breakout of this range would be a positive indicator for the sector. Based on the 7 Buy ratings vs no Holds or Sells assigned in the last three months, Wall Street analysts agree that this Strong Buy is a solid bet. It also doesnt hurt that its $27.03 average price target implies 116% upside potential. (See Trulieve stock analysis on TipRanks) Green Thumb Industries (GTBIF) Another MSO heading towards its yearly highs is Green Thumb Industries. The MSO reported Q1 revenues topped $100 million due to 268% growth from last year. The company benefitted from the launch of recreational cannabis in Illinois on January 1 along with Curaleaf. Green Thumb saw revenues surge 35% sequentially to $102.6 million with gross margins of 51.6%. Similar to these other MSOs, Green Thumb saw adjusted EBITDA surge to $25.5 million for a huge increase over the levels of last year. With 208 million shares outstanding, Green Thumb is worth $2.16 billion here. The company is positioned in several states with future recreational optionality such as Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania and current recreational boosts from Illinois and Massachusetts recently opening up. Analysts have the MSO generating $680 million in 2021 revenues with the stock only trading at 3x sales estimates. With the recent $10 million revenue beat in Q1, investors can expect those out year estimates to be exceeded as states look to accelerate recreational cannabis sales after the coronavirus crushed taxes in most states. Its not often that the analysts all agree on a stock, so when it does happen, take note. Green Thumbs Strong Buy consensus rating is based on a unanimous 7 Buys. The stocks $17.45 average price target suggests nearly 70% upside from the current share price of $10.37. (See Green Thumb stock analysis on TipRanks) Curaleaf (CURLF) Quarter by quarter, Curaleaf continues to separate the company as the global leader in the cannabis space. The company reported Q1 managed revenue of $105.0 million and pro-forma revenue of $147.4 million. As an example, Canopy Growth that gets all the hype in the Canadian cannabis space, yet analyst forecasts are for Q1 revenues below $100 million. Curaleaf forecasts Q2 pro-forma revenues jumping to $165.0 million due to strong sales at Grassroots despite taking an estimated revenue hit of $29.0 million from store closings in Massachusetts and Nevada. These new stores in those two states were generally opened or acquired in the last quarter so investors arent noticing the huge uptick in sales that couldve occurred. Even despite these issues, Curaleaf saw EBITDA jump 45% sequentially to $20.0 million. As the company is set to benefit from the Grassroots acquisition due to the start of recreational cannabis in Illinois, other states such as Florida, Pennsylvania and Arizona offer optionality for further sales boosts for Curaleaf without needing additional capital to build new stores. The approval of the Safe Banking Act would most definitely allow Curaleaf to obtain far better funding options than the recent debt offering at 13%. The ability to obtain better funding will reduce cost of capital and allow for additional growth opportunities. Based on all the above factors, Wall Street analysts are thoroughly impressed with Curaleaf. Based on 8 analysts polled by TipRanks in the last 3 months, 6 rate the stock a Buy, while 2 maintain a Hold. The 12-month average price target stands at $10.58, marking a nearly 83% upside from where the stock is currently trading. (See Curaleaf stock analysis on TipRanks) To find good ideas for cannabis stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights. Disclosure: No position. Christo, the artist known for large, temporary public arts projects, died Sunday at his home in New York. He was 84 years old. His death was announced on Twitter and on the artists website. No cause was given. He worked along with his wife Jeanne-Claude, who died in 2009. The two were famous for their colorful art projects that disappeared soon after they were built. They often used fabric to wrap, or cover, large structures. In 2005, Christo and Jeanne-Claude placed more than 7,500 saffron-colored gates in New York Citys Central Park. Ten years earlier, they wrapped the Reichstag Building in Berlin in metal-looking fabric. In 1991, their Umbrellas project placed over 1,300 blue umbrellas in Japan and more than 1,700 in Southern California. The project cost $26 million. The statement announcing Christos death said the artists next project is set to appear in September in Paris. It is called LArc de Triomphe, Wrapped. Also in Paris, a show about Christo and Jeanne-Claudes work is planned later this year at the Centre Georges Pompidou. Christo lived his life to the fullest, not only dreaming up what seemed impossible but realizing it, his office said in a statement. Christo and Jeanne-Claudes artwork brought people together in shared experiences across the globe, and their work lives on in our hearts and memories, the statement continued. The artists full name was Christo Vladimirov Javacheff. He was born in Bulgaria in 1935. He studied art throughout Europe before meeting his wife, Jeanne-Claude, in Paris. They were both born on the same date in 1935 June 13. The two were partners in life and in art. Before they met, Christo was already wrapping smaller items, like cars. After he met Jeanne-Claude, the two began wrapping large, important structures, including the Pont Neuf in Paris, the Kunsthalle in Bern, Switzerland, and a Roman wall in Italy. Although they worked together, all the work was credited to Christo until 1994, when they announced Jeanne-Claudes partnership. The two artists moved to New York in 1964, where they later bought a building in the SoHo neighborhood. It was their home for the rest of their lives. In 1968, they gained fame for three works of art: Wrapped Fountain; Wrapped Medieval Tower; and Wrapped Kunsthalle. The next year brought Wrapped Coast, along the Australian coastline, and the wrapping of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Jeanne-Claude died in 2009 at age 74. After her death, Christo said she was argumentative, very critical and never stopped asking questions. He said he missed all of that very much. Their works of art required extraordinary efforts. Over 600 workers were involved in putting up The Gates in New York City. It took more than 300 workers to take it down. More than 5 million people saw the artwork. In a 2018 interview with The Art Newspaper, Christo spoke about his ideas for wrapping as art. all our wrapped projects are not solid buildings; they are moving with the wind, they are breathing, he said. The two paid for their artworks by selling drawings. I like to be absolutely free, Christo said. I will not give up one centimeter of my freedom for anything. Im Susan Shand. The Associated Press reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor. ________________________________________________________________ Words In This Story fabric n. cloth saffron - n. a red-colored spice that is very rare gate - n. an outdoor barrier that can be opened umbrella n. a device held over one's head to protect from rain realize - v. to understand or to know globe n. the earth drawings - artworks made on paper with colored pencils KYODO NEWS - Jun 2, 2020 - 21:35 | All, Japan, Coronavirus Japan Airlines Co. plans to halve bonuses for its employees this summer due to sharp deterioration in business over the spread of the new coronavirus, sources familiar with the issue said Tuesday. The airline operator has informed employees about the plan and intends to secure a labor union agreement this month, the sources said. JAL has paid two months' worth of wages as a bonus in recent years. But the amount is expected to be cut to one month's worth, matching the level paid in 2011 after the company went bankrupt the previous year. Management has determined that demand for flights will take time to recover and that the company's difficult financial situation is likely to continue, they said. Japan Airlines saw a 98 percent plunge in the number of international passengers in April from a year earlier to 16,039 due to the pneumonia-causing virus. During Japan's Golden Week holidays around the first week of May, the number of the airline's domestic flight passengers tumbled 95 percent from the same period last year to 47,646. The number of international flight passengers totaled 2,030, down 99 percent. All Nippon Airways Co. has also presented its labor union with a proposal to halve summer bonuses, company sources have said. The subsidiary of ANA Holdings Inc. usually sets its bonus at two months' worth of salary but plans to decrease it to one month. America can be proud of many things: our innovation, generosity and entrepreneurial spirit are unsurpassed. Yet when it comes to our nation understanding one of the greatest gifts ever given to humanitythe Biblewe're moving from dumb to dumber, and it's no laughing matter. The federal governments Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements began its hearings last week into the unprecedented and devastating 20192020 Australian bushfires. The fires were responsible for 33 deaths, the destruction of at least 3,000 homes, 7,000 outbuildings, the burning of more than 12 million hectares of land and the death of more than one billion native animals. Initial presentations focused on climate change, as well as the wildlife and health impact of the fires. The commission will continue this week with the final report due in August, the beginning of the next bushfire season. Sydneys central business district enveloped in smoke in December (Photo: Climate and Health Alliance) A study published in the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) in March and presented to the commission analysed the death rates in the regions impacted by the bushfires. It demonstrated there was a significant increase in deaths and hospital admissions in areas affected by high levels of bushfire smoke. It estimated that the number of deaths was more than ten times the number killed directly by the bushfires. The data presented by Associate Professor Dr Fay Johnston from the University of Tasmania, the author of the study, revealed bushfire smoke was responsible for an estimated increase of 445 premature deaths. There was also an increase of 3,340 hospitalisations due to heart and lung conditions, while a further 1,373 presented to emergency departments due to asthma. The poorest air quality from the bushfires was predominately in south eastern regions of Australia where millions were exposed to record fine particulate levels for many weeks. At this time, many of the major cities and surrounding regions recorded levels of air pollution higher than the top polluted cities in the world, such as Delhi in India, Lahore in Pakistan and Shenyang in China. For days and weeks on end, the cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, as well as smaller regional towns and cities such as Canberra, experienced air pollution levels up to 26 times above levels considered hazardous to human health. A pollution index value of 5,185 was reached on the highest day in Canberraa rating of 200 is considered hazardous to health. The authors of the MJA study using data on existing death rates and hospital admissions were able to estimate the numbers of excess deaths, hospitalisations for cardiovascular and respiratory problems, and emergency department presentations with asthma in the Australian states that were directly impacted by bushfire smoke exposure. These were New South Wales (NSW), Queensland (Qld) and Victoria (Vic) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) over the spring and summer months from October 2019 to February 2020. This equated to 19 weeks of continuous fire activity. Dr Johnston told the Guardian in March that this type of study was important, as it was the only way to get a quick ball park idea of the health impacts. To understand other aspects of the detrimental health effects of air pollution can take many years for the data to be collected and the impact assessed and published. The fires were unprecedented in Australias history, in terms of vast amounts of smoke, the huge populations affected by the smoke and the long duration, she told the Guardian. Sydney, Australias largest city, experienced 81 days of poor or hazardous air quality in 2019, more than the total number days in the previous 10 years. Johnson said that 80 percent of Australias population was exposed to the bushfire smoke. Many of those who had died would have likely been older patients with pre-existing heart or lung disease. However, asthma does not discriminate on the basis of age and it is likely many of the premature deaths could have involved younger people. The bushfire smoke presented a significant public health threat. It is well known that it contains fine particulates small enough to be inhaled that can then be deposited in the airways of the lungs and absorbed into the bloodstream. These particles are known to have negative cardiovascular effects leading to cardiovascular disease, or can exacerbate established cardiovascular disease, as well as causing or exacerbating other medical conditions . The studys findings are likely to be conservative estimates. As one of its co-authors, Professor Bin Jalaudin from the University of New South Wales, stated: We only looked at four states for a defined period from the first of October 2019. There were some fires in September which we did not take into account and also those in other states. Secondly, we only looked at the outcomes where we have strong evidence. There are many other health effects caused by bushfires, for example mental health effects, hospital admissions or ED visits for other conditions which we did not evaluateeither because it is difficult to obtain such information, or because the links between air pollution and these conditions are not as strong. The study was not able to account for the full impact of the fires and smoke on people on the frontline, including firefighters and the communities directly affected. Those with burns, acute smoke inhalation and other injuries may not have attended hospital at this time and thus may not have been included in the data analysed. Studies of bushfires as well as the burning of agricultural land have found links to increases in cardiovascular mortality, the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and heart attacks. In 2014, the journal Environmental Health demonstrated by looking at 46 days between 19962007 affected by bushfire smoke that there were increases in hospital emergency department attendances for respiratory and cardiac disease. It found the increase persisted up to three days after each event. An earlier study by the same group in the journal Environmental Research in 2011 found a 5 percent increase in non-accidental mortality in examining 48 days of fire smoke. Other studies internationally point to longer term health issues. In children, the link between smoke exposure and declines in lung function in non-asthmatic children has been established as well as increased visits for respiratory problems. In those with known lung disease, the need for increased medication use following bushfires has also been established. Other studies suggest smoke exposure can impact birth outcomes. One study published in 2012 in the journal Environmental Research investigating birth outcomes after the 2003 California wildfires found lower birth weights in babies born after fire. Low birth weight is implicated with a variety of negative health outcomes later in life that can include respiratory and cardiovascular disease, as well as cancer and psychiatric problems. Climate change has resulted in an increased frequency of fires. Measurements of global surface temperatures have found 17 of the 18 warmest years from 1880-2017 have all occurred since 2001, with the exception of 1998. A study published as far back as 2006 in the prestigious journal Science found strong correlations between increased wildfire activity on the US West Coast and climate change. The study found the number of wildfires from 1987 to 2003 was almost four times the average of 1970 to 1986. The total area burned by these fires was more than six times higher. The study also noted that the fire season was longer, increasing by 78 daysa 64 percent jump compared to the earlier period between 19701986. The scientific community has been warning for years of the potential impact of climate change with the increased likelihood of warmer temperatures and drought. There were ample warnings that the Australian bushfire season over the spring and summer period of 20192020 was going to be a significant danger, amid severe drought conditions. In April 2019, a letter by 23 top fire and other emergency service officials warned the federal government that the coming fire season would be catastrophic. They called for a national summit to discuss preparations, which included increases in the number of firefighting aircraft. The government ignored the warning, and refused to provide the largely voluntary rural fire services with increases in fire-fighting equipment. Firefighting services, as well as funding for public health and hospital services, have been run down by governments at the federal and state levels, both Liberal and Labor. All of these parties bear responsibility for the tragic loss of life and broader health problems caused the latest bushfires as well as the devastation of agricultural land, bushland and rural communities. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Norman Harsono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 2, 2020 19:24 597 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdba0adc 1 Business bumi-resources,sales,target,COVID-19,coal-price,coal-sales,loss Free Indonesias most productive coal miner PT Bumi Resources has lowered its sales target for 2020 after its profits dipped into the negative in the first quarter this year, amid continued global market pressures. The publicly listed firm aims to sell up to 90 million tons of coal this year, down from an initial target of 93 million tons, the firms corporate secretary Dileep Srivastava told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. The lower sales target follows weakening coal prices and demand, particularly from partially-locked down India, Indonesias second largest coal buyer. The effects of the [COVID-19] pandemic continue to be felt, impacting prices and demand in some of our markets, Srivastava said in an official statement on Monday. The miners coal sales volume rose 3 percent to 21.5 million tons in the first quarter, but higher sales were offset by a 6 percent drop in prices to US$49 per ton, said Srivastava. Prior to the pandemic, Bumi expected coal prices to remain between $51 and $53 per ton. Bumi booked a $35.1 million loss in this years first quarter, down from $48.5 million in profit in the same period last year, the companys latest financial report shows. To alleviate the impacts of the pandemic, Bumi is also looking into metal mining and chemical production. Through subsidiary PT Bumi Resources Minerals (BRMS), the company plans to intensify its gold mining in Palu, Central Sulawesi, and zinc mining in Dairi, North Sumatra, starting next year, according to Srivastava. The firm also plans to become one of the coal suppliers to a multi-billion dollar coal-to-methanol processing plant in East Kalimantan. Methanol is commonly used in biodiesel production. The plant, being developed by affiliated financing firm Bakrie Capital Indonesia (BCI), is estimated to require 6 million tons of coal each year once operational in 2024. There is strong momentum for this project, which will produce high-value methanol from abundant, low-value coal reserves, said BCI chief executive officer Adika Nuraga Bakrie, in a joint statement on May 15. Developing downstream mining industries is part of the governments vision to capitalize on Indonesias underground wealth. The government, through the new Mining Law, even plans to guarantee mining permit extensions for coal miners that develop downstream operations. Bumi recorded a 97 percent drop in profit last year, one of the steepest among coal miners publicly listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). The companys profits this year were also pinched by rising production costs, as the company raised its strip ratio the volume of waste material removed to obtain a given volume of coal to produce higher quality coal. Production costs rose 38 percent year-on-year (yoy) to $238.17 million in the first quarter. Raising its strip ratio contrasts with Bumis competitors PT Adaro Energy and PT Bukit Asam, Indonesias first and second most profitable coal miners last year, which lowered their strip ratios to cut costs. Khartoums letter to the UNSC comes a few weeks after Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan agreed to resume the technical discussions on the GERD following months of disputes Sudan has urged the United Nations Security Council to encourage all parties with a stake in the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) to refrain from any unilateral measures that could affect regional and international peace and security. In a letter to the Security Council on Tuesday, Sudanese Foreign Minister Asma Abdalla explained Sudans position on the ongoing developments related to the dam, including an initiative adopted by Sudan to resume negotiations on the disputed dam with Egypt and Ethiopia. Sudan asked the Security Council to support its efforts to resume talks in good faith to reach a comprehensive agreement between all parties. The letter stressed Sudans principled decision on negotiating in good faith, to which it has committed during negotiations given its belief in the importance of a solid foundation for cooperation between the three countries. The letter listed some of the potential positive impacts of the mega-dam on Sudan, including the regulation of the flow of the Blue Nile, which would reduce annual floods during rainy seasons and enable the country to better manage its irrigation system. The dam will also increase the power generation from existing hydropower plants, and will increase the navigation depth of the Blue Nile, the letter added. On the other hand, listing the negative impacts of the dam, Sudan said that the GERD would completely change the flow of the Blue Nile by flattening its hydrograph. With this gigantic size, the GERD risks causing significant negative impacts to Sudan if not properly designed, constructed, filled and operated, reads the letter. These impacts range from threatening the lives and safety of millions of Sudanese citizens living directly downstream from the GERD, to the operational safety of the Sudanese dams, to the flood-plain agricultural system of the country, and the socioeconomic and environmental impacts along the Blue Nile downstream from the main Nile River, all the way up to the border with Egypt," the letter added. For the positive impacts to be realised and for the negative impacts to be mitigated there has to be an agreement in place with Ethiopia on how to fill and operate the GERD, otherwise the GERD stands to cause substantial risk to Sudan," Khartoum said. In the letter Sudan also requested the Security Council encourage all parties to refrain from taking unilateral actions such as filling the dams reservoir without reaching a comprehensive agreement. It also asked the Security Council to encourage the avoidance of any action which jeopardises regional and international peace and security. It also asks the UN council to support Sudans efforts and call upon all the parties to resume immediate negotiations in good faith with the objective of resolving the pending issues and concluding a final comprehensive agreement. Sudan also affirmed its commitment to the rules of international law stipulated in the UNs Convention on the Law of Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses. The rules mainly cover the equitable and reasonable use of watercourses and the obligation not to cause significant harm to other watercourses, and the settlement of disputes by peaceful means. Khartoums letter a comes few weeks after Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan agreed to resume technical discussions on the mega-dam. The tripartite negotiations reached a deadlock in February after Ethiopia skipped a final round of talks in Washington, leading to a diplomatic war of words between Cairo and Addis Ababa. On 1 May, Egypt sent a memo to the Security Council blaming Ethiopia for trying to establish a deal without taking the interests of downstream countries, Egypt and Sudan, into consideration. Egypt rejected, along with Sudan, an Ethiopian proposal put forth last month amid the ongoing discord, wherein Addis Ababa proposed a partial agreement that would only cover the first stage of the filling. Addis Ababa told the Security Council in May in a letter sent in response to the Egyptian memo that it does not have a legal obligation to seek the approval of Egypt to fill the dam. Egypt has said it is ready for a revival of talks but stressed the importance of "serious and constructive talks between the three countries irrigation ministers to contribute to a fair, balanced and comprehensive agreement that would preserve Egypts water rights and the interests of both Sudan and Ethiopia. Some 85 percent of the Nile water that reaches Egypt flows from the Ethiopian highlands, mainly from the Blue Nile. Egypt receives 55.5 billion cubic metres of water from the Nile annually, but requires over 80 billion cubic metres to cover its needs. Search Keywords: Short link: To fight against COVID-19, a well-equipped Corona Mobile Testing Clinic Bus supported by philanthropist Vikramjit Singh Sahney, chairman, Sun Foundation was launched by Chief Secretary of Delhi, Vijay Dev, in the August presence of BM Mishra, DC, South District. The mobile clinic has artificial intelligence enabled thermal testing, airtight separate cabins for doctors and technicians, contactless testing of patients including both nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs, and rapid testing. The fully air-conditioned mobile unit also has a separate ambulance zone to evacuate critical patients and separate entry gates for doctors and patients. We need to adopt swift and innovative means to conduct as many tests as possible to save people from this deadly virus, says Vikramjit Sahney. While addressing the media, Sahney emphasised on the need to curb the spread of coronavirus. The key to arrest this pandemic is 4Ts Tracking, Testing, Tracing and Treatment as fast as we can. As the country continues to grapple with COVID-19 and its far-reaching implications, we need to adopt swift and innovative means to conduct as many tests as possible to save people from this deadly virus, he says. He further thanked the Delhi Government to give him this opportunity to contribute his bit in this noble cause and would continue to support as a step ahead in the larger efforts. This is a joint effort and initiative made by various stakeholders, including Delhi South District, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Vikramjit Sahney and Sonalika to convert the bus into a brand-new Corona Testing and Ambulance with zero cost to government. This ambulance has the potential to do doorstep sampling of 15000+ people per month. Follow @htcity for more The latest industry research report from Gartner brings a report about Global smartphone shipments during the first quarter of the year. As we are all well-aware, COVID-19 began disrupting the world starting from around December, which resulted in a global halt of a lot of manufacturing and sales in China before the virus spread worldwide. Consumers were spending less on non-essential items which caused global smartphone shipments to decline altogether. Global smartphone sales dropped by 20.2% YoY in Q1 of 2020. The top 5 smartphone brands were Samsung, Huawei, Apple, Xiaomi, and Oppo. Apple saw a smaller decline in sales while Oppo, Samsung, and Huawei saw the most significant decline. Xiaomi was the only brand to grow compared to last year, albeit by 1.4% YoY. Samsung shipped over 55 million devices compared to more than 71 million in the same quarter last year, Meanwhile, Huawei shipped over 42 million (versus more than 58 million), and Apple sold 40 million compared to more than 44 million last year. Even with Huawei having the worst performance of this Quarter, it managed to keep the number 2 spot for Q1. Apples ability to serve clients via its online stores and its production returning to near normal levels at the end of March helped recover some of the early positive momentum, explained Zimmermann. Apple had a strong start to the year thanks to its new product line up that saw strong momentum globally. If COVID-19 did not happen, the vendor would have likely seen its iPhone sales reach record level in the quarter. Supply chain disruptions and declining consumer spending put a halt to this positive trend in February. Annette Zimmermann, Research Vice President at Gartner Huawei will struggle as it tries to regain momentum following COVID-19. On top of delaying production and sales, It continues to deal with the US extension of its ban against Huawei's doing business with American companies, barring it from its Google Play License and forcing it to ship all its phones with HMS (Huawei Mobile Services) instead. Check out the source link for the full report from Gartner Source The opposition minority in the Armenian parliament on Monday rejected as unconstitutional a government-backed bill that will allow the authorities to formally cancel a planned referendum on ousting most members of the countrys Constitutional Court. Armenians were scheduled to vote on April 5 on government-drafted constitutional amendments ending the powers of seven of the nine Constitutional Court judges who have been under strong government pressure to resign. The referendum was postponed on March 16 when the Armenian government declared a state of emergency to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. The government subsequently extended it by another month, until June 14. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian confirmed on May 17 that due to the pandemic the vote will not be held anytime soon. Under Armenian law, no elections or referendums can take place during the state of emergency. But the authorities must hold a planned vote 50 to 65 days after the end of emergency rule. A bill drafted by Vahagn Hovakimian, a senior lawmaker from Pashinians My Step bloc, would allow the parliament cancel it altogether. The National Assembly controlled by My Step passed the bill in the first reading on Monday amid strong objections from senior representatives of the two parliamentary opposition parties. They insisted that the Armenian constitution does not allow the parliament to call off a vote already scheduled by it. We believe that the bill is unconstitutional and wont take part in the vote, Bright Armenia Party (LHK) leader Edmon Marukian said at the end of a parliament debate. By the same logic, the National Assembly can now vote to abolish the month of June or the New Year, said Naira Zohrabian of the Prosperous Armenia Party. It remained unclear, however, whether the two opposition parties will ask the Constitutional Court to pass judgment on the bills conformity with the constitution. They hold enough parliament seats to lodge such an appeal. Leaders of the parliament majority insisted, meanwhile, that the measure is not at odds with the constitution. If we follow your logic, the first basic laws adopted by us must become a Bible that cannot be amended, said Hovakimian. The National Assembly does have a right to change decisions made by it and this bill allows us to do just that. My Steps parliamentary leader, Lilit Makunts, argued, for her part, that the continuing pandemic makes it impossible for the authorities to hold the referendum. She said they will opt for a different way of changing the Constitutional Courts composition. Other majority leaders indicated last month that the Pashinian administration no longer insists on replacing all seven judges and is ready to accept a less radical solution. They said this is why the government asked the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe to help end its standoff with the high court. The authorities hope that the commission will respond to the request before the end of this month. California State Capitol Building View Photo Sacramento, CA Californias governor and top education official addressed the chaotic unrest in the wake of George Floyds killing. In his remarks on Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he welcomed protesters expressing their rage as long as they do it peacefully. At the same time, he denounced unnamed groups of anarchists and others who used this past weekends demonstrations to tag graffiti on buildings, burn banks, shatter store windows, and loot businesses. Newsom reported that he had called up 4,500 National Guard troops to supplement overwhelmed police in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Santa Monica in the violent aftermath of passionate demonstrations decrying Floyds death at the hands of white Minneapolis police officers. Around the state, curfews in the high-population base areas continue as police chiefs described organized rioting, looting, echoing a widely held notion that trouble came from outsiders, though few provided specific details. Nearly two-thirds of properties in Sacramentos business district were damaged over the weekend following three consecutive nights of protests. The state Senate on Monday canceled all of its scheduled meetings and ordered lawmakers and staff not to enter the state Capitol and Newsoms administration ordered all state government offices in downtown areas to close. Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said he was considering asking Newsom to send the National Guard and planned to ask the City Council to approve a curfew starting at either 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. While most of the states cities imposed curfews on Saturday and Sunday, Sacramento did not and on Sunday night, protesters shattered windows in stores and cars while spray-painting graffiti as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at those who ignored orders to leave. California State Schools Superintendent Tony Thurmond said Monday he plans to lead an effort focusing on racism in public schools during emotional remarks about Floyds murder, sharing that the incident left him struggling to answer his own children who asked him why it happened? Thurmond, who is the only elected African American official in the state, stated during a live stream that now is the time to address racism and implicit bias in education. He added that he has reached out to state superintendents around the country, will be initiating conversations with educational leaders, parents, and students and reaching out to work with elected officials, police chiefs, and government agencies in every sector. As riots, protests, and racial unrest erupt in cities across the country, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said her administration is more interested in keeping protesters safe and allowing their voices to be heard, than in the show of force President Donald Trump urged governors to display at a conference call Monday morning. The Washington Post, which obtained a recording of the call, reports Trump berated the governors, called them weak and said they would look like fools if they did not take back the streets. Militarizing our response is incredibly callous, dangerous and tone deaf, Lujan Grisham said in a phone interview with the Journal on Monday. I think the president is more interested in looking tough himself instead of solving problems, and thats what these protesters are asking us to do is to commit to solve these problems. Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, said she was not personally able to respond to the presidents remarks, and the reaction from her fellow governors was mixed. The message the president wanted the governors to take away is youre weak if you dont have a strong show of force and again Im interested in solving peoples problems and doing something about racial inequalities, she said. It wasnt a very effective call for me. The governor confirmed her administration has had discussions about bringing in the National Guard to quell violence, but said it is really premature and the intelligence they have so far does not suggest that will be necessary. We have had discussions about what would have to happen in order for us to even consider it and it would have to be about the safety of the officers who are trying to maintain the safety of the protesters, Lujan Grisham said. However, she said, the protests and riots are a serious public safety issue, and the risk of spreading coronavirus at the gatherings has not gone away. She said she was encouraged to hear that the vast majority of people at the earlier peaceful protest were wearing masks. While Albuquerques melees have resulted in property damage to businesses and police property, no injuries have been reported. Lujan Grisham said this speaks well of the progress New Mexico has made in addressing the issues. One broken window, one police officer attack is one attack too many, and theyre really unforgivable acts when were trying to bring attention and respect for the lives lost, and tragedies that have occurred, Lujan Grisham said. None of it is acceptable, but compared with what were witnessing around the world and around the countryI think it speaks volumes that we came a long way in New Mexico, we are open and we recognize we have a long way to go. We have seen American extremists use other languages, or idiomatic words in those languages, to hide from content moderation. The Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism (CTEC) today announced that it is partnering with Spectrum Labs to help its surveillance and understanding of how terrorists communicate online via coded phrases and underserved languages. Toxic and extremist content online spans national and linguistic boundaries, and the partnership between CTEC and Spectrum will improve detection, monitoring, and enforcement in many languages. CTECs researchers have years of experience in researching how extremists use language for recruitment, radicalization, identity-creation, and enforcement evasion. Spectrum Labs understands the complexity and nuance involved in detecting and responding to violent and extremist speech online, CTECs Digital Research Lead Alex Newhouse said. Were enthusiastic about lending our linguistic expertise in extremism to help Spectrums mission to increase awareness of toxic behavior detection across languages. The collaboration has implications for transnational movements globally, Newhouse added. We have seen American extremists use other languages, or idiomatic words in those languages, to hide from content moderation. Extremist terms that emerge in English-speaking communities are also often picked up and modified in other languages. For example, we have found at least 14 different Russian-language variations of the term ZOG (Zionist Occupied Government). In addition, we are monitoring the emergence of anti-deep state and QAnon-affiliated terms in Spanish, as la controla el estado profundo. This is happening everywhere. Spectrum Labs was built from day one to understand context and nuance across multiple languages, because social platforms draw their users from across the globe. While we currently work in nearly 50 languages, this partnership is an opportunity to finetune our dataset to prevent extremists' exploits of gaps in knowledge of other languages -- including idioms from other cultures -- to organize and amplify hate, violence, and terrorism, noted Justin Davis, Spectrum Labs CEO. There is such synergy between our two teams and missions of making the world safer. We couldnt be more proud or excited to partner with CTEC. Together, we hope to shine a light on how extremists organize more or less in plain sight, to detect toxic behaviors before they reach a broader audience, Davis said. # # # About CTEC The Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism (CTEC) is a research center at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, CA. It works to stay at the cutting edge of terrorism research while teaching students practical skills in analysis and technology. Using mixed-methods analysis, CTEC investigates topics including hateful and violent speech online, radicalization pathways networks, terrorism financing, and countering violent extremism. About Spectrum Labs Founded in 2016, Spectrum Labs Contextual AI platform helps online communities recognize and respond to toxic behaviors like radicalization, sexual grooming, harassment and cyberbullying in real time, across languages, platform and content types. Spectrum is based in San Francisco, California. For more information, visit: getspectrum.io In anticipation of the easing down of the Covid-19 restrictions, the Assistant Headmaster in charge of Administration, St. Marys Senior High School, Mrs Sarah Garshong, has added her voice to the call on government to hasten slowly on its decision to re-open schools on a mass scale. According to her, the re-opening of schools should be a gradual process, starting with the final-year students. The government must do it gradually by allowing the final-year students who are due for examinations, she said. Mrs Garshong made the call when her school had its turn of the national disinfestation and disinfection of public senior high schools (SHSs) undertaken by Zoomlion Ghana Limited on Saturday. The exercise which was done in the Greater Accra Region saw a number SHSs benefit. Some of the schools were Ideal College, Mamprobi branch, Accra Academy SHS, St Margaret Mary SHS, Sacred Heart Technical Institute, Jamestwon among others. While the disinfestation was targeted at getting rid of bed-bugs infestation which have gained notoriety in many of the SHSs, the disinfection part was to help contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. Using her school as an example, Mrs Garshong admitted that it will be very tough for them to practice, especially the physical/social distancing safety protocol. She explained that this was because her school had limited space for its large student population. That will mean that students will have to go to the dining hall in batches in addition to other social gatherings on campus which clearly will be difficult for us to implement, she admitted. However, she pointed out that when the final year students are allowed to come in first, then we are certain that we can practice particularly the physical distancing protocol in addition to the other Covid-19 preventive protocols, she said. On the disinfestation against bed-bugs, Mrs Garshong was optimistic that it will go a long way to help the school get rid of the bugs. According to her, the school has had to battle with bugs for some years now, adding that they sometimes receive help from some of the parents in that regard. To this end, she advocated for a regular disinfestation exercise against bugs in SHSs. That, she said, will prevent the recurrence of these bugs and their attendant health hazards. She also called for the need for teachers to be provided with PPE in the event schools are re-opened. She commended GES and Zoomlion for the initiative. At the Sacred Heart Technical Institute at Jamestown, Accra, the Vice Principal in charge of Administration, Wetse L. Odjidja, stressed that a lot will change when schools re-open. Of course we will still be in abnormal times, and we will have to observe all the Covid-19 protocols, he said. He went on to add that the management of the school will also ensure that students observe all the safety protocols in the event school re-opens. We will also educate our students to take personal hygiene serious, Mr. Odjiidja assured. Source: Peacefmonline Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video It might not be a tectonic shift yet, but the changes taking place in the K-12 tech landscape as a result of the coronavirus school closures are real and meaningful, and good and bad. That is what Education Week is learning as it surveys educators across the country about the impact school closures have had on their morale, student engagement, technology skills, and many other factors. In nationally representative surveys of teachers and district leaders, the EdWeek Research Center found that teachers reported their ability to use technology was rising during the school closures, online instruction was taking hold in some form in most places, and 1-to-1 computing opportunities were expanding gradually. But at the same time, huge tech-equity issues emerged, revealing challenges ahead whether school buildings reopen or not in the fall. Students living in poverty, for instance, are much more likely to have to share devices with family members to complete schoolwork than their wealthier peers. And although online instruction is taking hold, the wide range of approaches shows a potentially big divide in the quality of instruction. And in looking ahead, the big elephant in the room is the economy. School budgets are expected to take a big hit this coming school year, and educational technology programs will likely suffer significant cuts, too. Here are 10 key findings from the EdWeek Research Center surveys conducted this spring about how the coronavirus school closures have influenced the role and use of technology in K-12 education and what that might mean for the future: 1. Teachers see their ability to use educational technology improving. The massive shift to remote learning was frustrating and demoralizing for many teachers, especially those who struggled with spotty internet access for themselves or their students, low online student engagement, and nightmarish technical problems. But the result of having to shift everything online is that many teachers report their skills in educational technology improving. A whopping 87 percent of teachers who responded to the EdWeek Research Center survey said their ability to use educational technologies had improved during the school building closures. Only 3 percent said their ed-tech skills had worsened during that time. Those findings echo many of the sentiments from teachers who Education Week reached out to directly via email and phone and who responded to an open-ended question in the survey. Though frustrated with remote learning in big waysparticularly the lack of in-person, face-to-face communication with students and colleaguesmany teachers reported meaningful growth in figuring out how to use technology to improve teaching and learning. And some said they plan to continue using those newfound skills even when school buildings reopen. I think its made me a better teacher already, said Amy Campbell, a special education teacher at Helen Baller Elementary School in Camas, Wash. This has really pushed the innovation envelope. During the shutdown, my teaching partner and I have been able to make many materialsYouTube videos and resourcesavailable on a newly created private class website. This is the first time Ive created a way to ensure access, in one place, to a whole package of resources for students with disabilities to access outside of school. 2. Educators opinions about technology are improving, but teachers hold more critical views than district leaders. Fifty-eight percent of survey respondents said their opinion of ed tech has grown more positive as a result of the increased usage of technology during the coronavirus school building closures. As is often the case, administrators have a rosier outlook than teachers: Just 6 percent of district leaders said their experiences during the coronavirus closures have led to a more negative view of ed tech, compared with 21 percent of teachers. IT help desks for school districts likely played a significant role in helping prevent those negative feelings from being much higher. Those IT help desk workers had to pivot from previously supporting district employees and staff to now becoming the first line of contact for just about every student and parent with a remote learning inquiry. The calls and emails were flooding in around the clock, according to interviews with district technology officials. How do I log in? How do I use this app? Daily call volume for the San Antonio schools IT help desk escalated from 75 before the pandemic to 600 during the building closures. 3. Online instruction evolved, but the approaches varied widely. Fully 93 percent of teachers reported that they were doing at least some online instruction, with 50 percent of teachers saying they were teaching online-only. That figure goes up to 68 percent in districts with the fewest low-income students; in districts with the most low-income students, just 36 percent of teachers said they were teaching online-only. The switch to online learning is being fueled in part by expanded access to digital devices. All told, 42 percent of educators who responded to the EdWeek Research Center survey said their students had more access to school-issued personal devices than they did prior to the pandemicalthough 18 percent of these educators reported that such expanded access is temporary and will end when schools reopen. But an Education Week review of states continuous learning directives and guidance shows wide variation in what was expected of remote instruction during the coronavirus pandemic. There are still a number of states where districts are being recommended, but not required, to develop plans. If you think about that with respect to on-the-ground implications, you could have pretty enormous variation, said Sarah Reckhow, an associate professor of political science at Michigan State University. 4. A new level of experience emerges for troubleshooting technology problems. Nearly 9 out of every 10 teachers reported spending more time troubleshooting technology problems during COVID-19 than they did when they were in their physical classrooms. The downside of that finding is that, in many cases, teachers were devoting what would have been instructional time to tackling technology challenges, whether struggling to get up to speed learning the intricacies of a learning management system or fixing access problems on Zoom calls. The upside is that now you have a teacher corps full of educators who are much better technology troubleshooters than they were before school buildings were closed. They might not need to call the IT help desk quite as much as they used to. And that means their problems will possibly get fixed faster. I have become so much better with technology! It was sink or swim, and I have persevered and am so much more knowledgeable with using technology, said an elementary teacher from North Carolina who responded to the EdWeek Research Center survey. 5. 1-to-1 computing environments expand, very gradually. In February, prior to the coronavirus school closures, the EdWeek Research Center surveyed teachers on the availability of a digital learning device for every student. At the time, about 57 percent said each student in their schools had a device. That percentage increased slightly, to 59 percent, when teachers were surveyed again in May. But that slight increase is likely to rise noticeably by this summer, because in late April, many districts were still waiting on deliveries of digital devices purchased during COVID-19. A huge spike in demand for digital devices and disruptions in the supply chain from China were slowing deliveries from tech giants such as Dell, HP, Apple, and Lenovo, according to The Impact of COVID-19 on the K-12 Education Mobile PC Market, an analysis from market research firm Futuresource Consulting. Plus, many districts might not feature 1-to-1 computing environments in their schools just yet, but the proliferation of devices will be significantly higher than it was before the pandemic. The 55,000-student Boston public schools, for instance, purchased 20,000 new laptops in March to try to make sure that all students in the district had access to learning during the school building closures. The competition to get those laptops was intense. Everybody is fighting for them, Mark Racine, the districts chief technology officer, said at the time. We had some districts reach out to us and say, Can we buy some off of you? 6. Educators see greater access to 1-to-1 computing improving teaching and learning. Seventy-three percent of district leaders and teachers responded in the EdWeek Research Center survey that they believed when school buildings reopen, greater access to 1-to-1 computing will make high-quality teaching easier. Just 4 percent said they thought it would make teaching more difficult. But the problem is that without sound professional development to show educators how to integrate mobile learning devices into instruction, the mere presence of those devices in classrooms is unlikely to improve teaching and learning and could actually hurt it, research shows. That is why schools will be hard-pressed to put together PD programs over the summer to ensure that educators make good use of the availability of more digital learning devices. For instance, long before the coronavirus forced schools into throwing together remote learning strategies, Miami-Dade County district officials were steadily ramping up the use of technology over the past six years as part of a Digital Convergence initiative. It has included the acquisition of more than 200,000 new devices and continual professional development focused on e-learning. Officials of the Florida district say it allowed them to hit the ground running during the current crisis. 7. Big tech-equity issues persist for students and could get worse. The shift to remote learning has revealed a digital divide in American society and education that is much worse than many people realized. Those equity problems showed up in the survey research in many ways. One of the more practical equity pictures the survey data showed was how much more difficult it is for students from families living in poverty to have access to digital devices to do schoolwork at home than their wealthier peers. District leaders and teachers from school systems where more than 75 percent of students quality for free or reduced-price lunches reported that more than half (59 percent) of their students had to share digital devices with parents, siblings, and other family members and/or friends in order to complete their schoolwork during the school building shutdowns. That figure is more than double the percentage for district leaders and teachers from school systems with 25 percent or less of their students living in poverty. Home access to high-speed wireless internet services is also a big challenge for students living in poverty. Its not the time to be timid, said Federal Communications Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a long-time proponent of more aggressive federal efforts to eliminate disparities in access to high-speed internet, in a statement. We have the authority right now to extend the reach of broadband and close the homework gap so we connect millions of children who desperately need to get online for school. 8. Some teachers lack high-speed internet connections, too. More than a quarter of U.S. homes dont have broadband internet service, according to a Pew Research Center report from last year. District leaders, especially those who serve a high percentage of students from low-income families, have said technology access is a major challenge during these extended school shutdowns. But its not just students without access to the internetits also their teachers. While only 4 percent of teachers dont have high-speed wireless access at home, according to the EdWeek Research Center, its particularly a problem in rural areas, where broadband internet service is spotty, expensive, or nonexistent. Educators are now assumed to have devices and internet access and unlimited data to do their job, and [in some cases], they dont, said Cheryl Bost, the president of the Maryland State Education Association. 9. The rise of virtual events is upon us. But will that stick for the long haul? Live, in-person ed-tech events were very popular in the K-12 world. Tens of thousands of educators traveled to cities all over the country to attend conferences sponsored by ASU+GSV, SXSWedu, and ISTE. The events have touted the value of live presentations packed with attendees, face-to-face meetings, social gatherings, and opportunities to sample new ed-tech products. But COVID-19 prompted the cancellation of all three of those big live events, which were supposed to take place in San Diego; Austin, Texas; and Anaheim, Calif.; this spring and summer. Now, educators are turning their attention to virtual events. The EdWeek Research Center survey found that 94 percent of teachers and district leaders said in April they had attended a virtual event since school buildings closed in March, which could include webinars, virtual conferences, online summits, virtual happy hours, and other online gatherings. How that willingness to engage in online events will shape the live, in-person ed-tech events of the future is likely to be unclear until the coronavirus is in the rearview mirror. 10. The school budget picture looks bleak. Ed-tech programs, like everything else, are expected to take a hit. Fiscal analysts are forecasting that the recession associated with the coronavirus pandemic will be deeper and longer-lasting than the last, with severe implications for Americas public schools. The $13.5 billion that Congress recently provided to school districts will not be able to make up for the anticipated losses. Without another federal bailout, several states will have to cut anywhere from 5 percent to 20 percent from their budgets when their legislatures reconvene this month and next, according to fiscal analysts. Cuts will fall on most school districts to some degree, but those whose budgets are built largely on property- tax revenues will suffer less. Just last month, district leaders were already planning spending reductions for the remainder of the 2019-20 academic year, according to the EdWeek Research Center survey. It found that 17 percent are planning significant budget reductions this school year, and 40 percent are preparing for minor reductions. Whats so stunning about this recession is that poor districts are going to bear the brunt of these cuts because they rely so heavily on state aid and they dont have the capacity to raise their property taxes, said David Sciarra, the executive director of the Education Law Center, a law firm and advocacy organization that has sued states for having inequitable funding systems. In what may seem like a routine message, a Gujarat man received an SMS from a hospital informing of his father's transfer to a COVID hospital in Ahmedabad on May 30. But instead of assuaging 30-year-old Sagar Shah's concerns regarding his father's treatment, it spooked him off. Why? Shah's father had already died on May 16. Shah, a tuition teacher, was quoted by Deccan Herald as saying, "I was shocked and equally pained. I realised it was another example of sheer negligence on part of the hospitals. I myself cremated my father on May 16, took photographs." According to the report, Shah slammed the "gross negligence" of the authorities in civil hospital and Gujarat Cancer and Research Institute, which the Gujarat High Court recently termed as "dungeon". This is not the first time that such a bizzare incident has taken place in the Vijay Rupani-ruled state. Just few days back, another resident of Ahmedabad had received a call from a hospital informing of his father-in-law's Covid-negative result and transfer to a non-Covid ward, days after he had cremated him. "We wondered if we had performed the last rites of our father or someone else as we had not seen his face," the son- in-law was quoted by WION News as saying. Elon Musks SpaceX created history last weekend by flying its first-ever human spaceflight mission. Present on-board were NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, who flew in the Crew Dragon to the International Space Station (ISS). Now, people all across the globe are curious and want Doug and Bob to share their first-hand experience on the commercial space flight. On Monday, June 1, Bob and Doug participated in a live conference from the ISS. They answered questions from Bill Harwood from CBS, Stephen Clark from Spaceflight Now and Chris Davenport from the Washington Post. In their first live show from ISS, Bob and Doug explained how riding a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket aboard Crew Dragon was different from launching on Space Shuttle. When asked about the first stage and the second stage, and their experience while transitioning into the two stages, Bob spoke about their journey onboard Crew Dragon. He said, "[In a] summary from yesterday was good and smoother. First stage was a little rough". He also mentioned that both he and Doug tried to verbalize their entire experience in a live recording that took place during the space launch of Falcon 9. Talking about the difference with staging between space shuttle and Crew Dragon, he said, "We didnt shut down the main engine, like we went through first stage and then second stage". "There was a significant difference between the solid rocket booster on the shuttle and the second stage, and I think we all felt that separation," he added. June 2; 1983 US Congressman Lawrence McDonald (D-GA) proposed that a user-tax be imposed on people with AIDS to finance research, saying that since they caused the epidemic they shouldnt expect others to pay for the research necessary to find treatments. McDonald, who considered himself a traditional Democrat cut from the cloth of Jefferson and Jackson, was known for his ultra-conservative views, even by southern standards and was more conservative than many members of the Republican Party at the time. In fact, one scoring method published in the American Journal of Political Science named him the second most conservative member of either chamber of Congress between 1937 and 2002. McDonald sponsored amendments to stop government aid to homosexuals and also co-sponsored a bill expressing the sense of the Congress that homosexual acts and the class of individuals who advocate such conduct shall never receive special consideration or a protected status under law. MacDonald was also the second president of the John Birch Society and opposed the establishment of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day saying the FBI had evidence that King was associated with and being manipulated by communists and secret communist agents. On September 1, 1983 Lawrence McDonald boarded Korean Air Lines Flight 007. to attend a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the United StatesSouth Korea Mutual Defense Treaty. McDonald and the rest of the passengers and crew of KAL 007 were killed when Soviet fighters, under the command of Gen. Anatoly Kornukov, shot down KAL 007 near Moneron Island after the plane entered Soviet airspace.when it was shot down by Soviet interceptors and all passengers were dead. Who said there is no such thing as Karma? 1987 A Chorus Line creator Michael Bennett died of complications from AIDS at age 44 in Tucson, Arizona 1989 The first annual Lambda Literary awards ceremony was held. The Lammy is the most prestigious, competitive, and comprehensive literary award offered specifically to LGBT authors writing about queer lives across multiple genres published by large and small presses. 1998 The Rhode Island legislature voted to repeal the states sodomy law. The prison sentence under the law had ranged from 7-20 years. 2000 Bill Clinton, the first U.S. President to proclaim June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month, issued his final pride proclamation. Clinton took the occasion to renew his call for passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Four years earlier in 1996 Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act which prevents the Federal Government from recognizing same sex marriages in America. 2008 Charges of crimes against nature were dropped against two men who were arrested for having consensual sex in Wake County, N.C. since it was in private. Though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Lawrence v. Texas in 2003 that consensual gay sex is not a punishable offense, North Carolina still classified sodomy as an illegal activity. Raleigh police were told that they could continue to arrest gay men for having public sex, but not private sex. The International Space Station was captured gliding past the moon just six hours after two NASA astronauts docked on their historic mission. Robert Behnken and Doug Hurley blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 8.22pm BST (3.22pm ET) on Saturday in a SpaceX rocket. After looping around the Earth, and appearing as a tiny dot in the skies above Britain, they arrived on the ISS at 3.16pm BST (10.16am ET) the next day to a heroes welcome. As they orbited past the three-quarter waxing gibbous moon six hours later, Italian photographer Alberto Ghizzi Panizza had his cameras poised in Parma to capture the landmark moment from Earth. SpaceX's flight marked the first time a private company has put astronauts into space, and the first manned space flight to leave American soil in nine years. Italian photographer Alberto Ghizzi Panizza captured the ISS with the two NASA astronauts onboard as it passed the moon during its three-quarter waxing gibbous stage The astronauts are expected to stay on the ISS for one to four months, before returning home The Crew Dragon spacecraft is pictured here as it reached the ISS on May 31 The photographer captured the eight-second pass as several individual photos, before stitching them together to show the ISS at 17 different points of its journey. 'It was a very emotional moment,' he said. 'Not only for me, but for all mankind.' Footage from the historic arrival appears to show astronaut Hurley bang his head as he enters the ISS. The pair had been poised to take manual control of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, but its trajectory had been calculated so well it was able to glide into its docking station at the ISS without needing assistance. 'It's been a real honour to be just a small part of this nine-year endeavour since the last time a United States spaceship has docked with the ISS,' Hurley said. The Italian photographer photographed the eight-second pass. It is shown here as a composite image, with each combined to reveal the ISS's movement Bob Behnken pictured entering the ISS moments after docking. He is greeted by astronauts SpaceX delivered Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the ISS on Sunday morning Elon Musk, who set up SpaceX, said: 'I think this is something that should really get people right in the heart - anyone who has a spirit of exploration. 'I am really quite overcome with emotion - it's kind of hard to talk really. It's been 18 years working towards this goal. It's really hard to believe that it's happened. 'This is a craft made by humans, for humans, I think it's something humanity should be proud about occurring on this day.' After lift-off Britons had been able to photograph the Crew Dragon as it passed along the UK night sky moving from East to West after 10pm on Saturday. Stargazers gleefully posted pictures of their sightings on social media, showing the craft as a tiny bright dot just above the horizon. Elon Musk said he was 'overcome with emotion' after the astronauts were blasted into space in the Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida The astronauts are expected to stay at the ISS for one to four months, during which time they will conduct tests on the Crew Dragon and further research. They will then be loaded back into the craft before returning to Earth, splashing down off Florida's Atlantic coast where they will be collected by SpaceX's Go Navigator recovery vessel. The mission, known as Demo-2, is the final test before NASA certifies the Crew Dragon for operational, long-duration missions to the space station. 01.06.2020 LISTEN Recessionary cycles present difficult challenges for almost everyone and the marketing world is no exception. COVID-19 has brought about breakneck pressure on marketing, and marketers have no other option than to chest the pressure with great pain. The development of crisis or pandemic like this goes back to thousands of years. Walking on the memory line, the world have witnessed in the last 100 years numerous crises such as Great Depression 1932, International Debt Crisis 1982, Global Economic Recession 2007-09 and now coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, to mention but a few. Marketers are always good at marketing many things but recession marketing isnt always one of them because in those periods markets change faster than marketing. Buyers change in their numbers, wants, and purchasing power in response to changes in the economy, technology, and culture. The pandemic has really brought change swiftly like a falcon strikes it target and it space continues to accelerate. The marketing division of every company could move only as fast as their feet can carry them. Companies often dont notice these changes and maintain marketing practices that have lost their edge. The marketing practices of many companies today are obsolete because of the pandemic. One of Jack Mas favorite sayings proved to be true: Today is tough, tomorrow is tougher, and the day after tomorrow is beautiful. But most companies die tomorrow evening and cant see the sunshine on the day after tomorrow. For people to remain oriented to the long term, they must recognize that just as joy is part of a startup company, so is pain. But the only way to build something great is to endure a lot of struggles. The pandemic has already thrown marketing into enduring a lot of struggles but hoping to sunshine the day after tomorrow (post-pandemic world), even though its hard for marketers to know where to begin since the economy is still looking gloomy. With so much speed of change during this difficult time, whats the lasting impact (changes) its making on marketing? Change in Media Consumption People are staying at home and theres a shift from out-of-home media consumption back into in-home media consumption especially now that many people are working from homes. Many people are now glued to their TVs for new updates on the pandemic, making TVs as consumers first choice of screen these days. This is because peoples tolerance and love for screen has significantly increased which is not likely to change now. This swift media consumption change will impact on marketing. Marketer has to revisit their drawing board to study which media their core target audience are consuming to help them get the message in front of the right eyes. Change in Channel Mix Due to governments directives such as physical distancing, avoiding crowded areas, total or partial lockdown, stay at home and among others has led consumers began to avoid in-store channels way of buying into online or virtual buying. To avoid the risk of being infected, many consumers are now looking up to online stores as their only hope of life. This will make brands or businesses that cant adapt swiftly to meet this new channel mix suffer unduly. Change in Consumer Behaviour Covid-19 is not only health and economic pandemic but psychology as well. People are fearful and full of anxiety, how they shop, how they spend and how much they spend has change dramatically. Consumer behaviour experts have already predicted that in time of crisis like this, consumers will change from mindless consumption to mindful consumption. Consumers will now be calculative and mindful how they buy and what they buy. All this will negatively impact on marketing activities. Change in Marketing Content Covid-19 has really defined marketing content for marketers. In the midst of Covid-19 marketers are forced to change their marketing content or language from influencer marketing into empathy, emotional and authentic content. For instance Nike is asking consumers during the pandemic with the crafted message play inside, play for the world. People want to see a brand as being seen as responsible brand and trusted brand. In this manner brands will do quite well by changing their taglines, mantra and even logos. Customers want to see your brand and believe that your goal is to help them and dont believe your goal is to take or make money from them. They want to see you concern about their safety, health, welfare and truly helpful. Change in Marketing Budget PIMS (Profit Impact of Market Strategies) study reported by Haymarket publishing U. K found that companies that maintained their marketing spending during the recession emerged stronger after the recession than those that didnt. But case is always different on the ground; its of this reason why Drucker asserted that when a recession strikes, most companies rush to cut their expenses, the most obvious one being advertising. Those in top management (mostly finance guys) dont believe in advertising, anyway; they tolerate it as a form of defensive insurance, not as a profit generator. A decrease in ad spending has a lot of negative repercussions on the business survival, and this seems to be the practice in crisis like Covid-19, hence impact on marketing activities. So, What Do We Expect To See In The Marketing Landscape Post Covid-19 And Beyond? Ive Highlighted Five Areas That I See Emerging for Brands Looking to Reach New Audiences through Marketing: Prioritized Digitization We are now in a global environment where everything and everyone is digitally connected to everything and everyone. Its evidently clear that this digitally momentum is here to stay. The digital world isnt coming; it here. Businesses are now using digital tools to survive amidst covid-19 and expected to use these tools to recover post pandemic world. Connected Commerce Council report revealed that digital tools frequently acted as a safety net, helping many small businesses avoid closing, downsizing, and severely reduced revenue. So its no surprise that the internet and rapid advances in digital have taken the marketing world with strong storm. Post pandemic world is going to experience a shift from out-of-home consumption back into in-home consumption. Digital marketing tools such as websites, social media, mobile ads and apps, online videos, email, blogs and other digital platforms need to be used to engage customers everywhere, anytime via their computers, smartphones, tablets, internet ready TVs and other digital devices. Businesses have to learn how to use digital tools and possible online marketplace to help them keep their operating. Growth minded companies need to begin using internet of things (IoT) as a vital business processes providing a competitive advantage across the business units. In post pandemic world, for businesses to survive, grow quickly and continue doing business successfully for number of years, they must use digital tools to find customers, grow their customer base and pivot their online sales. Post pandemic world businesses should use the digital tools to constantly and consistently communicate with their customers to help them penetrate their market and sell more of their products. The business must also be interested in using those tools to gain greater visibility, increase customer satisfaction and deliver benefits to customers. It is time businesses take advantage of surging digital opportunities since its becoming a fertile ground for businesses. Build Agility and Customer Responsiveness into the Company Business agility is not something coming, its not the thing of the future; its here. Businesses must face the reality, act on the reality and more quickly. Stick your head in the sand, says Jack Welch, and you will fail or stick your head in the sand and your business will stay stuck in the past. To navigate post-pandemic world businesses must learn how to build agility and face reality, adjusting to that reality and moving quickly. To build agility into the company this is what GE, CEO Jack Welch have to say what we are trying relentlessly to do is get that small-company soul-and small-company speed-inside our big-company body. The world is moving at such a space that control has become a limitation, become agile and you may turn a bad situation into a great one and business leaders who avoid this are doomed to failure. Post pandemic world businesses must begin to reduce their cycle-time in terms of manufacturing, materials logistics, distribution, product development, decision making cycle and more importantly customer responsiveness cycle time. Weve discovered a new responsiveness in Unilever that I wish we had unlocked years ago, but its taken this crisis to do that. Were actually moving away from scenario planning and trying to focus on building agility and responsiveness into the company Unilever CEO, Alan Jope told Bloomberg BusinessWeek. To build customer responsiveness into the company you must desire it, thrive on it and nourish it. In post pandemic world if you focus on customer responsiveness cycle time, the payoff will be a reduced need for assets, lower cost, quick response to the market needs, increase in efficiency and profitability. To navigate post pandemic world businesses must also improve the speed with which the company fixed customer satisfaction problems. They must not wait believing that if it isnt broke, dont fix it. According to PepsiCo CEO, Wayne Calloway that is one of the worst rules of management. In todays economy, if it isnt broke, you must as well break it yourself, because it soon will be. By responding to customer satisfaction problems, the company can show it stands behind its product and ready to remedy and problems that may have occurred. Real-Time Marketing/ Moment Marketing This involves real-time engagements with consumers and skillfully injecting the brand in to consumers lives and conversations. Thus aligning marketing content with real-world events (like Covid-19) and trending topics through timely tweets, videos, blog entries, and social media posts. Many real-time marketing efforts center on major media events and these events let marketers engage huge, ready-made audiences. Companies need to set up temporary real-time command centers, or war rooms, to create rapid responses during major events like pandemics or even to counter competitors moves. Its of this reason that one strategist said, Keeping pace with the speed of digital culture actually requires marketers to plan ahead. The war room has given way to a campsite-real-time marketing needs to be a built-in strategy all year round. For example, according to Kotler with each new Apple iPhone model, at the very same time that Apple executives are on stage unveiling the features of the new phone, Samsung marketers are flooding social media with clever real-time The next best thing is already here responses. The strategy lets Samsung capitalize on the buzz surrounding the Apple introductions to promote its own wares. To be consistently successful, real-time marketing must be part of a broader, carefully conceived strategy that makes the brand itself an engaging and relevant part of consumers lives. Marketing Innovation The times were living in has brought immaculate innovation changes to the business front. The innovation change is like thunderclap. When thunderclap comes, theres no time to cover the ear. Products, services, ideas, etc. have also seen a continuous change. The pace of innovation is already fast but will grow even faster in post pandemic world. Marketing innovation is a continuous journey, but many businesses have failed to adapt and adopt the marketing activities to meet the changing times. Innovation is the calling card to the future, Robin explains, is either you innovate or die. To survive post pandemic world organizations need to rekindles their marketing innovation magic to get the ticket to stay in front. To stay afloat in post pandemic world your marketing innovation should help you come up with big idea, fresh idea, and creative ideas. The challenge for you is to continuo to come up with awesome ideas that will touch the hearts, the minds, hands and purse of the consumers. When you think of marketing innovation, its a kind of how can I come up with new fresh ideas that will entertain, that will get people to talk, and that will get media attention. This means driving innovation that people love and are inspired to get associated with. Many marketing leaders capitalize on these by becoming more innovative, more competitive and more relevant, setting a strategic course for sunnier days. To stay ahead of the curve post Covid-19 world, businesses must innovate or die permanently. Even though, some businesses are at the neck breaking point of shutdown, businesses must use this period putting in measures, plans strategies, tactics to help them stay ahead of the curve when the pandemic is contained or brought under control and business community resume full operation. Purpose-Led Business Purpose is everything; purpose led businesses are changing nature of business day-in and day-out. The only true way to control your firms destiny is to drive for relative market dominance and marketer has to play a lead role in this. As Drucker asserted many times, the true purpose of a business is to create and retain customers. Profit is not the main purpose of business; you will endanger your business if you begin to do that, because profits are only a reward for creating value for customers. A purpose will not be successful if it does not provide benefits to customer. The more crucial component of purpose is how it will result in greater appeal to customers; thus purpose with an impact. In an interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeeks, Unilever CEO, Alan Jope sees purpose-led businesses only gaining relevance. He observed that brands with purpose grow companies with purpose last, and people with purpose thrive. To stay ahead of the curve post Covid-19 world, businesses must not waver one iota in their commitment to purpose-led business. A business purpose provides a guiding view of the future that influences employees decisions, priorities and ways of working. People like to do work that is meaningful to them and that has a purpose. People work better and achieve more if they believe in what they are doing and have confidence in the direction the company is going. Purpose makes a valuable contribution to employees commitment, engagement, productivity and creativity. To navigate post pandemic world, businesses must be purpose-led to help people to always think fresh thought, make it a habit to think about their businesses and dont rest on their laurel. Businesses must be purposely and systematic in their search of opportunities, the future of profit is purpose. Marketing strategies and programs must be developed to support these purpose and every efforts will need to be spelled out carefully from these purpose. Conclusion As the health experts are working tiredly with tightened belt, were sure that they will be able to contain the virus or bring it under control and permanently find a cure for it. But the impact of the pandemic on marketing will be tough (if not impossible) to forget. As the world began to swift from fear to a gradual state of restart, but the question of how to navigate post pandemic world is stark. Mali Albert Shiebila is the Lead Marketing Consultant for MarketWell Ghana Ltd (MWG) in Bolgatanga, Upper East Region. He is also the CEO of Reliance Bookshop. He holds BSc in Marketing, Chartered Accountant (from ICA-Ghana) and a member of the same institute. He writes about relevant marketing topics and pieces. Email: [email protected]/[email protected] YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian sent a congratulatory letter to President of Italy Sergio Mattarella on the Republic Day, the Armenian Presidents Office told Armenpress. I praise the fact that the relations between Armenia and Italy, which are developing in the spirit of partnership and mutual trust, are expanding by including new spheres. Armenia always attaches importance to the constant strengthening and development of mutual cooperation between our countries. I remember with warmth our regular contacts. I am confident that my upcoming state visit to Italy will give a new impetus to the Armenian-Italian multi-layered relations. In such unprecedented crisis situation caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic I express my sincere support to the good people of Italy. I highly value your countrys efforts aimed at saving human lives and mitigating the consequences of the pandemic. I believe that the day when the pandemic will overcome is not so far, and we will resume our normal life by doubling the joint commitment to establish firmer relations between our countries and peoples, the Armenian President said in his letter. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan The Mekong Delta must include an emergency response to climate change in its regional planning for the 2021-30 period as rising seas, coastal erosion and subsidence could occur earlier than previously thought, Deputy PM Trinh Dinh Dung said. Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung speaks at a meeting on Thursday (May 28) about a regional plan for the Mekong Delta that focuses on climate change. Dung asked regional authorities to develop a comprehensive and scientific evaluation of all factors affecting the development of the delta. Dung, who is chairman of the Council of Appraising the Mekong Delta Planning Task, said the delta holds a particularly important strategic position within national socio-economic development and defence and security. The regional plan, with a vision to 2050, must reduce the negative impact caused by upstream activities and take strong measures to end the overexploitation of sand and groundwater, Dung said. It must also fully tap the potential of water, aquaculture and agricultural production and waterway transport, which would contribute to food security nationally and internationally. In addition, the plan must focus on the 2017 Government resolution on climate resilience and sustainable development, and linkages between delta provinces and the central government. Challenges As Vietnams largest agricultural production centre, the delta faces many challenges due to natural and human activity. The delta, which spreads over 40,577sq.km and is possibly one of the lowest lying deltas in the world, has been a rice bowl and aquaculture hub for many years. International studies in recent years have warned that the delta is sinking and might disappear within less than a century. But the most recent studies show that it could disappear sooner than previously thought. Climate Central, a US-based non-profit news organisation that reports on climate science, last year revealed a shocking finding which said that most of southern Vietnam, including the Mekong Delta and the nations economic hub, HCM City, could be seriously flooded by 2050. The study, published in Nature Communications, said that sea levels projected by 2050 would be high enough to force 150 million people permanently below the high tide line. In other words, rising seas could affect three times the number of people by 2050 than previously thought. The deputy PM has asked the Ministry of Planning and Investment to consult the opinions of experts and scientists and assess the factors affecting the deltas regional plan and issue a report to the Government. The delta is the southernmost area of Vietnam. It includes a centrally-run city and 12 provinces, accounting for 12 per cent of the country's area and nearly 20 per cent of the population. VNS Mekong Delta under pressure amid climate change It is now the dry season, but landslides and subsidence are occurring in most localities in Mekong Delta. New Delhi, Jun 2 (UNI) India's novel coronavirus tally on Tuesday inched closer to the two lakh-mark, of which nearly 1.6 lakh cases were added in past 30 days, a sign to worry. A total of 8,171 cases were added in past 24 hrs to the tally which reached 1,98,706. The death toll also rose to 5,598 as 204 more people died of the virus. As per Union Health Ministry, the cases under active medical supervision are 97,581 while the total number of recoveries reached 95,526 with 3,708 new ones. More than 1.5 lakh cases were recorded in just 30 days, data shows. The rising number of cases is much due to easing of restrictions, more movement of people and enhanced testing. Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing the annual general body meeting of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) stated that 'unlock 1.0' will bring growth back. Moody's Investors Service has downgraded India's sovereign credit rating for the first time in more than two decades to 'Baa3'. 'Strengthening the economy against corona is among our highest priorities. There are five key elements reflected in all our decisions: Intent, Inclusion, Investment, Infrastructure and Innovation. For us, reforms are not random or scattered decisions, but a planned, systematic, integrated and futurists process,' the Prime Minister said. On lockdown, Mr Modi said his government took the right step. 'Lockdown has helped India to develop physical resources and save human resources,' he pointed out. As the cases continues to climb day-by-day, Health Ministry Joint Secretary stated that based on evidence, Drug Controller General has given the approval of using 'Remdesivir' to treat Covid patients. The Ministry once again cautioned the elderly above 60 years of age and those with co-morbidities as they are the most vulnerable. Seventy-three per cent of deaths in India are of patients with co-morbidities. The government maintained that despite seventh highest cases in the world, India has been able to keep fatality rate to as low as 2.8 per cent. The Indian Council of Medical Research said it is conducting a survey to determine the extent of transmission of virus and result will come out in a week. Statewise, Maharashtra continues to bear the maximum burden of cases with over 70,000 cases, followed by Tamil Nadu with 23,495 cases, Delhi 20,834 infections and Gujarat 17,200 infections. With the cases surging, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched a mobile app to know vacant beds and ventilators in the national capital. He reassured that the Delhi is having required health infrastructure and facilities to tackle any situation. As a part of Vande Bharat Mission to bring back stranded Indians abroad, nearly 700 Indian nationals stranded in Sri Lanka due to the international travel restrictions sailed back home on an Indian Navy warship. More UNI Team PS SV The delayed Pennsylvania primary election is today, when Republican and Democratic voters choose their parties nominees. The presidential choices are all but made already: Republican President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden are their presumptive party nominees. Biden, the former vice president is set to appear at City Hall this morning in Philadelphia, where the National Guard is maintaining a visible presence to defend public buildings as the city grapples with sustained violent protests. Several adjacent businesses banks, convenience stores and hotels were boarded up. A very small audience, including Mayor Jim Kenney, is expected. Pennsylvania is considered a battleground state in the November presidential election. Excerpts of Bidens speech, as prepared before delivery: "I cant breathe. I cant breathe.' George Floyds last words. But they didnt die with him. Theyre still being heard. Theyre echoing across this nation. They speak to a nation where too often just the color of your skin puts your life at risk. They speak to a nation where more than 100,000 people have lost their lives to a virus and 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment with a disproportionate number of these deaths and job losses concentrated in the black and minority communities. And they speak to a nation where every day millions of people not at the moment of losing their life but in the course of living their life are saying to themselves, I cant breathe. Its a wake-up call for our nation. For all of us. "When peaceful protestors are dispersed by the order of the president from the doorstep of the peoples house, the White House using tear gas and flash grenades in order to stage a photo op at a noble church, we can be forgiven for believing that the president is more interested in power than in principle. More interested in serving the passions of his base than the needs of the people in his care. For thats what the presidency is: a duty of care to all of us, not just our voters, not just our donors, but all of us. Look, the presidency is a big job. Nobody will get everything right. And I wont either. But I promise you this. I wont traffic in fear and division. I wont fan the flames of hate. I will seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued this country not use them for political gain. Ill do my job and take responsibility. I wont blame others. Ill never forget that the job isnt about me. Its about you. And Ill work to not only rebuild this nation. But to build it better than it was. President Donald Trump holds a Bible as he visits outside St. John's Church across Lafayette Park from the White House Monday, June 1, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)AP After protests in Philadelphia and around the country, Trump slammed governors as weak during a video teleconference on Monday and demanded tougher crackdowns. Trump also lashed out at Biden on Twitter, writing that Sleepy Joe Bidens people are so Radical Left that they are working to get the Anarchists out of jail, and probably more. Biden is a Scranton, Pa., native and lives in Delaware. More: Trump declares himself president of law and order, threatens use of military on protesters D.C. Episcopal bishop outraged by Trump church visit Gov. Tom Wolf visits Philadelphia, surveys damage from George Floyd protests PHILADELPHIA (AP) A Philadelphia gun shop owner shot and killed a man who the owner said was among a group that had broken into the store early Tuesday, authorities said. The shooting at the Firing Line Gun Range and Gun Store occurred around 4:20 a.m. The shop owner told police he was staking out his store following an earlier burglary attempt and was monitoring a store security screen when he saw three or four men using wire cutters to break through the gate and enter the store. The owner said he pointed his gun at one of the men inside the store and fired, striking him in the head. The other men with him then ran from the scene, and it wasnt clear if any of them had been shot or injured. The man who was shot was found on the second floor and was pronounced dead there a short time later. The gun shop owner was not injured. No charges have been filed so far, but authorities say the shooting remains under investigation. The names of the gun shop owner and the man who was killed were not released. More: Philadelphia rally leads to bridge closure, several dozen arrests SUV flips over, hits another vehicle in Philadelphia, killing 2 and injuring 8 John Moore/Getty New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo openly hypothesized on Tuesday about overthrowing NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio after rampant looting and destruction swept across Manhattan on Monday night, overwhelming the NYPD and leaving the city looking like a war zone. Im disappointed and outraged by what happened in New York City last night. That criminal activity hurt everyone, he said. De Blasio had doubled NYPD officers out on the streets to 8,000 on Monday night and imposed an 11 p.m. curfew after three nights of protests against police brutality were overshadowed by violence. But it was not enough to stop rampant looters from taking over midtown Manhattan. The Daily Beast witnessed hundreds of rioters roaming freely for hours through the city, looting countless stores, setting fires, loading stolen goods into SUVs, and damaging cars and storefronts. For hours, police were nowhere to be seen. Were spread a little thin, one officer told The Daily Beast at about 10 p.m. after they arrested six men near Times Square, but were unable to chase down hundreds more who fled on foot. On Tuesday, the NYPD said it arrested 700 people the previous night for looting in Manhattan. An exasperated Cuomo said the police and the mayor failed to protect New York Citya city already on its knees from the coronavirus pandemic. The police in New York [City] were not effective at doing their job last night, period. They have to do a better job, he said. You have 38,000 NYPD. They have protected the city before in these situations... They did not do it last night. But I believe in the inherent capacity of the NYPD. Cuomo said he had offered all New York mayors the assistance of the National Guard and the state police to help stop looting on Monday, however de Blasio did not take up the offer. The mayor said the National Guard would not be helpful, and that the NYPD was sufficient. Look at the videos, it was a disgrace, Cuomo said. I believe the mayor underestimates the scope of the problem. I think he underestimates the duration of the problem, and I dont think theyve used enough police to address the situation because its inarguable that it was not addressed last night. Facts. Story continues Cuomo said his option was to displace the mayor and bring in the National Guard during a state of emergency, and basically take over... the mayors job. However, he said were not at that point and that it would be too chaotic right now. He said the National Guard would not be needed if the entire NYPDthe largest police department in the nationwere properly deployed. Thousands of people peacefully protested across New York City on Monday night following the death of unarmed black man George Floyd, at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis. However, as night fell, large groups broke away and started smashing storefronts and looting hundreds of shops along Broadway, Fifth Avenue, Sixth Avenue, and more. In Manhattan, Cuomo said looters had blurred the line with peaceful protests and distracted from much-needed conversations about racism, inequality, and police brutality. He said Tuesday he would sign legislation, if it was brought before him, to make police officers complaint records public. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz lashed out at Antifa protesters, calling them bigots for taking advantage of otherwise peaceful protesters and causing violence throughout the nation. Lets be clear, these Antifa protesters that are organizing these acts of terror, among other things, they are behaving in a profoundly racist manner, Cruz said at a press conference in Washington, D.C. He said there is no doubt that the nation is upset at the police brutality against George Floyd. Everyone agrees what happened to George Floyd was horrific, Cruz said. It was police brutality. But he said that doesnt justify violence. And yet you are seeing Antifa protesters deciding to abuse and take advantage of this crisis to wrongly paint the peaceful protesters as being violent, Cruz said. They are behaving like bigots. Hes hardly the only one pointing the finger at Antifa groups. Steve McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said members of Antifa - an umbrella for loosely knit groups of far-left militants were involved in the looting of a Target store in Central Austin on Sunday. TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox There is no question there is involvement of these extremists, said McCraw, who added that investigators saw evidence of Antifa involvement in social media channels associated with the group. They just cant help themselves. Theyre going to exploit this as much as they can. Cruz said the rioting and looting have to be stopped. Let me be clear, everyone has a right to speak, he said. You have a right to speak peaceably and exercise the First Amendment. What you dont have a right to do is engaging in violence. What you dont have a right to do is loot stores. What you dont have a right to do is shatter store windows. What you dont have a right to do is light police cars on fire. Cruz also had praise for President Donald Trump for his actions on Monday when he walked across the street from the White House to stand in front of a church. Im glad the president went to St. Johns church, Cruz said. Thats a historic church in our nations capital city that arsonists and vandals have firebombed. It was strong and powerful for the president to go there and say we will not be cowed. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 21:43:27|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WINDHOEK, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Namibia's highly competitive art exhibition, the Bank Windhoek Triennial, which celebrates visual art in the country, has been shifted to next year due to the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, the organizers announced Tuesday. Staged every three years, the triennial showcases the quality and diversity of artwork produced by Namibian artists and is sponsored by Bank Windhoek and organized by the National Art Gallery of Namibia (NAGN). As a result of the impact of COVID-19, the new deadline for artists to submit their artwork is Nov. 6, 2020, and judging of the artworks will take place in early February 2021, while the official opening of the Bank Windhoek Triennial is in April 2021, they said. The duration of the exhibition is scheduled to start from April 9 until July 3, 2021. "The pandemic has severely affected the visual arts industry. Thus, prompting the decision to allow visual artists more time to work on their submissions to ensure they submit quality artwork," said Bank Windhoek's Head of Corporate Social Investments, Sponsorship, and Events, Bronwyn Moody. Despite the setback, NAGN's Chief Executive, Snobia Kaputu said they look forward to innovative works of art, and therefore encourage all artists who meet the qualifying criteria to enter the competition. The triennial aims to celebrate visual art in Namibia, while providing a continued platform for the development and promotion of the visual art industry. The first event took place in 2008. Enditem WATERLOO REGION Some college and university students may not move back to town this fall as classes move online. And many are trying to terminate their lease agreements as much as eight or nine months early to save some money. Waterloos two universities and Conestoga College have all announced a move to online courses due to the COVID-19 crisis, so students are scrambling to get out of paying rent for apartments they may no longer need this September. And it has left landlords anxiously waiting to see if their tenants are among those looking to break their lease. Julia Pereira, vice president of university affairs with Wilfrid Lauriers student union, said the Student Rights Advisory Committee which helps inform students of their rights when it comes to landlord-tenant issues has received dozens of requests from students in recent weeks for information on ways to get out of their lease agreements. A lot of students have already signed leases and dont require accommodations in Waterloo and are looking to stay home, Pereira said, adding the advisory committee doesnt provide legal advice but offers information on basic tenant rights and where to find proper legal aid. We encourage collaboration and for students to speak with their landlords, Pereira said. Abigail Simpson, president of the University of Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association, said by the end of last week the association had also received about a dozen requests for information. Many students sign leases in January or February in anticipation of the fall semester, Pereira said, which was months before the schools announced online classes due to coronavirus. University of Waterloo fourth-year arts student Sylvia Skoruch says all of her courses are scheduled to be delivered online this fall and shes considering subletting her Waterloo apartment so she can move back with her parents in Mississauga. Online listings are already swamped with apartments as students try to find others to sublet their rooms, and many are advertised below cost, Skoruch said. Before (COVID-19) the problem was that there were not enough affordable rentals for everyone, she told The Record. Now, the problem is that there is a surplus of rentals on the market, sometimes for insanely cheap prices, and students cant get rid of their units. Both the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University have announced that almost all classes will be delivered online in the fall. Conestoga College is expected to take a similar approach. Skoruch is currently living in her Waterloo apartment while completing three online courses this spring. She pays $737 per month, plus hydro and insurance, and still has about 10 months to go on her lease (though her landlord has given her the option of opting out at the end of 2020). Many students have been unable to work during the pandemic due to the shutdown of many parts of the economy. In April, the federal government announced $1,250 per month for eligible students or $2,000 per month for eligible students with dependents or disabilities. The Canada Emergency Student Benefit runs to August. International students face even more uncertainty due to possible travel restrictions. More than 20,000 attended the three institutions combined last year. Harshita Singh, a 19-year-old student from India, studies mathematics at UW and said she isnt sure if shell be able to return to Waterloo in the fall. She is looking for someone to take the apartment off her hands, but most are only willing to pay half of her $800 monthly expense. Shes tried emailing her landlord about her situation but has not received a response. Its going to be hard to pay $800 per month for a house Im not even living in, she said in an email to The Record. Landlords left in a lurch As students look for ways out of their rental agreements, landlords are getting nervous. If even a fraction of the tens of thousands of post-secondary students in the region opt to remain home this fall and try to get out of paying their leases, it could have a major financial impact on local housing providers and the local economy, said Andrew Macallum, president of the Waterloo Regional Apartment Management Association (WRAMA). More than 50,000 students are enrolled at the two universities, and another 20,000 full-time students attend Conestoga College. I would say the economic impact is huge even if we lose 20 per cent of the student population attending the three schools, said Macallum, whose association represents about 350 landlords in Waterloo Region and Guelph and about 15,000 total rental units. Its very concerning. With the Landlord and Tenant Board of Ontario largely shut down due to COVID-19, itll make enforcement of nonpayment or broken leases even more difficult, he added. Landlords in the City of Waterloo could be hardest hit since the city is home to the majority of student housing in the region. One study from 2017 estimated there were more than 33,500 on- and off-campus beds in Waterloo, and another 7,000 were in the development pipeline. Those numbers are set to be updated in 2021. Another study last year found more than 40 per cent of the nearly 42,000 purpose-built student housing bedrooms in the entire country are concentrated in Waterloo near the two universities. Mike Milovick owns 35 rental units across three different buildings in Waterloo. The units are all currently rented, Milovick said, and its my anticipation (the students) will be here in September. Nine of his leases started May 1 and all of them paid their first months rent, he said. Other landlords hes talked to are planning for the worst-case scenario where the students simply dont show up and stop paying rent. When asked if the City of Waterloo had any concerns with students not returning in the fall, director of communications Tony Iavarone said: We know the three post-secondary institutions are world class and the students will return when the situation allows ... our city is resilient and strong and it looks forward to welcoming the students back eventually. A clean break? Lisa Nadon, a local paralegal who often deals with landlord-tenant issues, said terminating a lease early isnt always a straightforward process. There isnt an easy or best way for a student tenant to not be obliged to follow through on their lease agreement, unfortunately, she said. Nadon is also a member of the apartment management association and said shes chatted with numerous concerned landlords over the past week. There are two types of tenancies: fixed-term (the tenancy will last for a specific period of time, often 12 months) and non-fixed-term where there is no end date (such as a month-to-month agreement). To end a monthly non-fixed-term lease, renters just have to give their landlord 60 days notice. There are ways to terminate a fixed-term lease early, such as by mutually agreeing with the landlord on an end date or by finding someone to take over all or part of the remaining lease. Students are encouraged to seek professional legal advice, and they can contact the Landlord and Tenant Board of Ontario for more information. Customer service officers are available Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. by calling 1-888-332-3234. Tenants who move out without giving proper notice are responsible for paying rent until the lease term ends, or until the landlord finds someone else to rent the unit. Both sides also have an obligation to attempt to find a new tenant, Nadon said. Above all else, landlords and tenants should be compassionate, be understanding and be reasonable, she said. Its tough for everyone right now. United States First Lady Melania Trump urges everyone for a peaceful protest and not to stage violence and riot, according to a recently published article. Violence Across the Country Many people across the country either coming from African-Americans or White-Americans are staging different protests following the death of George Floyd who was accused of counterfeiting $20 in a grocery store. The violence, vandalism, and looting even erupted just blocks away from the White House and hundreds of protesters were chanting the name of George Floyd. The protest happened during the morning hours on May 31. However, a supposed to be peaceful protest ended up into violence. According to a recently published report by Latin Post, the protest escalated when a police officer threw a pepper spray. This led hundreds of protesters to retaliate. First Lady Melania Trump Urges Everyone to Have a Peaceful Protest The country is now battling two problems. The global pandemic that infected almost a million in the country and the current unrest and violence across the different states. The protests broke out over the weekend. On the official social media account of the FLOTUS, she wrote: "Saddened to see our country & communities being damaged & vandalized, I ask everyone to protest in peace & focus on taking care of one another & healing our great nation." She wrote her message after the violence erupted near the White House where many businesses and vehicles were burnt into the fire. Over the weekend, FLOTUS also tweeted and wrote: "our country allows for peaceful protests, but there is no reason for violence." Moreover, because of her concern to the country who continue to battle the global pandemic and is now facing another problem, posted again on her Twitter account and wrote: Our country allows for peaceful protests, but there is no reason for violence. I've seen our citizens unify & take care of one another through COVID19 & we can't stop now. My deepest condolences to the family of George Floyd. As a nation, let's focus on peace, prayers & healing. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany Released a Statement On Monday, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany released a statement and said: "This president has been very clear that we need law and order in this country. The violence demeans the peaceful protesters who have a legitimate grievance when we see angry mob mentality take over and those horrific images of businesses burning and fires in the streets of this country." When she was asked if Pres. Donald Trump will address the nation about the present violence, she answered and said: "A national Oval Office address is not going to stop Antifa. What's going to stop is action. And this president is committed to acting on this," She also asserted that the focus of the PLOTUS today is acting and keeping the streets safe. Meanwhile, even if Pres. Donald Trump will not make an official address regarding the violence, his administration is making a way to stabilize the current unrest in the country. Read related article: Footage which claims to show Indian troops beating a captured Chinese soldier has been condemned by Delhi amid an escalating dispute at the Himalayan border. Believed to have been filmed around two weeks ago on the banks of Pangong Lake, a mile into Indian territory, the footage purports to show Indian forces battering a People's Liberation Army soldier and smashing up a Chinese armoured car. The Indian Army warned local media that circulating the 'mala fide' (dishonest) footage was 'likely to vitiate (damage) the current situation on the borders.' India and China fought a frontier war along the 2,175 mile border in 1962 and there have been regular spats, though no shot has been fired since the 1970s. Believed to have been filmed around two weeks ago on the banks of Pangong Lake, a mile into Indian territory, the footage purports to show Indian forces battering a People's Liberation Army soldier and smashing up a Chinese armoured car The two countries fought a frontier war along the 2,175 mile border in 1962 and there have been regular spats, though no shot has been fired since the 1970s (the red territory is controlled by India, and the beige and grey stripes, Aksai Chin, is Chinese but claimed by India) The latest tensions blew up on May 9 when dozens of Chinese and Indian soldiers were injured in fistfights and stone-throwing in Sikkim state. Many Indian soldiers are still in hospital. The 1962 Sino-Indian War Aksai Chin is located either in the Indian state of Ladakh or the Chinese region of Xinjiang. It is an almost uninhabited high-altitude scrub land traversed by the Xinjiang-Tibet Highway. The other disputed territory is hundreds of miles away to the east of Tibet. The 1962 Sino-Indian War was fought on these two frontiers as Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru put it, a struggle over land where 'not even a blade of grass grows.' Chinese motivations for the war centred on percieved efforts by India to subvert Beijing's interests in Tibet. Just a few years before the war, the Indians had granted asylum to the Dalai Lama after the 1959 Tibetan uprising. According to the CIA at the time, the Chinese 'were motivated to attack by one primary consideration - their determination to retain the ground on which PLA forces stood in 1962 and to punish the Indians for trying to take that ground.' Indian motivations included, testing Chinese resolve, testing who the Soviets would back and to garner sympathy from the United States. Advertisement The main showdown is now in Ladakh centred around the Galwan valley which controls access to several strategic points on their Himalayan border. India's army chief General Manoj Naravane downplayed the 'temporary and short-duration face-offs.' A week after making those remarks in mid-May, the general flew north to visit the 14th Corps HQ in Leh, Ladakh's capital, The Economist reported, suggesting something more serious was afoot. The two sides have blamed each other but analysts say India's building of new roads in the region may have been the fuse for the dispute. Both sides have dispatched reinforcements and heavy equipment to the zone. The recent video from Pangong Lake is undated but purports to show Indian forces, perhaps Indo-Tibetan security forces, attacking a Chinese PLA soldier. Wherever this video has been circulated on Twitter, there are Chinese accounts which have hit back with a photo which purports to show bloodied and unconscious Indian soldiers bound with rope. Their captors, who wear the Chinese PLA uniforms with golden stars on their caps, are also seen in surgical masks, suggesting it was taken during the pandemic. The Indian press have claimed that Chinese troops have pushed several miles into Indian territory, smashing up Indian outposts and bridges, and digging in with their tents and trenches. In Ladakh, flash points reported in May include at the confluence of the Galwan and Shyok rivers, the Hot Springs region and Pangong Lake. In the Galwan Valley soldiers have been locked in a weeks-long face-off. India's foreign ministry spokesman said in May: 'It is Chinese side that has recently undertaken activity hindering India's normal patrolling patterns.' Wherever this video has been circulated on Twitter, there are Chinese accounts which have hit back with a photo which purports to show bloodied and unconscious Indian soldiers bound with rope. Their captors, who wear the Chinese PLA uniforms with golden stars on their caps, are also seen in surgical masks, suggesting it was taken during the pandemic It is unclear how many troops the Chinese have in the region, former army colonel Ajai Shukla believes there to be several PLA brigades, which means thousands of men. The bulk of these troops are likely positioned at the rear behind those leading the incursions into Indian territory. The intrusions have been 'fast in-and-out' forays, according to The Print, with around 40 to 60 Chinese men deployed. The Indian newspaper carried out an investigation of the videos circulating on social media and compared them to satellite images of the Indian bases. The beating meted out to the alleged PLA soldier happened just over a mile inside Indian territory and was not far from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) camp. The investigation claims that the incident took place around May 19-21 and that there was considerable 'beefing up' of the ITBP base shortly after. The vehicle which is attacked by the Indian forces is a Dongfeng CSK131, a Chinese version of the US Humvee, which is used for high-speed reconnaissance and would match the strategies they have allegedly employed. The Print reports that satellite imagery reveals the only time Chinese vessels came close to the border in the last 14 days was to travel to Fox Point (the peninsula which juts into Pangong Lake in this satellite image). The territory to the east of the peninsula is Chinese, to the west, Indian In the second image, which has been used as a counter-attack by Twitter accounts loyal to Beijing, badly beaten Indian forces are seen tied up by the Chinese. A boat can be seen in the background. The Print reports that satellite imagery reveals the only time Chinese vessels came close to the border in the last 14 days was to travel to Fox Point on May 22. The Indian incursion into the Chinese side is believed to be around 700ft, much less of an intrusion than that by PLA soldier days before who was beaten up outside his Humvee. Although General Naravane is perhaps justified in dismissing the skirmishes as not unusual, several of the forays are in areas west of the Galwan Valley that China was not thought to have previously claimed. On May 25 the Chinese state-controlled Global Times said Indian troops had been trespassing on Chinese territory and wrote: 'The Galwan Valley region is Chinese territory.' The Galwan Valley was formally handed back to the Indians after the war of 1962. Build up at the Line of Actual Control on the disputed border between China and India is seen in this handout satellite image of Pangong Lake Recently build buildings and roads surround Pangong Lake close to the Line of Actual Control The Global Times report claimed that Indian troops were trying to erect illegal defence facilities since the beginning of May and that China had border controls in response to Indian provocations in the Galwan Valley. One reason for the heightened tension could be a new road built to Daulat Beg Oldi, the world's highest airstrip and the site of an intense Sino-Indian dispute in 2013. The road allows for the rapid and vast movement of Indian troops into the region. Writing in the Indian Express last week, former Indian diplomat, Phunchok Stobdan, wrote: 'The situation remains tense at Sirijap's cliff spurs and also at the Tso, where troops are chasing each other in high-speed patrol boats. 'Clearly, intrusions are part of China's never-ending effort to push Indian troops westward of the Indus and Shyok rivers and reach the 1960 claimed line.' Build up at the Line of Actual Control on the disputed border between China and India is seen in this satellite image China has not commented directly on the heightened tensions along the mountain border, but it noted that its troops have consistently maintained peace and tranquillity in the area. India's defence ministry on Sunday warned the public about fake social media videos showing fighting on the border. 'Currently no violence is happening. Differences are being addressed through interaction between military commanders,' a ministry statement insisted. The US president this week tweeted an offer to mediate in what he called a 'raging' dispute. efence Minister Rajnath Singh said he spoke to US Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Friday to emphasise that India and China have mechanisms to resolve 'problems' through talks at diplomatic and military levels. Seth Rogen showed support for Black Lives Matter by sharing a graphic dedicated to the movement on his Instagram feed. But some commenters who follow the Pineapple Express star were unhappy with his stance and let him know about it. Rogen wasn't shy in his responses, telling several people claiming all lives matter or that black people are racist by promptly telling them to "f**k off." One Instagram user commented, #alllivesmatter. People making this only about blacks. When its about all races of color. Why do all these brutality videos only show the end? They dont show wtf these people where [sic] doing to get in trouble in the first place. Rogen responded to this commenter by telling them to f**k off and followed with You dont deserve my movies anymore. Stop watching my s**t. The actors post to Instagram announcing his stance on the Black Lives Matter movement was in response to the murder of George Floyd by a policeman in Minneapolis on May 25th. In response to his death, thousands of people of all races and religions have taken to the streets in major cities across the globe to protest in solidarity with George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement. Rogen isnt the only star speaking out, many others including Beyonce, Rihanna, Chris Evans and Chrissy Teigen have posted to their social media pages and donated money. Some have even joined the peaceful protests in their cities. Halsey, Ariana Grande, Shawn Mendes and Emily Ratajakowski are just some of the A-listers who have stepped out from quarantine to join the marches in their cities. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 1) Another 552 people in the country have contracted the coronavirus disease, with the nationwide tally climbing to 18,638, the Department of Health confirmed on Monday. Of the newly logged infections, 119 have been classified as fresh cases or those diagnosed within the past three days. The other 433 are late cases or those detected at least four days ago, but were only recently validated by the DOH. Meanwhile, 70 more patients have survived the illness, while another three have died. These figures bring the total recoveries to 3,979, and the death toll to 960. A further breakdown of the total number of new cases showed that 231 or over 40 percent come from Metro Manila. Central Visayas registered 99, while 202 were from other regions. The remaining 20 infected are returning overseas Filipino workers, the DOH added. The agency began to differentiate fresh from late cases, as they clarified that the spike in daily confirmed infections is due to the countrys increased testing capacity and aggressive efforts to catch up on the testing backlog. Health spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire earlier explained that the mass hiring program as well as the recent rollout of the COVIDKAYA information system helped speed up the validation of COVID-19 cases. Public health epidemiologist Dr. Troy Gepte also said that the coronavirus case fatality rate and case doubling time are down, indicating that the country is able to manage the pandemic. Metro Manila eased on Monday to a general community quarantine, where more businesses are allowed to reopen, after over two months under strict lockdown. This move to downgrade the community quarantine status in the countrys capital came amid concerns to revive the ailing economy, as the pandemic has forced a lot of industries to shut down. However, some experts and lawmakers have forecasted that this transition will result in a rise in daily confirmed infections. Officials continue to remind the public to observe health protocols and preventive measures to contain the virus. Globally, COVID-19 has infected over 6.1 million people. Of this number, more than 370,000 died, while over 2.6 million recovered. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States Tue, June 2, 2020 07:40 598 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb671ee 2 World US,George-Floyd,Racism,racial-abuse,racial-discrimination,racial-issues,racial-tension,racial-violence,protests Free Major US cities -- convulsed by protests, clashes with police and looting since the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd a week ago -- braced Monday for another night of unrest. Demonstrators took to the streets of more than 140 towns and cities overnight Sunday, US media reported, with many protests turning into running battles with police. Curfew were renewed in a number of cities on Monday as the country geared up for another night of turmoil. Minneapolis The Midwestern city where a police officer killed George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for more than eight minutes was calmer overnight after beefing up its security forces. Thousands of people marched on Sunday to the capitol building in Saint Paul, Minneapolis' twin city and the seat of the state's legislature. The demonstrators were marching peacefully along a highway when the driver of a speeding tanker truck tried to force his way through the crowd, without causing any injuries. The driver is being investigated by police. When the curfew began at 8:00 pm for a third night, police fired flash-bang rounds at protesters to disperse them. More than 150 were arrested for breaking the curfew, officials said. Washington Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the White House on Sunday for a peaceful demonstration that turned more tense once night fell and the crowds grew. Police fired tear gas to drive the crowds away from the presidential seat. In the ensuing melee, American flags were burned, cars were set ablaze, graffiti sprayed on walls and numerous shop windows smashed. A curfew was introduced for the first time at 11:00 pm, a deadline that was brought forward to 7:00 pm Monday as the city braced for more protests. According to The New York Times, President Donald Trump was moved by his Secret Service guards to an underground bunker as the protests roiled the park outside. New York Between 5,000 and 6,000 demonstrators took to the streets of New York Sunday, police chief Dermot Shea said. "When it got dark, it got ugly, and it got ugly quick," he said Monday. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Monday the city would be under curfew from 11:00 pm until 5:00 am Tuesday. Some police officers took a knee as a sign of support for the demonstrations, the Times said, but violence broke out at Union Square and in Soho, where stores were looted and vandalized. Among the hundreds of people arrested on four consecutive nights of unrest in the city was the daughter of Mayor Bill de Blasio, Chiara de Blasio, who was briefly detained for unlawful assembly, the Times said. Los Angeles The city announced a 6:00 pm curfew on Sunday night for the whole of Los Angeles country as National Guard troops with rifles and combat gear began patrolling the city. On Melrose Avenue, residents used brooms and buckets of water to clean up the debris from the night before. At midday, several hundred people joined demonstrations and later in the night, looting broke out in Santa Monica in the suburbs, including in an upmarket mall. Police said they had made hundreds of arrests. Opinion Article 2 June 2020 There was a time when "travel accommodation" and "hotel" were virtually interchangeable. Sure, there were vacation rentals, but at a smaller scale and not readily available on the major travel booking platforms. With the rise of Airbnb and other alternative accommodation platforms, this is no longer true. There is now a myriad of options available to travelers wishing to explore the world. A more appropriate term for what these new platforms offer is "alternative accommodation" rather than "vacation rental". In the U.S. top destination cities of Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle there were 51 Airbnb properties listed in its first year of operation. By 2017, that number had was well over 50,000 and there are currently 666,000 property listings in the United States by December 2019. [1] When you look closer at the accommodations offered, there is often an entire house, an apartment, or someone renting a spare bedroom. Consider for a moment the difference in experience for the following accommodations: studio apartment, houseboat, cottage, shared room, yurt, guest suite, and camp space. If you're traveling with children, knowing that you'll be staying on a boat may be critical, and a yurt may not be the best option for those with an aversion to bugs. But likewise, finding yourself in a motel room off the interstate on your hiking trip might just ruin that trip. Different accommodations provide different experience and caters to different audience. As such, your language should match the experience that you want to deliver. Content is Kingagain! Travel, regardless of the purpose, is often a large investment of time, money, and energy for the traveler. Arming the traveler with accurate, relevant, and digestible information is key to ensuring a positive experience that meets the traveler's expectation. I would also argue that in its simplest form, the formula for a good review is that expectations are equal to experience. Most of us in the travel industry know the importance of reviews and their impact on business and revenue. A Walker study found that by the year 2020, customer experience would overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator. Customers are willing to pay a price premium of up to 13% (and as high as 18%) for luxury and indulgence services, simply by receiving a great customer experience. The Harvard Review claims that customers who had great experiences in the past with a company will spend 140% more compared to people who had poor experiences. Therefore, clearly there is a correlation between the quality of the experience and revenue, which holds true in the hospitality industry. A study from Cornell School of administration shows that 1% increase in hotel's reputation score increases ADR, Occupancy and RevPAR by 0.89%, 0.54% and 1.42% respectively. Photo: RateGain Technologies Limited Hence, for a branded or independent hotel, communicating and setting expectations via content with a prospective guest on its own website is not hard, as the brand or property has complete control. But as soon as third-party distribution becomes a factor, control can be hard to maintain. Consider that we have only so far talked about one descriptive content label; accommodation type. When you considered the full breadth of descriptions to update and manage, you can quickly feel like it's a daunting challenge and a never-ending battle to maintain accuracy. To make matters worse, the rapid changes in the distribution landscape complicates the management of accommodation content exponentially. Consider new entrants, acquisitions and changes in distribution technologyall impact content. That's all before we consider making that content available in languages of desired source markets. Taking on the King So how do you manage expectation setting across the entire distribution ecosystem? The first step is of course an enticing, yet accurate description of your property and rooms. Being knowledge about industry terms for rooms, amenities and services helps as those are terms travelers are familiar with and can more easily understand what your property has to offer. Again, it helps with expectation setting. Make sure you offer as much information as possible as 78% of online consumers say they find product information important to their buying decision. Second, you need to transfer all this information into a database that is specifically built for hospitality content to be accurately distributed to any platform. The taxonomy needs to be built with hospitality accommodation and distribution in mind. This is often where some hospitality professionals stumble. At times, they fail to anticipate the downstream implications and hence the importance of a robust content management system that is intended for the complexities of hospitality distribution. It's also where I recommend seeking some help. Managing property information and images is extremely time consuming. Especially so in an industry seeing constant change. With the emergence of personalization and attribute based pricing - even more granular content is added to the mix. In the Amazon era, consumers expect to get served up relevant content or offerings based on what they're looking for. Poorly managed content makes this impossible. We have standards Our industry is in need of standards to address the new diversity of accommodation providers. Most importantly for travel consumers to make informed choices. DHISCO has been anticipating this lodging convergence recognizing the importance of structure and standards, foreseeing the personalization revolution. We knew that there was only one way to bring some order to an industry that still used extranet and spreadsheet content distribution. We knew it was only a matter of time until the scale tipped toward alternative lodging. If we could manage the largest inventory of hospitality product information and imagery in the industry, both traditional and non-traditional, we would gain wisdom from the compilation, breadth, and depth of content. That gain was the closest thing to an industry standard for diverse lodging content that we have seen. And that has proven to be extremely valuable to hospitality providers as well as travel sellers such as OTAs, GDSs, and TMCs. Up until recently we had been extremely confident in a bet on content that was made years ago. But as alternative accommodations came on the scene, we realized that this content would have to sit on the same proverbial shelf as traditional hospitality content, contrasted and compared during the shopping process. We knew this would be the ultimate test to our structure, to our speed, and our ability to merge alternative accommodation information onto platforms built for traditional accommodation. That test now has a name. Monaker is the moniker. Monaker [2] approached RateGain with the task of loading and managing their vacation rental inventory and increasing distribution through RateGain/DHISCO partners. We knew this would be the biggest challenge our content management system and DHISCO had seen to date. The results? In three days, we loaded 100,000+ properties and over a million images. But we weren't done. We then replicated each property and loaded it in four languages totally error free. "DHISCO Content is an offering which is as unique as your guest. It provides a powerful content database with automatic update capabilities, an end-to-end descriptive, multi-lingual and digitalized product line, with flexible APIs that offer options for content via push or pull models. With DHISCO content, within just a couple of months, Monaker Group has already on boarded an initial 100,000+ of their approximately 3 million properties with images and content in 4 different languages namely Spanish, French, German and Italian apart from English." Says Tim Sikora, Chief Operations and Chief Information Officer at Monaker Group. While I couldn't be prouder of our team, the systems and infrastructure we have built, we are ready for the next challenge. Get in touch if you have a challenge in content management and distribution you'd like solved! [1] https://ipropertymanagement.com/research/airbnb-statistics [2] https://rategain.com/press-release/monaker-group-partners-with-rategain/ The music industry will stage a blackout day today in support of protests around the alleged murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. Organized by music executives Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang, the aim is to pause or shutter normal business activities for 24 hours. It is a day to take a beat for an honest, reflective and productive conversation about what actions we need to collectively take to support the Black community, according to a website tagged #TheShowMustBePaused. Technology companies are participating in different ways. Spotify said it will place a black logo and headline image on its flagship playlists and podcasts, while adding eight minutes and 46 seconds of silence to participating playlists and podcasts the length of time officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd's neck. Apple Music is also participating, saying it cancelled its regular Beats 1 radio schedule and steering users toward a streaming station that celebrates the best in Black Music. It will also host a playlist designed to unite users, with regular intermissions explaining the protests and movement. Deezer and Tidal Music also tweeted support. On Tuesday, June 2nd, Apple Music will observe Black Out Tuesday. We will use this day to reflect and plan actions to support Black artists, Black creators, and Black communities. #TheShowMustBePaused #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/xkvn31DpYc Apple Music (@AppleMusic) June 2, 2020 Meanwhile, event organizer Live Nation will close its offices today, while ViacomCBS channnels MTV, VH1 and Comedy Central will go dark, the company said. Def Jam Recordings, Interscope, Sony Music and others will also participate. Artists expressing support include Lady Gaga, the Rolling Stones, Quincy Jones and Billie Eilish. However, some have criticized the day, saying its unfocused and doesnt address the protests and Black Lives Matter movement directly. Don Giovanni Records owner Joe Steinhard told Rolling Stone that the movement is misguided and that labels should be supporting existing initiatives like Black Lives Matter. Others noted that the industry is sacrificing little for the blackout day, while Tony! Toni! Tones Raphael Saadiq said record labels should pay artists more. Its also unclear what level of action the labels are taking. While Columbia records said that today is not a day off but rather a way to reflect, Warner Music CEO Steve Cooper wrote that everyone can take a day out from their jobs. Some labels, including Capitol records, promised to make donations to black rights organizations, but havent provided specific calls to action for employees. On their website, however, Thomas and Agyemang did address the industrys inequality. [It is] an industry that has profited predominantly from black art, the site states. It is the obligation of these entities to protect and empower the black communities... in ways that are measurable and transparent. This is not just a 24 hour initiative. We are and will be in this fight for the long haul. A plan of action will be announced. The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) have expressed their delight on federal governments move to reopen worship centres. The NSCIA Secretary-General, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede and the CAN President, Dr. Samson Ayokunle, made this known in separate interviews with Daily Trust. The federal governments decision to reopen religious centres was announced by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman, Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, on Monday in Abuja at the 38th joint national briefing of the taskforce. Mustapha had announced the relaxation of restrictions on worship centres based on guidelines issued by the PTF and protocols agreed by state governments. Advertisement We are glad on the governments decision and we urged the leaders of the religious centres to abide by all the provisions and guidelines stated for the re-opening. We also want the government to ensure the decontamination of the religious centres, Oloyede was quoted by Daily Trust as saying. Read Also: Schools Remain Shut, Curfew Reduced; Read All The Latest Updates From PTF On his part, the CAN President Ayokunle, who spoke through his spokesman, Pastor Adebayo Oladeji, said the governments decision, in the interim, is a welcome development. It is our prayers that God will surely deliver Nigeria from the pandemic in Jesus Name. If Christians and Muslims return to their worship places to pray for victory over COVID-19, God will surely answer us. The closure of the worship places is not acceptable to God. We thank God for opening the eyes of our government to the reality, Oladeji said. BROOKFIELD Graduating seniors will still receive their diplomas on stage in their caps and gowns with their parents watching on. The graduation staples are included in Brookfield High Schools plan to honor the class of 2020 while staying safe during the coronavirus outbreak. In addition to the cap and gown and conferring diplomas, the ceremony will include a processional, as well as speeches and music, which will be available for students and their families to watch on the districts YouTube channel. Students receiving their diplomas will also be live-streamed there. We are still celebrating our senior class but it is non-traditional when compared to what they have all seen or experienced in years past, Principal Marc Balanda said. Adding the parade and a few other enhancements will allow us to make the best out of a difficult situation. The 200 graduates and their families will parade to the ceremony at the high school on June 20 from Whisconier Middle School beginning at 11 a.m. Each car will have one graduate, unless the graduates are siblings, and that students family. Families are encouraged to decorate their cars. Once they arrive at the high school, the graduates and a maximum of two parents can enter the building to have their names called to receive their diplomas in the auditorium. Groups will have to stay at least 15 feet from each other and must wear masks except at designated photo spots. A maximum of 50 people will be allowed in the building at one time, based on the guidelines set up by the state and town health department. There will be a professional photographer on hand and chances for families to safely take their own pictures and video. The district plans to send out a video of the ceremony with the pre-recorded speeches and music this summer. Balanda has been in education for 20 years and said its surreal to have graduation this way. Originally, the graduates were only going to be allowed inside with their families and friends watching on. I made that decision because I am overly cautious when it comes to this virus as it has directly affected our community, and I did not want to put anybody at risk, Balanda said. But with the second phase of the states reopening plan going into effect June 20, and with it a loosening of some restrictions, Balanda worked with the superintendent, as well as the towns police and health departments, to allow parents to accompany their graduates. I heard from our students and parents that they really wanted to be able to see their student walk across the stage live, he said. There is no easy solution or a perfect plan for graduation ceremonies this year. We make our decisions based on the best information we have at the time. Things change so rapidly between negative and positive news that we are all doing the best we can to put something together to celebrate our seniors. Whisconier Middle School has also offered some socially distant end-of-year celebrations to honor the eighth-graders going to the high school. There will be a drive-thru parade on June 17 for students to get their certificates and awards. Students will also get a video and slideshow this year to commemorate the ceremony. I know that this is not what any of us expected, but the safety of our students, their families, and our staff is and always will be the priority, Whisconiers Principal Deane Renda wrote to parents. I think this is something that the students will remember in a positive way and actually might like it that they dont have to sit for two hours all dressed up. kkoerting@newstimes.com Survale, a leading talent feedback and engagement platform announced today their partnership with Jobs for Lebanon, a corporate social responsibility project aimed at helping create and fill jobs for Lebanese citizens devastated by recent economic collapse AND the subsequent Covid-19 pandemic. Survales automated communication and engagement technology is being leveraged by Jobs for Lebanon and others to provide personal interactions at scale for employers, job seekers, media and more. Jobs for Lebanon started as a desire to inspire, energize and mobilize Lebanese diaspora to become part of the solution for restoring the lives and livelihoods of Lebanese families who have been hit hard by economic collapse and the subsequent Covid-19 pandemic. The project began as a set of viral call to action videos, combined with a set of technology tools (including the SmartRecruiters platform and Survale) for supporting the mission. It now exists as a targeted job creation and matching site that has created 300 jobs and engaged 3,000 candidates in a matter of weeks. The model, co-developed by SmartRecruiters Roy Baladi as well as Neal El-Jor, Yalda Aoukar, and a team of Lebanese thats already passed 40 philanthropists, relies on inspiring connected constituents to create job opportunities aimed at members of their extended community (Lebanon). Fortunately the Jobs for Lebanon playbook can now be easily applied to similar populations, from location-based communities to any other connected groups affected by economic unrest and motivated to use their collective power to help their members. So far Jobs for Lebanon has spawned similar projects which Survale supports, including Jobs for Australia and Recruiters Recruiting Recruiters. Other related projects are in the works. With so much need everywhere, it is an honor to be able to provide help to one of the hardest hit regions in the world, said Jason Moreau, Co-Founder and CEO of Survale. The fact that the Jobs for Lebanon model has been, and continues to be, leveraged into other impacted communities makes it easy for Survale to commit to helping. Core to Jobs for Lebanons mission is to inspire and connect people to create opportunities for their community around the world, said Baladi. SmartRecruiters ATS is exceptional, and Survale enables us to engage and communicate with job seekers and employers at scale, without losing that personal passion and commitment. For more information about Jobs for Lebanon, visit jobsforlebanon.com. For more information about Survale, visit survale.com. For more information about SmartRecruiters, visit smartrecruiters.com. About Survale Survales award winning Talent Feedback Platform provides employers with an Always On solution for automatically gathering, analyzing and acting upon experiential data from candidates, recruiters, hiring managers and employees at each stage of the hiring process and throughout the talent lifecycle, Survales data provides recruiting and business leadership with unprecedented insights into their recruitment operations, quality of hire, employee experience, engagement and HR program delivery, allowing them to optimize and align their people and processes around common metrics. For more information, visit: survale.com. About Jobs for Lebanon Jobs for Lebanons mission is to call on the global Lebanese diaspora to hire Lebanese in Lebanon. By doing it at scale, it will create an alternate economy large enough to get Lebanon out of its economic collapse. Its part of a larger global Jobs for the World movement. For more information, visit: jobsforlebanon.com In Philadelphia, Steven Hall, 52, stood outside Kings Fashion, looking in dismay at its smashed exterior and charred interior. He has worked at the clothing store for 19 years and was there at 7:30 a.m. to see how the shop had fared. He gestured at the small crowd gathered around him, some armed with spray bottles of cleaner. By reopening the economy to a larger extent and lifting daytime curfew of all districts from May 26, the Sri Lankan government is further exposing workers to the danger of the coronavirus pandemic raging globally. Even with the insignificant number of daily tests in the country, COVID-19 cases have increased in one week from 1,319 on May 26 to 1,643 yesterday. Officially, the death toll is 11. These understated official numbers are being used to claim the governments effectiveness in controlling the pandemic. According to independent assessments, however, the spread could be two to three times higher and that community infections have begun. Soldiers patrolling a train station in Colombo (Photo: WSWS) Despite the nationalist demagogy of the President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his government, the coronavirus knows no national boundaries. Globally, the pandemic is surging. Infections yesterday rose to six million and the death toll is inching towards 400,000. In neighbouring India, nearly 200,000 cases have been recorded and more than 5,000 deaths, making it the seventh most affected country internationally. World Health Organisation emergencies head Dr. Mike Ryan said on May 25 that COVID-19 cases were still increasing in Central and South America, South Asia and Africa. He warned that infection rates could rise again more quickly if measures to halt the first wave were lifted too soon. As governments are exposing workers to the coronavirus, opposition grows internationally against unsafe working conditions, loss of jobs, repression and hunger. In India, migrant workers are demonstrating against government repression. In Bangladesh, thousands of apparel workers have been protesting for six weeks against job losses. In Brazil, health workers struck across the country while Chile was engulfed with protests. In major capitalist centres, including in the US and Europe, workers are resisting reckless exposure to the coronavirus. Workers in Sri Lanka, including from the garment industry, public health and Samurdhi welfare program, have taken action to defend themselves over the past several weeks. The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) warns workers not to be misled by the governments propaganda that paints a false picture of the pandemic under control in order to get them to toil with the risk of infection and boost the profits of big business. Response of President Rajapakse From the outset, the response of Rajapakse to COVID-19 has been unscientific. The first infected Chinese tourist was discovered and recovered in January but he refused to implement a lockdown or effective testing to counter the pandemic. Instead, he declared: Other countries may have the best medical facilities, but we managed to cure infected people through our efforts. Rajapakse has exploited the pandemic as a pretext to intensify the militarisation of his administration. He appointed the Army Commander as the head of COVID-19 prevention task force and recently inducted Major General Sanjeewa Munasinghe as health ministry secretary. Rajapakse dissolved the parliament in early March and called the general election for April 25 but the Election Commission had to postpone it amid the emerging global pandemic. He is still pushing for an early election, hoping to get a two-thirds parliamentary majority for his Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna in order to scrap constitutional barriers to autocratic executive rule in preparation for class war. In reopening the economy, Rajapakse is echoing the call by US President Donald Trump and European governments for a back-to-work in the interests of the parasitic financial oligarchy and giant corporations. The weak capitalist class in Sri Lanka is on the brink of foreign debt default and desperate to revive economic activities. Workplace conditions To compel workers to return to work, the government has declared it has created safe workplaces. Director General of Health Service has issued guidelines to be observed, including the disinfection of institutions, sanitising facilities for employees and social distancing. Social-distancing not possible as workers board bus in Kottawa (Photo: WSWS) However, most workplaces are so congested that social distancing is impossible. The government has refused to conduct mass testing. Workers are not subject to PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests to identify asymptomatic cases. Some workers have been provided with masks but inadequate sanitary facilities. Moreover, workers have to use crowded buses and trains to travel to work. Thus, there is a great risk that workers will become infected unknowingly. In Sri Lanka, only about 10 percent of health workers have been provided personal protective equipment (PPE) and many have not been PCR tested. Most hospitals lack safe facilities for staff. At the same time, the burden of the pandemic is being imposed on the working class. Some businesses have closed entirely. Other workplaces have reopened but only one-third of workers have been recalled. Hard won rights are being wiped out particularly in the private sector with cuts to wages, allowances and pensions and increased working hours. In many cases, casual and contract workers have been terminated. Only about one-third of public sector workers have been recalled. There is a possibility that others will lose their jobs as the government has declared that it can manage with a smaller workforce. The livelihoods of the self-employed, which make up more than 50 percent of the workforce, are in danger. Many small and medium-level businesses have collapsed or are in severe crisis. Hirdaramanis Maharagama plant (Photo: WSWS) The government has failed miserably to provide the basic necessities for people who have lost their livelihoods during the lock down. Amidst growing anger, the government started paying a paltry monthly allowance of 5,000 rupees ($US27 or less than a dollar a day) to some but is terminating the payment in June. The governments callous attitude towards entire working class was shown when it halted the repatriation of thousands of migrants from the Middle East as COVID-19 spread there. Most are stranded with lapsed visas. More than one million Sri Lankan workers are among many millions of South Asian workers toiling in the Middle East. The regimes in Qatar, Kuwait and Dubai are forcing migrant workers to leave. Big business is only concerned about profit. The cash-strapped government initially pumped about 300 billion rupees through the banks as financial aid. The corporate elite is demanding more cheap credit to the tune of 10 percent of GDP and the scrapping old labor laws to provide for unfettered exploitation. Build workplace action committees In defending their rights from these brutal attacks, workers cannot rely on the trade unions which have become appendages of big business. Many sections of workers have come into struggle but they face the roadblock of the unions. The unions have participated in tripartite discussions with employers and the labour minister and agreed to wage cuts for workers not recalled, paving way for them to be laid off. As part of this deal, unions sabotaged the opposition of workers at the Esquel multinational garment group, paving way for the company to force workers to accept compulsory retirement. The unions involved were the Free Trade Zone and General Service Employees Union and the Ceylon Mercantile, Industrial and General Workers Union. This is happening at many companies. Five unions, including the above two, sent a complaint to the labour minister last week that 35 companies have cut wages, jobs and other rights. This futile appeal, however, is simply to stave off any struggle by workers. The SEP calls on workers to organise their own independent action committees to fight for safe workplace conditions and to defend jobs, wages and other rights. These committees must be comprised of trusted representatives, elected democratically by workers, to carry out the following tasks: Ensure safety conditions in the workplace and maximum protection from COVID-19 by engaging with reliable scientists and health professionals. Supervise the safety measures, including regular testing, social distancing, the proper usage of PPE and the deep cleaning of institutions. The cost of all safety measures must be borne by the corporations and the government. Make sure that if a worker tests positive, he or she should be quarantined and receive proper treatment without the loss of pay. Organise the fight to defend all jobs, wages, allowances and pension rights. Any worker who is terminated must be paid full compensation, not according to the management calculations. The committees will have to use the methods of class struggle, including strikes, to fight for these basic rights. In doing so, they will have to reach out to workers throughout the island and internationally, and involving social media to coordinate struggles, because the fight for safe working conditions and workers rights is global in scope. The SEP and the World Socialist Web Site is taking the initiative with the launching in coming weeks of four online newsletters, in Sinhala and Tamil, for workers in the health, apparel and education sectors, as well as for immigrant workers. Fight for a socialist program The SEP insists that the working class cannot defend its rights within the capitalist system which is based on maximising profit for a few at the expense of working people. The Rajapakse government is determined to defend the profit system and is preparing a dictatorship based on the military to impose the burden of the crisis on the backs of workers and the poor. Fearing the explosive development of the class struggle, every establishment political party, including the right-wing United National Party, its breakaway the Samagi Jana Balavegaya, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the various Tamil and Muslim parties, are backing the government. Workers must break from every faction of the ruling class and fight for a workers and peasants government to implement socialist policies. The major companies, estates and banks must be placed under the democratic control of the working class for the rational and scientific reorganisation of production for the benefit of the majority of society. Workers in Sri Lanka can only wage this fight by uniting with their class brothers and sisters internationally. Against the governments anti-Tamil and anti-Muslim provocations, the working class must unite across ethnic and religious lines and rally the rural poor. The Socialist Equality Party fights for the establishment of a Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and Eelam, as part of the struggle for socialism throughout South Asia and internationally. Above all what is necessary is a revolutionary party that will educate, organise and mobilise workers in the struggle for this perspective. We urge workers and youth to join and build the SEP which alone fights for a socialist and internationalist program. Anonymous is back that appears to be the verdict on social media platforms. Over the past few days, the follower base of Anonymous' purported account on Twitter (@YourAnonNews) has seen a surge of interest, as the collective seemingly resurfaced from dormancy. On May 29, Anonymous posted a video message on their Facebook page, issuing a warning to the Minneapolis Police Department for the deliberate killing of George Floyd in USA. Along with that, on its social media platforms, Anonymous sounded the alarm on many public figures, stating that it will disclose proof of severe wrongdoing against these people. The collective has since allegedly taken down the Minneapolis Police Department website, and released documents that appear to prove, among other things, the killing of Princess Diana by the English royal family, and allegations of rape of a 13-year-old by now US president, Donald Trump. Many new users of the internet, however, may not be well versed with the lore and internet culture stardom that surrounded Anonymous during its formative years, and the subsequent time around its biggest activities on the internet. On this note, we take a look at who Anonymous is, what their biggest achievements have been so far, how their activity dwindled in the recent years, and what their recent message can signify. Who is Anonymous? One of, if not the most famous collective of online hackers and hacktivists in the world, Anonymous is a decentralised organisation spread across the world. It is not a formal organisation or company, and is known to not follow a set structure of power or hierarchy. In fact, Anonymous members are believed to be spread across the world, and have typically come together under the banner to carry out operations that typically send across a political message. Anarchy has been a consistent theme of Anonymous operations, but its anti-establishment moves have typically received considerable support from the common people, and at times, large chunks of the global media. Prior to making a move, Anonymous has been known to post a video message as a warning against the organisation they target. Their motto, We are Anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive, we do not forget. Expect us, became a popular signage of socio-political resistance. Anonymous has typically taken anti-surveillance and anti-censorship stances, even though many have often questioned the real world impact of Anonymous activities. Anonymous also popularised the Guy Fawkes mask, a style adopted from V for Vendetta, as part of their identity in both the virtual and the real worlds. Biggest hacks and achievements Anonymous notable actions began with Project Chanology in 2008, where for a period of about three months, they targeted the Church of Scientology as a retaliation against its corporate entity-like behaviour. In the following years, Anonymous switched to companies targeting copyright preservation, interpreting them as those who restrict free speech. One of the companies they targeted at this time was Aiplex, an Indian software firm that used to host DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks against Torrent sites to prevent piracy of movies. These actions soon grew to a wider scale, to a point where it was labelled Operation Payback by Anonymous. The collectives targets included various movie and art studios and production houses of America, as well as copyright protection groups. The operation grew through 2009 and 2010, with Anonymous taking down various entities such as the United States Copyright Office, Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft and many others across the world. The objective behind these operations were to open up the internet and restrict stifling of content consumption via copyrights, which in Anonymous views were largely arbitrary. Anonymous also contributed to the cause of Julian Assange, where it became vocal supporters of WikiLeaks. In response to those who attempted to take WikiLeaks down, Anonymous launched cyber operations against many corporate entities, of which PayPal was the biggest affected. Anonymous DDoS attacks against PayPal are said to have cost the company over $5 million. Anonymous direct attack on those who did not support WikiLeaks caused plenty of noise, revealing private emails and other documents conspiring against Assange. Anonymous also took on Sony for denying hackers to find flaws in its PlayStation 3 console, compromising over 100 million Sony accounts and taking down PlayStation Network for over a month. The collective has been an active voice against homophobia, racism and child pornography, taking down and exposing various figures in these acts. It has also notably acted against the Ku Klux Klan, revealing details of various KKK members. On an isolated basis, Anonymous has been a sharp actor against numerous national governments, from time to time. Arrests and downtime Over the past few years, isolated activities led to arrests of various Anonymous members around the world. These included individuals such as Jake Topiary Davis, Hector Sabu Monsegur, Barrett Brown and others. Many of Anonymous arrests have been linked to their decentralised organisational structure and a lack of unified thought process. Anonymous members have often been known for having diverse, and sometimes sharply different socio-political views, which have reportedly been the reason behind internal indecisions. Because of the way they operate, Anonymous has been difficult to track down by journalists and law enforcement agencies. In recent times, a number of these reasons coming together is what is believed to have caused a decline in the fear and enigma typically associated with Anonymous. Many also started questioning the efficacy of a collective like Anonymous, and started raising questions in terms of how much power their hacks truly wielded now. Regeneration? With protests over the police killing of George Floyd leading to the breakout of riots, Anonymous comeback video suggests that certain key members of the group may still be active. The hacking and divulging style shown by Anonymous have so far been uniform with their previous acts, which have led many to believe that serious repercussions will come from the documents that Anonymous is exposing online. Now, only time will tell if Anonymous second coming has the impact that many around the world are hoping it does. A genetically unique strain of novel coronavirus 2019 - introduced in India in February - has silently spread to the majority of the states to emerge as the second most dominant types of the pandemic virus sweeping the country. The discovery by CSIR scientists is set to expand the understanding of scores of researchers who are trying to figure out a way to fight the virus with drugs and vaccines. For latest updates and live news on coronavirus, click here Known as Clade A3i, this group of virus now consists of nearly 41% of the pathogens circulating in India. The dominant strain, however, is Clade A2a that comprises more than 50% of the strains. "While Clade A2a is seen around the world, Clade A3i is found mostly in India. Singapore is the only other country where 8% presence of such a clade has been," said a member of the CSIR research team. In a research paper, the scientists demonstrated that a single introduction in February was followed by a country-wide spread mostly affecting the South Indian states. The first detection of this group took place in March at a hospital in Hyderabad. From the analysis of more than 200 genetic sequences, they reported that Clade A3i was the predominant class of the COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu, Telengana, Maharashtra and Delhi. It is the second most dominant group in Bihar, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. This group is characterised by four specific genetic signatures unique to the strain. "Put together, the cluster of genomes forms a distinct cluster, predominantly found among Indian COVID-19 genomes with limited representation outside the region," the scientists reported in the paper, which is not yet peer-reviewed but released in the academic circle. The two CSIR laboratories that conducted the study are Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad and Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi. The causative virus behind the epidemic, SARS-CoV-2, is a member of the genus betacoronavirus. It has differentiated into at least 10 clades globally and is continuously evolving. "For insurance, the Clade A3i mutates less than the Clade A2a," said the CSIR scientist. "The discovery of the new clade is important as it shows a group, which can now be connected to disease severity (if any) and the spread route (in geographical and temporal context). This will have large implications," CCMB director Rakesh Mishra told DH. The discovery comes a month after two Indian geneticists at the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, Kalyani showed to the world that Clade A2a was the dominating type of the virus almost all over the globe. "The discovery of A3i is very interesting. Investigation of the geographical spread of the 62 coronavirus isolates in India that belong to A3i and the travel histories of the hosts, especially to Iran where A3 is prevalent, will be instructive," commented Partha Majumder, a veteran population geneticist and one of the NIBG scientists who was the lead scientist for the A2a research. The new discovery from Team CSIR has implications in genetic epidemiology, surveillance, contact tracing and the development of long term strategies for mitigation of this disease, the scientists reported. Matt Rourke, STF / Associated Press WASHINGTON The attorney representing George Floyds family said Tuesday that former Vice President Joe Biden is expected to attend Floyds funeral in Houston next week. We understand Vice President Biden will be in attendance, attorney Ben Crump said in an interview on PBS NewsHour. Aid workers warn of a humanitarian disaster if the outbreak is not checked in the worlds largest cluster of camps. An elderly Rohingya refugee has become the first person to die from the novel coronavirus in the camps in southern Bangladesh, officials said. The man, aged 71, died on May 31 while undergoing treatment at the camps isolation centre, said Bimal Chakma, a senior official of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission, on Tuesday. Today we got the confirmation that he tested positive for COVID-19, he said, referring to the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are members of a mostly Muslim minority who fled a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar in 2017. More than a million of them live in camps in Coxs Bazar, a coastal district in southeast Bangladesh. The death was in the Kutupalong shelter the biggest refugee camp in the world which alone is home to roughly 600,000 people. Rohingya refugees gather at a market as first cases of coronavirus emerged in the area, May 15 [Suzauddin Rubel/AFP] Mohammad Shafi, a Rohingya school teacher and a neighbour in the camp, said the man had long suffered from high blood pressure and a kidney ailment. Nobody realised that he was suffering from coronavirus. The news came as a shock to us, Shafi told the AFP news agency. In recent weeks, a lot of people in the camps are suffering from fever, headache and body pain. But most think they got sick because of the change of weather. They dont bother to get tested for coronavirus. At least 29 Rohingya refugees have tested positive for the virus so far since the first case was detected on May 14 in the camps. Officials said 339 tests have been conducted among the refugees so far. Last week, about 15,000 refugees were placed in quarantine as the number of cases increased. Bangladesh and the United Nations have prepared seven isolation centres with the capacity to treat more than 700 patients inside the camps. Bangladesh has seen a sharp rise in virus cases in recent weeks, with more than 60,000 infections and approximately 700 deaths nationwide. Ticking bomb Aid workers have warned of a potential humanitarian disaster if there is a significant outbreak in the refugee camps. We are all working round the clock to ensure that testing is available to refugees, said Louise Donovan, spokesperson for the UN refugee agency in Coxs Bazar. 200423080515266 Those who are identified as COVID-19-positive have adequate facilities in place to care for them, and to ensure contact tracing and isolation of those who may have been exposed. As many as 60,000 to 90,000 people are jammed into each square kilometre, with families of up to a dozen sharing small shelters. It is a ticking time bomb, said Alejandro Agustin Cuyar, Relief Internationals Coxs Bazar programme director. Cuyar said the refugee camps were overcrowded, with shared water sources and communal toilets and washing facilities. Once the virus takes hold, it will be incredibly challenging to flatten the curve, so we are gravely concerned the numbers needing treatment will soon be overwhelming. In early April, authorities imposed a coronavirus lockdown on the district home to 3.4 million people, including the refugees after a number of infections. Aid workers say many of the refugees know very little about the virus. They blame this partly on local authorities cutting off access to the internet in September, ostensibly to combat drug traffickers and other criminals. In the absence of mobile internet, lots of rumours are spreading, and community members are not receiving updated information regarding COVID-19, as if it is something no one wants to touch, rights activist Rezaur Rahman Lenin, who has worked in the camps, told AFP. Mohammad Farid, a Rohingya community leader in Kutupalong, told AFP, We are very tense. A lot of people live here, and barely anybody maintains any regulation to avoid the disease. This death only brings an ominous sign of what can happen to the larger mass in future. Bomb threats to the Russian embassy in Brazil have proved to be hoax, with no explosive devices found after a check, spokesman for the Russian embassy in that country Ivan Konovalov said. "The embassy received an anonymous e-mail in the morning warning about a bomb planted in the embassy building. All services were informed," he noted. "The building was checked by the military police, specialists with dogs and the embassys security service," Konovalov said, adding that the embassy staff was evacuated from the building during the check. No explosive devices were found, TASS reported. Bengaluru, June 2 : Karnataka Health Minister B. Sriramulu's visit to Chitradurga district has turned out to be controversial as the opposition Congress cited purported videos of him moving without a mask and physical distancing amid frenzied supporters. "Minister of Health Sriramulu has violated the Central government's lockdown guidelines," a state Congress spokesperson said in a tweet. He said multitudes of people moved around without a mask and physical distancing and questioned what former MP V.S. Ugrappa was doing when these violations were occurring. In the viral videos which emerged on Tuesday, several Sriramulu supporters showered petals on him without wearing a mask and not maintaining physical distance. Amid chants welcoming and praising the minister, a giant garland made of apples and other fruits was lowered around his head. Donning a white robe and an orange scarf, the minister waved at his supporters, and acknowledged their cheers. Incidentally, on Tuesday morning, Sriramulu tweeted: "It is our duty and responsibility to wear masks in public places." In his visit to the district, the minister also visited Chitradurga Periyeri Datta Peetha Math. San Antonio Police Department San Antonio police are asking for assistance in identifying a man allegedly caught exposing himself on a home security camera. A woman called police after finding footage of the lewd conduct. Police said the man, described as standing 5-foot-8 and 150 pounds, went to the victim's house twice around 2:30 a.m. on May 24. 'New Deal' program requires deregulation, innovation The Moon Jae-in administration's economic stimulus program has taken concrete shape to strengthen digitization, eco-friendly growth and the social safety net. To that end, the government has decided to invest 76 trillion won ($61.9 billion) by 2025. The program is a step in the right direction. It is aimed at reinvigorating the economy, creating jobs and protecting the socially weak in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and its devastating economic impact. That is why the package has been dubbed the Korean version of the New Deal. At the core of the program is the pledged creation of 550,000 jobs over the next five years. On top of that, the liberal administration seeks to boost domestic consumption in a desperate bid to maintain growth momentum. It also plans to foster promising new industries, including biotech, system semiconductors and future cars. It is noteworthy that the New Deal project is composed of a "Digital New Deal" and a "Green New Deal." This reflects the fact that massive physical infrastructure projects will no longer be a policy option to revive the economy in the 21st century. So the government has made the right decision to expand digital infrastructure by using artificial intelligence (AI), big data, 5G mobile networks and cloud computing services. By doing so, the country can actively embrace the Fourth Industrial Revolution and boost its competiveness. The Green New Deal is pivotal to beefing up the eco-friendly infrastructure and ensuring low-carbon economic growth in order to mitigate global warming and cope with climate change. It requires the country to promote the renewable energy industry and raise energy self-sufficiency. Korea can emerge as a global leader in developing green technology. But at stake is how to implement the program. Everyone knows that it is easier said than done. So the government should try not to be long on words and short on action. That is why the Moon administration should work out detailed action plans to translate its New Deal initiative into action without delay and in good faith. First of all, it is necessary to inject massive fiscal means into the program swiftly. The government plans to promulgate its third supplementary budget bill this year worth at least 30 trillion won. It and the ruling party need to make efforts to garner support from opposition parties to pass the bill through the National Assembly. The Moon administration has already come up with a set of stimulus packages worth 250 trillion won, which accounts for 13 percent of the nation's GDP, to minimize the crippling economic fallout from COVID-19. In this context, it is important to work out measures not to damage the country's fiscal soundness. Snowballing state debt and an excessive budget deficit could undermine sustainable economic growth in the medium to long term. For this, policymakers must make budgetary readjustments to reduce fiscal burdens and prevent waste of taxpayers' money. More than anything else, the government should push for deregulation to allow new businesses such as telemedicine and autonomous vehicles to commence operation as soon as possible. What is also imperative is to encourage innovation. Both incoming freshmen and returning students at Boston University will be able to choose either in-person classes or online learning this fall as the school navigates through reopening amid the coronavirus pandemic. The strategy announced on Monday by BU Today is called Learn from Anywhere. Its designed to accommodate students from all over the world that are enrolled at the university. With that in mind, Learn from Anywhere allows students to participate in classes while abiding by the safety requirements of their local health authorities that may suggests students remain at home. The LfA format lets students decide how to take classes, based on their needs and their comfort level, Boston University president Robert A. Brown told BU Today. BU students now have the option to either be in the classroom in person or to participate remotely from their dorm room or off-campus home, and they can exercise that remote option at any time during the semester. LfA also enables the University to provide the necessary social distancing in classrooms, studios, and laboratory spaces. Learning from Anywhere was recommended by the Universitys Undergraduate Programs Working Group, chaired by the interim associate provost for undergraduate affairs Sue Kennedy, BU Today said. It was also approved by the schools committee tasked with overseeing the reopening of BUs campuses. We chose LfA because it protects the health and safety of everyone, students and faculty, and provides the kind of flexibility that students need in these difficult times, Kennedy said in the report. It enables the University to meet the needs of all students, and to deliver the same high-quality teaching BU students are accustomed to. According to BU Today, large fall classes could be divided into small groups of students. Under one scenario, the report said, a density limit of only 18 students could be implemented, meaning a class of 50, would be divided into three smaller groups, called platoons, and each student would attend every third class in person, and attend the other classes remotely. Last month, Boston University revealed a plan that would allow students to return to campus in the fall that included testings every student, professor and staff member on campus. For testing, individuals on campus could be asked to spit into a cup or possibly swab inside their nostrils, the university said. Gloria Waters, vice president and associate provost for research, is leading the charge in ironing out specific details to best streamline a volume of tests that will exceed 40,000. Students with roommates in high-density dorms might be tested more regularly, the university said. Newly purchased specialized robots would be used to help speed up the test result process, and results of the tests would be delivered to people electronically. The university has set up a COVID-19 hotline, 617-358-4990, for anyone to call from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday. Students can also message a nurse 24/7 through their Patient Connect portal. Related Content: By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The India China faceoff in Ladakh will be discussed at senior level this week, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday acknowledging the presence of PLA soldiers in substantial number at the Line of Actual Control. Singh also added that India-Nepal Lipulekh road issue will be resolved with talks. In an interview to a Television News Channel, Rajanth Singh said that faceoff is an ongoing issue which has been taking place over the years. Talking on the present situation arising after the recent incident in Ladakh, he said, The difference arose regarding the perception of LAC and the Chinese have come in good number but India has also done whatever is required to be done". The talks are continuing at the military level and I understand a senior military officers level talk possibly will take place on 6 June, Army Chief informed me today, said Singh. As reported first by New Indian Express, India and China on Tuesday held third Highest Level Military Commander talk in Ladakh. He evinced confidence about resolution and said that things have been getting resolved in the past as well, Even earlier also whenever there have been differences like the one happened in Doklam, then with talks at the military level and diplomatic level it was resolved. On the question of PLA entering the Indian territory, Defence Minister said, India has a clear policy, it never wants to hurt the pride of other nations and will never accept the same with itself. and added, India has the capability to give an appropriate answer if the need be. Both sides have repeated that there are mechanisms to resolve matters and both sides are working on the basis of those mechanisms with an aim resolve the standoff peacefully through dialogue. Singh also spoke on the matter of road construction at Lipulekh on which Nepal raised objections and claimed the area to be falling within its territory. Speaking on Nepal's border issue with India, Rajnath Singh said, I look at Nepal as our brother and I will not comment. We can resolve the issues through talks. We will sit and resolve the differences. No person can think negatively of Indo-Nepal relations." (HealthDay)Michigan prepared to lift its stay-at-home order on Tuesdayone of the last states to do so. But in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned that protests rampant in numerous American cities could trigger a second wave of COVID-19 infections. "Protest, just be smart about it," Cuomo said. New York plans to reopen all of the state, including New York City, on June 8. State public health officials urged protesters to wear face coverings, use hand sanitizer, maintain social distancing and get tested for the coronavirus, The New York Times reported. At the same time, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer lifted a stay-at-home order for the state's 10 million residents, saying that groups of 100 people or less would be allowed to gather outdoors, the Times reported. Restaurants are also allowed to reopen, though tables must be at least six feet apart. And Louisiana's governor said the state would begin easing its social distancing restrictions on Friday, allowing venues including churches, malls, bars and theaters to increase capacity to 50 percent. But the mayor of New Orleans quickly tweeted that New Orleans would not be following the state's lead. But as the number of U.S. coronavirus cases passed 1.8 million on Tuesday, a new poll shows that a majority of Americans still think it's more important to control the virus' spread than to restart the economy. While nearly 6 in 10 Americans say the pandemic has taken a heavy economic toll on their communities, a majority of a divided country still believes that containing COVID-19 infections is paramount, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows. Overall, 57 percent of all Americans and 81 percent of Democrats say trying to control the spread of the coronavirus is most important right now. But only 27 percent of Republicans agree, while 66 percent of them say restarting the economy is more critical. Nearly 6 in 10 independents say their priority is trying to control the virus's spread, the survey found. And nearly 7 in 10 Americans say they are worried about the possibility of a second wave of coronavirus infections in the fall, the poll showed. As the U.S. coronavirus death toll passed 105,000 on Tuesday, jobless numbers released last week show the number of unemployed has now passed 40 million. Concerns about hydroxychloroquine continue Meanwhile, safety concerns over a malaria drug that President Donald Trump has touted as a coronavirus treatment prompted the World Health Organization to remove the medication from a global trial of potential COVID-19 therapies last week. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the international health agency's director-general, said that the WHO decided to take a "pause" in testing hydroxychloroquine after a study published recently in The Lancet medical journal found people who took the drug were more likely to die, the Times reported. Several other studies have found the medication has no benefit and could possibly harm COVID-19 patients. Regardless, Trump has finished taking a two-week course of the malaria drug to guard against COVID-19 infection after two White House staffers tested positive for the coronavirus. And on Sunday, the White House announced it has sent 2 million doses of hydroxychloroquine to Brazil to battle the spread of coronavirus in that country. Not only that, the two countries are embarking on a joint research effort to study whether the drug is safe and effective for the prevention and early treatment of COVID-19, the Trump administration said. Disappointing drug trials Hopes for another drug being tested against coronavirus infection have dimmed, after a major, new study found the drug on its own won't be enough to significantly curb cases and deaths. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that, "given high mortality [of patients] despite the use of remdesivir, it is clear that treatment with an antiviral drug alone is not likely to be sufficient." The study does suggest that remdesivir works better when given earlier rather than later in the disease course. "Our findings highlight the need to identify COVID-19 cases and start antiviral treatment before the pulmonary disease progresses to require mechanical ventilation," the researchers said. Early evidence had suggested that remdesivir might help fight coronavirus illness, so the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave it "emergency use authorization." Already, combinations of remdesivir and other drugs are being tried, to see if dual-drug treatments might boost outcomes even more. For example, one federally funded clinical trial is combining remdesivir with a potent anti-inflammatory drug called baricitinib, while a trial from biotech firm CytoDyn is pairing it with an antiviral called leronlimab. Vaccine efforts continue Meanwhile, the search for an effective vaccine goes on. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said in late May that it would provide up to $1.2 billion to the drug company AstraZeneca to develop a potential coronavirus vaccine from Oxford University, in England. The fourth, and largest, vaccine research agreement funds a clinical trial of the potential vaccine in the United States this summer with about 30,000 volunteers, the Times reported. The goal? To make at least 300 million doses that could be available as early as October, the HHS said in a statement. However, many experts have said that the earliest an effective, mass-produced vaccine would be available won't be until sometime next year, and billions of doses would be needed worldwide. Pharmaceutical giant Merck has also jumped into the fight against the coronavirus, announcing two separate efforts to develop a vaccine and a partnership to develop a promising antiviral drug that can be taken as a pill, the Times reported. The United States has already agreed to provide up to $483 million to the biotech company Moderna and $500 million to Johnson & Johnson for their vaccine efforts. It is also providing $30 million to a virus vaccine effort led by the French company Sanofi, the Times reported. According to a Times tally, the top five states in coronavirus cases as of Tuesday are: New York with more than 376,500; New Jersey with nearly 161,000; Illinois with over 121,000; California with more than 115,600, and Massachusetts with over 100,800. Nations grapple with pandemic In Asia, where the coronavirus first struck, several countries are finally returning to a new normal. In the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus first emerged, officials said Tuesday that they had finished a massive effort to test almost all of its 11 million residents, the Times reported. Nearly 9.9 million people were tested during the drive, which began in mid-May and has not been matched in scale or speed elsewhere. (Children and those who had recently been tested were not tested in the drive.) The result? Roughly 300 asymptomatic infections were detected. Meanwhile, South Korea has seen a spike in new cases, the AP reported. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 67 of the 79 new cases reported were from the Seoul metropolitan area, where about half of South Korea's 51 million people live. The government has shut public facilities such as parks, museums and state-run theaters in the metropolitan area for the next two weeks, to stem any further spread of the virus. Elsewhere, the situation remains challenging. On Tuesday, the United Kingdom's coronavirus death count passed 39,000, the second highest in the world, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally. Britain has now surpassed Italy, Spain and France for COVID-19 deaths in Europe. With Prime Minister Boris Johnson easing lockdown measures, schools across England reopened Monday amid fierce debate over whether the move is premature, the Post reported. Brazil is fast becoming the next hotspot in the coronavirus pandemic. By Tuesday, the South American country had reported nearly 30,000 deaths and over 526,000 confirmed infections, according to the Hopkins tally. Only the United States has more cases. Last week, Trump issued a ban on all foreign travelers from Brazil because of the burgeoning number of COVID-19 cases in that country, CNN reported. Cases are also spiking wildly in Russia: As of Tuesday, that country reported the world's third-highest number of COVID-19 cases, at over 423,000, the Hopkins tally showed. Worldwide, the number of reported infections passed 6.1 million on Tuesday, with nearly 376,000 deaths, according to the Hopkins tally. Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak Copyright 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved. English French OTTAWA, June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Native Womens Association of Canada (NWAC), the national voice of First Nations, Metis, and Inuit women, will hold a news teleconference/webcast on June 3, 2020 to mark the first anniversary of the release of the report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous women, Girls and Gender Diverse People. The federal government has acknowledged that it has no timeline for the release of a National Action Plan to stem the violence, and has blamed the current pandemic for its failure to respond to the Inquiry report. But the Indigenous women of Canada, whose lives continue to be at risk, and who continue fear for the safety of their loved ones, are pressing ahead. On June 3, at 11 a.m. NWAC President Lorraine Whitman will: Release NWACs first report card assessing the governments response to the Inquiry report; Announce its recommendations to the government for moving forward on a plan Spell out the many steps taken over the past year by Indigenous women to address and implement the Calls for Justice; Release a national survey to indicate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the levels of violence being perpetrated against Indigenous women; and Release a discussion paper demonstrating Canadas international legal obligations to make reparations for the human-rights violations suffered by Indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people. On hand to offer the perspective of family members of the women and girls who have been murdered or gone missing will be Meggie Cywink whose sister, Sonya, was killed in 1994. News release and all supporting documents will be available on the NWAC website https://www.nwac.ca/ At 10 a.m. EDT on June 3, UNDER STRICT EMBARGO until 11 a.m. EDT on June 3. WebEx address for telecast will also be available at that time. English Reporters: Toll-free dial-in number 1-866-696-5910 Local dial-in number: 416-641-6150 Participant passcode: 8346745# French reporters: Toll-free dial-in number (Canada/US): 1-877-395-0279 Local dial-in number: 514-392-1587 Participant passcode: 3680797# For more information please contact Gloria Galloway: 613-447-6648 or gloria@gloriagalloway.com Villagers detained by authorities during a deadly police raid five months ago on the Dong Tam commune outside the Vietnamese capital Hanoi are being denied visits by family members, who are also restricted in what they can send their loved ones to support them in custody, sources say. Dong Tam village elder Le Dinh Kinh, 84, was shot and killed by police during the Jan. 9 assault that involved about 3,000 security officers and was the latest flare-up of a long-running dispute over a military airport construction site about 25 miles south of Hanoi. So far, 29 residents have been arrested in relation to the Dong Tam incident, which also claimed the lives of three police officers, and are being prosecuted on charges ranging from murder to the illegal storage and use of weapons and opposing officers on duty. Relatives of those held in custody have not yet been able to visit their loved ones in detention, though, and can provide them only limited support behind bars, one family member told RFAs Vietnamese Service. If I send gifts to my husband, I cannot send food, said Nguyen Thi Duyen, wife of detained Dong Tam villager Le Dinh Uy. I am allowed to send him only two suits of clothes, and can send him just one and a half million dong [U.S. $60] each month. Family members of the others held in jail are bound by the same restrictions, said Hoang Thi Hoa, wife of Le Dinh Chuc, son of slain Dong Tam village elder Le Dinh Kinh. Le Dinh Chuc, 40, had at first been reported killed along with his father when police attacked their home in the early morning hours of Jan. 9, though state media later confirmed that only the older man had died. Le had been left partly paralyzed in the assault, but his condition has now improved, Hoang told RFA on June 2. I met with the Hanoi police, and they said my husbands health is better now, and he can walk again, she said. I was going to send him some medicine and ask the police to let him go to the hospital for further treatment, but now they tell me that there are no signs of paralysis on the one side of his body, she said. Reached for comment, Hanoi police officer Do Dinh Thanhthe officer who had invited Hoang to come to the station to talkdeclined to speak, saying he was busy and would call back later. He failed to call again, though, and later attempts to reach him by phone rang unanswered. Health improving 'step by step' Defense lawyer Le Van Hoa meanwhile said that Le Dinh Chucs health has slowly improved, with progress coming step by step. Following the [Jan. 9] clash, I met with Le Dinh Chuc while he was being questioned by police, and I saw that he had an injury on the top of his head. At that time, he found it very difficult to walk, and he moved very slowly, he said. I [recently] asked him about his condition, and he said that he had been paralyzed on one side of his body, but since then his health has slowly been improving step by step. Official reports of the Jan. 9 police raid on Dong Tam said that villagers had assaulted police with grenades and petrol bombs, but a report drawn from witness accounts and released seven days later by journalists and activists said that police had attacked first during the deadly clash. Police blocked off pathways and alleys during the attack and beat villagers indiscriminately, including women and old people, the report said, calling the assault possibly the bloodiest land dispute in Vietnam in the last ten years. While all land in Vietnam is ultimately held by the state, land confiscations have become a flashpoint as residents accuse the government of pushing small landholders aside in favor of lucrative real estate projects, and of paying too little in compensation. Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Huy Le. Written in English by Richard Finney. Dear patient readers, I have been having a terrible time with elder care and on other fronts, so you probably wont see much from me in the way of original posts. I am very beaten down. Carnegie Mellon tool automatically turns math into pictures Eureka Alert (David L) The Future Of Wind Energy OilPrice (Kevin W) #COVID-19 the ANYTHING face shield can be made using whatevers around you, even a haribo packet DesignBoom (resilc). I love this, for cleverness and because it will drive face recognition systems nuts. Deresponsibilization and the Politics of Escape Notes from Disgraceland. Important. Imperial Collapse Watch George Floyd Jerusalem Demonstrations against Police Brutality after Autistic Palestinian Youth Shot to Death Juan Cole. Given that many US police forces have gotten training from Israel, the parallel in outcomes should come as no surprise. See: China? China asks state firms to halt purchases of U.S. soybeans, pork, say sources Reuters State building by stealth? Wolfgang Streeck. Important. For instance: a constitutional amendment turning the GCC to a court of second-to-last instance behind the ECJ might go through, especially if the impression can somehow be cre-ated that it will help against Corona and the economic disaster that might follow it. The neces-sary two-thirds majority in the parliament might be there, with the SPD and the Greens filling in for those CDU/CSU deputies refusing to vote in favor.Would this not be a nice present for Merkel to offer the European Council as Germany takes over the EU presidency on July 1? Is Bolivias interim president using the pandemic to outstay her welcome? Guardian Trump Transition 2020 Black Americans Have a Message for Democrats: Not Being Trump Is Not Enough New York Times (UserFriendly) Why do currency-issuing governments issue debt Bill Mitchell (UserFriendly) Watch a Tesla Model 3 drive into a flipped truck on a Taiwan highway AutoBlog (David L) Class Warfare Antidote du jour. mgl: From our friends yard May 31 a.m., Anchorage, AK. Moose & calf after a hard days labor Im sure. They apparently didnt stir much when our friends left their home. See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here. Tech giants Facebook, Inc. and Snap, Inc., developers of Facebook and Snapchat respectively, turned out to be the latest American companies that condemn racism in the United States as violent demonstrations ignited across major cities over George Floyd's death. Floyed was a weaponless black man who died while under the custody of authorities last week, in Minneapolis. These two leading tech firms followed other popular names such as Alphabet's Google, Intel Corp., Netflix, International Business Machines Corp. or IBM, and Nike, Inc. in taking public standpoint against the death of Floyd, calling out unjustness or discrimination African-Americans are experiencing. Nevertheless, tech businesses like Google and Facebook, for years, have fought to suppress apprehensions about unfair treatment against African-Americans in the workplaces they respectively work in. Also, black engineers in the companies mentioned stay underrepresented in their places of work in relation to the American populace. Pressed to Take Stronger Action Challenges the African-Americans are not expected to slow down or relax as the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing businesses to slow hiring and enforce remote work for their employees in the months ahead. Employees of Facebook, on Monday, pressed Mark Zuckerberg, the Chief Executive, to take stronger action against a provocative post by US President Donald Trump last week, about the protests in Minneapolis. However, the chief executive, through his post on Friday, already said that Facebook would not be taking any action on the President's post. Specifically, he said he is committing $10 million to organizations that work on racial justice. Seemingly, the death of Floyd has revived violence across the country on the treatment of African-Americans by police, dividing America both racially and politically. Meanwhile, Evan Spiegel, the Chief Executive Officer of Snap, in an email while he criticized racism and called for raised taxes, told employees to develop a society that is beneficial to everyone. Twitter, for its part, which according to reports, was, last week, "at the center of a fight with Trump over its move on his tweets" which included a warning over one about demonstrations, #BlackLivesMatter for a hashtag to its account information on the site. Similarly, homepages of US YouTube and Google unveiled bore a notice stating they stood to support racism. Famous footwear manufacturer, Nike, had its iconic slogan flipped, which appeared to raise awareness about racial discrimination. Rivals Unite in Fight for Racism Even competing companies have joined forces to fight racism. Nike, in a video that earned more than six million views on Twitter, said, "For Once, Don't Do It." Its message urged the public not to pretend that "there is not a problem in America." The shoe company also conveyed a message in the video, telling the people not to turn their backs on racial discrimination. Celebrities and even competitors, Adidas AG shared the same video on their respective social media accounts. Nike released its advertisement on social media as part of its wide promotion in relation to equality. The company used the hashtag #UntilWeAllWin. Check these out! Integrating behavioral health services into physician medical practices faces cultural and financial barriers, but providing technical support and improved payment models may enhance the long-term sustainability of the approach, according to a new RAND Corporation study conducted in collaboration with the American Medical Association. Examining a diverse group of 30 physician practices that have pursued behavioral health integration, researchers found that there were many reasons that practices incorporated mental health services, including wanting to improve quality by expanding access to behavioral health services. But even within the study's sample of practices that had successfully adopted behavioral health integration, financial sustainability was a pervasive concern, regardless of the payment models used by the practices. The findings are published online by the Annals of Internal Medicine. "We found that behavioral health integration is possible in a wide variety of medical practices, not just in primary care," said Dr. Peggy G. Chen, co-author of the study and a physician researcher at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. "The key factor in the success of behavioral health integration was adaptation to each practice's needs and resources." "The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and magnified the flaws in our mental health system and the true burden of mental illness in our country," said Dr. Patrice A. Harris, president of the American Medical Association. "Behavioral health care integration can help save lives and is a proven model that has many advantages over a more divided one. The AMA is committed to establishing a viable pathway for combining physical and behavioral health care to make a real impact in our nation's growing mental health crisis." One in 5 adults in the U.S. has a clinically significant mental health or substance use disorder, yet many people do not receive treatment for their problems because of a shortage of mental health providers and lack of access to mental health services. One potential solution to the low levels of mental health treatment is integrating behavioral health into medical care. Most approaches to behavioral health integration fall into two general archetypes: a co-located model where onsite behavioral health clinicians provide enhanced access within physician practices or an offsite model where behavioral health clinicians (usually psychiatrists) supervise onsite care managers who help nonbehavioral health clinicians meet their patients' behavioral health needs. To explore the experiences of successful behavioral health integration, researchers interviewed leaders and clinicians from 30 physician practices in different parts of the country and from different medical specialties that have implemented behavioral health integration. They also consulted with experts in clinical care, research and health policy related to behavioral health integration and vendors that provide behavioral telehealth services or technical integration assistance to physician practices. Physician practice leaders reported positive effects of behavioral health integration on their practices, such as creating an increased sense of providing high-quality patient care and meeting more of their patients' needs. Barriers to behavioral health integration, they said, included cultural differences with mental health providers and impediments to the flow of information between medical and behavioral health providers. Researchers say that efforts to improve interprofessional training and collaboration may help address cultural barriers and facilitate patient care that addresses both medical and behavioral health needs. In addition, enhancements to electronic health records and clarification of privacy regulations may improve communication between behavioral and nonbehavioral health clinicians. Although prior research has demonstrated a favorable return on investment for behavioral health integration, medical practices in the new study reported difficulty in estimating the specific effects of behavioral health integration on total medical expenses. "Despite research evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of behavioral health integration, cultural, informational and financial challenges remain," Chen said. "Tailored, context-specific technical support to guide practices' efforts and payment models that improve the business case for those efforts may enhance the long-term sustainability of behavioral health integration." ### Support for the study was provided by the American Medical Association and The Commonwealth Fund. Other authors of the study are Ange` le Mala? tre-Lansac, Dr. Charles Engel and Lea Xenakis, all of RAND, Lindsey Carlasare, Dr. Kathleen Blake, Carol Vargo and Christopher Botts, all of the American Medical Association, and Dr. Mark W. Friedberg of the Harvard Medical School. RAND Health Care promotes healthier societies by improving health care systems in the United States and other countries. Lome, Togo (PANA) - Togo recorded only one case of coronavirus (COVID-19) contamination and four recoveries Monday, sources at the ministry of Health told PANA here AP Protests across the US have rolled into their seventh day - with those seeking to highlight the horrors of police brutality and institutional racism finding themselves increasingly threatened and attacked by police forces armed with military grade equipment and buoyed by calls from the White House to dominate the streets around them. Protests have sparked up across the country following the Memorial Day death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died after being pinned to the ground by an officer. Mr Floyd had been accused of buying a packet of cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill by a shop worker. (AFP via Getty) The death is the latest in a string of killings of unarmed black men, women and children at the hands of US law enforcement deemed a symptom of systemic racism in both police forces and society at large. Protesters have invoked the memories of the 2014 death of Eric Garner in New York who, like Mr Floyd, told officers he couldnt breathe while being pinned by them; and the recent death of paramedic Breonna Taylor, 26, who was shot in her Kentucky home by an officer during a narcotics raid. A lawsuit alleges officers did not announce they were entering, and had already apprehended the suspect in their investigation when she was shot. Since Mr Floyds death the US has seen one of the most intense moments of civil upheaval of the past century. Some 21 states have brought in the National Guard, with protests erupting in at least 140 cities amid a backdrop of nationwide lockdown measures introduced to stem the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus - which has led to more deaths in the US than any other country. The number of deaths now stands at about 107,000, with 1.8 million people infected. And with looting and vandalism following a number of otherwise peaceful protests across the country under the banner of the movement Black Lives Matter - including in Washington DC where fires were set near the White House and Minneapolis, the city Mr Floyd died in, which saw its police station torched - the public have been met with more brutality from officers. Story continues Officers arrested 4,100 people across the weekend alone, while footage from scenes across the country has shown black bystanders harassed, peaceful protesters pinned to a wall with no escape as they were barraged with tear gas, and journalists fired upon with rubber bullets. President Donald Trump has been accused of doing little to placate concerns of protesters. On Monday heavily armoured riot police were deployed to clear the streets with tear gas as he made his way to St Johns Church in Washington DC for a photo op, during which he posed with a bible. (AFP via Getty) Meanwhile black restaurateur David McAtee was shot and killed in Louisville, Kentucky, as officers enforced a curfew in the area. The Louisville chief of police has since been relieved of his duties after it was discovered two officers implicated in the shooting had not had their body cameras switched on to document the incident. One person who has been volunteering as a medic at protests told The Independent he was targeted by police during a demonstration in Brooklyn, despite wearing clear markings identifying himself as a medic. (AP) If the police werent there agitating, nothing would happen. The confrontation happens because the police are present., he said. As a medic it has become difficult to remove people to safety. On Friday night I was carrying a semi-conscious person to safety. They wouldnt even let me pull them to the side. I could barely carry the person as they were battoning me. Sirous Asgari was accused of stealing federal trade secrets but was acquitted last November after being held for years. An Iranian scientist imprisoned for years in the United States despite being acquitted in a trade secrets case is on his way back to Iran on Tuesday after being deported by US authorities. Professor Sirous Asgari was in the air on a flight back to Tehran, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in an Instagram post, writing: Congratulations to his wife and his esteemed family, There was no immediate word on Iranian state media about the flight. Asgari, a professor at Irans Sharif University of Technology, was indicted in April 2016 while on an academic research visit to the US. He was accused by federal prosecutors of trying to steal secret research from Case Western Reserve University. The Cleveland school had been working on a project for the US Navy Office of Naval Research to create anti-corrosive stainless steel. Asgari was ultimately acquitted in November 2019 after US District Judge James Gwin tossed out the case by prosecutors. Ken Cuccinelli, acting deputy secretary of Department of Homeland Security (DHS), told The Associated Press it tried to deport Asgari on December 12 after his acquittal. However, he said, Iran refused to recognise him as legitimately Iranian or provide him with a validated passport until late February 2020. Once Asgari received the passport, DHS made several attempts to fly him back to Iran, purchasing tickets for flights on March 10, March 18, March 23, April 1 and May 1, according to Cuccinelli. Each of those flights was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic. COVID-19 stricken Asgaris supporters told The Guardian newspaper in April that he contracted the coronavirus while imprisoned. He had been held at Louisianas Winn Correctional Center by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement before his deportation. Irans deputy education minister, Hossein Salar Amoli, recently said Asgari recovered from the virus and would be able to travel, state-run IRNA news agency reported. It was unclear if Iran would release an American prisoner as part of a deal. Assal Rad, from the National Iranian American Council, said if there was a prisoner exchange, it would mark a positive step forward in the tense relations between the rivals. The speculation comes from the fact that a prisoner exchange is the lowest-lying fruit in diplomacy in a situation where you want to see a relationship develop. Just a few months ago we were on the brink of war, so the idea of a prisoner exchange is always the first diplomatic step taken, Rad told Al Jazeera. Positive publicity Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeeras Zein Basravi said Asgari had become a bit of a playing card in a political game between Iran and the US. There were frustrations from US officials about Iran not making the arrangements for Asgari, as well as other Iranian citizens the US wants to return, Basravi said. And Iran has been criticising US officials over and over again in the last few weeks and months for not making a speedy return of its citizens. It is believed 20 Iranian citizens are being held in the US, and five Americans in Iranian custody, he added. Theres been a lot of speculation as to whether or not any of the prisoners being held in Iran will be released as Asgari is on a plane making his way home, said Basravi. 200420194405578 But there are many other people saying the release of Asgari is basically a function of the US system, not necessarily something that would lead to a prisoner swap. Nonetheless, there is some speculation that this could result in some sort of exchange of citizens, and the Iranian government no doubt would use Asgaris return as an opportunity to gain some positive publicity. Among the US citizens held in Iran is US Navy veteran Michael White, who was detained in July 2018 while visiting a girlfriend in Iran. He was convicted of insulting Irans supreme leader and posting private information online. He was released from prison in March on a medical furlough that required him to remain in the country in the care of the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which represents US interests. White is among tens of thousands of prisoners granted medical furloughs by Iran, which was one of the first countries hit hard by the spreading coronavirus. Bargaining chips In December last year, Iran released a Princeton University graduate student held for three years on widely disputed espionage charges in exchange for the release of another detained Iranian scientist. In March, the family of former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished in Iran 13 years ago on an unauthorised CIA mission, said they had been informed by US officials that Levinson was probably dead. They have not elaborated on how they made that determination. Westerners and Iranian dual-nationals with ties to the West often find themselves tried and convicted in closed-door trials in Iran, only later to be used as bargaining chips in negotiations. The release comes as the US under President Donald Trump continues a maximum pressure campaign targeting Iran after unilaterally withdrawing from Tehrans nuclear deal with world powers in May 2018. In the time since, the two countries have seen a series of escalating incidents, including the US drone attack killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad, and an Iranian ballistic missile attack targeting US troops in Iraq. An environmental group has urged authorities across the Pearl River Delta, including Hong Kong, to expand protected marine habitats to save the Chinese white dolphins, as numbers of the pink sea mammals continue to dwindle. Among the areas WWF-Hong Kong has proposed to safeguard are around south and west Lantau Island, where most of the citys dolphins feed and breed. According to the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, the number of dolphins has fallen by 80 per cent over the past 15 years, with fewer than 50 spotted between 2017 and 2018. Chinese white dolphins are very beautiful, and have long been part of the history here, said Dr Lawrence McCook, head of oceans conservation at WWF-Hong Kong. But they are in a dire situation. Chinese white dolphins around Lantau Island. Photo: Xiaomei Chen Since the construction of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge started in 2012, the dolphins largely disappeared from northeast Lantau and concentrated in southern and western Lantau, where the long and continuous natural coastline provides them with abundant prey, WWF conservationists said. Along with 12 other areas, including Sanxiakou and the Dajin and Xiaojin Islands to the west of Zhuhai, WWF-Hong Kong proposed prioritising core protection zones in southern and western Lantau for conservation, with fishing and development banned. Three buffer zones, which would allow less harmful human activities but be managed like marine parks, were also proposed to connect to the core zones and act as ecological corridors, allowing the dolphins to travel safely. WWF hoped the conservation zones could be set up by 2024 with the help of the local authorities, as well as its partners at various universities across the region. About 2,000 of the iconic pink sea mammals, officially known as the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins, live in the waters of the Pearl River Delta. They are also found across Asia, including in Bangladesh, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam, but their numbers are decreasing, and the population in the Pearl River Delta is likely to be the largest in the world. Story continues The International Union for Conservation of Natures Red List lists the Chinese white dolphin as vulnerable. It is particularly susceptible to habitat loss and degradation due to a boom in development works. Shipping and illegal fishing also pose threats to its food sources, while pollution, marine rubbish and climate change are exacerbating the problem. Dr Lindsay Porter, a senior research scientist at the University of St Andrews who has worked on the dolphins for more than 20 years, said the species also reproduced slowly and many of their offspring died prematurely. Year after year, its becoming tougher for the dolphins to survive in Hong Kong, she said. If Hong Kongs marine environment is not healthy enough to sustain the dolphins, then it is also not healthy enough for the fish we eat every day. Porter said she was willing to support the WWFs plan by joining the monitoring efforts and helping with reporting illegal fishing to the authorities. Doris Woo Ka-yi, an oceans conservation officer with WWF-Hong Kong, said the government should also widen environmental impact assessments to include underwater noise, which affects the dolphins hunting and navigating abilities. The NGO also suggested improved regulation of fishing, marine traffic, coastal development and formulation of a cross-boundary water quality management plan to handle marine pollution. The government needs to fulfil Hong Kongs obligation under the Convention of Biological Diversity and its own commitments to the dolphins under the citys Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, Woo said. We cannot wait any longer. Officials from the Environmental Protection Department and the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said they would consider the suggestions. The EPD also said a marine park on the southwest coast of Lantau Island had been established on April 1, while two other marine protection zones around Lantau would be set up by 2022 and 2023 respectively. More from South China Morning Post: This article Hong Kong environmental group urges authorities across Pearl River Delta to expand protected marine habitats to save Chinese white dolphins first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2020. Managing higher education transfer is a national, border-agnostic challenge. Students are driven by both personal and academic reasons to transfer between institutions, and the paths they follow toward earning a degree are increasingly varied and complex - Collegesource Troy Holaday CollegeSource, the higher education industrys most trusted SaaS provider of transfer and degree achievement solutions, announced it is experiencing increased demand for its transfer credit evaluation and articulation solution Transferology across statewide higher education systems. By deploying CollegeSources Transferology across all public four-year and two-year higher education institutions, states such as Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin are helping students find and evaluate flexible and varied paths to earning degrees. Transferology enables these states and their respective institutions to equitably and efficiently deliver a transparent view of course-to-course transferability and highlight pre-established pathways between partner institutions. Managing higher education transfer is a national, border-agnostic challenge. Students are driven by both personal and academic reasons to transfer between institutions, and the paths they follow toward earning a degree are increasingly varied and complex, particularly now, said Troy Holaday, president, CollegeSource. To realistically address their needs, CollegeSource designed Transferology as a robust, self-service tool that quickly provides students with preliminary answers and connects them with target institutions. The most savvy state systems approach transfer both strategically and proactively, with the motivation to prevent brain drain and retain intellectual strength within their states. Minnesota State uses Transferology across all of their 30 colleges and 7 universities. By using Transferology, theyre able to empower institutions and staff to be more transparent with transfer evaluation for the 350,000 students they serve. They are able to offer a more streamlined approach to recruiting as well, by providing a clear picture of how prospective students will be able to earn and transfer credits within Minnesota State. This allows their students to build transfer into a relatively seamless academic plan and still graduate in a timely fashion. Transferology is a cloud-based solution that helps answer the pervasive question from students, Will my courses transfer? It provides access to millions of course-to-course and program-to-program transfer equivalencies, assisting college advisors, students and parents in making educated decisions when transferring higher education credit. Students can enter coursework to confirm how credits transfer to each member institution. Staff can build bundles of coursework that represent common transfer scenarios and then reference them for advising or recruiting. Transferology is compatible with all student information systems, offers feedback on missing equivalencies and includes articulations for military occupations and courses, advanced placement courses, and college level exams. Annually, hundreds of institutions and hundreds of thousands of students use Transferology to empower more realistic and fluid educational experiences. About CollegeSource CollegeSource is the higher education industrys trusted SaaS provider of transfer and degree achievement solutions. For nearly 50 years, CollegeSource has led market-changing transformation by inventing and investing in technology solutions that aid the staff and students of higher in their quest to plan and complete academic careers. As the archiver of the nations extensive higher education course catalogs, CollegeSources degree audit, academic planning, and transfer credit evaluation solutions are depended on by more than 2,000 institutions and millions of individuals worldwide. Founded and led by higher education and technology veterans, CollegeSource is a privately-held company based in San Diego with offices in Cincinnati, Ohio. For more information, please visit collegesource.com. WASHINGTON - Judge Emmet Sullivan should not be required to act as a "mere rubber stamp" for the government's unusual move to undo the guilty plea of President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn, the judge's lawyers told a federal appeals court in Washington on Monday. Sullivan's attorneys asked the appeals court to stay on the sidelines to give the judge an opportunity to ensure the "integrity of the judicial process" and to rule on the Justice Department's request to dismiss Flynn's case. The judge must evaluate Flynn's dramatically different claims, Sullivan's lawyer Beth Wilkinson told the court: "What, if anything, should Judge Sullivan do about Mr. Flynn's sworn statements to the court, where he repeatedly admitted to the crime and to the voluntariness of his guilty plea, only to now claim that he never lied to the government and was pressured and misled into pleading guilty?" The filing from Sullivan, defending his investigation into the Justice Department's reversal, is the latest development in the extraordinary case. It comes after Flynn's lawyers asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to immediately order Sullivan to get rid of the matter and accused him of bias. The Justice Department joined Flynn in a separate filing Monday, urging the appeals court to quickly bring the case to a close. The executive branch, not the judiciary, has the "power to decide when - and when not - to prosecute potential crimes" and Sullivan cannot independently initiate criminal charges, the filing says. Federal rules do not give the judge the authority to "stand in the way of a dismissal the defendant does not oppose," according to the filing. Those who signed the filing include Solicitor General Noel Francisco, Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski, acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin and Jocelyn Ballantine - the remaining career prosecutor on Flynn's case, who did not sign the government's May 7 motion to dismiss the case. Sullivan refused to go along in early May when the government moved to abandon its long-running prosecution of Flynn, who admitted lying to the FBI in 2017 about his conversations with Russia's ambassador to the United States before Trump took office. The department's change of heart came after Attorney General William Barr determined that the FBI had no valid basis to question Flynn, so any lies he told were irrelevant to former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The decision to undo a guilty plea prompted criticism and alarm, including from former DOJ officials and law enforcement leaders, concerned that the department was bending to political pressure from the Trump administration. The appeals court agreed to review Sullivan's actions and gave the judge 10 days to respond to Flynn's request. With the government and Flynn now on the same side, Sullivan defended the decision to appoint retired federal judge John Gleeson to argue against the department's position. Gleeson is also charged with examining whether Flynn should face a criminal contempt hearing for perjury after pleading guilty to a crime that he and the Justice Department now say did not happen. "Someone needs to fill the adversarial gap to ensure full consideration of the issues, and a former prosecutor and federal judge is well positioned to do so," Sullivan's lawyers told the court. "In any event, Judge Sullivan's record shows that he will not blindly accept Judge Gleeson's recommendations." For more than two years, the government took the position that Flynn's false statements to the FBI were material and relevant. As recently as January, prosecutors recommended the judge sentence Flynn to up to six months in prison. Sullivan's filing notes that the move to dismiss the case was not signed by any front-line prosecutors who had previously worked on the case. "It is unprecedented for an Acting U.S. Attorney to contradict the solemn representations that career prosecutors made time and again, and undermine the district court's legal and factual findings, in moving on his own to dismiss the charge years after two different federal judges accepted the defendant's plea," Sullivan's lawyers wrote. The department emphasized in its filing Monday that the reversal had come after "extensive review and careful consideration." The government said the judge could not conduct additional proceedings "based on speculation about the government's motives." In its filing, the department objected to Sullivan's plans to "subject the Executive's prosecutorial decision to extensive judicial inquiry, scrutiny, oversight, and involvement. Under the Supreme Court's and this Court's precedents, it is clear and indisputable that the district court has no authority to embark on that course." There is disagreement among legal scholars and former judges over how Sullivan should handle the case at this juncture. Prosecutors have broad authority to make charging decisions, but federal rules require prosecutors to get permission from the presiding judge to formally dismiss criminal charges. In this case, Flynn pleaded guilty under oath before two different judges, and he told Sullivan at a 2018 hearing that no one had coerced him to admit his guilt and that he had no intention of taking back his plea. MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and COLUMBIA, Md., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Observations from Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy indicate that the magnetic field near our galaxy's core is strong enough to control the material moving around the black hole, even in the presence of the black hole's enormous gravitational forces. The research, presented today at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society, could help answer longstanding mysteries about why our black hole is relatively quiet compared to others, and why the formation of new stars in our galaxy's core is lower than expected. Using its newest infrared instrument to study celestial dust grains, which align perpendicular to magnetic field lines, SOFIA was able to produce detailed maps of our galactic center, showing the behavior of these otherwise invisible magnetic fields around the black hole. "There are still aspects of our galaxy's black hole that we can't explain with gravity alone," said Joan Schmelz, director at the Universities Space Research Association, in Columbia, MD, and SOFIA senior science advisor. "Magnetic fields may be able to help solve these mysteries." Scientists have often relied on gravity to explain their results because measuring celestial magnetic fields is extremely challenging. But the data from SOFIA now compel scientists to consider their role. We know that magnetic fields in the Earth's magnetosphere protect us from high-energy particles coming from the Sun. They also control the plasma of the solar atmosphere, called the corona, where they create dramatic loops and powerful flares. SOFIA found that the magnetic field near the galactic center may be strong enough to control matter in a way that's similar to the solar corona. More research is needed to understand magnetic fields' role at the center of our galaxy and how these strong forces fit in with gravity. However, these preliminary results can enhance our understanding of at least two long-standing, fundamental questions about star formation and black hole activity in our galactic center region. Even though there's plenty of raw material to form stars, the star formation rate is significantly lower than expected. Additionally, our black hole is relatively quiet compared to those at the centers of many other galaxies. The strong magnetic field could explain both it could keep the black hole from swallowing the matter it needs to form jets and also suppress the birth of stars. Studying magnetic fields in the far reaches of the galaxy and beyond requires remote observations by telescopes like SOFIA. Flying at an altitude of 45,000 feet, above 99% of the Earth's water vapor, SOFIA is able to capture a unique view of the infrared universe, while landing after each flight so that it can be upgraded with the latest technology. For this result, SOFIA used the High-resolution Airborne Wideband Camera-Plus, or HAWC+ instrument, which was built at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, to study magnetic fields. "The data provide the most detailed look yet at the magnetic fields surrounding our galaxy's central black hole," said David Chuss, a coauthor of the paper at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. "The HAWC+ instrument has improved the resolution by a factor of 10 and increased the sensitivity, which represent a revolutionary step forward." About USRA Founded in 1969, under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences at the request of the U.S. Government, the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) is a nonprofit corporation chartered to advance space-related science, technology and engineering. USRA operates scientific institutes and facilities, and conducts other major research and educational programs, under Federal funding. USRA engages the university community and employs in-house scientific leadership, innovative research and development, and project management expertise. More information about USRA is available at www.usra.edu. About SOFIA SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, is a Boeing 747SP jetliner modified to carry a 106-inch diameter telescope. It is a joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Center, DLR. NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley manages the SOFIA program, science and mission operations in cooperation with the Universities Space Research Association headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, and the German SOFIA Institute (DSI) at the University of Stuttgart. The aircraft is maintained and operated from NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center Building 703, in Palmdale, California. PR Contact: Suraiya Farukhi, Ph.D. [email protected] 410-740-6224; 443-812-6945 NASA Ames Press Contact: Alison Hawkes Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley, Calif. 650-604-4789 [email protected] SOURCE Universities Space Research Association Related Links http://www.usra.edu The National Pension Service has decided to vote with Hanjin Group chairman Cho Won-tae in a battle with his disgraced sister for control of the conglomerate that owns Korean Air. The NPS holds the casting vote that would allow Cho to defeat a coup attempt from his sister and her posse of raiders at a shareholders' meeting on Friday. The NPS holds a 2.92-percent stake in Hanjin KAL, the conglomerate's holding company. That means the stake held by allies of Cho Won-tae rose from 37.24 percent to 40.16 percent, while the number of shares owned by his foes -- Cho Hyun-ah of "nut rage" notoriety, Bando Engineering and Construction and hedge fund Korea Corporate Governance Improvement -- stands at 28.78 percent. Cho Won-tae earlier strong-armed his mother and other sister Cho Hyun-min into siding with him. There is still a slim chance that he could be thrown into limbo with the support of small shareholders since he needs a simple majority of attendants at the meeting to survive. But if attendance is the expected 80 percent, he is safe. Industry watchers expect the dispute to continue. The raiders' alliance appears to be planning to acquire additional stakes. On Tuesday, they said in a public notice that they acquired an additional 2.01 percent stake in Hanjin KAL. In the first five months of 2020, crypto thefts, hacks, and frauds totaled $1.4 billion, indicating 2020 could see the greatest total amount stolen in crypto crimes outside 2019's $4.5 billion. CipherTrace has released its Spring 2020 Cryptocurrency Anti-Money Laundering and Crime Report with key data on cryptocurrency crimes and trends that will have regulatory repercussions for VASPs and other financial institutions. In the first five months of 2020, crypto thefts, hacks, and frauds totaled $1.4 billion, suggesting 2020 could see the second-highest value in cryptocurrency crimes ever recorded. Contributing to this number are coronavirus-themed crypto crimes, which have proliferated in the wake of the current health and economic crises. On the regulatory front, CipherTrace data reveals that 74% of the bitcoin moved in exchange-to-exchange transactions was cross-border. The abundance of cross-border transactions highlights the need for exchanges to adopt appropriate cross-border controls to ensure Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorism Financing (CTF) compliance. The need for compliance is especially profound in light of impending Travel Rule enforcement and the recent statement by FinCEN Director Kenneth Blanco reminding the crypto community that Travel Rule compliance is already the expectation in the United States. Highlights of key findings are as follows: Thefts, Hacks, and Fraud In the first five months of 2020, crypto thefts, hacks, and frauds totaled $1.4 billion, indicating 2020 could see the greatest total amount stolen in crypto crimes outside 2019's $4.5 billion. Coronavirus-inspired fraud is generally executed by luring victims off legitimate platforms into chat rooms where payment in bitcoin can be requested. Phishing sites were found to be the most popular COVID-19 related products sold on the dark web, while most fake COVID-19 PPE products had very little sales. Exchanges and Darknet Marketplaces The global average of direct criminal funds received by exchanges dropped 47% in 2019. This trend marks a three-year low for cryptocurrency exchanges around the world, with only 0.17% of funds received by exchanges in 2019 coming directly from criminal sources. Based on CipherTrace's examination of one prominent darknet marketplace, while 9.8% of the dark markets one-hop interactions went directly to exchanges, 31% of its two-hop interactions went to exchangesmore than tripling the risk exposure to exchanges. Finnish exchanges ranked #1 for highest percentage of criminal BTC received for the third year in a row, with 12.01% of all BTC funds received coming directly from criminal sources. Localbitcoins, one of the largest peer-to-peer marketplaces, received over 99% of these criminal funds. Cross-Border Transactions 74% of the bitcoin moved in exchange-to-exchange transactions was cross-border. 88% of funds that US Bitcoin ATMs (BATMs) sent to exchanges in 2019 were sent offshore. Bitcoin ATMs US BATM users on average sent more funds to high-risk exchanges than low-risk exchanges in 2019. The percentage of funds sent to high-risk exchanges from US BATMs has seen exponential growth, doubling every year since 2017. Total Value Stolen from Crypto Crimes is On-Track to be the Second-Highest On Record In the first five months of 2020, cryptocurrency thefts, hacks, and frauds totaled $1.4 billion. The largest contributor to this high number is a billion-dollar ponzi scheme by Wotoken in China. The scam promised investors incredible returns using a non-existent algorithmic trading software. Ultimately, Wotoken stole an estimated $1 billion in crypto from over 715,000 victims with one operator containing ties to the infamous PlusToken ponzi scheme. Contributing to the high total value netted from crypto crimes are coronavirus-related scams. While governments funnel resources into mitigating detrimental health and economic impacts of the pandemic, criminals are taking advantage of the lack of oversight resulting from the need for urgent action. COVID-19-related fraud can take the form of impersonations of legitimate entities like the Red Cross to extract personal information and/or payment in cryptocurrencies, applications that claim to support victims with information but are actually spying on users, and the sale of PPE, supposed treatments, testing kits, and phishing kits. Though the majority of COVID-19-related products sold on darknet markets did not see many sales, phishing kits were relatively successful. Cryptocurrency AML Measures Prove Effective, But Criminals Are Getting Savvier Though the total value collected by criminals from crypto crimes is among the highest recorded, the global average of direct criminal funds received by exchanges dropped 47% in 2019. This suggests that many criminals are finding it harder to offload their illicit funds directly to cryptocurrency exchanges, indicating effective implementation of AML measures around the world. It's worth noting, however, that criminals seem to be getting savvier in how they are obfuscating the origins of their stolen funds prior to cashing out on exchanges. CipherTrace's examination of one prominent darknet marketplace revealed that risk exposure to exchanges tripled for interactions two-hops out compared to one hop out. Regulatory Arbitrage Precedes Travel Rule Sun Rise Impending Travel Rule enforcement hangs over the cryptocurrency economy as VASPs seek to adopt solutions prior to the June 2020 Financial Action Task Force (https://www.fatf-gafi.org) meeting. So far, Japan, Switzerland, the UK and the United States have made the most Travel Rule progress, while several higher-risk virtual asset companies relocated to jurisdictions with less stringent regulation. CipherTrace found that 74% of the bitcoin moved in exchange-to-exchange transactions was cross-border, underlining the importance of global AML/CTF standards, such as those set forth by the FATF. Bitcoin ATMs Could be Next Regulatory Target CipherTrace research revealed US Bitcoin ATM users sent more funds to high-risk exchanges, which are more likely to be used for money laundering, than low-risk exchanges in 2019. This finding, combined with recent enforcement action taken against Kunal Kalra for his BATM money laundering scheme, indicates Bitcoin ATMs are likely to be the next major regulatory target. For access to the full report visit: https://ciphertrace.com/spring-2020-cryptocurrency-anti-money-laundering-report/ For media inquiries, please contact Kili Wall at (310) 260-7901 or Kili(at)MelrosePR(dot)com. About CipherTrace CipherTrace, the cryptocurrency intelligence company, protects financial institutions from crypto laundering risk and is helping to grow the crypto economy by making virtual assets trusted by governments and safe for mass adoption. CipherTrace delivers the worlds most comprehensive cryptocurrency intelligence to detect money laundering, inform law enforcement investigations, and enable regulatory supervision. CipherTrace founders are dedicated to protecting consumer privacy, while enabling protection. Created to develop digital currency and blockchain tracing and security, CipherTrace has visibility into 87% of global trading volume with hundreds of millions of attribution data points and traces more than 800 virtual assets, including BTC, BCH, ETH, ERC-20, Tether, and LTC tokens. The company was founded in 2015 by experienced Silicon Valley entrepreneurs with deep expertise in cybersecurity, eCrime, payments, banking, encryption, and virtual currencies. The US Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology (S&T) and DARPA initially funded CipherTrace, followed by leading venture capital firms. For more information, visit http://www.CipherTrace.com or follow us on Twitter @CipherTrace. North Korea will open schools this month after delays over concern about the novel coronavirus, state media has reported, the latest sign of opening up even though the isolated country has said it has had no confirmed cases of the disease. North Korean schools usually begin their spring term on April 1, but it was postponed as the government took various steps to ward off the virus, including sealing its borders. State media has said high schools and universities started classes on April 20. All other schools, kindergartens, day-care centres and nursing homes will reopen early this month, state radio reported late on Monday. "Teachers and helpers will thoroughly follow hygiene rules, with thermometers and hand sanitizers installed at entrances of all classrooms and offices, while parents are advised to educate their children," the official Korean Central Broadcasting Committee (KCBC) said. While North Korea has not reported any cases of the coronavirus, which emerged in China late last year, South Korea's main intelligence agency has said an outbreak there cannot be ruled out as the North had exchanges of people with China before closing the border in late January. Children at kindergartens and day-care centres will get checked for the virus and buildings will be disinfected, the KCBC added. Naenara, a North Korean state internet portal, released photos of high-school students having temperature checks when their schools opened in late April. There have been other signs of a relaxation of coronavirus restrictions. A video posted last month on YouTube by another state outlet, DPRK Today, showed a restaurant in the capital, Pyongyang, full of customers with many people, including staff, wearing masks. The KCBC encouraged people to use takeout services while calling for workers in the fisheries industry, ports and freight stations to obey virus prevention measures. "Pickup orders are promoted at restaurants and food stores," the KCBC said. (Reuters) The Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts has adopted a five-year-old greyhound during the coronavirus pandemic. The 78-year-old musician and his wife Shirley have welcomed new pet Suzie - who was rescued by the Forever Hounds Trust - into their home. And the organisation admit they were delighted to help them find the right pet pooch to give a home to. Lovely: The Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts has adopted five-year-old greyhound Suzie (pictured) during the coronavirus pandemic In a statement, Jan Lake - Chair of Trustees for Forever Hounds Trust - said: 'It's a really difficult time for everyone at the moment, and that includes animal rescue charities as well. 'There are still so many dogs that need our help but due to the extra precautions we have to take due to the coronavirus pandemic rescuing, rehabilitating and re-homing a dog is a much lengthier process than it has been previously. 'We are still able to home dogs, but we can only do it in certain circumstances. Luckily Shirley and Charlie are well-known to the charity and we were able to find the right dog for their family.' New owners: The 78-year-old musician and his wife Shirley have welcomed new pet Suzie - who was rescued by the Forever Hounds Trust - into their home The drummer's wife is a long-time supporter of the charity, which looks to find the best fit for each dog and potential family. Although there are added difficulties due to the ongoing health crisis, the trust is continuing to do the best it can. Jan added: 'It's so important that we keep working to rescue dogs throughout this period as there is no let-up in the number needing our help and as soon as we find a home for one there is another needing the space in our kennels and foster homes.' Main man; Charlie has been with The Rolling Stones since their formation in 1962 Meanwhile, Charlie's bandmate Ronnie Wood - who completes the group with Keith Richards and Sir Mick Jagger - recently designed new Rolling Stones artwork to raise money for St George's Hospital, London. A spokesperson for the hospital said: 'We're extremely grateful to Ronnie for donating this very special artwork to St George's. 'We know that staff and patients will be really excited to see it on display in the hospital. The uplifting and optimistic message will mean so much to them.' Richard Grenell, an outspoken Donald Trump loyalist, has officially stepped down as US ambassador to Germany, ending a controversial two-year stint in Berlin that fanned transatlantic tensions. A rising star in Republican circles and one of the most high-profile gays in the Trump administration, Grenell had been tapped in February to temporarily become head of US intelligence. "Ambassador Grenell resigned from his post and the State Department on June 1," embassy spokesman Joseph Giordono-Scholz told AFP. The envoy had already indicated he would not be returning to Berlin once the interim role in Washington was over. He will remain the US special envoy for Kosovo-Serbia negotiations. The 53-year-old will be remembered in Germany for his undiplomatic approach to foreign policy, often turning to Twitter to attack Chancellor Angela Merkel's government. He regularly angered his host country with criticism of everything from the Iran nuclear deal to Berlin's defence spending and relations with Chinese tech firm Huawei. A staunch supporter of Trump's "America First" stance, Grenell faced calls for his expulsion soon after starting the job when he stated his ambition to "empower other conservatives throughout Europe". The envoy ruffled feathers again when he slammed German plans to lower military spending as "unacceptable" and "a worrisome signal". That led senior German lawmaker Carsten Schneider from the centre-left Social Democrats to label Grenell a "total diplomatic failure", while other politicians called for him to go. - 'You don't know Americans' - However, Grenell has warned that the rocky patch between the once close allies is far from over. "You make a big mistake if you think the American pressure is off. You don't know Americans," he tweeted last month. It remains unclear what Grenell will do next. His turn as acting director of national intelligence ended after the US Senate confirmed John Ratcliffe as his permanent replacement in late May. During his brief period in charge of the US spy community, Grenell forced out several officials not seen as loyal to Trump. Media have speculated that Trump may reward him with a senior role on his re-election campaign. Grenell has been as active as ever on Twitter, commenting on the protests sweeping the United States following the death of a black man in police custody. He also hailed Trump's walk from the White House to a nearby church to pose for photographs on Monday as "a triumphant moment of hope over fear", despite outrage over police use of tear gas to clear protesters from the area. This is the moment a protester in Pennsylvania handed out water to riot police after a demonstration. Video shows a young man approaching lines of officers at the end of an event in Pittsburgh, carrying a multi-pack of water bottles, saying: 'I know you guys are thirsty.' Some officers respond with a smile and others remain straight-faced, as the man - identified as Alexander Cash - jokes: 'I wasn't yelling at y'all don't be looking at me like that. 'I'm just trying to spread a message OK. I know you guys are out here doing your jobs. I'm not mad at you.' Alexander Cash organized the Black Lives Matter march in Pennsylvania and handed out water to riot police guarding a Target store in East Liberty, Pittsburgh Cash, 23, then bends down to the ground in front of them, rips open the plastic packaging for them and leaves them to help themselves. 'I'm mad at the ones that are doing it to us, do you understand?' he continues. 'We came out here peaceful, that's what I'm trying to show you.' The officers, who were guarding a Target store - are heard responding with thanks. One of them replies: 'We appreciate it.' The person filming the interaction shouts over to the cops: 'Good job guys.' According to the Twitter user who shared the clip, the man making the friendly gesture is Alexander Cash - who organized the East Liberty event. By Tuesday the video had been viewed approximately 3.4 million times. Twitter users responded proudly, with one writing: 'This is the Pittsburgh I know.' 'Proud of both sides here ! This is what we need after things calm down . Community, caring and respect,' another wrote. In a video he is heard saying: 'I know you guys are thirsty' as he brings over water. He reassures them: 'I wasn't yelling at y'all ...'I'm just trying to spread a message OK. I know you guys are out here doing your jobs. I'm not mad at you' Some said the grateful reaction of riot police was in great contrast to another clip that showed cops opening bottles of donated water and pouring it onto the ground. The water had been donated to protesters who have been marching in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Initially only two people showed up to the event co-organized by Elizya Powell but dozens more joined later. 'All the stuff they did downtown is really tragic,' Cash told CBS 2. 'I want to show that we can be peaceful.' Organizers promoted unity while speaking out against the death of George Floyd. 'Not every single cop is bad, but there's a lot of people that's taken control and abuse of their power, and I don't like it,' Cash said. Americans have been protesting after the police custody death of George Floyd a black man seen dying on video as white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin sat on him with his knee in his neck. In the horrifying video Floyd is heard pleading for his life, saying: 'I can't breathe, officer.' Meanwhile two other cops are holding down the rest of Floyd's body with their weight and another officer looks on. It follows the killings of black EMT Breonna Taylor, shot by police as she slept in her Kentucky apartment, and Ahmaud Arbery, hunted down and shot by three white men in Georgia. Protesters are calling for justice in a number of others cases where African Americans have been killed by white people, and demand reform as they call out systematic racism. Hundreds had gathered outside Eastminster Church for prayers with leaders, including Mayor Bill Peduto. KRAKOW, Poland, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ryvu Therapeutics (WSE: RVU), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel small molecule therapies that address emerging targets in oncology, has obtained the occupancy permits for its newly built R&D Center for Innovative Drugs, meaning it has completed the construction of the facility. Construction of own R&D Centre constitutes an element of execution of the strategic plans focused on the discovery and development of innovative therapies announced in 2017. By the end of June 2020, Ryvu plans to move to the new headquarters, located at 2 Sternbach Street, in Krakow, in a Special Economic Zone which provides various tax incentives for the local companies. The R&D Center for Innovative Drugs is situated in close proximity to the Jagiellonian University as well as Solaris Synchrotron Facility. The newly built Sternbach St. was named after Dr. Leo Sternbach, a graduate of Jagiellonian University who went on to discover Vallium, the most prescribed drug in the history of the pharmaceutical industry. The initiative to honor Dr. Sternbach, was spearheaded by Ryvu and received strong support from Krakow scientific and technology community. At the heart of the new Ryvu facility is an array of laboratories incl. medicinal chemistry, biochemistry, cell & molecular biology and analytical chemistry. Its launch will allow Ryvu to expand the pipeline and accelerate research process of innovative drugs. The laboratory-office complex is made up of 6 floors with a total area of ca. 108,000 sq. ft., including over 86,000 sq. ft. usable area, which will accommodate: ca. 32,300 sq. ft. of laboratories ca. 10,700 sq. ft. of office space ca. 14,000 sq. ft. of social and technical space ca. 29,000 sq. ft. of remaining space such as parking lot and corridors, etc. The new building will accommodate up to approximately 300 employees. The total value of the investment including the purchase of land, construction of the building and key laboratory equipment amounts to over $20 M out of which the government grant amounts to $8.5 M. The new facility has also enabled the further growth of Selvita, the CRO division of Ryvu that was spun-out in 2019 and will take over the facilities at JCI which the combined company has rented since 2009. The successful spin-out has created $170 M value for Ryvu shareholders. "Access to the state of the art laboratory space is one of the key development factors for any reputable biotechnology company. In the Polish market reality, the only way to guarantee ourselves such access, and consolidate Ryvu team scattered in different locations, was to construct such facility on our own. We are very pleased that one of the most modern buildings of this type in our country, was built in Krakow the city, that we believe is a perfect place to become a world-class center for innovative research and development in the field of pharmacy and biotechnology. Human resources, growing research infrastructure, favorable scientific environment and history of drug research in Krakow, are the great potential of the city where we work," comments Pawel Przewiezlikowski, co-founder and CEO of Ryvu Therapeutic S.A. "We are very happy with the collaboration with our general contractor Mota-Engil Central Europe. We broke the ground on the new facility in August 2018 and are moving in June 2020 almost on the original schedule," added Przewiezlikowski. The investment in construction and equipping of the Centre has been co-financed by the Government of Poland and the European Union under the European Regional Development Fund and is in line with the Strategy for Responsible Development adopted in February 2017 by the Polish government, which supports development projects in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and chemical industries in Poland. In line with the current Covid-19 pandemic restrictions the official public opening ceremony of the new building is planned for the Fall of 2020. About Ryvu Therapeutics Ryvu Therapeutics is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel small molecule therapies that address emerging targets in oncology. Pipeline candidates make use of diverse therapeutic mechanisms driven by emerging knowledge of cancer biology, including small molecules directed at kinase, synthetic lethality, immuno-oncology and cancer metabolism targets. SEL120 is a selective CDK8 kinase inhibitor with potential for the treatment of hematological malignancies and solid tumors currently in Phase 1 clinical studies for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome. SEL24/MEN1703 is a dual PIM/FLT3 kinase inhibitor licensed to the Menarini Group in Phase 2 clinical studies for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. Ryvu is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in Poland (WSE:RVU). For more information, please see www.ryvu.com. Contact: Media: Natalia Baranowska +48-784-069-418 [email protected] SOURCE Ryvu Therapeutics Related Links https://ryvu.com Phil Robertson reveals he has 45-y-o daughter, says of past sin: in all things, God works for good Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment "Duck Dynasty" patriarch, Phil Robertson recently learned that he has a 45-year-old daughter from an affair he had before he became Christian and said God turned his bad past into something positive. The 74-year-old and his four sons, Al, Jase Willie, and Jep, shared the news about their new family member, Phyliss, on the latest episode of his BlazeTV podcast Unashamed With Phil Robertson. "It's a pretty cool explanation of redemption, reconciliation, love," Phil said of finding out he had a daughter so late in life. "As it turns out, 45 years, you have a daughter that you don't know about, and she has a father she doesn't know about. Forty-five years, that doesn't sound like very long but you say, that's a while. So finally, after all those years, we come together." Phyliss first reached out to Al and Jase by sending each brother a letter explaining that she has a strong DNA connection to them, according to results from a DNA test kit, and she believed Phil was her father. Phil has talked honestly about his wild past of using drugs and cheating on his wife, Miss Kay, who he married when he was 17. The Robertson brothers recounted some of Phils past during the episode before detailing their first conversations with their sister. Jase said that when he first received Phyllis' letter, which he had kept in his Bible, he wondered if it was a scam, because the family had received many letters from people who say they are loosely related and "need $10,000." But as he learned more about Phyllis, and her family and Christian faith and work in missions, he knew she wasn't out to scam the family. "I started thinking, there's a 45-year-old woman out there who doesn't know who her dad is, and she's looking. And I thought, even if it's not dad, she needs to know it's not dad, said Al, so he asked their cousin and producer of the show to call Phyliss. The call revealed that Phyliss was not out for anything and she was a Christian, so Al showed the letter to his parents. Miss Kay told Phil it was possible because of his past life. Phil said Miss Kay frequently told him that someone from his past would return, probably a son he didn't know he had, but she was delighted to learn he had a daughter because she had always wanted a daughter. To confirm, a DNA test was scheduled with Phyllis and when the results were in, the brothers told their father and Miss Kay that it was a 99.9% match. the life-changing situation. During the episode, Phil declared that he's applying his Christian faith to make sense of it all. We know that in all things, in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose, he said, quoting scripture. The Robertsons' welcomed Phyliss into their family and Miss Kay was awesome about it all, the brothers said, noting that in many families this would be unwelcomed news. "I was so excited," Jep said about having an older sister. "It was, to me, like a dream come true." Jase added that after the DNA test was confirmed, he felt, Whelp, I love her because shes my sister. He joked that if shes not familiar with 'Duck Dynasty' shes going to see that and say ... 'Are you kidding me? Out of all the people.' Willie and his wife shared photos of one of the many family gatherings theyve had with Phyliss since their reunion. He shared that it was so good to find his long lost sister, adding, Welcome to the nuttiest family around. Phil said there will be a part two of the podcast where Phyliss and Miss Kay will join them for a family chat. Along with the new addition to their family, the Robertsons also made news because there was a drive-by shooting at Willies estate. No one was harmed and the suspect, Daniel Dean King, was taken into custody. Welly wearer: Kate Moss at Glastonbury The struggling company behind Hunter Wellington boots has raised a 16.5million cash injection from a Goldman Sachs fund to see it through the crisis. The official bootmaker to the Queen turned to shareholders, including Goldman-backed fund Pall Mall Legacy, which will now take majority control, to raise the cash. Searchlight and Pentland Group have contributed and will remain minority shareholders, and retain seats on the board. Its bank, Wells Fargo, will increase its loan headroom for three years, giving an extra 18.5million to support growth. The brand counts Kate Moss, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Bosworth as fans and is as popular with countryside gentry as with festival-goers at Glastonbury. Two years ago it reported profits of 6million on record sales of 113million as it pushed to extend its appeal. But a dry winter led to poor sales in the US, ahead of the outbreak of Covid-19. Sales have fallen sharply due to shops being closed but online sales have thrived. Chairman Gordon McCallum said: 'This will ensure we are able to withstand the downturn and emerge even stronger.' Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Ranchi, June 2 : Garments and footwear shops owners on Tuesday protested against the Jharkhand government for not allowing them to open their shops as part of the easing of the lockdown. The state government under Unlock 1.0 has not allowed garment and footwear shops to open and so shop owners are unhappy. "The state has ignored the garment sector. The state government seems to have given importance to luxury items instead of basis items like garments, footwear, tailoring" said shop owner Punit Jain. Echoing his view another garment shop owner Reema Poddar said "The state government is concerned about the migrant labourers but it has forgotten that around 20 lakh people are dependent on garment shops. More than two months have passed in lockdown how we will make payments to our staff?" The shop owners protested in Ranchi, Dhanbad, Dumka and other parts of the state. Along with garment and footwear, cosmetics, tailor shops, gift shops and other shop owners also lodged their protest. The Jharkhand government on Monday announced a series of steps which will speed up pace of growth in the state including opening of some shops, showrooms and inter district movement of public transport. An order in this regard has been issued by the Home Prison and Disaster Management Department. The government has decided to open service centres of mobiles, watches, consumer electronics and IT related products where as call centres of private companies are also set to open. Shops selling capital goods, heavy machinery, generators, IT hardware, telecom products, electrical products, consumer electronics, automobile, cycle, tractors, auto accessories, spectacles and watches and jewellery shops will also open along with kitchenware and furniture. The government has also allowed opening of garage and motor workshops in urban areas while restaurants will also open but they would only provide home delivery and take away of food items. In a major respite inter district plying of public transport by autorickshaw, tempos and e-rickshaw have been also permitted. However the order shall remain in force for a period till June 30 only. [June 02, 2020] Want to Get Your School Mojo Back? Sign Up for Online Summer Enrichment To help students and families address summer learning loss this year, K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN) is providing more than 150 summer courses to students across the country. K12 has more than 20 years of experience delivering online and in-person instruction. The company's summer programs will give new and returning students the opportunity to experience a ready-built online learning platform as they look forward to the school year ahead at K12-powered schools. "This summer in particular, parents are eager to find exciting, meaningful ways to keep their students engaged and keep them excited about learning," said Kevin P. Chavous, K12's President of Academics, Policy, and Schools. "Our personalized approach to summer programming helps ensure that students invest in their own academic growth and reach their full potential along the way." K12's summer offerings feature a variety of programs and enrichment activities for returning and newly-enrolled students in online public schools supported by K12. One program, Brain Boost, offers an engaging, interactive learning experience that helps students hone their creative skills and master core subject matter. As part of Brain Boost, new and returning students will have access to thousands of eBooks in both English and Spanish through Big Universe, and to Stride, an online, adaptive game-based learning platform for math, reading, and English language arts. Through content provided by Roadtrip Nation, high school students can explore diffrent career paths in growing and in-demand fields. Additionally, through The Keystone School, high schoolers can get a jumpstart on graduation requirements by enrolling in tuition-free summer elective courses covering topics such as health, personal finance, and art appreciation. "My daughter loves online school and loves learning because of it," said April Gammons, whose daughter Brianna attends Virginia Virtual Academy, a K12-powered school. "The teachers have a lot of experience. The school structure, the curriculum, the support-everything is amazing. We couldn't have had a better experience over the past two years." In addition to the Brain Boost and Keystone opportunities, participating K12-powered schools offer a robust summer school catalogue that helps keep students' minds engaged during the summer and allows eligible students to earn supplementary credit through core, credit recovery, and elective courses.? Enrollment in summer school has already started in some states. For more information and to review a list of schools by state, please visit https://www.k12courses.com/summer-school.html. About K12 K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN) helps students of all ages reach their full potential through inspired teaching and personalized learning. The company provides innovative, high-quality online and blended education solutions, curriculum, and programs to students, schools and enterprises in primary, secondary and post-secondary settings. K12 is a premier provider of career readiness education services and a leader in skills training, technology staffing and talent development. The company provides programs which combine traditional high school academics with career technical education through its Destinations Career Academies. Adult learning is delivered through K12's subsidiary, Galvanize, a leader in developing capabilities for individuals and corporations in technical fields such as software engineering and data science. K12 has delivered millions of courses over the past decade and serves students in all 50 states and more than 100 countries. The company is a proud sponsor of the Future of School, a nonprofit organization dedicated to closing the gap between the pace of technology in daily life and the pace of change in education. More information can be found at K12.com, destinationsacademy.com, jobshadowweek.com, and galvanize.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005070/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Black people have been getting slaughtered at the hands of whites for hundreds of years. Although it is 2020, and some laws have changed consistently, it seems that evidently the propensity for racial inequality remains unblemished. As a former refugee from Liberia, and a U.S. Marine veteran, Im in dread of my safety. While we live in a generally secured and quiet state, I acknowledge it as my responsibility to address racism in our community and state. I view myself as a privileged person to have been raised in our beautiful state. However, I have encountered a considerable amount of racism in Montana. Once, whilst strolling across the Higgins Bridge in Missoula with friends, a passing truck slowed down, hollered the N-word at me and sped off. At that moment, I felt a fit of immense anger and sadness; it had been a surreal experience. My personhood was damaged. I spent subsequent weeks in isolation with the fear of interacting with our community. I sought answers, yet nothing appeared to add up. I fell in profound despair while also balancing my law school course work. Later, I concluded that I need to use my torment and raise awareness against racism. The blatant execution of black people by the police has affected me to the point of myself asking you, members of my community, and our state to reflect on the persistent racial inequalities in our society and, most importantly, racial disparities in our criminal justice system. The Jim Crow Era, institutionalized economic, social and educational deprivation for black people; it denied blacks their fundamental rights. Those inequalities are prevalent today. We do not need to look incredibly far to ascertain the damaging effects of the Jim Crow Era. Mass incarceration, police brutality, broken school systems and poor health care are significant issues affecting the black community. Structural racism rigidly connects these critical issues. Structural racism is characterized as a system of public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations and other norms that work in reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial inequality. The criminal justice system is perhaps the clearest example of structural racism in the United States. Black women overall are twice as probable to be incarcerated as their white counterparts. Moreover, black women ages 18 to 19 are three times more likely to be imprisoned than their white counterparts. Black men (28.5%) are six times more likely than white men (4.4%) to be admitted to prison during their lives. Recently, George Floyd, a middle-aged black man in Minnesota, was apprehended and was choked to death by a police officer. This cold-blooded killing echoed the death of Eric Garner, Ahmaud Abery and numerous senseless deaths of black people. In a time of profound political and ideological divides, the battle for justice is more urgent than ever. While I am appreciative of the service of our good police officers that endeavor to uphold their oath of office, to serve and to protect, Im calling on our state lawmakers to enact a policy that will create an anti-racism training at our state police academy. I am additionally calling on our community members to help instill practices that help build safe communities, are responsive to our disenfranchised population and affirm human dignity. Do some research to work out how you can help. We must create systems of authentic racial integration. In this sense, integration is that the positive acceptance of black people within the total range of human activities. To be black in America ought not to mean a death sentence. Jacob Elder of Missoula is a Marine veteran, a Max Baucus Fellow and legal intern at the chief counsel office of the U.S. Department of Transportation You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 15 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 3 In response to President Donald Trumps recent visit to St. Johns Episcopal Church in Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C., where he posed with a Bible, the bishops of multiple New England Episcopal dioceses have released a statement, calling it disgraceful and morally repugnant. His tactic was obvious, the statement said. Simply by holding aloft an unopened Bible he presumed to claim Christian endorsement and imply that of The Episcopal Church. Far more disturbingly, he seemed to be affecting the authority of the God and Savior we worship and serve, in order to support his own authority and to wield enhanced use of military force in a perverted attempt to restore peace to our nation. The statement was signed by bishops at seven New England Episcopal dioceses, including three from Massachusetts, The Rt. Rev. Alan M. Gates, The Rt. Rev. Gayle E. Harris and The Rt. Rev. Douglas J. Fisher. The visit involved federal police pushing through peaceful protesters about 30 minutes before the 7 p.m. curfew, using teargas, rubber bullets and flash-bangs. The Rev. Gini Gerbasi was on the patio of the church when she said police in riot gear walked onto the churchs patio with metal shields and pushed people off, driving them back. I am shaken, not so much by the taste of tear gas and the bit of a cough I still have, but by the fact that that show of force was for a PHOTO OPPORTUNITY, Gerbasi said on Facebook. Multiple Democratic and episcopal leaders have since spoken out. His actions did nothing to mend the torn social fabric of our nation," the seven New England bishops said. "Instead, they were a blatant attempt to drive a wedge between the people of this nation, and even between people of faith. And while the bishops noted its OK to feel outraged and insulted by having the symbols of our faith used as a set prop in a cynical political drama, thats not what the focus should be on. The real abomination before us, however, is the continued oppression of and violence against people of color in this nation," the statement read. Let us reserve and focus the energies of our indignation to serve our Lord Jesus Christs higher purpose: to extend love and mercy and justice for all, and especially for those whose life, liberty, and very humanity is threatened by the persistent sin of systemic racism and the contagion of white supremacy. Related Content: Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 06:13:46|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Children accompanied by their teacher play in Tivoli Park in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on June 1, 2020. Slovenia further eased restriction measures imposed to contain the novel coronavirus epidemic on Monday. All primary school children will gradually return to their classrooms this week. According to government announcement on May 28, large accommodation facilities, wellness and fitness centres and swimming pools have been given the green light to reopen on Monday. Public gatherings of up to 200 persons are now allowed. (Xinhua/Peng Lijun) LJUBLJANA, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Slovenia further eased restriction measures imposed to contain the novel coronavirus epidemic on Monday. All primary school children will gradually return to their classrooms this week. According to government announcement on May 28, large accommodation facilities, wellness and fitness centres and swimming pools have been given the green light to reopen on Monday. Public gatherings of up to 200 persons are now allowed. After children in the first three grades of primary school returned to classrooms on May 18 and those in ninth grade last week, the remaining grades will return to school this week. Distance learning will meanwhile continue for secondary school students, except for those in their final year, who returned to their classrooms on May 18. Some social distancing rules will remain in place. People need to keep a safety distance of 1.5 metres or wear a face mask where this is not possible. Slovenia reported no new COVID-19 cases in the last four days. To date, Slovenia has a total of 1,473 cases, with 109 deaths. Only five COVID-19 patients remain in hospital, including one in intensive care, according to the latest government data. -- The master plan for the Hainan free trade port aims to build the southern island province into a globally-influential high-level free trade port by the middle of the century. --A free trade port system focusing on trade and investment liberalization and facilitation will be "basically established" in Hainan by 2025 and become "more mature" by 2035. -- The authorities expect to make Hainan, China's largest special economic zone, the frontline of China's integration into the global economic system. HAIKOU, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese authorities on Monday released a master plan for the Hainan free trade port, aiming to build the southern island province into a globally-influential high-level free trade port by the middle of the century. A free trade port system focusing on trade and investment liberalization and facilitation will be "basically established" in Hainan by 2025 and become "more mature" by 2035, according to the plan jointly issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the State Council. Aerial photo taken on April 4, 2020 shows the Sanya international duty-free shopping complex in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun) The authorities expect to make Hainan, China's largest special economic zone, the frontline of China's integration into the global economic system, according to the plan. It has been a strategic decision of the CPC central committee based on the domestic and international situations, it said, noting that the world is facing a new round of major development, changes and adjustment, with protectionism and unilateralism on the rise and economic globalization facing greater headwinds. Building the Hainan free trade port is of vital importance for pursuing an open economy, deepening market-based reform and improving the business environment, as well as a strategic choice for advancing high-quality development and concrete action to support economic globalization and building a community of shared future for humanity, it said. Instead of rushing for quick results, China will advance the plan gradually. Hainan will be given more autonomy in reform and will be encouraged to make both the laws and the regulatory system more flexible and efficient, thus clearing institutional obstacles hampering the flow of production factors. The construction of the free trade port will provide support to national strategic goals in terms of institutional innovation, growth impetus and greater opening-up. Hainan will enhance exchanges and cooperation with Southeast Asian countries, and promote joint development with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The master plan also envisions grasping opportunities in the technological and industrial revolution, focusing on tourism, modern services and high-tech industries to foster new competitive edges for the island. Aerial photo taken on April 4, 2020 shows the Atlantis resort in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun) HIGH STANDARDS, HIGH TECH In April 2018, China announced plans to build a pilot free trade zone covering the whole island and explore the establishment of a free trade port with Chinese characteristics. In an effort to create an international and convenient business environment, Hainan in April decided to grant more rights to its seven key industrial parks, as an institutional innovation to serve its free trade port construction. Benefiting from the policy, an administrative bureau was launched on April 15 in the Hainan Resort Software Community (RSC), a park focusing on the internet industry and home to about 5,000 registered companies. A batch of provincial-level administrative powers have been delegated to the bureau. Photo taken on April 1, 2020 shows a view of Hainan Resort Software Community in Chengmai County, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng) "It means cutting red tape for businesses, and the enterprises in the park can enjoy more convenient and efficient services," said Yang Chunzhi, general manager of the Hainan Resort Software Community Group Co., Ltd, which runs the park. A blockchain research institute, jointly established by the RSC and the University College Oxford Blockchain Research Centre at Oxford University, was officially opened in 2018 and has attracted many international talents. Yang said the RSC is developing new industries, including blockchain and digital health and services. "The park will make good use of the policy and promote industrial innovation through our technological advances," he said. Aerial photo taken on April 9, 2020 shows the construction site of Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Yang Guanyu) As the province focuses on modern services, high technologies and tourism, a number of the world's top enterprises and industry leaders have invested in Hainan, including Temasek, SOSV and Deloitte. Data from the Hainan Provincial Commerce Department showed that 338 foreign-funded enterprises were set up in Hainan in 2019, up 102.4 percent year on year, and the actual use of foreign capital reached 1.5 billion U.S. dollars, soaring by 100 percent year on year. From January to April this year, Hainan's actual use of foreign investment reached around 316 million U.S. dollars, up 252.3 percent year on year. The province saw 110 newly-established foreign-funded companies, covering trade, investment, medicine and logistics, data showed. "The foreign-funded enterprises have become an important force to boost the development of Hainan's economy," said Peng Wei, deputy director of the department. Peng said Hainan will target the highest levels of opening up, thereby creating a more favorable business environment by better using foreign capital, promoting quality development of trade and further opening up trade in services. A worker loads containers at the port of Yangpu in south China's Hainan Province, April 8, 2020. (Xinhua/Pu Xiaoxu) "China's door is opening wider and wider and Hainan is becoming the new highland of China's reform and opening up," said Han Shengjian, director of the Hainan International Economic Development Bureau. "The special policy of the Hainan free trade port is of great significance especially amid the COVID-19 epidemic. It reflects China's firm determination to expand its opening up and will definitely bring more opportunities to global investors," he said. (Reporting by Zhou Huimin, Chenglu, Chen Yongrong, Li Laifang, Cui Enhui; Video reporters: Zhou Xuan, Guo Liangchuan, Deng Chimin, Yue Xitong, Huang Shunda; Video editor: Wu Yao) [ Editor: WPY ] Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 15:14:44|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 2 (Xinhua) -- COVID-19 has not changed either in its transmissibility or severity so far, still plaguing many parts of the world, notably the Americas. More than 6 million confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) globally as of Monday afternoon, the latest WHO dashboard on the disease showed. The United States, the country hardest hit by the virus around the world, topped 1.8 million cases on Monday, with more than 105,000 deaths. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday said his agency still hopes to continue cooperation with the United States, despite Washington's decision last week to cut ties with it. "INTENSE ZONES" The WHO said on Monday that Central and South America have become "intense zones" of COVID-19 transmission, and solidarity and support are needed to help them overcome the pandemic. "I would certainly characterize that Central and South America, in particular, have very much become the intense zones of transmission for this virus as we speak, and I don't believe that we have reached the peak in that transmission," Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO Health Emergencies Programme, said in a press conference on Monday in Geneva. "Five of the 10 countries worldwide reporting the highest new number of cases in the past 24 hours are in the Americas: Brazil, USA, Peru, Chile and Mexico," he said. Brazil, now the second worst hit country, on Tuesday morning said its confirmed COVID-19 cases have reached 526,447, while the death toll neared 30,000, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Neighbouring Peru on Monday reported 5,563 new COVID-19 cases and 128 more deaths, bringing the total caseload of infections to 170,039 and the death toll to 4,634. Among the worst-hit areas, capital Lima has registered 103,020 cases, followed by the west-central province of Callao, with 12,495 cases, the Health Ministry said in a statement. Chile on Monday reported a total of 105,159 cases of novel coronavirus infection, and 1,113 deaths from the disease. In the past 24 hours, 5,471 new COVID-19 cases were detected and 59 more patients died, the Health Ministry said. A lockdown is in effect in capital Santiago and the metropolitan area through June 5, as the region is the epicenter of the country's outbreak. "Clearly the situation in many South American countries is far from stable. There's been a rapid increase in cases and those systems are coming under increasing pressure and they need our support, they need our solidarity," Ryan said. "STILL A KILLER VIRUS" Many health experts have warned of a possible second wave of infections if lockdowns are lifted hastily. Zhong Nanshan, a renowned Chinese respiratory specialist, told the South China Morning Post last week that authorities should not be complacent as the coronavirus was continuing to spread around the world. Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, said some doctors' suggestion that coronavirus is somehow losing potency is not true. Kerkhove explained that there are two major features used to measure the virus since the beginning -- transmissibility and severity. The former means "how many secondary cases can one case infect" or the "reproduction number," which is naturally above two. The latter means how severe this virus in causing a variety of diseases, and in the case of COVID-19, "20 percent of individuals will have a severe disease." "So in terms of the transmissibility, that has not changed. In terms of the severity, that has not changed," Kerkhove said. Kerkhove's remark was echoed by Ryan, who said that "this is still a killer virus and there are still thousands of people every day dying from this virus." "So we need to be exceptionally careful, not to create a sense that all of a sudden the virus, by its own volition, has now decided to be less pathogenic. That is not the case at all," said Ryan. Last week, the nation was stunned by the senseless murder of George Floyd at the hands of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Politicians and pundits on both sides of the aisle decried the slaying, and it didnt take long for protestors across the country to take to the streets. Sadly, some recent anti-brutality protests have devolved into seemingly random displays of theft, property damage, arson, and assault. Yet through all this chaos and destruction, the Left has not found much to condemn with regard to the rioters. Indeed, left-wing intellectuals have tended either to explain away the crimes of violent protestors or to justify them as righteous and inevitable. Before considering the implications of such rhetoric, some examples of its prevalence might be useful. On Saturday, Northwestern University professor Steven Thrasher argued in Slate magazine that the destruction of a police precinct is not only a tactically reasonable response to the crisis of policing, it is a quintessentially American response, and a predictable one . . . property destruction for social change is as American as the Boston Tea Party and the Stonewall Riots. Nikole Hannah-Jones, a New York Times journalist who recently received a Pulitzer Prize for her work on the 1619 Project, tweeted out a more subtle endorsement of the riots: I hurt for the destruction like everyone else. But the fact of history is non-violent protest has not been successful for [black] Americans. Perhaps Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has mustered the moral will to condemn the violence and destruction of the radical left? Quite the contrary the furthest Biden has gone is to state that burning down communities is needless and unnecessary. For many apologists of the recent criminal activity, the ultimate source of Floyds death a white-supremacist social order justifies the illicit actions of the rioters and looters. Justice, contend these apologists, has not been served to those oppressed by the white-supremacist patriarchy; why, then, should the oppressed and their allies give any consideration to justice now? Burning and looting, then, are naught but natural and appropriate reactions to longtime abuses. It is the system which is most directly at fault not the rioters, who are viewed either as pawns in a game beyond their comprehension or as agents of vengeance who can do no wrong. (This line of thought, of course, makes many assumptions: The system exists, is evil, and is beyond the reach of ordinary reform.) Story continues I do not wish to argue directly against the morality of this stance, nor to make an empirical argument as to the negative economic repercussions of lawless protest. Instead, Id like to undertake a thought experiment: What if certain members of the Right took these anarchist, morally permissive sentiments to heart? Certainly, this is the last thing that any leftist or any reasonable conservative would want. While the modern Left tends to emphasize the prevalence of oppressive systems, many on the right hold uncompromising beliefs of their own. For instance, conservatives are prone to believe that life is inviolable from the moment of conception, and that abortion therefore constitutes a form of murder. Others insist that the U.S. Constitution is immutable and must be protected at all costs. Radicalized members of the Right have, in rare instances, already acted on these beliefs in extreme fashion: the 2014 Las Vegas Shootings, the Oklahoma City bombing, and various attacks on Planned Parenthood clinics all come to mind. Significantly, all of these events involved fringe right-wing individuals and groups acting independently without a mainstream justification for their actions. But how many more Robert Lewis Dears and Timothy McVeighs might we see, were the Lefts stance on violent protest to become widely adopted on the Right? Imagine that you are mentally unstable and intellectually impressionable. You also happen to be a staunch pro-lifer. All your life, youve heard that the end doesnt justify the means, that peace is the answer not violence. But today, you turn on the news and hear pundits justifying lawlessness because it is born of injustice. You read about celebrities exhorting the public to burn everything down on the grounds that society is already immoral and broken. Is it so implausible that you might start to wonder: Why not me? I believe that the unborn are being unjustly murdered and that the government has taken no steps to address this systemic problem. Is it not justified for me nay, morally incumbent upon me to take matters into my own hands? Some rioter just burned down an AutoZone. Another decimated a police precinct. Why shouldnt I burn down a Planned Parenthood clinic, given that this institution, in my view, is the direct cause of so much wickedness? There are many sound ways to refute this deluded train of thought. For instance, one might cite the value of peaceful protest, the immorality of responding to wrong with wrong, or the slippery slope of vigilantism. The riot apologist, however, has only two possible responses: to abandon his embrace of lawlessness lest the radical right-winger become encouraged, or to contend that only his own principles justify extreme measures. One might reasonably ask: Why only your own principles? The apologist might answer: Because they are obviously the superior ones. Of course, such a reply only resonates with those who antecedently agree with the apologist, and the radical right-winger is left with no less reason to carry out his violent plan. Thus, we start to see the danger of the Lefts justification of violent protest not only to society as a whole, but even to the institutions dearest to the Lefts heart. Justice excuses violence is, in short, a self-destructive maxim. George Floyds murder was a moral abomination, and I do not intend to draw away from the significance of this event. Nevertheless, the Left must recant its endorsement of recent crimes lest the movements rhetoric give rise to fresh atrocities. More from National Review The energy sector just saw an interesting turn of events. Saudi Arabias sovereign wealth fund purchased shares in two TSX oil stocks, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd (TSX:CNQ)(NYSE:CNQ) and Suncor. Saudi Aramco, an energy firm in Saudi Arabia that recently went public, is one of North Americas biggest energy competitors. Relative to North America, energy companies in Latin America and the Middle East have a comparative advantage in terms of cost to produce a barrel of oil. Thus, energy businesses in these countries can afford to sell oil at lower prices. At the start of March 2020, Saudi Aramco began an oil price war with Russian energy interests. By the end of April, oil fell to historic lows at less than $0 per barrel. The negative price reflected fear from energy investors that they will lose money on current reserves, including storage fees. Throughout May, oil prices rebounded. On Monday, the OPEC basket and US oil rest at around $29 and $35 per barrel, respectively. Canadian Crude costs $27 per barrel. Canadian Natural Resources underperforms TSX index Throughout 2020, Canadian Natural Resources has underperformed the S&P/TSX Composite Index. While the TSX Composite Index has only lost 10.71% year to date, Canadian Natural Resources has lost 38.79% of its value. As of Monday, the price per share of Canadian Natural Resources stock is $25.71. The price of the TSX oil stock is finally near 10-year lows. Even investors who arent a fan of energy stocks must admit that now is a decent time to invest in the oil and natural gas sector. The coronavirus pandemic has grounded airplanes and reduced other high carbon-emission activities. Despite low demand for oil, its possible that we have already hit a bottom in the stock market value of major oil players like CNQ. Saudi TSX investments generate interest Followers of the energy sector are commenting on the recent Saudi investments in publicly-traded Canadian oil firms. These commentators feel that the recent purchases by the Saudi Wealth Fund signal a bottom in prices: Story continues Saudi causes an oil collapse; then buys up $CNQ $SU Canadian oil sands stock at extreme discount. Doesnt take genius to figure out what comes next, nor how our nation is under commodity attack by foreign interests on all sides. https://t.co/pdByGjRzPA Dr. Keith R. Brunt (@prof_brunt) May 18, 2020 Saudi Arabia may intend to profit from the bottom in the prices of these Canadian energy stocks a bottom created that countrys oil sector. Should you buy this TSX oil stock? Many savvy stock market players follow the investments of large institutions like Saudi Arabias sovereign wealth fund. Finding a good trading partner is never a bad idea. Further, Canadian Natural Resources issues a fairly high dividend. At the current share price, the dividend yield is over 6%. The only risk is a possible decrease in future dividend payments. On May 7, Canadian Natural Resources announced a quarterly cash dividend of $0.425 to shareholders on record as of June 12. Canadian Natural Resource shareholders are lucky that the company didnt slash its dividend like many other publicly traded companies in todays market. We dont know what the company will do in future quarters, but it appears that Saudi Arabias sovereign wealth fund is feeling pretty bullish on the stock. The post Canada Oil News: Saudi Bets on TSX Energy Stocks appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada. More reading Fool contributor Debra Ray has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fools purpose is to help the world invest, better. Click here now for your free subscription to Take Stock, The Motley Fool Canadas free investing newsletter. Packed with stock ideas and investing advice, it is essential reading for anyone looking to build and grow their wealth in the years ahead. Motley Fool Canada 2020 Manu Sharma, who was serving a life term after being convicted of the murder of model Jessica Lal in 1999, was released from Tihar jail on Monday evening after lieutenant governor (LG) Anil Baijal accepted the recommendations of the Sentence Review Board (SRB). The lieutenant governor had accepted the recommendations of the SRB meeting held on May 11, Sharmas lawyer Amit Sahni said. Any convict -- barring one found guilty of heinous crimes such as rape and murder, murder and robbery, murder in cases of terrorism and murder while out on parole -- who has completed 14 years in prison without remission is eligible for early release. Watch | Manu Sharma, who killed Jessica Lal in 1999, released from Delhis Tihar jail The prisons director general Sandeep Goel confirmed Sharma was released on Monday. Siddharth Vashishta, 43, better known by his alias Manu Sharma, shot dead model Jessica Lal, who was tending an unlicensed bar at a private party on April 30, 1999, after she refused to serve him a drink well past midnight. He is the son of Haryana politician Venod Sharma. In November 2019, Sahni approached the Delhi high court seeking Sharmas release. In his plea, he said that despite spending 23 years in jail (with remission added), and a record of good conduct in prison, the SRB denied his clients release on four separate occasions in an unfair and unlawful manner. Remission is when a prisoner displays good conduct in prison, and his/her sentence is reduced. While Sharma has served around 16 years of actual sentencing, he has completed 23 years with remission. The Delhi high court had then asked the board to consider Sharmas case for release in its next meeting, which took place on May 11. The board consists of the state home minister, who is its chairman, and the prisons director-general, state home secretary, state law secretary, a district judge, the governments chief probationary officer and a joint commissioner-rank officer of the Delhi Police. Last month Lals sister Sabrina had said that she had forgiven Sharma and that he had served his time for the crime. Sabrina had also said that it was time for her to move on. My fight was always for justice. We got justice. If he is released. I have no problem. Sharmas acquittal by a city court in February 2006 triggered protests across the country, after which the Delhi high court took up the case. The high court reversed the order, saying the lower court ignored or misread material evidence. Sharma was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in December 2006. The Supreme Court upheld the order in 2010. She shared a long post on her Instagram last week about trying to explain the killing of George Floyd and the protests that have followed to her seven-year-old son Tennessee. And Reese Witherspoon returned to her Instagram Story on Monday to share her commitment to change. The actress and producer, 44, shared a graphic in which she stated: 'I'm committed to: Getting educated about bias and racism. Sharing this education with my children and my community.' 'Getting educated': Reese Witherspoon posted to her Instagram Story on Monday to share her commitment to change as protests continue over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis Witherspoon went on to explain she plans to support organizations that 'fight systemic racism' and will support 'black-owned businesses'. She then added: 'And most importantly, I'm committed to voting. Voting for leaders who are dedicated to making necessary change. Governors, Mayors, Representatives and senators.' 'I look forward to supporting leaders who step up in this moment and COMMIT to the people,' she concluded, adding the hashtag '#BlackLivesMatter'. She went on to post a short list of the organizations she is supporting. Committed: Witherspoon, 44, explained she plans to support organizations that 'fight systemic racism' and 'leaders who step up in this moment and COMMIT to the people' Taking action: The Hollywood star went on to post a short list of the organizations she is supporting Last Thursday, the star of The Morning Show and Big, Little Lies, shared with her social media followers how hard she was finding it to explain to son Tennessee about the protests erupting across the nation. 'Being a white mother trying to explain racism and bigotry to her white son, who did not understand why anyone would treat another human being that way, was heartbreaking,' she said of trying to talk to the youngster about the killing of George Flord in Minneapolis. 'But not nearly as heartbreaking as being a victim of one of these senseless, violent, unconscionable crimes,' Witherspoon went on. 'Not nearly as heartbreaking as being one of the families who have experienced loss and harassment and discrimination daily. Not nearly as heartbreaking as being a mother who lives in fear of what will happen to her children in this world.' She then urged her followers to talk to their own children 'about racism, privilege, bigotry and hate.' 'We have to be held accountable for what is happening in this country,' she said. Mom: Last Thursday, Witherspoon shared with her social media followers how hard she was finding it to explain to son Tennessee, 7, about the protests erupting across the nation Plea: She urged her followers to talk to their own children 'about racism, privilege, bigotry and hate.' 'We have to be held accountable for what is happening in this country,' she said Witherspoon shares Tennessee with her husband Jim Toth whom she married in 2011. She is also mom to daughter Ava, 20, and son Deacon, 16, whom she shares with her ex-husband Ryan Phillippe. Late night talk show hosts returned from their Memorial Day vacations last night to a country that was very different than the one theyd last addressed. The simmering tension of police violence and racism had exploded after the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent violent suppression of protests in cities across the countries. If youre wondering why people are so upset, its because this is so upsetting, Stephen Colbert said at the beginning of his Late Show monologue. In times like these, we need empathetic and moral leadership. Unfortunately, we have Donald Trump, who failed to lead on COVID-19 and is failing to lead now. So the same way people are trying to do the right thing to slow the pandemic, theyll have to try to do the right thing to fight racism and police brutality. Colbert pointed out that those, including himself, who were successful in the system failed in their moral imperative to interrogate it, risking their own position. If you deny the human rights and dignity of any people, you will ultimately destroy society and civilization, he continued. Not only is addressing systemic racial and economic injustice the right thing to do, it is the safest, most conservative, most self-protecting, most self-serving thing to do. So it is time to ask ourselves, as it is always the time to ask ourselves, what kind of nation do we want to live in? That answer requires moral leadership, so take it upon yourself to be a leader an set an example of the kind of country you want to live in, be it a donation or a protest or a tough conversation. Because youre not going to get that from the White House, so we need to step up and provide it ourselves. America is now officially BYOP, Be Your Own President. Over on The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon opened with an apology to his viewers after a video of him dressed in blackface on SNL surfaced during the hiatus, which was a natural opportunity for him to take the kind of action he and Colbert were advocating for even with people telling him just to stay quiet. Story continues I realized I cant not say Im horrified and Im sorry and Im embarrassed, and what that small gesture did for me was break my own silenceand I realized that silence is the biggest crimes that white guys like me and the rest of us are doing. James Corden talked with his bandleader, Reggie Watts, about what it was like to experience racism as a child growing up in Montana to parents whose interracial marriage wasnt recognized despite his fathers military service. Picking up where Fallon left off, Corden said that he at first wondered if he should say anything at all. There is not one person in the world who woke up this morning and thought I need to know what James Corden thinks about all of this. Surely this is a time for me to listen not talk. And then I realized that thats part of the problem. People like me have to speak up, he said. Im talking about white people. White people cannot just say anymore yeah I am not racist and think that thats enough, because its not. Its not enough. Because make no mistake this is our problem to solve. How can the black community dismantle a problem that they didnt create? Seth Meyers took a less personal tact, but he spoke with similar bluntness about the awful actions of the police, the failures of politicians to corral them, and the hypocrisy of the right wing when it advocates for law and order that just happens to fall hardest on communities of color. As a society, we spend more on the systems that punish and devalue black lives than we do on the things that reaffirm and empower black lives and allow people to live lives of safety, decency, and health, Meyers said. We need laws restricting the use of force, demilitarizing police, and investing in nonviolent alternatives to the police. We know these policies can work, we just need leaders who will talk about them and who will talk about the ways we can begin to dismantle the interlocking systems of racism and injustice that perpetuate police violence. We promise that these guys still slipped in some pretty funny jokes last night, but they wisely realized that their breath was better spent talking about the issue dominating American life than telling simple jokes to an audience not in the mood to laugh. Related Articles: The post Colbert And Other Late Night Hosts Encourage New Kinds of Leadership appeared first on Fatherly. Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA) and IMANI Africa have petitioned Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II to call on the Electoral Commission to rescind its decision to compile a new voters register for the 2020 general elections. Representatives of the two groups finished a closed-door meeting with the Asanteman Council in Kumasi today, Monday, June 1, 2020. Speaking after the meeting, President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe told the media that the Asantehene was waiting to officially hear from the EC on the matter. Justifiably, Asanteman decides that they will also listen to the EC and then they will see which advise they can offer, which I think is fair, Mr. Cudjoe stated. He further reiterated some concerns his think tank has had with the ECs posture. The procurement process that led to the purchase of this new equipment [for the new voter register] was fraught with a lot of irregularities. Mr. Cudjoe also insisted that there were no strong questions about the integrity of the current register because the EC has never once suggested that the register is bloated. IMANI Africa has in the past noted that the EC wants to rip out a voter management system worth $60 million, of which value at least $40 million has accumulated since just 2016, and spend $150 million (plus contingency) constructing a new one. According to the think tank, a careful analysis of best practice in procuring biometric technology for elections in Africa shows that the EC's proposed spending plans are inflated by about 60 percent. In short, the EC's proposed system is brutally expensive compared to other countries in Africa. The EC's claims about the existing system's weaknesses are flawed and untrue because the biometric data can be salvaged and facial recognition technology already exists through visual inspection, IMANI argued in a statement. The tensions over the register have led the National Democratic Congress (NDC) accusing the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) of conniving with the EC and the National Identification Authority(NIA) to rig the 2020 elections. Nonetheless, the EC is still expected to begin the voter registration exercise later in June 2020. The EC wants to ensure that the register that is used on the election day is more credible and efficient than the existing one hence the need for a new Biometric Voter Management System (BVMS). Bengaluru, June 2 : Karnataka Department of Mines and Geology is building an app for people to buy sand at prices fixed by the government, an official said on Tuesday. "The department is building an app for people to buy sand from anywhere in Karnataka. Government will fix the price of sand and the transportation cost," told a department official to IANS. Maralu Mithra, the sand app, is expected to be available in three months' time, said the official. "The app enables a buyer to understand from which block he is buying the sand, how much quantity is available and the variety of sand," the official added. Unlike earlier ILMS system, Maralu Mithra enables both the transporter and the buyer to register on the app. Currently, the department is sampling the new system on a pilot study to take a final call based on its success. The state government is yet to fix the price of sand bought through the app, while the official said it could be in the range of Rs 700 - Rs 750 per tonne. According to the official, Maralu Mithra would be something like Ola, convenient and easy for buyers. "Knowledge on available quantity of sand, origin, quality, fixed price of both the sand and transportation and others are some of the advantages for buyers," said the official. Earlier, the sand was sold on the basis of first-come-first-serve. Department of Mines and Geology regulates and controls mining and quarrying activities in Karnataka, considering mineral conservation through a scientific framework among others. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday removed popular actor-turned-politician Manoj Tiwari as its Delhi unit chief after three-and-a-half years at the helm, replacing the Lok Sabka MP from North East Delhi with Adesh Kumar Gupta, a councillor from West Patel Nagar. The BJP was reduced to just eight of the 70 seats in the Delhi assembly elections earlier this year as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), led by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, swept to power for a second term. Tiwari is a Bhojpuri actor who holds sway in the Purvanchali community which the BJP was trying to woo, while Gupta is from the Baniya trading community considered a part of the BJPs core supporters. The appointment to the top job of a councillor was also seen as an indication that the BJP is preparing ground for the 2022 Delhi municipal corporation (MCD) elections. The 51-year-old Gupta, who started his political career with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), has risen through the ranks, and was elected the Mayor of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation in 2018. He was office secretary in Delhi BJP in 2012, and is currently the member of north corporations standing committee. Gupta said that his immediate focus will be to raise the problems faced by Delhi resident during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Delhi government has not been able to provide essential services to people whether it is ration or medical facility to people. We will raise these issues and expose the government. As far as the state unit is concerned, we will work towards strengthening it. Im thankful to the party for giving me this opportunity, said Gupta. A senior Delhi BJP leader said on condition of anonymity that the biggest challenge for Gupta will be strengthening the state unit after the February 2020 assembly elections defeat, and added that an organisational overhaul was expected soon. Tiwari thanked his party colleagues and the people of Delhi for their support during his stint as the Delhi BJP chief and congratulated Gupta on his appointment. I will always be grateful the love and support I got from the all workers, office bearers, and people of Delhi... If I made some mistakes, knowingly or unknowingly, then please forgive me for them. My heartiest congratulations to new state chief, Tiwari tweeted in Hindi. The decision to appoint Tiwari in a bid to woo Purvanchal voters, who now plays a decisive role in Delhi politics, had benefitted the BJP in the 2017 municipal elections, which it won for the third consecutive time despite anti-incumbency. The BJP also won all seven Delhi seats in the last 2019 Lok Sabha elections. This is a routine appointment, which was due for long. The appointment couldnt be done earlier due to elections in Delhi followed by riots and them the Covid-19 crisis. But now the party has started appointing new state chief, a second BJP leader said. The decision to appoint a Baniya indicates that the party wants to keep its core support base intact. Moreover, the next elections in Delhi is of municipal corporations in 2022. Gupta will be helpful in ensuring partys success, said a third Delhi BJP leader on condition of anonymity. This is not the first time the party has appointed a councillor as its state chief. The party appointed Satish Upadhyay, a one-time councillor from Malviya Nagar, as the state unit chief in 2014, before Tiwari took over two years later. Sanjay Kumar, director at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, said, There are no elections in the recent future. Adesh Gupta has risen from the ranks unlike Tiwari. It seems the party wanted someone who knowns the organisation well. He has been in the part for several years. The BJP decision to project a Purvanchali face didnt really help the party to make a dent in the community in the recent assembly elections. A lot of migrant population, including from Purvanchal areas, has gone back home. New Delhi, June 2 : Pankaj and Radhika Oswal, with business interests in Australia have alleged that the world's most expensive school, Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland failed to protect their daughter from bullying which ultimately led to serious cyber harassment and attacks towards the young teen. Radhika Oswal told IANS: "Over the last 6 years, altogether we have paid Le Rosey approximately $1,000,000 (one million dollars), so that they could give our daughter the best care and protection during these important childhood years, which has obviously come back to bite us now. "Just as all parents, we wanted to give our daughter the best schooling that we could afford, and we have now understood the importance of not just looking into a school's amenities and price tag and supposedly rosy outlook, but also going into depths to understand and investigate that the schools we choose for our children, should take children's rights and school bullying very seriously," she added. Pankaj Oswal is the eldest son of late industrialist Abhey Oswal. Naveen Jindal of Jindal Steel and Power is married to his younger sister Shalu. He was the chairman and Managing Director of Burrup Holdings Ltd, a Perth (Australia) based company and one of the world's largest liquid ammonia production companies. In a statement, the Oswals have raised serious allegations that the elite school failed to protect their daughter from bullying, which ultimately led to serious cyber harassment and attacks towards the young teen. They have also alleged that there is also clear evidence of other Indian children being harassed because of their background, culture and choice to be vegetarian. Radhika Oswal said: "It is unfortunate that we have heard of other Indian students being taunted for their ethnicity, shockingly even by a member of the faculty. It is sadder that many Indian parents continue the education of their children in this school, despite their children being told disrespectful and racist remarks such as that 'India is the dustbin of Asia', and that 'Indian parents look like sweepers'. "It is shocking when children are taunted and made fun of multiple times on their decision to be vegetarian, their culture and their religious beliefs, but even sadder when parents do not take action." Following failure to reach an agreement in a conciliation hearing, the parents say they had little choice but to take Le Rosey to court. The parents want a public apology for their daughter and a promise that the school will now start to live up to its own - supposedly high - standards. Pankaj Oswal said: "Le Rosey has failed in their responsibility towards the welfare of a child. It is entirely unacceptable. The school has prioritised having a yacht on Lake Geneva and multiple extravagant events over ensuring the basic levels of care are met. "As parents we are in a state of shock and it hurts to know what our brave daughter has had to stand upto at a young age. We hope that this moment makes Le Rosey reflect on what a world-class education really looks like and take action to ensure that this doesn't happen to any more students," he said. Institut Le Rosey, commonly referred to as Le Rosey or simply Rosey, is one of the oldest boarding schools in Switzerland. The title of the most expensive private school in the world goes to it, with an annual tuition of $115,000 (basic fees plus costs) per year. Oswals have accused it of failure and the serious lack of sensitivity to deal with bullying towards an Indian student. But they say that "it has become clear, however, that the standards of the school have dropped in recent years, and it is now fast becoming just a playground for rich students to do as they please". Radhika Oswal said: "We are disappointed and appalled at the treatment that has been given to our daughter by an institute, and the faculty that has failed miserably to uphold its own code of conduct. The values that the institute ostensibly imparts pertaining to 'respect' and 'physical integrity' as well as for the 'religious, philosophical and political convictions' of students, have been made a mockery of, and are at this point nothing but marketing whitewash!." According to the Oswals, following a serious set of bullying incidents against their child, the parents raised their concerns to the school and asked for action to be taken to ensure their child's safety. The school's senior management, however, showed no willingness to act or even acknowledge that there was an issue. The bullying, meanwhile, escalated into systematic harassment and cyber bullying. The student was mocked on social media groups with other students witnessing. Instead of addressing the bullying or trying to come to a reasonable conclusion, Le Rosey cancelled the bullied student's re-enrolment for the following academic year, without any explanation. The parents say that there is also clear evidence of other Indian children being harassed because of their background, culture and choice to be vegetarian. The parents claim that on the contrary, Le Rosey and its faculty painstakingly were involved in the character assassination of their young daughter by lowering her evaluation grades since she was one of the highest achievers of her class, supporting the students who attacked her mentally, even cancelling her contention for a re-enrollment to the next school year and subjecting her to unimaginable mental torture, in an ultimate bid to try to subjugate her into silence. (Sanjeev Sharma can be contacted at sanjeev.s@ians.in) The 2019 film Just Mercy, which chronicles courtroom struggles against racial injustice and mass incarceration, will be made free on digital platforms throughout June in the wake of George Floyd's death, Warner Bros said Tuesday. In the film, Michael B. Jordan plays attorney Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, who helps a character played by Jamie Foxx. It's based on Stevenson's 2014 memoir Just Mercy: A Story Of Justice and Redemption. Free for all: The 2019 film Just Mercy, which chronicles courtroom struggles against racial injustice and mass incarceration, will be made free on digital platforms throughout June in the wake of George Floyd's death, Warner Bros said Tuesday. Here is Michael B Jordan, left, and Jamie Foxx, right Hard time: In the film, Jordan plays attorney Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, who helps a character played by Foxx It is one of the books that has rocketed to the top of best-seller lists as protests have swept the country. 'We believe in the power of story,' Warner Bros said. 'Our film Just Mercy, based on the life work of civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson, is one resource we can humbly offer to those who are interested in learning more about the systemic racism that plagues our society.' For education: 'We believe in the power of story,' Warner Bros said. 'Our film Just Mercy, based on the life work of civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson, is one resource we can humbly offer to those who are interested in learning more about the systemic racism that plagues our society' Just Mercy, which was released in December, was the first studio project made with the inclusion rider. That is the contractual provision mandating the consideration of people from underrepresented groups for cast and crew positions. The rider was initiated as a way to change long-term under-representation of people of color and women in Hollywood. Good for all: Just Mercy, which was released in December, was the first studio project made with the inclusion rider Recent studies have shown that films like Just Mercy are starting to reshape the film industry. Also on Tuesday, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised legislation on racial profiling and other issues raised by the police killing of Floyd, while other lawmakers warned against using troops to quell protests sweeping across the United States. House Democrats are mulling proposals on a number of topics. But Pelosi described the racial profiling of suspects as a 'universal' issue 'that we must be rid of.' New way of doing things: The rider was initiated as a way to change long-term under-representation of people of color and women in Hollywood. Jordan seen with Brie Larson 'In a matter of just a short time ... decisions will be made and I think the American people will be well served,' she said. Pelosi and other Democrats attacked President Donald Trump's handling of protests after teargas and rubber bullets were used to clear protesters from outside the White House, just before he marched through the area and posed at a church with a Bible. 'The nation needs calm and steady leadership, a sure hand and a big heart, qualities that President Trump has never displayed,' Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said. Schumer called for passage of law enforcement reform legislation by July 4. Working to fix the problem: Also on Tuesday, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised legislation on racial profiling and other issues raised by the police killing of Floyd, while other lawmakers warned against using troops to quell protests sweeping across the United States; seen in late May Protests have intensified over the killing of Floyd, a black man who died as a white Minneapolis policeman kneeled on his neck. The officer has since been charged with murder. But protests have devolved into violence and looting in many locations, and Trump has threatened to deploy federal troops if local officials fail to end the violence. Some Republicans expressed reservations. 'That should be our last resort,' said Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally. 'We need to restore order. But using active-duty military troops in circumstances like this if a fairly rare occurrence.' Representative Elissa Slotkin, a former defense official, warned against using the military for political objectives. 'This is a dangerous path for our institutions, our military and our nation,' the Democrat from Michigan tweeted. The Falcon 9 is a slim, slick rocket - a powerful beast, for sure, that unleashes a menacing roar at liftoff that reverberates across the Florida Space Coast. But it also provides a deceptively smooth ride, at least at first, when compared to the Space Shuttle. The Falcon 9's second stage, though, packs a punch. That was the review of the first NASA astronauts to have flown on both Space X's Falcon 9 and its predecessor, the Space Shuttle, manufactured for NASA by contractor Rockwell International. The Falcon 9 was smooth at first, then a bit of a rumble, "like driving fast over a gravel road," said astronaut Doug Hurley, who with Bob Behnken offered thoughts of the rockets' performance for reporters on Monday. The mission was a test flight, and their job was not only to fly to the space station - a goal they achieved Sunday - but to assess how the rocket and spacecraft, which had never before flown humans, performed. Now that SpaceX has shown that it can safely deliver people to orbit, the question becomes how did its system, the first developed entirely by a private company to send NASA astronauts to space, compare to the rockets and spacecraft NASA had engineered before? Space enthusiasts finally have the beginnings of an answer to which system is better. Clearly, SpaceX's vehicles look different. Even the astronauts' spacesuits were sleek and form-fitting departures from their clunky, at times dowdy predecessors. Inside the capsule, SpaceX founder Elon Musk and his engineers simplified the control panels, banishing the dozens of switches that made the shuttle such a complicated vehicle to fly, and instead opted for large touch screens. The Dragon's chairs were inspired by those in race cars, with custom foam molds. Even the launch tower was revamped to look modern and sleek. And for this mission, the first flight of NASA astronauts from United States soil since the Space Shuttle retired in 2011, NASA decided to bring back its "worm" logo from the 1970s, which was painted on the side of the Falcon 9 rocket. The changes were not only a nod to the science fiction that inspired Musk as a child but a deliberate attempt to create an aesthetic and evoke a mood. "If you're a member of the public . . . you don't necessarily know that much about rocket design or how spacecraft work, but you know if it looks cool," Musk said in a recent interview with The Washington Post. "And if it looks futuristic and aesthetically, it seems like something new, that's how people match the perception with the reality." Form is one thing. Function is another. And in spending nearly $3 billion in taxpayer money on the spacecraft, NASA cared far more about the latter, especially since it was the first launch of astronauts from United States soil since the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011. So how did it fly? The reviews were positive for a mission that appeared to go off without a hitch. But there were some surprises. Behnken and Hurley, both of whom had flown the Space Shuttle twice, were prepared for blastoff to be an exhilarating display of brute force - nine engines firing simultaneously for a total of 1.7 million pounds of thrust, or more than five 747s combined. Waves of fire thunder out in what is basically a controlled explosion that sends up a huge cloud and a sound you feel in your chest, even three miles away. The astronauts were expecting a teeth-chattering thrill. "We were surprised a little bit at how smooth things were off the pad," Behnken said during one of several press calls after reaching the station. "The Space Shuttle is a pretty rough ride heading into orbit." One of the main differences, they said, was that the Space Shuttle had two solid rocket motors that thunder on their way to orbit. While powerful, solid motors cannot be turned off once ignited. SpaceX's Falcon 9 uses only liquid propellants, rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen; the result, the astronauts said, was a relatively fluid flight. "It was a very smooth ride, you could see it on the webcast," Musk said after the launch. "It looked quite smooth. In fact a friend of mine who is a filmmaker said, 'You need to put some shake into the camera to make it look more realistic.' " But when the first and second stages separated, and the second stage engine ignited, it gave them a bit of a shimmy - like the flaming engine of the Batmobile, is how Benji Reed, SpaceX's director of crew mission management, put it. "Our expectation was as we continued with the flight into second stage that things would basically get a lot smoother than the Space Shuttle did," Behnken said. "But Dragon was huffing and puffing all the way into orbit. And so it was not quite the same . . . smooth ride as the Space Shuttle was." Another new experience came at the beginning of the mission, when Hurley and Behnken boarded the capsule and sat there through the fueling process. During the Space Shuttle era, the rocket's tanks were fueled before the astronauts boarded. But SpaceX uses extremely cold propellant, so the rocket needs to be loaded just before liftoff to prevent it from boiling off. SpaceX "superchills" its propellant to make it denser, so more of its can be packed into the rocket. But it also means the astronauts can hear the fueling, a process full of grunts and hisses that make the rocket seem like it's stirring to life beneath them. "Hearing the venting and the valve sounds and the little vibrations associated with that operation was a new experience for us," Behnken said. It was one they were prepared for because SpaceX had recorded audio of the sounds and played that for them during training exercises. "We had heard all those sounds pretty much before, and that was extremely helpful" Behnken said. Perhaps one of the biggest surprises was not the noise of the liftoff, or the staging, or the fueling but rather the complete silence when the spacecraft finally did reach the station, some 19 hours after liftoff. The Dragon capsule glided in with such grace that "we didn't feel the docking. It was just so smooth," Hurley said. "That really, really surprised me." Here are some expert rules of thumb for tipping during the coronavirus, all subject to your own financial circumstances. Know your tipping point When people ask if they should be tipping more, My answer is, When you can, please do,' Gottsman says. Workers delivering groceries and meals for services like Instacart, DoorDash and Grubhub are getting into a situation that they're putting their personal health at risk, she says. We have to remember that when we're tipping." How much more is appropriate? I like to tip a minimum of $10 per delivery right now, but some people would not be able to do so, she says. It's all very personal." Lisa Grotts, a San Francisco-based etiquette expert and author of the Golden Rules Gal blog, recommends a $5 tip for pharmacy delivery, or a pizza order in the $20 range. For grocery delivery, consider upping your tip to 15-20 percent of your total order, she says. Tip for takeout In its online "General Tipping Guide," the Emily Post Institute run by the descendants of America's most famous arbiter of manners lists getting carryout from a restaurant as a no obligation situation but recommends 10 percent for extra service, like curbside delivery or a large, complicated order. But with eateries nationwide limited in recent months to delivery and pickup orders, and those in many states still operating under restrictions, customers are taking their favorite spots losses into account. Now, it is strongly advised that you should tip close to that of in-house dining, where the standard is 15 percent to 20 percent, Bagdan says. "I think in more normal times, people kind of balked at tipping for takeout, says Ted Rossman, an analyst at CreditCards.com who writes regularly about consumer habits. But right now in a lot of places it's the only game in town, and there's this recognition that restaurants are struggling and can we help these people out." Washington, June 2 : US President Donald Trump has vowed to deploy "thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers" to stop the unrest in the capital and other cities if local administrations refuse to take the action against demonstrators who were protesting over the death of African-American man, George Floyd. Speaking to the media on Monday at the White House, Trump said "I am your President of law and order and an ally of all peaceful protests", but was "taking immediate presidential action to stop the violence and restore security and safety in America" because the country needed "cooperation not contempt, security not anarchy, healing not hatred, justice not chaos", reports Efe news. "I am mobilizing all available, federal resources, civilian and military, to stop the rioting and looting to end the destruction and arson and to protect the rights of law-abiding Americans," he said. His remarks came as some 40 cities across the US, including Washington D.C., have imposed curfews to curb acts of violence in extensive demonstrations against police brutality and racism. Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old man, died in Minneapolis on May 25 after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, held him down with a knee on his neck though he repeatedly pleaded, "I can't breathe", and "please, I can't breathe". All four police officers involved in the incident have been fired, and Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Speaking at the White House, Trump said that Floyd's memory must not be "drowned out by an angry mob" and added that "strongly recommended" to every Governor to deploy the national guard in sufficient numbers to dominate the streets until the violence has been quelled. "If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the US military and quickly solve the problem for them," he said. The head of the National Guard Office, General Joseph Lengyel, tweeted on Monday that "17,015 National Guard Soldiers and Airmen are assisting local and state civilian agencies responding to civil unrest". Calling the violence in Washington D.C. on Sunday night "a total disgrace", Trump said he was "dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel, and law enforcement offices to stop the rioting, looting, vandalism assaults and the wanton destruction of property". He said the government was putting everybody on warning that seven o'clock curfew will be strictly enforced. He vowed to arrest and prosecute those "who threatened innocent life and property". "I want the organisers of this terror to be on notice that you will face severe criminal penalties and lengthy sentences in jail." At the end of his speech, Trump said he would go to "pay my respects to a very, very special place". Surrounded by dozens of security personnel, he then walked out of the White House across Lafayette Square to St. John's Episcopal Church that was damaged in fire amid protests on Sunday. Trump posed for the cameras with a Bible in his hand in front of the windows of the church, whose basement caught fire, although no major damage was done. -- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed Detention of four ex-policemen involved in Golunov case prolonged until fall Moskva city news agency, Kirill Zykov 14:59 02/06/2020 MOSCOW, June 2 (RAPSI) Moscows Basmanny District Court on Tuesday extended detention of four ex-policemen involved in a case over planting drugs on journalist Ivan Golunov for three months, RAPSI learnt in the courts press office. Igor Lyakhovets, Maxim Umetbayev, Akbar Sergaliyev and Roman Feofanov will stay detained until September 7. In late February, Alexey Kovrizhkin, the lawyer for Lyakhovets, told RAPSI that another defendant Denis Konovalov had testified against his client, saying it was him who had ordered to plant drugs on Golunovs bag and apartment. Investigators believe Lyakhovets, who does not admit guilt, is the organizer of the crime. The defendants are charged with abuse of power, evidence tampering and illegal drug trafficking. Only Konovalov pleaded guilty. He was later released from detention and put under house arrest. Investigators believe that they planted drugs on Golunov. Thus, they falsified the results of operative search activity that later became inculpatory evidence against Golunov in a drug dealing case; however, the drugs had been earlier illegally bought and kept by the police officers, according the Investigative Committee. In late December 2019, investigators opened the case over arrest of Golunov. The journalist was recognized as an injured party. All five defendants in the case have been dismissed from police. Golunov was arrested in Moscow on June 6, 2019. On June 8, the Nikulinsky District Court of Moscow placed him under house arrest for 2 months. According to the Interior Ministrys official statement, police seized nearly 4 grams of methylmethedrone from Golunov. The journalist pleaded not guilty, insisted that the drugs were planted on him during the arrest and claimed that his prosecution is related to his journalistic investigations. According to his defense, an examination showed no drugs in his biomaterial. On June 11, charges against Golunov were dropped because of a lack of evidence that he participated in the crime, and the journalist was released. On June 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed two generals of police on the back of the arrest of Golunov. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Brazilian planemaker Embraer SA is seen at the company's headquarters in Sao Jose dos Campos By Marcelo Rochabrun SAO PAULO (Reuters) - The world's No. 3 planemaker Embraer is open to new business partners after Boeing Co ditched a $4.2 billion deal that was years in the making, the Brazilian company's chief executive told Reuters. But Francisco Gomes Neto said any new agreement would be smaller in scope than the failed venture with Boeing. "We are not looking for a partnership of the size that the company had with Boeing," he said. "We think that it would be faster and more efficient to have partnerships by project." To do so, Gomes Neto will undo the costly separation process that readied Embraer's profitable commercial jet division for Boeing's takeover and bring all of its employees back under the same corporate roof. The two companies are now engaged in competing arbitration proceedings, having each filed claims against the other separately over whether the necessary conditions for the Embraer-Boeing deal were met. When Boeing canceled the planned deal in April just as the coronavirus ravaged the travel industry, Embraer was left with no plan B. Gomes Neto acknowledged Embraer is only now drafting a five-year business plan for the commercial jets division which Boeing would have run. Embraer drew up similar plans last year for its defense and executive jet units which were going to remain independent from Boeing. The commercial unit makes mid-range jets of up to 150 passengers, which compete directly with the Airbus A220. That plane was initially developed by a smaller company, Canada's Bombardier, whose jet project was acquired by the European planemaker. Gomes Neto, who took over after the Boeing deal was initially signed, is now remaking Embraer as a company focused on finding smaller, more targeted partnerships. A new turboprop aircraft that Embraer wishes to develop but no longer has the cash to finance could potentially spawn one deal, he said. Story continues "In these first few years coming out of the crisis we are going to have to prioritize many investments," Gomes Neto said. "We have reduced all investments, some of them are close to zero." Reuters reported on Friday that China, India and Russia were evaluating potential partnerships with Embraer. "We don't have any negotiations going on at the moment, but without a doubt they are potential partners," Gomes Neto said of those countries. "We are evaluating those markets in this moment ... but it's still in an embryonic stage." Another potential partnership involves the KC-390 military cargo plane which Boeing was once going to help market. While Gomes Neto said China could be a partner for commercial jets, the calculus is more complex for a military plane that was going to be marketed to U.S. allies in partnership with Boeing. "The military arena is a bit more delicate ... so for now we are going to focus on our original business plan for the KC-390," he said. "So a partnership would only be a second stage." (Reporting by Marcelo Rochabrun; Editing by Lincoln Feast.) Venezuelan President Says He Will Visit Iran To Sign Energy Agreements 06/02/20 Source: RFE/RL Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says he will visit Iran shortly to sign cooperation agreements in energy and other sectors after Iran sent five fuel tankers to the South American country. "I am obliged to go to personally thank the people," Maduro said on June 1 in an address broadcast on state television. He did not provide a date for his visit to the Islamic Republic. Venezuela & Iran Presidents Nicolas Maduro & Hassan Rohani in Tehran (October 2016 file photo) Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Musavi said earlier that Tehran will continue to export fuel to Venezuela if the country requests more supplies. Both Iran and Venezuela are under U.S. sanctions and Washington has sought to deter such shipments. "Iran practices its free trade rights with Venezuela and we are ready to send more ships if Caracas demands more supplies from Iran," Musavi told a weekly news conference on June 1 that was broadcast live on state television. Venezuela, once South America's top oil producer, is suffering from a gasoline shortage amid a deep economic crisis. The United States has warned governments, seaports, shippers, and insurers that they could face measures if they aid the tankers. Four of the five tankers have entered Venezuelan waters so far. The Refinitiv Eikon analytical company said on May 31 that the first two tankers have started their return journey. According to Iranian daily Sazandegi, 5th Iranian tanker has also reached Venezuela Tensions have been on the rise between longtime foes Tehran and Washington since 2018, when President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers and reimposed crippling sanctions that have battered the Iranian economy. Based on reporting by Reuters The original G7 consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.K. besides the U.S. Trump earlier complained about the G7, which he hosts this year. "I don't feel that... it properly represents what's going on in the world. It's a very outdated group of countries," and added, "We want Australia, we want India, we want Korea. That's a nice group of countries right there." Moon in a 15-minute telephone call with Trump on Monday said he would "gladly" accept the invitation, according to Cheong Wa Dae. President Moon Jae-in has accepted an invitation by U.S. President Donald Trump to attend the G7 Summit in September. Moon said, "I will gladly accept your invitation and Korea will play all possible roles in the areas of quarantine and the economy." He added an expanded G7 could serve as a "milestone" in the post-coronavirus age as well as a "signal" that the world is returning to normal. He welcomed Trump's aim of including Australia, India and Russia was the "right" step. Trump and Moon also discussed the prospect of inviting Brazil and turning the meeting to a G12 Summit. Moon said including Brazil would be "appropriate" considering the South American country's population, economic size and regional representation. The White House has said the aim is to bring in traditional allies to discuss how to deal with future challenges posed by China. The move comes amid deteriorating relations between the two sides over the origin of the COVID-19 outbreak and the Hong Kong crisis after China approved a new national security law that threatens the city's semi-autonomous status. There are fears that Moon too will find himself exposed to heavy U.S. pressure at the meeting to pick a side. In a policy meeting on Monday, Moon said, "Conflict between major countries amid intensifying nationalism is becoming a considerable burden on our economy." Korea is trying to get Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit Seoul later this year. To Beijing, the outpouring of anger in the United States over the death of George Floyd while in police custody has been a gift. In social media, in broadcast and in print, Beijing propaganda authorities have seized on rioting across U.S. cities to drive home a point it often seeks to make: Washington adheres to a double standard and lacks the moral high ground to criticize Chinese actions that impinge on its own peoples human and civil rights. The timing is highly convenient and a useful distraction for Beijing, which is working overtime both to convince mainlanders that Hong Kong is a willing recipient of a forthcoming national security law, and to refocus the narrative away from a coronavirus lockdown that left the economy reeling and unemployment spiking. On May 30, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus wrote on Twitter that freedom loving people around the world must stand with the rule of law and hold to account the Chinese Communist Party for having broken its promises to the people of Hong Kong after the Party pledged to jam a national security law into the citys governing document. Chinese diplomat Hua Chunying replied with three simple words: I cant breathe. Huas tweet was only one salvo in a sustained campaign by Chinese information authorities built upon the death of Floyd, the protests that have spread to dozens of major U.S. cities, and the sometimes heavy-handed police and government response. On May 30, Xinwen Lianbo, state medias flagship nightly news broadcast, showed its massive viewership reports that included interviews with fed-up protesters in Minneapolis. It included footage of protesters gathered outside the White House, a melee outside Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, and brief words from Floyds lawyer. One translated comment from an aggrieved protester (which could not be verified because it was not audible) pointedly stated: This is a human rights issue. Story continues The broadcast included a separate editorial that laid bare the footages purpose. American politicians are trying to escape [blame for] their own dereliction of duty in combating coronavirus, constantly passing the buck to China, blaming the WHO, anchor Hai Xia said. What prestige does [the U.S.] have left to make empty proclamations? Print media has followed suit. Peoples Daily has generated a bevy of headlines in its paper and online editions about the protests, covering everything from the arrest of CNN reporter Omar Jimenez to the Pentagons avowed plan to deal harshly with U.S. protesters. Social media is proving a particularly welcoming home to the many grim images and videos the protests and police response have generated. The hashtag U.S. riots is among the most widely discussed on Weibo, Chinas largest public-facing social media outlet, garnering over 1.6 billion views. Its a given that the Chinese Leninist political system will seek to exploit racial tensions in the U.S. today, just as Mao [Zedong] did in the late 60s, Daniel Russel, former assistant secretary of state for East Asian Affairs and now an executive at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told POLITICO. The timing and the shape of the protests are triply convenient for Chinese authorities. China is facing significant international pressure over a plan its legislature has backed to add a national security law to Hong Kongs governing document, a move that Hong Kongers and many foreign observers view as a blow to civil liberties there. China must also contend with the June 4 anniversary of the violent suppression of student protesters in and near Tiananmen Square. In person and online memorials are harshly censored and prohibited. To draw attention to the anniversary, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was expected to meet Tuesday with Tiananmen Square survivors. Finally, the protests detracts from a spate of racist incidents in April targeting African residents that led to sharp blowback from African nations that China had worked hard to court. Small wonder Chinese media quickly re-shared African Union President Moussa Faki Mahamats statement condemning Floyds death. (On Twitter, Hua added: All lives matter. We stand firmly with our African friends.) While Huas tweet to Ortagus drew a clear line between U.S. words and Chinese policy, the echoes are far fainter within Chinese-language media. For casual consumers of the news, U.S. protests and the police response fit into longstanding tropes in Chinese government propaganda and the state-led curriculum dating back to the rule of Mao Zedong: that the U.S. is unsafe, chaotic and beset with racial strife. For those reading between the lines, subtle parallels abound. The article about Pentagon plans refer to the pacification of protesters, a term used during Tiananmen, when Chinese troops trained for national defense, fired on their own people. And in response to news spreading on Weibo that President Trump had just urged U.S. state governors to treat protesters more harshly, one grassroots user even invoked the grim scene usually censored, but perhaps allowed to stand because of its critique of the U.S.: Who says the military cant face inward? David Wertime is the host of POLITICOS new China Watcher newsletter. Read the latest issue and subscribe here. Longtime activist Sandra Richardson was on a walk with her husband last Monday evening through the Minneapolis neighborhood where she grew up. What she didnt realize until the next morning was that during her walk, just blocks away, a black man named George Floyd was dying as a police officer knelt on his neck and onlookers pleaded with the officer to get off him. Richardson later watched the video in horror, like millions of others since, as Floyd had his life taken away from him by an officer with a very nonchalant attitude not far from her home. She wasnt surprised when the city erupted in mass protest soon after. If you talk to enough people in Minneapolis, it wasnt if this was going to happen. It was when, Richardson, who has worked against inequality in the city for years with the Peoples Institute for Survival and Beyond, an anti-racist community organization, says. You can only demean people so much until they respond. For activists like Richardson, its no surprise to find Minneapolis at the center of the national uprising underway. The city, they say, has a long record of police brutality that is symptomatic of broader racial injustice issues that go back generations. For years, Minneapolis large network of activists and organizers have been fighting for reforms to help close the poverty gap for the black community, and demanding the city stop increasing the budget of the police department, which they say targets members of their communities. Theyve held press conferences. Theyve gone to city council meetings. Theyve lobbied the state legislature. And theyve cautioned what could happen if officials dont tackle the twin crises of economic disparity and what they say is an overly aggressive police force. The reality is that our city and Minneapolis and elected officials were warned several years ago that this was likely to happen if they did not rein in the Minneapolis police department and also address the economic inequality that African-Americans here face, says Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and founder of the Racial Justice Network. They failed to take action and so this is really the outcome of that. Story continues When the Black Lives Matter movement took hold nationally after Eric Garner and Michael Brown died at the hands of police in 2014, solidarity protests also broke out in Minnesota. Demonstrators occupied the Mall of America, a major regional attraction, and shut down major highways. The next year, protests erupted again after police shot and killed Jamar Clark, an unarmed black man, in North Minneapolis, and in 2016, after a police officer shot and killed Philando Castile, whose girlfriend live streamed part of the incident in a Minneapolis suburb. In both cases, there was no police conviction. The mens deaths led to a groundswell of local organizing. Protesters held an 18-day encampment in Minneapoliss Fourth Police Precinct for Clark and a weeks-long occupation of the governors mansion for Castile. Local groups and projects sprouted up, like the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar and MPD150, a loose collection of local activists that support dismantling the police force and who created a peoples history of the Minneapolis Police Department that coincided with its 150th anniversary. Weve been doing anti-police brutality organizing in Minneapolis pretty much straight since Jamar Clarks killing in 2015, says Tony Williams, an MPD150 contributor and member of Reclaim the Block, a group that focuses on policy organizing. That was the point at which we realized that this place could be a flashpoint in the same way as anywhere else. Since Floyds death, Minneapolis activist network has swung into action again, organizing demonstrations, providing training and collecting and distributing supplies. Many of the organizers, like Richardson, live in the neighborhood where Floyd was killed. But as the city nears a full week of consecutive protest, something about this moment feels different, activists say. Several point to the citys Third Precinct burning last week as the moment they realized that they were in uncharted territory. In addition to the horrors of police brutality, there are bigger national issues at play, like a President with a penchant for making racist and threatening remarks and a pandemic disproportionately affecting black communities, that have exacerbated the situation. People are already trapped in poverty. You combine COVID-19 with something like this and people are going to react, says Marjaan Sirdar, a local activist on police violence who has collaborated with Reclaim the Block and other organizations in the city. They dont have anything to lose. The perfect storm Minnesota is often touted as one of the best places to live in the U.S., cloaked with a reputation of Midwest Nice. But the state has one of the largest poverty gaps between white and black residents in the country, according to research by the Star Tribune newspaper, a disparity that was recently compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Minnesota Department of Health has reported 24,850 confirmed positive cases as of May 31. Though black or African American residents make up just under 7% of Minnesotas population, the number of cases affecting reporting black patients was 5,569, or at least 22% of the total cases. Like other states, Minnesota has also been hit hard by job losses during the pandemic. It was almost like the perfect storm, because here we are in the middle of this COVID crisis which is facilitating this economic crisis, this unemployment crisis, but in some sense people of color have always been in a crisis, says Taiyon Coleman, an associate professor at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, MN, who has studied inequality in the area. It all just came together and (Floyds) death, which I dont want to devalue, was that spark that lit everything up. Though some of the groups that originally led much of the 2014 protests against police brutality, like the Black Liberation Project and Black Lives Matter Minneapolis, have since been disbanded, theyve been replaced by others, such as Black Visions Collective, and many individual activists who were part of the first wave have been consistently involved. There is a lot of overlap of black organizers who have been responding to the violence and trauma of the Minneapolis Police Department for years and decades, continuing to come together in this moment, says Kandace Montgomery, an organizer with Reclaim the Block and Black Visions Collective. I think what is really amazing is the ways that our community has built infrastructure in the last few years, to be able to be more coordinated and to bring in new folks, younger people to be able to really effectively organize. While they work in tandem on fighting police brutality in the state, the groups have different goals and tactics. Racial Justice Network, for instance, places emphasis on challenging leadership. A couple of months ago, when Democratic Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar was running for President, Racial Justice Network was part of organizing a protest that led to shutting down a campaign event over Klobuchars criminal justice record. The Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar supports families of victims of police violence and focuses on accountability. Communities United Against Police Brutality focuses on a consistent response by local volunteers to police brutality in the twin cities. Minneapolis NAACP, the local chapter of the national civil rights organization, regularly partners with these groups, and though Black Lives Matter Minneapolis is defunct, other chapters, like Black Lives Twin Cities and Black Lives Matter Minnesota, are still active. Other groups working in the city believe that reducing the police department budget or getting rid of it all together is the only way to protect members of the community. Reclaim the Block advocates for a significant amount of the municipal funds going to the police to be redirected to community-led initiatives, as does Black Visions Collective. MPD150 touts a police-free Minneapolis. Since Floyds death, some groups have been calling on the city council to sign a petition that states they wont increase police funding and to make a $45 million cut from the police budget to invest in the community. Last December, the department budget was increased by $8.2 million. We want to see (the city council) never increase the police budget again, says Miski Noor, an activist and member of Black Visions Collective. Our city can be safe. We can build this city up if we invest in our community and in community-led infrastructure instead of racist policing. The more immediate issue that goes hand in hand with defunding the police is increasing the accountability of police officers when they kill unarmed black men and women. Nationally, according to the Mapping Police Violence database, 99% of all police officers involved in killings between 2013 and 2019 did not face charges. The same data revealed that black people are three times more likely to be killed by police than a white person. In 2019, black people made up 24% of those killed by police, while making up just 13% of the population. Unless you change the accountability of the police department then nothing is going to happen, said William Green, a history professor at Augsburg University in Minneapolis who has studied the history of race and civil rights in the city. I hope that policymakers can man up or woman up and make those hard decisions to commit themselves to sustained efforts to change. Correction, June 3 The original version of this story misstated the name of a database that was cited. It is Mapping Police Violence, not Mapping Gun Violence. Rumor mill: AMD's renewed popularity thanks to Ryzen CPUs is well deserved offering both excellent performance and value for PC gamers and enthusiasts. Now the company might take a shot at doing the same on the smartphone market. Qualcomm, Samsung, Mediatek, and Huawei's HiSilicon are among the largest chip makers for smartphones, tablets, and wearables. There are also smaller companies like Rockchip who have been trying to compete, and now it looks like AMD is getting ready to test these waters as well. According to a leak spotted by Twitter user HansDeVriesNL, AMD may be preparing a Ryzen-branded smartphone SoC that, if proven real, could shake up the mobile market much in the same way as desktop and workstation Ryzen processors have done for PCs. Specifically, the company could be preparing an SoC named "Ryzen C7" that features two Gaugin Pro cores based on ARM's recently announced Cortex X1 cores running at 3GHz paired with two cores based on the Cortex A78 running at 2.6 GHz, and four low-power cores based on the Cortex A55 running at 2 GHz. Perhaps more interesting is that the chip seems to pack the elusive RDNA-based smartphone graphics solution that AMD and Samsung partnered for in 2019. This solution has been shown to be significantly faster than the Adreno 650 found in top smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S20. That, coupled with support for LPDDR5 RAM and 2K displays at 144Hz would make the Ryzen C7 a beast. The new chip is rumored to be built by TSMC on a 5nm process node and feature 5G connectivity using an integrated Mediatek 5G UltraSave Modem with support for dual SIM. As always, take this rumor story with the customary grain of salt, but if the leak is real, this could bring in a new stream of revenue for AMD. Oscar-winning director Taika Waititi has been blasted over controversial tweets about protesters looting during the George Floyd protests Oscar-winning director Taika Waititi has been blasted by some Twitter users over his controversial tweets about looting during the George Floyd protests. The Kiwi filmmaker said the 'lines are getting blurred' when supposed demonstrators were using the cover of the chaos to ransack youth retail store Urban Outfitters. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in custody of the Minneapolis Police Department on Monday May 25 after an officer knelt on his neck for eight minutes while making an arrest. The father-of-two's death led to a series of violent rallies across America, with protesters condemning the latest instance of a black suspect dying at the hands of police. Waititi, who directed Thor: Ragnarok in 2017, tweeted about the protests engulfing the U.S. on Sunday. 'You know the lines are getting blurred when 'protesters' are looting Urban Outfitters for three dollar Led Zep and Ramones t-shirts,' he tweeted on Sunday. The Kiwi filmmaker said the lines are 'blurred' because Black Lives Matter demonstrators ransacked youth retail store Urban Outfitters George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was filmed gasping for breath as a white officer knelt on his neck for eight minutes before he died in custody of the Minneapolis Police Department on Monday May 25 His tweet was immediately met with criticism from the Twitter community. 'This is not the time to police black rage sir,' one person responded. 'If you're trying to call out white instigators -fine, but you should probably reword this or explain,' another wrote. 'If you're criticising protesters who are just trying to be heard, then just delete the whole tweet, sir.' A third added: 'This neither the time nor your place to make jokes. Have a little compassion. People are risking their lives.' Another tweet read: 'You need to grow the f*** up, Taika. This is not the f***ing time to be cracking this goofy-ass, wack-ass joke. F*** is wrong with you? Open you f***ing purse or shut the f*** up.' Pictured: Demonstrators gather to protest the death of George Floyd on Monday June 1 near the White House in Washington Waititi's tweet was immediately met with criticism from the Twitter community Waititi also shared a video of activist Killer Mike speaking amid the protests to Twitter on Sunday. The Jojo Rabbit director wrote: 'Watch the whole thing. Eloquent. Clear. Everyone is angry but there is a way to direct that anger.' Mike said he understood why demonstrators were angry about Floyd's death but it was time to 'plan' and 'strategise'. 'I watched a white officer assassinate a black man. I know that tore your heart out. I know it's crippling,' Mike said in the video. 'It's your duty to not burn your house down for anger. It's your duty to fortify your own house, so that may be a house of refuge. Waititi also shared a video of activist Killer Mike speaking amid the protests to Twitter on Sunday 'Now is the time to plot, plan, strategise and mobilise. It is time to beat up prosecutors you don't like.' Waititi was again slammed for suggesting how protesters should act following Floyd's death. 'Taika, you're not Black, and in the same way Black people don't get to tell you the best way to cope with things happening to Maori folks, you don't get to tell us the best way to cope with being Black in America,' one person tweeted. 'You direct superhero movies. How do the superheroes save the day in the climax? Through violence. And it's been clear that the police are our Hydra and the defenseless brave souls are out here fighting for Black lives are our heroes. Please Don't tell US how to direct our anger,' wrote another. A third said: 'I don't think joining the chorus of condemnation is productive either. It only fuels the efforts to delegitimise the protesters.' Ryanair chief executive Michael OLeary has failed to persuade a US judge to dismiss a securities fraud lawsuit accusing Europes largest budget airline of defrauding them by downplaying its willingness to recognise labour unions. While dismissing much of the proposed class action, US District Judge Paul Oetken said shareholders could try to prove that Ryanair intended to mislead them with statements indicating a near certainty it would not welcome unions, the recognition of which could increase costs and reduce profitability. The Manhattan judge said this included Mr OLearys statement at Ryanairs September 2017 annual general meeting that hell would freeze over before the Dublin-based carrier accepted unions. Such statements are impossible to reconcile with OLearys subsequent admission that he had long anticipated unionisation, and were direct evidence of possible intent to mislead shareholders, Judge Oetken wrote. Ryanair offered that December to recognise pilot unions, to avert a possible strike, and its American depositary shares fell 5.2pc that day. Judge Oetken also dismissed claims concerning other statements about Ryanairs labour relations, profitability and growth targets, finding no proof the statements were false. Ryanair and its law firm did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Lawyers for the lead plaintiff did not immediately respond to similar requests. The lawsuit was filed in November 2018 by an Alabama fund, the City of Birmingham Firemens and Policemens Supplemental Pension System, on behalf of Ryanair ADS investors from May 30, 2017 to September 28, 2018. Ryanair cited labour issues when it cut its full-year profit forecast on October 1, 2018. Its share price closed that day more than one-third below its level in mid-March. [June 02, 2020] XOi announces new digital media strategist NASHVILLE, Tenn., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- XOi Technologies, providers of a cloud-based mobile application that connects field service contractors with an industry-leading online knowledge base and empowers them to complete more service requests, has named Cory Determann as the company's digital media strategist. In his new position, Determann is responsible for implementing XOi's digital marketing strategy by creating video content for sales, social media and internal and customer communications. "This is a fantastic opportunity to tell XOi's story by connecting with multiple audiences across many different platforms," Determann said. "And it isn't just about this company and its services the XOi story includes the contractors and partners we work with and how XOi helps them perform their jobs more efficiently and effectively." Determann, a veteran of the United States Air Force and a formr law enforcement officer, developed a passion for video storytelling by recording his personal hunting trips. That experience inspired him to pursue a new career path in video production. Determann joined XOi while studying film/video and photographic arts at Nossi College of Art in Nashville, where he earned a bachelor's degree. Determann moved into his new position after graduation. "Cory brings the same discipline and energy to XOi that he demonstrated when he decided to follow his dream," said Aaron Salow, founder and CEO of XOi. "His authenticity and dedication come through in his work. We're confident that Cory will help XOi share its mission and keep growing." For more information about XOi, visit http://www.xoi.io. About XOi Technologies As one of the fastest growing startups in Nashville, Tennessee, XOi Technologies is changing the way field service companies in the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing industries capture data, communicate with stakeholders, and service their customers. XOi Vision is a cloud-based mobile application that puts the resources remote field technicians need in the palm of their hands through access to a comprehensive library of manuals and diagrams, training content, and the ability to facilitate real-time remote video support. Workflow automation ensures every job is accurately and visually documented for both internal record and external customer transparency. Through artificial intelligence, Vision simplifies technicians' work, validates consistent quality, and transforms the customer experience. To learn more, visit http://www.xoi.io. MEDIA CONTACT: Heather Ripley Ripley PR (865) 977-1973 [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/xoi-announces-new-digital-media-strategist-301068034.html SOURCE XOi Technologies [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The video is incredible; it perfectly captures not only what Helping Hands does, but the sense of hopeful optimism that exists when community members come together and support one another. We are very grateful for the remarkable talents & generosity of the whole Evolve Studios team. Evolve Studios, a Nashville-based original content studio, announced its partnership with Helping Hands Community, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization dedicated to serving those most at risk for COVID-19. As part of this partnership, Evolve utilized its award-winning content team to produce a short anthem video aimed at promoting the nonprofit across the country. Evolve produced this video pro bono, as part of its ongoing commitment to supporting social causes. Coming off the heels of the release of Distance, Evolves award-winning short film about COVID-19 and the emotional fallout of the pandemic, the team at Evolve was eager to lend their creative expertise to this project. All of us in the creative community want to steward our talents & resources to help in this time of crisis, Joel Edwards, President at Evolve Studios said. When we heard about the Helping Hands Community platform, we immediately caught the vision. We wanted to align our studio as a strategic partner in the storytelling and communication of this amazing endeavor. Nashville-based band The Lone Bellow, fronted by Zach Williams, also offered the use of their song Count On Me for the promotional anthem video. With so many people being negatively affected by this pandemic, I think people are searching for some way they can help, said Williams. When we heard about this amazing effort, we knew we wanted to lend a hand however we could, and we are excited to have our song help in some small way with this incredible effort. Helping Hands Community, created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, connects people who are sheltering in place with able-bodied volunteers to offer free, safe, and secure delivery of essential goods. Since launching in March 2020, the California-based nonprofit has already made more than 1,500 deliveries to vulnerable individuals, including older adults, households experiencing food insecurity, and those with pre-existing health conditions. The video from Evolve will help spread awareness of the companys mission with even more in-need individuals and families across the U.S. We were thrilled to work with Evolves award-winning team and The Lone Bellow, to produce a video introducing Helping Hands Community to the world, said Helping Hands co-founder and CEO Jeff Miller. The video is incredible; it perfectly captures not only what Helping Hands does, but the sense of hopeful optimism that exists when community members come together and support one another. We are very grateful for the remarkable talents and generosity of the whole Evolve Studios team. With a team hailing from tech companies including Uber, Facebook, Google, and Salesforce, Helping Hands is built and operated by a team of more than 100 volunteers with backgrounds in engineering, design, operations, marketing, and policy. In just a few short months, the organization has grown rapidly across the nation, with a high concentration of volunteers in cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin and Chicago. To learn more about Helping Hands, request a delivery, or sign up to volunteer in your community, visit: https://helpinghands.community/. To learn more about Evolve Studios, visit: http://www.evolve.studio. MEDIA CONTACTS: Evolve Studios Melonee Hurt buzz@evolve.studio 615.496.4411 Helping Hands Community Lauren Volkmann lauren@helpinghands.community 831-331-3307 ABOUT EVOLVE STUDIOS: Nashville, TN-based independent, award-winning studio, Evolve produces premium content for a wide array of partners including Disney, National Geographic, ESPN, Netflix, NBC Universal, HBO, Discovery and many others. Evolve was founded in 2010 by brothers, Joel & Jesse Edwards. What started out as an entrepreneurial dream for the two Vimeo Kids fueled by an iMac, DSLRs & ramen noodles, Evolve Studios is now becoming one of the most discreetly influential original & branded content studios. As a full-service production company, Evolve produces a diverse range of premium content from original episodic series, branded & commercial content, films, documentaries, promos, music videos, digital films and immersive VR content. Evolves work has been recognized with numerous awards including 5 National Television Emmys, 40 Emmy nominations & many other top industry accolades. Empowered by incredible young talent, team culture and blue-collar creative work effort, Evolve has built a multifaceted studio that produces in three industry verticals all from the new content frontier in Nashville, Tennessee. To learn more, visit http://www.evolve.studio ABOUT HELPING HANDS: Helping Hands Community is a non-profit organization created to slow the spread of COVID-19 through tech-enabled, community volunteerism. We connect people who must shelter in place with those who can safely deliver critical items like food, medicine, or household goods, and provide various forms of assistance like dog-walking, mail pick-ups, or conversation. By facilitating these connections, we can help protect neighbors from contracting severe illness, and each other from an overwhelmed healthcare system. The current health crisis is unprecedented. We must move quickly to protect our families, our loved ones, and our fellow community members. We are all in this together, and together, there is a lot of good we can do. Learn more at: helpinghands.community. Washington: The White House cancelled the meeting of the US President Barack Obama with his Philippines counterpart Rodrigo Duterte after the latter used obscene language against him. aPresident Obama will not be holding a bilateral meeting with President Duterte of the Philippines this afternoon,a said Ned Price spokesman of the National Security Council, White House. aInstead, he will meet with President Park of the Republic of Korea this afternoon, September 6,a Price said in a brief statement. The White House decision in this regard came after the newly elected President of Philippines accused Obama and used an obscene language against him an unprecedented accusation against a US President. aWho does he think he is? I am no American puppet. I am the president of a sovereign country and I am not answerable to anyone except the Filipino people. Son of a bitch, I will swear at you,a Duterte said in Philippines on Monday. His remarks came after the White House officials said Obama in his meeting with him in Laos on Tuesday would confront about his countryas human rights record of handling drug traffickers. Earlier in the day Obama indicated that his scheduled meeting with Duterte might not go forward. aI always want to make sure if Iam having a meeting that itas productive and weare getting something done. If and when we have a meeting, this is something that is going to be brought up,a Obama told reporters at a news conference in China. According to an international news agency, the Filipino leader on Tuesday apologisedA for his remarks and expressed regret. #BREAKING Philippines President Duterte expresses regret over Obama comments a AFP news agency (@AFP) September 6, 2016 For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Your browser does not support the audio element. A significant proportion of infant trafficking stories from the Kho Mu ethnic community in the north-central province of Nghe An converge with Moong Thi Oanh, a middlewoman known for connecting expecting mothers to a transnational trafficking ring. >> Newborns for sale (Part 1): A behind-the-scenes look at infant trafficking in Vietnams mountainous regions Working with her mother, Moong Thi Hien, Oanh devasted her Kho Mu neighborhood over a years-long period by offering poverty-stricken expecting mothers quick cash for their newborn children. Oanh left her hometown of Cha Lan Village in Huu Lap Commune, Ky Son District, Nghe An in 2004 to seek out work in China. She eventually married a Chinese man. A few years later, she returned to her village and asked Hien for help in looking for expecting mothers in need of quick cash. For each successful trade, Oanh paid the mothers VND60 million (US$2,590) for their babies. Meanwhile, Hien earned a VN10 million ($430) commission for making the connection. A cold-blooded scam Hiens house in Cha Lan is quiet and empty. According to a neighbor, the house was abandoned after a lawsuit was filed against Hien and Oanh when they failed to honor the remuneration agreement with a mother who agreed to sell her newborn. The plaintiffs in the suit are Luong Thi Mui and her family, whose house is located just a short walk away. Lu Van Thuong, Muis husband, is a middle-aged man who has found solace in drinking. When asked about the whereabouts of his wife and children, he simply shakes his head and sips from a dark glass. Thuong said Kho Mu men are first exposed to alcohol in their youth and he himself has been steadily drinking since the day his unborn child was marked to be sold, just six months into Muis pregnancy. My child has been taken away for roughly a year, yet Hien and Oanh have only paid VND12 million [$515] and that was after my charge was sent to the authority, Thuong recalled. Lu Van Thuong eats lunch alone as his wife and kid are nowhere to be seen in their house in Cha Lan Village, Huu Lap Commune, Ky Son District, Nghe An Province, Vietnam. Photo: Thai Loc / Tuoi Tre The two families have been neighbors for years, but it was only when Mui was pregnant with her sixth child in early 2018 that Hien approached her. In her increasingly regular visits to Mui and Thuong, Hien hinted that the unborn child could be the solution to the familys debt. Eventually, the two parties agreed that Hien would help sell the baby and Mui, in turn, would be paid VND50 million ($2,160). That [amount of money] is nearly enough to pay off our loans at the bank, Thuong explained. Mui then traveled to China on a trip arranged by Hien and Oanh. She delivered after 35 days in China and was separated from the baby a few days later. Mui then returned home only to find that Oanh failed to honor the promise and had only given her family a fraction of the promised sum. Oanh said its hard to trade my son because he has a medical condition, Thuong explained the reason why his family only received VND4 million ($175). Mui and Thuong then filed a lawsuit with local authorities, after which Hien paid the couple an additional VND8 million ($345). After tricking Mui into the illicit operation, Oanh found success in luring another four women in from the Kho Mu community. Things eventually took a turn for the worse when Oanh and the four women were caught in a traffic accident in a three-wheeler with Oanhs husband as the driver. One woman unfortunately did not make it out alive. During the testimony procedures after the accident, Chinese police figured out all three of the women were being trafficked in an inter-country adoption ring. Oanh and her husband were then held in custody and subjected to further investigation as suspected criminals. After being repatriated to Vietnam with the survivors, Oanh was prosecuted for organizing illegal emigration. As she was raising a small kid, Oanh was not subject to detention during the investigation and has since fled the locale. Rescued pregnant women return home in Ky Son District, Nghe An Province, Vietnam after being tricked into newborn peddling trips organized by Moong Thi Oanh and her mother Moong Thi Hien. Photo: Nghi Xuan / Tuoi Tre From victim to dealer Moong Thi Chanh is also a known middlewoman in the western corner of Nghe An Province. She hails from the Kho Mu community in Huoi Tho Village of Ky Son District. Chanh was prosecuted for organizing illegal emigration in June 2019 but was released on bail with a residential confinement order to take care of her small child. In 2013, Chanh fell victim to a human trafficking plot and was sold to China. While adapting to life there, she made connections with Phuong, a Vietnamese woman who settled into local life with a Chinese husband. The duo conspired to make money by brokering the trade of newborns between Vietnamese women and Chinese customers. They scored a deal of CNY60,000 ($8,400) per smuggled child, which is to be split between the two. In July 2018, Chanh visited her hometown Ky Son and was quick to spot a pregnant woman named Cut Me An. Chanh attempted to coerce An into a bid to sell the baby all while looking for a Chinese customer with the help of Phuong. Chanh offered remuneration of VND70 million ($3,000) as long as An delivered a girl, to which she agreed. The middlewoman then ushered An to China in May 24, 2019 through the border city of Mong Cai of Quang Ninh Province. Phuong then showed up to take the child after the delivery while Chanh escorted Lan home with her cut from the deal. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Today host Allison Langdon has accused the NSW government of ignoring the sacrifices made by brave frontline workers during the coronavirus pandemic as it tries to freeze their pay. The controversial decision to award huge pay rises to bureaucrats while denying increases to ordinary public sector workers prompted the fierce TV debate on Wednesday. New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian tried to defend the government's plans, with Ms Langdon calling it a 'bad look'. The state government is hoping to save millions in a series of budget cuts, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to batter the economy. This includes a pay freeze for all public sector workers, including firefighters who tackled the fatal bushfires, as well as nurses and doctors battling COVID-19. But pen-pushers in the state government will still get their planned pay rises, as they were agreed to in August 2019, before the pandemic struck. Allison Langdon (pictured) accused the NSW government of treating public sector workers unfairly NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller will bag a pay rise of nearly $90,000, a 12.5 per increase that takes his salary to a whopping $649,500. However, the attempt to block pay rises for public servants was blocked in the NSW Upper House, forcing the government into a showdown with unions before the Industrial Relations Commission. Speaking about the controversial scheme on Today on Wednesday, Ms Langdon accused Ms Berejiklian of treating hard-working staff unfairly. 'It's not a very good morning. You did lose in the Upper House,' she told the premier. 'You can't be surprised, though?' Ms Berejiklian replied that the state government was enduring unprecedented circumstances due to COVID-19, and had to save any money it could to support workers on programs such as JobKeeper. 'We don't do it because we want to do it. We do it because we have to,' she said. People are seen queuing outside a Centrelink office in Sydney on April 14 (pictured) with the coronavirus crisis creating economic upheaval Ms Berejiklian (pictured) defended her government's plan, saying it was necessary to help the economy and protect more jobs 'When you govern, you have to govern for all citizens and 90 per cent of the workforce in NSW don't work for the public service. 'We know it is a big ask. A lot of people are saying to us, "We're OK not to have a pay rise for 12 months if it means someone else being supported during these difficult times".' The state government's wage freeze would see more than 400,000 public sector employees forced to give up their 2.5 per cent annual pay rise for 12 months. But Ms Langdon accused the premier of putting the state's bureaucrats first, ensuring they get pay rises while other workers suffer. 'We have called our frontline workers heroes, thanked them for the work they've done through bushfires and COVID-19,' the presenter said. 'On the other hand, you have your top bureaucrats have received massive pay rises, up to 12.5 per cent. 'The police commissioner, nearly $90,000. That is more than what some of the frontline workers earn in a year. It's a bad look.' Teachers will be subject to the 12-month-long public sector pay freeze (pictured, a teacher helping children wash their hands at a newly opened school on May 26) The premier insisted the pay rises had been agreed to long before the crisis began. 'But, Ally, can I make this point very clearly: All of those things you referred to were decisions taken last year,' Ms Berejiklian said. 'It doesn't matter, premier,' Ms Langdon quipped. 'It is all about optics here.' But the premier furiously replied: 'Actually, it's all about the hundreds of thousands of people that have lost their jobs in NSW. 'They'll be turning to government to support them, to help them get into jobs.' Ms Berejiklian said that while she was 'grateful for every single one of our 410,000 public servants', not all people in the state worked in that sector. 'We have a huge problem in NSW where literally, in a very short period of time, so many people have lost their jobs,' she explained. 'So every spare dollar we can borrow or grab or save, we have to put in for supporting job for the hundreds of thousands of people who have lost jobs. Nurses will be subject to the public sector pay freeze, despite being on the coronavirus frontline (pictured, a health worker testing a woman for COVID-19 in Sydney on May 12) Firefighters (pictured tackling the Gospers Mountain bushfire on December 21) will also see their annual pay rise scraped She explained that the pay freeze, which has been blocked by the NSW Upper House and will now be taken to the Industrial Relations Commission, was aimed at 'providing certainty' for workers. 'In a month, we have seen what can happen and are worried what will happen when JobKeeper finishes,' Ms Berejiklian said. 'We have to plan for that and come to terms with the economic consequences, as well as the health consequences of the virus. 'I am not here to make easy decisions, we're here to do what's right for the community. 'It would be easy to take the easy route but hundreds of thousands of families will continue to suffer and many more will lose their jobs. People are seen queuing outside a Centrelink office on the Gold Coast on March 23 (pictured) with the coronavirus crisis creating economic upheaval 'We want people to have a sense of security in the state. That's why we have taken the decision we have.' In the Upper House on Tuesday night, 22 MPs from Labor, the Greens and crossbench voted against the regulation to freeze wages. The NSW Government will now take the issue to the Industrial Relations Commission. The Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House, Adam Searle, said: 'This is an act of economic vandalism which will cost jobs, not create jobs. 'No matter which way you spin this, this is a cut in the purchasing power of those more than 400,000 workers who live in every suburb, town and village across NSW.' Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MLC Robert Borsak added: 'There is no proof that pausing the wages of about 410,000 public servants will increase employment.' Despite protests by nurses, midwives and other workers, the government plans to go ahead with the freeeze. State Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said: 'At a time when there are hundreds of thousands of people out of work, the creation of new jobs must be our top priority, not giving those with job security a pay rise. 'We're in the grip of a once-in-100-year crisis and it is simply not appropriate to pretend this is a year like any other.' The NSW government is undertaking heavy budget cuts as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The crisis could see between $10-20 billion slashed from the state's revenue, with the treasurer warning 'the hit to the economy is real'. Officials previously predicted that the government would have a $1.9 billion surplus over the next four years. Farmers around County Wexford are being urged to exercise extreme caution in terms of farm safety. The call comes in the wake of a recent fatal accident in which a man in his 40s lost his life on his farm in Antrim. There were six farm related fatalities in May to-date and the IFA is urging those working in the sector to be extra vigilant. With schools closed it means children are around farms at a time when farming in general is entering a very busy period. James Graham is a farmer and contractor near Camolin and, speaking to this newspaper about the matter, he said people can never be too cautious on a farm. 'There's a lot of activity now at this time of the year and with children off school they want to be out around the farm,' he said. 'There's a multitude of things going happening on farms at this time of the year and that also means there's a lot of machinery coming and going,' he added. 'Usually, children are in school now and it's hard to keep them off the yard with lambs and calves etc because they like being out there.' However, Mr Graham said the obvious danger posed by slurry tanks being opened now adds to the wide range of dangers that children and those unfamiliar with the workings of a farm now face. 'People just have to be more alert and aware,' he said. 'Children can be in view one minute and then, a second later, they can be gone,' he added. 'People just have be more alert of where children are.' Mr Graham also said children shouldn't be on tractors and even with modern, enclosed cabs, it's still easy for accidents to happen. He said it's very easy for a child to inadvertently get a tractor moving if they are in the cab and that could be disastrous if the parent is after getting down out of the cab - even for a brief minute or two. He said the same principle applies with regard to other farm machinery such as quads. He emphasised the fact that children shouldn't be on quads at all. 'People need to be responsible,' he said. Mr Graham also said the safety issues don't just relate to machinery and that care should be taken around animals too. 'If a bull decides to attack you won't get out of the field and you have to be very careful,' he said. He also highlighted the importance of letting visitors to the farm know of the dangers. 'It's also very important that visiting children know where things like the slurry holes are,' he said. His advice is in line with that of the IFA who also issued a statement to this newspaper about farm safety. 'Young children should not be allowed unsupervised access to the farmyard,' said a spokesperson for the organisation. She also said contractors should be made aware of the presence of children when they are about to work on a farm. The IFA also advises that teenagers should get training in areas like safe tractor driving and children under the age of 14 should operate tractors or self-propelled machines. 'Only allow children over 14 to drive a tractor or self-propelled vehicle in line with legal requirements,' said the spokesperson. 'When children have to be carried in the cab, it must be fitted with a properly designed and fitted passenger seat with seat belt,' she added. She went on to comment that a child or young person aged 14 or over should only be permitted to drive a tractor or self-propelled machine after they have attended a formal training course and that they are closely supervised by a responsible adult. From a practical perspective the IFA also advised that controls that operate the power take off (PTO) devices, hydraulic devices and engine cut-off are clearly marked. The spokesperson highlighted that vehicles and machinery are the main cause of farm accidents in Ireland and in the last decade have accounted for around 50 per cent of all farm fatalities. HSA inspector, Pat Griffin, also commented on the issue and said: 'Farms are by far the most dangerous places of work in Ireland that we are concerned about this year, in that we may get a spike in child deaths in 2020.' He said people usually involved in off-farm work are now around the farm more often, and children are also off school, which means the risk of injury is greatly increased by both inexperienced adults and unaware children. 'The most vulnerable people are young children and older adults,' said Mr Griffin. 'Last year 13 of the 18 people who were killed on Irish farms were aged over 60.' A former Perth businessman who admitted bribing a public official so his company would remain in good favour and continue to be granted nearly $1 million in work a year has narrowly avoided jail. Ian Tremain, 75, was sentenced in the Perth District Court on Tuesday after his dodgy dealings with North Metropolitan Health Service executive director John Fullerton were exposed in a Corruption and Crime Commission report uncovering an alleged fraud scandal. Ian Tremain, right, admitted wining and dining North Metropolitan Health Service executive director John Fullerton, left, as well as flying him and his wife to Melbourne and putting them up in a luxury hotel. Credit:ABC The 2019 report alleged senior public servants Mr Fullerton, David Mulligan and Shaun Ensor took gratuities including overseas flights and accommodation from 11 contractors for a decade. All five contractors charged so far over the scam have pleaded guilty including Tremain, Anthony Williams, Philip Wood, Liam Howard and Garth Delavale. Did the tragic video of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis throw you into a fit of rage? Of sadness and despair? Did it make you want to burn down a police station? Whether it did or (more likely) did not, you might be among the many who sympathise with the outburst of anger behind the overturning of police cruisers and the smashing of storefronts in cities across the country in the wake of Floyd's death, even if you disagree with property destruction. Though "violent" protest tactics are generally unpopular, they command attention and force us to ask: How did we get here? President Donald Trump, US Attorney-General William Barr and their allies have a simple and convenient answer: "It's ANTIFA and the Radical Left," as Trump tweeted on Saturday. "In many places," Barr explained, "it appears the violence is planned, organised and driven by anarchic . . . and far left extremist groups using antifa-like tactics." "Domestic extremists," Senator Marco Rubio tweeted, are "taking advantage of protest to further their own unrelated agenda." After another night of destruction that included the burning of the former slave market called the Market House in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Trump upped the stakes on Sunday by declaring that "the United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organisation." Trump's reckless accusations lack evidence, like many of his claims. But they also intentionally misrepresent the anti-fascist movement in the interest of delegitimising militant protest and deflecting attention away from the white supremacy and police brutality that the protests oppose. Growing numbers of people are at risk of delayed cancer diagnosis as hospital Rapid Access lung and prostate clinics suffer a significant fall in patients referred for tests by their family doctor. Electronic GP referrals of patients with potential symptoms of lung cancer to Rapid Access clinics have plummeted by 41pc. They are down to just 26 cases a week in May, from 44 in January before Covid-19 hit. The number of patients sent by GPs to the clinics, which can detect prostate cancer, have also dropped during that time by 28.9pc, down from 72 a week to 51, figures obtained by the Herald have revealed. The worry is that despite more routine hospital care being back and running, the "Covid fear" effect is still deterring older patients in particular from getting their symptoms checked. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death here, accounting for 20pc of cancer deaths in women and 22pc in men. During the height of the crisis in late March and April, the average attendances at clinics for suspected breast, lung and prostate cancer halved. Reluctance The number of women seeking a breast cancer diagnosis has now recovered and is back to 801 a week after falling to as low as 289 in March and April. There is also a recovery in skin cancer clinics after a fall of 75.4pc when panic about Covid-19 and the "stay at home" message was at its height. Dublin GP Dr Mel Bates said there was "still a reluctance" among older age groups who are at higher risk of cancer to contact their GP due to concerns about the virus. "People are saying it will be OK," he said. "We are seeing more people presenting later. "They may have had a pain for some time which is not going away." He pointed out that GPs may also be opting to refer urgent patients to hospital emergency departments, which have been quieter. The patients have been able to get a diagnosis of symptoms through that route. HSE chief clinical adviser Dr Colm Henry said Rapid Access clinics for cancer detection are now a priority. He urged anyone with potential signs and symptoms of cancer to telephone their GP to check them out. A HSE spokeswoman said: "Services have been reorganised and precautionary measures taken to ensure surgeries and hospital environments are safe for patients. All healthcare staff have been trained and equipped to help prevent the spread of Covid-19." There is a growing concern among doctors that patients with serious illnesses are suffering from the "collateral damage" of the pandemic. There is still no date for the resumption of cancer screening programmes CervicalCheck, BreastCheck and BowelScreen. They may not be ready to be up and running until next autumn. The three programmes pick up around 1,700 cancers a year in people who are invited for screening and unaware they have the disease. Meanwhile, it has emerged the HSE failed to meet key national targets for treating breast cancer patients last year and then sought to reduce them for 2020. The health service said there was "increased anxiety" in the BreastCheck screening service ahead of forthcoming legal cases, and hospitals were already struggling with a lack of staff. The HSE said "unattainable targets" would increase public pressure "if BreastCheck comes into the public domain". Under the BreastCheck programme, the HSE aims to arrange hospital admission for anyone diagnosed with breast cancer within three weeks. It has set a target to achieve this in 95pc of cases. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 07:43:02|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Demonstrators protest over the death of George Floyd in Chicago, the United States, on May 30, 2020. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot imposed a curfew on the city on May 30. Chicago's precautions followed a chaotic and violent Saturday evening, when many businesses along the streets were looted, police cars overturned and some properties damaged. (Photo by Christopher Dilts/Xinhua) A federal judge Monday denied a preliminary injunction sought by seven Oregon inmates, finding the states prison system hasnt shown deliberate indifference to their well-being during the course of the coronavirus pandemic. While the most effective protection is to reduce the prison population by releasing vulnerable inmates early if they dont pose a safety risk, that is a solution this Court cannot provide, U.S. Magistrate Judge Stacie F. Beckerman wrote. "Only the Governor has that power,'' she wrote. Of 2,584 inmates that the state identified as scheduled for release within six months and 666 others who are considered "vulnerable'' to the coronavirus and are serving time for non-Measure 11 offenses, none had been released early by the state as of Monday, though the majority of them arent in prison for person-against-person crimes, the judge noted. "Its clear that there are medically vulnerable individuals in custody who could go home a few weeks or a few months early without a risk to public safety, '' Beckerman wrote in her 42-page ruling. But, the judge noted: The law is clear that this Court cannot order the release of categories of individuals, or even a single individual, nor may it order transfers to underutilized or unused facilities to spread out the numbers, in response to Plaintiffs claims." The judge said the questions before her arent whether the state has responded perfectly to the coronavirus pandemic or whether it could do more to keep adult inmates safer. The question before the Court is whether ODOC has acted with deliberate indifference toward the health risks that COVID-19 poses to those currently in custody. As the Court learned, quite the contrary is true, Beckerman wrote. The evidence that Defendants presented made it clear that ODOC officials are already doing their best in response to this unprecedented crisis. To date, 157 adult inmates have tested positive for COVID-19 in four of the state prisons and one inmate has died. The judge described some of the steps the state has taken: It bought 60,000 cloth masks for staff and inmates, distributed educational material to inmates, prohibited visitors and contractors from entering prisons, guaranteed a supply of soap at no cost to inmates, created respiratory clinics in each facility, conducted widespread interviews of inmates to check if theyve got symptoms, isolated inmates who test positive for COVID-19 and quarantined inmates who have been exposed. While these are positive steps, they rely on effective and consistent enforcement, she wrote. The judge said she recognized that dozens of inmates have voiced legitimate concerns about correctional officers not wearing masks, a lack of social distancing and inadequate testing and care. The state Corrections Department has started making unannounced visits to each prison to audit compliance with its COVID-19 policies and has acknowledged theres room for improvement, Beckerman wrote. The inmates who filed the suit against Gov. Kate Brown and the Corrections Department are at four Oregon prisons and say, because of their age or medical condition, theyre at higher risk of contracting coronavirus. Inmate David Hart, 53, who was convicted of murder and arson in the killing of his mother at age 17, has served 35 years in prison and is set for release in August. He tested positive for the coronavirus on May 15, weeks after he said nurses told him not to worry that his dry cough was likely just allergies. He testified by phone from the Oregon State Penitentiary on Friday, urging the judge to order the department to take more significant measures to protect inmates. Attorney Juan Chavez, representing the inmates, had asked Beckerman to direct the Corrections Department to take every action within their power to reduce the risk of COVID-19. They demand better medical care, cleaning supplies and testing. They also requested consistent measures requiring the prisons to meet social distancing guidelines. The judge said its clear there are medically vulnerable inmates who can be released early. She cited the court testimony of Steven M. Stroud, who spoke by phone from Columbia River Correctional Institution, where he was awaiting release in 14 days on multiple robbery convictions. Stroud, 52, suffers from heart disease and is immunosuppressed, and told the judge he sleeps three feet away from other inmates in a dorm-style unit with 80 others. He said correction officers have yelled at inmates to wear masks while the officers arent wearing them. Attorney Andrew D. Hallman of the Oregon Department of Justice said the state has been making a good-faith effort to address a significant problem. He cited the 1996 Prison Litigation Reform Act in arguing that the federal court cant order relief for the state prison system. The Corrections Department has upended its normal processes and is putting intense focus on the best ways to mitigate this situation by following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Oregon Health Authority, he said. While Beckerman denied the inmates request for an injunction, she said she understood that they are rightfully terrified of being trapped in prison during a global pandemic and said the case will remain pending in court. Chavez said while hes disappointed by the ruling, nothing in this ruling prevents Governor Brown or the Oregon Department of Corrections from acting compassionately toward the people in their care by implementing necessary measures for public health, including releases. He said in a statement that we will be determining our next steps in the days ahead." -- Maxine Bernstein Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212 Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian Subscribe to Facebook page Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Coronavirus in Oregon: Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter Greater Albany Public Schools has joined with various community organizations to offer support to students impacted by the recent deaths of unarmed Black people which have sparked protests nationwide. On Monday, GAPS released a statement in partnership with the NAACP, Corvallis School District, Lebanon Community Schools, Linn-Benton Community College and Linn and Benton County Mental Health. "We are committed to a safe and supportive space for you," the statement read. "Our isolation during this time has a greater impact due to our inability to gather and support you. Please reach out to talk and find ways to get support." The statement comes on the back of nationwide protests and demonstrations overseas against police brutality, set off by the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota pressed on the handcuffed man's neck with his knee until he died. The deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor were also cited in the statement. Arbery was chased by two white men in a pick-up truck and gunned down after running in his neighborhood. Taylor was shot in her home after police were issued a no-knock warrant for two men residing in another home. She was shot at least 8 times. On Sunday, a group of approximately 2,000 people gathered peacefully in Corvallis holding signs and chanting Black Lives Matter and No justice, no peace. "We recognize that many in our community may be hurting right now," said GAPS Assistant Superintendent Lisa Harlan. "We want our students and families to know the resources that are available, and to feel like they can seek support when needed." Calling for a safe space, the organizations releasing the statement on Monday provided information for several local and national hotlines. "We acknowledge the pain and trauma in our communities of color," the joint statement issued Monday said. "We condemn violence and racism and we remain committed to providing a safe space in our schools and communities." If you or someone you know is in need of help, local organizations have provided the following resources: Benton County Mental Health crisis information hotline: 1-888-232-7192 Linn County Mental Health: 1-541-967-3866 (press #1) Crisis text line: Text "HOME" to 741741 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 NAACP (local chapter): 541-829-3023 Students can reach their school counselors by calling their respective school, emailing teachers or calling the district office. Students of LBCC can email Javier Cervantes at cervanj@linnbenton.edu. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 4 SAGINAW, MI - When two dam failures and heavy rainfall sent a torrent of water down the Tittabawassee River toward Saginaw, a marshy expanse known as the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge helped to contain the onrushing flood. The 10,000-acre refuge filled with water up to 10 feet deep, according to Refuge biologist Eric Dunton. Dunton said gates were open to a section of the marshs 940 acres as flooding concerns grew, which also pushed water into an additional 1,000 acres of the refuge that usually does not flood. Areas that were dry were plunged under water as the entire refuge filled, he said. The refuge remains closed to the public since it is currently holding water that would have otherwise added to the severe flooding that hit Saginaw County. The refuges Maankiki Marsh project, a 2016 partnership between the refuge, Ducks Unlimited and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, reconnected about two square miles of drained land to the Shiawassee River. On May 20, the day before the marsh was opened, it was completely dry, Dunton said. By the next day, it held so much floodwater that it resembled a small lake. We received four to seven inches of rain in the couple days leading up to the dam breaching, he said. Knowing the elevation predictions for all the local rivers, we made the decision to basically open up our entire refuge to flooding. In addition, the neighboring 10,000-acre Shiawassee River State Game Area, managed by the Department of Natural Resources, was also flooded, he said. The deepest flooding were the marshes closest to the Shiawassee, Flint and Cass Rivers, where parts of those had over 10 feet of water in them during the peak of the event, Dunton said. That water would have affected surrounding landowners otherwise, Dunton said. The refuges wetlands absorbed and held flood waters. The natural sponges, as Dunton called the wetlands, keep rivers from being overrun with rain runoff, thus reducing the affects of flooding. Because of the wetlands ability to take on such a large amount of water, Dunton said local landowners and homeowners were saved from having additional flooding damaging their property. As an added benefit, he said any water that has left the refuge into controlled river pathways is now cleaner, too. Theres a lot of sediments, nutrients and runoff that occurs in flooding events, he said. A lot of that now gets deposited in those wetlands, as the water gets released as the level drops, a lot of those things fall out, so the water that will leave will be leaving much cleaner than when it came. The refuge still has a few feet of floodwater and will remain closed to the public while repairs are made. While flood damage to the refuge was not extreme, Dunton said he believes the refuge wont be able to reopen until mid-summer. The refuge was established in 1953. Our wildlife drive that is open for the public received quite a bit of damage, he said. Weve got to get the water to drop, and then weve got to do an assessment. Dunton said that a few hiking trails have also been damaged. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the refuge is not operating with a full staff, which is expected to slow down recovery efforts. While closed to the public, the refuge will continue working on repairs and its recent partnership with the University of Michigan and U.S. Geological Survey. The partnership was formed to help create an extensive monitoring program across the refuge. The monitoring project will assess the benefits of wetlands on the local environment, such as recreational fishing, flood control and more. By installing gauges across the wetlands and local rivers connected to them, Dunton said the refuge can also help local landowners. The gauges are updated once an hour on NOAAs website, and you can see the elevation of the river, he said. We shared all that information with our neighbors in the community to help them understand how the system works." The gauges help predict flooding events, and local farmers have used the reports the refuge generated to make decisions about where to plant crops and how to save them during flooding events. As more people understand and use information gained from the gauges, Dunton said those in areas that experience flooding can get better and faster information before the flooding event occurs. Were helping to get this information out to the community and helping them understand the benefits of having wetlands, Dunton said. Read More Flooding closes Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge to public until further notice Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge prepares to take on flood water How a spring rainstorm became a 500-year flood event in mid-Michigan Gov. Whitmer calls for state investigation into Midland County dam failures Beware of flood-restoration scams, Midland officials warn residents The giant pan-African carrier MTN is enjoying differing fortunes in two of its markets, with expansion on the cards in Nigeria and tax demands making things tricky in Uganda. According to regional press reports, MTN Group plans to issue bonds worth 50 billion naira (around $129 million) in Nigeria to raise funds for its day-to-day requirements and working capital needs. This effort is part of MTN Groups plans to diversify its funding streams and to support MTN Nigerias 4G network rollout in Nigeria. Coverage in the continents most populous nation is now close to 50 per cent and MTN Nigeria has just under 70 million subscribers in the country rated MTN Groups largest and most profitable market. In January this year, the president and CEO of MTN Group, Rob Shuter, confirmed plans to invest around $1.6 billion in its Nigerian operations over the next three years. Theres less favourable news for a smaller, but still significant MTN market in the shape of Uganda, where MTN Uganda has been ordered to pay an $11.6 million tax bill it had disputed. A report from the countrys local press says that the countrys Tax Appeals Tribunal found in favour of the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) in two separate cases. In one case, the URA was demanding about $6.4 million in unpaid duties relating to the taxation of airtime. The second was a bit more complex: it was money owed by MTN as part of a dispute over how telecom and mobile money services are taxed. MTN suggested that the tax should be paid on the price of airtime it sells at the wholesale level, while the URA maintained that taxes should be paid on the retail value. The award came to just under $5.3 million. Mr. de Brito, with his daughters in Philadelphia, Anitra Maria Williams (left) and Renita Angele de Brito. He was a no-nonsense man who spoke out if he saw young men getting into trouble. Read more People Weve Lost Anibal de Brito 90 years old Lived in Philadelphia Nicknamed Nemo, he became a community leader in North Philly More Memorials Neighbors knew Anibal Francisco de Brito as Nemo. Born in Cape Verde, off the coast of West Africa, Mr. de Brito traveled the world as a merchant marine, spending time in Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Italy, and Brazil. But when he retired in 1968, he made North Philadelphia his home, specifically the 1800 block of Master Street, where his immigrant father and stepmother had settled years before. Mr. de Brito, then 39, found work driving a truck delivering heavy kegs of beer for Schmidt Brewery Distribution Co. In 1972, he wed Rennetta Rawls, who lived across the street. She died last year. The couple had two daughters, but Mr. de Brito had 10 other children around the globe. Renita de Brito said neighbors called her father Nemo" because they werent sure how to pronounce Anibal. Mr. de Brito became a beloved community leader. He loved people," his daughter said. He liked to get out to see people. And he loved to tell jokes and make people laugh. He was also a no-nonsense man who spoke out if he saw young men getting into trouble. He would say, Hey, man, what are you doing? You know you shouldnt be out here doing this, " his daughter said. He was healthy and strong and looked young for his age. And he loved taking long walks, even after turning 90 last September. He walked from North Philly to Center City, and he could walk faster than me, his daughter said. Thats why the family thought he would beat the coronavirus when he fell ill. But Mr. de Brito died from COVID-19 on Friday, April 24, at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Born in 1929, Mr. de Brito was the oldest child of Francisco Britto Sr. and Maria Silva. After high school, he joined the Merchant Marine. His first language was Portuguese, but he also spoke Italian, French, Spanish, and Dutch. Anywhere we went, he would know everyones language and could speak to them. He made a lot of friends that way, his daughter said. He loved telling stories about the places he had seen. But his favorite trip was to Rome, when he and his brother, Msgr. Federico Britto, attended the canonization of St. Katharine Drexel of Philadelphia. A devout Catholic and a member of St. Ciprian Roman Catholic Church, Mr. de Brito was thrilled to attend a Mass said by Pope John Paul II. In addition to his daughter and brother, Mr. de Brito is survived by daughter Anitra Maria Williamsand his children abroad: Diolanda and Antonio Britto of Portugal; Alcides and Federico Britto of the Netherlands; Juaquino Britto and Ana Maria Britt of Italy; Octavia Britto of Cape Verde; Cristiana Britto of France; and Francisca de Cruz of Brazil. He also is survived by three other brothers and a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. A daughter, Antonia Ana Varela, predeceased him. A funeral was live-streamed on Wednesday, May 6. Valerie Russ, vruss@inquirer.com The government had not yet received any official appeal on the issue from Russia. Ukraine could only resume freshwater supplies from mainland territories to the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Russia, only after the liberation of the occupied region, says Deputy Prime Minister for Temporarily Occupied Territories Oleksiy Reznikov The Russian Federation must withdraw its troops from the Ukrainian soil, Reznikov added, speaking at the Freedom of Speech panel show on ICTV. He noted that the government had not yet received any official appeal on the issue from Russia. "If they apply, the response will be very simple: withdraw from the occupied Crimea, withdraw from the occupied Donbas, pull your troops back from Ukraine, and then we will restore water supply for Ukrainian citizens in the free Crimea," Reznikov said. Read alsoUkraine to initiate creation of international platform to end Russian occupation of Crimea Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba noted that, despite the critical situation on the peninsula, Ukraine will not help Russia with water supply as the occupying power must bear full responsibility for whatever happens in the occupied territories. "We are following the developments on the Crimean Peninsula. Of course, the situation there is more than critical. And there are no tools to resolve it from the occupying state's perspective. But we have no plans to help out Russia, the occupying state, in addressing their issues. I emphasize that, according to international law, the occupying state bears full responsibility for the situation on the occupied peninsula," said Kuleba. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal earlier stated that Ukraine would not supply water to Crimea for industrial and military needs. The US public and media outlets have blasted the Trump administration for politicizing the issue of wearing masks or face-coverings, as the nations COVID-19 death toll surpassed 100,000, with experts noting that such irresponsible statements could worsen the countrys already severe pandemic situation. According to a nationwide survey of over 22,000 Americans in all 50 states conducted from April 17-26 by researchers from Harvard, 75 percent of Americans said they somewhat closely or very closely follow government guidelines to wear masks outside their homes, in contrast to Trumps refusal to wear a mask in public. Research conducted by experts worldwide has shown that wearing masks can significantly reduce the infection rate. According to Business Insider, researchers in Chinas Hong Kong found that the transmission rate of coronavirus via respiratory droplets or airborne particles dropped by roughly 75 percent when masks were used. The CDC urges the US public to cover their mouth and nose with a cloth face cover when around others. US media outlets, such as Associated Press, pointed out that Trump is worried that wearing a mask in public will hurt his re-election chances. CNN explained that Trump, who is extremely image-conscious, seems to view mask-wearing as a sign of weakness, mocking his opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, as well as Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason for wearing a mask, accusing the latter of attempting to be politically correct by covering his face. By using his megaphone not to call the country to unity and resolve, but to dilute the urgent calls of public health experts, Trump not only helps undermine trust in the government, but he also makes people more reluctant to follow the advice of those who have devoted their lives to learning how to stop diseases, CNN columnist Frida Ghitis noted in her article published on May 28. With more than 101,000 people already dead due to Covid-19 in the country, most Americans think Trump should wear a mask. They would rather feel safe than follow the advice of a man whose handling of the crisis they believe has been a failure, said Ghitis. Reuters Arabic Misidentifies Dome of Rock | Main | Haaretz Applies Inconsistent Standards to NGOs June 02, 2020 Harpers Magazine Echoed Palestinian Propaganda Condemning Israel And America Writing in Harper's, Kevin Baker condemns the U.S. Middle East peace plan [The Striking Gesture, Easy Chair, May 2020], mischaracterizing it as, Give up all your [Palestinian] hopes and your holiest places, embark on a terrible civil war with your brothers, hand over all your weapons First, its not true that the Palestinians would be giving up their holiest places. Nowhere is it indicated in the peace plan that Muslims would lose any holy places. Furthermore, the writer fails to inform readers why it would be dangerous to fail to limit the arming of a Palestinian state: There were the wars of 1948 and 1973 caused by attacks aimed at destroying the Jewish state by armies of Arab nations allied with the Palestinians. There was the war in 1967 precipitated by the hostile actions of Egypt, an ally of the Palestinians, endangering Israel. This had been preceded by an increase of Palestinian terrorist attacks upon Israelis. Then, during the 1980s, 1990s and in 2000-2005, West Bank Palestinians perpetrated organized terrorist intifadas which killed over a thousand Jews. The ongoing violence has been fueled by the Palestinian Authority's cradle-to-grave incitement of the people. For example, as the Wall Street Journal noted in 2015, Mr. [Mahmoud] Abbas, the PA president, said the following on Palestinian television on Sept. 16: We welcome every drop of blood spilled in Jerusalem. This is pure blood, clean blood, blood on its way to Allah. With the help of Allah, every martyr [murderer of Jews] will be in heaven, and every wounded will get his reward.' Hopefully, the next time a Harpers writer deals with this subject matter or a similar topic, the approach will be more measured. Posted by MK at June 2, 2020 02:11 PM Guidelines for posting This is a moderated blog. We will not post comments that include racism, bigotry, threats, or factually inaccurate material. Post a comment By Ali Tadayon EdSource The financial fallout from the coronavirus is threatening the budgets of all California schools, but cash-strapped districts like West Contra Costa Unified may be hit the hardest. The district was already spending beyond its means prior to COVID-19, and estimated it had a projected deficit of $48 million by 2022. To reduce the projected deficit, it cut around $30 million from next school year's budget in February, a move that required teacher and staff layoffs. It aimed to cut the remaining $18 million from the budget for the 2021-2022 school year. But now with funding shortfalls on the horizon and higher costs due to the pandemic, district officials fear that more difficult choices are ahead. California Education Code requires school districts to adopt balanced budgets each year in June, which must be approved by their local county office of education. If a district is unable to meet its financial obligations while maintaining state-mandated reserve levels, state administrators could take over its finances, forcing their own cuts on the district. West Contra Costa Unified is not alone in this predicament, said California School Boards Association spokesman Troy Flint. The organization conducted a survey in February and found that even then, 77% of districts were on course to deficits by the end of the school year. "Districts of all sizes are feeling the pressure," Flint said. "There's going to be an impact on services and programs districts can provide, but once you cut back in those areas you're faced with the possibility of layoffs, which also has a detrimental impact on students. It's not just disadvantageous to employees, it affects students and communities as well." In addition to existing deficits, districts face twin problems caused by the coronavirus - higher costs and funding shortfalls. School district expenses have shot up during the pandemic. In a May 18 letter to legislators, officials from six urban districts said they've already incurred extra costs this year as they shifted to distance learning. These included providing laptops to students, serving meals to families and providing personal protective equipment to staff. There's also the added costs of expanding summer programs and potentially re-opening in the fall while following safety guidance. West Contra Costa Unified officials, at a May 20 school board meeting, said they are still calculating the total cost of transitioning to digital learning March 16. Like districts throughout the state, they're also waiting on guidelines from the state before planning how to open in the fall. The situation is grim on the revenue side, as well. Like the whole country, California's economy has been plunged into recession by the coronavirus. That's sharply reduced the state's revenues, at least 40% of which go to public schools. Even though Gov. Gavin Newsom tried to lessen the impact of the shortfall in his May 14 budget proposal, the Local Control Funding Formula - which accounts for 80% of the state funding for K-12 schools - will still take a $6.5 billion hit. All districts would receive a 10% cut in state funding. In addition, Newsom proposed doing away with a 2.3% cost-of-living adjustment that districts were banking on at the start of the year. These cuts could be prevented if Congress passes the HEROES Act - a $3 trillion federal stimulus bill for states, cities and counties. The bill passed in the House but faces dim prospects in the Republican-controlled Senate. West Contra Costa Unified's chief business officer, Tony Wold, said that, even under a best-case scenario that included HEROES funding, the district would be stuck cutting a total of more than $24 million from its budget for the 2021-2022 school year. But if the HEROES Act does not pass and the district faces the reduction in the Local Control Funding Formula, the district would need to cut $41 million in the 2021-2022 school year. Still, Wold urged the school community to stay calm. "There still is a pathway for us. We will absolutely be able to be a viable school district next school year even under the worst-case scenario," Wold said at the May 20 school board meeting. "Because of the leadership of this board, of the cabinet, of the community to make the cuts that we needed to do we positioned ourselves to survive the first year of the single worst-impacted budget in the history of California schools." The district "will look at all possible options to make reductions," which would be negotiated with its labor unions, Wold told EdSource. The district will "allow the government to move through the political process over the next couple of months" in order to determine how much financial help will be available. Then it will meet with local stakeholders before deciding how the cuts would be made. If the district must make $41 million in cuts to its budget, it would end the 2021-2022 school year with a financial reserve of $14.7 million, satisfying state requirements for a district of that size. If the district doesn't meet its budget-cutting target, it will be "in the red," Wold said, since it would have drained all of its reserve funds. At that point, the district would risk state takeover. "Every dollar that we get in federal aid, every dollar that we don't spend, will reduce that cut target for 21-22," Wold said. "So we have an entire year to advocate and work through to make a difference." Demetrio Gonzalez, president of the United Teachers of Richmond, said the teachers union has met with both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Governor Gavin Newsom's staff to advocate for more funding for the district. Gonzalez said the union stressed to Newsom's staff how profound the impact of the proposed cuts would be on West Contra Costa Unified and other urban districts. Both the United Teachers of Richmond and the district plan to step up their advocacy for the Schools and Communities First initiative. The November ballot measure would alter Prop 13 to raise taxes on most commercial property, and is estimated to raise $12 billion annually for school districts and local governments. If the initiative were to pass, it would soften the blow of the state budget cuts to West Contra Costa Unified. East Bay state Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, whose district encompasses West Contra Costa Unified, told EdSource that the initiative would directly respond to the financial crisis faced not only by schools but social safety net programs as well. "These investments in our schools and communities were essential before the pandemic - now, particularly in light of the state's seismic budget deficit, they're a lifeline we simply can't go without," Wicks said. This story was originally published by EdSource. Please use the following link when sharing: https://edsource.org/2020/cash-strapped-bay-area-school-district-braces-for-cuts-in-state-funding/632577 Copyright 2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Hopes riding high for Phuket airport to reopen mid-June PHUKET: Phuket officials are readying for Phuket International Airport to reopen mid-June, following a provincial order issued on Sunday night that opened interprovincial travel into and out of Phuket, and for hotels and all tourism-related businesses to resume operations. COVID-19tourismtransportCoronavirushealth By The Phuket News Tuesday 2 June 2020, 04:11PM The notice posted by AoT Phuket yesterday (June 1). Image: AoT Phuket The Phuket office of the Public Relations Department of Thailand (PR Phuket) this morning reported that Phuket airport will reopen on June 15, and boasted that Phuket is ready for arrivals with its control measures that have successfully countered the spread of COVID-19. PR Phuket announced that all people passing through Phuket airport are to follow the same requirements as announced ahead of the planned May 16 re-opening, which fell through just hours before the airport was to reopen. The announcement by PR Phuket this morning follows the Airports of Thailand management team at Phuket airport (AoT Phuket) yesterday announcing that they are ready to receive passengers under Phase 3 of the nationwide relaxation of the COVID-19 lockdown measures. However, AoT Phuket made it plain in their announcement yesterday that they did not expect the airport to resume any operations until June 16. AoT Phuket explained yesterday that no domestic flights were permitted to operate at Phuket airport under an order by the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) which came into effect at 10:15pm on May 29 and which is currently set to expire at 23:59pm on June 15, unless otherwise ordered. The notice yesterday also pointed out that any persons travelling via the airport are to register details of their intended travel through the PhuketSmartCheck-In app and be issued their own personalised QR code to show airport staff and officials. The notice made no mention of any Fit to Travel permit or any self-quarantine requirements. The notice also made no mention that under another order by the CAAT all inbound international commercial passenger flights into Thailand remain banned until at least June 30. Called today and asked about the airport reopening, Phuket International Airport General Manager Thanee Chuangchoo declined to comment. Phuket Provincial Police Commander Maj Gen Rungrote Thakurapunyasiri explained yesterday that no self-quarantine requirements applied to any persons entering Phuket, except for the eight risk provinces Bangkok, Nonthaburi, Narathiwat, Yala, Krabi, Prachinburi, Samut Prakan and Chiang Mai as announced by Phuket Governor Phakahong Tavipatana last Friday (May 29). Also in line with Maj Gen Rungrotes explanation yesterday, the AoT Phuket notice explained that people visiting Phuket for travel or business will see their registration remain valid for seven days, while people coming to Phuket to work and even Phuket residents returning home will both see their registrations remain valid for 30 days. However, Maj Gen Rungrote yesterday stressed that there will be no fine or legal action for a persons registration expiring while they are still in Phuket. If their QR Code expires, they must re-register again but there is no need to leave Phuket because of this, and they will not be charged with breaking any law or be forced to pay a fine. They just need to re-register for local officials health records, he said Meanwhile, PR Phuket today reminded people looking to travel via the airport to allow an extra one to two hours to their planned travel time to account for any delays. The PR Phuket notice also reminded people that the Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO) urges people to observe the new normal health regulations. Editors note: this story has been updated to reflect the weather Monday night. Scattered afternoon thunderstorms and skyrocketing temperatures are headed to Albuquerque and much of New Mexico this week including the arrival of a blustery and wet beginning for the start of June in the metro area Monday night. Lightning, thunder and light rain covered Albuquerque and many parts of central and northern New Mexico Monday evening with as much as a half inch of rain reported in Rio Rancho and lesser amounts from the Sunport to other areas. Hail was reported in many area of northeast New Mexico as well. Daniel Porter, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Albuquerque office, said this May was the sixth-warmest on record for Albuquerque. It was also the fourth-warmest on record for Roswell and the 12th-warmest on record for Clayton. The office will soon release its 2020 monsoon outlook. Weve had a dry and warm start to the year, Porter said. Were starting to approach our traditional wet season, our monsoon season, so hopefully we can turn some of this around. Forecasts show a high of 90 degrees Tuesday for Albuquerque and a high of 92 on Wednesday. Albuquerque NWS forecaster Randall Hergert said storms in the northern mountains could produce a half-inch to an inch of rain, along with small hail and high winds. Thunderstorms will move into northeastern New Mexico on Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday, Albuquerque will have a high of 97 and Roswell is expected to have triple-digit temperatures. Thursday will likely be the hottest and driest day of the week, Hergert said. Anybody getting rain on Thursday is going to be really, really lucky. The heat will continue Friday, with a high of 97 in Albuquerque and a 30% chance of rain. As temperatures push or surpass 100, the National Weather Service encourages residents to limit outdoor activities, drink lots of water and work outdoors early or late in the day. Severe thunderstorms are possible Friday in northwestern New Mexico. But the eastern plains will stay hot and dry. Drier and slightly cooler weather will move in for the weekend. Albuquerque will drop to a high of 92 degrees Saturday and 94 degrees Sunday. Chances for rain are minimal over the weekend. New York City, United States -- The change during the COVID-19 pandemic has overhauled our dependence on pattern setting developments, for instance, expanded reality, computer generated reality, and the Healthcare web of things. The unfulfilled cash related targets are persuading the relationship to grasp robotization and forefront advancements to stay ahead in the market competition. Associations are utilizing this open entryway by recognizing step by step operational needs and showing robotization in it to make an automated structure as far as might be feasible. Persistence Market Research (PMR), in its new offering, opines global double chamber prefilled syringes market to grow at a CAGR of 9% during the forecast period. Over the recent years, FDA has approved a large number of parenteral drugs for lyophilized products, which is boosting the requirement for parenteral drug delivery systems of higher efficiency. This is among the major factors boosting the global demand for dual and multi-chamber prefilled syringes. The efficacy of constituted drugs is majorly influenced by drug delivery systems. Owing to their limitations, traditional modes are likely to impact the overall drug delivery process, however, dual chamber syringe technology ensures highly efficient drug use through precise product constitution. Get Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/29257 Comapnies Profiles Pfizer Inc. Biosciences, Inc. Ypsomed AG Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. Credence MedSystems, Inc. Vetter Pharma International GmbH MAEDA INDUSTRY Co., Ltd. AstraZeneca plc AbbVie Inc. Nipro Corporation SCHOTT AG Dual chamber syringes are specifically designed for the administration of highly sensitive drugs (protein, probiotics, etc.), as well as to maintain their desired shelf life. The actual active ingredient of the drug is lyophilized in one of the two chambers of the syringe, and the other chamber of the prefilled syringe contains a solvent that mixes with active substances immediately before their application. According to PMR, the global double chamber prefilled syringes market is estimated to have accounted for approximately US$ 1.4 Bn in terms of value in 2018. High convenience associated with the usage of double chamber prefilled syringes is driving their adoption among end users, which is boosting the demand for double chamber prefilled syringes. This is one of the leading factors that are significantly contributing to the growth of the double chamber prefilled syringes market. Moreover, double chamber prefilled syringes facilitate next-generation drug delivery technology and are more patient-centric as compared to traditional modes. The design of these prefilled syringes enable drug makers to expand their lyophilized and biological drug capabilities. Owing to the high efficiency and accuracy of delivering lyophilized and liquid formulations offered by double chamber prefilled syringes, they are emerging as among the potential drug delivery modes. Among their various applications, liquid/lyophilisate-based double chamber prefilled syringes are expected to witness high clinical demand over conventional ones. Get To Know Methodology of Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/29257 Moreover, the ongoing economic boom in countries such as India, China, Japan, and Indonesia has had a positive impact on the healthcare sector, which has contributed to the growth of the double chamber prefilled syringes market. As the percentage of aged population continues to grow in Japan, the prevalence of chronic diseases is also on the rise. Over the next couple of years, the demand for pharmaceutical products is expected increase at a modest pace in Japan. This is driving the revenue generation of the double chamber prefilled syringes market in Asian countries. In addition, manufacturers are actively focusing on improving product efficiency and safety of use. In order to adhere to user safety laws, manufacturers are incorporating safety features in their products. Although the number of marketed prefilled syringes with integrated safety features is currently low, an increasing number of manufacturers are likely to be interested in offering these products in the near future. The (<1.0 mL) double chamber prefilled syringes segment is a leading revenue segment by product type in the double chamber prefilled syringes market, accounting for an approximate 45% revenue share in 2018. The (<1.0 mL) double chamber prefilled syringes segment is followed by (>5 mL) the double chamber prefilled syringes segment, thereby accounting for the second highest revenue generating product segment. Among all the distribution channels in the double chamber prefilled syringes market, the hospital pharmacies segment is expected to be a prominent segment, followed by the retail pharmacies segment. Access Full Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/29257 The double chamber prefilled syringes market has been analyzed across the regions of Latin America, North America, South Asia, Europe, Oceania, East Asia, and Middle East & Africa. North America, followed by Europe and East Asia, is a prominent region in the global double chamber prefilled syringes market. North America accounted for a revenue share of about 35% in 2018 in the double chamber prefilled syringes market. The Europe market, which also registered a prominent revenue share, was followed by the East Asia and South Asia double chamber prefilled syringes markets. India, China, and Mexico are among the emerging double chamber prefilled syringes markets. India is estimated to be among the rapidly growing emerging markets in the global double chamber prefilled syringes market, and is projected to grow at a CAGR of more than 10% during the forecast period of 2019-2029.The double chamber prefilled syringes market report tracks some of the key companies operating in double chamber prefilled syringes market, BERGEN COUNTY, NJ Forty new coronavirus cases have been reported in Bergen County by the New Jersey Department of Health as of Tuesday, June 2 at 1 p.m. In total, the NJDOH reports 18,333 positive coronavirus test results in the county, as well as 1,584 deaths. Sixty-three long-term care facilities are reporting outbreaks, which include a total of 3,139 resident cases and 1,604 total staff cases. Ten staff members have died, as have 913 residents. At the Paramus Veterans Memorial Home, 80 residents have died and 196 have been confirmed positive by the NJDOH. Statewide, 145 residents of veterans homes have died and 385 residents have confirmed cases. At the Menlo Park Veterans Home, 62 residents have died and 181 residents have tested positive for the coronavirus. Coronavirus cases in individual Bergen County municipalities are as follows: Allendale: 67 Alpine: 23 Bergenfield: 804 Bogota: 170 Carlstadt: 99 Cliffside Park: 480 Closter: 83 Cresskill: 116 Demarest: 45 Dumont: 308 East Rutherford: 136 Edgewater: 132 Elmwood Park: 528 Emerson: 233 Englewood: 757 Englewood Cliffs: 56 Fair Lawn: 596 Fairview: 365 Fort Lee: 475 Franklin Lakes: 148 Garfield: 791 Glen Rock: 115 Hackensack: 1,290 Harrington Park: 28 Hasbrouck Heights: 203 Haworth: 37 Hillsdale: 119 Ho-Ho-Kus: 44 Leonia: 107 Little Ferry: 188 Lodi: 649 Lyndhurst: 376 Mahwah: 260 Maywood: 221 Midland Park: 86 Montvale: 76 Moonachie: 69 New Milford: 452 North Arlington: 275 Northvale: 59 Norwood: 83 Oakland: 226 Old Tappan: 68 Oradell: 178 Palisades Park: 254 Paramus: 1,103 Park Ridge: 165 Ramsey: 127 Ridgefield: 199 Ridgefield Park: 260 Ridgewood: 297 River Edge: 134 River Vale: 118 Rochelle Park: 182 Rockleigh: 124 Rutherford: 192 Saddle Brook: 306 Saddle River: 79 South Hackensack: 63 Teaneck: 1,055 Tenafly: 162 Teterboro: 6 Upper Saddle River: 52 Waldwick: 132 Wallington: 163 Washington Township: 98 Westwood: 212 Woodcliff Lake: 120 Wood-Ridge: 136 Wyckoff: 334 Bergen County - No Town Attribution: 693 HOSPITALS AND TESTING: Bergen County now offers drive-thru testing at Bergen Community College for any New Jersey resident with coronavirus symptoms of COVID-19. Tests are given first come, first serve from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Teaneck has announced a new testing site at Fairleigh Dickinson University, starting May 11. Passaic County also offers drive-thru testing. Hackensack Meridian offers COVID-19 testing at its nine urgent care centers in Monmouth and Ocean counties. Immediate care of Marlboro is offering a drive-thru COVID-19 test in the Marlboro Medical Arts site located at 479 Rt 520 in Marlboro. Testing is by appointment only at (855) 925-5467 ext 0. The PNC Bank Arts Center is a regional FEMA drive-thru test location and is open for testing every other day from 8 a.m. to 4pm for up to 500 persons per day. Click here for PNC Arts Test Center info and schedule. On every Saturday, the PNC Bank Arts Center site will be dedicated to symptomatic health care workers and first responders -- police, fire, and EMS -- with valid credentials only. The general public will not be able to access this site on Saturdays. Central Jersey Urgent Care is testing up to 80 patients daily at Eatontown, Howell and Marlboro. Story continues HOW IT SPREADS: The virus that causes COVID-19 is spreading from person-to-person. Someone who is actively sick with COVID-19 can spread the illness to others. That is why CDC recommends that these patients be isolated either in the hospital or at home (depending on how sick they are) until they are better and no longer pose a risk of infecting others. Gov. Phil Murphy issued a new order requiring customers and employees wear face masks while inside essential businesses. The CDC recommends that every American wear a face mask while in public. There is currently no vaccine for COVID-19. While the best way to prevent illness is to avoid virus exposure, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention always recommends taking preventive actions to contain the spread of viruses. This includes: Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth. Stay home when you are sick. Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash. Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces using a regular household cleaning spray or wipes. Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom, before eating, after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing. COPING WITH COVID-19 STRESS: From the New Jersey Department of Health: Take breaks from watching, reading, or listening to news/social media Take deep breaths, stretch, meditate Eat healthy, well-balanced meals, exercise regularly Get plenty of sleep; avoid alcohol/ drugs Do things you enjoy like baking or walking the dog Talk with people you trust about how you are feeling. Get the facts at nj.gov/health This article originally appeared on the Wyckoff Patch Burma Deputy Mayor of Myanmars Capital Nominated as Yangon Finance Minister U Ye Min Oo / Thiha Lwin / The Irrawaddy The Yangon regional government has nominated U Ye Min Oo, currently the deputy mayor of Naypyitaw, vice chairman of the Naypyitaw Development Committee and chairman of the Naypyitaw Development Bank, as the new Yangon regional planning and finance minister. If his nomination is approved by the regional parliament, he will replace U Myint Thuang, who died of cancer on April 20. The ruling National League for Democracy needed to find a new regional minister as the regional parliament is scheduled to debate and vote on the supplementary budget for fiscal 2019-20, as well as the regional budget for FY2020-21, this week. Yangon regional parliament Speaker U Tin Maung Tun informed regional lawmakers about the nomination on Tuesday, asking anyone who planned to object to the choice to submit their names. If there is no objection, the parliament will approve the nomination in a few days. U Ye Min Oo, whose expertise is in banking, finance and economic development, is also the head of a task force under the governments COVID-19 Economic Recovery Committee, formed in March. He has been a member of the NLDs Central Economic Committee since July 2016. On Jan. 3, 2019, he was appointed chairman of the Naypyitaw Development Bank and six months later, on June 25 of that year, he was appointed deputy mayor of Naypyitaw. He is the former managing director of Htoo Groups Asia Green Development (AGD) Bank, owned by tycoon U Tay Za. U Tay Za was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department from 2007 to 2016 for helping to prop up the former junta. U Kyaw Zeya, a regional lawmaker from Dagons Constituency 2, told The Irrawaddy that U Ye Min Oo is qualified for the job, given his background working with the AGD Bank and knowledge of development projects. However, the MP said, as the ruling partys term is coming to an end soon, the government should consider alternative candidates who are more familiar with regional budget issues. He said there are a couple of lawmakers in the Yangon parliament who are more knowledgeable about Yangon Regions finances and planning issues than the Naypyitaw deputy mayor. It is not that he is not a good personbut he is new to this environment, added the lawmaker. You may also like these stories: NLD Warns Yangon Chief Minister Over Breach of COVID-19 Rules NLD Vows to Veto USDP and Militarys Bid to Impeach Speaker Myanmar Parliament Rejects Move to Oust House Speaker It has been two months since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle officially stepped down as senior members of the royal family. Since then, the couple has set up a permanent base in Meghan's native city in Los Angeles. On their bombshell Instagram announcement that topped every other royal family news, the 35-year-old Duke and 28-year-old former actress made it clear that they want to lead a private and independent life while supporting Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. While the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have already laid out their post-royal life plans, the couple has maintained a lowkey stay in their Hollywood neighborhood. However, during the past few months that they have disassociated themselves with the royal family, the Sussexes has suffered a major loss that could affect their future plans. Sussex Royal Online Presence Since their move to California, it seems like the public is slowly losing interest with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Their official Sussex Instagram account would prove so. It turns out that the social media account @sussexroyal has lost over 200,000 followers in the past two months. It simply means that they are now left with 11.1 million followers, as others seem to have lost interest with the inactive Sussexes social media platform. Before officially turning their back on the royal family on April 1, Harry and Meghan posted a farewell message to their followers expressing gratitude for their support. "While you may not see us here, the work continues," the Duke and Duchess of Sussex wrote on March 31. "Thank you to this community - for the support, the inspiration, and the shared commitment to the good in the world." Moreover, instead of using their royal titles, the couple signed out on their Instagram account by using their nicknames "Harry and Meghan." Since then, there has not been any activity on the Sussex's Instagram account, leading followers to hit the unfollow button. Cambridges Levelled Up Instagram Game As Prince Harry and Meghan Markle lose a massive amount of followers, Prince William and Kate Middleton catapulted their social media followers to 11.8 million. By the end of March, the @kensingtonroyal Instagram account only has 11.4 million followers. However, their following rose, especially after they utilized it amid the coronavirus global pandemic. Since the lockdown, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge continue with their royal engagements through social media. They posted a short clip of their children Prince George, 6, Princess Charlotte, 4, and Prince Louis, 2, clapping to show support for the National Health Service workers. Kate and William also shared some clips with their surprise video call to the students and staff of Casterton Primary Academy. The 38-year-old Duchess also shared some heartwarming photos of Prince Louis to mark his second birthday last April 23. The 27-year-old Prince William, meanwhile, showed his humorous side by gamely joining British Comedian Stephen Fry for a wholesome skit for BBC's "The Big Night In" charity special. Wuhan authorities said they found no new cases of "silent spreaders" for the first time in nearly two months as the city's aggressive push to test its entire population appears to have succeeded in breaking hidden chains of transmission. Of the 60,000 people tested Sunday, no cases of asymptomatic infections were found, said the Wuhan municipal health commission on Monday. In an ambitious effort to guard against a resurgence of cases, Wuhan has tested every resident for the virus and has found about 300 asymptomatic cases in the past two weeks. Although Wuhan's last reported population size before the coronavirus outbreak was 11 million, health authorities said Tuesday that it had completed its mission after testing 9.9 million residents, suggesting that some have left the city permanently. The presence of infected people who show no outward signs of being sick but can infect others has been an obstacle in worldwide efforts to contain the coronavirus, and a major reason why the pandemic spread so widely and quickly. In countries where testing remains inadequate, there is no way to detect such carriers and isolate them before they infect others. In identifying the city's asymptomatic carriers, Wuhan's testing blitz could allow the city where the virus first emerged to eradicate the pathogen from its population. But its method probably is out of reach for other countries and bigger Chinese cities because it requires a massive mobilization of resources and the full cooperation of residents. Wuhan dwellers probably were more willing to come forward for testing given the scars that the epidemic has left on the embattled city, which was sealed off for almost three months to contain the virus's spread even as its local medical system nearly collapsed under the strain of the outbreak. Of China's more than 4,600 reported Covid-19 deaths, about 80% were in Wuhan. Many countries, from developing ones such as India and Indonesia to Western nations such as the U.S. and the U.K., are still struggling to provide tests for everyone with symptoms, not to mention those without. Wuhan officials said the blitz cost 900 million yuan ($127 million) and was fully borne by the government. During the mass testing process, Wuhan found several dozen asymptomatic cases on a daily basis. The number tapered down to single digits as testing came to an end, according to daily data released by the local health commission. Despite getting its epidemic under control, China remains on high alert for sporadic infections that run the risk of a causing secondary outbreaks. A city in its northeastern province of Heilongjiang halted most of its train services last week after five asymptomatic cases were reported on a day. In nearby provinces Jilin and Liaoning, a cluster of over 40 infections caused authorities to levy lockdown measures over a region of 100 million people. How that cluster began remains a mystery. SACRAMENTO Democratic governors of some of the nations most populous states on Monday pushed back against President Donald Trumps threat to deploy the U.S. military unless they dispatch National Guard units to dominate the streets in reaction to the violence that has erupted across the country. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he doesn't believe the federal government can send military troops into his state. He accused the president of creating an "incendiary moment" by threatening to do just that to quell violence that has arisen as demonstrators have taken to the streets in reaction to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. "I reject the notion that the federal government can send troops into the state of Illinois," Pritzker said on CNN after Trump urged governors to deploy the Guard. If they did not, he said he would send in "thousands and thousands" of soldiers. Pritzker was among the first governors to react to Trump's comments, which came hours after the president called governors "weak" and urged them to take a more aggressive response to weekend violence. It came as Americans gathered to protest police brutality against black Americans following the killing of Floyd, who was handcuffed and on the ground pleading for air as a white police officer pressed a knee on his neck for several minutes. Some demonstrations have turned violent, with people breaking into and stealing from businesses, smashing car windows and setting fires. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has not deployed the state's National Guard to New York City, although he said earlier Monday the state had 13,000 troops that "we can use at any moment." "I say thank you but no thank you," Cuomo said on CNN about Trump's call to send military troops to the states. At least 23 states and the District of Columbia had already deployed guard troops as of Monday morning, according to a statement from the National Guard. It wasn't clear whether the action would be enough to satisfy the president. Trump took no questions from reporters and did not say how he would decide whether a state's response was sufficient. Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington, who has activated the state's guard, said in a statement he prays "no soldier and no civilian is injured or killed by this reckless fit." "This president has repeatedly proven he is incapable of governing and shown nothing but false bravado throughout the chaos that has accompanied his time in office," Inslee said in a statement. Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, also a Democrat, said any suggestions the state's National Guard is ill equipped to handle the states needs is "misinformed." "As the Commander In Chief of the Nevada National Guard I can state, categorically, that they have done their duty to protect all Nevadans, and will continue to do so." In neighboring Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown said the violence is being perpetrated by a small segment of demonstrators. She refused to deploy the National Guard on Sunday at Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler's request because she was concerned it would escalate a tense situation. "You don't defuse violence by putting soldiers on the streets," Brown, a Democrat, said earlier Monday in reaction to Trump's comments about governors being weak in their response. "Trump wants governors to deploy the National Guard as a show of force to intimidate the public. I want to ensure that the public can safely raise their voices in this much-needed call for reform." However, later Monday, she agreed to send 50 Oregon National Guard members and 100 state troopers to Portland to assist police during protests. "They will not be on the front line making arrests or doing crowd control,'' Brown said. "They will only be acting as support personnel behind the scenes.'' She didn't immediately comment on Trump's remarks about deploying the U.S. military. Nor did California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has deployed thousands of guard troops to Los Angeles and other cities. He called Trump's morning comments "noise" and avoided addressing them directly, although he said the nation is desperate for leadership. Guard members can assist law enforcement and perform duties such as traffic control, communications support and extinguishing fires. __ Associated Press reporters Gillian Flaccus in Portland, Oregon, and Rachel La Corte in Olympia, Washington, contributed to this report. National chairman of the All Progressives Congres, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has said the Edo State Governorship primaries will proceed as planned. Oshiomhole made this statement while speaking to reporters after the National Working Committee met with governors elected on the platform of the APC, in Abuja, on Monday. In response to a question that the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has rejected the direct primary mode for his state, Oshiomhole asked the reporter to stop spreading rumours. He added, Obaseki is not here but issues of primaries are well spelt out in our constitution and we are following it as strictly as positive. So, nothing to worry about at all. You are speculating (on Obasekis rejection of direct primaries), I dont have any letter or document to that effect. These are very formal matters. Stop spreading rumours. Also speaking after the meeting, the Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum, Abubakar Bagudu, said the meeting was held to discuss issues affecting the party. According to The PUNCH, the governors made a case for the use of the indirect primaries but no agreement was reached. Governors who attended the meeting included Rotimi Akeredolu (Ondo), Abdullahi Ganduje(Kano), Simon Lalong (Plateau), and Babajide Sanwu-Olu (Lagos), among others. Source The Punch Tolentino bats for inclusion of micro businesses in tourist spots in stimulus package Administration Senator Francis "Tol" Tolentino has batted for the inclusion of micro businesses in tourist destinations in the plan to assist industries affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). "Eighty percent sa mga negosyo sa ating tourist spots ay micro businesses. Baka magaya tayo sa US na ang nakinabang lang ay yung malalaking negosyo," Tolentino said during his interpellation on Senate Bill No. 1564 or the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act. The measure provides a stimulus package for businesses and industries to jumpstart the local economy that has been severely crippled by the COVID-19 pandemic. Tolentino told the bill's principal sponsor, Sen. Sonny Angara, that micro businesses also need assistance from the government to get back on their feet. "Papaano na po iyong mga taga-Sagada? Wala naman siguro silang kakayahan na makakuha ng ganitong stimulus as stated in law," said Tolentino. Tolentino suggested that the bill should include the creation of a tourism roadmap, which would include ways on how to address the concern of micro businesses in the tourist destinations once domestic tourism is allowed in modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) areas. "This bill should include ways on how jumpstart our tourism industry. The creation of a roadmap would provide us with glimpse on how our tourism would address this. Paano ba babangon ang tourism natin?" said Tolentino, adding that the country should learn from Vietnam on how to revive the industry. "There is no more opportune time than to help the tourism industry than today," he added. The roadmap should also include thousand of festivities, which Tolentino considers as drivers of the country's domestic tourism industry. The Senator also wants local government unit (LGUs) to extend a helping hand to micro businesses in their areas by providing grants through the Barangay Micro Business Enterprises (BMBE) Act. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. San Francisco, 2 June 2020: The Report Industrial Enzymes Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By End Use (Food & Beverage, Textile), By Product (Carbohydrase, Proteases, Polymerases), By Application (Textile, Food Processing), And Segment Forecast, 2016 - 2024 The global industrial enzymes market size is expected to reach USD 9.63 billion by 2024, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is expected to witness significant growth owing to increasing substitution of chemicals with industrial enzymes particularly in food & beverage and nutraceutical applications. Growing applications of industrial enzymes for use in detergents and as ingredients in food processing industry is expected to fuel the demand. Proteases are extensively used in the detergent industry owing to its superior stain removal properties. However, the demand in the detergent application is expected to witness sluggish growth owing to market saturation. Growing use of protease in bakery products is expected to drive market growth. Furthermore, increasing application scope of the product in nutraceutical industry as a digestive enzyme is expected to drive demand. Technological advancements in the field of industrial enzymes have led to the use of the product as cleaning agents. The increasing use of enzymes or waste water treatment is also expected to drive the demand over the forecast period. Neozymes, DSM, and Danisco dominated the global industrial enzymes market in 2015 with the industry being characterized by forward integration by manufacturers to distribution and end-use. Manufacturers such as DuPont and DSM manufacture industrial enzymes for specialized applications. The global market is dominated by North America due to the presence of a large number of manufacturers in the U.S. and Canada. Access Research Report of Industrial Enzymes Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/industrial-enzymes-market Further key findings from the report suggest: Industrial enzymes demand for lipases is expected to witness substantial growth, growing at over 8.0% from 2016 to 2024. Increasing demand for the product in food & beverage and textile industry is expected to augment growth over the forecast period. The feed additive enzymes are expected to be the fastest growing product segment, growing at over CAGR 9.0% from 2016 to 2024. The increasing use of enzymes as a protein source in animal feed is to improve performance in livestock which in turn is anticipated to drive demand over the projected period. Asia Pacific is expected to witness substantial growth, growing at a CAGR of over 10.0% from 2016 to 2024. Robust expansion in food processing industries particularly in Asia Pacific is expected to augment growth. Furthermore, the supportive regulations promoting the expansion of manufacturing industries is expected to have a positive impact on market growth. Europe accounted for over 29.0% of the industrial enzymes market share in 2015 and is expected to witness significant growth owing to rising demand in pharmaceutical and textile industry. Stringent regulations prohibiting the use of toxic chemicals and catalysts in various applications is expected to positively impact market over the next eight years. Key players in the industry include BASF SE, Koninklijke DSM N.V, Novozymes A/S., Associated British Foods PLC E. I. Du Pont De Nemours and Company Adisseo France SaS, Dyadic International Incorporated CHR, Codexis Incorporated. Hansen Holding A/S, and Amano Enzyme Incorporated. Browse more reports of this category by Grand View Research at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry/catalysts-and-enzymes Grand View Research has segmented the industrial enzymes market on the basis of product, application, end-use and region: Industrial Enzymes Market Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024) Carbohydrase Proteases Lipases Polymerases & nucleases Others Industrial Enzymes Market Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024) Technical Feed additive Food processing Industrial Enzymes Market End-use Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024) Food & beverage Detergents Animal feed Textile Paper & pulp Nutraceutical Personal care & cosmetics Wastewater Industrial Enzymes Market Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024) North America Europe Asia Pacific Latin America Middle East & Africa Access Press Release of Industrial Enzymes Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-industrial-enzymes-market About Grand View Research Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare. For More Information:www.grandviewresearch.com Police scanner apps surpassed Facebook and Instagram in the App Store over the weekend, as Americans continue to protest the death of George Floyd an unarmed black man who was killed while in police custody. Data shows these type of apps were downloaded 213,000 times just over the past weekend and as of Tuesday, 5-0 Radio Pro Scanner is the number one paid app. Police scanner apps let users listen in on live police calls, allowing them to hear updates on their whereabouts - and appear to have become essentials for protesters across the US. Floyd died on May 25 in Minneapolis, Minnesota when Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck until he lost consciousness autopsies have since deemed the death a homicide. Scroll down for video Data shows these type of apps were downloaded 213,000 times just over the past weekend and as of Tuesday, 5-0 Radio Pro Scanner is the number one paid app The download data was compiled by app store intelligence firm Apptopia, which found police scanner apps saw a 125 percent increase this past weekend compared to the prior weekend. Allen Wong, 5-0 Radio's developer, told Vice: 'This weekend was the largest spike overall in 5-0 Radio listeners in the 10+ year history of this app. 'And there's no indication that the spike is ending anytime soon. 'For the past four days, the numbers of users have almost doubled the previous day.' 'I just checked the reports and the number of users downloading the app have ramped up tonight compared to all the previous nights.' The live broadcast on 5-0 Radio is uploaded by other users who record the chatter from a radio scanner and upload the files to a computer, which can be shared in the app. Citizen, which is a community safety app for real-time alerts and live video, also saw an increase in downloads the past weekend Vice found thousands of people tuned into the police broadcasts via 5-0 Radio from Chicago to Philadelphia to New York City. 'Make arrests,' a NYPD police officer said on one of the feeds referring to an area of Brooklyn on Sunday. The live broadcast on 5-0 Radio is uploaded by other users who record the chatter from a radio scanner and upload the files to a computer, which can be shared in the app. The app then takes all of the feeds and displays them according to place or department. Other apps that have topped the chars include Scanner Radio Fire and Police Scanner, Police Scanner, 5-0 Radio Police Scanner, Police Scanner Radio & Fire and Police Scanner +. The Police Scanner app was downloaded 19,000 times on Friday, then another 24,000 times on Saturday and more than 35,700 downloads occurred on Sunday. Scanner Radio Fire and Police Scanner app had the most daily active users throughout the weekend, with up to nearly 45,000 users activating it to listen in on police chatter. Other apps that have topped the chars include Scanner Radio Fire and Police Scanner, Police Scanner, 5-0 Radio Police Scanner, Police Scanner Radio & Fire and Police Scanner +. The Police Scanner app was downloaded 19,000 times on Friday, then another 24,000 times on Saturday and more than 35,700 downloads occurred on Sunday Floyd was killed on May 25 in Minneapolis, Minnesota when Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck until he lost consciousness autopsies have since deemed the death a homicide. Americans have since taken to the streets to protest his death and police brutality That was followed by Police Scanner, whose daily user count ranged from 38,000 to more than 40,000, according to Apptopia's report. Encrypted messaging app Signal and Citizen, which is a community safety app for real-time alerts and live video, also saw an increase in downloads the past weekend. Signal was downloaded nearly 37,000 times and Citizen 48,000 times Both of the apps hit record highs for single-day downloads in the US, with nearly 24,000 downloads for Citizen and 15,000 for Signal. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 21:39:41|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 2 (Xinhua) -- China's national lawyers association has launched supportive projects to help and promote the development of the legal service sector in response to the effects resulting from the coronavirus epidemic. The All China Lawyers Association (ACLA) planned to provide targeted assistance to law firms and lawyers in operational difficulties due to the epidemic, and strengthen financial aid for lawyers suffering from major diseases and hardships of life. Lawyers associations across the country were required to take actions, including reducing or waiving membership fees and setting up special funds to help the sector overcome difficulties. In light of the epidemic impact, lawyers and law firms of Hubei Province, newly established law firms, and lawyers who have been confirmed as COVID-19 positive will be exempt from membership fees for 2020. The ACLA also demanded intensified efforts to guarantee occupational insurance and job security for lawyers while stabilizing employment in the sector. Enditem San Antonians are coming together to help small businesses affected by the rioting and looting that took place in downtown last weekend. Many volunteer clean up crews gathered Sunday morning to help owners board up windows and clean debris. The support is now building online. Friends of small businesses like 4th Bar & Lounge have launched GoFundMe pages. In a Facebook Live video from Saturday, the owner of the bar, Daniel Rivera stood in front of a busted storefront window and said the bar has not had the chance to open because of the coronavirus pandemic and now the vandalism. Another GoFundMe was started to support the small businesses that don't have insurance to recover. A few hundred dollars have been raised by each as of Tuesday. The page for the bar was organized by Rivera's friend Arthur Ruiz, who said the owners were preparing for their grand opening when the coronavirus pandemic took hold and shuttered bars and restaurants as a public safety response. "And just when they were about to reopen, this happened," the organizer shared with donors. "So please consider donating. Anything helps." City councilman Roberto Trevino, whose district includes downtown San Antonio, addressed the destruction of businesses in the area in a statement released on Tuesday. In the statement, he differentiated the looting from the peaceful protests hosted earlier in the day on Saturday. "But that is not the point, nor should it be the focus of the discussion," he said in the statement. "Broken windows can be repaired or goods can be replaced. Black lives cannot." Madalyn Mendoza covers news and puro pop culture for MySA.com | mmendoza@mysa.com | @maddyskye The Texas Democratic Party kicked off its six-day statewide convention on Monday, but in a very different way than ever before: virtually. When big headliners such as former Vice President Joe Biden, former U.S. Senate candidate Beto ORourke and former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro speak later this week, it wont be before a packed arena. Instead, it will all be done virtually through online videos. Those three speakers all address Democrats on Saturday. On Friday, former presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will speak. While the program has been shifted online, the message is very similar to past conventions with Democrats insisting they are turning Texas into a battleground state. We know this is our moment, Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said to start the convention. Republicans are scared. We are on the cusp of victory it is within our reach. Texas is the biggest battleground state in America. TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox A Democratic presidential candidate has not carried Texas since 1976 when Jimmy Carter won the state over Gerald Ford. But Democrats point out that Hillary Clinton came within 9 points of President Donald Trump in 2016 the closest a Democrat has come to winning Texas in over 20 years. They also point to 2018, when ORourke came within 3 percentage points of upsetting U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. Republicans say Democrats are only touting policies that will drive Texans to vote for GOP candidates. Every Democrat set to speak at this convention is completely out-of-touch with Texas values, said Samantha Cotten, regional communications director for the Republican National Committee. President Trump and Republicans up and down the ballot have led the Lone Star State to new heights and voters will resoundingly reaffirm their support for America First policies this November, Cotten said in a statement. Democrats made clear they are going to make the case that the economy is in shambles and the coronavirus has killed more than 100,000 Americans because of Trumps policies. Now more than ever we need a change in leadership to get our country back on the right track." Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez told Texas party members via a pre-recorded video. This pandemic has laid bare the utter incompetence, inexperience, ineffectiveness, lack of empathy and compassion of Donald Trump. This failure to prepare for this crisis and listen to health experts has cost people their jobs, their savings and even their lives." Democrats used the first day to highlight how local government leaders including Harris Countys Lina Hidalgo have handled the pandemic. FOR SUBSCRIBERS: With Hidalgo running Harris County, a pandemic becomes political During a conference call with other county leaders from Dallas, Austin and Brownsville, Hidalgo said shes moved quickly to protect as many lives as possible even as some have tried to go after her politically. As she has stated before, Hidalgo said she has no problem debating Republicans or whomever to defend her policy decisions, but now is not the time as the county continues to see more COVID-19 cases. She said when it comes time for the next elections, shell be more than willing to defend her decisions. "This is not a political game right now," Hidalgo said. "We can play that game when it comes time to run for office." The convention runs through Saturday and closes with a 6 p.m. debate between Texas U.S. Senate candidates Royce West and MJ Hegar. West and Hegar are battling in a July 14 Democratic primary runoff. Early voting starts June 29. The winner will take on U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, in November. The entire convention can be watched on the Democratic Partys convention website at https://texasdemocraticconvention.com/ Republicans meanwhile have scheduled to hold their statewide convention in Houston from July 16 to July 18. While many companies are voicing support during these turbulent times, some are using their platform, reach, and resources to help support Black people, communities, and organizations in both the short and long term. With that duty in mind, Humble announced it is pulling together a $1 million publishing fund to support Black game developers, with more updates on that initiative and info on how game developers can benefit from the fund to be shared in the near future. Humble notes the responsibility it has to use its platform to help in its brief statement, encouraging others to donate to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund or Race Forward alongside its own pledge to support other organizations. This, as with other statements of game industry support for Black Lives Matter, comes during days of nationwide protests against police violence towards Black people, sparked by the Minneapolis police department's murder of George Floyd during an arrest last week. We stand in solidarity to condemn racism and violence against the Black community, reads the company's statement. Humble believes in empowering and uniting communities through gaming and will leverage our platform to help achieve racial equality everywhere. Multiple governors across the country denounced President Donald Trump's rhetoric regarding the use of force by police against Americans protesting the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old black man who was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis on May 25. During a phone call on Monday morning, Trump, 73, called the governors "weak" and criticized their responses to protests in dozens of cities across the country. The president emphasized the increased use of the National Guard, and encouraged more arrests while telling governors they need to "get much tougher." Audio of the call was leaked to multiple media outlets across the country and published online by PBS. "You have to dominate," Trump told the governors. "If you don't dominate, you're wasting your time. They're going to run over you and you're going to look like a bunch of jerks. You have to dominate. You have to arrest people and you have to try people and they have to go to jail for long periods of time." Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker told Trump during the call that he was "extraordinarily concerned" about the president's message. "We've called out our National Guard and our State Police, but the rhetoric that's coming out of the White House is making it worse," Gov. Pritzker said Monday, according to the Chicago Tribune, who cited a transcript of the call. "And I need to say that people are feeling real pain out there and weve got to have national leadership in calling for calm and making sure that were addressing the concerns of the legitimate peaceful protesters. That will help us to bring order." Trump told Pritzker, "I don't like your rhetoric much either." RELATED: Barack Obama Says Protests Can Bring 'Real Change' Alongside Political Action: 'We Have to Do Both' John Autey/MediaNews Group/St. Paul Pioneer Press via Getty Images Volunteers in Minneapolis clean up on Saturday on May 30, 2020 after a night of protests Story continues Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said after the call that Trump's comments have been "deeply disturbing," according to The Washington Post. "The presidents dangerous comments should be gravely concerning to all Americans, because they send a clear signal that this administration is determined to sow the seeds of hatred and division, which I fear will only lead to more violence and destruction," Whitmer said in a statement, The Post reported. "We must reject this way of thinking." Also, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz told Trump on Monday's call that there's "legitimate anger" in Minneapolis, where the nationwide protests began in the wake of Floyd's killing by police last week. After the call, Walz told reporters that he "took issue with Trump's emphasis on a 'posture of force,' " the Post also reported. Walz also said he disagreed with Trump's belief that the government needs to increase its show of force, which the president repeated throughout the phone call. "It's the antithesis of how we live. It's the antithesis of civilian control," said Walz, who instructed the National Guard to begin returning home on Monday following a night of mostly peaceful protests in the Minneapolis area, according to the Star Tribune. Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Demonstrators, gathered at Lafayette Park across from the White House, face a police barricade during a protest over the death of George Floyd, on May 30, 2020. As protests broke out in cities nationwide following Floyd's death, many have questioned why Trump has yet to publicly address the country during a briefing or press conference. The killing of Floyd was caught on camera and resulted in widespread outrage across the country. The officer, Derek Chauvin, was fired and arrested on third-degree murder charges, while three other officers involved were also fired. Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo told CNN he believes the three officers with Chauvin were "complicit" in Floyd's death. And peaceful protests turned violent in multiple major cities around the country. In Washington D.C., the White House briefly went on lockdown and Trump was ushered into an underground bunker after protests grew more chaotic outside. Critics have since lauded the preemptive security measure, sparking the hashtag #BunkerBoy to go viral on Twitter. RELATED: Powerful Images from Protests Across the U.S. Over George Floyd's Death Scott Olson/Getty Images Demonstrators gather to protest the killing of George Floyd on May 30, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Jim Vondruska/NurPhoto via Getty Images Protesters clash with police in Chicago on May 30, 2020. During her press briefing on Monday, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany rejected the idea that Trump has been silent on the protests. Instead, McEnany, 32, pointed to Trump's tweets over the weekend, which have been widely shunned by other government leaders who said the president is inciting more unrest. Trump told governors on Monday that the country needs "law and order," echoing the rhetoric he's used on social media in recent days to call for more government-backed force against protesters. On Sunday, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan told CNN's State of the Union that Trump's recent rhetoric has been "not helpful." "It's not lowering the temperature," Hogan, a Republican, said. "It's sort of continuing to escalate the rhetoric. And I think it's just the opposite of the message that should have been coming out of the White House." COLUMBUS, Ohio - As protesters march across cities in response to the death of George Floyd, members of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus announced Tuesday morning they are introducing resolutions declaring racism as a public health crisis. The resolution also comes as the coronavirus rages in disproportionate rates across African American and other minority communities, and as Cleveland and Columbus city councils discuss similar declarations. The Franklin County Commission made a formal recognition last month. Here is the race breakdown for reported coronavirus cases in Ohio as of Monday, June 1, for the cases in which the race is known. Race is not reported for 11.5% of cases and 1.5% of the deaths.Rich Exner, cleveland.com Health care disparities for African Americans still exist -- even though people dont want to believe it -- not only in Ohio, but across this country, said Sen. Sandra Williams, a Cleveland Democrat. "And its really a shame that we live in a state that has some of the best medical institutions in the world, yet African Americans in Ohio still face health disparities. Two identical resolutions will be introduced -- one for the Ohio House and one for the Senate, said Ohio Legislative Black Caucus President Rep. Stephanie Howse, a Cleveland Democrat. The resolutions contain 16 points, including: Creating a glossary of terms and definitions concerning racism and health equity; Asserting that racism is a public health crisis affecting our entire community; Reviewing all state laws with a racial equity lens, which Howse explained meant looking at laws effects on minority communities. Williams said that state agencies could review them as part of their regular review of laws and regulations that the legislature requires to reduce red tape. A commitment in state government to conduct all human resources, vendor selection and grant management activities with a racial equity lens -- including reviewing all internal policies and practices such as hiring, promotions, leadership appointments and funding; Encouraging community partners and leaders in education, employment, housing, and criminal justice and safety arenas to recognize racism as a public health crisis; Securing adequate resources to successfully accomplish the activities described in the resolution. Many parts of the resolution have been included in other legislation introduced by members of the black caucus. These are not new things," Howse said. "These are things that are vital to ensuring that African Americans, Hispanics, indigenous people and people of color here in Ohio are given the opportunity to truly live the American dream. The resolution is non-binding, meaning that there are no sanctions for not following it if it passes. Howse said shes speaking with state leaders about the importance of passing the bill. Passing the legislation would go a long way in helping racial and ethnic minorities feel like theyre heard. The black community is tired of asking just to be looked at like a human being, said Rep. Emilia Sykes of Akron, the Democratic leader in the House. We are tired of feeling like second-class citizens, and we are simply bringing that voice to our colleagues who may have the gap, who may have a blind spot, because maybe their constituencies are not as diverse." The reception thus far as been mixed. On the one hand, one Republican lawmaker, Sen. Kirk Schuring of Canton, has requested to be a bill sponsor. Schuring said he is concerned by the disparities hes seeing with COVID-19 infections and deaths among African Americans. We need to talk, not only about racism as a public health crisis, but racism in general, he said. And I thought with the backdrop of what happened with George Floyd and all the civil commotion, I think its time for us to have a candid conversation. However, Rep. Nino Vitale, an Urbana Republican who has made waves with controversial social media posts in the past, dismissed the connection between poverty and racism on Facebook. He argued that the most important indicator of poverty is family environment, and he compared his skin tone to members of the black caucus in a picture he posted of its members. I am darker than MOST of the people in this picture, he wrote. Growing up in inner city Cleveland and Maple Heights, I was made fun of for my name for my race for my skin color. I was spit on, beat up. I was called greasy Italian. I was told I dont belong here in this country. Ive heard it all. Other stories: Ohio Supreme Court assessing damage to building from weekend protests At least 2,206 Ohioans dead with coronavirus: Monday update Caller told Rep. Emilia Sykes he would kill her father if she didnt resign from Ohio legislature Gov. Mike DeWine announces measures to fight coronavirus in racial minority communities Casper police have encouraged downtown businesses to temporarily close for a protest anticipated to begin at noon Wednesday in response to the police killing of a black man in Minneapolis. In the Monday announcement, the Casper Police Department also asked people not connected with the protest which comes amid nationwide protests over George Floyds death to avoid the downtown area on Wednesday afternoon. The agency in issuing its statement said that it is aware of the potential for these gatherings to turn violent but otherwise did not specify what led the agency to make its request. A pair of fliers circulated on social media Sunday and Monday advertising alternatively a First Amendment walk and a protest of the killing of George Floyd and other fallen people of color. The fliers do not identify their creators but both include reference to Black Lives Matter, an activist movement that stemmed from police killings of black men last decade. The First Amendment promises to protect individuals rights that include freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and the freedom to air grievances against government. The video of Floyds death shows a white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, pushing his knee against the handcuffed Floyds neck for more than eight minutes, during which Floyd cries out repeatedly that he cannot breathe. At least three other police officers can be seen participating in Floyds detention. Video from the scene shows bystanders gathering, shouting for Chauvin to get off of Floyd. On May 26, the agency fired the four officers involved. Chauvin, according to national news outlets, had previously received 18 formal complaints. The Minneapolis Police Department issued discipline twice. On Friday, local prosecutors announced they had arrested and charged Chauvin. He faces a single count each of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The slow official response to Floyds death prompted extensive protesting in Minneapolis that soon led to looting and property destruction, including the razing of a police precinct building. Similar protests have spread throughout the country and many cities have seen widespread destruction of buildings. Footage circulated widely from the protests shows police sometimes indiscriminately attacking protesters. In New York City, a police officer drove an SUV directly into a mass of people. In Salt Lake City, a police officer threw an elderly man to the ground in an apparently unprovoked attack. In Denver, officers fired pepper balls and tear gas into crowds. An autopsy commissioned by Floyds family found that he died of asphyxiation due to neck and back compression, according to The Associated Press. Government authorities have said that Floyd did not die from asphyxiation or strangulation but have not provided a definitive cause of death. *** In its announcement the Casper Police Department reiterated language from a statement released earlier Monday condemning Floyds death. In it, Casper Police Chief Keith McPheeters said he was disgusted with the killing. The citys top police officer made the comment in a 2 1/2-page statement branded as an open letter, in which he wrote that last week he reviewed and discussed Floyds death with the agency. McPheeters said he reviewed video of the killing and together we are having important conversations regarding race and our role as police officers to help not hinder the progress that needs to be made in our country. His letter does not address the protesting, looting, property destruction or any videotaped police brutality beyond Chauvins actions. Instead, the chief references only Minneapolis police actions and their connection with Floyds death. McPheeters, though, wrote that anger at police in Minneapolis is justified. We are angry too, McPheeters letter begins. George Floyd did not deserve to die. We have all seen the horrific video footage of George Floyds tragic death. Weve seen it and we are appalled. We are disgusted that someone trusted to protect and serve others as a police officer would so callously treat another human in this way. McPheeters goes on to distinguish his agency from the Minneapolis police. He writes that Floyds death is not representative of the Casper Police Department and that it conflicts with the agencys values. That is not who we are we are Casper, the letter says. As citizens of Casper, you may be looking at your police department and wondering if a situation like what happened in Minneapolis could ever happen here ... We never want this to happen in our community and we are dedicated beyond measure to ensuring that it doesnt. In the letter the chief said his department is using this moment as a chance to review its own practices. The chief wrote that his agency thoroughly reviews and investigates all uses of force and complaints filed with the department. When we see something wrong, we act and we are accountable even if we are the ones at fault, McPheeters said. *** The departments statement about the Wednesday protest says that police would not tolerate violence. We are aware that future gatherings of individuals wishing to express their justified frustration in response to what happened in Minneapolis are being planned for our community, it reads. We support the rights of the public to safely and peacefully communicate their outrage as a response to this incident. Peaceful protests have been held in Cheyenne and Jackson. As a law enforcement community, we welcome the opportunity to support citizens rights to gather and peacefully protest, the Casper police announcement read. However, we are also aware of the potential for these gatherings to turn violent. We encourage those who are not participating in the gathering to please avoid the downtown area during the afternoon hours. Out of an abundance of caution, we also encourage downtown businesses to consider temporarily closing and take precautions to secure their businesses. We believe in the people of Casper to peacefully and lawfully gather to express their opinions. We are proud to support those wishing to speak out against the heartbreaking death of George Floyd. We will not; however, tolerate violence and destruction to our community in any situation. A separate protest is also anticipated for Friday. Keisha Simmons posted a video on social media Monday saying that the Pikes Peak Southern Christian Leadership Conference had planned a peaceful vigil for Friday at 6 p.m. In her video post Simmons asked for signs to display positive messages. She said that law enforcement had initiated contact with the civil rights organization before her announcement. Simmons did not respond to a series of requests for comment for this story. Love 5 Funny 0 Wow 6 Sad 6 Angry 21 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. REUTERS/Dustin Chambers Violent factions attacked police officers across the U.S. over the last 24 hours as demonstrations against the death of an unarmed black man in police custody have spiraled out of control. George Floyd, 46, died after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was caught on video kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes while he was handcuffed on Memorial Day. Chauvin has been arrested and charged with third-degree murder, but three other officers who also took part in the brutality or watched on have been fired but not arrested for their role, prompting anger among the demonstrators. In Las Vegas, an officer responding to a looting incident was reportedly shot in the head early Tuesday after exchanging gunfire with an angry mob, according to several Nevada news sources. County Sheriff Joe Lombardo told the Las Vegas Review Journal that the officer survived. He is in extremely critical condition on life support, Lombardo said This is a sad night for our LVMPD family and a tragic night for our community. Two police officers in Richmond, Virginia, and a third person were reportedly shot during clashes early Tuesday morning. Their condition is unclear. Late Monday night, video of a police officer apparently being run over by an SUV in the Bronx went viral. In the video, which has not been verified by The Daily Beast, an officer is struck by a speeding SUV and left in the middle of an intersection. Moments later, a New York City Police Department vehicle arrives and puts the officer, whose condition is unknown, in the back. In Buffalo, two officers were deliberately targeted by a car in front of the E District police station. New York State Police confirmed to the media that one was a trooper and the other a Buffalo Police officer. Both were taken to the Erie County Medical Center. Both have serious injuries and are in stable condition, according to WTHR News. Posts on social media also captured a fallen officer on Madison Avenue in New York. Details and the circumstances of that officers condition are unknown. Story continues The New York City Sergeants Benevolent Association tweeted a photo of an officer being attacked by two looters in the Bronx late Monday night. The officer survived that incident and pulled his weapon after the perpetrators ran off, but did not appear to retaliate. Early Monday morning, another officer was rammed by an SUV as he tried to make an arrest after giving chase to looters. Video of that incident posted by New York Daily News shows an SUV with Wisconsin license plates speeding away after the hit and run. That officer was taken to Bellevue Hospital and remains in stable condition. Elsewhere, four police officers were shot in downtown St. Louis after a gunfight erupted as they tried to disperse violent crowds with tear gas and flash bangs. Largely peaceful protests have been held in all 50 states, but violent rioters and looters have moved in as night falls even as curfews are in effect. Thousands of National Guard soldiers who have been called up to bolster local law enforcement have also been involved in skirmishes. In some cases, police have acted aggressively towards peaceful protesters. Over the weekend, a New York City Police Department squad vehicle rammed into a group and on Monday, law enforcement in Washington, D.C. used teargas to scatter peaceful protesters to clear a space for President Donald Trump to take a photo in front of a defaced church. Police have also marched with peaceful protesters and in cities including New York, Portland and Philadelphia, where many have taken a knee against police brutality. On Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that New York City will be subject to an 8 p.m. curfew throughout the week. He said 700 people were arrested Monday nightthe highest numbers since the protests started last week. We will not tolerate violence of any kind. We will not tolerate attacks on police officers. We will not tolerate hatred being created, de Blasio said. We saw vicious attacks on police officers. That is wholly unacceptable. That does not represent the people of this city. Anyone who attacks a police officer attacks all of us. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. A man was charged Monday with damaging a Houston police vehicle during a protest last week over George Floyds death, court records show. Travis Martin, 32, has been identified as a suspect who damaged a patrol vehicle downtown on Friday, the Houston Police Department tweeted. He is accused of kicking the vehicle with his foot. Martin faces charges of felony criminal mischief and interfering with the duties of a public servant. Charging documents allege that Martin lowered his shoulder and struck an officer while another officer tried to detain him. He is being held in jail in lieu of posting $5,000 bond. samantha.ketterer@chron.com Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. The president of the Minneapolis police union has called George Floyd a 'violent criminal', described protesters demonstrating over his death terrorists and criticized the city's politicians for not sanctioning greater use of force against them in a letter to union members. Lt Bob Kroll, president of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis, also defended the four officers involved in Floyd's death, including Derek Chauvin who is facing charges of murder and manslaughter. All four officers have been fired. A video of the arrest on on May 25, in which Derek Chauvin knelt of Floyd's neck for over eight minutes until he died, went viral and sparked protests and riots across the U.S which have now lasted for seven days and led to the National Guard being deployed. The Minneapolis Star Tribune released the full copy of the letter written by Kroll, who appeared at a Trump rally in October last year. 'What is not being told is the violent criminal history of George Floyd. The media will not air this,' he wrote. 'I've worked with the four defense attorneys that are representing each of our four terminated individuals under criminal investigation, in addition with our labor attorneys to fight for their jobs. They were terminated without due process.' While Floyd had served time in prison for aggravated robbery, and it is unknown if Chauvin knew this as he detained him, video footage of the arrest shows that Floyd was not behaving violently towards the police, nor was he armed or suspected of a violent crime. A coroner has since confirmed that Floyd's death was homicide. Dr Allecia Wilson of the University of Michigan, one of the two forensic doctors who performed the independent autopsy, said the evidence pointed to homicide by 'mechanical asphyxia' meaning from some physical force that interfered with oxygen supply. Lt Bob Kroll, president of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis, speaks at a Trump rally in October, 2019, where he praised him as a 'wonderful president' for his support of the police In his letter, Kroll also blamed city officials for not giving police enough support to deal with the protests and riots that have broken out in Minneapolis following the death of Floyd. 'What has been very evident throughout this process is you have lacked support from the top,' he wrote, addressing union members. 'This terrorist movement that is currently occurring was a long time build up which dates back years. 'Starting with minimizing the size of our police force and diverting funds to community activists with an anti-police agenda. 'Our chief requested 400 more officers and was flatly denied any. This is what led to this record breaking riot.' He went on to claim that the police have not been given the necessary permissions to use certain equipment, writing 'the ability for our officers to use gas munitions and less lethal munitions to defend ourselves' has been 'held back'. Protests have broken out in a number of U.S. cities following the death of George Floyd, including in Minneapolis (pictured, June 1), the city where Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes until he died. The killing sparked angry protests and riots against police brutality George Floyd, pictured, was not behaving violently towards the police, nor was he armed or suspected of a violent crime when he was detained by Chauvin Minneapolis' governor Tim Waltz claimed on Saturday that the city and its neighbor city St. Paul were 'under assault' by people from outside the cities, and suggested that up to 80 per cent of people looting and setting fire to some buildings were outsiders. 'The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd,' Waltz said. 'It is about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great city.' He also blamed elements of 'domestic terrorism', which Kroll echoed in his letter. Arrest records have shown that Waltz's claim was false, and that 80 per cent of people arrested were from Minnesota, with half being from Minneapolis. Former Minneapolis police chief Janee Harteau was quick to condemn the letter. She tweeted a copy of the it, writing: 'A disgrace to the badge! This is the battle that myself and others have been fighting against. Bob Kroll turn in your badge!' Harteau - who resigned from the police department in 2017 following a police shooting of Australian woman Justine Damond by a rookie officer - suggested that Kroll's comments represented attitudes that had prevented her attempts to reform the police department. Pictured: Kroll's letter to members of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis. In his letter, he defended the four officers fired for the killing of George Floyd, and criticized city officials for their response to subsequent protests and riots Kroll has been a vocal supporter of President Trump in the past, appearing at a Trump rally in Minneapolis in October 2019 where he praised him as a 'wonderful president' for his support of the police. For a long time he has pushed back against police reforms in the city. In 2007 he called Keith Ellison - then congressmen and now Minnesota's attorney general - a terrorist because he pushed for reforms. Ellison is Muslim and black. In a lawsuit filed by the current Minneapolis police chief Medaria Arradondo alleging racism in the police department, Kroll is accused of wearing a motorcycle jacket with a white-power patch and of a 'history of discriminatory attitudes and conduct', according to Mother Jones. Kroll has reportedly been the subject of at least 20 internal affairs investigations. For example, as a young officer in 1994 was suspended for five days for using excessive force. This decision was later reversed by the police chief. Kroll, pictured in uniform in 2018, now reportedly represents over 800 rank-and-file police offivers, and has led the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis for five years Pictured: A group of demonstrators gather at a makeshift memorial honoring George Floyd, at the spot where he was taken into custody, in Minneapolis, June 2 He now reportedly represents over 800 rank-and-file police officers, and has led the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis for five years. In his letter, he also criticized top city officials for not commending the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) for their work in combating the protests and riots. 'I've noted in press conferences from our mayor, our governor, and beyond, how they refuse to acknowledge the work of the MPD and continually shift blame to it. It is despicable behavior. How our command staff can tolerate it and live with themselves I do not know,' he wrote, before praising the city's police officers. 'No one with the exception of us is willing to recognize and acknowledge the extreme bravery you have displayed through this riot. You have my utmost respect.' However, the MPD have faced criticism for their response to the protests and have been accused of using excessive force. In one instance, MPD officers and members of the National Guard marched down a residential street in Minneapolis and shot paint canisters at people on their own front porch, while many people have been reportedly shot by rubber bullets. Last week, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey was forced to declare a state of emergency, and in addition to a number of examples of police using what could be deemed as excessive force, there have also been instances of violence against officers. The acting world is in mourning once again, with beloved character actress Peggy Pope passing away at the age of 91. The actress passed on Wednesday, May 27 in Fort Collins, Colorado, with her family members confirming to The Hollywood Reporter that she passed from causes unrelated to COVID-19. Pope is best known for play the office secretary Margaret in the hit 1980 film 9 to 5, though she had a lengthy career that spanned nearly six decades. Pope was born May 15, 1929, the youngest daughter of Edward and Margaret Pope, whose sister Adrienne was a reporter, author and activist, who passed away in 2010. R.I.P.: The acting world is in mourning once again, with beloved character actress Peggy Pope passing away at the age of 91 She attended College High and Kimberly School in her hometown of Montclair, New Jersey, before graduating from Smith College with a theater major in 1951. Pope made her Broadway debut in 1959 in Moonbirds, alongside Wally Cox, and also starred alongside Maureen Stapleton in The Rose Tattoo revival. She started her film and television career in earnest in 1966 with a guest-starring spot on The Trials of O'Brien. She also guest-starred on Camera Three in 1967 and Bewitched and The Outsider in 1968, before returning to the stage in 1971 in The School of Wives with Brian Bedford. Atta girl: Her breakthrough role came as the alcoholic receptionist Margaret on the 1980 film 9 to 5, whose catch phrase 'Atta girl' was said to encourage her co-workers played by Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda She made her feature film debut in 1971's Made For Each Other with Paul Sorvino and 1972's Hail, before turning to TV by playing Elaine Fusco in Calucci's Department. Pope returned to the stage yet again in 1975 to star in Doctor Jazz alongside Lola Falana, plus the 1976 movie Dragonfly and the short-lived TV series Billy, where she played Alice Fisher, the mother of Steve Guttenberg's title character. Her breakthrough role came as the alcoholic receptionist Margaret on the 1980 film 9 to 5, whose catch phrase 'Atta girl' was said to encourage her co-workers played by Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda Good part: 'It was a good movie and a good part,' she wrote in her book. 'At the end, my character comes back from rehab, hair combed, looking spiffy and ready for the sequel,' Pope said in her memoir, Atta Girl: Tales from a Life in the Trenches of Show Business 'It was a good movie and a good part,' she wrote in her book. 'At the end, my character comes back from rehab, hair combed, looking spiffy and ready for the sequel,' Pope said in her memoir, Atta Girl: Tales from a Life in the Trenches of Show Business. She would go on to star in films such as 1981's All Night Long, 1984's The Last Starfighter, 1985's Once Bitten, 1996's The Substitute and 2008's Choke. The actress is survived by nephews, Rob, Douglas, Ross and Ed, and their respective spouses, Maria, Martine, Charlotte and Nikki, and her niece, Wendy, and her partner, Eric. A celebration of life is set for June 27 on Zoom, with fans asked to contact ross.mcconnell.acns@gmail.com for an invitation. Events in US prompts arts industry-wide solidarity with Black community Black Out Tuesday In light of events in the US following the death of George Floyd, the Corn Exchange venues shut off their social media channels today as part of an industry-wide Black Out Tuesday act of solidarity with the black community. In its only post on Twitter it said: Following recent events in America, today our social media channels will remain silent as we stand in solidarity with Black communities around the world. Together with the UK arts industries, the Corn Exchange Newbury, 101 Outdoor Arts Creation Space and The Base Greenham invite you to pause with us as we take the time to reflect on the ways we can ensure a more equal future for everyone. Our buildings are safe spaces where everyone is welcome and we share stories from across all communities. We are always listening and learning from our colleagues, friends, artists and the local community so we can action further positive changes. #BlackLivesMatter Late Monday afternoon, President Trump emerged from the White House and strode in the cool spring daylight to St. Johns Church in Lafayette Square. It was supposed to be an act of defiance: Mr. Trump has bristled at the observation that during the protests roiling the capital he has burrowed into a fortified bunker rather than addressing the nation. Like most performances arranged by Mr. Trump and associates, it made only a disjointed sort of sense. Yes, the presidents decision to march through the heart of the citys unrest caused police and National Guard units to blast a peaceful crowd with tear gas and rubber bullets, carving a punishing path to the steps of St. Johns. But the show of force seemed to emphasize only that his legitimacy has shrunk to the point that he feels moved to dominate his own people with military power. As he took up his post before the church, which was partially boarded up after a minor fire that broke out during a recent protest, Mr. Trump set his face in a stony scowl and held up a black Bible, tightly closed. Is it your Bible? a reporter shouted. Its a Bible, Mr. Trump said neutrally. The entire routine was vulgar, blunt: There Mr. Trump was, holding aloft this mute book neither opened, cited, nor read from in the shadow of a vandalized church, claiming the mantle of righteousness. After all, that was what he had come to do. A ruler maintaining order strictly by brute force has a problem. Such regimes are volatile and fragile, subject to eruptive dissolution. Mr. Trump may lack the experience or interest to even pantomime genuine Christian practice, but he has acute instincts when it comes to the symbolism of leadership. He seemed to know, as he positioned himself as the defender of the Christian faith, that he needed to imbue his presidency with some renewed moral purpose; Christianity was simply a convenient vein to tap. Texas Southern Universitys board of regents voted Monday to waive test score requirements for the upcoming academic year for student applicants who are in the top 25 percent of their class and also earn a 3.0 minimum GPA. The board hopes the temporary measure will offer some relief during the COVID-19 pandemic, when some students might have difficulty taking or submitting test scores for college entrance exams like the SAT or ACT, said regent Pamela Medina, who presented the request that was voted on unanimously. TSUs typical criteria requires incoming students to have a 2.5 minimum GPA, and a combined SAT score of 820 or higher if taken before March 2016 or a score of 900 if taken after that date, according to the college. Those who take the ACT must earn a composite score of 17. The approved admissions standard of a 3.0 GPA differs from the regents agenda proposal, which originally listed 3.5 as the minimum GPA. With TSUs temporary admissions measures, students who earn a GPA between 2.5 and a 2.99 will be required to submit test scores, but if they dont have those records because of circumstances presented by the pandemic, the application will be considered pending until those documents are received, Medina said. Students who arent able to secure testing can go through an appeals process with admissions officials that the board is slated to develop and likely outline during its next meeting, she said. Students with a GPA under 2.5 will be denied admission. Provost Kendall Harris said GPA can vary from school to school, but looking at the GPA within the context of class ranking can be a way to gauge success. Regent Marc Carter suggested those who are not able to take college entrance exams but meet other requirements, including GPA, could be admitted with an academic probationary status, a measure that Medina said is being considered. About 5,800 of the 11,000 applicants for the fall have already been admitted to TSU, with about 2,200 who have already received their financial aid packages, officials said. At least 100 students have been admitted on the condition that they complete the colleges online pilot version of its existing Summer of Success academic preparedness program. No students have had to go through the appeals process yet, said Teresa McKinney, vice president of student services and head of enrollment management. TSU board chairman Albert Myres Sr. also announced during Mondays meeting that the regents have accepted the findings of a review conducted by the Berkeley Research Group. The executive summary of the report said TSU admitted more than 4,000 students who did not meet the colleges academic criteria and awarded a total of $2.1 million in scholarships over a three-year period to more than 900 students who were not qualified. A number of exceptions that were not reported, approved by or discussed with the board were made to admit the students, according to the review, which was based on data and multiple interviews and discussions with key stakeholders in TSUs enrollment management department, Faisal Amin of Berkeley Research Group said. Harris, who has not seen the full report, said he and university administration want to further review the full report to determine what took place and whether information was misrepresented. Charla Parker-Thompson, the universitys chief audit executive, said the U.S. Department of Education has approached the university regarding past admissions improprieties and activities and might require testing of academic eligibility exceptions to analyze how federal dollars were commissioned and funding applied to students who were allegedly admitted improperly. Myres said the report will later be posted online for the public and that the board and interim President Kenneth Huewitt will seek to implement recommendations made by the research group. Both emphasized the need to be credible, accountable and transparent to students and the public moving forward. I can assure you as TSU moves forward, (well be) reviewing our policy and procedures to assure compliance and adherence, Huewitt said. brittany.britto@chron.com twitter.com/brittanybritto Tammy Hembrow was spotted running errands on the Gold Coast on Tuesday in her first public sighting since she pledged her support for the Black Lives Matter movement. The 26-year-old influencer wore a white crop top and grey trackpants with pale pink fluffy slides as she arrived at a residential home. The Saski Collection founder styled her blonde hair loosely below a white headband and clutched what appeared to be a shopping bag. Dressing down: Tammy Hembrow was spotted running errands on the Gold Coast on Tuesday in her first public sighting since she pledged her support for the Black Lives Matter movement She stepped out of her $330,000 white Mercedes-Benz and quickly walked inside. Tammy's ethnic heritage came under scrutiny on Monday night after she addressed the #BlackLivesMatter protests which have erupted in the US in response to the death of George Floyd. The mother-of-two shared a post with her 11 million Instagram followers declaring her solidarity with anti-police brutality demonstrators. Calm: The 26-year-old influencer wore a white crop top, grey-trackpants and pale pink fluffy slides as she arrived at a residential home in her $330,000 white Mercedes-Benz She also acknowledged her 'privileged' position as a light-skinned woman, prompting one of her fans to point out that she'd previously identified as mixed race. Tammy's post read in part: 'I know that I am privileged because of the colour of my skin and will never truly understand the injustices that have been going on since forever and that are still happening today. 'I have many friends that are POC [people of colour] as well as family members and I am doing them a disservice by staying quiet on my platform with everything that is going on. I need you to know that I hear you and I stand with you.' 'I stand with you': Tammy's ethnic heritage came under scrutiny on Monday after she addressed the #BlackLivesMatter protests which have erupted in the US in response to the death of George Floyd One of her followers replied, 'But I thought you were a person of colour.' In response to this, Tammy clarified her ethnic background. 'I am mixed,' she wrote. 'But when you look at me and don't know me, you don't see that by the colour of my skin.' A discussion about Tammy's racial heritage began in the comments section, as several fans noted that they 'didn't know she was mixed' until she mentioned it. Others said the businesswoman should be considered a person of colour because her mother, Nathalie Stanley, is Trinidadian. Statement: Tammy shared this post with her 11 million Instagram followers, declaring her solidarity with anti-police brutality demonstrators in America and around the world 'You [are] still black, regardless of your complexion. Even your children have black features,' one follower wrote. Another commented: 'Your mother is Trini, honey, you're black. You're a person of colour. Doesn't matter if you're mixed.' Meanwhile, several fans agreed Tammy had made the right decision by acknowledging her privilege as a light-skinned person despite having some black heritage. Tammy's father, Mark Hembrow, is a white Australian. Her mother, Nathalie Stanley, is of mixed heritage from Trinidad and Tobago. Background: Tammy's father, Mark Hembrow, is a white Australian. Her mother, Nathalie Stanley (pictured), is of mixed heritage from Trinidad and Tobago Tammy explained her ethnic background in a YouTube video from 2018 entitled 'Meet my mum'. 'I told everyone how you're from Trinidad and Tobago, and everyone is like, "Why isn't she black?"' she said, addressing her mother. 'I am black,' replied Nathalie. When her daughter asked, 'But why aren't you [black] actually?', Nathalie responded matter-of-factly: 'It's called mixed race.' Turning the camera to herself, Tammy said: 'Yeah, so my mum is actually from Trinidad and Tobago. My grandma is black.' By PTI NEW DELHI: The border standoff between India and China, the ongoing civil disturbances in the US and need for reforms in the WHO were among a host of issues that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump discussed during a telephonic talk on Tuesday. In the conversation, President Trump extended an invitation to Modi to attend the next G-7 summit to be held in the US, the Ministry of External Affairs said. On Saturday, Trump pitched for expansion of the G7 comprising the world's most advanced economies by including India and three other countries. "The two leaders also exchanged views on other topical issues, such as the COVID-19 situation in the two countries, the situation on the India-China border, and the need for reforms in the World Health Organisation," the MEA said. The talks between the two leaders came days after India rejected Trump's offer of mediation to end the tense border standoff between India and China in eastern Ladakh. India had also rejected Trump's claim that he spoke to Modi on the eastern Ladakh standoff. In the conversation, Modi expressed concern regarding the ongoing civil disturbances in the US, and conveyed his best wishes for an early resolution of the situation, the MEA said. ALSO READ | China's action on India border part of ruling Communist Party's behaviour: Mike Pompeo "President Trump spoke about the US Presidency of the Group of Seven, and conveyed his desire to expand the ambit of the grouping beyond the existing membership, to include other important countries including India. In this context, he extended an invitation to Prime Minister Modi to attend the next G-7 Summit to be held in USA," it said. According to the ministry, Modi commended the US president for his creative and far-sighted approach, acknowledging the fact that such an expanded forum would be in keeping with the emerging realities of the post-COVID world. "The Prime Minister said that India would be happy to work with the US and other countries to ensure the success of the proposed summit," it said. In a tweet, Modi said, "Had a warm and productive conversation with my friend President @realDonaldTrump. We discussed his plans for the US Presidency of G-7, the COVID-19 pandemic, and many other issues. " "The richness and depth of India-US consultations will remain an important pillar of the post-COVID global architecture," the prime minister added. In the statement, the MEA said Trump warmly recalled his visit to India in February this year. Modi said that the visit had been memorable and historic on many accounts, and had also added new dynamism to the bilateral relationship. "The exceptional warmth and candour of the conversation reflected the special nature of the Indo-US ties, as well as the friendship and mutual esteem between both leaders," the MEA said. Russian President Vladimir Putin telephoned Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Monday to congratulate him on his 45th birthday anniversary and offer Russias assistance for ongoing efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus in Armenia. The phone call was reported shortly after Pashinian announced that he and members of his family have tested positive for the virus. According to official Russian and Armenian sources, Putin wished them a speedy recovery from the disease. An Armenian government statement on the conversation said the two leaders then talked about the pandemic and possible further developments. In this context they discussed cooperation between the health ministries of the two countries, it said. President Vladimir Putin emphasized the Russian Federations readiness to assist Armenia in the fight against the pandemic, added the statement. According to the Kremlins readout of the phone call, Pashinian thanked Putin for the Russian assistance already provided to his country. In early April, the Russian military sent a team of medics and special equipment to Armenia to help authorities there detect and prevent coronavirus cases among Armenian and Russian military personnel serving in the country. The equipment included a coronavirus testing lab and a sample collection system for COVID-19 tests. Also, the Armenian government has imported other coronavirus-related medical supplies from Russia. Pashinians office also reported that Putin invited Pashinian to take part in a military parade that will be held in Moscow on June 24 as part of official celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. It said the Armenian leader expressed hope that he will recover from the virus by that time. This special episode of Songland was taped before the COVID-19 pandemic, read the cold open of Mondays broadcast. The Tokyo Olympics will begin July 23, 2021. Mondays episode was supposed to help guest star Bebe Rexha find an official anthem to record for the 2020 Summer Olympics something that has high energy, makes you feel like you can accomplish anything, something that just makes you feel like you can take on the world. But of course, no one at Songland could have predicted how much that world would change, due to both the coronavirus pandemic and the outraged public reaction to the killing of George Floyd, by the time Rexhas episode aired. And so, this weeks winning song or make that the winning mashup, a Songland first took on new purpose as a hopeful statement of survival during these trying times. As it turned out, no one Songland contestant could totally capture was Rexha was certainly looking for. But one of them was certainly no stranger to TV talent shows. Longtime Americas Got Talent viewers might have recognized the name Anna Graceman even if the now-20-year-old looked very different from how she did in 2011, as a tutu-clad child prodigy and fan favorite on AGT Season 6, when she blew everyone away with her first audition (as seen below) and eventually made it all the way to the top 10. Gracemans AGT past was oddly not mentioned on Songland, even through both shows air on the same network, NBC. But Anna, who has penned more than 70 songs since she started playing music at age 6, has accomplished a lot since her AGT breakthrough almost a decade ago. She went on to become a YouTube sensation, racking up 35 million for her AGT audition alone, and by the time she was 16 shed released two albums on her own label, Another Girl Records. She also performed in an all-star AGT Vegas revue that ran for seven weeks at the Venetian resort and was a finalist in the International Songwriting Competition judged by Tom Waits, Jeff Beck, Bernie Taupin, and Mark Foster. Story continues But stardom has eluded her in adulthood, so now Graceman was back on TV going for the gold, so to speak. However, as Songland judge Ryan Tedder noted, With these anthemic songs for things as lofty at the Olympics, you can get very cliche very quickly, and Gracemans entry, Gold which was, well, about going for the gold was too on-the-nose according to Tedders fellow judge, Shane McAnally. Trite lyrics aside, Rexha loved Gracemans moodyverse and pre-chorus build-up, but said the chorus didnt hit me in the face. Rexha suggested adding some electric dirty guitar to grime it up a bit a la No Doubt and the Killers, so clearly Graceman still had some growing up to do as a songwriter. Conversely, Rexha was totally hit in the face by the A-plus chorus of contestant Greg Scotts more aggressive Miracle she liked it so much, in fact, that she even went up to the microphone and began belting it on the spot, from memory, which was a great sign. But McAnally pointed out that Miracles tepid verse didnt feel current, and Rexha pretty much suggested that Scott throw out the verse and start over from scratch. Scott seemed completely willing to do that and not the least bit insulted, saying these pros totally dissected my song in the most positive way. And so, it was on to the workshop round, where Scott was paired with Tedder and Graceman with McAnally. (Judge Ester Dean worked with another contestant, Josh Vida, but his pleading love ballad Crazy Enough never seemed Olympian enough, even with Deans help, to go any further than the bronze on this episode.) Tedder switched up Miracles production entirely to give it the raw, cool vibe Rexha wanted, and he simplified the melodies so that Scotts gold-medal chorus could really shine. Meanwhile, McAnally made Gold bigger and bolder by adding a choir and some thundering, Imagine Dragons-style drums, and he changed the title and hook from Gold to the less obvious Bones, which definitely freshened things up. Both songs were improved, but when Scott and Graceman performed them for Rexha (with Scott now accompanied by a female vocalist), Rexha had a your-chocolates-in-my-peanut-butter epiphany and realized that Miracle and Bones were two great tastes that tasted better together. What I have in my head is going to be a mind-twister. Like, something nobody will be thinking of, she announced with a grin. Nobody really saw this coming; this has never happened on the show before, Rexha told the shocked contestants, when she informed them that she had decided to Frankenstein the Bones verse with the Miracle chorus and lay McAnallys lyrics on top of Tedders melody. It was a brilliant move, as the new hybrid tune (still titled Miracle) was truly the sum of its parts, stronger than what any of the participating songwriters had come up with on their own. This actually felt like a true Olympic anthem. Having Bebe on the show has certainly kept us on our toes, said McAnally. Thats the kind of next-level songwriting that only someone like Bebe could really pull off. Of course, there was a bittersweetness to this episode, since all of the songs lyrics were about finally reaching ones goals after a lifetime of preparation and dedication and now the Tokyo Olympics athletes will have to wait another year to pursue their dreams. But Rexhas rousing Miracle is available to stream now, and congratulations are in order for both Scott and Graceman, who have realized their dreams and whose unexpected collaboration will be heard at next years Summer Games. Read more from Yahoo Entertainment: Follow Lyndsey on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Amazon, and Spotify. Mary, Queen of Scots' gold leaf prayer book is expected to fetch up to 350,000 at auction next month. The hand-painted book dates back to the 16th century and would have been kept close by the devout Catholic queen, who reigned over Scotland from 1542 to 1567. It was gifted to her by her great-aunt Louise de Bourbon-Vendome around the time of the short reign of her first husband, King Francis II of France, who ruled from 1559 until his death in 1560. The manuscript contains 40 exquisite paintings by a miniaturist dubbed the Master of Francois de Rohan, one of the most sought-after artists of the court of King Francis I. The hand-painted book, pictured, dates back to the 16th century and would have been kept close by the devout Catholic queen, who reigned over Scotland from 1542 to 1567. It is expected to fetch between 250,000 and 350,000 when it is auctioned next month Notably, it also includes a short verse written by Mary in French to her great-aunt, which is translated as: 'Since I want them to complain in your prayers and devout prayers, I ask you first that you know what share in my affections'. It also includes her monogram and motto Notably, it also includes a short verse written by Mary in French to her great-aunt, which is translated as: 'Since I want them to complain in your prayers and devout prayers, I ask you first that you know what share in my affections'. She signed it alongside her anagrammatic motto, Va Tu Meriteras, and her monogram, 'M', a variation based on the initial M of Mary and phonetic initial of Francis, whom she married in 1558. On Francis II's death in 1560, Mary left France, where she had spent much of her life until that point, and returned to Scotland. Mary, Queen of Scots (pictured) was gifted the book around the time of her marriage to King Francis II of France in 1558 In 1565 she married her half-cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, and in June 1566 they had a son, James. She eventually fled to England in 1568, where she became a political pawn in the hands of Queen Elizabeth I and was imprisoned for 19 years in various castles in England. Mary was found to be plotting against Elizabeth; letters in code, from her to others, were found and she was deemed guilty of treason. She was taken to Fotheringhay Castle and executed in 1587. While it is not known who the prayer book was passed to immediately following Mary's death, it was held in England in the late 18th or early 19th century, where it was rebound by the Edwards family of Halifax, Yorkshire. Christie's declined to identify the seller, a European collector, according to the Financial Times. Eugenio Donadoni, Christie's Specialist in Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts said: 'This is a fleetingly rare opportunity to acquire a lavishly illustrated royal prayerbook that was owned and affectionately inscribed by one of the most intriguing figures in Scottish and European history: Mary Stuart, at a time when the Queen of Scots had already become Queen of France and was soon to meet her tragic fate.' It is the first time an item belonging to Mary, Queen of Scots has been auctioned in half a century. The prayer book will be among a collection of items auctioned by Christie's on their Classic Week's Old Master Group Evening Sale on July 29. President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday extended their greetings on Telangana Formation Day, which is observed to mark the day on which the state of Telangana was officially formed. Several events are held in all the 30 districts of the state as a part of the celebrations to mark the Telangana Formation Day. However, the celebrations will be muted this year due to the coronavirus lockdown. Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao paid tribute to those who sacrificed their lives during the movement for statehood at Gun Park. CM Sri KCR paying floral tributes to Telangana Martyrs at Gun Park on the occasion of #TelanganaFormationDay, the chief ministers office tweeted along with a video. CM Sri KCR paying floral tributes to Telangana Martyrs at Gun Park on the occasion of #TelanganaFormationDay https://t.co/fhKh8nVCYg Telangana CMO (@TelanganaCMO) June 2, 2020 President Ram Nath Kovind took to Twitter to extend his greetings. Greetings to the people of Telangana on statehood day. The entire nation is proud of the rich history of Telugu culture and literature. The hardworking people of this land have contributed significantly to the nation. May the state continue to prosper in the coming years, President Kovind tweeted. Greetings to the people of Telangana on statehood day. The entire nation is proud of the rich history of Telugu culture and literature. The hardworking people of this land have contributed significantly to the nation. May the state continue to prosper in the coming years. President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) June 2, 2020 Prime Minister Modi also tweeted his wishes. Greetings to the people of Telangana on their Statehood Day. People from this state are excelling in a wide range of sectors. This state is making valuable contributions to the growth trajectory of India. I pray for the progress and prosperity of the people of Telangana, PM Modi tweeted. Best wishes to the people of Andhra Pradesh. Hardwork and courage are synonymous with the culture of this land. The states role in Indias growth is deeply valued. Wishing the citizens of the state the very best for their future endeavours. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 2, 2020 Vice president M Venkaiah Naidu also wished the people in a series of posts. Greetings to people of Telangana on State Formation Day. Endowed with natural resources and known for its rich history, the State has long been a meeting place for diverse languages and cultures. #TelanganaFormationDay, Naidu posted on Twitter. Greetings to people of Telangana on State Formation Day. Endowed with natural resources and known for its rich history, the State has long been a meeting place for diverse languages and cultures. #TelanganaFormationDay pic.twitter.com/XmDn6G9vNK Vice President of India (@VPSecretariat) June 2, 2020 Representing Indias composite culture & pluralism, the State has been making immense contribution to development of the country in different spheres. My best wishes for a prosperous, peaceful and happy Telangana! #TelanganaFormationDay (sic), he added. The Congress party also took to Twitter to extend its warm wishes on the occasion. The Telangana bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on February 8, 2014, with support from the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was then passed by the Rajya Sabha with the support of the BJP and other opposition parties. The bill received the Presidents nod and was published in the gazette on March 1, 2014, and the Centre declared June 2, 2014, as the Telangana Formation Day. Error. Page cannot be displayed. Please contact your service provider for more details. (28) Pandemics are indicators of ecosystem damage as storms are of climate change by Rupa Mukerji May 27,2020 | Source: reliefweb A pandemic like COVID-19 or a cyclone like the one currently crossing West Bengal and Bangladesh are shocks. A pandemic is a shock that shows how fragile the global ecosystem has become. Cyclones and other weather hazards are shocks that show how fragile the climate is. Humanity has seen the warning signs for years but has not been taking them seriously. Cyclone Amphan is bearing down on India and Bangladesh as I write this blog. Both countries are still dealing with the impacts of COVID-19 when this massive cyclone hits, with winds gusting over 150 km/ hour and the risk of a storm surge as high as 5 to 6 meters. This is one of the most densely populated regions in the world. Over 4 million people have had to be evacuated in the last days to thousands of shelters, where social distancing is virtually impossible. This has been one of the strangest years of my life when scenarios we knew were scientifically possible are being experienced over a very short period. It's surreal and one cannot but wonder, is this the new normal? 70% of recent diseases are zoonotic in origin, i.e. transmitted to humans from wild or domestic animals -- according to a recent guest article authored by, among others, the co-chairs of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), a sister body of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, to which I contribute as a lead author). According to the article, most future diseases will be of this nature. Human actions have affected over 75% of the landmass, through deforestation, expansion of agriculture, mining and growing human habitations. This has enhanced the interactions between humans, wildlife and the pathogens they harbor. The scientific community has long been aware of this and warning us of the risk of pandemics. The impacts of human actions on the ecosystem or climate are experienced as trends and shocks. Trends are patterns observed over time while shocks are sudden extreme events. Both have large impacts, one felt overtime while the others are instant and therefore draw greater attention. The recent IPBES assessment of the state of the world's ecosystem warned us that over 500,000 species, about 9% of the world's estimated 5.9 million terrestrial species, have insufficient habitat for their survival. Over a third of the world's land surface and of its freshwater resources are used for crop or livestock production. Unsustainable practices have degraded and reduced the productivity of about a quarter of the agricultural land area. These are just a few of the trends in ecosystem loss. Such unsustainable agricultural practices that destroy habitats for millions of species also leave over 10% of the world population hungry. Incidentally the OECD countries subsidize such agriculture, harmful to the environment, to the extent of $100 billion per year. In 2012, the IPCC produced a landmark report on the links between climate change and climate shocks or extreme weather events such as heatwaves, floods, cyclonic storms/ hurricanes and wildfires. In the last years we have lived through some of its most grim scenarios with multiple and unexpected hurricanes in East Africa (that have triggered locust swarms), wildfires raging from Siberia to America and Australia, followed by floods of biblical proportions. And now Amphan, the largest ever hurricane in the Bay of Bengal. The oceans have absorbed 93% of global warming over the past decades. Warmer waters lead to stronger, larger and more rapidly intensifying cyclones, which is what we observe with Amphan. A combination of multiple extreme weather events and protectionist policies of governments triggered the food crisis in 2008 and again in 2010 -- 2012. Today we are fortunate that food stocks in most countries are high, the production in the last season was good and food markets are functioning well but still many millions are not able to purchase food due to loss of income. The World Food Programme estimates that the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to more than a quarter billion people experiencing acute hunger by the end of the year. OCHA Theme(s): Others. Xtalks Life Science Webinars Multiplex immunohistochemistry is the best suitable technology, allowing spatial detection and quantification of complex immune cell phenotypes. Join Nagy Habib, Professor of Surgery, Imperial College London; Co-Founder, MiNA Therapeutics and Jacques Fieschi, PhD, VP of R&D, HalioDx in a live webinar on Monday, June 8, 2020 at 11am EDT (4pm BST/UK). Assessing the tumor microenvironment has proved to be immensely informative in the context of clinical trials. Multiplex immunohistochemistry is the best suitable technology, allowing spatial detection and quantification of complex immune cell phenotypes. Thanks to the unique HalioDx Brightplex technology, pharma companies can access customized panels, providing valuable data and insights to further understand the mechanism of action of their drugs. MTL-CEBPA is a small activating RNA therapeutic (saRNA) which, when combined with sorafenib, induces a novel myeloid differentiation in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). HalioDx has specifically developed 3 Brightplex panels, containing up to seven biomarkers each, for the identification and the quantification of different myeloid cells such as myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), neutrophils (N1/N2) and M1 and M2 macrophages on treated patient samples. This technology, which uses one FFPE slide per panel, was rolled out to explore these changes by comparing pre- and post-treated samples from patients who have received MTL-CEBPA in combination with sorafenib during a Phase I a/b of a clinical trial study. For more information or to register for this event, visit Exploring Changes of Myeloid Cells with Chromogenic Multiplex IHC in Advanced Liver Cancer. ABOUT XTALKS Xtalks, powered by Honeycomb Worldwide Inc., is a leading provider of educational webinars to the global life science, food and medical device community. Every year thousands of industry practitioners (from life science, food and medical device companies, private & academic research institutions, healthcare centers, etc.) turn to Xtalks for access to quality content. Xtalks helps Life Science professionals stay current with industry developments, trends and regulations. Xtalks webinars also provide perspectives on key issues from top industry thought leaders and service providers. To learn more about Xtalks visit http://xtalks.com For information about hosting a webinar visit http://xtalks.com/why-host-a-webinar/ A group opposing the proposal to ban dilation and evacuation, or D&E, abortions in Michigan, has challenged the validity of signatures collected for the petition initiative. The group, Coalition to Protect Access to Care, said there were at least 65 defective signatures in the 500-signature sample, including at least 21 duplicates, which its legal representation called an unusually high rate. The petition being challenged turned in 373,062 petition signatures to the state in December, according to the Bureau of Elections. It proposes a ban that would define D&E abortions as dismemberment abortions and make it a felony for a physician to perform one unless it was to save the life of the mother. In 2018, about 7 percent of abortions in Michigan involved dilation and evacuation, which is typically used in abortions after the 14th week of pregnancy. It involves a combination of suction and manual removal of the fetus, and is typically performed in the second trimester of a pregnancy. The Coalition to Protect Access to Cares challenge was submitted to the state Monday, June 1, by Attorney Mark Brewer at the deadline to file such a challenge. The state confirmed it had received the challenge. In the complaint, CPAC asserts that the petition is legally defective on its face and lacks sufficient signatures to be certified. Brewer said CPAC believes the board has ample reason to decline to certify the signatures, given the findings of its review. Under Michigan law, citizen-led initiatives that would change state statute require campaigns to collect valid signatures from registered voters totaling 8 percent of the votes cast for governor in 180 days - that number is currently 340,047 signatures. Initiatives with enough signatures are then sent to the legislature for review, where lawmakers have 40 days to either adopt the initiative as law or send the question to the statewide ballot. If the 500-signature sample is representative of the total signatures, CPAC estimates that 30,000 signatures would be duplicates. That would put the petition under the 340,047 threshold it needs. CPAC identifies itself as a ballot committee formed by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan to formally oppose efforts by anti-abortion extremists to ban dilation & evacuation in Michigan by circumventing the legislative process and avoiding a vote of the people at the polls in November. Challengers claim the filing is historic, as the first time anyone has formally challenged a citizens initiative brought by Right to Life or raised the legal issues this challenge does. Weve said all along that we would challenge this initiative at every opportunity because we know how dangerous it is for politics to dictate medical care, said Angela Vasquez-Giroux, spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan, in a prepared statement. The vast majority of Michiganders agree that abortion should remain safe and legal, and that decisions about how and when to end a pregnancy should be made by doctors and patients, not politicians. Interest groups want to unilaterally decide how doctors treat patients without letting voters weigh in. We owe it to every Michigander to ensure that this petition meets every standard required for certification before Right to Life is able to force their beliefs on millions of people, backed by the votes of less than two hundred. The signatures were gathered and submitted by the Michigan Values Life coalition, made up of Right to Life of Michigan and other anti-abortion groups. Right to Life of Michigan President Barbara Listing previously said the group thoroughly reviewed the signatures to determine their validity. Read more on MLive: Michigan coronavirus stay-at-home order lifted: Heres what opens when Heavy police and National Guard presence in downtown Grand Rapids for Day 2 of curfew Michigan reports lowest 24-hour coronavirus case increase in months Whitmer hopes to reopen gyms, salons and more by 4th of July weekend VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2020 / PowerBand Solutions Inc. (PBX.V) (PWWBF) (1ZVA.F) ("PowerBand", "PBX" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce that MUSA Auto Finance, LLC ("MUSA"), its 60% controlled leasing platform in the United States, is expected to begin lease originations in June on its proprietary cloud-based platform for consumers and auto dealers. MUSA will be enabling consumers and dealers to access extensive funding facilities from national financial institutions through the platform. These exclusive finance arrangements with national financial institutions, which consumers and dealers will be able to access from smart phones and other digital devices, will be made public upon completion of each specific financing agreement. "This is a major advancement for MUSA and PowerBand," said Jeff Morgan, MUSA's CEO. "We have a proprietary auto lease platform that we believe is the first of its kind, and now we are finalizing exclusive agreements, with national financial institutions, so we can roll out our technology to dealers and consumers nationally." "I want to thank MUSA CEO Jeff Morgan and the MUSA team for their hard work and steadfast commitment to developing this innovation," said PowerBand CEO Kelly Jennings. "Once all the financial institutions are onboarded, we anticipate the platform will be originating significant lease contracts for consumers and dealers. It will enable people to acquire just about any vehicle - electric and non-electric - from any location using a smart phone or other digital device." MUSA is working to lead the modernization of the new- and pre-owned vehicle leasing experience, providing dealers and consumers with the most advanced on-line leasing options in the industry. The technology takes an application, calculates a lease, auto-decisions the application, provides an approval back to dealer partners and prefills a lease contract accurately. Approvals can occur in a few seconds. As a result of its proprietary technology, MUSA was awarded a contract by Tesla Motors to become a national leasing partner in 2018. Story continues The Company has also agreed to make PowerBand's virtual transaction platform, which includes MUSA, available up to thousands of dealerships working with RouteOne LLC ("RouteOne") in the United States and Canada. RouteOne, formed by way of a joint venture between Ally Financial, Ford Motor Credit Company, TD Auto Finance, and Toyota Financial Services maintains a footprint of over 16,000 automotive dealers and 1,500 finance sources. RouteOne provides a comprehensive suite of finance and insurance tools, ranging from credit applications and eContracting to digital retail and compliance. The company continues with other negotiations to further the availability of credit facilities in the United States and Canada on the PowerBand platform, which the Company intends to make one of the world's leading platforms in automotive retail for on-line transactions. About PowerBand Solutions Inc. PowerBand Solutions Inc., listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and the OTCQB markets, is a fintech provider disrupting the automotive industry. PowerBand's integrated, cloud-based transaction platform facilitates transactions amongst consumers, dealers, funders and manufacturers (OEMs). It enables them to buy, sell, trade, finance, and lease new and used, electric- and non-electric vehicles, on smart phones or any other online digital devices, from any location. PowerBand's transaction platform - being trademarked under DRIVRZ - is being made available across North American and global markets. For further information, please contact: Richard Goldman, VP Corporate Development P: 1-866-768-7653 rgoldman@powerbandsolutions.com FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This news release contains forward-looking statements relating to the Company and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will", "may", "should", "anticipate", "expects" and similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding future plans and objectives of the Company, are forward looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. As a result, we cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will materialize and the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as at the date of this news release, and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the included forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by Canadian securities law. Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws, unless an exemption from such registration is available. SOURCE: PowerBand Solutions Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/592402/MUSA-Auto-Finance-PowerBands-US-Subsidiary-To-Access-Extensive-Lease-Financing-From-US-Financial-Institutions Hyderabad, June 2 : Four more persons died of Covid-19 in Telangana on Tuesday, pushing the death toll to 92. The deceased include two women, aged 60 and 70 years. A 41-year-old man and another man aged 42 also died of Covid-19 and co-morbidities. The state has been reporting fatalities on a daily basis for more than two weeks. Meanwhile, the surge in Covid-19 cases also continued on Tuesday with 99 people testing positive. Officials said 87 of them were locals while 12 migrants returning from other states were also found infected. With the fresh cases, the state's tally rose to 2,891 including 446 migrants, deportees and foreign returnees. Great Hyderabad continued to be the hotspot with 70 new cases. This includes post-graduate medicos of Osmania Medical College (OMC) who have tested positive. Five more medicos tested positive on Tuesday, taking the total number of cases at OMC to 12. The number of patients undergoing treatment in hospitals stand at 1,273 as 1,526 people have been discharged after treatment. The state, which has been reporting daily 30-40 cases till a few days ago, witnessed the surge with movement of people following relaxation in lockdown norms. Earlier, the cases were largely confined to Hyderabad but an indication virus has spread, some cases are now being reported from various districts. Meanwhile, Health Minister E. Rajender has directed officials to frame special guidelines for the safety of healthcare personnel in view of the increasing number of Covid cases. At a review meeting, the minister said the safety of doctors, nurses and paramedical staff should be given the top priority. He also directed officials to ensure availablity of oxyge pipelines in all hospitals. He also asked officials to make sure that the entire staff in all hospitals attend to their duties. Rajender also directed officials to arrange a special ward for cancer patients testing positive for Covid-19. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) This blog covers software patent news and issues with a particular focus on wireless, mobile devices (smartphones, tablet computers, connected cars) as well as select antitrust matters surrounding those devices. Richard Grenell, an outspoken Donald Trump loyalist, has officially stepped down as US ambassador to Germany, ending a controversial two-year stint in Berlin that fanned transatlantic tensions. A rising star in Republican circles and one of the most high-profile gays in the Trump administration, Grenell had been tapped in February to temporarily become head of US intelligence. "Ambassador Grenell resigned from his post and the State Department on June 1," embassy spokesman Joseph Giordono-Scholz told AFP. The envoy had already indicated he would not be returning to Berlin once the interim role in Washington was over. He will remain the US special envoy for Kosovo-Serbia negotiations. The 53-year-old will be remembered in Germany for his undiplomatic approach to foreign policy, often turning to Twitter to attack Chancellor Angela Merkel's government. He regularly angered his host country with criticism of everything from the Iran nuclear deal to Berlin's defence spending and relations with Chinese tech firm Huawei. A staunch supporter of Trump's "America First" stance, Grenell faced calls for his expulsion soon after starting the job when he stated his ambition to "empower other conservatives throughout Europe". The envoy ruffled feathers again when he slammed German plans to lower military spending as "unacceptable" and "a worrisome signal". That led senior German lawmaker Carsten Schneider from the centre-left Social Democrats to label Grenell a "total diplomatic failure", while other politicians called for him to go. - 'You don't know Americans' - However, Grenell has warned that the rocky patch between the once close allies is far from over. "You make a big mistake if you think the American pressure is off. You don't know Americans," he tweeted last month. It remains unclear what Grenell will do next. His turn as acting director of national intelligence ended after the US Senate confirmed John Ratcliffe as his permanent replacement in late May. During his brief period in charge of the US spy community, Grenell forced out several officials not seen as loyal to Trump. Media have speculated that Trump may reward him with a senior role on his re-election campaign. Grenell has been as active as ever on Twitter, commenting on the protests sweeping the United States following the death of a black man in police custody. He also hailed Trump's walk from the White House to a nearby church to pose for photographs on Monday as "a triumphant moment of hope over fear", despite outrage over police use of tear gas to clear protesters from the area. US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, pictured in February in Munich Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE The coronavirus pandemic has not dampened New Mexico voter turnout for this years primary election though it has changed how state residents vote. As of Monday, more than 260,000 registered voters had cast ballots for todays primary election. Thats about 26% of all eligible voters and roughly the same amount who voted in the states 2018 primary. Roughly 77% of those who have voted so far this year have done so via absentee ballots, with Democrats submitting more than twice as many absentee ballots as Republicans 143,156 to 57,602. But more Republicans than Democrats voted through in-person early voting, which ended Saturday. Several county clerks said Monday that theyre using a 2019 change in state law that allows county clerks who mailed out 10,000 or more ballots to start qualifying ballots and feeding them into vote tabulators two weeks before Election Day. But the deluge of absentee ballots could still lead to Election Night delays in some counties that have a large number of ballots turned in today, Tuesday. Were always busy but this is quadruple, Santa Fe County Clerk Geraldine Salazar said Monday. Its probably the most difficult election ever. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver and other state officials have urged voters to use absentee voting this year instead of in-person voting to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19. However, the state Supreme Court last month rejected a petition by most county clerks to conduct the primary as a mail-in election, ruling that state law did not provide for such an option. Instead, all eligible primary voters Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians for this years election cycle were sent request forms that they could return to get an absentee ballot. That message appears to have been heeded. In Dona Ana County, more than 8,700 absentee ballots had been received by the County Clerks Office as of Monday afternoon, but an additional 9,500 or so absentee ballots that had been sent out after being requested had still not been turned in, Deputy Clerk Lindsey Bachman said. Were doing everything we can to prepare for an influx of absentee ballots, Bachman told the Journal. Lea County Clerk Keith Manes said more than 2,700 absentee ballots had been received as of Monday. In the 2016 primary election, only 268 absentee ballots were sent in, he said. Its been challenging, but we have good workers, Manes said. He also said the consolidation of Election Day polling places could make it easier to tally votes, although other county clerks warned that a surge of absentee ballots being delivered or turned in on Election Day could complicate matters. Its been pretty hectic with the absentee ballots, said San Miguel County Clerk Geraldine Gutierrez, who said about 4,500 absentee ballots in her county had been returned out of more than 5,600 that were requested. In-person voting While in-person voting on Election Day will still take place in most parts of New Mexico, it will not be offered on some Native American lands. With tribal populations hit disproportionately hard by the coronavirus outbreak, at least seven pueblos Acoma, Tesuque, Zia, Isleta, Cochiti, Picuris and Taos will not have Election Day voting sites, according to the Secretary of States Office. However, members of those tribes can still vote on Tuesday at other, non-tribal polling places. Other tribal groups, including chapters of the Navajo Nation, have worked to consolidate the number of polling places in an attempt to reduce person-to-person contact. Elevated Election Day voting numbers either via in-person voting or last-minute absentee ballots could boost New Mexicos overall turnout level to around that of the record-setting 2016 primary election, when 326,000 voters cast ballots due, at least in part, to interest in a heated Democratic presidential primary race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. That years overall turnout was 34% of those eligible to vote in the race, up from the average of 28% in presidential election year primaries in New Mexico since 1996. Primary battles This years primary election features hotly contested races in several of New Mexicos congressional districts. Seven Democrats and three Republicans are competing for nomination in the northern New Mexico-based 3rd Congressional District, as incumbent U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., is forgoing a reelection bid to run for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Tom Udall, who is retiring. In the southern New Mexico-based 2nd Congressional District, Republicans Claire Chase of Roswell, Yvette Herrell of Alamogordo and Chris Mathys of Las Cruces are vying for the opportunity to face off against Democratic incumbent Xochitl Torres Small in November. Meanwhile, Lujan is the lone Democrat running for the U.S. Senate seat, but three Republicans Mark Ronchetti, Elisa Martinez and Gavin Clarkson are facing off for the GOP nomination. All 112 legislative seats are also up for election this year, and several moderate Senate Democrats are facing challenges from more progressive opponents. That includes Sen. Richard Martinez, D-Ojo Caliente, who is trying to hold on to the seat hes held since 2001 after being convicted last year of aggravated drunken driving charges. Hes running against fellow Democrat Leo Jaramillo of Espanola. Some of the primary races involving both Democrats and Republicans have been marked by hard-hitting campaign mailers sent by outside groups, and at least one county clerk said some voters may be ready for the election cycle to be over. I think the negative campaigning is really getting on peoples nerves, Manes said. Irvine, Calif., June 2, 2020 -- Octopuses, squids and other sea creatures can perform a disappearing act by using specialized tissues in their bodies to manipulate the transmission and reflection of light, and now researchers at the University of California, Irvine have engineered human cells to have similar transparent abilities. In a paper published today in Nature Communications, the scientists described how they drew inspiration from cephalopod skin to endow mammalian cells with tunable transparency and light-scattering characteristics. "For millennia, people have been fascinated by transparency and invisibility, which have inspired philosophical speculation, works of science fiction, and much academic research," said lead author Atrouli Chatterjee, a UCI doctoral student in chemical & biomolecular engineering. "Our project - which is decidedly in the realm of science - centers on designing and engineering cellular systems and tissues with controllable properties for transmitting, reflecting and absorbing light." Chatterjee works in the laboratory of Alon Gorodetsky, UCI associate professor of chemical & biomolecular engineering, who has a long history of exploring how cephalopods' color-changing capabilities can be mimicked to develop unique technologies to benefit people. His team's bioinspired research has led to breakthrough developments in infrared camouflage and other advanced materials. For this study, the group drew inspiration from the way female Doryteuthis opalescens squids can evade predators by dynamically switching a stripe on their mantle from nearly transparent to opaque white. The researchers then borrowed some of the intercellular protein-based particles involved in this biological cloaking technique and found a way to introduce them into human cells to test whether the light-scattering powers are transferable to other animals. This species of squid has specialized reflective cells called leucophores which can alter the how they scatter light. Within these cells are leucosomes, membrane-bound particles which are composed of proteins known as reflectins, which can produce iridescent camouflage. In their experiments, the researchers cultured human embryonic kidney cells and genetically engineered them to express reflectin. They found that the protein would assemble into particles in the cells' cytoplasm in a disordered arrangement. They also saw through optical microscopy and spectroscopy that the introduced reflectin-based structures caused the cells to change their scattering of light. "We were amazed to find that the cells not only expressed reflectin but also packaged the protein in spheroidal nanostructures and distributed them throughout the cells' bodies," said Gorodetsky, a co-author on this study. "Through quantitative phase microscopy, we were able to determine that the protein structures had different optical characteristics when compared to the cytoplasm inside the cells; in other words, they optically behaved almost as they do in their native cephalopod leucophores." In another important part of the study, the team tested whether the reflectance could potentially be toggled on and off through external stimuli. They sandwiched cells in between coated glass plates and applied different concentrations of sodium chloride. Measuring the amount of light that was transmitted by the cells, they found that the ones exposed to higher sodium levels scattered more light and stood out more from the surroundings. "Our experiments showed that these effects appeared in the engineered cells but not in cells that lacked the reflectin particles, demonstrating a potential valuable method for tuning light-scattering properties in human cells," Chatterjee said. While invisible humans are still firmly in the realm of science fiction, Gorodetsky said his group's research can offer some tangible benefits in the near term. "This project showed that it's possible to develop human cells with stimuli-responsive optical properties inspired by leucophores in celphalopods, and it shows that these amazing reflectin proteins can maintain their properties in foreign cellular environments," he said. He said the new knowledge also could open the possibility of using reflectins as a new type of biomolecular marker for medical and biological microscopy applications. ### This project, which received support from Defense Applied Research Projects Agency and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, also involved researchers from the University of California, San Diego and Hamamatsu Photonics in Japan. About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UCI is the youngest member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. The campus has produced three Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 36,000 students and offers 222 degree programs. It's located in one of the world's safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County's second-largest employer, contributing $5 billion annually to the local economy. For more on UCI, visit http://www.uci.edu. Media access: Radio programs/stations may, for a fee, use an on-campus ISDN line to interview UCI faculty and experts, subject to availability and university approval. For more UCI news, visit news.uci.edu. Additional resources for journalists may be found at communications.uci.edu/for-journalists. A Louisiana man turned himself in to police in the Florida Keys this week after a video of him trying to pry a research band from a brown pelicans leg at an Islamorada marina in February was shown to state wildlife officials. Robert Hovey Jr., 33, was arrested Monday on two misdemeanor animal cruelty charges. He was released later in the day on a $4,000 bond. Robert Hovey His attorney, William Heffernan, has filed two motions to dismiss the charges. The attorney said Tuesday that a veterinarian has viewed the video, which Hovey posted on his Instagram page, and concluded the bird was more than properly handled and safely released. The video was recorded on Feb. 7 at Robbies Marina on Lower Matecumbe Key. Pelicans gather there because one of the attractions is feeding fish to the large tarpon and the nurse sharks that hang around under the finger docks. Hovey, from Forestdale, Louisiana, was in the Keys with friends Feb 5-9 for a wedding, according to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission arrest warrant. The video shows a man, who FWC investigators say is Hovey, approach a group of pelicans and grab one. As the bird struggles and pecks, Hovey tries to pry open the metal tag on its leg. A womans voice is heard telling Hovey he is hurting the animal, and he replies, No, this is hurting him, referring to the band. The woman replies, I know. Hes been numbered, like a Nazi boy, according to the video. According to FWC Investigator Christopher Mattsons report, the video was seen by officers with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, who viewed it Feb. 12 on Hoveys Instagram page for his charter fishing business, Troll Naked. The video, which was titled, If you know me, you know I was not messing around, has since been removed. Louisiana officers forwarded the video to the Florida wildlife agency, according to Mattsons report. How much jail time can you get for pouncing on a pelican? Facebook poster gets sentenced Story continues Mattson called and texted Hovey on Feb. 18 but did receive a response, Mattson said. Hovey finally texted Mattson back on Feb. 21 after a Louisiana officer went to his house to tell him about the investigation into the video, according to the warrant information. In Hoveys text, he told Mattson: I didnt know things have gotten to this point. Let me get an attorney and I will have him contact you, the report states. Because of the novel coronavirus, Hovey was unable to go to the Keys to face the charges until Monday, when Monroe County allowed visitors into the island chain for the first time since March 27. Mattson said in his report that the video shows this brown pelican is clearly in distress, being tormented by its captor. During a March 6 conference call that included Hovey, Heffernan and Mattson, Hovey said he was trying to help the bird and that he never saw a pelican with a metal band on its leg. He also told Mattson that he is an avid waterfowl enthusiast, according to the report. Heffernan says nothing shown in the video adds up to any criminal offense. Hovey is an active duty member of the United States Coast Guard. Hes stationed at Coast Guard Station New Orleans where he is a rescue swimmer with the rank Aviation Survival Technician, said Petty Officer 3rd Class Lexie Preston, spokeswoman for Coast Guard District 8, which includes Louisiana. Rescue swimmers duties include jumping from helicopters to save people in the water. Its not immediately clear how long Hoveys been in the service, but he is a non-commissioned officer. The Coast Guard is cooperating with the investigation, Preston said Tuesday night. The crimes AST2 Hovey are charged with are not consistent with the Coast Guards core values of honor, respect and devotion to duty and do not represent other Coast Guard men and women who proudly serve their communities, Preston said in a statement. CLEVELAND, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Tuesday again dodged questions about President Donald Trumps calls for increased use of force against protesters of police brutality. During DeWines briefing on the coronavirus, he addressed the protests which have sometimes turned violent over the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by a Minneapolis police officer who knelt on his neck for nine minutes. Trump escalated attacks on protesters Monday by demanding governors mobilize the National Guard, threatening to send federal military troops into their states if they refused. When asked Tuesday by a reporter about the presidents orders, DeWine deflected and instead talked about the response in Ohio. Pressed a second time by a reporter about a phone call DeWine and other governors had with the president, where Trump said the governors were weak and needed to dominate the protesters, DeWine smiled and laughed before labeling it a leading question. The president did not mention Ohio and I did not call in with questions, DeWine said. I think we have handled this well. Tuesday marks the second day DeWine, a Republican, has refused to respond to questions about Trump, also a Republican, and his demand for a crackdown on the protests. Demonstrations have cropped up in dozens of U.S. cities, including Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. That includes at the front gates of the White House, where peaceful protesters were tear-gassed on Monday. DeWine has said in the past his background coming from the politically active town of Yellow Springs taught him the value of demonstrations. He has spoken out against racial injustice and said he strongly supports the right to peacefully protest. But his only criticism of Trump came last week, when he said he disagreed with a Trump tweet that said "when the looting begins, the shooting begins. Protests in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati the past week have ended with police and National Guard tear-gassing crowds, looting and rioting. Read more cleveland.com politics coverage: Gov. Mike DeWine says state should review whether officers involved in police-related deaths should be fired Ohio coronavirus cases per capita mapped; Cuyahoga County among hardest hit; low rates in much of southern Ohio Ohio National Guard sent to Washington for protest response Sen. Sherrod Brown denounces President Trumps handling of protests, Sen. Rob Portman calls for a national commission on race Hundreds of people have taken to the streets in Kenyas capital to protest the death of a homeless man believed to have been killed by police for violating a coronavirus curfew. The body of 51-year-old James Mureithi was found lying in an alleyway in Mathare, a densely populated Nairobi slum, after he was allegedly shot by officers, prompting outraged residents to demand justice. Mureithi was a university-educated automotive engineer who suffered a mental breakdown after divorcing his wife 10 years ago, said his brother, Dominic Njagi. Social media reports suggest he had been working as a market porter while sleeping rough and was well-known locally by the name Vaite. The pathologist I talked to said my brother was shot twice; one on the legs and the other on the chest, Mr Njagi told the Associated Press. The pathologist said the chest wound was at close range. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty According to analysis by Missing Voices, a group tracking and opposing extrajudicial killings in Kenya, 93 people have been killed by police or reported missing in 2020 already the highest annual total recorded since their figures began in 2007, excluding 2019. The country's Independent Policing Oversight Authority believes 15 people have been killed and 31 others injured by police officers enforcing the coronavirus curfew. The authority said it has dispatched teams to probe a further six deaths in the past four days allegedly linked to officers, including Mureithis. There has been at least one [killing] a night since curfew began, said Wilfred Olal, who coordinates a network of social justice centres in slums across Kenya that is trying to keep track of curfew-related deaths since the measure was put into place in March. To be honest, weve lost count. Its dozens. There are many more. One victim, 13-year-old Yassin Moyo, died after being shot in the stomach by police on 30 March as he played with his siblings on their third-storey balcony at about 7pm, as the curfew was coming into effect. Police have claimed it was a stray bullet. On Tuesday, Kenyas director of public prosecution ordered the arrest and prosecution of a police officer in connection with Yassins death. The country has so far confirmed 1,962 cases of coronavirus, 64 of which have been fatal. People are more afraid of the police than Covid-19, said rights activist Boniface Mwangi, who said all of the Kenyans who have died at the hands of police enforcing the curfew have been from low-income neighbourhoods. Kenyan deaths and the global protests over the killing of George Floyd in the US show that struggles against police brutality are the same everywhere, Mr Mwangi added. On Tuesday, dozens gathered outside the US embassy in Nairobi to protest Mureithis killing, police brutality in Kenya and the killing of George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis police custody after an officer knelt on his neck for eight minutes despite his cries of I cant breathe. Holding placards reading say their names and end white supremacy, the protesters told local media that the US should be held accountable for Kenyan police brutality, having provided Kenya with tens of millions of dollars in anti-terrorism law enforcement support in recent years, including hardware and training. Around 50 police officers arrived at demonstration within 20 minutes, threatening to use force unless they dispersed, activist Njeri Wa Migwi told Standard Digital. Within the US embassy itself, an extraordinary show of defiance was taking place, as officials joined fellow US diplomats in other African nations to express their deep concern at the situation unfolding in America. In a highly rare condemnation of domestic policy, the US embassy in Nairobi tweeted: We are deeply troubled by the death of Mr George Floyd in Minneapolis, adding: Law enforcement must be held accountable in every country. George Floyd protesters met with violence from police across US In a video message, ambassador Kyle McCarter said: The actions of the police officers in the killing of George Floyd were abhorrent and must result in justice and accountability for those responsible." He added: The voices of the American people, mine included, reflect their horror and anger at the repugnant acts of these officers. A strong, independent judicial system with the power to investigate and prosecute fully is the best means to ensure justice is served. The US embassy in neighbouring Tanzania also condemned Floyds death, with Congo ambassador Mike Hammer promoting a tweet that described the US as shameful, asking: How many black people must be killed by white police officers before authorities react seriously? It came as a coalition of dozens of former African presidents urged all of the continents governments to raise a strong protest over Floyds death in police custody. The Forum of Former African Heads of State and Government insisted nations demand that the perpetrators of this crime and all other crimes of this sort be punished with the utmost rigour. What level of cruelty must you reach that the entire world finally wakes up and manifests its indignation, said the statement signed by former Beninese president Nicephore Soglo, the groups vice-president. Enough is enough. The group stands in solidarity and supports all the measures that the Black Lives Matter movement and elected black officials will consider useful to put an end to these repeated provocations and barbarism purposely filmed by white supremacists, said the statement. A man was booked by Pune police for threatening an 18-year-old woman with an acid attack for not answering his phone calls. A complaint was lodged by the girl at Chaturshringi police station on Tuesday. The man was identified as Akshay Pawar suspected to be around 25-years old. He slapped her 2-3 times and warned her against ignoring his calls. The girl was scared and approached the police yesterday. We are on a lookout for him, said police sub-inspector (PSI) Rakesh Sarde of Chaturshringi police station who is investigating the case. According to the complaint, the man approached her in a rickshaw while she was walking and stopped her. He then allegedly slapped her and threatened her with an acid attack if she didnt answer his calls. One of the complainants friends knew him. She said he had been following and calling her for the past few months but she had not complained earlier, said PSI Sarde. A case under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code was registered at Chaturshringi police station against the man. The anger is different this time. After years of Americans being killed by the police more than 1,000 per year, for as long as statistics exist something has changed over the past week. The gruesome video of a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on George Floyds neck plays a role. So does a pandemic thats disproportionately killing African-Americans. And so do the angry, racialized politics that President Trump encourages. Here are some of the voices from the protests, which have included many people who say theyve never protested before: In every city, theres a George Floyd, said Michael Sampson II, 30, of Jacksonville, Fla. It could be my father, my brother, my uncle, my cousin, my friend, said Victoria Sloan, 27, of Brooklyn. It makes me angry. Im speaking for everybody, all my kinfolk, all my brothers and sisters whove gotten beaten up by police, said Cory Thomas, 40, who said the police beat him when he was a teenager in Brooklyn. I dont condone the violence, or the looting, he said, but at the end of the day, no 14-year-old should be beat up by police. After more than two years in operation, a plastics manufacturing plant south of the city of Rio Communities has announced it will be closing its doors soon, leaving more than 100 people without jobs. Keter U.S. Inc., which began operation in the Rio Grande Industrial Park in late 2017, will cease production on July 31, Tom Lombardo said Friday evening. Lombardo, the companys strategic business unit leader, notified the plants nearly 60 full time employees and the dozens of part time workers of the decision via video Thursday, May 28 and Friday, May 29. Because of travel restrictions in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, Lombardo wasnt able to come to Valencia County to notify employees in person. Regardless, either across a desk, face to face, or by video, this is a very difficult decision he said. This is not a reflection on the workforce the associates there are a very dedicated, hard working, technically sound workforce. This is a wonderful community. Weve been active in the community, as has our (human resources) director, Daniel Aguilar. Everyone there is talented and passionate; we are thankful for the team. This is an economic, business decision, and its a tough one. But at the end of the day, it was a business decision that had to be made. As a global enterprise, Keter went through a review of its plants in different parts of the world and North America, Lombardo said, making sure its network of warehouses and distribution centers was optimized for its customers and the company itself. After we went through that analysis, we needed to make adjustments in our networks and did a rationalization of our facilities, he said. Through that, we determined we needed to make a consolidation and have a closure of the Belen site. The plant will continue to manufacture products through the end of July, then the inventory will be warehoused and distributed from there through the end of September. Manufacturing will be consolidated to Keters North Carolina and Indiana facilities, Lombardo said. This analysis and decision predates COVID-19, absolutely, he said. Our original intention was to be a little earlier in the announcement but because of the current environment, we delayed. It was the right thing to do with the impact to employees. There are about 60 full-time employees at the facility, and between 40 and 50 part-time workers. All of the associates will have the opportunity to transfer to another Keter facility, Lombardo said. The company has plants in North Carolina, Indiana, near Pittsburgh and in Milton, Ontario, Canada. All of those are open for potential transfers for all associates, all the way down to our operators, the direct labor, he said. If there is interest, we will work with them on these opportunities. We do understand the Belen marketplace has a strong culture and family ties, so were not sure how that will work out, but we do know there are already some who are going to make moves. As for specific plans for the facility, which sits on a bit more than 39 acres, Lombardo said the companys intentions would be to work with the state and city of Belen to put it on the market for sale or lease, if the right fit could be found. The plastics company bought the old Solo Cup facility in the Rio Grande Industrial Park and 14 acres to the south of it in the spring of 2014. Solo Cup closed its 165,000-square-foot Valencia County plant in early 2009, eliminating about 215 local, full-time jobs. The late Herman Tabet purchased the property in 2011, then sold it to Keter. When Keter made the purchase, due to changing standards in manufacturing, the ceilings at the Solo Cup plant werent high enough, so the company built a brand new 80,000-square-foot manufacturing plant on the vacant portion of the property, leaving the existing building for warehousing and shipping. Lombardo said the companys investment in the property was just shy of $30 million. To close the deal between Keter and Tabet, the city of Belen traded 27 acres of municipal-owned land in the Belen Industrial Park south of the city off N.M. 116, and 30 acres of water rights to Tabet for the 14 acres south of the Solo Cup facility. The city council also approved $40 million in industrial revenue bonds for Keter. Lombardo said any funds the company did not qualify for under the terms of the contracts for the IRBs it had with the city and the state would be paid back. There are two different pieces money granted through the city will go back to the city and money from the state will go through the city and back to the state, he said. There were some funds available that we never received because we were not qualified. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 2 By Ilkin Seyfaddini - Trend: The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Uzbekistan increased by 56 to 3,662, Trend reports on June 2 with reference to the Ministry of Health. To date, 2,859 patients have fully recovered in the country, 15 have died. Uzbekistan has divided the country into certain "red", "yellow" and "green" zones, with regards to the level of COVID-19 pandemic spread level. The Special Republican Commission for the preparation of a program of measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in Uzbekistan has extended the quarantine until June 15, 2020. Since May 15, the commission has lifted some restrictions on certain activities in Uzbekistan. The "red" zones include Uzbekistan's Karakalpakstan Autonomous Republic, Andijan, Namangan, Fergana, Samarkand, Bukhara, Syrdarya and Tashkent regions (also divided into zones). The "yellow" zones include Khorezm region and Tashkent city. The "green" zones include Jizzakh and Surkhandarya regions. Today, in Kitab district of Kashkadarya region ("green" zone in the past), the quarantine regime has been tightened. Earlier, Navoi region was transferred from "green" zone to the "red" zone. Moreover, Uzbekistan declared Jizzakh and Surkhandarya regions were declared free from COVID-19. The first case of coronavirus infection in Uzbekistan was detected on March 15 in the laboratory of the Research Institute of Virology; it was an Uzbek woman who returned from France. The Ministry of Health later announced that her son, daughter, husband and grandson also tested coronavirus-positive. --- Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini More than half a mile the line snaked back through the Parliamentary Estate. From the Commons chamber it began, out through the cavernous environs of Westminster Hall before spilling out into New Palace Yard. For three months, the whole of this area had been totally deserted bar the odd armed policeman. Now, at 4pm on a baking first day back from recess, it was suddenly awash with MPs. This was not a fire drill. And no, it was not the queue for MPs to reclaim their precious expenses. Members were voting on Leader of the House Jacob Rees-Moggs decision to do away with remote votes and return to a physical-only Commons. In these social distancing times, this is how MPs will now be required to pass laws. Herded like moo cows on the way to market. Goodness what a carry on. Despite Parliamentary staffs best efforts, it was not an organised scene. A tinge of chaos hung in the air. Think Stansted airport on August bank holiday, though sans screaming toddlers. Thank goodness. Some MPs irritably removed their jackets in the sweltering afternoon sun. Others, predictably, decided to capture this unusual moment by taking selfies. Ducking in among them was one Parliaments men in tights, sword dangling by his side, frantically ensuring they remained two metres apart. Members were voting on Leader of the House Jacob Rees-Moggs decision to do away with remote votes and return to a physical-only Commons Rank and position bore no priority. Beneath my office window, at the very back of the queue, I saw Sir Keir Starmer patiently hovering on the cobbles. I maintained a watchful look out for the Prime Minister but never saw him arrive. Meanwhile, the scene inside the chamber was no less barmy. Some members seemed genuinely confused as to how to cast their vote. The poor clerk became really quite terse. Name and how youre voting, please! she cried as they approached the dispatch box quizzically. Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle was similarly irked by the slow speed of foot traffic. Dawdlers were met with a yell of Coooome on! Some 43 minutes later we were done. Usually a vote takes little over ten. With technology now in place, which has allowed MPs vote via mobile telephone during lockdown, this is a remarkably analogue move. More pertinently, by scrapping the remote system some elderly MPs currently having to shield are now unable to vote. Needless to say, the debate which preceded the vote was a snippy affair. Rees-Mogg insisted remote voting has always been a temporary measure. His reasoning was that voting on important legislature demanded the respect of turning up in person. Former Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn was spotted queuing alongside fellow MPs to vote in the Commons He was disturbed to learn some members had cast their vote during Parliaments hybrid period while out walking. Voting while having a sunny walk or watching television does democracy an injustice, he said, a tad preciously. Moggs opposite number Valerie Vaz accused him of staggering arrogance. Liz Saville-Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Dwyfor Meirionnydd) said preventing those MPs unable to attend the House from voting was effectively showing their constituents they mattered less. Caroline Nokes (Con, Romsey & Southampton N) deemed Moggs motion discriminatory. Ian Paisley (DUP, N Antrim) complained of the difficulties he and his colleagues had getting to Westminster, due to the paucity of flights from Belfast. Mogg, whose London home is a short walk from the Commons, was mildly sympathetic to this. He was impressed, too, by SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackfords commitment to Parliamentary democracy after his journey from the Isle of Skye had taken 16 hours. Perhaps hes a secret unionist! shouted a heckler. Blackford was indignant. This is ludicrous and a waste of our time, he fumed, his jowls wobbling with affected fury. When Deputy Speaker Dame Eleanor Laing urged Blackford to hurry his speech along, he refused. Move along! went up the cry from the Government benches. Most surprising moment of the session was unearthed by Chris Bryant (Lab, Rhondda) who, rightly, predicted the queues to vote would be worse than the ones at Alton Towers. Have you ever been to Alton Towers? Bryant yelled at the dispatch box. Yes, took my sister Annunziata many years ago, Jacob replied. That I would have paid to see. As for the vote, it passed comfortably. So for the next few months, Parliaments going to be a right old palaver. 'As for the vote, it passed comfortably. So for the next few months, Parliaments going to be a right old palaver,' says Henry Deedes Mind your PM-queues By John Stevens The House of Commons was branded an embarrassing shambles yesterday as MPs queued for more than half a mile to take part in a vote. Critics mocked Westminster for looking more like a theme park as the line stretched outside and around the Parliamentary Estate. The chaotic scenes came as the Government axed virtual proceedings that had allowed MPs to vote online and take part in debates from home via video link during the coronavirus crisis. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Leader of the Commons, insisted that it was the right time to ditch the stop-gap measures and require MPs to appear in person. We need proper debate, we need to be back, we need to have a proper full-blooded democracy and that is what we are getting, he said. Making the case for why online voting should not be allowed to continue, he added: Voting while enjoying a sunny walk or whilst watching television does democracy an injustice. The solemn decisions we take together affect the lives of millions of people in this country. Critics mocked Westminster for looking more like a theme park as the line stretched outside and around the Parliamentary Estate. Pictured: Chancellor Rishi Sunak queues outside the House of Commons to vote We ask members to vote in person for a reason, because it is the heart of what Parliament is about. But opponents warned that the move excluded those forced to remain at home because they are shielding due to serious health conditions. As they took part in the first votes since returning to Westminster, MPs formed a single-file line stretching for almost 1,000 yards as they were told to maintain a distance of 6ft two metres from each other. Westminster Hall was jokingly compared to an airport departure lounge as ropes were put out to mark where MPs were to queue. The line, including both ministers and backbenchers, snaked around New Palace Yard outside, running to Portcullis House. It took an hour and 25 minutes for two votes that would normally take 15 minutes each, despite repeated attempts by Sir Lindsay Hoyle to quicken the pace. The Commons Speaker could be heard telling MPs: Why are we not keeping up? There are other members waiting. Labours Chris Bryant likened matters to a theme park, joking have you ever been to Alton Towers to which Mr Rees-Mogg replied: Indeed, yes I have, I took my sister Annunziata there many years ago. Tory former Cabinet minister Karen Bradley, who chairs the procedure committee, moved an amendment to keep remote voting in place, with several Conservative MPs rebelling to support the proposal. But it was defeated by 185 votes to 242 following a 46-minute division. MPs later approved the Governments motion to allow only voting in person by 261 to 163, a majority of 98. Westminster Hall was jokingly compared to an airport departure lounge as ropes were put out to mark where MPs were to queue The SNP mocked the creation of a conga line Parliament, while others questioned whether it was a good use of time. Nusrat Ghani, a Conservative former minister, tweeted: How very British. We could vote electronically and crack on with business in Parliament or we can stand in queues. Tory Michael Fabricant said: Anyone watching the voting live on BBC Parliament would see what an embarrassing shambles it is. Labour MP Mark Tami accused the Government of bringing MPs back to Westminster so there were more people to cheer Boris Johnson at Prime Ministers Questions. He said: This utterly daft voting will put thousands of people parliamentary staff, MPs, their families and constituents at greater risk. All because Tories are embarrassed by Boris Johnsons performance against Keir Starmer without a crowd of backbenchers cheering behind him. Kevin Brennan, another Labour MP, joked: This queue is so long I just saw one MP using Google Maps. Mr Rees-Mogg said he will table a motion today that would enable MPs unable to attend Parliament on medical grounds to take part in some proceedings. However, they will not be able to take part in votes. Earlier, Tory MP Robert Halfon, who has cerebral palsy and is shielding, accused the Government of turning him into a parliamentary eunuch. The Equality and Human Rights Commission wrote to MPs to raise concern, saying it cannot be right to exclude elected representatives. Traffic moved smoothly at some of the 29 border points in Delhi while intermittent checking was conducted at some others on Tuesday, a day after the Delhi government put stringent curbs on interstate travel for a week to protect the citys health care resources as Covid-19 cases crossed the 20,000-mark. On Tuesday, Delhi reported 1,298 Covid cases with the total tally reaching 22,132. Eleven more people died over the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 556, according to the Delhi governments daily bulletin. The average number of daily new cases in the last week has been 1,095 and the Delhi government has been taking several measures to augment bed strength across hospitals and medical institutions. Senior Delhi Police officers said their personnel were briefed not to unnecessarily harass anyone and allow Delhi residents to enter the Capital after seeing their residential proof. Coronavirus outbreak: Full coverage Many regular commuters Hindustan Times spoke to said that their travel to Delhi from Ghaziabad and Noida was smoother than what they had experienced in the past few weeks despite curbs imposed by the district administrations of the two Uttar Pradesh cities. A Delhi government spokesperson said, The Delhi government had sent the order to seal all borders to the Delhi police. It is now the job of the police to enforce it. The Delhi police is not under us. At the Gurugram border, there was no restriction on the Delhi side as commuters, including officer-goers, drove across without any checking by the Delhi Police staff. At the Ghaziabad (UP)-Ghazipur (Delhi) border, the police conducted random checks occasionally during the day time. But in the evening peak hour, no car was being stopped from entering or leaving Delhi. Many commuters said they were confused about whether the restrictions on the border had been relaxed. The Gurugram police, however, closed the barricades to check for movement passes and turned away a few commuters who could not establish a reason to visit the city. The police also asked people to paste the movement pass issued by the district administration on the windscreen of their cars so that their personnel deployed at the border can check it without disrupting the traffic flow. The Haryana government had decided on Sunday evening to ease restrictions on the states borders with Delhi in Gurugram that had been in place since May 1. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday said talks will be held with the Delhi government to build a consensus on the inter-state movement issue. He, however, said some restrictions should stay in place. Our borders were already closed but when the Delhi government said these should not be opened, we felt what they are saying holds weight. Strictness should be there for now along the Delhi-Haryana border, Khattar said. Mandeep Singh, a senior executive of a private company in Gurugram, said he had left his home in Hauz Khaz for his office at 7am to avoid any screening from the police at the border. I left way ahead of my office reporting time because I did not have any pass to show to the police had they stopped me. But, my colleagues who came from Delhi at the usual office time, later told me that there was no checking of any kind. I had a sleepless night for no reason. The government should have made its intention clear, he said. At the Badarpur border, however, the police checked the identity cards and passes of all commuters entering the national capital by cars or motorcycles, but no questions were asked of those leaving the city. Many motorists had a tough time trying to convince the police that they belonged to Delhi and should be allowed to pass through.So many people are showing old passes. We dont know how to deal with them. So, we are going by our judgement in each case, said an assistant sub-inspector deployed there. I had gone to a clients home in Indirapuram in the morning. Nobody stopped me or asked for any pass. Now that I want to return home, the policemen at Delhi border refused to let me in as I do not have a movement pass. I told them Delhi CM has banned other states residents and showed them my Delhi residence proof. But they are not letting me in, said east Delhis Mandawali resident Anil Pandit, after a brief argument with police at the Ghazipur border. Deputy commissioner of police (east) Jasmeet Singh said, Personnel deployed at borders have been briefed to assist people who are facing urgent situations. At the Dundahera and Mandi Border-(Chattarpur farms) in south Delhi, commuters were seen crossing the border without any checks, even as police barricades and policemen were present. Similarly, no restrictions were seen at the Maharajpur, Mayur Vihar, and Bhopura borders in east and northeast Delhi, as motorists were crossing the barricades freely. We are implementing all provisions mentioned in the new notification. Whatever issues have come to our notice will soon be resolved. Those who need to visit Delhi should get movement passes, said Delhi Police spokesperson, Mandeep Singh Randhawa. hassle over Movement passes While traffic flow was mostly smooth, the issuance of travel passes by district magistrates in Delhi appeared to be a source of confusion. While senior officials in the government said those working in private firms will also be issued passes by the district magistrates (DMs), administrations remained divided over whether to give passes only to those engaged in emergency and essential services, or grant permission to others in non-essential sectors as well. At a time when all offices and other economic activities have opened up nationally, it is difficult to restrict movement. There are over 4,000 e-pass applications pending, accumulated over two days, said one DM, on condition of anonymity. At least two DMs said e-passes in their district are being issued only to those engaged in essential services. NYC mayor Bill de Blasio during a press conference on Monday: (CNN) New York City mayor Bill de Blasio has told reporters that he is proud of his daughter, Chiara de Blasio, for getting arrested at a George Floyd protest over the weekend. Ms de Blasio was arrested on Saturday, at a protest at East 12th Street in Manhattan, for unlawful assembly, according to NBC News. The mayors daughter was one of 345 people arrested at protests in New York City on Saturday, and was briefly detained, then released from custody. During a press conference about the protests on Monday, Mr de Blasio told reporters, that he is proud of his daughter for fighting for change she believes in. I love my daughter deeply, I honour her. She is such a good human being, she only wants to do good in the world, she wants to see a better and a more peaceful world. She believes a lot of change is needed, the mayor said. Im proud of her that she cares so much and she was willing to go out there and do something about it, Mr de Blasio added. Protests began last week, when Mr Floyd died after former Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck while detaining him. Mr Chauvin was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter on Friday and may face further charges in the future, according to county attorney Mike Freeman. Protests, that are being held in opposition to police brutality against Black Americans, initially started in Minneapolis last week, but spread to Los Angeles and New York City, among other cities in the US over the weekend. Mr de Blasio said that he and his wife, Chirlane McCray, did not know that their 25-year-old daughter was protesting, but confirmed that she believed she was demonstrating peacefully. She recounted the story in detail to me. She was acting peacefully. She believes that everything she did was in the spirit of peaceful respectful protest, he said. And the bottom line is, I will let her speak for herself in any way she wants to, but I admire that she was out there trying to change something that she thought was unjust and doing it in a peaceful manner. Story continues Some of the protests across the US have turned violent at night, and police have clashed with protesters in various cities. Footage has shown police in different cities in the US using excessive force, including an incident in New York City, where a police car drove into a group of protesters. During the press conference on Monday, Mr de Blasio confirmed that he has met with community leaders, and reiterated that his stance is that the protests should be peaceful. The mayor said: What I heard overwhelmingly was a desire to keep things peaceful for people to work on change in a positive, constructive way. Read more Police release bodycam footage of George Floyd arrest Growing numbers of people are at risk of delayed cancer diagnosis as hospital rapid access lung and prostate clinics suffer a big fall-off in patients referred for tests by their family doctor. Electronic GP referrals of patients with potential symptoms of lung cancer to rapid access clinics have plummeted by 41pc. Read More They were down to just 26 cases a week in May from 44 in January before Covid-19 hit. The number of patients sent by GPs to the clinics which can detect prostate cancer have dropped by 28.9pc during that time - down from 72 a week to 51, figures obtained by the Irish Independent revealed. The concern is despite more routine hospital care being back up and running, but the 'Covid fear' effect is still a deterrent in particular to older patients from getting symptoms checked. They are staying away because they are worried about catching the virus. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death here, accounting for 20pc of cancer deaths in women and 22pc in men. During the height of the coronavirus crisis, in late March and April, the average attendances at clinics for suspected breast, lung and prostate cancer halved. The number of women seeking a breast cancer diagnosis has now recovered back to 801 a week after falling to as low as 289 in March and April. There is a also a recovery in skin cancer clinics after a fall-off of 75.4pc when panic about Covid-19 and the 'stay-at-home' message was at its peak. Dublin GP Dr Mel Bates said there is "still a reluctance" among older age groups who are at higher risk of cancer to contact their GP due to concerns about the virus. "People are saying it will be ok. We are seeing more people presenting later. They may have had a pain for some time which is not going away." He pointed out that GPs may also be opting to refer urgent patients to hospital emergency departments which have been quieter. The patients have been able to get a diagnosis of symptoms through that route. Dr Colm Henry, chief clinical adviser at the HSE, said rapid access clinics for cancer detection are now a priority. He urged anyone with potential signs and symptoms of cancer to telephone their GP to get them checked out. A HSE spokeswoman said: "Services have been reorganised and precautionary measures taken to ensure surgeries and hospital environments are safe for patients. "All healthcare staff have been trained and equipped to help prevent the spread of Covid-19." There is a growing concern among doctors that patients with serious illnesses are suffering from the "collateral damage" of the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, there is still no date for the resumption of cancer screening programmes CervicalCheck, BreastCheck and Bowelscreen. They may not be ready to start running again until the autumn. The three programmes pick up around 1,700 cancers a year in people who are invited for screening and are unaware they have the disease. Dr Henry said the screening programmes were paused in other countries also due to the risk of Covid-19 to patients and staff. "It was very easy to switch it off but it is much more difficult to switch it on again," he said. "The idea of screening means bringing large volumes of people in for a test. A small proportion of those go on for a further test." He said in an environment where distancing is required and stringent infection control is needed "we have to re- look at the whole model of screening". "We are looking at how to do it in a Covid era and ensure there are no outbreaks," Dr Henry added. He said the BreastCheck centre in Merrion, Dublin, used to have capacity for 40-50 women, but it can now accommodate just four to six patients. Staff will have to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) when in close contact with patients. BreastCheck is facing particular challenges in its mobile units where women from around the country have mammograms. The 21 units have been sent to the UK to be fitted with improved air exchange systems. However, as work goes on to develop a new way of delivering the programmes, there is concern at the pace of resumption from the Irish Cancer Society, which has stressed the need to ensure the backlog of people who have lost out on an invitation to screening must be tackled. Dr Stephen Frohlich, an intensive care consultant in the Beacon Hospital, said he believed there has been no justification to stop screening high-risk people. "Cancers will have been missed," he warned. "It's not sensible. There was a need for us to go and buy food so the supermarkets were not closed - so why not the screening programmes? "A couple of months can make a big difference in a cancer diagnosis." The HSE said that when restart dates are finalised, screening will be reintroduced on a phased basis, with invitations for screening issued according to clinical prioritisation and taking the screening and treatment pathways into account. File Photo Chandigarh: The Punjab Police on Monday arrested the alleged mastermind behind the recent 2 kg gold dacoity in Ludhiana, which he had reportedly committed to mobilise funds for carrying out a spate of targeted killings as part of a pro-Khalistan agenda to disturb the states peace & communal harmony and spread mayhem. Punjab Police A special team of Organized Crime Control Unit (OCCU) arrested the most wanted gangster-terrorist, identified as Tejinder Singh @ Teja s/o Jujhar Singh r/o Mehadpur, PS Balachaur (district SBS Nagar), from Mohali. Advertisement DGP Dinkar Gupta disclosed that a set of Punjab Police uniform, along with an ID card of Seema Suraksha Bal (SSB) - a paramilitary force of MHA , were seized from Tejinder, who was also the prime accused in the January 2020 car-jacking incident of a Toyota Fortuner from Kharar. The accused reportedly planned to use the uniform and card etc to gain access to restricted areas for commission of various kinds of crimes, including terrorist actions, said Gupta, adding that he clearly posed a high security risk to the state. The police have also recovered from Tejinders possession a Chinese 30 caliber Pistol, 10 cartridges and one Chevrolet Optra car. Advertisement Dinkar GuptaInvestigations have revealed that he had also prepared other fake ID cards such as Aadhar card, driving license from Noida (U.P.), in order to evade arrest. While being on the run, he stayed at different locations in Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana, said the DGP. Teja, who had been arrested earlier too for involvement in more than 25 criminal cases including murder, attempt to murder, car-jacking, dacoity etc., further disclosed that he was radicalized and motivated to carry out targeted killings by some hardcore terrorists in whose contact he came during his stints in various prisons. During preliminary questioning, Tejinder Singh @ Teja also revealed that he and his close associate Rachpal Singh @ Daula r/o Village Bhuchar Kalan (district Tarn Taran) were planning to loot a bank cash van used to transport currency from main branches of SBI to ATMs in Maur and Talwandi Sabo. They had also checked out the route and conducted a recce for the same. Advertisement ArrestedAfter his release from prison in December 2019, both he and Rachpal Singh @ Daula, who was earlier in jail for his involvement in cross border smuggling of drugs and weapons, and is now absconding in a recent case of murder in district Tarn Taran, had procured sophisticated weapons from across the border. They were also expecting a fresh consignment of automatic weapons and drugs, said the DGP. A criminal case has been registered against Tejinder Singh @ Teja and his associates at State Special Operation Cell (SSOC) SAS Nagar under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and other relevant sections of law. Further investigations are in progress. U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed via phone the OPEC+ production cut agreements on Monday, according the Kremlin. The discussions included acknowledgement that the current OPEC+ production cuts, of which Russia is a part, would lead to a gradual restoration of oil demand and price stabilization, the Kremlin said. Further details of what was discussed with regards to the oil markets was not disclosed. Other topics of conversation between the two presidents were the launch of the Crew Dragon, and Russias possible inclusion in a G7 summitwhich could draw European criticism after Russia was kicked out of the G8 after the annexation of Crimea. OPEC and Russia have also discussed the OPEC agreement over the last couple of daysspecifically the parties have been discussing the possibility of extending the production cut agreement by another month or two, although nothing has been finalized. Last week, reports surfaced that Saudi Arabia was pushing for an extension through the end of the year. Russia, meanwhile, is more in favor of gradually easing the production cuts, which are set to expire at the end of June. The United States has done its part in cutting oil production as well, although not in any concerted effort with OPEC. Rather, oil production has dropped from 13.1 million bpd in the middle of March to just 11.4 million bpd as of week ending May 22. The call came as oil prices have rallied somewhat over the last couple week as data emerged showing OPECs fairly robust performance in cutting oil production, along with the United States. Brent crude was up 1.90% on Monday afternoon at $38.56, with WTI rising 0.23% at $35.57. But while prices have rallied from negative figures seen in April, U.S. shale would still find it hardif not impossibleto turn a profit at $35 per barrel. By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: On foot, on bended knees and even on horseback, Houston showed the world Tuesday that anguish and devotion to change need not be measured by arrests and broken windows. Tens of thousands of people joined family members of George Floyd in a march to honor the 46-year-old black man, a father of two and graduate of Houstons Yates High School, whose torturous suffocation death at the hands of Minneapolis police officers has set cities across America aflame in outrage. This protest was different. Perhaps because organizers and Floyds family called for it to be peaceful and perhaps because Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo has been adamant that his department would avoid harsh tactics such as tear gas and rubber bullets. The diverse crowd chanted and knelt as one - at times with police. As of this writing, Houston remained the largest city in the country without a curfew. We can only hope it stays that way. As night fell, there hadnt been any major reports of violence. Tempers had begun to flare, though, among the hundreds who lingered and chants gave way to angry taunts spewed at police officers, including the chief, who nevertheless continued to weave through tight, sweaty crowds to face his critics. Many echoed this editorial boards call for Acevedo to release video from several recent fatal shootings involving HPD officers and more information in the botched Harding Street raid that took the lives of two people in early 2019. Acevedos respectful demeanor at the march was commendable, though, and in dozens of scenes captured on TV and in videos online, his officers maintained the same restraint, including a line of officers who ended a standoff by simply walking away as protesters laughed and jeered. At another point, Michael Williams, a 22-year-old Texas Southern student said he and others complied when officers asked them to move: They didnt tear-gas us, they didnt threaten us, they saw peace and they reacted, he told the Chronicle, adding This just goes to show that this whole world needs to react off peace and not hate. In police terms, its called de-escalation and its the opposite of approaches weve seen from other police departments and for that matter, the president. A day before Houstons march, President Trump threatened to deploy combat troops in American cities and had peaceful demonstrators tear-gassed to make way for a photo op. The scene reveals the stark contrast between his show of force a show, indeed and the compassion weve seen in Houston. We hope Houston is able to maintain the peace through patience and cooperation. After a rough start Friday with some looting and property damage, Houstons other demonstrations have since been mostly peaceful, although arrests for minor offenses have been numerous and some protesters have complained of rough treatment from police. Acevedos officers have used pepper spray in some instances but the chief has said the officers would be wearing body cameras to record events. Many will applaud the presidents tough-seeming law and order rhetoric. Several governors have credited the National Guard with restoring order. But at what price? Turning what normally would be local police enforcement into militarized operations is not only a threat to civil rights, it can do long-term damage to relations with communities that already feel under siege. This is the path to escalation and alienation, not peace or resolution. The protesters have a right to peaceful demonstrations and property owners have a right to protections against arson, looting and destruction. But we need a solution beyond brute force. Acevedo and his officers demonstrated it Tuesday. Across the country, weve seen images of officers marching with protesters or kneeling with them . At times, protesters have stepped in to defend the police. This is the way to peace. The way to accomplish the ultimate goal of saving black lives is police reform and accountability. That cant happen in a burning building any more than it can a soulless photo op. It has to happen through cooperation the kind we hope Houston continues to model. Weather Alert ...Spotty black ice possible this morning... Slick spots on area roads may persist this morning as temperatures bottom out in the teens to around 10 degrees, and gusty northerly winds continue. Snow flurries may occur across parts of western Kentucky through mid morning. Untreated roads and bridges are most likely to have black ice on them. Motorists should use caution on the morning commute. Error. Page cannot be displayed. Please contact your service provider for more details. (17) Tech executives have been speaking out forcefully against racial violence in the U.S., with some promising millions of dollars in contributions to organizations pursuing justice and others setting up matching grant programs for colleagues and friends. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the biggest single donation, writing on his Facebook page on Sunday night that the company will contribute $10 million to "groups working on racial justice," and telling followers that he's working with advisers and employees to find organizations that "could most effectively use this right now." Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins followed on Monday, with the announcement of $5 million to groups including Equal Justice Initiative, Black Lives Matter and "our own fund for Fighting Racism and Discrimination." "This is just the beginning," he added, and signed off with "#BlackLivesMatter." While technology executives have been increasingly willing to delve into politics over the course Presdeint Donald Trump's contentious policies, it's rare to see such universal outrage over a single event. As videos surfaced showing the death of George Floyd while a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on the unarmed black man's neck for nearly nine minutes, and as protests erupted nationwide over police brutality, tech CEOs and investors, one by one, expressed their indignation. Google's YouTube committed $1 million for the Center for Policing Equity, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced $1 million to that organization and Equal Justice Initiative, and Intel CEO Bob Swan said the chipmaker was pledging $1 million "in support of efforts to address social injustice and anti-racism across various nonprofits and community organizations." The amounts are immaterial for companies with such hefty market caps, but they're a start and show that top executives and boards are listening to concerns being expressed by minority employees. Shopify CEO Tobias Lutke said his company would commit a total of $1 million to three separate organizations, and WeWork said it was directing $2 million in grants to "Black-owned WeWork member businesses." Box CEO Aaron Levie was in front of his peers, tweeting on Friday that he was committing $500,000 of his own money, asking for recommendations for organizations working to eliminate racial injustice. Tensions picked up over the weekend as protests in numerous cities turned violent, and debate raged about whether anarchists and outside groups were causing much of the destruction. Trump late Monday threatened to deploy the military if states and cities fail to quell the demonstrations, and cities including New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles were under nighttime curfews. Apple CEO Tim Cook told employees on Sunday that for the month of June the company would match donations on top of a commitment it was making to a variety of groups. Airbnb was among the other companies that announced matching funds, in addition to a $500,000 donation. "We stand with #BlackLivesMatter," Airbnb tweeted on Monday. "We are donating a total of $500,000 to the @NAACP and the @Blklivesmatter Foundation in support of their fight for equality and justice, and we'll be matching employee donations to both groups. Because a world where we all belong takes all of us." Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield and his partner, Away CEO Jen Rubio, said they were donating $700,000 and would match $300,000 to about 10 groups. Venture firm Sequoia Capital said its partners would contribute $2 for every dollar donated by employees, and Mamoon Hamid of Kleiner Perkins announced $100,000 in donations and matching funds of the same amount. Tyler McMullen, chief technology officer of Fastly, tweeted that he would match employee donations, with the help of others, of up to $42,500. Three hours later, they were done. WATCH: Slack CEO speaks out on civil unrest New study provides maps, ice favorability index to companies looking to mine the moon The 49ers who panned for gold during California's Gold Rush didn't really know where they might strike it rich. They had word of mouth and not much else to go on. Researchers at the University of Central Florida want to give prospectors looking to mine the moon better odds of striking gold, which on the moon means rich deposits of water ice that can be turned into resources, like fuel, for space missions. A team lead by planetary scientist Kevin Cannon created an Ice Favorability Index. The geological model explains the process for ice formation at the poles of the moon, and mapped the terrain, which includes craters that may hold ice deposits. The model, which has been published in the peer-reviewed journal Icarus, accounts for what asteroid impacts on the surface of the moon may do to deposits of ice found meters beneath the surface. "Despite being our closest neighbor, we still don't know a lot about water on the moon, especially how much there is beneath the surface," Cannon says. "It's important for us to consider the geologic processes that have gone on to better understand where we may find ice deposits and how to best get to them with the least amount of risk." The team was inspired by mining companies on Earth, which conduct detailed geological work, and take core samples before investing in costly extraction sites. Mining companies conduct field mappings, take core samples from the potential site and try to understand the geological reasons behind the formation of the particular mineral they are looking for in an area of interest. In essence they create a model for what a mining zone might look like before deciding to plunk down money to drill. The team at UCF followed the same approach using data collected about the moon over the years and ran simulations in the lab. While they couldn't collect core samples, they had data from satellite observations and from the first trip to the moon. Why Mine the Moon In order for humans to explore the solar system and beyond, spacecraft have to be able to launch and continue on their long missions. One of the challenges is fuel. There are no gas stations in space, which means spacecraft have to carry extra fuel with them for long missions and that fuel weighs a lot. Mining the moon could result in creating fuel , which would help ease the cost of flights since spacecraft wouldn't have to haul the extra fuel. Water ice can be purified and processed to produce both hydrogen and oxygen for propellent, according to several previously published studies. Sometime in the future, this process could be completed on the moon effectively producing a gas station for spacecraft. Asteroids may also provide similar resources for fuel. Some believe a system of these "gas stations" would be the start of the industrialization of space. Several private companies are exploring mining techniques to employ on the moon. Both Luxembourg and the United States have adopted legislation giving citizens and corporations ownership rights over resources mined in space, including the moon, according to the study. "The idea of mining the moon and asteroids isn't science fiction anymore," says UCF physics Professor and co-author Dan Britt. "There are teams around the world looking to find ways to make this happen and our work will help get us closer to making the idea a reality." ### The study was supported by NASA's Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute cooperative agreement with the Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science (CLASS) based at UCF. This is not the first time Cannon nor UCF has contributed to the study of the soil of other planets. In 2018 they launched the Exolith Lab, which produces experimental Martian, Lunar and asteroid dirt for research and testing. Cannon joined UCF in 2017. He has several degrees including a doctorate in planetary geology from Brown University. He has published more than 10 peer-reviewed papers and is a frequent guest speaker at universities nationwide because of his work in the composition of small bodies and Mars, and in in-situ resource utilization, and aqueous alteration. This story has been published on: 2020-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Sakhi Ghulami, who fought on behalf of Iran in Syria, has died while having surgery in Irans Mashhad Province reports Baladi News. One of the founders of the Afghani Liwa Fatemiyoun militia died several days ago while undergoing surgery in Irans Mashhad Province. According to media sources, Sakhi Ghulami, one of the founders of the Iranian-backed Fatemiyoun, died on May 28, 2020, while receiving surgery in Mashhad. Ghulami was reportedly a member of the first group sent by the militia to fight in Syria against opposition factions alongside regime forces. Sources confirmed that his son Abbas had been killed while fighting in Syria, without providing additional details about his death. The National reported on Apr. 24, 2020, that Moscow had recruited Abdullah Salahi, a Liwa Fatemiyoun commander, as part of Russias efforts to neutralize Iranian authority in Syria. Liwa Fatemiyoun is an Afghani militia founded by Ali Reza Tousli in 2014 to fight opposition forces in Syria. It receives funding and training from Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and pays monthly salaries of 500 dollars. This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. Crude oil futures jumped to Rs 2,747 per barrel on June 2 as participants increased their long positions. Prices were firm ahead of the upcoming meeting between the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies. The market is likely to take a further cue from the American Petroleum Institute's (API) data scheduled to be released later in the day. Tapan Patel, Senior Analyst (Commodities), HDFC Securities, said crude oil prices traded higher on growing prospects of OPEC+ extending its output cut. OPEC+ nations may hold a meeting in coming week to discuss and review output cuts. Saudia Arabia has already proposed extending the output cuts till the end of the year provided Russia agrees to it. In the futures market, crude oil futures for June delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 2,748 and an intraday low of Rs 2,687 per barrel on the Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX). So far in the current series, black gold has touched a low of Rs 1,361 and a high of Rs 4,415. Crude oil futures for June delivery rose Rs 78, or 2.92 percent, to Rs 2,747 per barrel at 15:18 hours IST on a business turnover of 5,694 lots. The same for July delivery gained Rs 74, or 2.72 percent, to Rs 2,796 per barrel on a business volume of 229 lots. The value of June and July contracts traded so far is Rs 972.24 crore and Rs 4.69 crore, respectively. Patel expects oil prices to trade higher for the day with support at $34 and resistance at $38. On the MCX, he sees support for June crude oil futures at Rs 2,670 and resistance at Rs 2,810. West Texas Intermediate crude increased 2.96 percent at $36.49 per barrel, while Brent crude, the London-based international benchmark, was up 2.95 percent to $39.45 per barrel. Albany State University of New York Chancellor Kristina M. Johnson plans to leave her job for a role at Ohio State University, according to two state officials with knowledge of the situation. An unsigned letter of resignation from Johnson addressed to SUNY chair Merryl H. Tisch was obtained by the Times Union. The letter indicates that she has agreed to become president of Ohio's five-campus public university beginning Sept. 1, 2020. A spokeswoman for SUNY said she could not confirm that Johnson was stepping down. Johnson, who earns $560,000 as SUNY chancellor, joined the university system in September 2017. She is is an electrical engineer and inventor by trade who previously worked as undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Energy in the Obama administration. She is SUNY's 13th chancellor. She is leaving in the wake of a global health crisis and during a period of financial uncertainty for SUNY's 64 campuses. In March, the COVID-19 pandemic forced SUNY buildings to close and Johnson oversaw a system-wide transition to remote learning. Colleges and universities are facing significant losses associated with refunded room-and-board for the spring and summer semesters as well as lower than projected enrollment. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, during the COVID-19 outbreak, asserted more control over SUNY and its campuses, announcing the closure of all public universities and taking action to transform vacated SUNY buildings on Long Island into makeshift medical facilities to handle the influx of patients. Local SUNY colleges, including University at Albany, hosted regional coronavirus testing sites. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Johnson recently spearheaded a task force to work with the governor's team on the coronavirus response and developing a reopening plan. The university system contributed to research on the deadly virus and dispatched first-responders from SUNY's Upstate University Hospital to hotspot locations. Johnson took the helm of the nation's largest public university system during a period of transition. The state had recently announced the Excelsior Scholarship, which made college tuition-free for thousands of middle-class New Yorkers, but it would be accompanied by statewide tuition increases. She has previously served as dean of Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering, as well as provost of Johns Hopkins University. She holds a bachelor's, master's and a doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University, and today has 118 U.S. and international patents to her name. Her prominent inventions include a camera that detects pre-cancerous cells on a cervical smear. For the second straight week, peaceful daytime protests in response to the murder of George Floyd have given way to widespread, violent police suppression and sporadic looting by nightfall. Even in the past five years, the United States has seen similar uprisings against police brutality and similar state-sanctioned violence against protesters. But many have commented that this time feels somehow different. With millions out of work, hundreds of thousands hungry, more than 100,000 dead because of the unchecked COVID-19 pandemic, and a president who douses the violence in tear gas, there are some obvious explanations for why 2020 is different from 2015, or 2014, or 1992, or 1968. Advertisement Racism and police violence existed long before Donald Trump became president, but hes further emboldened police forces across the country. In addition to aligning himself rhetorically with police who commit brutality, Trump methodically dismantled the already limited federal checks on abusive police departments in the years before the Floyd uprising. If it feels like police officers across the country are acting with virtually total impunity, its because they have been granted that impunity by federal officials. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are three key ways that Trumps Department of Justice has eroded or outright dismantled checks on abusive police departments in the past 3 years: First, it has all but ended the Barack Obamaera practice of placing police departments that violate constitutional rights under court-supervised consent decrees. These court-monitored settlements have, according to experts, offered some deterrent to police chiefs who do not want to see their departments placed under federal supervision. Second, it ended a voluntary federal-state collaborative reform program, over the opposition of police chiefsincluding Republicanswho embraced the initiative. Finally, it reversed limits on a program that has provided billions of dollars of military-grade vehicles and weaponssuch as grenade launchers and bayonetsto local police departments. These reforms were either introduced or escalated in response to the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014 and the subsequent heavily armed police crackdown on Black Lives Matter protests. As soon as he took office, Trump has undone them one by one. Advertisement Advertisement The political leadership of the Justice Department targeted the most effective parts of the police reform program and essentially prohibited them, said Chiraag Bains, the director of legal strategies for Demos and a former Civil Rights Division attorney who co-wrote the Ferguson report. I think you can see just how severe the absence of Justice Department oversight and intervention has been in the moment were in right now. Advertisement Its impossible, of course, to draw a causal link between the gutting of these programs and the current conflagration. Cities and states have much more direct control over police agencies than the federal government, and systemic racism has existed in this country since its founding. But weve seen recently how this presidents dismantling of seemingly minor systemic checks can have devastating consequences. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration closed the National Security Councils pandemic response unit, withdrew the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions China expert whose job it was to track novel disease outbreaks, shelved the previous administrations pandemic response playbook, and dismissed a transition briefing on pandemic danger. Preserving these programs might not have stopped COVID-19 from spreading to the U.S., but they could have helped the administration get an earlier handle on the problem, as many other countries did, and saved thousands of lives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Like how Trumps dismantling of pandemic-response systems clearly exacerbated the coronavirus crisis, the impact of the DOJs dismantling of its own tools to rein in corrupt police departments is being felt today. The lack of oversight is obvious as police across the United States assault and arrest peaceful protesters, domestic and foreign journalists, people standing on their own property, 70-year-old members of Congress, clergy, and old men with canes. Advertisement Advertisement The reforms implemented by the previous administration were not nearly enough to curtail systemic racist policing, but they did at least offer some mechanism of accountability. Start with the consent decreesthe court-monitored agreements between local police departments and federal or state officials that result in mandatory changes and benchmarks for departments that have violated citizens constitutional rights. Under a 1994 law, the attorney general has the right to sue local police departments that have engaged in constitutional abuses. Under Obama, the Department of Justice used that power to threaten localities with lawsuits and get them to agree to voluntary court-supervised oversight. The Obama administration opened 25 investigations of police departments that resulted in at least 15 consent decrees leading to court oversight of police departments in cities ranging from Chicago to Ferguson to Baltimore. In municipalities across the country, the DOJ mandates have included bias training and official monitoring of incidents of bias, independent investigations of use-of-force incidents, de-escalation training, and limits on how and when police can interact with citizens. At the very least, these departments understood they were being watched and had to regularly report progress to a judge. Advertisement Advertisement After significant lobbying from police unions that have supported Trump, the Department of Justice undid these reforms. In his second month in office, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered a review of all consent decrees and placed roadblocks to existing decrees. On his last week on the job, Sessions issued a memorandum imposing strict limits on new consent decrees and preventing enhancements to current ones. He demanded that new decrees and changes to existing ones be approved by political leadership rather than career attorneys, required proof of violations other than constitutional abuses, and ordered sunset dates for all new agreements. These moves effectively closed the door to new consent decrees and placed severe limitations on current ones. Advertisement Advertisement Dramatically, the Sessions DOJ even refused to go forward with a consent decree of the Chicago Police Department after the Obama administration had already issued a report finding systemic abuses in the wake of the murder of Laquan McDonald. You were in a place where a department had been thoroughly investigated by Department of Justice attorneys, there were findings of constitutional violations, and still this administration literally abandoned this effort, said Lynda Garcia, one of the DOJ Civil Rights Divisions Chicago investigators who is now the policing campaign director at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. After the state of Illinois took the Obama DOJs report and enacted its own consent decree with Chicago, Sessions department took the unprecedented step of filing with the court in opposition to the state-local consent decree. It was a jaw-dropping moment when the Department of Justice weighed in on a state-level matter to try and intervene to prevent an agreement between the state government and the local government to correct constitutional violations, Garcia noted. It was not within their jurisdiction. It was a real show of where they stand and that they are actually working to impede police accountability and reform. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While consent decrees are not and have never been a panacea, they at least offered some mechanism to keep the most egregious police departments in check. The absence of the possibility of a DOJ investigation has been extremely harmful as a deterrent to misconduct, Bains said. Under the old rules, the Minneapolis Police Departmentwith its history of killings of unarmed black menmight now be facing a consent decree demanding court-ordered reforms. Senators have called on the DOJ to launch an investigation into the patterns and practices of the department to discern if Floyds killing was part of a bigger problem (the available evidence suggests that it is), and the state of Minnesota on Tuesday filed civil rights charges against the department. But the DOJ has continued to forswear its own role. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Right now, youre seeing calls for a pattern and practice investigation of the Minneapolis Police Department, Bains said. This Justice Department has completely walked away from this work. It would be helpful to have a Justice Department that stayed active on police reform and had the infrastructure and the ability to get involved in this case. Even if Attorney General William Barr wanted to reverse course, the Civil Rights Division has been so hollowed out that enforcing the law would be very difficult. The unit that does these pattern and practice investigations was small to begin with, and now its been cut in half due to attrition and failure to hire people to fill slots, Bains noted. (As Garcia also pointed out, Barr has said that communities that protest abusive police should lose policing protections altogether, and the DOJ said he personally ordered Trumps attack on protesters in front of the White House on Monday, so it seems unlikely he would change the departments position here.) Advertisement Advertisement Critically, the police also have access to an even greater arsenal to respond to peaceful protesters thanks to the Trump administrations reinstatement of a military surplus giveaway. Near the start of his term, Trump reversed Obama-imposed limits on a military program known as 1033 that allows the military to give surplus equipment to local police departments. The Pentagon said 126 tracked armored vehicles, 138 grenade launchers and 1,623 bayonets had been returned since Mr. Obama prohibited their transfer, the New York Times reported in 2017. Tanks dont belong on our city streets. They belong in combat, Garcia said. Since Trump rescinded Obamas ban, those weapons and equipment have flowed freely back to local departments that are now using them to assault lawful protesters. The New York Times reported on Tuesday that a handful of libertarian-minded Republican and independent members of Congress have indicated a willingness to join with Democrats to undo the program through legislation. It likely wont be enough, though, to actually move the needle. The easy access to weapons is just one factor in the militarization of police. Advertisement Advertisement Finally, in November 2017 the New York Times reported that the Department of Justice under Sessions hadover the opposition of local sheriffssignificantly scaled back a voluntary program called the collaborative reform initiative that allowed sheriffs to request DOJ funding and logistical support in analyzing and proposing reforms of their departments. The Times reported that multiple Republican and pro-Trump sheriffs from Spokane, Washington, to Fort Pierce, Florida, were frustrated that they had invested their departments time to be assessed by independent collaborators in this voluntary program, but would now be denied even access to the resulting reports. That was an even more shameful situation because there were police departments that never got reports that were due to them because the program was shut down, Bains said. They had worked with [that] office for months and months, turned over data and submitted to interviews, spent a lot of time with the [program] office, and never got their final report and recommendations, which they really sincerely wanted because they were trying to reform their practices and build trust with the communities that they serve. Ultimately, none of these initiatives was a silver bullet for police brutality and systemic racism in law enforcement. As many activists have noted, criminal abuses by police officers were rampant while Obama was president. The threat of accountability, the loss of military weapons, and a voluntary police reform program would almost certainly not have been enough to stop George Floyds murderer and his accomplices from taking Floyds life. But as with the pandemic, the fire is growing faster and spreading wider than it might have otherwise. As Garcia noted, the administrations rhetoric and its dismantling of these reform efforts send messages to police that they can do whatever they want. A priest, who was at St. Johns Episcopal Church at Lafayette Square in Washington D.C. on Monday when police used tear gas and flash-bang explosions to disperse a peaceful protest, described moments of chaos on her social media account. The Rev. Gini Gerbasi is a rector at St. Johns Episcopal Church in Georgetown, about two miles from where police cleared out peaceful protesters to create space for President Donald Trump on Monday evening. I am shaken, not so much by the taste of tear gas and the bit of a cough I still have, but by the fact that that show of force was for a PHOTO OPPORTUNITY, Gerbasi said on Facebook. The patio of St. John's, Lafayette square had been HOLY GROUND today. A place of respite and laughter and water and granola bars and fruit snacks. But that man turned it into a BATTLE GROUND first, and a cheap political stunt second. Following police removing protesters, Trump posed in front of the church holding a bible. President Donald Trump holds a Bible as he visits outside St. John's Church across Lafayette Park from the White House Monday, June 1, 2020, in Washington. Part of the church was set on fire during protests on Sunday night. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)AP Gerbasi reported that the space around the church remained peaceful until about 6:15 p.m. Shortly after, Gerbasi said, police stated pushing protesters off H Street, which is between the church, Lafayette Park and the White House. They started using tear gas and folks were running at us for eyewashes or water or wet paper towels, Gerbasi said. At this point, Julia, one of our seminarians for next year (who is a trauma nurse) and I looked at each other in disbelief. I was coughing, her eyes were watering, and we were trying to help people as the police - in full riot gear - drove people toward us. As others ran, Gerbasi said she remained with the Black Lives Matter medic team on site, which had prepared eye wash prior to the protest. She said she saw more tear gas, concussion grenades and believed she saw someone get hit by a rubber bullet. Gerbasi described a scene where police in riot gear walked onto the churchs patio with metal shields and pushed people off the patio, driving them back. Gerbasi estimated that the group was pushed back about 20 feet to K Street. It wasnt until 7 p.m., when Gerbasi arrived back at her car, that she realized Trump was at the church with a bible in his hand. WE WERE DRIVEN OFF OF THE PATIO AT ST. JOHNS - a place of peace and respite and medical care throughout the day - SO THAT MAN COULD HAVE A PHOTO OPPORTUNITY IN FRONT OF THE CHURCH!!! Gerbasi wrote on Facebook. PEOPLE WERE HURT SO THAT HE COULD POSE IN FRONT OF THE CHURCH WITH A BIBLE! HE WOULD HAVE HAD TO STEP OVER THE MEDICAL SUPPLIES WE LEFT BEHIND BECAUSE WE WERE BEING TEAR GASSED!!!! Friends, I am ok, but I am, frankly shaken. I was at St. John's, Lafayette Square most of the afternoon, with fellow... Posted by Gini Gerbasi on Monday, June 1, 2020 Mariann E. Budde, the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, according to the New York Times, watched the scene unfold while away from the church visiting with her mother. Church officials were not told of the plan and expressed outrage at the White Houses use of riot-control tactics on a generally peaceful crowd to clear a path for the president, the newspaper reported. He did not pray, the bishop, Mariann E. Budde, said to the Times. Referring to the death of the black man in police custody that set off the protests, she added: He did not mention George Floyd, he did not mention the agony of people who have been subjected to this kind of horrific expression of racism and white supremacy for hundreds of years. We need a president who can unify and heal. He has done the opposite of that, and we are left to pick up the pieces. One of the people on site left to gather those pieces was Gerbasi. I am DEEPLY OFFENDED on behalf of every protestor, every Christian, the people of St. Johns, Lafayette square, every decent person there, and the BLM medics who stayed with just a single box of supplies and a backpack, even when I got too scared and had to leave, Gerbasi said. I am ok. But I am now a force to be reckoned with. Related Content: Talk about Nandamuri Balakrishna, and one is reminded of his excellent performances and strong statements, that show no diplomacy. His sharp remarks have always pushed him into controversies but it seems like the actor is in no mood to back off. His recent remark on the Telugu film industry's meeting held with the Telangana government sparked a new controversy. Balakrishna was evidently not happy with the meeting spearheaded by Megastar Chiranjeevi. A video of the same has been doing the rounds on social media in which the senior actor is clearly expressing his discontent over not being invited to the meeting held for demanding lockdown relaxation. Responding to the same, Naga Babu had lashed out at the actor and demanded an apology for using unparliamentary language in public and insulting the government. Well now, in a recent interview, Balakrishna has come up with brand-new comments around the controversy. He added that he is not ready to respond to Naga Babu's comments though he is talking a lot about him these days. Talking about the lockdown relaxation, the senior actor said, "Government is interested to resume shoots because we are one of the highest tax-paying industries." He added that it is impossible to shoot in the current situation during the COVID-19 outbreak and further said, "Many think that the Telangana government is favourable to the industry, but they (the Telugu film industry) couldn't get access to two acres of land for the industry." He also said that Chiranjeevi and others went to Dallas to buy acres of land worth Rs 5 crore, to which he doesn't want to comment upon further. On the professional front, Nandamuri Balakrishna is currently working with director Boyapati Srinu for an action drama. Earlier, there were rumours that the makers might consider the title Monarch for the film, but later, the makers rubbished the buzz. The movie will have Balakrishna essaying the role of an agora. The actor is also said to be a part of the Telugu remake of Prithviraj-Sukumaran-starrer Malayalam film Ayyappanum Koshiyum. Will Tollywood Demand An Apology From Balakrishna For Using Inappropriate Language In Public? After two months of implementing the UNIPASS shipping clearance system at the Takoradi Harbour, members of the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF), say the outstanding issues with clearance of goods are still not fully resolved. An Executive Member of the Takoradi District of GIFF, Ato Bentsil, told Citi News that the irregular automatic allocation of customs officers to a clearing agent for processing and difficulties in registering vehicles after clearance at the DVLA causes a lot of delays due to lack of synchronization of the system. Ato Bentsil added that these challenges should have been solved even before Tema was brought on board to implement the UNIPASS system. They still have challenges. Whatever reasons they told you earlier is not true. There are delays in trying to complete one document. So, it's a problem. When you enter your TIN through your ICUMS and you have your necessary documentation, you will have to be waiting for the necessary methods for payments, he said. This is totally wrong. Everything was electronic. Now the system is so robust in such a way that you will not be able to be relieved automatically as it used to be. Also, sometimes you have to be relieved manually. For the manual system, if it's a vehicle you must wait till whatever time for it to be perfected before you will be able to license your vehicle, he lamented. He noted that, in previous times, immediately you finish at the car pack you can go to the licensing department and license your car straight away because the system was linked to the particular system at the DVLA. So, you don't have a problem there but now you have to wait. You can just imagine going to the place day in and day out finding out what they can do to get it done. All they could have done is to just wait for three months and I am sure they could have had a solution to all these things, he added. The UNIPASS/ICUMS system The UNIPASS/ICUMS platform is a new port clearing system that processes documents and payments through one window: a departure from the previous system where valuation and classification and risk management and payment were handled by different entities. It is replacing the systems operated by West Blue Consulting and the Ghana Community Service Network Limited (GCNet). The system which will see all new transactions in respect of import and export processed only through the Ghana Revenue Authority's new Integrated Customs Management Systems, takes full effect from today, Monday, June 1, 2020. CUPIA Korea, which is assisting the Customs Division to implement the UNIPASS system, has described it as an enhanced single window system for trade facilitation. Opposition Prior to the piloting of the new system and full implementation, many stakeholders within the logistics chain were dissatisfied with the service. Policy think-tank, IMANI Africa, last month, petitioned government to temporarily suspend the operations of UNI-PASS and allow GCNET and West Blue to operate for the remainder of the year to rake in revenue in excess of GHS10 billion for the country, considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on trade activities. Also, the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders questioned the efficacy of system hours to the official outdooring of the system at the country's ports. The Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders has also predicted revenue losses if the concerns raised by stakeholders on the inefficiencies of the UNIPASS system are not addressed. ---citinewsroom The Department of Transportation (DOTr) announced that its Free Ride for Health Workers Program, which provides point-to-point buses to frontliners and healthcare workers, has now served over 1 million of medical professionals, helping them get to their respective destinations safely and on time. As of May 31, the DOTr program, launched back in March, has reached a nationwide ridership total of 1,015,770, with 266,533 ridership in the National Capital Region (NCR) and Greater Manila area and 749,237 from the provincial regions. Starting off with just three routes, the program ballooned to 19 routes in Luzon, and even extended to provincial cities. facebook.com/DOTrPH The role of our essential frontliners, enforcers and drivers is no joke. Every day they risk their lives for the welfare and safety of health workers who in turn help to save lives and continue to fight COVID-19 disease, DOTr said in a statement announcing the milestone. We are grateful for the sacrifice of service for the ongoing operation of the DOTr Free Ride Service for Health Workers, the statement added. DOTr went on to express its heartfelt thanks to those who supported the initiative, among them Petron Corporation, who has been providing fuel subsidy since April 13 and extended the service to June 15. I am happy to report that the DOTr Free Ride for Health Workers Program breached the 1-million total ridership nationwide on 30 May 2020. Petron, as one of our partners in this endeavor, has been instrumental in reaching this milestone, DOTr Undersecretary for Administrative Affairs Artemio Tuazon Jr. said in a public address. petron.com Thus, the extension of the fuel subsidy is a welcome development. Secretary Tugade, and the whole of DOTr, are grateful for Petrons generosity to extend the assistance until June 15, for this will come a long way to further help our health workers, especially now that the NCR and its neighboring Regions have been placed under GCQ, Tuazon Jr. added. Story continues Aside from Petron, the DOTr also teamed up with other oil firms such as CleanFuel, Total Philippines, Phoenix Petroleum, and Seaoil Philippines. Earlier, Cleanfuel and Phoenix have also extended their fuel subsidy programs. DOTr also thanked other companies for their support. Taos na pasasalamat po ang nais iparating ng Kagawaran sa PLDT Enterprise, Vectras Inc., sa Google Philippines, at sa sakay.ph dahil naging posible at mas pinadali para sa ating mga frontliners na malaman ang LIVE LOCATION at ruta ng mga bus units, DOTr relayed in a Facebook post. DOTr also acknowledged the help of bus operators including M Transport, San Agustin, MetroExpress, RRCG, Megaworld Corp. (Citylink), Precious Grace Transport, Ceres Transport, Jac Liner, Dagupan Bus, St. Rose Transit, Hafti Transport, Jasper Jean, Pascual, Hi-Star, Pamana, Ube Express, G-Liner, Thelman Transit, and Manrose, among many others. Photos from Petron and Department of Transportation Facebook pages Also read: Hyundai Announces Worlds First Continuously Variable Valve Duration Engine CES 2020: Nissan Uncovers All-Electric All-Wheel-Drive Twin Motor System The Danquah Institute (DI) has said though it supports the EC's decision to compile a new register, the electoral management body must be forthright and decisive in its approach and processes. At a press conference in Accra on Monday, June 1, 2020, the Acting Executive Director, Richard Ahiagbah, mentioned the EC's public education and rationalization as a major reason why some Ghanaians are worried and skeptical about the compilation of a new voter's register. The E.C.'s public relations has also failed to give comfort to a coalition of Civil Society Organizations and political parties, he stated. Recently, the issue of excluding the current voter I.D. as a form of qualification in C.I 126, has attracted widespread public disapproval. This should not have happened if the E.C. was minded to inform Ghanaians that the voter I.D. card's exclusion as a form of qualification is directed by the Supreme Court of Ghana. Mr. Ahiagba also urged the E.C. to engage and objectively assess the recommendations put forth by leading Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and members of the Ghana Anti-corruption Coalition (GACC). They raised concerns to do with the cost of compiling a new register, procurement issues, technical concerns. Others, too, have raised concerns about time and COVID-19 as reasons why the E.C. should do compile a new register. But given the overriding Constitutional, legal and process irregularities advanced thus far, and would hopefully be amplified beyond the four walls of this room, we believe that the E.C. can achieve consensus with all interest groups to engage the concerns about cost, procurement, technical, time and COVID-19 as part of the E.C.'s process to compile a new voters' register, he explained. Though the case for a new register is inevitable on constitutional legal grounds, the Danquah Institute Ag. Executive Director urged the Electoral Commission to be guided by the Supreme Court's interpretation that the mandate of the Electoral Commission to compile the register of voters implies a duty to compile a reasonably accurate and credible register. This is important because the right to vote is sacred and exclusive to Ghanaians, and the E.C. must indulge in all safety, legal, and regulatory measures to ensure that all eligible Ghanaians get the opportunity to register, he said. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Telkom has fallen victim to the group behind the Sodinokibi ransomware, also known as REvil, security researchers have told MyBroadband. The group has taken responsibility for an attack on Telkom and has threatened to leak the Telkom client database in a post on its the Dark Web blog. Bleeping Computer recently reported that the REvil / Sodinokibi group is one of several ransomware operators that steals sensitive data from victims and leaks it on the dark web if their targets dont give in to their extortion demands. The group has recruited a team of affiliates who carry out attacks on corporate networks. One security researcher, who goes by Ransom Leaks on Twitter, told MyBroadband that Sodinokibi is a ransomware as a service platform. Hackers actually sign up as partners or affiliates and deploy this ransomware. When a victim pays for decryption the partner gets like 60% of the ransom, the researcher said. This leaking is part of the platforms service to its partners to help them win more payments. Ransom Leaks speculated that the Sodinokibi / REvil affiliate could easily have tried to extort $1 million (USD) out of Telkom. This ransomware group is known to go Big Game Hunting, so the ransom could be quite large. Attack on Telkom These further reports that Telkom was indeed the victim of a ransomware attack come after the company denied that its systems had been infected with ransomware. Telkom later amended its official statement to say that it did not have the PonyFinal ransomware. This followed industry speculation that Telkom fell prey to the PonyFinal ransomware, for which Microsoft Security Intelligence issued an alert on 27 May. Industry sources told MyBroadband that downtime across several Telkom systems over the weekend, including its call centre, was due to a ransomware attack. Staff working remotely were unable to connect to servers or the Telkom virtual private network. However, Telkom told MyBroadband that it was just dealing with a malware infection, not ransomware. Telkom said that it became aware of an internal malware infection on Friday, 29 May 2020, and shut down all systems and call centres as a precaution. Its network remained operational during this time, Telkom said. Some systems were restored on Saturday, though Telkoms call centres remained offline. By Monday, Telkom announced that its call centres were back online. Brett Callow, a threat analyst with Emsisoft, said that Telkoms statement that it was not infected with ransomware may be accurate even if REvil is responsible for the attack. Actors typically have access to a network for days, weeks or even months attempting to deploy ransomware and use that time to move laterally through the network and, in some cases, steal data, Callow said. Its possible that REvil was able to exfiltrate some data, but Telkom noticed and neutralized the attack prior to ransomware being deployed and having important files encrypted. Stolen Telkom data will be leaked slowly Researcher Currently, the Sodinokibi blog on the dark web only contains a placeholder for the Telkom attack. They have never taken credit for something they didnt do, Ransom Leaks told MyBroadband. The researcher explained that the group will publish some samples of the Telkom client database, followed by multiple rounds of leaks. They will give Telkom more time to pay to stop the future leaks by breaking it into multiple leaks. Telkom acknowledged MyBroadbands request for comment and said it would provide feedback as soon as it was able. FILE PHOTO: Gal Fridman, chairman of Aquarius Engines. (Photo: EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP via Getty Images) By Dan Murtaugh An Israeli startup is hoping a new engine design can help bring power to remote outposts in Asia. Aquarius Engines Ltd. announced a partnership with Nokia Oyj on Monday for a small-scale electrical generator using its unique low-maintenance design. The company is targeting far-flung locations in Asia to power remote populations and telecommunications centers. The field test in the Philippines is expected to begin this year and run several months, providing the company with feedback as it prepares for mass production, said Gal Fridman, Aquariuss chairman. The generators can power commercial and industrial sectors that need around-the-clock electricity in remote spots, or help support wind and solar generation when the sun goes down or breezes halt. It underscores the increased attention businesses are paying to off-grid power, which drew nearly $1 billion in corporate investments during the previous two years combined, according to Wood Mackenzie Ltd. The engine technology enables us to open huge markets that were once totally off-limits, said Stuart Hendry, vice president of Nokia Enterprise, Asia Pacific. We will have the ability to supply power to those residing in extremely isolated areas such as remote islands, high in the mountains or deep in the jungle. Aquarius, headquartered in Rosh Haayin in central Israel, uses what it calls a free piston linear engine, in which a single piston rod moves back and forth between two engine heads. It still uses fossil fuels such as gasoline, diesel or LPG, but its a fraction of the size of competing models and doesnt need lube oil, reducing the need for maintenance. That last part is important, because traditional generators can require maintenance and oil changes every 200-400 hours, which becomes expensive when technicians need to take long truck, boat or helicopter rides to reach them. Aquarius engines need maintenance once every 1,000 hours or so, according to the companys website. Story continues Theres no oil and just one moving part, Fridman said. Its much more efficient than any conventional engine today. The company didnt disclose where in the Philippines the generators would be tested, only that its a two-hour boat ride from the nearest grid connection. The partnership deal will see Nokia offer cloud computing support to the generators to enable real-time monitoring, while also potentially distributing the equipment to its enterprise clients in Asia. Telecommunications companies could be a key user as they roll out high-powered towers and equipment to upgrade networks to 5G standards, Fridman said. Fridman sees generators as just the first step so the company can begin generating cash. Eventually he sees applications in other industries, such as acting as range extenders for electric vehicles. Were intending to to change the whole system of engines, he said. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 14:53:47|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HOHHOT, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Repair work has been launched to rescue dilapidated parts of the 2,000-year-old Xiaoshetai section of the Great Wall, located in the city of Bayannur in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, said local authorities. The project to be completed by 2021 will repair a collapsed 5-km section of the Great Wall dating back to the Qin Dynasty (221-207 B.C.). With a total length of about 240 km, the Xiaoshetai Great Wall is an important part of the existing Great Wall of the Qin Dynasty. There is a beacon tower standing every 0.5-1.5 km along the wall. The oldest sections of the Great Wall were built under the reign of the first emperor of Qin who required it to be built as a defense by the imperial court against northern tribes. The Great Wall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, consists of many interconnected walls, some of which date back more than 2,000 years. In 2019, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the National Cultural Heritage Administration jointly released a comprehensive conservation plan to establish a long-term mechanism for the conservation and utilization of the Great Wall. Enditem A man identified as Zubairu Malhamatu Malamai who claims to be the ex-lover of Zainab Abdullahi Yahaya, the new wife of the Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs, Hameed Alli, has filed a lawsuit against her demanding the sum of over N9 million spent by him during their relationship. Zubairu in the suit filed on his behalf by a Kano-based law firm, Buba Partners, is demanding the said sum, and also accusing Zainab of lying to him while they allegedly dated for three years. Signed by his counsel, Sir I.I Wangida Esq, the former lover of Zainab in the suit demanded that every penny spent on her be paid claiming further that she (Zainab) promised to get married to him but ended up with somebody else. We have our clients instruction to disclose his displeasure over your (Zainab) reaction few days ago before your marriage by taking up an unnecessary fight with him (Zubairu) thereby insulting him and calling him all kinds of names. Advertisement In view of the above, we have our clients instruction to demand from you the immediate payment of the sum of N9, 081, 207. 45 (Nine million eighty one thousand two hundred and seven naira, fifty kobo), failure to heed to same shall leave us with no option than to proceed with legal action to the said sum, the suit read in part. Phantom vibrations. Trouble breathing. An unexplainable itch. These are often types of things that we all experience at some point, even if there is no obvious physiological cause. But just because you can't pinpoint what is causing it, doesn't make it any less real. The idea of an unexplainable symptom is at the heart of something known as Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance, also often called multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS) or environmental illness. It refers to a group of recurrent symptoms experienced by some people that cannot be attributed to a diagnosed medical issue. There seems to be a base rate in the population of symptom reporting that cannot be attributed to physical dysfunction, said Professor Omer van den Bergh, a tenured professor of Health Psychology at the University of Leuven in Belgium. There is a group of people that tends to attribute these symptoms then to environmental causes, and these are typically people who have what we call modern health worries, he said. Instead of the historically more-common sensitivities to things like perfumes and household cleaners, this group of people with modern health worries are increasingly attributing symptoms to electromagnetic radiation in the environment. This is where a natural alignment with 5G conspiracy theorists starts to arise. Our whole society... seems to assume that if there is a physical symptom in our experience, there must be a physiological cause, Prof. Van den Bergh said. In the search for a cause, people can latch on to any possible answer in the hopes of finding relief. If you have, for example, activist groups or other groups that are also sharing a belief that it might be caused by, lets say, electro-magnetic radiation, then you become selectively sensitive to that, he said. You start to perceive correlations between your symptoms and the sources of electromagnetic radiation. The effects of 5G radiation has been described as damaging by some less reputable outlets, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary. Some conspiracies even go as far as to claim that the networking tech caused the coronavirus pandemic, which is definitively untrue. But that didnt stop angry protesters from burning down cell towers and spraying anti-5G graffiti all over the world. The media coverage of these acts hit the global audience just as coronavirus concerns began to take over the world, and soon the idea that 5G causes disease went viral. Its easy to dismiss believers of a 5G sickness as kooky or to invalidate their concerns, especially when there is no evidence to show that the level of radiation is more harmful than before. New technology thats part of 5G, like millimeter waves, had already been in use for years before the standard was even passed, although on a less concentrated scale. Satellite communications systems, for example, operate on the high-frequency spectrum. Christopher Furlong via Getty Images But its not helpful to people experiencing symptoms to simply be shouted down. Prof. Van den Bergh describes the modern world as a sort of electro smog to someone who believes EM radiation causes them discomfort. They believe theyre surrounded by sources everywhere not just the obvious cellphones and remote controls that we can see out in the open, but things that might be less easy to spot like WiFi routers or other equipment. Trying to find relief might feel like an impossible task. Its also unhelpful to say things like Its all in your head to someone experiencing such discomfort. It should be noted that the symptoms are really there, Prof. Van den Bergh said. He pointed to several investigations using brain imaging that have shown that people who report these symptoms actually recruit similar or the same brain areas that are activated also when you have symptoms from, lets say, the flu or another dysfunction. He added that all symptoms that are experienced are also in your head your brain processes the signals that then leads your skin to tingle or your head to hurt, for example. What might help is if sufferers from such symptoms can find relief or if not, then some understanding of their situation. There is at this moment no solid body of evidence that these people can be easily treated, Prof. Van den Berg said. Based on his clinical experience, though, an adapted form of exposure therapy that convinces sufferers to expose themselves to potential sources of radiation rather than hide away from them can help. There might be hope in sight for these patients We are currently developing treatment protocols, he added. NurPhoto via Getty Images These ailments arent unique to 5G, or even electromagnetic radiation. There is a base rate of medically unexplained symptoms in the population and the attribution for those symptoms changes with every new introduction of technical facilities that stimulate modern health worries, Prof. Van den Bergh said. He pointed to 3G, WiFi and remote controls as some examples. In the middle ages, there were symptoms attributed to the presence of glass, because that was really novel and was not considered safe by all people, he added. People tended to believe that they would become transparent themselves. The attribution for these symptoms evolves with the introduction of each new generation of technology. Windmill infrasound hypersensitivity is what I would call the new kid on the block, Prof. Van den Bergh said, noting that a rise in catastrophic media coverage of some new technical facilities could cause an increase in the prevalence of such attribution. Ultimately, Prof. Van den Bergh wants those experiencing such symptoms to know that he takes them very seriously. They are really suffering, he said. Theyve not only gone through physical discomfort that they cant explain, but in trying to avoid what they believe causes their symptoms, theyve also lost jobs, friends and social lives. I have seen people whose lives have been destroyed by the disease. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Karnataka government to release 15,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu for the next 10 days to ameliorate the plight of farmers. The apex court also asked Tamil Nadu to approach the supervisory committee for release of Cauvery water as per the tribunals order. The court also ruled that the committee must take a decision on Tamil Nadus plea in next ten days. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday praised the thousands of people who took to New Jerseys streets in recent days to peacefully protest police brutality and racial injustice, even though the gatherings may cause concerns about social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic. Murphy also drew a sharp distinction between those demonstrations resulting from death of George Floyd in Minnesota and recent protests calling for him to lift New Jerseys coronavirus restrictions faster and reopen more businesses. I dont want to make light of this, and Ill probably get lit up by everyone who owns a nail salon in the state, Murphy said during his coronavirus briefing in Trenton on Monday. But its one thing to protest what day nail salons are opening, and its another to come out in peaceful protest, overwhelmingly, about somebody who was murdered right before our eyes." New Jersey currently limits gatherings to 25 people in outdoor settings and 10 people indoors. Organizers of protests calling for reopening have been charged in recent weeks with violating Murphys executive orders. I put those into different orbits, said Murphy, a Democrat who has said Floyds death highlights systemic racism and the stain that slavery still leaves in our country today. Still, Murphy urged protesters to be cautious by wearing face coverings and social distancing whenever possible. He said he saw many protesters wearing masks. I would say to anybody who goes out: You have the absolute right to go out peacefully and rightfully protest, but please be smart about your health," Murphy said. The decision to go out or not go out, as long as you do it responsibly, safely and peacefully thats a decision, I would say, in this particular instance, I would leave to the individuals. Murphy was then asked if hes concerned the dozens of protests since Friday could lead to a spike in coronavirus cases. Again, were not out there protesting when the nail salon is going to open, he said. Please, if you own a nail salon, dont come at me. Nothing personal, as compared to the death, tragic death in full daylight, a life loss that did not need to be, in any measure, lost." I think we have to respect the right for folks to peacefully protest, but I would say, I mentioned already, there were a fair amount of masks so I would ask folks, please cover your face and keep your distance as best you can, Murphy added. "That still does matter and we want folks to do the best they can at that. On Tuesday, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka urged anyone who attended a peaceful gathering in the states largest city on Saturday to seek a coronavirus test. Baraka was tested the next day and was negative. Protests and rioting have spread across the U.S. in response to the death of Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died in Minneapolis earlier this month after a police officer held his knee on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest. In New Jersey, most protests were notably peaceful, but looting later broke out in Atlantic City and there was later violence in Trenton. After hours of peaceful protest, there were arrests and a police officer injured in Asbury Park on Monday night. Col. Patrick Callahan, the superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, said Monday there were 39 protesters arrested in the state over the weekend 12 in Atlantic City and 27 in Trenton. Contrary to reports in other cities, Callahan said, most of the people arrested were local residents. Murphy said he was moved by the peaceful protests and lamented that racism exists here. And now, all across our country, people are demanding transformational and systemic change in a way we have not seen in perhaps 30 years, the governor added. We must listen, and we must act. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Rep. Eliot Engel sparked criticism Tuesday after he repeatedly asked to speak at a Bronx news conference on protests over the killing of George Floyd, then said near a live microphone, "If I didn't have a primary, I wouldn't care." Engel, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is serving his 16th term in the House as a Democrat from New York. He is facing a competitive June 23 primary, and his leading challenger, middle school principal Jamaal Bowman, cited the statement as a sign that it's time for Engel to leave Congress. "This is so incredibly painful to watch from @RepEliotEngel," Bowman tweeted. "It hurts. We need to be taking care of our communities right now - whether it's election season or not. It's clear that we need new leadership in #NY16." Engel clarified his remarks Tuesday afternoon, saying in a statement that he had wanted to convey that he cares "deeply about what's happening in this country." "In the context of running for reelection, I thought it was important for people to know where I stand, that's why I asked to speak," Engel said. He added: "I love the Bronx, grew up in the Bronx and lived here all my life. I would not have tried to impose on the borough president if I didn't think it was important." Engel made the comment recorded by a microphone at a news conference led by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz and other officials in response to the nationwide protests over the killing of Floyd. The 46-year-old black man died in Minneapolis police custody last week. According to footage posted online by a reporter for local television station NY1, Engel twice asked Diaz for a turn to speak at the event. Diaz appeared to rebuff Engel, telling him that there were too many others who would then want a turn at the microphone. "Then I've gotta then go down the list, and there's just too many folks here," Diaz said. Engel twice responded by saying, "If I didn't have a primary, I wouldn't care." "Don't do that to me," Diaz said in reply. Bowman has the backing of the Justice Democrats, a political committee that has backed liberal insurgents such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. On Monday, Bowman also received a boost when one of the other Democrats running against Engel, special education teacher Andom Ghebreghiorgis, withdrew from the race and endorsed Bowman's campaign. Republicans also criticized Engel over his remarks Tuesday; no GOP candidates are running in the race. "While Democrat Rep. Eliot L. Engel may have been whispering, his disgusting message was loud and clear," Steve Guest, director of rapid response for the Republican National Committee, said in a statement. "As looting and rioting ravages New York City, Rep. Engel is only thinking of his political future." - - - The Washington Post's David Weigel contributed to this report. The many incidents of anti-Black violence in Canada and the U.S recently have been difficult to witness; the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd are all heartbreaking, the protests far-reaching. As a visible Muslim woman, Im no stranger to discrimination. However, as a light-skinned south Asian, I have no concept of the systemic racism that many Black Canadians face on a daily basis. As a parent, teacher and writer, I strive to be friend, a witness and an advocate. But the racially-motivated incidents of the past few weeks have led me and my friends, most of whom are south Asian, to think about how we handle issues of race, as people and as parents. This is a conversation we have had many times before, but it feels even more pressing right now. I started speaking to my kids about racism and inequity from a young age, maybe 5 or 6. In some ways, its easier to have this conversation when they are younger. As my sons have grown, the conversation has become more nuanced and specific. Yet even being able to choose to have this conversation with my kids is a privilege. For many Black Canadians, systemic racism is part of everyday life. Like many parents, Ive spent the past few weeks thinking about how to talk about violence and anti-Black racism, and reflecting on the ways that I myself have been parented. I have a few suggestions, especially for my fellow non-Black POC. The following is not an exhaustive list, but it might spark further conversations: 1. Dont underestimate your impact as parents Growing up, my Indian mom talked to me and my brother about anti-Black racism often. More importantly, her words were followed up with actions: she actively encouraged me to have a diverse friend group; she was friendly with Black neighbours and with Black Muslims at the mosque; she spoke up when people in her circle engaged in anti-Black dialogue. All of this was not common among first generation south Asian immigrants. At heart, my mother believes in equity and compassion, and her example has left a lasting impression on me. 2. Amplify the voices of those with lived experience The protests that have erupted over the past week, the sadness and mourning over Black deaths, all are an outpouring of grief and a desire to see lasting change to systemic inequalities. As an ally and friend, Im here to echo and amplify the voices of people with lived experience of anti-Black racism Not to share and post about how badly I feel about the racism others deal with every day. 3. Address anti-Black racism in our own communities and social circles Anti-Black sentiments within other race communities is not inevitable. Dont let casual racism pass with a shrug and a, thats just how my parents/grandparents/that generation thinks. My mother never commented on skin tone to me or my brother, and would discourage talk about the superiority of fair skin within our extended family. She caused plenty of arguments as a result, but she kept at it, and it has made a difference. 4. Educate family about about historical context Some immigrant communities are not aware of the historical injustices that have taken place in other marginalized communities, especially when it comes to the Black Canadian/American experience, or to the First Nations community. A brief history lesson might help contextualize events such as the protests erupting in the U.S following the death of George Floyd and anger over police shootings. Educating our families and ourselves is our responsibility. A good place to start is by reading and following Black authors and activists, and listening with an open heart. 5. Talk about systemic racism When I talk to my 15-year-old son about anti-Black racism, I break it down for him from a systemic point of view. It becomes more real when I ask him to consider the effects of racism from an institutional perspective, such as why Black students in Ontario are expelled and suspended from schools at a disproportionately high rate compared to other students. As a Muslim, I believe that when I see injustice, I can either change it through actions, change it using my voice, or at the very least, hate it in my heart. There are no easy answers. I know having conversations about race with family and kids is difficult, but it necessary, now more than ever. Speaking from experience, if you practice having the difficult conversations, they become part of regular family dialogue, and then part of the lens with which our loved ones see the world. While the search for meaningful change has moved to the streets, it always starts at home. By Express News Service MALAPPURAM: A 14-year-old Dalit girl from Valanchery has reportedly committed suicide as she didn't have the facilities to attend the online classes for her Class IX studies. The deceased student has been identified as Devika, daughter of Balakrishnan and Sheeba, residents of Mangeri near Valanchery. She was a student of Government Higher Secondary School, Irimbiliyam. Police said the girl went missing after 4 PM on Monday. Her body was later found at an open place just 100 metres away from the house. A kerosene can was found next to her dead body lying on the ground. Police said the reason behind the death can only be confirmed after the inquest. "The inquest is going on. More details related to the death will only be revealed after the investigation and postmortem," said Shaji M K, Valanchery Circle Inspector. However, the parents said their daughter might have committed suicide due to the unavailability of facilities in their house to attend the online classes. They said that Devika was a bright student and could not even bear the pain of losing a single class of her most important Class IX standard. Her parents don't have smartphones and a television in their house was under repair. "She had no other issues. She was a brilliant student and teachers were very proud of her. We told her that we can repair the television soon. Otherwise, the schools might provide you with a tablet computer. But, she was disappointed about the inadequate facilities to take the online classes in the house," said her parents. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. San Francisco, 2 June 2020: The Report Natural Household Cleaners Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (Surface, Glass), By Application, By Distribution Channel, And Segment Forecasts, 2019 - 2025 The global natural household cleaners market size is expected to reach USD 7.8 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., expanding at a CAGR of 11.1% over the forecast period. Rising concerns over toxic chemicals including parabens, triclosan, phthalates, and ammonia, which are present in synthetic home cleaning products, is expected to promote the utility of natural household cleaners. Moreover, various government initiatives on the ban of toxic chemicals from household cleaning products is expected to promote the utility of these products as green alternatives in the near future. Surface cleaners emerged as the largest segment and accounted for a share of more than 50.0% in 2018. Major manufacturers including Unilever,The Procter & Gamble Company, and Henkel Ag & Co. Kgaa are launching new products in order to gain maximum customers. Moreover, giant retailer and supermarket chains including Tesco PLC and Target Corporation are launching innovative products under their private labels. For instance, in February 2018, Tesco PLC launched a wide range of plant-based home cleaning products under the brand name Tesco Eco Active. The company launched this green and natural product in order to cater to the demand for eco-cleaning products in U.K. North America is expected to expand at the fastest CAGR of 11.5% from 2019 to 2025. Over the past few years, major players have adopted marketing strategies including innovative product launch, expansion of production capacity, and mergers and acquisitions in order to cater to the increasing demand for natural household cleaning product in the region. For instance, in September 2017, S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc. signed an agreement to acquire two emerging household cleaning products manufacturers, Ecover and Method. These two companies had a wide range of home care, personal care, and fabric care products, along with the customer penetration in North America, Europe, and other countries across the globe. The company acquired these companies as they have strong R&D in natural products, along with high customer base. Access Research Report of Natural Household Cleaners Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/natural-household-cleaners-market Further key findings from the report suggest: By product, surface cleaners dominated the natural household cleaners market with a share of more than 50.0% in 2018 The kitchen application segment is expected to register the fastest CAGR of 11.3% from 2019 to 2025 Key players include Henkel AG & Company; KGaA; The Procter & Gamble Company; Unilever; S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc.; Reckitt Benckiser Group plc; The Clorox Company; Godrej Consumer Products Limited; The Honest Company; Kao Corporation; and Earth Friendly Products. Browse more reports of this category by Grand View Research at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry/homecare-and-decor Grand View Research has segmented the global natural household cleaners market on the basis of product, application, distribution channel, and region: Natural Household Cleaners Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2025) Surface Glass Fabric Natural Household Cleaners Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2025) Bathroom Kitchen Others Natural Household Cleaners Distribution Channel Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2025) Supermarkets/Hypermarkets Convenience Stores Online Natural Household Cleaners Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2025) North America Europe Asia Pacific Central & South America Middle East & Africa Access Press Release of Natural Household Cleaners Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-natural-household-cleaners-market About Grand View Research Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare. For More Information:www.grandviewresearch.com Law enforcement officers were targeted in several cities during tense standoffs overnight. What's happening: A police officer was shot on Las Vegas Strip late Monday, per AP. No further details were immediately available. In St Louis, four police officers were struck by gunfire while standing near a line in after a peaceful demonstration, Police Chief John Hayden said early Tuesday. The officers were all taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries following Monday's shooting. Hayden said a small group of people had thrown rocks and fireworks at police officers. In New York, a car ran over an officer in the Bronx early Tuesday, according to the New York Times, which reports the officer's condition as stable. Elsewhere in the state, an SUV in Buffalo plowed through a crowd of law enforcement officers Monday night, striking two officers who are now in stable condition at Erie Medical Center, AP notes. What we know: Video shared on social media shows the vehicle speeding through an intersection after officers appear to tackle and arrest a civilian. Local media WKBW also reports that two people have been shot in the area. WARNING: Footage of the vehicle's passing is graphic. A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted. Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details of police being targeted overnight. A 63-year-old man who tested positive for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) hung himself at Batra Hospital in south Delhi on Sunday evening, the police said. The man lived in Meethapur and was admitted to the hospital on May 20 for dialysis as he was being treated for kidney-related ailments there. He had tested positive for Covid-19 last week, the DCP said. Around 4pm on Sunday, he hanged himself from the ceiling fan of his hospital room, the DCP said. The police did not find a suicide note, but the DCP said that he suspected that the elderly man killed himself because of his ailments. Inquest proceedings are underway in the case, the officer said. This is the second known case of a Covid-19 patient killing themselves in the national Capital. Earlier last month, an army jawan had hanged himself from a tree at the Army Hospital after testing positive. Some of the major headlines in 2020 starting with the U.S-Iran tensions, the coronavirus outbreak in China which soon took the shape of a pandemic, strained U.S.-China relations, and civil unrest in the Unites States have all fueled a 14.5% year-to-date rally in gold prices. Gold prices are currently around $1,750 an ounce at a seven-year high. Gold has been, in fact, outperforming most major asset classes this year. Gold is seen as a safe-haven asset during times of political and economic uncertainty. So far this year, the global uncertainty and financial market volatility stemming from the coronavirus crisis has led investors flocking to gold. Rising animosity between the United States and China over Hong Kong has spurred the safe-haven demand for gold. The United States is likely to revoke Hong Kongs special status. China would retaliate by limiting the purchase of U.S. products, triggering concerns that the U.S.-Sino Phase One trade deal is about to fall through. The ongoing demonstrations in the United States have been weighing on market sentiment as well. It has also raised concerns about a spike in coronavirus cases, which has already claimed more than 100,000 lives in the nation. The greenback has also fallen to its lowest since mid-March, further supporting bullion prices.Further, per the Institute for Supply Managements latest report, the U.S Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) came in at 43.1 in May following a 41.5 reading for April. Notably, a reading below 50 denotes contraction. This indicates that the U.S economy will take time to fully recover from the pandemic and the shutdowns mandated by the government to contain the spread of the virus. On the back of the gold-price rally, the Gold Mining industry has gained 22.6% so far this year as against the S&P 500s decline of 5.1%. The industry falls under the broader Basic Material sector, which declined 10.4%. Story continues Whats in Store for Gold? The pandemic has impacted gold production as miners had to suspend operations in accordance to government mandates. Per the World Gold Council, gold production in the first quarter declined 3% year over year marking the steepest decline since first-quarter 2017. Consequently, an impending demand-supply imbalance bodes well for gold prices. The uncertainty regarding virus' impact on the global economy and the governments stimulus measures are likely to sustain gold until situation stabilizes. It will continue to be the preferred investment option supported by the low interest-rate environment, the pandemic-induced global slowdown as well as political uncertainties. The gold mining industry currently carries a Zacks Industry Rank #15, which places it at the top 6% of 256 Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperforms the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1. Looking at the aggregate earnings estimate revisions, it appears that analysts are gradually gaining confidence in this groups earnings growth potential. In the past year, the industrys earnings estimates for the current year have been revised upward by 79%. The combination of higher gold prices and lower oil prices, which make up significant portion of a miners costs, is likely to translate into improved operating margins and higher free cash flow for gold miners this year. We, thus, believe the time is right for investors to add some gold stocks to their portfolio. We have employed the Zacks Screener to pick five top-ranked gold stocks. Our research shows that stocks with the combination of a VGM Score of A or B and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) offer good investment opportunities. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. 5 Promising Stocks AngloGold Ashanti Limited AU: Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, the company currently flaunts a Zacks Rank #1 and has a VGM Score of A. The company has a long-term estimated earnings growth rate of 19.5%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2020 earnings indicates a year-over-year surge of 113%. The estimates have been revised upward by 6% over the past 60 days. Barrick Gold Corporation GOLD: Based in Toronto, Canada, this company currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 and has a VGM Score of B. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings suggests a year-over-year improvement of 64.7%. The estimates have moved 23% north over the past 60 days. The company has a trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 15.4%, on average. The company has a long-term anticipated earnings growth rate of 2%. B2Gold Corp. BTG: The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2020 earnings of this Vancouver, Canada-based company suggests growth of a whopping 221.4% compared with the prior fiscal year. The estimate has moved up 7% over the past 60 days. The company surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average positive surprise being 21.5%. The stock currently holds a Zacks Rank #2 and has a VGM Score of A. The company has a long-term projected earnings growth rate of 16.3%. Pretium Resources Inc. PVG: This Vancouver, Canada based company also carries a Zacks Rank #2 currently and has a VGM Score of A. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current fiscal year suggests year-over-year growth of 16.4%. The estimates have gone up 8% over the past 60 days. The company has a trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 33.1%, on average. Kinross Gold Corporation KGC: Based in Toronto, Canada, the company presently holds a Zacks Rank #2 and has a VGM Score of A. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ongoing-year earnings indicates a year-over-year jump of 61.8%.The estimate has moved up 17% over the past 60 days.The company has a trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 38.8%, on average. 5 Stocks to Soar Past the Pandemic: In addition to the companies you learned about above, we invite you to learn about 5 cutting-edge stocks that could skyrocket from the exponential increase in demand for stay at home technologies. This could be one of the biggest buying opportunities of the decade. See the 5 high-tech stocks now>> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Pretium Resources, Inc. (PVG) : Free Stock Analysis Report Kinross Gold Corporation (KGC) : Free Stock Analysis Report Barrick Gold Corporation (GOLD) : Free Stock Analysis Report AngloGold Ashanti Limited (AU) : Free Stock Analysis Report B2Gold Corp (BTG) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Why changes to the Quebec Experience Program are a step in the wrong direction. Quebec should reconsider immigration changes Why changes to the Quebec Experience Program are a step in the wrong direction. Quebec should reconsider immigration changes Why changes to the Quebec Experience Program are a step in the wrong direction. Quebec should reconsider immigration changes Why changes to the Quebec Experience Program are a step in the wrong direction. Kareem El-Assal Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif Sans Font Size A A Recently announced reforms to the Quebec Experience Program should be reconsidered. Since 2010, the Quebec Experience Program (or PEQ in French) has offered a fast-track to permanent residence for temporary foreign workers and international students that lived in Quebec. Such individuals could often get their Quebec Selection Certificate in around 20 business days, and then go ahead and submit their permanent residence application to the federal government. This was excellent policy by Quebec. Government research shows that such individuals integrate quickly into Canadas economy and society since they are young, well-educated, speak English and French and have Canadian work experience. In addition, it made sense for Quebec to fast-track their applications since unlike immigration candidates outside of Canada, such individuals are already here. It would be very inconvenient to have them leave Quebec when they have already established themselves in the province and are contributing to the economy as workers and consumers. Find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs Problems with Quebecs new work experience requirements The province is increasing the work experience requirements that future applicants will need to obtain to become eligible for the PEQ. Currently, a temporary foreign worker (TFW) needs 12 months of eligible Quebec work experience within the preceding 24 months of submitting their application to meet the PEQs criteria. Students do not need Quebec work experience to be eligible. Quebec will now require 36 months of work experience from TFWs and between 12-24 months of work experience from foreign students (depending on their program of study in Quebec). A benefit of the stricter PEQ criteria is it will help more Quebec Skilled Worker Program (QSWP) candidates immigrate to the province through its Arrima Portal. Currently, highly-qualified QSWP candidates are not able to obtain permanent residence under what is a more competitive process than what PEQ applicants need to go through. However, Quebec is now introducing stricter work experience requirements for the PEQ than what is currently in place nationally. This means it will become more difficult for foreign workers and students to obtain permanent residence in Quebec. One may argue that this is a good thing, since those that do become immigrants (whether through the QSWP or QEP) are more likely to succeed in the province. But, many of the foreign workers and students who are poised to succeed will be unlikely to meet the high bar that Quebec has set. It is quite normal across Canada for federal and provincial programs to have work experience requirements in place for existing TFWs and international students that want to transition to permanent residence. However, typically, the Canadian work experience requirement is set at 12 months. Whether Quebec likes it or not, it is in competition with other provinces to attract and retain global talent. If I am a province that is offering the same product (in this case, Canadian permanent resident status), what is the incentive for a prospective immigrant to go through more hurdles when neighbouring provinces offer that product at a much lower cost? (i.e., only 12 months of work experience required versus 24-36 months for TFWs and some international students in Quebec). Quebecs higher standards will disincentivize TFWs and students from choosing Quebec. Such individuals will either choose to go to other provinces at the start of their Canadian immigration journey, or will leave Quebec and move to another province when they are ready to apply for permanent residence. Even if an individual is motivated to remain in Quebec, it may prove difficult for them to obtain the work experience they may need to be eligible for the PEQ. For instance, some TFWs such as International Exchange Canada participants have work permits that are valid for no more than two years. Employers may not be willing spend the time and money required to petition the government to provide such individuals with one or more work permits (e.g., a work permit that requires a Labour Market Impact Assessment or LMIA). One other point on this front: in the short run, it will become even more challenging for candidates to meet the new work experience requirements due to the economic damage that is being caused by the coronavirus pandemic. New processing standard is also problematic Quebec indicated that it will now seek to process PEQ applications within 6 months, rather than 20 business days, in order to harmonize its processing standard with the Quebec Skilled Worker Program. Once again, Quebec is hurting its competitiveness since the quicker processing standard was one of the PEQs major selling points. Now, prospective immigration candidates may look to options outside of the province given that there will no longer be a significant advantage to applying to the PEQ. Keep in mind that it was already taking nearly 23 months for PEQ candidates to obtain permanent residence (20 business days to get a Quebec Selection Certificate plus another 22 months for the federal government to process permanent residence applications). Adding another fives months on top of that is unwise on its own, and even more so when you consider that successful Express Entry candidates are usually able to get permanent residence within six months. A better solution would have been to identify how to reduce the length of time it takes Quebec to issue CSQs to QSWP candidates. Changes come at a time when Quebec will need more immigration No immigration program is perfect, and it is a good practice for Canadas federal and provincial governments to seek reforms to their programs to help meet the countrys evolving economic and social needs. However, not all reforms end up being beneficial. In this case, time will likely prove that Quebecs reforms are misplaced. By discouraging workers and students from remaining in the province due to uncompetitive work experience requirements and processing times, Quebec may end up with even lower immigration levels at a time when it will need higher immigration in the years to come due to its aging population and low birth rate. This may be hard to fathom at the moment due to the COVID-19 crisis. But, the crisis will eventually pass and Quebec will soon need more immigrants to complement its Quebec-born work force. What better way of doing so, then by providing a fast-track to immigration for the workers and students that have already resided in Quebec and contributed for several years? Find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs 2020 CIC News All Rights Reserved As locust swarms have entered India and are posing a threat to the standing crops in several states, the government has asked the farmers to take steps to protect the produce. Presently, locusts have affected five states- Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra- and the Centre has issued a warning to the border-sharing states. The government is focusing on chemical spray on the migratory pest, using drones and helicopters> However, a farmer in Uttar Pradesh seems to have taken the matters in his own hands and has come up with a desi jugaad. Who said modern problems need modern solutions? Jugaad seems to be working too. The video was shared by UP cop Rahul Srivastava on Twitter. The farmer has made the installation using a plastic bottle, a fan and a box erected on a pole. As the fan starts moving with the wind, a stick hits the drum, creating a loud noise. The locusts tend get irritated by loud noises. Watch the video: The video was originally posted on TikTok and has received 26 million views so far. The Central Integrated Pest Management Centre last week asked the state agriculture department to alert officials and farmers about these insects and take precautionary measures, an official said. Farmers have been advised to take steps to protect their crops and trees. Tractor-mounted sprayers have been arranged in all bordering districts, he said. Besides, villagers have also been advised to form groups and make noise by beating thalis (steel plates), tin boxes and loud sound-producing instruments to drive away the insects, the official added. RTHK: Family autopsy shows George Floyd 'asphyxiated' An autopsy arranged by the family of George Floyd shows he was suffocated by a US policeman, rather than dying from pre-existing heart problems as claimed by the official ruling, their lawyer announced on Monday. "Independent medical examiners who conducted an autopsy of Floyd Sunday determined that asphyxiation from sustained pressure was the cause of death," Ben Crump said. Aleccia Wilson, Director at Autopsy and Forensic Sciences at the University of Michigan, said she had examined Floyd's body. "The evidence is consistent with mechanical asphyxia as the cause of death, and homicide as the manner of death," she told a news conference. Floyd died on May 27 after a policeman knelt on the 46-year-old African American's neck for almost nine minutes. Floyd became unresponsive after almost three minutes. A bystander video of the incident, which came after Floyd was detained on a minor charge of passing a counterfeit US$20 bill, sparked a nationwide uproar over police brutality and protests and rioting in more than 140 cities. The policeman who held his knee to Floyd's neck, Derek Chauvin, was arrested on Friday and charged with third degree, or unintentional murder, based on an initial official autopsy that said Floyd died not of asphyxia but of "underlying health conditions including coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease." Floyd's family took issue with that conclusion and have demanded Chauvin be charged with first degree murder, and that three other officers at the scene be arrested and charged as complicit with murder. Wilson and another autopsy expert, Dr Michael Baden, said they disagreed with the official report, only the summary of which has been released as part of the court document for Chauvin's arrest. "The autopsy shows that Mr Floyd had no underlying medical problem that caused or contributed to his death." "He was in good health," Baden said. "I wish I had the same coronary arteries that Mr Floyd had that we saw at the autopsy," he added. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2020-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. As a contact tracer, Teresa Ayala-Castillo is sometimes asked whether herbal teas and Vicks VapoRub can treat COVID-19. These therapies aren't exactly official health guidance, but Ayala-Castillo isn't fazed. She listens and then suggests other ideas like getting rest and drinking plenty of fluids. "I don't want to call them old wives' tales, but these remedies are things that I'm 100% familiar with because my mom used them on me," said Ayala-Castillo, a bilingual first-generation Ecuadorian American who works for the city of Long Beach, California. Health departments across the U.S. are working at a furious pace to staff their armies of contact tracers to control the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Experts estimate local and state health departments will have to add 100,000 to 300,000 people to get the economy back on track. As they build these forces, many states and localities are trying hard to hire from the racial and ethnic minority communities hit hardest by the virus. They're anticipating a need for skilled, culturally competent tracers who can convert suspicious or hesitant contacts into enthusiastic, willing participants in the drive to stamp out the virus. Virus-tracking activities vary by state. Most states have created plans to add contact tracers through hiring or volunteering, but wealthier ones including California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Washington are further along than others, said Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. Delaware, which aims to begin hiring in a month, plans to prioritize hires from vulnerable communities with bilingual language skills. Minnesota is hammering out staffing contracts with diversity quotas that match the demographics of the state's COVID-19 cases. "One size does not fit all for making that first call and being successful in having them pick up the phone and have a good conversation," said Chris Elvrum, a deputy incident manager at the Minnesota Department of Health. "We need to recognize that we have to approach it in different ways for different cultural communities in the state." Tracking the disease works like this: After someone tests positive for COVID-19, a case investigator from the local health department calls the patient to ask detailed questions about her health, movements and whom she interacted with over a certain time frame. A contact tracer then calls everyone the patient named to let them know they were potentially exposed to the virus. These contacts are instructed to stay home and self-quarantine for 14 days after the exposure. If they live with other people, the recommendation may extend to those individuals. Under stay-at-home orders, it's often relatively easy to figure out who may have been exposed to the disease, health officials say. Infected people usually have been around only family or close friends and will often warn contacts to expect a call from the health department, said Emily Holman, communicable disease controller for Long Beach. But shoe-leather fieldworkers may be required in some instances, said Dr. Kara Odom Walker, secretary of the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services. "There are some communities that aren't going to respond to a phone call, a text message or a letter," said Walker. "That could be due to health literacy issues, which could be due to fear, or documentation status." So far, most people are following instructions, say officials. Holman estimates that fewer than 1% of those contacted in Long Beach refused to participate. But some defiance is likely, especially among those who cannot work from home or are the only provider for their children, Elvrum said. People being notified about contacts with a COVID-positive patient might think the call is a scam, or worry the information will be shared with immigration authorities or cost them their job. Health departments do not have to turn information collected for medical purposes over to federal immigration enforcement, but it takes a sensitive, empathetic and knowledgeable contact tracer to explain this. "You need someone to be a cultural broker to say, not only are these policies in place to protect you, but I'm telling you to trust me that this will be OK," Walker said. "I'm going to make sure you have what you need to safely quarantine." Minnesota plans to dedicate 1,400 staffers to contact tracing by July, Elvrum said. Contracts with two companies involved in the hiring stipulate that they bring on people of racial and ethnic groups proportional to their numbers in the state or the percentage of positive COVID-19 cases in those groups whichever is higher. They're seeking hires who speak Hmong, Somali and Spanish, said Kou Thao, director of the Center for Health Equity in the Minnesota Department of Health. About 23% of the state's positive cases are among black people, who make up only 7% of the state population. Hispanics make up 19% of cases and 6% of the population. However, about 22% of the cases are unknown. Virginia, which has 200 contact tracers and hopes to hire a total of 1,300 staff to support the effort, is looking for speakers of Mandarin, Haitian Creole, Spanish and Bengali, said Mona Bector, deputy commissioner for administration at the Virginia Department of Health. The state has received more than 6,000 resumes for these positions, Bector said. Long Beach prides itself on a diverse workforce that reflects the city's population. Officials pulled their contact tracers and interpreters, including Ayala-Castillo, from municipal staff members who speak Samoan, Khmer, Tagalog, Spanish, Vietnamese, Mandarin and other languages to create a staff of 60. Their goal is to have 200 people trained and ready to deploy as needed. Having workers who can speak to contacts in the language they prefer is a step forward, said Crystal Watson, a senior scholar from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Being able to extract information while being sensitive to patients' concerns and mistrust is paramount, she added. Sgt. Jairo Paulino, a 38-year-old member of the Delaware National Guard, is one of several bilingual guardsmen volunteering to help call COVID-19 contacts. When he started the job in mid-May, he noticed there was a "major backlog" of names because the state didn't have enough Spanish speakers to reach out to everyone quickly. Paulino was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to New York as a boy. He grew up translating for his father and attending church both elements that help build trust in the Latino community, he said. Poor access to the internet also poses a challenge. In Tulare, a rural county in central California, health workers ask patients to use an online portal to help streamline data collection of their contacts. However, 5% to 10% of people cannot get online, said Tiffany Swarthout, an administrative specialist at the county health department. In those cases, health workers will speak to the patient on the phone. Employment concerns represent another tricky area for contact tracers. Some people they reach out to may hesitate to stay home because they are strapped for cash, especially if the pandemic has left members of the family without work, said Jody Menick, a nurse who supervises contact tracing in Montgomery County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C. Some employers are requesting proof that patients and contacts were safe to return after quarantine, and some areas provide official letters that specify the worker's quarantine period. But undocumented workers who have fewer protections than employees with legal status have been pressured to show up to work in her area, Menick said, leaving them with a difficult decision. "Am I going to have money to buy food for my family, or am I going to stay home?" NEW YORK, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Anechoic chamber market is expected to grow at CAGR of 5.4% from 2020 to 2025 The anechoic chamber market is growing at a CAGR of 5.4% from USD 1.1 Billion in 2020 to USD 1.5 Billion by 2025. The anechoic chamber market is expected to be driven by the stringent government regulations pertaining to electromagnetic interference (EMI) in the electronics industry, increasing trend of outsourcing testing, inspection and certification (TIC) that require anechoic chambers, increased need for anechoic chamber for electromagnetic compatibility pre-compliance testing, and growing use of industry-specific customized anechoic chambers. The growth of the market is expected to be hindered by high cost involved in electromagnetic compatibility testing and the occurrences of errors while testing. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05894587/?utm_source=PRN Semi anechoic chamber market expected to grow at highest CAGR during forecast period The semi-anechoic chamber market holds the largest share of about 80% of the total market size in the year 2020.The reason for this huge market demand is its unique characteristic that allows the user to constantly adjust for background noise. This allows the user to test the components faster as compared to other chambers.It makes the semi-anechoic chamber perfect for immunity testing and keeping an eye on compliant emissions. This also allows the user to have more accurate testing and also is less risky of damages. The demand for semi-anechoic chambers is expected to grow due to the unique characteristics it possesses. Anechoic chamber market for IT & Telecom to grow at highest CAGR during forecast period In the IT & Telecom sector, servers, blade servers, Ethernet switches, routers, photocopiers, fax machines, cables, and many other information technology equipment (ITE) comes under the category of electromagnetic compatibility.The growth of wireless mobile subscribers has completely outnumbered the number of wired subscribers. This unprecedented growth exponentially increases the number of equipment in the system, and the large concentration of the system over limited space further increases the chance for electromagnetic interference. Thus, the designers and manufacturers, through EMC/EMI/RF testing, assure the performance of IT & Telecom equipment, in terms of both hardware and software. Equipment testing is conducted during R&D, manufacturing, and certification stages. With EMC/EMI/RF testing, mobile device manufacturers can ensure that the new products adhere to global standards. The implementation of 5G technology will also introduce new devices that can adapt to the latest 5G technology.The testing of the 5G transmission antennas through EMC/EMI/RF testing will help to assure that the antennas are working properly. There will be many 5G devices whose components would be needed to be tested by the anechoic chambers. The anechoic chamber also helps to determine the best position for positioning the 5G radio equipment and the antennas so that they get the best possible signals. APAC is expected to be fastest-growing market for anechoic chamber market during forecast period The growing demand for modern gadgets and latest medical innovations offer a wide scope opportunities for the anechoic chambers. Various aerospace companies are also investing for their production in APAC region due to cheap labor services and also because of ease in foreign investments norms. All these factors are expected to fuel the anechoic chamber market in APAC region Breakdown of the profile of primary participants: By Company Type: Tier 1 30 %, Tier 2 38%, and Tier 3 32% By Designation: C-Level Executives 44%, Directors - 38%, and Others -18% By Region: North America 30%, Europe 25%, APAC 26%, and RoW 19% Major players profiled in this report include: TDK Corporation (Japan) ESCO Technologies (USA) MVG (France) Eckel Industries (USA) Albatross Projects (Germany) Frankonia (Germany) Comtest Engineering (USA) Cumin Microwave Corporation (USA) Ecotone system (India) Research Coverage The study segments the anechoic chamber market report into Type (semi anechoic chamber and full anechoic chamber), Application (automotive, military & defense, it & telecommunications, consumer appliances & electronics, medical, and others). The study also covers applications and provides the geographic forecast of the market size for various segments with regard to four main regionsNorth America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), and the Rest of the World (RoW). Reasons to buy the report The report would help the market leaders/new entrants in this market in the following ways: 1. This report segments the Anechoic chamber market comprehensively and provides the closest approximations of the overall market size and those of the subsegments across different applications and regions. 2. The report provides a detailed analysis of the Anechoic chamber market with the help of competitive leadership mapping including key companies in the market and their relations in the ecosystem. 3. The report helps stakeholders understand the pulse of the market and provides them information on the key market drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities. 4. This report would help stakeholders understand their competitors better and gain insights to enhance their position in the business. The competitive landscape section includes the competitor ecosystem, product developments, partnerships, and mergers & acquisitions in the Anechoic chamber market. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05894587/?utm_source=PRN About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker Related Links www.reportlinker.com CAIRO (AP) Sudan on Tuesday swore in a new defense minister more that two months after the death of the former defense chief and amid tensions with neighboring Ethiopia. Maj. Gen. Yassin Ibrahim Yassin was sworn in before Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the ruling sovereign council, according to a statement from the council. Yassin came out of retirement to take the position. Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and the countrys chief judge Neamat Abdullah attended the ceremony, the statement said. The ceremony was held in the capital Khartoum. Attendees were seen in a video posted online by the sovereign council wearing face masks as a preventive measure against the coronavirus, which has further weakened Sudans health system. Yassin replaced Gen. Gamal al-Din Omar, who died in March of a heart attack in neighboring South Sudan, while taking part in peace talks between his countrys transitional government and rebel groups. Yassin told reporters after the ceremony he would support Hamdoks government and work hard to achieve the goals ... of the transitional period. Born in 1958 in Khartoum, Yassin, a career army officer, studied in Sudans military academy, and obtained a bachelor's degree in military science from Jordans Mutah University. He retired in 2010, according Sudans official SUNA news agency. The swearing-in came amid tensions with neighboring Ethiopia over a cross-border attack allegedly conducted by a militia backed by Ethiopias military. At least one Sudanese army officer and one child were killed in an attack on Thursday by an Ethiopian militia group in Sudans eastern al-Qadarif province, according to Sudans military. Another Sudanese officer and three civilians were wounded in the incident, according to the Sudanese statement. Sudan is on a fragile path to democracy after a popular uprising led the military to overthrow former president Omar al-Bashir in April last year. A military-civilian government now leads the country to elections in less than three years. Story continues The transitional administration faces towering challenges, including the dire economic conditions that fueled the protests late in 2018 that eventually led the military to remove al-Bashir. Sudans economy has been battered by decades-long civil wars and international sanctions. Achieving peace with armed groups is crucial for the government as it would allow a reduction in military spending, which takes up to 80% of the budget, the prime minister has said. Sudan has been convulsed by rebellions in its far-flung provinces for decades. The rebel groups have since the outbreak of the uprising against al-Bashir announced a cease-fire. The Sudanese military said Tuesday that rebel fighters attacked its troops in the Jebel Marra area in the Darfur region. It said in a statement that the attackers belong to the Liberation movement, which is led by Abdel Wahid al-Nur, and another group called the Sudanese Awakening Revolutionary Council. Al-Nur rejected the transitional government after al-Bashirs ouster. The military didn't say whether the attack left causalities, but said it was a blatant and clear violation of the cease-fire. There was no immediate comment from either group. The August power-sharing deal has called for the government to reach a peace agreement with the rebels within six months. This deadline was not met and both sides agreed to extend the talks to reach a deal. Tuesday, June 2nd, 2020 (11:14 am) - Score 1,373 After a four year campaign for better internet connectivity two villages in rural Somerset (England) Wanstrow and Batcombe will soon be able to receive a 30-50Mbps capable superfast broadband speed, which is all thanks to a new Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) network from UK ISP Voneus. At present both communities, which are each home to a population of around 400-500 people (c.200 premises), can only access a bog standard slow copper line ADSL broadband solution via Openreachs (BT) national infrastructure. Interestingly the nearby Upton Noble (this sits between the two villages) can access both FTTC and FTTP from Openreach, but sadly this was never extended. The good news is that Voneus has just made their new FWA network available to homes and businesses in Wanstrow, while Batcombe is expected to go live at the end of June. Residents signing up for the service will get their installation and broadband router for free, while NHS workers and those signing-up for a 2 year contract will also receive the first 3 months of their service completely free-of-charge. Apparently this new wireless network is being fed data capacity via an existing fibre network in the nearby village of Trudoxhill. From there, a wireless signal is beamed across the countryside to discreet antennas on 7 different host sites in the area (e.g. rural farm buildings), which, in turn, transmit broadband directly to small and unobtrusive receivers on the villagers homes. Steve Leighton, CEO at Voneus, said: It is extremely gratifying to see that Wanstrow and Batcombe will finally be able to access the broadband speeds they deserve. And with another tailor-made solution, we have demonstrated that our business model and creative solutions-led approach really work for hard-to-reach communities. Bob Sargent, Parish Councillor and Wanstrow Broadband Champion, said: After four years of constant disappointments we are all ecstatic that we can now do the things that the rest of the country has long taken for granted such as watch BBC iPlayer or chat with our families on Zoom. There are also many small businesses in our communities that have been really struggling with poor broadband speeds, but that have now been able to develop their customer base and compete effectively. Voneus has been professional and open with us the whole way through the process of designing and building our network, and has delivered on everything they promised from the start. Customers typically pay from 34.99 per month (24 month term) to access their unlimited service, which includes a wireless router and installation. A 12 month option is also available but itll set you back an additional 4 per month. Voneus is also providing the village halls in both Wanstrow and Batcombe with a free connection, creating a central hub in each village to help keep everyone in the communities connected. Last year the ISP secured a huge new investment of 30m to help their fixed wireless and future full fibre network target 900,000 UK premises (here). As such we can probably expect to see a lot more developments like this in the near future. Watchdog Group Calls on Trump, Congress to Impede Chinas Organ Genocide A response to the organ genocide committed by the Chinese regime is one of the 12 recommendations to President Donald Trump and the U.S. Congress by a watchdog group on May 27, in response to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) approving a National Security Law that threatens to crush freedom in Hong Kong. The recommendations in their entirety seek to defend the United States national interests, to protect our economic interests at home and abroad, and to secure freedom. A national effort should be made to identify and act to impede the CCPs practice of organ genocidethe international marketing and implantation of organs involuntarily and often murderously removed from members of religious and ethnic minorities, political prisoners, and others, the Committee on the Present Danger: China (CPDC) stated. Frank Gaffney, vice chairman of CPDC, told The Epoch Times that the United States should take the lead in stopping the CCPs forced organ harvesting. The USCIRFs report, as far as it goes, is further helpful confirmation of what is being done to people of faith in particular, and I believe to the Chinese people more generally, by this barbaric totalitarian regime in control of the Chinese Communist Party, Gaffney said, referring to the 2020 annual report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. The more Americans are aware of it, the more they will find offensive. The report states, Human rights advocates and scientists presented evidence that the practice of harvesting organs from prisonersmany of whom are believed to be Falun Gong practitionerscontinued on a significant scale. Gaffney also noted the splendid work of the China Tribunal. That independent tribunal sitting in London concluded in June 2019 that forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale. Adherents of the spiritual practice Falun Gong have been one of the main sources of organs for transplant, according to the tribunal. During a rally joined by thousands of Falun Gong practitioners, demonstrators participate in an action drama in Taipei, Taiwan, on April 23, 2006. (Patrick Lin/AFP/Getty Images) Falun Gong is a mind and body practice based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. In 1992, Falun Gong was introduced to the world in Changchun city in northeastern China and quickly gained popularity, to the point that the number of adherents exceeded the number of CCP party members, the regimes official data showed. On July 20, 1999, the CCP banned Falun Gong and began a violent campaign to suppress its practitioners. Since then, an unknown number of adherents have been arrested and disappeared, with their family members never hearing from them again. Many of these may be assumed to have had their organs harvested. Freedom House reports that hundreds of thousands of adherents have been sentenced to labor camps and prison terms, making them the largest contingent of prisoners of conscience in China. The 160-page Judgment of the China Tribunal declares that the CCPs campaign of forced organ harvesting against innocent victims is a crime against humanity, constituting one of the worlds worst atrocities committed in modern times. The tribunals chairman, Sir Geoffrey Nice, led the prosecution of Slobodan Milosevic, former President of Serbia, at the U.N.s International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Documentation and investigation have fully confirmed the crimes of the CCP in conducting forced organ harvesting, and further investigation isnt needed by the international community, Gaffney said. Notable investigations of organ harvesting in China have included: This is not something that I think we need to continue to investigate or study or report on, Gaffney said. I think this is something thatwhether its the international elements that are enabling this thing to operate, or whether it is technologies that are being used to facilitate it, or whether it is simply a matter of just exposing it much more aggressivelymy own feeling is we ought to be doing all of that. Because this is a crime against humanity on an epic scale. He believes that the international community should take action to help stop it. I think the U.S. government can play a leading role in that, said Gaffney. He said we also can challenge and decry the collaboration between Chinese and Western pharmaceutical companies, and between medical institutes in clinical studies and doctor training, which serve as indirect assistance to the organ harvesting in China. There are things that could be done to make this less. Hopefully, [we can] save a lot of peoples lives in China, including Falun Gong and other people who are being brutalized for this purpose. New Delhi, June 2 : The Central Hall of Parliament is likely to host proceedings of Lok Sabha, with members maintaining social distancing norms and the lower house's chamber may host Rajya Sabha for the monsoon session as both houses' presiding officers - Vice President M. Venkiah Naidu and Speaker Om Birla - held a meeting on Monday to discuss the issue, said sources. In the meeting of presiding officers, holding a virtual meet was also discussed, sources said. After the Budget session ended abruptly on March 23 due to fear of pandemic, the opposition has been demanding parliamentary oversight on the government functioning and has demanded a session on the ongoing crisis. Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said: "A virtual session of Indian Parliament should be called forthwith, all select committees and standing committees of the Parliament, constituted for the purpose of oversight over the Government and the executive should be activated without delay." The Central Hall is used for joint sittings of Parliament and during the rest of the year, MPs sit there during the break in house prooceedings. It has the capacity to hold the Lok Sabha with the house's 543 members maintaining social distancing norms. The upper house has 245 members. Congress member and former Union Minister Manish Tewari has charged the government with being anti-parliament for avoiding the meeting of parliamentary committees. In a tweet, Tewari said: "NDA/BJP is ANTI PARLIAMENT 1.Last 72 days no SOP's for travel of MP's-they have 02 places of work, Constituency&Delhi. 2. No Standing Comm Meetings allowed hiding behind rules-world functioning virtually. 3. One item of Govt expenditure slashed in 72 days-3800 Crores of MPLADS." His second point was a reference to the meeting of the Standing Committee of Home Affairs scheduled to meet on Wednesday being been postponed." Anti-racism protests sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis have spread across the world, from New Zealand to Brazil. Meanwhile, adversaries including China and Iran have criticized the U.S. governments handling of the demonstrations. LONDON, June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SafeCharge, a Nuvei company, is announcing a new solution offering small businesses alternative ways to accept digital payments in response to the COVID-19 crisis. SafeCharge Local, supported by Visa, enables consumers to make payments online and over the phone whilst also providing a better consumer experience in store by reducing queues and limiting the need for close customer contact at the point of sale. At the heart of SafeCharge Local is a digital payment solution called Paylink, which enables businesses to receive payments through the use of QR codes and secure payment links without the need for a physical point of sale terminal or an online shop. As business owners adapt to new restrictions around physical distancing, the solution offers customers an easy, fast and secure way to make payments through their mobile phones and smart devices. Through SafeCharge Local, small businesses can choose to accept payments in two ways: By generating a unique QR code or email link directing consumers to a secure page where they can complete the transaction By creating a secure payment page that can be completed when consumers place orders over the phone All payments are handled within SafeCharge's Control Panel, an online hub enabling merchants to manage and view all their payment activity in one place, with business owners receiving confirmation of the payment once processed. The program is easy to implement, requires no costly technical development or resources and can be used across a range of mobile devices to help provide small businesses with the flexibility to easily begin accepting digital payments and continue selling to their customers. Philip Fayer, Nuvei's chairman and CEO said: "Merchants have been quickly adapting their offerings and business models in order to get them through this challenge, yet even today, many small businesses have a digital gap to overcome. "Our team is pleased to not only provide the technology to keep commerce flowing, but the professional insight and partnership required to help merchants reinvigorate their business operations using a completely new payment method, some for the very first time. The more we make it effortless for a business to grow, either locally or globally, the greater the long-term value they'll receive." Yuval Ziv, MD of SafeCharge and head of global acquiring said: "Our focus throughout COVID-19 has been to leverage our technology, flexibility and industry knowledge to provide struggling businesses with the tools required to survive this crisis. "Our principal clients are ecommerce merchants and ideally placed to adapt or potentially thrive throughout the crisis. However, as we quickly recognised the impact to the economic landscape, we wanted to help businesses at risk of bankruptcy, particularly those providing essential goods and services to their communities. "We believe that when restrictions lift, these merchants will leverage the additional revenue stream and transform their business model to include an online presence. It's quite probable that their customers will continue to buy with Paylink or similar means of digital payment. We are deeply committed to supporting businesses impacted by the crisis. We will get through this together." Dominic White, Visa's head of merchant sales and acquiring for UK & Ireland said: "Businesses of all sizes are navigating an overnight shift to digital amidst the global pandemic. As consumers continue to embrace digital payments for their everyday spend, Visa is working with partners like SafeCharge to provide the help and resources businesses need to adapt as they rebuild for the future." For more information about SafeCharge Local, please visit: https://www.safecharge.com/blog/offering-a-new-revenue-stream-for-small-merchants-impacted-by-the-covid-19-crisis/ . About SafeCharge SafeCharge, a Nuvei company, is the payment service partner that enables merchants to grow locally and globally through just one integration. It provides global omni-channel payment services, from card acquiring to payment processing and checkout, all underpinned by advanced risk management solutions. This fully featured proprietary payment platform connects directly to all major payment card schemes including Visa, Mastercard, American Express and UnionPay, as well as over 300 local payment methods. With offices around the world, SafeCharge serves a diversified, blue chip client base and is a trusted payment partner for customers across a range of vertical markets. Discover more at: www.safecharge.com . About Nuvei We are Nuvei, the first-ever community of payment experts. We provide fully-supported omnichannel payments to large-scale merchants, SMBs and distribution partners, powered by our broad suite of proprietary technologies. We also equip ISOs, ISVs, payment facilitators, developers, and eCommerce platforms with the technology, expertise and customer service they need to stand out. Backed by our full-service, globally connected platform, our vision is to build a network in which our merchants and partners can truly thrive. Our goal is to create bigger and better payment opportunities for all, paving the way to great partnerships. Learn more at www.nuvei.com . About Visa Visa is the world's leader in digital payments. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, reliable and secure payment network - enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. Our advanced global processing network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the world, and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second. The company's relentless focus on innovation is a catalyst for the rapid growth of connected commerce on any device. As the world moves from analogue to digital, Visa is applying our brand, products, people, network and scale to reshape the future of commerce. For more information, visit our website), blog), and @VisaUK . Contact Details Louis Georgakakis Nuvei +1 514-670-8001 lgeorgakakis@nuvei.com A suspect in the break-in of a Walgreens in Vallejo was shot as police arrived to respond to the burglary early Tuesday morning, leading to a confrontation with another suspect who rammed a police vehicle and led officers on a high-speed chase across the Carquinez Bridge into Rodeo. The shooting occurred after the city said police were responding to multiple reports of riot-related criminal activity. No police officers were hurt. President Akufo-Addo said government is committed to the implementation of 'Agenda 88' the building within a year, a fully-equipped, functional hospitals for 88 districts without such facilities. Additionally, Government would build a fully-equipped, functional regional hospital for each of the new regions. President Akufo-Addo, who announced this on Sunday, explained that Agenda 88 included the construction of a new regional hospital for the Western Region, and the rehabilitation of Effia Nkwanta Hospital in Sekondi. On April 26, 2020, the President in his televised national address to update citizens on COVID-19, first announced the Agenda to construct a 100-bed health facility in each of the districts without hospitals, to help in the management of infectious diseases, including COVID-19. The project, set to begin this year, would also include accommodation for staff. In his Sunday, May 31 national broadcast to update the nation on the enhanced response to COVID-19, the President said: We have learnt many lessons from this pandemic. The most obvious is that we have to fortify urgently our public health system. We have to empower and increase the number of our healthcare professionals across board. Universal Health Coverage must become reality for all Ghanaians, not a slogan, for every Ghanaian deserves good health and good healthcare. President Akufo-Addo, speaking on the cases of comorbidity or underlying health conditions in the Covid-19 related deaths, said in the Ghanaian context, it had been established that diabetes and hypertension were related to almost all of them. The risk factors for these diseases, he said, were being overweight, eating refined foods, too much salt and sugar in meals, inadequate physical exercise, excessive alcohol intake, and smoking. It is, thus, crucial that we improve our fitness levels, and adopt healthy eating practices that incorporate our local food stuffs, which boost our immune systems. Persons with these diseases must take extra precautions, and take their treatment seriously, he advised. The President, after having announcing the easing of some of the COVID-19 management restrictions, including the ban on communal religious services, encouraged all members of the public to strictly adhere to the enhanced personal hygiene and social distancing protocols wash their hands with soap under running water, refrain from shaking hands, and wear face masks whenever leaving home. --- (Newser) Bellingcat senior investigator Nick Waters documented 100 cases of police attacks on journalists in four days of protests before describing the 101st case as coming outside the White House on Monday. Two Australian journalists, 7News correspondent Amelia Brace and cameraman Tim Myers, were reporting live around 6:25pm local time when police in riot gear moved to clear protesters from an area. Brace says the pair were forced into a corner as they were met with police and members of the National Guard. "As I ran away, clearly stating that we were media, with my cameraman with a camera on his shoulders, I was hit across the back with the baton," she tells ABC Australia. Brace notes the pair were also hit with tear gas and rubber bullets fired by members of the National Guard"the exact people I had shown my media pass to." story continues below Footage shows an officer shoving Myers with a shield, then punching him in the face, per 7News. Another officer swings a baton. It was "absolutely terrifying," Brace says, per ABC. "There is such a heightened level of fear here that it just takes someone to reach for their pocket or to do anything out of the ordinary, to speak in the wrong tone of voice and you don't know what the reaction will be and there seem to be no consequences for that." Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has ordered Australia's embassy in Washington to investigate the assault, which Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese stated was "completely unacceptable," per 9News. This is a "very serious matter" and "obviously a very troubling period in the United States," says Foreign Minister Marise Payne, noting embassy officials will register their concerns with the proper authorities. (Read more journalists stories.) Minneapolis. Washington. Houston. New York. Detroit. Philadelphia. Atlanta. In recent days, rage in these and other cities over police brutality against black Americans has spread across the United States. But the outrage has also spread to Africa. Officials on the continent have expressed concern over developments in the U.S. following the death of George Floyd, the black American man killed in police custody in the city of Minneapolis last week. The head of the African Union described Floyds death as an act of murder, while South Africas ruling party is calling for calm in the U.S. Statements from the African continent could portend a shift in global relations -- and hopefully, analysts say, make a bigger point: whether you live in Minneapolis or Monrovia, George Floyds death affects us all. In Addis Ababa, African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat took the U.S. government to task over the death of Floyd. Going a step further, the former Chadian prime minister used a powerful word that many protesters are using to describe Floyds death: Murder. Meanwhile, U.S. embassies in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo issued rare statements of concern over Floyds May 25 death and called for accountability after the arrest of a police officer on third-degree murder and manslaughter charges. Why? Because, in the words of Carine Kaneza Nantulya, Human Rights Watchs Africa advocacy director, George Floyd is all of us. This is the eternal struggle of any member of a minority community. ... It's going to touch anyone who has had previous experiences of abuse and oppression, be it because of one's race or religious background, or sexual identity, you name it. And at the same time, it touches me in a way that it is bringing up issues that could be very, very easily forgotten as well. And I guess the struggle, and I think a challenge for every for every institution like the African Union, for leaders around the world, for organizations like ours, is to find the tools to forge ahead, to move to move ahead and to address some of some of the deeply seated social economic issues that are the trigger factors for this, Kaneza Nantulya said. 'A perilously low value on black lives' For decades, African leaders have publicly chafed at what they view as paternalistic treatment from Western nations. This tragic incident, says Andrews Atta-Asamoah, an Addis Ababa-based researcher for the Institute for Security Studies, could compel the African Union to take the lead. This is a broader issue, and it fits into a broader systemic crisis which the AU can engage the U.S. on, in terms of what needs to be done. Between the AU and also the diaspora community, I think this is an opportunity for the AU now to begin to emphasize exactly what the African-American community go through on a day-to-day basis, Atta-Asamoah told VOA. And, Kaneza Nantulya says, this strong statement from African leadership could also spur citizens across Africa to demand that the AU stand up for them, too. It's important because I think, beyond the United States, it reminds us of what Africans in all their diversity have the legitimacy and the right to ask -- not only their government, but also the African Union. I was looking at some of the some of the comments and responses to the chairpersons tweet when the statement was out. And it was very interesting how people from Cameroon, people from different countries were like, OK, violence also exists in our own countries, and people die in the hands of security forces. So that's another expectation. It's a layer of expectation that's now being put on the African Union because of that statement, Kaneza Nantulya told VOA. This week, as fires burned across the U.S., South Africas ruling African National Congress party also weighed in on the mounting crisis, saying the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor show that American society places a perilously low value on black lives. But, rights groups are quick to chime in that no society is perfect. Human Rights Watch has documented how coronavirus lockdowns across much of the continent have spurred security forces to cross lines. In Lagos and Nairobi, security officers shot and killed teenagers while attempting to enforce the restrictions. And in April, soldiers entered the Johannesburg home of Collins Khosa, a father of three, and accused him of violating lockdown regulations. His family says they dragged him outside, slammed him against a cement wall, kicked, slapped and punched him. He died hours later, and military authorities exonerated the soldiers implicated in his death. His family is challenging that in court. A Christian minister who wrote the 1980s disco classic So Macho has won a religious discrimination claim after he was shunned by a colleague for comparing homosexuality with paedophilia. Reverend George Hargreaves, 62, claimed he was discriminated against by his colleague Elizabeth Akano who shunned him at work after being outraged at his remark. Ms Akano was left stunned after she commented that 'people are born gay' and Rev Hargreaves replied 'paedophiles make the same argument'. But a tribunal has found that by ostracising Mr Hargreaves and 'sending him to Coventry' she was unfairly targeting the pastor - who has regularly appeared on TV because of his beliefs. Reverend George Hargreaves (pictured), 62, won the religious discrimination claim after he was shunned by his colleague while they were both working at a homeless charity in South Kensington, London In the 1980s, the Oxford educated pastor, who went into politics in 2004, wrote songs for the pop star Sinitta In the 1980s, Oxford educated Rev Hargreaves wrote songs for the pop star Sinitta, including hits such as 'So Macho', 'Feels Like The First Time' and 'Cruising'. Later, he went into politics and in 2004 founded the Christian Party, a right-wing political party which opposed homosexuality. He retired from public life in 2010. The employment tribunal heard that in January 2019 he and Ms Akano were both working at homeless charity Evolve Housing + Support in South Kensington, London, when the reverend made the comparison. The panel's judgement said: 'During the conversation Ms Akano made a comment to the effect that ''people are born gay''. (He) replied to the effect that paedophiles make the same argument, that they are born that way. '(He) went on to state that even if people are born with a condition, that does not put it beyond God's ability to change or ''heal'' it. Rev Hargreaves argued that by saying the words, he was not alleging or suggesting that homosexuals are paedophiles. 'He did not consider that the comment would be offensive, or what he said was rude,' the panel added. It was also heard Rev Hargreaves said 'from a biblical perspective, one starts from the assumption that 'man is born in sin and shaped in iniquity'. However Ms Akano - who is in her mid 20s - went away and was later 'shocked' having researched Rev Hargreaves' religious views on homosexuality. She then purposefully ignored him at work and told him 'she does not respect him'- causing him to lodge a complaint as it created a 'humiliating' environment'. The reverend wrote hits such as 'So Macho' (pictured is pop star Sinitta in the disco anthem), 'Feels Like The First Time' and 'Cruising' Ms Akano also claimed his comments amounted to homophobia, however neither were upheld by Evolve and Rev Hargreaves appealed. During the appeal, he argued: 'It is reasonable for me to say, in response to Liz and anyone who says that ''people are born gay'', that paedophiles would also say that they were born that way. 'This is my standard response to the argument about people being born as homosexual. It is not illegal to put the two words in the same sentence.' Later, when being questioned by area manager Jon Deakin, Rev Hargreaves became 'upset' when he was asked about his membership of the Scottish Christian Party despite being warned not to as it was said to be irrelevant. At London Central Tribunal Centre, Judge Andrew James ruled that Rev Hargreaves was harassed and discriminated against on grounds of his religious beliefs because he was ignored by Ms Akano and inappropriately questioned by Mr Deakin. However, Judge James said his comparison of homosexuality to paedophilia was an 'argument rather than belief', and was likely to cause offence and could even have amounted to harassment in itself. He said: 'This case raises extremely difficult questions about the balancing of legal rights to freedom of speech, freedom of expression, religious belief and sexual orientation. 'Balancing those rights is not easy and navigating between them can result in employers walking something of a legal tightrope.' He continued: 'The claimant is correct to say that it is not illegal to use those words together, in the sense that it is not a criminal offence. 'Many people however, whatever their sexual orientation, who do not share the claimant's deeply held and genuine religious beliefs, would find the use of those words in that context to be offensive. Ms Akano found them offensive, as did Mr Deakin. 'The members of this tribunal understand why they would do so. Indeed, making such a remark in a work context could well amount to harassment related to sexual orientation.' He added: 'The claimant's religious beliefs do not require him to express himself in a way which draws an apparent comparison between paedophiles and the gay community. 'Such comparisons have been drawn in the past, to the detriment of the gay community. 'It was not so long ago that employees could justify dismissing gay employees on the basis of the prevailing view at the time that gay men were a potential threat to children. '''Paedophiles also say they are born that way''. That is not a religious belief. It is an argument used by the claimant in relation to his religious beliefs which could well cause offence to others.' The pastor, who is a regular commentator on BBC One's Sunday Morning Live, reportedly said his So Macho hit for Sinitta was 'for the gay scene to go mad on poppers' and was said to have used its royalties to fund the Christian Party's contest of seats in the UK. However, his election campaigns across the UK and Scotland have largely been unsuccessful, achieving as little as 0.3 per cent of votes in one UK parliament election. In 2007, he campaigned to replace the Flag of Wales with the Flag of Saint David, claiming that the red dragon was 'nothing less than the sign of Satan'. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 22:07:25|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 2 (Xinhua) -- President Xi Jinping Tuesday called for efforts to develop a strong public health system to safeguard people's health. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks when presiding over a symposium attended by experts and scholars. Noting that the people's security is the cornerstone of national security, Xi called for readiness for worst-case scenarios, stronger awareness of potential dangers and constant efforts to forestall major risks in health care. "Only by developing a strong public health system, improving the early warning and response mechanisms, comprehensively enhancing the capacity for prevention, control and treatment, weaving a tight prevention and control network, and consolidating the wall of quarantine, can we provide a strong guarantee for safeguarding the people's health," Xi said. Premier Li Keqiang and Wang Huning, a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, who are both members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, attended the symposium. Experts and scholars, including academicians with the Chinese Academy of Engineering such as Zhong Nanshan, a respiratory professor at Guangzhou Medical University, and Zhang Boli, head of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, spoke and put forward suggestions at the symposium. Xi exchanged views with experts and scholars who spoke at the symposium. Enditem People kept a two-meter distance between each other while waiting to receive rice from VSIP In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, when people are getting hit hard by the pandemic, VSIP gifted thousands of essentials to citizens who are coping with difficulties in Haiphong city and Bac Ninh province. In May 9-13, VSIP Bac Ninh in co-ordination with investors and other private donors hand over more than 4.300 packages of rice and necessities to low-income workers at communes of Dai Dong, Phu Chan, Hoa Tien, Yen Phu, Tam Giang, and Cho town. All the activities took place while observing safety guidelines such as temperature checks, offering visitors hand sanitiser, two-metre safe distancing, and handing out free face masks. Representatives of VSIP Haiphong handing over rice packages to residents of An Lu commune, Thuy Nguyen district In May 11-19, VSIP Haiphong continued the programme to give away 950 packages of rice to the poor at the communes of An Lu, Thuy Trieu, Trung Ha, Thuy Son, Thuy Duong, Lap Le, Tan Duong, and Duong Quan. Also, the company gifted 382 10kg packages of rice each to disadvantaged workers who are working at VSIP Haiphong. Bac Ninh residents happily picked up their packages of rice and neccesities The activity has conveyed the groups motto of enhancing business with a strong humane presence. Through the programme, VSIP desires to contribute to communities to promote the spirit of love between people and strengthen unity in society. The smiles we see on workers' faces through this programme will motivate our next social charity activities, said the representative of the company. The Washington Post is providing this news free to all readers as a public service. Follow this story and more by signing up for national breaking news email alerts. The news of George Floyds death sent shockwaves around the world, sparking national protests and highlighting the inequities black people continue to face in America. As the world demands justice for him and the many others who have died at the hands of police, a lot of people are wondering what they can do to stand in solidarity with the black community and stop police brutality against it. Watching movies about racism definitely wont solve the problem, but it might help one understand how far this all goes and offer insight on how to navigate racism and bias moving forward. Here are five movies about racism available to stream now to get you started. <> at Gerald W. Lynch Theatre on January 29, 2016 in New York City. 13th Netflix Created by Ava Duvernay (A Wrinkle in Time), 13th details Americas history of racial equality. The title stems from the 13th Amendment, which says, Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States. 13th explains how the amendment led to mass incarceration which disproportionately affects black and brown communities and features commentary from scholars, activists, and politicians. TIME: The Kalief Browder Story Netflix This documentary is based on Kalief Browder, who was sent to prison at 16 over accusations that he stole a backpack. He spent three years at the notorious Rikers Island, without ever being convicted of a crime, when his family was unable to come up with his $900 bail. Browder was freed in 2013, but his life was forever changed by the experience. He struggled with depression and other mental health issues and died by suicide in 2015. His mother found his body. Selma Prime Video Selma follows Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other activists as they worked to obtain equal voting rights in the 60s. It focuses on their famous walk from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and highlights the struggles they faced, from violence to intimidation even when they were peacefully protesting. If Beale Street Could Talk Prime Video Set in the early 70s, this drama follows a young couple, Tish and Fonny, who dream of spending their life together. Those plans are upended, though, when Fonny is falsely accused of raping a woman and sent to jail. As he awaits trial, Tish learns she is pregnant. They are both happy, but Fonny laments over the possibility that he might still be incarcerated when Tish gives birth. He could take a plea deal where he would admit fault in exchange for lesser time which is something that Browder and many other Black Americans have faced but he wants his name clear. Its a gut-wrenching story that reflects times both past and present. Fruitvale Station Netflix Fruitvale Station is a biographical drama based on Oscar Grant, a California man who was fatally shot by BART officers in 2009. It is a heartbreaking ending for someone whose life seemed to have so much promise and but a must-watch to understand all thats going on today. 12 Years a Slave Prime Video 12 Years a Slave chronicles the life of Solomon Northup after he was kidnapped and sold into slavery. He was held captive for 12 years before being released. For more resources on how to help, go here. Mask wearing, temperature controls, disinfection of aircraft: the International Civil Aviation Organization on Monday published a series of health recommendations for the pandemic-hit airline industry as it relaunches air travel. The protocol was drawn up by an international task force formed by the Montreal-based ICAO with the help of other UN agencies like the World Health Organization and the powerful International Air Transport Association (IATA). "These guidelines will facilitate convergence, mutual recognition and harmonization of aviation COVID-19 related measures across the globe," Philippe Bertoux, France's representative on ICAO's board, which led the "task force" debate, said in a statement. The changes being suggested are the most important for air travel since security measures put in place after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. The recommendations -- adopted Monday evening by the ICAO's executive committee, are intended to serve as a "framework" for assuring the safety of passengers and workers on planes and at airports. On their arrival at airports, travelers should present a health certificate and undergo an initial temperature check, under the guidelines. Online check-in before arriving at the airport should be given priority, and passages through security should be re-thought to limit physical contact and waiting in lines. Mobile tickets are advised, as well as other forms of no-contact technology, such as facial or eye scans. "This will eliminate or greatly reduce the need for contact with travel documents between staff and passengers," the protocol said. Passengers are encouraged to travel as light as possible, with just one small piece of hand luggage. Newspapers and magazines will no longer be allowed on board, and duty-free sales will be limited. The wearing of a mask or face covering should be obligatory inside aircraft and terminals, where physical distancing of at least three feet (one meter) should be respected. Terminal access will be limited to passengers and their companions, such as those accompanying disabled travelers, and airport personnel. Aboard planes, passengers should wear masks, move as little as possible within the cabin, and not line up outside toilets to lessen the risk of infecting other passengers. People will be assigned specific toilet stalls on the plane in relation to where they are seated. Flight attendants will be provided with personal protective equipment that could include visors, gloves and medical masks. - 'Global reference' - But the ICAO does not advocate leaving every other seat open to assure physical distancing, a restriction that the airline industry sees as a threat to its profitability. The organization, nevertheless, asks passengers to remain as far from one another as possible. It also advocates that food on board be pre-packaged and that aircraft be regularly disinfected. Temperature checks should also be taken on a flight's arrival. The measures aren't obligatory but they are the product of a broad consensus that imparts "an authority that will make them a global reference for the first time on this issue since the start of the COVID-19 crisis," said Bertoux. "These measures will facilitate a safe and sustainable return of the air travel," he told AFP. To reopen after having been grounded for months and brought to its knees financially, the airline industry is pressing for rules to be harmonized to reassure passengers and states that have closed their borders in an attempt to halt the spread of the virus. The ICAO estimates that the pandemic will reduce the number of air passengers by 1.5 billion by the end of the year. burs-to/ft A protocol drawn up by an international task force is intended to serve as a "framework" for assuring the safety of passengers and workers on planes and at airports, as the coronavirus-battered airline industry Trump Exhorts Governors to Dominate Amid Violence By Steve Herman June 01, 2020 Governors have received a lecture from U.S. President Donald Trump, the defense secretary and the attorney general, exhorting them to get tough with unruly protesters on the streets of America's cities. In a conference call Monday with governors about the violent demonstrations across the country, the leaders of the states received a browbeating from the president. "Most of you are weak," the president told them, according to an audio recording of the call. "You have to dominate. If you don't dominate, you're wasting your time. They're going to run over you, you're going to look like a bunch of jerks." Trump is facing criticism for not adopting a traditional presidential role of "consoler-in-chief" since the death of African American George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis prompted a national outpouring of agony and anger. The president, instead, has spent time on Twitter attacking former Vice President Joe Biden and other Democratic politicians, and lumping them in with the far-left radicals he blames for the violence in recent days. The call with Trump on Monday was "deeply disturbing," said Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat. "Instead of offering support or leadership to bring down the temperature at protests, President Trump told governors to 'put it down' or we would be 'overridden,'" she said in a statement. About half of the governors have already activated National Guard units to assist law enforcement in quelling the unrest. But more members of the guard are needed on the streets, according to the president. "They're ready, willing and able. They want to fight for the country," Trump said to the governors. "I wish we had an occupying force in there." Los Angeles, specifically, is "not using the greatest resource you can use," Trump said of the military forces under state control. "There will be additional federal assets deployed across the nation," White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Monday, but she declined to give specifics. 'Looking for weak spots' Trump and the White House are blaming the violence on a loose coalition of far-left activists, known "antifa" (for anti-fascist). The Republican president, up for reelection this November, warned on Twitter earlier that "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." Trump later denied that the phrase was a warning that vandals would be shot and said he did not know it had been used prominently by Miami's police chief in 1967 in response to violent crime in black neighborhoods. "It's a movement that if you don't put it down it'll get worse and worse," said Trump to the governors Monday. "These are radicals and they are anarchists." McEnany, asked at a White House briefing by a reporter about the Michigan governor's reaction, said she does not understand why Whitmer would be disturbed by the president telling governors to do their jobs. Another Democrat, Governor J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, told the president, "I've been extraordinarily concerned about the rhetoric that's been used by you. It's been inflammatory." The president replied: "I don't like your rhetoric much either," criticizing Pritzker's response to the coronavirus outbreak. "I think you could've done a much better job, frankly." Attorney General William Barr told the governors, "we have to control the streets and that requires a strong presence." Professional instigators are looking to move from strong to weak states to cause mayhem, according to Barr, saying this was based on intelligence reports. "They're all looking for weak spots," Trump said. "You got to arrest these people" and put them away for years. "These are terrorists. They're antifa and radical left." Trump specifically called on New York City and Philadelphia "to toughen up." Trump said the initial response in Minnesota was "weak and pathetic," but Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, deserved praise for deploying the National Guard, which knocked down demonstrators "like bowling pins a beautiful thing to watch." On the conference call, Defense Secretary Mark Esper told the governors that "the sooner you mass and dominate the battle-space, the quicker that this dissipates." Urban violence A week after a 46-year-old Floyd died in police custody after a white police officer was filmed pressing his knee into Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes, peaceful demonstrations have been overshadowed by urban violence across America. Businesses have been vandalized and looted, public monuments damaged and law enforcement officers firing rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters, some of whom have pelted police with bricks, firecrackers and bags of bodily fluids. Thousands of people were arrested across the United States during demonstrations Saturday and Sunday. California on Monday ordered state government buildings closed in downtown areas. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser moved up the nightly curfew by four hours to 7 p.m. "Washington was under very good control, but we're going to have it under much more control," Trump said. "We're going to pull in thousands of people." The president promised governors that "we're going to clamp down very, very strong" on the violence in the nation's capital, which has come within blocks of the White House. "We're going to do something that people haven't seen before," added Trump without providing details. McEnany said of Trump, "He does understand that pain" of the lawful demonstrators. She added, "it's really a shame" that radicals on the streets are dampening the message of the peaceful protesters. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address South Australians have embraced eased coronavirus restrictions by booking out more than half of the state's campgrounds for the Queen's Birthday long weekend. As of Tuesday, 86 of the state's 153 campgrounds were fully booked while many others were close to capacity. National Parks and Wildlife SA Executive Director Mike Williams told Daily Mail Australia residents were eager to get out but needed to be conscious of coronavirus guidelines. South Australians are set to pack out campsites over the Queen's Birthday long weekend in June after two thirds of all parks have been booked out as coronavirus restrictions ease (camp site at Gawler Ranges pictured) 'We ask that people continue to do the right thing by observing COVID-19 guidelines,' he said. 'There are signs in campgrounds to remind people about social distancing, and park facilities are being regularly cleaned and maintained for visitors.' Teams of park rangers, volunteer rangers and campground hosts will be tasked with making sure campers are adhering to guidelines. On average National Parks and Wildlife SA have received 300 bookings per day since it was announced people could camp again. Environment and Water Minister David Speirs said the long weekend was the perfect time for residents to explore. He said more than 1100 bookings were made within the first two days of the re-opening of campgrounds. 'Since travel restrictions have been lifted, we've seen an amazing response from South Australians wanting to explore our state,' Mr Speirs said. 'On average, the Department for Environment and Water get around 300 bookings per day but in the past fortnight we have seen almost double the daily average.' Residents are being urged to continue to adhere to social distancing guidelines while camping with park rangers and campsite owners tasked with policing the guidelines (Coffin Bay National Park pictured) Mr Speirs said signs have been set up in campgrounds to remind people of social distancing and regular cleaning of park facilities will be maintained. 'We also ask our visitors to be respectful of others and to 'leave no trace'. 'We will also have rangers, volunteer rangers and campground hosts in our parks to assist visitors over the long weekend.' All campsites will be required to adhere to current social distancing guidelines. As of June 1 social distancing measures include one person per 4 square metres and 1.5 metres between people. With regards to social gatherings a maximum of 80 people may gather at a venue, any separate room or area may have a maximum of 20 people. Each business must also complete a COVID-Safe Plan before they will be allowed to provide services such as fitness and recreational activities. Hi all you cool cats and kittens.. Carole Baskin, arch nemesis of Tiger Kings, Joe Exotic has been granted control of his G.W. Exotic Animal Memorial Park in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, in the latest twist emerging from the Netflix series. A judge has found that the property belonging to Exotic (real name Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage) was fraudulently transferred to his mother years ago. In 2013, Exotic was ordered to pay Big Cat Rescue nearly $1 million to resolve a two-year-old trademark infringement lawsuit. The suit, which was featured in the Netflix series, involved Exotics use of logos and images that were very similar to those created and owned by Big Cat Rescue. The park has been under the control of Jeff Lowe in recent years, but is now being handed over to Baskin the very woman whom Joe was convicted of plotting to kill. Lowe has 120 days to vacate the premises including all of his animals currently residing there. Joe Exotic is currently serving 22 years in prison after being convicted in 2019 of trying to hire a hitman to kill Baskin. Source: People, Hollywood Reporter The Government is working with some partners to develop a software application that would assist event organisers to register the prescribed number of attendees and safely record their contact information to make tracing easy. Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Minister of Communications, who announced this, said the Pan African BioSurveillance Application (PANABIOS) would enable users to book registrants and ensure that they did not exceed the maximum 100 for social gatherings, as announced by the President. She was speaking at the Information Ministry's media briefing, on Monday, to provide details on guidelines to practicalise the Presidential directives backing the easing of restrictions on some social activities. She said the app was expected to be available for download on various stakeholders websites in the next 48 hours. The App would be linked to the COVID-19 APP, also developed by the Government. A passcode or a USSD code would be generated for people to book for a registered event. We are trying it out in Ghana and hopefully it will be rolled out to the rest of the continent, Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said. For our collective peace of mind, every event needs to keep an accurate register of everyone who attends those functions so that when need be, you can provide that information to the health authorities and they can help all of us. She said event organisers would have to download the application and register the event and venue that the event was taking place. It would be recalled that the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Sunday, announced the phase one of restrictions on public gatherings to be eased, based on their risk profile, socio-economic impact, and, 'most importantly, the national capacity to enforce and to respond, in the event of a flare up in our number of infections' . All churches, mosques, conferences and other permissible events are supposed to have a register of names and contact details of all worshippers or attendees. The President announced that a 25 per cent attendance should be allowed, with a maximum number of 100 congregants at a time in a church or a mosque. There should also be a mandatory one metre rule of social distancing between congregants. Services are to be held for a maximum of one hour for each session. Additionally, all attendees are mandated to wear face masks at all times. Hand washing facilities and sanitisers, among others, must also be provided. After an 11- week suspension, Muslims can worship at the mosques on Friday, June 5 while Adventists and Christian follow on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A Vietnamese woman and her grandson prepare to board a repatriation flight from Sydney International Airport, Australia, June 1, 2020. Photo by Voice of Vietnam. Vietnam brought back 344 of its citizens from Australia and New Zealand by a special flight on Tuesday morning. The Vietnam Airlines flight landed at Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh City with students under 18, seniors, people in difficult financial circumstances, tourists whose visas had expired, and workers who had lost their jobs. They were taken to centralized quarantine facilities and had Covid-19 tests done. The flight landed at Sydney Airport in Australia and Auckland Airport in New Zealand and took on as many people on board as possible, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It was the first repatriation of Vietnamese from Australia and New Zealand since Vietnam suspended all international flights on March 22 as the two countries were under strict lockdown to contain the spread of the disease. A total of 1,800 people have registered to fly home as borders remain closed due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the Vietnamese embassy in Australia said. Priority is given to people aged above 60, students under 18, those with underlying health conditions such as heart diseases or cancer, and stranded tourists, it said. Australia has reported over 7,000 cases of infection and 103 deaths, and New Zealand, 1,500 and 22. Since mid-May the two have been easing restrictions and reopening their economies. They are discussing the possibility of a Covid-19-safe travel zone between the two countries. In the last few months several special flights have brought back thousands of Vietnamese from several countries including Canada, France, Japan, Russia, the UAE, the U.S., and some Southeast Asia hotspots. Passengers paid their fares. Vietnam has gone 47 days without community transmission of the coronavirus. It has reported 328 Covid-19 cases so far and no deaths. I walk in and Sam was really pleased to see me and made me feel great going in the room. Theres an unspoken understanding that you dont shake peoples hands when you walk into an audition room; theyre there all day and seeing 5,000 people, they dont want to shake 5,000 hands, you know? But Sam was so keen to see me and he stood up and he made some sort of gesture and I misread it and I went in for the handshake. There were five other people in the room so we all ended up doing the handshake. So already I realized, Not cool, you messed that up. The producer was not impressed. MUSKEGON, MI - After many long weeks of a statewide shutdown of sit-down restaurants, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced on Monday that people can begin eating at restaurants once again next week. Until then, here are five more local businesses to support with a pickup meal. While the weathers fine, consider taking your takeout order for a (socially distanced) picnic. The hand-cut, aged, marbled rib-eye rubbed with house seasoning served on a bed of bourban marinated vegtables and served with Cajun potato salad at Skeetown Tavern, which is one of the restuarants in MLive's Michigan's Best Steak contest on Friday, September 18, 2015, in Muskegon, Mich. (Mischa Lopiano | MLive.com) MLive.comMLive.com Skeetown Tavern (1308 W Sherman Blvd., Muskegon) A contestant for Michigans Best Steakhouse, this place blends Tex Mex, Cajun, and classic American tavern food. Nearly everything is made in-house, including taco shells, roux, and sauces. Even the pork is house-smoked. Youd be hardpressed to find somewhere else on the Lakeshore to serve you fried alligator, and alongside the famous steaks are poboys, specialty tacos, and agave margarita chicken. Theres also plenty of pub grub, like fried apps, burgers and nachos. Check out the menu here and call (231) 755-6818 to see whats available and place your order. Outside Lott and Big Weezy's Kitchen in Muskegon Heights, Michigan on Tuesday, May 26, 2020. Alison Zywicki | azywicki@mlive.com Lott and Big Weezys (169 E Broadway Ave., Muskegon Heights) Once a Lakeshore summer spot, this restaurant specializes in big portions, according to their Facebook page - and is known throughout Muskegon for its rib tips, seasoned catfish, and other soul food staples. Chef Tawayne Davis mixes up the menu, with chicken and waffles and deep fried crab legs making recent appearances. Keep an eye on this restaurants Facebook page to see what Davis has in store, and call in a pickup order at (231) 737-6003. Customers enjoy the food and the atmosphere of the Hearthstone Bistro at 3350 Glade Street in Muskegon. (Andraya Croft | MLive.com) The Hearthstone Bistro (3350 Glade St., Muskegon) It may be a while to get the full white tablecloth treatment, but The Hearthstone is offering a limited menu featuring soups, salads, sandwiches, and hot entrees. For something a little fancy this week, try crusted whitefish, sourced locally, pasta with prosciutto and pesto, or peach barbecue glazed ribs. The menu changes regularly, with Chefs Whim items, like a roasted tomato & peppadew bisque. Check out this weeks menu here, and call (231) 733-1056 to arrange a pickup. The outside of the pizza restaurant Zaloma's in Muskegon. (Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com)Kaytie Boomer I MLive.com Zalomas Pizza (2009 Lakeshore Dr., Muskegon) Nothing beats a fresh pizza straight out the oven after a long day at the beach. You can get a plain cheese or pepperoni, or a menu special, like the Razorback (with pesto and pulled pork), the Maui (pepperoni, sausage and green peppers), or the Funky Veggie (loaded up with greens and other healthy things). Salads, garlic sticks, and gluten free crusts also are available. Check out their menu here, and call (231) 246-7935 to place an order. Mexican style beef tacos at La Casa Fierro in Roosevelt Park as part of MLive's search for Michigan's Best Taco with John Gonzalez on May 22, 2014. La Casa Fierro (1427 W Sherman Blvd., Roosevelt Park) No Takeout Tuesday roundup would be complete without a Taco Tuesday option - and at this Roosevelt Park restaurant, tacos are $1.25 all Tuesday long. In addition to tacos, which can be made American- or Mexican-style, La Casa Fierro offers tostadas, tortas, burritos, enchiladas, fajitas, soups and salads. Check out the menu here, and call (231) 759-8400 to place an order for pickup or delivery. The Powering Positivity campaign by MLive Media Group highlights how Michiganders are supporting one another during the coronavirus pandemic. It is sponsored by The MediLodge Group Read more on MLive: Gov. Whitmer to lift stay-at-home order, allow in-person dining at Michigan restaurants Hundreds gather in Muskegon to march for racial justice Why is Michigans coronavirus death rate so high? Michigan coronavirus stay-at-home order lifted: Heres what opens when. Never before have astronauts of NASA traveled to the International Space Station (ISS) in a craft that was not built by NASA. That is, until now.On Saturday, NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken lifted off in SpaceXs Crew Dragon spacefaring capsule. This marked the first time that a spacecraft built by a private company launched a crewed mission into orbit. This also marked the first crewed NASA launch since the Space Shuttle program was shuttered in 2011.But that was not the end of the history-making. On Monday, spacecraft commander Hurley and joint operations commander Behnken docked the Crew Dragon at the ISS. At 1:02 p.m. Eastern, they became the first astronauts in history to board the ISS from a commercial craft.The exact length of their stay aboard the ISS has not yet been determined, but the capsule was designed to be able to stay in orbit for a maximum of 110 days. Whenever Hurley and Behnken do depart from the ISS, the craft will autonomously return itself to Earth, splashing down off the Florida coast. Hundreds of peaceful protesters made their voices heard Monday afternoon during Harrisburgs third rally in as many days in response to the Memorial Day death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Organizer Brent Lipscomb, who called the event The Movement - Harrisburgs Protest to Protect All People, deemed the more than two-hour rally and march a success. The crowd walked around the city and the Capitol complex without any clashes with police, and Lipscomb said he believed the rally shared the message of peace. Several speakers, including State Rep. Patty Kim and Democratic candidate Kevin Maxson, spoke during the rally. The moments that got the most difficult though were when Harrisburg Police Commissioner Thomas Carter was brought out to speak. The crowd began shouting at him, demanding answers about how and why he allowed things to get violent on Saturday. When Carter explained he was not there during the start of the violence and did not have a say in those matters, protesters began asking what he was going to do about the officers who did use pepper spray and other force. Carter told the crowd to file a complaint, which was met with resounding boos from the crowd. Through all of this, protesters also demanded Carter kneel with them, and he did. I apologize to everybody, here. I apologize to Mr. Floyd, Carter said while kneeling. So please accept my apology. Clip speaks for itself. pic.twitter.com/EhLLsPIY6z Becky Metrick (@BeckyMetrick) June 1, 2020 The crowd continued to shout, and soon afterward he thanked everyone for their time. Lipscomb said he invited Carter to speak because law enforcement is not going nowhere and he wanted a chance to re-introduce Carter back into the mix. We have to eventually bring [police] back, and theyre going to have to take that suffering at some point, Lipscomb said. And its hard. Its difficult. Theyre put in a tough situation to navigate that. But it can be navigated. Although Carters speech did not seem to appease the protesters, Lipscomb explained that his presence was necessary. I wanted to bring Carter out here to basically hear the stories of how the people feel. The pain that they have suffered, Lipscomb said. Even from the rally Saturday. They suffered some pain. As the protesters later walked past the Harrisburg Bureau of Police building, messages of support were written in the windows. Messages of support at the Harrisburg Bureau of Police on June 1, 2020 | Sean Adams Another speaker, Kimeka Campbell, spoke about the fear she holds every time her husband, a black man, goes to work in the city. But she also polled the crowd on two big questions: Can the relationships between police and citizens be better? Can the citizens learn to work with police? And on both questions, the crowds reaction was mixed, something she said was horrible for a city. Having lived in the city for a few years, she didnt have the answers either. I dont know. Im going to be very honest. I have no idea because you get out here and we say that we can work with police and theres a breakdown somewhere. And somebody gets hurt. And that builds a bigger divide, Campbell said. It just cracks the thing even further apart. So I dont know. Campbell said she does feel bad for Carter, saying hes in a tough spot, but at the same time hes representative of a conversation thats been going on in Harrisburg for a generation. Following the speeches, protesters were aided by officers who acted as traffic control along their route. There was no riot gear seen or long lines of officers, which increased in numbers Saturday after a woman smashed the windshield on a police vehicle. Carter has said he didnt order the initial increase in response but rather the officers in trouble at the time called for backup, which then involved pepper spray. One man who was sprayed, Cole Goodman, shared his experience with the crowd. Goodman is the son of PennLive opinion editor Joyce Davis. I watched people throw bricks, not just at the cops but at each other, Goodman said. Come on yall. We gotta do better. He said they can demand change, but we dont have to hurt each other. Goodman said he was pepper-sprayed right in the eyes, having never been maced before in his life. He said when his mom saw what happened, she asked him what has changed in this country? Nothing has changed, he said, and thats the problem. When you go back to your community if someone is talking to a person of color, disrespectfully, calling them the n-word, dont just stand there. Say something. Its time for us to say something," Goodman said. This man shared his experiences at Saturdays protest. pic.twitter.com/QSQD8umbt2 Becky Metrick (@BeckyMetrick) June 1, 2020 As successful as Mondays rally was, Lipscomb said his next move is to host a town hall, not just with police but with local politicians, business owners, and other leaders. He said he expects it to come together within the next two weeks. He also emphasized the need to vote during Tuesdays primary. At the end of the rally, Campbell reminded people that when planning going to rallies, verify the source and hosts of the rallies, as several strange and possibly fake events have popped up in recent days. While the Harrisburg rally was peaceful, violence did occur in at least two other protests in the state. Hundreds of people Monday evening marched through the streets of downtown York on roads that were not blocked off, meaning that vehicles had to yield to protesters. That led to a fight breaking out between protesters and a driver, who was dragged out of the vehicle, according to a report on abc27.com. Video taken of the incident showed someone jumping on the vehicle and shattering its window. A couple of hours earlier, several hundred people spilled onto an interstate highway in the heart of Philadelphia just before a curfew took effect, leading law enforcement to fire nonlethal bullets and tear gas and halting traffic during the evening rush hour. According to an Associated Press story, the crowds on Interstate 676 also led to the closure of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, the main link from downtown Philadelphia to New Jersey suburbs. Read more on PennLive: A Huawei logo is seen on a device at a media event in London TALLINN (Reuters) - Estonia's parliament approved on Tuesday a new Electronics Communications Act to ensure security reviews for telecom gear needed in the development of future networks. The act, which lawmakers dubbed the "Huawei law" in reference to the Chinese telecommunications company, leaves detailed implementation to the government and includes intelligence services among the reviewing authorities. European Union and trans-atlantic NATO alliance member Estonia shares the U.S. government's security worries over new 5G networks. Washington has accused Huawei of spying on the West, allegations it denies. "We must ensure that the communication services are offered using secure technology and a reliable provider," said Andres Metsoja, head of parliament's defence committee, in a statement. The act did not mention any companies by name. 5G networks are at the centre of global security deliberations because they will host critical functions from driverless vehicles to military communications. (Reporting by Tarmo Virki; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne) The incident happened on the Meenacloy Road and the BMW was seen heading toward Ederney. Police have found a car they believe was involved in a Tyrone hit and run which killed a 21-year-old man. The black BMW was found by gardai in Co Donegal on Monday evening and is now with the PSNI for forensic examination. "We are subsequently following a definite line of enquiry in relation to the collision and hope to progress our investigation in the near future," Detective Inspector Michael Winters. He also thanked the public for their help in the reponse to their appeal for information. Police urged the driver of the 4x4 to "examine your conscience" and contact officers. The victim was riding an orange Kawaski motorcycle on the Meenacloy Road on Sunday morning around 11am when he was involved in a crash. The BMW was thought to have headed off in the direction of Ederney and was likely damaged in the incident. Detective Inspector Michael Winters said: I would firstly like to ask the driver of the BMW to examine their conscience and to come forward to police to explain what happened. "It is likely that the BMW would have sustained damage due to the collision and I would therefore like to speak with anyone who is approached to repair this vehicle. "I would also appeal to anyone who was travelling on the Meenacloy Road at around 11am on Sunday and witnessed the collision, or who may have captured dash-cam footage of it, to contact police on 101, and quote reference 958 of 31/05/20. TWO Zimbabweans who were last week arrested with three other people for allegedly smuggling cigarettes from Zimbabwe to South Africa have been further remanded in custody to Friday for formal bail application. The suspects were arrested in two separate incidents following a high-speed chase with the police near Polokwane in Limpopo province. Nomusa Mguni (34) and Walter Ndlovu (30) were arrested in Sebayeng area on May 23 for illegal possession of alcohol and suspected illicit cigarettes. Limpopo police spokesperson, Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo said in a statement that the duo appeared before a Mankweng magistrate on Friday afternoon. The woman who was also travelling with a minor was arrested in the company of a 30-year-old man driving towards Gauteng province. They were carrying an assortment of illicit cigarettes and alcohol when they sped off from a roadblock along the N1 highway before they were cornered by traffic police and the crime prevention police officers. The suspects apparently sped towards a gravel road that connects the N1 road and R81 from Polokwane. The officers pursuing the said vehicle, then called for a backup from the police at Sebayeng and this led to the suspects being cornered at the Solomondale intersection next to the filling station. The vehicle was then searched and the illicit cigarettes and alcohol were found hidden inside and the two suspects were immediately apprehended, he said. Brigadier Mojapelo said three locals; Alemayenu Leta (42), Pieter Venter (30) and Amandul Biru (33) were arrested on the same day, May 23, on similar charges and have since appeared at the Modimolle magistrate court. He said the trio was transporting 1 000 cartons of illicit cigarettes in a pickup truck when they sped off from a roadblock along the N1 but were later cornered leading to their arrest. They will appear in court on June 4 for formal bail application, he said. Demand for Zimbabwean tobacco and related products in other countries has seen the establishment of well-orchestrated syndicates who facilitate the illegal trade and smuggling of the golden leaf into those countries. South Africa has become one of the major destinations where mostly cigarettes are smuggled through Beitbridge border post or illegal crossing points along the Limpopo River. Almost 30 percent of the cigarettes on the South African market are from Zimbabwe. It is also difficult for Zimbabweans to export cigarettes to South Africa because of the high excise duty in that country. Most of the smuggled brands from Zimbabwe to the neighbouring country include; Pacific, Remmington Gold, Kingsgate, Madison, Mega, Dullahs, Branson and Servilles. Statistics from the South African Revenue Services (SARS) show that a total 82 689 043kg of tobacco were imported from Zimbabwe between January 2010 until March 2015. These include imports of cigars, cheroots, cigarillos and cigarettes of tobacco or of tobacco substitutes. Chronicle is reliably informed that in terms of SARSs schedule 1 part 2 / section a (specific excise duties on locally manufactured or on imported goods of the same class or kind), various rates of duty are specified, for instance cigarettes imported from Zimbabwe at a rate of R6.21 per 10 cigarettes. Thailand is allowing five Bangkok hotels to offer luxury isolation packages as an alternative to the government-funded 14-day quarantine for returning travelers. International passenger flights have been banned from entering Thailand until the end of June, but the government has chartered flights to repatriate citizens who have been stranded abroad amid the coronavirus crisis. Anyone returning to the country is required to spend 14 days in state-designated quarantine facilities, most of which are hotels, with local media reporting that around 80,000 people have been quarantined to date. Now, the Thai government has approved five hotels in the capital to provide packages for anyone wanting to self-fund a more premium isolation period. Ranging from 32,000 Thai baht ($1,016) to 60,000 baht ($1,904) for a two-week stay, the resorts are offering perks like doctors' consultations and meals to Thai citizens and expat workers who return to the kingdom from overseas. It's currently unclear whether the offer will be extended to regular tourists when, and if, international passenger flights resume. BOISE Multiple posts that circulated Monday on social media spread false information claiming that anti-fascist protesters were planning riots in Idaho, according to multiple local law enforcement agencies and other officials. Several posts shared widely on Facebook claimed that local police departments and sheriffs offices had confirmed the presence of antifa protesters in Boise, claims the agencies denied. The allegations came as multiple cities around the U.S. experienced violent conflicts between police and demonstrators protesting the death of George Floyd, a black man from Minneapolis who died last week while a police officer knelt on his neck. That officer, Derek Chauvin, has since been fired and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Antifa is a left-wing activist movement that has gained prominence in the U.S. in recent years and is sometimes blamed for inciting violence during protests and other demonstrations. The movement is not a single organization, and it does not have centralized leaders, according to experts who study the activists. President Donald Trump has blamed antifa for violent protests in Minneapolis and said Sunday on Twitter that he will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization. In a Facebook post on Sunday, the Real 3 Percenters Idaho group said it had credible intel tonight that Antifa and other groups are planning a riot tonight in the Boise area. No riot occurred. Their plan is to destroy private property in the city and continue to residential areas, the post said. We are calling on all business owners to contact us if you are concerned for your business and your private property immediately. We are here to protect you, your private business, and have teams on the ground standing by. Eric Parker, who founded the political activist group, told the Statesman in a phone interview Monday that his credible intel came from three sources. One was an email to a hospital, Parker said. Im not going to disclose who it was from or who it was to just to be prepared that they were expecting problems, and for the ER to be ready. Representatives for Saint Alphonsus and St. Lukes hospitals in the Treasure Valley said they had not received or sent such emails, though they were aware of the rumors. Parker said he was not really comfortable with saying who one source was, and he said the other was law enforcement in Washington state. He said members of his organization monitored a small protest in Boise on Sunday evening that took place after hundreds rallied earlier in the day to remember Floyd and speak out against his death. We didnt see any (antifa protesters), Parker said. ... Its all hearsay as to whether or not anybody came to town. I never did see any pictures of the buses. Social media posts claim agitators sent via bus, plane The buses Parker referred to were part of another viral post claiming the left-wing movement had sent agitators to Boise. In a Facebook post Monday morning, the Payette County Sheriffs Office refuted another post claiming, Antifa has sent a plane load of their people into Boise and three bus loads from Seattle into the rural areas. The Payette County Sheriffs Office has not had contact with and has not verified that Antifa is in Payette County, the sheriffs office said. The Payette County Sheriffs Office has not given any specific warnings to our citizens about Antifa or other organizations. The information in this social media post is not accurate. Sheriffs Lt. Andy Creech told the Statesman on Monday that one post had been shared almost 200 times by this morning and seemed to be getting some traction, prompting the sheriffs office to make its post. Creech said in a phone interview that residents were reaching out to dispatchers and via other means to ask the sheriffs office if the posts were true. Im not sure where the false information originated from, Creech said. Our main point was that we wanted to just clarify the false information in that post. Creech said if Idahoans have concerns about their local area, they should definitely reach out to their local law enforcement entities to verify information. I know on social media sometimes it can be hard to verify the accuracy of information out there. We will gladly speak with our citizens and help them understand whats happening in our community, he said. One post shared nearly 2,000 times on Facebook told Idahoans to be ready for attacks downtown and residential areas. At least a dozen males got off the plane in Boise from Seattle, dressed head to toe in black. Backpacks only, the post said. One had a tattoo that said Antifa America on his arm. The posts urged people to arm themselves. Watch your 6 and carry heavy, one post said, referring to military jargon for watching your back. Commenters on several of the posts insinuated that they would shoot antifa protesters. Friend of mine was at the airport when they got off the plane, wrote one person. Locked and loaded here in Nampa. Im stacked and packed, if they come near me theyll quickly regret it, said another. Rumors swirl in Meridian Multiple commenters also said theyd confirmed the presence of antifa with friends in local law enforcement. One man said hed confirmed rumors regarding potential riots at The Village at Meridian. Hugh Crawford, manager of the shopping complex, said that was not true. If we learn of something thats real, well absolutely take steps to be prepared, Crawford told the Statesman, adding that The Village has 24/7 security and is working with Meridian Police Department to keep abreast of the rumors. Stephanie Galbreath, spokeswoman for the Meridian Police Department, said the department is coordinating with local, state and federal agencies to monitor the situation but had not confirmed antifa presence in the area. Similarly, Boise Police Department spokeswoman Haley Williams told the Statesman that the department had no confirmation of people coming into Boise to protest. Dozens line streets and protest in Coeur dAlene Ada County wasnt the only area in Idaho to see demonstrators Monday. Dozens of people were out protesting around Coeur dAlene on Monday, according to Coeur dAlene police spokesperson Officer J. Wilhelm. He said that protests began near the towns WinCo Foods grocery store on just off Appleway Avenue, with roughly 80 people near the street. As the day went on, 40 to 50 people, many armed, arrived downtown, Wilhelm said. Some identified themselves as members of an armed militia. The Coeur dAlene Press reported that many people were downtown Monday evening to protect businesses in the hopes of warding off looters or others damaging businesses. The paper also reported that armed people were standing watch out of concern that what they said were threats of left-wing militant groups coming to start riots at the store. KREM reported Monday that an assistant manager of the WinCo said the store was not planning to board windows or doors. At least one business in downtown Coeur dAlene had boarded up windows Monday evening, according to the TV station. Wilhelm said the Monday demonstrations were peaceful, and no issues were reported to police. He gave credit to residents for peacefully making their voices heard. Were proud of everyone for exercising their rights in a peaceful way, Wilhelm said. Federal, state leaders react to protests The federal administration continued to name antifa on Monday as an organizer of the nationwide unrest. President Trump said Monday during a press conference outside the White House that he was deploying the military to some cities and encouraged governors to use their military forces to stop the protests. During his announcement, Trump again mentioned antifa in reference to the unrest. Those who threaten innocent life and property will be arrested, detained and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, Trump said. I want the organizers of this terror to be on notice that you face severe criminal penalties and lengthy sentences in jail. This includes antifa and others who are leading instigators of this violence. On Monday, Idaho politicians called Floyds death senseless and unacceptable. We can all unite around our demand for justice for this innocent man, Idaho Gov. Brad Little said in a tweet. Im proud of the Idahoans who have channeled their sorrow and anger in peaceful protest, and I appreciate mayors across Idaho who are helping manage this situation. He said he prays for the safety of Idahoans and local law enforcement. U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo echoed those sentiments. Crapo said the deaths of Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, who was shot while jogging, and Breonna Taylor, who was shot in her home, have rightfully hurt and angered Americans. Their deaths should be investigated and dealt with to the fullest extent of the law, Crapo posted on Twitter. I endorse the right of Americans to exercise their First Amendment right to peaceably assemble and demand of redress for their grievances, and I condemn acts of violence that thwart and exploit that right. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Girl gangs with members as young as 14 have been harassing strangers, stealing alcohol and electronics and brawling on the streets of Melbourne. 'Pretty B****es Only' and 'Eastside Gang Members' are the two all-female groups wreaking havoc in Dandenong in the city's southeast. One video circulating online shows two girls fighting while more girls surround them, also throwing punches and recording the fight at Dandenong's Halpin Way. The gangs use Instagram and Snapchat to organise brawls, robberies and other crimes as well as boast about their exploits, according to The Leader. Two girls punch each other during a fight organised by a teenage girl gang at Halpin Way in Dandenong in Melbourne's southeast A 16-year-old boy was threatened by a Dandenong girl gang on his way back from school and later sent more menacing messages on Instagram. Messages a girl gang member sent a 16-year-old boy after threatening him on the way back from school 'We were sent a barrage of abusive messages, with one of the girls saying they were going to smash my whole house up and hurt my family and that they would come when we least expect it,' the boy's mother told The Leader. 'These kids are as young as 14. It's just so scary. What started out as a fight between two teenagers completely spiralled out of control, we were harassed for months.' The mother said she sees the girl gangs hanging out at local shopping centres where they steal alcohol, electronics and cosmetics while demonstrating no fear of police - even spitting on officers on some occasions. A JB Hi-Fi worker said girls will walk into the store in pairs and 'brazenly' steal popular electronics such as headphones and bluetooth speakers. The new wave of crime from Melbourne girl gangs come after the number of young girls involved in alleged criminal incidents increased by 15 per cent in 2019. Girls aged 10 to 19 were involved in 6,224 alleged offender incidents in Victoria in 2018. But last year, this number increased to 7,182. Southern Metro Police Superintendent Paul Hollowood said officers more commonly seeing teenage girls involved in street robberies. A larger group of girls surrounded the pair who were fighting, adding in their own punches and egging on the brawlers while recording the scrap. The number of young girls involved in alleged criminal incidents increased by 15 per cent in 2019 Mr Hollowood said uniformed and plainclothes police are patrolling shopping centres as part of Operation Tidal. Operation Tidal involves police officers being highly visible in the Casey, Greater Dandenong and Cardinia Police Service Areas and has resulted in more than 1,000 arrests since April last year. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Victoria Police for comment. On June 1, Fairfield University, like other major schools, released an official statement regarding the deaths of George Floyd in Minnesota and Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia. "I fundamentally believe that the way out of the hurt and confusion that we are witnessing at the moment is through a renewed and emboldened willingness to stand for what is reasonable, true, and just, along with an openness for love of the other, and compassion for the suffering of our neighbors," university President Mark R. Nemec wrote. The following day, the editor-in-chief and the opinions editor of the school's student-run newspaper, the Fairfield Mirror, said Nemec's statement came too late. In an editorial posted online, Catherine Santangelo and Maria DiGregorio wrote: "One university that has waited an unusually long amount of time to release a statement is our own institution: Fairfield University. I find this odd that Fairfield University did not immediately release a statement considering that they always seem to be talking about the importance of diversity and inclusion in our community. Their delayed response in this difficult time has particularly made minority students question the morality of the Fairfield University administration." The editorial cited a video posted on Instagram by student Luckario Alcide with the caption, "A raw message to Fairfield U Admins," as a possible motive for the university's statement. "It is quite upsetting that it took members of the Fairfield University community calling out the institution for not yet releasing a statement for them to finally do so," the editorial states. In the video, Alcide says, "It just pains me to continue to sit back and still wait for some reassurance from my university that I attend." In 23 hours, the video garnered more than 23,000 views on Instagram. Hearst Connecticut Media Group is awaiting a statement from the university in response to the Fairfield Mirror editorial. It's not the first time Fairfield University has been at the center of discussions on race-related issues. In 2016, a "ghetto" themed party at an off-campus residence made national headlines. NEW YORK, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Global Plasma Protein Therapeutics Market is expected to grow from USD 19,578.09 Million in 2018 to USD 37,938.12 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9.91%. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05871305/?utm_source=PRN The positioning of the Global Plasma Protein Therapeutics Market vendors in FPNV Positioning Matrix are determined by Business Strategy (Business Growth, Industry Coverage, Financial Viability, and Channel Support) and Product Satisfaction (Value for Money, Ease of Use, Product Features, and Customer Support) and placed into four quadrants (F: Forefront, P: Pathfinders, N: Niche, and V: Vital). The report deeply explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Plasma Protein Therapeutics Market including are China Biologic Products Holdings, Inc., CSL Behring, Grifols, S.A., Octapharma USA, Inc., Shire, Baxter, Biotest AG, and Chengdu Institute of Biology. On the basis of Product, the Global Plasma Protein Therapeutics Market is studied across Albumins, C1-esterase Inhibitors, Coagulation Factors, Hyperimmune Globulins, and Immunoglobulins. On the basis of Application, the Global Plasma Protein Therapeutics Market is studied across Hereditary Angioedema, Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura, Primary Immunodeficiency Disorder, and Secondary Immunodeficiency. For the detailed coverage of the study, the market has been geographically divided into the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The report provides details of qualitative and quantitative insights about the major countries in the region and taps the major regional developments in detail. In the report, we have covered two proprietary models, the FPNV Positioning Matrix and Competitive Strategic Window. The FPNV Positioning Matrix analyses the competitive market place for the players in terms of product satisfaction and business strategy they adopt to sustain in the market. The Competitive Strategic Window analyses the competitive landscape in terms of markets, applications, and geographies. The Competitive Strategic Window helps the vendor define an alignment or fit between their capabilities and opportunities for future growth prospects. During a forecast period, it defines the optimal or favorable fit for the vendors to adopt successive merger and acquisitions strategies, geography expansion, research & development, new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth. Research Methodology: Our market forecasting is based on a market model derived from market connectivity, dynamics, and identified influential factors around which assumptions about the market are made. These assumptions are enlightened by fact-bases, put by primary and secondary research instruments, regressive analysis and an extensive connect with industry people. Market forecasting derived from in-depth understanding attained from future market spending patterns provides quantified insight to support your decision-making process. The interview is recorded, and the information gathered in put on the drawing board with the information collected through secondary research. The report provides insights on the following pointers: 1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on sulfuric acid offered by the key players in the Global Plasma Protein Therapeutics Market 2. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and new product developments in the Global Plasma Protein Therapeutics Market 3. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyzes the markets for the Global Plasma Protein Therapeutics Market 4. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new products launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments in the Global Plasma Protein Therapeutics Market 5. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players in the Global Plasma Protein Therapeutics Market The report answers questions such as: 1. What is the market size of Plasma Protein Therapeutics market in the Global? 2. What are the factors that affect the growth in the Global Plasma Protein Therapeutics Market over the forecast period? 3. What is the competitive position in the Global Plasma Protein Therapeutics Market? 4. Which are the best product areas to be invested in over the forecast period in the Global Plasma Protein Therapeutics Market? 5. What are the opportunities in the Global Plasma Protein Therapeutics Market? 6. What are the modes of entering the Global Plasma Protein Therapeutics Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05871305/?utm_source=PRN About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker Related Links www.reportlinker.com WARSAW, Poland, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Poland-based augmented reality (AR) start-up Reetail:AR has unveiled its AR-commerce solution, along with a partnership with fellow Polish baby furniture brand Woodies Safe Dreams. Reetail:AR designed its solution to help e-commerce retailers to blur the line between offline and online shopping. In this partnership, Reetail:AR serves as a channel for Woodies to deploy WebAR technology for AR projections of the Star Cot , the 2-in-1 Hampton Cot Bed , and a popular model from the limited edition Noble Cot Vintage . Much like IKEA Place and Houzz, Reetail:AR helps to combat the drawback of online shopping - the inability to experience products in person. With Reetail:AR, brands and retailers can present a 360 view of their goods and the ability to "place" items in the real world (with size to scale) to visualize the look and fit. Reetail:AR is easily accessible via web browsers, which works well to overcome the fact that shoppers are reluctant to download individual apps from brands and retailers. Riding the Influencer Wave The safe, cozy, and high quality cots from Woodies(manufactured in accordance to EN Standards) have caught the attention of well-known mothers, including Aleksandra Zuraw, Sylwia Przybysz and even Anna Lewandowska. The parents community on Instagram also eagerly marks the brand's layettes as must-have products. Reetail:AR wants to familiarize the furniture, electronics & home appliances industries with the opportunities that AR offers and decided to work with Woodies to take advantage of the huge popularity and create a 3D model of the Noble Cot Vintage--the same one that Anna Lewandowska chose for her newborn baby--and two other flagship products. Woodies knows that the implementation of augmented reality is the next step in the development of Shopping Experience and plans to implement AR for all its products. Embracing AR in the Face of a Global Pandemic Not only is AR an exciting element sought after by millennials, the integration of AR onto e-commerce sites ensures continuous engagement with consumers in an era of isolation. Due to the inability to visit showrooms under the COVID-19 circumstances, live AR projections can be used to support customers through the decision-making process as they shop online. A simplified decision-making process increases the likelihood of purchase by 86% (survey conducted by Gartner), increases confidence in purchases and reduces the chances of product returns. AR has now become an indispensable tool for a business' survival. About Reetail:AR Reetail:AR is an e-commerce augmented reality (AR) solution that allows online shoppers to fully interact with products on e-commerce websites remotely. The digital solution is WebAR-based, globally available, and easily scalable to collaborate with businesses of all sizes. www.reetailar.com . About Woodies Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed urged city residents to practice restraint in expressing their outrage over the death of George Floyd and other African Americans killed by police while also pledging to take action on their demands for change. The mayors address in the afternoon was followed by a protest in front of the state capitol Monday night. Protesters also toppled a statue of Robert E. Lee in front of the Montgomery high school named after the Confederate general, the Montgomery Advertiser reported. Montgomery police said the statue was damaged and suspects were taken into custody with charges pending. A police officer guarded the empty pedestal late tonight. The Montgomery Public Schools system placed the damaged statue in storage. Protest near Alabama Capitol over death of George Floyd. Posted by Reckon by AL.com on Monday, June 1, 2020 The Capital Citys first black mayor addressed an energized crowd outside of E.D. Nixon Elementary School, named after one of the key organizers of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a landmark event in the civil rights movement. After he finished speaking from a podium, Reed stayed in the crowd outside the school and spoke face-to-face with residents about their concerns. We share your anger and our desire for change burns within our hearts just as it does yours," Reed said. The mayor followed that up with a call for peaceful approach. So I ask if you can stay at home for the next few nights, stay at home for the next few nights, Reed said. "Talk with your family. Talk with your friends. Talk with others about what we can do together for the betterment of each other and this nation. Stay at home ask what can I do to honor the life of George Floyd? What can I do to honor the life of Breonna Taylor? What can I do to honor the life of Ahmaud Arbery? What can each of us do more to help build one another up and not tear one another down?" Earlier in Montgomery today, police placed barricades around the State Capitol grounds and blocked off the streets close to the Capitol. By 9 p.m. a crowd filled the intersection on Dexter Avenue a block from the Capitol and outside the police barrier. Some carried signs with messages like Black Lives Matter. Police began warning the crowd about the citys 10 p.m. curfew a few minutes before that time arrived. That drew some hostile responses, but most protesters were gone by then. A few stayed longer but eventually agreed to leave. Some promised to return for another protest on Tuesday. Latisha Lee of Montgomery said she came to Monday night's protest near the Capitol to promote a safer future for her 14-year-old daughter. (Mike Cason/mcason@al.com) Latisha Lee of Montgomery said she came out to the protest because she wanted a better future for her 14-year-old daughter. Im out here alone and Im so scared, Lee said. But I want her life to be better as she gets older. So, I couldnt sit at home. Lee said she wanted her daughter to understand tragedies like what happened with George Floyd. I show her everything," Lee said. "I show her all the videos. I show her the brutality. Because I dont want her to be naive. I want her to be well aware of whats going on. And shes scared. Reeds call for calm came one day after protest in Birmingham erupted into violence that left businesses, public buildings, vehicles, and historical monuments damaged and burned. Mayor Randall Woodfin imposed a 7 p.m. curfew that resulted in nearly a dozen arrests tonight. Birmingham tonight is using a large crane to take down a controversial Confederate monument that became a focus of demonstrators on Sunday. In Huntsville tonight, a protest ended just before 8 p.m. when police fired teargas on the small remnants of the remaining crowd that refused to leave despite repeated commands to disperse. In Montgomery, Lorenzo Daniels, one of those who spoke face-to-face with Reed tonight, talked about inequities across the city, saying that young people in some areas are constantly confronted by negativity and dont have the opportunities and recreational facilities enjoyed in other areas. And we love the fine city of Montgomery," Daniels said. And we respect the fine city of Montgomery. But we need some love from Montgomery. Because Montgomery dragged us through the mud, and were tired of it. Daniels, who stood with a young man who said he had experienced police brutality, said black people are targeted by police based on stereotypes. We cant even ride around in our community and enjoy ourselves without being pulled over," he said. Niroby Dingle, 34, said he grew up in west Montgomery. Dingle, who has a tax business, said he came to the gathering Monday night because the injustices continue in a city with a history of oppression. I just came out here to show solidarity and some unification, and definitely need to show some support to the family of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the numerous people that have been massacred and havent gotten justice. Dingle held a sign that said, America has been looted and been violent for hundreds of years. If you want us to do better then start with America First! I do believe that making people uncomfortable," Dingle said. "Sometimes you have to put things in front of peoples face. If nothing is said, nothing will ever be done. So you have to put things in peoples faces and make people uncomfortable. Thats the first step. And then we can have a conversation. We have to be able to have that conversation. And even if someone doesnt understand how you feel and where you come from, to sit down and be willing to listen, to try to understand. Niroby Dingle of Montgomery holds a sign at a press conference held by Mayor Steven Reed at E.D. Nixon Elementary School on Monday night. (Mike Cason/mcason@al.com) Updated at 12:07 p.m. on June 2 to say that damaged Robert E. Lee statue was placed in storage by Montgomery Public Schools. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 23:48:16|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MAPUTO, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) expressed on Tuesday their concerns about people's reluctance to strictly observe the preventive measures against COVID-19, saying that the police will take all necessary measures to enforce the rules of a state of emergency. There are still people that gather for consumption of alcohol and quite a few underage youths wander on streets unprotected, the spokesperson of PRM Orlando Madumane told Radio Mozambique. "All of us should comply with these measures, they were imposed to prevent this pandemic and to safeguard our precious value, life," said Madumane, adding that all violators will be held accountable. The police spokesperson appealed for the parents and legal guardians to protect their children and keep them at home, as schools in the country have been closed since March 23. In the southern province of Gaza, the police reportedly removed 50 children aged between 10 to 17 years old off the streets while they were selling products to make incomes for their families. "Parents should not allow children out in the streets and adults should only go outside when necessary. We have been witnessing crowds in markets trying to earn their living, but it is necessary to observe the preventive measures when doing so," said the spokesperson. Health authorities said a few days ago that the country is on the verge of entering the phase of community transmission of COVID-19. Enditem The Victorian opposition has called for an inquiry into the state government's $24.5 billion coronavirus borrowing plan, warning there has been little oversight of the unprecedented pandemic spend. Opposition Leader Michael O'Brien on Tuesday demanded the Auditor-General scrutinise the government's budget management during the COVID-19 crisis to ensure the pandemic was not being used to disguise poor financial management on a massive scale. Opposition Leader Michael O'Brien takes on Premier Daniel Andrews in Parliament on Tuesday. Credit:Jason South The government says its economic performance is already scrutinised under existing legal frameworks and all of its additional spending is about supporting people and businesses through the crisis. But Mr O'Brien said Liberals were suspicious some of the money could be used to plug existing gaps in the budget. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2020) - Hydro66 Holdings Corp. (CSE: SIX) (the "Company" or "Hydro66") announces that today it has requested and received additional advances of USD$172,000 and CDN$128,000 pursuant to a secured convertible loan agreement with certain shareholders and directors of the Company dated March 31, 2020 (the "Loan Agreement"). In connection with the initial advances made pursuant to the Loan Agreement the Company issued secured convertible promissory notes in favour of each lender (the "Notes"). The maturity date of the principal amount, interest and any fees under the Notes is seven (7) years from the date of the initial advances and the rate of interest is 10% per annum. The interest for the initial two (2) years under the Notes shall not be payable until such time as the principal is repaid in full. For further details on the terms of the Notes please see the Company's news release dated March 31, 2020. The Company will use the proceeds from the advances for working capital purposes. About Hydro66 Hydro66 owns and operates an award-winning colocation data centre in Sweden specializing in High Performance Computing ("HPC") hosting. The Company hosts third party IT infrastructure, utilizing 100% green power, at amongst the EU's lowest power prices and within an ISO27001 accredited facility. Hydro66 is uniquely positioned to capitalize on opportunities in blockchain infrastructure as well as the traditional Enterprise colocation data centre market. The Company provides truly green power at a leading price, purpose-built space and cooling, telecoms, IT support services and 24/7 physical security in their facility in Boden, Sweden. For more information please visit: www.hydro66.com FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Paul Morrison Chief Commercial Officer of Hydro66 UK Limited paul.morrison@hydro66.com (+44) 7789 915 147 Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Information Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding future financial position, business strategy, use of proceeds, corporate vision, proposed acquisitions, partnerships, joint-ventures and strategic alliances and co-operations, budgets, cost and plans and objectives of or involving the Company. Such forward-looking information reflects management's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to management. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "predicts", "intends", "targets", "aims", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. A number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause the actual results or performance to materially differ from any future results or performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions and dependence upon regulatory approvals. Certain material assumptions regarding such forward-looking statements may be discussed in this news release and the Company's annual and quarterly management's discussion and analysis filed at www.sedar.com. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by securities laws. Not for distribution to U.S. Newswire Services or for dissemination in the United States. Any failure to comply with this restriction may constitute a violation of U.S. Securities laws. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/57106 Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Decorative tiles are made from different materials such as ceramic, porcelain, marble, as well as, stone. These tiles are specifically designed to suit the construction theme. These tiles are used to enhance the value of the construction by adding personality to the wall or floor and adding depth to the interior design. As per the report, Market Research Future (MRFR) has stated that the global decorative tiles market is likely to record a healthy CAGR of 4.23% during the forecast period. Various factors are likely to be responsible for the decorative tiles market growth. Governments in various countries have started announcing supportive initiatives to promote their construction sector. Further, an increase in the disposable income of the population in emerging economies is anticipated to contribute heavily to the rising investors and buyers of property. Moreover, lower down payments required to book homes has encouraged many homebuyers to apply for bank loans, in turn, elevating growth in the construction sector. However, even though many factors are propelling the demand for decorative tiles, some factors are posing as market restraints in the long run. One of the primary factors is the lack of experienced and trained workers in the decorative tiles domain. Market Segmentation MRFR segments the global decorative tiles market on the basis of product, end-use, application, and region. The global decorative tiles market is segmented into ceramic tiles, stone tiles, and porcelain tiles based on product. The ceramic tiles segment held the biggest market share of 47.92% in 2016 with a USD 53,805.1 million market value. The ceramic tiles segment is also projected to harness a 3.98% CAGR through the forecast period. Factors causative to the growth of the ceramic tiles segment include easy maintenance and high durability of the tiles. Also, ceramic tiles are scratch proof, encouraging a high adoption rate of the same. Porcelain tiles segment was the second largest market share, following the ceramic tiles segment, in 2016. During the same year, the porcelain tiles segment was valued at USD 28,530.6 million. Porcelain tiles boast a low water absorption rate, are denser and also have higher durability than ceramic tiles, fueling substantial growth to the segment. The porcelain tiles segment is estimated to garner the uppermost CAGR at 4.14% during the review period. Whereas, the stone tiles segment is anticipated to ascend at 3.82% CAGR by the end of 2023. On the basis of application, the global decorative tiles market is segmented into floors and walls. The floors segment accounted for the biggest market share of 54.56% in 2016, holding a market value of USD 61,260.6 million. The floors segment is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 4.42%, garnering the highest growth during the forecast period. Factors contributing to the growth of the floors segment include changing consumer preferences and rising aesthetic values in the private construction sector. The walls segment is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 3.46% during the forecast period. Tiles on walls are usually used for decorative and design enhancement purposes. Based on end use, the decorative tiles market is segmented into residential and commercial the residential sector is anticipated to create the largest demand for decorative tiles during the forecast period. The residential segment was valued at USD 64,775 million in 2016, and it held a 57.69% market share for decorative tiles. It is also estimated to record a 4.37% CAGR during the forecast period. Factors contributing to the growth of the residential and private construction sector include the rising disposable incomes and an increasing focus on visually pleasing aesthetics. The commercial segment is anticipated to showcase a 3.34% CAGR during the review period. It was valued at USD 47,506.2 million in 2016. Detailed Regional Analysis The global decorative tiles market is geographically segmented into Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, and Rest of the World. Asia Pacific is assessed to grasp the largest market share and grow at the highest CAGR of 4.23% through the assessment period. With an increase in the number of supermarkets in Asia Pacific is anticipated to propel growth in the region. Europe is likely to grow at a CAGR of 3.60% during the review period. North America will witness a 3.44% CAGR during the forecast period. Key Players Some of the remarkable players in the global decorative tiles market include RAK Ceramics (UAE), The Siam Cement Public Company Limited (Thailand), Group Lamosa (Mexico), Roca Sanitario, S.A. (Spain), Panariagroup Industrie Ceramiche S.p.A (Italy), Gruppo Concorde S.p.A. (Italy), Mohawk Industries, Inc. (U.S.), Kajaria Ceramics Limited (India), Pamesa Ceramica SL (Spain), and Guangdong Dongpeng Ceramic Co., Ltd. (China). Industry Update March 2019: Rwanda Polytechnic has developed recycled tiles that are sustainable, in collaboration with Coldharbour Tile. These tiles are made from recycled plastic. Coldharbour Tile is a venture that uses high-density polyethylene to create these decorative tiles. Note: The COVID-19 pandemic disruption is estimated to transform the XX market in the years to come drastically, and its after-effects will be persistently seen in the years ahead. The MRFR report on the XX market meticulously tracks the COVID-19 pandemic effect for the years ahead. Moreover, the precise analysis of drivers and restraints in a post-COVID-19 market offers a coherent understanding of future growth cues. Chidambaram will be in Parliament tomorrow, says Karti after SC grants bail to his father ED files chargesheet against Chidambaram, son Karti in INX Media case India pti-PTI New Delhi, June 02: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a chargesheet against senior Congress leader and former Union minister P Chidambaram in the INX Media money-laundering case. A password protected e-chargesheet was filed against Chidambaram, his son Karti and others before the court of Special Judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar here on Monday. Jessica Lal case convict Manu Sharma to be released prematurely, LG accepts | Oneindia News The judge has directed the agency to file a hard copy of the chargesheet once the court starts functioning normally. Besides the Chidambarams, the chargesheet also names Karti's chartered accountant S S Bhaskararaman and others. Chidambaram was arrested by the Centreal Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the INX Media corruption case on August 21 last year. On October 16 last year, the ED arrested him in a related money-laundering case. Low Q4 growth telling commentary on economic mismanagement of BJP govt: Chidambaram Six days later, on October 22, the apex court granted bail to the senior Congress leader in the case lodged by the CBI. In the ED case, he got bail on December 4 last year. The CBI had registered its case on May 15, 2017, alleging irregularities in a Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance granted to the INX Media group for receiving overseas funds of Rs 305 crore in 2007, during Chidambaram's tenure as finance minister. Subsequently, the ED had lodged the money-laundering case. RESTON, Va., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Leidos (NYSE:LDOS), a FORTUNE 500 science and technology leader, has been named a 2020 Gold Halo Award winner by Engage for Good. Leidos was recognized for the company's Truth About Opioids initiative - a public education campaign focused on preventing and reducing the misuse of opioids among children and young adults. "Leidos is honored to receive this recognition and join Truth Initiative in fighting opioid addiction," said Roger Krone, Leidos Chairman & Chief Executive Officer. "The Halo Award reflects our commitment to helping families and communities heal while also strengthening prevention efforts and helping to educate the next generation. We look forward to continuing this important work and accelerating our efforts to end the opioid epidemic." "If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it's the importance of companies leading with purpose. For examples of such efforts, look no further than this year's Halo Award winners, which we hold up as best-in-class social impact programs," said David Hessekiel, Engage for Good President. "Recipients such as the Truth About Opioids, a partnership between Leidos and Truth Initiative provide a tangible example of effective and innovative purpose-driven efforts and demonstrate the power of companies and causes collaborating to create meaningful business and social returns." The Halo Awards are North America's highest honor for corporate social initiatives and cause-marketing efforts. Since 2018, Leidos has worked with Truth Initiative toward the shared goal of combatting the opioid epidemic. Truth Initiative is America's largest nonprofit public health organization dedicated to making the use of tobacco and other substances a thing of the past. As part of this collaborative effort, Leidos funded research for the Truth About Opioids campaign, which helps young people understand the dangers of opioid abuse, risk of addiction, and ways to solve the crisis. Since launching the campaign, results have shown positive changes in the attitude about opioids, including increased risk perception of opioid misuse, a greater likelihood of potential users seeking more information about prescription opioids, and a willingness to join a movement to help end the opioid epidemic. A total of 28 category awards were given out to programs at this year's Engage for Good Virtual Conference which took place online on May 28th, 2020. The full list of Halo Award winners can be seen at http://www.engageforgood.com/halo-awards. About Engage for Good Engage for Good, producer of the Engage for Good conference and Halo Awards, helps business and nonprofit executives succeed together by providing practical information and inspiration, opportunities to build valuable relationships and recognition for outstanding work engaging employees and consumers around social good and cause-related marketing efforts. A wealth of information on cause marketing, corporate social impact programs and Engage for Good's offerings can be found at http://www.engageforgood.com About Leidos Leidos is a Fortune 500 information technology, engineering, and science solutions and services leader working to solve the world's toughest challenges in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, civil, and health markets. The company's 37,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Va., Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $11.09 billion for the fiscal year ended January 3, 2020. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com. Statements in this announcement, other than historical data and information, constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements, or industry results to be very different from the results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some of these factors include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended January 3, 2020, and other such filings that Leidos makes with the SEC from time to time. Due to such uncertainties and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. SOURCE Leidos Related Links http://www.leidos.com A day before tropical cyclonic storm Nisarga was expected to make landfall just south of Mumbai bringing with it high speed winds and very heavy rainfall, Maharashtra and Gujarat began evacuating thousands of residents of coastal districts, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured the chief ministers of both states on Tuesday of help from the Centre. The severe cyclonic storm with an expected wind speed ranging from 100-110 kmph (gusting to 120 kmph) is likely to make landfall near Alibag in Raigad district on Wednesday afternoon according to a forecast by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD). This comes at a time when both states are already reeling under a high caseload of Covid-19 infections while Maharashtra recorded 72,300 cases, Gujarat recorded 17,632 cases as on June 2 raising concerns over the strain it would place on their healthcare infrastructure and municipal resources. While Gujarat had started moving 13,000 people from coastal areas of Surat, Navsari, Valsad, and Bharuch in South Gujarat, besides Daman, and Amreli and Bhavnagar districts in Saurashtra region, Maharashtra had evacuated at least 7,600 people from Palghar, Ratangari and Sindhudurg till Tuesday evening. Another 21,000 are expected to be moved from Palghar and at least 35000 residents of Raigad where the cyclone is expected to make landfall will be evacuated, as well. The National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) has deployed 40 teams in Maharashtra, Gujarat and the UT. Five additional NDRF teams from Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh will be airlifted and deployed in Mumbai by Wednesday morning, a senior commander from NDRF said. Officials said the Indian Coast Guard ships, aircraft and on-shore stations are relaying warnings about the impending adverse weather to marine vessels and fishermen. State disaster relief teams have also been activated. According to the IMD, the cyclonic storm is likely to have an impact on Mumbai, Thane and other coastal districts of Maharashtra like Raigad and Palghar. It may hit Valsad, Navsari, Surat, Bhavnagar and Bharuch districts of Gujarat and Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. An alert has been issued for Mumbai city which is already prone to inundation. However officials of both states said that care was being taken to ensure separation of Covid-19 positive cases from others during the evacuation efforts. Anupam Srivastava, NDRF Maharashtra commandant, said each jawan has been provided with a rescuer Covid kit, which includes a hand wash, soap, gloves, face masks and shields. They have also been provided with two biological suits, one which can be disposed of and one which can be washed. It will be a difficult rescue operation, but we are well-prepared, Srivastava said. Pankaj Kumar, additional chief secretary (ACS), revenue of Gujarat said that rescue teams were equipped with masks, PPE kits and hand sanitisers. The shelter homes where the evacuees will stay have been sanitized and social distancing norms will be enforced, Kumar added. We will ensure that power cut doesnt affect functioning of COVID19 hospitals. The district administrations have been asked to prepare a list of Covid patients and arrange temporary shelter homes and Covid hospitals in nearby schools and colleges, Kumar said. On Tuesday, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray asked citizens to not step out of their houses on Wednesday and Thursday, and ordered establishments, which had opened in the past few days after the lockdown, to stay shut for the following two days. Of the seven districts likely to be affected in Maharashtra, Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri have more tehsils at the elevation of just 5 to 15 m above sea level, putting them at greater risk of inundation in the event of very heavy rainfall as predicted. Guhagar, Dapoli, Mandangad are some of the tehsils expected to be hit most by the cyclone. We have one team of NDRF deployed in the district. We have identified the schools, colleges for the evacuation and have an adequate stock of food grain and other essential commodities, a district official, who chose to remain anonymous as he is not authorized to speak to the media, said. Most of the district collectors (DC) have imposed curfew in the tehsils expected to be hit of cyclone over next three days. Ratnagiri DC Laxminarayan Mishra said that additional arrangements are being made to separate Covid-19 positive people as well as those under quarantine, during the evacuation. Ganesh Kashnath Lohar, 30, a fisherman who resides 500-metres from the coast close to Mandwa jetty in Alibag was surprised to see four boats and 13 officials of the Maharashra Maritime Board, district collectors office and NDRF on Tuesday, as they assessed the level of storm surge in the region. We had only heard about devastating impacts that cyclones had caused in south Konkan but now, based on warnings issued by district officials, we are expecting to witness it first hand, said Lohar. My daughter is frightened as if a monster from the sea is going to appear but we have calmed her down telling her its just loud thunder and rain. But we ourselves dont know what to expect after hearing stories from friends how fishermen were affected off the coast of Bengal (during Cyclone Amphan). Lohar lives with his wife, daughter and mother in a one-room pucca house will not be evacuated and he is grateful for that. First it was the lockdown that restricted fishing for almost the entire month of March, and then when we began fishing for just over a month, now a cyclone is coming. There have been a lot of losses for us this year. With Jaykishan Sharma Pregnancy-related dismissals are "endemic" in workplaces here and there are some larger employers who believe they can steamroll over the rights of pregnant employees, according to employment law expert, Richard Grogan. Mr Grogan was commenting after the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) ordered a retailer here to pay a 20-year-old customer assistant pregnant with her first child 15,229 - or 15 months pay - for discriminating against her because she was pregnant. Mr Grogan represented the woman in the case and she told her boss that she was pregnant in late February-early March last year and she was dismissed on May 13, 2019, when she informed that she was unsuited to the retailers requirements and that the appointment was not successful. WRC Adjudication Officer, Jim Dolan found that the retailer had not discharged the burden on it to show that the dismissal was for exceptional reasons unconnected with the womans pregnancy. The retailer had put forward the argument that the discrimination complaint was manifestly frivolous or misconceived but Mr Dolan stated that the discrimination case was neither frivolous or misconceived. The ruling against the unnamed retailer is one of three WRC rulings in recent days where the Commission has awarded cumulative awards to three women for pregnancy-related dismissals amounting to 93,829. In another case, WRC Adjudication Officer, Caroline McEnery has ordered restaurant company, Petit Delice Ltd, to pay pastry chef, Jessica Padayachee 33,600 for her pregnancy-related dismissal. Ms Padayachee was suffering from morning sickness due to her pregnancy and she was unable to attend work fully as a result. She was in employment for only six weeks in total. Ms McEnery said that she appreciated that Petit Delice Ltd may not have intended to discriminate against Ms Padayachee but this was the net effect of their actions and what flowed from it. Ms McEnery said that a discriminatory dismissal occurred due to her pregnancy. In the third case, WRC Adjudication Officer, Marguerite Buckley has ordered Sean Loughnane Galway Ltd trading as Rudd's Fine Foods to pay Inga Dainauskiene 40,000 for her pregnancy-related dismissal. Ms Buckley stated that for Sean Loughnane Galway Ltd, which had a turnover of 40m, to unilaterally demote Ms Dainauskiene to the factory floor with a large reduction in salary and a six-month probationary period on her return from maternity leave was extremely hurtful. Mr Grogan said that the published figures concerning pregnancy-related dismissals are distorted as most employers settle claims brought against them. Speaking generally, Mr Grogan added: Pregnant workers are particularly vulnerable. There are some larger employers who believe they can steamroll over their rights. The abhorrent treatment accorded to pregnant women in some workplaces has no place in a civilised society. Commenting on the pregnancy discrimination case he took against the retailer for his 20-year-old client, Mr Grogan said: The attempt by some employers, and this employer in particular, to attempt to justify the dismissal on the most spurious of grounds is in my opinion reprehensible. No company procedures were followed in dismissing this 20-year-old vulnerable employee. The attempt to categorise her complaint as 'frivolous and misconceived' showed a complete lack of empathy with her condition of being pregnant and worse an attempt to justify the unjustifiable treatment with appalling disregard for her protections under Irish and EU law. It is important that the Adjudication Officer specifically rejected, for the record, that the claim was either frivolous or misconceived. TROY, N.Y. Mayor Patrick Madden unveiled the launch of a campaign to remind Collar City residents to wear face masks in public to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and support a safe reopening of Troy and the Capital Region. The citywide effort features Troy business owners, local officials, neighborhood leaders, and Troy families wearing masks and delivering a message to encourage their neighbors, family, and friends to follow health protocols for face coverings and social distancing. The simple act of wearing a mask can save lives. By following protocols issued by public health experts, we can help prevent the further spread of COVID-19 and ensure a safe, responsible reopening for small businesses, industries, and local governments. Its our collective responsibility to wear a mask when in public; lets work together to protect community health, support our medical workers, and keep our local businesses open, Madden stated. Promotional materials, including posters, flyers, and social media photo frames, can be downloaded at www.troyny.gov/WearAMask Troy residents are encouraged to share a photo of themselves wearing a face mask on social media. Photos can be posted using #WearAMaskNY #TroyNY hashtags and tagging @TroyCityHall on Twitter and Instagram. Photos can also be emailed to mask@troyny.gov with a brief, single sentence explaining why they wear a mask (ex. I wear a mask because we are all in this together; I wear a mask in support of all small businesses; I wear a mask to support our community.) for inclusion in the campaign. Submissions should also identify their neighborhood, organization, or business of the individual submitting their photo for inclusion. Earlier this month, Madden released a PSA video message reminding Troy residents to wear a face mask when in public to protect public health, help medical workers, and ensure a safe, responsible reopening of the local economy. The video is available on the citys official YouTube and Facebook pages. The local campaign follows New York States #WearAMaskNY PSA contest to remind New Yorkers to wear a mask to protect public health. Elections for five non-permanent members of the UN Security Council will be held on June 17, according to the world bodys provisional programme. The programme was released on Monday as France took over the Presidency of the 15-nation Council for the month of June. According to the informal provisional programme of work of the Security Council for this month, Security Council elections are scheduled for June 17. India is a candidate for a non-permanent seat from the Asia-Pacific category for the 2021-22 term. Its victory is given since it is the sole candidate vying for the lone seat from the grouping. New Delhis candidature was unanimously endorsed by the 55-member Asia-Pacific grouping, including China and Pakistan, in June last year. The General Assembly last week adopted a decision to hold the Security Council elections under new voting arrangements taking into account restrictions in place due to the Covid-19 pandemic. From Indias perspective, any change in how the voting is conducted will not impact much since it is the sole candidate from the Asia Pacific region and its term starts only in January 2021. The UNSC elections are held in the General Assembly hall with each of the 193 member states casting its vote in a secret ballot. However, large in-person meetings at the world bodys headquarters stand postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic till end of June. Under the new voting arrangement, President of the General Assembly Tijjani Muhammad-Bande will circulate a letter to all Member States at least 10 working days prior to the first round of secret balloting for the elections, informing them of the date on which the elections will be held, the number of vacant seats, the venue where ballots may be cast and other logistical details. On the day of the elections, the voter will be required to visit the designated venue during a specific time slot to cast its ballots. Only ballots cast in the ballot boxes at the designated venue will be accepted and no ballots would be accepted after the last time slot has expired. If the total number of ballot papers cast in all the ballot boxes do not amount to at least a majority of the members of the Assembly, the President would circulate a letter to all Member States indicating a new date and time for the elections. The General Assembly President will circulate a letter to all Member States informing them of the results once the voting is complete and the ballots counted. Canada, Ireland and Norway are vying for two seats in the Western Europe and Other countries category, Mexico is the only candidate for the one Latin America and Caribbean seat and Kenya and Djibouti will contest the seat available for the African group. Previously, India has been elected as a non-permanent member of the Council for the years 19501951, 19671968, 19721973, 19771978, 19841985, 19911992 and most recently in 20112012. India has been at the forefront of the years-long efforts to reform the Security Council saying it rightly deserves a place as a permanent member of the Council, which in its current form does not represent the geo-political realities of the 21st Century. Each year the General Assembly elects five non-permanent members (out of 10 in total) for a two-year term. The 10 non-permanent seats are distributed on a regional basis - five for African and Asian States; one for Eastern European States; two for the Latin American and Caribbean States; and two for Western European and other States. We are excited and honored to have a place on Tampa Bay Business Journals list of Best Places to Work for the second year in a row, says Jagger Esch, CEO and co-founder of Elite Insurance Partners. Elite Insurance Partners earned a place on the Tampa Bay Business Journals 2020 Best Places to Work list. Companies in the Tampa Bay Area with a minimum of 10 employees were nominated for the Best Places to Work list and categorized by the following sizes: Small: 10 - 24 employees Medium: 25 - 49 employees Large: 50 - 99 employees Extra Large: 100+ employees An anonymous survey method through Quantum Workplace was then used to evaluate the companies based on their employees answers regarding the following aspects: team effectiveness, retention risk, alignment with goals, trust with co-workers, individual contribution, manager effectiveness, trust in senior leaders, feeling valued, work engagement, and people practices. The companies with the highest employee engagement scores were honored as 2020 Best Places to Work. The engagement score for Elite Insurance Partners, categorized as a medium sized business with 41 employees at the time of the survey, is among the highest. We are excited and honored to have a place on Tampa Bay Business Journals list of Best Places to Work for the second year in a row, says Jagger Esch, CEO and co-founder of Elite Insurance Partners. Despite the challenges and uncertainties brought on by this year, our culture has prevailed. As a result, our team has remained highly engaged and we look forward to growing into the future. For the full list of award winners, visit: http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/best-places-to-work/ Elite Insurance Partners culture is best described as caring, creative, and fun. The high rate of employee engagement shows that a focus on culture and people translates to job satisfaction. The company has experienced substantial growth in recent years and will be further expanding its team in 2020. To see open positions, visit: http://www.eliteinsurancepartners.com/careers About Elite Insurance Partners: Founded in 2014, Elite Insurance Partners ranks in the top five Medicare brokerages in the nation. Representing over 30 carriers throughout the United States, their primary market is Medicare, but they also help with: dental, vision, cancer, heart attack, stroke, life, long-term care, and disability insurance. Assisting clients nationwide, their mission has always been simple: provide thorough education on all insurance options and help to find the best plan(s) for the needs and budget of each individual. Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release SubCategory Select Sub-Category They think cement is worth more than your life. They think glass is worth more than your life, said M. Adams, co-executive director of Freedom Inc. Stop murdering black people and your glass will be safe. Adams likened the experience of black and brown Americans to victims of domestic violence. You cannot judge a victim by the way they fight back, she said. The black community is being choked, and we are fighting for their lives. Organizer Brandi Grayson said too many people are more concerned about property damage than black lives. Were making the broken glass the problem, Grayson said. Aint nobody offering no solutions or policy changes. How about our leaders show up and say this is what were going to do? In a statement Monday afternoon, Rhodes-Conway said she had reached out to leaders of Freedom Inc. and Urban Triage about how they could work together to change policy and practice to bring justice and support for communities of color. Rhodes-Conway called racism a public health crisis that requires the same vigilance as the COVID-19 pandemic. Hyderabad, June 2 : Rattled by a recent incident in Hyderabad in which the dead body of a Muslim was buried in a Hindu cremation ground after it was denied burial in five graveyards, the Telangana Wakf Board has set up a help desk to receive such complaints and take action against the caretakers of graveyards refusing to allow burials. Help desk has been formed to receive and act on the complaints about the caretakers refusing to allow burial or demanding money. During last two days, the help desk arranged the burial of 10 bodies. The Wakf Board also released Rs 5,000 for the last rites of a poor man. This 24X7 helpline has eight employees of the Wakf Board. It has so far received 100 telephone calls about caretakers of various graveyards and dargahs for refusing to provide resting place for the deceased. Wakf Board Chairman Mohammed Saleem said they will take legal action against caretakers refusing to allow burials. A meeting of Wakf Board is scheduled on June 6 to discuss the issue and take a decision on managing the affairs of the graveyards and also the action against caretakers either refusing burials or demanding money. The Wakf Board has made it clear that no graveyard can refuse to allow burial of Muslim bodies, irrespective of the cause of the death and the nativity of the deceased. It issued the instruction last week after a Muslim man had to be buried in a Hindu cremation ground after caretakers of at least five Muslim graveyards allegedly denied him the place for burial over the fear that he could have died of Covid-19. Some Hindu residents of the area came forward to help the relatives of the 55-year-old man bury him at the cremation site at Gandmguda on the outskirts of Hyderabad. The man died of cardiac arrest at his residence on May 22 and his relatives approached at least five graveyards in the city for the burial. Mutawallis or caretakers of the graveyards refused to allow the burial citing either by terming him a non-local or expressing apprehension that he could have died of coronavirus. The incident sparked outrage with demands from different quarters to take action against the caretakers of the graveyards. The Wakf Board has threatened criminal action against managing committees and caretakers of graveyards if they refuse to allow burial of Muslim bodies on any ground. "Graveyards are not the personal property of managing committees or custodians. They are mere caretakers. Demanding money for the burial or denying the place for burial will not be tolerated," Saleem said. According to a new report by Gartner, global smartphone sales declined by 20% in Q1 2020. This is essentially the worst global smartphone market decline in history. The major reason for that is the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems. That is understandable, of course, and it was kind of expected. This is an extraordinary situation that the world had to face. The pandemic caused the worst global smartphone market decline ever To be completely accurate, Gartner reports that global smartphone sales declined by 20.2%. A senior research analyst at Gartner, Anshul Gupta, said that the pandemic caused the global smartphone market to experience its worst decline ever. Advertisement He also noted that most of the leading Chinese manufacturers, and Apple, were severely impacted by the whole situation. They were hit by temporary closures of their factories in China, and reduced consumer spending. Gartner released a table with more information on the matter. This table clearly shows the aforementioned decline. It hit some smartphone manufacturers more than others. Advertisement Starting with the largest smartphone OEM in the world, Samsung. Samsungs sales declined 22.7-percent in Q1 2020, YoY (Year-over-Year). The company still maintains the number 1 spot, though, with an 18.5-percent market share. Huaweis sales declined 27.3-percent, and it is holding a 14.2-percent share of the global market. The third-placed company is Apple with 13.7-percent. Its sales decreased 8.2-percent in Q1 2020, YoY. Xiaomi is the only top 5 smartphone OEM who managed to grow in this period Xiaomi comes in as a fourth-placed company, and the only company whose sales did not decline in that period, at least out of the top 5 OEMs. Xiaomis sales actually increased 1.4-percent. The company is holding 9.3-percent of the global market. Advertisement OPPO rounds up the top 5 list with 8.0-percent of the global smartphone market. Its sales declined as well, quite a bit. The companys sales dropped 19.1-percent. Mr. Gupta said that Samsung was impacted by its inefficient online channel combined with the lockdown. Huawei, on the other hand, recorded the worst performance among the top five smartphone vendors. Mr. Gupta also noted that the company will have a challenging year, mainly due to the US ban. Apple, on the other hand, had a strong year thanks to its new product lineup, says Mr. Gupta. He also notes that the company would have probably reached a record if not for the pandemic. Advertisement Xiaomi was helped by strong sales of its Redmi devices in international markets, and aggressive online channel focus. The company outshined all the other smartphone OEMs in Q1 2020. Latasha Kendrick remembers hitting rock bottom. It was 2014 and she was just 22 when she found the strength to leave a relationship after surviving domestic violence. She went to a shelter, then later left her three kids with a family member while she was on the streets. Her life turned around a few months later with help from Volunteers of America Delaware Valley and its Moving Forward program, which helps homeless families find housing and subsidizes rent based on income. In 2015, she moved into her own apartment in Blackwood with her three children. She began working as a cashier at her local ShopRite, a job she loves. But for single mothers like her, the pandemic has wrought a new reality. When schools closed in March, Kendrick had no childcare options, she says, and no choice. She had to take an unpaid leave of absence from her job and stay home with her kids, ages 6, 7 and 11. Kendrick remembers the day she got the call about schools closing. So thats when everything just hit like, well okay, what am I supposed to do? she says. I have three children. Im a single mom, and this is how I provide for my kids. While theyre in school, I go to work. It took on a really big toll. She says she applied for unemployment months ago, but is still waiting. It's still pending, and you can't call, you can't get in contact with anybody to get an update. Everything is online, she says. So its like, am I going to be able to go back to work to make money? How am I supposed to pay for everything that needs to be paid for without being able to work? Its just a waiting game now. Kendrick said she doesnt have family to lean on. Her mother died when she was 12, her father two years ago. Her stepfather was murdered on New Years Eve 2019, she said. Her grandparents have both passed, too. And so she is home, every day, trying to play teacher, trying to get answers about unemployment, and desperately trying to hold on to all the progress shes made, while she watches her savings deplete. Kendricks story is one of many, says Cecilia Zalkind, president of Advocates for Children of NJ, a group that pushes for legislation to support New Jersey children. The pandemic has exposed how fragile life is for too many people in New Jersey," Zalkind says. Its difficult for most parents to juggle work, child care and school in normal times. The smallest change a sick child, a school holiday, a change in schedule, can disrupt that balance. But it is catastrophic for parents with no other family to help, especially those with limited incomes. Kendrick says she thinks she can make it another month, maybe two, staying afloat with her stimulus check and tax return funds. Shes able to buy groceries with SNAP benefits, but then theres the electric, the internet, her car. If she needed a big repair right now, it just wouldnt be possible. The home-schooling isnt easy either. When asked how its going, she replies with a long woooooo, the kind of motherly reaction that says everything. Its been a struggle. Im not a teacher, she says. This is curriculum we did years ago or things we don't remember. And it's hard, because I have three different age groups, and they're all different levels, and not even that, you just don't have the supplies you need. Her children are learning remotely, but only one was given a Chromebook. The other two take turns using her phone. Kendrick wants to go back to work. Shes a people person, the buoyant, chatty cashier who tries to make every shopper smile for a few minutes while she rings them up. She calls ShopRite her second home. Still, she admits going back scares her, too. Shes around people all day. Shes handling money. Shes indoors. If she caught the virus, who would take care of her kids? She thinks, too, about other single parents, the ones she often sees in her checkout line. We all have to stick together, she says. I never want to see a single mom go through anything by themselves. Theres a lot of us out here. I know a lot people can't swallow their pride to ask for help, because I was that person one day. Women like Ms. Kendrick are enduring even more in the face of this global health crisis, says Kathy White, Volunteers of America Delaware Valleys COO. They are the cornerstone of their families, tasked with balancing being both caregiver and breadwinner. "No person should ever be forced to choose between their livelihood and caring for their own family. ... Despite this harsh reality, these extraordinary women continue to do it all quietly and selflessly, in order to best provide for the ones they love. For now, Kendrick is grateful for the help shes received. Shes grateful for all the time shes been able to spend with her kids. They watch movies together. Shes been teaching them to cook and bake, the way her mother taught her. And she knows it could be worse. It once was. As long as my bills are able to be paid with the money I have left, Im fine with that, she says. As long as I have food in my fridge, a roof over my kids heads, clothes on their backs ... then Im okay with being broke for the moment. Because I know this is not going to last forever. I pray to God that its not. Editors note: Since the publication of this story we have received many emails from people who would like to help Kendrick. Volunteers of America, the organization that helped her with housing, has created a link so people who wish to make a donation can do so. Any donation made in Kendricks name will be given directly to her. Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jessica Remo may be reached at jremo@njadvancemedia.com. A girl who was pepper sprayed by police is helped by protesters before being detained after staying out beyond the governors 8 p.m. curfew during the sixth night of protests and violence following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 31, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Whos Causing Americas Nervous Breakdown? Commentary Dont think were having a nervous breakdown? When can you remember two New York corporate lawyers tossing a Molotov cocktail into a cop car? Or how about the city executives of Santa Monica, California, warning via social media that their many trendy shops and upscale restaurants were about to be looted en masse the day after similar actions had already occurred, then doing nothing as millions, perhaps billions, in damage was done to one of the wealthiest parts of our country? That pattern was repeated throughout the land in areas rich and poor, as liberal mayors and governors demonstrated what I suppose we could call their liberalism. How far would it go? Would they allow their daughters to be absconded for the good of the cause? Its hard to know because several of those daughters had already joined Antifa. As for the media, theyre doing their best to deny whats happening, and blaming Trump when they cant. What else is new? The mysteries in all this are whos behind it and where will it end? The latter was ironically answered for us by the ancient Romans, who, at some point, must have stomped their sandals and declared, regarding civilizations that had come before, Non fiunt. It cant happen here, in Latin. (Ill leave it there.) Police Killings As for whos behind it, of course, its caused superficially by the murder of George Floydwhether by asphyxiation or a combination of what we have recently learned are called co-morbiditiesis ultimately irrelevant. But his death is what the shrinks term the presenting complaint, because the real causes are more complex and much deeper. Besides, theres a Big Lie attached to Floyds murder at the hands of the police and that liecall me a racist, if you willis that such things are a common occurrence. They decidedly are not, as Jason Riley, the African American columnist for The Wall Street Journal, reminded us the other night. In fact, its the reverse. Its quite rare and increasingly so. The facts bear him out. Last July, Heather Mac Donald wrote in There Is No Epidemic of Racist Police Shootings: A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences demolishes the Democratic narrative regarding race and police shootings, which holds that white officers are engaged in an epidemic of racially biased shootings of black men. It turns out that white officers are no more likely than black or Hispanic officers to shoot black civilians. In fact, if there is a bias in police shootings after crime rates are taken into account, it is against white civilians, the study found. Oh, no. That cant beexcept, as anyone paying attention knows, for at least the past decade, police have spent more time in sensitivity training than in learning how to shoot. Community Policing has been the watchword of the day since 1994 (actually considerably before), when the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act established the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS). Perhaps the Minneapolis force needs a refresher course but basically, they were victims of the old rotten apples syndrome that, in the grand scheme of things, is always hard to avoid anywhere, although we should try. Also, as most people interested know, black-on-black killings outnumber police (black, white, or Hispanic) on black killings somewhere in the vicinity of 10 to 1. If youre really interested in the welfare of our black population, why arent you paying more attention to that? (There apparently is little profit in it, just as there appears to be little profit in reversing the precipitous decline in the black family.) Communist Groups Meanwhile, neat, construction-size stacks of fresh bricks that could only have been expensively trucked in are appearing on street corners and in alleys everywhere close to protest sites, ready to be utilized as darkness falls. (Some disturbing examples are currently available on ZeroHedge.) Whos paying for that? Is it Antifa? Whos financing Antifa? Also available at the same ZeroHedge link is a fascinating video recorded by a black woman near L.A.s Farmers Market, where two white and Asian seemingly Antifa operatives are graffitiing BLM (Black Lives Matter) on a Starbucks. The black woman tells them they are actually hurting black people by their actions when the Antifa pair start to tell her whats best for black people. Go figure. Or better, go Marxist. According to a friend who has been researching a book on the subject, there are several dozen branches of Antifa in this country at various levels of the clandestine. They claim to be anarchist but they work behind the scenes with By Any Means Necessary or BAMN (more-or-less Trotskyite), Refuse Fascism (formed out of the remnants of the Revolutionary Communist Party and with a Maoist tilt) and a surprising number of other groups of similar ilk, including the Revolutionary Student Front (Austin, Texas) and the Democratic Socialists of America. The latter, once genuinely democratic under its founder Michael Harrington, is, my friend told me, going progressively hardline and anti-democratic (as Antifa has been for a long time) and now has as many as 200,000 members. In all, the numbers for Antifa and Co. on the left completely dwarf those for the dwindling white supremacists, although thats news to Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota who thinks, or did anyway until he was disabused, that such supremacists are responsible for the violence in his city. (Undoubtedly, he wishes they were.) He and a host of others should get a clue before its too late. Maybe it already is. And its just not the reactionary liberals of our culture who need to wise up fast. Many on the right got on their high horse when Trump said he was going to declare Antifa a terror organization, saying that was legally impossible. That was only for foreign groups such as ISIS. Besides the fact that Antifa is global and started in Europe, in this instance at least, so what? Trumps declaration was a way of dramatizing the imperative that they must be stopped. And indeed they must. His critics vitiated this in their pomposity. As for where the group gets its money, there are undoubtedly many cutouts. But I have two suggestions to offer up: George Soros and the Chinese Communist Party. There are probably others. Roger L. Simon is The Epoch Times senior political analyst. His two most recent books are I Know Best: How Moral Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic, If It Hasnt Already (non-fiction) and The GOAT (fiction). Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Aldi Australia is set to launch a fire pit this week as part of its weekly Special Buys, and it comes with a BBQ grill for cooking meat, roast potatoes and sausages. The $99.99 Metal Fire Pit is made from powder-coated steel and can withstand temperatures of 500 degrees Celsius, making it the perfect winter warmer for your outdoor entertaining area. Featuring a side handle, a fire poker and a mesh cap to stop the embers from escaping, it will be available in store from Wednesday June 3 while stocks last. Aldi Australia is set to launch a fire pit this week as part of its weekly Special Buys, and it comes with a BBQ grill for cooking meat, roast potatoes and sausages The $99.99 Metal Fire Pit is made from powder-coated steel and can withstand temperatures of 500 degrees Celsius, making it the perfect winter warmer for your outdoor entertaining area The Hooded Snuggle Blanket (pictured) The discount supermarket has chosen a 'heating' theme for this mid-week Special Buy sale, selling a number of blankets and radiators alongside the fire pit. The Hooded Snuggle Blanket ($29.99) is a soft faux fur 'coat' that doubles as a blanket. There are four different types of heaters, including the Alfresco Strip Heater ($179), Electric Fireplace Heater ($129), De'Longhi Ceramic Tower Heater ($129) and Radiant Heater ($59.99). The store is also selling electric blankets that range in price from $29.99 to $59.99 depending on the size. The discount supermarket has chosen a 'heating' theme for this mid-week Special Buy, selling a number of blankets and radiators alongside the fire pit (stock image) There are four different types of heaters, including the Alfresco Strip Heater ($179), Electric Fireplace Heater ($129), De'Longhi Ceramic Tower Heater (right) and Radiant Heater (left) There is even a travel-sized $29.99 electric blanket for holidaygoers looking to take their family camping or to a powered campervan site There is even a travel-sized $29.99 electric blanket for holidaygoers looking to take their family camping or to a powered campervan site. The final product on offer is a draught or door stopper to prevent cold air from blowing into the house, which is priced at $9.99. Aldi is selling 'tools' alongside the heating equipment as part of Wednesday's Special Buys, which will include a retractable knife set, screw set, wood lathe and bandsaw. Over the weekend there will also be home office equipment, wireless phone chargers, pens and filing cabinets in store. Aldi is urging customers to respect social distancing requirements while shopping, even if they're excited to purchase some of the new products. US President Donald Trump told President Vladimir Putin in a phone call on Monday about his idea of holding an expanded Group of Seven summit later this year with a possible invitation for Russia, the Kremlin and the White House said. Trump said on Saturday he would postpone a G7 summit he had hoped to host next month until September or later and expand the list of invitees to include Australia, Russia, South Korea and India. A White House statement on the call said Trump and Putin discussed "progress toward convening the G7." Britain and Canada have since spoken out against the idea of readmitting Russia to a forum it was expelled from in 2014 after annexing the Crimea region from Ukraine. Russia had said earlier on Monday that it was looking for more details before responding. The two leaders also discussed the OPEC+ deal on oil output cuts, and measures to fight the coronavirus, the Kremlin said. Putin thanked Trump for a delivery of U.S. ventilators, the Kremlin said, and congratulated Trump on the first spaceflight of NASA astronauts from U.S. soil in nine years. Trump and Putin also discussed "the need for effective arms control," the White House said. Our Divisions Copyright 2021-22 DB Corp ltd., All Rights Reserved This website follows the DNPA Code of Ethics. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Cringe is a word Ive been leaning on lately. Ive used it when I heard celebrities trying to comfort themselves by singing Imagine Theres No Heaven. Ive used it after hearing people say that the coronavirus is a hoax. Supposedly all the police, the media, doctors, nurses, undertakers, politicians, and world leaders are somehow unified in purpose and are in reality well-rehearsed actors. But theres another group of cringeworthy people. These are the individuals who admit the virus is real but say they dont need to follow the quarantine (a biblical practice, by the way) because they trust in God alone to protect them. If the world does seriously turn against the church in our country, it may be because of self-fulfilling prophecy. Like the criminal who imagines that the police are out to kill him, so he stockpiles illegal weapons to protect himself from the police and barricades himself in his home. Predictably, the police do show up at his home to confiscate his illegal weapons. He shoots first because he thinks they are trying to kill him. And so they do. Christians who defy government ordinances to self-isolate understandably frustrate and anger authorities, who are trying to prevent mass deaths. In reality, they are bringing undue ridicule upon the church. The New York Post recently reported, An evangelical pastor died of COVID-19 just weeks after proudly showing off how packed his Virginia church was and vowing to keep preaching unless Im in jail or the hospital.[1] Despite officials urging social distancing (a day before the state officially banned gatherings of ten or more), their church remained open. The pastor said, I firmly believe that God is larger than this dreaded virus. You can quote me on that.[2] The problem is that many within the contemporary church embrace unsound doctrine. They have been taught that the Scriptures promise prosperity, health, and wealth, which they are to name and claim. While such a belief may sound appealing, it doesnt align with Scripture or with real life, and it will leave professed believers disappointed at best, bitter at worst. The truth is that believers bruise when we fall. We get wet when it rains. We bleed when were cut, and we get toothaches, broken bones, headaches, and heartaches. Along with unbelievers we get sick, and we will all die. Jesus said that the same storms that hit the foolish man also hit the wise (see Matthew 7:2427). Being a Christian means obeying the law by wearing a seatbelt in a car, driving on the right side of the road, staying back from a cliff-edge because a sign says to, and using sensible precautions around infectious diseases that kill people. While we dont seek the worlds praise, Scripture says that we will have it if we are compliant to their laws: Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. (Romans 13:2,3, emphasis added) And why would we want praise from a sinful world? Because we ultimately want to reach them with the gospel, and we cant do that if we resist ordinances that are reasonable. [1] Lee Brown, Virginia pastor who defiantly held church service dies of coronavirus, New York Post, April 13, 2020. [2] Ibid. Britney Spears chimed in late Monday on the current state of affairs in the country, after a weekend rife with protests both peaceful and not from coast to coast over the death of unarmed black man George Floyd one week ago. The Make Me hitmaker, 38, posted a pretty visual by artist Danica Gim which featured the figures of both a black and white dancer posing with planet earth between them. 'What the world needs now is love,' Spears began her caption, adding both an earth emoji as well as a brokenhearted emoticon. Moved to speak: Britney Spears chimed in Monday on the state of affairs in the country, after a weekend rife with protests from coast to coast over the death of George Floyd 'My heart breaks for my friends in the black community,' she continued, 'and for everything going on in our country. Right now I think we all should do what we can to listen . learn do better . and use our voices for good. 'To start I will be participating in #BlackoutTuesday tomorrow,' Britney added, referring to a solidarity campaign started up by the dance and music industries to support #BlackLivesMatter. 'I wont be posting on social media and I ask you all to do the same. We should use the time away from our devices to focus on what we can do to make the world a better place . for ALL of us !' 'What the world needs now is love': Spears captioned her latest sympathetic Instagram post with, 'My heart breaks for my friends in the black community'; seen here on IG in March 'PS if youd like to help . text FLOYD to 55156 and donate to organizations like #BlackLivesMatter if you are able to. God Bless You ALL!' she concluded, before adding #TheShowMustBePaused. The hashtag is in relation to the blackout initiative, which hopes to call attention to racial inequality and the deep-rooted problems in the police and criminal justice systems in this country. Several other dance- and music-related organizations are partaking in the online movement, with individual musicians throughout the country committing to the initiative in their IG Stories. 'Right now I think we all should do what we can to listen . learn do better . and use our voices for good,' she also said Monday; seen here in 2019 in Hollywood The image Spears posted by Gim, shared on the artist's page as well, generated sales profits that were donated to nonprofit Colors of Change, with partial proceeds of future sales going to the charity as well. Spears in just the latest of many, many artists and celebrities moved to comment on current events via their social media, as protests and demonstrations throughout the country continue against police brutality and continued, insidious racial discrimination. The cornerstone for the protesting and community outrage in the black community and beyond is May 25th murder of George Floyd at the hands of former police officer Derek Chauvin, who was seen on video kneeling on the man's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds eventually leading to the man's death later that evening. Fears death toll could rise after heavy pre-monsoon rains trigger mudslides that buried homes in Barak Valley. At least 20 people have been killed and seven injured after landslides triggered by heavy pre-monsoon rains buried their homes in northeastern Indias Assam state. Seven of the victims in the incident in Barak Valley were members of a single family, M S Manivannan, head of the state disaster management authority, said on Tuesday. Those injured were taken to hospital, and their medical condition was not immediately clear Officials said rescue workers feared they may find more bodies trapped by the landslides and the toll could rise. Rescue operations are still on to ascertain if any more people are trapped under the debris, Manivannan said. The mudslides occurred in the districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi, large parts of which share borders with Bangladesh. The hilly terrain in the region makes it prone to landslides after heavy rain. Floods in Indias northeast are an annual phenomenon, but the monsoon season there usually falls between July and September. Pre-monsoon rains have caused rivers to flood in large parts of Assam, with at least 10 deaths reported so far. The states main river, Brahmaputra, and its many tributaries flood heavily each year, forcing many to take shelter on higher ground. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, the states highest elected official, has been touring flood-hit areas to inspect relief and rescue operations in the last few days. A state trooper then pulled his cruiser next to the sedan, exited it and tried to take Douglas into custody, but police said Douglas moved the sedan forward, striking the trooper and wedging him between the sedan and the cruiser. SALT LAKE CITY, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Nav , a free service that provides business owners the fastest, easiest and most trusted path to financing, released a new tool today to help business owners calculate the amount of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness they may qualify for. The new tool Nav's PPP Loan Forgiveness Calculator is free for any business owner to use. "Determining how much PPP loan forgiveness a business owner may qualify for is extremely complex," explained Gerri Detweiler, veteran business financing and credit expert and Nav's Director of Education. "Our team has delved into the complexities of the forgiveness calculations to help ease the burden that business owners are going to face when it comes to determining forgiveness. This tool will help business owners have a better understanding of what they may qualify for, hopefully removing some of the unknowns they are facing during this time." Nav's PPP Loan Forgiveness Calculator was developed by Nav's in-house experts who have decades of experience in business financing, as well as intimate knowledge and understanding of the legislation and guidance issued by the Small Business Administration. Alongside the tool, business owners will find a robust list of frequently asked questions as well as information to help them complete the application. For those who have trouble navigating the forgiveness application or who want to make sure they receive the maximum amount of forgiveness, there is an option to connect with partners of Nav's to better understand the forgiveness calculation and ask questions. "I highly recommend that business owners seek the advice and expertise of qualified accounting professionals and financial advisors," shared Detweiler. "If you do it yourself, you could be leaving forgiven money on the table. Leveraging experts in this type of situation is the best way to determine what your business will qualify for." Last month, the company also launched a Self-Employed PPP Loan Forgiveness Calculator that walks self-employed individuals, including most sole proprietors and independent contractors, through the calculations used to apply for PPP loan forgiveness. Nav has helped tens of thousands of small business owners connect with PPP lenders and agents and secure tens of millions of dollars in government-funded loans. About Nav Nav provides business owners the fastest, easiest and most trusted path to financing. The leading Business Financial Management app, Nav hosts a robust marketplace of business financing products, and gives business owners free access to personal and business credit reports from major consumer and commercial credit bureaus including Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. The marketplace uses a unique, lender-neutral approach to help business owners find the best financing options for their needs. Nav's solution is also leveraged by other business service providers to enhance their customer experience. The company has offices near Silicon Valley, Philadelphia and Salt Lake City. To learn more, visit Nav.com . *Note: Although Nav's PPP Loan Forgiveness Calculator seeks to provide borrowers with an accurate estimate of loan amounts that may be forgiven, such estimates should not be relied upon or construed as a legal opinion or legal advice. Nav encourages borrowers to consult with their lawyers, CPAs and Financial Advisors regarding PPP loan forgiveness. CONTACT: Amanda Triest Nav PR Manager [email protected] 801-890-5024 SOURCE Nav Related Links http://www.nav.com MAFS star Susie Bradley is finally back to work at the helm of her successful injectables clinics after the COVID-19 restrictions eased this week. The former TV bride, 27, was seen grinning widely as she greeted potential clients at one of her Sydney locations on Saturday ahead of its reopening. Susie, who is a registered nurse, looked ready for work in a white medical uniform top and her hair slicked back into a neat, low bun. Back at it! MAFS star Susie Bradley is finally back to work at the helm of her successful injectables clinics after the COVID-19 restrictions eased this week. The former TV bride, 27, was seen grinning widely as she greeted potential clients at one of her Sydney locations on Saturday ahead of its reopening Susie, who rose to fame on the 2019 season of Married At First Sight, paired her scrubs-style attire with ripped jeans and sneakers. Many of Susie's clients have been waiting weeks for an appointment with the former reality star after the coronavirus pandemic forced a temporary shutdown of the beauty industry. The mother-of-one looked thrilled to see women approaching the location on Saturday, smiling as she spoke to them outside. Something to smile about! Many of Susie's clients have been waiting weeks for an appointment with the former reality star after the coronavirus pandemic forced a temporary shutdown of the beauty industry Keeping it casual: Susie, who is a registered nurse, looked ready for work in a white medical uniform top and her hair slicked back into a neat, low bun The Australian federal government banned beauty therapies and medical cosmetic clinics from practicing indefinitely on March 25 during the outbreak of coronavirus. The industry, which involves close personal contact, was considered 'high risk' amid the pandemic. Susie, who operates her injectables services across Queensland and New South Wales, is now permitted to do so with bans being lifted in those states. Ready tO work! Susie, who operates her injectables services across Queensland and New South Wales, is now permitted to do so with COVID-19 restrictions lifted in those states The blonde TV star launched 'Injectables by Susie Pearl' in May 2019, and celebrated one year of business last month on social media. 'Injectables by Susie Pearl has only gone from strength to strength this past 12 months, and I plan to do everything I can to continue that moving forward!' she wrote at the time. She also thanked her supportive partner, former NRL star Todd Carney, for giving her the courage to take risks. Susie splits her time across six clinic locations, and just opened a Gold Coast location on May 25 as she plans her move to the beachside location. Australians are being urged to avoid buying property in suburbs where the majority of residents are renters - and have also been warned about off-the-plan purchases. Michael Yardney, the director of Metropole Property Strategists, has written a checklist of what makes 'investment' grade real estate. It ranges from the demographics of an area to avoiding off-the-plan apartments, with data showing sharp prices falls in pockets of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. 'The coronavirus-caused lull in the market is encouraging many investors with the long-term focus to consider buying their first or their next property,' Mr Yardney said. 'But don't just run out and buy any property. 'In fact, in my mind less than four per cent of the properties on the market currently are what I call "investment grade".' Australians are being urged avoid buying property in suburbs where the majority of residents are renters. Pictured is Brisbane's Bowen Hills where 80 per cent of residents are renting When it came to capital growth, Mr Yardney said suburbs where the majority of residents were home owners performed better than ones where most of the people who lived there were renting. 'That's why it's important to buy your investment property in a suburb which is dominated by more homeowners, rather than a suburb where tenants predominate,' he said. 'You'll find suburbs where more affluent owners live will outperform the cheaper outer suburbs where wages growth is likely to stagnate moving forward.' Houses in wealthier suburbs posted stronger capital growth between 2014 and 2019. National Australia Bank also expected apartment prices to suffer steeper falls than detached homes by 2021 as COVID-19 pushed unemployment to levels unseen since the 1930s Great Depression. NAB last month forecast double-digit plunges in median unit values within a year in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. At Bowen Hills, in Brisbane's inner north, 80 per cent of residents are renters, going by Census data. Median unit prices there plunged 13 per cent in five years, falling from $504,666 in 2014 to $438,482 in 2019, CoreLogic data showed. A short drive away at upmarket Hendra, where only 25 per cent of residents are renters, median house prices during the same period surged 17.8 per cent from $798,933 to $940,789. Michael Yardney, the director of Metropole Property Strategists, has written a checklist of what makes 'investment' grade real estate. Off-the-plan apartments don't make the cut. Pictured is the cracking Opal Tower at Sydney Olympic Park, where median unit prices have fallen since 2014 Mr Yardney's theory about renter-majority suburbs, on face value, worked in Brisbane but had less traction in Sydney, especially in desirable suburbs by the beach. Suburbs investors are urged to avoid Areas where the majority of residents are renters In Bowen Hills, in Brisbane's inner-north, 80 per cent of people who lived there were tenants in the 2016 Census Investors are also advised to avoid suburbs with a glut of off-the-plan apartments Median unit prices in Bowen Hills plunged 13 per cent in five years, falling from $504,666 in 2014 to $438,482 in 2019, CoreLogic data showed Advertisement In Bondi, where 55 per cent of residents are renters, median apartment prices have surged 30 per cent, from $816,813 to $1.063million. This famous suburb in Sydney's eastern suburbs, however, isn't just in a desirable location by the beach - it is also filled with mainly older buildings. By contrast, Bowen Hills has a glut of off-the-plan apartments. So does Sydney Olympic Park, the home of the cracking, two-year-old Opal Tower, where 66 per cent of residents are renters. In this pocket of western Sydney, median unit prices went backwards, falling from $721,192 in 2014 to $719,516 last year - in a city which had posted some of Australia's strongest property price growth. Just two suburbs west in Silverwater, median apartment prices rose by 6.8 per cent from $580,948 to $620,670 during the same five-year period. In Melbourne's city centre, mid-point unit prices at Docklands have fallen by 6.1 per cent, from $624,115 in 2014 to $585,925 last year, in an area with a glut of off-the-plan apartments. In this newly-developed area, 62.5 per cent of residents are also renters. Mr Yardney said off-the-plan apartment investments were particularly risky. 'More investors in off the plan high rise apartments have lost money than have made money,' he said. In Melbourne's city centre, mid-point unit prices at Docklands have fallen by 6.1 per cent, from $624,115 in 2014 to $585,925 last year, in an area with a glut of off-the-plan apartments 'Of course there are all those investors sitting on the apartments which are continuing to fall in value, but they haven't crystallised their loss yet.' To get capital growth, it is also important to be near public transport, with Mr Yardney predicting a resumption in high immigration levels after the COVID-19 pandemic. 'I don't just mean the right suburb one with multiple drivers of capital growth but they're a short walking distance to lifestyle amenities such as cafes, shops, restaurants and parks,' he said. 'And they're close to public transport a factor that will become more important in the future as our population grows, our roads become more congested and people will want to reduce commuting time.' Last Friday, May 29, senior BookExpo content coordinator Andrew Esposito hosted this years Young Adult Editors Buzz, uniting five editors and their respective debut authors in conversation. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 regulations, BookExpo 2020 relocated to the digital sphere from its customary home in New York Citys Javits Center. Hosted via Zoom, events were simulcast on Facebook Live; the YA Buzz panel directly succeeded the Adult Buzz and drew an audience of more than 300 virtual visitors. Kicking off the YA-centered conversation was Calista Brill, editorial director of Macmillans First Second comics imprint. Brill welcomed author-illustrator Kiku Hughes to discuss her debut graphic novel, Displacement (August), in which a Japanese-American girl named Kiku travels back in time to share her ancestors experiences in the internment camps. Brill said that the memoir-inflected speculative novel reached her in an unconventional way: Hughes cold-emailed the editorial director, an occurrence Brill recognizes happens more often in the graphic novels sphere than it does in the rest of childrens publishing. Brill, a longtime admirer of Hughess fan art, quickly responded with enthusiasm for the proposed project. Calling the graphic novel a little different than what [she] originally intended, Seattle-based cartoonist Hughes explained that she had been wanting to discuss her family history vis-a-vis the incarceration camps for a long time, but didnt necessarily know what form that would take. Throwing herself into research, Hughes felt her family knowledge of the camps was reified after almost a year of study, which better prepared her to delve into the narratives creation. She mentioned a fact that spurred her forward: Initially, cameras were not allowed in camps because they didnt want anyone documenting what was happening. This means theres a dearth of images of what the camps were actually like. Because of this dearth, Hughes drew inspiration from Nisei artist Mine Okubo and her illustrated memoir, Citizen 13660. Okubo created this visual diary during the time she was interned at the Tanforan Assembly Center in San Bruno, Calif., and the Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah, which incidentally were the same camps Hughess grandmother was detained in. Brill speculated on the unique format of the comics medium and how it offers both a flexible and concrete visual experience. She then praised the books treatment of a moment in time that has been deliberately visually excised, asking how Hughes melded the time travel elements with the intensely researched historical content. Hughes spoke on Octavia Butlers overwhelming influence in her life, as Butler expanded the boundaries of what sci-fi is as a concept. She said she was particularly influenced by Butlers novel Kindred, which utilizes time travel elements to explore her family history with slavery. In her own work, Hughes said the time travel elements were useful in conveying the fictionalized nature of her narrative, as the book leans on generational memory more than factual details. Brill pointed out that even graphic novels designated nonfiction necessarily must have imagined and author-interpreted portions, such as the dialogue. On a related note, she asked Hughes what it was like to include and represent a cartoon teenage Kiku in the novel. It was initially a huge stumbling block, Hughes admitted, but one aspect she was particularly interested in when portraying herself was the one-drop rule implemented by the U.S. government in sending citizens to the camps. I thought it was interestingand I really wanted to highlightthe contrast in how Im perceived racially by Americans in general as white-passing, and still being in this situation because of the rules the government set up. Hughes thus tried to accurately represent to how shes perceived racially while showing how the qualifiers of race can be defined in America. In closing, Hughes said that her next work is also sci-fi adjacent; another book that is not hard sci-fibut that instead focuses on the relationships. Senior editor Nick Thomas from Levine Querido next took the digital stage, introducing writer and scientist Dr. Darcie Little Badger (Lipan Apache) to talk about her YA novel, Elatsoe (Sept.), illustrated by Rovina Cai. Elatsoe features Lipan Apache teenager Ellie, who can raise the spirits of animals, as she investigates the murder of her cousin in a Texan town called Willowbee alongside her ghost dog Kirby, among other companions. DLB described the world as mostly contemporary YA fantasy mystery, but it also includes ghosts, monsters, vampires, and more. When asked why it was important to set her book in modern times, DLB elucidated, There is not a lot of Apache rep in general, but when I did find Apache characters, they tended to be in westerns or genre fiction that was set in the 1800s and the past. I wanted to write a book that represented the experiences of Native youth in the 21st century. Thomas then asked about the debut novelists earliest experiences with storytelling. DLB revealed that oral storytelling played a large role in her upbringing, as her mother told her stories that arent necessarily found in storybooks. As a tribute, she included the Native trickster character Coyote, but embellished the idea: while Coyote makes an appearance, his daughter makes an even bigger appearance! Noting how the book destabilizes a lot of expectations, Thomas questioned whether these subversions were conscious or emerged naturally. DLB replied that these subversions were not necessarily something conscious, but admitted that she gets bored when she sees certain elements done too often. Regarding the lack of romance in the novel, she shared that the main character is asexual and aromantic; since she herself is asexual, she thought itd be cool to include a character whos like me. Thomas then indicated the significant difference in the book between ancestral knowledge and magic, asking if DLB could speak on the divide. I wanted to make a very clear distinction between magic and Indigenous knowledge, DLB explained, elaborating on how theres a common misconception where non-Natives see Native people and their ceremonies as magical instead of human. Our creation stories are often put in bookstores fiction and fantasy sections, whereas other religious beliefs are not. Not everything we do and not everything we know is derived from a belief in magic. Asked how her science background and comics writing inform her prose, DLB contended that it shows up in various ways. The writer, who holds degrees in geoscience and oceanography, emphasized how her time studying invasive plant species, which are dangerous to endemic species, translated to her invention of similarly invasive monsters. As for whats next, DLB has another young adult novel on the horizon, sharing that this one is also a lot of fun, as it takes place in contemporary times but weaves in spirits and monsters. Im basing a lot of it on our traditional structure of storytelling. And the main character is a cottonmouth snake. The author closed by musing over what a book like Elatsoe would have meant to her at age 12. I think that growing up, it was a bit discouragingI was an avid reader like many writers arebut I never saw any Lipan people like me, so I think that would be important. I hope I wouldve enjoyed it. Next, Tor Teen and Starscape senior editor Susan Chang welcomed Sarah Goodman, author of the debut YA novel Eventide (Oct.). While Chang was not the original acquiring editor (editor Melissa Frain recently left the company due to Covid-19 related layoffs), she was happy to take Goodmans novel on, which Goodman had pitched to her agent as Southern Gothic Anne of Green Gables with a little bit of magic. Invited to discuss her original inspiration, Goodman revealed it was an old bumper sticker that said I rode an orphan train, which prompted her to research and eventually incorporate that into her characters journey. Goodman said she likely subconsciously drew on her relationship with her sister Eva, who is 17 years older, to portray the close but semi-parental bond between the two sisters in the book. Chang then asked about Goodmans small-town upbringing, referenced in her biography. Goodman admitted that the cute farm boy in her book was inspired more by The Princess Bride than boys in her town of 280 people, but added, I really loved growing up in a small towntheres kind of a sense of family that grows up, and you pretty much get to know everyone over the course of your life. Though Goodmans book is set in Arkansas in 1907, the element of community is still there. On the topic of magic in her novel, Goodman said she wanted to portray a really Southern type of magic, disclosing her Appalachian and Ozark folkloric inspiration. My daughter was adopted from Ukraine, she continued, and while we were waiting to bring her home, I read a lot of Slavic folklore. Next up for Goodman is another historical YA fantasy, a 1920s Prohibition murder mystery-ghost story set in a tuberculosis sanitarium. The first book that I can remember that stunned me was A Wrinkle in Time, said Goodman in closing, on her formative inspirations. It dawned on her that the books speculative elements do not detract from its deeper meanings. Goodman explained that she likes books where you know something impossible is going to happenthats what I like as a reader, and thats what I like to write. Trung Le Nguyen and their graphic novel The Magic Fish (Oct.) were up next, joined by Whitney Leopard, senior editor at Random House Graphic. Nguyens debut graphic novel features a Vietnamese immigrant family trying to support one another while running into language barriers; to overcome these, they turn to fairy tales. The impetus for this story is stepping back from the idea that anyone living at the margins needs to edify our audience, Nguyen explained. Instead, they set out to tell a story that centers the perspectives and priorities of the people who are really close to the issues we politicize. I wanted to carve out a space, to give myself permission to not tell a story that was necessarily capital-I Important, Nguyen continued, but just a story that was about encouraging people to empathize with the minute problems they might not necessarily identify with. Asked to share about the fairy tale framework of the novel, Nguyen said they didnt go in with overly specific intentions or goals, as they have sort of accepted the reader will have a different relationship with the story than I do. However, the decision to employ fairy tales holds personal significance: fairy tales exist in different cultures wearing different clothes as they travel across different places all over the world, Nguyen said. A fairy tale as a jumping off point for someone to connect with someone else has always been something I feel strongly about. Despite the fantastical framing device, Nguyen called the research really intense, as the book includes the past and present, and it required extensive interviews with their parents. Careful not to invoke diasporic trauma in their parents by forcing the recall of specific details, Nguyen clarified with them that the book would be fiction and asked for photos, which required subsequent archive searches and librarian support. On their decision to make the project a graphic novel, Nguyen admitted, I actually feel most comfortable when Im writing prose, but I also happen to have these skills with drawing, and Im really passionate about visual media as an accessible form of literature. As a cartoonist, Nguyen said theyre often asked about the relationship between the words and the pictures. This graphic novel allowed a lot of control over how the story was told. I tend to consider that a graphic novel or a comic book or a cartoon is a text in and of itself, Nguyen stated. And [each of those textual mediums is] accessible because it is iconography, but the pictures are a part of the orthography, the grammar, the rules, and the storytelling touchstones of the readers experience. Nguyen brought personal experiences to the graphic novel, such as reading with their parents at the library and elements of their coming out story, as well as architectural influences from their recent travels to Italy with their partner and grandmother. They hope that readers will gain something from the book that they didnt necessarily put in. As for their favorite local bookstore, Nguyen replied, Moon Palace Books in Minneapolisright now theyre situated in the epicenter of the protests and the riots, and they have done a really brilliant job of supporting the community. Wrapping up the YA Buzz presentations was journalist and debut novelist Hayley Krischer in conversation with Razorbill senior editor Julie Rosenberg. The duo discussed Krischers forthcoming novel, Something Happened to Ali Greenleaf (Oct.). The contemporary YA follows the eponymous high school junior, who has just been sexually assaulted by her crush, and one of the assaulters best friends, high school senior Blythe, who tries to stop Ali from turning the assaulter in. The novel ultimately relays the complex relationship that develops between the two girls. Krischer started writing the story back in college, not quite relating to a lot of it, until she realized she was taking in so many events that had happened to her, her friends, and on the news that she was digesting rape culture without even knowing its name. Revising up to 2016 and the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, Krischer recognized the possibility for the books sexual assaulter to grow up to be exactly like Kavanaugh. Krischer then wondered why Rosenberg preempted her novel, considering the editors usual aversion to dark books. Agreeing that she tends to work on lighter narratives, Rosenberg praised the hope and nuance in Krischers work. Originally, Blythe didnt have a perspective, until Krischer read R.J. Palacios Julian Chapter from her Wonder series literary universe, which portrays the perspective of the protagonists bully for a middle grade audience. Krischer also revealed that the 1989 Glen Ridge rape case and Chanel Miller were influential in her portrayals of Blythe and Ali. My best friends in high school saved me from myself, Krischer said, explaining that she wanted to write a novel that has female friendship at its core because she always sees through that lens. Her experiences also included toxic female friendships and friend breakups that were more painful than romantic breakups, which compelled her to write a novel that contends with the roles and expectations society places on girls. Continuing to allow Huawei equipment to be used in the UKs 5G network would create some tensions in the USs ability to share sensitive intelligence, an American senator has warned. Republican Tom Cotton told MPs on Tuesday that the US would try to find a way around the issue but there was no doubt that its intelligence agencies would face some challenges in being as open and sharing as much information. It comes after the Prime Ministers official spokesman revealed on Monday that the UKs cyber security agency has launched a review looking at the impact new US sanctions against Huawei could have on the UKs networks. US President Donald Trump has led calls for allies to ban Huawei from their networks, and the UK has committed to work with like-minded countries to reduce dependence on the company. Senator Tom Cotton (Parliament Live/PA) It will create some tensions in our ability to share the most sensitive kinds of intelligence, Mr Cotton told the Defence Committee. We would find a way to work around on the most urgent questions of sharing intelligence, of sharing analysis, of sharing kind of imminent threats that, of course, we always passed between our five nations (the UK, the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand), but theres no doubt that our intelligence agencies would face some challenges in being as open and sharing as much information. The senator who has been a vocal critic of the UK Governments decision to allow Huawei equipment within non-core parts of the network said he fears China is attempting to drive a hi-tech wedge using Huawei to jeopardise the special relationship between the UK and the US. In a tense exchange with Labour MP Kevan Jones, who asked whether US concerns about Huawei were being used as a threat to change policy in the UK, Mr Cotton responded: I would ask: why are you so eager to put a criminal organisations technology into your networks? Story continues An organisation whose technology is being used to repress millions of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang province, who is a serial sanctions violator, building out the networks in Iran and Syria, you seem very eager to use their technology. He also said relying on any company linked to the Chinese government would be as if we relied on adversarial nations to build our submarines or to build our tanks. The senator made clear to MPs that he does not speak on behalf of the US government but does believe they are widely shared by legislators across the Atlantic. Former Trump administration adviser Brigadier General Robert Spalding and former US representative Mike Rogers also gave evidence during the session. I hope the Prime Minister, as hes talked about maybe rethinking his position on Huawei, I hope that he reconsiders, said Mr Rogers, who is chairman of 5G Action Now, a group established to make the US a world leader in 5G. Victor Zhang, vice president of Huawei, responded to the developments, saying: Todays committee concentrated on Americas desire for a home-grown 5G company that can match or beat Huawei. Its clear its market position, rather than security concerns, underpins Americas attack on Huawei as the committee was given no evidence to substantiate security allegations. We welcome open and fair competition as it fosters innovation and drives down costs for everyone. The police investigation into the arrest of 24-year-old man on charges of setting a woman on fire revealed that the accused planned to kill the girl as she stopped taking interest in him after she cleared a government exam. Additional superintendent of police (addl SP) Dinesh Agarwal said that the accused Bakesh Yadav confessed that the two had an affair for three years but after the woman cleared the staff selection commission exam in April, she stopped interacting with him after which he killed her to take revenge. The 23-year-old girl had stopped responding to his chats and calls from the first week of May, saying that they are from the same sept (gotra) and dont have a future ahead which irked the accused after which he decided to take revenge,said Agarwal. The addl SP added that in order to take his revenge, Yadav on Monday purchased four litres petrol from Mawanda village. From May 19, the accused started tracking the movements of the girl, Agarwal told. On Thursday , around 8.30 pm, Yadav went to the girls house located at the Natha Ki Nangal village in Patan police station area of the district. The woman, her mother and brother were sleeping in the courtyard of their house when the accused entered their house, sprinkled petrol on the woman, set her ablaze and fled. The family extinguished the fire and rushed the woman to a government hospital where doctors referred her to Jaipur. The woman died on Friday morning during treatment. The man also attempted suicide by consuming aldrin to misguide the police investigation. He also left a suicide note alleging harassment from his neighbours. On Monday evening, he was arrested after doctor discharged him, Agarwal said. A case against the accused has been filed under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code. Further investigation is on. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Kremlin has "more questions than answers" about President Donald Trump's proposal to invite Russia to a Group of Seven summit later this year, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a day after the U.S. president raised the idea with his Russian counterpart in a phone call. "This is a format that Russia doesn't participate in," Peskov told reporters on a conference call Tuesday. "If Russia is invited, then how will things be with the other participants?" Several other G-7 members and the EU publicly opposed the idea, noting that Russia was excluded from the group in 2014 over its annexation of Crimea. Trump said Sunday that he'd like to invite leaders from Russia, Australia, India and South Korea to attend the G-7 meeting, calling the current setup "outdated." Trump also discussed Brazil's participation in the G-7 meeting during a call with President Jair Bolsonaro on Monday, the Brazilian leader said in a Twitter post. The U.K. and Canada indicated that they'd block an attempt to readmit Russia to the group of advanced economies. "Decisions on G-7 membership need to be made unanimously by all G-7 leaders," U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman James Slack said Monday. "Russia was removed following its annexation of Crimea, and we are yet to see evidence of its behavior that would justify its readmission." Russia should continue to be excluded from the G-7 due to its "disrespect and flaunting of international rules," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. EU foreign-policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday that Russia has failed to earn a return to the group. "The prerogative of the G-7 chair, in this case the U.S., is to issue guest invitations, and guest invitations reflect the host priorities," he said. "But changing membership or changing the format on a permanent basis is not a prerogative." China, which wasn't included among the potential attendees, also criticized Trump's proposal. "China has always maintained that international institutions or summits should be conducive to enhancing mutual trust, safeguarding multilateralism, and promoting world peace," Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a daily media briefing in Beijing on Tuesday. "We believe this is also the wish of most countries. It is unpopular to engage in small circles against China, and it is not in the interest of the relevant countries." Peskov said diplomats would work out the details of possible Russian participation. "There are a lot of unclear elements about this proposal," he said. Trump has postponed efforts to hold the summit in June at Camp David, saying it could be held in September or after the presidential election in November. "So it might be a G-10, G-11, and it could be after the election is over," Trump said. Reporter Mary Schenk is a reporter covering police, courts and breaking news at The News-Gazette. Her email is mschenk@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@schenk). BOSTONLike Cinderella, Emily Appleton dreamed of going to the ball and dancing with her Prince Charming. But the pandemic spoiled everything. Now, all the high school senior in South Shore, Massachusetts, can do is stare at the dark blue prom dress hanging in her bedroom since December, and commiserate by phone with schoolmates who are also facing an uncertain future during the pandemic. An outdoor photo shoot by a Reuters photographer last month did at least give her and her friends a chance to dress up and pose for the camera. Its definitely bittersweet, said Appleton, 17, a state swimming champion bound for college in the fall. The high school promshort for promenade danceis an American rite of passage, usually held in April through June before graduation. Plans for the event can be as elaborate as weddings, with dresses bought months in advance, stylists organized to fix hair and makeup, and limousines hired to take the partygoers to the party. But those plans have been dashed for many of the seniors of 2020, with lockdowns that may extend through the autumn. Boston high schoolers and best friends Lucie Mareira and Shea Mikalauskis showed up to the photo shoot in long dresses, their hair tied up. Instead of high heels, they wore practical flip-flops to trek around Ponkapoag Pond in Canton. It was a relief to get it off our shoulders, and not feel the constant sadness of not having a prom, to know others felt the same way, said Mareira. By doing the photo shoot were helping other people by saying were going through it, too, said Mikalauskis, an aspiring nurse. The teenagers said they were getting through the dull hours of 24/7 lockdown by exercising, baking, journaling, or chatting. Everyday feels like Sunday was a common refrain. Surreal, said Melina Bertsekas, from Lexington. Im still kind of in denial. Caroline Afonso, however, was relieved. The drama around prom is so stupid. The actual prom is boring, said the Dedham teen. With little certainty about how or if colleges will reopen in the fall, teenagers are stuck with few options. Paying high tuition fees for online classes makes little sensebut neither does taking a gap year to stay at home. But lessons from the lockdown are gems. You learn who your real friends are, said 18-year-old Lauren Norton. National Capital Lobbied for Arts Support The ACT arts minister told his federal counterpart in March that the sector was after vital and urgent help, as the coalition mulls a support plan. Months after lobbying for vital and urgent support to survive the COVID-19 pandemic, the home of many of Australias national arts and cultural institutions is still waiting for an answer. ACT arts minister Gordon Ramsay is hopeful the territorys museums and galleries, as well as musicians and entertainers, will benefit from the package being prepared by his federal counterpart Paul Fletcher. Fletcher is still working on a scheme to help the ailing industry, but is keeping mum on how it will look. Ramsay wrote to Fletcher in late March, highlighting two vital and urgent areas of Commonwealth responsibility. These are an immediate economic stimulus for the arts, particularly focused on individual, freelance and contractor artists rather than on organisations, he wrote. And a specific and flexible approach by the Commonwealth to income support/welfare payments that pays attention to the unusual employment circumstances of the creative sector. A spokeswoman for Fletcher said the minister had been regularly speaking with the sector to best understand the hurdles in place for restarting. Many practical suggestions have been made to the government by sector leaders, the spokeswoman said. Under the three-step framework for easing limitations developed by national cabinet, the final stage allows for gatherings of up to 100 people but theres no clarity for when larger crowds can congregate. Labors arts spokesman Tony Burke said the sector needs clarity on when it can return to normal. Will it be that theyre expected to have every second row? he told ABC radio on Tuesday. Or will it be that they can fill the place if people are wearing masks and theres plenty of sanitiser? What would the staged process look like? Burke said certainty is needed to help the sector know what type of support would get it back on its feet. In the early stages of the pandemic, the coalition pointed the industry to its wage subsidy plan, but many workers dont meet the requirements to qualify for the $1500 fortnightly JobKeeper payments. The government has announced $27 million worth of support targeted at regional and indigenous artists. By Rebecca Gredley The commission coordinating the activities for prevention of the spread of the coronavirus in Armenia today held a regular session that was remotely chaired by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. At the outset, the Prime Minister stated that the number of coronavirus cases is growing every day in spite of the preventive measures and the rules set by the Commandants Office and offered to consider the coronavirus situation, the effectiveness of the measures being taken and the governments future actions to prevent the spread of the virus. Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan provided the statistics on the number of confirmed cases, the recovery and death rate indicators, the health conditions of patients, etc. He also touched upon the dynamics of the spread of the virus and the actions being taken to increase the capacities of the healthcare system. The Prime Minister was reported on the measures being taken to oversee observance of the rules set by the Commandants Office and the change of the publics line of conduct and use of face masks and gloves. The government officials also touched upon the effectiveness of the police raids in certain districts and the preventive actions of inspectorates and police officers. They also stated that, in spite of the restrictions, the country is reporting cases of organizing of massive events that are also having a negative impact on the overall epidemiological situation. Summing up the session, the Prime Minister stated that the government needs to make serious efforts to make sure people are more attentive to follow the rules of the Commandants Office and prevent the organizing of any type of massive event. Victorian Opposition Increases Pressure on Premier Andrews Over Belt and Road Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is facing increasing scrutiny from the states Liberal and National Parties over his staffers connections to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Victorias agreement with Beijing to join its Belt and Road infrastructure project. Taking to Twitter on June 2, the states Liberal Opposition Leader Michael OBrien wrote that the Chinese Communist Party had compromised the Andrews government after an Andrews staffer was accused of having ties to the United Front, a propaganda arm of the CCP. United Front is a propaganda vehicle for the Chinese Communist Party. The Andrews government employs and takes advice from Nancy Yang; a brazen United Front activist who spreads anti-US conspiracy videos. This Labor Govt is fundamentally compromised. #EndBRI #springst https://t.co/iTv8veJhWN Michael OBrien (@michaelobrienmp) June 2, 2020 The allegations against staffer Nancy Yang, a former staff member of the Chinese Consulate in Melbourne, appeared in The Australian on June 2. This is the second time an Andrews staff member has been accused of having close ties to the CCP. On Nov. 8, 2018, The Australian alleged Dan Andrews senior advisor Marty Mei also had close ties to the CCP after it was discovered that he had been made a special consultant for the Shenzhen Association of Australia. According to The Australian, the Shenzhen Association is part of a network of Australian organisations with ties to CCPs United Front Department. Supporting OBriens stance, Liberal MP Tim Smith wrote on Twitter on June 2: How many communists work for Chairman Dan ? Labor says Nancy Yang has made a outstanding contribution to where the CCP, the ALP, or both ? How many communists work for Chairman Dan ? Labor says Nancy Yang has made a outstanding contribution to where the CCP, the ALP, or both ? https://t.co/l6oSrMuLth Tim Smith MP (@TimSmithMP) June 1, 2020 Smith, a critic of Andrews, said on June 1 in a blog post, the Andrews government is out of its depth in dealing with the Chinese government. State Labor should listen to its federal colleagues; even they know Victoria signing up to BRI is not in the national interest. Australia should only ever speak with one voice on the global stage, he said. Smith also remarked that given China had put an 80 percent tariff on one of Victorias two largest cereal exports, it was not right for the Andrews government to blame the victim, accusing the federal government of being the cause for the Chinese government punishment. Belt and Road Not in Victorias Best Interests Leader of the Victorian National Party Peter Walsh agreed with Smiths comments. Writing in a blog post on June 2, he said that Chinas 80 percent tariff on Australian barley shows Victorias Belt and Road deal with China hasnt delivered for our farmers. Victorian farmers are now effectively barred from our states major export partner, despite Daniel Andrewss claims his dodgy Belt and Road deal with China is in our states best interests, said Walsh This deal is all one-way traffic, and its not in Victorias best interests, Walsh concluded. Andrews reportedly responded to the opposition pressure over the Belt and Road deal in the Victorian parliament June 2, saying he wont take his orders from Canberra. Nationals MP Steph Ryan shared her reaction on Twitter, writing: Daniel Andrews says in [question time] he wont take his orders from Canberra on the belt and road agreement. Extraordinary, considering DFATs position and the Federal Governments responsibility for foreign policy. Daniel Andrews says in QT he wont take his orders from Canberra on the belt and road agreement. Extraordinary, considering DFATs position and the Federal Governments responsibility for foreign policy. #springst #auspol Steph Ryan (@StephRyanNats) June 2, 2020 By PTI NEW DELHI: From doing yoga routines to listening to music and reading literature to holy books -- this is how many doctors and nurses working in the frontline of the war against COVID-19 are coping with the tremendous stress and anxiety that comes with their critical jobs. Senior doctor V K Verma, who works at Delhi government-run Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital, begins his day by performing 'pranayanams' and a few other 'asanas' before heading to work everyday. For Dolly Massey, a senior nurse at a Max hospital here, the Bible is her constant companion at the facility that she says keeps her "calm amid this storm". "I keep a pocket Bible in my bag all the time and even an e-Bible on my mobile phone," Massey said. "I read Psalms and texts from the holy book during breaks, and before and after finishing work. It keeps me anchored, mentally and physically." The 27-year-old said she never felt afraid even in the beginning when coronavirus had just come up or during the lockdown when the cases kept rising, and deaths were happening. "But, now, I'm a little bit afraid that I might get infected too," she told PTI. Delhi-born Massey, who hails from Dehradun, said she had been working with the Max Smart Hospital for the past four years. "I'm a very God-fearing person and so, believe this pandemic is also a sign from Him for us humans to introspect, and repent for the mistakes that we have committed, whether it's damaging of our nature or not being sensitive to fellow human beings," she said. From government hospitals to private facilities, doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers are at the forefront of the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, and nearly 500 of them have tested positive for the disease in Delhi. The healthcare workers are at a very high risk of contracting the infection as they are on the frontline of this COVID-19 war, according to Kumud Bharti, a senior doctor at the LNJP Hospital. "While doctors are taking precautions with personal protective equipment (PPE) kits, gloves and other measures, and we know our duty to serve humanity in such situations, doctors, afterall, are also humans," Bharti said. The LNJP Hospital, run by the Delhi government, is a dedicated COVID-19 facility and hundreds of coronavirus patients are admitted there. A senior technical supervisor who worked in the operation theatre at the hospital, had recently died of COVID-19. "We keep hearing about doctors getting infected by COVID-19, so that fear is there somehow inside us too, who are serving. But, we have to do our job, taking the utmost precautions that we can," Bharti said. Vikas Maurya, director, pulmonology and sleep disorders department at Fortis Hospital, Shalimar Bagh, said when the virus had just hit the country in the initial days, "there was a bit of fear in going near patients". "But, then, serving humanity is our job and we actually now allow COVID patients to hold our hands if it gives him or her comfort," he told PTI. "I even pat on their shoulder sometimes, motivating them to think positive and fight the disease." Maurya said high-quality PPE kits in enough numbers already brings a lot of ease to their minds, and patients' willpower and desire to live also "makes us doctors stronger". "We slip into our PPE suits for six hours straight, initially medics were wearing it for even longer period. The entire innerwear gets drenched in sweat when we remove it. "So, you can imagine the temperature inside. Plus, some doctors fear that there could be breach in PPE so that affects their mental well-being," Maurya added. Asked how he keeps himself relaxed, Maurya said listening to music, watching some shows on TV or reading books at home is "how I unwind myself after duty hours". Senior doctor V K Verma at Babu Jagjiwan Ram Hospital was apprehensive that more healthcare workers would be affected by COVID-19 with mounting cases as they were the first line of defence. As many as 75 staff, including 12 doctors, had tested positive for coronavirus at this hospital recently. According to Verma, what doctors see throughout the day, it plays on their minds. "Everyday, I think, I might be carrying infection to my family," he said. Initially, Verma added, many heathcare workers were being put up in hotels, but now many had no other option but to go to home after end of duty. "I don't allow my family members to eat with me and, after returning from the hospital and taking a bath, I spend most of the time in the drawing-room," he said. "Some have houses which have very few rooms, where will they isolate themselves?" Verma asked. "And, they are afraid more about their family members than themselves." As educators and policymakers grapple with the unprecedented effects of the coronavirus on almost all aspects of their work, this second installment of Quality Counts 2020 provides crucial context: a nationwide snapshot of overall K-12 spending and how equitably it was distributed across districts in 2017, the most recent year of federal data available on a national basis. The indicators included in the national and state-by-state grading illustrate differences in spending across states and the disparities between districts within states at that point in time. By highlighting these existing patterns, the data can be a useful tool for evaluating potential variations in the impact of future budget cuts across the states. With those caveats in mind, the nation receives a C grade for school finance this year, with a score of 75.7 out of 100 possible points, up 0.8 points since last year. Nearly half the states (22) finish with grades between C-minus and D-minus. The analysis sheds light on substantial differences between high- and low-performing states. Wyominga perennial standoutholds the top spot and earns an A-minus (92.4). New Jersey also posts an A-minus and is followed by four states at B-plus. By contrast, Idaho receives a D-minus and the nations lowest score at 62.3. Four states get D grades. The school finance analysis is based on four measures of spending and four equity metrics. The four spending indicators are: per-pupil expenditures, the percent of students in districts spending at or above the U.S. average, the spending index, and the percent of total taxable resources spent on education. The four equity measures (the wealth-neutrality score, the McLoone Index, the coefficient of variation, and the restricted range) offer technical yardsticks for how fairly and evenly that money is shared among the wide range of communities within each state. More detailed definitions of these indicators are available in the glossary included with this report. Nationally, scores are higher for funding equity than for measures of overall spending: a B-plus (87.0) for equity, but a D (64.5) for spending. Overall, 23 states get grades of F for spending, which continues a long-standing pattern of dismal spending results. Six states and the District of Columbia illustrate the potential for stronger results with grades of A or A-minus in the spending category. To better ensure the results reflect an apples-to-apples comparison, the EdWeek Research Center relies on federal information collected using uniform standards. Results for most indicators are also adjusted for regional cost differences and take into account the additional costs required to serve students with disabilities and those living in poverty. Point totals are calculated using a best-in-class methodology, which evaluates a states results on each indicator against the leading state on that particular measure. The top state earns 100 points while all others receive points based on their distance from the national leader. The average point totals across the indicators are used to assign A-F letter grades on a 100-point scale. Here are the research centers five takeaways from the school finance analysis. 1. Wyoming has been the top state for school finance over the past decade or so. Its largely been the most successful in balancing strong spending with equity across districts. Wyoming finishes first for spending (94.1) and third for equity (90.8). No other state lands in the top 10 for both categories. Maryland gets closest at fourth for equity and 14th for spending. Wyoming posts a top 10 ranking on five of the eight finance indicators. At $18,221, its per-pupil spending (adjusted for regional cost differences) is fifth-highest in the nation. It also finishes second for its wealth-neutrality score indicating that it spends more on its property-poor districts than on their wealthier counterparts. These results are anchored by the states commitment to education funding. It devotes 5.2 percent of its total taxable resources to education, the second-highest share in the nation. 2. In stark contrast, Wyomings neighbor in the region, Idaho, has consistently received the overall lowest score since 2008. Its the only state to rank below 40th in both spending and equity. In fact, many states that rank high for spending are in the bottom-tier for equity (and vice versa). For instance, Florida is first for equity at 92.3 but 45th for spending at 43.9. And Vermont is sixth for spending (91.1) but 46th for equity (81.1). When regional costs are taken into account, Vermont has the nations highest per-pupil spending ($22,506 per student) and devotes the highest share of its taxable resources to education (5.4 percent). On the other hand, it has the second largest gap between its highest- and lowest-spending districts at $12,865. Alaska has a similar pattern. At $18,493, its fourth in the nation for per-pupil expenditures. But the chasm between high- and low-spending districts ($21,306) is the widest in the nation. 3. Despite its relatively solid B-plus grade for equity, the nation has room for improvement when it comes to investment in high-poverty schools. Only three statesAlaska, Vermont, and Wyomingprovide higher funding for property-poor districts than for their more-affluent peers. Given the reality that students in high-poverty districts often have the greatest need for educational services and resources, the nations B-plus grade for equity signals some success but does not suggest that the mission has been accomplished. No state posts an A for equity. 4. Across the states, the commitment to school funding varies widely. The percent of total taxable resources spent on education ranges from 5.4 percent in Vermont to 2.7 percent in North Carolina. This indicator provides an intuitive understanding of the degree to which states make school funding a priority. Findings may reflect both political will and structural factors that affect how states rank-order their spending needs as education competes against other programs, such as health care or transportation. 5. Virginia improved its overall finance score the most since last year, gaining 3 percentage points. California, Delaware, South Dakota, Arizona, and Louisiana also boosted their overall finance scores by two or more points. No state saw a major decline in its score. New York and Michigan dropped the most but fell by only 0.9 points. Virginias gains were fueled by an increase in the percent of students in districts with per-pupil expenditures at or above the U.S. average, which improved from 49.8 percent in the 2019 analysis to 70.3 in this years report. Srinagar: A day after Hurriyat leaders snubbed members of the all-party delegation who reached out to them, Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said the behaviour of the separatists shows they do not believe in Kashmiriyat, Insaniyat and Jamhooriyat. Addressing a press conference on the second day of the delegations visit, Singh said he was confident that peace will be restored in the state and the members had interacted with 30 delegations representing various sections of the society. As far as talks are concerned, our doors to everyone who wants peace and normalcy. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti also wrote letters. I want to clarify that some members of the delegation had gone to meet Hurriyat leaders yesterday. Neither had we said yes nor no. Whatever happened you know about it. I do not wish to go into the details. But whatever information those friends gave us upon their return, it can be said it was not Kashmiriyat. It cannot be called as Insaniyat (humanity). When someone goes for talks and they reject it, it is not jamhooriyat (democracy) as well. We are ready to talk to everyone who wants peace and normalcy, he said. Singh said Jammu and Kashmir was, is and will always be integral part of India. The Minister said during his last visit concerns were raised about the use of pellet guns for which non-lethal replacement shells PAVA have been recommended. The shells will not take lives. About 1000 shells have arrived in Srinagar, he said. The Minister, who is leading an all-party delegation on a two-day visit to assuage the volatile situation in the Valley, said the entire country and Parliament are pained by the situation in Kashmir. On a question whether India plans to talk to Pakistan on Kashmir, Singh said, First let us talk to Indians. When asked whether the Centre is willing to go the extra mile on the demands of autonomy raised by PDP and National Conference from time to time, he said, We are not concerned with whatever one had said in the past. We have taken everyones view and cooperation to improve the situation in Kashmir in the delegation-level talks. To a query on track-2 channel talks, Singh said he did not wish to enter in the debate of track-one, track-two or track-three. The Minister said to address concerns of Kashmiri youths living in different parts of the country the Ministry has appointed Dr Sanjay Rai as nodal officer who can be approached on phone number 011-23092923, 23092885. Singh said Parliament, which is supreme panchayat of the country, is very serious about the situation in Kashmir and hence decided to send a delegation of its members for talks. He said 26 Members of Parliament belonging to 20 parties have come here for talks as part of the delegation. More than 30 delegations comprising 300 members from political parties, civil society, University teachers, fruit growers, students and intellectuals have presented their view before the delegation, he said. Everyone wants that the situation must improve. The delegation spoke to these people, the Governor and the Chief Minister of State and also officials of the state government. I am fully confident that the situation will improve which people also want, he said. He said the Centre is giving full support to the state government which is also trying to bring improvement in the situation. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. (Natural News) President Donald Trump has had a problematic week on Twitter, engaging in political combat with foils like MSNBCs Joe Scarborough has inspired a backlash beyond any hes faced before as president. (Article by Michael Graham republished from InsideSources.com) Part of the reaction was Twitters decision to stick a fact check label on two of Trumps tweets about mail-in ballots. This decision, in turn sparked its own backlash around issues of freedom of expression and political bias. (Will President Stacey Abrams ever get a tweet fact-checked by Twitter? Probably not.) Overlooked in the social media scrum over Trumps tweets, however, is the one issue most relevant to voters in New Hampshire: Donald Trump is right about mail-in ballots. Mostly. First, the tweets: Per usual with President Trump, theres a lot he gets wrong. Is it true that California is sending Ballots toanyone living in the state? No. They are sending ballots to all registered voters. But thats where Trumps concerns about mail-in ballots are on target. Concerns about mail-in voting and fraud arent new. A bipartisan Commission on Federal Election Reform, co-chaired by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker declared, Absentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud. In the 2018 midterms, a congressional election in North Carolina was overturned and had to be re-held because an unscrupulous Republican operative was using mail-in ballots to scam the system. And the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) just released data that more than 28 million ballots by mail went unaccounted for from 2012 to 2018, with more than one million going to the incorrect address in 2018 alone. Absentee ballot fraud is the most common, the most expensive to investigate, and it can never be reversed after an election, said the organizations president J. Christian Adams. The status quo was already bad for mail balloting. The proposed emergency fix is worse. More recently, in a Supreme Court contest in Wisconsin in April, about 1,600 ballots were discovered the morning after Election Day in a mail processing facility in Chicago 1,600 voters whose ballots did not count, The Hill reports. Hundreds more who applied for absentee ballots did not receive them in time, according to a report by the state Board of Elections. And literally the same day President Trump tweeted that mail-in ballots would be forged, the Department of Justice announced a mail carrier in West Virginia was being charged with attempted election fraud by committing forgery on mail-in ballots. Does this mean mail-in ballot fraud is widespread? A threat to democracy? Not necessarily. But it does prove that Trumps point mail-in voting is more susceptible to fraud is indisputably true. And for obvious reasons: New Hampshires polling places and handling of ballots there is entirely secure. Which is why the New Hampshire Democratic Partys efforts on behalf of mail-in voting, online voter registration (also fraught with opportunities for fraud) and other changes to the election system inspire such little passion from voters. Granite Staters tell pollsters they support no-excuse absentee ballots (aka vote by mail,), but the state has the third-highest turnout in the nation using traditional, and secure, voting practices. New Hampshire voters turn out at higher rates than states that have implemented more expansive mail-in voting. Still, Democrats press on. Reps. Annie Kuster and Chris Pappas voted to have the federal government take control of New Hampshire elections and force the state to use mail-in voting, not just as part of a COVID-19 election solution in 2020, but permanently. As for the impact of mass mailings of ballots to last-known addresses, read this first-person story of mail-in ballot fraud. Twitters decision to fact-check politicians tweets is problematic enough. They probably should have waited for a Trump tweet that actually got the facts wrong. If history is any guide, they wouldnt have to wait long. Read more at: InsideSources.com Prince William and Kate have sent a message to paramedics, firefighters and police in Australia, as the nation continues to fight coronavirus soon after battling the bushfires. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were reportedly planning a royal tour in Australia this year, but with that looking less likely, they have shared a video on the countrys inaugural Thank A First Responder Day. The couple noted the responders need to jump so quickly from battling the fires which ravaged the country to dealing with the global pandemic. William, 37, began the message saying: Earlier this year we witnessed thousands of firefighters, supported by the wider first responder community, as they worked tirelessly risking their own lives to protect Australian communities from the devastating wildfires. The world was watching your efforts, and we were deeply moved by what we saw. Kate, 38, went on to say: Sadly, youre now on the front line of yet another emergency. The COVID-19 outbreak has brought first responders across Australia together again. Day in, day out paramedics, police, firefighters and support staff work tirelessly to keep everybody safe, often risking not only their physical health, but also their mental wellbeing. Kate and William in Australia in 2014, on tour with George. (Reuters) Read more: William and Kate's social media switch up: Cambridges using their social media presence more like Meghan and Harry, says expert William said: We must mention Australias volunteer first responders who choose to put their lives on hold, to support their communities, at times of need. And we should not forget that these incredible people are supported every day by their families and friends. The couple has been making the mental health of Britains frontline responders and key workers their priority through the Royal Foundation over recent weeks. William has spoken on several occasions about his fears for the mental wellbeing not just of NHS workers, but of the nation as a whole. Last week he warned about the dangers of using the word hero to refer to medics and NHS workers. Story continues William and Kate at Uluru, on their 2014 tour. (Reuters) Read more: Duchess of Cambridge uses Instagram to personally respond to applicants of photo project The couples message helped marked the first Thank A First Responder Day, which has been organised by Fortem Australia, a non-profit focused on improving the mental health and wellbeing of those who protect and care for Australian communities. The duke ended with the words: Time and time again when Australia has needed protecting you have answered that call. You should be immensely proud of everything you do. And we send our very best wishes to you all and to your families. Australias coronavirus response means the nation has only reported 103 deaths linked to the disease. The countrys lockdown is being lifted at different rates in different states and regions. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Shaun Tandon (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States Tue, June 2, 2020 10:15 598 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb6f6da 2 World US,Racism,George-Floyd,racial-issues,racial-tension,racial-violence,police-brutality,HumanRights Free With US cities in flames over outrage about police brutality, nations that are usually on the receiving end of Washington's criticism on human rights are gleefully turning the tables. Condemnation of the US record on race came from China, which days earlier faced US counter-measures for tightening controls on Hong Kong, as well as Iran, where officials have been slapped with US sanctions for suppressing protests in November. The United States is experiencing some of its worst riots in 50 years with dozens of cities under curfews following the killing in Minneapolis of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man who pleaded "I can't breathe" as a white police officer pinned him under his knee for nearly nine minutes. "Racism against ethnic minorities in the US is a chronic disease of American society," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said. "The current situation reflects once more the severity of the problems of racism and police violence in the US," he told reporters in Beijing. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi echoed the language frequently voiced by President Donald Trump's administration in its support for opponents of the clerical state. "To the American people: the world has heard your outcry over the state of oppression. The world is standing with you," Mousavi said, in English, in Tehran. "And to the American officials and police: stop violence against your people and let them breathe," he said. Both Iran and China also took to social media to troll the United States, with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeting a State Department condemnation of Iran in which he flipped the names of the two countries. 'Taking some sort of pleasure' Trump's national security advisor, Robert O'Brien, criticized Chinese officials for "taking some sort of pleasure and solace in what they're seeing here." Americans seeking redress are "not going to be thrown in jail for peaceful protesting. There's a difference between us and you," he told ABC News. Many demonstrations have been peaceful but activists have accused police of using excessive force in a number of incidents and a man was killed early Monday in Louisville, Kentucky. O'Brien also singled out Zimbabwe among "our foreign adversaries" that may be relishing the scenes in the United States. Zimbabwe -- which has faced US criticism over violently dispersing protests as well as British-led pressure over its seizures of white-owned farms -- summoned the US ambassador to protest O'Brien's remarks. Diverting attention? Observers say that China and Iran are hardly sterling examples on rights. Activists say China is detaining at least one million Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims in a vast network of brainwashing camps. In the commercial hub of Guangzhou, African residents said that police forcibly evicted them this year from accommodation and that they were refused service at shops and restaurants as part of a coronavirus scare. In Iran, a lawmaker on Monday acknowledged that 230 people died in last year's protests triggered by a fuel price hike, although outside groups say the number was far higher. "Like every country, America has never been perfect when it comes to human rights. Far from it," said Rob Berschinski, senior vice president for policy at Human Rights First. "But the fact that a human rights advocate like me can say this openly is what differentiates the United States and other free countries from countries like China and Iran," he said. "When the Chinese and Iranian governments criticize demonstrations in America, they're doing so to distract from their own records, not because they care about racial injustice." Berschinski, who served at the State Department under president Barack Obama, said nonetheless that Trump hurt the cause, including by calling on Twitter for the shooting of looters. "When American citizens are brutalized by our police and national leaders like President Trump promote violence, of course America's ability to speak credibly on human rights abroad is harmed," he said. Gentle criticism from friends Solidarity protests have taken place in US friends including Britain, Ireland and New Zealand. Allied governments have spoken in general terms about US police brutality, without criticizing Trump. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the violence "very alarming" and voiced concern over the arrests of journalists, including at least one British national. A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that US police should show restraint "as in any other country in the world" and that police worldwide need human rights training. Trump, who advocates a go-it-alone "America First" approach, has long brushed aside foreign critiques. But in a leaked tape of a meeting Monday with governors, he complained that "the whole world was laughing" -- because police did not respond forcefully enough. President Rodrigo Duterte suspends for at least six months the termination of a 21-year-old defence pact with the US. The Philippine government has said it is temporarily suspending the termination of its military pact with the United States that allows joint military exercises with US forces. Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr announced on Tuesday that due to the political and other developments in the region, the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) had been extended for at least six months. Locsin wrote on social media that the suspension was made upon Philippine President Rodrigo Dutertes instruction. It has been received by Washington and well at that, he added. The suspension shall start on even date and shall continue for six months, which period is extendible by the Philippines for another six months, after which the countdown to termination shall resume, read a June 1 letter by Locsis to the embassy of the US in Manila. In a statement on Tuesday, the US embassy said it welcomed the Philippine governments decision. Our long-standing alliance has benefited both countries, and we look forward to continued close security and defence cooperation with the Philippines, it added. Signed in 1999, the agreement between the two countries provides a framework for the temporary entry of US troops to the Philippines for joint training exercises with Filipino forces. The pact can be terminated through written notice from either party, which would take effect in 180 days after the notice is served. The Philippines issued the notice of suspension in February and the termination would have taken effect in August. Maritime dispute Locsin did not elaborate on the reason behind Dutertes latest move. But in recent months, China has stepped up its activities in the disputed South China Sea, part of which is claimed by the Philippines. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, China started operating research stations on facilities built on Fiery Cross Reef and Subi Reef and landed special military aircraft on Fiery Cross Reef. According to the US, China has also continued to deploy maritime militia around the Spratly Islands, which is also being contested by the Philippines and other neighbouring Southeast Asian countries. Beijing has said it has the right to build in waters where it exercises sovereignty and has ignored and continued to defy an historic 2016 decision by an international tribunal that invalidated Chinas claims of the entire South China Sea one of the worlds busiest shipping lanes. I issued this diplomatic note to the US ambassador. It has been received by Washington and well at that. The Note is self-explanatory and does not require comment except from me. The abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement has been suspended upon the Presidents instruction. pic.twitter.com/BXqzyNpOty Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) June 2, 2020 In January, Duterte had threatened to end the defence pact in retaliation against the US governments cancellation of the tourist visa of his political ally and former national police chief, Senator Ronald dela Rosa. Dela Rosa has said the cancellation of his tourist visa was most likely because of allegations of extrajudicial killings during his more than two-year term as police chief. He was the chief enforcer of Dutertes anti-narcotics crackdown, which has resulted in deaths of more than 5,000 people, according to officials. Police say victims were shot by officers in self-defence. Human rights watchdogs, however, said the death toll in the drug war could be at least 27,000. What we need to do now is to apply a precision intervention process so that we can deal with the transmission at that level and those particular localities. Provide care for those that are infected and also put in place a home management guideline because very soon as the figure scales out, we would not be able to provide isolation for everybody that has tested positive. Kansas City Cleans Up Plaza remains closed, KCMO cleans up after weekend of protests KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Kansas City, Missouri, residents began picking up the pieces Monday morning after a weekend of protests and civil unrest. Country Club Plaza will remain closed after hundreds gathered over the weekend nearby to peacefully protest, demonstrate and hold conversations surrounding the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Filter For Viewers Like You Nick's Picks: Protests Eclipse Pandemic Will Kansas City continue to see more protests this week? And now that many COVID-19 restrictions are being lifted around the metro, could a new set of rules, crackdowns and ordinances go into effect? For the first time since stay-at-home orders were imposed in March, another news story has finally eclipsed the coronavirus. Home Team Gift Of Life Royals, Community Blood Center to host blood drive inside Kauffman Stadium Wednesday To help deal with an urgent shortage of blood, the Kansas City Royals are pitching in to host a blood drive inside Kauffman Stadium. The team is working with Community Blood Center to host a drive in the Royals Hall of Fame are on Wednesday, June 3 from 9 a.m. Walking Papers Amid Worsening American Civil Unrest Wife of Derek Chauvin says in divorce filing she wants a name change The estranged wife of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin intends to change her name and doesn't want any spousal support, her divorce petition revealed on Monday. Kellie May Chauvin, 45, filed for divorce on Saturday, a day after her 44-year-old husband of nearly 10 years, was arrested and charged with third-degree murder in the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody last week. Insta Hottie Fights Crime Shocking moment naked model confronts armed robber who demanded she opens safe SECURITY footage shows nude Danii Banks stumbling out of her bedroom to find the gun-wielding thief prowling around her home. Stunned Danii, 29, claims she was asleep in her apartment in Chamblee, Georgia, when she was woken by her dogs barking. WHO Wants Money??? WHO's plea to Trump: We 'wish' for collaboration with U.S. to continue The World Health Organization's top official said Monday that he hopes the agency's partnership with the United States can continue, even after President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. will cut ties with the international aid group. China Twitter Trolls USA China uses U.S. protests to cry hypocrisy amid Hong Kong standoff The protests across the U.S. over George Floyd's death at the hands of police in Minneapolis have coincided with rising U.S. tensions with . That tension has been fueled most recently by Beijing's hugely controversial move to impose new national security laws on Hong Kong, but China is using the mass protests roiling the U.S. Working Hip-Hop Solutions Jay-Z speaks out after calling Minnesota governor to discuss justice for George Floyd Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Jay-Z are speaking out about a phone call they had over the weekend to discuss the death of George Floyd and where to go from here. Winning At The Lake You can fish without a license this weekend in Kansas, Missouri Hoping to try your hand at fishing before spending money on a permit in Missouri and Kansas? The Missouri Department of Conservation is inviting the public to "get hooked on fishing" through its Free Fishing Days June 6-7. KC Comeback Contemplation Kansas City asking for residents' ideas on coming back strong from pandemic by: FOX 4 Newsroom Posted: / Updated: KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Officials with the Kansas City government are asking for input from city residents on how to best bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic, and they've created a tool specially for your ideas. Local Tech Continues To Invest In Diversity Techstars KC returns: Meet 10 startups bringing diverse solutions to the rebooted accelerator The hotly anticipated Techstars Kansas City 2020 accelerator class features startups enabling greater transparency and access in healthcare, the food supply, and justice for all, said Lesa Mitchell. Two of the ventures are based in St. Louis. Forecast This Week Your Storm Track 5 Daily Forecast A mainly clear sky with warm and breezy conditions this evening. Temperatures overnight will fall into the mid 60s. With such a warm start, Tuesday could be the first time we hit 90-degrees. Copyright 2018 KCTV (Meredith Corp.) All rights reserved. For our beloved denizens of the local discourse who want to dig deep and sniff out what's really driving the conversation, we offer this cleanup and compilation of community news, pop culture and info from across the nation and around the world . . .is the song of the day and this is thefor right now . . . Facebook employees walked away from their work-from-home desks on Monday and took to Twitter to accuse Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg of inadequately policing U.S. President Donald Trump's posts as strictly as the rival platform has done. Reuters saw dozens of online posts from employees critical of Zuckerberg's decision to leave Trump's most inflammatory verbiage unchallenged where Twitter had labeled it. Some top managers participated in the protest, reminiscent of a 2018 walkout at Alphabet Inc's Google over sexual harassment. It was a rare case of staff publicly taking their CEO to task, with one employee tweeting that thousands participated. Among them were all seven engineers on the team maintaining the React code library which supports Facebook's apps. "Facebook's recent decision to not act on posts that incite violence ignores other options to keep our community safe. We implore the Facebook leadership to #TakeAction," they said in a joint statement published on Twitter. "Mark is wrong, and I will endeavor in the loudest possible way to change his mind," wrote Ryan Freitas, identified on Twitter as director of product design for Facebook's News Feed. He added he had mobilized "50+ likeminded folks" to lobby for internal change. A Facebook employee said Zuckerberg's weekly Friday question-and-answer session would be moved up this week to Tuesday. Katie Zhu, a product manager at Instagram, tweeted a screenshot showing she had entered "#BLACKLIVESMATTER" to describe her request for time off as part of the walkout. Facebook Inc will allow employees participating in the protest to take the time off without drawing down their vacation days, spokesman Andy Stone said. Separately, online therapy company Talkspace said it ended partnership discussions with Facebook. Talkspace CEO Oren Frank tweeted he would "not support a platform that incites violence, racism, and lies." SOCIAL JUSTICE Tech workers at companies including Facebook, Google, and Amazon.com Inc have pursued social justice issues in recent years, urging the companies to change policies. Employees "recognize the pain many of our people are feeling right now, especially our Black community," Stone wrote in a text. "We encourage employees to speak openly when they disagree with leadership. As we face additional difficult decisions around content ahead, we'll continue seeking their honest feedback." Last week, nationwide unrest erupted after the death of a black man, George Floyd, in police custody in Minneapolis last Monday. Video footage showed a white officer kneeling on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes before he died. On Friday, Twitter Inc affixed a warning label to a Trump tweet that included the phrase "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." Twitter said it violated rules against glorifying violence but was left up as a public interest exception. Facebook declined to act on the same message, and Zuckerberg sought to distance his company from the fight between the president and Twitter. On Friday, Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post that while he found Trump's remarks "deeply offensive," they did not violate company policy against incitements to violence and people should know whether the government was planning to deploy force. Zuckerberg's post also said Facebook had been in touch with the White House to explain its policies. Twitter used the same label as for Trump on Monday to hide a message by Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida that likened protesters to terrorists and called for them to be hunted down "like we do those in the Middle East." Gaetz said in response he would "see" Twitter in the Judiciary Committee. Some of Facebook's dissenting employees have praised Twitter for its response over Trump. Others, like Jason Toff, a director of product management and former head of short-form video app Vine, started organizing fundraisers for racial justice groups in Minnesota. Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook on Monday the company would contribute an additional $10 million to social justice causes. Toff tweeted: "I work at Facebook and I am not proud of how we're showing up. The majority of coworkers I've spoken to feel the same way. We are making our voice heard." Also read: Facebook, Snapchat join chorus of companies condemning George Floyd death, racism Also read: George Floyd protests: 'We all have a role to play,' says Indra Nooyi London, June 2 : British soldiers who have been accused of committing war crimes in Iraq were unlikely to face criminal prosecution, an official has said. Independent investigators were asked to look at thousands of allegations made against the British military after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the BBC reported on Tuesday. But Andrew Cayley, the Director of the Service Prosecution Authority (SPA), said just one remaining case was being examined. He said the "low level" of offending and lack of credible evidence had led most cases to be dismissed. Speaking to the BBC, Cayley said most of those cases were sifted out at a very early stage because of the lack of credible evidence or because the offending was "at such a very low level". More than 1,000 cases were made by former lawyer Phil Shiner and his firm Public Interest Lawyers (PIL). In 2017 he was struck off as a solicitor after a tribunal found him guilty of misconduct and dishonesty, including false accounts about the actions of UK soldiers. Cayley said seven remaining cases had been referred to the SPA, but in six of those cases it was concluded that no charges should be brought. One case is still being considered, but he admitted that it was now "quite possible" that none of the original allegations will lead to a prosecution. Cayley told the BBC that he was confident a separate investigation being conducted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague will conclude this year without further action being taken. In 2014, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda re-opened a preliminary examination of cases involving alleged British abuses in Iraq. Earlier this year the government presented a bill promising to curb historic allegations and tackle what it calls "vexatious claims" against armed forces deployed overseas. The bill proposes a five-year time limit on any criminal prosecution unless compelling new evidence is brought to light. William, who owns Founding Fathers Outfitters, a gun shop in Montgomery County, stands next to his employee, Patricia, Tuesday. They do not want their last names used for fear of violence. William sleeps in the store every night since an attempted break-in Sunday morning. He spends the night in an office chair or on the floor. Patricia is in a sleeping bag. They sold as many guns in three weeks than they do in a year. Read more Like many gun store owners these days, Gregory Isabella spent the night in his South Philly shop on guard after previous break-in attempts. He was ready when, about 4:15 a.m. Tuesday, a group of four men cut the lock and kicked in the door at Firing Line Inc. on the 1500 block of South Front Street. Isabella, 67, told police he was on the second floor when he heard them approach. He then shot and killed one of the alleged looters. By day, hundreds of residents wait in long lines for hours to buy guns, often their first. By night, gun shop owners say they are the new targets of burglars and thieves. Isabella "heard them walking up the steps, and one of the individuals who broke into the property pointed a handgun at him, Philadelphia Police Inspector Scott Small told Fox 29. And thats when the store owner fired his own weapon, striking the one perpetrator at least one time in the head. Police said the weapon Isabella discharged was a Bushmaster M4 rifle. They also said officers recovered a black handgun believed to be carried by the man Isabella shot. Medics pronounced the man dead at the scene, and the other individuals ran away, Small said. Isabella was not injured. Police did not identify the dead man. Reached by phone Tuesday, Isabella told a reporter, No comment. Dont call here again, and hung up. READ MORE: Here's live coverage of what's happening Tuesday Small said an individual arrived at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital with a gunshot wound to his shoulder shortly after the incident, and said it was a possibility the person was connected to the burglary attempt. No arrest was made, but an investigation is ongoing, according to police. Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore was spotted at the crime scene. During a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Jim Kenney and Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said that while they respect the rights of business owners to protect their property, they were disturbed to hear that a business owner shot and killed a potential burglar. We do not endorse or condone any form of vigilante justice or taking the law into ones own hands, Outlaw said. Kenney described himself as deeply troubled by the death. But across the city, gun store owners say they are sleeping inside their shops after break-in attempts. William H., who did not want his last name used, saying he feared becoming an antifa target, owns Founding Fathers Outfitters on Ridge Pike in Montgomery County. He, and usually another employee, have slept in his store since early Sunday, when, he said, six people tried to break into his gun shop. At 12:59 a.m. Sunday, his surveillance cameras captured video of six men, all in masks, trying to break in. One had a baseball bat and tried to bash in the front glass door. The glass shattered in a spider-web-like shape, but did not break. A man behind him held a hammer. They wanted to do a smash and grab, William H. said. Take a hammer and smash the cases and grab what they wanted. Unfortunately for them, we lock every firearm in a safe. They never got in the store. From then on, William H., 37, who said he was a flight medic in the Army for 13 years and then worked as an EMS chief, has spent the night in an office chair or on the floor of the shop. Depending on my back, he said. Patricia, his salesperson, said she prefers a sleeping bag. They are armed with pepper spray, Tasers, flash bangs, a grenade that disorients people with a bright flash and loud noise, rubber bullets and guns. We dont want our firearms to get in the hands of criminals. Well do anything to stop that from happening, said Patricia, 22, who is also an EMT and also said she did not want her full name published for fear of retaliation. Im not looking to shoot anyone. Thats the last thing I want to do, William H. said. He said Isabellas having to shoot and kill someone was unfortunate. No one wants to have to do it, he said. I know a lot of gun shop owners and everyone is sleeping there [in their stores]. Looters are not just after the sneakers and the flat screen TVs anymore. They are getting more aggressive. Theyre trying to get the guns. On Tuesday, William H. opened his store at 1 p.m. instead of the usual 10 a.m. He needed rest. But by 12:30 p.m., there was a line of about 50 people in surgical masks or bandannas wanting to buy guns. The broken window was covered with plywood. The interest in guns, he said, surged as the coronavirus lockdowns were imposed. From the lockdown until the first week in April, basically three weeks, we did a years worth of sales, William H. said. Many are first-time buyers. Sharletta Hargrove, 26, went to Founding Fathers on Tuesday with her 3-year-old daughter, who brought her two Barbie dolls. They live in Clifton Heights, Delaware County, and Hargroves mother lives in West Philadelphia, where lots of stores have been looted and burned, she said. You dont know what to expect, and Im scared, she said. I just have to protect my house and family. Hargrove had never bought a gun before. Nor had Gary Williams, 28, who sat nearby on a tree stump waiting for the store to open. Williams lives in Germantown with his girlfriend and two daughters, ages 1 and 5. In his neighborhood, many stores, including pharmacies and food markets, have been looted and are now boarded up. Theres nothing available. I had a hard time finding milk and Pampers," said Williams, who works as a home health aide. I need to protect my family. I want the biggest gun I can find, he said. There are a lot of peaceful people out there, but the looters are taking advantage of good people who own their own businesses. What they dont realize is theyre destroying their own community. I want to feel safe and secure." It took almost six hours. But Williams stood in line, waited to get approved through the state background check process and picked out what he wanted. He walked out with an AR-12 shotgun. I feel 100% better," he said Tuesday night. Its a big relief to know I can protect my family. Scenes emerging from the US states of Minnesota, California and many others of riots and violent protests have dominated the TV news despite the prevailing daily dose of gloomy news of the Covid-19 pandemic around the world. A police officer in Minneapolis was caught on film kneeling on the neck of African-American man George Floyd for over eight minutes and enough for the poor man to die horribly at the scene. The policeman, named Derek Chauvin, ignored Floyds pleas and cries of I cant breathe until he died as a result of Chauvins knee choking him. The video then went viral, unleashing massive protests in Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Seattle among 13 other US cities now under mandatory curfews. The governor of Minnesota took unprecedented measures and issued a state of emergency, calling on the states National Guard to quell the riots. US President Donald Trump also vowed to involve the American military should the riots continue. At least seven other states have called on their National Guards to curb the growing violence of rioters mingling with peaceful protesters. These hooligans have committed acts of vandalism and the arson of public and private property across many states, exacerbating an already tense situation and overshadowing the death of Floyd by exacting vengeance on the whole of society. Violent groups have capitalised on the situation and have been reported as being involved in acts of violence during the protests. Dozens of shops, restaurants and private businesses have either been burned, looted or vandalised by rioters who have violated curfews and clashed with police, resulting in the killing of a federal police officer in California and the injury of many others. The events following the death of Floyd are reminiscent of many others that have occurred over past decades in the US. One of the most infamous took place in 1992 when a court acquitted four police officers accused of assaulting the African-American man Rodney King and brutally beating him. One of the most violent riots in US history then took place in Los Angeles, resulting in 63 deaths, 2,383 injuries and more than 7,000 fires. It also resulted in damage to 3,100 businesses as the riots cost nearly $1 billion in financial losses during the course of six days. Unfortunately, history seems to be repeating itself as a result of the horrific death of Floyd at the hands of the US police. This cycle of violence seems to be beyond the control of any US president, whether he be Donald Trump, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton or George Bush. The deeply rooted racial issues in the US were not resolved by the existence of an African-American president such as Obama, and certainly they will not be resolved by Trump. The race issue requires a more extensive outlook and more protection laws, and it seems to have been overlooked in the recent past when Obama was elected as the countrys first black president. Many believed at that time that the majority of the nation had changed and that racism in the US was a practice of the past. But events have proven otherwise. In fact, the rise of the far-right and of alt-right groups in the US has been a clear signal that racism is far from over in the United States and that it must be tackled on all levels, especially within government departments and the authorities that deal directly with citizens such as police departments across the country. The bottled-up hatred between large sections of Americans towards others also manifests itself in such riots, which emerge to destroy property as a result of a single horrific death. These events are not caused by racial-segregation laws, which were abolished in the US educational system in 1954, but they are an indication that large numbers of Americans still view themselves in terms of ethnicity first and citizen second. Floyd has meanwhile joined the countless black and non-white victims of police brutality and abuse in the US. While there have been measures to reeducate the police forces, which have had positive results in some cases, racism still lingers within police forces across the United States. A bad apple can spoil an entire basket, and the killing of Floyd should not be seen as necessarily tainting the entire police force of Minnesota. Yet, it does taint the efforts and sacrifices that this police force has been making to tackle racism, along with similar ones made elsewhere. It is imperative that bad examples such as Chauvin be weeded out early before they cause nationwide disasters. Chauvin had had 18 complaints filed against him in his 19 years in the police department, and he was disciplined as a result of two of them. These cases included deaths and shootings, and yet he was still awarded a medal of valour in 2008. There is no doubt that a police officers job is not easy and involves his placing his life at risk every day. But this cannot be a reason for officers to take the law into their own hands or to overstep their roles as the protectors of the public or enforcers of the laws, turning them into executioners. The video of Chauvin kneeling on the neck of Floyd causing his eventual death is a scene that cannot be allowed to take place again in the United States or anywhere else in the world. Chauvin has now been arrested and charged with third degree murder, and the escorting officers patrolling with him have also been suspended from their work. Chauvin violated proper police conduct in his act, but alas he is not the only case of such violations that have taken place in recent years. Countless other cases have also been reported in the US of police brutality, many of them involving a white policeman and a minority victim who has been mistreated, abused, humiliated and sometimes even killed during the process of apprehension or arrest. In many cases, police officers are trigger-happy and fire upon suspects at the slightest of excuses. The threats to the US status in the world are numerous. Some of them are military, such as those from its global rivals such as Russia, or economic, such as from China, or security based, such as from the likes of terrorists such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State (IS) group. But none of these can defeat the United States militarily, as it is more than capable of defending itself from countries like Russia, China, North Korea or Iran. China, despite its exponential growth, cannot overshadow the United States. Even with continued attacks and threats by global terrorist groups, none of these can ever manage seriously to affect the power of the United States. The real threat to US unity and welfare comes from within because the race issue still has not been resolved after over two centuries of the countrys history. Race and racial identity remain a major cause of problems in the US today and ones that are deeply rooted within US society. It is high time that US-based human rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch shift their focus inwards towards Americas own human rights violations and racial issues before dictating what other governments should do in their own countries. The United States today is at a crossroads, and the divisions in US society are becoming ever clearer and more visible to everyone. They cannot be hidden by the language of political correctness any longer. The writer is a political analyst and author of Egypts Arab Spring and the Winding Road to Democracy. *A version of this article appears in print in the 4 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: "Unlike most existing dental bone graft materials, this enhanced formulation of Tetranite resorbs and is replaced by bone on a timescale commensurate with existing graft materials but does not require ancillary containment devices like membranes or meshes or fixation aids like tacks and screws," said Joseph P. Fiorellini, DMD, DMSc, Professor and Director, Postdoctoral Periodontics Program at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine and principal investigator for this grant. "The clinical use of this material will reduce the time and complexity of ridge augmentation procedures and likely lead to more consistent results with regard to maintaining the original volume of grafts." Roughly 44% of all patients who receive a dental implant have a missing tooth when they start treatment, and, depending how long the tooth had been missing, varying degrees of bone loss. These patients must undergo a ridge augmentation procedure in which particulate-based bone graft materials are placed using membranes and fixation aids to contain the graft during the healing process. These procedures increase the width and height of a jawbone to replace atrophied bone so that a dental implant can be successfully placed. In over 30% of these cases, however, existing bone graft materials fail to achieve the desired clinical results, and another bone graft procedure must be conducted, increasing the overall time and cost of treatment. Market research conducted in conjunction with Avenues, a marketing company involved with the resource center, confirmed the clinical need for an improved bone graft solution. "This was a competitive process, and we are pleased with the progress that this research team has made," said William R. Wagner, PhD, co-Principal Investigator of the Michigan-Pittsburgh-Wyss Regenerative Medicine Resource Center. "We look forward to the continued translation of this promising technology for clinical use in the third phase of our program." About LaunchPad Medical, Inc. LaunchPad Medical, Inc. is a clinical stage medical device company engaged in the development and commercialization of a patented, synthetic, injectable, self-setting, and osteoconductive bone adhesive biomaterial called Tetranite. The company is initially developing this technology for use in the dental market, and recently initiated its first-in-man clinical study for the use of Tetranite to immediately stabilize dental implants in sites that lack sufficient primary stability. The company is also working to develop adhesive applications for the broader orthopedics market. LaunchPad Medical's Tetranite technology is not yet approved for commercial use. SOURCE LaunchPad Medical, Inc. Lin-Manuel Miranda issued an apology to fans of Hamilton for the Broadway show's failure to publicly denounce systemic racism sooner on Saturday. The 40-year-old playwright and actor also affirmed the show's support for the Black Lives Matter, as protests have roiled major cities across the nation in the wake of the death of George Floyd. He began his short Twitter statement by pointing out how quickly the show was to respond to previous crises and incidents of racism and hatred. Making amends: Lin-Manuel Miranda, 40, issued a video statement on the Hamilton Twitter account apologizing for the shows silence on systemic racism after the death of George Floyd 'We spoke out on the day of the Pulse shooting. We spoke out when Vice President Mike Pence came to our show 10 days after the election,' he began. 'That we have not yet firmly spoken the inarguable truth that Black Lives Matter and denounced systematic racism and white supremacy from our official Hamilton channels is a moral failure on our part,' Miranda said. 'As the writer of the show, I take responsibility and apologize for my part in this moral failure.' The composer also apologized for 'not pushing harder and faster for us to speak these self-evident truths under the Hamilton banner which has come to mean so much to so many of you.' Taking responsibility: 'That we have not yet firmly spoken the inarguable truth that Black Lives Matter and denounced systematic racism and white supremacy from our official Hamilton channels is a moral failure on our part,' Miranda said Acknowledgment: 'Hamilton doesn't exist without the black and brown artists who created and revolutionized and changed the world through the culture, music and language of hip-hop,' Miranda continued 'Hamilton doesn't exist without the black and brown artists who created and revolutionized and changed the world through the culture, music and language of hip-hop,' Miranda continued. 'Literally, the idea of the show doesn't exist without the brilliant black and brown artists in our cast, crew and production team who breathe life into this story every time it's performed. 'It's up to us and words and deeds to stand up for our fellow citizens. It's up to us to do the work to be better allies and have each other's backs,' he said. Making a change: 'It's up to us and words and deeds to stand up for our fellow citizens. It's up to us to do the work to be better allies and have each other's backs,' he said.; pictured in 2016 Unified response: Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller followed up Miranda's video with a post of his own mirroring his sentiment; pictured in Januar 2019 in Puerto Rico Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller followed up Miranda's video with a post of his own mirroring his sentiment. 'I'm not a politician. I'm not an activist. I'm not an expert. I'm a theatre producer. But what I realize today is most importantly I'm an American citizen and silence equals complicity and I apologize for my silence thus far,' he said. The Hamilton Twitter account followed up the videos by posting links to Black Lives Matter and the NAACP of Minneapolis, along with the Minneapolis Freedom Fund, which people can donate to to help bail out protestors in the Twin Cities. Ways to help: The Hamilton Twitter account followed up the videos by posting links to Black Lives Matter and the NAACP of Minneapolis, along with the Minneapolis Freedom Fund, which people can donate to to help bail out protestors in the Twin Cities; pictured in January 2019 Miranda and Seller's statements came days after the death of George Floyd. He was killed when a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee into his neck for nearly nine minutes, including two minutes beyond when he stopped breathing and became unresponsive. So far, the four officers involved in the arrest have all been fired from the Minneapolis Police Department, and Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Jerome Cartillier (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States Tue, June 2, 2020 11:30 598 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb795dd 2 World Racism,racial-discrimination,racial-issues,racial-tension,racial-violence,leadership,Donald-Trump,US Free Lurching from tough talk to empathy and back again, with one eye firmly on his voter base, Donald Trump seems unsure what tone to strike as America is convulsed from Minneapolis to Los Angeles by furious anti-racism protests. After a sixth night of at times violent unrest that saw chaotic scenes unfold right outside the White House, Trump made clear in an early morning tweet where his focus lies: "NOVEMBER 3" -- date of the presidential election. For days the US leader has been sending conflicting messages, as anger flared in dozens of American cities over the death of George Floyd, the 46-year-old come to symbolize the scourge of police brutality towards African Americans. Since Trump returned from Florida to the White House Saturday night, Washington has been expecting a presidential address -- perhaps a message of unity -- to a nation already battered by the 100,000 lives and 40 million jobs lost to COVID-19 and now facing its most sweeping civil unrest in decades. But instead the Republican leader has hunkered down, unseen and unheard throughout Sunday, but for a series of eruptive tweets berating the media and Democratic officials for their supposed lack of resolve toward protesters. The image, late Sunday night, of exterior lights going dark at the White House -- while blocks away protesters set fires and smashed windows -- seemed to say it all about a president cut off from his fellow Americans. And there was no indication of a change of heart Monday by the president, who still had no public events scheduled. "A national Oval Office address is not going to stop Antifa," the president's spokeswoman said Monday, referring to the far-left activist network Trump accuses of spearheading the violence of recent days. Election plug aside, Trump's other morning tweets seemed less aimed at restoring calm than at firing up his base. One quoted a Fox News host denying that white supremacist groups had played a part in stoking unrest. Another lashed out at Democratic rival Joe Biden, claiming he was surrounded by members of the "Radical Left" who were "working to get the Anarchists out of jail, and probably more." The shadow of Charlottesville In a call with state governors on Monday -- excerpts of which were reported by US media -- Trump urged them to get much tougher on protesters. "If you don't dominate, you're wasting your time," he was quoted as saying. "They're going to run over you. You're going to look like a bunch of jerks." Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker confronted Trump over his tone, accusing the president of making the situation "worse," ABC News reported. "I've been extraordinarily concerned about the rhetoric that's been used by you," Pritzker reportedly said. "It's been inflammatory." On Sunday the Democratic mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms, called out what she said was a dangerous lack of presidential leadership. "He speaks and he makes it worse," she said. "This is like Charlottesville all over again." The reference was to Trump's now-infamous response to the deadly violence pitting neo-Nazis against counterprotesters in the Virginia city in 2017 -- when he declared there to be "very fine people on both sides." While Trump's comments back then drew condemnation even within his own camp, the Republican Party has had little to say on his response to the death of the unarmed Floyd, who pleaded for his life as a white police officer knelt on his neck. One exception was Tim Scott, the only black Republican senator, who criticized Trump for what he said were "not constructive tweets, without any question." The president's last public comments on the spreading unrest -- delivered at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida -- showed the competing impulses at work as he flickered between empathy, finger-pointing and a tough law and order message. Trump denounced Floyd's death in Minneapolis as a "grave tragedy" that "filled Americans all over the country with horror, anger, and grief." "I understand the pain that people are feeling," the president said. But from there he pivoted to the role of "anarchists" in fomenting unrest, while sidestepping the core issue: police brutality and the anger of a black minority for whom Floyd's last words have become a rallying cry: "I can't breathe." Trump's predecessor Barack Obama, for his part, published an op-ed article in which he spoke out against violence "putting innocent people at risk -- but also warned not to reduce a millions-strong movement to the excesses of a "small minority." "The overwhelming majority of participants have been peaceful, courageous, responsible, and inspiring." "They deserve our respect and support, not condemnation," Obama added -- in a pointed message to his successor in the White House. By William Schwartz | Published on 2020/06/01 With the surprise that has followed his abrupt divorce, many have been left wondering what went wrong with Lee Dong-gun's marriage to Jo Yoon-hee. One possible explanation has come through an old episode of the variety show 'My Little Old Boy', wherein Lee Dong-gun discussed some of the events that led to his marriage. Advertisement In the program, Lee Dong-gun discussed working with Jo Yoon-hee for a full year on the fifty episode drama "The Gentlemen of Wolgyesu Tailor Shop". In the drama they play characters who are romantically attached, eventually to the point of getting married and having a child together. According to Lee Dong-gun, at the end of filming he was wondering if it would really be all right for them to not meet again. Other decidedly less romantic thoughts include the frank admittance on Lee Dong-gun's part that he did not consider himself to be the kind of man to get married. Rather, he thought it was a way to keep Jo Yoon-hee from getting away from him. Other comments to the effect of their age, and a desire to have children quickly, suggest an accelerated timetable. Lee Dong-gun also conceded he could not bring himself to propose outside of the babymaking timetable. The sequence of events is somewhat at odds with the dates of their courtship. The intent to marry was announced in May of 2017, with the actual marriage taking place in September, and the birth of their daughter taking place in December. In the end, personality differences were cited as the official reasons for their divorce, which was announced on May 28th. Written by William Schwartz Mayor Q Makes Cable News WATCH: Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas interview with MSNBC on Plaza protests Over the weekend in Kansas City, large crowds of people gathered together to protest the death of George Floyd and police brutality towards African Americans. Although the protests started peacefully on both Saturday and Sunday, there were several altercations between protesters and police officers as well as the vandalism of several vehicles and buildings. Cowtown Unrest Redux A look back at protest in American history KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) - Protests have been a part of American history from the very beginning. Protests surrounding events from the Boston Tea Party, protest over women's rights and decades later you had the civil rights movement. We Talked Kansas City Protest Crowfunding FIRST KC man seriously injured during weekend protests after leg takes direct hit from tear gas canister KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Two KCPD officers hurt during this weekend's protests are now recovering at home. They were hospitalized with head and liver injuries after being hit with flying objects. But at least one protester says police action put him in the hospital, too. Hottie Fashion News Abigail Ratchford Flaunts Tremendous Cleavage . . . "Queen of curves" Abigail Ratchford tantalized her 9.1 million Instagram followers on Wednesday with five seriously sultry selfies that spotlighted her busty curves. The gorgeous model looked sensational in a skimpy yellow bra that exposed her massive cleavage, posing seductively as she flashed increasingly more skin with every shot. Bishop Rebukes Prez Trump DC Episcopal Bishop: 'I Am Outraged' by Trump Church Visit The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington sharply criticized President Donald Trump on Monday for staging a visit to the historic St. John's Church across from the White House, where he held up a Bible after authorities had cleared the area of peaceful protesters. Prez Trump Military Threat Against American Rioters What Is The Insurrection Act That Trump Is Threatening To Invoke? President Trump threatened Monday to take military action in American cities if the violent demonstrations that have been taking place in recent days aren't stamped out. Hong Kong Crackdown Contd Hong Kong blocks Tiananmen Square crackdown anniversary vigil, citing coronavirus fears Hong Kong police on Monday blocked a candlelit vigil marking the anniversary of China's deadly military 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. The police said it rejected the organizers' request for a candlelight vigil because it would violate coronavirus social distancing rules that ban gatherings of more than eight people. USA Trolled Over Riots America's Adversaries Are Trying to Capitalize on George Floyd Protests to Criticize U.S. Leaders Iran, China and North Korea have used the protests over the killing of George Floyd as an opportunity to hit back at the country. Sound Off Tuesday Music industry players including Mick Jagger, Quincy Jones respond to George Floyd's death with Blackout Tuesday: 'This is what solidarity looks like' In the wake of George Floyd's death in police custody and the ensuing protests worldwide, the music industry is planning to turn June 2 into "Blackout Tuesday," a day to press pause on usual business and turn toward fighting racial injustice. Faith Overcomes Riots Community Christian Church starts clean-up process after weekend of protest KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) - The Country Club Plaza shut down entirely as many businesses continue to cleanup from this weekend's protests against police brutality. The Community Christian Church on Main Street across from the J.C. Nichols Fountain was the center point for much of this weekend's protest. Big Screen Returns Boulevard Drive-In opening up this weekend with three classic movies by: Brian Dulle Posted: / Updated: KANSAS CITY, Kan. - The Boulevard Drive-In Theater will be back open for movies this weekend after having their 70th season delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The theater said safety is their top priority and they will be pre-screening all staff and have wellness checks for every employee, before every shift, to ensure everyone is healthy. Warm Up Today Tuesday will be toasty Hide Transcript Show Transcript 91 DEGREES IN DODGE CITY. 80'S TODAY. WE ARE GETTING CLOSER TO 90 TOMORROW. WE WANT TO GET YOU THAT FIRST ALERT. WE WILL BE DEALING WITH THAT HEAT. THE FORECAST HIGH TEMPERATURES, UPPER 80'S, 90 DEGREES. YOU FACTOR IN THE HEAT AND HUMIDITY, YOU GET THE HEAT INDEX. For our early morning news junkies, once again, we collect a quick peek at pop culture, community news and info from across the nation and around the world.is the song of the day and this is thefor right now . . . DANBURY Police shut down both sides of Interstate 84 in Danbury after protesters flooded the highway Wednesday afternoon. The highway has since reopened, but police warned drivers to continue to expect heavy delays in the area. Demonstrators made their way onto the highway near Exit 5 following a rally that began outside the city library at noon. A group of demonstrators made their way to the front of the Danbury police station on Main Street, where Mayor Mark Boughton and Police Chief Patrick Ridenhour addressed the crowd, but another group made their way onto the highway. The roadway was shut between Exits 4 and 5, according to state police. Protestors at the event said they were escorted by around a dozen police on the road, who shut down the highway for around 20 minutes. Several protestors knelt in the road, and two said state police took a knee after protestors asked them to do so. It was kind of empowering, said Moses, a protester who asked that his last name be withheld. Photos posted to social media showed demonstrators standing on the highway median with state police officers nearby. Danbury police sent their armored truck to the scene to backup state police after reports of motorists being assaulted, Ridenhour, the chief of police said, but the team inside never left the vehicle. A video posted to Facebook showed a woman standing among the protesters arguing with a driver on the highway out of frame, before taking a photo of the vehicle with her phone and walking away. State police said a crowd of around 500 people closed the highway for about one hour before the crowds were dispersed without any arrests, property damage or injuries. Protesters planned to march in a two-mile loop Wednesday to condemn institutionalized racism and demand justice for Minnesota man George Floyd. Organizers updated the route for the peaceful protest, which is among many being held nationwide after Floyd died when a white Minneapolis officer pressed his knee on the black mans neck for more than eight minutes. The new route was not expected to affect the coronavirus testing being held at the Greater Danbury Community Health Center from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, said James Maloney, president and CEO of the Connecticut Institute for Communities. Marchers do not plan to go past the center. We dont necessarily see a conflict, Maloney said. The testing is open to all, regardless of symptoms or exposure, in the rear parking lot at 120 Main St. Appointments are encouraged and given to the first 200 who call 203-456-1413. The Indian Army has been slow to react. Indian troops have deployed in the vicinity of PLA incursions, but there are no attempts to outflank Chinese positions. Ajai Shukla reports. In June 2017, Indian soldiers in Sikkim took Chinese border guards completely by surprise when they crossed into Bhutan and physically blocked the Chinese road construction crew from extending a track into disputed territory. Eventually, hundreds of Indian soldiers stood face-to-face with as many Chinese for over two months, before New Delhi and Beijing negotiated a mutual withdrawal that saved face for the Chinese. Today, it is the Indians who have been taken by surprise. In the third week of April, Indian border forces in Ladakh observed regular Chinese forces on the Line of Actual Control the de facto border -- being supplemented with additional troops, heavy trucks, and equipment. The Indian side mistakenly assessed this was just routine summer training. There was a shock on May 5, when some 5,000 Chinese troops crossed into the Galwan River valley, followed by another incursion in similar numbers into the Pangong Lake sector on May 12. Simultaneously, there were smaller incursions near Demchok in southern Ladakh, and in Naku La in north Sikkim. Government sources assess there are close to 10,000 soldiers of China's People's Liberation Army in Indian territory. Dialogue is frozen, with the Chinese rebuffing Indian calls for flag meetings to resolve the situation. The most worrying situation is in the Galwan valley where the PLA has crossed China's own claim line (which Beijing had stated was the border with India), and breached 3 to 4 km into Indian territory. PLA troops are digging defences to equip themselves to face any Indian attack. A Chinese defence Web site with close links to the PLA has claimed that the Galwan River Valley is a part of China. Stating that the Indian side crossed the line in the Galwan Valley... and unilaterally change the status of the border, the Website claimed: 'The Galwan Valley is Chinese territory, and the local control situation is very clear.; This follows a previous pattern. China had systematically eroded Galwan's status starting 1956, followed by an official claim in 1960, and then by military action during the 1962 War. The border at Galwan River was first enunciated by China in a map published in 1956, and endorsed by (then Chinese premier) Zhou Enlai in 1959. In that, China claimed a boundary that started east of the Karakoram Pass and ran south-east, cutting through the Galwan River Valley to Khurnak Fort. From there it ran south through the centre of the Pangong Lake, passing through the eastern extremity of the Spanggur Lake and then, further south to Demchok. In 1960, when Zhou Enlai led an official delegation for talks to New Delhi, China advanced a new border that claimed an additional 5,180 sq km of Indian territory in Ladakh. Running generally west of the 1956 claim line, it ran close to the eastern bank of the Shyok River, cutting the Galwan River close to its confluence with the Shyok -- west of the earlier claim. Further south, it claimed more of the Pangong Lake, all of the Spanggur Lake, and then ran approximately along the 1956 claim line to Demchok. During the 1962 War, Chinese troops captured the Galwan Valley post, killing some 36 Indian soldiers. After the war, China advanced its claim line further west, claiming an additional 2,000 sq km of Ladakh. Now, even this claim line has been violated and China is attempting to push the frontier at Galwan further west. Four days after the Galwan intrusion, China's second intrusion began on May 9 in Naku La, also across a settled Sikkim-Tibet border. Some 200 Chinese soldiers temporarily occupied Indian territory, but have now withdrawn to the Chinese side and have pitched tents. In the third intrusion, which took place near the Pangong Lake on May 12/13, thousands of Chinese soldiers occupied disputed territory between Finger 8 and Finger 4. By May 18, the Chinese had taken over the so-called Finger Heights. While this intrusion is not into territory that Beijing has previously recognised as Indian, there is now -- for the first time -- a Chinese flag flying on the hill overlooking the lake. India's so-called Dhan Singh Post, which was built after the 1962 War, is the last Indian post standing in that sector. The Indian Army has been slow to react. Indian troops have deployed in the vicinity of PLA incursions, but there are no attempts to outflank Chinese positions. One-two Indian brigades have begun moving into the area over the past week. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday voiced confidence in the economys ability to return to a path of rapid growth, listing it among his governments top priorities and pledging its commitment to systematic reforms amid concerns that the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic could plunge India into a prolonged slowdown. Yes! We will definitely get our growth back, Modi said in his speech to a conference on Getting Growth Back organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to mark the organisations 125th anniversary, as India emerges from the Covid-19 outbreak and subsequent 68-day lockdown. Some of you may think in this time of crisis how could I say this with such confidence? There are many reasons for this confidence. Ive confidence in Indias capabilities and crisis management. Ive confidence in Indias talent and technology; Ive confidence in Indias innovation and intellect. Ive confidence in Indias farmers, MSMEs [micro, small and medium enterprises] and entrepreneurs, Modi said in Hindi through a video link. Modis first major speech on the economy since the post-Covid-19 lockdown began on March 25 came a day after Moodys Investors Service cut Indias rating by one notch to the lowest investment grade with a negative outlook, citing growing risks that Asias third largest economy will face a prolonged period of slower growth. According to official data released on Friday, the economy grew 3.1% in the three months ended March 31, 2020, and 4.2% the slowest pace in 11 years in the financial year 2019-20. The prolonged nationwide lockdown in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic is expected to dent growth further. Moodys said the lowering of Indias rating reflects its view that the countrys policy making institutions will be challenged in enacting and implementing policies which effectively mitigate the risks of a sustained period of relatively low growth, significant further deterioration in the general government fiscal position and stress in the financial sector. Congress member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi took note of Moodys action in a Twitter post. Moodys has rated Modis handling of Indias economy a step above JUNK, he wrote. Lack of support to the poor and the MSME sector means the worst is yet to come. The upbeat note struck by Modi in his speech cheered the financial markets. The benchmark Sensex index of the Bombay Stock Exchange rose 522.01 points, or 1.57%, to 33,825.53 and the National Stock Exchanges Nifty gained 152. 95 points, or 1.56%, to 9,979.10. The rupee gained 18 paise to 75.36 per dollar Modi said one of the highest priorities of his government is to strengthen the economy. For this the government is taking decisions required to be taken immediately. And simultaneously, such decisions have also been taken that would help the country in the long run, he said. The Prime Minister was referring to the ~20.97 lakh crore citizens welfare and economic stimulus packages announced between March 26 and May 17 that included free foodgrains and direct cash benefits to the poor, credit guarantee schemes for the industry, monetary measures by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and wide-ranging policy reforms. India has left behind the lockdown and has entered into unlock phase one and a major part of the economy has restarted, Modi said. Today we are able to do this because when coronavirus was spreading globally, India took right steps at the right time. When we compare us with other countries, we come to know about the effectiveness of the lockdown in India, he said. The Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) helped in giving immediate relief to the poor. Under this scheme, rations have been provided to 740 million beneficiaries. Free rations are also being supplied to the migrant labourers, he said. He said the package helped the poor and 80 million of them got free cooking gas cylinders under the scheme. PMGKY was the first response to Covid-19 that was announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on March 26. Prime Minister Modi said the entire package was a combination of providing relief to the underprivileged and restoring the economy along with policy reforms. For us, reform is not a random or scattered decision. For us, reform is systematic, planned, integrated, inter-connected and futuristic process. For us, reform means dare to take decisions and take them to the logical conclusion, he said. He said five things are necessary to take India on the higher growth trajectory intent, inclusion, investment, infrastructure and innovation. You can get a glimpse of them also in the bold decisions taken recently, he said. The government has given farmers the freedom to sell their produce without having to go through middlemen. Modi said labour laws were being reformed to create more job opportunities and the private sector participation has been allowed in strategic sectors such as space and nuclear energy. Modi said the path of growth was self-reliance and the world had great expectations from India. India has potential, strength and ability. All of you should, Indias industry should take full advantage of the trust the world has for India, he said. He added: Getting growth back is not that difficult. And, above all you have, Indian industries have a clear path, which is the path of Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India). It is about creating a strong enterprise in India. Enterprises that can become global forces. it about generating employment. It is about empowering our people to come out and create solutions that can define the future of our country, he said. Separately, electronics, information technology and communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said India had emerged as the second-largest manufacturer of mobile phones in the world.From just 2 factories, we now have 200 manufacturing units. Indias electronic manufacturing was worth ~190,366 crore in 2014, today its ~458,000 crore. Indias global share in electronics has risen from 1.3% in 2012 to 3% in 2018. Electronic production has surpassed exports, he said. He also said that the Centre was working towards constructing a robust manufacturing ecosystem in the country. Sunil Kant Munjal, a past president of the CII and one of the founders of the Hero Group, said industry will play probably the most crucial role in making India self-reliant. The Atmanirbhar Bharat which PM Modi talked about... will rightly be driven by the five Is intent, inclusion, investment, infrastructure and innovation, Munjal said. Another I of internet would be important too, though one could say that infrastructure would cover that. For India to stay safe and maintain modest growth in these difficult times, it is important that both government and industry show their best intent to take bold decisions and make tough choices which will make us competitive, strong, agile and better prepared to face the future. GRAND RAPIDS, MI Just after the 7 p.m. curfew Monday, June 1, police scattered protesters on Fulton Street, with an officer firing a less-than-lethal firearm that hit a man in the arm. The man, who was standing in the middle of the street, near Van Andel Arena, said he didnt do anything before he was hit. All I did was ask him to put his gun down and stop aiming at us, the man yelled, holding a piece of the projectile that hit him. They attacked us and we didnt do nothing but back up. Many of the protesters who gathered earlier in the day at the Fulton Street barricade at Ionia Avenue comprised of Michigan National Guard Humvees began dispersing as 7 p.m. drew nearer. At one point, a protester threw a water bottle at police who did not react. Still more protesters started backing up when, just after curfew struck, guardsmen and police began to don gas masks. Others walked away after Safe Smoke" was fired by police. Some thought it was tear gas. Only a handful of stragglers remained near the barricade area when police on bicycles start chasing after them and arrested those who were close to the barricade. Police arrested at least four people, including two who ran from police before being tackled. Guardsmen did not take place in any arrest. By 7:40 p.m., state and Grand Rapids police had secured the block between Ionia and Ottawa avenues. As police showed overwhelming force, a man said, We are not terrorists. We are marchers for human rights. Grand Rapids police earlier warned that those violating curfew would face consequences after a weekend riot led to property destruction and looting. The Saturday night riot followed a march earlier in the day to protest police brutality and racism after George Floyd died while an ex-Minneapolis police officer pinned his knee on Floyds neck. Protesters in Grand Rapids chanted his last words: I cant breathe. A woman yelled, Mama, which George reportedly said, too. Before the confrontation, one protester said, Peaceful protests dont work. The protest against police brutality began around 3 p.m. Monday with only a few people silently standing with signs denouncing police brutality near the Fulton Street barricade. Over the course of hours, a sizable group slowly gathered, filling the intersection in front of the barricade and eventually stationing within arm's length of the Michigan National Guard members. At one point, Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Payne addressed the crowd from behind the guards barricade. It was difficult to hear him, as he did not use anything to amplify his voice. Protesters implored him to join them. Payne later told journalists that he declined because the demonstration was not permitted. While protesters cheered Payne on as he approached, they yelled black lives matter at him as he walked away after a few minutes. Id be willing to walk with them, he later told journalists. This is an unpermitted demonstration. If they wanted to organize, then we can sit and talk about that, how that can be done. Payne went on to allege that a lot of people in the unorganized protest arent from Grand Rapids. He cited intelligence his department had as the reason for this belief. Rayna Johnson, a 21-year-old Grand Rapids resident, was one of those standing silently with her sign as the protest began at 3 p.m. Among other phrases, her sign read: Do not demand peace when those in power do not wish to be peaceful and black lives matter. When she arrived, she didnt expect to be greeted by a military barricade. Its really terrifying, and I think we should all be scared of it, she said. Were not marching for anything insane, were marching for human rights, and for it to be met with military presence speaks a lot to the fundamental problems within our system. Among those in the crowd early in the evening was Brandon Davis, director of the Office of Oversight and Public Accountability, which is an independent office created last year that oversees complaints against police and fire personnel. Davis said he attended the protest in his official capacity but also personally to show solidarity with protesters in their pain. He encouraged people to express their First Amendment rights safely. When talking about Floyds death, Davis didnt mince words. The murder was an outrage, it was outrageous and unacceptable and thats a problem, he said. Personally, I feel that pain and that conflict. As for the relationship between the Grand Rapids community and its police force, Davis said the city still has work to do. We have a long way to go in public safety-community relations, but Im committed and our city leadership is committed to ensuring that we make the necessary changes so that we can build those positive relationships and respectful relationships, he said. Read more: Grand Rapids police begin dispersing protesters as curfew goes into effect Businesses grapple with reopening following Grand Rapids riot 13 arrested, thousands of dollars in damage done during Lansing riot Sunday Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) After days of rage, the Federal Government has directed the Police to unravel the circumstances surrounding the gang-rape and murder of a female student of the University of Benin, Uwaila Omozuwa, in Benin City, capital of Edo State Its primary election day in Pennsylvania, and some voters were out early to exercise their constitutional right to help decide who holds local, state, and federal government offices. No lines, and no problems, were reported at a smattering of Cumberland and Dauphin County precincts observed by PennLive early Tuesday morning. Other anecdotal evidence from poll workers and those visiting them suggested a similar story across the Harrisburg-area, even if new voting machines in at least two counties and the coronavirus pandemic combined with social unrest in some parts of the state had many concerned that things could become chaotic from the moment the polls opened. We do have brand new machines, so they walked me through the new machines, said Margot Casey, who was the first voter in line at the Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Cumberland County. It was very organized, lots of, you know, lines six feet apart, and, they guided you through it. It was different. Margot Casey and Phil Groff head to vote as Rep. Greg Rothman looks on as the polls open on Primary Election Day in Pa., June 2, 2020. Joe Hermitt | jhermitt@pennlive.com Elsewhere, Kyle Hooven and his mom, Kathy, were quickly in and out of the Good Hope Middle School precinct location in Hampden Township. Cumberland Countys voting machines were certainly different, they said, but neither expressed any issues with the system that is new to this years election. In an ode to social distancing and COVID-19 mitigation practices, poll workers did not handle their drivers licenses and the family received a pen to use instead of everyone coming in to vote using the same writing device over and over again. It was the earliest Kyle Hooven, a 22-year-old recent graduate of Shenandoah University in Virginia has been awake in months, he joked, before adding why he felt that it was important to have his voice heard. If you look around, things are not necessarily in the best state, Kyle Hooven said. Its not exactly the ideal year to graduate college, so Im voting to hopefully turn things around in the future. Naraun R. Terry expressed a similar point of view outside of the Penbrook Municipal Building in Harrisburg. A multi-year volunteer at the polls, he was working alongside his teenage children, as well, and hopes that they will learn about the importance of voting during the experience. I feel like its action, Terry said. "Im not talking it. Im doing it. I always was registered to vote, but probably the [Philadelphia] Eagles cornerback, Malcolm Jenkins, he was like do something and this was my do something. Naraun R. Terry takes a break from working the polls in Penbrook on primary election day in Pa. on June 2, 2020. Joe Hermitt | jhermitt@pennlive.com Terry added that participation was slow but steady in the first two hours of voting, and noted that many people may have elected to vote by mail for the first time in state history. Six counties were given the green light by Gov. Tom Wolf to accept mail-in ballots until next week, which means results are not expected to be finalized for some time. That said, Terry said he did see a few new faces voting for maybe the first time, or the first time in a long time, to start the day, which he called an encouraging sign. Regardless of their party, its good to see people out here to vote, Terry said This is primaries, this also has to do with some local stuff, and you know, local is really where you start the groundwork. Polls are open statewide until 8 p.m. Tuesday night. More primary election coverage: How voting is happening in 9 states, including Pa., among protests, coronavirus and curfews Tuesdays primary election: Its not going to look or feel like it has in non-pandemic times Here are todays top news, analysis and opinion. Know all about the latest news and other news updates from Hindustan Times. Another terrorist killed in encounter in Jammu and Kashmirs Tral: Police Security forces gunned down two terrorists during a gun battle in Tral area of Jammu and Kashmirs Pulwama on Tuesday, in the third encounter in the region in three days, police said. Read more World is looking for trusted, reliable partner, India must be ready: PM Modi Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday the government will stand shoulder to shoulder with industries in their endeavour to help India get ahead on the path of self-reliance. Read more How dangerous is Cyclone Nisarga? IMD issues red alert, low-lying areas to be evacuated The India Meteorological Department said in its weather outlook on Tuesday morning that Nisarga is expected to become a cyclonic storm on Monday morning and a severe cyclonic storm by 5.30 pm on June 2. Read more This giraffe ogling at its dinner may remind you of yourself at restaurants There are some tenuous moments in a restaurant where you look at the menu and wonder, should I stick to my dish of preference or try something new. This contemplation is in no way easy but it is definitely thought-provoking. Read more Trump threatens to use military force to crush protests sparked by Floyds death US President Donald Trump threatened that he would deploy military to quell the violent protests throughout the country. Protests have engulfed at least 140 cities following the death of George Floyd. Read more Facebook employees stage virtual walkout to protest against Zuckerbergs inaction on Trumps posts Some Facebook employees have staged a virtual walkout to protest against CEO Mark Zuckerbergs inaction against posts made by Donald Trump last week. Read more Wajid Khans mother Razina tests positive for Covid-19, was taking care of ailing son at hospital: report Late music composer and singer Wajid Khans mother Razina has tested positive for the coronavirus. Wajid had died of a cardiac arrest at a Mumbai hospital on Monday and his mother was reportedly present at the same hospital to take care of her ailing son. Read more On Monday night, the city of Birmingham commenced the removal of one of Alabamas most prominent physical memorials to its racist history. The 52-foot-tall Confederate Soldiers & Sailors Monument towered over historic Linn Park for 115 years. For generations in this town, it was a constant reminder of the losing faction in a war that ended four decades before it was installed. The doomed memorial stood high over Birmingham when black smoke from even taller steel plant smokestacks still choked people's lungs on hot summer days. It remained through the salad days of the Ku Klux Klan and the largely forgotten founding of the Black Panther Party in Lowndes County, 100 miles to Birmingham's south. Through all the struggles and triumphs of the civil rights era, it stood as a physical representation of bloody nineteenth-century efforts to try to keep slavery intact. The obelisk was there through the entire tenure of Gov. George Wallace, who personified state-sanctioned racism in the U.S. It remained in place as Bull Connor, likely the most infamous and reviled police chief in American history, ordered his men to sic snarling dogs on nonviolent protesters in Kelly Ingram Park, a few short blocks away. And it didn't come down all through the Occupy protests nearly a decade ago and the Black Lives Matter demonstrations of more recent years. It survived for nearly three more years after Mayor William Bell had a plywood box built around its base and painted black in 2017. He stopped short of having it removed because the state passed a law earlier that year aimed at keeping it and similarly fraught objects from being torn down. But it couldn't survive for even a full day after a large-scale rally saw another racially divisive monument destroyed by protesters and a statue of Thomas Jefferson burned just feet away on Sunday. The demonstration, which started out peacefully but ultimately devolved into violence and extensive property damage in downtown Birmingham, represented a cry for justice by a people fed up with the seemingly endless series of deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of U.S. law enforcement officers. The death of George Floyd, who was killed on video last month by a police officer in Minneapolis, shocked the nation and drove many thousands of Americans into streets from Alabama to Alaska. Floyd's death was the direct impetus for the Sunday protests in Birmingham that ultimately led to the dramatic removal of the monument in Linn Park a day later. But it is just the latest in a series of injustices that black people in Alabama and beyond are no longer willing to put up with, according to Mia Speights, a black Birmingham resident who came out to the park on Monday to show her support for the cause. "I've been saying there was going to be a breaking point with police brutality," she said. "It started with Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner, but George Floyd is the breaking point." Only a few dozen protestors and interested folks showed up in the park on Monday afternoon and evening, but the force and scale of Sunday's events were enough to drive Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin to commit to bringing the memorial down by noon Tuesday. Easily the most visible legacy of the young mayor's tenure to date is his decision to defy the state and bring a construction crew in to dismantle the monument and take it down piece by piece with a crane bearing a massive hook, the long chunks carted away on the back of a flatbed truck. On Jefferson Davis Day, no less. As a black mayor running a major city in which over 70 percent of residents are African-American, Woodfin probably didnt hurt his local political future much by presiding over this historic moment. And it will probably only raise his national political profile and stoke new suggestions that he run for state or national office. But this was a moment that took place outside the horse race of electoral politics. Birmingham, the crucible of America's long racial divide and the site of some of the most brutal examples of its enforcement, is now without its largest confederate memorial for the first time in over a century. As Andre McKoy, a black Birmingham resident who went to Linn Park Monday afternoon to show his support for the protest movement, put it: Birmingham is 71% black but weve got a Confederate monument right downtown. Its not right. If this town was 71% Jewish, we wouldnt have a statue of Adolf Hitler. UN Report Shows Member States Grow Doubtful About Future of US-Taliban Deal By Jeff Seldin June 01, 2020 Intelligence compiled by the United Nations shows member states have growing doubts about the Taliban's intent to stick to the terms of a landmark agreement with the United States that was supposed to set the stage for an end to the nearly two-decade-long war in Afghanistan. The assessment, in the latest report from the U.N. Sanctions Monitoring Team, points not just to what had been a steady increase in Taliban attacks on Afghan forces but also to the group's internal messaging, which remains "hard-line." "The Taliban remain confident that they can take power by force," the recently released report said. "The risk exists that they will continue to find reasons to delay intra-Afghan negotiations as international forces supporting the government of Afghanistan continue to leave." The U.N. report states international support for Afghan forces, specifically "close air support" from the U.S.-led coalition, has been essential to keeping Taliban forces at bay. "The sudden or unexpected withdrawal of such support would endanger several provinces," the report noted, warning that 21 districts in Afghanistan are already under full Taliban control while as much as 60% of Afghan territory is contested. U.S. officials stopped sharing data on the so-called district-level stability assessments in 2019, arguing it was "of limited decision-making value." But the U.N. data seems to track with the assessments shared with the U.S. special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction in late 2018 and early 2019, which showed Afghan forces slowly losing control of an increasing number of districts. Despite the bleak outlook from United Nations members, a top U.S. official remained optimistic that the deal with the Taliban will hold and that negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government can succeed. "We're in a good place," Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, told reporters Monday, though he added the U.S. continues to watch developments on the ground. "We have a monitoring group that monitors in detail what's happening with regard to their commitment, the Taliban's commitments, on terrorism," he added. "We believe that there is progress, but we will continue to monitor those activities very closely." Whether U.S. optimism holds, intelligence provided by U.N. member states indicates that the Taliban's readiness to take on Afghan forces is more than just words. The report estimates the Taliban has anywhere from 55,000 to 85,000 fighters at its disposal, with up to an estimated 15,000 facilitators and non-combatants stationed across the country. Despite some dissent within the ranks, recruitment efforts are also thought to be supplying the Taliban with a steady stream of new fighters. Reports of Taliban financial woes may also be overblown. The U.N. monitoring team concluded the Taliban is bringing in anywhere from $300 million to $1.5 billion a year, and that prospects for increasing revenue look good, both from taxes on the use of roads across northern Afghanistan and from a growing drug trade. "While heroin cultivation and production have provided the bulk of Taliban revenue for many years, the emergence of methamphetamine in Afghanistan is giving impetus to a major new drug industry with significant profit margins," the report said. Taliban relationship with al-Qaida Additionally, U.N. member states continue to be wary of the Taliban relationship with al-Qaida, saying that if anything, the relationship between the terror group and the insurgent group is growing stronger. "One member state reported that the regularity of mtgs btw al-Qaida seniors and the Taliban 'made any notion of a break between the two mere fiction,'" the report said. "The Taliban regularly consulted with al-Qaida during negotiations with the United States and offered guarantees that it would honor their historical ties," it added. U.N. member states are not alone when it comes to such doubts. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told U.S. lawmakers in March that he was "less optimistic" about the Taliban's willingness to confront al-Qaida as part of its pledge to counter terror groups on Afghan soil. "I defer to no one in my distrust of the Taliban," he said at the time. The U.N. report also casts doubt on the Taliban's motives for taking on the Islamic State terror group, especially in Nangarhar province, where U.S. officials said Taliban fighters played a key role in helping to wipe out the IS presence. "The occupation by ISIL-K of key smuggling routes in Nangarhar blocked access to traditional growing areas and routes used by Taliban-affiliated networks," the U.N. report said. "The retaking of large poppy-cultivating areas in #Nangarhar was expected to counter financial losses." Recent hopes for progress in talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government were briefly buoyed by a temporary cease fire during the three-day Eid festivities last week, but since then, fighting has resumed. "I think it is incumbent on the Taliban to continue that ceasefire in every possible way and that the government [of Afghanistan] continue to build on the progress that has been made toward a unified government that will set the stage for these talks among Afghan people," the U.S. permanent ambassador to NATO told VOA's Afghan Service at the time. U.S. defense officials declined to comment about the U.N. report, deferring to the U.S. State Department. Under the agreement with the Taliban, the U.S. is scheduled to bring troops levels in Afghanistan to 8,600 by July. State Department Correspondent Nike Ching, VOA's Afghan Service contributed to this story. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Twitter was awash with black squares today as thousands of people observed a social media Blackout Tuesday in support of the George Floyd protests. Celebrities including Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, Jennifer Aniston were among those who posted a plain black square and stepped away from social media for the rest of the day in a symbol of solidarity today. Madonna, Oprah Winfrey and Katy Perry were also among the A-list celebrities who joined in the outpouring of support today. Initially intended to be just for the music industry, the online gesture has swept across Twitter and Instagram as anger over Floyd's death engulfs America. Posting with the hashtag #BlackoutTuesday, some users have urged people to avoid the more ubiquitous #BlackLivesMatter to prevent it from being submerged by black squares - blocking out useful information being shared under that hashtag. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died last Monday after a white police officer knelt on his head for nearly nine minutes in Minneapolis, prompting a wave of protests. Black out: A host of stars honoured the Black Lives Matter movement by observing Black Out Tuesday, in which they removed themselves from social media for the day Solidarity: Celebrities including Kim Kardashian, Rihanna , Jennifer Aniston were among those who posted a plain black square Initially intended to be just for the music industry, the online gesture has swept across Twitter and Instagram as anger over Floyd's death engulfs America. Pictured is Oprah and Aniston A medical examiner's office on Monday ruled that Floyd's death was a homicide as they appeared to walk back initial reports that he wasn't strangled. The examiner's findings that the death was a homicide by asphyxiation confirmed the same conclusion of the independent autopsy that was also released on Monday, but there are key differences over the cause. Chauvin, who is white and was fired from the Minneapolis police department over the incident, has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter, over Floyd's death roiled the nation, which has sparked mass protests against police brutality across the nation. The Black Lives Matter movement, which was first founded in 2013 following the acquittal of George Zimmerman and was nationally recognized for its involvement in the Ferguson protests in 2014 has been galvanized once more following the death of Floyd. Ain't selling: Rihanna, along with posting a black square, said that her beauty brand Fenty will cease sales on Tuesday Support: Instead of posting a black square, Kim Kardashian changed her Instagram profile picture to black Star power: Drew Barrymore, Alicia Keys, Tom Brady, Courteney Cox and Demi lovato all got behind the cause On Monday, it was announced that the music industry would observe the blackout in solidarity with the Black Live Matter movement, but it swiftly spread across the board with many celebrities and social media users taking part. Rihanna, along with posting a black square, took things a step further as she revealed that her beauty brand, Fenty, will cease sales on Tuesday. 'we aint buying s**t!!! and we aint selling s**t neither!! gang gang! #BLACKOUTTUESDAY AF!!! @FentyOfficial @fentybeauty @SavageXFenty' the singer wrote on Twitter. Oprah Winfrey joined in the online protest, saying: 'This is for George Floyd and all those who came before.' Jennifer Aniston followed the protocol, using the hashtag #blackouttuesday and the plain words 'Black lives matter' alongside her own black square. Justin Timberlake did the same. Reese Witherspoon also joined in the show of solidarity, simply using the hashtag #BlackoutTuesday. Reese Witherspoon also joined in the show of solidarity, simply using the hashtag #BlackoutTuesday. Justin Bieber was among the celebrities who posted the black square in a show of solidarity without further comment A-list couple: Justin Timberlake and wife Jessica Biel made sure to show their support by posting black squares on Tuesday Timberlake was among those who heeded the warning to avoid the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter in an effort to stop it being submerged by black squares Doing her part: Biel also provided resources to support the cause Model Ashley Graham wrote alongside her black square: 'Black Lives Matter. Amplify Black Voices.' Kim Kardashian meanwhile changed her Twitter and Instagram profile pictures to plain black in the same spirit. Bella Hadid, opted to share a black square in the shape of a heart, while adding a caption which read: 'This is not a moment, its a movement. Screaming #BlackLivesMatter'. Demi Lovato was among those to advise against the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag 'so that we keep information easily accessible, otherwise tons of black boxes will drown the news feed'. Cardi B joined in with the caption 'BLACKOUT', while Kylie Jenner declared 'BLACK LIVES MATTER' without the unwanted hashtag. Julia Roberts was also among those to use the #BlackoutTuesday hashtag in an online protest which has gathered thousands of supporters Taylor Swift posted her Blackout Tuesday message alongside a series of hearts and the hashtag-less message 'Black Lives Matter' Madonna quoted Nelson Mandela - 'No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin' - and played a song by Mick Jenkins including the lyric 'I can't breathe' Actress Jada Pinkett-Smith declared her 'solidarity' as she posted her own black square on Instagram today Movement: Jada regularly uses her platform, via her Facebook series Red Table Talk, to address issues of race Kendall Jenner and Justin Bieber were among those to post the black square in a show of solidarity without further comment. Katy Perry made a longer post, saying she had 'spent the last few days watching, listening and reflecting about how to utilize my privilege and platform'. The pregnant singer revealed she had donated to a string of organizations including Black Lives Matter itself as she vowed to 'work hard to make damn sure this world is a more just place for every child'. Madonna quoted Nelson Mandela - 'No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin' - and posted a black square which came with the song Drowning by Mick Jenkins. The song includes the lyric 'I can't breathe', referring to Floyd's words as he lay pinned down by white cop Derek Chauvin. Model Ashley Graham wrote alongside her black square: 'Black Lives Matter. Amplify Black Voices.' Great loss: The movement comes after the death of African-American George Floyd, 46, last week, who passed away after Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for several minutes before he died from asphyxiation Shocking: Leading the way was model, Bella who opted to share a black square in the shape of a heart, while adding a caption reading: 'This is not a moment, its a movement. Screaming #BlackLivesMatter' Meanwhile, Taylor Swift joined in Blackout Tuesday by posting a series of black hearts alongside the image. Actress Jada Pinkett-Smith declared her 'solidarity' as she posted her own black square on Instagram today. Alicia Keys shared her black square without further comment, but separately posted a series of relevant books and 'Ways You Can Help' on her Instagram story. Vanessa Bryant, the widow of Kobe Bryant who died in a helicopter crash in January, also let the black square stand on its own. On pause: Will Smith simply posted a black square with no comment Dita Von Teese wrote: 'Black Lives Matter. I am listening. I am deepening my understanding of my own white privilege, and learning about ways I can be a more active and better ally. I stand with you.' Another message came from model Cara Delevingne who wrote: 'I understand that I will never understand but I stand #blackouttuesday'. Gordon Ramsay wrote: 'Taking this time to pause, listen, and stand strong with you #endracism #blackouttuesday', while Mark Wright penned: I understand that Ill never understand however, I stand... Breaking out: Chauvin, who is white and was fired from the Minneapolis police department over the incident, was hit with third-degree murder and manslaughter charges last week as protests over Floyd's death roiled the nation 'We need to listen and learn and create permanent change. #blackouttuesday'. His wife Michelle Keegan wrote: 'No one should ever feel oppressed and be treated less than just because of their race, colour of their skin, religion or sexuality. Its our responsibility as HUMAN BEINGS to act to do/say something when discrimination and injustice takes place. This is not a trend this is a movement... LISTEN, LEARN, EVOLVE. Black lives matter'. Further stars from UK and Ireland to pay tribute included Holly Willoughby, Myleene Klass, Laura Whitmore, Rochelle Humes, Stephen Fry and Kate Ferdinand. Jameela Jamil opted against the Black Out Tuesday tributes however as she vowed to provide information on activists rather than blacking out. Heartache: Three days before the blackout, Rihanna shared an impassioned tribute to the late Floyd and threw her support behind the cause Paying tribute: Another message came from model, Cara Delevingne who wrote: 'I understand that I will never understand but I stand #blackouttuesday' Support: Bella was one of many celebrities to back the movement She wrote: 'Instead of blackout, only highlight black activists, educational content, donation information, and imagery that depicts the truth of the protests'. She further detailed why she would not partake, as she added: 'Im personally not engaging in the blackout but at the very least lets be careful of doing this... 'It was supposed to just be for the music industry but has caught on at the worst time. We need information, education and donation... 'Thank you to my friends for educating me about a better way to be helpful, by sharing the work and words of black activists and writers and by instructing my followers how to be of service to the movement for black lives. #blacklivesmatter'. Donald Trump yesterday threatened to send in the US military to quell the protests which raged for a seventh night running on Monday. Trump said he was 'sickened and revolted' by Floyd's death but said the riots were being infiltrated by 'professional anarchists, violent mobs, arsonists, looters, criminals, rioters, Antifa, and others'. The president was also widely criticized for having protesters dispersed with tear gas outside the White House so that he could walk to a nearby church for a photo op. Elsewhere, rioters opened fire and wounded four officers in St Louis while others hurled rocks, launched fireworks and poured gas over cops in scenes of 'mayhem' on Monday night. An emotional police chief condemned the looters who were 'tearing up cities' with 'no intention of doing anything constructive' as he revealed the four injured officers were in hospital but likely to survive. Another cop was reportedly on life support today after he was shot in the head in Las Vegas in one of two outbreaks of gunfire in the city. Budgam (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], June 1 (ANI): Jammu and Kashmir Police on Monday said that it has busted a narco-terror module and arrested six terrorist associates linked to the proscribed terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). "#Budgam Police busts #Narco-terror module. Arrested 06 #terrorist associates linked to proscribed terror outfit #JeM. #Narcotic substance, #Arms & ammunition recovered from their possession. #Case registered," tweeted Kashmir Zone Police. Earlier today, the Army said that three heavily-armed Pakistan trained terrorists have been killed along the Line of Control (LoC) in Naushera Sector in an ongoing counter-infiltration operation. "In an ongoing counter-infiltration operation since 28 May, alert troops of Indian Army eliminated an infiltration bid along Line of Control in Naushera Sector. 3 heavily-armed Pakistan trained terrorists have been killed. Search operation in the area is in progress," the Indian Army said. (ANI) In the name of all these men and women and countless more, this is why thousands of Americans have taken to the streets to express a rage born of despair. Despair that their government has failed to provide one of the most fundamental protections in the Constitution: the right to life, and to not be deprived of that life without due process of law. Stop killing us. What the protesters want is a country where bad cops are fired rather than coddled. They want a country where cops who beat demonstrators arent protected by their unions, but instead lose their jobs. They want a country where the police protect the right of their fellow Americans to gather in public and seek redress for their grievances, rather than one where they are rammed with SUVs. They want a country where federal troops arent used against a peaceful protest to facilitate a photo-op. A vast majority of these protests have been peaceful. But not all. Where they are not, police officers are often the target of that violence. Officers may feel left with no good options in that moment, but how they respond does matter. Because its sometimes the police themselves who make matters worse by instigating physical confrontations, manhandling elderly people and pepper-spraying children. And wherever violence has broken out whether committed by law enforcement, outside agitators or rioters and looters it has provided an excuse to shift the debate away from the sources of the original despair. Riots are socially destructive and self-defeating, Martin Luther King Jr. said in 1967, during an earlier spasm of unrest. In the same passage he wrote, It is as necessary for me to be as vigorous in condemning the conditions which cause persons to feel that they must engage in riotous activities as it is for me to condemn riots. In the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard, Dr. King said. As long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. An empty dam on a Wellsford farm. The earth has opened up in Wellsford. Cracks so big, you could lose a dog down them. Photo, Teresa Woolley of Topuni. Losing sheep in dried up dams has been a common occurrence this year. Photo, Brett Wilson of Kaiwaka. The Baldrock Dam near Kaiwaka is still low. Despite recent rain, north Rodney and Kaipara are in the grip of the worst drought seen in modern times. Although the districts urban residents have seen their grass turn green and might be forgiven for thinking the worst is over, the upper North Island has so far received only a third of its usual rainfall this year. Successive dry years have meant that soil moisture is well below average and underground aquifers and bores have dried up. The upshot is that grass has failed to grow. Stephen Dills family has been farming the Kaipara Hills for five generations and has been keeping records for all of that time. Stephen says this has been the driest 12-month period since 1946. The Dill farm needs to have grass 7cm tall by June 1, but presently its sitting at 4cm. Thats the equivalent of going into the dry season with your rain tank half empty. Its the lowest pasture cover Ive seen in my time farming, he says. Stephen has been trucking water from a deep bore at the base of the hills up to his farm but will soon have to buy commercially delivered water. Its the second year in a row with a deficit of rain and so the aquifers havent recharged. Despite the adverse conditions, Rodney and Kaipara farmers are battling on. Tomarata dairy farmer Murray Fell dried off his cows early and slowed his pasture rotation in anticipation of the extended drought. As silage and hay became increasingly scarce and difficult to buy, Murray began stocking hay in his barn and supplementing his feed with palm kernel. Its better to have a barn full of hay than money in the bank, he says. These measures have meant that his milk production is down 10 per cent, but Murray is in a relatively good place, heading into the dry winter. Matakana farmer Keith Trotter says his milk production could be down by up to 20 per cent and his pasture cover is only at 1400kg/ha, when he would normally be hoping for 2500kg/ha. You just have to be prepared to farm your way through it and be prepared to buy more feed, he says. Shane Hood has had a tough run on his finishing farm in Glorit thanks to the drought and Covid-19 drastically reducing demand for exports. He bought 41 young Friesian bulls for $1050 a head during spring, when cattle prices were at historic highs. The animals put on 60kgs of weight, yet Shane has had to sell them at a loss for $920 a head. Thats farming you take the good with the bad, he says. We budgeted for worst case scenarios, and we are very lucky that we dont have a mortgage, but people with debt will be really struggling. This month, Agriculture Minister Damien OConnor announced $500,000 in relief for drought stricken farmers in the Hawkes Bay and later announced a further $500,000 to be shared between Northland and Waikato. The funds are to be distributed via local district authorities at their discretion. However, north Rodney farmers have no way to access the funds because they reside below an arbitrary line dividing the Auckland and Northland regions. This is despite meteorologists confirming what Rodney farmers already know the region has been among the hardest hit. NIWA meteorologist Ben Noll says it is the most extreme drought event for Auckland in modern times. Auckland has been particularly dry, with more than 77 consecutive days spent in severe drought more than any other region, including Hawkes Bay and Northland. Mr Noll says that soil moisture is not likely to significantly improve until rains arrive in late winter or spring. (See season outlook story). But Rodney farmers that Mahurangi Matters spoke to believe its up to them to find farming solutions to get through the winter and theyre not expecting the Government to take notice. One said that waiting for the Government to intervene would be wishful thinking. Egypt will gradually move back to normal during the second half of June, according to Cabinet Spokesperson Nader Saad. All activities, services and businesses will be allowed to operate again, though not in one go, he said in a TV interview on 30 May. The coronavirus crisis management group, which meets every Wednesday, is due to consider the resumption of domestic flights in the second half of June or first week of July. It is also expected to decide on the reopening of cafes, cinemas, restaurants and sporting clubs. In the face of calls from the business community the government has shortened the curfew, and according to Saad, banks have also asked to return to a full eight-hour work day. Public notary offices are also set to resume a full service in the second half of June. On Sunday the end of the curfew was moved from 6am to 5am. Saad also said he was optimistic that Egypt would soon be open to foreign tourists. He noted that most European countries are set to resume flights in the second half of June. We have to prepare. A number of global carriers have expressed willingness to resume flights to Egypt in July, and as a result we are considering a gradual resumption of international flights beginning towards the end of this month and in the first half of July. Germany said this week that it plans to resume charter flights to Hurghada and seven other Red Sea tourist resorts in Egypt in July. Saad warned, however, that the opening of public beaches remains difficult. Beaches owned by hotels can adopt social distancing measures which will be impossible to maintain on public beaches in densely populated cities like Alexandria. Saad revealed the government is also considering a request from the Ministry of Religious Endowments to open mosques for congregational prayers as long as social distancing measures are observed, and worshippers bring their own prayer mats. The crisis management group will meet Wednesday and we may see limited Friday prayers resuming the following week, said Saad. If that happens, there will also be limited church services. The Coptic Orthodox Church said this week it is looking into the possibility of resuming services by the end of June. A Ministry of Religious Endowments source announced on Sunday that millions of face masks were being sourced to handout to worshippers when they enter mosques, and that the mosques will be sanitised before prayers. That Saudi Arabia opted to open mosques for prayers this week, and Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem resumed prayers, has prompted many to lobby that Egypt should follow suit. MP Osama Al-Abd, head of parliaments Religious Affairs Committee, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the government has recently come under pressure, from Azharite clerics and imams, to ease restrictions on mosques. House of Representatives Secretary-General Mahmoud Fawzi announced on Sunday that parliament will reconvene on 7 June despite eight MPs testing positive for Covid-19 in one week. Saad also said the recent surge in coronavirus infections will not stop the holding of the Thanaweya Amma [secondary school] exams, scheduled to begin on 21 June. The government is determined the exams are held on time, and has allocated LE500 million to ensure they take place in a safe and virus-free environment, said Saad. Unlike Saad, Minister of Information Osama Heikal sounded a more cautious note on reopening measures. In a TV interview on 30 May Heikal said nobody can say with certainty what will happen in the next few weeks. What I can say is the crisis management group will review the situation and make a decision that takes into account the number of infections, hospital conditions and economic developments, said Heikal. Egypt has seen a surge in the number of coronavirus infections in recent days. The number of cases reported has more than quadrupled in the last month, jumping from 4,000 on 24 April to 18,000 on 24 May. On 1 June almost 1,400 new cases were reported. Egypt now tops Arab and African countries in terms of coronavirus deaths. While the numbers have been fluctuating between 10 and 20 deaths a day, they are expected to hit more than 50 per day soon, said head of parliaments Health Affairs Committee Mohamed Al-Amari. The death toll should ring alarm bells among policymakers, and those pushing for a speedy reopening, said Al-Amari, though he did note the spike in infections and deaths might be due to people socialising during the holy month of Ramadan. Al-Amari believes the spike in infections in the past month is a result of peoples failure to wear face masks and observe social distancing. The public seems more aware of the importance of these restrictions, so hopefully the peak period will end very soon, he said. In some other countries the number of coronavirus infections increased by up to 150,000 in a single month, so by those standards we are not doing all that badly, says Heikal. The most important thing is that the numbers do not continue to rise in Egypt. So far, our hospitals have been able to cope. Minister of Higher Education Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar sounded a pessimistic note during a videoconference on Monday, warning that coronavirus infections could skyrocket to a million cases if citizens continued to ignore protective measures and restrictions. The more citizens abide by the precautionary measures, the faster we get out of this crisis, said Abdel-Ghaffar. In a country with 105 million people all kinds of scenarios are possible. Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli told governors on Monday that though infection numbers are expected to increase in the next two weeks the government intends to reopen businesses and move the country back to normal. We have to learn to live with this virus, he said. Saad said lockdown measures had proved ineffective in stemming the tide of the coronavirus in many countries, and that the world is now moving to reopening, though with precautions in place. The government, he said, has concluded the economic costs of prolonged restrictions outweigh the health costs of increased infections. Saad argued that though the number of infections had increased, the numbers who recover from the virus are also growing and the majority of coronavirus cases show mild symptoms that do not need hospital treatment. Mohamed Awad Taggeddin, a former health minister and now the presidential health adviser, said in a press conference on 31 May that Egypt, with 35,000 hospital beds, 5,400 health units in villages and 65 mobile medical caravans, is equipped to contain any surge in infections. Sherif Wadie, the minister of healths adviser for emergency and urgent care cases, said only four per cent of coronavirus patients in Egypt die, and the majority of fatalities were either elderly or patients with serious underlying health conditions. Only eight per cent of coronavirus patients need intensive care and only five per cent receive artificial ventilation, while more than 85 per cent present mild symptoms, said Wadie. Wadie, however, said if infections reach 3,000 or more by the end of June, then new measures may have to be adopted. In a press conference on Sunday, Minister of Health Hala Zayed said: Egypt has gone from having 18 hospitals treating and screening for coronavirus to 376 hospitals with a capacity of 35,000 beds. We have another 57 laboratories that will be open by the end of the week to provide PCR analyses, in addition to 17 labs that operate under the Ministry of Higher Education. She called on citizens to download the Health Egypt app to follow the latest updates on the virus, and noted it has already been downloaded 600,000 times. On Monday, Prime Minister Madbouli said the government had moved to impose price caps on coronavirus treatment at private hospitals after a plethora of complaints about overcharging. *A version of this article appears in print in the 4 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was killed after a Minneapolis police officer placed a knee on his neck as Floyd repeatedly said he couldn't breathe. The outrage over his death has sparked protests across the Bay Area and the country, some of which have turned violent. East Bay columnist Otis Taylor Jr. joins Editor in Chief Audrey Cooper on the Fifth & Mission podcast to talk about the civil unrest over the weekend. He shares his conversations with black business owners in Oakland who stood guard against the destruction of their stores, and talks about how "even when you do everything right, there is still that sense of fear when a group of police officers are walking down the street." The first India-Australia virtual leaders summit on June 4 is expected to build on growing defence ties between the two sides and shared approach to a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific, people familiar with development said on Tuesday. This will be Prime Minister Narendra Modis first virtual bilateral summit, while Australia has held such a summit with Singapore in March. Since Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrisons visit to India was in the pipeline (first during January 13-16 and later in May), the two leaders decided to continue their engagement through a virtual meeting. Several agreements, including one on mutual sharing of military logistics facilities, are expected to be signed during the summit on June 4, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity. Australia has huge deposits of minerals, including rare earth metals, and the two sides have been working on cooperation in critical and strategic minerals, the people said. The virtual summit will provide an opportunity to the two sides to review the broad framework of the relationship and to discuss their responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. Due to better understanding of Indias strength and future role, Australia, in its white paper on foreign policy of 2017, recognised India as the pre-eminent maritime power among Indian Ocean countries and a front-rank partner of Australia, said one of the people. India and Australia have developed an understanding of each others perspectives on regional and global issues. We have a shared approach to a free, open, inclusive, and prosperous Indo-Pacific. This has led to convergence of mutual interest in many areas, the person added. At the plurilateral level, Australia has backed Indias global initiatives such as the International Solar Alliance and Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure. Australia also backs Indias membership of an expanded UN Security Council and supported the countrys membership of the Australia Group and Wassenaar Arrangement. Australia has also been supportive of Indias position on cross-border terrorism and on asking Pakistan to take meaningful action against terrorist groups operating from its soil. Australia co-sponsored the UN Security Council resolution to declare Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar a global terrorist, the person said. Bilateral trade was worth $20.92 billion during 2018-19, including India exports of goods and services worth $5.17 billion. Australias cumulative investment in India is about $10.74 billion while Indian investments in Australia totalled $10.45 billion. The Australian Pension Fund has invested $1 billion in Indias National Investment and Infrastructure Fund. Australia is home to a 700,000-strong Indian diaspora and there are about 106,000 Indian students in Australia. Under Vande Bharat Mission, 1,560 Indian nationals were repatriated from Australia in seven flights in May. The flights also evacuated 1,096 Australians. We came to this country with nothing, said Gloria Wong, 50, whose building on University Avenue in St. Paul was badly damaged. I have been working my whole life for my building. Now it just takes one or two persons to trash it. I feel very down right now. My heart is just aching all over. Ms. Wong said she had a fondness for police officers: Her uncle was one of the first Hmong-Americans to become one in the 1980s. But when she saw the video, she thought that Tou Thao, the officer who stood by during Mr. Floyds death, had acted wrongly. I thought he had neglected what he went to law enforcement school for, Ms. Wong said. Still, she understood why he had attended. His family, she said, was also striving. They were trying to work hard and rise up and have the American dream too, she said. Hmong-Americans do not fit cleanly into the countrys broad racial categories. Because so many came as impoverished refugees, they are more likely to be poor than many other Asian immigrants from places like China and India who often have specialized degrees. An ethnic minority in Laos, they were recruited by the United States to help disrupt supply lines and fight against communists in Southeast Asia. After the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, they settled around the Twin Cities, Milwaukee and Fresno, Calif., starting out with very little as they tried to establish roots. Dave Blazeks job is to make you forget life for a few seconds and laugh. Through his syndicated comic, Loose Parts, he offers quirky observations and absurd scenarios but lately, a pressing question has popped into his personal thought balloons as a daily gag cartoonist: Should he let "the new normal" of pandemic life in 2020 invade his strip's silly, sealed-off world? I understand that the coronavirus and all that it has changed is tremendous fodder for ideas, and it certainly has the benefit of common experience that so many cartoons tap deep into, Blazek says. But I just decided to not address it in Loose Instead, Blazek is among at least 70 cartoonists who plan to pay visual tribute to first responders and other essential workers in their print and online color art on Sunday. The coordinated "cartoon gratitude" campaign will feature a handful of icons embedded into the strips, to thank everyone from medical personnel (symbolized with a cartoon mask) to scientists (a microscope symbol) to teachers (an apple) to food workers (a fork). The idea began with "Baby Blues" co-creator Rick Kirkman, who contacted some of his fellow cartoonists about coordinating a campaign while sheltering in place. Kirkman's syndicate, King Features, and the National Cartoonists Society helped boost the initiative, as did Andrews McMeel Syndication. June 7 marks the weekend that the NCS was set to hold its Reuben Awards convention in Kansas City, Mo.; the event was canceled because of coronavirus-related concerns. Kirkman hopes readers will get into the spirit of the "big thank-you search" for symbols, like an "I Spy" game. "Each time they find one," he says, "it's a little vibe of gratitude for the people it represents." He hopes that feeling of gratitude in turn will spur readers to give to charities aiding people during the pandemic. Some of the cartoonists will cite specific charities in their comics, and participating strips (including Mutts, Rhymes With Orange, Speed Bump and Pearls Before Swine) will be viewable online at ComicsKingdom.com and GoComics.com. In addition to the microscope, apple and fork, Blazek included a hidden cart (a nod to grocery workers) and a steering wheel symbol (for delivery and transportation workers) in his Loose Parts strip, which is distributed by the Washington Post Writers Group. For the Valley Forge-based cartoonist, thanking essential workers hits intensely close to home. Blazeks father-in-law, Ray Beach, died of COVID-19 in Lancaster and his daughter Olivia Blazek is a doctor doing her residency in Charlottesville, Va. "One of the more searing memories of my life will be watching my wife say her final goodbye to her dad over an iPhone held up by a nurse we never saw," Blazek says. "There was a part of my brain that was eminently aware that someone who knew none of us was holding that phone in silence." Blazek, who worked in The Inquirers marketing department until his 2018 retirement, says he thinks not only about how difficult the pandemic is for patients and their families, but also about how oddly disorienting it must be for health-care workers, too." Kirkman says he feels a debt to people who are trying to save lives and keep essential services functioning. But you cant go around and thank all of them personally and stuff money in their pockets, he says, so perhaps charity donations sparked by the comics will make a difference. A Marine general is firing back at criticism that the Corps is on a path that will leave it unable to respond to emergencies around the world, ending the service's long-standing role as America's crisis-response force. Lt. Gen. Eric Smith, head of Marine Corps Combat Development Command, is heavily involved in ongoing war games shaping a decade-long plan to reorganize the Marine Corps for future fights. Critics have slammed the plan, called Force Design 2030, as being too narrowly focused on China. Read Next: Minnesota National Guard Opened Fire on a Vehicle, Commander Says While some have called it a mistake for Marine leaders to set their sights on operations in one region of the world, Smith said the criticism is unfounded. Marines haven't forgotten their core missions, he said. They'll still carry out raids, disaster-relief missions and evacuations, he said, but they must be prepared to operate in areas where near-peer adversaries -- such as China or Russia -- also have influence. "We are still training to do all of the things that we traditionally have done as the 911 force," Smith said. "But ... there's no doubt that the true peer competitors are acting globally, and if you think you can do these lower-end operations without being under some influence -- especially in the information environment -- from a peer competitor, you're simply wrong." Former Navy Secretary Jim Webb is one of the critics of the Marine Corps' plan. In an op-ed for The National Interest, a conservative foreign affairs magazine, Webb said the Force Design 2030 plan, which calls for close naval integration and island-hopping missions, will leave the Marine Corps less relevant as a stand-alone military service. "After the centuries it took to establish the Marine Corps as a fully separate military service, it could reduce its present role by making it again subordinate to the funding and operational requirements of the Navy," wrote Webb, a former Marine officer who fought in Vietnam, earning a Navy Cross and Silver Star. Commandant Gen. David Berger ordered the force design and war gaming after stepping into his position last year. The results include big changes, such as plans to get rid of tank battalions, some infantry units and other personnel. The savings will be used to pay for new weapons and other equipment. He told reporters in April that the National Defense Strategy points the Navy and Marine Corps toward preparing to counter China as their "pacing threat." But Webb, in his op-ed, said Berger's plan to "dramatically alter the entire force structure of the Marine Corps" to take on China ignores the unpredictability of war. "There is no greater danger in military strategy than shaping a nation's force structure to respond to one specific set of contingencies, giving an adversary the ability to adjust and adapt beforehand," he wrote. The Marine Corps' plan does call for three new rapidly deployable littoral regiments in the Pacific, the first one of which will be based in Hawaii. But Smith said any new capabilities the Marine Corps builds to operate in that region will also be useful in other theaters. "It has to be useful in the Strait of Hormuz; it has to be useful in the Baltics or the Black Sea," Smith said. Ultimately, Marines must be prepared to fight a new kind of enemy, which requires change, he added. "To compete with a peer competitor, somebody who has bombers, fighters, tankers, submarines, space-jamming capability and all the rest, then you really have to step up your game," Smith said. -- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @ginaaharkins. Related: Marine Corps to Shut Down, Cut Back 7 MOSs as the Force Prepares for Change Prosecutors have dropped a series of child rape charges against male members of the infamous Colt family just as the men were due to face trial. Twenty charges on a joint indictment were withdrawn on Tuesday related to four incidents allegedly committed by Frank, Charlie and Cliff Colt*. The charges were dropped against male members of the Colt family before the men were due to face trial. Credit:Police Media The Sydney District Court is expected to decide on Wednesday how the remaining allegations of child rape against the men will proceed in judge-alone trials. About 40 members of the clan were discovered living in squalor on a rural property near Yass in 2012, with stories of suspected historic and ongoing child abuse making international headlines. At Mumbai International airport, the CISF personnel did not conduct a body scan, however, at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru (I had a connecting flight to Bagdogra in West Bengal), body scanners were used by the security. It took a desperate call from my mother asking me to come home from Mumbai that finally shattered my confidence in continuing to put up in a place which was a declared red and the COVID-19 cases only kept multiplying. Panic gripped my parents back home in West Bengal's Hasimara as the constant statistics of rising cases in Mumbai only fuelled their fear and they wanted me out of the city at any cost. That I stay in Worli, one of the highly affected zones of the city, only made their decision resolute. But travelling in the time of pandemic is no easy task. The very thought of dealing with bundle of paperwork, navigating through conflicting information, purchasing a ticket that costs a bomb, arranging for a vehicle when taxis are off the roads, downloading Aarogya Setu, observing health precautions suddenly made this travel plan a project. As if COVID-19 was not enough, Cyclone Amphan that hit Odisha and West Bengal only threw in another set of challenges. But that's not it. With the Centre issuing the directive to restart flight operations from 25 May amid resistance from the state governments, instances of which have been witnessed in West Bengal and Maharashtra, a confusion over guidelines and formalities prevailed among people. Then there was an epidemic of random flight cancellations. One may have a ticket and no one could be sure if they are flying at all. Unreachable customer care of airlines, lack of information from their side only made the uncertainty worse. Looking back Now as I write this piece cocooned in the peace of parental care under home quarantine in one of the tea estates of the north Bengal's famous DOOARS region, the journey relives in me in vivid cinematic memory. Undoubtedly everyone right now is dealing with some sort of gloom but, a peculiar feeling sets in when you are living in a containment zone in Mumbai, stuck within the four-walled rented apartment and following a set routine with almost nothing new to look forward to not even binging on new web series or a slow-burner supernatural thriller or even a psychological suspense novel can make you forgetful of being trapped. The daily count of coronavirus cases nationwide continues to rise while theres no change in the level of mental, physical and emotional exhaustion. You wonder what next from here. For me, there was a dire need to see familiar faces and collapse in the bed at my parents. They stay amid the greens in a tea estate in north Bengal, which has its added perks. So, one can sense the desperation in this famished soul, trying to make amends with the once-busy and now empty streets of Worli, where I was surrounded with COVID-19 cases left, right and centre. For starters, on 22 May I checked with the Mumbai Police to confirm if air travellers would require an e-pass to reach the airport. To my disappointment, they were as clueless as I was with some officials even saying that there was no confirmation on flight resumption yet. However, after speaking to a few journalists who cover the aviation sector, there was some relief about flight operation from 25 May. They further instructed to carry a doctor clearance certificate to ascertain that I was safe to travel. Work did not end here. Since I was about to travel to a remote green zone in Alipurduar district in West Bengal, my travel plan was needed to be reported to the Block Medical Officer of Health (BMOH). Learning about my travel history from Mumbai, the BMOH of Kalchini in Alipurduar, alerted the district surveillance team. According to the nodal officer of my tea estate, Dr C Bhattacharya, I would have to stay in Subhasini institutional quarantine centre in Kalchini area. After following this procedure, I bestowed full trust on the Ministry of Home Affairs order and booked my flight for 25 May to Bagdogra in West Bengal. But there had to be some kind of impediment I believe and a just day before I could start my journey home, the Maharashtra government opposed Centres call to resume flights. The end result of the bitter squabble between the Centre and state was difficult to predict from Chief Minister Uddhav Thackerays press briefing on 24 May, when he stated that the Centre made an arbitrary decision allow domestic flight operations. However, I did not let the afternoon presser dampen my spirit and hoped I would reach home anyway. But then came in another obstacle. The Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government "urged" the Centre to stall the air traffic in the state for three more days owing to the destruction caused by cyclone Amphan. My anger aggravated at the sluggish attitude with which Mamata responded to this decision. Without underestimating the veracity of the devastation, she could have conveyed this response to the Centre two days ago before so many people in earnestness had booked tickets to return home. I still held my calm when the airline cancelled my flight at 12 am on 25 May. It was not just the hard-earned money that was wasted but the little mental harmony that we were all trying to hold on to. I was adamant to resume work and not book any further flights until mid-June but finally gave in to mothers cajoling over the phone. This time around, to be on the safer side, I booked a SpiceJet flight for 29 May, a day after from when air operations would resume in Bengal. I asked my company to arrange a car for me to the airport and the help was invaluable. Documents kept me on tenterhooks: Since I was flying alone, in the unusual circumstances this time, I was apprehensive of what all documents I might be asked to present to the airport authorities. None of the airlines or even the state governments had made it unambiguous for the fliers so, to be extra cautious I made photocopies of all the essential id-proofs from Aadhaar to PAN card. But there is no requirement to bring in complexities when theres an undeniable urgency to meet your kins. All that youll be needing is a copy of your boarding pass (mobile format also acceptable) and authorised identity proof. I was in no mood to miss my flight and took off for the airport very early. The general hustle-bustle being replaced by a muted atmosphere can be a little intimidating, especially if you reach the airport at 4.30 am! Before that, there was the dress drill. Armed with an N-95 mask to repel any virus attack and donning highly uncomfortable latex gloves, I was determined to keep COVID-19 at bay. I received an extra set of self-protective gear when the airlines gave me a safety kit, comprising a hand sanitizer, mask and a face shield. I also had to attach a baggage tag/label to my check-in luggage (which shouldnt weigh beyond 15 kg, although airlines like the SpiceJet has set a limit of 20 kg per person), unlike earlier times. I had done a photocopy of the tags which I got during the web check-in process which also contained details like name, PNR number, flight number, origin, destination and the date of travel. However, one can also stick a hand-written label as per the format provided to your luggage. Upon arrival at the airport, a green status on the Aarogya Setu app is essential. A temperature check was done before I entered the terminal building which was followed by the CISF staff checking my identity card and the boarding pass at the entry gate. Soon after I headed directly to the Spice Jet check-in desks and deposited my luggage at the designated area. Yes, there were other passengers too and social distancing was key for the safety of all. Security check-in: The process here is fairly simple and wasn't devoid of the usual practice. Passengers were asked to place objects like mobile phones, laptops, belts, electrical equipment, as well as coats, jackets, scarves in the baskets provided and put them on the conveyer belt. At Mumbai International airport, the CISF personnel did not conduct a body scan, however, at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru (I had a connecting flight to Bagdogra), body scanners were used by the security staff. Once I cleared the security I went to the airport lounge where passengers were seated leaving one seat vacant between each of them. The seats marked with a cross meant one is not allowed to use them. It is advisable to use the restrooms at the airport to avoid visiting one at the aircraft considering the lavatories will be compact inside the plane. However, it is always good to avoid it although I had to use it in Mumbai considering the duration of the journey I had ahead of me. A good thing was since it was early in the morning the loos were relatively cleaner, may I add safer to use. Boarding the plane: Boarding was a time-consuming process as the airport staff allowed a set of 10 passengers to board the plane at a time. At the boarding gate, passengers collected the safety kit from the airlines executives after self-scanning their boarding passes. In order to minimise crowding at the gate area, airlines also spaced out the distance between passengers on aerobridges. Social distancing norm was maintained in a similar way as it was at the airport lounge area. Inside the plane, no food or beverage consumption were allowed. So, fill your appetite before boarding your flight. At the airport premises, selective restaurants and cafes are functional. Holding onto to my anxiety, I had took solace only in the morning cup of tea in an empty food court area. Once seated, it is advisable to avoid getting up until arrival and avoid using lavatories, unless absolutely necessary. It was almost claustrophobia after putting on all those essentials face mask and shield and those latex gloves but it felt better to sleep off those palpitations and rather dream of homecoming. If you have a connecting flight: Deplaning is less cumbersome but face masks, gloves and face shields and social distance never went off the protocol. Since I had a connecting flight from Mumbai to Bengaluru before arriving at Bagdogra, there were certain procedures I was needed to follow. A queue was formed at the Kempegowda International Airport for passengers who had to change the aircraft. A temperature scan was conducted upon arrival, followed by a security check-in. The drill was similar to what was followed in Mumbai. Baggage collection: After I landed at Bagdogra, the airport staff first sprayed disinfectants on my cabin baggage and told me to sanitise my hands. It was followed by a submission of a 'self-declaration form' where I provided the details of my travel and my local address. The authorities will again scan your temperature and the reading must be included in the self-declaration form. On submission, I was provided with a notice of guidelines for home isolation with a declaration of 'normal' temperature stamp under health department of Darjeeling district, West Bengal. This was the procedure followed at the Bagdogra airport, however in Kolkata, I am told travellers did not receive such forms. What next? All people, particularly coming from five high caseload states like Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, were permitted to home quarantine, only if they show no symptoms of the viral disease. However, initially, it was advised that all persons coming from the above-mentioned states will be taken for institutional quarantine, as far as possible close to their residence, for 14 days. With the gradual easing of lockdown restrictions, the West Bengal government is now allowing passengers with instruction for 14 days strict self-isolation at home. However, the health status of the traveller must be conveyed to the District Surveillance Officer by the surveillance teams. In my case, I travelled from Mumbai to Bagdogra. My travel plan was notified to the Block Medical officer of Health (BMOH), Kalchini block. Before I began my travel to Kalchini, my COVID-19 test was conducted at the North Bengal Medical College, Siliguri, under the direction of Dr Arunavo Sarkar, Head of the Department of Microbiology and Principal Investigator of Viral Research. Initially, on Karmakar's suggestion, I was prescribed to quarantine in an institutional centre in Kalchini area. However, after testing negative for COVID-19, I was permitted home isolation. On 30 May, an Asha worker, Bandhana Banerjee and Health Assistant Female (HAF) Lipika Das Chowdhury, came to my residence to inquire about my health and details of my stay and surroundings in Mumbai. These kinds of visits can be expected for a few more days since I travelled from a red zone to a remote green zone area. Meanwhile, in few districts, a strictness to abide by a clinical protocol of 14-day institutional quarantine was witnessed, owing to a sudden spike in COVID-19 cases. Like in Coochbehar district, in the northern part of West Bengal, the authorities have made it mandatory for people arriving from high-risk areas like Mumbai, to stay in a COVID care centre for at least 14 days or less and be released after testing negative for the novel coronavirus. Having said that, in Kolkata, air passengers travelling from Mumbai, have been exempted from institutional quarantine. From my experience, its not the air travel that must make one apprehensive to return to their home states. The airlines have made the entire process hassle-free at the airports but clarity from the state governments for returnees about home isolation or institutional quarantine is much-needed. Nevertheless, as I wrap up my unique pandemic travelogue I could hear the humming sound of the tea factory not too far away from the bungalow I stay, workers plucking lush green tea leaves and await the visit of the Auxiliary Nurse Midwifery head of Malangi gram panchayat under Kalchini block who will come to check on my health status. At Elon Musk's Tesla solar panel factory in Buffalo, NY, a worker has tested positive for COVID-19, according to an employee at the factory who spoke to The Verge on the condition of anonymity. The plant was re-opened on May 19. Excerpt: It's the fourth known Tesla employee to test positive for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus but the first since the company reopened its US factories in May. One employee from Panasonic, which shares space with Tesla at its New York and Nevada factories, also tested positive back in March before the shutdowns. Tesla quietly reopened the New York facility on May 19th after the state gave the region the green light, according to a new letter to local officials first reported on Friday by Buffalo Business First. But the company is not back at full production capacity and won't be for a while. In fact, Tesla told those officials that it furloughed 984 "full-time Tesla independent contract workers" in April because of the shutdown, and will move forward with just under 500 full-time employees there for the time being. It is now over seven weeks since New Zealand entered lockdown and I am proud to say that together our efforts have resulted in very low numbers of new Covid-19 cases being reported each day. A big thank you is owed to our frontline staff for working around the clock during these trying times and also to our community for so diligently adhering to the restrictions that came with Level 4 and Level 3 I acknowledge this wasnt easy and have heard from many of you about the pressures this has put on yourselves and your family. Like many of you, for me lockdown meant working from home and keeping to my bubble, so the reduction in restrictions on activity and movement in Level 2 is a welcome change. It is great to see the reopening of many of our local businesses and schools, however it is important to remember that businesses are still facing economic shock and undergoing some significant changes. Its important now more than ever that we get out there and support local. National has released part of its National Recovery Agenda to support the economy and respond to the disruptive effects Covid-19 has caused in communities. Earlier this month, we outlined five core elements of our agenda: getting out of lockdown by getting New Zealand working again, delivering an effective stimulus to a stalled economy by creating an upward curve of growth and jobs, creating productivity in a two-metre world, unleashing private sector investment, and investing in things that will guarantee New Zealand will succeed in the post-Covid world. Through the Epidemic Response Committee, I have been ensuring that the Government is making the right decisions and investing where it is most needed to get us through this challenge. My wonderful team has been working hard throughout the lockdown supporting those who have reached out to us. Finally, earlier this month we welcomed the news that Auckland Transport (AT) has given the go-ahead for Matakana link road (MLR) to be built with a four lane capacity. There has been widespread concerns around the delays in plan developments and construction, and MLR consultations have seen large public engagement. So, it is fantastic that the preparatory works started last week and that AT is planning to have the link road completed in time for the opening of the new Puhoi to Warkworth motorway. Mark Mitchell, National MP for Rodney markmitchell.national.org.nz Has the coronavirus in Italy changed significantly compared to two months ago? Well, Italian doctors claim that the coronavirus has 'enormously weakened.' According to Dr Alberto Zangrillo, head of San Rafaelle in Milan, the coronavirus is now much less lethal and 'no longer clinically exists.' Moreover, the physician of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, said that the newly infected patients are showing milder symptoms and have a significant decrease in number of the coronavirus in their bodies between March and May. Has Coronavirus Weakened? According to theories, viruses tend to weaken in order to cope up with the changes in the environment, as infecting more humans tend to limit their capacity to spread. However, not everyone is on board with this idea. The research claims that HIV and the common cold have mutated in the same way as the coronavirus. But experts pointed out that these diseases have done it so many times before, but coronavirus has only been discovered a few months ago - in December 2019. At the same time, scientists said that there is no enough evidence that COVID-19 has adapted in this manner, Metro reports. The San Rafaelle study was based on swab test samples of 200 volunteers taken over the past ten days, compared to the ones taken from a month ago. But Italian doctors such as Massimo Clementi, the director of San Rafaelle's Microbiology and Laboratory, stand firm on their theory. According to Clementi, the viral load present in the sample showed that coronavirus had 'enormously weakened.' Moreover, the head of the infectious diseases clinic at Genoa's San Martino hospital, Matteo Bassetti backed these claims, stating that the strength of the virus is no longer the same compared to two months ago. Dr Zangrillo has announced this controversial claims via the RAI TV channel urging the lawmakers to lift emergency measures as soon as possible. "In reality, the virus clinically no longer exists in Italy. We've got to get back to being a normal country. Someone has to take responsibility for terrorizing the country," said Dr Zangrillo. "We've got to be wary, yes, but not kill ourselves unnecessarily," he added. Read Also: New Study Decodes the Mystery of Coronavirus 'Shapeshifting' from Animals to Humans Experts Disagree that Coronavirus is Weakening Upon hearing those words, Franco Locatelli, the president of the National Health Council and which advises the president, said he was surprised and baffled at Zangrillo's remarks. He emphasizes that all the doctor needs to do is to look at the number of cases every day to see its persistent circulation in the country. Moreover, Columbia University's Dr Angela Rasmussen said that there is no evidence pointing out that coronavirus is losing potency anywhere. Meanwhile, Dr Seema Yasmin form Stanford University described it as "bull****." Italy is now experiencing a waning of COVID-19 cases in recent weeks despite relaxation of social distancing measures in line with what has been observed in most European countries, said Francois Balloux from University College London. As testing efforts are increased, asymptomatic and milder cases are now much likely to be identified, which is important not to confuse with any weakening of the virus. Without significant evidence, nobody should unnecessarily downplay the danger of this deadly coronavirus. Read More: Even COVID-19 Survivors Who Recovered From Mild Cases Can Experience Long-Term Health Problems: Study ATHENS, Greece - Greece is preparing to admit tourists from all over the world this summer but will be adhering to the advice of health experts to ensure it remains a safe destination in terms of coronavirus exposure, the countrys tourism minister said Tuesday. Every tourist is welcome. ... This has been a very stressful year for everyone, and the refilling of the batteries is the call of the day, Tourism Minister Harry Theoharis said.. But of course, we will have to wait for the experts, for the international bodies, to say when this is safe to do so, We dont want to put at risk the people that visit us. And, of course, our population, Theoharis told The Associated Press in an interview. The government imposed a lockdown early in Greeces coronavirus outbreak, a move credited with holding infections to a level considerably lower than many other parts of Europe. Greece had a total of just over 2,900 confirmed cases and 179 deaths as of Tuesday, with no new virus-related deaths recorded in the previous 24 hours. Eleven people remained intubated in intensive care units. Lockdown restrictions have been gradually eased to the point where life is almost back to normal. But the country is heavily dependent on tourism, and the government has been eager to attract foreign visitors and help shore up the economy, which is only just emerging from a brutal decade-long financial crisis that wiped out a quarter of the GDP Authorities are now faced with the delicate balancing act of promoting Greece as a safe, attractive destination while ensuring that visitors dont trigger a new outbreak. One illustration of the gamble involved came Tuesday, when authorities announced that 12 passengers on a Monday flight from Doha, Qatar, had tested positive. Greeces Civil Protection Agency said it was suspending flights from Qatar until June 15. Currently, all arriving passengers to Greece are required to undergo tests and to pend the night in a designated hotel until the results come through. The point is not to stop every economic activity in order to help the health situation, but its actually to find this balance, and for that, you need your health experts to guide you, Theoharis said. One of those health experts, epidemiologist Gkikas Magiorkinis, told the AP that given current trends, the coronavirus outbreak in Greece was in a trajectory of elimination. If we did not have other imported cases, it would be a matter of a month at most for the virus to be stamped out in the country. But new cases will almost certainly arrive when Greece opens to tourists, he said. Yes, we are worried because we know that globally the epidemic is a result of people moving around the world, Magiorkinis said. The question is how fast we will be able to contain the incoming cases. Because it will happen. There is no question that we will have incoming cases. The government has outlined a two-part schedule for jump-starting tourism. As of June 15, visitors will be able to fly into Athens or the northern city of Thessaloniki. Direct international flights to regional airports, including on islands, will be allowed from July 1. Greece last week announced that visitors from 29 countries would be subject to random coronavirus testing and no quarantine, rather than the compulsory tests for every passenger and quarantines that currently apply. The announcement angered some nations, including neighbouring Italy, that were not included. However, the government later clarified the measures referred to flights originating from specific airports rather than countries. Greece, it said, is basing its decisions on a European Aviation Safety Agency list of airports with high risk of coronavirus transmission. Visitors can still fly to Greece from those airports, but will be subject to compulsory testing, and either a seven-day self-quarantine period if they test negative for coronavirus, or a 14-day supervised quarantine if they are found positive. Perhaps it was a misunderstanding that were blocking entire countries or anything of the sort. This is not what we intended to convey, Theoharis said. He said the European agencys list of high-risk airports was subject to change and airports could be removed as their regional public health situations improve. For example, Romes international airport is not on the EASA list, he noted. Were not actually blocking countries, but airports. And, you know, that shows that this is not about specific passports or nations, Theoharis said. Downtown Boston cleaned up after mostly peaceful protests over the killing of a black man by a white police officer in Minneapolis evolved into violence across the nation. Shop owners and city crews cleared trash and broken glass along Downtown Crossing, a mostly pedestrian shopping and commercial district, as well as the Common, the citys central park, and the Back Bay, a nearby neighborhood of high-end shops and stately brick townhouses. Vandals shattered the windows of Clarendon Wines, a Back Bay liquor store, and cleared out much of the alcohol at the front of the shop, said Kayla Levine, a manager. The family, which has owned the store since the 1940s, is tallying the damage. Levine said she supported the demonstrations but felt others had taken advantage of the situation to cause destruction. We never thought this could happen, she said. Its just really sad because the message gets skewed. Its obvious that people took advantage of good people doing good things to do bad things. Thousands marched peacefully through Boston in several protests Sunday in response to the killing of George Floyd, who died June 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on his neck for almost nine minutes as he was handcuffed and pleaded for air. But as the march ended around 9 p.m., protesters and police clashed. People plundered stores, smashed windows, scrawled graffiti and set fire to a police cruiser. The National Guard was called in to help quell the unrest. Fifty-three people were arrested, about half of them city residents. The rest mostly hailed from other communities in Massachusetts, Boston Police Commissioner William Gross said Monday. Nine officers were also hospitalized after being pelted with rocks, glass bottles and even fireworks, he said. Dozens more officers and about 18 citizens were also treated for injuries, and 21 police cruisers sustained damage. Gross, who is the citys first black police commissioner, was among the state leaders who expressed support Monday for the mostly peaceful protests but frustration at the violence that followed. We know whats going on in our great nation, said Gross. Voices have to be heard. Black lives do matter. Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins, who is the first black woman to lead her office, said she sympathized with the injured officers, but said black people are still being killed in the street as if were animals. This burning rage that youre seeing is real. People are fed up, she said. We have been telling you this forever. Those arrested Sunday face charges ranging from assault and battery on a police officer and attempted murder to breaking and entering, larceny and disorderly conduct, according to police. Most were to be arraigned Monday. Democratic Mayor Marty Walsh said the violence was an attack on our city and its people that exacted untold economic damage to businesses and cherished public spaces. Among those structures defaced was a memorial to Massachusetts 54th Regiment, a famed unit of black soldiers who fought during the Civil War, he said. This was the very last thing that our city quite honestly needed, Walsh said, noting that the Boston-area is the epicenter of one of the deadliest outbreaks of COVID-19 in the nation. The mayor pleaded for peace ahead of additional protests planned for Monday evening and Tuesday. Faith and community leaders say theyll kneel for nine minutes during a prayer service in the citys diverse Dorchester neighborhood Monday evening, while the Boston chapter of the Black Lives Matter organization called for rallies Monday and Tuesday evening. Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, meanwhile, had a sharp response for President Donald Trump, after the fellow Republican called for states to crack down on protesters and dismissed the nations governors as weak on Monday. I know I should be surprised when I hear incendiary words like this from him, but Im not, Baker said. At so many times during these last several weeks, when the country needed compassion and leadership the most, it simply was nowhere to be found. Instead, we got bitterness, combativeness, and self-interest. Boston resident Sylvia Kurinsky was among those who came out to Downtown Crossing on Monday to see if she could volunteer to help with cleanup. She took part in Sundays peaceful demonstrations and believed the violence that marred it and others across the country wont diminish the call for police reform. Change is afoot. It will happen, Kurinsky said. Were not going to settle for anything less. Juilliard String Quartet / Contributed photo FALLS VILLAGE The Juilliard String Quartet opens Live From Music Mountain, a weekly program of conversation and music, starting June 7 at musicmountain.org, Youtube and Facebook. Music Mountain invites the public to submit questions in advance. Selected questions will be read to the artists by host Oskar Espina-Ruiz, Music Mountains Artistic and Executive Director. The Juilliard String Quartet is known to audiences worldwide for its profound understanding and unceasing curiosity, bringing vital engagement to the classics while embracing the mission of championing new works, according to a statement. The Stormont Assembly voted in opposition to new abortion regulations (PA) The Stormont Assembly has voted in opposition to new abortion regulations that include terminations up to birth in cases of serious non-fatal disabilities. The outcome of Tuesday evenings debate in the devolved legislature does not change the recently introduced liberalised abortion law in the region. A DUP motion rejecting the imposition of abortion regulations by Westminster passed by 46 votes to 40. One MLA abstained Some SDLP, UUP and Alliance Party representatives voted with the DUP while others opposed it. While the motion rejected the new regulations in their entirety, it focused on the regulation that permits abortions up to birth in cases of severe disability. Expand Close The debate referenced the campaigning on the abortion issue by Heidi Crowter (Family handout/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The debate referenced the campaigning on the abortion issue by Heidi Crowter (Family handout/PA) It referenced the campaign by disability rights activists Heidi Crowter, who has Downs Syndrome and who claims such laws are discriminatory. Sinn Fein tabled an amendment that also called for the rejection of the non-fatal disability regulation, but did not include any demand for the broader regulations to be axed. That amendment was defeated 32 votes to 52, with three MLAs abstaining. MPs are due to vote on the abortion regulations, which were introduced in March, at Westminster later this month. If they are voted down the Government would face the prospect of having to redraw new regulations. Expand Close DUP MLA Paul Givan demanded that the regulations were withdrawn (Niall Carson/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp DUP MLA Paul Givan demanded that the regulations were withdrawn (Niall Carson/PA) Northern Irelands restrictive abortion laws were changed by MPs last year at a time when the Stormont Assembly was collapsed. DUP MLA Paul Givan welcomed the outcome of the debate. The Assembly has now rejected these extreme abortion regulations on the basis of how they discriminate against the unborn especially those with disabilities, he said. Mr Givan said the regulations must be withdrawn. The regulations imposed by Westminster have led to Northern Ireland having the most liberal abortion regime in Europe, he added. This approach undermined the devolution settlement, but worst of all facilitated the ending of so many precious lives. That is something that the majority of people here in Northern Ireland are against. The result is read after MLAs voted on this evening's motion on abortion regulations. The motion is carried. pic.twitter.com/BJ5foBI0DJ DUP (@duponline) June 2, 2020 From March 31, when the regulations were introduced, to May 22, a total of 129 abortions were carried out in Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein MLA Emma Sheerin said the DUP could not be allowed to block access to modern, compassionate healthcare. The motion as put forward by the DUP is quite obviously an attempt to undermine the entirety of the abortion provision which has thus far been put into law in the north of Ireland, she said. DUP cannot be allowed to block access to modern, compassionate healthcare - @SheerinOfficial https://t.co/DIWwTZZfYb pic.twitter.com/mw6uxNPp8y Sinn Fein (@sinnfeinireland) June 2, 2020 Ms Sheerin said her partys amendment had been an attempt to refine the law, to bring it into line with regulations in the Irish Republic. She added: Our party position is one which calls for a compassionate and reasonable approach to healthcare, but not one that would see abortion treated as a mainstream, normal option. Some pro-choice campaigners had criticised Sinn Feins stance, claiming the party had undermined its advocacy of abortion reform on both sides of the border. Earlier, party president Mary Lou McDonald tweeted: Sinn Fein wants those same rights secured for women in the South to be delivered in the North. Nobody left behind. Sinn Fein opposes & will vote against the DUP motion this evening. Sinn Fein actively supported #repealedThe8th & the subsequent legislation. Sinn Fein wants those same rights secured for women in the South to be delivered in the North. Nobody left behind. Mary Lou McDonald (@MaryLouMcDonald) June 2, 2020 Under the regulations abortion is legal in all circumstances in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. When the pregnancy poses a risk to the womans physical or mental health the time limit is 24 weeks. Abortions are permitted at any time up to birth when there has been a diagnosis of a fatal foetal abnormality or where the child is likely to suffer severe mental or physical impairment. The Assembly debate focused on that latter circumstance, involving non-fatal disabilities. Anti-abortion campaigners claim this discriminates against disabled people and allows for unlimited terminations for conditions such as Downs Syndrome. They welcomed the vote. Catherine Robinson, from Right to Life UK, said: Tonights vote has made it clear that the UK Government must urgently hand back this devolved matter to the elected representatives of the people of Northern Ireland at the Assembly. The UK Government and Westminster now have absolutely no mandate whatsoever to impose these extreme regulations on Northern Ireland. Expand Close Grainne Teggart from Amnesty International said the vote had no impact on the abortion law (Liam McBurney/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Grainne Teggart from Amnesty International said the vote had no impact on the abortion law (Liam McBurney/PA) However, pro-choice organisations insisted the vote did not change the law. Grainne Teggart, from Amnesty International, said: This motion has no impact on the abortion law or regulations in Northern Ireland. Although this sends a disappointing message that some MLAs are not willing to stand fully for human rights, women and girls should rest assured that the hard-won abortion reform remains intact. In a day and age where nearly every industry is trying to hone in on going digital, it only makes sense that insurance companies are doing the same. They want to provide a seamless alternate option for their clients to use their services and find out useful information, such as just what type of insurance they need. For small businesses, this has been nothing but fantastic. However, just how is the insurance industry becoming tech-savvy? What digital alternatives can small businesses take advantage of? Here are three examples. 1. Boosting their online presence with content Content is king in the digital world, so it is no surprise that this is the direction that many insurance companies are going in. After all, people turn to the internet to find advice before purchasing products or paying for services. They want to ensure that the company they choose is trustworthy, and companies want to assure them that this is the case. How can you do that? The short answer: with authoritative content. With industries such as insurance, not a lot of people know the ins and outs of it. Businesses wont necessarily know the difference between workers compensation insurance and general liability insurance. However, with a helpful, relevant guide, businesses can learn exactly what they need to about the different types of insurances, what is covered in each, and come to an understanding about what they specifically need. There are a number of insurance policies that businesses are legally required to take out, including workers compensation insurance, for example. By turning tech-savvy, and building up and online blog that explores the above avenues, insurance companies are reaping the benefits of gaining more clients. 2. Live certificates Becoming tech-savvy means offering their services through digital means. It is more than possible to settle everything online now, but how are insurance companies continuing to be tech-savvy once you have your policy? Some companies have found the solution. They are offering live certificates as an alternative to a paper or downloaded certificates of insurance. This way, you can buy your workers compensation insurance by Next Insurance in a matter of minutes, and then receive an online live certificate that you can send on to your own clients. Best of all, you can gain this for free! By having this online documentation, you can prove to potential customers that you dont cut corners when it comes to insurance. However, more importantly, this will show them that you and your employees are covered in the event of receiving permanent injuries while at work and will be able to continue providing your services because you have the finances to train up new staff to do so. Never worry about losing your paper copy of your insurance ever again and keep yourself financially secure. Advertisement 3. Gain an instant online quote It used to be that many small businesses would find themselves paying over the odds for insurance that: A) Wasnt relevant to them B) Was more expensive than they originally anticipated, with multiple catches Advertisement Nowadays, thanks to the industry becoming so digitally front-minded, it is more than possible to gain an instant online quote and compare it to others. As a result, businesses arent paying more than they should, and prices are becoming more competitive. Small businesses in need of workers comp insurance are sure taking advantage of these benefits. Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah says President Akufo-Addo has outweighed his expectations on the easing of already restricted measures per his tenth COVID-19 address. He urged members of the NDC to tag the sitting President as the savior of the nation because his strategic and result oriented guidelines put the country in the best ever position as compared to other countries. "Praise this President for being in power at this pandemic time. His periodic guidelines have been the best for the nation serving as examples for other countries to follow," he said. Speaking on UTV's morning political discussion programme, the Tema West constituency Member of Parliament (MP) affirmed he is not surprised members of the largest opposion NDC find fault with the President's restriction ease. " . . I never expected members of the NDC to see anything good in the President's tenth COVID-19 address, because they settled their minds in that order," he added. Explaining further, Carlos Ahenkorah insisted "the current steps taken by the President over the easing of COVID-19 restrictions in the country will increase the developmental goals of the nation since common sense is needed to fight the pandemic". Source: Elizabeth Semiheva Bedi, peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A day after Donald Trump declared that he wanted to expand the G7 to include other important countries, the US president on Tuesday spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to invite him to the groupings next meeting to be held in the United States of America. As the 40-minute conversation went on, President Trump and PM Modi also discussed other issues such as the India-China border standoff and the reforms of the World Health Organisation, a statement by the Prime Ministers Office said. The two leaders are learnt to have shared their perceptions about the standoff that was triggered last month after Chinas Peoples Liberation Army activated the Line of Actual Control at Naku La area in north Sikkim and then at three points in Galwan and one point at Pangong Tso in Ladakh sector. ALSO WATCH | Explained: Trumps G7 offer for India, how it may help amid China standoff The convergence in the views of the two leaders was also reflected in their view on the reforms at the World Health Organisation. Both leaders have been votaries of reforms in the WHO but have chosen to take a vastly different approach. US President Donald Trump has threatened to exit the global health body to push the WHO to carry out the reforms. PM Modi, in contrast, has decided to push hard on reforms while staying as part of the WHO. Also Read: India is sensitive to China but wont allow change in any border sector | Analysis PM Modi also expressed concern regarding the ongoing civil disturbances in the US, conveyed his best wishes for an early resolution of the situation, a PMO statement said. The phone conversation underscores that even in such an unsettled world and the changing dynamics in the post-Covid-19 pandemic, the relationship between India and the United States remains strong, a top government functionary told Hindustan Times. The richness and depth of India-US consultations will remain an important pillar of the post-COVID global architecture. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 2, 2020 The Indo-US relationship is at a historic high, a second official said. He explained. When was the last time that a prime minister of India spoke about civil disturbances in the US and expressed confidence that the US President would be able to handle it. Or when did the US President call the Indian Prime Minister during a serious border standoff. All this shows that both the leaders have taken the relationship to a very different level, he said. Donald Trump had first given an indication of his intent to invite India to the G-7 on Saturday when he described the grouping of the seven countries - some of them among the most advanced economies of the world - as outdated and advocated rechristening it as G-10 or G-11 to include India, Australia, South Korea and Russia. We want Australia, we want India, we want South Korea. And what do we have? Thats a nice group of countries right there, he had said, hinting that the heads of these nations could be invited for the next summit to be hosted by the US on a reschedule date in September or November. Prime Minister Modi commended President Trump for his creative and far-sighted approach, acknowledging that such an expanded forum would be in keeping with the emerging realities of the post-Covid world. PM Modi said that India would be happy to work with the US and other countries to ensure the success of the proposed Summit. The G-7 currently includes the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan. India is a member of the larger version of the body that is called the G-20. However, according to an aide of the US President quoted by HT earlier, Trumps plan seems to bring together important allies on a platform to deal with China, a country with which the United States relations have gone from bad to worse under the Trump administration. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Vadym Prystaiko, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, will be appointed as Ukraine's ambassador to the United Kingdom Verkhovna Rada Reuters Servant of the People faction has announced changes in the composition of the government and parliamentary committees. This was announced by Deputy Head of faction Yevhenia Kravchuk on her Facebook page. According to Kravchuk, the candidacy of Oleksandr Tkachenko, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, will be considered for the post of the Minister of Culture. The faction supported the candidacy of constitutional scientist Viktor Kichun for the vacant position in the Constitutional Court from the Verkhovna Rada. "We have been informed that Vadym Prystaiko will be sent to work as Ukraine's ambassador to the United Kingdom. On the one hand, this is a loss for the Cabinet of Ministers, but we are forced to do so, given the transformations that are currently taking place in the European Union," she said. Olha Stefanishyna will fill the vacancy of Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration. As we reported earlier, Deputy Head of the Presidents Office Yulia Kovaliv held a meeting with the business representatives concerning the developments of the legislative initiatives on the improvement of the tax legislation. Head of Executive Committee of Reforms Mikheil Saakashvili, Head of Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finances, Tax, and Customs Policy Danylo Hetmansev, representatives of the Finance Ministry, State Revenue Service and the biggest Ukrainian business associations attended the meeting. One terrorist was killed in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, the Army said in a statement. The terrorist was killed in Soyimouh village in south Kashmirs Tral in a joint operation with the police, the army further said. The operation is still underway. This is the third encounter in Tral since Saturday. A terrorist was killed in an encounter with security forces on Tuesday in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir, news agency PTI quoted Jammu and Kashmir Police as saying. A gunfight erupted between militants and security forces at Saimoh in Awantipora area of the district, a police official said. Three heavily-armed terrorists were killed on Monday in an encounter with army troops along the Line of Control (LoC) in Nowshera sector of Jammu and Kashmirs Rajouri district, officials said. A group of terrorists attempted to sneak into India in the early hours of Monday but were intercepted by the alert troops near Kalal village, triggering a gunfight, the officials said. A professor accused of threatening a colleague's career when she asked him to stop sending her lewd text messages has kept his job at a top university. Professor Max Abbott was the pro vice-chancellor of the Auckland University of Technology when he met Dr Marisa Paterson from the Australian National University at a conference in 2016. Mr Abbott - a leading academic in gambling addiction - then took on a mentoring role for Ms Paterson, who was forging a career in the field. But their professional relationship took a turn after Ms Paterson mentioned at another conference that her marriage had fallen apart, Stuff reported. Professor Max Abbott met Dr Marisa Paterson (pictured) from the Australian National University in 2016 For the next two years, Mr Abbott messaged Ms Paterson up to 12 times a day at all hours - often steering the topic of conversation towards sex. After she reached 'breaking point' in 2019 and pleaded with Mr Abbott to stop contacting her, he allegedly threatened her career and said he would not work with her again. 'Was about to ask if you wanted to be part of two research proposals. History. Bye,' he wrote. In a text on the same night, he said 'all contact terminated. Work things too'. In a five-page complaint against Mr Abbott, lodged in August 2019, Ms Paterson said she felt compelled to 'manage' his communications because not doing so could have negative implications for her career prospects. She told the publication that she believed she could not get promoted in her field without Mr Abbott's support. For the next two years, Mr Abbott (pictured) messaged Ms Paterson up to 12 times a day at all hours - often steering the topic of conversation towards sex While Mr Abbott stepped down from his position of pro vice-chancellor on Tuesday, he will stay on as a professor. The Auckland University of Technology maintained a formal investigation was underway, and it will be reviewed externally. A spokesperson said Professor Abbott had 'apologised unreservedly, agreed to have no future contact with the ANU staff member and also agreed to withdraw from, or not accept, any position that might affect the ANU staff member'. They also said the institution is waiting to speak with Ms Paterson before revealing its findings. Stuff reported the Australian academic engaged in the erotic messaging twice - once in 2017 when she sent him a photo of herself from the waist up while wearing a bra - but said she only did it to 'get him off my back'. 'I managed to deflect it as much as I could until that night. I thought it would get him off my back. It was consensual in the fact that I was replying to his messages, but I was deeply distressed about it.' Ms Paterson said she waited to lodge the complaint because of the potential impact on her career When Ms Paterson did not return his messages on Christmas Day 2017, she claimed he phoned her ten times. According to the publication, emails and text messages showed numerous attempts by Ms Paterson to disengage. By February 2018, she was in another relationship and tried to break off communication with the New Zealand professor. 'You know I am in a relationship and you know that nothing can ever happen between us. I need to take a break from the messaging and focus on my relationship with my (heart emoji),' she wrote. Mr Abbott is accused of continuing to message her and ask invasive questions about her personal life. He would then say he was concerned for her wellbeing when she didn't respond - on one occasion he referenced a 'pathological obsession' with her. Ms Paterson said she waited to lodge the complaint because of the potential impact on her career. BUFFALO, N.Y. - An SUV carrying two people who had been shot plowed through a group of law enforcement at a George Floyd demonstration Monday night in Buffalo, injuring at least two officers, authorities said. Video posted by a bystander shows a line of police officers, backed up by an armoured personnel carrier, rushing and tackling a man who was being interviewed by a man with a TV camera about 9:30 p.m. Other officers used batons to whack at protesters, who scattered. Moments later, there was the sound of firearms discharging off camera, then officers ran as an SUV barrelled through a cluster of officers. At least one appeared to go under the vehicles wheels. The SUV drove around an armoured vehicle and sped off as more gunfire sounded. The officers were taken to Erie County Medical Center and authorities said their condition was stable. One is a New York State Police officer who suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries, the agency said. The other is with the Buffalo Police Department. Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown told WGRZ-TV that two people in the SUV had been shot somewhere else before the vehicle ran through the line of officers, and were being treated for their own injuries. A third person in the SUV was in custody. Buffalo Police spokesman Michael DeGeorge said two people were struck by gunfire during Mondays protest. It was not immediately known whether the shots came from police or others, he said. As a police helicopter flew overhead, officers in armoured vehicles asked the crowd to disperse and fired tear gas within a few blocks of where the police were struck. Several stores in the area were broken into, and people were seen entering and leaving with goods. The windows of a looted convenience store were smashed and protective metal bars had been pulled aside. One woman on her front stoop said, Im scared, to a person over the phone. As the night stretched on, the crowds thinned out and smoke swirled from trash that had been emptied out across several streets and set on fire. The National Communication Officer of the opposition NDC, Sammy Gyamfi, has been annihilated by Twitter users for using the unfortunate death of Black American George Floyd, who died after a brutish treatment on him by a white Police Officer in America last week for partisan politics. The NDC Chief Communicator, in a rather bizarre and disgusting mode of communication, posted a cartoon of President Akufo-Addo and Electoral Commissioner Jean Mensah suffocating a Ghanaian with the caption "I can't breathe", depicting and recalling the sad circumstance George Floyd lost his life to suggest that the President and the Electoral Commissioner are suffocating Ghanaians to death with the impending new voters' register. In a massive outpour of angst and revulsion, Twitter users on Sammy Gyamfi's timeline hit at him for being irrational, irresponsible and insensitive for using the sad death of somebody the world is mourning for his party's parochial political interest. Several users also accused the NDC National Communications Officer of being disrespectful to the memory of the late Floyd for using his fatal ordeal to advance his party's political agenda in the manner he did. Users who couldn't stand what they described as the repulsive behaviour of Sammy Gyamfi threatened to report his account to Twitter for his unacceptable behaviour. Below are some of the tweets: This is so wrong on so many levels. Not only is this disrespectful to the man who lost his life in this way, it also does not signify anything. This is disgusting! Mika Abraham (@Mika_Abraham1) June 2, 2020 async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"> Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Evan Peters has starred as the speedy superhero Quicksilver (aka Peter Maximoff) in three X-Men movies. And the Missouri-born actor is preparing to jump franchises as he joins Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe. He's reportedly been cast in a mystery role for the upcoming Disney+ series WandaVision, an Avengers spin-off about Scarlet Witch (aka Wanda Maximoff), according to the blog Murphy's Multiverse. Mystery role: Evan Peters has reportedly been cast in a mystery role for the upcoming Disney+ series WandaVision, an Avengers spin-off about Scarlet Witch (aka Wanda Maximoff) The 33-year-old plays a 'key role' that's being kept under wraps, and he filmed his scenes late last year, reports the blog. He played Wanda's twin brother in 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past, 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse and 2019's X-Men: Dark Phoenix, although her character made no appearance. Aaron Taylor-Johnson played the role opposite Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda in the MCU, before he was killed off in 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron. He told ScreenRant in November that he has no plans of returning to the role: 'I mean, I think its safe to say that no, Im not gonna there will be no appearance of me coming out or Quicksilver appearing anytime soon.' Under wraps: The 33-year-old plays a 'key role' that's being kept under wraps, and he filmed his scenes late last year Brother and sister: Alternate universe: He played Wanda's twin brother in 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past, 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse and 2019's X-Men: Dark Phoenix, although her character made no appearance Alternate universe: Aaron Taylor-Johnson played the role opposite Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda in the MCU, before he was killed off in 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron It's a no: He told ScreenRant in November that he has no plans of returning to the role: 'I mean, I think its safe to say that no, Im not gonna' It's possible that Peters will revive his version of the character, as Marvel has been known to dabble in alternate universes, and we know the show deals with some form of time travel. Olsen leads the series alongside Paul Bettany as Vision, who was killed off in 2018's Avengers: Infinity War. WandaVision will somehow take place following the events of last year's Avengers: Endgame, but will take the duo to the 1950s. It's also been revealed that the show will feature characters from Captain Marvel, Thor and Ant-Man, and it will tie into the upcoming 2022 movie Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Production on the six-episode season was halted in March amid COVID-19, which may push the December, 2020 premiere to 2021. A professor at the University of Ghana Kodjo Sena has urged Christians and Muslims in the country to stay home and pray. He said the anointing of worshiping in the church is equally the same at home indicating that God is present eveywhere and does not select and choose whose prayer to answer based on the person's location. According to him, the church and mosques could become avenues for the spread of the deadly coronavirus if care is not taken. People should stay at home, wherever you are you can pray and God will listen. We dont want the mosque and churches to be another avenue for coronavirus spread. We dont need to congregate for God to listen. God will listen to you anywhere, he told Francis Abban on the Morning Starr Tuesday. It comes after government on Monday outlined advisories for resumption of churches and mosques beginning Friday June 5. Far-right, Fox News host Tucker Carlson, in his opening monologue last night, delivered a scathing rebuke of how President Trump has responded to the protests erupting across the nation. He wants an end to the violence but refuses to see that 99% of those protesting are doing so peacefully. FOXs far-right talking head Tucker Carlson endorsed the use of the U.S. soldiers to put an end to the chaos and violence unfolding across America because of police brutality. According to him What Americans want most right now is an end to this chaos? They want their cities to be saved. They want this to stop immediately. If the commander-in-chief cannot stop it, he will lose in November. The left will blame him for the atrocities they encouraged, and some voters will agree. I do not call Tucker Carlson a moron; Im calling him a fascist who watched White House security chase off a thousand peaceful demonstrators with tear gas, shock bombs, rubber bullets, and cavalry. So that he and members of his Kakistocracy take a propaganda picture with him holding a bible outside St. Johns Church. As far as Tucker Carlson is concerned, beating, running down, assaulting and arresting peaceful protesters is just fine. Unlike the protesters that he and the president have egged on to show up at state capitals armed with AK-45s and dressed in paramilitary garb, these peaceful protesters were unarmed. Carlson, during his opening rant last night, used an incident with one of his networks reporters to question whether Trump is even capable of putting an end to the violence at this point. Carlson asked If you cant keep a Fox News correspondent from getting attacked directly across the street from your house, how can you protect my family? How are you going to protect the country? How are you trying? Carlson went on to laud the presidents decision to going to marshal all available forces military and civilian to stop these riots. Saying... Good for him, we fervently hope this all works. Carlson called the photo opportunity outside St. Johns Church a powerful symbolic gesture he ignored the outcry of even by the Bishop of the Church itself over the attack on peaceful protesters. The attack on the peaceful protestors was a spectacle widely panned not by U.S. citizens but by people watching all over the world that support peaceful protests. Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson are both fascists incapable of peacefully addressing the injustice of the murders of black men, women, and children. Neither man is inspirational. Instead, they mimic the dictators of China, Russia, and others around the world. Carlson believes in referring to Jared Kushner and other Trump advisors No matter what, theyll tell you, our voters arent going anywhere, The trailer parks are rock-solid. What choice do they have? Theyve got to vote for us. Jared Kushner, for one, has made that point out loud. No one has more contempt for Donald Trumps voters than Jared Kushner does. Of course, the White House wasnt the only one under fire from Carlson. The staunch conservative also slammed state and local leaders for supporting the (peaceful) protesters. When the violence began, what we needed more than anything was clarity in the middle of this. Its hard to see when the tear gas starts. Someone in America needed to tell the truth... Instead, almost all of our so-called conservative leaders joined the lefts chorus, as if on cue. There was no violence in Washington when the White House guard opened up and attacked peaceful protesters. Carlson would never admit much of the violence that has erupted has been the result of police launching attacks on peaceful protesters. In recent days we have heard and seen police arrest a black man who happened to be an FBI agent and the arrests of many members of the free press on camera for the crime of being black. Yet, Carlson wants more. He wants Trump to shoot down peaceful protestors to make sure we all live in a racist, fascist state. No injustice or crime committed by President Trump, his Kakistocracy, or white nationalist supporters is a problem for Tucker Carlson. The American people realize the FOX news, and this president is tearing down our democracy and replacing it with a completely incompetent white nationalist dictatorship. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 2) - A senator said Tuesday that no one among the frontline health workers, who were severely infected or died of COVID-19, has availed of the financial compensation as provided by the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act. Senate Finance Committee chairperson Sonny Angara said that this was because of the absence of implementing rules and regulations from the Department of Health. We were told, because there is no IRR, no one has been able to avail it, said Senator Sonny Angara during the afternoon session. Under the Bayanihan Law, 100,000 compensation must be given to frontline health workers who got infected with COVID-19, and 1 million for those who died of the infection. Im very disappointed to hear the response from the DOH, said Angara. Its quite upsetting... I mean so many months have gone without the DOH crafting the IRR. Latest update from the DOH showed that there are more than 2,600 health workers who contracted the virus, while around 1,430 recovered and 32 died. For his part, Senator Richard Gordon said that an IRR is not needed to implement the said compensation. You dont need implementing rules and regulations here. The law is very clear. Why should we distinguish? They have already died, a little investigation could tell us that we can pay them that they died because they were in the frontlines, said Gordon. I think the implementing rules and regulations are always an excuse to delay the wills of justice and health in this country, he added. Meanwhile, Angara said they will do their best to solve the issue. We will try to do what we can to nudge them in the right direction, said Angara. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 19:54:34|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close COLOMBO, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Days after a rare black leopard died from injuries after being trapped in a snare in Sri Lanka, another brown leopard was found dead, after being trapped in a snare in Galle, in southern Sri Lanka on Tuesday, the Department of Wildlife said in a statement. Wildlife Conservation Department Director General M.G.C. Sooriyabandara told local journalists that the leopard was first spotted and captured by a wildlife officer in Neluwa, after which he informed the relevant officials. The leopard belonged to the Sri Lankan leopard species known as the "Panthera Pardus." A postmortem will be carried out by the wildlife doctors. Sooriyabandara said they hoped to take legal action against the owner of the land in which the leopard was found as they suspected that the snare was set by the landowner. This is the second leopard death reported in Sri Lanka within a week after wildlife officials found a rare black leopard in the central highlands of Nallathanniya on May 26, trapped in a snare and heavily injured. The leopard died from injuries after days of treatment. Wildlife officials said the survival of the Sri Lankan leopard is threatened due to habitat loss and fragmentation primarily with some levels of direct poaching and direct and indirect human-leopard related leopard deaths. Enditem Edgenuity is deeply committed to the science of learning. We passionately believe that by fusing respected research and innovative technology, we can make learning more student-centered and, ultimately, more impactful." Edgenuity, a leading provider of online curriculum and instructional services for the K12 market, today announced that its Courseware offering has earned the Research-Based Design product certification from Digital Promise. This new product certification serves as a rigorous, reliable signal for educators and consumers including school administrators, teachers, and families looking for evidence-based edtech products that meet the needs of a diverse array of learners. Edgenuity Courseware is a comprehensive digital curriculum solution for students in grades six through twelve, designed to both challenge and motivate students to continue learning and progressing to more difficult concepts. Courseware offers a full suite of over 300 courses including core curriculum, AP, honors, elective, and credit recovery courses built using an instructional model grounded in research and aligned to state standards and the Common Core. Edgenuity is deeply committed to the science of learning, said Sari Factor, CEO of Edgenuity. We passionately believe that by fusing respected research and innovative technology, we can make learning more student-centered and, ultimately, more impactful. Its gratifying to see how far we have come as well as to know that, as our research continues, so will the innovation were able to bring to classrooms across the nation. Edgenuity submitted evidence to Digital Promise demonstrating that instructional design decisions were intentionally made based on recognized research. Schools and families want to know which edtech products can actually help students learn, said Karen Cator, president and CEO of Digital Promise. Digital Promises Product Certifications strengthen consumers confidence in choosing research-based products, while recognizing product developers doing the important work of incorporating valid research into their designs. The Research-Based Design product certification uses a competency-based learning framework, developed in consultation with Digital Promises Learner Variability Project advisory board, expert researchers in the Learning Sciences field, and dozens of educators across the United States. Further information about the development of the Research-Backed Design product certification can be found here. Edgenuity is devoted to developing innovative, research-based curriculum that raises student achievement. An extensive body of pedagogical research about how people learn drives every aspect of the Companys design and development of K12 learning solutions. Educators interested in learning more about Edgenuity Courseware can visit this page or contact an Edgenuity representative for more information. ### About Edgenuity Edgenuity is a leading provider of online curriculum and instructional services for the K12 market. Nationwide, Edgenuity is in use by more than 20,000 schools, including 20 of the 25 largest school districts, to meet academic goals and improve student outcomes. We offer courses for first-time credit, honors and Advanced Placement, credit recovery, intervention, and test readiness. These solutions, in addition to Edgenuitys instructional services and professional development offerings, help students, educators, and districts achieve success in their online and blended learning programs. For more information, visit Edgenuity.com. About Digital Promise Digital Promise is a nonprofit organization that builds powerful networks and takes on grand challenges by working at the intersection of researchers, entrepreneurs, and educators. Our vision is that all people, at every stage of their lives, have access to learning experiences that help them acquire the knowledge and skills they need to thrive and continuously learn in an ever-changing world. For more information, visit the Digital Promise website and follow @digitalpromise for updates. Last fall Bob Kroll, the head of the Minneapolis police union, appeared at a Trump rally, where he thanked the president for ending Barack Obamas oppression of police and letting cops put the handcuffs on criminals instead of us. The events of the past week, in which the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody led to demonstrations against police brutality, and these demonstrations were met by more police brutality including unprecedented violence against the news media have made it clear what Kroll meant by taking the handcuffs off. And Donald Trump, far from trying to calm the nation, is pouring gasoline on the fire; he seems very close to trying to incite a civil war. I dont think its an exaggeration to say that America as we know it is on the brink. How did we get here? The core story of U.S. politics over the past four decades is that wealthy elites weaponized white racism to gain political power, which they used to pursue policies that enriched the already wealthy at workers expense. Until Trumps rise it was possible barely for people to deny this reality with a straight face. At this point, however, it requires willful blindness not to see whats going on. Luxembourg's borders with Belgium have reopened as of Saturday, but some rules still in place may remain unclear. To clarify the situation between the two countries, Luxembourg's foreign minister Jean Asselborn will welcome Belgian counterpart Phillippe Goffin for a working visit on Tuesday. Luxembourg residents are able to visit family or friends, or go grocery shopping, but travels out of mere touristic reasons remain prohibited. The meeting will hopefully clear up remaining questions. A press briefing is also expected at 2pm. Four people, including a 33-year-old woman, were arrested by Delhi Police on Sunday for cheating hundreds of people by offering them various government jobs through a website called Ayushman Yojna, Arogya Mission that portrayed a false association with the Union governments flagship Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme and the Aarogya Setu app to track Covid-19 cases. According to Anyesh Roy, deputy commissioner of police in the cyber crime unit, the scam promised jobs under the Ayushman Yojna for a registration free of Rs 300 to Rs 500 per person. The gang advertised for 5,116 vacancies across six states Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi and Bihar. They collected Rs 300 to Rs 500 from each of the 4,200 job aspirants whose data we have linked, so far. This fake website https://ayushman-yojana.org/ -- has been active for almost two and a half months, Roy said. Alan Higginson and his partner Grainne Maher of the GA GA takeaway food company in Belfast Massive demand for takeaway food represents a break from the doom and gloom of life in lockdown, a pop-up restaurant owner has said. Consumption has increased by 250% since pandemic restrictions forced the closure of restaurants in March, a survey showed. Grainne Maher has opened a takeaway within a Belfast city centre cafe serving three-course meals and received dozens of orders last weekend alone. She said: "People want to be able to see that there are still things to be enjoyed. It is quite doom and gloom if you do not." She is just starting out amid sweeping coronavirus restrictions, which have paralysed the hospitality industry. Read More The fitting-out of her new restaurant on the Malone Road was stalled and instead she has been operating a takeaway service from the premises of Panama Cafe with a business partner. Eateries here have begun selling food for consumption at home amid a pandemic that has wiped out sales and shuttered buildings. Options range from buying the ingredients and doing most of the preparation at home, to having a meal largely made up. Ms Maher said: "For a lot of the businesses and friends of ours, it is just a way to try and stay alive and stay afloat. It is not them cashing in. They have huge overheads. "They are trying to hold on to staff and keep businesses going in order to have something, to try and not close down after putting your heart and soul into something for 10 years. "It is because people are trying to creatively approach some ways of getting turnover because they have so much riding on it and so many people depending on them." Ms Maher leaves as little work for the customer as possible. During the last weekend in May the business served a Thai curry with monkfish, chicken or vegetables for a main course, with a starter of risotto and dessert of Eton Mess, a crunchy meringue and whipped cream creation. By the Friday it had received 60 bookings for Sunday. She said: "It is something reminiscent of the days when you can go to a restaurant and have this beautifully cooked meal presented to you. "People still hark for that." She said it was challenging to have food still looking well by the time it is served. The hospitality industry has been devastated by the spread of infection and faces major challenges reopening with two-metre social distancing in place. Houston-area hunters on the search for a perfect getaway home should look to this recently-listed ranch in Crockett. The $3 million ranch offers plenty of perks for the avid hunter, including more than 700 acres of prime property, a shooting range, lodge house and more. Take a virtual tour of "hunter's dream" in the photos below... PRIME PROPERTY: Get your updates on Houston real estate deals and developments Denis O'Brien owned Digicel has announced a joint venture agreement with Eir owner Xavier Niel's Iliad, that will see the French telecoms provider launch a mobile service in the West Indies. The agreement will allow the French group to use Digicels Radio Access Network capabilities in the French West Indies. The Denis OBrien founded company first announced it had entered into a joint venture agreement in February, and today it provided further information on the deal. Under the terms of the joint venture Digicel will be monetising its significant network assets across five countries in the French West Indies region Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, St. Martin and St. Barth - meanwhile Iliad will benefit from a solution to launch its mobile services. The two companies will share future operational investments with an aim of building one of the most extensive networks in the French West Indies by increasing the number of sites and providing further fibre connectivity for improved coverage and speed, according to a statement from Digicel. Digicel Group CEO, Jean-Yves Charlier, said; As we continue our journey towards becoming a digital operator, we recognise that sharing infrastructure in a multi-operator marketplace provides the foundation to offer better network services to our customers, whilst reducing the cost structure. A joint venture of this nature is a first for Digicel and allows us to accelerate our digital ambitions, he added. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals. Celebrating church diversity without addressing racial disparity is hypocrisy, Steven Furtick says Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Steven Furtick, pastor of the popular Elevation Church in North Carolina, said celebrating diverse churches without addressing racial disparity is hypocrisy in a frank conversation Sunday with fellow megachurch pastor and friend John Gray in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. The two pastors who teamed up to address race, racism, the heart of God and the way forward in the wake of the recorded killing of Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man while in police custody, acknowledged that there are many people of faith who have chosen not to speak up or have constructive conversations about the issue. Furtick said God told him it was time to speak up and he could not keep silent as the leader of a diverse congregation. If I celebrate that diversity but never address the disparity, to me, thats hypocrisy, he said in the conversation with Gray, who leads the Relentless Church in Greenville, South Carolina. In a moment where our nation is collectively reeling from the atrocity of the murder of George Floyd on the streets of Minneapolis, Minnesota, in this nation at the hands of a law enforcement officer, I thought it was time for us. In fact, I knew it was time because the Holy Spirit spoke to me that it was time for us to sit down and have a conversation, Furtick said. Floyd, a 46-year-old African American, died in police custody on May 25, after he was restrained for several minutes by Minneapolis Police Department officers. One of the officers, Derek Chauvin, was caught on video kneeling into Floyds neck as he begged for his life until he stopped breathing. Last Friday, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman charged Chauvin, who has since been fired along with three other colleagues, with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Protesters whose actions have gripped the national news cycle for several days have since been demanding that the other officers involved in Floyds death also be arrested. Furtick said he decided to have the discussion about racial disparity with his church when God spoke to him after Gray shared his reaction to Floyds killing in a video last Wednesday. Although we dont turn this pulpit into a reflection of the news cycle because that would be lethal to our ability to teach Gods Word and preach Gods Word, I know when the Spirit of God speaks to me, thats the only way I can describe seeing your video, Furtick said about his reaction to Grays video. When I saw your face on my computer screen, the message came through the computer. I saw how hurt you were in your eyes and I saw how tired you were in your face, and how angry you were all at the same time, Furtick told Gray. Gray praised Furtick for having the courage to use his platform to address the issue of racial inequality as many white pastors, he said, have been silent on the issue. The fact that you had the courage to speak in the moment when many of our white pastors brothers and sisters normally have reserved their comments till they get all the facts. For you, with all of your influence, the anointing thats on your life and the global position of leadership that you hold in the church, for you to step out and say regardless of the facts, what I saw is enough for me to say from a human standpoint, this is wrong It broke something that has been quiet but very real for many of us as black pastors, Gray said. In moments like this, and theyve happened far too often, I always get texts to my phone but they wont talk about it out loud. And in this season, silence is agreement, he continued. I dont need you to quietly tell me youre praying. I need you to publicly say this is wrong because this is not just about race, this is about justice. And the entire Bible is about justice throughout Old Testament and to the New Testament. God is very clear that even with Israel, he said treat the alien and the stranger among you, this is how you treat them, Gray said. In 2018, Gray and Furtick, along with the Rev. A.R. Bernard, leader of the 40,000-member Christian Cultural Center, Pastor Levi Lusko of Fresh Life Church in Montana, and Pastor Ken Claytor of Alive Church in Gainesville, Florida, came together for a conversation on building bridges to heal the nation's racial divide. The meeting came after Gray came under heavy criticism from members of the black community for meeting with President Trump to discuss prison reform and urban job creation. "My job is to drive the dialogue not only into the natural but the spiritual and to identify areas where the Church can be an agent of healing as opposed to a place of further division," Gray said at the time. "The Church needs to be able to speak about the moral high ground without dishonoring people from different backgrounds." Myanmar workers arrive near the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge II in Mae Sot, a district of northwestern Thailands Tak province, before heading across to Myawaddy town in Myanmar, June 2, 2020. The Thai cabinet on Tuesday approved visa extensions until July 31 for about 1 million migrant workers from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar to ease potential labor shortages as the countrys economy reopens. During the coronavirus pandemic hundreds of thousands of the 2.8 million foreign workers in Thailand legally returned to their home countries after losing their jobs when their employers ran into economic hardships, according to NGOs and neighboring government officials. But about 1 million many of whom are now unemployed or underemployed were stranded in Thailand and could see their visas expire, making them illegal immigrants. The cabinet agreed to compromise and allow workers from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar to stay and work temporarily from June 1 until July 31 in order to reduce the risk of COVID-19, government spokeswoman Narumon Pinyosinwat told reporters after a regular weekly meeting of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-chas cabinet. In addition, the decision to allow the workers to remain in Thailand could ease labor shortages for a better preparedness in restoring economy after the COVID issue subsides, she said. Narumon said one group of workers had gained visas and work permits through a labor memorandum of understanding (MoU) with neighboring countries that expired on May 31. Many of the foreign workers found jobs in labor-intensive businesses such as restaurants, fisheries, construction, factories and domestic workers, while more than 300,000 came to Thailand for seasonal jobs in the agriculture sector, according to a local NGO, the Migrant Worker Rights Network (MWRN). Since Thailand announced COVID-19 restrictions in the second half of March many foreign workers were laid off, often without compensation, the NGO said. Fifty-one Myanmar workers in Samut Sakhon filed a complaint with us that they got fired without compensation. Forty others in Krathumban, another district, were also fired without pay, Suthasinee Kaewleklai, a staffer at MWRN, told BenarNews. She said foreign workers, like their Thai counterparts, were entitled to protection in accordance with the Social Security Act, adding that they could use travel documents and work permits to enroll for social security funds. Some of those who lost jobs had struggled to find a way home to Myanmar until the neighboring countries agreed to partially open their borders. Myanmar worker Sein Sein, 28, crossed the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge II in northwestern Tak province on Monday, returning to Myanmars Myawaddy town. I thought of going home since Myanmars New Year (in April) but then the Thai government shut off the borders to prevent COVID-19 spread, so I couldnt travel, Sein Sein told BenarNews. He worked as a petty laborer in Mahachai town, the center of fisheries in Samut Sakhon, a province in central Thailand. When things are back to normal, I will come back to work in Thailand again. But during these couple of months, my family and I are facing hard times, he said. I dont know when COVID-19 will be gone. On Tuesday, Thailand recorded one new COVID-19 infection, bringing the total number of cases to 3,083 and one new death, bringing the nations death toll from the virus to 58. Globally, more than 6.3 million people have been infected by COVID-19 and more than 377,000 have died as of Tuesday, according to data compiled by disease experts at U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University. Mariyam Ahmad contributed to this report from Pattani, Thailand. WASHINGTON, D.C. - Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown on Tuesday excoriated President Donald Trumps handling of protests throughout the nation, criticizing him for the use of tear gas outside the White House on Monday to disperse peaceful demonstrators so Trump could visit a nearby church that was damaged during riots triggered by George Floyds death at the hands of Minneapolis police. Trump posed for photographs with a Bible in front of St. Johns Episcopal Church after protestors were cleared from the area before a 7 p.m. curfew the city had imposed to curtail destruction. Last night, the President of the United States turned the arm of the state on peaceful protesters, tear gassing citizens hes supposed to serve and exploiting a house of worship as he held up a Bible, all to stage a photo-op, Brown said at a Senate Banking Committee hearing. President Trump and his administration and his sycophants in Congress believe that millions of Americans are expendable. Its not a coincidence that many of the people they consider expendable are black and brown workers. Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman had a different take on Trumps actions. During a Tuesday phone call with reporters, Portman said he thought it was horrible that St. Johns Church was burned and appropriate for Trump to draw peoples attention to the incident and to say this is unacceptable." But he said police should have waited until curfew to clear the area. When asked whether Trumps comments about the protests have been inflammatory, Portman said he agrees with Trumps condemnation of murders by police officers, his involvement of the U.S. Department of Justice, and his support for peaceful protesters, but thinks Trump can and should do more to bring our country together right now. Words matter and we need to be sure we are not inflaming the situation, said Portman. This is a time for healing. Its a time to calm things down so we can have a dialogue. And I think thats whats needed right now. Trump on Monday accused many of the nations governors of having a weak response to protests in their states, and urged them to dominate your street." You have to try people, you have to put them in jail for 10 years and then you will never see this stuff again and you have to let them know that, Trump said in a phone call with the nations governors. Immediately before his visit to St. Johns Church, Trump delivered a speech where he decried Floyds death and said the nation cant allow the righteous cries and peaceful protesters to be drowned out by an angry mob. He said he would mobilize all available federal resources -- civilian and military -- to stop the rioting and looting, to end the destruction and arson, and to protect the rights of law-abiding Americans, including your Second Amendment rights. Mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled, Trump continued. If a city or a state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them. Portman said he believes Ohio officials have appropriately responded to unrest in cities including Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, and it wont be necessary for Trump to intervene in Ohio. Portman said Ohio should continue to rely on local law enforcement and the states National Guard to handle disturbances. Portman also delivered a Senate floor speech Tuesday where he decried attacks on African-Americans, including Floyds death, the death of Georgia jogger Ahmaud Arbery, who was shot by two armed men, and the behavior of a white woman who called the police on an African American bird watcher in New York Citys Central Park after he asked her to leash her dog. He called for a robust and inclusive national dialogue on racial inequities" including creation of a national commission on race, as President Lyndon Johnson did in 1967 in response to that eras civil unrest. He suggested the commission could be co-chaired by prominent people, such as former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, both of whom have spoken eloquently about racism as a stain on our national character. It would not be a commission to restate the problem but to focus on solutions and send a strong moral message that America must live up to the ideal that God created all of us as equal, said Portman. Brown, who is seeking passage of legislation that would end racial and religious profiling in the criminal justice system, released a statement on Monday that described the protests as an expression of fear, grief, frustration and anger, as well as a call for change. We need a leader who can rise to meet this moment, but instead we have a President who prefers to incite violence and deliberately divide our country," Browns statement continued. Our response must be to demand justice for all Black lives lost to police brutality, stand with the people who built this country and work with them to find long-term solutions to dismantle systems of oppression He hit similar themes during Tuesdays banking committee hearing, where he noted anger over the fact that the coronavirus pandemic is killing a higher proportion of black people than white people, the senseless killings of people like Floyd, and the fact that armed white protesters are allowed to storm state capitals while peaceful black protesters are met with tear gas. Brown said that long before the coronavirus pandemic, millions of African Americans knew that they were being victimized by a system that treats them like theyre expendable and like their hard work should not pay off. It doesnt matter if theyre jogging in their neighborhoods, if theyre protesting injustice, if theyre asleep in their beds, if theyre driving to the store, black men and women know that systemic racism puts their lives and the lives of their children at risk, all the time. said Brown. This is their every day. Read more: Amid protests, Ohio changes whos teaching the states police training courses Downtown Cleveland business owners reckon with gut punch of damage caused during George Floyd-inspired riots Ohio Legislative Black Caucus introduce resolutions to declare racism a public health crisis Mike DeWine stays silent on Donald Trumps push for crackdown on protests . Q. My son isn't shielding but has asthma. Am I putting him at risk by sending him back to school? A. Respiratory expert and GP Dr Andy Whittamore, Asthma UK clinical lead, says: "Going back to school after a long break is usually an exciting time for children. Understandably, parents of children with asthma are more concerned this time round and may be worried about sending their child back to school after a long time at home. "It's not clear whether going back to school after the lockdown will affect children's asthma. We do know that when children with asthma go back to school after the summer holidays, they are often more at risk of having asthma attacks. This could be for a number of reasons, including more exposure to triggers such as colds and seasonal allergies, or their preventer medicine routine being disrupted over the holidays. "Asthma doesn't make you more likely to get coronavirus, but unfortunately if people with long-term lung conditions like asthma get coronavirus, it can be more severe. Reassuringly, the number of children with asthma becoming seriously unwell with Covid-19 is low. "If you have concerns about your child's return to school, contact your GP, who will be able to assess whether their asthma is well-controlled. "Regardless of whether your child is returning to school in June or after the summer holidays, there are things you can do now to prepare them for getting back to the classroom. Getting into a good routine will prevent potentially life-threatening asthma attacks. Ensuring they take their preventer medicines regularly, go for asthma reviews and have an up-to-date asthma action plan will help keep their symptoms under control. Getting into a good routine with preventer inhalers is important because the medicine builds up over time, helping to protect the airways. "Book an urgent appointment if your child is using their reliever inhaler three or more times a week, coughing or wheezing at night, or feeling out of breath. "If your child is returning to school, if the school doesn't have extra inhalers already, ask your doctor for one. School staff are able to help children with their inhalers in a first aid situation." A Toronto police officer has been charged with sexual assault after an investigation by the child abuse and sexual assault unit of the Halton Regional Police Service. The 53-year-old officer, who lives in Halton, was arrested Monday, according to Halton Police. The accused was off-duty at the time of the alleged incident and the victim was known to him. Police say they do not believe there are other victims. The officer has not been named by Halton police, because doing so may identify the victim, a news release says. Read more about: ANN ARBOR, MI On this Black Out Tuesday, as people reflect on the struggles of black people in America and take action, the Michigan Theater is offering some inspiration. We stand in solidarity with everyone advocating for justice, truth and equity, downtown Ann Arbors historic movie house stated in an email Tuesday, June 2. Today the Show Must Be Paused to give space for the Black stories and voices which urgently need to be heard and seen. As we pause our regular scheduled programming, we offer you a list of recommended movies from strong, Black voices. Here are the theaters 15 recommendations: I Am Not Your Negro, a 2016 documentary film directed by Raoul Peck and narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, exploring the history of racism in the United States, based on a James Baldwin unfinished manuscript. 13th, a 2016 documentary film directed by Ava DuVernay exploring the intersection of race, justice and mass incarceration in the U.S. When They See Us, 2019 drama miniseries created, co-written and directed by Ava DuVernay for Netflix, based on events of the 1989 Central Park jogger case. Just Mercy, a 2019 drama film featuring Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx and Brie Larson, based on the true story of Walter McMillian, who appeals his murder conviction. Do the Right Thing, a 1989 comedy-drama film produced, written and directed by Spike Lee, exploring a Brooklyn neighborhoods racial tensions. If Beale Street Could Talk, a 2018 romantic drama film directed and written by Barry Jenkins and based on a James Baldwin novel, following a woman who seeks to prove the innocence of her wrongly charged lover. Selma, a 2014 historical drama directed by Ava DuVernay and written by Paul Webb, based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches. The Hate U Give, a 2018 drama film directed by George Tillman Jr. following the fallout after a high school student witnesses a police shooting. Fruitvale Station, a 2013 biographical drama film written and directed by Ryan Coogler, based on events leading to the death of Oscar Grant, a young man killed in 2009 by a police officer at a transit station in Oakland, California. King in the Wilderness, a 2018 documentary film about Martin Luther King Jr. focusing on the final 18 months of his life. See You Yesterday, a 2019 science fiction film directed by Stefon Bristol and produced by Spike Lee, about two teen prodigies who use time travel to make a series of dangerous trips to the past after a police shooting. The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, a 2015 documentary film directed and written by Stanley Nelson Jr., telling the story of the revolutionary black organization. American Son, a 2019 drama film directed by Kenny Leon and starring Kerry Washington, who plays a woman whose son Jamal goes missing after being pulled over by police. The Black Power Mixtape 19671975, a 2011 documentary film directed by Goran Olsson, examining the evolution of the Black Power movement in America. Dear White People, a 2014 comedy-drama film written, directed and co-produced by Justin Simien, focusing on racial tensions at a fictitious Ivy League college. MORE FROM THE ANN ARBOR NEWS: Remembering how Ann Arbor saved the Michigan Theater 40 years ago Anti police brutality march attracts Ann Arbor police, Washtenaw sheriff and Jim Harbaugh The Ark music venue in Ann Arbor joins Black Out Tuesday movement Downtown Ann Arbor bars, restaurants get councils OK to expand patios into streets Ann Arbor unanimously adopts ambitious roadmap to carbon-neutrality Subscriber content preview By DAVID KOENIG AP Airlines Writer Airlines are starting to see a slight rise in bookings, but air travel remains down about 90%, prompting speculation about which carriers might go under. JetBlue Airways CEO Robin Hayes admits he doesn't know how quickly air travel will recover from the coronavirus outbreak, and no matter what, his will be a smaller airline. . . . By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Patient readers, more soon. Reality today in the form of Bidens speech keeps getting in the way of my production cycle. lambert #COVID19 At reader request, Ive added this daily chart. The data is the John Hopkins CSSE data. Here is the site. Today I thought I would look at big states not in the Acela Corridor: California, Texas, Florida: This version puts the same three states in the context of the Top 25 COVID-19 states; the curves are still inception-based. The conclusion is the same: Its clear that this country cannot be said to have the pandemic under control. Politics But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? James Madison, Federalist 51 They had one weapon left and both knew it: treachery. Frank Herbert, Dune They had learned nothing, and forgotten nothing. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord Since were getting closer to the election, maybe its time to start looking at the electoral map: Click the map to create your own at 270toWin.com So, taking the consensus as a given, 270 (total) 204 (Trumps) = 66. States in play: AZ (11), FL (29), MI (16), NC (15), PA (20), and WI (10) plus 1 to win not tie = 102. 102 66 = 36. Trump, then, can lose only 36 votes out of the states in play. He could lose, say, AZ (11) and PA (20), but would have to win FL, MI, NC, PA, and WI. Thats a heavy lift. Readers will naturally correct my math! * * * 2020 Biden (D)(1): Joe Biden Addresses the Nation On the Civil Unrest Facing Communities Across America [YouTube]. Here is the video: Joe Biden Philadelphia Speech Transcript on Protests for George Floyd [Rev] (if a popup appears, you can click through). Here is the concrete policy proposal part, starting at 10:07: I call on the Congress to act this month on measures that will be the first step in this direction, starting with real police reform. Congressman Jeffries has a Bill to outlaw choke Kohls. Congress should put it on the presidents desk in the next few days. There are other measures, to stop transferring weapons of war to police forces, improve oversight and accountability, to create a model use of force standard, that also should be made law this month. I am no expert in police reform policy, but here is a thread on that topic for comparison purposes: For those who are interested in research-based solutions to stop police violence, heres what you need to know based on the facts and data. A thread. (1/x) Samuel Sinyangwe (@samswey) October 6, 2019 The thread ends with an image of the relatively mild Campaign Zero reforms proposed by among others Deray (on his journal from charter school administrator through Black Lives Matter to podcasting); if I had the bandwidth, Id compare Bidens speech to that baseline. What jumps out at me is that Biden granted, he qualifies with first step doesnt mention the role that police union contracts can play in shielding police from accountability. Here is a thread on that topic: In law school, we had to complete a "substantial writing" of 10k words to graduate. Mine was about police union contracts & the use of force. I wrote it in 2016 but never published it. Sharing some of what I learned (not updated for '20 & by no means am I right or authoritative) pic.twitter.com/541xQgjlkV Leo Gertner (@lgertnr) May 31, 2020 I dont see an end to the drug war, either. Or amnesty for those imprisoned by it. UPDATE Biden (D)(2): Biden delivers the presidential speech we needed [Jennifer Rubin, WaPo]. Peroration: This was a call to our better angels. (A country is crying out for leadership. Leadership that can unite us, leadership that brings us together, leadership that can recognize pain and deep grief of communities that have had a [whose?] knee on their neck for a long time). It was a call for empathetic and responsible leadership. (I promise you this. I wont traffic in fear and division. I wont fan the flames of hate. I will seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued this country not use them for political gain.) I hate that the ____ we needed snowclone with the hatred of a million burning suns. UPDATE Biden (D)(3): Biden blasts Trumps narcissism in new phase of campaign [Associated Press]. Bidens address marked a new phase of a presidential campaign that had been effectively frozen for two-plus months by the spread of the coronavirus. The former vice president is now emerging from his Delaware home to confront Trump every day and using in-person appearances to offer direct competition with the president, rather than relying on virtual events that often failed to garner a lot of attention. It was the third consecutive day that Biden made a public appearance and the first time hes been out of the state since March. His remarks were carried live on the three major cable news networks. Well see how that goes. UPDATE Biden (D)(4): Biden last week at a Black church (!): Biden: Shoot unarmed people in the leg instead of the heart Nothing will fundamentally change.pic.twitter.com/Tc77moP6fC cursed-dem (@kallllisti) June 1, 2020 Hard to reconcile with todays speech in Philly. UPDATE Sanders (D)(1): Bernie Sanders tries on a new role in 2020: Inside player [CNN]. Nearly two months after the primary effectively ended, Bidens campaign and Sanders senior leadership have successfully crafted a ceasefire in the ideological warfare that has dominated the Democratic Party, and its emboldened left wing, for the past five years. Deep and abiding divisions on major issues make the peace a tenuous one, but the personal bond between Sanders and Biden, set against the partys evolving power dynamics and a country veering from crisis to crisis under President Donald Trump, has set the stage for Democrats to enter the general election this fall with a unity of purpose they lacked in 2016. The detente is being quietly shepherded by Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir and top Biden aides Anita Dunn and Ron Klain. [I]n an interview last week, Shakir praised [Dunn] for setting a tone and tenor in private conversations that encouraged the relationship. Theyre operating with the best of intent. Now that doesnt necessarily mean youre going to get all the outcomes that you want, Shakir said. Obviously we have to see where the outputs are in terms of these task forces (created by the campaigns), but were operating with full reality, understanding that were not going to get everything we want.' Harvey Weinsteins flak opening with the best of intent. Possible, I suppose. More: When Bernie was talking about suspending the campaign, he hadnt made his decision, he asked me and Jeff at the time to go and start conversations with Bidens crew to figure out how much progress we could make, Shakir said. And I said (to Sanders), OK, what are your chief objectives here? He said, Its very simple, We need progressive policies and progressive personnel adopted by Joe Biden .' I havent seen either. UPDATE Trump (R)(1): Weve Now Entered the Final Phase of the Trump Era [The Atlantic]. There is no way back from the Gotterdammerung in the remainder of the Trump era. The question facing responsible senior administration officials (there are several at the principal and deputy level), Republicans in Congress, and allied governments is not how to persuade Trump to do the right thing, but how to limit the damage so the government can be repaired after he is gone. This may mean not urging Trump to take action on crises even if it is merited; circumventing the president wherever possible; Republican governors declaring their independence from their party leader, trying to craft a bipartisan approach in Congress on foreign-policy issues such as competing with China in international institutions and protecting against Russian interference; and using distractions of their own to divert his attention from truly consequential decisions. Call it fortificationof constitutional democracy and Americas international interests. There are 231 long days with nothing but stormy weather left. * * * Big tent party: Amy McGrath, in tonights Senate debate, says shes the best Democratic candidate because people want someone who can work with Trump if he wins Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) June 2, 2020 Five things to watch in Tuesdays primaries [The Hill]. Some 479 pledged delegates are up for grabs on Tuesday, and Biden currently has somewhere around 1,550. While hes the only candidate remaining in the race, winning the delegates he needs to secure the nomination on Tuesday may prove more difficult than it seems. Biden will have to win 89 percent of all delegates up for grabs on Tuesday to get to the 1,991 he needs. But Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who suspended his presidential campaign in April, will still be on the ballots in remaining primaries, and his allies have urged supporters to vote for him in an effort to amass progressive delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Since Sanders exited the race, Biden has won at least 89 percent of delegates in only one state, Nebraska. Also, vote by mail. Worth reading in full. Realignment and Legitimacy Class traitor? This is the Rahul Dubey of Swann Street in the Northwest, DC: "I hope that my 13-year-old son grows up to be just as amazing as they are." Rahul Dubey opened his home to nearly 70 strangers overnight and sheltered them during D.C.'s curfew. He says our country needs people like THEM. FULL INTERVIEW: https://t.co/hucxiraHk9 pic.twitter.com/BKFMsTsSgk ABC 7 News WJLA (@ABC7News) June 2, 2020 Certainly a courageous and moral act. Kudos to Dubey. However, although I cannot reconstruct the sourcing from which I learned that Dubey worked in health care, here is the only LinkedIin resume I can find for a Rahul Dubey in the Washington area: So thats pretty unfortunate, considering the murderous fabulously destructive role Americas Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) has played in heatlh care policy. In 2003, Donald Rumsfeld gave a perfect explanation for why people riot [Vox]. From 2015, still germane. When Iraqis looted hospitals and businesses in Baghdad after the US invasion in 2003, the conservative secretary of defense at the time, Donald Rumsfeld, suggested that looting was a result of legitimate, pent-up anger. Rumsfeld said, according to Pentagon correspondent Pamela Hess at UPI: While no one condones looting, on the other hand, one can understand the pent-up feelings that may result from decades of repression and people who have had members of their family killed by that regime, for them to be taking their feelings out on that regime. And I dont think theres anyone in any of those pictures [who wouldnt] accept it as part of the price of getting from a repressed regime to freedom. * * * Americans losing faith in elections as Trump discredits voting systems [Los Angeles Times]. [A] group of academics, called Bright Line Watch, which since 2017 has surveyed Americans on how much confidence they have in the election system. The surveys show a steep drop during Trumps presidency. When the project began, about 60% of those surveyed said they believed U.S. elections were free of fraud. Now only 45% say they believe that. A third of Trump supporters surveyed say they would not regard it as undemocratic for a president to attack the legitimacy of election results. Thats not good. On the other hand, sometimes one thinks Americans have the memories of goldfish. Does anyone remember election 2000 and Bush v. Gore? Or the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), crafted in response to the hanging chad debacle, that subsidized the introduction of hackable voting machines? Our voting systems have been, to say the least, rickety for some time. See Election Justice USAs report on the 2016 election, for example. Philadelphia Sends Out Voteswagon To Collect Mail-in Ballots [CBS Philly]. The committee of Seventy and the city commissioners office have joined forces in Philadelphia over to the next few days to make sure anyone with a mail-in vote can get it counted ahead of the Pennsylvania primary. . The bus will make 10 stops throughout Philadelphia between Sunday and Monday evening- this Saturday mornings outpost was Boys Latin charter. Frequently with the postal service people get their ballots closer to Election Day so we wanted to set up an option to submit their ballots in person, [city commissioner Al Schmidt] said. And in turn, assurance their votes and voices are heard. Over 200,000 people applied to vote by mail for the first time in a Pennsylvania election, according to Schmidt. Heres what happens in Lancaster County, step-by-step, when your mail-in ballot leaves your mailbox [Lancaster Online]. Step 1: Ballots are received. Step 2: Signatures on the back of the envelope are checked. Step 3: Ballots remain in the elections office, unopened Step 4: On Election Day, teams of two elections workers will begin taking the boxes of ballots [to] an envelope slicing machine opens the ballot return envelope. Step 5: The sliced return envelope is then brought back to the elections office and it is opened, revealing the secrecy envelope inside which contains the actual ballot. The return envelope is retained for record keeping purposes and the secrecy envelopes are then shuffled together so that elections workers cannot associate the name on the return envelope with the actual ballot. Step 6: The ballots inside the secrecy envelope will be taken to another room on the first floor of the county government building to be run through a ballot scanner. Step 7: Scanned ballots are then secured so they cannot be rescanned. Interesting, but what about central tabulation? Stats Watch At reader request, I added some business stats back in. Please give Econintersect click-throughs; theyre a good, old-school blog that covers more than stats. If anybody knows of other aggregators, please contact me at the email address below. Coincident Indicators: 02 June 2020 New York Fed Weekly Economic Index (WEI): Index Declines and Remains At Recession Levels [Econintersect]. This data set should be considered a high-frequency coincident indicator on a par with the Aruoba-Diebold-Scotti Business Conditions Index produced by the Philly Fed and both show conditions caused by the coronavirus pandemic are already worse than the Great Recession. However, the Aruoba-Diebold-Scotti Business Conditions Index is improving whilst the WLI is still declining. Logic would say with the partial reopening of the economy the Aruoba-Diebold-Scotti Business Conditions Index seems to be correct. Housing: April 2020 CoreLogic Home Prices: Home Prices Holding Steady Despite Coronavirus [Econintersect]. This is a rear view of home prices. Econintersect believes home prices will deteriorate as the year progresses as the knock-on effect of the coronavirus will grow. The worst-case will be a decline to Great Recession levels but the most likely scenario is a 10% decline roughly equal to the expected unemployment rate. Too much money is being removed from the economy due to the COVID restrictions and elevated unemployment. * * * Commodities: A meat-supply crunch is beginning to ease but grocers and suppliers expect strains across U.S. food sectors to persist for several months. The U.S. food industry heads into the summer months with beef and pork production last week about 7% lower than the same time last year. while items like rice, flour and pasta remain scarce following heavy consumer stockpiling [Wall Street Journal]. That panic-buying has tailed off but disconnects in supply chains are lingering as suppliers and distributors cope with rapid shifts in production and demand. Restaurants that had scaled down to pickup and delivery operations have resumed food purchasing as they begin to reopen, for instance, keeping supplies of meat products and other items tight. Meat processors have reopened plants but many sites are running well below their usual capacity, with some workers out sick and others adjusting to new safety rules. Retail: Retailers reopening their doors as the U.S. eases coronavirus lockdowns face a new challenge coping with a glut of pent-up inventory. Merchants that have navigated the pandemic will be going head-to-head with bankrupt rivals anxious to liquidate stockpiles potentially providing a bonanza for consumers and headaches for many store owners [Wall Street Journal]. Apparel and footwear companies are particularly exposed, with tens of billions of dollars of unsold merchandise in stores and warehouses. U.S. figures show the retail inventory to sales ratio, a measure of efficiency in supply chains, ballooned to 1.53 in March from 1.43 the month before, reaching the highest level since the financial crisis . Store owners are working with consumer demand still in question and with conventional forecasting tools challenged by the uncertainty. Selling inventory will also be harder and take longer because of staggered store openings and social-distancing restrictions, cutting into margins. Employment Situation: An Unemployment Crisis after the Onset of COVID-19 [Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco]. we assess possible paths for unemployment through 2021. Although the initial scale of the crisis is clear, substantial uncertainty surrounds the future path of unemployment. This uncertainty primarily revolves around the success of virus containment measures and how quickly economic activity can recover. Fundamental measurement challenges are also likely to affect the official unemployment rate: some laid-off workers cannot actively search for new jobs because of shelter-in-place restrictions and hence may be counted as out of the labor force, rather than unemployed. Our analysis suggests that returning to pre-outbreak unemployment levels by sometime in 2021 would require a significantly more rapid pace of hiring than during any past economic recovery. I dont believe the virus is contained; see the chart above. Id love to be wrong! * * * Todays Fear & Greed Index: 58 Greed (previous close: 58 Greed;) [CNN]. One week ago: 50 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated May 29 at 1:18pm. Last updated Jun 2 at 12:59pm. So Mr. Market came back from the Nineteenth Hole on Sunday, and decided to get bullish? Note the flip to Greed (yesterday, I mistakenly only updated the number. Health Care The Protests Will Spread the Coronavirus [The Atlantic]. The wave of mass protests across the United States will almost certainly set off new chains of infection for the novel coronavirus, experts say. The virus seems to spread the most when people yell (such as to chant a slogan), sneeze (to expel pepper spray), or cough (after inhaling tear gas). It is transmitted most efficiently in crowds and large gatherings, and research has found that just a few contagious people can infect hundreds of susceptible people around them. The virus can spread especially easily in small, cramped places, such as police vans and jails . Oy. Superspreaders Could Actually Make Covid-19 Easier to Control [Bloomberg]. The most important lessons to be derived here may spring from the fact that the variations in infectiousness are not entirely random. In the future, a team of eight mostly U.S.-based researchers speculated in yet another new paper on the phenomenon, it may be possible to identify those likeliest to be superspreaders by demographics, viral load or other physical characteristics. In the present, its already pretty easy to identify specific behaviors and locations that lend themselves to large-scale Covid-19 transmission, with singing, yelling, talking loudly or otherwise engaging in behaviors likely to spread the virus in the crowded indoor spaces implicated in most of the major superspreading events. The key role of such events may help explain why, as my Bloomberg Opinion colleague Elaine He demonstrated with a remarkable set of charts, the strictness of government lockdowns in different European countries did not seem to be correlated with success in slowing the spread of the disease, although their timing did. Once youve put a stop to large, indoor gatherings with lots of yelling or singing, there may be diminishing returns to other restrictions. This may also help explain why epidemic models that did not assume great variability in individual infectiousness so wildly overestimated how fast the disease would spread under relatively relaxed restrictions in Sweden. Another implication of Covid-19s superspreader skew, according to several recent papers, is that even in the absence of widespread testing for the disease, low-tech efforts to isolate those with symptoms and track down their contacts can be quite effective in slowing its spread. See NC here. On the same topic Just Stop the Superspreading [New York Times]. We recently published a preprint (a preliminary paper, still to be peer-reviewed) about 1,038 cases of SARS-CoV-2 in Hong Kong between Jan. 23 and April 28 that, using contact-tracing data, identified all local clusters of infection. We found that superspreading has overwhelmingly contributed to the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the city overall. Of the 349 local cases we identified the remaining 689 cases were imported from other territories 196 were linked to just six superspreading events. One person alone appears to have infected 73 individuals after frequenting several bars in late March. Weddings, temples, hot-pot dinners, work parties and karaoke venues featured in the other clusters. In our study, just 20 percent of cases, all of them involving social gatherings, accounted for an astonishing 80 percent of transmissions. 27% unlikely to be vaccinated against the coronavirus; Republicans, conservatives especially: POLL [ABC]. Oof: U.S. businesses are getting back to work with a set of new supply chains and theyre already facing concerns over distribution and pricing. Manufacturers are racing to crank out hand sanitizer, masks and clear plastic dividers as the products emerge as integral elements for restarting the U.S. economy amid the coronavirus pandemic [Wall Street Journal]. That has sent prices for materials like the alcohol used in sanitizer soaring, and suppliers are measuring the wait times for plexiglass-style sheeting in months rather than weeks. The headaches are coming over products that until recently had only limited markets. Now demand for protective gear that was sold mostly to hospitals is coming from a range of sectors, straining producers. Lydall Inc. plans to double production of its filtering material for face masks, for instance, but for now some orders are going unfilled as demand far outweighs supply. Black Injustice Tipping Point Two-thirds of people put in neck restraints by Minneapolis police were black, department data shows [CNN]. n the years leading up to George Floyds death with his neck beneath the knee of a Minneapolis policeman, at least 58 people lost consciousness after the citys officers put them in neck restraints, according to a CNN analysis of use of force data from the police department. Officers used neck restraints on 428 people since 2012, and 14% lost consciousness, the data showed. That means the procedure, which is restricted or banned in many large police departments around the country, was used an average of about once a week in the city over that time period. About two-thirds of the people placed in neck restraints by Minneapolis officers were black in a city where black residents make up 19% of the population. The President, the Military and Minneapolis: What You Need to Know [Just Security]. Under the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, Congress has limited the presidents ability to use the federal (title 10) military in domestic law enforcement operations such as searches, seizures, and arrests. A criminal statute, the Posse Comitatus Act makes it unlawful for the Army or Air Force to execute the laws . . . except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress. So, the president cannot simply call in federal military forces or nationalize the Minnesota National Guard to quell the civil disturbance in Minneapolis without pointing to a Posse Comitatus Act exception. The Insurrection Act is, by far, the Posse Comitatus Acts most important exception. This is the legal key that unlocks the door to use federal military forceswhether through federalizing the National Guard or calling in title 10 forces to quell civil unrest. Dating from 1807, there are three key Insurrection Act provisions worth addressing. But there are two Insurrection Act provisions that can be invoked by the president irrespective of a states request or underlying desires. Ironically, presidents have actually relied upon these provisions to uphold civil rights and protect the rights of minorities in the Deep South during the 1950s and 1960s. The Insurrection Act authorizes the President to deploy the military (federal or state) whenever he believes it necessary to suppress an insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination or conspiracy. Worth reading in full for the provisions. UPDATE The guy with the Chicago PD scanner is on again. Sorry for the language, but interesting data point: haha they've been loopy and / or complete assholes all day. tired lil piggies. McDonalds Has Fallen (@loggedtheFUCKon) June 2, 2020 Interesting to wonder if the police can keep up the pace for, say, another week. Doubtful, IMNSHO; they arent trained or in shape for it. Hence the military? UPDATE The Border Patrol? CBP personnel have deployed to the National Capital Region to assist law enforcement partners. These protests have devolved into chaos & acts of domestic terrorism by groups of radicals & agitators. @CBP is answering the call and will work to keep DC safe. pic.twitter.com/QLueFkgaPO Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan (@CBPMarkMorgan) June 1, 2020 Totally not trained for any aspect of this, a disaster waiting to happen. UPDATE Military Helicopters Descend On Washington In Bizarre Very Low-Altitude Show Of Force (Updated) [The Drive]. . Army UH-72 Lakota helicopters, as well as UH-60 Black Hawks, one possibly belonging to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, have been flying extremely low-level show-of-force maneuvers over areas of Washington, D.C. in obvious attempts to try to disperse groups protesting the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota last week. Some of the helicopters have held a hover right over groups of people, hitting them with their rotor wash and the deafening sound of their rotors and engines. It also seems bizarrely dangerous. If something were to have happened to the helicopter, it could have quickly fallen into the crowd, offering them little chance to get out of the way. Makes you wonder what would happen with a drone strike into the blades. UPDATE Hmm: Tonight, multiple C-130J and C-17A cargo aircraft from Fort Riley, Fort Drum, and Fort Bragg are arriving into Andrews AFB. (@AP reporting 82nd Airborne Division activated) 10th Mountain Division & 1st Infantry Division which were on standby, also appear to be activated. pic.twitter.com/eTJB7QT8GG Aircraft Spots (@AircraftSpots) June 2, 2020 UPDATE Ouch: This reminds me of Iranian Foreign Minister who used US letter from Pompeo with changed words pic.twitter.com/sNPtUTyWX9 Mr. W (@ronald_eric) June 1, 2020 Screening Room Happy anniversary: TODAY IN #StarTrek HISTORY: June 2, 1987 Patrick Stewart films his first scenes as Jean-Luc Picard for "Star Trek: The Next Generation." pic.twitter.com/9sY4WsHTIb TrekCore.com (@TrekCore) June 2, 2020 Class Warfare Riots Across America [Seeking Alpha (Re Silc)]. The death of George Floyd was both unjust and tragic. However, his death was the catalyst that lit a powder keg of dissension, which has simmered beneath the headlines for over a decade. Look at the faces of those rioting. They are of every race, religion, and creed. What they all have in common is they are of the demographic most impacted by the current economic recession. Job losses, income destruction, financial pressures, and debt create tension in the system until it explodes. The lack of economic improvement is clearly evident across all demographic classes. However, it has been the very policies of the Federal Reserve which created a wealth transfer mechanism from the poor to the rich. The ongoing interventions by the Federal Reserve propelled asset prices higher, but left the majority of American families behind. If the Fed removes any monetary accommodation, the market declines. The Fed is forced to subsequently increase support for the financial markets, which exacerbates the wealth gap. Its a virtual spiral from which the Fed can not extricate itself. Its a great system if you are rich and have money invested. Not so much if you are any one else. As we are witnessing, the United States is not immune to social disruptions. The source of these problems is compounding due to the publics failure to appreciate why it is happening. Eventually, as has repeatedly occurred throughout history, the riots will turn their focus toward those in power. Worth reading also for information on savings (none) and retirement accounts (being tapped). Household income surged in April despite the collapsing labor market [Matthew Yglesias, Vox]. Personal income in the United States soared by 10.5 percent in April, according to new data released Friday morning by the Commerce Departments Bureau of Economic Analysis, even as consumer spending fell by 13.6 percent. That adds up to a tremendous and unprecedented surge in the household savings rate as Americans, on average, had more cash on hand but fewer things they wanted to spend it on. All this played out against the backdrop of the most rapid set of job losses in American history, underscoring the critical role that the CARES Act has played in keeping people afloat. Then again One-Third of Americas Record Unemployment Payout Hasnt Arrived [Bloomberg]. Almost one-third of unemployment benefits estimated to be owed to the millions of Americans who lost their jobs as a result of the coronavirus slump havent been paid yet, as flagship policies struggle to cope with the unprecedented wave of layoffs. The Treasury disbursed $146 billion in unemployment benefits in the three months through May, according to data published Monday more than in the whole of 2009, when jobless rates peaked after the financial crisis. But even that historic figure falls short of a total bill that should have reached about $214 billion for the period, according to Bloomberg calculations based on weekly unemployment filings and the average size of those claims. The estimated gap of some $67 billion shows how emergency efforts to boost payments, and deliver them via creaking state-level systems, are lagging the needs of a jobs crisis thats seen more than 40 million people file for unemployment as the economy shut down. So, from the perspective of any given individual, the delivery of relief is or wasrandom. Well done, all. News of the Wired R.I.P. Christo: Christo, known for massive, ephemeral public arts projects, like "The Gates" in New York's Central Park, died Sunday. He was 84. https://t.co/tWvpSNAF48 pic.twitter.com/G6NJZTpTYd NBC News (@NBCNews) June 2, 2020 I saw The Gates in Central Park. I felt gates themselves, as pictured, were rather ugly, as was the reddish-orange fabric hanging from them. But then I realized that the fabric was catching tiny, invisible, almost impalpable breezes moving through the parth, and moving and rippling in response. Christo had somehow taught the city to blush. * * * Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, (c) how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal, and (d) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here . Todays plant (DL): DL writes: We had a great display of these in our yard last week. They bloom all summer but usually not all at once in our yard in Gainesville, FL. (More properly called the Dietes Iridioies or the Dietes Vegeta White, you may know it as the Cape Iris, Fortnight Lily or just plain Wild Iris.) I keep saying This flower is my favorite flower, but iris is really my favorite flower. * * * Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser. So if you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldnt see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Remember, a tip jar is for tipping! Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know Im on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for five or ten days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals: Here is the screen that will appear, which I have helpfully annotated. If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you! Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (R) attends a press conference at parliament house as Minister Cameron Dick looks on, on March 25, 2020 in Brisbane, Australia. (Jono Searle/Getty Images) Queensland Government Apologises to Family of Virus Man Queenslands deputy premier has apologised to the grieving family of a Blackwater man who was wrongly identified as having COVID-19. Stephen Miles says hes sorry for the suffering of Nathan Turners family and his partner, who has had to grieve his death in isolation. Turner initially tested positive for COVID-19 after his death last week, but subsequent tests have confirmed he was not infected. Miles has defended the governments response, saying it had to put Blackwater on alert and test widely after the former miners initial positive test. But he said it was a regrettable outcome that the family had suffered unnecessarily, in light of multiple subsequent negative tests. Our ability to control this virus requires us to respond rapidly to every single positive test, the deputy premier and health minister said on June 2. We have to treat ever positive test as though it is a positive case. However, I would like to personally apologise to his partner and his family for any distress that our actions in responding rapidly has caused them. I know its been incredibly distressing for them. Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said false positive tests for coronavirus were extremely rare. She said the results were compromised by the fact that one sample from Turner was contaminated with excessive blood from the post-mortem process. There are two potential answers here. One is that it was a false positive. The other is that it was a true positive, Young said. And we wont know which it was, but I am confident about the actions that were taken on that night to protect the community of Blackwater. Queensland recorded one new coronavirus case overnight involving a 41-year-old woman who arrived on a flight from Africa. Young said she was infectious while she was on the plane and she and all other passengers were now in quarantine. The state now has five active COVID-19 cases. Tracey Ferrier Among CRN Women of the Channel 2020, Kelly Ireland Named Power 40 Solution Provider Orange, CA, June 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CBT, woman-owned domain expert integrator, announced today that CRN , a brand of The Channel Company, has named Kelly Ireland ( our Founder ) to its list of 2020 Power 40 Solution Providers, an elite subset of its prestigious Women of the Channel list. This year, CRN honors more than 900 women whose channel expertise and vision are deserving of recognition. As part of the 2020 Women of the Channel, CRN also highlights 40 female executives at solution provider organizations whose insight and influence in their respective companies help drive channel success. Ireland founded CBT in 2001 as a value-added reseller (VAR) and has since successfully transitioned the company to a recognized solution provider and domain expert integrator. Under her leadership, the company has flourished, bridging the gap between operational technologies (OT) and information technologies (IT) with groundbreaking projects like the Refinery of the Future (RotF) in Houston. The company also thrives in high-performance computing (HPC), supporting a number of notable Fortune 50 clients. These successful initiatives have positioned CBT as an industry leader and have spurred explosive growth, increasing the companys revenue by 55% in the last two years. CRNs 2020 Women of the Channel list recognizes an accomplished group of influential women leaders whose strategic vision and unique achievements accelerate channel growth through cultivated partnerships, innovative thought leadership, and unwavering dedication to the IT channel, said Bob Skelley, CEO of The Channel Company. We are proud to honor them for their accomplishments and contributions to driving channel success. It is an honor to be recognized as part of such a prestigious list, and I could not have achieved this without the support from the CBT team, our partners and clients, said Ireland. In the next year, we expect continued growth around our Industrial IoT solutions , especially as enterprises strive to adapt to the new normal with remote and connected worker technologies. Were excited to be at the forefront in this area, with IT/OT solutions that will drive significant ROI for our customers. Story continues In addition to CRNs 2020 Women of the Channel and Power 40 Solution Providers, CBT has received nine consecutive Boeing Performance Excellence Awards, CRNs 2019 Triple Crown Award, three consecutive CRN IoT Innovators Awards, and the 2019 Women Presidents' Organization's 50 Fastest-Growing Women-Owned/Led Companies. The 2020 Women of the Channel list will be featured in CRN Magazine on June 8 and online at www.CRN.com/WOTC. About CBT Founded in 2001, CBT is a premier, woman-owned technology solutions provider and domain expert integrator with extensive experience designing and deploying enterprise-class solutions. We consistently deliver excellence thanks to our first-class team and strategic partnerships with the worlds finest providers of hardware and software solutions. By combining best-of-breed technologies, CBT provides a balance of services and solutions in the areas of Industrial IoT, HPC and Analytics, Hybrid IT and IT Supply Chain Optimization to augment your enterprise with the necessary tools to excel. Learn more at www.cbtechinc.com . Follow CBT: Twitter and LinkedIn Copyright 2020 CBT, Inc. All rights reserved. About The Channel Company The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers, and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequalled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelcompany.com Follow The Channel Company: Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook Copyright 2020. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved. Attachment Ben Davies CBT 7145737733 ben.davies@cbtechinc.com George Floyd's death has been ruled a homicide in the latest report from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner. In a report released on Monday afternoon, the medical examiner listed the 46-year-old truck driver's manner of death as a homicide. Floyd died on May 25 in police custody after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pinned him to the ground for several minutes with a knee on the unarmed man's neck, despite his repeated cries of "I can't breathe." The killing was caught on camera, quickly going viral and causing national outrage at Floyd's unjust death. The medical examiner's report listed Floyd's cause of death as "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression." The report also said that Floyd "experienced a cardiopulmonary arrest while being restrained by law enforcement officer(s)." Ben Crump Law Firm George Floyd The report stated that "other significant conditions" found showed "arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease; fentanyl intoxication; recent methamphetamine use." Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid pain reliever typically used to treat severe cancer pain, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Ben Crump Law Firm George Floyd RELATED: Police Join Protesters in Marches Across the Country: Good Cops Are Sick to Their Stomachs' "However, most recent cases of fentanyl-related harm, overdose, and death in the U.S. are linked to illegally made fentanyl," the CDC says. "It is sold through illegal drug markets for its heroin-like effect. It is often mixed with heroin and/or cocaine as a combination productwith or without the users knowledgeto increase its euphoric effects." Earlier on Monday, Floyd's family attorney Benjamin Crump said during a press conference that an independent autopsy concluded that he died of asphyxiation due to neck and back compression from being subdued by more than one officer. Story continues Chauvin, the officer who pinned Floyd to the ground, has been charged with third-degree murder, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 25 years. He and the three other officers present were fired from the Minneapolis police department last week. RELATED VIDEO: Beyonce, Oprah and More Stars Share Powerful Messages as Protests Erupt Over George Floyd's Death Beyonce, Oprah and More Stars Share Powerful Messages as Protests Erupt Over George Floyd's Death As the country continues to protest the killing of George Floyd, many celebrities are using their platforms to speak out about racial injustice Floyd's family is seeking a first-degree murder charge to be filed against Chauvin. "The officers killed him based on a knee to his neck for almost nine minutes, and two knees to his back compressing his lungs," Crump said at the press conference. "The ambulance was his hearse." A preliminary autopsy by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner concluded there were "no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation," PEOPLE previously reported. The preliminary autopsy report stated that he died from the "combined effects of Mr. Floyd being restrained by the police, his underlying health conditions and any potential intoxicants in his system likely contributed to his death." Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. However, the report of forensic pathologist Michael Baden who performed the independent autopsy found that the compressive pressure of the neck and back are not seen at [the preliminary] autopsy because the pressure has been released by the time the body comes to the medical examiners office. "It can only be seen as serious compressive pressure on the neck and back while the pressure is being applied or as in this instance when it is captured on video," Baden said. Christopher Harris via AP George Floyd RELATED: George Floyd's Family Wants 1st-Degree Murder Charge, Says Independent Autopsy Shows Asphyxia "When he said 'I cant breathe,' unfortunately many police are under the impression if you can talk you are breathing," he said. "That is not true. The concept that a person says 'I cant breathe' in this instance means you should take it seriously." Crump added at the Monday press conference, "The knee to the neck and the knees to his back both contributed to him not being able to breathe, and what those officers did that we see on the video is the cause of George's death, not some underlying, unknown health condition. George Floyd was a healthy young man." Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu Agency via Getty Protesters hold up signs in Vancouver, British Columbia "Beyond question, he would be alive today if not for the pressure applied to his neck by fired officer Derek Chauvin and the strain on his body from the two additional officers kneeing him in his back," the attorney added. Floyd's death has caused outrage across the United States and the globe, spurring protests in several cities including New York, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Minneapolis, where he was killed. If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, please contact the SAMHSA substance abuse helpline at 1-800-662-HELP. Explosives placed inside mosque in Kabuls fortified Green Zone; at least two people wounded. Two people have been killed and two others injured after a planted bomb exploded inside a popular mosque in Kabuls fortified Green Zone. Tariq Arian, spokesman for Afghanistans Interior Ministry, said the bomb targeted the Wazir Akber Khan Mosque at around 7:25pm local time (1500 GMT) on Tuesday when worshippers had gathered for evening prayers. The mosque is located in a high-security diplomatic area near the offices of several international organisations and embassies. Prayer leader of the mosque, Mullah Mohammad Ayaz Niazi, was one of two people killed in the attack, Arian said. He was wounded in the attack and died later at a hospital. MOI confirms- M. Ayaz Niazi, imam of Wazir Akbar Khan mosque, lost his life in this evening's explosion at the mosque near a high-security diplomatic district in Kabul- No group immediately claimed responsibility- Pres. Ghani in a statement condemned the attack-#Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/UgQKQBFOvB Shaista Sadat Lameh (@ShaistaLameh) June 2, 2020 The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) groups affiliate, headquartered in eastern Afghanistans Nangarhar province later claimed the attack. 200602083746155 The mosque is located at the main entrance to the Green Zone and is accessible from both inside and outside the tightly controlled area. Niazi was famous in Kabul and his politically charged sermons were often so well attended that worshippers would spill into the grounds outside the mosque. Arian initially said the attack was conducted by a suicide bomber. But as investigations proceeded, it was not clear that remained the case. President Ashraf Ghanis spokesman called the incident a heinous attack. The attack follows a bombing claimed by ISIL (ISIS) fighters against a television stations minibus in central Kabul on Saturday, killing a journalist and the driver. It also comes after officials said seven civilians were killed late Monday by a roadside bomb linked to the Taliban in northern Afghanistan, even as authorities pressed for peace talks with the militants. Police in Harare this morning are blocking human and vehicular traffic into the central business district. A survey conducted by The Herald shows that all major roads leading into the city centre are heavily mounted by police and soldiers who are ordering passengers back. Combined security forces stationed at several checkpoints at the intersections of Seke and Cripps Roads (Coke Corner), Simon Mazorodze and Birmingham, at Harare Show Grounds, along Robert Mugabe Road at the Vehicle Inspection Department, Pennywise Shops at Eastlea were turning away motorists in private vehicles and conventional buses. In the central business district police ordered the closure of several businesses along Kaguvi, Cameroon Streets and the usually busy Gulf Complex. National police spokesperson Assistant commissioner Paul Nyathi said he was in a meeting and would get back to this reporter when called for comment. Meanwhile, Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services secretary Mr Nick Mangwana, in a tweet, said: Government has not pronounced a change in Lockdown Regulations. We are still on Level 2 lockdown and permitted economic activity should go ahead. There is no need for Zimbabweans to panic over the spike in confirmed Covid-19 cases, but citizens must continue observing basic hygiene and social distancing recommended by public health experts, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said. The lockdown will continue at level 2, although President Mnangagwa keeps this under review and will modify it as circumstances change, the government has stressed. Zimbabwe's confirmed cases crept up to 178 yesterday with four more cases, three among returnees from South Africa and one a returnee from Mozambique, to conclude a week that saw the cumulative total of patients rising by over 100, almost all from those living in quarantine centers on their return to Zimbabwe with only a small fraction of the new patients infected within Zimbabwe. WHO country representative Dr Alex Gasasira told 'The Herald' yesterday that the surge in confirmed cases called for enhanced responses towards combating Covid-19. "There is no need to panic. What we would say is that there is need for enhanced vigilance, enhanced compliance with the prevention measures that the Ministry of Health and Child Care and its partners have been sharing with the public," said Dr Gasasira. He said following the spike in cases, particularly from quarantine facilities, WHO was sure that government had started contact tracing and isolating those that tested positive to prevent further spread within the facilities and beyond. Zimbabweans needed to comply with guidance given by public health experts, as opposed to what can now be seen, especially in high density areas, where people have started congregating in large numbers, without face masks and not observing the required social distance. Said Dr Gasasira: "Every individual must continue to have the highest level of hand hygiene, to keep physical distance from others, to wear a mask whenever one is going to a public place, to look after that mask properly, and to ensure that when you are sick or someone close to you is sick, they report for proper assessment. This is what is supposed to be done and that is what we would highly recommend." People with relatives coming in from other countries must also tell their relatives of the need to go into quarantine, be screened and get tested for Covid-19 before joining the rest of the family so that their families and the returning residents remain safe. Zimbabwe will continue under level 2 lockdown until President Mnangagwa announces a review and any changes, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa has said. In an interview with The Herald after the periodic review meeting of the Mashonaland West Provincial Taskforce on Covid-19 in Chinhoyi yesterday, Minister Mutsvangwa said, "The review of the lockdown is under President Mnangagwa's purview and he is going to do so when he addresses the nation." Until the President, after considering the facts, makes any changes, the lockdown would continue at its present level because the disease was still spreading with no cure yet. Minister Mutsvangwa criticised those grumbling each time President Mnangagwa extends the lockdown, under the pretext that informal traders and others out of employment would continue to struggle to provide for their families. It was more important to ensure that every citizen was safe from the disease ahead of anything else. In terms of schools re-opening, Minister Mutsvangwa said Cabinet continued to assess the situation but emphasized that schools would only re-open when measures to protect pupils, teachers and parents were in place. "My grandchildren asked me to talk to the President so that he instructs the opening of schools but I explained to them that the schools will only resume once it is safe for school-children and their parents from the pandemic," she said. Pupils will continue to learn from home for now. Since most of the positive cases being recorded at the moment are among the returning citizens, the strict 21-day quarantine will remain in place but returning citizens were in the priority group for PCR tests, the certain diagnostic test. More food, bedding and water was being availed at the quarantine centres, said Minister Mutsvangwa The minister is a member of the Inter-Ministerial Taskforce on Covid-19 chaired by Vice President Kembo Mohadi. Government has warned the country that there may well be more patients as more return home, with a majority of them coming from countries that have recorded high numbers of confirmed cases. Source: allafrica.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Hong Kong police on Monday formally banned an annual candlelit vigil to mourn the victims of the crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy movement that has taken place uninterrupted for 30 years, saying the event would pose a "major threat to public health," said organizers. In response the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China is asking Hong Kongers to hold individual commemorations through small gatherings, lighting candles at home, or online meetings on Thursday night, the 31st anniversary of the military crackdown. Already, after the Hong Kong government extended a ban on gatherings imposed over the coronavirus outbreak to June 4, the group had urged supporters to light candles wherever they are in the city on the anniversary. Richard Tsoi, the group's spokesman, told VOA that its members still plan to gather at Victoria Park to light candles in groups of eight, in order not to breach the government's social distancing restrictions, and would stream the event live online. He voiced fears that this year's Tiananmen commemoration might be Hong Kong's last, as national security laws imposed by China on Hong Kong would prevent and punish "acts and activities" that threaten national security, including secession, subversion and terrorism and foreign interference. The legislation would also allow Chinese national security organs to set up agencies in Hong Kong. "There is a real danger that this might be the last time," said Tsoi. "The definition of subversion under the national security law is broad and this means room for [this kind of] activities would be narrowed." New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said her nation is "on a journey" to fight racism, while asking Kiwis not to protest en masse during the coronavirus pandemic. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has scolded thousands of New Zealanders for breaking coronavirus restrictions at Black Lives Matter protests. New Zealand has just one active case of COVID-19 - a 50-something Aucklander currently in isolation - and will achieve elimination of the disease this week without the discovery of another positive test. On Tuesday, health officials reported their 11th straight day without a new case of the deadly virus. Protesters march down Queen Street in Auckland following the death of African American man George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis. Source: Getty Images Ms Ardern's coronavirus response has insisted on strict social distancing and caps on gatherings. Both of those rules were flouted at rallies in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch on Monday. Ms Ardern said that was unfair to Kiwis who had abided by the rules, including those who had postponed weddings or funerals. "They had breached the rules. It was not right," Ms Ardern said. "Many New Zealanders have sacrificed an enormous amount and we continue to expect that of our team for everyone. "I need to keep asking the team of five million to stay together so that we can reach the finish line." New Zealand's protests included powerful hakas and were conducted peacefully. The protests were peaceful, but Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is concerned attendees aren't social distancing. Source: Getty Images Ms Ardern, who gained an international profile for her response to the Christchurch mosque shootings last year, agreed with the anti-racism message but not the method. "I absolutely understand the sentiment behind them, what they are standing for and what they are standing against," she said. "All I ask is that while we're in a pandemic in New Zealand and while we try to keep one another safe, that we find other ways at this point in time to express that solidarity." Less than four months before an election, lessening societal restrictions is now at the heart of New Zealand's public debate. An Oxford University study shows New Zealand's regulations are among the lightest of anywhere in the developed world, behind only Japan and Taiwan. Story continues Protesters turn their attention to parliament in Wellington. Source: Getty Images Still, both Ms Ardern's coalition partner NZ First - led by populist firebrand Winston Peters - and the opposition National Party have called for an end to restrictions, arguing they restrain business. Ms Ardern has signalled a review on June 8, with a potential easing to baseline restrictions next week. The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis has also renewed debate of New Zealand's own struggles with racism, specifically within its police force. Maori and Pasifika community leaders have decried a recent six-month trial of armed officers in two Auckland suburbs with high minority populations. A related claim to the Waitangi Tribunal asserts that two-thirds of people shot by police over the last decade were Maori and Pasifika people, who make up less than one quarter of New Zealand's population. Ms Ardern has acknowledged New Zealand has its own problems with racism. Source: Getty Images Ms Ardern admitted New Zealand had a problem with racism and the police force was not immune. "As a nation we're on a journey. I don't think the police would claim perfection," she said. "We have to continually strive to make sure that we address issues of unconscious bias in our own systems. "What I am proud of is we are continuing to see an increase in diversity in our police ... that is an important part of making progress." Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play. The Author 02.06.2020 LISTEN Early theorists of stigma including Erving Goffman in his 1963 work Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity, defined stigma as an attribute that is deeply discrediting and one that, makes it impracticable for an individual to have full social acceptance. Evidence suggests that contemporary epidemics such as HIV/AIDS and Ebola were associated with significant social stigma and discrimination in which affected persons or communities suffer from social rejection, violence, and compromised quality of life. After a cursory look at the current COVID-19 pandemic, it appears to me that Ghana has learnt no lesson from the approach to HIV/AIDS in relation to stigmatisation. Did we not learn anything from the implementation of the National HIV and AIDS Policy? Especially the objective three (3) i.e. mitigate the social and economic effect of HIV on persons affected and living with HIV. Granted we have not really learnt our lessons, the World Health Organization (WHO), has also indicated that the current COVID-19 outbreak has provoked social stigma and discriminatory behaviours against people of certain ethnic backgrounds as well as persons perceived or confirmed to have been in contact with the virus. For instance, in Ghana, most of those who tested positive for COVID-19 and some health care staff have reported experiences of stigmatization on both electronic and mass media. What actually saddens my heart was the sad ordeal of the children of the first victim of COVID-19 in the Upper East Region. After community members in her neighbourhood heard about her predicament, they banned her children from stepping out of their house and on one occasion stoned one of them who was on a short errand. Studies have shown that stigma makes people hide illness in order to avoid discrimination, prevent people from seeking immediate health care, and discourage victims from adopting healthy behaviours. The implications are indeed damning because such behaviours potentially contribute to severe health problems, increase local transmissions, and ultimately make it difficult controlling the outbreak. Therefore, the fight against COVID-19 is equally important as the fight against the stigmatization which l term the hidden pandemic. As a public health researcher and child protection advocate l foresee suffering that is widespread but on our blind side. In the light of the above, media reporting ought to be balanced, contextualized, and disseminating evidence-based information on COVID-19 and also help curb rumor, myths, and misinformation that could perpetuate stigmatization. Also, stigma can be heightened by insufficient knowledge about how COVID-19 disease is transmitted, prevented, and treated/managed. Therefore, it is important to spread the facts. Moreover, it will be worthwhile to amplify and emphasize stories and images of local people who experienced COVID-19 and have recovered. We should let people know that most people recover. Those who have recovered could join the campaign to fight the stigma. Furthermore, as a country, we should put clear but documented strategies in place to mitigate the social and economic effects of COVID-19 on persons infected by the disease. This will help curb stigmatization. Not all, counseling and training on coping skills should be integrated into the testing, quarantine, and treatment/management process to enhance capacity. This counselling should be extended to the immediate family of the victims. To conclude, content on stigma prevention and discrimination should be consciously integrated into the national COVID-19 prevention strategies. The document should be the blueprint for all government agencies, departments and civil society organizations involved in the fight against COVID-19. Email: [email protected] Youth Harvest Foundation Ghana Thousands of war crime accusations against British soldiers in Iraq will face no further action, the director of the Service Prosecution Authority (SPA) has said. Speaking on BBC Radio 4s Law in Action programme, Andrew Cayley said independent investigators had dismissed almost all of those allegations due to the low level of offending and lack of credible evidence. Mr Cayley said one case was still being considered but it was quite possible the accusations will ultimately result in zero prosecutions. Former lawyer Phil Shiner brought more than a thousand claims involving the British military following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Mr Shiner was later struck off as a solicitor in 2017 after being found guilty of misconduct and dishonesty relating to false abuse claims against British troops. Mr Cayley said he was also confident no action would be taken in a separate International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into alleged abuses by British soldiers. My sense is these matters are coming to a conclusion," he said, adding he expected ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda "will close the preliminary examination this year in respect of Iraq and the United Kingdom". The Peace Pledge Union (PPU) said Mr Cayley's admission raised wider questions about military power as the armed forces are the only institutions in the UK allowed to run their own criminal courts and prosecution service. Symon Hill, PPU campaigns manager, said: For years, we have listened to retired colonels and pro-military columnists whipping up a fantasy about witch-hunts against British armed forces personnel. The reality is very different: despite years of allegations, and evidence uncovered by investigative journalists, the armed forces own prosecutors have now decided to drop nearly all cases. This is not only about the individual allegations involved. The politicians and generals who led the invasion of Iraq have still not been held to account for the death and destruction they caused. Now we have another reminder of the power of the military: they are the only institution in the UK that is allowed to run their own criminal courts and prosecution service, making their own decisions about whether their staff should face prosecution. How the British media covered the Iraq War Show all 6 1 /6 How the British media covered the Iraq War How the British media covered the Iraq War Daily Mirror, 6 January 2003 How the British media covered the Iraq War The Guardian, 21 March 2003 How the British media covered the Iraq War The Daily Mail, 22 March 2003 How the British media covered the Iraq War Daily Telegraph, 21 March 2003 How the British media covered the Iraq War The Sun, 20 March 2003 How the British media covered the Iraq War Solicitor Hilary Meredith, who represented soldiers investigated by the defunct Iraq Historic Allegations Team (Ihat), called for a public apology over the probe. She said: At long last, this witch hunt is coming to an end. Thousands of lives have been ruined as a result of these false claims. The Ihat probe, which hounded hundreds of innocent troops over vile war crime slurs, was closed down in 2017. Thousands of lives were ruined by the 57m unit set up in 2010 to pursue allegations of wrongdoing during the Iraq War. But it did not result in one prosecution. Andrew Cayley has now drawn the same conclusion saying that there is no credible evidence of wrongdoing. Ihats closure also came at a price not only the cost to the taxpayer but the shattered lives, careers, marriages and health of those falsely accused over many years. I am now calling for a meaningful, public apology. The Cochin International Airport (CIAL) here has received close to 10,000 evacuees since the Centre launched its Vande Bharat Mission in the first week of last month to bring home Indians stranded abroad due to the COVID-19 pandemic, an airport spokesman said here on Tuesday. He said the airport is gearing up to receive more flights from new sectors from Cairo in Egypt to Cebu in The Philippines. Apart from the National carrier, many private airlines and chartered airlines have already approached the authorities to obtain necessary approval for operating evacuation flights to Kochi, the spokesman said in a release. . The Vande Bharat Mission had a head start in the country with the first airline touching down at Cochin International Airport on May 7. Till May 31, the airport has handled 8,554 inbound passengers, a majority from the Gulf nations, the US and the European Union. Air India and Air India Express together operated 48 flights. Air India also operated stopover flights from San Francisco, Yerevan and Kiev. The airport received 12 special flights operated by the national carriers of countries like Switzerland, United Kingdom, Maldives, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain. They flew back to their countries with more than 1000 citizens or permanent visa holders who were stranded at Kochi Airport. A chartered flight operated by Air Peace from Lagos, Nigeria evacuated 312 stranded Indians to Kochi. According to the release, an Air India flight from the East African country of Djibouti will land at Kochi airport on June 5. The National carrier will operate Vietnam-Bombay-Kochi flight on June 7, Cairo-Bombay-Kochi flight on 16th, Kiev-Delhi-Kochi flight on 19th, London- Bombay-Kochi flight on 22nd, and Cebu (The Philippines)- Bombay-Chennai-Kochi flight on June 23rd apart from their scheduled operations fromm the Gulf countries. Since March 2020, the airport handled 205 international cargo flights which exported 4644.6 tons of cargo from Kochi. CIAL also confirmed the operation of Air India express flights from Dubai, Kuwait and Doha today, carrying 540 passengers in total. There will be flights from Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Dammam and Dubai on Wednesday. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 2) The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the request of lawyer Larry Gadon to block the possible issuance of a provisional franchise to ABS-CBN. Supreme Court spokesperson Atty. Brian Hosaka confirmed that SC justices unanimously voted to junk Gadon's plea, saying he had "no legal standing" for his petition as he was not suffering any legal injury from the case at hand. Gadon, who lost in the 2019 senatorial race, ran to the high court in March for a writ of prohibition that would order House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and House committee on legislative franchises chair Franz Alvarez to recall their request for the National Telecommunications Commission to grant a temporary permit to the TV network, and prevent NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba from doing so. Lawmakers asked NTC to issue a provisional permit so that the media company can remain on air beyond the expiry of its franchise on May 4. Cordoba earlier committed that this will be granted, but went back on his word as the regulator eventually issued a cease and desist order for ABS-CBN's broadcast services on May 5. Gadon previously sought for a temporary restraining order that would restrict Cordoba from complying with lawmakers' request for a temporary license. However, justices said he "failed to comply with the requisites for judicial review" and made the wrong move to run instantly to the SC. "Petitioner could have been more circumspect. He will benefit from more restraint and a huge dose of humility," the magistrates said. "The petitioner is too distant, his interest is too inchoate and speculative, for this court to responsibly proceed." The magistrates said they were dismissing the petition without soliciting comments from the parties in light of Gadon's supposed lapse in judgment. ABS-CBN has been off the air for almost a month now, and has appealed the NTC's shutdown order before the Supreme Court. The NTC through Solicitor General Jose Calida, who earlier asked the court to nullify the network's existing franchise for supposed violations, asked magistrates to reject the TV network's appeal. CNN Philippines Correspondent Anjo Alimario contributed to this report. Aboriginal activists have compared the shocking police killing of George Floyd to Australia's history of indigenous deaths in custody. Mr Floyd, a black man, died when a white cop knelled on his neck as he lay on the ground for eight minutes during an arrest in Minneapolis on Monday. Numerous activists noted that though Australians were outraged over Mr Floyd's alleged murder, they frequently overlooked the same issue at home. Quaden Bayles and his activist mother Yarraka and sister Guyala attended a rally in Brisbane to show their support for protesters in the U.S. Quaden Bayles and his activist mother Yarraka (left), sister Guyala (right) and brother (centre) attended a rally in Brisbane to show their support for George Floyd protesters in the U.S. Quaden is pictured at the Brisbane protest alongside his mother, which she shared online Many Aboriginals drew direct parallels between his death, and many others like him in the U.S., and the high rate of indigenous deaths in Australia. At least 432 Aboriginal people have died in custody since the 1991 Royal Commission, which investigated 99 such deaths from 1980 to 1989. Two who were shot dead in the past year led to police being charged with murder, both of whom pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial. Aboriginals make up 28 per cent of Australia's prison inmates despite only being three per cent of the country's population. The death of David Dungay in November 2015 was so similar to that of Mr Floyd that his nephew Paul Silva couldn't finish watching it. 'I had to stop the footage. It took me straight back to when I first saw the video of my uncle's death,' he said. George Floyd was allegedly murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who kneeled on his neck for eight minutes during an arrest last Monday Like Mr Floyd, the 26-year-old's last moments were of him gasping 'I can't breathe', 12 times, as officers pressed his body into the ground until he died. 'If you're talking, you can breathe,' the officers told him, just as police told Mr Floyd. Guyala tried to stay upbeat, sharing a hopeful poem looking forward to a future free of racism, but also expressed her fears of ending up like Mr Floyd. 'As an Aboriginal person I'm terrified, I'm 26 times more likely to be incarcerated,' she wrote on her Instagram. Her mother captioned the photos of her family protesting 'Freedom fighters', and also shared a photo of protesters in the U.S. in support. Like Mr Floyd, David Dungay's last moments were of him gasping 'I can't breathe', 12 times, as officers pressed his body into the ground until he died Meanwhile in Perth, thousands massed in Forrest Place for another protest where speakers compared the deaths of Mr Floyd and Aboriginals like Mr Dungay. 'How many of our people have died like that, in this country?' Noongar elder Herbert Bropho said. Fellow indigenous community leader Mervyn Eades said Australia was 'guilty of the same racism we are seeing in America'. 'Thousands of Aboriginal people have died in custody here too. We too have died because of the colour of our skin so we do understand,' he said. Author and Foundation for Young Australians head of education Hayley McQuire said Australians should remember Mr Floyd's death could happen here. Quaden plays a didgeridoo at the Brisbane protest which he attended with his family Ms Bayles captioned the photos of her family protesting 'Freedom fighters', and also shared a photo of protesters in the U.S. in support Guyala tried to stay upbeat, sharing a hopeful poem looking forward to a future free of racism, but also expressed her fears of ending up like Mr Floyd 'Australia likes to observe and be outraged about what happens in America. Rightfully so,' she wrote on Twitter. 'But it never looks inward. It is never outraged when blackfullas in this country die from police brutality. 400+ deaths in custody since the royal commission.' Indigenous comedian Andy Saunders retweeted Ms McQuire statement and added his own thoughts. 'Australia looks at what is happening in America, says to themselves 'glad that type of thing doesn't happen here', it does and in many other ways, trust,' he wrote. Aboriginal artist Rachael Sarra said Australia even celebrated its history of oppressing black people during coloisation. Meanwhile in Perth, thousands massed in Forrest Place for another protest where speakers compared the deaths of Mr Floyd and Aboriginals like Mr Dungay 'For those who are speaking up and out about the loss of black lives in the States, remember that this happens every day on our own soil yet Australia's perfect narrative remains intact,' she wrote. 'Remember that Australia was born on the genocide of black lives and we have never once genuinely acknowledged that. Instead we celebrate it (on Australia Day).' Unionist Celeste Liddle hit out at 'Australian exceptionalism' that made people think their country was better even though it had similar issues. 'They love to point at the US and go "nah they're worse" so they never have to deal with the issues here. Solidarity with George's family and community. My heart breaks,' she wrote. Derek Chauvin, the police officer who knelled on Mr Floyd, has been sacked and charged with murder. No Australian police officer has ever been convicted over a Aboriginal death in custody. A 21-year-old man accused of armed robbery outside a convenience store will be the first Victorian to have his criminal trial heard by a judge alone, with no jury to weigh up his guilt or innocence. Laws introduced by the Andrews state government in April paved the way for accused people to seek judge-only trials to keep the justice system moving, after jury trials were suspended in March under social distancing rules to combat the coronavirus. Chief Judge Peter Kidd. Credit:Joe Armao County Court Chief Judge Peter Kidd on Tuesday found it was in the interests of justice that Lionel Combo contest his charge of armed robbery and that a judge be the one to reach a verdict. "Judges are trained to bring an objective and dispassionate mind to frequently emotional subject matter, putting aside any prejudice," Judge Kidd said in a written ruling. Im thrilled to join the Aprio team and be part of a high-growth and innovative firm with a long history and promising future of providing exceptional client service, says Mike Cooke. Aprio, LLP, a nationally recognized top 50 CPA-led business advisory firm, announced today that Mike Cooke will join the firm as a partner in the firms Birmingham, AL office bringing with him two senior-level professionals. The addition of Cooke will broaden Aprios expertise and capabilities to serve real estate and construction, healthcare and non-profit clients throughout Alabama. Im thrilled to join the Aprio team and be part of a high-growth and innovative firm with a long history and promising future of providing exceptional client service, says Mike Cooke. As part of Aprio, I look forward to offering my clients a comprehensive range of tax, assurance and advisory services that Aprio offers to help them grow their businesses and manage risk, especially now in these uncertain times, as well as expanding Aprios footprint in the Alabama market building on my years of experience serving clients in this region. Mike joins Aprio from Cooke, Cameron, Travis & Company, P.C. where he served clients in the Birmingham metro area for over 40 years. Joining Mike in the Aprio Birmingham office will be Brenda Pigott and Dwayne Newsome. Aprio entered the Birmingham market in 2017 with its merger of Yaeger & Boyd, a firm focused on serving public housing authorities nationally. Since that time, Aprio has added significant tax and assurance expertise to the region focused on serving technology, real estate, manufacturing and distribution, non-profit, and professional services companies. We are on a strong growth trajectory in the Alabama market of 25% in 2020. We are excited to have Mike and his team join Aprio as we continue to grow and expand our services in this region, said Frank Gudger, Aprios Birmingham office Managing Partner. About Aprio Aprio is a premier full-service, CPA-led business advisory firm based in Atlanta, Georgia, that advises clients and associates on how to achieve whats next. Aprios associates work as integrated teams across advisory, assurance, tax, outsourced accounting solutions and private client services, bringing the best thinking and personal commitment to each client. Across practices, Aprio brings together proven expertise, deep understanding and strategic foresight for industries including Manufacturing and Distribution; Non-Profit and Education; Professional Services; Real Estate and Construction; Retail, Franchise and Hospitality; and Technology and Biosciences. In 65 years, Aprio has grown to over 550 team members. To serve clients wherever life or business may take them, Aprios teams speak more than 30 languages and work with clients in over 40 countries. In addition to its Atlanta headquarters, Aprio also operates in Birmingham, Ala. and Charlotte, Greensboro, Mt. Airy and Asheboro N.C. For more, visit https://www.aprio.com. A man holds up his fist during a protest near the White House on May 31, 2020 in Washington, DC. Alex Wong/Getty Images Trump aides gave up on writing him a unifying TV address over a lack of ideas and his "seeming disinterest," the Associated Press reported. Instead, Trump will give a speech about the importance of law and order, according to the AP and Politico. Protests that started in Minneapolis on Tuesday after the death of George Floyd have spread to dozens of US cities. The National Guard is deployed in more than 20 states and clashed with protesters and looters. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. US President Donald Trump and his aides reportedly planned a national address of unity with the intent of calming widespread unrest over racist police violence, but gave up after a lack of good policy proposals. Protests that started in Minneapolis on Tuesday after the death of George Floyd have spread to dozens of US cities, including Washington, DC, where protesters have gathered since Friday. White House aides wanted Trump to give a unifying Oval Office address to diffuse the tensions raging across the US, the Associated Press said. But according to the AP it was "scrapped for lack of policy proposals and the president's own seeming disinterest in delivering a message of unity." Trump and his advisers decided he should keep silent "because he had nothing new to say and had no tangible policy or action to announce yet," The Washington Post reported. A senior administration official told The Post that Trump would give a formal address this week, but would first "embark on a listening tour" to identify a message. Trump may also skip the message of unity and instead extol the benefits of law and order. Trump on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, May 30, 2020. Associated Press A White House official told the AP that Trump would give an address in which he would "draw distinctions between the legitimate anger of peaceful protesters and the unacceptable actions of violent agitators." Chief of staff Mark Meadows is one of those advocating that message, according to Politico. Story continues But several top aides, and Jared Kushner, are against the idea, Politico said, fearing it "could alienate key voters ahead of the November election, including African Americans." Demonstrators protesting the death of George Floyd, near the White House on May 31, 2020, in Washington, DC. Getty On Friday night, Trump was taken to the White House bunker for an hour as protesters gathered outside the building. Trump has both expressed sympathy for Floyd's family and slammed protester violence and looting. The National Guard is deployed in more than 20 states as it seeks to get people off the streets. Appearing at the joint SpaceX and NASA rocket launch in Florida on Saturday, Trump spent the first section of his speech addressing the unrest. "I stand before you in firm opposition to anyone exploiting this tragedy to loot, rob, attack, and menace. Healing, not hatred, justice, not chaos, are the mission at hand," he said. Trump returned to the White House on Saturday and spent all of Sunday inside. The president last gave an Oval Office address at the outset of the coronavirus crisis. Read the original article on Insider "Everyone should be off the street by 8 p.m.," Shea said. Hundreds of people were arrested as protesters clashed with police officers, smashed windows, set fires and looted stores. New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said at the briefing that nearly 700 arrests were made on Monday night. The massive protests in the city over Floyd's death at the hands of a police officer have erupted into violence in the past week. The curfews will take effect at 8 p.m. each evening and will be lifted at 5 a.m. the following morning, de Blasio said at a news briefing. The curfew will remain in effect through Sunday, de Blasio said. A curfew on New York City will be extended through the end of the week as heated protests over the death of George Floyd continue to shake the city , Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday. Mayor Bill de Blasio greets healthcare workers and conducts a press conference at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, New York, April 10, 2020. De Blasio condemned anyone in the crowds who attacked police or committed crimes, and vowed that "we're going to beat it back" going forward. "We will not tolerate violence of any kind. We will not tolerate attacks on police officers. We will not tolerate hatred being created," de Blasio said. "An attack on police officers is an attack on all of us. Pure and simple." "The overwhelming majority of our officers are standing up for us every single day, protecting us every single day," de Blasio said. "They need our respect and support right now." But the mayor noted that the protests during the day were "overwhelmingly peaceful." A swell of outrage grew across the nation in reaction to the death of Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police. Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, pinned the 46-year-old unarmed black man to the ground and held his knee on Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes. Chauvin, whose conduct with Floyd was captured on video, was arrested and charged with murder and manslaughter. De Blasio called on local leaders and community representatives to take action. "Step forward," he said. "Own your community." "I'll be standing by you. I'll be supporting you. The NYPD will be supporting you." The mayor said the city will assure that additional officers are stationed where they are needed to stop "any disorder." He also pushed back when a reporter asked about scenes in the city of looters acting with apparent "impunity" amid the chaos. "I am so sick of these efforts to mischaracterize reality," de Blasio responded. "It is never, ever, ever accepted, and won't be accepted." President Donald Trump appeared to weigh in on the mayor's remarks during the press briefing, tweeting that New York City must "CALL UP THE NATIONAL GUARD." "The lowlifes and losers are ripping you apart. Act fast! Don't make the same horrible and deadly mistake you made with the Nursing Homes!!!" the president tweeted. TWEET Trump was referring to New York's handling of the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in nursing homes, where thousands of residents have reportedly died of the virus. De Blasio said he worried that the protests could exacerbate the spread of the disease, which has been on a steady decline in the Empire State. Asked if the city needed the National Guard, de Blasio said, "No. We do not need or do we think it's wise for the National Guard to be in New York City, nor any armed forces." "Someone needs a history lesson," the mayor added. "When outside armed forces go into communities, no good comes of it." The 36,000 police officers in the city "are the best equipped" to deal with the situation, he said. Trump later tweeted that the city's 11 p.m. curfew Monday night was too late. "No wonder they ripped the place apart. Should be 7:00 P.M. CALL UP THE NATIONAL GUARD," Trump tweeted. TWEET De Blasio had imposed an emergency curfew Monday at 11 p.m, which was lifted at 5 a.m. On Monday evening, he announced that the city would enforce an 8 p.m. curfew Tuesday. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 21:26:42|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close JAKARTA, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian security forces have arrested a separatist who allegedly shot dead a New Zealand citizen who worked for the mining company PT Freeport Indonesia in the country's easternmost province of Papua recently, a police officer said on Tuesday. The rebel with an initial of TW was one of the 10 attackers of PT Freeport Indonesia which operates the Grasberg mining field, the largest gold mining and the second largest copper mining sites in the world. The incident which occurred on March 30 also left two other employees of the firm injured. The Provincial Police's Chief Inspector General Paulus Waterpauw said that TW, a member of the separatist group which the government called a criminal armed group, was nabbed on Friday in the province's city of Timika. During the arrest, Waterpauw said, the security forces seized scores of ammunitions, according to local media. PT Freeport Indonesia has been frequently targeted by separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM), leaving scores of casualties. The Papua-based OPM, which has been seeking an independence through guerrilla wars since decades ago, also targeted soldiers, police personnel and civilians. Enditem On the 17th of May the accused who were coming from South Africa were ordered to be detained at Mabhikwa High School quarantine centre in terms of Section 6 (1)(b) of the Statutory Instrument 77/20, cited as the Public Health (Covid-19 prevention, containment and treatment regulations) 2020 by Mr Nelson Manyere, the enforcement officer stationed at Mabhikwa quarantine centre, said Mr Gumbo. Only three weeks ago, Kamala Harris was picked by Politico as the favorite to join presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on the November ticket. Now, as fury mounts over the death of George Floyd, who was asphyxiated under the knee of a white police officer, the California senators law enforcement record has come under scrutiny and could be a liability, according to the publication. Politico says right-wing trolls have joined progressives in pushing the Kamala is a cop narrative to discredit the former California attorney general and San Francisco prosecutor with liberal Americans. Progressives have long criticized Harris for claiming to be a reformer while actually supporting tough on crime policies. The Daily Beasts Molly Jong-Fast, writing in Vogue, says not to count Harris out. Picking an African American to be his running mate may no longer just be a political expediency or a canny campaign move by Joe Biden, she wrote. After the events of the past week, it may just be the right thing to do. What everyone seems to agree on is that the vice presidential candidacy of Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a former prosecutor, is in deep trouble. While she was running for Senate in 2006, Klobuchars office was investigating Officer Derek Chauvin the policeman caught on video pressing his knee into Floyds neck on May 25 in a police-involved shooting. Klobuchar had no involvement in the prosecution and was already serving in the Senate when a successor sent the case to a grand jury, which declined to charge him and five other officers. The jury ruled the use of force against Wayne Reyes, who had stabbed two people before pointing a sawed-off shotgun at police, was justified. RELATED: Who will be Joe Biden's running mate? The odds Nonetheless, the linkage between Klobuchar and Chauvin has impacted her negatively. The poor performance of the Midwest moderate among nonwhite voters during the presidential primary hasnt helped either. Like Harris, Florida Rep. Val Demmings stock as a potential Biden running mate may be rising despite her law enforcement background. Demmings, the former police chief of Orlando, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed last week: "My fellow brothers and sisters in blue, what the hell are you doing?, adding, "I cannot begin to understand how any officer could ignore the painful pleas we heard from Floyd or from anyone suffering." Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. The Orlando Police Department has a long history of use-of-excessive-force complaints. Other possible VP candidates include former Georgia state Rep. Stacey Abrams, former national security adviser Susan Rice and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who earned praise from Bidens campaign for denouncing unruly protests that broke out in her city Friday. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a favorite of progressives, has also been frequently mentioned as a possible Biden running mate. Mike Moffitt is an SFGATE Digital Reporter. Email: moffitt@sfgate.com. Twitter: @Mike_at_SFGate Ottawa, June 2 : Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that his government will offer cities an advanced transfer of 2.2 billion Canadian dollars (about US $1.6 billion) in infrastructure money to help cover COVID-19-caused budget shortfalls. "This is strong support to keep Canadians safe and our communities strong. And it's support that will give businesses the confidence to reopen, getting hardworking Canadians back on the job," Trudeau said here at Monday's press conference on the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that the funding is a start and more will come, Xinhua news agency reported. Trudeau's announcement came after the Federation of Canadian Municipalities said in April that cities were facing serious financial pressures and were asking for up to 15 billion Canadian dollars in assistance. The federation said that with transit ridership and parking fares down considerably and new costs arising to address the pandemic such as setting up testing clinics and funding essential services, they are looking at layoffs or tax increases to help make ends meet. The money will be made in a single payment this month to help municipalities recover from the pandemic as quickly as possible. It can then be directed to projects under 18 different categories including public transit, wastewater infrastructure, local roads and bridges, disaster mitigation, broadband and connectivity, culture, tourism and recreation. Many cities in the country reportedly have seen their revenues dry up while the cost of responding to the ongoing pandemic continues to mount. The city of Toronto is reportedly estimating a loss of 1.5 billion Canadian dollars in revenue by the end of the year due to COVID-19. "We need to have new money to make up for the fact that we lost a lot of money we didn't expect to lose," Toronto Mayor John Tory said Monday morning. "We need a lot more help. They know that. It is crucial to the proper economic recovery of this country that cities should be healthy and not in a situation of financial instability." As of Monday noon, Canada reported 91,647 cases of COVID-19, with 7,325 deaths and 49,225 recoveries. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Office worker Daisy Lam speaks to Reuters about her experience in joining the annual June 4 candlelight vigil, at her living room in Hong Kong, China, on June 1, 2020. (Yoyo Chow/Reuters) Hongkongers Vow to Mark Tiananmen Anniversary Despite Ban HONG KONGMany Hong Kong people will find their own way to mark the 31st anniversary of Chinese troops opening fire on protesters in and around Tiananmen Square, after an annual candlelight vigil was canceled for the first time because of the CCP virus. The anniversary of the crackdown on the student-led democracy protests has a special poignancy this year, coming a week after Beijing gave the green light to move ahead with national security legislation for Hong Kong, which critics fear will crush freedoms in the former British colony. I cant be silent. If people tell me to keep silent, I wont, said office worker Daisy Lam, 52, who has attended nearly every vigil since June 4, 1989, with her children. Former Hong Kong student leader Chan Ching-wah, 56, was in Beijing on June 4, 1989, and recalled the kindness of a customs officer who let him take a bag full of photos and videos of the military crackdown when he left Beijing. Former Hong Kong student leader Chan Ching-wah speaks to Reuters at the June 4th Museum in Hong Kong, China, on May 30, 2020. (Yoyo Chow/Reuters) I feel like I had never left because the danger that Hong Kong is facing, the repression its going to face is no small thing, Chan told Reuters as he held a photo of himself in Tiananmen Square. I hope the battle in Hong Kong wont lead to a crackdown like the one on June 4. Fears have intensified over what many residents of Hong Kong see as Beijings encroachment on its freedoms, and the impact of that on the citys status as a global financial hub. Mainland and Hong Kong authorities reject criticism of the security legislation and insist the citys high degree of autonomy will remain intact under a one country, two systems formula. In past years, Hong Kongs candlelight memorials have drawn tens of thousands of people to the citys Victoria Park. A statue of Goddess of Democracy is seen amid people attending a candlelight vigil at Victoria Park to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown in Beijing, in Hong Kong, China, on June 4, 2019. (Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images) But police said this week a mass gathering would pose a serious threat to public health just as the city reported its first locally transmitted CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus cases in two weeks. Hong Kong has banned gatherings of more than eight people to prevent the spread of the CCP virus. Embattled city leader Carrie Lam said on June 2 the restrictions were not about limiting freedom, and public health was also a part of national security. Despite the ban, online forums, and the organizer of the vigil have called on people to light candles to remember those who perished. Priscilla Leung, a retired civil servant who volunteers for non-government organizations, said she would continue to inform young people about the Tiananmen crackdown, which is a taboo issue on the mainland. The anniversary is not marked by the government. I have already bought some electronic candle lights and I plan to light them on the streets, said Leung. It doesnt matter if its one person or a few people, as long as theres fire in our hearts, well be able to pass on the message to the next generation. By Pak Yiu, Yoyo Chow and Donny Kwok Epoch Times staff contributed to this report. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 2) The country's top diplomat announced on Tuesday that the government suspended the abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement with the US "in light of the political and other developments in the region." Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro "Teddy Boy" Locsin Jr. made the announcement on social media Tuesday night, saying that President Rodrigo Duterte has directed the Department of Foreign Affairs to inform the U.S. Embassy in Manila of the government's decision on the suspension of the VFA termination. In his post on Twitter, Locsin said, "I issued this diplomatic note to the US ambassador. It has been received by Washington and well at that. The Note is self-explanatory and does not require comment except from me. The abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement has been suspended upon the Presidents instruction." The note said, "In light of the political and other developments in the region, the termination of the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Government of the United States Regarding the Treatment of the United States Visiting Forces Visiting the Philippines...is hereby suspended." It added the suspension shall start "on even date," and will go on for six months and could extend for another half a year. "After which, the tolling of the initial period in Note Verbale No. 20-0463 dated 11 February 2020 shall resume," it said. EXPLAINER: The Visiting Forces Agreement The VFA is a 1998 agreement between Manila and Washington on the protocol for American military personnel in the country. Among its controversial provisions are the lax visa and passport policies for American troops and the authority granted to the US government to retain jurisdiction over military personnel if ever they commit crimes locally. President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to scrap the VFA in January 2020 after the US cancellation of Senator Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa's tourist visa to that country. Dela Rosa said the revocation of his visa may have something to do with alleged extrajudicial killings under his watch as chief of the Philippine National Police from 2016 to 2018. Malacanang said US senators' repeated calls for the release of Senator Leila De Lima an opposition lawmaker detained on drug charges since 2017 was also among the reasons for Duterte's move to end the VFA. However, Malacanang has repeatedly denied that there are state-sanctioned killings, and stressed that the De Lima's drug cases are now being tried by the country's independent courts. The VFA was ended in February. READ: Trump shrugs off PH decision to end military pact: We save money The United States Embassy in Manila welcomed the Philippines government's decision to suspend the abrogation of the VFA. Our long-standing alliance has benefited both countries, and we look forward to continued close security and defense cooperation with the Philippines, the embassy said in a statement. Meanwhile, a public policy think-tank labeled as a flip-flop the decision of Manila to suspend the termination of the VFA. Ahead of the 180-day deadline for the final termination of the VFA, the President unfortunately flip-flops from his patriotic decision to end this unequal treaty and instead of continuing to pivot towards a truly independent foreign policy. Terminating the VFA could have had the same weight in history as the 1991 Senate vote expelling the US bases in the country, said Terry Ridon, convenor of Infrawatch PH. Ridon also urged the President not to be swayed by military equipment offers from the US and they have more to lose in the termination of the agreement. Without the Philippines, its strategy is weakened. We should not allow them to buy their security strategy with military equipment alone, he added. Mumabi: Director Saumitra Singh, who earlier helmed two award-winning short films, The Wallet and Painful Pride is all set with his third offering 'Kalabai From Byculla'. The film stars Sharib Hashmi, Shruti Bapna and Padmini Sardesai in the lead roles. Actor Sharib Hashmi says, In Kalabai, I play a struggling artist who is yet to make his mark, however, the age is not on his side any more. As his younger brother is doing better than him professionally, his granny is worried about him but his life changes upside down when something extraordinary happens in his life. I had a great time working with Saum. I loved the way he thinks and the way he executes. Hes young and energetic and is always bubbling with ideas. I would love to collaborate with him in future, Sharib feels about director Saumitra Singh. Actress Shruti Bapna says, Kalabai is a beautifully woven story of an artist's life that will amuse you. The role of Kalabai was such fun to play and working with Sharib and Saumitra raised the fun level all the more. Director Saumitra Singh says, I really loved directing this beautiful story and being a part of this creation. Himan Joshi had shared this concept with me and I was so mesmerised by it that I discussed it with Shashwat Joshi Sir, who is the producer of this film, and he really loved the concept and immediately said yes to it. Later, I discussed with my writer friend, Namneesh Sharma and he jotted down the script in a very short period of time. The cherry on the top was to work with such great actors like Padmini Sardesai Ma'am, Sharib Hashmi and Shruti Bapna. They helped us to shoot this film in one day only. My other actors Nanda Yadav, Rajat Arora, Simran Kaur Suri, Girish Sharma and Ritik Ghanshani are very close to my heart and they did justice to their characters. Hasan Khan is a friend cum executive producer, helped me to arrange everything at the set. My DOP, assistants, costume, casting, make up and technicians everybody present at the set had taken the helm of their responsibilities and helped us to create this beautiful film, he adds Producer Shashwat Joshi shares, When I heard the title for the first time, I was so fascinated and since I was looking for a good story to produce when I was in Lucknow, I decided to make it. This film is my first movie as an individual producer. Saumitra Singh, with whom I already worked in his short film The Wallet and co-produced it, contacted me for this project. I still remember that I immediately said yes to start this project as soon as possible. It was a pleasure working with him in this project as he is an amazing filmmaker, which reflects in his previous works also. The story is written by Himan Joshi. Then, Namneesh Sharma jotted down the script. Padmini Sardesai Ma'am, Sharib Hashmi and Shruti Bapna did justice to their characters. This film was executed by Hasan Khan (Executive Producer) and with the help of assistants and other departments, this film was shot in one day. It was a hassle-free project, as the environment was very friendly on the sets. he concludes. By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA: A day after one person Thota Sandeep died in a group clash over land settlement that happened in Sanath Nagar under Patamata police station limits, Vijayawada police on Monday took around 20 people into custody. Based on the information collected from CCTV footage and eyewitnesses, the Patamata police have identified around 20 persons, involved in the attack. According to sources, the arrested, who are mostly below 25 years of age, tried to escape from the scene after the attack, but the entire episode was recorded in the video shot by a member of one gang and CCTV cameras installed at the spot. Deceased Sandeep reportedly told his followers to record the entire episode prior to the attack. He was also seen attacking Manikanta alias KTM Pandu with a knife. They (Sandeeps gang) have decided to attack his rival group for their interference in the land settlement, a source said. Meanwhile, mild tension prevailed at Vijaywada government general hospital with the relatives and friends of Sandeep staging a protest against the police demanding justice. All the identified persons are said to have addiction towards ganja and drugs. They participated as Sandeep forced them to do so, a senior officer said. Germanna Community Colleges classes will go almost entirely online this fall, enabling students education to advance while they stay safe at home, the school says. As many U.S. colleges worry about enrollment because of public concerns about COVID-19 and economic uncertainties, Germanna has seen its summer enrollment rise by 30 percent over last year. Its too early to be sure, but early numbers indicate fall enrollment may follow that upward trend, President Janet Gullickson said in an interview Friday. In hard economic times, community colleges usually see class sign-ups rise because they are more affordable and accessible, Germanna officials said. We love our students and our community, Gullickson said. Our decision for fall is based, first and foremost, on the health and safety of our community. Were committed to providing a safe and smart option for our students to keep working toward their goals and a brighter future. Germanna is better prepared than many schools because it has been in the business of online education for more than a decade, she said. With the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) today announcing the cash rate has been held at its current record low of 0.25%, one mortgage aggregator has underscored the importance of additional stimulus packages from the government in helping the economy rebound from its current slump. Finsure Group managing director John Kolenda has welcomed reports that the latest package being prepared by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg includes increased grants for new home buyers and renovations for established homes. According to Kolenda, the significant increase to the first home buyers grant was key in buoying the sluggish housing sector during the global financial crisis in 2008. In October of that year, the grant was temporarily doubled from $7,000 to $14,000 for established homes and brought up to $21,000 for new properties. That stimulus resulted in an increase of 300,000 inquiries from first home buyers at the time one of the greatest uptakes in history which produced a positive flow-on effect for the entire housing market which benefitted the whole economy," Kolenda said. I applaud the fact that something similar is being considered to counter the economic impact of COVID-19. Effective stimulus is what will enable the RBA to stand firm against moving rates into negative territory while still giving banks the room to lower their individual lending rates, according to the aggregator head. Government stimulus is the main weapon to combat the impact of the virus and the more than $200bn committed so far has been crucial in helping the hundreds of thousands who have lost jobs and businesses, and maintain some economic activity, he said. Other measures currently circulating include stamp duty reform, abolishing payroll tax and increasing GST, which could help drive employment and help ease the nations debt burden. For now, even with the official cash rate on hold, there remains room for certain lenders to drop rates further as they look to win over new business. The big four banks have probably exhausted their capacity to cut fixed rates. Now what were seeing is challenger banks trying to outbid them to attract new customers, explained RateCity.com.au research director Sally Tindall. As a result, rates could fall a fraction further, but theyre unlikely to fall far. Notably, customers have been increasingly gravitating towards fixed rates over the last few months, with CBA recently reported fixing has more than doubled since the start of March for both new and existing customers. Shanghai (Gasgoo)- StarRides, a premium ride-hailing service provider between Daimler Mobility AG and Geely Technology Group, established on May 21 a wholly-owned subsidiary in Xi' an, the capital of Shaanxi Province, according to the business data search platform Tianyancha. Involving a registered capital of 60 million yuan ($8,382,930), the new subsidiary, dubbed Xian Xingxiang Mobility Technology Co.,Ltd., is wholly controlled by Weixing Technology Co.,Ltd., the operation entity behind StarRides. Gu Tao, CEO of StarRides, serves the legal representative of the newly-founded company. Xi'an Xingxiang's line of business includes the operation of road passenger transport, Internet-based car-hailing service, road freight transport and car rental service, and the sales of distributed AC charging piles, according to Tianyancha. (Photo source: StarRides) Geely Technology Group and Daimler Mobility Services claimed as early as October 2018 that they would co-build a 50/50 joint venture headquartered in Hangzhou to provide premium ride-hailing services. Then on March 28 last year, Geely Holding and Daimler AG announced the formation of a 50/50 globally focused joint venture to operate and further develop smart brand as a leader in premium-electrified vehicles. The Weixing Technology is what the joint venture is named. Both parent companies unveiled in last December the premium ride-hailing brand StarRides in China. The inaugural services began in Hangzhou, a populous city home to Geely Holding, in the same month with a fleet of 100 vehicles including Mercedes-Benz S-Class, E-Class and V-Class vehicles. StarRides will expand to other major cities in China starting in 2020, Daimler said then. Prior to the founding of the Xi'an company, Weixing Technology has already set up four wholly-owned subsidiaries that are registered in Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai respectively. A recent US study showed that in order to prevent or largely extinguish the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak without social distancing or any other measures, any vaccine would have to have an efficacy of at least 70%. The research paper is currently available on the medRxiv* preprint server. An unremitting COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), continues to disrupt the way we live. Due to a serious lack of alternatives, the race to develop a vaccine is a burning public health issue if we are to eliminate the need for social distancing. Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 Colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (green) heavily infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (purple), isolated from a patient sample. Image captured at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Credit: NIAID Towards the ideal vaccine candidate As different vaccine development endeavors progress, it is still not completely clear what vaccine efficacies are needed to ensure adequate protection and halt the viral spread. From an epidemiological viewpoint, it is pivotal to determine efficacy thresholds to aim for early on. This is especially valid in the early stages of development when modifications can still be implemented more efficiently. At the moment, there are sixteen vaccine candidates under clinical phase I or II evaluation; however, over 100 preclinical vaccine candidates are in the immunization pipeline. In order to set up ideal levels of vaccine efficacies that are needed to prevent and put out COVID-19 epidemic, researchers from the City University of New York, Baylor College of Medicine in Houston (Texas), as well as from Lundquist Institute and Torrance Memorial Medical Center in California, developed a computer simulation model representing the US population, SARS-CoV-2 spread, and vaccine impact under various conditions. Developing a stringent model The model advances in discrete, one-day steps for 2.5 days. Each individual in the model is in one of five mutually exclusive SARS-CoV-2 states: susceptible, exposed, infectious/asymptomatic, infectious/symptomatic, or recovered/immune. This was basically the base for transmission modeling. Then the model introduces vaccination, which occurs on different days during the epidemic and protects in two primary ways: by preventing infection and by preventing symptomatic disease (the latter reduces viral shedding). The assumption was that vaccination protection is immediate and without impact on already infected or exposed patients. All clinical probabilities, durations, and costs were age-specific (when available) and extracted either from representative data sources or from scientific literature. Age-specific COVID-19 data was specific to the US context as of March 16, 2020. Finally, the researchers appraised the impact of introducing a vaccine with different efficacies in the absence of other measures from the third-party payer and societal perspectives. Experiments consisted of a thousand trial Monte Carlo simulations (i.e., computational algorithms often used in risk analysis and decision making), with varying parameters throughout their range. Vaccine efficacy thresholds "Our study found that to either prevent or largely extinguish an epidemic without any other measures (e.g., social distancing), the vaccine has to have an efficacy (i.e., probability of preventing infection) of at least 70% when vaccination within 90 days of the epidemic start and covers at least 60% of the population", explains study authors. Such coverage is not entirely unreasonable, as recent polls show that approximately 75% of respondents would get the COVID-19 vaccine if it was deemed safe. Naturally, the coverage threshold rises the later the vaccination is implemented until it reaches 100% at the peak of the epidemic. Furthermore, this estimation is based on the SARS-CoV-2 reproductive number (R0) of 2.5, which represents the number of newly infected individuals stemming from a single case. If R0 were to jump from 2.5 to 3.5, then this coverage threshold would actually increase to 100%. Informing future research endeavors "Our study focused on identifying the efficacy thresholds required to eliminate the need for other measures (e.g., social distancing) in order for life to 'return to normal' because that is a primary concern of the general public," study authors highlight the importance of their study. "A vaccine with an efficacy between 40% and 70% could still obviate the need for other measures under certain circumstances such as much higher, and in some cases, potentially unachievable, vaccination coverages", they add. Naturally, all models (including this) are by definition simplifications of real-life situations hence, they cannot account for every possible outcome. This model drew inputs for diverse sources, but new data on SARS-CoV-2 continues to emerge on a daily rate. Nonetheless, the study provides valuable insights on what kind of vaccine do we need to extinguish this pandemic successfully. And while the research is occurring at breakneck speed, this type of forecasting may enable the researchers to make informed decisions in this era of uncertainty. *Important Notice medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information. KANSAS CITY MAYOR QUINTON LUCAS JOINS PROTESTERS ON THE PLAZA!!! AFTER THE CITY HALL HONCHO LEAVES THE SCENE, THE PROTEST ESCALATES & KCPD START USING TEAR GAS AGAIN!!! "Hours into Monday nights protest in Kansas City, shortly after Mayor Quinton Lucas joined a march and addressed a crowd at the J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain, police deployed tear gas against demonstrators. Protesters scattered as the gas clouds broke out on the streets for the third night in a row in the city." "We've got some concerns. We've detained several people that were coming in," Becchina said. "We've stopped people with bags full of rocks, with other things, presumably to be throwing at officers. Bags full of urine, urine-soaked items, such as handkerchiefs and things like that." Smaller But Rowdy KCMO Crowd For Social Justice KANSAS CITY PROTEST UPDATES: Protest near Country Club Plaza escalates Monday night Protesters have gathered for a fourth night at Mill Creek Park near Kansas City's Country Club Plaza to protest the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.Police described Monday's crowd as smaller.10:10 p.m. -- Kansas City police declared Monday night's protest an unlawful assembly. There have been 10 arrests.10 p.m. Bad Cowtown Routine Kansas City protest at Plaza deemed unlawful assembly for fourth night in a row KANSAS CITY, Mo. - At about 10 p.m. Monday, police declared the protest at the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City unlawful and order people to leave. People began protesting for the fourth day around the Plaza around 3 p.m. Monday. It was a smaller crowd from the weekend but still a lively one. Marching Across KC LIVE: Protesters gather for fourth night of protest on Plaza KANSAS CITY, Mo. - LIVE: Watch a live feed of protesters on Mill Creek Park in Kansas City, Missouri 9:40 p.m. | Some of the protesters that had been marching in different parts of the city earlier Monday appear to have returned to Mill Creek Park. 9:20 p.m. KC Demands Justice Policing Tactics Questioned In Kansas City Ahead Of Fourth Night Of Protests Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith defended on Monday his department's use of tear gas and how it handled weekend protests spurred by racism, police violence and the death of George Floyd. But protesters organized for a fourth day of demonstrations, with Mayor Quinton Lucas marching with one group. Protest Escalation Debate Monday's protest starts peaceful but ends in violence KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) - Protests on Monday started congregating in the afternoon and were peaceful for the most part. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith held a press conference on Monday at 4 p.m. Protests & Violence Resonates In KC And Across The World Black Lives Matter protest organizer feels message is being heard KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Protesters told 41 Action News they feel their message is being heard, but they do not plan to stop spreading it. Justice Horn was one of the organizers of Sunday's Black Lives Matter protest, which included several speakers from 2 to 4 p.m. Community Supports Outrage Kansas City activists hope community support persists after protests end KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Peaceful protests during the day erupted into violence when the sun went down this weekend. Amid all the noise, did those condemning police brutality feel heard by the community? And what's next for the organizers behind Kansas City's protests? FOX4 caught up with the organizers of Sunday's protest, dubbed "Enough is Enough." A glimpse at theKansas City discourse tonight . . .However . . .KMBC report 10 arrests and after 10:00 the protest was declared unlawful:The crowd is smaller, (SOME OF) these protesters seem more focused on their political message and the Mayor has been engaged in "conversations" for hours.Check the links:Developing . . . WASHINGTON - After pockets of the United States descended into chaos - after another day of protests over the death of yet another black man in police custody led to another night of fire and fury - President Donald Trump urged the nation's governors to use force and take back the streets. During a conference call Monday, Trump berated the state leaders, calling them "weak," and urged them to "dominate" protesters, according to officials familiar with the president's remarks. The conference call followed another turbulent night across the nation, as protests that began peacefully exploded into mayhem. Demonstrators clashed with police outside the White House for a third consecutive night as the unrest spread from Boston to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. More than half of the nation's governors have called in the National Guard to help quell the unrest, and at least 45 million Americans were under a curfew on Sunday night. Some conservative commentators are urging the president to address the nation, but the White House press secretary said Trump is focused on the far-left "antifa" movement that he believes is behind the violence. "A national Oval Office address is not going to stop antifa," Kayleigh McEnany said. A number of major retailers, including Walmart and Target, have temporarily closed their stores in some areas rocked by upheaval. In California, state government buildings were ordered closed Monday "in downtown city areas." Trump berated the nation's governors on a conference call, telling them to take back the streets and use force to confront protesters and said if they did not, they would look like "fools," alarming several governors on the call as they communicated privately, according to the officials. "If you don't dominate, you're wasting your time," Trump said, according to a person on the call. A second person on the call said Trump praised Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, D, and thanked Defense Secretary Mark Esper for his assistance. The president told the governors that "you have to use the military" and "we have a wonderful military," said the person on the call. Trump also mused about the Occupy Wall Street movement, saying it was a "disgrace" which was ended by governors and mayors being tough on it, according to two people on the call. The president said that people arrested at the protests should serve a 10-year prison sentence, according to another person familiar with the call. Hundreds of protesters, in a march sparked by a 15-year-old, joined in solidarity to protest the death of 46-year-old Minnesota man George Floyd in Northampton on Monday. The protest saw windows smashed and tires deflated outside of the Northampton Police Department before tensions were relieved when Northampton Police Chief Jody D. Kasper met with protesters, and in a show of unity, took a knee with the hundreds that had descended upon and surrounded the station. The official protest, the NohoMarch was organized by 15-year-old, Angelina Miller. She posted on her social media for people to meet on Sheldon Field at 2 p.m. and walk to the Northampton police station at 29 Center St. to show solidarity for George Floyd and voice their concerns over police brutality. The official protest, the NohoMarch was organized by 15-year-old, Angelina Miller. (Douglas Hook / MassLive) I wanted to organize this because police brutality and racism has affected my life on a day-to-day basis because Im a person of color, said Miller. And also, I felt like I needed to organize something in my community because I noticed in other towns, they were protests but not in Northampton. I wanted my community to feel empowered and anyone who wanted to speak up and change and bring awareness to be able to do that. She wasnt expecting to spark a large protest, but estimates of the crowd ranged from several hundred to over 1,000. As the protesters walked from the starting point chants were sung and the atmosphere seemed relaxed. Some of the individuals marching told MassLive that they had experienced racism and wanted to attend to unite among others that have had the same experiences. After the official NohoMarch, protesters lap the center of Northampton chanting "No justice, no peace." (Douglas Hook / MassLive) Once the growing crowd arrived at the station Miller spoke to the crowd and asked for a moment of silence out of respect for Floyd and others that have fallen victim to similar experiences. That was where the march was supposed to end. However, smaller groups broke off, seemingly excited about the moment and wanting to circle the streets around the police station shouting slogans like, no peace, no justice, and I cant breathe, the infamous last words of Floyd before he passed. Floyd, a 46-year-old man, died May 25 after Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin kept his knee on Floyds neck while he was in handcuffs for over eight minutes during his arrest, constricting his breathing and eventually causing him to be unresponsive. In video captured by witnesses, Floyd is heard pleading that he is struggling to breathe and in severe pain, as Chauvin remained with his knee on his neck. A single cruiser parked opposite the First Churches at 129 Main St. drew the attention of the irked crowd and as it tried to pull away, was bombarded with bottles of water. This enthused the crowd and the chanting became louder and more focused against the police. Protesters started to throw bottles of water and bang on the side of the Northampton police car with a skateboard opposite the First Churches at 129 Main St. (Douglas Hook / MassLive) After making a couple of laps around the center of Northampton, the crowd turned and headed back to the police station on at 29 Center St. they were met by a line of police officers with helmets and batons. The sight of the officers in this attire, visually and audibly heightened the crowd to anger. Members of the protesting group asked the police to join them in taking a knee as a sign of respect and solidarity. The officers stood watching in silence. Soon one of the senior police officers came out to instruct waiting authorities to move back into the station. As they withdrew, they were closely followed by the angry crowd. Bottles of water were once again thrown as they walked to the entrance of the building. Once the last police officer was inside, the protesters tried to stop the door from shutting and as a result pepper spray fired out into the group holding the door open. When the protesters arrive back at Northampton police station they are greeted by a line of police officers wearing helmets and holding batons. (Douglas Hook / MassLive) Members of the crowd had come prepared for the possibility of this and had water and milk to douse in people's eyes to counteract the sting of the pepper spray. The only open entrance now was down a ramp into the parking garage where Grace Coates took to the microphone and spoke to the gathered crowd. After a long stand-off with the Northampton police, Captain Robert J. Powers came to deescalate the gathering and spoke to Coates. As protesters try and gain access to the Northampton police station, officers use pepper spray to stop the crowd holding the door open. (Douglas Hook / MassLive) Coates and others in the crowd asked if Powers would take a knee with them. He, however, said he couldnt. The feeling among the protesters again seemed to spike after this loss and tension started to build with the shouts and chants grew louder. At that moment, Northampton Chief of Police Jody Kasper, Massachusetts State Police Major Michael Habel and Northampton police Lieutenant Alan Borowski came out and told the crowd and Coates that they wanted to take a knee with her and the waiting crowd. Cheers rang out in the crowd and the tension disappeared instantaneously. Protesters slowly started to disperse and return to their homes. Activist Grace Coates with Northampton Chief of Police Jody Kasper, Massachusetts State Police Major Michael Habel and Northampton police Lieutenant Alan Borowski take a knee with the protesters in the police station parking garage. (Douglas Hook / MassLive) Related Content: VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2020 / Black Tusk Resources Inc. ("Black Tusk" or the "Company) (CSE:TUSK)(OTC PINK:BTKRF)(FRA:0NB) is pleased to announce that the Company has submitted soil samples obtained during reconnaissance on the McKenzie East gold property for analysis. Samples were taken to SGS Minerals Lab in Val d'Or directly by Black Tusk's exploration team. A total of 203 samples were submitted for MMI analysis. The McKenzie East Gold property is located 30 km north of Val d'Or, Quebec. SGS Minerals Lab was chosen for processing samples from the McKenzie East gold project due to their innovative trademarked MMI process. MMI, or Mobile Metal Ion process, uses a different approach that provides results that are more meaningful in areas of exploration where the overburden is considered deep. Rather than using acid digestion to release metals from soil particles, MMI extractants are used to detach and hold loosely bound metal ions in solution. These ions more closely reflect the concentrations of elements within the underlying bedrock. Black Tusk will utilize the MMI-M analytical package for 54 elements. Results are expected within the next 2 to 3 weeks. Perry Grunenberg, PGeo, a "Qualified Person" as that term is defined under NI 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this news release. Mr. Grunenberg is also a director of the Company. About Black Tusk Resources Inc. Black Tusk Resources is a gold-focused Canadian exploration company with operations primarily based in the world-class Abitibi greenstone belt region of Quebec. Black Tusk currently holds 100-per-cent ownership in five separate gold and PGE projects in Canada. On behalf of the Board of Directors Richard Penn CEO (778) 384-8923 Cautionary Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements based on assumptions as of that date. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations; they are not guarantees of future performance. The Company cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to exploration and development; the ability of the Company to obtain additional financing; the Company's limited operating history; the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations; fluctuations in the prices of commodities; operating hazards and risks; competition and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in the Company's Prospectus dated September 8, 2017 available on www.sedar.com. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions, and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions, and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information. SOURCE: Black Tusk Resources Inc View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/592336/Black-Tusk-Resources-Inc-Contracts-SGS-Minerals-Lab-and-Selects-MMI-Process-for-Soil-Sampling-on-the-McKenzie-East-Gold-Project-Val-dOr-Quebec Los Angeles Looks to Rebuild Swiftly after Damage from Uprising and Looting; Over 100 Businesses Affected. Positive cases among COVID-19 continues to grow, Los Angeles is now facing secondary turbulence within the community. The murder of George Floyd due to police brutality escalated preexisting frustrations that all residents shared. Los Angeles City Mayor Eric Garcetti disclosed plans to protect L.A. during a time of rage and violence, while holding the cause for a peaceful protest as the focal point. Additionally, the mayor shared information surrounding the testing sites closed due to the commotion in the city and the plan to keep Los Angeles on track with recovery. It was one week ago today that George Floyd had his life taken. People across the nation took to the streets and protested for the call of action for the injustice of another person of color being slaughtered. Garcetti announced the disparities a state of emergency and accepted the support of the National Guard. The city is looking to provide safety measures to protect small businesses that are vulnerable to looting and property damage. Under the leadership of Chief Michel Moore, the county has a set curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., Los Angeles City streets will be under high surveillance during those times for people who do not have the intentions to abide by that guided timeline. The Mayor of Los Angeles stressed the concern for safety during this time, the violence seen throughout the city is impacting the progression of economic recovery. Additionally, a number of testing sites had to close due to volunteers not feeling comfortable enough to work the sites. Small businesses that were looking to reopen are facing the fear of looting and property damage. Garcetti is looking to create a plan to protect store fronts and move forward in the journey of recovery. Working collaboratively with the chief Michel Moore to enforce the curfew, Garcetti explained in deep detail why this timeline was put in place. Garcetti mentioned the focal point is to have peace and justice for those standing on the right side of history. ADVERTISEMENT The small businesses in L.A. suffer the most, it impacts the employee who were looking to start re-building a life with a consistent paycheck. They were counting on conditions improving, only to be met with property damage and looting. Storefronts are part of the foundation to build the Economic Recovery. To keep on track, the mayor announced the efforts that will be available to brick-and-mortars affected by the violence. Over 100 businesses were impacted by the destruction, The Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety has been conducting safety assessments to property owners who request one at no cost. In some estimates, glass was the only thing needed to be prepared and they were approved to open again once they fixed it. Other storefronts had fire damage and require permits. The Department of Building and Safety are committed to processing the plans for reconstruction starting on the same day they receive them. Additionally, the demolition and hauling fee so brick-and-mortars do not have to pay to have debris removed from their shops. The Los Angeles Sanitation Department will provide roll-out and dumpster services to assist with removing waste from the sites. Garcetti is looking to propose a budget to city council to assist directly with businesses, for the wellbeing of employees and inventory. The mayor stated, We need to bring our economy back, for our businesses, for our workers, for our neighborhoods, for us all. The mayor is looking to build the city in the face of many setbacks, it is going to take all Angelenos cooperation to propel the economy forward. Hyderabad, June 2 : AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday called for evolving social distancing guidelines for all places of worship when they reopen on June 8. The Hyderabad MP urged Telangana Chief Minister, Chief Secretary and the DGP to call a meeting of all religious scholars from across communities to evolve certain social distancing guidelines to be followed in all places of worship in the state "This virus is not going anywhere & we've to ensure that we take necessary precautions when places of worship open after June 8," Owaisi tweeted. He suggested that in all the mosques' carpets be removed and namaz be offered on stone floor. He said this was necessary as epidemiologists and other health experts say virus stay longer on the surface of carpets. He told reporters that the mosques should also close the toilets and 'wazu khanas' as a precautionary measure and people should be asked to come prepared for namaz from their homes. Owaisi said people above 65 years of age and those with co-morbidities should not come to mosques at least till June end. As the worshippers in mosques form rows by standing shoulder to shoulder, the MP appealed to Islamic scholars to frame guidelines for ensuring physical distancing. "In Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other countries where mosques have re-opened they framed the rules to ensure physical distancing. I request the muftis in India to come out with a solution to ensure gap between two worshippers," he said. Owaisi hailed the decision of 38 members of Tablighi Jamaat in Telangana to give their plasma for treatment of Covid patients. These members who have recovered from Covid-19 have volunteered to donate their blood for plasma therapy for treatment of other patients. They will start donating the blood at Gandhi Hospital from Wednesday. The MP said Tablighi Jamaat members set a best example despite the false propaganda by the Centre and Sangh Parivar blaming them for the spread of Covid-19. He also demanded the Uttar Pradesh government to immediately release over 40 members of Tabilighi Jamaat from Telangana who were illegally detained at Muzaffarnagar and Meerut. They are not being allowed to return despite testing negative for Covid-19. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) CORONA, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2020 / ADOMANI, Inc. (OTCQB:ADOM), a provider of new zero-emission purpose-built electric vehicles and drivetrain solutions, announced today that it has re-opened its corporate offices and other locations which had been closed in response to public health guidance regarding the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and for the safety of its employees and customers, as well as their families and communities. ADOMANI had closed its corporate offices due to the CDC and California State guidelines. The ADOMANI team worked remotely during this period. Travel and customer contact were limited for ADOMANI's sales team as well. "While it's certainly not 'business as usual,' we look forward to our sales team being able to demonstrate our products to interested parties again and to being able to follow up on contacts in a more complete manner than we have been able to for the past few months," said President and CEO Jim Reynolds. ADOMANI CFO Mike Menerey added "As disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 3rd and 17th, we fortunately did receive funding from both the Paycheck Protection Program under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act of 2020 and an Economic Injury Disaster Loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration, which have and continue to help us through a tough time that has impacted so many. We are grateful for the assistance and look forward to getting back to business quickly." About ADOMANI ADOMANI, Inc. is a provider of new zero-emission electric vehicles and is a provider of zero-emission electric drivetrain systems for integration in medium to heavy-duty commercial fleet vehicles, as well as re-power conversion kits for the replacement of drivetrain systems in combustion-powered vehicles. ADOMANI's zero-emission electric vehicles are focused on reducing the total cost of vehicle ownership and help fleet operators unlock the benefits of green technology and address the challenges of traditional fuel price instability and local, state and federal environmental regulatory compliance. For more information, visit www.ADOMANIelectric.com Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Statements made in this press release that relate to future plans, events, financial results, prospects or performance are forward-looking statements. While they are based on the current expectations and beliefs of management, such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed in this press release, including the risks and uncertainties disclosed in reports filed by ADOMANI with the Securities and Exchange Commission, all of which are available online at www.sec.gov. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including statements containing the words "planned," "expects," "believes," "strategy," "opportunity," "anticipates," "outlook," "designed" and similar words. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Except as required by law, ADOMANI undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, changed circumstances or unanticipated events. Investor Relations Contacts: ADOMANI, Inc. Kevin Kanning, VP Investor Relations Telephone: (650) 533-7629 Email: kevin.k@ADOMANIelectric.com Michael K. Menerey, Chief Financial Officer Telephone: (951) 407-9860 ext. 205 Email: mike.m@ADOMANIelectric.com Renmark Financial Communications, Inc. John Boidman, CPIR: jboidman@renmarkfinancial.com Telephone: (416) 644-2020, ext. 1208 or (514) 939-3989 SOURCE: ADOMANI, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/592368/AdomaniR-Staff-Resumes-Operations-At-Its-Corporate-Offices-And-Locations At least six police officers were shot at during violent protests over the death of George Floyd, an African-American man in police custody, hours after US President Donald Trump threatened he would deploy the military if the ongoing unrest does not stop. Protests and clashes took place in more than 40 US cities as four American policemen were shot at in St Louis and one each in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. In another escalatory incident, an SUV hit two officers at a protest in Buffalo, New York, which slapped a curfew as looters hit luxury stores. Thousands marched in Sydney on Tuesday in solidarity with US protests as demonstrators from Australia to Europe identified with the cause of the protests and urged their own governments to address racism and police violence. Hong Kongs leader Carrie Lam criticised the double standards of foreign governments over national security matters. Trump said on Monday that he had asked state officials to deploy military reservists of the National Guard in sufficient numbers to dominate the streets. If a state official refuses, he said, I will deploy the US military and quickly solve the problem for them. I want the organisers of this terror to be own notice that you will face severe criminal penalties and lengthy sentences in jail, the US president threatened, adding that he had ordered swift and decisive action to bring the situation under control in Washington, DC as National Guard troops moved on protesters outside the White House. Trumps threat to deploy soldiers sparked a debate about whether he had legal authority to do so. Under the Insurrection Act, a law that is over 200 years old, the US president can deploy the military on American soil to deal with civil disorder, insurrection or rebellion. Flash-bang bombs, tear gas shells and rubber bullets were used to disperse a peaceful demonstration from a side of the White House facing Lafayette Square Park. More than 5,000 people were arrested from around the country. On Tuesday night, the BBC reported that the White House had asked about taking over Washington, DC police. Trump administration officials had reportedly considered the idea of taking over the capital citys police force, according to an official in the city mayors office. The Electoral Commission (EC) is conducting a nationwide pilot registration exercise ahead of the expected voter registration exercise later in June. A mix of residents, EC officers and political party officials took part in the exercise nationwide. In some parts of the country, the EC officers said only stakeholders including returning officers and some party representatives have so far turned up for the exercise though it is opened to the public. Residents in Tamale who spoke to Citi News lauded the punctuality and ease of the registration process. But some problems with guarantor registration were noted during the exercise. The Acting Northern Regional Director of the EC, Lucas Yiryel, noted that the challenges have been communicated to the head office for redress. We had some issues with the machines with regard to getting the polling stations Accra has instructed them what to do and they have resolved that issue. The only problem we have not addressed, is in an attempt to register someone using the Guarantor form, the system was not receiving it, Mr. Yiryel noted. In the Ashanti Region, the regions Secretary for the National Democratic Congress, Kwame Zu raised concern with the fact most of the persons taking part in the pilot exercise in his area were EC officers. It is a controlled atmosphere that may not representative of a typical registration atmosphere, he noted. Kwame Zu further indicated that NDC in the Ashanti Region will formally make their observations known to the public on the pilot exercise. During the exercise, safety protocols put in place for the novel coronavirus were largely seen to be observed. Per the ECs safety protocols for the registration, it will be mandatory to wear face masks at the registration centres, people's temperature will be checked before one is allowed into the registration centre and there will be running water available for handwashing, according to an artwork posted on the Commission's social media pages. Queues are to have one-metre gaps between persons lining up to register, the scanners will be sanitised and persons who complete the registration process will also be provided with hand sanitiser before they leave the centre. ---citinewsroom Birmingham mayor Randall Woodfin declared a state of emergency Monday and established an indefinite 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew effective immediately after damage to several downtown businesses and two reporters were attacked Sunday night. No one deserved what happened last night in this city, we call home, Birmingham, Woodfin said. Birmingham, this is not us. This is not who we are. This is not how we taught the world how to protest. Thirteen businesses were damaged, 14 businesses were burglarized and 24 people were arrested, according to Birmingham police chief Patrick Smith, after protests turned violent Sunday night. Woodfin said there wouldnt be any second chances going forward, enacting the curfew which will indefinitely outlaw any similar protests after 7 p.m. going forward. RELATED: Cities around Birmingham enact similar curfews Woodfin also vowed that anyone violating the curfew order will be arrested. Were not playing, Woodfin said. Were going to enforce the law. What does the Birmingham curfew actually mean for you? Heres a quick explanation. What does a curfew entail? It means from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m., starting today (June 1), no one should be out in Birmingham unless there is an exception (Well get to those). That means no public gatherings, no casually driving through Birminghams downtown, no hanging out at the park, etc. There is no scheduled end for the curfew. Who does this apply to? Everyone within the city limits of Birmingham. Anyone traveling upon any public street, alley or roadway or any other public property. What constitutes the city limits? Check out maps of Birminghams city boundaries here. You are allowed to drive through the city of Birmingham if you are coming from a location outside the city to go to a different location outside the city. What are the possible ramifications of violating curfew? As Mayor Woodfin said, Birmingham police will arrest violators. According to Birmingham city code, a violation of a municipal ordinance like a curfew comes with up to 180 days in jail and a $500 fine. What if I have to work after the curfew starts? You will need to have identification and a letter from your employer on the company letterhead stating that you are working during the curfew. There are also exceptions for multiple groups including journalists, city law enforcement figures, medical personnel, public utility workers and military personnel. Can I go to a restaurant after curfew? One exception in the order allows for, People seeking medical assistance, food or other service necessary to well-being for themselves or their families. However, the city is strongly advising businesses including restaurants to close at 7 p.m. Can I go shopping after curfew? It depends on what you are shopping for. There can be exceptions -- a grocery store like Publix, for instance, would qualify under seeking food -- but the same wouldnt apply to a clothing store. The city of Birmingham wont force those nonessential businesses to close but individuals could still be guilty of violating the curfew if they are out shopping at one after 7 p.m. A representative for The Summit, which includes more than 10 restaurants and numerous retail shops, said it will be closing at 7 p.m. in accordance with the city ordinance. Birmingham also will be blocking off a section of downtown during the curfew periods. See the map below: Street Closures Map by KentFaulk on Scribd This story will be updated. RELATED: Fires, windows shattered at banks, businesses as reporters attacked VANCOUVER, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - MeetingMaker helps financial advisors grow their business and save valuable time by eliminating the back and forth in scheduling meetings. The recent transition to working remotely and the increase in virtual practices has everyone searching for tools and processes to help. This is the type of tool financial advisors need right now. Key features include 2-way calendar sync, plus Zoom and GoToMeeting video conferencing integrations. More about MeetingMaker's features here. The online scheduling tool provides financial advisors ability to pre-set their availability and limit how far in the future meetings can be booked, so they're always in full control of their calendar. Never having to worry about overbooking, or meetings being scheduled without their pre-approval. 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While there are other online scheduling tools out there, MeetingMaker is the only one from a provider dedicated to working with financial advisors and their Broker Dealers directly, ensuring strict compliance requirements are met. MeetingMaker is available on the Advisor Websites platform for $12/month, paid annually. For more information and to find out whether your Broker Dealer has approved it, apply HERE. About ADVISOR WEBSITES - A digital marketing platform designed for Financial Advisors, helping them grow their business through a series of marketing tools and services while seamlessly meeting compliance requirements. In addition, the Advisor Websites platform offers a selection of effective and proven website frameworks that are personalized to reflect individual businesses and brands. SOURCE Advisor Websites Inc. Related Links https://www.advisorwebsites.com/ Former African presidents have condemned the killing of George Floyd as violent protests continue in the US following his death in police custody. The Forum of Former Heads of State and Government has urged African countries to "raise a strong protest" to the killing and demand that the "perpetrators of this crime and all other crimes of this sort be punished in the strongest terms", according to a statement released by former Beninese President Nicephore Soglo. What level of cruelty must you reach that the entire world finally wakes up and manifests its indignation. Who would dare here, their face visible, to treat in such a way a European, an Arab, an Israeli, an Indian, a Chinese, a Japanese, an Argentinian, etc. Enough is enough," he said. Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said in a tweet that black people were "shocked and destroyed". "We stand with our kith and kin in America in these difficult and trying times, and we hope that the unfortunate ,tragic death of George Floyd will inspire a lasting change in how America confronts head on the problems of hate and racism." South Africa's governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), has urged President Cyril Ramaphosa to engage with the US" to defuse racial tensions and build social cohesion among different races". Source: BBC Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Grand Rapids leaders have turned down a proposal from city management to extend the citywide curfew through Sunday, June 7, to curb any further rioting. The two-day curfew, put in place Sunday by Mayor Rosalynn Bliss after a night of rioting in the city, expired Tuesday at 5 a.m. City Manager Mark Washington recommended the extension of the curfew, saying it allows downtown businesses damaged by the Saturday rioting to make repairs without fear of further destruction and also allows police to better manage situations from getting out of control before dark. The Michigan National Guard, which helped barricade multiple city blocks on Monday, was being demobilized but would remain available to reactivate should they be needed, Washington said. During the City Commissions Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday morning, June 2, all commissioners but City Commissioner Nathaniel Moody voiced opposition to continuing the curfew. Some commissioners said that, after continued conversations with community leaders, its time to trust the people to protest peacefully and trust the police to arrest those causing destruction. Im really not interesting in arresting people who are protesting peacefully, City Commissioner Kurt Reppart said, adding that he understands why city staff would recommend an extension. If people break the law, we can make arrests. But if theyre peacefully exercising their voice Im not interested in stifling that. Should rioting occur again, Bliss said she would like to call an emergency meeting of commissioners to decide on reinstating the curfew. Moody supported an extension of the curfew. However, he didnt support a different proposal to start it at 8:30 p.m. as opposed to 7 p.m. Moody said a later start to the curfew wouldve given groups more daylight hours to organize for potential rioting. Washington spoke of extending the curfew in light of protests scheduled for Wednesday that could result in a repeat situation of Saturday, where both planned and unplanned protests commingle in downtown. He said one protest at 4 p.m. may have up to 3,000 people attending. Knowing now what we know, we have the ability to be more resourced than we were for Saturday, and what Im hearing is the desire for us to not avail ourselves of the current resources," he told commissioners after it became clear they werent going to support an extension of the curfew. Speaking from experience watching some protesters Saturday attempt to breach the downtown police headquarters and bar officers from leaving, Washington gave a dire warning of what wouldve happen if protesters overran the department. It was unbelievable. It was horrific, he said. "I saw first-hand on the ground level where officers were stacked like a human wall, back-to-back. A lot of resources were in the police department to make sure that they would not be taken over, like what happened in Minneapolis and burned to the ground. We dont have multiple stations, that was it. Once we lose police command headquarters, we have lost that city, and (rioting) would have gone on for a lot longer. In a statement, Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Payne said he is confident the department will be able to keep everyone in the city safe. While the reinstitution of a curfew remains an option, Payne said he hopes the measure wont be necessary. Im more than ready to have real, meaningful dialogue with people who are serious about improving the lives of all community members, he said. Conversations with real ideas are what is going to change things for the better, not blame and broken windows. Multiple commissioners also supported the removal of Michigan National Guard from the city, saying it sends the wrong message to peaceful protesters. Commissioners John OConnor and Senita Lenear expressed concern about having reserve forces of the U.S. military amid President Donald Trumps messages on Twitter calling for use of military force against protesters. OConnor specifically mentioned the Tweet in which the president said: Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts." Payne told commissioners that, while he never envisioned the Michigan National Guard in the city, they were among the resources that allowed officers to maintain order in the city. Yesterday we had the resources to make those arrests," Payne said. Saturday we did not. We were just trying to maintain some sort of civility and get this city back to where the chaos was not occurring. Related: Grand Rapids protesters scatter after police, backed by Michigan National Guard, move in Bliss first issued the two-day citywide curfew order on Sunday following a night of rioting that saw at least 100 downtown buildings damaged and seven vehicles, including police cruisers, set on fire, and no reported injuries to police and residents. The Saturday night riot was preceded by a peaceful march earlier in the day to protest police brutality and racism after George Floyd died after an ex-Minneapolis police officer pinned his knee on Floyds neck. Bliss requested support from the Michigan National Guard, as well, to enforce the curfew law and protect property. National Guard vehicles and guardsmen were seen on the edge of town Sunday, the first night of curfew, but they were present in force throughout the city Monday. They did not participate in any arrests. The curfew Sunday and Monday prevented any further rioting in the city. On Sunday, a handful of people were arrested for violating curfew after they staged a peaceful sit-down protest in Rosa Parks Circle. Downtown was almost entirely empty afterward. On Monday, the scene was far different. Protesters gathered around 3 p.m. at a Michigan National Guard Barricade on Fulton Street near the Van Andel Arena and, over the course of hours, those numbers protesting police brutality swelled to fill the intersection and come within arms length of the guardsmen. At times confrontational, the protesters were largely peaceful. At one point, Payne addressed the crowd from behind the guards barricade. It was difficult to hear him, as he did not use anything to amplify his voice. Protesters implored him to join them. Payne later told journalists that he declined because the demonstration was not permitted. He asked organizers to work with the police department in planning any demonstrations. As the 7 p.m. curfew approached, some began leaving. Those who remained in front of the barricade after curfew were holding hands and kneeling as police pushed them back with bicycles. Payne told the city commission Tuesday that bottles were being thrown at police before arrests started taking place. At one point, a protester threw a water bottle at police who did not react. Grand Rapids police shot one man, far from the police line, in the arm with a non-lethal projectile. City police grabbed one protester by the neck and slammed him to the ground, MLive/The Grand Rapids Press video shows. Another protester, on the ground while being arrested behind the police line, had his head slammed against the roadway. According to Grand Rapids police, 12 people in total were arrested throughout Monday night for violating curfew. No rioting occurred. During the Tuesday morning meeting, several commissioners recommended dropping misdemeanor curfew violation charges against those arrested who violated curfew but did not take part in any property damage or assaults on police officers. City Attorney Anita Hitchcock said her office will be evaluating any city charges against protesters case-by-case and with an equitable lens. Read more: Downtown Grand Rapids quiet under curfew after night of rioting 12 arrested in Grand Rapids for curfew violations after weekend riot Woman, 22, accused of inciting Grand Rapids riot As social distancing measure continue, The Lake Houston Wilderness Park provides an outdoor option for residents looking for an outlet. The park is open daily for hiking, biking, canoeing, horseback riding and getting back outside in many ways on nearly 5,000 acres at 25840 FM 1485, New Caney. WHAT TO DO: These 19 Houston attractions survived coronavirus and are reopening The park is open with limitations they will be open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday with an entrance fee of $3 for people between the ages of 13 to 64 with free entry for military and seniors. The Lake Houston Wilderness Park is closed on Tuesday. Park officials will not offer rentals or open park facilities except for restrooms, which are cleaned three times a day. Areas that are not in use are being sanitized once a week as a precaution. Overnight camping is not available at this time. The park only closed due to the coronavirus during Easter weekend when Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner closed all city parks. It was the first time a mayor closed Lake Houston Wilderness Park in at least 15 years, said Lauren Hollenbeck, a park naturalist at Lake Houston Wilderness Park. Hollenbeck said with the size of the park, it is easy to continue to socially distance while getting outside. Trails, for the most part, are not challenging and the Peach Creek Overlook is Americans with Disabilities Act or ADA accessible. The great thing about Lake Houston Wilderness Park is that it is decently sized its almost 5,000 acres, Hollenbeck said. We have over 20 miles of trails so if you come up here its great to pack a lunch and plan to take a long hike because you can walk on a trail for a couple of hours and only run into a few other people, and its really easy to social distance that way. Peach Creek Overlook is often a popular location in the park for swimming and fishing. Hollenbeck recommends if visitors plan to stop at this area in the park, to spread out and come with immediate family. We do suggest that if youre going to do that then you need to come with your immediate family and you spread out, Hollenbeck said. It is kind of a small beach, so weve been kind of making sure that not too many people are there and not too many large groups are there. HOUSING AND CORONAVIRUS: Houston-area evictions set to pick up in June Hollenbeck believes that getting outside is important and a good way to get to feeling better mentally and physically during the closures, changes and new normals. She recommends researching before visiting to the park, bring hand sanitizer, wear a mask if coming into contact with people and to practice safe social distancing. The parks website also urges visitors that if anyone has been sick in the last two weeks to stay home. I think that getting outside right now is really important and getting into nature is really important because sitting inside your house can be kind of mentally hard. When youre not sure with the COVID stuff, it can kind of get difficult, Hollenbeck said. So getting out here and reconnecting with nature can make you feel better mentally and I think it makes you feel better, you get exercise, you get your heart pumping, which is awesome. Its kind of a nice little escape. For more information on Lake Houston Wilderness Park, visit their website here. savannah.mehrtens@chron.com BRUSSELS - The European Union on Tuesday joined a growing chorus of members of the Group of Seven major economic powers to insist that Russia must not be allowed back into the fold, after U.S. President Donald Trump said that he plans to invite the country to a G7 summit next fall. Trump said Saturday that he is postponing next months G7 summit, and plans to invite Russia, Australia, South Korea and India when it does take place. Trump told reporters that he feels the current makeup of the group is very outdated and doesnt properly represent whats going on in the world. The G7 members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, while the 27-nation EU, the worlds biggest trading bloc, also takes part. Russia was suspended in 2014 from the then G8 following its invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that Russia should not be allowed back in until it changes course and the environment allows for the G8 again to have a meaningful discussion, and this is not currently the case. Borrell said that its up to Trump, as G7 chair, to issue guest invitations, and guest invitations reflect the host priorities. But changing membership, or changing the format on a permanent basis, is not the prerogative of the G7 chair. Borrell said G7 members sit together because they share values, interests and commitments, and he insisted that given the coronavirus pandemic co-operation among like-minded partners is crucial even more in such difficult times. On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Russias continued disrespect and flaunting of international rules and norms is why it remains outside of the G7 and why it will continue to remain out. British Prime Minister Boris Johnsons spokesman, James Slack, said the U.K. would look at the detail of what the U.S. is proposing, and also noted that its customary for the host to invite other leaders as guests. Asked whether Russia should be let back in, he said were yet to see evidence of changed behaviour that would justify its readmittance. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that she will not personally attend a meeting in the U.S. if Trump goes ahead with it unless the course of the pandemic changes by then. ___ Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report. Victoria Beckham made nearly 1million by not joining the Spice Girls reunion tour last year, according to reports. The 46-year-old shunned singing in the 13 comeback gigs around the UK but made the hefty sum off the back of the renewed interest in the band. It is thought that this was significantly more than the 700,000 salary she paid herself from her struggling clothes label, according to The Sun. Businesswoman: Victoria Beckham, 46, made nearly 1million by not joining the Spice Girls reunion tour last year, according to reports Victoria, Geri Horner, 47, Mel C, 46, Mel B, 46, and Emma Bunton, 44, are the only active members and directors of Spice Girls Limited, according to records held by Companies House. This meant that Victoria was entitled to a fifth of the profit made in endorsements, merchandising and licensing deals despite not actually making an appearance on the tour. The latest accounting records show that the company made 4.5million last year - up from 124,000 the year before - following the revival concerts. Bounce back: The latest accounting records show that Spice Girls Limited made 4.5million last year - up from 124,000 the year before - following the revival following the concerts An insider told the newspaper: 'This means the rest of the group will have to hand over a huge amount to Posh on the back of the old magic they conjured up. 'The irony of the payout is that Victoria has become distanced from the Spice Girls as she's tried to carve out a niche as a fashion designer. 'But they have become a major source of her income once again as the clothes line falters. The other girls have handed a lot over.' Victoria's representative declined to comment when approached by MailOnline. Slashed: Items on Outnet include [L-R] a mint blazer with black lapels, reduced to 158 down from 565 - a 72 percent drop - and a matching purse slashed half-price from 850 to 425 It comes after items from Victoria's designer fashion label have appeared on Net-A-Porter discount site The Outnet for up to 70 per cent off. Items on the site include a mint blazer with black lapels, reduced to 158 down from 565 - a 72 percent drop - and a matching purse slashed half-price from 850 to 425. The Victoria Beckham brand has an ongoing relationship with The Outnet, as do the likes of Valentino, Stella McCartney and Dolce & Gabbana. The appearance of the brand's items on The Outlet is not directly related to the the furloughing situation. This comes after Victoria and her husband David, 45, risk fresh money fury as a report which alleges they took out a 10million bank loan to buy their 18million Miami penthouse has emerged. Bargain! This comes after Victoria and her husband David, 45, risk fresh money fury as a report which alleges they took out a 10million bank loan to buy their 18million Miami penthouse has emerged The couple - who are worth 335million - are said to have used their firm, Beckham Brand Limited, to take out the loan last year as part of David's Inter Miami FC project, which they are reportedly paying back over 10 years at a fixed rate of 2.5 per cent. According to The Sun on Sunday, The Beckhams took out a 10million bank loan to buy a the luxury property in Miami, America last year, despite having the finances to purchase the 18million property outright. After initially questioning the need for the super-wealthy couple to require a loan, a source added: 'If they hadn't borrowed cash to buy yet another pad, perhaps they wouldn't have had to furlough staff in the first place. Yikes! This comes after Victoria and her husband David, 45, risk fresh money fury as a report which alleges they took out a 10million bank loan to buy their 18million Miami penthouse has emerged 'If Victoria could borrow 10million to buy a Miami bolthole, there are probably a few people thinking she could have borrowed money in the first place to pay her staff, rather than try and rely on the taxpayer.' 'While they actually applied for this loan towards the end of last year, the timing of its publication could hardly have been worse.' MailOnline contacted Victoria and David Beckham's representatives for comment at the time. The couple and three of their four children are currently hauled up at their Cotswolds countryside retreat amid the coronavirus lockdown after relocating from their luxury London home. Second home: Victoria is currently hauled up with husband David and three of their four children at their Cotswolds countryside retreat after relocating from their luxury London home U-turn: Victoria, who recently posted this Instagram picture of her 'working from home' set-up, has reversed a decision to seek a taxpayer bailout for her fashion firm by furloughing 30 staff The former Spice Girl had planned to use the Government's Covid-19 scheme to pay 80 per cent of the wages of some of her staff. The fashion brand, which employs 120 people, sent letters to 30 members of staff warning them that they were going to be furloughed under the Government's scheme for two months. She told The Guardian: 'We will not now be drawing on the government furlough scheme. 'At the beginning of the lockdown the shareholders agreed with senior management to furlough a small proportion of staff. 'At that point we didn't know how long the lockdown might last or its likely impact on the business. The welfare of my team and our business means everything to me.' It is understood the firm's application would have cost taxpayers 150,000. The firm denied the U-turn was a result of the public backlash and instead insisted the board 'now believe that with the support of our shareholders, we can navigate through this crisis without drawing from the furlough scheme'. In a statement, the company said: 'Victoria Beckham Ltd has been working hard to protect its people and, while adjusting to the impact of COVID-19 and the government lockdown, our decision to furlough a small number of our staff seemed the most appropriate option in keeping with many other businesses. 'The situation is dynamic, and, with the support of our shareholders, we now believe we can navigate through this crisis without drawing from the government furlough scheme. 'Our application was made in the best interests of trying to protect our staff, and that is still our absolute focus. We are doing everything we can to ensure we can achieve that without using government assistance.' [June 02, 2020] Florida Cyber Charter Academy Highlights Graduates with Virtual Commencement Ceremony Florida Cyber Charter Academy (FLCCA), an online public charter school, will celebrate the Class of 2020 during a commencement ceremony on Friday, June 5th. The virtual graduation will celebrate the achievements of more than 160 students-the largest class since the school's inception-and pay tribute to those who are serving the local community. Distinguished guest speakers will include State Senator Dennis Baxley and Leilani M. Brown, K12's Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and External Engagement. Collectively, the Class of 2020 reports it has been accepted to trade schools, colleges and universities across the country including the University of Albany, the University of Akron, Full Sail University, Palm Beach State College, the University of Central Florida, Edward Waters College, the University of South Florida, Keiser University, St. Peter's Hospital College, and Saint Petersburg College. "In a year filled with unprecedented challenges, our graduates have overcome many personal and collective challenges and have thrived in the personalized learning environment we've offered them," said Dr. Sandra Anthony, Head of School at FLCCA. "FLCCA teachers and staff have been committed to their academic nd personal success. And we're all so proud to celebrate the achievements of our special graduates this year." Students enroll in FLCCA for a number of reasons-some are looking to escape bullying, some may have fallen academically off track, and others are looking for an alternative to the traditional classroom setting. FLCCA students access a robust online curriculum in the core subjects of math, science, English language arts, history, art and music as well as a host of electives. Live virtual classes taught by Florida-licensed teachers provide not only an engaging environment but give students the opportunity to learn with their peers in an online platform. Details of the graduation ceremony are as follows: WHAT: Florida Cyber Charter Academy 2020 Graduation Ceremony WHEN: Friday, June 5, 2020 11:00 AM WHERE: Sign up to watch the graduation here: https://tinyurl.com/FLCCA2020Grad About Florida Cyber Charter Academy Florida Cyber Charter Academy (FLCCA) is a full-time, online public school available to students in grades K-12. As part of the Florida public school system, enrollment in FLCCA is tuition-free for Florida students, giving parents and families the choice to access the engaging curriculum and tools provided by K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN), the nation's leading provider of proprietary K-12 curriculum and online education programs. For more information about FLCCA, visit flcca.k12.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005021/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Arzan Wealth (DIFC), a Dubai-based advisory firm regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority, has advised its client on a successful exit of a mezzanine lending transaction in New Orleans, in the United States, achieving strong returns for investors. This investment is part of Arzan Wealths Debt Platform, which focuses on identifying investments into real estate debt opportunities. The New Orleans transaction utilises the innovative Real Estate Index Linked Securities (REILS) structure, which is an amortising mezzanine loan, and was structured in a Sharia-compliant manner. The New Orleans REILS investment was made in April 2018 to finance a portfolio comprising three multifamily properties consisting of 740 apartments located in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. The New Orleans REILS transaction was structured with a net 8% coupon, payable quarterly, and with an escalating quarterly amortisation schedule as well as an additional payment at the end of the instruments term that was designed to generate a total IRR of between 9.4% and 11.8%. Arzan Wealth acted as the Sub Strategic Advisor on the exit of this investment at a net IRR of 11.9% per annum. Muhannad Abulhasan, CEO of Arzan Wealth said: The Arzan Wealth team is very proud to be able to advise on the exit of the New Orleans REILS deal, and at the highest possible IRR as designed by us when we advised on entering the deal two years ago. We are particularly pleased to be able to deliver these very positive results to our loyal investors in the midst of the global economic catastrophe that is unfolding as a result of the COVID-19 public health crisis. An IRR of 11.9% from a safe and income-producing real estate debt investment is consistent with Arzan Wealths objective of offering clients superior risk-adjusted opportunities in mature real estate markets. The stable and regular cash flow payments from our REILS transactions have proven to be an important stabilising element in the portfolios of our clients, especially during turbulent economic times like the one we find ourselves in today. Arzan Wealth will continue to focus on advising on new REILS deals, as well as other real estate investment opportunities that create a secure and regular income stream, with as low a risk profile as possible. While economic turbulence can create uncertainty, Arzan Wealth will always be a stable and reliable partner for our clients, during good times and bad. I am grateful to our loyal clients for their continued trust in Arzan Wealth. -- Tradearabia News Service Jenelle Evans and David Eason insisted they were working on their marriage and were in a good place, but as is true with most things revolving around this troubled couple, things changed quickly. The former reality TV star and her husband of three years took to Facebook to trade insults. Now, followers ware wondering if the couple is done for good, or if they will once again reconcile. It is important to remember that this is far from the first time the duo have taken their marital problems to a public forum. Jenelle reconciled with David Eason in February 2020 Evans shocked the world when she announced she had separated from Eason in October 2019. She promptly moved her children to Nashville, Tennessee, and filed for an emergency restraining order against Eason. Followers were cheering the mother of three on, but things took a turn quickly. After spending just three months apart, Evans and Eason were spotted spending time together. Jenelle Evans | Bruce Glikas/Getty Images RELATED: Teen Mom 2: Jenelle Evans and David Eason are Back Together and Fans are Livid Shortly after they were first spied hanging out in Nashville, fans noticed that Evans appeared to be back in North Carolina with Eason. Shes been staying at the property the couple dubbed the land ever since. Things have been relatively quiet, save for a few cryptic tweets, but now the drama has gone public once again. Jenelle Evans and David Eason took to Facebook to exchange insults The quiet has officially ended, and so have the cryptic tweets. Evans and Eason are at war again, and they dont seem to care who knows it. The drama seems to have kicked up when Evans took off with a friend, instead of spending all of her free time with her husband. While she didnt name any names, Evans took to Facebook to let the world know that someone thought she was in the wrong for wanting to spend time with her friends. God forbid I hangout with my friends Posted by Jenelle Evans on Monday, June 1, 2020 RELATED: Teen Mom 2: What Will Happen To The Land Now That Jenelle Has Filed for Divorce? Eason quickly shot back, suggesting that all he wanted to do was spend the day with his wife. He went on to accuse Evans of deserting him for her friend. Evans wasnt going to take the quip lying down. She fired back at Eason, suggesting that he still cant pay his own bills, according to In Touch. Fans have long suspected that Eason had absolutely zero money to his name and that he mainly relied on Evans to make ends meet. Evans appears to have confirmed that now. Is the couples relationship in trouble again? While it appears that there is some trouble between Evans and Eason, it seems unlikely that shell be packing her things and leaving yet again. The pair have had a troubled relationship ever since they first got together, but they simply cant seem to stay away from each other. The current social media flareup appears to be a mere blip on the radar for the overly dramatic pair. RELATED: Teen Mom 2: Fans Think Jenelle Evans Husband David Eason Smashed Her Phone, But What Really Happened? Neither Evans nor Eason has taken to social media in the hours since the flareup to explain the situation, and they likely wont. Evans was recently slammed by fans for posting about a broken phone without going into details about what happened. It has been months since that incident, and while fans assume Eason smashed her phone, she has neither confirmed nor denied those allegations. Protests continue against police brutality and racial discrimination in the Hollywood on Monday. (Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times) Ive been searching for something hopeful to latch on to in the week since we watched George Floyd dying on a Minneapolis street, handcuffed and pinned to the ground by a policemans knee. But each ray of light I could find wound up with a troubling dark side. I was encouraged when all four officers involved in Floyds death were immediately fired. That was a bold move by the citys mayor; a response we havent seen before. But four days passed before the perpetrating officer was arrested and charged with murder enough time for cynicism and grief to send angry residents to the streets. I was optimistic enough to believe that the spread of protests across the country signified a long-overdue national reckoning with the plague of police brutality. But looters and troublemakers hijacked that and property losses vied for attention with the injustice of Floyds death. I was heartened by the multiracial coalitions of young people in California, many wearing masks and trying to socially distance, as they marched with their Black Lives Matter signs and horrified by videos and eyewitness accounts of provocateurs methodically breaking windows and setting fires. The speed and scale of the public outbursts have offered a dizzying kaleidoscope of images of a nation at war with itself. What you believe may dictate what you see. I mostly see crowds of peaceful protesters being determinedly undermined, where others see only hordes of looters stealing things. We may each parse the protests differently, but we cant say we werent warned 28 years ago, when the cops got off for beating Rodney King and giant swaths of Los Angeles burned. And of all the lessons we might take from the carnage this time, the most important may still be the enduring No Justice, No Peace. :: My Nextdoor feed was buzzing for days with rumors of riots and gang members running amok in our suburban enclave. I heard there is a plan for a Riot this afternoon!! Is this true??? one worried woman posted Monday morning. Story continues That led to lots of back and forth about having guns at the ready in case "thugs" wander into the cul-de-sac. The vitriol was so intense the chastened organizer canceled the protest shed planned. I drove by the site not expecting much. My neighborhood is as close to Trump Country as any place in Los Angeles could be. I imagined a few old hippies and bunch of college kids. Instead I found a gloriously diverse display of L.A. humanity. They were white and brown and Asian and black; more than 350 people crammed onto the small traffic island we call Granada Hills Veterans Park. Most were young, enthusiastic and loud, but there were elderly folks who struggled with the request to kneel and young couples with little kids in tow. The park's landmark is a bronze statue of a small somber boy holding a folded American flag. There was something powerful about seeing him surrounded by folks of every color demanding that black people be able to enjoy the freedoms that America promises. And it wasn't just the size and the spirit of the protesters that uplifted me, it was the endless stream of honks and thumbs up from cars that streamed through the busy intersection. And the signs that waved: "Black Lives Matter." "I can't breathe" "We will not change the world by asking nicely." Officials had prepared for the worst; there were police cars parked along the curb and the shopping center across the street had been shut down, its store windows boarded up. The officers on duty said folks had been gathering for hours by the time I got there at 3. While I was there, the most substantial order they'd issued was "please stay on the sidewalks, not on the street." Ive lived in this neighborhood for almost 35 years, and what I saw and felt as I surveyed the crowd moved me to tears. I spotted the Girl Scout cookies leader from our local school, a couple of my daughter's college friends, the old couple who used to usher at my church. I don't think I have ever felt such a sense of belonging of being valuable in my Northridge community before. I imagine gatherings like this are going on all across our city. But we only get wind of them when order breaks down. It's so easy to expect the worst of people we imagine are nothing like us. But I realize now that I live in a neighborhood I only thought I knew. And if these young people can carry forth this new spirit of equality, maybe they can help renew our faith in our stumbling country and communities. They're demanding the justice that leads to peace. Robert F. Kennedy in Philadelphia in 1968. "A tough-minded man with a tender heart," George McGovern said of him. Read more This weekend, I was thrust back to 1968, once again looking for leadership in a time of justified racial outrage. President Donald Trumps offered a clear call to arms. When the looting starts, the shooting starts, he tweeted last Friday as the protests and violence began to spread. He called the Minneapolis mayor weak, threatened military action if city leaders failed to crack heads. This was only the beginning of Trump attempting to shape the national narrative. I am your president of law and order, he then told the country Monday night. It was him protecting the American people against the thugs. He promised thousands of troops to dominate the streets. READ MORE: Here's live coverage of what's happening Tuesday This is Trumps familiar imprint. It is us against them. Hes telling the American people as they watch TV that they must choose between him and the protesters. Hes telling voters they need to decide between him, the man of strength, and the Democratic mayor of Minneapolis, who showed empathy for those angry about the police killing of George Floyd. For Donald Trump, politician, this is a useful division, of course. It puts all the bad pictures of looting and burning on one side of the screen, his face of defiance on the other. But it is also a false division and needs to be challenged forcefully. True leaders are capable of both toughness and empathy. Our country saw that even in one of our countrys most tragic moments. Its a familiar story to some but needs to be retold in this crucial time of reckoning. In April 1968, Robert Kennedy, who was running for president, got word that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King had just been killed. About to enter an African American neighborhood in Indianapolis, he was warned by police not to go in. If he did so, he has told, he would have to proceed without police protection. The situation was seen as every bit that dangerous. John Lewis, who now serves in Congress, was an organizer of the planned evening rally. He had a different view from that of the police. Some of us felt that he must come. And he did. On arrival, Kennedy learned that he himself would have the duty to tell the crowd about Kings assassination. You can hear his host telling him that. News, even the most horrible, didnt travel as fast half a century ago. Do they know about Martin Luther King? Kennedy could be heard asking on the tape. No, they didnt. READ MORE: How should policing change? Share your ideas with us. | Opinion And so he began, standing on that platform in Indianapolis. I have some very sad news for all of you ... , he began. Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee. Then he got to his urgent concern. It was that Kings death would ignite a national explosion of justified anger. For those of you who are black considering the evidence evidently is that there were white people who were responsible you can be filled with bitterness, and with hatred, and desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization black people amongst black, and white amongst white, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort to understand and to comprehend and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand compassion and love. It took courage for Bobby Kennedy to head into that neighborhood that horrible night. It took empathy to want to do it, to keep a commitment as John Lewis said he felt he had to. That night, rioting, burning, and looting broke out in 100 American cities. Indianapolis was not among them. Bobby Kennedy didnt like what he saw happening. His daughter Kerry, just 8 years old, remembers him watching the scenes of rioting on TV. The former U.S. attorney general said he understood their frustration behind it all but said it was still lawless and bad. RFK was killed himself a few weeks later. John Lewis remains today a conscience for the country, especially on human rights. Both knew that courage and compassion can and should be partners in our human community. A good leader doesnt set them at war with each other, doesnt force people to choose between a decent respect for justice and the will to reject violence. Whatever else we decide in this difficult time, we need to hold to that standard. Donald Trump attempts to speak for a 21st-century silent majority against the protesters. But a true leader would, as Bobby Kennedy could, also hear those angry protesters as the voices of his fellow citizens. It is a time for presumed Democratic nominee Joe Biden and others with a national voice to take up the role this president has refused: American leader. Chris Matthews, a native Philadelphian, hosted Hardball on MSNBC. A veteran political commentator, he wrote Bobby Kennedy A Raging Spirit. The threat of COVID-19 remains high in Alabama despite people beginning to gather in large groups to protest the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd. There were 18,075 confirmed cases in Alabama as of 4:30 p.m. Monday, of which, 5,824 were confirmed in the past two weeks, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health. As Alabamas COVID-19 cases continue to grow at a large rate, local hospital officials are concerned of its spread during these rallies and other large group gatherings. COVID-19 is still in our community and Alabamas percentage of new cases continues to be among the highest in the country, John Atkinson, spokesperson for East Alabama Medical Center, said. As a result, we consider any mass gatherings where people cannot practice social distancing to be of concern. Atkinson said the hospital hopes that anyone with symptoms is staying at home and quarantining themselves rather than going out to public places, including participating in large group gatherings. A couple sit at a vista point of the San Francisco skyline in Sausalito. Coronavirus cases among essential workers have spiked in Marin County. (Eric Risberg / Associated Press) While many counties across California have charged ahead with reopening after months of restrictions aimed at stemming the spread of the coronavirus, Marin County officials have been largely satisfied with staying in the slow lane. Over the past several weeks, the state has loosened its stay-at-home order, allowing stores to reopen, hair salons and barbershops to resume services and patrons to once again dine inside restaurants across large swaths of California. Marin County, however, reopened office space, outdoor retail sales and outdoor dining just this week. Officials say they're taking it slow for a reason. Results of recent testing show a spike in infections among essential workers whose jobs require them to frequently interact with the public, said Dr. Matt Willis, Marin County's public health officer. Grocery store employees are among those who test positive most frequently. Those who work in other sectors, however, including food service, construction, gas stations, school services and landscaping, are also testing positive more often. There also has been a slight uptick in the number of workers who unknowingly bring the virus home with them and infect family members, Willis said. "This is a major concern for the next phase," he said. "We need to be careful about how we sequence reopening and take every precaution we can to protect people." The troubling trend has also affected other counties in California that have sought to move more quickly to reopen sections of the economy stymied by the pandemic. Nearby Sonoma County has recently seen an increase in instances of the virus being transmitted between workers. The rise in infections and hospitalizations was enough of a concern that public health officials last week decided to temporarily slow down reopening after having loosened restrictions on restaurants and other businesses. In Marin County, health officials said last week that more residents had been diagnosed with COVID-19 during that period of time than in any prior week during the pandemic. The county, which had seen a total of 501 coronavirus infections and 15 deaths as of Monday, has also nearly tripled its testing capacity in recent weeks. Story continues Although the spike in cases is partly from an increase in testing, Willis said the data showed that a greater proportion of people being tested were infected with the virus. The county's percent-positive rate rose from 4.4% to 5.3% over the past several days. "This suggests were likely seeing at least a slight rise in actual virus transmission," he said. In response to the increase, public health officials are working with employers to get their workers tested for the virus on a monthly basis. Free testing is available by appointment at the Civic Center and Canal neighborhood in San Rafael. In some cases, county health officials are testing people at their jobs. When officials offered to test United Markets' employees at its stores last week, President Kelly Smith jumped at the opportunity. Since the beginning of the pandemic, she's been well aware that her employees are among the most likely to become infected, even with mandated safety measures such as plastic barriers and face coverings, she said. Supermarkets have become ground zero in the fight against the coronavirus across the United States. Employees have had to manage fights, panic attacks and frustrated customers while trying to keep depleted shelves stocked amid an altered supply chain. Some workers have received bonuses or temporary raises dubbed "hero pay." But a growing number of grocery workers across the U.S. have fallen ill from the virus, and dozens have died. Marin County health officials set up mobile testing sites at both United Markets locations last week to administer tests to most of the grocery stores' 145 employees. "For the employees well for anyone, really it's a little bit intimidating to go get tested at a site somewhere by yourself," Smith said. "This we were able to do together, and I think that made it a little easier. My whole philosophy is taking care of my employees. If they're good, then I'm good." Smith hasn't received the results of all of the tests, but it appears that one employee may have tested positive, she said. She immediately told the person to stay home and sanitized the store, a process that has become typical. For public health officials, widespread testing of essential workers provides an easy way for them to identify cases and stem an outbreak. Instances of workers transmitting the virus to people in their households is an "important driver of the epidemic that we need to get in front of," Willis said. "Were showing, when we do test frequently, were seeing cases we otherwise wouldnt have discovered, which allows us to intervene earlier and prevent the spread to other people," Willis said. Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Amnesty International on Tuesday urged Mozambican government troops to protect civilians as they carry out operations against armed opposition groups in Cabo Delgado The Naked City podcast will take a journey into the dark depths of the Australian criminal underworld. In this series, you will hear audio tapes of Australia's most dangerous criminals, all of whom have been remarkably frank in their recollections. In this episode of Naked City, we hear from Sergeant David Key, who spent his career risking his life to save others. More than 400 times he dangled from a wire under the police helicopter to rescue the helpless. We take you to two cases where he cheated death the deadly 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race and the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires. By the time Sergeant Key came to policing he already had an intimate knowledge of danger, having served in the army as a Leopard tank commander. He left the army to join the police academy. He expected to work in general duties but after four years moved to the air wing. Since 1988 his main job has been to dangle from a bucking helicopter at the end of a wire no thicker than a drinking straw to rescue those who have run out of options. President Akufo-Addo has sent words of condolence to the family of George Floyd, black American man who died May 25 in police custody in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Mr Floyd, 46, unarmed, had his death captured in a footage that went viral, showing a white police officer kneeling on his neck, suffocating him for almost nine minutes while in his custody. His death has ignited deep-seated anger over racism, discrimination and socio-economic inequality and the perennial killings of black Americans by the police, sparking global outrage, with days of violent protest across the US. Black people, the world over, are shocked and distraught by the killing of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, by a white police officer in the United States of America. It carried with it an all too painful familiarity, and an ugly reminder. "It cannot be right that, in the 21st century, the United States, this great bastion of democracy, continues to grapple with the problem of systemic racism," President Akufo-Addo wrote on his Facebook wall. "On behalf of the people of Ghana, I express my deep condolences to the family and loved ones of the late George Floyd. "We stand with our kith and kin in America in these difficult and trying times, and we hope that the unfortunate, tragic death of George Floyd will inspire a lasting change in how America confronts head on the problems of hate and racism," the President said. The police officer who pressed his knee into Floyd's neck has since been charged with third degree murder, but protestors say the charge was too lenient, and have demanded that three other policemen who were complicit in his death be arrested and charged as well. ---GNA As the provincial government moves into Phase 2 of reopening during the coronavirus pandemic, new data shows Manitobans continue to find themselves in the middle of the pack when it comes to physical distancing in Canada. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/6/2020 (598 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. As the provincial government moves into Phase 2 of reopening during the coronavirus pandemic, new data shows Manitobans continue to find themselves in the middle of the pack when it comes to physical distancing in Canada. Internet search engine company Google has released its latest batch of data tracking what Canadians have been up to and where theyve been going as lockdown measures have been implemented throughout the country. To compile the research, Google used location data as well as its own repository of information to track percentage changes in movement across the country. The baseline average was culled from January to early February, before widespread social-distancing directives went into effect. Google's COVID-19 Community Mobility Report covers the period from Feb. 15 through May 25. The data indicates things are in many respects slowly returning to normal in Manitoba. Trips to parks and outdoor spaces have been a crucial resource for Canadians living through the public health measures, according to the data and Manitoba was no exception. Manitoba registered a 94 per cent jump in visits to parks and other outdoor recreation spaces over its January baseline in the latest batch of data. The spike is likely the result of warm spring weather and the loosening of lockdown measures. The data indicates that when people are not at home they are mostly spending time outside, which is good news for public health officials, as research indicates the virus is less likely to spread outdoors. These insights could help planners and policy-makers who are currently preparing for potential future outbreaks of COVID-19. Visits to transit facilities continue to remain very low in Manitoba, registering 50 per cent below average during the pandemics first three months. The latest data indicates transit use is 45 per cent below the baseline with few signs of recovery in sight. Manitobans also appear to be making consistent weekend visits to their workplaces, which is potentially explained by people going to pick up supplies or equipment when it is expected fewer co-workers will be present. On the whole, workplace visits are down 38 per cent from the baseline average, while overall time spent at home is 12 per cent above baseline. Visits to retail and recreation locations are returning to normal at a slow and steady pace. A week before Phase 2 of reopening began Monday, visits to those locations registered 12 per cent below the baseline average. However, there was a spike in visits to retail and recreation during the Easter long weekend, which registered a 30 per cent increase. Visits to grocery stores and pharmacies also jumped 60 per cent. At a time when the public was still being told to practise social distancing, the provinces shopping rules forced people to visit many of those locations over the course of two days, instead of spreading the congestion over four. As a result, mobility data for Manitobans fluctuated wildly by 80 percentage points throughout the long weekend. Stay informed The latest updates on the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 delivered to your inbox every weeknight. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. On April 9, the day before Good Friday, the mobility rate registered 21 per cent above the baseline average. Meanwhile, the rates for Good Friday and Easter Sunday were 63 per cent below the baseline. As has been seen throughout the pandemic, the latest data places Manitoba in the middle of the pack when compared to other Canadian provinces. ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @rk_thorpe michael.pereira@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @__m_pereira Whenever you buy a new car, the dealer selling it always likes to present you with a list of optional extras to make your purchase that little bit more special. But theyre usually overpriced (or oversold) by a sleazebag who would auction his grandmother given the chance. Moving out of the realm of dodgy neighbourhood lots, however, and into the more premium space, there are some cool add ons to be had. And though they may not be essential, they are more often being offered to buyers who can afford to splurge on them. In these scenarios, its usually the case that the more expensive the car, the more expensive the extras. Take Porsche for example and the latest 911 Carrera 4S. If you want a full leather interior, itll set you back AU$8,350. Adaptive Cruise Control is another $3,570 and a Burmester high-end surround sound system will cost you $6,700. Expensive? Maybe. Necessary? Debatable (apart from that sound system). But theres one extra you may not know about that could just be the only one youd ever want to spec with your next car: the tourist delivery program option. Well be honest, wed never heard of it here at DMARGE. It wasnt until we were browsing the Carsales pages and stumbled upon this 1976 911 Carrera that we noticed it mentioned in the description. After a bit of searching online we came to a rough conclusion as to what it was, but to find out for sure, we reached out to Classic Car Addict Damian Royce, a man who knows Porsche inside out, to get the full lowdown. (He also told us theres more to that 1976 911 than meets the eye). Damian told us, A tourist delivery program is where the buyer purchases the car and takes delivery at the factory in Germany, rather than ordering and taking delivery from say, Porsche Centre Melbourne. Porsche isnt the only manufacturer to offer such a luxury, other German carmakers such as BMW have similar programs. However, theyre usually only available if the particular model you want isnt manufactured closer to home. We reached out to Porsche Australia for more information but unfortunately for us down under, its not available, its for North American customers only. Sorry, Australia. Damian continues, It used to be a popular method of buying a Porsche for people who could afford the trip and process, as it adds a touch of adventure and romance to the purchase. It also offers the owner to take his new car onto Germanys famed Autobahns with their anything goes approach to speed limits, to really test out just how powerful his new baby is. The tourist delivery program is still active too, as Damian tells us, Rod Emory, the man responsible for giving the world the Porsche 356 Outlaw, recently bought a Porsche Panamera and picked it up in Germany, drove it around on a holiday with his family and then brought the car back to L.A. You can find out more information regarding Porsches program on the companys website. Not only can you take your new car on a short holiday while in Europe, but you also get lunch, a visit to the Porsche museum and a factory tour included in the price (not right now, however, due to the pandemic). The fee you pay to Porsche also includes delivery of your vehicle to your home country once youre done blasting it around Europes roads, as well as insurance to cover you should anything go wrong. So next time you find yourself sitting in a Porsche dealership, ask them about a trip to Europe before you sign on the dotted line. Read Next Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilke said Monday that headstones displaying Nazi imagery and references to Adolf Hitler at veterans cemeteries in San Antonio and Utah would be removed. The decision was an abrupt turnaround from his position only a few days earlier. The VA issued a statement saying it would initiate a process required by law to replace the three German prisoner-of-war headstones, two at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery and one at Fort Douglas Post Cemetery in Utah. It did not estimate how long the process would take. Americans must always remember the horror of the Nazi regime and why so many Americans sacrificed so much to free the world from its reign of terror, the VA statement quoted Wilke as saying. It is understandably upsetting to our veterans and their families to see Nazi inscriptions near those who gave their lives for this nation. The headstones, marking the graves of German prisoners of war, drew condemnation from members of the Texas congressional delegation last week in a letter to Wilke. The letter was written after complaints by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an activist group that advocates for military personnel against unwanted religious proselytizing. The foundations president and founder, Mikey Weinstein, claimed victory Monday afternoon. Were pretty excited. Wed like to hear the VA formalize it, he said. On ExpressNews.com: Nazi headstones at veterans cemeteries, including San Antonios Fort Sam Houston, spark outrage Wilke had pushed back against the congressional pressure at first, saying the VA, which manages both cemeteries, had no plans to disturb the gravesites. In testimony before a House panel, he vowed to look into the matter but also suggested no quick decision would be reached. The VA needed to look at historical interpretations, he said, and noted that the cemeteries which we inherited from the Army, are on the National Register of Historic Places. The VA initially said it would continue to preserve the headstones, citing its stewardship responsibilities to protect historic resources, including those that recognize divisive historical figures or events. The headstones have been at Fort Sam since 1947, when 140 enemy POWs from World War II, most of them German, were reburied in Section ZA after being consolidated from elsewhere at Fort Sam and several other prison camps across the country. They have been the topic of news accounts over the years, though most of the POW headstones, with names, ranks and dates of death, are similar to the other white marble markers for U.S. service personnel. But one shows a prisoner had received the Iron Cross, a German military decoration for valor. Two others, for the prisoners Alfred P. Kafka and Georg Forst, depict the Iron Cross as the Nazi regime modified it in 1933 with a swastika within the cross and the inscription: He died far from his home for the Fuhrer, people and fatherland. The Army had controlled the cemeteries since before World War II. The VAs National Cemetery Administration took over the Fort Sam cemetery in 1973 and the one at Fort Douglas last year. On ExpressNews.com: Enemies in war now rest together for an eternity On Monday, Wilke made a U-turn. Weve started the process of replacing them, he told a reporter for WJLA, an ABC television affiliate in Washington D.C., after conceding he was surprised to learn of the headstones existence. These are horrific reminders of mankind at its lowest, but we dont want to fully erase what happened because we want people to remember. Wilke, who said he hoped to send the headstones to a museum, didnt explain the sudden about face, but the ABC affiliate reported that he wanted the stones removed quickly. The headstones are in cemeteries protected by the National Historic Preservation Act, so the VA is not permitted to unilaterally remove or alter them, the agency said. It said it would take steps under that law to replace the headstones with markers that do not include the swastika and German text. The VA also said would also install interpretive signs at all its national cemeteries where foreign enemy prisoners of war from World War I and World War II are interred in order to provide historical context about how they came to be buried on American soil. Sig Christenson covers the military and its impact in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Sig, become a subscriber. sigc@express-news.net | Twitter: @saddamscribe In Delaware County, a large suburb of Philadelphia, officials said they had fulfilled an unprecedented 80,000 mail-ballot requests. But 6,000 of them went out just Monday giving those voters little wiggle room to return them on time. Officials said they would be unable to fulfill another 400 ballot requests at all because of insufficient staffing and time. A rapid increase in the number and types of immune cells in the lungs of mice after birth may aid development and help protect against infections An explosion in the number and types of immune cells in the lungs of newborn mice likely helps them adapt to breathing and protects them from infection, says a new study published today in eLife. The findings, from Stanford University and Stanford School of Medicine, US, provide detailed information about dramatic shifts in the immune cells in the lungs of mice from just before birth through the first weeks of life. This insight may help scientists learn more about how problems in early development can lead to breathing problems such as asthma later in life. "At birth, the lung undergoes marked physiological changes as it changes from a fluid-filled, low-oxygen environment to an air-filled, oxygen-rich environment," says co-lead author Racquel Domingo-Gonzalez, who was a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, when the study was carried out. "How these changes affect immune cell populations during this transition and the ensuing rapid lung growth after birth is unclear." To learn more, Domingo-Gonzalez and her collaborators used a technique called single-cell transcriptomics to track gene expression in individual immune cells in the lungs of mice just before birth and through the first three weeks of life. This allowed them to create an atlas of all the immune cells in the mouse lung during early life. The team found that, just before birth, immune cells called macrophages encircle the small blood vessels in the lungs, likely stimulating them to grow. After birth, a large number of many different types of immune cells appear, including those needed for blood-vessel growth, lung development and to fight off infections. These discoveries may help explain why disruptions to the immune system early in life caused by infections, excessive levels of oxygen, or steroid drugs may lead to life-long lung problems. "Injuries to the immature lung can have profound, life-long consequences since a significant component of lung development occurs during late pregnancy and the first few years of postnatal life," explains co-lead author Fabio Zanini, who was a postdoctoral fellow in Stephen Quake's lab at Stanford University when the study was initiated and has since transitioned to Senior Researcher at UNSW Sydney, Australia. "Our work lays the foundation for further studies on the diversity of immune cells and their roles during this important window of lung development," adds senior author Cristina Alvira, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine. "This could ultimately lead to new therapies to preserve or enhance lung development in infants and young children." ### Reference The paper 'Diverse homeostatic and immunomodulatory roles of immune cells in the developing mouse lung at single cell resolution' can freely accessed online at https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.56890. Contents, including text, figures and data, are free to reuse under a CC BY 4.0 license. This study was a collaborative effort between Racquel Domingo-Gonzalez, Fabio Zanini and Cristina Alvira, as well as Stephen Quake - the Lee Otterson Professor of Bioengineering and Professor of Applied Physics at Stanford University, and Co-President of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub - and David Cornfield, the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor in Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine at Stanford University. Media contact Emily Packer, Senior Press Officer eLife e.packer@elifesciences.org 01223 855373 About eLife eLife is a non-profit organisation created by funders and led by researchers. Our mission is to accelerate discovery by operating a platform for research communication that encourages and recognises the most responsible behaviours. We work across three major areas: publishing, technology and research culture. We aim to publish work of the highest standards and importance in all areas of biology and medicine, including Developmental Biology, and Immunology and Inflammation, while exploring creative new ways to improve how research is assessed and published. We also invest in open-source technology innovation to modernise the infrastructure for science publishing and improve online tools for sharing, using and interacting with new results. eLife receives financial support and strategic guidance from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Max Planck Society and Wellcome. Learn more at https://elifesciences.org/about. To read the latest Developmental Biology research published in eLife, visit https://elifesciences.org/subjects/developmental-biology. And for the latest in Immunology and Inflammation, see https://elifesciences.org/subjects/immunology-inflammation. Chinas recent aggressive moves against India, Taiwan, Hong Kong and some of its smaller neighbours were a message from its top leadership to the world that they will not compromise on national security, said Kevin Rudd, former prime minister of Australia, and president of the Asia Society Policy Institute. He was speaking at the annual session of the Confederation of Indian Industry 2020, along with Ashley J. Tellis, Tata chair for strategic affairs and senior fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which was chaired by Naushad Forbes, past president, CII, and co-chairman, Forbes Marshall Pvt. Ltd. The comments come as the India-China border tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) entered its fourth week, with another round of talks between military commanders and diplomats scheduled later in the week. My theory is that there has been an absolute clarity of direction from the top to send a direction to the world that the state is as powerful as they were, and there will be zero compromise on national security. I am sure there are other dynamics on the border, he added. Tensions between India and China have been flaring up on various issues. Storytelling is a beautiful form of sharing moments in time that have left imprints in our hearts and memories. Through our work at Centro Hispano many of these stories get shared and experiences come to life through words and expressions. Many of our immigrant families entrust us with their stories about migrating to the United States, today I share a personal one; here is my fathers story. The U.S. is a long awaiting dream for many. A chance for a change of life not just economically, but for safety, for opportunities, a chance to live freely of expressions and beliefs without compromising themselves. What many dont see is the love that many have for their home countries; longing for change for their patria (country). Coming to the U.S. at a young age my father, Salvador Perez, wanted just that; a better future. At the age of 17 he made the choice to leave back all he knew. Uncertain of what would come of it and keeping his new goals in mind, he made the leap. His motivation: Luz Perez, his fiance, who would remain in Mexico for the years to come. The journey begins.The coyote comes to wake everyone in the room. Four walls enclosing men, women and children crammed but ready to see the greener grass. Time has come for the crossing of El Rio Grande, confronting the water that has taken many lives. The water rushes and the crossing begins. Children carried and wives follow their husbands trail. My father, joined by his brother, side by side took on the push back of the currents. Mid-mark, my father can see it, the end is almost near. In a matter of seconds, all that changes. Hands grasp onto my father, someone seeking refuge in him. The individual who could not swim was submerging and his only chance was my fathers back. Unwilling to leave him behind, my father grasped him and together they finished. They made it across El Rio Grande. We made it. US soil was before him but his journey was not over yet.Houston was the first of destinations. Hot days of traveling proceeded, hiding between aluminum coils, trailers were the form of transportation. The weeks seemed like months before a job in Arkansas was found. Traveling east began. Arkansas brought on long hours of labor as a lumberjack; the goal had been achieved. The next 6 years to come my father and his brother would live in a truck camper top later graduating to a trailer with a group of men where they would only buy food every eight days. In those years, my father traveled to Mexico and back, marrying his fiance and promising to one day give her the American dream. Longing to see what other opportunities the U.S offered my father found his way west. California was his next stop. He found himself working under the heat of the sun, picking strawberries. A visit back to his wife in Mexico brought the news of a baby. The news rekindled my fathers energy and inspiration for a better future, something had to change. My father longed for a life with his wife and soon-to-be baby boy. California was not the answer, so a move back to Arkansas was what seemed promising. Working endlessly and tirelessly, unknowing that his work ethic would be the opportunity that he was seeking. A normal work week was coming to pass and my fathers employer asked for him to join him in the office. He knew my father had a now-born son and wife in Mexico and he wanted to be part of his journey. He offered to pay my fathers representation and immigration fees; the opportunity he so longed for. Long years of continued hard work, a residence card awaited my dad. His life had changed in that time. He was now a father of two and he could not believe that life with a family in the U.S. would ever come exist. He quickly learned that time was the way of immigration and another four years were to lapse before he could bring his wife and two kids over to the USA. In those four years of wait a move to Norfolk, Nebraska occurred; the first place he could call home. As many immigrant families, my father worked in a meatpacking plant and during this time, he celebrated another milestone alone, citizenship. No wife or kids in sight. It took 10 years from the time that my father became a resident and a citizen to finally be able to bring home his pregnant wife and two children. A life that he had longed and worked for. Our dad decided that Lexington would bring opportunities to his family and the move began. Another meatpacking plant met my father and now our mother to provide for their family. Quickly, our dad began to shape our new lives, enrolling my older brother Aaron in second grade, and older sister, Jennifer, in first grade. To help with our new form of life, my father enrolled me, Lesley, at the meatpacking plant daycare, which brought the opportunity of doubling shifts. Nine years passed and our journey to our forever home finally happened. Our last big move, Columbus, Nebraska. A place we have called home for the last 13 years. Our dad has seen life with a different lense than I have, one that still brings back memories of struggles and defeats but more than anything stories of victories. His American dream had come true. His time in Columbus landed him opportunities outside of meatpacking and he learned a new trade, welding; working for Lindsay Manufacturing for 13 years. Our mother left the meatpacking industry, as well, after 10 years, the only job she ever worked outside of cleaning services since coming to the US, before making her dream a reality. You can now find her baking cakes at her bakery, Small House Cakes & More. All of these moments of time bring me to today. I am here because they took that leap and endured the journey. I am a Department of Justice Accredited Representative and everyday I get similar stories shared to me. The path to citizenship is one with many twists and turns, never alike. This was ours. Love 4 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Astronomers using ESO telescopes have discovered giant spots on the surface of extremely hot stars hidden in stellar clusters, called extreme horizontal branch stars. This image shows an artist's impression of what one of these stars, and its giant whitish spot, might look like. The spot is bright, takes up a quarter of the star's surface and is caused by magnetic fields. As the star rotates, the spot on its surface comes and goes, causing visible changes in brightness. CREDIT ESO/L. Calcada, INAF-Padua/S. Zaggia Astronomers using European Southern Observatory (ESO) telescopes have discovered giant spots on the surface of extremely hot stars hidden in stellar clusters. Not only are these stars plagued by magnetic spots, some also experience superflare events, explosions of energy several million times more energetic than similar eruptions on the Sun. The findings, published today in Nature Astronomy, help astronomers better understand these puzzling stars and open doors to resolving other elusive mysteries of stellar astronomy. The team, led by Yazan Momany from the INAF Astronomical Observatory of Padua in Italy, looked at a particular type of star known as extreme horizontal branch stars -- objects with about half the mass of the Sun but four to five times hotter. "These hot and small stars are special because we know they will bypass one of the final phases in the life of a typical star and will die prematurely," says Momany, who was previously a staff astronomer at ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile. "In our Galaxy, these peculiar hot objects are generally associated with the presence of a close companion star." Surprisingly, however, the vast majority of these extreme horizontal branch stars, when observed in tightly packed stellar groups called globular clusters, do not appear to have companions. The team's long-term monitoring of these stars, made with ESO telescopes, also revealed that there was something more to these mysterious objects. When looking at three different globular clusters, Momany and his colleagues found that many of the extreme horizontal branch stars within them showed regular changes in their brightness over the course of just a few days to several weeks. "After eliminating all other scenarios, there was only one remaining possibility to explain their observed brightness variations," concludes Simone Zaggia, a study co-author from the INAF Astronomical Observatory of Padua in Italy and a former ESO Fellow: "these stars must be plagued by spots!" Spots on extreme horizontal branch stars appear to be quite different from the dark sunspots on our own Sun, but both are caused by magnetic fields. The spots on these hot, extreme stars are brighter and hotter than the surrounding stellar surface, unlike on the Sun where we see spots as dark stains on the solar surface that are cooler than their surroundings. The spots on extreme horizontal branch stars are also significantly larger than sunspots, covering up to a quarter of the star's surface. These spots are incredibly persistent, lasting for decades, while individual sunspots are temporary, lasting only a few days to months. As the hot stars rotate, the spots on the surface come and go, causing the visible changes in brightness. Beyond the variations in brightness due to spots, the team also discovered a couple of extreme horizontal branch stars that showed superflares -- sudden explosions of energy and another signpost of the presence of a magnetic field. "They are similar to the flares we see on our own Sun, but ten million times more energetic," says study co-author Henri Boffin, an astronomer at ESO's headquarters in Germany. "Such behaviour was certainly not expected and highlights the importance of magnetic fields in explaining the properties of these stars." After six decades of trying to understand extreme horizontal branch stars, astronomers now have a more complete picture of them. Moreover, this finding could help explain the origin of strong magnetic fields in many white dwarfs, objects that represent the final stage in the life of Sun-like stars and show similarities to extreme horizontal branch stars. "The bigger picture though," says team member, David Jones, a former ESO Fellow now at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Spain, "is that changes in brightness of all hot stars -- from young Sun-like stars to old extreme horizontal branch stars and long-dead white dwarfs -- could all be connected. These objects can thus be understood as collectively suffering from magnetic spots on their surfaces." Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. People run out of a smoke shop with smoking instruments after breaking in as police arrive in New York, N.Y., on June 1, 2020. (Wong Maye-E/AP Photo) NYC Mayor Declined Offer of National Guard Support: Governor Cuomo Mused That He Could 'Displace' de Blasio New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio declined to accept help from the National Guard, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, as the governor mused that he could displace his fellow Democrat and take over his duties. Looters and others fomenting chaos ran rampant in New York City on Monday night, stealing from stores, assaulting police officers, and setting fires, amid nationwide mayhem taking place at or near protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis police custody. Cuomo blamed de Blasio and the New York City Police Department (NYPD), telling reporters in Albany: The mayor of New York City says he doesnt need the National Guard and he doesnt think they would be helpful and he can do it with the NYPD. First, the NYPD and the mayor did not do their job last night. I believe that. Second, you have 38,000 NYPD people. It is the largest police department in the United States of America. Use 38,000 people and protect property. Use the police, protect property and people, look at the videos, it was a disgrace. I believe that, he added. Requests for comment from the NYPD and de Blasios office werent immediately returned. People gather outside a looted store on Broadway during a night of riots and protests in New York, N.Y., on June 1, 2020. (John Moore/Getty Images) New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks at his daily briefing at New York Medical College during the outbreak of the CCP virus in Valhalla, N.Y., on May 7, 2020. (Mike Segar/Reuters) Cuomo accused de Blasio of underestimating the scope and duration of the problem, charging it was inarguable that the looting and other issues werent properly addressed. He then mused, shocking many political observers, that he could remove de Blasio and take over his duties. Ive offered the National Guard, the mayor has said he could handle it with the NYPD. My option is to displace the mayor of New York City and bring in the National Guard as the governor in a state of emergency and basically take over. You would have to take over the mayors job. Youd have to displace the mayor. A., I dont think were at that point. B., that would be such a chaotic situation in the midst of an already chaotic situation. I dont think that makes any sense, he said. Technically, the governor could remove a mayor but you have to file charges and then theres an acting mayor. I dont know if its ever been done. De Blasio spoke shortly before the governor at city hall, claiming a lot of people would say unhelpful things and try to divide New Yorkers. A protester smiles as he is detained by NYPD officers in the Manhattan borough of New York City, N.Y., on June 2, 2020. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters) Merchandise lies in shattered glass at a looted souvenir and electronics shop near Times Square after riots in New York, N.Y., on June 2, 2020. (John Moore/Getty Images) The mayor said most of the people out on Monday and other recent nights were peaceful and want change. And we will make that change, he said. But we will not tolerate violence of any kind. We will not tolerate attacks on police officers. We will not tolerate hatred being created, he added, calling the people who assaulted officers criminals. The mayor said he was bringing the start of a nightly curfew from 11 p.m. to 8 p.m. and extending it through the end of the week. The deployment of NYPD would be more strategic, he said. The situation in the nations largest city attracted criticism from many, including President Donald Trump, who said the previous 11 p.m. curfew wasnt sufficient. No wonder they ripped the place apart. Should be 7:00 P.M., he said on Twitter, adding, CALL UP THE NATIONAL GUARD. Quantzig, a global data analytics and advisory firm, that delivers actionable analytics solutions to resolve complex business problems brings to you comprehensive insights into the benefits of HR analytics in the workplace. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005384/en/ Benefits of HR Analytics (Graphic: Business Wire) What's in it for you? Understand the importance of HR analytics from a business perspective Gain insights into the applications and objectives of HR analytics Learn how you can use HR analytics to gauge employee attrition rate HR analytics offers a field of new opportunities for businesses looking to foster innovation and improve job satisfaction. Talk to our analytics experts to learn more about its role in the corporate world. Data and technology are at the very forefront of digital transformation in every business process. As many organizations transform key processes and incorporate data and technology into their workforce practices, we see many new opportunities driving the use of employee data to better understand the workforce. If analyzed accurately, insights from people data can change the way workforce decisions are made, from those driven by instincts to those which are evidence-based and focused on developing positive outcomes. Even the most basic people data itself holds considerable value when used correctly, as we are observing through the recent insights from gender pay gap reporting. In such a complex business scenario, HR Analytics allows organizations to improve performance by improving employee retention and satisfaction rates. If your organization is struggling to close the loop, it is important to shift the organizational mindset around HR analytics and employee data management and make workforce planning a part of your core business functions.Request a FREE proposal to learn how we can help you. According to Quantzig's HR analytics experts, "HR analytics and employee data are often cited as an important tool for understanding the role of people in creating value in organizations, particularly through the measuring and performance reporting." Benefits of HR Analytics That Every Recruiter Must Know 1: Improving the employee experience Analyzing how strong an employee's sense of belonging is, as well as what contributes to it with the help of tools like HR analytics, can help improve company culture and create a better work environment. 2: Streamlining corporate training and evaluations Using HR analytics, trainers can devise new strategies to modify courses and make employees more productive. 3: Unified employee support By making use of HR analytics, companies can identify a resource that accepts employee requests and returns the relevant information. This not only saves everyone time but also unifies the approach. Despite such benefits, many companies still assume that HR analytics deals with gathering data pertaining to employee efficiency. The truth, however, is very different from such naive assumptions. HR analytics tools aim to provide insights into each process by gathering data and then using it to make relevant decisions about how to improve the processes. A recent survey highlighted the fact that companies with advanced HR analytics abilities witnessed 8% higher sales growth and 58% higher sales per employee. Book a FREE solution demo to gain comprehensive insights into our HR analytics solutions portfolio. About Quantzig Quantzig is a global analytics and advisory firm with offices in the US, UK, Canada, China, and India. For more than 15 years, we have assisted our clients across the globe with end-to-end data modeling capabilities to leverage analytics for prudent decision making. Today, our firm consists of 120+ clients, including 45 Fortune 500 companies. For more information on our engagement policies and pricing plans, visit: https://www.quantzig.com/request-for-proposal View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005384/en/ Contacts: Quantzig Anirban Choudhury Marketing Manager US: +1 630 538 7144 UK: +44 208 629 1455 https://www.quantzig.com/contact-us DAKAR, Senegal For months, researchers at the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, a prestigious biomedical research center in Senegal, have been working to produce a low-cost, rapid, at-home test for the coronavirus the kind that countries across Africa and elsewhere have been most eager to have. Now the coronavirus has infected a cluster of staff members at the institute, one of whom has died, according to its director, Dr. Amadou Sall. He did not say how many workers had tested positive, but local media reports said it was five. Their contacts have been isolated and the work is continuing, according to Cheikh Tidiane Diagne, a researcher at the lab. The centers work has been crucial in efforts to contain the spread of the virus in West Africa: In the early stages of the outbreak, it trained laboratory staff from more than a dozen countries in how to test for the virus. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. This market research report includes a detailed segmentation of the global IoT (Internet of Things) monetization market by organization size (SME and Large Enterprises), by application (commercial building, transportation and logistics, telecom, smart home appliances, government, manufacturing, and others), and by region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East Africa, and Latin America). The market research report identifies Comarch, Amdocs, Ericsson, Magnaquest, Cerillion, JeraSoft, PortaOne, BillRun, NetCracker, and IoT Billing as the market leaders operating in the global IoT monetization market. Request For Report Sample @ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/sample/11556 Overview of the IoT Monetization Market Infoholics market research report predicts that the global IoT monetization market will grow at a CAGR of more than 20% during the forecast period 20192025. The market trends for IoT monetization market is primarily driven by the increasing demand from telecom and smart equipment manufacturer to monetize and manage the smart equipment through connectivity and networks. The integration of various IoT devices and functions are expected to drive efficiency in smart products, along with cloud technologies for enterprises. IoT billing and invoicing vendors help companies to optimize their revenue generation and enhance customer experience. Globally, organizations of different industries are modernizing their offering, transforming its customer reach along with bringing out the operational efficiency for the various IoT players in the ecosystem. Governments are also expected to use various smart devices for monitoring and billing in places such as tolls and others, along with electrification of residential buildingsand industries. According to our IoT monetization market analysis, Asia Pacific accounts for the largest market share in 2019. With the presence of the high number of technology innovators and market disruptors in North America, the adoption of these platforms are expect to grow heavily in US and Canada. Several enterprises in this region are focusing to enhance custom built IoT platforms, device monitoring, seamless integration, built-in security, and easy deployment. Asia Pacific is anticipated to grow substantially due to market potential of countries such as China, India, and investments in IoT and consumerization prospects in these growing markets. The IoT billing market is growing with increasing need to monetize the IoT deployments. Europe market is also expected to grow at a high CAGR owing to presence of many large and emerging enterprises in utilities and telecom equipment providers in countries such as Germany, UK, and France. This billing platform helps enterprises to generate more revenue through subscription model and analyze the insights to understand the usage patterns of customers to boost its monetization plans and strategy. The key component in the market would be various technology influx in integration of various applications for IoT services. It would be interesting to see how quickly the IoT system and subcription models are commercialized and consumerization takes place in the market. IoT Monetization Market Competitive Analysis and Key Vendors The report covers and analyzes the IoT monetization market. Top Operations Support System (OSS)/Business Support System (BSS) players along with strong IoT platform providers are leading the market, along with emerging vendors in digital space and are expected to grow owing to the need of organizations for a comprehensive approach while adopting digital technologies. The key players in the market are adopting various organic growth strategies, i.e., new product launches and expansion strategies to be in a strong position in the market with distinguished products. Some of the Key Vendors in the IoT Monetization Market: Comarch JeraSoft Amdocs Magnaquest Cerillion These companies are striving in the market sphere by leveraging OSS/BSS technologies that help smart product usage monitoring in applications or infrastructure. Top telecom equipment manufacturer and experts in OSS/BSS are focusing on new offerings that benefits various players in the IoT ecosystem. There are few other vendors that have been studied based on the portfolio, geographical presence, marketing & distribution channels, revenue generation, and significant investments in R&D for analysis of the entire ecosystem. Get Complete TOC with Tables and Figures@ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/discount/11556 IoT Monetization Market By Organization Size SMEs Large Enterprises The SMEs segment is expected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period 20192025. IoT Monetization Market By Application Commercial Building Transportation and Logistics Telecom Smart Home Appliances Government Manufacturing Others The transportation and logistics segment is estimated to hold the largest market share in 2019 and this trend is likely to continue during the forecast period 20192025. Benefits The report provides an in-depth analysis of the IoT monetization market. The IoT billing and invoicing platform combines various technologies of automation, mobility, cloud, analytics, and IoT monetization to offer multiple innovative intelligent features in enterprise application efficiencies. By analyzing various enterprise and consumer usage, the vendors are expected to grow multi-folds during the forecast period. The digital technologies adoption propel the need to monetize IoT services and subscription models. The report discusses the market size in terms of organization size, application, and region. Furthermore, the report provides details about the major challenges impacting the market growth. <<< Get COVID-19 Report Analysis >>> https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/covid-19-analysis/11556 Update: Organizers estimated more than 500 people participated in the protests over seven hours on Monday in Syracuse. The protests ended in a dance party. Syracuse, N.Y. -- About 200 people are protesting outside the Public Safety Building in Syracuse Monday, the third day of demonstrations against police brutality and the death of George Floyd. After 5 p.m. the crowd was chanting What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now. Organizers at one point asked everyone to kneel and remember George Floyd; almost everyone kneeled. Floyd, a black man, died in Minneapolis on May 25 when a white police officer kept his knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest. The death has spurred days of protests in Syracuse and cities across the country. In Syracuse outside the PSB, protesters on Monday held signs and listened to speakers. Geraldine Boea, 57, of Syracuse, is a member of Victory Temple Fellowship Church in Syracuse. She brought her best friend Pam Tucker, 58, of Syracuse. It was their first time marching in a protest. They said they felt like they needed to do something. So many African Americans have been killed at the hands of police," Boea said. Its happened time and time again. We see it and live through it and our hearts break for the families and nothing happens as far as justice. Tucker said this needs to change. "Its not just about George Floyd. Its about peace, racism and justice, Tucker said. If you dont get justice you dont get peace. Protesters gather for a rally at South West Street and West Fayettte Street on Monday, June 1, 2020.Catie O'Toole | cotoole@syracuse More than 100 people held a rally at South West Street and West Fayette Street before marching to the police headquarters after 4:30 p.m. Were marching for justice," said Cliff Ryan, the founder of OGs Against Gun Violence. "Were marching for George Floyd and were marching for all the others who have died from police injustice and brutality. #Syracuseprotest is over, but about 2 dozen people remain outside the PSB talking. One man was overheard saying, Be safe as he left. pic.twitter.com/H9xVjUfm6h Catie O'Toole (@CatieOToole) June 2, 2020 Sakia Latoya Daye, 39, of #Syracuse, a mother of 7 and grandmother of 6, speaks outside the PSB after walking 23 miles today. My feet are swollen and I am sore and I need rest, but it was a successful protest, she said. #Syracuseprotest pic.twitter.com/YJRvjKqoaI Catie O'Toole (@CatieOToole) June 2, 2020 About 500 people joined in the march throughout #Syracuse over the last 5 hours. Heres Tayonda Estrada, one of the many who marched today. @TerenceRice7 pic.twitter.com/HIrJZSVexH Catie O'Toole (@CatieOToole) June 2, 2020 Protest turns into a dance party in downtown #Syracuse because they walked 23 miles today! pic.twitter.com/REZLDiKOIW Catie O'Toole (@CatieOToole) June 2, 2020 FB315 Print gave free T-shirts to protesters: I am not dangerous... I am in danger. Nitch Jones, 32, of Syracuse, wore the shirt to Spread the message that he is not dangerous but he is in danger because of what they (police) dont see and what they dont see is Im innocent. pic.twitter.com/jhSx6e32VS Catie O'Toole (@CatieOToole) June 1, 2020 Jaedan Hines, 19, of Syracuse, speaks about how hes treated by police as an African American man in #Syracuse at the protest outside the PSB. pic.twitter.com/ktdoggiTKk Catie O'Toole (@CatieOToole) June 1, 2020 The protest follows similar demonstrations held Saturday and Sunday in Syracuse. On Saturday, protesters gathered outside the PSB on South State Street before marching through the city and nearby communities. The protest grew to more than 500 people followed by at least 50 cars. The protest was peaceful for seven hours before turning violent after 9:30 p.m. when a window was broken at the Onondaga County Courthouse and another at the PSB. Police in riot gear moved in. More than 25 businesses were vandalized and several were looted that night. Police at times used rubber pellets and tear gas. Syracuse declared a state of emergency that included a curfew. Onondaga followed Sunday with the same 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew countywide. (The city and county lifted the curfew today.) On Sunday, a smaller protest took place at the PSB. At 8 p.m., police ordered the protesters to leave because of the curfew. The protesters refused. The standoff ended at 10 p.m. when the last protesters left, vowing to return today. (Alliance News) - DP Aircraft I Ltd on Tuesday said it is yet to receive any rental payments from Thai Airways. The aircraft leasing firm is owed USD3.4 million by the carrier and back in May agreed to defer the payment. The Deferred amounts are to be paid back in 12 equal monthly instalments, along with interest, by November 2021. DP Aircraft said: "The board of DP Aircraft I Ltd notes the recent announcement that the government of Thailand has given its approval to Thai Airways taking the necessary steps to undergo debt rehabilitation proceedings through Thailand's Central Bankruptcy Court, with a view to a restructuring of the airline. "The process is a protracted one, with a hearing to decide whether Thai Airways may formally enter rehabilitation not being held until August 17." Until then, DP adds, Thai Airways will enter into discussions with its lenders "to determine how any restructuring might best be effected". "The company has not as yet received any formal communication from Thai Airways as to whether it will seek to revisit this arrangement in light of the debt rehabilitation proceedings, but as a matter of Thai law the instigation of the proceedings triggers a moratorium which potentially impacts Thai Airways's debt obligations, and hence the rights of its creditors. "The board notes that no monies have been received by the company from Thai Airways in respect of its most recent rental instalment, due May 29. The board is therefore expediting negotiations with both Thai Airways and the company's lending banks in order to ascertain the basis upon which the leasing arrangements might most practicably be structured going forwards." DP Aircraft shares closed 7.1% lower at USD0.13 each in London on Tuesday. By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. Sonora Police Logo View Photo Sonora, CA The City of Sonoras Police Chief and Mayor have put out a joint statement about a demonstration planned later this week in response to the death of George Floyd in Minnesota. Details have been scarce, but rumors have been going around social media regarding reports of a protest on Wednesday afternoon around one oclock. Clarke Broadcasting has not received confirmation about what group is planning the event. A letter sent to the media this evening from Chief Turu VanderWiel and Mayor Jim Garaventa is below: The Sonora Police Department is aware of the planned demonstrations for Wednesday in downtown Sonora. We have an incredibly supportive community that shares a respect for one another, so we are anticipating a peaceful event. We fully support the freedom of speech that is constitutionally protected under the first Amendment, and we respect the message being conveyed regarding the tragedy surrounding Mr. George Floyds death. The actions by the officers involved in his death are inconsistent with how we train and are in conflict with the level of respect for human dignity expected of law enforcement professionals. One cannot help but be moved by the disturbing video of the Minneapolis Police Officer kneeling on the neck of Mr. Floyd. However, it would be a disgrace to respond to this appalling incident with hatred and the destruction of our town. The safety of our community is our top priority, and acts of looting, destruction of property, assaults, or other violent crimes will not be tolerated. Scepter is pleased to announce Chad Murdock, President of M2G Media, as the newest member of its Advisory Board LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2020 / Scepter Holdings, Inc., (OTC PINK:BRZL) a high-performance consumer goods sales and marketing company, welcomes Chad Murdock to its Advisory Board. Chad Murdock, President of M2G Media is an executive producer, producer/director, marketer & writer with over 35 years of creative, marketing & management experience. Chad continues to be one of the most creative innovators in Direct Response. He has worked on joint projects with companies & products such as SC Johnson, Estee Lauder, Your Baby Can Read, Epson, Time Life Music & Video, Hooked on Phonics, Body Flex, Home Shopping Network, QVC, Select Brands, Braun, Bell South, Fitness Quest, Tony Little Enterprises, Nissan, Hoover & Warner Vision. Mr. Murdock has been a producer/director/exec-producer on shows that have grossed over $2 Billion in revenue. Those shows have been nominated for over a dozen Direct Response Industry awards & have won 3 of those prestigious awards, including Best Infomercial and Best Short Form for Your Baby Can Read. As a member of Scepter Holdings' Advisory Board, Chad Murdock brings his expertise from years of successful marketing in the consumer goods product space. The Company looks forward to working with Chad to identify new brands and develop competitive marketing campaigns. "We are excited to have Chad as part of our Advisory Board. Chad's deep knowledge of the industry will be critical in the development of new brands and the execution of their promotional campaigns.", stated Robert Van Boerum, Chairman of the Board. About Scepter Holdings, Inc. Scepter Holdings, Inc. (the "Company") manages the sales and brand development of high-performance consumer packaged goods. The company seeks to acquire performing brands to add to the company's portfolio of products and brands sold online and through strategic retail relationships. The company has expertise manufacturing, distributing, marketing, and selling online consumer packaged goods and seeks to leverage its expertise to grow additional acquired brands. Scepter Holdings, Inc. was incorporated under the laws of the State of Nevada on January 11, 2007. Story continues For more information, please visit our website: http://scepterbrands.com Forward-Looking Statements This news release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are based upon our current expectations and speak only as of the date hereof. Our actual results may differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statements as a result of various factors and uncertainties, including economic slowdown affecting companies, our ability to successfully develop products, rapid change in our markets, changes in demand for our future products, legislative, regulatory and competitive developments and general economic conditions. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties discussed in Scepter Holdings, Inc. filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which factors may be incorporated herein by reference. Forward-looking statements may be identified but not limited by the use of the words "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "should," "could," "would," "may," "will," "believes," "estimates," "potential," or "continue" and variations or similar expressions. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason. Investors Contact: 775-296-5768 info@scepterbrands.com SOURCE: Scepter Holdings, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/592388/Scepter-Holdings-Inc-Welcomes-Chad-Murdock-of-M2G-Media-to-Advisory-Board Security forces gunned down two terrorists during a gun battle in Tral area of Jammu and Kashmirs Pulwama on Tuesday, in the third encounter in the region in three days, police said. The terrorists were killed in an encounter in Saimoh village of Awantipora area of the district in a joint operation by the police and the Indian Army, according to officials. #SaimohAwantiporaEncounterUpdate: One more #terrorist killed. Operation concludes. #Incriminating materials including #arms & #ammunition recovered. Further details shall follow, Kashmir Zone police said in a tweet. On Monday, three heavily-armed terrorists were killed in an encounter with the army along the Line of Control (LoC) in Nowshera sector of Rajouri district, officials said. A group of terrorists attempted to sneak into India early on Monday but were intercepted by the alert troops near Kalal village, triggering a gunfight, the officials said. Amid the Covid-19 pandemic threat, Kerala began its academic year with virtual classes on Monday with much fanfare but it left some disturbing questions as well. A 14-year-old student, a girl, allegedly committed suicide in Malappuram and her parents alleged that she was disturbed as she could not attend online classes since the family did not have either a TV or smartphone. The girl was missing from her house since Monday afternoon and her fully burnt body was later recovered from an isolated plot near her house in Valancherry. The police also recovered an empty bottle of kerosene near her body. The police said that after preliminary investigation, they found it to be a suicide and recovered a suicide note too. The body of the girl was later sent to post-mortem in Manjeri medical college hospital. School authorities say the Class 9 student was good in her studies. Her parents said though they had a small TV, it was under repair for last three months. The repair was delayed because the family head, a Dalit farm hand, was without work in last three months due to lockdown. It was a sad incident. The government started virtual classes without preparations. There are at least 20,000 students in Malappuram and Wayanad districts alone who have no access to TV or smartphones. Big publicity to online classes pushed the deprived students to a corner, said local legislator Abid Hussain Thangal who later visited the house of the deceased. State Education Minister C Raveendranath has sought a report from the district education officer. The virtual classes were inaugurated by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday and he said the new system will revolutionise the system. Many educational activists and others had warned the government to not rush with virtual classes as there are two lakh students who have no access to TV or smartphones. We warned the government about this. The government should have done this after ensuring access to all students, said educational activist Shajir Khan. Meanwhile, Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi has sought a list of families and others who have no access to TV and smartphones. In a letter to the district collector, Gandhi said that online classes pose significant challenges for students with limited access to smartphones, computers and reliable internet connections. Gandhi also said that he would like to extend his support and assistance in procurement of devices for students. Latoya D. Williams, 27, of Chicago, was charged with burglary and looting in connection with a smash-and-grab robbery at EcoKarat Jewelry, 131 N. Marion St., at about 2:50 p.m. June 1, police said. The front window of the store was smashed and two women entered and removed various items, police said. The pair were detained by police after a car believed to have been used in the crime caught fire in a parking lot near Randolph Street and Austin Boulevard. The second woman could not be identified as a participant in the robbery, police said. The nationwide tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases crossed the two lakh mark on Tuesday with almost a lakh testing positive for the dreaded virus infection in the last 15 days. The government, however, said its preventive measures to contain the disease have been very effective, as shown by a much lower fatality rate than several other countries. Authorities also said the recovery rate of COVID-19 patients was improving consistently in India and it was in a much better position in handling the pandemic, which has seen more than 63 lakh people testing positive for this virus since its emergence in China last December and over 3.7 lakh having lost their lives. In its morning update, the Union Health Ministry said the coronavirus death toll has risen to 5,598 in India with 204 more fatalities in 24 hours since Monday 8am, while 8,171 new cases were detected during this period to take the overall tally to 1,98, 706. This included more than 97,500 active cases, while more than 95,000 have recovered. However, a PTI tally of figures announced by different states and union territories as of 10.05pm showed the cumulative count of confirmed COVID-19 cases having risen to 2,00,321 and the death toll of 5,739. It also showed a higher count of recoveries at 99,613, leaving nearly 95,000 active cases across the country. A real-time global coronavirus tracker of Johns Hopkins University & Medicine showed India's tally of positive cases at 2,01,997 as of 10.15pm. India's first COVID-19 case was detected in Kerala on January 30, while the tally took 110 days to reach the one-lakh mark on May 18. However, close to one lakh new cases have been detected in 15 days since then. On the positive side, this is the first time in seven days that the count of new cases has come down, while the 24-hour death toll also came down considerably from 230 recorded by the Union Health Ministry on Monday morning -- the second-highest after an all-time high of 265 deaths recorded on May 30th morning. Testing infrastructure has also been ramped up considerably in India in the recent months with an average of 1.2 lakh tests being conducted every day now. So far, close to 40 lakh tests have been conducted in India, putting it among the top-five nations globally on this parameter alongside the US, Russia, UK and Spain. However, India does not figure even among the top-100 countries when it comes to tests per one lakh population. At present, India is the world's seventh worst hit nation in terms of overall case count, after the US, Brazil, Russia, the UK, Spain and Italy. While more than 18 lakh cases have been detected in the US so far, Brazil has over 5 lakh cases and Russia has over 4 lakh. The UK tally is nearly 2,8 lakh cases, followed by close to 2.4 lakh in Spain and about 2.3 lakh in Italy. In terms of the death toll, the US tops the global tally with more than 1.05 lakh fatalities, while India does not figure among the top-ten countries on this parameter. In terms of active cases, India figures among the top-five nations, while the US again is on the top with more than 11 lakh active cases. The government said India is far away from the peak of COVID-19 spread and its preventive measures have been "very effective", putting it in a much better position in comparison with other countries. Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said it is wrong to just look at the total number of cases and state that India has the seventh highest number of cases as the population of countries also should be taken into account. About 14 countries with a cumulative population almost equal to that of India have reported 55.2 times more COVID-19 deaths, he said. "Our COVID-19 fatality rate of 2.82 per cent and amongst the lowest in the world, compared to a global fatality rate of 6.13 per cent. We have been able to achieve this due to timely identification of cases and proper clinical management," Agarwal said. He also said that India's COVID-19 case fatality rate per lakh population is 0.41 per cent as against 4.9 per cent globally which is also amongst the lowest in the world. Agarwal said one in every two COVID-19 deaths in India has been of senior citizens who constitute 10 per cent of the total population, while 73 per cent of COVID-19 deaths in the country are of people with comorbidities. Asked if India has entered the community transmission phase, Indian Council of Medical Research scientist Nivedita Gupta said, "Instead of using the word community transmission, it is important to understand the extent of spread of the disease and where do we stand in comparison with other countries." When asked when the peak will arrive, Gupta said, "We are very far away from the peak. Our preventive measures to curtail the disease are very effective and we are better positioned in comparison with other countries. You will get to see the data in a week." She also said there was no under-reporting of COVID-19 deaths in India. There has been a continuous mismatch in the data made public by the central government and the tallies announced by some states and union territories for deaths as well as confirmed cases. Several states and UTs, including Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh and Puducherry reported rising number of cases on Tuesday. Many of the states, including those in the North-East, reported new cases linked to people having returned from outside. WHO Confirms New Ebola Outbreak in Northwest DRC By VOA News June 01, 2020 The World Health Organization on Monday confirmed a second outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo, just as an initial outbreak appeared to be ending. At a briefing Monday in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said this new outbreak is near the northwestern city of Mbandaka in the DRC's Equateur province. Provincial Governor Bobo Boloko Bolumbu also confirmed four deaths on local radio. He said samples were sent to the INRC, the national medical research headquarters in Kinshasa, for secondary confirmation. He urged the population to remain calm, maintain good personal hygiene and not greet people "with your hands." In 2018, Equateur province had an Ebola outbreak that killed 33 people before it was brought under control. Elsewhere, the eastern DRC has been battling an outbreak of the deadly virus since 2018. That outbreak left more than 2,240 people dead. The DRC is also grappling with a measles breakout, the world's largest, as well as the novel coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 disease. Close to 3,200 coronavirus cases have been reported in the DRC, according to the Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking cases. Seventy-two deaths have been reported. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal It was an election like no other. In the midst of social unrest and a pandemic that prompted social distancing measures and face masks at the polls, New Mexico voter turnout was strong for Tuesdays 2020 primary election but most voters chose not to cast their ballots in person. And that led to major headaches for ballot counting, according to Alex Curtas, a spokesman for the Secretary of States Office. He said at midnight that Santa Fe, Bernalillo and six other counties may be waiting a while on results. Of the more than 400,000 votes cast, the state had received more than 250,000 absentee ballots, according to the Secretary of States Office. Some of those ballots were mailed in, and others were hand-delivered by voters to polling sites on Tuesday. That compares to about 23,000 absentee ballots in the 2016 primary. Bernalillo County Clerk Linda Stover announced that she was sending her absentee board members home at 11 p.m., and they would return to finish the count in the morning. Our absentee board started registering absentee ballots at 7 a.m. this morning. That was over 15 hours ago, Stover said. Another time Ill tell you the story of this tireless and dedicated absentee board. But for now, suffice it to say that at 11 p.m., Im sending them home to get some sleep. The clerks office could not say how many still needed to be counted. The absentee board had registered over 98,000 absentee ballots with nearly 15,000 on Tuesday. At 10:45 p.m., Santa Fe County results had just started to trickle in. Santa Fe County presiding judge Paul DArcy said he and his staff were overwhelmed by the number of absentee ballots, which slowed the whole process. More than 39,000 ballots had been mailed in. He said a lack of staffing was also an issue, with far fewer workers than usual. County Clerk Geraldine Salazar said many who were at higher COVID-19 risk chose not to work this election. Dona Ana, McKinley, Rio Arriba, Sandoval, Taos and Valencia counties were also waiting on results early Wednesday morning, Curtas said. Statewide, the more than 400,000 people including 244,000 Democrats and 157,000 Republicans who cast ballots far exceeded the 2016 primary when 328,000 voters cast ballots. Voter excitement While most chose not to vote in person, some did show up at the polls Tuesday. Signs reminded people to practice social distancing while standing in line and to wear face masks. In addition, most election sites had extra face masks on hand for people who may have forgotten one. Overall turnout was surprisingly good, considering this is a closed primary and its during a pandemic, Bernalillo County Clerk Linda Stover said. We asked the public to help us by voting absentee, and 99% of these people have never voted absentee before. Party leaders welcomed the high voter turnout, suggesting it showed momentum for their candidates. On the presidential ticket, at 11 p.m. Democrat Joe Biden had about 112,000 votes and Republican Donald Trump about 108,000, according to unofficial results. Were really turning people out in the face of adversity right now. With the pandemic and unrest and the sadness in our world. Weve lost so many people to the virus and we have a lot of things to make right in our country, said Marg Elliston, the chairwoman of the New Mexico Democratic Party. Weve been trying a lot of different strategies to get people to vote and its working, and were excited about that. New Mexico Republican Party Chairman Steve Pearce said in-person voting on Tuesday was higher than had been expected. He said many voters may have requested absentee ballots but then decided to vote in person to avoid the risk of having their ballot delivered by mail after the Tuesday deadline. I think people just wanted to vote and see their votes cast, Pearce said. He also said two factors were prompting Republicans to vote in high numbers frustration with the Democratic-controlled Legislature and support for Trump, who was running unopposed for the GOP nomination. People are just wanting to go out and vote for him, Pearce told the Journal. Voices at the polls At a polling site at the Daskalos Center in Albuquerque, Trish Brennan said she thought voter turnout would be heavier. I guess its lighter because of everything thats going on with the pandemic and absentee voting and the rioting, she said, referring to a wave of national and local violence triggered by the death of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, by a white policeman in Minnesota. I had an absentee ballot and was going to mail it in, but today was the last day, so I thought Id just come in and vote in person to make sure its going to count, Brennan said. Martha Visarriagas was getting ready to cast a ballot at the Soul Rio Church, at Southern Plaza in Rio Rancho. Like many people, she said, I would have preferred to mail my ballot in, but I didnt get to it in time. Visarriagas said she had no concerns about possible voter fraud with absentee ballots and would have liked the convenience of voting that way. I just didnt get it together in time. At Rio Grande High School in Bernalillo Countys South Valley, voting, which had been done in the schools gymnasium during previous elections, was moved to the library for Tuesdays primary, where 14 voting tables had been set up. Voter turnout has been very light, presiding judge Elizabeth Zellner said. One person who did show up to vote was Tranquilino Barela. I always come here to vote, he said. This is my school. I graduated here in 1959. I dont have a problem with absentee voting, I just dont do it. Journal reporter Kyle Land contributed to this report. Faith leaders in 50 cities observe day of 'mourning and lament' for victims of COVID-19 Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Interfaith clergy as well as civic leaders in at least 50 cities nationwide declared Monday the National Day of Mourning and Lament for the over 100,000 people who have died in the United States from coronavirus. They also took the time to grieve the deaths of the recent victims of racial injustice. Today, prayers of mourning and lament are taking place around the country in over 50 cities, which have organized their own events and prayer services, said Sojourners Executive Director Adam Taylor during an hour-long virtual interfaith prayer service. We used the word lament very intentionally. It is a religious word that signifies we must go deeper than simply remembrance. We must also search for lessons and even hard truths in the midst of our incredible loss. We mourn both individually and collectively because our hearts are broken. Our nations soul is in anguish. Throughout the weekend, faith leaders of three Abrahamic religions took time from their services on Friday, Saturday and Sunday as many houses of worship returned to in-person services for the first time since the pandemic to mourn and lament the deaths of people who have died because of COVID-19. On Monday, the interfaith service, organized by the progressive evangelical social justice organization Sojourners, was held featuring the organizations co-founder, Jim Wallis, Mohamed Elsanousi of the Islamic Society of North America and Rabbi David Saperstein, who served for over 30 years with the Union for Reform Judaism's Religious Action Center, among others. In the U.S., over 1.7 million people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 so far while over 104,000 people have died after contracting coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University & Medicine. We may not know the names of every COVID victim. But each of them have loved ones who are still grieving. We cant read every one of their names today, but we know that God knows their names by heart, Taylor explained. They were mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, grandparents, neighbors, fellow members of our congregations and faith communities, and co-workers. They were all beloved. We honor and celebrate the lives they lived today. Many coronavirus victims died alone without visitors by their side and were not given the proper memorial services because restrictions on large gatherings and social distancing guidelines have limited the time and space for families to grieve. If ever there were a time that our nation needs to come together in unity for healing across ideological lines, across political lines, across religious lines, across racial lines, and across gender lines, it is at this moment, said Saperstein, a former U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom under President Barack Obama. As some states and localities are beginning to ease restrictions on worship services, the call for a day of national mourning was endorsed by dozens of faith groups and leaders. Endorsers include leaders from the World Evangelical Alliance, National Association of Evangelicals, National Latino Evangelical Coalition, National Council of Churches, United Church of Christ, The Episcopal Church, Islamic Society of North America as well as a number of Jewish congregations. I am grateful to our almighty God who brought us together in this national moment of lament. The Lord of humanity, we ask you to forgive us, Elsanousi said during the event. We mourn the death of more than 100,000 of our fellow Americans. We mourn the death of hundreds of thousands of our fellow human beings all over the globe. Lord, give comfort to those who lost their dear ones. Give them the patience to overcome their grief. Lord, we pray to you for those who are suffering and those who have died. Along with dozens of other Christian leaders, the call was also endorsed by Claude Alexander of the Park Church in North Carolina, progressive Christian activist Shane Claiborne and leaders at evangelical and Catholic higher education institutions, including Fuller Theological Seminary President Mark Labberton. I was very excited that there was such a deep response from Christian leaders across our families and boundaries but also Jewish and Muslim as well, Wallis told The Christian Post in an interview. The call that we all put together, it is not a statement. It is a sharing of a call. The call for mourning and lamenting was also backed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, a bipartisan association representing mayors from over 1,400 U.S. cities. Wallis told CP that the conference reached out to Sojourners about joining the call, not the other way around. He worked with Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, to try to get something formally backed by U.S. Congress. Although there was bipartisan support, Wallis said there wasnt enough time to get a resolution passed. Although Mondays day of mourning was organized before the viral video of George Floyd suffocating while being crushed by the knee of a white cop in Minneapolis surfaced, the faith leaders took time during the interfaith service Monday to lament the racism that still exists in American society today. Help us to understand and help us to learn that the knee is not just a knee. It is a system, a culture, Walis said during a prayer. It is a virus, the virus of white supremacy, with its knee on the neck of the nation. We lament so many of our brothers and sisters as black parents who see their sons and daughters in that video, their faces, their necks, the knee on their children. Help us as white brothers and sisters who havent seen, lament that knee on the neck of this nation. Elsanousi, who serves as the executive director of the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers, said in his prayer that COVID-19 is not the only pandemic that America must fight. The pandemic of discrimination is strengthening us and bringing our hearts together in solidarity to collectively fight the pandemic of racism and strive toward a walk of justice, he said. Lord of Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad and all of the prophets and messengers, we turn to You in difficult and challenging times. We belong to You and we depend on You and we need You. HOUSTON, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A Texas appeals court has ruled in favor of a Corpus Christi spa owner who was sued for defamation after posting negative comments on Facebook about a consumer product that claimed to reduce cellulite. The 1st Court of Appeals also agreed with a lower court's award of $125,000 in attorneys fees to Journeyz Spa owner Karen Wallace, who is represented by attorney Ryan Higgins of Rusty Hardin & Associates in Houston. In addition, the appellate court upheld sanctions of $125,000 against ADB Interests LLC and Ashley Black, inventors of the popular massage and cellulite reduction tool, the FasciaBlaster. "This is a total victory for Karen Wallace and for the right of people everywhere to express their views openly," says Mr. Higgins. "The trial court found that Ms. Black and ADB were trying to use the law to silence their critics and prevented them from doing so. And now the appellate court has done likewise." Ms. Wallace, had tried the FasciaBlaster and posted on Facebook that it loosened her skin, caused her to gain weight and raised her cortisol levels. That led to the lawsuit by ADB. Mr. Higgins argued that her Facebook posts were a warning to the public and protected free speech under the Texas Citizens Participation Act, the state's anti-SLAPP law. "This case is an excellent example of the intention of the anti-SLAPP law, which is to protect consumers from lawsuits by big companies trying to silence their criticism," Mr. Higgins said. "I'm very pleased for my client that the appeals court agreed." The case is ADB Interest, LLC and Ashley Black v. Karen Wallace and D/B/A/ Journeyz Spa & Products, No. 01-18-00210 in the Court of Appeals for the First District of Texas. Rusty Hardin & Associates, LLP has built an outstanding reputation for taking on the causes of its clients and obtaining favorable results in both civil matters and significant criminal cases. Visit www.rustyhardin.com. MEDIA CONTACT: Jennie Bui-McCoy 832-567-3899 [email protected] SOURCE Rusty Hardin & Associates, LLP Related Links http://www.rustyhardin.com Three new affordable housing units have been constructed in the former RCMP detachment building at 953 Clonsilla Ave. in Peterboroughs west end. Local tradespeople and businesses donated services, materials and their time to help complete renovations at the first of two multi-unit homes through the citys Housing First initiative for families transitioning out of homelessness. The opening of these units is a tribute to the care and support shown by our community. Safe, decent affordable housing is truly a life changing experience, stated Coun. Henry Clarke, housing portfolio co-chair. The renovations to the building on Clonsilla Avenue near The Parkway created three new apartments two two-bedroom units and a three-bedroom unit that are now ready for families to move in. City council agreed in September to renovate two buildings it owns, the one on Clonsilla Avenue and another on Sherbrooke Street, to create additional affordable housing for families to prevent them from becoming homeless and to transition them out of homelessness. As housing co-chair, I would like to thank all of those involved in making this much needed supportive housing a reality. This could be the blueprint for helping the most marginalized and homeless get housed. This has been a complete community effort and perhaps it will precipitate more joint efforts to get people housed in our community, stated Coun. Keith Riel, housing portfolio co-chair. Work is continuing to complete renovations to create two units of housing at the Sherbrooke Street property. The city budgeted $300,000 for the renovations. The community contributed by donating services and materials. The property is being managed by Peterborough Housing Corporation with families selected for the affordable rental units using the by-name priority list for housing through Built For Zero Peterborough. People who have been homeless are statistically more likely to be homeless in the future. Preventing families, particularly children and youth, from entering homelessness can help prevent them from ever becoming homeless in the future, stated Rebecca Morgan Quin, the citys housing services manager. Trades people and businesses that want to support the project can contact Andrew Mitchell at 705-742-7777 ext. 1802 or email AMitchell@peterborough.ca. Built For Zero Peterborough is a city-led partnership of community agencies that are working together to end chronic homelessness. Peterborough is one of 33 communities across Canada who have joined Built For Zero Canada, an ambitious national change effort helping communities end chronic and veteran homelessness. This is truly a community effort to help provide affordable, adequate, and safe housing for vulnerable families. The support from trades people who have donated their time, knowledge, and skills as well as from businesses that gave services and materials have helped create these homes for families, Mayor Diane Therrien stated. Businesses and trades people that are supporting the project include: Adamson and Dobbin Alf Curtis Barry Electric Boss Roofing Bruce Maly CGC Charlotte Paint Chemong Home Hardware City Electrical Supply CPD Electric D&F Insulation Floortrends Gibsons Building Supplies Guillevin International Co. Hamilton Smith Kingdon Timber Mart Lancer Electric Lett Architects Mortlock Construction Nedco Neil Johnson Heating Oscan Electrical Supply Overhead Door Co. of Peterborough Painter Plus Sesco SRP Electric Peterborough District Construction Association Morgan County Sheriff ARRESTS, CITATIONS Andy J. White, 27, of 654 S. Diamond St. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 10:04 p.m. Friday on a charge of resisting a peace officer. Jacksonville Police ARRESTS, CITATIONS Four people, two of whom are juveniles, were arrested at 10:53 a.m. Saturday on charges of mob action and resisting or obstructing a peace officer after a large fight in the 600 block of North Clay Avenue. Police said the four refused to leave the area after being told to do so. Those arrested were Tad M. Mitchell, 34, of 623 N. Clay Ave., Howard S. Mitchell, 42, of 602 N. Clay Ave., a 17-year-old boy and a 14-year-old boy. Gabriel N. Dewitt, 21, of 26 Harmony Drive was booked into the Morgan County jail at 6:36 p.m. Saturday on a charge of domestic battery. Bradley M. Hayes, 42, of 1005 N. Fayette St. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 8:52 p.m. Saturday on a disorderly conduct charge. Tanner J. Ring, 28, of 505 N. State St., Arenzville, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 8:40 p.m. Sunday on a charge of criminal damage to property. Alexis M. Crafton, 20, of 115 Richards St. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 12:31 a.m. Monday on a charge of resisting a peace officer. Sidney R. Bondi, 27, of 10 Greenbriar Drive, Apt. 3C, was arrested at 8:17 p.m. Sunday on a charge of criminal trespassing. Bradley M. Hayes, 42, of 1005 N. Fayette St. was arrested at 1:56 p.m. Sunday on a disorderly conduct charge after being accused of yelling threats at his neighbors. Amy J. Murphy, 28, of 537 Strafford Lane was booked into the Morgan County jail at 8:41 p.m. Friday on charges of possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia. Jonathan M. Treadway, 36, of 261 N. Main St., Chandlerville, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 9:20 p.m. Friday on charges of possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia and driving while license is revoked or suspended. ACCIDENTS Edward E. Baldwin, 29, of Jacksonville was cited on a charge of failing to reduce speed to avoid an accident and Ronald L. Bauch, 57, of Jacksonville was cited on a charge of failing to signal after their cars collided at 12:48 p.m. Monday at North Diamond Street and Lafayette Avenue. THEFTS, BURGLARIES Mud tires for a truck were stolen from a residence in the 700 block of North East Street, according to a report filed at 1:36 p.m. Sunday. They were all together valued at $400. Fifteen dollars was taken from an unlocked vehicle in the 300 block of Anna Street between 2:30 and 3 p.m. Thursday, according to a report filed at 9:15 a.m. Saturday. About $40 worth of merchandise was stolen at 12:59 p.m. Saturday when some took a shopping cart with the paid items at Walmart, 1941 W. Morton Ave. A bicycle valued at $55 was stolen from a shed in the 100 block of Spaulding Place, according to a report filed at 1:31 p.m. Monday. VANDALISM Someone damaged tires on four vehicles at a business in the 500 block of East Morton Avenue between 5 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. Monday. South Jacksonville Police ARRESTS, CITATIONS Donald G. Emily, 52, of East Alton was arrested at 6:12 p.m. Sunday on an Illinois Department of Corrections warrant accusing him of violating parole. Compiled by David C.L. Bauer MUSKEGON HEIGHTS, MI At a time when so many people are stuck inside and stressed out as a global pandemic hits home, one local entrepreneur thinks soul food will bring us all together. LaKisha Harris is the brains, heart, and, yes, soul behind Soul Filled Kitchen, which operates from the kitchen of The Hideout, 100 E Broadway Ave. in Muskegon Heights. Since December, shes been serving up southern comfort on the weekends for their Brunch and Blues special. But the arrival of COVID-19, the disease caused by novel coronavirus, has brought her business up a notch. While many small businesses struggled to transition to only takeout and delivery, Harris discovered that people want her style of cooking more than ever during this moment of crisis. We cannot make enough soul food to meet the demand, she told MLive in a recent interview. During the week, she offers up a range of takeout options, with soul food classics like catfish and red beans and rice, but also burgers, wings and nachos. But once a week, hearty Southern comfort food takes center stage. On Super Soul Sundays, Harris cooks up such dishes as chicken and dumplings, barbecue glazed fried chicken, gumbo, and jambalaya. Theres been fried chicken and smothered pork chops, and sides of greens, mac and cheese, and seasoned rice. A uniquely Muskegon dish is barbecue turkey knuckles, she said, with meats sourced from the Heights own Scotts Meats, 260 E Broadway Ave. No matter what she cooks on those Sundays, Harris says she sells out - sometimes even before the doors open at noon. I can cook and cook and cook and cook, and we sell out, she said. In particular, she said, people are scrambling for her salads - and even those soul salads have taken on new meaning during the current crisis. Guests can specialize their own salad, named for themselves, or pick one named for a local community leader. Theres the Mayor Walter Watt, for example, with Old Bay-seasoned shrimp and lemon-pepper grilled chicken. The Will and Fatima Roberson, named for a local power couple he a business owner, she a teacher at Muskegon High School comes topped with chipotle lime shrimp, southwestern-style chicken and cheese. Each week, five of those Heights-celebration salads are held up as specialties. Whichever persons salad sells the most that week can choose a charity to which to donate a portion of the sales. Thats amounted to $150 to $300 per week to people suffering amidst the crisis, Harris said. It just bridges, she said of her meals. Rich or poor, she added, we all tend to come together because of food. Behind this bright red door is a one-woman show, churning out soul food for takeout and delivery.Alison Zywicki | azywicki Harris is originally from North Muskegon Im a Rocket for life, she laughed, a reference to graduating from Reeths-Puffer in 1995 but moved away after graduating. For years, she worked in the corporate world, as an assistant and administrator on a neurosurgery unit, and as a translator. But food is in her blood. Her mother was head chef at Maranatha Bible & Missionary Conference in Norton Shores, and ran a large catering company in the area. When her mother died in 2014, Harris remembers thinking: She went to the grave with so much in her. So many ideas, so many recipes left uncooked. Harris had always been pushed to achieve things in a traditional sense: get a good education and a steady, challenging job. But with the loss of her mother, she began rethinking her purpose. I realized there are other ways and means of fulfilling our destiny, other than the path thats usually shown, she said. So she started cooking professionally, at first in her adopted home of Detroit. There, she said she had catering contracts with the Four Tops and Chrysler, among others. In December, Harris also started driving west on weekends, to cook for the Hideouts new Brunch and Blues series. In early March, she came back to Muskegon to work on a bridal shower. It was just as the novel coronavirus was ramping up in Michigan, and especially in Detroit. Thats when Harris had her come to Jesus moment, she said. Watching as the state began to shut down, she made the decision to move back home. A few weeks ago, she bought a house in Muskegon - something she said she never thought shed do. But in some ways, building out her business back home is fitting for a soul food kitchen, she said. When you have our food, its more of an experience, she said. It should give you nostalgia. It should remind you of your grandmother. The Hideouts owner, Malick Sagnia, gave her the opportunity to move her business into his. Now, while people cant sit at his bar through the evening, or listen to the blues from a booth, they can pick up food every day of the week. And people who might not normally linger in the Heights have a reason to visit and see what makes the city special, Harris said. I always noticed there was a great divide in (the area), she said. Our food is a way to say, come on over, its safe here, theres family here. And safety and comfort is something everyones craving in the midst of a pandemic. Thats a lesson that Harris thinks will carry forward long after the emergency has lifted and life has gone back to something more like normal. One thing COVID taught us is, we need to know how to sustain ourselves in the midst of crises, she said. To that end, Harris has big plans for Soul Filled, including a food truck that will offer cooking classes on the go, teaching people to make good food from fresh ingredients. Food is universal, she said. We all have to eat, and this is a place where you can comeYou may not eat what I eat, but you are welcome here. Read more on MLive: Outdoor dining - with more room to social distance - planned for downtown Muskegon Jewelry store stocks groceries so it can open as 'essential business during state shutdown order Details released of proposed new Lake Michigan park near Muskegon Giving evidence to the House of Lords science and technology committee on Tuesday, Prof Ferguson said he had the 'greatest respect' for Swedish scientists - Parliament TV/PA The scientist behind lockdown in the UK has admitted that Sweden has achieved roughly the same suppression of coronavirus without draconian restrictions. Neil Ferguson, who became known as professor lockdown after convincing Boris Johnson to radically curtail everyday freedoms, acknowledged that, despite relying on quite similar science, the Swedish authorities had got a long way to the same effect without a full lockdown. Sweden has adopted a far softer approach to Covid-19 than elsewhere in Europe, introducing voluntary social-distancing measures and keeping restaurants and bars and many schools open. As of the end of May it had recorded 4,350 deaths from Covid-19. By contrast, as of Monday there had been at least 39,045 in England. Financial data released in May also suggested Sweden had so far avoided a heavy blow to its economy by shunning a lockdown, its GDP contracting just 0.3 per cent in the first three months of the year, compared to 3.8 per cent across the eurozone. The UK economy contracted two per cent, the sharpest drop since the height of the financial crisis. Prof Ferguson resigned from the main Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) committee last month after The Telegraph revealed that he broke social distancing rules to meet his married lover. On Tuesday, however, a witness at the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee revealed that he is still helping shape policy, leading a team contributing to one of the most influential Sage sub-committees. Giving evidence to the same Lords committee on Tuesday, Professor Ferguson said he had the greatest respect for Swedish scientists. They came to a different policy conclusion but based really on quite similar science. He added: I dont agree with it. But scientifically, theyre not that far from scientists in any part of the world. Story continues Swedens rate of virus reproduction - the so-called R value - is thought to be at 1, meaning that, on average, every case will cause one other infection. In the UK, it is thought to be between 0.75 and 1, meaning the virus outbreak should be retreating. While pointing out that Swedens mortality rate is not declining in a similar way to that of other European countries, Prof Ferguson said: Nevertheless it is interesting that adopting a policy which is short of a full lockdown - they have closed secondary schools and universities and there is a significant amount of social distancing but its not a full lockdown - they have got quite a long way to the same effect. That is something we are looking at very closely. Virus arrived earlier than expected The UKs high death toll is due in part to the fact that Covid-19 entered the country earlier than predicted, and from unexpected sources, Prof Ferguson told the committee. The modelling expert said that genetic analysis has revealed that most transmissions in the UK originated in Spain and Italy. "We had been worrying about import of infections from China... other Asian countries, maybe the US," he said. "But it's clear that before we were even in a position to measure it, before surveillance systems were set up, there were many hundreds if not thousands of infected individuals coming into the country in late February and early March from [Spain and Italy]. "That meant that the epidemic was further ahead than we anticipated. "It explains some of the acceleration in policy then, but it also explains to some extent why mortality figures ended up being higher than we had hoped." He said the UK was "much more heavily affected" than modellers anticipated, adding: "That's one of the reasons we have if not the largest, one of the largest epidemics in Europe." Lockdowns are crude Lockdown is a blunt instrument and, when possible, should be replaced with more precise measures that cause less economic damage, the epidemiologist said. Prof Fergusons comments to the committee could be taken as support for the re-imposition of controls in the event of future flare-ups, a prospect raised by ministers. Lockdowns are very crude policies and what wed like to do is have much more targeted controlled transmission going forward, he said. Despite this, he said that the UKs lockdown had been 10 per cent more effective, in terms of reducing contacts, than predicted. His modelling had forecast a 75 per cent drop in contacts, whereas officials believe 85 per cent has been achieved. He revealed that the issue of lockdown fatigue was not something his team had taken into account. "I think the issue of fatigue was not something we ever modelled, some people had that view on Sage but it wasn't one I shared or other modellers looked at," he told the committee. "I think the difference in adherence was that we assumed, for instance, there would be a 75 per cent drop in contacts outside the home. "It turned out to be more like an 85 per cent drop, so we're talking about differences but not differences which make a qualitative change to what you predict a policy to do." Transmission flat until September The transmission rate of the virus should stay "relatively flat" between now and September - but after that it remains "very unclear". In comments that appear to support the current gradual easing of restrictions, Prof Ferguson said: "I suspect though, under any scenario that levels of transmission and numbers of cases will remain relatively flat between now and September, short of very big policy changes or behaviour changes in the community. "The real uncertainty then is if there are larger policy changes in September, of course we move into a time of year when respiratory viruses tend to transmit slightly better, what will happen then. "And that remains very unclear." In the same session he said that full lockdown had reduced transmission of Covid-19 by roughly 80 per cent, but that to maintain control that could not slip below 65 per cent. "Going forward, what the models say is that we have limited room for manoeuvre, that this is a highly transmissible pathogen. "So we have a little bit of wiggle room, so it will be a learning experience as to how we allow society to resume while maintaining control of transmission, he said. Care home situation shocking Prof Ferguson declared himself shocked at the failure to protect care home residents from Covid-19. He said: "If we had done a better job, or did do a better job, of reducing transmission in closed institutions like hospitals and care homes, we would have a little bit more room, wiggle room as it were. "The infections in care homes and hospitals spilled back into the community, more commonly from the people who work in those institutions." Meanwhile, Professor Matt Keeling, from Warwick University, who advises two Sage sub-committees, said the modelling community had dropped the ball when it came to understanding the impact on care homes and hospitals. Contact tracing The Governments new track and trace programme will not on its own solve the crisis, Professor Ferguson believes. Its not a panacea, he said, predicting that the scheme would reduce the R value by 0.25 at the most. It depends on not just what proportion of people show symptoms but then what proportion of people can actually identify contacts or portion contacts identified, and then how quickly they're identified, he said. Emer Higgins, TD: "I cant explain what caused it but there was definitely a swing against us. Photo: Maya Nolan A new Fine Gael TD has expressed her disappointment at the failure to deliver a proper affordable housing strategy, despite her party being in government since 2011. Emer Higgins, who was elected to represent the Dublin Mid-West constituency, said the lack of a such a policy was a major reason as to why Fine Gael did so poorly at the general election in February. In an interview with the Irish Examiner, Ms Higgins said she noticed a major swing against her party toward Sinn Fein between the by-election she contested in November and February 8. I cant explain what caused it but there was definitely a swing against us. However, she also is equally frank about her own partys failures, which she says contributed to the shift in support to Sinn Fein, which won two seats in Dublin Mid-West. I try and relate our performance to what is going on in my constituency, said Ms Higgins. A main issue here was the provision of housing, the lack of it. I am disappointed we still dont have an affordable housing policy. Fine Gael lost 15 seats in Februarys general election, and a much greater role for the State in the provision of housing is one of the main stumbling blocks in the current government formation talks. - Read Irish Examiner political editor, Daniel McConnell's full interview with Emer Higgins here. Meanwhile, 68% of prospective homebuyers still plan to purchase property this year, despite Covid-19 freezing the market, according to a survey by property website, MyHome.ie. Some 37% expect prices to fall by more than 10% in the next 12 months, while six out of 10 respondents believe next year will be a good time to buy property. Even though Covid-19 has essentially frozen the market, this survey shows that prospective buyers are still confident about their ability to purchase in the coming year, possibly driven by an expectation of falling prices, said Angela Keegan, managing director of MyHome.ie. Although falling prices have not yet been evident in the sector, Ms Keegan said that it was still too early to say if price drops would materialise when the market comes out of hibernation. The survey of 1,981 people carried out between May 5 and May 14, also found that 69% of respondents believe that the Government could do more to help the property sector during Covid-19. When asked what factors would encourage them to buy a property now, 35% said more available housing stock, 33% said more overall confidence in the economy, and 33% also said an easing of mortgage lending rules. The virus is expected to have significant long-term effects, with 59% of respondents believing it will lead to more online processes to minimise unnecessary contact. And 21% believe it will lead to quicker sales processes. Half of respondents (51%) believe that online viewings and virtual tours are effective ways to view a property. [June 01, 2020] U.S. Cellular Announces CEO Transition U.S. Cellular (NYSE: USM), an 83%-owned subsidiary of Telephone & Data Systems (News - Alert) (NYSE: TDS) announced today that Laurent C. Therivel ("LT") will be appointed President and Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1, 2020. Kenneth R. Meyers will be appointed to "Senior Advisor to the CEO" until his retirement on September 4, 2020. Meyers and Therivel will work closely to ensure a smooth transition period. Therivel will also be appointed to replace Meyers on both the U.S. Cellular (News - Alert) and TDS Boards of Directors. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200601005719/en/ Laurent Therivel, incoming CEO of U.S. Cellular (Photo: Business Wire) Therivel, 45, joins U.S. Cellular from AT&T (News - Alert) where he served most recently as CEO of AT&T Mexico, a wireless company that operates under the AT&T and Unefon brands, where he led a team of over 18,000 employees. Prior to joining AT&T, Therivel served as Chief Operating Officer for IPcelerate (News - Alert), Inc., a Voiceover- IP applications development company. "As a result of an orderly succession planning process and an extensive search, we are very pleased to announce LT's appointment," commented LeRoy T. Carlson, Jr., Chairman of U.S. Cellular and President and CEO of TDS. "With his deep experience in the telecommunications industry, LT brings tremendous insight and perspective to this role. During his years at ATT he had a variety of important assignments leading wireless and wireline operations, strategy and finance. He is highly customer-focused which aligns well with U.S. Cellular's mission of providing exceptional wireless experiences to our customers. I am confident LT's leadership, experience and collaborative style will build upon the success that U.S. Cellular has achieved under Ken Meyers' leadership." "I look forward to joining U.S. Cellular, which is in a strong position to continue providing customers with high-quality wireless service," said Therivel. "More than ever, the essential nature of our solutions has been validated over the past few months during the pandemic. I am excited to work alongside U.S. Cellular's talented management team and with all of its associates to build on the successes of its customer and community-focused strategies. I am honored to have the opportunity to contribute to U.S. Cellular's bright future and am intensely focused on working toward long-term growth and sustainability." "We greatly thank Ken for his many years of exemplary service to U.S. Cellular and the TDS Enterprise," continued Mr. Carlson. "This includes his many contributions to the growth and development of thousands of associates through 33 years of dedicated leadership. We wish him much health and happiness during this next chapter in his life." "Ken has spent over three decades of his career with TDS and U.S. Cellular in a variety of leadership positions including executive vice president and CFO for both Companies. Throughout his time as CEO, Ken applied his deep understanding of our industry, as well as his strategic and financial knowledge to further improve U.S. Cellular's performance and operational efficiency. He led and developed a strong senior management team to execute aggressive, yet economically sound, customer-focused strategies. Ken's effective leadership and commitment to the Company's culture will leave a lasting effect on U.S. Cellular." Therivel holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a double major in Business Administration and Marketing from the University of Texas A&M. He also served as a Communications Officer in the US Marine Corps. About U.S. Cellular U.S. Cellular is the fourth-largest full-service wireless carrier in the United States, providing national network coverage and industry-leading innovations designed to elevate the customer experience. The Chicago-based carrier is building a stronger network with the latest 5G technology and offers a wide range of communication services that enhance consumers' lives, increase the competitiveness of local businesses and improve the efficiency of government operations. To learn more about U.S. Cellular, visit one of its retail stores or uscellular.com. To get the latest news, promos and videos, connect with U.S. Cellular on Facebook.com/uscellular, Twitter.com/uscellular and YouTube (News - Alert).com/uscellularcorp. About TDS Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. (TDS), a Fortune 1000 company, provides wireless; cable and wireline broadband, video and voice; and hosted and managed services to approximately 6 million connections nationwide through its businesses, U.S. Cellular, TDS Telecom, BendBroadband and OneNeck IT Solutions. Founded in 1969 and headquartered in Chicago, TDS employed 9,400 people as of March 31, 2020. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200601005719/en/ [ Back To www.mobilitytechzone.com\LTE's Homepage ] TS Inter Result 2020 declared: The Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) declared Inter first and second year results today (Thursday, 18 June) at 3.15 pm. TS Inter Result 2020 declared: The Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) released results for Inter first and second years at 3 pm. Students can check the official websites tsbie.cgg.gov.in and results.cgg.gov.in Students can also check their manabadi intermediate scores on Firstpost by using the widget below: State Education Minister P Sabitha Indra Reddyhad already announced that the Intermediate Second Year (TS Inter 2) examinations will be announced in the second week of June and the first year results will be declared in the third week. However, the board managed to declare both sets of scores today on its official website. According to a report by The Hindu, Reddy had earlier said during a meeting with officials of the Education Department that the evaluation process would be completed by 30 May so that results could be declared in second week of June. While examinations for all major papers were conducted, the second year Geography and modern language papers were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Indian Express reported that over 9.65 lakh students registered for the intermediate examinations in Telangana. Of these, 4.80 lakh students appeared for the first year and 4.85 lakh for the second year. Helsinn Group announces FDA approval of a new liquid formulation of AKYNZEO (fosnetupitant/palonosetron) injection in the United States Lugano, Switzerland, June 2, 2020 Helsinn, a Swiss pharmaceutical group focused on building quality cancer care and rare disease products, today announces that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the ready-to-dilute liquid formulation of AKYNZEO (fosnetupitant/palonosetron) injection. This new liquid solution provides several improvements to storage and handling: AKYNZEO injection does not require refrigeration at any stage of distribution, preparation or storage AKYNZEO injection eliminates the need for reconstitution prior to dilution, reducing the preparation process for intravenous administration of AKYNZEO to one step before use. AKYNZEO injection may now be stored for up to 24 hours at room temperature after dilution, allowing more flexibility in preparation for busy clinicians AKYNZEO injection is indicated for the prevention of acute and delayed nausea and vomiting associated with initial and repeat courses of highly emetogenic cancer chemotherapy in adults, when given with dexamethasone. It has not been studied for the prevention of nausea and vomiting associated with anthracycline plus cyclophosphamide chemotherapy. AKYNZEO injection does not contain polysorbate 80 or allergenic excipients such as soy or egg lecithin. Riccardo Braglia, Helsinn Group Vice Chairman and CEO, commented: We are pleased to announce FDAs approval of the liquid formulation of AKYNZEO. This new formulation will reduce the steps in administering this CINV treatment, improving the efficiency in preparation. Extended storage time following dilution provides more flexibility to clinics and hospitals to prepare AKYNZEO for use throughout the day. AKYNZEO is the only medication to target two distinct CINV pathways in a single dose and can help clinicians prevent CINV in appropriate patients. We are targeting launch of the liquid formulation in the second half of this year and look forward to updating the market in due course. Story continues Paul Rittman, CEO, Helsinn Therapeutics (U.S.), Inc, said: I am pleased that we can now offer this improved form of AKYNZEO to clinicians across the US. We hope that the elimination of refrigerated storage, the increase in room-temperature storage time once diluted, and the reduction in preparation steps, will all be of assistance to those administering the treatment, allowing for greater efficiency as they help prevent CINV in patients undergoing chemotherapy. About AKYNZEO AKYNZEO is the first and only 5-HT 3 and NK 1 receptor combination approved for the prevention of chemotherapy induced acute and delayed nausea and vomiting. A single dose of AKYNZEO given with dexamethasone has been shown to prevent chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting for 5 days. INDICATION AKYNZEO (netupitant 300mg/palonosetron 0.5mg) capsules was approved in October 2014 in the United States and is indicated in combination with dexamethasone in adults for the prevention of acute and delayed nausea and vomiting associated with initial and repeat courses of cancer chemotherapy, including, but not limited to, highly emetogenic chemotherapy. AKYNZEO (fosnetupitant 235mg/palonosetron 0.25) for injection was approved in April 2018 and AKYNZEO injection was approved in May 2020 in the United States. Each is indicated in combination with dexamethasone in adults for the prevention of acute and delayed nausea and vomiting associated with initial and repeat courses of highly emetogenic cancer chemotherapy. Limitations of Use AKYNZEO for injection and AKYNZEO injection have not been studied for the prevention of nausea and vomiting associated with anthracycline plus cyclophosphamide chemotherapy. AKYNZEO is a combination of palonosetron, a serotonin-3 (5-HT3) receptor antagonist, and netupitant or fosnetupitant, substance P/neurokinin-1 (NK-1) receptor antagonists: palonosetron prevents nausea and vomiting during the acute phase and netupitant/fosnetupitant prevents nausea and vomiting during both the acute and delayed phase after cancer chemotherapy. IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION Warnings and Precautions Hypersensitivity reactions, including anaphylaxis, have been reported in patients receiving palonosetron, one of the components of AKYNZEO, with or without known hypersensitivity to other 5-HT 3 receptor antagonists. Serotonin syndrome has been reported with 5-HT 3 receptor antagonists alone but particularly with concomitant use of serotonergic drugs. Serotonin syndrome can be life threatening. Symptoms associated with serotonin syndrome may include the following combination of signs and symptoms: mental status changes, autonomic instability, neuromuscular symptoms, seizures, and gastrointestinal symptoms. Patients should be monitored for the emergence of serotonin syndrome, and if symptoms occur, discontinue AKYNZEO and initiate supportive treatment. Patients should be informed of the increased risk of serotonin syndrome, especially if AKYNZEO is used concomitantly with other serotonergic drugs. Adverse Reactions Most common adverse reactions for AKYNZEO capsules and injection: headache, asthenia, dyspepsia, fatigue, constipation and erythema Drug Interactions Use with caution in patients receiving concomitant medications primarily metabolized by CYP3A4. The plasma concentrations of CYP3A4 substrates can increase when co-administered with AKYNZEO. The inhibitory effect on CYP3A4 can last for multiple days Dexamethasone doses should be reduced when given with AKYNZEO. A more than two-fold increase in the systemic exposure of dexamethasone was observed 4 days after a single dose of netupitant or a single infusion of fosnetupitant Consider the potential effects of increased plasma concentrations of midazolam or other benzodiazepines metabolized via CYP3A4 (alprazolam, triazolam) when administering with AKYNZEO. When administered with netupitant, the systemic exposure to midazolam was significantly increased Avoid concomitant use of AKYNZEO in patients on chronic use of a strong CYP3A4 inducer such as rifampin as this may decrease the efficacy of AKYNZEO Use in Specific Populations Avoid use of AKYNZEO in patients with severe hepatic impairment, severe renal impairment, or end-stage renal disease Avoid use in pregnancy, limited data is available, may cause fetal harm. For more information about AKYNZEO please see the full Prescribing Information About the Helsinn Group Helsinn is a privately-owned Swiss Pharma Company which, since 1976, has been improving the lives of patients, guided by core family values of respect, integrity and quality. The Group has an extensive portfolio of marketed innovative cancer and rare disease therapies, a robust drug development pipeline and ambitions to further accelerate its growth through in-licensing and acquisition to address unmet medical needs. Helsinn operates a unique integrated licensing business model, achieving success with over 80 long-standing partners in 190 countries, who share our values. The Groups pharmaceutical business (Helsinn Healthcare) is headquartered in Lugano, Switzerland with operating subsidiaries in the U.S. (Helsinn Therapeutics US) and China (Helsinn Pharmaceuticals China) which market the Groups products directly in these countries. The Group has additional operating subsidiaries in Switzerland (Helsinn Advanced Synthesis, an active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturer) and Ireland (Helsinn Birex Pharmaceuticals, a drug product manufacturer). Helsinn Investment Fund was created to enhance the future of healthcare by providing funding and strategic support to innovative companies. Helsinn Group plays an active and central role in promoting social transformation in favor of people and the environment. Corporate social responsibility is at the heart of everything we do which is reinforced in the company's strategic plan by a commitment to sustainable growth. To learn more about Helsinn Group please visit www.helsinn.com For more information: Helsinn Group Media Contact: Paola Bonvicini Group Head of Communication Lugano, Switzerland Tel: +41 (0) 91 985 21 21 Email: Info-hhc@helsinn.com For more information, please visit www.helsinn.com and follow us on Twitter , LinkedIn and Vimeo AKYN-US-0066 Open source The Russian authorities are caught in a familiar dilemma of whether to resume economic activity or contain the coronavirus pandemic and, trying to have it both ways, are blundering the former while failing in the latter. The economic contraction for April is estimated at 12 percent, but the governments recovery plans are based on calculations of resumed inflows of petro-revenuesa highly problematic proposition. The governments habitual doctoring of economic data continues but pales in comparison with the distorted official statistics on the scale of the COVID-19 crisis, which shows a purported stabilization in the number of infections along a high plateau of 8,5009,000 cases per day. The authorities indignantly reject any criticism of this systematic disinformation; nevertheless, the Moscow Department of Healthcare recently provided some corrections in an attempt to explain away the significant increase in the citys total mortality. The release of country-wide demographic data for April has been postponed so as not to undercut the official narrative of the pandemics low human cost domestically. The measures on easing the lockdowns prescribed by the authorities on the basis of this flawed date are confusing and show absence of coordination, caused primarily by the lack of leadership coming from President Vladimir Putin. His recent video conference with Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin left the impression of a poorly scripted low-content show, contrasting with the severity of the situation in the national capital, where more than a half of the total number of Russian infections are registered. Muscovites are resolutely defying new half-relaxed rules, but a video recorded by a popular TV host ridiculing the pep-talk between Putin and Sobyanin was removed from many media platforms after stern warnings from the Kremlin. This obsession with keeping up pretenses betrays deep worries about the impact of the unfolding crisis on the public moodand about the outcome of the blame game inside the bureaucratic pyramid. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, recovering from a mild case of COVID-19, has been going to great lengths to re-polish his image as an effective manager, hoping to dissuade Putin from turning him into a useful scapegoat. The most alarming trend for the authorities is certainly the erosion of public confidence in and approval for Putin, which comes through clearly in many public opinion polls. The Kremlin tries to counter this trend by blaming the West for spreading disinformation: the Russian embassy in the United States demanded apologies from the Bloomberg news agency for publishing fake news about Putins approval ratings, though, in fact, the figures in question came from reliable Russian sources. Such demarches and high-volume pseudo-optimistic propaganda campaigns are of little help in dispelling public anxiety, so the authorities increasingly resort to random repressions to demonstrate their undiminished capacity for controlling the streets. But the attempt to show a tough hand by arresting opposition journalist Ilya Azar, who staged a legally permitted single-person protest, unexpectedly backfired. More journalists came out in similar protests, and their detentions have triggered a fierce media storm. Liberal commentators exposed police brutality by reflecting on the death of human rights activist Sergei Mohnatkin, whose health was ruined by beatings and torture following several arrests. Instead of enforcing discipline, the occasional repressions facilitate the conversion of accumulating discontent into anger. A team of sociologists led by Mikhail Dmitriev and Anastasiya Nikolskaya has discovered that disappointment in the governments ability to manage the crisis is evolving into an aggressive rejection of the orders issued by federal authorities, who are increasingly perceived as alien. Demands for a firm hand are essentially nonexistent; public preferences have strongly shifted from support for familiar autocratic rule to a representative government with proper checks and balances. And while the conclusions of this research may be debatable, some corroborating evidence has arrived from neighboring Belarus. President Alyaksandr Lukashenka aims to stage another firmly controlled and potentially falsified election in early August, but several figures from the political establishment have entered the contest to challenge his 25-year-long grasp on power. Moreover, a popular blogger (promptly arrested) and his wife have managed to mobilize wide public support for a fresh alternative by tapping into the anger caused by Lukashenkas denial of the ongoing pandemic, which is spreading so quickly that Belarus now has more registered coronavirus infections per capita than the United Kingdom or Italy. Putin seemingly pays scant attention to the rising political storm inside Belarus, focusing instead on executing his political agenda set at the start of the year. The military parade, postponed from May 9, is a symbolically central event in this agenda and has now been rescheduled for June 24the day on which Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin staged the victory parade in 1945. The pandemic may refuse to cooperate, but the authorities consider their control over information to be much more important that ensuring social distancing among the population. The pompous parade is expected to create a proper public atmosphere for the as-yet-unscheduled voting on the package of amendments to the constitution, which will allow Putin to claim yet another presidential term in 2024. Riots or even mass street protests will probably not disrupt these plans; but tanks rolling over Red Square are also highly unlikely to lift peoples spirits or make them forget the authorities indifference to expanding poverty and their incompetence at managing the simultaneous health and economic crises. The Kremlin tends to view the pandemic as a temporary inconvenience and the recession as a passing complication; but Russian society is experiencing a profound transformation, and the protracted lockdowns bring not only irritation and despair about ruined businesses but also serious reflections on the unsuitability of Putins regime for Russia. The Kremlin refuses to register these shifts in public attitude, and its persistent attempts to legitimize autocratic rule increasingly clashes with Russians maturing demand for change. No amount of enforcement and propaganda is likely to mitigate this looming collision. Read the full story here. Kabul: A third massive explosion shook central Kabul on Monday night, hours after a Taliban double bombing killed at least 24 people and left 91 others wounded, in another day of carnage in the Afghan capital. Authorities said they were trying to pin down the location of the third blast and there was no immediate claim of responsibility from any militant group. It jolted the capital just hours after high-level officials, including an army general, were killed in the twin blasts near the defence ministry, as the Taliban ramp up their nationwide offensive against the US-backed government. A suicide bomber struck the area just minutes after the first explosion, in an assault apparently aimed at inflicting mass casualties as officials left the ministry after work. The first explosion occurred on a bridge near the defence ministry. The second struck just as soldiers, policemen and civilians hurried to help the victims, defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish told AFP. Ambulances rushed to the scene, littered with disfigured bodies and charred debris. But there were so many bodies that some had to be taken to hospitals in car boots and the back of police pickup trucks. Firemen, meanwhile, raced to retrieve some bodies thrown into the Kabul River by the intensity of the first blast on the bridge. Health ministry spokesman Waheed Majroh said the attack left 24 people dead and 91 others wounded, some of them seriously, adding the casualties could rise still further. The Italian-run Emergency Hospital in Kabul, which was overwhelmed with wounded patients, tweeted that four people died on arrival. The interior ministry initially said the attack was carried out by two suicide bombers on foot. But officials later said the first bomb was detonated remotely while the second was triggered by a suicide bomber. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter that the defence ministry was the object of the first attack, while police were targeted in the second. President Ashraf Ghani strongly condemned the carnage and offered condolences to the families of the victims. The enemies of Afghanistan have lost their ability to fight the security and defence forces of the country, Ghani said in a statement. That is why they are attacking highways, cities, mosques, schools and common people. The attack took place more than a week after 16 people were killed when militants stormed the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, in a nearly 10-hour raid that prompted anguished pleas for help from trapped students. Explosions and gunfire rocked the campus in that attack, which came just weeks after two university professorsan American and an Australianwere kidnapped at gunpoint near the school. Their whereabouts are still unknown and no group so far has publicly claimed responsibility for the abductions. The uptick in violence in the capital comes as the Taliban escalate nationwide attacks, underscoring the worsening security situation since NATO forces ended their combat mission at the end of 2014. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Rioters set fire to a Wells fargo bank across the street from the Minneapolis Police 5th Precinct during the fourth night of protests and violence following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Lawmakers Condemn Violence, Looting During George Floyd Protests After a weekend of violence, lawmakers took to their social media accounts and public venues to condemn the rioting. Since the killing of George Floyd, protests have erupted all over the United States, with many turning violent with people looting and burning business. If you are a non-violent protestor, selflessly saying enough is enoughwe admire and respect your vigilance. Its what we need. For those that believe violence is a way to take advantage of this situationwe cant tolerate that, said Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) in a tweet. According to reports, at least 4,400 people have been arrested nationwide amid riots that are interspersed among peaceful protests, expressing grief and anger over the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest last week. According to authorities in #Minnesota (e)very single person arrested during last night violence and looting was from out of state. Adds to the growing indications that much of the violence and looting we are seeing is to further a very different agenda, wrote Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Twitter. These are Anarchists taking over the streets in cities throughout America. Bring in a lot more National Guard. Bring in more police and shut down these riots going on tonight. Time to restore order. ENOUGH!, said Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) At the nations Capitol Sunday night, violence broke out and fires were set in a few different locations including a historic church and national monument St. Johns Church across from the White House. The WWII memorial was also vandalized. Demonstrators vandalize a car as they protest the death of George Floyd, near the White House in Washington on May 31, 2020. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo) It does not advance freedom or justice to vandalize the World War II Memorial that stands for those who bled and died for exactly those values, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Monday. George Floyds death is deeply disturbing, & I welcome quick action to get justice for him in accordance with law. And we should always respect the rights of peaceful protesters. But anarchy, looting, and riotingwe have zero tolerance for that, and it needs to end tonight, said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). On Monday, George Floyds brother, Terrence Floyd, asked protesters to remain peaceful during demonstrations. What are yall doing? Yall doing nothing. Because thats not going to bring my brother back at all Do this peacefully. Please, he said. A Minneapolis police officer has been charged with third-degree murder in Floyds death, and three other officers were fired. Bystander video showed the officer, Derek Chauvin, holding his knee on Floyds neck despite the mans cries that he cant breathe until he eventually stopped moving. According to a statement from the family lawyer, the results of the second independent autopsy, commissioned by his family, say that sustained pressure on the right side of Floyds carotid artery impeded blood flow to the brain, and weight on his back impeded his ability to breathe. President Donald Trump, in a speech Saturday at Floridas Cape Canaveral, said he spoke to Floyds family to express sorrow for his death. He added that the officers involved in the incident have been fired, one of them has been charged with murder, and that charges could be brought against the other three. I stand before you as a friend and ally to every American seeking justice and peace, he said. And I stand before you in firm opposition to anyone exploiting this tragedy to loot, rob, attack, and menace. Healing, not hatred, justice, not chaos is the mission at hand, Trump said. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) quoted Attorney General Bill Barr saying there would be legal ramification for violence carried out by rioters, who have hijacked many peaceful protests. The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly, he said. The Associated Press contributed to this report JACKSON, Miss., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- May is Mental Health Month, a national observance to raise awareness about mental health. In support of this observance, Magnolia Health (Magnolia) announced today a plan to provide additional mental health resources to Mississippi residents impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a series of local partnerships, Magnolia will enable providers to better support communities that are experiencing elevated levels of stress and mental strain caused by an increase in grief, loss, economic pressure, unemployment and social isolation. "We must consider the negative toll that the pandemic is taking on the mental health of our communities especially among underserved communities," said Aaron Sisk, plan president & CEO. "We will continue to support Mississippi residents across the continuum of care throughout the pandemic and beyond." As part of this effort Magnolia, in partnership with its parent company Centene Corporation, is announcing investments to support the following programs: Provider Training and Support Training for clinicians and support for front-line providers dealing with the COVID-19 crisis and the increase in mental health-related challenges in their practices. Expanding Access to Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) An investment to help the National Council for Behavioral Health transition part of their training program to a virtual program, which will make MHFA training more accessible for people in Mississippi and nationwide. Provider Training and Support For many, the emotional trauma of COVID-19 will last longer than the pandemic itself. Magnolia is partnering, through Centene with Allegheny Health Network and the CARES Institute at Rowan University to fund virtual Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) training cohorts, which will enable clinicians in Mississippi and nationwide to receive this highly effective training. TF-CBT is an evidence-based treatment for the impact of traumatic experience on child and adolescent mental health. Magnolia is also directing funds to Crisis Text Line to support their 'For the Frontlines' initiative. For the Frontlines provides fast, free, text-based crisis support to individuals on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic response, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other essential workers. Frontline workers can text FRONTLINE to 741741 to connect with a trained Crisis Counselor, 24/7. Expanding Access to Mental Health First Aid Training To ensure a long-term impact beyond the current pandemic, Magnolia will donate to the National Council for Behavioral Health's COVID-19 Relief Fund, specifically for the provision of Mental Health First Aid. MHFA teaches people to identify, understand and respond to someone who might be experiencing a mental health crisis, such as suicidal thinking or mis-using substances. Magnolia's support will provide greater access to MHFA virtual trainings, helping more individuals support someone experiencing mental health and substance use challenges at this critical time. Magnolia Health has been supporting Mississippi residents since 2011 across its MississippiCAN, Allwell and Ambetter plans. For more information about Magnolia Health and its programs, visit www.magnoliahealthplan.com. About Magnolia Health Magnolia Health is a long-term solution to help the state of Mississippi enhance care for Medicaid recipients, while most effectively managing taxpayer dollars. A physician-driven, Mississippi-based Coordinated Care Organization (CCO), Magnolia is backed by its parent company, Centene Corporation (Centene). Centene has more than 30 years of experience in Medicaid and other government-funded programs such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and long-term care. For more information about Magnolia, visit www.magnoliahealthplan.com. SOURCE Magnolia Health Related Links http://www.magnoliahealthplan.com Travelers returning to flying after coronavirus lockdowns ease can expect a very different experience than before the pandemic hit. The International Civil Aviation Organization has issued guidelines to regulators and operators on how to restart the global air-transport system. The group, a specialized agency of the United Nations, recommends more automation and touch-free equipment in airport bathrooms. Travelers may have to get used to electronic visa forms, dropping their baggage off with a facial or iris scan and being searched while facing away from border agents. Addressing passengers safety concerns will be a vital step in ensuring the return to the skies that airlines are counting on to survive. Industry experts say the key will be coordinating efforts globally in order to avoid conflicting regulations that have followed previous travel stoppages, most notably after 9/11. The International Air Transport Association, which represents airlines, called for urgent implementation of the ICAO guidance. Airlines strongly support it, Alexandre de Juniac, head of IATA, said in a statement. Now we are counting on governments to implement the recommendations quickly, because the world wants to travel again and needs airlines to play a key role in the economic recovery. The ICAO recommendations include: Staff and passengers wearing masks where available Contact-free technology at bag drops, boarding gates and retail outlets, and self-cleaning screens at check-in kiosks Regular cleaning of infrastructure and equipment One-meter distancing where possible throughout airports Revisions to boarding processes, gate areas and government regulations. Changes to border-control and customs processes to increase physical distancing Dedicated baggage carousels for arrivals from high-risk areas Airports Council International said it welcomed the ICAO report. While ACI World believes there is currently no single measure that could mitigate all the risks of restarting air travel, the harmonization of any new processes and procedures represents the most effective way of balancing risk mitigation with the need to unlock economies and to enable travel, said the group, which represents airports. Copyright 2022 Bloomberg. EBRD and Dutch development bank FMO join forces to support Anadolu Etap Boost for key fruit producer, farmers and rural areas in uncertain times of coronavirus pandemic Longer-term financing ensures greater flexibility and resources for companys growth Turkeys agricultural sector is receiving a strong boost, as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a 60 million loan to Anadolu Etap, the leading fruit producer in the country. Half of the loan has been syndicated to the Dutch development bank FMO under the EBRDs A/B structure. Anadolu Etap is a joint venture between major Turkish companies Anadolu Group and Ozgorkey Holding. It supplies fruits and produces fruit puree, concentrates and juices that are sold throughout Turkey and 60 other countries. The produce comes from 5 million trees located on eight farms spanning over 3,000 hectares. The company also runs three juice concentrate factories and a packaging facility. The new financing will help Anadolu Etap ensure continuous growth despite the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic. A loan maturity of six years provides greater flexibility and resources to fund capital needs as demand increases both at home and abroad. Arvid Tuerkner, EBRD Managing Director for Turkey, said: There is no doubt about the severity of the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on agriculture in Turkey and elsewhere. By providing finance to Anadolu Etap, the major fruit producer and exporter in the country, we are also supporting local farmers and livelihoods in rural areas. In cooperation with the EBRD, the company will further expand its AgroAcademy programme for farmers, with a particular focus on women. Anadolu Etap will also join forces with educational institutions to improve the transfer of knowledge and skills to farmers and provide greater training and employment opportunities to Syrian refugees. In addition, Anadolu Etap is committed to further raising the bar in corporate governance and business conduct standards. The company plans to certify its new orchards and farms to Global Good Agricultural Practices and adopt innovative agricultural technologies. It also intends to step up technical advisory and pre-financing services offered to farmers. Bahadr Ack, CEO of Anadolu Etap, commented: The loan from the EBRD and FMO is an indication of the lenders trust in Turkey, our company and in the Turkish agriculture sector. This financial support enables us to continue moving towards further growth and innovation as we work to meet the domestic and global demand for healthy produce. Wojtek Boniaszczuk, EBRD Head of Agribusiness, Turkey, said: We are proud to continue our long-term partnership with the Anadolu Group and Anadolu Etap, supporting the companys investments in state-of-the-art technologies, expansion of the AgroAcademy whilst also promoting higher corporate governance standards in Turkeys agriculture sector. The EBRD is a major investor in Turkey. Since 2009 it has invested 12.4 billion through 311 projects in various sectors of the countrys economy, with almost all investment in the private sector. The EBRDs 7 billion portfolio in Turkey is the largest among the 38 economies where the Bank invests. Mumbai: Mumbai Police on Tuesday (June 2, 2020) banned the movement of people along the coastline from 12 AM on June 3 till 12 PM on June 4 in view of the threat posed by impending cyclonic storm `Nisarga'. Mumbai Police in an official order restricted any presence or movement of one or more persons in public places along the coast like beaches, promenades, parks and other such places near the coastline where people may gather to prevent loss of life and property. The notice also read that any person contravening the order shall be punishable under section 188 of the IPC. Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray also appealed to people of the state to stay inside their homes for the next two days. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned about the possible impact of the cyclone Nisarga along the western coastline of the country and Mumbai city is expected to be severely impacted. The cyclonic storm is expected to hit Maharashtra and south Gujarat coasts on Wednesday afternoon, as per the IMD. Meanwhile, 5 NDRF teams from Bhatinda (Punjab) airlifted for Surat (Gujarat). As of now, 10 NDRF teams have been deployed in Maharashtra and 16 in Gujarat. In Maharashtra, the NDRF teams are deployed in Mumbai, Raigad, Palghar. Thane, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, and Navi Mumbai. NDRF commander, Ishwar Mate, said, ''NDRF teams have been deployed at places on high alert. The NDRF teams will help locals to deal with difficulties during cyclones." Cyclone Nisarga is most likely to cross north Maharashtra and adjoining south Gujarat coast between Harihareshwar and Daman, close to Alibagh (Raigad) on June 3 afternoon as a Severe Cyclonic Storm with a wind speed of 100-110 kmph to 120 kmph. PM Modi also talked to Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray and Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani regarding the cyclone situation. He assured them all possible support and assistance from the Centre. A woman who dreamed of having bigger breasts as a teenager has revealed how two botched cosmetic surgery operations left her with implants that 'flipped' inside her body - shattering her confidence. Tia, from League City, Texas, was just 18 when she began considering a breast augmentation, after working in the fitness industry as a model left her feeling insecure about her chest size. However, when a friend suggested a good doctor - Tia had no idea that her cosmetic surgeon was actually a dentist - and asked him to increase her chest to a D cup. Fitness model Tia, from Texas, revealed on Botched that she used a recommended surgeon for her first breast implant operation, but later found out that he was actually a dentist Tia explained to Dr Paul Nassif and Dr Terry Dubrow that she was left with 'ugly' breasts after an unlicensed surgeon put too big implants on top of the muscle - and they flipped inside her Tia, pictured after corrective surgery, had to have the 1000cc implants punctured by Dr Dubrow before letting them settle and having new ones correctly inserted Although her first surgery went well, she ended up with only a C cup; and decided to go under the knife again, a decision that has seen her living with 'ugly' breasts for 16 years. Explaining to reality show Botched's surgeons, Dr Paul Nassif and Dr Terry Dubrow, how she first decided to have surgery, Tia said: 'I got into fitness modeling because I fitted the criteria but I noticed that girls that had bigger breasts were getting more gigs.' 'One of my model friends referred me to a guy and her breasts looked awesome. He was a dentist but I thought he was a doctor.' Dr Paul and Dr Terry look flabbergasted at her revelation but there was more to come. Surgery with an unlicensed practitioner saw her breast implants - which were twice the size she asked for at 1000cc - flipping inside her body, leaving them looking painful and rippled The doctors were stunned when Tia said that a dentist performed her surgery - although she admitted she was happy with his work, despite wanting her breasts to be closer together Confidence-shattering: Tia said she only wanted bigger breasts because she felt like she'd get more work with them, but she ended up living with the 'ugly' results of her surgery for 16 years While Tia was happy with the initial results from the dentist's work, she explained that she still wanted breasts that were 'closer together' but he refused to perform any more surgery. After some research, she found another doctor she liked - not realizing he didn't have a license to perform such surgery. Tia explained: 'I found this guy, after doing some research and I told him "I'm okay with the size, I just want them closer"'. However, when she came round from the surgery she found that instead of 500cc implants, she had 1000cc in each breast and he'd put the implant on top of the muscle, something top surgeons don't recommend. Problems occurred quickly: 'I start getting rippling and the implants did backflips inside my boobs', Tia tells the reality show. Back under the knife: a third operation, under the expert eye of Botched's Dr Dubrow saw Tia finally get the breasts she'd always hoped for The muscle in Tia's breasts had been badly damaged by the previous operation but Dr Dubrow said he could find a way to make new implants work The model says she's finally happy with her breasts after Dr Dubrow let the damaged muscle heal and filled her breasts with air to get an idea of what size would look good on Tia Dr Dubrow explained that he would puncture her present implants, using the same 'pocket' of tissue to insert new implants and when they healed, he would insert new ones. The muscle in Tia's breasts had been badly damaged by the previous operation but Dr Dubrow said he could find a way to make new implants work. Tia admitted to the production crew that she was 'too embarrassed' to leave the house while her breasts settled ahead of her surgery with Dr Dubrow. After an initial procedure to fill Tia's breasts with air - to judge what size would suit her body's frame, the surgeon pushed ahead with the corrective operation. Her new breasts have finally given Tia her confidence back, but she warned others against choosing a rogue surgeon to perform body-changing surgery. A scientist from Castlebridge is at the forefront of a major trial going on at the moment in Australia looking at the potential for the BCG vaccine to protect adults against coronavirus. Professor David Lynn moved to Australia in 2014 to head up a team at the South Australian Health and Research Institute (SAHMRI) in Adelaide. However, he is now at the heart of a trial that could have a massively positive impact, worldwide. Prof Lynn was educated in St Peter's Secondary School in Wexford town and attended Trinity where he completed a degree in genetics. He did his PhD in UCD where Cliona O'Farrelly, another senior academic from Co Wexford and now an immunologist at Trinity, was his supervisor. His wife, Dr Miriam Lynn, is from Dublin and she is also an immunologist who is also part of the team working on the trials. Speaking from his home in the Adelaide hills, Prof Lynn said the BCG trial began through a colleague of his in Melbourne named Nigel Curtis. 'It's a very big trial and it began through Nigel Curtis out of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne,' said Prof Lynn. 'He came up with the idea and it began in Melbourne and then spread out through Australia and I'm heading the team in south Australia, in Adelaide,' he added. 'We had been working in this area independently of Nigel's group and we were at the same meeting in the UK at the end of February, which was about non-specific vaccines.' 'It was shortly after we got back that Covid-19 broke out of China and as soon as we heard Nigel had begun the trial, we got in touch,' he said. Prof Lynn highlighted the fact the trial was undertaken within 'a very fast timeframe'. 'Normally, a trial like this could take a year to plan but this time it was a matter of weeks to get it going,' he said. 'It was up-and-running in Melbourne in March and we started in early April so we are a couple of weeks behind Melbourne,' he added. Prof Lynn said the recruitment process for people to get involved in the clinical trial in south Australia began on May 14. With regard to overall recruitment he said they are trying to reach 10,000 healthcare workers in Australia and Europe; the trials have also now been introduced in the Netherlands and Spain as a result of their respectively high rates of infection. Prof Lynn said the research carried out in other studies, including in countries in Africa as well as in more developed countries, found that infants with BCG vaccination have protection against other types of respiratory related infections. He said some studies from Africa showed the death rate in infants up to the age of five was reduced significantly in those who received the BCG vaccine. Prof Lynn said evidence would suggest the BCG vaccine could have beneficial 'non-specific' effects. He said the studies from developed countries showed the vaccine reduced serious respiratory illnesses and sepsis. 'This virus is respiratory related and in adults the data is less because BCG is [usually] for infants,' he said. However, he added that a study in the Netherlands two years ago saw adults being given BCG and the results from that indicated there might be some non-specific protection against viruses like SARS Covid. Another study involving mice also produced some very positive results. There was only one new case in south Australia within the last two weeks, however, Prof Lynn said the trials will have a two-fold purpose. In the first instance, they will trial to see if the BCG vaccination leads to fewer cases of Covid-19. However, even if it has no affect on infection rates the trials will also examine whether those who got the BCG jab experienced less severe illnesses. Samples from the volunteers in the trial will be used to look for antibodies to Covid-19 and also to examine how the human immune system responds after the BCG jab is administered. Prof Lynn explained that innate immune cells are the 'first responders' to germs and it's expected that the vaccine will prep defensive genes in such cells. 'We do not have a specific vaccine against this virus but hopefully we will in a years time but this might give non-specific protection in the interim,' he said. With regard to the expected timeframe for the trials Prof Lynn said realistically it will be at least 12 months before results will be forthcoming. He said the volunteers in the trial will be tracked over 12 months and bloods will be taken at specific intervals. 'That allows us to test them to see if they have any infections or not,' he said. 'We can check for antibodies in their blood,' he added. The volunteers will also have access to an app on their smart phone and through that they can track their respiratory systems for changes if they get a cold etc. 'It means we can see if the rates are changing between people who got the BCG vaccine or not,' said Prof Lynn. He said at the end of the trial, depending on the results, recommendations will be made. 'It might also have a protective effect on other respiratory illnesses like colds and flu, and viruses that we do not have a specific vaccine for,' said Prof Lynn. The volunteers in the trials are predominantly healthcare workers in hospitals in Australia and Europe. The process for participation sees them sign up as 'informed' volunteers and everyone involved is fully aware of what the trial is for and how it will be undertaken. It's also a randomised trial which means some people will be given the real BCG jab while other participants will be given a saline, fake vaccine. The volunteers themselves won't be aware of whether or not they have been given the BCG vaccine but Prof Lynn and the other people involved with his team will. It's expected the trial will see around half the volunteers get the BCG jab and the other half the fake vaccine with the overall aim being to see if those who get the real jab prove less likely to test positive for Covid-19 or less likely to have antibodies in their blood. With regard to the outlook for the trial, Prof Lynn said there is plenty of reason to feel optimistic that it will lead to positive results. 'We wouldn't have set it up on this scale if we did not think it would have an effect on Covid-19,' he said. Prof Lynn admitted there is some cause for excitement about the trials and what they could lead to. He said the opportunity to contribute to something that could have a positive effect on a global scale, as a result of what the world is going through now, is very rare. 'A lot of hard work goes into these trials and like I said they normally take a year [to prepare] but we have done it in a number of weeks and we are very pleased to play our part,' he said. There are around 30 people working specifically on the trial in south Australia but they are part of a much larger team across Australia and Europe. B lack Lives Matter organisers in London have said the upcoming demonstrations in the capital will be the movements largest yet in the UK. Thousands of protesters are expected to descend on Hyde Park on Wednesday, as worldwide outrage continues to grow over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last week. The 46-year-old African American was filmed gasping and pleading I cant breathe as a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes. The officer has since been fired and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Thousands broke UK lockdown rules and descended on central London on Sunday for a Kneel for Floyd" demonstration / PA As protests convulsed cities from coast to coast for a seventh consecutive night, President Donald Trump threatened to deploy the US military to quell the most serious wave of civil unrest since 1968. On Sunday thousands of demonstrators broke social distancing regulations to gather in Trafalgar Square for a Kneel for Floyd protest, while hundreds marched through Peckham and Brixton in south London on Monday. Police officers take the knee in support of George Floyd protesters 1 /8 Police officers take the knee in support of George Floyd protesters AFP via Getty Images AP AFP via Getty Images AP Reuters Aleeia Abraham Both protests were organised by London chapters of the Black Lives Matter movement. An activist speaking on behalf of these organisers said Wednesdays action in Hyde Park, as well as further demonstrations at Parliament Square and the US Embassy this weekend, would be "larger than anything we saw in previous Black Lives Matter protests. He told the Standard: We want as many Londoners to join as possible. We hope people will engage in action in any way that they can, whether it be a protest or whether it be supporting an existing campaign or otherwise. The spokesperson said the London BLM group want as many Londoners to join safely as possible, while wearing masks and gloves / PA The spokesperson said the protests were organised to "show solidarity with the people of the US, particularly black Americans" and because "the injustice in the United States has refocused the similar problems we have here in the United Kingdom. He added: Since 1990 almost one person a week has died at the hands of the police or prison system in Britain, and we need accountability and reform here as well. This crisis has to stop if we dont want to go in the same direction as the United States. Now a worldwide movement, Black Lives Matter was founded in 2013 in response to the killing of black teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida. The latest demonstrations have not been endorsed by the London chapters umbrella group Black Lives Matter UK, which is currently not calling protests due to the life-threatening reality of the pandemic. The spokesperson said: We just cant expect people to stay in their homes and to stay indoors when this crisis is taking place in our police and prisons system" / PA The spokesperson for Black Lives Matter London defended calling for mass gatherings amidst the coronavirus crisis, and urged demonstrators to wear face masks and gloves. It comes after a report by Public Health England confirmed that people from BAME backgrounds are more at risk from Covid-19. The spokesman said: Its a very difficult situation, where black people are disproportionately dying of Covid-19, but black people are also disproportionately dying in the police and prisons system. People should not be made to choose between one or the other. Given the very urgent situation which is taking place at the moment in the United States, and the fact that we are seeing an escalation of stop and search and other forms of policing in this country at the moment, we are going to have to work very hard to have to try and tackle both these crises. That is what we are trying to do. London protesters held signs reading "no justice, no peace" and "we will not be silent" at weekend demonstrations / PA We just cant expect people to stay in their homes and to stay indoors when this crisis is taking place in our police and prisons system. We are just urging people to stay as safe as possible during these protests. To wear gloves, to wear masks, to do everything that they can." The charity Stand Up to Racism is also calling for demonstrations, asking Britons to assemble in a socially distanced manner at 6pm on Monday in cities around the UK to demand justice for Mr Floyd, as well as a public inquiry in Britain into the disproportionate BAME deaths during the coronavirus crisis. A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: "We will have an appropriate policing plan in place." Natural gas producers have had little to cheer about over the past few months after prices sunk to multi-year lows amid a huge oversupply and warm weather. The slowdown could not have come at a worse time for the burgeoning U.S. LNG industry, which has experienced explosive growth over the past decade that put the nation on the cusp of becoming the world's largest LNG exporter ahead of Qatar and Australia. But now, U.S. LNG producers can afford to smile after nabbing a key customer: Turkey. Turkey's LNG imports from the U.S. tripled during the first quarter to nearly a million tons (48 billion cubic feet of natural gas) as Ankara continued to distance itself from Russian and Iranian natural gas. Source: EnergyInDepth Cutting ties with Russia Gazprom's share in Turkish gas imports tumbled below 10% from 33% during last year's corresponding period, good for a 72% decline. Experts have pointed fingers at the recent political tussle between Ankara and the Kremlin in Syria and Libya as being to blame for the growing bad blood. Turkey's Energy Market Regulatory Authority has also reported that the country received 2 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Iran during the timeframe, down 15% Y/Y. At the root of the problem is a blown-up natural gas pipeline charged with carrying ~10 billion cubic meters of Iranian natural gas to Turkey annually that has come under repeated attack with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) claiming responsibility for the latest. Turkey has been reluctant to do repair work on the damaged pipe and has even declined Iran's offer for assistance. Related: Saudi Arabia Could Set Trend For Higher Oil Prices In June Turkey has also dramatically ramped up its LNG imports from Azeri over the past few months, receiving 924,28 million cubic meters of Azerbaijan natural gas in March, good for nearly a quarter of its nat gas imports for the month. Boon for U.S. LNG The increasing U.S. LNG exports to Turkey certainly is a welcome development. EIA data shows that the U.S. exported 2,836,327 million cubic feet of natural gas and another 1,819,386 cubic feet of LNG in 2019, compared to 1,497,771 cubic feet of natural gas and just 16,255 of LNG back in 2014. Exports to Turkey in 2019 amounted to 30,075 million cubic feet, representing a mere 0.7 percent of total exports. However, the current clip of Turkish exports of nearly 50 billion cubic feet per quarter means that Turkey is set to become a top-five natural gas customer for the United States after Canada, Mexico, South Korea, and Japan. Politics aside, low LNG prices appear to be behind Turkey's decision to dump Russia and Iran. Asian spot prices for liquefied natural gas recently dipped to a record low of less than $2 per mmBtu due to lackluster demand as economies the world over continued being on lockdown. Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR has been willing to renegotiate its replacement contracts with Turkey to reflect the prevailing low prices, something Gazprom has been dragging its feet on. For the first time, Turkey's LNG imports are now outpacing purchases of natural gas through pipelines. Related: Three Reasons Oil Prices Are Bouncing Back Source: Business Insider Flooded Markets Unfortunately, the overall natural gas outlook remains rather bleak. After a brief rally, natural gas prices have resumed their downtrend, with the August contract poised to test the June contract lows at $1.55 per mmBtu as the markets remain oversupplied with the commodity. LNG producers have been storing excess inventories in the seas, with fears that a price war between Qatar, Australia, and the U.S. could trigger an even worse selloff. But maybe the supply overhang will not last much longer. U.S. natural gas exports declined to 5.6 billion cubic feet per day in the final week of May after averaging 6.7 Bcf per day during the first three weeks. This marked the lowest level of LNG feed gas deliveries in eight months, despite the commissioning of an additional 2.0 Bcf/d baseload of new liquefaction capacity over this period. Meanwhile, warmer than normal weather in the midwest and east coast is expected to drive up cooling demand, while stronger manufacturing as economies gradually re-open is likely to support demand. By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: One thing was very clear when schools made a massive pivot to remote learning this spring: Students, who already spent huge amounts of time staring at cellphone and computer screens, would be on them even more. The impact that the increased screen time will likely have on K-12 students development and social skills is yet to be seen. But the potentially negative effects were already a big concern among educators and child-development experts well before the pandemic. Now, those concerns are heightened and will likely rise if the pandemic forces schools to continue systemwide virtual learning programs. At the same time, educators are seeing the potential benefits of the expanded use of digital devices and weighing those upsides against the downsides. Prior to the pandemic, in February, the EdWeek Research Center surveyed 965 principals and teachers on a host of questions related to the use of digital devices by K-12 students in, and outside of, school. The nationally representative survey shows, for instance, that more than half of educators said their students are less skilled at in-person interactions than they and their peers were at the same age, because they are so accustomed to interacting via devices. And about 40 percent said students need explicit instruction on how to interact with others in person because so much of their experience with human interaction comes from devices. Those findings are arguably even more relevant today, as schools have scrambled this spring to equip more and more students with Chromebooks, iPads, and other digital devices they can use to learn at home. Students will be bringing those devices back to school buildings once they reopen to use in their classrooms. Education Week followed up in February with interviews of several principals who responded to the survey, such as Tom Denning, the principal of Riley Elementary School in Gold Beach, Ore., for a big-picture view of how the proliferation of digital devices are affecting students, teachers, and school life in general. Heres what the principals had to say. Technology Moves Faster Than We Do Denning recalled when he used to have to tell students to stop talking so loud on the bus ride to a field trip. Now the ride is quiet: All the students have their earbuds in or are on their cellphones. Theyll send a text and not deal with anything face to face, Denning said. Theres a concern that they are not learning how to deal with people. They dont know how to deal with emotions, and its not a good situation. Katherine Meints, the principal of Brentsville High School in Prince William County, Va., shares those concerns. They are losing the nuance of conversation, she said. In the lunchroom, kids are sharing TikToks and Snapchats. I would say a lot of the conversation and maybe a quarter of the room stems around something thats happening on their phones. The changes in student interactions are just one example of how the proliferation of cellphones, tablets, and other mobile devices are shifting the culture of K-12 far beyond teaching and learning, impacting social and emotional factors, discipline, and student attention. On the one hand, educators overwhelmingly say cellphones distract their students, make it easier for them to cheat and plagiarize, and have contributed to a whole host of classroom-management challenges. On the other hand, cellphones make it easier to communicate with parents, can be a great student motivational tool, and can open up a whole new world of possibilities when it comes to teaching and learning. In many ways, mobile devices have made things better for students. Its weighing all the good things while making sure that the negative things become nonissues, said Ryan Merritt, the principal of Stanford Elementary School in Las Vegas. The biggest struggle for anyone in our field is that technology moves faster than we do. Treasure Trove of Information For all the school-related headaches that come with the proliferation of modern communication tools, many teachers and principals say that mobile devices in schools have helped improve student learning. In fact, the majority64 percentsaid students learn at least a little or lot more thanks to mobile devices, according to the EdWeek Research Center survey. You can find a treasure trove of information instantly, said Kevin Keltner, the principal of Fort Zumwalt South High School in St. Peters, Mo. I think thats helped students as they engage in the world and interact with others. For instance, Dennings students use their devices in social studies class to supplement history lessons with real-world, real-time information. A teacher might have students check the latest polls in a political race or see whats going on with the coronavirus. Our textbooks arent going to cover that, he said. Cellphones also help schools stay in better contact with families. In fact, 75 percent say the possibility of parent communication through mobile devicesand applications such as Seesaw and ClassDojo that allow for parent communicationhave had a positive effect on the quality of parent-teacher communication. Sixty-one percent responded that devices have been good for student academic outcomes. And 51 percent say theyve improved behavior. Educators also use social media to keep parents in the loop about whats going on in school. Erik Paulson, the principal of Harmony Elementary School in Middletown, N.J., said he documents whats going on in his classrooms for families. If I see something cool going on, Ill snap a pic and send it out on social media, he said. Parents like that. But the parent-communication apps also come with a downside, said Scott Clayton, the principal of Scofield Magnet Middle School in Stamford, Conn.: They can cause some serious anxiety, both for parents and students. I think sometimes it stresses kids and parents out a little bit, he said. Parents will get an instant notification that a teacher has updated a grade. It increases their stress and their need to check their grades all the time. ... I advise parents to disable the instant notification so they arent immediately alerted to grade changes. Most educators surveyed said their schools dont allow unrestricted cellphone use in classrooms. Just over a quarter28 percentsay cellphones are permitted in school but must be kept in pouches that render them inoperable or not be used at all during the day. Another 16 percent say students may have their phones with them during the day but can only use them outside of instructional time. And another 15 percent allow teachers to set their own classroom practices. Jay Posick, the principal of Merton Intermediate School in Merton, Wis., said his students dont need to use their smartphones in class because the district offers each of them a Chromebook. But he says he allows cellphones in school because parents are insistent. Our parents are reliant upon their childrens cellphones, he said. Theyd rather text their son or daughter than let the main office [get in touch with their children]. The Biggest Behavior Problem The constant stimulation from mobile devices has taken a toll on students attention spans, educators say. More than half of educators surveyed, 55 percent, said they completely agreed that the amount of time students spend on devices meant they had shorter attention spans than their classmates when they were in school. Another 32 percent partly agreed with that statement. Just 8 percent said they partly or completely disagreed. Whats more, cellular technology makes it easier for students to avoid focusing on their work in class, the survey found. More than half of educators56 percentsaid that students are too often off-task on their mobile devices, using the technology for one thing when they are supposed to be focusing on another. And a majority of educators, also 56 percent, said that when students are off- task, they are most likely playing digital games. About another quarter said students are listening to or watching videos or on social media when they are off-task. Some schools have found a workaround: Stanford Elementary in Las Vegas, for instance, has installed a tracking app so that teachers can see exactly what kids are looking at online. Mobile devices also complicate teaching because the facts and figures that students used to be forced to memorize are merely a Google search away. That can make it tougher for educators to get students to focus on what they are learning in class, said Denning from Riley Creek Elementary in Oregon. Thats probably the biggest behavior problem I deal with on a regular basis is defiance and disrespect from the kids. They dont need us, Denning said. They can get all the answers they need on that computer. George Floyd's family lawyer has condemned Donald Trump's response to protests over the suspected murder as 'absolutely repulsive,' claiming the President is 'pouring fuel on the fire,' and calling for international condemnation to 'shame' America. Protests have been taking place across America - with solidarity coming from around the world - after footage emerged of a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd for up to eight minutes. Since protests began Mr Trump has warned 'When the looting starts, the shooting starts,' as well as calling on governors to use aggressive tactics in their cities, while also stating soldiers could be deployed on US streets to quell protests. Lee Merritt (right) spoke to Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain with Wanda Cooper-Jones (left) the mother of Ahmaud Arbery, who was shot dead while jogging in February Civil rights lawyer Lee Merritt says Donald Trump's response to protests has been 'absolutely repulsive' Speaking on Good Morning Britain today, Lee Merritt, a civil rights lawyer representing Mr Floyd's family, said: 'Mr Trump's response has been absolutely repulsive what he said was when the looting starts the shooting will start. 'The shooting started a long time ago. There's no nation in the modern world that kills, incarcerates, as many citizens as America, mostly black and brown. 'There's a long history of shooting by police officers directly at citizens, particularly citizens of colour, that the president either seems to be ignorant of, or has very little regard for.' Protesters in Columbus, Ohio, held a die-in on Monday as the United States continues to respond to the suspected murder of George Floyd Angel Buechner, George Floyd's niece, spoke to protestors outside the residence of Minnesota governor Tim Walz on Monday Derek Chauvin (above) has been charged with third degree murder and manslaughter after shocking footage showed George Floyd being kneed in the neck while being arrested last week The civil rights lawyer said he had travelled to protests in Minnesota, the state where Mr Floyd died, and claimed he himself had been attacked with mace by law enforcement at protests. Mr Merritt called for 'international condemnation' of America's response to protests, saying the country should be 'shamed for its actions'. Donald Trump was taken to his Presidential bunker on Friday night amid protests in Washington, he has since called for 'aggressive tactics' to dispel groups and curfews have been brought in across the country. On Monday Mr Trump declared himself the 'law and order president' as law enforcement officials used rubber bullets, tear gas and officers on horse back to clear out protesters so Trump could walk to an historic church across from the White House for a photo-op. He went on to warn Americans the military could be deployed in cities where protests continue - as looting takes place in some parts of the country. Mr Merritt added: 'It heightens anxiety, it heightens fear, it heightens the idea that we're out of options. 'When you're backed into a corner when anyone's backed into a corner and in that corner you can die, people will come out fighting. And I think he is throwing fuel on the fire and these protests will be extended because of his actions.' The lawyer also represents the family of Ahmaud Arbery, an African American who was fatally shot while out jogging in Brunswick, Georgia, in February. He was 25. Ahmaud's mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, joined Mr Merritt on GMB today. She said the death of Mr Floyd had a 'dramatic change' on her, adding: 'I was beginning to heal, beginning to feel better. I viewed the video of Mr Floyd being murdered, it flipped me back to think of Ahmaud when he was killed back in February.' She went on to say: 'Unfortunately the citizens of the US, especially the African Americans they feel like we don't have a voice, Ahmaud was just murdered back in February, here it is in May we have the same type of events occurring again. Demonstrators have protested outside the White House in Washington, facing off against riot police following the death of George Floyd Wanda Cooper-Jones called for police to be held to account in America in the wake of her son and Mr Floyd's deaths 'The people of America are ready for a change. We need answers and foremost we need this killing to stop and to stop immediately.' The mother-of-three joined her lawyer in calling for a change in US laws so police can be held accountable. She added: 'We need the local authorities to do what they're being paid to do, to protect and to serve and they've failed us with that.' Paying tribute to her son, Ms Wanda-Cooper said: 'He had dreams, ambitions and goals. He was no different than anyone else who was 25-years-old. 'Ahmaud had plans to go back to school to become an electrician, he was not granted the chance to become a father. I'm just lost for words because he died so young, so senselessly.' Three men have been charged in relation to Mr Arbery's death. Derek Chauvin has been charged with third degree murder and manslaughter following Mr Floyd's death and has been sacked as a police officer. Carrie Lam takes aim at US response to racial justice protests and slams its plans to revoke Hong Kongs special status. Carrie Lam, the chief executive of Hong Kong, has accused the United States of double standards in its response to violent protests and new national security laws planned for the territory, and warned that Washingtons plan to sanction the city would only damage its own interests. The comments on Tuesday followed days of demonstrations in the US, some of which descended into violence and looting amid widespread anger over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died in police custody last week. In many US states, soldiers were on the streets to quell the violence. They are very concerned about their own national security, but on our national security, they look through tinted glasses, Lam said at her weekly news conference. There are riots in the US we are seeing how local governments are reacting. When we had similar riots in Hong Kong, we saw what position they adopted then. The semi-autonomous Chinese city was rocked last year by months of mass protests, which riot police stamped out with more than 9,000 arrests. The US was critical of Hong Kongs response, and tensions have ratcheted up in recent weeks after China said it would impose national security laws aimed at tackling secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference in the territory. The law, which is yet to be drafted, will bypass Hong Kongs legislature and allow Chinese security agencies to operate in the city. Critics have said the law will mean the end of the one country, two systems framework which allows Hong Kong considerable autonomy and freedoms unknown in mainland China. US President Donald Trump last week said he would end Hong Kongs special trading status, which was granted under a 1992 law on the condition that the city retains key freedoms and autonomy. Only hurt themselves Lam said the move would be self-defeating and took aim at the Trump administration for its own response to the racial justice protests sweeping the US. Foreign governments are criticising over government, she said. Some have threatened action and I can only say they are adopting double standards. Now, about the so-called sanctions or removing Hong Kongs special status, these acts will only hurt themselves and do not benefit anyone. Some 1,300 US businesses have a presence in the international financial hub, Lam noted, generating the largest trade surplus for the US compared with any other country or territory. Hong Kong also allows US citizens to enter without a visa, a privilege that Lam said is not reciprocated. She did not elaborate on whether visa-free travel could be rescinded in response to any trade sanctions, but Chinese officials have pledged to implement countermeasures to any move by the US. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said Washington is considering the option of welcoming people from Hong Kong, after the United Kingdom that it was said it was prepared to offer extended visa rights and a pathway to citizenship for almost three million Hong Kong residents. The territory was a former British colony and was handed over to China in 1997. When asked at the American Enterprise Institute on Friday if Washington would consider allowing Hong Kong people into the US, Pompeo said: We are considering it. I dont know precisely how it will play out. The British have, as you know, a different relationship. A lot of these folks have British national passports. Theres a long history between Hong Kong and the United Kingdom; its very different. But were taking a look at it. His remarks were shared by the State Department on Monday. Last year, Trump approved legislation stating that Hong Kong residents may not be denied visas because they have been subjected to politically motivated arrest, detention, or other adverse government action. On Friday, Trump also issued a proclamation suspending entry of Chinese nationals identified as potential security risks, something sources said could affect thousands. In a statement on Monday, Pompeo said the move would apply only to graduate students and researchers targeted, co-opted and exploited by the Chinese government, representing only a small subset of such applicants. Russia Records High Level of US Military Activity Near Country's Borders, General Staff Says Sputnik News 13:24 GMT 01.06.2020 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia has recorded high level of US and its NATO allies' military activity near its borders, the chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the Russian General Staff, Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy, said Monday. "The Russian Defence Ministry is constantly monitoring and registering a high level of military activity by the US and its NATO allies near our borders", Rudskoy told a briefing. Even amid the coronavirus pandemic, NATO increased the number of drills that appear to target Russia, Rudskoy said. To expand its ability for surveillance over Russia, NATO is modernising GLOBUS III radar station in Norway, the chief of the main operational directorate said. The chief of the Russian General Staff's Main Operational Directorate also slammed the United States' "aggressive" military surveillance in the Mediterranean Sea area, adding that this contradicts the agreement on Syria. "The US Navy's aircraft of the Poseidon family are systematically approaching Russian military bases in Khmeimim and Tartus, when flying over the Eastern Mediterranean. To prevent aggressive surveillance moves, we are forced to scramble our destroyers on duty. Seven cases of this kind happened in April, while in May already 17 such cases were recorded, which is an over two-times increase. We see such flights as contradicting the signed agreements to prevent incidents in Syria's airspace", Rudskoy said. The US has increased the intensity of its aerial surveillance over the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea and the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy said. "The increasing of the missile defence infrastructure in Poland continues, in addition to the US object deployed in Romania. All the concerns related to the possible placement of Tomahawk cruise missiles there remain in force", Rudskoy added. Russian General Staff Slams NATO for Planning Drills in Baltics NATO planned to conduct military drills in the Baltics and the Caucasus on 9 May eve, and only the coronavirus quarantine prevented this, the chief of the Russian General Staff's Main Operational Directorate has stated. "It is necessary to note that these drills are clearly of an anti-Russian nature. For example, amphibious operations in the Baltics and the Caucasus were expected to be held on the eve of 9 May. This did not happen only due to the quarantine measures. Almost all the combat training operations were conducted at training grounds, located in immediate proximity to our borders. Objects located on the territory of the Russian Federation are seen as possible targets", Rudskoy said. For the first time since the end of the Cold War, NATO held military drills in the Barents Sea just before 9 May, during which Russian ballistic missiles interception was practiced, Rudskoy added, qualifying these exercises as a provocation. In the meantime, Russia will move large-scale drills Kavkaz-2020 away from the borders and deeper inside the country. "We will continue with the policy of de-escalation. These year, the Armed Forces are not planning to hold large drills near borders of NATO member states", Rudskoy told a briefing. Russia is ready to adjust the location of its drills if NATO responds in kind, the senior military official added. The country is also ready to agree with NATO minimal distance between military ships and planes and rules for the interaction of personnel, Rudskoy said. "Today, when the world is focusing its efforts on fighting the spread of the coronavirus infection, it is necessary to reduce confrontation, refrain from aggressive activities and show of force", Rudskoy said. At the same time NATO has not paid attention to Russia's proposals on de-escalation, Rudskoy said. "All of our ideas on easing military tensions were laid out in the letter of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Our proposals were de facto ignored", Rudskoy said. Despite the ongoing global pandemic, NATO's Enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group in Latvia held military exercises in April, which saw roughly 600 troops and 100 military vehicles deployed in the south of the country close to the city of Daugavpils. Russia Records High Level of US Military Activity Near Country's Borders The chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the Russian General Staff further elaborated that Russia has recorded high level of US and its NATO allies' military activity near its borders. "The Russian Defence Ministry is constantly monitoring and registering a high level of military activity by the US and its NATO allies near our borders", Rudskoy told a briefing. Even amid the coronavirus pandemic, NATO increased the number of drills that appear to target Russia, Rudskoy said. To expand its ability for surveillance over Russia, NATO is modernising GLOBUS III radar station in Norway, the chief of the main operational directorate said. Over the past month, the United States has significantly increased B1-B strategic bombers flights near Russia's borders, including 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) away from the Kaliningrad region, according to the chief of the Russian General Staff's Main Operational Directorate. The air forces and navies of the US and its allies are now operating more actively near Russia's borders, Rudskoy said. "In April of this year, B-1B strategic bombers conducted one flight over the Kamchatka Peninsula, while in May already five such flights were registered ... During these flights, US aircraft approached the border of the Kaliningrad region by a distance of up to 10 kilometres". Rudskoy said. Apart from that, the B-1B strategic bombers flew over Ukraine for the first time ever in late May, Rudskoy added. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address LONDON - Chinas proposed national security law for Hong Kong is a clear violation of Beijings international obligations, Britains foreign secretary said Tuesday. In a statement to the House of Commons, Dominic Raab said we strongly oppose such an authoritarian law being imposed by China in breach of international law. Hong Kong is a former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997, under a One Country, Two Systems agreement that guarantees the city a high degree of autonomy. Chinas largely ceremonial parliament voted last week to bypass Hong Kongs legislature and develop and enact national security legislation on its own for the semi-autonomous territory. Critics, including governments in Britain, the U.S. and Canada, are worried that the laws would erode liberties such as free speech and opposition political activities. It would up-end Chinas One Country, Two Systems paradigm, Raab said. And it would be a clear violation of Chinas international obligations, including those made specifically to the United Kingdom under the Joint Declaration. We are not seeking to intervene in Chinas internal affairs, he added. Only to hold China to its international commitments, just as China expects of the United Kingdom. Raab also pledged to stand by Hong Kong and uphold Britains historic responsibilities to the territory. Even at this stage I sincerely hope China will reconsider its approach, he said. But if not, the U.K. will not just look the other way when it comes to the people of Hong Kong. Britains government announced last week that if China follows through with the proposed security law, British officials would open pathways to British citizenship for those Hong Kong residents who hold British National (Overseas) passports. The current six-month visa limit would be extended to 12 months for those passport holders, Raab said. Beijings resolve to push through the laws against secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference in Hong Kong appears to have been hardened by the months of often-violent anti-government protests in the city last year, and a determination to prevent them from reigniting this summer. There's been endless political debate in recent weeks about whether WAs hard border closure is in the interest of public health or a move made to appease popular opinion but with just 0.3 per cent of those visiting refused entry, what does the closure actually look like? In mid-March when calls for WA to make the most of its isolation and close its interstate border were growing, Premier Mark McGowan warned Parliament a cut-off from the rest of the country would have severe implications for all Australians and all Western Australians including disruptions to supply chains, fresh food, interstate medical needs and the mining industry. WA's border has been closed since April 5, with around Credit:WA Government Three weeks later on April 5, he made the historic decision to close the border, creating an island inside an island - a move nine out of ten West Australians support according to a recent survey. But the small print of the closure allowed much of what Mr McGowan had warned would cripple WA to continue under the guise of a long list of exemptions which includes fly-in, fly-out workers, government officials, health care workers, truck drivers and the wide-casting category for those otherwise seeking approval to enter. Representative Justin Amash Calls for End to Qualified Immunity for Police Congressman Justin Amash (I-Mich.) is introducing legislation that will remove a law called qualified immunity, which makes it difficult to prosecute a government official for violating a citizens rights. Amash sent out a letter to his colleagues in which he introduced the Ending Qualifiied Immunity Act, asking his fellow congress members to sign onto his bill. This week, I am introducing the Ending Qualified Immunity Act to eliminate qualified immunity and restore Americans ability to obtain relief when police officers violate their constitutionally secured rights, he wrote. Under qualified immunity, police are immune from legal responsibility unless the person whose rights they violated can show that there is a previous case in the same area, involving the same facts, where a judge ruled the actions to be a in violation of the constitution. George Floyd was killed by police On May 25 in Minneapolis. Two officers pinned and handcuffed Floyd on a city street, one stood around the scene and a fourth held is knee on Floyds neck well after Floyd lost consciousness. He has since been fired along with the other three officers, and has been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Floyds family may have to get beyond the legal doctrine of qualified immunity that protects police and other government officials from accountability for their illegal and unconstitutional acts. According to Cornell Law, The Supreme Court created qualified immunity in 1982 to achieve two outcomes; the need to hold public officials accountable when they exercise power irresponsibly and the need to shield officials from harassment, distraction, and liability when they perform their duties reasonably. This rule has significantly narrowed the situations in which police can be held liable even when the violation by the officer is obvious. Civil rights lawyer Lee Merritt recently addressed some of the key actions that the legal and civil community are taking in response to the death of Floyd. Merritt is currently representing Ahmaud Arbery, an African American man who was shot and killed during an altercation with two armed men while out jogging. One of the men was formerly a police officer. We are demanding that our lawmakers and congressional decision makers craft legislation specifically designed to deal with the crisisthe crisis of lack of accountability and excessive force in American policing, said Lee Merritt. Civil rights lawyers like Merritt and criminal justice advocates are calling for changes national use-of-force standards and limiting the power of police unions and changes to the issue of qualified immunity which is currently before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court considered 13 different petitions for cases involving qualified immunity at a conference hearing May 28. The Court could take up cases involving this issue in the near future. An opponent of the doctrine, Clark Neily of the Cato Institute, said that Floyds death must be a catalyst for police accountability. With Minneapolis burning, its important to know whos responsible. A large measure of blame goes to SCOTUS, which has imposed on us a judicially invented policy of near-zero accountability for law enforcement that it steadfastly refuses to reconsider, wrote Neily. This pattern continues because police are legally, politically, and culturally insulated from consequences for violating the rights of the people whom they have sworn to serve. That must change so that these incidents of brutality stop happening, Amash added. My bill, the Ending Qualified Immunity Act, does this by explicitly noting in the statute that the elements of qualified immunity outlined by the Supreme Court are not a defense to liability, Amash said. SOUTH SHORE At the corner of 71st and Chappel cops in riot gear stood between protesters and a shop where locals could buy Air Jordans, at least before the looters struck on Sunday. From the perspective of a news helicopter and in the context of three days of protests, violence and looting in Chicago and an organized attack by an anti-fascist bloc the tense scene could be easily framed as part of the national protest of the murder of George Floyd, who died when a Minneapolis cop held a knee to his neck. But on this South Shore corner, young African Americans and cops in Chicago-blue riot helmets knew better. This protest on this corner was about their broken relationship, and our city. No disrespect to the late Mr. Floyd. [COMMENTARY] By early Monday afternoon, roiling righteous indignation and law enforcement frustration manifested in a couple minor melees, that community organizer Will Calloway described as natural when tensions are high. Youre dealing with real raw emotion in real raw people. This the hood. People dont realize 'Terrortown' is right over there. 'Snoop' got shot right here. That was on national news, Calloway said. Hes talking about the beloved neighborhood barber Harith Snoop Augustus who was shot and killed by Chicago police on the same block almost two years ago. This is that same neighborhood, you feel me. The Chicago police department, with the intel they have, they know the capabilities of this community, you know what Im saying," Calloway said. "They know, and thats why theyve got all these resources over here like that. Police and protesters faced off here on July 14, 2018, shortly after a female officer fatally shot Augustus, who was armed with a handgun, as he tried to run away. Protesters chanted, Who do you serve? Who do you protect? A very large crowd is gathering at 71st/Chappel, where Chicago Police say they shot and killed a person this evening. It's hard to put in words how tense the scene is. Witnesses say a female officer shot the man in the back while he was running away. He was a local barber. pic.twitter.com/aaV6smY07V Nader Issa (@NaderDIssa) July 15, 2018 Protesters threw rocks and bottles. Cops chased them, swinging truncheons. Story continues Police didnt release unedited video of the shooting for 13 months. The Chicago Office of Police Accountability is still investigating. On Monday, on the same block where Augustus died, nobody has forgotten. Calloway and fellow activist Jedidiah Brown did what they could to keep peace. Ive been communicating with the commander. Im communicating with the community. Were trying to stay peaceful," Calloway said. "Were doing our best. We cant promise anything because were dealing with humans on both sides." Around 1 p.m., the crowd of mostly young African Americans clashed with police. Bottles and rocks flew. Officers swung their heavy wooden batons. Activists Jedidiah Brown (left) and Will Calloway worked to keep peace at a Tuesday protest in South Shore. (Mark Konkol/Patch) People got really focused and police didnt keep their promises and made the situation go back to a heightened unrest, Brown said. I got hit in my face today. I got hit three, four, five times. I was out here trying to get this thing under control but the cops were hitting me, lying to me. So, how can I be mad at young people for acting like this when the grown folks word aint worth s---. Eleven people were arrested. The crowd stayed. So, did the cops. The standoff that lasted hours longer, maintaining a tense peace. In the late afternoon, there was little mention of Mr. Floyd. And no anarchists lurking around dark corners. People gathered at the corner of 71st and Chappel told me they refused to let narrative of this protest, on this corner in their neighborhood, be hijacked by outside voices shoving words in their mouth. We have spoke. We have protested. We have begged. We have pleaded. Please stop killing us, protester Dionna Flowers said. Enough is enough. Protestor Dionna Flowers said Tuesday protest in South Shore sent a message to Chicago police, "Stop killing us. Enough is Enough." (Mark Konkol/ Patch) Calloway, who helped organize Mondays gathering, condemned the mass looting perpetrated by African-American Chicagoans that has destroyed small business in black neighborhoods. He doesn't agree with it but understands. This is part of our healing process from what weve been feeling throughout the years and hyperly for the last couple months pent-up, 40 million unemployed Americans, people losing loved ones [to COVID-19]. All of it plays an effect, man, when youre dealing with people, he said. Personally, for us, we do have demands. And I wont tell anybody to stop protesting until our demands are met. Calloways talking about eliminating state laws and union contract rules that give police the benefit of the doubt and time to get the story straight when facing misconduct allegations. He wants to force the city to meet reform benchmarks set out in the federal governments consent decree. And a comprehensive development plan for blighted areas due to City Hall neglect. Thats what this protest on this corner in this neighborhood was all about. That might not come across on the TV news when local outrage gets juxtaposed against national angst. The message gets blurred by lawless looting that hours later inspired a sitting President to threaten to unleash the full force of the military on Americans. But Monday, down on 71st and Chappel where Snoop died, tense moments between protesters and police were personal. Standing there, I could feel it. Our citys festering wound. Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series, "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docu-series on CNN, and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary, "16 Shots. More from Mark Konkol: This article originally appeared on the Chicago Patch Pastor And His Wife Shot Dead On Their Farm In Taraba A clergyman, Reverend Emmanuel Saba Bileya, and his wife, Julianna, have been killed by yet to be identified gunmen in Mararraba community in Donga local government area of Tabara state. The spokesperson of the state police command, ASP David Misal, who confirmed this , said the pastor, who is the Senior Pastor at Reform Church and his wife were on their farm when the gunmen stormed the place and opened fire on them, killing them instantly. It was an attack on the pastor and his wife on their farm. While they were working on the farm, suddenly armed men came and opened fire on them leading to the death of the pastor and his wife.the spokesperson said Misal said the matter is currently being investigated. Pastor Saba is said to have recently graduated from a University in the US. The deceased couple leaves behind eight children. Meanwhile friends have taken to social media to mourn the late couple. Almost two years ago, the Brown family packed up their Las Vegas homes and headed for Flagstaff, Arizona. Flagstaff, an area known for its laidback vibe, was supposed to be the familys forever home, but problems are mounting, and family followers think the cast of Sister Wives will see the inside of a U-Haul again soon. If Christine Browns recent road trip is a clue, the family might be headed back to the state fans first met them in. Flagstaff may not be as welcoming or financially feasible as the Brown family originally thought From the moment the Brown family stepped foot in Arizona, theyve dealt with nothing but drama. Reports have swirled that they were in serious financial trouble. Additionally, fighting inside the family reached a new level over the last 12 months, and the people of Flagstaff have reportedly not been particularly welcoming. Meri Brwon, Janelle Brown, Kody Brown, Christine Brown and Robyn Brown | Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images RELATED: Sister Wives Cast Has Reportedly Run Into Filming Problems in Flagstaff Combine all of that with the fact that the family has failed to break ground on their large plot of land, and fans are skeptical that Flagstaff will be the familys longterm home. Several wives have also taken to traveling extensively since setting down roots in the Arizona college town. Meri Brown, whos drama with Kody has been especially uncomfortable to witness, had traveled across the United States in the months leading up to the lockdown. Since the lockdown, shes seemingly set down roots in Las Vegas, at least part of the time. Janelle Brown has also been spotted traversing the country. Christine was spotted in St. George recently Christine has been pretty busy lately. Aside from dropping clues about the upcoming season via her Facebook Live events, shes also been traveling a bit. Fans were particularly interested in a recent trip she took back to St. George, Utah. The visit, amidst the pandemic, has some followers wondering if the mother of six is scoping out potential places to live in the area. RELATED: Sister Wives: Christine Brown Wonders If Moving to Flagstaff Was a Mistake In Sneak Peek According to Soap Dirt, Christine, along with several of the Brown kids, packed in the car for the five-hour trip to St. George, Utah. What they were doing in the state is anyones guess, but the timing of the journey has some fans crafting exciting theories about the nature of Christines visit. Sure, she has family in the area, but the fact that she visited during a global pandemic has led some family followers to believe the reason for the visit was time-sensitive. The family already has ties to St. George Christines trip to the area aside, there are several other hints that the family could be considering yet another move. The family has yet to build on their Coyote Pass property, and they are swimming in debt. St. George is decidedly cheaper than most other areas, and the family has ties to the area already. Utah has recently decriminalized polygamy, making the area a bit friendlier for the Browns. RELATED: Sister Wives: Fans Think The Brown Family Will Sell Their Coyote Pass Property Before Building On It In the familys book, Becoming Sister Wives, Robyn recounted how she had grown up in St. George, Utah, an area that, while not far from Las Vegas, is decidedly more rural and laidback. Mykelti Brown, the daughter of Christine and Kody, also took up residence in the area after she married Tony Padron in 2016. Aspyn Brown, who married Mitch Thompson in 2018, also resides in Utah. The Brown family has yet to mention a move in their future, but it is possible they are keeping it quiet until the shows next season. A bail hearing in the case involving the 14 members of the Homeland Study Foundation who were arrested in the Kpando Municipality in the Volta Region for allegedly planning to secede from Ghana has been adjourned to Monday, June 15. All 14 suspects were picked up at Kpando Aziavi last Saturday during an alleged crunch meeting in which they were discussing strategies to destabilize Ghana. According to the military who effected the arrest, strategic documents intercepted from the meeting detailed a strategy for an uprising in the areas the group claims belong to the so-called Western Togoland. But at the hearing today Tuesday, June 2, 2020, the circuit court judge, Felix Datsomor asked the accused persons to remain in police custody until June 15 for a bail ruling. The 14 were handed over to the Volta Regional Police Command on Saturday evening, pending investigations. The group, led by Charles Kwame Kudzordi, an octogenarian, has undertaken several activities including the hoisting of the supposed flag of 'Western Togoland' in front of the Volta Regional Coordinating Council on the eve of Ghana's independence day celebration this year. Meanwhile, the military has also intensified its visibility in the region following what Major Jalal Din Ibrahim says is intelligence gathered on some planned activities of the group in the Volta Region. The military assures that with the collaboration among the Police, BNI, and the Military, all the plans of the secessionist group will be foiled. The group has been advocating for the secession of a part of Ghana which formed colonial Western Togoland from Ghana as it is currently constituted. Some members of the group have been arrested on several occasions with some of its members still standing trial. They first made calls for the secession in May 2019. Leaders of the group have been training some youth to form the core of police and military activities in the supposed new country after the declaration of independence. ---citinewsroom After eating peanuts recently, my neck became very itchy. Two days later, I woke up with a feeling that my throat was closing. The skin under my chin is still really itchy and hot nearly a week later. I have suffered with hives in the past could it be that, or have I developed a nut allergy? I am 64. Karen Goldman, by email. Your description of the rash on your neck is highly suggestive of an acute allergic reaction to the peanuts, suppressed to some extent by the antihistamines which, you say in your longer letter, you took straight after the reaction started. There are nine proteins in the peanut plant (or arachis hypogaea, to give it its botanic name) which can cause allergic reactions. If an allergic response is triggered by one or more of these proteins, the immune system overreacts and produces antibodies called immunoglobulin E (IgE). There are nine proteins in the peanut plant (or arachis hypogaea, to give it its botanic name) which can cause allergic reactions The presence of IgE antibodies is the defining feature of an allergy. They provoke immune cells to release histamine, the chemical which causes many of the symptoms of allergy. Once you have reacted to something, you will always have these IgE antibodies present in your blood. Write to Dr Scurr To contact Dr Scurr with a health query, write to him at Good Health Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT or email drmartin@dailymail.co.uk including contact details. Dr Scurr cannot enter into personal correspondence. His replies cannot apply to individual cases and should be taken in a general context. Always consult your own GP with any health worries. Advertisement Risk factors for developing a peanut allergy later in life include a history of eczema, or a family or personal history of any allergies. So the fact you have previously had hives an itchy, raised rash that can be related to an allergy suggests you fall into this high-risk category. If a patient has a mild allergic reaction to something, their GP might initially prescribe an antihistamine. Only if there was a recurrence or if the cause was uncertain would a referral then occur. One option then is for a skin test, in which a tiny dot of peanut extract is placed on the skin of the forearm, which is then pricked with a fine needle. A positive reaction a raised bump surrounded by redness, along with localised itching calls for a blood test to check for peanut-specific IgE antibodies. If this comes back positive, it is then recommended that the individual always carries an adrenaline autoinjector (such as an EpiPen) in case of a more severe reaction such as swelling around the throat and difficulty breathing. A negative blood test does not necessarily rule out the possibility of an allergy, as there can be both false negative or false positive results. Your persisting symptoms call for the opinion of an allergy expert. The fact that your itching and other symptoms began after you started eating peanuts suggests there is a connection. It would be wise to ask your GP for referral to an allergy clinic for further investigations. In the interim, ask your GP to prescribe an adrenaline autoinjector. Always make sure you have this with you, and take care to avoid any possibility of eating peanuts. (Newser) The Spanish press is calling him "El asesino octogenario del bingo"the Octogenarian Bingo Killer. Police say an 84-year-old man has been arrested after a yearlong investigation into the murder of an 83-year-old woman in Fuenlabrada, near Madrid, the Guardian reports. The victim was stabbed to death in her home but there was no sign of forced entry, suggesting that she knew her killer, police say. More than $7,000 in cash had been stolen, along with a large amount of jewelry. story continues below Investigators say the suspect was friends with the victim and used to play bingo with herand in the days following the murder, he returned to the same bingo hall with a lot more money than usual. "A search of the suspects home turned up various objects, among them two jewelry boxes that appear to have belonged to the victim," police said in a statement. Police said they also found clothing stained with the victim's blood, El Mundo reports. The man, described by prosecutors as a gambling addict, recently appeared before a judge and was sent to pretrial detention. (Read more Spain stories.) STOCKHOLM, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Wood raw-material costs in British Columbia fell for both sawmills and pulpmills in the second half of 2019. This fall comes after a seven-year period of record high costs on two fronts - high log costs for the sawmilling sector, and high wood fiber costs for the pulp industry. The decline in sawlog prices came as a result of declining demand and generally sufficient log supply for the sawmills in the province. In the Interior of BC, prices for mixed softwood sawlogs fell from an average of US$78/m3 in the 4Q/18 to US$67/m3 in the 4Q/19. This is the lowest level in two years but is still higher than prices in both Eastern Canada and the US South, according to the Wood Resource Quarterly. The forest industry in western Canada benefited from reduced log exports in late 2019. In the 4Q/19, shipments to Asia were down 11% q-o-q to just over 1.1 million m3 (see chart). This represented the lowest quarterly export volume since the 3Q/11. The biggest changes from the 4Q/18 included a 24% decline in the export volume of hemlock logs to China, and an increase in Japanese purchase of Douglas-fir logs y-o-y by 43%. Both export price and export volume declined during 2019. The average price for softwood logs shipped to Asia in the 4Q/18 was US$108/m3, and by the 4Q/19, the average price had dropped to US$96/m3 with the biggest declines seen in logs bound for China. In the second half of 2019, reduced log exports and lower lumber production in the province contributed to the downward pressure on log prices in Coastal BC. From the 4Q/18 to the 4Q/19, Douglas-fir and hemlock sawlog prices were down by amounts of 20% and 2%, respectively. Interested in wood products market information from around the world? The Wood Resource Quarterly (WRQ) is a 56-page report, established in 1988 and has subscribers in over 30 countries. The report tracks prices for sawlog, pulpwood, lumber & pellets worldwide and reports on trade and wood market developments in most key regions around the world. For more insights on the latest international forest product market trends, please go to www.WoodPrices.com. Contact Information Wood Resources International LLC Hakan Ekstrom, Seattle, USA [email protected] www.WoodPrices.com This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/wood-resources-international-llc/r/sawlog-prices-in-british-columbia-fell-to-two-year-lows-in-the-4q-19--but-remained-higher-than-those,c3126735 The following files are available for download: https://news.cision.com/wood-resources-international-llc/i/screen-shot-2020-06-02-at-2-56-49-pm,c2792482 Screen Shot 2020-06-02 at 2 56 49 PM SOURCE Wood Resources International LLC SOURCE Cision AB Related Links http://www.WoodPrices.com A Deptford police officer indicted earlier this year on charges that he intervened in a financial dispute and then tried to cover up his involvement has filed a lawsuit alleging the charges were part of a retaliation campaign. Sgt. Rudy Ruiz claims in his Superior Court suit that he was targeted by his police department colleagues after he filed a report in January 2019 alleging official misconduct by Deptford Sgt. John Leone. Ruiz claimed Leone was double dipping with his reporting of hours and stealing public time, according to the suit. Ruiz also claims he faced retaliation for complaining about racist comments made by colleagues. Deptford officials did not respond to requests for comment. As part of his supervisory duties, Ruiz was responsible for monitoring the conduct of other officers and reporting misconduct to internal affairs, he states. After filing his report on Leone, Ruiz claims Leone was overheard saying that Rudy will be wearing an orange jump suit by the end of the year, which Ruiz took as a threat of retaliation. A week after filing the report, Ruiz was told that Leone accused him of theft, according to the suit. Leone and his allies subsequently bombarded plaintiff with multiple bogus (internal affairs) complaints of harassment, theft, and official misconduct. One of those resulted in the county prosecutors office opening a criminal case against Ruiz, the suit states. Ruiz is accused of visiting a mans home in 2014 and trying to coerce the resident into returning $200 to someone else, even though the resident insisted the money was his, according to court documents. Ruiz was in uniform and driving an unmarked Deptford police car at the time. The resident filed a complaint about the officers demeanor during the incident. Ruiz allegedly tried to hide his involvement by making it appear that another officer, identified as Patrolman Daniel Garr, responded to the home. He allegedly filed a police report on the case under Garrs name and asked county dispatch to add that officer to the call. Garr never responded to the scene, according to the charges. When the department reviewed the residents complaint in October 2014, Ruiz allegedly told Garr to lie to investigators and then lied himself, according to prosecutors. Ruiz was indicted earlier this year on six second-degree counts of official misconduct and a third-degree charge of witness tampering. No explanation was provided on why it took until 2019 to bring charges in the case, but Ruiz claims in his suit that the department was aware of the matter for five years but took no action until he filed his report on Leone. In 12 years of employment with the Deptford department, Ruiz said he was never accused of harassing another officer or creating a hostile work environment, but after filing the report, he received several such complaints in a matter of months. He complained in May 2019 that he was being targeted for retaliation and requested an investigation, but no investigation occurred, according to the suit. Ruiz was also suspended without pay in another clear-cut act of retaliation. Ruiz, who is Latino and from Peru, also alleges co-workers discriminated against him because of his race and national origin. He was called a Mexican, asked if he grew up in a mud hut and asked if he had ever done Paco, which the suit describes as South American slang for ingesting a paste of street cocaine. The comments were made in front of superiors, but no action was taken to stop the behavior, he said. He also described derogatory text messages he received from members of upper management on department-issued cellphones, including Me and Kevin havent gotten paid for working Cinco de Mayo at Don Pablos. Maybe u could speak to the Don on our behalf. In another text, he was told, Im watching an old breaking bad. Never trust a South American they are a dirty dirty people. lol u see that one. Attorney Sebastian Ionno, who is representing Ruiz in the civil suit, noted that they have these text messages preserved as part of their case. Its a shame that in this day and age that this police department is so far behind the times that you have text message chains with these types of comment made, he said. In addition, Ruiz said he complained to department brass about what he saw as discrimination against officers based on their veteran status or current military service, saying the department failed to make reasonable accommodations for active duty service members to attend their military functions. Ruiz is an Iraq War veteran, according to the suit. The departments decision to ignore his report on Leone and retaliate against Ruiz was partially motivated by his complaints about the derogatory comments and mistreatment of veterans, Ruiz claims. All of his actions, including filing the report on Leone, were protected conduct under the New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act, Ruiz maintains, accusing the department of failing to post an anti-retaliation policy and failing to provide proper training and supervision to prevent workplace retaliation for CEPA-protected conduct. The suit, which names the township and Leone as defendants, seeks compensatory and punitive damages, along with attorney fees. Ruiz was suspended without pay following his indictment. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Brasilia, June 2 : Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said that he spoke with his US counterpart Donald Trump about the South American nation's possible entry into an expanded G7 group being proposed by Washington. Bolsonaro referred to Brazil's possible admission into the group of the world's wealthiest countries in a message he posted on his Twitter account on Monday in which he said he addressed the matter in a telephone conversation with Trump, reports Efe news. Bolsonaro wrote that Trump and he spoke about the expanded G7, which he insisted that Brazil must be a part of, as well as about Brazilian steel. The far-right leader did not provide more details or go into the matter further. On May 30, Trump announced that he was postponing the G7 leaders' summit, adding that it was "outdated" and that he would like to see more countries added to the group. "I'm postponing it because I don't feel that as a G7 it properly represents what's going on in the world. It is a very outdated group of countries," the President had said. Trump said he would like to see more countries within the group made up of the US, Japan, France, the UK, Italy, Canada, and Germany. "We want Australia, we want India, we want South Korea. And what do we have? That's a nice group of countries right there," he said, adding: "So it might be a G10, G11." Trump also discussed the matter on Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he invited to the upcoming G7 summit. "Donald Trump informed about his idea of holding a G7 summit with a possible invitation (to) the leaders of Russia, Australia, India and the Republic of Korea," Kremlin said in a statement. The G7 leaders' meeting, which the US is to host this year as it occupies the rotating presidency of the group, was scheduled from June 10 to 12. Trump announced in April the cancellation of the in-person summit due to the rapid expansion and severity of the coronavirus pandemic and said it would take place virtually. As an alternative date, Trump on May 30 said that the summit could be held over the weekend just before or after the UN General Assembly, which is scheduled to start on September 15, or after the US presidential election in November. Enhancements Include New Technical Alliance Program, Industry's First 5G for Enterprise Branch Specialization, and Increased Investments in People, Platforms, and Programs BOISE, Idaho, June 02, 2020, the global leader in cloud-delivered LTE and 5G wireless network edge solutions, today announced a revamped and expanded Cradlepoint Partner Program. The revised program is helping reseller, service provider, and alliance partners around the world participate in the burgeoning Wireless WAN and enterprise 5G opportunity. It also offers the industry's first 5G for Enterprise Branch specialization designation. According to a recently released Worldwide 5G and 4G LTE Router Forecast from IDC, the combined market for enterprise wireless routers will reach $2.98 billion by 2024. When combined with forecasts for the private LTE/5G edge router market by Harbor Research, the total market for next-generation Wireless WAN solutions represents a $3.5B opportunity for partners by 2024. At a time of dwindling network infrastructure margins, the Cradlepoint NetCloud Service and portfolio of LTE and 5G wireless edge solutions for branch, mobile, and IoT networking offers partners increased recurring revenue, higher margins, and more pull-through sales. The new Cradlepoint Partner Program (CPP) elements and investments include: Technology Alliance Program The new Technology Alliance Program (TAP) brings together curated ecosystem partnerships and technologies to deliver a portfolio of "Connected by Cradlepoint" solutions for wireless branch, mobile and IoT networking. TAP solutions currently in process target public safety, fleet management, enterprise IoT and private LTE. These tested and co-marketed industry solutions help partners expand their offerings, increase revenue, and drive better margins. To support this program, Cradlepoint recently hired John Nye as director of technology alliances and partnerships. 5G for Enterprise Branch Specialization Cradlepoint is delivering the industry's first and most comprehensive 5G for Business wireless edge solution starting with Telstra in Australia. Now, the company is launching the industry's first business and technical framework to help partners build a successful Wireless WAN and 5G practice based on its NetCloud Service. According to a forecoming IDG State of the Wireless WAN 2020 report, sponsored by Cradlepoint and to be published later this month, 75% of IT leaders across industries and around the world have plans to integrate 5G in their WAN infrastructures. This massive adoption represents a significant opportunity for partners to catch the next big wave in WAN transformation. "It's clear that enterprise and public sector organizations will need to further streamline operations, diversify revenue streams, and improve customer experiences going forward. Enabling these changes will require a more agile and persuasive WAN, which only LTE and 5G technology can deliver," said Michelle Curtis, Vice President, Emerging Technologies at Presidio. "We are excited to partner with Cradlepoint and take advantage of these new partner program elements that will help us make the Wireless WAN and 5G a reality for our customers at this critical time." New Program Investments To ensure its partners catch the Wireless WAN wave, Cradlepoint is also investing in people and platforms to help them prepare and accelerate revenue. New investments include the acquisition of a new partner marketing platform from Impartner as well as new partner managers, solutions architects, and vertical experts. "Cradlepoint is leading the evolution to Wireless WAN and 5G, and our many reseller, service provider, and technology partners play a crucial role in driving this transition," said Eric Purcell, senior vice president of global partner sales at Cradlepoint. "This is the largest revamp of the Cradlepoint Partner Program in our history - bringing together the technology alliances, business and technical frameworks, and resources partners need to build a Wireless WAN and 5G practice, accelerate revenue, and capitalize on this incredible multi-billion dollar opportunity." The new Cradlepoint Partner Program elements are available now and in the second half of 2020. Partners should engage with their Cradlepoint inside or field Partner Manager for more details. About Cradlepoint Cradlepoint is a global leader in cloud-delivered LTE and 5G wireless network edge solutions for branch, mobile, and IoT networks. Cradlepoint NetCloud and purpose-built endpoints make the Elastic Edge a reality, enabling a secure, software-defined, and wireless WAN edge that connects people, places, and things over LTE and 5G cellular networks. More than 20,000 enterprise and government organizations around the world - including 75 percent of the world's top retailers, 50 percent of the Fortune 100, and first responder agencies in 25 of the largest US cities - rely on Cradlepoint to keep fixed and mobile sites, points of commerce, remote workforces, vehicles, and IoT devices connected and protected. Major service providers use Cradlepoint solutions as the foundation for innovative managed services. Founded in 2006, Cradlepoint is a privately held company headquartered in Boise, Idaho, with a development center in Silicon Valley and international offices in the UK and Australia. A total of 105 Chinese firms listed on the A-share market expect positive financial results in the first half of this year (H1) despite the COVID-19 epidemic, the China Securities Journal reported on Monday. A total of 77 companies expected their net profits to increase by more than 10 percent year on year in H1 and 33 firms estimated that their net profits would double, the newspaper reported, citing data from financial information provider Wind. As of Friday, 537 listed companies had released H1 performance estimates. While the COVID-19 epidemic had weighed on their profits, many said recovery has been seen since the second quarter, as pent-up demand was unleashed amid containment of the epidemic. Companies in the sectors of agricultural products and food, biological medicine, computers and telecommunication expected a better performance in H1 thanks to increasing orders. Chinese stocks closed higher on Monday. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index went up 2.21 percent to close at 2,915.43 points, while the Shenzhen Component Index closed 3.31 percent higher at 11,102.15 points. The combined turnover of the two bourses stood at 761.59 billion yuan (about 106.79 billion U.S. dollars), soaring from 572.3 billion yuan on the previous trading day. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 2, 2020 14:49 598 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb8cecb 1 Health Plague,Jakarta-Bay,history,health,virus,malaria,cholera,sanitation Free The capital city is not a newbie when it comes to deadly epidemics, having experienced several in the span of about 400 years, most caused by poor public health and sanitation. Jakarta has recorded more than 6,800 cases of COVID-19, more than other regions of Indonesia. On May 27, the number of patients increased by 137 a new spike after four days of seeing the curve descending. Of those registered as COVID-19 positive, 2,043 patients were still being treated at hospitals, while 2,584 others were self-isolating. Both while the city is struggling to flatten the curve of infections, COVID-19 is not the first pandemic to hit Jakarta. Ancient Javanese manuscript Babad Nitik Sarta Cabolek holds a story that boasts about the greatness of Sultan Agung of Mataram, the Islamic kingdom in Central Java in the 17th century. It says that the sultan flew to Mecca every time for Friday prayer and that he once had tried to secure a spot for his grave next to Kaaba. When his request was rejected, he got his sultana to send a plague, but the Kaaba imams tackled it with prayers. To stop the conflict, Sunan Kalijaga one of the nine saints who disseminated Islam in the archipelago stepped in. He threw a handful of soil from Mecca to Java, proclaiming that it would land in the future resting place for the kings. The soil landed in Imogiri hill, the Royal Graveyard, where Sultan Agung was buried in 1645. Some parts of the story were exaggerated to generate fear and respect for the sultan, especially because history recorded the death of Sunan Kalijaga a century earlier. In a less mythical story, Sultan Agung did cause a plague by blocking the river and planting animal carcass in the water while invading Surabaya. He used the same strategy to paralyze Batavia now Jakarta, which was occupied by the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Both attacks in 1628 and 1629 failed. There was also speculation that Sultan Agung died of an endemic disease, as he was absent from the throne for three years. As historian Adolf Heuken explains in his book Historical Places in Jakarta, half of the Mataram army died of hunger, diseases, fatigue, punishment, and the Dutch bullets. Historian Yahya Andi Saputra, the co-founder of Betawi Kita an organization of Betawi community that aims to promote the culture of the native Jakartans, said Batavia suffered a cholera plague soon after the occupation by the VOC. As the city was built, a demographic problem arose. There were slums and the dwellers threw the garbage into the rivers and caused cholera outbreaks, he said during a public discussion held online on April 18 and titled The History of Plagues in Batavia. VOC governor-general Jan Pieterszoon Coen reportedly died of a stomach ache in 1629. He was among the high-level officers who fell victim to the plague, added Yahya. He further said there were no records of relief efforts until the VOC administration build hospitals for military personnel and European civilians decades later. In 1640, the Chinese community built its own hospital. In the 1700s, deaths were recorded that were caused by either typhoid fever, malaria, thiamine deficiency, chickenpox or dysentery. A century later, the administration which was taken over by the Dutch monarchy built schools for vaccinators, vaccine laboratories, a medical school and public health office. But there is no record of Betawi people or pribumi, the indigenous people of Batavia, suffering from plagues all the time, said Yahya. All efforts and facilities were provided only for people of the higher castes. Pribumi were left with their own devices, so they turned to herbal medicines and shamans to treat hawar or awar-awar, he added, referring to Betawis words to describe a plague. Archeologist Candrian Attahiyyat, a member of the expert team for Jakartas cultural sites, said the first indigenous patient submitted to a hospital was recorded in 1753, although information on the illness was not available. The hospital built by the Chinese community was later designated to treat non-European patients and therefore accessible for the indigenous people, he said. Candrian said the old Jakarta never fully rested from dealing with different diseases, as cases kept reoccurring. He said that there was a leper epidemic in the 1600s, and the patients were treated away from the center of Batavia, near the border with Tangerang, Banten. Decades later, the facility was moved to Bidadari islet in what is today the Thousand Islands regency. In a digging site on the islet we found hundreds of human skeletons stacked up. Leper is very infectious, so Im grateful I did not contract it during the digging work. But one of my crew showed symptoms decades after touching the skeletons. The key is to wash hands often. He said that only one Dutch doctor had been assigned to treat the leper epidemic in Batavia, who discouraged people to sleep outdoors during full moon or when they were inebriated as a way to prevent contracting the disease. In the early 1900s, Batavia was paralyzed by cholera, which was closely followed by leptospirosis. The Dutch administration set up quarantine facilities on the islets of Onrust and Kuyler (now Cipir). Off the shore: An aerial image shows the islets of Onrust and Kuyper (now Cipir) in Thousand Islands regency circa 1925. The islets were designated as quarantine sites for leptospirosis patients. (Common Wikimedia/Tropenmuseum) According to Candrian, a health check for newcomers and the wide use of disinfectant were also enacted during the epidemic. The deadliest plague was malaria, which was first recorded in 1733 and reappeared in 1939. The second wave killed thousands and was reported by foreign media. The endemic only occurred in the northern coastal part of old Jakarta as the city was developing by conversing the mangrove forest into a settlement, port, and fish ponds. The neglected ponds became breeding grounds for mosquitoes carrying the parasite, said Candrian. Although malaria was known as a disease endemic to tropical regions, Candrian suggested that the diseases that hit Batavia were mainly caused by the peoples poor sanitation and the lack of a public health system. Other factors were that Batavia was a port city and open to migrants and visitors, so epidemics were inevitable, he said. The widespread diseases, according to Candrian, temporarily changed the culture of the local people as they could not shake hands, hold mass prayers or throw gatherings for festive events. After an epidemic fading away, the Betawi people could also easily return to their old habits, including neglecting sanitation. To deal with the current pandemic, we should continue practicing good sanitary habits to keep the Betawi culture alive and to save the lives of our community and this nation. The last speaker in the discussion, Betawi physician Sibroh Malisi, said the causative agents of the diseases that had hit Jakarta since old times still existed, but changes in peoples sanitary habits could keep the number of cases low. Weve learned that viruses can evolve into new strains. The current pandemic should be seen as a challenge to develop the countrys research institutions and virology science, while making good sanitary habits a new culture and prioritizing public health. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 18:24:41|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close JUBA, June 2 (Xinhua) -- At least four South Sudanese soldiers were killed by their counterparts from neighboring Uganda over the weekend, a military spokesman said Tuesday. Lul Ruia Koang, spokesperson for the South Sudan Defense Forces (SSPDF) said the incident between SSPDF forces and the Uganda People's Defense Forces (UPDF) happened on Sunday after the two sides exchanged fire in a contested border area in the southern parts of the country. "UPDF soldiers opened fire on our soldiers in Buya and as a result, they killed four on the spot and wounded another," the spokesperson told Xinhua by phone. The disputed area is claimed by communities of Kajo-Keji county of Central Equatoria state in South Sudan and their neighbors from Yumbe district of Uganda. Koang said the SSPDF soldiers were conducting foot patrol to enforce cross-border movement restrictions at the time of the clashes. "The area where our servicemen were killed is a disputed area," the spokesperson said, adding that calm has since returned to the region after the two governments agreed to investigate the cause of the fighting. "We have requested for an investigation to be conducted so that we know why they opened fire on soldiers who were on foot patrol and does not pose any threat to them," he said. Enditem A Christian couple sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan will appear in court tomorrow for the final hearing in their appeal after six years on death row. Shagufta Kausar and her husband Shafqat Emmanuel, a poor Christian couple from the town of Gojra in Pakistan's Punjab region, will attend a final hearing at Lahore's High Court tomorrow after being on death row since 2014. They were arrested for sending blasphemous text messages that insulted the Prophet Muhammad to a local Imam. Shagufta's brother Joseph said he visited the couple in jail where they told him the confession was extracted under torture. Shagufta Kausar (right) and her husband Shafqat Emmanuel have spent the last six years in jail waiting for an appeal against their death sentence for 'blasphemy' to conclude. Their final hearing is tomorrow at the High Court in Lahore Pakistani soldiers stand guard outside the Lahore High Court in 2018. The couple's case is stronger than Asia Bibi's, their lawyer said, adding that judges are often 'fearful' to overturn rulings. Some high-profile justices have been assassinated for releasing people accused of the crime 'He told me the policeman hit [Shafqat] so hard that his leg was broken,' Joseph said. He added that the conviction has taken a toll on the couple's four children who 'wish to see their parents again'. As to the accusations against his family, Joseph, who asked to remain anonymous, said he thought the couple were illiterate so doubted they could have written the messages. He told the BBC that his sister worked as a caretaker in a Christian school and that Shafqat was out of work, owing to a disability, at the time of their arrest. Blasphemy is a hugely sensitive issue in Pakistan and any conviction warrants a death sentence. This undated handout photo released to in 2018 shows a portrait of Asia Bibi, who was acquitted of blasphemy in 2018 Even unproven allegations of insulting Islam can lead to assassinations and lynchings from furious mobs. Though no-one has yet been hung for the crime, those who are set free face the wrath of extremist vigilantes. The couple's lawyer, Saif ul Malook - who represented Asia Bibi and helped overturn her conviction in 2018 - said the couple's case was stronger than Bibi's but that judges are often 'fearful' to overturn rulings. Some high-profile justices have been assassinated for releasing people accused of the crime. Last year, Amnesty International said: 'Pakistan's blasphemy laws are overly broad, vague and coercive. People shout slogans as they protest the release of Asia Bibi, a Christian accused of blasphemy, whose death sentence was annulled by the Supreme court, in Lahore, Pakistan, in November 2018 'They have been used to target religious minorities, pursue personal vendettas and carry out vigilante violence.' According to Malook, the couple believes one of their Christian neighbours bought a sim card in Shagufta's name and sent the messages to the Imam to settle a score. The acquittal last October of Bibi, a Christian who had spent more than eight years on death row for blasphemy, provoked violent protests across Pakistan. Bibi now lives in Canada with her family. STOCKHOLM - Early April. A buzz of my phone. Free for a walk? asks a friend. Another notification. Coffee on Wednesday? Come for drinks! Im at a loss. Im working remotely from Stockholm, out of the London office. Long shifts producing stories on how swaths of the worlds population are staying home to keep the virus at bay and quash staggering death counts. But outside my door, Im confronted by a different reality. Sure, university students are distance learning, travel is discouraged and many are working from home. But plenty of my friends are working normally. When I cycle into a leafy inner-city quarter on Easter Sunday, I find bars brimming and families flocking to parks. Official advice tells anyone not vulnerable to stay home only if symptomatic, and to socially distance when out. Were not actively seeking herd immunity, they say. But equally, we dont want to suppress the virus by locking down, testing and tracing. Authorities stress their plan is evidence-based and sustainable. That the virus cant be contained in the long run. Ultimately, they say, dont judge our strategy on its death toll. Evaluate the situation in four to five years time. But doubts linger, and fester, in my mind. Theres a jarring disconnect between covering what feels like a whole world taking major precautions and living in a country that isnt. I cant get the images Ive been processing for hours at work out of my head. WHOs Dr. Tedros urging the world to test, trace and isolate. Drone shots of silenced old towns in Belgrade and Sarajevo. Masked Hong Kong officials reporting single-digit mortality rates. In Sweden, a vast acceptance of the strategy has swept across the nation. Parties left to right have rallied behind the authorities. Noteworthy dissent has come from 22 scientists, demanding more restrictions and testing, but they have been broadly dismissed as unhelpful and obsessive. Researcher Gina Gustavsson suggests this stems from the countrys pride in its democracy, openness and scientific research. To challenge the strategy is to challenge Swedes most cherished values. Theres a pride in staying open and trusting the experts. Ina Hallstrom argues this faith has meant people widely believe that the fast rising levels of death were witnessing are inevitable when that might not necessarily be the case. These deaths have exposed cracks in the Swedish nation, leaving some in disproportionately affected groups wondering how much their lives really matter. Swedish-Somalis, seven times overrepresented in Aprils case numbers, have slammed the Christian Democrats leader for linking this to illiteracy. Instead, they point to socioeconomic factors; an inability to work remotely and overcrowded households. Eric Hammarstrand, who is disabled and at risk, asks why able-bodied Swedes couldnt bear the thought of locking down, when many disabled people were involuntarily quarantined until 1993 before independent living reforms. You can do it, too, for a few months. I realize I cant leave my friends on read forever. Eventually, I tell them the truth: I miss them, but Im not comfortable meeting right now. I want to continue seeing my parents for distanced lakeside walks. Lets Zoom. They say they fully understand. But its still an awkward endeavour, and I feel like an overcautious outsider. Late May. Even as transmission slows, Swedens death toll has soared to over 4,200 four to nine times higher per capita than Nordic neighbours. Antibody levels are disappointingly low. A sense of unease finally seeps into the national debate, expanding as the nights contract. A party close to government calls for change. Health minister Lena Hallengren indicates testing and tracing may be ramped up. Dazzling sunshine in the courtyard belies the anxious parallel life Ive been living. I wonder if now, perhaps, Ill feel less out of place. ___ Virus Diary, an occasional feature, showcases the coronavirus saga through the eyes of Associated Press journalists around the world. Follow Phelan Chatterjee, an AP video producer usually based in London, on Twitter at http://twitter.com/PhelanChatterj. CBC P.E.I. Premier Dennis King says the federal government could step in to help if COVID-19 cases become unmanageable in the province. The premier told Power & Politics host Nil Koksal Wednesday night that there are contingency plans in place for different scenarios as P.E.I. looks ahead in this wave of the pandemic. "When we look beyond our borders, we know there could be help there," King said. "Whether it's through the army or other measures." "Right now, we are not in that need yet. We are hope New York Mayor Bill de Blasio hardened his tone about a police officer who drew his gun on protesters Sunday and two police cruisers that drove into a crowd in Brooklyn. At a news conference Monday, de Blasio, a Democrat, added to his previous explanation of officers' decision to drive into protesters who had gathered in front of them. He said he tried in his initial comments to criticize the officers while noting that some police were in danger earlier in the day. "There is no situation where a police vehicle should drive into a crowd of protesters or New Yorkers of any kind," de Blasio said Monday. "It is dangerous, it is unacceptable. This is an extremely aberrant situation, and there were extenuating circumstances, I believe, because of what happened earlier." The mayor also said he had temporarily removed the gun and badge of an officer who pointed his weapon at demonstrators outside Strand Bookstore. City officials were investigating the incident to determine whether there should be other consequences, de Blasio said. In response to news reports that his 25-year-old daughter, Chiara de Blasio, had been arrested while protesting, the mayor said he did not believe she did anything wrong and that he admired her advocacy. He said that he found out about her arrest when a reporter asked about it and that his daughter told him she was acting peacefully. "She was very clear that she believes she was following the instructions of police officers and doing what they were asking," the mayor said. De Blasio also said the officers who told reporters about the arrest had done "something unconscionable" and that the Sergeants Benevolent Association, which represents the city's current and former police sergeants, regularly violated people's privacy. SBA leaders did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Protests in Louisville, Kentucky continued Monday night in defiance of Trumps threats to mobilize military troops against protesters and the police rampage Sunday night, which led to scores of injuries and the death of a local restaurant owner. David McAtee, a 53-year-old African American, was fatally wounded when police and National Guard troops opened fire on protesters in western Louisville, shortly after midnight on Monday morning. As with the protests in at least 140 cities across the US, the Louisville protests have been multi-racial and composed primarily of workers and young people. They were not only sparked by the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, but also the killing of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African American emergency medical technician killed by Louisville police on March 13. The Louisville Courier-Journal reported that David McAtee, the owner of YaYas BBQ restaurant near the corner of 26th and Broadway, was shot as police and National Guard troops were breaking up a large crowd that had gathered after the curfew in the parking lot outside a Dinos Food Mart. According to family members, McAtee died while shielding his niece from a barrage of gunfire. Protesters gather in western Louisville on Monday afternoon In a statement following the shooting, Louisville Metro Police Department Chief Steve Conrad claimed that police and military forces returned fire after someone first shot at them. Absolutely no evidence of this has been presented, however, and the police later claimed that their body cameras had not been turned on. This has triggered even greater outrage because the three cops involved in the murderous raid of Breonna Taylors home claimed they were not wearing cameras. In an effort to mollify anger over the latest killing and cover-up, Mayor Greg Fischer announced that Conrad had been fired. The police chief, however, had already announced he would retire by the end of June over the death of Taylor. Kentuckys Democratic Governor Andy Beshear announced that state police would conduct the investigation into McAtees killing, claiming that their probe would be independent and transparent. Beshear then announced that the curfew would continue and that the National Guard troops would stay put, despite anger over the troops firing on civilians. Odessa Riley, McAtees mother, told the Courier-Journal that her son was a community pillar and a good son. She added, All he did on that barbecue corner is try to make a dollar for himself and his family. And they come along and they killed my son. Other family members said that the National Guard needed to be pulled out of the city. On Monday night, hundreds of workers and young people gathered near the spot that McAtee was killed and in downtown Louisville, as military helicopters circled above and local and state police, along with heavily armed National Guard troops, menaced them. As the curfew fell, police and other forces fired tear gas and chased down protesters. The police have already carried out scores of arrests, including 40 on Sunday night alone. Among those arrested was the 2020 Kentucky High School Teacher of the Year, Matt Kaufmann, who teaches English at Marion C. Moore High School. The teacher was arrested this evening for protesting and standing up for #BreonnaTaylor and for Black Lives in Louisville, local activist Hannah Drake wrote on Facebook. No way he was not peaceful, she said. He is physically okay but a little roughed up. Like the other cities where mass protests against police killings are occurring, Louisville is a cauldron of social tension. Kentuckys largest city, with a metropolitan area population of 1.2 million, Louisville is a major industrial and transportation hub, with more than 13,000 autoworkers at two Ford plants, United Parcel Services giant World Port air hub, and the GE Appliance Park. There has been widespread anger over unsafe working conditions at each of these workplaces during the COVID-19 pandemic. Veteran UPS World Port worker Roml Ellis, 55, died of COVID-19 in April. Nearly 4,000 workers at GE Appliance, which was sold by General Electric in 2016 and is now owned by China-based Haier, threatened to strike after several workers tested positive. Teachers at the Jefferson County Public Schools also played the leading role in the sickouts and wildcat strikes over stagnating wages and inadequate school funding last year, which will only intensify after the loss of revenue due to the economic impact of the pandemic. I have a lot to say not only about George Floyd, but also about Breonna Taylor, a Ford Kentucky Truck Plant worker told the WSWS. Breonna was brutally killed during a no-knock search warrant, and she was a first responder EMT worker in Louisville. Police officers have been corrupt from the beginning of time. This has been going on far too long. It all comes to a head. Just because you are a police officer doesnt give you the right to keep killing our fellow citizens. Its time for us to take a stand. You have to stand for something or fall for anything. I believe in protesting and getting your voice heard. Workers here are sickened by these killings, especially the innocent EMS worker who was shot at least eight times, a veteran Ford worker added. People, no matter whether they are black or white, are sick of this. Thats why theyre out there protesting. The whole thing is messed up. Were back to work at Ford. Theyve done some things to improve safety, but people are working so close to each other on the door line and other lines. Our lives are being put in jeopardy. Theyre building the cars even though theyre not selling. The rich have gotten even richer since the pandemic hit. But soon were going to be told there is no money for schools and other things that workers need. Gabby Allen looked sensational in a tiny bikini as she went sunbathing in a park on Monday, after claims emerged married Dan Osborne had sent her flirty messages. The Love Island star, 28, brushed off the drama as she put on a sizzling display and flaunted her washboard abs in the tiny two piece while chatting with friends. The Sun claimed that Dan contacted his former CBB co-star Gabby in April, but she didn't respond months after the pair vehemently denied claims that they'd had an illicit tryst. What drama? Gabby Allen looked sensational in a tiny bikini as she went sunbathing in a park on Monday, after claims emerged married Dan Osborne had sent her flirty messages His wife Jacqueline Jossa then denied allegations the pair had argued over the messages and that she had walked out on him. Gabby displayed her perky cleavage and rippling abs in a blue, pink and orange bikini top while talking on her phone. A pair of matching thong bottoms revealed her peachy derriere as she soaked up the sun. The beauty wore her blonde tresses in a chic updo tied with a scarlet trimmed scarf. Toned: The Love Island star, 28, brushed off the drama as she put on a sizzling display and flaunted her washboard abs in the tiny two piece while chatting with friends Gorgeous: Gabby displayed her perky cleavage and rippling abs in a blue, pink and orange bikini top while talking on her phone Sunbathe session: The star displayed her six pack as she relaxed in the sunshine Blonde beauty: Gabby looked incredible as she showcased her bikini body Fun: One of the star's friends chucked her a refreshing drink during the afternoon The star completed her ensemble with a pair of shades as she lay on a blue towel during her socially distanced sunbathe. Gabby was also seen getting an ice cream with her friends while clad in a denim playsuit and biker boots. The sighting comes amid a report at the weekend thatJacqueline walked out on Dan after learning of the messages, but a representative for Jacqueline told MailOnline: 'To suggest Jacqueline and Dan have argued over messages is totally false.' Glow: The star looked in good spirits as she relaxed in the sunshine with friends Peachy: Gabby revealed her pert derriere as she chatted with her friends Animated: Gabby donned a denim dress for her trip to the park Style: Gabby looked stunning in her multicoloured bikini as she sunbathed Summertime: Amid the lockdown Gabby hung out with close friends MailOnline contacted representatives for Dan Osborne and Gabby Allen for further comment at the time. A source told The Sun: '[Gabby] swears blind nothing ever, ever happened and is furious about being dragged into his mess yet again. They last texted shortly before Dan went to Australia to support Jac in the jungle. 'But that was all platonic from Gabbys side. He did send her a suggestive message over Instagram last month which she never responded to. Gabby has zero interest in Dan, and she wants no association with him... Dans intentions seem less clear.' Beauty: Gabby showed off her toned midriff as she caught some rays Chat: The star smiled at her pals as they whiled away the afternoon Fun: Gabby was also seen getting an ice cream with her friends while clad in a denim playsuit and biker boots Style: Gabby caught the eye in her trendy ensemble as she soaked up the sun However, the source has claimed that Jacqueline is putting family first amid the allegations, adding: 'Dan has begged for one final chance, and of course she wants to fight for her marriage for the sake of their kids.' It was claimed on Friday, Jacqueline has given her husband Dan Osborne, 28, a 'last chance ultimatum' as they work on their turbulent relationship. Jacqueline has reportedly moved back into her family home on a part-time basis after claiming that she needed a break last week. A source told The Sun: 'Dan insists he has done nothing wrong but Jacqueline is frustrated he can't just focus solely on her and thinks he has been communicating with other girls.' Chat: The star looked delighted to be reunited with a pal amid the lockdown Leggy: Gabby displayed her toned legs as she strolled along on the phone Temperatures soaring: The star looked fabulous as she chatted with her friend Strut: Gabby made the road her catwalk as she walked with her friend 'She remains suspicious as she has caught him out before and he has form for being pictured chatting to attractive female celebrities at showbiz parties when she's been at home or working.' The publication also alleged that while Jacqueline has returned to her marital home she issued an 'Osborne Ultimatum', demanding that Dan 'stop his infatuation with glamorous female reality stars.' MailOnline previously contacted Jacqueline's representatives for comment. Striking back: The outing comes as Jacqueline Jossa hit out at claims she walked out on her husband Dan Osborne after he sent 'flirty messages' to Gabby Message: The Sun has claimed that 28-year-old Dan contacted his former Celebrity Big Brother co-star Gabby in April, but she didn't respond Gabby recently insisted she's single following rumours she's dating Ex On The Beach star Brandon Myers. The star said Brandon, 24, is a 'really good friend' but nothing more, and admitted being single has been a 'really positive thing for her' after she split from Rak-Su's Myles Stephenson last August. Gabby admitted that a man would need to really add something to her life for her to date him and she's determined to not have her life ruled by finding love. Old co-stars: The reality TV personalities were co-stars on Celebrity Big Brother back in 2018 Gabby and Brandon were first rumoured to be dating last month, when he posted a flirty comment under one of her scantily-clad bikini snaps. But the fitness enthusiast insisted they are little more than close friends, telling OK!: ' No. We've known each other for a long time. He's the loveliest person and a really good friend of mine, but that's all it is. 'Someone must have seen him comment on a picture on my social media, and automatically assumed he's my boyfriend.' Gabby was dating Rak-Su star Myles until August 2019, when she accused him of cheating on her, and also dumped her Love Island beau Marcel Somerville in February 2018 when she discovered he'd been unfaithful. Advertisement The estranged wife of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin intends to change her name and doesnt want any spousal support, her divorce petition revealed on Monday. Kellie May Chauvin, 45, filed for divorce on Saturday, a day after her 44-year-old husband of nearly 10 years, was arrested and charged with third-degree murder in the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody last week. Kellie Chauvin in 2018 when she was vying for the title of Mrs. Minnesota America. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press via AP file) The eight-page divorce petition, which was made public on Monday, revealed few details of the union, beyond basic language that there has been an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage relationship of the parties within the definition of Minnesota statutes. Chauvin also told the court she plans to change her name. Kellie Chauvin didnt reveal what name she plans to use but has previously been known as Kellie May Thao and Kellie May Xiong, court papers said. Advertisement She is seeking a name change solely because of this marriage dissolution, according to her petition. She is not seeking a name change to defraud and/or mislead creditors or anyone else, nor is she a felon. The wife had worked as a Realtor, and the pair own two homes, in Oakdale, Minnesota, and Windermere, Florida, the court papers said. Her divorce petition claims the parties have been separated since Thursday. Even though Kellie Chauvin is currently unemployed, she is self-supporting and is not in need of spousal maintenance, and waives her right to receive temporary or permanent spousal maintenance, the divorce papers said. When the protests emerged in Philadelphia after the killing of George Floyd, politicians across the city echoed the need for peaceful demonstrations. This mood was soon disrupted by the eruption of riots, car burnings, and looting in Center City that traveled to West Philadelphia and other parts of the city. In West Philly, where Ive organized as a lifelong resident, the developments hit the 52nd Street corridor especially hard. I am empathetic to black businesses on the corridor, where this weeks destruction added to years of municipal divestment. But Im more concerned about the root problem behind the fragility of many neighborhoods across the city: poverty imposed by systems of power. It is interesting to me that this corridor, neglected for years, is now being used as a political ploy to shame looters and rioters. Where was this energy of protection for, and investment in, this part of Philly before? When outsiders pose the question of now rebuilding the neighborhood, I worry well see once again what community revitalization" has meant here in the past: pushing generationally rooted communities to other places in order to spark some kind of economic resurgence, a.k.a. gentrification. If the city wanted to rebuild parts of West Philadelphia, it would have happened already. Focusing on the looting, without promising real investment in the community, is a twisted trick to silence dissent. READ MORE: Follow live updates on protests More than hand-wringing, what must be done is large-scale investment into alternatives to police, such as community mediation, conflict deescalation, and community safety planning. We have to consider and implement a strong campaign for payments in lieu of taxes from the citys large educational and medical institutions, many concentrated in West Philly, to help with the school budget in our city. In addition, while many of us envision a world where the police are obsolete, we must deal with cops involved in killings. It isnt enough to eventually suspend or fire them or place them on administrative leave. When there is a police-involved shooting, the city should have a clear policy that says: The officer is no longer on duty from the moment a killing happens, and must face the same interrogation and scrutiny that others face without special protections for police. This is just the beginning and not at all the extent of the reform work our neighborhoods need. Without investment in affordable housing, and policy to prevent displacement of long-term residents, words of heartbreak for our communities mean nothing. This is not a pass-fail test for the city of simply decrying racism. Its a test of our collective action. The fire of these protests is here, and the accelerant is structural racism. This is not a pass-fail test for the city of simply decrying racism. Its a test of our collective action. Are we holding the flame to the system, or are we criminalizing protesters and permitting state-sanctioned violence like beatings and teargassing? Black leaders consider this a clarion call from the margins, demanding that you not just hear and visualize our communities rage, but our demand that all Philadelphians stop colluding with unjust systems that you are gatekeepers for, such as a political establishment that in 1985, even under a black mayor, bombed the MOVE house and killed 11 black people, and today has yet to formally apologize for the bombing. My question to our elected leaders: Where were your voices then? Will you challenge the proposed budget by Mayor Jim Kenney that gives more money to cops and defunds community services? Will you end the 10-year tax abatement that causes communities to be pushed out? Will you champion the cause of criminal justice reform that considers police abolition? If you arent thinking about these steps, you are out of touch with our communities. Overall, there must be a radical shift in how we view the communities most affected by state violence. Without this deep and meaningful reflection, no reform or transformation is possible. Focusing the story on looting not only mutes the realness of our collective moment it further solidifies anti-black narratives that punish us for the unjust system that has our backs against the wall. Black Philadelphians deserve champions without having to prove our humanity. Abdul-Aliy Muhammad is an organizer and writer born and raised in West Philadelphia. @MxAbdulAliy Actor Hugh Jackman might be synonymous with the superhero Wolverine now, but he came very close to being fired from the job after the director was unimpressed with his performance. Jackman first played Wolverine in 2000s X-Men. Five weeks into shooting X-Men, I was on the verge of getting fired... Jackman said during one of his Hugh Jackman. The Man. The Music. The Show appearances in London. The head of the studio pulled me aside at lunch and he told me that they were worried at the studio, that they werent seeing on camera what theyd seen in the audition. He continued, And the very next day the director pulled me aside and told me exactly the same thing...So clearly theyd been talking and I was freaking out. Im thinking, oh, this is the talk you get before you get fired. And this was the biggest break of my career by a mile up to this point. Also read: Not Hugh Jackman, but this actor was originally cast as Wolverine till Tom Cruise forced him to bow out The actor told Daily Mail that he confided in his wife Deborra-Lee Furness, and she gave him invaluable advice. I was told that things werent really working out as they hoped. I was about to get fired from my first Hollywood movie - the biggest of my career. I was angry, I went home to my wife and I complained. I was whinging an Olympic level of whinging to my wife, and moaning about this person and that person. He added, She listened to me very patiently for about an hour and finally she just said, Listen, I think you have just got to trust yourself. You are worrying way too much about what everything else is thinking. Just go back to the character, focus on that, trust your instinct... youve got this. To me that was love. Someone that believes in you when you dont fully believe in yourself. Jackman didnt look back. He played the character in multiple films for close to two decades, finally hanging up the claws with Logan. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Prominent European Union court rules in favor of Impossible Foods in trademark infringement case against Nestle, world's largest food company Ruling prohibits several Nestle subsidiaries throughout Europe from marketing "Incredible Burger" and subjects a penalty of 25,000 per day if the offending branding remains on the market Impossible Foods seeks to protect consumers' right to transparency and the court believes that Nestle deliberately attempted to confuse consumers into buying their product by imitating Impossible Foods' name, visual identity, and other branding cues A prominent European Union court granted Impossible Foods a preliminary injunction this week, ordering the global food conglomerate Nestle S.A. to stop using the product name "Incredible Burger." The District Court of The Hague ruled 27 May that the use of "Incredible Burger" in Europe infringed upon Impossible Foods' ImpossibleTM trademarks, including Impossible BurgerTM, and was likely to confuse customers. As a result, Nestle subsidiaries in Europe are prohibited from branding products "Incredible Burger." If they fail to remove the infringing branding within four weeks, each of 10 separate Nestle subsidiaries involved in the case would be subject to a penalty of 25,000 per day -- a companywide penalty of up to 250,000 per subsidiary during the duration of the injunction. "People specifically seek out Impossible Burger because it's a superior product unique in the world of plant-based food," said Dana Wagner, Impossible Foods' Chief Legal Officer. "While we applaud other companies' efforts to develop plant-based products, we don't want consumers confused by simulacra. We're grateful that the court recognized the importance of our trademarks and supported our efforts to protect our brand against incursion from a powerful multinational giant." Innovation -- not imitation Impossible Foods makes meat from plants -- with a much smaller environmental footprint than meat from animals. The U.S.-based company uses modern science and technology to create wholesome and nutritious food and feed a growing population sustainably. The plant-based Impossible Burger is sought out by consumers globally because of its unique taste, texture, mouthfeel and cooking characteristics that rival ground beef from cows. Impossible Burger is the result of nearly a decade of basic science and hard-core research and development in the company's headquarters in California's Silicon Valley. Named Inc. Magazine's company of the year and one of Time Magazine's 50 Genius companies, Impossible Foods has an unrivaled intellectual property portfolio with hundreds of patents and patents pending. Its intellectual property includes methods to decode and reverse-engineer the molecular foundations and entire sensory experience of animal-derived meat, including how it tastes, cooks, sizzles and smells -- and how to recreate the experience without animals. In its ruling, the European court endorsed the validity of the Impossible BurgerTM trademark and noted the visual, phonetic and conceptual similarities between that trademark and Nestle's "Incredible Burger" branding and it cited considerable evidence that consumers and commentators were actually confused by the similarity in names. The court also stated that Nestle, the world's largest food company, appeared to have deliberately tried to impede Impossible Foods' entry into the European market hoping to capitalize on the strength of Impossible Foods' brand by promoting its own plant-based foods under a similar name. For the full news release with more details on Impossible Foods' intellectual property and the case against Nestle, click here. More information: impossiblefoods.com Twitter Facebook Instagram YouTube Medium LinkedIn Media kit: www.impossiblefoods.com/media View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005187/en/ Contacts: Keely Sulprizio keely.sulprizio@impossiblefoods.com 415-656-6811 Dating app Grindr has said it will remove its 'ethnicity filter' that allows users to search potential matches by race. Singletons prepared to pay 12.99-a-month for the 'premium' service are currently able to sort users based on their ethnicity, weight, height, and other characteristics. But less than 24 hours after its tweet supporting 'Black Lives Matter' received widespread condemnation over the filter, the company has said it will delete it. Protests have rocked the US for six days following the death of George Floyd, who was filmed gasping 'I can't breathe' as an officer knelt on his neck in Logan County, West Virginia. Grindr announced the features removal in this post on Twitter yesterday It came less than 24 hours after the dating app was forced to delete a tweet supporting the Black Lives Matter movement after it received widespread condemnation for the feature Writing on Twitter, the app said: 'As part of our commitment to (Black Lives Matter), we have decided to remove the ethnicity filter from our next release. 'We stand in solidarity with the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the hundreds of thousands of queer people of colour who log in to our app every day. 'We will not be silent, and we will not be inactive. 'We will continue to fight racism on Grindr, both through dialogue with our community and a zero-tolerance policy for racism and hate speech on our platform.' The dating app also said it would make a donation of an undisclosed sum to Black Lives Matter and the Marsha P. Johnson Institute, set up in memory of the activist and self-identified drag queen who was a prominent figure during the 1969 Stonewall uprising. It announced the move after deleting its post, 'demand justice. #BlackLivesMatter.', which had sparked a barrage of criticism. One Twitter user received more than 6,300 likes and 1,100 re-tweets when they responded saying: 'Remove the ethnicity filter.' Grindr has also made a donation to Black Lives Matter and the Marsha P. Johnson Institute NEW YORK: The US has been rocked by six days of protests. Pictured above are looters smashing store windows on May 31 WASHINGTON DC: The protesters held their ground as police launched tear gas Critics had previously slammed the dating app for having the filter, and had urged them to delete it. But in an interview with Buzzfeed in 2016, co-creator Eric Silverberg defended it. 'A person's choice of partner is deeply personal, and I don't think we would presume to judge or tilt one's choice of sexual partner, boyfriend or husband,' he said. 'Ultimately each one of our own individual choices is profoundly informed by the community we grow up in, perhaps by the relationships we had with our siblings or parents. 'I mean, to try and unpack that would probably take years for each person and so, I don't know... I give wide latitude to other people when they talk about the kind of people they're into.' Thousands of protesters were arrested across the country over the weekend as major cities are the most affected areas of rioting, looting and arson CICERO, ILLINOIS: Two people were fatally shot in the Chicago suburb of Cicero on Monday LOUISVILLE: Kentucky State Troopers detain a man during protests against police brutality The US has been rocked by six days of protest over Mr Floyd's death, with thousands of demonstrators marching in Las Vegas, Seattle, Dallas, Atlanta, New York and other major cities. Law enforcement has used rubber bullets, tear gas and officers on horseback yesterday to clear a path for President Donald Trump to walk from the White House to St John's church. Coroners in Hennepin County ruled yesterday that Mr Floyd's death was a homicide by asphyxiation. Threatened U.S. sanctions benefit no one: Hong Kong business community People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 08:41, June 01, 2020 HONG KONG, May 31 (Xinhua) -- In response to the U.S. threat to cancel the special treatment for Hong Kong, the Hong Kong business community said it will not do good to anyone, as this will not only damage the mutually beneficial relationship between the two sides, but also harm the interests of U.S. companies and investors in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong business community is not too worried about the threatened U.S. sanctions, which are expected to have little impact on Hong Kong at this stage. In a statement released on Saturday, the Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong expressed regret over the U.S. decision, noting that it would undermine the mutually beneficial economic and trade relations between Hong Kong and the United States over the years and disrupt the world's free trade order. The association said Hong Kong is the largest source of the U.S. trade surplus in goods, and Hong Kong's special status is the best channel for the U.S. enterprises to enter the Chinese mainland market. The U.S. move not only damages the mutually beneficial relationship between the two sides, but also damages the interests of U.S. companies and investors in Hong Kong, casting a shadow on the future economic and trade relations between Hong Kong and the United States. Ng Wang Pun, president of the Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong, said the national security legislation for Hong Kong is aimed at plugging Hong Kong's legal loopholes to protect national security and safeguard the nation's sovereignty, which will help to maintain a safe, friendly and free business environment in Hong Kong. Ng hoped that all countries in the world will look at this legislation rationally and continue to maintain long-term stable and mutually beneficial economic and trade relations with Hong Kong. According to Raymond Young, CEO of the Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong, most of Hong Kong's trade in goods is re-exports, with exports to the United States accounting for only 0.1 percent of the total export volume. Moreover, the industry began to diversify its business to Southeast Asia and other places during the U.S.-China trade tensions, so the it is not expected to have a great impact. Tara Joseph, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong (AmCham), said that it was "a sad day" for Americans in Hong Kong when the U.S. announced it would cancel the special treatment for Hong Kong. However, this does not mean that U.S. companies will withdraw from Hong Kong, she said. The AmCham will continue to work with its members to maintain Hong Kong's status as a vital business center. Felix Chung, honorary chairman of Hong Kong Apparel Society Limited, said that there will not be much impact on Hong Kong's economy for the time being even if the U.S. cancels the special treatment for Hong Kong. Chung criticized the U.S. for imposing sanctions on Hong Kong, urging some Hong Kong people who expected the so-called "help" from the United States to wake up. Jeffrey Lam, a member of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, said the United States earns a trade surplus of about 30 billion U.S. dollars in Hong Kong every year. The U.S. decision will be beneficial to nobody. The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Belt and Road Initiative will bring a large number of development opportunities to Hong Kong, Lam said, urging Hong Kong people and businesses not to worry about the national security legislation, but to focus on how to develop the economy after the COVID-19 pandemic. Daniel Yip, chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Industries, said the United States intends to restrict the export of high-tech products to Hong Kong, which is believed to have an impact on high-end scientific research in universities. However, in recent years the United States has scrutinized the export of scientific research equipment from universities, and the Hong Kong industry has gradually adapted to the restriction, Yip added. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address It is no surprise that President Trump and his aides are deaf, dumb and blind. Trump was chased into his underground bunker Friday night when protesters briefly threatened to storm the White House fence. He salved his bruised ego with a tweet about how anyone who managed to enter the grounds would be met by vicious dogs and ominous weapons. But on Sunday night, as some protesters set fires across the street in Lafayette Square and the city of Washington imposed a curfew, I saw something I dont think Ive ever seen before: The White House went completely dark. It looked like a vacant home, an empty mansion, a luxury property perhaps in foreclosure. BELLINGHAM, Washington - Exceptional articles in interdisciplinary applications, theoretical innovation, and photo-optical instrumentation design in the Journal of Applied Remote Sensing have been given best paper awards for papers published in 2019. The honorees were selected by the journal's editorial board. The journal is published online in the SPIE Digital Library by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, and optimizes the communication of concepts, information, and progress among the remote-sensing community. Ni-Bin Chang, professor of civil, environmental, and construction engineering at the University of Central Florida, is editor-in-chief. "Underwater and airborne monitoring of marine ecosystems and debris" by Jun-Ichiro Watanabe, Yang Shao, and Naoto Miura (all of Hitachi Ltd., Japan) was selected for Interdisciplinary Applications. The paper argues that state-of-the-art, deep-learning-based object detection is effective for monitoring underwater ecosystems and marine debris. "Semantic segmentation of multisensor remote sensing imagery with deep ConvNets and higher-order conditional random fields" by Yansong Liu, Sankaranarayanan Piramanayagam, Sildomar T. Monteiro, and Eli Saber (all of Rochester Institute of Technology, USA) was selected for Theoretical Innovation. The paper proposes a decision-level multisensor fusion technique for semantic labeling of very-high-resolution optical imagery and LiDAR data. "RainCube: the first ever radar measurements from a CubeSat in space" by Eva Peral, Simone Tanelli, Shannon Statham, Shivani Joshi, Travis Imken, Douglas Price, Jonathan Sauder, Nacer Chahat, and Austin Williams was selected for Photo-Optical Instrumentation and Design (Peral, Tanelli, Statham, Joshi, Imken, Price, Sauder, and Chahat are all with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech, USA; Williams is with Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems Inc., USA). The paper reports on the first radar observations of precipitation via the RainCube CubeSat. The SPIE Digital Library, the world's largest collection of optics and photonics applied research, comprises more than 525,000 publications. ### About SPIE SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics, an educational not-for-profit organization founded in 1955 to advance light-based science, engineering, and technology. The Society serves more than 255,000 constituents from 183 countries, offering conferences and their published proceedings, continuing education, books, journals, and the SPIE Digital Library. In 2019, SPIE provided more than $5.6 million in community support including scholarships and awards, outreach and advocacy programs, travel grants, public policy, and educational resources. http://www.spie.org Contact: Daneet Steffens Public Relations Manager daneets@spie.org +1 360 685 5478 @SPIEtweets (2020 Getty Images) A Louisville police officer, who was involved in the fatal shooting of David McAtee, at a protest in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday night, previously mocked a protester who was shot with pepper balls. Over the weekend, Katie Crews, posted a photo to her Facebook page of a female protester offering her a flower, and captioned it: I hope the pepper balls that she got lit up with a little later on hurt. Her post was screenshotted by members of the public and circulated around social media sites in the wake of Mr McAttes death on Monday, according to the Louisville Courier Journal. Earlier on in the caption, Ms Crews said: She was saying and doing a lot more than offering flowers to me. Just so for it to be known. The officer added: Come back and get ya some more ole girl, Ill be on the line again tonight. The protests in Louisville were being held in opposition to police brutality against Black Americans, following the death of George Floyd, who died last month after being detained by a then Minneapolis police officer. On Monday, the protest turned violent, when Mr McAtee was fatally shot by law enforcement after someone shot at police, and officers and National Guard troops fired back. At the time of writing, it is not known who fired at police, but an investigation is ongoing. Ms Crews was placed on administrative leave on Monday after it was confirmed that she and her fellow officer at the scene, Allen Austin, did not record any bodycam footage of the shooting. After being told that officers did not record any footage at the shooting, Louisville mayor Greg Fishcer fired police chief, Steve Conrad, who was due to retire later in the month. The fatal shooting came a week after seven people were shot at a different protest in Louisville, focused on the death of Breonna Taylor. Ms Taylor, an emergency medical technician, was shot at least eight times by police after they broke down her door in a drug raid on 13 May, but no narcotics were found in the residence. Story continues The police said that Ms Taylor was inadvertently shot in the crossfire during the raid, but their use of force has been questioned, as has the practice of raiding a residence without giving a warning. Last week, Mr Fischer confirmed that no-knock warrants would be suspended by the police force, as part of changes to policy following Ms Taylors death. Mr Fischer added: To the people who gathered downtown last night to protest, and to many more throughout our city and throughout our country who feel angry, hurt, afraid, frustrated, tired and sick of story after story of black lives ending at the hands of law enforcement, I hear you. Read more Mother of black Louisville shooting victim calls for peaceful protest In the context of running for reelection, I thought it was important for people to know where I stand, thats why I asked to speak, Engel said. He added: I love the Bronx, grew up in the Bronx and lived here all my life. I would not have tried to impose on the borough president if I didnt think it was important. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 14:26:47|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close COLOMBO, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday directed local authorities to prepare a mechanism to control an imminent dengue outbreak with the onset of the monsoonal rains in the country, as the death toll from the virus has reached 20 this year. In a statement, the President's Media Division said the western province which includes capital Colombo, recorded the highest number of dengue patients per year, posing a health risk as there was a significant influx of people into this area daily. The president said that only through an effective dengue control mechanism, which gives priority to the western province, could prevent these people from becoming carriers. The president also pointed out the necessity to conduct cleaning programs, giving priority to schools, hospitals, state entities, places of worship, and construction sites. He instructed the environmental police to monitor these areas in collaboration with respective health authorities and local government organizations. The president and prime minister further instructed relevant officials to gather once a week with the governors and local government authorities to evaluate the progress and use the experiences of the countries which are successful in dengue prevention. Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi urged for public support last week in preventing the spread of the dengue virus in Sri Lanka. "If you have a high fever, visit the main district hospital for dengue treatment in your area," she said, adding that it was important to keep one's surroundings clean and free of breeding grounds. According to the Epidemiology Unit's data for May, 144 dengue cases were identified in the central hills of Kandy, 118 in Ratnapura, in south-central Sri Lanka and 83 in the northern city of Jaffna, while Colombo recorded 62 cases. Last year, over 99,000 people were affected by the mosquito-borne virus in Sri Lanka with 90 deaths reported. The National Dengue Control Unit launched several programs to eradicate mosquito breeding grounds in several districts of the country. Enditem "My poll workers are trained in what to do in an emergency situation. They have certain protocols and procedures they have been trained on in case of an active shooter. "I think people going to the polls like at any time should be cautious of their surroundings," Moritz said. "I think people might want to take extra precaution, but I don't think there should be any concern about them going to the polls (Tuesday)." Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., closing right as a county-issued curfew goes into effect across Scott County. Residents will be required to stay in their homes from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. until further notice. Moritz said if voters still were in line at 9 p.m, polls would remain open until they had voted. "Curfew will probably be in effect for a few days, but how do you separate out an election day?" she said. "At 9 p.m., anyone that is in line can vote and they lock the doors behind that person and unlock them when they are ready to leave." Two pet turtles have died and completely dried up after their student owner left them in his dorm in China for nearly five months due to a coronavirus lockdown. The second-year undergraduate, known by his surname Liu, told local media that he thought the lockdown would only last for a short while and the reptiles would survive. Footage shows the two dead turtles' bone-dry bodies discovered by Liu when he was recently allowed to return to the campus. A shocked Chinese student has found his two pet turtles have died and completely dried up after he left the animals in his dorm when the university shuts nearly five months ago due to the coronavirus outbreak. The pictures above show screenshots of the footage filmed by Liu The devastated pet owner said that he wanted to preserve the animals' carcasses as specimens. 'I was so shocked when I saw the turtles. I was so upset,' the university student told Pear Video. 'I didn't think the outbreak would last this long, so I didn't bring them home because they would be fine without being fed.' The pet owner said that he had kept the turtles for years and treated them with care. Another video clip filmed by Liu before the campus closure shows his beloved pets resting in a water tank with fish swimming around. 'I always fed them with live fish,' he added. Footage shows the two dead turtles' bone-dry bodies discovered by Liu when he was recently allowed to return to the campus to resume classes. Screenshot of another clip (right) shows the turtles resting in a water tank with fish swimming around before the campus closure The story was revealed by Pear Video on Monday. But it remains unclear where the incident took place. While some Chinese web users found the video amusing, others were horrified by the incident and called for a ban on students keeping pets in their university residence. One commenter wrote: 'This is not funny, it is devastating. We should stop students from having pets in dorms.' Another said: 'If you can't afford to keep them, don't. The turtles literally died of thirst and hunger. What's funny about that? Speechless.' Although Chinese schools and universities forbidden pupils from having animals in residence halls, many students still attempt to keep them discreetly. Pictured, a student takes her luggage as she moves in the student residence at Shenzhen Futian High School on April 27 Tens of millions of Chinese students have been returning to their campus recently after China appears to have largely contained the coronavirus outbreak, A student wearing face mask is pictured on May 7 arriving at changchun University of Chinese Medicine after it reopens Tens of millions of students across China have been returning to their campus recently after the country where the pandemic began appears to have largely contained the coronavirus outbreak. Although Chinese schools and universities forbid pupils from having animals in residence halls, many students still attempt to keep them discreetly. A similar incident happened to another Chinese student, Duan, who discovered his dead pet turtle at his dorm when he returned to his university in May, Chinese media reported. The final year student from Baoshan University in Yunnan province of south-western China was left heartbroken when his pet reptile of four years had died during the coronavirus lockdown. He said in a social media post on May 18 that he adopted the turtle after spotting it on campus. 'My son is gone,' Duan wrote. 'He accompanied me for four years.' A majority of Americans do not trust President Donald Trump to provide accurate information about the coronavirus, but many question the veracity of local officials as well, according to a poll released Tuesday. And less than 6 in 10 have a great deal of trust in the information they are receiving from doctors and scientists, according to the Fairleigh Dickinson University Poll. These findings point to the immense level of distrust Americans have in the ability of elected officials to communicate critical information needed to manage the COVID-19 pandemic and the obvious lack of meaningful leadership at the federal level, said Bojana Beric-Stojsic, director of the masters in public health program and an associate professor of public health at FDUs School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. "What is most surprising and very distressing is that only 58% of Americans have a great deal of trust in doctors and scientists in the midst of a health crisis. Thats the highest level of trust in the poll, however. Only 36% had a great deal of trust in government websites, 27% in their local elected officials and 22% in the president. A majority of Americans, 55%, had little or no trust in Trump to provide accurate information, compared with 28% for government websites, 36% for local officials and 13% for doctors and scientists. The remainder had some trust in the information they were receiving. You would hope that at this point, the information that is given to people from elected officials should be higher than what were now seeing, FDU Poll Director Krista Jenkins said. The numbers just show just a deep well of distrust across the board. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage Jenkins said that the continuing changes in guidance may have contributed to the lack of trust. For example, Americans were told they didnt need to wear masks to protect against the coronavirus, and then were told they did. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention edited its coronavirus transmission page in such a way that it appeared that it was not possible to be infected from a touching a surface that contained the virus, and then had to change it again. And Trump has touted the use of hydroxychloroquine, and even claimed he was taking it, even though Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said it was not an effective treatment against the coronavirus. Even so, 77% said that doctors and scientists change their recommendations based on new evidence, while 23% blamed political pressure. As for Trump, 53% said he changed his recommendations due to political pressure and 47% said it was based on science. Were talking about issues of health and wellness, Jenkins said. Maybe a standard of trust is a little bit higher. Were not talking about normal politics. You really want more trust than you would want normally. Still majorities approved of the job that their governors were doing in handling the pandemic, 69% to 31%. Not so Trump, where a majority, 51% disapproved of his job and 49% approved. As Phil Murphy and other governors continued to reopen parts of their economies, 46% said they moving at a safe pace and 31% said they were moving too quickly. Only 23% said they were moving too slowly. The poll of 1,003 adults was conducted May 20-25 and had a margin of error of 3.6 percentage points. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin of Russia spoke by telephone on Monday, two days after Trump said he would invite Putin to attend a Group of 7 summit in the United States in September, the latest instance of a renewed round of personal diplomacy between the two leaders this year President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin of Russia spoke by telephone on Monday, two days after Trump said he would invite Putin to attend a Group of 7 summit in the United States in September, the latest instance of a renewed round of personal diplomacy between the two leaders this year. Hours after the Kremlin first described the call on its website, the White House released a statement saying that the men had discussed the latest efforts to defeat the coronavirus pandemic and reopen global economies and progress toward convening the G-7. A largely similar Kremlin readout said Trump had initiated the call, and a senior White House official said Trump had extended a personal invitation to Putin to attend the gathering, which the president will host. Russia was expelled in 2014 from what was known as the Group of 8 after Putin annexed Ukraines Crimean Peninsula. Trump has supported reentry but even as he reached out to Putin, key US allies reiterated that Russia was an outlaw nation that should be denied readmittance into the group of industrialised nations, whose members are the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Britain, Italy and Japan. Speaking to reporters Monday, a spokesman for the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, said Britain opposed allowing Russia back into the group because his government had yet to see evidence of changed behaviour which would justify readmittance, according to Reuters. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada agreed, saying that Russias continued disrespect and flaunting of international rules and norms is why it remains outside of the G-7, and it will continue to remain out. But neither man would say whether his country would boycott the planned gathering, originally scheduled for June but postponed because of the coronavirus, if Putin attended as a guest observer. With the Justice Departments Russia investigation well behind him, Trump has recently accelerated his personal diplomacy with Putin. They have spoken several times this spring about global oil prices, exchanged shipments of medical supplies and released an unusual joint statement commemorating Russian-American cooperation in the defeat of Nazi Germany. Many Trump administration officials remain wary of Moscow, and overall relations between the two countries remain fraught. The United States angered the Kremlin last month by announcing its withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty, a Cold War arms control agreement, and last week the National Security Agency openly accused Russia of computer hacking around the world. But Trump continues to speak in positive tones. Our relationship with Russia has come a long way in the last few months, he said on 21 May. Trump has often spoken of readmitting Russia to the Group of 7, but the idea has failed to gain traction with the alliances other members, although President Emmanuel Macron of France said in 2019 that the move could be appropriate if Russia were to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine, where it has supported a pro-Moscow separatist movement. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Saturday, Trump proposed a meeting of the bloc in September that in addition to Russia would also be attended by South Korea, Australia and India. I dont feel that as a G-7 it properly represents whats going on in the world, Trump said, according to a pool report of his remarks. Its a very outdated group of countries. It was unclear from Trumps remarks whether he was renewing his call for Russias formal admission to the group and also suggesting that other nations be added to its ranks. But a senior administration official, speaking on background Monday, indicated that he was proposing it attend as a one-time guest. As president of the G-7, the United States can invite additional countries to participate in the annual summit meetings, the official said. Any permanent expansion of the G-7 would require agreement of all members. The official also said the goal was to include a more diverse gathering of countries that better represents the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. That was a different emphasis than one provided to reporters Saturday by the White Houses director of strategic communications, Alyssa Farah, who said China would be the focus of such a gathering. Trump floated his new plan Saturday evening, hours after Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany dealt a seemingly fatal blow to an earlier proposal that he host the summit in the Washington area in June, despite the continued threat of the coronavirus. The presidents idea had drawn lukewarm support from other member states even before a spokesman for Merkel said that the German leader, who has cool relations with Trump, would not confirm her attendance at such a gathering. Trumps gambit on readmitting Russia to the G-8 is merely a ploy to divert attention from the embarrassing news that Angela Merkel, Americas most important European ally in fighting the pandemic and a resurgent Russia, doesnt want to participate in a photo-op summit in DC, said Andrew S Weiss, vice-president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Trump has floated this idea, which he surely knows is a total nonstarter, multiple times in the past to change the subject from pressing issues where the US is totally isolated or at odds with our closest allies such as trade, climate change and Iran, Weiss added. As for the cause of its expulsion from the Group of 8 the annexation of Crimea Trump has long shown little sympathy for the Ukrainian governments outrage, suggesting in mid-2016 that Crimea is rightfully Russian territory. The Kremlin statement said that the leaders had also discussed oil markets and strategic stability, and that Putin congratulated Trump on the SpaceX rocket launch Saturday. The Kremlin statement did not mention the protests rocking US cities. The White House statement noted that the Trump administration had shipped 200 ventilators to Russia in mid-May, several weeks after a Russian military cargo plane carrying masks and ventilators landed in New York. Many experts said the Russian shipment had been a public relations ploy, a notion Trump rejected in a briefing in April. It was a very nice gesture on behalf of Putin, he said, adding: Im not concerned about Russian propaganda. Not even a little bit. Michael Crowley c.2020 The New York Times Company Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-03 00:37:12|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close JUBA, June 2 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan's minister of East African Affairs in the current unity government, John Luk Jok has died, a government spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday. Michael Makuei Lueth, minister of information and broadcasting, described the deceased as a liberator and scholar who helped write the country's Constitution in 2011. "It was this Tuesday morning when I received a telephone call and informed that brother John Luk Jok has passed on. So it is true that it has happened," Makuei told Xinhua in Juba. He said there was no official confirmation of the cause of the death. "We have lost a great man who contributed a lot in a liberation struggle and after liberation. He had ever been a servant of people, and with his death, we have lost a great man," said Makuei. Enditem A father-of-ten and his girlfriend are accused of kidnapping a woman and raping her after she failed to pay a drug debt she racked up while waiting for a government COVID-19 handout. Douglas Dixon, 30, and his partner Khloe Stace, 22, allegedly kidnapped the 28-year-old woman on April 13 before locking her inside a bedroom at Dixon's home in Maitland near the Hunter Valley in NSW. The woman allegedly hadn't paid the couple a $750 drug debt she ran up while she was waiting to receive cash via a government coronavirus stimulus package. Douglas Dixon, 30, allegedly kidnapped a woman with his girlfriend and raped her after she failed to pay a $750 drug debt The alleged victim was drugged and woke up not knowing how long she had been in the bedroom before breaking free, according to police facts tendered to the Supreme Court on Tuesday. 'It is a very serious case,' Justice Robert Hulme said, according to The Daily Telegraph. 'In short, it is alleged that for a relatively trivial debt Dixon took a young woman from her home and took her to his own home where she was drugged and sexually assaulted. 'She was able to cut through a flyscreen and get onto the roof and obtain the attention of the public.' Police were called to the house and tests later revealed the woman had Dixon's semen inside her, the court heard. The 28-year-old was also allegedly made to perform oral sex on Stace before being punched in the mouth by Dixon. She was found with a broken eye socket, a punctured lung and severe bruising, police allege. Dixon was denied bail for a third time on Tuesday after telling the court he was the sole carer for three of his children and was unable to see them while in custody. Justice Hulme said Dixon could face life in prison. Both Dixon and Stace were charged with offences including aggravated sexual assault in company, inflicting actual bodily harm and drug-related charges. They remain in custody and will appear in court later this month. At the 2019 informal summit between India and China at Mamallapuram, on the periphery of Chennai, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping decided to celebrate the 70th anniversary of bilateral relations in 2020 by deepening exchanges at all levels between the legislatures, political parties, cultural and youth organisations, even the militaries of the two countries. The two leaders also decided to organise 70 activities, including a conference on a ship that would trace the historical connect between the two civilisations. No one expected that rosy diplomatic picture would turn as grim as it has now, with the spread of the coronavirus that was first reported from Wuhan ironically, the site of the 2018 informal summit between India and China and with war clouds gathering over eastern Ladakh. This has happened within seven months of the Mamallapuram meet, which saw the reiteration of a desire for peace and tranquillity in the border areas and a commitment to work on additional Confidence Building Measures (CBMs). Yet, today, the Indian Army is facing two aggressive Combined Arms Brigades of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) at Galwan Valley and Pangong Tso patrolling points along the 3,488-kilometre-long Line of Actual Control (LAC). ALSO WATCH | Explained: Trumps G7 offer for India, how it may help amid China standoff In May, PLA first activated LAC at Naku La area in north Sikkim and then at three points in Galwan and one point at Pangong Tso. While the Chinese defence ministry spokesperson has said that the situation in Ladakh is stable and controllable, this appears to be a gross understatement as the two armies are literally at each others throats. This fragile situation does not augur well for bilateral relations. It has already turned the normally-dormant LAC active, forcing India to deploy troops on the northern border and prepare for the worst-case scenario. Much as Indias detractors would like to remind it about the 1962 border skirmish with China, the fact is that even PLA would have to move troops from the hinterland to protect its own territory if the red flag goes up. As of now China has 76 and 77 group armies (around 45,000 men) along with an option of six to eight divisions of troops from Tibet and Xinjiang military district holding the Western Theatre Command facing India. With India rapidly building force levels in eastern Ladakh, it will be only a matter a time before PLA calls for reinforcements from the hinterland if status quo ante is not restored. Given that Indias lines of communication and air bases are closer to LAC, the scenario may not favour PLA. For instance, its Russian copy fighters will suffer severe load penalty if they take off from the rarefied Tibetan plateau. The PLA has already lost the element of surprise after days of stand-off, and the next question facing Chinese generals would be whether their troops can force a decisive victory. The PLA generals, who have studied the Kargil war more seriously that anyone, know that the Indian Army can and will fight against all odds. Even though China is now sabre-rattling at the border, it also knows that India has a very strong leader in PM Narendra Modi, who has not named China for spreading the Covid-19 virus, maintained a studied silence over the treatment of minorities in Xinjiang, not commented on the draconian laws in Hong Kong, and stayed silent while others have pushed for an observer status for Taiwan at the World Health Organization. By openly favouring a direct dialogue with China on the border issue, India has also kept its ally, the United States, at bay as it does not believe in hyphenation and fiercely guards its strategic independence. PM Modis move to restrict foreign direct investment from neighbouring countries a move clearly aimed at China shows that India has the capacity and capability to react. But it is also not catalysing the resentment against China at the behest of the Trump administration. The fact is, it is Beijing which is using neighbours such as Pakistan and, more recently, Nepal to project its dominance in the Indian subcontinent and beyond. The argument that the Ladakh stand-off is a result of the Modi government abrogating article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir does not hold good as no less than Foreign Minister S Jaishankar flew to Beijing last August to reassure China that India was not raising any additional territorial claim on contested areas in the region. By aggressively posturing on the border, China has added insult to injury as Beijing has hardly addressed Indias demand to reduce the trade deficit, which stood at $51.68 billion from January-November 2019 before the pandemic struck the world. Still, with both leaders previously committing to not turning bilateral differences into disputes, it would be in the interest of both parties to withdraw to their respective base camps in Eastern Ladakh as there is no way that India is going to allow China to make unilateral changes in either of the sectors. The Modi government will also not come under pressure from China on its legitimate border infrastructure upgrade, which is happening well within its own territory. After 21 rounds of hardly productive Special Representative Dialogue on the resolution of the boundary issue, it is time that the two sides at least exchange maps of the western and eastern sector so that the two armies know each others positions on the ground. The two leaders need to keep their communication channels open as both their bureaucracies and militaries carry a huge historical baggage and cannot think beyond protecting their silos. The direct channel will assume further importance as the succession of the Dalai Lama is on the horizon with China expected to come up with its own candidate as it did in the case of the Panchen Lama. The two most-populated nations in the world, the countries with the first and second largest armies in the world, cannot be adversaries forever. shishir.gupta@hindustantimes.com The views expressed are personal SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON 02.06.2020 LISTEN In a press statement signed by the General Secretary of APC, Mr. Mordecai Thiombiano, the party has officially resumed all political activities of the party from the Constituencies, Regions and to the National Level and called on all acting Constituency and Regional Chairmen to take charge of all activities of its internal elections to be supervised by the Electoral Commission of Ghana. "The scheduled activities of the party were ongoing at the various constituencies and regions before the emergence of coronavirus which put all political activities to a halt." "On behalf of Dr. Hassan Ayariga I wish to inform all acting constituency and regional chairmen to resume the activities of all Elections. it stated. The statement released tasked National Leadership of All People's Congress (APC) to continue to educate all party members to adhere to all safety protocols by the National Covid-19 team to keep safe and stay safe from Covid-19. Find below the full press statement: ALL PEOPLE'S CONGRESS (APC) RESUMES ITS SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES AFTER LIFTING OF BAN: The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the All People's Congress (APC) and on behalf of Dr Hassan Ayariga founder/Leader wish to inform all patriotic members of our noble party APC that our party from today Monday 1st of June, 2020 has officially resumed all political activities of the party from the Constituencies, Regions and to the National Level. The National Leadership of the party will like to admonish all party members to adhere to all safety protocols by the National Covid 19 team to keep safe and stay safe from Corona Virus. The scheduled activities of the party were ongoing at the various constituencies and regions before the emergence of corona virus which put all political activities to a halt. On behalf of Dr Hassan Ayariga I wish to inform all acting constituency and regional chairmen to resume the activities of all Elections and to be supervised and endorsed by the Electoral Commission Nationwide All party members interested in various portfolios of the leadership of the party at all levels should kindly contact acting constituencies and regional chairmen. Kindly revert back to the office of the general secretary for further discussion and details. Thank you. ...Signed.... Mordecai Thiombiano General Secretary APC The most consequential primary night since Super Tuesday has finally arrived. Voters in nine states plus the District of Columbia are going to the polls as campaigning springs back to life after three months in dormancy. Joe Biden will pad his delegate total, but the most closely-watched primaries by far are down the ballot including one that could spell the defeat of an incumbent congressman, Republican Steve King of Iowa, who members of his own party have described as a bigot. Well also learn whether Senate Democrats can shepherd their desired candidate through a competitive Iowa primary, and if former CIA agent Valerie Plame will be coming to Congress. Several of the primaries were originally scheduled for April or May but were postponed to allow officials to plan for the expansion of mail voting and secure polling places. The states holding elections include Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and South Dakota and D.C. Many of them are taking place against the backdrop of racial unrest and violence in U.S. cities coast to coast, as protesters against police misconduct and brutality clash with civil authorities. Those protests and local governments countermeasures are also going to interfere with voting procedures, even if the violent protests of the past week taper into less disruptive or destructive demonstrations on Tuesday. Heres POLITICOs insider guide to the most important races: Iowa Senate: Can Democrats build momentum to oust Ernst? Senate Democrats have embraced Theresa Greenfield, a businesswoman whose only previous political bid ended when her campaign manager falsified signatures on her petitions to run for Congress in 2018. But before she can take on first-term GOP Sen. Joni Ernst, Greenfield who was an early endorsee of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has to get through a competitive primary first. Ahead of Tuesdays vote, the cavalry has stormed Iowa to push Greenfield over the finish line: According to Advertising Analytics, Senate Majority PAC, the partys chief Senate super PAC, has spent more than $7 million on TV ads boosting Greenfield, and Women Vote!, the campaign arm of EMILYs List, kicked in over $1 million. Most of the money went toward attacks on two of Greenfields primary opponents, retired Navy Admiral Mike Franken and self-funder Eddie Mauro. Story continues Greenfield is still the odds-on favorite on Tuesday. But she needs to clear 35 percent to clinch the nomination. Otherwise the nomination fight heads to a party convention, where delegates might be torn between Greenfields national support and some raw feelings on the ground about the partys intervention in the primary. With five candidates, including Greenfield, on the ballot, anything resembling a decisive victory should eclipse 35 percent. But national Democrats want Greenfield to build momentum for November, not just eke out a primary win. While Iowa turned sharply toward Republicans in 2016, both parties see the prospect of a very competitive reelection campaign for Ernst in what could be the race that decides which party controls the Senate next year. Iowa 4th District: Will a split field save Steve King? Two years ago, when King faced the most competitive reelection campaign of his career, national Republicans cut him loose. The Iowan with a history of controversial and sometimes racist comments was left on his own to withstand a Democratic wave election without financial and logistical help. King survived. But this time, the bigger threat is coming from his own party. Kings strongest challenger on Tuesday is state Sen. Randy Feenstra, who has adopted the partys line on the incumbent. He has cited Kings lack of legislative effectiveness Republicans booted the congressman from all his committee assignments after he appeared to defend the terms white supremacy and white nationalism in a New York Times interview without directly condemning him. Feenstra has earned endorsements from GOP establishment groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He's also raked in donations from some of Kings House colleagues, including Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio), who was the chair of the House GOP campaign arm when he ditched King in the closing weeks of the 2018 race. But there are three other Republicans running, and its possible they could split the anti-King vote. If that happens, King could either clinch the nomination outright or it would go to a convention. If King does win renomination, Democrat J.D. Scholten, who lost to King by 3 points in 2018, will likely mount another serious challenge, putting what should be a strongly Republican district firmly on the board in this years elections. In this Feb. 13, 2020, photo GOP U.S. House candidate Claire Chase speaks to voters in Los Lunas, N.M. Chase and two other Republican hopefuls seeking the GOP nomination to challenge Democratic U.S. Rep. Xochitl Torres Small for a key southern New Mexico seat are hitting the airwaves early. (AP Photo/Russell Contreras) New Mexico 2nd District: Who will win the ugliest primary in America? One of the biggest Democratic surprises in November 2018 came in southern New Mexico, where Democrat Xochitl Torres Small picked up an open congressional seat that President Donald Trump carried by 10 points two years earlier. Republican Yvette Herrell, a conservative former state legislator who lost to Torres Small in 2018, is back for a rematch. But most national Republicans think the GOP would be better off with new blood, identifying businesswoman Claire Chase as a top recruit. The Chase-Herrell primary has turned into one of the most bitter contests on the 2020 electoral map. Last month, Chase accused Herrell of a despicable, untrue and deeply personal attack after a military veteran said Herrell told him that Chase had cheated on her first husband when he was deployed overseas. (Herrell denies that exchange took place, and Chase says she met her current husband after she was divorced.) Both candidates have plenty of outside backing in the race: A super PAC supporting Chase received funding from a national group seeking to elect more Republican women, and Herrell has the support of the House Freedom Caucus campaign apparatus. But a couple of Democratic groups have also waded into the GOP primary. One is running a TV ad that technically attacks both Republicans, but appears designed to help Herrell, whom Democrats see as a more beatable opponent. The group, Patriot Majority PAC, is hitting Chase as a lobbyist who has opposed President Donald Trump and also launched a last-minute ad in the final days of the primary hitting a third, lesser-known GOP candidate, Chris Mathys, as a carpetbagger from California. The three-dimensional intervention suggests the race is volatile. Torres Small, meanwhile, had $3.1 million in cash on hand for the fall as of mid-May a formidable sum, even in a difficult district for Democrats to hold. Indiana 1st District/New Mexico 3rd District Nothing opens the political floodgates like a safe congressional seats that comes open after three decades. Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-Ind.), a long-time appropriator, is retiring after 36 years representing a Northwest Indiana district encompassing cities such as Gary and East Chicago. Democratic voters in the district will pick Viscloskys replacement from a list of 14 candidates. The race appears wide open to replace the moderate Visclosky, who is best known as a House cardinal who now chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense. Meanwhile, in New Mexico, sixth-term Democratic Rep. Ben Ray Lujan is seeking a promotion to the Senate, opening his House seat. That race has drawn seven candidates the most famous of whom is Plame, the CIA agent who was outed in a scandal that consumed the Bush administration and led to the conviction of then-Vice President Dick Cheneys chief of staff, Scooter Libby. But Plame whos run a flashy advertising campaign faces a number of formidable opponents with closer ties to the district. They include state Rep. Joseph Sanchez, prosecutor Marco Serna and Teresa Leger Fernandez, an attorney endorsed by EMILYs List and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezs political operation. Montana governor/House: Republicans ambition gets sorted The open governors race in Montana appears poised to reorder the states political scene, especially for Republicans hoping to break Democrats 16-year lock on the statehouse. Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock is term-limited and running for Senate. That has set off a domino effect of competitive primaries. For governor, the states lone congressman, Rep. Greg Gianforte, is squaring off with state Attorney General Tim Fox for the GOP nomination. On the Democratic side, Bullock has endorsed his lieutenant governor, Mike Cooney but EMILYs List is backing businesswoman Whitney Williams, the daughter of long-time former Rep. Pat Williams (D-Mont.). Meanwhile, Gianfortes decision to mount a second bid for governor he lost to Bullock in the 2016 race, even as President Donald Trump was trouncing Hillary Clinton in the state opens up the at-large congressional seat. The crowded GOP primary includes two statewide officeholders: state Auditor Matt Rosendale and Secretary of State Corey Stapleton. Kathleen Williams, who lost to Gianforte in 2018, is running again for the Democratic nomination. There are other races that also bear watching on Tuesday: In Marylands 5th District, liberal activists are targeting House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. They've lined up behind Mckayla Wilkes, a Justice Democrats-backed challenger to the 80-year-old Hoyer. Two Republican House primaries are worth monitoring: GOP voters are picking nominees to face Democratic Reps. Susan Wild and Matt Cartwright in northeastern Pennsylvania. Both races have turned ugly, with attack ads flying around which candidates are most supportive of Trump. The president waded into the race in Pennsylvanias 7th District, endorsing former Lehigh County Commissioner Lisa Scheller to face Wild. And in the nations capital where vote centers will remain open until 8 p.m. on Tuesday, despite Mayor Muriel Bowsers 7 p.m. curfew Democratic voters in two of the citys eight wards are casting ballots in competitive primaries. One is an open seat in the citys tony 2nd ward vacated by scandal-plagued Councilmember Jack Evans, who resigned in January over ethics violations but almost immediately filed to run again. The other race is in diverse Ward 4, where liberal reformers are targeting Councilmember Brandan Todd, who succeeded Bowser when she became mayor. Most of the looters and rioters arrested by the NYPD over the past several days are immediately released as a direct result of New Yorks new bail-reform law, New York City police chief Terrence Monahan told the New York Post on Tuesday. While the city police made over 650 arrests on Monday night alone, Monahan said that just about all of them will be released without bail. We had some arrests in Brooklyn where they had guns, [and] hopefully [Brooklyn district attorney] Eric Gonzalez will keep them in, [but] I cant guarantee thatll happen, Monahan said. But when it comes to a burglary [at] a commercial store, which is looting, theyre back out. . . . Because of bail reform, youre back out on the street the next day. You cannot be held on any sort of bail. I spoke to [Manhattan district attorney] Cy Vance about that, he told me theres nothing he can do. New Yorks bail-reform law, which went into effect earlier this year, eliminates the bail requirement for suspects accused of most misdemeanors, including burglary and stalking. Suspects in violent felonies are still required to post bail. Even before the law was adopted, New York law forbade judges from considering many suspects potential danger to the community before setting bail. New York City has seen widespread rioting and looting during demonstrations sparked by the death of George Floyd, an African-American man who was killed during a confrontation with white police officers in Minneapolis, Minn. The NYPD has stated that organized groups of anarchists are targeting stores in wealthy neighborhoods, especially in lower and midtown Manhattan. On Tuesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo slammed both the NYPD and Mayor Bill de Blasio for their handling of the riots. The police in New York City were not effective at doing their job last night. Period, Cuomo told reporters. He also floated the idea of displacing de Blasio, but immediately retracted the suggestion, saying it would create a chaotic situation in the midst of an already chaotic situation, that doesnt make sense. Story continues Chief Monahan told the Post that he was extremely outraged by Cuomos remarks. Im watching my men and women out there dealing with stuff that no cop should ever have to deal with, bricks, bottles, rocks, hit in the face with bottles and continuing to go forward to make an arrest, Monahan said. For a governor to be sitting in his office saying that were not doing a good job Im outraged. More from National Review While Twitter and Facebook dithered over whether to append warning labels on outrageous and dangerous posts from Donald Trump, the president continued to tweet and post. Twitter took the plunge last week with a fact-checking link on two misleading and false tweets about mail-in voting and, later, an admonition that the presidents tweet warning protesters that they risked being shot had violated its rules. Rather than blunt the presidents message, the effect of Twitters knuckle-rapping has been to draw even more attention to it. Twitter executives deserve credit for at least calling out President Trump, even if it took them two years to finally decide to do so. Despite Twitters measured approach, its solution only amplifies the problem. And Twitters boss, Jack Dorsey, has fallen victim to the Streisand Effect, the internet phenomenon where attempts to censor or excise information instead backfire, causing the information to be cast even more widely. Mark Zuckerberg, under the guise of free speech rights, has in the meantime given the president carte blanche to say what he pleases. Though he wrote he had a visceral negative reaction to the presidents posts, Facebook ultimately left the posts up, warning-label free. Although the post had a troubling historical reference, we decided to leave it up because the National Guard references meant we read it as a warning about state action, and we think people need to know if the government is planning to deploy force, Mr. Zuckerberg posted on his personal Facebook page Friday. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 19:44:21|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CANBERRA, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government has announced a national domestic violence inquiry, giving survivors a chance to "have their voices heard." Marise Payne, the Minister for Women and Minister for Foreign Affairs, recently tasked the parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs to produce a report on measures to prevent violence against women and their children. The Inquiry into Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence will also examine the impact of the coronavirus lockdown on the prevalence of domestic abuse, with several frontline services having reported a surge in demand for help. "We must listen to the experiences of the sector during this unprecedented time and learn how governments, services and the community can better support women and their children, particularly when home is not a safe place to be," Payne said in a statement. On average one Australian woman is killed by her current or former partner every week. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), about 25 percent of Australian women have been subjected to emotional abuse by a current or former partner since the age of 15 and about 20 percent have experienced sexual violence. The inquiry was announced despite a Senate inquiry in May finding that "another lengthy, public inquiry" into domestic violence was not necessary "at this time" and would be of "limited benefit." Anne Ruston, the Minster for Families and Social Services, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that the new inquiry was referred to the committee to "ensure there was broad scope to canvas all the relevant issues." "It's been clear from the public feedback to the recent Senate inquiry that there is a real desire from survivors, friends and family of victims, sector leaders and the community to have their voices heard on this issue," she said. "This parliamentary inquiry process will provide that opportunity." Enditem Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 2) The Manila Police District confirmed that two detainees who tested positive of COVID-19 were arrested on Tuesday after escaping quarantine facility in Binondo, Manila. Detainees Ceasar Adriatco and Jerick Savallon were discovered to have fled the Delpan Evacuation Center Tuesday morning. Adriatco is arrested due to drug use, while Savallon is charged of child abuse. They tested positive of COVID-19 based on a swab test result dated May 3 that required them to be isolated in the quarantine facility. Both were arrested around Sta. Ana, Manila area. The MPD is already conducting contact tracing to all those who had close contact with the detainees. Police officers who were also in close contact with the two will be placed under quarantine. Across the world, millions of Christians sing hundreds of hymns in their church every Sunday. Singing is such an integral part of worship. The church has a massive collection of songs, but some stand out above the rest. Some classics have captured the attention of Christians for generations. When we learn the stories behind our favorite hymns, they come to life in a new way. History adds context and meaning so that we can understand and relate to the hymns in a profound fashion. These stories will spark emotion and passion the next time you sing them. "Amazing Grace" This would not be a complete list without one of the most well-known hymns in the world. "Amazing Grace" was created by John Newton in 1779. The author of the hymn described himself as the "wretch" in the song. He was a slave trader, rebel, blasphemer, and all-around immoral man. He was as far from grace as anyone could ever be and lived a life full of hardship. God was able to get his attention after Newton's slave ship was nearly wrecked in a thunderstorm. As the vessel was taking on water and the crew was crying, Newton fell to his knees and started pleading for God's forgiveness. God's grace saved Newton. Newton became a pastor in Olney, England, where he wrote the song. Today, the song still inspires the world and is sung in churches everywhere. "How Great Thou Art" This song was written in 1885 by Carl Gustav Boberg, a 26-year-old pastor from Sweden. Boberg was said to have been caught in a thunderstorm after church one Sunday afternoon. From his place in the mountains, Boberg could see the storm rolling in and noticed the immense power and force it had. Once the storm passed, Boberg observed a beautiful big rainbow cover the valley, over the meadows and grain fields. It took his breath away. He wrote the song "O Store Gud," which was then translated into German, Russian, and English. A stanza in the song was picked up in 1949 by an English missionary named Stuart K. Hine and changed to what we know today. Millions now sing the song of Christians in dozens of languages across the world. "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" Joseph Scriven, a young Irishman, completed his college education in 1844. He returned home to marry his sweetheart. He came home to find his bride-to-be tragically lying dead after falling off her horse. Later on, Scriven moved to Canada and fell in love again. Unfortunately, for the second time, his bride-to-be hit a horrible fate. She became ill and died weeks before their marriage. Scriven wrote a poem to his mother in Ireland to describe the tragedy he had faced. He spoke of how his deep friendship with Jesus, which he had cultivated through prayer, helped him get through the loss of his two loved ones. Instead of believing God was punishing him, Scriven thought God was his rock. The poem was published anonymously under the title "Pray Without Ceasing". Later in 1868, attorney Charles Converse set the text to music and changed the name to what we know it as today. "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" Isaac Watts devoted much of his life to writing, including essays, sermons, and hymns, despite his frail health. He is considered the father of English hymnody crafting songs like the Christmas carol "Joy to the World". As a teen, Watts was concerned with the crude lyrics that most English-speaking congregations used to praise God. Watts was challenged by his father to create something better, so he began to write hymns. At first, he wrote new versions of Bible verses in the book of Psalms. Then in 1707, Watts wrote, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," which reflected his personal feelings. This writing style was considered controversial at the time, but the song became so popular and had a significant impact on the church. Theologian Matthew Arnold came to call it the greatest hymn in the English language. "Wherever He Leads, I'll Go" Two friends, R.S. Jones and B.B. McKinney, were having lunch at an Alabama Sunday school conference in 1936. Jones had just returned from Brazil, where he was a missionary. Jones was heartbroken, because just days before he found out that health issues would keep him from returning to the country to do God's work. McKinney, a hymn writer, asked Jones what he was going to do. Jones replied, "Wherever He leads, I'll go". This statement was so powerful that McKinney penned the classic hymn that afternoon, and later that night performed it after Jones had preached in the church. Since then, the song has been such in many worship services. We might know where God will lead us, but we can trust He knows what He is doing. The hymns we know and love have much deeper meanings behind them. Knowing the history of these songs makes them that much more meaningful each time we sing them. We can honor God's hand in creating these beautiful tunes. Air India will operate 70 flights in the third phase of Mission Vande Bharat to evacuate Indians stranded in the US and Canada between June 11 to June 30, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said. Puri wrote on Twitter, "More flights being added to Mission Vande Bharat to enable stranded and distressed Indians to return home. Air India will operate 70 flights to destinations in USA and Canada under Phase 3 of the Mission from 11-30 June 2020". Air India brought 3,891 people from Dubai, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Bahrain, Salalah, Moscow, Kiev, Madrid, Tokyo, Dhaka, Bishkek, Almaty, Riyadh and Dammam on June 1 . More than 50,000 stranded and distressed Indian citizens have been evacuated under the Vande Bharat Mission. The government plans to evacuate another 100,000 by June 13. Air India will be operating additional repatriation flights to six countries between June 4 and June 6 to bring back stranded Indians from US, New Zealand, the UK, Sweden, Germany and South Korea. The national carrier said it will operate Delhi-Auckland flight on June 4, Delhi-Chicago flight and Delhi-Stockholm flight on June 5. It will run Delhi-New York flight, Delhi-Frankfurt flight, Delhi-Seoul flight, Mumbai-London flight and Mumbai-Newark flight on June 6. Meanwhile, the government has been receiving overwhelming requests to restart outbound international flights, the civil aviation minister said. On which Puri clarified that, "Several factors need to be addressed. Many international destinations are not allowing incoming passenger traffic, except for their own citizens or diplomats". Puri further added that, "MHA guidelines for lockdown 5.0 have further opened up inter and intra-state travel, will facilitate calibrated reopening of the sector. As we move towards the critical mass of 50-60% operation of domestic flights, our ability to resume international operations will also improve". Vande Bharat Mission was launched on May 7. In the first phase of the mission from May 7 to 15, Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express operated 64 flights to bring back around 15,000 people from 12 countries. Also read: Coronavirus crisis: 8,171 new cases in 24 hours, COVID-19 tally close to 2 lakh Also read: Modi Speech at CII: Here's what PM thinks about recent govt reforms Search teams have been stood down after recovering the body of a five-year-old boy this morning who was missing at Lough Mask in Co Mayo. The search, which resumed this morning, was being led by the Irish Coast Guard Sikorsky S-92 helicopter with the support of local gardai, Civil Defence, Lough Mask Water Rescue and a local dive team. The alarm was raised shortly before 6.30pm on the north western section of Lough Mask, close to Toormakeady. The area is popular for fishing and recreational boating. A garda spokesman confirmed the search operation. A search operation involving An Garda Siochana... is underway on Lough Mask near Toormakeady for a young boy who went missing while out on the water. Its understood the child, the youngest of five siblings, entered the water after he had been playing with his siblings on a dinghy. A friend of the family told Independent.ie that the community is in shock. He added: I know the family very well, God help them, its a tragedy - what a terrible, terrible thing to happen. Local councillor Michael Burke said the community is devastated. Its horrendous. I only heard about this late this evening and I am dumbfounded and shocked, as is everyone. Its unbelievably tragic and cruel. It came after, in a separate incident, a young man was left fighting for his life after suffering critical injuries when he dived off a 17 metre (50ft) cliff in Cork and struck submerged rocks. The 35-year-old is being treated for critical head and spinal injuries after the incident at Nohoval Cove, roughly 30km from Cork. It is understood he was at the popular coastal spot with friends enjoying the sunshine. The man, who is believed to be from nearby Carrigaline, apparently struck hidden rocks as he dived into the sea around 2pm on Sunday. A member of the public raised the alarm and a major rescue operation was mounted. The Coast Guards Shannon-based Rescue 115 Sikorsky helicopter was tasked to the scene while RNLI and Coast Guard units from Kinsale, Oysterhaven and Summercove also attended. Kinsale RNLI volunteers helped bring the injured man ashore and he was then taken by helicopter to Cork University Hospital (CUH)Two ambulances attended the scene but a helicopter transfer was deemed faster given the serious nature of the injuries. China Threatens to Retaliate Against US Over Hong Kong By VOA News June 01, 2020 China has threatened to retaliate against the United States after President Donald Trump's decision to begin the process of eliminating Hong Kong's special status and impose restrictions on Chinese students in U.S. Trump's action was prompted by a new Chinese national security law in Hong Kong. Speaking to reporters at the daily briefing on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said "the announced measures severely interfere with China's internal affairs, damage U.S.-China relations, and will harm both sides. China is firmly opposed to this," adding that "any words or actions by the U.S. that harm China's interests will meet with China's firm counterattack." Trump said on Friday the controversial security law is tragic for the people of Hong Kong and violated China's promise to protect its autonomy. He said the Chinese government had been "diminishing the city's longstanding and very proud status." The president stopped short, however, of calling an immediate end to privileges that have helped Hong Kong remain a global financial hub. China's people's assembly voted last week to impose new national security legislation on Hong Kong that forbids secessionist and subversive activities, and what it labels foreign interference and terrorism. About 200 political figures from around the world have said, the new law constitutes a "flagrant breach" of the Joint Declaration which retuned the former British colony to China in 1997 under the framework of "one country, two systems." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Eastern Zinc Corp. ("Eastern Zinc" or the Company) (CSE:EZNC | OTC:ETZCF) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a definitive purchase agreement with Platina Resources Limited (Platina) (ASX:PGM), dated June 1, 2020, for the acquisition of a 100% undivided ownership interest in the Skaergaard precious metals project (the Skaergaard Project or the Project) located on the East Coast of Greenland. The Skaergaard Project The Skaergaard Project is comprised of two exploration licences and contains a significant historical resource estimate of gold and platinum group metals (PGMs) dominated by palladium, importantly, outside of the major PGM producing areas of South Africa and Russia. This historical estimate is predominantly in the Inferred resource category. The Project is located in the Kangerlussuaq region of eastern Greenland within the Skaergaard intrusion, which is a layered mafic igneous complex containing stratiform PGMs including palladium (Pd) and platinum (Pt), and gold and iron titanium oxide mineralization associated with base metal sulphides (PGM-bearing reef complex). Platina has historically invested more than $16 million into the exploration and development of the Skaergaard Project including drilling, metallurgical testing, resource estimation, and technical studies. This includes the completion of 68 drill holes and 35,000 metres of diamond drilling, a historical resource estimate completed in July 2013 and reported in accordance with the Australasian Joint Ore Reserves Committee Code (JORC Code), and a Scoping Study completed on the project in November 2019. The Company reports that a historical resource estimate (Historical Estimate) was completed for the Skaergaard Project in July 2013 using metal price assumptions of US$1,400/oz for gold and platinum, and US$560/oz for palladium. The historical estimate is shown in the table below including key assumptions and parameters used: Story continues A table accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e74f1324-00f7-4adc-aa70-f60aeb6091a7 Notes: Source and date of historical estimate: Platina Resources Ltd. - ASX news release - 23 July 2013 New Resource Estimate for Skaergaard Gold and PGM Project, East Greenland. This historical estimate was completed and reported under JORC Code (2012) standards, as such no technical report was completed; AuEq metal equivalent calculation = Au + Pt + (Pdx0.4); metal price assumptions include a Au price of US$1,400/oz, Pt price of US$1,400/oz and Pd price of US$560/oz. This metal equivalent calculation assumes 100% metallurgical recovery; Cut-off grade = 1g/t AuEq; and Minimum thickness = 1m; parts below 1m thickness have been diluted to 1m. 10% reduction globally applied, to reflect dyke intersections. This historical estimate is considered relevant as it demonstrates the three-dimensional continuity of the three main reef complexes within the Skaergaard Project that host PGM (palladium and platinum) and gold mineralization. However, the Company cautions readers that this historical estimate was not completed using 2014 CIM Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves and is not supported by a technical report completed in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101). In addition, under the JORC (2012) Code standards, Measured, Indicated, and Inferred mineral resource tonnages can be aggregated, which is not permitted under NI 43-101. A Qualified Person has not done sufficient work to classify this historical estimate as current mineral resources and Eastern Zinc is not treating this historical estimate as current mineral resources. A significant amount of work is required to verify the historical estimate as current resources including: (1) upgrading the geological model with any additional drilling data acquired since the historical estimate was completed, (2) completing a full data verification of historical drill hole sampling procedures, analytical results, and metallurgical test results, and (3) additional metallurgical test work to determine processing and recovery characteristics including the possible recovery of titanium, ilmenite, vanadium, copper and gallium. Eastern Zinc is not aware of any additional historical estimates for the Skaergaard Project. Terms of the Acquisition Pursuant to the terms of the purchase agreement, Eastern Zinc shall acquire the Skaergaard Project in consideration for the payment to Platina of C$500,000 in cash and the issuance of 55,000,000 common shares in the capital of Eastern Zinc at a deemed issue price of $0.10 per share (the Payment Shares). The Payment Shares shall be subject to a lock-up agreement entered into between Platina and Eastern Zinc which provides for the release of the Payment Shares from escrow in equal installments at each of the dates that are 6, 12, 18, and 24 months from the date of issuance of closing. The Payment Shares are subject to accelerated release from escrow tied to share price performance, changes in structure, and Platina undertaking an in-specie distribution of the shares. A finders fee is payable to arms length parties in connection with the closing of the acquisition. All shares issued pursuant to the purchase agreement and finders fee are subject to a statutory hold period expiring four months and one day after the issuance of common shares. The completion of the acquisition is subject to a number of conditions, including, but not limited to, completion of satisfactory due diligence, approval of the shareholders of Platina (if required), and approval of the Government of Greenland of the transfer of the Skaergaard Project exploration licences. Upcoming Work Post-closing of the acquisition, Eastern Zinc intends to immediately commence work on the Skaergaard Project including historical data verification, a site visit, updating the geological model, and completing a resource estimate in accordance with CIM and NI 43-101 standards. Eastern Zinc intends to complete this work by the end of 2020. Qualified Person Statement All scientific or technical information contained in this news release was prepared and approved by Paul Teniere, P.Geo., President & CEO of Eastern Zinc Corp, who is a Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101. On behalf of the Board of Directors EASTERN ZINC CORP. Joel Dumaresq Chair of the Board and Chief Financial Officer Suite 810 789 West Pender Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 1H2 (604) 336-3195 About Eastern Zinc Corp. Eastern Zinc is a Canadian junior mining and exploration company operating out of Vancouver, British Columbia. Eastern Zinc is engaged in the business of acquiring, exploring and developing natural resource properties with a focus on zinc properties/projects. Eastern Zinc is listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) and its common shares trade under the ticker symbol "EZNC." For more information on Eastern Zinc, please visit our website at www.easternzinc.com . Additional information relating to Eastern Zinc is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com as well as on the CSE at www.theCSE.com. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-looking Information Statement This press release may include forward-looking information (as that term is defined by Canadian securities legislation). Forward-looking information is based on certain expectations and assumptions made by Eastern Zinc, including future plans for the exploration and development of mineral properties. Although Eastern Zinc believes that such expectations and assumptions are reasonable, investors should not rely unduly on such forward-looking information as the company cannot give any assurance that they will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. Eastern Zinc disclaims any intent or obligation to publicly update any forward-looking information (whether as a result of new information, future events or results, or otherwise) other than as required by applicable securities laws June 02 : Bollywood actress Sunny Leone and her better half Daniel Weber are enjoying lockdown life with their children in Los Angeles at the moment. They had moved to Los Angeles around mid-May as they felt it was a better place for their children to move around. Now, she takes to Instagram to give her fans a glimpse of their life abroad. Recently, she was busy plucking fresh veggies from California Underwood Family Farms with Daniel. Today, she took to Instagram; to show how blessed she felt by feeding a giraffe at a nearby wildlife learning center. The video was shot and gave a clear glimpse of how patiently she stood and extended her hand out to feed the giraffe. Sunny captioned her post as, Felt so blessed we could support this wildlife learning center in the middle of two crisis they are all working hard to feed and care for these animals and returning as many back to the wild as possible. Sunny Leone looked pretty in her simple red T-shirt and a pair of jeans. She wore the compulsory mask and stood among the staff of the place. The actress had a small black leather bag that she carried around her shoulder. Ever since the lockdown had started in India, this creative mom of three had been finding great ways to entertain her family and also her fans. From doing prank videos with Daniel to artwork with her toddlers, she seemed to be the limelight always during these two months. Ever since she went to Los Angeles, she had been advertising her line of cosmetic products called the Starstruck line. As it is a Made in India product, and with the general slack of sales going on, she has been offering the makeup products at discounts. These could be availed at her own online store suncitystore.com, as long as the stocks last. Children play with alpacas together with their parents in a zoo in Luoyang, Central China's Henan province, May 30, 2020. To welcome International Children's Day, various activities were held across China. [Photo by Huang Zhengwei/For chinadaily.com.cn] 7 1 [ Editor: SRQ ] Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has invested 510 million yuan (around 71.5 million U.S. dollars) so far this year to improve the rural living environment, local authorities said. The amount has already reached 60 percent of the total investment in the area last year, according to the regional agriculture and rural affairs department. In 2018, Xinjiang introduced a three-year plan in an effort to achieve a significant improvement of the living environment in its rural areas by 2020, including popularizing hygienic toilets and improving up waste management. Official data shows that, as of April, 26,834 hygienic toilets had been installed in Xinjiang's rural areas, with the penetration rate of hygienic toilets reaching 59 percent in rural areas. More than 7,500 villages, or 83 percent of the total, were able to dispose domestic waste effectively. BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - Despite growing unrest in the U.S. over the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man last Friday, and continued concerns about U.S.-China tensions over the Hong Kong issue, European markets closed higher on Tuesday as optimism about recovery pushed up stock prices. Amid hopes of economic recovery following reopening of businesses across several parts of Europe and across the globe, investors picked up stocks from across various sectors today. In Germany, the government is set to announce a second stimulus package worth 100 billion to support the economy. Investors were looking ahead to the European Central Bank's monetary policy meeting, scheduled to take place on Thursday. The ECB is widely expected to extend its asset-buying programme. The pan European Stoxx 600 gained 1.57%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 climbed up 0.87%, while Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 surged up 3.75% and 2.02%, respectively. Switzerland's SMI advanced 1.22%. Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain and Sweden closed stronger by 1 to 3%. Finland, Ireland and Turkey closed modestly higher, while Denmark and Poland ended flat. In the U.K. market, where reports that the country's finance minister was considering national insurance holidays for companies as part of a stimulus package helped lift sentiment. Meggitt, the top gainer in the FTSE 100 index, surged up 9.3%. British Land Company shares gained nearly 8.5%, and Land Securities moved up 6%. BP, Royal Bank, Compass Group, Hiscox, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Smiths, Burberry Group, BHP Group, Anglo American, IAG, Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Dutch Shell an Johnson Matthey gained 3 to 6%. Among other big gainers, shares of property developer Hammerson zoomed nearly 35% after the company announced that its sites will reopen from June 15. On the other hand, Hargreaves Lansdown, Hikma Pharmaceutical, Ocado Group and Fresnillo declined sharply. In Germany, Daimler rallied nearly 8%. BASF, Thyssenkrupp, Volkswagen, Covestro, Munich RE, Deutsche Bank, BMW, Deutsche Post, HeidelbergCement and Allianz gained 5 to 7%. In the French market, stocks gained despite comments from the country's finance minister Le Maire that the economy may see an 11% contraction this year due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Unibail Rodamco topped the list of gainers among CAC 40 stocks, rising as much as 10%. Airbus gained 7.2% and Safran surged up nearly 6%. Saint Gobain, Vivendi, Sodexo, Veolia, Technip, ArcelorMittal, Societe Generale, Publicis Groupe, Valeo and BNP Paribas gained 3 to 5%. In economic news, the UK house prices declined at the fastest pace since 2009 as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic filtered through the property market, data from the Nationwide Building Society showed. House prices fell 1.7% month-on-month in May, in contrast to a 0.9% rise in April. This was the biggest fall since February 2009. Economists had forecast a fall of 1%. On a yearly basis, house prices grew 1.8% in May, much slower than the 3.7% rise in April and economists' forecast of 2.8% increase. UK mortgage approvals declined sharply in April, plunging to 15,848 from 56,136 a month earlier, data from the Bank of England showed. Approvals were forecast to fall to 23,780. Overall lending to individuals declined GBP 6.9 billion versus GBP 1 billion rise in March. Consumer credit declined GBP 7.4 billion versus a fall of GBP 3.8 billion in the previous month, data showed. Switzerland's retail sales declined at a faster rate in April, amid the Covid-19 outbreak, data from the Federal Statistical Office showed. Retail sales declined a working-day adjusted 19.9% year-on-year in April, following a 5.8% fall in March. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de Ukraine and Poland will make efforts to resume scheduled transport services and agree on the simplification of procedures for obtaining work visas. "Given the border traffic dynamics in recent days, Ukraine and Poland will make efforts to restore scheduled transport services. In this context, the simplification of procedures for obtaining work visas and crossing the common border by citizens will also be agreed upon," the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reports following a meeting between Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Vasyl Bodnar and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Poland to Ukraine Bartosz Cichocki. It is noted that the parties consider the possibility of concluding an agreement on the employment of seasonal workers, which will settle the current issues of stay of Ukrainian migrant workers in Poland. Ukraines Foreign Ministry underscores that after a certain suspension of cooperation caused by the coronavirus pandemic, a need arises to resume bilateral cooperation in all areas. A starting point for this is the holding of a meeting of Ukraine-Poland Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation which will help revive trade between the countries. A regular meeting of the Joint Consultative Commission of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the Ministry of National Education of the Republic of Poland on the education of representatives of the Ukrainian national minority in Poland and the Polish national minority in Ukraine will be held soon, the Foreign Ministry notes. As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers introduced the quarantine to combat the spread of coronavirus infection in Ukraine on March 12. On March 28, Ukraine completely closed the border for scheduled transport services, including air travel. On May 20, the Government of Ukraine allowed the operation of 66 border crossing points. ol As a long-time Rotarian, Richard Dick Coyles life exemplified the Rotary motto of Service Above Self. He was known for his integrity while representing Soules Insurance where he assisted community members with their insurance needs, he was on a variety of nonprofit boards that bettered the community and he was happy to share his wisdom and knowledge that came with all of his experience. After his passing on Monday morning, Coyle is being remembered as a community leader, outstanding businessman, and loving husband, father, and grandfather. Dick did not let the health challenges he faced the last many years slow him down, said Leland Dushkin, a past president of the Rotary Club of Conroe. He was a special friend, role model and mentor to so many. Coyle grew up in Magnolia and graduated from Conroe High School in 1961 where he was voted a Senior Class Favorite. He worked in the oilfield, ran a gas station and contracted mowers out to pay for college while attending Texas A&M and the University of Houston. During Vietnam he was a pilot and he signed on with the U.S. Army to be a helicopter pilot. After Vietnam, Coyle went on to become a flight instructor at Fort Rucker in Alabama before finally settling back in Conroe and into the insurance business. He purchased an interest in the Soules Insurance agency in 1972 and became its owner in 1983. In insurance he received his Chartered Life Underwriter designation in 1975 and Accredited Advisor in Insurance in 1985. For many of us with small family businesses, Dick guided us through the complex, and everchanging world of business insurance, Dushkin said. Conroe engineer Ron Saikowski met Coyle in 1983 when Coyle became his insurance agent. Saikowski said Soules is still his insurance company today because of Coyles professionalism and integrity. In addition to Coyles wealth of knowledge in the insurance industry, he was also a passionate supporter of the community. He was a member and leader of many community organizations, including United Way of Montgomery County, Rotary Club of Conroe and First Christian Church. According to Dushkin, with United Way, Coyle found a special interest in Metropolitan Day Care, guiding them through some difficult business issues. He encouraged the Rotary Club of Conroe to sponsor a Christmas service project, with Santa bringing gifts to the children. A past president of the Rotary Club of Conroe, Coyle was also the sponsor of the clubs first female member, Donna McVeigh. He became an Honorary member of the Club when the club celebrated its 85th anniversary in August 2017. He was also a three-time Paul Harris Fellowship Award winner. Julie Martineau first met Coyle when he was on the United Way board. If you didnt know him he could be an intimidating person. He was just so smart, she said. He conducted his United Way business in a direct and business-like manner. You had to be around him in an informal setting to see that other side of him and to see all the caring and compassion that he had. He really understood how things are connected and work together. He understood the connection between the business community and the rest of the community and that all parts of the community needed lifting up to make this a healthy community, she said. He cared so deeply for this community, Martineau said. In 2018, Coyle was named to the Conroe Lake Conroe Chamber of Commerces Wall of Honor. He is survived by his wife, Mary Margaret, and their two children and five grandchildren. Memorial services have not yet been announced. The Courier will print service information as soon as it is announced. shernandez@hcnonline.com Rodneys extensive network of unsealed roads looks set to receive a long overdue funding and maintenance boost, with a wide range of new safety and maintenance improvements and extra sealing by Auckland Transport (AT). The Unsealed Road Improvement Programme is the result of more than three years of lobbying by Councillor Greg Sayers and the Rodney Local Board, especially Wellsford member Colin Smith, who has long fought for a tailored and more cost efficient approach to improving rural roads, rather than a one size fits all policy. Its great. In the past, road maintenance has been reactionary, but now we have a plan with a principle wrapped around it, Mr Smith said. Whats pleased me most is that AT has allowed me to come on board with my history, knowledge and experience of contracting over the years and allowed me to help them adopt this fit for purpose strategy. Normally these organisations dont like any outside input at all, its all done through consultants, but they dont have the knowledge and history of a particular area. The new programme will boost spending over the next three years and broaden the use of the existing Seal Extension Programme to include road widening, safety improvements and pavement strengthening, as well as extra sealing. Different surface treatments will be developed and employed to suit particular road conditions, allowing flexibility of cost away from a gold-plated standard that averaged $1 million per kilometre. Cr Sayers said it was a watershed moment for the rural community. This will not only mean more roads will be able to get sealed, but ratepayers will also get better bang for their buck, he said. Along with achieving more sealing, the new methodology also allows for other unsealed roads to be prepared in advance for sealing by widening them, improving drainage and improving their driving safety. The plans were unanimously supported and endorsed at last months Local Board meeting. They now have to be approved by Councils governing body. AT chief engineer Murray Burt told the meeting that he was hopeful the programme, which is part of an already approved budget, would not be affected by any Covid-19 spending cuts. Obviously in these unprecedented times, we cant foresee the future, but we will be doing our best to advocate that roads receive the amount they should, he said. Colin Smith agreed. Maintenance of rural roads and connectivity is really important. Its one of the things Council would be silly to cut, because for every ratepayer this is a win-win. There are a lot of projects that are luxuries that would be better to be cut. Lawyers for Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga have called on UN prosecutors to end their international case and allow him to be tried in France where he was arrested. Described as Africas most wanted man, Kabuga is accused of financing the 1994 Rwanda genocide and was arrested at his home outside Paris on May 16 after years on the run. His lawyers have already told a Paris appeals court, which must rule on Wednesday on the validity of the arrest warrant for Kabuga, that he wants to be tried in France. In the letter, lawyer Laurent Bayon says his 84-year-old client should stay in France because of his age, health and the alleged lack of impartiality of international justice. A judge in The Hague last month said Kabuga should be tried in a war crimes tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania, under the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT), which is based in the Dutch city. If you decided to assert your jurisdiction over the French jurisdiction, thus putting Felicien Kabugas life in danger, we would take the risk of giving up the truth, forever, Bayon wrote in a letter to MICT prosecutors. The letter calls on MICT prosecutors to excuse themselves from the case and leave it to French justice. Kabuga once one of Rwandas richest men is accused of forming the notorious Interahamwe militia that carried out massacres and the Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines which, in its broadcasts, incited people to murder. About 800,000 people Tutsis but also moderate Hutus were slaughtered over 100 days of ethnic violence committed by Hutu extremists in 1994. Kabuga was indicted on seven counts, including genocide, by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 1997. ANN ARBOR, MI - After some protests against police brutality turned violent over the weekend, Trische Duckworth sought to make it clear that Mondays demonstration in Ann Arbor would be about peace and justice. Duckworth, executive director of the nonprofit Survivors Speak, helped draw several hundred protesters to the University of Michigan Diag on June 1, resuming demonstrations drawing attention to a May 26 altercation during which a white Washtenaw County Sheriffs deputy punched a black woman in the head three times before arresting her in Ypsilanti Township. We are here on peace, Duckworth said. If we look across the country, we see fires and looting. This is not what we are about here. We are standing together in love, for justice and in the name of unity. There were no incidents of violence or vandalism after protesters left the Diag to march through the streets of downtown Ann Arbor. The woman, ShaTeina Grady El, also led several hundred protesters through the streets of downtown Ann Arbor in a demonstration honoring George Floyd, who was killed while being detained by police in Minnesota last week. She was joined by local politicians who shared their perspective on police brutality and criminal justice, including U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, state Sen. Jeff Irwin, state Rep. Yousef Rabhi and Washtenaw County Commissioners Jason Morgan and Ricky Jefferson. Grady El spoke about the altercation, which was captured on video that showed a deputy repeatedly punching her in the head. The deputy and other staff involved have been placed on paid administrative leave, said Washtenaw County Sheriff Jerry Clayton. Grady El said she was left traumatized by the incident, and although she said she does not recall everything that happened, she wanted to make her voice heard that enough is enough." What happened to me was unfortunate, but its happening all over the world, every day, Grady El said, joined by her husband, Daniyal. Its out of control. Im glad others are out here taking a stand. Hundreds of protesters attended Duckworths protests Tuesday through Friday last week, which was sparked by the video of the deputys altercation with the Grady Els. Deputies had ordered the Ypsilanti Township couple to leave the scene of a potential shooting in the Apple Ridge neighborhood around midnight Tuesday, May 26, said the Washtenaw County Sheriffs Office. When officers tried to physically remove the two from the scene, they resisted and the deputy punched Grady El in the head before taking both into custody, police said. The Grady Els were trying to film the police forming a perimeter near the home of their daughter Jaquisy Diggins in the 2000 block of Peachcrest Street, Daniyal Grady El said. The police didnt try to explain the shooting situation to them before springing into action, he said. Video of Washtenaw County deputy punching woman sparks outrage in Ypsilanti Township Deputies on the scene were investigating a house identified by the shooting victim as the potential location where the shooter fled, according to bodycam footage provided by the sheriffs office on May 29. The command officer and deputies can be heard demanding the Grady Els keep their distance and film from one house over. No deputy on scene explicitly stated to the couple prior to the altercation that the perimeter they were setting was for a shooting, according to the footage. ShaTeina Grady El said the incident has left her with lasting physical and mental trauma, addressing the crowd of protesters on South Main Street. Its not right that they get to affect our minds like this, she said. "Its not right that they get to cause our families pain. I dont know how any decent person can watch that video any video of any person that is being assaulted by law enforcement and think that theyre expected behavior is OK. They need to be held accountable. The sheriffs office is conducting an internal criminal investigation into one of the white deputies shown punching ShaTeina Grady El, along with a second criminal investigation into ShaTeina Grady El and her husband Daniyal, who are accused of obstructing a police investigation. While the incident remains under investigation, activists say it is a reminder of how relationships between law enforcement and African Americans must improve. Activist Myles McGuire said that starts with holding local officials accountable and making sure colleagues, coworkers and friends are informed. If you dont know what a protest means, and you dont know the difference between a protest and a riot... It is up to us, McGuire said. "And the fact that this crowd is so diverse is one of the most monumental things Ive ever seen. Dingell, D-Dearborn, said while she believes all people are created equal and are not all treated equally, putting recent incidents of police brutality in the historical context of the 1967 Detroit Riot. Growing up in Catholic school as a child of privilege, Dingell said some things havent changed. Unfortunately I remember (the 1967 Detroit Riot) and I remember the change I have yet to see, she said. We still see that anger, that fear, that anxiety and that rage around how people have been treated. READ MORE: The shooting, punching & arrests: 45 minutes of bodycam footage of altercation between deputy, Ypsilanti woman released Video of Washtenaw County deputy punching woman sparks outrage in Ypsilanti Township Free ShaTeina: Continued incarceration of Ypsilanti woman leads 300 protesters to block streets again Outraged residents block streets in protest over Washtenaw deputy accused of punching black woman Greece wants to negotiate new fiscal targets with its euro zone creditors as the coronavirus crisis pushes its debt pile to almost 200% of gross domestic product (GDP). Greece, which has been through three bailout programs over the last decade, agreed in 2018 to reach a primary budget surplus when a government's revenues are higher than its spending of 3.5% until 2022. Though this required level of surplus limits the government's ability to spend, it came in exchange for softer debt repayment conditions. However, as the coronavirus pandemic brought the Greek economy to a halt, the country's finance minister told CNBC he will be discussing new targets with his euro zone counterparts. "Taking into account what the Eurogroup (of euro zone finance ministers) decided recently, we don't have these targets in 2020 and we will discuss as Europe, at the Eurogroup, the targets, the rules and the requirements for 2021 onwards taking into account the response to the coronavirus crisis," Christos Staikouras, Greece's finance minister, said Tuesday. In the wake of the pandemic, European policymakers agreed in March to lift fiscal targets for each member country, giving them more leeway to tackle the unprecedented economic shock. However, this is meant to be a temporary measure in response to the economic crisis across the European Union. The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, forecast in May a debt-to-GDP ratio of 196.4% for Greece in 2020 and of 182.6% in 2021. In 2019, Greece's debt pile stood at 176.6% of GDP. "According to the European Commission, we will not have the largest increase in debt-to-GDP in 2020, we will be the fourth-largest increase, but we will have the largest decrease of this ratio in 2021," Staikouras told CNBC, saying that Greek debt is sustainable. Its hard to find hope amid the rage and wreckage that spread from cities to suburbs across the Bay Area, California and the country in recent days. The protests, looting and sometimes deadly violence over the latest police killing of an African American man unfolded amid a pandemic and a recession that have also disproportionately hurt minorities. Like George Floyds recorded cries of I cant breathe, the demonstrations and mayhem seem to belong to an endlessly repeating loop of strife and destruction. All the while, President Trump continued to escalate the tensions. On Monday he chided the nations governors on a conference call for being weak against protesters, mobilized the U.S. military to tamp down protests in Washington and declared himself the law-and-order president. As he was making the afternoon announcement, peaceful demonstrators were being gassed and pushed to clear the way for a Trump photo opportunity at St. Johns Church, across the street from the White House. And yet glimmers of hope emerged from the days of disorder. A group of Oakland police officers knelt and shook hands with a protester in a video re-posted by their department with the message that We stand with our community in denouncing all incidents of police brutality. A top law enforcement officer used a bullhorn to tell protesters in Eureka We hear you! before putting his arm around one of them. And Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore was seen reaching an understanding with protesters who agreed to refrain from violence after he acknowledged the injustice of Floyds death. Moore was among a chorus of police chiefs who expressed dismay at the killing by a subsequently fired Minneapolis officer, Derek Chauvin. San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott called it extremely disturbing, flat wrong and representative of the policing disparities that have occurred for generations and continue to occur in regard to using force on people of color (specifically black and brown men). Even notoriously anti-reform police unions denounced Floyds alleged murder, among them those representing officers in San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. If you wear a badge and you dont have an issue with this, wrote Chattanooga, Tenn., Police Chief David Roddy, turn it in. Granted, such broad expressions of dismay at a glaring case of brutality, while all too new to the nations police forces, are considerably easier than the sort of substantive changes that might stop the needless killing. But California offers some hope in that regard, too. In August, more than a year after the notorious police killing of another unarmed African American man, Stephon Clark, in Sacramento, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assemblywoman Shirley Webers bill to raise the corrosively low standard for justifying police use of deadly force. Previously required to show only that use of lethal force appeared reasonable to protect their or others lives in the moment, California police now must show such force to have been necessary in light of events leading up to an incident and in keeping with the law, policies and training. Another impediment to justice for those wrongly hurt or killed by officers is the often cozy relationship between police and prosecutors. Hence Mondays call for a ban on police union contributions to prosecutors campaigns in a letter signed by San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton, and other current and former California prosecutors. It will take a host of hard-won reforms like Webers to end what seems to be an endless series of deaths like Floyds and prevent the next collective outpouring of anger and despair. In the near term, this nation needs a president who acts like a president instead of a provocateur. This commentary is from The Chronicles editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters. Facebook employees walked away from their work-from-home desks on Monday and took to Twitter to accuse Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg of inadequately policing US President Donald Trumps posts as strictly as the rival platform has done. Reuters saw dozens of online posts from employees critical of Zuckerbergs decision to leave Trumps most inflammatory verbiage unchallenged where Twitter had labelled it. Some top managers participated in the protest, reminiscent of a 2018 walkout at Alphabet Incs Google over sexual harassment. It was a rare case of staff publicly taking their CEO to task, with one employee tweeting that thousands participated. Among them were all seven engineers on the team maintaining the React code library which supports Facebooks apps. In photos: Rage and anguish from George Floyd protests spreading across US cities Facebooks recent decision to not act on posts that incite violence ignores other options to keep our community safe. We implore the Facebook leadership to #TakeAction, they said in a joint statement published on Twitter. The React Core team is joining the Facebook employee walkout in solidarity with the Black community. Facebooks recent decision to not act on posts that incite violence ignores other options to keep our community safe. We implore the Facebook leadership to #TakeAction. pic.twitter.com/0i33nNQTLN Dan Abramov (@dan_abramov) June 1, 2020 Mark is wrong, and I will endeavor in the loudest possible way to change his mind, wrote Ryan Freitas, identified on Twitter as director of product design for Facebooks News Feed. He added he had mobilized 50+ likeminded folks to lobby for internal change. Mark is wrong, and I will endeavor in the loudest possible way to change his mind. Ryan Freitas (@ryanchris) June 1, 2020 A Facebook employee said Zuckerbergs weekly Friday question-and-answer session would be moved up this week to Tuesday. Katie Zhu, a product manager at Instagram, tweeted a screenshot showing she had entered #BLACKLIVESMATTER to describe her request for time off as part of the walkout. Facebook Inc will allow employees participating in the protest to take the time off without drawing down their vacation days, spokesman Andy Stone said. Separately, online therapy company Talkspace said it ended partnership discussions with Facebook. Talkspace CEO Oren Frank tweeted he would not support a platform that incites violence, racism, and lies. Social justice Tech workers at companies including Facebook, Google, and Amazon.com Inc have pursued social justice issues in recent years, urging the companies to change policies. Employees recognize the pain many of our people are feeling right now, especially our Black community, Stone wrote in a text. We encourage employees to speak openly when they disagree with leadership. As we face additional difficult decisions around content ahead, well continue seeking their honest feedback. Last week, nationwide unrest erupted after the death of a black man, George Floyd, in police custody in Minneapolis last Monday. Video footage showed a white officer kneeling on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes before he died. On Friday, Twitter Inc affixed a warning label to a Trump tweet that included the phrase when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Twitter said it violated rules against glorifying violence but was left up as a public interest exception. Facebook declined to act on the same message, and Zuckerberg sought to distance his company from the fight between the president and Twitter. On Friday, Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post that while he found Trumps remarks deeply offensive, they did not violate company policy against incitements to violence and people should know whether the government was planning to deploy force. Zuckerbergs post also said Facebook had been in touch with the White House to explain its policies. Jason Toff, a director of product management and former head of short-form video app Vine, was one of several Facebook employees organizing fundraisers for racial justice groups in Minnesota. Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook on Monday the company would contribute an additional $10 million to social justice causes. Toff tweeted: I work at Facebook and I am not proud of how were showing up. The majority of coworkers Ive spoken to feel the same way. We are making our voice heard. LAPD Cmdr. Cory Palka asked protesters Monday in West Hollywood that if he took a knee, would they agree to make the protest peaceful. He heard screams of support, then dropped to his knee to more applause. (Matt Hamilton / Los Angeles Times) Sean Welch was a 12-year-old kid living in South Central the last time National Guard Humvees were rolling through the streets of Los Angeles. Its almost a similar feeling, he said of the 1992 riots. They expect you to live in fear, but you show defiance because you know whats wrong is wrong. How are you going to keep finessing that its OK? Welch asked, standing at the intersection of Laurel Avenue and Sunset Boulevard, where a growing group of peaceful protesters overflowed off the sidewalk in front of Greenblatts Deli and the Laugh Factory. He wore a homemade white T-shirt with the words DYING BREED scrawled across it in black and red Sharpie, just above George Floyds name, because he said that as a black man in America, thats what he was. We a dying breed out here, he said. Cops have been killing us for years. What makes them believe its OK? People dont even realize it until it has some massive effect like this, he continued. Hundreds of marchers converged both in Hollywood and West Hollywood, among the numerous protests on Monday. One group marched west down Hollywood Boulevard in the heart of the tourist district. Another group was at a corner of Sunset Boulevard. At the West Hollywood event, an LAPD officer was seen on video taking a knee in support of the demonstrators. The officer took a megaphone and asked the crowd that if he took the knee, would they agree to make the protest peaceful. He heard screams of support, then got to his knee to more applause. He then asked everyone to stay safe and leave by the curfew time. West Hollywood. Police took a knee with protestors to show solidarity. https://t.co/JXkIPlfWnL gold (@ohgoldy) June 1, 2020 Behind him, a crew of men from a disaster recovery and property restoration company had set up a staging area along the edge of Laurel, as they worked to board up the exterior and doors of the furniture store on the corner. Story continues The crew had been busy this weekend at this CB2 since 7 a.m., and boarding up parts of the Beverly Center, a Trader Joes and a MedMen marijuana dispensary in the days prior. Douglas, who declined to give his last name and was leading the small crew, said they were using 50 sheets of wood, and 100 two-by-fours to board up the home decor retailer, and that he had no comment on the protests. "This is a moment in history, Welch said. He didnt think Floyds death was a tipping point, but rather a reminder of all the names that had been chanted before his. How long does the list have to go? he asked, as the crowd around him chanted three words that anguished protesters have chanted for nearly six years, since the July 2014 death of Eric Garner: I cant breathe. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Norman Harsono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 2, 2020 19:50 597 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdba251e 1 Business Vale-Indonesia-INCO,MIND-ID,Inalum,mining-companies,acquisition,pandemic Free Indonesias acquisition of the local arm of Brazil-based nickel mining giant PT Vale Indonesia has been pushed back for the second time this year due to pandemic-related complications. Vale, the countrys top nickel miner by output, said on Friday it had signed a deal with share buyer PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum), an Indonesian state-owned mining holding firm, to delay the acquisition until the end of June. Read also: Vale Indonesia's profit, nickel output drop in Q1 after export ban The deal was also approved by Vales big shareholder, Japan-based Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd. The shareholders initially scheduled the acquisition for March but postponed it to May amid market uncertainty. All parties remain committed to signing the definitive agreements, however, the current pandemic has presented challenges resulting in the delay, writes Vale chief financial officer Bernardus Irmanto in a statement. Except for the extended date of signing for the definitive agreements, the terms and conditions of the Head of Agreements remain in full force and effect, he added. Vale Indonesia is slated to divest 40 percent ownership to Indonesians as required by Government Regulation No. 77/2014 on coal and mineral mining operations. The miner has already divested 20 percent ownership to the public through the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). The divestment is part of the governments campaign to tighten control over Indonesias mineral wealth. The governments aim is to raise state revenue but such regulations have been criticized as deterring foreign investment. Read also: MIND.ID unlikely to issue new bonds until Freeport pays dividends Inalum, now rebranded as MIND.ID, raised US$1.5 billion in global bonds earlier this month to acquire the remaining 20 percent ownership of Vale Indonesia and to pay off subsidiaries debts. Hopefully, we can execute it as soon as possible because the funds are ready, said MIND.ID president director Orias Petrus Moedak at an online press conference on May 15. Before Vale, MIND.ID had acquired the local arm of US-based metal miner PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI), which operates the worlds largest gold mine in Indonesias most impoverished province, Papua. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday expressed concern over the downgrading of Indias sovereign credit rating by Moodys Investors Service for the first time in more than two decades. Gandhi said that Moodys has termed a step above junk the handling of the economy by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Moodys has rated Modis handling of Indias economy a step above JUNK. Lack of support to the poor and the MSME sector means the worst is yet to come, he tweeted. Downgrading Indias rating by a notch to Baa3 from Baa2 assigned in November 2018, Moodys on Monday estimated Indias GDP would shrink by 4% -- the first full fiscal contraction in more than four decades. Addressing a virtual news conference, Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar questioned the Central governments intention of helping farmers, saying Modis aim of doubling their income by 2022 will remain a pipe dream if they dont get the promised minimum support price (MSP) for their produce. He said a majority of farm produce is purchased in the open market at rates much lower than the MSP declared by the government. The governments intention is doubtful. If it wants to help farmers, give them the due price for their produce, he said. Jakhar urged the prime minister to make MSP a legally binding right of farmers to ensure they get right and remunerative prices for their produce. The government on Monday raised MSP of paddy by a marginal Rs 53 a quintal to Rs 1,868 a quintal for 2020-21, while the rates for oilseeds, pulses and cereals were hiked substantially. Jakhar charged the government with betraying farmers for not coming out with the CACP (Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices) report on fixing MSPs of different crops. Except for wheat and paddy, a majority of crops is sold at prices much below MSP as agencies do not buy them at government rates, he said. The farmers lose out in the bargain. The prime minister wants to revive the economy, but what has the farmer got in his Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package? asked the Punjab Congress chief. Instead of giving any cash benefits to farmers, he said the Centre advised them to take more credit. Farmers are already reeling under debt and are committing suicides, Jakhar said, urging the prime minister to grant fiscal incentives to farmers and waive off their loans. Jakhar said the exodus of migrant workers to their home states will further impact the countrys Coronavirus-hit economy. The input cost of farmers has risen during the pandemic, as labour is not easily available because migrant workers have left for their homes, he added. RAVON, Uzbekistan -- Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev will visit the eastern region of Ferghana following ethnic clashes near the country's Sokh exclave within Kyrgyzstan's Batken region, Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov says. Aripov made the announcement during a meeting on June 1 with residents of the volatile exclave, which is officially a part of the country's Ferghana region. He said Mirziyoev will visit the region by the end of the week. Aripov visited the region to discuss the situation with Kyrgyz Deputy Prime Minister Kubatbek Boronov. Clashes between Kyrgyz villagers and residents of the exclave erupted on May 31 over a dispute about the ownership of a spring located in the area. Aripov told Sokh residents that Uzbekistan had proposed to open a recreation park around the disputed spring that could be equally used by Kyrgyz and Uzbek citizens. He also said that Uzbekistan will build new roads that would serve as a corridor connecting the exclave with the Ferghana region's Rishton district. Aripov also visited a local hospital, where he met with people injured in the clashes. The Sokh district administration said 187 local residents were injured in the clashes, 15 of whom had been transferred by helicopters to the Ferghana regional hospital, while others are being treated in the local Sokh hospital. Kyrgyzstan said earlier that 25 Kyrgyz citizens were injured in the clashes. The Sokh district officials said on June 1 that three houses on the Uzbek side were set on fire during the clashes. Aripov promised to rebuild or repair the damaged houses "as soon as possible." Mirziyoev and his Kyrgyz counterpart, Sooronbai Jeenbekov, discussed the situation and ways to prevent tensions in the area by phone on June 1, the Uzbek presidential website announced. Many border areas in Central Asia have not been delimited since the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. The situation is particularly complicated near the numerous exclaves in the volatile Ferghana Valley, where the borders of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan meet. Sokh is an ethnic Tajik-populated Uzbek territory within Kyrgyzstan's Batken region, where clashes have been common for years. Tensions have been very high in the area close to a Tajik exclave called Vorukh in Kyrgyzstan's Batken region and nearby disputed segments of Kyrgyz-Tajik border in recent weeks as well. Before the mid-pandemic school day even starts, students at Constable Edward Finney School have to take a quiz and get a perfect score. Do you or anyone in your household have a new onset of fever, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath or a combination of a runny nose, muscle aches, fatigue, diarrhea, vomiting and any of the above respiratory symptoms? Have you had a run-in with anyone who is confirmed to have COVID-19 in the last two weeks? Have you travelled outside Manitoba in the last 14 days? On Monday, Jobandeep Kaur had all the right answers: nope, nope and nope. After weeks of anxiously awaiting a return to school to see her teacher and best friends, the nine-year-old earned her spot on the blacktop. I feel like this is the first day at a new school all over again. Ive been in this school for like two years, but I feel like Im new here, said Kaur, a Grade 3 student, as she waited to be escorted into her classroom for the first time in more than two months. Jobandeep, her father and younger brother arrived in the schoolyard at 9 a.m. sharp; she said she was equal parts excited and nervous about the return, adding that her father has been especially anxious about the virus. Students and their families some wearing masks, others with their nervous smiles visible gathered outside the school in Winnipegs Mandalay West neighbourhood for a limited return Monday. Each group chose a colourful marker tied to the fence to stand by to ensure they were at least two metres apart. Then, they waited for school staff to approach them, ask them a series of screening questions and escort them inside, individually. The provinces decision last month to green-light a return to class in a limited capacity was met with mixed reactions in school divisions. While some schools have opted to invite students back for one-on-one tutorials, others are offering half-days back in their classrooms throughout June. We have this window. Weve been told its safe. We dont know when its going to close, so lets use it, said Karen Hiscott, principal of the Seven Oaks School Division K-5 school. Lets get used to what its going to look like and how were going to do this. I think the longer you keep people away, the harder it is to come back so ... It has been a bit rushed to be back today, full time, but Id rather this than September and trying to get people feeling safe, coming back after that length of time. Few more than a half-dozen kindergarten students started their programming in a physically distanced circle on the grass out front of the school. The goal is to keep students outside as much as possible, Hiscott said. Inside the school, teachers began to catch up with students in groups no larger than four. The learners sat on carpets and desks at least two metres apart. Should they need a bathroom break, the hallways are decorated in footprints of different sizes, guiding students through the school in a physically distanced fashion. The day has also been split in two to maximize the number of students who can return. Theres a 9 to 11 a.m. slot and a 1 to 3 p.m. slot. In between, custodians and support staff will clean doorknobs and surfaces. Pre-pandemic, almost 500 students and teachers visited Constable Edward Finney School on a given day. On Monday, all sessions included, fewer than half that number returned in some form. Im not used to such a quiet classroom, said teacher Brianna Hicks, in between calling out Bingo words during a Grade 3 lesson. Across the city, the classrooms at Kelvin High School were also emptier than usual the norm since mid-March. Some teachers, however, returned Monday to reconfigure their classrooms for one-on-one and small group instruction in the coming weeks. The Crescentwood high school has been equipped with arrows that lead visitors down hallways, stairwells, classrooms, labs and offices in a meticulous manner to ensure students and staff dont break public health protocols. Upon arrival, students undertake screening, sign in and sanitize or wash their hands in bathrooms that now have a single-person capacity. The water fountains have all been taped off. Principal Maria Silva said Monday the opportunity to return in a limited capacity will allow students to reconnect with school after a period of uncertainty. Theres a myriad of reasons as to why they mightve had a hard time during online learning, and (this is) an opportunity to perhaps ask questions, get certain concepts reinforced and really have that teacher guidance and direction, Silva said. As per a notice sent to community members in the Winnipeg School Division, While June wont be a full return to school as usual, it is a beginning toward our new normal. June 30 marks the last day of an unusual school year. Read more about: STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- On March 25th, I started this diary as a way to stay connected to you. Well, here we are 69 days later as our bakers, chefs and proprietors now get back to work. The world is certainly still turning. Although, at this moment with looting and curfews in effect in New York City, things seem upside down once again. But Im here. So lets get down to business. Stone House at Clove Lakes Park received a call on Saturday. The person asked nonchalantly, Can you do a reservation for two at 6 p.m.? (Laugh track, please.) Well, no, were not yet allowed back into dining rooms or to assemble in any way because of the pandemic, as of March 16, explained a staffer who received the transferred call. But its beautiful outside, the person protested. As if they dont live on Planet Earth right now, snarked Peter Botros, owner of the Parks contract there plus Violettes Cellar in Grant City and Sofias Taqueria in Rosebank. All but Stone House and Sofias Guac Bar in the Staten Island Mall are open for business and Peter is plugging away at two more new places -- Sallys Southern in West Brighton and Rustic Pizza and Pasteria in Grant City, formerly home to Kim Cooks and Caters and Corner House BBQ Express. We were in the home stretch of getting Sallys Southern open and would have been happily serving up Southern comfort food, craft cocktails, beer and bourbon on our perfect little corner of West Brighton. But COVID-19 brought everything to a screeching halt," said Botros. Once we are allowed to resume work, we will push to make up for lost time. But we are a family of local restaurants with Sofias, Violettes, etc. and we will have a mighty tall task on our hands trying to reopen and survive. Juggling all of the restaurants in a perfect world is near impossible, so doing it during the times that we are in could further delay Sallys opening, Botros explained. He added, "I can say that we are extremely excited to be a part of the amazing West Brighton community and will get her open as soon as humanly possible. Rustic Pizza & Pasteria will open by June 22nd. Botros said, We will serve great pizza, Italian specialties, house-made and artisan dried pastas. Our pizza dough is a marriage between Neapolitan and thin and crispy New York pizza. It is light and crispy with developed and deep flavor, featuring San Marzano tomatoes and the highest quality cheese and olive oil. Pappardelle pasta, braised veal, wild mushrooms, fresh basil with a brown gravy sauce. (Staten Island Advance/Carol Ann Benanti) Staten Island Advance Meanwhile Cielo in Dongan Hills (CieloSi.com) is back in business as of Thursday with its brand of Mediterranean food. Check out their lunch specials, which are three-course meals that start at $11, depending on the entree. The same budget arrangement applies to dinner, which starts at $20. Cocktails and wine can be packed to go. Loon Chuan in Tottenville (LoonChuanRestaurant.com) also is serving once again as of last Friday. Owner Robert Chi invites us all down to pick up a mai tai to go, a great sipper at home over the 33-year old restaurants signature Cantonese fare. Over the weekend everyone was excited to get their wontons with garlic sauce, General Tsos chicken and barbecue spare ribs to go, Chi reports. He was thinking of doing a West Brighton night for all his North Shore friends looking to import his familys notable Chinese from the deep South Shore. His staff still isnt completely back to work so hes still sorting out the business in this new world of COVID-19 recovery. Grand Sahara in Dongan Hills (GrandSaharaGrill.com) features a lunch special. For $10.95 patrons can score any sandwich and a can of soda or water from Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Delivery of babaganoush, kebabs and yummy Middle Eastern food dreaminess can be shipped borough-wide. Call the restaurant direct for the order with the website as a guide and get 10% off the order. Menu from American Grill. Food on Staten Island, June 1, 2020 (Courtesy of Jodi Siegel)Pamela Silvestri And heres a little blast from the past, courtesy of my friend Jodi Siegel. She and her family used to dine in my restaurant, American Grill, when it was on Forest Avenue in West Brighton about 20 years ago. This menu looks like it was from 2004 as our chef Steven Smiths creations like Lentil Cake and Timbale came later to the repertoire and they are listed on the appetizers here. Youll notice that Jesse, Jodys daughter, is called out on the menu for her birthday. That was a practice put into motion on September 11, 2001, a day when several customers came determined to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. I struggled with the decision to stay open that night for dinner as my husband, who was in Manhattan that day, drove north on the FDR Drive. He eventually headed to his brothers house in New Jersey and couldnt get back over the bridges until about 2 a.m. I was on my own for the day and decided it was more of a service to the neighborhood to stay open, offer a public dining room so people could at least be together. That day, and for about two weeks afterward, I did not feel it was tasteful to be singing in the restaurant. So we expressed Happy Birthday or what have you in writing both on the menu and on a plate in script written with chocolate fudge sauce. The tradition stuck. I will never forget those days around 9/11 as time moved so slowly, a lot like it does these days. Keep in touch. Pamela Silvestri is Advance Food Editor. She can be reached at silvestri@siadvance.com. Our nuclear energy industry is at a crossroads. Nuclear, Americas clean energy workhorse, makes up the majority of our zero-carbon power. And its so reliable that some plants can operate non-stop for nearly two years before refueling. Right now, however, we are tragically seeing our existing fleet continue to shrink. The huge reactors we are used to seeing need to relicense again or they will shutter. While these reactors were initially licensed in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, they are still producing 55 percent of clean energy in America. If that fleet goes, so too does demand for fuel, which led the Administration to establish the Nuclear Fuel Working Group on how to maintain this vital national asset. There are three unique dynamics at play that need to be addressed, or we risk losing our atomic edge. First, China and Russia are developing and beefing up their nuclear energy portfolios as we speak exporting reactors to strategically significant countries around the world. Second, next generation reactor designs which are much smaller and even more efficient are on the brink of commercialization. Exciting new small modular reactors and microreactors can provide decades worth of clean energy to a variety of new markets domestic and abroad including heavy industry and remote villages that currently rely solely on diesel power. And third, our ability to manufacture the uranium fuel that allows nuclear energy to produce such incredible amounts of power is not up to snuff. Over the years, as demand flatlined and faced competition from state-owned enterprises in China and Russia, our domestic production has atrophied. Today, America imports about 90 percent of the uranium used in our operating fleet, and we currently lack the capability to produce the advanced fuels required for the next generation of reactor technologies. The Administration recognized these dynamics and has taken the wise, long view that a strong nuclear fuel supply industry will not exist without a thriving, growing demand for that fuel. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently released the Administration's Nuclear Fuel Working Group Report outlining a Strategy to Restore American Nuclear Energy Leadership. The strategy supports moonshot technology and robust American exports to build new reactors around the world. The report covers the entire fuel and reactor supply chain, but maybe the biggest key to the strategy is establishing an advanced nuclear research, development, and demonstration moonshot a first for nuclear energy at DOE. Targeted demonstrations can accelerate wide-spread commercialization, which is essential for national security and to remain competitive, as China now has 48 operating reactors, and is currently constructing 11. Meanwhile, were down to 95 and only building two. The DOE also tackles how to develop a domestic source of new nuclear fuels, including High Assay Low Enriched Uranium (HALEU), which is needed to power the next generation of American advanced nuclear technologies. The strategy recognizes that a Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) program is needed to accelerate the development of new materials and fuels for advanced reactors and calls for an investment. Today, some American nuclear energy companies have to send fuel and materials overseas for testing. Funding and completing the VTR in the mid-2020s will ensure that American companies can continue to develop innovative designs, and do not need to rely on testing in countries like Russia. This strategy also directs financing agencies like the Export-Import Bank and International Development Financing Corporation to support the global commercialization of American technologies. Establishing a chief federal nuclear technology export official to lead this effort would streamline efficiencies but also signal to overseas buyers that we mean business. By focusing on untapped clean energy market opportunities for American innovators while maintaining competitiveness against China and Russia we can reassert our global leadership with nuclear energy. Strategy is only as good as implementation, and this one can turn into reality almost entirely by the Nuclear Energy Leadership Act (NELA). NELA is cosponsored by nearly one-quarter of the Senate and 25 members in the House, divided roughly equally between the parties. It was reported out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in September and awaits action in the House. Clean, reliable power, new international energy markets, and strong national security it almost sounds too good to be true. America invented nuclear power and we again have a strategy to lead the world. Rich Powell is Executive Director of ClearPath Action, a conservative organization advocating for clean energy innovation. Xiaomi will launch the Mi Band 4 NFC in Europe with Mastercard support (starting with Russia) Xiaomi will release the NFC-enabled version of the Mi Band 4 in Europe in a couple of weeks. Until now, this version was exclusive to China, but it will soon become available in Russia and later on in Europe as well. Initially, only Mastercard will be supported. You will have to add your card in the Mi Fit app and select Russia as your region. Support for Visa, Google Pay and PayPal should be added, but theres no time frame for when that will happen. Besides contactless payments, you will be able to use Xiaomi Mi Band 4 NFC in public transport. MasterCards PayPass currently supports Russia as well as the Germany, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, Turkey, the UK and France. Xiaomi Mi Band 4 with NFC is coming to Europe with Mastercard support To be clear, this is new hardware and not a feature that can be enabled on the non-NFC version of the band. Look for NFC in the name and the model number MGW4059RU. The Xiaomi Mi Band 4 NFC will become available in Russia on June 16 and will cost RUB 4,000, 30% more expensive than the old version of the band. Note that Xiaomi will unveil the new Mi Band 5 on the 11th. This model is expected to bring NFC support globally, a larger display and a microphone for talking to Alexa. Source That depends on epidemiological situation in both Ukraine and the EU After June 22, Ukraine's Healthcare Ministry may consider the prolongation of quarantine restrictions. Viktor Lyashko, the Chief Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine said this, as quoted by Ukrainska Pravda. "Currently it lasts until June 22, that's for sure. After that, we will see how the mitigation on June 10 and June 15 changes the situation. If it remains the same, we'll look into the quarantine, it will be the adaptive kind. And it will be kept on the regional level, maybe on the level of an inhabited locality", Lyashko said. According to the official, further decisions on lifting quarantine restrictions will depend on the epidemiological situation not only in Ukraine but also in the EU member countries. Quarantine measures will be reinforced in Slovyansk, Donetsk region, as the outbreak of coronavirus took place in the town. The press office of the town council reported that on Facebook. Three new cases were confirmed in the town for over 24 hours. Another four people were taken to a hospital with suspicion of the disease. Given the epidemiological situation, the regional commission for emergencies decided to temporarily close gyms and ban the education process in groups. On May 22, Ukraine switched to the so-called adaptive quarantine, when regional authorities can weaken or boost the restrictions, depending on the epidemiological situation. Watch our video digest of the top events in Ukraine in May 2020: Nurseries are only expecting around a third of children to return this week amid fears some providers could be forced to close down permanently. As many as 71 per cent of nursery leaders expect to operate at a loss over the next three months amid reduced demand and increased costs associated with operating safely during the coronavirus pandemic, a survey suggests. The snapshot poll, from the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), comes as nurseries across England have begun reopening their doors to more children as lockdown measures have been eased. Nurseries are planning for 35 per cent of their usual numbers of children coming back straight away, according to the poll of 528 nursery owners and managers which closed on Monday morning. A mother drops off her daughter off as nurseries and primary schools partly open after the COVID-19 lockdown in London, June 1 Nurseries have implemented a range of measures - including risk assessments, keeping children and staff to small groups inside settings and infection control measures - to welcome children back safely. From hula-hoop 'bubbles' to toilet restrictions, the changes to nursery-life after lockdown All schools, colleges and early years centres closed in mid-March, with childcare only provided to children of parents classified as 'key workers', including NHS staff and delivery drivers. In May, Boris Johnson outlined hopes for children in reception, year 1 and 6 - as well as years 10 and 12 - to return from June 1. It came after a primary school sparked fury among parents after it revealed its social distancing plan, which saw children as young as four playing in hula-hoop 'bubbles', pupils being given set times to go to the toilet and students being told to clean up their own cuts if they fall over. Holywell Village First School in Northumberland came under fire over the plans, which they suggested would be put into place when pupils return to the classroom in June. In a now-deleted post on the school's Facebook page, seen by Metro, the school said pupils will be assigned 'play bubbles' where they will have to stay when they go outside to the playground. Advertisement More than four in five said they were planning to reopen more widely on Monday, but the vast majority of providers said they were still expecting to operate at a loss until September. The poll found 4% said they were likely to close permanently in the coming months without support. Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the NDNA, said it was a 'tragedy' that some settings have not been able to reopen and others are looking at potential closure in the near future. She said: 'The Government needs to act now and bring in a recovery and transformation fund to help providers weather this challenging period. Local authorities have revealed they share our concerns for the sustainability of early years as well. 'This type of fund is essential to support early years' providers to be sustainable as demand for places slowly recovers. 'Many nurseries and childcare providers have stayed open through this crisis to support critical workers keep our country going. If we want the economy to recover we need a sustainable and viable childcare sector to ensure parents can work and children can access high quality early education.' Children and Families Minister Vicky Ford said: 'We have been working very closely with the sector as we begin the wider opening of settings, and have provided significant financial and business support to protect them during these unprecedented times. 'It's testament to the great impact nurseries, preschools and childminders have on children's education and the reassurance they offer families that so many parents are confident in returning their child to childcare this week.' It comes after more than half a million primary school children were kept at home yesterday as dozens of councils sided with unions to defy the government's aims to ease students back into schools. Signs outside a nursery in Buckinghamshire advising people to keep two metres apart At least 54 councils in England took the side of teaching unions, who argued it is not yet safe for its members to return to schools amid the pandemic. The councils either told schools not to reopen, or left the decision up to headteachers. The Association of School and College Leaders said that of the facilities that are open attendance is 'highly variable' and ranges between '40 per cent and 70 per cent'. But the union's general secretary Geoff Barton said this figure is likely to increase as 'parents become become confident about sending their children to school'. Up to two million pupils were due to return to lessons but some were turned away because headteachers 'weren't ready' for them while around half of parents have chosen to keep their children at home because of safety fears. Columbia County Sheriffs Office and Portage Police Department officials condemned police actions that resulted in the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and urged residents to remain peaceful as demonstrations against police violence and the looting of businesses occur across the nation. We stand in solidarity with the protesters who want to effect positive change, Sheriff Roger Brandner said. There is a need for civility right now as 99% of the good and honest cops do not like the actions of some law enforcement officers either. What those officers did to George Floyd were criminal acts and those responsible need to be held accountable for their actions. Their actions were inexcusable. I understand why people are angry, as I am too, but please know that we are not all the same as those few rogue officers. The sheriffs office has deployed 13 deputies to assist Madison Police Department each day since Saturday in its response to the demonstrations and looting there and will continue to support the department for as long as necessary, Brandner said. Columbia County deputies are trained in crowd control and equipped with riot gear, he said. CROWMELL Praising her commonsense values and strong work ethic, Republicans nominated state Rep Christie Carpino for a sixth term in the General Assembly. Deputy Mayor Jennifer Donohue said Carpinos values, work ethic and experience are exactly what we need in Hartford right now. Christie has spent countless hours as an advocate for Portland and Cromwell over the years, Portland Town Clerk Ryan J. Curley said. Shes a team player who always puts our communities first. Supporters said Carpino is recognized as a legislator who is capable of spearheading bipartisan collaboration in the day-to-day corners of policymaking. Born on Long Island and raised in New Hampshire, Carpino is an attorney and human resources professional in addition to her role as the representative for the 32nd House District, which encompasses Cromwell and Portland. She and her husband, Joe, have two children who attend Cromwell schools. In accepting the unanimous nomination, Carpino said the states economy still was recovering from the Great Recession when it was struck by the coronavirus pandemic. Connecticut must come together and focus on recovery and growth over the next two years, she said. The pandemic has compounded our existing problems statewide, but it has also shown that we are resilient. Families and businesses need a path forward and I am ready to lead us down that path together, she said. Over the past 18 months, Carpino stood against the installation of tolls on state roads and also fought against the proposal for regionalization of education and instead advocated for local control to remain with residents and parents. She also criticized what she saw as a lack of transparency in state government. Democrats have yet to nominate a challenger. jmill@middltownpress.com Several southern US states reported sharp increases in COVID-19 infections, with Alabama, South Carolina and Virginia all recording new cases rise 35% or more in the week ended May 31, compared with the prior week, according to a Reuters analysis. South Carolina health officials said they expected more increases in the future due to a lack of social distancing and mask-wearing at protests triggered by the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minnesota. "If people don't follow current recommendations for social distancing and avoiding crowds of any kind, we can anticipate seeing increased numbers," the South Carolina health department said. South Carolina officials said the recent rise in its new cases, which have been going up for three weeks, were in part due to the completion of testing in the state's 194 nursing homes. Alabama's health department attributed the state's steady increase in cases since early May to community transmission, clusters of outbreaks, and more testing. Virginia officials were not immediately available for comment. Nationally, new COVID-19 cases fell for a fifth straight week, down 4.7% last week compared with a 0.8% drop the prior week, according to the Reuters analysis of data from The COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer-run effort to track the outbreak. As all 50 states have partially reopened, cases are rising in 17 states compared with 20 in the prior week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended states wait for their daily number of new COVID-19 cases to fall for 14 days before easing social distancing restrictions. Thirteen states have met the criteria for the week ended May 31, compared with 14 states and the District of Columbia the prior week, the analysis showed. Pennsylvania and New York lead with seven straight weeks of declines, and new cases are also falling in New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Reuters Hong Kong: Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam accused foreign governments of "double standards" in their reaction to Beijing's plans to impose national security laws on the city, pointing to anti-police brutality protests in the United States. In her first public appearance after Washington said it will remove Hong Kong's preferential treatment in US law in response to Beijing's proposal, Lam warned countries threatening actions against the city they may hurt their own interests. "They are very concerned about their own national security, but on our national security...they look through tinted glasses," Lam told a weekly news conference. "In the US, we see how the riots were being handled by the local governments, compared to the stance they adopted when almost the same riots happened in Hong Kong last year." Having lost patience with Hong Kong after large-scale and often-violent pro-democracy protests last year plunged the Chinese-ruled city into its biggest crisis in decades, Beijing authorities last month advanced plans to introduce laws tackling secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference. The laws could also see Chinese intelligence agencies set up shop in the global financial hub. US President Donald Trump, saying Hong Kong was no longer sufficiently autonomous from Beijing as promised at the time of the 1997 handover of the territory by Britain, said Hong Kong will no longer be treated differently from mainland China in US law. Hong Kong and Beijing authorities have repeatedly insisted rights and freedoms will be preserved, remarks echoed by Lam on Tuesday. She said "public concerns" about the legislation were understandable as a draft was yet to be finalised. In Washington, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse peaceful demonstrators near the White House on Monday as Trump vowed a massive show of force to end violent protests over the death of a black man in police custody. Dozens of cities across the United States remain under curfews not seen since riots after the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Police in some places were also seen joining marches and kneeling in solidarity with the protesters. Protesters in Hong Kong have mainly been asking for universal suffrage and an independent inquiry into how police handled the demonstrations. Hong Kong, where protesters reject Lam's description of the anti-government demonstrations as riots, has not enforced curfews. Police have been accused of disproportionate use of force, which officials have denied. A dry fog that kills airborne viruses might sound like a sci-fi movie invention, but a product developed and patented by the U.S. Department of Energys Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has made the idea possible.The product, which has been a work in progress for decades, is called Paerosol and has been commercialized by a South Carolina company of the same name. Originally, Paerosol was made to remediate mold, but laboratory tests show the product is also effective against bacteria and viruses, including COVID-19, said Paerosol President Scott Alderson.Well fog eggs in a hatchery, and the mortality rates will drop significantly, Alderson said. Well kill viruses in the nursery of a hog room. Weve shown that we can kill mold on plants.Paerosol is neither a poison nor a chemical. It begins as a salt-water solution. An electric current is run through the mixture, creating an oxidant. From there, the fluid transforms into a fog with a machine called a micro aerosol generator, Alderson said.Once the fog is released from micro aerosol generators, it stays in the air for 72 hours. Visiting every corner and cranny of an area, the neutrally charged substance hunts for both positively and negatively charged microorganisms. The main ingredient of the solution is hypochlorous acid not to be confused with hydrochloric acid which is produced by the human immune system.Alderson said Paerosol merely disables pathogens.Its like me removing the car keys from a vehicle, he explained. Were not blowing up the pathogen and disintegrating it. Were disabling it. Thats important because if we were to blow it up, we would be creating tiny little fragments. Science doesnt know what would be in those fragments.Extensive tests have shown that mice can safely breathe the fog. The company is confident the fog cant hurt humans, but at this time, it recommends wearing a mask when the fog is initially released, Alderson said.The solution works quickly. Robert Amick, executive director of the Florida State Firefighters Association, has seen how the fog just walks through mold. A four-week mold remediation job becomes a two-day deal, Amick shared.I can do a 40,000-square-foot building thats four stories high, Amick continued, and we can be in and out of there in six hours with a four-man crew. Its so simple, so easy to be deployed. Theres no clean-up afterward.Amick noted that Paerosols effectiveness is a boon for firefighters, who are at risk of catching bacteria like MRSA and C. difficile. Now with the COVID-19 virus to worry about, the fire safety community needs extra assurance when it comes to lowering the probability of infection.Its just striking terror through us, Amick said. Youre going to have guys getting this stuff [COVID-19] and they dont know it, and theyre going to be passing it off to their children and their older family members. Theres a case here in Florida where a five-year-old died, and his father is a firefighter.Alderson and Amick cited various other use cases for Paerosol, including nursing homes, hospitals, ambulances and restaurants, to name a few. Alderson mentioned a six-month study that was performed at the Madigan Army Medical Center in Washington state and funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, a unit of the U.S. Department of Defense. The study showed that Paerosol eliminated the most common hospital pathogens, such as staph, without corroding any of the sensitive equipment in the surgical suite of the facility.Weve set it off in radio comm rooms, and it hasnt bothered them one bit, Amick said. Theres absolutely no moisture that goes into the air with it.Alderson said the company is currently working on a medical-grade device that has a planned release late this year. As the company performs more demos at hospitals, it will gather feedback for future versions of the product.The company is also waiting for the product to be approved by the Environmental Protection Agency. The company now relies on a service model, as it cannot ship the product to customers without EPA approval.Its critical that we get EPA approval, Alderson said. I could be sending fluid right now to New York City, and they could be fogging their whole subway system [with EPA approval].Amick, who has strived to help inform government stakeholders about the product, believes the fog solution will have a dramatic impact on more than public safety. Its going to change everything, Amick remarked. Its going to change everything for the good in an unbelievable way. The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) says it will in the coming days announce a new date for its Presidential and Parliamentary primaries later this week. The party says the easing of restrictions by the President gives it an opportunity to hold its internal elections before the December general elections. The Steering Committee of the party met on Monday [May June 1, 2020] to deliberate on issues affecting the party following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. National Chairman of the NPP, Freddie Blay in a Citi News interview said the outbreak of the disease has affected the party's operations but it will find other ways of carrying out its duties. We will go for a meeting and make a decision as to the way forward. But we may resort to other means and re-strategize so that we still can carry our message across. It will not be easy. I agree that COVID-19 has impacted on the ability and capacity and versatility of the party, he said. The party on April 14, 2020, suspended its planned April 25, 2020, parliamentary primaries indefinitely in accordance with the President's ban on public gatherings in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic in Ghana. NPP was to use the primaries to elect parliamentary candidates in constituencies where it has sitting Members of Parliament, ahead of the 2020 general elections. Many parliamentary aspirants suspended their campaigns due to the decision. citinewsroom The next meeting of OPEC is scheduled to take place on June 9 Russia's President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump AP photo President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump discussed the OPEC+ deal during a phone conversation, Bloomberg reports. It has been stated that the multilateral agreement reached with the active support of U.S. and Russian presidents has been leading to a gradual recovery of oil demand and price stabilization, the Kremlin said in its statement. The next meeting of OPEC is scheduled to take place on June 9. It will be held via videoconference. It is worth noting that the U.S. did not formally join the deal, but Trump helped to broker it. As a result, the countrys production has dropped significantly. As we reported earlier, on April 15, OPEC member countries finally agreed on the final version of the deal to reduce oil production to stabilize world prices. In general, the price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia has officially ended, OPEC + is still afloat, and oil prices will stabilize before the end of the year according to forecasts by OPEC analysts. Unfortunately there will be no Grand Prix this year at the circuit of Zandvoort, because of the coronapandemic and the fully adjusted calendar. However, the circuit in the dunes of North Holland has been preparing for a year now and now shares an impression of what it should have looked like. This whole concept will of course be taken to next year, but a video will already give an impression. Animated video Circuit Zandvoort has made an animation of how the terrain will be decorated. Outside the paddock and the circuit you can find all kinds of activities at different places. This ranges from an F1 fan village to a big stage, a Ferris wheel and much more. It is also clear from the animated video that they wanted to do it very big. So this year those plans will not go ahead, but it does promise something for 2021. Next year it is the intention that there will be a Grand Prix in the Netherlands and hopefully also with an audience. The past year we have been working hard on rebuilding Circuit Zandvoort and organizing the Ultimate Race Festival with drivers, artists and a F1 fan village. We are proud to give you a sneak peak of what you can expect in 2021! #DutchGP #TheUltimateRaceFestival #F1 pic.twitter.com/XMx8RkLwAU Dutch Grand Prix (@f1_dutchgp) June 2, 2020 WASHINGTON - Current and former election administrators said it would be virtually impossible for a foreign country to produce and mail in phony absentee ballots without detection, an issue Attorney General William Barr raised as a serious possibility in an interview published Monday. Barr told the New York Times Magazine that a foreign operation to mail in fake ballots was "one of the issues that I'm real worried about." "We've been talking about how, in terms of foreign influence, there are a number of foreign countries that could easily make counterfeit ballots, put names on them, send them in," Barr said. "And it'd be very hard to sort out what's happening." Barr did not offer any evidence of how such a scenario would take place. Elections officials in multiple states said it would be virtually impossible for a foreign government to achieve what Barr described. Judd Choate, the elections chief in Colorado, where nearly all voters cast ballots by mail, said "there is zero chance" it could happen in his state because of security precautions in place there. States use a variety of safeguards to confirm the validity of mail ballots. In about half the states, ballot envelopes bear a tracking bar code or tally mark that is unique to each voter. About 15 states require signatures to be matched against voter registration. Ballots are rejected if they are not sent in regulation envelopes that vary widely from state to state in format, size and paper stock. And there is little chance, administrators said, that election officials would not detect a surge of duplicate ballots arriving from the same voter. "There isn't an election office in this country that doesn't know how many ballots they've mailed out, how many they've gotten back in, and who they were sent to," said Tammy Patrick, a former election official with Maricopa County, Arizona, and currently a senior adviser to the bipartisan foundation Democracy Fund. "It is absolutely not the case that someone could create a multitude of ballots and in some way infuse them or inject them into the system without detection." The Justice Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment about why Barr said he was concerned such a scheme could easily happen. The country is expected to see a surge of mail ballots this year after nearly 30 states have already changed rules or practices in response to the public health threat posed by covid-19. President Donald Trump's campaign and the national GOP have launched a major effort to prevent the expansion of voting by mail, claiming it could lead to widespread fraud. Like Trump, the attorney general has himself voted absentee. State voting records show that Barr, a resident of Fairfax County, Virginia, in the suburbs of Washington, voted by mail in 2019 and 2012. Trump cast an absentee ballot in Florida's March primary. Barr's comments could serve to sow doubt about the integrity of the nation's election security, much as Trump has with a barrage of unfounded claims about widespread fraud, voting-rights activists said. "The emphasis should be on protecting the right to vote and protecting electoral integrity, not creating boogeymen," said John Powers, a voting-rights attorney with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. States that vote entirely by mail have developed extensive security measures to protect the vote. In Colorado, ballot envelopes feature tally marks that are unique to each voter, Choate said. Voter signatures are matched to those on file. Bad actors would have to replicate those marks, create ballots and envelopes made of the same paper and with the same design as authentic ones, and accurately forge signatures. "It's preposterous to the point of humor," Choate said. Even in states without all of those steps, those trying to counterfeit ballots would have to know the names and addresses of registered voters. And an onslaught of forged ballots duplicating ballots received from actual voters would almost certainly raise red flags in local election offices and prompt intensive investigations, officials said. "While it's difficult to comment on a hypothetical situation and we can only speak for North Carolina, it's almost inconceivable that a county board of elections wouldn't immediately detect 'counterfeit ballots' arriving at their offices," said Patrick Gannon, spokesman for the North Carolina State Board of Elections. "The county boards of elections send ballots out to those who request them." Chris Davis, the chief of elections in Williamson County, Tex., outside of Austin, said ballot envelopes are coded in his state, as well. "When I get these questions I usually say, 'Anything's possible, but it's not easy to do,' " he said. In a call with governors on Monday, he showed no sign of recognizing either that there might be some justification for widespread protests or that he should play some role in unifying the nation. Instead, he told the governors that all the violence was coming from the radical left, and he insisted that governors must get tougher: You have to dominate or youll look like a bunch of jerks; you have to arrest and try people. GRAPEVINE, Texas, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Since the beginning, KS2 has been a trusted IT partner for its customers leveraging leading technologies from IBM, Oracle, Red Hat and HubSpot. We have built a great team of architects, engineers, consultants, and sales specialists to help clients modernize and digitally transform. Our goal is to make Hybrid Cloud easy and safe with our highly certified consultants, accredited partnerships, and proven BEST process. KS2 Technologies, Inc. KS2 Technologies announces that it has hired Mike Morgan as its new Director of Professional Services. Mr. Morgan brings a wealth of experience in the IT consulting industry. Over the past 25+ years he has served in multiple leadership roles, including: CEO of two separate consulting organizations Head of sales for a multi-national consulting firm Leadership of Project Teams and complex projects Directed multiple Hybrid Cloud Implementations and migration projects With a commitment to excellence and value, in everything he does, Mr. Morgan plans to prepare the Professional Services arm for rapid growth while improving the quality of service and value experienced by our customers: "I believe that KS2 has the right talent with strong values and a great culture to help our clients transform and achieve the results they expect." Eric Kuefler, Co-founder and President of KS2 said, "I've known Mike for several years and am excited to have him join the team! I believe Mike will improve our position in the marketplace by preparing us for the next steps in our aggressive growth strategy." Dan Shinedling Jr. Co-Founder and CEO of KS2 said "Mike and I have competed for some the same customers over the years, and I have gained respect for his dedication to excellence and innovative approaches he brings to solve complex Hybrid Cloud issues." Contact: Eric Kuefler 8173101819 [email protected] https://www.ks2inc.com/ SOURCE KS2 Technologies, Inc. Related Links https://www.ks2inc.com/ Join leading financial experts in "Opportunity Amidst Crisis," a live webinar in three acts premiering June 23, 2020. The challenges facing businesses in our post-COVID-19 economy have been nothing if not dramatic. To creatively help distressed business owners faced with making quick and crucial decisions, several non-profit organizations have joined forces to produce a live webinar, Opportunity Amidst Crisis. The three-hour, three-act webinar play is designed to give businesses a basic understanding of their options when facing a financial crisis. It is being co-produced by the Turnaround Management Association, Financial Executives International, the Private Directors Association, the Association of Insolvency & Restructuring Advisors, the Midwest Business Brokers & Intermediaries, and the New York Institute of Credit. Registration, at a cost of $79.99, is available on the Opportunity Amidst Crisis website. Opportunity Amidst Crisis actors will include some of the leading financial experts in the country, including attorneys, investment bankers, financial advisors, private equity principals, commercial lenders, accountants, business owners, and private company directors. For a complete list of panelists, please see the Opportunity Amidst Crisis website. For more information about the webinar, or to tap into the expertise of one of our panelists for a story youre working on, please contact: Carrie Miller Managing Editor Financial Poise 773-906-6468 cmiller@financialpoise.com About Financial Poise Financial Poise has one mission: to provide reliable plain English business, financial and legal education to investors, private business owners and executives, and their respective trusted advisors. Financial Poise content is created by seasoned, respected experts who are invited to join our Faculty only after being recommended by current Faculty Members. Our editorial staff then works to make sure all content is easily digestible. Financial Poise is a meritocracy; nobody can buy their way into the Financial Poise Faculty. Start learning today at https://www.financialpoise.com/ About DailyDAC- DailyDAC Distressed Analysis & Commentary / Distressed Asset Central is the leading source of information for private equity, family offices, and other opportunistic investors; owners, board members and C-Suite executives of struggling businesses; and attorneys, accountants, investment bankers, and other trusted advisors who do not specialize in corporate restructuring and insolvency. DailyDACs sister websites, Financial Poise and ChamberWise, provide a wealth of information about other topics for investors and business owners/executives. Drive-in movie theatres are coming to Britain as the country searches for safe ways to socialise in the age of coronavirus. Grease, The Blues Brothers and Back to the Future will be among the classic films being aired at medieval castles and stately homes, in a bizarre mix of American and British culture. Warwick Castle, Knebworth House and Blenheim Palace have agreed to take part in the event brought by The Luna Cinema, host of popular open-air film screenings in Britain. Its founder George Wood told The Evening Standard's London Indoors: 'We've managed to make every aspect of the event fully compliant with social distancing regulations. 'From the way they tickets are scanned through to the provision of food and drink, audiences can attend our drive in screenings with confidence, and return to one of the things we've all been missing most in lockdown enjoying a great film on a giant screen under the stars. Grease, The Blues Brothers and Back to the Future will be among the classic films being aired at medieval castles and stately homes, in a bizarre mix of American and British culture The Luna Cinema will be hosting dozens of screenings at London's Allianz Park, Warwick Castle, Blenheim Palace and Knebworth House next month 'We plan to commence open air cinema screenings as soon as it is safe to do so, when the official advice allows, but in the meantime, we can't wait to welcome audiences for a fantastic drive in cinema experience.' Mr Wood told The Guardian that moviegoers will never have to leave their cars unless they have to use the bathroom. License plates will be scanned, and attendees will be given directions to pre-assigned parking spots. Film fans can pre-order food and drink, which will be dropped off on car bonnets by waiters on roller skates and scooters. Grease and The Blues Brothers will be among the classic films being aired at medieval castles and stately homes, in a bizarre mix of American and British culture (pictured: A screening of 'Grease' in Madrid) The event kicks off with Happy Feet and Grease at Allianz Park on July 4. London will also be hosting screenings of Joker on July 4, the 2019 reboot of Aladdin on July 5, Pretty woman on July 5, Dirty Dancing on July 5 and Knives Out on July 6 The Luna Cinema will be hosting dozens of screenings at London's Allianz Park, Warwick Castle, Blenheim Palace and Knebworth House next month. The event kicks off with Happy Feet and Grease at Allianz Park on July 4. London will also be hosting screenings of Joker on July 4, the 2019 reboot of Aladdin on July 5, Pretty woman on July 5, Dirty Dancing on July 5 and Knives Out on July 6. Other hits to be played across British landmarks include include Jurassic Park, The Goonies, The Devil Wears Prada, Back to the Future and La la Land. Around 100 screening have been announced, with Reservoir Dogs screening at Warwick Castle on July 20. President Donald Trump holds a Bible while visiting St. John's Church across from the White House in Washington on June 1, 2020. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images) Rubio Defends Trump After Criticism Over St. Johns Church Appearance Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said that professional agitators were cleared by police before President Donald Trumps visit to the St. Johns Episcopal Church near the White House amid protests about the death of George Floyd. They knew the street needed to be cleared before 7 pm curfew, Rubio wrote on Twitter. But they deliberately stayed to trigger police action & get the story they wanted, that police attacked peaceful protesters. Trump faced criticism for having his photo taken while he held a Bible in front of the church. Both Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) criticized the move. Across our country, Americans are protesting for an end to the pattern of racial injustice and brutality we saw most recently in the murder of George Floyd, their joint statement reads. Yet, at a time when our country cries out for unification, this President is ripping it apart. Tear-gassing peaceful protestors without provocation just so that the President could pose for photos outside a church dishonors every value that faith teaches us. The church was damaged by fire earlier in the week during unrest and rioting in the wake of Floyds death while he was in the custody of the Minneapolis police. Former officer Derek Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder. Other Republican lawmakers defended Trumps move. Incredibly powerful moment as @realDonaldTrump walked to St. Johns Church, where every past president since Madison has prayed for the wellbeing of our country. We must come together as a country, and I thank @POTUS for leading the effort to protect law and order, wrote Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.). A large law enforcement response is seen near the White House after a protest was dispersed in downtown Washington on June 1, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) The walk to the church Trump made through the burned-out and graffiti-covered Lafayette Park, Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) said, was a powerful reminder that Americans will not be intimidated by lawlessness and violence. Historic moment as @POTUS Trump reclaims St. Johns Church for America! God Bless America!! wrote Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) Reports had said that U.S. Park Police and National Guard troops removed the protesters from the area. The death toll from the nationwide unrest rose to at least nine, including two people killed in a Chicago suburb. The police chief in Louisville, Kentucky, was fired after a restaurant owner was killed by police and National Guard members enforcing a curfew. The Associated Press contributed to this report. UB to host virtual Bloomsday celebration with Joyce fans around world Guests to include Ambassador of Ireland to US, senators, and acclaimed authors and scholars across globe BUFFALO, N.Y. James Joyce lovers worldwide are welcome to join the University at Buffalo for the James Joyce Collection Virtual Bloomsday Celebration, an evening to honor the famed writers landmark book Ulysses considered by many to be the novel of the 20th century. Held on June 16 the same day the novel takes place Bloomsday is an annual celebration across the globe that remembers the enigmatic story of a day in the life of Ulysses protagonist Leopold Bloom in Dublin, Ireland. Nearly 100 years after its publication in 1922, the novel continues to capture the hearts, minds and imaginations of readers. Since its inception, Bloomsday has been celebrated in many ways, including walking tours in Dublin that retrace Blooms wanderings in the book, period-costume pub crawls and theatrical performances. Amidst the social distancing restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bloomsday celebrations will primarily take place virtually, and UB is leading the fun. As the worlds largest and most comprehensive collection of James Joyce materials, the UB Poetry Collection will host a distinctive Bloomsday event featuring readings from Irelands Ambassador to the United States Daniel Mulhall, acclaimed Irish author Colm Toibin, New York State Senator Tim Kennedy and other notable guests. The event, scheduled on Tuesday, June 16, from 3-4:30 p.m. EDT, is free and open to the public. Guests are encouraged to register online to receive a link to participate. Organized by the UB Poetry Collection and Office of Alumni Engagement, the program will include remarks by UB President Satish K. Tripathi, PhD; Poetry Collection Curator James Maynard, PhD; Poetry Collection Assistant Curator Alison Fraser, PhD; and Michael Groden, PhD, Joyce scholar and distinguished university professor emeritus at the University of Western Ontario. Featured guests include: Editor's Note: Get caught up in minutes with our speedy summary of today's must-read news stories and expert opinions that moved the precious metals and financial markets. Sign up here! (Kitco News) Gold positioning remains very crowded, according to ABM Amro, which is why the Dutch bank is not recommending re-entering long gold positions at the moment. We continue to think that positions are too crowded and that prices are too high to recommend re-entering longs, ABN Amro precious metals analyst Georgette Boele wrote in a report last week. The bank is projecting a major drop in gold prices within the next three months, citing another risk-off wave in financial markets. ABN Amros outlook has gold ending Q2 at $1,575 an ounce. We also expect a considerable drop in gold prices, Boele said. Between now and 3 months we expect another risk-off wave in financial markets. We think that investors will close part of their positions (ETF and/or speculative positions) in gold, silver and platinum. At the time of writing, August Comex gold futures were trading at $1,750.30 an ounce, down 0.08% on the day. Golds trading pattern this past month reveals resilience, with any price dips being bought up by investors and gold staying firmly above the $1,700 an ounce level, noted Boele. Each time there has been some price weakness it seems that investors are buying gold on dips. Gold ETF positions have made a new record and stand just under 100 million ounces. After some liquidation of speculative positions, speculators have also showed renewed interest in gold, he said. Long-term, ABN Amro is not that bullish on gold, projecting the yellow metal to finish Q3 at $1,650 an ounce and Q4 at $1,700 an ounce. In 2021, the Dutch bank is more bullish, penciling in gold trading at $1,800 by year-end. New Jerseys death toll from the coronavirus is at 11,721 as the state readies itself to enter Phase 2 of reopening, Gov. Phil Murphy announced on Monday. While Mondays announcement brought 27 new deaths and 509 new cases of COVID-19, the focus was on the coming weeks as N.J. continues to lift the near-lockdown conditions put in place in early March to slow the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage As part of the timeline outlined by Murphy, outdoor dining and limited in-person retail will begin on June 15, while hair salons and barber shops will open June 22. Summer youth programs can convene on July 6. Is the above map not displaying? Click here. In-person government services, museums, libraries, and gyms will be phased in as deemed appropriate. The next big step in our restart and recovery is just two weeks away, Murphy said at his daily briefing in Trenton. Were ready to begin moving forward. We are ready because this progress is being seen across the state. I firmly believe we are going to stay on track." Is the above chart not displaying? Click here. The governor said residents should continue to cover their face and practice social distancing when out. Dont be a knucklehead, he said. When each of us is responsible, all of us do better. The announcement came two weeks after Murphy first unveiled the multi-stage reopening plan the state will follow in the coming weeks and months. Is the above map not displaying? Click here. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Nick Devlin is a reporter on the data & investigations team. He can be reached at ndevlin@njadvancemedia.com. Authorities are investigating the death of a black restaurant owner in Louisville, Kentucky, including FBI Louisville, Kentucky State Police and the U.S. Attorney's Office. David McAtee was shot and killed by law enforcement as they broke up a crowd early Monday morning in Louisville, officials said. Steve Conrad, who was Louisville Metro Police Department's chief at the time, went to the scene shortly after it happened to give details. He said the incident happened around 12:15 a.m. in the parking lot of Dino's Food Mart, located at 26th and Broadway. McAtee owned a restaurant nearby called Yaya's BBQ. Mayor Greg Fischer called McAtee a wonderful citizen, and said many knew him as "the BBQ man." Conrad said LMPD and the National Guard were breaking up a large group at that location when someone fired at them. Law enforcement then returned fire, police said. Police said they have several persons of interest being interviewed and it is still unclear who fired the first shot and who struck McAtee. Its very clear that many people do not trust the police. That is an issue were going to work on and work through," Conrad said during an early morning news conference. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear held a news conference around noon saying to his understanding, there was significant footage of what happened, including from body cameras. He called on all of it to be released quickly. Im not asking people to trust our account (of what happened). I want to see the video for ourselves, Beshear said. It was later learned that none of the LMPD officers present had their cameras activated. Two LMPD officers on the scene who police confirm were involved, Kate Crews and Allen Austin, have been put on administrative leave. The governor said he has heard the crowd at that food mart was not demonstrating at the time, but police responded because they were violating curfew. A curfew went into effect Sunday night at 9 p.m. for the whole city. That curfew has since been extended through June 8. It was an attempt by the mayor to settle unrest that has gone on for several days in the city over the Breonna Taylor case and other cases causing protests and riots across the country. Beshear also had Taylor's mother speak Monday, during which she said, "We can't get justice with violence." Seven people were shot the first day of protests in Louisville. The first few days resulted in heavy damage, vandalism and small fires around the city. Beshear is encouraging peaceful protests moving forward. Phoenix, June 2 : More than 200 people were arrested during the fourth consecutive night of protests in Phoenix over the death of the unarmed African-American man George Floyd, police in the capital city of Arizona state said. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed an executive order on Sunday declaring a statewide curfew lasting from local time 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. until June 8, reports Xinhua news agency. The order prohibits people from "using, standing, sitting, travelling or being present on any public street or in any public place, including for the purpose of travel" with some exceptions. However, local ABC15 news channel reported that many protesters remained in the Phoenix Police Department headquarters after the official protest was over and curfew started, holding signs, taking a knee and chanting outside of the building. The police then declared unlawful assembly in the area and used tear gas against protesters. Police on Monday did not give information about property damage from Sunday's demonstrations, but disclosed that more than 200 adults and over 10 minors were arrested, with charges including rioting, unlawful assembly, disorderly conduct and curfew violation. Nationwide demonstrators have eruoted since May 25, when Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old man, died after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, held him down with a knee on his neck though he repeatedly pleaded, "I can't breathe", and "please, I can't breathe". Chauvin has been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. The Pwalugu Multi-Purpose Dam will benefit Ghanaians in many aspects such as electricity, fisheries, irrigation and control of flood. The primary components of the Pwalugu Multi-Purpose Dam Project consist of a dam with an elevation of 165m near the Pwalugu Bridge on the White Volta River and the maximum reservoir area of 350km. 2. A Power House consisting of two turbines 60mw installed capacity and 16.5BMW of firm continuous capacity. 3. An Irrigation Scheme consisting of a 12m high weir and a Canal network (main primary, secondary and tertiary canals) for 24000haof land. 4. A 15km overhead line for export of power to an existing transmission line. 5. A 50MW Solar Power Facility. The dam will be a central roller compacted concrete combine and earth and rock fill dam on the banks. The Dam is going to be of many benefits to the people of Northern Ghana and Ghana as a whole. The project has the potential to increase annual rice production in the country by up 117,000 tons and maize up to 49,000. Ghana's renewable energy capacity is expected to increase from 2%to 10% by 2030 to meet the United Nations Framework for Climate Change (UNFCC) because of the hydro power component of the Dam. The project also has a solar component. The solar energy will complement the hydro energy to enhance reliability. Stakeholder Engagement by Volta River Authority, VRA towards the construction of the Pwalugu Multi-Purpose HYDRO, Solar and Irrigation Project at Kurugu has been initiated. Speaking at Walewale the West Mamprusi District capital as part of VRA's community engagement strategy, the Senior Executive Liaison Officer to the VRA Chief Executive In-Charge of Stakeholder Engagement for the Pwalugu Multi-Purpose Dam Mr. David Prah stated that the Volta River Authority will continue to engage with the Chiefs and people of the Project Affected communities in a mutual and sustainable manner for a successful implementation of the project. The much talked about Multi-Purpose DAM with Solar Power Facility begins with the entry of the Contractor Power China on site. The construction of the dam is estimated to take three and a half years to be completed. The award of the contract to Contractor Power China as was promised by President Akufo Addo some few weeks ago has been fulfilled and therefore, work start has been affected. All things being equal, the people of Northern Ghana and the nation as a whole will enjoy the Multi-purpose dam by three and a half years as estimated. This project will serve Ghanaians in stabilizing our power supply especially in the North, assist in Agriculture and curb flood as well. Source: Thepressradio.com Egil Hogna, Executive Vice President for the Extruded Solutions business area in Hydro, has decided to leave Hydro to take over as CEO for Norconsult, a Norwegian consultancy firm. The process to find a new leader for the Extruded Solutions business area has started. Hogna will continue as executive vice president until a new leader is in place, until December 1, 2020, at the latest. "Egil Hogna has played a vital role for Hydro as head of Extruded Solutions, demonstrating strong leadership skills, and taking firm actions to position the business for the future," says Hydro President and CEO Hilde Merete Aasheim. Investor contact: Line Haugetraa +47 41406376 Line.Haugetraa@hydro.com Media contact: Halvor Molland +47 92979797 Halvor.Molland@hydro.com A top Defense Department official said Tuesday that Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley didn't mean to be in President Trump's controversial photo-op at St. John's Church. 'Their understanding was they were walking out of the White House to walk through Lafayette Park to review efforts to quell the protesters,' a top Defense official told PBS NewsHour. 'They were not aware that the park police and law enforcement had made a decision to clear the square.' On Monday, shortly before Washington, D.C.'s curfew was set to start, law enforcement used tear gas, police on horseback and rubber bullets to move a crowd off H Street in front of Lafayette Park, so the president could stand outside St. John's Church, holding up a Bible, alongside a number of government officials. A Pentagon official told PBS NewsHour that Defense Secretary Mark Esper (center) and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley (second from right) were unaware that they were headed to St. John's church when the walked across Lafayette Park Monday with President Trump President Trump followed by Esper, Milley and others, walked across Lafayette Park and to the church moments after a non-violent protest had been cleared off of H Street with law enforcement using tear gas, rubber bullets and officers on horses President Trump arrived at St. John's church and held up a Bible, receiving criticism for breaking up a peaceful protest for a photo-op. A top Defense Department official said that the military leaders thought they were only going to survey the law enforcement presence Milley and Esper both walked with Trump, along with Attorney General Bill Barr, who had been spotted surveying the H Street protests and the law enforcement presence by CNN's cameras, before the tear-gassing began. Stephen Miller, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and a number of other administration officials joined Trump for the walk out the front gates of the White House and across Lafayette park. Reports on the ground, including from priests and other clergy who were gathered at St. John's, indicated the Monday afternoon protests had been peaceful up until that point. The Defense official said Milley and Esper had been meeting with Trump. 'As that meeting concluded, the president indicated an interest in viewing the troops that were outside and the Secretary and the Chairman went with him to do so,' the source said. 'That's the extend of what's taken place. And they were part of the group who continued through Lafayette Park.' On television, the teargassing of protesters played like a splitscreen moment as it coincided with the president making remarks about being a 'law and order' leader. Then flanked by top commanders in the military, he came out in a show of force and showed off the Bible. He had also demanded governors make use fully of the National Guard and suggested active military could be deployed if unrest continued. A senior Defense official told NewsHour that the Pentagon has no interest. 'We really would like all of this to stay a National Guard response,' the official said. Later that evening, as helicopters circled downtown Washington and military vehicles were spotted on the streets, Milley was spotted by reporters walking around. He told journalist Shabtai Gold that the D.C. National Guard had been deployed and he was 'seeing how well they're doing.' [Trigger Warning: Mentions of death and suicide.] Jae Hyun's father committed suicide at times when he was in the military. Chairman Jang and Ji Soo's father, ex-prosecutor Yoon Hyung Goo, were responsible for Jae Hyun's father's death. Jae Hyun shared his story when his father died with Ji Soo as they met. During that time, he was in the military when he received the message, and it was the year where Ji Soo disappeared as well. He felt frustrated as he wasn't able to help and knew all the reasons back then after his father's death. Since college, he fought for a cause to combat oppression and labor unions, but he lost everything when his father died for the same reason. Ji Soo comforted him and remarked that even though he grew up without his father, he was still warmhearted and hardworking. A flashback of his past appeared wherein Jae Hyun was struggling back then. He remembered his father very well since he was always out in the school with the campaigns. He went to the military and always thought of Ji Soo during those times. When his father died, Ji Soo chose to live on her own away from him and her friends. He tried to look for her after his military service but to no avail. Both of them experienced death from their family, and Ji Soo chose to go on with life without Jae Hyun. Meanwhile, Seo Kyung tried to reconcile with Jae Hyun. She asked him to visit the places where they started as a couple. Seo Kyung fell in love with Jae Hyun for his sincerity and care for her in the early days of their relationship. She wanted to win him back, but Jae Hyun is fixed to end their marriage. Jae Hyun spent four years in prison with a charge that Chairman Jang is responsible for. During his absence, his wife went out with other men. At the piano school, Ji Soo got fired when she chose to teach a young girl for free. The owner received a complaint about what Ji Soo did and prompted her to do so. Jae Hyun learned that Ji Soo lost her job, though she doesn't accept any help when he gives it to her. Jae Hyun always sends her gifts and help through other people. This time Jae Hyun bought groceries and delivered it to Ji Soo's house. Young Woo has been Ji Soo's good friend since college. He has one-sided feelings for her as he knew Ji Soo's heart only for Jae Hyun. What he does is to support and protect Ji Soo if she gets hurt by anyone. It was a surprise to Jae Hyun when Ji Soo's father requested to see him at the sanatorium. This time, ex-prosecutor Hyung Goo is lucid, and as they met, he asked Jae Hyun for a view outside his room. He admitted to Jae Hyun what he did to his father and his resentment to Ji Soo. He confesses all the wrongdoings and asks for Jae Hyun's forgiveness. Jae Hyun was speechless for seeing the person who caused him so much pain. Young Min received all the toys from his grandfather. He's happy that he recognized him after a long time. Hyung Goo taught Young Min to be a good boy and support his mother always. Late in the afternoon, Ji Soo received a call from the sanatorium. Her father is in the ICU as his pneumonia is untreatable. Ji Soo rushed to the hospital and waited for the doctor's update. After a few hours of waiting, the doctor advised Ji Soo to see Hyung Goo inside the ICU room. He chose to take out all the life-sustaining treatment and machinery. As Ji Soo saw him, he asked forgiveness and advised her to live a happy life. He died after his last words. Ji Soo was devastated by losing the person she took care of since her mother and sister died. As she stepped out of the hospital, Jae Hyun waited outside her. She walked towards him, leaned on for comfort as she lost all her strength. Hundreds of office-goers, those with valid e-passes and many with medical appointments were stuck for hours on the busy entry points of Delhi as its borders were sealed on Tuesday in view of the coronavirus outbreak, leading to chaos and traffic snarls. IMAGE: A police personnel stops commuters at Loni-UP border after authorities sealed state borders, during the ongoing COVID-19 nationwide lockdown, in New Delhi. Photograph: Kamal Kishore/PTI Photo Vehicles piled up and many people were seen reasoning with the police as they were not allowed to enter Delhi from Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. Police said they were only letting in the residents of the national capital and those having government-approved identification cards. Some people were not even aware that the borders were sealed on Tuesday when the Delhi government had announced several relaxations in the lockdown norms starting Monday. Although falling in different states, Delhi and its satellite cities such as Gurgaon, Faridabad and others (in Haryana) and Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad among others (in Uttar Pradesh) are intertwined. A large number of people stay in these cities and work in Delhi and vice-versa. At the Delhi-Gurgaon border, the traffic crawled and people complained they were not allowed despite what they said were "genuine" reasons for travel. Shreshtha Arya, a Delhi-based advocate, was not allowed to take his father to a hospital in Gurgaon for surgery at 2 pm. Arya said police told him to go to a hospital in Delhi. "How can we go to a Delhi hospital when my father is being treated by doctors in Gurgaon?" Shubham Pandey, an employee of a Gurgaon-based company said, he was on night duty and didn't know that the border has been sealed. Pandey, who hails from Uttarakhand, said he was not carrying any document to prove he is a Delhi-resident and was, therefore, not being allowed to enter. IMAGE: Commuters stranded at Loni-UP border after authorities sealed state borders, during the ongoing COVID-19 nationwide lockdown in New Delhi. Photograph: Kamal Kishore/PTI Photo On Monday, the Delhi government ordered sealing of the city borders for a week in the wake of rising coronavirus cases. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had also expressed apprehensions that people from other states will come to Delhi to avail of "best health services" amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and that may lead to a shortage of beds for the residents of the national capital. At the Delhi-Noida border around 10 am, several commuters were stuck on the DND flyway. "I was returning from work last night. There was no checking then. Today, the inspection has intensified which led to scores of vehicles queuing up. This is problematic. There should be uniformity," Noida-resident Shivang Jain said. Getting movement passes is also not easy for many. Harish Joshi, who lives in Delhi's Laxmi Nagar but has a business in Greater Noida, said he has been trying to secure a movement pass for days but in vain. "I need to resume my business. But I cannot. There could have been easier ways to help citizens instead of putting them through so much trouble," Jain, in his late 50s, said. IMAGE: Commuters stranded at Loni-UP border after authorities sealed state borders, during the ongoing COVID-19 nationwide lockdown, in New Delhi. Photograph: Kamal Kishore/PTI Photo The Delhi-Ghaziabad border too witnessed heavy traffic and chaos. Vehicles lined up at the border area where the police were checking them before allowing in. There were reports of 'heavy traffic' on the Bhopura Border, Ghazipur Border, Chilla Border and DND Border. According to police, they have issued more than 20 challan on the NH-24 border including for people for travel without helmet and wrong parking. Mohammad Feroz Ansari, 32, said he went to Ghaziabad to distribute masks to needy people. "I live in Mustafabad in northeast Delhi. Nobody stopped me while entering Ghaziabad but now I'm not being allowed back. I was just helping the people. I will sit here at the border till they give permission," Ansari said. The situation eased out slightly towards afternoon. Gautam Buddh Nagar Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Rajesh S said the situation was normal and there were a lesser number of vehicles on the border. "This could be because more people are now aware that even Delhi has decided to close its border. On our side, we are maintaining the status quo (restricted entry)," he said. IMAGE: A police constable checks e-passes of commuters at Delhi-Noida border, during the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown, in New Delhi. Photograph: Vijay Verma/PTI Photo Deputy Superintendent of Police, Indirapuram Circle, Anshu Jain said that the situation became difficult when the vehicle-owners were not allowed by the Delhi Police without valid passes and documents. They were compelled to go back from Delhi and then the traffic got more congested, he said. Now, the commuters have to obtain passes from Delhi and Ghaziabad, he said. Back at the Delhi-Gurgaon border, commuters complained they were still being asked to show e-passes despite the Haryana government order of allowing interstate travel. A long traffic jam was witnessed on the Gurgaon (Haryana) side of the border as a team of policemen stopped each vehicle for checking. Gurgaon-resident Begraj Yadav said he had been undergoing treatment for mental health at Delhi's Ganga Ram Hospital. "I have been waiting here for 20 minutes, requesting policemen to allow me to go to the hospital. No one ready to listen to me." Aneesh Jairu, 32, stood on the Delhi side of the border with medicines for his father-in-law, a heart patient in Gurgaon. "He needs these medicines. So, I have called my brother-in-law here to take them," he said. Many with valid ID cards also kept waiting on the Delhi side of the border. A policemen on duty said, "Most of the people going to Gurgaon do not know that they can return if they have a valid proof to establish they are residents of Delhi." "However, non-Delhiites can only enter the city if they carry essential services pass," he said. A team of experts from Hunan province provided training for local Chinese in Equatorial Guinea on the prevention and control the coronavirus on Tuesday. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn] China's efforts to help Africa fight the COVID-19 pandemic are effective and timely, and the continent can learn from the country's experience in containing the virus, according to experts. Hisham AbuBakr Metwally, an economics researcher at the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Trade and Industry, said that since the coronavirus outbreak struck Africa, China has dispatched medical equipment and supplies to countries on the continent where there is a desperately need. It has also sent experienced medical teams to Africa to help fight the pandemic. "Chinese efforts to help the African continent are very effective and beneficial," he said, adding that he hoped China could share its experience in patient tracking programs and the issuance of electronic health certificates allowing people to go to work, and greater mobility. Tang Xiaoyang, a researcher in African studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said: "Africa will need a lot of global support to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic as well as to reopen its economy, as it has a relatively weak healthcare system and a large population living in poverty. Moreover, Africa's economy greatly relies on global markets." Koh King Kee, president of the Centre for New Inclusive Asia, an Asian think tank based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, said that although Africa appears not to have experienced COVID-19 as badly as some regions, the continent could be overwhelmed by the disease if community transmission takes place due to weak public healthcare systems. In such a scenario, the pandemic would also wreak havoc on vulnerable economies. He praised President Xi Jinping's speech to the 73rd World Health Assembly, in which the Chinese leader highlighted the need for the world to provide more material, technological and personal support to African countries. Xi said developing countries, in particular those in Africa, have weaker public health systems. Helping them build capacity must be China's top priority in the response to COVID-19. China has provided a significant amount of medical supplies and assistance to more than 50 African countries and the African Union. Five teams of Chinese medical experts have been sent to the continent, and at present, 46 resident Chinese medical teams are in Africa helping local COVID-19 containment efforts, he said. Xi added that China would establish a cooperation mechanism to team up with 30 African hospitals and accelerate the building of an African disease control headquarters. Metwally said: "The new mechanism is very important for many African countries, as it provides very valuable protocols and systems to be used especially during this pandemic period. China's contribution to building an African center for disease control is very helpful and we appreciate it as the China-Africa relationship is built on a shared future." Koh said China has provided medical aid to Africa in recent decades and has gained a better understanding of the continent's public health conditions. He added that African countries are not as densely populated as large cities in Asia, Europe and the United States. "As spatial distribution of a population is a key determinant of transmission, contact tracing is of particular importance in containing the spread of the virus. China's intensive contact tracing system for COVID-19 infection will be of special relevance to African countries," Koh said. Moreover, frontline medical professionals working in a weak healthcare system are in danger of greater exposure to the virus, he added. In this respect, African countries can also learn from China how to better protect their frontline medical workers, as the country has experienced a comparatively low number of deaths among such professionals fighting the pandemic, he added. Canada to promote holidays at home because of COVID-19 border closures FILE PHOTO: Canada's Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages Melanie Joly speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa By Steve Scherer OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada will invest C$30 million (17.66 million pounds) to enable its provinces and territories to promote holidays in their "own back yard" because of the closure of the country's borders due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Destination Canada, the country's national marketing body which usually focuses on luring international visitors, is due to announce the new funding later on Sunday, according to a statement seen by Reuters before its official release. Canada, which has had more than 7,000 deaths due to COVID-19, has closed its borders to non-essential travel since March, and it is unclear when they will be opened again. Many provinces have also shut down domestic non-essential travel. Quebec, which shares borders with the U.S. states of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, accounts for more than 60% of the Canadian death toll from the virus, and Ontario, the most populous province, has also been hit hard. The closures have hammered the tourism industry. Some 42% of businesses in the accommodation and food sectors have reported revenue drops of more than 50%, according to an April survey https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/200429/dq200429a-eng.htm of 12,600 businesses. At the end of 2018, one out of every 11 jobs in Canada was directly tied to travel, according to the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, but in April the unemployment rate in the tourism sector skyrocketed to more than 28%. Tourism is "a significant economic driver and source of local jobs. It's also among one of the hardest hit sectors as a result of this pandemic," Economic Development Minister Melanie Joly, who is responsible for tourism, said in the statement. The aim is to provide a valuable lifeline to the struggling sector during its peak summer season, Ben Cowan-Dewar, chairman of Destination Canada, said in the statement. It is the first time Destination Canada has provided funding for domestic marketing, according to a spokesman in Joly's office. The marketing arm in each of the 10 provinces and three territories will decide exactly how they want to use the money, the spokesman said. (Reporting by Steve Scherer; Editing by Paul Simao) Tiffany Trump and Lara Trump (then Lara Yunaska) at the Republican National Convention along with then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, and Ivanka Trump, at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 20, 2016. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images) Tiffany Trump Joins BlackoutTuesday Movement on Instagram Tiffany Trump, President Donald Trumps daughter, joined in on a viral social media trend dubbed Blackout Tuesday and called for justice in the death of George Floyd. She posted a black square on her Instagram and wrote: Alone we can achieve so little; together we can achieve so much. The hashtags #blackoutTuesday and #justiceforgeorgefloyd accompanied her social media post. The #blackoutTuesday hashtag started as a movement designed to highlight the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and countless other Black citizens at the hands of police, according to its website. Tuesday, June 2nd is meant to intentionally disrupt the work week. Monday suggests a long weekend, and we cant wait until Friday for change. It is a day to take a beat for an honest, reflective, and productive conversation about what actions we need to collectively take to support the Black community, it says. However, despite peaceful protests over Floyds death, violence ravaged cities from Philadelphia to Los Angeles and flared near the White House. City and state officials deployed thousands of National Guard soldiers, enacted strict curfews, and shut down mass transit systems to slow protesters movements, but that did little to stop parts of many cities from again erupting into mayhem. Protesters in Philadelphia hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at police, officials said, while thieves in more than 20 California cities smashed their way into businesses and ran off with as much as they could carryboxes of sneakers, armloads of clothes, and cellphones, TVs and other electronics. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Queensland hospitals were bracing for more than 50,000 Queenslanders - enough to fill Suncorp Stadium - to be ventilated with COVID-19 during the pandemic. Early modelling done by state health authorities in January, released at a parliamentary inquiry this week, revealed the first wave of the coronavirus was expected to "really escalate in late April, peaking around three months later and gradually reducing". Queensland Health director-general John Wakefield said Queensland had flattened the curve. Credit:Dan Peled/AAP Queensland Health director-general John Wakefield said his department was planning for 20 per cent of the state, about 1 million people, to contract coronavirus during the first wave which was initially predicted to last six months. Of those people, 200,000 were expected to be admitted to hospital and 50,000 would get seriously ill and probably require ventilation in intensive care. MINNEAPOLIS - Two autopsies of George Floyd differ on exactly what caused his death, but they agree on this much: The 46-year-old African American man was a victim of homicide. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner released a report Monday saying that Floyd died of "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression." The report notes that Floyd also suffered from heart disease, fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use, but it does not list those factors in the cause of death. The official results contrast with an independent autopsy commissioned by Floyd's family, which was released earlier Monday. That autopsy, conducted by former New York City medical examiner Michael Baden and the University of Michigan's Allecia Wilson, determined that he died of "asphyxiation from sustained pressure" after being pinned down by his neck and back. "Essentially, George died because he needed a breath," Benjamin Crump, an attorney for the family, said at a news conference Monday. Baden said no underlying medical conditions caused or contributed the Floyd's May 25 death. Floyd, who was suspected of trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill at a deli, died after an arrest in which 44-year-old police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd's neck, even after he lost consciousness. Other officers also helped restrain Floyd. "The officers killed him based on a knee to his neck for almost nine minutes and two knees on his back, compressing his lungs," Crump said. "The ambulance was his hearse." Chauvin was arrested Friday on charges of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Floyd's family has pushed for first-degree murder charges, and Crump said they want the other officers involved to be prosecuted "to the fullest extent of the law." The findings marked the latest twist in a case that set off a wave of angry and at times violent protests in dozens of cities around the country. In a call Monday, President Donald Trump chided the nation's governors, calling them "weak" in the face of mounting protests over racial injustice and urging them to crack down aggressively to quell unruly demonstrations. Curfews remained in place in cities from coast to coast. Military vehicles rumbled through major urban streets, where authorities in riot gear have become a common sight. Minneapolis saw a respite from the worst of the unrest as Sunday gave way to Monday - finally, a night without the barrage of fires, looting and violence that have cut a wide swath of devastation through the heart of this Midwestern city. But it remained a city on edge inside a nation on edge. Democratic Gov. Tim Walz said Monday that a 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew would stay in effect as the state tries to emerge from days of upheaval. He added that Floyd's funeral, scheduled to take place on Thursday, would be a "significant event" for the state as it moves toward healing. Walz also said he objected to Trump's characterization that states with violent protests had become a "laughingstock" to the rest of the world. "I said, 'No one's laughing here,' " Walz said. "We're in pain. We're crying. We saw a man lose his life." Walz said he took issue with Trump's emphasis on a "posture of force," saying it was unsustainable, both "militarily" and "socially." "It's the antithesis of how we live," he said. "It's the antithesis of civilian control." The release Monday of the autopsies once again highlighted a central question that has lingered since video of Floyd's brutal arrest surfaced: Will justice eventually be served in the case, and what exactly would that look like? Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who has taken over as prosecutor for the Floyd case, cautioned the public Monday about expecting certain results. In an interview with SiriusXM's "The Black Eagle," Ellison reminded listeners of multiple instances in which police officers have avoided consequences sought by prosecutors even after their misconduct has led to a black man's death. He mentioned in particular the case of Freddie Gray, who died in Baltimore in 2015 after suffering a severe spinal injury while riding in the back of a police van. "I just want to caution folks," Ellison said. "I don't deny that your eyes are working well and you saw what you saw, but that doesn't mean that when we get to a courtroom that it's going to be some sort of easy slam dunk. History proves that it isn't." Chauvin, the officer who used his knee to pin Floyd's neck to the ground, will have his first court appearance on June 8, according to Hennepin County District Court filings. Chauvin and three other officers involved in Floyd's arrest were fired following the incident. Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman signaled last week that three other officers who were fired after the incident - Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng - also could soon face criminal charges. And Walz has vowed "swift" justice for those involved in Floyd's killing. While a shaken community awaits that justice, while it prepares to formally mourn Floyd this week, and while the anger over his death and others like it simmers unresolved, people in Minneapolis tried to pick up the pieces of the dark week behind them. After traveling from Brooklyn to Minneapolis to visit the site of his brother's death, Terrence Floyd expressed disappointment that some protests across the country have turned violent. Speaking on ABC's "Good Morning America," Floyd said George was a "gentle giant" who valued peace and unity and would want protesters to channel their anger "to do something positive." In an emotional speech at the site of his brother's killing, Terrence Floyd urged an end to violence and more focus on enacting change through voting. "I understand you're all upset. But like it was already said, I doubt you're all half as upset as I am," he said, adding that causing damage to the community would prove counterproductive. "That's not going to bring my brother back," he added. In Northeast Minneapolis, a residential area with a blossoming arts district, traffic on main thoroughfares started to pick up to levels not seen in weeks as people began to resume old routines interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic and the recent protests. Bars and restaurants began to open for patio service, which on Monday was permitted for the first time since the state's stay-at-home order took effect. "A lot of us have been at the protests. I support everything that has been going on," said Kevin Smith, 35, a bar manager at Stanley's, where workers were setting up tables on the patio. "We are ready to work, but our minds are very much in other spots right now." At Mama Sheila's House of Soul, a small restaurant located at 38th and Bloomington, just down the road from the incident that sparked the protests of recent days, owner Sheila Brathwaite was preparing for the lifting of coronavirus restrictions. She would soon be whipping up her signature buffet of mac-and-cheese, yams, collared greens with turkey, and fried chicken. But her mind was also on the unrest unfolding in her city. "You can imagine the devastation I felt to see my whole community go up in flames," she said. "It's surreal. It's unbelievable at this time. There are so many things that are going on with coronavirus. It's just too much." Just a block from where Floyd died, Smoke in the Pit was also open on Monday. "It's a workday," said the owner, 58-year-old Dwight Alexander. "I got to feed my family." Alexander has lived in the neighborhood for three decades. He has seen good, bad and everything in between. Now, he said, he feels a duty to help feed some of the hundreds of people gathering nearby each day to mourn Floyd and to push for national change. "If I don't open up, they won't eat," he said. "I got to feed my people." - - - The Washington Post's Sheila Regan and Jared Goyette in Minneapolis, and Ben Guarino, Lateshia Beachum, Kim Bellware, Marissa Iati, Abigail Hauslohner, Julie Tate and John Wagner in Washington contributed to this report. Tackling the guest workers issues and sending them back home has been a major challenge faced by various state governments during the coronavirus pandemic. Amid the battle against Covid 19, Kerala government could effectively respond to the Union governments call to send back guest workers to their native places. Since May 1, when the first Shramik special trains started its services, Kerala could send nearly one lakh guest workers. As per the State Labour Departments data, a total of 99,827 guest workers left for their home states from May 1 to May 30. A total of 76 special trains operated service to various states during the month. The highest number of labourers left for West Bengal (23,561) in the 19 special trains operated. A total of 13 trains conducted service to UP to transport 17,252 workers while 12 trains carried 15,608 labourers to Jharkhand. Hundreds of labourers from Rajasthan, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttharakhand, Manipur, Tripura, Meghalaya, Assam Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh returned to their native place in special trains. Only 47 labourers from Sikkim also went back though no train was operated to the state. When the national lockdown announced in March last week, the Labour Department instructed labour contractors to provide food, accommodation and other basic facilities to guest workers. The department has formed WhatsApp groups and call centres in districts to provide information to labourers in their native language and to redress their grievances. Only those workers who insist on returning home are being sent back. A big number of workers are continuing to stay back in the state citing better facilities including food and shelter. Though Kerala is estimated to have nearly three million guest workers, the state has not witnessed instances of labourers walking back their faraway native states without food or water. Here are todays top news, analysis and opinion. Know all about the latest news and other news updates from Hindustan Times. Indian Navy gears up for relief and rescue ops in Cyclone Nisarga aftermath In Mumbai, the Navy will be on standby with five Flood Rescue Teams and three Diving Teams throughout the monsoon season. These teams are stationed at various naval areas across the city to enable early response over a larger area. These teams are fully equipped and have been trained for rescue operations. Recce of known flood-prone areas has been undertaken and all necessary preparations are in place. Read more. Manu Sharma, who shot dead Jessica Lal in 1990, released from Delhi prison Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal allowed the release of Manu Sharma, convicted for the murder of model Jessica Lal in 1999. And after his approval, Sharma was released from Tihar Jail. Baijal had accepted the recommendation of the Sentence Review Board (SRB) which met last month. Read more. Covid-19 reaches Delhi L-G Anil Baijals office, 13 test positive At least 13 people have tested positive for Covid-19 at Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijals office in the national capital, Baijals office stated on Tuesday. According to reports, the first case came from the extended branch of the Lieutenant Governors office following which 13 people were found positive for coronavirus. Read more. Adesh Kumar Gupta appointed Delhi BJP chief, takes over from Manoj Tiwari The Delhi BJP got its new president in Adesh Kumar Gupta on Tuesday. He will take over from actor-turned-politician Manoj Tiwari. Other than Delhi, the BJP effected change in leadership in Chhattisgarh and Manipur party units too. Vishnu Deo Sai and S Tikendra Singh were named as state party presidents of Chhattisgarh and Manipur, respectively. Read more. Uninstalling Chinese apps will: Sonam Wangchuck on his viral video Education Reformist Sonam Wangchuck spoke about his boycott Chinese goods video that went viral. He said hes not happy because video got a lot of views but he is happy because the content of the video struck a chord with the people of the country. He said, People uninstalling Chinese apps will send a message to government of China. Watch the full video for more. Mumbai cop joins duty after beating Covid-19, receives heros welcome. Watch Welcome back, hero! is what Mumbai Police tweeted while sharing a video of one of their brave officials who returned back to duty after beating coronavirus. A member of the Kurla Police Station, the video shows the cop walking inside the office premise as his colleagues and other people cheerfully clap for him. They also shower flower petals to give him a heros welcome. Read more. Trend alert: Short, chic hair is in this season Short hair, dont care seems to be the new mantra for Bollywood actors, with the likes of Kriti Sanon, Alia Bhatt and Radhika Apte going in for chic, sassy looks amid the lockdown. Whats more, American actor Hilary Duff recently shared on Instagram her short, turquoise hair, while model Bella Hadids new quarantine look with DIY bangs gained immense popularity. Read more. If you have an event you'd like to list on the site, submit it now! Submit As protests continue throughout the country in the name of George Floyd, who died in police custody last week, Yorks protest Monday saw a flash of the violence. WHTM reported that protesters marched down George Street, which has not been cordoned off for the event. Witnesses told the station that a fight broke out between a woman driving down the street and a protester. The woman reportedly was dragged out of her car and then others swarmed in, producing what the station called a scuffle. The York Dispatch reported witnesses saw a woman with injuries to her face and her vehicle was damaged. A police spokesman told the station a woman had gone to the police department to file a report, but no other information was available. Both outlets reported that aside from the fight, the protests were peaceful. The Dispatch noted that things remained that way even as protesters gathered in an area that was supposed to be closed to them. Minimal police involvement was reported, and photos from WHTM show at least one officer kneeling with protesters. Read more on PennLive: Tehran, Iran: An Iranian scientist imprisoned in the US after being acquitted in a federal trade secrets case is on his way back to Iran after being freed, the country's foreign minister said Tuesday. Sirous Asgari was in the air on a flight back to Iran, Mohammad Javad Zarif said in an Instagram post. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Credit:AP "Congratulations to his wife and his esteemed family," Zarif wrote. There was no immediate word on Iranian state-run media about the flight. Kentucky congressman against mandates says he has COVID-19 As chaos spreads across cities in the United States, President Donald Trump has vowed to return order to American streets using the military if widespread violence does not stop. If a city or state refuses to take the actions necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, Mr Trump said in his Monday night address, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them. My fellow Americans My first and highest duty as President is to defend our great Country and the American People. I swore an oath to uphold the laws of our Nation and that is exactly what I will do pic.twitter.com/pvFxxi9BTR Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2, 2020 Demonstrations broke out across cities in the U.S. last week over the death of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, in police custody. Private autopsy says Mr Floyd died of suffocation after a white policeman pinned him to the ground for almost nine minutes. Since his death a week ago, protesters have run amok in some states, setting police vehicles and offices on fire, forcing their mayors to declare curfews. This is even as thousands of National Guard personnel are being deployed to states. There have also been reports of wide looting and vandalism. In some cities, authorities have used force and journalists have been attacked. Mr Trump described himself as your president of law and order, whose first and highest duty is to defend our great country and the American people. I swore an oath to uphold the laws of our nation and that is exactly what I will do. READ ALSO: He said he would use his entire presidential power and if need be, invoke a law last used in 1807 to ensure violent protests end, declaring he would deploy thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel and law enforcement officers to bring order. Nonetheless, he maintained that he is an ally of all peaceful protesters. But just outside the White House gates, CNN reported that peaceful protesters were dispersed by police using rubber bullets, tear gas and flash bangs. Several protesters were seen pouring water into their eyes to ease the gas sting. Later, Mr Trump walked across the park to St. Johns Episcopal Church, which was partially burnt in a Sunday evening protest, bible in hand, helicopter hovering in the sky, for a photo opportunity. His critics say he did this to douse the accusations of being holed up in the White House over the weekend. But Mr Trump said justice would be served for George Floyd, because himself, along with many other Americans, was rightly sickened and revolted by video showing the incident. In an update released by the medical examiner in Hennepin County, Minnesota, on Monday, George Floyds death was ruled as homicide, caused by the abrupt loss of heart function while being restrained by law enforcement officers. A private autopsy launched by Mr Floyds family also said he died from asphyxiation caused by sustained neck and back compression that led to a lack of blood flow to his brain. Apart from demanding justice for Mr Floyd and ending racism worldwide, protesters are calling for police reform in the United States, a security outfit that Economist newspaper said killed 1099 people in 2019. A black man is three times more likely to be killed than a white man, it said. Fox News' host Tucker Carlson went after senior White House adviser Jared Kushner Monday night, saying no one has 'more contempt' for President Donald Trump's supporters than his son-in-law. Carlson's attack was part of a nearly 30-minute monologue in which he criticized Trump's leadership on the protests that have broken out throughout the country in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a black man killed when a white cop knelt on his neck for eight minutes. It's unclear if the president saw Carlson's monologue but he is a frequent viewer of Fox News. Fox News' host Tucker Carlson went after senior White House adviser Jared Kushner Conservatives have been wary of Jared Kushner's credentials; he was a longtime Democratic supporter before President Trump ran for office 'No one has more contempt for Donald Trump's voters than Jared Kushner does and no one expresses it more frequently,' the Fox News host said, adding that Kushner, who is married to Ivanka Trump, has 'subverted' the president's winning instincts. Carlson said that Trump has signaled he wants to crack down on rioters, but 'every time he has been talked out of it by Jared Kushner and aides Kushner has hired and controls.' The Fox News host also attacked Kushner's work on criminal justice reform, claiming it has released more criminals onto the street. 'As crime in this country continues to rise, Jared Kushner led a highly aggressive effort to let more criminals out of prison and back onto the street. This is reckless,' he said, going on to add that the 'liberal' Kushner has 'convinced the president that throwing up the prisons is the key to winning African-American votes in the fall and that those votes are essential to his reelection As Carlson spoke, chyron on the screen read: 'KUSHNER IS LEADING TRUMP IN THE WRONG DIRECTION.' The White House did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment. Kushner's work on criminal justice reform won him bipartisan praise and is one of the few legislative accomplishments of the Trump administration. The reform - passed by Congress - was the biggest overhaul of prison and sentencing laws in years and it over turned policies that critics called racist, ineffective and costly. 'Jared is not a conservative he's never hidden who he is,' one Republican operative who is in regular contact with the White House told DailyMail.com. 'But it doesn't mean he's trying not to help conservative base.' The operative characterized Carlson's criticism as 'unfair' and argued it was a 'waste of time' for Kushner to respond. 'Jared doesn't win that exchange with Tucker. It elevates Tucker more. He was never a MAGA person. He has never been on board,' the person added. President Trump walked out of the White House Monday night for a photo-op at St. John's Church; Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump can be seen walking out of the gate behind him Tucker Carlson also criticized aides who work for Jared Kushner, which could be a reference to Hope Hicks, who rejoined the White House as part of Kushner's team President Trump declared himself the 'law and order president' in a tough speech to protesters President Trump walked across from White House to St. John's Church to hold up a bible for a photo op Kushner was a prominent Democratic supporter before his father-in-law entered Republican politics. Since then he has embraced his new affiliation although some conservatives have expressed concern about his credentials. He's also been working on a radical overhaul of the Republican Party platform, Axios reported, a story that sparked fear among right-wing Republicans. Kushner reportedly told party officials he wants to shrink the platform to a series of principles that would fit on a card that could go in a person's pocket. It's unclear what aides Carlson was referring to in his rant but one could have been Hope Hicks, the influential former White House communications director who returned to the White House to work for Kushner. The plan for President Trump to walk across Lafayette Park to pose with a bible in front of the historic St. Johns' Church was hatched by Hicks, The New York Times reported, noting she worked with others to have the president make the walk. Some White House advisers praised the move and argued the photo will become historic and iconic. But critics have called it a tone-deaf photo op. Law enforcement officials used rubber bullets, tear gas and officers on horse back to clear out protesters so Trump could leave the White House to walk to the historic church, known as the Church of Presidents as every president since James Madison has prayed there. In his monologue, Carlson also addressed President Trump directly, calling the protests 'the singular test of his presidency.' 'If you can't keep a Fox News correspondent from getting attacked directly across from your house, how can you protect my family? How are you going to protect the country? How hard are you trying?' Carlson said. Ruy Garcia Leverages Upmixing Software for Film Releases on Netflix And AppleTV NUGEN Halo Upmix Preserves the Character of the Original Audio for Wendy and Midsommar Without Adding any Artificial Reverb, Chorus or Delays Page 1 As one of the industrys most respected audio experts, award-winning re-recording mixer, sound editor and sound designer Ruy Garcia is passionate about using only the best audio equipment for his craft. When it came time to fine-tune the surround mixes for the Netflix release of Square Peg/B-Reels 2019 Midsommar and the world premiere of FOX Search Lights recent Wendy, Garcia selected NUGEN Audios Halo Upmix. Initially, both Midsommar and Wendy were 5.1 projects, but with the advent of streaming releases on the horizon, film execs requested Atmos-compliant mixes. Though Garcia did sound design, he didnt mix the original theatrical version of Midsommar. Instead, he was brought back on for its streaming debut. When Midsommar was seen in theaters, it was a beautiful, sonically complex, 5.1-format movie, he says. After the film was sold to Apple TV, A24 and supervising sound editor, Gene Park, hired me to mix the Atmos version. With Wendy, Garcia served as sound designer, supervising sound editor and effects mixer. We originally mixed in 5.1 and then, thanks to a Dolby Fellowship grant, had the opportunity to finish our mix in Atmos before it premiered in theaters. Recognizing the complexity that might have previously gone into upmixing these projects, Garcia explains, In todays mixing environment, sound designers often have to make their projects simultaneously compatible with Atmos, 5.1, and stereo. Its important to have tools that work well with the artistic side in conjunction with all these technical requirements. In the past, I never really liked using upmixers I always preferred panning things manually. But, in the case of both Midsommar and Wendy, using the exact mode from NUGENs Halo Upmix provided us with quick transparent Atmos capability, along with the stereo mix compatibility, which was very important. From naturally extracted and expanded soundscapes to full cinematic big-stage enhancement, Halo Upmix delivers all the control needed to fine-tune surround mixes. Halo Upmix is not only fully immersive, but its visual tools and sonics stand out from all the other upmixers on the market, continues Garcia. NUGENs Halo Upmix is incredibly useful for simultaneously delivering projects in both stereo and Atmos, and it has given us the option of making a really immersive sound field. For example, with Midsommar, there are scenes where the camera is tilting and rolling around. We literally took an entire piece of stereo score and made it flow all around us with the simple move of a fader. That was incredibly natural, and you could really feel it in the room. Although Midsommar was Garcias first time using NUGENs Halo Upmix, hes no stranger to the brand. We use the companys ISL limiter and VisLM meter to comply with Netflix, HBO or Apples loudness requirements, he adds. When we were creating the theatrical mix for We the Animals, the soundtrack ran the entire spectrum of loudness. Overall, its a very quiet film, but it is also very dynamic, and we didnt want to lose that quality to hit a required delivery level. In order to make it work for TV, we had to limit that spectrum to hit specific targets while still aiming to retain the overall emotional feel. In the case of Midsommar, we set up a recorder system for running VisLM meters after the Dolby DMU, this allowed us to check that the 7.1, 5.1 and stereo versions would also work for Apples specifications. By doing so, we still had the full Atmos format options and could confidently push the loudness levels, which was really useful. For Garcia, NUGEN provides a vast array of other benefits. I really like NUGENs Halo Upmix software because, when Im mixing, I prefer not to leave one setting for the entire movie; I'm moving it all the time, he says. The plug-in allows me to have more in the center or in the ceiling, when working between sequences. They are really creative tools, not just converters. The graphics are also very informative, especially the meters, which provide visual cues for what we have to adjust. I also really like the Halo Upmix exact control mode, which affords me the confidence of knowing that the original source integrity is precisely preserved. No matter what Im working on, NUGEN is part of my template. Owing to his artistic style, Garcia says he is typically drawn to smaller, independent-style films. Many of his projects have also turned into blockbuster hits like Wendy and his previous work on Roma. I usually work on movies that have more of an emotional content; and my main expertise is sound designcreating new and interesting soundscapes, trying to create an entire soundtrack for a film, he says. These independent films are mixed in just a few weeks. And, on top of trying to provide a theatrical level mix under that time constraint, theres usually the requirement of making them Atmos, Stereo, and 5.1 compatible. In addition to his recent projects, Garcias credits include the hit movie Y Tu Mama Tambien and the popular HBO series Boardwalk Empire and The Night Of, for which he won prime-time Emmy Awards in 2013 and 2017. It is these types of series that have made him well-equipped to efficiently budget his time. TV (or streaming) shows are especially challenging to produce, he adds. You have very little time, with tight schedules. During the five years I was with Boardwalk Empire, we literally had five days to turn hours worth of material into one-hour of film-quality material content. You really have to learn whats more important, prioritize your tasks and make it work quickly without sacrificing quality. Having software that lets you put everything into one single session has proven incredibly helpful over the years. Interestingly, Garcias workflow lends itself incredibly well to the at-home production format that everyone is experiencing the world over. I have a personal mix studio in New York City and another one upstate, he explains. Both rooms are perfectly tuned for mixing and editing work, which has been helpful in the current environment of our industry. Page 1 An autopsy found Monday that an African-American man whose death has set off nationwide unrest was suffocated by a police officer, contradicting a preliminary ruling, as cities including New York imposed or toughened curfews in expectation of fresh fury. Violence has erupted for three straight nights outside the White House, where a holed-up Donald Trump has brushed aside the traditional unifying role of a president, and one person was shot dead in Louisville, Kentucky, whose mayor fired the police chief. One week after George Floyd died in Minneapolis, an autopsy blamed his videotaped death squarely on a white police officer who pinned him down with his knee for nearly nine minutes as Floyd pleaded, "I can't breathe!" "The evidence is consistent with mechanical asphyxia as the cause of death, and homicide as the manner of death," Aleccia Wilson, a University of Michigan expert who examined his body at the family's request, told a news conference. An initial finding cited in a criminal complaint pointed to pre-existing conditions, outraging the family. Shortly after the independent report, Hennepin County's medical examiner released its official autopsy that called his death a homicide caused by "neck compression," although it also said he was intoxicated and pointed to heart disease. A memorial for Floyd will take place on Thursday in Minneapolis before a service in North Carolina and a funeral on June 9 in Houston, where he grew up, family lawyer Ben Crump said. - Week of memorials - Floyd, 46, had been accused of trying to buy cigarettes with a counterfeit bill and his aggressive arrest was caught on a cellphone camera. The autopsy revived demands for the arrest of three other police officers who stood guard for Chauvin as Floyd pleaded for his life. "We are tired of this happening. This generation is not having it. We are tired of oppression," said Muna Abdi, a 31-year-old African-American woman at a peaceful demonstration at the Minnesota capitol in St. Paul. Pointing to her three-year-old son, she said: "I want to make sure he stays alive." Officer Derek Chauvin, who had remained in the police force despite persistent complaints about his behavior, had been due to appear in court on Monday but the judiciary said the initial hearing had been postponed to June 8. The delay outraged many activists, although Minnesota has made clear that it seeks to punish Chauvin and has tasked the prosecution personally with the state's attorney general, Keith Ellison, a prominent former US congressman. - Curfew in New York, death in Louisville - New York, the famed "City that Never Sleeps," became the latest city to impose a nighttime curfew after consecutive nights of tension that included looting and the trashing of parked cars. In the upscale SoHo district, Elliot Kurland, owner of the Leica photography store, said his entire shop was emptied by looters including clients' property. He estimated his loss at $1 million. "I hope I have insurance," he said. "My brother heard about it. He called me. I had been about to come here at three o'clock in the morning. My brother warned me, 'Don't go down. You'll get killed.'" New York, like other cities, had just been emerging from weeks under lockdown from the coronavirus pandemic. Kurland said he was still paying employees who were not reporting to work. More than 40 cities have imposed curfews. Washington's mayor, Muriel Browser, said a curfew will start Monday at an unusually early 7.00 pm in hopes of preventing a repeat of the destruction in the US capital -- which included a fire at St. John's, the two-century-old "church of the presidents" across from the White House. Apple, along with several other major retailers, temporarily closed most US stores, and California shut government offices in crowded areas as a precaution. It was the most widespread unrest in the United States since 1968, when cities went up in flames over the slaying of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., and rekindled memories of 1992 riots in Los Angeles after police were acquitted in the brutal beating of black motorist Rodney King. But unlike in Los Angeles, the latest unrest has primarily targeted property, although both protesters and police have reported non-life-threatening injuries. One person was killed, however, in Kentucky's largest city Louisville. Police chief Steve Conrad said officers and the National Guard "returned fire" just after midnight after being shot at as they dispersed a crowd in a parking lot. The dead man was David McAtee, the owner of a popular barbecue business, according to the Louisville Courier Journal, which quoted his nephew. Louisville, the home of Muhammad Ali and Kentucky Fried Chicken, has seen especially passionate protests due to the police killing in March of an African American woman, Breonna Taylor, in her own apartment. The 26-year-old emergency room technician was shot dead after police barged into her home, alleging that drug dealers had used the apartment to receive packages. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said Monday he had fired the police chief, Steve Conrad, because officers did not record body-camera of the episode. - Trump combative - While presidents traditionally seek to bridge national divides during tumult, Trump was again holed up at the White House tweeting attacks on his political rivals and the media. In a conference call with governors that was quickly leaked to several media outlets, Trump told state leaders to "dominate" and said they were "going to look like a bunch of jerks" if they are too soft. The governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, is heard reprimanding Trump directly, saying he was "extraordinarily concerned" by the president's "inflammatory" rhetoric. Trump has blamed the violence on Antifa, the loosely organized collective of far-left activists who advocate aggressive action to stop what they see as the rise of fascism and white supremacists. Joe Biden, Trump's likely Democratic opponent in November elections, met Monday with black leaders at a church in his home of Wilmington, Delaware and promised to form a police oversight commission in his first 100 days as president. "Hate just hides. Doesn't go away. And when you have somebody in power who breathes oxygen into the hate under the rocks, it comes out from under the rocks," Biden said. burs-sct/ft Protesters jump on a street sign near a burning barricade during a demonstration against the death of George Floyd near the White House on May 31, 2020 Graffiti left by demonstrators protesting the death of George Floyd is seen at Lafayette Square near the White House A demonstrator lies on the highway in front of the police line during a protest over the death of George Floyd on May 31, 2020 in Minneapolis A man rides his bike carrying a religious poster as people armed with gloves and brooms get together to clean the Melrose neighborhood of Los Angeles A destroyed New York police car is seen after a night of protests over the death of African-American man George Floyd A protestor holding a Black Lives Matter / Dump Trump sign stands in front of a Florida state trooper line during a rally in Miami WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. and CHICAGO, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Farmer sentiment improved slightly in May after falling sharply in both March and April, according to the Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer. The index was up 7 points from April to a reading of 103, but it remained nearly 40 percent below its all-time high of 168 set in February 2020. The Ag Economy Barometer is based on responses from 400 U.S. agricultural producers and this month's survey was conducted between May 18-22. The Index of Current Conditions improved in May, up 11 points from April to a reading of 83, as did the Index of Future Expectations, up 4 points to a reading of 112. In May, farmers were also somewhat more inclined to think now is a good time to make large investments in their farming operations. The Farm Capital Investment Index rose to a reading of 50 compared to just 38 a month earlier. While collectively all three of these indices improved in May, each was down more than 30 percent compared to February 2020, before coronavirus impacted markets. "This month's survey was conducted the same week that USDA announced the details of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) so awareness of that program's details could be one of the key reasons for this month's barometer improvement," said James Mintert, the barometer's principal investigator and director of Purdue University's Center for Commercial Agriculture. "Yet some farmers remain worried about their bottom line and are still looking for options to alleviate those concerns." In the May survey, more than 70 percent of respondents indicated they were "very worried" (34 percent) or "fairly worried" (37 percent) about the impact of coronavirus on their farm's profitability, up from 67 percent in April. Their two biggest concerns were market access (42 percent) and financial (39 percent), with health and safety (11 percent) coming in third. Providing further evidence of their financial concerns, two-thirds of farmers surveyed indicated they think it will be necessary for Congress to pass another bill to provide more economic assistance to U.S. farmers. When asked about expectations for their financial position over the next 12 months, over 60 percent said they expect farmers' equity positions to decline over the next year, up sharply compared to 28 percent of farmers who felt that way in February 2020. Meanwhile, over 25 percent of farmers surveyed who rent farmland said they expect to ask their landlords to lower their cash rental payments in 2021 as a result of COVID-19. Mintert suggested this could lead to downward pressure on cash rental rates next year. Read the full Ag Economy Barometer report at https://purdue.ag/agbarometer. This month's report includes insight into producers concerns over the ethanol demand and expectations for farmland values. The site also offers additional resources such as past reports, charts and survey methodology and a form to sign up for monthly barometer email updates and webinars. Each month, the Purdue Center for Commercial Agricultural provides a short video analysis of the barometer results, available at https://purdue.ag/barometervideo. The Ag Economy Barometer, Index of Current Conditions and Index of Future Expectations are available on the Bloomberg Terminal under the following ticker symbols: AGECBARO, AGECCURC and AGECFTEX. About the Purdue University Center for Commercial Agriculture The Center for Commercial Agriculture was founded in 2011 to provide professional development and educational programs for farmers. Housed within Purdue University's Department of Agricultural Economics, the center's faculty and staff develop and execute research and educational programs that address the different needs of managing in today's business environment. About CME Group As the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural products and metals. The company offers futures and options on futures trading through the CME Globex platform, fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on the EBS platform. In addition, it operates one of the world's leading central counterparty clearing providers, CME Clearing. With a range of pre- and post-trade products and services underpinning the entire lifecycle of a trade, CME Group also offers optimization and reconciliation services through TriOptima, and trade processing services through Traiana. CME Group, the Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Globex, and E-mini are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc. NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. BrokerTec, EBS, TriOptima, and Traiana are trademarks of BrokerTec Europe LTD, EBS Group LTD, TriOptima AB, and Traiana, Inc., respectively. Dow Jones, Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and S&P are service and/or trademarks of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC, Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and S&P/Dow Jones Indices LLC, as the case may be, and have been licensed for use by Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Writer: Kami Goodwin, 765-494-6999, [email protected] Source: James Mintert, 765-494-7004, [email protected] Related websites: Purdue University Center for Commercial Agriculture: http://purdue.edu/commercialag CME Group: http://www.cmegroup.com/ Photo Caption: XXX. (Purdue/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer/James Mintert) A publication-quality photo is available at https://news.uns.purdue.edu/images/2020/may-barometer.jpg. CME-G SOURCE CME Group Related Links http://www.cmegroup.com Derek Chauvin, ex-Minneapolis officer recorded kneeling on George Floyds neck, is charged with murder Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer who was recorded kneeling into the neck of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man who died in police custody on Monday, has been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said Friday. Three other officers who were involved in the incident, which has sparked protests and riots nationwide, have not yet been charged. Freeman said at a news conference that his team thought it was appropriate to build a case against the most dangerous perpetrator first, as the investigation continues, and he believes there's enough evidence to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt against Chauvin. The investigation is ongoing; we felt it appropriate to focus on the most dangerous perpetrator. I must say that this case has moved with extraordinary speed. This conduct is criminal action, took place on Monday evening May 25th, Memorial Day. Im speaking to you at 1 oclock on Friday, May 29th. Thats less than four days. Thats extraordinary, Freeman told reporters. We have never charged a case in that kind of time frame. And we can only charge a case when we have sufficient admissible evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. As of right now, we have that, he said. Freeman further noted that there could be subsequent charges later. Chauvin, who was taken into custody by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension on Friday, was caught on video along with three other officers arresting Floyd. In the approximately 10-minute video, a handcuffed Floyd is shown lying face down begging for his life and crying for his mother while Chauvin kneels into his neck. Chauvin kneels into Floyds neck until he begins to bleed from his nose and becomes unresponsive. Even after Floyd becomes motionless on the ground, Chauvin is shown pressing his knee into his neck for several more minutes as bystanders begged him to have mercy. The announcement of Chauvins arrest was made shortly after Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota called for order in the streets of Minneapolis after an explosive night of protests in the streets of Minneapolis which saw the torching of a police station. Walz said he supported protesters who wanted to lift up the voices of those who are expressing rage and anger and those who are demanding justice, but not those who throw firebombs. I refuse to have it take away the attention from the stain that we need to be working on, he said. These are things that have been brewing in this country for 400 years. Chauvin had 18 previous complaints filed against him with the Minneapolis Police Department's Internal Affairs, according to NBC News affiliate WXII. Only two were "closed with discipline," the department said. NASHVILLE While the Democratic Party is working to decide whether it will even have an in-person convention, Republicans are looking at changing the location of theirs to ensure a splashy event. President Donald Trump weighed Tuesday evening in a series of tweets, where he said Republicans were looking for a new state for their convention and criticized North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper for refusing "to guarantee that we can have use of the Spectrum Arena - Spend millions of dollars, have everybody arrive, and....then tell them they will not be able to gain entry." "Governor Cooper is still in Shelter-In-Place Mode, and not allowing us to occupy the arena as originally anticipated and promised," Trump wrote in a series of tweets. "Would have showcased beautiful North Carolina to the World, and brought in hundreds of...millions of dollars, and jobs, for the State. Because of @NC_Governor, we are now forced to seek another State to host the 2020 Republican National Convention." ...millions of dollars, and jobs, for the State. Because of @NC_Governor, we are now forced to seek another State to host the 2020 Republican National Convention. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 3, 2020 The Republican National Convention is scheduled for August in Charlotte. But Republicans are in standoff with Cooper, a Democrat, who wants the party to demonstrate it can safely hold the convention amid the pandemic. Tuesday's news that the Republican Party is eyeing Nashville as a possible new location to host this summer's Republican National Convention also highlighted a growing schism between the two parties and how they are approaching the election in the face of a pandemic. Republicans, led by President Donald Trump, largely have called for weeks for states to re-open after weeks of stay-at-home orders and other measures closed businesses and schools, cancelled events, and ground the economy to a halt. Story continues On the other side, Democrats have generally urged caution, noting the lack of a vaccine and urging Congress to appropriate more money for testing. In a recent survey, 94% of Democrats said they were concerned about the coronavirus in the United States compared with 76% of Republicans. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump waves before he speaks at an event for the National Federation of Republican Assemblies at Rocketown in Nashville Aug. 29, 2015. The Republican Party has maintained that it's going to continue with a full-scale convention, which will probably have about 50,000 people in attendance. Both Democrats and Republicans will host their conventions in August, while much of the country is still transitioning back to public life from the coronavirus pandemic. The President and (Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel) have been clear on our intent to hold our convention in Charlotte," RNC spokesperson Mike Reed told Politico. "We are awaiting confirmation from the governor that the originally contracted convention can still be held at the Spectrum Center." McDaniel said last month during an interview with The 19th News that under the party's bylaws, "we have no option except to do an in-person convention." "We're planning full steam ahead because it's much harder to put a whole convention together with 50,000 people, then to scale it back," McDaniel said. Politico first reported the RNC's interest in Nashville. Nashville is the best place in America to have a convention, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said Tuesday, noting his office has just begun those conversations.Republican officials are expected to tour the city Thursday. Democratic National Convention Committee CEO Joe Solmonese slammed the Republicans' move. "While the Trump Administration is ignoring the public health landscape, presuming things will miraculously improve in under three months, and moving forward with plans for a massive in-person convention Democrats are acknowledging the severity of this pandemic that's already killed over 100,000 Americans and taking proactive steps in coordination with our elected officials to prevent more people from getting sick," he said in a statement. The Democratic Party has been open to hosting a heavily virtual gathering in August. It has been exploring a range of scenarios that could include a partly, mostly or fully virtual gathering. Some Democrats expect there could be a hybrid event where some speakers will appear live in Milwaukee, along with some but not all delegates in attendance. Some Republicans praised the possibility of the convention coming to Music City including U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. In addition to Nashville, Republicans are looking at Las Vegas; Orlando and Jacksonville, Fla.; and a location in Georgia, according to Politico. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Republican convention: Trump says GOP 'forced to seek another state' A Texas high school principal traveled 1,500 miles in 10 days to personally congratulate his 240 seniors at their home, according to a recently published article. Traditional Graduation Ceremony Many students today cannot celebrate the traditional high school graduation rites due to the global pandemic. Social or mass gatherings are still not allowed to avoid virus contagion that infected millions of people around the globe. The graduation ceremony is a symbol of students' years of hard work and perseverance. This is traditionally celebrated in public with families and friends. However, global pandemic changes how it is celebrated. However, the pandemic did not stop a high school principal from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Texas to deprive his students with their graduation due to COVID-19. A Texas High School Principal Personally Handed Diplomas Scott Rudes, the school principal, traveled 1,500 miles in 10 days and covering 65 hours just to personally hand out the diplomas to his 240 students. Videos and images of his selfless love to his students even became viral in different social media account. In a recently published article, he said: "One of our core values at our school is to ignite joy. And that is what I saw on the faces of my seniors and their families. Just a few minutes of joy in the midst of all this uncertainty." He also added: "I think it started with the fact that I am the father of a senior and I feel it. I feel the anguish and the sadness over missing out on a lot of activities at the end of the year. So this was my opportunity to connect with each and every one of them." A Tough Task for the School Principal Was Made Easy Because of His Love It is very rare in these tough times where a school principal travel long roads in days just to personally give the diplomas that show the perseverance and hard work of students. It is also very rare to see a school principal showing his selfless love. Traveling more than 1,500 miles using his own vehicle is not a joke. It entails not just expenses for his travel but also includes putting himself at risk for the virus infection. But, Rudes proved that COVID-19 will not stop his love for his students. He also said: "Whatever presents in life, find the opportunity with that and run with it. That's one of the things I think we do best at a school like ours with artists, to teach them to view the world from multiple perspectives and to be creative and expressive. I think that's what gets them through the hard times." It is a common knowledge to everyone that teachers are the second parents of students. A teacher's love is not only inclusive inside the school but most of the time has to go out. Before the global pandemic hits the world, teachers usually visit students' houses to better know them. There are many things everyone should understand about the students. They may look happy outside but may be filled with sadness inside. The Texas high school principal manifested teachers and administrators must do in this time of the pandemic. This is one of the good things that happened during this pandemic. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 04:38:30|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close JERUSALEM, June 1 (Xinhua) --- The Israeli tourism industry will receive government aid of 300 million new shekels (about 85.8 million U.S. dollars) to deal with the coronavirus crisis, the state's Ministries of Finance and Tourism said Monday. Israel's Minister of Finance Israel Katz and Minister of Tourism Asaf Zamir met on Monday with hoteliers' representatives to discuss the difficulties the Israeli tourism has experienced due to the halt in inbound tourism since early March. According to the ministries, hotels are experiencing additional operational difficulties, beyond the general difficulties that all economy sectors suffered since the pandemic outbreak, because about half of hotels' guests are usually tourists. Thus, the two ministers agreed on assisting hotels operations, as foreign tourism is not expected to resume in the coming months, and to take other necessary actions to help tourism industry. According to Katz, "Tourism is an integral part of the Israeli economy and is of great importance. The aid is another step in restoring the Israeli economy to routine and growth." Zamir added that "tourism is in a serious crisis, and it is our job to act as quickly as possible to get it back on track and assist its rehabilitation." Enditem Stephen Foote | Newshub UFC superstar Israel Adesanya has loaned his impassioned voice to the Black Lives Matter cause. On Monday, the outspoken Nigerian-born Kiwi - whose family moved to New Zealand when he was young- was front and centre at a rally outside the US Consulate in Auckland, where he addressed the thousands in attendance to deliver an emotional plea. The death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis last week has sparked protest and rioting across the United States, and an emotional Adesanya took the opportunity to make his own emphatic statement on the matter. "I'm sick and tired of seeing those faces get killed because, guess what, I see myself in them," Adesanya said. "It's heartbreaking, man. I'm pissed off." The 30-year-old elaborated on his own experiences of being racially stereotyped and described the way people of African descent are almost subconsciously forced to appease others' prejudice. "How many of you walk into a store and have to put your hands behind your back just so they dont think you're stealing?" he asked. "How many of you walk down the street and have to kind of smile and try to make you see the person who already is scared of you, you make them feel comfortable?" He revealed a recent anecdote relating to a move to a new apartment building to illustrate that very point. "I'm at the top. I go in the elevator, three times already I've had to have racist, sacred white people jump when they see me, so I smile at them. So, now I've got to go to the side and let them walk through just so they don't get scared when they see me. "Why? Because Im black. Just because Im black. What did I do? I didnt have a choice. If I had a choice, I'd still be black." The undefeated UFC middleweight world champion also recognised the importance of non-black people's support in the plight to raise awareness of the widespread unfair treatment of people of colour. "We've been talking for so long, we've been marching for so long, but it's not about us now," Adesanya said. "Shoutout to all the white people, all the people of different races being here, because we need you. We need you to speak up. We need you to say something." Adesanya has spoken previously of being victimized by bullies upon his arrival in New Zealand. "They've seen me now," he told Newshub. "I keep some of them on my Facebook, so they can see how I'm shining. "In my head, I look at my bullies. I still see them as bigger than me, but when I go back to Rotorua I'm like, 'I was scared of you'?" Newshub. The European Unions Ground Handling Directive 96/97 covers the provision of eleven categories of service at airports that have more than 50,000 movements a year. This includes services such as onwards transport, baggage handling, refueling, catering and cleaning. The directive was created 24 years ago with the intention of liberalizing the ground handling services market in Europe. According the European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) the size of the liberalized market for ground handling services in Europe has increased from around 7% to 45% during that time. ') } else { console.log ('nompuad'); document.write(' ') } // --> ') } else if (width >= 425) { console.log ('largescreen'); document.write('') } else { console.log ('nompuad'); document.write('') } // --> However, the business and general aviation sector is calling for amendments to the original Directive 96/97 for operational reasons and to achieve further market liberalization. Most believe that increased liberalization of ground handling services in Europe would boost jobs, investment and enhance competition. Competition conundrum Europes member state countries are free to interpret and implement Directives issued by the European Commission (EC) in whichever way they see fit. One of the strongest criticisms of the Ground Handling Directive 96/97 is that it is not uniformly applied across the EU. Riga International Airport provides a case to illustrate what can happen when liberalization is not pursued sufficiently in the ground handling market. There are two licenses for ground handling services at Riga. One is for the airport, the second was opened up for tender. Aija Veisa is director of FBO Riga, which opened at Riga International Airport in 2015. Speaking at the EBAAs Air Ops conference in Brussels earlier this year she said, We were formally refused from the competition and are now forced to buy services from one of the two ground handlers. We have to train the ground handling staff to handle the business jets and they use a towing tractor that belongs to us. But we have to stand around and wait for them to move an aircraft 30m into a hangar. We have our own terminal, heated hangar and parking spaces that are not connected to the infrastructure of the main airport. But its not easy to enable a high level of service when you are dependent on just two handlers. Juergen Wiese, director of aviation for BMW and former chairman of the EBAA said that the application of the Directive is not standardized across member states. At Munich we have five handling agents for business aviation. But at Riga you cannot even have one because of the way the directive has been implemented. We have to prioritize safety when revising the Directive, but the Commission should also ensure that it has a standardized implementation throughout member countries. Andreas Becker, founder and CEO of the German Aviation Service agrees. He says, The main problem with the Directive is that it has been designed for commercial airlines. It was not designed to regulate anything regarding business aircraft. We work at 10 different airports and we see different applications of the Directive. At some we have total freedom to carry out all the services we want to and at some we are limited to essential services like passenger transport. We see that the airports that have their own interests involved restrict us more. The Directive should also regulate access to airport infrastructure. At some privatized German airports we have run into problems where there is not a fair distribution of facilities that we need access to deliver our services. Gradual change The calls for changes to the Ground Handling Directive are not new. In 2011 there was an attempt to make amendments, but the revision was abandoned because there was a lack of agreement on the changes from within the aviation industry. Pekka Hietanen is policy officer in the director general for mobility and transport at the EC. He says that the EUs Directorate-General started looking again at revising Directive 96/97 in September 2019. The Directive has worked pretty well, but there are problems with how some member states are applying it, he says. Member states can limit it to two providers and there is nothing the EC can do at the moment. Were currently evaluating a proposal for changes. An impact assessment on policy options takes about a year and a half. A public consultation about the Ground Handling Directive has recently been conducted and the EC intends to publish an evaluation document in Jan 2021. From there the work starts to revise the Directive. I cant promise a new Directive. All I can say is the EC has already had to withdraw one proposal and I know it doesnt want to do it again, says Hietanen. Specialization According to Terry Yeomans, programme director at IS-BAH, regulators often conflate ground handling for business aviation with ground handling for airlines. But business aviation involves more complex operations, with multiple types of aircraft. Yeomans says, In the past, the worst scenario when planning a flight was that you would be handled by an airline handling company. You knew it was going to be a problem. I want my aircraft to be looked after by a company that specializes in that aircraft. Yeomans believes changes to the Directive should aim to prevent large organizations from dominating the market, with new licenses that apply to anyone who provides services airside. One size will not fit all, he says. But we also need to push with the commission that we have to go to the smaller airfields. If you go to those and find you are restricted because of regulation, that seems counter-productive. If we cant get access to safe ground handling services in those second-tier airports, local economies and businesses will suffer. Veisa agrees that safety is paramount in ground handling operations. She says, There has to be more oversight of the safety of flight handling. When we are training the staff of two handlers, we notice positions change a lot. We have to train them all year round. And we dont know the quality of services we can supply to our customers. Guaranteeing safety is very hard. If we could change the directive it would solve this. Safety changes The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has taken on the management of safety standards in ground handling in Europe. The EASA Basic Regulation (EU) 2018/1139 was amended in 2018 to cover several new areas, including ground handling. This has extended the Agencys mandate to regulate ground operations and has triggered a series of rule-making activities to develop a set of regulations for ground handling operations. EASAs new regulations will not apply to airports that handle less than 10,000 passengers a year. The Agency is devising the rules over the coming months and plans to publish a draft set by October this year. This will be followed by a consultation workshop in November. The result of the consultation will be published by the end of 2021. Adina Szonyi, regulations assistant of air operations, EASA says, Instead of having lots of different types of safety regulation there will be only a single piece of regulation. The benefits include that training requirements can be standardized. Self-handling aircraft operators will be able to integrate ground handling into their management system. The European business aviation sector has reacted broadly positively to EASAs involvement in ground handling. However, industry standards for safety in handling service already exist in the shape of IS-BAH (International Standard for Business Aviation Handling). Marc Pieters, director of quality, EHS (environment health and safety) and aviation security in Europe for Jet Aviation says that competent authorities have already inspected Jet Aviations safety management systems, which are done to IS-BAH standards and were impressed. Pieters says, From an operations point of view, we already have standards and we expect that these will be recognized by EASA. We already work to IS-BAH industry standards and these should already meet the EASA standards. Szonyi says, We are committed to analyzing and promoting the use of existing industry standards. We dont want to duplicate what already exists and change what already works well. The intention is to add to them or enable the use of the standards that already exist in the industry. Multiple locations A major question that EASAs Basic Regulation is yet to resolve exists around business aviation companies which have multiple locations. The concern is that GHSPs (ground handling service partners) may have to declare their capability to discharge their tasks and submit a declaration to the aviation authority of each different country in which they operate. The administration of this will be onerous. A proposed solution is for GHSPs to submit only in the country which hosts their principal place of business. Szonyi says, We will try to create a system where the submittal goes as smoothly as possible. That there is a single repository of declaration, where it is submitted once and then it is distributed to all member states. But the declarations for different aerodromes may be different. Another possibility is for EASA to take over responsibility of being the competent authority if there is more than one member state involved. But the member states have to agree that EASA becomes the competent authority. ICAO regulations While EASAs regulations cover Europe, there has been work on developing standards for ground handling at an international level by the International Civil Aviation Organization. ICAO Document 10121 was released at the end of November 2019. It lists industry standards that are currently applicable as guidance for states, including IS-BAH for business aviation. Terry Yeomans, IS-BAH program director, has been involved in the development of standards at ICAO and sits on the panel of experts consulting with EASA about ground handling safety. He says there is a strong desire for the standards to be the same at regional and international levels. He says, We spent four years drafting the document for ground handling regulations and we dont want EASA to have to reinvent the wheel. They are considering the existing work and building on it to account for regional differences. According to Yeomans, the ICAO and the EASA definitions of what is classed as ground handling service provider is expanding, from more than FBOs to include caterers and flight dispatch. This means people may find the standards apply to them who do not expect them to. International trip support providers may fall into this category. I would urge people to engage with their national authority, find out what they are looking for regarding this upcoming regulation and see if they will accept the current industry standards or something else from you, Yeomans says. These changes are not a case of may or may not happen. It is going to happen even if EASA dont do it, we are already working on the ICAO regulations on an international level. There will be oversight of ground handling in the next few years he adds. A seamstress is suing Bunnings for $317,000 claiming a boom gate fell on her head. Gold Coast woman Angela Julienne Kraay says she has become anxious, reclusive and unable to sew quickly since suffering a traumatic brain injury at the Oxenford store on August 21, 2015. She lodged a claim against the hardware giant in the Southport District Court last month. It is alleged she was walking through the timber yard when a boom-gate 'suddenly lowered and a sharp metal sign' struck her on the front left side of her forehead. Angela Julienne Kraay (pictured before the alleged incident) claims she has become anxious, reclusive and unable to sew quickly after allegedly being hit in the head by a boom-gate at a Bunnings store in August, 2015 Ms Kraay claims she was walking through the timber yard when a boom-gate 'suddenly lowered and a sharp metal sign' struck her on the front left side of her forehead The Upper Coomera resident claims the incident left her with a mild traumatic brain injury which impairs her memory and cognitive ability. She says this has slowed down her ability to perform normal tasks. 'I used to love the outdoors, I ran a business as a seamstress and I spent as much time as possible with family and friends,' she told Daily Mail Australia in a written statement. 'Now I'm a recluse and prefer to stay home because I'm so anxious and have lost so much confidence, both professionally and personally.' 'I still live with terrible discomfort and its also been hard for my partner who has been supporting me since the accident. 'No amount of money can undo what has happened to me but I want Bunnings to make changes to protect the safety of other people.' In court documents, it is alleged the incident has also impacted her business as she cannot sew as quickly, and has either had to turn down jobs or takes longer to complete them. Ms Kraay claims the injury left her with a mild traumatic brain injury which impairs her memory and cognitive ability It is alleged she also needs more help from her partner to complete household chores. Shine Lawyers senior solicitor Daniel Hemmings said the incident could have been prevented if Bunnings had 'taken reasonable steps' to protect customers. 'We believe this wouldnt have happened if Bunnings had clear signage guiding pedestrians away from the vehicle exit and toward a designated walkway,' he said. 'We also allege there were no flashing lights or sounds installed to warn customers when a boom gate was about to close. 'This litany of failures resulted in our client being struck in the head with a sharp sign attached to the boom gate and the consequences for her have been serious.' Ms Kraay claims the injury could have been easily avoided if Bunnings had not failed to provide a marked walkway, prevented pedestrian access or removed the sharp metal sign, the court documents state. Bunnings regional operations manager Margaret Walford said: 'The safety of our team members, customers and the community is our number one priority and we are careful to ensure our stores and yards are safe. She said Ms Kraay's claim will be reviewed and decided by the court. A Canadian media lobby group is calling on the government to make social media giants Facebook and Google pay for the Canadian news content they share on their sites, saying the COVID-19 pandemic has made the plight of our media industry more acute. Daniel Bernhard, executive director of Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, spoke to the finance committee Tuesday about the organizations new WANTED campaign, urging the government to make advertising middlemen such as Facebook and Google pay for the news content they aggregate so Canadian news organizations get a share of the advertising revenue. Facebook declined to comment on the campaign. Google did not respond to a request for comment. In an email, a Facebook spokesperson said the company has provided funding to multiple Canadian news organizations. Canadian journalism is in a death spiral, and COVID-19 has only accelerated that spiral, said Bernhard. Advertising revenue has dropped and numerous local newspapers have shuttered for good, even as Canadians want and need news more than ever, he said. Its middlemen like Facebook and Google that are getting the vast majority of the money, even though they dont employ a single journalist. Bernhard wants Canada to follow in the footsteps of France and Australia, which in recent months instated rules that would make media giants including Facebook and Google pay news sites for content. In April, Australias competition bureau announced it would force Facebook and Google to share advertising revenue with Australian news agencies, after negotiations between the two parties broke down. Earlier the same month, Frances competition bureau ordered Google to work out a repayment agreement with French news agencies and publishers for using pieces of their content for free on its site. Media experts in Canada said at the time of the decisions that these changes are indicative of a momentum building in the international media landscape, but that similar changes in Canada are not on the horizon. At that time, a spokesperson for Canadas competition bureau said Canadas Competition Act doesnt provide the authority to create a code similar to Australias, and that the authority regarding legislative policy belongs to the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development. On May 2, a group of publishers representing a majority of Canadian newspapers sent an open letter to the federal government urging it to make the digital giants share their advertising revenues with Canadian media companies. (The letter does not specifically address the Competition Act.) The letter pointed to Australia as an example of a way forward, and said COVID-19 has made the situation more dire Australia fast-tracked the completion of its measures for that very reason. We need to treat this as a real, true emergency, said Bernhard. Its time for Ottawa to take back control, and to reassert Canadian sovereignty over these Silicon Valley companies. Bernhard said the cases in France and Australia show that instating such policies isnt as complicated as its made out to be. He estimates that if Facebook and Google had to pay between 10 and 20 per cent of the ad revenue generated from Canadian news content back to its creators, using a royalty fee similar to the one paid by radio stations to musicians, it could double the revenue of Canadian news companies. The campaign involves large-scale postering in Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver, said Bernhard. It includes a national media campaign and a website. Our goal is to convey to people that actually, this is not so complicated, he said. Whats happening here is really simple. There is an original sin at the heart of Facebooks success, and that is they are a content company that has decided not to pay for content. Facebook announced in March it would spend $100 million (U.S.) to support the news industry during COVID-19, and Google also has a Google News Initiative. With files from The Canadian Press Read more about: Opposition and independent lawmakers expressed serious concern about the continuing rapid spread of coronavirus in Armenia on Monday, saying that the authorities should do more to contain the epidemic. One of the deputies, Arman Babajanian, visited a Yerevan hospital treating COVID-19 patients and spoke to its medical personnel on Sunday. Babajanian told RFE/RLs Armenian service that the Nork Hospital for Infectious Diseases is increasingly overwhelmed by the growing influx of people infected with the virus. Many of them are sent back home due to a lack of hospital beds, he said. They have been instructed not to hospitalize patients whose temperature does not exceed 38 [degrees Celsius,] said Babajanian.They are sent home to be monitored by family doctors and [regular] policlinics. These people are on the verge of developing pneumonia, and with such a fever this virus can very quickly lead to pneumonia. The doctors are very worried that [coronavirus-related] deaths will soon be mainly recorded at homes because family doctors and policlinics will not be able to quickly react to so many appeals to provide necessary medical aid at homes, he said. Faced with the soaring number of new cases, the health authorities stopped on May 22 hospitalizing or isolating infected people who show mild symptoms of the disease or none at all. They also began discharging fully or mostly asymptomatic patients from hospitals. Such individuals now have to self-isolate at home. The Ministry of Health has ordered state-run policlinics across Armenia to monitor their condition and give them necessary treatment or medication if need be. Babajanian insisted that doctors working at these primary healthcare institutions lack the necessary equipment, skills and experience to accomplish this mission. The lawmaker, who is not affiliated with any parliamentary party, also said that many hospital doctors at the forefront of the fight against the epidemic are pleading with the government to restore a nationwide lockdown which was imposed in late March and has been gradually lifted since mid-April. The government remains reluctant to re-impose lockdown restrictions, citing the need to prevent a deeper economic crisis in the country. Government officials say Armenians can stop the spread of the virus if they wear face masks, practice social distancing and frequently wash their hands. Naira Zohrabian, a senior lawmaker representing the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), criticized the governments handling of the coronavirus crisis. I have very credible information coming from doctors that the situation is becoming uncontrollable especially in terms of the number of coronavirus cases and deaths, she told RFE/RLs Armenian. Zohrabian said she herself is afraid of contracting the virus inside the Armenian parliament given the lack of physical distancing there which has been evident since the start of the crisis. She said the parliament leadership should consider allowing lawmakers remote participation in session of the parliament and its standing committees. Another independent deputy, Tigran Urikhanian, voiced concern over Prime Minister Nikol Pashinians morning announcement that he and members of his family have tested positive for the virus. It means that the prime minister was a carrier of the virus just days or maybe weeks ago and many socialized with him, Urikhanian said on the parliament floor. For example, he gave me a piece of paper the other day and I had to take it. Many of us have been in contact [with Pashinian lately.] What is going to happen to our institution? he asked. Hrachya Hakobian, a pro-government parliamentarian and Pashinians brother-in-law, visited the prime minister and his family in their official residence as recently as on Sunday. Hakobian all but ruled out the possibility of catching the virus from them as he attended a parliament session the following day. I wore a mask and disinfected my hands before entering the house, Hakobian said. So all those rules were followed in the family. It was not clear whether the parliament leadership will decide to arrange coronavirus tests for all 132 members of the legislature. Yves here. While Conde Nast screwing up taking a paid subscription in an impressively costly manner wont dent the giant publishing house, whose titles include Vanity Fair, Vogue, and the New Yorker, it does suggest that the business side is run like a candy store. Maybe thats not true generally and is only the case for the neglected stepchild subscription operation. Maybe the recent bloodletting has led to job reassignments and confused reporting lines. Maybe Conde Nast has done a particularly poor job of implementing stay at home procedures for some of its business units. But regardless, to botch getting revenues in when you are hemorrhaging employees is not a good look. Conde Nast defenders might argue that the problem results from Olenick being a foreign subscriber. That is clearly the proximate cause, but no excuse. No other pub hes subscribed to turned itself into knots not giving him account. Even this tiny blog has no difficulty taking contributions from overseas by PayPal; our difficulties come when loyal readers abroad dont want to use PayPal, since US anti-money laundering rules have made other channels both cumbersome and pricey. My guess is that Conde Nasts subscription system was built for its print product, and theyve done a poor job of adapting it to online subscriptions. By Michael Olenick, a research fellow at INSEAD who writes regularly at Olen on Economics Conde Nast doesnt want me as a subscriber. Im not sure what Ive ever done to them but theyre just not into me. Some background Over a hundred thousand Americans are dead, the economy is the worst in US history, police are acting as an armed branch of Trump Inc., the courts are stacked with MAGA sycophants, and Congressional oversight is nonexistent. The only institution left to check the power of the aspirational orange dictator is the press which, thanks to Covid-19, social media, and relatively cheap Google ads is hemorrhaging cash and reporters. Alternative press can pick up the slack to some extent but, at some point, professional paid reporters are vital to a functioning democracy. In that spirit I try to subscribe to publications that I read. I dont subscribe to everything but keep a rolling list of stuff, turning off auto-renews to most so a widespread list has access to a few dollars here and there. It wont keep the lights on but definitely doesnt hurt. Theres the predictable subscriptions to the New York Times and Washington Post but also lots of lesser known ones to publications like Medium, a bunch of blogs, and a few magazines. Which brings me to my point: Conde Nast refuses to take my money even while laying off people. Granted, the majority of their income comes from ads but Id imagine the ad prices are influenced by paid subscribers who are presumably more tuned-in than randos scrolling Twitter or Facebook. I was sheltering in place reading a Vanity Fair article when a banner popped up suggesting I subscribe for $8. Sounds reasonable to me, I though; lets give Conde Nast a hand. I clicked and subscribed with PayPal, which I use for purchases like that since they make canceling auto-renew super simple. Normally, thats the end; you get an email, no limit on articles, no need to use private mode, and a few Satoshis of positive karma. Advertisers see larger subscriber figures and pay more. Reporters get fed. Everybody is happy. Not this time. Nothing happened. I was charged but couldnt log in. Suspecting a glitch, which happens infrequently, I searched until I found the contact email, subscriptions@vf.com. That bounced back with an address not found so I found a few more. An auto responder promised me somebody would get back to me. The next morning, a friendly French woman wrote to me in perfect English. I live in France, though I hadnt mentioned that in my email. Ill admit it odd to have French customer service be the fastest and most responsive but we live in odd times lately. However, she couldnt find my order. I sent her a receipt from PayPal and she told me Id subscribed to the US version and would forward my inquiry to them. She also seems to have credited me back the $8 since that showed up in PayPal. The next day I got a longish hand-written profusely apologetic email from London that the US office sent my inquiry to the UK office which handles international subscriptions. They had an account number and case ID but told me they cant do anything. They refunded me an additional $8. Two days later, I received a form letter from Vanity Fair in the US telling me they couldnt locate my subscription and asked me for my account number which, their email said, is located above my name and address on the mailing label. This was odd for a few reasons, the first being the bottom part of the email they sent was another email obviously forwarded by the international offices which included, among other things, my account number. Besides, even if I lived in the US, Id still subscribe electronically because of the carbon footprint and personal preference. Not wanting to be a further financial burden on the already troubled organization, I didnt reply to that email on the assumption an email response would yield another $8. Besides, counting them up, Id already received eleven emails from Conde Nast or their auto responders. Just a few weeks ago, May 13, Conde Nast laid off 100 people and furloughed another hundred. Theyve reduced pay by 10-20% for people making over $100,000. Granted, this makes more sense than at least one organization I heard of that reduced pay only for people making less than $100,000 but, in pricey New York City, the cuts still no doubt sting. An easier way to protect revenues would be to easily, efficiently, and gracefully enable people to subscribe. Like I said above, I have lots of subscriptions. Theyre usually super simple. Its one of the few areas where you can even still call and a real person promptly picks up the phone. No matter their editorial slant, quality of writing, or location in the world, publications are usually happy to take your money. Even in better times, magazines used to like it when people subscribed. I could theoretically continue writing to various people around the world about my misbegotten subscription but Im old enough to take the hint and know when Im unwanted. Lots of rejections dont come with whys, and its sometimes unreasonable or even creepy to ask for one, but in this somewhat unique case asking for a reason why I cant subscribe seems reasonable. I suspect most Conde Nast staff members would want to know too, especially those who lost their jobs but also the ones still there. If anybody at Conde Nast wants to process my subscription, or take their extra $8 back, please let me know: my email is mfolenick@gmail.com. There has been a controversy surrounding the origin of the Mitron app, an Indian rival of TikTok, which has gained quite the popularity literally overnight. According to a report by a media portal, the source code for the Mitron app, UI, and features were allegedly made by a software development company based in Lahore, Pakistan. Also Read | Google Meet Virtual Background: How To Add Or Change Backgrounds In Google Meetings? The Mitron app controversy Qboxus, a Pakistan-based software development company, created an app called TicTac that resembled TikTok. The app was later rebranded in India as Mitron whose source code was purchased from a website called CodeCanyon for a mere $34 (2,571). And while its claim to fame is based on its Indian roots, Irfan Sheikh, the founder of Qboxus, believes that calling Mitron as an India born app wouldnt be accurate, as the owners who purchased the source code from them did not bother to make any changes or improvements to the app. Interestingly, Mitron doesnt feature its own customisations and is simply a direct copy of TikTok clone app called TicTac. Also Read | Is Apple Considering A Massive Shift Of IPhone Manufacturing From China To India? Is Mitron a Pakistani app? The QBoxus team has claimed that the TicTac app was actually created by them before putting up the source code of the app on sale. The source code was reportedly purchased by an IIT Roorkee student, Shivank Agarwal, who rebranded the app into Mitron. And while this may imply that it's now an Indian app, QBoxus has alleged that the new owner did not make any changes or customizations to the app which puts the app's security into question. Also Read | IOS Apps No Longer Shared: Apple Confirms The Bug Has Been Fixed For All Users Is Mitron app safe? According to a cybersecurity expert, it isn't safe to use the Mitron app in its current form. This is mainly because the app does not come with any additional firewall or software security above the source code. The privacy policy of the app is weak that may likely put a user's data and security at risk. Qboxus also claimed that the Mitron app has privacy issues as the app developer did not upload the privacy policy. The company also stated that they do not encourage people to simply rebrand an app and make it public without making any changes. Also Read | Redmi Note 9 Pro Max Goes On Sale Today On Amazon And Mi Website Image credits: Google Play Store Poachers have killed at least six elephants in one day at a national park in Ethiopia, the largest such slaughter in memory in the East African nation. The chief warden for Mago National Park described the incident which took place last week as a 'massacre'. The elephant carcasses were found with their tusks removed after the animals were attacked while drinking at the Omo river. Poachers have killed at least six elephants in one day at a national park in Ethiopia, the largest such slaughter in memory in the East African nation. Above, an elephant found with its tusks removed One elephant was pelted with 30 bullets, park warden Ganabu Balmy told the BBC. 'The elephants were killed while they ventured out of the Mago National Park to drink water,' Bulmi said. 'The poachers then removed all the tusks from the elephants. 'It was a mass killing. 'We haven't seen anything like this before.' Two other elephants might have been killed the same day, May 26, the warden said, and an investigation continues. 'It also has proved difficult to apprehend the perpetrators because the locals who live in the area are armed and were not willing to engage officials,' Mr Ganabul said. According to wildlife officials, Ethiopia had more than 10,000 elephants in the 1970s but poaching and habitat degradation have reduced the number to about 2,500 to 3,000 in recent years. 'We don't think there is an organised poaching in Ethiopia. The chief warden for Mago National Park described the incident which took place last week as a 'massacre' 'Last year we documented up to 10 elephant killings,' said Daniel Pawlos, director for trafficking and control at the Wildlife Conservation Authority, a government entity. 'But whenever there's demand, that triggers illegal poaching. 'What makes the latest poaching different is the high number of elephants killed within a day.' Officials suspect that most elephant tusks and finished products are slipped out of the country to China and Southeast Asian countries. In 2015, Ethiopian officials burned 6.1 tons of illegal elephant tusks, ivory trinkets, carvings and various forms of jewellery to discourage poaching and the ivory trade. Hand washing turned into a stay-at-home order, then stay-at-home turned to Safer at Home. On Monday Gov. Jared Polis moved Colorado to the longest title yet: "Safer at Home and in the Vast, Great Outdoors." Colorado has millions of acres of accessible federal land, municipal parks, State parks, State and county open space, and other accessible areas that allow for stronger Social Distancing in our great outdoors," states the order released Monday afternoon. "Coloradans should Stay at Home or in the great outdoors away from others as much as possible and continue to limit social interactions, remain at least six feet from others not in their household, and wear non-medical facial coverings in public. Polis said in a statement that he wants Coloradans to enjoy "the most beautiful natural open spaces in the world." "While we are all still safer at home, we are also able to practice greater social distancing in our great outdoors than in confined indoor spaces," the governor stated. It may feel like we are getting back to normal, but the virus is still here, and it could surge back the moment we let our guard down. We are still far from normal. "Coloradans have to remain diligent, and must continue staying home or in the great outdoors away from others as much as possible, wearing masks when we leave the house, and washing our hands. Over these next few weeks, each and every one of us has a responsibility to protect ourselves and others, especially as we begin venturing out onto our trails and open space. He said anyone with flu-like symptoms should get tested. They should not go to work or "hang out with others," Polis stated Monday afternoon. Denver ramps up testing at the Pepsi Center In a matter of 10 days, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis rolled out a free, drive-up testing facility at the Pepsi Center in Denver on Thursday afternoon in partnership with Denver Health Medical Center. Colorado has 47 state-supported testing sites, including the Pepsi Center in Denver. The state ramped up testing last week, though Polis first enacted restrictions in March. The latest executive order also eases at-home restrictions on people older than 65 and those with underlying health conditions, encouraging them to get outdoors and practice social distancing, "in addition to staying at home as much as possible." Polis ordered the state health department to amend the public health order to reflect his Monday directive. The governor's office noted that the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has developed a draft of guidance on houses of worship, outdoor recreation and personal recreation, as well as updating child care and personal services recommendations. Playgrounds and swimming pools are now allowed to open at limited capacity. Two decades ago a man took 45 children and seven educators hostage for 28 hours, in what would turn out to be the most dramatic criminal case in Luxembourg's history with global media attention. On 31 May 2000 Neji Bejaouti entered a creche in Wasserbillig and kidnapped 45 children and seven educators. Bejaouti, with Tunisian background and living in Luxembourg for over a decade already, was armed with a pistol and two hand grenades. Parents of the children were called to the nearby cultural centre, where they were accompanied by psychologists. No one knew how long the hostage taking would last. Several groups of children were released throughout the day. One of the major turning points occurred when the kidnapper requested a Luxair aircraft be chartered to fly him to Libya. Negotiators accepted, and placed the aircraft on standby at Findel airport. He also sought live airtime on TV, which police took as an opportunity to prepare a possible intervention as soon as he'd step out of the creche. The New York Times reported at the time that the world's largest journalists' organisation has asked for an investigation of Luxembourg police tactics after officers posed as a television crew and lured the kidnapper into an ambush to end the hostage taking. When Bejaouti emerged for a televised interview, holding a child and a grenade, police officers posing as cameramen shot him in the head. Despite two shots at near point-blank range, the kidnapper recovered from his injuries. It took police 28 hours before he was immobilised. Upon his sentencing to 22 years in prison, it turned out the kidnapper had raped creche educators. The Guardian wrote that the reason behind the attack was Bejaouti's frustration about losing custody of his own children, and his unhappy personal life that was falling apart. Video report in Luxembourgish The Central Board of Secondary Education on Tuesday released the provisions and guidelines for board students slated to appear for their examination between July 1 and 15. The exams had been postponed since March 19 in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The board has laid down special provisions for those students who have returned home and wish to appear from a different examination centre than their schools. Last week, HT had reported that students in residential or boarding schools were likely to face challenges while returning to their schools to appear for their papers since they had travelled home before the Covid-19 lockdown. CBSE will allow change of examination centre in respect of candidates who have shifted and are residing in some other district in the country than the place of their school, the board said on Tuesday. Students who were residing in hostels, or were sponsored by state governments, or those who have shifted from the district of their school to other district in India will be eligible to change their exam centres. Since Delhi will be considered as one district for this purpose, change of examination centre from one district to another will not be permitted, the board said. While the exams for 12 subjects of Class 12 will be held across the country, the examinations for six subjects of Class 10 will be held only in north-east Delhi, which was torn by communal riots in February. For students, whose schools fall under containment zones, different centres will be allotted outside the containment zone. The board will accept requests of candidates for change of examination centre only through their school. Schools have been asked to contact the students and provide the necessary information to the board through the e-pariksha portal on CBSE website between June 3 and 11. The board will later provide Permission Letters to the schools to forward it to students who will have to take printouts of the letter and carry to their exam centres. CBSE has also said that the results of children with special needs, who need scribes and do not wish to appear for their papers, will be declared as per assessment scheme to be decided by the board. Hong Kong fearless of foreign sanctions, threats: Hong Kong SAR gov't official People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 08:56, June 01, 2020 HONG KONG, May 31 (Xinhua) -- It is against international law and practice for the United States to use unilateral sanctions as a threat to interfere in the policies of other countries and regions, Matthew Cheung, chief secretary for administration of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government wrote Sunday. Cheung wrote in his blog that any sanctions against Hong Kong are a "double-edged sword" that harms oneself and others. Hong Kong, closely linked with the motherland, has the ability, determination and confidence to resist unreasonable threats and is not afraid of foreign sanctions and threats. Since the National People's Congress began to review the decision of national security legislation for Hong Kong, some people with ulterior motives in Hong Kong have been spreading rumors and creating panics. They slandered that the legislation will make "one country, two systems" exist in name only and make Hong Kong lose its status with a high degree of autonomy. "These statements are purely nonsense," Cheung wrote. Cheung noted that making the national security legislation for Hong Kong at the state level can prevent, stop and punish a very small number of lawbreakers who endanger national security, and ensure the steady and enduring growth of the cause of "one country, two systems," and maintain Hong Kong's long-term prosperity and stability. This will not affect the rights and freedoms enjoyed by Hong Kong residents in accordance with the law, but will serve the common interests of the country, the Hong Kong SAR and the international community. The vast majority of Hong Kong residents and foreign investors need not worry about the legislation, he added. Cheung wrote Hong Kong people need to understand that the malicious remarks, criticisms and measures made by local and foreign politicians are all politically motivated, with a clear intention to attack the country. The Hong Kong SAR government must sternly refute, clearly and strongly oppose foreign governments interfering in the affairs of the Hong Kong SAR in any form and making untrue and biased remarks about the high degree of autonomy in Hong Kong, he believed. Cheung stressed that no country will not allow others and other countries to carry out acts and activities endangering national security on its own territory. "Some countries advocate their own national security while using every means to obstruct China from safeguarding national security. Such hypocrisy and double standards are despised," he wrote. Cheung noted that as a well-established international financial and business center, Hong Kong has a sound financial system, regulatory regime and fiscal reserves. Its unparalleled strengths include the rule of law, independent judiciary, free and open trade policy and level playing field, low tax rates, world-class shipping infrastructure, free port status, superior geographical location, high-quality and flexible workforce, and unique advantages brought about by the continued opening up of the economy of the mainland. "As long as we are unyielding, calm and united, we will surely withstand the test of storms and adversities," he wrote. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Delhi on Monday advised people to visit the Election Commission website for important information pertaining to voter cards, after two incidents of cyber fraud were reported in the last month. The office of the CEO was informed about two incidents of cyber fraud in which unauthorized private websites were found offering voter ID card related services in exchange for money, a statement said. According to the website of Election Commission Of India, no charges are required to be paid by public while submitting online application related to voter ID card, it added. CEO Office, Delhi had requested DCP, Election, to lodge FIR and take necessary action against the offender at the earliest in both incidents, the statement said. In one of the incidents, a 27-year-old man has been arrested from Rajasthan for allegedly cheating people on the pretext of making and renewing voter ID cards through a website. The accused is under judicial custody after two days of police custody, it said. Interrogation revealed that the accused had been using the fake website for six to seven months and has cheated around 5,000 people of nearly Rs 25 lakh. In the second incident, investigation is underway. "The public is, therefore, advised to visit ECI's official website, eci.gov.in, or CEO Delhi's website, ceodelhi.gov.in,or call voter helpline number (1950) for authentic and official information and prevent themselves from being cheated by the unscrupulous elements," it said. Any such information available or displayed online must be verified from the official websites, the statement said. By ANI NEW DELHI: Sharing his experience from the 'Black Lives Matter' protests, actor Cole Sprouse has said that he was arrested while staging protests. The 'Riverdale' actor opened up about the arrest and his experience at the protests through an Instagram post. Sprouse posted a picture that read 'Black Lives Matter' and shared his experience in the caption where he said that he was arrested over the weekend in California's Santa Monica. "A group of peaceful protesters, myself included, were arrested yesterday in Santa Monica. So before the voracious horde of media sensationalism decides to somehow turn it about me, there is a clear need to speak about the circumstances: Black Lives Matter," the 27-year-old actor began writing. "Peace, riots, and looting are an absolutely legitimate form of protest. The media is by nature only going to show the most sensational, which only proves a long-standing racist agenda. I was detained when standing in solidarity, as were many of the final vanguard within Santa Monica," he added. Further elaborating on the police treatment, the 'Suite Life of Zack and Cody' actor said: "We were given the option to leave, and were informed that if we did not retreat, we would be arrested. When many did turn to leave, we found another line of police officers blocking our route, at which point, they started zip tying us." Sprouse went on with the post and shared how the privileged white citizens of America can extend support and solidarity to the African-Americans. "This is and will be, a time about standing ground near others as a situation escalates, providing educated support, demonstrating and doing the right thing. This is precisely the time to contemplate what it means to stand as an ally," he wrote in the caption. "I hope others in my position do as well. I noticed that there are cameras that roll within the police cruisers during the entirety of our detainment, hope it helps," he added. He ended the note in his caption by stating that he will be sharing links in his Instagram stories following, which his fans can support or make donations for the cause. Around 4,000 people across the United States have been arrested during the massive protests over the death of African-American man George Floyd last month. While the anger continues to spread, the country is waiting for an address from President Donald Trump about the protests following the death of Floyd. Virgin administrators Deloitte Restructuring Services has whittled down the five contenders bidding for the struggling airline down to two private equity firms. US-based Bain Capital and Richard Branson-linked Cyrus Capital Partners are now vying to purchase the airline which is operating in administration. Australia's second-largest airline was majority owned by China, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates with Richard Branson retaining a 10 percent stake when it went into voluntary administration in April. Two bidders are now vying to buy Virgin Airlines with administrators Deloitte Restructuring Services to decide before June 30. Virgin is majority owned by China, Singapore and the UAE Virgin owed nearly $7 billion to creditors, with its long-running financial struggles exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Administrator Vaughan Strawbridge said Deloitte had received five initial proposals to buy the struggling airline on Friday and had already shortlisted two candidates. 'Both Bain Capital and Cyrus Capital Partners are well-funded, have deep aviation experience, and they see real value in the business and its future,' he said in a release to the Australian Securities Exchange on Tuesday. Cyrus Capital Partners has offices in New York and London, and has previous airline experience. The firm launched Virgin America with Virgin Group founder Richard Branson in 2005, before selling it in 2015 to Alaska Air for $2.6 billion. Former Australian Olympic diver Mike Murphy is heading the Bain Capital bid It also teamed up with Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic to buy Flybe, a British regional airline, in February last year - but the airline went into administration. Cyrus's bid for Virgin is structured around keeping the airline together. Deloitte is understood to have put a high priority on retaining staff. Under Cyrus ownership, the airline would keep most of its 75 Boeing 737s for domestic routes and its Boeing 777 international fleet - but most of the other types would go, aviation website AirlineRatings.com reported. Rival Bain Capital's bid for Virgin is under the stewardship of former Australian Olympic diver Mike Murphy. He has taken Goldman Sachs onboard as a financial adviser as the investment bank has long-standing links with the airline. The firm, known colloquially as the vampire squid, has worked with Virgin since 2000 on capital raisings, derivative funding, and merger and aquisition advice. The investment bank also helped Virgin raise US$800 million secured against 24 aircraft in 2013. Former Jetstar chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka (pictured in 2016) is providing local aviation experience to US firm Bain Capital for its bid. There are rumours if Bain wins she may be CEO At least eight parties were initially interested in bidding for the airline, Deloitte said in April Virgin founder Richard Branson has longstanding links to Cyrus Capital, whose bid is structured around keeping the airline together including full service international flights Bain Capital wants Virgin to move closer to its budget roots, and has talked publicly about its ambitions in recent weeks. The US-based private investment firm, headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, has about US$105 billion in assets under management and owns Trans Maldivian Airways. Who owns Virgin Australia? Abu Dhabi government - 21% Singapore government - 20% Nanshan Capital (China) - 20% HNA (China) - 20% Richard Branson - 10.4% Australian shareholders: 8.6% Source: Virgin Australia annual report Advertisement Bain has brought in former Jetstar chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka, who has local aviation experience, to advise it on its bid. There is speculation she may take over as Virgin CEO from incumbent Paul Scurrah if Bain wins the bidding. After being appointed as administrators on April 20, Deloitte moved to restructure and refinance the business and began talking to potential buyers with at least eight different parties initially showing interest. The three contenders who didn't make the second round were BGH Capital, Indigo Partners and Canadian firm Brookfield Asset Management. Australia's domestic airline market, a duopoly ruled by Qantas and Virgin, has proven attractive to investors even as the coronavirus pandemic has grounded the world's airlines. Mr Strawbridge told the ASX he was satisfied that strong interest from all the bidding parties had generated competitive tension, putting them in a strong position to get the best outcome for creditors. Deloitte would spend the coming weeks in meetings with the potential buyers and Virgin stakeholders before receiving the final binding bids, Mr Strawbridge said. Deloitte expects a binding agreement before June 30. Tegan Kynaston was spotted hard at work in Sydney's Kings Cross on Tuesday. The girlfriend of Kyle Sandilands was spotted stacking cups through the window of what used to be the site of the Milky Lane burger restaurant and bar. Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday, a source revealed Tegan, 34, Kyle, 48, and her brother had taken over the site for their company, Nueva Sangria. Taking care of business: Tegan Kynaston was spotted hard at work in Sydney's Kings Cross on Tuesday The trio run an Australian sangria company, with the alcoholic beverage currently available for purchase via their website. Tegan was in the process of getting the premises ready for the brand's new head office, which is currently based on the Central Coast. But the source explained it made more sense for them to have a Sydney-based head office, with a bar area for potential stockists and clients to taste the product. Getting organised: The 34-year-old girlfriend of Kyle Sandilands was spotted stacking cups through the window of what used to be the site of the Milky Lane burger restaurant and bar Head office: Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday, a source revealed Tegan, Kyle, 48, and her brother had taken over the site for their company, Nueva Sangria Housekeeping: Tegan was in the process of getting the premises ready for the brand's new head office, which is currently based on the Central Coast The company is likely to relocate to Kings Cross from their current head office 'within a month', with visits to the new site by appointment only. Kyle was also spotted outside the new venue alongside his friend, renowned Kings Cross businessman John Ibrahim. Tegan was dressed casually for the outing in a black hooded sweatshirt with white lettering across the front. New offices: The source explained it made more sense for them to have a Sydney-based head office, with a bar area for potential stockists and clients to taste the product Moving on: The company is likely to relocate to Kings Cross from their current head office 'within a month', with visits to the new site by appointment only Her long blonde hair was worn loose, and she appeared fresh-faced. The couple went public with their relationship on New Year's Eve after weeks of insisting they were just friends and colleagues. Tegan used to work as Kyle's personal assistant, with the radio shock jock splitting from his longtime girlfriend Imogen Anthony in November last year. By PTI NEW DELHI: An Air India pilots' union on Monday suggested to aviation regulator DGCA that COVID-positive pilots grounded for over 14 days should be allowed to fly after being declared negative by an approved medical examiner as the current protocol makes them unavailable for duty for six months. "This (proposed solution) will ensure that precious human resources are not wasted," The Indian Commercial Pilots' Association (ICPA) said in a letter. It said that if a pilot is tested positive for COVID-19, he goes on a mandatory 14-day "sick" leave and then he has to go for a special medical examination in New Delhi or Bengaluru. This process takes at least three months, and then he heads for a medical assessment by the DGCA and that takes at least three more months, it said. "To sum up, a pilot who tests positive will not be available for flying duties for at least 6 months. We may soon have a situation where hundreds of pilots are not available for flying duties due to the aforementioned problems," said T Praveen Keerthi, General Secretary, ICPA. The ICPA consists of pilots who fly narrow-body aircraft for Air India. "At this juncture, we wish to propose a pragmatic solution to the problems mentioned above: First, allow pilots who have been grounded for more than 14 days due to COVID-19 infection to appear for the medical examination at any of the DGCA empanelled Class I medical examiners. Who may issue a medical certificate in CA Form 35," Keerthi said. ALSO READ | Won't operate non-essential flights if 'distasteful' treatment is not stopped: Air India pilots This means the pilot should be allowed to resume flying duties if his CA 35 mentions COVID-negative. "Allow the pilot to resume flying duties based on CA 35 without having to wait for the medical assessment," Keerthi added. A number of pilots and cabin crew members have tested positive for the novel coronavirus during the last few weeks. However, the airline has not issued any statement on this matter yet. Keerthi said in the letter: "This (proposed solution) will ensure that precious human resources are not wasted and will be in the true spirit of finding solutions to problems as invoked in the speech of our Honourable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi ji and also empower the Class I medical examiners to be 'Aatmanirbhar'." India resumed its domestic flight operations from May 25 after a gap of two months due to the coronavirus lockdown. Scheduled international passenger flights continue to remain suspended in the country. However, on May 7, the Modi government started the Vande Bharat Mission to bring back Indians stranded abroad due to the coronavirus travel restrictions. Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express have operated more than 150 international repatriation flights under this mission. The novel coronavirus has infected more than 1.9 lakh people and killed around 5,300 people in India till now. Dilone said he didnt learn of the rioting allegation until he was in his holding cell and that he did not understand why he had been charged on that count. There were several people behind him at the time police approached him late Sunday, he said, and many of them were arrested as well. Like millions of children all over the world, Prince George and Princess Charlotte have been out of school due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. And like millions of parents, Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge have been homeschooling them. The royal couple admitted the past few months of doing so had been an adjustment and presented a set of challenges. But when speaking about her childrens activities and a spider, Kate confused royal fans who had no idea what she was talking about. Well now, that mystery is solved. Princess Charlotte, Kate Middleton, and Prince George | Aaron Chown WPA Pool/Getty Images Kate confused fans with comment about George and Charlottes activities Prince George and Princess Charlottes St. Thomass Battersea school in London closed in March and since then theyve been homeschooled. Kate spoke about the realities of that during an interview on ITVs This Morning in May. George gets very upset because he just wants to do all of Charlottes projectsMaking spider sandwiches is far cooler than doing literacy work, the duchess said. While royal fans smiled hearing that the future king didnt always enjoy his homework and would rather be doing Charlottes projects, many werent really sure what spider sandwiches were. That is until two royal watchers did some investigating. Kate Middleton, Prince George, and Princess Charlotte | Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images RELATED: When Do Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis Have To Start Bowing To the Queen Royal watchers solve spider mystery Royally Obsessed podcast hosts Roberta Fiorito and Rachel Bowie took on the case to figure out what exactly Kate was talking about when she brought up spider sandwiches. Youll remember that Kate mentioned them as Prince Georges favorite thing in her ITV interview, Fiorito told listeners, adding, I received a message just last night explaining what Kate is referencing. Bowie interjected, I was convinced that it was these little sandwiches with pretzels for legs. I was shocked when it wasnt that. You were 50% right, Fiorito continued. Apparently Spider Sandwiches is a very popular U.K. childrens book written by Claire Freedman. But its also a popular childrens snack so theyre both involved in a lot of the lesson plans over there. Fiorito went on to explain that Schools will pair them as a lesson plan and the idea is that you read the book, make the spider sandwich, and then you count the number of spider legs you can make with various ingredients, like celery. Kids can say oh they have eight legs and count them together. Bowie then said, So I was partly right, but now I know theres a deeper story there. It sounds like George and Charlotte are probably reading the book too. Other ways Prince George and Princess Charlotte have been keeping busy Prince George and Princess Charlotte | Samir Hussein/WireImage In early March, just before the lockdowns went into effect in the U.K., William and Kate visited Galway, Ireland on the final day of their royal tour. Hello! Magazine reported that after watching performers on a tightrope and balance beam, the duchess told them that gymnastics is Charlottes favorite new hobby. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge also watched a concert by the group NOV during their visit and told the band members that George is playing a musical instrument now. I wish we could have brought George and Charlotte along, they would have loved it and George is starting to learn the guitar, Kate said. RELATED: Prince George or Princess Charlotte: Which Royal Child is Actually More Outgoing? China's first mission to Mars is set to launch in July or August as the country sprints to become a major space power in the global race, the programme director has revealed. The Tianwen-1 spacecraft will be carried by a Long March-5 rocket this summer and is expected to reach the red planet in February, Bao Weimin, head of the space programme, told state broadcaster CCTV Monday. Animation footage released by CCTV illustrates the spaceship releasing a ground rover to explore the Martian surface after landing. China's ambitious plan to conquer the red planet was revealed by Bao, an academic from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in an interview with CCTV on Monday. The picture shows an illustration of the 'Tianwen-1' spacecraft being captured by the gravitational fields of Mars The Tianwen-1 spacecraft will be carried by a Long March-5 rocket this summer and is expected to reach the red planet in February. The animated picture shows an illustration of a rover being released by the Chinese 'Tianwen-1' spacecraft to explore the Martian surface China's Mars mission will use the Long March-5 Y4 carrier rocket (pictured above), which the contractor of the space programme described as the countrys most powerful rocket. The picture shows the rocket being transported to the launching site for a test flight in December The mission will use the Long March-5 Y4 carrier rocket, which the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) has described as the countrys most powerful rocket. In December, China conducted a successful test flight of an early version of the Long March-5 rocket. China became the third country to put a man in space with its own rocket in 2003 after the former Soviet Union and the United States. The nation has since been racing to catch up with Russia and the United States to affirm its status as a world superpower. China's ambitious plan to conquer the red planet was confirmed by Bao, an academic from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in an interview with CCTV on Monday. 'Between July and August this year, we will use the Long March-5 carrier rocket to launch [the spacecraft],' the space expert claimed. Mr Bao, who is also the director of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), said the mission would put a probe into orbit around Mars and land the machine to explore and analyse the surface. Mr Bao, the director of China's Mars mission, said the 'Tianwen-1' exploration mission would put a probe into orbit around Mars and land the machine to explore and analyse the surface The spaceship's orbiter will fly around the planet while the lander will release the robotic rover to carry out patrol exploration and research, according to the scientist. The picture shows an animated illustration of the rover being released by the lander after the spacecraft lands China's ambitious plan to conquer the red planet was revealed by Bao Weimin (picture), an academic from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in an interview with CCTV on Monday The Tianwen-1 spacecraft is expected to reach within the gravitational field of Mars next February and will be captured into orbit around the planet, said Mr Bao. The remote-controlled probe consists of an orbiter, a lander and a rover. The spaceship's orbiter will fly around the planet while the lander will release the robotic rover to carry out patrol exploration and research, according to the scientist. The Mars rover is expected to operate for at least 90 Mars days, which roughly account to three months on Earth. 'The first key point of the mission will be ensuring that the orbiter gets captured by the gravity field of Mars,' Mr Bao told the state media. 'And the next one will be that the landing takes seven to eight minutes.' The Chinese Mars rover is expected to operate for at least 90 Mars days, which roughly account to three months on Earth. The file picture shows an overview of the red planet The Mars exploration is among several new space projects China is pursuing, including putting Chinese astronauts on the moon and having a space station by 2022. This graphic illustrates different types of rovers and satellites are currently orbiting the red planet Last November, China successfully conducted a test landing of the rover. The experiment simulated the robot's process of hovering, avoiding obstacles and landing on Mars. The Mars exploration mission was named 'Tianwen-1', or 'Questions to Heaven', after an ancient Chinese poem. The Mars exploration is among several new space projects China is pursuing, including putting Chinese astronauts on the moon and having a space station by 2022. In January 2019, China landed a small rover on the dark side of the lunar surface, becoming the first nation to do so. In May, China successfully launched its largest carrier rocket with a new-generation spacecraft (pictured), marking a significant progress towards landing a man on the moon In May, the country successfully launched its largest carrier rocket with a new-generation spacecraft, marking a significant progress towards landing a man on the moon. The US, which has already sent four exploratory vehicles to Mars, intends to launch a fifth this summer. It should arrive around February 2021, roughly the same time when China's rover arrives. The United Arab Emirates plans to launch the first Arab probe to the red planet on July 15 from Japan. SCREENGRAB: @ABC7NEWS After protesters were driven into a D.C. neighborhood, one local hero opened his home to 75 young strangers for a standoff with DC police. In a story out Tuesday, Esquire has some wild and crazy details from the story of Rahul Dubey, the "absolute legend" of a guy in Washington, DC, who sheltered young protestors and credentialed reporters in his home overnight while police pursued with apparent intent to violently assault. "I hope that my 13-year-old son grows up to be just as amazing as they are." Rahul Dubey opened his home to nearly 70 strangers overnight and sheltered them during D.C.'s curfew. He says our country needs people like THEM. FULL INTERVIEW: https://t.co/hucxiraHk9 pic.twitter.com/BKFMsTsSgk ABC 7 News WJLA (@ABC7News) June 2, 2020 Rahul told Esquire: The DC Police tried to trick protestors into coming outside The cops "hijacked" a pizza man for an hour (Rahul didn't have anything to feed the dozens of guests in his home, he called out for pizza, the cops intercepted the guy!) And the officers faked a 911 call. Just, wow. EXCERPT: I looked around and saw kids from age 20 to 50 in the house scattered on all three floors and the backyard, and they were safe. They were active. They were asking questions. They were solving problems in little groups, and they are hunkered down here until 6 am. The police have tried to pull them out through trickery like five or six times. They send decoys to the door, telling them they can't leave out the front, but if they leave out the back alley, they'll be safe. I mean, bullshit stuff. They just hijacked the pizza delivery guy for an hour and wouldn't let us come through. I mean, they faked a 911 call and said "yeah, someone called 911," but no one did. There's a lot of emotions. I have a 13-year-old son, and luckily he's with friends and family up in Delaware; he's coming back tomorrow. He's not there, but at the same time, I wish he was because he could see these amazing souls that are in my house are safe and they had every right to be doing what they were doing, and the police didn't have a right to just beat them down on the street. For now, at least for the next four hours or so, we're going to be safe here. I've never been so excited to get a Ducinni's pizza in my life. May 30, I was therethat was Saturday, and it was bedlam. I've been here for inaugurations. I've been here for the KKK. I've seen some shit, and it was heavy. There was a fierceness and an evilness that was there that I did not like. It was a heavy evilness, and a nonchalant calm on the authoritative side. Like, yep, we got you. It almost seemed staged, it was so surreal. And this. This was an out of body experience. Kids were screaming when they were running into the house. I mean, they were lining them off one by one and zip tying them. They're baiting them and saying they won't arrest them if they use my alley? Why? Because there's no lights? So you can attack them? I had never seen anything this evil in my life. Read the whole article: A 2 a.m. Talk With Rahul Dubey, the 'Absolute Legend' Sheltering Black Lives Matter Protesters [Justin Kirkland, Jun 2, 2020] Rahul Dubey, the man who welcomed protesters into his home, gets a round of appause from protesters and supporters @ABC7News @ABC7GMW pic.twitter.com/IDISrnPTcx Kristen Powers (@ABC7Kristen) June 2, 2020 On sheltering DC protesters in his house overnight, Rahul Dubey: "I came outside & was on my stoop in 15 seconds & absolute mayhem & horror broke out. I heard big bang, screaming, pepper spray started flying. My eyes were burning. I started yelling get in the house." #AMRstaff Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) June 2, 2020 LISTEN: Rahul Dubey opened his house to protesters in DC last night. 70 strangers. He talked to @ABC7Kristen this morning: pic.twitter.com/bpEDl5dE1P Adrianna Hopkins (@AdriannaHopkins) June 2, 2020 "They started spraying pepper spray in through the window," says Washington DC resident, Rahul Dubey, who gave dozens of protesters shelter from police inside of his home. pic.twitter.com/TTCXLW0Ukm MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 2, 2020 I wrote a little something about Rahul Dubey, the man who sheltered 70 protesters in his DC home. He says the cops tried to spray pepper spray through his windows https://t.co/HdqUklGRjy Ashley Reese (@offbeatorbit) June 2, 2020 THE POLICE BOXED IN A GROUP OF PEACEFUL PROTESTERS AND THEN STARTED HITTING AND MACING PEOPLE. A MAN TOOK SOME OF US INTO HIS HOUSE AND THE POLICE HAVE US TRAPPED. THERE ARE PEOPLE STILL TRAPPED IN THE STREET ON 15th AND SWANN pic.twitter.com/H2B2QCup1o Meka (@MekaFromThe703) June 2, 2020 Not only did Rahul try to broker a "hostage"-like situation between the DC police and ~75 protestors he was sheltering in his home, he also ran a successful "covert mission" to get a Duccini's pizza delivery man past the police "brigade," Esquire reports: https://t.co/NDMJLssEIy Hamza Shaban (@hshaban) June 2, 2020 This incredible Esquire interview details outrageous police behavior (Rahul says they lied about a 911 call) and a righteous pizza delivery (a personal plea to the owner, delivered to the back of the house) Rahul tells Esquire: https://t.co/NDMJLssEIy pic.twitter.com/H51WM1icXM Hamza Shaban (@hshaban) June 2, 2020 Rahul Dubey is hereby declared an official spokesperson for the Indian American community. Kumar Rao (@KumarRaoNYC) June 2, 2020 Last night, DC resident Rahul Dubey housed 75 strangers escaping tear gas. They hunkered down together determined (with a little pizza) to avoid arrest. He shared his story with me. The line that keeps echoing in my ear? "I fucking love this country." https://t.co/00YpKsORwy Justin Kirkland (@justinkirkland4) June 2, 2020 "the first question people are asking me is 'Why did you let strangers into your home?'" Rahul Dubey tells @MarisaKashino. "I know in my heart of hearts that you would open the door, too." https://t.co/eqNxEfbAt4 Andrew Beaujon (@abeaujon) June 2, 2020 "They were talking to each other, consoling each other, rinsing each other's eyes out while the police sprayed tear gas in through the windows.": Rahul Dubey, who sheltered 100 protesters at his Logan Circle home, tells his story to @MarisaKashino https://t.co/DaAE3KWKK7 Ann Limpert (@AnnLimpert) June 2, 2020 An amazing thing happened in DC last night. Protestors fleeing police were welcomed into the home of Rahul Dubey, who fed them pizza and waited out teh policeFOR SIX HOURSdetermined to arrest those inside. By @Matt_D_Cohen https://t.co/0wUgjf1UkX Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) June 2, 2020 "I opened a door. You would have done the same thing." "They were doing nothing wrong other than to build a future that they want and that I want." Rahul Dubey is a Swann Street hero. Grateful for this piece by @D_Hawk and @postmetrogirl:https://t.co/CymQFBNEFd Rachel Leah Siegel (@rachsieg) June 2, 2020 Channel Ten has released a statement in support of Black Lives Matter amid the ongoing protests across major cities in America. MasterChef viewers reacted with overwhelming support, after the message was posted during an ad break of the ratings juggernaut. The statement read: 'We stand in solidarity with our black colleagues, storytellers and viewers in Australia and the world because #BlackLivesMatter.' 'We stand in solidarity!' On Tuesday, MasterChef fans showered Channel Ten with praise when it supported the Black Lives Matter movement during an ad break A number of viewers flooded social media with support. 'The Black Lives Matter piece just gave me chills over my entire body,' one viewer wrote, adding a number of fist emojis. Yet another seemed shock to see the message on Australian television. 'The Black Lives Matter solidarity message during the MasterChef break is something I have never seen any Australian network do. This is why inclusion on television matters.' The statement read: 'We stand in solidarity with our black colleagues, storytellers and viewers in Australia and the world because #BlackLivesMatter.' Big love! Twitter was flooded with support from fans after the statement was flashed on the screen, with MasterChef fans applauding the move 'Wow Channel Ten just put broadcast a solidarity message with Black Lives Matter before MasterChef came back from break. First time I've seen a major media company in Australia do this. About time.' This comes after anti-police brutality protests have erupted in at least 75 cities across the US following the death of African-American man George Floyd. Floyd, 46, died on May 25 after he was arrested by four Minneapolis police officers for allegedly using a fake $20 bill. Demonstrations: Anti-police brutality protests have erupted in at least 75 cities across the U.S. after the death in custody of unarmed black man George Floyd (pictured) Unrest: Over the past week, hundreds of protests have unfolded in at least 75 cities across the United States in an unprecedented display of civil unrest following the death of George Floyd. Pictured: protesters vandalising a car in Washington D.C., on May 31 Officer Derek Michael Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter after footage of him pressing his knee against Floyd's neck went viral. The latest season of MasterChef has been praised for its diversity. Asian Australians have made up one-third of the contestants this season. Aside from Poh and Jess, this includes Reynold Poernomo, Sarah Tiong, Khanh Ong and Brendan Pang, as well as Amina Elshafei - who is half Korean and half Egyptian - and Ben Ungermann - who is half Indonesian and half Dutch. MasterChef continues Wednesday at 7.30pm on Channel Ten The sister-in-law of a woman who was murdered by her abusive ex-partner ten years ago still fears for domestic abuse victims as lockdown measures begin to be lifted. Pregnant Rachael Slack, 38, from Holbrook in Derbyshire, was murdered by her ex-partner, Andrew Cairns, 44, along with their 23-month-old son, Auden, in June 2010. During the horrific assault, Cairns stabbed Rachael and Auden a total of 48 times, before turning the knife on himself. Although the police had deemed Rachael at 'high risk of homicide', she was never told this information. For Rachael's family, including her mother Jean Slack, 87, her brother Hayden, 62, and sister-in-law Melony, 58, who lives in Berkshire, the Covid-19 pandemic has only intensified their pain. Pregnant Rachael Slack (pictured) , 38, from Holbrook in Derbyshire, was murdered by her ex-partner, Andrew Cairns, 44, along with their 23-month-old son, Auden, in June 2010 For brother Hayden, 62, and sister-in-law Melony, 58, (both pictured) who lives in Berkshire, the Covid-19 pandemic has only intensified their pain 'Nothing can prepare you for a tragedy like this,' Melony told FEMAIL. 'It feels like you're experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder. We hate the phrase 'lessons have been learned' because tragedies like this keep happening. 'Rachael paid the ultimate price and we still feel guilty that we didn't recognise the warning signs of domestic abuse. 'Seeing the number of women who need support at the moment has brought all those memories back. Because of social distancing, it will also be harder for us to be together as a family to support each other on the anniversary of Rachael and Audens deaths.' Two women in England and Wales are killed by a current or former partner every week, and new figures from The Counting Dead Women Project show there were 32 suspected domestic abuse killings between the beginning of lockdown and May 17. During the horrific assault, Cairns stabbed Rachael and Auden a total of 48 times, before turning the knife on himself Rachael, a talented artist, first met Andrew Cairns at an art gallery in Spain. They returned to the UK and Rachael later gave birth to their son, Auden In the last few weeks, the national domestic abuse charity Refuge has seen a 66% rise in calls and contacts to its National Domestic Abuse Helpline, and a staggering increase of 950% in visits to its Helpline website. The charity says that while lockdown is not a cause of domestic abuse, it can 'aggravate pre-existing behaviours' in abusive partners. Rachael, a talented artist, first met Andrew Cairns at an art gallery in Spain. After returning to the UK, Rachael gave birth to their son, Auden, in 2008. However, as their relationship broke down, Cairns became controlling. He was diagnosed with depression and began to emotionally and psychologically abuse Rachael. Despite his controlling behaviour, Rachael still wanted father Andrew to be a part of Auden's (pictured) life Determined to be strong for their son, Rachael, pictured with mother Jean, concealed the abuse she was suffering Because she was so caring, Rachael wanted to keep Andrew in Audens life as his father, Melony explained. But now Hayden and I wonder if this was just an excuse because he was bombarding her with calls and texts, and she was afraid he might carry out his threats to kill her, and also himself. Determined to be strong for their son, Rachael concealed the abuse she was suffering, but the family sensed that something wasn't right. Andrew was intimidating, isolating and threatening her, Melony said. But due to his mental health issues, Rachael was still helping him with tasks like laundry and shopping. We didnt realise this was actually a pattern of coercive and controlling behaviour. The bubbly, confident Rachael we always knew was slowly disappearing. What are the signs? Is your partner excessively jealous and possessive? Is he charming one minute and abusive the next? Is he stopping you from seeing your family and friends? Do you feel isolated? Is he constantly criticizing you and putting you down in public? Does he embarrass you, often in front of family and friends? Does your partner play mind games and make you unsure of your own judgment? Does he tell you youre useless and couldnt cope without him? Does he control your money? Does he tell you what to wear, who to see, where to go, what to think? Does he pressure you to have sex when you dont want to? Are you starting to walk on eggshells to avoid making him angry? Does he monitor your movements? Or check up on you via your email, Facebook, Twitter or by looking at your text messages? Does he use anger and intimidation to frighten you and make you comply with his demands? Has your partner ever threatened you, or intimidated you by using violent language or smashing up the furniture? Are you forced to alter your behaviour because you are frightened of your partners reaction? Are you blamed for their behaviour e.g. they say you were asking for it or deserved the abuse? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then you may be experiencing domestic violence. Abuse is a crime and it is never your fault. You dont have to deal with this alone. Refuge is here to support you. Advertisement Leaving an abusive partner is the time when a woman or her children are most likely to be seriously harmed. In May 2010, Rachael told Cairns she was in a new relationship and expecting another baby. In response, Cairns made the first of several threats to kill her, which Rachael reported to Derbyshire Police. At the time, Hayden and Melony were aware of only one threat against Rachaels life. Cairns was arrested but released on police bail on May 26. Five days later, on 2nd June 2010, Melony received the tragic news that Rachael and Auden had been killed. 'I was in a state of total disbelief,' she said. 'Life as we knew it no longer existed. None of us thought that Andrew would follow through with his threats and we believed the police would protect her.' As the family tried to make sense of the tragedy, Refuge reached out to offer their support. It was through this relationship that Rachael's family slowly realised that she had in fact been a victim of domestic abuse. In May 2010, Rachael told Cairns she'd fallen in love with an old school friend, Robert Barlow, and the couple were expecting another baby. Pictured, Auden celebrating on Christmas day In 2013, an inquest jury found that Rachael and Auden had been unlawfully killed and police failings had played a part in their deaths. She is pictured with her son before her death 'Domestic abuse is about more than physical violence and it can happen to anyone,' Melony explained. 'The police never told Rachael she was at risk, and we had no knowledge of any specialist services. 'Had we known about all the options that were available through Refuge, including its Helpline, Rachael might've been saved.' In 2013, an inquest jury found that Rachael and Auden had been unlawfully killed and police failings had played a part in their deaths. Melony sensed that something wasn't right as the abuse continued, they are pictured on Hayden and Melony's wedding day Melony hopes that the Domestic Abuse Bill, which recently has its second reading in Parliament will be strengthened and will pass quickly into law without further delay. Pictured, Rachael and Hayden on his graduation day Now, ten years on, Melony is supporting Refuge's calls for a strong Government response to protect women and children, which must continue long after lockdown is lifted. Melony hopes that the Domestic Abuse Bill, which recently has its second reading in Parliament will be strengthened and will pass quickly into law without further delay. To commemorate Rachael's memory, the family is also supporting Refuge's emergency Helpline appeal. As a family its our responsibility to empower other women to seek help, Melony said. 'Refuge has seen more demand for specialist services than ever during Covid-19 and women's lives depend on charities like Refuge being able to keep their services running safely. Now, ten years on, Melony is supporting Refuge's calls for a strong Government response to protect women and children She is pictured attending a refuge event with the Duchess of Cornwall, Sandra Horley and Melanie Clarke 'Rachael had so much to live for. If you're worried for yourself or a loved one, you can call Refuge's Helpline anytime on 0808 2000 247 or visit its Helpline website, www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk and request a safe time to be contacted. 'Rachael was more than just a statistic. It shouldn't take a tragedy like ours to make people realise that domestic abuse is still a matter of life or death.' For support call Refuge's free 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247 or go to nationaldahelpline.org.uk. To donate to Refuge's emergency Helpline appeal, visit refuge.org.uk Australia's $2.8 trillion superannuation system should be opened up to cut fees, help people use their savings towards their own homes and increase contributions to women as part of a wider goal of ensuring at least 50 per cent of retirees can be self-funded over time. In a new book to be released today, Liberal senator Andrew Bragg has outlined a plan for "drastic surgery" on the nation's super funds which he criticises for charging workers $32 billion in fees every year without enough scrutiny and too little pressure to deliver better performance at lower cost. Liberal senator Andrew Bragg wants Australia to change direction on super. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "The purpose is not to junk super but to make it work harder for the workers," Senator Bragg said of his proposals. "The purpose is to try to get us to change direction by re-calibrating the scheme. Are workers getting a good deal? No. Is the taxpayer getting a good deal? No." Senator Bragg also urges the Morrison government to dump the way workers are put into default funds and argues instead for a new scheme akin to the Future Fund. The fund would be a new "semi-government" default fund with low fees that outsourced the management of assets to several wholesale fund managers including the Future Fund. The Queen's Commonwealth Trust and The Diana Award have joined forces to show their support for for the Black Lives Matter movement. The QCT, which is overseen by the Queen, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, took to Twitter to share poignant Martin Luther King Jr quote, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Alongside the quote, they tweeted: 'Young people are vital voices in the fight against injustice and racism around the world. 'As a global community of young leaders we stand together in pursuit of fairness and a better way forward. Silence is not an option.' The Queen's Commonwealth Trust and The Diana Award have joined forces to show their support for for the Black Lives Matter movement, overseen by the Queen (seen in May 2019) The QCT, which is overseen by Queen Elizabeth, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, took to Twitter to share poignant Martin Luther King Jr quote, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere Meanwhile The Diana Award, a charity set up in the late Princess Diana's memory, tweeted: 'We will not be silent. 'We will continue to pursue a world where every young person, irrespective of the colour of their skin, fulfills their potential without the fear of discrimination. We see you. We stand with you.' Alongside the tweet, they shared a picture of a police officer asking a young child what they want to be when they grow up, to which the little boy replies: 'Alive'. Meanwhile The Diana Award, a charity set up in the late Princess Diana's memory, tweeted: 'We will not be silent.' The QCT is championed by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and is a growing network of young changemakers across the Commonwealth. Meanwhile The Diana Trust champions her elief that 'young people have the power to change the world', and champions causes such as anti-bullying. The show of unity from social media users around the world has come in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a black man killed by a white policeman in Minnesota who knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes during an arrest over the alleged use of a counterfeit banknote. In highly distressing video footage which emerged last week, the 46-year-old was heard gasping 'I can't breathe' before his death. Protests have taken place across America, Britain and beyond after white police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on unarmed George Floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds last week, despite Floyd's desperate repeated pleas for help crying, 'I can't breathe'. Floyd passed out and later died. His death is seen as a symbol of systemic police brutality against African-Americans sparking outrage country-wide. Tens of thousands of people gathered as the National Guard was deployed to over half the states in the country on Sunday for further demonstrations against police brutality. Philippines fishermen urged to take advantage of open fishing season by Marita Moaje June 02,2020 | Source: PNA The Philippines Department of Agriculture's (DA) Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) has urged fisherfolk to take advantage of the open fishing season in most parts of the country amid the coronavirus pandemic. Open fishing season is currently observed in Northern Palawan, the Visayan Sea, and Zamboanga Peninsula. The Davao Gulf is closed for fishing starting June 1 until August 31. In a recent statement released by DA-BFAR, it said: fishing activities may continue despite the community quarantine enforced in different areas in the Philippines." DA Memorandum Circular No. 9 states that fishing activities shall continue to ensure food supply across the country. This is complementary with the DA Memorandum Circular No. 7 which sought to ensure that every Filipino household in Luzon and high-dense metropolitan areas have access to safe and affordable food. The country is in its peak fishing season, and the weather is conducive for fishing as the seas are generally calm. "We encourage our fisherfolk to take advantage of the present weather and sea conditions and continue with their fishing activities taking into consideration existing laws and regulations against illegal and unsustainable fishing," the DA-BFAR said. Sea safety, health, and quarantine protocols set by the authorities should also be observed by everyone engaged in fishing activities. Meanwhile, the DA reminded fisherfolk that fishing of certain fish species is prohibited in specific areas in the country during the closed season. This is to allow fish species to reproduce and for the fry and juveniles to mature and restore valuable fish stocks. BFARs National Stock Assessment Program in Region 9, where a closed season is implemented, reported that consistent positive growth in sardine production was achieved and may be attributed to the department's conservation measure. Sardine catch increased from 141, 658.79 metric tons (MT) in 2015 to 148,718.22 MT in 2016, and reaching 165, 293.32 MT in 2017. Open fishing season is now being observed in the fishing grounds of Northeast Palawan in Northen Sulu Sea which is closed from November to January; the Visayan Sea which is closed from November 15 to February 15, and the Zamboanga Peninsula which closes from December 1 until March 1 of every year. Meanwhile, the Davao Gulf is currently in its closed season which started in June and will last until August 31. 2020 Philippine News Agency Theme(s): Others. It only took a couple of months for the coronavirus to completely change the world as we knew it. But, if youre patiently waiting for things to return to normal, I have some bad news for you: I dont think that well ever ultimately return to a pre-COVID-19 world. So, how has the future of work been altered? Well, heres a glimpse into what to anticipate going forward. Permanent flexibility. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, 5 million people were already working from home at least half of the time. Since then, according to research from Salesforce, 61 percent of the workforce is working from home. Even more astounding is that 53 percent of employees began doing so because of COVID-19. And, guess what? Theyre more productive and communicative. Because of this, expect flexible working arrangements to become the norm rather than just a trend. Twitter recently announced that most employees would be able to WFH permanently, and even more traditional companies like Barclays and Morgan Stanley have implemented this policy. "It's obvious at this stage that remote working will be viewed with entirely new importance post-COVID-19," said Ben Rogers, president of platform and technology clients at the National Research Group (NRG). "Investments in platforms and technology will need to be made to maximize efficiency in this new paradigm. Does this mean employees will never leave their homes again? Of course not. They may visit the office one or two days a week for in-person events. Also, there will be some jobs where working remotely isnt an option. But, we can be certain that the days of the traditional 9-to-5 daily grind are behind us. Say goodbye to many in-person meetings. Because of the coronavirus, virtual meetings have become more popular than ever. And just like remote work, expect the trend to become the new normal. We've seen Zoom pick up in a big way and many significant innovations with other virtual meeting platforms. COVID may also lessen a lot of business travel. But, dont just expect an uptick in video conferences. Anticipate replacing even more of your meetings with email and instant messages. No disrespect to face-to-face interactions, but these types of communications will likely be faster and more efficient. But, when its time to build rapport, rely on video conferences and try out team-building activities like virtual lunches. Related: 7 Mistakes Leaders Make When Managing a Remote Team Share employees in cross-industry talent exchanges. As leaders," say Ravin Jesuthasan, Tracey Malcolm and Susan Cantrell in HBR, "we must all ask ourselves: How can we tap into the broader ecosystem of talent to build the resilience of both organizations and people during these challenging times? The answer? One innovative response is to develop a cross-industry talent exchange. What exactly is this? Well, its where unemployed people, because of this crisis, temporarily work at organizations that have an excess of work, such as logistics. Why is this beneficial? It helps avoid the frictional and reputational costs associated with letting people go while supporting workers in developing new skills and networks. Companies like Kroger, for example, have borrowed furloughed employees from the wholesale food distributor Sysco. Months earlier in China, companies also creatively started sharing employees, the authors add. In these arrangements, the companies receiving employees define which skills theyre looking for, explain Jesuthasan, Malcolm, and Cantrell. They then work with the companies sharing their employees to define the length of the exchange as well as the implications for pay, benefits, and insurance. Adaptable, agile and innovative companies will thrive. Which companies are going to come out of the pandemic relatively unscathed? Its going to be those with a work-at-home model. Obviously, this is because they have limited fixed costs, such as real estate, and theyre light enough that they can change directions if they must. But, its not all doom and gloom for businesses with physical locations or products. Case in point: distillers that have pivoted from making spirits to hand sanitizer. Or, clothing companies now making masks to meet the demands of customers. Another example would be offering online services. Take a gym, as an example. Clients could pay for virtual training sessions instead of physically going to the gym. Related: How Agile Leaders Help Organizations Thrive Focus on outcomes, not time. As we adjust to new working arrangements, theres a temptation to monitor our team. Currently, employers are keeping tabs on their teams with keystroke monitoring, reading Slack messages, or analyzing what screens youve shared on Zoom. But, constantly monitoring your employees could backfire. Employees may feel like their privacy has been violated. As a consequence, they may leave your organization. It also stifles innovation and signals that you dont trust them, which decreases motivation and productivity. So, in small doses, this may work, but encouraging ownership may be the better option. The role of leaders will shift to further attention on empowering their employees, energizing them around a common mission, and measuring the outcomes of their work, writes Bill George, author of Discover Your True North. Instead of measuring employees inputs, companies will shift to results and forward-looking metrics like market share and customer feedback. Related: Work-Life Balance Is Simple. To Succeed at Work, Get a Life. Employee health and well-being will be at the forefront. Team wellness is now at the forefront of employee and company priorities. While we are still in COVID and may be stranded for some time to come, keep working on making sure your team is doing well mentally and physically. Maintain team activities. Depending on your industry, this will vary. But, if youre expecting employees to physically return to the workplace, then you need to step-up your cleaning and sterilization game. You may also have to implement mandatory on-thee-job screenings. Companies like Amazon, Walmart, and Starbucks have been taking the temperature of their employees. There may even be an immunity passport, like the one being discussed in the UK. Expect face masks to be worn around the office. Watch for the rebels and bullying that happens in the circumstances to make others feel foolish about their mask-wearing. Additionally, you may need to assist your team with their mental health regardless of whether they come into work or work remotely. On an individual level, unfortunately, there are some people who are going to face post-traumatic stress, said Adam Grant, a professor at the Wharton School. The encouraging news psychologically is over half of people report a different response to trauma, which is post-traumatic growth. Post-traumatic growth is the sense that I wish this didn't happen but, given that it happened, I feel like I am better in some way, explains Grant. It might be a heightened sense of personal strength." Or, "it could be a deeper sense of gratitude; it could be finding new meaning, or investing more in relationships. To assist with this, show empathy and reduce the stigma surrounding mental health. You should make sure that your insurance plan covers therapist visits, and you can refer them to teletherapists, apps like Headspace or crisis hotlines. Related: These Sectors Will Come Out Stronger Post COVID-19 Crisis RBI Rate Cut, Government Stimulus Done: What Are the Markets Eyeing Now? How To Best Manage Pauses In Working Amid a Crisis Copyright 2020 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved The Indian National Lok Dal party (INLD), led by Ellenabad MLA Abhay Singh Chautala, staged a dharna outside Sirsa deputy commissioners office against delay in payment to wheat and mustard growers on Tuesday. Addressing the protesters, Chautala alleged that the BJP- JJP governments claim of providing payment to farmers within 72 hours of procurement had fallen flat. The government is yet to give payment of 700 crore out of the total payment of Rs 3,600 crore to the mustard growers. The wheat farmers have only been paid 1,600 crore out of the total payment for wheat procurement amounting to 16,000 crore. Around 60% of farmers who sold their wheat crop in the mandis have been waiting for their payment for the last 25 days, the MLA added. He also alleged that the government had procured only 75 lakh metric tonnes of wheat as against last years 95 lakh metric tonnes. The contractors are charging 5 per bag from the commission agents for lifting the procured wheat and mustard which is a scam worth 800 crore. Farmers are being forced to sell their produce at a deduction of two to three kilograms per quintal in the name of moisture content. If the government will not make payment to them in the next seven days, we will hold a dharna again to voice their concern, Abhay added. The President calls them terrorists. They have been accused of turning peaceful protests across the country into violent riots. So what is 'Antifa'? Most Americans had never heard of the movement until 2016 when Donald Trump's rise to power coincided with clashes between the far left and white supremacists. But one of the earliest reports of American anti-fascist groups was in fact almost a century ago, when hundreds of Milwaukee anti-fascists stormed a pro-Nazi meeting in 1934 and pelted the lead speaker with rotten eggs. Today its supporters are still unified in fighting white supremacists though many go much further with their beliefs, seeking to wage war on the police, bring down the government and ultimately overthrow capitalism through riots, protests, strikes and mass civil disobedience. Experts say the movement has proven hard to pin down, with no leaders, financial structure or even official groups, making it near-impossible to analyze the true size or power of the group, which often spontaneously assembles as a violent fringe at peaceful protests. President Trump has called Antifa terrorists and the group has been accused of turning peaceful protests across the country into violent riots Today its supporters are still unified in fighting white supremacists though many go much further with their beliefs, seeking to wage war on the police, bring down the government and ultimately overthrow capitalism through riots, protests, strikes and mass civil disobedience. Pictured: A protester on a bicycle rides past a burning police car during a demonstration next to the city of Miami Police Department, Saturday, May 30, 2020 Experts say the movement has proven hard to pin down, with no leaders, financial structure or even official groups, making it near-impossible to analyze the true size or power of the group, which often spontaneously assembles as a violent fringe at peaceful protests. Pictured: A poster with the message 'Justice for George' and 'Antifa on the offensive' is held by a protester Police officers guard the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago on May 30, as they hold back protesters during a rally and march over the death of George Floyd However, the organizer of Antifa news site It's Going Down told CNN in 2017 that their website gets between 10,000 and 40,000 hits on its best days, and a 2019 report by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, lists more than 70 arrests of Antifa supporters at violent clashes across nine states in the past two years. Center director Brian Levin, who has studied Antifa and other radical movements for decades, told DailyMail.com the riots erupting after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minnesota police officers were a typical opportunity for Antifa to assemble and wreak havoc. 'Antifa goes back decades,' he said. 'It has a broad range of folks. It's really a loose network. 'Since these networks are so informal, they tend to come together around events rather than ideologies and personalities.' Levin, a former NYPD police officer, said the movement includes people who believe in peaceful direct action and also those 'who want to burn down society and build it up once it's burned down.' 'When you have a catalytic event it becomes a lamp that not only attracts people looking for reform but also violent interlopers. Some of these folks, I would bet dollars to donuts, are Antifa,' he said. 'At their most ragged edge and extreme core this is a group that would like to see violence against civil society, and that not only includes racists but journalists and government officials.' Levin said support for the movement peaks at moments of social unrest. Antifa-aligned protesters clad in black and wearing masks caused violence at the 1999 Seattle World Trade Organization protests (pictured) Antifa-aligned protesters agitated for violence during the 2011 Occupy Wall Street marches (pictured) that demanded economic reform after the 2008 crash And in an infamous incident three years ago, Antifa joined other counter-protesters in violent clashes at a neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville in August 2017 (pictured) The Charlottesville rally led to 30 injuries and the death of a woman deliberately run over by a white supremacist in August 2017 (pictured) Antifa members who have been convicted of violence during protests Gage Halupowski Halupowski was arrested during clashes at a far-right rally in Portland, Oregon, last June. He pleaded guilty to assault, and was sentenced to nearly 6 years in prison. Halupowski used an expandable baton to beat victim Adam Kelly as he rushed to help an older man who was being attacked. Kelly was left with a concussion and had 25 staples for wounds on his head. Gage Halupowski Eric Hancock Hancock was sentenced to a year in prison for a felony unlawful wounding after a fighting broke out at a show by an allegedly fascist-affiliated band The Sentinels in Richmond, Virginia, in January 2018. Eric Hancock David Campbell Campbell, 32, was arrested at a January 2018 counter-demonstration against a gathering of far-right supporters in Manhattan, New York. Prosecutors say Campbell punched and choked his victim. He pleaded guilty to two counts of felony assault and was sentenced to 18 months prison. David Campbell Advertisement Levin said support for the movement peaks at moments of social unrest. Antifa-aligned protesters clad in black and wearing masks caused violence at the 1999 Seattle World Trade Organization protests, and agitated for violence during the 2011 Occupy Wall Street marches that demanded economic reform after the 2008 crash. The movement struggled to generate momentum after the re-election of Barack Obama helped to quell the radical left's resentment of the political system. But once Trump emerged as a Republican leader in 2016, the movement began to gain traction again. Among several violent incidents, ten were hospitalized in June 2016 after a riot broke out at a white supremacist rally outside the California State Capitol in Sacramento. Antifa protesters turned up with wooden bats, sticks and fireworks and attacked the neo-Nazi Traditionalist Workers Party and Golden State Skinheads. And in an infamous incident three years ago, Antifa joined other counter-protesters in violent clashes at a neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville in August 2017 that led to 30 injuries and the death of a woman deliberately run over by a white supremacist. Levin's center released a report in July last year detailing 'a string of politically motivated assaults and suspected crimesand non-violent protestsby Antifa, anarchists, and hard left extremists.' The report, titled the Factbook on Hate & Extremism in the US & Internationally, listed 19 incidents of violence or harassment by Antifa supporters in 2018 and 2019 across nine states. Many of the incidents, which resulted in at least 23 injuries or assaults and 77 arrests, were attacks by members of the movement on perceived supporters of the far right. The increased violence and support for the movement in the past few years has caught the attention of federal law enforcement. According to a joint intelligence assessment by the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation obtained by news site Politico, federal agencies were investigating potential 'domestic terrorist violence' by 'anarchist extremist' groups including Antifa as early as Spring 2016. The report, titled 'Baseline Comparison of US and Foreign Anarchist Extremist Movements', discovered that although the movement was disparate and without a formal structure, violent cells could still be well-organized. According to the news site, the DHS report said that at the June 2016 clash in Sacramento, Antifa protesters 'engaged in several activities indicating proficiency in pre-operational planning, to include organizing carpools to travel from different locations, raising bail money in preparation for arrests, counter-surveilling law enforcement using three-man scout teams, using handheld radios for communication, and coordinating the event via social media.' A June 2017 statement by the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness identified Antifa groups in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco, and named three chapters in New Jersey alone: North Jersey Antifa, the South Jersey Antifa, and the HubCity Antifa New Brunswick. The statement predicted that 'violent confrontations between Antifa members and white supremacistsas well as militia groupswill likely continue because of ideological differences and Antifa's ability to organize on social media.' As well as highlighting violence, the statement described other methods used by Antifa groups, including the 'doxing' (public identification) of a prominent member of white supremacist organization American Vanguard by the group Antifascist Action-Nebraska, which posted fliers on the University of Nebraska Omaha campus calling for his expulsion. A man throws a Molotov cocktail on Melrose Avenue in the Fairfax District during demonstrations following the death of George Floyd on May 30, 2020 in Los Angeles Demonstrators react as a helicopter circles low as people gather to protest the death of George Floyd, Monday, June 1, 2020, near the White House in Washington Riot police hold shields as demonstrators rally near the White House on May 30 Levin told DailyMail.com the Antifa movement has previously thrived by rallying left leaning potential sympathizers against the perceived spread of far right groups and also waned in support when white supremacists groups were less active. 'They got some of their energy and fervor from direct confrontations at rallies with these folks,' he said. 'When the alt-right groups collapsed post-Charlottesville and didn't rally nearly as much, Antifa were all dressed up with no party to go to,' he said. Levin added Antifa's support was deflated by more progressive politicians in the Democratic Party like Bernie Sanders and the 'Squad' a group of radical young women including Ilhan Omar and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez who joined Congress in the last election, helping bring potential radical recruits back into the party fold. But Levin said when Sanders failed to win the nomination, Antifa saw another chance for recruitment, and some in the group have been waiting for a spike in social unrest to try to foment violence. 'They were not only boxed in by the alt-right but also by the progressive left, which made some incredible political in-roads during this campaign season,' Levin said. 'But they didn't get their candidate. 'I think what Antifa is trying to do now is say hey, now the progressives weren't successful in mainstream politics as they thought they'd be, we can take those grievances and say we're going to run with it, not the mainstream leaders.' Levin added Antifa's support was deflated by more progressive politicians in the Democratic Party like Bernie Sanders and the 'Squad' a group of radical young women including Ilhan Omar and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez who joined Congress in the last election, helping bring potential radical recruits back into the party fold The domestic terror expert said that perversely, Trump's tweets last week blaming Antifa for violence at protests will only encourage the movement. On Saturday Trump tweeted 'It's ANTIFA and the Radical Left. Don't lay the blame on others!' The next day he congratulated the National Guard brought in to control riots in Minneapolis, and wrote 'The ANTIFA led anarchists, among others, were shut down quickly The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization' Despite the President's announcement, the White House already admitted two years ago that there is no 'mechanism for formally designating domestic terrorist organizations', especially movements with no formal structure like Antifa though prosecutors can characterize particular incidents as 'domestic terrorist violence' Levin said angry protests over the death of a black man under the knee of a white police officer was the perfect opportunity. 'The killing of Mr Floyd resonates with all Americans but particularly with Antifa partisans who view the police as some kind of racist occupying force,' he told DailyMail.com. The domestic terror expert said that perversely, Trump's tweets last week blaming Antifa for violence at protests will only encourage the movement. On Saturday Trump tweeted 'It's ANTIFA and the Radical Left. Don't lay the blame on others!' The next day he congratulated the National Guard brought in to control riots in Minneapolis, and wrote 'The ANTIFA led anarchists, among others, were shut down quickly The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.' 'They're going to wear Trump's comments as a badge of honor,' Levin said. Despite the President's announcement, the White House already admitted two years ago that there is no 'mechanism for formally designating domestic terrorist organizations', especially movements with no formal structure like Antifa though prosecutors can characterize particular incidents as 'domestic terrorist violence'. As New Zealanders line up in record numbers for flu vaccinations, ratepayers will be funding free flu injections for Councillors and staff across the whole Council group. It is unclear exactly how long this has been offered, but it appears to have been several years. Uptake of the offer is voluntary, and ranges from around one-quarter of Panuku Development Aucklands 200 or so staff last year, to 45 percent, currently, of Auckland Transports 1809 employees. Last year a total of 2695 Auckland Council employees were vaccinated at a cost of $67,375. This year Council has budgeted a similar amount, $65,000-$68,000, to provide free flu vaccinations, although it anticipates an increase in demand from staff. Auckland Transports health and safety department expects to pay around $25,000 and Watercare $6320. No figures for ATEED or Regional Facilities Auckland were provided. The total cost could therefore be expected to be in the vicinity of $100,000 or more across Council and its CCOs annually. In the past, the vaccinations have generally been provided via on-site clinics during flu season. However, given the Covid-19 restrictions, this year employees are getting their vaccinations from their local pharmacy or GP and then claim back the costs. In a virtual roundtable with mayors of some of the cities most affected by unrest following protests about the death of George Floyd, Joe Biden asked what the federal government should be providing them. The simple answer is money and morals, Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti told the former vice president and Democrat nominee for president. We need some morality. We need leadership. In a further direct reference to President Donald Trump. Mr Garcetti went on to say: I would love for this president to speak to this nation to say maybe it was wrong when I said that, you know, our law enforcement officers a few years ago shouldn't worry about people's heads when they're putting them in police cars. That there is a consequence when you begin to chip away and dismiss who people are as human beings, it results in a knee on someone's neck and the life being choked out of them, he added referring to Mr Floyd's death. Mayor Garcetti and Mr Biden were joined in the roundtable by Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, and St Paul Mayor Melvin Carter. Apparent inaction from the federal government in Washington, DC, over both the current unrest, and an underwhelming response to the coronavirus pandemic, was a theme of discussion. Mayor Carter said: We need help. We need it right away. And, you know, to hear the White House and the Senate majority saying that there's no rush on another stimulus package, that there's no rush in getting help to those Americans all over the country that are hurting right now. It's just [adding] insult to injury. Mayor Bottoms concurred: We absolutely cannot do it alone. We are already suffering from Covid-19 and our budgets are being slashed almost in half because we don't have revenue resources coming in. And just seeing the president of the United States say that he's going to send the military into our communities, but hasnt mentioned sending a single dime of support to our communities. Speaks to where we are in America. Reflecting on the events of the past week, Mr Biden acknowledged that people are angry. Recommended Joe Biden issues emotional plea calling for an end to nationwide riots We need that anger, he said. It's gonna be incredibly difficult finding the balance between keeping people safe, protecting public spaces, while acknowledging the incredible pain or legitimate anger that is the root of these protests. Mayor Lightfoot said that she felt it was sacred to support and uphold peoples first amendment rights to express their righteous anger and that those people should be separated from the lawlessness that has been seen on the citys streets. We're all hurting today. We're hurting for different reasons, but we're hurting we just have to acknowledge that and make sure that we talk to people about not losing their sense of hope, she said. Mr Garcetti acknowledged that mayors have a seemingly impossible task ahead of them, but that it is also impossible for them to retreat from it. All of the mayors noted that there had been progress in developing authentic relationships between the police and communities but there was still much work to be done. Daugavpils Airport, Daugavpils, Latvia [ DGP / ] If you are planning to travel to Daugavpils or any other city in Latvia, this airport locator will be a very useful tool. This page gives complete information about the Daugavpils Airport along with the airport location map, Time Zone, lattitude and longitude, Current time and date, hotels near the airport etc... Daugavpils Airport Map showing the location of this airport in Latvia. Daugavpils Airport IATA Code, ICAO Code, exchange rate etc... is also provided. 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The two journalists, on assignment for Australias Channel 7, one of the nations major networks, were among the members of the news media covering the demonstration as President Trump threatened a crackdown on protests in a speech delivered from the Rose Garden starting at 6:43 p.m. Shortly before a 7 p.m. curfew went into effect in Washington, officers in riot gear and National Guard soldiers started to disperse the crowd. An officer slammed into an Australian camera operator, Tim Myers, with a riot shield, knocking his camera to the ground. As Mr. Myers and his colleague, the reporter Amelia Brace, started to run, another officer appeared to swing a baton at Ms. Braces back. Mr. Myers was standing still and filming as the officer slammed into him, with the footage airing live on Australian television. When Ms. Brace came back into view, she said: You heard us yelling there that we were media, but they, they dont care. Washingtons ABC affiliate captured the incident from another angle and also aired it live. Covid-19 has provided humanity with a pause to consider the status quo and hopefully to make both short-term and longer-term adjustments for a better and brighter future. The most obvious learning from Covid-19 and the earlier SARS and MERS pandemics is that these events are likely to recur regularly (perhaps every decade) in the future. Many Governments have had to develop urgent pandemic management strategies under duress. This Covid-19 pandemic will have taught the international community a great deal about managing similar future pandemic events. The New Zealand Government has received plaudits from many international sources for its leadership and, specifically, for the clarity of its strategy and consistent communication during the crisis. There is an urgent need now to restore the economy of New Zealand and to minimise the damage to organisations caused by the unavoidable strangulation of cashflow during Covid-19. There is an ongoing need for both short-term and long-term strategies to start on a new track towards more sustainable development, especially regarding climate change. The temporary reduction of atmospheric pollutants in the European Union, caused by reduced combustion of fossil fuels associated with reduced road and air travel during Covid-19, demonstrates what is possible in the short term. These improvements should confirm to the global community that with strong motivation, key climate change factors can be minimised relatively quickly. There are some grounds for some longer-term optimism regarding sustainability and climate change. The advent of electric vehicles, electric planes and electric vessels over the coming two decades will contribute substantially and positively to an improved climate change status. At the same time, a reduction in coal power is evident in many countries, including even the USA under the current administration. This encouraging trend is offset by the increased use of thermal coal in the industrial development of China and India. The other difficult global challenge is the projected increase in the population of the planet from about 7 billion at present to about 11 billion in 2100, with this growth being mainly in Africa and Asia. This population increase raises the serious question of growth limits for a planet of finite resources, and where already 40 per cent of its population live in extreme poverty. This is a good time to address the question of best practice models for future sustainable economic development in New Zealand. Many New Zealand companies already promote higher sustainability practice. We now need to think beyond our leading trading partners China, Australia and the USA. Circumstances are right for New Zealand to explore new dimensions of sustainable economic development, inspired by the most innovative countries, with a special focus on smaller countries with populations similar to New Zealand. The Scandinavian countries (Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Sweden) as well as some of our Asia-Pacific neighbours (Singapore and Taiwan) have much to offer us in terms of new economic ideas and high environmental values. Emeritus Professor Ralph Cooney r.cooney@auckland.ac.nz Alec Baldwin is facing backlash for promoting his new podcast interview with controversial director Woody Allen on #BlackoutTuesday. Baldwin took to social media with several posts about the interview and was immediately met with fury from his followers for not only his choice to sit down with Allen, who has been accused of sexual assault by his adopted daughter, but also for his 'tone-deaf' timing. BlackoutTuesday was devised to disrupt the work week by stopping production and social media promotion in order to reflect and focus time and energy on promoting black artists, businesses and projects. Defending himself: Alec Baldwin is facing backlash for promoting his new podcast interview with controversial director Woody Allen on #BlackoutTuesday and then he doubled down on his choices after being met with fury from his followers On Tuesday, the 62-year-old actor shared a shot of director Woody Allen on his Instagram with a long caption hyping up their conversation on his podcast, Here's The Thing. Allen came on as a guest to discuss his controversial new memoir, Apropos of Nothing. 'Woody Allen's new book, Apropos of Nothing, starts with a portrait of his father, a tough-guy World War One Navy veteran and onetime gunman in a firing squad,' Baldwin's caption read. 'It's the first of a series of surprising, fascinating stories from a life that went from working-class Jewish Brooklyn in the 1940s to movie sets in Rome and Paris.' Backlash: Followers immediately took umbrage with Baldwin for his choice to interview Allen, who has been accused of sexually molesting his adopted daughter when she was seven, and the fact that he posted the promo messages on #BlackoutTuesday 'National day of whatever': Alec went on to tell his followers he had 'no idea' about #blackouttuesday and added the 'professional lives of some people cannot be put on hold at the whims of political correctness' 'The book also addresses the accusation of an incident of sexual abuse leveled by Dylan Farrow. Allen and Alec cover it all -- plus how he's doing in the age of coronavirus -- in this candid and wide-ranging interview.' In 1992 Dylan Farrow, Allen's estranged adopted daughter with ex-Mia Farrow, accused him of sexually molesting her when she was seven years old. Now 34, Dylan later repeated her allegations several time as an adult and, for his part, Woody has long denied her accusations. 'I've worked on three Woody Allen films, each being a highlight of my career,' Alec Baldwin wrote in a second post promoting his podcast. A time to pause: BlackoutTuesday was devised to disrupt the work week by stopping production and social media promotion in order to reflect and focus time and energy on promoting black artists, businesses and projects. Anger: Alec jumped into the comments and doubled down on his relationship with Allen, saying he believes the director is 'innocent' and called Blackout Tuesday a 'national day of whatever' Adding: 'Today he joins me on my podcast and we talk about everything from his mentors, to his method of directing, and the accusation of sexual abuse.' His followers seemed floored that Baldwin went ahead with his business-as-usual promotional posts, which came on the same day as #BlackoutTuesday. 'Always love following your account but this is a tone deaf thing to post today,' one person quipped. Others added things like 'I am speechless, 'Are you serious?' and 'accused him of being 'dismissive' and 'defending a pedophile.' Baldwin is pictured here with Allen on the set of To Rome with Love in 2011 'Was this a scheduled post? Might be better rescheduled for another day, as the majority of us are obviously taking the day to show solidarity and also to take the time to listen and learn about white privilege,' another added. 'This post surprises me. Please let me know if this is a post that you just put up and wasnt scheduled.' Despite some people trying to give Baldwin the benefit of the doubt, he actually doubled down on his relationship with Allen and the timing of his posts calling Blackout Tuesday a 'national day of whatever.' Alec jumped into the comments with a lengthy response explaining away his choices because he was obligated to promote the episode as his guests 'have either requested or required a specific posting date in order to promote a project.' 'We make every effort to honor those requests. Allen is no exception,' he said. 'As for the perceived lack of sensitivity re BlackOutTuesday, I had no idea about this...national day of whatever.' Social media: As part of Blackout Tuesday, social media users have been sharing blank black images to show solidarity, like this one by Justin Bieber; Those images have been met with some criticism by many who see them as a hollow gesture that serves to clog up feeds and silence black voices. 'Three things: the professional lives of some people cannot be put on hold at the whims of political correctness. I believe Allen is innocent and that is my right. Posting a black screen today or any other day, though a decent sentiment, is not an effective political stance.' As part of Blackout Tuesday, social media users have been sharing blank black images to show solidarity. However, those images have been met with some criticism by many who see them as a hollow gesture that serves to clog up feeds and silence black voices. Particularly, those posting the black boxes have been asked not to use the Black Lives matter hashtags in those posts (#BlackLivesMatter, #BLM) to keep those feeds flowing with crucial information. In defense: Baldwin later reposted a call to action from his 24-year-old daughter Ireland about how the black squares are overtaking feeds and suppressing black voices and she came to his defense in comments Baldwin suggested that viral hashtags didn't do much good for the overall cause and said 'voting, and working to enroll others to vote, is more...practical.' He reposted a call to action from his 24-year-old daughter Ireland about how the black squares are overtaking feeds. She responded in the comments defending her her dad: 'Although the black squares are a sign of solidarity, Im shedding light to the posts that my black activist friends are continuing to post and get out there. 'I think everyone commenting negatively is missing the whole idea here. defending my dad because I know his intentions and where his heart is at.' On Monday, Ireland was spotted marching alongside protesters in Van Nuys, California. US President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison discussed Hong Kong, the World Health Organisation's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and September's G7 summit during their latest phone call. The White House released details on Tuesday local time (Wednesday AEST) of the leaders' chat, which included the President extending an invitation to Morrison to attend September's G7 meeting at Camp David in Maryland. Donald Trump, right, invited Scott Morrison to attend the G7 summit in Camp David in September. "President Trump thanked Prime Minister Morrison for his leadership in calling for an independent investigation of the World Health Organisation's handling of the coronavirus pandemic," White House spokesman Judd Deere said. "The two leaders also discussed issues of mutual concern including Hong Kong, strengthening the global economy, and the G7 Summit." Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Tri Indah Oktavianti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 2, 2020 14:40 598 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb885fb 1 National UNDP,IOM,WHO,COVID-19 Free The first shipment of five ventilators from a total of 33 units jointly procured by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for Indonesia arrived in Jakarta on Monday. The ventilators will be symbolically given to the BNPB [National Disaster Mitigation Agency], communications head of UNDP Indonesia Tomi Soetjipto said in a press statement on Tuesday. Ventilators are important devices that are greatly needed for COVID-19 patients, he added. For severely ill COVID-19 patients whose lungs have been damaged by the coronavirus, a ventilator pushes oxygen-rich air into the lungs, helping the patient to breathe normally. The ventilator is expected to give the patient time to fight off the virus and recover. However, the survival rate for COVID-19 patients on ventilators is not yet clear. Globally, there has been a high demand for essential equipment to treat COVID-19, so these ventilators will make a significant impact in providing critical care to those patients worst affected, across the country, WHO Representative to Indonesia N. Paranietharan said in the statement. The joint effort of UN organizations to assist Indonesia will provide a total of 33 ventilators over the course of four weeks at an estimated cost of US$762,460. The WHO will provide a total of 27 ventilators supported through a partnership with the Japanese government, meanwhile, the IOM and the UNDP will provide three ventilators each. In complement, the UNDP together with the rest of the United Nations development system will intensify its support to cushion the socioeconomic impact of the pandemic on the Indonesian people and prepare for a green sustainable recovery in close partnership with the government, UNDP resident representative Christophe Bahuet said. Chief of mission of the IOM, Louis Hoffmann, added that the delivery of the ventilators was funded by the Australian government as part of a larger package of critical, life-saving supplies and equipment that the IOM will deliver to the country. Previously, Indonesia was set to receive the first delivery of ventilators from the United States in early June, as a result of a call between President Joko Jokowi Widodo and US President Donald Trump in April. Domestically, the Research and Technology Ministry along with the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) had stated that Indonesia would start producing 100 to 300 ventilators starting in early June, with state-owned weapons manufacturer Pindad, hospital equipment maker PT Poly Jaya Medikal, electronics manufacturer PT LEN and automotive holding company Dharma Group among those involved in the manufacturing process. Woman suffers life-threatening emergency at Ill. Planned Parenthood abortion clinic Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The pro-life organization Operation Rescue has raised concerns about the health and safety of women seeking abortions at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Flossmoor, Illinois, after two consecutive medical emergencies occurred there. Operation Rescue, one of the nations leading activist groups opposing abortion, reports that one of the two emergencies occurred when an abortionist tore a woman's uterus during an abortion. The life-threatening incident that occurred on May 8 resulted in a call to 911 and an ensuing dispatch of an ambulance to the clinic. Operation Rescue obtained the May 8 911 call recording and a document showing that it took an ambulance about seven minutes to arrive at the scene. According to the audio recording of the 911 call, a Planned Parenthood employee told a 911 dispatcher that the facility needed a medical transport for a woman with a possible uterine perforation. We have a patient during a procedure. Possible Perf, the employee told the dispatcher. Operation Rescue contends that the employees use of the slang term for the injury suggests that it might be a frequent occurrence. The use of the abbreviated term for perforation seems to imply that this kind of injury has happened often enough that a slang term was developed for it, Operation Rescue President Troy Newman said in a statement. In fact, I have seen this injury mentioned frequently in many 911 records that have crossed my desk. According to Operation Rescue, a uterine perforation is a life-threatening injury that occurs when the abortionist pushes abortion instruments through the womb and into the abdominal cavity, which causes a hole or tear in the uterus that needs surgical repair at a hospital. A perforation can result in hemorrhaging and damage to other organs, according to Operation Rescue. As for the reported emergency that occurred at the Flossmoor facility on May 7, a private ambulance service was called. Video provided to Operation Rescue by a local pro-life advocate shows a woman being removed from the clinics rear entrance on a gurney before being loaded into an ambulance operated by Buds Ambulance Services. No 911 records from the May 7 incident are available. Operation Rescue Senior Vice President Cheryl Sullenger believes that the lack of 911 records for the incident is probably because employees for the clinic likely called the private ambulance service directly. According to Operation Rescue, Buds Ambulance Services is located about 10 miles from Flossmoor. Normal driving time without lights and sirens, which appeared not to be in use during the emergency, is 22 minutes a long time to wait for help, Sullenger wrote in a report. The Flossmoor Planned Parenthood facility opened in January 2018. According to Operation Rescue, at least four emergencies have led to women being hospitalized since the clinic opened. Operation Rescue previously reported on emergencies that occurred on Nov. 12, 2019, and Dec. 14, 2018, in which two women suffered from hemorrhaging due to alleged botched abortions. No matter what Planned Parenthood says, abortions are not safe, Newman added in his statement. We have documented hundreds of life-threatening injuries at abortion facilities and dozens of maternal deaths that prove abortion is not safe for women. Planned Parenthood needs to stop lying about the dangers of abortion to the American people. Among women who have died from botched abortions include 24-year-old Cree Erwin Sheppard, a single mother who died in 2016 a few days after having an abortion in Michigan. Her family later said doctors failed to recognize or treat her perforated uterus. According to MLive, Erwin-Sheppard was sent home after her procedure with instructions to follow-up with a doctor or Planned Parenthood after a long weekend. However, she died before she could make it to an appointment. A study released in 2018 found that about 5,500 women are hospitalized each year or sent to emergency rooms after complications from an abortion. The study was led by Ushma D. Upadhyay, a professor at the University of California-San Francisco's Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Science, who's an advocate for abortion. The finding comes as hundreds of thousands of abortions are conducted each year in the U.S. despite falling abortion rates. While pro-life advocates contend that the study shows the dangers of abortions, the pro-choice researchers concluded that safety regulations on abortion are "unlikely to have any impact on women's health outcomes because the "rate of major incidents is very low." Pro-life advocates have urged some states to pass legislation that would require abortion doctors to have to admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and require abortion facilities meet the same health and safety standards as surgical centers. However, abortion-rights advocates often argue that abortion clinic owners should not be required to make changes to their facilities to meet code requirements, and note that many abortion doctors are not able to qualify for hospital admitting privileges. In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against two similar provisions in Texas law. Omaha Bar Owner Who Fatally Shot Violent Protester Wont Be Charged: DA A white bar owner in Nebraska who fatally shot a black man who assaulted him amid a protest following the death of George Floyd wont be charged, the district attorney said. The actions of the shooter, the bar owner, were justified, Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said at a press conference on June 1. Jacob Gardner, who owns The Hive and Gatsbys in Omaha, was tackled to the ground before shooting James Scurlock, 22, on May 30. Kleine cited video evidence that prosecutors and police officers reviewed in making the determination, showing different angles of the scene in the Old Market area outside Gardners bar. He showed the videos at the briefing. The footage shows Gardners father confronts people in the area, shoving one, after some businesses were broken into and damaged by individuals, including Scurlock. Another man runs over and punches the older male, prompting Gardner to run to where his father was. Scurlock then pushes the bar owner, who began backing down the street toward the bar as Scurlock and others continued advancing. Two people tackled Gardner, who then fired two shots. The people who had tackled him fled. But Scurlock rushed over and tackled the bar owner. They grappled for several seconds before Gardner fired again, fatally wounding Scurlock. Before the series of events, Gardner displayed his firearm and asked people to leave, Kleine said. Gardner said he didnt know whether any of the people who assaulted him were armed and said he believed they were trying to take his weapon. If somebody is in fear for their own life or serious bodily injury and that they cant, they dont feel like they can retreat safely. The law says that even if theyre mistaken in their belief, if their belief has some reasonable basis, even if theyre mistaken, its still justifiable for that person to use deadly force, Kleine said. Were talking about a civilian who goes outside, is backing up, has told people to please just get out of here, backing up down the street on the sidewalk, and really is attacked, or jumped on, by several people, at once. Fires just a couple of shots to get people off of him, and then a third person jumps on his back, while he still has the firearm, and is wrestling with him and choking him to the point where he says, I was in fear for my life.' James Scurlock II, Scurlocks father, told reporters, What I want is justice, not a quick answer. He called on officials to convene a grand jury, and blamed Gardners father. I honestly feel that if Mr. Gardners dad would have kept his hands to himself, the incident wouldnt have happened in the beginning. Democratic state Sen. Justin Wayne, who is helping Scurlocks family, pointed to Gardner having an expired concealed carry permit. Omaha police officials said June 1 that Gardner could face misdemeanor charges or citations but held off until the primary issue was decided by Kleine. Both the district attorney and Scurlocks family and friends are asking for people with additional evidence, whether video footage or witnesses, to come forward. Kleine condemned misinformation put out about the case, including from politicians and people running for Congress, citing irresponsible and reckless posts referring to the death as a cold-blooded murder. The former wife of Rodney King, whose beating by police lead to the 1992 LA riots, says police brutality is just as prevalent today as it was almost three decades ago. 'Now they're killing us, then Rodney got beaten,' said Dennetta King in an exclusive interview with DailyMailTV. 'It's worse now because in 30 years since what happened to Rodney the situation with police has gotten worse not better. 'There's violence as a result on the streets because those people think they are not being heard, that their lives don't matter. 'Now, a black man, George Floyd can be murdered by police in cold blood.' Dennetta, 55, spoke as violent protests and widespread looting is expected to continue across Los Angeles for a fifth day in wake of Floyd's death on Memorial Day in Minneapolis. The former wife of Rodney King, whose beating by police lead to the 1992 LA riots, says police brutality is just as prevalent today as it was almost three decades ago. Pictured: King showing off his bruises in Los Angeles on March 6, 1991 The beating was videotaped (pictured) by a local resident and sent shockwaves across the nation when it was released to the public. Although the four officers were charged with assault with a deadly weapon and the use of excessive force - all were acquitted of the charges The shock acquittal in 1992 sparked deadly riots across Los Angeles in which 55 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured. Pictured: An man looting in LA in April 1992 Several buildings in a shopping center are engulfed in flames before firefighters arrive as rioting continued in South-Central Los Angeles in the aftermath of the verdicts in the Rodney King assault case on April 30, 1992 'Now they're killing us, then Rodney got beaten,' said Dennetta King in an exclusive interview with DailyMailTV. 'It's worse now because in 30 years since what happened to Rodney the situation with police has gotten worse not better. There's violence as a result on the streets because those people think they are not being heard, that their lives don't matter. Now, a black man, George Floyd can be murdered by police in cold blood.' Pictured: Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, leading to his death on Memorial Day On Saturday afternoon Mayor Eric Garcetti told Angelenos, 'This is not 1992,' saying he had no plans to call in the National Guard as thousands of people took to the streets to protest. The mayor quickly revised his statement later in the day, however, asking California's governor to deploy 500 National Guard troops to LA - reminiscent of the military presence during the 1992 trouble. Sadly, Dennetta fears the scenes we're witnessing on the streets of LA are worse than 28 years ago. Dennetta, 55, spoke as violent protests and widespread looting is expected to continue across Los Angeles for a fifth day in wake of Floyd's death on Memorial Day in Minneapolis And she feels the Los Angeles Police Department has learned little since her husband Rodney was almost beaten to death by four white LAPD officers with batons during an arrest. She said Rodney, who died in 2012, would also have encouraged people to remain calm if he was still alive - echoing the famous words he spoke in the midst of the 1992 riots in which he called for people to 'get along'. Dennetta too calls for the violence and looting in LA to stop, but says the protests against what happened to George Floyd and police violence against the black community must continue. Floyd, a black man, had begged for help and said he couldn't breathe as his neck was pinned under the knee of white police officer Derek Chauvin during an arrest last week in Minneapolis. 'If Rodney was alive today, he would be hurt by what happened to George and the rioting,' she said. 'We're in a worse position now than 30 years ago because our lives don't matter. 'I don't think LAPD has learned from Rodney to this day and I wish that was not the case but it is. 'I think LAPD is as bad as Minnesota Police. 'Honestly I do not know where they get some of their officers from. 'It's like they deliberately get officers who don't like minorities. They're failing because they're not seriously tackling the racism problem.' Dennetta too calls for the violence and looting in LA to stop, but says the protests against what happened to George Floyd and police violence against the black community must continue. Pictured: King three days after his videotaped beating in Los Angeles on March 6, 1991 Dennetta was Rodney's first wife but the couple separated just before his 1991 beating. They remained friends, however up until his death in 2012 - from accidental drowning as a result of taking drugs and alcohol. Pictured: King and Dennetta together in 1996 She said Rodney, who died in 2012, would also have encouraged people to remain calm if he was still alive - echoing the famous words he spoke in the midst of the 92' riots in which he called for people to 'get along' 'The police think they can do whatever they want. They are meant to protect and serve the people but they are serving themselves. 'I hope the violence does end now otherwise I'm worried someone is going to get killed. I'm scared.' She added: 'Please, protest in peace. Violence is not making the point, that's losing the message.' Dennetta, the mother of Rodney's daughter Lora, said the law should also be changed so that more police officers like those that attacked Rodney and George Floyd can be prosecuted. She said: 'It's like the justice system just can't get them to jail right now, that's what we as a community need to address. 'We have to be at the meetings where laws are made so that we have a real voice. Let's get our people into positions of power, to speak and use their voices.' Speaking about the shocking death of Floyd in Minnesota over a week ago, she said: 'I couldn't believe what I was seeing on the news. 'It was awful, to see him crying out for his life, his mom. 'The cop had his hands in his pockets as if it was something he did every day. It hurt my heart. 'I didn't think it would be a repeat of '92 at first but I did when the officers involved didn't get arrested straight away. 'All four who were there should have been arrested. Not just the one guy. And he should be charged with first-degree murder, nothing less.' Floyd, a black man, had begged for help and said he couldn't breathe as his neck was pinned under the knee of white police officer Derek Chauvin during an arrest last week in Minneapolis On Saturday afternoon Mayor Eric Garcetti told Angelenos, 'This is not 1992,' saying he had no plans to call in the National Guard as thousands of people took to the streets to protest. Pictured: A protester throws a Molotov cocktail on Melrose Avenue in LA on May 30 The mayor quickly revised his statement later in the day, however, asking California's governor to deploy 500 National Guard troops to LA - reminiscent of the military presence during the 92' trouble. Pictured: : Workers guard an American Vintage store on Melrose Ave on May 30 Sheriffs deputies in riot gear move down on Melrose Avenue in LA where looting was taking place in the Fairfax District during demonstrations on May 30 People looks on as a bank burns after a protest over the death of George Floyd on May 31 in La Mesa, California Dennetta, an artist and T-shirt maker who is working with a community group called My Tribe Rise, added: 'My grandson, who's named after Rodney, is coming up to a year old and I am afraid for him. 'Between the gang banging and the police, what's this country going to be like for him? 'His mom Lora is doing great things with The Rodney King Foundation. I'm so proud of her and what she's doing. 'She wants peace, education and social justice, which I support, and the foundation gives scholarships to African American fathers. 'She's unhappy with the violence but she and I understand why it's happening.' She said if she could speak to Floyd's family, she would ask them to find comfort in prayer. 'What they're going through, I would say to them pray every day. Ask God to help you, it's the only thing that can truly help you. They will want to be mad and angry but that is no good for them.' Dennetta, who lives in San Pedro, California, said she hasn't been able to attend any of the protests herself due to health problems and she's also 'nervous' about the violence. 'I've been on peace walks with My Tribe Rise and been feeding the homeless and I'm looking forward to continuing that work,' she said. Rodney King was almost beaten to death by four white LAPD officers in 1991 following a high speed car chase while he was drunk. King, who at the time was 25 years old, was tasered, kicked and struck with batons multiple times by the four officers - leaving him with skull fractures, brain damage, broken bones and teeth and kidney failure - This combination of March 14, 1991 booking photos shows the four police officers indicted for brutalizing black motorist King in a videotaped attack. From left are Sgt. Stacey C. Koon, Officer Theodore J. Briseno, Officer Timothy E. Wind and Officer Laurence Powell. Two served time in prison and all four lost their careers In this Wednesday, April 29, 1992 file photo, people enter and leave a swap meet in South Central Los Angeles. Violence broke out in the area after four Los Angeles police officers were acquitted on all but one charge for the videotaped beating of motorist Rodney King The shock acquittal in 1992 sparked deadly riots across Los Angeles in which 55 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured. Pictured: Demonstrators protest the verdict in the King beating case in front of the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters on April 29, 1992 Dennetta believes that the beating he suffered at the hands of the LAPD contributed to his death - and still affects his surviving family today. 'He never got over the beating,' she said. 'None of us have. Nobody who knew him and loved him has got over the beating' The unarmed 25-year-old was tasered, kicked and struck with batons multiple times by the four officers - leaving him with skull fractures, brain damage, broken bones and teeth and kidney failure. The beating was videotaped by a local resident George Holliday and sent shockwaves across the nation when it was released to the public. Although the four officers were charged with assault with a deadly weapon and the use of excessive force - all were acquitted of the charges. The shock acquittal in 1992 sparked deadly riots across Los Angeles in which 55 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured. Famously in the middle of the riots, Rodney appealed for calm - appearing on TV to say: 'People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along? Can we stop making it horrible for the older people and the kids? It's just not right. It's not right. It's not going to change anything. We'll get our justice.' Dennetta was Rodney's first wife but the couple separated just before his 1991 beating. They remained friends, however up until his death in 2012 - from accidental drowning as a result of taking drugs and alcohol. Dennetta believes that the beating he suffered at the hands of the LAPD contributed to his death - and still affects his surviving family today. 'He never got over the beating,' she said. 'None of us have.' 'Nobody who knew him and loved him has got over the beating.' UK Warns China: Do Not Destroy the Jewel of Hong Kong LONDONThe United Kingdom warned Beijing on June 2 to step back from the brink over an authoritarian national security law in Hong Kong that it said risked destroying one of the jewels of Asias economy while ruining the reputation of China. Chinas rubber-stamp parliament last week approved a decision to create laws for Hong Kong to curb sedition, secession, terrorism, and foreign interference. Mainland security and intelligence agents may be stationed in the city for the first time. There is time for China to reconsider, there is a moment for China to step back from the brink and respect Hong Kongs autonomy and respect Chinas own international obligations, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told parliament. The sad reality is that if China continues down this track, it will be strangling what has long been the jewel in the economic crown, Raab said, when asked about the future of the Hong Kong dollar peg. Hong Kong fell to sixth place from third in the latest ranking of global financial centers, according to the Z/Yen global financial centers index, behind New York, London, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Singapore. It was Asias top hub in 2019. Raab said the security law was in breach of the one country, two systems principle enshrined in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, and also conflicted with Article 23 of Chinas own basic law. Raab, though, cautioned that he did not expect China to change course. We think that it is unlikely that will happen, he said. If it goes ahead, Raab said the United Kingdom will form an alliance of countries to resist China, whose $14 trillion economy dwarfs every Western economy apart from the United States which has a $21.4 trillion economy. Raab said the United Kingdom could not coerce China but would seek to persuade it to change course. If China does not change course, British National Overseas passport-holders in Hong Kong will be offered a path to British citizenship. When asked what can be done for Hong Kong citizens who do not hold BNO passports, Rabb said he raised the possibility of burden-sharing on the Five Eyes call on Monday, if there is a mass exodus from Hong Kong. Rabb also promised he would do his best to bring UKs mechanism of a so-called Magnitsky legislationwhich he said was delayed due to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemicto the house before summer recess. By Guy Faulconbridge, Epoch Times staff contributed to this report. As the pandemic takes its toll on local businesses, the sad fact is how the state of Oregon funds itself will now rear its ugly head, from school budgets to parks and recreation and everything in between. When Ted Kulongoski decided to make Oregon Lottery revenue part of the day-to-day budget, he created a slippery slope that would blow up some day and destroy the state budget. The idea of funding schools and services on the backs of state-run video poker and slot machine players isnt just laughable, it's reality in this state. Slot machines are 80% of all lottery revenue; with that, you have a huge hole in the budget via this regressive form of taxation. Now what? Raise taxes again? The state did not think this through clearly. The elephant in the room just left. Jim Maass, Beaverton Gujarat: Ahead of cyclone Nisarg, over 20,000 people to be evacuated India pti-PTI Ahmedabad, June 02: With Gujarat bracing for the approaching cyclonic storm 'Nisarg', the Valsad and Navsari district administrations have started evacuating nearly 20,000 people from 47 villages located close to the state coastline, officials said on Tuesday. Besides, in a relief to people living near the shore, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday indicated the cyclone may not make a landfall on the Gujarat coast. However, it will have an impact in the form of gusty winds coupled with heavy rainfall in the coastal belt, state MeT centre director Jayanta Sarkar said. Cyclone Nisarga: 10 NDRF teams deployed as storm approaches Mumbai Jessica Lal case convict Manu Sharma to be released prematurely, LG accepts | Oneindia News As a precautionary measure, the district administrations of Valsad and Navsari have started shifting people living near the coast to safer places. In all, nearly 20,000 people will be shifted from both the districts. "We have deployed our teams to shift nearly 10,000 people living in 35 coastal villages. We have already identified shelter homes and started the evacuation process," Valsad Collector R R Raval said. In adjoining Navsari district also, the administration has initiated the process of shifting some 10,200 people from 12 villages, Collector Ardra Agarwal said. As per an IMD release, the deep depression over east- central Arabian Sea is currently around 670 km from Surat and it may intensify into a cclonic storm in next six hours. In the subsequent 12 hours, it will turn into a severe cyclonic storm and "cross north Maharashtra and adjoining south Gujarat coast between Harihareshwar and Daman, close to Alibaug of Maharashtra during the afternoon of June 3, with a maximum sustained wind speed of 100 to 110 kmph," it said. "As per the present predictions, the cyclone will make a landfall near Alibaug, that is in between north Maharashtra and south Gujarat. Though the cyclone will not cross south Gujarat, it will leave its impact in the form of gusty winds and heavy rainfall in south Gujarat," said Sarkar. As many as 14 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed in the coastal region. Five more teams will be airlifted from other states and reach here soon, a statement by NDRF said. A grief-stricken father who accidentally hit and killed his young son with a 100-tonne truck has broken down while reading a heartbreaking letter at the boy's funeral. Doug Sproule, 38, was parking his truck in his workplace yard in Picton, south-west Sydney, on May 22, unaware that five-year-old Harrison was behind the vehicle. Despite the best efforts of paramedics and Liverpool Hospital staff, the boy died on the day of the accident. On Tuesday, hundreds mourned the loss of the young boy who was remembered for his love of trucks and travel, 7 News reported. Harrison Sproule, five, was killed on Friday afternoon after his father accidentally hit him with his truck in Picton, south-west Sydney A teary-eyed Mr Sproule read a letter, addressed to his dead son, to family and friends at Camden Baptist Church. 'Dear Harry,' the letter began. 'You lived your life to the fullest, full of adventure with your two brothers and big sister who loved you dearly.' It's believed the five-year-old became stuck in between his father's truck and another vehicle on Friday afternoon Harrison loved riding in the truck with his father and was close with his two brothers and sister 'Your mum and dad will miss you. We will see you again. Keep trucking, little man.' Also known to close friends and family as Road Train Harry, the youngster spent most of his short life travelling alongside his father in a truck - venturing as far as Darwin and Western Australia. Harrison's body was driven from the church to the cemetery in a heavy-duty Kenworth truck - a vehicle manufacturer the boy could recognise from the age of three. Most family and friends watched the funeral service via a live stream from the path outside Camden Baptist Church due to COVID-19 restrictions. Harrison's body was driven from the church to the cemetery in a heavy-duty Kenworth truck Just a day after the accident, Mr Sproule told the network he blames himself for the horrific accident. 'It's my job to protect them and I failed on this one,' the father-of-four said. 'Sorry is all I can say. I fix problems every day but I couldn't fix this one.' Harrison's sister Claire and brother Max sat in tears beside their father as they reassured him he wasn't to blame. Harrison's father Doug Sproule (middle with daughter Claire and son Max) said he blames himself for the horrific accident 'You don't have to be sorry, it was an accident,' Claire told her father. 'You didn't fail.' Mr Sproule said he 'loved' riding in the truck and would try and stay awake with him through the night. It's believed the five-year-old was winched in between his father's truck and another vehicle. She is back to filming Loose Women in the ITV studios after the coronavirus crisis temporarily halted production. And Christine Lampard cut a casual figure as she stepped out for a stroll in London on Tuesday. The TV presenter, 41, displayed her fit physique in a sleeveless black top along with a pair of matching knee-length leggings. Out and about: Christine Lampard, 41, cut a casual figure as she stepped out for a stroll in London on Tuesday Christine also sported a brown handbag with a tassel embellishment and a pair of black trainers. The Loose Women star completed her laid back look for the day by styling her brunette locks into an updo. The Northern Irish star carried several shopping bags with her on her outing, likely stocking up on essentials amid lockdown. The outing comes after Christine recently revealed that she and husband Frank rushed their daughter Patricia, twenty-one months, to hospital after she developed a fever and a rash. Casual: The TV presenter displayed her fit physique in a sleeveless black top along with a pair of matching knee-length leggings Laid back: Christine also sported a brown handbag with a tassel embellishment and a pair of black trainers Looking good: The Loose Women star completed her laid back look for the day by styling her brunette locks into an updo She discussed the 'scary' event on a recent episode of Loose Women, as she urged viewers not to avoid taking their loved ones to hospital because of the coronavirus crisis. Christine explained: 'We were talking about how people weren't taking their children to hospital because people were fearful and I remember thinking on that day "wouldn't that be awful?" And typically last week we ended up in that exact situation. 'Our little one, this will echo with other parents I'm sure, basically woke up with a really high temperature and then your mind goes to some dark places about what this could be. Career: Christine is back to filming Loose Women in the ITV studios after the coronavirus crisis temporarily halted production Beauty: The stunning broadcaster displayed her sun-kissed hue on the afternoon outing Scare: Christine recently revealed that she and husband Frank rushed their daughter Patricia to hospital after she developed a fever and a rash Advice: She discussed the 'scary' event on a recent episode of Loose Women, as she urged viewers not to avoid taking their loved ones to hospital because of the coronavirus crisis 'But to cut a rather long story short we were told by our GP to go straight to A&E and it was the words I did not want to hear that day. 'I just assumed she would be given an antibiotic or whatever and she'd be fine, but being told you have to go to a hospital by a doctor is always really worrying, isn't it?' Adding that she was keen to follow medical advice regardless of her fears, Christine explained that she and Frank headed to A&E together. 'We went anyway and typically only one parent can go in now because of the whole virus, so Frank went home and I went in with her and suddenly felt really alone, you think oh my gosh this is really terrible,' she continued. 'But of course the doctors and nurses as we all know in the NHS, Chelsea Hospital it was, were fantastic and she had a rash and all the bits are very scary but it all turned out to be fine, and she's great, and as I say I've cut a very long story short.' A PIL was filed in the Delhi High Court on Tuesday seeking immediate direction to de-seal the Delhi border to enable the citizens in the NCR and other states to access central government hospitals and medical facilities in Delhi. The plea was mentioned before the high court for an urgent hearing through the web link and it is likely to be listed on June 4, petitioner and advocate Kushagra Kumar said. The AAP government has sealed the Delhi borders for one week starting June 1 and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said that "the moment we open the borders, people from across the country will come to Delhi for treatment. Delhi hospitals should be reserved for the people of Delhi". Delhi-Gurugram, Delhi-Ghaziabad and Delhi-Noida borders are shut for a week. Only essential service providers will be allowed and employees could cross the border by showing their identification cards or ID cards, he had said. The plea said those working in Delhi and residing in NCR like Noida and Gurugram or other states are deprived of their right to avail central government's medical facilities like AIIMS in Delhi, it said. "The order of the Delhi government is not only inhumane and illegal but authoritarian in nature. Instead of creating medical infrastructure and working to ensure medical facilities, it is sealing the borders and thereby stopping people from availing medical facilities in central government hospitals in Delhi," it said, adding that sealing of Delhi borders is not based on reasons of public health and assessment of any situation. The plea said people from NCR area come to Delhi to avail the airport and railways facilities and sealing the borders interrupts these links and deeply impacts those staying outside the administrative borders of the national capital but working here. [June 02, 2020] Nine Carahsoft Executives Named CRN's Women of the Channel for 2020 RESTON, Va., June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Carahsoft Technology Corp. , The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider, announced today that CRN , a brand of The Channel Company , has named nine company executives to its esteemed 2020 Women of the Channel list. Recognizing the unique strengths, vision and achievements of a select group of women, the annual list acknowledges channel leaders for their contributions to channel advocacy, growth, thought leadership and dedication to the IT channel. We are honored to have CRN recognize the outstanding efforts of these nine influential leaders in the public sector IT market, said Craig P. Abod, Carahsoft President. These executives exemplify exceptional leadership, focus and commitment to the success of their teams and Carahsofts government customers and ecosystem of reseller partners. Bethany Blackwell, Rebecca Brennan, Tina Chiao, Maryam Emdadi, Tiffany Goddard, Natalie Gregory, Laura Markovich, Annie Marshall and Sehar Wahla were recognized by CRN for their eminence as top leaders, achievers, visionaries and for their dedication to the channel. Bethany Blackwell : Bethany serves as the Sales Director for Carahsofts Salesforce Team. Last year she worked with Carahsofts internal teams to develop a program for onboarding, tracking and selling Salesforce products and services. As a result, Bethany led the Salesforce team to a revenue growth of more than $55M from 80 unique ecosystem partners. : Bethany serves as the Sales Director for Carahsofts Salesforce Team. Last year she worked with Carahsofts internal teams to develop a program for onboarding, tracking and selling Salesforce products and services. As a result, Bethany led the Salesforce team to a revenue growth of more than $55M from 80 unique ecosystem partners. Rebecca Brennan : Rebecca is the Sales Director for Carahsofts Splunk Public Sector Team. In 2019, she helped grow Splunks Public Sector business by over 20% and has made significant contributions to programs allowing Splunk to generate net new opportunities, nurture customers and provide preeminent solutions to the public sector. This is the third consecutive year Rebecca has been recognized on the CRN Women of the Channel list. : Rebecca is the Sales Director for Carahsofts Splunk Public Sector Team. In 2019, she helped grow Splunks Public Sector business by over 20% and has made significant contributions to programs allowing Splunk to generate net new opportunities, nurture customers and provide preeminent solutions to the public sector. This is the third consecutive year Rebecca has been recognized on the CRN Women of the Channel list. Tina Chiao : Tina is the Senior Director of Sales for Carahsofts Amazon Web Services Team. She has played an instrumental role in creating and implementing numerous joint marketing and partner-focused call campaign programs over the previous year, which has led to net new business opportunities and growth of the partners existing footprint. : Tina is the Senior Director of Sales for Carahsofts Amazon Web Services Team. She has played an instrumental role in creating and implementing numerous joint marketing and partner-focused call campaign programs over the previous year, which has led to net new business opportunities and growth of the partners existing footprint. Maryam Emdadi : Maryam serves as Vice President of Sales for Carahsofts Dell Team. She has launched several sales campaigns that helped generate millions of dollars in incremental sales for Carahsofts top channel partners. In 2019, Maryam contributed to a 46% growth in channel business by launching various successful sales campaigns. This is the third time Maryam has been recognized on the CRN Women of the Channel list. : Maryam serves as Vice President of Sales for Carahsofts Dell Team. She has launched several sales campaigns that helped generate millions of dollars in incremental sales for Carahsofts top channel partners. In 2019, Maryam contributed to a 46% growth in channel business by launching various successful sales campaigns. This is the third time Maryam has been recognized on the CRN Women of the Channel list. Tiffany Goddard : Tiffany serves as the Sales Director for the Citizen Experience, Law Enforcement and Geospatial teams at Carahsoft. In 2019, Tiffany developed Carahsoft sales programs which generated more than 1,000 leads for the vendors she supports and contributed to the 30% growth her team saw last year. She was a key contributor to sales and marketing planning for the 10 companies added to her team over the past year. This is the second time Tiffany has been recognized on the CRN Women of the Channel list. : Tiffany serves as the Sales Director for the Citizen Experience, Law Enforcement and Geospatial teams at Carahsoft. In 2019, Tiffany developed Carahsoft sales programs which generated more than 1,000 leads for the vendors she supports and contributed to the 30% growth her team saw last year. She was a key contributor to sales and marketing planning for the 10 companies added to her team over the past year. This is the second time Tiffany has been recognized on the CRN Women of the Channel list. Natalie Gregory : Natalie serves as Vice President for Carahsoft and manages the Red Hat, Open Source and Atlassian business units. She strives to create trusted, long-term partnerships with resellers and system integrators by understanding their business model and connecting partners to corresponding software manufacturers. In 2019, Natalie led corporate channel trainings for all new hires each month, developed incentivized channel programs for new software manufacturers and surpassed over three billion dollars in channel sales. : Natalie serves as Vice President for Carahsoft and manages the Red Hat, Open Source and Atlassian business units. She strives to create trusted, long-term partnerships with resellers and system integrators by understanding their business model and connecting partners to corresponding software manufacturers. In 2019, Natalie led corporate channel trainings for all new hires each month, developed incentivized channel programs for new software manufacturers and surpassed over three billion dollars in channel sales. Laura Markovich : Laura is the Director of Sales for Carahsofts Tableau Public Sector Team. Laura is the architect of Carahsofts Customer Nurture program which provides the resources needed to get new customers up-and-running with their software purchases quickly and provides on-going nurturing, resulting in increased license sales, renewals and upsell opportunities for Carahsoft and its vendor partners. She also helped Tableau partners navigate Tableaus recent acquisition by Salesforce. This is the second time Laura has been recognized on the CRN Women of the Channel list. : Laura is the Director of Sales for Carahsofts Tableau Public Sector Team. Laura is the architect of Carahsofts Customer Nurture program which provides the resources needed to get new customers up-and-running with their software purchases quickly and provides on-going nurturing, resulting in increased license sales, renewals and upsell opportunities for Carahsoft and its vendor partners. She also helped Tableau partners navigate Tableaus recent acquisition by Salesforce. This is the second time Laura has been recognized on the CRN Women of the Channel list. Annie Marshall : Annie serves as the Director of Sales for Carahsofts Symantec team. Over the past year, Annie has worked closely with Carahsofts Contracts Team to increase Symantecs presence in key markets, resulting in a Blanket Purchase Agreement award from the DoD for cybersecurity solutions and the addition of Symantec to Carahsofts Master Service Agreement with The Quilt to reach educational institutions and nonprofits. Annie has since transitioned to managing Carahsofts Pure Storage product line as of April. : Annie serves as the Director of Sales for Carahsofts Symantec team. Over the past year, Annie has worked closely with Carahsofts Contracts Team to increase Symantecs presence in key markets, resulting in a Blanket Purchase Agreement award from the DoD for cybersecurity solutions and the addition of Symantec to Carahsofts Master Service Agreement with The Quilt to reach educational institutions and nonprofits. Annie has since transitioned to managing Carahsofts Pure Storage product line as of April. Sehar Wahla : Sehar is the Manager of Partner Business Development for Carahsofts Amazon Web Services (AWS) Team. She has been a key contributor in the creation of Carahsofts first cloud distribution programs. In 2019, Sehar focused on developing billing infrastructure through building enablement programs and strategizing incentive and registration programs with AWS on behalf of Carahsofts partners. Read more about Carahsofts 2020 CRN Women of the Channel nominees here . CRNs 2020 Women of the Channel list recognizes an accomplished group of influential women leaders whose strategic vision and unique achievements accelerate channel growth through cultivated partnerships, innovative thought leadership, and unwavering dedication to the IT channel, said Bob Skelley, CEO of The Channel Company. We are proud to honor them for their accomplishments and contributions to driving channel success. Since its founding in 2004, Carahsoft has provided the public sector with IT solutions from hundreds of technology vendors, prime contractors, system integrators, value-added resellers, and channel partners. In 2019, the company booked more than $6.5 billion in sales and expanded its team to include more than 1,400 sales, marketing, customer service and contracting professionals. The 2020 Women of the Channel list will be featured in CRN Magazine on June 8 and online at www.CRN.com/WOTC . About Carahsoft Carahsoft Technology Corp. is The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider. As a top-performing GSA Schedule and SEWP contract holder, Carahsoft serves as the Master Government Aggregator for many of its best-of-breed technology vendors, supporting an extensive ecosystem of manufacturers, value-added resellers, system integrators and consulting partners committed to helping government agencies select and implement the best solution at the best possible value. The companys dedicated Solutions Divisions proactively market, sell and deliver VMware, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Palo Alto Networks, Symantec, Veritas, McAfee, Dell, Adobe, F5 Networks, Google Cloud, ServiceNow, Open Source, Micro Focus Government Solutions, SAP, Salesforce, and Innovative and Intelligence products and services, among others. Carahsoft is consistently recognized by its partners as a top revenue producer and is listed annually among the industrys fastest growing and largest firms by CRN, Inc., Forbes, Washington Technology, The Washington Post, Washington Business Journal, and Bloomberg Government. Visit us at www.carahsoft.com or follow us on Twitter and Facebook . Carahsoft PR Contact: Mary Lange (703) 230-7434 [email protected] About The Channel Company The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers, and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequalled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelcompany.com Follow The Channel Company: Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook Copyright 2020. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved. The Channel Company Contact: Jennifer Hogan The Channel Company [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] NEW HAVEN A New Haven man was sentenced to 20 months in prison for trafficking heroin. U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall sentenced Jermaine Foster, 49, on Tuesday to 20-months imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release. Foster was arrested as a part of a joint investigation by the DEA New Haven Task Force and the Waterbury and Naugatuck Police Departments into a heroin and cocaine trafficking operation. The investigation, which included the use of court-authorized wiretaps, physical surveillance and controlled purchases of narcotics, revealed that the rings leader, Keith Jordan of Waterbury, was receiving large quantities of heroin from various suppliers, including Brian Hanna, of Brooklyn, New York; Pedro Santos, of Waterbury, and Domingo Alves, of Waterbury, and selling to drug to other distributors and street-level customers, court records show. Foster was also intercepted on a wiretap purchasing bulk quantities of heroin that he sold at a profit to street-level dealers, according to court records. On March 13, 2019, a grand jury in Hartford returned an indictment charging Foster, Jordan, Hanna, Santos, Hall and 24 other individuals with various offenses related to the distribution of heroin, fentanyl, cocaine and crack cocaine. Foster and several codefendants were arrested on March 20, 2019. In association with the arrests, investigators seized approximately 3,000 bags of heroin, 400 grams of cocaine, 350 grams of fentanyl-laced heroin mixed, 400 grams of heroin, 10 grams of crack, 20 pounds of marijuana, fentanyl patches, a one-kilogram press, four handguns, approximately $120,000 in cash and four vehicles, court records said. On Nov. 6, Foster pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute, and to possess with intent to distribute, 100 grams or more of heroin. Foster, who is released on a $150,000 bond, is required to report to prison on Oct. 14. Jordan, Hanna, Santos and Hall pleaded guilty to related charges and await sentencing. Manitoba's three latest cases of COVID-19 all involved travel from outside the province, which public health officials regard as the major ongoing risk in spreading the virus. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/6/2020 (598 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Manitoba's three latest cases of COVID-19 all involved travel from outside the province, which public health officials regard as the major ongoing risk in spreading the virus. Dr. Brent Roussin, the chief provincial public health officer, said two cases reported May 28 involved truckers who drove multiple routes through the United States. The third case, announced Sunday, involved a temporary foreign worker in the Southern Health authority. In all cases, Roussin said, recommended procedures were followed and the risk to the general public is minimal. "It's important to note that these two individuals (the truckers) took all the right actions," he told a news briefing Monday. "They became symptomatic soon after returning. They were self-isolated, were tested, and there is unlikely to be any significant contacts in the community in this regard." The temporary foreign worker had been in self-isolation, Roussin said. Eighteen other workers from the "same establishment" (Roussin did not say what kind) were also self-isolating. They're all undergoing testing and so far no others have exhibited symptoms. "From the public health investigation, there is no risk to the public. The reason why we wanted to disclose it is for that reason. As we are beginning Phase 2 (of reopening the economy), we want people to be aware of where the risk is," Roussin said. "If it's travel-related, if it's controlled, it shouldn't be a concern with the continuation of our reopening plan." https://www.youtube.com/watch?rel=0&wmode=transparent" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen> The province announced Monday long-haul truck drivers can now be tested for the novel coronavirus, even if they don't have symptoms. Manitoba recently quietly began testing people without symptoms for COVID-19, as part of a sentinel surveillance program tracking the circulation of the virus. Roussin said last week the program is not intended to facilitate widespread asymptomatic testing. Officials are hoping to collect a random sample of swabs from Manitobans who present at health-care facilities and community screening sites. Patients who are to be admitted to hospital or to long-term care facilities will also be tested. Roussin said while testing persons with symptoms of COVID-19 is more valuable, asymptomatic testing of truckers will provide "a little more of a risk reduction." He noted testing of asymptomatic drivers will be purely voluntary and the industry is already taking numerous precautions to contain the virus. He also commended the Manitoba Trucking Association for its co-operation. Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Terry Shaw, the association's executive director, said the availability of asymptomatic tests will provide greater reassurance for the industry and the general public. "We see it as very positive," he said. Meanwhile, the province is working on a plan to again allow patient visits in hospitals. Details will be released in the coming days. Lanette Siragusa, chief nursing officer with Shared Health, said Victoria General Hospital in Winnipeg, which has a lot of long-stay patients, will test outdoor visits involving medically stable patients. This is similar to what is occurring in long-term care homes. larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca Courtesy office of Governor Greg Abbott Gov. Greg Abbott has declared a state of disaster after two days of protests in Houston and other Texas cities following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. The declaration, signed around noon Sunday, stems from what state officials described as violent protests that endanger public safety and threaten property loss and damage amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern revealed this morning that Cabinet would look at relaxing restrictions as early as next week. Next week's decision comes sooner than had been originally signalled by Jacinda Ardern, but not soon enough for some of National's front bench. Amy Adams, National's number-three ranked MP who holds the party's Covid-19 Recovery portfolio, backed an immediate move. "There is very strong evidence New Zealand should be in level 1 now ... given we are in level 2 the government has to be very clear about how those rules are enforced." Former deputy leader and frontbencher Paula Bennett says the events of the long weekend, including Black Lives Matter protests in major cities, further showed why New Zealand should be moved out of level 2 immediately. "We should be at level 1 or zero ... people should be able to protest if they want to, we need consistent rules that are fair for all and it's totally ridiculous that we're still having such restrictions when people are not abiding by them." Those stated positions went further than their leader Todd Muller was willing to go - he would only say the shift should come as soon as possible. "I'm not the Prime Minister, I don't get to see the advice which balances those competing objectives," Muller said. Ardern says New Zealand was doing better than expected in its battle with Covid-19 and so an earlier move to level 1 is possible. Until then, she said, the rules remained and people must follow them. "They're there for now for a reason, we've succeeded so far, if we want to continue to be successful we just have to hang in there." That puts Ardern at odds with her coalition partner, Winston Peters, who - like National - wants level 1 now. At her weekly post-Cabinet media briefing, she says Peters had expressed that view to her privately before going public with it. "He had a view that we should move as of Monday ... obviously my job is to balance all of the advice that we receive from the scientists. "We had a consensus decision, although there was an alternate view presented by some members at the Cabinet table. "It will not surprise people... to know that from time to time the deputy PM and I will take a different view, and colleagues around the Cabinet table will take a different view." Muller says Ardern and Peters must get on the same page as they were confusing the public. Ardern says she would provide more information to the public this week on what level 1 would look like. -RNZ Justice Mohammed Liman of the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court on Tuesday ordered the immediate release of Orji Kalu, a former governor of Abia State, from the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Service. The judge delivered his ruling following an application by Lateef Fagbemi, Mr Kalus lawyer, seeking his release from custody. Our application is brought pursuant to Section 159 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, Mr Fagbemi, a senior advocate of Nigeria, said. This is a fallout of the Supreme Court decision delivered on the 8th of May. Responding, Rotimi Jacobs, the counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the prosecution, said the anti-graft agency would not oppose Mr Fagbemis application in principle. But we are also urging the court that the order made by the Supreme Court for trial de novo should be complied with by all parties; so that Your Lordship will give us a date when arraignment will be done. We want the trial to go on, losing more time will be dangerous for us, Mr Jacobs, a senior advocate of Nigeria, added. In his ruling, Mr Liman set aside the trial, conviction and prison sentence on Mr Kalu, while he also squashed Justice Mohammed Idris verdict on Slok Nigeria Limited. Mr Idris had ordered the winding up of Slok Nigeria Limited and ordered that its assets be forfeited to the federal government. Justice Liman commended the EFCC prosecutor for his practical approach to the case by choosing not to oppose the application, thereby saving the court time and the rigour of going to trial. He directed that steps should be taken for the commencement of a fresh trial. Convicted for fraud In December last year, the court had sentenced Mr Kalu, then a serving senator, to 12 years in prison for N7.65 billion fraud. Mr Kalu was tried alongside his company, Slok Nigeria Limited, and Udeh Udeogu, who was Director of Finance and Accounts at the Abia State Government House during Mr Kalus tenure as governor. In an amended 39 counts charge, they were accused by the EFCC of conspiring and diverting over N7 billion from the coffers of the state. Following the nullification of his conviction by the Supreme Court, the former governor filed an application at the federal court seeking an order for his release from the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS), Kuje, Abuja. Mr Kalu had been accused of stealing and mismanaging funds belonging to Abia State during his days as governor between 1999 and 2007. He pleaded not guilty but was sentenced in December 2019 to 12 years in prison. He was jailed alongside Ude Udeogu, who was the director of finance and accounts at the Abia State Government House during Mr Kalus tenure. The duo appealed the convictions by the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court up to the Supreme Court. On May 8, the Supreme Court ordered a retrial of the case. A seven-member panel of the apex court, in a unanimous verdict delivered by Justice Ejembi Eko, invalidated the conviction. Justice Eko declared that Justice Mohammed Idris, who convicted the duo was already a justice of the Court of Appeal when he ruled and sentenced Mr Kalu and his co-defendant. Advertisements He held that a Justice of the Court of Appeal cannot operate as a judge of the Federal High Court, and ordered the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to reassign the case for trial, the report said. The apex court said section 396 (7) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015, on which the former president of the court of appeal, Zainab Bulkachuwa, relied on to authorise the trial judge to return to the high court to conclude the trial was unconstitutional. George Floyd, 46, died handcuffed on the street in the custody of police in Minneapolis on Memorial Day. An officer responding to a report that Floyd had tried to pass a fake $20 bill held him down by lodging a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes George Floyd, 46, died handcuffed on the street in the custody of police in Minneapolis on Memorial Day. An officer responding to a report that Floyd had tried to pass a fake $20 bill held him down by lodging a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes. He died shortly after lapsing into unconsciousness. A 10-minute cellphone video of the encounter ignited protests across the country, not only over Floyds death, but over the bigger question of police brutality and entrenched racial injustice. All four officers involved in the arrest have been fired, and the officer who was recorded kneeling on Floyds neck, Derek M Chauvin, has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Still unanswered is the question of precisely what caused Floyds death. On Monday, lawyers for Floyds family said a private autopsy had concluded that the death was a homicide, brought about by two officers kneeling on his neck and his back. The result was a constriction of blood to the brain and air to the lungs, two doctors found in the private autopsy. The autopsy shows that Floyd had no underlying medical problem that caused or contributed to his death, said one of the private examiners, Dr Michael Baden, who was the chief medical examiner for the City of New York in the late 1970s. But officials in Minneapolis have not released the results of the official death examination. What do we know about how Floyd died? The video showed Chauvin with his knee on the back of Floyds neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. Floyd was unresponsive for nearly three minutes of that. He repeatedly gasped, I cant breathe, but a criminal complaint in the case said he had started to say he couldnt breathe while he was still standing. The full report of the Hennepin County medical examiner is pending, but the criminal complaint said the autopsy revealed no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation. Floyd, the complaint said, had underlying health conditions, including coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease. The combined effects of Floyd being restrained by the police, his underlying health conditions and any potential intoxicants in his system likely contributed to his death, the complaint said. But the private doctors said their findings contradict that. How can there have been no asphyxia? Lawrence Kobilinsky, a forensics expert at John Jay College, said that such a finding means there was no apparent damage to the internal structures of Floyds neck, such as damage to delicate bones and cartilage. But that does not mean the police officers actions did not lead to his death, he said. They have to come up with another explanation, he said. It does seem to me though, if the officer didnt have his knee on his neck and being in prone position and with other officers holding him down, restraining him the way he was, had they not done that, he would be well and alive. The private autopsy concluded that even without findings of traumatic asphyxia, such as broken bones, the compression caused by the officers still led to Floyds death by depriving his brain of blood and his lungs of air. When is the official autopsy report being released? The Hennepin County Medical Examiners office said it was awaiting final results from laboratory studies to provide the most medically accurate cause of death determination possible. The autopsy alone cannot answer all questions germane to the cause and manner of death, its statement said, but must be interpreted in the context of the pertinent investigative information and informed by the results of laboratory studies. What other medical issues are under review? The autopsy results should show whether Floyd was under the influence of alcohol or any other drug. Toxicology results usually take weeks, but presumably the testing will be expedited in this high-profile case. Another thing that could come up: According to the complaint, one of the police officers at the scene said Floyd might have been experiencing excited delirium, a condition characterised by agitation, aggression, acute distress and sudden death. It is usually associated with drug users who suddenly die in law enforcement custody, though not all experts accept it as a real cause of death. What do we know about the doctors who conducted the autopsy for the family? One of the two doctors was Baden, best known as host of the HBO television show Autopsy. He also did the private autopsy in the case of Michael Brown, who was killed by a police officer in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. Baden was the first to reveal that Brown, an unarmed black teenager, had been shot at least six times, including twice in the head. Also participating in the private autopsy was Dr Allecia Wilson, director of autopsy and forensic services at the University of Michigan. In a news conference on Monday, she concurred with Baden, saying, The evidence is consistent with mechanical asphyxia as the cause of death and homicide as the manner of death. What questions remain? Glenn A Zeitz, a Philadelphia trial lawyer specialiing in civil rights, said a key question will be whether the official medical examiners find that the cause of death was the combined effect of any preexisting heart condition and coronary artery disease. It remains to be seen whether the private autopsy results will differ substantially from those in the official report. You can have two people looking at the same thing coming up with different explanations, Kobilinsky said. This is not necessarily science, its medicine. Medicine is an art and a science. Frances Robles and Audra DS Burch c.2020 The New York Times Company The logo of Agribank seen on a building in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by Shutterstock/StreetVJ. Agribanks expected 20 percent drop in profits this year could be kept to 15 percent with a capital infusion, a top executive said. Deputy director Nguyen Thi Phuong told VnExpress that due to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, her banks pre-tax profit could fall by a fifth to VND11 trillion ($474 million). But an 11 percent increase in charter capital could cushion the fall, keeping it at VND12 trillion ($517 million), a 15 percent decline from last year, she said. It would also help the bank achieve the 9-10 percent credit growth target set by the State Bank of Vietnam, she said. The wholly state-owned banks capital has remained at VND30.6 trillion ($1.3 billion) for nine years. The government has sought the National Assemblys green light to increase its capital by VND3.5 trillion ($151 million) by capitalizing part of its profits. The bank, one of the big four public lenders, had a capital adequacy ratio of 9.2 percent at the end of last year, barely above the minimum rate of 9 percent required by the State Bank of Vietnam. Agribank accounts for half of the credit provided to the agricultural sector. Its pre-tax profit last year almost doubled to VND14.2 trillion ($612 million), second only to Vietcombanks VND21.1 trillion ($1 billion). Fundica, Canadas leading funding search platform, is pleased to announce that it has partnered with Desjardins Group to further its mission of matching companies across Canada with relevant government funding. By combining their respective strengths in the realms of financial technology and financial services, Fundica and Desjardins aim to expand the number of businesses to which they can provide relevant, verified, and actionable information on grants, tax credits, and loan guarantees. We are proud to be working with Desjardins to make it easier for businessesespecially small businesses to find funding, said Mike Lee, President of Fundica. Now more than ever, entrepreneurs are looking for complete funding solutions from their trusted advisors, and this initiative is a strong step towards fulfilling the entrepreneurs needs. Since we play a key role in helping the federal and provincial governments implement relief measures for businesses affected by COVID-19, we know that it isnt always easy for business owners to figure out what assistance theyre eligible for, said Marie-Claude Boisvert, Executive Vice-President of Business Services at Desjardins. Fundicas online tool will make it faster and easier for our business members to find more details about the government assistance available to them, whether its a tax credit, a subsidy or a loan guarantee. For more information, visit Desjardins Groups website: https://www.desjardins.com/ca/business/projects/finance-business/select-appropriate-type-financing/business-financing/index.jsp About Fundica: Fundica provides funding search technology that intelligently identifies the most relevant funding sources for businesses. Its white label and API solutions seamlessly allow its clients to become thought leaders and more complete advisors in the broader funding space. Fundica has received awards from the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Family Foundation, Intuit, Startup Canada, and CFO Canada. About Desjardins Group: Desjardins Group is the leading cooperative financial group in Canada and the sixth largest cooperative financial group in the world, with assets of $326.9 billion. It has been rated one of Canada's Top 100 Employers by Mediacorp. To meet the diverse needs of its members and clients, Desjardins offers a full range of products and services to individuals and businesses through its extensive distribution network, online platforms and subsidiaries across Canada. Ranked among the world's strongest banks according to The Banker, Desjardins has some of the highest capital ratios and credit ratings in the industry. For More Information (journalists only): Fundica: Bronwyn Carere Brand Manager 438-869-6022 bronwyn@fundica.com Desjardins Group: Richard Lacasse Media Spokesperson 1-866-835-8444, ext. 556 3163 media@desjardins.com KALAMAZOO, MI Demonstrations in downtown Kalamazoo continued Monday night, two days after thousands marched took to the Kalamazoo Mall in protest. Several church leaders led silent protests across Kalamazoo County on Monday to protest the death of George Floyd and police violence against black people. Floyd, a 46-year old black man, died after Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was recorded holding his knee on Floyds neck for several minutes, as Floyd could be heard on video shouting, I cant breathe." Since his death on May 25, Floyds death has triggered protests across the country. The Rev. Tami Flick of Kalamazoo House of Prayer led community members, who were lined up outside of the Kalamazoo County Courthouse on West Michigan Avenue in downtown Kalamazoo. Were taking a stand, we believe its time for the church to take a stand for righteousness, for justice, Flick said. A group of around one hundred people lined down Kalamazoo, donning face masks and tape, with words like justice," and peace," written on the front. We believe that God is trying to purify our lips, when it comes to racism, he wants to get that out of us, he doesnt want to have any agreement with those things, Flick said. It may be silent in this moment, but our prayers are loud in heaven. While Mondays citywide protest was led by faith leaders from across Kalamazoo, city officials, like Commissioner Eric Cunningham and Mayor David Anderson appeared at the downtown demonstration. Were at a tipping point, I think people have had it and I totally understand that, Anderson said. But, I cant totally understand it, because of the life Ive lived, which I have not experienced things, that many other folks, particularly people of color in this country have experienced. Toward the end of the event, Vangaurd North Church pastor Michael Stewart prayed for those participating in Mondays silent protest. Also on MLive: Throngs crowd downtown Kalamazoo from days second protest Grand Rapids police begin dispersing protesters as curfew goes into effect Detroit, Grand Rapids and Lansing under curfew as police brutality protests continue New York, June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Help Foundation, a U.S. non-profit organization, today is proud to announce that SouthEast Asia Capital Group has donated 200,000 PLD Global Corporations HandaX anti-bacterial gloves with total value exceeding US$500,000 in an effort to join hands to fight against the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic outbreak, to support the re-open of the US economy in particular and the world in general, and to improve environmental protection measures in personal protective equipment (PPE) manufacturing. The donation of Southeast Asia Capital Group to Global Help Foundation is critical and meaningful in the context that the world is still struggling in the fight against this pandemic without any official vaccines available. HandaX anti-bacterial gloves have been researched and manufactured by PLD Global Corporation aiming at the following objectives: - Anti-bacterial gloves are made of polyester for comfortable feeling and high sweat absorption ability and particularly with non-allergic feature to skin as contrast to latex or nitrile gloves. HandaX gloves are also covered with natural solvent which is certified by FDA for its ability to kill up to 99.9% viruses and bacteria; besides, the solvent can protect human hands from viruses and bacteria through contacting, holding or touching; moreover, the gloves are safe and fashionable for different daily uses. - HandaX anti-bacterial gloves can protect peoples hands full-time as contrast to the limited time protection features of hand sanitizers, which cause skin dry and peeling due to alcohol ingredient. - HandaX anti-bacterial gloves can be re-used for several times without losing any of its anti-bacterial potency, thus minimizing a great number of disposable gloves and contributing to the environment protection. - David Nguyen, President of Global Help Foundation, stated: We are very grateful to the generous donation of Southeast Asia Capital Group, which will help a lot of people the world over to be protected against the terrible Covid-19 pandemic. We wish to receive more donation and support from individuals and organizations for the long-term fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. Richard Phan, Chairman of Southeast Asia Capital Group, said: We are very pleased to sponsor HandaX anti-bacterial gloves to Global Help Foundation as an effort to join hands to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, and we hope this will mark a sustained cooperation with Southeast Asia Capital Group and Global Help Foundation in the future. About Global Help Foundation ( http://globalhelpusa.org ) Global Help Foundation is a non-profit organization to be established for worldwide operations with relief and humanitarian activities. About PLD Global Corporation ( http://pldglobalusa.com ) PLD Global Corporation is a Nevada corporation specializing in worldwide trading and service activities. About Southeast Asia Capital Group SouthEast Asia Capital Group is a Nevada company established in 2004. The Company is engaged in finance, international trade and commercial projects with potential for high returns on investment. In addition, SouthEast Capital Group exclusively provides Copper Sheets, Mineral and Fossil Fuels internationally from Phannet Holding Corp. SouthEast Asia Capital Group intends to invest on potential projects in Vietnam such as: The International Seaport (Bonded Petroleum Warehouse; Petroleum Inbound and Outbound Terminal; General Cargo Terminal), Logistic. Infrastructure Industry zones, Processing zones and transport. In 2020, SouthEast Asia Capital Group starts to approach in supplying medical equipment and gears globally. Contact: Huyen T.Kim Nguyen, President & CEO of SouthEast Asia Capital Group, Inc. ( contacdivision@seacigroup.us ). Safe Harbor Act and Forward-looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements pursuant to the safe-harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as may, future, plan or planned, will or should, expected, anticipates, draft, eventually or projected, which are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. By PTI BEIJING: China on Tuesday angrily reacted to US President Donald Trump's plans to invite India, Russia, Australia and South Korea to G7 summit, saying that any attempts to draw a "small circle" against Beijing will be "doomed to fail" and become "unpopular". G7 is the group of top seven developed economies. These include the US, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada. Heads of States of these countries meet annually to discuss issues of global governance, including climate change, security and the economy. Trump has postponed the G7 Summit till September and expressed his desire to expand the "outdated" bloc to G10 or G11, including India and three other nations to the grouping of the world's top economies. Asked for his reaction about Trump's plans to invite India and three other nations to G7 summit, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing here that 'China believes all international organisations and conferences should be conducive to mutual trust between countries to upholding multilateralism, promoting world peace and development'. "We believe this is the role of the overwhelming majority of the countries in the world. Any attempts to seek a small circle against China is doomed to fail and is unpopular," he said. ALSO READ | China's action on India border part of ruling Communist Party's behaviour: Mike Pompeo There is a sense of disquiet here about Trump's invitation to India and three other nations, especially at a time when he is seeking to isolate Beijing with a raft of measures including withdrawing the special status to Hong Kong in response to new Chinese security law for the former British colony, putting curbs on the Chinese students above undergraduate level, pulling the US out of the World Health Organisation pointing to its links to China. Trump is also aggressively pushing for decoupling China from global supply chains which could hurt the world's second-largest economy in the long run. The tension between the US and China is escalating over the coronavirus pandemic, with America accusing Beijing of not divulging timely information about the disease and demanding a probe into the origins of the virus. ALSO READ | Canada PM Justin Trudeau says Russia won't be included in the G7 However, China has rejected all US allegations of a cover up regarding the COVID-19 outbreak. According to the Johns Hopkins University data, the COVID-19 has infected over 6.2 million people and claimed more than 375,000 lives worldwide. The US is the worst-hit country in the world with more than 1.7 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and over 105,000 deaths.The US currently holds the annual presidency of G7 countries. In view of the coronavirus pandemic, there were talks of the summit being held virtually. However, Trump had been suggesting that it be held in person. During the summit, the G7 president normally invites heads of states of one or two countries to attend the meeting as a special invitee. Last year, French President Emanuel Macron had invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the G7 Summit. ALSO READ | World needs answers from China: Trump says US 'terminating' relationship with WHO Prime Minister Modi attended the G7 meeting in the French town of Biarritz in August last. Trump's invitation to Russia is regarded as a source of concern for China as Beijing had built up close relations with Moscow ever since it was expelled from what was previously known as G8 in 2014 by Trump's predecessor Barack Obama following Russia's takeover of Crimea. Since then Russia has emerged as a close strategic ally of China. Reports from Russia said Moscow has shown its interest in accepting the invitation to attend the G7 meet. "President Putin is a supporter of dialogue in all directions, but in this case, in order to respond to such initiatives, we need to receive more information, which we unfortunately do not have," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying China's state-run CGTN. "We don't know the details of this proposal yet, we don't know if it is official," he said, adding that Moscow needed to know what might be on the agenda of the proposed meeting and its format, before responding. The UK and Canada have opposed Russia's return to the G7, deepening a rift over President Trump's wish for the country to re-join, the BBC reported. On Sunday, Trump told Putin of his plans to invite him to the G7 summit. The White House said making "progress toward convening the G7" with Russia was among the topics the leaders discussed in a phone call, according to reports. Pastor whose church was burned down vows to pray for soul of arsonist, continue worship Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The pastor of the Mississippi church that was burned down last month after it filed a lawsuit against a local stay-at-home-order banning worship gatherings says that the church will pray for the soul of whoever destroyed his congregations cherished spiritual home. Pastor Jerry Waldrop of First Pentecostal Church of Holly Springs wrote an op-ed published in USA Today in which he defended his churchs right to assemble in worship even after the church building was destroyed in what authorities believe is an act of arson. We recognize that not everyone shares our belief in the Word of God as revealed in the Bible, Waldrop wrote. We are not offended that others dont share our firmly held belief that gathering together to worship and to study the Bible is an essential duty and necessary to the growth of the church and its members. And we will pray for the soul and peace of mind of someone who would harbor such hatred that he would take from us our cherished spiritual home. Responders to the burning church building on May 20 discovered cans of spray paint and graffiti in the parking lot. The graffiti read: Bet you stay home now you hypokrits (sic). [S]omeone burned down our church, leaving only a smoldering mass of debris and our dreams. They left graffiti, trying to shame us for worshiping together in our church, Waldrop wrote. Who would do such a thing? Why would anyone want to destroy a sacred place where the faithful venerate God in their own way, in a way that does not intrude on others rights or disrupt their lives? But even without a physical building to call home, Waldrop stressed the church will continue to gather for worship despite the circumstances. Three days after the church was destroyed, the congregation won the right from a federal appeals court to continue worshiping in person. Following the ruling, the city of Holly Springs revised its stay-at-home order to no longer require churches to suspend their in-person services during the pandemic. [W]e are a church in the classic sense that being together in such a place is at the heart of our assemblage, Waldrop stated. Here, together, we lift our voices in song in the presence of one another in praise of God. To suggest that such a gathering is not essential is to deny us the fundamental explanation for our existence. He concluded by stating that he and his congregants believe that religious liberty is a blessing from God. Just as the United States of America is a blessing from God. Those two blessings are meant to reinforce one another, and to deny the freedom to enjoy one of the blessings is to destroy the other, he stressed. Based on these premises, we will continue to worship together and to fight together for our and every Americans right to partake in the blessings of freedom. First Pentecostal Church of Holly Springs first gained national media attention when police disrupted an Easter service in April as well as a mid-week Bible study. Police officers reportedly told attendees they could face criminal citations for attending. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that in America, in our church the First Pentecostal Church of Holly Springs, Mississippi I would see armed police standing in our aisles, ordering us to shut down our worship services, Waldrop wrote. Even worse, I never thought that in America Id experience what it was like for those armed policemen to hand me an official government document, ordering our community of faithful to cease and desist worshiping on Easter Sunday and to depart the House of God. Across the nation, the majority of churches have halted in-person worship services to comply with state and local stay-at-home orders enacted to combat the coronavirus. While many have held online services, some have continued to meet in person despite opposition from local governments. Although many churches that have continued to meet in person have done so while following social distancing guidelines, churches and church leaders nationwide have been faced with fines, arrest and even forced temporary closure if they failed to comply with government orders. While the results of legal battles on coronavirus worship gathering bans have been mixed, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision declined last Friday a California churchs request for an injunction against a state order restricting the capacity of worship gatherings. Lost in the news of the George Floyd protests against police brutality and racism in the U.S., Facebook last week quietly noted it will now require Facebook profile pages with large followings in the U.S. to verify their identity. The company said that profiles with sizable audiences that also have a pattern of inauthentic behavior and whose posts rapidly go viral will be asked to verify their identity or the distribution of their posts will be impacted. If the profile's owner chooses not to verify their identity or the ID provided does not match the linked Facebook account, the distribution of the profile's viral post will continue to be reduced so fewer people will see it, the company explains. In addition, if the profile that's posting is also a Facebook Page admin, they'll need to complete the Page Publishing Authorization and won't be able to post from their Page until the account is verified through Facebook's systems. The company said the move to verify profiles is about transparency. "We want people to feel confident that they understand whos behind the content theyre seeing on Facebook and this is particularly important when it comes to content thats reaching a lot of people," Facebook said in a Thursday announcement. Identify verification is not new to Facebook, but the company's use of the process has increased in recent months, following the revelation that Russia-backed content reached as many as 126 million Americans on Facebooks platform during and after the 2016 presidential election. To address the issue, Facebook in August 2018 rolled out a new process that involved having Facebook Page managers secure their accounts and verify their locations. In December 2018, the resulting "People Who Manage This Page" section had rolled out to all Facebook Pages with a large audience. Also in 2018, Facebook began demanding ID verification for political "issue" ad buyers on debated topics of national legislative importance. Story continues Similar authentication and verification tools also rolled out to Instagram in 2018. And this April, both Facebook and Instagram began to display the location of the Facebook Page or Instagram account with a large audience on every post it shares. The company believes this transparency will allow users to better determine the reliability and authenticity of the accounts. The timing of Facebook's announcement about profile verification is worth noting. It arrived on the same day that Trump signed an executive order taking direct aim at social media companies, which targeted the legal structure they rely on to shield themselves from legal liability for their user-created content. It was also the same day that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared on Fox News to explain why it didn't take the same action as Twitter did when it fact-checked Trump. In a way, the change is an attempt for Facebook to showcase that it does in fact moderate its platform, by reducing the spread of viral posts from unverified sources. And that's something the company can later point to when questioned by regulators as to how it's addressing problems with bots and others who try to conceal their identity as they manipulate Facebook to spread their viral content. An Interlake reserve has delayed its summer powwow due to COVID-19, but Premier Brian Pallister is insisting Lake Manitoba First Nation cancel or scale down the event. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 2/6/2020 (597 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. An Interlake reserve has delayed its summer powwow due to COVID-19, but Premier Brian Pallister is insisting Lake Manitoba First Nation cancel or scale down the event. "What I don't want is division in my community," Chief Cornell McLean told the Free Press. "We'd rather keep the members safe, and not losing any sleep." Manitobas public health rules forbid outdoor gatherings of more than 50 people. Lake Manitoba First Nation, 160 kilometres north of Winnipeg, attracted the premiers ire by planning an event that would bring at least double that amount to the community. The band originally scheduled its powwow for the June 19 weekend; it decided on Monday to move it to July 24. McLean expects at least 100 dancers and more attendees, but says organizers will implement social-distancing protocols. The chief said spiritual ceremonies can help people cope with the impact of the pandemic. He noted Manitoba's public health restrictions might loosen over time. "Well see where things are at," McLean said. "There were concerns (from elders) about outsiders coming in." Pallister told reporters Tuesday hes nervous Manitobans will squander their progress in stopping the spread of the coronavirus, specifically calling out powwows. Premier Brian Pallister says hes nervous Manitobans will squander their progress in stopping the spread of the coronavirus, calling out social gatherings such as powwows and cultural events. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press) "Dont put on big social gatherings like powwows and cultural events right now. This is not an appropriate time to do that," the premier implored. The federal government has said it will help Indigenous groups mitigate risks at these gatherings, but said it would be inappropriate to ask them to not undertake cultural practices. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe berated Ottawa for that stance after the RCMP were called to a sun dance ceremony in the province. Last Friday, federal Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller told the Free Press that Pallister has to reach a compromise with First Nations. "If you believe in self-determination of Indigenous peoples, you have to respect choices, even if you dont agree with them," Miller said. The evening beforehand, Pallister had raised the issue in the weekly call between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the premiers. Stay informed The latest updates on the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 delivered to your inbox every weeknight. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "I didnt get the sufficient clarity I would like to get from the PM on this issue," Pallister said Tuesday. "This is not on. This is not acceptable." The premier noted religious groups across Canada have cancelled events. "You cant send a message that because youre of a certain race and creed, you get to have big public events that exceed the rules," he said. Last month, northern First Nations temporarily blockaded a major Manitoba Hydro construction site after the Crown corporation convinced public-health authorities to exempt the work site from rules that closed gyms and barred travel to the North. Hydro has since revised its plan. dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. Press Release 2 June 2020 The UK hotel sector's traditionally strong domestic leisure demand bodes well for the sector's recovery once lockdown measures from COVID-19 are fully lifted, according to our latest report on the UK market. Advertisements However, our report outlines that hotels in the capital and other gateway cities, with heavier reliance on international travellers and corporate bookings, are likely to take longer to recover than those in the provinces, which have a more domestic, leisure-based guest profile. Many hotels outside London typically generate more than 50% of domestic room nights from holidaymakers. In the Southwest of England, for example, holidays account for 69% of domestic room nights, compared with London, where some 29% of hotel bookings come from domestic leisure bookings. Our report shows that across Europe those countries with high domestic demand will be in a stronger position to recover once lockdown measures are lifted, particularly as international travel is curtailed. Overall, 60% of hotel demand in the UK comes from domestic sources, a similar proportion to France (63%) although not as high a proportion as Germany at 82% (although much of this demand is generated from trade fairs and events, which are likely to take longer to recover), and the Nordics, which averages 71%. Much of Southern Europe has a lower percentage of domestic tourism, with Portugal at 34% and Italy at 50%, which will result in a slower recovery for their hotels unless they are able to attract foreign visitors when circumstances permit this. 'One impact of lockdown is that British tourists will be keen to travel and, unable to go abroad, are likely to book holidays in the UK once it's deemed safe to do so. This could prove a silver lining for UK hoteliers, holiday operators and campsites,' commented report author Stephen Collins, an associate director with HVS London. 'This will help support domestic demand in the short to medium term, smoothing the recovery curve and allowing hotels to stay in business until the pandemic is brought under control and international demand begins to return.' The report warns that the fact UK tourists are unlikely to travel abroad this summer will also have a big impact on countries such as Spain, Portugal, France and Iceland, which are heavily reliant on British holidaymakers. However, this may present an opportunity for strategically minded and fast-acting British hoteliers to capture at least some of this traditionally outbound demand. 'We are cautiously optimistic about the UK hotel industry's ability to recover at a reasonable pace compared with the rest of Europe, and to focus on domestic tourism until international demand returns,' concluded Stephen Collins. 'But it will not be smooth sailing and there could be casualties, particularly in areas reliant on international, corporate and MICE demand.' * Click the link to download COVID-19 Recovery in the UK by Stephen Collins. You can access further reports from HVS on COVID-19 recovery in the hotel sector across Europe here. The sheer brutality of George Floyds death at the hands of a viciously violent cop symbolizes both the unadulterated racism of a society that looks away in the face of police violence against Black people and a social order in which racialized domestic terrorism has become normalized. Floyds murder has to be understood as part of wider systemic politics indebted to the long legacy of a culture of racist terror that extends from slavery and Jim Crow to the scourge of racial mass incarceration and a politics of disposability. How else to explain the senseless murders of Botham Jean, Treyvon Martin and more recently Ahmaud Aubrey and Breonna Taylor. Aubrey was killed by white vigilantes while out running. Taylor was shot in her bed by the police who literally broke into her house with no previous warning. The punishing apparatuses of the racial state have become more barbaric as power is concentrated more and more in the hands of the ultra-rich, white nationalists and white supremacists who now occupy the White House. Every space in the U.S. that people of colour occupy is now militarized. The ongoing murder and exercise of state terrorism against Black people is part of a White House ideology that supports the false argument that white people are the real victims, bolstered in part by white supremacist fantasies regarding the alleged nightmare of what they call the threat of white genocide. White supremacists such as Stephen Miller now set immigration policy. In this world of racist fears and conspiracy theories, it is convenient for whites to hate people of colour, and subscribe to the notion that the public sphere is a space only for whites. The racist grammars of suffering, state violence and disposability have become unspeakable and removed from any sense of moral and social responsibility. America has become an armed camp and the war on black and brown people a source of pride rather than alarm. Racism has morphed into a badge of honour for the current administration. This administration trades in racist taunts, encourages violence on the part of the police, and believes that Blacks are more dangerous than right-wing terrorists, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists. People of colour are viewed in the dominant discourse of white supremacy as being outside of the bounds of justice; their existence occupies a space between invisibility and terminal exclusion. This mindset and practice are deeply anti-democratic and are given legitimacy daily in Trumps tweets and policies. Increasingly, under the Trump regime, people of colour are thugs relegated to zones of social abandonment, lacking human rights, and unknowable as lives worthy of value. There is nothing new about the police killing black people. Nor is there anything new about the United State engaging in state sponsored violence by way of a racially marked mass incarceration system. What is new is that in the digital age, these killings are now more visible; yet they have done little to reform either the violent culture of policing or the terror imposed by the racial state. Americans watched a 12-year old child, Tamir Rice, killed by the police. We watched Philando Castille shot by the police in front of his girlfriend and her small child; we watched George Floyd die under the knee of a cop who appeared chillingly indifferent as Georges last breathe left his body. That knee in place for nine minutes, as if it wanted to make clear that it was more than willing to stand proudly as a symbol of what Robert Shetterly called the blunt instrument of (a racist) history. We watched as the police in almost all of these crimes, except thus far for Floyds death, were exonerated. The lethal force of systemic racism is now front and centre in American society, visible in the visible, needless death of black people, in the smouldering enclaves of poverty in so many cities, in the images of black men and women terrorized by police who embrace the logic of a racialized militarized society. The force of deadly racism now occupies the highest levels of political authority in the United States, symbolized in the presence of a Donald Trump and his sycophantic party of white supremacists. In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, Trump reveals his authoritarian and militarized instincts by threatening protesters with violence, the unleashing of vicious dogs and ominous weapons. Trump is the contemporary symbol for legitimatizing and implementing the violence of racial cleansing and the plague of state terrorism. He is the face of fascist terror, but only the face. What is behind that ugly brutal veneer is much worse. Henry A. Giroux is a social critic and McMaster University professor who holds the McMaster chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest, the Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar Chair. His latest book is The Terror of the Unforeseen. Born in Rhode Island, he held numerous academic positions in the U.S. and now lives in Hamilton. Read more about: The Miss Rodeo Nebraska Association will not have a pageant this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a press release. The decision was not made lightly it came after months of consideration and monitoring of safety recommendations by state and local health officials, the press release said. The MRNA tried to come up with alternatives, even pushing the pageant back from June to August, while still keeping the welfare of contestants and attendees as its top priority, organizers wrote. Ultimately, it was determined that canceling the pageant was in the best interests of everyone. The reigns of Miss Rodeo Nebraska 2020 Joeli Walrath and Miss Teen Rodeo Nebraska 2019 Brylee Thompson will be extended into next year. The safety of those involved with the pageant and the public was the committees foremost concern, thus making the decision for us to cancel the pageant, said Cindy Petersen, chair of the pageant committee. We are grateful to our current titleholders who are willing to carry their titles into the next year and are looking forward to a successful pageant in 2021. Miss Rodeo America Inc. made the same announcement last week, putting off its pageant until December 2021. Current Miss Rodeo America Jordan Tierney will continue her reign until that time. A Delhi court on Tuesday granted bail to a woman associated with Pinjra Tod, a collective of women students and alumni of colleges from across Delhi, in a case related to violence in old Delhi's Daryaganj area during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in December last year. Metropolitan Magistrate Abhinav Pandey granted the relief to Devangana Kalita, JNU student, on furnishing a bail bond of Rs 30,000 and two sureties of like amount and imposed "stringent" conditions on her. The court directed her not to indulge in a similar activity and cooperate with the investigating agency. It further directed her to deposit her passport before the concerned court till further orders. This was the third case in which Kalita was arrested on Sunday and sent to police custody for three days. Bhim Army Chief Chandrashekhar Azad was also arrested in December last year in the case for allegedly giving inflammatory speeches and later granted bail. Kalita was earlier arrested in two separate cases related to the communal violence in northeast Delhi in February. The court said in its order that the investigation carried out till now in the December violence case does not show any direct evidence attributable to Kalita to bring her for the offence under section 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) and 353 (assault to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of the Indian Penal Code. It further said that CCTV footage reportedly does not specifically show her to be involved in any violent activity. "The accused (Kalita) allegedly, on the basis of social media posts, participated in protest against the NRC bill, but so far as the investigation been carried out till now, no direct evidence attributable to the accused has been found to bring her for the offence under section 325 and 353 of the IPC," it said. The court noted that the investigation has been carried out on the basis of details provided in the MLCs conducted of the injured persons, whereupon call data records were obtained as per which she was found to be present at the scene of the incident at the time of commission of offence. "CCTV footage also reportedly does not specifically show the accused to be involved in any violent activity. Disclosure statements made before the police and the injuries on the person of the accused reflected in the MLC which got conducted by the accused on her own accord, is not sufficient to make a strong prima facie case against the accused so as to deny bail. It is also not indicated that any incriminating material was recovered from the laptop and the phone which was seized from her. "In such a situation, the inference whether the accused incited or participated in the mob violence or had intended to participate in a peaceful protest only which later on acquired a violent nature, can only be reached upon after appreciation of evidence in course of trial," it said. It further said that Kalita was not a habitual offender or a previous convict and the other criminal proceedings pending against her related to the same or similar incidents. The hearing also witnessed a bit of drama as when the accused was produced in the court, none appeared for her and she was ordered to be sent to Judicial custody till June 16. However, 10 minutes later, advocates Adit S Pujari and Tusharika Mattoo, counsel for Kalita, appeared before the court and moved an application seeking bail for Kalita. They claimed that IO did not inform them about the time when he was producing Kalita and ignored their phone calls and that is why they could not appear before the court on time. They told the court that since they were late by a few minutes only, the application for bail should be entertained by the court. When the court agreed, the counsel said Kalita was ready to cooperate in the investigation and would comply with any conditions imposed by the court. They informed the court that all co-accused in the case have been granted bail earlier. Pinjra Tod (Break the Cage) was founded in 2015 with an aim to make hostels and paying guest accommodations less restrictive for women students. In 2015, Jamia Millia Islamia University had issued a notice restricting female students to stay out after 8pm. When the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) questioned the Jamia administration on it, a group of women students decided to protest against the restrictions not only in Jamia but other universities in Delhi. Later named as Pinjra Tod, the group mobilised people around several issues faced by female residents of hostels and PGs. Azad's outfit had called for a protest march from Jama Masjid to Jantar Mantar against the amended Citizenship Act on December 20, 2019, without police permission. Fifteen other people arrested in the case were also granted bail by the court. There were violent protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act near Jama Masjid and Daryaganj area on December 20, 2018, in which people had pelted stones and torched vehicles. Several people including police officials were injured in the incident. Photo: Nils Grimm/Unsplash Read on for the most recent top news you may have missed in San Jose. San Jose: 64-year-old woman killed in hit-and-run Read the full story on Mercury News. San Jose drive-in theaters temporarily close for curfew over looting, unrest Read the full story on Mercury News. San Francisco, San Jose impose curfews to quell unrest Read the full story on KTVU Fox 2. Santa Clara County amends health order allowing several sectors to reopen Friday Read the full story on KTVU Fox 2. This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback. A 64-year-old woman was dead and a 76-year-old Santa Clara man was in custody following a hit-and-run crash in San Jose over the weekend, authorities said. Drive-in movie theaters in San Jose have temporarily closed due to curfews imposed in the wake of looting and unrest that roiled the Bay Area and other U.S. cities over the weekend. City Manager Dave Sykes implemented a citywide curfew that took effect on Sunday from 8:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. and will last for the next seven days or until further notice. Innovator and education reformist Sonam Wangchuk whose video last week asking Indians to boycott all things Chinese in response to the stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh went viral, said the boycott would send a message to Beijing and could even spark a revolt Wagchuks video from Ladakh drew over 20 lakh views in two days but he says that those should be converted into something concrete that would bite the Chinese government. Of course I am happy that 20 lakh people watched the video. But what matters is that people understand the message. Many people have uninstalled Chinese apps. So when crores uninstall apps. It will be a message for the Chinese government when they are intruding into India, Wangchuk said. He insisted the peoples wallet power could be an ideal supplement for the armys capabilities to safeguard our borders in Ladakh. It is not only the army which will give a fitting reply to the Chinese but the people are also with the army and they will respond with their wallets, he said. Wangchuk said that boycott is a powerful weapon that could make China realise that antagonizing India could prove to be a costly affair. When traders will start cancelling orders from China it will send a powerful message to Chinese government that antagonising India will extract a huge price. The government will be apprehensive that the Chinese population may turn against it because trade is the only support for the people of that country who otherwise are like bonded labour. So if their income from trade is disturbed there could be a possibility of a revolt. It is imperative to ensure that the boycott of Chinese products is successful. I hope the conduct of Indians can become an example for the rest of the world to follow, said the engineer-turned-education reformer who inspired Aamir Khans character in the Bollywood blockbuster 3 Idiots. Indias trade deficit with China is massive at $56.77 billion. The bilateral trade between India and China was $93 billion last year after it fell by about $3 billion as both countries experienced economic slowdown. Senior Army General In Iran Lambasts The Revolutionary Guard Radio Farda June 1, 2020 In unprecedented remarks a senior commander of the Iranian regular Army has implicitly lambasted Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard for meddling in the country's political and economic affairs. The Coordinating Deputy of the Islamic Republic's Army (Artesh), Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, bitterly expressed his dissatisfaction for the army being ignored by the country's state-controlled media. The Islamic Republic government's official news agency, IRNA, published a short video of its interview with the Rear Admiral. The video, entitled "Untold stories of the Army by General Amir Sayyari," was removed from IRNA's website on Sunday, May 31, a few hours after it was posted. IRNA has not explained the reason behind its decision. The Insaf News website says IRNA's Director-General of Domestic News, Pedram Alvandi, has declined to comment. However, about fourteen minutes of the videotaped interview has been republished on other websites. As a rule, commanders of the regular Army have always been careful to avoid commenting on political and economic affairs of the country, let alone criticizing the IRGC, which is said to be the dominant force in Iran's internal and international affairs. During the interview, Rear Admiral Sayyari insisted that the army respects rules and does not step into political and economic activities, adding, "Does this mean that we do not understand politics? Not at all. We grasp politics well, we analyze it well, we understand it well, but we don't get into politics since politicization is harmful and damaging for the Armed Forces." Meanwhile, Sayyari has not missed the chance to sharply criticize the Islamic Republic propaganda outlets, including the monopolized state-owned Radio&TV (Seda va Sima) networks, for disregarding the regular army's achievements. Sayyari disclosed that immediately after state TV aired some "false comments about Iran's territorial waters" accusing the Army of "negligence", "I filed a legal complaint against Seda va Sima, and wrote a letter to its director," Sayyari said, adding, "Yet, nobody responded (to my letter)." An Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) veteran and seasoned navy man, Syyari has gone even further asserting that "something is going on behind the scenes at Seda va Sima." Sayyari, who has served in the Iranian Army since 1974, first in the Imperial Army, was directly appointed by the Islamic Republic Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as the Chief Commander of the Iranian regular Navy in 2007. After a decade at the position, he was installed as the Coordinating Deputy of the Army, in 2017. In his interview with IRNA, Sayyari also criticized the Army's absence from the state propaganda, including movies, while religious men are falsely presented as "heroes" who were capable to wipe out a division with only one single machine gun. If that was the case, Sayyari quipped, "Why the war took eight years?" Moreover, Sayyari expressed disappointment with the portrayal of Brigadier General Valiollah Fallahi in the movie, Che', directed by the so-called "Islamic revolutionary film director", Ebrahim Hatami Kia. Valiollah Fallahi (1931 29 September 1981), was Chief-Commander of the Iranian Army commander ground forces and prominent figure during the first year of the IranIraq War. He died in a plane crash on 29 September 1981 along with three other senior commanders of the Army. The portrayal of Commander Fallahi in the movie, Che', was so disappointing, Sayyari says, that he personally told the director, Hatami Kia, "This is n-o-t my Commander's image, and it has brought me to tears." In the movie the crucial role of the army is played down while the role of the Revolutionary Guard, a nascent force, is glorified. The existence of discrimination against Iran's regular Army and preventing it from coming out of the IRGC's long shadow has been frequently referred to in the past four decades. Proponents of the Islamic Republic note that the army's duty is "defending the country" while the IRGC's is "defending the ruling system," meaning the regime. Source: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/senior -army-general-in-iran-lambasts-the- revolutionary-guard/30646451.html Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Trade negotiators from UK and EU begin four-day video conference to forge deal on future relations. The European Union and the United Kingdom have kicked off a fourth round of talks on a post-Brexit trade deal and other aspects of their future relations. The four-day negotiations by video conference began on Tuesday with officials trying to make headway after the last three rounds yielded little progress. The UK formally left the bloc on January 31 after a slim majority voted for Brexit in a 2016 referendum. Little has changed in practice during a planned 11-month transition period. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised not to extend this period, despite a lack of progress in talks that have been overshadowed by the coronavirus crisis. The end of June is the deadline for the UK to ask for more time for talks, and both sides are due to take stock of the progress so far. No-deal Brexit Johnson suggested the country would accept a no-deal Brexit if London and Brussels cannot agree on new trade rules by December 31. Meanwhile, calls from British opposition politicians to request an extension are growing louder. London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Monday urged the government to put political ideology aside. Michel Barnier, EU chief Brexit negotiator, told the Sunday Times the UK had failed to meet its commitments to the negotiations on future trade and other arrangements. London had taken a step back two steps back, three steps back from the original commitments, he said. The British side rejected these accusations and charged the EU with wanting to keep it bound by the blocs EU rules in future. CAIRO The Egyptian authorities are cracking down on illegal construction in a bid to prevent the exploitation of the states preoccupation with the coronavirus crisis in order to build more unauthorized buildings. In a televised conference during the inauguration of the Bashayer El-Kheir 3 housing project in Alexandria on May 21, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called on the authorities to introduce legislative reforms to tighten penalties on violators. He also called for bringing to justice those who construct unlicensed buildings as a preliminary step for their trial. Sisi said that illegal construction is worse than terrorism. We are not going to chase slums forever, this should end, he said. Egypt has seen a remarkable rise in illegal buildings amid the security vacuum that followed the 2011 uprising. Many people built multi-story buildings without obtaining the necessary permits or complying with safety standards. There are no recent figures on the number of building violations in Egypt. A report issued by the Ministry of Local Development in 2018, noted, however, that more than 2 million building violations occurred between 2000 and 2017. Meanwhile, on April 5, Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly warned that violators would be referred to military prosecution under the Emergency Law. In a statement, Madbouly further said the government will take strict measures against violators. This raised the ire of human rights groups, which labeled the developments as an expansion of the prerogatives of the president and the security services. New amendments to the Emergency Law came into effect May 7, after Sisi approved them. Under these fresh amendments, members of the armed forces were granted the power of judicial oversight. The military prosecution was also empowered to investigate crimes violating the Emergency Law, and the role of the Public Prosecution was limited to referring violators to the judiciary at its discretion. In his April 5 statement, Madbouly further called for intensifying security campaigns and removing all building violations immediately, adding that violators will not be tolerated in this critical period. Mohamed Abdelghani, member of the parliamentary Housing Committee and head of ECB - Engineering Consulting Bureau, defended the implementation of the Emergency Law. He said it was linked to exceptional circumstances related to the outbreak of the coronavirus. He told Al-Monitor that the Unified Building Law of 2008 on the regulation of building works, insufficiently addressed building violations as it gave violators a margin for maneuver and evasion. Abdelghani argued that the current exceptional measures may yield results, but these results will be temporary. The Emergency Law will cease to be applied once the amendments to the Unified Building Law are finalized. In January, Sisi ratified a law allowing a reconciliation with the state over building violations. The law excluded violations related to safety standards or construction on lands subject to the law on the protection of antiquities and the law on the protection of the Nile River and others. The law stipulates that the violators shall be fined a sum of money per square meter of the violating buildings area. The value of the meter paid by the violators for reaching a reconciliation with the state and legalizing the status of their properties would not be less than 50 Egyptian pounds ($3) and not more than 2,000 Egyptian pounds ($125). Until March, the Ministry of Local Development received 300,000 requests for reconciliation with the state from building violators. Abdelghani noted that the law on reconciliation is a temporary fix for the violations that occurred during the last period. He pointed out that parliament is currently examining an amendment to the Unified Building Law, and is expected to finalize it soon in preparation for its approval. He indicated that one of the amendments that was approved by the government gives the state the right to impose administrative seizure over any violating building in addition to depriving violating buildings from basic utilities including electricity and water. According to a study published by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics in June 2016, unplanned areas of slums constitute 38.6% of all built environments in Egypt. For Sami Amer, former dean of the Faculty of Urban Planning at Cairo University, the expansion of slums in Egypt is due to the weakness of the administrative body that follows up on building operations, not to mention local corruption. Amer told Al-Monitor that the state does not have a specific and unified policy binding on all ministries and authorities to confront unplanned construction. He added, Each ministry or authority acts alone. There is no coordination. He noted that building violators are mostly immigrants from Upper Egypt governorates and rural areas, in search of job opportunities, calling on the government to ramp up development projects in remote and Upper Egypt governorates to stop the emigration of their residents. Describing the impact of the violating buildings as catastrophic on the Egyptian economy, Amer affirmed that Egypt loses annually about 40,000 acres of agricultural land as a result of infringement on these lands and construction of illegal buildings on them. Egypt has lost since 2011 1 million acres of arable land. The government is adopting a plan to eradicate slums, at an estimated cost of 31 billion Egyptian pounds (about $2 billion), according to Housing Minister Assem el-Gazzar. In July 2019, Gazzar said that the slums in Egypt include 357 unsafe housing districts across the country, with 221 housing units. He noted that development works were completed in 192 of them. He noted that there are 70 unplanned districts at the state level, with a surface area of 152,000 acres, of which 52 districts were developed. The Egyptian government allocated to the Slums Development Fund (SDF) affiliated with the Housing Ministry a budget of 10.8 billion Egyptian pounds ($677 million) for the current financial year. SDF Executive Director Khaled Sedeek expected all unsafe housing districts to be upgraded by the end of 2020. On May 21, Sisi inaugurated the Bashayer El-Kheir 3 housing project which is a continuation of Bashayer El-Kheir 1 and Bashayer El-Kheir 2 at a cost of 2.7 billion Egyptian pounds ($169 million). The project will provide adequate housing for the citizens of the fishermen shelter area in western Alexandria. It covers 200 residential buildings with 10,624 fully furnished housing units. The governorate of Alexandria is witnessing a number of development projects to eradicate slums, most notably the development of the Ghait El Enab region and its upgrade into an urban region. Thousands take to the Art Museum steps during a protest against the death of George Floyd on Saturday, May 30, 2020. Read more TL;DR: The Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd has sparked protests across the country, including in Philadelphia. As the city sees its third day of protests, another nightly curfew and National Guard troops arriving in the streets today, my colleague Tom Avril asks: Could the protests here and elsewhere lead to a spike in COVID-19 cases? Experts are also warning that the months of unemployment and isolation from the coronavirus pandemic could increase deaths of despair." Ellie Silverman (@esilverman11, health@inquirer.com) What you need to know: Mayor Jim Kenney said today that he does not know whether the city would move into the yellow phase of reopening, as scheduled, on Friday. He called the unrest one of the biggest crises in the citys history and Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said a long-simmering powder keg "has burst. Elections administrators were already dealing with a massive surge of mail-in ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic. Now, as unrest continues, they are scrambling to prepare for Tuesdays primary election and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf extended mail ballot deadlines for one week. Outdoor dining, hair salons and retail stores can reopen in New Jersey, but it wont look the same as it did back in February. Read about the regulations here. Pa.s revenues take another coronavirus blow in May, falling $440 million short of expectations. Megabus resumes service between Philly and New York City: One step towards being normal. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said he was pleased to see people wearing masks at protests. In a partnership between The Inquirer and the Lenfest Local Lab, leveraging technology built in the Brown Institute, we have organized recent coverage of the coronavirus pandemic by local counties mentioned in the stories. Local coronavirus cases The coronavirus has swept across the Philadelphia region and cases continue to mount. The Inquirer and Spotlight PA are compiling geographic data on tests conducted, cases confirmed, and deaths caused by the virus. Track the spread here. The Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd has sparked protests across the country, including in Philadelphia, where peaceful demonstrations later became violent and resulted in vandalism. As the city sees its third day of protests, another nightly curfew and National Guard troops arriving in the streets today, my colleague Tom Avril asks: Could the protests here and elsewhere lead to a spike in COVID-19 cases? Heres what experts say. In case you missed our comprehensive coverage this weekend, here are photos of the protests. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it unprecedented stress, depression, and fear and experts have warned that the months of unemployment and isolation from stay-at-home orders could increase deaths of despair, my colleagues Bethany Ao and Aubrey Whelan report. They write that this term refers to early deaths among young and mid-life Americans, from suicide, drug overdoses, and alcoholism. Read more here. Helpful resources You got this: Activities for your kids If youre looking for ways to keep your kids occupied while you work from home, here are details on some livestreams, like the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts half-hour juggling class via Zoom and the live cameras at the San Diego Zoo. Read more here. What does the yellow phase of reopening really mean? Heres what your social life may look like. Are you wondering if you can drive to a green" phase county for a haircut? Heres an answer. Tired of talking with your parents over Zoom? My colleague Grace Dickinson writes about if you can hang out with your parents in the yellow phase. Have a social distancing tip or question to share? Let us know at health@inquirer.com and your input might be featured in a future edition of this newsletter. What were paying attention to State and local officials are warning that the coronavirus pandemic could cause a billion-dollar program to protect cities from climate change to fail, the New York Times reports. The Influenza pandemic made lemons popular, Atlas Obscura reports. Heres how. Its been six months of the coronavirus, the New York Times reports. Heres what we have learned. Enjoy getting our journalism through email? You can also sign up for The Inquirer Morning Newsletter to get the latest news, features, investigations and more sent straight to your inbox each morning Sunday-Friday. Sign up here. SAN FRANCISCO, June 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Medsender is the first healthcare cloud communication company to partner with Patagonia Health. The two companies joined forces to help provide public health departments with an easy way to securely collect patient information from any healthcare provider or lab. This new capability will allow Patagonia Health clients to automatically triage and digitize incoming medical documents in real-time and aggregate incoming COVID-19 patient statistics in their EHR, all with Medsender's proven reliability to ensure no communication falls through the cracks. "Because of our partnership, we now have local health departments that are using Medsender to communicate faster and more reliably with providers than ever before. They are getting digitized data on which towns have the highest infection rates. This is what we built Medsender for, to provide any company with a robust out-of-the-box healthcare communication solution that can be setup by anyone in minutes," said Medsender CEO Zain Qayyum. Information can be sent to Medsender users from anywhere, regardless of the data type or source. Senders do not need any software or workflow changes, allowing health systems to focus on patient care instead of IT woes during the pandemic. According to a recent article published by Minnesota Public Radio, public health officials are stuck communicating over fax with providers. Faxes are blurry, busy signals interfere, and sometimes faxes go to the wrong place entirely, making it unreliable. Medsender's technology is helping healthcare move off of faxing by combining health record integrations with its cloud encryption and digital data sharing network. "With the majority of provider and lab communication currently taking place over fax, we are excited to transition public health departments to digital communication and use these new capabilities to help health officials make data-driven decisions on their COVID-19 response strategy," said Sonali Luniya, Chief Customer Officer at Patagonia Health. "They are able to communicate seamlessly and compliantly across all EHRs, emails, and unstructured data sources such as faxes." About Medsender Medsender provides the best way to communicate in compliance with HIPAA through its easy-to-use cloud application and EHR integrations, all of which can be setup within minutes with no training required. With over 99.9% reliability, Medsender is trusted by medical offices, hospitals, pharmacies, labs, imaging centers, public health departments, and more. For developers and EHR vendors, Medsender also offers a modern API designed for deep, rapid integration and deployment with just a few lines of code. For more information, please visit medsender.com . About Patagonia Health Patagonia Health, Inc. is a healthcare software supplier with a cloud and apps-based software solution that is designed specifically for Public and Behavioral Health agencies. The solution includes an integrated, federally-certified, Electronic Health Record (EHR), Practice Management (PM) and Billing software. The company's mission is to solve two major barriers to EHR adoption usability and cost and address customers' number one problem: billing. Patagonia Health's highly-intelligent solution is extremely easy to use and provides timely data for organizations to improve workflow, streamline operations and take their organizations to the next level. For more information, visit https://patagoniahealth.com . Media Contact: [email protected] SOURCE Medsender Related Links https://medsender.com Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, speaks to reporters outside of the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Oct. 30, 2019. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images) Twitter Flags Tweet by Rep. Gaetz for Glorifying Violence Twitter continued to censor top U.S. officials this week as it flagged a post by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), claiming the missive was glorifying violence. Now that we clearly see Antifa as terrorists, can we hunt them down like we do those in the Middle East? Gaetz wrote in the tweet. Twitter shielded users from the post, allowing them to click view to read it but warning that the post violated rules about glorifying violence. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the publics interest for the Tweet to remain accessible, the social media company stated. Gaetz, a second-term congressman, said in response: Their warning is my badge of honor. Antifa is a terrorist organization, encouraging riots that hurt Americans. Our government should hunt them down. Twitter should stop enabling them. Ill keep saying it, he said on Twitter. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) was among those calling on Twitter to take Gaetzs tweet down entirely instead of keeping it up and hiding it. Survivors of mass shootings, he said, were contacting him. They are scared to death this will inspire someone to start shooting into a crowd tonight. They are right, he said. A Dollar Tree store is broken into and looted near the Minneapolis Police 5th Precinct during the fourth night of protests and violence following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Demonstrators vandalize a car near the White House on May 31, 2020. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo) Gaetz called the statement woke virtue signaling, and said: Governments go after terrorists. Individuals dont. Wethe governmentshould continue to do so. And Antifa is rightly on the list! Speak against riots hurting Americans. Gaetz and a host of other officials, including President Donald Trump, have said theyre targeting the special status conveyed upon Twitter and other social media platforms in the wake of proven bias and censorship from the companies. Twitter launched itself into the political fray last week by hiding one of Trumps tweets, claiming the missive was glorifying violence. These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I wont let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you! Trump wrote in the post in question. When the White House re-posted what the president wrote, Twitter also hid that tweet. The action came after Twitter placed a so-called fact check on one of Trumps posts. The company had to alter the fact check because it contained factually incorrect information. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said Twitter will continue to point out incorrect or disputed information about elections globally. And we will admit to and own any mistakes we make. Trump signed an executive order aimed at preventing online censorship, triggering federal reviews of spending on the platforms, federal investigations into forms of political censorship, and other measures. Joshua Philipp contributed to this report. Correction: A previous version of this article misstated how long Rep. Gaetz has been in office. The Epoch Times regrets the error. Admitting that China has sent a large number of troops to the Line of Actual Control (LAC), defence minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said India hopes to resolve the stand-off through diplomatic and military level talks. Singh, speaking to Network18's Amish Devgan, said he was informed by Army Chief MM Naravane that a meeting between Indian and Chinese military leaders will be held on June 6, and expressed confidence that the issue will be settled peacefully. This has happened before too and a solution was found, he said, referring to the 73-day Doklam stand-off of 2017. Refusing to ascribe any motives to Chinas actions at the LAC in eastern Ladakh in the middle of a pandemic, Singh said it would be wrong to speculate or express doubts when talks are already underway. He said he would have definitely said something were talks not being held. They (the Chinese leadership) have also said they want to solve the dispute through dialogue, he said. The Indian and Chinese troops are involved in a face-off at three points in the Galwan Valley and at one point at Pangong Tso in Ladakh, with both sides sending reinforcements to bolster their positions. Northern Army Commander Lieutenant General YK Joshi on Tuesday also reached Ladakh to review the situation amid growing tensions. The defence minister said that India has also sent a large number of troops to match the Chinese deployment, and assured that the government would not let anyone hurt Indias self-respect. He did not answer or confirm when asked if China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) has entered Indian territory. Reports from Eastern Ladakh and Satellite imagery indicate that Chinese troops have intruded into what India believes is its territory in Galwan and Pangong Tso. The trigger for the face-off was China's stiff opposition to India laying a key road in the Finger area around the Pangong Tso besides construction of another road connecting the Darbuk-Shayok-Daulat Beg Oldie road in Galwan Valley. Singh, however, refused to brand China is Indias enemy and said that he considers it just to be Indias neighbour. We dont consider anyone to be an enemy. Even Pakistan is just a neighbour. But we reserve the right to respond strongly if anyone tries to hurt us, he said. On US President Donald Trumps offer that he would be willing to mediate to solve the border dispute, Singh reiterated that both countries have in place a well-developed mechanism to solve such issues, and do not need the help of any third party. He added that Chinas President Xi Jinping, too, has said he would like to solve the issue through dialogue. LAKEWOOD, Colo., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design (RMCAD) Board of Directors is excited to announce the college's new president, Brent Fitch. President Fitch boldly joins RMCAD amid a time of responsible growth, diligent progression and strategic adaptation, and will serve to continue our community on the same path. A focused and versatile forward thinker, President Fitch is a highly knowledgeable senior administrator with a strategic vision in higher education and a proven track record creating and executing effective faculty, employee and student success programs that address ever-changing needs, both short and long-term. Previously, he served in several roles at University of Phoenix including Senior Vice President of Enrollment Management and he also was a strategic institutional advisor while working at Blackboard. After starting his new role, President Fitch is excited about the opportunity ahead. "As my first week as the President of Rocky Mountain College for Art + Design comes to a close, I feel not only humbled but also honored to be joining such a phenomenally creative, innovative and collaborative learning institution," he said. "Each one of you [students] plays an important role in the RMCAD Family, and I am thrilled to fulfill my dream of leading such a community. Built on a rich tradition of helping its members make their expressive mark on the world, RMCAD is a place where we will achieve our goals together." President Fitch is looking forward to leading the RMCAD COVID-19 Task Force as RMCAD continues to work towards reopening its campus for classes while following local, state and federal guidelines. He is excited about continuing RMCAD's excellence in art and design education and its dedication to serving our students, their learning, and their growth. President Fitch's vision is a direct reflection of RMCAD's first mission statement our students come first. The New Orleans native is thrilled to continue paving the path of success for Colorado's only art college. "I want to thank you for being a part of our past and helping us build a bright future. Transparency and interaction will be the foundations of our creative connection, and I can't wait to engage with each of you over the next few months. In the meantime, I am always here to serve. If you wish to contact me, my virtual door is always open," he said. PR Contact: Daron Rodriguez [email protected] Chris Daley [email protected] SOURCE Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design Related Links http://www.rmcad.edu UPDATE: Young woman incited riot on her own Facebook Live video, police say GRAND RAPIDS, MI A Grand Rapids woman has been charged with inciting a riot over weekend that resulted in damage to 100 businesses, looting and the torching of seven police cars. The 22-year-old woman is expected to be arraigned Tuesday, June 2, in Grand Rapids District Court. She was arrested Monday, June 1, and is held in the Kent County Correctional Facility. The riot followed a march against police brutality and racism. Protests and riots raged have across the country after the death of George Floyd. A Minneapolis police officer kept his knee on Floyds neck, despite Floyd saying he could not breathe. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been fired and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. The Grand Rapids woman is charged with inciting a riot, punishable by up to 10 years in prison upon conviction, and malicious destruction of property, a five-year felony, Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker said. She is the second one to face felony charges in the Grand Rapids riot. On Monday, Adrian Keech Baker, 18, of Gobles, was charged with rioting, larceny in a building and malicious destruction of property. He has been released from jail after posting $5,000 bond. Using a strong show of force, police arrested a dozen people Monday night for curfew violations. Nine were arrested for violating curfew a day earlier. Read more: Teen faces felony rioting charge in Grand Rapids violent weekend Protesters cause chaos overnight in downtown Kalamazoo Grand Rapids protesters scatter after police, backed by Michigan National Guard, move in After a weekend of rioting in the downtown area of San Antonio, images and social media posts show there was some light in the darkness. In San Antonio, peaceful protests took place downtown Saturday and Sunday with thousands denouncing police brutality after an African American man, George Floyd, died while in Minneapolis police custody last week. However, some individuals, whom officials say were not associated with the protests, took to the streets after the protest was over to vandalize and loot several downtown businesses and landmarks. But, while there were images of officers and civilians clashing, there were some heart-warming moments that came out of the weekend. From San Antonio Police Chief William McManus comforting a young child to citizens helping each other out, social media posts show the Alamo City takes care of its own. Scroll below for heartwarming images from last weekend's protests. David Dorn, a 77-year-old retired St. Louis police officer who served 38 years on the force was shot and killed by looters at a pawn shop early on June 2, 2020, police said. (Scott Bandle, Suburban Journals/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP) Retired St. Louis Police Captain Shot to Death Outside Looted Pawn Shop A retired St. Louis police captain was shot and killed outside of a looted pawn shop in St. Louis on June 1, according to a local police organization and authorities. David Dorn, 77, was found dead by police outside Lees Pawn and Jewelry store. The Ethical Society of Police of St. Louis said that Dorn was a retired St. Louis captain, and his wife, Ann, currently works for the police department, KMOV reported. He was murdered by looters at a pawn shop. He was the type of brother that wouldve given his life to save them if he had to. Violence is not the answer, whether its a citizen or officer, the Ethical Society wrote. St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden said Dorn was murdered while exercising law enforcement. David Dorn was a fine captain, many of us young officers looked up to him, Hayden said. The looting occurred amid violent protests, riots, vandalism, and arson in the city in the wake of George Floyds death in Minneapolis police custody last week. Floyd died after an officer was recorded holding a knee on his neck during an arrest. Dorn spent 38 years with the police department, according to the KMOV report. Following a night of protests, broken windows and looted stores stand in Manhattans SoHo neighborhood in New York City on June 1, 2020. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Meanwhile, local officials said that his shooting death was captured in a Facebook Live video. I just seen a man die on live man! Smh, state Rep. Rasheen Aldridge said on Facebook, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, referring to Dorns shooting death. Very traumatized right now. A Facebook spokesman, Andy Stone, stated that he was attempting to track down more information about the video. One Facebook user wrote: What I just witnessed on several lives has me sickened to my stomach. The man just was shot and killed outside of Lees Pawn and Jewelry has me sick to my stomach. Its one thing to be a victim of a robbery/assault but to lie in you own blood pleading for help and no help comes other than people standing around on FB Live recording his death. All over social media. Im upset and cant sleep! Dorns wife told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that her husband was a friend of the pawn shops owner and worked for him. On June 1, four St. Louis police officers were shot during protests downtown, authorities said. Story Highlights 34% of Ukrainians, 37% of Russians satisfied with the availability of quality healthcare in their local area Just over half of Russians (54%) were confident in the hospitals in their country in 2018 WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Even as the number of COVID-19 cases in Russia stabilize and hard-hit Moscow eased its lockdown on Monday, the pandemic has laid bare problems with the country's healthcare system that Russians have been aware of for years. Before the pandemic, just 37% of Russians reported being satisfied with the availability of quality healthcare where they live. The trend in Russia has been flat over the past five years, staying on par with the 38% reported in 2014. Line graph. Since 2005, when Gallup started asking people worldwide about their satisfaction with the availability of quality healthcare where they live, satisfaction in Russia has lagged behind the rest of the world. While not facing the same staggering number of COVID-19 cases, Ukraine remains in a difficult position in their capacity to deal with the epidemic. Just 34% of Ukrainians are satisfied with the availability of healthcare in their area, essentially tying with Russia for the lowest rating across post-Soviet Eurasia. President Volodymyr Zelensky remarked recently that the healthcare system is "a step short of a coma." These dour attitudes in Russia and Ukraine extend to people's perceptions about medical facilities within their countries as well. A 2018 study by the Wellcome Global Monitor found that little more than half of Russians (54%) and a similar 55% of Ukrainians expressed confidence in the hospitals and health clinics in their country. These ratings are well below the 76% average for people worldwide. Wide Range in Healthcare Satisfaction Across the Former Soviet Union The low satisfaction among Russians and Ukrainians is remarkable, even in a region where satisfaction with the availability of quality healthcare is already lower than the global average. Less than half of those (45%) living in the region express satisfaction with the availability of quality healthcare in their local area, compared with 65% globally. Russia and Ukraine Are Least Satisfied With the Availability of Healthcare % Satisfied 2017 2018 2019 % % % Tajikistan 80 84 84 Uzbekistan 83 79 79 Kyrgyzstan 66 68 65 Kazakhstan 56 49 57 Georgia 53 51 54 Azerbaijan 38 47 52 Moldova 36 54 50 Belarus 42 40 45 Armenia 42 35 42 Russia 35 34 37 Ukraine 24 33 34 In the city or area where you live, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with _______? The availability of quality healthcare Gallup World Poll 2019 Within the region, the countries with the lowest reported satisfaction, Armenia, Russia and Ukraine, all spend less on healthcare as a percentage of total government expenditures compared with the global average. Armenia, for example, spent just 7% of government expenditures on health-related expenses in 2014 compared with a global average of 11.8%, according to the World Health Organization. Although closer than Armenia, Ukraine and Russia both fell below the global average in government healthcare expenditures. Diminished Trust in Authorities Remains a Problem Across the Region Apart from the current conditions of healthcare facilities, residents in the region are divided on their level of trust for medical and health advice coming from the government in their countries. While three-quarters (76%) of residents globally express a lot or some trust in their government regarding health matters, the percentage falls to 60% in post-Soviet Eurasia. Trust varies widely across the region, ranging from near-universal faith in the authorities in Uzbekistan (97%) to just a third (33%) of residents in Ukraine. Many Still Lacking Trust in Government on Medical Advice A lot/Some Not much/Not at all % % Uzbekistan 97 1 Turkmenistan 91 6 Tajikistan 89 8 Kyrgyzstan 85 10 Azerbaijan 81 13 Kazakhstan 72 15 Georgia 68 27 Armenia 64 29 Belarus 57 27 Russia 55 29 Moldova 48 46 Ukraine 33 53 In general, how much do you trust medical and health advice that the government of _____ gives? A lot, some, not much, or not at all? If you don't know, please just say so. Wellcome Global Monitor 2018 Even if a vaccine or treatment can be found, the region suffers from a wide gap in perceptions on the efficacy of these solutions. Slightly more than six in 10 residents in the region strongly agree or agree that vaccines are effective, compared with 84% of residents worldwide. In some countries, including Moldova and Belarus, less than half of the population believes that vaccines are an effective form of treatment. Implications With many experts seeing a coronavirus vaccine months or years away, healthcare systems will continue facing constant pressure for the foreseeable future. Although some trends in Russia appeared optimistic, the staggering caseload will challenge the already-overloaded healthcare system. Given the gloomy outlook facing the region, antiquated medical facilities and supplies will be pushed to their limits as governments struggle to bolster underfunded systems to meet the demands of the crisis. For complete methodology and specific survey dates, please review Gallup's Country Data Set details. Learn more about how the Gallup World Poll works. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump on Tuesday discussed various issues, including the situation on the India-China border, the coronavirus pandemic and the need for reforms in the World Health Organization (WHO), said an official statement. During the telephonic conversation, Trump invited Modi to attend the next G-7 summit to be held in the US. Modi expressed concern over the "ongoing civil disturbances in the US", and conveyed his best wishes for an early resolution of the situation, said the statement. "The two leaders also exchanged views on other topical issues, such as the COVID-19 situation in the two countries, the situation on the India-China border, and the need for reforms in the World Health Organisation," it said. Trump spoke about the US Presidency of the Group of Seven, and conveyed his desire to expand the ambit of the grouping beyond the existing membership, to include other important countries including India. "In this context, he extended an invitation to Prime Minister Modi to attend the next G-7 Summit to be held in USA," the statement said. Modi commended Trump for his "creative and far-sighted approach", acknowledging the fact that such an expanded forum would be in keeping with the emerging realities of the post-COVID world. Modi said India would be happy to work with the US and other countries to ensure the success of the proposed summit. Trump warmly recalled his visit to India in February. Modi said that the visit had been memorable and historic on many accounts, and had also added new dynamism to the bilateral relationship. The exceptional warmth and candour of the conversation reflected the special nature of the Indo-US ties as well as the friendship and mutual esteem between both leaders, the statement said. Tweeting about their conversation, Modi said he had "a warm and productive conversation with my friend President Trump". Had a warm and productive conversation with my friend President @realDonaldTrump. We discussed his plans for the US Presidency of G-7, the COVID-19 pandemic, and many other issues. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 2, 2020 The conversation between the two leaders came against the backdrop of Trump maintaining that he had spoken with Modi who was not in a "good mood" over the China border issue. Sources in the government here had denied any "recent contact" between the two leaders. Trump had also offered to mediate between India and China. The last conversation between them was on April 4 2020 on Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 18:22:59|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 2 (Xinhua) -- China plans to launch its first Mars probe between July and August this year, aiming to complete orbiting, landing and roving in one mission, an expert said in a recent interview with the state broadcaster CCTV. After the launch via China's largest carrier rocket Long March-5, the probe is expected to reach within the gravitational field of Mars next February and it will be captured into orbit around the planet, said Bao Weimin, an academic with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is also the director of the Committee of Science and Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. According to Bao, China's Mars probe consists of an orbiter as well as a lander and a rover. The lander and rover will make a soft landing on the surface. The Mars rover, which is expected to work on Mars for at least 90 Mars days (more than three months on Earth), will carry out patrol exploration and research on geomorphic landforms of Mars. A safe landing on Mars is the most difficult and risky part of the mission, and the lander carrying the rover will be slowed down through four steps, Bao noted. The first step, which will last for about 290 seconds, is akin to breaking, slowing down its speed from 4.8 km per second to 460 meters per second. Next, a parachute will be opened and it will take about 90 seconds to lower the speed from 460 meters per second to 95 meters per second. A reverse thrust engine will then be ignited, decelerating the speed to 3.6 meters per second in about 80 seconds. After the first three steps, the lander carrying the rover will be about 100 meters above the Mars surface. Hovering in the air, it can observe the surface, adjust its position and select a safe spot to land in an obstacle-avoiding mode. The whole landing process will take about seven to eight minutes, said Bao. Last November, China successfully mounted an experiment simulating the process of a probe hovering, avoiding obstacles and descending to land on Mars. In April China announced that its first Mars exploration mission was named Tianwen-1. The name comes from the long poem "Tianwen," meaning Questions to Heaven, written by Qu Yuan (about 340-278 BC), one of the greatest poets of ancient China. Enditem Indias defense industrial conglomerate Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) will produce under license an additional batch of 156 BMP-2 Sarath infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) for the countrys military, the OFBs press department announced on May 30, 2020. Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link Indian army BMP II Sarath tracked armored IFV Infantry Fighting Vehicles passes through the Rajpath during the full dress rehearsal for the Republic Day Parade-2009, in New Delhi on January 23, 2009. (Picture source Wikimedia) The Indian Ministry of Defense MoD approves the procurement of 156 BMP-2 IFV armored tracked vehicles from Ordnance Factory Metak (OFM), a unit under OFB, said the press department in a tweet. The OFB did not detail the type of the BMP-family IFV to be bought; however, the OFM is known to have been producing BMP-2s under a Soviet/Russian license since the late 1980s. According to the OFMs official portfolio, the BMP-2 Sarath (the Indian designation of the baseline BMP-2 IFV TASS) is powered by a 300-hp engine, producing a road speed of up to 65 km/h and a swimming speed of up to 7 km/h. The vehicle runs over a 35 slope and crosses a 0.7 m trench, the manufacturer claims. Due to its low weight, BMP-2 Sarath can be easily transported by an airlifter, said a spokesperson for the OFM. The IFVs armament suite comprises a 30 mm automatic cannon, a coaxial 7.62 mm general-purpose machinegun (GPMG), a 2nd-generation anti-tank guided missile (ATGM), and several smoke grenade launchers. The BMP-2 Sarath can engage both land and low-flying aerial targets, said the OFMs spokesperson. According to the enterprises portfolio, the IFVs protection has been additionally reinforced with a disruptive camouflage coating. The plant also produces a number of BMP-2-based systems, including medical evacuation (medevac) vehicle, a self-propelled mortar, a chemical, illogical, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) reconnaissance vehicle, and an armoured engineer vehicle. The OFM has been manufacturing the BMP-2 since 1987. During the DefExpo 2020 defense show held in Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh, India) in early February, a spokesperson for Russias Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSVTS) told the TASS news agency that India had produced some 2,500 IFVs. In 1984, India obtained a license to produce 3,000 BMP-2s. According to the Military Balance 2020 handbook published by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the Indian Army (IA) operates some 2,400 BMP-2 and BMP-2K (K for Command, Komandnaya) Sarath IFVs. The Indian MoD made its previous order for the licensed BMP-2 in February 2017: the countrys military procured some 150 vehicles in the basic configuration. India is also planning to modernize a large number of its existing BMP-2 IFVs. An updated variant of the Sarath with updated electronic subsystems broke its cover at the DefExpo 2020 defence exhibition. The baseline BMP-2 was produced by the Kurgan Machine-Building Plant (Kurganmashzavod, now a subsidiary of Rostecs High-Precision Weapons). According to the manufacturer, the vehicle weighs some 14.0 t, has a crew of three, and transports seven servicemen. It is powered by a 300-hp UTD-20 multifuel engine, producing a road speed of up to 65 km/h and a swimming speed of up to 7 km/h. The IFVs average road speed reaches 40-50 km/h. The BMP-2 is armed with a 2A42 30 mm automatic cannon, a Kalashnikov PKTM 7.62 mm GPMG, and a ready-use 9M113/9M113M Konkurs/Konkurs-M (NATO reporting name: AT-4 Spandrel/AT-4b Spandrel) ATGM system. The IFV carries 500 30 mm rounds, 2,000 7.62 mm cartridges, and four missiles. Copyright 2020 TASS / Army Recognition Group SPRL. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Actor and movie producer Van Vicker have shared his delight on social media after the president of Ghana, His Excellency Nana Akuffo-Addo heeded his advice. According to the actor, he is grateful that his post on Instagram urging Nana Akufo-Addo and other African leaders to lend their voices to the current injustice faced by black people in the United States fell on good ears. The government of Uganda also chimed in by releasing a statement about the attacks in the US. Van Vicker had condemned the act by the policeman who was caught on camera with his knee on a black mans neck leading to his death. He called for the immediate end to the villainous attacks and treatment of black Americans. The actor has shown solidarity with blacks in the United States by speaking against the act and urging African leaders to act and speak for true freedom and justice. Van Vicker is a fine actor and his career in acting can be compared to the best in Nollywood such as Jim Iyke, Desmond Elliot or Ramsey Noah. In Ghana, he is one of the best actors in the country alongside John Dumelo and Majid Michel but he is a human being first not his profession, therefore he has a valid reason to comment on any issue he deems necessary and important. Some people might argue about his right to comment on American sufferings and his expertise in the world of politics. Some might say he should stick to acting and mind his own business but many like myself applauds his courage to stand up for others especially blacks around the world. It is time our actors, actresses and celebrities in general stood up for what is right. Source: ghanacelebrities.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Lockdown was partially eased in England yesterday, but don't all cheer at once. Some of the 'temporary' restrictions were also enshrined in law. For instance, visiting a different household for sex, or any other purpose, is being made illegal. How are they going to make that stick? There is no force on earth which will stop determined human beings making love as Professor Neil Ferguson, the Government's own Covid adviser, proved beyond doubt. He was caught with his paisley Y-fronts down after inviting his mistress round for a little lockdown-breaking legover. Labour MP for Canterbury Rosie Duffield resigned as a Labour whip when it was revealed she'd broken the rules to meet up with her married lover. While Ferguson was rightly reviled for his hypocrisy, Duffield has received a more sympathetic hearing, although not from her boyfriend's jilted wife. Still, in the scheme of things no one bar the permanently faux-furious covigilantes could really care less. There's not a parliament on earth that can successfully legislate against extra-curricular hanky-panky. One of the funniest stories over the weekend was about a Dorset copper, Inspector Billy Bulloch, who has been caught going at it like rabbits with assorted, unnamed members of the public while he was on duty. Bulloch by name, bull by nature. But if they can't prevent police officers rutting in defiance of the social distancing regs, what chance have they got of stopping anyone else? The ban on slap-and-tickle, however ridiculous and doomed to failure, is little more than a sideshow. It's what comes with it which worries me. Frankly, I'm more bothered about the New Normal than I am about having been confined to barracks for the past couple of months. The hasty, ill-thought-out relaxation of the rules is a model of inconsistency, incompetence and contradiction. For instance, English car showrooms reopened yesterday, but salesmen are banned from taking you on a test drive. Unaccompanied test drives are permitted, but would you trust a punter, who's just wandered in off the street, with the keys to a 50-grand motor? What's to stop him simply driving off in it, never to be seen again? More to the point, who in their right mind would want to buy a new car now? Councils across Britain are cynically exploiting the corona pandemic to advance the most brutal anti-car agenda. Egged on by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, and epitomised by London's opportunist mayor Genghis Khan, they're banning cars, widening pavements and building hundreds of new cycle lanes. Driving has never been more expensive or frustrating. That's the whole point of these policies. What with congestion charges, low emissions charges and punitive parking fines, pretty soon the only people who will be able to afford to travel by car are those like Khan who have access to an official 300,000 Range Rover. I couldn't help wondering what people queueing outside an Ikea yesterday were doing there. It wasn't for the meatballs. What were they planning to buy and how once Genghis and his gang get their way do they intend to get it home? You can't lug a wardrobe or double bed on the back of a pushbike or the top deck of a bus. When I saw a graphic detailing 'How Your Town Centre Could Look' post-lockdown yesterday, my heart sank. More road closures, wider pavements, extensive pedestrianisation, street marshals to enforce social distancing, exclusion zones outside shops. It is going to be a hi-viz heaven, a jobsworth's paradise. And when you give someone any modicum of authority, they will always, always abuse it. Who wants to queue up outside a shop for hours, being barked at by a Warden Hodges wannabe with a loud-hailer? Pedestrian precincts were already carpeted with tumbleweed, even before the lockdown, as shoppers were deterred by sky-high parking charges, wheel clampers and tyrannical traffic wardens. Far from being the salvation of the High Street, the New Normal will not only be the final nail in its coffin, we'll all lose the will to live. And don't get me started on airports, which have been a nightmare since 9/11. Who wants to spend eight hours on a transatlantic flight trapped in a face mask, before being ordered into quarantine for a fortnight at the end of it? Unless the two-metre rule goes, forget going for a pint or a curry. The daftest idea I've seen so far is the notion that restaurant customers should encase themselves in transparent plastic barrels to prevent them from infecting fellow diners. Why stop there? Why not make everyone wear a Buzz Lightyear space suit whenever they leave the house? I hesitate to joke about all this. It's probably only a matter of time before wearing plastic barrels in public is made compulsory no doubt starting with anyone gearing up for a bit of how's your father with someone from a different household. Any country which tries to make consensual sex illegal has already lost the plot. Now please wash your hands. In recent years, the Last Night Of The Proms has resembled a Remoaner Rally. Now this season's concerts have been cut back and may go ahead without live audiences, the Promenaders will all have to sit at home waving their EU flags. Watson should never be allowed anywhere near ermine, as this column has argued consistently thanks in no small part to his role in the historic sex crimes scandal Time for Watson to face the music Nonce Finder General Tom Watson will not get a seat in the House of Lords, according to the respected political journalist John Rentoul. Watson's nomination, by Jeremy Corbyn, has been blocked by the independent appointments commission, along with ex-Speaker John Bercow and Corbyn's former aide Karie Murphy. The commission won't comment on individual cases, but let's hope the report is true. Nominees can be turned down if their past conduct can reasonably be regarded as likely to bring the Lords into disrepute. Watson should never be allowed anywhere near ermine, as this column has argued consistently. He's one of the most malevolent, malignant individuals ever to soil British politics, responsible for trashing the lives and reputations of blameless men wrongly accused of 'historic' sex crimes by fantasist and now convicted paedophile Carl Beech. Watson abused Parliamentary privilege and his position to badger the police and the Crown Prosecution Service into pursuing these ghastly, false allegations. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to stop him being made head of UK Music, the music industry's umbrella body, despite having none of the qualifications demanded in the job advert. His appointment was a stitch-up, greeted with disgust by distinguished songwriters, musicians, publishers and record label executives including Cliff Richard and Paul Gambaccini, who were both caught up in the Watson-inspired, post-Savile witch-hunt. Disgracefully, in the face of overwhelming opposition, the board of UK Music is still refusing to sack him and Watson, lacking any shred of decency, shame or self-awareness, will not stand down. If he's too disreputable for the Lords, he's certainly unfit to lead a body representing one of Britain's most valuable and prestigious industries. Unless Watson resigns, wealthy organisations such as the Performing Rights Society and Phonographic Performance Ltd who bankroll UK Music to the tune of 1.3million a year should pull out their money and set up an independent lobbying group of their own. By sticking with Watson, the UK Music board and his cheerleader, PRS chief executive Andrea Martin, have dragged into the gutter the industry they are paid to protect. They, too, should go. Sooty: An apology... Tory MP Roger Gale writes to say that he never attended a formal lunch with ex-Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie and nor did he work on The Sooty Show. Kelvin insists the lunch took place and he did wave off Gale with Harry Corbett's trademark: 'Bye, bye everybody...' Since Sooty was unavailable for comment yesterday, I am, however, happy to take Gale's word that he never worked on the show and apologise for any distress it may have caused. I'm not sure what he's most upset about being associated with Sooty or Kelvin MacKenzie. Good morning. (Heres the sign-up, if you dont already get California Today by email.) On Monday, following a weekend of protests against racism and police brutality in nearly all corners of the state, Gov. Gavin Newsom attempted a verbal balancing act. In his afternoon address, he spoke forcefully about recognizing the outrage, fear and hurt among black Americans who he said have been promised change too many times without results, long before the death of George Floyd, a black Minneapolis man, in police custody ignited the nation. [See video and photos from protests around California.] Mr. Newsom was flanked by the Rev. Tecoy Porter of Genesis Church in Sacramento, who described the double pandemic afflicting black communities. The black community is not responsible for whats happening in this country we are, the governor said. People have lost patience for a reason. A 53-year-old man who died in Bali late on Tuesday night may be the first Australian to perish of coronavirus in Indonesia. David William John Sparenburg may be the first Australian to die of coronavirus in Indonesia. A copy of the man's passport obtained by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age said his name was David William John Sparenburg, and that he died in a boarding house in Munggu, Mengwi Village, in Badung regency. David William John Sparenburg may be the first Australian to die of coronavirus in Indonesia. The victim had complained of shortness of breath on Tuesday evening before he died and police had attended the scene in full protective gear as a precaution against COVID-19, in line with new rules on the island. Mengwi Police Chief I Gede Eka Putra Astawa said the Australian was "complaining of difficulty breathing around 11pm local time [1am AEST on Wednesday] to a witness named Eka Surtika". Some local media have reported the Australian man may have had a history of heart disease. "There is no history of COVID-19 in the area. We hope to get the test results back in a day or two. We did find a health record from a local hospital, he went to get a check-up a few months back. It is unclear what kind of check-up he did back then." You can read the full report here. Today in the journal Cancer Cell, scientists outline new findings about the origins of these lung cancer subtypes, paving the way for a new foundation to study this disease. Credit: University of Utah Health Lung cancers account for approximately 25 percent of all cancer deaths. Even among those who do not smoke, 1 in 15 men and 1 in 17 women are expected to develop lung cancer in their lifetime, according to the American Cancer Society. Lung cancer has confounded scientists who strive to develop better therapies for this aggressive and deadly disease. About 15 percent of lung cancers are classified as small cell lung cancer. Recent studies have indicated that four major subtypes of small cell lung cancer exist, yet approaches to tailor treatment of these subtypes have not yet become standard of care. Today in the journal Cancer Cell, scientists outline new findings about the origins of these lung cancer subtypes, paving the way for a new foundation to study this disease. Trudy Oliver, Ph.D., a lung cancer researcher at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) and associate professor of oncological sciences at the University of Utah (U of U), is working to improve our ability to fight this disease. Prior work in her lab helped create a mouse model of small cell lung cancer, providing researchers with a sophisticated tool to better understand how this disease progresses and to analyze potential treatment approaches. According to Oliver, "Small cell lung cancer has historically been treated as a single disease, which has been an unsuccessful approach for most patients. Thanks to rapid advances in the field, we now understand that each type of small cell lung cancer has specific traitsincluding traits that may help us understand better ways to tailor treatment for patients." U of U graduate student Abbie Ireland, a member of Oliver's team and first author on the study, developed a new assay that allowed the team to follow single cells from tumor samples and observe how they change over time. Ireland and colleagues found that the major subtypes of small cell lung cancer are not so discretely different after all. Rather than thinking of them as distinct diseases, the team found that one tumor subtype can evolve to become a different subtype. And further, a tumor may have cells representing multiple subtypes at any given time. "Human development involves multiple stagesinfancy, adolescence, and adulthood. While we are humans at each of those stages, we have unique characteristics and behaviors at each stage," says Oliver. "Our data suggest that small cell lung cancer is the same way, that it changes at different stages and displays unique characteristics and behaviors in each stage." Oliver's team believes this means small cell lung cancer will have unique vulnerabilities as it evolves. To treat these sophisticated tumors may require a therapeutic approach that acknowledges the tumors are a "moving target" and that treatments need to evolve over time with the tumor. It is also possible these cancers will require combinations of drugs that can target multiple subtypes of the tumor at the same time. This finding may also aid in understanding other cancers known to have subtypes, such as breast cancer or glioblastoma. The team speculates that subtypes in other cancers may also represent stages of tumor evolution. Through a collaboration with HCI lung cancer physicians, Oliver was able to access samples of tumors donated by 21 patients who had surgeries at HCI. Tumor samples of small cell lung cancer are very difficult to obtain, and this opportunity to study tumor traits from tumors donated by patients was important to advance insights into this disease. Ireland and her colleagues analyzed tumors for markers of small cell lung cancer subtypes and found that many tumors had markers of more than one subtype, consistent with their ability to change subtype or evolve. Additionally, through a collaboration at Washington University in St. Louis, the team studied one human tumor at the single-cell level using a relatively new, advanced technology called single-cell RNA sequencing. Oliver's group further showed that a gene called MYC, which is known to promote tumor growth in many cancers, appears to be responsible for driving the evolution of small cell lung tumors. "Together, the results of these human tissue analyses revealed that small cell lung cancer tumors indeed harbor multiple subtypes," says Oliver. Oliver posits this may explain why so many therapies have failed for small cell lung cancer in clinical trials. Since the tumor is naturally evolving, there may need to be multiple, simultaneous treatments in order to be effective. Oliver's team now plans to investigate how the evolution of tumors may affect response to various therapies. Explore further Research holds promise for personalized lung cancer treatments More information: Abbie S. Ireland et al, MYC Drives Temporal Evolution of Small Cell Lung Cancer Subtypes by Reprogramming Neuroendocrine Fate, Cancer Cell (2020). Journal information: Cancer Cell Abbie S. Ireland et al, MYC Drives Temporal Evolution of Small Cell Lung Cancer Subtypes by Reprogramming Neuroendocrine Fate,(2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.ccell.2020.05.001 Provided by Huntsman Cancer Institute Los Angeles, June 2 : "Glee" actor Samantha Marie Ware has accused her former co-star Lea Michele for making the experience of working on the show a "living hell" for her due to "traumatic microaggressions". Ware lamented her co-star while replying to a tweet from Michele in support of Black Lives Matter movement, which has enraged in the US after the death of George Floyd, reports variety.com. "George Floyd did not deserve this. This was not an isolated incident and it must end. #BlackLivesMatter," Michele had tweeted. To which, Ware responded: "LMAO. Remember when you made my first television gig a living hell?!?! Cause I'll never forget. I believe you told everyone that if you had the opportunity you would 's**t in my wig!' amongst other traumatic microaggressions that made me question a career in Hollywood.""Glee" cast members, including Alex Newell, Amber Riley and Dabier Snell, also reacted to the accusations, showing support for Ware. Ware, who wrote the response in all caps, had a guest recurring role as Jane Hayward in the sixth season of "Glee" in 2015. It was her first TV role, and she went on to appear in "What/If", "Chicago Med" and "God Friended Me". Michele played Rachel Berry, one of the main cast members throughout all six seasons of "Glee". For her lead role, she received two Golden Globe nominations and one Emmy nomination. Since "Glee" ended, she has starred in "Scream Queens" and "The Mayor". Latest updates on International Emmy Awards 2019 Another relative/friend stated that the Police allegedly told the bereaved father that he was not the first person to have his child raped. The report was drafted by Fine Gaels LGBT committee, which includes Taoiseach Leo Varadkar as a member. Photo: Arthur Carron Children under the age of 16 will be able to legally change their gender under plans being discussed by Fine Gael. A Fine Gael policy paper drafted for the government formation talks recommends changing laws to allow children to change their gender. Under current legislation, only those over the age of 18 can legally change their gender in Ireland. Children aged 16 and 17 can apply to the courts to have their gender changed if they have parental consent and medical approval. However, in the report drafted by Fine Gael's LGBT committee it is recommended that these children should be free to legally self-declare their own gender. The committee, which includes Taoiseach Leo Varadkar as a member, also says laws need to be changed to allow all children under 16 to change their gender with parental approval. It says laws should be changed to "permit children aged under 16 years of age to secure legal recognition of gender by removing the criterion relating to minimum age". The 15-page report also recommends that the Gender Recognition Act 2015 be changed to "allow for the recognition of a gender other than male or female in law". It says that current legislation allows changes of gender "only from female to male and from male to female". "Where a person declares in the female gender the sex of that person will be listed as female and where a person declares as male gender the sex will be listed as male," it adds. The committee notes that countries including Germany, Denmark and Canada allow people to declare a "third gender" on official documentation. Passports It recommends that the next government should allow people who do not consider themselves either male or female to be permitted to mark X on their passports. This would mean Irish passports would have three gender categories - male, female and X. The policy paper also calls for changes to the Road Traffic Act to allow for the introduction of rainbow-coloured pedestrian crossings. The legislation at present only allows black and white markings and the Dail will have to pass an amendment to allow rainbow-coloured crossings similar to those in Brussels, San Francisco and Sydney. The report says Dublin City Council officials have welcomed the idea of commemorating the passing of the Marriage Equality Act with a rainbow crossing - but are prohibited from doing so because of legislation. The committee also calls for an easing of restrictions on gay men who wish to donate blood. Gay men who wish to give blood must not engage in sexual activity for 12 months before donating under laws introduced in 2016. Before this they were banned from donating blood. The Fine Gael LGBT committee wants the deferral period on sexual activity reduced to three months, as in Britain and Northern Ireland. It also called for controversial conversion therapies to be banned in Ireland as they are "extremely damaging to a person's mental health and, in certain circumstances, physical well-being". It also wants major legislative reforms to address the "alarming" lack of LGBTI+ sex education in schools. The report also says the Government's Anti-Bullying Plan should be updated to recognise gender identity bullying. It also calls for the criminal records for homosexual men convicted of historical offences to be expunged. The Association of American Publishers marked its 50th anniversary with a 90-minute virtual annual meeting on June 1 that touched on the changes that have taken place in recent years as the organization has scaled back some of its operations and refocused its priorities. Macmillan CEO and AAP chair John Sargent said that, since its inception, the AAP has taken on every copyright issue, from an early case against Kinkos Graphics in which the AAP won an agreement from the company to stop copy textbooks to create unauthorized college course packs to the infringement lawsuit filed against the Internet Archive earlier that day. Without the AAP, Sargent said, copyright would not look like it does today. Sargent did a quick review of the changes the AAP has implemented over the last three years, after it reviewed its financial situation and decided that moving forward the organizations priorities would be on copyright protection and other policy issues. Sargent credited Maria Pallante, who became CEO in 2017, with doing a "remarkable" job in implementing the new vision. Sargent said he was honored to be leading the organization in this particular industry and in this particular time. He said the membership has a like-minded point of view on the major topics facing the industry, and he thanked member companies, both large and small, for their support. Jeremey North of Taylor & Francis, the AAP treasurer, also spoke of AAPs commitment to financial responsibility, noting the organization has a clarity of purpose with the law and policy being the common issues that unite member companies. North said that, while AAP has a lean budget, the budget isnt so lean as to prevent it from achieving its objectives. When she took her turn in the Zoom spotlight, Pallante said that bringing a lawsuit against IA wasnt something that was taken lightly. She noted that IAs actions have been much discussed by publishers, and said that it was clear IAs behavior belongs in court. Pallante also cited the success the AAP had in blocking Audibles proposed Caption program, which planned to transcribe a books audio in order to create text that will run along with the audio. Pallante noted that she was especially pleased the AAP was able to extend the agreement to cover all members, not just the seven publishers that took part in the suit. On tariffs, Pallante said that, having helped prevent tariffs from being placed on religion books and on most childrens titles manufactured in China, AAP continues to keep an ear to the ground on any developments regarding changes in tariff policy. She noted that some AAP members have begun looking for long-term printing options outside of China. The meeting closed with a keynote speech by Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, and this years recipient of the AAPs 2020 Award for Distinguished Public Service. Perhaps the most apparent impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in financial services is its amplification of the digital channel. Credit unions have been planning and budgeting for their digital transformation for years, but there is nothing like a little social distancing and widespread stay-at-home orders to fast track their readiness for it. In late March, SRM polled its credit union and bank clients to understand their early response and evolving operational strategies for combating the effects of COVID-19 in the United States. According to the survey, 82% rated their online and mobile channels as vital to operations during the pandemic and no respondent rated them less than important. Additionally, 79% of responding institutions have provided further education on the use of remote channels. The purpose of this education is to provide consumers unfamiliar or uncomfortable with digital channels a means for accessing and managing money and needed financial services during a time of high economic anxiety. In the past several months, credit unions have shifted priorities to determine how to best serve members in the wake of this now normal. Even as states solidify their gradual reopening plans and things begin to settle down, credit unions will face this now normal. This pandemic will likely have long-lasting impacts on consumers banking behavior patterns, and credit unions need to plan accordingly and reevaluate their digital investments. The question on everyones mind is how much reversion to old habits should we expect? Even as branches begin to open, will members visit them, or will they continue to rely on the digital banking platforms they used during the pandemic? Certainly, there will be a segment of those who have relied on digital channels for the first time who will stay. The concern about the highly infectious nature of COVID-19 may make this a large segment. Further, those who have been venturing out tend to be younger and they are not a demographic that tends to do most of their banking in the branch. The dynamics here cannot be ignored by credit unions. It has never been more the case that an optimal digital banking experience is a top priority. Members will expect this experience to offer every service available at the branch. The key here is not to despair any gaps that exist between a current digital offering and these expectations by members. If a credit union develops a path to that optimal experience and can deliver functionality often on its way to the goal, members likely will wait and see, rather than heading elsewhere. If there is no strategy . . . no roadmap . . . a credit union will quickly become irrelevant. The digital use numbers during the pandemic may recede somewhat as members adjust to this now normal, but rest assured the battle with COVID-19 is far from over. There will be a next normal and a next and a next and a next. As wave after wave washes over the financial services industry, digital will become the default for an increasing number of members. The temptation to ignore these facts in a challenging economic environment must be resisted. Investing in digital will be mandatory and to pay for it one strategy might be to shut down branches. The debate around the branch has been a red herring for the last five years. Biased and competing research, analysis and reporting has contaminated the ability to quantify trends. However, during the pandemic, anecdotal evidence has pointed to the demise of the branch. Credit unions have closed branches and are offering assistance by appointment . . . usually, these appointments concerned more complicated subjects. This is the future branch. The model already exists in other verticals, such as healthcare. We see our doctor when we think we may be sick and/or when a regular check-up is scheduled. There is no reason this model cannot work in tandem with the digital delivery of services. In addition, the elimination of the branch as a full-service channel will free up the resources money and people needed to address the digital transformation that is required to remain competitive. Quantifying the impact of the pandemic on the adoption of digital-first (or digital only) banking is not possible given the fluid situation in which we work. But, common sense is sufficient in this case. Digital delivery has never been more important in the effort to attract and retain members. For many credit unions, addressing what needs to be done to establish parity will require that senior management be willing to accept risk. Risk is a component of all decisions within a financial institution; as it should be. But, in this case, doing nothing is the greatest risk of all. New York, June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Europe Caustic Soda Market - Growth, Trends, and Forecast (2020 2025)" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05903712/?utm_source=GNW On the flip side, unfavorable conditions arising due to the COVID-19 outbreak, energy-intensive production process, and environmental concerns are hindering the growth of the market. - The organic chemicals segment is expected to dominate the European caustic soda market over the forecast period. - Germany represents the largest market over the forecast period owing to the increasing consumption from segments such as organic chemicals, inorganic chemicals, pulp & paper. Key Market Trends Organic Chemicals Segment to Dominate the Market - The organic chemicals segment represents the largest application segment of caustic soda in Europe. This application is also the third-fastest growing segment for the market studied in the region.? - Caustic soda mainly acts as a reagent or basic solution to manufacture organic chemicals. Organic chemicals use caustic soda for manufacturing different major organic chemicals, such as methanol, sulfites, phosphites, hydroxyl ethyl cellulose, carboxymethyl hydroxyethylcellulose, cellulose ether, methylcellulose, propylene oxide, polycarbonate, ethylene amines, epoxy resins, acetic acid, and epichlorohydrin. Moreover, it is also used for neutralization and gas scrubbing by many organic chemical manufacturers.? - Epoxypropane (propylene oxide), another important organic chemical, also uses caustic soda for manufacturing. It is used to make polyurethanes.? - 3A Composites launched its new brands for polycarbonate and polyester range by Polycasa. The extruded polycarbonate POLYCASA PC is now called IMPEX and the extruded multiwall polycarbonate sheet POLYCASA SPC is now called IMPEX MULTIWALL. ? - Covestro started expanding its production lines in Germany for high-quality polycarbonate films, which are likely to be online by the end of 2020. The company equipped these production lines with the latest technology, and they are designed specially to produce multi-layer flat films.? - Germany, Belgium, and Spain are the major countries producing organic chemicals, with the increasing demand for caustic soda in the production of polycarbonate, methanol, polyurethane, epoxy resin, acetic acid, etc. The demand for caustic soda in manufacturing organic chemicals is expected to be moderate during the forecast period. ? - Owing to the above mentioned factors, the demand for caustic soda from organic chemical segment is expected to rapidly increase over the forcast period. Germany to Dominate the Market - Germany is forecasted to account for the largest share of the European caustic soda market over the forecast period. - In terms of the total installed production capacity for the manufacturing of caustic soda, Germany ranked first in Europe, with the total estimated production capacity of approximately 5,752-kilo metric tons and a share of about 38.75%. Some of the largest players in Germany are Dow, BASF SE, Covestro, INOVYN, Vinnolit, etc. Apart from domestic production, the country primarily imports its caustic soda from Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and Poland.? - The German chemical industry represents the chemical manufacturing industry across Europe, generating an estimated contribution of about 28% of the total revenue of the chemical industry in Europe. The German chemical industry invested a total of about USD 4.6 billion on the R&D, making it the fourth-largest R&D spending nation across the world, after China, the United States, and Japan. ? - The German chemical industry, which took a major upturn in 2017, continued to show positive growth till Q4 2018. The downward trend in the German chemical industry began in Q4 2018 and continued to the first two quarters of 2019. With the BASF SE company announcing its decision to transform the organization, Covestro experiencing decline in sales, and Bayer AG struggling with the Monsanto acquisition, the German chemicals sector has been witnessing a huge downfall. ? - In H1 2019, the production of the German chemicals industry witnessed a slump of 6.5%, while the pharmaceutical production also declined by 2.5%. As a result, the total revenue generated declined by 4% Y-o-Y over H1 2018 and reached a total of EUR 95.9 billion (USD 105.7 billion).? - In H1 2019, the production of fine and specialty chemicals witnessed a decline of 4%, the production of cosmetics and soaps witnessed a decline of 4.5%, and the production of polymers and detergents and personal care products has also witnessed a huge decline. The outlook for the rest of 2019 is also weak with the expected decrease in production. This trend has hugely affected the demand for caustic soda. - Hence, owing to the above mentioned factors, the demand for caustic soda in Germany is expected to further grow over the forecast period. Competitive Landscape The European caustic soda market is partially consolidated. The major companies of the market studied include Dow, INOVYN, KEM ONE, Nouryon, BorsodChem, among others. Reasons to Purchase this report: - The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format - 3 months of analyst support Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05903712/?utm_source=GNW About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ KYODO NEWS - Jun 2, 2020 - 03:49 | All, World, Coronavirus The head of the World Health Organization on Monday indirectly urged President Donald Trump to reconsider his decision to pull the United States out of the U.N. agency over its allegedly "China-centric" stance. "The world has long benefited from the strong, collaborative engagement with the government and the people of the United States...It is WHO's wish for this collaboration to continue," WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus told a press conference. "The U.S. government and people's contribution and generosity towards global health over many decades has been immense, and it has made a great difference in public health all around the world," he added. On Friday, Trump announced that the United States will cut its ties with the WHO, calling the organization a Chinese "puppet" and criticizing it for pushing Beijing's "misinformation" about the coronavirus outbreak. Cutting off U.S. funding would deal a heavy blow to the WHO. The United States was the top contributor in 2018 and 2019, providing $893 million in total, or about 15 percent of the Geneva-based agency's funding. Ahead of Friday's announcement, Trump notified the WHO that he would permanently freeze U.S. funding of the U.N. agency and reconsider membership unless it committed to major reform within the next 30 days. (Getty Images) Cities struggling to make ends meet during the COVID-19 pandemic are getting a cash advance from the federal government. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says they will get $2.2 billion through their share of the Gas Tax Fund in the coming weeks, instead of having to wait. Normally municipalities receive these payments in two instalments, but we know that cities and towns need this money right away as they deal with COVID-19, said Trudeau during his daily briefing. With things like transit at a near halt and property tax payments being missed, municipalities have been struggling with drying up revenue. They cant run deficits like their provincial and federal counterparts, so they need to come up with a way to get money to keep their cities running. Catherine McKenna, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, says payments are being sped up so cities and towns have the resources they need for infrastructure projects. This ongoing funding can be used immediately by municipalities for priority projects, it can be banked for later use, pooled with other communities for shared infrastructure projects, or used to help finance big ticket projects that can pay communities dividends for decades to come. McKenna said during a news conference. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities called the funding a modest preliminary step but says more help is needed. The Prime Minister today confirmed his readiness to engage with municipalities on solutions. We are encouraged by his commitment to come forward with additional federal supportand we urge provincial governments to do the same, said the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, in a statement. Municipalities are on the front lines of this pandemicand we still face $10-15 billion in non-recoverable losses. Thats why we have appealed for emergency operating fundingto keep frontline services going strong, and to be ready to drive Canadas recovery. Trudeau says he recognizes todays announcement is just a starting point. Story continues We know theres more to be done to support municipalities, and to support the entire reopening process, he said. In the days and weeks to come, well keep working with the provinces and territories on this, and on a whole range of other measures. Ontario Premier Doug Ford was asked about the funding during his daily COVID-19 update. He pointed out that his province sends $13 billion tax-payer dollars to the federal government. I appreciate them advancing the payment, but its already in the budget and we need more money, said Ford. Jessy Bains is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow him on Twitter @jessysbains. Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 12:47:02|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Christopher Guly OTTAWA, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Several Canadian cities have seen protests, some of which involved elements of violence, following massive protests across the United States over the death of unarmed African American George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis. On Sunday, thousands of protesters took to the streets of Montreal to denounce racial profiling and police brutality in both Canada and the United States. Even the city's police force, in tweeting a call for a peaceful demonstration, commented on the events surrounding police involvement in the homicide of 46-year-old Floyd, as the Minnesota county examiner announced on Monday. "Both the action taken and the inaction of the witnesses present go against the values of our organization," the Montreal Police said on Twitter on Sunday. "We respect the rights and the need of everyone to speak out against this violence and will be by your side to ensure your safety." But about three hours after the peaceful march and rally ended in the province of Quebec's largest city, tensions flared as people threw rocks and projectiles at the police, who responded with pepper spray and tear gas. Store windows were smashed, fires lit and shops looted, resulting in the arrest of 11 people -- nine of them on charges of breaking and entering. On Twitter, Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante condemned the actions of the looters whom she said "had nothing to do with" the otherwise peaceful protest. During his daily briefing with reporters on Monday, Quebec Premier Francois Legault also chastised "those who took advantage to loot and vandalize" and "must face the legal consequences." But while he said he supports the stance against racism, Legault said he does not believe there is "systemic discrimination" in Quebec, where black people represent the largest visible minority -- or about 10 percent of the population -- in Montreal. However, at his daily COVID-19 news conference on Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that "we can't pretend that racism doesn't exist" in Canada. "Anti-black racism is real; unconscious bias is real and systemic discrimination is real -- and they happen here in Canada," he said. One of his cabinet ministers, Somali-born Ahmed Hussen, minister of families, children and social development, shared a personal perspective on anti-black racism via Twitter. "I have heard from people who have said that we should not worry about what is happening in the US because that is not our problem," he tweeted on Saturday. "As a Black man & a father of 3 young boys, I can tell you it is a lived reality for Black Canadians." Enditem One Butman Township man was shot in the leg and another bullet pierced a residents house Sunday afternoon stemming from a group target practicing near a Sugar Springs subdivision. Gladwin County Sheriff Mike Shea said deputies were called about 2:49 p.m., saying a man was shot. When deputies arrived, they discovered the leg wound and recovered the bullet at the scene. The man was taken to MidMichigan Medical Center Gladwin for emergency care. Queen Elizabeth II's Commonwealth Trust, a community of young movers and shakers all over the Commonwealth, has written on Twitter support for the movement of Black Lives Matter, along with prevalent racial injustices occurring globally. The statement was released on Twitter, coinciding with protests and fury ignited across the globe over the murder of George Floyd courtesy of Minneapolis policemen. The Commonwealth Trust considers the Queen as a patron, Prince Harry as President, and Meghan Markle as Vice President. The royal trust wrote 2 tweets, "Young people are vital voices in the fight against injustice and racism around the world." "As a global community of young leaders we stand together in pursuit of fairness and a better way forward." "Silence is not an option. #BlackLivesMatter" The organization associated with the British royal family noted that we have the capacity to have a positive impact. They persuaded to speak up and speak out, along with initiating uncomfortable conversations with people and our own selves. They added that the timing is right to be educated and unlearn. They also said unite to draw up a better future as one. The tweet also had a photo of a Martin Luther King Jr. quote. A 46-year-old Black man following Floyd was also murdered after being bullishly pinned down by police officials and being handcuffed, according to InStyle. Harpers Bazaar also finds it noteworthy that the royal family rarely campaign causes. The advent of the Black Lives Matter movement has remarkably altered the times. Also Read: Meghan Markle Believes Conspiracy Was Plotted Against Her to Ruin Her Reputation Before Megxit Numerous user followers tweeted support for the official statement written and revealed how they found it favorable that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, President and Vice President of the trust, were the ones who supervised the statement. A follower named Bunker Don wrote, "When you have a socially conscious President and VP you stand for what Matters! Truly Global Citizens King Harry and Queen Meghan!" Floyd said to the police officer that he could not breathe. The latter declined to let him off until he was finally not responding. The victim was declared dead on arrival upon reaching the hospital. Black Lives Matter is a worldwide movement campaigning against systematic racism and violence. It was established in 2013 in America. The Commonwealth Trust is among numerous organizations conveying their contribution to campaign for racial equality. In general, the Trust is an avenue for young people to engage with change on a global level and make human connections. The statement was signed with Team QCT. The group noted that the young generation are important voices in the combat against global injustice and racism. The Commonwealth Trust was initiated in early 2019, after the Queen's Silver Jubilee. Coming from the earlier model of the foundation, the Queen's Trust, the new trust is a platform for Commonwealth members as an expression of concepts and to initiate projects for the spring of leaders of the future. Related Article: Meghan Markle, Prince Harry Earnings Not Enough? Prince William, Kate Middleton May Give Financial Help @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Since its birth, the United States has painfully struggled to be the nation imagined in its founding documents. We are a nation born of the revolutionary spirit of protest, coupling expressions of grievances against injustice with the desire to be free. Because many groups of people were not imagined as worthy of the full fruits of citizenship, the arc of our history is filled with the chants and marching of mass protests demanding the expansion of that citizenship and the end of inequitable and deadly policies. For the past week, we have witnessed the astonishing and inspiring nationwide protests in response to the death of George Floyd at the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. Yes, provocateurs have attempted to hijack these demonstrations with heartbreaking violence and looting. President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr were quick to blame it on leftists, but for the most part, these are infiltrators of the left and right with no interest in honoring Floyd or ending police violence. These multiracial and multigenerational demonstrations have been a nonviolent movement of democracy in action filled with people so inspired to demand change theyre willing to risk their health during a pandemic to do so. In San Antonio, the defacing of the Cenotaph did nothing to serve Floyds cause and only agitated armed Alamo defenders. On Saturday evening, 5,000 San Antonians marched for Floyd from Travis Park to the San Antonio Police Department in a protest as peaceful as expected from a community that, annually, has the largest Martin Luther King Jr. Day march in the nation. The rioters who later vandalized and looted stores and provoked confrontations with police did so without Floyd on their minds or King in their spirits, leaving a mess for others to clean up. By early Sunday morning, San Antonians, including Spurs rookie Lonnie Walker IV, were downtown to reclaim their city by cleaning up the streets and helping repair stores. Its what San Antonians do. The death of Floyd has seized much of this nations conscience. These protests will continue because, in the words of Frederick Douglass, If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. These protests wont be defined by those with selfish and destructive intent. They will be defined by the memory of the man whose death gave them life and by the peaceful way they were imagined. In complete violation of government norms in place to contain the spread of coronavirus, Karnataka Minister of Health and Family Welfare B Sriramulu took part in a mega rally organised to welcome him to Chitradurga district on Tuesday. The minister was in the district to offer 'baagina' to the Vedavathi river when he was welcomed at Parashuramapura in Challakere taluk. Sriramulu, who is also the district in-charge minister, waved at his supporters with folded hands as they showered flower petals and shouted slogans and indulged in hooting and clapping all along. As a huge garland of apples was put around the senior BJP leader, hundreds gathered without any social distancing, many of whom were not even wearing masks. #WATCH Karnataka Health Minister B Sriramulu takes part in a procession in Chitradurga; social distancing norms being flouted at the event, amid COVID19 pandemicTotal number of COVID19 positive cases in Karnataka is 3408 pic.twitter.com/9Z5vXNLq6B ANI (@ANI) June 2, 2020 The event took place at a time when the government has banned all religious/political gatherings amid the pandemic that has spread rapidly with over 3,400 cases in the state. "If a minister himself does this, what about the public? They should stop such events and work for the people at this time instead," said former chief minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy. After videos of the event were aired on television channels, the minister addressed the issue during his speech and urged those gathered at the event to follow social distancing at all times. "You must maintain social distancing whether you are at home or outside. We cannot stop you, but please listen to the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) and Chief Minister (BS Yediyurappa). Wear masks. Don't touch your children as soon as you reach home. Wash your hands properly," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 23:59:29|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 2 (Xinhua) -- China's top political advisor Wang Yang on Tuesday discussed the fight against COVID-19 and China's "two sessions" by phone with Saysomphone Phomvihane, member of the Political Bureau of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) Central Committee and president of the Lao Front for National Construction (LFNC). Wang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said that right after the outbreak of COVID-19, Bounnhang Vorachith, general secretary of the LPRP Central Committee and Lao president, expressed support and sympathy on behalf of the party and the government to Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and Chinese president, with all sectors of Laos extending a helping hand. China sincerely appreciates the help and support, said Wang, also chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee. China has earnestly carried out the instructions given in the phone conversation between the top leaders of both parties and both nations, and provided full support to the Lao side in its fight against the pandemic, which vividly illustrates the spirit of a China-Laos community with a shared future that features both countries helping each other through thick and thin, he said. Wang briefed Saysomphone on the just-concluded "two sessions" and said that the CPPCC stands ready to further strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the LFNC to promote the stable development of the comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation between China and Laos. Saysomphone congratulated China on the successful convening of the "two sessions" and voiced support for China's national security legislation for Hong Kong on behalf of the LPRP and the Lao government. He expressed the willingness to enhance cooperation with the Chinese side to tackle the epidemic, strengthen mutual learning between the CPPCC and the LFNC, and deepen the two countries' bilateral relationship. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 16:31:50|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 2 (Xinhua) -- China will maintain a consistent and stable policy on real estate finance and avoid using the property sector to generate a short-term stimulus to the economy, according to a central bank report. The country will continue to stick to the principle that "houses are for living in, not speculation," said the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, in the report on the country's regional financial operation in 2019. Home prices across the country remained generally stable in 2019. Price indices of new and previously owned houses in first-tier cities rose slightly last year, with their year-on-year monthly expansion peaking at 4.9 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, the growth pace of price indices for new and resold homes in second- and third-tier cities witnessed a marked decrease in 2019, the report said. In its efforts to implement a long-term mechanism for real estate finance, the PBOC stressed the importance of improving the system of government housing support and maintaining the steady and sound development of the property market in the country. While curbing housing speculation, China will also implement city-specific policies in the sector, according to this year's government work report. Enditem On Monday, online retailer and wardrobe styling service Stitch Fix said it would lay off 1,400 stylists in California between now and the end of September. The cuts affect about 18% of its workforce. The Wall Street Journal previously reported on the company's plans. At Stitch Fix, stylists pick out clothing and accessories that the company ships to customers as part of a monthly subscription service. Customers can wear and return items, or pay to keep the ones they like the most. In March, Stitch Fix had to close two of its distribution centers, one in California and another in Pennsylvania, temporarily to comply with Covid-19 health orders. In April, the company withdrew guidance for the third quarter and fiscal year 2020 because of uncertainty amid the pandemic. Stitch Fix said Monday that it plans to eventually hire 2,000 stylists in U.S. locations which have a lower cost of living than cities in California - places like Austin, Texas, or Minneapolis. The company will be hiring stylists outside of California starting this summer and continuing into 2021, a spokesperson said, and laid off stylists will have the chance to relocate and continue working. Employees who do not want to relocate will receive a minimum two-week severance payment, continued healthcare, help getting another job and possible bonuses for staying on until the layoffs are complete, a Stitch Fix spokesperson confirmed. The company's founder and CEO Katrina Lake said offered the following statement: "We have taken the very difficult decision to reduce the number of Stylists in our styling team in California, as we invest in our other styling hubs across the US, and the innovations that will help evolve our experience in the future. All of our California-based stylists will be offered the opportunity to relocate to the new roles in other states. Any decision that impacts our hardworking and talented people is incredibly tough, but we believe this is the right thing to do for our business. We are committed to supporting our people through this by providing as much financial stability as possible, including severance payments that increase with tenure, bonuses for Stylists staying with us during the transition period, extended healthcare and recruitment resources. [June 02, 2020] Onit Launches New Contract Lifecycle Management Quick Start Implementation Package HOUSTON, June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Onit, Inc., a leading provider of enterprise workflow solutions including enterprise legal management, contract lifecycle management and business process automation, today announced it launched a new contract lifecycle management (CLM) Quick Start implementation package that allows companies of all sizes to streamline the entire contract process, reduce processing time and achieve higher contract compliance rates in less than 30 days. The new CLM Quick Start implementation package offers standard out-of-the-box functionality, quick time to value and a clear return on investment. This simplified implementation package gives business and legal teams immediate access to our award-winning contract lifecycle management technology, exposure to a robust workflow and automation platform and an upgrade path that can grow as they expand. With the CLM Quick Start implementation package, companies receive all of the advanced functionality of Onits Contract Lifecycle Management product, but at a more cost-effective price point and faster implementation time frame. The CLM Quick Start implementation package includes one non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and one master services agreement (MSA) record type, limited custom fields, DocuSign or Adobe eSignature capabilities and an external contract request link. Launching our contract lifecycle management product last year allowed us to advance our software portfolio to meet the growing needs of the legal industry and beyond, commented Eric M. Elfman, Onit CEO and co-founder. As we continue to push through this global pandemic, we are committed to not only serving our Fortune 500 and enterprise-level customers but also addressing needs within the small to medium size businesses. We are passionate about finding waysto help businesses of all sizes the best way we can. First, we developed Business Continuity Apps released earlier this year and now we are making our enterprise-level software products more attainable for smaller businesses as well. This will allow companies of all sizes to receive the same business benefits as the major corporations in terms of maximizing efficiencies, reducing costs, and mitigating risks as it pertains to their contracting processes. Market Assessment As the world continues to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are seeing more organizations make the immediate push for digital transformation. The focus has become centered around maximizing efficiencies while keeping costs at a minimum with even smaller to medium size companies turning to technology to accomplish this goal. According to Market and Markets, Contract Management Software Market Global Forecast to 2024 , small and medium-size businesses with less than 1,000 employees are going to have the highest annual growth rate for contract lifecycle management software implementations over the next four years. The Onit Advantage: Onit Contract Lifecycle Management Onit saw a need for businesses of all sizes and decided to take a proactive approach and make its Onit Contract Lifecycle Management product even more attainable. Onit CLM is now offered with a standard starter package that can be deployed in 30 days or less at an even more cost-effective price point. Companies are still receiving the industrys leading cloud-based contracts repository with automated functionality that supports all phases of the contract lifecycle from capture and creation, through negotiations and approvals, to execution and post-execution management. With this new Onit CLM Quick Start implementation package, companies of all sizes can take advantage of the enterprise-grade contract lifecycle management software now with the industrys fastest time to value. About Onit Onit is a global leader of enterprise workflow solutions for legal, compliance, sales, IT, HR, and finance departments. Our solutions transform best practices into smarter workflows, better processes, and operational efficiencies. With a focus on enterprise legal management, matter management, spend management, contract management, and legal holds, we operate globally and help transform the way Fortune 500 companies and billion-dollar legal departments bridge the gap between systems of record and systems of engagement. We help customers find gains in efficiency, reduce costs, and automate transactions faster. For more information, visit www.onit.com or call 1-800-281-1330. Jill Black Onit, Inc. 713-560-9225 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 21:53:54|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 2 (Xinhua) -- China's top customs authority has released new data on its Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) credit system, which the authority is employing to enhance the country's foreign trade and strengthen credit supervision over enterprises. The AEO system, initiated by the World Customs Organization, aims at facilitating customs clearance through the authentication by customs of trade firms with a high level of law compliance, credit status and safety. The new data from the General Administration of Customs (GAC) shows that, as of the end of May, 3,236 advanced certified enterprises had been identified by the GAC under the AEO system, while the number of discredited firms totaled 6,788. A low credit level can lead to a higher inspection rate, which increases the costs for those enterprises. In 2019, the average inspection rate for advanced certified enterprises stood at 0.57 percent, with that for discredited firms reaching 84.76 percent. China has signed mutual AEO agreements with 42 countries and regions, including Singapore, the Republic of Korea, the European Union, Switzerland and New Zealand, according to the GAC. The value of China's exports and imports with these countries and regions has accounted over half of the country's total trade value. Enditem In a span of less than three months, five new pro-Iran militias have announced their plans to escalate attacks on US forces in Iraq. Some of them have claimed responsibility for major anti-American attacks. But evidence indicates this is a propaganda campaign conducted by existing militias rather than an actual escalation. The main desire common among these groups is avenging the death of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) military leader who was assassinated by the United States alongside Irans Quds Force commander, Qasem Soleimani, in January. In the last of a series of videos purporting to attack American forces or interests in Iraq, a group calling itself Thar al-Muhandis Brigade (Vengeance of al-Muhandis) claims they fired two anti-aircraft missiles that hit two American Chinook helicopters. In the short clip posted on the social media platform Telegram on May 22 and that has been viewed by Al-Monitor, two militants whose faces are blurred are seen carrying man-portable air-defense systems. The clip shows one of the militants firing a missile into the sky. The cameraman seemingly follows the missile into the sky, and seconds later a Chinook helicopter is seen in the clip. The video does not show the helicopter being hit by the missile. Also, we dont see a second missile being fired. But Thar al-Muhandis Brigades clip seems to be fake. Al-Monitor showed the clip to Ali Chakav, a senior graphic designer at the London-based Iran International TV. After examining the video, Chakav came to the conclusion that the clip is a montage and that footage of the Chinook was later added to the footage of the firing of the anti-aircraft missile. The other four groups are called Osbat al-Thairin, Ghabdhat al-Huda, Kataib Thourat al-Ishrin II and Ashab al-Kahf. Some of these groups names have been around for a while without any proof that they exist independent of any known Iran-backed Shiite militias. Upon examining videos posted by these groups, Chakav concluded that probably some of them are using the same asset graphic library and that the videos are following similar visual identity. This means that probably some of these videos purporting to be created by separate groups are created by the same people. According to Chakav, this is especially vivid when comparing graphic effects in a video posted by Osbat al-Thairin showing aerial footage of the Ain al-Asad base in Iraq and the Thar al-Muhandis clip claiming to have hit US helicopters. Examining social media accounts belonging to these groups also provides hints that they are actually linked to one another and are run by existing militias loyal to Iran. Kataib Hezbollah (KH) seems to be the main militia behind at least some of these groups. The Telegram account of Ashab al-Kahf has provided tailored stickers. Interestingly among those stickers is not only their own emblem but that of Osbat al-Thairins. Additionally, one of the stickers they initially introduced was a picture of Abu Fadak al-Mohammadawi, a KH commander whom the pro-Iran militant groups in the PMU are trying to impose as the successor to al-Muhandis. They later removed the sticker of Abu Fadak. Other behavioral trends on social media also point to the probability of these groups being linked. For example, the Twitter account of Thar al-Muhandis Brigade follows only one Twitter account that of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which is in Arabic. Those behind Ashab al-Kahfs Twitter account also follow only the Arabic account of Khamenei. If this was a behavior exhibited by the social media accounts of Iran-aligned groups, one could not conclude that the same people are probably behind them. But examining other pro-Iran Shiite militias shows this is not a behavior all of them show. Al-Nujaba's Twitter account, for instance, follows seven other accounts; none of them belong to Khamenei. Michael Knights, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute, considers these activities a fake campaign. Knights, who specializes in the military and security affairs of Iraq, told Al-Monitor, They would fake a campaign of resistance because they want to show they are still avenging al-Muhandis. According to Knights, the pro-Iran militias fear US backlash that might cause damage to Iraq and Iran. He says they are also worried about being rebuked by top Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani for the damage to Iraqs interests as a result of US reactions. Recently, Sistani gave the green light to Shiite militias affiliated with him to withdraw from the Iran-dominated PMU, causing fear among Iran-backed militias that they are losing the popular support of the Shiite public. To anger Sistani at this stage does not seem to be a wise move for them. Knights believes that faking a campaign allows pro-Iran militias to signal ongoing loyalty to the axis of resistance but without the risks. The axis of resistance is an anti-American and anti-Israel alliance led by Iran, which includes countries such as Syria but also groups like the Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas. US attacks on Shiite militia targets in recent months and especially the assassination of al-Muhandis and Soleimani proved the US Armys determination in responding to any attacks by the pro-Iran factions. This has forced some prominent pro-Iran leaders such as Qais al-Khazali, leader of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, to largely go underground, fearing an American strike. This can explain why these factions resort to tactics that offer them a form of deniability. This is not the first time Shiite militias loyal to Iran use this method, according to Iraqi security analyst Hisham al-Hashimi. In the past, these groups used similar tactics to cover for their attacks and enjoy plausible deniability. Hashami told Al-Monitor, This method of media campaign was used by these factions between 2007 and 2011. They used to carry out attacks [against US targets] while denying responsibility on their official platforms. They created media platforms for fake factions admitting responsibility for the attacks. During the years when more than 150,000 US forces occupied Iraq, Shiite factions enjoying Iran's support carried out hundreds of attacks against American troops, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more, according to the US Department of Defense. This time, evidence of serious attacks carried out against the US troops under fake groups is scarce. Iran is under increasing pressure internally and in the wider region. In the absence of Soleimani, who was the mastermind behind Irans regional policy and under the crippling pressures caused by the US administrations policy of maximum pressure, Iran has been forced to make significant concessions in Iraq. A senior Iranian official discussing Irans moves in Iraq recently told Reuters, Sometimes you need to step back, observe and plan based on realities on the ground. Iran-backed Shiite militias fake campaign is a show of strength in a time of weakness. BTIG's Julian Emanuel has warning for investors: Brace for a 15% to 20% pullback. Emanuel, who came into 2020 as one of Wall Street's biggest bulls, sees a stock market out of alignment with the economy as risks rise. "It's probably time for the market to reassess the uncertainties to the economy," the firm's chief equity and derivatives strategist told CNBC's "Trading Nation" on Monday. "The social unrest of the last few days just adds to that sort of menu of uncertainties." In addition to protests erupting in cities across America, Emanuel lists the coronavirus pandemic and economic lockdowns, renewed trade frictions with China and the November presidential election as serious near-term headwinds. "The environment is a bit more volatile now," he added. "The risk has clearly risen." Emanuel breaks out small caps as the market group most vulnerable. "They've had an absolutely enormous run," he said. "We just think up 50% [from the low] obviously given the risks, particularly the fact that the government is delaying the next round of stimulus which we think is necessary." He believes the backdrop sets the stage for a summer setback for small caps and the overall market. Despite Emanuel's cautious tone, he predicts 2021 will be drastically different. "Our view is that you get into the fall and you get into early next year, likely there's enough time for the economy to find its footing, for there to be medical advances and we can envision new all-time highs at some point in 2021, unquestionable," Emanuel said. On Monday, the S&P 500 closed at 3,055.73, up 39% from the March 23 low. The index is off 11% from its all-time high hit in February. Disclaimer Egypts Culture Minister Ines Abdel-Dayem has held talks with chairman of the Cairo Opera House and several representatives of the ministry's cultural sectors where they discussed the possibility of investing in and improving the equipment needed for events that could be held in open-air areas at the Cairo Opera grounds once activities resume. The discussion was attended by Cairo Opera House chairman Magdy Saber, alongside the opera's artistic and administrative team; head of the Cultural Production Sector Khaled Galal; head of the Theatre Production House Ismail Mokhtar, and the Confrontation Theatre director Sameh Bassiouny. The meetings also included discussions related to the possible safety measure to be taken once cultural activities resume in Egypt. The ministry also plans to work on new productions that would tackle spreading awareness about the coronavirus, the struggles of the Egyptian army, the police and the medical teams in the face of the ongoing pandemic. The discussions aim to assure the readiness for the possible return to cultural activities; however, the ministry did not provide any information indicating when and in what format the possible cultural reopening would take place. The Cairo Opera grounds is a large area embracing several cultural institutions (including the Cairo Opera House) presenting a variety of programing at its many stages, spaces for open-air events and a large parking lot. Check our guide on the Cairo Opera grounds here. Aiming to curb the spread of the coronavirus, all cultural activities have been suspended across Egypt starting 9 March. For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture Search Keywords: Short link: Eleven-year-old British skateboarder Sky Brown is lucky to be alive after suffering multiple injuries during a fall in training in California. Brown, who was looking to become Great Britains youngest summer Olympian in Tokyo, has suffered skull fractures and a broken left wrist and hand. She was unresponsive on arrival at hospital after being airlifted by a helicopter, but she is now expected to make a full recovery. Sky landed head-first off a ramp on her hand, her father Stewart said. When she first came to hospital, everyone was fearful for her life. Sky had the gnarliest fall shes ever had and is lucky to be alive. Sky remains positive and strong, the whole medical team is shocked to see her positivity. Brown maintains her helmet and arm saved her life after the accident on the half-pipe, but remains hopeful she will feature at next years Games: This will not stop me. I am going for gold in Tokyo 2021. Im going to push boundaries for girls with my skating and surfing. Im going for gold in 2021 and nothing will stop me. I dont usually post my falls or talk about them, because I want people to see the fun in what I do, but this was my worst fall. I want everybody to know that its okay, dont worry, Im okay. Its okay to fall sometimes, Im just going to get back up and push even harder. I know there are a lot of things going on in the world right now. But I want everybody to know that whatever we do were just going to do it with love and happiness. Im excited to come back even stronger and even tougher, Brown added. My heart wants to go so hard right now. Im just waiting for my body to catch up. Europe's factories starting to recover, Asia's pain worsens FILE PHOTO: Employees wearing protective face masks and face guards work on the automobile assembly line during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the factory of Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corp. in Kawasaki By Jonathan Cable and Leika Kihara LONDON/TOKYO (Reuters) - European manufacturers may be over the worst of a coronavirus-driven downturn, but Asia's pain deepened in May due to a slump in global trade, with export powerhouses Japan and South Korea seeing the sharpest falls in activity in over a decade, surveys showed. The new coronavirus pandemic - which has killed more than 370,000 people around the world - has wreaked havoc with supply chains and quashed demand as government-imposed lockdowns forced businesses to close and citizens to stay home. While factory activity still contracted sharply across Europe last month, purchasing managers said April lows had passed as governments on the continent began to ease the tough lockdown measures implemented to contain the spread of the virus. After crashing to its lowest reading in the survey's nearly 22-year history in April, IHS Markit's Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for the euro zone recovered somewhat last month, rising to 39.4 from 33.4. But that was still a long way from the 50 mark separating growth from contraction, something echoed in surveys from other countries in the region. "There was a clear sense that - particularly in the euro zone - April was likely to be the bottom of the trough. Hopefully we are past the worst," said Peter Dixon at Commerzbank. Britain also saw another sharp downturn and pockets of growth were mostly linked to healthcare and personal protection equipment although some firms reported signs of new inflows of business as clients began to reopen. Later in the day, data from the United States is expected to show factory activity declined there again last month. Alongside the devastating impact of the pandemic, a U.S.-China spat over Hong Kong's status and Beijing's handling of the pandemic could sour business sentiment and add to already huge strains on the global economy. So the trough in global economic activity will be deeper and the rebound is likely to take longer than previously predicted as the pandemic spreads in waves, a recent Reuters poll found. Story continues The International Monetary Fund said last month the global economy would take much longer than expected to recover fully from the virus shock, suggesting a downgrade to its current projection for a 3% contraction this year. Still, world stocks were just shy of three-month highs on Monday as optimism on economies opening up boosted risk appetite, despite worries over riots in the United States and lingering unease over Washington's standoff with Beijing. PAIN IN ASIA Other manufacturing surveys suggested any rebound for Asian businesses might be some time off, even though China's factory activity unexpectedly returned to growth in May. China's Caixin/Markit Manufacturing PMI hit 50.7 last month, marking the highest reading since January as easing of lockdowns allowed companies to get back to work and clear outstanding orders. But with many of China's trading partners still restricted, its new export orders remained in contraction, the private business survey showed on Monday. China's official PMI survey on Sunday showed the recovery in the world's second-largest economy intact but fragile. Japan's factory activity shrank at the fastest pace since 2009 in May, a separate survey showed, while South Korean manufacturing slumped at the sharpest pace in more than a decade. Capital Economics said in a research note the region's manufacturing sector is in deep recession. "Industry is likely to have seen an initial jump from the easing of lockdown restrictions. And things are likely to continue improving very gradually over the coming months as external demand recovers," analysts at the consultancy wrote. "But output is still likely to be well below normal levels for many months to come as domestic and global demand remain very depressed." Taiwan's manufacturing activity also fell in May. Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines saw PMIs rebound from April, though the indices all remained below the 50-mark threshold. Official data on Monday showed South Korea extending its exports plunge for a third straight month. India's factory activity contracted sharply in May, extending the major decline seen in April as a government-imposed lockdown hammered demand. (Reporting by Jonathan Cable and Leika Kihara; Editing by Sam Holmes and Hugh Lawson) Brexit! So you thought it had happened? Not exactly. Britain may have left the EU, but its crucial future trading relations with the bloc are still being discussed, and in an unproductive and acrimonious way. Michel Barnier, the EUs chief negotiator, has popped up in a Sunday newspaper warning Boris Johnson that he must keep his promises if a deal is to be finalised by the end of the year. But this is exactly what the Government says about the EU that it has broken its word. The specific charge against Brussels is that it has withdrawn the offer of a Canada-style trade agreement, and is demanding the UK continues to abide by EU rules as though it were still a member of the organisation. Michel Barnier (left), the EUs chief negotiator, has popped up in a Sunday newspaper warning Boris Johnson (right) that he must keep his promises if a deal is to be finalised by the end of the year Seduced The truth is that the two sides are as far apart as ever, and there seems little prospect that the fourth round of talks, which began yesterday, will lead anywhere. A showdown later in the month between the Prime Minister and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, looks likely. In short, our old companion No Deal which most of us have put out of our minds during the nightmare of Covid-19 is back in the frame. Almost no one wants such an outcome, which would involve tariffs between the EU and UK. That is why many people, including even some Brexiteers, may be seduced by the subtext in Mr Barniers Sunday Times interview. Essentially, he is saying that the gulf between the EU and UK is so huge that an agreement by the end of the year is a pipe dream, even though the deadline has been enshrined in British law. The feline Mr Barnier is tempting us with an argument that has superficial allure. With Covid-19 still a time- consuming preoccupation, we need a lot more time to sort out our many differences. It cant be accomplished in the next seven months. A showdown later in the month between the Prime Minister and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen (pictured), looks likely Should we be taken in by his smooth suggestion? No, we should not! It would be little short of a disaster to jettison the December 31 deadline, which would involve repealing the Withdrawal Agreement Act. Let me explain why. In the first place, if negotiations were to drag on for who knows? at least two more years after the end of this year, Britain would continue making an annual net payment of some 9 billion without having any say in the EUs deliberations, since we are no longer a member. We would be a captive, but one that was expected to pay an enormous amount of money for the privilege of being incarcerated. This sum would almost certainly increase substantially when Brussels passes around the hat, probably early next year, to raise extra billions for a Covid-19 fighting fund. Thats bad enough, but the tactical consequences of a delay could be even more damaging. If the British Government were to agree to give up its end-of-the-year time limit, Brussels would have won a tremendous psychological victory, and drive a harder bargain in a final deal. It was, in fact, a singular achievement on Mr Johnsons part to get the EU to accept a December 31 cut-off. Its initial response was that no agreement could be made in so short a time, but it knuckled down in the end. Now the cover of Covid-19 is being used to finagle an extension. Britains able chief negotiator David Frost, pictured on March 2 arriving for talks in Brussels, has been pushing for a free-trade agreement with zero tariffs So the Government is absolutely right to insist the deadline cant be changed. It is very important that Mr Barnier, and indeed all EU leaders, dont think Mr Johnson is bluffing. If they suspect he is, and that a prolongation is on the cards, they wont negotiate in good faith. However, there is no disguising that the upshot of the Prime Minister playing hardball could be No Deal, which, as I say, is an eventuality almost no one wants. But it can still be avoided if both parties show more flexibility, and a willingness to compromise on the final terms. So far as Brussels is concerned, there is a tendency to treat Britain as though it is some kind of satellite of the EU, and not an independent country. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the tough line Mr Barnier has taken on fishing. To all intents and purposes, the EU wants the access its fishing fleets enjoyed in UK waters when this country was a member state to continue now we have left. The Government argues that, as is the case with non-EU Norway, Britain must decide how and when foreign fleets should be permitted to fish in our waters. In the past week or two, there have been murmurings which suggest that some EU nations realise Mr Barnier has been given too narrow a negotiating brief. But it remains to be seen whether countries such as France, Ireland and Denmark all of them accustomed to fishing in our waters are prepared to compromise. 'Nowhere is this more apparent than in the tough line Mr Barnier has taken on fishing,' says Stephen Glover Status The EU is surely also deluded to think that any British government could accept in any shape or form the final arbitration of the European Court in the event of trade disputes between Britain and Brussels. But if the European Union hasnt woken up to Britains new status as a sovereign state, it is also true that No 10 shows signs of wanting the commercial advantages of membership without the responsibilities. For example, Britains able chief negotiator David Frost has been pushing for a free-trade agreement with zero tariffs. But is it unreasonable for Brussels to ask the UK for a legally-binding pledge not to undercut the EU, either through dispensing lashings of state aid or adopting lower employment and environmental standards? Its obvious that, if there is to be an agreement, there will have to be give and take on both sides. Boris Johnson finally broke the log-jam last autumn by accepting, somewhat controversially, that Northern Ireland should remain aligned to the EU Single Market. He showed that he is capable of making pragmatic concessions. Stephen Glover says: 'Boris Johnson finally broke the log-jam last autumn by accepting, somewhat controversially, that Northern Ireland should remain aligned to the EU Single Market' Rash Unless, of course, his naturally emollient heart has calcified under the influence of Dominic Cummings. Some Brexiteers believe the economic repercussions of No Deal pale into insignificance alongside the near-catastrophic consequences of Covid-19. They reckon the pain of No Deal might scarcely be noticed amid the agony brought about by the contagion. All one can say is that it would be a foolhardy Prime Minister who embraced No Deal if a mutually advantageous agreement with the EU were possible, as there is still good reason for thinking that one is. I shouldnt be surprised, though, if it comes at five minutes to midnight. As for the EU, assuming its leaders and negotiators want a deal, which I believe they do, they would be rash to believe they can call Mr Johnsons bluff over the deadline, and unwise to conclude that the Government has been badly blown off course by last weeks Cummings fiasco or its mishandling of the pandemic. December 31 will not be breached in any circumstances. Nor should it be. Let us hope that, notwithstanding the many exhausting challenges thrown up by this dreadful pandemic, there are enough broad-minded and clear-sighted politicians on each side to broker a deal that is in the interests of both Britain and Europe. Airlines of Japan, the Philippines and South Korea plan to resume international flights to Vietnam as the pandemic is deemed to subside in the country that has reported no deaths of Covid-19. Vietnam could consider welcoming back foreign tourists from the countries where the pandemic is under control. Photo: Vietnam Airlines Japan is considering easing the entry ban on travelers from Vietnam, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand currently in place due to the spread of the new coronavirus, Japan News quoted a Japanese government source as saying on June 1. The current entry restrictions on people from around the world are scheduled to run through June, thus, the first round of easing is expected to take place in summer or later, according toJapan News. Nearly 16,900 novel coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Japan as of June 2, with 892 deaths. The four countries under consideration appear to be containing infections, and business people are calling for the resumption of travel among the nations. Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand are parties to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, also known as TPP11, and Japanese Economic Revitalization Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura was planning to exchange views on easing travel restrictions with those countries as early as in June. The Japanese government is planning an approach under which business people and others in possession of documents certifying that they are negative for coronavirus in a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test before leaving their countries will be allowed to enter Japan, and who also test negative after arriving in Japan. Starting June 8, Philippine Airlines (PAL) will gradually resume both domestic and international flights on selected routes, according to a statement on its website on May 31. PAL said it will operate limited international services on routes to the US, Canada, Guam, Vietnam, mainland China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Japan, the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. PAL will operate limited international services on routes to Vietnam. Earlier, Asiana Airlines, the South Koreans second largest airline, planned to reopen routes to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, increasing frequency to three flights per week to Hanoi and seven flights per week to Ho Chi Minh City. From June, the Vietnamese national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines planned to resume international services in its Hanoi-Seoul Incheon and Ho Chi Minh City Seoul Incheon routes, according to Routes Online.Due to travel restrictions, the airline only accepts reservations for departure from Vietnam. Vietnam has initially contained the pandemic with a relatively low number of Covid-19 patients and has gone 46 consecutive days without local infection. Vietnam could consider welcoming back foreign tourists from the countries where the pandemic is under control, and pilot opening islands to foreign tourists, according to the National Steering Committee on Covid-19 Prevention and Control at a meeting on May 28. Hanoitimes Nhat Minh When to restart international flights still undecided Vietnams national aviation authority is still undecided over the exact date for the reopening of international commercial air routes, A victims campaigner has revealed how she had the opportunity to run over a man suspected of being involved in the murder of her sister, but chose to turn away from violence. Ann Travers' sister Mary was murdered by the IRA on April 8, 1984, and her father Judge Tom Travers was left seriously injured in the attack. She said a man who her family knew to be involved in shielding the gunmen after the murder had walked out in front of her car two years later. "My family knew him," Ann said. "My sister knew him well. He lived near us around Windsor Avenue at the time. He was just a young lad. "It was all still very raw for our family. I had my chance. I was 17 years old and had just passed my driving test. I was driving with my mother, approaching the junction outside Methody near Stranmillis and I saw him walk out in front of me. "I felt my foot move and the car speed up towards him, but I hit the brakes and pulled up. He skulked away and my mother just put her hand on my knee and said: 'Well done. You made the right choice'. "We never spoke of it again." Mary Travers was just 22 and starting her career as a teacher when she was murdered by two IRA gunmen who ambushed the family as they left Mass at St Brigid's Church on Derryvolgie Avenue. Prominent magistrate Mr Travers was left fighting for his life after being shot six times. His wife Joan survived after a gun pointed at her head misfired twice. Ms Travers was reacting to comments by Mary Lou McDonald, who last week claimed she would likely have joined the IRA had she been born on this side of the border. The Sinn Fein president said that "there'd be every chance, every possibility" that she would have joined the armed struggle. "I certainly understand how it was that people volunteered to join the IRA - anybody looking at the circumstances from partition onwards, the nature of the northern state, everything that happened, how young people in particular took the fight to the British state. There's always a choice." Looking back on the incident, Ms Travers said: "Yes, there is always a choice, but the choice should not be to take a life. There is never any justification for that. "I had been working in Simpson's mini market on Eglantine Road and we knew this man had been brought in and questioned after my sister's murder. He came in all the time and I found it very difficult to serve him. "People question me about my experience or the Troubles. Believe me, I experienced as much as everyone else. There were chances for revenge, for involving illegal elements in society. People we knew who came into the shop made offers. The temptation was always there to take another path. But the answer was always the same - violence, murder, is never the answer. "I had lived in the same area of Belfast as this man had, walked the dog in the same streets, suffered at the hands of terrorists even, but our choices define who we are. I chose a route other than violence. "The man we knew was involved in shielding those who killed Mary sent a message to my father a few years later when he was dying from cancer. "He would only have been about 28 and he said he was sorry for what had happened to Mary. "We knew he had hidden the gunmen in a flat after the murder and he said he hoped we could understand he was doing in 'for the cause'. "That upset my father, but he told him he forgave him. He knew he was being used by others. "We have seen what happened to Lyra McKee, young people getting involved. But they are being pulled in by 'the cause'. There is still a choice to walk away and look at other ways of achieving goals. A peaceful, dignified protest always sends a stronger message." Flipkart will launch the second Nokia smart TV on June 4. The 43-inch Nokia smart TV will feature almost the same specs as the 55-inch model. Nokia is launching a new smart TV model in India on June 4. Flipkart has revealed a new teaser for the smart TV along with some key specs. Nokias new smart TV will feature a 43-inch UHD display with thin bezels. It will also come with Dolby Vision support and wide color gamut. Like the 55-inch model, this one too will have a fluid chrome pedestal. The smart TV will run on Android 9.0 with built-in Chromecast. More features on the Nokia 43-inch smart TV include JBL, Dolby Audio and DTS TruSurround support for audio. Flipkart hasnt revealed the hardware specs for the Nokia 43-inch smart TV though. Most of the features available on the 55-inch model are coming to the 43-inch model.The first one launched last year and it has a 55-inch UHD display. It is also powered by a quad-core processor paired with 2.25GB of RAM and 16GB storage. The 55-inch Nokia smart TV is priced at 41,999. The upcoming model would be priced lower. The 55-inch Nokia smart TV runs on Android 9.0 with support for the Android TV Play Store. It is also equipped with 24 Watt built-in speakers, DTS TruSurround, Dolby Audio and JBL speakers. This would be the second Nokia-branded smart TV launched by Flipkart. The e-commerce platform has a similar deal for Motorola smart TVs as well. A crowd of protesters walked through Youngstown, Ohio, on Sunday, May 31, to rally against racism and police brutality following the death of George Floyd. Local media reported that about 500 demonstrators gathered in downtown Youngstown on Sunday, joining in on days of ongoing protests across the globe. This video shows a crowd of protesters walking down Market Street in Youngstown. Reports said arrests were made at the Youngstown demonstration, but its unclear how many. Credit: @caliiibird via Storyful The good news is Im really, really glad we had so many people interested and willing to vote, Bennett said. The bad news is everyone decided to vote on the last day that vote centers are open and they decided to do it in person, and that just created an incredible logjam when you consider the fact we are in the middle of a pandemic. Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump visit Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, DC: REUTERS Donald Trump's visit to a Catholic church on Tuesday, after clearing out protesters ahead of a photo opportunity at an Episcopal church a day earlier, was "baffling and reprehensible", the Archbishop of Washington has said. Mr Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, visited the Saint John Paul II National Shrine on Tuesday after visiting St John's Church on Monday evening, which required protesters to be cleared out from Lafayette Square by armed riot police and tear gas. Archbishop Wilton D Gregory, of the Archdiocese of Washington, said the Polish-born former Pope would not condone the use of tear gas for a "photo opportunity" in front of a church. "I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles, which is to defend the rights of all people even those with whom we might disagree," Mr Gregory said. "Saint Pope John Paul II was an ardent defender of the rights and dignity of human beings." "He certainly would not condone the use of tear gas and other deterrents to silence, scatter or intimidate them for a photo opportunity in front of a place of worship and peace." During the visit, Mr Trump and the first lady placed a wreath on a statue of the Pope and posed for a photo. Protesters gathered at the Catholic shrine on Tuesday after Mr Trump's visit to St John's Church a day earlier sparked widespread outrage over the use of force to clear Lafayette Square before the president was photographed holding a bible. Protesters already awaiting @realDonaldTrump in Brookland. He's set to visit the Pope John Paul II Shrine shortly. pic.twitter.com/6vfbRfv805 Martin Austermuhle (@maustermuhle) June 2, 2020 According to the White House, the president was visiting the shrine in Northeast Washington with wife Ms Trump, who is Roman Catholic, as part of a focus on international religious freedom. Mr Trump was expected to sign an executive order on religious freedom in the Oval Office later on Tuesday afternoon. The president has focused on religious voters in recent weeks with an executive order to reopen churches, synagogues and mosques amid the coronavirus lock-downs, and Tuesday's visit coincides with the anniversary of Pope John Paul II's visit in 1979 to his native Poland. If you're a Health minister, shouldn't you know something about health, right? Especially during a freaking pandemic? Guess that's too much to ask from our ministers as they're just trying to prove how dumb they are on a daily basis. What's the most important thing to do right now? Social distancing, avoiding crowds, wearing a mask, just the bare minimum that everyone should do to stop the spread of coronavirus as much as possible. But, it's frustrating to see that even that is too much for some people. Today, when India stands at almost two lakh Covid-19 cases, the health minister of Karnataka, B Sriramulu, took part in a crowded procession in Chitradurga. Imagine seeing a crowd like that in the middle of a pandemic, are they trying to get sick and make everyone else sick? #WATCH Karnataka Health Minister B Sriramulu takes part in a procession in Chitradurga; social distancing norms being flouted at the event, amid COVID19 pandemic Total number of COVID19 positive cases in Karnataka is 3408 pic.twitter.com/9Z5vXNLq6B ANI (@ANI) June 2, 2020 Obviously social distancing rules were being followed, but on top of that, a huge garland made of apples was used to welcome him. If the fact that food is being wasted like this while so many people are dying of starvation in this country doesn't make you feel infuriated, then you have no heart. That's health minister of Karnataka @sriramulubjp who forgot social distancing protocols in Chitradurga. Huge apple Garland used to welcome him. pic.twitter.com/DFuEdarQ4V Nagarjun Dwarakanath (@nagarjund) June 2, 2020 Covid cases in Karnataka at the moment are over 3000 and I really hope stupid acts like these don't drastically increase the number, but after seeing the video, it honestly seems inevitable. At least follow what you preach. Shame yaar..All these days we trolled Tablighi, Now u ppl are doing same Pradeep (@KumarIndian72) June 2, 2020 *Irony died a thousand deaths. Health Minister.!!!!! (@paw_paw007) June 2, 2020 What's wrong with these idiots!! The positive cases are rising and they are doing this?? Very disappointed with BJP leaders allowing this kind of nonsense during the crisis! https://t.co/6Zv45atqGn Temple Phantom (@Temple_Phantom) June 2, 2020 What a showoff and waste of food. Thousands are hungry looks like they just dont give a damn. Cheryl Peter (@CherylPeter8) June 2, 2020 Health minister! Soo disappointing karnatka ex CMs wedding and now this. No masks no social distancing. Its such a disappointing example put by health minister. SHAME. NallaBiggBoss (@BiggNalla) June 2, 2020 Social distancing crying in corner https://t.co/RILuaERbBg MANSHU RAUT (@RautManshu) June 2, 2020 People dying of hunger in this country and we see this gross show of power and contempt. Disgraceful Desi Gooner (@sufi_gooner) June 2, 2020 @Karnataka_DIPR @DIPR_COVID19 what is this?? Are there any different rules for politicians. They can flout social distancing norms, we the common people cannot..https://t.co/bza8yRDSAb Raghav K (@RaghavK61845788) June 2, 2020 Seriously.Sheer stupidity.No heart.Shame is the right word.Yep.Eat the rich.Exactly.Disappointing.The rules don't apply to them, apparently.Strict action is needed. T op restaurateur Robin Leigh is being sued over claims he forced out a business partner who had rescued their food empire from extravagant spending, ill-advised ventures and celebrity PR stunts. Benjamin Goldkorn has launched a High Court action against Mr Leigh, his cousin, with a slew of allegations about spending and mismanagement in the creation of Japanese restaurants Ichibuns in Soho and Endo at the Rotunda in the former BBC Television Centre. Mr Goldkorn, 39, claims 6 million had been spent before a restaurant had been opened when he was brought on board in 2016. In court papers he says he had to curb Mr Leighs foreign travel, reliance on feng shui for design decisions and six-figure spending on ideas. He claims he had to stop Mr Leigh paying 200,000 to David Beckham and 175,000 to Cara Delevingne to attend the Ichibuns launch party and he put a stop to a red-light-district themed VIP event complete with scantily dressed young women massaging live cows. Mr Goldkorn, a tech investor and property developer based in Israel, worked for his cousins food empire between 2016 and 2019, and says he was promised an 18 per cent share in the business. But he claims Mr Leigh, 55, a former director of top London restaurant Nobu, forced him out in April last year. He believes it was because Mr Leigh was seeking up to 15 million in new investment and did not want to dilute the value of his own share. Mr Goldkorn and his partner were expecting their first child at the time, and he told the court he believes that Robins decision to exclude him was influenced by his frequently expressed view that parenthood was incompatible with the responsibilities of professional life. He was also worked on plans for a Mayfair Ichibuns branch, as well as a thwarted attempt to open a Japanese tavern in Soho. Essentially Robin wanted Benjamin to turn Robins dream of building a valuable international restaurant group into reality, said John Brisby QC for Mr Goldkorn. Mr Goldkorn claims he tackled financial and operational difficulties when he first joined as a consultant. Among other allegations, he says chefs flew at Mr Leighs behest to the French ski resort of Courchevel just to taste dishes, the restaurateur made five trips to Australia to look for crockery for one of his restaurants, and he tried to buy a 170,000 SUV with a personalised numberplate to shuttle diners to the Rotunda. Mr Goldkorn also says 9,000 was lost when Mr Leigh pulled out of a property deal because he believe the basement had evil spirits. As well as the value of the alleged stake in the business, Mr Goldkorn is suing for more than 37,000 in unpaid expenses and consultancy fees, 90,000 in damages for the way he was forced out, 500,000 in damages from pending legal claims, and 6,000 he says Mr Leigh owes to him personally. Mr Leigh, the Lord Simon Restaurants group, and 11 associated companies are named as defendants in the legal claim. The Birmingham Arts Drive-In set for Thursday on the UAB campus has been postponed, organizers said today. The event would have featured performances by the Alabama Ballet, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Alys Stephens Center, Red Mountain Theatre Co. and Opera Birmingham. As Birmingham performing arts organizations, we hold dear the important role the arts play in our lives, organizers said on May 29 when they announced the free event. The arts connect us, nourish our hearts and minds, transform us and create community. Reservations for parking spaces at the Birmingham Arts Drive-in were snapped up quickly. By the afternoon, organizers were assembling a waiting list. They also said the event would be streamed live on YouTube. However, the arts program, which was to start at 8:45 p.m. in a parking lot at 16th Street and University Boulevard, would have violated the curfew announced today by Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin. The curfew, which runs from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily, was linked to a state of emergency resulting from violent unrest that rocked downtown Birmingham on Sunday night. Protesters here were responding to the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Video footage shows a white police officer with his knee on Floyds neck. Three other officers watch. In the video, Floyd tells them he cant breathe and then goes silent. In Birmingham, a crowd gathered downtown on Sunday for a peaceful protest, but it turned into a violent melee after some of the protesters tried to tear down a Confederate monument in Linn Park. Another statue was toppled in the park; fires blazed; glass doors and windows were shattered in nearby buildings. Two members of the media were injured. I 100 percent support civil disobedience but that is very different from civil unrest," Woodfin said today during a press conference with Police Chief Patrick Smith and Fire Chief Cory Moon. "I support activism and your right to peacefully assemble, but I dont support mobs and people destroying things just because. Violence, looting and chaos is not the road to reform. The curfew will be in place until further notice, Woodfin said. He promised to work quickly to remove the Confederate monument targeted by protesters, but didnt give a timeframe or specifics. Organizers for the Birmingham Arts Drive-In said they hoped to reschedule their event, which had been planned as a drive-in to accommodate social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic. A new date is pending. Open source The recommendations of the International Monetary Fund from the Ukrainian government, required for getting a new $5 billion credit program, were revealed. They should be approved on June 5, as the Economichna Pravda outlet reported. The majority of the conditions should be implemented in 2020, and the IMF will monitor them. However, some of the points might be changed. Thus, in June 2020, the plans for work with impaired assets of the state banks of the National Bank of Ukraine and Council on Financial Stability should be approved and the statute of Naftogaz should be amended until September in correspondence with the principals of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Besides, the law on the Supreme Council of justice should be amended until September, concerning the procedure of competitions for the selection of the members of the council and the law on banks and banking activity should be amended in the demands for capital structure and capital itself. Besides, the contracts for municipal services should be concluded and the procedure of the switching to another gas supplier should be simplified until September. It is planned to tighten the procedure of liquidation and debt resolution of associated persons for the Deposit Guarantee Fund. The corresponding amendments to the legislation should also be made in September 2020. The new structure of State Pension Insurance and State Fiscal Service should be developed at the same time. The launch of these departments as a single legal entity should take place in January 2021. Besides, in March 2021, the audit of the use of the budget of the fund on the fight against coronavirus should take place. Strana published the full text of the Memorandum between Ukraine and the IMF. This document consists of three parts: Ukraine: letter on intentions, Appendix 1. Memorandum on economic and financial policy and an appendix with tables. The letter says that thanks to international support, Ukraine succeeded to reach the macro-economic stability and decrease the level of state debt. However, it is noted that country needs extra financing due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus epidemic. Besides, the authors report about implemented events, which facilitate the support of stability. The letter is signed by Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelensky, PM Denys Shmygal, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko, and Chair of the National Bank of Ukraine Yakiv Smoliy. Earlier, the team of the IMF workers reached the preliminary decision with Ukraine's government on the new 18-months-long stand-by funding program. The IMF mission in Ukraine was led by Ivanna Vladkova-Hollar. Cronkite News PHOENIX Despite promising trends last week, the Navajo Department of Health reported a spike in COVID-19 cases Monday, with 98 new cases and five additional deaths As of Sunday, the total number of deaths on the Navajo Nation reservation was 246. Officials said 5,348 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed, and they estimated 1,840 people have recovered. During this difficult time, we ask our citizens to practice preventive measures to minimize COVID-19 exposure, Navajo Nation Vice President Myron Lizer said in a statement . In addition to urging tribal members to disinfect items that come into their homes, wear masks and use hand sanitizer, Lizer said, Remember to maintain a distance of at least six feet from others and allow elders and others at high risk of severe illness to move up in shopping lines to lessen their exposure of COVID-19. Navajo leaders urged tribal members to stay diligent because Operation First of the Month, a program in partnership with Bashas food stores that allows elderly Navajo to shop safely when their monthly benefit checks arrive, is in effect. Last week, Navajo leaders had expressed concern of a potential spike in COVID-19 cases after the reopening of cities bordering the reservation, which covers parts of three states, Cronkite News reported. Before May 31, the Navajo Nations infection curve had been flattening. The number of positive #COVID-19 cases for the Navajo Nation has reached 5,479 as of June 1, 2020. More than 1,900 have recovered from the #Coronavirus on the largest reservation in the United States. @NNPrezNez @NNVP_Lizer #Arizona #NewMexico #Utah https://t.co/Q17W9KhYcX indianz.com (@indianz) June 2, 2020 As of June 1, the Arizona Department of Health Services reported 20,123 total cases of COVID-19 and 917 deaths in the state. It said 321,926 tests for COVID-19 have been completed as of June 1 in public and private labs in Arizona, and 5.6% of tests have come back positive for the virus. Note: This story originally appeared on Cronkite News and is published via a Creative Commons license . Cronkite News is produced by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University Join the Conversation This is an opinion column. I cant breathe. I just cant. Not right now. Not after seven days of wrestling with a cyclone of wrenching emotions. As a black man. As a father. As an American. Wrestling with anger. With pain. With frustration. With sorrow. Wrestling with the fatigue of a thousand sleepless nights. Not after Sunday night. In Birmingham. Not after a glorious afternoon of solidarity, of passion, peace, and promise, disintegrated into a night of senseless hell. Not after God knows who from God knows where committed Godless destruction. Of our own. Not after theythose who shattered windows with hammers and stones, torched public and private properties, set useless, yet dangerous fires in dumpsters and trash bins, and especially those who attacked my media colleagues, including an AL.com brothershowed their backsides. Protests turned violent overnight after demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, in the wake of the death of Minnesotan George Floyd. He died when a police officer restrained him facedown with a knew on his neck for almost nine minutes. The events May 31 to June 1, 2020, in Birmingham prompted the city to enact an overnight curfew indefinitely. The city's mayor also promised arrests if unrest continues. Demonstrators tried to bring a Confederate memorial statue down in Linn Park and then did damage to businesses near the downtown park. There were more than two dozen fires reported. (Dez Wilson | DWilson@al.com)Dez Wilson | DWilson@al.com After they accomplished nothing. Except to fill the bellies of those pining to choke the movement to seek justice for George Floyd, and to him and so many other black men and women killed by police officers with a better tomorrow. Just as he was choked one week ago. Just as he was rendered lifeless, beneath the knee of a Minneapolis police offer. I want the damn Confederate monument in Linn Park down as much as anyone. As much, even as Jermaine (FunnyMaine) Johnson, the Birmingham native and popular comedian who might ultimately be in a bit of trouble after sparking the gathering in Linn Park with an impassioned challenge at Kelly Ingram Park to tear it down on Sunday evening. [He was gone when the sordidness began, he told AL.com, and said at one juncture he helped protect a man who was attacked after showing up and expressing his support for the monument. On Monday, when asked about Johnsons potential role in the madness that transpired, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said: If there is enough evidence, we will make arrests.] Ive called for the monuments removal many times. Ive chastised our state and Governor for creating a law designed only to prevent us, Birmingham, from doing what is best for us. A law unduly protecting symbols of an era that enslaved and dehumanized us. A law that does not acknowledge our pain yet celebrates those who caused it. Protests turned violent overnight after demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, in the wake of the death of Minnesotan George Floyd. He died when a police officer restrained him facedown with a knew on his neck for almost nine minutes. The events May 31 to June 1, 2020, in Birmingham prompted the city to enact an overnight curfew indefinitely. The city's mayor also promised arrests if unrest continues. Demonstrators tried to bring a Confederate memorial statue down in Linn Park and then did damage to businesses near the downtown park. There were more than two dozen fires reported. (Dez Wilson | DWilson@al.com)Dez Wilson | DWilson@al.com If we are going to eradicate racism in this staggering nation, lets begin by eliminating symbols that perpetuate it, that elevate the notion of one races superiority over another. Especially those symbols standing in our front yard, Birmingham. It must come down, and will soon, says Woodfin. Perhaps, I think, in the dead of night, while we are at home under this new state-of-emergency curfew. Protests turned violent overnight after demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, in the wake of the death of Minnesotan George Floyd. He died when a police officer restrained him facedown with a knee on his neck for almost nine minutes. The events May 31 to June 1, 2020, in Birmingham prompted the city to enact an overnight curfew indefinitely. The city's mayor also promised arrests if unrest continues. Demonstrators tried to bring a Confederate memorial statue down in Linn Park and then did damage to businesses near the downtown park. There were more than two dozen fires reported. (Dez Wilson | DWilson@al.com)Dez Wilson | DWilson@al.com The monument, though, isnt why I cant breathe. I cant breathe because of the moronic actions of God knows who from God knows wherepeople, by the way, from a diaspora of cultures, generations and nationalities; so, not just black folks, yall. I cant breathe because I watched them. I was at Linn Park and saw as a mob mentality emerged, as the most fired up among what was still largely a civil voyeuristic crowd grew weary of hammering fruitlessly at the statues base, then redirected their emotions upon the rest of us. Upon our buildings. Upon our public spaces. Upon our history. Our legacy. Upon entrepreneurs already struggling through an economic freefall caused by a global pandemic. [On Monday, the city revealed the launch of the Birmingham Business Relief Fund, to be administered by the Community Foundation and benefit business and property owners who suffered damage on Sunday night. Seed funding is being provided by Spire. The fund is a collaborative between Urban Impact, REV Birmingham, Birmingham Business Alliance, the City of Birmingham and the CFGB. Donate: Here. ] Upon corporations whove planted their brands in our city. Upon people simply trying to do their job. I understand rage, I feel it every time I see George Floyds final breaths in my head. Rage is not what we witnessed late Sunday nightnot what weve seen manifested in other cities, by God knows who from God knows where. It was a wonton, shameful disregard for us, Birmingham. We reject looters and anarchists and will happily arrest you, Woodfin says. Birmingham Rally for George Floyd Kelly Ingram Park, May 31, 2020 I will catch my breath. We will catch our breath, Birmingham. We will not be deflected or distractedparticularly by God knows who from God knows wherefrom seeking justice for George Floyd and his family and creating a nation that finally honors our pain and pursues equity for all. We will breathe. Again. A voice for whats right and wrong in Birmingham, Alabama (and beyond), Roys column appears in The Birmingham News and AL.com, as well as in the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register. Reach him at rjohnson@al.com and follow him at twitter.com/roysj [June 02, 2020] Park Place Technologies Acquires Third Party Maintenance Provider Custom Hardware Engineering & Consulting, Inc. CLEVELAND, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Park Place Technologies announced it has acquired Custom Hardware Engineering & Consulting, Inc. (CHE), a Missouri-based third party maintenance provider. Park Place Technologies, the globally preferred partner for third party management of IT data center equipment since 1991, will acquire all of CHE's business, enabling Park Place Technologies to further expand its operational depth. Park Place Technologies will leverage CHE's specialty in helping companies get better data center ROI from their multi-platform, enterprise systems. Since 1997, CHE has provided large-class enterprise clients with independent, multi-vendor third party maintenance support services for disk and tape storage, networking, mainframes and mid-range server hardware equipment located in data centers throughout the United States. CHE is particularly strong in the government vertical and has deep Enterprise Storage and Mainframe skills which complement Park Place Technologies' breadth of knowledge. As a result of the acquisition, CHE's customers will receive many benefits including, access to innovative products such as Park Place Technologies' ParkViewTM and Entuity Network Analytics. ParkView is a fully automated maintenance service that streamlines the hardware support process and helps data centers boost Uptime. Entuity Network Analytics automates network discovery and uses intuitive workflows that make it easy to identify when there are issues within the customer's network operations. Customers will also experience greater support throughout their product life cycle and will have access to Park Place's global, multilingual 24-hour support centers and a vast, global supply chain. Park Place Technologies' customers will benefit from access to more engineers and enhancing technology capabilities as a result of the acquisition. Customers have 24/7/365 access to Central Park, a portal tht allows clients to view all their active Park Place contracts. Here, clients can view open/closed tickets; submit a ticket; add equipment; and update, enable or disable technical contacts per location. PPTechMobile is an app that allows full portal functionality, plus barcode scanning and photo submission for submitting tickets. "With this acquisition, Park Place further strengthens its engineering and parts advantages in the United States," said Chris Adams, President and CEO, Park Place Technologies. "We look forward to bringing our award-winning proactive maintenance services and global support to CHE customers." "CHE is very excited about this opportunity for its customers and company," said David York, President and CEO of Custom Hardware Engineering & Consulting, Inc. "The growth and expansion possible from CHE's innovative technologies coupled with Park Place's established platforms, will be well received in the industry and beneficial to all parties." Agile Equity, based in New York City provided exclusive investment banking services to CHE on its sale to Park Place Technologies. Dave Cummings, Managing Partner, noted "there's a fantastic strategic fit between the companies and we are pleased to have facilitated the transaction for the shareholders." This is the second acquisition for Park Place Technologies in 2020 and its 14th since 2016. In January 2020, Park Place acquired the network operations center of Cleveland-based IntelliNet. About Park Place Technologies Park Place Technologies simplifies the management of complex technology environments for more than 17,000 customers worldwide. Park Place Technologies provides exceptional global service for data center storage, server and network hardware for all tier one OEM equipment. Our worldwide network of 404,000 parts stored regionally, locally and on-site allows for fast parts distribution and service to drive Uptime. Park Place responded to customer input and its internal innovation strategy to create a new technology service category Discover, Monitor, Support, Optimize (DMSO) a fully integrated approach to managing critical infrastructure. Our industry-leading and award-winning services include ParkView hosted services, Entuity software, and our Enterprise Operations Center. With Park Place Technologies, customers are maximizing Uptime, improving operational speed, eliminating IT chaos, and boosting return on investment ultimately accelerating their digital transformation. Park Place supports 58,000+ data centers in 150+ countries. For more information, visit us at www.parkplacetechnologies.com. Park Place Technologies Media Jennifer Deutsch | Chief Marketing Officer Main 800-931-3366 | Direct 440-991-3105 parkplacetechnologies.com Michael Miller | Global Content and Communications Manager Main 877-778-8707 | Direct 440-683-9426 parkplacetechnologies.com View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/park-place-technologies-acquires-third-party-maintenance-provider-custom-hardware-engineering--consulting-inc-301068754.html SOURCE Park Place Technologies [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Hong Kong: Hong Kong on Monday prohibited for the first time the annual June 4 vigil to honour victims of the pro-democracy Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, which the Chinese government crushed with deadly force. The prohibition order was issued by the Hong Kong police force, and came less than a week after Chinese communist authorities in Beijing moved to enact new security laws on the former British colony. The order cited the need to enforce social-distancing rules to prevent the spread of the coronavirus as the justification for the ban. Riot police on the front line in Hong Kong. Credit:Getty The gathering to remember Tiananmen, held annually since 1990, had become a major rallying point for Hong Kongers worried about what they see as China's rising repression. IRVINE, Calif., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Orgain, creator of the first ready-to-drink organic protein shake and innovator of high-quality and convenient clean nutrition products, announced the three startup brands who upheld Orgain's mission to inspire healthy, vibrant lives through their products or services and were deemed winners of the inaugural Grants for Greater Good program. Orgain called on their community to choose from a list of six well-deserving finalists who showcased a genuine ability to make a positive change in the world. Bissy, Hakuna Brands, and IncludeHealth ultimately attracted the most votes and will now each benefit from $50K in grant money to help support their brand initiatives to offer healthy and inclusive offerings and to further grow their businesses within the health and wellness space. Orgain's Grants for Greater Good program launched in February with the objective to uplift and support well-intentioned start-up companies dedicated to driving positive change in our world through the power of clean nutrition, preventative health and wellness. Each one of these brands exceeded expectations, embodying an inclusive brand foundation, and delivering against unique goals inspiring positive healthy change throughout every aspect of their brand operations. "First and foremost, we are encouraged. This inaugural program has brought the biggest and brightest health and wellness entrepreneurs to our doorstep, and we are excited to have a part in the growth and impact they'll have on culture," said Orgain founder and CEO, Dr. Andrew Abraham. He continued, "Our goal has always been to elevate the industry in an effort to help consumers become more aware of what clean nutrition and preventative health can do for their lifestyles and their community. Through these brands, we hope to create a wider net of education and drive growth that will ultimately lead to a healthier community." All three brands offer an innovative and ownable product that leans into preventive health and wellbeing. As these unique companies embrace the opportunity for growth, they will each use their $50k funding in different ways, including distribution, branding, and infrastructure. Hakuna Branda will use funds to grow its nationwide distribution. Bissy plans to support their kolanut farmers in Nigeria by helping them achieve Fair Trade certification with a large portion of the grant dollars. IncludeHealth intends to use the money to install their technology at a health and wellness center in Columbus, OH, whose clients suffer from neurological conditions. For more information on Orgain and brand initiatives, please visit Orgain.com. About Orgain From the very beginning, Orgain set out to craft superior, clean nutrition that's accessible for all. Orgain was created by Dr. Andrew Abraham to save his own life during his battle with cancer, and now it's made to fuel yours. Orgain's primary purpose is to make delicious organic nutritional products to help people lead healthy, vibrant lives. Products include meal replacement shakes, protein powders and snack bars for adults and kids. Orgain uses only the highest quality ingredients, never at the cost of taste and texture. Most Orgain products are Certified Organic and all are soy free, gluten free, non-GMO and free of artificial colors, flavors and preservatives. To learn more about Orgain, and Dr. Abraham's fascinating story and purpose, or to shop products and browse recipes, visit Orgain.com. SOURCE Orgain Related Links www.drinkorgain.com Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 2, 2020 17:47 597 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb9a00c 1 Books Perpusnas,National-Library-of-Indonesia,COVID-19,pandemic,new-normal,coronavirus,library Free After closing its doors to visitors on March 16, the National Library of Indonesia (Perpusnas) in Central Jakarta is preparing to reopen for the first time in months under special protocol. We are preparing a strategy for the new normal to support National Library service activity prior to a public reopening, Joko Santoso, head of the National Library's law and planning bureau, said in a statement. Joko said that as there was no certainty over when the COVID-19 pandemic would end, the library was preparing an operating procedure that would comply with requirements set by the COVID-19 task force. Employees of the National Library have been working from home since the start of the large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) in April. They are expected to work from home until June 4, the end of Jakartas latest PSBB extension. Read also: National Library in Jakarta extends closure to late May Since its closure, the library has been flooded with online visitors. The number has increased to 130 percent. Our digital service such as iPusnas has become an alternative source for the public amid the pandemic, said Muhammad Syarif Bando, head of the National Library. Throughout this period, the library's online digital service remains accessible to visitors, including for those looking to access its International Standard Book Number (ISBN), Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC), Indonesia OneSearch (IOS), online membership (K-OL) and e-Resources or Khasanah Nusantara (Khastara) services. More than 50,000 book titles are accessible through its mobile app iPusnas for users of iOS and Android devices. Perpusnas also provides the Tanya Pustawakan (Ask A Librarian) service that allows the public to submit queries regarding data, information, education or library materials. They may send their questions by email to layanan_referensi@perpusnas.go.id or through the live chat feature on the website. (gis/wng) Video above: How the U.S. is faring in the COVID-19 pandemic as protests continue to rage in the country Video may contain images that are offensive. Viewer discretion is advised. The latest: President Donald Trump announced late Tuesday evening he would seek a new host state for the RNC after North Carolina's governor called for a scaled-down convention meant to limit the spread of the coronavirus. There have been more than 1.8 million coronavirus cases in the United States, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally. The U.S. death toll has surpassed 106,000 people, according to Hopkins. Nearly 26,000 nursing home residents have died from coronavirus, according to federal data released Monday. The Food and Drug Administration is expanding the kinds of companies that can make hand sanitizer while demand continues to outpace supply. NASA and Fitbit received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday for their ventilators designed to help Covid-19 patients. NASAs design, dubbed the VITAL (Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally), is a temporary piece of equipment that uses an internal compressor and is meant to last three to four months. Because the VITAL runs on parts that are not typically in the medical device supply chain it shouldnt have any impact on need for supplies for current ventilators. The FDA also added the Fitbit Flow to its list of authorized ventilators. The device, which has quietly been in the works for some time, is a continuous respiratory support system that also includes an FDA-approved manual resuscitator as part of the machine. The company calls it a a high-quality, easy-to-use, and low-cost automatic resuscitator that is designed for emergency ventilation. COVID-19 has challenged all of us to push the boundaries of innovation and creativity, and use everything at our disposal to more rapidly develop products that support patients and the healthcare systems caring for them, said Fitbit CEO James Park. We saw an opportunity to rally our expertise in advanced sensor development, manufacturing, and our global supply chain to address the critical and ongoing need for emergency ventilators and help make a difference in the fight against this global virus. GOP to pull RNC convention from North Carolina, Trump says President Donald Trump announced Tuesday night that he is seeking a new state to host this summers Republican National Convention after host North Carolina refused to guarantee the event could be held in Charlotte without restrictions because of ongoing concerns over the coronavirus. Trump announced the news via tweet, complaining the states governor, Democrat Roy Cooper, and other officials refuse to guarantee that we can have use of the Spectrum Arena and were not allowing us to occupy the arena as originally anticipated and promised. Because of @NC_Governor, we are now forced to seek another State to host the 2020 Republican National Convention, he wrote. Several other states have volunteered to host the convention instead. The announcement came after a Friday call in which Trump had spelled out his requirements for hosting the convention as planned in Charlotte. Trump told Cooper he wanted a traditional convention with a packed arena full of delegates and with no face coverings to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Stocks extend gains on Wall Street to a 3rd straight day Stocks closed broadly higher on Wall Street Tuesday, extending the market's winning streak to a third day. The latest gains, which followed a rally in global stocks, were driven by optimism that the global economy will begin to recover as governments gradually allow businesses that were closed due to the coronavirus outbreak to reopen. The S&P 500 closed 0.8% higher after spending much of the morning wavering. Technology, industrial and health care sector stocks accounted for a big slice of the gains. Energy stocks far outpaced the rest of the market as the price of crude oil rose again. Bond yields rose, another sign of ebbing pessimism among investors. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.1% to 25,742.65. The Nasdaq composite, which is heavily weighted with technology companies, increased 0.6% to 9,608.37. The index had been down 0.8% in the early going. NASA astronauts launched into space by SpaceX on Saturday rang the opening bell from the International Space Station early Tuesday to kick off trading on the Nasdaq. Stocks have now recouped most of their losses after the initial economic fallout from the coronavirus knocked the market into a staggering 34% skid in February and March. The S&P 500 is now down 9% from its all-time high in February. First human trial of potential antibody treatment begins Eli Lilly and Company said Monday it has started the first human trial of an antibody therapy designed to treat COVID-19. The first phase of the trial will test whether the therapy is safe and well-tolerated; those results are expected in late June. The first COVID-19 patients being treated with the therapy are hospitalized at New York University's Grossman School of Medicine in New York, Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles and Emory University in Atlanta, the company told CNN. If the trial ultimately shows the treatment is effective against COVID-19, it could be available by fall, according to the Indianapolis-based company. "Until now, scientists have been trying to repurpose medicines, drugs, that were designed for new diseases to see if they work in COVID-19, but as soon as this epidemic started, we got to work making a new medicine against this disease," said Dr. Dan Skovronsky, Eli Lilly's senior vice president and chief scientific officer. "Now we're ready and testing it in patients." The treatment was created in collaboration with AbCellera, a biotechnology company based in Canada. When someone recovers from a disease like COVID-19, their body produces millions of proteins called antibodies, which fight off the disease and help them recover. AbCellera acquired a blood sample from one of the first U.S. patients who had recovered from COVID-19, and the companies sorted through millions of this patient's cells to find hundreds of antibodies. Scientists at AbCellera and the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases selected those they thought would be most potent and Lilly scientists engineered the treatment, known as a monoclonal antibody therapy. This approach has worked to treat other illnesses; there are monoclonal antibody therapies that treat HIV, asthma, lupus, Ebola and some forms of cancer. It's not clear if such a therapy will work against COVID-19, but when this treatment was used on on cells in the lab, it blocked the ability of the virus to infect the cells, Skovronsky said. The data is not yet published, but based on those results, scientists got the green light to take the next step and prepare it to be tried in patients. They also gave it a temporary name. "We call it LY-CoV555, lucky triple 5," Skovronsky said. Manufacturing has already begun This will be a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind Phase I trial. Some patients will be receive the medicine and some will receive a placebo, and patients or their doctors won't be informed who received it and who didn't. If the treatment appears to be safe, the company would move to the next phase of testing in a matter of weeks. The second phase of the trial will involve a larger number of patients, including patients who are not hospitalized, and will test whether the therapy is effective. The company also plans to study the drug as prevention. The treatment could be used for vulnerable patient populations for whom vaccines might not be a great option, such as the elderly or people who have chronic disease or compromised immune systems. Eli Lilly has already begun manufacturing the antibody therapy in large quantities so it could be tested and potentially for use in patients beyond the trial. Under non-pandemic circumstances, the companies would usually wait to find out if it worked first before it started making it. "If it does work, we don't want to waste a single day, we want to have as much medicine as possible available to help as many people quickly," Skovronsky said. In trials over the next several months, Lilly says it will test different mixtures of a few of the other antibodies scientists think might provide protection. The optimal scenario, though, Skovronsky said, is if they only need one antibody at a relatively low dose. "The more antibodies are mixed together, higher doses, the more difficult it is to manufacture," Skovronsky said. "But if it has to be two antibodies, higher doses, or even three antibodies mixed together at higher doses, we'll do whatever it takes to make effective medicine for patients." Other antibody therapies in development Eli Lilly isn't the only company working on antibody treatments. Several U.S. teams have cloned antibodies to COVID-19 and many are close to testing in patients. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has said it hopes to start human trials this month and to have a treatment by the end of the summer. Typically, such treatments would take many years to develop, but COVID-19 treatments are on an accelerated schedule. Pharmaceutical companies have said that government approvals that normally take weeks have sometimes come within a day. A quarter of nursing homes report at least one infection, first official tally shows Nearly 26,000 nursing home residents have died from coronavirus, according to federal data released Monday. One quarter of nursing homes had at least one case, and one in five had at least one death, according to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The cases were more prevalent in poorly rated facilities, which typically have weaker infection controls and fewer staffers per resident. The report marks the first nationwide government tally showing the impact of the pandemic on nursing homes, which have been hit especially hard by the outbreak since the elderly are particularly vulnerable to the virus. Deaths in these facilities account for at least 25% of the total in the U.S. More than 60,000 nursing home residents have tested positive for the virus. The data, however, is not a complete picture, said Seema Verma, the agency's administrator. It covers only about 80% of nursing homes, and it doesn't include assisted living facilities. Also, CMS did not issue the requirement that nursing homes provide this information to the federal government until May 1, though Verma said that most facilities likely reported cases and deaths before that date, as well. More data will be available on the agency's Nursing Home Compare website starting on Thursday. W2lmcmFtZSBzcmM9Imh0dHBzOi8vZDJjbXZicTdzeHgzM2ouY2xvdWRmcm9udC5uZXQvZW1haWwvcHJvZF9jb3JvbmF2aXJ1c19pZnJhbWVfYXJ0aWNsZS5odG1sIiBoZWlnaHQ9IjQxNCIgc3R5bGU9IndpZHRoOjEwMCU7Ym9yZGVyOm5vbmU7b3ZlcmZsb3c6aGlkZGVuIiBzY3JvbGxpbmc9Im5vIiBmcmFtZWJvcmRlcj0iMCIgYWxsb3dUcmFuc3BhcmVuY3k9InRydWUiXVsvaWZyYW1lXQ== 2 June 2020 FORBES VENTURES ("Forbes" or the "Company") Notice of Annual General Meeting Forbes announces that Notice convening an annual general meeting of the Company, to be held at 9 a.m. on 25 June 2020 at The Lakehouse, Lakeside, Cheadle Royal Business Park, Cheadle SK8 3AX, was posted to shareholders in the Company on 1 June 2020. A copy of the Notice is available on the Company's website at www.forbesventures.co.uk. The Directors of Forbes accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement. ENDS For further information, please contact: Forbes Ventures Peter Moss, Chairman Rob Cooper, Chief Executive Officer 01625 568 767 020 3687 0498 AQSE Corporate Adviser Peterhouse Capital Limited Mark Anwyl and Allie Feuerlein 020 7469 0930 Important Information The Company is closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation, including UK Government guidance and will continue to do so in the lead up to the AGM. The health of our shareholders, employees and stakeholders remains extremely important to us and accordingly, the Board has taken into consideration the measures that have been recommended by the UK Government. Should these measures remain in place up to the AGM, shareholders, advisers and other guests will not be allowed to attend the AGM in person and anyone seeking to attend the meeting will be refused entry. As such, shareholders should note they are not entitled to attend the AGM in person unless notified otherwise via the Company's website at www.Forbesventures.co.uk. Shareholders are requested to therefore submit their votes, in respect of the business to be discussed, via proxy as early as possible. Shareholders should appoint the Chair of the meeting as their proxy. If a shareholder appoints someone else as their proxy, that proxy will not be able to attend the meeting in person or cast the shareholder's vote. The business at the AGM will be curtailed to the formal business section only, with no wider presentations on business performance or Questions and Answers. If any shareholder has a question they would like to pose to the Board, this should be submitted to the Chair via Peter.Moss@Forbesventures.co.uk. In the event that further disruption to the 2020 AGM becomes unavoidable, we will announce any changes to the meeting (such as timing or venue) as soon as practicably possible through the Company's website. Mayank Singh By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Ladakh LAC is ready for yet another exercise towards improving the tensed atmosphere with the Chinese Army and Indian Army scheduled to hold a high-level meeting on Tuesday. The Higher Commander Level Meeting (HCLM) between the two militaries is scheduled for Tuesday confirmed a source. This is going to be the third Higher Commander Level Meeting which is held between the Major General rank officers of the two sides. The meetings between the two militaries are held at three levels at the borders which includes the Local Commander or the Colonel level, Station Commander (Delegation Level) or the Brigadier Level and the Highest is the Major General Level called the HLCM. These are emergency meetings which happen when something emergent is required to be discussed as otherwise there are scheduled meetings on important days apart from the meetings at fixed intervals. ALSO READ | India-China border stand-off shifts to social media with video, photo leaks The officer added that it is a good sign as we are able to communicate our point of view. said the source but added that in the first meeting both sides had only put their points across and in the second meeting there was agreement on some pints but many were left without any decision. It was after the second HCLM meeting that heavy vehicles from both sides were moved back, as first reported by this paper. The Ladakh standoff, also as reported first by this paper, began on the intervening night of 5-6 May when the soldiers of the two countries clashed with each other at the location of Finger Five which falls on the Northern Flank of the Pangong Tso lake which straddles between India and China. ALSO READ | Sino-India border standoff: China says situation with India 'stable and controllable' A large number of soldiers from both sides were injured in the clash. On Friday India had moved more troops to match the deployments on the Chinese side. Sunday also saw an acrimonious battle of words on Social Media after the leaks of videos and photos of the two sides purportedly of the day of incident at Pangong Tso. The officers feel such leaks vitiate the atmosphere. But, Indian forces have been instructed to maintain peace but remain firm with the endeavor to find a solution through talks between the military and at the diplomatic level. Bexar County Commissioners Court decided Tuesday to spend $9 million in federal coronavirus funding to help suburban cities and $6.5 million on grants to assist small businesses hurt by the pandemic. After the traditional prayer and Pledge of Allegiance, County Judge Nelson Wolff began the commissioners meeting with a moment of silence in memory of George Floyd, describing the former Houston residents death in Minneapolis as a tragic case of police overreaction. Wolff noted the officer involved, Derek Chauvin, had 17 complaints that had been leveled against him but still was on the police force. Our Police Department and our sheriff here are much more sensitive to these things than anybody else is. We do not even allow police officers to do what he did to that person, putting his neck there, he said. Wolff, alluding to Saturdays protest downtown and vandalism and chaos that followed, referenced the violence around our community today, which is uncalled for, but said, peaceful demonstrations are expression of our sorrow, and they are the right place to be. On ExpressNews.com: County leaders mull possible works program for economic recovery Under county business, commissioners authorized Melissa Shannon, director of governmental affairs, to negotiate interlocal agreements with the 26 suburban cities in the county to fund protective gear for emergency workers, upgrades at public facilities and businesses and other expenses directly connected to the pandemic. Large purchases will be reviewed by the county auditors office to make sure they comply with federal guidelines. The aid to the suburbs, as well as the small business grants to be administered by the nonprofit LiftFund, come from $79.6 million in federal Coronavirus Relief Fund money that has been allocated to the county. The business grant program follows a first wave of support in the form of $5 million in interest-free loans and $250,000 in grants that used county funds. But there were complaints the first round was quickly absorbed by a disproportionate number of business owners on the North Side who were the first to apply. County officials said the next round of grants will be carefully and equitably distributed through LiftFund so each of the four county precincts will receive about $2.9 million in total support. To help with outreach to businesses, LiftFund will work with Southside First in Precinct 1; Westside Development Corp. in Precinct 2; North San Antonio Chamber in Precinct 3; and San Antonio for Growth on the Eastside in Precinct 4. In other business, David Marquez, the countys director of economic and community development, said he expects to finalize contracts this week with Workforce Solutions Alamo and SA Works as part of a $35 million program, in collaboration with a similar program being developed by the city. The jobs programs, also funded with the federal coronavirus relief dollars, target people who have lost income because of the pandemic and filed for unemployment. Outreach efforts to recruit trainees could begin next week, and some people may complete training and be in new jobs by July, Marquez said. Commissioners also approved $4.7 million in land purchases for a long-planned, 7.6-mile, two-lane extension of Texas 211 from Potranco Road to Culebra Road, in far western Bexar County, with about 90 percent to be reimbursed by the Texas Department of Transportation. That project, which had been in the planning for 20 years but has been delayed because of difficulty acquiring right-of-way and other reasons, is scheduled for completion in early 2022. The court also gave the final OK to a five-year, $25 million contract with Selrico Services to provide meals for inmates and deputies at Bexar County Jail. County leaders met for about 90 minutes in an executive session, to review a recent Texas Supreme Court ruling that a lack of immunity to the new coronavirus does not qualify a voter to apply for a mail-in ballot, and to discuss a proposed opioid settlement with the state. No action was taken after the executive session. Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff sent a memo to commissioners Monday, saying Bexar County would get $7 million, or about 15 percent of the opioid settlement. He doesn't believe the urban counties would receive an equitable share of the funds. On ExpressNews.com: County to spend $80 million in federal COVID-19 funds We will have virtually no say on the distribution of 70 percent of the funds, he wrote. Remember under state leadership urban counties only got 28 percent of the state share of the CARES funding when we had 68.9 percent of the COVID-19 cases. In view of the states attitude toward urban areas, I seriously doubt we will be treated fairly. In November, commissioners opted to switch strategies in the countys legal pursuit of financial compensation for damages caused by the opioid addiction crisis, withdrawing from a group of parties negotiating a settlement on federal litigation to concentrate instead on a lawsuit in state district court that involves only Bexar County. At the time, Wolff said he believed the county could win substantial damages by trying its own case in court. Bexar County, unlike the city, has faced the brunt of all this through our hospital district, through our programs of the Center for Health Care Services, so we feel weve got a unique case, Wolff said in November. Scott Huddleston covers Bexar County government and the Alamo for the San Antonio Express-News. To read more from Scott, become a subscriber. shuddleston@express-news.net | Twitter: @shuddlestonSA Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi wants to soon hold discussions with Vietnam on resuming travel between the two countries. During a 30-minute phone call to Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh on Monday, he hailed Vietnams success in handling the Covid-19 pandemic, and thanked its government and people for their support to Japans fight against the pandemic and for allowing Japanese experts to return to work in Vietnam, Vietnams Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Vietnam gifted face masks and other medical supplies worth $100,000 to Japan before sending another consignment of 140,000 antibacterial masks. Toshimitsu said Japan would continue to support Vietnam by providing medical equipment and supplies based on its needs. Minh too thanked Japan for supporting Vietnam in its fight against the pandemic, especially the support it has given Vietnamese students and interns living in Japan. On May 19, the Japanese Cabinet approved a program to provide up to 200,000 yen ($1,900) in a cash handout to each of around 430,000 university and other students in the nation struggling financially to pay for tuition or living costs amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Japan Times reported. Vietnamese students are also eligible for the program. The two sides agreed to speed up work on a proposal to establish an ASEAN center for emerging diseases and public health emergencies made by Japan's Prime Minister Abe Shinzo at the Special ASEAN Plus Three Summit in April. Japan has banned entry by foreigners but is considering allowing business travelers from Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Vietnam, who test negative for Covid-19 both while leaving their home country and arriving in Japan, Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported. Vietnam has not allowed entry for foreign nationals since March 22 except those with diplomatic and official passports and business managers, experts and high-skilled workers. All are quarantined for 14 days. It has gone 47 days without community transmission of the coronavirus. It has reported 328 Covid-19 cases so far, including 35 active cases, and no deaths. General Michael Flynn filed a petition for writ of mandate requesting that the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit order Judge Emmet Sullivan to dismiss Flynn's case, in the face of Sullivan's refusal to do so. On Monday, as the appellate court requested, both Judge Sullivan and the Department of Justice filed briefs defending their positions. Sullivan's was a disaster. The fact that Judge Sullivan even had to file a brief is unusual. In the ordinary situation, while a writ of mandate requests an order that a judge do or undo something, the "real party in interest" is the party who sides with the judge's original position. That party writes the brief. In this case, however, both parties are on the same side, and the judge stands opposite them. The appellate court, therefore, ordered the judge to file a brief defending his position, and it expressly added that he must do so in light of United States v. Fokker Servs. B.V. (D.C. Cir. 2016) 818 F.3d 733, the pre-eminent D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals case regarding motions to dismiss. Sullivan apparently felt he was not up to the task of explaining his own legal analysis, so he hired one of Washington's fixers: Beth Wilkinson. He should have saved his money. Wilkinson's brief (which you can read here) is a joke. Additionally, Wilkinson has abandoned any pretense that Sullivan is impartial. This is an attack brief against Flynn. The brief's main failing is that it pretends that, because the Fokker decision gives the trial court some discretion (as even the Department of Justice conceded), that means that under the "unique facts of this case," Sullivan has full discretion to review the request for dismissal. Wilkinson and her team are being dishonest. On the matter at issue here, Fokker is unambiguous: [T]he statute's "approval of the court" requirement did not empower the district court to disapprove the DPA based on the court's view that the prosecution had been too lenient. ... [D]ecisions to dismiss pending criminal charges no less than decisions to initiate charges and to identify which charges to bring lie squarely within the ken of prosecutorial discretion. (Fokker, at pp. 741, 742.) The reason that the prosecution must file a motion is so that the court can protect the defendant: Rather, the "principal object of the 'leave of court' requirement" has been understood to be a narrow one "to protect a defendant against prosecutorial harassment ... when the [g]overnment moves to dismiss an indictment over the defendant's objection." (Fokker, at p. 742.) Everything else in Sullivan's brief is irrelevant. He makes much of the fact that Flynn entered into a plea agreement, which required him to admit under oath that he was guilty. Sullivan's argument seems to be "he was lying then or he's lying now so I need to nail him to the mast." It's as if Judge Sullivan has never seen a plea agreement before. Plea agreements have long been abused. It's common for defendants facing the might of the federal government to lie about a lesser wrong to escape endless trials; personal bankruptcy; undeserved guilty verdicts; or, in Flynn's case, the government's threat to go after his son. Any agreement entered into under duress is invalid. That same duress also applied to Flynn's counsel. Under pressure from the prosecution, Flynn's attorneys immediately abandoned their fiduciary duty to him. When they should have demanded that the government produce exculpatory documents, they instead encouraged Flynn, who knew nothing about the legal maze in which he found himself, to cop to a guilty plea. Those are the obvious problems with the brief. Here are just two of many others: Sullivan argues that the petition for writ of mandate is premature because he hasn't yet ruled on the motion to dismiss. However, because a motion to dismiss should be rubber-stamped except to protect the defendant, the judge has no right to delay the ruling. This petition is, therefore, timely. As well as misleading the trial court about the Fokker case, Sullivan's attorneys also pretend Judge Sullivan can request third-party briefs because the civil rules of procedure say so. They must know that the criminal rules of procedure bar amicus briefs. Certainly, Sullivan knew that when he refused to allow such briefs during an earlier proceeding in the case. (For more fatal flaws in the brief, check out Undercover Huber's analysis.) The brief boils down to one argument: Judge Sullivan believes that Flynn's a bad guy, and Sullivan wants to keep the case alive (something he has no constitutional authority to do), presumably until Biden is elected and appoints a new attorney general. The lawyers who wrote this partisan nonsense should be embarrassed. 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The reality star, 24, who appeared on the 2019 series, and the other woman, flouted social distancing rules as they got close to each other's faces and shouted at one another outside the King Oak pub in High Beech, Epping Forest. Francesca, who is said to have got into the row over a man, can be seen waving her hands in the face of a woman standing in front of her, who in turn, is shrieking at her. Confrontation: Love Island's Francesca Allen was filmed embroiled in a street fight with another girl in High Beech, Epping Forest on Saturday Francesca aggressively points her fingers and shouts: 'You're not going to do anything, you're not going to. Why come over here then!' Meanwhile the other woman, who is sporting an-all beige outfit, grows increasingly angry and loses her temper. The woman, whose friend holds onto her hand in an apparent bid to quell the situation, then lunges forward and repeatedly yells at Francesca. Within a matter of seconds, Francesca bites back and shouts in her face with her fist clenched, in the shocking footage. Row: The reality star, 24, who appeared on the 2019 series, flouted social distancing rules as she and the other woman got close to each other's faces and shouted at one another outside the King Oak pub Heated: Francesca, who is said to have got into the row over a man, can be seen waving her hands in the face of a woman standing in front of her, who is shrieking at her Fury: Meanwhile the other woman, who is sporting an-all beige outfit, grows increasingly angry and loses her temper Escalating: The woman, whose friend holds onto her hand in an apparent bid to quell the situation, then lunges forward and repeatedly yells at Francesca Another bystander, who appears to be friends with them, barges forward and tries to act as a mediator. She struggles to contain her frustration and repeatedly says 'Woah'. Francesca puts her hand in the air to block the woman out. The pair then break away from the group and square up to each other as groups of stunned onlookers watch on. Seconds later, the screaming gets louder and a police officer is seen dragging Francesca's nemesis away. Spat: Another bystander, who appears to be friends with them, barges forward and tries to act as a mediator Anger: The pair are seen continuing to row in the vicious altercation No way: A close friend of Francesca's added to MailOnline: 'Fran was really shaken up by the whole experience, it was out of character for her' A witness to the row on Saturday said: 'They appeared to be fighting over some guy. 'He was on the side and basically telling them to calm down. It didn't seem right, like they were fighting over him. 'Francesca was trying to stay calm but when the girl got involved, that's when she lost it and went for her.' An Essex Police spokesman said: 'We were called at around 5.10pm on Saturday 30 May, with reports of a disturbance outside the King Oak pub in High Beech. 'We received information that a large group of people had gathered on green space outside the pub and reports of people fighting. 'We attended the scene and gave words of advice to people about congregating. What happened? The pair are filmed continuing to shout at one another before the row escalates Altercation: Seconds later, the screaming gets louder and a police officer is seen dragging Francesca's nemesis away Police presence: An Essex Police spokesman confirmed they had been called to the incident but no arrests were made or injuries reported 'They were understanding and left the vicinity without issue or the need for enforcement action.' No injuries were reported during the incident. A spokesperson for Francesca told MailOnline: 'Francesca was approached by two unknown females on Saturday afternoon who began verbally then physically abusing her. 'In self-defence, Francesca defended herself. The attack was witnessed by the police and Francesca was asked if she wanted to pursue the matter, to which she declined.' A close friend of Francesca's added to MailOnline: 'Fran was really shaken up by the whole experience, it was out of character for her. Intervention: Police arrived on the scene and the woman was taken away from Francesca 'She didn't know the girls and had no idea why they were trying to attack her, in the circumstances she felt she needed to defend herself.' The video comes days after fellow Love Island 2019 star Anna Vakili and her sister Mandi were filmed in a vicious park fight in London's Hyde Park on Bank Holiday Monday Anna claimed she was set upon by a group of people who 'threatened them with illegal weapons'. The Love Island star, 29, released a statement on Instagram the next day, insisting she was forced to act in 'self-defence' after a 'drug-using' teenager 'swung' at her cousin Asal - a claim her family have firmly denied. In a video shared on social media, the TV personality can be seen dragging a young woman by her hair across the concrete, before her sister Mandi, 28, kicks her in the head following a heated exchange. Rise to fame: Model Francesca shot to fame on the 2019 series of Love Island The pharmacist kicked off her post by referring to abuse she's been met with online, stating: 'Since coming out of Love Island it's become my normal for people to shout abuse at me in the streets and I have learned to turn a blind eye and remove myself from the situation.' Anna later said she, Mandi, her cousin and her boyfriend were approached by a group, who 'subjected them to continuous verbal abuse' and claimed they possessed a gun. The TV star added: 'Yesterday I was having a picnic in the park with my sister, boyfriend and cousin when we were subjected to continuous verbal abuse from a group who came near us who were doing drugs. 'Wanting to remove ourselves away from them we packed up to leave they came over swung at my cousin and threw her by her hair leaving her bleeding. Out of self defence we had to get them off of her and leave. Brawl: The video comes days after fellow Love Island 2019 star Anna Vakili and her sister Mandi were filmed in a vicious park fight in London's Hyde Park on Bank Holiday Monda 'There was a large group of them and not many of us. These are not 'innocent children' the guys with them kept shouting they have a gun, and they tried to steal my sisters phone. Claiming she's 'never had a physical fight ever', she added: 'The violent attack has been reported to the police.' 'If you watch the long video that's from far slowly. You will see they started attacking my cousin and swinging her on the floor by her hair. All these DMs and messages from people that weren't even there. 'Why would we randomly attack anyone ???? Use your brains. We were attacked verbally and physically first because they knew me. 'Everything we done was to protect ourselves and my cousin. Can't even enjoy a picnic in peace. Ive just had enough.' [sic] Attacked? The Love Island star released a statement on Instagram on Tuesday, insisting she was forced to act in 'self-defence' after 'threatened them with illegal weapons' A representative for Anna told MailOnline: 'Anna and Mandi Vakili and others in their group were involved in an unprovoked violent and verbal attack on Monday in Hyde Park which included Mandi and their cousin being hit and punched and the group of attackers attempting to steal their belongings. 'The very serious matter is now being dealt with the police as they were threatened with illegal weapons during the attack.' The family of the teenager have since spoken out on social media, insisting the fight kicked off when Asal told the fans to 'shut up' after they recognised the reality star from the ITV2 dating series. Her cousin Nisrine said: 'Basically my cousin and sister went to Hyde Park, not far away from them were Anna and Mandi, the group of girls. Vicious: Anna can be seen dragging a young woman by her hair, before her sister Mandi kicks her in the head 'They were just chilling or what not, my sister's friend saw her, approached and said Eid Mubarak. You as a famous person, people will approach you, so she kept calling Anna. 'The Asa girl told her to shut up, my sister's friend walked off. My sister and cousin stayed by themselves. The Asal girl approached my sister and told her to shut up. 'My sister was confused, she thought do I even know you? What have I done to you? She said I'm going to punch you up.' Urging their fans to 'be aware of the people you look up to', she added: 'Obviously when someone comes to your face, you're going to defend herself. Asal kept saying I'm going to F you up. 'Asal pushed her, then Anna and Mandi went rushing to my cousin and put her on the floor, Anna ripped her shirt open, Mandi kicked her. 'This could have been anyone's sister or cousin, we are not doing this for followers, people using them as a brand, what are you guys doing? These are the kind of influencers that you're shouting out. 'We just saw the message Anna posted, wallahi [I swear to God] she is the biggest liar. It was only my cousin and sister, there were no drugs, no guns, no nothing. She has the audacity to lie, we have the evidence. 'What drugs are you saying? If you want to talk about drugs, you do a drug test sunni. You got caught!' A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police told MailOnline: 'We are aware of an allegation of assault in Hyde Park, on Monday, May 25, at approximately 20:00. We will attempt to contact the complainant to establish the circumstances.' Militants did not use weapons of prohibited calibers Open source Since the beginning of the day in the Donbas, militants fired at the positions of the Ukrainian military twice without using weapons of prohibited calibers. The HQ of Joint Forces Operation (JFO) reports it. "June 1, the armed forces of the Russian Federation violated the ceasefire two times, while using grenade launchers of various systems and an unmanned aerial vehicle. Ukrainian soldiers in response used on-duty fire weapons and stopped hostile provocations," the report said. In the Donetsk area, militants fired at positions near Hnutove with grenade launchers of various systems. Subsequently, they used UAVs to drop VOG-17 shots. As a result of the hostile attack, one Ukrainian military was injured. As we reported before, pro-Kremlin mercenaries landed an attack on positions of Ukrainian troops in Hnutove, Donetsk region. The enemy used an unmanned aerial vehicle to drop a rocket-propelled grenade on Ukrainian emplacements. One Ukrainian serviceman was wounded in the explosion. He was sent to a hospital. 02.06.2020 LISTEN Mozambican government troops must protect civilians as they carry out operations against armed opposition groups in Cabo Delgado and ensure all necessary and reasonable measures are taken to prevent the crimes under international law or human rights violations that have marred past military raids in the northern province, Amnesty International said today. Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi announced that security forces may have killed the leaders of the main armed opposition group in Cabo Delgado. The group has terrorized communities in Cabo Delgado for three years, killing hundreds of people and causing hundreds of thousands of others to flee their homes. The people of Cabo Delgado have suffered horrific violence at the hands of armed opposition groups, which have gone on the rampage killing, beheading and dismembering their victims, looting and burning property. The main priority of the Mozambican authorities must be to bring all those suspected of criminal responsibility of these crimes to justice in fair trials before ordinary civilian courts, said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International's Director for East and Southern Africa. Security forces should not use these operations as a pretext to seek revenge for attacks on villagers, but rather to ensure that this group of fighters are held accountable for crimes under international law and human rights violations in Cabo Delgado. Mozambican security forces recently launched an operation to flush out armed opposition groups that have committed crimes under international law and human rights violations against civilians in Cabo Delgado province, in northern Mozambique. Background Killings of civilians by armed groups have been ongoing in Cabo Delgado since 2017. Members of a local opposition group have been carrying out coordinated and simultaneous attacks against civilians and government institutions, including police headquarters. Hundreds of people have been killed since 2017, while more than 150,000 have been affected by the violence, including having to flee their homes. COLUMBUS, OhioGov. Mike DeWine said he intends to work with state lawmakers to increase oversight over law-enforcement agencies in the state, including re-reviewing officers involved in deaths caused by police to see whether they should be fired. The governors comments, made during his Tuesday briefing, come as police have been deployed in cities around the state to respond to protests sparked by the death of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. DeWine, a Greene County Republican, proposed creating a centralized state-level board to regulate police, just as the state licenses teachers, nurses, and other professions. It should probably, I think, in my opinion, be treated as a profession which means that the ability to see if someone has done something if they should lose that license...is probably a way that we should look at this. The governor also said he wants to ensure that police officers who are fired from one department arent able to join another police department. Other proposals DeWine said he would present to state lawmakers include: Bolstering police training, particularly regarding overcoming implicit bias, de-escalation techniques, and working with those who have mental-health issues Recruiting more people of color to serve as law-enforcement officers Improving police transparency Creating a list of best practices for all police departments in the state to follow DeWine said he would unveil more details about these proposals on Thursday. The governor said the vast majority of police officers are doing a great job. But, he added, you get one bad apple in there and it ruins it for society. And you can see horrible, horrible tragedies. And I know its something that police officers detest. DeWine laid out these proposals after speaking generally about the need to fight racism and inequality of opportunity in Ohio. "While there are no simple solutions, all of us, I think, have an obligation to be a positive voice in advancing change for all those who are marginalized, he said. And we have an obligation to create equality and health, education, and economic opportunity for all our citizens. Its unclear how the Ohio House and Senate, both of which are controlled by Republicans, will receive DeWines proposals. This isnt the first time DeWine has sought to impose new rules on law enforcement in response to civil unrest over a police-involved death. In 2014, after police killed black Ohioans Tamir Rice in Cleveland and John Crawford III near Dayton, DeWine then the states attorney general successfully pushed for tougher police-training requirements. The Cleveland police officer who shot the 12-year-old Rice, Timothy Loehmann, was fired. Sean Williams, the officer who killed Crawford, returned to full duty in 2017 and remained on the force as of last year. Read more cleveland.com protest stories: Ohio National Guard sent to Washington for protest response Sen. Sherrod Brown denounces President Trumps handling of protests, Sen. Rob Portman calls for a national commission on race Protests, coronavirus divert state troopers from Ohio highways Amid protests, Ohio changes whos teaching the states police training courses Downtown Cleveland business owners reckon with gut punch of damage caused during George Floyd-inspired riots Maldonado-Passage argued that Baskin was trying to destroy his business with an online smear campaign in videos she posted to her YouTube page and social media channels. Meanwhile, Baskin argued that Exotic was abusing his animals and crusaded against his use of tigers for profit. He was convicted last year in a murder for hire plot against Baskin and is serving a 22 year sentence for the hit attempt and other crimes that include animal abuse. Court documents allege he tried to pay a hit man $3,000 to kill Baskin and also that he shot and killed five tigers, sold baby lemurs and falsified paperwork to say they were donated. Over the past several months, a hacker group stole millions of dollars from Washington state's unemployment system using fraudulent claims. It attempted similar fraud scams in Florida, Wyoming, Rhode Island, North Carolina, Massachusetts and Oklahoma, among others.The apparent culprit is a Nigerian hacking team dubbed "Scattered Canary," a group that has been involved in similar criminal activities for the better part of 10 years, according to cybersecurity firm Agari, which published a report on Canary last year.Using information "likely stolen in past consumer data breaches," the group successfully bilked Washington state out of millions of dollars, according to the Seattle Times . The state has since recovered as much as $300 million in stolen funds, but it is unclear how much was taken in total.Over the last several weeks, Agari has been working alongside law enforcement to share information on the threat group and its methods, said Crane Hassold, Agari's senior director of threat research."This is essentially a perfect storm for these groups [to take advantage of]," said Hassold. "You have billions and billions of dollars that is being handed out by the federal government [for emergency purposes], and you have states that need to pay out legitimate claims very quickly. Usually, there is a validation period and a waiting period for most unemployment claims, but because of the current circumstances of COVID-19, these claims need to be paid out immediately."It wasn't until relatively recently that "Canary" began targeting governments, said Hassold, explaining that the threat actor has grown in size and hacking proficiency over a fairly short period of time.Jumping from a single person when it was founded in the early 2000s to more than 30 people as of last year, "the group started out doing super basic, individual targeted scams a lot of Craigslist scams is where groups like this cut their teeth," he said. These attacks evolved into more sophisticated fraud schemes aimed at corporations, said Hassold. Until recently, most of Canary's money was made through business email compromise attacks aimed at companies across the globe.Once "Canary" began targeting governments, however, it quickly diversified its attack portfolio. In addition to unemployment schemes, Agari has observed them engaged in a diverse array of other scams, including student aid fraud, tax return fraud and disaster relief scams.At this point, the group is one of the larger, more prolific groups of its kind."They are certainly one of the larger groups that my team tracks," said Hassold. "They also are more diversified in terms of the attacks they're involved in ... Scattered Canary is involved in pretty much every kind of scam you could possibly think of," he said. "This is a job this is what they do for a living. They commonly run half a dozen or a dozen different scams concurrently. They're making money many, many different ways." Square Peg Ventures partner Paul Bassat has taken aim at Facebook, saying the social media giant's failure to pay significant tax in Australia underscores the need for more home grown technology startups. "Facebook employs about 15,000 people in the Bay Area and it employs 130 people in Australia and generates, despite what it says publicly, about $2.5 billion to $3 billion of revenue in Australia with 130 employees and pays virtually no tax," he said. A spokesperson for Facebook disputed Mr Bassat's claim and said the social media giant proactively engaged with the Australian Tax Office to ensure transparency in its taxes. Square Peg Capital partner Paul Bassat said Australia needed to produce global winners. Credit:Wayne Taylor "We take our tax obligations seriously and pay what we owe in every market we operate," the spokesperson said. "In the last financial years, we paid income taxes in Australia at effective tax rates well-above 30 per cent, in accordance with Australian law." Russia's President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump shake hands during a bilateral meeting at the G20 leaders summit in Osaka MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump told President Vladimir Putin in a phone call on Monday about his idea of holding an expanded Group of Seven summit later this year with a possible invitation for Russia, the Kremlin and the White House said. Trump said on Saturday he would postpone a G7 summit he had hoped to host next month until September or later and expand the list of invitees to include Australia, Russia, South Korea and India. A White House statement on the call said Trump and Putin discussed "progress toward convening the G7." Britain and Canada have since spoken out against the idea of readmitting Russia to a forum it was expelled from in 2014 after annexing the Crimea region from Ukraine. Russia had said earlier on Monday that it was looking for more details before responding. The two leaders also discussed the OPEC+ deal on oil output cuts, and measures to fight the coronavirus, the Kremlin said. Putin thanked Trump for a delivery of U.S. ventilators, the Kremlin said, and congratulated Trump on the first spaceflight of NASA astronauts from U.S. soil in nine years. Trump and Putin also discussed "the need for effective arms control," the White House said. (Reporting by Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber and Alexander Marrow; and Steve Holland in Washington; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Catherine Evans and Alistair Bell) While Haftar is on the defensive near Tripoli, heralding a possible shift in ultimate outcomes, fractious relations seem to characterise all political forces in Libya Libyan National Army (LNA) forces have withdrawn from their forward positions on the southern outskirts of Tripoli, retreating primarily to Al-Jufra Airbase in central Libya. LNA General Command Lieutenant General Ahmed Al-Mismari described this as a strategic withdrawal and added that it was part of a redeployment operation. His statement, released 19 May, came a day after the LNA lost the strategic Watiya Airbase in western Libya to militias fighting for the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) which have been bolstered by Turkish military support on the basis of a controversial military cooperation agreement signed between the GNA and Ankara on 27 November 2019. With the loss of Watiya, the LNA only now holds the Tripoli International Airport to the east of the capital and Qasr Bin Ghashir and Tarhouna to the south and southeast. The latter, a major LNA stronghold, has been under heavy siege by Turkish-backed GNA forces. As the fighting continues, regional and international parties have stepped up their pressures on the warring parties to conclude a ceasefire and resume the negotiating process that ground to a halt following the resignation of former UN envoy for Libya Ghassan Salame and the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. On 23 April, the Spokesman for the Tobruk-based House of Representatives Aguila Salah, announced a political initiative to end the crisis and encourage peace-making efforts. Soon afterwards, however, LNA Commander Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar repudiated the Libyan Political Agreement signed in Skhirat on 17 December 2015, claimed a popular mandate to rule and announced plans to form a new governing body. Whereas Salehs initiative was welcomed by world powers, Haftars announcements triggered concerned reactions not only from the UN, the US and Europe but also from Russia, all opposed to unilateral actions of this sort. In all events, his plans have apparently floundered on the shoals of opposition among his main allies in the east. Haftar and Aguila Saleh have increasingly diverged in their views over a range of political issues and perspectives on how to handle forthcoming developments, especially in light of the failure of Haftars military operation to gain control over Tripoli. Haftars implicit opposition to Salehs political initiative was one of the clearest manifestations of growing tensions in the eastern camp. However, tensions have also been increasing in the west, particularly between the Chairman of the Presidency Council Fayez Al-Sarraj, and members of the GNA and the heads of financial and economic organisations over the types of economic and fiscal policies that should be adopted to address the economic straits resulting from the closure of oil facilities and the coronavirus pandemic. On 28 May, Al-Sarraj dismissed GNA Minister of Economy and Industry Ali Al-Issawi, who had served in that post since July 2018, and charged current Finance Minister Faraj Boumatari with managing the affairs of that ministry. The dismissal of Al-Issawi, who had served as Libyas ambassador to India before the February 2011 uprising, followed a fallout between the two over the economic reform programme, Al-Issawis reluctance to issue a commercial licence to the LTT (Libyan Telephone and Telecommunications) Company headed by Faisal Qurqab, and appointments to the Libyan Investment Authority. Qurqab has recently served in a number of crisis management committees created by the Presidency Council to address issues related to displaced persons and the fight against Covid-19. He was Al-Sarrajs nomination to succeed Ali Mahmoud as the chairman of the board of directors of the Libyan Investment Authority when Mahmouds term ends this summer. Al-Sarraj has also fallen into dispute with the governor of the Tripoli-based Libyan Central Bank (LCB), Al-Siddiq Al-Kabeer, over foreign currency sales taxes which Al-Kabeer wants to raise from 163 to over 200 per cent. The tax has become one of the main sources for funding the budget due to the instability of oil production and export. Al-Sarraj opposes the measure. He is also annoyed by the LCBs blockage of documentary credits, delays in the payments of civil servant salaries and the ongoing dispute over international auditing of the LCB accounts. Al-Kabeers opposition to international auditing of LCB accounts is supported by Khaled Shakshak, chairman of the Libyan Board of Auditors, who holds that the process that is being undertaken under the supervision of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) is illegal. He also argues that it is pointless because the question is about to be brought to court, which he maintains will rule to invalidate the process, which falls under the jurisdiction of national auditing authorities. The discord within both camps of the Libyan crisis may delay or obstruct plans to resume the three tracks of the Berlin Process, despite UNSMILs repeated appeals for a ceasefire and the resumption of the meetings of the 5+5 military committee. This committee, which is one of the outputs of the Berlin Process and consists of senior officers from the LNA and GNA, has not met since the resignation of Salame in March. Tensions are rising at the international level as well since US Africa Command claimed, last week, that Russia has deployed 14 fighter jets to Libya and that this reflected Russias long-term goal to establish a foothold in the region that could threaten NATO allies. According to Brigadier General Gregory Hadfield, deputy director for intelligence, the fleet of MIG-29 fighter jets and SU-24 bombers passed through Iran and Syria before landing at Libyas Al-Jufra Airbase. AFRICOM released aerial photos of the aircraft at Al-Jufra which, it claims, had been painted in order to disguise their identity. Then, to heighten US-Russian tension further, on 29 March, the US State Department announced that Malta had seized $1.1 billion of Libyan currency which it described as counterfeit because it had been printed in Russia and was destined to an illegitimate parallel entity. The US State Department regards this as further proof of Russian intervention in Libya. Russia has urged Malta to release the shipment of the minted currency so that it can reach its destination, the Benghazi-based Central Bank in Libya. Malta Today reported that the British government advised officials in Valletta to burn the money while Washington urged them to keep hold of it because it was proof of Russian support for Haftar and the LNA. Russia counters that the Joint Stock Company Goznak, a Russian state-owned company, has been minting the money for the Benghazi-based Central Bank in accordance with an agreement that dates to 2015 and that was approved by the Libyan House of Representatives at the time. *A version of this article appears in print in the 4 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: African refugees living in Minneapolis were already struggling with their "American dream" when George Floyd died in police custody. Now their dream is in tatters and they have joined their African American "brothers" in the streets to protest racism in their adopted homeland. "I came here for freedom. My country was at war," said Tiha Jibi, who arrived from South Sudan at age 15. "I end up having two boys, 10 and six, who are afraid because we are not white," she said, full of rage. Leaving her family and her country was hard, as was the journey to get to the United States, but she was determined to pursue her own American dream of peace, equality and democracy. Now, she realizes, "it's all a lie. Now we have to face that reality." That's why she has been marching to protest the death at the hands of a white police officer of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man whose killing has sparked nationwide protests and clashes with police. "I came here as a refugee but not as a white refugee," she said. "My permanent home is the US and my permanent color is black. I have to protest." The state of Minnesota, where Minneapolis is located, has the highest percentage of refugees per inhabitant in the whole country, with two percent of the US population but 13 percent of its refugees, according to the most recent census. Among them are a large number of people from the Horn of Africa -- Ethiopians and Somalis -- whose presence in the marches was noticeable because of the colorful robes worn by the women. 'Dehumanized' A Somali American mother and her child stand during a protest in Minneapolis against the death of George Floyd -- Minnesota has the highest percentage of refugees per inhabitant in the US, and many are from the Horn of Africa. By kerem yucel (AFP/File) Deka Jama, a 24-year-old woman who came to the United States from Somalia in 2007, showed up with friends, all of them veiled, to protest the discrimination that met them in their new homeland. "We thought that everyone would be equal, that we would not be judged by religion, by color, by our dresses. That's not how we were welcomed," she told AFP. She feels a close affinity to African Americans, many of them descended from slaves and who have been Americans for generations. There is "something connects us," she said. "We are all dehumanized, regardless of our cultural differences. We have to be here for them." Minnesota's Somali community has a source of pride, though, in Ilhan Omar, a 37-year-old born in Mogadishu who was elected to Congress in 2018. But she too has been the target of racial abuse, death threats and slander. Last summer, President Donald Trump said that she and three other women of color in Congress should "go back" to their countries of origin. For the past week, Omar has often been asked to comment on the situation. She has not held back from telling people that, beyond acts of police violence, Americans have to address the core issue of inequality in the country. Poverty "So many people know a social and economic neglect," Omar said on Sunday. According to Minnesota Compass, a website that tracks the state's demographics, families from Africa are particularly hard hit. In 2016, 12 percent of the population of Minnesota was living under the poverty line, but that number rose to 31 percent among the Ethiopian community and 55 percent among Somalis. That has meant that for many refugees, an important facet of the American dream -- social mobility -- has broken down over time. And the riots that have followed some protests have not helped their plight, since some of the looted businesses were immigrant-owned. "I am very disappointed, very disappointed," Ahmed, a 42-year-old who arrived from Ethiopia a decade ago, said as he took in the blackened ruins of a burned building. President Donald Trump told Representative Ilhan Omar, pictured, and three other women of color in Congress that they should "go back" to their countries of origin. By Stephen Maturen (GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File) For him and many others, the major concern is for their children. One Ethiopian woman, who asked not to be named, said she has four sons and worries that, when they grow up, they too could be subjected to the type of police brutality that took the life of George Floyd. "This could happen to our children," she said, encouraging protesters marching below on a highway. You have to support this movement, she said, "to stop racism, for the future." Xtalks Life Science Webinars Recent research on how large data sets can be used to enhance the description of the individual and to create personalized virtual control groups to strengthen the interpretation of clinical study data will be presented. Body composition profiling in clinical trials can large scale body composition data enhance the understanding of your study participants? The heterogeneity of disorders such as diabetes type II, coronary heart disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, neuromuscular disorders and obesity is a major problem when evaluating new treatments. A successful treatment for one patient might not be as effective in another. The current paradigms for selecting patients for treatment usually results in a broad spectrum of patient phenotypes, complicating the investigation of treatment efficacy. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is regarded as the gold standard for soft-tissue imaging (such as muscles, organs and fat). Lately, large population imaging studies, like the UK Biobank, have enabled the creation of standardized, large-scale reference data sets, allowing for the development of personalized body composition assessment. Body composition profiling is an emerging concept, using large data resources, enabling the investigation of the interplay between different body tissues and compartments and the definition of novel body composition phenotypes. This webinar begins with a short introduction to MRI-based body composition profiling and will thereafter review recent research on the development of novel body composition phenotypes applied in various metabolic and wasting disorders such as sarcopenia. Multiple adipose tissue compartments and their different associations to metabolic disorders will be discussed while highlighting the importance of understanding skewness in body fat distribution. Recent research on how large data sets can be used to enhance the description of the individual and to create personalized virtual control groups to strengthen the interpretation of clinical study data will be presented. Join Jennifer Linge, MSc, Lead Scientist, Personalized Medicine, AMRA Medical in a live webinar on Thursday, June 18, 2020 at 11am EDT (4pm GMT/UK). For more information or to register for this event, visit Dont Judge a Body by Its Cover Body Composition Profiling in Clinical Trials. ABOUT XTALKS Xtalks, powered by Honeycomb Worldwide Inc., is a leading provider of educational webinars to the global life science, food and medical device community. Every year thousands of industry practitioners (from life science, food and medical device companies, private & academic research institutions, healthcare centers, etc.) turn to Xtalks for access to quality content. Xtalks helps Life Science professionals stay current with industry developments, trends and regulations. Xtalks webinars also provide perspectives on key issues from top industry thought leaders and service providers. To learn more about Xtalks visit http://xtalks.com For information about hosting a webinar visit http://xtalks.com/why-host-a-webinar/ The trial of pastor Daniel Obinim, founder of the International Gods Way Church (IGWC), has been adjourned to July 20, 2020 by a Kaneshie Magistrate Court in Accra. This was after the prosecution had asked the court to give them time to conclude their investigations into the matter yesterday. Obinim has been charged with publication of false news, as well as forgery of a document contrary to Sections 208 and 159 of the Criminal and other Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29). New Lawyer However, Obinim, who claims to be an angel of God and has been frequenting heaven, came to court with a new set of lawyers as his usual lawyer, Ralph Poku Adusei, has been replaced. He was there with a team of four lawyers led by Dela Blagogee of Blagogee, Blacksword and Co (Unlimited) law firm who introduced himself as the new counsel in the case. The court, however, asked the other three lawyers to wait outside as a result of the Chief Justices directive that only one lawyer is allowed per a case as part of measures to curtail the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) through the courtrooms. Obinim was in African wear (gold top and down) and a black snicker, with white shoes to match. He was whisked away in a black Toyota Land Cruiser V8 immediately after the brief proceedings like a minister of state. Prosecution Request The prosecution led by ASP Sylvester Asare told the court yesterday that they were far advanced with their investigations into the matter and prayed the court to adjourn the case to give them more time to put final touches to the work done so far. He said the prosecution had agreed with the defence team to return on June 29, 2020, but the court presided over by Magistrate Rosemond Agyiri said the accused was already on bail and asked the parties to decide on a different date by which time the prosecution would be ready. The court and the parties then agreed to return on July 20, 2020. Obinim Troubles Obinim was in police custody for about three nights after being arrested and charged and has since been able to extricate the bail bond. Last Thursday, as part of the bail conditions set by the Kaneshie Magistrate Court, Obinim reported to the Police Headquarters. He spent a couple of hours with the police CID before leaving the premises after 1pm. Arrest & Detention Obinim was granted bail by the Kaneshie Magistrate Court in Accra last week in the sum of GH100,000 with three sureties, one to be justified, but was not able to extricate the bail bond on time and had to remain in cells until Friday, May 22, when he finally walked home. According to the Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, who has launched a crusade to expose fake pastors and claims Obinim is one of them, Obinim has since been cooling off in Akosombo since he left police cells. Main Complainant Although the police have not released the identity of the complainant, DAILY GUIDE understands that it was through the effort of the firebrand MP that led to Obinims arrest. Kennedy Agyapong has confirmed that he personally reported the pastor to the Inspector General of Police for offences including fraud, money laundering and misuse of the police logo to harass some of the boys he has been having criminal deals with. As if that is not enough, the MP who has been having running battles with the maverick pastor, has reported him (Obinim) to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) for the anti-graft body to investigate him over alleged money-laundering and other related crimes. GRA Push Already, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) is chasing Obinim to pay about GH1.6 million in taxes to the state. On May 13, 2020, an Accra High Court presided by Justice Doreen G. Boakye-Agyei dismissed Obinims application that was challenging the GRAs decision to ask him to settle a tax liability of GH1,591,797.50. According to the court, the GRA followed due process in determining and notifying Obinim about his tax liabilities and that Obinim had not followed laid-down procedures to make his objections to be given a hearing as required by law. He cannot use his failure as a ground to seek judicial review. This instant case is not a proper and appropriate case for the court to exercise its powers of judicial review, Justice Boakye-Agyei stated. Sources close to Obinim are saying that he intends to instruct his lawyers to challenge the decision because as far as he is concerned he paid his taxes to the state. Previous Cases Obinim is no stranger to criminal prosecution, as he has had brushes with the law on at least two occasions. In the first case, he vandalized a private radio station Hot FM but was acquitted and discharged in October 2015 after the complainants had allegedly lost interest in the case. In September 2018, Obinim and two of his pastors were sentenced to a total fine of GH12,000 by an Accra Circuit Court after they had been accused of assaulting two teenagers on the premises of IGWC. Source: daily guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video India will continue to face high unemployment rates in the wake of the pandemic if the economy is not in revival mode soon, industrialists warned on Tuesday. At the CII virtual conclave, they said the next normal wont be business as usual. Covid-19 poses an existential threat if more people fall below the poverty line, and this could lead to a demographic nightmare. Ajay Piramal, chairman, Piramal Group, underlined the migrant labourer crisis. There will be new ways of doing business and probably 20-30% of these people will not be employed, he said. How do we ensure that those sectors that they work in, whether it is construction or at home, are revived? While companies can survive the crisis, many people may not, he warned. If we dont address growth, there will be social issuesif people do not have food. I am worried what would happen if after living a certain standard, people fall below the poverty level, he said. Coronavirus outbreak: Full coverage To revive growth, demand must be stimulated. The PMs concept of self-reliant India is a great initiative. Just like we had a full blast on Swachh Bharat, we need the same for this initiative. We need to create demand first in India and then serve the global markets, he said. We need investments in technology and innovation so that we can make world-class products at the least cost. Piramal advocated speed over perfection when it comes to policy implementation. There is a difference in what policies are articulated and when the ground implementation takes place. What is important is that all the concerned people work together, whether it is the political masters in Delhi and states, the bureaucracy, the regulatory bodies. We need to have an urgency in implementation of the policies. You dont have to be perfect, he said, adding that what would take a year in normal times to implement ought to be done in less than a month. A man who was able to meet his mother thanks to the help of actor Sonu Sood, shared a video of himself conducting a puja in his honour. The actor replied to the man and asked for the blessings of his mother. In a tweet, the man shared a video of himself worshipping Sonu, and wrote, The one who helps another meet his mother is a god. Sonu Sood, I believe youre no less than a god. You helped me meet my mother and made my dream a reality. Sonu in his reply wrote, Dont do this, brother. Instead ask you mother to bless me. https://t.co/raG8yQND3K sonu sood (@SonuSood) June 2, 2020 Sonus tweet has been liked over 16000 times. The actor has received widespread praise for his efforts in helping migrant workers reach their home states during the nationwide coronavirus lockdown. On Monday, the actor personally saw off over 1000 migrants travelling to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. In a statement, as per the Indian Express, the actor said, The trains with the migrants left today from Thane to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. We have arranged meal kits and sanitisers for all our travellers. I thank the Maharashtra Government for their support. I am making sure to do everything in my capacity to help our migrants. I have pledged to not stop until the last migrant reaches home. Also read: Sonu Sood has the best solution as woman complains she cant stay with husband anymore, asks for help Another migrant, whom Sonu helped travel to his village, wrote to the actor inviting him to his home. Sonu replied, I shall come visit once your brothers and sisters are back home as well. https://t.co/xbBqLd2QNC sonu sood (@SonuSood) June 2, 2020 Besides earnest messages such as these, the actor has also been receiving humorous requests on social media. While one person asked to be taken away from her husband, another asked Sonu for his help in getting to a liquor shop. Follow @htshowbiz for more Troops deployments to the U.S. Central Command region will soon extend to yearlong, unaccompanied tours as the Defense Department continues to review how personnel are postured around the world, the Pentagon announced on Tuesday. Over the next two years, troops will see their tours in eight countries extend to 12 months: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Iraq. Troops families won't be allowed to accompany them on those tours, according to a memo announcing the change. Military families are currently allowed to accompany their service members to Bahrain and Qatar. "Families in the two countries are authorized to serve out the remainder of their tours," the memo states. Read Next: Active-Duty Troops Not Welcome in DC, Mayor Says Defense Secretary Mark Esper ordered a review of all the combatant commands' force postures after the 2018 National Defense Strategy was released. The review is meant to ensure each command has the right mix of personnel and resources as missions change to counter near-peer adversaries. The changes to CENTCOM tours won't affect the number of forces who deploy to the region, officials said in a statement. The number of dependents in the region will be reduced gradually. "DoD military personnel currently assigned to the region will finish out their accompanied tours and cycle out gradually over the course of two years," the statement adds. "Those who have orders to prepare to move up to 30 days from today will be allowed to [make a permanent change of station] to their accompanied tour, though all accompanied tours must be complete by August 31, 2022." The changes are not connected to the coronavirus pandemic, officials added. Two other combatant commands, U.S. Africa and Southern commands, have already completed the review process Esper ordered. The reviews for all the combatant commands are expected to be completed by September. Service members and their families have been told the changes to the CENTCOM deployments will be indefinite. "Families should anticipate that this tour change will be permanent," the policy states. -- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @ginaaharkins. Related: Pentagon Officials Tight-Lipped About Where Stop-Movement Orders Will Be Lifted Workers at two Taiwanese companies in Vietnam's Binh Duong province went on strike between May 26 and June 1, 2020. At least four people were detained and one other injured as thousands of workers in Vietnams Binh Duong province went on strike last week over their companys plan to lay them off due to a downturn in business from the coronavirus pandemic. The five-day strike began May 26 and ended Saturday, as workers from the Taiwanese-owned Chi Hung Company Ltd., a producer of shoes for Adidas, were told that the company could only support them through June. The company, in Tan Uyen town, had been operating as normal even when Vietnam began social distancing, but the lack of new orders is forcing the companys owners to reduce its workforce. The company plans to close its doors starting Monday, while still paying its workers through the end of the month. More than 10,000 workers joined the demonstration at the companys headquarters. Strikers told RFA that four workers were arrested by police, while a pregnant worker fainted after a stun gun was used on her. RFA spoke to authorities and several workers during the course of the labor action. Lt. Col. Tan Phu, head of the towns police department, confirmed to RFAs Vietnamese Service that the police were working on the issue, but abruptly hung up the phone when the reporter identified his association with Radio Free Asia. A striking worker who requested anonymity to speak freely told RFA the reasons behind the strike, saying, During COVID-19, other companies announced that if there were no orders, the workers would be allowed to stay home and each worker could receive support of 170,000 dong [U.S. $7.28]. But Chi Hung is only supporting us through June, even though they think well have to stay home in July and August, because processing contracts are said to have been canceled, the worker said. So now, we can only stay at home and were not receiving any announcements about when we can return to work at the company, and its hard to find another job, the worker added. The worker also said that the company has a trade union, but representatives of the union did not explain anything about worker protections during the epidemic. Several relevant agencies are cooperating to moderate the strike, according to Nguyen Dinh Khanh, the vice chairman of the provinces labor union. Right now the head of the provincial labor union, the Labor Department and the Tan Uyen Peoples Committee are joining together to solve this issue with Chi Hung, said Nguyen. That company has a trade union so the relevant agencies will be working together to resolve this issue, he said. The company issued an announcement to the workers at the end of the workday on Thursday, saying, The company is presently working under normal conditions, hoping that workers do not worry and continue to join in on production. Those reporting to work must scan their employee badge and confirm their names on the attendance list to be paid salary, the announcement said. Amid the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis, the company will do its best to acquire orders in the hopes of maintaining employment for all workers and staff, it added. The announcement was signed and stamped by the companys general director, Liu Yu Feng, and trade union chairman Nguyen Thi Ngoc Ha. On Saturday, a Chi Hung Company representative told state media that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it planned to temporarily suspend labor contracts with some of its employees in July and August. However, as the company has not yet announced in detail its circumstances and support policies, there was confusion and misunderstandings among the workers, which caused the strike. At present, the companys production remains stable and management will announce support policies for workers on June 20 at the latest, the representative said. Following this announcement, the strike ended and workers returned to work. Chi Hung Co. Ltd was founded in August 2000 and employs over 10 thousand workers. Another strike in same province Meanwhile on Monday, Vietnams state media reported that 100 workers at a different Taiwanese-owned company in the same province began their unrelated strike, over the company failing to pay severance after laying them off. Workers for the G.R.A. Company said they want to get refunds for the payments they made into an unemployment insurance fund, and they demanded severance and other related payments in compensation for layoffs. A representative of police at the My Phuoc Industrial Park police station confirmed to state media that G.R.A.s management explained in an announcement to laborers that the company would solve all issues with benefits for the workers, but they did not agree, resulting in the strike. Most of the demonstrators joining the strike on Monday were previously laid off by G.R.A. according to Dang Tan Dat from the Binh Duong labor union. They returned to the company Monday demanding unemployment insurance payments and severance, Dang said. The labor union is working with the company to find a solution, he said. Binh Duong province, considered the gateway to Ho Chi Minh City is home to many industrial parks and industrial clusters that manufacture goods for global companies. Foreign investors from 64 countries and territories set up shop in Binh Duong, with 304 projects totaling U.S. $5.7 billion, Vietnams ministry of planning and investment reported in October 2019. Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Huy Le. Written in English by Eugene Whong Julia Krahe Crosby Marketing Communications has brought on Julia Krahe as a senior vice president in its Washington, D.C., office. Krahe joins Crosby from Edelman, where she was also a senior vice president, leading teams to create awareness campaigns, outreach programs and digital destinations for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Department of Energy and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. She previously served as communications director for Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Congressman David Wu, and the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor. At Crosby, Krahe will lead integrated marketing teams to develop national campaigns for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and other prominent federal agencies and nonprofit organizations. Michael Altneu Murphy OBrien has hired Michael Altneu as vice president of real estate. Altneu comes to the firm from creative and branding agency DBOX, where he was West Coast director and senior associate. He was previously director of sales and marketing at Oceanside Plaza in Los Angeles, one of the largest mixed-use developments on the West Coast. Before that, he was senior vice president of marketing at Douglas Elliman. At Murphy OBrien, Altneu will lead communications strategy for the agencys roster of real estate clients, overseeing public relations and social media marketing campaigns for high-profile luxury residential developments, Class A and B multifamily projects, mixed-use projects and residential resort properties. Clare Peck Health Unlimited has promoted Clare Peck to managing director. Peck has been with the agency since 2009, most recently serving as head of medical education. In her new post, she will oversee operations, advance business performance and provide strategic leadership for the agency. She also joins the board of the Communications Division, one of four divisions within parent company, Unlimited Group, with Health Unlimited sitting alongside sister agencies Nelson Bostock Unlimited and Fever Unlimited. She will report to Communications Division CEO Nick Clark. The Rev. Royce Thompson, with New Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, told the crowd two realities exist right now: "The first reality is that racism is very real," he said. "The hatred toward African Americans is very real. ... Our people are being murdered mercilessly, that they're being murdered with no regard for human life." Thompson said people are hurt, angry and confused and cannot ignore Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland or anyone else who has died by the hands of police. "All of this, our people are looking for explanations for, but there's another reality," Thompson said. "The other reality is that God is very real, and that in the midst of all of that, He understands, and He knows exactly what is going on. And what we must be clear on is that he says, that vengeance is his." He then led the group in prayer, before heading over to City Hall. Gary Mayor Jerome Prince said members of the city's administration recognize everyone has a voice. Canadian Cement Association and producers call on President to up infrastructure spending 02 June 2020 Canada's cement companies and the Cement Association of Canada (CAC) have written to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as well as federal ministers to plead for federal government to prioritise construction and strategic infrastructure spending. The letter signed by executives from St Marys Cement, Lafarge Canada, CRH Canada Group, Lehigh Hanson Materials Canada, McInnis Cement and CAC contains a seven point declaration, as follows: put the construction sector at the core of the COVID-19 Economic Recovery Plan prioritise large-scale infrastructure projects de-risk provincial and municipal projects by ensuring federal dollars are first into projects boost investment in municipal State of Good Repair (SOGR) projects optimise existing infrastructure programs that already have approved projects and funding. accelerate the transfer of historic levels of funding under the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Plan invest in climate action and the continued decarbonisation of energy-intensive industries such as cement. "We have a very short construction season in Canada and municipalities have lost much of their financial capacity to fund important infrastructure projects this year. We need the federal government to help municipalities get local community infrastructure projects going to boost economic activity and public confidence, " said Michael McSweeney, president and CEO of CAC. "The cement and concrete industry is responsible for the employment of over 158,000 Canadians and annual economic activity in excess of CAD76bn (US$56.1M)," McSweeney said. "Our products are local and are produced in virtually every community across the country. We are in a great position to give Canadas economy an economic boost and help carry on the good work of building a more resilient country," he added. Published under KANSAS CITY, Mo. - In an effort to meet protesters halfway, and cut down on rampant graffiti around the Country Club Plaza area, the KC Parks and Recreation department installed "expression walls" Monday along Mill Creek Park. "This is a very hard time for everybody right now, so we're just trying to make it something [...] The provincial government is forging ahead with the Ontario Line amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, but the procurement of Premier Doug Fords signature transit project will be more complicated than previously thought, and its completion likely delayed. The Star has learned that on Tuesday the provincial government plans to announce the first two public-private partnership requests for qualifications (RFQs) for the Ontario Line. The 15.5-kilometre, $11-billion rail project would connect Exhibition Place to the Ontario Science Centre via downtown and forms the centrepiece of Fords $28.5-billion transit plans. In a draft press release obtained by the Star, Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney says the RFQs signal the province is one step closer to realizing our transit vision and helping to generate economic activity and create tens of thousands of jobs as the province recovers from COVID-19. Under the leadership of Premier Ford, our government is taking historic steps to expand subway service and reduce traffic congestion across the GTA, Mulroney is quoted as saying. The Ministry of Transportation release makes no mention of the projects previously announced target completion date of 2027, which from the outset experts had described as unrealistic. A senior government source with knowledge of the project said although the province is doing everything it can to advance the Ontario Line, including performing necessary geotechnical and utility survey work this spring, market conditions coupled with the COVID-19 crisis may push the project back. The target date for the Ontario Line has always been reflective of what market participation was bidding back to the province, the source said. Id be lying to you if I said (the 2027 completion date) wasnt challenged. In an unexpected development, the release shows the province plans to break up procurement for the Ontario Line into at least four separate stages. According to a fact sheet accompanying the release, one RFQ announced Tuesday will be a 30-year contract to design, supply, operate and maintain the vehicles, track, communications, and train control systems for the entire line, which provincial transit agency Metrolinx has said would be driverless. As part of a framework deal Toronto city council struck with the province last October over the proposed upload of the subway system, the TTC is to be responsible for day-to-day operations of new lines built by the province. Its not clear how a request for qualifications that would put at least some Ontario Line operations out to tender fits that agreement, but the senior government source said operations of the line will absolutely remain with the TTC. A source with the Ministry of Transportation said the extent of operational duties carried out by TTC on the Ontario Line could include forward-facing customer personnel like station managers and transit security, as well as network transit control. The second RFQ set to be announced Tuesday will be for designing, building, and financing the southern portion of the Ontario Line, from Exhibition Place to the Don Yard west of the Don River, including seven stations and a six-kilometre tunnel. The third RFQ will be for the northern portion of the line, from Gerrard to the Ontario Science Centre, including seven stations, a three-kilometre tunnel, and associated bridges and elevated guideways. Although the province doesnt plan to release the RFQ for this stage until early 2022, the contract would end at the same time as the earlier two phases, allowing the Ontario Line to open as one, according to the fact sheet. Segments of the Ontario Line that run through GO corridors will be procured separately. Preliminary designs for the project show a portion running through the Lakeshore East GO corridor, from a point west of the Don River to Gerrard. The province expects the work in GO corridors to begin before the other three packages. The complex, multi-phase approach is a departure from the one previously discussed by Metrolinx. The agencys initial business case for the project contemplated a P3 bid to design, build, finance, and maintain the line, but made no mention of multiple contracts. The senior government source said the province decided to break up the contract to make it attractive enough to the private sector to ensure a competitive bid that would provide good value to taxpayers. In the past year, potential bidders from some sectors had expressed concerns about having to team up with vehicle providers to vie for projects, as well as the significant the financial risk government was asking them to take on for large transit builds. The COVID-19 pandemic has also dealt a financial blow to major construction industry players based in Europe, making it more difficult for the province to assemble a competitive bid. The market place was very different when the province announced the Ontario Line in April 2019, the source said. Since that time Metrolinx has been actively working on the project. As of last week the agency was operating 15 geotechnical rigs in the field to analyze ground conditions along the route, and the agency is nearing completion of noise and vibration studies for the project. Once complete, the Ontario Line is expected to carry 389,000 people every day, and take pressure off the TTCs Line 1 (Yonge-University-Spadina) subway. Ben Spurr is a Toronto-based reporter covering transportation for the Star. Reach him by email at bspurr@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @BenSpurr Read more about: The decision to use Alessa is an affirmation of our commitment to employ the best available compliance technology that prevents money laundering or the financing of terrorist activities. CaseWare RCM, a provider of financial crime detection and prevention solutions, has announced that Pangea Money Transfer has selected Alessa with Microsoft Azure for its transaction monitoring and regulatory reporting capabilities. Pangea Money Transfer is an award-winning mobile-centric money transfer platform that allows on-the-go users to send money from the U.S. to 15 countries across Latin America and Asia in less than 30 seconds. Receivers can collect the cash at thousands of retail locations or have it directly deposited into any bank account or onto a debit card. Pangea Money Transfer is committed to maintaining an effective compliance program that meets or exceeds its regulatory obligations, said Pangea CEO Nishu Thukral. The decision to use Alessa is an affirmation of our commitment to employ the best available compliance technology that prevents money laundering or the financing of terrorist activities. Pangea Money Transfer was looking for a solution that offered transaction monitoring and the ability to submit regulatory reports to FinCEN (Bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury) and CNBV (Secretaria de Hacienda y Credito Publico, Mexico), added Andrew Simpson, Chief Operating Officer at CaseWare RCM. Since Alessa offers real-time transaction monitoring and regulatory reporting capabilities, it is the ideal solution for MSBs or fintechs looking to offer money transfer capabilities while maintaining an effective AML/CFT compliance program. Alessa is trusted by banks, MSBs and fintechs to meet their anti-money laundering and other regulatory and compliance needs. Alessa is consistently chosen because it is a versatile and modular solution that easily integrates with existing infrastructure and scales with organizations as their size and needs grow. To learn more about how Alessa can strengthen your AML compliance program, visit caseware.com/alessa About CaseWare RCM Inc. CaseWare RCM Inc. is the maker of Alessa, a financial crime detection, prevention and management solution. With deployments in more than 20 countries in banking, insurance, fintech, gaming, manufacturing, retail and more, Alessa is the only platform organizations need to identify high-risk activities and stay ahead of compliance. To learn more about how Alessa can help your organization ensure compliance, detect complex fraud schemes, and prevent waste, abuse and misuse, visit us at caseware.com/alessa/. On Sunday night, demonstrators gathered at the park, in downtown Birmingham, to protest the death last week of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white police officer in Minneapolis pressed his left knee into Mr. Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes. Protests have since spread across the country, and the officer, Derek Chauvin, has since been fired and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. In Linn Park on Sunday, the demonstration turned violent. Some of the protesters targeted the statues 52-foot-tall sandstone obelisk, spray-painting and chipping at its base. They also tried to topple it using a rope and a truck, according to news media reports. On Monday, Mr. Woodfin vowed to take it down. He said its very presence would cause more unrest and division and would pose continued threats to public safety, outweighing any legal implications. In order to prevent more civil unrest, it is very imperative that we remove this statue, Mr. Woodfin told AL.com, the website for The Birmingham News. I understand the A.G.s office can bring a civil suit against the city, and if theres a judgment rendered from a judge then we should be held accountable, and I am willing to accept that because that is a lower cost than civil unrest in our city. 'Its military - trained by French and US troops - has proven a relatively capable fighting force.' Stock photo More than 100 men are missing and dozens feared dead after soldiers in Niger allegedly went on a rampage to avenge a spate of jihadist attacks. Documents allege that Niger's security forces took part in a series of massacres, extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances over the past few months in the western Tillaberi region. In total, the documents allege that at least 150 people are dead or missing. If proven, the allegations mark a turning point in the battle for the Sahel region raging south of the Sahara. Niger is a key Western ally in the fight against jihadism in Africa and has, up to now, refrained from major human rights abuses. According to a document compiled by local residents and human rights activists, at least 52 people were killed or died after being tortured by members of the security forces in Tillaberi, a region that borders Burkina Faso and Mali, from January 28 to April 12. It claims some people died from torture or beatings, while others were shot and then crushed by military vehicles. The bodies of some of those killed were left by the side of the road, while others were buried in mass graves. The 52 deaths allegedly occurred around villages in the Banibangou, Ayarou, Torodi and Inates rural communes. A second document is a five-page handwritten list of another 102 names of men from villages in Inates. The text, stamped by a local mayor, says the men were arrested by security forces and taken away from March 27 to April 2. The news follows allegations from the United Nations' peacekeeping mission in Mali last month that soldiers from Niger had crossed into Mali and killed at least 34 people in several villages from February 23 to March 5. Tillaberi residents have been reluctant to talk about the disappearances. However, one source in Ayorou alleged the military had come looking for individuals and threatened to kill people who did not help them. One international human rights researcher, who is investigating the alleged abuses and asked to remain anonymous, said people were frightened to speak out because they thought the army would accuse them of supporting jihadists and punish them. All the people who have been taken away are "almost certainly dead", the researcher claimed. Khardiata Lo N'Diaye, the United Nations' humanitarian co-ordinator for Niger, said the situation was being taken "very seriously". The governments of Mali and Burkina Faso are under pressure from daily attacks by a myriad of armed groups, some aligned to al-Qa'ida and Isil. In the past year, thousands were killed and almost one million forced to flee their homes. Despite sharing porous borders with both countries, Niger had managed to avoid the worst of the violence until recently. Its military - trained by French and US troops - has proven a relatively capable fighting force. The country also receives hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and development money from the EU, France, the US and the UK. ( The Daily Telegraph, London) Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021] The music industry will stage a blackout day today in support of protests around the alleged murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. Organized by music executives Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang, the aim is to pause or shutter normal business activities for 24 hours. It is a day to take a beat for an honest, reflective and productive conversation about what actions we need to collectively take to support the Black community, according to a website tagged #TheShowMustBePaused. Technology companies are participating in different ways. Spotify said it will place a black logo and headline image on its flagship playlists and podcasts, while adding eight minutes and 46 seconds of silence to participating playlists and podcasts the length of time officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd's neck. Apple Music is also participating, saying it cancelled its regular Beats 1 radio schedule and steering users toward a streaming station that celebrates the best in Black Music. It will also host a playlist designed to unite users, with regular intermissions explaining the protests and movement. Deezer and Tidal Music also tweeted support. On Tuesday, June 2nd, Apple Music will observe Black Out Tuesday. We will use this day to reflect and plan actions to support Black artists, Black creators, and Black communities. #TheShowMustBePaused #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/xkvn31DpYc Apple Music (@AppleMusic) June 2, 2020 Meanwhile, event organizer Live Nation will close its offices today, while ViacomCBS channnels MTV, VH1 and Comedy Central will go dark, the company said. Def Jam Recordings, Interscope, Sony Music and others will also participate. Artists expressing support include Lady Gaga, the Rolling Stones, Quincy Jones and Billie Eilish. Story continues However, some have criticized the day, saying its unfocused and doesnt address the protests and Black Lives Matter movement directly. Don Giovanni Records owner Joe Steinhard told Rolling Stone that the movement is misguided and that labels should be supporting existing initiatives like Black Lives Matter. Others noted that the industry is sacrificing little for the blackout day, while Tony! Toni! Tones Raphael Saadiq said record labels should pay artists more. Its also unclear what level of action the labels are taking. While Columbia records said that today is not a day off but rather a way to reflect, Warner Music CEO Steve Cooper wrote that everyone can take a day out from their jobs. Some labels, including Capitol records, promised to make donations to black rights organizations, but havent provided specific calls to action for employees. On their website, however, Thomas and Agyemang did address the industrys inequality. [It is] an industry that has profited predominantly from black art, the site states. It is the obligation of these entities to protect and empower the black communities... in ways that are measurable and transparent. This is not just a 24 hour initiative. We are and will be in this fight for the long haul. A plan of action will be announced. New Delhi: Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday expressed concern that "74 per cent students" in government schools in Delhi are "not able to read" and asked teachers to take up the challenge to teach those children. "I was surprised to know that 74 per cent students in government schools are not able to read their own textbooks and that is where the challenge lies for our teachers. We have to teach our kids reading then to gain knowledge and then to earn a living and we have accepted this challenge". Sisodia during an event organised to felicitate teachers on Teachers' Day has said that "The situation outside the boundaries of schools is very different. People today are fighting over caste Hindus and Muslims are fighting. we have to prepare our students to rise above this so that when they pass out of schools they do not indulge in such acts. Sisodia added saying "We are preparing the best of doctors and engineers but not the best human beings. Students from big institutes do not dare to do anything new and they do not move out of the comfort zones. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter to extend wishes to the teaching community of the country. "Happy teachers day. Salute to those lakhs of teachers across the country who are toiling hard to make our children good citizens. Teachers from various government and private schools across the national capital were felicitated in the glittering ceremony organised by the Delhi government attended by Bollywood celebrities including Piyush Mishra, Zeeshaan Ayub and Swara Bhaskar. Earlier in the day the teachers took a pledge to work on the basics of the students and inculcate best skills in them to not only succeed in life but also be good human beings. They also took up the challenge of enabling every student to read flawlessly within 70 days. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. ANZ today announced it has agreed to sell its asset finance business in New Zealand, UDC Finance, for NZ$762 million to Shinsei Bank Limited (Shinsei Bank). The sale follows a strategic review of UDC Finance previously announced by ANZ Bank New Zealand, and is in line with ANZs strategy to simplify its business. The purchase price represents a price-to-book ratio of 1.2x net tangible assets of NZ$637 million as at 31 March 2020. The sale provides ~AUD$439 million1 (~10bps) of Level 2 Group CET1 capital at settlement. The sale will also release more than NZ$2 billion of funding provided by ANZ New Zealand, further strengthening its balance sheet position. ANZ Bank New Zealand CEO Antonia Watson said the purchase of UDC Finance by Shinsei Bank is a significant vote of confidence in the New Zealand economy. With a strong outlook for infrastructure and agriculture projects as the New Zealand economy rebuilds post-Covid-19, there is a significant role for UDC Finance to play. As such, it needs an owner that can invest in and grow the business. Shinsei Bank Group is a diversified financial group with both banking and non-banking business divisions. Shinsei Bank Group operates both asset financing and vehicle and consumer lending businesses similar to those of UDC within Japan and offshore. Shinsei Bank intends to preserve UDCs operations, retain UDC employees and provide long term capital to maintain and grow customer lending in New Zealand. The sale will also mean UDC Finance will continue to operate as an independent finance company and enhance competition in the asset finance market, Ms Watson said. Shinsei Bank CEO Hideyuki Kudo said: I am very excited that UDC will become a part of the Shinsei Bank Group, in line with our non-organic growth strategy in this business area. In the Covid-19 New Normal, we are confident that UDC, as part of Shinsei Bank Group, will continue to grow and contribute to the development of the New Zealand economy and help people and businesses in New Zealand with their financial needs. Based on UDCs long successful history, solid business base and efficient sales structure, UDC will be a major asset for the Shinsei Bank Group, Mr Kudo said. The UDC sale is subject to regulatory approval and completion is expected in the second half of the 2020 calendar year. Source: ANZ Limited Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. 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Related News: ArborGen Holdings Limited (NZX: ARB) Updates Market on FY22 Guidance My Food Bag Group Limited (NZX: MFB) Q3 FY22 Trading Update ikeGPS Group Limited (NZX: IKE) signs $0.9m deal with tier-1 electric utility Tower Limited (NZX: TWR) Update on Tonga Volcanic Eruption and Tsunami Event 21st January 2022 Morning Report Trade Window Holdings Limited (NZX: TWL) TradeWindow and Mastercard teams up Genesis Energy Limited (NZX: GNE) FY22 Q2 Performance Report Seeka Limited (NZX: SEK) Seeka announces dividend of 13 cents per share 20th January 2022 Morning Report Z Energy Limited (NZX: ZEL) Q3FY33 Operating Data Fort Bend Memorial Planning Center on Tuesday announced details regarding a memorial service and celebration of life honoring George Floyd. On Monday, June 8, a public memorial will be held from 12 to 6 p.m. at The Fountain of Praise Church at 13950 Hillcroft Ave. Happening Tuesday: Trae Tha Truth, Bun B to join Floyd family march to City Hall A private service at an undisclosed location is slotted for the following day, June 9, at 11 a.m., after a June 4 memorial in Minneapolis, where Floyd died in police custody last week, and a June 6 memorial service in North Carolina, where he was born. All expenses for the funeral services are being handled by former professional boxer Floyd Mayweather, according to the release. Due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic, organizers are requesting that guests practice social distancing, and wear a mask and gloves. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man whose death in Minneapolis police custody last week was captured in a video, grew up in the Third Ward and graduated from Yates High School in 1993. Floyd died after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes as he pleaded for air. The incident has sparked outrage and protests across the globe. Derek Chauvin, the officer, was fired and faces charges of third-degree murder and manslaughter. The family is accepting floral arrangements, which should be sent to Fort Bend Memorial Planning Center at 15006 Hwy 6, Rosharon, 77583. By Mei Shixiong After the COVID-19 outbreak, the Chinese military has taken an active part in international disaster relief and humanitarian aid, demonstrating the responsibilities of the military of a major country, said Lieutenant General He Lei, a deputy to the 13th National Peoples Congress and chief expert at the PLA Academy of Military Sciences, during an interview on June 1. On May 28, Gen. Joseph Aoun, commander-in-chief of the Lebanese Armed Forces, expressed gratitude to China after the PLA donated a batch of anti-epidemic supplies to the Lebanese military. Previously the Central Military Commission (CMC) of China already organized our military medical experts to share via video conferences epidemic control experience with their counterparts in Russia, Pakistan, South Africa, Ukraine, and other countries, and dispatched military anti-virus experts to countries, including Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and Pakistan. The CMC has also provided anti-epidemic materials and aid to the militaries of relevant countries either by air force planes or in other ways, making contributions to the global fight against the pandemic. According to Lt. Gen. He Lei, effectively coping with non-traditional security threats and carrying out military operations other than war (MOOTWs) like international humanitarian aid has become an important new function of the militaries of all countries in peacetime. It has been more common in recent years for other countries to dispatch troops to participate in humanitarian aid to a country struck by major disasters. Such aid is not only urgently needed by the disaster-hit country, but also becomes a defining feature of international aid programs. The aid from foreign militaries can make up for the shortage of relief and rescue resources in the host country, make the relief work efficient to the largest extent, and enhance the solidarity and cooperation between the countries and militaries concerned, said He Lei. In recent years, the Chinese military has actively participated in international disaster relief and humanitarian aid. It has dispatched professional relief forces to provide aid and disaster mitigation in the afflicted countries, provided relief materials, and medical assistance, and intensified international exchanges in that area, fully demonstrating the responsibilities of the military of a major country. The PLA has organized or engaged in a host of disaster relief actions since 2012, including the search and rescue of Malaysia Airlines missing plane MH370, helping the Philippines during Typhoon Haiyan, fighting Ebola in West Africa, reaching for Mal Dives during the South Asian countrys Drinking Water Crisis and earthquake relief in Nepal, and aiding Laos during its flood and dam break. These assistance programs have been widely applauded by the host countries and the international community. As Chinas first institutionalized ocean-going hospital ship, the Peace Ark hospital ship of the PLA Navy has, since commissioned, performed Harmonious Missions overseas nine times, sailing more than 240,000 sea miles and serving about 230,000 people in 43 countries and regions. The ship has been a strong booster to the nations overall political and diplomatic situation by winning high affirmations worldwide. Going forward, Lt. Gen. He pointed out that the PLA will continue to earnestly fulfill its due duties and missions within the UN framework and take an active part in international disaster relief and humanitarian aid, endeavoring to make its contributions to safeguarding regional and world peace and building the community with a shared future for mankind. While the militarys engagement in international humanitarian aid has become a universally acknowledged practice, its legal status isnt well-defined, and the corresponding laws and regulations are not well developed, which has impeded the implementation of such aid programs. In recent years, China has formulated more than 70 laws and regulations in this regard, including the Law of the People's Republic of China on Protecting Against and Mitigating Earthquake Disasters, Ordinances of Natural Disaster Relief, and the Regulation on the Army's Participation for Disaster Rescue. They entrust the military with the duties and tasks to help handle various emergencies and lay down the rules and legal basis for it to cope with natural disasters, public health events, significant accidents, and social security events. To bring into better play the militarys important role in international humanitarian aid, Lt. Gen. He suggested that UN and other international organizations, along with certain countries, should work out a series of legal regulations or documents to affirm such actions taken by military troops. When these humanitarian actions are incorporated into the legal framework and regulation and given legal force, the militaries of countries around the world will have complete and authoritative legal support and code to conduct them. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 2) More than a catalogue of momentous global events like the coronavirus pandemic, history is made up of even the seemingly simplest life narratives of individuals. A team of creatives from across the world has highlighted this in a digital exhibit that collates stories of life amid COVID-19. The idea for the project, entitled All We Have, was one birthed during the coronavirus lockdown also a time for self-reflection, said filmmaker and one of the projects creators Julia Alcamo. It (the lockdown) left us with time and space to reflect, she told CNN Philippines The Final Word on Tuesday. And we asked ourselves a question: How will we look back on this time? How will we look back on all we have lost and gained? Co-creator Minh Pham, a former United Nations diplomat, said that in gathering photographs as well as conducting interviews, they also hope to bring people together from around the world and highlight the good even in difficult times. To be alive is a treat, to be alive is precious, and we should not take this for granted, he said. Alcamo noted that the project allows for conversations and offers people a platform to share their personal reflections, fears, and even the small life pleasures they are able to see in spite, and perhaps because, of the pandemic. It's really shown us and we hope that it shows our visitors as well that we all, as individuals, have beautiful stories to tell, she said. The idea is that we understand that we share these stories. They are not bordered. This theme doesn't end with the borders of your country, or your culture, or your religion, or your age. It crosses those borders, she added. It was like pulling teeth, but dental offices will be allowed to reopen in New York after all. There was some confusion because dentists believed they would be included in the second phase of the state's reopening process. When the state shut down non-essential businesses due to the coronavirus pandemic, dentist offices were limited to emergency care. Five regions, including central New York, entered phase 2 on Friday. But when the state issued guidance for which businesses could open, dentists weren't included. That changed on Sunday. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced dental practices could reopen Monday "as long as they follow health and safety guidelines that the state is laying out and that we have been discussing with them." The guidelines, a 12-page document posted on the governor's website, requires dentist offices to modify or restrict access to waiting rooms, remove "frequently touched objects," such as magazines and pens, reduce on-site workforce to necessary staff, require patients and visitors to wear face coverings except when receiving dental care and a 15-minute buffer after a dental visit before cleaning a dental operatory. The state is also requiring screening of patients and staff before entering dental offices, according to the guidelines. And the offices must maintain a log of dentists, hygienists, other providers and visitors who had contact in the facilities. Dentists in Auburn say they are ready to reopen for more patients after being limited to emergency procedures over the last two months. Dr. Jeff Graceffo, an Auburn dentist who operates a practice with Dr. Thomas Hogan, said their office will take precautionary measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Graceffo shared that they will have a "parking lot waiting room," which means that patients will be asked to wait inside their vehicles before their appointments. Patients will be asked to call the office when they arrive and once the staff is ready, the patient will receive a return call asking them to come to the door. Patients will have their temperatures taken at the entrance and then escorted to the operatory, where they will be asked screening questions to determine if they have been exposed to COVID-19. For staff, Graceffo said they will wear N95 masks instead of surgical masks while providing dental care. Other Auburn dental offices are seeking to add to their supplies of personal protective equipment. April Miles, the chief operating officer for East Hill Medical Center, said they are purchasing more equipment to prepare for a phased reopening of the offices. They will open for pediatric cleanings, dentures, extractions and night guards. Patients will be contacted this week. "The team is eager, we all want to jump in but we want to be calculated in our effort because we want to make sure we are the safest we can be for them and for the safety of our patients," Miles said. Dr. Michael Brady, an oral surgeon in Auburn and a member of Auburn Community Hospital's board of directors, believes dentistry was one of the hardest-industries by the COVID-19 pandemic. Because offices had to limit services, many suffered financial losses. At Brady's office, employees were furloughed. There was uncertainty for dental offices because they weren't included in a phase, Brady added. But now that they can reopen, albeit with stringent rules, Brady hopes patients won't shy away from dental care due to COVID-19 fears. "This is going to be a whole different world ... The dental office is the business you can go to feel the most protected." Graceffo is eager to return to a more normal workload. He emphasized the safety guidelines they must follow and the importance of having patients receive regular care. Before the pandemic, Graceffo said there were treatment plans developed that may have required urgent, not emergent, care. But during the height of the COVID-19 outbreak, patients who had to delay care began experiencing pain or had infections. "Getting them back into a preventive schedule will allow us to prevent these emergent situations, which is the whole goal of dentistry," he said. Politics reporter Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding. Concerned about COVID-19? Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. President Donald Trump ordered a phalanx of riot police, some of them on horseback, to forcefully disperse a crowd of peaceful protesters (video) yesterday with flash grenades and tear gas. The president then walked from the White House to St. Johns Episcopal Church for a brief photo op where he brandished a bible. Religious leaders from around the world and lawmakers from both major parties condemned the action, noting that Trumps message seemed diametrically opposed to that of Jesus. Trump had previously threatened protesters with vicious dogs and ominous weapons. The presidents statements echoed similar statements aimed at protesters at his rallies during the 2016 election, which included: Id like to punch him in the face, Knock the crap out of him I will pay your legal bills, and (In) the old days theyd be taken out on stretchers. Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Diocese of Washington said, The president just used a Bible as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus. He sanctioned the use of tear gas by police officers in riot gear to clear the church yard. We need moral leadership, and hes done everything to divide us. Michael Curry, the presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, released a statement that read in part: This evening, the President used a church building and the Holy Bible for partisan political purposes. This was done in a time of deep hurt and pain in our country, and his action did nothing to help us or to heal us. A small minority of Christian leaders saw the incident differently. Televangelist Kenneth Copeland compared King Trumps walk to Jesuss triumphal entry into Jerusalem, noting minor differences, such as, Instead of the people laying their clothes and palm branches in the roadway, the authorities threw flash grenades and tear gas. Wed add that while Jesus rode an ass, Trump is one. Image from freebibleimages.org Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ivany Atina Arbi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 2, 2020 11:04 598 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb76c3c 1 World George-Floyd,Racism,united-states,Violent-protest,midwest,Indonesian Free The Indonesian Consulate General in Chicago has said that about 1,900 Indonesian nationals living in several states affected by the George Floyd protests in the American Midwest are safe. The protests, which erupted last Tuesday, have spread across the United States. The consulate general further reported that, to maintain security, at least 25 cities had imposed curfews and National Guard personnel been activated in at least 16 states as of Monday. "Indonesians living in protest-affected states are in good and safe condition," the consulate general said in a statement on Monday, adding that it was maintaining communication with the Indonesian citizens to ensure their safety. "Those who need help can contact our 24-hour hotline at +1(312)347-9114," it added. Read also: US anti-racism protests stretch to distant New Zealand Of the Indonesian nationals residing in the Midwest, 864 were in Chicago, 334 in Detroit, 272 in Minneapolis-St. Paul, 277 in Columbus, 81 in Cincinnati, 68 in Cleveland, 31 in Toledo, 27 in Dayton and 36 in Des Moines. Sympathy protests over the death of Floyd, the black man who was unarmed when he was killed at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, were held across the nation shortly after the fatality. Initially peaceful rallies eventually developed into nights of unrest with reports of shootings, looting and vandalism in several cities. Reuters reported that Hennepin County prosecutors had charged Derek Chauvin, the officer who killed Floyd, with murder, yet the arrest did not succeed in lowering tensions. Protesters have been demanding systemic changes, crying support for the Black Lives Matter movement in response to decades of killings of African-Americans by the police. The independent autopsy of George Floyd commissioned by his family and conducted by a team including renowned pathologist Dr. Michael Baden conflicts with the results of the official Hennepin County medical examiner. The Star-Tribune reports: Two autopsy results one requested by George Floyd's family and the other from Hennepin County agree that his death is a homicide but disagree over exactly what killed him. During a news conference Monday afternoon, two doctors hired by the Floyd family to do a private autopsy said they believe he died of asphyxia, which happens when oxygen flow is cut off, causing the brain and other organs to stop working. "We believe truth will help lead to justice and so, despite how painful these autopsy findings are, especially for George Floyd's family, we think it is essential that the truth comes out about the manner and the exact manner and science as to how George Floyd was killed," Benjamin Crump, an attorney for the Floyd family, told reporters. Hours later, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office issued its final public report, stating that Floyd died as a result of "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression." A spokesperson for the office, citing Minnesota laws, said they could not discuss that cause of death further. The report noted that Floyd "experienced a cardiopulmonary arrest while being restrained by law enforcement officer(s)." It also listed "arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease," as well as fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use as "other significant conditions." Although both autopsies agree that homicide was the cause of death, the conflict injects the possibility of "reasonable doubt" being used by defense counsel in the eventual trial of Derek Chauvin. As with the jurors who will eventually sit in judgment, I lack the scientific and medical background to understand the basis for the conflicting autopsies. Prosecution now has been taken away from county attorney Mike Freeman and handed to state attorney general Keith Ellison, a former Louis Farrakhan/Black Muslim activist and current fan of Antifa. Should Ellison's team botch the prosecution, the riots that followed the acquittal of Los Angeles cops for the beating of Rodney King, captured on bystanders' video like Floyd' s death, would be like a day at the beach. Via Twitter. The inflammatory 8-minute-and-45-second video of Chauvin placing his knee on Floyd's neck as Floyd pleads for his life and calls out for his mother is heartrending, and it has led ignorant people to call for the death penalty, heedless of the fact that Minnesota abolished it over a century ago. But the conclusion of both autopsies that homicide was the cause of death may lead to escalation to first- or second-degree murder. While a lust for vengeance may lead to escalation of the charges facing Chauvin, over-charging a defendant can lead to acquittal, so that is a danger in this instance as well. Nobody wants Chauvin to escape responsibility for his atrocious behavior, his abuse of the trust that gave him a badge and the right to use force, but the scientific, technical, and legal details matter. With Keith Ellison (formerly known as Keith X. Ellison) in charge, my level of confidence in justice being done is low. Grace Lee is a mother of three and community activist running for State Assembly to bring new leadership to Lower Manhattan. Click here to learn more. Please VOTE by June 23rd. *Paid for by Grace Lee for NYC. WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump triggered sharp condemnation from top religious leaders for the second time in two days on Tuesday, with Washington Archbishop Wilton Gregory slamming his visit to a D.C. shrine honoring Pope John Paul II. On Monday, Trump's appearance in front of St. John's Episcopal Church across from the White House set off a controversy because it involved aggressively clearing peaceful protesters. "I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles, which call us to defend the rights of all people, even those with whom we might disagree," Gregory said in a statement as Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrived at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Northeast Washington. The shrine was opened as a museum to John Paul in 2001 but nose-dived financially and was bailed out in 2011 by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men's religious organization that has lobbied for conservative political causes, such as opposing same-sex marriage. In his statement, Gregory noted the legacy of Pope John Paul II, suggesting he would not have condoned Trump's actions, including his walk to St. John's on Monday as hundreds of demonstrators nearby were protesting the death of George Floyd last week in the custody of the Minneapolis police. Once he got to the church, the president held a Bible aloft and news crews and White House staffers recorded the moment. "Saint Pope John Paul II was an ardent defender of the rights and dignity of human beings. His legacy bears vivid witness to that truth," Gregory said. "He certainly would not condone the use of tear gas and other deterrents to silence, scatter or intimidate them for a photo opportunity in front of a place of worship and peace." It's unusual for someone like Gregory to make such a stark statement about Trump specifically; Catholic bishops generally speak about issues more broadly. In a statement last week, Gregory, who was installed as the first black archbishop of Washington in 2019, said Floyd's death, "like all acts of racism, hurts all of us in the Body of Christ since we are each made in the image and likeness of God, and deserve the dignity that comes with that existence." Trump's brief visit to the shrine appeared to serve primarily as another photo opportunity. The president and the first lady, who identifies as Roman Catholic, stood to face the media before facing the statue of John Paul II for a few minutes. Then they looked at a wreath of red and white roses that held a card saying "Mr. President." About half a mile away, several dozen protesters held signs that read, "Black lives matter," "Trump mocks Christ" and "God is not a prop." Just before noon, the group knelt down for eight minutes of silence and prayer - one for each minute a police officer kneeled on Floyd's neck before he died. Chian Gavin, 57, of nearby Brookland, wiped her eyes while the crowd sang "Amazing Grace." "Eight minutes is so long," she said. "To think that someone would be in pain, would be suffering in that position for that long." Chanon Bah, 31, said she's tried to explain the demonstrations to her 3-year-old son, Cairo. Watching television images of riot police advancing on unarmed protesters has confused him, she said. "Mommy, who's the bad guy?" he asked. "I tried to explain that sometimes, the police are the good guys, but sometimes they're not," Bah said. "We talk a lot about feelings. That maybe those people out there are not mad. Maybe they're sad. Or scared." Michelle Dixon, 38, said she was moved to come out to stand against what she saw as Trump's disingenuous show of faith. Dixon, a congregant at All Souls Church, said God is "sacred, and really the embodiment of unconditional love." "How can you stand there and hold up a Bible and say you believe in this unconditional love that is God when you are sowing fear and hatred and shooting peaceful protesters just down the street?" she said. "It's unforgivable." Trump's appearances in front of St. John's and at the shrine were seen as attempts to appeal to his conservative evangelical and Catholic voting base. Both appearances were met with fierce condemnation by religious progressives - and also concern from some religious conservatives. "The Bible is a book we should hold only with fear and trembling, given to us that in it we might find eternal life," J.D. Greear, president of the Southern Baptist Convention said in a statement to The Washington Post. "Our only agenda should be to advance God's kingdom, proclaim his gospel, or find rest for our souls." Russell Moore, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Religious Liberty and Ethics Convention, said in a statement that he was "brokenhearted and alarmed." "For me, the Bible is the Word of the living God, and should be treated with reverence and awe," he said, adding that Americans should listen to what the Bible says about the preciousness of human life, the sins of racism and injustice and the need for safety and calm and justice in the civil arena. "The murder of African-American citizens, who bear the image of God, is morally wrong," Moore said. "Violence against others and destruction of others' property is morally wrong. Pelting people with rubber bullets and spraying them with tear gas for peacefully protesting is morally wrong." The Right Rev. Mariann Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, excoriated Trump for standing in front of the historic church Monday - its windows boarded up with plywood - while holding the Bible aloft. "Everything he has said and done is to inflame violence," she said of the president. "We need moral leadership, and he's done everything to divide us." Budde and other religious progressives have denounced Trump in the past, on multiple issues. from immigration to fiscal policy to LGBTQ rights. But on Tuesday there was also criticism by others who are not vocal opponents of the president. "There is no right to riot," said Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., in a statement. "But there is a fundamental-a Constitutional-right to protest, and I'm against clearing out a peaceful protest for a photo op that treats the Word of God as a political prop." Ed Stetzer wrote on his Christianity Today magazine blog that the president's photo op was "jarring and awkward. It did not play well, even with many of the president's supporters." "America is burning. We need a call to justice that sees each and every person as image bearers of their Creator-as the Bible teaches," he wrote. "But, we did not need that photo op." Also on Tuesday, several pastors stood on the steps of St. John's, calling for an end to police brutality. John Paul II is especially remembered by conservative Catholics for his strong anti-Communist and antiabortion stances. In a statement Tuesday, the shrine said that the White House originally scheduled the visit as an event at which the president would sign an executive order on international religious freedom. Later Tuesday, the president did sign an executive order that, among other moves, stated that $50 million in USAID's budget should be allocated for advancing international religious freedom. "St. John Paul II was a tireless advocate of religious liberty throughout his pontificate," said the statement from the shrine, which did not address Floyd's death or the related protests. "International religious freedom receives widespread bipartisan support, including unanimous passage of legislation in defense of persecuted Christians and religious minorities around the world," the statement said. "The shrine welcomes all people to come and pray and learn about the legacy of St. John Paul II." John Paul's movement for religious freedom, including in his native Eastern Europe from communism, is considered one of his key legacies. Tuesday is the 41st anniversary of his first papal visit to Poland. The shrine, according to its website, "is a place of pilgrimage housing two first-class relics of St. John Paul II. Here, through liturgy and prayer, art, and cultural and religious formation, visitors can enter into its patron's deep love for God and for man." Stephen Schneck, former head of Catholic outreach for then-President Barack Obama and current executive director of the Franciscan Action Network, said he was "disgusted that the Knights would allow the Shrine to St. John Paul II to be used for what is transparently a Trump reelection campaign event." "Pope St. John Paul II was an ardent foe of racism. In his last visit to the United States the saint begged our nation to eradicate racism from its heart. One cannot imagine a worse insult to John Paul II's memory than to hold a Trump re-election event at the saint's shrine," he told The Post in a statement. Messages to the Knights of Columbus were not immediately returned Tuesday morning. Trump's attorney, Pat Cipollone, was a top lawyer with the organization, holding the title "supreme advocate." Trump has signed several orders related to religious freedom. Charles Haynes, senior fellow for religious freedom at the Freedom Forum, said the orders have been primarily symbolic, but have the potential to change how federal departments enforce existing law. Early in his administration, Trump promised to abolish the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits clergy from endorsing politicians from the pulpit. But it would take an act of Congress to change the amendment. Instead, Trump issued an executive order on how his administration would enforce the amendment. In another case, he signed a rule offering protections for health-care workers who declined services that violate their religious beliefs, a move that concerned LGBTQ advocacy groups. "It reiterates the law in some cases," Haynes said of the executive orders. "There already are religious liberty protections, but he wants to underscore we're upholding them or we're implementing them." - - - The Washington Post's Marissa Lang contributed to this report. Civil Aviation Mohamed Manar Enaba said international flights will likely be resumed in the coming weeks Egyptian Civil Aviation Mohamed Manar Enaba said on Tuesday that it was expected that airlines would drop the prices of flight tickets to encourage tourists when flights resume. In statements to the On My Responsibility programme on Sada El-Balad channel on Tuesday evening, Enaba said that special incentives are being prepared for private airlines. He also said that national carrier EgyptAir, as well as private airlines, had lost billions of pounds in revenues due to suspension of flights since March. Enaba said that the health ministry, in accordance with the World Health Organization, would determine the standards for the resumption of international flights. The return of aviation depends on the return of aviation in other countries, he also said. The minister said he would meet on Wednesday with the head of a government committee managing the response to the coronavirus committee to determine the date when international flights would be resumed, expecting that it would be within several weeks, as a number of other countries have said they will also reopen their airspace to flights in the coming period. Egyptian airports are ready to receive all visitors and tourists, he said, adding that airports would follow social distancing rules, meals would be distributed in closed packets, passengers and crew on planes would wear gloves and masks, but there would be no automatically empty seats. There is currently a controversy worldwide about whether airlines should leave empty seats between passengers, in accordance with social distancing rules. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in May that the measure would see airlines incur huge financial losses, while it would not greatly affect passenger safety. Enaba also met with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Tourism and Antiquities Minister Khaled El-Enany on Tuesday to discuss the preparation for the return of international tourism and aviation. In separate media comments on Tuesday, Enaba denied reports that the seven-day quarantine period imposed on Egyptian nationals who have returned from abroad would be lifted within hours. The cabinet is the one that determines this issue, not the ministry of civil aviation or EgyptAir, he told MBC Misr 2s morning show. In May, Egypt shortened a mandatory quarantine period for Egyptians arriving from abroad from 14 days to one week. Returnees who test negative by the end of the period can spend the rest of their quarantine at home. Search Keywords: Short link: " " A baby platypus, known as a puggle, is held by a keeper at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia. The Sydney Morning Herald/Fairfax Media/Getty Images In the late 18th century, British zoologist George Shaw was asked to examine a specimen of a newly-discovered creature, fresh off the boat from Australia. He was one of the first scientists to clap eyes on the beaver-duck we call a platypus, and he understandably thought he was the butt of a practical joke. "It naturally excites the idea of some deceptive preparation by artificial means," he wrote after examining the noble creature in 1799. Advertisement And it's not like the platypus's outlandish appearance is just a cover for an unremarkable physiology and life history. This egg-laying mammal chews its food with gravel because it lacks teeth in fact, it doesn't even have a stomach, but an esophagus that connects directly to its intestines. The males have venomous spurs on their hind legs, they don't use their tails to steer or propel them through the water, but to store body fat, and their bills are so sensitive they can detect the electromagnetic fields radiated by other organisms, allowing them to swim with their ears, eyes and nose closed. But listen, it gets weirder. Although platypuses (yes, you can also say platypi and platypodes, if you want) nurse their young, they don't have nipples, so the milk just sort of oozes out of their mammary glands and the babies lap it up off their mother's fur. And if you think that might be a bit unsanitary, especially for an animal that swims around in farm ponds all day, you'd be right. But don't worry platypus evolution came up with a solution to the problem of bacteria. A 2014 study found that, while all mammals' milk has antibacterial properties, platypus milk seems to have very special antimicrobial powers. A new study published March 14, 2018 in the journal Structural Biology Communications reports that the biochemical reason for the special bug-busting properties of platypus milk is predictably weird: It contains a protein with a unique and previously unknown structure that might be key in fighting bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics. What makes this monotreme lactation protein (MLP) so strange is its shape: Its folds form tight ringlets, which is why it was christened the "Shirley Temple" protein after the iconic hair of the child star. The research team managed to recreate the MLP in the lab, purify it, crystallize it and use X-rays to determine its 3D structure at the atomic level a structure that has never been seen in any of the 100,000 proteins discovered to date. "The most exciting thing for me was to see a protein shape that had never been seen before," lead author Janet Newman, a researcher at CSIRO, says in an email. "It's like being a florist and seeing a completely new flower." So, how could this fancy new antibacterial protein be used to fight superbugs? According to Newman, the research team plans to begin by figuring out the relationship between the extra-curly form of the protein and its bacteria-killing powers. "In theory there are a number of approaches we could tweak the structure a little by making site-directed mutants of the protein in the lab," says Newman. "This would allow us to see how the activity changes each time, until we build up an understanding of the mechanism of how this works. Or maybe we could use some form of the protein to try to isolate its binding partner on the bacterium, which might be some structure on the outside of the bacterium." According to the World Health Organization (WHO), antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections are becoming a serious threat to public health worldwide. The heavy use of antibiotics in intensive animal farming, as well as overuse in human hospitals, has led to the rise and spread of these heavy-duty microbes. Diseases like salmonella, pneumonia, tuberculosis and gonorrhoea all once easily treated with antibiotics are becoming less responsive to the drugs used to treat them. In 2014, WHO warned that we may be approaching a "post-antibiotic era," wherein antibiotics will no longer be effective in fighting infection. This would make everything from childbirth to organ transplants very difficult. Again. But maybe platypus milk can help. It's (predictably) so crazy it just might work. Now That's Interesting A hormone in platypus venom might be key in the development of new diabetes treatments. Such useful critters! Loggerhead sea turtles host diverse community of miniature organisms There is a world of life on the backs of loggerhead sea turtles, and it's more abundant and diverse than scientists knew. An international team led by Florida State University researchers found that more than double the number of organisms than previously observed live on the shells of these oceanic reptiles, raising important questions about loggerhead sea turtle ecology and conservation. The study was published in the journal Diversity. "This suggests loggerhead turtles are hotspots for organism abundance and biodiversity," said Jeroen Ingels, a researcher with the Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory and lead author of the study. "We suspect that larger organisms that are able to form structures serve as habitats for microscopic creatures and allow for greater levels of abundance and biodiversity." Researchers discovered this organism diversity by sampling meiofauna, which are organisms roughly between 1 millimeter and about 0.032 millimeters in size. The researchers specifically focused on a type of aquatic meiofauna called nematodes, also known as roundworms. Previous research had not considered these tiny creatures when surveying the communities of organisms that live on the backs of loggerhead sea turtles. "To find nematodes on loggerhead turtle carapaces is no surprise, but when we compared their numbers and diversity to those from other hard surfaces or even on marine plant life, we realized their carapaces abound with this microscopic life, the extent to which had hardly been documented in the past," Ingels said. The FSU researchers, together with a team from Brazil led by Professor Giovani dos Santos and Professor Yirina Valdes, sampled the shells from 24 loggerhead turtles that migrated to Florida's St. George Island in the summer of 2018 to lay eggs. The researchers examined a forward, middle and posterior section of each shell to see if the different areas had different microscopic communities. To collect their samples, they removed barnacles, then scraped the shells and sponged them down to carefully gather every living creature. They found thousands of meiofauna organisms. One turtle had more than 146,000 individual organisms living on its carapace. Researchers also found that the posterior section of the shells, closest to the rear flippers, had different communities and a higher diversity of species. Previous studies of loggerheads had found fewer than 100 different species of any kind living on their shells. By including the nematodes found in this new study, the researchers added at least 111 new species to the list of organisms that can live on the backs of loggerheads. That count doesn't include other types of meiofauna, meaning the number could be even greater. The research may help explain a paradox around these miniature creatures: How can the same types of aquatic meiofauna be found in different parts of the world, hundreds or even thousands of miles away? Researchers think they are able to travel large distances on the backs of sea turtles, which could help explain their widespread distribution. The researchers also found that individual turtles harbor significantly different communities of meiofauna living on their shells. "Were these turtles colonized by microorganisms in different places?" asked Ingels. "It's exciting because it means we may be able to infer where loggerheads have been based on the microscopic communities on their shells." Tens of thousands of microscopic organisms can colonize loggerhead turtles, which visit remote coasts and beaches during their migration. It makes sense that there would be a connection between the locations frequented by the turtles and the places where the same meiofauna are found, Ingels said. A better understanding of that link could help inform conservation practices for these reptiles. "Information on key areas used by loggerhead turtles is crucial to inform their management, as it helps identify key threats that they are exposed to," said Mariana Fuentes, a co-author of the article and assistant professor of oceanography in the FSU Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science. ### Researchers from the Federal University of Paraiba, the Federal University of Pernambuco, the Public Works Department of Indian River County, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Columbia University and the University of Copenhagen contributed to this study. This research was funded by the Florida Sea Turtle License Plate Grant and the PADI Foundation. Editor's note: The photographs of loggerhead sea turtles were taken during research activities permitted by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (permit #MTP-18-239) under conditions not detrimental to these animals. Please do not attempt to recreate the content of these images without appropriate training and observation. These images were taken under red light and converted to black-and-white in post-processing. This story has been published on: 2020-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. New Delhi, June 2 : M.V. Rao an IPS of 1987 batch is Jharkhand DGP and has served in central forces as well, speaking to IANS in an interview the DG police said that he is dealing the state with human touch and there is no news of police excess even in the lockdown which has been peaceful. In the candid interview Rao said that "Naxals have reduced themselves to bunch of criminals in the state and are only interested in extortion from the mining companies and others". "Naxals pretend to be fighting for people but indulge in criminal activity," said Rao. The Jharkhand DG said that "we expected extremist to work for the welfare of the people "and help the villagers during the lockdown but nothing of that sort has happened and it was the police force which helped the people and distributed 25 lakh meals" and each police station was doubled up as a community kitchen. MV Rao said that Naxals have lost their way and are now "irrelevant in the state" and have lost "connect with the people". When asked about a attack in Chaibasa on police, he said that the extremist have lost their ground and are frustrated so resort to such activities and target civilians and sometime use them as shield. He claimed that people have no sympathy with extremist as poor are suffering a lot because development project gets slowed down in these areas and naxals don't allow villagers to come into the forest and earn their living, there are generation of people who could not go to school because of Naxals. The DG police who served in the CRPF has a family of police officers, with daughter and son-in-law also IPS officer. Hailing from Warangal in Andhra Pradesh, Rao who has studied engineering, said that the police is a challenging job citing example of miscreants who tried to flare up communal problem in the state but was timely curbed by police. Rao said "there was no communal bout in the state "but rogue elements" who tried to use poor vegetable sellers as pawn but we have made it clear that rogue elements will be dealt with strong hands. In Ranchi's Hindpiri area that had one of the first covid cases, there was initial trouble reported. "But this is virus it doesn't go by relegion," the DGP said "we discouraged people who tried to stigmatized the area and timely action was taken". MV Rao also claimed that "caucus and syndicate" of illegal mining in the state has been dismantled since he took over and "we are ensuring that government revenues are not lost". He said that the police will "break the chain" of the illegal mining activities in the state. The DGP asserted that central forces are working in sync with the state police and there is no lack of cordination and there is no complaint received from anybody against the CRPF. The State saw a spate of transfers wherein many Superintendent level officers were reshuffled, the DGP said that its a routine affair -- policing has changed in the state since he took over and ground reality is different from the previous period. Four states have passed laws that grant businesses immunity from civil liability for claims relating to COVID-19, while legislation in at least three other states is advancing. The bills signed into law by the governors of North Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming go far beyond the immunity that several states granted to health care providers at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. North Carolina provides immunity to a broader swath of essential businesses, such as grocery stores and restaurants, from liability for any harm caused by COVID-19. Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming provide immunity to everyone, as long as safety rules are followed and no laws are broken. Bills to create similar liability protections have also passed the Louisiana House of Representatives and Senate, the Kansas Senate and the Arizona House. They now await consideration by the other chamber. North Carolinas civil liability immunity provision was included in Senate Bill 704, a COVID-19 relief package approved by Gov. Ray Cooper (D) on May 4. The law provides immunity to any entity deemed essential in the emergency orders, retroactive March 27, which is when Cooper first ordered businesses to close or scale back to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Wide But Not Absolute Attorney Jeffrey P. MacHarg noted that the immunity protection covers a wide swath of businesses and organizations: Grocery and hardware stores, pharmacies, banks, takeout eateries and even attorneys were deemed essential in the March 27 order. A second May 20 order that reopened many businesses, such as dine-in restaurants, will also expand the immunity protection to cover them, as well, he said in a blog post. The immunity is not absolute. It does not bar regulatory actions, criminal charges or workers compensation claims, MacHarg said. Also, there is no immunity for gross negligence, recklessness or intentional infliction of harm. The immunity continues until emergency orders expire or are rescinded. MacHarg said that may be awhile. As of this writing, we are aware of no immediate plans to rescind North Carolinas emergency declaration, so this immunity would apply to acts occurring now and likely through a full reopening of the economy, he wrote. SB 704 sailed through the North Carolinas legislature, passing both the Senate and the House unanimously in votes taken four dates apart. The bill appears to have slipped under the radar of the states trial lawyers. The North Carolina Advocates for Justice didnt post a notice about the bill until three weeks after it passed. Attorney Carma L. Henson, with HensonFuerst in Raleigh, noted that 375 residents of North Carolina nursing homes had died of COVID-19. Blatant disregard for standards of care have been reported, she said. Suits have been filed on behalf of grieving families in some of these cases, but plaintiffs attorneys are already having to make heart-wrenching decisions to turn down cases due to the language of the law, Henson said in a May 26 blog post. Hard to Prove John ONeal, an attorney in sole practice in Greensboro, said he did not become aware that civil immunity legislation had been passed until last week, when he read an email blast from Advocates for Justice. ONeal said he said he understands that business owners want to protect themselves, but he thinks it would be harder to prove a COVID-19 claim than many think. He said any attorney who takes such a claim would have to prove where the plaintiff contracted COVID-19, which would require expert witnesses and a thorough investigation. The threat of litigation is there, theres no question about it, he said. But the plaintiff has a huge burden of proof and a financial burden that is really going to cost. Oklahomas Senate Bill 1946 offers broader protections than North Carolinas new law. The legislation, signed into law by Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) on May 21, makes everyone immune from liability for any claim by a person who was exposed to COVID-19 as long as no laws were violated and the person of business accused followed official safety guidance. SB 1946 passed the Oklahoma Senate 34-11 on May 11 and the House 76-20 on May 14. Gov. Stitt also signed into law on May 15 Senate Bill 1947, which provides immunity from product liability claims against people who manufacture or supply personal protective equipment or medications used to treat COVID-19, even if dispensed for off-label use. Similarly, Utahs SB 3007 provides immunity to all persons and premises from liability for injury resulting from exposure to COVID-19, unless there was willful misconduct or reckless or intentional infliction of harm. The bill passed the Senate 22-6 and the House 54-21 on April 23 and was signed into law by Gov. Gary Herbert (R) on May 4. Wyomings Senate File 1002 provides immunity from COVID-19 claims to any person or business who acted in good faith and followed safety instructions for the duration of the public health emergency. The bill expires on June 30, 2021. The bill passed the Wyoming Senate 25-4 on May 15 and the House 23-1 on May 16. Gov. Mark Gordon (R) signed it into law on May 20. More than half the states in the country have granted some form of immunity to health care providers, according to the American Tort Reform Association. The organization says such polices are necessary to protect the COVID-19 response effort. Personal injury law firms are already recruiting individuals to sue now even if they have not contracted the disease, ATRA says on is website. The first lawsuits targeting health care providers, employers, retailers and other businesses for COVID-related injuries have been filed. Many more are to come. The governors of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia signed executive orders granting various degrees of limited immunity to health care providers and facilities, an ATRA report says. Legislation to provide immunity to health care providers and facilities was passed legislatures in Alaska, District of Columbia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Wisconsin. Topics COVID-19 Legislation Claims Oklahoma North Carolina Medical Professional Liability Washington: America's biggest cities have again descended into vandalism and looting, despite night-time curfews and a threat by President Donald Trump to unleash the US military to restore law and order in the country. Police arrested hundreds of people in New York, Los Angeles, Washington DC and other major cities on Monday (Tuesday AEST), a week since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked nationwide outrage. In an afternoon appearance at the White House, Trump said he was prepared to invoke the Insurrection Act, a 213-year old federal law that allows the President to deploy military troops within the US to suppress "civil disorder, insurrection, and rebellion". "I am mobilising all available federal resources, civilian and military, to stop the rioting and looting," Trump said. New moderate income housing program could be on the way to Long Beach Comic book-themed masks will be handed out to children on easyJet flights to help reassure children about the new requirement to wear face coverings. The budget airline will be distributing the masks to children flying on certain routes once it restarts operations on 15 June to ease anxiety. The masks feature illustrations of pilots and lions, and are designed to be worn on top of a childs personal face covering. Travellers will be required to wear face coverings at the airport and on the plane at all times as part of easyJets enhanced safety measures. Food and drink will no longer be served onboard flights, while hand sanitiser and disinfectant wipes will be available for passengers. Recommended How to wear a face mask safely The mask designs were created by Will Sliney, an Irish illustrator who has worked on Spider Man and Star Wars comics. Flying with face masks is going to be a new experience for everyone, especially young children, so I hope these fun designs, inspired by comic book characters, help to encourage kids to wear their masks onboard, he said. I have used a combination of a lion animal character and a futuristic pilot to create a set of mask covers to bring out the inner superhero in all young flyers. Captain David Morgan, easyJets director of flight operations, said: We have teamed up with a comic illustrator to create some bespoke childrens face mask covers as we know the airport environment could feel different and possibly daunting for younger travellers when flying initially resumes. So we hope these face mask covers help children enjoy flying with us over the summer and this makes things a little easier for parents too. The UK aviation and travel industries have been badly affected by the coronavirus pandemic, with the introduction of a 14-day quarantine for all travellers entering the country from 8 June set to add another nail to the coffin. The Foreign Office is still issuing a blanket ban on all non-essential international travel with no end date announced. A NSW Police officer has been put on restricted duties while he is investigated after a video emerged on social media of him appearing to trip and handcuff an Aboriginal teenager in Surry Hills. The video taken on Monday shows three officers interacting with several teenagers, with one male constable appearing to tell one of the boys he needs to "open up his ears". The boy seems to respond: "What? I heard you from over here, I don't need to open up my ears. I'll crack you in the f--king jaw, bro." The person recording the interaction then moans "no" from behind the camera. After more than 12 hours of play, a field of 502 players was whittled down to a winner on Day 2 of SCOOP 121-M: $109 NLHE [8-Max, Progressive KO, Sunday Million SE]. At the end of the day, it was Clark "snake8484" Hamagami who emerged as the winner of the grand prize of $153,744 plus a nice amount of $43,073 in bounties. He defeated "TruePrayer" after a heads-up that lasted for over an hour. A total of 4,263 players took a slice of the $3,080,900 prize pool which was created by the 30,909 entries that were collected on Day 1. Start of day chip leader Rob "robc1978" Cowen managed to stay among the top stacks throughout the day but succumbed in 5th place after his pocket jacks lost the race against "TruePrayer"'s ace-queen, with the latter hitting a queen on the turn. Charlotte "Sjlot" Van Brabander, who started the day in fifth place, was eliminated in 87th place after shoving her last big blinds unsuccessfully with queen-jack suited versus "Elena20"'s pocket eights. More familiar faces made it to the money on Day 2 but didn't reach the final table, such as Patrick pads1161 Leonard (320th), Fedor GlitchSystem Kruse (311th), and Aleksejs APonakov Ponakovs (171th). SCOOP 121-M: $109 NLHE [8-Max, Progressive KO, Sunday Million SE] Final Table Payouts Place Player Country Prize Bounties Total 1 Clark "snake8484" Hamagami Canada $153,744 $43,073 $196,817 2 TruePrayer Finland $109,575 $27,186 $136,761 3 TheHorse09 United Kingdom $78,109 $14,103 $92,212 4 addionutz United Kingdom $55,679 $2,001 $57,680 5 Rob "robc1978" Cowen United Kingdom $39,690 $11,125 $50,815 6 Pyha Karu Estonia $28,993 $5,256 $34,249 7 RUNRANRUNIT Germany $20,168 $7,353 $27,521 8 Raabinator93 Germany $14,377 $5,279 $19,656 9 A.Cruz8 Ireland $10,248 $4,051 $14,299 Final Table Action "A.Cruz8" was the first casualty of the final table when he shoved ace-jack on the button into "Pyha Karu"'s ace-king in the big blind and couldn't find any help. He was followed to the exit by "Raabinator93" in eighth place after he jammed with pocket tens and got called by Hamagami with ace-king who found a king on the river. Shortly after, "RUNRANRUNIT" was eliminated in seventh place after he pushed for around 20 big blinds under the gun with pocket sevens and got called by "TruePrayer" with ace-five who hit two pair on the board. "Pyha Karu" was "TruePrayer"''s next victim. He needed to find a spot to double up but failed to do so after jamming ace-eight to find a call by "TruePrayer" who had nines. After the elimination of Cowen, the next on the list was "addionutz" who shoved with queen-jack offsuit and got called by "TruePrayer"'s king-nine suited. The board gave a pair of nines to "TruePrayer" to end "addionutz"'s run in fourth place. Robert Cowen The chips were flying between Hamagami and "TruePrayer" during the heads-up, with a few doubles up for each of them. In the final hand of the night, Hamagami called an all-in from "TruePrayer" with king-jack suited, while "TruePrayer" was ahead with ace-eight suited. A jack hit for Hamagami to win it all and "TruePrayer"'s deep run ended in second place for $109,575 plus $27,186 worth of bounties Stay tuned on Pokernews.com for more online live reporting! STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- History was made when the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft lifted off on Saturday to the International Space Station. It marked the first time that NASA astronauts were launched from American soil on a spacecraft not built by NASA itself -- but in a commercially built spacecraft. Space X, a company founded by the billionaire Elon Musk, became the first private company to launch NASA astronauts into orbit. The spacecraft lifted off at 3:22 p.m. on Saturday on the SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket from NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch was also the first NASA astronaut launch on United States soil since the space shuttles retirement in 2011, according to NASA. Today [Saturday] a new era in human spaceflight begins as we once again launched American astronauts on American rockets from American soil on their way to the International Space Station, our national lab orbiting Earth, said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine in a press release. The launch is part of NASAs Commercial Crew Program, which works with private companies to develop and operate a new generation of spacecraft and launch systems capable of carrying crews to low-Earth orbit and the International Space Station. The program shows the commitment by NASA to invest in commercial companies through public-private partnerships. A SpaceX Falcon 9, with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken in the Dragon crew capsule, lifts off from Pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday, May 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara) APAP Bridenstine thanked and congratulated NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley and the SpaceX and NASA teams for the significant achievement. The launch of this commercial space system designed for humans is a phenomenal demonstration of American excellence and is an important step on our path to expand human exploration to the Moon and Mars," he added. The mission, known as NASAs SpaceX Demo-2, is an end-to-end test flight to validate the SpaceX crew transportation system. That includes launch, in-orbit, docking, and landing operations. It was SpaceXs second spaceflight test of its Crew Dragon and the first test with astronauts aboard. President Donald Trump, right, Vice President Mike Pence, and Second Lady Karen Pence watch the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft on NASAs SpaceX Demo-2 mission with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard, Saturday, May 30, 2020, from the balcony of Operations Support Building II at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credits: NASA/Bill Ingalls(NASA/Bill Ingalls) "This is a dream come true for me and everyone at SpaceX, said Elon Musk, chief engineer at SpaceX. It is the culmination of an incredible amount of work by the SpaceX team, by NASA and by a number of other partners in the process of making this happen. You can look at this as the results of a hundred thousand people roughly when you add up all the suppliers and everyone working incredibly hard to make this day happen. Behnken and Hurley arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, docking into the stations Harmony module at 10:16 a.m. After reaching orbit, the pair of astronauts named their Crew Dragon spacecraft Endeavour as a tribute to the first space shuttle each astronaut had flown aboard. According to NASA, the Crew Dragon being used for this flight test can stay in orbit about 110 days. The specific mission duration will be determined based on the readiness of the next commercial crew launch. Heres a look at more photos from the historic launch on Saturday. Spectators watch from a bridge in Titusville, Fla., as SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken in the Dragon crew capsule, Saturday, May 30, 2020, from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) APAP A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched from Launch Complex 39A on NASAs SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard, Saturday, May 30, 2020, at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Credits: NASA/Kim Shiflett) Pat Forrester, NASAs chief of the astronaut office, monitors the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft on the Demo-2 mission with NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken onboard, Saturday, May 30, 2020, in firing room four of the Launch Control Center at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (NASA/Joel Kowsky) In this image provided by NASA, the SpaceX Dragon crew capsule, with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken aboard, docks with the International Space Station Sunday, May 31, 2020. It was the first time a privately built and owned spacecraft carried astronauts to the orbiting lab in its nearly 20 years. (NASA TV via AP) APAP Photographers set up remotes near SpaceX Falcon 9, with Dragon crew capsule on top of the rocket, on Launch Pad 39-A, Friday, May 29, 2020, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip) APAP A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched from Launch Complex 39A on NASAs SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard, Saturday, May 30, 2020, at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (NASA/Bill Ingalls) In this image taken from NASA TV video, the SpaceX Dragon crew capsule, with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley, left, and Robert Behnken aboard docks with the International Space Station Sunday, May 31, 2020. (NASA TV via AP)AP President Donald Trump points to Elon Musk as he arrives to speak after viewing the SpaceX flight to the International Space Station, at Kennedy Space Center, Saturday, May 30, 2020, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) APAP This photo provided by NASA shows the crew of SpaceX entering the International Space Station, Sunday, May 31, 2020. The Dragon capsule arrived Sunday morning, hours after a historic liftoff from Florida. It's the first time that a privately built and owned spacecraft has delivered a crew to the orbiting lab. (NASA via AP) APAP President Donald Trump arrives to speak after viewing the SpaceX flight to the International Space Station, at Kennedy Space Center, Saturday, May 30, 2020, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) APAP NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley, left, and Robert Behnken are seated in a Tesla SUV on their way to Pad 39-A, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday, May 30, 2020.(AP Photo/John Raoux) APAP A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched from Launch Complex 39A on NASAs SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard, Saturday, May 30, 2020. (NASA/Bill Ingalls) NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley, left, and Robert Behnken, wearing SpaceX spacesuits, are seen as they depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building for Launch Complex 39A to board the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Demo-2 mission launch, Saturday, May 30, 2020, at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida.(NASA/Bill Ingalls)(NASA/Bill Ingalls) SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken in the Dragon crew capsule, Saturday, May 30, 2020 from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)AP In this image released by NASA, Elon Musk, left, SpaceX Chief Engineer, speaks with NASA managers following the successful launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Saturday, May 30, 2020, at the Launch Control Center at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (Joel Kowsky/NASA via AP)AP A SpaceX Falcon 9, with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken in the Dragon crew capsule, lifts off from Pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday, May 30, 2020. (AP Photo/John Raoux)AP A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched from Launch Complex 39A on NASAs SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard. (NASA/Joel Kowsky)(NASA/Joel Kowsky) NASA astronaut Douglas Hurley waves as he and fellow crew member Robert Behnken depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building for Launch Complex 39A to board the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Demo-2 mission launch(NASA/Bill Ingalls) NASA astronauts Robert Behnken, foreground, and Douglas Hurley, wearing SpaceX spacesuits, are seen as they depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building for Launch Complex 39A to board the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Demo-2 mission launch. (NASA/Bill Ingalls)(NASA/Bill Ingalls) Tesla and SpaceX Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk listens during an event at the Vehicle Assembly Building on Saturday, May 23, 2020, after a SpaceX flight at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)AP FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER. The sounds, videos and pictures of the mass protests against police violence and anti-Black violence in the United States has the world paying attention. Thousands have taken to the streets, in the wake of George Floyds killing by a Minneapolis officer. Its an event that has added to a long history and repeated instances of police interactions and racialized people, that have disproportionately ended in violence and death. In Toronto, 29-year-old Regis Korchinski-Paquet fell to her death after a police call to her apartment last week. The exact events of what led up to her death remain unclear, and now subject to an investigation by Ontarios police watchdog. Her death has since spurred demonstrations of thousands of people in Toronto, as family and community leaders call for justiceprotests that are not apart from the reckoning in the United States but, rather, part of it. Kanika Samuels-Wortley, assistant professor and criminologist at Carleton University and Wendy Gillis, Toronto Stars crime reporter, are in conversation with Adrian Cheung, about the events leading toand followingKorchinski-Paquets death, how systemic racism and anti-Black violence continues to play a huge role in Canadas policing. Listen here or subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts. EastEnders is reportedly set to go off air in two weeks as the cast have still not returned to work after the soap halted production in March due to Covid-19. While Emmerdale is back in production and the cast of Coronation Street are set to return on Tuesday June 9, EastEnders are yet to resume filming. An insider told The Sun Online: 'It's due to go off air on 16 June. Talks about when the cast are returning to set are ongoing.' Running out: EastEnders is reportedly set to go off air in two weeks as the cast have still not returned to work after the soap halted production in March When production was forced to shut down on the soap due to the pandemic, bosses quickly switched to airing just two episodes a week to keep the show on air for as long as possible. It had previously been confirmed the series would run out of new episodes in June but the end date is likely closer than many fans had hoped. A representative for EastEnders declined to comment when contacted by MailOnline. Charlotte Moore, the BBC's director of content, said last month that EastEnders would be up and running again within weeks. Not back yet: While Emmerdale is back in production and the cast of Coronation Street are set to return on Tuesday June 9, EastEnders are yet to resume filming Writing in The Telegraph, she said: 'We've been looking carefully at how we can safely put some of our shows back into production, and I'm pleased to announce that we plan to begin filming again on both EastEnders and Top Gear by the end of June. 'We're also exploring ways to restart shooting on dramas and other major BBC shows. Of course, we will work within Government guidelines. Crews will be strictly limited. 'Cast members will do their own hair and make-up. Social distancing will be in place.' Meanwhile, actor Scott Maslen, who plays Jack Branning on the soap, admitted last month he was still waiting to hear when production would resume. Speaking on The One Show, he said: 'I think something came out today or yesterday regarding they are advising we can go back. A source said: 'It's due to go off air on 16 June. Talks about when the cast are returning to set are ongoing' 'So I imagine it will be on that frontline of the first ones to go back. Im waiting to hear, really.' Emmerdale became the first soap to resume filming in late May when the crew recorded six new episodes with a paired back team at their studio in Leeds. The rural outdoor set for Emmerdale has been dramatically revamped so that actors can be filmed from above now that social distanced filming has begun. It was revealed by a fan that scaffolding platforms have been put up around houses in the village where the show is filmed so that cameramen could shoot the cast from up high. The soap has begun a phased return in order to minimise risk of infection at the studio, with Nicola Wheeler and Eden Taylor Draper also among the first to return. Off air: It had previously been confirmed the show would run out of new episodes in June but the end date is likely closer than many fans had hoped New safety measures have been put in place at ITV studios including medical screening, safe-distance queuing and ambulances on set amid the coronavirus pandemic. The area around the studio appeared to be well-signposted and notices advised the cast and crew to keep a safe distance as well as informing them about medical screenings. The channel's Health and Safety team and medical advisers have been working closely with the government to consult on social distancing guidelines to ensure the team are working in accordance with return-to-production protocols. This means that filming units are staying together while working in designated studios, and the crew are using their own equipment which has been sanitised in advance while office staff continue to work from home. ITV also revealed that they would not have any shoots on location, while scripts have been adapted to include fewer scenes and a small number of actors so that the cameras don't need to be moved on a regular basis. Return: Emmerdale became the first soap to resume filming in late May when the crew recorded six new episodes with a paired back team at their studio in Leeds Meanwhile, Coronation Street bosses recently confirmed the show would begin filming against next week. Cast will return to set on Tuesday June 9 to produce new episodes, with a plan to make enough shows to continue airing three episodes a week to ensure the soap remains on-screen in July. ITV bosses also confirmed that older cast members will be kept at home during the first few weeks of filming, with star Andy Whyment revealing on Monday that kissing scenes will be banned in accordance with new social distancing measures. Coronation Street bosses confirmed that the soap's production team began a health and safety induction to familiarise themselves with the new protocols that are now in place throughout the studios and on the Coronation Street set. The new safety measures are in accordance with the recently issued TV production guidelines which will be observed whilst filming the top ITV soap. Back in action: Coronation Street bosses recently confirmed the show would begin filming against next week Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Charlotte Durand and Dmitry Zaks (Agence France-Presse) London, United Kingdom Tue, June 2, 2020 11:07 598 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb771b8 2 World UK,Britain,post-lockdown,COVID-19-death-toll,coronavirus,COVID-19,SARS-CoV-2,novel-coronavirus,pandemic,virus-corona,COVID-19-infection Free Younger children went back to schools in England on Monday as Britain began to stir back to life, while the government reported the lowest coronavirus death toll since the start of the national lockdown in late March. Outdoor markets also swung open their gates and car showrooms tried to lure back customers and recoup losses suffered since Britain effectively shut down for business to ward off a disease that has now officially claimed 39,045 lives in the country. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Britain was making "significant progress" against the virus after its daily toll dropped to 111 -- the lowest since the stay-at-home order was issued on March 23. Reporting of virus cases and fatalities is often lower after a weekend and many people still appeared hesitant to start using public transport or shop. "It's very different from usual," Danish Londoner John Jellesmark said on a visit to the usually bustling Camden Market in the north of the capital. "It's still pretty slow. It looks like the market is basically waking up." Too much, too soon? Prime Minister Boris Johnson has set out a timeline that allows two million younger children in England to return to school on Monday and older ones from June 15. The devolved governments in Scotland and Northern Ireland are eyeing a return in August and September, while Wales is still weighing the benefits of human contact against the dangers of children catching the disease and bringing it home. A survey conducted by the National Foundation for Educational Research found that primary school leaders expect about half the families to keep their children home. Principal Claire Syms at the Halley House School in east London said children who do turn up need to feel comfortable in an unfamiliar setting where the desks are spaced out and many around them wear masks. "We've been really conscious about keeping things as normal and as consistent as we can for our children," Syms told AFP. "We're really mindful of their wellbeing and their mental health." The UK government has been encouraged by the positive experience of other European countries that have started to return to something resembling normal life. The House of Commons will debate a government push to get everyone to start voting in person instead of remotely when parliament returns from a break on Tuesday. But critics of the easing believe the so-called R rate of transmission -- estimated nationally at between 0.7 and 0.9 -- was still dangerously close to the 1.0 figure above which the virus' spread grows. 'Unenforceable' Scientists and lawmakers are not the only ones to express concern that the government's "cautious and phased" reopening is moving too quickly. "We're only able to take these steps because of what we have achieved together so far," finance minister Rishi Sunak said as he toured Tachbrook Market in central London. London's Metropolitan Police Federation chairman Ken Marsh said current rules such as those allowing people to gather in groups of six in England were unenforceable. "I don't think the public are taking much notice of what is laid down in front of them," Marsh told The Daily Telegraph. "They are doing it how they want to do it." English parks and beaches have been inundated with people over two successive May weekends that came on the sunniest month ever recorded in Britain. Police had warned after seeing growing numbers ignore social distancing measures a week ago that they were serious about sanctioning those who gather in large groups. But some London parks looked like one giant party on Sunday and police issued just a tiny fraction of the fines they had handed out before people were allowed to leave their homes more freely on May 13. "Policing have told the government that unless it's a huge gathering, it's pretty much unenforceable now," a senior police source told The Daily Telegraph. A 66-year-old resident of Azatavan village of Ararat Province of Armenia has had symptoms of coronavirus for nine days, yet hasnt been hospitalized to date. She also has a chronic disease and is currently bedridden. This is what the villagers daughter, Mariam Tadevosyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am. My mother had a high fever, and now she is in bed and feels weak. My father also has a high fever, has had symptoms of coronavirus for the past six days and has a lung problem. Im not in Armenia, and the only person taking care of them is my sister-in-law, who is five months pregnant, she told Armenian News-NEWS.am. The 66-year-old woman was most probably infected while working at the sewing factory in Noragavit. Since one of her co-workers was under quarantine, at the request of the factorys administration, she had to work until May 20, even though she had decided to quit before that. On May 24, she already had the first symptoms. The daughter said her mother had a high fever for five days, after which they called the clinic, but the doctors told them they had to call the ambulance. Paramedics came and tested her for coronavirus, and she tested positive. Even though she was told that she had the coronavirus, she wasnt hospitalized, and it has already been nine days. The wifes husband also hasnt been tested for coronavirus to this day. When the family called the local ambulance, they were told that they have to go to the hospital on their own. President Donald Trump delivers remarks in front of the media in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, on June 1, 2020. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images) Trump Signs Executive Order to Promote Religious Freedom Around the World WASHINGTONPresident Donald Trump signed an executive order on June 2 to prioritize religious freedom in U.S. foreign policy and assistance programs. Religious freedom for all people worldwide is a foreign policy priority of the United States, and the United States will respect and vigorously promote this freedom, the order states. Within six months of the date of the order, the secretary of state, together with the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is to develop a plan to prioritize international religious freedom in the planning and implementation of United States foreign policy and in the foreign assistance programs of the Department of State and USAID. The new order also allocates at least $50 million per year for programs that promote international religious freedom. The Treasury Department may also consider sanctions on individuals involved in religious persecution by implementing the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, among other things. The law empowers the U.S. government to place visa bans and block the assets of human rights abusers and corrupt officials around the world. Eighty percent of the worlds population lives in countries where religious liberty is threatened or banned. In September 2019, Trump called on countries to end religious persecution around the world at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. He was the first leader to initiate such a discussion at the UNGA high-level meetings. He urged governments to stop persecuting their citizens, release prisoners of conscience, eliminate laws that restrict religion, and protect oppressed people. Thomas Farr, president of the Religious Freedom Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit welcomed Trumps announcement. I am encouraged that the Executive Order emphasizes that religious freedom is not just a nice-to-have human right. It explicitly states as U.S. policy that religious freedom, Americas first freedom, is a moral and national security imperative, he stated in an email. It also takes important steps, such as requiring religious freedom training for all overseas diplomatic personnel, and developing new economic tools to promote religious freedom and sanction individuals and countries who abuse religious freedom, he added. In its annual report released in April, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) identified 14 countries of particular concern, including Burma, China, India, Iran, North Korea, and Syria. China has been a growing concern for Washington. USCIRF Commissioner Gary L. Bauer told The Epoch Times that the long list of religious violations and the Chinese regimes growing hostility toward religion have made China the worlds worst abuser of religious liberty. China has declared war on all religious faith, he said, adding that the regime has become an international threat. Persecution in China The Chinese regime has been consistently designated by the U.S. State Department as a country of particular concern for its poor record on religious freedom since 1999. Religious groups of all kinds are under attack in China, including Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, Muslims, and adherents of the ancient spiritual discipline Falun Gong. They suffer from systematic arrest, unlawful imprisonment, torture, and brainwashing. According to researchers, the government is using various methods of persecution, which include forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience. Beijing has built detention camps to detain an estimated 1 million Uyghur and other ethnic minority Muslims in the far western Xinjiang region. Elsewhere, the demolition of underground churches and other houses of worship continues. The USCIRF report also states that thousands of Falun Gong practitioners were arrested in 2019 for refusing to give up their beliefs or for distributing literature related to the practice. We are encouraged to see that American diplomacy with countries of particular concern such as China will be subject to the provisions of this new executive order such as implementing the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, Falun Dafa Information Center spokesperson Erping Zhang said in an email. Beijing is continuing its policy of suppression against Falun Gong practitioners and we hope to see justice served to those perpetrators by the international communities. Religious freedom in China has further eroded as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) seeks to export suppression internationally, according to the USCIRF report. Chinese diplomats continue to subvert international rights organizations. For example, in February, Beijing vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that sought to protect Rohingya refugees in Burma (also known as Myanmar). Facial recognition technology, which the CCP has relied on to build a mass surveillance state, has also proliferated in more than 100 countries and, in some cases, served as a tool for targeting political dissidents, the report noted. The pandemic didnt stop the oppression carried out by the regime, according to Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback. Even during the strictest parts of the lockdown, the Chinese Government was conducting a campaign to send a million police to 10 million homes in Tibet to further restrict the Tibetans and Tibetan Buddhism, even during the pandemic, he said at a State Department briefing on May 14. And then also were seeing in the Uyghur Muslim community theyre facing an increase of vulnerabilities as theyre being forced to work despite coronavirus risk, and theyre being further exposed. Eva Fu contributed to this report. A study carried out by the J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics at NUI Galway has examined the triggers leading people to share Covid-19 misinformation through social media. Defined as false or inaccurate information, especially that which is deliberately intended to deceive misinformation poses a serious threat to public health during the Covid-19 pandemic. The rapid spreading of such misinformation is amplified by social media and could result in the lack of adherence to recommended public health measures, or engagement in non-recommended behaviours. For example, one article claiming Sweden, where lockdown measures were not implemented, is experiencing low death rates has been shared over 20,000 times on Facebook. The truth is that Sweden has a death toll of over 4,000, a much higher figure than the combined toll of Scandinavian neighbours Denmark and Norway, which have implemented stricter lockdown measures and have recorded fewer than 1,000 deaths between them. While social media can be a useful tool for staying informed on the Covid-19 crisis, the study finds that when people become overloaded with social media content, their ability to critically assess the validity of the information received is impaired. The result is that trust in the unverified information remains high, and they are more likely to share that content throughout their social network, which ultimately exacerbates the Covid-19 misinformation problem. The study also sheds light on the emerging problem of cyberchondria - the unfounded escalation of concerns about common symptomology based on review of search results and literature online. The data shows when people attribute a higher severity and susceptibility to Covid-19, they spend more time searching online for Covid-19 symptoms, which amplifies the stress and anxiety experienced because of cyberchondria. Co-author of the study, Dr Eoin Whelan, Senior Lecturer in Business Information Systems, J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics at NUI Galway, said: While misinformation is not a new problem, the quantity and dissemination of misinformation has grown exponentially due to the ubiquity of social media. We have already seen the impact misinformation spreading through social media can have in political elections. Now, we are witnessing its harmful effects on public health in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our study suggests when people become overloaded with social media content, they are not only more likely to believe unverified COVID-19 information, but will further contribute to the problem by spreading the misinformation onto others. The study also explains how social media companies can use these findings to help curtail the problem of Covid-19 misinformation. Social media companies have a significant role to play in curbing COVID-19 misinformation. WhatsApp has already introduced restrictions on the forwarding of messages containing COVID-19 related information, while Google directs people searching for COVID-19 related information to trusted websites. Our findings suggest that if social media companies also restrict the amount of COVID-19 specific information people are exposed to, this would be effective in curbing the misinformation and cyberchondria problems identified in our study. Additionally, health organisations can use our findings to educate social media users to consume content in a sustainable manner and thus avoid these problems, says Dr Whelan. MANILA, Philippines Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano is encouraging the public to start bike commuting now that mass transport remains limited. He said this will help the public to at least conveniently reach their destinations without being stranded on the streets and increase the risks of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infection. Actually iyan ang gusto nating i-promote, iyong malawakang paggamit ng bisikleta nationwide bilang means ng transportation lalo na kung ang pinapasukan mo is within 10 killometers away lang pwedeng-pwede na sa bike iyan, Ano said during an interview with the program Get It Straight with Daniel Razon. [Actually, thats what wed like to promote, the use of bicycles as means of transportation especially if your workplace is within 10-kilometer distance, thats very accessible for bikes.] For now, the national government is not yet allowing back riders on motorbikes, and converting motorbikes into tricycles will also not be possible as they are not allowed on national highways. Seeing the high demand nowadays, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is eyeing on regulating the price of bicycles as well as the price of laptops necessary for work-from-home arrangements. The DTI is asking businessmen to maintain a reasonable price for such goods which are deemed essential nowadays. Hindi masyadong malaki na masyadong masakit for the consumer. Dahil we understand na kailangan din nilang makabawi doon sa mga loses for the past two and a half months pero hindi po para pagsamantalahan na natin ang consumers [An increase that will not hurt the consumers. We understand that they, too, need to recover from their losses from the past two and a half months, but not to the extent that will abuse the consumers], explained DTI Undersecretary Ruth Castelo. MNP (with reports from Rey Pelayo) The post DILG encourages public to start bike commuting to cope with limited mass transport appeared first on UNTV News. The Minister for Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh has outlined in detail, the specific guidelines for the safe reopening of our schools and universities at a press briefing organised by the Ministry of Information on Tuesday, in Accra. According to the Minister of Education who doubles as Manyhia constituency MP, the reopening is for only final year students to learn and complete their mandatory examinations, and nothing more; with social distancing protocols still in place. He said on the reoping of schools on June 15, parents and gaurdians will not be allowed to visit their wards in boarding schools during the period. He said students will also not be available for religious and sporting activities, as well as entitled to only four hours of teaching, from 9am to 1pm with 15 minutes break period every 45minutes. In addition, there will not be the normal assembly periods with borders in SHS's going for dining in batches in adherance to the social distancing protocols. All students will be provided with 3 resusable set of face masks to protect themselves while in school. However, all days students would be accepted into boarding houses in Senior High Schools who provide accommodation for students. He also cautioned parents not to send their unwell wards to school when they reopen. BECE Exams Junior High School students will be in school for 11 weeks to prepare for their BECE which will start in the 12th week. WASSCE Exams Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh said due to the gravity of the pandemic, the Council has allowed for Ghana specific examinations for its students. He said the Senior High Schools will have 5 weeks to study for their exams which will also start in the 6th week. Universities reopening Foreign university students will be quarantined for 2 weeks if they are able to make the necessary arrangement to come into the country with the closure of borders directive still in place. Schools reopening Schools have been reopened effective 15th June for only final year students of Junior High, Senior High and Universities. "Indeed, final year university students are to report to their universities on 15th June; final year senior high school (SHS 3) students, together with SHS 2 Gold Track students, on 22nd June; and final-year junior high school (JHS 3) students on 29th June." "JHS 3 classes will comprise a maximum of thirty (30) students; SHS classes a maximum of twenty-five (25) students, and University lectures will take place with half the class sizes," according to President Akufo-Addo. Colleges of Education are also to reopen on the 15th of June for final year students to complete their exit examinations, he added. Meanwhile, before the re-opening of schools and universities, the Ministry of Education, and the heads of public and private educational institutions, have been directed to fumigate and disinfect their institutions. "Each student, teacher, and nonteaching staff will be provided with re-usable face masks by the Ministry of Education. For the avoidance of doubt, all other educational facilities, private and public, for non-final year students, will remain closed. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The company has partnered with another local ride app, Move It New Egyptian ride-hailing app Dubci had a soft launch on Monday, offering customers a 20 percent discount for downloading the app. The company is positioning itself as the cheapest ride-hailing app in Egypt. In May, Dubci and Move It, another local riding-hailing company, said that they had signed a strategic alliance partnership, comparing it with the partnership of Careem and Uber. US-based Uber acquired Careem, an Emirati rival, in March, paying $3.1 billion. Dubci and Move It said their partnership aimed to serve Egyptian citizens during this critical time. Dubci announced its initial launch in July 2019 in Cairo, Giza, Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh, but did not launch its app, instead working to recruit drivers and car owners first. In May, Uber laid off 40 percent of its Cairo office as part of its global layoffs amid the coronavirus crisis. Prior to the pandemic, Egypt was one of the top-ten markets for Uber globally. Search Keywords: Short link: Patna: Bihar government on Tuesday announced that it would stop registration of migrant workers, who have returned to their home state amid the easing of nationwide lockdown restrictions that were imposed on March 25 to stop the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, to be lodged in quarantine centres. The new norms have come into effect from Monday evening. Now, migrants returning to Bihar are not required to undergo the mandatory 14-day stay at the quarantine centres set up by the state government to prevent the spread of the pandemic. Earlier, the state government had announced the closure of these quarantine centres from June 15, as the inmates would have completed their 14-day isolation period by then. The state disaster management departments (DMD) data until Monday showed that 1,424,548 people were registered in 11,124 quarantine centres across the state. So far, the state government authorities have discharged 948,900 people and 475,648 are yet to complete their mandatory 14-day quarantine period at these centres. Around 28 lakh people have returned to Bihar either by road or via Shramik Special trains since the easing of lockdown restrictions. Pratyaya Amrit, principal secretary, DMD, explained the state governments decision to close down these quarantine centres from June 15. The last batch of migrants reached Bihar on Monday. Hence, the quarantine period for all the migrant returnees will end by June 15, Amrit said. Be that as it may, on Tuesday, too, 24,750 people arrived in the state by 15 Shramik Special trains, while another six trains are expected to ferry around 9,900 on Wednesday. Amrit, however, doesnt want to consider the recent returnees as migrants. How do you know theyre migrants? Inter-state travel restrictions have been lifted, and people are free to arrive in Bihar by any mode of conveyance from any part of the country, he said. He argued that the quarantine facility was introduced during lockdown restrictions or when they were partially eased. There is no need for fresh registration for migrants, as restrictions on inter-state movement have been lifted across the country, he added. Amrit, however, made it clear that door-to-door health monitoring would continue, as part of the state governments bid to ramp up surveillance to prevent the spread of the viral outbreak. Most of the makeshift quarantine centres across the state are operating out of schools, which need to be vacated, as the authorities are looking at reopening them. An announcement is likely to be made in July regarding the reopening of schools after assessing the ground reality about the pandemic, the authorities said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON WASHINGTON - Attorney General William Barr personally ordered law enforcement officials on the ground to clear the streets around Lafayette Square just before President Donald Trump spoke Monday, a Justice Department official said, a directive that prompted a show of aggression against a crowd of largely peaceful protesters, drawing widespread condemnation. The forceful effort to squelch the demonstration came as Trump has sought to flex the federal government's muscle in response to a wave of unrest across the country, filling the streets in the District of Columbia with federal law enforcement officers from multiple agencies. On Tuesday, city officials said the White House had pushed to take control of the District police force to quell protests, an effort that Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, said she rejected. Still, by Tuesday evening, National Guard Humvees were streaming through downtown as officers from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Department of Homeland Security and Park Police were positioned throughout the capital. Bowser said that she had not requested any help from outside the city and that she has sought to fend off Trump's attempts to deploy active-duty military throughout Washington. The president - furious about criticism that he has not done enough to stop the protests and violence that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis - told senior advisers Monday that they had to show they could control the streets of Washington and the area around the White House, according to two people familiar with his comments who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. If they did not, it would send a bad signal to the rest of the country and they would look weak, he said. "You can't have a burning church in front of the White House was the president's message," one person said. Trump cheered on the dramatic show of force, tweeting Tuesday: "D.C. had no problems last night. Many arrests. Great job done by all. Overwhelming force. Domination." His willingness to press the outer limits of presidential powers was sharply denounced by local leaders and congressional Democrats such as Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who compared Trump's actions to that of a dictator. Several Democratic House chairmen pressed the administration for testimony and documents about the decision to disperse protesters outside the White House with force. And it did not dissuade protesters. By Tuesday evening, as the curfew arrived, several thousand people amassed in Lafayette Square, facing a line of law enforcement officials. "Hands up! Don't shoot!" hundreds chanted. On Monday evening, officers from the Park Police and other agencies used smoke canisters, pepper balls, riot shields, batons and officers on horseback to shove and chase people gathered to protest the death of Floyd. At one point, a line of police rushed a group of protesters, many of whom were standing still with their hands up, forcing them to race away, coughing from smoke. Some were struck by rubber bullets. Secret Service officers then surrounded the area and created a protective zone for Trump, who moments later crossed the street and made an appearance outside St. John's Church, joined by Barr and other administration officials. On Tuesday, the administration offered conflicting explanations for the forcible removal of the protesters, seeking to separate the move from Trump's visit to the church. The White House asserted that the crowd was dispersed to help enforce the city's 7 p.m. curfew, although District police had not requested such assistance. The Park Police said that its officers responded after protesters began throwing projectiles. Other administration officials said the move to clear the crowd was part of a previously planned effort to extend the perimeter around Lafayette Square. Two federal law enforcement officials said that authorities decided either late Sunday or early Monday to broaden it by one block and that Barr participated in those discussions. The plan was to be executed the following afternoon, according to the Justice Department official, who was not authorized to comment ahead of Barr addressing the matter himself publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. But when Barr went to survey the scene, he was "surprised" to find the perimeter had not been extended and huddled with law enforcement officials on the ground, the Justice Department official said. "He conferred with them to check on the status and basically said: 'This needs to be done. Get it done,' " the Justice Department official said. Police soon moved on the protesters. District city officials said they were not involved in the decision to use force, which Bowser called "shameful." "I didn't see any provocation that would warrant the deployment of munitions, and especially for the purpose of moving the president across the street," the mayor said at a Tuesday news conference. District Attorney General Karl Racine, a Democrat, said in a statement that the District was "now reckoning with an unhinged president responding to nonviolent demonstration with war-like tactics." And officials with Virginia's Arlington County, which had dispatched officers from a civil disturbance unit in response to a mutual-aid request from the Park Police, said their police officers found themselves unexpectedly confronting protesters. "We were being used. . . . We had been asked to do something that turned out to be a political stunt," said County Manager Mark Schwartz, who said officials are now reevaluating the county's role the regional mutual-aid pact. Throughout Tuesday, several federal agencies involved in the response declined to answer questions about who ordered the use of force and the clearing of the park, which occurred just before Trump's visit there. A White House spokesman declined to comment on who gave the order, referring questions to law enforcement agencies. The Secret Service declined to comment. Defense officials on Tuesday said the National Guard did not participate in the decision to clear Lafayette Square on Monday evening and did not take part in firing any rubber bullets or gas. A Justice Department spokeswoman said Monday that Trump had directed Barr to personally "lead" the response to the unrest. Less than an hour before police moved to clear the peaceful demonstrators from in front of Lafayette Square, Barr was captured on camera with officials at the scene, including Tony Ornato, the White House deputy chief of staff. Ornato was involved in discussions Monday with Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and other top White House officials about a possible visit by Trump to St. John's Church. Meadows told others the idea was suggested by the president's daughter, Ivanka Trump, according to two administration officials and first reported by the New York Times. Aides worked on plans for much of the afternoon, though a final decision was not made until after 6 p.m., a senior administration official said. There were also talks about invoking the Insurrection Act, a 19th-century law rarely used in modern history that allows the president to deploy the military domestically, but some advisers, including Barr, argued against it.Most aides were told to go home at 4 p.m. because of the city curfew, according to a memo reviewed by The Washington Post. Ornato ultimately contacted the Secret Service to arrange for the president to make a brief appearance the church, according to two people familiar with the plans. Following protocol, the Secret Service alerted other law enforcement agencies that it would need help clearing the area for the president's safety, they said. Black-clad officers and agents of the Secret Service's civil disturbance unit stood by during the tense confrontation with protesters and then helped secure the emptied-out streets. Trump told an ally Monday after the visit that the Secret Service was not "thrilled" about the idea of him visiting the church. It was unclear when Barr learned Trump would be walking across the square to appear in front of St. John's. A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on that question. When Barr ordered the perimeter to be pushed back, the Justice Department official said, the attorney general "assumed that any resistance from the protesters of being moved would be met with typical crowd-control measures." The official said Barr had been told on the scene that there were reports of the crowd passing rocks among themselves and that a bottle had been thrown in his direction. Washington Post reporters who were at the square did not witness protesters using any rocks. The official defended Barr's decision. "This plan was happening, regardless of any plans of the president," the official said. One senior administration official said that Trump and other senior White House officials wanted the perimeter pushed back to I Street NW and that they expected it to happen earlier in the day. "We weren't saying to push it back just so he could go to the church," the official said. "That was not the reason it was pushed back." The official added that the goal was to spread protesters across the city and not just around the White House and to have armed D.C. National Guard officers help enforce curfew. About 30 minutes after the protesters were removed, Trump arrived at the church and posed for a photograph outside it, holding a Bible. Afterward, he told allies and advisers that he believed the event had gone well, and his mood improved. The use of such aggressive force startled some veteran former officers of the Secret Service and other federal agencies, because it appeared to be rushed and unprovoked by protesters. The line of officers rushing protesters, many of whom were standing still with their arms in the air, violated the normal protocol for clearing protesters, something the Secret Service accomplishes dozens of times a year in Lafayette Square without ever tossing smoke canisters or using riot shields. "Usually officers hold a line and don't move forward unless there is provocation," said one former Secret Service agent who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe operational procedures. "The officers give constant warnings and communicate clearly with the crowd. But here it seems like there is some time pressure; they were acting like a bomb is about to go off." Another veteran former Secret Service agent who reviewed video of the treatment of protesters said he feared that the order from Barr signaled a worrisome shift in who calls the shots about deploying use of force. "We protect the president," he said of the Secret Service. "We don't report to the president. It feels like that line has now been blurred." The Secret Service, which has the legal power to clear any area for the president's safety, did not respond to questions seeking an explanation of its decision-making. "For operational security reasons, the U.S. Secret Service does not discuss our protective means and methods," the agency said in a statement. White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement that "the perimeter was expanded to help enforce the 7 p.m. curfew in the same area where rioters attempted to burn down one of our nation's most historic churches the night before. Protesters were given three warnings by the U.S. Park Police." However, reporters who were on the scene and protesters said they could not make out any audible warnings. Zach Slavin, 32, said he was leaning against the metal barricade separating authorities from protesters when he saw the line of officers starting to move up in coordinated bursts. He heard "mumbled announcements" over the loudspeaker but was not able to discern what was being said. "There was absolutely nothing that was understandable," said Slavin, adding that he had been following police guidance throughout the day. At 6:30 p.m., Slavin said, officers passed instructions down the line, then suddenly burst forward past the barricade. A thick cloud descended over the crowd, he said, and armed officers on foot started firing rubber pellets at people. "There was no warning," Slavin said. With a bandanna around his face, Slavin began coughing and felt gas stinging his eyes, he said. As he tried to break free from the crowd, several canisters were dropped a few feet away from him and exploded. These explosives were dropped in the middle of the crowd, within several feet of at least a hundred people or more, he said. Officers continued firing rubber pellets at protesters who were already backing up. The officers "were acting like terrorists," said Slavin, an 11-year District resident. "I was being chased by police on the streets of my own city." Park Police spokesman Eduardo Delgado disputed that officers were not at risk. He said that officers were provoked by protesters throwing frozen water bottles and that there were other indicators of more serious potential harm the crowd could do. "We had intel that there were glass bottles they had stashed at the church to throw at us," Delgado said. "They had caches of supplies, bricks." - - - The Washington Post's Hannah Natanson, Tom Jackman, Missy Ryan, Peter Hermann, Fenit Nirappil, Patricia Sullivan and Nick Miroff contributed to this report. Trotters were in the spotlight during the Tuesday, June 2 qualifying session at Woodbine Mohawk Park, and it's safe to say that Bob McIntosh's trotting star Only Take Cash only wanted the front in her tilt. A total of 11 dashes went postward during the session, which took place over a 'fast' track. There wasn't an abundance of action during the opening stages of most of Tuesday's qualifiers, but that was not the case in Race 10, which saw multiple starters, including the accomplished Only Take Cash, put forth bids for the early lead. After having started from Post 4, Only Take Cash, the talented daughter of Cash Hall, was three-wide into the first turn, as she and driver Trevor Henry had no interest in tucking in during the :30 opening frame. Henry and the talented miss would eventually clear their rivals and settle down along the pylons early in the second quarter. From there, the duo went on to cruise through the middle fractions in 1:00 and 1:29.3. Only Take Cash only needed to gear up a tad in the final frame, as she came home with a :28.1 kicker to win her 2020 charted debut. Only Take Cash has, basically, done just that since she first started competing back in 2018. The mare has made 22 career pari-mutuel starts and has finished off the board just once. She sports a record of 15-5-1 to this point in her career, and has stashed away just over $787,000 in purses for her owners, Robert McIntosh Stables Inc., Dave Boyle, and Mardon Stables. All eyes were on 2019 Hambletonian winner Forbidden Trade in Race 9, as the Luc Blais trainee was making his 2020 charted debut for pilot Bob McClure. That didn't matter to six-year-old Deweycheatumnhowe horse Dancer Hall, who trotted a front-end trip and went on to post a solid win for trainer Isabelle Darveau and driver Robert Shepherd. Dancer Hall was intent on grabbing the early lead, as he raced overland to the point past the :29.2 opening quarter. Once on the engine, Dancer Hall cut the middle splits in :58.2 and 1:27.2 before coming home to hit the wire first in 1:56. The mile was the first charted line of the year for Dancer Hall, who has been a recent staple of the Preferred ranks at Woodbine Mohawk Park. The win time was also the fastest recorded during the Tuesday qualifying session. McClure and Forbidden Trade had started from the rail in Race 9 and allowed the rest of the field to leave out in front of them. McClure and the Ontario-sired star watched the race unfold from second-last and stayed at the back of the pack for the remainder of the mile. Three-year-old trotting colts and geldings comprised the first seven races of the docket, and a pair of sophomores recorded the fastest win times of the session for their respective class. Oaklea Farm homebred Horse Trader looped to the lead from the pocket just before the half-mile pole and went on to win the second qualifier of the morning in 1:57.2 for driver Trevor Henry and trainer Paul Walker. The three-year-old Wheeling N Dealin colt started from the rail, sat in the pocket past the :29.4 opening quarter, and was first to the half in :59.3. From there, the Define The World winner went on to trot past the three-quarters pole in 1:28.2 and cruised home in the lane with a 29-second final quarter. The mile proved to be the fastest win time of the first half of the morning session. The races for three-year-old trotting colts and geldings continued after the break, and in Race 7 it was the Stephanie Jamieson-trained and Jody Jamieson-driven Hot Wheelz that also won in 1:57.2, which equalled Horse Trader's win time for the quickest sophomore male trotting performance of the session. After having sat second for the better part of three quarters of the mile, Jamieson shot his charge to the lead and went on to win convincingly. Jody Jamieson owns the gelded son of Wheeling N Dealin. To view the harness racing results for Mohawk's Tuesday qualifying session, click the following link: Tuesday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park (Qualifying). Actor-politician Manoj Tiwari was replaced by Adesh Kumar Gupta as the new president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)s Delhi unit. His appointment was announced by BJP national president JP Nadda on June 2. Gupta is set to take charge as the Delhi BJP chief with immediate effect. Before being appointed to the post, he had been elected as the mayor of North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) by the saffron party in 2018. Gupta completed his graduation in BSc from Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj University in Kanpur. He became associated with BJPs Vidyarthi Parishad during his college days, which eventually helped him carve out his political journey. He had also played an important role in BJP Yuva Morcha and is believed to be closely associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), India.com reported. An election affidavit filed during the 2017 municipal corporation elections on behalf of the leader in his 50s, declared his assets to be worth Rs 1.22 crore. It also mentioned that there are no criminal cases registered against him. He had contested from NDMCs ward number 98, i.e., West Patel Nagar Ward, and had won. Born to Shambhudayal Gupta in Uttar Pradeshs Kannauj district, Gupta is also a Purvanchali like his predecessor. It is believed that the saffron party chose yet another Purvanchali to head its operations in the Delhi chapter to sway the votes of the dominant community (natives of Bihar and UP) that constitutes 25 to 30 percent of the National Capitals total voter base. Political experts have suggested that Guptas appointment was made with an eye on the upcoming 2022 MCD elections. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment According to the New York Federal Reserve Consumer Credit Panel, Americans owe a total of $1.5 trillion in federal student loan debt. Student loan debt for young adults ages 19-30, in particular, are responsible for roughly $1 trillion of the burden. Financial debt is hardly a new issue facing people today. For centuries money has consistently earned its place as the leading cause of divorce, anxiety, depression and overall discontent. Our capitalist society often amplifies our stress striving for financial success according to culture. The aggressive rise of student loan debt has only multiplied collective anxiety around money. The economy is already reflecting the ramifications, symptomatic of millennials crippled by enormous student loan debt averaging $30,000 per person. Paired with the challenging economy, rising cost of living with no matching increase in wages has lead millennials away from purchasing homes, making investments and even having children. As someone with more than triple the average student loan debt, Ive experienced personal distress and anxiety over my financial future. My personal journey of rightening my relationship to money has been entirely reliant on my willingness to surrender it to God. Its no wonder when we look at the Bible, money is the second most-referenced topic after love. When we look onto society today its hard to find a subject more consuming. Money remains an enduring snare for anxiety, selfishness and ultimately greed. God has so kindly written His word to confront this very crisis. Nearly 25% of Jesus words in the New Testament deal with financial stewardship. As I continue to seek wisdom from the word I fully recognize the tools it offers to conquer anxiety around money, especially amidst the student loan crisis. Here are the helpful principles Ive gathered from scripture to combat financial stress. 1. Everything belongs to God Job 41:11 states: Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine. The first step in tackling money woes is establishing the Biblical perspective on money. The truth is all things under the sun belong to Him. Every possession weve earned is a blessing we dont truly deserve. Our propensity towards anxiety around money largely stems from the power its given in our lives. Money represents the ability to build or destroy lives, lighten or deepen burdens, liberate or enslave. However, while money is certainly a powerful catalyst it is far from the true source of our stability both physically and spiritually. Philippians 4:19 states: And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus. Money is nothing but a tool intended for us to live out Gods purpose for our lives. The misappropriation of power towards money is digging emotional and spiritual stakes into shakey, shallow ground. The remembrance that God owns all and supplies all rightens our priorities and severs bondage to money. This simple yet profound framework pulls apart the capitalistic idolization of earning and deserving. When it comes to debt such as student loans its critical to remember lenders do not own you. No matter how daunting, messy, staggering the circumstance God, your true provider, remains. Hebrews 13:5 says: Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. When we put our hope in God and not money, we stop looking for it to sustain and fulfill us. Tithing the first 10% of ones income is intended to remind us of just that it all belongs to Him. 2. Practicing financial discipline is an act of obedience. After dismantling the idolization of money were left with practical questions as to how to handle it. Again, a perspective shift is required to renew our relationship to money. I often felt paralyzed when dealing with my personal finances. Between prolonged forbearance, loan deferment and blocking Sallie Maes number, its tempting to yield to fear. When we observe scripture it again confronts a cultural framework around financial discipline. We know God created us not to simply consume. He created us to be good stewards of the earth and our resources to bring His kingdom. In other words, were responsible for what were given. Discipleship with money is a central element of our faith walk. If we are living for His glory to be fulfilled our relationship with money needs to reflect that. Luke 16:11-12 states: If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is anothers, who will give you that which is your own? Here we see God turn culture on its head. The wealth and resources God blesses us with are not spoils to squander exclusively to meet our needs. Our finances are our responsibility. It is an opportunity to practice Biblical stewardship. It took a conversation with a dear friend who lovingly reminded me that getting a hold of my finances was not simply something God wants for my life its a commandment. In order for Christs servants to be His hands and feet, we are called to implement tools to flourish our resources. Even still, Gods commandment does not lack compassion towards fear of detangling money stress. As someone with multiple student loans, intimidation was responsible for numerous financial missteps. However, Gods position is not to watch you flounder in fear. Anxiety is often the result of imaging the mountain of debt without Gods involvement. He is so intimately woven into every trace of your life and money is no different. Our loving Father wants to be invited into the storm of navigating finances. If we commit ourselves to engaging with money fueled by the charge of the father and grounded by His guidance, intimidation wont win. With the focus from this holy order, invest time into finding practical tools to handle your finances. Find a budget that works for you, get an accountability partner, take courses online. Equip yourself with practical, helpful tools to manage your money and thus honor God with your resources. 3. Give generously no matter how much you have. What we do with our money communicates where our priorities lie. As noted in Luke 12:34: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The question begs, where do we shape our priorities? The central way to anchor our perspective lies in generosity. Tithing the first 10% of your income is foundational to Gods purpose for our finances. Tithing alone could remain its own dissertation. Living a generous life extends beyond tithing. Like many Americans deep into debt, its easy to become lost in personal needs. After meeting my physical needs (loans, bills, rent, food, gas) Im seldom concerned with spending money on anyone outside myself. A common first resistant response is not having enough to give. Even when we apply the truth that Gods the true provider, and inherit disciplines around handling money its hard to shake the feeling. The fact is were to honor Him with what we have in our hands, no matter how much or little. As demonstrated in the story of the widower in Mark 12:41-44: Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling His disciples to Him, Jesus said, Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything all she had to live on. Giving has less to do with wealth than it does heart condition. Gods asking for us to surrender our selfish nature to consider others. From the outside, generosity can appear to be an unhelpful burden to heap atop our countless money concerns. In reality, generosity is the balm to heal the burdensome ache of financial anxiety. It reminds us of who God is, who we are and why were actually here. The beauty of generosity is there arent limits to what it looks like. It could be as striking as writing a check to help a friend in dire need or as subtle as buying a cup of coffee for the stressed-out parent at Starbucks. No matter the form it takes, God is calling our hearts to generosity. Ask God to invite you into new forms of generosity. Start a chain reaction of loving service. The devastation of the student loan crisis in America is a new twist to a centuries-old problem money. Uncovering the deep well of Biblical financial wisdom will give birth to newfound confidence in the face of fear. A deep depression over east-central Arabian Sea, which intensified into cyclone Nisarga on Tuesday noon is expected to make landfall as a severe cyclonic storm with a wind speed of 100 to 110 kmph gusting to 120 kmph near Alibag in Raigad district on June 3, the India Metereological Department (IMD) said on Tuesday. Located 94 km from Mumbai, Alibag is a popular seaside resort town for Mumbais elite and home to a large fisherfolk community. It started as a warning on Sunday for mid-week heavy rains in Mumbai and by Monday, rapidly developed into a red alert for several coastal districts as the deep depression progressed over the Arabian Sea. As of Tuesday noon, cyclone Nisarga was 280 km west-southwest of Goa, 490 km south-southwest of Mumbai and 710 km south-southwest of Surat . The IMD said that the cyclone was likely to cross north Maharashtra and adjoining south Gujarat coast between Daman and Harihareshwar in Raigad on Wednesday afternoon. The western coastline from Konkans Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri to Saurashtras Bhavnagar and other districts of Gujarat including Surat and Baruch have received wind warnings ranging from 55-65 kmph (gusting to 75kmph) and increasing to gusting speeds of 115-120kmph in four Maharashtra districts of Palghar, Mumbai, Thane and Raigad. Though a wide expanse of districts stands to be affected across coastal Maharashtra and Gujarat, higher wind speeds in the four districts mentioned above offer an indication of where the cyclone is likely to have maximum impact. The landfall location will be very close to Alibag but extensive damage can be expected in Mumbai also. For Mumbai, Thane and Raigad there can be storm surge of 1-2 metres and a warning for extremely heavy rainfall has been issued, M Mohapatra, director general IMD, said. Additional storm surge warnings shoreward movement of water above astronomical tide height under the action of wind stress have also been issued for Raigad, Thane, Greater Mumbai and Ratnagiri. Storm surges indicate the extent of inundation to expect. A storm surge of 0.5m to 1.3m over coastal Alibag may result in flooding up to 1.4km of low-lying area. The city of Mumbai and its suburban satellite of Thane, already beleaguered by daily caseload of Covid-19 infections the capital city breached the 40,000 mark at the start of the week are in the cyclonic path, leading to concern over whether the city healthcare infrastructure would be able to cope. The IMD sounded a red alert as extremely heavy rains (over 20 cm) are expected in parts of Mumbai, Thane, Raigad, Sindhudurg, and Palghar among other districts. Roxy Mathew Koll, senior scientist, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) Pune, said that if landfall happened over Raigad, maximum rainfall should be expected over areas to its north, where Mumbai falls. Not just the direct impact of winds but forecast indicates heavy rain up to 200mm while the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services has forecast storm surges with waves of 3-6 metres as the cyclone approaches landfall.If this happens during high tide on June 3 then flooding will be a major concern for a city that is already clogged. The last severe cyclonic storm to hit close to Mumbai was in 1961. This storm is severe but with a wind speed of only 100 to 110 kmph. The important thing is to take all precautions possible, which state governments are trying. Inundation is possible so evacuation of vulnerable people is important, said Mohapatra. But experts warned that devastation can be extensive as todays Mumbai is very different from the Bombay of 1960s which has lost most of its floodplains and rivulets and is now counted as among the densest cities in the world. Where are Mumbais floodplains now? Mithi river used to flow then, now its a nallah [drain]. Natural defenses like mangroves and rivers have been squeezed out of the city for expanding roads, buildings, and the airport. Hence, when heavy rains lash over a city like Mumbai which has lost its flood plains and defences, the flooding gets prolonged there too,said Koll. IMD officials said pre-monsoon cyclones like Nisarga were not a rare event, citing the example of very severe cyclone Vayu in June 2019, which was supposed to have made landfall over the Gujarat coastline, but ended up as a low pressure system. We are observing the increase in pre-monsoon cyclones in Arabian Sea. While we should not draw a trend until observing such weather systems for at least a few years. However, we are assessing whether these systems are intensifying faster than before [which could be] due to numerous factors including rising ocean temperatures, said Sunitha Devi, in-charge of cyclones at IMD. Some of the weakest cyclones at sea are being strengthened due to global warming and climate change impacts. This is no more a theory, and is being witnessed every monsoon in Arabian Sea now, Anjal Prakash, author of an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, said. The name, Nisarga proposed by Bangladesh, means nature. It is the 65th named cyclone in the north Indian Ocean and the second pre-monsoon cyclone to hit the Konkan coast since 1891. It comes in the wake of cyclone Amphan that devastated the lives of over a million people and left 86 dead when it made landfall as a very severe cyclonic storm on May 21 at the Sunderbans, in West Bengal. Skymet, a private weather forecaster differed from the IMDs prediction of the cyclonic path. Our weather models are showing the landfall north of Mumbai with crucial period of extremely heavy rain and gale winds expected from Tuesday evening to Wednesday afternoon, said Mahesh Palawat, vice president (meteorology and climate change). //ends KALAMAZOO, MI -- The deployment of Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety officers in riot gear at the protest that brought thousands to downtown Kalamazoo Saturday was the main point of discussion at Mondays Kalamazoo City Commission meeting. The city held a virtual meeting on Monday, June 1, much of which KDPS Chief Karianne Thomas spent relaying the decisions of her officers Saturday. The protests in Kalamazoo were among many across the state and nation in the wake of the death of George Floyd, who was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis. KDPS mourns with the country the horrific death of Mr. Floyd in Minneapolis and we admire those want their voices heard and respect everyones right to protest, Thomas said. Many concerned citizens echoed displeasure with KDPS decision to send officers wearing riot gear to Saturdays 6 p.m. protest, which remained peaceful. Whoever ordered the officers to come out with riot gear, Im truly disappointed, Kalamazoo resident Shardae Chambers said during the public comment portion of the meeting. That needs to be addressed and you need to do better. City Commissioner Erin Knott echoed the concerns during the meeting. My questions to the chief of police is how do we do better with communicating with the public in real time? We cannot let 48 hours or so go by before we communicate publicly, Knott said. During the meeting, City Manager Jim Ritsema acknowledged the two protests that took place on Saturday, inviting Thomas to explain her departments decision to deploy two vans carrying officers in riot gear to the evening protest. Thomas said the department received multiple concerns about officers responding to the protest wearing riot gear. During Mondays meeting, Thomas said she sat down with Vice Mayor Patrese Griffin and City Commissioner Eric Cunningham who sought an explanation about the procedures for the crowd management team. Cunningham said the reason no questions were asked directly to the chief during the meeting was because they had met privately beforehand. In a Facebook post Monday afternoon, Griffin encouraged residents who had concerns about the departments actions Saturday to participate in Mondays city commission meeting. To be clear, I do not support police brutality, excessive force or any inhumane or unjust policy or practice, Griffin said in the Facebook post. Thomas said the team has undergone regular training for the past two years. One of the reasons we formed that team is we saw a need as people gather, to peacefully protest, around the country we had seen many agencies had a line of SWAT officers, or officers just spraying pepper spray to control large crowds, Thomas said. We didnt want that image for KDPS officers, we wanted a more professional manner to handle large crowds. Thomas described the protest as peaceful, explaining public safety officers blocked and rerouted traffic across multiple streets downtown. At approximately 7 p.m. in one area of the crowd after they had marched and stopped on Michigan near the mall, two KDPS cruisers with public safety officers inside were surrounded by a very vocal and emotional group of protesters and there was an increasing level of agitation coming out of that group that surrounded the officers," Thomas said. After relaying the message back to the officers in command asking for assistance to get out of the crowd, the crowd management team was deployed to extract the officers, Thomas said. Our main goal was to extract the public safety officers and the cruisers, our intent was never to increase the agitation of the crowd, Thomas said. The crowd management team donning riot gear engaged with the protesters, ordering them to move back. Thomas said the deployment of the fully protected officers was in part a distraction in order to extract the officers inside their vehicle surrounded by the crowd. Once the crowd management team arrived and lined up, the entire crowd shifted to see what that was and we were able to get those cruisers and those officers out, Thomas said. Thomas said another reason for the calling of the crowd management teams was to keep the protest moving. "When crowds stay in one location, they get bored and thats when we see actions we dont want to see, Thomas said. The officers wearing riot gear were present at Saturdays protest for nearly 12 minutes, pushing the crowd back on Michigan Avenue before exiting back to their staging area for the duration of the nearly 5 hour protest, according to Thomas. The crowd management team had moved the crowd by the techniques they know, which is Move back which is forcibly moving the crowd, Thomas said. 104 Protests continue in downtown Kalamazoo MORE ON MLIVE: Silent protesters hold demonstration in Kalamazoo Throngs crowd downtown Kalamazoo from days second protest Grand Rapids protesters scatter after police, backed by Michigan National Guard, move in At a time when the three municipal corporations in the city are facing a financial crunch and are seeking to boost their revenues with property taxes, residents complained that the new version of the online format to fill the tax details is not user-friendly and that there were issues in accessing and submitting forms to pay the tax. Residents welfare associations (RWAs) across Delhi have raised the issue with the corporations and urged them to simplify the process and provide assistance to house owners, especially senior citizens, who have been facing the most difficulties. Unlike every year, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the corporations are unable to set up facilitation camps to help those without internet connectivity or smartphones. According to civic officials, the property tax websites of the corporations -- South, North and East --- have been updated last month and new features were introduced. The sites were under construction until at least May 20. Every year, most house owners deposit the property tax between April 1 and June 30, which is the window when they are entitled to get a 15% rebate on the total amount. From errors in signing up to wiping out previous records of the property, the issues raised by residents are many. Atul Goyal, president, URJA (United Residents Joint Action), an umbrella body of 2,500 RWAs, said the association has written to the corporations to fix the glitches. There are multiple errors showing up such as not allowing one to register or access the form. Also, the new system does not include all modes of payment, Goyal said. He added that the site also makes it mandatory to submit banking details for payment. In the previous format, there was an option to generate a receipt with which one could pay the tax by cheque. Also, registering your phone number and email address are now prerequisites to access the form. For many senior citizens, this has become an issue. Until last year, a civic official would come home to help us with filling up the form. Most of the elderly people do not have email addresses. Many live alone while their children are abroad and nobody is there to help them with online activities. Also, there are network issues and sometimes, the OTP doesnt get generated, Ashok Prabhakar (80), president, Malviya Nagar senior citizens forum, said. Rajiv Kakria, member, Greater Kailash-1 RWA, said, Though I was able to access the website, it was only after four days that I could submit the form. However, one of the major issues is that except for the previous payment details, the rest of the history of my property dating back to the 1960s, the renovations and all other such details till date, have been wiped out. Radha Krishan, joint assessor and collector, south corporation, said with the help of the central government, a new website has been developed to help taxpayers in the long-run. So far, there was no uniformity in the format and people could access the tax details through multiple ways.However, because of the newly developed format, users are facing some glitches. We are resolving these and offering help to residents on our zonal helplines on weekends. The system will soon be made error-free, he said. A senior north corporation official said hey are going to release a video, explaining to users step by step how to access the form. Besides, the civic body also plans to launch a helpline to assist people with the procedure. The portal is being made into a single-window system from where users will be able to avail of other services such as getting licences of shops, renewals, etc., using the same property ID. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON About 30 different hospitals in the UK are set to try five different drugs for COVID-19 treatment in phase II trials, as per a report by the Guardian. About 30 different hospitals in the UK are set to try five different drugs for COVID-19 treatment in phase II trials, as per a report by the Guardian. The drugs are a part of the ACCORD (Accelerating, COVID-19 Research & Development platform) programme that was set up earlier in April to check the effectiveness of various drugs for the treatment of coronavirus infection. According to an April 29 news release by the UK Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), ACCORD is made possible by a collaboration between the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) UK, a clinical research company IQVIA and the biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. DHSC and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) are funding the programme. The trials As the number of coronavirus patients is going down in the UK, the trial hasnt got a lot of patients so far. However, the researchers are planning to include at least 60 patients in each arm of the trial. A total of six drugs will be initially tested out of 200 candidates. If any drug succeeds in giving results, it will go into a larger study with more patients. The five drugs Out of the six drugs, only five have been revealed so far. Here are the five drugs that are currently being tested: 1. Bemcentinib: Bemcentinib was the first drug candidate in ACCORD platform that was revealed by the DHSC in their April 29 press release. This drug was developed by the biopharmaceutical company BerGenBio. It has shown potent antiviral action against various viruses including Zika and Ebola and now the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This drug inhibits the activity of an enzyme AXL kinase and prevents the entry of the virus into host cells. It also promotes interferon-gamma - 1 response in the body. Interferon-gamma - 1 has a strong antiviral action. As per media reports, the first patient under the trial was given Bemcentinib today at the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust. The phase II study will have 120 patients - 60 will receive the drug and 60 will be given a placebo. 2. Heparin: Heparin is a blood thinner that will be given to patients next month. It can reportedly prevent viral entry into cells and may also reduce inflammation. Studies show that heparin prevents blood clotting in COVID-19 patients and also prevents arrhythmia. Also, it is more widely available and can be easily mass-produced. 3. Zilucoplan: Zilucoplan is an anti-inflammatory drug. It was developed by the Belgian company UCB biopharmaceuticals and is in phase 3 of its studies for myasthenia gravis treatment. Myasthenia gravis is an autoimmune disorder that occurred when the connections between muscles and nerve cells break down. It leads to severe muscle weakness. As per a trial listed by UCB on clinicaltrials.gov, a database of privately and publicly funded clinical studies conducted around the world, Zilucoplan can inhibit lung injury in COVID-19 patients and can improve lung oxygenation. 4. Calquence (generic name - Acalabrutinib): Acalabrutinib is an AstraZeneca drug which is used to treat some types of cancers. It is an inhibitor of an enzyme called Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK). BTK blocks the action of a protein that causes cancer cell multiplication. Early clinical reports suggest that calquence can reduce inflammation - one of the characteristics of severe COVID-19. 5. Medi3506: Medi3506 is a type of anti-inflammatory monoclonal antibody developed by MedImmune, a subsidiary of AstraZeneca. It is currently being tested for the treatment of atopic dermatitis and diabetic nephropathy. In the case of COVID-19, Medi3506 can reportedly help control the excess inflammation and help manage the immune system overdrive (also known as a cytokine storm). For more information, read our article on Drugs that are being repurposed for COVID-19. Health articles in Firstpost are written by myUpchar.com, Indias first and biggest resource for verified medical information. At myUpchar, researchers and journalists work with doctors to bring you information on all things health. (CNN) - At least 20 journalists have died and more than 50 are currently infected with COVID-19 in Peru, according to Perus National Journalists Association (ANP). Many of the victims were working in the countrys most affected regions, Zuliana Lainez, ANP's secretary general, told CNN on Tuesday. Six of them died in Iquitos, one of hardest hit regions by the pandemic. All of them were working actively until days before they collapsed, Lainez said. These journalists were also more at risk due to their employment conditions, Lainez added. Eight of the 20 victims were not full-time workers. Our colleagues based in the regions and not in the capital dont have an organization behind them to provide (personal protective equipment), many of them have been going to hospitals and markets just with home-made masks, Lainez explained ANP has asked the government to supply freelance journalists with PPE equipment so they can continue their work in the field. In Perus capital, Lima, larger media organizations improved conditions for media workers just a few weeks ago, Lainez claimed. Even a month after the lockdown, our colleagues were still interviewing people half-meter away from the interviewee in crowded markets. Now they have finally started to use long microphones for example, but this is only after a photographer from a TV station died, Lainez said. But the former president of Perus Public TV and Radio institute (IRTP) and journalist Hugo Coya estimates that the figures of journalists among Covid-19 victims could be much higher. There are a lot of them who dont belong to any union and work as freelancers, so they are not officially accounted for anywhere," Coya argues. Perus Ministry of Transport and Communications approved a health protocol for TV and Radio employees at the end of May. The protocol establishes measures related to disinfection and use of PPE equipment for TV and radio employees, according to a statement released by Perus Radio and Television Advisory Council (ConcorTV). The document also states that radio and television companies are responsible for monitoring the health condition of their workers, while the Ministry is responsible for monitoring any breaches to the guidelines. But the directive does not include print journalists as the ministry is in charge of regulating only the radio and television industry, a member of the councils communications team clarified. Peru has the second-highest number of coronavirus cases in Latin America, following Brazil. This story was first published on CNN.com, "At least 20 journalists have died in Peru from COVID-19" photo: Vincent Jones Francois S. Clemmons received a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College and a Master of Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University. He also received an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from Middlebury College. In 1973, he won a Grammy for a recording of Porgy and Bess; in 1986, he founded and directed the Harlem Spiritual Ensemble; and from 1997 until his retirement in 2013, Clemmons was the Alexander Twilight Artist in Residence and director of the Martin Luther King Spiritual Choir at Middlebury College in Vermont, where he resides. He is perhaps best known for his appearances as the singing police officer, Officer Clemmons, on the PBS television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Officer Clemmons: A Memoir was published by Catapult on May 5, 2020. On your nightstand now: I admit that I've kept a galley of Officer Clemmons: A Memoir there ever since I received it in the mail! Favorite book when you were a child: I absolutely loved Five Smooth Stones by Ann Fairbairn, about a young black boy in Depression-era New Orleans who suffers great hardship in his life in order to become a leader of the civil rights movement. I read that book over and over again. Your top five authors: Commanding and beautiful black voices like James Baldwin, Lucille Clifton, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Maya Angelou... and Langston Hughes. That's six, but I can't possibly leave him out! Book you've faked reading: Harry Potter. I know, I know, but I just didn't have the time to read them when the series became so popular, and I never picked them up later. Book you're an evangelist for: A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. Zinn is the real deal--I recommended his book to my students every year. It revolutionized the way American history can be taught and discussed. Book you've bought for the cover: Becoming by Michelle Obama. I absolutely adore Michelle. She is such an inspiring woman, and the photo on her memoir speaks to her strength as well as her warmth. Book you hid from your parents: The Persian Boy by Mary Renault as well as Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin because it was before I could ever explain to my parents why I wanted to read novels with gay characters. I didn't have the courage to tell them as a young man because I was certain that they would have met my confession with disgust and derision. Book that changed your life: Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington inspired me tremendously. Washington has always been one of my heroes and he made me realize that if he could rise up from his terrible beginnings and make such an impact on the world, then maybe I could rise, too. Favorite line from a book: My favorite line actually comes from an opera called The Consul by Gian Carlo Menotti: "Even a great, great artist must find a way to make a living." Nothing has quite resonated more for me! Five books you'll never part with: The Bible because it has so much adventure, spirituality and the most gorgeous poetry you would ever want to read. I relate deeply to the beautiful Song of Solomon as well as the Anointing of David, and the story of Elijah. I've always been particularly drawn to the Old Testament. The Little Prince, although I do gift copies from time to time. I enjoy that, at its heart, it is a story about relationships and how people care for one another. I think it is also an interesting metaphor for my experience in the gay community. Like the fox in the story, many do not wish to be "tamed." There is a fear in getting too close and accepting real love. The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran speaks about spiritual freedom, and I find the thought of that kind of freedom to be simply amazing. The notion that I belonged to myself and not anyone else was revelatory. It showed me that I had the right to make my own decisions. Roots by Alex Haley is very important to me because it gave an affirmative and positive feeling about being an African American. It is easy to feel disconnected in this country from Africa, but Roots had a very vital and organic connection with Africa that was palpable. Many African Americans feel like our beginnings began with slavery in this country and it didn't--our ancestry has pride and respect and honor in Africa. The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin showed the importance of activism. It helped me find my place in the world and showed me that my art wasn't quite enough--that singing a song didn't quite cut it. Baldwin gave me a roadmap for how to be an activist. Book you most want to read again for the first time: Jubilee by Margaret Walker. It's essentially a black version of Gone with the Wind and has been described as "the first truly historical black American novel." I found it incredibly representative, powerful and relatable. OTTAWASystemic issues of racism and discrimination that have spurred demonstrations in the streets of U.S. cities are a daily reality for millions of Canadians as well, even on Parliament Hill, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says. This is something that our own staff, cabinet ministers, and colleagues face even in these halls, Trudeau told the House of Commons, adding that hes heard their personal stories firsthand. And I'm not just talking about acts of violence. I'm also talking about microaggressions, which many of us may not even see, Trudeau said. That is the daily reality of far too many racialized Canadians. And it needs to stop. Its been just over a week since demonstrations across the U.S were spurred by the death of George Floyd, a Black Minneapolis man who died after being restrained by a white police office. That officer has since been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Asked during his daily pandemic briefing to comment on the words and actions of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has called for military intervention against the protesters, Trudeau took a very long pause. In the end, he didnt comment on Trump at all. We all watch in horror and consternation whats going on in the United States, he said. It is a time to learn what injustices continue despite progress over years and decades. But it is a time for us as Canadians to recognize that we too have our challenges, that Black Canadians and racialized Canadians face discrimination as a lived reality every single day. There is systemic discrimination in Canada which means our systems treat Canadians of colour, Canadians who are racialized differently than they do others. It is something that many of us dont see but it is something that is a lived reality for racialized Canadians, he said. Last year, Trudeau acknowledged racist incidents in his own past when it was revealed he had worn blackface on several different occasions, including once during his career as a high school teacher. I have made serious mistakes in the past mistakes which I deeply regret, and continue to learn from, Trudeau said Tuesday. The prime minister had spoken on the issue of racism on Monday, but was moved to speak out again on Tuesday by the depth of pain felt by many Canadians, one senior official told the Star. He spoke with members of our Black caucus and Hill staff yesterday and I think thats also really driven home the challenges of race in our country as well, the official told the Star. In a video posted on Twitter, Liberal MP Greg Fergus, who is Black, talked about a recent online chat he hosted with Black political staff on Parliament Hill. These young women and men are successful in every sense of the word, yet each and every one of them had faced on multiple occasions the humiliations that come with racism. If they felt that, can you imagine how those that dont have a voice deal with that each and every day, Fergus said in his video. Bringing about social and economic justice will require uncomfortable conversations with people that look like you, and people who dont look like you, said Fergus (Hull-Aylmer). If we can do that now, then I hold out the hope that things can get better. For a short time in the Commons Tuesday, federal politicians turned their attention away from the pandemic to a virus that Green Party MP Elizabeth May said has afflicted Canadian society for far longer. We are facing in this pandemic two dangerous invisible viruses. One is COVID-19. The other is one we have tolerated for far too long which is race-based hatred, hate speech and anti-Black racism, May said. Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer declared that racism is real in Canada, targeting religious and ethnic minorities. While Floyds death has sparked marches and demonstrations, some of them violent, Scheer said he hoped it had also sparked conversations. Racism is real. It is painful and it is wrong. No one should ever feel unsafe because of the colour of their skin, especially around police officers, who have a duty and responsibility to uphold the law for all, he said. NPD Leader Jagmeet Singh a practising Sikh who himself faced incidents of racism in last falls election campaign voiced frustration at the pretty speeches by politicians but lack of action. Government after government prefers lip service to concrete action, Singh said. How many more people need to die before there is action? How many speeches will be made? How many more protests need to happen, Singh said. Singh pressed Trudeau to commit to end racial profiling and the high rates of incarceration of Black people and improve access to education and health resources. The prime minister has the power to do all these things right now. The prime minister simply needs to get it done, Singh said. Yet Trudeau offered no concrete action on racism, declining even to commit to the recommendations of a 2017 United Nations human rights report that Canada apologize for slavery and consider reparations for historical injustices faced by Black Canadians. We will work with the Black community across this country as we have to respond to their priorities, he said. Read more about: STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. The Eltingville ex-convict accused of slaying a couple three weeks ago in a Mariners Harbor home invasion will remain held without bail. Judge David Frey ordered that Phillip Moreno be kept behind bars at a preliminary hearing Tuesday in Criminal Court. The proceeding was conducted remotely. Moreno is accused of gunning down Alafia Rodriguez, 46, and his girlfriend Ana DeSousa, 33, inside the couples home at 376 Grandview Ave., said a criminal complaint. DeSousa was about seven months pregnant, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation. The hearing was convened to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to detain Moreno pending grand jury action. Prosecutors had the burden of establishing there was probable cause to believe the defendant had committed a felony. Grand juries have not convened for more than two months due to coronavirus concerns. The hearing was limited to events that occurred outside the decedents home, said defense lawyer Mark J. Fonte. Two officers testified they responded to a call of shots fired and encountered Moreno leaving the residence. They said they tackled him when he started to run. The cops said they found a handgun, three gun magazines, a bag of crack cocaine, zip ties and a knife in Morenos possession, said Fonte. Among the charges against him, Moreno, 45, is accused of criminal weapon possession. The top charges against Moreno are two counts of first-degree murder for allegedly slaying multiple victims. Hes also accused of attempted murder (first- and second-degree), first-degree assault, first-degree burglary, reckless endangerment and child endangerment. Moreno, who has denied the allegations, was placed on suicide watch, said Fonte. We are still in the very early stages of these proceedings, Fonte said. The criminal complaint said the victims were slain between 4:55 and 5:05 p.m. Cops nabbed the defendant around 5:05 p.m. They found three victims in the living room Rodriguez, DeSousa and Erica Johnson, 43, a friend of the couple who survived, authorities said. Johnson, too, was shot multiple times and underwent surgery at Richmond University Medical Center in West Brighton. She was critically injured. Rodriguez and DeSousas 2-year-old child, Blue, was upstairs during the killings. She was uninjured. Police say they recovered a loaded, black .22-caliber Ruger handgun from Morenos cargo pants as well as a silencer, magazines and a Leatherman knife. They immediately took Moreno into custody. There were no signs of forced entry, leading detectives to believe the alleged killer was either let inside the residence or the door was left unlocked, law enforcement sources said. Sources have said robbery remains the most likely motive. The zip ties recovered from Moreno possibly indicate he intended to tie up someone at the home which is more typical for a heist than a murder, sources said. He also had a ball of cocaine, which authorities believe he got from the house, said sources. Police said they found drug paraphernalia at the scene. Friends of Rodriguez have told the Daily News he and Moreno had a feud dating back years. Moreno was on parole at the time of the shooting. He was released from prison in May of 2017 after serving about 10 years for felony drug possession, weapon possession and assault, show online records of the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. Previously, in September 1993, Moreno was sentenced in an unrelated case to eight to 16 years behind bars for first-degree manslaughter stemming from the fatal shooting of Theodis Watson, 22, on July 12, 1992. Authorities said that shooting on Brabant Street was sparked by a feud between Moreno and Watson, according to Advance records. The location is just around the corner from where police say Moreno shot Rodriguez and DeSousa on Grandview. Moreno was paroled in that case in March 2007. Demonstrators stage peaceful protest over George Floyd death Protesters demonstrate in Hendersonville on Monday. While protests across the nation have rocked cities with tension and violence, demonstrators in Hendersonville staged a peaceful display to show their concern over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Twenty-five protesters congregated on four corners of the heavily traveled intersection of King Street and U.S. 64 West a few feet from the city police department parking lot holding signs that said "Black Lives Matter," "I Can't Breathe" and "RIP George. America failed you." Gayle Kemp, an attorney and Democratic activist from Fletcher, said people on social media began asking about a Hendersonville protest and the idea got started. Floyd's video-recorded death in police custody has set off protests and sometimes violence in cities across America. A large crowd gathered after dark in Asheville and other cities across North Carolina had imposed curfews in order to limit demonstrations into the night. 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About Vanguard Software Vanguard Software introduced its first product for decision support analysis in 1995. Today, companies across every major industry and more than 60 countries rely on the Vanguard Predictive Planning platform. Vanguard Software is based in Cary, North Carolina. Its the end of one quarter of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic in India. Sure, the first cases in India, three people from Kerala who returned from Wuhan, China, the birthplace of the virus, date back to late January, but the number stayed at three for a long time. The next cases were recorded on March 2, making June 1 (Monday) the end of the first three months of the pandemics run in India. Tuesday, the beginning of the second, saw another milestone India crossed 200,000 Covid-19 cases. The country ended Tuesday with 207,112 cases, of which 101,070 remain active. It is seventh in the list of countries in terms of number of cases. There have been 5,753 deaths so far and 100,289 have recovered. The country is currently testing just a little under 3,000 people per million population, although some states are doing much more. Tamil Nadu is testing 6,650 people per million; and Delhi 10,979. The number of daily cases in India continues to rise the trailing five-day average on Tuesday was 8,025 as does the number of daily deaths (the trailing five-day average was 215). Last week (on May 26), the corresponding five-day trailing averages were 6,775 daily cases and 154 daily deaths. Coronavirus outbreak: Full coverage Theres still a lot we do not know about the trajectory of the pandemic in India, and this is a good time to revisit these. One, we have no idea why the death rate in India, 2.8% on Monday, is much lower than the global 6%. Is it because the virus affects Indians differently? Is it because the BCG vaccine, almost universally given to children in India (for decades) helps Indians infected by the Sars-CoV-2 virus deal with it better? We dont know. Nor do we know why the proportion of those needing critical care or ventilator support is lower in India than what it was in Italy and the US, two countries ravaged by the disease. Two, we have no idea what the actual death rate in India is. Thats because we are likely underestimating the number of cases. Positivity rates the number of people testing positive to those tested continue to rise across most states, including hot spots such as Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Delhi, which together account for around 57-58% of all cases in India, and 61% of active cases. Across the world, positivity rates continue to increase up to a point as the number of tests increase, then plateau, and finally start dipping. India is yet to reach that stage indicating that we are still not testing enough, but this will only serve to reduce the death rate further. Indeed, while we do not know what the actual death rate is, we do know that it is probably lower than 2.8% (because we are underestimating cases). Three, are we also underestimating the number of deaths in India? After all, studies by the New York Times and the Financial Times have shown that many countries are, and significantly. The fragmented data available says we are not there is no spike in the number of non-Covid deaths in March and April but it makes sense to wait till we can get more comprehensive data. Thats another question to which the best answer would be: we dont know. Four, we do not know how many Indians have been infected by the virus and are therefore immune to it. There have been no widespread serological (blood) antibody tests that can provide this information. Five, we have no idea why the virus affects different geographies differently. For instance, Bengaluru is one of Indias most connected cities; it is home to tens of thousands of migrants from other states (and even other countries), yet it has a fraction of the cases that Delhi or Mumbai have. It is important we find answers to at least some of these they will help us deal better with the coming peak. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 15:52:18|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ISTANBUL, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Turkey's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) on Tuesday announced that it would increase its domestic flights across the country. "As of June 4, we are coming back to skies with flights from Istanbul to 40 domestic destinations," the THY said on its website. On Monday, the carrier partially resumed its domestic operations with flights to four major cities from Turkey's biggest city Istanbul, noting that it would launch its international flights on June 10. Turkey lifted the ban on domestic travel as of June 1 as part of the new normalization process amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Enditem The Chief Minister's COVID-19 Relief Fund in Maharashtra received Rs 342 crore in donations till around mid-May, of which Rs 23.82 crore had been spent on controlling the virus's spread while Rs 55.20 crore went towards facilitating the journey of migrant workers to their home states, an RTI query has revealed Mumbai: The Chief Minister's COVID-19 Relief Fund in Maharashtra received Rs 342 crore in donations till around mid-May, of which Rs 23.82 crore had been spent on controlling the virus's spread while Rs 55.20 crore went towards facilitating the journey of migrant workers to their home states, an RTI query has revealed. The fund had received Rs 342 crore in its dedicated account till 19 May, but the state government has spent only Rs 23.82 crore so far to control the virus, the query revealed, citing figures provided by the government. The application in this regard was filed by RTI activist Anil Galgali under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. According to the reply, the highest amount of Rs 55.20 crore has been spent to facilitate journey of migrant workers to their home states, while Rs 80 lakh was allocated to the families of victims (also migrant labourers) of the Aurangabad train accident which took place on 8 May. Galgali had sought details of the total amount deposited in the fund's account and the sum allocated for relief. Milind Kabadi, assistant accountant officer, CM Relief Fund, furnished the details of the deposited and allocated amount. A total of Rs 342.01 crore has been deposited in the fund till 18 May 2020. Of this, Rs 79.82 crore has been spent, of which only Rs 23.82 crore went towards arrangements related to COVID-19, the reply said. Out of this, Rs 20 crore was allotted to St. George's Hospital in Mumbai and Rs 3,82,50,000 was given to the state's Department of Medical Education, it said. The amount attributed to funding journey of migrant labourers has been transferred to the respective district collectors so that train fare can be paid on time to the Railways, the reply said. The fare of migrant labourers located in 36 districts of the state has been pegged as Rs 53.45 crore. The train fare of labourers from Ratnagiri district has been quoted as Rs 1.30 crore and that Sangli district labourers have been quoted as Rs 44.40 lakh, it said. According to the reply, for the families of 16 labourers, who died in the rail accident in Aurangabad district, financial assistance of Rs 80 lakh (Rs 5 lakh per deceased person), was provided from the account. Temple University has unveiled plans to reopen its campus for the fall semester, painting a picture of what life at the Philadelphia college will be like in light of the coronavirus pandemic. The university is going to allow students on campus by the start of the fall semester on Aug. 24, but they wont finish the semester there. Classes will be completed online after Thanksgiving break, to reduce the risk of exposure that comes with returning to campus, according to President Richard Englert. The decision was made by a Return Team comprised of Temple faculty, staff and administrators. Rather than send everyone home and bring them back, it would be best to end the campus presence early to reduce public health risks, Englert said in a Tuesday email announcement. Students will be able to move into their dorm rooms beginning in mid-August, the president said. However, the use of face masks and social distancing will continue into the fall. Temple plans to use a phased approach through the summer to get workers and students back on campus. At phase one the universitys current stage maintenance and construction workers can begin making changes to campus buildings thatll increase safety measures. This includes the installation of plexiglas shields at reception areas and the removal of public seating, the university said. While our campus will look different, we do believe a campus presence is not only possible, but can be done safely, Englert said. According to Englert, phase two will restart research and clinic work at select locations. The following phase, slated to begin at the end of June, allows for a small number of summer classes to be held in person. The majority will be taught virtually. Phase four allows growing numbers of students on campus beginning Aug. 1, the university said. Although students will be on campus for the start of the academic year, large classes will continue to be held online or in break-out sessions, Englert said. Temple plans to offer a blend of online and in-person classes for other courses. Temples in-person fall semester will conclude on Friday, Nov. 20, when students leave for Thanksgiving break. Rather than send everyone home and bring them back, it would be best to end the campus presence early to reduce public health risks, the president said. The remaining week of classes, study period and finals would then be conducted remotely. Spring semester plans havent yet been finalized, Englert said. Philadelphia and the surrounding counties are expected to move into Gov. Tom Wolfs yellow phase of reopening on June 5. Other city schools are evaluating options for what a return to classes will look like in the fall. Similar to Temple, Drexel University assembled a task force to decide the best way forward regarding the upcoming semester. A message posted on Villanova Universitys website says no decision has yet been made for the fall. Although restrictions are slowly being lifted in Tokyo and Rome, where Temple has campuses, university-sponsored international travel remains suspended, and domestic travel is strongly discouraged, the university said. The travel policy is going to be reevaluated on the 15th of each month. Throughout this uncertain time, Ive been impressed with how this university has drawn together to focus on our mission of providing an education that is accessible, affordable and high quality, as well as conducting research essential to society and providing critical clinical and other services to enhance lives, Englert said. Even as we are dealing with the evolving situation each day, we are looking ahead to the fall and spring semesters, and what comes afterwards. READ MORE: As coronavirus reopenings begin, what are the safest, riskiest activities? Gyms, hair cuts, bars, and more ranked PennDOT Driver License Centers to resume skill tests Dealing with confusion or threats, some Pa. nursing home residents dont get coronavirus stimulus checks [June 02, 2020] Rapyd Launches All-In-One Integrated Payment Solution in the United Kingdom The "Full Stack" service lets businesses in the United Kingdom and globally access integrated local payments in the UK Market via one API. LONDON, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Rapyd, a global Fintech as a Service company, today announced the launch of a single, "full-stack," payment solution in the United Kingdom allowing businesses locally and globally to access every major local payment method such as cash, bank transfers, ewallets, and cards through one easy to integrate connection. In partnership with several major payment partners including Visa, Mastercard, Payzone, and ClearBank, Rapyd's all-in-one payment solution facilitates payments locally, and across borders for companies of any size, through one single API, reconciliation process, and contract. The Rapyd Global Payments Network supports more than 900+ payment methods in over 100 countries. Rapyd's "full-stack" approach brings every disparate and fragmented local payment method in a specific country into a single, integrated connection. Businesses can simply plug in the Rapyd API to provide consumers with a local payment experience. And it allows companies located outside of the UK to seamlessly operate in the UK market from anywhere in the world, all through one platform. Rapyd's uniquely flexible fintech as a service approach gives businesses a much wider range of options in crafting new payment strategies by being able to issue and accept cards through a single connection. The company's principal membership in the United Kingdom for card-issuing and acquiring with both Visa and Mastercard offers merchants a greater range of capabilities so they can scale faster and simplify their back-office operations. Sarel Tal, Vice President, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at Rapyd noted, "The idea behind our full-stack offering is simple: provide companies with the capabilty to accept every major local payment method without having to expend resources to build complex payments infrastructure needed to power fintech and commerce applications as digital payments accelerate. By enabling both disparate local and global payment networks, we are able to provide businesses around the world a way to tap into the growing UK market quickly, while minimizing operational costs and managing all local regulatory requirements. Rapyd's integrated Fintech as a Service platform and global payments network reduces this down to one, powerfully simple API." Rapyd's integrated payments network allows online marketplaces, Fintech services, cross-border B2B companies, neo-banks, gig-economy platforms, and global retailers to access digital, physical, and omnichannel payment capabilities that include collection and disbursement payment methods including cards, ewallets, bank transfers and even cash in a single, safe solution, and at a fraction of the time and investment, it would otherwise require. Rapyd's service seamlessly handles all cross-border transactions, foreign exchange, and other reporting requirements. "With the launch of this platform, Rapyd is making operating in the UK market as simple and efficient as it can be for companies around the world," said Martin Rouse Retail Director at Payzone. "We are excited to work with Rapyd to provide local payment options for companies around the globe and help them grow their businesses and provide better payment options for UK consumers." "We're delighted to partner with Rapyd on the launch of this integrated payment solution," added Simon Jones, CCO of ClearBank. "It's vital that businesses are able to meet the growing customer demand for the real-time payments. Rapyd's platform will enable global businesses to offer the ability to make payments 24/7/365 via the Rapyd API, providing UK consumers & businesses with the seamless experience that they increasingly expect." Rapyd's Full Stack Capabilities in the United Kingdom include: Access to UK Faster Payment and BACS IBAN and Virtual IBAN issuing Card acquiring and issuing via principal membership with Visa and Mastercard Cash collection and withdrawal eWallet and other payment account issuing Disbursement to bank accounts, eWallets, and other payment methods Access to "open banking" services through the use of Account Information Service Providers (AISP) and Payment Initiation Service Providers (PISP) Rapyd is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK. Visit www.rapyd.net/uk to learn more. About Rapyd Rapyd does for fintech what the cloud did for IT. They built the world's largest local payments network to power frictionless global commerce. Innovative ecommerce companies, technology firms, and marketplaces use their Fintech-as-a-Service platforms: Collect, Disburse, Wallet, and Issuing to seamlessly integrate payment capabilities into their applications. The Rapyd Global Payments Network covers 900+ locally preferred payment methods, including bank transfers, ewallets, and cash in more than 100 countries. Now businesses can open new markets, create new fintech applications, and reach four billion consumers worldwide without thinking about infrastructure or regulations. Investors include Stripe, General Catalyst, Oak FT, Tiger Global, Durable Capital, Target Global, and TaL Capital. For more information, visit www.rapyd.net Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1159741/Rapyd_Logo.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [June 02, 2020] Adorama Presents Next #CreateNoMatterWhat Creative Challenge Theme: Video Storytelling NEW YORK, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Adorama, the trusted source for market-leading photo, video, audio, and computer equipment and information, announced the second installment of their "Create No Matter What" challenge series with the help of filmmaker Renan Ozturk. The second contest of the series challenges creators to submit a 30-60 second video that takes viewers on a journey and tells a story. Participants will be entered for a chance to win a Sony Alpha a7 III camera prize package worth over $3,000, with three runners-up receiving a Prograde 256GB Memory Card. "We always want to encourage and reward our community to think outside of the box when creating, and we're excited to see how people rise to our next challenge of video storytelling," said Mary-Irene Marek, Director of Content and Social Media for Adorama. "We've seen a tremendous amount of community engagement through Adorama's #CreateNoMatterWhat campaign and want to continue to provide opportunities for our community to share their work with others." Adorama's #CreateNoMatterWhat campaign is a community-based hashtag for creatives to engage with and encourae others to find ways to create, learn, and celebrate art. Whether it's photography, videography, audio, design or editing, #CreateNoMatterWhat challenges creators to keep their creativity flowing while adjusting to working from home or social distancing. To enter the Storytelling Challenge, videographers should submit a completed online entry form and upload up to five videos (150MB max limit for each upload). Winners will be selected based on the following criteria: adherence/appropriateness to the challenge theme, originality of expression, quality of video (lighting, sound, editing), ability to effectively tell a story, and visual and emotional impact. The Video Storytelling Challenge is open now through June 10th at 11:59 PM ET. The winner will be announced on June 12th at 12 p.m. ET. To learn more about the Video Challenge and enter for a chance to win, visit www.adorama.com/cnmw. About Adorama Inc. Adorama has been serving customers for more than 40 years and has grown from its flagship NYC store to include five successful online retailers: Adorama, Sunny Sports, Leisure Pro, Scuba.com, and PRINTIQUE. Shopping is available online or at the company's storefront in New York City, featuring both Adorama and Leisure Pro showrooms. The company also rents equipment through Adorama Rental Co. in Manhattan and Brooklyn and serves institutions via Adorama Business Solutions. Adorama customers can connect to a network of experts through its interactive blog 42West, through AdoramaTV, social media, and with live online and in-store events. ADORAMA Contact Irwin Rommel Suba [email protected] 646.321.3263 PR Contact Nicole Fait [email protected] 949.438.1104 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/adorama-presents-next-createnomatterwhat-creative-challenge-theme-video-storytelling-301069471.html SOURCE Adorama On 25 May, the Moroccan people, the Arab nation and all the forces of freedom, progress and peace in the world lost an exceptional figure and one of the most outstanding symbols of the struggle for human rights, justice and democracy at the Arab and global levels in the late Abdul-Rahman Al-Yousifi, who died at the age of 96. Al-Yousifi was a former prime minister of Morocco and a former leader of the prominent left-wing Moroccan political party the Socialist Union of Popular Forces. However, more significantly in my view was his identity as a freedom-fighter, an advocate of democracy and a believer and activist in the cause of social justice. I will confine myself here to addressing only some aspects of the Arab and international roles of the late Abdul-Rahman Al-Yousifi. When I was living in Geneva in the mid-1980s to pursue my graduate studies, I was part of an extended group of Arab graduate students of different nationalities. There were Algerians, Egyptians, Iraqis, Lebanese, Moroccans, Palestinians, Syrians and Tunisians. Almost all of us were studying the social sciences or humanities at various academic institutions in Geneva, and we were fortunate enough to meet and discuss with two great Arab figures, the late Algerian president Ahmed Ben Bella and the late Moroccan prime minister Abdul-Rahman Al-Yousifi. In the course of such informal gatherings, this group of Arab young people had the unique chance to listen to, learn from and interact with these two extraordinary Arab figures regarding their views on issues that have long been considered central to the pan-Arab conscience, particularly among Arab youth. These issues varied from the Palestinian question and the dream of Arab unity to the realities and prospects for popular demands such as for freedom, democracy, social justice, equality, human rights and the empowerment of women and young people, all of which have been priorities for the Arab people for decades. International issues were also discussed in such informal settings. They particularly included attempts to explain what was happening in the former Soviet Union at the time, particularly during the Gorbachev era and the package of reforms being put together under the headings of Glasnost and Perestroika. They also witnessed discussions of alternative scenarios for the future world order and prospects for the Cold War. Abdul-Rahman Al-Yousifis contributions were very rich and covered many diverse areas of public life as befitted his role and influence that for many decades went beyond the national borders of Morocco and left an imprint on the whole Arab nation as well as at the global level. He was a firm believer in Arab nationalism, Arab unity and pan-Arab action throughout his life, including through his leading role as an advocate of human rights in Morocco and the Arab world. His pivotal role in the establishment of the Arab Organisation of Human Rights (AOHR) in 1983 should be highlighted, with his serving not only as a co-founder, but also as a member, vice-president and member of the board of trustees until the last day of his life. Al-Yousifi also chaired the committee that successfully led the organisations struggle to acquire observer status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). He played an equally leading role in the Arab Lawyers Union, explained by the fact that he was an outstanding lawyer as well as a pioneer in the defence of human rights and individual and collective freedoms. He was elected a member of the Permanent Bureau of the Arab Lawyers Union and later its assistant secretary-general. At the pan-Arab level, even before the independence of his own country Al-Yousifi took many initiatives to defend and promote the Palestinian cause, particularly in Europe, using his mastery of the French language in order to do so. His role in this regard reached the degree of his defending in his capacity as a lawyer a number of Palestinian militants who had been put on trial in various European courts. His commitment to the Palestinian national question was demonstrated on many occasions throughout his long life. He also never spared efforts prior to the independence of Algeria in 1962 to support the Algerian struggle for national independence, particularly after the launch of the Algerian Revolution on 1 November 1954. Besides being a legendary figure in Morocco and a pan-Arab historical figure, the late Abdul-Rahman Al-Yousifi was also an internationalist who consistently stood on leftist ground at the ideological and political levels. His convictions helped him to formulate his stands on many global issues. Just one example of this internationalist dimension of his life, an outcome of his fight for individual and collective human rights, on the one hand, and his leftist point of departure, on the other, was Al-Yousifis membership of the international court established in the 1960s to examine crimes committed in the war in Vietnam. *A version of this article appears in print in the 4 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: The following is a cautionary tale: Readers Commentary Regarding the letter-writer who couldnt understand why her boyfriend wouldnt stand up to his adult daughter about the couples relationship plans (May 5): My husband and I were deeply in love, and had what I thought was a solid marriage of 12 years (following five years living together common-law). When I raised the topic of a will, he finally revealed that his house in the Caribbean was being willed to his two children. This response, after we married without a pre-nuptial, after Id put my inherited funds into a joint bank account and spent $250,000 to totally renovate that island house. He told me not to worry because his daughter is very sweet and if he died before me shed let me use the house. His son wasnt even considered in this discussion, because of his health issues. I felt deceived and betrayed by my husband. I felt that my own children should at least get the $250,000 when we both passed, with his daughter getting the house. When she learned of all this, I received an email so full of hate and venom, calling me every awful name and including ugly accusations. She wouldnt allow me to attend family celebrations or see her baby, my stepgrandchild. This went on for more than two years with my own children supporting whatever made me happy, telling me they didnt care about the house or money, and not to break my marriage up for that. My husband outright said there wasnt a bit of truth in his daughters horrible verbal assault of me, but he wouldnt stand up for me even slightly. We went to marriage counselling for many months, but no matter what advice was dispensed regarding his daughter, he couldnt implement it. The counsellor told him there was one too many women in our marriage, but my ex couldnt get it, even when the counsellor asked, Why dont you just marry your daughter? After years of incredible hurt, I finally left. My husband didnt have my back at all. His daughter got her wish and her house. Now hes miserable, lonely and missing me and Im slowly recovering from utter despair. That poor woman who wrote to you, who wondered why her partner keeps her and their plans a secret from his daughter, may have deeper problems than she knows. My ex couldnt stand up for himself, me or us. Now I understand why they had closed-door meetings all those years. I was never included in any in-depth or problematic conversations. Stepdaughter Came First A: Its a manipulative relationship between adult children and their divorced fathers or mothers thats heard too often by professional therapists. But its often a harsh surprise to the next spouse. Call it the manipulative child syndrome (or the jealous and manipulative daughter in this case), but youre describing a campaign by your husbands daughter launched way back, with you too polite to question their closed-door discussions. It often starts with the parents guilt, which is more common when a father moves out from the family home. The ex (wife or husband) may be the kids model for exercising power refusing access, changing visitation days, etc. and the daughter (or son) a quick study. Unsurprising, the fight for control escalates when theres money sought through a will, or outright gifts, often unknown to the innocent spouse, as in your case. Better to be free of them all. Ellies tip of the day When an adult child manipulates/controls the parents next marriage, the partner should consider leaving them both. The recent civil unrest was little more than an atmospheric issue in the Iowa race. King has posted memes critical of protesters to his Facebook page in recent days, but Feenstra has not addressed the crisis on his own social media accounts, opting instead to focus on Kings effectiveness and his efforts to get out the vote. The 4th District is 92.8 percent white, making it one of the least diverse districts in the country. La Trobe University is at risk of going broke in a matter of weeks unless it secures a financial lifeline from the banks and an agreement from staff to cut wages. La Trobe's cash reserves have been reduced to the minimum required to meet a single month's operating expenses as it grapples with the loss of overseas students because of the coronavirus crisis, which has wiped $16 billion from Australia's university sector. La Trobe University vice-chancellor John Dewar says if staff don't accept salary cuts, forced redundancies will follow. Credit:Jeremy Piper Vice-chancellor John Dewar, in a briefing to staff on Tuesday, said the university had no money tucked down the back of the sofa and that unless they agreed to a 10 per cent salary reduction, La Trobe would resort to forced redundancies. La Trobe sources told The Age that ANZ bank had declined to extend by $100 million an unsecured credit facility it holds with the university and that the university had already sold $29 million in shares to find more cash. A Louisville police officer, who was involved in the fatal shooting of David McAtee, at a protest in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday night, previously mocked a protester who was shot with pepper balls. Over the weekend, Katie Crews, posted a photo to her Facebook page of a female protester offering her a flower, and captioned it: I hope the pepper balls that she got lit up with a little later on hurt. Her post was screenshotted by members of the public and circulated around social media sites in the wake of Mr McAttes death on Monday, according to the Louisville Courier Journal. Earlier on in the caption, Ms Crews said: She was saying and doing a lot more than offering flowers to me. Just so for it to be known. The officer added: Come back and get ya some more ole girl, Ill be on the line again tonight. George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Show all 30 1 /30 George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Police spray mace at protestors to break up a gathering near the Minneapolis Police third precinct after a white police officer was caught on a bystander's video pressing his knee into the neck of African-American man George Floyd, who later died at a hospital, in Minneapolis Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester holds a sign with an image of George Floyd AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters demonstrate against the death of George Floyd AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester throws a piece of wood on a fire in the street just north of the 3rd Police Precinct Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets People in other US cities also protested the murder, like Los Angeles AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A police officer lobs a canister to break up crowds Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester is treated after inhaling tear gas Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Two police officers stand on the roof of the Third Police Precinct during a face off with a group of protesters Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters outside a Minneapolis police precinct two days after George Floyd died EPA George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters run from tear gas Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Demonstrators gather to protest in Los Angeles AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Police remove barricades set by protesters AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A fire burns inside of an Auto Zone store near the Third Police Precinct Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Flowers, signs and balloons are left near a makeshift memorial to George Floyd near the spot where he died AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A policeman faces a protester holding a placard in downtown Los Angeles AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A couple poses with a sign in Los Angeles AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets MINNEAPOLIS, MN - MAY 27: A man is tended to after sustaining an injury from a projectile shot by police outside the 3rd Police Precinct building on May 27, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Four Minneapolis police officers have been fired after a video taken by a bystander was posted on social media showing Floyd's neck being pinned to the ground by an officer as he repeatedly said, "I cant breathe". Floyd was later pronounced dead while in police custody after being transported to Hennepin County Medical Center. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) Stephen Maturen Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester reacts after inhaling tear gas Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty Images George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters use shopping carts as a barricade Getty Images George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters clash with the police as they demonstrate against the death of George Floyd AFP via Getty Images The protests in Louisville were being held in opposition to police brutality against Black Americans, following the death of George Floyd, who died last month after being detained by a then Minneapolis police officer. On Monday, the protest turned violent, when Mr McAtee was fatally shot by law enforcement after someone shot at police, and officers and National Guard troops fired back. At the time of writing, it is not known who fired at police, but an investigation is ongoing. Recommended Mother of black Louisville shooting victim calls for peaceful protest Ms Crews was placed on administrative leave on Monday after it was confirmed that she and her fellow officer at the scene, Allen Austin, did not record any bodycam footage of the shooting. After being told that officers did not record any footage at the shooting, Louisville mayor Greg Fishcer fired police chief, Steve Conrad, who was due to retire later in the month. The fatal shooting came a week after seven people were shot at a different protest in Louisville, focused on the death of Breonna Taylor. Ms Taylor, an emergency medical technician, was shot at least eight times by police after they broke down her door in a drug raid on 13 May, but no narcotics were found in the residence. Recommended Seven people shot during protests over killing of Breonna Taylor The police said that Ms Taylor was inadvertently shot in the crossfire during the raid, but their use of force has been questioned, as has the practice of raiding a residence without giving a warning. Last week, Mr Fischer confirmed that no-knock warrants would be suspended by the police force, as part of changes to policy following Ms Taylors death. Mr Fischer added: To the people who gathered downtown last night to protest, and to many more throughout our city and throughout our country who feel angry, hurt, afraid, frustrated, tired and sick of story after story of black lives ending at the hands of law enforcement, I hear you. Newsfrom Japan Tokyo, June 2 (Jiji Press)--Major Japanese banking group Resona Holdings Inc. <8308> plans to establish an investment fund to support small and midsize businesses that have been hit by the novel coronavirus epidemic, the company's president, Masahiro Minami, said in a recent interview with Jiji Press. The envisaged fund is designed to strengthen such companies' financial bases through providing subordinated loans and acquiring preferred shares, which have no voting rights, according to Minami. "We want to offer (the fund) as soon as possible," Minami said. Small and midsize businesses are increasingly struggling with financing after seeing declines in demand amid the virus crisis. They are in an "unprecedentedly difficult situation," Minami said, while stressing the importance of "coming face to face with clients sincerely." [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.] By Sarah Kinosian CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela on Monday launched a fuel pricing system that largely rolls back decades of heavy subsidies, creating long lines and leaving drivers confused as the government seeks to end chronic shortages with gasoline imports from Iran. Cheap fuel was for decades considered a birthright in the South American oil producing nation, but service stations have run dry in recent months due to Venezuela's dysfunctional refineries and U.S By Sarah Kinosian CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela on Monday launched a fuel pricing system that largely rolls back decades of heavy subsidies, creating long lines and leaving drivers confused as the government seeks to end chronic shortages with gasoline imports from Iran. Cheap fuel was for decades considered a birthright in the South American oil producing nation, but service stations have run dry in recent months due to Venezuela's dysfunctional refineries and U.S. sanctions meant to force President Nicolas Maduro from power. Defying U.S. threats, Iran sent a flotilla of five tankers of fuel to Venezuela, which arrived last week, and Tehran said on Monday it would send more if requested by Caracas. Maduro on Sunday created a two-tiered system in which drivers can buy up to 120 liters per month in local currency for the equivalent of $0.02 per liter, but have to pay $0.50 per liter above that amount. The plan's rollout confused workers and consumers across the country. By 9 a.m. several stations in Caracas remained closed as staff and security forces meant to oversee the distribution awaited instructions from state-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela [PDVSA.UL], known as PDVSA. "We do have gasoline, but it is unclear if we are selling at subsidized (price) or dollarized (price)," said Jefferson Suarez, a military official managing pump lines at a station in eastern Caracas. "PDVSA workers have not shown up yet to explain, and I don't have any idea what is going on." Outside Caracas, the start was even rockier. In the western border state of Tachira, many stations never opened. In many places, including the western cities of Barquisimeto and Maracaibo, stations quickly ran out of the subsidized gasoline. PDVSA President Asdrubal Chavez acknowledged there were "still things we need to fix in this process." "We ask our people for a little bit of patience as we correct these small details," Chavez, named interim PDVSA president last month, told state television. BOLIVARS OR DOLLARS? Payment for subsidized fuel, offered in rations of 30 liters per vehicle at most of Venezuela's 1,800 stations, was complicated by malfunctioning payment machines and a dearth of local currency, forcing some stations to charge in dollars - a practice not authorized by authorities. Many stations required an identification card and bank account to purchase fuel at the subsidized rate, while others required vehicles to be registered in the 'Fatherland System,' a database the government uses to administer welfare benefits. After an initial 90-day introductory period, motorists wishing to benefit from the subsidy must pay with a 'Fatherland Card' affiliated with the system. Rights groups have raised concerns https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/venezuela-zte the government uses the cards to track citizens' behavior as a means of social control. Lines snaked around blocks at many stations in Caracas, even at those offering more expensive gasoline in dollars. "Better to pay them officially at the gas station instead of pay whatever corrupt government officials decide on the black market," said Julio Aponte, 36, a motorcycle delivery driver. Scarcity has encouraged a black market forcing people to pay at least $2 per liter. PDVSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Chavez said on Monday the new system would help combat "contraband" of fuel. Others, while thankful gasoline has arrived, are concerned about how they would pay once they pass their quota. "It's a chain and everything is going to get more expensive," said Julio Arrivillaga, 51, a lawyer. "With subsidies it is OK, but I cannot afford $0.50 a liter on my salary of less than $10 a month." (Additional reporting by Marianna Parraga in Mexico City, Deisy Buitrago and Mayela Armas in Caracas, Anggy Polanco in San Cristobal, Mariela Nava in Maracaibo, Keren Torres in Barquisimeto; Editing by Richard Chang) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Attendance to the outpatients department (OPD) of many public health facilities in the Western Region has been greatly impacted by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Hospitals, which hitherto saw more than 350 to 400 outpatients visiting daily are now recording between 70 and 100 visits. Many are not reporting for scheduled appointments for the fear of COVID-19 infection, while the numbers for surgery remain very low. One of the critical facilities in the region, the Half-Assini Government Hospital in the Jomoro District, which saw an influx of patients daily, has become a very quiet place. The Medical Superintendent of the Hospital, Dr Frank Agbemordzi, said: Our OPD sometimes drops to about 70 from more than the 300 a day we used to record before this period. Funding affected Confirming the cument trend to the Daily Graphic, the Medical Director of the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Referral Hospital, Dr Joseph K. Tambil, said the low OPD attendance had affected the internally generated funds (IGF) which was mostly used to support the operations of government hospitals. Unfortunately, revenue has gone down drastically. We do not have any emergency fund to cushion us as our revenue dips, he said. He explained that the income being generated did not match their soaring expenditure. The fact is that our expenses have gone up; we have to buy personal protective equipment (PPE) more frequently than before in order to ensure the safety of our staff, the facility and visitors. The doctor in charge of the Takoradi Hospital, popularly known as European Hospital, Dr Fred Adjei Otubuah, also stated that the reduction in patronage is affecting our IGF and funds from the health insurance and that is also impacting on our expenditure and operations. Self-medication Health officials are also worried that people may be self-medicating, a situation which they indicated could pose other health challenges as most people might be diagnosing wrongly. Dr Tambil stressed that self-medication could result in other health complications. Some conditions present simple symptoms which people may mistake for malaria or others and thus self medicate. If people continue to self-medicate and refuse to come to the facilities for management, after COVID-19, there will be a lot of complicated cases to manage, he stated. Dr Tambil assured the public of their safety as all the safety protocols were strictly in force to protect both the staff of the facilities and the clients. Restriction At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in Ghana, a number of public health facilities announced that they were restricting visits to their facilities and Dr Tambil believes that may have affected attendance in the Western Region. In the regions, we did not suspend services what we did was to create a reception area, where every visitor to the facility got to wash his or her hands, have their temperatures taken and redirected. Unfortunately, the public misunderstood the suspension of OPD service by some huge facilities in Accra and Kumasi (Korle Bu & KATH) to be a directive and they are not reporting their conditions at the hospitals, he explained. Public perception A number of people the Daily Graphic spoke to were emphatic that they might contract COVID-19 from the hospital so they preferred self-medication. In addition, there is the perception that health workers are contracting the infection. Many of them said they had visited the pharmacy to get medication for their ailments. Before COVID-19, I would quickly report to the hospital with my headache or fever but last week, I just went to the pharmacy to get some medication for malaria, Mr Bentil said. Ms Alice Mensah also said: I go to one of the hospitals in town but I learnt some of the nurses and doctors there have tested positive, so I do not go. At the beginning, the health facilities were strict on people coming over to report their ailments because they said it was risky as they could not tell who was positive or not. Now, the doctors and nurses themselves are also being infected, so I will prefer to stay at home if my condition is not that serious, she added. Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video By Express News Service ALAPPUZHA: The Kerala State Water Transport Department (SWTD) is receiving applauds for operating a service only to transport a girl student to the examination hall and back during the Covid time. The department operated a passenger boat for plus two student Sandra Babu with five crew members from MN Block, a reclaimed waterlogged island village of Kuttanad to Kottayam where her school is situated. Sabu, who a plus two student of SNDP Higher Secondary School Kanjiram in Kottayam, travelled in the boat to reach the school and back. The SWTD operated the 70 seater boat only for the girl to attend her for two days on May 29 and 30. SWTD officials said that the boat started its journey from Kottayam station to MN Block at 11.30 am and plied all the way to Kanjiram, dropping her at the jetty in front of the SNDP Higher Secondary School around 12 noon. The boat waited for her till she finished her exam and dropped back her home, officials said. The mercy of the department minister and SWTD director Shaji V Nair was helped to continue my studies, said Sandra. My parents had contacted the department with the help of some social workers and the SWTD allowed to operate the service which was a great help to me and my poor family, she said. SWTD director Shaji V Nair said the government and minister gave full support for operating the service. Sandra was charged only Rs 18 for single-day journey, Shaji said. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Crude oil prices moved higher on Tuesday amid expectations the OPEC-led productions cuts will be extended well beyond the previously agreed period. A Genscape report on Monday showing a drop in crude stockpiles at Cushing, Oklahoma also buoyed prices ahead of the American Petroleum Institute's inventory report due out later in the day. The Energy Information Administration is scheduled to release its weekly crude inventory data on Wednesday. A section of traders are worried that growing tensions between the U.S. and China over the Hong Issue, and the likely consequences may result in a drop in energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended up $1.37 or nearly 4% at $36.81 a barrel, the highest close since early March. Brent crude futures for August rose $1.25 or about 3.3% to 39.57 a barrel. The 23-nation OPEC+ group is set to meet online on June 4. It is widely expected that the cartel will extend output cuts through July or August. Earlier, they had agreed to cut total oil output by 9.7 million barrels per day in May - June. They had agreed in April to cut their total oil output by 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) from May 1 through June 30. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. SHELBY TOWNSHIP It's not Hollywood, but one filmmaker who grew up in Huron County is proving you do not need a big studio to make a film. Grant Pichla, a graduate of Ubly High School, has released a movie on Amazon Prime called Making Time, a time-travel romance film, which was filmed entirely in his suburban Detroit home in Shelby Township. The plot of the movie revolves around a divorced workaholic named Nick, who somehow travels back in time and has to walk in his past footsteps to get back to the present. One of those steps involves going through proposing to his ex-wife at a party. Pichla said the inspiration for the movie came as he was preparing a home renovation, with the middle floor, dining room, and living room all about to be transformed. If there was a chance to make a movie about going back in time, I want to shoot the movie right now, when it looks like this, Pichla said. When I realized that was a possibility, I took two to three months writing a script and aligning with a cast and crew." Related: Watch Pichla's film "Making Time" on Amazon Prime Video Due to the home renovation, the filming took place over the course of two days, seven months apart. After filming was done, it took a year to do all the editing. Everyone was working in a fluid, trusting manner, Pichla said describing the fast-paced speed of filming where they filmed 61 pages of script each day. The lead actor was asked, 'What was your favorite scene to shoot? He didnt remember five, 10, 20 scenes ago, the whole day moved so fast. A lot of great creative collaboration comes out of working so quickly. Aside from the home renovation, Pichlas other sources of inspiration come from thinking about what it would be like to go back and relive the earliest days of a relationship, so see what life was like with simple dating and fun. If you lost that relationship, it ended in divorce, and you had to relive that, what would that bring to the table? Pichla said. The budget for this movie came from a Kickstarter done a year ago, where $4,000 was raised. The shoestring budget covered transportation costs, catering and props. Everyone who worked on it came out of volunteering, Pichla said. "They wanted to make a film for the sake of making a film. Pichla said that when he was growing up, his main sources of inspiration were his friends and high school media teacher Stewart Kieliszewski. He would make a lot of short videos with his friends, and they eventually thought, why not make a movie that would appear on their TVs one day? After graduating from Ubly High School in 2008, Pichla graduated from Central Michigan University in 2014 and made his first feature-length movie, NINER, that was released in 2015. It started out in a high school media class, and it led me to here, Pichla said. Making Time is not just a movie entirely made in Michigan, it is also an award-winning film. The Los Angeles Actors Awards named the lead actor, Mason Heidger, their best performance of 2019, with Heidger and lead actress Tori Titmas named their best duo of the year as well. It was also named Best Musical Score at the 2019 Festigious Awards. Making Time is only available for viewing on Amazon Prime, though Pichla hopes it gets picked up for wider distribution in the future. The film has played at the Central Michigan University Film Festival, the New York International Film Festival, and the Royal Starr Film Festival. There will be no Sunday school for children following the easing of restrictions on religious activities in the country, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs Minister Samuel Kofi Dzamesi has said. This was in response to a question at a media briefing by the Minister to give further clarity and guidelines on religious activities. Sunday schools and children services are not allowed because it will be very difficult for the children to observe social distancing he told journalists. According to him, apart from sanctioning churches that flout the guidelines, the pastors in charge will be held responsible. Also, the Information Minister, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, has said there would be no Sunday School for children in churches across the country as restrictions on religious activities are eased. Speaking on Adom FMs Dwaso Nsem morning show on Monday, Mr Oppong-Nkrumah said it was important that religious bodies adhered to the new directives. To him, children were vulnerable, especially in difficult times such as this, hence Sunday schools in the various churches would not be permitted as children would easily disregard the social distancing rules. Explaining why the president allowed only final year students to report back to school, he said it was because it would be difficult for the younger ones in school, particularly those in the primary levels to strictly adhere to the safety protocols. Most parents have expressed mixed reactions at the directive arguing that if it is not necessary to organise Sunday schools then there will be no need for them to attend church since they cant leave the children at home. One caller into the morning show by Accra based Adom Gm said It is mainly because of training the children in the fear of the Lord that is why we send our children to church because they need the training more than we the adult she told the presenter. Another call was skeptical wether most churches will be able to comply with the one hour duration for each service since most of these churches use an hour to do worship and praises. Meanwhile, government has announced a set of advisories following the resumption of religious activities in the phased easing of the COVID-19 restrictions. Below are the 29 point guidelines: 1. Thermometer guns or thermal scanners are to be provided for checking the temperature of congregants at entry points. 2. A No mask, No entry Policy is to be enforced. 3. Handwashing facilities with running water and soap and/or FDA approved alcohol-based hand sanitizer are to be provided. 4. Adequate waste management facilities (bins, cans, bin-liners and single-use tissues) are to be made available. 5. Adequate toilet facilities must be made available. 6. There should be the regular cleaning and disinfection of frequently used communal places (like toilet surfaces) and frequently touched surfaces such as doorknobs/handles, preferably every 1-2 hours depending on the rate of utilization. 7. A holding room or area where a person who becomes sick at the gathering can be isolated from others must be available ahead of arrangements for evacuation. 8. There must be the regular disinfection of venues used by churches, preferably once every month. 9 .Trained cleaners with the necessary personal protective equipment and cleaning items must be on hand to clean the facilities regularly and handle waste appropriately. 10. Churches are to ensure adequate ventilation, i.e. open windows to allow for the maximum circulation of fresh air, if possible, avoid confined air-conditioned rooms. 11 . Churches are to display approved health promotion materials on COVID-19 at vantage points to remind congregants to keep to social distancing protocols, wearing of the masks, regular handwashing, coughing and sneezing etiquette. 12. Churches are to ensure a No handshake, No hugging and No Spitting policy at all time. 13. Churches are to Follow established evacuation procedures to enable evacuation if a congregant becomes sick during the event and has to be evacuated. 14. Churches are to form a COVID-19 task force comprising of members who are preferably health workers. 15. Unwell Persons are not allowed to attend church 16. Elderly persons and people of any age with underlying medical conditions, heart diseases, diabetes, liver disease, and asthma are advised to stay away from church service 17. Sharing personal items such as watches, jewellery, pens and phones should be discouraged. 18. If an individual is confirmed positive for COVID-19, all contacts must be traced and screened. 19. No crowded dancing and waving of handkerchiefs during church services. 20 . Microphones are to be sanitized immediately after each use. 21 . All persons who speak or sing in churches must wear facemask during service. 22. Churches are to discourage singing in groups and instead use pre-recorded songs. 23. Pre-packaged communion bread and wine should be picked up by members at the point of entry. 24. Place offering bowls at the entrance and exit points for members to give offerings and tithes when entering or on their way out of church premises. 25. Encourage cash transfers via mobile money or mobile banking as forms of giving offerings. 26. In observance of social distancing protocols, laying on of hands should not be allowed. 27. Spend at least five minutes of church service time to educate church members on Covid-19. 28. Provide separate sitting areas for the aged and for families that are together. 29. The church is encouraged to mobilize resources to help individuals in need including offering church health facilities. A little girl suffering from mace during the George Floyd protest in Seattle, Washington: Twitter A police officer in Seattle has been accused of spraying a child with mace during the George Floyd protests. Images began circulating on social media over the weekend of a little girl who was coughing and crying while bystanders poured a milk-like substance into her eyes to flush out the chemicals. The footage also shows protesters confronting the officers allegedly involved in spraying the girl and asked for their badge numbers. One officer allegedly refused to give the protesters his badge number. Buzzfeed News spoke with Evan Hreha, who filmed the scene. Mr Hreha said the protest was peaceful prior to the macing incident. He recalls a priest leading a prayer session before police rushed the crowd and began spraying people. "The next thing you know, the little girl and others were running out screaming. They had been maced and that's when I started filming," Mr Hreha said. "Everybody on the left side of the street we all saying that is was officer Campbell [who used the mace]." Mr Hreha said he walked over to the police officers and asked for "Campbell." An officer with the last name Campbell was present, and footage from the protests shows he was carrying mace, but the officer did not respond to Mr Hreha's questioning. In the video, other officers questioned by protesters give their badge numbers when asked. The protesters who witnessed the scene and posted the video are calling on people to file complaints with the Seattle Police Department's Office of Police Accountability. Seattle police said they'd received many complaints about the encounter and confirmed they will investigate the incident. "As the mayor made clear during today's press conference, all uses of force by SPD officers will be investigated accordingly, and officers will be held accountable for inappropriate uses of force. Retaining and building community trust that SPD and partners have worked tirelessly to improve is absolutely paramount," a police spokesperson said. Story continues Seattle's city council members spoke out Monday against the use of mace and excessive force by the city's police. "I personally witnessed the unacceptable escalation of violence by the Seattle Police Department," Councilwoman Kshama Sawant said during the city council's Monday briefing. "We have had hundreds, if not thousands of accounts from ordinary people of unacceptable conduct from the SPD. Seattle police officers indiscriminately used tear gas, mace, flash bang grenades and other types of excessive use of force on the peaceful protesters." Read more Trump remains out of sight as protests rage - live Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Madrid, Spain Tue, June 2, 2020 10:48 598 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb759b8 2 World Spain,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-infection,pandemic,COVID-19-death-toll,SARS-CoV-2,novel-coronavirus,virus-corona Free Spain has recorded no coronavirus deaths over the past 24 hours for the first time since the beginning of March, a senior health ministry spokesman said Monday. "Today we have received no deaths with the date of death from yesterday," Fernando Simon, head of the Coordination Centre for Health Alerts and Emergencies told journalists. The number of new cases had also fallen, he added. Spain has recorded new deaths every day since March 3, though the first death there from the virus in fact dates back to February 13. It is one of the countries worst hit by the pandemic, having recorded 27,127 deaths from 239,638 cases notified, according to the latest ministry figures Monday. Spain had become very fast at detecting cases, said Simon. But he warned against any failure to respect the existing restrictions on mass gatherings, still in force despite a gradual relaxation of what was one of the world's strictest lockdowns. The Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo announced on Monday that a new outbreak of Ebola virus disease is occurring in Wangata health zone in the Equateur province. The countrys health ministry said that six Ebola cases have so far been detected in Wangata, of which four have died and two are alive and under care. This is a reminder that Covid-19 is not the only health threat people face, World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. Although much of our attention is on the pandemic, WHO is continuing to monitor and respond to many other health emergencies. Congo also has yet to declare an official end to Ebola in its troubled east, where at least 2,243 people have died since an epidemic began there in August 2018. This is Congos 11th outbreak of Ebola since the virus was first discovered in the country in 1976. The victims died on May 18 but test results confirming Ebola only came back over the weekend, according to Congolese Health Minister Dr Eteni Longondo. WHO said it already had teams on the ground. Covid-19 already has touched seven of Congos 25 provinces, with more than 3,000 confirmed cases and 72 deaths. However, like many African countries Congo has conducted extremely limited testing, and observers fear the true toll may be far higher. This quadruple threat could prove lethal for millions of children and their families, said Anne-Marie Connor, national director in Congo for the aid organization World Vision. According to WHO, new outbreaks of Ebola are expected in the Democratic Republic of the Congo given the existence of the virus in an animal reservoir in many parts of the country. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has invited U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper to a military parade in Moscow later this month, the Defense Ministry says. The Russian ministry said Shoigu made the invitation during a telephone conversation on June 2, without saying whether Esper had accepted it. The June 24 parade on Moscows Red Square is to mark the 75th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Russia traditionally holds the parade on May 9, but the grand celebration was postponed over the coronavirus pandemic that is still triggering thousands of new infections each day. Relations between Washington and Moscow remain strained over a range of issues including the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine. During their phone conversation, Shoigu and Esper discussed arms control and cooperation to fight the coronavirus epidemic, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. The ministry said the talks also touched upon measures to "de-conflict and stabilize the situation in Syria, as well as to ensure the security of military contingents in Afghanistan and elsewhere. On June 1, U.S. President Donald Trump had a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to discuss the latest efforts to defeat the coronavirus pandemic and reopen global economies, according to the White House. It said Trump "reiterated the need for effective arms control." The Kremlin said that the two leaders also talked about the need to intensify a U.S.-Russian dialogue on strategic stability and steps to enhance mutual trust in the military sphere. Last month, Washington announced it would pull out of the 35-nation Open Skies accord, which allows unarmed surveillance flights over member countries, due to what U.S. officials said were Russias violations. The United States also cited Russian violations when it exited from of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia. Moscow has denied the U.S. accusations. With reporting by Reuters and TASS Nine Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have formed an alliance to implement US$100,000 (COVID-19) response project aimed at scaling up measures to control community spread of the disease in the Bono, Bono East, and Ahafo Regions. The CSOs have set up a fund accordingly to make the project implementation successful. Dubbed COVID-19 Vulnerable Communities Support (CVCS) Project, it will support CSOs collaborative efforts around COVID-19 and stimulate creative interventions that promote resilience within vulnerable communities. The implementing CSOs are the Global Media Foundation (GLOMeF), World Evangelical Alliance Business Coalition Ghana (WEA), Citizens Watch Ghana (CWG), and the Indigenous Women Empowerment Network (IWEN). Others include the West Africa AIDS Foundation (WAAF), Indigenous Youth Alliance Ghana (IYAG), Ahafo Network of NGOs, Sunyani Municipal CSOs Platform on SDGs, and Global Coalition on Infectious Diseases. Mr. Raphael Godlove Ahenu, the Chief Executive Officer of GLOMeF, and lead implementer, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani, said the project, to be launched on June 15, would identify and find solutions to challenges communities were facing in the wake of COVID-19. Under the project opportunities would be opened up for community-based organisations, women and youth networks to apply for small grants to scale-up COVID-19 awareness and precautionary measures, supporting vulnerable households as well as vigorously combating discrimination and stigmatization of COVID-19. It targets individuals and organisations implementing direct interventions and community-led mobilization to minimize the spread of the virus and building resilience in vulnerable communities. Mr. Ahenu emphasised that effective prevention as well as rehabilitation interventions ought to be strengthened in vulnerable communities to address post-COVID-19 emergencies. He indicated that urban slums and affected mining settlements and communities had a dense population and experienced acute poverty, which made social distancing and best hygiene protocols difficult to practice. The consequences of an outbreak in these communities can be devastating with the loss of jobs and income, malnutrition and deteriorating health conditions and will leave the entire population more vulnerable. The project, Mr. Ahenu explained had four major thematic components - raising awareness: focus on media, community health workers, and volunteer training to scale up campaigns and tackle misinformation, providing access to basic sanitary supplies with a focus on the provision of handwashing equipment and community toilets. It further seeks to mitigate educational disruption with a focus on supporting parents and guardians to encourage their children to do distance learning practices and promoting community resilience to the COVID-19 as well. Mr. Ahenu called for support from the District and Municipal Assemblies, development partners and donors towards successful implementation of the project and called on individuals, corporate organisations and institutions as well as Churches to donate to the fund. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Here are developments about the new coronavirus to know Tuesday: REOPENING: The Multnomah County Library will begin offering no-contact sidewalk service at some libraries June 8. RESPONSE: For tribes in the Pacific Northwest, coronavirus has become a barrier to critical gatherings. PLANS: Ready to purge stuff after months of coronavirus lockdown? Heres what Goodwill does and doesnt want. PORTLAND: As thousands of demonstrators took to the streets for a fifth night on Monday, public health officials warned the gathering is exactly the kind of activity theyd aimed to limit with stay-home orders started in March. Protesters linking arms and headed to the Burnside Bridge, near Burnside and 5th. "If you're out of breath, you're moving too fast." (via @bethnakamura) pic.twitter.com/R8QDhAz8qk The Oregonian (@Oregonian) June 2, 2020 BUSINESS: In another sign of the tumult experienced with the commercial real estate sector, CrowdStreet laid off 24 of its 110 employees Monday. The Portland company funds commercial real estate projects on its website. HEALTH CARE: Providence Health & Services, the $5.2 billion-a-year health care, giant announced sweeping cost-cutting moves, including pay reductions ranging from 5% to 50%. CASES: The Oregon Health Authority reported one new death from the novel coronavirus for a toll of 154 people as cases rose to 4,302. And, a separate release of federal data showed that eight nursing home employees have died from COVID-19, the first confirmation of the epidemics fatal toll on frontline workers. Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter -- The Oregonian/OregonLive Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. An important new tool for developing COVID-19 treatments, vaccines Biomedical scientists working with COVID-19 have a new tool to help them better understand the virus and feel confident about the structural models they are using in their research. Wladek Minor, PhD, of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, and other top structural biologists have led an international team of scientists to investigate the protein structures contained in the virus - structures that are vital to developing treatments and vaccines. The team has created a Web resource that provides scientists an easy way to see the progress of the structural biology community in this area. It also includes the team's assessment of the quality of the individual models and enhanced versions of these structures, when possible. "We have carefully analyzed the available models of SARS-CoV-2 proteins and present the results with the aim of helping the broad biomedical community. Structural models are ultimately the interpretation of the original researchers and sometimes are suboptimal. This is why a second set of eyes to validate important structures is so crucial," said Minor, of UVA's Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics. "In most cases, only minor corrections could be suggested. However, in several cases, the revisions were significant, especially in the sensitive area of protein-ligand complexes that are critical for follow-up research, like drug discovery work. The current health crisis demands that all SARS-CoV-2 structures are of the highest quality possible." Science at Lightning Speed When the threat of the coronavirus became apparent, scientists worldwide responded at an unprecedented pace to determine the atomic structure of the virus and its protein constituents. Researchers are using the resulting structural models in a variety of applications, ranging from structure-based drug design to planning a range of biomedical experiments. For that reason, it is essential that the atomic models are as accurate as possible. Because of the urgency of the pandemic, most of these structures are deposited in the Protein Data Bank (PDB), a global repository of macromolecular structures, before publication and peer review. The members of the team, who are experts in structure validation and interpretation, noticed opportunities to improve several SARS-CoV-2 models using state-of-the-art refinement approaches. That led them to create the new web resource. It is updated with new structures weekly, in sync with the PDB. In some cases, the team has worked with the researchers who generated the original structure to ensure that the site contains the most accurate models. This team has longstanding experience in correcting biomedically important structural models - for instance, in the field of antibiotic resistance. "Working on a project driven by strong international collaborations is an enormous opportunity for younger scientists, like Ivan Shabalin and Dariusz Brzezinski, who will undoubtedly lead other highly impactful studies in the near future," Minor said. "It is extremely rewarding to be able to add my expertise to a project that has the potential to make an immense impact on the lives of millions of people," Shabalin said. ### COVID-19 Resource The team has described the new resource in a free access article published in the FEBS Journal. Project collaborators include Alexander Wlodawer, of the National Cancer Institute (NCI); Zbigniew Dauter, of the NCI & Argonne National Laboratory; Shabalin, of UVA; Miroslaw Gilski, of A. Mickiewicz University (AMU) & Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry (IBCH), Polish Academy of Sciences; Brzezinski, of the Poznan University of Technology & IBCH, Poland, and UVA; Marcin Kowiel, of IBCH; Bernhard Rupp, of k.k. Hofkristallamt USA and Medical University Innsbruck, Austria; and Mariusz Jaskolski of AMU and IBCH. The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute, Center for Cancer Research, grant R01-GM132595; the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, contract HHSN272201700060C; the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange, grant No. PPN/BEK/2018/1/00058/U/00001 and the Austrian Science Foundation. To keep up with the latest medical research news from UVA, subscribe to the Making of Medicine blog at http://makingofmedicine. virginia. edu . This story has been published on: 2020-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. A Ukrainian soldier has been injured near the town of Maryinka, Donetsk region, as a result of sniper shelling by Russian mercenaries on Tuesday, the Joint Forces Operation headquarters reported on Facebook. "On June 2, the Russian-occupying forces once again violated the ceasefire and fired on the positions of the Joint Forces. A Ukrainian soldier was wounded by a sniper bullet near the town of Maryinka. He was promptly given the first aid and was evacuated to a medical facility," the report said. Words fall short to praise all the front line workers who are displaying unflinching courage and grit to battle the outbreak of deadly coronavirus that has wreaked havoc across the globe. While we are sitting at the comfort of our homes, they are out there in the field to help the citizens during this difficult time. Oftentimes, while trying to ensure others safety, they end up being at the other end of the spectrum. In a similar situation, one of the Mumbai cops got infected with this deadly virus while on duty. However, the good news is that the brave officer has returned to work after successfully combating coronavirus. Mumbai police recently took to their Twitter handle to share this news with the caption that read, Welcome back, hero! The cop is a member of the Kurla Police Station and the video shows him walking inside the office premise as his colleagues and other people cheerfully clap for him. They also shower flower petals to give him a heros welcome. Well, thats truly deserving, considered thats the least we could do for these heroes! The department wrote that he is a #COVIDConqueror who returned to duty after beating the virus to serve the city they love most. Receiving a heros welcome! Kurla Police Station welcomes this #COVIDConqueror as he returns back on duty after beating coronavirus - to serve the city we love the most. Welcome back, hero! We wish for you a healthy life ahead.#AamhiDutyVarAahot pic.twitter.com/bsbiu3ajTb Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) June 1, 2020 Ever since the video was made available online, the video has garnered over 32,000 views and still counting. From praising the cops bravery to lauding the police department, people on the micro-blogging site shared varied comments on the post. There were also a few who wished the cop a happy life ahead. Check out some of the reactions here: Welcome back love you all... harsha shetty (@harshakudi82) June 1, 2020 Welcome Back Sir Swati Mukherjee (@SwatiMu77732068) June 2, 2020 Welcome back sir you guys are heroes for me Tushar Pakhale (@pakhale_tushar) June 1, 2020 Great sir, Salute you for ur guts being a warrior, got injured n again recollects n became healthy n re joining the duty of the warrior again. Tremendous guts n great respect to you Sir. All the best. Rajubhai Gohil (@i1v1) June 1, 2020 Welcome back, stay safe Salute to you ,you are real hero Jai maharastra Jai hind ROMESH LAL (@ROMESHLAL18) June 1, 2020 Wow great news. Welcome back Kshatriyas 360 Vlogs (@360_vlogs) June 1, 2020 Stay safe. We are proud of you Karbele Pranay (@KarbeleP) June 1, 2020 Similarly, a few weeks ago there was a similar incident where lots of people gathered around to wish three Mumbai cops who returned to work after recovering from the COVID-19 and welcomed them with cheers and applause. Kudos to these brave hearts who are fighting against this deadly virus day in and day out without being worried about their own safety. Salute to these heroes! Bahrain's Prime Minister His Royal Highness Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa has issued directives to study the environmental situation in the industrial area of Maameer and check the levels of air quality in the surrounding areas. He issued the directive as he chaired the regular weekly Cabinet session yesterday, attended by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Premier, said a Bahrain News Agency report. HRH Premier tasked the Ministry of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning and the Ministry of Oil to coordinate with the Ministerial Committee for Development and Infrastructure Projects in verifying the compliance and adherence to the standards and requirements imposed by the government to reduce pollution in factories and industrial facilities, and ensuring that they are within the limits of global safe levels. They were also requested to submit the necessary suggestions and recommendations to reduce the effects of any industrial pollution that may put the safety and health of the citizens and residents at risk. The Premier also gave directives to expedite the completion of the Ma'ameer Canal expansion project to ensure improved water flow in Tubli Bay, given its positive implications for the region, the report said. OUTPUT, new orders and exports in Ireland all dropped last month at the second-worst rates on record and to "historically low levels", according to AIB. The monthly manufacturing PMI (purchasing managers' index) found three of every five firms suffered lower productivity than in April, itself a month of staggering slumps in factory output. Yet the IHS Markit survey for AIB, combining the experiences of 250 manufacturers nationwide, detects a glimmer of hope of rebound. It cites the slowing pace of descent for most indicators in May and manufacturers' own mildly improved outlook for the coming 12 months. "Total new orders, including for exports, are mired at historically low levels, although their rates of decline eased," said AIB's chief economist, Oliver Mangan. The headline PMI index rose in May to 39.2 from the 36.0 recorded in April, the first full month of lockdown, and the second-worst decline since the record 33.2 reached in 2009 at the low point of that recession. Numbers below 50 represent falls in activity; the lower the number, the steeper the dive from the previous month. "The marked weakness of new orders saw further depletion in the volume of backlogs, which dropped at their quickest pace since September 2011," Mr Mangan said. "With production running at low levels, manufacturers continued to de-stock at a rapid pace. Stocks of inputs also fell further, while input purchase volumes continued to decline, with severe disruptions to supply chains also being reported by firms." But when asked whether they expected output to grow by May 2021, manufacturers offered their least gloomy forecast since the Covid-19 crisis started to hammer the Irish economy in March. The survey's Future Output Index rose narrowly into positive territory for the first time since February as 38pc of firms now expect output to grow again within 12 months. But Covid-19 market disruption remains sufficiently strong for 31pc to see their productivity still falling a year from now, maintaining what the survey called "a record degree of pessimism in April". Factories cut their charges to customers in May for the third straight month - and at the fastest pace since July 2019. "With many markets still in lockdown, the volume of new export orders continued to fall at a historically marked rate in May. The pace of contraction was the second-fastest on record behind April's plunge," the report said. "Although many factories remained shut down in May, survey respondents reported that backlogs of work fell at the fastest rate since September 2011, reflecting the severe decline in new orders over the past three months." Ireland's headline PMI figure of 39.2 closely tracks the worldwide impact of Covid-19 disruption. IHS Markit, which compiles this measure in more than 40 countries, said May's manufacturing PMIs for the eurozone, UK and US are 39.5, 40.6 and 39.8 respectively. European, British and American slumps look "very similar to Ireland," Mr Mangan said. "The indices should continue to move higher as lockdown restrictions are eased and economic activity picks up again." Technology is shattering legacy financial systems that can't keep pace with market demand and Brex is at the forefront. It's one of fintechs buzziest startups, aiming to rebuild B2B financial products starting with corporate cards for technology companies. Brex co-founders Pedro Franceschi and Henrique Dubugras Brex The company was quietly launched in 2017 by Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi, two 22-year-old engineers who previously founded Pagar.me, one of Brazil's largest payment processors. Brex already has more than 1,000 customers signed up with the help of backing from investors including PayPal co-founders Peter Thiel and Max Levchin, early Facebook investor Yuri Milner, former Visa CEO Carl Pascarella, and esteemed startup incubator Y Combinator. And we caught a glimpse of the Series B pitch deck Dubugras and Franceschi used to win them over. In it, they lay out a clear problem: Technology startups often had trouble securing corporate credit cards even if they had millions in the bank because legacy banks and card issuers wanted to see company credit histories, which young institutions simply couldn't produce. They had a simple solution: Remove the restrictions of legacy technology by giving instant approval to startups based on their available cash balance, including money raised through venture, rather than credit history. In the deck, the founders outlined their plans to help startups of all sizes instantly get cards with higher limits, as well as automatic expense management and seamless integration with existing accounting systems. As part of our coverage of the genesis of today's successful companies, BI Prime received Brex's permission to offer a look into the startup's full 19-slide pitch deck, which includes considerations such as: The startup's mission Key team members and previous backers The size of the market opportunity A step-by-step plan of how to solve credit cards for startups Some of the card's coolest features Data points showing how to scale the business Story continues BI Prime is publishing dozens of stories like this each and every day. Want to get started by reading the full pitch deck? Read the original article on Business Insider I was watching the news last night and Kim Fox was talking about the looting. I was amazed to hear her say that the reason these people who are looting is due to years of frustration with the treatment of black community. Really that a joke. Looters are criminals and need to be stopped. The Democrats who are running this state are so afraid that something might happen that might reflect on them that they are afraid to get tough with looters. These store owners were hurt bad during the covid pandemic with their stores closed and no income and now their stores are looted and ruined, as the politicians sit on their hands. Why dont these political activist organize a park or something to hold a rally instead of marching thru the streets which invite looting. As if Los Angeles didn't have bigger problems, Harry and Meghan are leaking through friends to the press about their displeasure with all those surveillance drones. According to the Daily Beast: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are concerned for their family's safety following multiple incidents at their Hollywood Hills home, where drones have flown as low as 20 feet above their property to snatch photographs of the couple and their young son, Archie. A source has exclusively told The Daily Beast that the couple has been coping with "unimaginable" levels of press intrusion at their temporary new home, which is reportedly owned by their friend Tyler Perry. It is not known whether the couple is paying rent for the property or not. The Beast reports that they, or someone in their household or vicinity, has called the cops five times about it. As if moving to Los Angeles from the depths of the Canadian woods, and setting up house in some celebrity's 24,500-square-foot mansion near Beverly Hills, all for "a quieter life," as they said, might just bring such a scenario. It's all so very...Karen. And pretty ridiculous. In reality, they've got bigger problems. Leftists thugs are now openly targeting the celebrity areas of Los Angeles Brentwood, Hollywood Hills, Bel Air, Beverly Hills. They're looking at getting paid a visit by the rioters who've got looting the rich on their minds and the looters have already gotten away with it for several nights running. Twitter is loaded with tweets like these: Beverly Hills Brentwood Hollywood Hills Sherman Oaks Tarzana Thousand Oaks Woodland Hills Pacific Palisades Palos Verdes Manhattan Beach Dont mind me. Just putting together a wish list.pic.twitter.com/w68nLAXDFn DAP/ADOS TRIBE (@Black_Action) May 31, 2020 This ought to concern them a lot more than the paparazzi drones they're complaining about. Being wokesters, we don't hear any condemnation of the destruction of the metropolis from the likes of this pair, at all, any more than we do from the other Hollywood celebs, including the lost souls who are loudly declaring their plans to pay the bail of "protesters," meaning thugs caught looting, given that those are the only ones getting arrested. Does Chrissie Teigen feel secure in her digs in those parts? Does Ariana Grande? How about all the other celebrity leftists loudly speaking out in favor of the rioters? That it's no protection against the plans of the thugs says a lot about the celebrities' naivete. That these are the very celebs who virtue-signal to the looters, who have been wreaking mayhem on poor shopkeepers already weakened by the coronavirus, is a story in itself. Despite celebrity statements of support, looters and rioters are targeting them anyway. It's no protection. It almost looks like a grotesque celebrity bid to appease crocodiles in the hopes they'll be eaten last. Meghan's a pinhead and undoubtedly knows nothing about history, but Harry, of all people, Prince Harry, might just know a whiff of what could come down the pike as mobs circle their part of town looking for booty and cops stay on the sidelines. Back in 1789. the mobs had a good time marching on Versailles, invading the grounds, demanding audiences for their political grievances, getting a little, getting mad, and after getting away with this first raid, they eventually went on to pick off a few royals and march around with their heads on pikes. Here's a Lumen Learning course refresher: On the morning of October 5, 1789, women in the marketplaces of Paris were near rioting over the high price and scarcity of bread. Their demonstrations quickly became intertwined with the activities of revolutionaries seeking liberal political reforms and a constitutional monarchy for France. At the end of the Ancien Regime, the fear of famine became an ever-present dread for the lower strata of the Third Estate. Rampant rumors of a conspiracy theory held that foods, especially grain, were purposely withheld from the poor for the benefit of the privileged (the Pacte de Famine). Stories of a plot to destroy wheat crops in order to starve the population provoked the so-called Great Fear in the summer of 1789. Despite its post-revolutionary mythology, the march was not a spontaneous event. Speakers at the Palais-Royal mentioned it regularly and the idea of a march on Versailles had been widespread. The final trigger came from a royal banquet held on October 1 at which the officers at Versailles welcomed the officers of new troops, a customary practice when a unit changed its garrison. The royal family briefly attended the affair. The lavish banquet was reported in newspapers as nothing short of a gluttonous orgy. Worst of all, the papers dwelt scornfully on the reputed desecration of the tricolor cockade; drunken officers were said to have stamped upon this symbol of the nation and professed their allegiance solely to the white cockade of the House of Bourbon. This embellished tale of the royal banquet became the source of intense public outrage. And this, in 1792, after a mob ripped apart then-queen Marie-Antoinette's chief lady in waiting, the princess de Lamballe, who was married to France's richest man: After her death, her corpse was reportedly undressed, eviscerated and decapitated, with its head placed upon a pike.[2] It is confirmed by several witnesses that her head was paraded through the streets on a pike and her body dragged after by a crowd of people shrieking 'La Lamballe! La Lamballe!'.[2] This procession was witnessed by a M. de Lamotte, who purchased a strand of her hair which he later gave to her father-in-law, as well as by the brother of Laure Junot.[2] Some reports say that the head was brought to a nearby cafe where it was laid in front of the customers, who were asked to drink in celebration of her death.[13] Some reports state that the head was taken to a barber in order to dress the hair to make it instantly recognizable,[14] though this has been contested.[12] Following this, the head was put on the pike again and paraded beneath Marie Antoinette's window at the Temple.[16] Sound a little familiar? Not a word about this threat from them, which looks a little too real right now. They're just concerned about the drones. Image credit: Last Night of Freedom via Flickr. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health released new data Tuesday showing continued progress in the states battle with the coronavirus. The state reported 50 new COVID-19 deaths and 358 new cases. The numbers include both confirmed COVID-19 deaths and cases as well as presumed ones. Of the 358 newly reported cases, 110 are probable cases dating back to March 1. All of the 50 newly reported deaths were confirmed COVID-19 deaths. In total, Massachusetts reported 101,163 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday. On Monday, the state began releasing probable coronavirus-related deaths and cases in addition to confirmed ones. The new reporting method brought a rise in total COVID-19 deaths and cases Monday, but the new addition of probable cases and deaths stretch back to March 1. According to the department, probable cases consist of individuals who have not been tested by the standard viral test but have either had a positive antibody test and either had COVID symptoms or were likely to be exposed to a positive case. They also include individuals who did not have an antibody test but had COVID symptoms and were known to be exposed to a positive case. Patients with a positive molecular test for COVID-19 are counted as confirmed. Overall the state continues to report favorable results in the virus trends. Those trends are reported in six key public health indicators the state has identified to track the overall movement of the virus. Those six indicators are: Positive test rate Number of people who died from COVID-19 Number of patients with COVID-19 who are hospitalized Healthcare system readiness Testing capacity Contact tracing capabilities. The state rates those indicators as positive trend, in progress or negative trend." Positive test rate and testing capacity are both currently rated positive. Other indicators are in progress." The three-day average of COVID-19 deaths in Massachusetts was reported as 45 on Tuesday, showing a continued decline from 152 on May 2. The three-day average of COVID-19 patients who are hospitalized dropped to 1,743 on Tuesday. And the seven-day weighted average of positive tests dropped to 6.5%. All of those metrics marked further drops from Monday. The state also reported 5,852 new molecular tests and 885 new antibody tests. Antibody tests are used to show whether a person has already been exposed to the virus. In total, 605,771 molecular tests and 46,565 antibody tests have been administered in Massachusetts. COVID-19 key metrics in Massachusetts, showing data released June 2, 2020. View the full-sized map Cases per county Barnstable: 1,430 Berkshire: 568 Bristol: 7,380 Dukes: 41 Essex: 14,795 Franklin: 335 Hampden: 6,201 Hampshire: 883 Middlesex: 22,296 Nantucket: 13 Norfolk: 8,600 Plymouth: 8,228 Suffolk: 18,636 Worcester: 11,438 Unknown: 319 Related Content Subscriber content preview SEATTLE An apartment building at 9231 35th Ave. S.W. sold for a little under $3.3 million, according to King County records. The seller was Starmark Real Estate IV LLC, which acquired the property in 2003 for $875,000. . . . Dhaka [Bangladesh], June 2 (ANI): The first death due to COVID-19 has been reported from Ukhiya's Kutupalong Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar. The 71-year-old person, who died in Ukhiya's Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, was admitted in an isolation facility run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) outside the camps in Ukhiya, Dhaka Tribune quoted an official of an international organisation as saying. "We have bad news. A 71-year-old Rohingya male died of COVID-19 on Sunday, but the result of his test came on Monday. This is the first death in the camps," Dr Mahbubur Rahman, civil surgeon of Cox's Bazar, told the newspaper. The civil surgeon further said that among one million Rohingya from Myanmar sheltered in 34 camps, 29 people have tested COVID-19 positive. The first coronavirus case in the settlements was reported on May 14. Nine Rohingyas who had come into contact with the deceased have been sent to isolation. According to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University, the number of coronavirus cases worldwide has surged to 6,299,759 while the death toll stands at 3,76,177. (ANI) Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 2/6/2020 (597 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett takes her seat as she wait to appear before the Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee in Ottawa on March 10, 2020. Disheartened, disappointed, disbelieving. But still determined. Indigenous women and leaders fighting to end violence against Indigenous women in Canada say that's how they feel about Wednesday's anniversary of the final report of the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Families of victims who shared painful testimonies about the deaths and disappearances of their loved ones hoped their truths would spark immediate action and meaningful change. But Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett's announcement last week that Ottawa is delaying its national action plan because of the COVID-19 pandemic has instead sparked widespread dismay. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld OTTAWA - Disheartened, disappointed, disbelieving. But still determined. Indigenous women and leaders fighting to end violence against Indigenous women in Canada say that's how they feel about Wednesday's anniversary of the final report of the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Families of victims who shared painful testimonies about the deaths and disappearances of their loved ones hoped their truths would spark immediate action and meaningful change. But Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett's announcement last week that Ottawa is delaying its national action plan because of the COVID-19 pandemic has instead sparked widespread dismay. "These families opened their hearts and soul about their missing daughter, their mother, their sister, their aunt, their wives. And how heartbreaking is that when you feel there is some hope, that the government is truly listening to you, when nothing has been done in a year," said Lorraine Whitman, president of the Native Women's Association of Canada. "For that excuse to be used, that's an embarrassment to the government." The inquiry delivered its final report June 3, 2019 with a stunning conclusion that decades of systemic racism and human-rights violations had contributed to the deaths and disappearances of hundreds of Indigenous women and girls in Canada and that it constituted a genocide. Many were hopeful the national action plan promised by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when the report was released would be delivered in time for the June 3 anniversary this year something Bennett promised in December. Marion Buller, chief commissioner of the inquiry, said she doesn't buy the pandemic as an explanation for the delay. "The government has had 10 months prior to the real hit of COVID in order to lay the groundwork," she said. "To say COVID is slowing things down, or we can't do our work because of COVID because we can't meet, et cetera, really isn't a viable excuse because of all the time that passed prior to the real big wave of COVID hitting Canada." The inquiry was launched in August 2016 and heard from more than 2,300 people over two years. The recommendations for action spanned themes of health, justice, security and culture, including a number of calls for more effective responses to human-trafficking and sexual exploitation and violence, including in the sex industry. A national action plan was at the top of the list. Buller says she is concerned not only by the delay in the plan, but also by the lack of transparency in what work has been done and when the final plan will come. Bennett would not commit to a timeline, citing COVID-19 uncertainties. "We don't know what, if anything, the government has done to move ahead," Buller said. "If they have done something, we don't know who they've done it with. This is not publicly available information. There's no place to go to find out what's been happening." Michele Audette, who also served as an inquiry commissioner, said she wasn't surprised to see Ottawa delay its response. She believes even before the pandemic, the fall federal election and the countrywide protests over running a pipeline through traditional Wet'suwet'en territory in British Columbia earlier this year distracted the government. "Of course I am also disappointed, I had so much hope before the inquiry and more during the inquiry and of course after also," Audette said. Rebecca Kudloo, president of Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada, said she had hoped to see Ottawa's plans for moving forward and finding healing in time for the anniversary. "I'm disappointed ... especially for the victims' families who participated," she said. "It was very painful and for it to be delayed again is disappointing to them." She pressed Bennett last week for a timeline, and is pushing for a new December deadline. Buller and others who work closely with the families of victims say they are in the dark not only about timing, but also about who has been included in Ottawa's work on this file. The inquiry report explicitly called for the perspectives and participation of the families of the missing and murdered and survivors of violence to be included in implementation of the calls for justice. But many families say they've not been part of those conversations, Buller said. "They have been reaching out to me, asking, 'What's happening? What's going on?' Because they haven't been consulted, they haven't been involved," she said. "I don't know if it's a matter of government talking to other people and not the ones that I keep in touch with, if they're not talking to anyone, I don't know. Because there's no way of finding out." On Monday, Trudeau said the COVID-19 pandemic has interfered with the government's plans. "Right now, in this challenge around COVID, many of our partner organizations are very much focused on supporting their communities," he said. "We continue to work on the strategy to fight gender-based violence and respond to the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls inquiry, but the work is affected because of COVID-19. But it remains a priority not just for us but for all Canadians that we will continue to work on." Tuesday, as he consistently has, Trudeau avoided agreeing with the inquiry's conclusion that the treatment of Indigenous women in Canada constitutes a genocide when a reporter asked him. "Very strong words are necessary" to talk about an appalling history, he said, but he prefers to focus on reconciliation, partnership and progress. "There are lots of words that can be used, we need to use them, and we need to move forward." Many grassroots organizations haven't waited for governments to act, including the Native Women's Association, which was instrumental in pushing the federal government to hold the inquiry. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The association will hold a virtual event on June 3 to detail steps taken over the last year by Indigenous women to address and implement the calls for justice as well as a list of recommendations to the government for moving forward on a plan. Whitman said she sent these recommendations to Bennett's office twice in the last month, but hasn't received any response. "That's really disheartening for the families, and that's where I go back to. This is about the families." National Chief Perry Bellegarde of the Assembly of First Nations said Indigenous leaders are firm in their resolve to ensure Canada keeps its promises to make the country safer for Indigenous women and girls. "When it comes to dealing with ending violence against Indigenous women and girls, nothing is acceptable. We have to move on this sooner than later." This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2020. When Sushant Singh Rajput said success of outsiders is only discussed in hushed tones in Bollywood Advertisement Americans across the country are picking up the pieces after cities erupted in violence and destruction in a seventh straight night of unrest amid boasts and threats from President Donald Trump to send in troops to 'dominate the streets'. Business owners and residents swept up broken glass and surveyed the damage on Tuesday after looters broke into stores across the US after curfews came into effect across much of the country. Protesters set fire to a strip mall in Los Angeles, looted stores in New York City and clashed with police in St Louis, Missouri overnight as demonstrations over the death of George Floyd turned violent. As cities around the country witnessed a seventh straight night of both peaceful demonstrations and bursts of theft, vandalism and attacks on police, President Donald Trump amplified his hard-line calls of a day earlier, in which he threatened to send in the military to restore order if governors didn't do it. MISSOURI: A 7Eleven is seen damaged after being set on fire during riots and looting overnight on Monday in St Louis NEW YORK: Macy's flagship Manhattan store was boarded up early Tuesday after it was looted overnight ILLINOIS: Volunteers with the New Life Covenant Church help on Tuesday to clean up a heavily looted Jewel-Osco grocery KENTUCKY: A man walks past broken and boarded up windows at a CVS store in downtown Louisville, Kentucky on Tuesday Broken glass and burned piles of debris littered parts of New York City's early Tuesday after its first curfew in decades failed to prevent destruction as groups of people smashed their way into shops, including Macy's flagship Manhattan store and at the Rockefeller Center. Police said more than 200 people were arrested and several NYPD officers were injured during the chaos. As the day dawned, the city appeared to have made progress limiting violent clashes between police and large groups of demonstrators marching throughout the city. Several big marches went off peacefully with one hours-long demonstration in Brooklyn allowed to continue long after an 11pm curfew. But for a second night, roving bands of young people attacked businesses in Manhattan's glitzy shopping districts and a poor neighborhood in the Bronx where shops were looted and trash set on fire. Volunteers with the New Life Covenant Church on Tuesday helped to clean up a heavily looted grocery store in Chicago, Illinois, while fire crews assessed the damage at a burnt out 7Eleven in St Louis, Missouri. Demonstrations also broke out in places like Philadelphia, where hundreds of protesters spilled onto a highway in the heart of the city; Atlanta, where police fired tear gas at demonstrators; and Nashville, where more than 60 National Guard members put down their riot shields at the request of peaceful protesters who had gathered in front of Tennessees Capitol to honor Floyd. New York and other cities braced for more trouble after nightfall Tuesday, with NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio extending an 8pm curfew all week. More than 20,000 National Guard members have been called up in 29 states to deal with the violence. New York is not among them. De Blasio has said he does not want the Guard, and Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said he will not send it into the city against the mayor's wishes. NEW YORK: An Urban Outfitters store was one of several stores targeted overnight in Midtown Manhattan NEW YORK: A looted souvenir shop in Manhattan on Tuesday morning after another night of looting NEW YORK: Duane Reade stores across the city were also ransacked by the looters overnight WASHINGTON DC: Workers carry large wood boards past the historical St. John's Episcopal Church across Lafayette Park from the White House on Tuesday morning BOSTON: A storefront on Newbury Street is boarded up on Tuesday following violent protests in the city RHODE ISLAND: People sweep up broken glass from smashed windows in Providence, Rhode Island. Authorities said the people who caused the damage in the early hours of Tuesday were not protesting the death of George Floyd Bystander Sean Jones, who watched as people ransacked luxury stores in New York over the weekend, said: 'People are doing this so next time, before they think about trying to kill another black person, they're going to be like, 'Damn, we don't want them out here doing this... again'.' Some protesters framed the burgeoning movement as a necessity after a string of killings by police. 'I fear for my safety every time I get in the car to go for a drive. I fear of getting pulled over. I fear for all 10 of my brothers' and sisters' lives, for my parents' lives!' 19-year-old Amari Burroughs of Parkland, Florida, said Tuesday as she prepared for another protest. 'My goal is to use my voice and my leadership to make this world safer so that one day I can bring children here and won't have to fear for their safety.' During the violence that gripped communities from coast to coast again on Monday night, police officers were shot, run over and showered with rocks and bottles. Four officers were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries in St Louis. An emotional St. Louis police commissioner, John Hayden, said about 200 protesters were looting and hurling fireworks and rocks at officers. 'They had officers with gas poured on them. What is going on? How can this be? Mr Floyd was killed somewhere else and they are tearing up cities all across the country,' he told reporters. A police officer was shot during protests in Las Vegas and an NYPD officer was in critical condition after being hit by a car in the Bronx. More than 5,600 people nationwide have been arrested over the past week for such offenses as stealing, blocking highways and breaking curfew. The death toll from the unrest has risen to at least nine, including two people killed in a Chicago suburb. WASHINGTON DC: Troops load up into personnel carriers to take them toward the city from the Joint Force Headquarters of the D.C. National Guard on Tuesday WASHINGTON DC: Troops wait aboard personnel carriers to take them toward the city from the Joint Force Headquarters of the D.C. National Guard on Tuesday NEW YORK: As the sun set on the Big Apple, reports emerged of looting at luxury shops on 5th and Madison avenues that were ransacked the night before. Pictured: Looters smash a storefront in Manhattan NEW YORK CITY: Looters raided the Macy's store in Manhattan on Monday night before a curfew was imposed on the city at 11pm LOS ANGELES: Protesters in Los Angeles are surrounded by police as large numbers of people were rounded up after a curfew went into effect Dozens of cities are under curfews not seen since riots after the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Trump has threatened to use the military to crack down on the unrest, now in a second week, and has derided local authorities, including U.S. governors, for their response to the violent protests. 'New York was lost to the looters, thugs, Radical Left, and all others forms of Lowlife & Scum. The Governor refuses to accept my offer of a dominating National Guard. NYC was ripped to pieces,' tweeted Trump, a Republican, in a reference to New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo. The head of the National Guard, General Joseph Lengyel, said violence had decreased across the United States on Monday night, even as protest activity was sustained or increased. He said no Guard members were injured overnight. Lengyel said 18,000 Guard members were assisting local law enforcement in 29 states, a figure that was increasing. The violent US protests were triggered by the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American who died after a white policeman pinned his neck under a knee for nearly nine minutes in Minneapolis on May 25. Derek Chauvin, the 44-year-old Minneapolis police officer who planted his knee on Floyd's neck, has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Three other officers involved have not been charged. Floyd's death has reignited the explosive issue of excessive police force, especially against African Americans, and raised tensions on the front lines where officers have faced off against sometimes hostile crowds. LOS ANGELES: Police move through the streets as large numbers of people are arrested after a curfew went into effect on Monday night in Los Angeles WASHINGTON DC: Armed officers cleared protesters from around the White House so that Donald Trump could walk across Lafayette Park to pay his respects to St. John's Church, the historic chapel across from the White House WASHINGTON DC: A large number of law enforcement vehicles are seen outside the White House after nightfall Monday PHILADELPHIA: Demonstrators climb up the side of a highway after police launched tear gas into the crowd Peaceful protests continue in Washington DC and New York City after night of destruction and looting Peaceful protests kicked off for the eighth day across the country over the death of George Floyd who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on Memorial Day. Thousands gathered in Foley Square in New York City from 1pm after originally planning to gather near police headquarters further downtown. Protesters also marched on Times Square and took a knee in the center of the iconic tourist spot. In Los Angeles, Baptist Ministers lead a peaceful clergy march to City Hall and demonstrators played basketball while in Washington D.C. demonstrators gathered once again outside the White House despite a heavy presence from law enforcement. In Richmond, Virginia, Mayor Levar Stoney apologized after police the night before lobbed tear gas at a group of peaceful demonstrators during a protest Floyd's death. Demonstrations also gather in Maryland, sitting on the ground with signs that read 'Enough', 'I Can't Breathe' and 'Black Lives Matter'. In Minneapolis, hundreds of flowers were laid in tribute to Floyd. Clergy from the Minneapolis metro area marched silently down E. 38th Street to the intersection of Chicago Ave and E. 38th Street, the location of Cup Foods and the location where Floyd was arrested and died. For nearly a week since Floyd's death, largely peaceful protests by day have turned to chaos at night. WASHINGTON DC: Demonstrators gather outside the White House as protests continue over the death in police custody of George Floyd in D.C. NEW YORK CITY: Protesters take a knee as a sign of unity and chant in front of an NYPD precinct in Times Square NEW YORK CITY: Protesters chant as they march through Times Square on Tuesday in honor of George Floyd HOUSTON: People gather for a George Floyd protest in Houston, Texas on Tuesday LOS ANGELES: Protesters rally against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd in Los Angeles on Tuesday MINNEAPOLIS: Clergy from the Minneapolis metro area march silently in protest for George Floyd on Tuesday What happened Shares of LATAM Airlines Group (NYSE: LTM), gutted by a bankruptcy filing last week, surged in Tuesday trading and were up a staggering 55% as of 2:42 p.m. EDT today. But the reason for this is not good. So what In LATAM's home country of Chile, The Santiago Times is reporting that COVID-19 infections are soaring, with 105,000 persons infected and more than 1,100 deaths. Brazil, meanwhile, has the highest incidence of coronavirus infections of any other country, barring only the U.S. None of this bodes well for any near-term uptick in South American air travel that might help save LATAM. Nor do there appear to be any other headlines offering LATAM much hope. Now what To the contrary, this airline is flying into the teeth of a global recession carrying nearly $9 billion in debt, nearly as much as what the company used to do in revenue annually, and nearly 50 times LATAM's trailing annual profits. (Meaning, at the rate things are going, it could take as long as a half-century to pay off all the debt it has accrued.) If there's any reason why LATAM stock is rising today, I can only imagine it's due to short-sellers covering their positions, and locking in profits from the stock's 88% decline in value over the past year. Passengers queue in line to board on a train after the government eased restrictions imposed as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus, at Kalupur railway station. PTI photo Hyderabad: Train travelers from across the city had an infuriating time on Monday, when 200 regular train services were restored across the country. Seven of the nine trains operated by South Central Railway (SCR) originated at Nampally and Secunderabad stations. Throughout the day, thousands of people arrived at Secunderabad and Nampally stations much ahead of schedule to prevent possible delays while clearing the health checks. Though they were asked to report only 90 minutes before scheduled departure, many arrived three to four hours early. This caused massive logistical issues for the railways and police personnel, who had no option but to make the early arrivals wait in the sun in lines that stretched to half-a-kilometre in some cases. At Secunderabad, all roads were barricaded from afar. All travellers had to walk to the stations entrance, often with several heavy bags. Many were seen stopping after walking a few metres to catch their breath under the hot sun. Almost all the travellers had a similar story to tell they had been stuck in Hyderabad for far too long and wanted to get back home, no matter the risk. Srinivas, a Eluru native, said he was a teacher at a school in the city, but classes wouldnt begin for at least a month. I have been living completely alone in Hyderabad. I simply want to go home. If school starts, I will come back. If they ask me to take online lessons, I will do that from Eluru, he said. Another traveller, Shekar, an IT engineer, said he was going to Visakhapatnam so he can finally see his newborn. In spite of the railways and governments requests for senior citizens and children to avoid travelling, there was no shortage of either. Laxmidevi, a woman in her 70s, had been living with her daughter for over five months, much more time than she had planned. She boarded the Godavari Express to Visakhapatnam on Monday; her daughter and grandson accompanied her. When asked about the risk of travelling during a pandemic, her college-going grandson said, She just doesnt want to be here. She wants to go home, where she is comfortable. Meanwhile, officials tried their best to take the necessary precautions. No traveller was allowed on to the platform without thermal screening and a liberal spray of sanitiser on their palms. Markings were painted on platforms to promote social distancing. It was ensured that all of them wore masks. Outside the station, things were much less under control. Travellers were allowed into the station only after the train preceding theirs had departed. This meant thousands of people had to stand close to each other in serpentine queues. At around 4 pm, passengers of Godavari Express, had lined up as far as Alpha Hotel. Policemen struggled to make them maintain a safe distance. Laxmidevi and her family, for instance, came to Secunderabad at 1 pm, nearly five hours ahead of departure. With no seating arrangements, she struggled to stay upright and leaned against a railing. We have seen employees at several retail stores standing outside their stores holding clubs and other weapons, protecting their businesses, Hanania told the station. We have urged them to let us do our work and not to put their lives in jeopardy. LAGUNA HILLS, Calif., June 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Adagio Medical, Inc., announces that it has received CE Mark approval for its ultra-low temperature i ntelligent C ontinuous L esion A blation S ystem (iCLAS) for the endocardial treatment of paroxysmal (PAF) and persistent (PsAF) atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter. "More than half of all atrial fibrillation (AF) patients are diagnosed with PsAF. There is a strong demand to treat this patient group with endocardial, continuous, transmural lesion sets with results similar to what has been shown with the surgical Maze procedure. Using a single iCLAS catheter, the procedure can be completed in less than one hour," says Olav Bergheim, CEO of Adagio Medical, Inc. The 8.5Fr iCLAS catheter combines ablation and diagnostic capabilities, thereby requiring only a single transseptal puncture. The iCLAS procedure can be done utilizing an anatomical approach which eliminates the need for electromagnetic mapping. The ability to exchange stylets, without removing the catheter, allows for unlimited shapes and sizes of both the ablation and diagnostic sections of the catheter. "The multicenter European CryoCure II clinical study has shown that we can perform pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) in combination with other ablations in both atria (e.g. posterior wall box and cavo tricuspid isthmus isolation), even in the most difficult to treat PsAF patients. The uniquely versatile delivery system enables the ablation procedure to be performed with a single catheter. Ablations beyond PVI only add a few minutes to the total procedure time," says Tom De Potter MD, FEHRA, Associate Director, Cardiovascular Center OLV Hospital, Aalst, Belgium. "Similar to what was presented at the 2019 Heart Rhythm Society meeting, the CryoCure II data continues to show PsAF outcomes with 85% freedom from atrial arrythmias at 12 months." Adagio Medical GmbH was formed in Munich, Germany and is preparing for a limited European commercial launch of the iCLAS in early summer of this year. "With this CE Mark approval, we are excited to offer this novel treatment to the large PsAF patient population," says Michael Heuer, General Manager, Europe. Adagio Medical is conducting a prospective, single-arm, controlled IDE study in 20 centers in the United States, Western Europe, and Canada. The study is designed to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of iCLAS for the treatment of PsAF. ClinicalTrial.gov Identifier: NCT04061603 U.S. FDA IDE #G180263. About Adagio Medical, Inc. Adagio (www.adagiomedical.com) is a privately held company located in Laguna Hills, California developing innovative cryoablation technologies that create continuous, linear, transmural lesions to treat cardiac arrhythmias, including paroxysmal and persistent atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, and ventricular tachycardia. Adagio Medical, Inc. is a Fjord Ventures portfolio company. Follow Adagio Medical on: SOURCE Adagio Medical, Inc. Related Links http://adagiomedical.com A Huntsville business charged with enhancing the citys downtown district wants the Confederate statue standing outside the Madison County Courthouse to be removed. Downtown Huntsville Inc. issued a statement Tuesday afternoon calling for the removal and relocation of the monument that was erected in 1905. The call comes less than 24 hours after protesters in Huntsville chanted Take the statue down during a protest for George Floyd, who died last week while handcuffed after being pinned to the ground as a Minneapolis police officer held him in place with a knee to his neck. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with murder. Protesters in Huntsville at #GeorgeFloyd protest calling for Confederate monument outside courthouse to be torn down. Police are lining at the top of the steps of courthouse. pic.twitter.com/zqfzobMdGf Paul Gattis (@paul_gattis) June 1, 2020 "The tragic killing of George Floyd has magnified the deep pain experienced by African American and other members of our community," the DHI statement said. "We are heartbroken by this pain and believe a true path toward healing requires more than words of reconciliation or statements of empathy and support. "Rather, this path toward understanding and healing requires specific actions to directly advance this critical process. Today, we advocate that one such step should be the removal and relocation of the Confederate Memorial from the Downtown Huntsville Courthouse Square to a historically-contextual location that would allow our community to learn from the great pain that this memorial represents while also removing it from our communitys courthouse grounds." Related: George Floyd protest in Huntsville ends in police firing tear gas as crowd refused to disperse Related: Huntsville police: Small group of protesters led to use of tear gas The statement comes a day after a Confederate obelisk in Birminghams Linn Park was removed by the city after protesters attempted to pull it down Sunday night. DHI, which receives annual funding from the city of Huntsville among dozens of other organizations, has been credited for its role in revitalizing the downtown district of the Rocket City. The statement was signed by Chad Emerson, CEO of Downtown Huntsville Inc., and William Stroud, DHI's board chair. The monument, which is in the jurisdiction of the Madison County Commission, has been a source of controversy in recent years with various groups pushing for its removal. Dale Strong, chair of the commission, was not immediately available for comment Tuesday. The Confederate statue outside the Madison County Courthouse in downtown Huntsville. Tennessee Valley Progressives, an organization that has led that push for removal in recent years, reopened a 2017 GoFundMe account Tuesday to raise money to pay a $25,000 fine for removing a historic monument, based on a 2017 law passed by the state legislature. Joy Johnson of Huntsville held a sign at the protest Monday that said, "Move this racist statue." She said she had been part of protests over the years for the monument's removal. "I wanted to take this opportunity to say it," Johnson said Monday of her objection to the statue. "I will say it again and again and again." Tom Moss, also of Huntsville, protested the statue Monday with Johnson. He described it as a source of "intimation for people of color entering the courthouse." The monument, largely obstructed from view by a magnolia tree, was put in place by the Daughters of the Confederacy. In memory of the heroes who fell in defence of the principles which gave birth to the Confederate cause, the base of the statue says. The DHI statement said relocating the statue would be a step toward responding to the concerns of the community. We implore our government leaders on all levels to utilize all available means to take this step to promote the healing process, the statement said. We understand that the removal and relocation of this artifact will not remove historical prejudices and pain by itself, but we hope it represents a sincere statement to our fellow community members that we are listening to their pain and seek to meaningfully further a process of healing together with them. Pakistan has rolled back almost all shutdown measures, primarily to avert an economic meltdown ISLAMABAD: Pakistans Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday cited economic losses to justify his governments decision to lift a coronavirus lockdown despite rising infections and deaths, urging people to live with the virus. Pakistan has rolled back almost all shutdown measures, primarily to avert an economic meltdown. The country would open to tourism but cinemas, theatres and schools remain closed. The South Asian nation of 220 million has reported 72,160 novel coronavirus cases and 1,543 deaths, which jumped lately to as high as 80 a day. Its economic losses included a decline in exports, a 30% shortfall in revenues and remittances were expected to fall in coming months, Khan said. With the fiscal deficit likely to rise as high as 9.4% and the revenue shortfall, Pakistan is facing a balance of payment crisis. The country couldnt afford to match the losses incurred during the lockdown as many other countries had done, Khan said in a televised address. He cited 50 million people who live below the poverty line and 25 million daily wagers. Khan said his government gave cash handouts to the poor, which wasnt possible to continue on such a large scale, adding around 130 million to 150 million people were adversely affected by the shutdowns. Our conditions dont allow that we keep feeding money to them, how long we can give them money, Khan said. He urged people to act responsibly but more infections and deaths were inevitable. This virus will spread more. I have to say it with regret that there will be more deaths, Khan said. If people do take care they can live with the virus. The head of Qatar Airways called on the worlds two major planemakers to ease demands that ailing carriers accept delivery of new aircraft, saying their future relationship was at stake. Airbus SE and Boeing Co. should accept delivery deferrals until at least 2022, Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said in an interview Tuesday with Bloomberg TV. What is important is for Boeing and Airbus to show their customers that they are not only there with them in good times, but also in bad times, Al Baker said. If they dont oblige, they will permanently lose us as a customer. Al Bakers comments highlight the intense financial pressure on airlines, especially Gulf-based carriers like Qatar Airways whose business shuttling travelers across the globe has been shriveled by the coronavirus. The CEO said he didnt know when passengers would begin flying again in significant numbers. He said it would take several years for traffic to return to normal. Tense Turn With the airline industry on life-support, the historically chummy relations between planemakers and customers who in normal times commit tens of billions of dollars at a time has taken a sudden and tension-filled turn. Airlines, short of cash, are demanding to cancel, or postpone deliveries, while the manufacturers who have the added burden of keeping suppliers healthy are trying to keep handovers and the associated payments flowing. Qatar Airways has about $50 billion of orders for Boeing and Airbus aircraft, based on list prices. An Airbus spokesman said the company is in contact with customers but declined to discuss specifics, citing confidentiality. A Boeing spokeswoman declined to comment. Bets Off Gulf rival Emirates Airline, the worlds largest long-distance carrier, said Monday that its unable to commit to outstanding orders. Bloomberg reported last month that Dubai-based Emirates was seeking to cancel its final five Airbus A380 orders. All bets are off, Tim Clark, the Dubai-based carriers president, said in an online forum on Monday. We are nowhere near confident enough that the economics, the cash flows, the bottom line will put us in a good position to be able to guess if well buy a hundred of this or a hundred of that. Airbus, based in Toulouse, France, and Chicago-based Boeing have both cut back on production to contend with the unprecedented downturn. The European planemakers top executives will meet this week to reassess output, people familiar with the matter said this week. Equity Injection Al Baker also said that Qatar Airways has so far kept going with its own resources. He said if the crisis continued and if it did need a bailout, the carrier would likely seek an equity injection from its owner, the Qatar government. Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Europes biggest airline and a big customer to both Boeing and Airbus, has pulled almost all of its more than 700 aircraft out of service, and is working on a 9 billion-euro ($10 billion) bailout from Germany. With assistance from Layan Odeh, Charlotte Ryan and Siddharth Philip. The Spanish government has promised court action against at least 17 airlines including easyJet and Ryanair over their customer refund practices following the Covid-19 outbreak. The budget airlines are among those who have come in for huge criticism over the way they have promoted free flight switches and vouchers ahead of cash refunds and the time they have taken to give people who insist on refunds their money back. The country's Ministry of Consumer Affairs threatened legal action a few days ago. And yesterday it made good on its pledge by announcing it would file a formal complaint against at least 17 airlines over their 'deceptive' business practices. The government department will accuse the airlines of hiding information from customers about their EU-protected rights to a refund after flights are cancelled. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs will name easyJet and Ryanair in its complaint. Pictured: A flight attendant dispenses drinks in a video to promote Ryanair's return to the skies from July 1. Ryanair and easyJet face legal action from Spanish authorities for allegedly hiding information about the availability of cash refunds for flights cancelled due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic The other airlines have been identified as Air Europa; Air France; Binter Canarias; Eurowings; Iberia (Iberia Express and Air Nostrum; Jet2; KLM; Latam Airlines; Lufthansa; Scandinavian Airlines (SAS); Transavia; Thomson Airways (TUI); United Airlines; Volotea and Wizzair. The government department said it was taking legal action to get the airlines to stop their practices 'now and in the future.' It is also expected to ask the courts to nullify contracts where customers have accepted vouchers as a substitute to a cash refund in cases where airlines have not informed them they had the right to money back and sold vouchers as the sole option. Bibiana Medialdea, an economist chosen by Consumer Minister Alberto Garzon as General Director of Consumer Affairs, told Spanish TV station La Sexta: 'The European legislation is very clear. 'When an airline cancels a flight, the customer has the right to receive a refund in the seven days after he or she requests it. 'At the moment we have ample evidence this right is not being able to be exercised. 'The airline has the right to offer a voucher but what is very clear in the European legislation is that the consumer has the last word. 'If the consumer prefers a cash refund, he or she should have an easy and flexible way of asking for it and the companies should send it in seven days.' An EasyJet plane is seen at Luton Airport, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Luton, Britain, May 1, 2020 It is understood Spain's Consumer Ministry will seek legal backing for a 'Cease and Desist' style order against the airlines. Ryanair was recently named as the worst major airline for refunding British customers whose flights have been cancelled during the coronavirus pandemic, with more than eight out of 10 people still waiting for their money back according to figures from Which? It found 84 per cent of Ryanair customers it surveyed in the UK have not received a refund as requested, compared with 23 per cent at British Airways and 19 per cent at Jet2. Sixty per cent of easyJet customers surveyed were still waiting for their money back, according to the consumer group. A refund request form on easyJet's site starts with the words: 'Many of our customers are choosing not to wait, instead opting for a fight voucher which can be automatically issued for the full value of your booking.' Customers with cancelled European flights are still being directed online to a 'Manage Booking' section which says: 'Please select a new flight or request a voucher. 'We are very sorry for the disruption to your flight and apologise for the inconvenience this will have caused you.' The message goes on to offer a switch to other easyJet flights within Europe at any other time 'for free' and adds: 'Claim a voucher for the full value of your ticket. Valid for 12 months with the flexibility to book travel to anywhere when you're ready to fly.' A link to a flight refund option is further down the page and eventually gets you to the airline's refund application form, but not before a pop-up with the message 'Are you sure?' and the claim customers opting to take a flight voucher 'get more.' A spokesman for Ryanair said in a statement: 'Ryanair has already processed EUROS 400m in refunds since mid-March, which is over one third of the total backlog. 'We encourage customers to use their voucher or request a free move, as Ryanair has over 1,000 daily flights available from 1 July and has already released part if its summer 2021 schedule. 'All Ryanair customers on cancelled flights can still apply for a cash refund if they so wish'. There was no immediate response to a request for a comment from easyJet. (Photo : Nacho Doce on Reuters ) George Floyd's Death Caused by Asphyxia-- Resulting to Homicide, Reveals Official Post-Mortem (Photo : Mike Segar on Reuters) George Floyd's Death Caused by Asphyxia-- Resulting to Homicide, Reveals Official Post-Mortem The official post-mortem report of George Floyd's death was released this Monday, June 1. Authorities found out that the man died from asphyxia or lack of oxygen. Since the police officer pinned down Floyd on his arrest, it was suggested by the examiner that he died from 'homicide.' George Floyd died due to asphyxia, reveals official post-mortem On May 25, African-American George Floyd died after being arrested by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The reports from the findings at the time said that Floyd died due to cardiac arrest. Specifically, due to "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression." However, this now differs from the official post-mortem report, released by the pathologists hired by the family of Floyd. It was said in the report that the alleged suspect died from lack of oxygen or medically called asphyxia. Since the police officer pressed the neck and body of Floyd to the ground, it caused a cut on the blood and airflow to the brain of the Minneapolis man. Worse, the doctor suggests that it must be called as 'homicide.' "He couldn't breathe - asphyxia due to compression of the neck and the back," Dr. Michael Baden, the former chief medical examiner of New York City, told reporters in a videoconference. "And that's homicidal." Floyd had no 'underlying conditions,' say experts Aside from the official post-mortem report by the pathologists that did the autopsy, experts also insist that Floyd had no underlying conditions before the arrest. This is contrary to the initial findings released. According to NBC News, it was found that Floyd had a "significant" underlying conditions, including hypertensive heart disease, fentanyl intoxication, and recent methamphetamine use. However, this was debunked by the doctors that did the post-mortem. "The autopsy shows that Mr. Floyd had no underlying medical problems that caused or contributed to his death," Baden said. "He was in good health." 'I can't breathe' On the video that was taken by one of the passersby that saw Floyd being arrested, it was recorded that Floyd was having difficulty in breathing while being pinned down by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin. His last words were 'I can't breathe.' Until the paramedics arrived and renounced him died. U.S. protests all over the country Since the death of Floyd, several protests all over America happened for the past six days. Looting and injuries due to the protests were recorded, and the U.S. had been facing a terrible problem on both racism and coronavirus issues. U.S. Pres. Donald Trump officially called out the National Guard Troops to protect everyone from protests happening in the country. He even reiterated that he is the 'President of law and order' and allowing any protests as long as it is peaceful. However, he mentioned that what's happening right now isn't peaceful and said that the riots were no longer related to giving justice to Floyd's death anymore. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The territorys remoteness its 25 hamlets and capital of Iqaluit are connected to one another and the rest of Canada only by air might help reduce the risk of the virus arriving. But it also makes it one of the most vulnerable places in Canada were the virus to spread. Ever since humans have gotten serious about space, one big question has always been on our mind -- are we alone in the universe? And researchers have been constantly on a lookout for signs for aliens or extraterrestrials. And Chinas newest telescope will attempt to do just that. Xinhua Chinas Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, will begin looking for alien signals in September, according to state media Science and Technology Daily. This telescope was showcased to the world in January. However, since then, it has been going through some upgrades that will help it reduce interference and boost its search capabilities. It is expected to be fully functional by September this year. According to ChinaTechCity, Apart from helping humanity find extraterrestrial life in the universe, the telescope will also collect data in order to study a wide range of cosmological phenomenon, including black holes, gas clouds, pulsars and other distant galaxies. China's new alien-hunting telescope The telescope is around 500 metres in diameter, however it is important to note that it only focuses a 300-metre segment on the receiver at a given time. Once ready, it will able to scan twice the sky area covered by the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, which was until now the record holder for the largest single-aperture radio telescope in the world. Getty Images It was first proposed in the year 1994 with the funding getting approved sometime in 2007. The entire cost for building this monstrosity was around $270 million. The telescope is made using 4,500 36-foot triangular panels that form the dish-like structure. Suspended on top of it is a 33-ton retina device at a height between 460 feet and 525 feet. The telescope is built in the Pingtang County in the southwestern province of Guizhou. For constructing this, a village of 65 people was completely uprooted while also relocating over 9000 people in surrounding villages. AFP Via Getty images Li Di, chief scientist from the National Astronomical Observatories said in a statement, Ultimately, exploring the unknown is the nature of mankind, he said in an interview with China Daily. 'It drives us to a greater future. New Delhi, June 1 (IANS) Asia's biggest ever drug bust in Myanmar on May 18 last is reportedly linked with top Southeast Asian drug syndicates and also hints at the involvement of Karachi-based underworld network, D-Company, led by India's top fugitive Dawood Ibrahim, who controls major narcotics operations in Bangladesh and Thailand. Over 18 tonnes of drugs were seized on a tip-off by UN agencies. The consignment was meant to be trafficked through China, Thailand and Bangladesh. Indian Intelligence agencies are in touch with Myanmar authorities to gather inputs on the recipients of the consignment, which includes syndicates based in Southeast and South Asia, top sources told IANS. Myanmar's anti-drugs police earlier revealed that besides 500 kg of crystal meth, 300 kg of heroin and 3,750 methyl fentanyl were recovered from clandestine factories backed by narco-criminal syndicates. Sources in Indian agencies said that the D-Company, which has large bases in Dhaka and Thailand, usually lifts synthetic drugs like fentanyl from Myanmar and pushes them into European and US markets. "Such narcotics operations often bear no direct links with mafia leaders, but we still hope that the ongoing investigation may unmask a few top syndicates involved in smuggling of mandrax and synthetic drug tablets. D-Company is one such crime syndicate having deep-rooted connections with South Asian synthetic drug suppliers," added the source. United Nations and Interpol have declared Dawood Ibrahim as one of the biggest narcotics smugglers in Asia having links with terror outfits. The role of Dawood Ibrahim and his top henchmen Jabir Motiwala is also under investigation by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) of the US in a massive cross-border narcotics smuggling case. Motiwala, who looks after Dawood Ibrahim's drug dealings, was arrested by the Scotland Yard in London and presently faces extradition case for a pending trial by DEA in the US. The DEA has alleged in its report filed against Motiwala that Dawood Ibrahim, through his extensive hawala network, plays a key role in smuggling narcotics to destinations spread across the world. The latest dossier prepared by the Intelligence Bureau, India's premier intelligence agency, said that Dawood Ibrahim and his younger brother Sheikh Anees Ibrahim deal in synthetic drugs as well as heroin and opium. The underworld duo also partners with notorious Afghan smuggler Haji Jan Lal Ishqzai in a bid to expand their drugs empire. The IB dossier on the mafia don revealed, "Dawood Ibrahim, with a motive to generate capital through illegal heroin trade, has taken the help of Ishaqzai to execute nefarious plans of pumping narcotics in India and elsewhere. The D-Company has already established ground networks in Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Ghana from where it hopes to carry out operations." D-Company's key points man in Afghanistan, Ishqzai, has earlier been on the most wanted list of drug traffickers in the US. On Ishqzai, a DEA report said," Ishaqzai was arrested in 2012 after being one of the United States' most wanted 10 kingpins. He escaped two years later after allegedly paying bribes totalling up to $14 million to local officials. Ishaqzai's disappearance from prison and return to trafficking was a major embarrassment for the Afghan authorities." The IB dossier on Dawood Ibrahim also cited a report of the US Congress relating to House Financial Services Subcommittee on Terrorism and Illicit Finance. Describing Dawood Ibrahim as a global narcotics smuggler, the report of the US Congress subcommittee said, "Pakistan-based crime-terror group, D-Company, whose origins lie in India, expanded Karachi's historic role as a drug transhipment point, and built a powerful transnational crime-terror organisation, in part from drug proceeds." --IANS ds/arm Duke Realty Corp. DRE has collected 98.3% of the originally-billed April rents with combined collections and deferrals aggregating 99.8%, and 95.4% of the originally-billed May rents with combined collections and deferrals totaling 99.1% as of May 31, 2020. The company also noted that collection of May rents were at a faster pace than Aprils. The company also stated that bulk of rent deferral requests have been denied, while total amount of deferrals granted denotes less than 1% of annual revenues. It apprised that in California and New Jersey, the two states having several eviction moratoriums, during April and May, the company has managed to collect 100% of the rent. Moreover, Duke Realtys leasing activity for April and May aggregated 4.5 million square feet. With 847,000 square feet of leases being signed in its speculative development pipeline, the company has achieved 68% of pre-leasing level in the development pipeline, up from 61% as of Mar 31, 2020, reflecting decent demand for the companys properties. Amid e-commerce boom and supply-chain strategy transformations, demand for industrial real estate has been strong. In light of the coronavirus pandemic, warehouse operations have become more essential with more e-commerce customers. Over the long term, apart from the fast adoption of e-commerce, logistics real estate is expected to benefit from the likely increase in inventory levels post the coronavirus crisis. This will open up prospects for industrial REITs including Duke Realty, Prologis PLD, Terreno Realty TRNO, Rexford Industrial Realty, Inc. REXR and others. Nevertheless, recovery in the industrial market has continued for long and market rents are expected to remain flat for the rest of 2020. Also, although industrial real estate fundamentals seem more resilient relative to other asset categories, it is not immune to market dislocations and volatility. The pandemics adverse impacts on the economy will likely hinder the demand for space in the near term, impeding near-term rent growth. Rent relief and deferrals are added concerns. Shares of Duke Realty have gained 15.5% over the past year, as against the industrys decline of 4.7%. Story continues Currently, Duke Realty carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. 5 Stocks to Soar Past the Pandemic: In addition to the companies you learned about above, we invite you to learn about 5 cutting-edge stocks that could skyrocket from the exponential increase in demand for stay at home technologies. This could be one of the biggest buying opportunities of the decade. See the 5 high-tech stocks now>> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Prologis, Inc. (PLD) : Free Stock Analysis Report Duke Realty Corporation (DRE) : Free Stock Analysis Report Terreno Realty Corporation (TRNO) : Free Stock Analysis Report Rexford Industrial Realty, Inc. (REXR) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 00:12:56|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MAPUTO, June 1 (Xinhua) -- President of Mozambique Filipe Nyusi launched Monday the celebrations of the 45th anniversary of national independence, appealing for unity and strengthening efforts to defend territorial sovereignty. The June 25, which marks the national independence of Mozambique from the Portuguese colonial rule, was the beginning of a new era where Mozambican people became owners of their own destiny, said the head of state from the presidential palace in Maputo. "Mozambicans will never allow their country to be divided to satisfy the wishes of invaders from whichever origin and nature. They will not tolerate blackmails of cyclical wars promoted by manipulators to feed the ego of internal and external elites," said Nyusi. "This date reminds us of the need for us not to give in to the complexity of the challenges that we currently deal with in the construction of our nation. Our cultural mosaic and endless resources are our strength. Only if we value diversity and work as one will we build a resilient and prosperous country," said the president. He saluted the young members of armed forces throughout the country especially those who stationed in the central and northern regions where conflicts are reported. Enditem Hyderabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is looking forward to visiting Pakistan in November this year to attend the Saarc Summit, said Indias High Commissioner in Pakistan Gautam Bambawale in Karachi on Monday. I cant say about the future but as of today, Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi is looking forward to visiting Islamabad for the Saarc summit in November this year, the Dawn quoted the Indian High Commissioner as saying at a seminar of the Karachi Council on Foreign Relations. "India and Pakistan must discuss the entire range of issues. They must keep their focus on economy," Bambawale said in the event in Karachi. Earlier, the reports said that Modi might keep away from the Saarc Summit. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Forbes, Fortune and Bloomberg have a strict policy of who they can include in their rich lists, which leaves several super-rich in the shadows... which is where they'd like to be. Every year, finance magazines such as Forbes and Fortune draw up a list of the richest people on the planet. The Bloomberg index is another metric that measures the wealth of the worlds top one-percenters. And while all these three indices are fairly accurate in the way they calculate the wealth of the richest people in the world, their respective company policies prohibits them from including certain people or certain kinds of people in their list. For instance the editorial policy of both Forbes and Bloomberg prohibits them from including mobsters, dictators and royalty in the Forbes Rich list and the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Similarly Bloomberg Billionaires Index also excludes its founder and majority owner Michael Bloomberg who famously spent half a billion dollars on his recent presidential campaign. This means the fortunes of people such as the Sultan of Brunei, Dawood Ibrahim, Bashar al-Assad et al don't always have an official figure to them. As a result there are several such super-rich people who are lurking in the shadows away from the chest-beating lists that wouldve put them in the media glare. Hassanal Bolkiah, the Sultan of Brunei Photograph: Wikimedia Commons/Under Creative Commons License The Sultan of Brunei is said to have an estimated net worth of $20 billion. And that was nearly a decade ago! Hassanal Bolkiah is said to own more than 600 Rolls Royce cars and his home is, at the moment, the largest private residence in the world. With 1800 rooms, the Istana Nurul Iman Palace cost him $350 million which was probably just lose change for the sultan. Dawood Ibrahim Photograph: Wikimedia Commons/Under Creative Commons License Hes evaded arrest for a good part of three decades. After allegedly masterminding a series of explosions in 1993, Mumbai, Dawood Ibrahim went underground and has stayed away from public glare all these years. He started out as a small-time criminal in the 70s and rose up the ranks till he became one of the richest drug dealers on the planet. While his estimated wealth comes nowhere close to Pablo Escobars estimated $25 billion in 1989, Ibrahim continues to remain alive, at large and worth well over $7 billion. Story continues Kim Jong Un Photograph: Wikimedia Commons/Under Creative Commons License North Koreas Supreme Leader doesnt appear on any of the rich lists for a reason: no one can estimate for a fact just how wealthy he may be. However, unofficial estimates suggest that Kim Jong Un may have a net worth of $5 billion dollars which he is said to have amassed by engaging in cyber warfare, using slave camps and selling off his countrys natural resources. Kim Jong Un may not boast of a fleet of Rolls Royce but he does enjoy expensive cheese and foreign liquor. Bashar al-Assad Photograph: Wikimedia Commons/Under Creative Commons License The Syrian leader who has presided over one of the worst humanitarian crises in modern times is said to be worth $1.5 billion. However, it has been suggested by many that Bashar al-Assad has spread his wealth all over the world and that could very well be in the tune of $120 billion or more. Vladimir Putin Photograph: Wikimedia Commons/Under Creative Commons License Like with every person on this list, one cannot precisely estimate Vladimir Putins fortune. However, American financer Bill Browder, in a testimony before the US Senate Judiciary Committee in 2017, claimed that Putins estimated net worth could well be somewhere close to $200 billion. Browder, the American-born British financer is the CEO and founder of Hermitage Capital Management, which had at one point as much as $4 billion invested in Russian stocks. His claim would make Putin the richest person on the planet by a mile and a half (Bezos is merely at $148 billion). Interestingly, neither Forbes nor Bloomberg include Vladimir Putin in their lists. While Forbes has officially stuck to the "we cannot ascertain his assets" line publicly, they have also not responded to whether they consider him a dictator (and therefore don't include him in the list). The supervisory board of Lufthansa has given its blessing to a 9 billion-euro ($10 billion) government bailout plan thrashed out between the airline, the German government and the European Union. In a statement on Monday, the German carrier quoted Lufthansa Chairman Karl-Ludwig Kley saying it had been a very difficult decision. We recommend that our shareholders follow this path, even if it requires them to make substantial contributions to stabilizing their company, said Kley. "It must be clearly stated, however, that Lufthansa is facing a very difficult road ahead. Lufthansa, which has been hard-hit by the downturn in travel during the coronavirus pandemic, will be required to relinquish some of its slots in Frankfurt and Munich to competitors. A German government stabilization fund will receive a 20% stake in the airline. Environmental campaigners have criticized the government, saying it had not pressed for tougher emissions reduction targets as part of the bailout plan. Lufthansa's current shareholders and the European Commission need to provide final approval for the plan. The airline will hold an extraordinary general meeting on June 25. [June 02, 2020] Andersen Global Expands Presence in Qatar Andersen Global announced its collaboration with Doha-based tax firm MS Partner, adding depth to the organization's presence in Qatar and expanding its global platform. MS Partner was founded in 2018 and includes two Partners and more than 10 professionals that specialize in providing tax services to a variety of international clients including individuals and companies - both private and public. MS Partner's Chairman His Excellency Shaikh Sultan Bin Jassim Bin Mohammed Al Thani is a prominent business leader in the State of Qatar. "We value our clients and people, and maintain the highest of professional standards," said Office Managing Director Manikandan Rajan. "We've watched Andersen Global grow regionally as well as globally, and the organization has set the standard for providing clients with best-in-class service in an independent and seamless manner. We look frward to working closely with our fellow collaborating firm in Doha, Al-Khalifa Law, as well as all the collaborating firms and member firms of Andersen Global." "Mani and his team bring the type of expertise, stewardship and professionalism that it takes to be leaders in their market," said Andersen Global Chairman and Andersen CEO Mark Vorsatz. "Tax is an expanding industry in the Middle East, especially with importance on diversifying the economies. We are continuing to expand our capabilities in this region so that we can best serve our clients. The combination of MS Partner and Al-Khalifa Law makes a very impressive and competitive platform for our organization's presence in Qatar." Andersen Global is an international association of legally separate, independent member firms comprised of tax and legal professionals around the world. Established in 2013 by U.S. member firm Andersen Tax LLC, Andersen Global now has more than 5,000 professionals worldwide and a presence in over 172 locations through its member firms and collaborating firms. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005307/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Protesters scramble from the Vine Street Expressway after tear gas is fired to clear them from blocking traffic on the major east-west thoroughfare on Monday, the third day of confrontations over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Read more They flooded the Vine Street Expressway late Monday afternoon with fists and voices raised thousands waving signs, kneeling on the asphalt, bringing to a halt one of the citys busiest thoroughfares. Black, white, and brown, many of them younger adults, they shouted out cries, the same ones heard for days in Philadelphia and across the country, for racial justice and an end to police brutality. Then, officers launched tear gas onto the marching crowd, sending the protesters scrambling up the banks on both sides of the highway as gas filled the air. Within minutes, videos and images of people screaming, trapped, and desperate to escape flooded social media. The gassing and the chaotic swarm it caused created one of the starkest moments in Philadelphia of the last three days outraging and stunning protesters who said their demonstration was peaceful. READ MORE: Here's live coverage of what's happening Tuesday The melee, an hour before the citys 6 p.m. curfew was set to take hold, came on a day when the National Guard came to aid city and state police, and city officials again pledged that the violence of previous days smashed windows, ransacked businesses, and vandalized police cars would not be tolerated. At least dozens of demonstrators were arrested Monday after the I-676 incident, and later in the evening police sought to more forcefully clear the streets when the curfew arrived. The incident further enraged protesters who, as in previous days, had used largely nonviolent demonstration to call for change in the wake of the death of George Floyd, the black man who died last week after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck. How can you expect us to be peaceful and then you you attack us. You get mad when we violent, but when we peaceful, you still get mad. So what is the answer? said protester Kai Mickens of Coatesville, her voice straining with emotion. Is there an answer? City officials on Monday said they were trying to sort out what had happened and which agency had released the gas. In a late-night statement, Mayor Jim Kenney and Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said Philadelphia SWAT officers had released tear gas and non-chemical white smoke after an officer ordered the crowd to disperse because some protesters had thrown rocks. The gas was a means to safely defuse a volatile and dangerous situation and restore order, Outlaw said in a statement. Kenney said the officers were concerned about the safety of protesters and drivers. I want to assure the public that this was not a decision that anyone took lightly, he said. Deana Gamble, a spokesperson for Kenney, said the information about protesters throwing rocks came from firsthand accounts of high-ranking police commanders who witnessed the incident. Some were [hit] and one in particular remembers because he didnt have a helmet on, so he needed to duck, she said. As protesters questioned the gassing, City Councilmember Helen Gym called on Kenney to ask militarized forces to stand down." Councilmember Jamie Gauthier said later that the incident undermined our credibility as a city government. We cant on the one hand say that we hear people and we understand them," Gauthier said, "and on the other hand use these kinds of tactics against them for expressing their opinions and expressing their anger about something they should be angry about. READ MORE: Police police officers take a knee with protesters at City Hall The expressway protest had partly originated from a peaceful speakout at Police Headquarters earlier in the afternoon and grew as groups joined to march to City Hall and then continued up the Parkway to reach I-676. They walked down the expressway, chanting, No justice, no peace, no racist police" and stopped traffic as far as the eye could see. Ebony Ukogu, 24, was chanting with the crowd, carrying a sign that read Stop Killing Us," when suddenly people ahead of her started running and she saw police in riot gear. They were coming toward us. And then, all the sudden, I blink, and my eyes are on fire," she said. "Then I start to hear the pops, the sounds of them firing canister after canister of tear gas. She said the situation turned dangerous because people had to crawl over each other to flee as officers continuously" sprayed the gas. Mickens said the tear gas appeared to come both from above and in front of the crowd. They have people trapped down there," one woman yelled as people still behind the fences struggled to reach them and jump over, according to a video she posted. They were peacefully protesting! Some protesters near the front also said they were hit by rubber bullets, with one of them showing a reporter a red welt on his chest. At least one video appeared to show Philadelphia sheriffs deputies using pepper spray on people on the Parkway. Sheriff Rochelle Bilal did not respond to requests for comment. We all falling up the hill, trying to climb, jumping over the gate and everything, it was crazy, said K.J. Williams, 22, one of the people who said they ran from rubber bullets. It was chaotic. Like it was really like pandemonium." On the expressway, a large group appeared to be detained by officers. At least 25 people had their hands tied and were seated on the highway barrier, some lined up in front of a Sheriffs Office bus. Five hours later, no arrests had been announced by city officials. Its just crazy that we came out here to protest peacefully, to fight for people of our skin color, and we still got gassed," said Zakiyah Ingram, 26, of Philadelphia. It doesnt make sense to me." Staff writers Kristen A. Graham and Oona Goodin-Smith contributed to this article. C ircle July 4 in your diaries. On this side of the pond, we wont be stuffing our faces with hot dogs but we might be getting our sweat on. According to plans submitted to the Government by industry body UK Active, the reopening of gyms and fitness studios could be brought forward from October to as soon as next month. You could be back on the treadmill before youre back in the pub. So what will reopening look like for venues founded on huffing and puffing? Industry leaders have been hard at work to rustle up a new training plan the pandemic, they say, is actually the start of a new fitness revolution. From sanitising machines to HIIT classes in the park, this is how gyms are preparing to get London sweating together again. Intimacy issues Current government plans suggest that large-scale gyms and small studios will be allowed to reopen from the same date, but insiders have their own ideas. Boutiques like Frame say they will watch how big-box gyms open before they act (spin chain Boom Cycle doesnt expect to open until August at the earliest), whereas Sandy Macaskill, UK founder of bootcamp phenomenon Barrys, believes boutiques like his should be opening first. Were well-suited to social distancing because our clients are already used to capacity caps, timetables and being given assigned spots its not going to be left down to common sense or trust, he says, explaining his studios will be deep-cleaned every 50 minutes between classes. Thats 15, 16 times a day no gyms come close. Gyms will put in place strict cleaning rules / Getty Images The entry plan Studio lobbies are having a makeover. Leisure centre titan Everyone Active and Florida-born franchise Orangetheory Fitness plan to supply hand sanitiser at the door, while boutique chain 1Rebel is installing self-scanning temperature checks on arrival. Guests will be offered masks if they dont have their own. At Frames rainbow-coloured studios, there will be sanitising stations and partition screens at the front desk, while yoga studio Triyoga has plans for a traffic system through the building when students arrive. Working out wearing a mask could become the new-normal / Getty Images Size matters The two-metre rule means cutting down on numbers. Pure Gym, the UKs biggest fitness club operator, plans a slot-booking system to manage visitors, while Frame, Triyoga and Everyone Actives boutique brand Fortis are halving class numbers. PureGym CEO Humphrey Cobbold warns that studio operators will struggle to break even at occupancy levels below 50 per cent, while Core Collective founder Jason de Savary worries his studios wont be able to make revenue until the Government cuts its distancing guideline from two metres to one metre, the WHOs recommendation. Tread carefully In Hong Kong, treadmills are separated by glass partitions, water fountains have been removed and there are phone wipe stations will London look the same? In many cases, yes. 1Rebel will fix screens between items of equipment; cult spin chain SoulCycle will only book bikes that are a safe distance apart; and fitness magnate Duncan Bannatyne says equipment at his Bannatyne health clubs will be taped off and there will be a one-way system. Some boutique brands are embracing BYOK (bring your own kit). Aussie-born franchise F45 will assign members a fixed station for the entire workout to stop equipment-sharing, while Frame is selling Quickie Fit Kits containing Pilates balls, resistance bands and gliders for members to bring to class. 'Bring your own kit' may soon be a reality at some studios / Alamy Stock Photo Sanitisation stations Cleaning routines are cranking up. SoulCycle has upgraded its disinfectant to an electrostatic spray said to kill Covid-19 in 60 seconds. Staff will use this on every surface of the studio, the studios website says. Celebrity trainer Dalton Wong says hell be using 70 per cent alcohol sanitiser as part of his 10-step cleaning plan between clients, while others disinfectants are turbocharged. PureGym is considering robot cleaners that use light beams to zap surfaces, while Everyone Active says staff will use fogging machines to clinically clean the entire building twice a day. Locker-room rules Dont expect to shower, says Justin Rogers, creative director at Ten Health & Fitness. The Pilates chain is asking clients to wash at home when studios reopen, as is Soulcycle: bathrooms, sinks and lockers will be disinfected but showers will be off-limits. The safest solution: come in your kit. Triyoga says it is unlikely its changing rooms will be open initially, while Nike trainer Luke Worthington will be asking PT clients to arrive and leave in their kit and bring shoes solely for indoor use. Park life The beauty of restarting PT sessions? You can train in the park where theres more air circulating, says Ollie Lee, PT and trainer at Kobox. Hes waiting until next month to be on the safe side, but many PTs have started outdoor sessions face-to-face already. De Savary is looking at ways Core Collective can hold open-air classes, as all three of his gyms are next to parks. Frame CEO Joan Murphy is frustrated that open-air classes havent been allowed already as in Holland, Italy and Germany: It doesnt make logical sense that parks and beaches can be busy with hardly any structure but a professionally run outdoor fitness activity cant. Sweating is social Kitchen floors are the new gym floors and many lockdowners say they prefer the convenience. Are gym owners worried the so-called Joe Wicks effect will damage membership? De Savary is concerned that fear propaganda will make many people nervous to return at first, but he doesnt believe it will last. If this crisis has shown us one thing its that we crave social contact. Statistics agree. A recent Sport England survey found that gyms were the most missed form of sporting or leisure activity by the British public during lockdown, with 87 per cent of current gym members likely to resume their membership when facilities reopen. For many Londoners, its their main source of human connection, Psycle CEO Rhian Stephenson points out especially at boutiques which pride themselves on this sense of community. 1Rebel has been inundated with messages from customers keen to return, and Macaskill says most members are desperate to get back in the Red Room. That first class back at Barrys is going to be off the charts. Flexi-working (out) In-person experiences may be preferable to scrappy Instagram Lives but what about gyms like Core Collective and Frame that have released entire new streaming platforms? The feeling across the industry is that streaming is here to stay. 1Rebel has gained customers in more than 70 countries since launching its digital platform Rebel TV in March, while Core Collective was already planning its streaming TV service before the pandemic hit. It simply pushed them to accelerate the process. PTs, too, are expecting clients to continue video sessions post-Covid, says Fiit trainer and PT Charlotte Holmes. Not only is it more convenient, but many find theyre receiving a higher-quality service over Zoom as the trainer has to work harder to explain moves. The future of fitness could be blended: a combination of digital and in-person workouts to suit the predicted boom in flexible working. Haydn Elliott, co-owner of F45 Soho, says: For the next 18 months I think a lot of peoples working lives will massively dictate where they train: in-studio workouts on days theyre in the office; living room workouts on days theyre working from home. Frame says its looking to offer packages mixing studio and online classes to reflect this, while Netflix of fitness platform Fiit has a solution for members keen to keep their lunchbreak Fiit classes going when they return to the office. The app has partnered with the Gym Group to install digitally-powered group exercise studios and smaller one-person Fiit pods across a number of its facilities by the end of the year. Fitness first The result of this combined approach? More working-out than ever before, predicts de Savary. I expect that people will move towards getting an extra workout done a week from home, he says, while Macaskill predicts people will be less intimidated to come to classes after online tasters over lockdown. Weve had so many messages from people saying they were too scared to come to Barrys but having joined our Instagram classes they now want to try the real thing. New Delhi: Indian airlines Air India Ltd will operate 70 flights to evacuate Indians stranded in the US and Canada under the third phase of Mission Vande Bharat, between June 11 to June 30, said civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri in a tweet late on Monday. Puri wrote, ''More flights being added to Mission Vande Bharat to enable stranded & distressed Indians to return home.@airindiain will operate 70 flights to destinations in USA & Canada under Phase 3 of the Mission from 11-30 June 2020.'' This move comes as the Indian aviation ministry was getting numerous requests to restart international flights. In another tweet, Puri said, ''Numerous citizens have been approaching us to restart international flights. Several factors need to be addressed. Many international destinations are not allowing incoming passenger traffic, except for their own citizens or diplomats.'' The Vande Bharat Mission was started by the Indian government on May 7 to bring stranded Indians home amid the COVID-19 pandemic from foreign land on a payment basis. It also permitted foreign nationals and valid visa holders to book seats on these outbound flights. Meanwhile, on Monday (June 1, 2020) around 3800 people were brought back to India from Dubai, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Bahrain, Salalah, Moscow, Kiev, Madrid, Tokyo, Dhaka, Bishkek, Almaty, Riyadh and Dammam under the Vande Bharat Mission. Sales tax revenue in May fell by more than 13 percent, adding to already historic declines amid the coronavirus pandemic and an unrelated crash in global oil prices. The drop is the largest year-over-year since January 2010, and is the first full glimpse into the financial fallout from the coronavirus. Though the revenue totals are for May, they mostly represent transactions in April, when a statewide lockdown was in place to slow the spread of the virus. March sales were down 9.3 percent, state records show. Sales tax is the largest source of funding for the Texas state budget, including public education and health care. It typically brings in about $3 billion monthly. Significant declines in sales tax receipts were evident in all major economic sectors, with the exception of telecommunications services, Comptroller Glenn Hegar said in a statement. The steepest decline was in collections from oil and gas mining, as energy companies cut well drilling and completion spending following the crash in oil prices. FOR SUBSCRIBERS: I lost my job, now Im losing my house. Houston-area evictions set to pick up in June Revenue from other major taxes was also down, including a 38-percent hit in motor vehicle sales and rental taxes, and a 30-percent decline in motor fuel taxes. Tax revenue from oil and natural gas production also had steep declines. Hotel occupancy taxes brought in just $8 million, the lowest amount on record. The business closures and restrictions and stay-at-home orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic spurred deep drops in collections from restaurants, amusement and recreation services, and physical retail stores, Hegar said. These declines were offset in part by increases from big box retailers and grocery stores that remained open as essential businesses, online retailers and restaurants that could readily pivot to takeout and delivery service. While the state has begun reopening, many businesses are still closed or operating at reduced capacity. Unemployment remains high and the drop in energy prices in March has been compounded by a fall in demand as Texans remain largely indoors. Hegar said the slump in tax revenue will likely last for months. Some state and local officials have called for cuts in response to the downturn. Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republican leaders have asked most state agencies to plan for five percent reductions through next year. Cities and towns are bracing for difficult budget cycles in the fall. "This is going to be a hit," said Bennett Sandlin, head of the Texas Municipal League. The organization is expecting equally grim numbers for local sales tax revenue when they're released in the coming days. "I think it's going to be difficult to provide any full level of services without some cuts," Sandlin said. TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox Going into this fiscal year, the state had planned for a 5-percent increase in sales tax revenue. Its now on track to fall short of that; Hegar has said he will formally lower revenue projections later this year. Hegar can use the states rainy day fund to plug temporary shortfalls until lawmakers return to Austin next January. It has about $8.5 billion available. The state has also received billions in federal relief funding for the pandemic. DUBLIN, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Disinfectant Manufacturers (GLOBAL) - Industry Report" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Global Disinfectant Manufacturers Analysis provides a detailed overview of the global disinfectant manufacturers market and delivers a comprehensive individual analysis on the top 140 companies, including AKZO Nobel N.V., Pigeon Corporation and Beiersdorf S.P.A. This report covers activities such as cleaning, disinfectant, germs, spray, soap and includes a wealth of information on the financial trends over the past four years. 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This section includes: Best Trading Partners Sales Growth Analysis Profit Analysis Market Size Rankings For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/3l406n About ResearchAndMarkets.com ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1904 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com Samara Nassor 22 has been awarded funding for her project, Paje Women Empowerment Initiative: A Road for Entrepreneurs in Seaweed Farming Projects for Peaceestablished in 2007 by philanthropist Kathryn Davisoffers grants of $10,000 to 100 undergraduates each year who propose grassroots projects, anywhere in the world, that promote peace and address the root causes of conflicts. Nassor has long been interested in tackling issues that create hardship for underserved communities in Tanzania. When she was in high school, she raised money to dig a boreholea type of water wellin a village called Kiegea and set up a permanent committee to oversee its management. With the Davis peace grant, she will partner with the An Nasir Foundation, which runs an antipoverty program providing women with the entreprenuerial and technical skills to grow, harvest, and sell seaweed in Zanzibar. After tourism, seaweed farming is the largest industry in Zanzibar, an island archipelago off the coast of Tanzania. Though women contribute up to 80 percent of Zanzibar's total seaweed production, they are hobbled by a system where one main buyer sets the price for multiple producers. Compounding this unjust system is the disenfranchisement of women in a patriarchal society. "The bargaining power of women has dwindled because they have little say in decision-making in Zanzibar," Nassor explained. "According to the An Nasir Foundation...seaweed farming could turn into a tool of liberation for marginalized communities in the archipelagoespecially for widows, who often face stigma and isolation." The mission of Nassor's project will be to "empower bereaved women by providing them the economic and social capital they need to escape destitution, be independent, and increase their visibility in a productive industry." Nassor and the An Nasir Foundation will work with the Seaweed Centera social enterprise located in the villiage of Pajeto identify twenty widows for a pilot project to introduce them to seaweed farming methods and business development. She'll teach them to make value-added items from the seaweed, like soaps, scrubs, and essential oils, and connect them to middle-market buyers who can give them a competitive advantage. Because her project is delayed for at least a year*, Nassor is returning to the Brunswick office of The Nature Conservancy, where she interned last year. With a funded internship from Bowdoin, she will continue working with the organization's Africa team this summer. As an environmental studies and government and legal studies major, Nassor says her environmental studies classes have enabled her to understand the disproportionate impacts of environmental perils on marginalized communities. And, through her government courses, she's "learned how to balance equities and create safety nets for these populations using grassroot interventions." *Nassor's initiative was initially scheduled for this summer, but all Davis Peace projects have been canceled by the foundation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and her trip will be delayed until 2021. Xiaomi India is going to host yet another sale of its newly launched Redmi Note 9 today. Launched in March, the handset is a follow up of the companys popular Redmi Note 8 Pro. The smartphone boasts of a new square camera module and a punch-hole display at the front. The company had also launched the Redmi Note 9 Pro Max, a slightly beefed-up version offering a higher resolution camera and higher memory and RAM options. The Note 9 Pro will go on sale today at 12 noon on Amazon India and Mi.com. SPECIFICATIONS The Redmi Note 9 Pro features a 6.67-inch full-HD+ LCD display with a punch-hole placed on top center and a quad-camera setup in a square module. Like the previous Redmi Note 8 series, it has Gorilla Glass on the front and back, but this time the cameras are also protected with the same. Other notable design features include a side-mounted fingerprint scanner similar to the Poco X2 and the Realme 6 series. The device is powered by the new 8nm-based Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G which should be more efficient and slightly more powerful than the 730G. The smartphone will be offered in two variants- 4GB RAM and 64GB of storage and 6GB RAM with 128GB storage. There is also a dedicated microSD card slot to expand the storage further. The square camera module is placed at the center and is raised from the main body. It includes a 48-megapixel main sensor next to an 8-megapixel ultrawide camera. There is also a 5-megapixel macro camera and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. At the front, there is a 16-megapixel selfie camera placed in the punch hole. According to the company, the camera is capable of shooting RAW photography and some nifty tricks in pro mode while shooting video. The battery unit is rated at 5,020mAh which is said to be the biggest on a Redmi Note device and supports 18W fast charging. Rest of the features include support for 4G VoLTE, NaVIC GPS, dual-SIM card slots, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, P2i coating, USB Type-C and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The handset will come with Android 10 with MIUI 11. There are three colour options to choose from including Aurora Blue, Glacier White, and Interstellar Black. PRICE AND OFFERS The smartphone is priced at Rs 13,999 for the 4GB RAM + 64GB storage variant, and Rs 16,999 for the 6GB RAM + 128GB storage variant. Airtel is offering double data benefits with Rs 298 and Rs 398 unlimited packs on the Note 9 Pro. A mother told how her newborns battle with coronavirus almost killed him because it hid a serious heart defect. At three weeks old, Thomas Lovell was taken to hospital over concerns he was not putting on enough weight. Scans found large fluid deposits on his lungs that restricted his breathing and a swab test confirmed he had Covid-19. But the virus symptoms were also covering up a rare congenital heart condition called TAPVR which, without surgery, would have been fatal. Thomas' virus marked a rare heart condition that would have been fatal without surgery After Thomas was admitted to St Marys Hospital in Paddington, west London, he was treated for coronavirus with drug Remdesivir and put on a ventilator but his condition deteriorated over five days. By day six, doctors decided he should be moved to Great Ormond Street Hospital, where surgeons discovered the defect and performed open heart surgery the next day. Sadie and Steven Lovell with baby Thomas - who has since made a full and hearty recovery - are above First-time mother Sadie Lovell, who later tested positive for Covid-19 and had to self-isolate while her son was in hospital, described her agony as she and her husband Steven watched their son fight for his life. The 35-year-old teacher from Ealing, west London, said: At the start I was in denial. I just thought it was Covid and no babies had died of it. She added: Its scary because other people could be going through the same thing with their children, where Covid-19 symptoms mask more serious problems. Mrs Lovell said Thomas has made a full and hearty recovery. Hes put on loads of weight. Hell be a chunk before we know it, she said. Whatever you want to take from the protests that occurred nationwide over the weekend, you can find it. There were peaceful demonstrators; there were destructive vandals. There were calm public officials who helped keep order and keep people safe; there were police and public officials who inflamed the situation and made it worse. What you cant find is any justification for the killing of George Floyd. Nor can you find an easy solution for a complex situation that has been building for decades the racial inequality that has imbued our society, leaving many people of color to feel they cant even walk the streets without worrying about their safety. Hundreds of protesters marched in Winston-Salem over the weekend, climaxing in a nine-minute tribute to Floyd on Sunday, on the concrete, face down with their hands behind their backs, saying I cant breathe, to dramatize his final moments. No significant violence or destruction was reported. That may be at least partially because of the city officials who stepped forward before the protests began, including Winston-Salem Police Chief Katrina Thompson and Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough, to express their concern and understanding. Three democracy movement supporters were arrested for criticizing the measure on social media. They risk a conviction for subversion. Meanwhile, Beijing denounces the brutality of the US police, accusing the Trump administration of "world-famous double standards" on internal security. Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Three Chinese activists have been arrested for criticizing the Hong Kong security law on social media, and for supporting the pro-democracy movement in the former British colony. Xiao Yuhui was arrested on May 27 by police in his home in Huizhou (Guangdong). His was guilty of having retweeted a post on WeChat (the Chinese Twitter) criticizing the liberticidal measure approved on May 28 by the National People's Congress. The offending post calls for a public campaign against the new law launched by Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily. The author of the original tweet, whose identity is unknown, has also been arrested. Chinese Human Rights Defenders reports that she was released on bail on May 28 and is now awaiting trial. The same fate fell to the poet Wang Zang. On May 30, he was taken away from his home in the Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture (Yunnan), and detained for 12 hours by the local police. According to sources quoted by Radio Free Asia, Wang is now under house arrest with the rest of the family and faces a subversion indictment. He was taken ahead of the June 4, the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. In 2014, Wang had been targeted by law enforcement agencies for supporting the Occupy Central democratic movement in Hong Kong. The new security law punishes actions and "activities" that seriously endanger national security. Hong Kong residents may be arrested for subversion, secession, terrorism and collaboration with foreign forces interfering in the affairs of the city. The United States has led an international front condemning the measure. As a retaliatory measure to China's move, Washington has initiated procedures to cancel the commercial and financial privileges so far recognized in Hong Kong. Beijing's response was not long in coming. For Chinese leaders, the Trump administration is revealing its world-famous double standards " on the issue of internal security. The Communist Party regime accuses the US president of supporting the demands of Hong Kong demonstrators on the one hand, and of authorizing the police to brutally repress the anti-racism demonstrations that are currently shaking the United States. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) New Delhi, India Tue, June 2, 2020 10:45 598 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb75396 2 World Pakistan,India,bilateral-spat,spy,allegation,espionage Free Two Pakistani officials expelled by India over spying allegations returned home Monday, an embassy spokesman said, as the nuclear-armed rivals wrangled over the claims. The Indian government said Sunday that the two had been detained for "indulging in espionage activities", and given 24 hours to leave the country. The pair returned to Pakistan via the Wagah border crossing, which has been closed for several weeks because of the coronavirus lockdown, a Pakistan embassy spokesman told AFP. The move came amid heightened tensions between the foes over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which was split between them in 1947 when they gained independence from Britain. Indian media said the two officials -- both working in the embassy visa department -- had been detained Sunday while trying to obtain information on an Indian security establishment. In a statement late Monday, New Delhi police said one of the men had allegedly posed as the brother of a journalist looking to gain information about Indian Railways, one of the world's largest train networks. The man was instead trying to procure information about the "movement of [Indian] Army units and hardware" on trains, Delhi Police claimed. Pakistan had summoned India's charge d'affaires to express its "condemnation" of the expulsion order. The foreign ministry called the allegations "baseless" and said Delhi's action was a "clear violation" of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations. Kashmir has become a bigger source of tension between the two powers since India last August scrapped the Muslim-majority region's semi-autonomous status and imposed a major security clampdown. In response, Pakistan recalled its ambassador from Delhi and sent back the Indian envoy. India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since independence over Kashmir. Shelling and the exchange of fire across their Kashmir demarcation line is a near-daily occurrence, and in February 2019 they conducted tit-for-tat airstrikes. On Monday in Indian-administered Kashmir, police officer Chandan Kohli told AFP three men were killed after a brief shootout near the de facto border known as the Line of Control (LoC). A military source told AFP the men were killed just after crossing the LoC. New Delhi regularly accuses arch-rival Pakistan of arming and sending rebels across the heavily militarized border. Islamabad denies the claims. Rebel groups in Indian-administered Kashmir have battled for decades for the region's independence or its merger with Pakistan. Since 1989 the fighting has left tens of thousands dead, mostly civilians. India has more than 500,000 troops in Kashmir, where clashes are a common occurrence but last month extended into the regional capital Srinagar. Arrest of a 17-year-old of Aboriginal descent who was kicked to ground by police officer, has sparked an investigation. An Australian constable has been put on restricted duties after a video emerged showing the police officer kicking an Aboriginal teenager and then pinning him to the ground during a solidarity protest in Sydney. This is not the United States of America, Assistant Commissioner Michael Wiling told reporters as an investigation was launched into the incident. We have very, very good relations with our local community. Im concerned that people will pre-empt the outcomes of the investigation and draw conclusions prior to that. The video footage appeared on social media showing the teenager being handcuffed and kicked to the ground after an argument with the police officer. In the video, the officer can be seen telling the teenager to turn around and put his hands behind his back, before he kicks the young mans legs out from beneath him and handcuffs him face down on the ground. A female officer is seen holding down the teens legs. The person who posted the video on Facebook said the teenager sustained cuts and grazes to his knee and a bruised shoulder, as well as chipped teeth, before being transferred to St Vincents Hospital. Thousands of people protested in Sydney on Tuesday over Black American George Floyds death in US police custody. SYDNEY: Australian Black Lives Matter protestors marched tonight in what was the definition of a peaceful protest. We now need to hear their message. #BlackLivesMatter #IndigenousLivesMatter @10NewsFirstSyd pic.twitter.com/bq29CAs5DO Kimberley Pratt (@Kim_Pratt10) June 2, 2020 The protesters defied restrictions on public crowds imposed because of the coronavirus outbreak to gather at Hyde Park in Sydneys central district, witnesses told the Reuters News Agency. Protesters, some wearing surgical masks, marched peacefully towards government buildings, holding signs saying I cant breathe! and chanting Black lives matter and take a knee while mounted police stood by. This is everybodys problem, Kira Dargin, an Aboriginal Wiradjuri woman at the protest told Reuters. As a black woman, Im tired of seeing my brothers go down. As a black mother I fear for my child. Got to stop. African American George Floyd died last week after a white policeman pinned him down with his knee for nearly nine minutes after arresting him. A new BBC drama about the Windrush immigration scandal needs to be seen by white people, according to its star Patrick Robinson. The actor, who plays a man who is detained by the Home Office and threatened with deportation in Sitting In Limbo, said he is proud of the story, adding that it needs to be told. He told the PA news agency that the drama is really important for the whole country to see. He added: Im not talking about the West Indians and the brothers, Im talking white folk. Robinson said there are hundreds or thousands of stories in the UK similar to the one shown in Sitting In Limbo. Its a story as far as Im concerned that is crucial for people to see right up and down this land. Right up and down, he said. The feature-length drama was written by Stephen S Thompson and is based on the true story of his brother Anthony Bryans personal struggle to be accepted as a British citizen. The programme is set in 2016, four years after the coalition government introduced the hostile environment policy. Robinson, who has starred in Casualty and Strictly Come Dancing, said the drama depicts one mans plight in dealing with injustice in this country, adding the telling of the story is long overdue. Video of the Day He added that as a black person you do not feel you are accepted wherever you go in this country. Just imagine that when you walked out of wherever you live, people are going to look at you as if to say what are you doing here? Wherever you are, what are you doing here? he said. They dont obviously ask that question, but they look at you because thats a questioning look that you know. He added that his response is to think he has not done anything wrong. Ive gone to school, Ive paid my tax, Ive paid my dues, whats going on? he said. The actor also said he thinks historic reparations should be paid by those who have profited from slavery. We worked for nothing for hundreds of years, its time to pay us, he said. Simple as that. And when you acknowledge money, that tells me you acknowledge us. Sitting In Limbo airs on BBC One at 8.30pm on Monday. A woman has tested negative for the novel coronavirus twice after being discovered crossing the China-Vietnam border illegally and boarding a flight from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City last week. The 30-year-old Vietnamese woman crossed the border from China unlawfully through a small trail into the northern province of Cao Bang on May 28, Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen, who is deputy head of the National Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, announced on Monday evening. She then headed to Hanoi and boarded a flight to Ho Chi Minh City from the capital on May 29. The body temperature monitoring system at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in the southern city picked up the womans fever so she was brought to the local Hospital for Tropical Diseases, where she tested negative for the novel coronavirus on the same day. Her second test was conducted on Monday, with the result coming back negative on Tuesday, according to Nguyen Van Vinh Chau, the infirmarys director. The woman is expected to be sent to a quarantine facility in Cu Chi District for a compulsory 14-day isolation period. On May 2, a 35-year-old Vietnamese man illicitly crossed the border from Cambodia into the southern province of Tay Ninh to visit a relative. He then reported himself to local police officers and was promptly isolated. He tested negative for the novel coronavirus on May 5 but a second test conducted by the Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City returned positive on May 15. He is now quarantined and treated at Tay Ninh Province General Hospital. The health ministry has asked the Ministry of National Defense to tighten security along all trails on the countrys border to prevent similar incidents. In accordance with Vietnamese law, entering the country without performing immigration procedures is punishable by a VND3-5 million (US$129-215) fine. Anyone dodging mandatory quarantine shall be fined VND5-10 million ($215-430). Vietnams COVID-19 tally stood at 328, with 293 recoveries as of Tuesday morning. No deaths from the disease have been recorded in the country. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! In this article 999-SZ A worker examines a sewage recycling pool in the coal liquefaction factory of CHN Energy in Ordos, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, April 11, 2019. Xinhua | via Getty Images BEIJING China has a lot more to worry about at home than its foreign policy. Some energy-related companies in the country have found themselves caught in a business cycle that shows how difficult it can be for stimulus to help the economy in the form of bank loans. The world's second-largest economy contracted 6.8% in the first quarter at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Among many measures to support growth, authorities have repeatedly emphasized how banks need to lend more to smaller, privately run businesses versus state-owned giants. At the same time, Beijing has increased efforts to develop renewable energy, which can ultimately give China an edge in globally sought-after technology. But the coronavirus has made banks and investors more cautious about putting money into such unproven technologies, and history indicates the challenges run deep for any privately run company that might want to participate in this growth opportunity. China is the world's largest consumer of coal, and accounts for nearly half of global investment in renewable energy. When it comes to specific technologies such as waste-to-energy, solar and wind power or hydrogen fuel cells, scientists from the U.S. to Europe speak generally of rapid advancement in Chinese renewables, which has helped drive down costs. It's less clear which technology will ultimately gain the scale needed for widespread use. But China is trying as many as possible. The government would like non-fossil fuels to account for at least a fifth of energy in ten years, and aims to increase national security by cutting energy imports. "China's installed renewable energy (RE) capacity is the highest in the world, but there are no guidelines for renewables utilisation in the nationwide energy framework, due to lack of planning and a largely rigid overall energy system," Guido D. Giacconi, national chair, energy working group of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC), said in a statement a few weeks ago. He pointed out that China's post-coronavirus infrastructure stimulus plan has been updated to include energy transfer and storage projects. "Energy transition is no longer just a priority for decarbonisation and climate change," he said. "It is now a way for China to meet long-term economic, political and technology leadership goals." Balancing looser policy with limiting risk For privately run companies in China wanting to participate in that growth, just being in the right industry isn't a guarantee. That's due to a complex web of interests and underdeveloped systems for managing risk and the transmission of capital. First, there's a question of cash flow. "The (privately owned enterprises) POEs, they really have this disadvantage of refinancing cost(s) when compared to SOEs," Apple Li, director at S&P Global Ratings, said in a phone interview. "Particularly in the utilities sector, capex is quite high and leverage is quite high. It really depends on how companies can secure funding from the banks and also settle the account receivables from their counterparties." Chinese banks prefer to lend to less risky state-owned enterprises, and need to earn profits themselves. Privately run companies with potentially innovative but largely unproven technologies can be too risky for the banks, the largest of which are state-owned. The major energy companies in China are state-owned. Underdeveloped regulation allowed many companies to borrow and expand too quickly, until Chinese authorities began to tighten restrictions on leverage three years ago, according to Zhu Chunyang, executive director, environmental & public utilities chief analyst at the research and development center at China Merchants Securities. "Energy transition is no longer just a priority for decarbonisation and climate change. It is now a way for China to meet long-term economic, political and technology leadership goals." Guido D. Giacconi national chair, energy working group of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC) China's Securities Times pointed out last week that 122 mainland stocks, known as A-shares, had a share price of less than 2 yuan, below the average 9.47 yuan a share. Several are in energy-related businesses, including two that are subsidiaries of Shenwu Group, which develops technologies for more efficient coal usage, waste-to-energy and hydrogen production from plants. The two subsidiaries alone once commanded a combined market valuation of about 61 billion yuan ($8.7 billion) at their peak in 2017, according to Wind Information data. In the last few weeks, that valuation stood at under 1 billion yuan. Lack of capital has forced many of Shenwu's projects to halt, Ruan Liming, assistant dean and director of scientific research at the Beijing-based company's research institute, said in late April, just a few days after the company resumed work in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. The company took far longer than others to resume work since some of its operations are in Hubei, the province where the Covid-19 disease first emerged late last year. The disease has since infected more than 6.2 million people and killed more than 375,000 people globally. The banks say we don't meet the conditions for getting a loan, Ruan said. The company expects that if it can get 500 million to 1 billion yuan, then at least four projects can proceed, allowing for new orders to come in. For now, the more than 20-year-old company is just trying to stay alive, cutting its workforce nationwide which three years ago stood at 4,000 to about 500 people and negotiating with potential investors, including those affiliated with the state. Shenwu also faces many lawsuits in the wake of the financial strains, according to records accessed through Wind Information. That contrasts with high-profile recognition several years ago by key government ministries as an industry pioneer. The International Energy Agency also pointed to Shenwu's growth in an article in 2016 describing the value of such "energy service companies (escos)." A year earlier, a paper by researchers from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the ESCO Committee of China Energy Conservation Association pointed out that in order to get projects, these companies had to acquire capital themselves and share any energy savings with their industrial customers, putting "tremendous financial pressure" on the businesses. More recently, as the industry has grown, some companies have been able to use a different model in which they don't need to make any of the investment, and may be able to get financing from banks, Meredydd Evans, one of the Pacific Northwest senior scientists, said in a phone interview last month. Still, she noted, the industry relies mostly on private equity. Financial management challenges It's not that the companies don't have the technology, Junjie Zhang, director of the environmental research center at Duke Kunshan University located near Shanghai, said in a phone interview. "The challenge is that, can you find a good financial model that can make the project sustainable and manageable, and actually many environmental companies, they failed in the financial model when they are dealing with those (public-private partnership) projects." With the right incentive, state-owned conglomerates can be quite innovative since they don't need to worry about short-term financial constraints, Zhang said. His team's research of environmental innovations based on patent filings found that the top three companies were all state-owned: PetroChina, China Metallurgical and China National Grid. State-owned enterprises scale more easily OPEC+ is set to bring forward its meeting to Thursday, with a short extension of the current production cuts as the most likely outcome. Originally scheduled to take place on June 9, OPEC is now looking at moving it up to June 4. The latest reports suggest that the idea would be to extend the current output restrictions for one to three months. As it stands, without an extension the extraordinary cuts agreed upon in April 9.7 million barrels per day (mb/d) will expire at the end of June. But nothing has been decided yet and there are conflicting signals over how unified the OPEC+ parties are on an extension. Saudi Arabia reportedly wants to extend the cuts until the end of the year, while Russia has characteristically shown reluctance. Its for a month or two, not for half a year, a Russian oil source told Reuters, referring to the option under discussion. The historic cuts have succeeded in pulling the oil market out from utter chaos. Oil prices have rallied from negative territory in April to more solidly in the $30s. The rapid shut in of shale production in the U.S. has also contributed to the balancing of the market. U.S. production is off by at least 1.6 mb/d, a reduction of more than 12 percent in just over two months. An extension would prevent another steep meltdown, although its not clear that it would do much to boost oil prices from current levels. The fact that crude...prices have not reacted much to the news of the potential cut extension can be seen as a sign that the market has already priced in a lot of optimism, JBC Energy analysts said in a note. Russia may not want to extend beyond another month or two, which raises questions about what will occur later this year. At some point, there will be pressure to begin unwinding the production cuts. More than a few analysts have said that oil prices rising to $40 per barrel may kick off a new price war. Related: Putin To Bail Out Russian Oil Industry Also, the lagging compliance from Iraq and Nigeria raises the prospect of a lack of cohesion. Iraq only achieved 42 percent compliance rate with its agreed-upon reductions for May, and Nigeria only posted a 34 percent compliance rate. While many oil-producing countries are suffering from vanishing oil revenues due to the collapse of prices, Iraq and Nigeria are under particular pressure, at least compared to the richer Gulf States. For now, though, the urgency to prevent a sharp decline in oil prices is a strong motivating factor in forging an extension. At the same time, there are mixed signals in both the oil market and broader economic conditions. Demand has come off of the lows in April, but are far from a 100 percent rebound. Crude stocks actually increased last week, and U.S. gasoline demand remains about 2 mb/d below pre-pandemic levels. Global economic indicators are also throwing up mixed signs. Emerging market currencies have strengthened as investors continue to gain confidence in a rebound. Manufacturing activity in the U.S., Europe and Asia have also climbed back a bit. Global growth isnt going to be nearly where it was in 2017, but some pieces of the puzzle are slowly falling into place, Chris Turner, head of foreign-exchange strategy at ING Bank, told the WSJ. Related: Germany Aims To Become Worlds Hydrogen Hotspot However, as is the case with oil, all the indicators remain sharply below pre-pandemic levels. For instance, the U.S. Institute for Supply Managements manufacturing index for May increased to 43.1, up from 41.5 in April. While that is an improvement, it is a horrific number by any measure. A reading below 50 on the index signals contraction. U.S.-China tension also looms as another threat. Last Friday, President Trump said that the U.S. would end its special relationship status with Hong Kong, in response to Beijings decision to seize new power over Hong Kong. On Monday, China ordered state-run companies to cut back on purchases of American farm goods. The deteriorating trade relationship is yet another point of concern for the global economy. Faced with such headwinds and so much uncertainty, there is much more risk for OPEC+ in unwinding the cuts than to agree to an extension. By Nick Cunningham, Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Aside from the countless number of undocumented immigrants who are benefiting from the DACA program, any alteration or shifts in the program would also affect employers and the economy. In a matter of days, the Supreme Court is expected to give a decision regarding the fate of the DACA program, according to an article. Its Effects Changes in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also called the DACA program, could mean significant changes to businesses that are employing staff who are DACA recipients, according to an article. An end to the program could also affect the operations of these businesses and as major shifts occur in these businesses, they will significantly affect the growth of the economy. Furthermore, the article reveals that large companies are expressing their support for the continuance of the DACA program. Those companies include Amazon, Facebook, and Google. They are part of the 125 companies doing business across the country who had expressed the negative effects that ending the DACA program could bring to the economy including workers and employers. Why Was The DACA Program Under a Lawsuit? Based on the article, the lawsuit to cancel the DACA program had been made on September 5, 2017. After the filing of the lawsuit against the DACA program, many other supporters and recipients of the DACA program had also filed cases in support of the program. Based on an article, the lawsuit filed against the DACA program was on the claim that the program is negatively affecting the employment of natural-born Americans by encouraging illegal migration to the country by unaccompanied migrant children. It means that the lawsuit is claiming that competition for job hunting for native-born Americans and citizens are being disadvantaged by the population of undocumented immigrants who are permitted to work in the country through the protection of the DACA program. Problems For DACA Applicants Due to the lawsuit filed against the program, applications for the DACA program continued to be allowed for submission. However, no approval had been granted due to the lawsuit. Another issue that affects DACA recipients is the decisions of employers at hiring DACA recipient applicants due to the lawsuit filed against the program, according to an article. It means that fewer job opportunities are given to 'dreamers' as many employers fear for the effects on the operations of their business if the DACA program gets terminated. Check these out: The DACA Program The DACA program was started in 2012 after it was announced by former president Barack Obama. The program aims to provide protection and opportunities to undocumented immigrants who entered the United States as minors. However, it is not a way for undocumented immigrants to attain citizenship in the U.S. Those under the program are required to renew their status every two years. Based on an article, there are approximately 649,000 undocumented immigrants who are protected by the DACA program by the end of 2019. It means that more or less half a million undocumented immigrants may be affected if the Supreme Court decides to terminate the program. Jobs and opportunities will be lost for many people living in the country. [June 02, 2020] MEDIA ADVISORY: Berkshire Bank to Host Virtual Townhall Series on "Reimagining America: The Future of the Black and Latinx Economy" with U.S. Representatives Ayanna Pressley and Joaquin Castro and Thought Leaders on June 4 and June 5 Berkshire Bank, together with Reevx Labs, will host a two-part townhall series, entitled "Reimagining America," on Thursday, June 4 and Friday, June 5. Both events bring together leading policy makers, economic experts and community bank executives to discuss the economic impact of COVID-19 on African American and Hispanic communities, and how we can work together to rebuild a stronger, more inclusive economy that ensures everyone thrives. Berkshire Bank's goal in hosting this townhall series is to start a dialogue about how we can work together to rebuild a stronger, more inclusive economy, and how supporting this initiative on a community level can motivate change on a national level. Malia Lazu, Executive Vice President and Chief Culture and Experience Officer at Berkshire Bank, commented, "In light of the continued racial injustices that have convulsed our country over the past few weeks, there is no better time to address the inequity faced by black and brown communities on a daily basis, which has been further exacerbated in the midst of this global pandemic. "Economic and criminal injustices arise from common roots. Banks - and in particular community banks - have an opportunity to be part of the solution, directing capital and resources back into these communities. At Berkshire we are eager to listen to these leaders and experts. Working together we can be facilitators for much needed change. We welcome everyone to attend what we expect to be an insightful and powerful discussion." What Reimagining America: The Future of The Black Economy Reimagining America: The Future of Latinx Economy When Thursday, June 4, 2020 4:00 pm ET Friday, June 5, 2020 4:00 pm ET Who Ayanna Pressley, Member of Congress (MA 7 th Congressional District) Congressional District) Joy Reid, Host of AM Joy on MSNBC Derrick Johnson, President & CEO of NAACP Courtland Cox (News - Alert), Former Director of US Small Business Administration Malia Lazu, EVP & Chief Culture and Experience Officer at Berkshire Bank Joaquin Castro, Member of Congress (San Antonio), Chair and Congressional Hispanic Caucus Alicia Menendez, Anchor, MSNBC Live Cristina Jimenez, Executive Director and Co-Founder of United We Dream Nathalie Molina Nino, Entrepreneur and Builder Capitalist Malia Lazu, EVP & Chief Culture and Experience Officer at Berkshire Bank Where Register here Livestream available here Register here Livestream available here ATTENDANCE AND INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES The presentation will be on the record. For additional questions or interview requests, please contact [email protected]. ABOUT BERKSHIRE BANK Berkshire Bank is transforming into a 21st?century community bank with $13.2 billion in assets. We are pursuing purpose driven performance based on our Be FIRST corporate responsibility culture.?? Headquartered in Boston, Berkshire Bank provides business and consumer banking, mortgage, wealth management, investment and insurance services through 130 branch offices in New York, Connecticut, Vermont, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, including Commerce Bank, a division of Berkshire Bank. Berkshire Bank was awarded the Top Corporate Steward Citizen award by the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation in 2019.?Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE: BHLB) is the parent of Berkshire Bank. To learn more, visit?www.berkshirebank.com, call 800- 773-5601 or follow us on: Facebook (News - Alert), Twitter, Instagram and, LinkedIn. Life is Exciting. Let us help. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005916/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Here is a round-up of articles in Indian news publications on how the country is dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. From rebuilding trust in public transport, to whether face masks for all can help contain virus and end lockdowns, and how construction industry got away with not paying workers in lockdown read these and more in todays India dispatch. Managing Covid-19 No space on trains, no rented homes to go back to: From Chennai to Gurgaon, workers across cities are left in a limbo. Word of mouth about possible trains home is getting more and more migrant workers ... Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 22:04:30|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WASHINGTON, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Decoupling with China will come at "a significant cost to America's own competitiveness," a commentary published Tuesday by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has warned. "U.S. security hawks should be aware that a broad-based attempt to disentangle the two countries' supply chains and educational linkages will come at a significant cost to America's own competitiveness," the WSJ's Nathaniel Taplin wrote. "If 'decoupling' proceeds, then much more federal funding for basic research --- and for U.S. science and math education -- may be needed to plug the gap," he said. "That probably means higher taxes and a more welcoming immigration policy for foreign talent from ... other nations to offset a potential Chinese brain drain." "Finally, American consumers need to be prepared to pay more for the luxury of a secure and diversified supply chain," Taplin said. Enditem Investment by Hershey Strategic Capital LP and Shore Ventures III, LP will significantly strengthen balance sheet and enable the Company to leverage its position as one of the only publicly traded companies approved to acquire licensed cannabis assets DENVER, June 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- General Cannabis Corp. (CANN), the leading publicly traded Colorado cannabis company, announced today that it has reached an agreement that will bring up to $3 million in strategic growth capital to the company. The investment will be funded by Hershey Strategic Capital LP and Shore Ventures III, LP, entities led by managing member Adam Hershey. The investment is another important step in General Cannabis Colorado-based expansion strategy. Over the last two months, General Cannabis became only the second publicly traded cannabis company approved by the State of Colorados Marijuana Enforcement Division (the MED) to acquire licensed cultivation, manufacturing and retail cannabis operations throughout the state of Colorado. Shortly thereafter, the company closed its acquisition of Boulder, Colorado-based SevenFive Farm, a 17,000 square feet light deprivation greenhouse. Last week, General Cannabis was conditionally approved by the MED, subject to local approval, to close its next planned acquisitionPueblo, Colorado-based Cannasseur, a vertically integrated company that commenced operations in 2013 and operates a recreational retail dispensary, a 12,000 square foot light deprivation greenhouse and a manufacturing facility that produces Dabtek, a product line of infused concentrates. General Cannabis Next Big Crop division continues to operate as an industry leader in the application, design, buildout and operation of cultivation facilities, having worked with over 100 cultivation facilities across the country. Steve Gutterman, CEO of General Cannabis, said: This significant capital infusion is a powerful statement about our team, our strategy, the market opportunity and our ability to build shareholder value. We are excited to work with Adam Hershey to leverage the extraordinary market opportunity and competitive advantage offered by MED approval and build on the foundation of our SevenFive Farm acquisition and our planned closing of our Cannasseur agreement. Even in the midst of the tremendous headwinds facing our country and the economy, we believe we are as well-positioned as any company in the space to succeed, and this investment is a further demonstration of that. I want to acknowledge the extraordinary group of executives and professionals in our company, including everyone in our NBC division, our finance, accounting and M&A teams and our new colleagues at SevenFive Farm, whose hard work and focus have put General Cannabis in this position to succeed. Story continues Said Adam Hershey, As an investor in the cannabis space, we evaluate many potential deals. General Cannabis, which has a great team and a clear growth path, stood out from the rest. We couldnt be more excited to become investors. Hershey Strategic Capital LP and Shore Ventures III, LP are purchasing, in two tranches, $2.185 million of common stock and warrants. The purchase price of the common stock is $0.3983 per share, representing a 10% discount to the 30-day volume weighted average price as of May 22nd. Along with the shares of common stock, the investors also are receiving warrants for a number of shares equal to 75% of the total number of shares purchased by the investors at an exercise price of $0.5565 per share, which is a 5% premium to the companys closing price on May 22nd. The first tranche of $800,000 closed on May 29th, 2020, and the second tranche of $1.385 million is expected to close on or before June 5th, 2020. The company anticipates that it will submit Mr. Hershey for approval as an individual suitable investor to the MED, and the company will close an additional $815,000 of capital with the investors on the same terms if Mr. Hershey is deemed suitable. Additional details about the transaction may be found in the Form 8-K filed by the company. About General Cannabis Corp General Cannabis Corp is the comprehensive national resource for the highest quality service providers available to the regulated cannabis industry. The company is a trusted partner to the cultivation, production and retail sides of the cannabis business. As a synergistic holding company, the company's divisions are able to leverage the strengths of each other, as well as a larger balance sheet, to succeed. The company's website address is www.generalcann.com . A former associate director of a US biotechnology company has been formally arrested in China after allegedly hiding her coronavirus symptoms and flying from Boston to Beijing in the hope of receiving COVID-19 treatment. The Chinese national, 37, gobbled down anti-fever medicine to suppress her high temperatures before boarding the long-haul flight back to her homeland with her husband and son, Chinese authorities said. The mother-of-one and her husband both tested positive after they landed in Beijing in March, according to health officials. She could face up to seven years in prison. A Chinese woman (not the one pictured) who lied about her coronavirus symptoms to fly from Massachusetts to her home country has been formally arrested in Beijing and could be jailed up to seven years. Pictured, passengers wearing masks arrive at a Beijing airport on March 4 The 37-year-old mother-of-one, named as Li Jie, is said to be a former associated director at Biogen, a multinational biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts The woman, named Li Jie, worked for Biogen, a multinational firm that was at the centre of an outbreak of the coronavirus in Massachusetts in March. She was arrested by the Shunyi District People's Procuratorate in Beijing yesterday on suspicious of impairing the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, according to a social media announcement from the prosecutors. The criminal charge carries a maximum prison term of seven years if 'the consequences are particularly serious', according to the Chinese criminal law. Authorities said Ms Li developed a fever on March 1 at her American home. One of her colleagues was then diagnosed with COVID-19. Ms Li allegedly developed a fever on March 1 before leaving her American home with her husband and son 10 days later. She claimed that local hospitals had refused to admit her. Pictured, residents line up for groceries at a pop up food pantry in Chelsea, Massachusetts After taking a coronavirus test, Ms Li decided to leave Massachusetts with her husband and son before her result came back, the prosecutors said. She allegedly flew from Boston to Beijing with a stopover in Los Angeles with Air China. The statement said that Ms Li took anti-fever medicine before boarding her plane and then failed to declare the fact that she had a fever. It is alleged that she also failed to inform the flight attendants of her health condition honestly when they questioned her during the journey. Public prosecutors said that Ms Li took anti-fever medicine before boarding her plane and then failed to declare the fact that she had a fever. Pictured, A flight attendant wearing a face mask checks the body temperature of the passengers at the Tianhe Airport in Wuhan on May 29 Ms Li and her family arrived in the Chinese capital on March 12 and was diagnosed a day later. Her husband, a 37-year-old university lecturer, tested positive on March 16. The prosecutors noted that more than 60 people had to be quarantined after coming into close contact with the family. Ms Li claimed to have been denied the coronavirus test three times by American doctors before resorting to the drastic measure, health officials in Beijing previously revealed. She told Chinese officials that a hospital in Massachusetts refused to admit her even though her X-ray scan had indicated she had pneumonia. Ms Li, her husband and their son are residents of Massachusetts, according to Beijing health officials. The picture is believed to show the couple's home in Belmont, a suburb of Boston The Belmont Health Department had been trying to speak with Ms Li by leaving a notice on the door of her home (pictured), reports said. She was formally arrested yesterday in Beijing Ms Li reportedly lives in Belmont, a western suburb of Boston, with her husband, who is also a Chinese citizen. She failed to inform the Belmont Health Department of her travel plans after the authority was notified by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health that she had been diagnosed with the killer infection, reported Belmontonian citing an official statement issued on Thursday. The authority had been trying to speak with her by leaving a notice on her door. The woman flew from Boston to Beijing via Los Angeles with her husband and their son on March 11. She claimed to have been denied the coronavirus test three times in America. Pictured, a child wearing a face mask has her picture taken near a Beijing airport on March 13 Ms Li was arrested by the Shunyi District People's Procuratorate in Beijing yesterday on suspicious of impairing the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. Pictured, air crew members walk past the international arrival exit at the Capital International Airport in Beijing Ms Li is said to be the former associate director of bio-statistics for Biogen, a multinational biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Biogen confirmed that Ms Li used to be an employee in its US offices. In a statement to MailOnline in March, the company said that Ms Li 'made the personal decision to travel to China without informing the company and ignoring the guidance of health experts. She is no longer an employee of Biogen.' It added: 'We are deeply dismayed by the situation as reported by the media in China. ' It remains unclear if Ms Li was sacked or quit by herself. One of Rio Tinto's largest shareholders says the mining giant's destruction of ancient rock shelters in Western Australia calls into question the company's commitment to doing what is right, not just what is legal. Rio Tinto has apologised to devastated traditional owners after detonating explosives at a 46,000-year-old culturally significant site in the Pilbara region as part of an expansion of an iron ore mine. Aberdeen Standard Investments, the seventh-biggest holder of Rio's London stock, said the destruction was deeply concerning and raised questions about the adequacy of the company's governance, community engagement and policies surrounding significant sites. The view on May 15 over the rock shelters, cleared and with charges laid ready for the blast. Credit:PKKP "We are really saddened and deeply concerned about what happened," Aberdeen investment manager Camille Simeon told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. "It raises the question around doing what is legal versus doing what is right. It does appear to have been legal but is it the right thing to do, to destroy something with such huge cultural significance?" The Center for International Health, Education and Biosecurity (Ciheb) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine's Institute of Human Virology was awarded $4 million from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to support coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) response activities in Botswana, Nigeria, Malawi, and Mozambique. Low-resource regions in Africa are vulnerable to the impact of COVID-19, and Ciheb is engaged and well-positioned to build upon our partnerships with ministries of health in each country to further the understanding of the pandemic, while strengthening their capacity to monitor and control the spread of the disease." Man E. Charurat, PhD, MHS, professor of medicine, Ciheb global director and director, Division of Epidemiology and Prevention, Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland School of Medicine In Nigeria, the award of $2.1 million will support a population-based epidemiological study to estimate COVID-19 prevalence in communities, household transmission, the proportion of subclinical infections, and risk factors for infection, using methods similar to the WHO Unity Studies to ensure comparability across countries. The study will be led by principal investigator, Kristen Stafford, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of epidemiology and public health and Ciheb Associate Director, Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland School of Medicine. Data generated from this study will characterize the spectrum of disease resulting from COVID-19 and provide critical information on the clinical course and outcomes of COVID-19. This information will be vital to inform local response efforts, including the development of strategies to target potential prevention and control interventions to high risk groups, develop clinical treatment guidelines to mitigate the effects of COVID-19, and strengthen the health system to respond to the pandemic. In addition, technical assistance will be provided to enhance and strengthen disease surveillance and improve laboratory diagnostics. In Botswana, under the leadership of country director Ndwapi, Ndwapi, MD, the award of $810,000 will support the development of an influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) surveillance systems for the Botswana Ministry of Health and Wellness to capture community circulation and transmission of SARS-CoV-2. This will include establishing sentinel surveillance sites to more rapidly detect SARS-CoV-2. Other measures that will be supported include the development of a web-based surveillance data entry platform to enable real-time situational awareness, the implementation of a standardized approach to data collection and reporting for comparability across sites in Botswana and facilitating timely sharing of surveillance data between human and animal sectors to inform evidence-based planning. The funding will also support measures to facilitate social distancing and decongestion at healthcare facilities by constructing temporary consultation areas and the procurement of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers. In Malawi, the award of $795,000 will enhance the Malawi Ministry of Health's laboratory capacity in five primary areas: training, quality control, supplies, services, and waste management. This initiative is led by Alash'le Abimiku, PhD, professor of medicine, Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland School of Medicine and the executive director of the International Research Center of Excellence at the Institute of Human Virology-Nigeria. Interventions will include bench-level technical assistance and training at 10 molecular labs located across the nation to ensure technicians are skilled in implementing diagnostics for COVID-19, using both the Daan Gene Assay and the CDC COVID-19 protocol. Laboratory quality assurance will also be improved with a focus on specimen collection management and tracking, data collection and management, proficiency testing, and external quality assurance. In Mozambique, the award of $380,000 will ensure maintenance for ABI 7500 and ABI 7900 PCR instruments installed at the National Institute of Health in Maputo Province. These instruments are used for COVID-19 diagnosis and regular maintenance is necessary to ensure accurate diagnoses. The award, also led by Alash'le Abimiku, PhD, will also provide GeneXpert operations training, support the installation of the COVID-19 software and instrument hardware, and ensure DISA-Lab operational connectivity on GeneXpert instruments at 11 locations across the nation. The award will also fund the procurement of SARS- CoV-2 diagnostic test-kits. Additionally, Ciheb is leading cross-cutting COVID-19 response efforts in each of the eight countries in which it works. Ciheb teams are developing clinical guidelines, improving patient triage, developing and implementing clinic safety protocols, and procuring needed personal protective equipment. "The global threat of this pandemic requires that we work cooperatively with other nations on developing and implementing targeted response actions," said Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, who is also Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, UM Baltimore, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor, University of Maryland School of Medicine. "The School of Medicine, through Ciheb and the Institute of Human Virology, is proud to contribute its expertise to the ongoing work on the African continent supported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." Hungary continues to work to send an astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS), Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said at a videoconference of ministers in charge of space affairs. The meeting was organised by the Council of the European Union and focused on the role of space research and space-based services in offsetting the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Szijjarto noted that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the first Hungarian astronauts mission in space. He added that Bertalan Farkas, who spent over eight days in space in May and June 1980, is now a special advisor to the foreign ministry. The Hungarian government has drafted a national space strategy, with a primary aim to increase the role of Hungarian companies in the sector, Szijjarto said. The government also decided to launch a long-term research project aiming to send a Hungarian astronaut to the International Space Station by the middle of the decade, he added. Hungary has also doubled its contribution to European Space Agency, he said. Hungarian scientists are currently working on three major projects, he said. Two aim to send research satellites into space and a third is developing onboard tools, potentially for the ISS, he said. New Delhi, June 2 : Mitron, the much-touted desi version of TikTok, has now been pulled down by Google from its Play Store for allegedly violating its spam and minimum functionality policy. According to Google's policy, an app "should provide value to users through the creation of unique content or services." "We don't allow apps that merely provide the same experience as other apps already on Google Play," the policy reads. The removal of the app came soon after reports emerged that the Mitron app is a repackaged version of TicTic, which is a TikTok clone. The app, which allows users to make short videos, also appears to have a "Pakistan connection" as the source code of the app was originally made by developers from Pakistan. This group from Pakistan, known as Qboxus, was found selling "TicTic - Android media app for creating and sharing short videos v2.5" at the CodeCanyon platform for $34. The popularity of Mitron app in India rose on the back of prevailing anti-China sentiment in the country due to border tensions in Ladakh. It is not unusual for suspended apps to reappear on Google Play Store. If the makers of the app believe that it meets the basic standards, they can appeal to Google against the suspension. Photo: Clinton Steeds/Flickr Here's the most recent top news you may have missed in Atlanta. Peace restored in Atlanta, curfew remains in place Read the full story on CBS46. Georgia National Guardsmen jump in to help save injured Atlanta police officer Read the full story on 11ALIVE. Atlanta-based organizations launch Art Beats Atlanta Read the full story on Decaturish. This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback. For the first night in four days, peace was restored Monday in Atlanta as protesters retreated from demonstrations at 9 p.m. A speeding ATV slammed into a motorcycle officer in downtown Atlanta while he worked on curfew duty. - Sammy Gyamfi has come under serious scrutiny for trying to attack the electoral commission through a 'sensitive' act work - His depiction of Floyds death in the art work to ridicule the Electoral Commission did not go well with Ghanaians - Ghanaians will have none of it since they still believe it was not right to do that Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in The National Communication officer of the National Democratic Congress(NDC), Sammy Gyamfi has come under serious scrutiny for trying to attack the electoral commission through an act work. In a cartoon he intended to use to criticise the electoral commission with respect to the voters register, the NDC communicator decided to use an at work that depicted how America's George Floyd died. His depiction of Floyds death in the art work to ridicule the Electoral Commission did not go well with Ghanaians as most people felt it was out of place for a whole party's communication officer to play with such an insensitive issue that has sparked global controversy. READ ALSO: Nana Yaa Brefo explains why she joined Angel FM after leaving Adom TV Inasmuch as people wanted to draw his attention to how wrong he was to have shared such a cartoon, he jumped to his own defense saying the cartoon was not intended to mock the painful exit of Floyd or seek political mischief. According to him, the EC led by Jean Mensah was seeking to disenfranchise eligible voters through a xenophobic voters register Even with his explanation, Ghanaians will have none of it since they still believe it was not right to do that. Eli said the NDC communicator is simply not wise. Ghanaian rapper and musician, Joey B who also did not side with him, just advised him to delete it. King of Accra believes his first sentence just mocks the death of Floyd and advised him to take it down and apologise. READ ALSO: Mahama shares photos of his mother and father In other news, Ghanas President Nana Akufo-Addo has joined discerning voices to express deep condolences to the family of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was killed by a white police officer. President Akufo-Addo expressed his condolences in a recent post on Facebook following the devastating demise of George Floyd. The president noted that black people across the world are in utter shock and in distraught by the killing of the unarmed black man by the white police officer in the United States of America. READ ALSO: George Floyd's murder: Akufo-Addo expresses condolences to family of black man killed by police Ghanaian female accounting graduate and mushroom farmer recounts her experience | #Yencomgh Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page. Source: YEN.com.gh Its been busier than I thought it was going to be considering all of the mail-in ballots theyve been reporting, said Tiffany Miller, of Washington Township, working as an inspector, adding the turnout by early afternoon was more than we got on some of the election years. Most of Virginia will enter a second phase of reopening from the months-long coronavirus shutdown Friday, Gov. Ralph Northam said, citing steady declines in the number of covid-19 hospitalizations and rates of people testing positive since he began lifting shutdown restrictions nearly three weeks ago. Both northern Virginia and the city of Richmond, which were hit harder by the novel coronavirus and began reopening last week, will remain under the more stringent Phase 1 portion of the state's plan to return to normalcy, said Northam, a Democrat. "We are still in this pandemic," the governor said. But, with hospitals able to absorb the still-steady flow of new covid-19 patients while testing capacity increases, "I feel comfortable allowing most of Virginia to move into Phase 2 this Friday." The looser restrictions include opening restaurants for indoor dining at half-capacity and allowing gyms and fitness centers to reopen at 30% capacity. The changes come as the spread of the virus appears to be slowing across the Washington region. The tally of known infections reached 109,300 in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia on Tuesday, with 4,474 deaths after 62 more fatalities were recorded. But hospitalizations, the number of intensive care unit beds in use and positivity rates on tests have all been dropping, prompting Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, to say he might also further ease restrictions soon. "All the numbers are down, so we're very excited about that," Hogan said in a radio interview. "I think we're ready to take some further steps." D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, did not address the pandemic Tuesday during a briefing that focused on the ongoing protests against police violence. D.C., Maryland and Virginia have had different restrictions in place during their initial stages of ending coronavirus-related shutdowns that have stifled the local economy. D.C. and its suburbs, where the pandemic was most intense, only recently began to reopen. Hogan warned in the interview with WBAL radio that large public gatherings, including protests that have attracted thousands of demonstrators in Baltimore, D.C., Richmond and elsewhere in recent days, could lead to more infections. But, he said, it is too soon to tell. "It's certainly still not safe to gather in large numbers in close proximity," Hogan said. "And we saw an awful lot of that. So hopefully it's not going to be bad, but it's definitely something that the doctors and the scientists are worried about." In Virginia, the next phase means groups of as many as 50 people will be allowed to gather, instead of the initial limit of 10 or fewer. Besides restaurants and gyms, that will allow some entertainment venues to reopen, while pools, museums and zoos can reopen with restrictions, officials said. Recreational sports will also be allowed with proper distancing and no sharing of equipment. Accomack County on the Eastern Shore, which had also lagged behind the rest of the state because of hot spots in poultry processing facilities there, will also move into Phase 2, Northam said. But the governor resisted allowing northern Virginia and Richmond to move forward, despite assurances from local officials in D.C.'s suburbs last week that the region has met four out of six benchmarks for a safe reopening. Virginia recorded an additional 15 covid-19 fatalities Tuesday, six of which were in northern Virginia. The state saw 841 new cases, with more than half of those in northern Virginia. The state had 1,362 covid-19 patients hospitalized Tuesday, compared with 1,524 on Friday. The seven-day average for new infections was 9.1% statewide, and 15.5% in northern Virginia. Maryland reported 45 deaths, for a total of 2,597, and 848 new infections, more than half of them in Montgomery and Prince George's counties. Eight new deaths were reported in Montgomery, bringing that county's death toll to 624. Prince George's added seven covid-19 deaths, for a total of 552. Maryland's hospitals had a total of 1,148 covid-19 patients Tuesday, continuing a steady decline since mid-May, when about 1,500 were hospitalized. The state's seven-day average of positive coronavirus tests has also been dropping, reaching 10.5% on Tuesday. The Maryland Health Department is preparing to launch a statewide campaign to educate residents about contact tracing and the role it plays in fighting the spread of the virus. The $1.75 million effort - dubbed "Respond. Connect. Recover" - will include public service announcements, social media posts and informational fact sheets, officials said. Local government officials have criticized the Hogan administration's pace of hiring contact tracers, saying their jurisdictions have had to shoulder too much of that burden themselves. Localities collectively hired nearly 800 such workers. Last month, the Maryland Health Department hired 650 workers. Overall, the state expects to be able to track 1,000 cases of infection per day and reach as many as 10,000 potential contacts per day, officials said. D.C. recorded two additional covid-19 fatalities - both 79-year-old men - and 29 new infections on Tuesday. There were 295 hospitalized covid-19 patients, down from 353 a week ago. The city's rate of infections was 18.6%, down from about 22% last month. In Alexandria, the Economic Development Partnership reminded businesses affected by the pandemic that they can apply for city and federal relief funds. The public-private partnership said Tuesday that it has $4.4 million to distribute to businesses that have lost 25% or more revenue. Applications will be accepted between 8 a.m. Thursday and 5 p.m. Monday, the organization said. "The need is immediate," said Stephanie Landrum, the partnership's president and chief executive. "Reopening and re-scaling is already happening." - - - The Washington Post's Dana Hedgpeth, Patricia Sullivan and Ovetta Wiggins contributed to this report. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 2, 2020 12:26 598 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb7cf0d 1 Politics freedom-of-speech,Jokowi,COVID-19,coronavirus,democracy-in-Indonesia Free Scholars and activists have raised concern about the freedom of speech in Indonesia following alleged acts of intimidation against critics of the governments policy to restrict mobility to stem the COVID-19 pandemic. Bivitri Susanti, a constitutional law expert from the Jakarta-based Jentera School of Law, said people opposed to any criticism of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's administration had been wild lately. The alleged intimidation took various forms, ranging from social media account hacks to death threats. She said that, based on her own experience, she had often been verbally attacked after she had criticized the government, whatever the issue was. Who does this? Who threatens us? If I look closer, besides the buzzers, my own circle [scholars] are doing that, too. What's going on?" she said in a virtual panel discussion on the freedom of speech with other experts on Monday. Read also: AJI condemns lawsuit against senior journalist for criticizing ministers policy online Some of the recent threats followed online discussions about the constitutional mechanism for removing a president from office. Students and a professor of Yogyakartas Gadjah Mada University (UGM) on Friday received threats in various forms including text messages, phone calls and the hacking of their accounts after a poster of the planned discussion and an opinion article denouncing it as an act of treason went viral. Constitutional law professor of the Indonesian Islamic University (UII) Nimatul Huda, who was a speaker at the discussion, also reportedly received threats. On Sunday, Tempo newspaper editor in chief Budi Setyarso also reported that his Instagram and Facebook accounts had been hacked while he was moderating an online discussion with the UGM discussions committee head, UGMs Faculty of Law dean. The panel also included Ravio Patra, an independent researcher who was detained by Police following the hacking of his phone in April. Bivitri went on to say that the government should investigate and solve the cases. "This is terrible, especially for academic freedom. The government must investigate the actors. The government has all the power to do this, it has SIM-card holders' data, and we also have the police. We need proof if the government says that those threats were not from them, she said. Read also: Govt COVID-19 response poses risks to human rights: Experts In Indonesia, threats against government critics started in April with Ravio Patras case. He was detained and accused of inciting riots through a WhatsApp message broadcast. A coalition of human rights groups has suggested that his arrest was a warning to critics, as he was innocent and a victim of identity theft. The coalition, which includes the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet), the Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI), the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), Amnesty International Indonesia and the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (IJCR), demanded that police arrest the person who allegedly hacked Ravios phone to spread the fake news. Former Judicial Commission chairman Aidul Fitriciada Azhari said a pandemic should not be an excuse for the government to restrict free speech. He said that, no matter how bad the government was, a president could not be impeached just because of his policies. "The government should not be afraid of the critics. Our presidential system is very protective of the president. There is no need to limit peoples freedom. In this pandemic, all that we have is freedom of speech, he said. An idea should only be attacked with another idea, not with criminal sentences, intimidation or repression. Islamic scholar Din Syamsuddin deplored the intimidation, saying the pandemic appeared to be a cover for the governments authoritarian instinct. He cited the controversial Regulation in Lieu of Law (Perppu) No. 1/2020 on the COVID-19 pandemic response, which protects officials who order spending for programs related to the pandemic management from any legal charges. People have the right to criticize the government when it goes to the wrong direction. The current state of our democracy is worrying, said the former chairman of Muhammadiyah, the second-largest Islamic group in the country. BOSTON, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Thought Industries, the world's leading B2B customer training platform provider, announced today its 2020 Summer Internship Program, Bridge. The program offers college students and recent graduates the opportunity to gain first-hand experience during a unique time in the company's history. A recent survey found that as many as 75 percent of college students had their internships or post-graduation jobs moved remote, delayed or canceled entirely in the wake of COVID-19. Thought Industries' executive team founded the internship program with one key goal: to create a launchpad that could bridge exceptional talent with unique opportunities that expand interns' knowledge and broaden their experiences. "My first internship is an experience I'll never forget- it was such a thrill to be part of an organization: building the trust of my managers by working hard, taking initiative and sharing ideas, and pushing for more responsibility," said Barry Kelly, CEO, Thought Industries. "Bridge is an opportunity for us to repay the experience we've gained by creating an internship program that features a meaningful, safe environment designed not only to share our knowledge but to learn from each of our interns." Thought Industries' inaugural intern class was selected from an applicant pool of over 400 candidates. Ultimately, five students were selected to work within the customer experience, finance, marketing and business development teams. While a few attend universities nearby in Massachusetts, there are also new intern team members from schools as far away as California and South Carolina. Currently, like the rest of the office, the interns will be working remotely. This is the first year Thought Industries is launching the 12-week internship program. The executive team hopes the program will be the bridge to the future for each intern by giving them the tools to successfully enter the workforce after graduation, and perhaps come back to Thought Industries to continue their journey. "Bridge is a critical pillar within our ecosystem, bridging the technical and business worlds through teamwork and collaboration," said Robin Wadsworth, president, Thought Industries. "Being a mentor, providing guidance and exposing our interns to the broad world of technology and business is a tremendous responsibility, and we take that seriously. Being an intern at Thought Industries is more than just a summer job: it's your bridge to the future." Learn more about the Bridge internship program by visiting www.thoughtindustries.com/bridge-internship-program . About Thought Industries Thought Industries powers the business of learning by providing the world's leading B2B customer training platform. The company was founded in 2014 around the core belief that online learning experiences should be modern, intuitive, engaging, and scalable. Today, our team builds and maintains the only learning solution with completely native tools and integrations that drive higher engagement, learner proficiency, and retention rates for our customers. Headquartered in Boston, Thought Industries has offices across North America and Europe. For more information, visit www.thoughtindustries.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. SOURCE Thought Industries Related Links www.thoughtindustries.com The Columbia River is literally our livelihood, said Ms. Miller, 45. Our natural resources sustain us, so its our responsibility to take care of them. Who better to do it than the people it means the most to? She had to pay for processing last year, which resulted in a net loss. Her operation will be viable only if she can process the roe herself, but the coronavirus pandemic has interrupted her plans to build a sanitized space to process the roe. Sturgeon are a long-term investment. If anything, with this project, weve been forced to learn patience, Ms. Miller said, laughing. Thinking like a sturgeon, itll be all right in the long term. In the hatchery, most of the fish are babies, which Ms. Miller will release into the Columbia when theyre almost a year old. But some, which she raises to breed, are enormous. The eight-foot fish knock against one another, jousting with their armor and breastplates, their dull eyes flat on top of their heads. Today, fishing on the river is tightly controlled, so when she releases the fish into the wild, they have a good chance of survival. Those regulations are necessary, because sturgeon are vulnerable to overfishing and habitat destruction. They take a long time to reach sexual maturity, she said, and only spawn every few years. The stars of The Flash have become household names. But now they are bringing attention to another name George Floyd the Minneapolis, Minnesota, resident who died in police custody on May 25. Many entertainers have taken to Twitter and Instagram to weigh in on the events that transpired. With that in mind, heres how Grant Gustin and his co-stars from The Flash have used social media to become advocates in the midst of the social unrest surrounding Floyds death. The Flash stars Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, and Carlos Valdes | Mike Coppola/Getty Images George Floyd died in police custody America erupted into protests following the death of Floyd, the latest in a string of unarmed African Americans to die while in police custody. Video surfaced of a White police officer named Derek Chauvin kneeling on the 46-year-old mans neck while he was handcuffed, lying face down in the street. Floyd was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. According to reports by CNN, three other officers were at the scene, and all four officers were fired from the Minneapolis police department. At the time of writing, only Chauvin has been charged for Floyds death. But many citizens across the country have participated in demonstrations and rallied for legal action to be taken against the other officers. Although the event occurred in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the effects have rippled across the nation. Numerous entertainers joined fans in demanding justice for George Floyd. Heres what some of the stars of The Flash have voiced on their personal social media accounts. The Flash star Grant Gustin asked fans to take action RELATED: Killer Mike Called George Floyds Death Murder Porn in a Powerful Speech to Atlanta Citizens In an Instagram post, The Flash star, Grant Gustin, shared a portrait of Floyd by Color of Change. In the caption, the actor wrote, Text Floyd to 55156. #JusticeForFloyd. According to the organizations website, Color of Change helps you do something about injustice. The call to action from the organization that Gustin shared is connected to a petition urging the Minneapolis authorities to charge all four officers with murder. Candice Patton and Danielle Nicolet posted the I cant breathe quote RELATED: Killer Mike Wants Racism Burned to the Ground, Not the City of Atlanta, as Protesters Rage Over George Floyds Death Both Candice Patton and Danielle Nicolet shared graphics on Instagram with a text message, saying, I cant breathe Many news followers associate that phrase with the Eric Garner viral video, in which he a Black man was placed in a chokehold by a police officer. Garner indicated multiple times that he could not breathe before losing consciousness. He was later taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. As heard in the recent video taken by a bystander, Floyd also uttered those words, I cant breathe, to Officer Chauvin, who knelt on his neck for several minutes. Floyd can also be heard pleading for help, saying that he is in pain, and asking for his mother before becoming silent and motionless. In addition to the I cant breathe Instagram post, Patton also retweeted a series of quotes from Bernice A. King, including this one that reads, If youre not working for justice, stop calling for peace. Danielle Panabaker and Carlos Valdes also brought awareness to the issue RELATED: Beyonce Shares Powerful Message With Her Instagram Followers Were Broken and Were Disgusted Danielle Panabaker shared a portrait of Floyd on Instagram with the caption, #justiceforgeorgefloyd, by @shirien.creates. The actress doubled down with an appeal to the Minneapolis mayor with this tweet: Mayor Jacob Frey: Justice for George Floyd Sign the Petition! Change.org. Carlos Valdes displayed solidarity with protesters around the country with a prolific quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., tweeting, A riot is the language of the unheard. The actor also retweeted a video of an Atlanta press conference in which activist and entertainer, Killer Mike, called for the arrest of all four officers involved in the Minneapolis incident. Many cities, including Atlanta, were placed under a curfew to curtail the volatile demonstrations. Although demonstrators have been asked to remain inside, the conversation has persisted. Social media continues to buzz with the hashtag, #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd. RELATED: Kylie Jenner Just Spoke out Against Racism; I Fear for My Daughter An illuminated Huawei sign is on display during an event in Zurich, Switzerland, on Oct. 15, 2019. (Stefan Wermuth/AFP via Getty Images) Telus, Bell Announce Partnership With Huawei Rivals for 5G, Delivering Major Blow to Chinese Telecom Giant Telus has announced that its partnering with Huawei rivals Ericsson and Nokia for the development of its 5G network, hours after BCE Inc. said its partnering with Ericsson. The news delivers a major blow to the ambitions of Chinese telecom giant Huawei to be a significant player in Canadas 5G infrastructure. The decision comes as Ottawa has yet to announce whether it will allow Huawei to participate in the nations 5G infrastructure, a point of contention with Canadas allies who are concerned their shared data could be compromised if the company has access to Canadas network. Washington has warned partners that the United States may limit data sharing if they allow Huawei to be part of their 5G infrastructure. Rogers was the first among the Canadian telecom companies to announce that it wont use Huawei in its 5G network. Rogerss vice-chair said in an interview with Bloomberg last year that Huawei would pose too big of a threat to Canada and should be banned from the countrys 5G networks. Telus had previously announced that it would be using Huawei for its 5G network, despite uncertainty as to whether the federal government will allow Huawei to take part in Canadas 5G networks. In its announcement on Tuesday, BCE said that Ericsson will be its supplier for radio access network equipment, which has been one of Huaweis main product lines in Canada. A recent Angus Reid survey showed that close to 80 percent of Canadians say Huawei should be banned from being involved in building the countrys 5G infrastructure, around 10 points higher than late last year. Three of Canadas allies in the Five Eyes intelligence allianceAustralia, New Zealand, and the United Stateshave banned Huawei from their fifth-generation wireless networks, and The Telegraph reported that the U.K. plans to reduce Huaweis involvement in its 5G to zero by 2023. The United States put Huawei and 114 affiliates on a trade blacklist last year, barring U.S. firms from doing business with the company. It tightened these restrictions in May by blocking the company from being able to acquire from global chipmakers crucial semiconductors that power its smartphones and telecom gear. Canadian Operations Huawei started expanding its operations in Canada in the late 2000s and has been receiving government support, including over $22 million in grants from the Ontario government throughout the 2010s as well as tax credits from the federal government for R&D expenditures in Canada. The company also invests tens of millions of dollars in academic research in Canada, against the advice of security experts. A report by The Globe and Mail found that in many cases research partly funded by the Canadian public at these universities ends up as intellectual property for Huawei. Amid increasing pressure from the U.S. government, Huawei announced late last year that it was moving its entire research centre from the United States to Canada. Mary Liu, a former high-ranking employee of the company in Toronto, says that Huaweis Canadian operation is very profitable compared to its operations in other countries and that the company has negotiated a favourable tax scheme with the government. The Epoch Times is using an alias for the former staff member, who wishes to keep her identity private to avoid retaliation from Huawei and the Chinese regime. Liu and other former employees The Epoch Times spoke to say that expat staff transferred from China to Huawei Canada, who account for about 10 percent of the personnel at the Toronto headquarters, are required to participate in what is called Chinese Communist Party study sessions every Saturday morning. In addition, all staff, including expats and locals, have to adhere to the companys wolf culture promoted by founder Ren Zhengfei, who draws from his background in the Chinese military. The purpose is to have all employees embrace the fearlessness and bloodthirsty nature of hungry wolves when pursuing the business interests of the company, being resilient while operating in harsh conditions as a team. With files from The Canadian Press The Future of Security in Iraq's Nineveh Plain Iraq's indigenous Christian Assyrian population is beset by ethnic, sectarian, and political divisions. In general, the preferred goal is a measure of political autonomy in the Nineveh Plain, but minority status and the absence of a foreign state to protect them means that security and political rights are contingent upon accepting the authority of one of the country's larger security forces: Iraqi Central Government in Baghdad or the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil. With regard to the Nineveh Plain, a considerable debate exists as to which governing authority best serves the interests of the Assyrian people. At the core of this debate is the question of security: The historical record-- best represented by the summer 2014 invasion of Ninewa Governorate by the Islamic State--has shown that neither option is sustainable. Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the U.S. military authorized KRG security forces to deploy in Ninewa, Kirkuk, and other governorates to temporarily fulfill the security vacuum following the collapse of the Iraqi Army in the wake of de-Ba'athification. This complicated dynamic--security controlled by the KRG in governorates still officially administered by the federal government-- did little more than produce tragic results for Assyrians in Ninewa, especially those in the Nineveh Plain. The KRG seeks to annex the resource-rich Nineveh Plain via a dubious claim that the area is "historically Kurdish," and has used its military presence to enforce territorial claims. The Arab-dominated Iraqi central government in Baghdad rejects the Kurdish ethno-nationalist claim over key territories within Ninewa and Erbil's secessionist agenda in general, but it has long neglected the region. As neither side can be confident they will maintain control of the Nineveh Plain, the area has suffered from underdevelopment and systemic negligence in public investment and service provision. Read the report: The Future of Security in Iraq's Nineveh Plain The most glaring consequence of the administrative and security arrangements of the Nineveh Plain, however, is the collapse of security in the summer of 2014; in both the Nineveh Plain and Sinjar, minorities were systematically rendered vulnerable to genocidal attacks. The Nineveh Plain was liberated in early 2017, but post-conflict stabilization efforts have only reinforced the status quo. The KRG clings to control in the Nineveh Plain's northernmost towns. Various Iranian-backed groups, some affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and others not, occupy territory in an attempt to remake the Nineveh Plain's demographic composition. Iran's end-game is a veritable "Shia belt" stretching from Tehran to Beirut that runs through northern Iraq and the Nineveh Plain via local Shabaks on Tehran's payroll. The U.S., which still has thousands of troops stationed in Iraq as part of the anti-ISIS coalition, is struggling to thwart Iran's expanding influence. As part of these efforts, in January 2020, the U.S. killed Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Soleimani was a major general in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and head of its al-Quds force, which specializes in paramilitary operations and military intelligence. The U.S. held him directly responsible for the deaths of U.S. servicemen. Muhandis was the Deputy Chief of the Popular Mobilization Committee, which has been reported to have close links to the al-Quds Force. He was on the U.S. government's list of designated terrorists. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians took to the streets to rally against political corruption, economic stagnation, and rampant foreign intervention. Caught in the middle are a number of Assyrian groups seeking a measure of political autonomy, chief among them the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM). In November 2014, the ADM supported the creation of an Assyrian-led security force: The Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU). The ADM/NPU's primary goal is the creation of a Nineveh Plain province for minorities falling within direct federal government authority and equal to the fourteen provinces outside the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). Assyrian officials argue that the establishment of such an entity would give minoritized peoples political rights equal to those of Iraq's larger ethno-sectarian groups. Critically, it could help elevate the heterogeneous Nineveh Plain above the Arab-Kurdish feud over the "disputed territories of northern Iraq." In January 2014, the Iraqi central government endorsed the creation of three new governorates, including a Nineveh Plain Governorate.9 Yet the rise and spread of the Islamic State, the KRG's territorial ambitions, political marginalization of minorities, foreign intervention, ongoing domestic turmoil, and the difficult process of reconstituting the Iraqi state has meant that the plan has yet to get off the ground. The liberation of territory held by the Islamic State provided some reprieve for Assyrians, but security threats and a deep sense of mistrust continue to inhibit the return of internally-displaced persons (IDP). The prospects for Iraqi politics. The Iraqi Government and the KRG do not enjoy a favorable stance among the Assyrians; the Iraqi Government is seen to be largely neglectful of the Assyrians while the KRG is seen to be largely focused on its own ethno-nationalist agenda at the expense of Assyrians and Yazidis.10 Post-liberation security arrangements have exacerbated their sense of fear and mistrust. This report examines the failed security policies that enabled the Islamic State's 2014 invasion of Ninewa. It also examines the differing rates of return to the post-liberation Nineveh Plain as the primary and most objective indicator of a preferred security policy, and assesses the various factors behind differing rates of return. The goal is two-fold: first, it aims to convey a detailed understanding of the how these failed policies explain the current security challenges facing Assyrians, including their broader implications for Iraq. Second, it suggests policies for security provision in the Nineveh Plain into the future that are most likely to result in increasing further return of displaced Assyrians and ensure their long-term survivability in the region. This report is organized into six parts. Part I provides a broad overview of the geography, demography, and strategic importance of the Nineveh Plain. Part II addresses the security policies that enabled the Islamic State's invasion and occupation of the area. Part III examines security failures during the initial stages of the Islamic State's northern Iraq offensive. Part IV presents information about the various security forces currently contesting for control of the Nineveh Plain. Part V analyzes rates of return to the Nineveh Plain. Policy recommendations and concluding remarks are offered in Part VI. Prince Andrew has not been active in performing royal duties since he decided to step back in November of 2019. His disastrous interview with BBC about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has caused him and his family great disappointment. Royal Acts Remain Unacceptable Now, Buckingham Palace sources told The Sunday Times that the presence of the Duke of York in the royal family has become toxic. It has been months since Prince Andrew was last seen in the Palace and that's not about to change anytime soon. The docuseries "Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich" premiered last week on Netflix. It has once again opened the allegations of Virginia Roberts Giuffre against Prince Andrew. She claimed that Epstein forced her to have sexual relations with the Prince when she was only 17. Prince Andrew continues to deny all accusations against him. However, his former friendship with Epstein has indeed put him in hot water and it has strained his relationship with the rest of the royal family. While the royal family may need all the help they can get at this time of the coronavirus pandemic, the outlet revealed that the royal family does not have any plans of reviewing Prince Andrew's current position in the family. Queen Elizabeth II herself is resolved to her son's decision of withdrawing from public life. Nonetheless, it seems as if Prince Andrew has other plans. The Duke of York, as reported by Fox News, has recently hired public relations specialist Mark Gallagher in hopes of clearing his name and hopefully fixing his tarnished reputation. The outlet noted, however, that the 60-year-old prince remains hopeful that his status change with the royal family would only be temporary. Last month, Prince Andrews and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson were photographed packing gift bags to distribute to hospice workers who continue to provide service amid the coronavirus pandemic. While any form of help is appreciated, the royal family emphasized to the outlet that the status of Prince Andrew with the royal family remains the same. Royal Debt Remains Unpaid Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson are also facing legal charges over their debt in the purchase of their Swiss chalet. Le Temps newspaper revealed that the Duke and Duchess of York bought their holiday home in the Verbier Ski Resort in 2014. However, as part of the deal, the royal couple had until December of 2019 to pay off the balance along with the interest for the said loan. A spokesperson for Prince Andrew confirmed the dispute between the two parties on the Verbier property. However, the rep said that further details about the matter could not be discussed as they should remain confidential. "The contractual details remain the subject of a confidentiality agreement and prevent further discussion," the rep said. Buckingham Palace declined to give a comment on the accusations concerning Prince Andrew. The lender was made to believe that Prince Andrew and Sarah were supposed to sell the chalet. The proceeds of its sale were intended to pay off the outstanding balance. Nonetheless, five months after the payment was due, no sale or payment has been made. The law firm Etude Du Ritz has been given instructions to proceed with the case, as a representative of the lender, according to Le Temps report. READ MORE: Prince Andrew A Huge Disappointment To Royal Family HOUSTON The family of George Floyd, the man whose death in Minneapolis police custody triggered nationwide protests, joined a crowd city officials estimated at 60,000 demonstrators to rally and march Tuesday in Houston to protest Floyds death. Floyd, a black man who died after a white officer pressed his knee into Floyds neck for minutes, even after he stopped moving, grew up in Houston and a public memorial and burial is planned there for next week. Meanwhile in Dallas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday that Texas would not request military support after President Donald Trump threatened to deploy troops across the U.S. to confront violence that has erupted in the wake of Floyds death. Protesters marched from a downtown Houston park to City Hall where, at a rally that lasted a little over an hour, various local and congressional officials, activists and members of Floyds family spoke. Mayor Sylvester Turner told the crowd that the rally and march were about lifting up the family of George Floyd. Today we want to love on them. We want them to know that George did not die in vain, he said. Turner said about 16 members of Floyds family participated in the march and rally. Several members of Floyds family spoke at the rally, telling protesters of their appreciation for their support and asking them to not be violent in any protests in which they participated. Before the start of the Houston march, Houston rapper Bun B, who organized the event with fellow Houston rapper Trae Tha Truth, told the crowd the march and rally would be peaceful and he asked the crowd to look out for anybody who could cause trouble. Bun B then led the crowd of at least several thousand on a chant as he said Whats his name? and the crowd replied, George Floyd. Thats right and dont you ever forget it, Bun B said. Police officers lined the route of the march and large city dump trucks blocked some downtown streets. Afterward, Police Chief Art Acevedo told the crowd to not let violence hijack their peaceful protests. God as my witness, change is coming, Acevedo said regarding the impact of Floyds death. And were going to do it the right way. Former President George W. Bush criticized any effort to squelch protests of George Floyds death while in Minneapolis police custody. In a statement issued Tuesday by his office in Dallas, the former Republican president said he and wife Laura Bush are anguished by the brutal suffocation of George Floyd and disturbed by the injustice and fear that suffocate our country. It is a strength when protesters, protected by responsible law enforcement, march for a better future. Those who set out to silence those voices do not understand the meaning of America or how it becomes a better place, he said. In Dallas, protesters assembled outside Dallas City Hall as Abbott met inside with local officials. The governor condemned Floyds death as a horrific act of police brutality and called Texas a leader in criminal justice reform and mentioned the Sandra Bland Act passed in 2017. The law mandates police deescalation training and is named after a black woman who died in a Texas jail following a confrontational traffic stop with a white state trooper. Video of the traffic stop and her death stirred national outrage. Abbott did not suggest any changes to Texas policing or laws in the wake of Floyds death, and Democrats criticized his words as insufficient. More than 3,000 state troopers have been assigned across Texas to bolster local law enforcement amid the protests. Since Friday, there have been nearly 880 arrests during protests in Dallas, according to police and the county sheriffs office. Of those, 674 people were arrested Monday during a largely peaceful protest that police ended after the group marched onto a bridge. The protesters in that mass arrest were charged with obstructing a roadway but released without being sent to jail, police spokeswoman Tamika Dameron said. Dallas officials expanded a 7 p.m.-6 a.m. curfew zone Tuesday to include the bridge where the Monday night mass arrest happened. No expiration date has been set for the curfew, which covers central Dallas and some adjoining neighborhoods. Austin police say a 20-year-old black protester was critically injured after being struck by a beanbag fired by a police officer. Police Chief Brian Manley says the officer had been aiming at another demonstrator but missed. ___ Stengle reported from Dallas. Associated Press writers Paul J. Weber in Austin and Jake Bleiberg in Dallas also contributed to this report. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 19:54:45|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close -- Chen Jian, a 31-year-old Chinese train driver who operates locomotives on the China-Laos Railway under construction, is one of the many Chinese workers overcoming difficulties and working there around the clock amid the COVID-19 pandemic. -- In the jungles of southwestern Cambodia's Koh Kong Province, the Chinese-built Lower Stung Russei Chrum hydropower station also adopted strict epidemic prevention measures for safety operation. -- In Indonesia, Zhang Kelei, project manager of Sinohudro Project Department of the Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Railway, said the department "has asked everyone to wear masks and reduce contact." The construction of the railway has made great progress amid the epidemic. -- "The Belt and Road Initiative plan may restart progressively and remains well-received in its partner countries," Cambodian Princess Norodom Arunrasmy said. by Xinhua writers Zhang Jianhua, Mao Pengfei and Yu Qianliang VIENTIANE/PHNOM PENH/JAKARTA, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Although the COVID-19 pandemic has severely disrupted life and production all around the world, the construction of the Belt and Road projects continues with protective measures in Laos, Cambodia and Indonesia. Experts believe that at this special period the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which focuses on infrastructure projects and trade exchanges, can facilitate the restoration of the national economies of many countries in the world. Chen Jian from the China Railway No.2 Engineering Group operates an engineering locomotive on the China-Laos Railway on the outskirts of Lao capital Vientiane, May 7, 2020. (Photo by Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua) STRICT PREVENTIVE MEASURES "I have driven trains traveling around China, but this is the first time I drive a train abroad," said 31-year-old Chinese train driver Chen Jian in an engineering train loaded with track ballast heading toward a construction site on the outskirts of Vientiane, the Lao capital. Chen, who operates locomotives on the China-Laos Railway under construction, is one of the many Chinese workers overcoming difficulties and working there around the clock amid the COVID-19 pandemic. With strict precautionary and preventive measures, they have joined hands with local workers and engineers to speed up the construction of the railway project. "In order to keep the construction of the China-Laos Railway on schedule, we are implementing comprehensive control measures to ensure progress, quality and safety," said Hu Bin, railing project manager of the China Railway No. 2 Engineering Group (CREC-2), which is undertaking the railway's railing work. According to Lei Chao, Hu's colleague, with nearly half of the staff absent, "everyone here is working in multiple roles." "We must ensure the health of our available staff. We have actively carried out epidemic prevention in Laos, and formed medical teams along the railway for emergency treatment and distribution of epidemic prevention supplies," said Lei. Chinese workers maintain equipment at the Lower Stung Russei Chrum hydropower station in southwestern Cambodia's Koh Kong Province on March 24, 2020. (China Huadian Lower Stung Russei Chrum Hydroelectric Project (Cambodia) Company Limited/Handout via Xinhua) The China-Laos Railway is not the only project witnessing such strict preventive measures. In the jungles of southwestern Cambodia's Koh Kong Province, the Chinese-built Lower Stung Russei Chrum hydropower station also saw similar measures taken for safety operation. "The safety of our staff is the precondition of normal operation. Strict measures have been adopted in our company, including thorough sanitation of vehicles, offices, and dormitories, frequent temperature tests, and mask-wearing requirements, among others," said You Yuansheng, deputy general manager of China Huadian Lower Stung Russei Chrum Hydroelectric Project (Cambodia) Company Limited. "All people who returned from China after vacation should be quarantined for 14 days," You said. The preventive measures also won support from local Cambodian workers, who, together with their Chinese colleagues, shot and posted videos on social media to promote public awareness of COVID-19. In Indonesia, Zhang Kelei, project manager of Sinohudro Project Department of the Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Railway, said the department "has asked everyone to wear masks and reduce contact." "The offices, accommodations and construction sites are fully enclosed, and all personnel entering and exiting are registered, disinfected and tested," Zhang said. "We have also printed 3,000 copies of anti-epidemic prevention manual books in both Chinese and Indonesian, and distributed them to every Indonesian employee," he said, adding their Indonesian colleagues are also provided with face masks, disinfectant and other epidemic prevention materials, as well as epidemic subsidies. Chinese and Lao railway builders work together to lay the tracks through the Ban Nong Khay Tunnel of the China-Laos Railway in Vientiane Province, some 60 km to the north of capital Vientiane, Laos, May 23, 2020. (Photo by Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua) ORDERLY RESUMPTION Despite shortage of hands and supplies, the Chinese and local workers and engineers have nevertheless managed to resume production in an orderly manner. The CREC-2, which restarted work on March 27, has sped up its track-laying pace to one kilometer every day from two kilometers every three days. By early May, the company had completed its track-laying of over 30 kilometers. Besides, the railway's off-line bridges, tunnels, roadbeds and other civil engineering work have been almost finished, and online tracks, power, communication signal, mechanical and electrical engineering and station buildings have been fully launched. "The tracks were laid so well that it's much comfortable to run on them," said Chen, the Chinese driver. As for the hydropower station in Cambodia, it has been generating electricity normally since the COVID-19 outbreak in the country in March. The station has provided 75 million kilowatt-hours during the first four months of this year. "We only have 94 Chinese colleagues on site right now. The shortage of hands is a big challenge. Therefore, we must unite and cooperate more closely to fulfill our duties at this special time," said You. The staff have made a detailed plan to ensure the plant "will run safely at full capacity to provide reliable power for the socio-economic development of Cambodia," he said. Luo Jianhua, deputy director of the Production Technology department of the Chinese-built Lower Stung Russei Chrum hydropower plant, works at a dam in Cambodia's southwestern Koh Kong province, May 23, 2020. (China Huadian Lower Stung Russei Chrum Hydroelectric Project (Cambodia) Company Limited/Handout via Xinhua) Over the past several months, 50-year-old Luo Jianhua, deputy director of the Production Technology Department of the plant, and his colleagues have been examining key equipment like power units, generator transformers and flood discharging facilities to prepare for the coming rainy season. "Rainy season is the best time for the hydropower plant to generate electricity, so we must keep our equipment in good condition," Luo said. In Indonesia, 40-year-old Zhang said he was still on vacation in his hometown Xuzhou in eastern China's Jiangsu Province in the early days of the outbreak. "The construction of the high-speed railway was in full swing. I was worried about the lack of manpower in the work area and the inability to coordinate supplies and equipment in time," said Zhang, who later flew back to Jakarta as soon as possible. With the joint efforts of Zhang and many others like him, the construction of the railway has made great progress amid the epidemic. Three tunnels have been drilled through in the last few months. The first multi-span rigid frame continuous beam for the No. 2 Bridge of the railway was successfully closed in mid-May. Aerial photo taken on May 10, 2020 shows the construction site of the first multi-span rigid frame continuous beam for the No. 2 Bridge of the Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Railway in Indonesia. (Xinhua/Du Yu) BRIGHTER FUTURE Ren Chengneng, general technical manager of the railing of the China-Laos Railway, told Xinhua that he was very happy to participate in the Belt and Road project at the end of his career. He was not alone favoring the project. While inspecting the main construction site of the railway in Vientiane, Lao Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Somdy Douangdy spoke highly of the construction of the railway, calling it a carrier and symbol of the friendship between Laos and China. Somdy vowed that the Lao government will, as always, support the construction of the railway and provide convenience for its construction. "The Belt and Road Initiative plan may restart progressively and remains well-received in its partner countries," Cambodian Princess Norodom Arunrasmy told Xinhua in a recent interview. Cambodia highly values the BRI since it is a new source of economic growth through infrastructure development, industrialization, trade and investment expansion, and tourism growth, said the princess. People work at the construction site of the first multi-span rigid frame beam for the No. 2 Bridge of the Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Railway in Indonesia, May 10, 2020. (Xinhua/Du Yu) As for Kyrgyzstan's independent political analyst Igor Shestakov, the Belt and Road projects "can become one of the ways to quickly restore the economy" of Central Asian as well as Commonwealth of Independent States countries. "Now China, at this difficult moment, can position the projects more successfully and more efficiently, as one of the ways to speed up the restoration of the national economies of the countries," Shestakov said. Meanwhile, such confidence in Belt and Road projects has also been shared by officials and experts beyond Asia. Noting that the BRI focuses on infrastructure projects and trade exchanges that are needed by developing countries, Hisham El-Zimaity, secretary general of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, said he believes that the initiative "will continue to offer a lot of impetus at the political and economic levels around the world." The BRI "is vital and it will continue despite the ongoing pandemic," said George Tzogopoulos, an expert on China with the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Israel's Bar Ilan University. (Video reporters: Zong Pingping, Chu Xiong, Mao Pengfei, Yu Qianliang, Wa Yang, Du Dapeng; Video editor: Chen Sihong) More than 400 British travellers stranded in six Central and South American countries will be able to return home on two charter flights this month. The two transatlantic flights will leave from San Jose in Costa Rica and Quito in Ecuador for London Stansted on June 11, the UK Government has announced. British travellers in Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Chile will be able to board sweeper flights to take them to Costa Rica and Ecuador for the final transatlantic passage back to the UK, the Government said. Priority will initially be given to travellers aged over 70, those with medical requirements, people travelling with young children and others in remote or at-risk areas. More than 2,100 British travellers have already been brought back from the region on chartered flights organised by the Government during the coronavirus pandemic. Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) minister for the Americas, Wendy Morton, said: This is a complex operation with British travellers wanting to return home from across Central and South America. Our teams across the region are doing everything they can to get as many people as possible home to their families and will continue to provide support to British nationals who remain. Those wishing to board the flights are advised to check the relevant FCO travel advice pages online and contact the British mission in the country they are in. The FCO said those who are eligible to fly will be sent information on how to get to the airport, flight itineraries and costs when their seat is confirmed. At the beginning of May, the Government said more than 30,000 British travellers had returned to the UK on 142 special charter flights from 27 countries since the outbreak of coronavirus. Later in the month Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said about 20,000 British nationals were still in need of repatriation. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi A day after the definition of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) was widened, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that one third of the MSMEs in India are closing down permanently and it would be criminal not to support them with cash. Rahul Gandhi tweeted: "11 crore Indians are employed by MSMEs. One third of them are closing down permanently. It's criminal for the government of India not to give them cash support immediately." 11 crore Indians are employed by MSMEs. 1/3 of them are closing down permanently. Its criminal for GOI not to give them cash support immediately.https://t.co/hKO9A9nioh Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 2, 2020 Hours earlier, he tweeted: "Moody's has rated Modi's handling of India's economy a step above JUNK. Lack of support to the poor and the MSME sector means the worst is yet to come." Moody's has rated Modi's handling of India's economy a step above JUNK. Lack of support to the poor and the MSME sector means the worst is yet to come.https://t.co/bOtH1P3pBZ Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 2, 2020 After change in MSME definition, entities with a turnover of up to Rs 250 crore or investment up to Rs 50 crore will qualify as medium enterprises. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said that the changes would benefit 6 crore MSMEs that together employ 11 crore people. Rahul had earlier said that MSMEs are facing an unprecedented economic crisis and had emphasised the need for an exhaustive economic package for all sections of society. "6.25 crore MSMEs generate over 11 crore jobs. Give 1 lakh crore Wage Protection Scheme' & multi-crore 'Credit Guarantee Scheme' to MSMEs. Give six months interest subsidy equal to six months of interest on loan taken by MSMEs," Rahul Gandhi said in a statement on May 16. The first ever U.S. Representative to African Development Bank, Ambassador Harold E. Doley, Jr., has written an open letter to United States Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin. The Honorable Steven T. Mnuchin, Secretary of the Treasury United States Department of the Treasury, 1500 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20220 Dear Secretary Mnuchin, This letter follows your recent correspondence to the Chair of the Bureau of the Board of Governors of the African Development Bank Group, and Minister of Planning and Development of the Republic of Cote dIvoire, Madame Minister Niale Kaba. It was my honor to be nominated by President Reagan to serve as the first U.S. Executive Director of the African Development Bank from 1983-85. As you recall, the African Development Bank was created by several African countries in 1964, with the U.S. becoming a shareholder in 1983. Previously, we became members of the African Development Fund (ADF) in 1974, as a result of legislation introduced by the then Congressman Andrew J. Young, Jr. In the intervening years, the U.S. has played a leadership role as the Banks largest non-regional (non-African) shareholder, and the second-largest overall. Since taking office in 2015, the current and 8th President of the Bank, the U.S. trained and globally renowned Akinwumi Adesina (https://bit.ly/2ZTKs7s), restructured the bank and refined its focus through a High5 (www.AfDB.org/en/High5s) strategy that has directly impacted the lives of millions of Africans. This has been through strategic investments in energy and electricity, agriculture technologies that significantly improve food security, access to private sector finance, improved transport infrastructure, and water and sanitation. In 2019, with U.S. support, the African Development Banks shareholders approved a General Capital Increase (https://bit.ly/2Mk7fRT) of $115 billion, the largest in the Banks 56-year history. The increase more than doubled capital from $93 billion to $208 billion. Also, in 2019, the Banks concessional window, the African Development Fund (ADF), received a 35% replenishment with donor contributions. U.S. shares of $499,695,200 represent 7.81% of total subscriptions which are a critically needed resource for Low Income Countries (LICs) and Transition States. Ultimately, supporting Africas private sector is critical for social and economic development. In 2018, Adesina led an unprecedented effort to attract global investments into Africa through the inaugural Africa Investment Forum (https://AfricaInvestmentForum.com) which mobilized $78.8 billion in investment interests between 2018 and 2019. At the 2019 event, the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) signed a $5 billion facility agreement with the African Development Bank. The U.S. Treasury and State Departments support has certainly led to a greater understanding of Africas dynamic investment landscape for American businesses. Adesina has astutely led the Banks bold and decisive COVID19 response with a $10 billion COVID-19 Response Facility (https://bit.ly/3co0Bog) to cushion economic and social impacts of the pandemic on the continent. This, is in addition to the successful launch of an oversubscribed $3 billion Fight COVID19 (https://bit.ly/2XNZUPZ) social bond on the London Stock Exchange, making the largest US dollar denominated social bond ever in world history. The Banks 2019 innovative Desert to Power (https://bit.ly/2yS1kAD) initiative will develop 10,000 Megawatts of solar power across 11 countries in the Sahel Region and provide electricity for 250 million people. When completed, the $20 billion investment will be the worlds largest solar zone. Adesinas groundbreaking Affirmative Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) (https://bit.ly/3eEAg7a), launched at the 2019 G7 Summit in Biarritz, France and at the Global Gender Summit in Rwanda, has received strong support from President Macron, the G7 leaders ($251 million), African Presidents, and an additional $61.8 million from Ivanka Trumps Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (WeFi). AFAWA will leverage $3 billion in women business financing. While there have been concerns in some circles about Chinas role in Africa, American enterprise thrives on competition and is poised to play a more influential economic role in the years ahead. Americas role at the AfDB and other multi-lateral development banks, is crucial for the global economy. Recently, in conformity with the governance rules and procedures of the Boards Ethics Committee, the Bank cleared Adesina of wrongdoing stemming from several allegations levelled against him. It is an acknowledged fact that Akinwumi Adesina is a global player of impeccable character who has helped mobilize billions of dollars for Africa and helped accelerate the continents development. It is why the Executive Committee of the Africa Union, speaking for 55 African countries, unanimously endorsed him as the sole candidate for re-election to a second term. This is vital for Africas continued economic growth, infrastructure and investment. It is traditional at multilateral development institutions that sole candidates be re-elected by acclamation. Therefore, Mr. Secretary, the people of America implore you to use your good offices to continue to support Africa, the African Development Bank and President Adesina in his bid for re-election; and that you walk in lockstep with your fellow African Governors. Thanking you in advance for your consideration, Sincerely, Harold E. Doley, Jr. Bamako, Mali (PANA) - Two members of the National Guard were killed and another missing on Friday in Timbuktu (northeast Mali) when armed men tried to remove their meal delivery vehicle, deployed to the region's governor's home, PANA learned on Monday from local sources Drew Pavlou speaking at a human rights rally on the grounds of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia on Jul 31, 2019 (Faye Yang/The Epoch Times) Senator Says University Should Lose Funding for Acting as Agent for the CCP in Suspending Student Activist Senator Malcolm Roberts has called on the federal government to cut funding to the University of Queensland if it continues to act as an agent for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Roberts comments were in reference to the universitys actions against student activist Drew Pavlou and his subsequent suspension from the university for two years. The Queensland senator said the 11 allegations against Pavlou, which were cited as the reasons for his suspension were absurdly trivial and borderline hysterical. Related Coverage University of Queensland Student Suspended for 2 Years After Speaking Out Against Chinese Regime Exact details of the allegations have been kept confidential from the public, however, it is alleged that they are linked to Pavlous on-campus activism in support of Hong Kongs 2019 pro-democracy rallies. The recent expulsion of a fourth-year philosophy student, based on his outspoken views against China, has exposed the influence of a communist dictatorship on an Australian university, Roberts said in a media release on June 1. UQ Chancellor Peter Varghese said on May 29 that he was concerned with the decision handed down against Pavlou. There are aspects of the findings and the severity of the penalty which personally concern me, Varghese said in a statement. In consultation with the vice chancellor, who has played no role in this disciplinary process, I have decided to convene an out-of-session meeting of UQs Senate next week to discuss the matter. Roberts said the University of Queensland (UQ) received more than 43 percent of its income from the federal government in 2019, and 20 percent from international Chinese students. UQ needs to remember where the bulk of their funding comes from and they need to assure the Australian taxpayer that they are an Australian university, he said, and not an overseas agent of the communist party. Senator Malcolm Roberts in the Senate at Parliament House on July 4, 2019, in Canberra, Australia. (Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images) This is another example of the recent worrying trend at Australian universities that is curtailing free speech and promoting left-wing ideology, said Roberts. Pavlous Protest Last year in July, Pavlou helped organise a rally on university grounds in support of the major pro-democracy protests occurring in Hong Kong. The rally turned ugly when pro-CCP students arrived, sparking violent confrontations. Tasmanian Senator Eric Abetzs told The Epoch Times the situation was a troubling exertion of undue power and influence by the communist dictatorship on Australias universities. Pavlou is currently seeking a protection order against the Chinese Consul-General of Brisbane Xu Jie, who published a statement on the consular website applauding the actions of the pro-China students calling their acts patriotic behaviour. At the same time, Pavlous lawyer Mark Tarrant has lodged an official complaint with the university demanding Xu Jie be dismissed from his honorary position as an adjunct professor at UQ. UQ had stated a week earlier that Xus actions amounted to a breach of its code of conduct. As a result, UQ Chancellor Peter Varghese announced the university would no longer offer honorary professorships to any serving foreign government official. Employers in Ireland are bracing themselves for negative impacts to their business and employees due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Such impacts will be evident in cost management measures, salary and staffing levels, as businesses prepare to weather the expected economic downturn. This is according to the Willis Towers Watson COVID-19 pulse survey. A total of 996 employers based in Great Britain and Western Europe took part in the Survey which was conducted during April 2020. A total of 104 employers with Irish operations responded to the survey. The research shows that while overall 64% do anticipate a large negative impact in the next 12 months, many businesses are being proactive in taking measures that will contribute toward future sustainability. Merit-based salary increases are likely to be reconsidered with 47% of organisations having taken, or are considering, measures to reduce or delay such increases. This does not mean that organisations are reducing salary on an arbitrary basis as the research indicates that 1 in 5 employers (21%) have implemented or are considering implementing base pay reductions for corporate functions such as finance, human resources, IT, procurement, legal, and facilities management. Employers are also planning action on annual bonuses across their business, with 47% again considering or actively planning a reduction in 2020. The research does however show that 2 in 3 business are not adjusting sales incentive pay outs while others will make discretionary adjustments, suggesting that employers want to continue to reward and retain performing staff. With the economic impact of COVID-19 continuing to take effect many employers are searching for ways to retain staff through furlough schemes. 58% of organisations have offered or are planning to offer voluntary unpaid leave of absences to interest employees, while 44% have, or are considering, making such measures involuntary for staff. Commenting on the survey results, Senior Director Talent and Rewards at Willis Towers Watson, Ian Milton said, "Already many tough decisions have been taken to postpone annual bonuses and, for many, hiring plans have also been placed on hold. For the most part however, employers are ensuring that jobs and conditions are retained where possible, making use of furloughing and the government Covid-19 payment scheme to maintain current jobs. The survey shows that employers are developing a long-term view of the current situation and focusing on retaining and motivating their employees." Source: www.businessworld.ie Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 03:53:12|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, June 1 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations is helping countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to cope with COVID-19 as the region is becoming the new epicenter of the pandemic, said a UN spokesman on Monday. Nearly 938,000 cases of COVID-19 and over 49,000 associated deaths were reported as of Saturday across Latin America and the Caribbean. Daily infections in Latin America and the Caribbean have surpassed those in Europe and the United States, making it the new epicenter of the pandemic, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. South America, where Brazil, Peru, Chile and Ecuador have the most cases, has over 800,000 infected people and more than 38,000 deaths, he told a virtual press briefing. The United Nations has been supporting governments and civil society in the region through its different agencies, funds and programs, said the spokesman. In Venezuela, the United Nations and its partners have been providing assistance to more than 1 million people since mid-March, mostly in the areas of water, sanitation and hygiene. In Colombia, over 750,000 people have been reached since the end of April, mainly with health response. And in Haiti, the world body continues to support national authorities in strengthening health response capacity and disseminating awareness messaging, and deliver critical life-saving support, he said. In Guatemala, where there are more than 4,700 confirmed cases and over 100 deaths, the UN team on the ground has been supporting the government's emergency response to the virus and provided 1 million dollars. The UN team is focusing on providing health services, protecting and training health workers and improving surveillance capacities, he said. Enditem HOLYOKE A man was killed after he lost control of his vehicle and struck two cars in a parking lot Monday. The driver left the road and drove into the parking lot of Dinos Restaurant and a convenience store and crashed into two cars. The vehicles were parked and not occupied at the time, Police Lt. James Albert said. The crash occurred at about 10:30 a.m. near the intersection of Homestead Avenue and Westfield Road, he said. Massachusetts State Police Collision Analysis Reconstruction Section is assisting with the investigation, State Police officials said. PM Modi, Trump discuss India-China border issue, George Floyd protests India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, June 02: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump on Tuesday held a telephonic conversation and discussed the India-China border tension, the civil disturbances in the US over the death of a black man in police custody, among other issues. Trump invited PM Modi to the Group of Seven or G7 Summit in the US, the statement said. "President Trump... conveyed his desire to expand the ambit of the grouping beyond the existing membership, to include other important countries including India," a statement from the PMO said. Jessica Lal case convict Manu Sharma to be released prematurely, LG accepts | Oneindia News Trumps move to invite India, Russia, Australia, S Korea to attend G-7 summit riles China "Prime Minister Modi expressed concern regarding the ongoing civil disturbances in the US, and conveyed his best wishes for an early resolution of the situation," the statement said. PM Modi and US President Donald Trump also exchanged views on other topical issues, such as the COVID-19 situation in the two countries, the situation on the India-China border, and the need for reforms in the World Health Organisation," it further added. Trump spoke about the US Presidency of the Group of Seven, and conveyed his desire to expand the ambit of the grouping beyond the existing membership, to include other important countries including India. "In this context, he extended an invitation to Prime Minister Modi to attend the next G-7 Summit to be held in USA," the statement said. Modi commended Trump for his "creative and far-sighted approach", acknowledging the fact that such an expanded forum would be in keeping with the emerging realities of the post-COVID world. Modi said India would be happy to work with the US and other countries to ensure the success of the proposed summit. Tweeting about their conversation, Modi said he had "a warm and productive conversation with my friend President Trump". Had a warm and productive conversation with my friend President @realDonaldTrump. We discussed his plans for the US Presidency of G-7, the COVID-19 pandemic, and many other issues. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 2, 2020 The conversation between the two leaders came against the backdrop of Trump maintaining that he had spoken with Modi who was not in a "good mood" over the China border issue. Sources in the government here had denied any "recent contact" between the two leaders. Trump had also offered to mediate between India and China. When Jamie Foxx took the stage at San Francisco City Hall on Monday afternoon, he began to sing. At a rally honoring George Floyd, the Just Mercy actor, musician and activist appeared in front of a cheering crowd of over a thousand people as his song Unpredictable blared over the speakers. First of all, I like that song, he said as the audience chuckled in response. Then, shifting the tone, he began to croon the lyrics of gospel artist Fred Hammond. But in this instance, no weapons formed against me shall prosper. These words were particularly relevant as the mass gathering peacefully protested the unlawful murder of George Floyd as well as the deaths of a number of other black individuals in police custody. The rally was organized by Phelicia Jones, the founder of Wealth and Disparities in the Black Community - Justice 4 Mario Woods. She formed the organization in 2012, just three years before Woods was killed by San Francisco police officers. At the time, officers thought him to be the suspect of a stabbing and said he would not drop a knife, though video footage later showed Woods was not directly threatening them with it. He sustained more than 20 gunshot wounds. His mother, Gwen Woods, openly wept as she mourned yet another death during an emotional speech at Mondays rally. I felt so bad when this happened, I felt I couldnt come out and even protest with you because I settled with the city, she said, sobbing. Every time I saw that officer, I saw Mario. He was not a threat, Im going to tell you again SF, he was not a threat. Rally organizers encouraged all participants to take a knee in commemoration of Floyd, just as Colin Kaepernick famously did when he protested the death of Woods. The physical act also symbolized a demand from protesters, who said they wanted Bob Kroll, head of the Minneapolis Police Union, to step down, and implored that all four officers responsible for the death of Floyd be charged with murder. They also urged San Francisco Supervisor Sandra Fewer to hold the SFPD accountable to overturn its own racist practices in addition to demanding justice, equity and equality for all Black San Franciscans, according to a press release from Wealth and Disparities in the Black Community. The atmosphere was energetic as Jones handed out masks before San Francisco Mayor London Breed began to speak. My heart has been heavy. Yes, Im the mayor, but Im a black woman first, she said. I grew up in this city. I grew up not too far from here in public housing. In 2006, sadly, my cousin was killed by the San Francisco Police Department. At that time, there was a lot of anger and hurt. Today, as a mayor whos in charge of this city, I will do everything I can to push for the right policies for our law enforcement here to make sure that what we know has been happening sadly all over this country doesnt happen in our city. There is nothing more important to me than to do that. Breed said she appreciated everyone that had congregated to City Hall that day. But she left the crowd with a single reminder. Black Lives Matter is nobodys joke. Im tired of people treating it that way; people masking their racism in Black Lives Matter. It is born out of racism that we are going to fight against. I dont want to see one more black man die at the hands of law enforcement. Thats what this movement is about. Not one more. The crowd began to chant those three words as Foxx joined her onstage to kneel yet another time. Wearing a black hoodie that read Making my Ancestors Proud, he faced the audience and urged them to take action. What I can tell you is that after all of this, the work is still there to be done," he said, adding that when other celebrities had asked him how they could help, he had just one answer: Get out of your cul-de-sac and come out here on the courtroom steps. He also addressed how recent deaths had affected his personal life as a father. As Im talking to my young kids, trying to tell them how to act when theyre out there and they see a police officer, Im running out of things to tell them. It shouldnt be that way in America in 2020. Other speakers at the rally included District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton and San Francisco NAACP director Rev. Amos C. Brown. But when police chief William Scott walked up to the platform to deliver his own speech, the crowd grew quiet. This uniform represents my profession," he said. "When I take off this uniform, I am a black man. Where I come from, I can relate to my uncle, my mom, telling me how to stay alive before I became a police officer. I know what it feels like to be a black man, nobody needs to tell me that." The crowd began to murmur. Then, someone yelled a question in response. I just wanna know what youre gonna do to make it different as chief of police? she said. I respect that youre a black man but as the chief of police what are you going to do? Scott responded by admitting that the San Francisco Police Department was not a perfect department. But he added that he and other officers were committed to change. The demonstration concluded with a short speech from Alicia Reeves, the 17-year-old leader of the NAACP Youth Councils San Francisco Branch. Were not here solely for the reason that a black man, George Floyd, was murdered. That is one of the reasons, but not the only reason. We are angry because the systematic and institutionalized racism has been continuous, she said. We need to change this system. MORE COVERAGE ON THE GEORGE FLOYD PROTESTS: Sign up for 'The Daily' newsletter for the latest on Bay Area protest coverage here. Amanda Bartlett is an SFGATE associate digital reporter. Email: amanda.bartlett@sfgate.com | Twitter: @byabartlett OTTAWAPrime Minister Justin Trudeau waded Tuesday into the foreign policies of Israel and China, expressing concerns over separate but controversial positions that he says undermine peace in both places. Trudeau denounced Israels plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank. And he said he has expressed Canadas disagreement over the proposed annexation directly to Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, the countrys alternate prime minister under a power-sharing agreement. Ive been very direct with the Israeli leaders, Trudeau said. We deplore such actions, which are going to delay any prospect of lasting peace in the Middle East. So, we should be working while respecting the concept of dialogue. And we are very concerned. Trudeau reiterated Canadas view on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians Canada favours a two-state solution and does not approve of unilateral actions by either side. I have highlighted both publicly and directly to Prime Minister Netanyahu and alternate prime minister Benny Gantz the importance of staying away from measures that are unilateral and our deep concerns and disagreement with their proposed policy of annexation. Bessma Momani, a Middle East expert at the University of Waterloo, said Trudeaus comments could be viewed as a move to win support among Arab countries in Canadas bid for a temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council. Annexation of the West Bank is clearly an issue that most UN members disagree with and this is likely to be seen favourably by those states sill trying to gauge what kind of Canada they would get on the coveted UNSC, she said. Adam Chapnick, a professor at the Royal Military College of Canada, said while Trudeaus comments could be viewed as a move to win support for the council bid, they are more likely an attempt to differentiate Canadian Middle East policy from U.S. President Donald Trumps. Trumps Middle East policy is in sync with Israels annexation plan, and has been rejected by the Palestinians. One could interpret (Trudeaus) statement as a message to the international community that Canada simply does not back Washington on this issue, said Chapnick, the author of a recent book on the Security Council. Trudeaus statement wasnt enough to sway a pro-Palestinian group in Canada that is sending letters to UN ambassadors urging them not to support Canadas Security Council campaign against Norway and Ireland. Todays comments by the prime minister do not change this long-standing entrenched track record of acting as an asset for Israel. Ireland and Norway have not voted against any UN resolution on support of Palestine during this century, said Karen Rodman, a spokeswoman for Just Peace Advocates, a coalition of 100 organizations and people. Trudeau also called on China to engage constructively with the people of Hong Kong after Beijing imposed a new national security law that has fuelled wide-scale protests. He said Canada is concerned about its 300,000 citizens in Hong Kong and millions of others who are fighting for justice and peace. Canada, Britain, the United States and Australia have jointly denounced the new law as a violation of Hong Kongs freedom from Chinese communist interference. We will continue to stand up for peace, for dialogue, for de-escalation of tensions and for Beijing to engage constructively with the people of Hong Kong, the prime minister said. On Monday, a Canadian legal activist called on the federal government to grant asylum to democracy activists in Hong Kong and expand settlement to those with links to Canada before China prevents them from leaving. Canada is a country that has always welcomed people around the world fleeing persecution and violence, Trudeau said Tuesday. We have a strong immigration system that looks at individual cases, looks at systemic challenges and responds to them. Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne discussed the Hong Kong situation with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and their counterparts in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing group from Britain, Australia and New Zealand on Monday. They discussed our co-ordination on responding to urgent global challenges, including the PRCs (Peoples Republic of China) unilateral and arbitrary decision to impose national security legislation on Hong Kong, Pompeos spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said on Tuesday. The spokesman for Chinas Foreign Ministry reiterated his governments position when its conduct is criticized by other governments he told Pompeo to butt out. Hong Kong affairs are purely Chinas internal affairs that allow no foreign interference, spokesman Zhao Lijian said Tuesday in translated remarks posted on his departments website. We hope the U.S. will do more that is conducive to stability and prosperity in Hong Kong and development of China-U.S. relations. Read more about: Today show hosts Al Roker, Craig Melvin, and Sheinelle Jones have opened up about the difficult conversations they've had with their children about being black in America after the death of George Floyd. Al, 65, led the conversation on Monday during the show's third hour, sharing the discussions he has had with his son Nick, 17, about how to interact with the police if he ever gets stopped. 'I've got an almost 18-year-old son, and I've had to have this conversation with him,' he explained. 'If you're stopped by the police, you are polite, you are quiet, you just say yes, you say no, you don't get belligerent.' Scroll down for video Candid: Today hosts Al Roker (pictured), Craig Melvin, and Sheinelle Jones have opened up about the difficult conversations they've had with their children about being black in America Warning: Al, 65, sharing the discussions he's had with his son Nick, 17, about how to interact with the police. The dad has stressed that he needs to be 'polite' and 'quiet' The father also has a daughter Leila, 21, with his wife Deborah Roberts and a daughter Courtney, 33, with his ex-wife Alice Bell. Al noted his only son is a 'big kid' and he is always fearful something will happen to him when he is riding the New York City subway to and from school. 'I don't breathe a sigh of relief until Nick walks in that door because I am afraid of what could happen,' Al said. 'He's in this New York City subway system, police officer, something happens, and I think this [death of George Floyd] brought that to a head.' Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man, died in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25, after being arrested for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill at a deli. Family: The father also has a daughter Leila, 21, (second from left) with his wife Deborah Roberts (second from right) and a daughter Courtney, 33, (far left) with his ex-wife Alice Bell Worries: Al noted his only son is a 'big kid' and he is always fearful something will happen to him when he is riding the New York City subway to and from school While he was in police custody, white officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Floyd became unresponsive and was later pronounced dead at the hospital. Chauvin has since been taken into police custody and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Floyd's family is calling for a first-degree murder charge to be filed against Chauvin after an independent autopsy found that he died as the result of asphyxiation from sustained pressure on his neck. Sheinelle, who has a son Kayin, 10, and twins Clara and Uche, seven, with her husband Uche Ojeh, said her three children started asking her questions about Floyd's death after they watched the news together as a family. The mother-of-three said she tried to 'insulate' her kids by telling them there was a police officer who 'didn't do a good thing,' but they weren't satisfied with her answer. 'They looked at me, and they're like, "Your little mom answers are not good enough."' Sheinelle said, noting that is the first time that has ever happened. Scared: Sheinelle, 42, shared that her three children cried after she honestly answered their questions about George Floyd's death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer All together: Sheinelle and her husband Uche Ojeh have a son Kayin, 10, and twins Clara and Uche, seven After telling her children how Floyd died, her daughter Clara asked: 'Why would he do that? Why would he put his knee on the guy's neck?' 'I said, "Well, Mom doesn't have an answer,"' Sheinelle recalled. 'And the little guy goes, "So it's because he has brown skin like us, that's why he's being mean to him?" 'And then Kayin goes, "So why are they being mean to people with brown skin? Are they going to be mean to me?"' Sheinelle said her children wanted to know if the police officers involved in Floyd's death were in jail, and at the time they weren't. As of now, Chauvin is the only one out of the four officers on the scene who is facing charges. Heartbreaking: The mom said her son Kayin asked why the officers were 'being mean to people with brown skin' and wanted to know if they were going to treat him the same way Hard to handle: Sheinelle said all of her children went to sleep crying after their conversation about Floyd's death 'Kayin runs crying, and the next thing you know I have three crying kids, crying because they're afraid,' the mom said. 'They went to sleep crying. I'm over here trying to come up with things to say. ... It was really traumatic for me, for them. I went to bed with such a heavy heart.' Craig, 41, has two biracial children, a son Delano, six, and daughter Sybil, three, with his wife Lindsay Czarniak, who is white. When Al said he thinks society will see Craig's children as black kids, he readily agreed. 'Oh, no doubt, and Lindsay and I have had this conversation,' he said. 'I think sometimes people, unfortunately, they make certain, perhaps, assumptions. I'm a relatively young black man who's rearing a young black man, living in the United States of America. Don't be fooled by the suits and some status. Hoping for change: Craig, 41, shared his frustration that there's yet to be any significant change following previous incidents in which unarmed black me were killed by police Mixed-race family: Craig has two biracial children, a son Delano, six, and daughter Sybil, three, with his wife Lindsay Czarniak, who is white 'The number of times where you walk in a store and you know. You're constantly reminded,' he added. 'We like to think that we live in some sort of post-racial America, and the reality is we are reminded time and time again that we do not.' While reflecting on the protests and civil unrest over Floyd's death across the country, Craig admitted he is scared because he doesn't know what's next. 'I think one of the things that's most frustrating is this happens, we have these conversations, people march, we pledge to do better and then we move on,' he said. 'We haven't healed, we haven't come up with some sort of comprehensive plan to actually do better, and then lo and behold, a few months pass, a couple years, and then something worse happens.' Looking to the future: While reflecting on the protests and civil unrest over Floyd's death across the country, Craig admitted he is scared because he doesn't know what's next Reality: 'We like to think that we live in some sort of post-racial America, and the reality is we are reminded time and time again that we do not,' Craig said Craig was reminded of covering the protests that broke out in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014 after Michael Brown, an unarmed black man, was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson. 'I remember being in Ferguson, five, six years ago, and people were adamant that this was going to be the catalyst for change, and it wasn't. It wasn't,' he said. 'I don't know what it's going to take to affect real change because the reality is you can't legislate hearts and minds.' Al noted that what is going on in the country 'feels so different than anything else.' 'I hope that we can find a way to harness this energy,' Craig said. 'Burning down your house because you're pissed at your neighbor doesn't do a lot to advance the cause. 'I do hope that we can figure out how we can stop the violent protests not the protests, but the violent protests because, unfortunately, that is starting to overshadow the murder of George Floyd.' Iran Willing To Continue Fuel Shipments To Venezuela If Asked June 01, 2020 Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Musavi says Tehran will continue to export fuel to Venezuela if the South American country requests more supplies. Both Iran and Venezuela are under U.S. sanctions and Washington has sought to deter such shipments. "Iran practices its free trade rights with Venezuela and we are ready to send more ships if Caracas demands more supplies from Iran," Musavi told a weekly news conference on June 1 that was broadcast live on state television. Iran has sent five tankers of fuel to Venezuela, once South America's top oil producer, which is suffering from a gasoline shortage amid a ravaging economic crisis. The United States has warned governments, seaports, shippers, and insurers that they could face measures if they aid the tankers. So far four tankers have entered Venezuelan waters, with the Refinitiv Eikon analytical company saying on May 31 that the first two tankers that delivered fuel to Venezuela have started the return journey. Tensions have been on the rise between longtime foes Tehran and Washington since 2018, when U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers and reimposed crippling sanctions that have battered the Iranian economy. Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-says-it-s- willing-to-continue-fuel-shipments-to- venezuela-if-asked/30646169.html Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address I wrote here yesterday morning about the tanker truck driver who drove into the crowd of protesters walking north on Highway 35W through downtown Minneapolis on Sunday evening. Minnesota House Majority Leader Winkler couldnt wait to declare that he had finally found the elusive white nationalist sought by him and his ilk in the maelstrom of destruction that hit us last week. According to the preliminary investigation, however, the authorities believe that the driver intended no harm. Indeed, no protesters were hit by the truck. If he had intended harm, he could have done a lot. He lawfully entered the highway in the normal course of business. He had no foreknowledge of the protesters, who shouldnt have been walking down an interstate highway on Sunday afternoon. The current Star Tribune story on the incident dated this morning adds that the driver remained jailed on suspicion of assault but had not been charged. Those who assaulted the driver remain at large. They arent even being sought. At his press conference yesterday, Governor Walz declared the driver stupid for speeding and glorified the crowd that pummeled him for protecting him. One of the protesters can be heard on audio of the incident calling off the crowd that was pummeling the driver. Walz weaves fairy tales for dummies. Its his modus operandi. One has to make it to the end of the local CBS affiliates story on this incident to find a powerful testimonial to the driver from the (black) customer he had just served: WCCO has learned the driver was returning from making a run from the Lyn 36 refuel station on Lyndale. That gentleman was the only gentleman in his whole company who wanted to deliver gas to a black-owned station that he delivers to 14 times a week, so if he was so-called racist like they said it was, I dont think hed be delivering to us, Lonnie McQuirter said. He was feeding his family, thats what he was part of. Just like what were doing, trying to feed our family. I have posted the video of WCCOs report below. Lets hear it for tanker truck driver Bogdan Vechirko. Governor Walz owes Vechirko an apology, but thats not Walzs style. Hit and run is more like it. Thousands have gathered around California in recent days to protest the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis. You may have questions about what's unfolding, and we have answers for you below. Ereme Abraham, professionally known as Twyse details what racism means and why blacks are being killed or molested for their skin color. The Edo state native who was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States took to his social media page to state that it is best to remain in a system you understand instead of seeking greener pastures in a place were people hate you. His post comes in the wake of protests in the U.S. and Nigeria about a black man George Floyd, who was killed by a white police man kneeling on his neck. Check out his post here. Twyse is popular for his comic skits on Instagram, where he acts as Taofeek with his cloned family characters who will crack your ribs. Hong Kong Tiananmen Vigil Officially Banned By Verna Yu June 01, 2020 Hong Kong police on Monday formally banned an annual candlelit vigil to mourn the victims of the crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy movement that has taken place uninterrupted for 30 years, saying the event would pose a "major threat to public health", said organizers. In response the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China is asking Hong Kongers to hold individual commemorations through small gatherings, lighting candles at home, or online meetings on Thursday night, the 31st anniversary of the military crackdown. Already, after the Hong Kong government extended a ban on gatherings imposed over the coronavirus outbreak to June 4, the group had urged supporters to light candles wherever they are in the city on the anniversary. Richard Tsoi, the group's spokesman, told VOA that its members still plan to gather at Victoria Park to light candles in groups of eight, in order not to breach the government's social distancing restrictions, and would stream the event live online. He voiced fears that this year's Tiananmen commemoration might be Hong Kong's last, as national security laws imposed by China on Hong Kong would prevent and punish "acts and activities" that threaten national security, including secession, subversion and terrorism and foreign interference. The legislation would also allow Chinese national security organs to set up agencies in Hong Kong. "There is a real danger that this might be the last time," said Tsoi. "The definition of subversion under the national security law is broad and this means room for (this kind of) activities would be narrowed." The alliance's secretary-general Lee Cheuk-yan also expressed concerns over whether the vigil would be banned next year and whether chanting "end one-party dictatorship" -- a slogan chanted every year at the vigil -- would be regarded subversive under the new national security laws. "It's a litmus test of one country two systems, if they suppress us, it means that one country two systems is no more," he was cited by public broadcaster RTHK as saying. Amnesty International has also expressed concern about the banning of the Honk Kong vigil. "By deeming this important memorial event 'illegal', the police have again needlessly exacerbated rising tensions when thousands of people simply want to light a candle for those who lost their lives during the horrific events of 4 June, 1989," said Amnesty International's Deputy Director for East and South East Asia, Joshua Rosenzweig. "With this ban, and a disastrous national security law looming, it is not clear if Hong Kong's Tiananmen vigil will ever be allowed to take place again." China's parliament, the National People's Congress, passed the plan in a vote last Thursday - details of the legislation will be drafted and could be enacted by August. Beijing said it was necessary to plug the national security "loophole," which includes "foreign interference" blamed for stirring unrest in Hong Kong. Police have already banned a march and two rallies that were scheduled to take place last Sunday, citing the risk of COVID-19 infection. Critics say the coronavirus restrictions have become "a tool for the crackdown on the freedom of speech and assembly." The actual number of deaths resulting from the suppression of the Tiananmen prodemocracy movement remains unknown as China has never provided a full accounting of the incident. The death toll given by officials days after the 1989 crackdown was about 300, most of them soldiers, with only 23 students confirmed killed. A secret diplomatic cable from then-British ambassador to Beijing, Alan Donald, dated June 5, 1989, and released in 2017, said the Chinese army killed at least 10,000 people. This death toll is much higher than previously cited estimates, which ranged from hundreds to about 3,000. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address L ockdown and uncertainty has meant that the vast majority of businesses across the UK have had to deal with a dramatic downturn during the Covid-19 crisis. In order to help those struggling to stay afloat, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a variety of schemes, including the Job Retention Scheme, VAT deferral and a selection low risk-loans, with grants devolved to national governments. Here's how three UK companies have used the various schemes to cope... Red Kite Oilfield Services: Aberdeenshire, Scotland Registered in late 2018, Red Kite Oilfield Services first year of business was a hugely successful one, involving 41 operations conducted across nine countries. The Aberdeenshire-based company which provides pipe cutting and perforating services to the oil and gas markets also increased its employee headcount by an impressive 533% in just 12 months. At the beginning of the year, it was preparing for a stream of new projects. The Covid-19 crisis has, inevitably, changed that. The shutdown basically halted all our operations because the majority of our people operate out of Aberdeen, says Ian Smith, Red Kite Oil Field Services managing director. Being a small company thats just started up, we wouldnt last long without any help at the moment. On top of the dramatic reduction in business that most companies have dealt with during the crisis, Red Kite is having to navigate the problem of international boundaries too. Even if business increases, the workforce are currently unable to reach the project locations due to restrictions on global travel. Theyre also having to fund the businesss other site in Pakistan, which hasnt received Government support. Red Kite Oilfield Services has been able to stay afloat thanks to the Governments roll-out of various business support schemes in response to the pandemic. The Job Retention Scheme, says Smith, has been key. At the start of the year, we were looking at expanding our business and as such wed crewed up more people to take account of that, he explains. So were hoping to retain these people in the hope that work does go ahead. Then weve got the personnel to carry it out. Smith has furloughed the majority of his workforce, and the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) has been an additional help. With plans to expand this year, Red Kite had got some funds ready before the crisis struck so those, combined with the low-risk loan, are helping to keep things ticking over in the meantime. Being a small company, youve got to act fast to make sure that [weve] got enough funds to keep the company going through this troublesome period, says Smith. Barclays were very proactive at the start. They contacted me and asked what help I needed. They guided me through the CBILS scheme. Right now, its a waiting game, Smith adds. Our intention is to make as much use of the Job Retention Scheme as possible to help us through this period of time until, hopefully, the business gets up and going, and we can survive with everybody on board. JoJo Maman Bebe: Newport, Wales With 94 stores across the UK and Ireland and around 1,000 members of staff, the Job Retention Scheme has been a huge help for maternity and baby retailer JoJo Maman Bebe, whose HQ is based in Newport, Wales. By furloughing around three quarters of its workforce, the company has been able to focus on a new digital strategy and plan for the future. Due to the nature of its offering, JoJos bricks-and-mortar spaces are of huge importance to its proposition. As an experiential shopping boutique, a JoJos store has many reasons why its incredibly important to visit: we will do anything from childrens shoe measuring to nursing bra measuring, explains managing director Laura Tenison, pictured top. We will have one-to-one appointments with new parents and pregnant women to advise them on the different stages of pregnancy and childbirth. We will have potty training workshops, weaning workshops, so our stores were very much the backbone of the business. In response, Tenison, who founded the business back in 1993, is using the brands online platforms as a hub for advice and inspiration, so those whod usually visit the store for this support can access it remotely. Shes also working constantly to understand what the brands future will look like and how JoJo Maman Bebe will be able to offer its same in-store experiences once lockdown eases further. La Dolce Vita: County Down, Northern Ireland The day after St Patricks Day, Giuseppe Fallone and his wife Fiona decided to shut its La Dolce Vita pizzeria restaurants and takeaways across County Down, Northern Ireland. The celebration is usually its biggest of the year, but this time it was, in Fallones words, a non-event. At first, they had to furlough all staff apart from a few employees in HR and accounting who could work from home, but in the weeks since, the Fallones have been able to bring back three quarters of the workforce. They were keen to adapt quickly to the dramatically-changed environment, so the couple decided to make pizza kits. Myself and Fiona came back to work and we experimented making kits for the supermarkets, he explains. Two big busy supermarkets were keen to get on board, so we brought five staff off furlough and later started reopening for online deliveries and collections. Since then, the demand has grown and the necessary safety measures have been put in place to ensure staff can socially distance properly. Though when restaurants will fully open remains unknown, Fallone feels confident in La Dolce Vitas ability to abide by guidelines. Fortunately, ours is quite big: were a 140-seater restaurant and theres plenty of space, he notes, adding that customers have been able to queue safely for their takeaways. Small business grants are devolved to national governments. Check with your local authority what kind of grant you may be eligible for. To find out more details about the financial support available go to gov.uk/coronavirus/business-support and to see if your business is eligible go to gov.uk/business-coronavirus-support-finder Denis OBriens highly indebted mobile and broadband group Digicel has struck a deal to allow access to some of its networks for the first time in the Caribbean by rival Iliad, the Paris stock market-listed telco controlled by French billionaire Xavier Niel that also owns a majority of Eir. Communications companies around the world have long sought out ways to cut their debts by leasing out or selling their networks to other companies. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has announced on June 1, 2020, a contract for Rolls-Royce Corp., Indianapolis, Indiana. The company is awarded a $34,427,808 firm-fixed-price modification to previously awarded contract N00019-17-C-0081 to exercise an option for the production of 16 MT7 gas turbine engines in support of the Ship-to-Shore Connector (SSC) Landing Craft, Air Cushion (LCAC) 100 Class craft. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has announced on June 1, 2020, a contract for Rolls-Royce Corp., Indianapolis, Indiana. The company is awarded a $34,427,808 firm-fixed-price modification to previously awarded contract N00019-17-C-0081 to exercise an option for the production of 16 MT7 gas turbine engines in support of the Ship-to-Shore Connector (SSC) Landing Craft, Air Cushion (LCAC) 100 Class craft. Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link The SSC Ship-to-Shore Connector is the next generation of the Landing Craft, Air Cushion LCAC. (Picture source Textron) Work will be performed in Indianapolis, Indiana. MT7 Marine gas turbine engines are the main propulsion gas turbines for the SSC craft. The Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) previously awarded contract N00019-17-C-0081 to Rolls-Royce Corp. to procure an estimated quantity of 126 AE1107C engines in support of Navy and Marine Corps programs. The MT7 shares a high degree of parts commonality with the AE1107C. In an effort to reduce program costs and take advantage of NAVAIR's variation-in-quantity provisions with step-ladder pricing, NAVSEA procures MT7 engines directly from Rolls-Royce Corp. and provides them to Textron as government furnished equipment for incorporation into the SSC LCAC 100 Class craft. Work is expected to be complete by June 2022. The Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) is a class of air-cushion vehicle (hovercraft) used as landing craft by the United States Navy's Assault Craft Units and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF). They transport weapons systems, equipment, cargo and personnel of the assault elements of the Marine Air/Ground Task Force both from ship to shore and across the beach. In April 2020, Textron was awarded a contract for the construction of landing craft, air cushion (LCAC) 100 Class Craft 109 through 123. The SSC is the next generation of the Landing Craft, Air Cushion (LCAC), providing a modernized means for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps to reach the worlds shorelines for the next 30 years. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations office in New York announced Monday that it had added Venezuela's cryptocurrency superintendent to its Most Wanted List. Joselit de la Trinidad Ramirez Camacho is accused of "having deep political, social and economic ties to multiple alleged narcotics kingpins." Ramirez Camacho was one of a group of Venezuelan officials indicted in March alongside the country's president, Nicolas Maduro. "Ramirez Camacho currently serves as Venezuela's superintendent of cryptocurrency and has been indicted in the Southern District of New York for violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the Kingpin Act, and other sanctions imposed by U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC)," the agency said in a statement. According to ICE's website, officials are offering up to $5 million for information that may lead to Ramirez Camacho's apprehension. Venezuela made headlines in 2018 with the news that it was creating a state-backed cryptocurrency, dubbed the petro. The controversial announcement drew condemnation from U.S. officials, who accused the country of seeking to circumvent capital controls. At the time, information about the effort was published via the Superintendencia de los Criptoactivos de Venezuela, which maintained a now-defunct Twitter account. The most recent post on the Superintendency's Twitter account, dated June 20, 2018, is a retweet of Carlos Vargas, who previously served as the country's super superintendent. Vargas's tweet notes that Ramirez Camacho was taking over the office. 2020 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. A new swarm of locusts entered Rajasthans Jaisalmer on Sunday, officials said Monday. This is the fifth swarm to enter the state in four days from its western border with Pakistan. Since the first locust swarm invaded the states Sriganganagar district from Pakistans Baluchistan on April 11, as many as 25 swarms have entered Rajasthan, said Locust Warning Office deputy director L K Gurjar. It was a small swarm, and spread across 1km-by-1km, Suwa Lal Jat, joint director of plant protection in Rajasthans agriculture department said on Monday. On May 30, three swarms came from Pakistan into Ganganagar, Bikaner and Jodhpur; earlier, a swarm entered Hanumangarh on May 26, he said. On Sunday evening, a swarm also entered two villages of Chhattisgarh in Koriya district bordering Madhya Pradesh after which agriculture departments in Jharkhand and Odisha issued advisories to farmers asking them to be in high alert. Koriya district collector DM Rathore said, On Sunday, it was small swarm and we managed to contain their movement by spraying chemicals and using sirens of fire brigades. Most of them have died. We have not been affected till now. On May 27, the Chhattisgarh agriculture department and farmers in districts bordering Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra were alerted after swarms of locusts attacked crops in the neighbouring states. Every bordering district of Chhattisgarh is on alert, said Principal Secretary Agriculture Maninder Kaur Dwivedi. Earlier Bhandara (Maharashtra) locust swarm was expected to arrive in Kawadha district but the wind changed direction so it went towards Nagpur. On Friday, a swarm of locust which was reported in Balaghat and Mandla districts of (Madhya Pradesh) and it went towards Mirzapur (Uttar Pradesh). On Sunday one of swarms reached Koriya, he said. According to the agriculture ministry, locusts have so far damaged crops in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Chhattisgarh. Another 12 states have been asked to be on alert and prepare for locust control measures. Baker: President's Remarks 'Incendiary,' Calls for Compassionate Leadership Scene in front of the state house at the end of the peaceful part of the boston protest. pic.twitter.com/hghEqFhxlY miguel (@miguellpz17) June 1, 2020 BOSTON The governor on Monday rejected the president's calls for "dominating and fighting" protestors who have engaged in violent acts, including burning and looting in downtown Boston on Sunday night. "I know I should be surprised when I hear incendiary words like this from him, but I'm not. At so many times during these past several weeks, when the country needed compassionate leadership the most. It was simply nowhere to be found," Gov. Charlie Baker said about comments the president made during a phone call with governors on Monday morning. "Instead, we got bitterness combativeness and self-interest. "That's not what we need in Boston. It's not what we need right now in Massachusetts. And it's definitely not what we need, across this great country of ours, either." There have been peaceful and not so peaceful protests and demonstrations across the country in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of police. Floyd is the most recent in a long list of people of color who have been killed in encounters with police or vigilantes. Ahmaud Arbery, 25, was accosted and shot while jogging in February and Breonna Taylor, 26, was shot to death in March when police executed a "no-knock" warrant of dubious provenance. The governor said Floyd's murder was an injustice experienced at the hands of a public institution that was supposed to be rooting it out. Against a background decades of discrimination, he said, "It all adds up, the slights and the injustices, big or small, day after day, month after month, year after year. "The cumulative effect of these moments, whether they're caught on camera or not, they add up to the people who are involved. The cumulative impact is countless and terrible. It can rob somebody of hope, destroy a sense of personal safety. And, over time, it can incite anger." Baker said it wasn't clear who was acting out of anger on Sunday night when dozens of businesses large and small were vandalized and looted, stretching from Copley Plaza through Downtown Crossing to Post Office Square. More than 20 police vehicles were damaged, 18 bystanders taken to the hospital and reportedly dozens of police officers treated at the scene. Fifty-three people have been charged so far, about half from outside the city. The National Guard was brought in on Sunday night, which Baker said was a joint decision with Mayor Marty Walsh, and remains in the city. He noted that the Guard was activated in March to help deal with the pandemic. Baker also said his and the mayor's administration have been speaking with local elected officials and members of the African-American and Latino community about public safety to enhance accountability and transparency. The governor noted that people had been demonstrating outside the State House last week over their frustration with the slow pace of the reopening, and that several protests had been going on peacefully all day Sunday. "Ultimately the behavior of the people who are involved in all those marches and all those demonstrations were clearly different than the moods of the people engaged in the bottle throwing and all the rest," he said. "I don't know where they were from but they were definitely not like the thousands and thousands of people who were there for a very different purpose." Calling Floyd's murder one of countless horrible tragedies that have befallen people of color, Baker also put it in the context of the novel coronavirus pandemic that has "swept across the globe." "People everywhere have gone through awful, terrible moments. The loss of life connection, purpose, income, routine. It has all pushed many far beyond what we're used to dealing with," he said. "As we combat the pandemic, we remain in struggle with how to carry out the bedrock principles of democracy, with the best medical guidance available to fight an infectious contagious disease. By and large, the people in Massachusetts have made it work, we're balancing the fight against the virus, with the fight for what we as individuals, all believe in. But it's hard, and it's not over." The governor said the public "rightly expects" its leaders to be able to admit to flaws, seek better answers and make things happen. "I think America is at its greatest and at its best when its leaders promote the notion that we all have a stake in everybody else's success," he said. "Frankly, we do." San Francisco will allow some workers to return to their offices on June 15, but businesses arent rushing back as the coronavirus continues to be a threat. A downtown where skyscrapers, restaurants and BART stations were packed at the beginning of the year will likely remain desolate as some of the citys largest employers keep workers home. Companies are also delaying returns to campuses in Silicon Valley and the East Bay. Salesforce, San Franciscos largest private employer with over 9,000 local workers, said it didnt have an update on when its headquarters will reopen. The company plans to have mandatory face masks, temperature checks and 6-foot separation when workers return. Wells Fargo, which has 14,500 Bay Area employees, will keep most office workers home until at least June 30, though some retail branches will reopen in June. We do not yet know when our business-as-usual activities will resume. We are creating a thoughtful, phased plan for returning to the workplace, and we will use guidance from health experts to maintain a safe workplace for all employees, said Ruben Pulido, a bank spokesman. Google will start reopening offices beginning July 6 with around 10% occupancy, CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a blog post last week. In September, occupancy will rise to 30%. Bay Area offices are included in the plan, a spokesman said. Facebooks offices also wont reopen until July 6 at the earliest. Salesforce, Facebook and Google are all allowing most employees to work from home for the remainder of the year. Returning people to a physical office setting will happen slowly and in stages, said Carl Guardino, CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. No self-respecting employer would put employees at risk. The business groups frequent surveys of members show that theyre overwhelmingly still encouraging employees to work from home. The scarcity of office workers will likely extend pain for retailers and restaurants that depend on downtown foot traffic. Specialtys, whose generously sized cookies and sandwiches were a mainstay of corporate lunches, said last month it was closing the Pleasanton chains 50 locations permanently due to the virus. San Francisco officials are also encouraging businesses to be cautious. Employees who are necessary for operations can return to offices, but Gloria Chan, a city spokeswoman, said those who could work remotely should continue to do so. More guidelines will be released this month, she said. Without clear guidelines from health authorities, many offices are not ready to think about reopening, said Jay Cheng, public policy director at the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. We havent heard from a lot of folks who are planning to really reopen offices on June 15, he said. The city hasnt released strong regulations on what office reopening looks like, so were kind of stabbing in the dark until that happens. No company wants to be found responsible for helping the coronavirus to spread. Businesses are very nervous about reopening without specific procedures and regulations to protect them, Cheng said. They are hungry for those very clear regulations because the legal liability is huge if you reopen and you arent protected by a document saying you know what you are doing. Angela De La Housaye, founder of DLHA Law Group, has about 14 workers split between San Francisco and Walnut Creek. Starting in mid-June, she will have support staff rotate through Walnut Creek with one person in the office daily to receive process servers, deliveries and mail. Since most of her workers live in the East Bay, she has no plans to reopen the San Francisco office. Until they have a vaccine, I dont want them to have to ride BART to work in San Francisco because of potential exposure there, she said. Zillow Group, which has about 500 workers in downtown San Francisco, expects to start opening offices this summer safely and in a measured way, but told employees they can continue working from home until at least the end of the year. We want them to have the flexibility to make the decision thats right for them, said Dawn Lyon, chief corporate relations officer. Especially with tech, Im not seeing a great rush to return, said Dan McCoy, a partner at law firm Fenwick & West who focuses on employment practices. Its unclear how looting and arson during protests over the death of George Floyd might affect reopening plans, since June 15 is still two weeks away. People honestly have no idea if the civil unrest will continue for another week, Cheng said. The virus has frozen a booming real estate market. Tony Zucker, a Dunhill Partners West real estate broker who works with smaller tenants, said there has been little office leasing activity since around March. Tenants are hoping to reduce rents on existing leases, but landlords have resisted so far. For new leases, tenants are seeking a clause that will delay rent payments until offices are ready for occupancy with approval from the city, he said. There are signs that office rents are falling. At one downtown office that a client is considering, annual rents were in the mid-$60s per square foot before the virus and have now dropped to the high $50s per square foot, Zucker said. He declined to identify the space for client privacy reasons. I think theres no doubt rents are going to go down, he said. Tenants are really thinking about how much space they really need. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes Scott Harper, a Colliers International real estate broker who represents landlords, agreed it was inevitable that rents would go down, but it was unclear by how much given the scarcity of new leases. Fundamentals are still good in the Bay Area, he said, but the long-standing challenge around commuting has become more complicated with people avoiding public transit. Last month, California allowed counties to approve office reopenings for workers who cannot work from home, and Marin, San Mateo, Napa, Solano and Sonoma have done so. Contra Costa is set to allow offices to reopen on Wednesday, while Alameda and Santa Clara counties havent released a specific date for when offices could reopen. ServiceNow, a Santa Clara tech company, said only 10% to 15% of its thousands of local workers will initially come in when offices reopen. The company doesnt have a date for reopening. Were going to take a phased approach, a very conservative approach, said Pat Wadors, ServiceNows chief talent officer. The decision to work from home was a very easy one and done within minutes. Returning is more complex. Architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, which has about 250 people in downtown San Francisco, said Sept. 8 is the soonest that workers could return. It will be a voluntary return to the office, said Keith Boswell, a partner at SOM. Our organizing mantra is we want to make sure that employees are safe and that they feel safe. Waiting until after Labor Day helps employees with planning and gives us enough time to see where San Francisco and adjacent counties are going, he said. The company surveyed all 1,100 employees nationwide to get their input, with many expressing concerns about how they would get to work, for instance. Meanwhile, landlords are planning a new reality that includes thorough cleaning and temperature checks. At 101 California, a major downtown tower, masks will be required and elevators will be touchless with occupancy limited to four people, property manager Hines said in a letter to tenants reviewed by The Chronicle. Automatic door openers will be installed by July, and temperature checks will be mandatory for guests and voluntary for employees. The tower has remained open for essential businesses but is preparing for a widespread return, a Hines spokesman said. The rise of remote work and the potential end of workers crammed into tight workspaces favored by tech startups could reshape the entire office sector. I think there will be some fundamental changes, said Colin Yasukochi, executive director of real estate brokerage CBREs Tech Insights Center. Roland Li and Carolyn Said are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: roland.li@sfchronicle.com, csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rolandlisf, @csaid Police brutality marches continue across Michigan and the nation in the name of George Floyd, who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer May 25. Monday night marked the first police brutality protest and march in Detroit since Friday that didnt end with teargas spewing into the streets. Detroit set an 8 p.m. curfew and Mayor Mike Duggan on Monday said it would remain in effect for a week. Some protesters have clashed with police, vandalized vehicles and buildings, started fires and many were arrested, pepper-sprayed, teargassed, tackled and shot with non-lethal bullets around the state as anger over the culture and tactics of policing has heightened. While some cities have lifted curfews, others are instituting new ones. Heres a roundup of Michigan cities that have had or are planning protests, with curfew updates and other pertinent information: Police officers launch tear gas canisters at protesters in Detroit on Sunday, May 31, 2020, during a demonstration over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. (David Guralnick/The Detroit News via AP)AP Detroit: Protests are expected Tuesday beginning at 4 p.m. and a curfew is in place beginning at 8 p.m. and ending at 5 a.m. each day this week. Detroit protesters have been marching daily at 4 p.m., beginning and ending at Detroit police headquarters. Police have made over 200 arrests for disorderly conduct or curfew violations since Friday, based on figures released by Detroit Police Chief James Craig. While police and protesters have clashed, there have been minimal reports of vandalism and no reports of looting. Kalamazoo: On Monday night, police used teargas in downtown Kalamazoo to disperse what was confirmed to be multiple groups of people who had smashed windows of businesses and spray-painted buildings. In response, the city enacted a curfew to last from 7 p.m. Tuesday until 5 a.m. Wednesday. Police said they have information that more protests are planned Tuesday. Grand Rapids: Grand Rapids leaders on Tuesday turned down a proposal from city management to extend the citywide curfew through Sunday, June 7, to curb any further rioting. The city imposed a 48-hour curfew Sunday after Saturdays peaceful protests to riots that resulted in damage to 100 businesses, looting and the torching of seven police cars. Shattered glass at Rose Gold Coffee Company in downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan on Tuesday morning, June 2, 2020. Several businesses sustained broken windows from vandals early Tuesday morning and now most of the businesses are boarding up there windows as a precaution. Joel Bissell Portage: Portage Mayor Patricia Randall declared a local state of emergency Tuesday, June 2, initiating a 7 p.m. curfew in the Kalamazoo suburb. Lowell: While there is no George Floyd police brutality protest planned in the Grand Rapids suburb of Lowell, the city announced on Facebook that an open-carry march involving four armed individals was planned Tuesday afternoon. Lansing: Lansing police arrested 13 people Sunday night and say thousands of dollars in damage was done by protesters who overturned cars, set fires and destroyed property following a day of peaceful protest in the city. The city issued a 7 p.m. curfew on Sunday and Monday. Police said there was no curfew in place for Tuesday evening. East Lansing: Peaceful police brutality protests occurred in East Lansing on Tuesday afternoon with no reports of violence, arrests, injuries or vandalism. Deputy Police Chief Steve Gonzalez said there is no curfew in place. If you have any information on planned protests or curfew information that should be included or updated, in this protest roundup, please contact MLive reporter Gus Burns at fburns@mlive.com. More on MLive: Protesters clash with police in Kalamazoo Detroit protests turn violent Detroit protests end peacefully Grand Rapids protesters scatter Lansing protesters riot on Sunday Video: Public Advocate Opposite White House in Lafayette Park Declares June as LMNOP Month NEWS PROVIDED BY June 2, 2020 WASHINGTON, June 2, 2020 / Christian Newswire / -- Public Advocate demonstrated in Lafayette Park (photo), where President Trump spoke in front of a boarded up church Bible in hand, in support of LMNOP Month, in front of the White House. The area has a giant 10-foot fence installed but Public Advocate posted a video announcing a new project from opposite the White House well before the fence and demonstrators arrived. Statement of Eugen Delgaudio, June 2, 2020: You all know that June is claimed to be the LGBTQ month, well, not anymore, Public Advocate has launched: JUNE IS LMNOP+ MONTH. Americans are tired of, and Public Advocate condemns, violent domestic terrorists burning our cities down. We condemn the wrongful death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota by a corrupt police officer and support the right of peaceful demonstrations. Public Advocate practices peaceful events for 40 years including here at Lafayette Park. Pro-family Americans are asked to take back the month of June with the new LMNOP+ Movement, announced here and now by our White House "Make the Family Great Again" task force. The letters LMNOP represent most Americans. As follows: L is for Lifestyle of, M stands for Mainstream, N for Normal, O for Ordinary and P for people. That's Lifestyle of Mainstream Normal Ordinary People. "This is your movement, Make the Family Great Again with the LMNOP," said Delgaudio. We will ship organizing kits to those wishing to sponsor an event including our red "Make the Family Great Again" hats, rainbow LMNOP umbrellas, and giant LMNOP rainbow lollipops. Public Advocate plans to grade states, corporations and cities a letter grade from A to F for being LMNOP friendly going forward. FULL VIDEO PUBLIC ADVOCATE AT LAFAYETTE PARK OPPOSITE WHITE HOUSE: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd1V93PBLyk&feature=youtu.be STATEMENT AND VIDEO LINK HERE ALSO: SOURCE Public Advocate Related Links Twitter @eugenedelgaudio New Delhi, June 2 : The images of hapless migrant labourers walking long distances to get back to their native places may have given hope to the critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that at least now his popularity may wane. Or, the unprecedented economic crisis in the wake of the two-month lockdown might turned the masses against him. However, on the contrary, his nett national approval rating, according to an IANS-C Voter State of the Nation 2020 Survey, is at nearly 66 per cent. As if that is not enough, the nett rating of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is 0.58 per cent. The ruling BJP seems to be well aware of this unbridgeable gap, considering the perennial party focus on him. The highest endorsement rate of the Prime Minister is in Himachal Pradesh with 95.1 per cent.The Prime Minister's nett approval rating is over 90 per cent in Odisha and Chhattisgarh. Incidentally, the Congress was voted to power in the Chhattisgarh in 2018 after a 15-year rule of the BJP. Even in Punjab and Rajasthan, both Congress-ruled states, Modi's popularity stands at 68.84 per cent and 68.43 per cent, respectively. In the southern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, where the BJP remains on the margins, Modi's nett approval rating is 32.89 per cent and 32.15 per cent respectively. Barring these two states, the Prime Minister is going strong all over the country, the chart showing him above 50 per cent in every single state. Compared to Modi, Rahul Gandhi has only 36.12 per cent nett approval from Kerala, which sent him to the Lok Sabha. Tamil Nadu is the second most favourable state for him, where he has met with a 26.11 per cent. Modi ranks above the satisfaction ratings of the chief ministers of both the NDA and non-NDA formations. The PM's nett satisfaction ranking at 65.69 is higher than the combined ranking of 57.36, of all the chief ministers of the UPA-ruled states. PM Modi has the highest satisfaction rating of 92.73 in Chhattisgarh whereas the states chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, a popular leader, has a rating 81.06. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who has been in power for over seven months, enjoys a satisfaction rating of 76.52, which is higher than the 71.48-per cent of the Prime Minister. Modi's satisfaction rating in West Bengal is 64.06, which is higher than 52.06 rating of Mamata Banerjee. In Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the two states which have suffered the most due to the migrant crisis, the Prime Minister has an approval rating of 64.06 per cent and 67.01 per cent respectively. Rahul enjoys the maximum rating in Haryana with 31.11 per cent endorsement. In Chhattisgarh, Rahul has 4.55 per cent rating. Goa, with 9.62 per cent approval, stands out as the worst place for the BJP. Haryana too is a source of worry, with 38.73 per cent endorsement. May 2009 onwards, the IANS-C Voter Tracker has been carried out each and every week, 52 waves in a calendar year, in 11 national languages, across all States and Union territories with a target sample size of 3,000 samples each wave. The average response rate is 55%. This survey is based on CATI interviews of adult respondents across all segments. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text The National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force on Coronavirus in Nigeria, Sani Aliyu at a recent press briefing revealed the governments statement on worshipping at home. According to the Federal Government, it is safer to worship at home than to go to worship centres. In the briefing, he said; There is no doubt that COVID-19 is still around. There is no doubt that it is safer to stay at home and there is no doubt that it safer for you to worship at home. The PTF is providing safety advisories in the event that you need to fulfill your spiritual need and you cannot do it at home but we are not making recommendations for people to go to places of worship. We are providing advisories to enable them do so safely. It is still better to do your worship at home. COVID-19 has not gone away. You only need to look at the numbers. We are in the exponential phase of the illness. We have move as a country to third place in Africa and because of our population, we could also move to the second or the first. So, now is the time to continue to take precautionary measures. It is not time to relax. The post Worship At Home; It Is Very SAFE At Home Federal Govt Tells Nigerians appeared first on . Share this post with your Friends on Activists protesting against environmental injustices around the world suffer from high rates of criminalization, physical violence and murder. This is the result of a study developed by researchers from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) that presents the largest analysis of environmental conflicts up to date. The study highlights that these impacts are especially frequent when indigenous peoples are involved, and in conflicts related to mining and land use. Researchers from the Environmental Justice project (ENVjustice) have analysed 2,743 cases of environmental conflicts worldwide registered in the global Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJAtlas), an interactive map that identifies existing ecological distribution conflicts. The study, published in the journal Global Environmental Change, is a landmark advancement in the field of statistical and comparative political ecology. The global movement for environmental justice is composed of local activism against fossil fuel extraction, open cast mining, tree plantations, hydropower dams and other extractive industries, and against waste disposal in the form of incineration or dumps. "This is the environmentalism of the poor and the indigenous", states Joan Martinez-Alier,ICTA-UAB economist and principal researcher of the ENVjustice project. Arnim Scheidel, main author of the study says that "to support environmental defenders effectively, better knowledge about the underlying environmental conflicts is needed, as well as a profound understanding of the factors that enable activists to mobilize successfully for environmental justice". The researchers describe the characteristics of environmental conflicts and the environmental defenders involved, as well as their successful mobilization strategies. Analysed data show that environmental defenders are frequently members of vulnerable groups who employ largely non-violent protest forms. However, their activism comes at a heavy cost. In 20% of environmental conflicts, activists face criminalization, including fines, legal persecution and prison terms. In 18% of cases, activists are victims of physical violence, and in 13% of cases, they are murdered. When indigenous people are involved, these figures significantly increase to 27% in criminalization, 25% in violence and 19% in murders. In 11% of cases globally, protesters contributed to halt environmentally destructive and socially conflictive projects, defending the environment and livelihoods. "Combining strategies of preventive mobilization, protest diversification and litigation can increase this success rate significantly to up to 27%", explains Juan Liu, corresponding author of the study. The research also highlights the role of women as leaders in the mobilizations (21%), sometimes because of being disproportionally affected by the environmental and health impacts of these conflicts. Bottom-up mobilizations for more sustainable and socially just uses of the environment occur worldwide across countries in all income groups, "testifying to the existence of various forms of grassroots environmentalism as a promising force for sustainability", the researchers conclude. ### Reference: Scheidel A, Del Bene D, Liu J, Navas G, Mingorria S, Demaria F, Avila S, Roy B, Ertor I, Temper L, Martinez-Alier J. 2020. Environmental Conflicts and Defenders: a global overview. Global Environmental Change 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102104 Now Open 2 June 2020 Deutsche Hospitality is expanding its presence in Hamburg. The IntercityHotel Hamburg-Barmbek will become the fourth IntercityHotel in the city when it opens for business on 2 June. The hotel is a new build offering 221 guest rooms and studios with modern furnishings and fittings, five conference rooms able to accommodate up to 170 people and a restaurant. It will operate in the upper midscale segment. The owners and contractual partners are the Hamburg-based B&L Group, with which Deutsche Hospitality has already successfully executed projects in a number of German cities, and the real estate company Development Partner from Dusseldorf. More than 40 IntercityHotels can be found at major transport hubs both in Germany and at international destinations. IntercityHotel is an innovative Deutsche Hospitality brand which offers modern conference facilities and accommodation. Digital services are available via a special IntercityHotel App. Guests also benefit from the FreeCityTicket scheme. This is included in the cost of every overnight stay and permits use of the local public transport system free of charge. Interior design of all new and newly renovated hotels is by the Italian architect Matteo Thun. The Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa questions the reasoning behind government's decision to postpone the 2020 Population and Housing Census indefinitely but refused to do same for the Ghana card registration and new voters' register compilation. The lawmaker expressed worry at the stoning silence of leaders who he claims are not even bothered by the development. In a Facebook post on Monday, 1 June 2020, Mr Ablakwa noted: The 2020 Population and Housing Census, which should have been conducted this year by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) consistent with a ten-year tradition, has been postponed indefinitely due to COVID-19 and after the GSS struggled initially to raise funds from the government. Not many of our leaders appear bothered by this development. The focus is all on how the NIA and the EC can put together a preferred voter register even though a credible register exists. Read full post below: The 2020 Population and Housing Census which should have been conducted this year by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) consistent with a ten-year tradition has been postponed indefinitely due to COVID-19 and after the GSS struggled initially to raise funds from Government. Not many of our leaders appear bothered by this development. The focus is all on how the NIA and the EC can put together a preferred voters register even though a credible register exists. Other jurisdictions where they are uncompromising about development put data for planning and development ahead of mere political power. Here, it is all about political power even when theres a lack of an updated reliable data to guide the policy makers who secure power. No wonder after throwing away Vision 2020, we remain without a long term national strategic vision. The fundamental question is: are we engaged in a scramble for political power for power sake or we are serious about using political power to engage in evidence based policy making to transform our nation? Could President Trump order troops onto the streets of a major American city over the objections of local and state officials? Trump threatened to do so Monday, saying that if governors and local officials failed to end civil unrest, he would deploy the military to do the job for them. Normally, military troops are forbidden by law to be involved in law enforcement within the U.S. But that prohibition has some exceptions. The main one involves the Insurrection Act, first passed early in the country's history, under which a president can order active-duty troops to be used for domestic law enforcement if doing so is needed to suppress an insurrection or civil disturbance. In most cases, the law allows the president to do that only if he is asked to do so by a state governor or legislature. In 1992, for example, when the acquittal of police officers on charges of beating motorist Rodney King sparked rioting in Los Angeles, California National Guard units were federalized at the request of then-Gov. Pete Wilson to quell the riots. That was the last time the Insurrection Act was invoked. If a state actively opposes the use of federal troops, as several governors indicated on Monday that they would, the law might still allow it in certain cases, according to a 2018 report by the Congressional Research Service. One of the main exceptions is when a state is violating people's civil rights. In 1957, for example, President Eisenhower ordered the 101st Airborne Division into Little Rock, Ark., and federalized the entire Arkansas National Guard in order to enforce a court order permitting nine black students to attend a previously all-white high school. Presidents Kennedy and Johnson later used the same legal authority to enforce court orders for desegregation in several Southern states. Some of Trump's rhetoric has suggested his administration's lawyers might try to justify deploying troops by arguing that rioters are depriving citizens of their civil rights. An argument of that sort would be unprecedented, but Trump has often shown a willingness to flout precedent. Sending troops to quell riots without a request from a state is not automatically allowed under the law. In 2007, Congress loosened restrictions on deployments, giving a president the power to employ federal troops to restore public order and enforce the laws of the United States without a request from the governor or legislature of the state involved. But the provision was repealed a year later because of objections by states that it gave the federal government too much power. Riot police detain a protester during a demonstration against Beijing's national security legislation in Causeway Bay in Hong Kong on May 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File) Pro-Beijing Groups in Canada Support Hong Kong National Security Law The Chinese regimes approval of highly controversial security legislation in Hong Kong that triggered an outcry around the world and mass protests in the territory is being supported by pro-Beijing groups in Canada. The new law, which makes it a crime to undermine Beijings authority in the territory, mainly targets four areas: subversion of state power, division of the country, terrorist activities, and interference by external forces. The law, enacted by bypassing the local legislative process, means the end of the one country, two systems principle in Hong Kong that has been in place since Britain returned control of the territory to China in 1997, and which was supposed to remain unchanged for 50 years. Groups Side With Beijing As democracy supporters in Hong Kong continue to fight against the law, and international communities take various actions to support the Hong Kong people and protect democracy in the territory, some pro-Beijing groups in Canada have rushed to side with the Chinese regime. A full-page statement published in Chinese-language newspaper Ming Pao on May 25 by the National Congress of Chinese Canadians (NCOCC) says the new law is the cornerstone for Hong Kong to become the worlds premier financial and commercial centre. It says the law not only provides protections for individuals and institutions, but also creates a fair competitive platform for the business community. The statement uses the term we overseas Chinese to imply broad support for the new law. The news outlet Ming Pao also published a report on its website about the statement which quotes NCOCC chair Cai Hongan. He said there was a silent majority who took to the streets to express support for the law, and mainstream public opinion supports the law so it should receive sufficient respect and a favourable response from the Canadian government. The NCOCCs statement has been reprinted on Chinese news websites in Canada such as westca.com and vansky.com. According to westca.com, the NCOCC has branches in Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax. Chen Yonglin, a former Chinese diplomat who defected to Australia in 2005, has said the NCOCC is at the top of a pyramid of organizations established in Canada by the Chinese Embassy and consulates. Its purpose is to control and influence the Chinese-Canadian community as well as the government, he said. The NCOCC has denied Chens claim. Before the passage of the Hong Kong security law on May 28, Sing Tao Daily published a full-page commentary in Toronto and New York in support of Beijings plan to implement the legislation. It was written by the papers chairman Ho Tsu Kwok, who is close with the Chinese regime. Since the Hong Kong anti-extradition mass protests that began in March 2019 and lasted for almost 10 months, Beijing has been making full use of its propaganda machine at home and abroad to justify its suppression of the protesters and, most recently, the implementation of the new security law. Last August, a group of pro-Beijing organizations including the Confederation of Toronto Chinese Canadian Organizations held a rally in the Toronto area against the protests in Hong Kong over the proposed extradition law. Gloria Fung, president of Canada-Hong Kong Link, says the leaders of many of these groups have been very vocal in reiterating the official lines of the Chinese regime. They actually label the Hong Kong people to be rioters, which is exactly the same [description] as what the Hong Kong government, as well as the Beijing government, has announced, Fung said. In October 2019, the leaders of those groups took part in celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China in different cities in Canada as well as in Beijing. How Dare They Represent Us? In the comment section of the NCOCCs statement reprinted on westca.com, there are a total of 168 comments, although only 14 are visible. However, all the comments are negative. One reader commented, These people are really shameless. How dare they represent us? They are digging holes for us Chinese. Another said, I know these people. They set up their own so-called associations, then grant themselves a title, go to events organized by the Chinese Consulate General to eat or drink, trying to find the feeling of becoming so-called community leaders. Dont represent me, a never-heard-of organization. I oppose Hong Kong National Security Law. Where is the promise that Hong Kong will remain unchanged for 50 years? Why should Hong Kong be pulled backwards? There are also numerous negative comments on the NCOCCs statement across various social media platforms. On Chinese Heritages Facebook page, Peter Chan wrote, Can we launch an action against the Association? I never gave them my authorization to represent me both legally and illegally! Did you? Should we start the legal process? Influence Operations Overseas The Chinese-language website New Highland Vision published an article last year about the United Front, a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organization tasked with spreading Beijings influence abroad. The article summarized how the CCP uses money in its influence operations overseas. Buying off Western politicians and business people is the number one strategy the CCP uses, it said. In November 2018, the Hoover Institution released a report examining CCP influence activities in the United States and other countries. Regarding Canada, the report states: As early as 1997, a leaked report by Canadas RCMP-SIS identified improper influence through community associations connected to Chinese intelligence agencies and efforts to award politically connected Canadians in high-level roles with Chinese entities. It also states that overseas Chinese have played an important role in modern Chinese politics as well as in Chinas relations with the outside world. The Chinese Communist Party seeks to encourage, even entice, ethnic-Chinese communities and individuals overseas to more fully support its interests. SOMERVILLE, Mass., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Greentown Labs Offshore Wind Challenge , in partnership with Vineyard Wind, today announced the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) has signed on as its newest program partner. MassCEC will serve as an Enabling Partner throughout the Challenge and provide grant funding and in-kind support for startup pilot projects in Vineyard Wind's lease areas in Massachusetts' waters. Together, Vineyard Wind, MassCEC, and Greentown Labs are working to foster the offshore wind innovation ecosystem in the Commonwealth. The Offshore Wind Challenge is a six-month accelerator program supporting innovations in responsible development of offshore wind energy. The program is focused on fast-tracking entrepreneurs with the mentors and business and technical resources they need to bring marine mammal monitoring technologies to a state of practice with direct support from Vineyard Wind and MassCEC. Staff from MassCEC's Offshore Wind Program will provide expertise and guidance, help select startups for the Challenge, and support startups throughout the piloting process. Selected participants will also receive guidance from the experts at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the New England Aquarium. "MassCEC is pleased to join the Offshore Wind Challenge as an enabling partner, as the Offshore Wind Challenge complements the Baker-Polito Administration's efforts to promote sustainable offshore wind development that protects fisheries and marine wildlife, including MassCEC's long-term study of marine mammal activity and investments in innovation and technology development," said Stephen Pike, CEO of MassCEC. "This initiative provides MassCEC the opportunity to work with industry leaders like Greentown Labs, Vineyard Wind, the Woods hole Oceanographic Institute and the New England Aquarium to advance real-time detection of endangered whales during construction and operation of offshore wind projects." Since 2009, MassCEC has been leading Massachusetts' offshore wind initiatives and technical analyses in close collaboration with policymakers, regulators, developers, industry and stakeholders. These initiatives are designed to establish baseline environmental data to support the permitting process, reduce development and deployment risks, advance innovation, and increase jobs and economic activity in the offshore wind sector. "Vineyard Wind's top priority as we work to develop the US's first large scale offshore wind power installation is to make sure we do so while establishing the best possible industry standards," said Lars Thaaning Pedersen, CEO of Vineyard Wind. "Getting MassCEC's involvement in this startup accelerator will help advance the goal of harnessing new technologies to minimize the disruption to marine mammals and other wildlife. We want to thank Greentown Labs for their continued partnership and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center for their investment in an up-and-coming industry." The Offshore Wind Challenge is seeking submissions from startups that are innovating in marine mammal monitoring, either surrounding data collection and real-time transmission or data analysis. The deadline to apply has been extended to June 15. Startups selected to participate in the program will benefit from mentorship, networking opportunities, educational workshops, and partnership-focused programming through Greentown Launch, a six-month partnership acceleration program for startups provided by Greentown Labs. Within this framework, the Offshore Wind Challenge will help startups explore potential proof of concept or technical validation studies with Vineyard Wind, developer of the first utility-scale offshore wind project which will eliminate 1.68 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually. "MassCEC has pioneered Massachusetts' offshore wind industry over the past decade, pushing forward supply chain and infrastructure development, informing the development of ambitious policy frameworks, and bolstering job opportunities and technology advancement," said Emily Reichert, CEO of Greentown Labs. "MassCEC is a long-time partner and champion of Greentown Labs and we're proud to have them join the Offshore Wind Challengewe know the selected participants will benefit greatly from their expertise and support." Applications for the Offshore Wind Challenge are due by June 15 at 11:59 p.m. ET. Interested innovators and entrepreneurs can learn more about the call for applications by visiting the website . Applicants are encouraged to attend the virtual program kickoff event on July 22. Greentown Labs is a community of bold, passionate entrepreneurs creating solutions for today's biggest climate and environmental challenges. Located in Somerville, MA, and founded in 2011, Greentown Labs is the largest cleantech incubator in North America, operating a 100,000 sq. ft. campus comprised of prototyping and wet lab space, shared office space, a machine shop, electronics lab, and a curated suite of programs and resources. Greentown Labs is home to more than 100 startups and has supported more than 250 startups since its inception. These startups have collectively created more than 6,500 direct jobs and have raised more than $750 million in funding. The incubator's mission is to provide entrepreneurs with the community, resources, and space they need to thrive. For more information, please visit www.greentownlabs.com or on Twitter , Facebook, or LinkedIn . Greentown Labs Media Contact: Julia Travaglini [email protected] 603-867-3657 Cayman Somerville Chief of Staff [email protected] 208-863-9599 SOURCE Greentown Labs Related Links www.greentownlabs.org HOPES remain high that the first directly-elected Mayor of Limerick will take up office next year despite the Covid-19 crisis. Thats according to John Paul Phelan, Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, who is overseeing the process to establish the new role. History was made 12 months ago when voters in Limerick narrowly endorsed proposals for a directly-elected mayor with executive powers and responsibilities. The result of the Mayoral Plebiscite, which took place on the same day as the local and European elections, saw it pass on a final result of Yes 38,122 - No 34,573. Similar plebiscites were rejected by voters in Cork City and Waterford meaning Limerick will be the first county in Ireland to have a directly-elected Mayor. Speaking on the first anniversary of the plebiscite, Minister Phelan told the Limerick Leader he remains confident the first vote to elect a mayor will take place next summer. It is still the position (to have an election in summer 2021) but obviously, with Covid we dont know where we will stand with elections or referendums or anything like that for this time next year - there is a question with social distancing and everything but if its possible to do it then it will be done, he said. Mr Phelan says there is cross-party support for the proposal and that he expects it will be progressed by whoever is in government following the conclusion of the current negotiations. There can be no question of leaving it linger. It has to be implemented. The people in Limerick did vote for it by a nice margin. They voted for it clearly and that needs to be implemented and I dont get any sense from any of the political parties - not withstanding the Covid situation that we are in - that anybody is eager to stop it or block it, he told the Leader. Tim OConnor, chairman of the Implementation Advisory Group, says he expects the groups report to be complete and submitted to government before the end of the year. This is a big opportunity now - it is an important moment in the history of local government in Ireland. This is a big move, government has been thinking about it for some time and there have been a number of efforts at it before so this is a big decision by government to say we are doing it now, he said. While the work of the group has been delayed by Covid-19, Mr OConnor, says progress is being made and that he believes legislation can be brought before the Oireachtas later this year. Im satisfied, and it sounds to me, that this is a settled policy position across all the parties so whatever configuration the next government takes I would be very hopeful they will stay with this plus the fact that the people of Limerick voted for it, he said adding that he is supportive of the concept of having a directly-elected mayor. People want good quality public services; They want them joined up;They want their voice heard and they want to be listened to. We are inserting a very powerful office with the mandate of the people, he said. -- The master plan for the Hainan free trade port aims to build the southern island province into a globally-influential high-level free trade port by the middle of the century. -- A free trade port system focusing on trade and investment liberalization and facilitation will be "basically established" in Hainan by 2025 and become "more mature" by 2035. -- The authorities expect to make Hainan, China's largest special economic zone, the frontline of China's integration into the global economic system. HAIKOU, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese authorities on Monday released a master plan for the Hainan free trade port, aiming to build the southern island province into a globally-influential high-level free trade port by the middle of the century. A free trade port system focusing on trade and investment liberalization and facilitation will be "basically established" in Hainan by 2025 and become "more mature" by 2035, according to the plan jointly issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the State Council. Aerial photo taken on April 4, 2020 shows the Sanya international duty-free shopping complex in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun) The authorities expect to make Hainan, China's largest special economic zone, the frontline of China's integration into the global economic system, according to the plan. It has been a strategic decision of the CPC central committee based on the domestic and international situations, it said, noting that the world is facing a new round of major development, changes and adjustment, with protectionism and unilateralism on the rise and economic globalization facing greater headwinds. Building the Hainan free trade port is of vital importance for pursuing an open economy, deepening market-based reform and improving the business environment, as well as a strategic choice for advancing high-quality development and concrete action to support economic globalization and building a community of shared future for humanity, it said. Instead of rushing for quick results, China will advance the plan gradually. Hainan will be given more autonomy in reform and will be encouraged to make both the laws and the regulatory system more flexible and efficient, thus clearing institutional obstacles hampering the flow of production factors. The construction of the free trade port will provide support to national strategic goals in terms of institutional innovation, growth impetus and greater opening-up. Hainan will enhance exchanges and cooperation with Southeast Asian countries, and promote joint development with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The master plan also envisions grasping opportunities in the technological and industrial revolution, focusing on tourism, modern services and high-tech industries to foster new competitive edges for the island. Aerial photo taken on April 4, 2020 shows the Atlantis resort in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun) HIGH STANDARDS, HIGH TECH In April 2018, China announced plans to build a pilot free trade zone covering the whole island and explore the establishment of a free trade port with Chinese characteristics. In an effort to create an international and convenient business environment, Hainan in April decided to grant more rights to its seven key industrial parks, as an institutional innovation to serve its free trade port construction. Benefiting from the policy, an administrative bureau was launched on April 15 in the Hainan Resort Software Community (RSC), a park focusing on the internet industry and home to about 5,000 registered companies. A batch of provincial-level administrative powers have been delegated to the bureau. Photo taken on April 1, 2020 shows a view of Hainan Resort Software Community in Chengmai County, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng) "It means cutting red tape for businesses, and the enterprises in the park can enjoy more convenient and efficient services," said Yang Chunzhi, general manager of the Hainan Resort Software Community Group Co., Ltd, which runs the park. A blockchain research institute, jointly established by the RSC and the University College Oxford Blockchain Research Centre at Oxford University, was officially opened in 2018 and has attracted many international talents. Yang said the RSC is developing new industries, including blockchain and digital health and services. "The park will make good use of the policy and promote industrial innovation through our technological advances," he said. Aerial photo taken on April 9, 2020 shows the construction site of Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Yang Guanyu) As the province focuses on modern services, high technologies and tourism, a number of the world's top enterprises and industry leaders have invested in Hainan, including Temasek, SOSV and Deloitte. Data from the Hainan Provincial Commerce Department showed that 338 foreign-funded enterprises were set up in Hainan in 2019, up 102.4 percent year on year, and the actual use of foreign capital reached 1.5 billion U.S. dollars, soaring by 100 percent year on year. From January to April this year, Hainan's actual use of foreign investment reached around 316 million U.S. dollars, up 252.3 percent year on year. The province saw 110 newly-established foreign-funded companies, covering trade, investment, medicine and logistics, data showed. "The foreign-funded enterprises have become an important force to boost the development of Hainan's economy," said Peng Wei, deputy director of the department. Peng said Hainan will target the highest levels of opening up, thereby creating a more favorable business environment by better using foreign capital, promoting quality development of trade and further opening up trade in services. A worker loads containers at the port of Yangpu in south China's Hainan Province, April 8, 2020. (Xinhua/Pu Xiaoxu) "China's door is opening wider and wider and Hainan is becoming the new highland of China's reform and opening up," said Han Shengjian, director of the Hainan International Economic Development Bureau. "The special policy of the Hainan free trade port is of great significance especially amid the COVID-19 epidemic. It reflects China's firm determination to expand its opening up and will definitely bring more opportunities to global investors," he said. Security personnel use a megaphone to raise awareness about COVID-19 to residents of a Rohingya camp in Bangladeshs Coxs Bazar district, May 15, 2020. A 71-year-old Rohingya man who died on the weekend has posthumously tested positive for COVID-19, becoming the first resident of crowded refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh known to have succumbed to the disease, health officials said Tuesday. The grim milestone came less than three weeks after the first Rohingya refugee tested positive for coronavirus. By Tuesday, the number of Rohingya infected at the camps had increased to 29. The old man was admitted to a health center at the Kutupalong camp after suffering from coronavirus symptoms on May 30 and died that night, Dr. Abu Toha M.R.H. Bhuiyan, health coordinator of the Refugee, Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRRC), told BenarNews. Doctors collected a sample for testing and the result was found to be positive today. Nine members of the mans family have been placed in isolation and are being monitored, Dr. Toha said, joining close to 200 other Rohingya in quarantine due to exposure to infected people. A neighbor said the deceased man had long suffered from high blood pressure and kidney complaints. Nobody realized that he was suffering from coronavirus. The news came as a shock to us, Mohammad Shafi, a Rohingya school teacher, told AFP. In recent weeks a lot of people in the camps are suffering from fever, headache and body pain. But most think they got sick because of the change of weather. They dont bother to get tested for coronavirus, he was quoted as saying. New spike in cases nationwide Authorities say they have taken extensive precautions to contain infections in the refugee camps, which are home to more than 1.1 million Rohingya. Most of them fled from neighboring Myanmar following a military crackdown in August 2017. With the support of international agencies and relief groups, the government is preparing facilities containing 1,900 beds to treat potential Rohingya patients. About 8,500 hand-washing centers have been set up at camp entrances, said Saikat Biswas, a spokesman for the Inter Sector Coordination Group, which oversees humanitarian aid to refugees in southeast Bangladesh. Across Bangladesh, COVID-19 infections and deaths have been increasing sharply, even as the government on Sunday allowed businesses and offices to reopen on a limited scale, and mass transit to operate with social distancing protocols. Only educational institutions remain closed. Steadily rising daily infection rates nationwide hit a new high of 2,911 on Tuesday, bringing the cumulative tally to 52,445. Meanwhile, 37 new deaths brought the overall COVID-19 death toll to 709, according to a daily update from Nasima Sultana of the Directorate General of Health Services. Globally, more than 6.3 million people had been infected by COVID-19 and more than 377,000 had died as of Tuesday, according to data compiled by disease experts at U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University. TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan said on Tuesday that planned stimulus coupons for its coronavirus-hit economy could boost consumer spending by T$100 billion ($3.3 billion) this year. In its latest move to spur the trade-reliant economy, Taiwans cabinet announced a budget of nearly T$50 billion for the coupons, part of a stimulus package worth T$1.05 trillion. Citizens will have to pay T$1,000 to the government to get T$3,000 worth of cash-equivalent coupons, the economic ministry said. The coupons can only be used until the end of this year and can be spent in most shops, but there are some exceptions, including tobacco purchases. We will not be giving out cash directly. If people get cash, they might just put it in their pockets without spending, Premier Su Tseng-chang told reporters. Lower-income families will be given T$1,000 in cash along with the coupons, he said, adding that the programme would start in mid-July. The islands main opposition party, the Kuomintang, questioned the effectiveness of the programme, saying it was inconvenient for people to spend money before they receive the coupons. The party urged government to give out cash instead. Taiwans economy, a key part of the global technology supply chain, is likely to grow 1.67% this year, as the pandemic hits the islands consumption, especially the services sector and tourism. Unemployment also hit a more than six-year high in April. The impact, however, was partly offset by still-strong global demand for electronics thanks to the growing need for telecommuting as more people work from home to reduce the risk of infections. ($1 = 29.9250 Taiwan dollars) Editor's Note: Get caught up in minutes with our speedy summary of today's must-read news stories and expert opinions that moved the precious metals and financial markets. Sign up here! (Kitco News) The Chinese government has been testing out its new government-backed digital currency as a pilot program, and it's been getting a lot of buzz. The new e-RMB represents a digital yuan that is backed by the government and is stored in a digital wallet instead of a bank account. The program had a limited rollout in April with a slow introduction in several cities across China Shenzhen, Suzhou, Chengdu, and Xiongan, according to local media. The China Daily reported that some government employees and public servants received part of their Mays salaries in the digital currency form. Others reportedly got the digital currency via transport subsidies. There is also talk of testing it on a wider scale during the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022. However, this limited rollout does not translate to an official launch of the digital yuan, Peoples Bank of China governor Yi Gang said last week. Theres no timetable for an official launch, Yi told China Finance. The governments digital currency will be competing with other digital coins already being used in China, including Alibaba Group Holdings Alipay and Tencent Holdings WeChat. One of the reasons for this new digital currency push could be a chance for the government to oversee the mobile app purchases, which account for about 16% of Chinas GDP, Bloomberg reported. Chinese government also does not want monopolization of digital currencies by tech giants. Last year, Peoples Bank of China Governor Yi Gang said: Those big tech companies bring to us a lot of challenges and financial risks You see: In this game, winners take all, so monopolies are a challenge. Chinas search into creating its own digital currency began back in 2014 and could potentially pose a challenge to the U.S. dollar, according to an article in Mays issue of Foreign Affairs written by Aditi Kumar and Eric Rosenbach of the Harvard Kennedy School. The advent of digital currencies will degrade the efficacy of U.S. sanctions, limiting the countrys options to respond to national security threats from Iran, North Korea, Russia, and others. It will also hamper the ability of U.S. authorities to track illicit financial flows. And China, meanwhile, will use the combination of its digital yuan and strong electronic-payment platforms (such as Alipay and WeChat) to expand its influence and reinforce its capacity for economic coercion in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, Kumar and Rosenbach wrote. It is still unclear when China would proceed with a national rollout and what rules would guide the new digital currency. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin expand the citywide curfew on Tuesday to prohibit marches and demonstrations on public property, citing a state of emergency and the civil unrest from Sunday nights violent protests. While the city will remain under a 7 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew, protests on public property will be banned for 24 hours as long as the curfew lasts, according to a new order issued by Woodfin. The curfew will continue as long as we see the need for it, the mayor told an afternoon news conference. The restrictions on protests, marches, demonstrations and gatherings on public property or streets went into effect 11 a.m. Tuesday. Although the first night of Birminghams curfew on Monday went smoothly, with no reported cases of vandalism, looting or fires, Woodfin said the city believes there are anarchists who may plan to hijack the movement created in the wake of George Floyds death and attempt to destroy property. We want to make sure that element doesnt have a position to come into our city, Woodfin said. The curfew was instituted Monday following a night of protests that turned violent Sunday in Birmingham. Members of the media were robbed and assaulted by rioters, protesters threw bricks through buildings downtown and others set fires. Demonstrators also unsuccessfully attempted to remove the Confederate monument in Linn Park, which was eventually taken down by the city late Monday night. Woodfin said protesters "have to have the self-discipline to engage in behavior thats only bringing attention to the injustice. Looting, burning and destroying property is the opposite of self-discipline and gets you off message of the injustice, the mayor said. City Councilor Crystal Smitherman, who joined Woodfin at the news conference, said she was proud of the peaceful protesters. You have used your right to assemble to use your right to be heard. We heard your voice, your voice does count, she said. We stand with you against racism. (Newser) Canadian leader Justin Trudeau was apparently choosing his words carefully Tuesday when asked about the unrest in the USit took him more than 20 seconds to respond to a reporter's question. You can see for yourself in this Yahoo Finance video. Here is how the question was posed, and Trudeau's eventual response: Reporter: "You've been reluctant to comment on the words and actions of the US president. But we do have Donald Trump now calling for military action against protesters. We saw protesters tear-gassed yesterday to make way for a presidential photo op. I'd like to ask you what you think about that. And if you don't want to comment, what message do you think you're sending?" "You've been reluctant to comment on the words and actions of the US president. But we do have Donald Trump now calling for military action against protesters. We saw protesters tear-gassed yesterday to make way for a presidential photo op. I'd like to ask you what you think about that. And if you don't want to comment, what message do you think you're sending?" Trudeau: After about 21 seconds of silence, he finally utters his first words. "We all watch in horror and consternation whats going on in the United States," Trudeau said, per Reuters. "It is a time to pull people together, but it is a time to listen. It is a time to learn what injustices continue despite progress over years and decades." He added that Canada must deal with its own "systemic discrimination." (Read more Justin Trudeau stories.) Probate Judge Bill English explained Robersons plight to Lee County commissioners last week. The suit is timely, given the GOP Senate primary runoff July 14 between Tommy Tuberville and Jeff Sessions. They are objecting to the fact that we do not have curbside voting available, which has never been an Alabama law, English said. Roberson is referenced in the lawsuit as Lee Countys circuit clerk, not as the absentee election manager, English said. As she should have, Mary sent notice of this to the attorney generals office, also the administrative office of courts, she got an email from them that they would be representing her, as well as the governor and secretary of state, who are both also defendants, he said. The circuit clerks from Montgomery and Jefferson counties are named in the suit as well, English said. Lee County attorney Stan Martin received an email from the Southern Poverty Law Center asking if Lee County would be representing Roberson. Mary has been bounced around between attorney generals office and us for some degree, English said. First they said they would represent her, now they said they wouldnt. Also near the White House, police pulled a woman from her car, sparking moments of chaos. Elizabeth Tsehai had been cheering and chanting as she drove her BMW alongside protesters on H Street. The stay-at-home mother, originally from Ethiopia, said she decided to come out after seeing the violent clashes on the news Monday. She said a Secret Service agent warned her to stop driving, and she replied, Arrest me, I cant breathe. Isaac Addo, a Court bailiff who forged the signature of a late judge and prepare a forged Power of Attorney in order to sell 13 parcels of land at Kitase has been sentenced to 18 months imprisonment in hard labour by an Accra Circuit Court. Addo pleaded not guilty to the charges of forgery of judicial or official document, possessing forged document and fraudulent transaction. The court presided over by Justice Harriet Jane Akweley Quaye found him guilty on the three charges and sentenced him accordingly after a two year trial. The case of prosecution, Chief Inspector Simon Apoisornu was that the complainants Mrs. Susanna Nunoo, an internal auditor and oldest daughter of late Justice Lt Col Michael Mensah Brown and four of her siblings and their mother Mrs. Susanna Mensah Brown. Prosecution said the convict was a court bailiff at Akuapem Akropong Circuit Court and worked as an errand boy for the late Justice Brown. He said in the year 1990, the father of the complainants bought 13 plots of land measuring 100 by 100 per plot from the father of Addo at Kitase near Aburi in the Eastern Region and the parcels of land was later walled. Prosecution said in the year 2013, the father of the complainants fell sick and gave power of Attorney to his wife to manage his affairs. He said in the year, 2015, Addo informed the mother of the complainants that some family members of his late father were trying to encroach on the land and suggested to her to allow him to sell the land for them. The prosecution said Mrs. Brown asked Addo to sell six out of the 13 plots. However to Mrs. Brown's amazement, Addo sold all the 13 plots and accounted for only six. Prosecution said Mrs. Brown therefore launched investigations to ascertain the buyers of the plots of land and during that investigations one Alex Takyi Yeboah informed her that he bought the land after sighting a Power of Attorney in the name of Isaac Addo. He said a report was made to the Police on August 2, 2017 and Addo was arrested. The Prosecution said in his investigative cautioned statement, Addo admitted selling the parcels of land on the instructions of Mrs. Brown and that he gave her all the proceeds. He said Addo then produced a copy of the Power of Attorney issued in his name dated on January 1, 2015 and same was allegedly signed by the late Justice Lt Col Michael Mensah Brown. Prosecution said Police Forensic Laboratory investigations later revealed that the signature of the late Justice Brown was forged. GNA Lin-Manuel Miranda posted a heartfelt video showing support to protests over the death of George Floyd. Though Miranda, 40, had been active on his personal social media, he apologized for the delay by the official social media accounts for Hamilton his Tony-winning musical to support the Black Lives Matter movement. The hit show features a diverse cast playing America's founding fathers and influential figures of the country's history. "We spoke out on the day of the Pulse shooting. We spoke out when Vice President Mike Pence came to our show 10 days after the election. That we have not yet firmly spoken the inarguable truth that Black Lives Matter and denounced systematic racism and white supremacy from our official Hamilton channels is a moral failure on our part," Miranda said in a video posted Sunday. "As the writer of the show, I take responsibility and apologize for my part in this moral failure." RELATED: Officer Filmed with Knee on George Floyd's Neck Is Arrested, Charged with Murder Miranda also apologized for "not pushing harder and faster for us to speak these self-evident truths under the Hamilton banner which has come to mean so much to so many of you." "Hamilton doesn't exist without the black and brown artists who created and revolutionized and changed the world through the culture, music and language of hip-hop. Literally, the idea of the show doesn't exist without the brilliant black and brown artists in our cast, crew and production team who breathe life into this story every time it's performed," he continued. "It's up to us and words and deeds to stand up for our fellow citizens. It's up to us to do the work to be better allies and have each other's backs," Miranda added. We stand on the side of justice. Black Lives Matter. Take action now in the links below. #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/Y6T1tDNABF Hamilton (@HamiltonMusical) May 31, 2020 ?s=20 Story continues In his statement, Miranda refers to the 2016 incident in which then-Vice President-elect Mike Pence attended a showing of the musical in New York City and was promptly booed by the crowd upon his arrival, days after the election. Though Pence made a quick exit once the show ended, the Broadway cast addressed his attendance during curtain call with actor Brandon Victor Dixon delivering a statement. I see you walking out but I hope you will hear us, Dixon, who plays Aaron Burr, said before telling the audience, theres nothing to boo here, were all sharing a story of love. We welcome you, and we truly thank you for joining us here at Hamilton: An American Musical we really do, he continued. We are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values, and work on behalf of all of us. Roy Rochlin/Getty Images The Richard Rodgers Theatre, home of Hamilton, photographed on March 13 In the days following 46-year-old Floyd's death on May 25, the four Minneapolis police officers present during his arrest were fired for their involvement after footage of the incident went viral on social media. Former police officer Derek Chauvin, who was seen with his knee on Floyd's neck throughout the video as he pleaded for breath, was taken into custody on Friday afternoon and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. I am pleading that you to understand with us and at this point, be nationalistic. Let us not throw away the baby with the bathwater. Mistakes have been made and it has been corrected for the future. NEW YORK, N.Y. -- After another night of looting across the city, Rep. Max Rose slammed Mayor Bill de Blasio for losing control of the situation in the city and called on the National Guard to be deployed to New York City to enforce the 8 p.m. curfew Tuesday evening. The mayhem that occurred in parts of the city last night the unprecedented looting and attacks on officers and bystanders was not the work of peaceful protesters. It was not part of the movement to ensure justice for George Floyd and other victims of police brutality, Rose said. And anyone who would say so is being dishonest at best. Last night demonstrated that the mayor has lost control of situation once and for all. If we are going to enforce an 8:00 p.m. curfew tonight, then the National Guard must be deployed to assist with that and that alone. But City Hall said Tuesday the NYPD would not need the National Guards help. The NYPD is the best in the business. They know New Yorkers and they know how to police our streets to keep everyone safe. They do not need the help of the National Guard, said mayoral spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein. A citywide curfew began at 11 p.m. Monday evening in response to protests that ended with violence, rioting and looting in Brooklyn and parts of Manhattan over the weekend. The protests were sparked by the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis last Monday after a white police officer kneeled on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes. But despite the 11 p.m. curfew Monday, looters broke into stores across Midtown and the Bronx Monday evening. .@thenorthface store on West 43rd Street is being looted. pic.twitter.com/CviavTQf8m Matthew Chayes (@chayesmatthew) June 2, 2020 In Brooklyn, where police had clashed with protesters over the weekend, protests reportedly were peaceful on Monday evening. The mayor and Gov. Andrew Cuomo had initially imposed an 11 p.m. curfew for Monday evening, but after seeing the destruction caused by the looting, de Blasio announced that curfew would begin at 8 p.m. Tuesday evening. Rose served in the National Guard in April, helping to set up a coronavirus treatment center at the South Beach Psychiatric Center during the pandemic. State Sen. Andrew also joined Roses call Tuesday to deploy the National Guard to New York City. I am calling for the deployment of the National Guard. [New York] government is showing it cannot protect life and property. People should not trust a government that cannot protect them, Lanza said on Twitter. He accused New York Democrats of coming down hard on business owners who wanted to open back up and threatening to revoke their licenses while being lax in the face of protesters and looters. However, they allow people to loot, pillage, and destroy property including houses of prayer - and funny how they do not freak out about the looters not wearing masks which was a crime against humanity only a few days ago. Enough is enough," Lanza said. I am calling for the deployment of the National Guard. NY government is showing it cannot protect life and property. People should not trust a government that cannot protect them... Senator Andrew Lanza (@senatorlanza) June 2, 2020 FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER. People carry packages near a security barrier on a window at a store in Philadelphia Sunday, May 31, as people protest over the death of George Floyd, a black man who was in police custody in Minneapolis. Floyd died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on Memorial Day, May 25. AP Seventy-nine cases of property damage have been reported at South Korean-owned stores in the United States due to violent protests sparked by the death of a black man caused by police, the foreign ministry said Tuesday. Of them, 50 cases were reported from Philadelphia, 10 cases from Minneapolis, five from Raleigh and four from Atlanta, the ministry said in a release. No casualties have been reported. The protests have turned violent and led to rioting and looting at public places in an outcry over the death of George Floyd caused by a police officer who pressed his knee onto the victim's neck until he could not breathe. U.S. President Donald Trump vowed Monday to end the rallies by "the rule of law," warning state governors that he could deploy the military if they fail to quell the protests. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Will visiting the doctor ever be the same again? In a matter of weeks, the coronavirus pandemic sparked a technological revolution in healthcare systems across the world that might otherwise have taken years. Spurred on by fears of contagion in wards and waiting rooms, many health practitioners are replacing the face-to-face meetings that have always underpinned general practice, with patient consultations by telephone and online video apps. Some of the most radical changes have been in primary healthcare, where doctors have often faced shortages of protective equipment, but specialists in everything from mental health to eye care have also turned to technology to treat patients at a distance. "General practice has undergone significant changes in the way GPs and our teams have delivered patient care during the pandemicand the speed in which these changes were implemented has been remarkable," Professor Martin Marshall, Chair of Britain's Royal College of GPs told AFP. As the virus spread, health authorities in the UK, Europe and elsewhere updated guidance on everything from data protection to how to build trust remotely. The United States rolled back restrictions on access to telemedicine, and eased privacy regulations to allow people to use platforms like Skype and FaceTime. "People are now seeing this model, which we thought would take years and years to develop. And it's probably been accelerated by a decade," Chris Jennings, US policy consultant and former White House health care adviser told STAT news recently. Globally, 58 percent of surveyed countries are now using telemedicine, the World Health Organization said Monday, adding the figure was 42 percent among low income nations. Layla McCay, a director at the NHS Confederation representing British healthcare services, told AFP that most of the UK's 1.2 million daily face-to-face primary care consultations were done remotely "in the space of weeks". But there were challenges. "My first video consultation was a mess. Builders were drilling, the microphone failed, a colleague walked in, and lockdown was imminent," Camille Gajria, a doctor and clinical teaching fellow at Imperial College London, told the British Medical Journal. She said teleconsultations can be efficient but warned of "cognitive bias"a doctor, for example, might assume that a child playing in the background is the one being discussed. There are also concerns that vulnerable patients might find it difficult to talk about mistreatment at home, while elderly people could struggle to navigate unfamiliar technology. Remote medicine Telemedicine may seem like a product of the internet age, but it has been around for decades, developing alongside communication technology. One big leap came during the space race of the 1960s, when scientists worried about the effect of zero gravity on the human body. Would it impede blood circulation or breathing? To find out, both the US and Soviet Union conducted test flights with animals hooked up to medical monitoring systems that transmitted biometric data back to scientists on Earth. Later, longer missions meant astronauts needed systems that could diagnose and help treat medical emergencies. NASA went on to develop terrestrial telemedicine, including a project to provide healthcare to the isolated Tohono O'odham reservation in Arizona, as well as disaster response in the 1985 Mexico City and 1988 Armenia earthquakes. While the coronavirus pandemic has driven sweeping changes in the way many people see their local doctor, it has also highlighted the role telemedicine can play in connecting clinicians with remote communities. In India, which has just 8.6 medical workers per 10,000 people according to 2018 WHO figures, the majority of doctors are concentrated in urban centres, while some 70 percent of people live in rural areas. Ayush Mishra, founder of the telehealth provider Tattvan, said this means people outside bigger towns are often forced to seek medical advice from overstretched or ill-qualified practitioners. His business, one of a growing number of telehealth providers in India, operates 18 clinics, mostly ATM-style booths that are manned by a medical assistant who can take vital measurements and linked with doctors in private hospitals in larger towns. The firm languished in a legal grey zone for years until the coronavirus crisis spurred the government into broadening regulatory approval for virtual consultations. Now he hopes to open hundreds of clinics around the country. Mishra traces his enthusiasm for telemedicine to a horrific motorbike accident when he was a biomedical engineering student in the northern city of Jaipur. Severely injured, he was driven ten hours to his hometown in Uttar Pradesh, before falling into a coma as a local doctor performed surgery. His family was overwhelmed by "panic" until his father spoke by telephone to a surgeon at a hospital in Delhi, enabling them to arrange treatment in the city. Mishra lost his leg, but told AFP the experience inspired him to want to equalise medical access for people in smaller towns. "You need to be able to offer this accessit's a human right," he said. Not going back? Internet-connected thermometers, pulse oximeters to measure oxygen levels, and smart devices that monitor vital signs are all widening the scope of what is possible in remote medicine. In an April article for JAMA Neurology, experts from the Netherlands and US said telemedicine could be a useful tool for in-home training, such as activities for survivors of stroke. Patients, they noted, could be monitored via sensors in watches or phones. "We hope that this current COVID-19 crisis will soon be resolved. However, it is as the old saying goes: 'never waste a good crisis'," they said. "Telemedicine for chronic neurological disorders should become part of the new normal rather than the exception." Marshall said there are still many routine proceduresvaccinations, blood tests and physical examinationsthat cannot be done remotely. "Those living with multiple conditions and other complex health needs really benefit from seeing their doctor in personand this is helpful for the GP, as well," he said. But he added that research supports the use of remote consultations for patients with simple conditions, or who have "transactional" needs like a repeat prescription. Many say they want at least some of the changes to stay. "It has certainly turbocharged the digital transition nationally," said McCay of the NHS Confederation. "Lots of feedback from our members shows the culture has fundamentally changed, and clinicians who were perhaps previously resistant to digitisation are now realising its benefits." "We can't go backwards," she added. Explore further Guide for COVID-19 remote consultation by primary carers 2020 AFP Good morning, Bay Area. Its Tuesday, June 2, and some cities have placed curfew orders for the evenings through the end of the week. Heres what you need to know to start your day. Protests against the police killing of George Floyd did not let up on Monday in the Bay Area, with a high-profile rally at San Francisco City Hall, an estimated 15,000 people peacefully demonstrating in Oakland and protesters blocking area highways. As night fell, police in Oakland and Walnut Creek fired tear gas and rubber bullets at demonstrators, and more than 100 people were arrested in Alameda County. Two shopping malls in Richmond and in Fairfield were targeted by looters and in Vallejo, police shot a suspect in the break-in of a Walgreens. Read our roundup of protests in the Bay Area on Monday and our live blog updates, including events across the nation. More: Gov. Gavin Newsom urged restraint from police and protesters, sidestepping threats from President Trump to send military troops to solve the problem for them if governors do not dominate protesters. But California has mobilized thousands of National Guard troops in anticipation of additional unrest across the state. President Trumps threat to label Antifa as a terrorist organization flies in the face of the fact that there is no such organization. But left-leaning California activists fear it could be used as an excuse for the government to crack down on groups that protest police brutality. San Francisco and Contra Costa district attorneys call for State Bar to ban police union money in prosecutor races. Meanwhile, SFs Public Defenders Office is calling for an overhaul of SFPDs use-of-force policies after a bystander video surfaced last week that appeared to show an officer pressing her knee on a black teenagers neck. Rep. Barbara Lee proposes racial healing and truth commission amid pandemic, protests. Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle Actor Jamie Foxx joins S.F. Mayor Breed, civic leaders at demonstration. The latest on restrictions, closures by counties and cities amid George Floyd protests. Fifth & Mission podcast: East Bay columnist Otis Taylor Jr. joins Editor in Chief Audrey Cooper to talk about his conversations with black business owners in Oakland who stood guard against the destruction of their stores over the weekend. Socially distant protest Paul Kuroda / Special to The Chronicle In the middle of the coronavirus pandemic and as most of the Bay Area remains under strict orders to shelter in place mass gatherings like protests are about the least advisable activity for controlling spread of a highly infectious disease. But the dual crises put public health authorities in a difficult place, between protecting their communities from a deadly disease and acknowledging why those same communities want to protest. How do you choose between two tragedies? You cant, said Kimi Watkins-Tartt, director of the Alameda County Public Health Department. Erin Allday reports. More: Tesla worker criticizes factory safety, says employees are not wearing personal protective equipment and are unable to maintain a safe distance at the Fremont factory. S.F. allowing some office workers to return in June, but businesses are in no rush. Gavin Newsoms nearly $1 billion mask deal: Company misses safety review deadline. Still very expensive Kathleen Pender / San Francisco Chronicle The pandemic has contributed to a decrease in the cost of renting an apartment in the Bay Area. Compared to May 2019, the monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco dropped 9.4%. Rent in cities where major tech companies are based fell between 14% and 16%. Rental prices in the East Bay fell only slightly or have even increased, but still remain more affordable compared to San Francisco. But does this mean rents will continue to drop? Reporter J.K. Dineen finds out more. Also: A South Bay family struggles to pay rent and mounting bills amid the pandemic that will leave long-lasting effects on them and other low-income families. Around the Bay A lopsided end: The I-5 series comes to a close with Game 7. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Were extremely sad: Editor in Chief Audrey Cooper to leave San Francisco Chronicle. Case-by-case basis: Bay Areas retail reopening likely to be delayed because of protests Reminders: How 6 feet of social distance is changing the relationship with our own space. TotalSF: Giants star Hunter Pence steps up to the plate for COVID-19 relief. Muralists story: Bay Area artist followed her political convictions to a life in art. As Gone By: Bobby Witt, now an agent, counsels players during pandemic. Datebook Twitch On Sunday, May 31, everybody wore black or they set their video screens to black and white. This was a funeral after all, a moment to mark the closing of the Stud, San Franciscos oldest gay bar. There were ballads. So many ballads. Ballads by Leonard Cohen and Carole King and Whitney Houston. One by Death Cab for Cutie, too. The drag performers wore sequins and glitter and feathers. And hour after hour after hour, they eulogized a place that, for many, felt more like home than a bar. Read more from Ryan Kost. More from Datebook: Music industry calls for Blackout Tuesday amid unrest. Review: PlayGrounds Disbelief helps coronavirus audiences see beyond the pandemic to myth. Bay Briefing is written by Taylor Kate Brown and sent to readers email inboxes on weekday mornings. Sign up for the newsletter here, and contact Brown at taylor.brown@sfchronicle.com. BILTHOVEN, Netherlands and PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Intravacc, one of the world's leading translational research and development vaccine institutes, with an extensive track record in developing viral and bacterial vaccines, and EpiVax, a biotechnology company based in Providence with expertise in developing vaccines and therapeutics, announce that they have entered into a collaboration agreement to further progress an novel vaccine against COVID-19, based on Intravacc's proprietary Outer Membrane Vesicles (OMV) technology platform. For this joint research project, Intravacc will combine its safe and immunogenic OMV delivery platform with synthetically produced COVID-19 epitopes (protein allergens), designed and optimized by EpiVax using advanced immunoinformatics tools, in order to generate a safe and highly effective T-cell response against SARS-CoV-2 and related coronaviruses. Pre-clinical studies will start immediately so as to select the best candidate peptides for the vaccine. Intravacc will utilize its in-house pilot-scale facility for the GMP production of the OMV-peptide vaccine, for clinical (phase I) studies expecting to start in Q4 2020. Annie De Groot, MD, CEO and CSO of EpiVax, said: "We are thrilled to enter into a partnership with Intravacc using their very novel 'click-on' OMV technology and the highly immunogenic and safe SARS-CoV-2 multi-epitope-bearing peptides designed using the iVAX toolkit at EpiVax. We believe that the combination of technologies and the strength of our longstanding collaboration with Intravacc will lead to the development of an effective and safe vaccine that could rapidly benefit hundreds of millions of people around the globe." Dr. Jan Groen, CEO of Intravacc, stated: "A COVID-19 vaccine based on this approach is expected to be very safe and to reduce the morbidity and mortality rates associated with COVID-19. The vaccine is expected to lower the risk that individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 will require hospitalization and/or intensive care. It also expected to induce long-term memory responses to prevent COVID-19 disease and infection from other beta-corona viruses. We expect that leveraging Intravacc's unique vaccine development expertise, broad-based network and successful track record in global technology transfer to vaccine manufacturers will bring success". About Intravacc's OMV platform technology For the development of vaccines against pathogens, Intravacc has designed and developed a platform based on outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) spherical particles with intrinsic adjuvating properties. Using genetic engineering, the OMVs can be decorated with immunogenic peptides that combine T- cell epitopes that will drive effective adaptive immunity. Heterologous OMV vaccines are a suitable alternative approach to protect against pathogens that require a high level of containment, that are difficult to cultivate, or that contain viral and/or parasitic proteins. The antigens of choice are attached to the 'empty' OMV carrier resulting in a more effective immune response. Intravacc also has developed genetic tools to increase the yield of OMVs, to reduce toxicity, and to achieve the desired antigenic composition. Intravacc's OMV platform is fully scalable and allows for fast and efficient modification of antigen composition, either via genetic modification of the bacterial host or by associating antigens to stockpiled carrier OMVs. About Intravacc The Netherlands-based Intravacc is one of the world's leading institutes for translational vaccinology. As an established independent R&D organization with over 100 years' experience in the development and optimization of vaccines and vaccine technologies, Intravacc has transferred its technology all over the globe, including oral polio vaccines, measles vaccines, and DPT, Hib and influenza vaccines. Intravacc offers a wide range of expertise to independently develop vaccines from lead concept to clinical phase I/II studies for partners worldwide such as academia, public health organizations (WHO, BMGF), and biotech and pharmaceutical companies. Intravacc also has its own proprietary vaccine platform. Intravacc has established state-of-the-art research and production (GMP) facilities. Its aim is to substantially reduce development risks and costs of new vaccines in order to contribute to global health and equity in access to vaccines worldwide. About EpiVax EpiVax is a 22-year old privately-held biotechnology company located in Providence, RI, with a broad portfolio of projects including vaccines and immunotherapies for infectious diseases, autoimmunity and cancer. Scientists at EpiVax, led by co-founders Annie De Groot, MD and Bill Martin, have a strong history of developing and applying innovative approaches to improving vaccines and biologics, making the former more immunogenic and the latter less immunogenic using their advanced immunoinformatic tools. The ISPRI and iVAX toolkits for therapeutics and vaccines are used by a global roster of companies. Visit www.epivax.com for more information. Contact info: Intravacc, Dr. Jan Groen, CEO, T: +31 30 7920 454. Mirjam Hartman, Media relations, T: +31 6 115 969 94, E: [email protected] EpiVax, Inc., Annie De Groot, MD, CEO/CSO, T: +1 401-272-2123, E: [email protected] SOURCE Intravacc Related Links http://www.epivax.com Last September, Orewa College student Alice Watkins asked for Hibiscus Matters help in her mission to save a big bunch of Daffodil Day flowers from landfill. The flowers, which are handed out annually in return for donations to the NZ Cancer Society on Daffodil Day are synthetic and cannot be composted or recycled. Alice wanted to use them to create an artwork, then auction her piece and donate the proceeds to the Cancer Society. Readers responded in their droves, and more than 70 of the daffodils were collected for Alices project. All of them were used in the 35cm tall paper mache work, with the leaves and pins saved for another project. The work will be auctioned on Trade Me. Click here to read the full article. Nationwide protests in the U.S. over the public police killing of a man detained for a nonviolent crime devolved over the weekend into vandalism and looting. Almost no major brand or retailer in dozens of cities was left unscathed, just as retail was beginning to reopen after months of mandated shutdowns due to the coronavirus. Amid a global pandemic, record unemployment and a looming presidential election, stores from Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles to State Street in Chicago, SoHo in New York to downtown Minneapolis were graffitied, looted and in a few instances set on fire after peaceful protests occurred during the day. And as of Sunday evening, the chaos was starting to begin again, with numerous stores in downtown Santa Monica and Long Beach seeing widespread looting, and protests that started off peaceably gaining steam in New York, Minneapolis and Washington D.C., among other cities. More from WWD One of the worst hit areas on Saturday night was L.A., a vast city of nearly four million people, which saw a third day of protesting over the death of George Floyd, who was accused on Monday of using a fake $20 bill, arrested and killed in police custody while being held to the ground by the knee of a police officer. While actions during the day in L.A. were largely peaceful, as night fell destruction of public property, almost exclusively retail establishments, began, along with widespread looting. As I see these criminal acts, I think about what were already going through as a city, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti said in an address Sunday afternoon. The businesses hoping to reopen, so badly beaten down by COVID-19. The businesses that had a fighting chance, hoping to welcome customers back this weekend, but are now closed, damaged and looted. He declared a state of emergency and promised the citys support to damaged businesses. More affluent shopping districts on the Westside of L.A. were largely targeted after Friday night saw a number of smaller businesses in Downtown L.A. vandalized and looted. Story continues On Saturday night, storefronts across main shopping strips in Beverly Hills and West Hollywood received the same treatment. While many stores particularly luxury brands or operations with higher-priced goods began boarding up preemptively on Saturday afternoon as protests in cities like Atlanta; Portland, Ore., and Minneapolis in the days before had led to severe vandalism and looting, it wasnt enough to protect them. Michel Moore, L.A.s chief of police, said Sunday that the damage seen on Saturday was an exponential increase compared to the night before. Just under 400 arrests were made on Saturday night in L.A., primarily related to looting, he said. By Saturday evening, Gucci on Rodeo had its blue plywood barricade torn down by a group of what appeared to be only young men and Alexander McQueen had its glass facade broken and was looted of nearly all merchandise. As the night went on, Nordstrom was broken into and looted; Flight Club, a popular high-end sneaker store, had essentially all of its merchandise stolen after looters managed to lift a metal gate; Target was broken into and looted, as were Marc Jacobs, Adidas, The RealReal, Reformation, Bandier and Kitson. Macys said it had sustained damage in a number of our stores. We are currently assessing the impact. Flight Club said its saddened by the looting of its store, but we know that our property can be rebuilt, our merchandise can be replaced, but the lives that have been taken cannot. The recent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and too many others have ignited a fire in all of us as we continue to witness the racism that has terrorized the black community for centuries, a representative of the brand said. The sneaker industry, and businesses like Flight Club, would not exist without black culture and the support of the black community. We share in the anger and frustration that so many people are experiencing right now, and we will continue to stand up for and alongside those that are demanding change. Some stores, like Sephora and Rag & Bone, seemed to be spared mass looting, even though glass doors and windows had been shattered. A woman in Beverly Hills who came with her dog to survey the damage of the night before thought Sephora was spared because its mostly young men doing this. What do they want with makeup? she said. Another woman walking her dogs and surveying the scene on Rodeo (which was blocked to pedestrian traffic as police and store owners cleaned up debris and workmen re-barricaded storefronts that had been tagged and broken down) said shed lived in the area for decades and had never seen anything like it. Its just awful, and what does it accomplish? she asked. Protesters in L.A. planned on marching from the area around The Grove shopping center where stores were looted and vandalized on Saturday evening westward toward the monied areas of Beverly Hills and West Hollywood as a statement on wealth inequality and social divisions among these predominantly white neighborhoods and essentially everywhere else, according to numerous accounts on social media. Amid retailer concerns over reopening, L.A. like in many regions in the U.S. is seeing roughly 20 percent unemployment and scores of people making bi-weekly pilgrimages to stand in line in front of churches, charity shops and food banks for food. Despite wanting to make a point in neighborhoods that have been more insulated from economic strife and racial injustice, the protests were not designed to become violent or devolve into the destruction of property, according to statements on social media and statements by protesters aired on TV. Thats how some protests ended up, nevertheless. Sunday was something of a spectacle in all of the worst hit areas of L.A., including the Fairfax/Grove district, Melrose Avenue and Rodeo Drive as groups of people showed up on foot and on bike to see the destruction of the night before, take photos and discuss what they were seeing. One woman talked on the phone of protesters being unable to grieve the many deaths of black and brown people at the hands of police that have been publicized in recent months and years. A teenager on a bike with at least five members of his family kept shouting, Wheres Alexander McQueen? hoping to catch a glimpse. Maison Margiela, too, had its front glass shattered and the store looted. A store employee was seen Sunday morning speaking with police, standing before a destroyed storefront that the day before was an artful display. Graffiti was everywhere on storefronts throughout west L.A., although all houses of worship and religious centers were left unscathed. The Webster at the Beverly Center was boarded up with pink plywood and tagged all along the outside with phrases like Never met a good cop, Fk your mall, GFLOYD, Fk 12 and ACAB phrases tagged all over the city by Sunday morning. As for the last two, the first is a reference to the police drug unit, the second is an acronym for all cops are bastards. Gucci was heavily tagged with Eat the rich, Make America pay and BLM, among other graffiti. The Dolls Kill store on Fairfax was tagged with the phrase Fk fast fashion make your own, and many of the vandalized storefronts had phrases decrying capitalism and consumerism. Kitsons outlet store on Robertson Boulevard was broken into and looted, according to the owner Fraser Ross. He said at least $300,000 worth of goods at retail value was taken. He was preparing to fully reopen his store on Monday, as L.A. less than a week ago suddenly announced that in-store retail could resume. Many stores were planning the same, and others, mainly luxury players, had already reopened their stores to customers. On Wednesday, Gucci on Rodeo was teeming with shoppers allowed to enter the store for the first time since early March. One man, visibly excited to see that the store had reopened, ran to get his face mask from his parked Mercedes so he could go inside. Im fixin to spend $5,000 to $10,000 right now, he said. I dont like shopping online. I want it now. At least half-a-dozen people in the next 20 minutes walked out of the store with one, two, three bags of merchandise in their hands. What a difference a few days can make. Now Gucci is not only closed again, but entirely boarded up. Representatives of the brand did not respond to requests for comment on damage or re-reopening plans. Louis Vuitton had also just opened up and is now closed, with no plans to reopen, according to a spokeswoman. The Beverly Center, a Taubman property, reopened on Friday, closed again on Saturday due to the protests and hoped to reopen again Sunday, but didnt. The outside of the mall has visible damage to street-level windows and entrances, but its expected to be fixed quickly. Taubman also closed centers it operates in Utah, Missouri and Tampa. A few tenants at Country Club Plaza [in Kansas City] and City Creek Center [in Salt Lake City] had stores that were broken into overnight, a Taubman representative said. Nordstrom is keeping all of its stores closed throughout the country and a spokeswoman only said that the company hopes to reopen as soon as possible. She added that more than just the Nordstrom in L.A. was damaged and the extent of it is being assessed. Adidas also closed all of its U.S. stores Until further notice. A company spokesman confirmed some Adidas stores were damaged during protests across the country, but did not specify where or the extent of the damage. In L.A., an Adidas Originals store was looted Saturday of nearly all merchandise. All Reebok stores have also been closed and the company will evaluate reopening each day on a case-by-case basis, a Reebok spokesman said. We have no reports of damage but we have boarded up a small number of stores. he added. Target, which is headquartered in Minneapolis the center of the current wave of protests where Floyd died and one of the policeman who arrested him was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter and which has been open during the coronavirus shutdown as an essential business, closed 22 stores in L.A. due to the protests and closed 150 throughout the U.S. Many are listed as closed until further notice, including locations in Oakland, Atlanta, Chicago, two outposts in Minneapolis and Philadelphia. Target said it plans to reopen the Lake Street Minneapolis store that has been damaged during protests by the end of this year. Employees displaced by these closures are expected to continue receiving pay and benefits in the coming weeks, Brian Cornell, Targets chief executive officer, said. We are a community in pain, Cornell said. That pain is not unique to the Twin Cities it extends across America. The murder of George Floyd has unleashed this pent-up pain of years, as has the killings of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. We say their names and hold a too-long list of others in our hearts. Its expected that most of the stores in L.A. and cities elsewhere affected by protests will remain closed until the unrest is settled and then those stores that have experienced damage can begin to be repaired. More protests are expected in L.A. in the coming days. The city imposed an 8 p.m. curfew on Saturday then moved it up to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Protests are expected to continue in dozens of other cities as well, which have seen public demonstrations over the last week in cities including Atlanta; Washington, D.C.; New York; Philadelphia; Chicago; Dallas; Oakland, and of course, Minneapolis. As of press time Sunday, marches had already begun in many of those cities, while there was further looting in some locales. On Saturday, the Portland Business Alliance said in a social media post that tens of millions of dollars worth of damage had been caused just as stores were starting to reopen and retail employees allowed to return to work. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler also extended the citys curfew through Sunday night. I drove through downtown Saturday morning and it looked like a war zone, he said over the weekend. Our Apple store is all glass on all sides similar to the one by Central Park in New York City. There was nothing left of it except vast openings where the windows had been. The remaining glass was shattered, the shelves were stripped bare. The Louis Vuitton store has been completely gutted. The Target store was ransacked. Practically every building in the core district was spray-painted, including the statues from the 1800s. Literally every business has plywood covering it up, he continued. Its like an abandoned city. In Philadelphia, there was weekend looting, too, and Mayor Jim Kenney enacted a curfew as well. The city reported 54 arrests between Saturday night and Sunday morning for looting, but Kenney noted that such acts were the exception among protesters, not the rule. Im sure it saddened every Philadelphian who takes pride in our city, especially the thousands of Philadelphians who came out earlier in the day Saturday to peacefully yet forcefully protest, Kenney said. They made a tremendous statement about their decades of anger over a system that degrades black Americans because of the color of their skin. That statement was important. And in no way should be diminished by the organized groups of people who tried to cause chaos in our city. Chicago has also implemented a curfew, in effect until further notice, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Saturday after witnessing widespread looting of retail in her city. In addition to Macys on State Street, Macys Water Tower Place, Neiman Marcus, Nike, Bloomingdales, Gucci, Versace, Dior and Intermix around Gold Coast and Michigan Avenue were all broken into and tagged with phrases like Pig Fk 12 and Fk Trump. The citys oldest camera store, Central Camera, open since 1899, was set on fire. What started out as a peaceful protest has now devolved into criminal conduct, Lightfoot said. I saw protesters armed with shovels, bats, hammers and metal pipes. Ive marched in a few protests in my day. But neither I nor anyone I was ever with saw the need to bring weapons in order to lift up our voices and express our First Amendment rights. New York is one of the few cities that has refused to impose a curfew, despite seeing a night of continued protests and 345 related arrests between Saturday night and Sunday morning. A New York Police Department spokesman on Sunday was unable to provide an estimate of the damages that local businesses have faced due to protesters and looting. There were numerous videos on social media of the nights events, many showing New York police brutality, even one instance of two police vehicles simultaneously accelerating into a crowd of protesters. Actor John Cusack posted a video of a police officer on horseback in Chicago screaming and cursing at him to get back on the sidewalk as protesters were forcibly moved back. During a Sunday address on the nights protests, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he has asked the state attorney general to review the actions of police and get a report to him within 30 days. He is certain there will be more protesting and unrest in the coming days and said the city is preparing. The big issue is that people are outraged and I understand that, Im outraged, too, Cuomo said. Its not just Floyds killing, although thats enough to outrage a nation. We see this over and over, where only the name changes and the color stays the same. The real issue is the continued racism in this nation. But, like other state and city officials, he did not condone the actions of protests that turned a moment of civil unrest into criminality. We preach a high standard in this country but we still dictate on the color of skin, thats the simple painful truth, He said. But its equally true that violence never works. How many protests have we had? How many nights have we gone through like last night? Burning down your own house never works and never makes sense. For More, See: Looting of Retail Takes Over L.A.s George Floyd Protests L.A. Protests Cause Rodeo Drive, Luxury Retail to Shut Down California Reopens In-Store Shopping Statewide Amid Coronavirus Launch Gallery: Nationwide Protests, Riots, and Looting in the U.S. Amid Global Pandemic WASHINGTON, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Organization of Concerned Black Men Inc., believes it has a responsibility to respond to the tragic death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Minnesota resident, who died on Monday, May 25th, 2020 while being detained as Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin held his knee on Mr. Floyd's neck while three other police officers stood by. "Unfortunately, Mr. Floyd's violent death reveals a familiar wound, once again, to a community already living with persistent trauma and stress," says CBM National Chairman Johnny Giles. The National Organization of Concerned Black Men Inc. Since June 2007, out of approximately 10,000 police shootings, only five white police officers have been imprisoned for killing African Americans. Blacks are 2.5 times as likely as whites to be shot and killed by police officers, and unarmed Black men are seven times more likely to die by police gunfire. History is replete with the persistent victimization of Black Americans from Trayvon Martin, to Tamir Rice, to Eric Garner, to Botham Jean, to Ahmed Aubrey, to Breonna Taylor, to George Floyd; only the names change but the outcomes remain the same. "As a Country we must examine the underlying policies and practices which underpin this tragic death," said CBM National President & CEO, Dr. Karen McRae. The last words of Mr. Floyd's life were: "I can't breathe" .. "Please, the knee is on my neck" .. "My stomach hurts, my neck hurts, everything hurts" "Don't kill me".. "Mama!" "The complicity of the officers and sheer brutality of kneeling on Mr. Floyd's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds as he begged for his life while handcuffed restrained and pressed to the ground warrants swift consequence." CBM does not believe it is enough to fire those perpetrating or sanctioning inhumanity. CBM believes the actions of each officer represents a dangerous precedent set forth by the racist, xenophobic, and prejudicial sentiment in our society against Black boys and men, that must end. It is time to address the over-policing of low level, unarmed offenses which disproportionately targets African Americans and yields overwhelming fatal and systemic consequences. "The trauma experienced daily from unemployment triple that of Whites, from a lack of affordable housing, to under-resourced and under-performing schools, to persistent health disparities that breed and feed both the perception and reality of second-class citizenship for African Americans, is real," says Giles. "And this must change." Peaceful protests are a constitutional right and must be permitted to continue. However, those who are damaging property, and looting should be held accountable and so must law enforcement to the same level of accountability for its actions. We have knelt. We have marched. We have slept in our own beds. We have played in our own playgrounds. We have purchased our own skittles and soda. Yet we still wind up dead. How many more times do Black men have to say 'I can't breathe' while restrained and posing no threat? Our hearts are with Mr. Floyd's family and the people of Minneapolis. His death must be met with justice. We must protest peacefully, demand persistently, and fight politically. But most of all, we must vote in November. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., CBM was founded in 1975, by five police officers concerned about youths succumbing to gang violence, and has grown to a national organization of 20,000 members with 33 chapters across the United States. For additional information or to schedule an interview, please call (240) 623-5474 or visit www.cbmnational.org. CONTACT: Nikki Pearson [email protected] (240) 623-5474 SOURCE The National Organization of Concerned Black Men Inc. Joele Frank is handling the Chapter 11 filing of Libbey Inc., one of the world's largest glass tableware manufacturers, which is blaming COVID-19 for the need to restructure. The Toledo-based company posted a two percent dip in 2019 sales to $782M and a $69M loss vs. an $8M year-earlier deficit. CEO Mike Bauer claimed the glassmaker was getting back on track in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic delivered a "truly unprecedented" negative and prolonged impact on Libbey, which traces its roots to 1818. He called bankruptcy "a necessary step to address our liquidity, strengthen our balance sheet and better position Libbey for the future." There's been some improvement in Libbey's end markets with the gradual lifting of stay-at-home restrictions, according to Bauer. It has restarted production lines in Toledo and Shreveport and reopened US distribution centers. Libbey brands include Libbey Signature, Master's Reserve, Crisa, Royal Leerdam, World Tableware, Syracuse China, and Crisal Glass. Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher has Michael Freitag, Ed Trissel and Tim Ragones are working media for Libbey. The Islamic Republic customs data for the first two months of the new Iranian calendar year (beginning March 20, 2020) shows that the country's non-oil exports fell 49 percent to $ 4.3 billion. In the same period last year, the figure was more than $ 8.4 billion. Meanwhile, the data also show that the country's imports have declined from $6.76 billion in the first two months of the last Iranian calendar year (March 21 to May 21) to about $ 5 billion this year. But even declining imports have not helped the trade balance. While, the non-oil trade balance in the first two months of last year was about $ 1.65 billion in favor of Iran, this year it is half a billion dollars in the negative. This means Iran has to spend precious foreign currency to meet its minimum import needs. However, the data provided by Iran's customs are only limited to Iran's non-oil exports. Since the United States imposed full oil sanctions Tehran does not release oil export data. In the meantime, internationally obtained data show that Iran's oil exports have dropped from 1.5 million barrels per day in the first two months of last year to less than 200,000 in the same period this year, half of which went to China and the other half to Syria. None of these importers are really paying cash to Iran. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast shows that Iran's total exports will reach $ 46 billion this year, which is half of what it was in 2018. Last year, that figure was $ 57 billion. Iran's imports are expected to surpass its exports this year, reaching $ 64.6 billion. Nonetheless, less than a month ago, the Governor of Central Bank of Iran (CBI), Abdolnasser Hemmati, had maintained that the countrys export of non-oil products had begun to grow as the coronavirus outbreak is easing. Abdolnaser Hemmati noted on Tuesday, May 19, that participants at a meeting of the Governments Economic Coordination Headquarters made "good decisions about plans to boost non-oil exports" and supply foreign currency for imports in the current Iranian year. A day later, speaking at a cabinet session, President Hassan Rouhani also claimed that the reopening of borders and trade with countries was underway, and would lead to an increase in the countrys non-oil exports. The caretaker of the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Industry, Mine, and Trade (MIMT), Hossein Modares Khiabani, has also insisted that his ministry was planning to increase the value of Irans non-oil exports to its neighbors by $50 billion. Feeling the economic strain under sanctions and the coronavirus impact, Iranian officials try to inspire hope in the people who are ever more pessimistic about the countrys prospects. FALLS TOWNSHIP >> In an effort to be fiscally responsible while ridding Falls Township Community Park of Canada geese, the Falls Township Supervisors approved a multi-faceted, year-long geese mitigation plan at a one percent savings over 2021. Stepped up geese management efforts began in 2015 and have significantly reduced the number of geese at the park, Falls Township Parks and Recreation... President Donald Trump last night threatened to deploy the U.S. military unless states did more to stop violence alongside the demonstrations against police brutality and the mourning of George Floyd. In Philadelphia, and in other places across the nation, people gathered to demonstrate and were met with bolstered law enforcement, including the National Guard. Folks also were cleaning up the damage from broken-into buildings from the previous two days. Heres what that looked like. Josh Rosenblat (@joshrosenblat, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com) Following the weekends protests, yesterdays clashes between police and people demonstrating contained a particularly striking scene as thousands of marchers moved on the Vine Street Expressway, stopping traffic. Police then fired tear gas into the crowd, setting off a stampede of people trying to escape up walls and steep hills. At that point, people scrambled as they were gassed again, some of them trapped, leaving their belongings behind as they ran. Mayor Kenney and Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said in a statement late last night that Philadelphia SWAT officers released the tear gas and non-chemical white smoke after they say some people protesting had thrown rocks. The gas was a means to safely defuse a volatile and dangerous situation and restore order, Outlaw said in the statement. The chaos occurred an hour before the citys 6 p.m. curfew, on a day when the National Guard rolled into aid city and state police. Later last night, after the curfew took hold, police again sought to more forcefully clear the streets. Tonight, the citys curfew will begin at 8:30 p.m in order to give Philadelphians the chance to vote in todays primary before the polls close at 8. My colleagues are out reporting on an unusual Pennsylvania primary day. Heres some of what you need to know to vote in todays primary. Yesterday, Gov. Tom Wolf extended the mail ballot deadlines for one week in Philadelphia. Here are the things well be watching for as state and local election officials deal with the first statewide election since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Along with the local and congressional races on the ballot, Joe Biden supporters and the Democratic establishment in Pennsylvania are taking a quiet victory lap regarding the ex-vice presidents emergence as the partys presumptive nominee to take on President Trump in November. Bidens campaign announced that he will visit Philadelphia today to speak about the the civil unrest facing communities across America. You can follow all the news today live at this link. What you need to know today A third day of protests against police brutality and the killing of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody began throughout Philadelphia yesterday afternoon. Heres what it looked like. Thats interesting Opinions Murder from police brutality, combined with no swift, concentrated, and deliberate effort to decrease the spread of coronavirus disease in the black community: What is the message they send? That our lives dont matter to those in power. If we want change, we must create it. We have seen time and again: No one cares about us but us. We were brought to America, our families broken, lives lost, lifetimes taken, women raped, men lynched, and children left to fend for themselves. Then after over 200 hundred years, someone in power proclaimed: OK, youre free now, go do something with yourselveswhile I have my foot on your neck." writes Dr. Ala Stanford, a pediatric surgeon who founded the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium in her hometown of Philadelphia, about the deadly impact of police brutality and the coronavirus on black people. Does the destruction of buildings matter when black Americans are being brazenly murdered in cold blood by police and vigilantes? asks architecture critic Inga Saffron. Columnist Helen Ubinas writes that the governments priorities favor racism over citizens lives. What were reading Your Daily Dose of | Music as protest Anthony McGill is the New York Philharmonics first-ever African American principal player and a Curtis Institute of Music professor and graduate whos also a frequent guest with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. He posted a video of himself playing America the Beautiful on Facebook, then others joined in. Im saying, lets continue to do it, and take two knees. Because its a sign of prayer, of vulnerability, of peaceful protest. In a way its a sign of surrender to this situation we are in, that we are on our knees and praying people pay attention to this," McGill said. New Delhi, June 2 : Showing confidence in the Indian economy and the recent measures announced by the government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that India will be back on its growth track soon, post the severe jolt due to the coronavirus pandemic. Speaking at a video conference to the industry body CII, the Prime Minister said that he has faith in the technology, innovation and intellect of the country which would help the economy revive. Noting that strengthening the economy in times of corona is among the government's highest priorities, he said: "Trust me, getting back growth is not that difficult." Speaking of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat economic package announced by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in May to help revive the economy post the corona crisis, he said that the package would work as fuel for the growth of the MSME sector. He also said that labour reforms are being done to support workers and increase jobs and private participation in strategic sectors is becoming a reality as the government has allowed private players in space and atomic energy research segments. Modi also said that with the latest decision to amend the APMC Act, the farmers will now be free from the dependence on middle-men and will be able to sell their produce anywhere they want to. "Post-independence laws made farmers dependent on middle-men. They will now get their rights post amendment to APMC Act." -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Beatrice Nandwa is a chef/caterer who runs her own catering business, Nad Caterers, from her home in Kabete, Nairobi County. She spoke to Saturday Magazine about her trade: How did you get in the catering business? My journey in to catering started shortly after completing my cookery attachment at the Safari Park Hotel. My employer couldnt practice cookery at the same level that I had become used to. Being a public institution, my employer had limited ability to experiment with costly ingredients. I approached one of my supervisors and asked him if we could open a cafeteria, whose income we could use to broaden our food preparation skills and menu. He agreed. What would you be doing if you were not a chef? I would be a home science teacher. I love to teach. Who is your inspiration? My late auntie. She was a caterer at the University of Nairobi. I derive much of the catering and food preparation skills I have today from her career. Which celebrity would you like to cook a meal for? Alice Taabu. She hosted the popular show Mke Nyumbani, where she demonstrated the art of modern cookery. What is your cuisine style? Contemporary African cuisine. What are three of your most popular dishes? Chapati, Fried chicken and Pilau. When at home what do you love to eat? Fried githeri mixed with potatoes and carrots. What is the nicest thing a client has ever said to you? You are such an excellent cook. I could take you back with me to my country and employ you as my personal chef! Whats the strangest thing that has ever occurred in your line of work? Some time back, a certain client wanted me to prepare food for a wedding. However, she disagreed with the list of ingredients that I presented. She felt that they were a bit expensive. She decided to cut corners and ended up delivering inadequate and substandard ingredients. Her ingredients affected the quality of food. In the end, I was left with the feeling that I didnt present the meal I had envisioned. Becoming a better cook Learn and borrow from new recipes. Practice as much as you can. No one was born as a perfect or natural cook. It all boils down to learning and nurturing passion for food preparation. Once in a while, invite honest people to try out your cooking. This will help you identify your weak areas. Be open to criticism. How do you distinguish a good from a bad meal? A good meal will always have a balanced ratio of spices. On the opposite extreme, a bad meal will be filled with overpowering spices that ruin the whole food experience. Secret Service agents rushed President Donald Trump to a White House bunker on Friday night as hundreds of protesters gathered outside the executive mansion, some of them throwing rocks and tugging at police barricades. Trump spent nearly an hour in the bunker, which was designed for use in emergencies like terrorist attacks, according to a Republican close to the White House who was not authorized to publicly discuss private matters and spoke on condition of anonymity. First Lady Melania Trump and their young son, Barron, likely joined the president in the bunker, according to CNN. The account was confirmed by an administration official who also spoke on condition of anonymity. The abrupt decision by the agents underscored the rattled mood inside the White House, where the chants from protesters in Lafayette Park could be heard all weekend and Secret Service agents and law enforcement officers struggled to contain the crowds. Police take security measures near White House during a protest over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after being pinned down by a white police officer, on Monday President Trump and his family were rushed to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, an underground bunker below the East Wing of the White House, while protests were raging nearby on Friday. The bunker was used by then-Vice President Dick Cheney, then-First Lady Laura Bush, and then-Second Lady Lynne Cheney on September 11, 2001 The PEOC was first built during the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the early 1940s. At the time, the United States was involved in World War Two Massive demonstrations in Washington, DC, as well as dozens of other major cities across the country have been seen this past week after the police-involved death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, in Minneapolis last Monday. What do we know about the subterranean facility underneath the East Wing of the White House complex? Officially known as the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, it was built in the early 1940s by then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. At the time, the United States was involved in World War Two. FDRs successor, Harry Truman, expanded the PEOC as part of a massive renovation of the White House complex that included a complete demolition and expansion of the structures. It was rarely if ever used by subsequent administrations until the events of September 11, 2001, forced senior officials of the George W. Bush administration into the area for fear that a hijacked airplane was headed for the White House. The president was not in Washington, DC, on the day four commercial airliners were hijacked and then flown into the Pentagon, World Trade Center, and a field in Pennsylvania. In the late 1940s, when Harry Truman was president, the White House underwent a massive renovation that included large-scale demolitions and an overhaul of the complex. The above image shows the ground floor of the White House as it was being demolished in April 1950 The PEOC was expanded as part of the renovation, though photos of the complex are not available. The above images shows the demolition of the ground floor of the White House in April 1950 But Vice President Dick Cheney, First Lady Laura Bush, and other senior aides were quickly whisked to the area that morning. In her 2010 memoir Spoken from the Heart, Laura Bush recalled the experience of being rushed into the bunker. I was hustled inside and downstairs through a pair of big steel doors that closed behind me with a loud hiss, forming an airtight seal, she wrote. I was now in one of the unfinished subterranean hallways underneath the White House, heading for the PEOC, the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, built for President Franklin Roosevelt during World War II. We walked along old tile floors with pipes hanging from the ceiling and all kinds of mechanical equipment. The PEOC is designed to be a command center during emergencies, with televisions, phones, and communications facilities. She then describes being hauled into a small conference room with a large table. Official White House photographers captured images of Cheney, the first lady, and other top aides like National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice conferring with each other on that day. It is believed that this is the same room that Trump and his family were rushed to on Friday night. Bush administration officials came to the conclusion that the PEOC as it was constituted at that time was not sufficient to allow the president and his aides to function efficiently during an emergency. So the White House began a massive project to build another, larger bunker believed to be five stories high under the North Lawn. After that attack, the national security people recognized that that just is not going to cut it, author Ronald Kessler, who wrote a book in 2018 about the Trump White House, told The Washington Post. Thats just not sufficient. Kessler continued: The idea was, before that, that if there were a nuclear attack or something - biological, radiological attack - that the White House staff and the presidents people could be evacuated to some remote location at West Virginia or Pennsylvania. But then they realized after the 9/11 attack that they could never leave Washington, certainly by vehicle, because all the roads were clogged. It would take too long. And even by helicopter, it would take - it would be very risky, given that the country was under attack. In 2010, massive construction was done near the West Wing of the White House The official explanation given was that existing infrastructure was being replaced, but reports indicate that $375million was spent building a five-story underground bunker below the North Lawn that can sustain the fallout from a nuclear attack So they came up with this scheme to create a totally separate facility, an underground bunker under the North Lawn. In 2010, the General Services Administration undertook a massive construction project just outside of the West Wing. The official explanation given by the GSA when reporters asked about the purpose of the construction was that it was done to replace existing infrastructure at the White House. The construction project officially a long overdue upgrade of White House utilities began in September 2010 with the excavation of a huge, multistory pit in front of the West Wing, wrapping around to include West Executive Avenue, the street that separates the White House from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. A tall, green construction fence sprang up that blocked America's most famous office complex from public view. The GSA went to great lengths to keep the work secret, not only putting up the fence around the excavation site but ordering subcontractors not to talk to anyone and to tape over company info on trucks pulling into the White House gates. What it consists of is five stories deep into the ground with its own air supply and food supply, Kessler said, though he added that few details are known. It is sealed off from the aboveground area so that if there were, for example, a nuclear attack, the radiation would not penetrate into this bunker, which has very thick concrete walls and that sort of thing. The facility, which is meant to serve as a command center and living quarters for the president and senior aides, is said to be stocked with enough food to last for months, while its air supply is self-contained. In total, it cost more than $376million to build. Shortly after Trumps arrival at the White House, he and a select few of his aides were given a tour of the facility. If the president ever needed to flee the White House, he could go through at least two tunnels. One of them leads to the Treasury Building and an unmarked entrance on H Street. The other tunnel leads to the South Lawn, where the president can quickly board Marine One. A Philadelphia Police car on fire in front of Apple store on Saturday, the first of several days of protests and looting across Philadelphia. Read more As shadows stretched long over the empty parking lot, Kim Fuller, 60, planted herself in the middle of the ParkWest Town Center the miracle of a Lowes and a ShopRite and many more shops and services, all right there in her Parkside neighborhood and sorrowfully surveyed what was left: boarded-up storefronts, the debris of looting swept clean that morning by Fuller and other volunteers. Now, they were back to stand guard overnight and protect what remained, alerting police when a burglar broke into a wig shop, and gathering up the discarded hair for safekeeping, turning away a brazen driver who arrived with a U-Haul, guarding barricades, and shouting 6 oclock curfew! Stop the nonsense! whenever a car approached. Yet, as painful as it was to see her communitys commercial heart in ruins, Fuller could acknowledge a certain clarity of purpose in the destruction. This all started with a man being lynched on the ground, with police walking into a womans apartment and just shooting. There is no repercussion for killing a black or brown person, so our people have had it, she said, referencing the deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky. We dont want our community destroyed. We dont want to fall apart at the seams. But at the same time, we cannot allow you to lynch us and not be held responsible ever again. So here we are tonight. From those shattering the glass to those cleaning it up, from elected officials to those who grew up enduring stop-and-frisk, there is plenty of disagreement about the tactics. Yet theyre united on the underlying message: Generations of government-sanctioned racism, violence, divestment, and oppression must end, and this week of protests and riots must lead to substantive change. Its a difficult conversation. But its one that Philadelphia has deferred for too long, community leaders say, pointing to the official hesitancy to apologize for the fatal firebombing of MOVE and the surrounding residential neighborhood 35 years ago, and the delay in moving the statue of former Mayor and Police Commissioner Frank Rizzo, whose image has come to symbolize brutal and racist policing. Many said that structural oppression is baked into the citys current proposed budget that includes a $14 million increase for policing while cutting funds for everything from schools to library after-school programs to public defenders to eviction-prevention programs and job training corps. READ MORE: Mayor Kenney defends tear gas on 676, but blasts 'vigilantism' in Fishtown Im in support of any type of protest especially peaceable protest," said Bishop Dwayne Royster, a leader with the Power Interfaith Coalition. But like Dr. Martin Luther King said, The riot is the language of the unheard. "In America, we dont respond to anything until there is violence. The reality is, for folks of color in Philadelphia and beyond, we continue to experience violence in marginalized communities. While we focus on developing Center City, while we give tax abatements in gentrifying neighborhoods, we persist in being the poorest big city in America. We have not done anything about that. For folks who say there is no need to tear up Philadelphia, I ask: What has Philadelphia done for them? That question weighed on Tamia Fountain the last few days, as she listened to the sirens racing through her West Philadelphia neighborhood, heard helicopters and explosions and shattering glass, and remembered her brother, Phillip Fountain, who was shot and killed by two Philadelphia police officers in 2004. One officer, Jason Reid, who was fired last year and criminally charged with punching a handcuffed man in the face and falsifying his report, would go on to shoot five more people in the line of duty. The other, Thomas Schaffling, over the years has made headlines in connection with the shooting of bar-goers, assaulting guests at a baby shower, and handcuffing a state representative who attempted to intervene in what he believed to be physical abuse. A police investigation of Fountains death concluded that he had fired a gun and that the police use of force was acceptable. The district attorney did not take up the case. No lawyer would file a civil lawsuit for Fountains family. Something definitely needs to be done. We need to end police brutality. There is no reason why police should be out here intentionally murdering people, said Tamia, who doesnt believe the police narrative of her brothers death. The looting and destruction alarmed her. "Destroying our community was not our voices being heard to end police brutality at all, she said. But she admitted that she wasnt sure what other recourse was available. Which route do you go just to have your voice heard? READ MORE: How government priorities favor racism over citizens literally fighting for their lives In North Philadelphia, Jondhi Harrell, a well-known community and justice-reform activist who runs the Center for Returning Citizens, said he skipped the protests, weary of repeating the same old chants without seeing sustained change. The protests came to him. He stepped away from his office for an hour Sunday and returned to find the computers stolen, the entire place trashed. To see burning police cars, a fire blazing under the Rizzo statue those acts, to Harrell, sent a clear message: Dont they understand that they cant just kill a black man in broad daylight, nonchalantly, and expect the world is not going to go crazy? But then, to see the destruction continue, and tear through poor and working-class neighborhoods, even his own nonprofit, it had nothing to do with the frustration level. It just has to do with materialism. As city officials called for peace and said destruction is never justified, though, people like Michael Coard refused to join in the statements and news conferences. The civil rights lawyer said instead he would assemble a pro bono legal defense corps for the protesters. Oppression has never changed as a result of civil and orderly discussion, he added. And even Atiba Kwesi, who had organized the overnight watch at ParkWest and in his nearby West Philadelphia neighborhood, had to agree. The only reason the politicians are taking notice is because of the violence. Theyre tearing up the cities all over the country. City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier who on Sunday evening, as 52nd Street in West Philadelphia lay in shambles, intervened in a standoff between demonstrators and police withheld judgment. Her focus is on the message, not the medium. Theres a lot of rage, and we should listen to it," she said. I dont think we need to be parsing whether there needs to be looting people are saying we need change, and theyre saying it loudly and clearly. We have to channel this anger and this energy into the change that people are asking for. That, she said, is clearly not only police accountability but also investment in young people and their communities. The problem, said Chad Dion Lassiter, executive director of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, is people have been asking for these changes for decades going back to the 1960s, when North Philadelphia erupted in race riots and the Kerner Commission identified how racist housing, employment, policing, and voting policies had led to the unrest. Many people feel theyve explored the potential of peaceful protest and found it lacking. People say, When we kneel, you dont like that. Now, were seeing rebellions throughout the country," he said. He said that, as organizers develop a series of concrete demands, that could result in real and lasting change. The result of disempowering people and ignoring their concerns was what happened Sunday in West Philadelphia and elsewhere, said Rick Krajewski. A community organizer, he took time off from his campaign for state representative to stop by the protest on 52nd Street, a few blocks from his home, and talk to some of the young people. What I heard was a lot of nihilism. Its like: My community doesnt care about me. The schools dont care about me. The police dont care about me. So why should I care about any of my surroundings? But what struck him the most was not the protests or looting, but the police response escalating from batons to flash-bang grenades to tear gas and rubber bullets. That was a really traumatizing event for me to see my neighborhood turn into a police war zone," he said but in a way it proved the protesters point, better than any quiet march could have done. I hope from here we can use this moment of pain and chaos to reckon with what it means to actually hold police accountable and not give them absolute power. 94 Shares Share I look at the mirror at a tired naked face as I don my surgical mask over my hijab with my makeshift tie to keep my mask on since I cant tie them on my ears. My kids at home are doing their remote learning, like many other kids around the world. Will I be home in time to make sure my 6 year old makes it on time to her Zoom class? I have no clue what my 8 year old is doing for his school project, but I remiss. Work is calling, asking where I am. I need five more minutes to sanitize and plastic wrap my phone. Recently, Ramadan passed when Muslims fast from dawn to sunset for 30 days. The mask is making me hotter and increasing my thirst, but then Im grateful to not having to take off my mask to hydrate myself. I walk into the exam room, and Im met with an awkward stare from my patient. Perhaps its my mask and lack of handshake that bother this person? I start the physical exam and take out my stethoscope, and I get the question: Where did you go to medical school? The question then leads to when did you graduate? which really questions my experience/age and then leads to so you where are you from? The loaded question that many minorities are all too familiar with, which really says, you do not look American. My phone continuously buzzes from my multiple WhatsApp groups as I go through my patients from mothers in my kids school debating and worried about reopening school. Then I remember, we did not thaw any meat, and will we have food to break our fasts tonight? I quickly text my husband, asking him to order food. Oops, Im late to another Zoom meeting while organizing the resident didactic schedule. I drive back home and race to the bathroom to decontaminate myself while avoiding my kids to keep them from hugging me. I feel the burden of the day wash off literally and figuratively. My mind wanders, and I start daydreaming about potential passion projects that lasts five minutes until I hear yelling. I rush down and find my kids wrestling, school work not completed, dishes spilling out of the sink, my husband stuck on teleconference calls, and the cycle of stress restarts. I give and give until it feels like I have nothing left to give. Reading the above paragraphs sounds stressful, and one may question, How do I manage this all? Not well as my recurrent stomach ulcer pain has kept me up a couple of nights. With that being said, what the prior month of Ramadan showed me is the ability to look outward. This requirement to stay at home led me to reflect on the current state of the pandemic from a spiritual point of view. Whatever our spiritual leanings may be, there are lessons to be learned. While the world may look to be doom and gloom, I have seen more good than bad. People coming together to deliver food to those who cannot leave their homes, donations of masks and PPE for frontline workers, increased giving especially to those who have lost their jobs and sustenance, caring for elderly neighbors, and more phone calls between relatives. During one of the last nights of Ramadan, my daughter said, giving feels good after gathering her toys to donate for a local shelter. It took me by a bit of surprise, yet the innocence in her voice lightened my deep angst. And though I give and give to my family, my patients, my residents, my colleagues, my parents, and my friends, I have come to realize that giving does feel good. Kindergarteners sure do know best. Alya Khan is an occupational medicine physician. Image credit: Shutterstock.com Melbourne, Australia, June 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leading asset valuation and disposal company Hilco Global APAC and Gordon Brothers, the leading global advisory, investment, and restructuring firm, have partnered to disperse a fleet of late model Caterpillar 100T-class mobile mining assets located in South Africa. The partnership between the two prominent US-headquartered firms offers 25 late-model, low-hour Caterpillar mining machines for sale. The fleet includes D10T and D9T tracked dozers, a 992K wheeled loader, an 824K wheeled dozer, and 777E rigid haul dump trucks. "We're very excited about this collaboration as this is the first time both companies have partnered together in South Africa," said Fenton Healy, Managing Director at Gordon Brothers. "Hilco and Gordon Brothers have had a good track record working together in North America to bring large fleets to market, so it made sense to leverage our combined capital to navigating our way through a new geography," he added. The fleet is primarily comprised of 2017-year models in good condition that had been repossessed. Hilco APAC and Gordon Brothers were assisted in the acquisition by DLA Piper in Johannesburg. "Partnering with Gordon Brothers in Australia was ideal. The combination of both our skillsets ensured the best possible outcome for our customer," said Adam Scharer, CEO of Hilco Global APAC. He added, "The deal combines our respective abilities to deploy capital alongside our combined global reach to ensure the project is successful for all stakeholders." Hilco APAC and Gordon Brothers in Australia are confident that prevailing conditions in key market segments will create a healthy demand for the sale of the mobile mining assets. Despite the impacts of the current pandemic, the secondary market for quality used mining and construction equipment remains strong. Initial interest has been encouraging, and both firms look forward to delivering a great result. About Hilco Global APAC Hilco Global APAC (www.hilcoapac.com) provides industrial asset acquisition and disposition services, specializing in machinery, equipment, and inventory auctions and negotiated sales. It sells the broad range of industrial assets found in manufacturing, wholesale, and distribution companies. Hilco Industrial buys and sells assets through on-site, online, and combination webcast auction sale events as well as negotiated (private treaty) sales. In addition to providing services on a fee or commission basis, Hilco Industrial puts capital at risk and often acquires assets or provides guarantees. Hilco Global APAC is part of Northbrook, Illinois-based Hilco Global (www.hilcoglobal.com), the world's leading authority on maximizing the value of business assets by delivering valuation, monetization, and advisory solutions to an international marketplace. About Gordon Brothers Since 1903, Gordon Brothers (www.gordonbrothers.com) has helped lenders, operating executives, advisors, and investors move forward through change. The firm brings a powerful combination of expertise and capital to clients, developing customized solutions on an integrated or standalone basis across four service areas: valuations, dispositions, operations, and investments. Whether to fuel growth or facilitate strategic consolidation, Gordon Brothers partners with companies in the retail, commercial, and industrial sectors to put assets to their highest and best use. Gordon Brothers conducts more than $70 billion worth of dispositions and appraisals annually. Gordon Brothers is headquartered in Boston, with 25 offices across five continents. The COVID -19 pandemic and nationwide lockdown have changed the landscape of the education sector in India. As the Government continues to restrict social gatherings, E-Learning is emerging as the new education system in the country. Acknowledging the demand for IT infrastructure for virtual learning, RP tech India has unveiled Learn from Home (LFH) solutions portfolio. Designed to provide seamless connectivity and hassle-free computing experience to students and professionals, the cutting edge technology solutions takes self-education to the new level. Unveiling the portfolio, Mr. Rajesh Goenka, Director, Sales & Marketing, RP tech India said, Even though we are going through challenging phase, the education and learning must not stop. E-Learning is the future of Indian education sector and we want to make sure, students get best out of virtual education. We are offering a series of cutting-edge technology solutions from renowned brands to address concerns of students and professionals who look to enhance their skills and knowledge at stay home environment. RP tech LFH portfolio includes computing, networking, connectivity and storage solutions from leading brands including Lenovo, Asus, Logitech, SanDisk, AMD, Linksys, AOC, Western Digital, Crucial by Micron and others. These solutions are available through the authorised distribution network of RP tech India across the country. In a bid to boost E-Learning in India, the Human Resource Development Ministry launched Bharat Padhe Online campaign in April to crowdsource ideas for improving the online education system in India. Since it launched the campaign that seeks to address obstacles in online education and promote various digital education platforms, has gained a lot of traction. Similarly, professionals are enrolling for various online skill enhancement courses to advance in their career. There is also preference for online mindfulness and meditation programs, time management and fitness courses to improve their emotional and physical health in the current time of uncertainty. RP tech India sees enormous business prospects in E-Learning vertical in the country. There are huge prospects in LFH solutions business in India and we are very bullish over this vertical. RP tech India has the most comprehensive product portfolio of 25+ global brands and with our strong distribution network spread across 750+ towns/cities, we are confident to capitalize on this booming market, Mr. Goenka said. The company said customers can visit RP tech Indias website for details of retailers selling RP tech LFH solutions in their respective cities. A U.S. appeals court ruled on Monday that Volkswagen AG cannot escape potential financial penalties from two counties in Florida and Utah that may amount to a "staggering" additional liability arising from the German automaker's diesel emissions scandal. The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting in Anchorage, Alaska, was a victory for Utah's Salt Lake County and Florida's Hillsborough County. The counties sued Volkswagen for causing excess diesel emissions harmful to the environment and could in theory seek billions of dollars in damages. Volkswagen settled U.S. criminal and civil actions prompted by the cheating scandal for more than $20 billion, but that did not shield it from liability from local and state governments, the 9th Circuit noted. The 9th Circuit found that nothing in the Clean Air Act "raises the inference that Congress intended to place manufacturers beyond the reach of state and local governments." Volkswagen has admitted to using illegal software to cheat U.S. pollution tests in 2015, allowing up to 40 times legally allowable emissions. The judges wrote that they were "mindful that our conclusion may result in staggering liability for Volkswagen. But this result is due to conduct that could not have been anticipated by Congress: Volkswagen's intentional tampering with post-sale vehicles to increase air pollution." The two counties each have penalties of $5,000 per day for tampering violations and had a combined total of at least 6,100 polluting Volkswagen diesel vehicles. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, who had ruled in the case in 2018, noted at the time that "the potential penalties could reach $30.6 million per day and $11.2 billion per year." Volkswagen vowed to seek further review by the 9th Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary, saying the ruling conflicts with the findings of other courts. "Those other courts rightly recognized the chaos that would ensue if thousands of localities can regulate manufacturers' updates of their software systems, which are an inherent feature of modern vehicles and, in this case, reduced emissions," Volkswagen said. The scandal triggered a global backlash against diesel vehicles that has so far cost Volkswagen 30 billion euros ($33.3 billion) in fines, penalties and vehicle buyback costs. Also read: Volkswagen in final talks to seal biggest M&A deals in Chinese EV sector Also read: Volkswagen to invest 2 billion euros in Chinese EV deal, buys stakes in two firms South Africa: Protecting children during COVID-19 and beyond The Department of Social Development, in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation, aims to improve the standard of Early Childhood Development (ECD) across the country, as part of this years Child Protection Week campaign. This years campaign is being held under the theme: Let Us All Protect Children, During Covid-19 and Beyond. The partnership between the department and the Nelson Mandela Foundation will culminate with the launch of Vangasali-Every Child Counts Campaign, which is targeting unregistered ECD centres, with the view of assisting them to meet the minimum norms and standards for registration, as stipulated in the Childrens Act (Act No. 38 of 2005). A nationwide audit of ECD centres conducted by the department on the nature and extent of ECD provisioning, services, resources and infrastructure across all nine provinces revealed that a considerable number of centres were unregistered. Vangasali, which means leave no child or ECD centre behind in Xitsonga, seeks to change all that by encouraging members of the public to participate in finding ECD centres in their local communities. Members of the public are encouraged to find ECD facilities in their local communities. Once a centre has been identified, members of the public are advised to send the word ECD to 082 046 8553 on WhatsApp. The name, details and the geolocation of the centre will be entered into the Govchat database for mapping purposes. This will also assist in determining the coverage of ECD services, particularly in poor and vulnerable communities. The campaign will be rolled out nationwide in three phases, namely find and count (phase 1), categorise (phase 2) and intervention (phase 3). The goal is to provide support packages to all identified ECD centres to progressively register and enhance the delivery of quality ECD services, including nutrition, health and safety of children. The package of ECD registration benefits include amongst other things, access to basic social services such as access to government subsidy in the form of a R15 per child a day for 365 days a year. The ECD subsidy is important for ensuring that children attending ECDs have access to health services and nutritious meals every day. We could not have found a better partner than the Nelson Mandela Foundation for an initiative of this kind, which seeks to improve educational opportunities for children. We all know that the founding father of our democracy spent his life campaigning for improvement and access to education for all children. We are keeping his legacy and passion for education and children alive, said Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu. The Vangasali campaign will be officially launched today as part of this years Child Protection Week. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2020-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 2 By Fidan Babayeva Trend: Obtaining a license from the Central Bank of Azerbaijan by the management company of the Agricultural Insurance Fund will follow only after defining the final number of companies participating in the formation of the authorized capital of this company, Fuad Sadigov, Chairman of the board of the Agricultural Insurance Fund, told Trend . All 17 companies involved in the non-life insurance segment were invited to participate in the formation of the authorized capital. A certain part has already agreed, some companies are still deciding, said the chairman. Due to this reason the Agricultural Insurance Fund is negotiating with the insurance companies for a joint decision, noted Sadigov. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on August 19, 2019 on the applying of the Law on Agricultural Insurance and the establishment of the Agricultural Insurance Fund, a non-profit legal entity that ensures organization, development and sustainability of the agricultural insurance system in Azerbaijan, as well as the formation of a governing structure and exercises control for its activity. The Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers approved the Charter of the Agricultural Insurance Fund on December 14, 2019. The Charter includes the goals of the activity, obligations and rights of the Fund, the fundamentals of its management, authorized capital, property and financial activity, the procedure for compiling and submitting audit and accounting reports, as well as other issues. Presently, 21 insurance companies and one reinsurance company operate in Azerbaijan. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @IsmailovaNargis By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA: Kankipadu police seized 290 kgs of ganja from a truck on Monday. Three were arrested in connection with the transportation of the drug and booked under Narcotics Drug and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. On a tip off, sleuths of the Commissioners Taks Force (CTF) carried out a surprise inspection in the town, and found 290 kgs of ganja hidden in a secret rack under the truck. Police said the illegal consignment was heading towards Vijayawada. The truck driver and two more accused told the police that they work for a dealer who will pay them upon delivery of the consignment. In the guise of transporting aqua products, the accused were smuggling the contraband. The Justice Department has initiated a civil rights investigation into the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. But Barr has not responded to calls including from all Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee for a broader pattern-or-practice investigation, which can produce a court-enforceable reform agreement. In his most recent public comments, Barr has not focused on what happened to Floyd whose cries of I cant breathe were captured on video as a Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes but instead promised a crackdown on the violence at protests sweeping the country as a result. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Spain recorded no deaths from the coronavirus for the second day running, the health ministry reported Tuesday, while acknowledging some "discrepancies" in the reported daily figures. The ministry's daily report recorded 34 deaths over the previous week, but none over the previous 24 hours. It was Monday's report on the previous 24 hours that first broke a run of daily reported deaths dating back to March 3. To date, Spain has recorded a total of 27,127 deaths from the virus, making it one of the worst-hit countries in the world. But Fernando Simon, head of the Coordination Centre for Health Alerts and Emergencies, also told journalists of the ongoing concern at "day-to-day discrepancies" in the datadivergences that would be "verified", he said. Since the health ministry introduced a new method of tracking cases, inconsistencies have appeared in the data. But Simon stressed that the priority now was to remain vigilant and to detect new cases as quickly as possiblewhich they were managing to do, he added. So far Spain has detected nearly 240,000 cases of the virus. Step by step, it is gradually easing what was one of the world's strictest lockdowns imposed to slow the spread of the virus. Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak 2020 AFP OCEAN SPRINGS, Mississippi -- Two events -- one a celebration of the return of live music to the downtown Ocean Springs area, the other a peaceful protest by high school students -- clashed Monday afternoon when the band brought to City Hall to perform confronted the young protesters. Mayor Shea Dobson confirmed he had asked The Tall Boys -- a local garage band that has played at numerous bars in the area -- to perform at City Hall Monday as both a celebration that live music could resume after Gov. Tate Reeves lifted the restriction on live performances, as well as a fun day for City employees. There was no payment, they agreed to do it, Dobson said of the band. "I had originally asked a food truck to be there to make it a fun day for our staff, but the truck backd out, so I bought a bunch of pizzas for everybody. Thats all it was supposed to be. Dobson said he left City Hall to pick up the pizzas when he received a call of protesters downtown at the corner of Porter and Washington avenues. It was a group of high school protesters joining nationwide protests in the wake of George Floyds murder by a Minneapolis police officer. After I got back, I went down and expressed my appreciation for them lending their voice to a cause theyre passionate about, the mayor said. I thanked them for being peaceful and to keep up the good work. (Police Chief Mark Dunston also stopped to speak to the protesters, Dobson said.) Once the band finished playing, however, at least two of the members walked down from City Hall to confront the protesters. I had left to go to a meeting, but my understanding is (the band) went down there and started chastising them, telling them they shouldnt be out there, that their protest didnt matter, Dobson said. Ultimately, the band is responsible. I hate they did that. A short video of a few moments of the confrontation was posted to Facebook. In the clip, protesters can be heard chanting black lives matter" while at least one band member and another adult are chanting Tall Boys matter and/or all lives matter. Another clip surfaced later Tuesday in which one band member is heard arguing with the protesters. Tuesday morning, the bands two original members -- Willie Robinson and Curtis Tomlinson -- posted an apology to the bands Facebook page in which they said they support the protest of George Floyds killing and laid much of the blame for the confrontation with the students on the bands third member, John Gagliano. We first want to say that we support the protest, we too think the horrific killing of George Floyd was completely wrong in every way, and we did not mean any disrespect towards the protest when we came to talk to the protesters, the bands post reads. Robinson and Tomlinson wrote they had gone down the street to take a photo with the protesters, but the students refused, saying it was just a publicity stunt for the band. Tomlinson and Robinson began to leave the scene, but wrote that Gagliano remained, along with another adult male not in the band. John should have just exited the situation, but he didnt; rather, he tried to talk to talk to the protesters, telling them not all police are bad, etc.," the post reads. "This certainly doesnt mean John wasnt in the wrong; it obviously came off as a grown man getting in the faces of teenagers. For that, we apologize as well. At this point, Curtis the tall one in the group tried to get John to leave, but John still stayed for a few more minutes. In a separate post, also on the bands Facebook page, Gagliano -- identifying himself as Johnny Ponytail" -- offered his own apology and version of events. This is Johnny Ponytail. All the bull---- that happened today at the protest was on me, the post reads. I was being obnoxious and defiant. I did not touch anyone, I did not threaten anyone. I should not have engaged with them. What was supposed to be goofy turned into cussing and fussing...on both sides. Curtis or Willie did not engage with them. It got out of control and I regret it. However, in another post to the bands page -- which has since been deleted -- the protesters are referred to as the antifa protesters and that the band came out unscathed. Its unclear which band member authored that particular post. There was, as expected, outrage from many on social media, with a number of users calling for local music venues to no longer book the band. Among those was Ocean Springs alderman Rob Blackman. I thought the kids exercising their right to peacefully protest did a great job of keeping it respectful and not creating any problems, Blackman posted to his Facebook page. "However, as for the band, and I use that term loosely, the tall boys, they were totally out of line. These are grown a-- men acting like children and provoking these kids. Ive never personally cared for them as a band, but wouldnt usually bash musicians publicly as I am a musician myself, but what they did was wrong and they should be called out on it. As long as Im around they will never play any event the city is involved with. Whether local businesses will continue to book them or not remains to be seen, but Dobson was clear where he stood when asked if it was a safe assumption he would not be contacting them again. Thats fair to say. Thats very accurate, he said. TICKERS: GRB; GEBRF Source: Clive Maund for Streetwise Reports (6/1/20) Technical analyst Clive Maund discusses Greenbriar Capital shares' big ramp up following its agreement with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority. We hit the jackpot with this one, so it was a bit silly of me to say that traders might want to think about taking some money off the table on Friday morningsilly because the Montalva solar energy project deal that Greenbriar Capital Corp. (GRB:TSX.V; GEBRF:OTC) has done with PREPA (Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority) is going to end up being worth about C$10 a share, and I've heard it said that it could be a $17 stock. The deal now moves on to final approval by the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau (PREB) and the Puerto Rico Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB). This process is expected to last two to three weeks (from now) and should be a mere formality, a rubber stamp job. We bought the stock back at the perfect entry point 2 weeks ago as it completed a bull Flag, since which time it has accelerated into a vertical ramp on news of the deal being clinched, as you will see on the latest 6-month chart shown above. With this deal being worth approximately C$10 per share it is clear that the stock is probably on its way to this level, however, that said, we can expect to see some jitters and profit taking in the days leading up to the final approval, so we will keep an eye on it and "play it by ear" as this time approaches. Since it is already super critically overbought on its RSI indicator after Friday's big jump, we can expect it to hit some profit taking "air pockets" from now on, and anyone who wants in or wants to add to positions should do so on any larger intraday dips, but as the date of final approval approaches in a couple of weeks we may look to take profits. Greenbriar Capital website. Greenbriar Capital Corp, GRB.V, GEBRF on OTC, closed at C$2.98, $2.15 on 29th May 2020. Originally posted on CliveMaund.com at 1.15 pm EDT on 31st May 2020. Clive Maund has been president of www.clivemaund.com, a successful resource sector website, since its inception in 2003. He has 30 years' experience in technical analysis and has worked for banks, commodity brokers and stockbrokers in the City of London. He holds a Diploma in Technical Analysis from the UK Society of Technical Analysts. [NLINSERT] Disclosure: 1) Clive Maund: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: None. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. My company has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this article: None. CliveMaund.com disclosures below. I determined which companies would be included in this article based on my research and understanding of the sector. 2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. 3) Statements and opinions expressed are the opinions of the author and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The author is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. The author was not paid by Streetwise Reports for this article. Streetwise Reports was not paid by the author to publish or syndicate this article. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports requires contributing authors to disclose any shareholdings in, or economic relationships with, companies that they write about. Streetwise Reports relies upon the authors to accurately provide this information and Streetwise Reports has no means of verifying its accuracy. 4) This article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports. 5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the interview or the decision to write an article until three business days after the publication of the interview or article. The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports (including members of their household) own securities of Greenbriar Capital, a company mentioned in this article. Charts provided by the author. CliveMaund.com Disclosure: The above represents the opinion and analysis of Mr Maund, based on data available to him, at the time of writing. Mr. Maund's opinions are his own, and are not a recommendation or an offer to buy or sell securities. Mr. Maund is an independent analyst who receives no compensation of any kind from any groups, individuals or corporations mentioned in his reports. As trading and investing in any financial markets may involve serious risk of loss, Mr. Maund recommends that you consult with a qualified investment advisor, one licensed by appropriate regulatory agencies in your legal jurisdiction and do your own due diligence and research when making any kind of a transaction with financial ramifications. Although a qualified and experienced stock market analyst, Clive Maund is not a Registered Securities Advisor. Therefore Mr. Maund's opinions on the market and stocks can only be construed as a solicitation to buy and sell securities when they are subject to the prior approval and endorsement of a Registered Securities Advisor operating in accordance with the appropriate regulations in your area of jurisdiction. Starting today, June 1, Gallery Furniture's Grand Parkway store will offer free mental health services to residents of Fort Bend County. Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale, Fort Bend County Judge KP George and Fort Bend County Commissioner Ken DeMerchant will provide these resources in conjunction with AccessHealth and The Houston Galveston Institute. HIGHEST-PAYING JOBS ACROSS TEXAS: These are some of the highest-paying jobs across Texas' state agencies "Our goal is to help Fort Bend residents find resources to help improve mental health and wellness during this challenging time," said a statement on Gallery Furniture's website. The services are free of charge, and Fort Bend County mental health experts will help identify needs and refer clients to the following resources: Stress management Anxiety and worry Parenting Building resiliency No appointment is necessary. Services are offered Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information, click here or call 713-694-5570. In addition to these resources, Gallery Furniture is also hosting a "Work Texas Job Center" to assist residents of Fort Bend to find a job. Slots are available by appointment only, and you can make an appointment by visiting the website here. Participants may email a resume prior to an appointment to help@worktexas.org. STAY INFORMED: Sign up to receive breaking news alerts delivered to your email here. YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. Foreign minister of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan has sent a congratulatory letter to foreign minister of Artsakh Masis Mailyan on re-appointment, the Artsakh MFA told Armenpress. The letter says: I sincerely congratulate you on your re-appointment as foreign minister of Artsakh. I am confident that your rich experience and professionalism as a state official will greatly contribute to the further development of the Republic of Artsakh and raising its international reputation. I am full of hope that through a constant dialogue with you we will manage to make more heard the voice of the Artsakh people at the international platforms, increase the engagement of the Artsakh authorities in the settlement process and by this raise the efficiency of the NK conflict settlement process for the benefit of regional peace and stability. At this new stage of your tenure I wish you new achievements in the key mission to present Artsakh at the international arena. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan JCPenney will reopen its store in the Capital City Mall in Lower Allen Township this week. The store will open on Wednesday. The store was permitted to open as early as May 22, when Cumberland County moved into the states yellow phase. JCPenney had closed all of its stores in Pennsylvania in March after Gov. Tom Wolf ordered that all non-essential businesses close due to COVID-19. The opening follows three other JCPenney stores that reopened in the state last week in the Hermitage, Erie and Clarion areas. The stores are open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday. The reopenings come the same month as the Texas-based retailer files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in an effort to restructure its debts. JCPenney will permanently close 242 of its 846 stores to reduce costs. The company said 192 locations are expected to close by February and 50 more would close in its 2022 fiscal year. No word yet on which stores will permanently close. JCPenneys store in Swatara Township was permitted to open on Friday but has not yet reopened. As far as the Capital City Mall itself goes, the mall must remain closed in the yellow phase. Only tenants with external entrances may reopen. JCPenney will open June 3. Macys will open June 8. Dicks Sporting Goods and Sportsmans Warehouse opened on May 22. Mavis Discount Tire and Fine Wine & Good Spirits are currently open. Outback Steakhouse and Primanti Bros. are offering takeout but, their dining areas must remain closed. --Business Buzz --Sign up for PennLives newsletters Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. You can follow Daniel Urie on twitter @DanielUrie2018 and you can like PennLives business page on Facebook at @PennLiveBusiness A protester is struck by a pepper bullet as police attempt to move a group from Vine Ave. as they march numerous blocks demonstrating against police brutality and the death of George Floyd. Police throughout California arrested hundreds of people who refused to heed curfews, chasing some down after they smashed into stores following a weekend of violence that accompanied rage over George Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police. Monday's violence and thefts were not on the scale of the weekend, when blocks of stores were devastated, police cars torched and many officers injured. Most of Monday's protests were smaller, although an estimated 15,000 people gathered in Oakland and about 5,000 demonstrated in Riverside, east of Los Angeles. In Sacramento, where two-thirds of the downtown businesses were damaged over the weekend, 500 National Guard troops were deployed and the city declared a Monday night curfew. Most demonstrations were peaceful and there was sympathy expressed by law enforcement. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco took a knee at the invitation of demonstrators. "We support and will protect those who wish to demonstrate peacefully," Los Angeles U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna said in a statement that announced the FBI will help identify those who commit serious crimes. San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit said Floyd's death prompted him to revisit department policy and stop using a controversial neck restraint method. Floyd, who was black, was handcuffed and on the ground pleading for air as a white police officer pressed a knee on his neck for several minutes. Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore criticized looters as capitalizing on the death of Floyd and said "his death is on their hands." Moore quickly said he regretted that characterization but added he was not apologizing to those committing violence and destroying livelihoods. "Looting is wrong, but it is not the equivalent of murder and I did not mean to equate the two," Moore said later. "Let me be clear: the police officers involved were responsible for the death of Mr. George Floyd." Jaipur, June 2 : Rajasthan has topped each index in a comparative study conducted by the Central government for 10 states which includes parameters such as active cases, recovered cases and death rates due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The state has 2,803 active cases out of which 2,620 are migrants. Besides them, there are only 182 active cases in the state, said state medical and health minister Raghu Sharma. Around 35 lakh tests have been carried out in the entire nation out of which 4 lakh tests have been done in Rajasthan. A total of 1.10 lakh tests have been done at the Sawai Man Singh hospital itself, Sharma said, adding that while the corona infection doubling rate is 12 days in Rajasthan, it stands at 18 days in India. Sharma added that the death rate due to Covid-19 in Rajasthan is 2.16 per cent. which is quite less as compared to the national rate. The state is now conducting 18,250 tests daily, and soon it will be ramped up to 25,000, he said. Due to microlevel work being done at the village, sub-divisional and district levels, the infection did not spread much despite around 11 lakh people returning to the state from cities like Ahmedabad, Surat and Mumbai, he said further. President Trump said Tuesday that he ranks No. 2 after Abraham Lincoln - the president who freed the slaves - in helping black America. 'My Admin has done more for the Black Community than any President since Abraham Lincoln,' the president tweeted. 'Passed Opportunity Zones with Sen. Tim Scott, guaranteed funding for HBCU's, School Choice, passed Criminal Justice Reform, lowest Black unemployment, poverty, and crime rates in history ... ...AND THE BEST IS YET TO COME!' The president's comments come as the country has seen days of protests and unrest after the Memorial Day death of George Floyd, a black Minneapolis man, at the hands of a white police officer. President Trump is photographed outside St. John's Church in Washington Monday afternoon moments after a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest was cleared off H Street using tear gas Despite Trump trying to quash the protests over the death of George Floyd, he pitched himself to the black community as the best president 'since Abraham Lincoln' Trump's campaign has made a concerted effort to go after the black vote, while Trump has continued to use some langauge that appeases his predominantly white base Protesters near the White House were tear-gassed Monday afternoon so that the president could walk through Lafayette park and take a photo in front of St. John's Church, which had its basement lit on fire when demonstrations turned ugly over the weekend Trump's response to the chaos has swung between trying to appease his predominantly white base - while seemingly still aiming at the goal to win over more of the black vote in the November election. The president's re-election team has made a concerted effort to reach out to black voters, an untapped demographic for most Republican politicians. Surrogate Katrina Pierson and Scott, a black Republican senator from South Carolina, recently jumped on presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden's problematic 'you ain't black' gaffe. Biden had told popular radio show host Charlamagne tha God that he 'ain't black' if you 'have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump.' The Democrat apologized several hours later on a call with black business leaders saying he shouldn't have been 'so cavalier.' But while trying to take political advantage of Biden's mistake, Trump on Twitter has dog-whistled using racist language, like calling protesters 'THUGS' and tweeting Friday, 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts' - a 1960s-era phrase used by a racist Miami police chief. In person, several hours later, he told reporters he had called Floyd's family members and they were 'terrific,' while saying he was unaware that the phrase 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts,' had racist origins. 'But I don't know where it came from, I don't know where it originated,' the president said Friday afternoon. On Monday Trump said the 'biggest victims' of rioting 'are peace-loving citizens in our poorest communities.' 'I will fight to protect you,' he pledged. He then used a phrase that would play well for his base: 'I am your president of law an order.' 'And an ally of all peaceful protesters,' he said. Playing out on the split-screen was law enforcement clearing Black Lives Matter protesters and their allies, including local clergy, using tear gas, police on horseback and rubber bullets. Those at the scene reported it had been a peaceful protest until law enforcement acted. Trump wanted to walk across Lafayette Park for a photo-op in front of St. John's church, which had its basement lit on fire briefly over the weekend, when demonstrations turned ugly. In a symbolic gesture to his base, the president held up a Bible at the site. On Tuesday, Biden gave an address on race where he called out Trump's racist language and the photo-op, while pledging to bring Americans together. The Trump campaign responded by sending out an email entitled, '"Architect of Mass Incarceration" Joe Biden is A Race-Baiter Who Seeks to Sow Division,' pointing out some of Biden's gaffes and his role in the 1994 crime legislation, which has been blamed for the massive imprisonment of black Americans. Tuesday's tweets weren't the first time Trump has compared himself to Lincoln. At a coronavirus-themed Fox News Channel town hall at the Lincoln Memorial in early May, Trump indicated that he believed both he and Lincoln were treated badly by the press. 'Look, I am greeted with a hostile press the likes of which no president has ever seen. The closest would be that gentleman right up there,' Trump said. He pointed at the huge statue of Lincoln that was several feet away. 'I believe I am treated worse,' he said. U.S. Marines and Sailors with Marine Rotational Force-Darwin 2018 arrive at the Royal Australian Air Force Base Darwin, Australia, April 12, 2018. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Mason Roy) Contingent of US Marines arrives in Darwin The first group of United States Marines has arrived in Darwin as part of a rotational force deployment initially delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Australian Defence Force members will enforce quarantine restrictions on about 200 U.S. Marines who have landed in Darwin in an influx of foreigners that has become rare since the coronavirus outbreak. U.S. #Marines have arrived in #Darwin To ensure the safety of the local community the Marines received a #COVID19 test, went through biosecurity inspections, and were placed in a 14-day quarantine facility in-line with policies established by the Australian and US Governments pic.twitter.com/tvOZOQQztZ MRF-D (@MrfDarwin) June 2, 2020 The ninth edition of the six-month Marine Rotational Force was paused by the federal government three months ago because of the pandemic. However with Australia managing to prevent a large outbreak or loss of life from COVID-19, Defence Minister Linda Reynolds said in early May that a three-month version involving a reduced 1200 troops of the joint exercises called the United States Force Posture Initiatives would go ahead. Strict guidelines for all of the Marines who arrived on Tuesday, and over the next eight weeks involve being quarantined for 14 days at an air force base in Darwin. Each Marine will also be screened four days before departure, tested upon arrival in Australia and at the end of the quarantine period. With the first tranche yes, there will be a heavy presence of Australians (soldiers) and we have invited Northern Territory police and health officers to come and supervise quarantine, ADF commander northern command, group captain Stewart Dowrie told reporters. Subsequent to the first 200 being released there will be more US Marine Corps people who can also assist in the supervision. I have no doubt the United States Marine Corps are a highly disciplined work force. Any breaches would involve both disciplinary measures and action by health authorities, Captain Dowrie said. It was reported earlier this week that 6278 of U.S. service members were known to have contracted the virus, with three deaths. The Northern Territory was declared free of the disease a fortnight ago and has not had any locally diagnosed cases for eight weeks. The Marines will train with ADF personnel at training area around greater Darwin, including Mount Bundey and Kangaroo Flats finishing with a bilateral high-end war-fighting activity, Exercise Koolendong, Captain Dowrie said. This is a great opportunity for the U.S. military, Marines and Australian Defence Force to train together, to work on deepening their interoperability and work together in terms of responding to crisis and contingency in the region, including for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. Defence Minister Linda Reynolds said: Australias alliance with the United States is our most important defence relationship. It sends a clear signal about our commitment to the security and stability of our region. By Greg Roberts The EU's chief diplomat on Tuesday warned President Donald Trump he did not have the power to change the format of G7 summit, after the US leader said he wanted to invite several other countries, including Russia. Moscow was expelled from the club of the world's leading industrial nations in 2014 after annexing Crimea from Ukraine, but Trump says the current membership is "outdated". Trump said on Saturday he would delay the summit scheduled for this month and invite other countries, including Russia, to join the meeting. But EU foreign affairs high representative Josep Borrell said that Russia had not changed course since 2014 and so should not be re-admitted. "The prerogative of the G7 chair, in this case the United States, is to issue guest invitations -- guest invitations reflect the host's priorities," Borrell said. "But changing membership, changing the format on a permanent basis, is not a prerogative of the G7 chair." Leaders from the Group of Seven -- the US, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan -- had been scheduled to meet by videoconference after coronavirus scuttled plans to gather in-person at Camp David, the US presidential retreat outside Washington. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rejected the idea of inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin, citing his "continued disrespect and flaunting of international rules and norms". 02.06.2020 LISTEN In what has become stereotypical about Africa with wars, poverty, and others that demean the continent, many have put it upon themselves to in their own way help change that narrative, one of such many is Modin comics. Modin Comics is a Ghana-UK based graphics agency owned by Jeffrey Abban who tells TheAfricanDreamw.net that Modin in the Ga language of Ghana means black person. With the inspiration to challenge what they saw as unfair and untruthful stories peddled about Africa, Modin Comics is using graphic novels and animations to tell the world a whole newer and truer story about Africa. Modin Comics Jeffrey Abban talking about a sketch (inset) from one of his comic characters. Born and raised in Ghana, Jeffrey Abban, attended Soul Clinic International School for his basic education and Junior High School before pursuing High School education at Labone Secondary School in Ghana. At Labone he also studied for his sixth form education by majoring in geography, economics, and art. From there, he went to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), then University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, where he studied what he describes as passion graphic design. While in his second year at KNUST, he was poached by a graphic design firm in Accra called Legends after he was spotted on a field trip there. That was the beginning of a new working relationship with Legends that lasted for three years well after his graduation. He worked as a graphic designer and an illustrator for them. Before graduating KNUST however, Jeffrey told TheAfricanDream.net that together with his brother, they started producing a comic book series titled Mighty Joo. This project however did not see the light of day back then due to financial limitations and had to be shelved. Inspired by the African proverb until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter, nurtured his Mighty Joo ambitions, and saw a moment to publish it when an opportunity to travel to the United Kingdom (UK) became a reality. The UK wasnt a bed of roses as I had imagined it, but it brought out my spirit of resilience that fed a burning desire to change the narrative about the African, a feeling he shared with his brother. It was their strongest desire to rise above all limitations that led to Jeffrey birthing Modin Comics in the UK whiles his brother, Jones Abban founded Parables studio back in Ghana. Both firms had the sole aim to create a new breed of African superheroes indigenous in origin with a strong belief that superheroes and their mind-blowing acts are in no way limited to skin color, race, or gender. They also want to use this means not just to change the African narrative but as well empower the young African, preserve history, and make culture fun to study and discover. Jeffrey Abban shares revealed to TheAfricanDream.net that he was inspired by the late comings legend Stan Lee of Marvel fame and Jack Kirby to take this path, saying further that given the opportunity, I will love to work with Roye Okupe and Jid Martin. This is because Roye and Jid, both stalwarts in the comic industry are driven by the same vision I hold of telling a new African story that is true. My first important work is my collaborative work with my brother on the Kickstarter for Mighty Joo in an animated short titled Galamsyed which tackled the issues of harmful mining practices of Galamsey (Small-scale mining) in Ghana, Jeffrey reminisced. The projection of Jeffrey for Modin Comics this year is to come out with original stories for three of their characters; a debut novel unveiling Africas greatest superhero group, the African Defenders and another collaborative work with his brothers Parable Studios that will feature the comic characters Mighty Joo and Asantewaa. In concluding this inspiring and revealing interview, Jeffrey left TheAfricanDream.net with these words; I would like to say, I am passionate about Africa and the opportunities present for us to change the unsavory narrative told on our behalf. The onus is on us to tell our story our way; the African way. Jeffrey and Modin Comics are spread across various social media platforms. On Instagram, find them as modincomics_gh, they are move-in comics on Facebook and are on YouTube as Parables Animation Studio. France has said that it will deliver Rafale fighter jets to the Indian Air Force on time despite the challenges posed by the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic. This was communicated to defence minister Rajnath Singh by his French counterpart Florence Parly during a phone call on Tuesday. France reaffirmed its commitment to ensure timely delivery of Rafale aircraft despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the defence ministry said in a statement after the two ministers spoke. The IAF is likely to get the delivery of the first batch of four Rafale jets from France by July-end. The four fighters were supposed to fly to their home base in India in May 2020, but the plan was delayed due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Confinement measures announced by France to battle the outbreak had temporarily halted production at aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviations Merignac facility. India ordered 36 Rafale jets from France in a deal worth Rs 59,000 crore in September 2016 as an emergency purchase to arrest the worrying slide in the air forces combat capabilities. According to the delivery schedule, the first 18 jets (including the four in the first batch) are supposed to be delivered to the IAF by February 2021, with the rest expected by April-May 2022. France handed over to India its first Rafale fighter during a ceremony attended by Singh and Parly in Merignac on October 8, 2019, which coincided with the IAFs 87th founding day and the Hindu festival of Dussehra. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Darren Jensen (The Jakarta Post) London Tue, June 2, 2020 14:27 598 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb87724 3 Opinion STEM,Research-and-Development,online-learning,remote-learning,Education Free The coronavirus may have forced Indonesias schools to temporarily close, but when they reopen we can be certain that science and technology learning will be firmly back on the governments education agenda with the nations future set to be defined by science, technology, engineering and mathematics or STEM learning. As the biggest contributor to the internet economy's growth in Southeast Asia, Indonesias tech sector is booming. However its growth is being held back by a shortage of skilled STEM talent, producing only 278 engineers per million people a year. In response, the Indonesian government has announced plans to enable start-ups to hire foreign staff more easily, which could help plug the gap in the short term. But for the long term, education is the real answer. The government is already working to boost STEM education by improving teachers skills and knowledge through its Curriculum 2013 program. However, as a young country in which 60 percent of the population is 40 or under, and with rapidly expanding internet connectivity seeing 65 percent of Indonesians online in 2018 compared with 55 percent in the previous year, Indonesia may actually have an ace up its sleeve as it seeks to bolster STEM learning in schools. Young peoples increasingly easy embrace of technology can help drive forward the early adoption of STEM in a number of crucial ways. Online learning can help Indonesian students learn subjects that arent always available at their schools. Of course, theres no substitute for face-to-face teaching, but where schools, whether through lack of staff or resources, struggle to teach a full range of subjects, such as computer science or advanced mathematics, they can look to online learning platforms to connect students to teachers around the world offering these subjects in virtual classrooms. By leveraging cloud-based classrooms, supported by staff on the ground in schools, it is possible for Indonesia to move quickly to widen access to internationally recognized, high quality education. Online tools can also provide the opportunity for Indonesian schools to introduce blended learning. These platforms, which provide teachers with entire subject courses broken down into individual lessons they can plan out, allow them to set tasks and track students progress online. Where schools lack a fully trained teacher in a necessary STEM subject for example where they might have a physics teacher who must teach biology and chemistry as well due to staff shortage the course content and lesson plans provided by online platforms can be of great assistance. Even when a school has fully trained teachers across all STEM subjects, using online tools to flip classrooms greatly reduces the time teachers need to spend on course preparation, marking and reporting, freeing them up to focus their efforts more strongly on teaching in the classroom and guiding the learning experience for students. For students, this means more face-to-face time with their teachers in class, and with many learning activities done online it means more time in school to collaborate with their peers, all of which helps increase engagement by bringing complex STEM subjects to life. With Indonesian schools forced to close due to the COVID-19 crisis, this will only further underscore the importance of technology to the education sector as more schools coping with closure turn to online learning. The capacity of online learning to boost STEM education from an early age can also play a key role in preparing the next generation of Indonesians for the rapidly changing job market they will face. Students who can access online learning platforms will not only have a new window into STEM learning but also gain practical experience of collaborative, digital technologies that promote self-direction and independence in learning; skills that just like science and maths will be needed to navigate the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the challenges and opportunities it brings. All around the world artificial intelligence and automation are transforming the job market and rendering many of the jobs we currently know obsolete, while creating new jobs that could not have been imagined before. If Indonesias students are to gain the skills necessary to not only survive but thrive in tomorrows world of work, they cannot afford to lose another minute. Every day they are not receiving a quality STEM education is a day they will never get back. Online learning can be a powerful ally for Indonesias brilliant young minds as they stand ready to face a world that has just been turned upside down right at the beginning of what could have been and still can be a brave new decade. *** Regional director Asia of Pamoja Education Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. Theres never been a better time to get your motorcycle license. Were all staying closer to home because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic (yes, thats still happening, even if youre over wearing a mask), we all could use a new hobby to destress from the ongoing turmoil in our country, and gas prices, while not as low as they were two months ago, are still near the bottom of the barrel. I can already hear the hesitation. Motorcycles are dangerous. Motorcycles are not for me. I dont have any use for a motorcycle. Normally, those are all valid complaints, except when it comes to summer 2020 and the Honda Monkey. Youve undoubtedly heard the term monkey bike before, but the Honda Monkey is the original. The little bike that could traces its origins back to the 1961 Z100, a 49cc putter that was featured at a Honda-owned amusement park in Japan, as well as the Z50A, the first Monkey bike that was sold in the U.S. back in 1968. If you grew up riding bikes, you probably have some memories of scooting around on one of the many plush-cushioned iterations, but the bike has gone by the wayside since Honda killed off the original line in 2017. Of course, Honda reintroduced the Monkey for the 2019 model year and updated it slightly for 2020, but the retro-dipped 60s throwback has been fighting an uphill battle against the more popular Honda Grom, a legitimate minibike phenomenon mostly favored by young guys who like to get into low-stakes trouble and post group-ride videos on YouTube. But you know what? The Grom is ugly. Sorry, but its true. If a Harley-Davidson Road King is the motorcyclig equivalent of a geezer yelling get off my lawn, the Grom is the equivalent of the hooligan hes haranguing. Meanwhile, the Honda Monkey has been patiently waiting in a corner ready to take you on a nostalgia trip back to some rose-colored yesteryear, even if you have zero bike experience and have never even heard the phrase You Meet the Nicest People on a Honda. Of course, this PSA isnt just for the two-wheeled neophytes, its for the power-hungry, spec-sheet disciples too. No, the Monkey isnt a bike to brag about when you roll up to the roadhouse, what with its 125cc engine and whopping nine horsepower (though the fuel consumption makes up for that with somewhere around 150 MPG). And sure, theres a good chance any review or blog post about the Monkey will complain about it being overpriced the 2020 model with ABS, which youre definitely going to want, comes in at $4,199. Come on, people. Of course it costs more than the smaller bikes from the 70s! All the price nitpickers are just looking for something to kvetch about online when they should be out getting goggle tans and compliments from every single one of their neighbors. If you dont want to take my word for it, Cycle News called the Monkey one of those bikes that makes you glad to be alive. MotorTrend even took a pair of them on a Baja 1000 road trip, inspired by the legendary off-road race thats come to be associated with trophy trucks but actually started with a 250cc 1964 Honda CL72 Scrambler. It wasnt easy, but they did it, and even if youll never drive your Pearl Blue bike through the Mexican desert, its still nice to know that you could. If youre thinking what Im thinking, hearing about some exotic road trip is a knife in the gut right now since many of us havent ventured more than 20 miles from the house in the last few months. In the end, thats what makes this bike so great. Weve got an uncertain summer (and fall, and winter, and 2021) ahead of us, and while other motorcycles are more expensive and need to be fed open roads to be truly happy, the Honda Monkey is a vacation in a pint-sized package, the kind of vehicle youd pay $100 to ride while visiting some quaint town in Spain or Japan. But weve got the world at our fingertips, people. You dont have to travel halfway around the globe to get a good whisky highball, and you dont have to do that to enjoy the pleasure of cruising around on a Monkey bike, either. The post You Should Spend Your COVID-19 Summer on a Honda Monkey Bike appeared first on InsideHook. The beginning of winter in Victoria has brought heavy rain, severe winds, plummeting temperatures and snow. Melbourne recorded the coldest start to winter since 1943, reaching a maximum temperature of just 11.2C on Monday. Most of the country has endured a chilly start to the week with rain forecast for several days. Cool south-westerly winds pushed freezing air through Australia's east with showers hitting New South Wales and Queensland on Tuesday morning. Melbourne (pictured) recorded the coldest start to winter since 1943, reaching a top of just 11.2C on Monday The chilly start to June has been good news for the slopes with thick blankets of snow covering Melbourne's alpine regions The beginning of winter in Victoria has brought heavy rain, severe winds and snow (pictured) Weatherzone meteorologist Brett Dutschke told Daily Mail Australia Melbourne shivered through a 'proper winter's day' on Monday. Ferny Creek in the Yarra Ranges recorded the biggest drenching in the state with 23mm of rain falling, while Melbourne received about 10mm to late Monday afternoon. Much of the state was lashed with strong winds, particularly in Port Phillip Bay where St Kilda copped wind gusts of up to 83km/h. The chilly start to June has been good news for ski resorts with thick blankets of snow covering the alpine regions. Up to 10cm of snow has already fallen at Mount Hotham with resort photographer Chris Hocking welcoming the first snowfall of winter. 'We woke up there to a fresh coating of snow and it has intensified as well. It is great scenes for the first day of winter,' he told AAP. Cool south-westerly winds pushed cold air through Australia's east with showers hitting New South Wales. Pictured: Sydney's central business district was battered with heavy rains in early March Weatherzone meteorologist Brett Dutschke told Daily Mail Australia Melbourne had shivered through a 'proper winter's day' on Monday Up to 10cm of snow has already fallen at Mount Hotham with resort photographer Chris Hocking welcoming the first snowfall of winter The rest of the week will be wet, however conditions will start to settle after Tuesday. Temperatures in Queensland plummeted overnight with the state feeling the beginning of winter on Tuesday morning. Across the state, maximum temperatures may fall short of the June maximum average of 15.5C, with temperatures reaching a top of 15C on Wednesday. Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Peter Markworth said temperatures will nudge 0C in parts of the state. 'Getting down into the close to zero temperatures is pretty typical of one of these southerly bursts and we are in the first week of winter, so not unusual at these times,' Mr Markworth said. 'Most places will see temperatures a touch below the June average, but just a touch - one or two degrees maximum.' Temperatures in Queensland plummeted overnight with the state feeling the beginning of winter on Tuesday morning The cold front reflected that Australia would experience more cold days than the average winter season. Pictured: Pedestrians in Melbourne wearing layers to fight the cold in May Brisbane is expected to have an average June day with temperatures reaching a minimum of 9C and maximum of 21C by Wednesday. Unusually cold conditions are expected on the Gold Coast, with Surfers Paradise and Coolangatta dropping to lows of 6C and 8C respectively on Wednesday. The average June temperature is 13.2C for the Gold Coast. NSW all experienced snowfall on Monday as cold air from the south passed over the mainland alps. The snow gave Thredbo and Perisher a picturesque start to winter as skiers and snowboarders begin to get excited about the upcoming season. The cold air mass is expected to continue to spread north until Wednesday with temperatures falling low enough for snow to fall in elevated areas of central and northern NSW on Tuesday. Sydney woke to showers and low temperatures on Tuesday morning with a maximum of 17C and chilly winds. The low temperatures are expected to remain for most of the week before the weather clears up on Sunday. Pictured: Mordialloc Harbour in Melbourne The low temperatures are expected to remain for most of the week before the weather clears up on Sunday. 'Sydney will also be experiencing winds and will be comfortably mild with a cooler change later in the day,' Mr Dutschke said. 'It will start to feel pretty chilly in the evening.' South Australia will also experience a dip in temperatures as a result of the high pressure system. Adelaide will see rain with top temperatures of just 16C and remaining in the mid teens for the rest of the week. Canberra is expected to endure frosty lows of 2C and highs of just 14C throughout the week. Mr Dutschke said Canberra would also see showers thanks to the cold front. South Australia will also experience a dip in temperatures as a result of the high pressure system 'It's going to be pretty cold and windy,' he explained. For the rest of the week the nation's capital will likely remain free of rain and sunny for most of the week before the temperature drops to a chilling -2C on Saturday. Hobart will experience late showers and a maximum temperature of just 12C with similar weather forecast for much of the week. Perth has escaped the cold front but is experiencing dry winds and maximum temperatures of 23C throughout the week. Darwin will be sunny with temperatures in the low-thirties. Mr Dutschke said the cold front reflected what the weather had in store for the rest of Australia's winter season. 'Most of the country will be experiencing a wetter than average season. 'We're likely to have more cold days than the average winter because of the cloud and rain that is around,' he explained. SOUTHFIELD, Mich., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As an African-American pastor, husband and father of African-American children and grandchildren, I am very deeply disturbed by the senseless killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minnesota. Clearly there is probable cause for the arrest of all the offending officers. Had this been myself or anyone else caught on tape, we would be in jail while the investigation was being conducted. The fact that all of the offending officers have not been jailed while the investigation goes forward is unconscionable. Firing them is not enough. You've arrested one, now arrest the other three officers involved. I call upon the authorities in Minnesota to immediately arrest all of the officers involved with this brutal and heartless killing while the incident is being investigated. I believe in the presumption of innocent until proven guilty, but in this matter you have clear and probable cause on video. Do your job and arrest all four of these officers. SOURCE Word of Faith International Christian Center Related Links http://www.woficc.com Joe Biden criticized President Donald Trump on Tuesday for fanning "the flames of hate," and called on Congress not to wait until a new president is elected to address systemic racism and police brutality as protests continue to sweep the nation. Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, decried Trump's leadership of a country beset by three crises - the coronavirus pandemic, the recession and protests over racial inequities that have often turned violent. "The country is crying out for leadership," Biden said in his speech from Philadelphia City Hall. "Leadership that can unite us. Leadership that can bring us together. Leadership that can recognize the pain and deep grief of communities that have had a knee on their neck for too long." Biden said there should be "no more excuses, no delays" in addressing the racial inequalities underlying the protests convulsing the nation. He said Congress should pass a ban on police chokeholds, prevent military surplus equipment from flowing to police departments and improve oversight. If elected, he said, he would set up a national police oversight commission in his first 100 days. But the former vice president acknowledged that change would take time, and he refused to promise that he could get it done in the traditional campaign yardstick of 100 days or even a full presidential term. "I wish I could say this hate began with Donald Trump and will end with him," he said. "It didn't, and it won't. American history isn't a fairytale with a guaranteed happy ending." - - - Biden's address was carried live by cable news networks, making it his most high-profile opportunity to contrast his message and style with Trump's since the pandemic put his campaign in shutdown mode. Biden made his first public appearance in months on Memorial Day last week, when he laid a wreath at a memorial with his wife, Jill Biden. On Monday, he held his first public event at a black church in Wilmington, Delaware, where he listened to community leaders speak about racial injustice. The leaders, while supportive of his campaign, pressed him to deliver for black Americans if he is elected. Biden's speech came the morning after police dispersed peaceful protesters from Lafayette Park across the street form the White House with tear gas and rubber bullets so Trump could walk out of the White House to stand in front of the historic St. John's Church for a photo. "The president held up a Bible at St. John's Church yesterday," Biden said. "I just wish he opened it once in a while. If he opened it instead of brandishing it, he could have learned something - that we are all called to love one another as we love ourselves." Protests, some violent, have erupted coast to coast after the death of George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis, while in police custody. Floyd, whose death was captured on video, was telling police he couldn't breathe as Officer Derek Chauvin, who has been charged with murder, knelt on his neck. Biden said the words "I can't breathe" are "echoing across the nation." "They speak to a nation where too often just the color of your skin puts your life at risk," he said. Biden cut a stark contrast with Trump, who has threatened to send in the military to quell the protests and criticized the nation's governors on a call Monday for not responding with enough force. "We will not allow any president to quiet our voice," he said. A "down payment" on that work, he said, must be made immediately. Though Biden has kept up a regular - but virtual - campaign schedule over the past few months, he has struggled at times to break through. Thus, Tuesday's nationally televised speech marked a turning point in Biden's general election campaign as he seeks to reassure a nation on edge from economic and social unrest. "I'll do my job and take responsibility," he said about his approach to the presidency. "I won't blame others. I'll never forget that the job isn't about me. It's about you. And I'll work to not only rebuild this nation. But to build it better than it was." Its no secret that Peter Weber is officially dating Kelley Flanagan the woman who finished in fifth place on The Bachelor Season 24. In interviews, Weber stated he was interested in moving to Los Angeles, California, or New York City, a few months ago. However, he recently revealed he is interested in moving to Chicago, Illinois, instead. The Bachelor Peter Weber and Kelley Flanagan | John Fleenor/ABC via Getty Images How did Peter Weber end up with Kelley Flanagan? When photos surfaced of Weber and Flanagan together in Chicago, the two initially denied claims that they were dating. However, it only took a few weeks for Weber to fall for his bachelor contestant outside of the show, while quarantined together due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Yes, Im definitely crushing on her for sure, Weber said on The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast on April 7, 2020. About one month later, the two made their relationship Instagram official. Weber posted a photo of him and Flanagan in the cockpit of a plane, kissing. RELATED: The Bachelor: Why Does Peter Weber Call Kelley Flanagan Chop, Chop? You caught me, Weber wrote in the caption. Let the adventure begin. Since the announcement, there are many more cute couples moments on both Instagram accounts. Why might The Bachelor Peter Weber move to Chicago? Although Weber quarantined with Flanagan in Chicago, he still resides with his parents in LA. However, a recent cameo reveals that he might be making a move out of his parents house soon. Im very interested in this particular listing, Weber said in a cameo to a realtor in Chicago. I am actually staying in Chicago for a little longer. This is the best city I have come to realize on the planet. In addition to his girlfriend living in Chicago, he found a condo that he loves and cannot stop talking about how much he loves the city. I cannot get enough of it, he continued. Any extra information would be greatly appreciated. I love the city I love the Italian beefs I love the cubbies. Whats not to love? In only a few short weeks, Weber fell in love with the Windy City. Will Bachelor Nation get a live proposal of Weber and Flanagan? Although fans already watched Weber propose to Hannah Ann Sluss on The Bachelor, they still want to see his relationship with Flanagan unfold. It didnt work out with Sluss or Madison, Prewett, but the Instagram posts coming from Weber and Flanagan have fans intrigued. I want an after after the final rose live with Chris Harrison cuz I feel like were still living your season, wrote one fan on Flanagans post. RELATED: The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons Ever!: When Will the New Show Premiere? With The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons Ever coming this summer, fans are hoping for an update on the relationship between Weber and Flanagan. The new show will recap entire seasons of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette in one night. Each episode will include updates from the contestants. Might be coming soon, Flanagan teased in response to the fan question. Viewers are hoping that the couple is featured on the new show, although their season wont be recapped. The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons Ever premieres June 8, 2020, at 8 p.m. EST on ABC. Hong Kong: Civil service pay frozen The Chief Executive in Council has decided that the pay for civil servants in the upper, middle and lower salary bands and the directorate in 2020-21 should be frozen with retrospective effect from April 1. Announcing the pay freeze today, the Civil Service Bureau said the decision was reached after all relevant factors under the established annual civil service pay adjustment mechanism had been thoroughly considered. According to the 2020 Pay Trend Survey, the net pay trend indicators (net PTIs) for the upper, middle and lower salary bands are 1.68%, 1.98% and 1.15%. The staff side of the four central consultative councils made different pay claims for the 2020-21 pay adjustment, ranging from a pay freeze to a 4% pay rise. Apart from the net PTIs and the pay claims of the staff side, the relevant factors for consideration also included the state of Hong Kong's economy, the Government's fiscal position, changes in the cost of living and civil service morale. The threat of COVID-19 and the necessary anti-epidemic measures seriously disrupted a wide range of economic activities in Hong Kong with the real Gross Domestic Product contracting sharply by a record 8.9% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2020. The Government ran a fiscal deficit of about $10.6 billion in 2019-20, the first for Hong Kong over the past 15 years, and the deficit is estimated to increase substantially to around $280 billion or even more in 2020-21. As regards the changes in the cost of living, for the 12-month period ending March, the headline Composite Consumer Price Index which reflects the impact of the changes in consumer prices on approximately 90% of households increased 2.8% compared to the previous 12-month period ending March 2019. The Civil Service Bureau said the Chief Executive in Council fully recognised civil servants' efforts and contributions in coping with the social events and COVID-19 in the past year, but it decided upon the pay freeze after thoroughly considering these relevant factors under the established mechanism. While all three net PTIs and the headline Composite CPI are in the positive, it should be pointed out that the net PTIs are but one of the six factors to be taken into account for deciding the annual civil service pay adjustment, the bureau noted. The pay freeze decision has therefore been made in strict accordance with the established civil service pay adjustment mechanism, it added. The Government has informed the staff side representatives of the four central consultative councils and representatives of the four major service-wide staff unions of the decision and will brief the Legislative Council Panel on Public Service on June 19. This story has been published on: 2020-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. DANBURY Solomon James said hes tired of having the same conversations about police brutality and racial profiling that his parents and the generations before him have had. Were sick of hearing about it, said James, 21, a lifelong Danbury resident, who is black. Not only are we sick of hearing about it, were sick of living through it. Its why he and other Danbury youth are organizing a peaceful march at noon Wednesday to protest institutionalized racism and honor George Floyd, a black man who died last week after a white Minneapolis officer pressed his knee on the mans neck for more than eight minutes. Floyds death has led to protests across the nation, with largely peaceful demonstrations held in the state. Organizers are not yet sure how many people will participate, but said there could be between 150 to 300 protesters. Several organizations are supporting the march, although it was organized by James and a group of Danbury High School students. Theres going to be a lot more younger people who are going to turn out, said James, a Southern Connecticut State University student. Its our generation who is fed up with all of it, the racism and mistreatment and people turning a blind eye. The exact route is still being worked out, but protesters plan to meet at C-Town on North Street and march down Main Street toward City Hall, where there will be speeches. The march will finish at Rogers Park or back at C-Town, James said. The march is being held as residents continue to die and become sick with the coronavirus, and as some protests across the country have led to violence. But organizers plan to require masks, with donated ones supplied to people who do not have them. The youth are also urging peaceful demonstration. We want everyones voices to be heard, but we dont want to be heard in a violent way, James said. Theres a lot of mom-and-pop shops on the street that we dont want to put them in danger. Because theyre frustrated. Its not their fault. Theyre in it as much as we are. Organizers are working with the city and police department, who have granted them permission to march on the street. Were going to help them get organized and make this happen, Mayor Mark Boughton said. Obviously Im supportive of the cause and I think the people putting this together are sincere about (being) peaceful and the social distancing. The police department is waiting to hear the organizers final route and estimated headcount as officers develop a plan to keep everyone safe, Lt. Andrew Corrado said We're doing our due diligence about what we can do to help everyone, he said. Were not going to stand in the way of a peaceful protest, he said. In a joint statement, the mayor and Police Chief Patrick Ridenhour called the Minneapolis officers actions inexcusable. We acknowledge the pain that this and all incidents of unnecessary force by police cause the nation as a whole and often communities of color in particular, they said. We do not condone police brutality under any circumstances. Other local departments released similar statements, with Newtown Chief James Viadero saying the Minneapolis case erodes the publics trust in law enforcement. Everyone deserves to be treated fairly, with dignity, respect, and expect impartiality when dealing with law enforcement, he said. I can assure you that the thousands of officers who serve their communities on a daily basis adhere to these values and honor their profession and the citizens we are sworn to protect and serve. Serenity Schreiber, who will soon graduate from Danbury High School, kick-started the protest with a tweet on Friday morning. Schreiber, who is white, said the Danbury community appeared to be silent after Floyds death and that she wanted to raise awareness for the issue. I understand I have some sort of privilege because of the color of my skin, she said. If I can use that to help other people that have been wronged by our institutions, then all I would want to do is that. James said he saw her tweet and wanted to use his connections to Danbury organizations to help. He said he also wanted a black voice to be part of the planning. We stand with the people of Minneapolis, he said, adding he has been singled out before by Danbury police while with a group of white friends. But also as we stand with them, we want to address our own problems, as well. Boughton said incidents of racial profiling should be brought to the chief and investigated. If thats an ongoing issue, we can certainly work on that, he said. There is always additional training that can be done for all departments across the country, not just our department. The mayor and chief said in the statement that the department cherish(es) its relationship with the entire Danbury community. We will never take that relationship for granted and we will continue to do our best to to ensure fair and equitable treatment for all, they said. On Monday night, while threatening military intervention to suppress nationwide protests against police brutality, Donald Trump declared himself the President of law and order. The Oct. 4, 1968, cover of TIME, the month before the 1968 Presidential election. | TIME It wasnt the first time Trump had invoked those three words. Just a day earlier, he had tweeted simply: LAW & ORDER. Observers have drawn parallels between the 1960s and the current period of unrest, which began following the death of George Floyd after a police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes; in particular, many pundits have seen particular echoes of Richard Nixons 1968 Presidential campaign. Back then, following revolts in 125 cities nationwide after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and throughout the mid-1960s, fueled by inequality issues yet to be addressed, Nixon made law and order a centerpiece of his platform. Law and order might sound simple, a 1968 TIME cover story on the campaign pointed out, but to some it was a shorthand message promising repression of the black communityand to that community, it was a bleak warning that worse times may be coming. But Elizabeth Hinton, a historian of U.S. inequality and author of From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America, says the focus on Nixon obscures the real Presidential origins of modern law and order. Nixons predecessor, Lyndon B. Johnson, shaped decades of policy when his Administration decided to invest more in policing than in social welfare programs and, as Hinton explains, that history is key to understanding why the issues that sparked the protests over the last week remain unresolved. She spoke to TIME about what to know about that past. TIME: Are there any particular moments from American history you think are parallel to what weve been seeing in the days since George Floyds death in Minneapolis? Story continues HINTON: There are a number of obvious parallels, but also really important differences, between what were seeing in the streets of American cities today and the 1960s. The proximate cause of the unrest being police violence and the underlying issues that have fueled the protests, which are continued racial equality and discrimination and socioeconomic exclusion, are really at the heart of both. In the 1960s, even though there was an attempt on the part of federal policymakers to address [those issues], their solutions did not go far enough. Ultimately they embraced a set of policies that continued the very same violent conditions that had led to the original unrest in the 1960s in the first place. Were still very much struggling with the unfinished legacy of Reconstruction and the enduring racism that pervades American society. And until thats addressed, these flames will continue. When you talk about policies and solutions that didnt go far enough, which examples do you have in mind? In the middle of the Detroit uprising in 1967, Johnson called for the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, known as the Kerner Commission. This group studied the nature of urban unrest in a number of American cities, and basically called on the federal government to begin to make massive investments in urban institutions schools, housing, job-creation programs. The Kerner Commission famously said, unless the federal government is prepared to make massive investments in these communities that are experiencing this unrest, Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white separate and unequal. The Johnson Administration and many other liberal policymakers thought this was too radical, and, as I discovered in my research, ended up, long-term, embracing a set of policies that managed problems of poverty and inequality through policing and surveillance of low-income communities and incarceration. And so that choice that investment in policing and divestment from social welfare programs is exactly the conditions that led some 50 years later to Derek Chauvin jamming his knee in George Floyds neck. So even though lots of people have traced these ideas to Nixon, your research shows the strategy goes back to the Johnson Administration. The kind of incidents that garnered the national attention and the news coverage that were seeing today, that was an occurrence that Johnson had to deal with during every single summer of his presidency, and we havent experienced anything like it since then. We think about law and order [as a modern political strategy] originating during the Nixon Administration, but Johnson was the President who called for the War on Crime, who began the unprecedented federal investment in local police forces as his formal strategy to prevent future urban unrest. That strategy of preventing unrest and managing poverty through policing has not worked. What were seeing today is a really clear expression of the failures of that approach. Do you think theres anything people are getting wrong about the sequence of events in 1968, from Kings assassination to revolts in cities and then Nixon winning the election on a law and order platform? Yeah, thats not accurate. We have to go back to 1964 when Johnson calls the War on Poverty, and the Civil Right Act passes in July. Harlem erupts into days of unrest after the beating of a 15-year-old by NYC police and this leads to unrest in Chicago and other places, in a very similar style to what were seeing now. The following summer, Johnson calls for the War on Crime. Then a few months later, Watts erupts in L.A. in 1965 and then we have subsequent instances of unrest and then the really large moment in the summer of 1967 in Newark and Detroit, and the incidents in 125 [cities] after the assassination of King in 1968. These things had been happening for years before, every summer, in the face of War on Poverty programs that didnt go far enough. I thought Johnson was known for the Great Society programs and the social-welfare system that they created. I wrestled with this too when I started doing this research. Johnson is very complicated. I really do think Johnson had good intentions, that he launched the War on Crime as a way to improve American society as he saw it. But just like many policymakers throughout history and many policymakers today, his own racial assumptions limited the vision of what that War on Poverty could be, and [are] why he and others refused to commit and devote the resources that might address issues of racial inequality and poverty in a meaningful way, as his own Kerner Commission called for. Many liberal policymakers started to turn away from these social-welfare investments as a way to confront issues of racial inequality and poverty, and to embrace this more punitive vision for dealing with urban crisis. Out of that Great Society we get a major job-creation program for police officers, but not the residents who were intended to benefit from the War on Poverty programs. Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter Are there any milestones in policing decisions or strategy since the 60s that provide context for Floyds death in 2020? The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 was the capstone to Johnsons Great Society. While he signed it a few weeks after the riots after Kings assassination had subsided, his administration had been carefully writing that legislation and shaping it as it made its way through Congress since 1965. Its the last major piece of domestic legislation he signed before leaving office, which really began a more permanent national investment in the War on Crime. In the 1980s and 1990s, the strategy of broken windows or zero-tolerance enforcement really fueled the saturation of police in low-income communities of color and exacerbated the strategy of arresting people for misdemeanor offenses that fueled mass incarceration in many respects. A lot of these strategies fall under the rubric of community policing, which can be very vaguely defined and means different things to different people. The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, passed under Clinton, invested billions to hire 100,000 new community policing officers on the streets of American cities while simultaneously investing billions to expand the prison system. It endorsed this kind of zero-tolerance policing that was already underway in major cities like Chicago and NYC and helps us understand, most directly, how we got to this mass-incarceration society. Does policing in Midwestern cities like Minneapolis differ from policing in other parts of the country? Significant black communities tend to be in Midwestern cities that suffered from extreme de-industrialization cities like where my family is from, the plant town Saginaw, Michigan. General Motors in the 1940s sent my grandpa a ticket to Saginaw. The plant closed, everyone who could leave did, but not everybody could leave. Those who remain have become even more isolated in the absence of real economic infrastructure in these communities. In places like Ferguson, the criminal justice or law-enforcement apparatus fuels public works through fines and fees and those kinds of initiatives. In places where thats not the approach, the majority of city budgets end up going to police departments, to crime-control programs, rather than schools and housing and other social welfare programs. Given the links people are drawing to past summers of uprisings, is there something about summertime that contributes to tensions running high? You do see these incidents rarely in the winter, but you see them in the fall and spring. Part of it is, its hot, people are outside and when poor people, when people of color are outside, they tend to be policed more heavily, especially when again, this is why the context of these incidents unfolding as the War on Crime is escalating from 1965 onward really matters there are more police on the streets who are increasingly being equipped with military-grade riot prevention gear. And instead of stopping future unrest, in many cases, the investment and widespread deployment of police forces on the streets of American cities may have done the opposite. Email To : Multiple e-mail addresses must be separated with a comma character(maximum 200 characters) Email To is required. Your Full Name: (optional) Your Email Address: Your Email Address is required. President Moon Jae-in accepted U.S. President Donald Trump's invitation of Korea to a G7 Summit in September during their phone talks, Monday. / Yonhap By Kang Seung-woo President Moon Jae-in's acceptance of an invitation from U.S. President Donald Trump to join this year's expanded G7 Summit is expected to go down in history as one of the nation's diplomatic achievements. Korea's attendance at the meeting of the seven largest advanced economies is seen as an opportunity to play a larger role on the international stage, which will further boost its global recognition that is now being raised by its successful handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Trump wants to use the meeting of world leaders, scheduled for September in the U.S. as a chance to discuss how to deal with China amid worsening Sino-U.S. relations, so the government is advised to take a thoughtful and level-headed approach to the event. Moon accepted the invitation during a 15-minute phone conversation with Trump, Monday night, during which they also talked about the American leader's plan to add four countries Australia, India and Russia, as well as Korea to the annual summit. When Trump's plan first made headlines, Sunday, it was uncertain whether he meant temporarily adding the four nations to the meeting or permanently reformatting the group, but he confirmed his plan to officially broaden the G7. Although Korea needs approval from the existing seven G7 members Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the U.S. before gaining membership, the invitation alone signals that Korean diplomacy is about to enter a new phase. Despite the fast deterioration of U.S.-China ties, Moon's acceptance in the face of the possible economic fallout from Beijing means that he sees Korea's G7 participation as a stepping stone to join the pantheon of the world's leading countries in the post-coronavirus period. "Korea will play as much of a role as it can over both quarantine and the economy," Moon was quoted as telling Trump. A Cheong Wa Dae official said, "President Trump's invitation is the result of Korea's rise in strategic value. There is no need to reject a chance to have a bigger say to the international community, considering the national interest." The G7 expansion plan comes as the Trump administration is ramping up efforts to keep China at bay in its "new Cold War," which is alarming Korean strategists who think Moon's invitation acceptance might offend Beijing. In the wake of the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system here by the U.S. in 2016, China responded with economic retaliation against Korean companies, which they have yet to fully recover from. "Although Trump may want to discuss China at the G7 meeting, its basic goal is to shape key decisions in the management of global political and economic affairs. As taking issue with China would run counter to the international order, we can also express disapproval of any move to isolate China alongside other member countries," said Park Won-gon, a professor of international politics at Handong Global University. "The Korean government doesn't need to seek China's understanding for its G7 attendance, but we should establish our own strategic stance for the summit." Leif-Eric Easley, an associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University, also said, "The countries of the G7 won't form an anti-China coalition but will rather strengthen international norms and cooperation." Former prime minister Kevin Rudd has hit out at the University of Queensland's "mismanagement" of a student activist who has been highly critical of Chinese influence on campus. Drew Pavlou was handed a two-year suspension by the university last week, after he was alleged to have contravened UQ's student charter and integrity and harassment policies. Former prime minister Kevin Rudd. Credit:Joel Carrett/AAP The allegations made against Mr Pavlou were outlined in a confidential 186-page document, but were believed to be linked to his on-campus activism supporting Hong Kong and criticism of the Chinese Communist Party. Pro-Hong Kong protests turned violent at the university last year after demonstrators were confronted by Chinese activists. Update: Xi stresses high-quality, high-standard construction of Hainan free trade port - Xinhua | English.news.cn President Xi Jinping has underlined the importance of high quality and high standards of construction in the Hainan free trade port, while prioritizing the innovation of institutional integration in the process of building the port. Building Hainan free trade port is a significant strategic decision to push forward the innovation and development of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and a matter of great importance in the progress of China's reform and opening up in the new era, said Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, in an official instruction. Xi stressed the importance of sticking to the leadership of the CPC and to the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, aligning with high-standard international economic and trade rules, promoting the smooth flow of production factors and building Hainan into a high-quality free trade port with high standards. He said that the innovation of institutional integration would be prioritized to free people's minds to make bold innovations and ensure enduring progress. Xi urged the local government of Hainan to act boldly and proactively to accomplish the goal of laying a solid foundation for the construction of the Hainan free trade port, while central authorities should support Hainan's daring reforms and innovation, pushing for new achievements in the construction of the port. China is aiming to establish a set of free trade port policies focusing on trade and investment facilitation across the whole island of Hainan by 2025, building an economy with a new height of openness by 2035 and a high-level free trade port of global influence by the middle of the century. Three of the positive COVID-19 cases identified last week involved travel, including two long-haul truckers and a temporary foreign worker, health officials reported Monday. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 2/6/2020 (597 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us Three of the positive COVID-19 cases identified last week involved travel, including two long-haul truckers and a temporary foreign worker, health officials reported Monday. None originated in the Prairie Mountain Health region. Identified late last week, the two truckers had multiple routes through a number of U.S. states, Manitoba chief public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said during Mondays health briefing with reporters. "Certainly, its important to know that these individuals took all the right actions," Roussin said. "They became symptomatic soon after returning. They were self-isolated, were tested and theres unlikely to be any significant contacts in the community in this regard." Roussin said a major risk is importing the virus from outside Manitoba. But, he said, the transportation industry is vital to maintaining supply chains, and the Manitoba Trucking Association has been proactive to ensure public safety. "Weve now expanded our asymptomatic testing to be offered to truck drivers who leave the province for their work," he said, adding that is voluntary, but making it mandatory is not seen as the way to go. A negative result after testing an asymptomatic person cant be relied upon as symptoms can develop soon after, Roussin said. In terms of the temporary foreign worker, who is in the Southern Health region, the case was identified over the weekend. "Again, all the appropriate actions have taken place," he said, adding the person self-isolated and there was limited contact. "There was actually a number of other safety issues taken on," Roussin said. There are approximately 18 people in the same establishment as the temporary foreign worker, "none of which are showing symptoms, all of which are undergoing testing and going to be followed closely." He noted public health officials are following up with the truckers and the worker. "There is no risk to the public," Roussin said. "The reason why we ... wanted to disclose it is for that reason. As we are reopening in Phase 2, we want people to be aware of where ... the risk is, and if its travel-related and if its controlled it shouldnt, you know, be a concern with the continuation of our reopening plans." The province is tentatively looking at entering Phase 3 on June 21. While movie theatres, for one, were not allowed to reopen during Phase 2, which started Monday, Roussin said they could be opened for the next phase of loosening restrictions. "Its exactly the spot where we see these transmission events, right?" he said in explaining why movie theatres werent included in this phase of reopening. "Closed, indoor, prolonged contact, and so thats where we get nervous." As the province moves into Phase 3, "those are things that were going to start looking at; how they (establishments) can be modified, how we can work with the groups to ensure its safe." There were no new cases of COVID-19 identified Monday, and no one was hospitalized or in intensive care in relation to COVID-19, bringing the total number of cases to date to 295. The number of confirmed cases in Prairie Mountain Health remains at 26. There are 10 active cases in the province, 278 people have recovered from the virus and seven have died. Meanwhile, the province is looking at ways to open up long-term care even more to visitors, Shared Healths chief nursing officer, Lanette Siragusa, said Monday. "While we have already made adaptations to (personal care homes), I am happy to say that we have developed some guidelines for in-patient visits," she said, adding she expects to have more details by the end of the week. "It will ease the burden that I know many of you are feeling," she said, "and I appreciate how difficult this has been." Starting Monday, Victoria Hospital in Winnipeg which has a number of long-stay patients is launching a pilot following personal care home guidelines and allowing outdoor visits for medically stable patients who can go out and visit with people, Siragusa said. "Well look at whether we can accommodate that at other acute in-patient facilities, because we know how important that is." brobertson@brandonsun.com Cash grants of about $25,000 to build new homes will be on offer until the end of the year and will be uncapped as part of the federal government's post-pandemic construction stimulus package aimed at saving the building industry. The package, likely to be launched this week, will also be means-tested to include those households potentially earning up to $200,000, but will be available for only several months to avoid inflating house prices across the country. The opposition and community housing sector is pushing the Morrison government to including social housing in its stimulus measures. Credit:Wolter Peeters The construction package, which senior government sources expect to be slightly under $1 billion, is one of several industry-specific packages the government is currently tailoring for struggling sectors as it moves away from economy-wide broad assistance measures. However, the federal opposition and community housing sector is pushing the Morrison government to including social housing in its stimulus measures, proposing a $7.2 billion package for new buildings and $500 million for renovation of existing homes. Press Release June 2, 2020 To prevent abuses and inequity Drilon assures Bayanihan Law no longer punitive A Senate panel sponsoring a new version of the Bayanihan law adopted Monday an amendment proposed by Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon that would repeal the punitive provision of the Bayanihan law amid alarming reports of abuses and discrimination in the implementation of Republic Act 11469 that granted the President emergency powers to address the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Drilon welcomed the Senate Committee on Finance's adoption of his proposal to repeal Section 6 of RA 11469 that punishes various offenses with imprisonment of two months or a fine of not less than P10,000 but not more than P1 million, or both, to be determined by the court. "I thank the Senate Committee on Finance chaired by Sen. Sonny Angara for adopting my amendment to repeal Section 6 of the Bayanihan law given what we saw as serious cases of abuses and inequity in the implementation of the law," Drilon said in a statement on Tuesday. The senate minority leader noted that no member of the Senate opposed the proposal during the deliberation of the measure Monday. He also noted that even the Philippine National Police, through Gen. Archie Gamboa, did not oppose the proposed repeal of Section 6. "I expect it to be approved unanimously by the Senate. The repeal of Section 6 will not affect the intent and objectives of the law, which is a health measure more than anything else," Drilon said. Drilon assured that the new Bayanihan Law (Bayanihan to Recover as one Act) will not have such punitive provision. Drilon added that "the repeal of Section 6 will avoid the notion that the Bayanihan Law is anti-poor because it is the poor and the vulnerable that are victims of the inquity in its implementation." Section 6 of RA 11469 enumerated several acts considered illegal and are punishable under the act with imprisonment of two months or a fine of not less than P10,000 but not more than P1 million, or both, to be determined by the court. These include (1) LGU officials disobeying national government policies; (2) hospital owners who refuse to operate in accordance with the directive of the President; (3) hoarding, profiteering, price manipulation, product deceptions, cartels, etc.; (4) refusal to prioritize and accept essential contracts for materials and services; (5) refusal to provide grace periods to loan payments; (6) spread of fake news; and (7) failure to comply with reasonable limitations on the operation of certain transportation sector. Meanwhile, Drilon commended business community for calling for the fair and impartial implementation of the quarantine rules and the Bayanihan law. "I laud and thank the business community for the vigilance they are exhibiting for calling for the fair and impartial implementation of the Bayanihan law. It cannot be denied that there are inequality and discminination in the implementation of the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, which I hope the Congress can remedy by deleting Section 6 of the law," Drilon said. In a joint statement over the weekend, eight business organizations in the country said: "Many of those arrested suffered detention, costs, humiliation, and inconveniences, and some endured unwarranted jailtime when unopened courts or government offices, or even limited bank branches, could not process their bail in a timely manner." Drilon said he agreed with the statement, adding "that the poor are prejudiced in the implementation of RA 11469." Drilon said that the acts enumerated in Section 6 are already punishable under existing laws. For instance, the Bayanihan Law punishes those engaged in hoarding, profiteering, injurious speculations, manipulation of prices, product deceptions, and cartels. The same crimes are punished under Republic Act 7581 or the Price Act, and RA 9502 or the Universally Accessible and Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act. In the case of individuals or groups creating, perpetuating or spreading false information regarding COVID-19 crisis on social media and other platforms, Drilon said RA 10175 or the Cybercrime Law is applicable. A woman was killed and two others seriously injured on Monday after being hit by a metal sheet that was gliding in the air due to strong gusts in the northern Vietnamese province of Hoa Binh. The accident occurred at around 5:00 pm, when Bui Thi M., 41, Bui Thi L., 52, and Bui Thi Th., 45, were walking home in Thu Phong Commune, Cao Phong District. The women were hit by a flying metal sheet measuring about 35 square meters, apparently coming from the roof of a nearby house. M. died from a head injury, while the other two were also critically injured. They are now being treated at Hoa Binh Province General Hospital. Th. is in a coma with a traumatic brain injury, while L. is being treated for serious wounds. According to an official from the Thu Phong Commune administration, a thunderstorm accompanied by strong gusts swept through the locality on Monday afternoon. About ten houses had their roofs blown off, while many trees were uprooted and a large number of crops were damaged. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday that Russia will not be included in the upcoming meeting of Group of seven nations (G-7), days after the US President Donald Trump revealed that he has plans to invite Russia. Trudeau noted Russia was excluded from the group after it annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, adding that Vladimir Putin-led country continuous to disrespect international rules. Its continued disrespect and flaunting of international rules and norms is why it remains outside of the G7 and why it will continue to remain out, Trudeau said. Trump, on the other hand, not only stated his wish to invite Russia but also declared that he will postpone the meet if his demand to expand the membership of G-7 is not discussed by the existing member nations. Russia - a former member - was suspended from the group in 2014 over Moscow's seizure of Crimea. READ | Trump wants India & Russia to be made members of 'outdated' G7; postpones scheduled meet Trump wants expansion of G-7, bats for India's membership Terming the G-7 as 'outdated', Donald Trump on Sunday had postponed said meeting and called for an expansion of the group's membership. Trump demanded the inclusion of India as well as Russia. Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the 2019 G7 Summit in France despite not being a member after a personal invitation by French President Emmanuel Macron. Trump has accused the current members of not properly representing the ongoing Coronavirus crisis and other issues taking place in the world. Apart from India and Russia, the US president also singled out Australia, South Korea as possible additions to the G7 group. READ | Donald Trump to deploy military against 'angry mobs' protesting George Floyd's death What is the G7 Summit? Often being looked at as the grouping of 'rich countries,' the G7 Summit includes the seven countries that are considered the most developed & industrialised economies of the world, for them to discuss economic policies. The grouping that was created in 1975 first included six countries, with Canada joining a year later. The grouping also included Russia, but it was suspended in 2014. The current G7 members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The US currently holds the annual presidency of G7 countries. READ | Trump now wants in-person G7 summit, as an example of reopening post-Covid: White House 'In-person G7 summit' Issuing a statement on the summit, the White House had said that President Donald Trump believes that there is 'no greater example' of reopening amid the COVID-19 pandemic than holding an in-person G7 summit in America near the end of June. Trump has even suggested that it be held in person at Camp David. This 'change in mind' came even as in March the US president cancelled the physical meet of the G7 and held the very first virtual 'emergency meet.' "Now that our Country is 'Transitioning back to Greatness', I am considering rescheduling the G-7, on the same or similar date, in Washington, D.C., at the legendary Camp David. The other members are also beginning their COMEBACK. It would be a great sign to all - normalization!" Trump had tweeted. However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has already rejected Trump's invite. READ | Donald Trump to postpone G7 meeting after pitching for 'in-person meet' amid Coronavirus More than 100 medical abortions have been carried out in Northern Ireland since new laws came into force earlier this year. A total of 129 terminations took place here between March 31 and May 22. The figure was revealed by Health Minister Robin Swann after an Assembly question from DUP MLA Paul Givan. It comes as the Assembly prepares to debate abortion regulations today in a motion tabled by Mr Givan, which he says will "send a message" to politicians at Westminster that we did not endorse the new abortion rules. New legislation was passed at Westminster last October and regulations giving the new laws effect were introduced on March 31. They provide for terminations on request for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and up to 24 weeks where there is a risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman. Abortion is also available in cases of severe and fatal foetal abnormalities with no gestational limit, as well as for conditions such as Down's syndrome. Under the new regulations a notification of termination must be sent to Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride within 14 days of an abortion. According to the Department of Health, 129 notifications had been received up to May 22. Previously only a handful of abortions took place every year here. Eight abortions were carried out in local hospitals during 2018/19, four less than the previous year. Mr Givan said: "Abortion regulations were imposed on Northern Ireland without consultation and they are some of the most liberal laws in Europe, allowing for abortion until birth for babies diagnosed with a disability. "These figures show a significant increase in the number of abortions taking place in Northern Ireland." Disability campaigner Heidi Crowter (24), who was born with Down's syndrome, has written to all MLAs outlining how offensive the regulations imposed by Westminster are to people with disabilities. The DUP motion "welcomes the important intervention of disability campaigner Heidi Crowter and rejects the imposition of abortion legislation which extends to all non-fatal disabilities, including Down's syndrome". Mr Givan added: "The DUP is a pro-life party and we want to see the most vulnerable in our society protected. "MLAs have an opportunity today to send a clear message to Westminster that we do not accept these ill-conceived, discriminatory and extreme abortion regulations." Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said Sinn Fein had submitted an amended motion as her party "does not support the specific provision in the Westminster legislation which goes beyond fatal foetal abnormalities to include non-fatal disabilities including Down's syndrome". Grainne Teggart, Amnesty International's Northern Ireland campaigns manager, urged MLAs to reject the DUP motion, which she says seeks to restrict abortion rights here. "This motion will change nothing legally but is a clear signal that the DUP wants to roll back the hard-won rights of women and girls," she said. "Sinn Fein and other parties must not prop up a dangerous anti-choice agenda. Instead, they should support human rights and show they're on the side of women. Women and girls are being failed and forgotten, left without vital abortion services despite regulations coming into force two months ago." Ms Teggart added: "The priority right now should be women's safety and wellbeing. "The Department of Health must urgently commission services and ensure they are accessible to all who need them. "This is where MLAs should be focusing their attention." Catholic bishops urged MLAs to oppose the new Westminster regulations, describing them as "an unjust law, which was imposed without the consent of the people of Northern Ireland". In a letter, the bishops called on politicians "to take steps to formulate new regulations that will reflect more fully the will of a significant majority of the people in this jurisdiction to protect the lives of mothers and their unborn children". Panaji, June 2 : Forty seven-year-old Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant was speaker of the Assembly when due to the untimely death of Manohar Parrikar, he replaced him. An Ayurveda medical practitioner, he deals with a wide array of subjects in this extensive interview with IANS's Navneet Mishra. Goa has been relatively calm in the middle of the raging health epidemic, CM Sawant explains why... Here are excerpts from the interview. Q: How do you see the fight against Covid-19 under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi? Has lockdown helped control the spread of the virus? A: As you all know, Covid-19 was an unknown virus. It was a super spreader and soon it was all over the world, affecting a large number of people in almost every country. The step taken to lockdown the country was a step in the right direction and the whole world is praising the efforts of the Prime Minister in the fight against the Pandemic. The Union Government took proactive measures to control the situation by invoking the Disaster Management Act. Time to time, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued guidelines as per the prevailing situation, which has been strictly followed by the State of Goa. The Prime Minister personally monitored the situation through various platforms. He has been constantly interacting with the Chief Ministers of all States. Considering the situation in the world, I should say India is in a better position now as far as handling of Covid-19 is concerned. At the time this virus surfaced, the country was not well prepared to either test or combat it, but things have changed now. Lockdown helped create awareness, both in terms of the knowledge and behaviour of the virus and the way to handle this effectively. Lockdown has helped create suitable testing and hospital related infrastructure. This was possible because of the initiatives of the Union Government, which implemented the lockdown at a very early stage. When we talk about our State, the Goa Government has also taken various measures in line with the norms laid down by the centre to tackle this pandemic. Q: In spite of being a neighbour of Maharashtra where cases are skyrocketing, Goa has been able to contain the spread of the virus. Tell us about the Goa model. A: Sadly, our neighbouring States have been impacted severely by the virus. I would like to appreciate the efforts of our State authorities for adopting stringent measures in the fight against the virus. Goa acted speedily to overcome the situation. It is perhaps the only state to start a war room since the first day of the Lockdown, from which the situation is monitored 24X7 and decisions are taken on priority basis. Daily meetings are held in the war room, chaired by the Chief Secretary, and I too have been participating in it from time to time. My Government has succeeded in setting up the required infrastructure for testing. There was no testing facility in the State till the Lockdown. We created a dedicated Covid Hospital, and provided best treatment to Covid patients. It gives me great satisfaction that the Chief Minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackrey has taken cognizance of the Goa model of containing coronavirus and has asked his officials to implement this model at district levels. I am happy. Q: After becoming first state in India free from coronavirus, how come your state again saw spike in cases? A: Our aim is to maintain the status of COVID free State, though we know it's a herculean task. After the recovery of the first 7 cases and became Covid free, the State has been vigilant and has adopted the protocol to test every incoming person to the State. This has helped us in detecting the cases as soon as they enter the border, and all subsequent cases till date are those who tested positive when they entered Goa. We are following the guidelines issued by the MHA from time to time, though at times our measures are stricter than the MHA norms. People of Goa have given us an overwhelming response by following all health, sanitation as well as social distancing norms, and have respected the various measures taken by the State in compliance to the MHA instructions. Now, our protocol is that every individual who enters Goa has to produce a COVID negative certificate issued within 48 hours prior to the date of arrival by a lab authorized by the ICMR, or to go for a COVID-19 test while entering. Till Mar 29, 2020 Goa did not have its own testing facility and all samples were being sent to Mumbai or Pune, either by Commercial flights or by special Naval flights. Goa has since ramped up its testing infrastructure and now has 7 fully functional labs in its various health centres. We want to be over prepared to handle the crisis. Also, house-to-house survey has been done in the State, to identify Influenza like illnesses, and all such cases are now being tested to rule out the possibility of Covid-19. Yes, Goa was freed from positive cases for a considerable period, now again we have positive cases, who are recovering. Once the interstate movement commenced, people from other states, most of them who are residents of Goa, and were stranded in other parts of the country, started coming back home. All of the recent positive cases have been identified at the point of entry to the State. Hence, the important thing here is that community transmission has been prevented in the State. Q: What is the government doing to revive the tourism industry in the state, which is considered the backbone of Goa economy? A: Presently, the whole world is shocked as far as the coronavirus pandemic is concerned. Unlike now, earlier tsunamis, earthquakes, catastrophic floods or wars were limited to certain parts of the world. Therefore, those who were in distress or in need used to get help from other countries or people elsewhere, but this time all countries are adversely affected and perhaps going through an economic crisis, and tourism does become the first casualty in such situations. However, I am confident that as Goa has developed a positive image in handling this pandemic, tourism will pick up again and may soon surpass the past. All stakeholders of the tourism industry will work together with the Government towards this goal. Q: If tourism sector is opened, Goa will witness an influx of foreign tourists which may lead to spike in cases. How will you tackle this? A: Our government will take utmost care on every front to tackle the menace of coronavirus while opening up the economy in a staggered manner. However, I am confident that a cure and a vaccine are very close and Covid-19 will soon be history, and very soon the activities in the world will become normal. Also, as you all know, Goa is known for its natural beauty and hospitality. Tourism and mining are the mainstay of Goa's economy. We have set up an Economic Revival Committee which has already given its report for revival of every sector, even tourism. We are also awaiting the Standard Operating Procedures of MHA and the Union Ministry of Tourism for kick starting tourism industry. We would also be framing the our own SOPs on the basis of central guidelines. Q: Film actor Pooja Bedi recently visited Goa and made videos of quarantine centres which she claimed were dirty. What do you have to say? A: I respect everybody's views. You have to understand that we provide the same facilities to all, there is no distinction. And I suppose, she may be used to a higher level of comfort. We have to understand one thing that we are going through a crisis situation. What is happening around us at present may not be to our individual liking or comfort levels but our Govt is putting in best efforts to ensure that Goans are kept safe from COVID19. Q: Tell us about the condition of health facilities, quarantine centres, testing, which are necessary to fight Covid-19. A: Apart from the existence of the Goa Medical College and its expertise, the ESI Hospital in Margao has been designated as a dedicated COVID Hospital with a bed apacity of 200, with enough oxygen and ventilator support. Our medical team is extremely competent and alert and is fully equipped to handle any kind of crisis arising due to this pandemic. Adequate testing infrastructure in the State has been set up, and is continuously being scaled up. Q: Many foreign tourists were stranded in Goa due to the lockdown. How many of them were sent back and are there tourists still stranded in Goa? A: This was another proactive initiative of the State Government. We in Goa believe in "Atithi Devo Bhavah". Accordingly, a senior IAS officer was appointed as the Nodal Officer for this operation. The administration did a splendid job in ensuring that all the stranded foreign tourists were well looked after during the lockdown, and they were assisted for return to their homes without any hassles. As you all know, Goa is known for its peace and hospitality world over. And during this ongoing nationwide lockdown period, the Government of Goa has definitely created a soft corner in the minds of residents of foreign countries who were with us during the lockdown. The Government has taken special efforts to show to the world, why Goa is known for hospitality. It's because of State Government initiatives that more than 8,000 stranded foreign tourists have been able to reach home safely, to more than 35 countries. Various embassies have expressed their gratitude to the Government of Goa through various channels and hoped fruitful cooperation in years to come. Q: Many states have demanded special package to revive the economy. Have you also sought any assistance from the Centre? A: The Modi Govt has introduced some bold economic reforms to counter the negative impacts of COVID-19. The Aatmanirbhar Bharat Package - special financial package of Rs 20 Lakh crore caters to each and every sector. The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package caters to the poor and marginalized section of the society. With such a massive rollout of schemes for every sector, the concerns of the State have been addressed to a large extent. The Modi Govt has always been receptive to Goa's needs and I am confident we will also get the desired support. We have to ensure that while we fight COVID-19, economic activities are restored. As the PM said, we need 'Jaan' and 'Jahan', i.e. we need to protect people's lives and livelihood. I am confident that, under the able leadership and guidance of Modi Ji we will fight this pandemic and win this war. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Battling the coronavirus scare, wholesale markets in the national capital restarted full-fledged trading on Tuesday, but they face a labour shortage and stare at an uphill task of repairing the broken demand-supply chain. The markets opened in full a day after the Delhi government lifted the odd-even rule for shops. But the government imposed restriction on cross-border movement, which, the traders said, compounded their problems. The revival of trade will be a slow and painful process, the associations of various wholesale markets said. Only a "positive approach" of the Centre and the Delhi government will speed it up amid a raging pandemic, they added. They also said that governments should avoid moves like sealing interstate borders because production and sale centers are spread in the Delhi-NCR and such restrictions hamper movement of goods. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced further relaxations in lockdown norms, and lifted the odd-even formula under which shops in a market opened on alternate days. Trading in the wholesale markets at Ajmeri Gate, Bhagirath Place, Daryaganj, Khari Baoli, Nai Sarak, Paharganj, Karol Bagh and other places in Delhi has been badly hit by the more than two-month lockdown, said Praveen Khandelwal, the Secretary General of the Confederation of All India Traders. "A major challenge is fear of coronavirus due to which customers are not coming out," he said. "Around five lakh traders used to come to Delhi every day in normal times. But now hardly five percent of them are coming." A large chunk of labourers who worked at these markets have also left for their home states during lockdown creating further problems, Khandelwal said. "The nature of trade and business has changed due to the pandemic and the traders will also have to change themselves by the way e-commerce is developing," he said. Some trade associations said the Delhi government's decision to seal borders with neighbouring states will have a negative impact on the wholesale business. "The governments should focus on sending positive messages instead of taking steps that make things difficult for revival," said Niranjan Poddar, the President of Automotive and General Traders Association, Mori Gate. "Around 70 per cent of our supplies are received from NCR towns Sahibabad, Gurgaon and Ghaziabad among others, which will be hampered by the decision to seal borders." He said the wholesale business of tools and parts of agricultural appliances was devastated due to the lockdown and it will take at least a year to revive, if the pandemic is brought under control. The Delhi government on Monday decided to seal the border with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh for a week. Kejriwal said the decision will be revisited based on suggestion from the people of Delhi. The shops and businesses in Delhi had started functioning from May 18 as per the odd-even formula. But, lifting of the restriction has showed positive result and almost 35 per cent of business has revived, said Arun Singhaniya, the President of Delhi Hindustani Mercantile Association. "Governments should not resort to steps like sealing borders. It has hampered movement of goods and payments for a week which will definitely not help the traders in these difficult days," Singhaniya said. In old city areas, the Sadar Bazar wholesale market, one of the largest of domestic items in the country, has been hit by coronavirus. In a letter to Chief Minister Kejriwal on Monday, the Federation of Sadar Bazar Traders Associations demanded permission for opening shops after segregation and sealing of the affected parts. Brijesh Goyal, the Convener of the Chamber of Trade and Industry, said the wholesale markets and traders will have to focus on ways to run amid coronavirus pandemic by taking extra care. "We have decided to make face masks and sanitisers mandatory for traders, their employees as well as customers. Strict adherence to social-distancing norm also need to be implemented since the rush will increase in the markets in coming days," he said. He expressed hope that despite the challenges due to a sharp decline in number of customers and labour shortage, the trade and business activities will be back on the tracks in next 5-6 months. A study released by a Mexican watchdog group has slammed Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador for the country having ranked among the top five most violent cities in the world in 2019 with Tijuana holding the undistinguished honor of leading the way. At least 134 people were murdered per every 100,000 residents in the border town, according to the report published by the Citizen's Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice on Monday. Tijuana, located in the northwestern state of Baja California, has been a magnet that attracts young travelers, mostly from California; serves as a corridor for cartels trafficking drugs; and is a through way for undocumented immigrants who are seeking asylum and defying the Trump administration by unlawfully crossing into the United States. Overall, the municipality, which has a population of 1.763 million, registered 2,367 murders last year. A forensics team works at a crime scene in Tijuana, Mexico, on July 21, 2019. The Mexico-based Citizens Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice found that Tijuana ranked as the most violent city in the world in 2019 with 134 homicides per 100,000 residents Forensic workers remove a body from a Ciudad Juarez home where a family of five were murdered in January 2019. Ciudad Juarez, which is located across from El Paso, Texas, was the second most dangerous city in the world in 2019 with 104.54 murders per 100 residents Mexico reported 34,608 people were murdered in 2019, the first full year in office for President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador 'We are making this ranking intending to call attention to urban violence, particularly in Latin America, so those in power are pressured to fulfill their duty to protect the governed, to guarantee their right to public safety,' said Jose Antonio Ortega Sanchez Ortega, the director of the Citizens Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice, in a video conference, according the Yucatan Times. Tijuana was followed by Ciudad Juarez [104.54 homicides per 100,000 residents]; Uruapan [85.54]; Irapuato [80,74]; and Obregon [80.72]. Caracas, Venezuela was sixth with 74.75 murders per every 100,000 inhabitants, and Acapulco, one of Mexico's top tourist destinations, came in seventh with 71.61 homicides per every 100,000 residents. Cape Town, South Africa [68.28]; St. Louis [64.54]; and Vitoria da Conquista, Brazil [60.01] rounded off the list. Forensic experts work at the crime scene next to the remains of three people who were killed and dismembered in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, on June 13, 2019 Citizen's Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice 10 MOST VIOLENT CITIES IN THE WORLD IN 2019 The Mexico-based watchdog group release data Monday that shows the 50 most dangerous cities in the world according to 2019 crime stats based on every 100,000 habitants. 1 - Tijuana, Mexico: 134.24 2 - Ciudad Juarez, Mexico: 104.54 3 - Uruapan, Mexico: 85.54 4 - Irapuato, Mexico: 80.74 5 - Ciudad Obregon, Mexico: 80.72 6 - Caracas, Venezuela: 74.65 7 - Acapulco, Mexico: 71.61 8 - Cape Town, South Africa: 68.28 9 - St. Louis, United States: 64.54 10 - Vitoria da Conquista, Brazil: 60.01 Advertisement Overall, Mexico had 19 cities ranked within the 50 most dangerous towns in the world last year. The non-government organization slammed Mexico's politicians for the ongoing crime wave that has engulfed the Latin American nation since it declared war on drug trafficking organizations in late 2006. 'If Mexico is the world epicenter of violence, it owes it to its leaders. The governments previous to the current one, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's, were extremely incompetent to control violence, but at least it seemed that they were trying to stop the violent [groups],' Ortega said. Upon entering office in December 2018, Lopez Obrador vowed to end the war against organized crime by offering hugs and not gunshots to the youth, which he hoped to steer away from criminal organizations through social programs. At least 34,608 people were murdered murdered in 2019. Lopez Obrador last year created the National Guard, but at the behest of United States Donald Trump, most of the servicemen were dispatched to the northern and southern borders to combat the flow of migrants. 'The main problem is that this government, while treating criminals as victims, is clearly hostile towards the true victims,' Ortega said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with the chief ministers of Maharashtra and Gujarat over the cyclone situation on Tuesday evening. The PM assured the chief ministers of all possible central help, as the states brace for the impending landfall on cyclonic storm Nisarga on the afternoon of June 3. Nisarga is expected to make landfall very close to Alibagh in Maharashtra on the afternoon of June 3. An alert has been sounded in Mumbai, its suburban districts, Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts in view of the cyclonic storm. According to the Met department, there is a possibility of extremely heavy rain in these districts on June 3 and 4 under the impact of the cyclone. The prime minister also spoke with the administrator of Daman, Diu Dadra and Nagar Haveli Praful K Patel, the Prime Ministers Office office said. PM @narendramodi has spoken to CM of Maharashtra Shri Uddhav Thackeray, CM of Gujarat Shri @vijayrupanibjp and Administrator of Daman Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli Shri @prafulkpatel regarding the cyclone situation. He assured all possible support and assistance from the Centre. PMO India (@PMOIndia) June 2, 2020 Earlier in the day, the PM took stock of situation and urged people to take all precautions and safety measures as authorities prepared to deal with Cyclonic storm Nisarga Took stock of situation in wake of cyclonic conditions in parts of Indias western coast, a tweet from PM Narendra Modis account said on Tuesday. Took stock of the situation in the wake of cyclone conditions in parts of Indias western coast. Praying for everyones well-being. I urge people to take all possible precautions and safety measures. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 2, 2020 The state governments , along with agencies like the NDRF and NDMA are readying themselves to deal with the cyclone which will cross North Maharashtra and adjoining South Gujarat coast between Harihareshwar and Daman, on June 3 afternoon as a severe cyclonic storm with a maximum sustained wind 100-110 gusting to 120 kmph. In Gujarat, authorities in the two districts of Navsari and Valsad have begun evacuating people living in the coastal areas to safer places. The NDRF has also deployed over 30 teams in the two states and the UT. Less than two weeks ago, another cyclone- Amphan- had caused massive destruction to life and property in the coastal districts of West Bengal and Odisha in the midst of coronavirus pandemic hurtling towards its peak in the country. . Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - Global human rights group Amnesty International (AI) said here Tuesday the poor response of the Nigerian government to rising cases of rape across the country was encouraging perpetrators ALBANY In a policy shift three weeks before the Democratic primary, Albany County District Attorney David Soares on Monday asked Gov. Andrew Cuomo to appoint Attorney General Letitia James as the special prosecutor in every criminal case in which a police officer is charged with a crime or accused of misconduct. Soares, a four-term Democrat, who refused to recuse his office from investigating the Albany police shooting of Ellazar Williams in 2018 and other cases involving police-civilian confrontations, announced his shift of positions in a news release on Monday evening. It came in the wake of violent protests and rioting in cities across the country, including Albany on Saturday night, following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, who lost his life as an officer kneeled on his neck during a confrontation. I watched in stunned disbelief the life of a man being taken and streamed repeatedly on social media, Soares stated in the release. These are not unprecedented incidents and yet real solutions are lost as attention is given to the subsequent violence and discussions are reduced to relationships between police and prosecutors. This cannot continue. Soares said that effective immediately, his office will seek special prosecutors on all new cases involving police as defendants. It was unclear if the district attorney planned to recuse his office from the prosecution of Luke Deer, who is charged with felony assault and official misconduct for his alleged actions in the beating of man during a March 16, 2o019 clash on First Street. On Monday, Soares said he is calling on the governor to expand his executive order from 2015 and to allow James office to handle ALL of these matters, thus eliminating any appearance of conflict or skepticism of the process. In 2015, the governor's executive order allowed the attorney general to investigate the deaths of unarmed civilians during interactions with the police. Soares' office has previously said that Williams' case did not fit that criteria because, according to the office's investigation, Williams was armed with a knife and survived the shooting. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. But Soares' office drew fiery criticism from activist Alice Green and others for not recusing his office from investigating the Aug. 20, 2018 shooting of Williams by Detective James Olsen, who faced no charges and was cleared. Williams, then 19, was shot following a police chase that ended in a courtyard outside the former Tony Clement Center for Education in West Hill. Williams was left paralyzed from the chest down. Soares faces a June 23 primary challenge from Democrat Matthew Toporowski, who emailed the Times Union a statement on Soares' new position. "This is a reactionary move to remedy a history of regressive policies," Toporowski said. "Taking a position now is not proactive and progressive leadership. Soares waited two full days and then only condemned George Floyds killing only after there was property damage. And now he seeks to capitalize on this movement calling for a special prosecutor law to cover his own tracks of failing to call for one in the Ellazar Williams' case. David Soares is not being a leader, nor is he being an advocate for this community. He is a politician capitalizing on a moment of pain in the community. Its insulting." Black pastors and politicians challenged Joe Biden on Monday to outline what he would do as president to ease access to economic opportunity and overhaul the criminal justice system as violent protests swept the country. Delaware State Sen. Darius Brown said the protests, which were sparked by the death of George Floyd after a police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes, were about deeper, longstanding issues of injustice. Biden chose the Bethel AME church in Wilmington, Delaware, for his first public campaign event in more than two months because of the coronavirus lockdown. Marking a difference with President Donald Trump, Biden wore a mask and the attendees, most also in masks, spread out in the pews to avoid close contact. After more than a dozen speakers pleaded with him to fix systemic racism -- in part by picking a black woman as his running mate -- Biden laid out some specific policy ideas, including setting up a national police oversight board in his first 100 days as president. He didn't detail what it would do, but also said he would have more detailed economic plans next week. Biden has the support of the vast majority of black voters, but the frustration that burst open over the last days about police brutality, the pandemic and the recession has challenged Biden to ensure that African-American voters turn out for him. "I've never taken for granted" the black vote, Biden told the gathering at the church. "I've never ever done that. It has to be earned, earned every single time." Brown said the protests were only in part about Floyd's death. "What African Americans are expressing over the past few days are the need for economic opportunity," he said. "The African American community wants you to bring home the bacon for us." Biden also said he would ensure "that the economic recovery deals with the institutional structures and and institutional racism." Brown noted that blacks did not share equally in the country's recovery from the 2008-2009 economic crisis overseen by Biden as President Barack Obama's vice president. "The African American community did not experience the same economic opportunity as they did during the 90s," he said. Biden, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, met with the leaders as cities around the country have endured days of protests, vandalism and looting. The chaos struck as the country fights to emerge from economic lockdown due to the coronavirus, both of which are hitting African Americans with disproportionate harm. "The Band-Aid has been ripped off by this pandemic and this president," he said. "It's been minorities. It's been blacks. It's been Hispanics" who have kept working, and getting ill during lockdowns. "They are the ones out there making sure the grocery stores are open," he said. The Rev. Shanika Perry urged Biden to address his previous support for the 1994 Crime Bill that many black leaders fault for sending an outsize number of black men to prison. "They have issues with the participation in that," she said of her parishioners. "They want to know how you plan to undo the impacts of the mass incarceration." Noting that "representation matters," she also called on Biden to name a black woman as his vice-presidential pick. "We have qualified black women who are capable of helping you lead this country." I am heartbroken that my baby daughter, who is black, has to grow up in a world where the killing of George Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis, or of any unarmed person of color, can happen. Floyd's death, which was caught on video, allowed everyone to see what the black community has endured for decades. He is one of many black people who have died at the hands of police and have become symbols of our broken society, as have the protests erupting across the nation. But to my wife and I, both white, it's a symbol of a world that we must prepare our adopted daughter for. We don't for one minute pretend to know what it's like to be black, but we know we want to be part of the solution to create a more inclusive and just world. We wanted to adopt in order to share our love and open our home to a child who needed a family. While going through the process and learning about adopting a baby of a different race, we were given valuable training to prepare us for what a black child being raised by white parents might face. The adoption agency opened our eyes to the danger of the term "color blind." Although well intended, it is akin to saying you don't see what is happening to minorities. We learned that most people of color face subtle and not-so-subtle bias on a daily basis, something that we, as white people, do not experience. We learned that most black families have discussions with their kids, instructing them to be respectful of authority, especially police, because it could life-threatening not to. My wife and I dread the day when we will have to talk to our daughter about the dangers of this bias. And for her, it may be even more confusing because she's growing up in a loving white family. It's our job to make sure she understands that not everyone will look at her and get to know the wonderful, funny and smart child who we see every day. And it's our job to give her the tools to rise above it. On our adoption journey, I came to understand more fully the true meaning of white privilege. As an editor at CNBC.com, I write and edit stories every day about creating wealth and the power of building a solid financial future. It would be easy to take it for granted that everyone has access to the ability to make this happen. But that's not the case. BET founder Robert Johnson and Merck CEO Ken Frazier described why white privilege is a privilege in interviews on CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Monday. Lots of social media folks have reacted to the recent rape and death cases in Nigeria and how tasteless it is especially at this Covid-19 phase. The celebrities have equally joined, have spoken their minds and asked that justice be served and the perpetrators of the hideous crimes are brought to face the full extent of the law. A day or two days ago, a 12 years old girl was raped by 11 men who took advantage of her innocence, lured into a hideout and had their way with her. According to the Police in the region of the happening, all eleven suspects have been arrested. On the flip side, a 22 years old Level 100 Microbiology student with the name Uwaila Omozuwa was equally raped by some men at the local premises of the RCCG where she used as a quiet place to study. Uwaila unfortunately passed on. They have been mixed reactions from persons who come into contact with this saddening news. Here are a few from some top Nigerian celebrities. Don Jazzy wrote on Instagram; View this post on Instagram A post shared by TOYIN ABRAHAM (@toyin_abraham) on Jun 1, 2020 at 5:15am PDT Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A Salem police captain was placed on administrative leave on Tuesday after a tweet from the departments account criticized Boston Mayor Marty Walshs handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the protests in the city. Captain Kate Stephens sent the tweet shortly after 10 a.m. and was placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation, Salem Police Chief Mary E. Butler said in a statement. On Tuesday morning, the Salem Police Departments official Twitter page said, @marty_walsh so you issued a permit for 10 of thousands of people to protest but I cant go to a restaurant? You are ridiculous. You and Too Tall Deval are killing this State. Too Tall Deval is a derisive nickname for Gov. Charlie Baker created by his critics. so, this just came out from the Salem police department and was immediately deleted. this doesn't inspire confidence in the people who are supposed to be protecting us. @MayorDriscoll pic.twitter.com/TNNsTb43l9 Marissa Emanuele (@HiThisIsMarissa) June 1, 2020 About a half hour later the account called the tweet wildly inappropriate. We will conduct an investigation into who sent this wildly inappropriate tweet and they will be disciplined accordingly. Salem MA Police (@SalemMAPolice) June 1, 2020 The posting of personnel commentary and opinions on the Departments social media account is not only against our internal policies, it undermines the public trust and confidence that we, as a Police Department, have worked so hard to achieve here in Salem, Butler said. It is even more concerning that these comments come from someone in a leadership position within the Department. These comments are uncalled for at any time, but they are particularly egregious at this time when the public is questioning the fairness, equity and legitimacy of the police and their actions. The tweet was brought to the attention of Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll, who called the post completely inappropriate" in a tweet. Then later released a statement. To be clear, the tweet posted this morning to the Salem Police Departments account was not one issued or sanctioned by the department or the City, Driscoll said. While it has been removed from Twitter, we have a responsibility to ensure that the individual responsible is held accountable. I was appalled to see a tweet criticizing protesters and city of Boston and state leaders inappropriately posted to the... Posted by Kim Driscoll on Monday, June 1, 2020 Butler said the investigation into Stephens is ongoing. When it concludes, a hearing, as required by Massachusetts Civil Service, will be held and a decision will be made as the appropriate disciplinary action to be taken, Butler said. We in law enforcement are held to the highest standards of professional conduct, Butler said. However, as evidenced by the unauthorized tweet, we, at time, fail to meet those standards. Although I am disheartened that this incident occurred, it will not keep us from providing the highest quality of police service to our community. Last month, the Twitter account for the Cambridge Police Department took aim at U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III. The tweet read, "Another liberal (expletive) jerk who just happens to be better then the clown hes running against. Sad for us. Like Salems department, Cambridge soon apologized. Earlier this afternoon, a member of the Cambridge Police, who has access to the Departments Twitter account, inadvertently posted political commentary on the department account rather than their personal account, that was inappropriate, unprofessional and disrespectful, the department tweeted. Related Content: The wife of Peng Yinhua, a Chinese doctor who died in the fight against the COVID-19, gave birth to their baby girl in Wuhan, capital of central Chinas Hubei province, on June 1, 102 days day after Pengs death, thepaper.cn reported Monday. The baby weighed 3.8kg at birth, and both the mother and daughter are in good condition, according to Pengs family. Peng was born in December 1990 in Yunmeng county, Xiaogan, Hubei province. He worked in the respiratory and critical care medicine department of the First People's Hospital of Jiangxia District of Wuhan. The doctor, who had fought against COVID-19 on the frontline since the outbreak of the pandemic, was infected with the virus in late January and lost his life to the disease on Feb. 20. Peng was posthumously awarded the title of Outstanding Individual of the National Health System in COVID-19 Prevention and Control last March by Chinas National Health Commission, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine. He was honored as a martyr by the Hubei Provincial Peoples Government in April, and was among the first martyrs to die on the frontline of the COVID-19 fight in the province, according to Xinhuanet.com. In addition, Pengs family is considered one of the Heroes families, a public welfare program that aims to provide long-term support for children of the heroes who sacrificed their lives for the fight against the pandemic in their education and lives. Jointly initiated by The Paper, Henghui Childrens Charity Foundation, and Coast Construction and Development Co., Ltd., the program will provide financial support for the school expenses of Pengs daughter and 61 children of other heroes who fought for their country against the outbreak until they are 22. Peng and his wife received their marriage certificate in November 2017, but never had a wedding ceremony as they had been too busy with work. Their wedding ceremony had been scheduled for Feb. 1, and the couple had been preparing for it before the 2020 Spring Festival. They had booked a hotel, sent out invitations, and tried on wedding dresses, but was never able to hold their wedding because of the pandemic. 3 1 of 3 Handout/National Institutes of Health/AFP via Getty Images Show More Show Less 2 of 3 LI WENLIANG/Getty Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Ector County confirmed seven more positive cases of coronavirus over the weekend, making the total 161. Three of the positive cases were nursing home residents at Focused Care at Odessa. Ector County has nine probable cases at this time, according to the ECHD website. ECHD reported that 117 people have recovered. There have been 2,504 tests taken, with 2,171 negative results and 172 pending results. ECHD has contacted 1,829 people during contact tracing. Medical Center Health System president and CEO Russell Tippin said MCH is treating nine positive patients. Four patients are on the isolation floor; two of those patients are from the Odessa nursing home. Five patients are in critical care, and four of those patients are on ventilators. MCH received five coronavirus patients over the weekend. MCH has tested 103 positive patients. In all, MCH has tested 1,335 people, with 1,176 negative tests and 56 pending tests. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday India will tide over the coronavirus pandemic and will get back on track with the governments decisive policies. PM Modi made the comments while delivering the inaugural address at the Confederation of Indian Industrys (CII) annual session 2020, Getting Growth Back. Modi congratulated the industry body on completing 125 years of the organisation as he made his first major speech on the Indian economy since the announcement of Unlock 1. We will definitely get our growth back. India will get its growth back, he said while addressing the session through video conference. Also read | Time to stabilise and speed-up economy while continuing Covid-19 battle: PM Modi Corona has pushed us back but India has pushed back as well after the lockdown and entered Unlock Phase 1. As a great part of the economy has been opened up and more will open after June 8, he said. He then gave reasons behind his confidence. Some people must be thinking about how can I be so confident during this hour of crisis. I have immense trust in Indias capabilities and crisis management. I trust Indias talent and technology. I trust innovation and intellect of India. I trust the farmers of India, MSMEs, entrepreneurs and on industry leaders, he said. India has been able to enter Unlock Phase I because as the coronavirus was spreading its tentacles across the world, India was ready. He was indicating to the governments slew of policy reforms and a revival package of Rs 20 lakh crore to help India cope with the Covid-19 pandemic and the impact of the lockdown imposed to fight it. Also read: Indias Covid-19 tally at 198,706 after 8,171 new cases in 24 hours As industry leaders, you would have questions about the governments next step. Getting the economy back on track is among one of our highest priorities, he said. The government has taken decisions that will help the country in the long term as well, the Prime Minister said. The Centre had on Saturday released details of the first of a three-phase planUnlock 1.0to lift stringent restrictions imposed over two months ago to stop the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). The Union home ministry said on Saturday places of worship, shopping malls, and hotels and restaurants can open from June 8 as it released details of the first of a three-phase plan aimed at lifting stringent restrictions imposed over two months ago. The plan also removes restrictions on inter- and intra-state travel. The Centre has empowered states and Union territories to identify containment zones in accordance with the health ministrys guidelines. - Health officials in the Cape Metro report that Covid-19 testing will now only be reserved for people aged over 55 with additional risk factors - If you are under 55 and experience Covid-19 symptoms, just assume you have it, says Dr Keith Cloete - The new Covid-19 approach aims to reduce mortality (death rates) and save test kits PAY ATTENTION: Click See First under the Following tab to see Briefly.co.za News on your News Feed! Cape Talk reports that health officials in the Cape Metro, Western Cape will now only test for the Covid-19 virus in people with 'comorbidities' (additional health risk factors) who are older than 55 years old. Everyone who accesses a health facility will will get screened but only those who have symptoms will and fall into the following categories will be tested: People already in hospital with Covid-19 symptoms. Health care workers with Covid-19 symptoms. People who are older than 55 with diabetes or hypertension and Covid-19 symptoms. People who are younger than 55 with underlying conditions and Covid-19 symptoms. People who live in a care home or an old age home with Covid-19 symptom In an interview with Cape Talk, Dr Keith Cloete, the Head of Health at the Western Cape Department, explained why they department is now changing its methodology and approach to the virus. Cloete explained that several factors are influencing this approach. Firstly, he said that they want to focus on people that most at risk of Covid-19 and this is people who are over the age of 55. He added that in doing this, they want to reduce mortality. READ ALSO: Covid-19: Mkhize announces that SA has reached 35 812 infections Cloete calls this approach, a "risk specified case management approach". He adds that if someone is younger than 55 and exhibits symptoms of the virus, they should simply assume that they have it and after 14 days they will be fine. There is no purpose in getting tested, he says. Cloete adds that this is also done to reduce the number of tests being done as the department has a massive number of backlogs. The country also has a shortage of Covid-19 test kits. As it stands, South Africa's confirmed Covid-19 cases are 35 812 and the Western Cape has 23 583 of all the country's cases. Enjoyed reading our story? Download BRIEFLY's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major South African news! Source: Briefly News Mike Tindall with his daughter Mia last year. (Getty Images) Primary schools across England have opened their doors again as the government eases lockdown restrictions. While some parents are nervous about sending their Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 children back to lessons, Mike Tindall is speaking for those who are fed up of homeschooling. The former rugby player, who is married to Zara, the Queens granddaughter, shared a gif from Forrest Gump on his Twitter, joking that the characters fast-paced run would be his inspiration as he dropped off his daughter Mia at the school gate on Tuesday morning. Mia, six, lives with her parents and younger sister, Lena, on the Gatcombe estate in Gloucestershire. Her school is presumed to be close by. Me after school drop off this morning! pic.twitter.com/Mvd9OGB7Zg mike tindall (@miketindall13) June 2, 2020 Zara, who is the Queens oldest granddaughter, does not have a royal title, and so her children are not known as princesses, despite their cousins being third, fourth and fifth in line to the throne. Read more: Prince William talks homeschooling: 'You worry how little you know when you can't do Maths' Princess Charlotte, five, who is Prince William and Kates daughter, would also be able to go back to school on Tuesday under Englands rules. But the royals appear to still be in Norfolk, where they have been staying at Anmer Hall. The latest video of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge showed them in the same room they have conducted most of their zoom calls from. Its also not clear if Charlottes school, Thomass in Battersea, has reopened. Mike, 41, opened up about homeschooling previously, and made it pretty clear he would be sending Mia back when he could. He said it had been frustrating at home. Mike and Zara Tindall with their daughters Mia and Lena (in her pram). (Getty Images) Read more: Another royal baby? Odds slashed on Zara Tindall pregnancy announcement He told The Daily Telegraph: Mia enjoyed it the first week because it was different being around mum and dad all the time. Story continues But then ultimately it's the same people who are telling her off or telling her what to do and I think she gets bored of that. Prince William, Mikes cousin-in-law, has also suggested homeschooling his kids has been less than plain sailing, but sympathised with care workers in a call where he said children dont understand social distancing. But Mike revealed in May that the WhatsApp group of the younger royal generation hadnt been all that active, so perhaps they havent been swapping tips as they work and educate from home. Mike said: I think everyone is just getting on with it. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 16:05:35|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close DENVER, the United States, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Thousands descended on downtown Denver Monday, as the fifth straight day of protests over George Floyd's death were the most peaceful yet. "The difference was police did not use teargas and pepper balls," reported local CBS Channel 4 News, as Denver police presence was the smallest since protests began last Thursday. Denver law enforcement's new "hands-off" strategy seemed to be the most effective since a graphic video of Floyd's death in Minneapolis surfaced, sparking many destructive riots across the United States. On Monday afternoon, Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen protested as well, and was seen on all local TV news channels locking arms and marching with African-American protestors as a sign of solidarity against police brutality and Floyd's murder. Pazen told the media that some officers have been pulled off the front lines because of their conduct. Since last Thursday when protests began, Denver police have arrested 284 people and confiscated more than a dozen guns and other weapons, the police authorities tweeted. Denver Mayor Michael Hancock Monday also extended the city's curfew from 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. out of respect to protesters who wanted more time. After 11 p.m. on Monday local time, crowds started dispersing peacefully, as police used loudspeakers to ask them to leave, but threatened arrests if they did not comply. The evening protest was a stark contrast to teargas, pepper balls, and aggressive police behavior that has been on display since every evening rally started Thursday. Local TV news reporters, who were seen live being fired upon by police Sunday night using pepper balls, breathed sighs of relief as the evening brought the least violent protesting in days. "What a difference tonight has seen," a local Channel 2 News reporter commented. "A successful evening compared to what we've had before," CBS Channel 4 News reported, adding "this is what protesters wanted -- a peaceful night -- they did not want to be overshadowed by the violence." U.S. President Donald Trump's threat earlier in the day to deploy federal troops to cities to quell violence was called "counterproductive and would only stoke the potential for more violence and destruction," by Colorado Governor Jared Polis. "This is a time for healing, for bringing people together and the best way to protect civil rights is to move away from escalating violence," Polis said in a statement. Enditem FP Trending Microsoft has confirmed that its new Windows 10 update, which was rolled out last month, has some critical issues. The company has started working on fixing the problem. The OS maker on its support page has revealed that devices with affected Conexant ISST audio drivers might receive an error or have issues with Windows 10, version 2004. Users having Windows 10 devices with certain Realtek drivers may face difficulty connecting to more than one Bluetooth device. Microsoft has found incompatibility issues when using a monitor with Variable refresh rate (VRR) plugged into an Intel integrated graphics processing unit (iGPU) display adapter and Windows 10. Users may encounter incompatibility issues with certain versions of Nvidia display adapter drivers. Windows 10 devices with affected Nvidia display driver versions might receive a stop error with a blue screen or other issues during or after installing the update, said the company. According to a report in Forbes, apart from the incompatibilities with Nvidia display drivers, other high profile issuers include those with Conexant and Synaptics audio drivers, broken mouse control, plugging and unplugging Thunderbolt docks, broken variable refresh rates with Intel graphics difficulty connecting to multiple Bluetooth device and issues with unexpected restarts with certain network adapters. Some apps and games that use GameInput Redistributable and Windows 10 update might lose mouse input. If an affected version of aksfridge.sys or aksdf.sys is present in the driver, then Windows 10 might fail to install or start after updating. Apart from these issues, the Windows 10 update offers a number of changes and features to give an all-new experience to users on laptops and desktops. The updated version comes with a Specialised Display feature that enables the screen to be dedicated to a specific purpose. The digital assistant now provides an improved chat-based interface. Users can speak or type to get a response from the assistant. Microsoft has added four new quick web searches to find home weather, top news, today in history, and new movies. Austrian Airlines said Thursday that it would resume flights from June 15 after almost three months of being grounded due to the new coronavirus pandemic, which has heavily restricted international travel. Flights will resume to destinations in Europe, including London, Paris and Brussels, as well as Tel Aviv from June 15, the carrier, a subsidiary of the German giant Lufthansa, said in a statement. More cities, including in Austria, will be added from June 22 bringing the total number of destinations up to 37, it said. The airlines said the flights, mostly serviced by smaller planes such as the Embraer 195 and Dash 8, represented about five percent of the capacity offered during the same period last year. The carrier said it was considering adding long-distance flights in July depending on demand for short- and medium distance flights. Passengers will have to wear masks covering their mouths and noses, the airlines added. The carrier is currently in negotiations with Austria's government for state aid. Initially it demanded 767 million euros ($844 million), but recent media reports suggested the amount could have gone down after the airline's employees accepted pay cuts. Politicians from the Green party, the junior partner in conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's government, have said that any state aid should be tied to policies to combat climate change. Suggestions for what that could mean in practice have included slashing the number of short distance flights and using alternative fuels. Coronavirus-stricken airline group Lufthansa wavered Wednesday on grabbing a nine-billion-euro German state lifeline, throwing up new turbulence for a rescue that could decide the fate of the historic company. Dogs will rescue their owners, a new study has found. (Getty) If youve ever felt that your loyal four-legged companion would leap to your rescue, just like film dogs Lassie or Bolt, we have good news youre right. New research has shown that a majority of dogs will run to the aid of owners in trouble, even if they have not been trained to rescue human beings. Up to 84% of dogs will try to save their owners, if they know how to help, the study showed. Researchers found that, in a simulated test, dogs were more likely to go to the aid of their owners than they were to get food. The research also showed that dogs are stressed when they see their owners in distress. Read more: Dog rescuer who smashed car window wont face police action Psychologists Joshua Van Bourg and Clive Wynne, of Arizona State University, assessed how likely 60 pet dogs were to rescue their owners using simulated tests. Dog owners pretended to be confined inside a large box and shouted in distress, help or help me! They were not allowed to use their dogs name (which would have meant the animal acted out of obedience. The box had a lightweight door which the dogs could open. Prof Van Bourg said: "About one-third of the dogs rescued their distressed owner, which doesn't sound too impressive on its own, but really is impressive when you take a closer look. Read more: Pet owner slammed over makeshift dog carrier on car "That's because two things are at stake here. One is the dogs' desire to help their owners, and the other is how well the dogs understood the nature of the help that was needed. In another test, when the dog watched a researcher drop food into the box, only 19 of the 60 dogs opened the box to get the food. Prof Van Bourg said: "The key here is that without controlling for each dog's understanding of how to open the box, the proportion of dogs who rescued their owners greatly underestimates the proportion of dogs who wanted to rescue their owners. "The fact that two-thirds of the dogs didn't even open the box for food is a pretty strong indication that rescuing requires more than just motivation, there's something else involved, and that's the ability component. Story continues "If you look at only those 19 dogs that showed us they were able to open the door in the food test, 84% of them rescued their owners. So, most dogs want to rescue you, but they need to know how." The dogs also appeared to be stressed out when they saw their owners in distress, the researchers said. Prof Van Bourg added: "When their owner was distressed, they barked more, and they whined more. In fact, there were eight dogs who whined, and they did so during the distress test. Only one other dog whined, and that was for food." "What's fascinating about this study is that it shows that dogs really care about their people. Even without training, many dogs will try and rescue people who appear to be in distress - and when they fail, we can still see how upset they are. Laguna (CNN Philippines Life) Education is one of the many sectors that the pandemic has heavily affected on a global scale. In the Philippines, schools have been forced to rethink evaluation procedures for the recently concluded semester, with some giving passing marks for all students while others opted to defer their grades. Plans on how the next semesters will be implemented remain unresolved, but online learning, both partial and full, continues to be the most considered option as it allows for the practice of social distancing. Several groups have expressed disapproval of this option, however, asserting how this set-up would frame education as a privilege that many Filipinos will not be able to reach due to a lack of meaningful internet access. Some are also pushing for an academic freeze, which is said to be the least discriminating option for Filipino students given the current situation. With this pandemic, schools and educators are really challenged to shift the traditional classroom online, and we understand the real concern that not all families have internet access or dedicated resources to continue this learning method for their children, says Henry Motte-Munoz, founder and chief executive officer of education startup Edukasyon.ph. In this scenario, it will be critical for [the] government to work with the telcos to ensure the youth have equal opportunities to online schooling. A shift in educational paradigm is proven to be a necessary step to take in order for students and educators to adapt to the "new normal". The changing times have also paved the way for another trend to grow. Learning employability from experts Independent online courses are becoming more popular among students and young professionals alike. Last month, 28-year-old Paula Mendoza from Makati City was able to finish 20 online courses in leadership, sales, and marketing courses from the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania, University of California, and 12 other universities through online education provider Coursera. These short courses, typically completed in a matter of weeks, focus on subjects under specific industries such as digital marketing, customer service, and accounting and are designed for skills building and development. While some require fees prior to registration, several of these courses are made available for free. Motte-Munoz says that these courses are scalable and accessible, and self-motivated and self-paced. Learners are allowed to work according to their schedules and learning capacity. While this pandemic has been very challenging, its also accelerating a lot of positive trends in the education space in the Philippines. In addition to being self-paced or self-instructed, and students having the choice of specific skills they want to learn for employability, online courses tend to be more affordable than traditional education so your return on investment will be much quicker, he adds. Online education providers like Coursera, Udemy, FutureLearn, and Kadenze bridge some gaps in education by offering independent courses from top institutions. Students have the opportunity to learn from top instructors in each field, and through a broader lens of each industry, shares Motte-Munoz. Platforms such as Edukasyon.ph select online courses from the providers according to what students view as most helpful to their personal and professional growth, and offer insight to users in finding the right education including the right online one, he adds. When selecting online courses to offer to the Filipino audience, Motte-Munoz shares that they take into account whether the certificate or short courses translate into employable skills; if they have good representation of what is available in the market; and if they are making it easy for students to discover online education with little to no prerequisites. The limits of 'self-paced' online learning Independent online learning is not exclusive to short courses lifted from established institutions. The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) also offers free online courses. Learning resources for students and educators are also archived online via DepEd Commons, maintained by the Department of Education. Motte-Munoz also acknowledges the growing educational content on YouTube and even TikTok, as well as free live-streamed webinars across various topics and industries. While this pandemic has been very challenging, its also accelerating a lot of positive trends in the education space in the [Philippines], he says. While online courses are not yet at par with traditional degrees in terms of their credibility and perception of their value, Motte-Munoz shares that there are significant improvements in how universities credit or use them as supplemental learning. He says it will take time for families and companies to adapt in viewing online courses as a reasonable alternative for traditional learning, especially as four-year degrees are often perceived as the standard in our culture. Online courses are not without limitations, however: lack of peer-to-peer learning and completion rates based on the students motivation are crucial aspects that are not covered by the courses. There is also the challenge of helping first-time online learners to adopt this new method, although schools promotion of online learning may largely contribute to this adjustment. But self-paced courses, particularly for knowledge-based skills, could in fact be more effective than in-person instruction, says Motte-Munoz, as students already have the motivation as well as the freedom to optimize their own learning. Motte-Munoz adds: An important thing to note is that online courses engage learners beyond the education system this could include out-of-school youth, people who may have lost jobs or may be transitioning careers enabling a broader audience to benefit. UN chief Antonio Guterres has appealed to the protesters demanding justice for the custodial killing of African-American George Floyd to voice their grievances in a peaceful manner and called on authorities to show restraint while responding to the widespread protests held across the US. Thousands of protesters took to the streets across the US to demonstrate against the gruesome killing of Flyod, a 46-year-old man who was pinned to the ground in Minneapolis last week by a white police officer who kneeled on his neck as he gasped for breath. In his last moments before death, Floyd said: 'I can't breathe', which the demonstrators use as a clarion call demanding action against brutality by the police. Police have used tear gas to disperse the crowds and hundreds of people have been arrested as protests turned violent in some cities. "The situation we're seeing today, we've seen in different parts of the world before and the Secretary General's message has been consistent one - that grievances must be heard, but they must be expressed in peaceful ways and authorities must show restraint in responding to demonstrators," Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric said at the daily press briefing on Monday. He was responding to a question on the violent protests going on in the US for a week over the killing of Floyd. Dujarric said that as in any other country in the world, "diversity is a richness and not a threat" in the US. "But the success of diverse societies, in any country, requires a massive investment in social cohesion. That means reducing inequalities, addressing possible areas of discrimination, strengthening social protection, providing opportunities for all," he said. He said that these efforts and investments needed to mobilise national governments. "They need to mobilise local authorities, the private sector, civil society, faith based organisations. In one word, society as a whole needs to be mobilised," the UN official said. On police violence amid the protests, Dujarric said such cases needed to be investigated. "We've always said that police forces around the world need to have adequate human rights training, and there also needs to be an investment in social and psychological support for police so they can do their job properly in terms of protecting the community," he said. As journalists too came under attack during the protests over Flyod's death, Dujarric quoted a tweet by Guterres in which the UN chief had said, "When journalists are attacked, societies are attacked. No democracy can function without press freedom, nor can any society be fair without journalists who investigate wrongdoing and speak truth to power". The protests have resulted in the death of at least five people, the arrest of thousands and placing of curfew in nearly 40 cities, while forcing President Donald Trump to take shelter in a White House bunker. Considered to be the worst ever civil unrest in the US in decades, the violent protests have engulfed at least 140 cities across America in the days following the death of Floyd. Meanwhile, French Ambassador to the UN Nicolas de Riviere, President of the Security Council for the month of June, was asked during a virtual press briefing if there were any plans to raise the issue of brutality by the US police in the Security Council since Washington raises human rights issues of other nations in the 15-member UN organ. The envoy responded by saying the mandate of the Security Council was not the same as the mandate of the UN Human Rights Council. "The mandate of the Security Council is international peace and security. It's obvious that frequently the human rights situation has an impact on international and regional peace and security and then and only then the Security Council should take action. It doesn't mean that the Security Council is in charge of every single issue related to human rights. It's not," he said. German envoy Christoph Heusgen, President of the Security Council for the month of July, said there were no plans to raise the issue in the council. Borsa Italiana non ha responsabilita per il contenuto del sito a cui sta per accedere e non ha responsabilita per le informazioni contenute. Accedendo a questo link, Borsa Italiana non intende sollecitare acquisti o offerte in alcun paese da parte di nessuno. Sarai automaticamente diretto al link in cinque secondi. Civic Center, Tenderloin SFPD officers speak with unhoused residents on Sixth Street, near Market. | Photos: Carrie Sisto/Hoodline On May 4, the UC Hastings College of Law sued the City and County of San Francisco over issues of street cleanliness, open-air drug dealing and homelessness in the Tenderloin. The college was joined in the suit by a coalition of Tenderloin residents, business owners, and neighborhood advocates. Now, the lawsuit is getting pushback from a coalition of 150 UC Hastings alumni and students. In an open letter to dean and chancellor David Faigman, they argue that the lawsuit is too focused on clearing sidewalks, not housing those living on the streets. "Not everyone associated with UC Hastings agrees with the lawsuit," said Abel Mouton, a current student who's helping to organize the coalition. Mouton says the lawsuit does assert the rights of people experiencing homelessness to housing and medical services at public expense. But it's buried as the 11th of 14 total complaints, with top billing given to clearing sidewalks. Should the city settle the suit which seeks no financial damages beyond legal fees advocates say the unhoused are the ones likely to be punished, through encampment sweeps and police pressure. We want whatever '[clearing of] the sidewalks' that takes place to result not from the police forcing the houseless and their tents into empty parking lots, but from putting people in hotel rooms, Mouton said. "It's absurd that this hasn't happened yet." The sidewalks on Cedar Alley between Polk and Larkin streets are impassable. The letter was sent to Dean Faigman last Thursday, before this weekends imposition of a citywide curfew. Mouton said the Dean has acknowledged receipt of the letter, but has not yet responded. Deborah Mallgrave, the attorney representing the plaintiffs and UC Hastings, said they cannot comment on the letter or the status of the lawsuit, due to a mediation confidentiality order from the judge assigned to the case. Campers at Willow and Larkin streets in the Tenderloin. | Photo: Carrie Sisto/Hoodline As part of their protest, the student and alumni group are encouraging UC Hastings to support the Do No Harm Coalitions COVID-19 plan for unhoused people. Developed by UCSF medical staff, the Coalition on Homelessness, Glide, and SF Rising, it outlines ways to provide housing, healthcare, harm reduction, and drug treatment services for those living on the streets. Story continues Asked about concerns over the cost of such efforts, Mouton noted the city has already spent money on useless interventions. For the first few months of the pandemic, it spent $6,000/week to guard an empty lot, even as homeless campers filled the surrounding sidewalks. (Officials opened the lot to eight campers last week, without on-site sanitation services; they continue to pay for the guards.) Meanwhile, the SF Public Press recently reported that the city spent nearly $500,000 on recreational vehicles to shelter the unhoused during the pandemic none of which were ever used. It's possible that the group's petition will fall on deaf ears; a video settlement conference between the plaintiffs and representatives of the City and County of San Francisco is already set to take place today at 1 p.m. From second left, to right, Lake County Sheriff John Idleburg, Waukegan Chief of Police Wayne Walles, Waukegan Fire Chief George Bridges and Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham are among people bowing while ending the vigil in faith and prayer. Images from the Community Prayer Vigil and Call for Peace and Solidarity in Waukegan on June 2, 2020 near Ross Dress for Less in Waukegan Plaza. (Karie Angell Luc / Pioneer Press) China's authoritarian system has been promoting itself as superior to American democracy for more than a decade. The global financial crisis devastated the US economy while China emerged largely unscathed, and Beijing's propaganda machine seized on the contrast: "The 'China model' has created miracles, opened a unique path of development and superseded belief in a superior 'America model,' marking its demise," proclaimed the People's Daily in 2009. It was around the same time a notable pro-democracy think tank in the US, Freedom House, declared a "democratic recession". In its latest annual pulse-taking, published in March, it found that the recession of democracy worldwide was entering its 14th consecutive year. Twice as many countries suffered declines in freedom as enjoyed improvements, Freedom House reported. It counts the US among the countries in democratic decline. Freedom in America had declined in the last 10 years by 8 points on its 100-point scale. Today the Chinese Communist Party hardly need press its case against the US. All Beijing need do is sit back and let the daily US news tell the story. More than 100,000 Americans dead from coronavirus. Some 40 million Americans thrown out of work in the last couple of months. Race riots descending into chaos in America's major cities. While its President promotes yet more division. Photo credit: John Francis - Getty Images From Cosmopolitan Its been a week since George Floyd was killed, and the protests have yet to stop because it isnt only about George Floydits about the recent deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. Its about the October 2019 killing of Brianna Hill. Its about Christian Cooper having the cops called on him by a white woman for simply bird-watching in Central Park. And it needs to stop. As a result of racial injustices, Americans have taken to the streets across the country to let their voices be heard in major cities like Minneapolis, New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Anchorage, Salt Lake City, and Las Vegas. Most protests have been peaceful, while some have devolved into looting and rubber bullet shootings from police in riot gear. (Friendly reminder: There was little pushback from police officers when rioters protested the coronavirus stay-at-home order.) With the sheer amount of info circulating right now, its easy to mix up fact and fiction, so here is a list of prominent rumors about the George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests, debunked, fact-checked, and explained. No, protestors did not steal a train from a Minneapolis mall. A Twitter user posted a pic of protestors who allegedly stole a train from a Minneapolis mall, but this just isnt truethe train was never stolen, and the picture is from Ferguson protests in 2014. Minneapolis trippin fr they stole the mall train pic.twitter.com/EJyvu092BZ Keke (@KekeNoPalmerTho) May 28, 2020 TikTok says it is *not* targeting Black Lives Matter hashtags. Some TikTok users reported that hashtags about the Black Lives Matter movement and protests were blocked on the app, but TikTok says general hashtag blocking was a bug that affected words at random. Since then, the glitches have been fixed and both hashtags are searchable. Story continues Tiktok blocked all black lives matter hashtags, anything to do with George Floyd. Wow. Guess I gotta delete the app! ANGELI ANGELINA (@angy_pangy_) May 30, 2020 lol saying to support black creators is against the guidelines now? also i would really love an explanation on why you have shadowbanned half of your black creators in the past 48hrs? whats good @tiktok_us pic.twitter.com/mFmuufTTY0 elijah daniel (@elijahdaniel) May 30, 2020 We are aware of an issue that is impacting the hashtag view counts displayed at the upload stage. This appears to affect words at random, including terms like #cat and #hello. Our team is investigating and working quickly to address the issue. TikTokSupport (@TikTokSupport) May 29, 2020 There have been missing persons accounts that have been proven to be false. Be mindful about consuming your news via social media onlysome Twitter accounts have posted untrue accounts of missing relatives (and are thankfully being called out). An account with 10 followers tweeted about a missing uncle in the middle of the strife going on in Minneapolis, US, and was retweeted 14.5k times. This is a common strategy to spread misinformation - Anonymous account + image or video + emotional story during a tense situation. Pratik Sinha (@free_thinker) May 29, 2020 BuzzFeed News investigated one such tweet about a posters alleged missing brother after it got more than 30,000 retweets, and the 16-year-old running the account admitted they made it up and used a pic of a Black man they dont know. Photo credit: Twitter I apologize to everyone that I potentially worried or caused any work to help find my missing brother and that I never intended it to get such a wide range of people finding it from the start of my tweet, they said. Protestors did not set fire to a Walmart in Minneapolis. Protestors in Minneapolis did not set fire to a Walmart, as footage from this past weekend suggests. The building shown in the circulating video is an apartment complex in the city that was targeted by vandalism, but right now, its unclear if there is any connection to the protests. A disturbing viral video showing a police officer pinning down a young Black boy is from last month, not from the protests. In response to a fake news tweet by Donald Trump, a user attached an extremely disturbing video of a cop pinning down a young Black child with the hashtags #BlackLivesMatter and #GeorgeFloydProtests. This video is from California and was taken last monththe officer was detaining the boy for possession of a cigar. The Sacramento County Sheriffs Department and the Rancho Cordova Police Department said they are investigating the officers use of force, and police chief Kate Adams said the officer has been temporarily reassigned to a role outside the department, but no other public action has been taken. No, a TV reporter was not creating fake gunshot noises to incite chaos. A TV reporter in Minneapolis was accused of playing fake gunshot noises on his cell phone during a series of peaceful protests and was confronted for it in a viral Twitter video, but according to the station, this isnt exactly the full story. According to a statement issued by the stations news director, Kirk Varner, the reporter who filmed the peaceful protest heard someone from the crowds firing shots into the air. Wanting to confirm the sound he heard, he went to play back the video on his cell phone, which indeed shows an individual shooting into the air, Varner said. An upset group of people then approached the reporter after hearing the audio. These reports sabotaging the protest making look like the protesters are armed by playing fake gunshot sounds pic.twitter.com/TT3SPArjS3 New Bawdy (@_eden______) May 28, 2020 The reporters footage corroborates this story: Makeup does not protect against facial recognition tech. Theres a rumor that makeup can help disguise protestors faces from surveillance, but that doesnt seem to check out. Be mindful that cosmetics dont stop facial recognition tech from working. Detected 3 out of 4 with @faceplusplus. That's just a still- not a video stream or enrolment station. CV Dazzle is performance art, it hasn't worked in years. https://t.co/ICJHCvf7Qh pic.twitter.com/QRt2WvPQln Naomi Wu (@RealSexyCyborg) March 5, 2020 The Minnesota Freedom Fund does NOT take Venmo donations. The Minnesota Freedom Fund, which pays criminal and immigration jail bonds for oppressive jailing, is warning people that Venmo users are posing as their organization to gain donations. They do not take Venmo donations and are raising up other ways to help after being overwhelmed with donations. Hey y'all, there is a fraudulent Venmo account circulating with our name on it. At this time, the Minnesota Freedom Fund DOES NOT HAVE A VENMO. Do NOT send funds there. Minnesota Freedom Fund (@MNFreedomFund) May 30, 2020 You can find other ways to demand justice for Black lives and support protestors here. There is no child militia in the United States. Atlanta has not deployed a child militia and does not have any underage girls or boys serving in the National Guard. Personnel in Georgias National Guard are required to be of age to serve. Atlanta has deployed a child militia at Lenox Mall fitted with riot shields and batons. What the actual fuck is going on? pic.twitter.com/zTtmw5mDTN Fox Wound (@foxwoundband) May 30, 2020 Here is the video that started all the child soldiers rumors WATCH FULL: https://t.co/2RftSP1wPn pic.twitter.com/Wi8B8BD8hF RT (@RT_com) May 31, 2020 Looters did not kill a man for defending his store from them. A graphic video of a man being beaten in Dallas started circulating on Twitter with people claiming protestors hit and killed him after he defended his store from looting. Dallas police, however, told BuzzFeed that this story doesnt check out. The man was not defending a storefront and confronted protestors with a machete before further violence broke out. He is alive and recovering. The victim went to the 2200 block of N. Lamar Street (House of Blues) carrying a machete to allegedly protect his neighborhood from protesters, a Dallas police spokesperson said in a statement. The victim confronted protesters while holding the machete and was subsequently assaulted by the protesters. He was transported to an area hospital where he remains in stable condition. This remains an ongoing investigation. The guy on the right of this pic isnt Derek Chauvin. Derek Chauvin is *not* the man pictured in the photo on the right, according to Snopesthats a man named Jonathan Riches, a Trump supporter who frequently trolls people online. (Twitter later flagged the below tweet as manipulated media when Jonathans identity was confirmed.) Here is Derek Chauvin, the racist cop who kept his knee on #GeorgeFloyds neck, cut off his air passage and murdered him, wearing a Make Whites Great Again hat pic.twitter.com/zZbevXY4nA Biden_Brigade (@biden_brigade) May 27, 2020 Keep an eye out for fake Black Lives Matter organizer email addresses. Organizers are warning people that an email address unassociated with Black Lives Matter Atlanta is being used to lure potential protestors into unsafe situations. Watch out for fake addresses and hoaxes. Any e-mail coming from BLM@Gmail.com is NOT coming from @Mvmnt4BlkLives or allies in ATL. Please be mindful that movement is being infiltrated at the moment and people are being lured into unsafe environments. For info on the week of action in GA, follow @AJustGeorgia. pic.twitter.com/92Lk9MZQ2U Tiff Roberts (@shedefendsit) May 31, 2020 Two police officers were not killed in Utah and North Dakota protests. On Twitter, an elderly Trump supporter posted that two officersCody Holte and Nate Lydaywere killed on May 27 and 28. People in the comments of the post (which raked in more than 16,000 retweets) began saying they died during protests over racial injustice, but this isnt true. A different Twitter user replied to the tweet and wrote, Neither of these cops deaths were related at all to current events. Office Holte passed in a shoot-out at a hospital in North Dakota and Officer Lyday was responding to a domestic disturbance callfake news. NEITHER OF THESE COPS DEATHS WERE RELATED AT ALL TO CURRENT EVENTS. OFFICER HOLTE PASSED IN A SHOOTOUT AT A HOSPITAL IN NORTH DAKOTA & OFFICER LYDAY WAS RESPONDING TO A DOMESTIC DISTURBANCE CALL fake news. https://t.co/zG7ardPMip BLM 1312 (@twinflame00) June 1, 2020 The Officer Down Memorial Page (a website that tracks officers who have died on duty) confirms this. In North Dakota, Officer Holte responded to a shoot-out that occurred after an apartment eviction notice was served. The resident resisted and started firing rounds at the cops, killing Holte. Officer Lyday, who served in Utah, responded to a domestic dispute and was killed when trying to enter the premises. Protestors in Washington, D.C., did not storm into houses uninvited. After police began to pepper-spray protestors in D.C. to enforce the citys curfew, a Twitter user falsely claimed that protestors began breaking into homes in the area. This is not true. ABC and USA Today both confirmed that a man named Rahul Dubey *invited* 60 to 70 protestors into his home last night to provide them with shelter until the curfew ended. FALSE - home owners in that neighborhood opened their homes & invited them in for shelter from police after being pepper sprayed, knocked down and avoid getting arrested. https://t.co/TQx68lfvRZ Diana Karen Mireles (@dianakmir) June 2, 2020 "I hope that my 13-year-old son grows up to be just as amazing as they are." Rahul Dubey opened his home to nearly 70 strangers overnight and sheltered them during D.C.'s curfew. He says our country needs people like THEM. FULL INTERVIEW: https://t.co/hucxiraHk9 pic.twitter.com/BKFMsTsSgk ABC 7 News - WJLA (@ABC7News) June 2, 2020 The following day, protestors gathered at Dubeys home, where he gave an inspiring speech that was met with applause. Rahul Dubey, the man who welcomed protesters into his home, gets a round of appause from protesters and supporters @ABC7News @ABC7GMW pic.twitter.com/IDISrnPTcx Kristen Powers (@ABC7Kristen) June 2, 2020 George Soros is not paying anyone to be a professional anarchist. A flyer allegedly created and endorsed by George Soros and his Open Society Foundation offered people up to $200 to riot along with a phone number to the Thurston County Democrats in Washington State if people wanted more information. The flyer is fake and designed specifically to make Democrats look bad, Snopes.com confirmed. On Facebook, the real Thurston Country Democrats debunked it and wrote: False and forged images are being spread nationwide that say, Get paid to be a professional anarchist. This disinformation displays TCDs phone number and an incorrect TCD email/web address. THESE IMAGES ARE FAKED TO DISCREDIT DEMOCRATS. But some people believe them. TCD has received telephone calls from the gullible asking for George Soros and other Trumpian conspiratorial nonsense. IF YOU SEE IT, DO NOT SHARE IT. DO NOT COMMENT ON PAGES THAT SHARE IT. If you do either, you increase its visibility on Facebook (or Twitter, TikTok, etc.) and are inadvertently helping to spread false right-wing propaganda of an anti-democratic, anti-Semitic nature. You may be endangering fellow Democrats. This image is fake. Neither George Soros nor the Open Society Foundations pay protesters. Claims that we do serve to delegitimize those who peacefully protest and distract from the police brutality crisis across the U.S. https://t.co/KJkpkcBoV5 Open Society Foundations (@OpenSociety) June 1, 2020 MSNBC did not air footage from World War Z and claim it was protest footage. A Twitter user took footage from the movie World War Z and edited it with MSNBC breaking-news overlays to make it appear as if it was aftermath footage from the protests in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, the post quickly went viral after leftists began posting it. A leftist (@/jpegjoshua) posted a doctored MSNBC video to fool people into spreading disinformation. The doctored clip has MSNBC overlays on a World War Z scene to trick people into thinking MSNBC broadcast it. Leftists are trying to hurt the credibility of the right + media. pic.twitter.com/dsClwCOTDe Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) June 1, 2020 *** MSNBC NEVER USED THE WORLD WAR Z CLIP!! PERIOD! AUDIO TAKEN FROM THIS REAL VIDEO LAST NIGHT (BELOW), WITH GRAPHICS ON TOP OF A TRAILER RIPPED FROM YOU TUBE. AGAIN, MSNBC NEVER NEVER AIRED THE WWZ FOOTAGE!!*** #WorldWarZ #PHILLY #MSNBC #FAKEVIDEO #NOCONSPIRACY #BADJUDGEMENT pic.twitter.com/Y9osxvyTFI Bad Scooter (@OfficialSlop) June 1, 2020 The person who originally doctored the footage eventually came forward, said it was a joke, and offered his followers an apology. (Twitter has since flagged these posts with the manipulated media tag if it doesnt clarify that the footage is fake.) Well that escalated quickly. YES, that MSNBC clip was from World War Z, I even marked the video above the MSNBC logo "NOT REAL." I dramatically underestimated Twitter, many pointed it out, some claimed it was "real"-that was stupid of me. I apologize #Philly #WorldWarZ pic.twitter.com/8O52I5iEmn Bad Scooter (@OfficialSlop) June 1, 2020 And I deeply apologize again, I did not expect what so ever this would spread. I am NOT a #Trump supporter by any means, not even close. (He is a completely useless moron!) But in my sh*t judgement - piss poor taste, I really f'ed up and I am sorry. #MSNBC Bad Scooter (@OfficialSlop) June 1, 2020 Darnella Frazier, the girl who filmed George Floyds murder, has NOT created any GoFundMe pages for herself. Photo credit: Facebook GoFundMe, however, has verified one campaign that lists LaTangie Gillespie (Darnellas mother) as the direct beneficiary. Here is the verified GoFundMe to bring "peace & healing" to Darnella Frazierthe brave teen who filmed George Floyd's final moments. https://t.co/rVUacCwXdI GoFundMe (@gofundme) June 1, 2020 Protestors did not try to set fire to childrens hospitals in Alabama or Ohio. On Facebook, a user maliciously claimed that protestors in his town set a childrens hospital in Cincinnati on fire, but the images in the post were from 2017. The fire was caused by a faulty transformer and promptly put out with zero injuries. This is Cincinnati Childrens Hospital. These photos are from 2017 when a transformer caught fire on the eighth floor. There were no patients on that floor and zero injuries were reported. Please dont use past news articles to spark another hate group against the people... pic.twitter.com/WvcUEVSRFb christine (@ckblanchardd) June 1, 2020 The same images were used to claim that protestors set fire to Childrens Hospital of Alabama, but the hospital debunked the reports in a tweet. Reports of a fire and damage to Childrens of Alabamas main campus on Birminghams Southside are false. Our hospital is open and safe to care for patients and families. Thank you for your support and concern. ChildrensAL (@ChildrensAL) June 1, 2020 No credible news outlets have confirmed that Austin PD (or any city in the country) is allowed to fire actual bullets at protestors. Multiple Twitter posts are claiming this is true though. AUSTIN APD has been authorized to use LIVE ROUNDS, and lethal force. Confirmed by multiple police radio scanners. If you are deciding to stay and protest be VERY aware of your surroundings, and get out before you cant anymore#BlackLivesMatter #AustinProtests pic.twitter.com/8aHxAzl3VW DeathwishDena (@DeathwishDena) June 1, 2020 Friends in Austin!! Confirmed by multiple police radios, APD has been authorized to use LIVE ROUNDS and LETHAL FORCE!!! Please be careful out there if youre protesting, and spread the word! Oh yeah, and ACAB kt (@katiepaulinex) June 4, 2020 APD has been authorized to use lethal force if anyone needs a ride home please please just message me and i will be there. sky (@DIORBlTCH) June 1, 2020 Hopefully this is not the case, but police are using rubber bullets at protests, which can still inflict a significant amount of harm on the body. If you choose to protest, please do so safely. Black Lives Matter is not plotting to kill white families. A fake Black Lives Matter Facebook group posted an unsettling mission statement, which you can read below: Photo credit: - Facebook This is not realSnopes.com confirmed that this is a hoax to incite fear. Snopes also reached out to a Facebook spokesperson, who confirmed that the account was removed for being fake. Protestors in California did not deface the Vietnam Wall. Last week, a Twitter user tried to paint protestors in a bad light by claiming that they vandalized Venices Vietnam War memorial. 58,000+ died in the Vietnam War. Stolen valor has disgraced those that gave all and served honorably by many including @SenBlumenthal This is the honor the rioters gave to those names that gave all on the Vietnam Wall pic.twitter.com/7yM77X1ItU Trina #KAG #BackTheBlue (@trinareyes) June 3, 2020 This is untruethe wall frequently gets defaced, according to the Los Angeles Times, and the picture used was from 2016not this year. A protestor in Chicago did not steal a police horse. At least, thats what this one Twitter user (and a bunch of other people) seems to think: I try to never curse on here but in chicago this n**** done stole the police horse!! Smh!! pic.twitter.com/R5xIAHqpLD DEON COLE (@deoncole) May 31, 2020 The man on the horse goes by the name of Dread Head Cowboy, and he has shared multiple videos of himself riding on his horses during protests. And while he did say that he stole the horse, he was just jokinghe later debunked it on his personal Facebook page. A protestor was not trying to take a stolen ATM onto a bus. This has absolutely nothing to do with the George Floyd or Black Lives Matter protests, as some right-wing Twitter users are suggesting. Ohh... Is he stealing an ATM Machine? And he wants to use the public transport to transport his loot! Under the pretext of peaceful protest, there are rogues who want to utilize the opportunity to loot. pic.twitter.com/haZOfkefqM Ramesh (@Ramesh_BJP) June 2, 2020 This video footage is really from a prank that took place in New Jersey in 2019. Boston police officers were not destroying their own vehicles to make protestors look bad. At least, thats what the below tweet is suggesting. heres a video of boston cops literally destroying their own car during the protests so please remember this video when the media tries to put this on the PEACEFUL protestors THIS YOU? #BLACK_LIVES_MATTER #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd #bostonprotest https://t.co/yZ5ywaGVEN Tell me to get off twt | (@MOTSzero) June 1, 2020 Heres what really happened: In the middle of a protest, a few participants began destroying the police car in question. Here's the real video of what happened to that police car. There's videos out there showing that the cops staged the damaged to their own car. #bostonprotest @Diggle_B_Mason @nucleotoad pic.twitter.com/mvV7m54wh6 Nelson Barros (@Nelsonbarros_12) June 1, 2020 After the above video was taken, the police had to remove their windshields. Thats when a demonstrator then recorded the police officers cleaning up and claimed it was an attempt to make the protestors look bad. [youtube align='center' autoplay='0']https://www.youtube.com/embed/2Ng7IdkhqA8[/youtube ABCs WCVB-TV has confirmed this to be the correct version of events. Protestors in Atlanta did not burn down a Wendys. During a CNN news broadcast, an anchor said that protestors burned down a Wendys location. This doesnt quite check outa white woman appears to have set fire to the restaurant. A man at the protest literally caught the woman on tape pouring what looks like gasoline or lighter fluid into the broken window of the Wendys and possibly holding up a blowtorch to the store. BREAKING: The Wendy's in Atlanta on University Avenue is engulfed in flames. THIS IS NOT GOOD. Burning shit down is not the answer. pic.twitter.com/twdSbpzELH BrooklynDad_Defiant Rep John Lewis! (@mmpadellan) June 14, 2020 Who is this woman who lights the fire? Wendy's in Atlanta is on fire. pic.twitter.com/ruz4PNLr4e TraitorTrump (@fight4freedom72) June 14, 2020 Here are guides for how to demand justice right now, how to find mental health resources if youre a Black woman, how to talk to your relatives about Black Lives Matter, and how to protest safely. You Might Also Like SAN JOSE, Calif., June 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Meditrina, Inc., a premier women's healthcare company and developer of the state-of-the-art Aveta System, for the treatment of intrauterine pathologies such as polyps, fibroids, and/or RPOC, announced today that it has completed a $10 million equity financing as a first tranche of a $20- million commercialization round. The financing was led by Deerfield Management Company. Steven Hochberg, a Partner at Deerfield, will join the Meditrina Board of Directors. "We are very excited about the potential of the Aveta System which allows for full control of procedures by integrating resection devices with a fluid management system, providing more accuracy and procedural efficiency in comparison to the alternative approaches," said Mr. Hochberg. Meditrina's Aveta System was developed by entrepreneurs with a history of developing leading products in various healthcare fields, including, but not limited to, the EnSeal tissue sealing devices, the Symphion bi-polar tissue resection device, and the Minerva endometrial ablation system. "The Aveta System was designed with full flexibility and scalability to perform various procedures in any setting, whether in an operating room or in a physician's office," said Csaba Truckai, President and CEO of Meditrina. "For the first time, fully integrated electronic hysteroscopes and resection devices have been developed for single use, which is a key differentiator from other decades-old technologies on the market. Single-use systems will greatly reduce the chance of infectious disease cross-contamination that can arise from re-usable hysteroscopes. We believe our single-use systems will provide significant clinical benefits, as well as lower the costs of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures," added Mr. Truckai. "The Aveta System distances itself over the competition given the direct operator control of distending fluid flow and pressure in the operative field, along with a camera system that continually self-corrects the orientation of the surgical field. The resection blade is second to none in its efficiency and speed of excising difficult to remove myomas," said Dr. Steve Balaloski, OBGYN at WomanKind Obstetrics and Gynecology in Columbus, Ohio. "Once you experience the Aveta System in a hysteroscopic surgery, it is hard to go back to using the old systems. It is a truly innovative product that is far more effective and efficient than the other competing products which I have used for years. My staff and I find so much less frustration with set-up and implementation as well," said Dr. Elizabeth Coronado, OBGYN Women's Specialists of Plano, Texas. Abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB) is a common gynecologic problem, estimated to affect up to 30% of women.1 Endometrial polyps are common, affecting 7.8%41% of women occurring in premenopausal and postmenopausal women,2 and approximately 25% to 50% of women with fibroids are symptomatic.3 Meditrina will use the proceeds from the financing to expand U.S. commercialization of the Aveta System and to further develop its product portfolio. About Deerfield Deerfield is a healthcare investment management firm committed to advancing healthcare through investment, information and philanthropy. About Meditrina, Inc. Founded in 2016, Meditrina, Inc. designs and develops innovative medical devices for minimally invasive gynecology. For more information, visit www.avetasystem.com. Contact: Abbey Taylor Director, Clinical Marketing [email protected] SOURCE Meditrina, Inc. 1 Arnold, Amy & Ketheeswaran, Ashradha & Bhatti, Mominah & Nesbitt-Hawes, Erin & Abbott, Jason. (2016). A Prospective Analysis of Hysteroscopic Morcellation in the Management of Intrauterine Pathologies. Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology. 23. 10.1016/j.jmig.2016.01.013. 2 Lee, S.C., Seibel, B. & Kaunitz, A.M. When Should Endometrial Polyps Be Treated?. Curr Obstet Gynecol Rep 1, 8993 (2012). 3 Marsh, E. E., Al-Hendy, A., Kappus, D., Galitsky, A., Stewart, E. A., & Kerolous, M. (2018). Burden, Prevalence, and Treatment of Uterine Fibroids: A Survey of U.S. Women. Journal of women's health (2002), 27(11), 13591367. SOURCE Meditrina, Inc. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans are increasingly seeking out "Made in USA" options. This is logical, since federal law mandates that food, medicine, toys, and merchandise manufactured in the United States meet stringent health and safety standards. But what about the goods that Americans buy online? When shopping on Amazon, for example, consumers may find themselves uncertain of a products safety, or whether its even made in the USA. And thats a problem, since unreliable manufacturers in countries like China have a long track record of producing shoddy and unsafe goods. Washington is finally tackling the problem, though. And Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin is leading the effort. In tandem with Florida Sen. Rick Scott, shes introduced legislation requiring that country-of-origin labeling be clearly displayed for any product sold online. Thats an important move, since consumers want to find American-made options. And they also want to know if a product is made in China or another country where unsafe production has long been an issue. The new bill that Sen. Baldwin introduced, the Country of Origin Labeling Online Act (COOL), would mandate a prominent country-of-origin description for all products sold online. It would also require a clear disclosure of the country in which the seller of a product is located. The sellers location matters, too, since counterfeit and knock-off goods have become a rampant problem in mainland China. U.S. consumers certainly want to buy American-made options. A Pew Research study found two-thirds of Americans now hold an unfavorable view of China. And Google Trends shows the Made in USA search term now tracking at an all-time high. Part of the problem is that questionable online sales are becoming more common. A 2019 investigation found 10,870 items for sale on Amazon that had been declared unsafe by federal agencies, were labeled deceptively, lacked federally-required warnings, or were banned by federal regulators. This included many items that big-box retailers would normally bar from their shelves. And of the 1,934 sellers whose addresses could be determined, 54 percent were based in China. Faulty e-commerce is now becoming more widespread. All of this matters because more and more Americans are turning to online shopping in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown. And they need to be certain that the nutritional supplements, medicines, electronics, toys, and household items they buy online are safe. Sen. Baldwins COOL Act is an important step toward reclaiming the safety of online shopping. Consumers deserve the chance to buy safe, American-Made options. And Congress should pass this legislation as soon as possible. Michael Stumo is CEO of the Coalition for a Prosperous America. Follow him at @michael_stumo. Love 2 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, issued a statement abhorring racism and reminding that "we are brothers and sisters, each of us the child of a loving Father in Heaven. His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, invites all to come unto Him." President Nelsons full statement posted on Facebook and released to the world is supported by the Chattanooga Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as congregations across the globe. His words are our words. President Nelsons statement is as follows: "We join with many throughout this nation and around the world who are deeply saddened at recent evidences of racism and a blatant disregard for human life. We abhor the reality that some would deny others respect and the most basic of freedoms because of the color of his or her skin. We are also saddened when these assaults on human dignity lead to escalating violence and unrest. "The Creator of us all calls on each of us to abandon attitudes of prejudice against any group of Gods children. Any of us who has prejudice toward another race needs to repent! "During the Saviors earthly mission, He constantly ministered to those who were excluded, marginalized, judged, overlooked, abused, and discounted. As His followers, can we do anything less? The answer is no! We believe in freedom, kindness, and fairness for all of Gods children! "Let us be clear. We are brothers and sisters, each of us the child of a loving Father in Heaven. His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, invites all to come unto Himblack and white, bond and free, male and female, (2 Nephi 26:33). It behooves each of us to do whatever we can in our spheres of influence to preserve the dignity and respect every son and daughter of God deserves. "Any nation can only be as great as its people. That requires citizens to cultivate a moral compass that helps them distinguish between right and wrong. "Illegal acts such as looting, defacing, or destroying public or private property cannot be tolerated. Never has one wrong been corrected by a second wrong. Evil has never been resolved by more evil. "We need to foster our faith in the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. "We need to foster a fundamental respect for the human dignity of every human soul, regardless of their color, creed, or cause. "And we need to work tirelessly to build bridges of understanding rather than creating walls of segregation. "I plead with us to work together for peace, for mutual respect, and for an outpouring of love for all of Gods children. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 14:54:28|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HARBIN, June 2 (Xinhua) -- A traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) hospital in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, which borders Russia, has provided free consultations online to eight Russian patients suffering from cerebral palsy. The patients, including four children, received rehabilitation instructions given online by the second hospital affiliated to the Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, as they were unable to go to the hospital for the treatment amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. "We are excited that our son is making progress," Ulyana Putintseva, mother of a two-year-old patient diagnosed with cerebral palsy, said during the virtual consultation. Tang Qiang, Party chief of the hospital, said the hospital adopted acupuncture, massage and herbs to help with the rehabilitation of the patients. The combination of TCM and modern rehabilitation technology has drawn patients from Russia. With many doctors speaking Russian, the hospital has received more than 1,000 patients from Russia over the past 10 years. The hospital is also cooperating with foreign medical facilities providing training for foreign doctors. With better rehabilitation effects achieved, the TCM will be better learned and recognized, said Tang. Enditem SIPTU Hospitality Sector Organiser Martin ORourke has criticised the decision of the Government not to include worker representatives on the recently established Task Force charged with providing a safe, quality environment in which the hospitality industry can reopen safely during the current Covid-19 pandemic. Mr ORourke said that a survey of members showed widespread concern at the risks they face, as well as continuing problems over sexual harassment and bullying that urgently need to be addressed. We will be writing to the new Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport whenever they are appointed to seek an urgent meeting on this matter, he said. We trust that the person appointed will be better disposed to listen to the collective voice of the workers than his predecessor. His comments follow a survey undertaken in May that shows sexual harassment in the hospitality industry is rife, with 73.63 per cent of respondents saying they had either witnessed or experienced sexual harassment or bullying. The survey also shows that rosters are used as a control mechanism within the workplace, with 27.45 per cent of respondents indicating that hours are not shared out equally, 62 per cent indicating that rosters were either continually, or mostly issued less than two weeks in advance. And 23 per cent stated that they were never, or almost never consulted when changes were made to their roster. Generally, employees said they would not report ill-treatment, and 56.07per cent of respondents did not feel comfortable raising issues with their manager. Only 51.5 per cent of respondents were confident that they would be given enough time and training to undertake the necessary hygiene measures needed to protect them and their customers from Covid-19. Some 72.5 per cent of respondents said that they were often given additional work, which left them stressed and exhausted. The Irish hospitality Industry is currently calling for additional financial support from the state which, if given, will have to be diverted from public services such as health and education. In this regard, SIPTU believes additional public funding should only be offered to the industry if it can sign up to the necessary changes required to ensure Irish hospitality workers are protected from the worst excesses of some employers, said Martin ORourke. There is an urgent need for the taskforce to involve all of the industry stakeholders. A sector specific strategy is long overdue to tackle the threat posed by very poor employment practices. A collective approach, encompassing elements of the recently agreed Return to Work Protocol, and other measures, must be tailored to ensure a potentially disastrous situation does not arise in hotels, bars and restaurants reopening across the country. At present, 84.5 per cent of respondents do not believe their employer will support them if they become infected by Covid-19 in the workplace. In the period before the Covid-19 pandemic erupted, 40.3 per cent of staff surveyed reported that they struggled to pay any unexpected bills. It is clear that a Joint Labour Committee is required to ensure workers can avail of an industry wide sick pay scheme, to avoid the situation where workers who contract the virus will be faced with the choice of either feeding their families, or having to return to work and risk infecting colleagues and customers. Some Northern Ireland employers are facing staffing challenges as furloughed workers shun a return to work, it has emerged. Two business owners have said they are struggling to get enough workers to help as business resumes. The furlough scheme pays 80% of a worker's wages but is in theory only open to workers where their employers no longer have work for them as a result of the pandemic and lockdown. A south Belfast ice-cream parlour owner said some of his staff were seeking legal advice to ensure they could remain on the government's furlough scheme. But the business has been opened for the past two weeks. He said: "My wife and I run the business. "We are in our 70s and need the help of staff but they have refused to come back. "Some of those staff have legitimate reasons like sharing a household with someone who is very vulnerable, others just simply don't want to return. "We have put a lot of safety measures in place including a one way system, masks, hand sanitiser and two-metre distancing but it's hard to know where we stand." A Co Londonderry furniture manufacturer said his staff refused to come back to support a slight increase in business. "I think this is one of the problems we will have from the furlough scheme. "I have rung around our lads about helping with an increase in production, with some coming back but not all. However many of them have it in their heads why should they come back and work for an extra 20% when they can sit at home for 80%." Andrea McCann, partner at McKee's law firm, said if safety guidelines are followed and measures are put in place by an employer, employees should return to work where they can't work from home. "The only real grounds for refusing to work would be on health and safety grounds but employers are being advised to carry out risk assessments and plan a return to work so employees know that workplace is going to be safe. If that is carried out then they should return to work. If the employee unreasonably refuses to go to work that would be a disciplinary matter." The job retention scheme has been extended until October with employers to contribute to the costs as time progresses. There are an estimated 200,000 furloughed in Northern Ireland. Is New York's Mayor Bill de Blasio trying to give Minneapolis's mayor, Jacob Frey, a run for his money? His idiocies are once again topping those of this crisis's original appeasing idiot, Frey himself. He's been late on calling curfew. He's let the cops know he doesn't have their back. He's let thugs run rampant throughout Manhattan's toniest retail districts for six nights running now. That explains why New York has had six nights of shattering riots, while other cities have belatedly moved to shut them down. Fact is, his heart is still with the rioters. Here's the message he's telegraphing on that front: he's saying he's proud of his bizarre leftist daughter, who got arrested in a group of people throwing objects at the police. "I'm proud she cares so much," he declared. So much for social distancing. Now he's issuing plaintive pleas to rioters to stay home and protest online, because social distancing. Sound like a message this bunch will respond to? With the kind of fun they're having now, somehow they're not taking his advice. He's succoring the rioters and condemning the police not just the dirty cops in Minneapolis who killed George Floyd and are up on murder raps, but New York's cops, too, blasting a couple of excessive police force incidents as if this were the right time for it, given what's going on. He's always about putting leftist politics above New York City's authentic interests. Here's the take from New York Daily News editorial board member Robert George, horrified at de Blasio's failure to call a curfew on protesters: That means you both made the decision that certain things political protest are more important than public health considerations. Little more than two weeks ago, New Yorkers saw police officers throwing a young mother forcibly to the ground for the "offense" of not having her mask on correctly. Yet for four days, thousands marched and assembled close together, hardly any social distancing either with themselves or with the police (many of whom were maskless). The rules do not apply for mass protest. The curfew announcement he did make is pretty namby-pamby at 11 P.M., mainly hurting overnight shelf-stockers. Looters have no problem starting their operations at 9 or 10, positioning themselves conveniently close to the nearest malls. It all adds up to conditions for New York's coming decline. With the kind of damage seen, it's questionable whether the city is going to recover easily from this. Ask the shambling city of Van Nuys, Calif., which has yet to recover from the Rodney King riots of 1992, what this kind of rioting does to a city's prospects. Van Nuys used to be the coolest city on the planet in the '60s, with movie stars, palm trees, and chrome-flashing 1957 DeSotos. Today, it's a run-down, under-invested urban shambles, loaded with illegals, still trying to recover from those riots. The ugly reality ahead is that cities often don't recover from the kind of rioting and looting New York is seeing right now. And it's coming at a time when people are fleeing New York already. It's all an echo of his recent execrable coronavirus performance, which left New York in the worst shape of any American city, by a wide margin. Proud of yourself, Bill? De Blasio's pattern of failure holds. Now he's doing the same by effectively encouraging the thug riots, which are laying New York City to waste. SoHo, Madison Avenue, Times Square, Fifth Avenue all these iconic places with all their glittering high-end retail establishments are being left as glass-shattered husks, burnt out, stripped bare heaps. That's a nice look for New York, Bill good luck collecting those primo New York taxes after those kinds of losses. Image credit: YouTube screen shot. [June 02, 2020] IXL Learning Wins Two 2020 CODiE Awards SAN MATEO, Calif., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Each year the SIIA CODiE Awards honors the most innovative educational technology products around the world. For the third time, IXL Learning has taken home the prestigious CODiE Award for Best Educational App. IXL also won Best Reading/Writing/Literature Instructional Solution (Grades PreK-8). "We are delighted to be recognized twice by the CODiE Awards this year for our mobile app and English Language Arts program," said Paul Mishkin, CEO of IXL Learning. "These achievements highlight the exceptional educational value IXL has to offer to those looking for impactful, personalized learning experiences." Learning on the go with the IXL app IXL provides a fun, immersive experience for students of all levels, and includes over 8,000 skills across K-12 math, English language arts, science and social studies. The IXL app comes with mobile-specific features that make practicing on the go playful and intuitive. For example, handwriting recognition allows students to enter answers with their fingertipsno typing necessary. Interactive question types, from drag-and-drop to graphing and more, enable students to engage with material in new ways. There's even a scratchpad feature that allows learners to work through problems right on the screen. p>Download the IXL app today for free here (available for Apple and Android devices and Kindle Fire). Building fluency with IXL Language Arts IXL Language Arts (ELA) brings reading, writing and grammar to life in an immersive, personalized environment. With 2,100 skills spanning grades K-12, IXL ELA offers a wide variety of interactive questions, fun visuals and engaging content. As students learn, IXL adapts to their abilities so that they're always challenged and supported at the right level. IXL ELA also offers features that further personalize learning. With IXL Recommendations, each student receives targeted skill suggestions tailored to his or her individual needs. IXL's Real-Time Diagnostic assesses students' proficiency in reading and language arts and guides them to the exact skills that will fill in their knowledge gaps. Finally, IXL Analytics collects data from students' work in IXL to uncover insights that help teachers use limited class time more effectively and respond to individual needs more quickly. Media, please note: Screenshots of IXL may be downloaded at www.ixl.com/press/media-resources . For demos and access to IXL, please contact [email protected] . About IXL Learning Currently used by 10 million students and by schools in 95 of the 100 top districts, IXL is an integrated learning platform that effectively supports personalized learning in math, English language arts, science, social studies and Spanish. With more than 70 billion questions asked and answered around the world, IXL is helping schools successfully boost student achievement. To learn more about IXL, visit www.ixl.com , facebook.com/IXL and twitter.com/IXLLearning . Press Contact Eric Bates IXL Learning [email protected] 650-436-5534 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ixl-learning-wins-two-2020-codie-awards-301069436.html SOURCE IXL Learning [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] BAY CITY, MI - The City of Bay City took a new step in helping local businesses expand their offerings as restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic are beginning to be lifted. Two traffic control orders, one for the Downtown Business District and the other for the Midland Street District were passed by the Bay City Commission during the regular Monday, June 1 meeting. The orders allow for temporary road closures to vehicle traffic in those districts to promote safe community gathering and outdoor seating. We know that every business, every restaurant, every bar, every small retail shop has been affected by this COVID-19 so anything that we can do to help them I think is just an additional bonus," Bay City Mayor Kathleen Newsham said. "It just shows the spirit of Bay City and how well we all work together when theres a crisis that happens, so I am very proud of everyone who was involved. The move comes as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced at a press conference Monday the end of the stay-at-home order in the coming days and that a number of businesses will be allowed to reopen or expand services in the coming week. The Governor did announce that the reopening of those establishments will be next Monday, which is good that we had started to work on this and had it in place, City Manager Dana Muscott said. For Midland Street, the order allows the two-block roadway between Catherine and Henry Streets and Henry and Linn Streets in the Midland Street Business District to close for the summer. Henry Street itself will remain open. The closures affect for the following streets in the Downtown Business District: - Saginaw Street, from Fifth St. to Center Ave. - Center Avenue, Saginaw Street to Washington Ave. - Adams Street, Fifth St. to Center Ave. - Third Street, N. Water St. to Saginaw Street The orders allow for selected streets to close to traffic seasonally from May 15 until Nov. 2. Closures will be marked and protected with removable bollards, according to Muscott. The road closures are not expected to go into effect immediately, with local businesses needing time to prepare. Were ready when they are ready, said Muscott. All intersections will remain open in the Downtown Business District with the north-south streets open in the Midland District to allow for motorized traffic. Muscott explained that care was taken to select a safe barrier to protect businesses and customers. She said that Public Works Director Robert Dion conducted a search on the different types of bollards in surrounding communities like Midland and that an in-the-ground style bollard was selected. Even though this bollard type is secured in the ground it can also be removed easily season to season, according to Muscott. Commissioner Chris Girard inquired during the meeting if this closure could become something that would be done in future years if it is successful. Absolutely, I think if it does go well and if the businesses are receptive to this being the new norm, its something that we can absolutely look at next year," said Muscott. Muscott explained that the City has reached out to help out businesses in others in other districts across the city like those in the Broadway, Columbus, Henry and Johnson areas. What we also did to help our businesses is we sent out packets to bars and restaurants that are in the business districts to allow them to have the sidewalk cafes, like a variance for them if they needed more space on their sidewalks," she said. "So theyd be able to use the adjacent properties next to them with the permission of those properties, of course, to utilize more space since they do have to social distance. As for costs to the City of Bay City, Muscott did not have a figure available at the meeting. However, she said that she is expecting a minimal impact on the cost for personnel expenses for city employees to install the bollards and no increased cost for the Bay City Public Safety Department. She added that since the decision to close these streets was influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic that there was a possibility for the city to pursue FEMA reimbursement funds. Were going to continue down that route and hopefully we get some reimbursement for some of those expenses," she said. The Powering Positivity campaign by MLive Media Group highlights how Michiganders are supporting one another during the coronavirus pandemic. It is sponsored by The MediLodge Group Related news: Bay City Fireworks Festival canceled for 2020 due to coronavirus concern Michigan coronavirus stay-at-home order lifted: Heres what opens when Gov. Whitmer to lift stay-at-home order, allow in-person dining at Michigan restaurants Michigan reports lowest 24-hour coronavirus case increase in months The imagery of a head of state in a call with other governing officials saying, Dominate the streets, dominate the battlespace these are iconic images that will define America for some time, said McGurk, who led U.S. diplomatic efforts to counter the Islamic State terrorist group. It makes it much more difficult for us to distinguish ourselves from other countries we are trying to contest or influence, he said. Turkey has issued arrest warrants for 118 people accused of ties to the outlawed Gulen movement, the prosecutors office in Istanbul said on June 2. The state-run Anadolu Agency said 72 suspects had been apprehended in raids across 35 Turkish provinces. Istanbul police and the counterterrorism unit were looking for the remaining 46. Those arrested included members of the Turkish armed forces, including one colonel and three lieutenants, Anadolu reported. The detention orders target suspected members of a group the Turkish government says orchestrated the failed coup in July 2016 that left more than 250 dead and thousands wounded. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames the followers of US-based Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen for the takeover attempt and has ordered the mass arrests of thousands of his supporters over the past four years. The government also dismissed or suspended some 150,000 civil workers from their jobs over alleged ties to Gulens network, which Turkey has branded a terrorist organization. Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in rural Pennsylvania since 1999, denied involvement in the attempt at unseating Erdogan. Turkey has repeatedly sought Gulens extradition, but Washington has refused those requests. In light of the countrys coronavirus outbreak, which reached Turkeys overcrowded prisons in April, human rights groups renewed their calls for Ankara to release its political prisoners, including alleged Gulenists and those suspected of ties to the banned Kurdistan Workers Party. Nigerians Take To Twitter To Blame God For The Ills In The Country Dragging God is trending on Twitter after a number of Nigerian Twitter users took to the platform to blame God for not acting to save Uwa Vera Omozuwa when she was raped and murdered inside a church. The death of Uwa, a 22-year-old UNIBEN student who went to a branch of RCCG in Benin to read, has angered people. RCCG released a statement, saying that the church has been closed since the lockdown but Uwa usually collects the key to go into the church so that she can study in private. It was while studying on May 27 that she was attacked, raped, and killed. Reacting to Uwas death, the death of Tina who was shot dead by police, and other ills in Nigeria, people put the blame on God and made some statements considered blasphemous. Other Twitter users have cautioned them and asked them to pick their words wisely. See Some Tweets Below; A weekly community market will start at the Whangateau Hall on Tuesday June 13. An organiser, Audrey Sharp, says the market will be an opportunity for anyone to bring, buy, sell or exchange garden produce, craft and goods. We see this as a way for the community to interact, share, exchange and talk, she says. The market will be held every Tuesday morning, from 9am to noon. Stallholders welcome. Info: Phone 422 6209 or email am.sharp56@gmail.com Share this story Work environments may look dramatically different when the COVID-19 pandemic abates, and IT teams will have to continue to adjust technology services to meet the shifting needs of organizations. While much is still unknown, network pros can be learning new skills even during the pandemic, so they'll be better prepared for what comes next. "Coming out of this crisis, I think companies will be examining how they do networking," says Mark Leary, research director, network analytics, at research firm IDC. "What technologies to wind down? What technologies to accelerate? What projects to continue? What new ones to commence? What skills mattered during the crisis and what matters less?" Understanding which skills might be in greater demand can help network pros who want to advance in their current jobs and those who hope to find new hiring opportunities following the pandemic. READ MORE: Enterprises look to SASE to bolster security for remote workers "Solutions and skills that support the virtual business operating model that accelerates out of this pandemic will be winners," Leary says. These include software-driven technologies, cloud-based services, higher bandwidth connections such as 5G, pervasive security capabilities, automated management systems, edge computing, distributed data sourcing and storage, and artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. These all "accelerate an organization's ability to provide a more flexible, agile, protective, proactive, virtual, and fast-moving technology infrastructure," Leary says. Temperatures began ramping up Tuesday and will climb even higher Wednesday, with a return of last weeks triple digits on the agenda for parts of the Bay Area, officials said. In the interior locations you could call it a heat wave, said Scott Rowe, a National Weather Service meteorologist. A heat advisory will be in effect for interior parts of the north, east and south bay, where temperatures were expected to hit the high 90s on Tuesday and low 100s on Wednesday. The advisory Wednesday will last from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. On Wednesday afternoon in Santa Clara County, five cooling centers will be open in the Mayfair, Camden, Seven Trees, Roosevelt and Cypress community centers of San Jose, and three cooling centers will be open in the libraries of Saratoga, Gilroy and Morgan Hill. Visitors must wear masks, observe social distancing and be free of COVID-19 symptoms. In Contra Costa County, the county employment offices in Antioch, Pleasant Hill, Hercules and Richmond will be open as cooling centers but offering fewer services for visitors than community centers. County spokeswoman Tish Gallegos said cold water and cold air would be about all that is offered. The usual hot-weather admonitions drink water, stay indoors, check up on family and friends, seek out air conditioners will be in force. The heat advisory joins shelter-in-place orders due to the coronavirus outbreak and curfews that have been mandated in some areas amid protests over the police killing of George Floyd. Whats happened is that a high-pressure ridge is building from the desert southwest and nudging toward California, Rowe said. In the East Bay, all that nudging could nudge the thermometer on Wednesday to 101 in Livermore and Concord. In Sacramento, Rowe said, it could hit 104. The official forecast called the heat wave a robust warming and drying trend, with interior locations warming to well above seasonal averages. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. San Francisco and coastal areas should remain considerably cooler, with highs in the 70s. Afternoon coastal winds should cool things further. Dry sunny weather will continue through the weekend and into next week, forecasters said. Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveRubeSF An Iranian scientist who was imprisoned in the US and acquitted in a federal trade secrets case had been deported, the countrys foreign minister said. Sirous Asgari was congratulated by Mohammad Javad Zarif in an Instagram post while he was on a flight back to Iran. Hello friends, a good news, the plane carrying Dr Sirous Asgari was flying from the United States. Congratulations to his dear wife and family, Mr Zarif wrote. Mr Asgari, a professor at Irans Sharif University of Technology, was accused by federal prosecutors of trying to steal secret research from Case Western Reserve University and was indicted in April 2016. The school, based in Cleveland, had been working on a project for the US Navy Office of Naval Research to create and produce anti-corrosive stainless steel. The case was tossed out by US District Judge James Gwin and Mr Asgari was acquitted in November last year. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) started trying to deport the scientist on 12 December following his acquittal, but Iran refused to recognise him as legitimately Iranian, said Ken Cuccinelli, acting deputy Homeland Security secretary. Mr Cuccinelli told the Associated Press that Iran only provided Mr Asgari with a valid passport in late February. DHS made several attempts to deport him, purchasing tickets for flights on 10 March, 18 March, 23 March, 1 April and 1 May but each flight was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Mr Asgari had been held at Louisianas Winn Correctional Center by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement before his deportation, said his supporters, who told The Guardian he had contracted coronavirus while imprisoned. In April, he asked to be released to a medical facility so he could receive treatment. Mr Asgari reportedly has a history of respiratory problems. State-run news agency IRNA reported Irans deputy education minister, Hossein Salar Amoli, recently said Mr Asgari had recovered from coronavirus and would be able to travel. Iranian officials had associated Mr Asgaris release with US prisoners held in Iran potentially being freed, which Mr Cuccinelli strongly disputed. On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Abbas Mousavi rejected speculation of a prisoner swap, adding that Mr Asgari would arrive in Tehran on Wednesday. Mr Mousavi was quoted by state TV as saying: Speculations about an exchange of Asgari for other individual is not accurate. His freedom came about based on his acquittal from charges. The release comes as the Trump administration continues a maximum-pressure campaign targeting Iran after unilaterally withdrawing from Tehrans nuclear deal with world powers in May 2018. Since then, both countries have seen a series of escalating incidents, including a US drone strike that killed Iranian major general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad earlier this year and an Iranian ballistic missile attack targeting American troops in Iraq. Additional reporting by AP Four members of the same fraternity died when a small plane crashed into a southern Illinois farm field shortly after takeoff on Sunday. The single-engine Piper PA28 crashed about 3.45pm under unknown circumstances, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. The plane was destroyed upon impact. The crash occurred about 3 miles south of Carlinville, or about 45 miles north of St. Louis, Missouri, Macoupin County Sheriff Shawn Kahl said. Final photo: This image was sent by Daniel Shedd (front left) to his mother before a small plane carrying him and his three friends, pilot Joshua Sweers (front right), John Camilleri (back left) and Daniel Schlosser (back right), crashed near Carlinville, Illinois The plane went down in this field at 3.45pm on Sunday. No one on the ground was hurt Killed were the pilot, Joshua Sweers, 35, of Grand Blanc, Michigan, and his three passengers: Daniel Shedd, 37, of St. Charles, Missouri; Daniel Schlosser, 39, of Mount Morris, Michigan; and John Camilleri, 39, of Buffalo, New York, Macoupin County Coroner Brad Targhetta said. The plane went down near a farmhouse, but no one on the ground was hurt, Kahl said. All four victims were engineering graduates from Kettering University in Michigan and members of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. Shedd worked as a quality insurance engineer at Boeing's Defense Contract Management Agency. According to his father, Charles Shedd, just moments before Daniel and his friends departed from Creve Coeur Airport outside St Louis at 3.19pm, his son texted his mother a group photo from inside the plane, reported St Louis Post-Dispatch. The image showed Daniel and his three friends smiling into the camera. The elder Shedd said the group was en route to Michigan to pick up one of Daniel's motorcycles, a BMW cruiser, which Sweers had borrowed from him. Daniel had planned on riding the motorcycle to his his parents' home outside St. Louis on Monday to attend his mother's birthday celebration. Charles said Sweers, the pilot, did not have the single-engine plane for long, but he said the aircraft was in 'excellent condition' and had recently passed all the inspections. Joshua Sweers, 35, had recently bought the small plane and it had passed all the necessary inspections Daniel Shedd worked as a Boeing engineer. He was supposed to drive from Michigan to his parents' home near St Louis to attend his mother's birthday on Monday The father drove the four friends to the airport on Sunday. 'They were in great spirits,' he recalled. 'They were happy. The weather was great.' Charles added in a separate interview with KSDK that it was likely Daniel's first time flying in a small plane and he was excited about the trip. After the plane's departure, Charles Shedd tried to track his son's flight on his iPhone. But soon he noticed that the flight-tracking app was not updating the location of the plane. He tried texting and calling his son but received no reply, which was unusual. Charles and his wife later saw a report on the news about a plane crash near Carlinville, Illinois, which was followed by a phone conversation with the police that confirmed the deadly accident. Daniel Schlosser is survived by his wife, Danielle (right), and their two children Daniel is survived by his parents and sister, according to his family. Daniel Schlosser's obituary indicates that he leaves behind his wife, Danielle, and their two children, ages seven and 10. A friend has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help the family with funeral expenses. According to the description, Schlosser and his wife owned and operated a small construction company 'and were always the first ones to step in when someone else needed help; even relocating south after Hurricane Katrina to rebuild.' The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating, the FAA said. Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, who has been conducting video interviews with eminent public intellectuals from various fields regarding the coronavirus outbreak, might soon try his hand at podcasting, Hindustan Times has reported. According to the report, this is to counter Prime Minister Narendra Modi's monthly radio broadcast Mann Ki Baat. "Right now, we are at the planning stage and are discussing the finer points with the experts and asking them how to go about it," a Congress office-bearer told the newspaper, adding that once finalised, it could serve as "counter" to Mann Ki Baat. The newspaper states that while Gandhi had started his YouTube channel sometime back, he started actively promoting it only during the lockdown. He had a conversation with migrant workers, which had 752,000 views while his interaction with health experts had a viewership of 90,000. "We are also exploring other platforms such as LinkedIn," the Congress functionary said while talking about increasing Gandhi's social media outreach. "Our Speak Up India online campaign on May 28 was a huge hit. Over 5.7 million party leaders and workers uploaded their messages on different social media platforms throughout the day," the functionary told the newspaper. 'Speak Up India' was a campaign launched by the Grand Old Party to put pressure on the government over the migrant issue, and financial aid to farmers and small businesses hit during the pandemic. Several prominent Congress leaders were a part of the campaign. Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesBy JON HAWORTH, EMILY SHAPIRO and IVAN PEREIRA, ABC News (NEW YORK) -- The death of George Floyd, a black man who died on Memorial Day after he was pinned down by a white Minnesota police officer, has sparked outrage and protests in Minneapolis and across the United States. Murder and manslaughter charges have been filed against Derek Chauvin, the officer who prosecutors say held his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes. Chauvin and the other three officers at the scene have been fired. The Department of Justice is investigating. This is how the news unfolded on Monday. All times Eastern: 11:32 p.m.: Store windows smashed in Manhattan shopping spots In New York City, vandals smashed store windows and attempted to loot several stores at Midtown Manhattan locations frequented by tourists. Police confronted attempted looters as they smashed into a boutique tea shop in the middle of Rockefeller Center. New York Police Department officers also responded to reports of shattered windows at The Nintendo Store, Michael Kors, Kate Spade, and Barnes and Noble. Mannequins could be seen on the broken glass-covered sidewalks. Police made one arrest after tackling a man to the ground. Looting also took place further downtown, where looters were caught on camera breaking into a Nordstrom Rack in Union Square. 10:42 p.m.: Police injured in Buffalo, clashes continue in Louisville Authorities in Buffalo, New York say two officers were stuck when a vehicle plowed into a group of law enforcement officers during a protest. Injuries to one of the officers appear serious in nature, officials say. State Police members were helping Buffalo Police disperse protesters on Bailey Avenue when the vehicle drove into the officers, according to authorities. Police in Louisville, Kentucky, flooded the street with tear gas and used flash bangs to clear protesters from the area around Seventh and Jefferson streets. The move came a night after police used similar tactics to flush protesters from Jefferson Square Park, in a move that was questioned by some city officials, according to the Louisville Courier Journal. Two people were also struck by gunfire in a separate incident, Buffalo Police say. Protesters in Dallas marched onto the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge and blocked traffic before police made several arrests. 10:11 p.m. More arrests as cities begin 10 p.m. curfew Police in Pittsburgh made numerous arrests after a number of businesses were vandalized during protests. Authorities directed residents to stay away from the the Shadyside business district in accordance with the city's curfew. Officials in Atlanta said they had made 52 arrests during the day, with large groups gathering at Centennial Olympic Park Drive and Marietta Street. "We have encountered several issues during the day including instances where protesters blocked traffic on several roadways and briefly entered onto the interstate," an official said. Other cities under curfew as of 10 p.m. include Chicago and Orlando and Orange County, Florida. 8:52 p.m.: Protests continue across nation Across the country, a mix of protests and lootings are continuing tonight, in spite of curfews enacted by state and city officials. Los Angeles County, Miami-Dade County, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Seattle and Fort Worth, Texas, all entered curfews at 9 p.m. ET. In Seattle, protesters shouted, "This is a protest not a riot," and marched peacefully through downtown during the early evening hours. In the Philadelphia area, members of the National Guard blocked access to Upper Darby, the site of widespread looting Sunday night. In New York City, police officers tussled with attempted looters on Fifth Avenue near Rockefeller Center. One person was seen directing others away from police before store windows were smashed. At least one person was arrested. 8:23 p.m.: LA shop owners arm themselves to protect stores As Los Angeles shop owners and other businesses board up their properties from rioters, some are arming themselves. Ahead of another night of expected protests, pawn shop owners were seen armed with AR-15s, a bail bondsman was seen with a pump action shotgun in a second-story window, and armed civilians were seen on a rooftop. A pawn shop owner told ABC News his store has been there for 35 years and "nobody is taking it away from us." Numerous storefronts in downtown Los Angeles, Beverley Hills, Santa Monica, Fairfax, and the San Fernando Valley are boarded up due to the rioting accompanying the protests. 8:03 p.m.: Highest ranking NYPD member takes a knee, hugs protesters The highest-ranking uniformed member of the NYPD took a knee with protesters in Washington Square Park. Chief of Department Terry Monahan was leading a group of officers facing off with protesters who were hurling bottles and other debris. A protest organizer tried to hold the demonstrators back but was unsuccessful. He tried -- we kept backing up, they kept advancing, Monahan told ABC News. The protester approached Monahan, who asked for the protester's megaphone so he could address the crowd. "This does not need to be riotous every single night, Monahan told the group. Monahan said the protest leader then asked the chief to take a knee with him for peace, and when he complied the crowd cheered. "Have a good day, I love you," a protester said before hugging Monahan. I thought it was appropriate. We hugged to show theres solidarity, said Monahan, who added that he had never before done anything like that with a protester. 6:52 p.m.: Trump deploying thousands of 'heavily armed soldiers' Making his first public appearance since this weekend's riots, President Trump vowed to send the military to cities around the country to quell the unrest. Calling himself the "law and order" president, Trump said he was already deploying "heavily armed soldiers" to Washington, D.C., to ensure that violence and property destruction didn't occur as the city began its 7 p.m. curfew. "We are putting everybody on warning -- our 7 o'clock curfew will be strictly enforced," Trump said. Minutes before the news conference began, police cleared the area outside the White House by firing tear gas into crowds of protesters who were chanting, "No violence." Trump cited antifa and "thugs" as the main factors behind the weekend's violence, saying they were drowning out the voices of peaceful protesters. He said he recommended that all state and city officials deploy the National Guard and warned that if they didn't, he would deploy the military to their locations. "Mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled," he said. 6:18 p.m.: National Guard troops deployed near White House National Guard troops have been deployed near the White House, hours after the President Donald Trump said he wanted a show of force in the area. Trucks with troops were seen near Lafayette Park across Pennsylvania Avenue where large groups of protesters have clashed with police for the past three nights. A U.S. official said that active duty Army military police units from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, will be in the nation's capital tonight after days of violent protests that have included fires set not far from the White House. 5:37 p.m.: Curfew extended in nation's capital The District of Columbia is imposing a curfew for the next two nights, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced. The curfew will be in effect from 7 p.m.-6 a.m. on both Monday night and Tuesday night. It will not apply to essential workers and those voting and participating in election activities, the mayor said. 5:14 p.m.: Seattle instituting another curfew Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkin announced the city will have another curfew tonight following this weekend's protests, which she called the worst she's seen in more than 20 years. The curfew will start at 6 p.m. PST and last until 5 a.m. Durkin says hundreds of buildings were damaged Saturday, with more than 90 of the properties located in Chinatown International District. 4:45 p.m.: 1 dead from police shooting in Louisville, police chief fired The Kentucky State Police will independently investigate a deadly shooting that took place overnight at the hands of police, Gov. Andy Beshear said. Around midnight, officers with the Louisville police and the Kentucky National Guard were trying to disperse a crowd when they "were fired upon," Beshear said. The local police and National Guard returned fire, "resulting in a death," Beshear said. Louisville Metro Police Chief Steve Conrad has since been fired after it was announced that no body camera footage was available of the shooting, The Louisville Courier Journal reported. Conrad previously said he would retire at the end of June after facing immense pressure following the March death of Breonna Taylor, a young black woman who was shot dead by police while in her home. 4 p.m.: NYC curfew to begin at 11 p.m. A curfew in New York City will go into effect from 11 p.m. Monday to 5 a.m. Tuesday in the wake of violence and property damage during Sunday night's protests, the governor and mayor said. The New York City Police Department will also double its presence. "I stand behind the protestors and their message, but unfortunately there are people who are looking to distract and discredit this moment," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement. "The violence and the looting has been bad for the city, the state and this entire national movement, undermining and distracting from this righteous cause. While we encourage people to protest peacefully and make their voices heard, the safety of the general public is paramount and cannot be compromised." Luxury retailers on Madison Avenue were seen Monday boarding up their glass storefronts and windows in anticipation of additional protests. More than 250 people were arrested during protests overnight Sunday in New York City, which included significant looting, vandalism and theft of luxury stores in the SoHo neighborhood. Looting is rare for New York City and Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday condemned the behavior as "unacceptable." The NYPD believes the destruction of property, particularly at high-end retail stores, is part of a preconceived plan by agitators who have co-opted the demonstrations related to Floyd's death. "We're seeing a lot of outside and independent agitators connected with anarchist groups who are deliberately trying to provoke acts of violence," Deputy Police Commissioner John Miller said on Sunday. These "agitators" came prepared to commit property damage, Miller said, and directed followers to do so selectively, only in wealthier areas and at high-end stores. More than 1,000 people have been arrested since protests began in New York City on Thursday. One in seven protesters who have been arrested are from outside the city, the NYPD said, including states such as Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Iowa, New Jersey, Nevada, Virginia, Maryland, Texas and Minnesota. Among the 345 arrested Saturday night was the mayor's 25-year-old daughter, Chiara. She was arrested for unlawful assembly and given a desk appearance ticket, according to NYPD sources. "I love my daughter deeply," de Blasio said Monday. "I'm proud of her that she cares so much." "She was acting peacefully. She believes that everything she did was in the spirit of peaceful, respectful protest," de Blasio said. "I will let her speak for herself ... But I admire that she was out there trying to change something that she thought was unjust." The NYPD overall "showed restraint" as they worked to keep the peace and allow demonstrators to continue to protest on Sunday, the mayor said. But De Blasio did condemn what he called the rare act of officers acting inappropriately, bringing up the "troubling video" of two police cars moving through a crowd in Brooklyn Saturday night. Video showed one police SUV being blocked by a group of protesters behind a barricade as various items and objects can be seen striking the vehicle. Another NYPD SUV then pulled up alongside the first vehicle before both of them can be seen accelerating into the crowd of people knocking many of them over as the screaming and yelling from the crowd began to intensify. "Not acceptable," the mayor said, stressing that there's "no situation where a police vehicle should drive into a crowd of protesters or New Yorkers." The incident is under investigation. De Blasio also called for the officer who pulled a gun on a group of protesters to be fired. "Any officer who does the wrong thing there needs to be consequences and they need to be fast," the mayor said. 3:50 p.m.: Denver cleans up, police chief commits to marching with protesters Hundreds of volunteers showed up in downtown Denver Monday morning to pick up trash and wash the walls and statues covered in graffiti from Sunday's massive protest. Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen was spotted wiping away tears. He told ABC News it hurt to see the damage to the city, but it was inspiring to see the massive cleanup effort. Pazen said he also spoke with a young, black protester. "I committed to Neil that I would march with him, I would stand with him and I would do the hard work with him moving forward," Pazen said. "This is not acceptable. We cannot continue down this path. And if it means coming together and having those hard conversations, getting into some heavy lifts, then our commitment is to do that." 3:10 p.m.: Independent autopsy says George Floyd died from asphyxia An independent autopsy requested by Floyd's family found that he died by homicide, caused by asphyxia due to neck and back compression that led to a lack of blood flow to the brain. The doctors conducting the independent autopsy found that the sustained pressure on the right side of Floyd's carotid artery prevented blood flow to the brain and that the weight on his back kept him from breathing. The weight, the handcuffs and the positioning were contributory factors because they hurt Floyd's diaphragm, doctors said, adding that it appeared Floyd died at the scene. The combined effects of being restrained, possible intoxicants in his system and underlying health issues -- including heart disease -- probably played a role in his death, doctors said. The preliminary findings reported "no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia." Floyd's family is calling for the arrest of the three other officers at the scene and for a first-degree murder charge for Derek Chauvin, the since-fired officer who pinned Floyd to the ground. 2:30 p.m.: Total of 65 US Park Police injured during DC protests A total of 65 U.S. Park Police were injured during three nights of protests in Washington, D.C. Most of the injuries came from projectiles being thrown at officers; they were hit with bricks, urine bottles and petroleum-based substances, Sgt. Eduardo Delgado, spokesman for the Park Service, told ABC News. Police arrested 88 people related to the violent demonstrations Sunday night, Metropolitan Police Chief Peter Newsham said. Of those, 44 were charged with felony rioting. Newsham said the city is looking at federal statutes that might be used to prosecute some of those arrested. The entire D.C. National Guard has been activated by Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy to assist U.S. Park Police, according to Master Sgt. Craig Clapper, a spokesman for the D.C. National Guard. The additional forces will be unarmed and in a support role to U.S. Park police and that they will be equipped in protective riot gear, Clapper said. Mayor Muriel Bowser has ordered a two-day curfew, beginning at 7 p.m. Monday. Newsham warned, if you are not a member of the media or performing an essential function, "local and federal police will take you into custody." 1:48 p.m.: More than 400 arrested in Santa Monica In Santa Monica, California, more than 400 people were arrested on Sunday. Charges included looting, violating curfew, burglary and assault with a deadly weapon, officials said. While there were no serious injuries, Santa Monica Police Chief Cynthia Renaud on Monday cautioned protesters that the looters "are opportunists" who will "take advantage" of the peaceful protests. She said they "are tracking where peaceful protests are occurring, and they are then going to that city knowing that resources will be tied up ensuring first amendment rights to free speech. And they take advantage of that, and they loot and they perform criminal activity." 1:20 p.m.: More National Guardsmen on duty now than ever before Between the George Floyd protests and the COVID-19 pandemic, there are more National Guardsmen on duty right now for a domestic response than ever before, the National Guard Bureau said. There are now 66,700 activated National Guard soldiers and airmen. To put that in context, for Hurricane Katrina in 2005, more than 51,000 were activated. The National Guard is now active in the District of Columbia and at least 25 states: Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington state and Wisconsin. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the National Guard is on standby but not needed in New York City at this time because the NYPD is such a large police force. 1 p.m.: 'Miraculous' that no one injured when truck barreled toward Minnesota crowd In Minneapolis -- the epicenter of the protests -- a memorial will be held for George Floyd on Thursday, Gov. Tim Walz said Some of the Minnesota National Guard will be redeployed and sent home, he said. On Sunday afternoon, between 5,000 and 7,000 people joined in a "very peaceful demonstration" at Minneapolis' U.S. Bank Stadium, said DPS Commissioner John Harrington. Then the group moved to the freeway, and that was when a tanker truck started barreling toward the crowd. Harrington called it "miraculous" that there were no deaths or injuries. Walz also commended the peaceful protesters who jumped in to protect the truck driver, even though at the time the driver appeared poised to assault them. It does not appear that the truck driver headed toward the protesters intentionally, Harrington said. "He saw the crowd and initially, what it looks like, he panicked, and he just kept barreling forward," Harrington said. "And then he saw ... a young woman on a bike fall down in front of him and he slammed on the brakes. And he slid for a certain period of time until the vehicle stopped." The driver is facing assault charges. 12:17 p.m.: 1 dead from police shooting in Louisville The Kentucky State Police will independently investigate a deadly shooting that took place overnight at the hands of police, Gov. Andy Beshear said. Around midnight, officers with the Louisville police and the Kentucky National Guard were trying to disperse a crowd when they "were fired upon," Beshear said. The local police and National Guard returned fire, "resulting in a death," Beshear said. Additional details were not immediately released. 12 p.m.: Nearly 700 arrested in Chicago Just on Sunday, 699 people were arrested in Chicago, primarily for looting, David Brown, superintendent of the Chicago Police, said Monday. Brown addressed the rioters and looters directly, saying, "you disgraced the name of Mr. Floyd by your actions." "Hate can never drive out hate," Brown said, and he vowed, "we will hold you accountable." Brown also addressed the late George Floyd directly, saying, "We are embarrassed by the cops in Minneapolis' use of force, asphyxiating you on the streets." "We stand with Mr. Floyd's family," he said. 11:38 a.m. Barr sending riot teams to Miami, DC A senior Department of Justice official says U.S. Attorney General William Barr has directed the Bureau of Prisons to send riot teams (Special Operation Response Teams) to Miami and Washington, D.C. to help with crowd control, a senior DOJ official said. The team was already present in Miami over the weekend, this official said. On Sunday night, Barr also dispatched the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team to help D.C. police. All FBI field offices have been instructed to set up command posts to deal specifically with the protests in nearby communities, the official said. 10:24 a.m.: Minnesota AG 'seriously looking' at prosecuting other officers Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said on SiriusXM's "The Joe Madison Show" on Monday that he's "very seriously looking at" prosecuting the three other officers who were at the scene of Floyd's death. "I'm not prepared to announce anything at this moment," Ellison said, adding, "I will say that we are going to hold everybody accountable for what they did wrong and what they did that's illegal." "We are reviewing the video tapes, the audio tapes, all the evidence, and we will make a charging decision based on the facts that we can prove," he said. Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said Sunday that he has asked Ellison to help with the case. At a Sunday night news conference Ellison said he wanted to give people "a dose of reality." "Prosecuting police officers for misconduct is very difficult," Ellison said. "We are pursuing justice relentlessly and we are pursuing it on behalf of the people of Minnesota." 9:13 a.m.: Miami-Dade County mayor wants to honor protesters who stopped potential looters In Miami, video overnight showed a group of protesters shattering the glass door of a CVS as they prepared to loot the store -- only to be stopped by a group of peaceful protesters who formed a line to prevent them from entering. Police then arrived and dispersed the crowd. Monday morning, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said he wants to meet and commend the protesters who kept the potential looters from breaking in. "Anyone who can identify the people responsible for keeping the peace as they, themselves, properly exercised their right to assemble and protest, please reach out to the Mayor's office via social media on the Mayor's Facebook page Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez, or on Twitter @mayorgimenez," he said in a statement. 2:22 a.m.: Derek Chauvin moved to state prison in Oak Park Heights, Minnesota Derek Chauvin, the officer accused of killing George Floyd, is now in custody at the state prison in Oak Park Heights, Minnesota, said Minnesota Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell. Hennepin County Sheriff David Hutchison made the request to move him over concerns about the large number of people who could possibly be booked into Hennepin County Jail Sunday night, and concerns over COVID-19. Chauvin's court date has been pushed back a week to June 8. 1:40 a.m.: In several cities, protesters and police share a hug Although Sunday's protests included much of the looting and violence of the previous week's demonstrations, there were signs throughout the country that relations between protesters and police were warming. In Orlando, Florida, photos on social media showed two police officers holding hands with protesters through a barricade. Video showed a Florida Highway Patrol trooper in Miami detach himself from a security line to offer a hug to a woman sitting on a motor scooter, who said, "I appreciate your patience" after troopers remained calm when protesters approached them. In New York City's Foley Square, a cheer went up among protesters when a group of NYPD officers took a knee in a show of solidarity. In Oklahoma City, cameras also captured sheriff's deputies taking a knee, with some hugging protesters near the Oklahoma County Jail. In Flint, Michigan, video showed Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson telling a crowd of protesters that he'd ordered his deputies to lower their batons and that he wanted to make the event "a parade, not a protest." The crowd then applauded the sheriff and invited him to join the march. 12:41 a.m.: Clashes continue in some cities, while others are calmer Arrests during Sunday's protests have driven the total number of demonstrator arrests to 4,100 since protests began early in the week, according to the AP. Confrontations between police and protesters continued for another night in Brooklyn, where demonstrators clashed with officers outside Barclay's Center. In Boston, an SUV drove through a crowd of protesters but officials said no one appeared to be seriously hurt. In Washington, D.C., members of the U.S. Marshals Service and DEA agents were called in to assist National Guard troops responding to protests near the White House, a Department of Justice official said. In Atlanta, two police officers were fired for using excessive force during an arrest of two college students during Saturday night's protests. Video of the incident appeared to show officers Tase the two students as they sat in their vehicle, and then forcefully drag them out of the car. Other protests were peaceful. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said demonstrators were "largely cooperative." ABC News' Luis Martinez, Whitney Lloyd, Will Gretzky, Aaron Katersky, Stephanie Wash, Victor Oquendo, Dee Carden, Jeff Cook, Matt Foster, Alexander Mallin, Matt Zarrell and Marc Nathanson contributed to this report. Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. U.S. President Trump makes announcement about China at the White House in Washington By David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has little choice but to stick with his Phase 1 China trade deal for now despite his anger at Beijing over the coronavirus pandemic, new Hong Kong security rules, and dwindling hopes China can meet U.S. goods purchase targets, people familiar with his administration's deliberations say. The U.S.-China trade negotiations took more than two years, heaped tariffs on $370 billion of Chinese products, whipsawed financial markets and dimmed global growth prospects well before the coronavirus outbreak crushed them. In recent weeks, suggestions that Trump may cancel the deal have emanated from the White House almost daily, and businesses, investors, and China trade watchers are hanging onto every word and tweet. But on Friday, when Trump said the United States would start dismantling trade and travel privileges for Hong Kong, he did not mention the deal. Stock markets heaved a sigh of relief, with the S&P 500 reversing losses. Talking tough on China and criticizing the Obama administration's more measured approach is a key part of Trump's re-election strategy. Sticking with the pact may mean accepting that China is likely to fall short of purchase commitments for U.S. agricultural goods, manufactured products, energy and services - goals that many said were unrealistic https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china/china-to-ramp-up-u-s-buys-under-trade-deal-but-skeptics-question-targets-idUSKBN1ZD0FN even before the pandemic. In response to Trump's Hong Kong announcement, China told state-owned firms to suspend large-scale farm purchases including soybeans and pork, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Such a halt will put China further behind in making good on its pledges to boost U.S. purchases by $200 billion over two years. But canceling the deal would reignite the nearly two-year U.S.-China trade war at a time U.S. unemployment is at its worst since the 1930s Great Depression. Story continues The next U.S. step would likely be reviving previously planned but canceled tariffs on some $165 billion worth of Chinese consumer goods, including Apple Inc cellphones and computers, toys and clothing - all ultimately paid by U.S. companies and passed on to consumers. Beijing would retaliate with tariffs on U.S. goods, fueling more market turmoil and delaying recovery. "He's stuck with a lemon. He gets an empty agreement if he sticks with it, and he gets more actions that create an economic drag and more volatility if he abandons it," said one person briefed on the administration's trade deliberations. U.S. goods exports https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html to China in the first quarter were down $4 billion from the trade war-damaged levels a year earlier, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The Peterson Institute of International Economics estimates https://www.piie.com/research/piie-charts/us-china-phase-one-tracker-chinas-purchases-us-goods that during the first quarter, China made only about 40% of the purchases it needed to stay on target for a first-year increase of $77 billion over 2017 levels, implying an extremely steep climb in the second half. Leaving the deal now would not buy a lasting political bounce for Trump in manufacturing-heavy swing states with five months to go before the presidential election, analysts say. COMPLEX RELATIONSHIP Trump said on Friday that China was "absolutely smothering Hong Kongs freedom," but refrained from harsh sanctions that could put the trade deal in jeopardy, taking milder steps to revoke the territory's separate travel and customs benefits from China. Claire Reade, a former U.S. trade negotiator, said Trump's "peripheral steps" would not deter Beijing from proceeding with the security law, as it regards Hong Kong as a core national security issue. "Probably the most significant thing from the trade perspective is that the Phase 1 trade deal is for now anyway - unaffected," said Reade, senior counsel with Arnold and Porter law firm in Washington. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has recently cited https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/press-releases/2020/may/usda-and-ustr-announce-continued-progress-implementation-us-china-phase-one-agreement "continuing progress" in the deal, after China welcomed U.S. blueberries, barley, beef and dairy products. U.S.-China flashpoints on Hong Kong, Taiwan and other issues did not derail negotiations that resulted in new concessions from China, said Jamieson Greer, who served as Lighthizer's chief of staff until April. "Some of these security and human rights challenges have certainly complicated the atmosphere, but the trade agreement can still provide a set of rules governing important aspects of the trade relationship," said Greer, now an international trade partner at the King and Spalding law firm. Another person familiar with USTR thinking said the agency "needs to make Phase 1 look good. They want to show that progress is being made. The president looks at the China relationship much more broadly." (Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Heather Timmons, Chizu Nomiyama and Lisa Shumaker) Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak and German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer discussed security and humanitarian situation in eastern Ukraine. They met during a visit of the Ukrainian delegation to Berlin on June 2, the press service of the President's Office reported. "The ceasefire is a key condition for the further disengagement of forces and mine clearance," Yermak said. He emphasized that in order to speed up progress towards peace, it is necessary, first of all, to ensure the implementation of the agreements reached by the Normandy Four leaders during the Paris summit in December, in particular the full and comprehensive implementation of the ceasefire. Yermak noted that the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine must have full freedom of movement, which has recently been blocked by illegal armed formations. The parties discussed the possibility of deepening cooperation between Ukraine and NATO, as well as issues of bilateral interaction. The German defence minister noted that Ukraine is a friend of Germany. According to her, Berlin supports Ukraine on the path to peace and does not recognize the occupation of Ukrainian territories Donbas and Crimea, because this is a flagrant violation of international law. She emphasized that normalization of relations with Russia is possible only after the restoration of Ukraines territorial integrity. Germany also supports Ukraines initiative to intensify the Minsk talks and expects to continue negotiations in the Normandy format. "Germany is ready to continue to assist in the implementation of reforms in Ukraine," the minister noted. In addition, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer accepted the invitation from her Ukrainian counterpart, Andriy Taran, to visit Ukraine. ish 02.06.2020 LISTEN President Akufo-Addo has condoled with the family of George Floyd, black American man, who died May 25, 2020 in police custody in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Black people, the world over, are shocked and distraught by the killing of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, by a white police officer in the United States of America. It carried with it an all too painful familiarity, and an ugly reminder. "It cannot be right that, in the 21st century, the United States, this great bastion of democracy, continues to grapple with the problem of systemic racism," President Akufo-Addo wrote on his Facebook wall,saying, " "On behalf of the people of Ghana, I express my deep condolences to the family and loved ones of the late George Floyd". GNA The rollout out of voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) continues, with a leading Indonesian player joining the growing number of operators offering LTE-based voice calls to its subscribers. Telkomsel says it has soft-launched its VoLTE service. The new service is accessible to around 114,000 Telkomsel customers in the Jadetabek area (Jakarta, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi) and Surabaya, with other areas to follow in due course. Telkomsel promotional material says that the VoLTE service is for selected customers only and outlines the benefits of the service, including the ability to talk on the phone and browse the internet at the same time, clearer voice quality, quicker voice connectivity and seamless videocalls. Telkomsel also offers a guide to smartphones that support VoLTE. Telkomsel was established in May 1995 (its website logo highlights the fact that it is celebrating its 25th year in business) and now has more than 170 million customers, making it the largest cellular operator in Indonesia. It is focusing on the deployment of LTE at 900MHz as part of long-term plans to deliver 4G services to 95 percent of the population in cities and districts across Indonesia. It reached that target last month, having deployed 87,000 base stations on its network to support a wide range of broadband and digital-based services. Telkomsel says it has built more than 209,000 base stations in total. As LTE rolls out globally, VoLTE, an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)-based service, which removes the need to rely on the legacy circuit-switched voice network, has not been far behind. Vodafone Qatar deployed commercial VoLTE services earlier this year and leading Kenyan operator Safaricom announced the launch of voice and video calls over VoLTE on its 4G network a year ago. India, Peru, Uganda and Tanzania are among other countries where some subscribers can use VoLTE, though VoLTE-ready smartphones are usually required and the approach to billing may differ from one territory and operator to another. Six Atlanta police officers have been criminally charged after a dramatic body camera video showed them dragging a young black couple from a car during George Floyd protests. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard announced the charges during a news conference this morning. 'I feel a little safer now that these monsters are off the street and no longer able to terrorize anyone else,' said Messiah Young, who was pulled from the vehicle along with his girlfriend, Taniyah Pilgrim, while they were caught in traffic on Saturday. Fired and charged: These undated photos show Atlanta PD investigators Mark Gardner (left) and Ivory Streeter (right), who were fired on Sunday and charged with aggravated assault on Tuesday over accusations they used excessive force during the arrest of two college students Taniyah Pilgrim holds Messiah Young's bandaged hand as he speaks during a news conference on the campus of Morehouse College on Monday about being pulled from his car and tasered In this photo taken from police body camera video released by the Atlanta Police Department, an officer points his handgun at Young while the college student is seated in his vehicle The incident first gained attention from video online and on local news. Throughout, the couple can be heard screaming and asking officers what is happening. Two of the officers, Investigator Ivory Streeter and Investigator Mark Gardner, were fired on Sunday. Streeter and Gardner are both charged with aggravated assault. Two others are also charged with aggravated assault, while one is charged with aggravated battery. Some of the officers are also charged with criminal damage to property as well as pointing or aiming a gun. Officer Lonnie Hood was charged with two counts of aggravated assault and one count of simple battery; Officer Willie Sauls was charged with aggravated assault and criminal damage to property; Officer E. Armond Jones was charged with aggravated battery and pointing or aiming a gun; and Officer F. Ronald Claud was charged with criminal damage to property. They have until June 5 to turn themselves in to police. Each of the officers has been granted a $10,000 signature bond. Streeter was hired in December 2003 and Gardner in August 1997. Training records from the Peace Officer Standards and Training Council, which certifies law enforcement officers in Georgia, show that both officers had recently completed training in use of force and in deescalation tactics. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Pilgrim was released without charges. She said Young, was released, too, and she's ordering the charges against him dropped. Young and Pilgrim were driving to get food when they got caught in traffic during protests and had a run-in with police The video shows Pilgrim in the passenger seat screaming in terror as an officer aims a Taser at her and deploys it The woman repeatedly screams that she is coming out, but she gets tasered anyway and then pulled out of the car by police She didn't specify what charges he faced. A police report says Young was charged with attempting to elude police and driving with a suspended license. Dramatic body-camera video released by police on Sunday shows a group of officers shouting orders, smashing the drivers side window, deploying stun guns and pulling Pilgrim and Messiah Young from the sedan. Throughout, the couple can be heard screaming and asking officers what is happening. The video begins with police taking another young man into custody in a downtown street alongside a line of stopped cars. The man is pleading with police to let him go, saying he didn't do anything. Young, sitting in the driver's seat of a car stopped in the street holds up his phone, appearing to shoot video as an officer approaches and pulls the driver's side door open. Young pulls the door shut and says repeatedly, 'I'm not dying today.' He urges the officers to release the other man and let him get in the car as the dark sedan advances a bit. Atlanta police officers on Saturday surrounded a vehicle driven by a college student with his girlfriend in the passenger seat The shocking footage showed officers smash the driver's side window and use a Taser on Young, a 22-year-old student attending Morehouse College Pilgrim was taken out of the car and made to lay down on the pavement, where officers used zip-ties to bind her hands The car advances and gets stuck in traffic and officers run up to both sides of the car shouting orders. An officer uses a stun gun on Pilgrim in the front passenger seat as she's trying to get out of the car and then officers pull the screaming woman from the vehicle. Another officer yells at Young to put the car in park and open the window. An officer repeatedly hits the drivers side window with a baton, and another finally manages to break it. Officers also slashed the tires, the young couple say. As the window glass shatters, an officer uses a stun gun on Young and officers pull him from the car as officers shout, 'Get your hand out of your pockets,' and, 'He got a gun. He got a gun. He got a gun.' Once hes out and on the ground, officers zip tie his hands behind his back and lead him away. Police reports do not list a gun as having been recovered. 'There is no justification, none whatsoever, for what they did to them and for what the system did to them,' Young's lawyer Mawuli Davis said, later adding, 'If there was a gun, best believe this would have had a very different outcome.' In incident reports, Streeter wrote that he used his 'electronic conductive weapon' on the driver and Gardner wrote that he deployed his Taser 'to bring the female passenger under control.' 'I'm so happy that theyre being held accountable for their actions,' Pilgrim said at a news conference on Monday. Young, 22, of Chicago, is a rising senior at Morehouse, where he's studying business management. Pilgrim, 20 - from San Antonio, Texas - is a psychology major at Spelman College. Both schools are historically black colleges near downtown Atlanta. Young suffered a fractured arm and required 20 stitches. He said the arrest was 'one of the hardest things that I've ever experienced in my life.' Pilgrim, a psychology major at Spelman College, said of her and Young's ordeal: 'we felt like we were going to die in that car' The two were out getting something to eat Saturday night when they got snarled in traffic along Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta, their lawyers said. A friend of theirs, another Morehouse student, was standing in the street talking to them while they were stopped when police began to take him into custody, Young's lawyer Davis said. Young used his phone to film what was happening and that's when officers turned on him, Davis said, adding he believes the officers' motivation was to keep his client from capturing what was going on. 'I still can't even process what happened,' Pilgrim said at the news conference. 'We felt like we were going to die in that car.' L. Chris Stewart, an attorney representing Pilgrim, said they intend to file a lawsuit, saying cities often don't make changes until they have to start writing checks. 'We want change in policies, in procedures, in laws,' Stewart said. 'It's not hard to fix.' Mayor Bottoms said at a news conference Sunday after reviewing body camera footage that she and police Chief Erika Shields decided to immediately fire Streeter and Gardner, and place three others on desk duty pending investigation. 'Use of excessive force is never acceptable,' Bottoms told reporters. Shields called the footage 'really shocking to watch.' Chhattisgarh government has issued a revised order and withdrew an earlier directive, issued last week, where the forest department was designated as the nodal agency for the implementation of community forest resource rights under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. Last Friday, an order was issued by the state governments general administration department (GAD), which was opposed by the states tribal rights activists, claiming it is illegal under the Act to make the forest department as the nodal agency. A revised order was issued on Monday. Now, the forest department has been entrusted with the responsibility to coordinate with the tribal affairs department in the implementation of the Act, said Rakesh Chaturvedi, principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF), Chhattisgarh. The tribal rights activists have welcomed the state governments revised order. Alok Shukla, convener, Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan, a pressure group, said the state governments revised order upholds the basic spirit of the Act and respects democratic values. Earlier last Saturday, the state government had also issued a press release. Community members will be given community forest rights for the conservation of forests. Forest dwellers will be allowed to manage the proper use of trees. The state forest department has been made the nodal department as far as community forest resource rights under the Act is concerned, the release had said. However, Section 11 of the Act clearly states that the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs is the nodal agency for the implementation of all provisions of the legislation. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ritesh Mishra State Correspondent for Chhattisgarh. Reports Maoism, Politics, Mining and important developments from the state. Covered all sorts of extremism in Central India. Reported from Madhya Pradesh for eight years. ...view detail The Executive has been urged to consider introducing a strict travel limit after more scenes of crowding at beauty spots here. Police estimated that 1,000 people gathered at Crawfordsburn and Helen's Bay as temperatures soared on Monday. It followed similar scenes at beaches over the weekend. One MLA suggested a travel restriction should be imposed if the problem continues. It came as Health Minister Robin Swann warned the battle against Covid-19 is "finely balanced". Images showed crowds of mainly young people gathered at Helen's Bay and Crawfordsburn on Monday and not observing the two-metre social distancing guideline. At the weekend parts of the north coast were packed, too, with reports that some people resorted to defecating in public as toilet facilities are currently closed. Last Friday at Ballyholme beach in Bangor a police officer was injured while trying to disperse a large crowd of young people. In a separate incident in north Belfast on Monday a 15-year-old girl required hospital treatment for a cut to her chest after being subjected to what the PSNI described as a vicious assault by a male gang after young people gathered at the Invest NI site near Springfield Road. A 16-year-old boy was also injured. Northern Ireland's chief scientific adviser Ian Young said he fears the events of recent days could push the R-rate, the virus's reproductive number, above 1. Keeping it below 1 - it is currently between 0.8 and 1 - is crucial to avoid exponential growth in cases. Expand Close Andrew Muir MLA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Andrew Muir MLA Alliance MLA Andrew Muir said that Stormont should consider toughening the restrictions, which currently permit travel to beauty spots. "If this situation continues we're going to have to look at the regulations because we can't allow a repeat of that," he told the Belfast Telegraph. "I know people have asked can police or Translink not turn people away, but the way the regulations are drafted there is unlimited travel, and also these locations are open. "So whether we have to, unfortunately, close some of these beauty spots and beaches, which is disadvantaging the majority of people who are law-abiding, we have to do if there's a repeat of what happened." Mr Swann, speaking at Tuesday's Covid-19 briefing, admitted that while the public's adherence to the lockdown was "fraying" he was not calling for police to be given additional powers to enforce the coronavirus regulations. "I don't think we're in a place yet where we need further legislation to actually bring in further penalties on those young people who are gathering," he said. "What I'm asking them to do is act responsibly, to think about their actions and the effect their actions have on their loved ones should Covid be found in their group of friends and the onward transmission that would have. In regards to empowering police to enforce a two-metre distance, I think that would put an enormous pressure on an already under-pressure police force at this minute in time." At present the two-metre social distancing measure is a guideline, not a rule. Mr Swann referred to images in the media in recent days showing long queues and crowds of young people at parks and beaches. He said that while he did not want to "lecture" young people, he urged them to show restraint. "It does appear that for some people the compliance with restrictions and social distancing measures is starting to fray," he added. "Our battle against Covid-19 is finely balanced. Yes, we have made important progress against it, we have flattened the curve and saved many lives. "As a result of that immense effort we have started the process of cautiously and gradually edging out of lockdown. "But we are still at a very early and tentative stage of that process. It wouldn't take that much to tip the reproductive spread of the virus over the all important '1' figure." He reminded the public that this is not an "extended public holiday", adding: "People are staying or working from home for good medical and scientific reasons." Expand Close Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon His comments were echoed by Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon and Justice Minister Naomi Long. They urged people to act responsibly to help defeat the virus. "It is really worrying to learn of gatherings of young people on our rail services in recent days. The public health message is clear: social distancing must be practised by all individuals and each of us have a personal responsibility," said Ms Mallon. Mrs Long said: "While there is no law against travelling to beauty spots to exercise and enjoy our magnificent scenery, I would urge anyone who does so to act responsibly when they get there." Expand Close Chief social worker Sean Holland / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Chief social worker Sean Holland Chief social worker Sean Holland said that while he backed Mr Swann's message to young people, some teenagers had found themselves in "difficult circumstances" during the lockdown. "It is also worth remembering that some of those young people seen out and about in the parks have been in lockdown in situations that are far from ideal... some of those young people may have found themselves contained in homes in situations which are neglectful or abusive," he said. The new head of a powerful banking regulator is not letting his first full week on the job pass quietly, warning that measures meant to contain the spread of the coronavirus including mandates for the use of masks in public could endanger the financial system. Brian P. Brooks took over on Friday as the acting head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the federal agency that oversees the countrys largest banks. Mr. Brooks, a former banker, sent letters to the countrys mayors and governors about the negative effects of restrictions on public activity. Among them, he said: Face masks could lead to more bank robberies. Mr. Brookss letter was unusual in its tone and scope; banking regulators tend to keep their communications fairly abstract. But Mr. Brooks pointed to what he said were specific risks associated with continued state and local lockdown orders. Certain aspects of these orders potentially threaten the stability and orderly functioning of the financial system, he wrote. New Utah Law Makes Polygamy as Illegal as Parking in Wrong Place When Republican Gov. Gary Herbert signed SB102 into law on March 28, he all but ended Utahs compliance with the first condition Congress put on the states admission to the federal union, making polygamy illegal under the states constitution. From the moment in 1896 that President Grover Cleveland signed the congressional act admitting Utah to the union as the 45th state until the governors signature, polygamythe practice of one man having multiple wiveswas a felony punishable by years in jail. To the present day, Utahs constitution says polygamy is forever forbidden. Under SB102, polygamy remains illegal, although the practice is now considered an infraction on par with a parking ticket rather than a criminal act, unless the man involved is also guilty of human trafficking, sexual abuse, domestic violence, or fraud. Herberts decision to go along with the nearly unanimous support of SB102 among state legislators got little national attention because the rest of the country was in the second week of the national lockdown amid the pandemic. Utah decriminalizing polygamy is still a background issue, with America now convulsed by riots instigated in dozens of cities by radical left-wing anarchist groups such as Antifa seeking to exploit the tragic May 25 death of George Floyd after being improperly restrained by a Minneapolis policeman. But the issue isnt being ignored among defenders of traditional monogamous marriage, and not only because many of them predicted in the decade prior to its legalization that homosexual marriage would revive demands for re-legalization of polygamy. Oh my goodness, its the phrase, Well, what do you know, who saw this coming? said Glenn Stanton, director of global family formation studies at the Colorado-based evangelical Christian group Focus on the Family, when asked by The Epoch Times on June 2 about Utahs action. I and others made that argument on college campus stages all through the 2000s and would be booed and hissed about it, as like, how ridiculous, Stanton said. But its wholly rational. There are now serious people arguing for polyamory [multiple women with multiple men], there are serious people arguing for polygamy. Stanton noted that Utahs polygamy advocates use the same language as gay rights advocates who argue that love is love so if youre going to use that and thats going to be your banner, then youve got to be consistent with that, and the polygamy people just made that case. Defenders of traditional monogamy like Stanton argue that recent history and social science leave no doubt that the one-man/one-wife family structure is best for everybody involved, but especially for women and children. Stanton pointed to a landmark study published by the Royal Society in 2012 entitled The Puzzle of Monogamous Marriage, by professor Joseph Heinrich of the University of British Columbia, anthropologist Robert Boyd of UCLA, and environmental scientist Peter J. Richerson of the University of California at Davis. In their study summary, the authors noted that the anthropological record indicates that approximately 85 percent of human societies have permitted men to have more than one wife (polygynous marriage), and both empirical and evolutionary considerations suggest that large absolute differences in wealth should favor more polygynous marriages. But in fact, they wrote, monogamous marriage has spread across Europe, and more recently across the globe, even as absolute wealth differences have expanded. Based on the results of their study, the authors concluded that monogamy has become so widespread due to multiple factors associated with suppressing intrasexual competition and reducing the size of the pool of unmarried men. Those factors result in reduced crime rates, including rape, murder, assault, robbery, and fraud, as well as decreasing personal abuses. By assuaging the competition for younger brides, normative monogamy decreases (i) the spousal age gap, (ii) fertility, and (iii) gender inequality. In addition, the authors said that by shifting male efforts from seeking wives to paternal investment, normative monogamy increases savings, child investment, and economic productivity. By increasing the relatedness within households, normative monogamy reduces intra-household conflict, leading to lower rates of child neglect, abuse, accidental death, and homicide. Dr. Patrick Fagan, founder and president of the Marriage and Family Research Institute (MARRI), told The Epoch Times that decriminalization is definitely not made in the public interest, nor in the interest of the child. Fagan, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Family and Social Policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said how vigorously authorities should enforce laws against polygamy is a prudential question. Decriminalization is not. He described Utahs action as a subversive act against a culture formed on marriage and family that, done deliberately at the highest levels of government, is also a crime against the truth of for the good of the child, the next generation. It is a treacherous act to enshrine it in law. A spokesman for Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) did not respond to an email request from The Epoch Times for comment on SB102. Some of Romneys ancestors lived for a time in a polygamous Mormon colony in Mexico. A spokesman for Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said Lee has not taken a position on the bill. Contact Mark Tapscott at Mark.Tapscott@epochtimes.nyc PESHAWAR, Pakistan - The roof of a school collapsed under heavy rain in Pakistans northwest near Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing seven children and injuring 13 others, police said. Azam Khan, a local police official, said the incident took place in the district of North Waziristan. He said the children were between the ages of 4 and 14. Unfortunately, all the children who were martyred or injured in this incident were receiving Islamic education at the madrassa, Khan said. Rescue workers recovered the bodies and transported injured students to the areas main hospital, he said. Rains in Pakistan often damage homes and other structures because of poor construction quality and many homes are made of mud brick. North Waziristan served as the headquarters of Pakistans Taliban and foreign militants until 2017 after security forces in a series of operations dismantled their network and killed or arrested scores of them. The region has dozens of schools where children receive Islamic education. US police have been accused of brutal methods akin to what was seen in Hong Kong last year Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam accused foreign governments for having double standards, criticising the US for condemning Beijings move to impose national security laws to quell protests, while taking its own severe steps to curb unrest at home. They are very concerned about their own national security, but on our national security...they look through coloured glasses, said Ms Lam in a weekly press conference. She also warned that US sanctions against Hong Kong would mean hurting their own interests. Last week, the US declared that it would axe preferential treatment over worries the global financial hub no longer remained sufficiently autonomous from mainland China, ruled by the Communist Party, with the onset of the national security law. Beijing, no longer willing to tolerate dissenting views in Hong Kong, has defended the national security law as a necessity to restore order. Ms Lam is expected to visit Beijing Wednesday and meet with officials about the law. Tensions over Hong Kong is the latest flashpoint in a broader US-China row, with Chinese officials and state media in recent days accusing the US of hypocrisy. Beijing has revelled in the mass riots erupting in the US over the death of a black man while in police custody. Several US cities remain under curfew, and police have used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse protesters. US president Donald Trump has called for the military to be deployed and labelled protesters thugs and domestic terrorists. Last year, Hong Kong police used similar tactics to break up demonstrations and Beijing also denounced pro-democracy protesters as vandals and terrorists, behaviour that drew international outcry from foreign governments and human rights groups. Why does the US refer to those Hong Kong independence and black-clad rioters as heroes and fighters, but label its people protesting against racial discrimination as thugs,? said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian. This double standard way of behaving is so typical of the US. Hong Kong is bracing for more mass unrest ahead of the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre on Thursday. Police have banned the event this year, citing coronavirus concerns, though demonstrators plan to take to the streets to continue the tradition of the candlelight vigil, held every year since the 1989 incident, and to continue protesting against the national security law. An influential community of Indian-American doctors in the US has expressed outrage at the custodial killing of George Floyd and the long history of racial discrimination in America, saying that the divisive rhetoric seem to be getting worse each day in the country. African-American Floyd, 46, died after a white police officer kneeled on his neck as he gasped for breath till life left his body in Minneapolis on May 25. His death has triggered violent nationwide protests. Police have used tear gas to disperse the crowds and hundreds of people have been arrested as protests turned violent in some cities. The American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), the largest body representing Indian-American doctors, in a statement on Monday condemned racial discrimination and violence against minority communities. As American Physicians of Indian-origin, we are unanimously outraged by George Floyds death and the long history of racial discrimination that lives in this country. We are aware that these are difficult and distressing times for everyone, said AAPI president Suresh Reddy. Reddy said that as physicians, they are dedicated to improving the health of everyone but they cannot fulfil this mission without directly confronting racism that is hurting the health of so many and contribute significantly to excess morbidity and death of the minority communities. Sudhakar Jonnalgadda, AAPI president-elect, said, we are saddened by the divisive rhetoric and racial tensions that seem to be getting worse each day. We need to find solutions that ensure everyone in this nation receives fair and equal treatment and that police officers who put their lives on the line every day to protect us all are respected and supported. AAPI endorsed the statement by American Medical Association (AMA), which described the police violence as a striking reflection of our American legacy of racism a system that assigns value and structures opportunity while unfairly advantaging some and disadvantaging others based on their skin colour and saps the strength of the whole society through the waste of human resources. Sanku Rao, chair, AAPI Ethics and Grievance Committee, said that along with other leading health organisations, including American Medical Association, the Indian-American doctors denounce incidents of racism and violence that continue to ravage the communities. Standing in solidarity with peaceful protestors across the nation condemning the horrific death of George Floyd, AAPI secretary Ravi Kolli called out systemic racism and excessive violence by the nations police. We call upon police departments across the country to, meaningfully address the twin problems of systemic racism and excessive, disproportionate use of force by officers in their ranks, working with local communities to end both, and hold accountable the police officers with misconduct and excessive force, he said. Namratha R. Kandula, chair, AAPIs Diversity and Equity Committee, said, As immigrants to the US, our families may not always understand this history, but we join in solidarity with the minority communities and call for justice for George Floyd and for many others who have lost their lives to police brutality. A kindergarten has been forced to close for deep cleaning after a teacher tested positive for coronavirus. Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos confirmed the teacher at Macleod Preschool, in Melbourne's northeast, had COVID-19. The teacher was tested after noticing symptoms and the kindergarten has been shut for cleaning with at least 20 students and staff remaining at home. Embracia Aged Care in Reservoir is also in lockdown after a worker tested positive for the virus, Ms Mikakos told reporters on Tuesday. Both the preschool teacher and aged care worker are among ten new coronavirus cases confirmed in the state overnight. Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos confirmed the teacher at Macleod Preschool, in Melbourne's northeast, had COVID-19 Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos confirmed the teacher at Macleod Preschool (pictured), in Melbourne's northeast, had COVID-19 The aged care worker is self-isolating at home and all staff and visitors considered to be close contacts will be put into quarantine. Staff and residents at the aged care centre will be tested, the minister said. 'So even one case in an aged care home is classified as an outbreak - it's taken very, very seriously because we know particular vulnerability that residents in nursing homes have, and this is why this home is now in lockdown,' Ms Mikakos said. Of the new cases, four have been tied to the outbreak at Rydges on Swanston, taking that cluster to 12. The hotel had been housing quarantined returned travellers, but all guests have been moved to alternative accommodation. CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement Hotel and department staff have been put into quarantine, Deputy Chief Health Officer Annaliese van Diemen said of the outbreak. The other four new cases, found in routine testing, are under investigation. Victoria has done more than 521,000 tests and the state's total recorded cases stand at 1664. The death toll remains at 19 while 1563 people have recovered and 79 cases are active in Victoria. There are nine people in hospital. Almost 170 people may have acquired the virus in community transmission. The state government also confirmed it was introducing legislation in parliament on Tuesday to fulfil the second stage of an election commitment to strengthen nurse-to-midwife patient ratios. Under the promise, an extra 500 nurse and midwife positions would be opened up, bringing the total extra staff to 1100. The state government will also spend $100,000 towards an exhibition to honour the nursing profession. Dr van Diemen said a Keilor Downs secondary school is due to reopen on Tuesday after previously having a positive case. A St Albans South primary school impacted in the coronavirus cluster is also due to open on Wednesday, she said. Athens: Greece on Tuesday suspended flights to and from Qatar after 12 individuals on a plane from Doha tested positive for the new coronavirus. The individuals were on a flight carrying 91 people from Doha to Athens that landed on Monday. Tests were carried out for the novel coronavirus and the passengers were taken to a quarantine hotel, authorities said. Those who tested positive will be in quarantine for 14 days, and those who tested negative will remain in quarantine for seven days, the civil protection ministry said. Those who tested positive include nine people from Pakistan with Greek residency papers, two Greeks travelling from Australia and a member of a Greek-Japanese family. The suspension will be in place until June 15. Greece has reported a low number of COVID-19 cases compared to many other European countries, and began a gradual easing of a weeks-long lockdown on May 4. By Tuesday, it had reported 2,937 cases, and 179 deaths. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!! Technavio has been monitoring the global artificial intelligence (AI) market in manufacturing industry and it is poised to grow by USD 7.22 billion during 2019-2023, progressing at a CAGR of about 31% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200601005543/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Artificial Intelligence (AI) Market in Manufacturing Industry 2019-2023 (Graphic: Business Wire) Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Latest Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. 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Our artificial intelligence (AI) market in manufacturing industry report covers the following areas: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Market in Manufacturing Industry: Size Artificial Intelligence (AI) Market in Manufacturing Industry: Trends Artificial Intelligence (AI) Market in Manufacturing Industry: Industry Analysis This study identifies the increasing human-robot collaboration as one of the prime reasons driving the artificial intelligence (AI) market growth in the manufacturing industry during the next few years. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Market in Manufacturing Industry 2019-2023: Vendor Analysis We provide a detailed analysis of vendors operating in the artificial intelligence (AI) market in manufacturing industry, including some of the vendors such as Amazon Web Services Inc., FANUC Corp., General Electric Co., Google LLC, H2O.AI Inc., IBM Corp., KUKA Aktiengesellschaft, Microsoft Corp., Rockwell Automation Inc., and SAP SE. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the artificial intelligence (AI) market in manufacturing industry are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports. Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Artificial Intelligence (AI) Market in Manufacturing Industry 2019-2023: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2019-2023 Detailed information on factors that will assist artificial intelligence (AI) market growth in manufacturing industry during the next five years Estimation of the artificial intelligence (AI) market size in manufacturing industry and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the artificial intelligence (AI) market in manufacturing industry Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth the vendors in the artificial intelligence (AI) market in manufacturing industry Table Of Contents: PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT 2.1 Preface 2.2 Preface 2.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE Market ecosystem Market characteristics Market segmentation analysis PART 04: MARKET SIZING Market definition Market sizing 2018 Market size and forecast 2018-2023 PART 05: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market condition PART 06: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY APPLICATION Market segmentation by application Comparison by application Predictive maintenance and machine inspection Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Production planning Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Quality control Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Others Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Market opportunity by application PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE Geographic segmentation Geographic comparison APAC Market size and forecast 2018-2023 North America Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Europe Market size and forecast 2018-2023 South America Market size and forecast 2018-2023 MEA Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Key leading countries Market opportunity PART 09: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES Market drivers Market challenges PART 10: MARKET TRENDS Advancements in AI related to intelligent business process Increasing human-robot collaboration Growing demand for generative designs PART 11: VENDOR LANDSCAPE Overview Landscape disruption Competitive scenario PART 12: VENDOR ANALYSIS Vendors covered Vendor classification Market positioning of vendors Amazon Web Services, Inc. FANUC Corp. General Electric Co. Google LLC H2O.AI Inc. IBM Corp. KUKA Aktiengesellschaft Microsoft Corp. Rockwell Automation Inc. SAP SE PART 13: APPENDIX Research methodology List of abbreviations Definition of market positioning of vendors PART 14: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200601005543/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse MAIda Media Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 EmaIl: media@technavio.com Website: www.technavio.com/ BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 2 Trend: The representatives of the Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan to the UN took part and delivered a speech during the open discussions of the UN Security Council through a video conference on May 27, 2020, dedicated to the protection of civilians during the armed conflicts, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry told Trend on June 2. The issue discussed following the speech made by the representatives of the Permanent Mission was of great importance for the UN Security Council, the international community, and in particular for Azerbaijan. The world community was informed that the civilian population suffered, tens of thousands of civilians were killed or injured, millions of people were expelled from their houses as a result of new conflicts or conflicts lasting for a long time, active conflicts or those suspended as a result of the ceasefire regime. The detailed information on Armenias occupation policy and its consequences, in particular, on the damage to the Azerbaijani civilian population and infrastructure, and the ongoing illegal activity of the occupying country, was provided during the speech. The representatives of the Permanent Mission stressed that 250,000 Azerbaijanis were deported from Armenia at the end of the 1980s of the last century. Armenia started a war against Azerbaijan in late 1991-early 1992, as a result of which tens of thousands of people were killed and the infrastructure was damaged. During the speech, the representatives of the Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan also emphasized that an ethnic cleansing policy was carried out against Azerbaijanis in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region and adjacent territories, as a result of which over a million of Azerbaijanis were expelled from their houses. The occupying country continues to flagrantly violate the requirements of relevant resolutions and international law. Moreover, Armenia is carrying out the work on military construction and is conducting the purposeful policy in the direction of changing demographic, cultural and physical characteristics in the above-mentioned territories. The representatives of the Permanent Mission emphasized that this activity is a threat to the regional peace, security and stability and added that the rights and freedom of hundreds of thousands of people were violated. While referring to the recently published comprehensive report entitled War crimes in the Azerbaijani territories and the responsibility of Armenia, the representatives of the Permanent Mission emphasized that it contains the facts and evidence confirming Armenias war crimes. During the speech, the representatives of the Permanent Mission emphasized that the UN Security Council must focus on the issue of protection of civilians who have suffered during the armed conflicts; at the same time, the parties to the armed conflicts must be aware about the requirements for their commitment to the obligations arising from the international law. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts. Online clothing retailer Stitch Fix will lay off around 1,400 stylists in California, or roughly 18% of its staff, and plans to hire outside of the state. The San Francisco company employs 8,000 people, including 5,100 stylists who select clothing that is shipped to customers each month through subscriptions. Customers can wear and return items or pay to keep outfits they like. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news. In an email to The Chronicle, Stitch Fix said it would provide a minimum of two weeks of wages in severance pay for laid off employees, continue health care coverage and offer recruitment resources. It said all affected stylists are being offered the opportunity to relocate. The affected employees are all remote workers throughout California, according to a notice filed with the state that didnt specify exact locations. The layoffs will take place between June and September. The company said it was investing in lower-cost hubs outside of California in Austin, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Minneapolis where it expects to hire around 2,000 stylists through 2021. We have taken the very difficult decision to reduce the number of stylists in our styling team in California, as we invest in our other styling hubs across the U.S., and the innovations that will help evolve our experience in the future. All of our California-based stylists will be offered the opportunity to relocate to the new roles in other states, CEO Katrina Lake said in a statement. Any decision that impacts our hardworking and talented people is incredibly tough, but we believe this is the right thing to do for our business. The move is yet another example of companies moving operations outside of California and investing elsewhere, such as Charles Schwab, which is merging with TD Ameritrade, and moving to a headquarters in Texas. Bechtel and McKesson also moved headquarters out of San Francisco in recent years, while tech companies like Uber and Google have expanded in Texas and Chicago. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes Stitch Fix said the layoffs were a strategic business decision and not related to the coronavirus pandemic. However, the pandemic has devastated retail spending with millions of people out of work. In March, Stitch Fix temporarily closed two of its distribution centers in South San Francisco and Bethlehem, Pa., to comply with local public health orders. Stitch Fixs third-quarter earnings call will be held on Monday. Shwanika Narayan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: shwanika.narayan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @shwanika * The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Sunday reported a total 1,761,503 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 23,553 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 915 to 103,700. * Brazil registered 16,409 new cases of novel coronavirus on Sunday, raising the total of infected cases to 514,849 in the second worst outbreak of COVID-19 in the world after the United Sates, the health ministry said. It said there were 480 new deaths reported in the last 24 hours in Brazil, for a total death toll of 29,314, the fourth highest in the global pandemic after the United States, Britain and Italy. * Malaysian health authorities on Monday (June 1) reported 38 new coronavirus cases, bringing the cumulative total to 7,857 cases. The health ministry also reported no new deaths, keeping total fatalities at 115. * The Philippine health ministry on Monday reported three new deaths and 552 more confirmed cases of the coronavirus. In a bulletin, the ministry said total deaths increased to 960 and confirmed cases reached 18,638, of which 3,979 have recovered. The government on Monday eased strict quarantine measures in the capital, allowing millions of people to return to work and partially restart the virus-ravaged economy. * Indonesia reported on Monday 467 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of cases to 26,940, said Health Ministry official Achmad Yurianto. The Southeast Asian country also reported 28 new deaths from COVID-19, taking the total to 1,641. Meanwhile, 7,637 people have recovered as of Monday. * Italian bond yields edged down on Monday as markets prepared for Thursday's European Central Bank meeting, after posting their best monthly performance since January. Economists expect the ECB to increase its bond-buying, probably by EUR500 billion. The purchases have been a key factor holding down Italy's borrowing costs. * Several Australian states eased social distancing restrictions further on Monday, allowing restaurants to host more people and public attractions to reopen, as the government moves to revive an ailing economy through accelerated infrastructure spending. Australia has recorded about 7,200 coronavirus cases and 103 deaths. And, with new infections now largely under control, the government has embarked on a three-step plan to remove the bulk of curbs by July. * The Costa Atlantica cruise ship, which docked in southern Japan with over 100 crew members testing positive for COVID-19, has left the country and is en route to the Philippines, local government officials said on Monday. The ship departed Nagasaki on Sunday over a month after it became the second virus-stricken cruise ship to dock in Japan. The 86,000 tonne Costa Atlantica docked for maintenance in late April carrying no passengers and 623 crew, most of whom were eventually quarantined inside the ship after 149 tested positive. Six remain hospitalised in a non-life-threatening condition, Nagasaki prefecture officials said. * British Business Secretary Alok Sharma said on Monday that the quarantine for international travellers that has so angered some airlines was important to take care of the health of the country. * The coronavirus crisis could cause an already constrained Palestinian economy to shrink by as much as 11% in the coming year, the World Bank said on Monday. In a report, the bank also cautioned that the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank, could face a financing gap of more than US$1.5 billion in 2020 due to reduced revenues and increased health spending. Prior to the novel coronavirus outbreak, the bank had predicted 2.5% growth in the Palestinian economy in the coming year. * Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Monday said he had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, speaking during a Facebook live video. Armenia, with a population of 3 million, had registered 9,402 confirmed cases of the coronavirus as of Monday and 139 deaths. * Egypt shortened a night curfew by one hour on Sunday as it recorded new highs in the daily increases in novel coronavirus cases and deaths. The Health Ministry said 1,536 new cases had been confirmed including 46 deaths, bringing total cases to 24,985 and deaths to 959. * A senior United Arab Emirates official said on Monday that any unilateral move by Israel to annex parts of the occupied West Bank would be a serious setback for the Middle East peace process. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said cabinet discussions would begin on July 1 on his plan to extend Israeli sovereignty to territory Palestinians want for their own state. * Iran will continue fuel shipments to Venezuela if Caracas requests more supplies, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday, despite Washington's criticism of the trade between the two nations, which are both under US sanctions. * The Saudi-led coalition has shot down two drones launched by Yemen's Houthi group in the direction of Saudi Arabia, the state-run Saudi Press Agency said, citing a coalition spokesman. Simon Cowell and Kyle Sandilands have one thing in comment: They don't pull their punches when it comes to judging talent. And it appears the British music mogul, 60, has a soft spot for the Australian radio host, who has served on the panel of Australia's Got Talent and The X Factor. Speaking on the Kyle and Jackie O Show on Tuesday, Simon revealed he thought the 48-year-old shock jock was 'one of the best' talent show judges around. 'I love the work you've done': Simon Cowell (pictured) praised Kyle Sandilands on Tuesday, describing the Australian radio host as 'one of the best' talent show judges in the world 'I'm not just saying that, I really do think you are one of the best judges of all the shows we do. I really, really love the work you've done,' Simon said. 'Oh well, thank you very much. That's very nice,' Kyle replied, clearly surprised by the compliment. After a brief pause, he added: 'Well, I am available for international travel once the 'rona [coronavirus] is gone.' High praise: The British music mogul, 60, has a soft spot for the KIIS FM shock jock, who has served on the panel of Australia's Got Talent and The X Factor. Pictured in November 2005 Simon worked on American Idol for eight years. He also created and served as a judge on Britain's Got Talent and The X Factor. In addition, he was the executive producer for America's Got Talent. Kyle boasts a similar history, having served as a judge on Australian Idol, Australia's Got Talent and The X Factor Australia. Flattered: Kyle was surprised to receive the compliment while interviewing Simon on Tuesday It comes after Kyle left fans astounded with his incredible party trick last week. In a video posted to the Kyle and Jackie O show's Instagram page, he cleared the neck of a beer bottle clean off with a knife. 'Drinks for everyone!' he declared, throwing his arms up in triumph as his colleagues erupted into cheers. An insight into the history and present of Christian nationalism, the movement behind Donald Trumps religious support. For 40 years now, the religious right has been a fixture in American politics and for all that time it has befuddled observers who continually misunderstand it, beginning with its support for Ronald Reagan, a divorced Hollywood actor, against Jimmy Carter. Reagan was the first US president to describe himself as a born-again Christian. But Reagan whose wife consulted an astrologer for guidance as first lady was a virtual saint compared to Donald Trump, the most recent presidential beneficiary of their enthusiastic support, and someone that 81 percent of self-described white evangelical protestants rewarded with their votes. The secret to making sense of them is simply stated in the title of Katherine Stewarts new book: The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism. It draws on more than a decade of first-hand experience and front-line reporting that began when her daughters public elementary school was targeted to house a fundamentalist Bible club. The purpose of the club was to convince children as young as five that they would burn for an eternity if they failed to conform to a strict interpretation of the Christian faith, she recalls. The struggle to stop them, and what she learned in the process about the broader plan to undermine public education and make way for sectarian religious education, led to her 2012 book, The Good News Club. But that was only one facet of the larger Christian nationalist movement The Power Worshippers explores, complimenting her own up-to-the-minute reporting with vital historical backstories that contradict and correct much of what most Americans think they know. Christian nationalists have betrayed what might have been their strongest suit. Christianity, as most people understand it, has something to do with loving our neighbours. But leaders of this movement have thrown in their lot with a bunch of selfish economic reactionaries who tell us we don't owe anybody anything. Katherine Stewart, journalist and author She argues echoing Karen Armstrongs argument about the nature of fundamentalism in Christianity, Judaism and Islam that it is not premodern, as both adherents and critics commonly assume. It is, in fact, modern in its methods and doctrines, which notwithstanding their purported origins in ancient texts have been carefully shaped to serve the emotional needs of its adherents, the organisational needs of its clerical leaders, and the political needs and ambitions of its funders. Stewart is hardly alone in writing about Christian nationalism, but this formulation of how it fits together as a powerful power-seeking movement is uniquely clarifying, and provided the starting point for this interview with her. Al Jazeera: In your introduction, you write that the Christian nationalist movement has been misunderstood and underestimated, that: It is not a social or cultural movement. It is a political movement and its ultimate goal is power. Can you explain that distinction? Katherine Stewart: We are kidding ourselves if we just look at this through a culture war framework. It is helpful, in understanding this movement, to distinguish between the leaders and the followers. The foot soldiers of the movement the many millions who dutifully cast their votes for the movements favoured politicians, who populate its marches and flood its coffers with small-dollar donations are the root source of its political strength. But they are not the source of its ideas. They may believe that theyre fighting for things like traditional marriage and a ban on abortion. But over time, the movements leaders and strategists have consciously reframed these culture war issues in order to capture and control the votes of a large subsection of the American public. They understand if you can get people to vote on just one or two issues, you can control their vote. So they use these issues to solidify and maintain political power for themselves and their allies, to increase the flow of public and private money in their direction and to enact economic policies that are favourable to their most well-resourced funders. Al Jazeera: As your reporting shows, conservative-leaning churches are targeting voters with messages about how they need to vote with so-called biblical values. How does this fit in with the movement? Stewart: A lot of people attending conservative churches would not characterise themselves as members of the movement but large numbers of them have nevertheless allowed their voting habits to be shaped by its leaders. Generalising about what draws people to the movement is difficult because people come for a wide variety of reasons. These reasons include questions about lifes deeper meaning, a love and appreciation of God and scripture, ethnic and family solidarity, the hope of community and friendship, and a desire to mark lifes most significant passages or express feelings of joy and sorrow. People also come with a longing for certainty in an uncertain world. Against a backdrop of escalating economic inequality, deindustrialisation, rapid technological change and climate instability, many people, on all points of the economic and political spectrum, feel that the world has entered a state of disorder. The movement gives them confidence, an identity and the feeling that their position in the world is safe. Yet the price of certainty or belonging is often the surrendering of ones political will to those who claim to offer refuge from the tempest of modern life. Al Jazeera: What are some of the ways in which the emotional needs of adherents are exploited by movement leaders? Stewart: Among the emotional needs of some adherents is a desire for a certain empowerment as members of a special or uniquely virtuous group of people. So religious nationalism goes overboard in insisting on the unique virtues of the religion and culture with which its followers identify. An additional emotional need of some adherents, exploited by leaders of the movement, is to validate feelings of grievance and resentment, and to focus them on some imagined impure other, a scapegoat. Christian nationalism, like other forms of religious nationalism around the world and throughout history, delivers a set of persecution narratives that represent the good religious people as under threat and as victims of an evil other. Al Jazeera: How have the doctrines been shaped to meet the needs of the movements clerical leaders? Stewart: Fundamentally the doctrines of religious nationalism reinforce authority of scripture, of course, but also the authority of religious and political leaders. This is what religious nationalism does around the world. Their doctrines make an absolute virtue out of obedience to a literalist or strict interpretation of their religion. This is very handy both for the clerics and the politicians and elites that they serve, as it reinforces their authority, power and privilege. Al Jazeera: Who funds the movement, and how have the doctrines been shaped to meet their needs? Stewart: The movement has multiple sources of funding, including small-dollar donors, various types of public subsidy and funding, and affluent donors. Many of those affluent donors belong to super-wealthy hyperextended families. So it is not surprising that many of the doctrines the movement favours are about money. They say the Bible and God oppose progressive income taxes, capital gains taxes and minimum wage laws. That the Bible favours low taxes for the rich and minimal rights for the workforce. They argue that environmental regulation, regulation of businesses, and public funding of the social safety net are unbiblical or against the biblical model. In this way, I think, Christian nationalists have betrayed what might have been their strongest suit. Christianity, as most people understand it, has something to do with loving our neighbours. But leaders of this movement have thrown in their lot with a bunch of selfish economic reactionaries who tell us we dont owe anybody anything. These doctrines, of course, preserve plutocratic, often nepotistic fortunes. This is why religious nationalism often goes hand in hand with authoritarianism, which around the world frequently exploits religious nationalism to suppress dissent and keep the disempowered members of their societies in a subordinate position. Al Jazeera: The third chapter of your book is titled, Inventing Abortion. Christian nationalists did not invent abortion itself, but they did invent it as a defining political framework. How did that come about? Stewart: When Roe v Wade was passed, an editorial in a wire service run by the Southern Baptist Convention hailed the decision. Most Republican Protestants at the time supported liberalisation of abortion law. Reagan passed the most liberal abortion law in the country in 1967. Billy Graham himself echoed widely shared Protestant sentiments when he said in 1968, In general I would disagree with [the Catholic stance], and added, I believe in Planned Parenthood. Over time, pro-choice voices were purged from the Republican party. That process, which I cover in detail in my book, took several decades. Al Jazeera: You note that the pre-abortion origins of the modern Christian nationalist movement defended segregation and you also trace the origins of Christian nationalism back to slavery and its theological defence. Can you expand on this? Stewart: The theological defence went in both directions. In my book, I discuss the contributions of maybe a dozen abolitionist theologians, including Charles Grandison Finney, William Wilberforce and Adin Ballou. It is important to note, however, that at the time of the Civil War, most of the powerful denominations in the South had either promoted slavery or had at least made their peace with it, and many conservative theologians of the North concurred. Pro-slavery theologians consciously refrained from making any judgement to upset the established order or else they supported it outright. For instance, the Georgia Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church said that slavery, as it existed in the United States, was not a moral evil. Episcopalians of South Carolina found slavery to be marked by every evidence of divine approval. The Charleston Union Presbytery resolved that the holding of slaves, so far from being a sin in the sight of God, is nowhere condemned in his holy word. Yes, folks like Wilberforce and Ballou argued for abolitionism, and they did so in the name of religion. But Frederick Douglass observed at the time that these religious abolitionists tended to be a distinctly disempowered minority in their own denominations. Furthermore, abolitionist theologians also tended to support womens equality, while pro-slavery theologians were unabashedly patriarchal, arguing that the subordination of women, like subordination of Black people, was a part of Gods plan. Some abolitionist church services, at which women were allowed to speak with authority, were attacked by pro-slavery theologians as promiscuous assemblies. James Henley Thornwell of South Carolina, a pro-slavery theologian, described the conflict this way: The parties in this conflict are not merely abolitionists and slaveholders they are atheists, socialists, communists, red Republicans, Jacobins on the one side, and the friends of order and regulated freedom on the other. Here, he is identifying order and regulated freedom with the enslavers, and atheists with the abolitionists. Al Jazeera: What is most important for people to know about these origins of the Christian nationalist movement? Stewart: Pro-slavery theologians, like Christian nationalist thought leaders today, were intensely hostile to the principle of equality, plurality and critical thinking. They endorsed an austere biblical literalism and rigid hierarchies, which they asserted were ordained by God. The idea the US is a Christian nation, chosen by God; that it should be an orthodox Christian republic; that women should be subordinate to men; that at some point America deviated horribly from its mission and fell under the control of atheist and/or liberal elites these ideas are still at the heart of Christian nationalism today. Al Jazeera: How did segregation fuel the birth of the modern Christian nationalist movement? Stewart: Movement leaders may have sold us this idea their movement was a grassroots reaction to abortion. But one of the key issues that animated the movement in its earlier days was the fear that racially segregated academies might be deprived of their lucrative tax exemptions. Jerry Falwell and many of his fellow Southern, white, conservative pastors were closely involved with segregated schools and universities. The influential pastor Bob Jones Sr went so far as to call segregation Gods established order and referred to desegregationists as Satanic propagandists who were leading colored Christians astray. As far as these pastors were concerned, they had the right not just to separate people based on their skin colour but to also receive federal money for the purpose. So they coalesced around the fear that the Supreme Court might end tax exemptions for segregated Christian schools. They knew, however, that Stop the tax on segregation! wasnt going to be an effective rallying cry to inspire a broad-based hyperconservative counterrevolution. There is a fascinating episode where they got together and basically wrote down a laundry list of issues that they thought might unite their new movement. Im talking 1979 or so, about six years after Roe v. Wade. Number one was what they viewed as a threat to the tax privileges of racist academies. The womens rights movement was another. There were several others on the list, and they crossed one after the other. Then they came down to abortion and basically said, wow, that could work. Al Jazeera: How do the battles started then affect us today? Stewart: The basic question we are still struggling with is whether we can build a republic based on a universal idea, or whether we have to fall back on some kind of petty ethnic and religious nationalism. The idea of the American republic is that we can find unity on the basis of being human and thus deserving of dignity. Can we find unity in this principle of humanity and equality, or are we compelled to coalesce around mythological ideas about ethnic and religious greatness an impossibility in a society as inherently pluralistic as ours? What ails us is not something specific to the United States, but rather a condition that plagues many parts of the modern world. The lesson from history we havent yet learned is that whenever we try the latter, we spread injustice. And whenever we hold true to the former, we reach for justice. ORONDO, Wash., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Rocky Pond Estate Winery, the up-and-coming Washington producer crafting wines from their beautiful riverside and lakeside estate vineyards, is announcing a major advancement by adding an experienced Chef to develop a cutting-edge culinary program to further elevate and expand their highly regarded wine experiences. Chef Austin Preparing a Wine Dinner Rocky Pond Estate "It is with great pleasure that we welcome Chef Austin to our growing team," state Owners and Founders David and Michelle Dufenhorst. "This is yet another way that we are elevating Rocky Pond as the Eastern Washington wine destination. The culinary program will be another shining piece of the puzzle and will accentuate the majestic setting, excellent terroir, sustainably farmed vineyards, and distinct wines. Chef Austin's creativity and experience in fine dining will assist us in fulfilling our mission to create the most memorable wine experiences in the Pacific Northwest." By adding Chef Austin to develop and lead the culinary program, the ownership team is looking to take another big step in taking their young wine brand to the next level through a variety of wine and food pairing experiences, wine dinners, and so much more. Chef Austin is no stranger to the region. He grew up in the picturesque Lake Chelan area and graduated from Chelan High School before bouncing between California and Seattle to chase his culinary dreams. Ultimately, he would land starring roles in some of the top fine dining destinations on the West Coast, including Executive Sous Chef at the Craftsman in Encinitas California, Chef Tournant in Seattle Met's Restaurant of the Year, Altura Restaurant, and most recently at the Campfire Restaurant in Carlsbad California. He is also no stranger to the world of wine, working at Carruth Cellars in Solana Beach California as the assistant winemaker over multiple vintages. "I am so excited to be joining the Rocky Pond team as their new Executive Chef," states Chef Austin. "They have been building an unparalleled paradise in one of the most underrated corners of the Columbia Valley that I have been lucky enough to call home for many years. I am beyond excited to create a culinary program like no other so we can continue to make this area a top travel destination for wine and food lovers not only from Seattle, but from the Pacific Northwest and the entire West Coast." The Dufenhorsts with John Ware and Chef Austin have more exciting plans in the pipeline that will be announced very soon. Soon, interested consumers can enjoy wines and a full culinary offering at both of Rocky Pond's highly adorned tasting lounges located in Lake Chelan and Woodinville, WA in addition to at their winery in Orondo, WA. More info at: www.RockyPondWinery.com. About Rocky Pond Estate Winery: Rocky Pond Estate Winery was established in 2013 by David and Michelle Dufenhorst. The winery itself takes its name from the tumbled granite stones found on their estate vineyards located in one of the most awe-inspiring regions of the Columbia River Valley. Regionally, Rocky Pond Estate Winery is making a name for itself as a premier Washington winery that is focused on producing Bordeaux and Rhone-style wines that showcase the truly unique terroir of their sustainably farmed riverside estate vineyards deeply rooted in the soils of the geographic wonder that is the Columbia River Valley. Wine Enthusiast recently awarded multiple offerings 90+ points, and in 2019, Wine Press Northwest named Rocky Pond Estate Winery its 2019 Washington Winery to Watch. CONTACT: Matthew Thompson Premier Cru Solutions (214) 289-6425 [email protected] Marcy Lemieux Rocky Pond Winery (425) 949-9044 x4 [email protected] SOURCE Rocky Pond Estate Winery Attorney General William Barr ordered protesters to be cleared from a park near the White House, setting the stage for authorities to break up a peaceful demonstration ahead of President Trump's surprise visit to a nearby church, a senior Justice Department official said Tuesday. The official, who is not authorized to comment publicly, said the decision to expand the security perimeter around Lafayette Square was made Monday morning, after previous protests scorched the area and before it was known that Trump would walk to historic St. John's Church Monday evening. The official said Barr was "surprised" that the security perimeter had not been expanded when he visited the area just before Trump's scheduled speech at the White House. It was then, the source said, that Barr was informed of Trump's plan to visit the church, prompting the attorney general to order federal authorities to clear the area of protesters. Historic church: St. John's Church has intersected with Donald Trump at key moments of his presidency President Donald Trump walks past police in Lafayette Park after he visited St. John's Church across from the White House on June 1. Part of the church was set on fire during protests the night before. Barr was not involved in planning the staged photo that enraged church officials and was condemned by some lawmakers, the official said. Earlier Tuesday, Barr vowed that Monday's show of force involving more than a dozen law-enforcement agencies was only a warm-up for what is to come. After offering thanks Tuesday to a legion of military and law enforcement officials, including Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, for their efforts Monday, Barr warned that "even greater law enforcement resources" would be deployed to keep the peace in D.C. "The most basic function of government is to provide security for people to live their lives and exercise their rights, and we will meet that responsibility here in the nations capital," Barr said in a statement. In addition to military units, the attorney general referred to a long list of forces that would probably make a return appearance Tuesday night. At least a dozen agencies in all have been thrust into the mix, with more to come. Story continues Among them: the FBI; the Secret Service; the U.S. Park Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the U.S. Marshals Service; the U.S. Capitol Police; at least two Department of Homeland Security agencies; the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and "others." 'Domination': Trump calls for officials to 'dominate the streets' in response to protests The government's aggressive enforcement action Monday prompted criticism from D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, and religious leaders assailed President Donald Trump for clearing the streets so he could be photographed in front of St. John's Church, a historic worship center on the edge of Lafayette Square, just north of the White House. D.C., like dozens of other cities, has been the scene of violent protests after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in the custody of Minneapolis police. An officer who pinned Floyd's neck to the ground with his knee was charged with murder and manslaughter. Critics hammered Trump for using police, armed with flash grenades and shields, to clear protesters from the Lafayette Square area to provide him cover for Monday night's brief event outside the church, where the president posed with a Bible. "Tear-gassing peaceful protesters without provocation just so that the president could pose for photos outside a church dishonors every value that faith teaches us," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a joint statement. The U.S. Park Police has disputed that tear gas was used on the crowd. Yet the attorney general appeared more than satisfied with the outcome. Last night was a more peaceful night in the District of Columbia," Barr said. "Working together, federal and local law enforcement made significant progress in restoring order to the nations capital." Hiding out: Trump briefly taken to underground bunker as protests grew outside White House This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Barr ordered White House protesters moved before Trump church visit Union minister Dr Jitendra Singh on Tuesday said that the Katra-Delhi express road corridor will be ready for operation by 2023, thereby reducing the road-travel time between Katra and Delhi to around six and half hours and six hours between Jammu and Delhi. After a meeting with Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari, Dr Jitendra Singh said the 575 kms long express road corridor will cost over Rs. 35,000 crore and will connect Katra to Delhi via Amritsar. It will also touch Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Ludhiana in Punjab alongwith Kathua and Jammu in J&K. Dr Jitendra Singh, who is a Lok Sabha MP from Udhampur in Jammu division, has been pursuing this project since 2015 and about three and half years ago told the people in Katra that the proposal for the corridor has been accepted by Gadkari but it would take time to materialise because of procedural issues like survey, land acquisition, forest clearance etc. For Coronavirus Live Updates According to Dr Jitendra Singh, the survey has been completed and the process of acquisition of land is nearly complete in Haryana and will now be taken up in Punjab followed by the Jammu and Kashmir segment of the corridor. The formal approval of the proposal has been obtained from Punjab. Jammu and Kashmir had approved it earlier. Singh said after the completion of the corridor, people would prefer to travel between Jammu and Delhi by road instead of train or by air. The corridor has been planned to connect the two holy cities of Katra and Amritsar along with some other important religious shrines between the two destinations. Illinois Man Charged After Allegedly Distributing Explosives at Minneapolis Protest Federal authorities have arrested and charged an Illinois man who allegedly traveled to Minneapolis to take part in protests in response to the death of George Floyd. He has been accused of distributing explosives while encouraging others to throw them at law enforcement officers. Matthew Lee Rupert, 28, was arrested in Chicago on June 1 and charged with civil disorder, carrying on a riot, and possession of unregistered destructive devices, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). According to court papers released Monday, the 28-year-old allegedly recorded himself damaging property, passing out explosive devices to people participating in Minneapolis protests, and uploaded the footage on his personal Facebook page. He can be heard telling a rioter to aim the explosives at police SWAT officers. They got SWAT trucks up thereIve got some bombs if some of you all want to throw them backbomb them backhere I got some morelight it and throw it, Rupert said, according to the complaint. He is depicted handing someone an item with a brown casing and a green wick. We come to riot, boy! This is what we came for! Rupert can be heard saying in the video. Hes throwing my bombs. Hes going to bomb the police with them. Good shot my boy, Rupert is heard saying after an explosion in the background, according to court documents. In the self-recorded video, Rupert can also be seen actively damaging property, appearing to light a building on fire, and looting businesses in Minneapolis, the DOJ said. The video posted by Rupert also shows him asking for lighter fluid in a boarded-up liquor store and entering a Spring cell phone store before he says he lit it on fire. A video also shows Rupert entering and looting an Office Depot, according to the complaint. Chicago police officers arrested the 28-year-old on Sunday morning after he allegedly violated an emergency curfew order in the city. Several destructive devices, a hammer, a heavy-duty flashlight, and cash were then discovered by authorities after they searched his vehicle, the complaint states. A woman, who identified herself as Ruperts girlfriend, told police in an interview that the 28-year-old told her he traveled to Minnesota with several people to riot, reported NBC Chicago. Rupert appeared in a Chicago court on Monday for a hearing to have him transported by U.S. marshals to Minnesota where he is charged. Lawmakers have publicly condemned the widespread rioting, violence, and looting that has marred the otherwise peaceful protests over the in-custody death of 46-year-old George Floyd in Minneapolis last week. According to a tally compiled by The Associated Press, at least 4,400 people have been arrested across the United States after days of protests. Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis police officer, was charged Friday with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyds death. Chauvin and three other officers involved in Floyds arrest were fired. A widely circulated video showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyds neck while Floyd told officers, I cant breathe, before he eventually became unresponsive. According to a Minneapolis Fire Department report (pdf), Floyd was unresponsive and pulseless when being transported in an ambulance by paramedics to the hospital. According to Floyds family, the results of a second independent autopsy they commissioned said that sustained pressure on the right side of Floyds carotid artery impeded blood flow to the brain, and weight on his back impeded his ability to breathe. Activist and model Munroe Bergdorf has criticised L'Oreal Paris, calling its bosses 'racist snakes' after the beauty brand posted on social media in support of Black Lives Matter. The 32-year-old British model, who briefly modelled for the brand but parted company with them in 2017 after she wrote about white supremacy, raged at L'Oreal Paris's social media post yesterday, which read: 'Speaking out is worth it'. Bergdorf, who is transgender, responded on her Instagram page, telling her 260,000 followers: 'Excuse my language but I am SO angry. F*** you. 'You dropped me from a campaign in 2017 and threw me to the wolves for speaking out about racism and white supremacy.' Scroll down for video Transgender British model, Munroe Bergdorf, has slammed L'Oreal Paris for a post in 'solidarity' with the Black Lives Matter campaign which reads 'speaking out is worth it'. In 2017, days after being introduced as the brand's 'face of modern diversity' Bergdorf was dropped after speaking out on white supremacy L'Oreal Paris's post is support of the Black Lives Matter campaign following the protests around the world in response to the death of George Floyd in Minnesota last week In 2017, Bergdorf was introduced by L'Oreal as the 'face of modern diversity'. However, days after she was announced as the brand's first transgender model, Bergdorf wrote online about racism and white supremacy - and was quickly dropped from the lucrative role. Speaking about the incident in the impassioned post today, Bergdorf wrote: 'With no duty of care, without a second thought. I had to fend for myself being torn apart by the world's press because YOU didn't want to talk about racism. Bergdorf, who said she was in 'floods of tears' writing, added: 'THAT is what you get for 'speaking out' when employed by L'Oreal Paris. Racist snakes.' She added: 'Where was my support when I spoke out? Im disgusted and writing this in floods of tears. If you care about me or #blacklivesmatter, dont let @lorealparis get away with this.' MailOnline has contacted L'Oreal Paris for comment. Bergdorf told her 260,000 on Instagram that she had 'no support' from the brand when she spoke out against racism; at the time L'Oreal Paris said the model was at 'odds' with its values In 2017, Bergdorf wrote about white supremacy shortly after taking on the L'Oreal Paris role. She wrote: 'Because most of ya'll don't even realise or refuse to acknowledge that your existence, privilege and success as a race is built on the backs, blood and death of people of colour. Your entire existence is drenched in racism. From micro-aggressions to terrorism, you guys built the blueprint for this s***. 'Come see me when you realise that racism isn't learned, it's inherited and consciously or unconsciously passed down through privilege. 'Once white people begin to admit that their race is the most violent and oppressive force of nature on Earth then we can talk.' L'Oreal said at the time: 'We support diversity and tolerance towards all people irrespective of their race, background, gender and religion. 'The LOreal Paris True Match campaign is a representation of these values and we are proud of the diversity of the Ambassadors who represent this campaign. 'We believe that the recent comments by Munroe Bergdorf are at odds with those values, and as such we have taken the decision to end the partnership with her. 'LOreal remains committed to celebrating diversity and breaking down barriers in beauty.' In this series of 'Beating All Odds', we are speaking to leaders who in the last eight weeks have fought back every challenge thrown at them by COVID-19 in order to keep their businesses going. Today, we speak to one such leader - Rajdeepak Das, MD-India, and CCO, Leo Burnett South Asia. How challenging is it for a creative person to be locked in a house and continue being creative? You have come out with so many campaigns for brands like HDFC, Oral B and Oreo during this lockdown. What's keeping you and your team motivated? How are you executing it? As a creator, the greatest freedom is not having any freedom at all, and that is exactly what's happening. When you don't have freedom, you find new ways to create things. A lot of new ways have to be invented in order to create and execute the ideas that we have. A lot of old ways that we used earlier have been shut. In a way it's great because it's forcing us to think, which is not regular, has not been done before, and is not mundane. Starting from HDFC Bank's work, which is going out and creating a small activation, which we're turning into a massive one, all over India, to creating a platform for shaadi.com, where in the first time in history, we are doing a massive amount of work. How are you organising online weddings? We are working to create a platform for shaadi.com. People wanted a platform where they could get married online. In India, Muhurat is the most important thing. Everything should happen at the right Muhurat. If the Muhurat passes, than the wedding can get postponed for months and years. Therefore, if one has a Muhurat now, they have to get married now. We started a platform for our client shaadi.com and have executed three weddings till now. The best part about the platform is that the groom and bride are in different parts of the country and take part in the rituals online. How are Hindu couples performing their Pheras? There is fire in front of the priest, the bride and the groom. Both the bride and the groom do the same thing virtually that the priest asks them to do. When we had this, we realised that the most important part of the wedding is a Pundit, Maulana, or a Priest. We thought if we can find somebody to officiate the wedding, then rest could be managed. So, we went ahead and found the holy men to officiate the weddings. A lot of people have been waiting for years to get married, or for the correct Muhurat. They met their match on shaadi.com, things were good, but suddenly the COVID-19 lockdown happened. There's always a first time for everything. Therefore, like I said, you put creative people in corner, and remove all the freedom, that's the best freedom we can have. The weddings are also getting a lot of international media attention, as it's the first time something like that is happening. Watching big fat Indian weddings being conducted online is fascinating for them. When they join us, they see things happening properly online, where all rituals are followed on both the bride's and the groom's parts and everyone partying. A proper wedding that is happening online. You really have had a fun lockdown? Yes, a very interesting lockdown is happening for us. We just finished 'Thank you Ma' for P&G corporate film. Convincing friends to act in their home is easy but for the campaign I had to find frontline workers like health workers, bank employees or police personals, who are at the frontline doing their job. We had to interview their kids how they felt about their moms working. That's the kind of emotion you can't fake. The story is between a mom and a child. The entire thing is about how despite the COVID situation, working moms are not forgetting to do all small things for children - like reminding them to wash their hands, come back on time, don't go out, do you homework etc., while doing the big things on the frontline. It's just the beauty of the motherhood, when you look at it, you wonder how they do it. So, we did a campaign 'Thank you, Ma'. The entire campaign was a big piece of work. We were experimenting one thing to figuring out what more could we do? We knew what we have. We have to create from what we have and not expect what we don't have. A lot has changed during the lockdown. Once we go back to the routine life, how will it change production and other things for creative people? What kind of long term changes do you think this period will have on the creative side of agencies? This is the new normal. If you're expecting 700 people under one roof working together, I don't think that is possible in the next one year. Today we have a combined meeting of creative team, business team and the planning team. Similarly, every week we have one meeting, where we talk about what's happening, what we should be do and everything. Recently, I got up saying that when I go back to office, I will talk about this or that, but I realised I'm not going back to office any time soon. When I go back to office, there will be 20 people. The next day there will be some other 20 people. If we are expecting everything will be fine and we are going to come out of it, then that is not going to happen. This is a new reality and we have to start executing things in this new reality. The truth is - the execution style has also changed. So, if we think that the client will spend money on production like before, the answer is no. It's simple. If the idea needs money, the idea needs money. If it doesn't make money, it doesn't need money. If I need to create something like Avatar and I have budget of Rs 5 lakh, it will look like a cheap cartoon comic strip. It will depend on what the idea needs. If your idea needs big execution, we will have to shoot, and we don't have a choice what to shoot. If the idea needs a big execution, we don't need to shoot. We are downplaying the creative industry by saying it only makes TVCs and do productions. As a creative industry, our main job is going to be as the trading platform, creating tech platforms from clients are creating a business platform for clients. I think that will be the biggest thing for us in the next one year, starting from last two months that passed to next one year, how we transform our clients businesses, not through just TVCs but other ways. Can we see something else, can we work with the CTOs, CMOs, CFOs and Field Heads and find a new way of doing it. Is there a change of conversation now when you speak to your clients? We started the same thing three to four years back - that it's all about act, it is all about creating platforms. Whether it's for Bajaj recreating the motorbike or creating a platform for India and Pakistan together on OLX, we have not stopped creating platforms. That is one of one of the biggest habits of going to client, not just with TVC, but with something that can actually change the business. Now because of the lockdown lots of businesses are going down and lot of businesses are coming up in a different way. We got a chance to work with not only CMOs, but the R&D department of five or six big brands to create such platforms. Post lockdown, I think the future is going to be interesting and beautiful. Do you think, eight weeks later there is a kind of COVID ad fatigue? I totally agree with you. And the reason is, context is everything. You can create a context but if the context is not there, then there is no use of it. Lot of COVID ads are based on simple supers and simple pictures but it is brilliantly worked for us because the context is so right. When the lockdown started and I used to meet the client, we used to present to them something and immediately after seven days we would discuss that the old idea won't work. The concept changed from fear, to normal, to hope, every day. Every week we are seeing a new trend emerging. When COVID-19 started, there was a time of negativity, but now there's a positive. That time they were talking about 3% deaths that are happening, but now we are talking about 30% recoveries that are happening. We are talking in a different language now. Now COVID-19 has become a new normal for us. Every single week, every single day, the mood and the tone is changing. So, what you are thinking now, if you don't execute today, by tomorrow, it's not relevant anymore. Because next week is a different scenario. In eight weeks of time, we actually have 10 different insights merging up every week. So the COVID theme is going to be there, but new concepts will be popping up. Maybe not the same thing that we saw, but a new angle, a new story, is going to pop out. I'm sorry, but you will have to bear with those things till COVID-19 is there, but a new angle to it always. You also have many clients who have completely shut their productions right now. What kind of suggestions are you giving to them? What kind of strategy do you have for them? Let me break it down in a simple way. This is not World War III. The infrastructures are still there. People are still there, and once situation becomes safer, people will come out. The moment safety norms comes out, we will just jump out to dine out or travel again. In a couple of days, the future is going to be safety. Whichever brand makes you feel safer, you'll go for that. That's the thing, the infrastructure already exists. We just have to change the infrastructure a little bit. I remember in Singapore there is a cover between passenger and driver. They change the cover with every passenger. So businesses are going to change. What you have to figure out is the creative solution to make the business operate, and not a creative solution to tell a story right. The infrastructure is there, that's a beautiful part of it. The infrastructure is not going to vanish, we have to just start changing things and it's going to start moving. We are recovering fast. Things have to change a little bit and the business will change a lot. You have to do what you do the best, but you have to start changing yourself. If you don't change you're dead. How has the lockdown changed you as a person and a professional? I'm a social person. I wanted to talk to people; I need to have a chat with them over tea or coffee. It is very important to me. For me meeting my creative people, business people or people in my office are the most important thing in my life. My social life is actually my office. I spend 18 hours of my day in office and it is my first home, literally. Suddenly you are away from your home and your people that you really love. You miss them, and you realize, if it happens to you, you have to have an understanding of people who are out there alone in the city, in one room, with no one to talk to, what are they will go through. You emphasize with them as a human being. I think the way I have started looking at my people has changed a lot. I have started connecting personally, with people more. You always saw the happy side but you are now seeing the human side of them. And the other thing is, you realize is what are the things you need to change in your house. When things open, Ill make sure my house is more work friendly. How have you kept your team motivated? We tried to call every day, if possible. I try to call all the young employees, alone in the city, at least once a day. If I don't call, my NCBs also call them personally and talk to them. That is on a one-to-one level. Then we come to group level. We are talking to every group. We also have lots and lots of activity happening. We're realizing that a lot of people are really creative. In advertising they're amazing, but they are also good in singers, are amazing dancers, musicians, or they cook really well. They never talked about it. I'm connecting with them on human level. As a leader you have to reach out and be accessible all the time. They are alone; you have to be with them. Read more news about (internet advertising India, internet advertising, advertising India, digital advertising India, media advertising India) A seven-year-old Afghan asylum-seeker pictured at the Fylakio reception and identification centre near the Greek-Turkish border, February 14 2020. UNHCR/Achilleas Zavallis UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is deeply concerned over government-arranged exit of some 9,000 recognized refugees from Greeces reception system which began yesterday (1 June). In the coming months another 11,000 refugees will have to transit from assistance for asylum seekers to general social welfare, once recognized as refugees by Greeces asylum authorities. A new law adopted in March 2020 reduces the grace period for recognized refugees from six months to 30 days to make a transition from organized accommodation and basic support to an independent living. The objective to make more resources and space available for asylum-seekers is well-understood, Greeces reception system is facing a shortage of places. Recognized refugees need to vacate much needed accommodation for asylum seekers waiting in crowded reception facilities on the Greek Aegean islands. Over 31,000 women, men, and children live in five island reception centres with capacity for fewer than 6,000. However, UNHCR has continuously expressed concerns that assistance for many recognized refugees is ending prematurely, before they have an effective access to employment and social welfare schemes, foreseen by Greek law. Also, UNHCR has been urging Greece to increase the national reception capacity at sites, apartments, hotels and through cash for shelter. Forcing people to leave their accommodation without a safety net and measures to ensure their self-reliance may push many into poverty and homelessness. Most of the affected refugees do not have regular income, many are families with school-aged children, single parents, survivors of violence, and others with specific needs. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and measures to reduce its spread create additional challenges by limiting peoples ability to move and find work or accommodation. Shifting a problem from the islands to the mainland is not a solution. UNHCR has been urging authorities to apply a phased approach, a higher threshold to extend assistance to vulnerable people who cannot leave at this stage. Refugee integration is a process which requires sincere efforts from refugees to become self-sufficient and give back to their host society. At the same time effective access to national schemes and integration programmes which offer language classes, vocational training, and access to gainful employment are key. Refugees are eligible for several national schemes providing minimum guaranteed income, housing support and other benefits to the most vulnerable. In practice, however, refugees face barriers in accessing support. UNHCR has proposed concrete measures to the Greek authorities and is working with the Government to promote their effective inclusion. Among those scheduled to leave their accommodation now are 4,000 refugees staying in the UNHCR-managed ESTIA accommodation scheme, funded by the European Commission. The programmes rules and eligibility are determined by the Greek government. UNHCR runs ESTIA across Greece in partnership with municipalities and NGOs, and significant joint efforts have been made to foster inclusion and empower refugees to participate in the social life of their host communities. ESTIA provides safe and dignified housing in apartments to 22,700 vulnerable asylum seekers and refugees. UNHCR welcomes HELIOS, an integration programme, funded by the European Commission and implemented by the International Organization for Migration, IOM, in coordination with Greek authorities. HELIOS can bridge crucial gaps but flexibility is needed to cover a large number of refugees who are now leaving their accommodation. We stand ready to continue assisting Greece to find solutions and address this complex situation and ensure that recognized refugees get adequate support in their ongoing transition to self-reliance. For more information on this topic, please contact: Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. The global Flexible Packaging Market is anticipated to reach $335 billion by 2026 according to a new research published by Polaris Market Research. In 2017, the food and beverage segment accounted for the highest market share in terms of revenue. Asia-Pacific is expected to be the leading contributor to the global Flexible Packaging market revenue in 2017. The increasing disposable incomes and growing demand for fast moving consumer goods drives the growth of the flexible packaging market. Growing urbanization has resulted in urban citizens spending most of their time at work and everyday commute, which has increased the demand for convenient packaging for on-the-go consumption, thereby supporting the flexible packaging market growth. Brand owners are taking initiatives to optimize packaging operations to meet the global competition, increase productivity, enhance shelf life of products, improve overall efficiency, and create brand differentiation in the market. The demand for new and unique packaging sizes, shapes and configurations has increased from industries such as food and beverages, cosmetics, and healthcare among others. The increasing need to offer convenient packaging solutions while also addressing environmental concerns has boosted the flexible packaging market growth. Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/flexible-packaging-market/request-for-sample Numerous key players have adopted partnership and acquisition strategies to increase their market share in the global flexible packaging market. For instance, In December 2015, Mondi Group signed an agreement for the acquisition of 95% of the outstanding share capital in KSP, Co. KSP is a flexible packaging company based in South Korea with strong focus on production of high-quality spouted and retort stand-up pouches for food, pet food and beverage industries. The acquisition of KSP compliments Mondis stand-up pouch operations in Korneuburg, Austria and Jackson, US while expanding its presence in U.S. and Asia. In July 2016, Mondi Group also signed an agreement to acquire Uralplastic. Uralplastic manufactures a range of consumer flexible packaging products for food, hygiene, homecare and other applications. The acquisition of Uralplastic supports the development of Mondis consumer packaging business, strengthens its presence in the Russian consumer packaging market, and expands its offerings in the flexible packaging market. Asia-Pacific generated the highest market share in terms of revenue in 2018 in the flexible packaging industry, and is expected to lead the global Flexible Packaging market throughout the forecast period. The growing population, rising disposable incomes, and increasing living standards support the growth of flexible packaging industry in the region. The increasing demand from the food and beverage, and retail industry is expected to generate numerous opportunities for the Flexible Packaging industry. Complete Summary with TOC Available @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/flexible-packaging-market The well-known companies profiled in the Flexible Packaging report include Amcor Limited, Mondi Group, Berry Plastics Corporation, Sonoco Products Company, American Packaging Corporation, Novolex Holding Inc., Bemis Company, Inc, Constantia Flexibles International GmbH, Ampac Holding, and Sigma Plastics Group. These companies launch new products and collaborate with other market leaders to innovate and launch new products to meet the increasing needs and requirements of consumers. Flexible Packaging Market Size and Forecast, 2018-2026 by Type Bags Pouches Wraps Others Flexible Packaging Market Size and Forecast, 2018-2026 by Material Paper Plastic Flexible Foam Aluminum Foil Bioplastics Others Flexible Packaging Market Size and Forecast, 2018-2026 by End-User Food and Beverage Healthcare Retail Consumer Goods Others Flexible Packaging Market Size and Forecast, 2018-2026 by Region North America U.S. Canada Mexico Europe Germany UK France Italy Rest of Europe Asia-Pacific China India Japan Rest of Asia-Pacific Latin America Brazil Middle East & Africa Avail discount on this report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/flexible-packaging-market/request-for-discount-pricing About Polaris Market Research Polaris Market Research is a global market research and consulting company. We provide unmatched quality of offerings to our clients present globally. The company specializes in providing exceptional market intelligence and in-depth business research services for our clientele spread across different enterprises. We at Polaris are obliged to serve our diverse customer base present across the industries of healthcare, technology, semi-conductors and chemicals among various other industries present around the world. We strive to provide our customers with updated information on innovative technologies, high growth markets, emerging business environments and latest business-centric applications, thereby helping them always to make informed decisions and leverage new opportunities. Contact us- Polaris Market Research Phone: 1-646-568-9980 Email: sales@polarismarketresearch.com Web: www.polarismarketresearch.com Advertisement Some 20,000 protesters last night rallied in Paris to demonstrate against the 2016 death of a young black man in French police custody, mirroring the slogans and symbols used in the George Floyd riots in the US. The protest rapidly descended into rioting, with bonfires lit in the street outside the Tribunal de Paris courthouse before police officers fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the barricaded demonstrators. They were protesting after the release of two differing medical reports into the cause of Adama Traore's death, a 24-year-old black man who died in July 2016 after three arresting officers pinned him down with their combined bodyweight. Many chanted, 'I can't breathe,' the words Floyd gasped last Monday as a white police knelt on his neck before he died in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Floyd's death has sparked anarchy in the US and outrage across the globe. Riot police fired tear gas as scattered protesters pelted them with debris and set fires outside the courthouse and in defiance of coronavirus restrictions, thousands gathered at the Boulevard Peripherique, the ring road around the French capital, where they blocked terrified motorists and clambered onto lorries. Scroll down for video. A demonstrator raises his fists in front of a burning barricade as thousands flocked to the Tribunal de Paris courthouse on Tuesday night and clashed with police over the killing of Adama Traore, a 24-year-old black Frenchman of Malian origin who died in July 2016 after three officers pinned him down with their combined bodyweight Demonstrators in Paris follow suit with those rioting in the United States as they 'take a knee' in front of a bonfire raging in the street last night. They were protesting after the release of two differing medical reports into the cause of Adama Traore's death, a 24-year-old black man who died in July 2016 after three arresting officers pinned him down with their combined bodyweight. Demonstrators during a rally in Paris, France, on June 2020, protesting against the death of Adama Traore. Many of the protesters drew inspiration from the protest movement in the United States over the police killing last week of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, brandishing placards in English such as 'Black Lives Matter' and 'I can't breathe' Demonstrators during a rally in Paris, France, on June 2020, protesting against police brutality. Riot police fired tear gas as scattered protesters pelted them with debris and set fires outside the Tribunal de Paris courthouse, at the tail-end of a demonstration against racial injustice and heavy-handed police tactics. With the demonstration winding down, police fired tear gas and protesters could be seen throwing debris. Two small fires broke out, and green and grey barriers surrounding a construction site were knocked over Several thousand people had previously rallied peacefully for two hours outside the courthouse as global outrage over the death of George Floyd in the Minnesota kindled frustrations across borders and continents Violence erupted in Paris tonight after thousands of demonstrators turned up at a banned protest against alleged racist policing in support of two black men separately killed in police custody Riot police wielding shields attempt to push rioters back last night. 'Gangs are getting on to the road and stopping the traffic too,' said a demonstrator at the scene. 'The fires are huge - it's getting very ugly indeed.' Heavily armoured officers guard the streets of Paris last night as a bonfire burns in the street after protests over police brutality Huge crowds turned up undeterred by the police warning, and by 9.30pm fires had been lit underneath the Boulevard Peripherique, the ring road around the French capital The junction outside the Timhotel was left filled with tear gas after the protests soon unravelled into rioting, with demonstrators lighting bonfires and clashing with officers Projectiles including fireworks were also being thrown at the police, who estimated the crowd number at 20,000. 'Gangs are getting on to the road and stopping the traffic too,' said a demonstrator at the scene. 'The fires are huge - it's getting very ugly indeed.' With the demonstration winding down, police fired tear gas and protesters could be seen throwing debris. Two small fires broke out, and green and grey barriers surrounding a construction site were knocked over. Tensions also erupted at a related protest in the southern city of Marseille. French protests sometimes degenerate into violence by a few rowdy demonstrators. Demonstrators block the Paris bypass last night, leaving terrified motorists trapped in their vehicles as they clambered onto lorries and chanted slogans Demonstrators hold placards including one with the face of George Floyd drawn on it, the African-American who died last week in police custody in Minneapolis People run from tear gas as they attend a banned demonstration planned in memory of Adama Traore, a 24-year-old black Frenchman who died in a 2016 police operation which some have linked to the death of George Floyd in the United States People attend a banned demonstration planned in memory of Adama Traore on Tuesday night, many of them wearing masks to protect against the coronavirus In a sign of solidarity, demonstrations were also held in other French cities in honour of Traore, who died shortly after his arrest in 2016, and in solidarity with Americans demonstrating against Floyd's death. The Traore case has become emblematic of the fight against police brutality in France. The circumstances of the death of the 24-year-old Frenchman of Malian origin are still under investigation after four years of conflicting medical reports about what happened. Mr Traore had run away from a police check in Beaumont-sur-Oise, a town north of Paris, and hours later died at a nearby police station. The vague circumstances of the incident have led to allegations of a state cover-up, and his family have been fighting for justice ever since. Security forces intervene in a protest against police brutality at the 'Tribunal de Paris' courthouse on Tuesday night Security forces use tear gas as they intervene in a protest against police brutality at the 'Tribunal de Paris' courthouse Thousands of people gathered to protest against racism and police brutality despite a police order that the protest not proceed due to coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions. The protesters decried the 2016 death of Adama Traore while in police custody in the Paris suburbs, drawing comparisons to the recent killing of George Floyd in the US A bonfire burns on the streets of Paris last night after thousands took to the streets over the death of Traore in 2016, which has become a symbol of police brutality against black people, like Floyd in the United States Bonfires burn in the street outside the central Paris courthouse last night as demonstrators raged against the death of Traore in 2016 Traffic is blocked on the streets of Paris last night as a bonfire, using a rubbish bin and its contents as fuel, burns in the street A protester at the scene last night rides his bike in front of a bonfire in scenes like those which have erupted in the US over the last week Protesters are seen rushing around the streets of Paris last night as riot police attempted to quell the unrest They say he died from asphyxiation caused by officers, while police claim Mr Traore died from a heart attack due to pre-existing medical condition. In a new video message posted on social media on Tuesday, Mr Traore's sister, Assa Traore, said people should show their anger 'at a time when the world, when France is outraged by the death of George Floyd'. She said both Mr Traore and Mr Floyd 'had used the same words, their last words: 'I can't breathe, I can't breathe,' and said medical experts working for the police were releasing reports that were 'racist and untrue'. The lawyer for two of the three police officers involved in Traore's arrest, Rodolphe Bosselut, said the Floyd and Traore cases 'have strictly nothing to do with each other.' Bosselut also alleged that Traore's death wasn't linked with the conditions of his arrest but other factors, including a pre-existing medical condition. Traore's family continue to say he died from asphyxiation because of police tactics. There have been frequent complaints about racist violence carried out by the French police, particularly in incidents involving young black men, or those from Arab backgrounds. In 2017, four officers were accused of anally violating a 22-year-old called Theo Luhaka with a telescopic truncheon, causing him lifelong injuries, in the Paris suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois. It comes as police also face criminal charges for a series of allegedly racist attacks as they enforced curfews and other tough law and order measures during the Coronavirus crisis. A water cannon extinguishes a fire after clashes erupt following the intervention of security forces in a protest against police brutality at the 'Tribunal de Paris' courthouse The protest was originally planned for Tuesday evening by supporters of Adama Traore, a 24-year-old black Frenchman of Malian origin who died in similar circumstances to Mr Floyd in July 2016 But Didier Lallement, the Paris police prefect, said it could not go ahead because of Coronavirus restrictions on public demonstrations that forbid any gathering of more than 10 people Tensions also erupted at a related protest in the southern city of Marseille. French protests sometimes degenerate into violence by a few rowdy demonstrators In a sign of solidarity, demonstrations were also held in several French cities in honour of Traore, who died shortly after his arrest in 2016, and in solidarity with Americans demonstrating against Floyd's death. There have been frequent complaints about racist violence carried out by the French police, particularly in incidents involving young black men, or those from Arab backgrounds Prosecutors opened an enquiry in April after a 30-year-old motorcyclist from an Arab Muslim background was critically injured following a collision with an unmarked police car in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, which is less than 10 miles from central Paris. This led to emergency workers including police becoming the target of rioters, who threw rocks and fireworks. Diplomatic ire percolated too, with the European Union's top foreign policy official saying the bloc was 'shocked and appalled' by Floyd's death. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell's remarks in Brussels were the strongest to come out of the 27-nation bloc, saying Floyd's death was a result of an abuse of power. Protests over the killing have escalated worldwide, with protestor all across Europe sending their solidarity with US demonstrators increasingly mixed with local worries A female protestor holds up a sign reading 'Who do you call when the police murders' in reference to George Floyd and Adama Traore, black men who both died in police custody Streets surrounding Paris' largest courthouse were close down by the protestors, who later spilled into the traffic as the event ended Riot police are seen sealing off a road with police vans as a pile of debris including a bicycle and railings burn in the middle of the road Borrell told reporters that 'like the people of the United States, we are shocked and appalled by the death of George Floyd.' He underlined that Europeans 'support the right to peaceful protest, and also we condemn violence and racism of any kind, and for sure, we call for a de-escalation of tensions.' Protests over the killing have escalated worldwide, with protestor all across Europe sending their solidarity with US demonstrators increasingly mixed with local worries. 'When you refuse to treat the problem of racism ... it leads to what we see in the United States,' said Dominique Sopo, head of French activist group SOS Racisme. 'The case of George Floyd echoes what we fear in France.' Floyd died last week after a police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes even after he stopped moving and pleading for air. The death set off protests that spread across America - and now, beyond. CII annual event: PM Modi calls for cut in imports; says export more India oi-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, June 02: Prime Minister Narendra Modi who attended Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)'s 125th anniversary annual general meeting, said that one of our topmost priorities to strengthen the economy amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. PM Modi assures India Inc that growth will be back, stresses self-reliance | Oneindia News Indian economy is hit hard by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, with last year's GDP growth falling to a mere 3.1%, fiscal deficit overshooting the target by 80 basis points, and this fiscal year's GDP expected to shrink. PM Modi said that online events are likely to become new normal. He said,''As the country remians under a lockdown due to coronavirus, events and meetings have gone online. Today, on the one hand we've to save lives of our countrymen & on the other hand, we've to stabilize country's economy. In this situation, CII has started the talk of "Getting Growth Back"& I congratulate all the people of Indian industry for this.'' Narendra Modi still ahead in most popular PM race, Naveen Patnaik is top CM says CVoter survey Speaking at the CII event, PM Modi said that India will definitely get the growth back. Stating that India will get its growth back, PM Modi said that he is confident India will be on growth trajectory soon becuase of its entrepreneurs, industry leaders. Modi also congratulated CII for completing 125 years since inception. 'It is a very big thing to be in existence for 125 long years. You must have faced many challenges along the way.' ''We have to save lives from coronavirus, but on the other hand, we also have to stabilise and speed up the economy. It is one of our topmost priorities to strengthen the economy amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. We have taken several decisions which will help the economy in the long run'', he added. PM Modi has said that five things are utmost important to make India a self-reliant economy. These are Intent, Inclusion, Investment, Infrastructure and Innovation. ''We have made decisions to make our economy and sectors future-ready. Our reforms are not scattered; rather, our reforms are planned, futuristic. For us, reforms mean taking it to the logical conclusion,'' Modi said. 'Now the government is doing things for which people had given up all hopes. We are also undertaking labour reforms, as well as agriculture reforms. 9 strategic sectors opened up where private industries were not allowed earlier'. -- PM Modi Explaining government's efforts for MSMEs, Modi said,''MSMEs will be able to grow without any concerns or fears. Now our MSMEs will not have to find 'other ways' to keep their 'MSME' status. The industry's demand for updating MSME definition for a very long time. This demand is now fulfilled.'' Modi said that now the industry has a clear path - self-reliant India. "This means that we embrace the world with even more strength. Self-reliant India will be integrated more with the global ecosystem," he said. ;;Self-reliant India is about -- Strong enterprises; generating employment; empowering people to come out and find solutions. Now, the need is that we make those products that are made in India, but made for the world. We have to cut our imports,'' says PM Modi. The virtual online meeting at the annual session of the CII assumes significance as companies are resuming operations after the government has allowed gradual phasing out of the lockdown. The CII is an industry association in India and is completing 125 years of its journey this year. Founded in 1895, CII has more than 9100 members, from the private as well as public sectors, including SMEs and MNCs, and an indirect membership of over 300,000 enterprises from 291 national and regional sectoral industry bodies. Rioters set fire to a Wells fargo bank across the street from the Minneapolis Police 5th Precinct during the fourth night of protests and violence following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Rioters Set Fire to Home With Child Inside, Block Firefighters From Reaching Scene Rioters set fire to a multi-family residence in Virginia Sunday night while people, including a child, were inside the home, Richmond Police Chief Will Smith said at a press conference. Protesters intentionally set a fire to an occupied building on Broad Street, Smith said Sunday in an emotional speech. This is not the only occupied building that has been set fire to in the last two days. Protesters prevented fire crews, who alerted the Richmond Police Department, from reaching the scene. Protesters intercepted that fire apparatus several blocks away with vehicles and blocked that fire departments access to the structure fire, Smith said. Inside that home was a child, he said, holding back tears as he detailed what happened that night. Officials were able to help the people and the child safely exit the burning home after the fire crew and police managed to breach the protesters and clear the path, he continued. Chief William C. Smith comments on a challenging situation during last nights protests in #RVA. You can watch the rest of this @CityRichmondVA press conference here: https://t.co/jvzqcaRA3i pic.twitter.com/LCHrIIAeM2 Richmond Police (@RichmondPolice) May 31, 2020 They prohibited us from getting on scene, Smith said. We had to force our way to make a clear path for the fire department. Smith and Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney denounced the violent actions of some rioters, who they say were using the George Floyd protests to cause violence and destruction. When you take a legitimate issue and hijack it for unknown reasons, that is unacceptable to me, its unacceptable to the Richmond Police Department, unacceptable to the city of Richmond, Smith said. The past two nights Ive been disappointedpeaceful protest was hijacked by people who do not care about our city, Stoney wrote on Twitter. Protestors demonstrate outside of a burning fast food restaurant, Friday, May 29, 2020, in Minneapolis. (John Minchillo/AP photo) Smith as well as Stoney said they believe many of the violent rioters travel from outside of the city to disrupt the peaceful protests. We have people from across the country who have traveled many states to be here. We know that this is an organized effort, Smith said. Sunday night protests marked the second night in the Virginian city over George Floyds death, a black man who died on May 25 after a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest. The officer, Derek Chauvin, was arrested last week. He has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Chauvin was held at Ramsey County Jail before being taken to the Hennepin County Jail on Sunday. At least five people have been killed and dozens injured so far across the United States as demonstrations turned violent. National Guard troops were deployed in 15 states and Washington in an attempt to quell the violence. The Associated Press contributed to this report. From NTD News Shamar Betts is being held in custody at the Champaign County Jail until his trial, which is currently scheduled to begin in February. Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program Offer for Information to Bring Venezuelan National to Justice Press Statement Michael R. Pompeo, Secretary of State June 1, 2020 Today the U. S. Department of State announces a reward for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Venezuelan national Joselit de la Trinidad Ramirez Camacho for participating in transnational organized crime. The Venezuelan people deserve a government that they have chosen freely and whose officials do not conspire with associates to engage in crimes of theft from the people of Venezuela, including money laundering to hide the proceeds of those illicit activities. The United States is committed to helping Venezuelans restore their democracy through free and fair presidential elections that will provide them with honest and capable national leadership. The Department is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Joselit de la Trinidad Ramirez Camacho for participating in transnational organized crime. While holding public positions in the Venezuelan regime, Ramirez Camacho violated the public trust by conspiring to launder illicit funds obtained in Venezuela. Ramirez Camacho, the current National Superintendent of Cryptoactive and Related Activities in the Maduro regime, was charged by indictment, along with former Venezuelan Vice-President Tareck El-Aissami, in the Southern District of New York with several transnational crimes, including money laundering. This reward offer is made under the Department of State's Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program (TOCRP). Together with the Narcotics Rewards Program, more than 75 major narcotics traffickers have been brought to justice since these programs began in 1986. The Department of State has paid more than $130 million in rewards for information leading to those apprehensions. The Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs manages these rewards programs in close coordination with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Homeland Security Investigations (ICE/HSI), and other U.S. agencies. These actions demonstrate the State Department's commitment to support law enforcement efforts and a whole of government approach to combating transnational organized crime. For more information on the individuals listed above and the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program, please see https://www.state.gov/joselit-de-la-trinidad-ramirez-camacho-wanted/ or contact INL-PAPD@state.gov NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android. Everything has hit at once. The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 100,000 people in the United States and put the stark inequality of American life on full display. The economic fallout has put millions of Americans out of work. And the brutal, on-camera killing of George Floyd, an African-American man, by a Minneapolis police officer has sparked mass protests in cities across the country. Tens of thousands of Americans have marched, and are marching, against police brutality and the political system that allows it to thrive. Everywhere there are scenes of a society at the breaking point: of angry protesters and destructive demonstrations; of police forces that have unleashed nearly unrestrained violence on those in the streets, in an apparent effort to prove the point of their most militant critics; of governors calling the National Guard to try to regain control of their cities. The sheer scale and reach of the unrest the extent to which it seems to represent a crisis of legitimacy as much as a reaction to police violence has invited comparisons to 1968, the year in which much of America was rocked by protests and riots of even greater scale and destruction. And as The New York Times reports, President Trumps advisers are among those making the comparison: Some in the presidents circle see the escalations as a political boon, much in the way Richard M. Nixon won the presidency on a law-and-order platform after the 1968 riots. One adviser to Mr. Trump, who insisted on anonymity to describe private conversations, said images of widespread destruction could be helpful to the law-and-order message that Mr. Trump has projected since his 2016 campaign. The immediate reason to discount a political analogy between then and now between Nixon and Trump is that Trump isnt a challenger to the incumbent president; he is the incumbent. And whereas Nixons law and order was a contrast with and rebuke to Lyndon Johnson and the Democratic Party, a Trump attempt to play the hits and recapitulate that campaign would only be an attack on his own tenure. You cant promise law and order when disorder is happening on your watch. T housands more London children returned to school today but the situation across the capital is patchy with the majority in some areas waiting until next week before reopening. About 90 per cent of schools in some London boroughs including Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea are open today, but in some including Ealing, Haringey and Tower Hamlets most will not reopen until next week at the earliest. There is also confusion over when other primary year groups will return, with the Governments aim of having all primary children at school for a month before the summer holidays now said to be under review. It comes as Victoria Playford, head of the Mulberry House school in West Hampstead, warned that schools must be careful not to frighten young children with strict social-distancing rules. Her school reopened yesterday with 66 per cent of eligible children returning. They were welcomed by an arch of colourful balloons on the school gate. She said schools should still be places of fun, and warned too strict rules could damage childrens relationships with others. Childrens charity Coram is also calling for more emphasis on emotional and social wellbeing. Mrs Playford, said: School should be safe, yes, but it should also be exciting, fun and full of challenges and opportunities. Let us not forget that. I am concerned that we need to get these very impressionable young children back into a routine as soon as possible which does not involve frightening them about a pandemic and allowing them to become institutionalised. The social distancing message is important but so are their relationships with others. Ginny Lunn, director of education and early years at Coram, a charity which helps vulnerable children and their families, said: Children wont be returning to a normal school environment. They will need time to adjust to this transition period, to feel safe and to re-build relationships with their teachers and fellow pupils. The new safety rules include limiting contact between groups of children, staggered lunchtimes and drop-off times, no soft toys and more handwashing. TODO: define component type apester In some areas, some schools have found a lack of demand from parents. Parents will not be fined and schools will not be held to account for absences. Loading.... A poll by the National Governance Association found that three in four governors said it was unlikely that pupils would be back for a full month before the summer. Megan Rafuse relished the start of quarantine. She was experimenting with new recipes, nurturing a sourdough starter and spending more time with her fiance. Around four weeks into lockdown, the clinical therapist and co-founder of Shift Collab threw in the kitchen towel. I was trying to keep my business afloat while struggling to keep up cooking as well, says the Hamilton resident. My meals didnt look like my friends on Instagram. The dishes were always piling up. Cooking was suddenly very overwhelming. Rafuse isnt the only one hitting a wall. Since the COVID-19 pandemic forced us home, quarantine fatigue has been a draining side effect. Now mealtimes have multiplied three-fold and trips to the grocery store are ridden with anxiety. The initially exciting resurgence of home cooking has returned to what it simply wasa daily chore. I find you are either in the mood to cook because youre emotionally eating or you are so spent you cant clean another dish, says Kyla Zanardi, co-founder of Fidel Gastros, a street food brand in Toronto. Five weeks into being home I grew tired of whipping up three hot meals a day. In fact, I stopped turning on the stove altogether. Lets have a picnic lunch, Id tell my quarantine partner, setting out the cured meats, condiments and bread to make sandwiches. Soon, that was the norm. My fatigue has more to do with the planning and procuring ingredients rather than the cooking, says chef Vanessa Yeung, owner of Aphrodite Cooks, a catering company and cooking studio in Toronto. Theres also this expectation that youre supposed to be super productive in quarantineclean out your spice drawer, make sourdough breadbut realistically, we just need to go back to basics and eat to nourish ourselves. Yeung cooks mostly from scratch, but stocks up on store-bought items, such as chicken nuggets and deli meats, for convenience. Not all meals have to be fancy, says the mother of two. Somedays it could just be soup or a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner. If your supermarket has good roast chicken, grab one and use it in a burrito or a pasta dish. The bones can be used to make soup later. With COVID-19-induced panic-buying cleaning out shelves of fresh ingredients, I turned to canned goods for reprieve. From pantry to table, we were eating in minutes. A no-cook lunch featured preserved sardines tossed in olive oil, lemon juice and fresh herbs on buttered toast. Baked beans just needed re-heating for a hearty breakfast or brunch. One-pot meals are a timesaver for Candice Cardoz, mother of triplet boys in Brampton. She leans on the Instant Pot to serve up rice-based casseroles, soups and stewsno sides or extra dirty dishes to contend with. Making large batches of oven-roasted vegetables is another shortcut, which she uses for tacos and salads. I do a lot of picnic meals, she adds. Its usually some leftover meat, shredded, served along with crackers, a variety of vegetables, cheese, nuts, and so on. I put them into a silicon muffin container, so each of the kids gets their own mini buffet. Grazing suppers are a go-to for Rafuse as well, who puts out charcuterie or hummus and vegetables for low-maintenance sustenance. On Thursday we get take-out, she says. We celebrate date night by not cooking and support local restaurants. Rafuse has also found relief from the COVID-19 cooking fog by applying flexibility to food-related tasks. On grocery shopping day she avoids prepping an elaborate dinner. Sometimes, grubby dishes are dealt with the following morning. I see how much bandwidth I have, she says. If I put a big effort into one out of every five meals and the other four are just to nourish myselfthats fine. Not every dinner has to be a winner, says Zanardi. At the onset of lockdown, she and her partner, Matt Basile, turned to their Italian roots for comfort indulging in more pasta than usual. To maintain the cooking momentum, Basile, the founder of Fidel Gastros, channeled his professional culinary skills into their home kitchen. Meals are planned two to three days in advance, he says. We rotate items in the fridge and put things that need to be cooked sooner at eye level. Dinner is based on what is going to go first. Basile is optimistic warm weather will get Canadians excited about cooking again, especially since its barbecuing season. Being able to cook outside and the change of scenery will open up peoples appetite to try different things, he says. Rafuse agrees. Its less like cooking and more of a social outing. For now, she has chosen baking sourdough bread as her sole quarantine project. And when de-motivated, Rafuse reminds herself we are trying to survive in a crisis. Many of us are grieving and dealing with a new normal, whether it is being laid off, a change in finances, working from home..., she says. I had to reframe the idea of cooking through the lens of a pandemic. Its less about the perfect meal and more about self-care and nourishment. Hotel security guard arrested in Cancun Hotel Zone murder Cancun, Q.R. Cancun police say they have arrested Miguel J for a murder that occurred in the Cancun Hotel Zone May 29. In a press release, the Office of the Attorney General of the State of Quintana Roo reported his detainment after obtaining an arrest warrant. Police from the homicide unit say that Miguel J was with the now deceased, identified only as E.J.S.G.U., in a hotel room located at kilometer 13.5 of the Kukulcan Boulevard, moments before his death. They say that EJSGU had been living in the hotel for a year and a half. He was found deceased inside his room on the morning of May 29. The defendant, Miguel J, worked as a security guard at the hotel. Although the detainee attempted an alibi noting that on the dawn of the events, armed men entered the accommodation center, the evidence collected was sufficient to implicate him in the murder. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler addressed the city Tuesday morning after a fourth night of large-scale protests prompted by the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed by police in Minneapolis last week, but he declined to extend the curfew thats been imposed on the city for the last several nights. Wheeler also said his request to Gov. Kate Brown to deploy the National Guard in Portland over the weekend had been mischaracterized by the governor, who said on Monday the mayor had asked her to put troops in direct confrontation with protesters. Wheeler said he never suggested National Guard troops would be on the front lines doing crowd control, just to protect property in a supportive role. Unlike the previous three protests, which devolved into vandalism and looting, Mondays demonstration remained largely peaceful as thousands packed Pioneer Courthouse Square to denounce police brutality. Wheeler called the change in tone a significant shift and said he would not extend the city-wide curfew for Tuesday night. What we are witnessing is a truly extraordinary moment in history, he said. People coming together, united, to support our black community in ways that we have never seen before. Despite the fact that the Monday night crowds were in violation of a citywide curfew imposed by Wheeler after protests turned violent over the weekend, the protesters met no resistance from Portland police. Officers did cordon off a large swath of the downtown core including the Multnomah County Justice Center and the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse, which had been heavily vandalized previously. Throughout Monday nights protest, which stretched on for hours, speakers encouraged those within their ranks to stop anyone from vandalism or violence. If you see something, say something, one said in relation to broken windows and looting. The crowd met any attempts at destruction with shouts of peaceful protest! More photos of Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square tonight. "The only attempts at any kind of destruction Ive seen have immediately been shut down with shouts of 'peaceful protest!' from the crowd at large." report/photos via @killendave pic.twitter.com/JjAfsEtBkT The Oregonian (@Oregonian) June 2, 2020 Shortly before midnight, about 100 protesters were gathered downtown at Southwest Fourth Avenue and Salmon Street, according to police. Some of them began throwing things at officers, including glass bottles and rocks, police said, and one officer was injured. At least a dozen adults were arrested Monday night into Tuesday morning and the police used unspecified crowd control munitions to get them to disperse. Information about those arrested wasnt immediately available. At a news conference earlier in the day, Wheeler revealed he had asked Gov. Kate Brown to deploy the Oregon National Guard over the weekend, but the governor had instead suggested an alternative strategy: increasing the presence of Oregon State Police in the states largest city. On Monday afternoon, Brown said she would send state troopers and a small contingent of National Guard troops, who would be unarmed and would work in a supportive capacity to protect property, to Portland. This post will be updated. -- Kale Williams; kwilliams@oregonian.com; 503-294-4048; @sfkale Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. He recently insisted his blond hair is 'completely natural.' And Richard Madeley was proudly displaying his lightened hair as he headed to the butchers in Hampstead, North London on Tuesday. The presenter, 64, cut a casual figure as he picked up some meat during the outing before heading back to his white Volkswagon Beetle. Casual: Richard Madeley, 64, proudly displayed his 'completely natural' blond locks as he headed to the butchers in Hampstead on Tuesday Richard sported a low-key ensemble as he headed to the butchers in the warm sunshine, teaming a white t-shirt and blue denim shorts. The Good Morning Britain stand-in was seen carrying his bag of meat back to the car, before taking a sip of water and driving off. Richard proudly displayed his natural blond hair as he also carried a newspaper back to the car, ready to enjoy the rest of the day at home with wife Judy, 71. Relaxed: The presenter cut a casual figure in a simple white t-shirt and denim shorts as he headed out in the warm weather Richard has been sporting a luscious head of golden locks of late, and recently claimed that his hair colour is all natural. He confirmed once and for all that his blond locks were 'completely natural' following speculation that he had bleached them for his return to TV. When speaking to The Mirror, Richard said: 'It is completely natural, nothing to do with a bottle. You don't have to believe me, but it's true. If I was dyeing my hair I'm sure it would go green, I wouldn't know how to do it.' Errands: Richard headed to buy some meat during the coronavirus lockdown displaying his bouncy golden locks which he recently insisted were 'completely natural' Richard also revealed that reading is what's kept him and his wife Judy Finnigan, 71, from getting 'snappy' during the coronavirus lockdown. The couple recently made a surprise return to TV screens to host their new book show, Keep Reading and Carry on. The couple have established themselves as credible critics with book fans thanks to their longstanding book club. When asked by the publication why reading plays an important role in the marriage, Richard said the timeout it provides stops them getting 'snappy' with one another. He shared: 'In all marriages, things can occasionally get tense, and you can get a bit snappy with each other, especially if you're together 24/7.' However, the broadcaster shared that they work so well together because they're so comfortable with each other. Off he goes: After collecting his purchases, Richard was seen heading back to his parked Volkswagon Beetle Keeping cool: The Good Morning Britain stand-in presenter took a sip of water before driving home in the motor The husband and wife duo fronted This Morning between 1988 and 2001 and returned to the ITV breakfast show earlier this year to fill in for Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford. There return was met with praise from viewers who clearly see how at ease they are presenting together. When describing his wife, Richard shared: 'For my money, Judy's still the best female presenter in the UK, she is so able and versatile. But of all the presenters I know she was always the most reluctant one, she didn't enjoy the fame thing at all.' He also said he is not worried about the lockdown restrictions forcing Judy to isolate longer than him due to being over 70 as it should, in his opinion, fall to the individual to make their own choices. Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg held a last-minute town hall Tuesday to address mounting outrage among employees who believe the company should take action on a controversial post by President Donald Trump. Trump last week tweeted that "when the looting begins, the shooting begins," which many people interpreted as a call for violence in nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd. Twitter put a warning label over the tweet, flagging it as violent content that broke the company's policies but was being left up because it was newsworthy. Facebook declined to take any action on a similar post on its site. In response, dozens of Facebook employees participated in a virtual walkout on Monday, and many more expressed outrage in internal forums and on Twitter. At least two employees have resigned, according to public posts and tweets and conversations with workers. "Open and honest discussion has always been a part of Facebook's culture," spokesperson Liz Bourgeois said in a statement. "Mark had an open discussion with employees today, as he has regularly over the years. He's grateful for their feedback." During the town hall, Zuckerberg did not back down from his decision to keep up the post, as many employees had hoped, according to several workers who were listening but declined to provide their names for fear of retribution. At least five people have died in nationwide protests that began this weekend. Thousands more have been tear-gassed and injured. Facebook's policy says it removes language that incites or facilitates serious violence. At the town hall, Zuckerberg defended his decision that the post did not constitute a policy violation, as he personally walked employees through different interpretations of Trump's language. But the CEO said he would begin to review the transparency of the processes around how pieces of content get escalated to senior managers. He also said that he would be open to reviewing how the company handles content around state violence, a nod to the growing use of force at the protests. Zuckerberg's personal involvement in the decision is characteristic of the way he has handled controversial policy choices over the last several years, since the social network has been in a state of crisis over accusations of Russian meddling and the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal. His leadership style contrasts with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who tends to delegate policy decisions to his deputies. Zuckerberg also made the decision not to take down a video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that was manipulated to make her appear drunk. He made a personal call not to fact check political advertising, despite frustration from the public and from employees, according to a person familiar with the decision-making. Historically, both Facebook and Twitter have been hands off when it came to political speech, exempting it from policy violations because it is newsworthy. But Twitter has recently pivoted from its long-held stance. The company has decided to fact check politicians and to label their commentary with a warning when it breaks the service's policies, as it did for the first time with Trump last week. Twitter first fact-checked a Trump tweet with misleading information about mail-in ballots. Twitter's decision was celebrated in liberal Silicon Valley. Facebook, on the other hand, has doubled down in the direction of free speech, with Zuckerberg reiterating the point in speeches and public statements last year. Two of the people who attended the town hall said Zuckerberg's suggestions seemed like minor concessions that did not appear to appease the many angry employees, some of whom repeatedly pointed out in questions that very few black people were attending the town hall. The decisions at Facebook have prompted at least two employees to publicly resign. Timothy Aveni, a software engineer according to his Facebook page, said in a public resignation letter that he was disappointed in Zuckerberg's leadership. "Mark always told us that he would draw the line at speech that calls for violence," Aveni wrote. "He showed us on Friday that this was a lie. Facebook will keep moving the goalposts every time Trump escalates, finding excuse after excuse not to act on increasingly dangerous rhetoric." Twitter's decision to flag two of Trump's erroneous tweets last week for the first time prompted the president to lash back, signing an executive order that called for reexamining a law that has helped shield tech giants from liability for content posted on their sites. On Tuesday, Washington-based advocacy group Center for Democracy and Technology, which is supported by Facebook, Google and Twitter, filed a lawsuit alleging the executive order threatens to "curtail and chill constitutionally protected speech" across the web. Throughout the weekend, Facebook employees used the company's internal chat system to question not only Trump's tweets but a handful of others tweets by politicians that appeared to encourage violence, including by Florida GOP Congressman Matt Gaetz, which Twitter also labeled. Several protesters were arrested and a police officer was injured during a melee in Asbury Park Monday at the end of a protest prompted by the police killing of George Floyd a week ago in Minnesota. The protest had been peaceful for four hours after the 5 p.m. start, with officers from multiple nearby departments at times kneeling with the demonstrators in support. As the night wore on, protesters had heated verbal exchanges with officers outside the police department headquarters. Tensions arose when officers in riot gear, at around 9:30 p.m., began attempting to physically disperse the remaining 200 or so protesters outside the department, in keeping with an 8 p.m. curfew announced earlier in the day by Asbury Park officials. Officers yelled back up and time to go while approaching protesters who chanted no justice, no peace. A smaller group continued walking down Bangs Avenue past the post office as an advancing police line followed. Some demonstrators threw rocks at the police. Several protesters were arrested a police officer was taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune with a head injury. Other officers rushed him from the scene with a bloody head wound. It was not immediately clear how he was injured. A reporter for the Asbury Park Press, Gustavo Martinez Contreras, was arrested while streaming a video on Twitter of police clearing the street, the newspaper reported. NJ Advance Media journalists also witnessed the arrest. While filming the arrest of a protester, an officer approached Martinez Contreras and yelled, youre under arrest and get your f---ing hands behind your back," the video shows. He later tweeted that he was released from custody after being issued a summons. I was arrested during the protest against police brutality in Asbury Park earlier tonight. I was just released from the Belmar PD headquarters with a summons for failing to obey an order to disperse. Gustavo Martinez (@newsguz) June 2, 2020 It was at least the third New Jersey protest over the killing of Floyd that started out peacefully, only to turn confrontational at night. Dozens of other protests were held throughout the state over the weekend without incident. Atlantic City and Trenton imposed curfews starting Monday, after peaceful protests in both cities on Sunday afternoon were followed by looting and damage in the evening. Gustavo Martinez Contreras, a reporter for the Asbury Park Press, is taken into police custody during the protest Monday June 1, 2020.Andrew Mills | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Photo courtesy of Pune City Connect "Hopefully this program will give our incredible frontline caregivers the ability to keep their focus on healthcare while we provide flexible options for food. Keeping them fed and safe is of huge importance, said Mary VanMinde, Executive Director of the RSL Foundation. Innovecture LLC, a Global Technology Services and Products company, announced their monetary donations for local charities to assist their communities during the Covid-19 pandemic. Understanding how fortunate they have been, in addition to more than 100 employees, wish to help others who need assistance at this time. The local charities who have received the donations are: Feeding Our Frontline, Utah Food Bank and United Food Bank (Arizona) in the United States, and Pune City Connect (GivingGene) in India. "Thank you very much for your generous contribution towards our COVID-19 relief efforts for low income communities affected by the lockdown. Your immediate response helped us swing into action and respond quickly to the crisis," said Pune City Connect. The current state of affairs is frustrating to some and downright scary for others. We have been fortunate to see some light at the end of the tunnel and our staff has taken an opportunity to share this hopefulness with others. To support and celebrate their generosity, Innovecture has matched our employees contributions to these wonderful local charities. We thank everyone who has taken an opportunity to extend a helping hand and make this time a little less scary for some, said Thayne Martin, VP Operations at Innovecture. Utah Food Bank is so appreciative to Innovecture for choosing us as the recipient of their employees fundraiser. We believe in the importance of communities coming together to support fellow Utahns facing hunger and are grateful for the incredible support we receive, said Heidi Cannella, Communications Director at Utah Food Bank. We are so happy for the support from our employees who are willing to help others during this time of need! At Innovecture, we understand how fortunate we have been and feel the importance of assisting our local communities. We would encourage other able businesses to do the same, to make a difference in the lives of local families and healthcare workers. We offer thanks to the brave people working the front lines to keep us safe during this COVID-19 Pandemic! said Jamie Irwin, Office Manager at Innovecture. ABOUT INNOVECTURE Established in 2007, Innovecture is a Global Technology and Management consultancy company, providing consulting, technology and research services to clients around the world. With a major focus on the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector, Innovecture has an impressive global presence in providing strategic technology solutions and architecture that enhances the business goals of our clients. Innovecture has been recognized multiple times as a MWCN Utah 100 and Inc. 5000 fastest growing companies. Innovecture has been privileged to be a major contributor in digital transformation projects for several Fortune 500 BFSI clients. For more information, visit https://www.innovect.com or find the company on LinkedIn. Media Contact For questions regarding this press release or for more information, e-mail Innovecture at jamie.irwin@innovect.com or call at 801-495-7050. After two months, Saudi Arabia has eased restrictions on mosques. Physical distancing and face masks remain mandatory. The elderly, children and the chronically ill are still banned. Sermons and prayers by clerics cannot exceed 15 minutes. Riyadh (AsiaNews/Agencies) After more than two months, mosques in Saudi Arabia opened their doors for the first time this weekend. This follows the decision by the kingdom's authorities to ease lockdown restrictions imposed to contain the COVID- 19 pandemic. It is great to feel the mercy of God and once again call people for prayers at mosques instead of at their homes, said Abdulmajeed al-Mohaisen, who issues the call to prayer at Al-Rajhi Mosque, one of the largest in the Saudi capital of Riyadh. At dawn, early worshippers headed to mosques, wearing protective masks and personal prayer mats, avoiding handshakes and staying two metres apart. Worshippers must perform ablution rites, washing the face, arms and legs before prayer, at home. However, seniors, minors under 15 and people with chronic diseases are still not allowed in mosques. In a tweet, the kingdoms Ministry of Islamic Affairs noted that Worshippers rushed to the home of God to perform their obligatory duty (prayers) after the reopening of mosques. The ministry also posted a video showing a mosque with many worshippers wearing face masks and reaching out for a large bottle of hand sanitiser after prayers. The authorities urged mosques to avoid crowding and handing out of food and drinks, and using incense. However, in some places, people failed to respect the rules. A ban remains in place for pilgrimages (Hajj and Umrah), which usually attract millions of people from all over the world every year. So far Saudi Arabia, a nation of about 30 million, has reported more than 83,000 cases of the novel coronavirus with 480 official deaths, the highest numbers among Gulf states. However, this is still far less than what reported in Europe and the United States. In Jerusalem al-Aqsa mosque, the third most important holy place in Islam, reopened to the public attracting hundreds of Muslims. Upon entering, some worshippers chanted "God is greater" (Allahu akbaru), whilst others kissed the ground. In the Holy Land, Christian places of worship like the Holy Sepulchre and the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem also reopened. Despite the easing, the same measures imposed in other parts of the world to contain the coronavirus pandemic remain in force everywhere; they include minimum distancing, temperature taking at entrances and compulsory masks. Al-Aqsa was closed in March and remained out of bounds to worshippers during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting and prayer, which just ended. In recent days, as the authorities prepared to ease restrictions, millions of Muslims shared messages in different languages about what to do when visiting mosques, including the requirement for clerics to keep sermons and prayers to no more than 15 minutes. TWO buildings inside the University of the Philippines Cebu in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City caught fire at dawn on June 2, 2020. SFO3 Hermes Molina, fire investigator of the Cebu City Fire Station, said in an interview with SuperBalita Cebu that the fire alarm was received at 2:57 a.m. on June 2. The fire was controlled at 3:12 a.m. The fire was out by 3:29 a.m. According to Molina, the fire started at the maintenance office inside the campus and spread quickly to the canteen. During the initial investigation, the Cebu City Fire Station suspected that an electric fan caused the fire, but it will still conduct further investigation. The universitys guard on duty, Rommel Galamiton, was the one who alerted the Cebu City Fire Station after he got a call from his co-worker about the fire. (BBT, MMC) Model Munroe Bergdorf has slammed L'Oreal Paris after it posted support towards the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of George Floyd' s death in police custody. The cosmetics company fired Bergdorf - who was hailed as its first transgender model to appear on a British advertising campaign - after she spoke out about race online in 2017. Taking to Twitter, the 32-year-old warned against brands using tragedies as a "PR "opportunity" and said L'Oreal threw her to "the wolves" when they terminated her contract as the face of its True Match campaign. It comes as lots of businesses have spoken out against racism and thousands of people have protested after a white Minneapolis officer leaned on the neck of Mr Floyd until the African American became unresponsive and later died. LOreal posted: Speaking out is worth it, alongside the caption: LOreal Paris stands in solidarity with the Black community, and against injustice of any kind. We are making a commitment to the @naacp to support progress in the fight for justice. #BlackLivesMatter. Taking to Twitter, Bergdorf said she was "so angry" that the brand had posted this message. She added: "You dropped me from a campaign in 2017 and threw me to the wolves for speaking out about racism and white supremacy. With no duty of care, without a second thought. "I had to fend for myself being torn apart by the world's press because YOU didn't want to talk about racism. You do NOT get to do this. This is NOT okay, not even in the slightest. "I said yesterday that it would only be a matter of time before RACIST AF brands saw a window of PR Opportunity" LOreal Paris has been contacted for comment. Bergdorf was fired after she wrote a Facebook post about an anti-racist protester being killed by a white supremacist at a rally in Charlottesville. In a message that was later deleted, Bergdorf said, Honestly I dont have energy to talk about the racial violence of white people any more... Yes ALL white people. She later posted an explanation of her comments and added: "When I stated that all white people are racist, I was addressing that fact that western society as a whole, is a SYSTEM rooted in white supremacy - designed to benefit, prioritise and protect white people before anyone of any other race, she said. The beauty giant sacked her shortly after and said: "LOreal champions diversity. Comments by Munroe Bergdorf are at odds with our values and so we have decided to end our partnership with her. Demonstrators raise their fists during a protest over two Minneapolis police officers fatally shooting Jamar Clark, a black man, in November 2015. (Associated Press) Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or the rights of the people to peaceably assemble or "to petition the government for a redress of grievances." These crucial 1st Amendment protections also limit state government action, thanks to the 14th Amendment, and embody essential values that created and have sustained this nation: People can, should and will protest against perceived injustice. Thats a principle with special resonance today, as the nation witnesses angry protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and similar injustices directed at African Americans and others relegated to second-class status in our society. The demonstrations come amid a movement by state lawmakers to falsely equate lawful protest and civil disobedience with crime and terrorism. These chilling moves against fundamental liberties must not stand. A May report from PEN America, an organization dedicated to literature, human rights and free expression, documents 82 state bills considered or adopted by 32 states to criminalize assembly and speech. One of the offending states, as it happens, is Minnesota. Lawmakers there appear motivated by environmental protests in neighboring North Dakota and Black Lives Matter protests in their own state. One such instance followed the police killing of a young African American man named Jamar Clark in November 2015. Turned back from a planned protest at a shopping mall, demonstrators temporarily disrupted traffic at the MinneapolisSt. Paul International Airport. Minnesota lawmakers responded with a bill to punish traffic obstruction with up to a year in prison an astonishingly excessive term far out of proportion to the offense. Blocking traffic is of course already prohibited in Minnesota and elsewhere, and protesters who march onto airport roads or freeways can expect to face legal consequences. But it is a nonviolent act of civil disobedience, and the temporary inconvenience it poses to drivers does not warrant the kind of penalty generally reserved for serious criminals. According to PEN, the bills sponsor, Rep. Nick Zerwas, acknowledged that the purpose was dissuade potential protesters. The measure was passed but vetoed by the governor. Story continues A separate Minnesota bill to criminalize protests against critical infrastructure was inspired by the 2016 demonstrations against the Dakota Access Pipeline through the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota. So-called critical infrastructure bills in other states penalize protests on or near railroad tracks or telephone poles. A Kentucky bill carries a sentence of up to five years. Those proposals stalled. Under such statutes, PEN reports, a protester who merely crosses onto land hosting a pipeline could be held criminally liable. One of the more chilling provisions of anti-protest laws considered in several states would impose criminal liability for property damage caused by others participating in the same action. A person joining a protest but causing no damage could be held liable for up to $1 million for damage caused by others. Other bills give police greater leeway to characterize protests as riots and to charge peaceful protesters with rioting because of the actions of others in their presence. A New Jersey bill, if passed, would have imposed up to five years in prison for participating in a protest in which any other person caused damage of more than $2,000. That would have categorized protesters against the brutal killing of George Floyd as rioters, not because of any act they committed, but because they expressed their dissent at the same time or in the same place as violent lawbreakers. One persons decision to resort to violence does not strip other protesters of their right to freedom of peaceful assembly, as PEN quotes United Nations special rapporteurs for freedom of expression and assembly. This right is not a collective right; it is held by each of us individually. Other proposals seek to turn protesters into terrorists. A North Carolina bill, for example, would create the crime of economic terrorism and permits prosecution against any person who has committed obstruction with the intention to influence government action. In other words, an act of temporary civil disobedience would be an act of terrorism. Such a law would make Susan B. Anthony a terrorist for pushing a ballot into a ballot box. It would make other American heroes terrorists for taking a seat on a bus or at a lunch counter, walking across a bridge, stopping work or doing any of the other things that have won Americans some of their most cherished rights and liberties. Watch out for attempts to intimidate people who would protest the gap between what we know to be legal and what we know to be just. Australians could be handed up $25,000 to renovate their homes or build new properties as part of a federal government cash splash to help get tradies back on the tools. However, not everyone will be eligible and there will be strict conditions on the handout. Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday confirmed discussions were underway for a new homebuyers' scheme - his government's fourth COVID-19 stimulus package - with details expected to be announced on Thursday. The scheme will help low to middle income earners and be put towards big projects such as remodelling and home extensions - not small DIY renovations. Singles will be eligible for the cash grant if they earn under $125,000 a year, while couples who earn less than $200,000 combined will be able to apply. Australians could be handed $25,000 to renovate their homes as part of a huge cash splash to help get tradesmen back into work in the wake of coronavirus (file image) Those who lost their homes during the bushfire crisis over the summer are expected to be given priority access to the scheme. But the plan will be limited to renovations that will cost a minimum of $100,000, The Herald Sun reported. Mr Morrison warned there would be limits on the type of renovations the cash could be used for, adding there would be safeguards in place to avoid people 'rorting' the system. 'You've got to try and avoid the rorting and people taking advantage of it,' Mr Morrison told 2GB on Monday. 'Even though Australians have been amazing during this crisis, there's still those that will do the wrong things. 'We are more interested in the larger projects and new home builds and things like that. In details expected to be announced on Thursday, Australians earning under a specific income could be given $25,000 to renovate their homes 'We are looking at a bit of drop off in that current home building that's going on. That's not good for tradies and not good for jobs. 'The tradies and all the others the apprentices and others who work in that home building sector are going to feel a lot of pain unless we can keep a continuity in the business with house construction.' While it was previously reported the Australians building new homes could receive more than $40,000 as part of the scheme, Mr Morrison said $25,000 was 'in the ballpark'. Master Builders Australia chief executive Denita Wawn said the package would save small construction companies from a potential catastrophe. Those who lost their homes during the bushfire crisis over the summer are expected to be given priority access to the scheme She said the inclusion of renovations to the scheme - which also plans to broaden the first home buyers allowance - bypasses 'the red tape' of requesting planning approvals. Ms Wawn agreed certain criteria should be met for the types of property renovations people could apply for, including making homes more resilient to natural disasters such as fires and floods. Homeowners should also be able to use the grant money to rectify cladding and asbestos concerns, Ms Wawn suggested. Economic modelling commissioned by the business determined the entire stimulus package could generate upwards of 105,500 jobs. Already, the building industry has taken a significant hit for 2020/2021 and 2021/2022. Instead of 159,000 new homes scheduled for completion by 2021, there are only 116,000. Based on previous economic downturns, the modelling warns it will likely take the construction industry four times longer to recover than other sectors. 'We have seen that governments can fast track construction activity in response to natural disasters and COVID-19 is shaping up as an economic disaster,' Ms Wawn said. The proposed cash splash aims to help tradesmen with an estimated 70,000 out of work since the outbreak of coronavirus Grants of up to $10,000 have at various times been offered by the states, but only to first homebuyers struggling to own their first property. The government's new plan is instead believed to be across the board - offering financial support to anyone wanting a new home or to drastically renovate their existing one. Home auctions and inspections have recently been allowed for the first time in more than two months and are still subject to many restrictions. The new stimulus appears similar to a proposal by the Property Council of Australia, though it recommended giving every buyer of a newly-built home $50,000. Under that $2.5 billion proposal, 50,000 new homes would be built and more than 200,000 jobs created. The proposed 'new home boost' initiative would be limited to the first 50,000 purchases and run between July 2020 and June 2021. The PCA also wants stamp duty scrapped and foreigners welcomed back to Australia to buy more properties. The proposal will reportedly go towards homes with a minimum renovation cost of $100,000 Welcome back to the Year of Fear. Each week until Election Day, CJR and the Delacorte Review will bring you another chapter from one of our four towns. Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter. On March 13, the same day President Trump announced a national emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic, I was released from Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg, Virginia, after a coronary ablation to get my heart back in rhythm. After four decades of deadlines, bad newsroom coffee, and fast food meals over my office computer, I am no longer the workhorse I was. A triple bypass, a pacemaker installation, and the ablationall in a span of six monthsmade me realize that life is fragile. And because I check off so many of the boxes that make a person more vulnerable to COVID-19 than younger, healthier Americans, I vowed to take this pandemic seriously, while still reasoning that the rural community in which I live was less a target than urban areas. The young woman who pushed my wheelchair to the hospital entrance told me she was a senior pre-med student at the nearby University of Mary Washington campus, where classes had just been suspended. It was her last day at the hospital because all volunteers were being sent home in preparation for the anticipated wave of COVID-19 patients. As a precaution, a temporary pandemic triage unit had been constructed in the hospitals parking garage. As it turned out, it was not needed. Still, we were not untouched. COVID-19 took a while to creep into Northern Virginia and the Richmond area, and even longer to find its way to rural Caroline County, which is just far enough south of the nations capital and north enough of Virginias capital to stay partially out of the way. The pandemic did eventually find its way here, but not to the extent that many fearedso far. It almost feels as if we are at the edge of a plaguenot in it and not out of it either, with the direction uncertain. PREVIOUSLY: Saving Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge extends beyond political boundaries The first COVID-19 case in Caroline County was reported April 1. As of May 27, the number of cases had climbed to a modest fifty-five, an average of fewer than one case per day. There have been two deaths attributed to the disease in Caroline County. The numbers in more densely populated counties around us are far steeper, however. The Rappahannock Area Health District, which encompasses Caroline and three counties to the north, plus the City of Fredericksburg, has reported 1,500-plus cases with 18 deaths. (Neighboring Spotsylvania County, 571 cases; Stafford, 722; Fredericksburg, 166; King George, 69.) The Commonwealth of Virginia topped 45,000 total cases with 1,392 deaths. The counties and cities of Northern Virginia (NOVA) still account for more than half of the states total. Richmond and surrounding counties have the next largest concentration. In the scheme of things, NOVA is to the rest of Virginia as New York City is to the Empire State. Sign up for CJR 's daily email Some of the same factors that hindered commercial and residential growth in Caroline County over the years have turned out to be a blessing during the pandemic. We have only one nursing home of any size, no hospitals, no meatpacking plants, only one significant assembly line, few office buildings, no movie theaters, and only a handful of apartment-building clusters. A couple of restaurants have bars in them but none draw crowds or stay open until the wee hours. Places where Caroline County residents typically rub shoulderschurches, schools, libraries, restaurants, and the family Yhave been closed or sharply restricted since mid-March. The number of cases and deaths continue to rise, however, and those numbers included Carolines first COVID-19 outbreak, in which five office workers at the M.C. Dean Inc. Modular MEP plant in Ruther Glen, where I live, tested positive. Although no workers on the assembly floor tested positive, the plant shut down for five days and was thoroughly cleaned. This is one of Caroline Countys few manufacturing companies, employing about two hundred people. Another, and more alarming, COVID-19 outbreak started with one nurse and, in five short days, involved ten employees testing positive with another nineteen quarantinedall at the Rappahannock Area Health District, the very agency in charge of pandemic testing for the area. This news came as the Commonwealth of Virginia relaxed a number of restrictions on business closures and self-distancing. Although the shelter-in-place mandate is not slated to lift until June 10, it is largely ignored by many in the state, as are recommendations to wear face masks in public. Alarmed by this, on May 26, Governor Ralph Northam made face masks mandatory in restaurants, stores, and other public places, although enforcement is left up to the owners and operators of these businesses. A pediatric neurosurgeon, Northam is the only governor in the US with a medical background. By law, he is not allowed to run again and it is apparent from his thrice-weekly TV press conferences that he is more concerned with the physical well-being of Virginians than the ballot box. Still, many Virginians who prefer Donald Trumps somebody told me this, so it must be so approach, find Northams science-based method of reopening Virginia for business to be too clumsy and slow. This red state/blue state divide is readily apparent on social media, and in conversations I have had with friends and neighbors. How this plays out politically in 2020 is anybodys guess. Rob Wittman, our longtime incumbent congressman and a Republican, also has a background that is helpful in the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to being elected to represent Virginias first district in Congress in 2007, Wittman worked for twenty years with the Virginia Department of Health. He served as an environmental health specialist and was later field director for the Division of Shellfish Sanitation. He has a Ph.D. in public health. Long regarded as a moderate who is strong on constituent services, Wittman sends out daily briefings explaining the nuances of COVID-19 legislation and how individuals, businesses, and localities can apply for assistance. He also led a bipartisan effort to protect Virginia fisheries from the harsh effects of the pandemic. Because Northam and Wittman represent opposing parties, it may be difficult for some Caroline County residents to appreciate how fortunate they are to have two elected representatives with an understanding of pandemics that transcends partisan politics. What is normal? The threat of a new wave of infections remains in the back of my mind, but I also look forward to the return of some sort of normalcyalthough what shape the new normal takes is anybodys guess at this point. It may be that many cherished traditions will be streamlined or sanitized in our future. For example, on May 26, the Caroline Board of Supervisors held a County Budget Hearing that was part in-person and part virtual. Before the budget discussion, though, the supervisors heard from Dr. Donald Stern, the interim director of the Rappahannock Area Health District. Stern said many individuals are walking around with COVID-19 who are not counted in the daily statisticsbecause they are asymptomatic and do not realize they have the virus. He suggested multiplying the known cases by five to understand the problem. Eliminating COVID-19 is unrealistic until a vaccine is approved, he said. The goal is to box it in and slow it down through increased testing, staying at home, wearing a mask when in contact with others, and washing hands and cleaning surfaces. For the budget hearing part of the meeting, staff and members of the public were allowed to send in comments or come in person, register to speak, and then, when called, approach a remote podium. Caroline High School, meanwhile, held a four-day, graduation-by-appointment ceremony, which allowed each senior to arrive with family, get a diploma, and pose for photos that will later be incorporated into a video. The Health District already has a task force working on ways area schools can safely reopen in September. The way we cast our votes in 2020 will be different from the past, as will the methods used by candidates to win those votes. Local elections were held May 19 in the Town of Ashland, twenty miles to the south, and the City of Fredericksburg, twenty-five miles to the north. For the most part, incumbents won easily. A combination of absentee, curbside, and in-person voting was used and functioned well, albeit for a small sample size. The electoral process will face a larger test June 23 when primaries are held for the Democrats nomination to run against Wittman in District 1, and for the Republicans nomination for the US Senate seat occupied by Mark Warner, a Democrat. Local election officials encourage absentee voting for these primaries, using COVID-19 as the reason. Just a few candidates will runonly two made the Democratic ballot for the first district congressional race, and three for the statewide Republican primary. Three hopefuls withdrew or were disqualified for the Democratic primary and seven for the Republican primary. The inability to gather a sufficient number of signatures before the March filing deadlinesa task made far more difficult by the pandemicundoubtedly helped thin these fields. The First District Democratic Committee, meanwhile, claimed a precedent of sorts by holding the states first virtual convention, on May 2. The 175 delegates, representing all of the counties in the district, normally meet in caucuses that turn into lengthy affairs, complete with speeches, pomp, and posturing. This one took about thirty minutes, according to the District Democratic Chairman, Matt Rowe, a former Bowling Green Town Council member. Similar virtual conventions were held by the Democrats in the other ten districts on three successive weekends, Rowe said. A June 20 Democratic state convention will also be virtual. Meanwhile, Republicans are sticking with in-person conventions, at least to some degree. The First District Republican Party plans to hold its convention on June 13, at Caroline County High School. Due to the COVID health emergency, we will be using a modified convention format authorized by the Republican Party of Virginia that will allow delegates to the convention to vote using curbside voting procedures, noted District Chairman Bob Watson. The GOP state convention, which had been scheduled for May, was postponed due to the pandemic. A new date has not been made official. We will not let this setback define our 2020 efforts, said party Chairman Jack Wilson in a statement. Republicans are more energized than ever to flip Virginia for President Trump and send our do-nothing Senator, Mark Warner, packing, Wilson added. Reopening the Commonwealth Virginia has been slower than other states to reopen many businesses, churches, and attractions. Governor Northam announced a three-phase system, portions of which went into effect May 15, excluding the hot spots of Northern Virginia and Richmond. Under phase one, Virginia moves to a Safer at Home strategy, which continues the ban on social gatherings of more than ten people and maintains recommendations for social distancing, teleworking, and face coverings in stores and businesses. Businesses are required to make modifications to maintain six feet of physical distancing and increase sanitization of high contact surfaces. Retail establishments are allowed to operate at fifty percent occupancy, as are restaurants and bars that can offer outdoor dining. Also under phase one, churches may hold indoor services at fifty percent capacity, and can continue to hold drive-in services in parking lots. So far, many churches in Caroline County are taking a wait-and see stance while continuing to livestream Sunday services. Ashland, which depends heavily on tourism and restaurant revenues, embraced the challenge. Restaurant owners were offered two-thousand-dollar grants to purchase outdoor tables, chairs, and canopies, while sections of streets were temporarily closed and turned into expanded sidewalk cafes, which were much used over Memorial Day weekend. Although many Memorial Day activities were cancelled in Virginia, a traditional ceremony went on as scheduled in front of the old courthouse in Bowling Green. Many local veterans participated, along with County Supervisors Jeff Sili and Nancy Long, Sheriff Tony Lippa, and other officials. I cannot recall a more emotional moment for me as the Bowling Green District Supervisor, or a time when I was prouder of the partnership between VFW Post 10295 and the county, Sili said in a Facebook post. We did it, and were able to observe social distancing and quarantine rules still in place. We did not fail those who gave their lives so we can wake up free people each and every day. Next week, Chapter 18: Politically-motivated investigations, racial tension, budget cutting and distorted virus data: election season in Macon-Bibb is getting dirty. This project is supported by a gift from the Delacorte Center for Magazine Journalism Fund at The New York Community Trust. Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Greg Glassner is a Caroline County resident with more than forty years of experience in the newspaper business, the majority of it as editor of community weeklies in Virginia. He was editor of the Herald-Progress in Ashland for eight years, retiring in 2012. He also served as interim editor of the Caroline Progress in Bowling Green for six months in 2015, and wrote a weekly column and feature stories for both papers until they ceased publication in March 2018. A US Army veteran who saw service in Southeast Asia, Glassner is the author of five books, including biographies of US Attorney General William Wirt and Virginia Gov. William Extra Billy Smith. In a nation plagued by racial divisiveness, large numbers of black and white Americans have come together to protest racial injustice. They march, chant, shout and pray, carrying signs that read "Black lives matter" and "White people 4 black lives." For all the racial animosity that shows up so often in public life - white people weaponizing 911 calls, white cops killing unarmed black people - there have been no reported instances of blacks or whites attacking one another during the protests. Despite all the years President Donald Trump has spent sowing racial discord for political gain, nearly 1,000 demonstrators of all races showed up at the White House gates Sunday and Monday - their very presence making for a sharp rebuke of the man and his methods. Trump was reportedly so concerned about the ferocity of the demonstrations that started in the city Friday that he was taken to a bunker in the basement of the White House as a safety precaution. Bronze that moment. Among veterans of civil rights protests, there is appreciation for the amount of work it takes to create and sustain interracial alliances. Do not take them for granted, nor allow the smoke and flame of riots instigated by others to obscure the importance of what has been achieved. If we ever get focused on making systemic changes to what ails this country, the alliances will be indispensable. "The fact that people of all races, creeds and colors came out to say, 'We are not going to be silent, we are not going to stand down,' inspires hope," said William Barber, co-founder of the Poor People's Campaign, which is organizing low-income people to fight economic oppression. "It matters that people have not become numb to the suffering of others. Even if they can't make immediate change, they are refusing to give up their humanity." Timothy Jenkins, a civil rights activists and organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s, also applauded the protesters. The Washington resident and Howard Law School graduate was in the city during the riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. "I'm encouraged that a large number of white youngsters are participating in the demonstrations," he said. "It's not the burden of black people alone to fight to end oppression. Poor whites are being affected along with poor blacks. And we need all the help we can get." Parisa Norouzi, co-founder of Empower D.C., which organizes low-income residents in their fight to keep from being displaced by gentrification, concurred. "I'm hopeful, in the sense that inaction is one of our biggest problems," she said. "Whenever people are moved to take action, that is very positive." And yet, when it comes to stopping police and vigilantes from killing unarmed black people, we appear to be no closer to answering the question than we were after Trayvon Martin's death near Orlando, Fla., in 2012 or Michael Brown's death in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014. In recent weeks there have been two police killings of unarmed black people - Breonna Taylor in Louisville and George Floyd in Minneapolis. Ahmaud Arbery, also black, was shot and killed as he jogged down a residential street in Brunswick, Ga. by a white man who said he thought Arbery was a burglar. And, adding insult to injury, a white woman in New York called 911 and lied to police that a black man was threatening her after he asked her to leash her dog in Central Park. Fortunately, he recorded the incident on his cellphone. It's a wonder that black and white people have been able to come together at all. And still, what happens after a such incidents has become all too predictable. If it happens to be caught on video, the killing is posted on social media and goes viral. Protests ensue. Politicians quell the anger with promises. On rare occasions, the bad cop goes to jail. However, not much generally happens in these cases unless there is video evidence. Which means that unless we are shocked, fueled by high doses of anger and outrage, we seem incapable of staying focused on the problem. Barber believes that is changing. More people are becoming aware of the corrosive effects of injustice, racism and greed on American society, he says. "They recognize that the Trump administration couldn't care less that front-line health-care workers don't have personal protection equipment - whether they are black or white," Barber said. "They see people becoming poor overnight, black and white, after losing their jobs because 80% of the [coronavirus] rescue money went to corporations." Worst of all are the police killings. "They saw a white police officer kneeling on the neck of a black man even after he was unconscious," Barber said. "It reminded me of how hunters pose with a bear that they have killed, knelt down on the prey and posed for a picture. People saw that, and they were rightly appalled." Jenkins, who is a lawyer, says the best way to make the systemic changes that are needed is through education - a system that he acknowledges needs changing as much as any, "It's critically important that our American history curriculum be modified, starting with primary- and secondary-school students," he said. (He serves on the board of Teaching for Change, a national nonprofit based in the District that promotes social change through education.) "Our youth must be exposed to the facts about America instead of the myths," he said. "They need to put law enforcement in context and understand that police are doing nothing more than following the diktats of society - which is to protect privilege and property, not individual rights. You have to know what you're dealing with before you can change it." An election is just months away, and there is no legislation to speak of that addresses state-sponsored killings. No plan, just sporadic protests, more vows to restore "law and order," and then silence. Until the next video. Unless the coronavirus comes roaring back. Norouzi said it helps to take a long view - systemic change never happens overnight. "The protests are just punctuation marks in a long run-on sentence," she said. "It may take a lifetime to address these problems, maybe longer. But that's how changes are made, people working hard for a long time." Hopefully this diverse new generation of activists will have more success. A 38-year-old man, who tested positive for coronavirus on Monday and was admitted to the civil hospital in Charkhi Dadri, was found dead in the premises, the police said. The deceased who hailed from Dhani Phogat village in the district was found lying dead by other patients inside a toilet on the same night. However, the hospital authorities claimed that the man had died after he fell in the toilet while the victims family members blamed the hospital staff for failing to provide treatment. Sarpanch of Dhani Phogat village, Mandeep Phogat alleged that the man died due to medical negligence and poor facilities at the civil hospital. We have asked the district administration to form a team of doctors to investigate the matter and take strict action against the doctors, he added. Raising doubts over the death of the Covid-19 patient, Dadri MLA Sombir Sangwan said that he came across a video by a coronavirus patient admitted at the civil hospital alleging poor facilities provided at the hospital. We suspect that the patient died due to poor facilities and lackadaisical approach of the doctors. I will urge Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, deputy CM Dushyant Chautala and health minister Anil Vij to take strict action against the hospital, the independent MLA from Dadri added. However, a few days ago the Covid-19 patients had also shared pictures of poor quality food being served to them at Dadri hospital Dadri deputy commissioner Shiv Prasad Sharma said that a team of eight doctors has been constituted to investigate into the matter. The autopsy will be conducted on Wednesday. Those found guilty will not be spared, the DC added. Allentown, PA (18103) Today Partly to mostly sunny, brisk, and very cold. Below zero wind chills in the morning. . Tonight Partly cloudy and very cold. Near or below zero wind chills again late at night towards sunrise. Good Morning, Nigeria, Welcome To Naija News Roundup Of Top Newspaper Headlines In Nigeria For Today Tuesday, 2nd June 2020 The ban on religious gatherings across the country has been lifted by the Federal Government. Recall that a ban was imposed on the religious programs across the country two months ago, to check the spread of coronavirus. The Federal government had announced a new fuel price band of N121.50 per litre for Premium Motor Spirit, also known as petrol. The PPPRA, which is an agency of the Federal Government, disclosed this in a circular to fuel marketers dated May 31, 2020, which was obtained by our correspondent on Monday. Edo state governor, Godwin Obaseki had a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa in Abuja on Monday. This was as seven other governors under the All Progressives Congress (APC) met with Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the ruling party. Human rights activist and former Senator who represented Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani has reacted to the recent spate of killings in Katsina State. Particularly, the former lawmaker blamed the government and security operatives for the renewed killings and general insecurity. Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello has taken a move to back the report of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, on two index cases of Coronavirus confirmed in the state. Naija News recalls that the NCDC on Wednesday, May 28 confirmed 2 cases of the novel virus in Kogi State, a report that was denied by the state government with claims that the state is free of the Coronavirus pandemic. Earlier, NaijaNews reported that the comptroller-general of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Hameed Ali married a new wife, Zainab Yahaya. His wedding had held on saturday to Yahaya, two years after his first wife, Hadiza Jummai died. Meanwhile, his new wifes ex lover, has threatened legal action if hes not refunded the sum of N9,081,207.45 spent on her over the course of their relationship. A retired colonel and former military governor of Kaduna State, Umar Dangiwa has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of giving preference to some tribes over others in Nigeria. Dangiwa further stated that the enthusiasm that is supposed to greet the presidents celebration of his 5th year in office is not shared by many Nigerians because they are not satisfied with his leadership. Some Governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Monday, held a fence-mending meeting with the National Chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole on Monday. It is understood that the meeting is connected with the political developments in Edo State ahead of the June 22 party primaries and the September 2020 governorship election in the state. Nigerians will now be charged stamp duties on all forms of electronic notifications including SMS and messages on any electronic platform such as emails and WhatsApp messages. According to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), henceforth, Nigerians will be charged N50 for these notifications. Manchester United has reached an agreement with former Super Eagles striker, Odion Ighalo for a contract extension to his current loan deal. Naija News can confirm the on-loan forward has agreed to extend his current deal which will keep him at Old Trafford until January 2021. Thats the top Nigerian newspaper headlines for today. Read more Nigerian news on Naija News. See you again tomorrow. Share this post with your Friends on Close Trump threatens to deploy 'heavily armed' US military to crush George Floyd protests George Floyd's family is still expecting and waiting for the three other former police officers present during the death, while the Minneapolis Police Department is coming under scrutiny with a civil rights investigation by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. It comes as Donald Trump received widespread backlash "law and order" speech that led to riot police clearing out protesters before he posed for photos at St John's Church, which Washington clergy called "baffling and reprehensible". Attorney General William Barr was said to have ordered the area cleared for the president, which prompted House Democrats to call the Secret Service to brief congress about the violent dispersal. Follow live updates Please allow a moment for the liveblog to load It was a striking image, even if the subjects pose and attire were familiar: Gorgeously dressed in bright white sneakers and a flowing blue gown, the young person stood tall, a glowing city behind him. Its a picture-perfect example of a street-style shot. But instead of a lit-up Paris, it was St. Paul lit up with police floodlights. He was wearing his graduation gown, there to witness, support, and speak out against the police brutality, white supremacy, and anti-Black forces that have made his graduation an unspeakably tragic one. I was looking forward to graduating with a cap and gown, Deveonte Joseph told me over the phone. The seventh sibling out of ten, Joseph is the first in his family to graduate high school with a diploma, an incredibly hard-won and meaningful achievement. Its been hard. Ive fought through it, but I did it. I graduated. We graduates from 2020 are going through all this. And its not fair, because there are a lot of people who wish to be in that crowd, and walk across that stage, and wear that gown, and throw up your cap with everybody, Joseph said, explaining that his graduation, scheduled for this week, will be modified to observe social distancing procedures a car meet-up and drive around the city or something. During a time that should be marked by graduation celebrations, another kind of observance is taking place. Across the country, in the middle of a pandemic that necessitated rigid stay-at-home measures, demonstrations and protests have erupted in nearly every major American city against anti-Black criminal justice systems and anti-Black federal and state institutions. This weekend, young Black people have had to choose between demonstrating against the apparatuses that disproportionately kill them or staying at home to avoid a virus that also disproportionately kills them. One day after George Floyds murder in Minneapolis, the protests spread across the river to St. Paul. Before stepping out, Joseph took out his graduation robes, still fresh from their packaging. When I put on the gown, I felt like I really accomplished something big. My brother always told me that not a lot of African Americans even reach my age. Its a big accomplishment to graduate high school. Then, he headed out for the evening. The photo that local street photographer Nathan Aguirre took shows Joseph as a resolute, tassel-clad figure set against the backdrop of a grieving St. Paul; his cap and gown speak to Americas pure potential as well as our failure to fulfill the promises we make to our youth. Story continues From Dallas to San Francisco, New Jersey to Minneapolis, the cap and gown have become an especially impressive reminder of the resilience of Black excellence, and all the systems, people, and policies at work to undermine it. As we were walking, cops jumped out of a van and aimed their guns at me and my friends, and put a red dot on our chests. Minneapolis graduate Datelle Straub told photographer David Guttenfelder, who captured Straub and his friends in maroon graduation gowns. Straub held up his diploma from Patrick Henry High School to defend himself. Its just frustrating that they are OK with killing the future. Last Friday, in San Francisco, Louis Michael, a new graduate from MidAmerica Nazarene University in Kansas, was planning on joining some friends to protest. Before he left, he received a notification that an Amazon delivery had arrived. It was my cap and gown. I had originally planned on wearing my BLM T-shirt and blending in, Michael recalled. But when he put on his cap and gown, Michael felt a stirring of feelings. I felt sad that this is what weve come to as a country. But at the same time, Im proud because I know Im getting ready to go out and stand up for what I believe in. To stand in front of a line of police officers in riot gear, with my fist in the air, and my cap and gown I felt powerful. A photo of a masked-up Michael in his graduation threads on top of a Black Lives Matter shirt, shot by photojournalist Sarahbeth Maney, went viral. A picture is worth a thousand words. This ones worth a million, he says. Vallejo resident Louis Michael, 22, raises his fist in solidarity after the death of George Floyd, who was killed by police officers in Minneapolis, sparking international outrage. Michael wears his graduation cap and gown after receiving his bachelors degree in communications from MidAmerica Nazarene University in Kansas, during a protest on Friday, May 29, 2020 in Oakland. Graduations mark ones passage from dependency to independence. Worn on a grassy lawn or in a crowded auditorium, a cap and gown symbolizes the fulfillment of a course of study, and the opportunity to enter the world empowered by all the knowledge that has been acquired. Graduation is also a promise: If you follow the path youve been told you must take, the world will be open to you, for whatever you want to do. But, the idea that graduation is the starting line of the American Dream only makes sense if you trust that responsible actions necessarily result in deserved consequences that hard and honest work will be rewarded in fair and just ways. For Black Americans, this contract has always been crooked. Whats unwritten and unspoken has always upended any promise made. Go to college. Get a high-paying job. Buy a home. Enter into a life of insurmountable debt. High-paying jobs discriminate against Black applicants, and you will likely have to make compromises. Feel perpetually uncertain about your employment and financial stability. The taxes you pay will fund social services that keep you healthy and safe. You will pay proportionally more taxes than billionaires, but the benefits you receive will be inadequate, dangerous, and unfairly distributed. State-funded hospitals will kill your women. State-funded law enforcement will kill your men. Abide by the law. The police will protect your civil right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But being Black is also a crime. The audacity to exist is reason enough to turn police protection into police predation.) Vote. This is how you can change the world. Black disenfranchisement is real. Our two-party system makes it nearly impossible for consequential progress to be made. Who would willingly sign a contract like this? But we force everyone born or naturalized in this country to do it, which is why during a week and a season and a lifetime of watching the subtext come further into focus we feel renewed anger at the code by which weve been forced to live, a sense of bewilderment at the double-binds that that trap us. So much that used to be in the dark to most of America is coming into the light in America, explained Michaels, who graduated with a communications degree. Some have been aware of this, a lot hadnt. 2020 has made it clear to everyone. Contracts can be changed. As a photographer, Aguirre has documented the rapid developments to his neighborhood, for both better and worse. As someone who exists in a state of flux, he ultimately sees the story of the past week as a hopeful one. Its a story of persistence. People arent backing down. Its the revolution. Theres a lot of love for the community, and were all coming together to say that its time for the system to change. It has to change. This cant not. Josephs last day of high school is today. His mother, Yvette, was supposed to take him shopping this week for new sneakers, but with stores in their neighborhood closed because of the demonstrations and the pandemic, hell likely wear something random he already owns. But I tell him its not his clothes thats what makes him, Yvette told me. Its his mind, soul, and heart. Joseph cannot afford college in the fall, but that doesnt mean he doesnt have a plan. Ive been planning since my junior year. I want to go to school for music and art. I want to spend the positive energy I have, and give people the motivation and inspiration to accomplish their dreams. He currently has a fundraiser to get him started this fall. I have a slogan with my art: TNIS, Turn nothing into something. Thats what I do. Thats the future. May we feel inspired by Josephs resolute optimism, his creativity, his excellence. May those who have provided Joseph with all that nothingness feel shame and the full crush of that responsibility. Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here? Popular apps DoorDash, Lyft, and Uber, are following government regulations, and temporarily suspending their services in areas affected by the recent protests, The Verge reported. These three apps are among the most popular among various clients around the world. DoorDash is an on-demand food delivery service that distinctively utilizes logistics to provide restaurant-quality food to customers in the United States. Beyond the country, the client base of San Francisco-based ride-sharing company Lyft, Inc. is now reaching out to 12 cities in Canada. Meanwhile, another multinational transport hailing app Uber is also adhering to the new rules. Uber offers food delivery, bikes, and scooters, aside from the usual ride-sharing service. Due to the imposed curfews amidst the protests, these three apps are suspending their services in various cities. These include parts of Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Francisco, USA Today added. The Uber administration said Sunday in the report that they would chip in $1 million to the Equal Justice Initiative and Policing Equity in support of improving America's criminal justice. On the other hand, Lyft also confirmed in USA Today that they are following these local guidelines. DoorDash is also adhering to the local authorities' curfews, saying that it is "pausing operations," the report said. Stricter guidelines Curfews are in place in at least 40 cities and Washington, D.C., due to the protests that started last week. This was preceded by the killing of George Floyd by Minnesota police. These measures are separate from the current guidelines imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Founders, co-founders, and CEOs of these three apps have issued their official statements in light of the recent events. Lyft co-founders John Zimmer and Logan Green said, "As part of our continued commitment to communities of color through LyftUp, our transportation access initiative, we're providing $500,000 in ride credit to national civil rights organizations who have been working to facilitate essential transportation and equitable access during the recent crises." Meanwhile, the Twitter account of DoorDash stated, "We cannot be silent or still in the face of injustice, racism, and murder. Words matter. And so do actions. We are committing ourselves to take action to support our local black communities and black-owned businesses." Some more other retailers have decided to temporarily shut down their stores, especially in areas where there are more massive protests. The list includes Amazon, Apple, and Target. According to Bloomberg, Amazon has also ordered drivers in the cities of Chicago and Los Angeles to stop sending packages, and stay home. News background On May 25, the United States and the world were taken aghast after the death of African-American George Floyd in Minneapolis' Powderhorn community in Minnesota state. Reports narrated how Floyd was handcuffed and was lying face down on the street during the arrest. The officer was named Derek Chauvin, a white American member of the police. This incident follows a series of unjust arrests facing the Black-American communities and individuals in the country. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan predicts long-term economic crisis if Armenia returns to the strict regime of restrictions, ARMENPRESS reports Pashinyan said during a breifing on June 2. ''The healthcare system regularly raises the question of returning to total restrictions. The Commandant's Office discusses this issue almost on daily basis. We have already seen the circle of restrictions. We have seen that it leads to almost catastrophic social and economic consequences. The state's capacities are not limitless. In case of closing again we can confront an economic crisis that will not be possible to overcome during many years'', Pashinyan said. A total of 10 thousand and 9 cases were recorded in Armenia by 11:00, June 2. 3427 have recovered. 6368 are active cases. A total of 59,917 tests have been conducted. Death rate is 158. The State of Eergency has been prolonged until June 13. Reporting by Norayr Shoghikyan, Editing and Translating by Tigran Sirekanyan CHINO HILLS, Calif., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- California Regional MLS (CRMLS) continues to stay at the forefront in providing valuable tools to the community of California real estate professionals. Today, CRMLS launched CRMLS Connect by BoxMLS as a new core product available at no additional cost across the CRMLS footprint. CRMLS Connect is an MLS search platform that allows agents and brokers to collaborate with their clients on a whole new level. It empowers consumers to search in detail, save their favorites, and access real-time MLS data using the same intuitive interface that the real estate professional controls. As part of the launch of CRMLS Connect, each CRMLS user who claims their account will gain a modern, industry-grade search interface for themselves and their clients, embedded into their own branded, MLS-compliant, client-facing website. CRMLS Connect helps agents connect with clients instantly via email, text, and a branded mobile app, as well as track their clients' search activities in real-time. "CRMLS Connect is far more than another search interface; it's a huge leap forward in communication and collaboration between real estate professionals and consumers," said CRMLS CEO Art Carter. "The launch of CRMLS Connect is a milestone for BoxMLS and an important day for innovation in our industry as a whole," added Jason Fayollat, co-founder of BoxMLS. "We are grateful to have CRMLS as an ally and together look forward to giving real estate agents a new way to search property data." CRMLS Connect is available to CRMLS users with dashboards at no additional cost. Learn more at https://www.crmlsconnect.com/. About California Regional Multiple Listing Service (CRMLS) California Regional MLS is the nation's largest and most recognized subscriber-based MLS, dedicated to servicing more than 100,000 real estate professionals from 41 Associations, Boards, and MLS organizations. CRMLS is the industry powerhouse and thrives on providing the most relevant products and services to its subscribers. For more information on CRMLS, visit www.crmls.org. About BoxMLS BoxMLS provides real-time, cross-MLS data and tools for more effective collaboration between real estate brokers, agents and their clients. Learn more at boxmls.com. Contact: [email protected] SOURCE California Regional MLS Related Links http://www.crmls.org Throughout January, the World Health Organization publicly praised China for what it called a speedy response to the new coronavirus. It repeatedly thanked the Chinese government for sharing the genetic map of the virus 'immediately,' and said its work and commitment to transparency were 'very impressive, and beyond words.' But behind the scenes, it was a different story, one of significant delays by China and considerable frustration among WHO officials over not getting the information they needed to fight the spread of the deadly virus, The Associated Press has found. Despite the plaudits, China in fact sat on releasing the genetic map, or genome, of the virus for more than a week after three different government labs had fully decoded the information. Tight controls on information and competition within the Chinese public health system were to blame, according to dozens of interviews and internal documents. Chinese government labs only released the genome after another lab published it ahead of authorities on a virologist website on January 11. Even then, China stalled for at least two weeks more on providing WHO with detailed data on patients and cases, according to recordings of internal meetings held by the U.N. health agency through January - all at a time when the outbreak arguably might have been dramatically slowed. This file photo taken on February 23, 2017 shows a worker standing next to a cage with mice (right) inside the P4 laboratory in Wuhan, capital of China's Hubei province. The WHO said on last month that Washington had provided no evidence to support 'speculative' claims by the US president that the new coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab This aerial view shows the P4 laboratory (left) on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on May 27, 2020 Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a news conference on the situation of the coronavirus (COVID-2019), in Geneva, Switzerland, February 28, 2020 WHO officials were lauding China in public because they wanted to coax more information out of the government, the recordings obtained by the AP suggest. Privately, they complained in meetings the week of January 6 that China was not sharing enough data to assess how effectively the virus spread between people or what risk it posed to the rest of the world, costing valuable time. 'We're going on very minimal information,' said American epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove, now WHO's technical lead for COVID-19, in one internal meeting. 'It's clearly not enough for you to do proper planning.' 'We're currently at the stage where yes, they're giving it to us 15 minutes before it appears on CCTV,' said WHO's top official in China, Dr. Gauden Galea, referring to the state-owned China Central Television, in another meeting. The story behind the early response to the virus comes at a time when the U.N. health agency is under siege, and has agreed to an independent probe of how the pandemic was handled globally. After repeatedly praising the Chinese response early on, U.S. President Donald Trump has blasted WHO in recent weeks for allegedly colluding with China to hide the extent of the coronavirus crisis. He cut ties with the organization on Friday, jeopardizing the approximately $450 million the U.S. gives every year as WHO's biggest single donor. In the meantime, Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to pitch in $2 billion over the next two years to fight the coronavirus, saying China has always provided information to WHO and the world 'in a most timely fashion.' The new information does not support the narrative of either the U.S. or China, but instead portrays an agency now stuck in the middle that was urgently trying to solicit more data despite limits to its own authority. Although international law obliges countries to report information to WHO that could have an impact on public health, the U.N. agency has no enforcement powers and cannot independently investigate epidemics within countries. Instead, it must rely on the cooperation of member states. The recordings suggest that rather than colluding with China, as Trump declared, WHO was kept in the dark as China gave it the minimal information required by law. However, the agency did try to portray China in the best light, likely as a means to secure more information. And WHO experts genuinely thought Chinese scientists had done 'a very good job' in detecting and decoding the virus, despite the lack of transparency from Chinese officials. WHO staffers debated how to press China for gene sequences and detailed patient data without angering authorities, worried about losing access and getting Chinese scientists into trouble. Under international law, WHO is required to quickly share information and alerts with member countries about an evolving crisis. Galea noted WHO could not indulge China's wish to sign off on information before telling other countries because 'that is not respectful of our responsibilities.' In the second week of January, WHO's chief of emergencies, Dr. Michael Ryan, told colleagues it was time to 'shift gears' and apply more pressure on China, fearing a repeat of the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome that started in China in 2002 and killed nearly 800 people worldwide. 'This is exactly the same scenario, endlessly trying to get updates from China about what was going on,' he said. 'WHO barely got out of that one with its neck intact given the issues that arose around transparency in southern China.' Ryan said the best way to 'protect China' was for WHO to do its own independent analysis with data from the Chinese government, because otherwise the spread of the virus between people would be in question and 'other countries will take action accordingly.' Ryan also noted that China was not cooperating in the same way some other countries had in the past. In this Wednesday, January 29, 2020 file photo, Maria van Kerkhove, head of the Outbreak Investigation Task Force for the World Health Organization speaks during a news conference regarding the COVID-19 coronavirus, at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. During one meeting, Kerkhove said 'we are going on very little information [from China]' 'This would not happen in Congo and did not happen in Congo and other places,' he said, probably referring to the Ebola outbreak that began there in 2018. 'We need to see the data...It's absolutely important at this point.' The delay in the release of the genome stalled the recognition of its spread to other countries, along with the global development of tests, drugs and vaccines. The lack of detailed patient data also made it harder to determine how quickly the virus was spreading - a critical question in stopping it. Between the day the full genome was first decoded by a government lab on January 2 and the day WHO declared a global emergency on January 30, the outbreak spread by a factor of 100 to 200 times, according to retrospective infection data from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus has now infected over 6 million people worldwide and killed more than 375,000. 'It's obvious that we could have saved more lives and avoided many, many deaths if China and the WHO had acted faster,' said Ali Mokdad, a professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. However, Mokdad and other experts also noted that if WHO had been more confrontational with China, it could have triggered a far worse situation of not getting any information at all. If WHO had pushed too hard, it could even have been kicked out of China, said Adam Kamradt-Scott, a global health professor at the University of Sydney. But he added that a delay of just a few days in releasing genetic sequences can be critical in an outbreak. And he noted that as Beijing's lack of transparency becomes even clearer, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus's continued defense of China is problematic. 'It's definitely damaged WHO's credibility,' said Kamradt-Scott. 'Did he go too far? I think the evidence on that is clear..it has led to so many questions about the relationship between China and WHO. It is perhaps a cautionary tale.' WHO and its officials named in this story declined to answer questions asked by The Associated Press without audio or written transcripts of the recorded meetings, which the AP was unable to supply to protect its sources. 'Our leadership and staff have worked night and day in compliance with the organization's rules and regulations to support and share information with all Member States equally, and engage in frank and forthright conversations with governments at all levels,' a WHO statement said. This file photo taken on May 15, 2020 shows medical workers taking swab samples from residents to be tested for the COVID-19 coronavirus in a street in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province China's National Health Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had no comment. But in the past few months, China has repeatedly defended its actions, and many other countries - including the U.S. - have responded to the virus with even longer delays of weeks and even months. 'Since the beginning of the outbreak, we have been continuously sharing information on the epidemic with the WHO and the international community in an open, transparent and responsible manner,' said Liu Mingzhu, an official with the National Health Commission's International Department, at a press conference on May 15. The race to find the genetic map of the virus started in late December, according to the story that unfolds in interviews, documents and the WHO recordings. That's when doctors in Wuhan noticed mysterious clusters of patients with fevers and breathing problems who weren't improving with standard flu treatment. Seeking answers, they sent test samples from patients to commercial labs. By December 27, one lab, Vision Medicals, had pieced together most of the genome of a new coronavirus with striking similarities to SARS. Vision Medicals shared its data with Wuhan officials and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, as reported first by Chinese finance publication Caixin and independently confirmed by the AP. On December 30, Wuhan health officials issued internal notices warning of the unusual pneumonia, which leaked on social media. That evening, Shi Zhengli, a coronavirus expert at the Wuhan Institute of Virology who is famous for having traced the SARS virus to a bat cave, was alerted to the new disease, according to an interview with Scientific American. Shi took the first train from a conference in Shanghai back to Wuhan. The next day, Chinese CDC director Gao Fu dispatched a team of experts to Wuhan. Also on December 31, WHO first learned about the cases from an open-source platform that scouts for intelligence on outbreaks, emergencies chief Ryan has said. WHO officially requested more information on January 1. Under international law, members have 24 to 48 hours to respond, and China reported two days later that there were 44 cases and no deaths. By January 2, Shi had decoded the entire genome of the virus, according to a notice later posted on her institute's website. Scientists agree that Chinese scientists detected and sequenced the then-unknown pathogen with astonishing speed, in a testimony to China's vastly improved technical capabilities since SARS, during which a WHO-led group of scientists took months to identify the virus. This time, Chinese virologists proved within days that it was a never-before-seen coronavirus. Tedros would later say Beijing set 'a new standard for outbreak response.' But when it came to sharing the information with the world, things began to go awry. On January 3, the National Health Commission issued a confidential notice ordering labs with the virus to either destroy their samples or send them to designated institutes for safekeeping. The notice, first reported by Caixin and seen by the AP, forbade labs from publishing about the virus without government authorization. The order barred Shi's lab from publishing the genetic sequence or warning of the potential danger. Chinese law states that research institutes cannot conduct experiments on potentially dangerous new viruses without approval from top health authorities. Although the law is intended to keep experiments safe, it gives top health officials wide-ranging powers over what lower-level labs can or cannot do. 'If the virologist community had operated with more autonomy..the public would have been informed of the lethal risk of the new virus much earlier,' said Edward Gu, a professor at Zhejiang University, and Li Lantian, a PhD student at Northwestern University, in a paper published in March analyzing the outbreak. Commission officials later repeated that they were trying to ensure lab safety, and had tasked four separate government labs with identifying the genome at the same time to get accurate, consistent results. This January 28, 2020, file photo, shows Tedros Adhanom, director general of the World Health Organization, left, shaking hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping before a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing By January 3, the Chinese CDC had independently sequenced the virus, according to internal data seen by the Associated Press. And by just after midnight on January 5, a third designated government lab, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, had decoded the sequence and submitted a report - pulling all-nighters to get results in record time, according to a state media interview. Yet even with full sequences decoded by three state labs independently, Chinese health officials remained silent. The WHO reported on Twitter that investigations were under way into an unusual cluster of pneumonia cases with no deaths in Wuhan, and said it would share 'more details as we have them.' Meanwhile, at the Chinese CDC, gaps in coronavirus expertise proved a problem. For nearly two weeks, Wuhan reported no new infections, as officials censored doctors who warned of suspicious cases. Meanwhile, researchers found the new coronavirus used a distinct spike protein to bind itself to human cells. The unusual protein and the lack of new cases lulled some Chinese CDC researchers into thinking the virus didn't easily spread between humans - like the coronavirus that casues Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, according to an employee who declined to be identified out of fear of retribution. Li, the coronavirus expert, said he immediately suspected the pathogen was infectious when he spotted a leaked copy of a sequencing report in a group chat on a SARS-like coronavirus. But the Chinese CDC team that sequenced the virus lacked specialists in the molecular structure of coronaviruses and failed to consult with outside scientists, Li said. Chinese health authorities rebuffed offers of assistance from foreign experts, including Hong Kong scientists barred from a fact-finding mission to Wuhan and an American professor at a university in China. On January 5, the Shanghai Public Clinical Health Center, led by famed virologist Zhang Yongzhen, was the latest to sequence the virus. He submitted it to the GenBank database, where it sat awaiting review, and notified the National Health Commission. He warned them that the new virus was similar to SARS and likely infectious. 'It should be contagious through respiratory passages,' the center said in an internal notice seen by the AP. 'We recommend taking preventative measures in public areas.' On the same day, WHO said that based on preliminary information from China, there was no evidence of significant transmission between humans, and did not recommend any specific measures for travelers. The next day, the Chinese CDC raised its emergency level to the second highest. Staffers proceeded to isolate the virus, draft lab testing guidelines, and design test kits. But the agency did not have the authority to issue public warnings, and the heightened emergency level was kept secret even from many of its own staff. By January 7, another team at Wuhan University had sequenced the pathogen and found it matched Shi's, making Shi certain they had identified a novel coronavirus. But Chinese CDC experts said they didn't trust Shi's findings and needed to verify her data before she could publish, according to three people familiar with the matter. Both the National Health Commission and the Ministry of Science and Technology, which oversees Shi's lab, declined to make Shi available for an interview. A major factor behind the gag order, some say, was that Chinese CDC researchers wanted to publish their papers first. 'They wanted to take all the credit,' said Li Yize, a coronavirus researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. Internally, the leadership of the Chinese CDC is plagued with fierce competition, six people familiar with the system explained. They said the agency has long promoted staff based on how many papers they can publish in prestigious journals, making scientists reluctant to share data. Employees work at the Beijing Applied Biological Technologies lab, which is developing COVID-19 molecular diagnostic test kits, during a government organised tour for journalists in Beijing, Thursday, May 14, 2020 As the days went by, even some of the Chinese CDC's own staff began to wonder why it was taking so long for authorities to identify the pathogen. 'We were getting suspicious, since within one or two days you would get a sequencing result,' a lab technician said, declining to be identified for fear of retribution. On January 8, the Wall Street Journal reported that scientists had identified a new coronavirus in samples from pneumonia patients in Wuhan, pre-empting and embarrassing Chinese officials. The lab technician told the AP they first learned about the discovery of the virus from the Journal. The article also embarrassed WHO officials. Dr. Tom Grein, chief of WHO's acute events management team, said the agency looked 'doubly, incredibly stupid.' Van Kerkhove, the American expert, acknowledged WHO was 'already late' in announcing the new virus and told colleagues that it was critical to push China. Ryan, WHO's chief of emergencies, was also upset at the dearth of information. 'The fact is, we're two to three weeks into an event, we don't have a laboratory diagnosis, we don't have an age, sex or geographic distribution, we don't have an epi curve,' he complained, referring to the standard graphic of outbreaks scientists use to show how an epidemic is progressing. After the article, state media officially announced the discovery of the new coronavirus. But even then, Chinese health authorities did not release the genome, diagnostic tests, or detailed patient data that could hint at how infectious the disease was. By that time, suspicious cases were already appearing across the region. On January 8, Thai airport officers pulled aside a woman from Wuhan with a runny nose, sore throat, and high temperature. Chulalongkorn University professor Supaporn Wacharapluesadee's team found the woman was infected with a new coronavirus, much like what Chinese officials had described. Supaporn partially figured out the genetic sequence by January 9, reported it to the Thai government and spent the next day searching for matching sequences. But because Chinese authorities hadn't published any sequences, she found nothing. She could not prove the Thai virus was the same pathogen sickening people in Wuhan. 'It was kind of wait and see, when China will release the data, then we can compare,' said Supaporn. On January 9, a 61-year-old man with the virus passed away in Wuhan - the first known death. The death wasn't made public until January 11. WHO officials complained in internal meetings that they were making repeated requests for more data, especially to find out if the virus could spread efficiently between humans, but to no avail. A man wearing a mask walks past a poster warning people that consuming wildlife is illegal, in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China, 25 May 2020. China's Centre for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed a possible link to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus found in fruit bats. The respiratory virus was first detected in Wuhan, China, and can be passed between humans 'We have informally and formally been requesting more epidemiological information,' WHO's China representative Galea said. 'But when asked for specifics, we could get nothing.' Emergencies chief Ryan grumbled that since China was providing the minimal information required by international law, there was little WHO could do. But he also noted that last September, WHO had issued an unusual public rebuke of Tanzania for not providing enough details about a worrisome Ebola outbreak. 'We have to be consistent,' Ryan said. 'The danger now is that despite our good intent...especially if something does happen, there will be a lot of finger-pointing at WHO.' Ryan noted that China could make a 'huge contribution' to the world by sharing the genetic material immediately, because otherwise 'other countries will have to reinvent the wheel over the coming days.' On January 11, a team led by Zhang, from the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, finally published a sequence on virological.org, used by researchers to swap tips on pathogens. The move angered Chinese CDC officials, three people familiar with the matter said, and the next day, his laboratory was temporarily shuttered by health authorities. Zhang referred a request for comment to the Chinese CDC. The National Health Commission, which oversees the Chinese CDC, declined multiple times to make its officials available for interviews and did not answer questions about Zhang. Supaporn compared her sequence with Zhang's and found it was a 100% match, confirming that the Thai patient was ill with the same virus detected in Wuhan. Another Thai lab got the same results. That day, Thailand informed the WHO, said Tanarak Plipat, deputy director-general of the Department of Disease Control at Thailand's Ministry of Public Health. After Zhang released the genome, the Chinese CDC, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences raced to publish their sequences, working overnight to review them, gather patient data, and send them to the National Health Commission for approval, according to documentation obtained by the AP. On January 12, the three labs together finally published the sequences on GISAID, a platform for scientists to share genomic data. By then, more than two weeks had passed since Vision Medicals decoded a partial sequence, and more than a week since the three government labs had all obtained full sequences. Around 600 people were infected in that week, a roughly three-fold increase. Some scientists say the wait was not unreasonable considering the difficulties in sequencing unknown pathogens, given accuracy is as important as speed. They point to the SARS outbreak in 2003 when some Chinese scientists initially - and wrongly - believed the source of the epidemic was chlamydia. 'The pressure is intense in an outbreak to make sure you're right,' said Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealthAlliance in New York. 'It's actually worse to go out to go to the public with a story that's wrong because the public completely lose confidence in the public health response.' Still, others quietly question what happened behind the scenes. Infectious diseases expert John Mackenzie, who served on a WHO emergency committee during the outbreak, praised the speed of Chinese researchers in sequencing the virus. But he said once central authorities got involved, detailed data trickled to a crawl. 'There certainly was a kind of blank period,' Mackenzie said. 'There had to be human to human transmission. You know, it's staring at you in the face. I would have thought they would have been much more open at that stage.' On January 13, WHO announced that Thailand had a confirmed case of the virus, jolting Chinese officials. The next day, in a confidential teleconference, China's top health official ordered the country to prepare for a pandemic, calling the outbreak the 'most severe challenge since SARS in 2003', as the AP previously reported. Chinese CDC staff across the country began screening, isolating, and testing for cases, turning up hundreds across the country. Yet even as the Chinese CDC internally declared a level one emergency, the highest level possible, Chinese officials still said the chance of sustained transmission between humans was low. WHO went back and forth. Van Kerkhove said in a press briefing that 'it is certainly possible there is limited human-to-human transmission.' But hours later, WHO seemed to backtrack, and tweeted that 'preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission' - a statement that later became fodder for critics. A high-ranking official in WHO's Asia office, Dr. Liu Yunguo, who attended medical school in Wuhan, flew to Beijing to make direct, informal contacts with Chinese officials, recordings show. Liu's former classmate, a Wuhan doctor, had alerted him that pneumonia patients were flooding the city's hospitals, and Liu pushed for more experts to visit Wuhan, according to a public health expert familiar with the matter. On January 20, the leader of an expert team returning from Wuhan, renowned government infectious diseases doctor Zhong Nanshan, declared publicly for the first time that the new virus was spreading between people. Chinese President Xi Jinping called for the 'timely publication of epidemic information and deepening of international cooperation.' Despite that directive, WHO staff still struggled to obtain enough detailed patient data from China about the rapidly evolving outbreak. That same day, the U.N. health agency dispatched a small team to Wuhan for two days, including Galea, the WHO representative in China. They were told about a worrying cluster of cases among more than a dozen doctors and nurses. But they did not have 'transmission trees' detailing how the cases were connected, nor a full understanding of how widely the virus was spreading and who was at risk. In an internal meeting, Galea said their Chinese counterparts were 'talking openly and consistently' about human-to-human transmission, and that there was a debate about whether or not this was sustained. Galea reported to colleagues in Geneva and Manila that China's key request to WHO was for help 'in communicating this to the public, without causing panic.' On January 22, WHO convened an independent committee to determine whether to declare a global health emergency. After two inconclusive meetings where experts were split, they decided against it - even as Chinese officials ordered Wuhan sealed in the biggest quarantine in history. The next day, WHO chief Tedros publicly described the spread of the new coronavirus in China as 'limited.' For days, China didn't release much detailed data, even as its case count exploded. Beijing city officials were alarmed enough to consider locking down the capital, according to a medical expert with direct knowledge of the matter. On January 28, Tedros and top experts, including Ryan, made an extraordinary trip to Beijing to meet President Xi and other senior Chinese officials. It is highly unusual for WHO's director-general to directly intervene in the practicalities of outbreak investigations. Tedros' staffers had prepared a list of requests for information. 'It could all happen and the floodgates open, or there's no communication,' Grein said in an internal meeting while his boss was in Beijing. 'We'll see.' At the end of Tedros' trip, WHO announced China had agreed to accept an international team of experts. In a press briefing on January 29, Tedros heaped praise on China, calling its level of commitment 'incredible.' The next day, WHO finally declared an international health emergency. Once again, Tedros thanked China, saying nothing about the earlier lack of cooperation. 'We should have actually expressed our respect and gratitude to China for what it's doing,' Tedros said. 'It has already done incredible things to limit the transmission of the virus to other countries.' He was pictured kissing his former co-star on Friday, just six months after filing for divorce from his wife in November. And now it has been claimed that Justin Hartley's new girlfriend Sofia Pernas was 'close friends' with his Selling Sunset ex Chrishell Stause. Sofia, 30, and Chrishell, 38, met on soap opera The Young and the Restless in 2016 where they were also both introduced to Justin, 43. Ouch! It has been claimed that Justin Hartley's new girlfriend Sofia Pernas was 'close friends' with his Selling Sunset ex Chrishell Stause (pictured in 2017) The two kept in touch with both actresses continuing to interact on social media with the latest correspondence taking place in February, just three months before Justin was caught kissing Sofia. Sofia and Chrishell were said to have been 'close friends for years', according to The Sun. And the two actresses appeared to have a good friendship on social media as they would regularly like or comment on each other's posts. Pals: Sofia, 30, and Chrishell, 38, met on soap opera The Young and the Restless in 2016 where they were also both introduced to Justin, 43 In January 2018, Sofia commented on a video of Chrishell and Justin posted to the This Is Us actor's Instagram. She put: 'Your dress!!! LOVE.' In 2016, Chrishell flooded Sofia's Instagram with a collection of comments following their stint together on The Young and the Restless. On a birthday snap of Sofia in July 2016, Chrishell gushed: 'You are the absolute CUTEST!!!! Happy Birthdayyyyyyyyy!!!!!' followed by three heart emojis. She also posted three fire emojis underneath a bikini photo of her ex-husband's new girlfriend posted to Instagram earlier in July 2016. Close: The two actresses appeared to have a good friendship on social media as they would regularly like or comment on each other's posts (Sofia commenting on a video of Chrishell and Justin in 2018) Gushing: In 2016, Chrishell flooded Sofia's Instagram with a collection of comments following their stint together on The Young and the Restless Birthday love: On a birthday snap of Sofia in July 2016, Chrishell gushed: 'You are the absolute CUTEST!!!! Happy Birthdayyyyyyyyy!!!!!' followed by three heart emojis In February 2016, Sofia also shared a fun picture of herself with Justin at LA's CBS Television City. She captioned it: 'Justin and Rob were in the middle of an intense conversation but Missy really had to take a selfie [crying laughing face] Justin's face [eye roll emoji] #selfiesfirst #redlips #yr #typicalworkday.' The latest correspondence took place in February just weeks after Justin filed for divorce and three months before he was caught kissing Sofia. Chrishell had liked a photo of Sofia working out in Thailand with a sword. Going WAY back: In February 2016, Sofia also shared a fun picture of herself with Justin at LA's CBS Television City Latest one: The latest correspondence took place in February just weeks after Justin filed for divorce and three months before he was caught kissing Sofia. Chrishell had liked a photo of Sofia working out in Thailand with a sword It comes after Justin was pictured kissing Sofia outside the Southern California Orthopedic Institute on Friday. His doting new girlfriend not only dropped off the This Is Us star for his doctor's appointment, but came back hours later to pick him up. The co-stars-turned lovers first met on the CBS soap opera, which Justin starred on from 2014 to 2016 as Adam Newman. His new flame portrayed Marisa Sierras, Adams nephew's girlfriend in 2015, on the same set Justin met his estranged wife. Chrishell joined in 2016 as Bethany Bryant. Goodness! It comes after Justin was pictured kissing Sofia outside the Southern California Orthopedic Institute on Friday (pictured with Chrishell in June 2019) The pair's smooch comes after the Smallville star filed for divorce late last year in November, citing irreconcilable differences in his legal filings. At the time sources say the split came as a complete surprise to Chrishell. There is still some dispute over the timeline of the breakup. In divorce filings, Justin listed the date of separation as July 8. While, the All My Children alum claims November 22, the day he filed, was the actual date of separation. Making things murkier, the pair made several public appearances together following Justin's claimed date of separation. Divorce: The pair's smooch comes after the Smallville star filed for divorce late last year in November, citing irreconcilable differences in his legal filings (pictured with Chrishell in October 2019) They were seen together at the Emmy Awards in September 2019, the Veuve Clicquot Polo game in October 2019 and a Hollywood Reporter-hosted pre-Golden Globes bash in November of that year. Sources close to Chrishell think he has fudged their official separation date because he has some sort of deal in place and doesn't want her to have a part of it. TMZ previously reported that Chrishell's lawyer, Samantha Spector, is asking Justin to pay her client spousal support, to his dismay. Justin was last featured on Chrishell's Instagram page on November 15, when the two attended a Golden Globes party together. The two got married back in 2017 in an intimate ceremony at Calamigos Ranch in Malibu. 'They don't make them any better than Justin, and I could not be more thrilled to officially be Mrs. Hartley!' the actress expressed to People at that time. Soap star: The Illinois native starred as The Young and the Restless' Adam Newman from 2014 to 2016 (pictured with co-star Melissa Claire Egan) Last month, Chrishell opened up about their spilt on Netflix's reality real estate show Selling Sunset. 'I'm just kind of in shock with it all,' the former daytime TV star admitted to a friend through tears. 'He just blindsided you?' her pal asked, with Chrishell responding with a sad nod. Split: The two got married back in 2017 in an intimate ceremony at Calamigos Ranch in Malibu (pictured in January 2019) It seemed like everyone knew about Chrishell's personal life, as a room full of her colleagues found out the news on their phones instead of from her. 'It's just a lot all at once because everybody in the whole worlds knows,' she said, while packing a suitcase. She added: 'I love him so much. This was my best friend. Who do I talk to now?' Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Jun. 02, 2020 | CHARLESTON, WV By West Kentucky Star Staff Jun. 02, 2020 | 11:31 AM | CHARLESTON, WV US Senate candidate Richard Ojeda endorsed retired Lt. Col. Mike Broihier Tuesday in Kentucky's Democratic Senate primary, as he hopes to challenge Mitch McConnell in November. Ojeda, who is also a Democrat, is running for US Senate in West Virginia against incumbent Republican Shelley Capito, and Mike Broihier is endorsing him in his primary race as well. The former West Virginia State Senator is well-known for his 2018 run for West Virginias third congressional district seat. Mike Broihier is a farmer, so he knows how to work with his hands, hes a teacher, so he understands the importance of handing things down to others, and hes a Marine Lt. Colonel, said Ojeda. Hes somebody that you dont have to worry when it comes to values, when it comes to standing up for what is right, and you dont have to worry wont represent the people, because make no mistake about it, Mike absolutely will. Theres not a lot of daylight between Richard and I, Broihier said. Hes a retired combat veteran with two Bronze Stars, hes a supporter of universal basic income, and hes a teacher. Richard fought hard for teachers in West Virginia and right here in Kentucky - and we havent forgotten that. He has a heart of gold. Broihier said in a press release he looks forward to joining Ojeda in the US Senate, along with other Appalachian Democrats to make a new push for progressive policies, while Ojeda urged his followers to support Broihier. Kentucky, you can be the hero, Ojeda said. We have to find somebody who can beat Mitch McConnell. We have a man who prides himself on being the Grim Reaper in Washington, D.C. and is keeping our democracy in a stranglehold. Mike Broihier can change that. Broihier is one of ten candidates in the Democratic primary on June 23. Seven people are challenging McConnell in the Republican primary. By Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO: South American countries on Monday began easing COVID-19 restrictions even as the region hurtles toward its viral peak, disregarding the example set by European nations that were battered earlier by the virus. Some of Brazil's hardest hit cities, including the jungle metropolis Manaus and coastal Rio de Janeiro, are starting to allow more activity. Bolivia's government authorized reopening most of the country and the government of Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro unwound restrictions. Ecuador's airports were resuming flights and shoppers returning to some of Colombia's malls. Rolling back measures runs counter to Europe's approach of waiting for the worst to pass before resuming activity, and South America trails much further behind on its viral curve. ALSO READ | COVID-19 could push over 14 million people into hunger in South America: UNWFP Even European nations that lifted restrictions earliest in their respective outbreak, the U.K. and Russia - did so only after clearing their initial peaks. The executive director of the World Health Organization's emergencies program, Mike Ryan, expressed concern over South America's climbing contagion, telling reporters Monday that the region had become an "intense zone of transmission for this virus," which had not yet reached its peak. "Clearly the situation in many South American countries is far from stable. There is a rapid increase in cases and those systems are coming under increasing pressure," he said. Data from the WHO's Pan American Health Organisation shows the region's seven-day rolling average of new cases continues rising, due in large part to Brazil, which accounts for more than half the total. Manaus, the Amazon rainforest's largest city, was the first Brazilian metropolis whose health care system collapsed. ALSO READ | Crammed, corrupted and scary: Coronavirus spreads fear through South America's unruly prisons For weeks, overwhelmed intensive-care units were unable to admit patients, deaths at home surged and a city cemetery buried bodies in mass graves. Such burials continue, yet the capital of Amazonas state on Monday began loosening its clamp on non-essential businesses. Amazonas registered 818 new COVID-19 cases Sunday, bringing the total number of cases above 40,000. There are more than 500,000 confirmed cases in Brazil, the second most in the world, and experts believe the true toll to be much higher due to insufficient testing. Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian city with the second-most cases after Sao Paulo, on Monday announced it would begin gradually relaxing restrictions the following day. A Already a city in its metropolitan region, Sao Joao de Meriti, started allowing salons, auto mechanics, and hotels to operate on Monday. "Brazil tends to look at Europe, and the problem is that there they did one or two months of strict quarantine and are now reopening,": said Renato Mendes Coutinho, a specialist in mathematical biology at COVID-19 BR Observatory, an independent group of more than 50 Brazilian researchers. "The difference is that the lockdown they implemented and the restriction measures were much more efficient and thorough." Ecuador was one of the first South American nations slammed, with grim scenes of people leaving corpses outside their doorsteps in Guayaquil through March and April. The nation's caseload continues to surge, yet its airport will resume international flights on June 3, according to Nicolas Romero, the airport's spokesperson, though he said arriving passengers must spend 15 days in quarantine, without specifying how such quarantine will be enforced. The airport in capital, Quito, recorded its first flight in 80 days on Monday, and flights to Miami and Houston will take off on June 4. "It has just been one flight so far, but the important thing is the message it gives, of flying safely," Luis Galarraga, the airport's spokesperson, told The Associated Press. Across Ecuador's border, Colombia has shut the international airport in its capital, Bogota, until September and locked down an entire working-class district home to 1.5 million people. But in the nation's second city, Medellin, malls cautiously began opening their doors on Monday, though checking customers' temperatures upon entry. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 21:47:54|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HARARE, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) on Tuesday introduced a stricter COVID-19 enforcement regime where many people were barred from entering the city center, as positive cases spiked to 203 from 63 seven days earlier. Most of the new cases are however imported and local transmissions have remained very low. Many motorists and passengers using public transport were reportedly turned back home as the police insisted on particular "essential services", despite some having documents showing that they were also covered under the COVID-19 Level 2 lockdown regulations. In a message on Twitter, the police said members of the public should observe the regulations in view of the rising number of COVID-19 cases. "The ZRP urges members of the public to observe that the country is still under Level 2 national lockdown in order to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. Only essential services, businesses in the formal commercial and industrial sectors were exempted to operate during this period," it said. "The rest of the public should stay at home in order for the nation to curtail the increase in new COVID-19 cases being recorded. Please note that it is not everyone who should be in the Central Business District. Let us all be security and health conscious in view of the increase of COVID-19 cases," the police said. Government spokesperson Nick Mangwana also reminded citizens that the country was still in lockdown. "Government has not pronounced a change in lockdown regulations. We are still on Level 2 lockdown and permitted economic activity should go ahead. Police are only enforcing the pronounced and gazetted Level 2 conditions," he said on Twitter. President Emmerson Mnangagwa two weeks ago maintained a Level 2 lockdown for an indefinite period in a bid to cut the spread of the pandemic. He allowed industry and commerce to reopen under strict health regulations while informal businesses bars and gymnasiums remained closed. There is also a ban on inter-city and cross-border movement, except transportation of cargo. Enditem Woolworths Gives Shares, Credits to Staff Woolworths is giving more than 100,000 staffers across Australia and New Zealand bonuses to thank them for their hard work during a challenging year. Full-time employees will get $750 in Woolies shares and $250 in store credits, with part-time workers getting the entire store credit and the shares on a pro rata basis. Woolworths Group chief executive Brad Banducci said the companys unprecedented challenges included not just the COVID-19 crisis but the protests in Hong Kong, the droughts and bushfires in Australia and the White Island volcanic eruption in New Zealand that killed several employees. The awarding of shares is not only recognition for our teams efforts over the last year but also acknowledgement that our team has a critical role to play going forward as we all adjust to the new normal, Banducci said. The offer meant Woolworths would have the largest number of shareholder staff in the Australian and New Zealand markets, the company said. Employees are free to keep the shares or sell them. Staff employed before March 1 are eligible. Casual workers who joined after on or after that date to help the company navigate the COVID-19 demand surge will be able to keep their Woolies discount through the end of the year, even if they leave the company. Woolworths had a relatively small number of its employees come down with COVID-19 as its stores remained open during the pandemic, a spokesman said, declining to give the exact figure. Those staffers were quarantined for two weeks and paid COVID-leave as they recovered and none of their illnesses became serious. Derek Rose Oregons environmental analysis released last year that found a mega-project to expand Interstate 5 through the Rose Quarter would reduce greenhouse gas emissions was technically sound, but the state did a poor job of communicating its findings, according to an outside review released Tuesday. A collection of six independent transportation experts conducted the analysis at the request of the states transportation commission. The review comes two months after the state signaled it would not conduct a more extensive environmental analysis of the projects impacts, a decision that project leaders said would add three years to the overall project timeline. State transportation officials handed over technical documents and answered questions but said they didnt see the report until Tuesday. The review backed up the states original environmental analysis, which found that the more than $715 million freeway project would ultimately slightly reduce greenhouse gas emissions when compared to a scenario where no project is built. The 2019 state analysis reviewed potential emissions, traffic and noise issues by 2045 and included a scenario where every major project in the metro areas transportation plan including the revived Columbia River bridge replacement was built. The state transportation will be briefed on the report this month. Grace Crunican, a Beaverton native who was Oregons first female transportation director and retired last year after leading the San Francisco areas Bay Area Rapid Transit service, oversaw the peer review process and selected the technical experts. ODOT didnt do a great job taking the technical work they did and communicating it to the public very well, Crunican said in conference call with reporters Tuesday. The group determined construction impacts will be the most significant for both noise and air pollutants. Of particular concern is how to limit diesel particulate matter from drifting into nearby neighborhoods as diesel trucks drove other routes such as neighborhood streets -- to avoid the freeway during construction. The group recommended the state mandate in its bid that construction equipment include low-emission vehicles. This requirement will add expense to the project but will produce a direct benefit to surrounding neighborhoods, they wrote. The outside experts came from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, New York Citys Department of Transportation Environmental Protection, Minnesotas Department of Transportation, as well as Beverly Scott, a consultant and long-time transportation leader who has led more than a half dozen transit or transportation agencies. The 10-page report released this week determined states work was adequate, and that additional work was needed to collaborate with the neighborhoods surrounding the freeway, Portland Public Schools and other partners. The peer analysis determined the 2019 report accurately analyzed the environmental issues it was intended to address, including noise, air quality, and greenhouse gases. The peer review did not focus on traffic scenarios like travel times, and the experts punted to the state when asked whether the project should have included an analysis of how tolling would affect traffic volumes on the highway. Brendan Finn, director of the states new urban mobility office, said an environmental assessment of congestion pricing will happen, but the Rose Quarter project will move forward regardless. That decision has been made, he said on the conference call. The review did not include an analysis of travel time assumptions either. Freeway opponents criticized the state for its confusing environmental assessment last year and said that was vindicated in the peer review which highlighted that confusion. They also noted that the peer review spotlighted the greenhouse gas emission assumptions included in the 2019 report were predicated on stricter fuel economy standards approved by the Obama administration. Those protections have since been gutted by the Trump administration, said Chris Smith, founder of the No More Freeways Coalition. Overall, the review does nothing to change my mind that this project is ill-considered and inappropriate when we're facing the need to reduce GHG emissions by 50% in the next decade, Smith said, citing greenhouse gas emissions. Smith, who is running for a seat on the Metro Council, said he also believes congestion pricing should not happen at the same time as the Rose Quarter, rather it should occur before then. The Rose Quarter project is expected to cost up to $795 million, and likely significantly more if the state moves forward with proposals to cover the freeway to allow for building construction above the freeway. The broader project area includes a roughly 1.8-mile stretch of I-5 between the Interstate 84 and Interstate 405 interchanges. The project would also include a new bike and pedestrian bridge, a new seismically sound freeway overcrossing and surface street changes. The outside panel recommended a few additional mitigation efforts that would likely raise project costs including using low-emission vehicles during construction and potentially to building an additional noise wall to reduce freeway noise. The peer group also recommended the state do more to embrace restorative justice in the area, which was once a predominately African American neighborhood before the freeway was built. If ODOT is to regain a healthy working relationship with the community and other project partners, it will need to incorporate its understanding of restorative justice concepts in its future actions, the report found. Scott, the consultant and former transit leader, indicated the project may be on stronger footing than many other shes seen nationally. If there was ever an opportunity to do something not only right, but well, she said, the Rose Quarter project presented that opportunity. The Oregon Transportation Commission, the states top decision-making body, voted unanimously in April not to seek a more extensive environmental impact statement. Critics of the project, including public officials like Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, had called for a more thorough analysis of what the more than $715 million project would mean for air and noise pollution in the city. But at the eleventh hour, Eudaly and several other prominent Portland area politicians including Metro Council President Lynn Peterson, Multnomah County Commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson and Ted Wheeler, walked back their previous insistence on a more thorough analysis. In a March 27 letter, those leaders as well as Albina Vision Trust Chair Rukaiyah Adams and the Portland Public Schools Board indicated they would be OK with the project proceeding without further analysis if it meets a list of their demands. The project, which adds merging lanes along that stretch of congested freeway and highway shoulders, is expected to start construction potentially as soon as next year. -- Andrew Theen; atheen@oregonian.com; 503-294-4026; @andrewtheen Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. FERNDALE, Mich.Nalpac, one of America's leading adult distributors, has announced that it has partnered with SHOTS America for week five of Nalpac's popular F*ck Covid19 Campaign. During week five, Nalpac and SHOTS have joined forces to bring customers social media giveaways, as well as a live webinar. Nalpac is running a special SHOTS spending promotion starting today and continuing through July 1, 2020. Any customer who spends the designated amount on SHOTS products will receive one of Nalpac's top-selling SHOTS items, the Layla Massage Wand, for free, while supplies last. "This is a great opportunity to build your social media. Product giveaways increase engagement and allow you to reach new customers. SHOTS has some great items that we know anyone would be excited to win," said Amy Lazzara, Nalpac creative director. Nalpac is also presenting a live webinar for SHOTS, hosted by Joey Teodoro, on June 2, 2020, at Noon ET/9 AM PT. To sign up for the live SHOTS webinar and reserve a place, click here. Nalpac's F*ck Covid19 Campaign will run for more than fifteen consecutive weeks and will feature a different manufacturer and promotions each week. Each week, participating manufacturers are offering various deals in combination with orders. Nalpac will also be making a big social media push during the F*ck Covid19 promotion with original content and extra giveaways to keep people engaged and excited about starting to reopen their stores and businesses. Nalpac customers with questions about the F*ck Covid19 Campaign can contact their Nalpac sales representative. New prospective Nalpac customers can email [email protected] to get an account set up. To sign up for the Nalpac email newsletter and take advantage of significant savings, special promotions, and online education tools, visit Nalpac's blog at Nalpac.us. Nalpac offers over 22,000 items now, including PPE, to retailers at wholesale prices. For more information on Nalpac, please visit the company website Nalpac.com and follow it through social media for daily updates on Twitter @NalpacWholesale, on Facebook, on Instagram @Nalpac and its YouTube channel. The high court on Monday ruled in favour of two daughters in the three-decade-long legal battle for the assets between members of Faridkot royal family. It also gave share to descendents of Maharajas brother. Surender Sharma dissects the issue to know what is at stake, the claimants and the road ahead The dispute Faridkots last Maharaja Harinder Singh had three daughters Amrit Kaur, Deepinder Kaur and Mahip Inder Kaur and one son, Harmohinder Singh. His son died in a road accident in 1981. Maharaja died in 1989 and soon after, a will purportedly signed by him surfaced in 1982, entrusting properties to a trust. His wife Narinder Kaur, mother Mohinder Kaur and Amrit Kaur feigned ignorance about the will. It had Deepinder Kaur and Mahip Inder Kaur as trust chairperson and vice-chairperson. Mahip Inder, a spinster, died in Shimla in 2001. Amrit Kaur had reportedly married against the wishes of Maharaja to a police officer, a reason cited for her exclusion. She filed a civil suit in 1992, challenging the will of her father. Her contention was that her father could not have legally bequeathed his entire estate to the trust because it was ancestral property governed by Hindu joint family law. Manjit Inder Singh, Harinder Singhs brother, argued that as Maharajas son had died, the property should have been granted to the eldest living male blood relative. What is at stake As per lawyers, the properties are valued at more than 20,000 crore. It include Rajmahal in Faridkot, which is spread over 14 acres; Qila Mubarak built by Raja Mokulsi and reconstructed by Raja Hamir Singh around 1775; and Faridkot House on Copernicus Marg in New Delhi. Other properties include Manimajra Fort, Chandigarh, spread over four acres, Faridkot House in Mashobra (Shimla, a 260-bigha estate); 18 vintage cars; aerodrome in Faridkot, which is spread over 200 acres, and gold and jewels valued at 1,000 crore in Standard Chartered Banks custody in Mumbai. The will and the verdict The will which entrusted properties of Maharaja was purportedly signed in 1982 but surfaced in 1989 after his death. It had Deepinder and Mahip Inder Kaur at the helm, and a large number of employees as custodians. The court observed that the locker from where the will was recovered was operated by the Raja personally then how an employee of Raja opened the same without informing others. Also it was natural for him to inform his near and dear ones about such an important document, but none knew about it. Also, why the executors did not make any inventory of movable and immovable properties of Raja, nor they performed any obligation mandatorily required under Indian Succession Act. Another aspect noted by court is that why Raja would disinherit his unmarried daughter, his wife and mother in the will. Now what As per lawyers, 37.5% of share goes to both the daughters and 25% to Bharat Inder Singh. The appeal against the dispute, which started in 1992, lies in Supreme Court now. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Boris Johnson and top ministers didn't take the threat of Covid-19 seriously until the crisis spiralled out of control, a government adviser has claimed. Professor Graham Medley, on Number 10's SAGE panel, said scientists made it clear the virus 'was going to cause an awful lot of death and disability' early on. But he spoke of his frustration at watching senior politicians 'behaving in a way that suggested this was not something that was too serious'. Professor Graham Medley, chair of SPI-M - the pandemic modelling committee, said the warnings were made in February, weeks before the outbreak took off. It also emerged last night that the Prime Minister allegedly told Italian politicians he wanted to pursue a policy of herd immunity in a bid to control Covid-19. Pierpaolo Sileri, Italy 's deputy health minister, claimed he had mentioned the plan in a call with the country's prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, on March 13. Herd immunity occurs when enough of the population has had a disease that it can no longer spread effectively. For it to develop against Covid-19, scientists say around two thirds of people would have to had the virus - a process that would kill tens of thousands of Britons. Professor Medley's and Mr Sileri's shocking revelations come from a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary which airs tonight at 9pm. In response to the documentary the Government insisted it has 'taken the right steps at the right time' and said the public should avoid 'accepting the claims of a rushed documentary'. Boris Johnson allegedly told the Italian Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, that he was considering a policy of developing herd immunity to the coronavirus at a time when Italy was in lockdown, the country's deputy health minister said Professor Medley, an infectious disease expert at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, told Channel 4: 'We already knew that this virus was going to cause an awful lot of death and disability and would require an awful lot of NHS resource... 'So it was with some dismay that we were watching senior politicians behaving in a way that suggested that this was not something that was too serious.' Professor Medley said the Government was told in late February that half a million Brits could die if there was no lockdown, but the country didn't go into lockdown until March 23. 'We had been saying it on SAGE... from the end of February,' he said. 'It was a public perception that something changed on the 16th March, but nothing changed within SPI-M [a SAGE sub-group] or within SAGE other than a palpable relief that this was being seen as a very serious event.' The documentary also heard from Pierpaolo Sileri, a qualified surgeon and Italy's deputy health minister, who was diagnosed with the coronavirus himself in mid-March. He recalled speaking to the country's prime minister, Mr Conte, who had had a phone call with Boris Johnson on March 13. Mr Sileri told Dispatches: 'I spoke with Conte to tell President Conte that I'd tested positive. Pierpaolo Sileri, a qualified surgeon and Italy's deputy health minister (left) and Professor Graham Medley, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), have come out in criticism of the British Government's handling of the coronavirus crisis WHAT IS HERD IMMUNITY? Herd immunity is a situation in which a population of people is protected from a disease because so many of them are unaffected by it - because they've already had it or have been vaccinated - that it cannot spread. To cause an outbreak a disease-causing bacteria or virus must have a continuous supply of potential victims who are not immune to it. Immunity is when your body knows exactly how to fight off a certain type of infection because it has encountered it before, either by having the illness in the past or through a vaccine. When a virus or bacteria enters the body the immune system creates substances called antibodies, which are designed to destroy one specific type of bug. When these have been created once, some of them remain in the body and the body also remembers how to make them again. This provides long-term protection, or immunity, against an illness. If nobody is immune to an illness as was the case at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak it can spread like wildfire. However, if, for example, half of people have developed immunity from a past infection or a vaccine there are only half as many people the illness can spread to. As more and more people become immune the bug finds it harder and harder to spread until its pool of victims becomes so small it can no longer spread at all. The threshold for herd immunity is different for various illnesses, depending on how contagious they are for measles, around 95 per cent of people must be vaccinated to it spreading. For polio, which is less contagious, the threshold is about 80-85 per cent, according to the Oxford Vaccine Group. Advertisement 'And he told me that he'd spoken with Boris Johnson and that they'd also talked about the situation in Italy. 'I remember he said: "He told me that he wants herd immunity". I remember that after hanging up, I said to myself that I hope Boris Johnson goes for a lockdown.' For herd immunity to develop, a majority of a population must have a disease, recover from it and build up a tolerance to stop them getting it again. Scientists believe that for this to work for Covid-19, around 60 per cent of people would have to have the virus - about 40million people in the UK. Currently, the coronavirus appears to have a death rate of around one per cent, suggesting that 400,000 people could have died in the process. And scientists still do not know if people actually develop long-lasting immunity against the coronavirus, or whether they are able to catch it more than once. Sir Patrick Vallance, chief scientific adviser to the UK Government, spoke about herd immunity in March as if officials were genuinely considering it as an option. When asked about lockdown on March 13 - Italy was already in lockdown by that point - Sir Patrick said that it was 'impossible' for a country to attempt to self-isolate its entire population. He said: 'We want to suppress it [the virus], not get rid of it completely, which you can't do anyway, and also allow enough of us who are going to get mild illness to become immune to this to help with the sort of whole population response which would protect everybody.' Sir Patrick added: 'We think that this virus is likely to be one that comes back year on year, become like a seasonal virus, and communities will become immune to it, and that's going to be an important part of controlling this longer term.' However, public backlash against the plan which would see millions infected and tens or even hundreds of thousands of people die, took herd immunity of the table. It stopped being mentioned in discussions and 10 Downing Street has denied considering it as a plan ever since. But top scientists say they had to battle hard to get officials to take the virus seriously in the outbreak's early days. In response to Mr Sileri's claim that Boris Johnson said he planned to pursue herd immunity, a UK Government spokesperson said: 'This is an unprecedented global pandemic and we have taken the right steps at the right time to combat it. 'The Government has been very clear that herd immunity has never been our policy or goal. 'At every stage, the Government has been guided by the advice of experts from Sage and its sub-committees advice which has now been published on gov.uk. 'Our response has ensured that the NHS has capacity for everyone who needs it and that it can provide the best possible care for people who become ill. 'Instead of accepting the claims of a rushed documentary which set out to find failings rather than to inform, we advise viewers to read the published evidence themselves.' Britain's Coronavirus Catastrophe: Did the Government Get it Wrong? will air on Channel 4 at 9pm on Wednesday, June 3 WASHINGTON - Cloaking himself in religion for the second day in a row, President Donald Trump sought to seize the moral authority to justify his hard line against demonstrators protesting the killing of another black man in police custody and at the same time mobilize his religious conservative base. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 2/6/2020 (597 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump visit Saint John Paul II National Shrine, Tuesday, June 2, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) WASHINGTON - Cloaking himself in religion for the second day in a row, President Donald Trump sought to seize the moral authority to justify his hard line against demonstrators protesting the killing of another black man in police custody and at the same time mobilize his religious conservative base. Trump signed an executive order on international religious freedom on Tuesday and travelled to the Saint John Paul II National Shrine, where he and the first lady laid a ceremonial wreath and observed a moment of remembrance. A day earlier, he had held up a Bible and posed for photos in front of a historic church across from the White House that had suffered fire damage from protesters. He strode through Lafayette Park to the church after authorities forcefully broke up peaceful protests there. Trumps religious outreach marked his latest efforts in a series of overtures to mobilize conservative voters of faith, particularly the white evangelical Christians who are among his most loyal supporters. The furious, politically charged response to his gestures from less pro-Trump faith leaders, however, suggested his efforts to lock in one part of his base could backfire by turning off other religious voters. Tuesday's shrine visit was originally set as a venue for Trump to sign the religious freedom order, which he ended up signing during a private event in the Oval Office. But his tweets made clear what was on his mind as he spent much of the morning urging Republicans to vote in primaries on Tuesday that he vowed would lead to big victories on November 3rd." SILENT MAJORITY! he tweeted. Trump has turned to religion as he seeks to project strength and quell violent protests that have spread across the nation in response to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. But religious leaders across denominations accused Trump of trying to coopt religion in an attempt to project leadership at a time of deep national strife. President Donald Trump holds a Bible as he visits outside St. John's Church across Lafayette Park from the White House Monday, June 1, 2020, in Washington. Part of the church was set on fire during protests on Sunday night. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) The Rev. Mariann Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, said that she was outraged by Trumps Monday visit to St. John's Church and noted that Trump didnt pray while visiting the landmark, which has been visited by sitting presidents since the early 19th century. The church sustained minor fire damage during protests Sunday night. The Rev. Gini Gerbasi, the rector at a church in Washingtons Georgetown neighbourhood, said she was deeply shaken after having been forcefully cleared from the Lafayette Square area Monday evening. She urged Trump to live by the Bible's words "instead of carrying them around as a prop. The use of weapons of war to help the president show his supporters that hes religious, Gerbasi told The Associated Press, defied further comment. I cant even go there. The layers of irony and hypocrisy and sacrilege are already thick. As for Tuesday's trip to the Catholic shrine, Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Washingtons Catholic diocese said he found it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated." Trump on Wednesday morning brushed off the critics, insisting that his visit had been well-received. Most religious leaders loved it, Trump said during an interview on Fox News Radio's The Brian Kilmeade Show, adding, "Its only the other side that didnt like it. White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway on Tuesday defended Trump's visit to St. John's as a powerful symbol to those who set the church ablaze, telling Fox News Channel, We dont look into other peoples hearts and souls and discern and judge what their faith is, why the president felt compelled to walk there, why he held that Bible up. Trump's campaign framed his visit to St. John's as "a powerful statement that God will always prevail by standing before the burned church, Bible in hand, in the words of spokeswoman Sarah Matthews. Budde challenged that narrative as she aligned with the goals of peaceful protesters, saying in an interview that "if the president was trying to capitalize on religious outrage because the church was burned, I think the real outrage was the death of George Floyd. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, a Christian conservative ally of the president, lauded Trump's visit for sending a message that hes not going to be intimidated, that our government is not in hiding. Perkins said the only thing he would have done differently, had he been shepherding the church visit, would be to ask a multiracial group of pastors to offer prayer for the nation during the crisis. The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, a Latino evangelical pastor who has advised Trump, said any president holding up the Bible is a powerful image." Rodriguez dismissed the idea that Trumps recent forays into religious symbolism were a dog whistle or a clarion call to a religious base that, as he put it, is already firmly by the presidents side. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Is he somehow shaky with the white evangelical community? Rodriguez said of Trump. But just months before November's presidential election, polls show Trump struggling in key swing states, with some evidence of waning enthusiasm among some of his most loyal supporters, including white evangelical Christians. Polling from the public Religion Research Institute, a nonpartisan non-profit, found a double-digit decline in Trump's support among white evangelicals and Catholics from March to April, a sign that Trump could be struggling to consolidate his appeal with a demographic he desperately needs to win. Robert P. Jones, CEO of the institute, also cited data showing white evangelical voters are shrinking as a share of the U.S. population, meaning Trump needs to overperform among his core religious supporters to win in November. ___ Follow Colvin and Schor on Twitter at twitter.com/colvinj and twitter.com/eschor. By Bonnie Watson Coleman, Katherine Clark and Barbara Lee As many of us continue to deal with the enduring impact of COVID-19 on lives, families and our country, its easy and even normal to spend our days thinking only about this virus. Its the focus of news broadcasts and email alerts, the focus of businesses thinking about how to weather a world of distancing, the focus of families homeschooling children, wondering how theyll pay rent and whether theyll get sick. The pandemic has created chaos that has drawn a thin and temporary curtain over Trumps enduring incompetence and dishonesty behind it, he is actively sabotaging oversight and the rule of law at the same insatiable rate. We write to urge Americans to pay attention. On May 16, President Trump fired the State Departments Inspector General, Steve Linick, marking the fifth removal or replacement in the last three months. It has since emerged that Inspector General Linick was looking into the arms deal this administration made with Saudi Arabia, a deal that previously sparked an outcry on both sides of the aisle. And so, again, the administration has made a decision that would appear to be based on politics and personal interest. Its not the first or second time such questions have been raised, its one of many. Just a few weeks ago, Trumps Justice Department dropped charges against former national security advisor Michael Flynn, a man consistently defended by President Trump despite having plead guilty of lying to the FBI most likely to insulate the president. In filings for that case, more than 960 former Justice Department prosecutors accused Attorney General William P. Barr of appearing to use the Justice Department to serve the presidents personal political interests. This is an enduring pattern in this administration, and thats why we want you to pay attention. In late March when we passed the CARES Act in Congress, we made clear that the money included in the bill for industry would not be a bailout with no strings attached. We fought for accountability, and we did not relent until the bill included a Congressional Commission, an Accountability Committee, and an inspector general. But, when the president signed the bill, he immediately made clear he would gag the inspector general, deciding what he would and would not share with Congress. Pentagon Inspector General Glenn Fine was chosen by his peers for the job, but before he had so much as a chance at oversight of those billions of dollars, President Trump replaced him, functionally removing the watchdog for these taxpayer funds. Fines removal followed on the heels of another. Just a few days before, the president had fired Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, the man who alerted Congress to the whistleblower complaint that eventually resulted in his impeachment by the House of Representatives. In his own words, the president said he no longer had confidence in Atkinson. But we have little doubt that, even as he should be leading our country through an economic and health crisis the likes of which weve never seen before, the president reached back to punish one more person he blames for his own misdeeds. Those misdeeds, that pattern of abusing authority to get out from under any kind of accountability or oversight, thats what brought us to impeachment in the first place. The pattern continues, and so we urge you to keep paying attention. In a vacuum, and with everything else happening around us, its easy to overlook one incident. But we want you to pay attention not to one political ideology or another, not to one political motivation or another, but to the pattern of this president and his administration. From defying congressional subpoenas to unprecedented and blatant interference at the Department of Justice on behalf of his friends to the removal of politically independent inspectors committed to the rule of law, his actions continue to demonstrate that he believes hes above the law. The systems he continues to destroy undermine faith in our government, faith long-established through transparency and accountability. Its a pattern built to protect his interests and one that maximizes his personal benefit. We urge you, the American people, to pay attention. U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman represents New Jerseys 12th Congressional District, which includes parts of Mercer, Middlesex, Somerset and Union counties. U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark represents Massachusetts 5th Congressional District. U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee represents Californias 13th Congressional District. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. The Star-Ledger/NJ.com encourages submissions of opinion. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow us on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and on Facebook at NJ.com Opinion. Get the latest news updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. Mayor Stoney, who is African American, told the group of about 100 onlookers that he was struggling to contain his own emotions. Im telling you today its okay to be frustrated, he said. Its okay to hurt right now and express that using your First Amendment rights. But what Im here to say is that if we want to go further, in a faster manner, the only way, the only way we do that is doing that together. Irish Water said it was "increasingly likely" a hosepipe ban would be required across the country, as demand for water surged by 20% and the drought worsened. Sixteen of the utility's drinking water schemes are in drought and 38 are at risk of going into drought because of the warm weather. Mohamed Soltan accuses former PM Hazem al-Beblawi of ordering his arrest and torture in 2013. An American citizen and former Egyptian political prisoner, who was arrested during a brutal crackdown in Cairo in 2013, has filed a lawsuit against former Egyptian Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi. American-Egyptian Mohamed Soltan, 32, a human rights advocate, filed the lawsuit in a court in the District of Columbia on Monday, accusing el-Beblawi of ordering his arrest, torture and attempted assassination. Soltan, now a student at Georgetown University, alleges that he was targeted for abuse over a period of 634 days of imprisonment by the Egyptian government, according to court documents. The lawsuit accuses el-Beblawi of coordinating with other Egyptian officials to oversee Soltans arrest and extensive torture at several detention facilities, as detailed in the court documents, including beatings, denial of medical treatment and burns to his body, as well as prison guards encouraging him to commit suicide, according to the Washington Post. The lawsuit names, as unsued-defendants, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, current intelligence chief Abbas Kamel who was a Sisi chief of staff, as well as others, who could be served if they arrive in the US, according to the Post. While foreign leaders are usually immune from being tried in US courts, the 1991 Torture Victim Protection Act allows civil suits to be filed in the US against individuals who committed torture or extrajudicial killings while acting in an official capacity for a foreign nation if the defendants are in the US and no longer heads of state. 150530083533756 El-Beblawi currently serves on the executive board of the International Monetary Fund and lives in Washington, DC. Soltan, who spent most of his life in the US, said in a statement on June 1 that, as a 25-year-old fresh graduate in 2013, he went to Egypt because he wanted to help build my country of origin into a place that respected human rights, democratic values and truth. Soltan was shot during the brutal Rabaa crackdown in August 2013 by Egyptian security forces. They had been ordered by el-Beblawis cabinet to clear a Cairo sit-in by supporters of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi who was overthrown by a military coup on July 3, 2013, according to the Guardian. Former Egyptian interim PM Hazem el-Beblawi is now an executive director of the IMF and lives in Washington, DC [File: Amr Nabil, File/The Associated Press] The bloody crackdown led to the killing at least 1,000 people on August 14, 2013, and the arrest of tens of thousands of other political activists, journalists and opponents, according to Human Rights Watch. Soltan, who according to Amnesty International was part of a media committee reporting on violations against Morsi supporters, was later arrested by police looking for his father, a former deputy minister of Morsi who remains in prison in Egypt. I was shot, beaten, sleep deprived, pressured to commit suicide and forced to listen to my father being tortured, he said in his statement, recounting his experience while in detention. The privilege of having a US citizenship contributed to my survival of the same fate that more than 60,000 Egyptian political prisoners that are not so fortunate face today. This legal action is not just about me and what I endured, it is about deterrence and prevention of torture through application of law, he explained. Soltan was released from prison in May 2015 after a 15-month long hunger strike in Cairos Tora prison and relinquishing his Egyptian citizenship and deported to the US. Since returning to the US, Soltan has been actively working as an advocate for Egyptian prisoners and wider human rights issues. US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday called on President Donald Trump to be a healer in chief and not a fanner of the flame as the nation reels from mass protests over the treatment of black people in the US. Reading from Bible scripture at the Capitol, Pelosi drew on past presidents including George H W Bush speaking in the aftermath of the Rodney King unrest and Barack Obama following the death of Eric Garner as models of the nation's chief executive at a time of crisis. We would hope that the president of the United States would follow the lead of so many presidents before him to be a healer in chief and not a fanner of the flame, Pelosi said. The remarks of the California Democrat, who is the party's top ranking elected official, offered a stark contrast to the Republican president as the world watches a nation in turmoil. Pelosi criticised the use of force to disperse the crowd of protesters late Monday at the White House so Trump could cross the street to nearby St John's church in what was widely seen as a photo opportunity and was later criticised by the Episcopal congregation's bishop. Some people came out and beat them so they could clear the area so the president could come out and go forward. What is that? asked Pelosi. That has no place and it's time for us to do away with that. Pelosi, a Catholic who regularly attends Mass, said there were so many passages that Trump could have relied on during his visit to the church. He held up a Bible during the event but did not refer to it during brief remarks. She quoted from the book of Ecclesiastes, saying it is a time to heal. It is the responsibility of all of us to take the time to heal, she said. At the partly closed Capitol, Congress already struggled with the COVID-19 outbreak is now confronting a deepening crisis after the death of George Floyd during a police stop in Minnesota. House and Senate lawmakers are swiftly crafting legislation to address police violence, end racial profiling and confront the inequities facing black Americans. The Congressional Black Caucus announced a virtual town hall Friday with civil rights leaders, and House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler said the panel is planning a hearing next week on policing, officials said. The civil unrest over the death of Floyd at the hands of police combined with the coronavirus pandemic that's disproportionately striking African Americans sparked an urgent plea for understanding from some leaders. Notably, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday read into the Senate record the names of black people who have died in recent confrontations. George Floyd. Ahmaud Arbery. Breonna Taylor. To me, McConnell, R-Ky., said in a speech in the Senate chamber, and to millions of outraged Americans, these disturbing events do not look like three isolated incidents. They look more like the latest chapter in our national struggle to make equal just and equal protection under the law a fact of life for all Americans." As protesters gathered outside the Capitol, still partly locked down due to the coronavirus, the dual crises tested Washington. Some lawmakers urged comity and federal aid to prevent the country from slipping into further conflict. Others sided with Trump's threat to use military force if necessary to end the protests. There was a shift in tone as even some conservatives who in the past have countered Black Lives Matter protests with Blue Lives Matter support for law enforcement acknowledged the concerns. After countless incidents of police being called to investigate black people doing ordinary things most recently when a white woman in New York summoned 911 over an African American bird watcher in Central Park many lawmakers agreed public attitudes and police tactics need review. Yet, some Trump allies pushed for a show of military action to quell the protests now stretching into their sixth day. Anarchy, rioting, and looting needs to end tonight, tweeted Senator Tom Cotton, R-Ark. He suggested bringing in the 101st Airborne an elite Army unit to confront outside agitators influencing the protests. McConnell also suggested if state and local leaders can't secure safety, "I hope the federal government is ready to stand in the breech. Trump's remarks focusing on the possibility of using the military in response to violent protests, coming as military police and law enforcement clashed with protesters near the White House, were widely criticised. Representative Jason Crow, D-Colo., a former Army Ranger who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said: "These are not the actions of a rationale, fit, democratic president. They are the actions of a man who doesn't respect the core values of our nation. Protests over Floyd's death hit a nation already in crisis over the virus outbreak and economic shutdown that has left 41 million Americans filing for unemployment benefits as Congress struggles to respond. Both the Shiv Sena and the Congress on Tuesday reacted sharply to Home Minister Amit Shah's statement that the BJP did not try to destabilise the Maharashtra coalition government. Both parties said while the state BJP unit continued its consistent efforts to pull down this government, these things will not affect the alliance. In an exclusive interview to CNN-News18, Shah said the Centre has supported Maharashtra government and that it won't fall till all the three parties stuck to each other. "We all saw the kind of politics the BJP played. They protested on the streets, they visited the Raj Bhavan, they sought President's rule in the State. At such times of crisis, the BJP state unit should have worked more constructively. Instead, they continue to feel bitter that they are not in power. Anyway, let me tell you, our government is going to last all five years. I accept the good wishes of the Home Minister about the same," Maharashtra Revenue Minister and state Congress president Balasaheb Thorat told CNN-News18. The Sena also said the efforts by the opposition in Maharashtra were to destabilise the government. "Never mind. In a democracy, even the opposition has a role. If they thought they could come to power, they tried. It would have been better though had they not used the health challenge as an opportunity," said senior Sena leader and MP Sanjay Raut. When asked about the state BJP unit's actions and Shah's statement, Raut said in a federal structure it was the responsibility of the Centre to support the states. "We aren't a weak state, but at such times, we expect more help from the Centre. Narendra Modi is the leader of BJP too, apart from being the PM. It would have been better had the state BJP unit, led by Devendra Fadnavis, appealed to Modi to help Maharashtra better." The Buena Vista Winery in Sonoma sits empty on April 1. (Eric Risberg / Associated Press) Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick, days after announcing that his agency would no longer enforce the county's coronavirus public health order, has reversed course and agreed to stand behind local restrictions aimed at stemming the spread of the coronavirus. After a weekend of discussions with the county Board of Supervisors, Essick said Monday that he and his deputies would enforce the current order until June 8 based on assurances from officials that they would work toward a more balanced approach to reopening the economy. Deputies will continue to emphasize education over punitive action in enforcing the order, he said. I am now confident in the process moving forward, that were going to move from an essential/nonessential stance to a risk-based approach, and that a risk-based approach will better align Sonoma County with the state guidelines, he told the Santa Rosa-based Press Democrat this week. Board of Supervisors Chair Susan Gorin and Essick released a joint statement on Monday pledging a collaborative approach and noting that though the county had been successful in flattening the curve of the virus' spread, the risk had not diminished. "As in any complex situation, there are additional threats that must be considered including public safety issues that arise out of a prolonged economic shutdown. We do not yet know the full impact on mental health, economic distress, extended family support, and child abuse," the statement read. "Law enforcement has already seen a marked increase in attempted suicides, domestic violence and child endangerment. These impacts must factor into our decision-making process and policy priorities as well." The county also announced the creation of an economic recovery task force aimed at shifting the region from a stay-at-home model to one that emphasizes a "risk-based" approach to reopening. The sheriff's reversal comes four days after his announcement on Facebook that his department would no longer enforce the county's health order, which he said had "placed significant restrictions on our freedoms." Story continues Essick had criticized the county's mandate for being far more restrictive than the state order, despite the county's relatively low infection rate compared with other regions of California. "Based on what we have learned, now is the time to move to a risk-based system and move beyond blanket orders that are crushing our community," he wrote last week. The sheriff's remarks came after the county's health officer, Dr. Sundari Mase, announced that officials would hold off on allowing the reopening of some businesses following a rise in local coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. While Sonoma County was given the green light by the state to reopen stores, hair salons and places of worship , Mase said it would not do so for a few weeks. She noted at the time that Sonoma County had reported 203 new cases of the virus over the most recent 14-day span, doubling its case rate in that time from 20 per 100,000 residents to 41 per 100,000. The county had reported 566 coronavirus cases and four deaths as of Monday. Essick's position quickly prompted public rebukes from county officials and statements from other law enforcement officials reinforcing their dedication to the health order. The Santa Rosa Police Department will continue to support the health officer, who is the subject matter expert, leading a safe, strategic and data driven process for reopening, Santa Rosa Police Chief Ray Navarro said in a Facebook post last week. County Supervisor Shirlee Zane criticized Essicks decision to abruptly halt enforcement without first talking with elected officials or Mase. This is not the time to be breaking rank, so to speak, she said Friday. Its a time for all of the elected officials to stand together to get through this." (Newser) Apple will be donating money to combat discrimination, CEO Tim Cook said, but that's just the start. "We have to reexamine our own views and actions in light of a pain that is deeply felt but too often ignored," Cook wrote in a memo to employees after protests began in many US cities. "George Floyd's death is shocking and tragic proof that we must aim far higher than a normal future, and build one that lives up to the highest ideals of equality and justice." Employees had said they were troubled by discrimination in their communities, Bloomberg reports. Among the groups the company will donate to is the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit; Apple will match employees' gifts 2-1 during June. story continues below Other companies announced donations, including: $1 million, from YouTube to the Center for Policing Equity, a nonprofit. YouTube, which is owned by Alphabet, said the gift is "in support of efforts to address social injustice," per the Verge. The center teams with police departments to identify and end discriminatory practices. $500,000 from Peloton to the NAACP's Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "The Black community is hurting," Peloton said, per Yahoo Sports. "Our Black Members, instructors, music partners and employees are hurting. #BlackLivesMatter, and it's time to take action." $1 million from Uber to the Equal Justice Initiative and the Center for Policing Equity, per MarketWatch. (Mark Zuckerberg's donation wasn't universally praised.) Manila, June 2 : Human rights organizations in the Philippines have expressed concern about the imminent approval in congress of a new anti-terrorism law, which they consider seeks to persecute government critics and punish both dissent and political activism. The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) warned that the law is "the last piece of the puzzle" that the Rodrigo Duterte government needs to impose a martial law, which it has threatened on several occasions, reports Efe news. "We are appalled that the Philippine government is giving priority to repressive legislation but remains bungling in addressing the pandemic. We have seen too many deaths both from the virus and the violence President Duterte has unleashed against his people," said ICHRP President Peter Murphy. The new anti-terrorism law was already approved in the Senate in February and the plenary session of the House of Representatives - dominated by the president's allies - is expected to pass that version in the coming days, after Duterte certified on Monday as urgent the processing of that law. The proposed law would replace the current Human Security Law of 2007 and, among other modifications, expands the number of days that a terrorism suspect can be detained without an arrest warrant, from currently three days to 14 days, to which 10 more can be added. It also broadens the range of crimes that can be considered terrorism, such as "threat or incitement to commit terrorist acts," punishable by 12 years in prison, a provision that according to legal experts seeks to punish political dissent, since any protest against the government could be classified as terrorism. "From its murderous war on drugs and a rabid counter-insurgency campaign to extending emergency executive powers, as well the numerous attacks on freedom of expression, the passage of draconian amendments to the Anti-Terrorism law will seal the deal in Duterte's brutal campaign of State terrorism-the final piece in the regime's bid to establish a full blown fascist dictatorship and de facto martial law," said Karapatan, a national network of human rights organizations. The civilian population has also expressed disgust with the new rule and since last week - when two lower house committees gave the text the green light - the hashtag #JunkTerrorBill has been trending on several occasions in the Philippines. The Philippines has within its borders the threat of various insurgencies classified as terrorists: jihadi groups, related to the Islamic State, on the island of Mindanao; and to Asia's oldest and deadliest communist guerilla, the New People's Army (NEP), the military wing of the outlawed Communist Party. Duterte regards the NEP as the greatest threat to national security and has pledged to end them before the end of his term, tightening military offensives against his bases and suspending the peace dialogue. The President has also accused numerous human rights organizations and leftist groups of acting as "legal fronts" of the NEP, also targets of his verbal attacks, while there has been an increase in acts of violence, harassment and harassment against activists. Junior Minister John Halligan has called for a second election. He has said Fianna Fail would "sell their own mothers" to get into government and that the Green Party are deluded if they think they will meet their agenda in government negotiations. He tweeted that Fine Gael were rejected by the electorate and that politicians should "go again". -FG were rejected by the electorate in February and said they would have no part in govt. formation. -FF are so desperate to get back into power, they'd sell their own mothers. -GP are deluded if they think they'll get their agenda over the line. Go again. https://t.co/WX7EQgEQN7 John Halligan (@JohnHalligan) June 2, 2020 In his tweet which was arranged by bullet points, the Independent politician said: "FG were rejected by the electorate in February and said they would have no part in govt. formation. "FF are so desperate to get back into power, they'd sell their own mothers. GP are deluded if they think they'll get their agenda over the line. "Go again." Halligan is no longer a TD and did not contest the election in February. CAPE HATTERAS, N.C., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- "We're wide open," announces Lee Nettles, Executive Director of the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, citing several recent accolades supporting the OBX's front position for travel this summer. Forbes.com recently ranked the Outer Banks as number one among The 20 Top Places Americans Are Dreaming About Right Now, and Cape Hatteras in Buxton, NC was just ranked a Top Ten Beach In The US by Dr. Beach. The Outer Banks of North Carolina are known for 100 miles of beaches, national parks and beautiful oceanfront vacation rental homes spread across charming small towns and villages. The Outer Banks checks off a lot of boxes for people contemplating a summer beach vacation. "We've been doing social spacing before it was a thing," says Nettles. "One feature is the number of professionally managed vacation rental homes. When you consider that we're just a hop in the car away, you're managing your exposure to the public from the moment you leave your house and arrive in one of ours." The OBX is also known for a mix of top-rated hotels, campgrounds and inns. "People are even finding that with the values this summer, they're renting properties for multiple weeks and just working online like they would from home." At the heart of the Outer Banks allure lies Cape Hatteras National Seashore, the largest stretch of undeveloped beaches on the East Coast you can easily enjoy by car, and the drive along NC12 coastal highway rewards family explorers. In fact, Southern Living recently placed the Outer Banks as one of its Top Ten Scenic Drives in a recent reader poll. Nearby, you can air out the kids at Jockey's Ridge State Park, a 426-acre sound dune mountain that, along with its sister State Natural Area, Run Hill, epitomize open space and fun at a distance. "While Americans are looking for a much-needed vacation, COVID-19 doesn't take a day off," says Nettles. "This reopening of the Outer Banks and the nation as a whole is going to take everyone looking out for the safety of themselves and each other. We encourage a 'Be Safe. Be Smart. Have Fun.' approach to hospitality and responsible travel. Our local business community was the first to adopt the Tourism Pledge, a recognition of the need to take premium measures in safety for both guests and employees, which are detailed specific to each participating partner and found on outerbanks.org. About The Outer Banks The Outer Banks Visitors Bureau is the lead marketing and promotional agency for The Outer Banks of North Carolina, funded by one percent of the occupancy tax and one percent of the prepared meals tax collected in Dare County. Media Contact: Aaron Tuell, 252-305-2137, [email protected] SOURCE Outer Banks Visitors Bureau Related Links http://www.outerbanks.org Education Minister, Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has encouraged final year university students to prepare for the reopening of schools. He says final year students both in private and public universities should take note about the June 15 reopening date and prepare adequately for their examinations. The Minister is addressing journalists at the Information Ministry this morning, June 2, 2020. He is giving a detailed outline about the Covid19 safety protocols for the reopening of public and private schools. He says government has adopted the phased approach to the reopening of schools to ensure the safety of students and teaching staff. Daily Guide WASHINGTONIn an unscheduled address on the White House lawn, President Donald Trump spoke just after 6:30 p.m. I am your president of law and order, and an ally of all peaceful protesters. At virtually the same time as he said those words, federal officers under his command were deploying tear gas, flash-bang devices, and forcibly moving entirely peaceful protesters from the area around the park across the street so that when Trump finished speaking, he could parade across the square for a photo opportunity in front of historic St. Johns Church. As the White House Press pool reporter observed, the sting of tear gas was still in the air, causing reporters to choke and cough, as Trump strode through the park. The shocking move seemed to directly contradict what Trump had said, and seemed likely only to ramp up the explosively confrontational atmosphere of street protests in Washington and around the country. But the move perhaps aligned more closely with the theme of Trumps speech taking a hard line against those demonstrating in the streets. Beginning his speech by promising justice for the death of George Floyd and making nods to peaceful protest as a virtue, in the meat of his remarks he promised to deploy the military to immediately end the vandalism and conflict with authorities that had occurred during late-night protests in recent days, which he characterized as acts of domestic terrorism. Trump called on governors to deploy the National Guard to dominate street demonstrators, promised to send the military to do the job if they would not, and said he was sending thousands and thousands of soldiers into the streets of Washington to maintain order. I want the organizers of this terror to be on notice that you will face severe criminal penalties, Trump said. Ironically, before the crowd was violently cleared to make way for Trump, the protest unfolding through the afternoon and evening outside Lafayette Square had been among the most peaceful since before the weekend. Hundreds of people had gathered, with more arriving as the workday ended, chanting, Take a knee and I cant breathe at police officers who stood casually with their shields down inside the park in the early evening sun. The protest had been peaceful and not at all tense. Some protesters sang on the sidewalk, and three men put on a breakdancing demonstration on the sidewalk in front of the church across the street, where a fire had been started and extinguished Sunday night. I feel a shift in this country, I feel a change is coming soon, said an African-American man from Washington named Diego. Yesterday, I saw a 76-year-old woman who was an activist in the civil rights movement walking the streets. When I saw that, I decided to come out today. I didnt want to look back on history and say I was just in my house watching it unfold. I want to be a part of that change. A few dozen metres away, protesters had climbed atop a brick washroom building that had been burned in the confrontations of Sunday nights protest the charred structure accessible to protesters on the street side, guarded by riot police on the park side. A cheer went up among the crowd around 5 p.m. when, in response to chants, one of the police officers inside briefly knelt. People are tired. We are tired as a community, Marchelle Hayes, an African-American woman from Maryland, said. Everything thats been built up is coming out. Weve been in a pandemic, locked up, and to see somebody blatantly killed time and time again were tired as a community. Tired of being walked on, as if we did not build this country. We built this country, brick by brick. There was, by that stage, no evidence of the kind of disorder Trump claimed would be the focus of his crackdown. Much of the surrounding area, and many other areas of Washington, had seen stores boarded up after windows had been smashed late Sunday night. Earlier in the day, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser had appealed for protesters to remain peaceful as she instituted a 7 p.m. curfew. We applaud the American spirit of protest, and especially protest to their federal government, Bowser said. However, we do not, and we will not allow the continued destruction of our hometown by people who are coming here to protest or by D.C. residents. At the protest, a young woman named Elena said the scenes of vandalism were not her primary concern. I think non-violent protesting has not worked for hundreds and hundreds of years, and if rioting is what it takes for them to hear us, then OK. But I dont think looting is right, she said. Im here because I think what the cops are doing is wrong, and I think its important that white people come out and show support. Trump, apparently, heard the message she was speaking of sent by civil unrest here and across the country, and decided to put a stop to it. His public silence Sunday had been widely remarked upon after a report from The Associated Press that he had briefly been taken to a secure bunker in the White House, and another that his aides had given up on the idea of having him address the nation to appeal for calm, reportedly because he had no interest in appealing for unity. His political opponents were making such appeals: presumed Democratic front-runner Joe Biden had talked about the potential for reform in the wake of the protests at a visit to a Black church in Delaware earlier Monday. I think the public is getting to a place that its never been before in understanding a lot of this, he said. And former president Barack Obama published an essay in which he advised protesters on how he thought their movement could lead to real change in the country, helping it to live up to its ideals. In his own speech, Trump made no direct mention of racial justice or police reform though he did make a reference to the second amendment guaranteeing gun rights and focused on a message portraying himself as the upholder of order. Once order is restored we will help you, we will help your businesses, we will help your family, he said. Speaking to a reporter from the Washington Post immediately after Trumps photo opportunity outside St. Johns Church, the Episcopal Bishop in charge of the church, The Right Rev. Mariann Budde, expressed outrage at the presidents clearing peaceful protesters with tear gas to use one of our churches as a prop. Everything he has said and done is to inflame violence, Budde said. As night fell on Washington, protesters remained in the streets despite the curfew and the heavy police, National Guard, and active duty Military Police presence. It seems unlikely Trumps words and actions will ease tensions with demonstrators outraged by abusive authority by police. The Republican governor of Massachusetts, Charlie Baker, said earlier in the day that the kind of talk of domination Trump was engaging in was not what the nation needed. At so many times during these past several weeks when the country needed compassion and leadership the most, it was simply nowhere to be found, he said of Trumps incendiary rhetoric, which he summed up as consisting of bitterness, combativeness and self-interest. And he said that hours before Trump used tear gas to make way for a photo-op. Read more about: "Changing the format of G7 is not the prerogative of the chair (of the meeting)," Borrell said in a swipe against Trump. The EU's chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, rejected on Tuesday, June 2, the idea floated by the White House over the weekend to reinvite Russia to this year's G7 gathering hosted by the US, saying the conditions had not been met. "The G7 cannot become G8 [] until Russia changes its course. This is currently not the case," Borrell told reporters in Brussels, stressing that "cooperation amid like-minded partners is crucial more than ever", Euractiv reports. His remarks came after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday (May 30) he would postpone a Group of Seven summit he had hoped to hold next month until September or later and expand the list of invitees to include Australia, Russia, South Korea, and India. U.S. President Donald Trump told President Vladimir Putin in a phone call on Monday (June 1) about his idea of holding an expanded Group of Seven summit later this year with a possible invitation for Russia, the Kremlin and the White House said. Trump said the G7 Group of advanced economies has become "very outdated" and should transform as the "G10 or 11 vs G1", a reformed club to unite against China. "Changing the format of G7 is not the prerogative of the chair (of the meeting)," Borrell added in a swipe against Trump. Read alsoUK would veto Russia's return to G7 The other six G7 members France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Canada, and Japan remain skeptical about the inclusion of Russia, which was excluded from the then G8 by Trump's predecessor Barack Obama in 2014 over its annexation of Crimea, with Britain and Canada having already spoken out against the idea of readmitting Russia. The EU is not a member of G7, but the Council and Commission chiefs are attending its summits as guests. "We will look at the detail of what the US is proposing. It is customary for the country that holds the G7 presidency to invite other leaders to participate as guests in the summit," a spokesman for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday (2 June). "However, Russia was removed from the G7 group of nations following its (2014) annexation of Crimea and we are yet to see evidence of changed behavior which would justify its readmittance We wouldn't support it being readmitted as a member of the group," he added. Russia still holds the annexed territory and various G7 governments have rebuffed previous calls from Trump to readmit Moscow. Normalization of relations between the EU with Russia is connected with Ukrainian reconciliation based on the principles of the 1975 Helsinki Final Act and fulfillment of the Minsk agreements, Borrell reiterated last week during a joint EU-UN cooperation session in the United Nations Security Council. Read alsoReuters: Russia not welcome at G7, Canada's Trudeau says According to Borrell, "the illegal annexation by Russia of the Crimean peninsula and the unfulfilled commitments of Minsk have brought a major disruption [] in EU-Russia relations" and "support for the national sovereignty and territorial integrity will remain key elements of the relationship between the EU and its Eastern partners." "The principles enshrined in Helsinki cannot be forgotten while working for a cooperative, more secure and cohesive European continent," Borrell said. Chairman of the People's National Convention (PNC), Bernard Mornah says his timely intervention prevented a clash between his supporters and the police on Tuesday. According to him, but for his peaceful nature, there would have been chaos at the premises of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), as, what he termed as the provocative behaviour of the police, almost elicited a reaction from his followers. Mr. Mornah was at the offices of the CID to answer questions about some public statements he made which were deemed to be threatening to the Electoral Commission but the Police initially prevented him and scores of his supporters, who were accompanying him, from getting close to their Headquarters. Commenting on the development on Eyewitness News, Mr. Mornah accused the police of deliberately trying to foment trouble with his arrest but his timely intervention ensured that things were normalized without But for my peaceful nature -when we got to the Fire Service junction, the manner in which the police started stretching forward was like they were ready to kill. If I had allowed the crowd that followed me into the Police Headquarters, I am sure we would be talking about a different scenario. I asked everybody to stay still. If I hadnt done that, it will have led to a collision between them and the police. The police were battle-ready, coming with water canons, armoured cars, and virtually dressed ready to go for jungle warfare. The manner in which they came was provoking the crowd and if the crowd had acted otherwise, I am not sure we would have been talking now. Let it be known, that I have always been peaceful and I have always thought that we should have peace of our own he said. Mr. Mornahs supporters, most of whom were clad in red, were marching alongside Mr. Mornah to the police headquarters where the PNC Chairman was expected to honour an invitation from the CID, over comments he made concerning the compilation of a new voters' register. Some armed police personnel stopped the group at the Police Headquarters traffic light and prevented them from proceeding to the premises. Mr Mornah was however discharged after he and his lawyers were subsequently allowed into the premises of the Police Headquarters following the temporary holdup. An internal police memo sighted by Citi News indicated that the police service had anticipated the crowd which accompanied the PNC chairman to the police headquarters, and hence, deployed a special security team to the area to ensure public order. Police invitation The CID on Thursday, May 28, 2020, issued the invitation to the PNC National Chairman who is quoted to have said that he will resist every attempt by the EC to compile a new voters' register. People who are already Ghanaians and already registered are going to be taken out of the voters' register. Don't think confusion will come at the registration station but if confusion comes there, you think the EC staff will be safe? We will beat each other there and we will kill each other there if that is what the EC wants to lead this nation to, Mr. Mornah is reported to have said at a press conference organized by the Inter-Party Resistance Against New Register (IPRAN) on May 26, 2020. But, Mr. Mornah in an earlier interview said he does not see anything threatening about his comment. According to him, his comment was only a piece of advice to the EC against the compilation of a new register ahead of election 2020. I have said that if the Electoral Commission is intending to lead us through this dangerous path, they should know that there will be confusionIt is a caution. If caution becomes threats, I will not run away from it, he stated. citinewsroom David Joles/Star Tribune via Getty Images En espanol | More than 43,000 long-term care residents and staff have died from COVID-19, representing over a third of the nations known coronavirus deaths, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation tally. While dire, this figure is an undercount, experts warn, because not all states are publicly reporting data yet. In many states more than half of coronavirus deaths are connected to long-term care facilities. Although each state is required to report confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths in nursing homes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and individual facilities are required to report that information to residents and their families they are not required to share these publicly. Some states, therefore, are choosing not to. Most states are releasing some information on nursing home cases and deaths. But its truly a patchwork of inconsistent data, says Elaine Ryan, AARP vice president for state advocacy and strategy integration. The same goes for assisted living and other types of long-term care facilities, which, unlike nursing homes, are regulated by the states. Some states are reporting the names of facilities with cases and deaths; others are releasing just the total number across all long-term care facilities. Certain states monitor all types of long-term care facilities, but others track only nursing homes. Some report daily; others, weekly. In short, the variations are huge. On June 4 the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) posted its first set of federal COVID-19 nursing home data on a new website. Although it captures data from all states, 12 percent of the nations 15,400 Medicare and Medicaid homes have not submitted figures for the count. New data is slated for June 18; however, the CMS plans to release just weekly updates after that. AARP is advocating for consistent daily updates. Theres a serious problem in these facilities, Ryan says, and we need to know where the outbreaks are so we can target additional resources to help save lives. Our list tells you which states are publicly reporting, what they are reporting and how to find the information. Many of the states are updating their data more frequently than the CMS website, so it is wise to check both. Note: We are updating this list as new data become available. Delays in updates are common, so check the time stamp when looking at this information. [June 02, 2020] Mining Changing Customer Preferences in the Dynamic Asian Fintech Market | Quantzig's Customer Segmentation Analytics Success Story A premier data analytics and advisory firm, Quantzig, has announced the completion of its latest success story that highlights how a leading fintech industry player used customer segmentation and analytical insights to drive retention rates by 20% in the Asian market. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005366/en/ Mining Changing Customer Preferences in the Dynamic Asian Fintech Market (Graphic: Business Wire) This success story offers in-depth insights into Quantzig's customer segmentation analytics capabilities and also sheds light on the importance of segmenting the customer base into cohorts based on their needs and requirements. 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For more information on our engagement policies and pricing plans, visit: https://www.quantzig.com/request-for-proposal View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005366/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen broke his silence Tuesday to say he was 'sickened' by the use of U.S. National Guard forces to push protesters out of Lafayette park to make way for President Trump's photo-op. 'I am deeply worried that as they execute their orders, the members of our military will be co-opted for political purposes,' Mullen warned. 'I have to date been reticent to speak out on issues surrounding President Trump's leadership, but we are at an inflection point, and the events of the past few weeks have made it impossible to remain silent,' Milley wrote in the Atlantic. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Retired Admiral Mike Mullen warned of the military being 'co-opted for political purposes' Tuesday Mullen termed Trump's staged visit to fire-damaged St. John's church Monday a 'stunt' that raised serious issues about the role of the military in U.S. society. 'Whatever Trump's goal in conducting his visit, he laid bare his disdain for the rights of peaceful protest in this country, gave succor to the leaders of other countries who take comfort in our domestic strife, and risked further politicizing the men and women of our armed forces.' He called attention to 'institutional racism' and 'police brutality' in the wake of the death of Geroge Floyd at the hands of police, while also condemning street violence. President Donald Trump walks with US Attorney General William Barr (L), US Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper (C), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark A. Milley (R), and others from the White House to visit St. John's Church after the area was cleared of people protesting the death of George Floyd June 1, 2020, in Washington, DC Trucks transport District of Columbia National Guard troops along West Executive Drive in support of law enforcement officers that are keeping demonstrators away from the White House June 01, 2020 Federal military police and park police forced protesters from Lafayette park outside the White House President Donald Trump walks past police in Lafayette Park after visiting outside St. John's Church across from the White House Monday, June 1, 2020, in Washington. Part of the church was set on fire during protests on Sunday night Retired Adm. Mike Mullen warned of the military being politicized Former Jt. Chiefs chair Gen. Martin Dempsey His op-ed comes a day after Trump declared himself the 'law and order president' and said he would deploy 'thousands and thousands' of troops to American cities to restore order. Mullen said he didn't have confidence in the orders Trump would give and said it would be inappropriate to use the 1807 Insurrection Act as the basis for using U.S. troops to impose order on U.S. cities. Federal law generally prohibits the use of the military for domestic purposes. 'I remain confident in the professionalism of our men and women in uniform,' Mullen wrote. 'They will serve with skill and with compassion. They will obey lawful orders. But I am less confident in the soundness of the orders they will be given by this commander in chief, and I am not convinced that the conditions on our streets, as bad as they are, have risen to the level that justifies a heavy reliance on military troops,' he added. Former Jt. Chiefs chair Gen. Martin Dempsey wrote that America was not a 'battleground,' after Defense Sec. Mark Esper spoke of dominating the 'battle-space' here 'Certainly, we have not crossed the threshold that would make it appropriate to invoke the provisions of the Insurrection Act. The retired Navy admiral served under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama from 2007 through 2011. Mullen's successor as chair of the joint chiefs, General Martin Dempsey, also blasted Trump's move. 'Americas military, our sons and daughters, will place themselves at risk to protect their fellow citizens. Their job is unimaginably hard overseas; harder at home. Respect them, for they respect you. America is not a battleground. Our fellow citizens are not the enemy,' Dempsey wrote. '#BeBetter,' he concluded, in what could be a take on first lady Melania Trump's Be Best campaign. The current chair of the joint chiefs, Gen. Mark Milley, was seen in battle fatigues accompanying Trump on his walk to St. John's. Just minutes after Mullen's article was posted, the Washington Post reported on the use of military helicopters with red cross insignia being used to show force to protesters was being called a 'foolish move' by Geoffrey Corn, a former Army lawyer. (Natural News) The reason that the United States remains today is that it has never seen war on its mainland. Once its enemies aim at the mainland, the enemies would have already reached Washington before its congress finishes debating and authorizes the president to declare war. But for us, we dont waste time on these trivial things. (Article by Dave Hodges republished from TheCommonSenseShow.com) From Leaked Address to the CCP by the Chinese Defense Minister Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fengh After my interview with Steve Quayle, it is clear that a clear state of war exists between China and the US. Please note that the Chinese will be taking no prisoners. America has just experienced a first attack, an artillery bombardment if you will, a softening up. The worst is yet to come! The next bioweapon released on the United States, by China, will likely be the proverbial kill shot. It will be genocidal and it will be the prelude to actual military invasion. This article will clearly describe the genocidal intentions that the Chinese toward America and this part establishes the Chinese intention to takeover America and use that leverage to get the rest of the world to capitulate to Chinese authority. I have previously established the fact in an earlier article published last fall that the Chinese are coming and they want none of you left standing. This earlier article can be accessed here. and it established the fact that the CCP intends to commit genocide against America before fully occupying the country. Information from this CCP speech given by defense Minister of Defense is shared here with an analysis. The Main Motivation for Aggressive Chinese Military Policy The lack of living space for Chinas 1.3 billion people is the central problem which is threatening the economics and life-span of the Chinese. To the Chinese this is an issue of economic survival. Chinese Defense Minister addresses this issue: The first issue is living space. This is the biggest focus of the revitalization of the Chinese race. In my last speech, I said that the fight over basic living resources (including land and ocean) is the source of the vast majority of wars in history. This may change in the information age, but not fundamentally. Our per capita resources are much less than those of Germanys back then. In addition, economic development in the last twenty-plus years had a negative impact, and climates are rapidly changing for the worse. Our resources are in very short supply. The environment is severely polluted, especially that of soil, water, and air. Not only our ability to sustain and develop our race, but even its survival is gravely threatened, to a degree much greater than faced (Nazi) Germany back then. solving the issue of America is the key to solving all other issues. First, this makes it possible for us to have many people migrate there and even establish another China under the same leadership of the CCP. America was originally discovered by the ancestors of the yellow race, but Columbus gave credit to the white race. We the descendents of the Chinese nation are entitled to the possession of the land! It is said that the residents of the yellow race have a very low social status in United States. We need to liberate them. Second, after solving the issue of America, the western countries in Europe would bow to us, not to mention to Taiwan, Japan and other small countries. Therefore, solving the issue of America is the mission assigned to CCP members by history. The relationship between China and United States is one of a life-and-death struggle. Of course, right now it is not the time to openly break up with them yet. Our reform and opening to the outside world still rely on their capital and technology, we still need America. Therefore, we must do everything we can to promote our relationship with America, learn from America in all aspects and use America as an example to reconstruct our country we must not forget that the history of our civilization repeatedly has taught us that one mountain does not allow two tigers to live togetherWe also must never forget what Comrade Xiaoping emphasized refrain from revealing the ambitions and put others off the track. The hidden message is: we must put up with America; we must conceal our ultimate goals, hide our capabilities and await the opportunity. Weapons of Choice to be Used Against America The Chinese are very specific. They do not believe that they can kill enough American through conventional means to effect a change. It is clear that they are not going to use nuclear bombs as this would invite the destruction of the planet. Again, from Wei Fenghe: In history, when a country defeated another country or occupied another country, it could not kill all the people in the conquered land, because back then you could not kill people effectively with sabers or long spears, or even with rifles or machine guns. Therefore, it was impossible to gain a stretch of land without keeping the people on that land. However, if we conquered America in this fashion, we would not be able to make many people migrate there.Only by using special means to clean up America will we be able to lead the Chinese people there. This is the only choice left for us. This is not a matter of whether we are willing to do it or not. What kind of special means is there available for us to clean up America? Conventional weapons such as fighters, canons, missiles and battleships wont do; neither will highly destructive weapons such as nuclear weapons. We are not as foolish as to want to perish together with America by using nuclear weapons, despite the fact that we have been exclaiming that we will have the Taiwan issue resolved at whatever cost. Only by using non-destructive weapons that can kill many people will we be able to reserve America for ourselves It is clear that the Chinese plan to commit genocide against the United States so they can occupy our country. They do not want a shared occupation, they want sole occupancy. And how will they accomplish this? They will use bioweapons and genetic weapons that will not kill the Chinese on American soil. The following quote should speak to their resolve to commit genocide against America before occupying the country. Weei Fenghe continues with his genocidal intentions: We must prepare ourselves for two scenarios. If our biological weapons succeed in the surprise attack [on the United States, the Chinese people will be able to keep their losses at a minimum in the fight against the United States . If, however, the attack fails and triggers a nuclear retaliation from the United States, China would perhaps suffer a catastrophe in which more than half of its population would perish. That is why we need to be ready with air defense systems for our big and medium-sized cities. Whatever the case may be, we can only move forward fearlessly for the sake of our Party and state and our nations future, regardless of the hardships we have to face and the sacrifices we have to make. The population, even if more than half dies, can be reproduced. But if the Party falls, everything is gone, and forever gone! It is clear that when the Chinese have successfully deployed their shields over their cities, they will commence the bio and genetics weapons attack against the United States Biological, Genetic Weapons Will Be the Weapons of Choice The intent of the Chinese war plan is clear. They will lure the United States into a conflict over Taiwan in an attempt to weaken the United States. This will be followed by the use of biological, genetic based weapons that will kill many American (bio weapons intended for Blacks, Whites and Latinos and they would spare the millions of Chinese presently living in American which is a subgoal of the Chinese war plan. Wei Fenghe tells us that the next attack will indeed be the kill shot: Biological weapons are unprecedented in their ruthlessness, but if the Americans do not die then the Chinese have to die. If the Chinese people are strapped to the present land, a total societal collapse is bound to take place. According to the computation of the author of Yellow Peril, more than half of the Chinese will die, and that figure would be more than 800 million people!The relationship between China and United States is one of a life-and-death struggle Chinese should not kill other Chinese, would we have liberated China? As for the several million Chinese living in the United States, this is of course a big issue. Therefore in recent years, we have been conducting research on genetic weapons, i.e. those weapons that do not kill yellow people. But producing a result with this kind of research is extremely difficult. Of the research done on genetic weapons throughout the world, the Israelis is the most advanced. Their genetic weapons are designed to target Arabs and protect the Israelis. But even they have not reached the stage of actual deployment. We have cooperated with Israel on some research. Perhaps we can introduce some of the technologies used to protect Israelis and remold these technologies to protect the yellow people. But their technologies are not mature yet, and it is difficult for us to surpass them in a few years. If it has to be five or ten years before some breakthroughs can be achieved in genetic weapons, we cannot afford to wait any longer. Certainly, in spreading Comrade He Xins views, we cannot publish the article in the party newspapers, in order to avoid raising the enemys vigilance. He Xins conversation may remind the enemy that we have grasped the modern science and technology, including clean nuclear technology, gene weapons technology as well as biological weapons technology, and we can use powerful measures to eliminate their population on a large-scale We know that the Chinese control the drug cartels, therefore to some extent, they control Mexico. I believe the delivery systems for the planned bioweapons and genetics weapons attack will come from weaponized immigration. Whether it come from a Red Dawn which would likely be initiated after the Chinese attack upon Taiwan. The weapons could also be dispersed by the several covert Chinese troops stationed in America and are, for example, running most of the solar energy farms. An Additional Motive for the Chinese to Attack Interestingly, the Chinese view the NWO as a supreme threat to their continued existence. In his speech to the CCP, Wei Fengh noted the following: If you get on the website using key words to search, you will find out that a while ago, comrade He Xin pointed out to the Hong Kong Business News during an interview that: The US has a shocking conspiracy. According to what he had in hand, from September 27 to October 1, 1995, the Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev Foundation, funded by the United States, gathered 500 of the worlds most important statesmen, economic leaders and scientists, including George W. Bush (he was not the US president at the time), the Baroness Thatcher, Tony Blair, Zbigniew Brzezinski, as well as George Soros, Bill Gates, futurist John Naisbitt, etc., all of the worlds most popular characters, in the San Francisco Fairmont hotel for a high-level round table conference, discussing problems about globalization and how to guide humanity to move forward into the 21st century. According to what He Xin had in hand, the outstanding people of the world in attendance thought that in the 21st century a mere 20% of the worlds population will be sufficient to maintain the worlds economy and prosperity, the other 80% or 4/5 of the worlds population will be human garbage unable to produce new values. The people in attendance thought that this excess 80% population would be a trash population and high-tech means should be used to eliminate them gradually. Since the enemies are secretly planning to eliminate our population, we certainly cannot be infinitely merciful and compassionate to them. Comrade He Xins article came out at the right time, it has proven the correctness of our tit for tat battle approach, has proven Comrade Deng Xiaopings great foresight to deploy against the United States military strategy. This means that the CCP are quite the conspiracy theorists. They obviously believe in the depopulation efforts which includes 5G, chemtrails, GMOs, certain vaccines, etc. Wei Feng made it clear that they take this globalist assault upon humanity very seriously and are using this as one of the motivators for their planned actions;??? against the globalists and they perceive the NWO and America as one in the same. Conclusion After reading the leaked Chinese document which contained Wei Fenghs comments about the CCPs intentions toward America, IA m reminded of the movie, Invasion of the Body Snatchers. In the movie, alien spores land on Earth and take over peoples bodies while they sleep. These spores colonized America much in the same way that the Chinese plan to colonize the United States. The Chinese have told us of their intention, are we ready to listen and act? Has anyone asked the question as to whether the Democrats will be historys next Brown Shirts with a similar fate? Read more at: TheCommonSenseShow.com MEXICO CITY, MEXICO / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2020 / The oil industry is in the grips of what is regarded as its greatest distress ever, going through a crisis that has shaken even a market accustomed to the rapid succession of peaks and troughs. Having observed closely the turmoil in the past three months, seasoned forex broker Pablo Soria de Lachica notes, "No commodity is as important for the global economy as oil, and rock-bottom prices for the black gold are not necessarily a good thing in the longer run. The current pandemic has brought social life and business activities to a near-standstill, decimating demand for oil and triggering an unprecedented event - negative prices of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures contracts for May. Although the shocking development was short-lived, there are perfectly valid concerns about the future of the oil industry and the ripple effect of the current crisis. The global economy is already in a recession, and with oil demand unlikely to rebound strongly any time soon, a possible outcome could be another financial crisis." There are already projections that the downturn could persist until the end of 2021 and even beyond given that economic activity cannot return to its previous levels until the current public health emergency is handled, Pablo Soria de Lachica says. According to a New York Times article, "The abrupt halt of commercial activity threatens to impose economic pain so profound and enduring in every region of the world at once that recovery could take years. The losses to companies, many already saturated with debt, risk triggering a financial crisis of cataclysmic proportions." These sentiments were echoed by Harvard economist Kenneth S. Rogoff, who told the publication, "I feel like the 2008 financial crisis was just a dry run for this. This is already shaping up as the deepest dive on record for the global economy for over 100 years. Everything depends on how long it lasts, but if this goes on for a long time, it's certainly going to be the mother of all financial crises." At the center of this gloomy picture is the far-reaching impact of the oil collapse, which has derailed the stock and credit markets, threatening a tidal wave of corporate bankruptcies and fueling unemployment rates, Pablo Soria de Lachica explains. Even though companies and governments learned some hard lessons from the 2008/2009 crisis, today's financial system is so interconnected that a severe upheaval in an industry as vital as oil is bound to have profound consequences. "If the collapse in the May contract on 20 April was a transitory illustration of the problems in oil markets, the fact that 2022 futures prices for that day were not much above $30 emphatically does not bode well. Oil needs to be expensive enough to cover the costs of production, and in the case of American shale oil to service the debt sustaining the sector. Without higher prices, there will be insufficient supply to restore growth, and oil will cause cascading defaults across credit markets that will risk another banking crisis," Helen Thompson, professor of political economy at Cambridge University, writes in an article for The Guardian. Pablo Soria de Lachica graduated from Universidad Tecnologico de Mexico (UNITEC) with an MBA, going on to specialize in international trading and ultimately become one of the most prominent forex experts globally. His extensive experience allows him to maximize profits for his clients by combining professional guidance and educational projects. He is currently collaborating with Kartoshka - a company bringing the latest technologies in sales, telemarketing, and customer support. Pablo Soria de Lachica - Foreign Exchange Specialist: http://PabloSoriaDeLachicaNews.com Pablo Soria de Lachica Explains the Recent Unprecedented Drop of Oil Prices into Negative Territory: https://www.itbusinessnet.com/2020/05/pablo-soria-de-lachica-explains-the-recent-unprecedented-drop-of-oil-prices-into-negative-territory/ Pablo Soria de Lachica Explores the Potential Impact of 2020 Oil Crisis on the Global Economy: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pablo-soria-lachica-explores-potential-141500846.html Contact Information: Pablo Soria de Lachica Kartoshka http://kartoshka.global Pablo@kartoshka.global (800) 588-3618 SOURCE: Pablo Soria de Lachica View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/592479/Pablo-Soria-de-Lachica-Comments-on-the-Possibility-of-a-New-Financial-Crisis-due-to-Oil-Collapse Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 21:10:40|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close NAIROBI, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The death of George Floyd, an African American who died in police custody last week, is facing fierce condemnation in Africa as two separate autopsies released Monday both found Floyd's death to be a homicide. The African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat on Friday condemned the police "murder" of Floyd in the United States. Mahamat was referring to the death of George Floyd on May 25 shortly after a white police officer in Minneapolis held him down with a knee on his neck for almost nine minutes despite pleas by Floyd he was struggling to breathe. "I strongly condemn the murder of George Floyd that occurred in the United States of America at the hands of law enforcement officers, and wishes to extend my deepest condolences to his family and loved ones," he said in a statement. "The AU Commission firmly reaffirms and reiterates its rejection of the continuing discriminatory practices against Black citizens of the United States of America," it said. "I urge the authorities in the United States of America to intensify their efforts to ensure the total elimination of all forms of discrimination based on race or ethnic origin," said the statement from Mahamat. The president of Ghana, Nana Akuffo-Addo, also condemned the killing on Monday night on his official facebook account as violent protests continue in dozens of U.S. cities following his death in police custody. "Black People, the world over, are shocked and distraught by the killing of an unarmed man, George Floyd, by a white police officer in the United States of America. It carried with it an all too painful familiarity, and an ugly reminder," said the president. "We stand with our kith and kin in America in these difficult times, and we hope that the unfortunate, tragic death of George Floyd will inspire a lasting change in how America confronts head on the problems of hate and racism," said Akuffo-Addo. Former African presidents also joined the condemnation. The Forum of Former Heads of State and Government has urged African countries to "raise a strong protest" to the killing and demand that the "perpetrators of this crime and all other crimes of this sort be punished in the strongest terms", according to a statement released by former Beninese President Nicephore Soglo. South Africa's ruling party, African National Congress (ANC), has deplored rising racial discrimination in the United States, calling for "an amicable solution" to the current racial impasse. "While we note the action taken by American authorities in charging one of the officers who was caught on camera kneeling on an unarmed (George) Floyd, it is equally concerning that incidents of police brutality against African American citizens are on the increase," the party said in a statement available to Xinhua on Tuesday. The cascade of recent cases involving police brutality against black Americans "has sharpened the focus on inescapable realities that American society places a perilously low value on black lives," the ANC said. "It's deplorable that almost 70 years since racial segregation was abolished in America, people of color are still routinely slaughtered for the color of their skin," the party said. The ANC urged the South African government to engage with the American government through established diplomatic channels to diffuse racial tensions and build social cohesion among different races. "Despite the American constitution granting citizenship to every American, and blacks are Americans, the political and economic system is biased against those at the bottom of the social pyramid," said Elisio Macamo, a sociologist from Mozambique, currently a professor of African Studies at the University of Basel. "The racial problem in America is, on the one hand, the sequel to a poorly worked past and, on the other hand, a manifestation of the limits of a liberal political culture that does not place the creation of opportunities as a means for the individual to actually enjoy freedom," said Macamo. Zambian human rights specialist Eugene Kabilika challenged the United States to demonstrate by example the human rights it purports to promote by dealing sternly with perpetrators of criminal injustice. Kabilika, who is Caritas Zambia Executive Director, further explained that the history of the U.S. is full of such unfortunate stories of racial discrimination against African Americans noting that they (African Americans) have undergone many struggles that include being freed from slavery and having the opportunity to vote. He further asserted that such happenings create instability and lead to lack of peace in the world, adding that it is up to the leaders to move into the right trajectory and failure to which the world becomes unsafe for all. Enditem TORONTO - The number of COVID-19 cases at a farm in southwestern Ontario has nearly doubled in a matter of days, local authorities said Tuesday, as the provinces chief coroners office said it would investigate the death of a migrant worker from the virus. The Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit said 164 people most of them migrant workers have tested positive for COVID-19 at the Scotlynn Groups farm in Norfolk County, up from 85 cases reported on Sunday. As part of the public health management plan, health unit staff are continuing to contact individuals who have been in close contact with (workers) for further evaluation, a statement from the health unit said. In all, 210 people at the farm have been tested for the virus, with 46 testing negative. The agency said seven people have been admitted to hospital but gave no update on their condition. Norfolk County Mayor Kristal Chopp praised the farms management for working well with local health officials to contain the virus. But with large congregate living situations on most farms and few local hotel accommodations in the area its been a major challenge to isolate workers, she said. People wonder how could an outbreak of this magnitude have happened? Chopp said. Well, it could have been building for quite some time when you have that number of asymptomatic people living in a setting like that. Chopp called on both the federal and provincial governments to provide more resources to municipalities to help them protect workers and the food supply chain. Were providing food security to the country, and our health unit, and our local taxpayers are incurring huge costs right now, she said. Also on Tuesday, the office of Ontarios chief coroner confirmed it is investigating the death from COVID-19 of a 30-year-old migrant worker in Windsor. Spokeswoman Stephanie Rea said the investigation is on-going and she could not provide further details about the circumstances of the mans death. Windsor-Essex medical officer of health Dr. Wajid Ahmed said Monday that the man came to Canada in February and tested positive for the virus on May 21. He was self-isolating in a local hotel when he died on Saturday. My team and I are truly sorry for the death of this young, temporary foreign worker, Ahmed said. Ive said it before many times every life lost is a tragic loss to our community. Approximately 20,000 migrant workers come to Ontario each year to work on farms and in greenhouses, many of them from Mexico, Guatemala and the Caribbean. When they arrived this year, they were required to self-isolate for 14 days. Outbreaks that have affected dozens of migrant workers have been reported in Chatham-Kent, Windsor-Essex, Niagara Region and Elgin County. Meanwhile, Ontarios New Democrats called on the Tory government Tuesday to help the provinces agricultural community deal with the pandemic. Premier Doug Ford needs to immediately deploy resources to hotspots, said NDP labour critic Wayne Gates. In the agricultural sector, that must include mobile testing units, local motel or hotel facilities for isolation, personal protective equipment, and ensured access to clean water and sanitation. Ford said Monday he wanted to ramp up testing for agricultural workers and that he would have more news on that effort in the coming days. He also said the province may have to consider making changes to the communal nature of the bunkhouses in the future, but it would be hard to take that action during the pandemic. Its something we can put on the table, he said. Can we do it in within a month or so? I just dont think thats reality. But what we can do, we can go in and test frequently. I think its critical that we do. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2020. 40,000 migrant workers cleared of COVID-19: Ministry of Manpower Singapore's Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said on Monday, June 1, that a total of 40,000 migrant workers have been cleared of COVID-19 infections. This means they have either tested negative, or were tested positive but have fully recovered and been discharged. They must also be residing in accommodation where fellow residents have been cleared of the virus, MOM said. Photo courtesy: Facebook/Lawrence Wong Of these, 12,000 are essential workers who have been moved out earlier from dormitories into government-provided accommodation facilities and have been working thus far. 20,000 workers were transferred to the government-provided accommodation facilities after recovering or testing negative. Another 8,000 are residents of the first batch of 60 dormitories that will be declared as cleared with effect from June 1. "A cleared dormitory is one where every block within has been declared as cleared of COVID-19 cases," MOM said in a statement. The residents in the cleared blocks/dormitories are workers who have either tested negative, or were tested positive but have fully recovered and been discharged. Another 111 dormintories are due to be cleared in the coming weeks, and they will house an estimated 50,000 cleared workers. Reducing inflammation boosts cognitive recovery after stroke, may extend treatment window Reperfusion therapy, the gold standard for stroke treatment, helps restore blood flow after a stroke caused by a clot, preventing loss of brain tissue. However, only about 10% of stroke patients qualify, in part because of reperfusion therapy's narrow treatment window. A recent Medical University of South Carolina study suggests that this therapy could be both safer and more effective for both motor and cognitive recovery if administered with a specialized compound that blocks the immune response. The team's preclinical findings, reported in the cover article of the May 13 Journal of Neuroscience, suggest that reducing the immune response in the brain could be a strategy for improving cognitive recovery. It could also extend the treatment window for therapy, allowing stroke specialists to help many more stroke patients. "With reperfusion therapy, we're restoring the blood flow, which is necessary to save the tissue, but there is an ongoing inflammatory response by the immune system that is not targeted by reperfusion," said Stephen Tomlinson, Ph.D., interim chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at MUSC and senior author of the article. This could explain why, though mechanical reperfusion has a success rate of 90% in returning blood flow to the brain, only about 40% of treated patients recover enough motor and reasoning skills within three months to tend to their daily needs independently. Even those who do recover motor function can still struggle with cognitive challenges months later. "I've seen patients who have barely any motor deficits at follow-up, but they're really struggling in their daily life in terms of memory, behavioral consequences and language," said lead author Ali Alawieh, M.D., Ph.D., who completed his graduate studies at MUSC and is now a resident in neurosurgery at Emory University School of Medicine. Tomlinson and Alawieh think the immune response in the brain is the culprit. During a stroke, the oxygen and energy supply to the brain is cut off by a clot, causing brain tissue to become stressed and die rapidly. Just as it is with a cut to the knee, the immune system is activated to heal the wound, which includes clearing the dead tissue. A family of special immune proteins called complement proteins help to guide and promote this immune response in the damaged areas. In a 2018 article in Science Translational Medicine, Tomlinson and Alawieh showed that these complement proteins flagged both dead tissue and stressed brain cells for removal. The stressed brain cells were not yet dead, only damaged by lack of oxygen and energy. As the goal of stroke treatment is to save as much brain tissue as possible to lessen overall damage, this was a concerning result, as it meant salvageable tissue was being destroyed by the immune system. Therefore, Tomlinson and his team developed a complement protein blocker, named B4Crry, which acts only at the site of stroke injury. This compound blinds the complement proteins to the signals of stressed brain cells, saving the stressed tissue and reducing overall brain damage in a preclinical stroke model. In the current study, Tomlinson and Alawieh hypothesized that pairing reperfusion therapy and B4Crry would significantly improve stroke recovery beyond reperfusion therapy alone. In particular, they hypothesized this combination treatment would improve cognitive recovery. As Tomlinson's team expected, reperfusion therapy alone did improve recovery of coordinated movements such as walking in a preclinical model of stroke. With the addition of B4Crry to treatment, coordinated movement improved even faster, with greater recovery seen as early as three days after the stroke. The improvements to learning and memory were even greater than those seen with motor functions. Reperfusion therapy alone was equal to no treatment at all for learning and memory recovery after stroke. However, when B4Crry was added to their treatments, mice had greatly improved cognitive recovery, making three times fewer errors on a learning and memory task. Tomlinson's team further probed into why the addition of B4Crry, and the subsequent reduction of the brain's immune response, aided cognitive recovery so greatly. They found that after stroke, brain immune cells called microglia began eating the connections between stressed brain cells. Immune system complement proteins were marking these connections for destruction because they displayed the stressed cell signal. Without these connections, brain cells cannot communicate efficiently, and overall brain function decreases. B4Crry concealed the cells' stress signals from the complement proteins and thereby saved the connections between neurons. Preserving connectivity improved learning and memory brain function after stroke. A complement inhibitor such as B4Crry might also help stroke specialists overcome the biggest hurdle for reperfusion therapy: the short treatment window. Tomlinson's team showed that after clot removal adding B4Crry to reperfusion therapy reduced the potential for hemorrhage, or excessive bleeding, even with treatment given up to six hours after the stroke. These findings suggest that complement inhibition could not only make reperfusion therapy safer but extend its treatment window, making it available for many more stroke patients. Alawieh is excited about the future use of complement inhibition in the clinic. "Our next step is to see how complement inhibitors work with comorbidities, such as old age, smoking and diabetes, in a preclinical study," he explained. "Collectively, this information will help us design the best clinical trial when we move to humans." Tomlinson's team at MUSC is also testing the potential for complement inhibitors in other brain injuries, such as traumatic brain injury. "We have shown that we can administer complement inhibitors as far as two months after a traumatic brain injury and see improvements in cognitive recovery," said Tomlinson. "This is something I'm actually quite excited about. It means that months after an initial event, complement inhibitors could still be beneficial to cognitive recovery after brain injuries, including strokes." ### Disclosure: Dr. Stephen Tomlinson is an inventor on a patent application for natural antibody-targeted complement inhibitors filed by the University of Colorado (PCT/US2014/012831; targeting constructs based on natural antibodies and uses thereof) and is a consultant for Admirx Inc., a company developing complement inhibitors. About the Medical University of South Carolina Founded in 1824 in Charleston, MUSC is the oldest medical school in the South as well as the state's only integrated academic health sciences center with a unique charge to serve the state through education, research and patient care. Each year, MUSC educates and trains more than 3,000 students and 800 residents in six colleges: Dental Medicine, Graduate Studies, Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. The state's leader in obtaining biomedical research funds, in fiscal year 2019, MUSC set a new high, bringing in more than $284 million. For information on academic programs, visit http://musc. edu . As the clinical health system of the Medical University of South Carolina, MUSC Health is dedicated to delivering the highest quality patient care available while training generations of competent, compassionate health care providers to serve the people of South Carolina and beyond. Comprising some 1,600 beds, more than 100 outreach sites, the MUSC College of Medicine, the physicians' practice plan and nearly 275 telehealth locations, MUSC Health owns and operates eight hospitals situated in Charleston, Chester, Florence, Lancaster and Marion counties. In 2019, for the fifth consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report named MUSC Health the No. 1 hospital in South Carolina. To learn more about clinical patient services, visit http://muschealth. org . MUSC and its affiliates have collective annual budgets of $3.2 billion. The more than 17,000 MUSC team members include world-class faculty, physicians, specialty providers and scientists who deliver groundbreaking education, research, technology and patient care. This story has been published on: 2020-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. I cannot know how it feels to be an African American person in this country right now or what you are going through, said Northam, who was joined by several African Americans, including his longtime pastor. I cannot know the depth of your pain. What I can do is stand with you and support you. And together, were going to turn this pain into action. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 03:45:22|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A man wearing a face mask cycles in central London, Britain, on May 28, 2020. (Xinhua/Han Yan) -- UK COVID-19 deaths top 39,000 as another 111 patients die; -- Italy records lowest new cases since Feb. 27; -- France's single-day deaths lowest since mid-March; -- Spain receives no foreign tourists in April amid lockdown. BRUSSELS, June 1 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments of the COVID-19 pandemic in European countries. LONDON -- Another 111 COVID-19 patients have died in Britain as of Sunday afternoon, bringing the total coronavirus-related death toll in the country to 39,045, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Monday. The figures include deaths in all settings, including hospitals, care homes and the wider community. Noting that 111 is the lowest daily death toll since lockdown began in March, Hancock said during the Downing Street daily press briefing that Britain is winning the battle against the novel coronavirus, but warned COVID-19 is "not done yet". People walk outside the reopened Colosseum in Rome, Italy, June 1, 2020.(Xinhua/Cheng Tingting) ROME -- Italy recorded 178 fresh cases of infection from the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, the lowest such figure since Feb. 27, the Civil Protection Department said on Monday. The overall number of COVID-19 infections, fatalities and recoveries rose to 233,197 cases over the past 24 hours, from 233,019 cases on Sunday. The pandemic began in Italy on Feb. 21 in the northern, densely populated and highly industrialized Lombardy region, whose capital is Milan. Parisians walk on a street near the Place des Vosges in Paris, France, May 31, 2020. (Photo by Aurelien Morissard/Xinhua) PARIS -- On the eve of the second phase of de-confinement, France recorded 31 COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, the lowest daily increase since mid March, bringing the overall death toll of the epidemic to 28,833, the Health Ministry said on Monday. French hospitals registered 18,506 fatalities, up from 18,475 on Sunday, while the data from nursing homes and medico-social establishments would be updated on Tuesday. The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 fell to 14,288 from 14,322 on Sunday. The number of those who need life support continued its downtrend, falling by 17 to 1,302. People keep social distancing at a beach during the COVID-19 pandemic in Barcelona, Spain, May 29, 2020. (Barcelona City Hall/Handout via Xinhua) MADRID -- Spain did not receive any foreign tourists or any income from tourism in April due to the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, according to data from the Spanish Statistical Office (INE) on Monday. In a monthly report, the INE said this follows a drop of 64 percent in the number of international tourist arrivals in March, as the country closed to foreign visitors from March 15. Meanwhile, the fact that travel restrictions remained in place throughout May means that the month that has just finished will also end with zero tourists from abroad and zero income from the sector. New Delhi, June 2 : Amid four consecutive lockdowns when unprecedented migrant crisis was witnessed in the country, the popularity and performance of the central government remained intact across the nation, barring few states as people were satisfied with the work and performance of the Union Government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. According to the survey conducted by IANS -CVoter during the last week of the lockdown 4.0, states like Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Chhattisgarh gave high rating of satisfaction to the central government. Topping the list is Himachal Pradesh with 97.46 per cent was followed by Odisha and Chhattisgarh where people were satisfied with the work of the central government. In the top 10 states where there was feel good factor -- majority of the state are ruled by non-BJP parties. In top 15 satisfied states where the endorsement rate is more than 60 per cent are the BJP-ruled states Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Assam NE and Karnataka. While rest of the states are ruled by either Congress including Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Rajasthan while two states Jharkhand and Maharashtra is ruled by Congress supported alliance. States like Andhra Pradesh,Telangana and Odisha is ruled by regional parties. The worry for BJP would be in Goa which is last in the list and here the Union Government is not at all popular. In Goa the rating is 9.62 per cent while in Haryana which is due to complete a year in government the is 28.73 per cent which is less than Kerala where it has 30 per cent approval . Going minutely in the survey the highest percentage in BJP ruled state is Himachal Pradesh where more than 97 per cent people are satisfied followed by Gujarat with 75.4 per cent and then Assam with 73 per cent satisfied people with the central government's performance. The graph of performance of the union government is also intact in the Congress-ruled states, with Chhattisgarh topping the list with 91.42 per cent followed by Rajasthan 66.95 per cent and third Punjab 63.96 per cent. The performance of the Central government is highest in Odisha ruled by BJD among the regional parties with 95.73 percent followed by Andhra Pradesh 78.65 per cent ruled by YSRCP and the third is Telangana ruled by TRS with 68.96 per cent performance endorsement. Among the states ruled by Congress supported alliance, it is in Jharkhand, where central government has highest popularity followed by Maharashtra. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text 02.06.2020 LISTEN The former Member of Parliament (MP) for North Dayi in the Volta Region, George Loh, has defied his partys directive on the new Electoral Commission voter registration exercise by participating in the ongoing pilot exercise. George Loh participated in the ongoing EC pilot voter registration exercise on the going process across all EC Regional Offices in the country. This portal has spotted a sample of Mr Lohs voter ID which is currently circulating on the various social media platforms. Some members of the NPP have shared their opinion on the registration by the former NDC MP though his party and other political parties have resisted the compilation of a new voters register. Nana Ansah Obofour, the Communication Director of the NPP in the United Kingdom shared his opinion on the action taken by Mr. loh, The hypocrisy of the NDC is sickening. This is George Loh of the NDC, former MP for North Dayi after he took part in the ECS ongoing pilot registration. Nana Agyenim Boateng of the NPP cautioned people against the NDC, This is George Loh, NDC Vice-Chair in the Volta region. He joined the pilot exercise today. When an NDC man says watch left please think twice. The two-day pilot exercise is being carried out by 42,000 trained personnel across the country. Source: firstnewsroom.com Boris Johnson's spokesperson says UK will not support move unless Moscow "ceases aggressive and destabilizing activity." Any push by Donald Trump to readmit Russia to the G7 gathering of economically advanced nations would be vetoed by the UK, Boris Johnson's official spokesperson said Monday. Trump announced Saturday he is postponing the annual G7 summit, which was due to be hosted in the U.S. in June, until September and plans to invite four additional non-member nations including Russia, Politico reported. Speaking to journalists at a daily briefing, Johnson's spokesperson said that while it was up to host nations to decide which countries could be invited as guests, the U.K. would not support Russia being "readmitted as a member of the group." Decisions on G7 membership are subject to the unanimous backing of all members. Russia was ejected from the group previously the G8 after its annexation of Crimea in 2014. Read alsoReuters: Trump postpones G7 summit, seeks to add countries to invitation list Johnson's spokesperson said the UK would not support Russia's return to the G7 fold "unless it ceases aggressive and destabilizing activity that threatens the safety of U.K. citizens and the collective security of our allies," adding: "We are yet to see evidence of changed behavior." The UK's position does not rule out Russian President Vladimir Putin being invited to the summit as a guest. While it is not unusual for host nations to ask representatives of non-G7 countries to attend summits, an invitation to Putin would prove highly controversial. The UK has taken a particularly firm stance on Moscow since blaming Russia for the 2018 nerve agent poisoning of a former Russian double agent in Salisbury, England. Trump's decision to postpone the G7 summit came after German Chancellor Angela Merkel declined his invitation to attend in person due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, Johnson had been prepared to make the trip, Downing Street said. "The prime minister and President Trump spoke on Friday and the prime minister said that if possible, he would like to attend in person," Johnson's spokesperson added. "Subsequent to that, the president spoke about potentially holding it later in the year rather than in June." BOSTON, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Brattle Group has announced today that Ms. Judy Chang, a former principal in Brattle's Boston, MA office, has been appointed as Undersecretary of Energy at the Commonwealth of Massachusetts's Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA). As Undersecretary, Ms. Chang will work closely with EEA Secretary Kathleen Theoharides and the Baker-Polito gubernatorial administration to set energy policies for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Since Massachusetts combines its energy and environmental agencies under one Secretary, this role requires Ms. Chang to work with others at the EEA on topics that involve energy, environmental, and natural resource sectors. "Judy brings unique perspectives from her Brattle experience with a diverse set of clients addressing many cutting-edge policy initiatives across North America and globally," said Brattle President and Principal Alexis Maniatis. As an energy economist and policy expert with a background in electrical engineering, Ms. Chang has advised regulatory and private clients on key topics in the power sector, including energy resource planning, electric transmission system planning, wholesale market design, and energy policy analyses. She specializes in evaluating the economics of proposed energy projects, assessing the regulatory and financial risks associated with renewable/clean energy resources and energy storage, and leading utility executives, stakeholders, and board members, in making strategic business decisions. Ms. Chang is also a founding director of New England Women in Energy and the Environment (NEWIEE). "The energy industry is undergoing a period of transformational change, and I'm honored and excited to embark on this new role to help lead Massachusetts into a new energy future. I have learned much from the clients and colleagues at The Brattle Group and hope to bring that knowledge to contribute toward the transition of our energy sector," noted Ms. Chang. ABOUT BRATTLE The Brattle Group answers complex economic, finance, and regulatory questions for corporations, law firms, and governments around the world. We are distinguished by the clarity of our insights and the credibility of our experts, which include leading international academics and industry specialists. Brattle has over 350 talented professionals across three continents. For more information, please visit brattle.com. SOURCE The Brattle Group Related Links http://www.brattle.com Ghana's COVID-19 case count has increased from 8,070 to 8,297 after 227 new cases were added after an update by the Ghana Health Service on Tuseday afteroon since the last update announced by President Akufo-Aidoo on Sunday, May 31 during his 10th Address to the nation amid the coronavirus pandemic. The Ghana Health Service says the number of recoveries have now increased from 2,947 to 2,986, an additional 39. However, the number of active cases stand at 5,273. Out of the total cases recorded, 13 are severely ill, 3 critically and 1 on ventilator. Two more additional deaths have been recorded moving the toll to 38. Death 37 A 52-year-old female with metastatic Ovarian cancer and gastro internal bleeding reported at a hospital in Kumasi with respiratory symptoms. She was admitted as a suspected COVID-19 and isolated and died after three days on admission and confirmed as COVID-19 positive. Death 38 A 64-year-old female was admitted with an initial diagnosis of Congestive Cardiac Failure and bilateral pneumonia and later confirmed as COVID-19 positive. She died after two days on admission. Regional breakdown Greater Accra Region - 5,798 Ashanti Region - 1,263 Western Region 436 Central Region 410 Eastern Region 117 Volta Region 84 Western North Region 68 Northern Region 37 Oti Region 26 Upper East Region 26 Upper West Region 22 Bono East Region 6 North East Region 2 Savannah Region 1 Bono Region 1 Ahafo Region - 0 Restrictions eased, gatherings should not be more than 100 people President Akufo-Addo has introduced a phased approach of easing of restrictions especially in public gatherings and school attendance. In his 10th address to the nation on measures being taken against the spread of COVID-19 he said effective 5th June, churches and mosques can start meeting with a maximum congregation of 100 and the mandatory wearing of nose mask. "In addition to mandatory wearing of masks, a register of names and contact details of all worshippers must be provided; maximum duration of one hour per service," he said. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video As the coronavirus pandemic loosens its grip on Americas cities, Americas president is losing his grip on reality. As Monday dragged on for seemingly a years worth of instability and extra-legality emanating from Donald Trump and his allies, culminating in his bizarre march from the White House to the Episcopal Church across the street, with soldiers tear-gassing and rubber-bulleting him a path so that he could pose for pictures, two things became obvious. The presidency is vacant; and the way for Joe Biden to fill it is to get on a plane to Minneapolis, now. Biden began to emerge from the basement where hes done TV appearances for the past few months, showing up at gatherings near his home in Wilmington, Delaware. But Wilmington isnt where the nations attention is riveted, or where the crisis is hottest now. Neither is Philadelphia, where he is now. That would be Minnesota, where the death of George Floyd set off civil disturbances that have supplanted even corona as Americas dinnertime conversation. Americas needs now to dovetail with Bidens strengths: a heart-on-his-sleeve empathy, and an instinctive drive towards fairness. As Franklin Roosevelt said, the presidency is pre-eminently an office of moral leadership. Of all thats missing from Trumps vacant head, morality (as three wives might attest) is high on the list. So lead, Joe. Go to Minneapolis. Go at night. Be dramatic. Stand on the barricades if you have to, the way the late Rep Elijah Cummings did in his beloved Baltimore six blocks from my old apartment during the Freddie Gray riots in 2015. Help neighbours talk to each other cops, community leaders and everyone else. Bring your team, Joe. The single biggest thing Biden could do right right now is make a personnel choice that shows hes serious about civil rights, and urban policy generally. If hes going to name a black running mate or an attorney general with a real civil-rights pedigree for example, Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative and the subject of 2019 movie Just Mercy now would be the time. Showing up with Stevenson and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams (who would work as vice president or AG) would fix Hillary Clintons black turnout problem, lickety-split, and lock in the election. What Biden says is less important than the fact of his listening. And people know this: Personnel is destiny. Show them personnel that will attack fundamental injustice, and they will understand youre serious or if youre not. Trump himself proves that. Joe Biden mocks Donald Trump for 'brandishing' Bible at photo opp The presidents next trip is scheduled to be a schlep to a remote Maine factory that makes swabs for coronavirus tests something Trump took two months to get around to expediting as he watched his own impeachment trial on TV. There, hell pose for pictures with oversized Q-Tips, while Biden, if he dares, begins the real work of healing wounds reopened by George Floyds murder. Trump wants to ride the riots to the campaign trail, portraying cities as Ground Zero of the American Carnage he says he alone can solve. Pundits speculate that somehow this will resemble Richard Nixons 1968 campaign, where Nixon squeaked out a win on fears of urban decay. As a child of the white flight generation, let me explain how race and cities looked to white-flight families, then and now. Its kinda different. Nixons strategy worked because cities actually were falling apart in 1968.They were hollowing out from early waves of de-industrialisation, plus housing and transportation policies (led by new interstate highways) that promoted suburban development. Schools were collapsing my mothers high school has a mean SAT score today of 859, 200 points below the national average. And crime was rising, sharply, in ways some politicians made efforts to conflate with race. We left Jersey City, NJ in 1962. One legacy of that is Twitter today being full of Republicans selling the trope that Democratic mayors ruined the likes of Minneapolis, Atlanta and New York, leaving them ripe for rioting. Trump holds up bible outside Washington church But Minneapolis has a AAA bond rating higher than the federal government and has cut its murder rate in half; metro Minneapolis had 2.6 per cent unemployment as recently as last fall. New York has its highest bond rating ever, with serious crime down 82 per cent since 1990. Same story in Atlanta: Population up a quarter, AA+ bond rating, and even the mean public-school SAT scores are a respectable 997. Even Americas drug problem is primarily a rural-exurban thing now. A generation after we left Jersey City, my sister opened a pub in Pittsburgh at the time, said to be among the first significant new businesses in the desolate Strip District in decades. Now the Strips one of the best neighbourhoods in town: Barack Obama used to hit Pamelas Diner, a block from Mullaneys Harp and Fiddle, for their signature crepe-pancakes. My family came full circle with cities, and so has America. So, Joe, go to Minneapolis. Remind Americans that cities are us. And that they work, better than the resentment, incompetence and sadly and finally would-be dictatorship in the White House. I had the honor of chatting with international influencer and entrepreneur Elaine Rau of LadyBossBlogger, a brand that has garnered a massive audience of 150K in under two years. It's a platform that helps female entrepreneurs learn how to start, grow, and scale their own online businesses and blogs. Can you tell our readers about your background? I worked hard to climb the corporate ladder in the wedding industry and landed the coveted job as the National Wedding Sales Manager. My job was my life and I worked 24/7, but because I loved my job I didn't mind it. However, the trajectory of my life and career completely changed after I received a phone call from my boyfriend telling me that his brother had just been murdered. I asked my boss if I could go attend the funeral and he said NO because it would affect sales, an answer that shocked me, and proved to be a wake-up call. I had to make a decision: my five-year relationship or my career... I chose the relationship and moved down to Honduras to be with my boyfriend and his family during this incredibly hard time. The transition proved to be harder than I had anticipated. For the first time in a long time, I didn't have a job to keep me occupied and I was completely lost. I had no idea who I was or what I wanted in life without an employer. So I decided to start a blog to learn about who I wanted to become: a Lady Boss Blogger, and that is exactly who I became. Tell us how you cultivated LadyBossBlogger into this international brand? Since I grew up overseas in Taiwan, I've always been very internationally minded. Growing up, I felt like I missed out on a lot of opportunities because we didn't live in the States. For example, we were always excluded from contests and giveaways from Scholastic Books. America was always the land of dreams and opportunities for me, which is why I decided to attend college in the US and stay in the states after I graduated. Now that I'm in a place where I can extend opportunities, I wanted to be sure that my brand was accessible to people who lived overseas which is why I created three international accounts: @LadyBossBlogger.Spanish, @LadyBossBlogger.Chinese, and @LadyBossBlogger.Swahili and make sure my products are available globally. I also have internships that are available to students around the globe. I currently have two international students out of 15 interns. What is your favorite place to travel? Taiwan, because that is where my family lives! We moved to the states as a family when I was about 17, but my parents moved back home 2 years later along with most of my siblings. I decided to go to college in the US because America was the first place I felt like I belonged. Also when I was growing up, all the opportunities seemed to be in the US, and in my mind, America was "the land where dreams came true". Ironically I started my business overseas, but now my boyfriend (now husband) and I are back in Chicago! Do you have any fun vacations planned this year? I'm supposed to celebrate my 30th birthday in Jamaica with all my besties who are also turning 30 at the end of the year, but who knows at this point! I was also supposed to be leaving on a plane today to go to Costa Rica for my best friend's wedding this weekend, but that was canceled. So at this point, I'm not sure when my next vacation will be! What is your annual splurge? The only thing I splurge on for fun is travel. I also love splurging on tools to grow my business. Besides that, I really don't spend much on anything other than bills and food. As a content creator, I basically get my makeup, skincare, hair care, clothing, office supplies, kitchen supplies, home essentials, and tickets to events all paid for. Meaning, not only do I get products and experiences for free, but I'm also paid to promote them while making passive income from them. What other fun projects are you working on? I just completed my home studio from sponsored products which was super fun for me! I got a massive ring light, 2 LED floodlights, and a backdrop stand. Now I can finally create content at night, which is when I prefer to work, and not have to depend on daylight. I'm currently writing this interview at midnight because it's when I have the most creative energy! I like to wake up at noon and work off and on until about 2 AM, anyone resonate? How can readers get in touch with you? You can find all my stuff by googling "Elaine Rau" or "LadyBossBlogger" or I have included my social links below. INSTAGRAM @ElaineRau@LadyBossBlogger Photo Credit / Agnes Malorny (C) Elaine Rau An employee wearing a protective mask, leaves a menu on a table at the beach bar of the Divani Apollon Palace hotel, on the first day of the opening of hotels in Athens, Greece. Photo: REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis Irish people are among those permitted to travel to Greece "without quarantine", its tourism minister confirmed yesterday amid a Europe-wide scramble to salvage the crucial summer holiday season. Last week, Greece appeared to slap a nationwide ban on flights from here after leaving Ireland off its "white list" of 29 nations with better-than-average Covid-19 infection records. But yesterday, it said this had been a "misunderstanding" and Irish holidaymakers will be allowed to visit as early as mid-June. However, the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs is still advising against all non-essential travel overseas until further notice. Greece has pledged to "welcome the world" from June 15, when it will resume flights to its two main airports, Athens and Thessaloniki. Others will be reopened to international flights from July 1. During this "bridge phase", it will also accept travellers from airports such as Heathrow and Gatwick deemed high risk by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, but they will be subject to systematic testing and possible quarantine. The EASA "blacklist" contains 13 British airports, including Stansted and Manchester, but none in Ireland. "Tourists originating from airports listed on EASA are obliged to be tested once they land in Greece and remain at a designated hotel for one day," said Tourism Minister Harry Theoharis. "If the test turns out negative, these visitors will then be obliged to observe a seven-day quarantine. If their sample is positive, they will remain in a 14-day quarantine, and their health will be monitored." Passengers flying to Greece from Ireland and other exempted countries would be subject only to random testing and would not have to undergo any form of quarantine unless they tested positive for the virus, he confirmed. Although major UK airports are on the EASA list, several smaller ones are in the clear, including London Southend, Bristol and Edinburgh. Mr Theoharis said the EASA list would be renewed weekly in the run-up to flights resuming on June 15. "I would consider it a positive step if at some point the UK lifted the restrictions on visitors returning from Greece to the UK," he added. As tourism accounts for a quarter of its GDP, Greece is desperate to reopen after containing the pandemic with early draconian restrictions. Yesterday, it authorised year-round hotels to reopen, although many chose not to, citing low bookings. Primary schools were reopened, as were public swimming pools, campsites, wedding reception services, tattoo parlours and dating agencies. Elsewhere in Europe, France's bars, cafes and restaurants are due to reopen today after three months' closure. Customers must remain a metre apart and no more than 10 per table. However, venues in Paris can serve only on outside terraces until June 22. In Italy, the Vatican Museums housing the Sistine Chapel reopened to the public yesterday, as did the Colosseum. Tomorrow, Italians will be allowed to freely move about the country and European visitors will be welcomed without quarantine. Spain plans to welcome foreign visitors from July 1. In Portugal, beaches in the Algarve will reopen on Saturday, colour-coded by capacity on an app. Quickest off the mark was Montenegro, Europe's first country to declare itself "coronavirus-free" which started letting in foreign tourists yesterday. ( Daily Telegraph, London) Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021] CLEVELAND, Ohio -- I have a dream... Dr. Martin Luther King said in his historic 1963 speech. That dream certainly didnt include George Floyds killing by police or the criminal activity that hijacked protest marches on Floyds death in cities all over the United States, including in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. King had a dream in 1963. In 2020, Floyd protest marches had insurgents with a nightmare vision to vandalize, loot and burn. The city of Cleveland was subjected to extensive destruction. Over 45 businesses were damaged by vandalism, looting or arson. On Public Square the damage included the statues of the citys founder General Moses Cleaveland, and most popular Mayor, Tom Johnson vandalized by graffiti. The damage was so extensive, that not only was a curfew set, entrances into the city have been closed until 8:00 pm Tuesday, and the time may be extended. Looting and arson continued in cities Monday. Even storefronts that had already been boarded up because of damage or to prevent damage, were broken into. Among the businesses targeted were pharmacies, important at anytime, but especially during the national health emergency to combat the coronavirus. Like the peaceful demonstrators, those committing the criminal acts were multi-racial. While many had their faces masked, not all did. And contrary to initial reports from officials that the damage was being done by outsiders not from the particular city or state, arrest records have shown otherwise. Many of those arrested were in fact from the area they were arrested in. The mayhem took away from the point of the protests messages and relevant news. Among the stories that might have gotten more attention is the NBC News report that 44 other people had been rendered unconscious by the use of neck constraints by the Minneapolis Police Department since 2015. Neck constraint was defined as compressing the neck with either an arm or leg. It was found to have been done by the department at least 237 times in the period analyzed. It was also reported during the protests that two autopsies conducted both found George Floyd died as a result of Homicide." One was conducted by the County Medical Office and the other was an independent autopsy commissioned by the family. The independent autopsy found Floyd died from asphyxiation from sustained pressure. Those vandalizing, burning and looting not only took away from the legitimate and important points of the protests, they played right into the hands of President Trumps Law and Order mantra and reelection efforts which had been struggling. Over the past several days Ive seen one particular quote from Dr. Martin Luther King on riots repeated several times: A riot is the language of the unheard. That would appear to be justifying or excusing the kind of chaos and crime witnessed over the past week during protests, even if its being quoted out of context. But Dr. King also said this about riots: Riots are socially destructive and self defeating... In 1963 Dr. King had a dream. In 2020 a diverse group of people had brooms, shovels and whatever else they needed to begin cleaning up the damage done during the protests, I have no doubt that Dr. King and George Floyd are joining them in spirit. Trump threatens to use military force to crush protests sparked by Floyds death US President Donald Trump threatened that he would deploy military to quell the violent protests throughout the country. Protests have engulfed at least 140 cities following the death of George Floyd. If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and proper of their residents, then I will deploy the US military and quickly solve the problem for them, he threatened. Watch the full video for more. ...read more The heartbroken family of a teenager who perished inside a burning car in Londonderry one year ago has called for those who were with him to come forward and explain why they ran away and left him to die. Caoimhin Cassidy (18) died on June 1, 2019 when the stolen Mazda car he and others were travelling in ignited after it crashed into a tree in the Galliagh area of the city. A post-mortem examination showed Caoimhin had minor injuries, and was most likely alive before the fire claimed his life. Mr Cassidy's grandmother, Margaret, told the Belfast Telegraph she cries herself to sleep every night over the loss of her beloved grandson. She said: "Caoimhin was brought into my house soon after he was born and he was here until the day he was carried out for his funeral - but since that day I have cried myself to sleep every night. "I cannot get over the pain of losing him and his mother Christina is worse. I cannot face going out of this house and I sit here thinking Caoimhin is going to come through the door. "I've only managed to go to his grave once, and I have only been out of this house twice since Caoimhin died." Mrs Cassidy said it is a struggle to comprehend how those with her grandson left him to die. She continued: "If the people who were with Caoimhin saw the way we are suffering as a family, they would let us know why? "Why did they all get out of that car run and leave my grandson lying in the car? "How could anybody do that, knowing that that car was on fire? "Even if they wrote a letter to me and told me that and said they were sorry - that would be something at least but they way we have been left is terrible." Mr Cassidy's great-uncle Charles Tierney said he too is tortured by unanswered questions about his nephew's death. He said: "This has been a nightmare for me too because I saw the video the police have of the whole thing, including how the car hit a lamppost, them going toward houses and then it goes out of view. "You can see flames but then you see the car in flames. "That haunts me still but one thing that has puzzled me this whole year is how they (the police) didn't get the car stopped when they knew it was stolen. "It had come up into the Creggan area then headed towards the border and then came back into the North, so if they were able to video that and they were able to tell me the car stopped in Creggan, it puzzles me why they didn't stop it." Mr Tierney said above all else, the family need answers about the circumstances that led to his nephew's grim demise. He continued: "We know Caoimhin was not on his own and the police know that, but I don't really think the ones with him have a conscience. "I would appeal to their friends - those people who know who they are and know what they did. It is to them that I would appeal, come and give names to a priest, a community worker they trust or a solicitor. "The family are not interested in getting somebody put in prison, all we want to know is why they did what they did." The detective leading the investigation into Mr Cassidy's death also appealed for anyone with information to come forward. Detective Inspector Michael Winters said: "The body of 18-year-old Caoimhin Cassidy was found inside a red Mazda 6, which had crashed on the Fairview Road during the early hours of Saturday, June 1, 2019. "Initially it was believed that the car had caught fire as a result of the collision. "However, results from the post-mortem examination subsequently told us that Caoimhin was not seriously injured as a result of a crash, and was most likely still alive when the blaze started. We believe that Caoimhin was not travelling alone in the vehicle. "If you can cast your mind back and remember anything about Caoimhin's movements, or those of the red Mazda 6, on the evening of Friday, May 31, then please get in touch. "Any detail, no matter how small it might seem, could be invaluable." Anyone with information is asked to contact detectives at Strand Road on 101, quoting reference number 316 of 01/06/19 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. At least 5,600 people have been arrested as protests continue across the United States following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Mr Floyd, a black man, had been pleading for air as a white police officer pressed a knee on his neck. Here are the latest developments: LAS VEGAS, NEVADA A police officer has been shot and authorities are responding to another shooting during protests. Authorities said the officer was shot on the Las Vegas Strip, and an officer was involved in another shooting on Las Vegas Boulevard. Protesters have been rallying for days across the country over the death of Mr Floyd. ST LOUIS, MISSOURI Police say four officers were hit by gunfire after protests in the city started which peacefully on Monday became violent overnight, with demonstrators smashing windows and stealing items from businesses and fires burning in the central area. It's ruthless that media trying to neglect the reality, reflecting the terrible situation and protestors actions as unacceptable. However, reality is not covert anyway. We stand for #BlackLivesMatter#JusticeForGeorgeFloyd #WeLoveYouBlackArmy pic.twitter.com/EoVPUNCu3A Akanksha Rana (@i_akankshaRana) June 2, 2020 The police department tweeted that the officers were taken to a hospital with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening. It was unclear who had fired the shots. Protesters had gathered in front of police headquarters, where officers fired tear gas. Some protesters smashed windows at a 7-11 store and stole items from inside before the building was set on fire. BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA Workers in Alabamas largest city began removing a Confederate monument on Monday night after demonstrators failed to knock down the obelisk the night before. Birmingham mayor Randall Woodfin sent workers with heavy equipment to take down the 50ft Confederate monument made of stone. Late on Monday, after a 7pm curfew took effect and streets were mostly clear, crews began their work. They did it! The MAJORITY of the confederate statue in Linn Park in Birmingham Alabama has been REMOVED! pic.twitter.com/6UvkWYdefL Brett "Solidarity 2022" Banditelli (@banditelli) June 2, 2020 Live video showed workers attaching straps to the peak of the obelisk so it could be lifted away with a crane. Within a few hours they had removed the top of the monument. Mr Woodfin said the city would consider whether the memorial could be given to a museum or another group. CICERO, ILLINOIS Two people have been killed during unrest in the Chicago suburb of Cicero as protests continued over the death of George Floyd, according to a town official. Spokesman Ray Hanania said 60 people were arrested in the town of about 84,000 located west of Chicago. The Illinois State Police and Cook County Sheriffs Office were called in to help local police on Monday as people broke into a liquor store and other businesses and stole items. WASHINGTON DC Law enforcement officers used tear gas, pellets and low-flying helicopters to turn back demonstrators in the US capital. Protesters remained on the streets well past the 7pm curfew that had been imposed by District of Columbia mayor Muriel Bowser. They had spent hours marching peacefully around the city before they were buzzed by the helicopters. Protesters smashed windows at the Teamsters building as they dispersed. LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY Riot police firing tear gas scattered several hundred protesters from Jefferson Square, violently capping a day of mostly peaceful protests. Riot police with batons at the ready stood shoulder to shoulder as they advanced down key streets before breaking up the protest after a brief standoff shortly after 10pm. Demonstrators shouted at police as authorities on a microphone ordered the crowd to disperse before loud bursts of tear gas crackled and smoke spread over the area. Protesters began running and military-style vehicles could later be seen occupying the key square fronting a courthouse complex. Some protesters gasped and held wet cloths to their faces as they ran from the gas and advancing police, before the demonstrations petered out. Earlier, the fatal shooting of the popular owner of a Louisville barbecue spot prompted a massive march to the site where the restaurateur was killed early on Monday. David McAtee died while police officers and National Guard soldiers were enforcing a curfew amid waves of protests in the Kentucky city. Weve moved to 26th & Broadway. It was where David McAtee was shot and killed Monday morning by LMPD & the Kentucky National Guard. Officials say they were breaking up a large protest when someone fired a shot and they returned fire, killing the business owner. @WLKY #Louisville pic.twitter.com/CJpcDJOsQ7 Shaquille Lord WLKY (@ShaquilleonTV) June 1, 2020 Louisvilles police chief was fired after city mayor Greg Fischer learned that officers failed to activate body cameras at the chaotic scene where Mr McAtee was shot. ATLANTA, GEORGIA Protesters were still in the streets on Monday night as curfew neared, and police officers and the National Guard used tear gas, starting shortly before 9pm. Protesters largely dispersed after that, though some remained, and officers were making arrests, apparently for curfew violations. A similar scene had played out the night before. NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE More than 60 National Guard troops put down their riot shields Monday evening at the request of peaceful protesters who had gathered in front of Tennessees state Capitol in Nashville to honour George Floyd. Guardsmen had initially rushed to grab their shields and form a hard line to block the slowly moving crowd from advancing up the Capitol steps. As the National Guard began moving, Tennessee State Police grabbed batons and formed a line behind them. However, the crowd remained calm. Democratic legislators leaving the capitol asked to be able to move past the line of guards to join the crowd. As the crowd continued to sing and call for justice for black Americans, slowly the shields began to drop. The state troopers declined to drop their batons but backed farther away from the crowd. Mondays peaceful vigil was a marked difference from several protests that turned violent in Tennessee over the weekend. OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON Washington state governor Jay Inslee has slammed US president Donald Trumps threat to deploy the United States military to American cities to quell a rise of violent protests. In an emailed statement in response to the presidents comments, the Democrat said Mr Trump has repeatedly proven he is incapable of governing and shown nothing but false bravado throughout the chaos that has accompanied his time in office. Mr Inslee added: He cowers at the feet of authoritarians around the world. Now he uses the most supreme power of the presidency in a desperate attempt to hide his timidity and vapidity. I pray no soldier and no civilian is injured or killed by this reckless fit. The Seattle area has seen several days of violence, including vandalism in the city centre. Winnipeg real estate company Whiteland Developers believes the pandemic has not lessened demand for industrial space and land in the Winnipeg capital region, and is betting $32 million its right. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/6/2020 (598 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Winnipeg real estate company Whiteland Developers believes the pandemic has not lessened demand for industrial space and land in the Winnipeg capital region, and is betting $32 million its right. Whiteland is putting another 80 acres of fully serviced land on the market immediately west of the developments first phase, called Brookport Business Park, which sold out in less than a year in 2019. "We thought we should have something ready for when everything opens, to present something and bring it to market," said Satpal Sidhu, president of Whiteland. "That was our plan and it is going very well." Not only does Whiteland believe demand for industrial space will remain strong, its also looking to capitalize on the dearth of e-commerce distribution facilities in the region by building one of the largest distribution centres in the city and one of the only such developments in the last decade. The company is getting ready to start construction on a 270,000-square-foot distribution centre in Phase 1 and has plans to build two more in Phase 2 that will total an additional 300,000 square feet. "Because of the increase in e-commerce and the need for warehousing and distribution centres we think there will be plenty of demand," said Sidhu. He and his partners are banking on demand, which the pandemic shutdown has accelerated, for more e-commerce logistics facilities in central Canada. Diane Gray, CEO of CentrePort where Brookport is located (north of Inkster Boulevard on the west side of Brookside Boulevard, south of the planned Chief Peguis Trail extension), said her office is fielding an increasing number of calls from national companies looking to establish a presence in this market. "In the last two weeks weve had calls from three Canadian companies, none of whom have operations in Manitoba, who have initiated conversations with us about locating distribution or assembly activity at CentrePort because they want to shorten their supply chain, serving North American clients primarily," she said. Many North American companies have faced challenges during the past few months getting products to market, at least partly because of supply chains that originate in China, which was the first country to shut down because of the novel coronavirus before much of the rest of the world. Whiteland has also completed construction of a 39,000-square-foot industrial condominium building and has sold and leased several units. That building will be ready for occupancy later this month. Although Sidhu said the pandemic did cause some interested parties to put a hold on finalizing some projects, that has been largely lifted as the province is one of the first out of the gates to reopen for business. "Some of those who were interested in Phase 1 we asked to put off until Phase 2 was ready and we already have 10 to 15 per cent of it sold," he said. Fully serviced lots will go for around $400,000 per acre. Demand for this kind of real estate in Winnipeg was strong before the pandemic hit and it may be one of the few markets that has barely broken stride. Martin McGarry, CEO of Cushman & Wakefield/Stevenson, said while activity in the industrial real estate market may be down a bit, it is coming back quickly. "If you had asked me in March when the whole thing started I would have told you there will be zero demand (for new industrial space)," said McGarry, whose company was responsible for the successful marketing of the 96-acre Brookside Industrial Park Phase 3, which also sold out in less than a year in 2018-2019. "We did not create any budget for transactional volume, not just in CentrePort but in general," he said. "It is way better than we thought it would be. Its not yet what it was but it is coming back fast and furious." Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Gray said, "Were delighted Whiteland is bringing Phase 2 to the market because we were hitting the wall on fully serviced land because it has been selling out so quickly." In addition to the pea and canola protein processing plant that Merit Functional Foods is building in Brookport Phase 1, 10 other companies have bought land and have built or are in the process of building, including a cross-docking facility, a truck and trailer sales shop; a cold storage facility, and a tire wholesaler among others. Whitelands ambitious plans for industrial development in the area will not stop with Phase 2 of BrookPort Business Park. The company also owns 100 acres of land just west of Crystal Properties Brookside Industrial Park, on the south side of CentrePort Canada Way. Sidhu said predevelopment planning is already underway for that parcel of land. martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca Former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos said Tuesday that Twitter's policy to flag some of President Donald Trump's posts was a smart decision but that it's impossible to keep his posts off of any social media site. "There's actually a bigger problem here, which is you can't deplatform the President of the United States," Stamos said on CNBC's "The Exchange." "Everything he says is newsworthy, and so this is a struggle that the social media companies are dealing with, but also the traditional media." Zuckerberg said on May 29 a post by President Trump that said "when the looting starts, the shooting starts," did not violate the company's policies. Twitter, conversely, warned users the post had "violent rhetoric." Twitter has taken a more aggressive stance toward Trump's posts in recent weeks. It added a fact-check notice to a tweet about mail-in voting and a public interest notice on a post about protests in Minneapolis for "glorifying violence." After the first fact-check, Trump signed an executive order that took aim at a law that protects web platforms and publishers from liability for what their users post. Twitter's actions have drawn attention to Facebook's more passive stance. Civil rights leaders called CEO Mark Zuckerberg's explanation of the decision to leave Trump's post about the Minneapolis protests unaltered as "incomprehensible." On Monday, hundreds of employees participated in a virtual walkout to protest the company's decisions related to Trump. Stamos, who is now the director of the Stanford Internet Observatory, said Facebook flags some content but that Twitter's approach is better. "You see Trump being criticized for clearing people out from Lafayette Park, which I think is a totally appropriate criticism, but then the TV channels play that clip over and over again of the photo-op that he wanted to get," Stamos said. "I think a lot of people are struggling with how do you allow speech and how do you report on things that are newsworthy without amplifying it. I think Twitter's approach here is actually pretty appropriate." Shares of Twitter rose about 1% on Tuesday, but are down more than 5% since May 26 amid concern about regulation. Facebook's stock is down less than 5% over that same time period. President Muhammadu Buhari has taken to Twitter to react to rape and murder of late UNIBEN student, Uwa Omozuwa. Buhari, in his tweet, sent his deepest condolences to the family of the deceased and he assured that the perpetrators of the evil act will be brought to justice. In his words; I would like to offer my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Uwaila Omozuwa. I expect the Nigeria Police Force to speedily and diligently investigate this case and ensure that all the culprits responsible for this barbaric act are brought to justice. Advertisement Read Also: Death Of Vera Uwaila: IGP Directs Force-CID To Take Over Investigations See his tweet below: An Australian mum has made the 'best pork belly ever' in a five litre air fryer and shared the exact recipe she used to cook delicious crackling on top. The woman, who is based in New South Wales, shared mouthwatering photos of the 1.5 kilo piece of meat she purchased for dinner after buying Kmart's $89 family-sized air fryer. 'I got the machine today and set to work making the best pork belly I've ever had,' she captioned the photos on Facebook. The lady, who is based in New South Wales, shared mouthwatering photos of the 1.5 kilo piece of meat she purchased for dinner after buying Kmart's $89 family-sized air fryer To prepare the pork she scored the skin and covered it in salt and olive oil, before leaving it in the fridge uncovered for five hours. After the marinading process was complete the home cook poured boiling water over the skin and patted it down with paper towel to remove as much moisture as possible. Again she rubbed the pork in flaked salt for extra seasoning. Her next task was considered the 'most important'. She added water to the bottom of the air fryer before placing the pork in to keep the flesh juicy and tender throughout the cooking process. Most importantly her next task was adding water to the bottom of the air fryer before placing the pork in to keep the flesh juicy and tender throughout the cooking process HOW TO MAKE PERFECT PORK BELLY: The woman used a 1.5 kilo piece of pork 1. Score the skin of 1.5 kilo pork belly, cover in salt and olive oil 2. Leave in the fridge uncovered for five hours 3. Pour boiling hot water over the skin once it has marinated and pat it down with paper towel to remove as much moisture as possible 4. Rub the pork in flaked salt 5. Add some water to the bottom of the air fryer to keep the pork juicy 6. Place pork in the air fryer at 180C for 30 mins, then 160C for 40 mins 7. Serve with sides like potatoes Advertisement Air fryer aficionados in the comment section who forgot to add this water said that while their crackling was good, the pork had been drier than they would have liked. 'Place the pork in the air fryer at 180 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes and then change the temperature to 160 degrees Celsius for a further 40 minutes,' she said. When it was finished the woman wrapped her pork in aluminium foil while she cooked some potatoes to pair with it, before revealing the dish to her family. Her culinary expertise received high praise from other social media users who were quick to call out the multipurpose use of the popular air fryer Her culinary expertise received high praise from other social media users who were quick to call out the multipurpose use of the popular air fryer. 'That looks delicious! And just look at that crackling,' one person said. 'I'm waiting for more air fryer to arrive and I can't wait!' Said another. The Kmart air fryer has 347 five-star reviews on its website with plenty of people suggesting it is the ultimate 'dinner party saviour'. EWING A man reportedly was in crisis at Capital Health Regional Medical Center in Trenton after he confessed to killing a woman, police sources said. The woman, Ashley Davis, 32, of Levittown, Pennsylvania, was found dead inside a Ewing Township home on the first block of Glen Stewart Drive Monday evening, authorities confirmed. Aaron Adams, 38, who resides at the township home, has been charged with certain persons not to possess a weapon and is in police custody, the Mercer County Prosecutors Office announced Tuesday. Davis has become Ewings first homicide victim of 2020. She suffered a gunshot wound by a metal airgun pellet that struck internal organs and caused massive internal bleeding, the prosecutors office said, citing an autopsy report. Adams and Davis were boyfriend and girlfriend, according to the prosecutors office, who said the slaying remains under investigation and that additional charges are being reviewed. There were visible wounds to Davis body and she was pronounced dead at the scene Monday night. The medical examiner later ruled the death a homicide, authorities announced Tuesday in a press update. Adams has a prior history of violence, including previous convictions for manslaughter and domestic violence, explaining why he is legally not allowed to possess any weapons in New Jersey, according to court records and the defendants unique SBI number. The Ewing man pleaded guilty in January to third-degree aggravated assault, admitting he had committed an act of domestic violence in Ewing Township on July 5, 2019. Superior Court Judge Timothy Lydon on March 6 sentenced Adams to one year of non-custodial probation in the domestic violence case, according to public records. The Trentonian has learned that the victim of Adams 2019 domestic violence was not Ashley Davis. Even so, the man has a documented history of violence and previously admitted to killing someone in Atlantic City over 10 years ago. The Atlantic City homicide occurred in July 2006. Adams pleaded guilty to reckless manslaughter in October 2009 and was sentenced in January 2010 to six years of state imprisonment, court records show. Adams was accused of stabbing and killing Ulysses Adams III, 21, of Sicklerville, during a fight at an Atlantic City party, according to The Press of Atlantic City, which reported the 2006 homicide victim was not related to Aaron Adams. The ex-con could potentially face additional charges in the Ewing death investigation above and beyond the initial weapons offense. During the execution of a search warrant at the home this week, authorities in the basement found two long BB guns, a short BB gun and the homicide victims body. Numerous used bags of suspected heroin with various stamps were also discovered during the search, authorities said Tuesday in a news release. Neighbors reported seeing cops arrive at the home around 7 p.m. Monday. They did not know much about the residents who lived at the home, which was surrounded by yellow crime-scene tape. One neighbor who lived down the street claimed to have seen the police outside the home several times before Mondays homicide. He estimated seeing police officers at least 10 times since New Jersey went on lockdown over the coronavirus. Ewing Police Chief John Stemler III told The Trentonian on Tuesday morning that police had no reported disturbances at that address from March 1 to the present. Murphy locked down New Jersey on March 21. The ambulance guy was crying, the man said, as he stood outside in the quiet, leafy enclave of the township. He had tears in his eyes. He said, Man this is no way to start a shift. Theyre all hush-hush. Another neighbor described seeing the cops arrive at the home. We were just coming out when two police cars pulled up, and the first officer took in a defibrillator and other medical equipment, the woman said. I was thinking it might be a heart attack or something like that and we continued on our merry way down the block. We came back around and the caution tape was up and 94 police cars. Police sources said Adams was in crisis at the nearby hospital Monday evening. He reportedly identified himself as Davis husband, according to police sources, but prosecutors later confirmed the individuals were boyfriend and girlfriend and not spouses. A Mercer County Sheriffs cruiser was parked outside Capital Health Regional Medical Center in Trenton as of 8:15 p.m. Monday. Editors Note: This story has been updated with additional information WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump has the legal authority to deploy active-duty military personnel to states to help quell violent protests across the country over the death of a black man in police custody - though the dramatic move he threatened Monday probably would generate strong pushback from some state and local officials, analysts said. In a televised speech, Trump said he had recommended Monday "to every governor to deploy the National Guard in sufficient numbers that we dominate the streets." "Mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled," Trump said. "If a city or a state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them." Moments before he spoke, police fired flash-bang shells that exploded in the middle of a crowd of protesters outside Lafayette Square, just outside the White House, and then mounted police forced protesters from the park. Many states have mobilized the National Guard to help respond to violent protests across the country over the death of George Floyd, whose gasps of "I can't breathe" in Minneapolis were caught on video before he died. The federal government has initiated a dramatic response from federal law enforcement. That is especially true in the District of Columbia. Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said Monday evening that all of the department's components - including the FBI; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Drug Enforcement Administration; U.S. Marshals; and Bureau of Prisons - had been deployed to "assist in the restoration of order." Attorney General William Barr was traveling through the city and observing the scene. The deployment of active-duty military personnel, though - particularly to states that may not want them - would represent a further escalation of Trump wielding his considerable presidential powers. A law called the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the domestic use of military for law enforcement purposes without specific congressional authorization, said Stephen Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas' law school. But a different law, the Insurrection Act, provides the president authorization to do so under certain circumstances, he said. According to a Congressional Research Service report, the act has been invoked "on dozens of occasions" throughout U.S. history, though its recent use has been "exceedingly rare." The act was invoked in 1992 during riots in California over the beating of motorist Rodney King, though in that instance, the state's governor requested it. It was also used during the civil rights movement, including when President Dwight Eisenhower sent the Army into Little Rock to desegregate its schools, Vladeck said. The law says the president can intervene if state authorities are unable to give their residents the protection of law. "I think there's a reason why the statute allows him to act even if states don't ask him," Vladeck said. "I don't think the situation is as dire as the drafters of the statute might have contemplated, but invocation of the Insurrection Act here seems much less controversial to me as a legal argument than many of Trump's other actions." Gary Solis, a retired law professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a retired Marine judge advocate, said the act "does give the executive extraordinarily broad power to assemble federal troops to restore order in the various states." But, he said, if Trump were to invoke it now, state and local officials probably "would fight tooth and nail to keep federal troops out." Former vice president Joe Biden, who is the presumptive Democratic nominee to challenge Trump in the 2020 presidential election, said on Twitter, "He's using the American military against the American people." Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., echoed those sentiments on CNN. "He is not a commander in chief," she said. "He is a divider. He is clearly scared. And he cannot meet this moment that he has partly created because of his inability to understand the pain and the suffering." - - - The Washington Post's Rebecca Tan and Tom Jackman contributed to this report. Despite how Covid-19 news has overwhelmed the media and the world, international geopolitical problems have lost none of their momentum. The Syrian, Yemeni, Iraqi, Iranian, Libyan and Palestinian crises continue to whirl in their eddies of complexity as they had before the pandemic struck. Our concern, here, is the case of Ethiopia which set into motion its Grand Renaissance Dam project during the so-called Arab Spring and now, nearly 10 years later, is trying to take advantage of the coronavirus crisis in order to engineer a unilateral breakthrough in the dispute over the dam by beginning to fill the reservoir without having reached an agreement with downstream nations. In its last move, Ethiopia submitted a memorandum to the UN Security Council, prompting various international parties into urging the resumption of US-brokered negotiations between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, attended by the World Bank. The Ethiopian memorandum, submitted by Ethiopian Foreign Minister Gedu Andargachew on 14 May, epitomises the many problems in the Ethiopian approach to this dispute. The first problem, which may be the source of the others, is the Ethiopian attitude that Egypt is somehow to blame for the poverty and hunger in Ethiopia and for the recurrent droughts, severe food insecurity and lack of adequate water supply to fulfil the needs of its people, despite that countrys abundant water resources. It argues that whereas more than 65 million Ethiopians have no access to electricity, almost all Egyptians have access to electricity. As a result, almost two thirds of school children in Ethiopia are forced to stay in darkness and millions of women still trek long distances to fetch water and firewood. That unfortunate condition stems from historical circumstances particular to Ethiopia. Egypt and its consumption of Nile water played no role whatsoever in shaping those circumstances. Also, if all Egyptians have access to electricity, that is the product of a great development drive undertaken by the Egyptian people and their government. We should simultaneously bear in mind that hydropower electricity generated at the High Dam in Aswan accounts for only eight per cent of the total amount of electricity generated in Egypt. But the more basic fact is that Egypt never took a drop of water or ounce of food from Ethiopian mouths or a volt of electricity from Ethiopian homes. It is also a fact that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which is being constructed in a part of the country remote from the Ethiopian plateau where the bulk of the Ethiopian population lives, is not designed to meet Ethiopian food needs but rather to generate electricity. Egypt, which has always supported hydraulic projects for developmental purposes, never objected to this. The second problem with the memorandum is that it suggests that handling the Nile waters question in accordance with previous agreements and conventions is an anomaly in world history whereas the reverse is actually the case. Humankind has generally tried to conduct and regulate its affairs on the basis of traditions, conventions and pre-existing agreements, including those handed down from the colonial era. The Organisation of African Unity, which is now the African Union, is effectively based on geopolitical foundations from the colonial era. Ethiopias present-day borders, as is the case with Egypts borders, are a legacy of that era. Moreover, the negotiations that eventually gave rise to the Eritrean state revolved around interpretations of colonial era agreements. The world was not suddenly born after countries won their independence. The formulation of international laws of the seas, transnational watercourses and the use of natural resources were founded on precedents in international conventions and treaties. So when Egypt refers to international agreements dating from 1902 (Ethiopia was an independent nation at the time and would subsequently become a member of the League of Nations), 1929 and 1959, it does so because such treaties form the sole solid legal frame-of-reference, not because they are colonial instruments, which would make no sense coming from a country that has always been in the vanguard of the national liberation movement against colonialism. Thirdly, Ethiopia refuses to make a clear distinction between the Blue Niles source country (Ethiopia), the intermediary country (Sudan) and the country at the rivers mouth (Egypt). To compare Egyptian hydraulic projects to optimise the use of available Nile waters with the GERD project, which all parties concerned agree may have detrimental impacts on Egypt, is a deliberate attempt to obfuscate the issues and jumble the cards. The Aswan High Dam, the Peace Canal, the Toshka project and other such projects are a continuation of the projects that Egypt has pursued for two centuries in order to expand agricultural development and prevent fresh water from going to waste in the Mediterranean. Moreover, projects such as the Peace Canal do not use more water from the Nile than before. They purify and recycle previously used water. Let us also recall again that Egypt is the Niles last stop before reaching the Mediterranean. Egyptians have worked to tame it for thousands of years in order to use its waters for agriculture and civilisation building, activities which never harmed upper riparian nations. Fourthly, the Ethiopian letter is very expansive in its discussion of historical relations in connection with the current situation. The Nile Basin countries enjoy one of the oldest relations in human history, it says. We are ancient civilisations inseparably linked by this noble river. We believe that the Nile can deliver a new level of fraternity and cooperation for the betterment of our people. We could not agree more. Unfortunately, Ethiopias hypersensitivity to Egypts use of the term historic rights is inconsistent with this outlook. It also jars with the behaviours of other countries in the world that share watercourses and that also used this term when it came to regulating their use of shared water resources. Historic rights are not just chronological, dating to the times when states were formed and civilisations built. The concept applies to the natural sources of water wealth, just as it applies to other natural resources such as oil and gas when fields overlap land or maritime boundaries. In the case under discussion, the source of the water is rain which has fallen on Ethiopia since time immemorial like the rays of the sun. No one can dispute the fact that Ethiopia receives more than enough of that natural resource for its development needs, as long as it sustains its developmental efforts. It is a matter of historical record that Egypt spearheaded the initiative to establish an international organisation for Nile Basin countries with the purpose of promoting the development of the Nile Basin as a whole. It is also a fact that Egypt helped other Nile Basin countries to develop their use of Nile waters through the construction of dams and other such projects. However, it must remain clear that such projects have to proceed in accordance with the rules and principles of international law and conventions, and that they must not deprive Egypt of its essential right to water. The writer is chairman of the board, CEO and director of the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies. *A version of this article appears in print in the 4 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Covid19 has hit the Taliban where it hurts the most, right in the senior leadership. As a result Mullah Yaqoob, the 30 year old eldest son of Taliban founder Mullah Omar, is now interim head of the Taliban. This is because the figurehead supreme leader 59 year old Mullah Hebatullah Akhundza and his deputy (and the real head of the Taliban) 45 year old Sirajuddin Haqqani, of the infamous Haqqani criminal organization, both have covid19. Akhundza is more of a cleric than a military leader. He stayed in Afghanistan most of the time since 2002 and kept a low profile to survive. Sirajuddin Haqqani is a resourceful gangster who sees running the Taliban as more of a business opportunity than a political or religious duty. While Mullah Omar got along with al Qaeda, his son Yaqoob embraced tactics and teachings of al Qaeda. The senior Taliban leaders tend to be older men who are the most susceptible age group when it comes to getting ill and dying from covid19. Peace negotiations with the Americans mean most of the senior leaders are meeting frequently. Taliban in general are suspicious of foreign, especially Western medicine. Which explains why the senior leaders hold face-to-face (without masks) gatherings while covid19 was spreading through Afghanistan and Pakistan. For younger Taliban, covid19 presents itself as another version of the annual influenza epidemic. In other words, it might make you feel ill but it probably wont kill you. Most rural Afghans, including pro-Taliban groups, dont really notice more elderly Afghans dying of influenza this year. Even if there were a vaccine for covid19, many Taliban would not use it because they believe vaccines, including the one for polio, are actually a Western poison pretending to be a helpful medicine. As a result of this, the two most senior Taliban leaders are ill with covid19 and out of action. Yaqoob, Haqqani and Akhundzada all have one thing in common; they will do what Pakistan orders them to and have no problems with working with the Afghan drug gangs. That is their main source of income while the Pakistani military provides sanctuary for the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Group and does not interfere with the drug gangs obtaining chemicals (to create heroin from opium plants) via Pakistan. The Pakistani military also takes a fee from smugglers who move most of that heroin through Pakistan to the rest of the world. Most Afghans and a growing number of Taliban oppose this Pakistani domination and especially the presence of all that heroin in Afghanistan. Over 80 percent of the worlds heroin is produced in Afghanistan, mainly in Helmand province. Right across the border is the Quetta, Pakistan sanctuary for the Afghan Taliban. Resentment over being pawns of Pakistan have caused a growing number of Taliban factions to rebel. These defections broke out into open warfare in 2015, led by the example of Mullah Rasool. The Rasool faction broke away from the Pakistan based Taliban leadership because of a dispute over who should run the Taliban. The current Taliban leader, Mullah Hebatullah Akhundzada, is unpopular with many Taliban faction leaders, in part because Akhundzada is seen as a figurehead and his chief deputy, the head of the Haqqani Network, is actually in charge. During the late 1990s, Mullah Rasool was the Taliban strongman in the southwest as governor of Nimroz. That ended in late 2001 when the Northern Alliance ousted the Taliban. The Rasool clan had made a fortune controlling the drug smuggling down there. Rasool had lots of contacts in Iran and saw himself as a potential supreme leader of the Afghan Taliban, if only because Rasool was always a close ally of Taliban founder and leaders Mullah Omar. This Taliban civil war is the result of disagreements over who should take over as Taliban leader after it was revealed in 2015 that founder Mullah Omar had died of kidney failure in 2013 (in a Pakistani hospital) at age 53. The information was kept to a few key Omar associates who were accused of doing this as part of a plot to install an Omar successor (Mullah Mansour ) who was second-rate but backed by the Pakistan military. Since Pakistan created it in the mid-1990s, they saw the Taliban as an inexpensive way to keep Afghanistan dependent on Pakistan and cooperative whenever Pakistan wanted something, From late 2015 to mid-2016 Rasool fought other Taliban factions for control. Heavy fighting began in late November 2015 when Mullah Mansour ordered attacks against the forces loyal to Mullah Rasool. This marked a major defeat for the Taliban as they lost a major asset; unity. Most of the fighting took place in Herat, Zabul and Farah provinces. There were apparently several thousand casualties and the heavy fighting did not cease until July 2016. Meanwhile, Pakistan backed their man Mansour, who was then killed in May 2016 by an American airstrike. Pakistan used its considerable control over the Afghan Taliban to get the head of the Pakistan backed Haqqani Network appointed as one of the three senior Taliban leaders. Rasool apparently backed down in the face of all this and was thought to have left the country. That was not the case as the Rasool faction remains active in western Afghanistan along the Iranian border. Rasool cooperates with Iran in return for access to Iran for some supplies. Rasool only controls about five percent of Taliban manpower but he is not the only anti-Pakistan faction. There are many more but these other factions go along with the main Taliban leadership while waiting for an opportunity to openly side with Rasool or some other Taliban leader free of Pakistani control. All these dissidents and Rasool account for about a third of Taliban strength. A smaller number of Taliban were so fed up with the drug gang connection and Pakistani dominance that they joined ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant). For most Taliban, the drug money is too good, or simply essential for survival, to ignore. Even some ISIL factions will extort drug smugglers for needed cash rather than just blocking the movement of exportable heroin. These ISIL defections were more of a nuisance than a threat because ISIL is essentially a self-destructive purist Islamic terrorist faction that considers everyone not part of ISIL to be an enemy. That includes all other Islamic terror groups as well as all existing governments. Joining ISIL is a form of suicide because of the ISIL code of establishing global dominance or die trying. ISIL attacks are planned for maximum shock value and media attention. The Taliban offers another path, one that brings the possibility of great wealth, or at least a regular job. It is unclear how many Taliban leaders really believe the Taliban can take control of the entire country. To do that would ignore the fact that the elected Afghan government is largely controlled by the old Northern Alliance coalition of anti-Taliban Afghans who consider the Taliban an instrument of Pakistan's influence in Afghanistan. The Northern Alliance represents the majority of Afghans who, despite continuing tribal and ethnic differences, agree that heroin is bad and Pakistani interference inside Afghanistan is worse. The Taliban never controlled all of Afghanistan. They had not yet done so on September 11, 2001, the date the U.S. decided to aid the Northern Alliance in defeating the Taliban and Pakistani interference. Nineteen years later that basic situation has not changed. Pakistan will keep trying to control what goes on in Afghanistan and will continue to support the use of terror and mass murder to make that happen. The Covid19 Threat So far Afghanistan has over 16,000 confirmed cases of covid19 (coronavirus) and 240 confirmed deaths. This comes out to 424 cases per million population and seven deaths per million. By way of comparison, India has 145 and four per million. Iran is 1,841 and 94. Pakistan is 346 and seven. Northern neighbors Tajikistan are 422 and five, while Uzbekistan is 111 and 0.4 and Turkmenistan says it has no cases or deaths related to the virus. The virus is not as much of a crisis as in other nations but it is having an impact in Afghanistan anyway. Fear of covid19 spread led to borders being closed to all but essential traffic. In April Pakistan began testing incoming Afghan truck drivers for covid19 and about 20 percent of the drivers were found to be infected and refused entry. Afghanistan has not got the resources to deal with covid19 and most of the medical resources available are still monopolized by the rich and powerful. The virus is more of a threat in the urban areas, where most of the confirmed cases and deaths have been found. Covid19 is not as scary in Afghanistan or Turkmenistan because there are so many other deadly diseases or unnatural ways to die. One more does not make much difference and since covid19 is most fatal for the elderly or those already ill from other afflictions, in most of the country covid19 deaths will not even be noticed. Covid19 is similar to the annual influenza outbreaks but infects and kills more people. Not a lot but enough to be declared a health emergency in most countries. In Afghanistan, a fatal cause of covid19 is just another death by a fever or someone seen as close to death already. This happens in the West as well, but much less frequently and usually by accident. For example, a lot of nursing home deaths in the West were, at first, not attributed to covid19 because nursing homes normally have frequent and numerous deaths. The victims tend to have a number of health problems that can eventually kill them. In the West just another fever as a cause of death is no longer acceptable even though it is what is happening. There is some interest in finding out how covid19 got into Afghanistan and nearby nations. Iran is considered the most likely source and is the one nation that has suffered the most. Many prominent Iranian politicians, military commanders and religious leaders have died from the virus. Most Iranians see that as a good thing because for two years now there has been growing unrest against the government. At first Iranian leaders, especially the religious ones who control the government dismissed covid19 as something Allah was using to punish infidels (non-Moslems). That was incorrect and when prominent religious leaders began dying from covid19, many Iranians saw this as a sign that the heavenly powers did not approve of how the Iranian religious dictatorship was doing. To make matters worse neighboring nations were attributing their local covid19 outbreaks to visitors from Iran. Turkey, Iraq and Afghanistan have been most affected by this. Turkey and China have persuaded the Iranian government to be realistic about the covid19 problem. Despite that, the virus is still apparently out of control in Iran. China is apparently where Iran got covid19 because both China and Iran have tried to suppress discussion about how covid19 got into Iran via the regular passenger and cargo flights from Wuhan, the center of the covid19 outbreak in China and worldwide. May 31, 2020: In Kabul, ISIL took credit for a roadside bomb that was used against a minibus carrying TV station employees. Two station employees were killed and six wounded. ISIL believes the TV station backs the government. May 29, 2020: In the east (Paktia province) two attacks left 14 border guards and an unknown number of Taliban dead. Both attacks were repulsed. The Taliban admitted responsibility for two attacks on border posts and blamed it on the government forces, which had recently built the two new border posts in an area the Taliban insists is under their control. Thus the Taliban say they were justified in trying to remove these two illegal border posts. May 22, 2020: For the last month the Taliban have been observing a Ramadan ceasefire. Despite that, about 150 civilians have died in Islamic terrorist violence. ISIL claims responsibility for some of the attacks but the Taliban's responsibility for any attacks. May 19, 2020: In the north (Kunduz and Parwan provinces) two separate attacks on mosques left 14 dead and many more wounded. May 17, 2020: Rival presidential election candidates Ashraf Ghani (the incumbent president) and Abdullah Abdullah signed an agreement ending their feud over who is president. Ghani will remain president and can appoint half the cabinet ministers. Abdullah will recognize Ghani as president but will have the power to appoint half the cabinet ministers and be in charge of negotiations with the Taliban. This agreement may not last but it is an improvement over nearly a year of feuding over who won the election. During the September 2019 second round election the leading candidates were Ghani and his long-time rival Abdullah. Both declared victory right after the voting but the final results were a long time in coming. It took a lot longer (five months) for the Election Commission to do recounts and investigations of vote fraud from both sides. In late September 2019, the first recount did not settle the dispute. The two candidates eventually worked out a power-sharing agreement but things like this tend to be unstable in Afghanistan. Abdullah Abdullah was a long-time foe of Hamid Karzai, the corrupt first president. Abdullah was widely believed to have lost the 2009 election because of fraud. Abdullah Abdullah is part Tajik and backed the Northern Alliance against the Taliban during the 1990s. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai is a Pushtun from a powerful tribe. He was attending college in the U.S. when the civil war and subsequent Russian invasion occurred in the late 1970s. He was in exile until 2001. His family suffered many losses during this period, both because of the Russians and the civil wars. To Puhstuns Ghani is the more acceptable candidate because he is all Pushtun and the Pushtuns have traditionally been the kings or leaders of Afghanistan, even though they are a minority, although the largest one at 40 percent of the population. Ghani and many of his supporters insisted that a lot more Pushtuns turned out to vote in the runoff in order to keep a Pushtun in the top job. On the other hand Abdullah Abdullah was the victim of Pushtun voting fraud in 2009 and claimed that it was happening again. In March 2020 Ghani was sworn in for a second term. Abdullah Abdullah refused to recognize this and held his own swearing in ceremony and sought to run a parallel government. This rivalry divided Afghan leaders and threatened to get ugly. The U.S. said they would halt over a billion dollars in aid if the two men did not negotiate a settlement. One thing keeping the Taliban on the defensive is the billions in American aid the government receives each year. Much of it goes to keep the security forces fighting and that remains a major threat to the Taliban, drug gangs and Pakistani efforts to maintain its power inside Afghanistan. The two rival presidents worked out a compromise because not doing so risked more problems for both of them and most Afghans. May 12, 2020: In Kabul gunmen in police uniforms attacked a maternity hospital, killing two newborns, sixteen mothers who had just given birth, or were ready to and six hospital staff. No group took responsibility although ISIL is suspected because that is the only Islamic terror group in Afghanistan that advocates attacks against all Western medicine. The maternity hospital was operated by a foreign aid group. Most Afghan women still give birth at home, with no medical assistance in case something goes wrong. Because of this Afghanistan has one of the highest rates of maternal and newborn deaths in the world. ISIL believes that is Gods Will. May 7, 2020: In the north (Parwan province) Taliban gunmen attacked a checkpoint and killed seven policemen. The Taliban suffered some casualties but took their dead and wounded with them. April 23, 2020: The Moslem holy month of Ramadan begins today and will end on May 23. Ramadan means fasting during daylight and feasting a night. More time is spent in mosques. During Ramadan, Islamic terrorists believe violence in defense of Islam receives even more heavenly rewards. The Taliban has pledged not to make any attacks during Ramadan, especially against mosques or other religious ceremonies, like funerals. April 22, 2020: The 2020 World Press Freedom ratings were released showing Afghanistan in 122nd place (out of 180 nations), In comparison, Pakistan is 145, India 142, Bangladesh 151, China 177, Iran 173, and Russia is 149. In contrast, Britain was 35, France 34, United States 45, Canada 16 and Germany 11. Top five were Norway in first place followed by Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Netherlands. The bottom five were Djbouti, China, Eritrea, Turkmenistan and North Korea. These rankings are mainly about professional journalists and play down the impact of the Internet and many non-professional, but often well qualified, individuals who are now supplying a lot of the news, especially accurate reports of what is actually happening. The conventional media, which employs most professional journalists, has lost more than half its staff in the last twenty years as more people prefer non-professional or semi-pro reporters on the Internet. Governments find it easier to restrict the professional journalists, leaving the Internet based reporters as the main source of accurate reporting in many countries, like Pakistan and Iran. A natural disaster prevented large parts of the population from taking care of itself. Crores of people lost their jobs. The Centre says over one crore people so far have gone back to their village in trains and buses from the cities they were making a living in and sending money back from. We dont know how many walked and cycled their way back as theres no documentation of internal migration in India, a notoriously data-poor nation. Farmers living off small tracts of land, workers who are wage-dependent and without work, these also number in the crores. Children who need their mid-day meal at school and are not getting it at home are in crores. There are at least 50 crore Indians who have been hit hard by the events of the past three months and are now at the edge of survival. We are seeing people fight over food and eating the carcasses of dogs. The role of the state is to try stop the spread of the epidemic: that is the lockdown. But the lockdowns effects include the destitution of large parts of the population, and for overcoming this the responsibility is on the state. By that I mean the entire structure of government, but the onus is mostly on the central government. It alone has the resources and the ability to print money. Individual provinces have no power or capacity to raise money beyond a point. There is no dispute that we are now in a crisis. Because of this we can act on a consensus and dont have to make it a political issue, rather one that concerns the whole nation. All parties and the government acknowledge we are in trouble, and more trouble lies ahead. Mumbais ICU beds have 99 per cent occupancy and the pandemic is accelerating. We can extrapolate the numbers and see that by the end of June the situation will become unmanageable. We must act immediately: today is ideal. What specifically is to be done? A few days ago a group of people circulated a document named Mission Jai Hind. It seeks the following: 1. Bring migrants back home within 10 days safely with dignity and without charging them. The government must coordinate and arrange for trains and buses to do this. State governments can transport them to their home once they reach the station. They must be fed and housed properly till this is possible, and given local transport to get to the station 2. Easy and free access to all symptomatic persons. Arranging, by using private infrastructure, for free quarantine and ICU beds. One years medical and economic cover to all frontline workers in the health sector and their families. 3. Universal access to rations for six months. Ten kg of grain, 1.5 kg of dal, 800 ml of oil, a half kilo of sugar per person. The addition of names on a ration card on demand. Home delivery of the mid-day meal ration equivalent. All schools to run community kitchens. 4. MNREGA guarantee to go from 100 days to 200 with wages paid daily. Urban residents to get 100 days of guaranteed work at Rs 400/day. Appropriate work for senior citizens and disabled. 5. Compensation for job losses, interest free loans to companies to pay salaries, compensation to farmers for loss of produce or fall in price. Rs 10,000 to hawkers and small shopkeepers to restart. 6. Three months of interest waiver and moratorium on first house loans on request, six months for Mudra Shishu and Kishor loans (to micro units and entrepreneurs) and crop loans on request. 7. These expenses must have the first right over the exchequer before other expenses. That will ensure a focus on prioritisation which is essential today. The Centre must raise resources with urgency and in emergency fashion and share half of what it raised with states. What is asked for in this list is unexceptionable and nobody has opposed it. Its the bare minimum people will need to get through the next six months. What comes in 2021 we dont know but we must give Indians the capacity to be able to reach 2021. We need our society to be in good enough shape also in terms of trust. In times of great crisis and shortage, the state will quickly lose its capacity. We dont want that as the rule of law operates through moral force to a large extent, not fear. What happens when ones children are starving, and one is desperate? Given the huge numbers of people in distress, we cant give it more time. On May 28, Congress president Sonia Gandhi asked that Rs 7,500 per month be sent to every family for six months. She also sought an increase in MNREGA days to 200 (the government now guarantees only 100 days of work, and even that is patchy and the payment is made in piecemeal manner because money is not made available by the Centre). Many of the people behind Mission Jai Hind are eminent and respected, but that is immaterial. It needs endorsement from all of us: I certainly back it. Its the only document that has been put up I know of that lays out the steps we must quickly take to save ourselves from disaster. And it needs immediate adoption by the state. 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During this time of uncertainty, we were pleased to offer a variety of tools from our caregiver support system to help ensure members are well cared for. AMAC is an institution with the ability and resources to improve the lives of seniors nationwide; we are very excited to work with them to increase the scope of critical support available to their members during the pandemic and beyond. The Association of Mature American Citizens is one of the fastest-growing 50+ organizations in America, with over two million members that carry the AMAC membership card. Over the past several years, AMAC has organized and attended nearly one thousand sit-down meetings with congressional leaders, Senators, House members, elected officials and others who directly impact the future of our country. From advocacy to life-changing technology partnerships, AMAC is on the front lines of the challenges faced by seniors today. We are thrilled to partner with LifeStation, said Rebecca Weber, CEO, AMAC. 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LifeStations mission is to leverage innovative capabilities to transform the lives of seniors and help them live safely and independently. Of equal importance is the wellbeing of caregivers and providing them with the peace of mind they need. About AMAC The two million member Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC] (http://www.amac.us) is a vibrant, vital senior advocacy organization that takes its marching orders from its members. They act and speak on members behalf, protecting their interests and offering a practical insight on how to best solve the problems they face today. Live long and make a difference by joining AMAC today at http://amac.us/join-amac. Industrial accident deaths increase despite toughened punishment The number of workers who died from industrial accidents in the first quarter reached 253. Such deaths have since continued. In April, 38 people died in a fire at the construction site of a warehouse in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, and a cement factory worker in Gangwon Province was killed after getting caught in a conveyor belt last month. All these accidents occurred even though the government began to implement the sharply strengthened Industrial Safety and Health Act from January. The revised law on occupational safety has enhanced the punishment of business owners who violate their duty to ensure the safety of their workers. In the event of workers' deaths because of such negligence, their employers could face up to seven years of imprisonment and a maximum fine of 100 million won ($81,430). After the tragic fire, however, 136 labor and civic groups launched the "campaign headquarters for enacting laws to punish businesses that cause grave disasters," calling for punishments to be strengthened further. The nation's high industrial death rate has been due to the light punishment of grave industrial disasters and the outsourcing of high-risk jobs to subcontract workers. If the penalties are lighter than the costs needed to ensure safety, businesses will feel tempted to neglect safety measures. For instance, six people died from an explosion at a plant in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, in 2013. Still, the employer paid only 5 million won in fines. Even more glaring, 40 workers died in a fire while building cold storage, also in Icheon, and the penalty was a mere 20 million won. These show strengthened punishments will change nothing unless sentencing guidelines are changed accordingly. Also needed is enhanced safety awareness from employers and employees alike and the improvement of the government's overall system. The central and local officials should cooperate to find ways to upgrade supervisory efficiency by jointly managing and inspecting industrial sites with a focus on workplaces with high risks. Business owners also need a change of perception that beefing up industrial safety, albeit costlier now, will eventually sharpen their competitive edge and improve productivity. MIAMI, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Leste Group is pleased to announce that Rodrigo Machado has joined its team as Managing Director of US Real Estate. Mr. Machado joined in May 2020 and will be focused on further expanding Leste Group's Real Estate investments business across the USA, in addition to overseeing Leste Group's existing investments in the Multifamily, Single Family Homes for Rental, Hospitality and Healthcare sectors. "We are extremely proud to partner with Rodrigo. His extensive real estate investment experience across both Brazilian and US markets makes him the ideal candidate to lead the expansion of our real estate platform," notes Stephan de Sabrit, Head of Leste Credit and Real Estate departments & Partner at Leste Group. Over the course of his 25-year career, which includes structuring the first ever REIT in Brazil, Mr. Machado has served in multiple leadership roles. At Brazilian Finance and Real Estate group he developed and was involved in real estate investment funds with assets over R$ 8 billion. He then rose to be Managing Partner of XP Investimentos, the largest independent investment platform, where he was responsible for numerous real estate funds with assets over R$ 4.5 billion. Prior to joining Leste Group, Mr. Machado founded Read Invest, an investment boutique providing financial solutions to investors seeking real estate investment opportunities in both Brazil and in the US. For 14 years, Mr. Machado also served as the coordinator for forums, commissions and consultative groups in ANBIMA the Brazilian Association of Financial and Capital Market Entities, SECOVI-SP the Construction Industry Syndicate of the State of SP, and B3 - Stock Exchange. These 3 forums brought together the Real Estate Funds and Securitization industry of Brazil. Mr. Machado studied Accounting Sciences at Universidade de Brasilia - UNB, and served as a guest professor for a variety of graduate and post graduate courses in real estate business at INSPER, Fundacao Getulio Vargas - FGV (executive education programs), and Universidade de Sao Paulo - USP. About Leste Group Leste Group is a market leading alternative investments platform focused on delivering consistent and superior risk-adjusted returns for our investors. Our bespoke investment solutions span the globe and utilize a wide range of strategies covering public markets, private equity, real estate, structured credit and litigation finance. Please review our website www.leste.com for complete disclosures, or contact us on [email protected]. SOURCE Leste Group Related Links http://www.leste.com P erfume retailer Beauty Base is preparing to reopen its London shops this month, with one-way systems in place and screens at tills. Like rivals, the company, which also sells make-up and skincare products, had to close its shops in March when the Covid-19 lockdown came in. A spokesman for Beauty Base told the Evening Standard that the firm, which also sells online, will look to reopen its 10 shops on June 15, in line with the latest government guidance. Most of its branches are in London, including in Westfields White City and Stratford centres. There will be 2 metre social distancing signs throughout stores, and arrows directing customers to follow one-way routes. Hand sanitisers will be available for shoppers to use, and staff will be given PPE in line with any government guidelines. Private family-run Beauty Base gave the update after it filed accounts that showed turnover rose to 27.1 million in the year to August 2019, from 21.4 million a year earlier. Press Release June 2, 2020 After spending P353 billion, has govt slowed down COVID-19 spread? Pangilinan asks AS THE SENATE discussed the measure extending the Bayanihan Law, Senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan on Tuesday asked if the government has slowed down the COVID-19 pandemic after spending P353 billion for this purpose. "We'd like to know: We've spent 353 billion [pesos]. We will allocate another 130-140 billion [pesos]...With all the money spent in the last several months, where are we in terms of curbing the spread of the virus? Have we flattened the curve?" Pangilinan asked. "Is there a way for us to get a better sense of how we're going to achieve what we set out to do? Because the target is May, and apparently, we've not reached that," he added, referring to the target of 1 million tests and 30,000 tests daily by May. Senate Bill 1654 or the "Bayanihan to Recover as One Act" aims to provide the President the necessary powers to implement the national response on the COVID 19 pandemic for an additional three months. It also seeks to provide mechanisms for economic recovery. Pangilinan raised the issues of inadequate mass testing and delayed reporting of COVID-19 data, citing the mass confusion over the results, to characterize government's performance during the Bayanihan period. "There are concerns about the last three months that we have yet to achieve the targets in terms of mass testing and yet we've had the longest lockdown, one of the longest if not the longest lockdown," he said. "And some are saying that our approach was too militaristic in nature rather than public health- oriented... We are concerned. For example, we are now on our fourth month, do we have enough testing kits? What is the buffer stock of testing kits for our government facilities?" Pangilinan asked. Senator Sonny Angara, principal sponsor of SB 1654, shared Pangilinan's concerns, saying that he also asked Health Secretary Francisco Duque III why the Red Cross can release its test results faster than the Department of Health's. "The issue of backlog, late data on results, obviously will lead to poor contact tracing and leading to the inability or failure to isolate high-risk people... If a private hospital can achieve a faster turnaround, why can't government do the same?" Pangilinan asked. Angara, who recovered from COVID-19, also confirmed that turnaround time of results in some cases take up to 10 days, compared to the private sector which only takes 2 to 4 days Pangilinan also raised the slow accreditation of testing laboratories. He expressed disappointment that government accredited 30 percent of those that applied two months ago, slightly increasing to 38 percent now. While the Philippines has 49 accredited laboratories with 81 pending, Vietnam has 112 and South Korea has 500 testing centers. "This gives us a sense of where we are and where they are in terms of managing the spread [of the disease]," Pangilinan pointed out. "Many workers are afraid to report for work, employers are asking about testing...This [the slow increase in testing and accreditation of test labs] is not acceptable. I think the Oversight that we will create must be able to step on toes to get the testing and accreditation of testing facilities done," he added. Pangilinan said he is raising these issues to appeal to the DoH leadership and bureaucracy to act with a sense of urgency as the situation is emergency in nature. "I'm just raising these concerns and placing them on record as an appeal as well to the agencies to walk the walk and talk the talk...It looks like the bureaucracy, at some point, will have to give way to the emergency rather than the emergency adjusting to the bureaucracy," he said. Pangilinan also shared the concern of fellow senators that health front-liners have died without receiving the benefits specified in the Bayanihan Law due to the absence of the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR). "This is truly disappointing and truly indicative of the lack of compassion of whoever in the DoH is supposed to have addressed this with the IRR. This is unacceptable and unforgivable. They have already died. They have already suffered. And we continue to allow [their families] to suffer more because of this failure and inaction on the part of the Department of Health. This is completely and totally unacceptable and we seek the Senate leadership's intervention here to make sure that this is addressed squarely and immediately," he said. On Monday, June 1, Metro Manila transitioned to General Community Quarantine despite spikes in confirmed COVID-19 cases. The DoH has taken to reporting "fresh" cases separate from "late" cases as an attempt to address the backlogs in test results. The effectivity of Bayanihan to Heal As One Act ends on June 23. Congress will adjourn on June 4. Government has tasked churches to form a COVID task force preferably made up of health workers to isolate and evacuate the sick during services. This is part of guidelines for easing restrictions on religious activities and social gatherings. Members of these taskforce should have knowledge in health prevention measures, infection prevention and control and evacuation procedures in line with the Ghana Health Service protocols. The task force are to call 112 or 311 for support to enable evacuation in case any member of the Church develops fever, cough, and difficulty in breathing during service. Mr Samuel Kofi Dzamasi, Minister of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, announced these at a press briefing in Accra on general specifications on easing of restrictions for religious service. President Akufo-Addo in his address to the Nation on Sunday May 30, 2020 announced measures for services to operate entreated all worshippers to adhere to the COVID-19 containment protocols. The President directed that with effect from Friday June 5, all religious bodies, as they re opened their places of worship, were to ensure 25 per cent attendance, with a maximum number 100 congregants, to worship at a time, with a mandatory one metre rule of social distancing between congregants. The Minister, adding to the further measures stipulated by President Akufo-Addo, tasked leaders of the religious bodies to ensure that all congregants wore masks at all times, washed hands with soap under running water or used alcohol-based hand sanitizer before entry and avoid handshaking or body contact during services. Mr Dzamasi urged the religious bodies to ensure that every member of the Church was registered with details including names, phone numbers, manually or digitally, adding that digital registration could done on GH COVID-19 APP on PANABIOS APP which could be downloaded at no cost. Touching on specific protocols for Churches, the Minister charged leadership to provide thermometer guns or thermal scanners to check the temperature of congregants at entry points of all venues, ensure a 'No mask: No entry' Policy, provide adequate waste management facilities and toilet facilities for use by members. The Churches were to designate a holding room or area where a person who became sick at the premises could be isolated from others while making arrangements for evacuation. Among others, the Churches were expected to train cleaners with the necessary personal protective equipment and cleaning items to clean the facilities regularly and handle waste appropriately, provide adequate ventilation, and display approved health promotion materials on COVID-19 at vantage points to educate the congregants on precautionary measures against COVID-19. Mr Dzamasi urged the Chuches to ensure that there was no handshake, no hugging and no spitting policy at all time, follow established evacuation procedures in case a congregant becomes sick during church service. "Older persons and people of any age with underlying medical conditions, heart diseases, diabetes, liver disease, and asthma are advised to stay away from church service. Sharing personal items such as watches, jewelry, pens and phones should be discouraged, and sanitize microphones immediately after each use. If an individual is confirmed positive for COVID-19, all contacts must be traced and screened, "he added. Churches were to ensure that there was no crowd dancing and waving of handkerchiefs during church services, discourage singing in groups, pre-record songs to be used and place offering bowls at the entrance and exit points for members to give offerings and tithes when entering the church premises and encourage cash transfers via mobile money or mobile banking as forms of giving offerings. ---GNA South Africa has partnered with NASA to host a deep-space ground station, which will support human spaceflight missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond. With this collaboration, South Africa became the fourth country after the US, Spain and Australia to host a deep space ground station. The partnership between the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to host the space station followed an earlier agreement between the two organisations for the establishment of the station at Matjiesfontein town in the Western Cape Province. "The station will support human spaceflight missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond. It will be integrated into an existing network of three sites in the United States of America, Spain and Australia," the South African government said in a statement on Monday. "As the fourth site, it will complement the other three sites and provide improved coverage and redundancy for critical mission support. SANSA will operate, maintain and manage the station," it said. The station will benefit South Africa in, amongst others, the development of scarce skills and the growth of the science, engineering, technology and innovation sector. It will also provide opportunities to feed the knowledge economy and increase the national research output in space science and technology. SANSA Managing Director Raoul Hodges said South Africa's advantage was its location at the southern tip of Africa, with the climate at Matjiesfontein being ideal for the frequency that will be involved in the space studies. Work is expected to start soon on building the dish antennas, with a height equivalent to a 20-storey building. "The dishes need to be large enough to capture the faint signals sent from millions or even billions of miles away (from earth)," the NASA said in a statement. The partnership between SANSA and NASA comes almost half a century after a tracking station was built by NASA at Hartbeestfontein in South Africa in 1961 to track NASA probes that were being sent beyond the earth's orbit. The facility was converted to a radio astronomy observatory after the original venture ended in 1974 when NASA quit South Africa because of the growing international opposition to the white-minority apartheid government. Determine a set of criteria you want for your herd and stick to it, say the McCalls Almost a quarter of a century since they became the first people to import the Aubrac breed into this country, Mireille and Kim McCall are more convinced than ever that they made the right decision. They run a sizeable herd of the breed on their farm near Kilcullen, Co Kildare. "There were a lot of breeds to choose from at that time," says Mireille. "We had been keeping some Continentals but we found them very big animals for our farm and we were actively looking for an animal that would be easier to maintain, with the idea of having more of them on the same acreage. "We were really looking for something that was that bit different from the rest when we saw the Aubrac in a breed catalogue. When we had a look at them, we really liked what we saw and felt that they were really what we wanted." Of their breeding policy she says: "One basic principle is to determine a set of criteria you want your herd to fit into and stick to it. Our main ones are temperament, good udder and milk-ability, calving ability and fertility, feed and foraging efficiency, good legs and feet and longevity. "Longevity is important because it allows you to really see how well the traits are set in the bloodlines. This leads to consistency in the breeding. A precocious animal could be a 'flash in the pan'." The McCalls' ambition is to work towards raising the standard of the whole herd rather than putting a few animals on a pedestal and letting the rest trail behind. "We like a homogenous herd. We blanket-use carefully chosen stock bulls rather than use AI from different bulls. That way, it is easier to see the true potential of each cow," says Mireille. "We record a maximum of information within the herd, but we do not work solely on figures." When buying a bull they prefer buying directly from a herd where they can see the environment the bull grew up in, and see all animals related to him. Again, longevity is an important criterion, because they are adamant of the need for good foundations. The herd is closed as much as possible, to minimise the health risks. Mireille's pointers Don't be afraid to cull. Don't sell your problems to another breeder. Don't try to convince a buyer in to buying an animal that might not suit him just to secure a sale. On your breeding decisions, don't be afraid to follow your own advice. You know your herd better than anyone else and what might work for somebody else might not work for you. Don't lose sight of the traits that attracted you to the breed in the first place. Selecting the right bull is key focus for elite Limousin herd Expand Close Kevin Bohan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Kevin Bohan "It is especially important to listen to what our customers want and produce the cattle that meet their requirements," says Kevin Bohan, manager of Ireland's largest pedigree herd. The Ardlea Elite herd at Beechill Farm, Mountrath, Co Laois is home to some of the best - and most expensive - Limousins in this country. Established by Dan Tynan, the herd consists of 110 pedigree cows plus 180 commercial cows and their followers; 50 embryo calves from selected females are also born on farm every year, and 250 bulls are fattened for slaughter. The herd has bred some of the most influential bulls in the country, including Telfers Munster, Aultside Hulk, Craigatoke Jack, Elite Forever Brill, Elite Ice Cream, Emerson and Ferry. Among the most successful cows bred on the farm has been Ardlea Tammy, winner of the Junior Female Champion at the European Show in 2005. She was also Female Champion and Reserve Overall Limousin Champion at Tullamore the same year, before being sold the following year to the Ironstone Herd in England for 40,000. When it comes to breeding, a lot of emphasis is placed on selecting the right bull, says Kevin (pictured). "This decision is made with calving ease, gestation length and with an eye on the star ratings; quality, however, is never overlooked," he says. Expand Close Some of the Ardlea Elite Limousin on the farm near Mountrath. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Some of the Ardlea Elite Limousin on the farm near Mountrath. The aim of the herd is to calve all heifers, both pedigree and commercial, at two-and-a-half years old. A strict vaccination programme is in place. Calves are vaccinated for Blackleg, with all breeding females and stock bulls being BVD and Lepto vaccinated. All females are scanned pre-breeding. Heifers are AI'd at 20 months (weighing 500kg) after which they run with one of the herd stock bulls. Cows are AI'd over the winter when they are indoors for autumn calving. The spring-calving herd run with bulls - at the moment the bulls in use are Telfers Munster, Indigo and Indus. All breeding females are scanned post-breeding to ensure they are in-calf. Cattle at Ardlea/Elite are grass-fed; cattle are grazed in manageable groups, with paddocks rotated per group. "Calves have access to concentrate for the first time pre-weaning (2kg per day)," Kevin says. "All females and breeding bulls receive Allsure minerals and vitamins boluses twice a year. In our locality we supplement extra copper." Kevin is convinced of the merits of the Limousin breed. "The cows are excellent for suckling," he says. "It is very hard to get a breed that will produce a good calf and rear it, and the Limousin is a bull that can be used on a number of breeds to produce a very saleable animal." To me a cow is a vessel to carry, calve and rear a heavy, muscled calf Expand Close Ryan Griffith with Cashelard Ryan after winning his class at the Salers Show and Sale in 2018 / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ryan Griffith with Cashelard Ryan after winning his class at the Salers Show and Sale in 2018 One of the distinctive characteristics of Salers is the large pelvis of the female, which enables her to deliver a heavy, muscled calf without difficulty. This was the big attraction for Ryan Griffith, who breeds prize-winners on his farm at Carricknahorna, Ballyshannon, Co Donegal. "One of the main reasons I have Salers, which a lot of the time are overlooked, is their large pelvis which is the largest of any breed," says the Irish Saler Breed Society council member. "This is what makes Salers stand out from the rest - their ease of calving the heavy, muscled calf with little or no problems, therefore the cow goes back in-calf quicker." Ryan is very clear in his thinking when he purchases an animal for breeding. "It goes without saying that I look for style, length and quality," he says. "To me a cow is a vessel to carry, calve and rear a heavily muscled calf. "It is very important to look at the dam before I buy. It is a great indicator of what the heifer you're buying will turn into. "I will pick a few animals out that I like, then I will look at the dams - the dams are just as important as the sire, some would say more important. I only buy the animal if I like the mother. "I do off-farm work cattle-scanning and AI, and I have seen some super calves on my travels - but too often these calves are half starved as the cow hasn't near enough milk. Most milk "This will not happen with a Saler dam as they have the most milk of all beef breeds." Ryan plays down Salers' reputation for being difficult to handle, although it is a trait he looks out for. "When the Salers first came to Ireland they got a bad name of being wild, but not any more - but like with any breed there is always an odd one," he says. "Just keep it in mind when inspecting animals. This trait is very important to me because nothing is worth having an animal that's hard to handle. Also, a quiet animal is always easier sold." Although the Saler population in Ireland is still small, they have been increasing over recent years - they are ideally suited to tougher conditions in areas of higher altitude. Trade Minister Sung Yun-mo, right, and Hyundai Heavy Industries President Ka Sam-hyun hold up a construction capacity reservation agreement signed between three Korean shipyards and Qatar Petroleum, at a ceremony in Seoul, Monday. / Courtesy of Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy By Baek Byung-yeul Korean shipbuilders have hit the jackpot in Qatar, securing a deal worth $19.2 billion to build more than 100 liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers, the largest LNG ship contract in history. Qatar Petroleum, a state-owned petroleum company of Qatar, announced on Tuesday (KST) on its webpage that it has ordered over 100 LNG ships from Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) and Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI). The company didn't reveal how many ship orders it allocated to each ship builder. The petroleum company said the ship construction order is to meet the company's future LNG fleet requirements. Qatar Petroleum has been working on improving LNG production capacity at the North Field, the world's largest gas field located offshore of Qatar. Under its plan, the company will raise its LNG production capacity from 77 million tons a year to 110 million tons a year until 2025 and 126 million tons by 2027. "The signing of today's agreements with the three esteemed Korean companies reflects our commitment to the North Field expansion projects," Saad Al-Kaabi, energy minister of Qatar, said during a contract ceremony. "We are moving full steam ahead with the North Field expansion projects to raise Qatar's LNG production capacity from 77 million today to 126 million tons per annum by 2027 to ensure the reliable supply of additional clean energy to the world at a time when investments to meet these requirements are most needed. These agreements will ensure our ability to meet our future LNG fleet requirements to support our expanding LNG production capacity and long-term fleet replacement requirements," the minister added. Trade Minister Sung Yun-mo said the signing was made possible by "the long-standing mutual trust between Korea and Qatar" despite the recent economic difficulties sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic. When Qatar Petroleum ordered 16 LNG carriers from China's China State Shipbuilding Corporation, worth $3 billion, in April, there had been concern about the future of Korean shipbuilders' leading status. At a time when shipbuilders are struggling with decreased orders due to the impact from the COVID-19 pandemic, industry analysts said the megadeal from Qatar is a welcoming one as Korean shipbuilders can consolidate their leading status in the LNG tank ship sector. In 2019, the three shipbuilders won more than 90 percent of the world's LNG carrier orders. Given French energy firm Total and Russia's Yamal are reportedly preparing to order LNG carriers to be used in Mozambique and Russia, respectively, they added Korean shipbuilders, which have shown globally recognized technological excellence, are expected to win additional ship construction orders. An interdisciplinary team from Tel Aviv University, led by Prof. Oded Rechavi of TAU's George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Prof. Noam Mizrahi of TAU's Department of Biblical Studies, in collaboration with Prof. Mattias Jakobsson of Uppsala University in Sweden, the Israel Antiquities Authority and Prof. Christopher E. Mason of Weill Cornell Medicine, has successfully decoded ancient DNA extracted from the animal skins on which the Dead Sea Scrolls were written. By characterizing the genetic relationships between different scroll fragments, the researchers were able to discern important historical connections. The research, conducted over seven years, was published as the cover story in the prestigious journal Cell on June 2 and sheds new light on the Dead Sea Scrolls. "There are many scroll fragments that we don't know how to connect, and if we connect wrong pieces together it can change dramatically the interpretation of any scroll. Assuming that fragments that are made from the same sheep belong to the same scroll," explains Prof. Rechavi, "it is like piecing together parts of a puzzle." The Dead Sea Scrolls refers to some 25,000 fragments of leather and papyrus discovered beginning in 1947, mostly in the Qumran caves but also in other sites located in the Judean Desert. Among other things, the scrolls contain the oldest copies of biblical texts. Since their discovery, scholars have faced the breathtaking challenge of classifying the fragments and piecing them together into the remains of some 1,000 manuscripts, which were hidden in the caves before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. Researchers have long been puzzled as to the degree this collection of manuscripts, a veritable library from the Qumran caves, reflects the broad cultural milieu of Second Temple Judaism, or whether it should be regarded as the work of a radical sect (identified by most as the Essenes) discovered by chance. "Imagine that Israel is destroyed to the ground, and only one library survives -- the library of an isolated, 'extremist' sect: What could we deduce, if anything, from this library about greater Israel?" Prof. Rechavi says. "To distinguish between scrolls particular to this sect and other scrolls reflecting a more widespread distribution, we sequenced ancient DNA extracted from the animal skins on which some of the manuscripts were inscribed. But sequencing, decoding and comparing 2,000-year old genomes is very challenging, especially since the manuscripts are extremely fragmented and only minimal samples could be obtained." Pnina Shor, founder of the Dead Sea Scrolls Unit at the Israel Antiquities Authority, adds, "The Israel Antiquities Authority is in charge of both preserving the scrolls for posterity and making them accessible to the public and to scholars. Recent scientific and technological advances enable us to minimize physical intervention on the scrolls, thus facilitating multidisciplinary collaborations." Innovative methods to solve historical mysteries To tackle their daunting task, the researchers developed sophisticated methods to deduce information from tiny amounts of ancient DNA, carefully filtering out potential contaminations and statistically validating the findings. The team employed these mechanisms to deal with the challenge posed by the fact that genomes of individual animals of the same species (for instance, two sheep of the same herd) are almost identical to one another, and even genomes of different species (such as sheep and goats) are very similar. For the purpose of the research, the Dead Sea Scrolls Unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority supplied samples -- sometimes only scroll "dust" carefully removed from the uninscribed back of the fragments -- and sent them for analysis by Prof. Rechavi's team: Dr. Sarit Anava, Moran Neuhof, Dr. Hila Gingold and Or Sagi. To prevent DNA contamination, Dr. Anava traveled to Sweden to extract the DNA under the meticulous conditions required for ancient DNA analysis (e.g. wearing special full-body suits) in Prof. Jakobsson's paleogenomics lab in Uppsala, which is equipped with cutting-edge equipment. In parallel to the teams that were studying the animals' ancient DNA, Prof. Mason's metagenomics lab in New York studied the scrolls' microbial contaminants. Prof. Jakobsson says, "It is remarkable that we were able to retrieve enough authentic ancient DNA from some of these 2,000 year old fragments considering the tough history of the animal hides. They were processed into parchment, used in a rough environment, left for two millennia, and then finally handled by humans again when they were rediscovered." Textual pluralism opens window into culture of Second Temple Jewish society According to Prof. Rechavi, one of the most significant findings was the identification of two very distinct Jeremiah fragments. "Almost all the scrolls we sampled were found to be made of sheepskin, so most of the effort was invested in the very challenging task of trying to piece together fragments made from the skin of particular sheep, and to separate these from fragments written on skins of different sheep that also share an almost identical genome," says Prof. Rechavi. "However, two samples were discovered to be made of cowhide, and these happen to belong to two different fragments taken from the Book of Jeremiah. In the past, one of the cow skin-made fragments was thought to belong to the same scroll as another fragment that we found to be made of sheepskin. The mismatch now officially disproves this theory. "What's more, cow husbandry requires grass and water, so it is very likely that cow hide was not processed in the desert but was brought to the Qumran caves from another place. This finding bears crucial significance, because the cowhide fragments came from two different copies of the Book of Jeremiah, reflecting different versions of the book, which stray from the biblical text as we know it today." Prof. Mizrahi further explains, "Since late antiquity, there has been almost complete uniformity of the biblical text. A Torah scroll in a synagogue in Kiev would be virtually identical to one in Sydney, down to the letter. By contrast, in Qumran we find in the very same cave different versions of the same book. But, in each case, one must ask: Is the textual 'pluriformity,' as we call it, yet another peculiar characteristic of the sectarian group whose writings were found in the Qumran caves? Or does it reflect a broader feature, shared by the rest of Jewish society of the period? The ancient DNA proves that two copies of Jeremiah, textually different from each other, were brought from outside the Judean Desert. This fact suggests that the concept of scriptural authority -- emanating from the perception of biblical texts as a record of the Divine Word -- was different in this period from that which dominated after the destruction of the Second Temple. In the formative age of classical Judaism and nascent Christianity, the polemic between Jewish sects and movements was focused on the 'correct' interpretation of the text, not its wording or exact linguistic form." Identification of genetically distinct groups of sheep suggests prominence of ancient Jewish mysticism Another surprising finding relates to a non-biblical text, unknown to the world before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a liturgical composition known as the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, found in multiple copies in the Qumran caves and in Masada. Apparently, there is surprising similarity between this work and the literature of ancient Jewish mystics of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Both Songs and the mystical literature greatly expand on the visionary experience of the divine chariot-throne, developing the vision of the biblical prophet Ezekiel. But the Songs predates the later Jewish mystical literature by several centuries, and scholars have long debated whether the authors of the mystical literature were familiar with Songs. "The Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice were probably a 'best-seller' in terms of the ancient world," Prof. Mizrahi says. "The Dead Sea Scrolls contain 10 copies, which is more than the number of copies of some of the biblical books that were discovered. But again, one has to ask: Was the composition known only to the sectarian group whose writings were found in the Qumran caves, or was it well known outside those caves? Even after the Masada fragment was discovered, some scholars argued that it originated with refugees who fled to Masada from Qumran, carrying with them one of their scrolls. But the genetic analysis proves that the Masada fragment was written on the skin of different sheep 'haplogroup' than those used for scroll-making in Qumran. The most reasonable interpretation of this fact is that the Masada Scroll did not originate in the Qumran caves but was rather brought from another place. As such, it corroborates the possibility that the mystical tradition underlying the Songs continued to be transmitted in hidden channels even after the destruction of the Second Temple and through the Middle Ages." From solved riddles to new mysteries: Yet undiscovered caves? Since most of the scrolls were found to be written on sheepskin, the team had to find a way to distinguish "in higher resolution" between the very similar genomes of different sheep. "Mitochondrial DNA can tell us whether it is a sheep or a cow, but it can't distinguish between individual sheep," Prof. Rechavi adds. "We developed new experimental and informatic methods to examine the bits of preserved nuclear DNA, which disintegrated over two millennia in arid caves, and were contaminated in the course of 2,000 years, including recently by the people who handled the scrolls, often without even the use of gloves." Using these methods, it was discovered that all the sampled scroll-fragments written using a particular scribal system characteristic to the sectarian writings found in the Qumran caves (the "Qumran scribal practice") are genetically linked and differ collectively from other scroll-fragments that were written in different ways and discovered in the very same caves. This finding affords a new and powerful tool for distinguishing between scrolls peculiar to the sect and scrolls that were brought from elsewhere, and potentially reflect the broader Jewish society of the period. Shor says, "Such an interdisciplinary project is very important indeed. It advances Dead Sea Scrolls research into the 21st century, and may answer questions that scholars have been debating with for decades. We consider the present project, which integrates both extraction of genetic information from the scrolls using novel methods together with classical philological analysis, a very significant contribution to the study of the scrolls." The project examines not only scroll fragments but also other leather artifacts discovered at various sites throughout the Judean Desert. The genetic differences between them have allowed researchers to discern between different groups of findings. According to Prof. Mizrahi, many scroll fragments were not found by archaeologists, but by shepherds, delivered to antiquity dealers, and only subsequently handed over to scholars. "We don't always know precisely where each fragment was discovered, and sometimes false information was given about this matter," says Prof. Mizrahi. "Identifying the place of discovery is important, because it affects our understanding of the historical context of the findings. For this reason, we were excited to learn that one fragment, that was suspected to originate not from Qumran but rather from another site, indeed had a 'genetic signature' that was different from all the other scrolls found in the Qumran caves sampled for this research." But this finding led to yet another enigmatic discovery pertaining to a fragment containing a text from the Book of Isaiah. This fragment was published as a Qumran scroll, but its genetic signature also turned out to be different from other scrolls in Qumran. Prof. Mizrahi concludes, "This raises a new curious question: Was this fragment really found in the Qumran caves? Or was it originally found in yet another, unidentified location? This is the nature of scientific research: We solve old puzzles, but then discover new mysteries." ### American Friends of Tel Aviv University supports Israel's most influential, comprehensive and sought-after center of higher learning, Tel Aviv University (TAU). TAU is recognized and celebrated internationally for creating an innovative, entrepreneurial culture on campus that generates inventions, startups and economic development in Israel. TAU is ranked ninth in the world, and first in Israel, for producing start-up founders of billion-dollar companies, an achievement that surpassed several Ivy League universities. To date, 2,500 US patents have been filed by Tel Aviv University researchers -- ranking TAU #1 in Israel, #10 outside of the US and #66 in the world. By Hyunjoo Jin SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea said on Tuesday it would recommence proceedings against Japan at the World Trade Organization over export controls on some high-tech materials, adding that talks to resolve the dispute had so far failed to make progress. Seoul plans, however, to continue dialogue with Tokyo which it accuses of not showing sufficient commitment to resolving problems, while proceeding with the WTO complaint. "Our government has reached the conclusion that it is difficult to see this situation progressing through normal dialogue, which had been the condition for us suspending procedures to settle this through the WTO," South Korea's deputy minister for trade & investment, Na Seung-sik, told reporters. "Through the WTO complaint, we will prove the illegality and unfairness of Japan's export controls and raise international awareness," he added. Bilateral relations deteriorated after South Korea's Supreme Court in 2018 ordered two Japanese companies to compensate wartime workers in a ruling that Tokyo said violated international law. Japan says the issue of compensation was settled under a 1965 treaty. Following the ruling, the Japanese government said in July last year it would stop preferential treatment for shipments to South Korea of three materials whose production it dominates and which are used by firms such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd <005930.KS>. Curbs on two of the materials - hydrogen fluoride, used as an etching gas in the chipmaking process and fluorinated polyimides, used in smartphone displays - remain in place and exporters need to gain permission for each shipment, which takes around 90 days. A Japan trade ministry official said Tokyo will decide on its next course of action after seeing details of South Korea's announcement. Although the curbs have led to a sense of crisis within Korea Inc about its dependence on some Japanese goods, South Korea has not seen major disruptions to imports of those materials due to the efforts of South Korean firms, Na said without elaborating. (Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Additional reporting by Makiko Yamazaki in Tokyo; Editing by Edwina Gibbs) Terming China a "bully", a top American lawmaker has voiced concern over the "Chinese aggression" against India, urging Beijing to "respect norms" and use diplomacy and existing mechanisms to resolve its border standoff with New Delhi. "I am extremely concerned by the ongoing Chinese aggression along the Line of Actual Control on the India-China border," said Congressman Eliot Engel, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. "China is demonstrating once again that it is willing to bully its neighbours rather than resolve conflicts according to international law," he said. Engel's comments have come in the backdrop of the continuing standoff between the militaries of India and China at the Line of Actual Control. "Countries must all abide by the same set of rules so that we don't live in a world where 'might makes right'. I strongly urge China to respect norms and use diplomacy and existing mechanisms to resolve its border questions with India," Engel said in a statement. The statement comes a day after China said that the overall situation at the border with India was "stable and controllable", and both the countries have "unimpeded" communication channels to resolve the issues through dialogue and consultations. "China has been implementing the consensus between the two countries' leaders. We have been committed to upholding our national sovereignty, security as well as stability along the border". "Now the overall situation in our border areas is stable and controllable. We have unimpeded communication channels and we hope and believe through dialogue and consultations we can properly resolve the relevant issue," Chineseforeign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters in Beijing. He was responding to a question on defence minister Rajnath Singh's remarks that India will not let its "pride be hurt" in its latest border flare-up with China but is determined to settle the dispute through talks between the giant neighbours. "I want to assure the country that we will not let India's pride be hurt in any circumstances," Singh said in an interview to a news channel on Sunday. India said it was engaged with China to peacefully resolve the border row. "We are engaged with the Chinese side to peacefully resolve it," external affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said, replying to questions at an online media briefing. Both India and China have rejected US President Donald Trump's offer to mediate to settle the current standoff between the militaries of the two countries. "The two sides have established mechanisms both at military and diplomatic levels to resolve situations which may arise in border areas peacefully through dialogue and continue to remain engaged through these channels," Srivastava said. Troops of India and China were engaged in a major standoff for over three weeks in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh, in what is turning out to be the biggest confrontation between the two countries after the Doklam episode in 2017. The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet while India contests it. Both sides have been asserting that pending the final resolution of the boundary issue, it is necessary to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas. VINCENNES, Ind. and WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Purdue Universitys Davidson School of Chemical Engineering and the Purdue Research Foundation are partnering with The Pantheon Business and Innovation Theatre, investing Purdue talent and resources in a new entrepreneurial and commercialization initiative in the heart of Knox County in southwest Indiana. The innovative agreement will place graduate alumni from chemical engineering with undergraduate interns in the Pantheon to commercialize Purdue technology with established corporations or newly formed startups. The Pantheon is thrilled that Purdue is investing its expertise, resources, and confidence into our business and entrepreneurial community, said Nichole Like, executive director of the Pantheon. This partnership connects Knox County with a network of talented professionals in the commercialization space. This new commercialization initiative in Knox County is the latest development by the Purdue Research Foundation to support entrepreneurship in the southern and southwestern parts of Indiana. Professionals from Purdue Foundry, WestGate, help Purdue and regional innovators create startups. The Purdue Foundry, WestGate, manages the WestGate Academy at the WestGate@Crane Technology Park. The leadership in Vincennes has been extraordinary and is making Knox County an attractive place to grow a business, said Jason Salstrom, director of Purdue@WestGate. This is an incredible opportunity for our alumni to work with and mentor undergraduate interns to help in moving Purdue technology to the marketplace. In 2020, the IPWatchdog Institute ranked Purdue third nationally in startup creation and in the top 20 for patents. The Davidson School of Chemical Engineering is looking forward to this unique collaboration with the Pantheon, said Sangtae Kim, the Jay and Cynthia Ihlenfeld Head of Chemical Engineering. We are happy to honor the entrepreneurial spirit of our alumni, most notably the late Robert T. Henson with the Robert T. Henson Scholar program that places our students in summer internships and co-op experiences at the Pantheon. This is at the forefront of the exciting intersection of ag-tech innovation with the land-grant university mission. The partnership between Pantheon, Purdue and the Purdue Research Foundation has already received support from local and state leaders. The partnership between the Pantheon and Purdue plugs Vincennes into an innovation and entrepreneurial network that is opening up economic opportunities for our rural city, said Brian Grove, a Vincennes city councilman. Bob Lechner, a Knox County councilman, said, The Pantheon and Purdue collaboration is a confident step toward Knox County developing a more diverse and vibrant 21st century economy. About Purdue Research Foundation The Purdue Research Foundation is a private, nonprofit foundation created to advance the mission of Purdue University. Established in 1930, the foundation accepts gifts; administers trusts; funds scholarships and grants; acquires property; protects Purdue's intellectual property; and promotes entrepreneurial activities on behalf of Purdue. The foundation manages the Purdue Foundry, Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization, Purdue Research Park, Purdue Technology Centers and University Development Office. In 2020, the IPWatchdog Institute ranked Purdue third nationally in startup creation and in the top 20 for patents. The foundation received the 2019 Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities Award for Place from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. For more information on licensing a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization at otcip@prf.org. For more information about involvement and investment opportunities in startups based on a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org. About Purdue University Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to todays toughest challenges. Ranked the No. 6 Most Innovative University in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at purdue.edu. Writer: Chris Adam, 765-588-3341, cladam@prf.org Sources: Jason Salstrom, jdsalstrom@prf.org Sangtae Kim, kim55@purdue.edu This Page Is Under Construction - Coming Soon! Why am I seeing this 'Under Construction' page? Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are on the verge of having a massive debt crisis after they decided to slash a huge amount of money from their funds once again. Prince Harry and Meghan's expenses have been dragging down their finances ever since they relocated to Los Angeles. Since the health crisis has not been resolved yet, they are unable to work to become financially independent from the royal family. However, as far as their safety and privacy are concerned, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex always choose to give their family-of-three the best security even though it could lead to them being broke. This week, the royal couple reported to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) about drones flying as low as 20 feet over their L.A. mansion over the past weeks. "They see these drones coming in at them, and they guess that they are being operated by photographers, but they can't just assume that," one of their friends said, per The Daily Beast. "Meghan received racist death threats at the time of her wedding, so the terror threat is very real for them." To ensure that their stay at Tyler Perry's mansion in Los Angeles will always be safe, they leveled up their security team by hiring an "exclusive A-list security firm" for a large sum of money. Following the frightening drone incidents, The Daily Mail reported that Prince Harry and Meghan hired a security team from the firm which is being used by a slew of A-listers artists and wealthy people like Madonna, Jeff Bezos and Tom Hanks. Apart from the Hollywood stars, their security team has also been handpicked by the former chief of security for President Ronald Reagan. The only issue left now is that the royal couple needs to cash out $8,600 every day to protect their family from unimaginable levels of intrusion. "Harry and Meghan have full confidence in de Becker's firm and they come highly recommended," a source told The Star. "They are the biggest security firm in L.A. and by far the most respected. They aren't cheap, but if you want the best you have to pay for it." The expense is way too high compared to the first published calculation. Initially, the royal couple was expected to pay each protection officer around $110,000 per year -- including the officer's flights, pension, and living expenses. Since they need two officers per member, they would average $660,000. If the A-list security team's service would last for one whole year, Prince Harry and Meghan need to prepare $3.1 million to cover the costs. For what it's worth, they have been previously warned by TV personality and LA resident Sharon Osbourne in the CBS show The Talk. According to her, their choice to set up their new home in Los Angeles will not bring them the privacy that they always wanted. True enough, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are being tailed by photographers anywhere they go, and now, even their 1-year-old son Archie is facing security issues. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that reviving economic growth is not that difficult a task, while exuding confidence in Indian industries to overcome challenges that lay ahead due to coronavirus impact. PM Modi was delivering the inaugural address at Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII) annual session and spoke on the theme of 'Getting Growth Back'. He said that the Indian industry has an opportunity now to rise to the occasion. The Prime Minister added that the industry would receive every help possible from the government to this end. "The world is looking for a trusted, reliable partner. India has potential, strength and ability to be that partner. Today, the entire world has developed a kind of trust towards India. The entire Indian industry should grab that opportunity," said PM Modi. He added that it is the responsibility of the industry and the CII to ensure that the industry works with trust, quality, and competitiveness. PM Modi said, "You take two steps forward and the government will take four steps alongside to support you. As the Prime Minister I assure you that I stand with you. You must rise to the occasion that has presented itself to the Indian industry. Trust me, getting growth back is not that difficult," he added. The Prime Minister said that the Indian industry now has a clear path ahead of it that it can encash on -- that of Atma Nirbhar Bharat. He urged the industry to step up in their responsibilities and roles in the post coronavirus economy. The industry must ensure that India has a robust supply chain to cement its place in the global supply chain, the PM said. "You will have to become Champions of Indigenous Industries now," said PM Modi to CII. "It is important now that Make in India products become Made for the World. We have to increase productivity and set new targets in front of us," said PM Modi. The Prime Minister urged the industry to come up with detailed study of all the sectors. He said that more measures would be taken depending on these studies. "We will build an Atma Nirbhar Bharat together," he said. Also read: Coronavirus crisis: Why PM Modi believes India will get its economic growth back Also read: Coronavirus lockdown: One in three MSMEs on the verge of winding up, says AIMO survey Popular Nollywood actress and entrepreneur, Mercy Aigbe, has called for love across differences in Nigeria and the rest of the world. The actress in reaction to the global BlackoutTuesday trend for creatives pointed out that its time we learn to love each other as one. Mercy also shared that Love is the greatest commandment and all we need in a time like this. READ ALSO Nollywood Actress, Mercy Aigbe Stuns In Two Piece Outfit (Photo) Advertisement Sharing on Instagram, she wrote in part: Enough is a Enough! Its time to put an end to all these killings! Maiming! Racism! Raping! Police Brutality! Its is time to be our Neighbors Keeper! See Post Here: New AI-based test uses X-rays to detect Covid in a few minutes Hospitalisations in Delhi during third Covid wave significantly lower than second Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal launches app to help people track hospital beds for coronavirus patients India oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P New Delhi, June 02: A day after sealing the borders, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched a mobile application on Tuesday to allow people to know how many beds are vacant in which hospital in the national capital. Addressing a press conference, Kejriwal said, "We have been telling you that the Delhi government has made adequate arrangement for coronavirus patients, with respect to number of hospitals, beds, the ICU facility in those hospitals and the ventilators in there." PM Modi assures India Inc that growth will be back, stresses self-reliance | Oneindia News Coronavirus outbreak: India records 8,171 new COVID-19 cases; Tally at 1.98 lakh He further said that there is an information gap as people tell the government that they could not find any bed in hospitals. "This app will fill that gap," said Kejriwal. He also said that the same can be accessed on the internet too, by logging on to https://delhifightscorona.in/beds. CM Kejriwal also released a WhatsApp number 8800007722 to get a link for downloading the app. He said that the status of the hospitals can also be accessed through 1031 helpline number. COVID-19 outbreaks may be seasonal, scientists say According to the Chief Minister, the mobile application will be updated twice daily-at 10 am and 6 pm - so that people would be aware of the latest status of hospitals across Delhi. Kejriwal also said that if the application tells the patients that beds are empty in a hospital, but the staff refuses to admit them, they can call on the helpline number 1031. "The special secretary will immediately speak to hospital authorities and ensure that patients get help," he added. As the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) continues to engulf the world, the other big agenda of our time the climate crisis has begun to re-emerge from the shadows. The big question, of course, is whether the pandemic will accelerate our quest for a zero-carbon-emission world or will it set us back. The lessons of the virus will not automatically rub-off on the climate crisis agenda unless a set of deliberate, strategic actions are taken. Covid-19 has certainly opened everyones eyes to possibilities that can positively impact the climate agenda. Clean, breathable air and the reality of a work-from-home culture are the obvious ones. For manufacturers, shorter supply chains with its lower Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions will become a business continuity imperative. The similarities between Covid-19 and the climate crisis both in terms of their disruptive impacts on human lives and the economy and their response that emphasises science and the need to build resilience can also benefit the climate agenda. There are other reasons for optimism. A Standard & Poors global report says that during the pandemic, companies such as Microsoft, Royal Dutch Shell, Morgan Stanley, Bank of Montreal and Citibank have made climate-related pledges. A BBC report quoted Frans Timmermans, the chief of the European Commission (EU)s Green Deal (which commits the EU to net-zero emissions by 2050), as saying that every euro spent on economic recovery measures after the Covid-19 crisis will be linked to the green transitions. However, history and economics provide a counter-narrative. For instance, after the 2008 financial crisis, global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion and cement production fell 1.4% in 2009, but with economic stimulus resources disproportionately allocated to polluting industries, emissions rebounded to 5.9% in 2010. The impact of the indefinite postponement of COP- 26, where countries were expected to announce enhancement of their Paris commitments, is still awaited. Big emitters such as China, the US and Brazil have indicated a relaxation on environmental compliances and enforcement. Even as the EU reiterates its commitment to the Green Deal, a few member-countries have publicly sought moratoriums. The negative growth economies of the developed countries will mean less finance available to developing countries to meet their Nationally Determined Contributions, a condition that countries such as India have placed in order to fulfil its own commitments. And historically low oil prices, combined with reported announcements from major oil producers to increase production, will work against the interests of a low-carbon recovery. There is, therefore, reason to believe that a post-Covid low-carbon recovery is neither inevitable nor automatic. Therefore, a set of five actions can and must be taken to enable this to happen. One, nudge governments on to a low-carbon recovery path. Climate champions NGOs, think tanks, academia, activists around the world should produce evidence to demonstrate to governments the long-term economic and resilience gains from economic stimulus programmes that prioritise investments in low-carbon pathways. This could include assistance to businesses conditioned on drastic cuts in emissions and financial industry bailouts that require banks to invest less in fossil fuel and more in climate crisis mitigation and resilience efforts. Two, make the climate crisis a peoples campaign. The environmental gains from Covid-19, the renewed faith in science as well as the comparable risks to human life that the climate crisis and Covid-19 represent are good hooks to make it so. This requires converting the incredible scientific evidence that exists on the climate crisis into simple, understandable and actionable messages that individuals and communities, particularly young people, can use to make changes in their own behaviour while influencing businesses and governments in their roles as customers, employees and responsible citizens. Three, strengthen the business case for climate efforts. Some of the rub-offs of Covid-19 on climate such as shorter supply changes and reduced business travel are self-evident to companies and will happen. Investors and lenders, who have understood risk better now must see the benefits of pushing for resilience in the companies they fund. Insurers must factor in these risks. All this will incentivise companies to go down a low caron path. Four, build a national consensus on long-term low-carbon strategy. The response to Covid-19 has demonstrated both the need and the possibility for a political consensus, which is critical in a democracy. Climate crisis actors such as think tanks and advocacy groups should work to ensure this momentum is maintained. The development of long-term low greenhouse gas emissions development strategies for India will be a useful instrument to build such a consensus. Five, strengthen international cooperation and institutions. To address the spatial aspects of a global challenge such as the climate crisis, there is a need for a global institution to anchor the process, a role that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) has played for a long time. However, the somewhat tarnished reputation of the World Health Organization during Covid-19, and the rather scattered and private sector-driven search for a vaccine, suggests that strengthening international cooperation and UNFCC and United Nations Environment Programme as institutions is a project that all climate change champions must commit themselves to. Shankar Venkateswaran is operating partner and head, ESG, ECube Investment Advisors The views expressed are personal Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 21:35:45|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WINDHOEK, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Namibia has expressed deep outrage and condemned the brutal killing of George Floyd by U.S. police that took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States. Namibia's Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation in a statement issued Tuesday said it has been following with great concern the events surrounding the death of George Floyd. The Namibian government has since expressed its solidarity with the African-American sisters and brothers and has called on all to exercise restraint in venting their legitimate and justified anger. "Racism is a crime against humanity and should have no place in any society anywhere in the world," Namibia's deputy Prime Minister and Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah said in the statement. Nandi-Ndaitwah meanwhile called on the government of the United States to deploy all efforts at ensuring that the rights and human dignity of all its citizens, including in particular the African-Americans and all other minorities are upheld, respected and protected under law. Enditem [The stream is slated to start at 10 a.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.] New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is set to hold a press briefing Tuesday as his city struggles to respond to the dueling threats of the coronavirus pandemic and the violence from protests over the death of George Floyd. Outrage over the killing of Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man pinned to the ground by a white Minneapolis police officer who held his knee on Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes, erupted into violence again Monday night on New York City's streets. Widespread property damage, looting and street fires have been reported amid the multiday protests. Police officers have made hundreds of arrests. "Today in New York City was actually the peaceful protesters really took to the fore and the protests were overwhelmingly peaceful," de Blasio said in an interview with a local television news station. "It was not until it got dark we started to see this negative and violent activity." De Blasio announced Monday that an emergency curfew would be set for 8 p.m. on Tuesday. The city first imposed a curfew Monday at 11 p.m, which lasted through 5 a.m. Tuesday. Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. (Photo : REUTERS/Alyson McClaran) Protesters march to the State Capitol, amid nationwide unrest following the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Denver, Colorado, U.S. June 1, 2020. A week since protests against police brutality began in the US, fake stories and posts meant to misinformation people have been circulating on Twitter and other online platforms. Floyd who was accused of using a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes died after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck to pin him on the ground. The incident has since sparked nationwide protests against police brutality. With the increasing tensions in these protests and flaring emotions from both sides, BuzzFeed News listed some of the fake stories and misleading posts that have been spreading online. 1. MSNBC aired a clip of the movie "World War Z" as a video of the protests. The man who created the video admitted it was meant to be a joke, but was surprised it received so much traction. Well that escalated quickly. YES, that MSNBC clip was from World War Z, I even marked the video above the MSNBC logo "NOT REAL." I dramatically underestimated Twitter, many pointed it out, some claimed it was "real"-that was stupid of me. #WorldWarZ pic.twitter.com/8O52I5iEmn I apologize #Philly Bad Scooter (@OfficialSlop) June 1, 2020 Twitter user Bad Scooter later apologized for his actions and deleted the earlier post. However, screenshots of it had already circulated online while "World War Z" trended on Twitter. 2. TikTok is not blocking the Black Lives Matter and George Floyd hashtags. We are aware of an issue that is impacting the hashtag view counts displayed at the upload stage. This appears to affect words at random, including terms like #cat and #hello. Our team is investigating and working quickly to address the issue. TikTokSupport (@TikTokSupport) May 29, 2020 The company has advised a bug has affected "words at random" and its team is quickly working to fix the issue. We are aware of an issue that is impacting the hashtag view counts displayed at the upload stage. This appears to affect words at random, including terms like #cat and #hello. Our team is investigating and working quickly to address the issue. TikTokSupport (@TikTokSupport) May 29, 2020 3. A Minnesota TV reporter did not play "fake gunshot sounds" during a peaceful protest as claimed in a viral video. These reports sabotaging the protest making look like the protesters are armed by playing fake gunshot sounds pic.twitter.com/TT3SPArjS3 e. (@_eden______) May 28, 2020 A Twitter post showed KSTP reporter Richard Reeve being confronted by protesters who accused him of disturbing the event with gunshot sounds. The station quickly explained what happened in a statement. KSTP news director Kirk Varner said Reeve was filming the peaceful protest on his phone, but he wanted to confirm the gunshot sound he heard, so he played back the video and found an individual shooting into the air. Protesters approached Reeve as he was reviewing the footage. The station's then released the footage shot by Reeve, which does show a man in the street firing several shots from a handgun. This was also supported by the video of Reeve speaking with protesters posted on Twitter. The video shows the reported lifted his phone and said, "This is what I saw." Meanwhile, KSTP did not air the gunshots as they though "it ultimately did not contribute to our efforts to impartially portray the events that were happening in a rapidly developing situation." 4. A photo showing a McDonald's restaurant on fire is not from the Minnesota protests, but a branch in Pennsylvania that burned down in 2016. Although the account seems it came from a news organization, its account description states a parody account. 3. Do not get information from Breaking News twitter accounts. Many use breaking news situations to gain clout and followers. For example this one, which used an old photo of a McDonald's on fire to make it look like it was from Minneapolis. pic.twitter.com/hVtdDiCZYW Jane Lytvynenko (@JaneLytv) May 29, 2020 5. CNN Communications criticized a tweet from the Minnesota State Patrol about the media outfit's journalists who were arrested live on TV but were also immediately released. In the course of clearing the streets and restoring order at Lake Street and Snelling Avenue, four people were arrested by State Patrol troopers, including three members of a CNN crew. The three were released once they were confirmed to be members of the media. MN State Patrol (@MnDPS_MSP) May 29, 2020 The video of the arrest shows the reporters identifying themselves as CNN crew. 6. A video of a police officer was smashing the windows of an automotive business in Minnesota. The St. Paul Police Department has already denied the allegation while the suspect's identity remains unverified. 7. The train on this image was not stolen from a mall but is from the 2014 Ferguson protests known as the "peace train." 8. A tweet about a brother who went missing amid the protests garnered over 30,000 retweets. However, the owner of the Twitter account later admitted they do not even know who the man in the photo is. IMPORTANT!! There is this tweet going around by @/lucidxyena in which they say their brother is missing. THIS IS NOT TRUE! DON'T RETWEET IT! Don't let it distract you from actual missing people pic.twitter.com/j7EamMVArp sam | BLM (@rainbowdeku) May 29, 2020 The poster told BuzzFeed News that they did not expect it would get so many retweets. The account is now suspended due to violating Twitter rules. 9. The Minneapolis police officer who used a knee to hold down George Floyd, Derek Chauvin, was not in protective custody after receiving death threats as the tweet claims. He was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter and currently detained. The poster's account, Egyptian Weeknd has also been suspended. THE INFORMATION ON EGYPTIANWEEKND IS FALSE PLEASE BLOCK THIS PROFILE pic.twitter.com/qIZfdUBxRQ miss andry ACAB (@copcoffin) May 30, 2020 10. A video of a supposed explosion inside a police precinct in Minneapolis was the explosion that happened in 2015 in the city of Tianjin in northern China. Nice try. This video is actually of an explosion in China from 2015 and the person has just dubbed over audio from the riots last night in Minneapolis. Original unedited video below.https://t.co/ICs4O17OeB Q Army STORM-trooper (@QArmyST) May 29, 2020 Before sharing any story, article, or social post, take the time to verify whether it is true or a parody. Check the user's account whether it was just recently created or try searching online to find another source. Read also: Don't Steal iPhone on Stores; Apple Knows Where You Are 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Nigerias ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC), faces another internal crisis in the buildup to two governorship elections in states it controls, leading senior officials to express fears the results may not end well for the party. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed September 19 and October for the governorship elections in Edo and Ondo States, respectively. Following the release of the timetable, APC has gone ahead to schedule its primary elections in the two states for June 22 and July 20. Both the governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, and Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State are seeking re-election for another four-year term. But ahead of the elections, the ruling party is grappling with an internal crisis, which if not promptly and carefully resolved, may cost it victory in both states. Interestingly, the issues at stake are somewhat akin to the ones that caused the party to lose Zamfara and Rivers States to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 elections. The party lost all its seats in the 2019 elections in Zamfara State after a legal battle that terminated at the Supreme Court. The court ruled that the party did not conduct valid primaries to select its governorship, national and state assembly candidates in the build-up to the elections. The disagreement among leaders of the APC in the north west state led to the inability to hold the primaries within the stipulated time. The faction of the loyal to ex-Governor Abdulaziz Yari claimed it held congresses and had candidates, while the faction loyal to Kabiru Marafa, the then senator representing Zamfara Central, insisted that no primary was held. In Rivers State, the APC suffered a similar fate as a result of the inability of factions of the party loyal to the Nigerian minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, and Magnus Abe, a former senator, to reach a compromise on the partys flagbearer. The feud between the two APC leaders worked in favour of the incumbent governor, Nyesom Wike, who got a smooth ride to victory in the election. Consequently, these issues formed part of the grievances of some party faithful, including NWC members, who not only demanded but plotted the removal of Adams Oshiomhole, as the national chairman of the party earlier this year. Mr Oshiomhole was soon to be entangled in a crisis back home in Edo where he had been suspended after a vote of no confidence was passed on him by 18 chairmen of the local chapters of the party in the state last November. The suspension, presumably instigated by Mr Obaseki-led administration, was confirmed by an Abuja High Court but was reversed by a Federal High Court in Kano. It took the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari and other bigwigs within the party who doused the political tantrum and jibes and saved Mr Oshiomholes job in March. Fresh Crisis However, the recent inauguration of Waziri Bulama by Mr Oshiomhole, as APC national secretary and the adoption of direct primary by the Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee for the June 22 Edo governorship primary election by a few members of the national working committee, have rekindled the crisis in the ruling party just a few weeks to the primary elections in Edo and Ondo. Mr Bulamas appointment, as well as those of two others, was controversially announced at the height of the partys internal crisis in March. That was shortly after Mr Oshiomhole was suspended by an Abuja High Court. Mr Bulama was appointed to replace the former national secretary, Mala Buni, who was elected the governor of Yobe State last year. He is from Borno State. The move was sternly criticised by the partys national vice-chairman (North-east), Salihu Mustapha, and some other leaders of the party, who accused the national chairman of unconstitutional and dictatorial actions. Jolted by the inauguration of Mr Bulama, the aggrieved NWC members and a few others outside it but working in the background, have renewed their opposition against Mr Oshiomhole. They contend that the appointment of the new national secretary hitherto did not follow the laid down procedure for making such appointment and that it could be a booby trap to make APC lose the elections in both Edo and Ondo State. Advertisements Their disputation may not be misplaced. As national secretary, Mr Bulama would sign all partys correspondences to INEC, alongside the partys national chairman. They believe that if the appointment of the national secretary was tainted with illegality, it could make the electoral body view all the actions of the party as nullity and therefore disqualify its candidates thereafter. There is already (an) absence of transparency. I am crying for the APC inside me. Zamfara, here we come again, Lawal Shuaibu, the partys national deputy chairman, said lamentably. Apparently worried about the criticisms trailing its action, the party tried to clarify its action. In a statement, following the inauguration of the acting scribe, the party categorically stated that Bulama would remain in acting capacity pending the North-east zonal convention. It did not however stipulate when the convention would hold. Be that as it may, there appears to a blind spot in the APC constitution as to how an official will be replaced when a constitutionally elected person leaves office, asides the provision for the deputy to act in his place. But far more contentious now is the recent announcement by the NWC that the party had adopted direct primaries to pick its governorship candidate in Edo State. Although Mr Obaseki had boasted that he would win regardless of the mode of primary, the guideline has become a contentious issue in Edo where the APC has been factionalised with one group loyal to the governor and the other loyal to Mr Oshiomhole, both fighting for the soul of the party in the state. Direct primaries involve the participation of all party members in the selection of party candidates while indirect primaries involve use of delegates. Often party leaders at local levels, political appointees as well as elected officials are assigned to elect party candidates in indirect primaries. The implication of adopting direct primaries is that Mr Obasekis political appointees and other local supporters cannot be delegates thus blurring his chances of picking the governorship ticket. Perhaps, the governor may have realised that with a direct primary election in Edo, his chances of picking the APC ticket come June 22 are slim. Crusoe Osagie, his spokesperson, told PREMIUM TIMES that whatever they (NWC) decide in the said meeting cannot stand the test of legality. The NEC is the one that is responsible for picking the kind of primary that is used to determine the candidate of a party in a governorship election. The governor did not stop at rejecting direct primaries, he has embarked on moves to shoot the NWC decision down. On Sunday, Mr Obaseki, accompanied by seven other APC governors, visited the leader of the party, Bola Tinubu, in Lagos apparently where they reportedly lobbied to change the decision of the NWC. The next day, the embattled governor visited Mr Buhari at the presidential villa to inform him about his desire to seek re-election. At the meeting, he presented his nomination form to the president after which he told journalists that the president assured him of his support. The state chapter of the party led by Anselm Ojezua, which is sympathetic to the governor, shares the governors view, insisting it is illegal. Aside from faulting the illegality of Mr Bulamas appointment, Mr Shuaibu, a former senator, who was recently recalled from an indefinite suspension, accused the national chairman of breaching Article 9.1 (ii), 9.4 (i), Article 20 (iv), and Article 25 (A) (1) of the APC constitution which he said could later haunt the ruling party after the two-state elections, just as it was seen in Zamfara State. While Article 9.1 (ii) and 9.4 (i) of the party constitution stipulate conditions for members eligibility and registration, Article 20 clearly explained the procedure for arriving at the partys type of primaries and candidates nomination or appointments. Conversely, a breakaway faction of the party loyal to Mr Oshiomhole is expectedly excited about the decision of NWC and has gone ahead to implement it. Last week, the faction nominated via consensus Osagie Ize-Iyamu as its governorship candidate for the September 19 election. A founding member of the APC in the state, Mr Ize-Iyamu ran as the PDP candidate in the 2016 Edo State governorship election but lost to Mr Obaseki. He returned to APC in November 2019, shortly before the crisis in the states branch of the party went overboard. He was granted a waiver at the Oshiomhole-led NWC which adopted the direct primary to determine the partys governorship candidate for the next election. In the main, Mr Ize-Iyamu, a cleric, seems to be having a smooth ride in the faction. Some days ago, six other aspirants dropped their ambitions to support him. Was the NWC right in adopting the direct primaries? The body may have relied on the provisions of the partys constitution to take the decision. Section 13:4 of the document stipulates that the NWC can PROPOSE to the NEC, party electoral regulations, to govern the conduct of elections to all party offices at every level and to govern the procedure for selecting party candidates for elective offices, subject to the constitution. It may have done just that. Scenarios Unless the feuding groups mend fences, there is a possibility that the APC may end up conducting two primary elections in Edo State, clearly preparing for an abysmal outing during the September 19 main election. Amid speculations that Mr Obaseki might defect to the PDP, which is waiting in the wings to offer him its ticket, the governor sounded reconciliatory after his meeting with Mr Buhari on Monday. What is not certain is if his estranged political godfather and his group would toe that path. If not, what happens? Mr Oshiomhole, a former Edo governor, says the party would go ahead with the direct primaries. Obaseki is not here but issues of primaries are well spelt out in our constitution and we are following it as strictly as possible. So, nothing to worry about at all, he said after meeting with some APC governors in Abuja on Monday. Going by its own guideline, INEC recognises primary elections it observed. What this means is that if the factions of the party hold two primaries in the state, then INEC is bound to observe the one it deems appropriate and in this case the Ojezua-led exco which is the recognised one in Edo State. But if it ignores both, that means Edo polls will hold without an APC candidate, a repeat of what happened in the past. Meanwhile, procedurally it is the NWC that forwards the names of nominees to INEC. Should the Ojezua-led exco pick Mr Obaseki as its candidate, will the NWC led by Mr Oshiomhole send the governors name to the electoral body? If not, will it send to INEC the name of Mr Ize-Iyamu who was thrown up by an unrecognized group of party members. Experts views Will APC lose Edo as a result of the lingering feud between Mr Oshiomhole, a former governor of the state, and his estranged political godson, Mr Obaseki? Omoruyi Aigbe, the senior monitoring evaluation officer for Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), believes the disunity in Edo APC may not only affect the partys chances at victory but also distort the entire election process in the state. When the (party) constitution is silent, it creates a sort of opening for anybody to manipulate the process, he said on the Bulama controversy. He added, They (APC) should have studied all the Supreme Court verdicts. In Zamfara and Rivers, the court ruled that the party had no candidate in the election which means that the party primary was a flaw. The APC stands a chance to present the next governor of Edo. If Obaseki wins the ticket, he is likely to become the next governor of Edo. If the ticket changes and he (Obaseki) joins the opposition party to contest, he may not win because the people who vote in an election are not people who like his performance, but those with interests. He may not be able to secure the votes of the majority of party members who are against him. He will not also secure the votes of PDP members who think he is an outsider, Mr Aigbe offered another view into the partys deepening crisis. Also, a political analyst and commentator, Jide Ojo, said the festering crisis in the party may not only lead to a loss for them at the polls but also its last foothold in the entire South-south region if the elders of the party fail to reconcile the factions before the primaries. If APC should lose Edo State, it means it doesnt have any correct foothold in the South-south. It would rub off and embarrass the national chairman that he failed to deliver his own state and strengthen the opposition party in that state, Mr Ojo told this newspaper. He likened the faceoff between Messrs Oshiomhole and Obaseki to what was obtainable between Ali Modu Sheriff and Ahmed Makarfi of the PDP who ran parallel to each other and therefore affected the party. Mr Ojo also added that the emergence of the incumbent governor of Edo as the party candidate may not be a total victory without appeasing the members of the State House of Assembly whom he refused to inaugurate for almost a year after they were declared elected. Both camps risk the chances of losing a lot of goodwill. Obaseki will lose the goodwill of pro-Oshiomholes state lawmakers who he has not inaugurated, a case which is in court, he added. Going forward, how these permutations will play out in the state which is the homebase of the national chairman of the countrys ruling party will no doubt stir ripples not only in the states political fortunes but at the national level. Unless the party acts on time, the APC may just kiss Edo State goodbye come November when the swearing in of the occupant of Dennis Osadebay Government House, Benin City will take place. KITCHENER The province has appointed St. Marys General Hospital to temporarily manage the significant COVID-19 outbreak at Forest Heights long-term care home in Kitchener. Despite receiving hospital support for weeks, Forest Heights has been unable to contain the spread of COVID-19, an Ontario government news release said Tuesday. By taking these steps, the Ministry of Long-Term Care is putting in place a rigorous management structure to help contain the spread of the disease and assist in returning the home to normal operations. The outbreak at Forest Heights, a privately run home owned by Revera, is the most significant and long-lasting in Waterloo Region. A total of 175 residents and 69 staff have tested positive, and 51 people have died since the outbreak was declared April 1. The province last week classified Forest Heights as a red long-term care home, reserved for homes with the highest risk of COVID-19 infections. Only 19 of the provinces 626 long-term care homes got the red classification. The impact of COVID-19 has been incredibly challenging and heartbreaking for residents, families and staff of Forest Heights, said Lee Fairclough, president and chief executive officer of St. Marys. We are committed to working closely with them to support and effectively manage the response to an outbreak that has proven very complex and difficult to control. St. Marys will work with partners across the health system to lead the management response of the outbreak and prevent further transmission of the virus to residents and staff. It will immediately develop and implement a plan and provide regular communication to residents and their families, as well as the public on its website. Revera said in a statement it welcomed the mandatory management order, which will provide some much-needed support for exhausted leaders at the site who have worked tirelessly under extremely stressful circumstances to try to stop the spread of this devastating virus. The home has been battling and extremely challenging outbreak with the guidance of Region of Waterloo Public Health and support of area hospitals. The outbreak has shown signs of slowing and stabilizing, however we have had additional positive tests over the week. The company said the outbreak has been complex and challenging to manage in an old home with ward-style rooms and shared bathrooms. It thanked all the staff who have been working fearlessly and tirelessly to care for residents. Now as always, our first priority is the health and well-being of our residents and employees, the statement said. Forest Heights has already received help to deal with the outbreak, including personal support workers being reassigned from home and community care and extra staff hired to fill a variety of roles. Also, 54 residents were temporarily moved to local hospitals to make it easier to isolate infected residents at the home and lighten the workload for staff. St. Marys will oversee the home for 90 days under the mandatory management order or longer if necessary. The safety and well-being of residents and staff in long-term care have always been and will continue to be our number one priority, Minister of Long-Term Care Dr. Merrilee Fullerton said in the release. I am confident that the talented staff at St. Marys General Hospital and Forest Heights will work together to contain COVID-19 and stabilize the home. Kitchener Centre MPP Laura Mae Lindo had been calling for the province to take over running the home where management has failed to protect their residents. While I am relieved to see the government is finally intervening this has taken far too long and too many residents, and their families, have suffered while this home has been neglected, the New Democrat said in a news release. Lindo said she has been working closely with families and front-line staff since the outbreak began, and she has been appalled by the stories shes heard about inadequate care at the facility. The lack of transparency and communication to families has only added to their pain. The frontline staff have been stretched to breaking point as they do their best without the support and the (personal protective equipment) they need to protect themselves and their residents, she said. Philadelphias New Voting Machines Under Scrutiny in June 2 Elections WASHINGTONWhen Pennsylvania holds primary elections on June 2, some election security advocates will be watching closely to see if more than 2,000 new voting machines acquired last year by Philadelphia and two other counties perform without glitches. Philadelphia and Northampton counties first used the new ExpressVote XL machines in last Novembers local elections and will deploy them again in the presidential nominating contests and local races. A third county, Cumberland, will use the machines for the first time. Their first widespread use in 2019 in Pennsylvania was marred by miscounted vote tallies in Northampton, a politically divided county in eastern Pennsylvania. Some ExpressVote XL machines incorrectly recorded votes for several candidates in the November election, prompting the county to count backup paper receipts to identify the correct winners, according to Maudeania Hornik, chair of the Northampton Election Commission. Some of Northamptons 320 machines were configured improperly at our factory prior to delivery to Northampton County, the maker of the ExpressVote XL equipment said during a December press conference. The manufacturer told the county as many as 30 percent of the machines were affected, Hornik said. Problems with at least 366 ExpressVote XL machines also arose in Philadelphia, according to public records exclusively obtained by Reuters. The city last year replaced its old voting equipment with a new fleet of 3,750 ExpressVote XL machines. Reuters couldnt ascertain how many of those machines were deployed in the November 2019 election there. Philadelphia is home to 20 percent of registered Democrats in Pennsylvania, a crucial battleground state that could determine who wins the presidency in November. Poll workers and technicians reported issues with the new machines at more than 40 percent of polling locations in Philadelphia during last Novembers election, according to the records reviewed by Reuters. Problems included touchscreens that were hypersensitive or that froze; paper voting receipts getting jammed in the machines; and panels opening on some machines to expose the equipments electronic controls, the records show. Katina Granger, a spokeswoman for the ExpressVote XLs manufacturer, ES&S, said the company was wholly confident in the machines, and that it was simply inaccurate for anyone to imply there were widespread issues with the ExpressVote XL. The machines face a big test. After Pennsylvania postponed its 2020 primary, originally scheduled for April due to COVID-19 pandemic fears, Philadelphia reduced its in-person polling sites to 190 locations, down from more than 800 that would typically be operating. Those sites are more concentrated in neighborhoods dominated by low-income and minority voters, U.S. Census data show. Pennsylvania allows residents to vote by mail for any reason, but just 20 percent of Philadelphias electorate requested absentee ballots for the contest. Philadelphia, Northampton, and Cumberland, in central Pennsylvania, have yet to announce if the machines will also be used in Novembers presidential election. Counties typically avoid switching voting systems in major election years. Reuters reviewed records of 605 phone calls from Philadelphia poll workers who reported problems with the ExpressVote XL machines last November to an Election Day technical helpline run by the city. Reuters also spoke with 13 poll workers and voters who said they experienced some of those issues firsthand. Reuters received copies of the call recordsknown as trouble cardsfrom four Philadelphia voters, two of whom are among the plaintiffs in a lawsuit demanding Pennsylvania halt the use of the machines. The case, which was brought by two nonpartisan election integrity groups and several voters, is currently pending in a Pennsylvania state court. Philadelphia Deputy City Commissioner Nick Custodio made the records available to voters in accordance with a law that allows Pennsylvania voters to view and copy such information. When asked for comment about the trouble cards, Custodio said there were fewer and less serious calls about the ExpressVote XL machines in November 2019 than there had been about the citys previous machines in past elections. Custodio didnt address the number of trouble cards, or provide comparable totals of trouble cards from previous elections. In an email to Reuters, he called the citys experience with the new voting equipment overwhelmingly positive, and also said the news agency had engaged in bias (sic) fact-gathering by obtaining copies of some records from the two voters who are plaintiffs in the state lawsuit. Reuters requested the records under Pennsylvanias right-to-know law. Philadelphias deputy solicitor turned down that request, citing a state law that said the records may be inspected and copied by any qualified elector of the county, meaning Pennsylvania voters. Reuters then asked some voters to copy and share them with the news agency, four of whom did so. Matthew Lilly, president of a company that serviced the old machines in Philadelphia that were replaced by the ExpressVote XLs, disputed Custodios assertion that previous elections generated more machine issues. Lilly said that in his two decades working with the city, he didnt recall any election that resulted in more than 500 trouble cards. Reuters couldnt independently confirm how many trouble cards Philadelphias voting machines typically generated in previous elections. ES&S spokeswoman Granger said additional quality control and training have been instituted for the Pennsylvania machines since November. Based in Omaha, Nebraska, ES&S is one of the largest election-machine manufacturers in the United States. The company released the ExpressVote XL in 2018. The machine was a successor to its earlier ExpressVote model that is used by 1,838 counties around the country. When voting on an ExpressVote XL machine, voters insert a blank page into the machine and make their choices by tapping an interactive screen. The machine then prints a receipt for voters to review, with their choices listed both in human-readable text along with an accompanying barcode that represents each candidate they selected. The machine uses the barcodes to tabulate results. Even before last November, some election security experts in Pennsylvania raised concerns that ExpressVote XL machines are vulnerable to vote tampering, in part because voters have no way of knowing if those barcodes accurately reflect the candidates for whom they voted. Separate from the state suit, a different group of voter advocates filed a federal suit to stop Pennsylvania from using the machines over similar concerns. A federal judge in Pennsylvania dismissed that suit in April, saying plaintiffs had not proven the machines were recording votes incorrectly or were vulnerable to being hacked. Marian Schneider, who served as Pennsylvanias deputy secretary for elections and administration from February 2015 until May 2017, said that hiccups could be expected with the rollout of any new voting system. But this number of trouble cards recorded in a low-turnout election year (2019) is concerning, said Schneider, who is currently president of Verified Voting, a secure voting technology advocacy group. Schneider isnt part of litigation involving the ExpressVote XL machines. West Philadelphia voter Susie Mizelle told Reuters she was shocked last November to see a panel on top of her ExpressVote XL open, with a USB drive and a power button visible. Mizelle, 44, asked precinct captain Thelma Peake why the machines internal system was accessible to voters. Peake told her the panels on the machines kept popping open, according to both women. Peake said she eventually got the panel closed, but it remained easy to tamper with. ExpressVote XL machines only accept certified and approved USB flash drives containing encrypted data, according to ES&S, making it impossible for other devices to change the election definition or system firmware. Three of six counties in New Jersey and Delaware that also use ExpressVote XL machines said they hadnt experienced any problems with them. Combined, they have used 700 machines so far. There were no issues relative to tabulating the votes, or how voters marked their votes, said Nicole DiRado, the elections board administrator of Union County, New Jersey, which has deployed 432 machines in local elections so far. The other three counties didnt respond to requests for comment. By Julia Harte Chinese government officials told major state-run agricultural companies to pause purchases of some American farm goods including soybeans as Beijing evaluates the ongoing escalation of tensions with the U.S. over Hong Kong, according to people familiar with the situation. State-owned traders Cofco and Sinograin were ordered to suspend purchases, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing a private matter. Chinese buyers have also canceled an unspecified number of U.S. pork orders, one of the people said. Private companies haven't been told to halt imports, according to one of the people. The halt is the latest sign that the hard won phase-one trade deal between the world's two biggest economies is in jeopardy. While Chinese Premier Li Keqiang last month reiterated a pledge to implement the agreement that was inked in January, tensions have continued to escalate since then amid a standoff over Beijing's move to tighten its grip on Hong Kong. Beijing's move eroded the risk-on sentiment that had been prevailing over markets. S&P 500 Index futures gave up gains to trade 0.6% lower, while U.S. 10-year bonds erased declines. The onshore yuan reversed its advance, while soybean futures in Chicago, which had been as much as 1% higher, were little changed. The measures to halt imports come after President Donald Trump on Friday lobbed a barrage of criticism at Beijing after it moved to impose controversial new national security legislation on Hong Kong. Critics say it will crack down on dissent and undermine the "one country, two systems" principle that has kept Hong Kong autonomous of the mainland since the 1997 handover from the British. Cofco and Sinograin are China's key importers of farm goods. They had been making pricing inquiries for 20 to 30 cargoes of U.S. soybeans on Friday but held off on going through with purchases after Trump indicated he would punish Chinese officials, one of the people said. Beijing is waiting to see what steps Trump takes before deciding its next move, one of the people said. Nobody from the commerce ministry responded to a fax seeking comment. Officials from Sinograin and Cofco also didn't respond to calls. Trump said the U.S. would begin the process of stripping some of Hong Kong's privileged trade status, without detailing how many changes would take effect and how many exemptions would apply. He also promised sanctions against Chinese and Hong Kong officials "directly or indirectly involved" in eroding Hong Kong's autonomy, though stopped short of giving specifics. Equity investors had reacted positively to Trump's remarks, as he didn't provide any details or time-frame for what actions might come next. It's unclear how soon the U.S. would move on a range of options, from sanctioning Chinese officials to imposing tariffs on Hong Kong to attacking the territory's financial stability. While Trump has periodically threatened to call off the "phase one" trade deal, his top economic advisers have suggested it would continue. Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, told CNBC on Thursday that the trade agreement "does continue to go on for the moment and we may be making progress there." The two sides have traded blows over a range of issues from the coronavirus to Taiwan in recent weeks, and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned during high-profile legislative meetings in Beijing that some in America were pushing relations to a "new Cold War," and urged the U.S. to give up its "wishful thinking" of changing China. China had agreed to buy U.S. farm goods worth about $36.5 billion for 2020 as part of the phase-one trade deal signed in January. However, the coronavirus outbreak roiled those plans, with China only managing to import $3.35 billion in American agricultural products in the first three months of the year, the lowest for that period since 2007, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Still, as China started to gradually reopen its economy from the virus-led lockdown, it had increased its pace of imports, including a more-than 1-million ton cargo of American soybeans in just two weeks in May, and rare purchases of U.S. soybean oil and ethanol. But then tensions between the U.S. and China began escalating, with Trump blaming the Asian nation for misleading the world about the scale and risk of the coronavirus outbreak. The fallout filtered through to the commodities markets, with China opting to buy Brazilian soy instead of American beans. Smokers are less likely to test positive for the coronavirus, according to research that offers yet more evidence that the habit may be protective. Since the crisis spiralled out of control, researchers have seen unusually low rates of smokers with Covid-19 in hospitals - suggesting they rarely get severely ill. Now, for what is believed to be the first time, experts in Israel have found adults who smoke cigarettes are less likely to pick up the virus in the first place. Researchers analysed data from 3million people, including 115,000 swabbed for the virus. They discovered a 'genuine' protective effect of smoking. Ten per cent of patients who tested positive for Covid-19 were smokers, compared to 19 per cent in the general population, according to the study. Experts believe nicotine, the chemical that makes tobacco addictive, competes with the virus to binds with cells in the body, therefore blocking it from entering. Scientists claim nicotine offers a legitimate avenue for both preventing and treating Covid-19, as the global race to find a cure to halt the pandemic continues. Studies show nicotine may stop a dangerous immune system over-reaction called a cytokine storm - a phenomenon found to be killing many Covid-19 patients. The Israeli study, yet to be scrutinised by fellow scientists, comes after UK scientists last week rubbished the theory that smoking protects against the coronavirus. Israeli researchers found 9.8 per cent of patients who had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 were smokers compared to 18.5 per cent of people who had tested negative and 19 per cent in the general population. The findings were similar for past smokers but not as strong The latest study pooled data from more than three million people who were part of Clalit Health Services, the largest health provider in Israel. CHS collected data on the age, gender, ethnicity, pre-existing medical conditions and smoking status of all the participants. Some 114,500 people in the data had been given a test for Covid-19, of which 4,537 had received a positive result. The researchers, led by Dr Ariel Israel, matched each Covid-19 patient to five people who had tested negative who were of the same age, gender and ethnicity. WHY IS SMOKING THOUGHT TO PROTECT AGAINST THE CORONAVIRUS? Swathes of studies have shown a low prevalence of smokers in hospitals with COVID-19. When smokers do get diagnosed with the virus, however, they appear to be more likely to get so sick that they need ventilation, two studies in the review showed. If the findings are proven, scientists say it's likely that it is not cigarettes - filled with thousands of harmful chemicals - that would offer a potential protection, but the nicotine that is beneficial. A theory flouted by scientists is that nicotine reduces ACE-2 receptors, which are proteins in the body the virus binds to in order to infect cells. The coronavirus enters cells inside the body via the structures, which coat the surface of some cells, including in the airways and lungs. If nicotine does lowers ACE-2 expression, it makes it harder for viral particles to gain entry into cells and therefore cause an infection. On the other hand, other studies show that nicotine enhances the action of the ACE-2 receptor, which in theory, puts smokers at a higher risk of contracting the coronavirus. Other scientists say low levels of ACE-2 expression as a result of nicotine may prevent worse damage from viral infection, and there is no evidence that says higher quantities of ACE-2 receptors increases the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the first place. Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos, from the University of West Attica, Greece, who queried whether nicotine could be a cure for COVID-19 in a paper published on May 9, said: 'Up-regulation of ACE2, though seemingly paradoxical, may in fact protect patients from severe disease and lung injury.' A 2008 study in mice found that getting rid of ACE-2 made the animals more likely to suffer severe breathing difficulties when infected with the SARS virus, which is almost identical to COVID-19. Other scientists have turned their head towards nicotine's ability to prevent inflammation, where evidence is more robust. Nicotine has been shown inhibit the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as TNF, IL-1 and IL-6, which are involved in promoting an inflammatory response. A 'cytokine storm' is a phenomenon in which an abundance of cytokines are released in response to infection. Doctors have previously said that it's often the body's response to the virus, rather than the virus itself, that plays a major role in how sick a person gets. A cytokine storm can lead to respiratory failure and the attack of healthy tissues, causing multi-organ failure. Therefore, the cytokine storm is being looked at as a target for COVID-19 treatment. 'Nicotine has effects on the immune system that could be beneficial in reducing the intensity of the cytokine storm,' Dr Farsalinos wrote in Internal and Emergency Medicine. 'The potential benefits of nicotine.... could explain, at least in part, the increased severity or adverse outcome among smokers hospitalized for COVID-19 since these patients inevitably experience abrupt cessation of nicotine intake during hospitalization. 'This may be feasible through repurposing already approved pharmaceutical nicotine products such as nicotine patches.' Dr Nicola Gaibazzi, who recently published findings on MedRxiv of 'very low' numbers of smokers in Italian COVID-19 patients, speculates smoke exposure may bolster the immune system. He said exposure to cigarette smoke reduces the body's immune system over time, measured by lower inflammatory markers. Therefore, when smokers are infected with a virus like SARS-CoV-2, their immune system is more 'tolerant' and does not overreact. On the other hand, non-smokers may be more prone to having the sudden and deadly cytokine storm when they are infected with the virus. Scientists have stressed that the evidence supporting nicotine as a medicine does not mean everyone should take up smoking. Advertisement They found the rate of current smokers among the coronavirus patients was significantly less than in the matched participants - 9.8 per cent compared to 18.5 per cent of people who tested negative, and 19.4 per cent in the general CHS cohort. Current smoking was found to reduce the risk of testing positive by almost half (54 per cent), statistical analysis showed. And 11.7 per cent of those who tested positive were past smokers, compared with 13.3 per cent in matched controls and 13.9 per cent in the total CHS population. Those who had previously smoked had a slightly lower (19 per cent) risk of catching the coronavirus, the results suggested. Using hospital records, the team also found there was 'no evidence' that those who had the coronavirus were any more at risk of severe disease needing mechanical ventilation, or dying. The results appeared to stay true even when the researchers took into account underlying health conditions, which are known to play a role in disease severity. The team wrote: 'The risk of infection by COVID-19 appears to be reduced by half among current smokers. 'This intriguing finding may reveal unique infection mechanisms present for COVID-19 which may be targeted to combat the disease and reduce its infection rate.' Dr Israel and colleagues said their findings are unique to the coronavirus - normally smoking would increase the risk of an infection. This is because they touch their mouth more often and one of they routes of transmission is by touching a contaminated surface and then the nose and mouth. Studies have also shown the potent chemicals in smoke can also damage the airways. The team wrote: 'The magnitude of association observed for current smoking, with odds of infection reduced by about a half in smokers, suggests a genuine protective effect of smoking on the risk of Covid-19.' Those who have come across similar patterns propose nicotine is the key component for protecting smokers. It is broadly understood that SARS-CoV-2 - the virus that causes the disease - enters the body by binding to receptors in the body called ACE-2, which are found along the respiratory tract. Nicotine has been found to reduce the expression of ACE-2, which would suggest smokers have less entry points for the virus. The evidence for this theory is murky, however, because there is also some evidence that nicotine actually boosts ACE-2 expression. Another theory is that the virus first enters via the the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR), which is present around the nose and mouth. This would explain why the virus causes a loss of taste and smell and in some cases, headaches, dizziness and intense fatigue. Researchers from Paris wrote in a paper published on Qeios that nicotine would compete with the virus to bind to nAChR, and therefore may prevent the virus from latching on. The World Health Organization (WHO) said on May 26 there is a lack of knowledge about whether smoking alters the risk of catching the coronavirus or being hospitalised. There are currently no peer-reviewed papers on the matter published in medical journals, meaning none have been looked over and critiqued by other scientists. The recent Israeli research, among many other papers that have found few smokers on Covid-19 wards, has been published on the pre-print site MedRxiv or similar. Researchers across the world have discovered very low numbers of smokers among hospitalised Covid-19 patients, suggesting they are somewhat protected against severe symptoms of the disease, at least. For example, University College London academics looked at 28 papers and found the proportions of smokers among hospital patients were 'lower than expected'. One of the studies showed that in the UK the proportion of smokers among Covid-19 patients was just five per cent, a third of the national rate of 14.4 per cent. Another found in France the rate was four times lower. In China, a study noted 3.8 per cent of patients were smokers - despite more than half of the population regularly smoking cigarettes. Similarly a review of 13 Chinese studies, published on Qeios in April, found only 6.5 per cent of 5,300 hospitalised patients. Another study, by America's Centers for Disease Control of over 7,000 people who tested positive for coronavirus, found that just 1.3 per cent of them were smokers - against the 14 per cent of all Americans that the CDC says smoke. The study also claimed smokers stood no greater chance of ending up in hospital or an ICU. The data up until this point has been full of holes - which could skew findings - because doctors are not always able to find out if someone severely sick is a smoker, either because they are too busy or the patient is so unwell they cannot speak. Low smoking rates may be explained by differences in smoking rates between age groups, with middle-aged people more likely to have the habit, but elderly people more likely to be hospitalised with COVID-19. They found the rate of current smokers among the coronavirus patients was significantly less than in the matched participants - 9.8 per cent compared to 18.5 per cent of people who tested negative, and 19.4 per cent in the general CHS cohort University of College London reviewed 28 studies and found smoking rates were lower than expected among COVID-19 patients. The graph shows the smoking rate of each country against the percentage of smokers among COVID-19 patients. The lowest figure has been chosen for each country to show the stark comparison discovered by some studies WHY MAY SMOKERS BE MORE AT RISK OF SEVERE CORONAVIRUS? Dr James Gill, a locum GP and honorary clinical lecturer, Warwick Medical School, said: 'Smoking is a significant risk factor for coronavirus infections and, in fact, infections generally. 'There are many interlocking factors as to why smoking reduces the bodys ability to fight an infection. 'Possibly one of the biggest reasons smokers are at increased risk of respiratory infections is the impairment and death of the cilia in the airways and lungs. 'In simple terms, the airways are lined with cilia - small brush-like hairs - these structures provide an absolutely vital function in moving mucous, inhaled debris and potentially infectious agents out of the airways and lungs before an infection can take hold.' Increased levels of carbon monoxide in the blood, a by-product of smoking, blocks the blood's ability to carry oxygen to cells in the body. It puts smokers at a pre-disposed disadvantage if they catch coronavirus, considering the disease leaves patients unable to get enough oxygen into the bloodstream due to lung inflammation. Dr Tom Wingfield, a senior clinical lecturer and honorary consultant physician, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), said: 'Smoking both increases someones vulnerability to infection (repetitive touching of hand-to-face and hand-to-mouth) and reduces their ability to fight against it resulting in more severe disease.' He highlighted the tendency of smokers to have a health condition, such as high blood pressure, high disease and chronic lung, 'all of which themselves are risk factors for severe COVID-19'. Professor Gordon Dougan, department of medicine, University of Cambridge, said: 'The real danger lies in the lung and systems damage COVID causes. It will make people more vulnerable to secondary bacterial and viral infections. It is known that lung damage per say does that.' Advertisement Contrary to a slew of studies suggesting smoking is protective, British researchers recently found the complete opposite. Dr Nicholas Hopkinson and colleagues used information from a symptom tracker app - rather than hit-and-miss hospital data - to try and solve whether smokers are at risk of catching the coronavirus. The team at Imperial College London looked at 2.4million users of the COVID Sympto Study app, developed by King's College London and Zoe. All participants had regularly reported their health and if they have symptoms of the coronavirus with the app, helping to build a clearer picture of the UK's outbreak. On first use, the app records self-reported location, age, and core health risk factors, including height, weight, smoking and common disease. Some 11 per cent of the group were smokers. The researchers said this may be lower than the national average (14 per cent) because wealthier people are less likely to smoker while also be more likely to have a smartphone. Among 'standard users' - those who never actually had a test - current smokers were 14 per cent more likely to develop the classic triad of symptoms of COVID-19 than non-smokers. These were a fever, persistent cough and shortness of breath. They were also 29 per cent more likely to have more than five symptoms, and 50 per cent more likely to have more than 10 symptoms, such as diarrhoea, loss of appetite and delirium. The researchers said this indicated their disease was more severe because those that reported going to hospital tended to have more symptoms. In addition, current smokers who actually tested positive, receiving a formal Covid-19 diagnosis, were more than twice as likely to need to attend hospital due to COVID-19. The authors concluded in their pre-print paper, which has not been peer reviewed by other scientists: 'Our results provide compelling evidence for an association between current smoking and individual risk from COVID-19, including symptom burden and risk of attending hospital.' When it comes to disease severity and death, the WHO reports that available evidence so far suggests that smoking increases the risk, having looked over 35 published studies. A recent Italian study found half of infected smokers died - compared to 35 per cent of the rest of the patients. The study found fewer than five per cent of 441 COVID-19 patients who needed to be admitted to hospital were smokers - a 'very low' number, given that a quarter of the general population are known to be hooked on cigarettes. But once smokers are in hospital, they may be more likely to see their disease rapidly progress and lead to death. Information about smoking was taken from medical records, and efforts were made to directly contact the patients or their relatives for confirmation. And the review by UCL found two good quality studies, involving 1,370 hospitalised Covid-19 people, suggested smokers were 43 per cent more likely to see their disease progress to become severe than those who had never smoked. However three studies in the UCL analysis reported there does 'not appear to be a notable difference' between smokers and non-smokers dying of the virus. It's been suggested that withdrawal from the addictive chemical nicotine while in hospital may exacerbate lung damage among smokers, raising their risk of suffering severe complications. Nicotine has been shown to prevent lung damage in animals with acute respiratory syndrome, a life-threatening condition the coronavirus can lead to. Research also suggests nicotine may prevent a severe over-reaction of the immune system called a cytokine storm - a phenomenon found to be killing many COVID-19 patients. A cytokine storm can lead to respiratory failure and the attack of healthy tissues, causing multi-organ failure. Therefore, it has become a key target for COVID-19 treatment. Drugs like the arthritis medication tocilizumab, which doctors say has the potential to stop the cytokine storm, is part of three major trials involving British patients - with the first results expected by June or July. Tocilizumab blocks the effects of the IL-6, and has become a go-to for inflammatory disease treatment for conditions like rheumatoid arthritis. 'Nicotine has effects on the immune system that could be beneficial in reducing the intensity of the cytokine storm,' Dr Farsalinos wrote in Internal and Emergency Medicine. 'The potential benefits of nicotine.... could explain, at least in part, the increased severity or adverse outcome among smokers hospitalized for COVID-19 since these patients inevitably experience abrupt cessation of nicotine intake during hospitalization. 'This may be feasible through repurposing already approved pharmaceutical nicotine products such as nicotine patches.' Welsh doctors are keen to do a trial of nicotine patches and are in the process of applying to conduct a trial. Jonathan Davies, a consultant trauma surgeon at The Royal Glamorgan Hospital, who is spearheading the effort, told MailOnline: 'We are looking at a number of possible points at which nicotine might be a valid intervention from prevention to treatment. 'In a nutshell the question is, are people who smoke see to be less likely to catch it So does nicotine given to people who dont smoker offer some sort of protection? 'I would like to get a cohort of people in the general population and give half a nicotine patch for six week and the other half a placebo path and then see if there is a difference in antibodies [which indicate coronavirus infection]. That would be my mainstream preference.' It follows the lead of researchers in France, who are also planning a trial after finding low levels of smokers in a hospital in Paris. However, a trial of this nature would be difficult to push through, Dr Davies acknowledges, considering nicotine is addictive and smoking causes more deaths than Covid-19 has. Tobacco causes 8million deaths every year from cardiovascular diseases, lung disorders, cancers, diabetes, and high blood pressure, the WHO says. The seven states in the northeast recorded relatively fewer Covid-19 cases till late April, but are now witnessing a sudden surge following the easing of restrictions on inter-state travel, with the regions tally racing past 2,100 cases. Assam, the most populous state in the region, has recorded nearly 1,500 cases, while the other smaller or less populated states have registered a significant spike over the past few days. The lifting of a ban on inter-state movement on May 4 is believed to be the prime factor for the jump in cases. The first case in the region was detected on March 24, when a 23-year-old woman who returned from the UK tested positive in Manipur. On May 5, the figure for the entire region was just 103 cases. The total population of the region is more than 45 million. On May 5, Assam had 44 positive cases, one death, 32 recoveries and 11 people under treatment. Four weeks later, on June 1, the states tally stood at 1,486 cases, four deaths, 285 recoveries and 1,194 people under treatment. The total cases included 1,337 people who had returned to state since May 4. The surge in positive cases is because of the homecoming of our residents from other states. Nearly 800 of the new cases are those of people who returned from Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Delhi, Assams health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Sunday. Tripura recorded its biggest one-day spike on Monday, when 107 people tested positive, taking the states tally to 421 cases. Of the total, 166 were Border Security Force (BSF) personnel from two battalions based in the state and their family members. On May 5, the state had just 42 cases. On Tuesday morning, Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga Tweeted about 12 new cases in the state, including 10 people who had returned from Delhi and two from Kolkata. The state had recorded just one case prior to this, of a 50-year-old pastor who was found positive on March 24 and recovered by May 9. Nagaland recorded six new cases on Tuesday morning, taking the states total to 49. The states first Covid-19 cases were detected on May 25, when three people who returned on a Shramik Special train from Chennai tested positive. Meghalaya had 13 Covid-19 cases till May 5, all of them connected to a family in the state capital Shillong in the East Khasi Hills. Two weeks later, a person who returned from Chennai tested positive in the Garo Hills, the first Covid-19 patient in the region. The states tally now stands at 28. With both its first two positive cases recovering, Manipur didnt have an active Covid-19 case as of May 5. But the status changed 10 days later, with the detection of an infection. The state now has 83 cases with 11 recoveries and no deaths. Arunachal Pradesh was Covid-19 free as of May 5, with the lone patient in the state recovering the previous month. But with the return of the states residents from other parts of the country, the figures started increasing. On Monday, the state recorded 16 new cases, taking its tally to 22. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Message for the World Mission Sunday, which will be celebrated on October 18 in most countries, has as its title the response of the prophet Isaiah: "Here I am, send me. "It is Christ who makes the Church go out of herself." The personal response. "Illness, suffering, fear and isolation", unemployment that are spreading with the coronavirus epidemic "challenge us". Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Pope Francis' message for the 2020 World Mission Sunday, which will be celebrated on 18 October, rests on two pillars. The first is the answer that the prophet Isaiah gives to Yahweh when He asks: Who am I going to send?, And Isaiah replies: "Here I am, send me" (Is 6,8). The second pillar is understanding what God is saying to us at this time of pandemic also represents a challenge for the Churchs mission". The Message, which bears the date of Pentecost, May 31, 2020, has the answer of Isaiah as its title: "Here I am, send me". "This call - explains the Pope - from Gods merciful heart challenges both the Church and humanity as a whole in the current world crisis." We are indeed frightened, disoriented and afraid. Pain and death make us experience our human frailty, but at the same time remind us of our deep desire for life and liberation from evil. In this context, the call to mission, the invitation to step out of ourselves for love of God and neighbour presents itself as an opportunity for sharing, service and intercessory prayer. The mission that God entrusts to each one of us leads us from fear and introspection to a renewed realization that we find ourselves precisely when we give ourselves to others." Of course, " Jesus is the Fathers Missionary: his life and ministry reveal his total obedience to the Fathers will (cf. Jn 4:34; 6:38; 8:12-30; Heb 10:5-10). Jesus, crucified and risen for us, draws us in turn into his mission of love, and with his Spirit which enlivens the Church, he makes us his disciples and sends us on a mission to the world and to its peoples. The mission, the Church on the move, is not a programme, an enterprise to be carried out by sheer force of will. It is Christ who makes the Church go out of herself. In the mission of evangelization, you move because the Holy Spirit pushes you, and carries you. The Church is therefore a continuation of Christ's mission: The Church, the universal sacrament of Gods love for the world, continues the mission of Jesus in history and sends us everywhere so that, through our witness of faith and the proclamation of the Gospel, God may continue to manifest his love and in this way touch and transform hearts, minds, bodies, societies and cultures in every place and time." Mission "is a free and conscious response to Gods call. Yet we discern this call only when we have a personal relationship of love with Jesus present in his Church." To help with a personal response, the pontiff lists a series of questions: et us ask ourselves: are we prepared to welcome the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, to listen to the call to mission, whether in our life as married couples or as consecrated persons or those called to the ordained ministry, and in all the everyday events of life? Are we willing to be sent forth at any time or place to witness to our faith in God the merciful Father, to proclaim the Gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ, to share the divine life of the Holy Spirit by building up the Church? Are we, like Mary, the Mother of Jesus, ready to be completely at the service of Gods will (cf. Lk 1:38)? This interior openness is essential if we are to say to God: Here am I, Lord, send me (cf. Is 6:8)." The answer, Francis suggests, must take place "today of the Church and of history". This is why it is important to ask ourselves "what God is telling us in these pandemic times", because this "becomes a challenge also for the mission of the Church. Illness, suffering, fear and isolation challenge us. The poverty of those who die alone, the abandoned, those who have lost their jobs and income, the homeless and those who lack food challenge us. Being forced to observe social distancing and to stay at home invites us to rediscover that we need social relationships as well as our communal relationship with God." "Far from increasing mistrust and indifference, this situation should make us even more attentive to our way of relating to others. And prayer, in which God touches and moves our hearts, should make us ever more open to the need of our brothers and sisters for dignity and freedom, as well as our responsibility to care for all creation. The impossibility of gathering as a Church to celebrate the Eucharist has led us to share the experience of the many Christian communities that cannot celebrate Mass every Sunday. In all of this, Gods question: Whom shall I send? is addressed once more to us and awaits a generous and convincing response: Here am I, send me! (Is 6:8). God continues to look for those whom he can send forth into the world and to the nations to bear witness to his love, his deliverance from sin and death, his liberation from evil (cf. Mt 9:35-38; Lk 10:1-12)." In conclusion, the pope urges to contribute to the mission of the Church with prayer, reflection and material help: The charity expressed in the collections that take place during the liturgical celebrations of the third Sunday of October is aimed at supporting the missionary work carried out in my name by the Pontifical Mission Societies, in order to meet the spiritual and material needs of peoples and Churches throughout the world, for the salvation of all. May the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Star of Evangelization and Comforter of the Afflicted, missionary disciple of her Son Jesus, continue to intercede for us and sustain us." For the full text of the Message, see here. Postal Peril The death of one of their own brought the coronavirus home to local postal workers. by Eve Silberman From the June, 2020 issue Ann Arbor mail carrier John Odegard started wearing a mask in early April after he heard that a local postal worker being treated for coronavirus symptoms was fighting for his life. "Holy smokes," he recalls thinking. "This is real!" Art Serafinski, sixty-one, a manager based in the W. Stadium post office, died on April 20. Shaken, Odegard says, he became "religious" about keeping both mask and gloves on. "I'm constantly wiping down my vehicle," he says. "When I get home, I put my clothes in the wash." Postal employees are considered "essential workers," and in some jobs, "you just can't do social distancing," says an Ann Arbor employee who asked for anonymity. People sorting packages "can't keep ten feet apart from each other." Serafinski, who was director of personnel for Ann Arbor, shared an office and filled in at the counter when needed. Keith Combs, president of the Detroit chapter of the American Postal Workers Union, says that Serafinski was one of four Michigan postal workers who'd died of the virus by mid-May, and "at different times, hundreds of employees have taken sick leave." Those include those "exposed" but not ill and others who stayed home because of virus-related family needs. "Management definitely could have done a better job" in preventive measures, he says. "Some stations were not receiving masks and hand sanitizers until recently." The Ann Arbor office declined comment and referred the Observer to Detroit-based spokeswoman Elizabeth Najduch, who said the office "was not granting interviews at this time." The anonymous Ann Arbor employee says that the Ann Arbor branches were slow to provide masks, but that they do now. Plexiglas barriers to shield counter workers have also been added. Odegard, president of the Ann Arbor local of the mail carriers' union, says he knows of "five or six confirmed cases" among the area's 200-some carriers, with others quarantining because they were judged at risk or their families needed them. Odegard says that, while a few customers have complained of mail delays, "I've never seen the public so kind to us, even at Christmas time." Some have donated hand sanitizers and even toilet paper. But "we wonder what will happen when the [quarantine] order is lifted ... Will the public be respectful of the six-foot [distancing] thing?" He's frustrated that "some people think it's a hoax." What does he tell them? "No, it's real. Ask Art's family." [Originally published in June, 2020.] Moscow, June 2 : Russian President Vladimir Putin approved July 1 as the date for the constitutional amendments vote, it was reported. According to the President, ideas were voiced to hold the vote on the same day as the rescheduled Victory Parade on June 24, which he believes was wrong, TASS News Agency reported. "There were even ideas to hold the vote right on the day of the parade. We should not combine it with anything, it is a separate major milestone... The Victory parade is sacred," Putin said at a working meeting on Monday. "Let's not mix it with anything, and I think we should not try to save money on it (the voting) either, because one of the motives to hold (the vote) on the day of the Victory Parade is to save money as it is also a non-working day," the President said, adding that there wouldn't be any saving on the voting. The President has called for active participation of Russians in the constitutional amendments vote. "It is not a coincidence that the Constitution is the main law of the country. I expect that Russian citizens will take a very active part in determining the parameters of the main law in the vote on constitutional amendments," Putin stressed. In January, Putin suggested to introduce a number of amendments to the basic law. Following a discussion within the working group, the State Duma (lower house) and the Federation Council (upper house) adopted the final bill on March 11, followed by approval by all regions of Russia. Putin then signed an order, scheduling the nationwide vote on the amendments for April 22, which was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The amendments will enter force only if approved in the nationwide vote, reports TASS News Agency. The document proposes to expand the powers of Parliament and the Constitutional Court, set a fixed number of presidential terms and state the prevalence of the Russian Constitution over international agreements. It also expands the government's obligations in the social sphere. The amendments to the Constitution stipulate that the Russian head of state can only serve two terms. However, one of the amendments proposes that the current president can be re-elected if the new version of the Constitution comes into force. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Tata Motors share price rose 8.5 percent intraday on June 2 after the company resumed operations at all its plant. The company in a statement said that it has resumed operations in all plants along with the with Jamshedpur Plant also getting approval on May 27, 2020. The demand is gradually starting to improve, while from the supply side, 90% of suppliers in CV have received permissions to commence, 80% have started operations and only around 60% have been able to start supplies. The companys joint-venture plant in Changshu (China) has been operational since March as vehicle sales recover there and customers return to showrooms following the easing of the lockdown. Also, gradually resuming production at the Solihull and engine plants in the UK, the Slovakia plant, and contract assembly line in Austria, it added. At 14:23 hrs, Tata Motors was quoting at Rs 96.25, up Rs 6.65, or 7.42 percent on the BSE. Linder said it wasn't realistic to think that COVID-19 would never reach the Yellowstone County Detention Facility. "While we hoped that we were never going to see it in there, I don't think reality ever was going to keep it out of the jail," Linder said. The jail population dipped significantly when the pandemic first hit Montana, but has since climbed and is now closer to the capacity of 434 inmates. The numbers are starting to climb back up again, and thats simply because were having a lot of crime in our area, and a lot of these people that are in there, well all of them that are added into the facility, are there for very good reasons, Linder said. Violent crimes in most cases. Kris Copenhaver, director of the Billings region Office of the Public Defender, said judges and the Yellowstone County Attorneys Office have worked with her office to address concerns about medically vulnerable people in jail. I really do think that its been a cooperation these past couple of months, Copenhaver said. Health Minister Robin Swann has warned the public that the coronavirus lockdown is "not an extended public holiday" and said he's concerned compliance with restrictions is beginning to decrease. Speaking at the Stormont press conference on Tuesday, he cautioned those who have queued to enter shops and young people who are gathering on parks and beaches. "It does appear that the compliance with restrictions and social distancing measures is starting to fray," he said. There have been two further coronavirus deaths in Northern Ireland, the Department of Health announced earlier on Tuesday. There have also been just four new cases reported after 831 tests involving 583 individuals on Monday - the lowest figure since March. Mr Swann warned against complacency despite the easing of some restrictions, saying: "Don't think this is all over". "We are still at a very early and tentative stage of that process," he said, warning it would not take much to send the R rate above 1. It comes after news Northern Ireland dental practices would be allowed a phased return. Mr Swann also announced that more than 6,600 care home residents had been tested for Covid-19 as he announced a further 11.7m in funding support for the sector, which includes sick pay for staff. Six people are in intensive care suffering from Covid-19 and 71 care homes are dealing with an infection outbreak, while 60 have closed an outbreak. The Northern Ireland death toll is now at 526 people. Meanwhile there has been a warning surgical capacity in NI hospitals has fallen by up to 50% as a result of Covid-19. And 148,000 workers may be exempt from UK's 14-day air travel quarantine rule. Read More Here's how Tuesday unfolded: Chinese peacekeepers play valuable role PLA Daily Source: China Military Online Editor: Li Jiayao 2020-06-01 17:29:08 By Wang Jiangang BEIJING, June 1 -- "Chinese peacekeepers including civilian, military and police have played a valuable role in several UN operations over the past 30 years, and I commend them for their service under the blue flag," said Jean-Pierre Lacroix of France, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, in a written interview on May 28. "I extend my gratitude to all the Chinese peacekeepers past and present on the occasion of the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, which we mark on May 29 each year," said Lacroix. Lacroix said that China ranks eighth among the top 10 troop-contributing countries, with more than 2,500 Chinese peacekeepers currently serving in UN peace operations at present, and he is grateful for their dedication. China has participated in UN peacekeeping operations for 30 years since China first sent five PLA military observers to the UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) in April 1990. Over the past 30 years, it has sent more than 40,000 peacekeepers to participate in 25 UN peacekeeping operations. As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China is the main troop-contributing country and the second-largest contributor to the UN's peacekeeping budget. Because of strict discipline, excellent quality, hard work, and the record of "zero repatriation for disciplinary reasons", all Chinese peacekeepers have been awarded the UN Peacekeeping Medal. Over the decades, Chinese peacekeepers have participated in a wide range of missions and in a number of important capacities, ranging from medical and engineering contingents, to the police and infantry units, Lacroix noted. Noting that UN Peacekeeping is a unique global partnership, he said that "we look forward to continuing this partnership with all stakeholders." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address I just want to caution folks, Ellison said. I dont deny that your eyes are working well and you saw what you saw, but that doesnt mean that when we get to a courtroom that its going to be some sort of easy slam dunk. History proves that it isnt. Chicago, June 2 : Two people have been killed during unrest in Chicago's suburb of Cicero as protests continued over the death of African-American man, George Floyd, an official said. City official Ray Hanania said that 60 people were arrested on Monday but did not provide additional information about those killed or the circumstances of their deaths, reports the BBC. The Illinois State Police and Cook County Sheriff's Office were called in to help local police as businesses were broken into and items stolen. The Cicero Police Department has urged residents to stay at home. During the riots and other unrest, at least three people have died by gunfire in Indianapolis, Detroit and Oakland. The development comes as some 40 cities across the US, including Washington D.C., have imposed curfews to curb acts of violence in extensive demonstrations against police brutality and racism. Nationwide protests have erupted after Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old African-American man, died in Minneapolis on May 25 after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, held him down with a knee on his neck though he repeatedly pleaded, "I can't breathe", and "please, I can't breathe". All four police officers involved in the incident have been fired, and Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text DETROIT, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Two nationally recognized personal injury law firms, Ven Johnson Law, PLC, and Romanucci & Blandin, LLC, together announce the filing of lawsuit on behalf of clients that have suffered devastating financial and property loss as the result of the severe negligence of the owners of the Edenville and Sanford Dams, located in Midland and Gladwin Counties, Michigan. As a result of alleged negligence, the dams overflowed, collapsed and flooded hundreds of homes and buildings in May 2020. The defining difference between this legal filing and others for this tragedy which take a class action approach, is that this mass tort filing allows individual property owners to be evaluated and compensated on the merits of their own situation, rather than as a "cookie cutter" or one-size-fits-all case. A mass tort lawsuit was filed June 1, 2020, in the Midland County Circuit Court, in Midland, Michigan. The plaintiffs are homeowners in the cities of Beaverton, Hope and Midland, Michigan. The defendants include: Boyce Trust Hydro Property, LLC; co-trustees William D. Boyce Trust, Lee W. Mueller, Michael d'Avenas, Stephen B. Hultberg and JPMorgan Chase & Co.; Boyce Michigan LLC; and Edenville Hydro Property LLC. As a direct result of the defendants' carelessness, negligence, recklessness, and willful indifference to the rights of plaintiffs, the lawsuit seeks an amount to be proven at trial, including, but not limited to, diminution of the value of real property, the cost to repair or replace destroyed real and personal property, loss of business income, loss of profits, plus the value of their lost use and enjoyment of their property. The May 19, 2020, the failure of the Edenville and Sanford Dams resulted in floodwaters that reach a height of 35 feet or more causing catastrophic damage to downstream areas. "This devastating event and the catastrophic consequences suffered by the communities harmed were entirely preventable," said Ven Johnson, founder, Ven Johnson Law. "The defendants indisputably knew for years that these dams were inadequate, decrepit, unstable, unsafe, and would fail under predictable conditions." Since the defendants' acquisition of the Edenville and Sanford Dams in 2006, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) repeatedly warned that the Edenville Dam was inadequate, unsafe, prone to catastrophic failure, and a major hazard to life and property downstream. Between the time they first assumed ownership and responsibility for the dam and the present, the defendants refused to pay for much-needed repairs and upgrades, despite knowing that the Edenville Dam could fail at any time. "As a direct result of the defendants' carelessness, negligence and willful indifference, our clients have suffered damages as well as anguish and mental anxiety," said Antonio Romanucci, founding partner of Romanucci & Blandin. "We feel strongly that this mass tort approach is the most beneficial for each client because it allows them each to be treated and compensated individually, rather than lumping them all into a single class." "I was born and raised in Saginaw, Michigan," said Ven Johnson, founder of Ven Johnson Law. "Mid-Michigan is home. Not only do we need to help ensure flood victims are compensated, we need to be a part of a long-term solution strategy to ensure the dams are repaired and properly maintained so this never happens again." To bring justice to those impacted by this devastating flood, Ven Johnson Law and Romanucci & Blandin have partnered to assemble the best team of mass tort, personal injury, and insurance attorneys. This collaboration leverages Ven Johnson Law's deep relationships in the community along with Romanucci & Blandin's expertise on high profile, mass tort and class action cases. A virtual town hall, co-hosted by both law firms, will take place on Thursday, June 4 at 6 p.m. ET for those interested in learning more about this lawsuit. Please visit https://rblaw.net/practice-areas/midland-michigan-flood/ or https://www.venjohnsonlaw.com/practice/midmichigan-flooding/to sign up to participate in the town hall. About Ven Johnson Law, PLC Ven Johnson Law, PLC, founded by Ven Johnson in 2011, is personal injury law firm that has worked on some of the most notable cases in America, winning more than $200 million in jury verdicts and settlements totaling more than $400 Million. The firm specializes in personal injury and has numerous subspecialty practices such as auto accidents, boating accidents, medical malpractice, civil rights, police misconduct, premises liability, product liability and many more. The Detroit, Flint and Grand Rapids based attorneys fight tirelessly to achieve winning results for their clients. Ven Johnson and his team have been recognized by legal organizations and publications across the country, including being named to the "Best Law Firms" list by U.S. News & World Report 2017-2020. For more information visit www.venjohnsonlaw.com or call 1-888-VEN- FIGHTS. About Romanucci & Blandin, LLC Romanucci & Blandin is a national trial practice committed to fighting for victims of negligence, abuse and wrongful death arising from police misconduct, corporate negligence, civil rights actions, medical malpractice, mass torts and class actions. The attorneys' steadfast commitment to fighting for those seeking justice around the country has helped the firm obtain multiple verdicts and settlements in the millions of dollars. The Chicago-based personal injury lawyers are dedicated to providing victims who suffered injury as a result of another's wrongdoing full and fair compensation in a diligent, professional, skilled and caring manner. The lawyers actively support their communities and provide advocacy at the national, state and local levels on issues that support the U.S. tort system. Founded in 1998, Romanucci & Blandin is widely recognized for representing plaintiffs in numerous practice areas including: personal injury, wrongful death, medical malpractice, workers' compensation, pharmaceutical, mass torts, civil rights, police misconduct, excessive force, aviation, product liability and premises liability. For more information about Romanucci & Blandin, please visit www.rblaw.net or call (312) 458-1000. SOURCE Ven Johnson Law Related Links http://www.venjohnsonlaw.com Michelle Valentin is shown in this photo, helping distribute food in Puerto Rico. - (Courtesy Michelle Valentin)By CHRISTINA CORUJO, ABC News (NEW YORK) -- With the COVID-19 pandemic, the phone at the Food Bank of Puerto Rico hasn't stop ringing. The food organization's president, Denise Santos, says that ever since the island went into lockdown in mid-March, they've seen a surge of people in need. Prior to the pandemic, the nonprofit, which is part of the Feeding America network, served approximately 1 million pounds of food per month. That number has nearly doubled, reaching 1.9 million pounds, Santos says. "The stories we hear from people are sad; they are desperate," she added. But hunger in Puerto Rico didn't start with the pandemic. A study published last year shows that in 2015, 33% of the island's adult population suffered from food insecurity. "A perfect storm" Now, with one of the strictest lockdown orders in the U.S., Puerto Rico's economy is expected to decline in the following years, according to a forecast by the island's Financial Oversight Management Board. Santos says that the island's financial health, poverty levels and the recent natural disasters have already taken a toll on Puerto Ricans' food insecurity. The COVID-19 pandemic emergency is a new burden in what she calls the island's "perfect storm." Fortunately, as the number of people in need has become more apparent, the number of individuals trying to help has grown. Michelle Valentin is a social worker at a school in San Juan. She started helping some of her students by giving them groceries. As time passed, she started to notice how the hunger issue went beyond the community she served. "One day I got a message with a picture that showed an empty fridge," Valentin said. That was the moment she said she decided it was time to do more. In late April, Valentin started a Facebook page called "Aportando a tu mesa" (Contributing To Your Table), which focuses on helping individuals with food supplies and meals. Through donations and help from 20 volunteers, Valentin says she has been able to have an impact on some 8,000 people in just one month. "Sometimes we think of people in need and other countries come to mind, but there is so much need in Puerto Rico," Valentin added. With the uncertain economic scenario, both Santos and Valentin are worried about Puerto Ricans' well-being. "This [food insecurity] has to be a priority; we need public policy," said Heriberto Martinez, president of Puerto Rico's Economists Association. "One of the United States' biggest sins is to have U.S. citizens going hungry," Martinez added. Puerto Rico is not part of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Although the island has a food stamp program, it's based on a fixed block grant that can't be automatically adjusted if demand is high. To do so, Congress would have to approve additional funds. Sanders and Velazquez advocate for Puerto Rico "It is shameful and unconscionable that, when it comes to food security, they receive disparate treatment through a program that fails to help them when they need it most," said Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, of New York, in a press release. Last month, Sen. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, and Velazquez introduced the Equitable Nutrition Assistance for the Territories Act of 2020, which would allow residents in the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and Puerto Rico to receive equal access to SNAP benefits. "For far too long, the U.S. government has failed the people of Puerto Rico," Sanders said in a written statement. The legislation has been referred to the House Committee on Agriculture, Sen. Sanders' press office told ABC News. Martinez says that while nonprofit organizations have made the difference to help those in need, it's time that both the local and federal government take action. "If food insecurity doesn't become a topic of public policy, this could lead to social conflict, misery and more migration." As the COVID-19 emergency continues to take a toll among Puerto Ricans in need, experts are expecting that about 300,000 residents could leave the island in the next two years, according to a recent study by Inteligencia Economica, an investigative firm in Puerto Rico. Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Celebrate Good Times North Carolina Virtual Academy Highlights Graduates with Virtual Commencement Ceremony North Carolina Virtual Academy (NCVA), an online public charter school authorized by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, will celebrate the Class of 2020 during an in-person commencement ceremony on Thursday, June 4th. The virtual graduation will celebrate the achievements of 118 students. Collectively, the Class of 2020 reports it has been accepted to trade schools, colleges and universities across the country, including: North Carolina State University, Wake Forest University, and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. "At NCVA, our students have learned how to succeed both inside and outside the classroom," said NCVA Head of School Lauren Acome. "I'm so proud that each graduate has used online school to reach his or her full potential. I have no doubt that the NCVA Class of 2020 has a bright future ahead." Students enroll in NCVA for a number of reasons-some are looking to escape bullying, some may have fallen academically off track, and others are lookig for an alternative to the traditional classroom setting. NCVA students access a robust online curriculum in the core subjects of math, science, English language arts, history, art and music as well as a host of electives. These live virtual classes are taught by state-licensed teachers. Details of the graduation ceremony are as follows: WHAT: North Carolina Virtual Academy 2020 Graduation Ceremony WHEN: Thursday, June 4, 2020 11:00 AM WHERE: Sign up to watch the graduation here: https://tinyurl.com/NCVA2020Grad About North Carolina Virtual Academy North Carolina Virtual Academy (NCVA) is a full-time online public charter school authorized by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction that serves students in grades K-12. As an authorized public charter school program in North Carolina, NCVA is tuition-free, and gives families the choice to access curriculum and tools provided by K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN). For more information about NCVA, visit ncva.k12.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005003/en/ Reflecting on seven years as the top technology executive at Uber Technologies, Thuan Pham divides his time there into three "tours of duty," as he describes them. One was expanding Uber from a novelty service in three dozen cities to one that serves millions of customers around the world. The second was a scandal-pocked period in 2017 culminating in the ouster of his boss, Travis Kalanick, and a lasting rift between the two men. In the third, Pham helped Kalanick's replacement take the company public, but they stood divided behind the scenes over at least one key issue. The war ended with Pham's resignation last month as Uber faces a new and protracted crisis brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. In his first interview since stepping down, Pham described "battle scars" from his time at Uber. He said his decision to stay at the company after Kalanick's exit drove a wedge between them that remains to this day. Pham, 52, now walks away from Uber with concern over the company's autonomous-driving strategy. In a video call from his home in San Jose, California, Pham said he's relieved to no longer be responsible for the technology that powered some 18 million trips a day before the pandemic. "It is a very heavy burden," he said. "I have a little PTSD setting in right now." Pham's willing embrace of unemployment sets him far apart from the 6,700 former colleagues who lost their jobs last month. He gave notice a week before the first of two large rounds of job cuts eliminated about a quarter of Uber's workforce. More than 40,000 tech jobs in the U.S. have vaporized since the pandemic began, part of an economic crisis that has left millions of Americans without work. Uber, like the rest of the travel industry, has been hit hard by the virus. The pandemic decimated the ride-hailing business and left millions of drivers without an essential source of income. Uber's food delivery unit is an exception, and demand has risen. The company is now in talks with Grubhub about a potential acquisition that would create the largest food delivery operation in the U.S. If the deal happens, Pham said, integration of the two companies will be difficult and the key to its success. In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for Uber wrote, "Thuan never shied away from expressing his opinion while at Uber, including when he disagreed. We always valued his candor and perspective, and we wish him all the best." Pham's path to chief technology officer at Uber reads like a Silicon Valley fairy tale. As a child, he escaped war-torn Vietnam in 1979 on a refugee boat with his mom and younger brother. They settled in Rockville, Maryland, where Pham spent middle school learning English and discovered computers in high school. The finality of programming appealed to him. "After I code it, I never have to do it again," Pham said. Pham got a coding job in high school at the U.S. Commerce Department. From there, he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned bachelor's and master's degrees. He headed straight to Palo Alto, California, for a job at Hewlett-Packard. Through booms and busts, he found his way to Silicon Graphics, DoubleClick and VMware before Kalanick came calling. When Pham joined Uber in 2013, the company was doing 30,000 rides a day and quickly outgrowing its technical capacity, resulting frequent system crashes. Pham's first job was to architect an entirely new infrastructure. Then Kalanick wanted him to make it work in China. The company's domineering co-founder gave the team a two-month deadline. They worked 80 to 100-hour weeks setting up servers in China that adhere to local data storage laws, while fielding daily pressure from an impatient chief executive officer. "Travis simplified everything," Pham recalled. "He said, 'Why is this taking you guys so long? I can go to Fry's and buy several thousand machines, stick it on an airplane and go over there.'" For the launch, Kalanick insisted on starting with the city where Uber was seeing the most demand from customers, Chengdu. "Here is part of the Travis quirkiness but also brilliance," said Pham. "Normal people, you and I, would think 'Let's start with the smallest one first.' He said, 'Give me the biggest one first.' After that, the engineers had that sense of confidence. If we can tackle Chengdu, we can tackle any other city in China." By 2017, any quirky charm associated with Uber's methods turned noxious. Pham professed ignorance of the many scandals that would draw unfavorable headlines and the attention of the U.S. Justice Department. A system used to evade law enforcement called Greyball was adapted without Pham's knowledge, he said, from technology his team built for special promotions involving on-demand kittens and ice cream. For other projects with similarly foreboding names and intentions: "I didn't know until I read about it." Pham said he was shocked and saddened when he read a blog post that year by a software engineer in his division named Susan Fowler, claiming harassment by her manager and a pattern of sexism in the organization. Fowler had said at the time she reported the allegations to the CTO. During this period-Pham's second tour of duty-the board investigated those incidents and determined Pham wasn't at fault. As for Kalanick, major investors decided Uber would be better off with him gone. Kalanick and Pham were tight. Pham considered leaving then but decided to stick around to provide stability for employees. "For me, it would have been better to back off and let everyone else handle the mess," Pham said. "But the company is about more than just him. It's the blood and sweat of thousands of people. I didn't want it to collapse like Enron." In Kalanick's eyes, the decision to stay was "a betrayal," Pham said. They haven't spoken much since. "I think he's still hurt," Pham said. A spokeswoman for Kalanick declined to comment. Pham's third tour began with the appointment of Dara Khosrowshahi as CEO in 2017. Pham decided he could help Khosrowshahi prepare Uber for a successful initial public offering. He was wrong. It was one of the most disappointing IPOs of 2019, and more than a year later, the shares trade well below the $45 debut price. Pham said he's betting on Uber in the long term. One area he doesn't support is the autonomous-vehicle division. Pham urged Khosrowshahi to abandon the effort and instead team up with other companies whose projects are more advanced. He likens his proposal to the strategy Google pursued with Android by teaming up with hardware makers to counter Apple in phones. In self-driving cars, it's the Alphabet subsidiary Waymo that's the one to beat. "Individually, none of the companies can go it alone and compete with Waymo," Pham said. Khosrowshahi's support for the self-driving unit has wavered over the years. In 2018, one of the cars struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona. Uber pulled them all off the road for a while but recommitted to the project the next year with a $1 billion investment from three Japanese companies. Amid last month's flurry of cost cuts, Khosrowshahi signaled that Uber is reevaluating its investment in the effort. For life after Uber, Pham said he will spend time playing guitar, teaching an occasional college class and mentoring entrepreneurs. He's in no rush to take another job at a startup. "At this point I can only do one more Uber," Pham said. "More effective is leveraging my time to help five more Ubers." The question of the Sussexes security has been a fraught one since the Duke and Duchess stepped down as senior royals in March, stoking controversy in Canada over costs to the taxpayer and even prompting a tweet from President Donald Trump once the pair settled down in Los Angeles. Previously, the Sussexes confirmed they would be privately funding their own security and had no plans to ask the US government for security resources. It has now been reported by The Times that they are being protected by a commercial security firm called Gavin de Becker and Associates, which is believed to charge up to 7k a day for its services. Getty Images Prince Harry and Meghan are currently believed to be staying with Hollywood producer Tyler Perry, who owns an eight-bedroom mansion in Los Angeles. According to the Times source, the GDBA protection forms part of Perrys security team that was already employed at the house where they are currently living though it was noted it is not known if the couple are contributing to costs. The source also added that the Sussexes have not yet hired a permanent detail and were only using the reported GDBA team temporarily. According to its website, the company protects over 90 of the worlds most prominent families and at-risk individuals with partnerships with the CIA, Department of Justice and other US state departments. Besides providing bodyguards, GDBA also helps train staff to be more security-conscious, consults on existing security plans, provides at-home security, does risk assessment, runs background checks on potential employees and more. The security firm also offers a number of residential security services which the royal couple may have taken them up on, which include having highly trained, highly screened protectors on site. Prince Harry has previously discussed the importance of keeping his family safe, after the Sussexes received backlash when it emerged they had flown in private jets due to their impact on the environment. Getty Images Prince Harry said at the time, Occasionally there needs to be an opportunity based on a unique circumstance to ensure that my family are safe - it's generally as simple as that." We spoke previously with Intelligent Protections CEO Alex Bomberg, whose company specialises in commercial royal protection and includes former royal protection officers amongst its roster. Bomberg said that as Prince Harry had served in Afghanistan during his time with the military, the couple's security needs were more complex. He said, Protecting any royal is complex at the best of times, but a high profile member of the British Royal family (who has served in Afghanistan) is quite another issue. Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, (L) and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex / AFP via Getty Images Princess Dianas former bodyguard Ken Wharfe also speculated that there was a very real risk of kidnap when it came to the Sussexes son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor. Wharfe also estimated that the Sussexes protection could cost as much as 20 million a year. Both Bomberg and other security experts had stressed that it seemed unlikely that the Sussexes would be able to solely rely on commercial close protection due to the many legal barriers. Obstacles would include ensuring their security team had international firearm licenses if the family were to go abroad, for example. Bomberg suggested that they might be adopting a similar security model to Tony Blair, saying an option would be to make use of a commercial firm to support the residential security whilst utilising the present security afforded to them by the Royalty and Specialist Protection (RaSP). Getty Images The Sussexes announced earlier this year that they wanted to have financial autonomy to work externally which contributed to their decision to step down as senior royals, but cast doubt over how they would continue to fund their security. A statement on their official website reads, The provision of armed security by The Metropolitan Police is mandated by the Home Office, a ministerial department of Her Majestys Government, responsible for security and law & order. The site also cited a Gov.uk explanation on security costs, which reads, No breakdown of security costs is available as disclosure of such information could compromise the integrity of these arrangements and affect the security of the individuals protected. It is long established policy not to comment upon the protective security arrangements and their related costs for members of the Royal Family or their residences. The government decided to fail on its pre-election promises, organisations said. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled Slovak non-governmental organisations disapprove of the governments intention to give up on the ongoing control of climate targets and to not achieve carbon neutrality by 2040. Read also Read also Questions over Slovakias response to climate change security risk Read more The goals set to stop climate change, organisations said, should be checked upon regularly and responsibly. Therefore, they decided to submit comments and ask the government to change Slovakias position on the EUs climate law, the Green Deal, which is supposed to pave the way to carbon neutrality in Europe. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Short-term goals are the basis for success in achieving carbon neutrality, NGOs claimed. They added a lot of work must be done in the next decade to see some progress in 20 or 30 years. However, the government appears to be ignoring its promises given to the electorate ahead of the 2020 elections, ten organisations, including Extinction Rebellion Slovakia and Fridays For Future Slovakia, argued. Read also Read also Climate crisis survey: No party gets an A+ Read more Three parties of the current ruling coalition in Slovakia had supported ambitious carbon neutrality targets by 2040 and a 65-percent reduction in emissions by 2030 before the elections. Clear short-term climate goals For years, Carole Baskin railed against the roadside zoo that was run by Joseph Maldonado-Passage, describing it as cruel and exploitative of the big cats that were kept there. That part of the story is well known to the millions of viewers of Tiger King, the Netflix series about the conflict between Ms. Baskin, an animal-rights activist, and Mr. Maldonado-Passage, also known as Joe Exotic, the flamboyant owner of a lion and tiger zoo in Wynnewood, Okla. Tensions grew so taut between them that, in 2019, Mr. Maldonado-Passage was convicted of trying to have Ms. Baskin killed. On Monday, a federal court judge in Oklahoma added another chapter to the tale when he ruled that Ms. Baskins organization, Big Cat Rescue Corporation, could take over the 16.4-acre property in Wynnewood, once known as G.W. Exotic. Police are appealing for new information following a serious alleged kidnapping and assault in Sydney's west. A 28-year-old man was approached by three armed men and allegedly shot in the shoulder outside a home in Yagoona on October 31 about 11.20pm. The man was then allegedly forced into a white Holden Commodore where he was repeatedly assaulted, tied up before he was shot for a second time in the knee, police were told. The group then drove to Carlton and dragged the victim out and left him in McPherson Lane where he was found by emergency services just after midnight. The helpless victim was rushed to hospital where he has since recovered. New CCTV has been released of a truck (pictured) which detectives believe may be connected the alleged assault and kidnapping Two men, aged 27 and 28, have since been charged in relation to the alleged incident as police continue their investigation. New CCTV has been released of a truck which detectives believe may be connected the alleged assault and kidnapping. Police would like to speak to the driver who may be able to help with the investigation. After further investigations detectives received information that a man was allegedly using falsified pay slips in order to be approved for a home loan. Police conduced a search warrant at a home in Prestons on May 28 where they seized documents, a mobile phone and computers. A 34-year-old woman was arrested and taken to Liverpool Police Station where she was charged with three counts of make false document to obtain financial advantage. Police are asking for the driver of this truck to come forward as they believe they may help with investigations A 41-year-old man was also arrested on Monday after police conducted a vehicle stop in Sylvania. The man was charged with three counts of make false document to obtain financial advantage and dishonestly obtain financial advantage by deception. Police will allege that the 34-year-old woman created false documents to enable the man to fraudulently apply for a bank loan. The woman was granted conditional bail to appear at Liverpool Local Court on Wednesday 29 July 2020. The man was granted conditional bail to appear at Sutherland Local Court Thursday 30 July 2020. Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. By Associated Press GENEVA: Throughout January, the World Health Organisation publicly praised China for what it called a speedy response to the new coronavirus and thanked the Chinese government for sharing the genetic map of the virus "immediately". But in fact, Chinese officials sat on releasing the genetic map, or genome, of the deadly virus for over a week after multiple government labs had fully decoded it, not sharing details key to designing tests, drugs and vaccines. Strict controls on information and competition within the Chinese public health system were largely to blame, The Associated Press has found from internal documents, emails and dozens of interviews. Health officials only released the genome after a Chinese lab published it ahead of authorities on a virology website on Jan 11. ALSO READ | COVID-19: Wuhan registers zero asymptomatic infections for first time, doctor who tested positive dies Even then, China stalled for at least two weeks more on giving WHO the details it needed, according to recordings of multiple internal meetings held by the U.N. health agency in January, all at a time when the outbreak arguably might have been dramatically slowed. Although WHO continued to publicly commend China, the recordings obtained by the AP show they were concerned China was not sharing enough information to assess the risk posed by the new virus, costing the world valuable time. "We're currently at the stage where yes, they're giving it to us 15 minutes before it appears on CCTV, said WHO's top official in China, Dr. Gauden Galea, referring to the state-owned China Central Television, in one meeting. The story behind the early response to the pandemic comes at a time when the UN health agency is under siege. U.S. President Trump cut ties with WHO on Friday, after blasting the agency for allegedly colluding with China to hide the extent of the epidemic. Chinese President Xi Jinping said China has always provided information to WHO and the world "in a most timely fashion." The new information does not support the narrative of either the U.S. or China, but portrays an agency now stuck in the middle that was urgently trying to solicit more data. Although international law obliges countries to report information to WHO that could have an impact on public health, the U.N. agency has no enforcement powers. Instead, it must rely on the cooperation of member states. The AP has found rather than colluding with China, WHO was itself largely kept in the dark, as China gave it only the minimal information required. But the agency did attempt to portray China in the best light, most likely to coax the country into providing more outbreak details. WHO officials worried about how to press China for more information without angering authorities or jeopardizing Chinese scientists, whom they praised for decoding the genome with astonishing speed. Dr. Michael Ryan, WHO's emergencies chief, said the best way to "protect China" was for WHO to do its own independent analysis, because otherwise the spread of the virus between people would be in question and "other countries will take action accordingly." From the time the virus was first decoded on Jan. 2 to when WHO declared a global emergency on Jan. 30, the outbreak grew by a factor of 100 to 200 times, according to retrospective Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention data. WHO and officials named in this story declined to answer questions asked by the AP without audio or written transcripts of the recorded meetings, which the AP was unable to supply to protect its sources. "Our leadership and staff have worked night and day" to support and share information with all Member States equally, and engage in frank and forthright conversations with governments at all levels," a WHO statement said. China's National Health Commission and Ministry of Foreign Affairs had no comment. But in the past few months, China has repeatedly defended its actions, and many other countries, including the U.S have responded to the virus with even longer delays of weeks and even months. In late December, doctors noticed mysterious clusters of patients with unusual pneumonia. Seeking answers, they sent samples to commercial labs. By Dec. 27, one company, Vision Medicals, had pieced together most of the genome of a new virus with striking similarities to SARS. They alerted Wuhan officials, who, days later, issued internal notices warning of the unusual pneumonia. On Dec. 30, Shi Zhengli, a renowned coronavirus expert at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, was alerted to the disease, and by Jan. 2, her team had fully decoded it. But when it came to sharing the genome with the world, things went awry. China's top medical authority, the National Health Commission, issued a confidential notice forbidding labs from publishing about the virus without authorization. The order barred Shi's lab from publishing the sequence or warning of the possible danger. China has moved up its forces along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday, asserting that authoritarian regimes take these kinds of actions. Several areas along the LAC in Ladakh and North Sikkim have witnessed major military build-up by both the Indian and Chinese armies recently, in a clear signal of escalating tension and hardening of respective positions by the two sides even two weeks after they were engaged in two separate face-offs. "We see even today increasing forces of China moved up to the north of India on the Line of Actual Control there on the Indian border," Pompeo told Marc Thiessen and Danielle Pletka of AEI's 'What The Hell Is Going On' Podcast. The Communist Party of China (CPC) continues to hide and obfuscate and delay the global response to the coronavirus pandemic that began in Wuhan. It has taken actions destroying the amazing freedoms of the people of Hong Kong, he said. "Those are just two pieces of the behaviour of this regime of the Chinese Communist Party. The nature and the activity that they're undertaking, the continued efforts to steal intellectual property, to advance in the South China Sea," he said. Pompeo said that these are the kinds of actions that authoritarian regimes take, and they have a real impact not only on the Chinese people there in China and Hong Kongers in Hong Kong, but a real impact on people all around the world. "The United States has a responsibility and the capability to push back against that, ensure that the American people are properly served by a foreign policy that recognises the threats that emanate from China today," he said. Responding to a question, Pompeo said that the recent Chinese actions be it on the India border, or Hong Kong or the South China Sea, have been part of the Chinese behaviour in the recent past. "It's not just over the past six months. We've seen over the past number of years continued Chinese build out of their military capabilities, and then continually more aggressive action. I mentioned India. You've mentioned the South China Sea. "We see these same kind of things with them attempting to build ports around the world as part of their Belt and Road Initiative, places where they can move the People's Liberation Army Navy. We've seen their continued efforts to expand militarily," Pompeo said. For the past 20 years, the US has not responded to these things in a real way, he said. "We've viewed the 1.5 billion people in the Chinese market as so important to the American economy, and the risk that the Chinese would respond by closing us out for the favour of some other nation I think people have just been too worried about that to actually take the responses that we take to every other country that behaves in the way that China has done," Pompeo said. President Donald Trump has not done that, he asserted. "Trump's made it very clear whether it's the signature issue on trade... reciprocal trade... and now beginning to move to all the other elements of power that the Chinese Communist Party is trying to expand," he added. Also read: Situation at Indian border 'stable', both sides have "unimpeded" communication: China Also read: India-China row: Talks continue without success; PLA carries on troop build-up along border Gov. Kate Brown is sending 100 Oregon State Police troopers and 50 Oregon National Guard soldiers to Portland to assist with quelling violent protests that have rocked the city for three straight nights. Brown said the National Guard troops would be unarmed and perform support roles such as traffic control, medical aid, and arrest processing that will free up more police officers to patrol the streets. "You don't defuse violence by putting soldiers on our streets," Brown said. "That is exactly what President Trump wants. Trump wants governors to deploy the National Guard as a show of force to intimidate the public." In a conference call with governors on Monday, Trump urged more aggressive action against violent protestors. Most of you are weak, Trump said, according to press reports. The protests have been over the death of George Floyd, a black man, while in custody of Minneapolis police on May 25. A videotape surfaced showing Floyd, handcuffed and lying on the street, being restrained by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, who pressed his knee into Floyd's neck. Floyd cried that he couldn't breathe. In some cities, massive peaceful gatherings were followed by a small percentage of protestors who burned buildings and police cars, looted stores and attacked police. Portland was among the cities where crowds took to the streets Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and U.S. Attorney for Oregon Billy Williams held a press conference Monday morning to renew the call for Brown to send in the National Guard. This has to stop, Williams said. In order for that to happen in the city of Portland, we need help. We need more help. Brown agreed to send the 50 state troopers, equivalent to about 25% of all troopers in Oregon, along with the National Guard, to backstop Portland-area law enforcement against what she said were a small number of people bent on violence. Each trooper or soldier would perform support roles that would free up local law enforcement to send more officers into the streets. In Oregon, demonstrations in Eugene and Salem on Saturday also began peacefully, but ended with some smashing windows and looting stores. A demonstration in Bend on Saturday was peaceful. Other protests have taken place in Klamath Falls and Medford. Black leaders in the Portland area argued that the National Guard's presence on the street would only inflame the situation. Nkenge Harmon Johnson, leader of the Urban League of Portland, told Willamette Week it was a cure worse than the problem. "The curfew was a challenge to people in Portland," Johnson said. "You saw how they reacted. Putting the National Guard on the streets just escalates the challenge." The vision of troops in military dress with military weapons on the streets of Portland was something Portland Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty would not accept. "We are not going to have martial law," she said. It took assurances that the National Guard would be mostly behind the scenes, unarmed, for her to support the move and take part in Brown's teleconference. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 KABUL - A bomb exploded inside a mosque in the Afghan capital Kabul on Tuesday killing two people, including the mosques prayer leader, and wounding two others an official said. Tariq Arian, spokesman for Afghanistans Interior Ministry, said the bomb targeted the Wazir Akber Khan Mosque at around 7:25 p.m., when worshippers had gathered for evening prayers. The mosque is located in a high-security diplomatic area near the offices of several international organizations and embassies. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State group has been active in Kabul in recent weeks and has in the past carried out attacks inside mosques in Afghanistan. Taliban insurgents have never carried out an attack inside ofa mosque. Mullah Mohammad Ayaz Niazi was one of the two people killed in Tuesdays attack, Arian said. He was wounded in the explosion and died later at a hospital. Niazi was a well known cleric who was active as Friday prayer leader at the mosque. He was also a Kabul University professor in the Islamic Law department. Sediq Sediqqi, spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, tweeted that the government strongly condemned the attack, saying it reveals the brutality and inhumanity of those who purposefully perpetrate violence against our Ulema and innocent people. Attacks against worshippers have increased in Afghanistan: Last month, an unknown number of attackers stormed a mosque in northern Parwan province, killing 11 and wounding several others. The IS claimed responsibility Saturday for a roadside bomb attack against a bus belonging to a local TV station in Kabul, killing two employees of the station. ___ Associated Press writer Tameem Akhgar in Kabul contributed to this report. People returned to some of Thailand's famed sandy beaches Monday, keeping well apart but enjoying the outdoors, as authorities eased some coronavirus restrictions for the first time in more than two months. In Pattaya, visitors marvelled at the clarity of the turquoise-blue waters of the Gulf of Thailand, and pensioners eager for exercise promenaded along the beach. Social distancing rules still applied, with local authorities ordering beachgoers to stay at least a metre (three feet) apart. German expatriate Heidi Glemeau was one of the first to take an early-morning dip in the water, and couldn't believe how empty it was. "I couldn't resist the temptation," she told AFP. "It's become a paradise -- just like it was 30 years ago." Not all beaches were closed during the lockdown, and not all re-opened Monday. Phuket, in the south, is still off-limits, while Hua Hin remained open throughout. Thailand has been under various lockdown restrictions since mid-March, when authorities declared a state of emergency against the coronavirus -- shuttering malls, leisure centres and public spaces, including its beaches. But the number of new infections slowed in May, and on Monday cinemas as well as tattoo and massage parlours across the kingdom were given the green light to return to business. "I think it's been long enough," said Nutthawut Kanasup, 29, who waited for a foot massage at a downtown Bangkok spa. Student Prayos Plodchai, who had tickets for US blockbuster "Bloodshot", said he was not very confident about the hygiene standards at Central World mall's cinema. "But I'm willing to take the risk because I've been stuck at home for so long," the 19-year-old said. Official records show the kingdom escaped the worst of the disease relatively lightly, recording just over 3,000 infections and 57 deaths. Some experts, however, say a lack of testing may mask the true toll. Regardless, the exodus of foreigners and a ban on new arrivals hit the economy hard -- particularly as the country is so reliant on tourist dollars in resorts such as Pattaya. Tourism revenues dropped by 40 percent in the first three months of the year, and the government has warned the virus's impact on the second quarter will be more severe. A major tourist destination with an infamous nightlife and red-light district, Pattaya has turned into a virtual ghost town. Bars and clubs remain shuttered, and it is not clear when normal activity will resume. In Pattaya, visitors marvelled at the clarity of the turquoise-blue waters of the Gulf of Thailand Tattoo artist Chinerr works on a client at his shop in Bangkok after lockdown restrictions were lifted Two beachgoers enjoy a coffee in Pattaya after lockdown restrictions were lifted Peaceful protests prompted by the senseless deaths of African Americans have been supplanted by violence in Albuquerque. City officials said Monday there were 33 separate fires set in Downtown early Monday. Just about every building along a several-block stretch of Central Avenue was vandalized, and early morning gunfire broke out after a peaceful protest ended Sunday. Thankfully, no one was seriously injured. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said Monday its premature to bring in the National Guard and her intelligence does not suggest its necessary. Mayor Tim Keller says the same for a city curfew. We respectfully disagree. The situation has escalated rapidly nationwide since the Memorial Day death of George Floyd, killed as a Minneapolis police officer dug a knee into the back of his neck for nearly nine minutes as he was facedown on the ground, handcuffed behind his back, pleading he couldnt breathe. It began with a report of Floyd trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes and has become the latest example of police brutality against African Americans. Video of Floyds death has rocked the nation and reignited the tinderbox of racial tensions across America, which was already on edge with more than 100,000 COVID-19-related deaths nationwide and months of isolation and stay-at-home orders that have wrecked lives and livelihoods. Floyds death follows the Feb. 23 death of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old African American who was jogging before he was shot dead during a confrontation with a father and son in Brunswick, Georgia. Murder charges have been leveled in both cases but have done little to quell decades of justified frustration, fear and anger at far too many similar killings. Albuquerque Police Chief Mike Geier said during a news conference Monday afternoon at our riotings ground zero that the Albuquerque Police Department deployed emergency response teams to a large portion of Downtown late Sunday to stop those vandalizing property and getting violent with police. Officers reported someone fired shots at them in front of the KiMo Theater boarded up Monday afternoon and one man threw what appeared to be a Molotov cocktail toward police. Early Monday afternoon, city crews were still cleaning up graffiti and broken glass along the Central corridor. At a time when leadership is imperative to bring the country together and stop the violence, President Donald Trumps tweets have been anything but helpful, referring to the Minneapolis protesters as THUGS and sharing that When the looting starts, the shooting starts. After Secret Service agents rushed him to a White House bunker Friday night as hundreds of protesters gathered outside, he tweeted that if protesters had breached the White House fence, they would have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen. And this brings the nation together how, exactly? Keller has attempted to strike a conciliatory tone with those angered by police brutality, rightfully calling the deaths of Floyd, Arbery and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky horrifying, heart-breaking and unacceptable. Geier said Sunday the actions of the Minneapolis officers involved in Floyds death were inconsistent with the training and protocols of our department. We should certainly hope so. APD remains under a federal settlement agreement for violating civil rights with misuse of force. Some of the most insightful comments, and actions, in recent days have come from an unlikely source, UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Bones Jones, who lives in Albuquerque. The embattled mixed martial arts champ who stands 6-foot-4 with an 84 1/2-inch reach confronted rioters Sunday night, taking cans of spray paint away from demonstrators. Jones posted on Instagram the demonstration had lost its meaning when it turned destructive. As a young black man trust me Im frustrated as well but this is not the way, we are starting to make a bad situation worse If you got love for your city (505), protect your (expletive). All you old heads need to speak up, call your young family members and tell them to come home tonight. Well said. As of Monday morning, the Instagram post had more than 750,000 views. The level of violence nationwide appears to be increasing daily as peaceful protests are tarnished by those hellbent on destruction. That was the case in Albuquerque. Both the governor and Keller should act quickly and decisively to stem the violence before someone is seriously injured here, or worse. Unfortunately, that means calling up the National Guard and instituting a curfew in the Duke City. Keller pointed out Monday police and peaceful protesters worked together Sunday evening with police closing intersections to make way for the marchers. Thats the way it should work. Fast forward when a different group took to the streets and mayhem ensued. APD does not have the resources to man the streets 24/7 waiting for rioters to appear. Remember earlier Sunday, APD had to deal with an hours-long active shooter situation that forced the shutdown of both Interstates 25 and 40, along with an interstate rollover accident. Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz activated up to 13,200 National Guard troops to control protesters in Minneapolis after the citys initial back-off strategy resulted in a violent free-for-all. Cities from San Francisco to New York have instituted curfews. Bolstering APDs officer-power with National Guard troops and implementing a curfew at sundown will allow protests and marches to continue, while keeping the streets safe when darkness falls. This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers. Police form a line near the White House as protesters gather in Washington on May 31. (Associated Press) To the editor: "American carnage" was the theme of President Trump's inaugural address in January 2017. More than three years into his term, the "I alone can fix it" reality-TV president is presiding over actual carnage in American cities resulting from the police killing of a black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis. ("'Chaos or community?' Dr. King asked. Trump is pushing us toward chaos," editorial, May 30) At the same time, he presides over a nation that makes up 4% of the world's population but accounts for nearly one-third of all global deaths from COVID-19. The unemployment rate is at Great Depression levels. The virus-related criticism was a hoax, and police officers should treat suspects harshly, according to Trump. Distrust and alienation are at high points at this fragile moment in our nation's history. At least, what we need from a man who received 63 million votes in 2016 is to listen to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s pleas for community and Rodney King's, "Can't we all just get along?" The "stable genius" told us he was going to make America great again, but pandemic, riots and record unemployment are our lot today. Vote! Philip S. Hart, Los Feliz .. To the editor: Why does everything have to be about Trump? Editorials are supposed to turn people on and make them think; the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board offers no diversity of ideas and turns people off. The looting and vandalism have nothing to do with Trump. To minimize this chaos and the negative impact it has had on our society is appalling. Many small businesses are ruined and will never recover. Their employees will lose their jobs. The calm and reason of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti that the board praised has invited this looting, caused chaos and resulted in the loss of confidence in our institutions. At a crucial time, this editorial board has failed to deliver. William R. Fado, Pacific Palisades Story continues .. To the editor: One of our most revered founders, Thomas Jefferson, wrote that a "little rebellion now and then is a good thing" and suspected that it would happen every 20 years or so. Our incendiary, rebellious proclivities were foretold by our Constitution. In times of crisis, what we need most is a statesman. Statements about having protesters "greeted with the most vicious dogs" and boasting that federal agents are just waiting for action" serves to ignite the powder in our flash pan. I long for the likes of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. When Dr. King was murdered, Kennedy comforted the grieving. He urged them to honor King's memory and not torch their city. He well understood the legacy of rebellion. That is leadership. I worked at the Justice Department, as a federal prosecutor for presidents from Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama, and I never prayed at my job. But I am praying now. I pray for the police to use good judgment and to be safe, I pray for the protesters that their message is heard, and I chastise those who exploit the freedom of protest by devolving into nihilistic looting and destruction. They do not speak for me. I pray most for new leadership in November. Julie A. Werner-Simon, Santa Monica .. To the editor: Trump is an elected official, a public servant charged with helping all people in our nation. This is a nation currently in crisis a crisis of racism that has reached a terrible point of disregard for black lives, made obvious by a policeman who in front of phone cameras calmly pressed his knee on the neck of an African American man until he died. This is a nation in crisis, with more than 100,000 lives lost to a coronavirus that has disproportionately affected minorities, and with a president and others who refuse to wear masks to save lives. This is a nation in crisis, with a president who uses these tragedies to further divide us and promote his negative agenda and stay in power. Trump is the antithesis of a public servant. Joan Horn, Carlsbad Olive Woodward and Katherine Saville, both 89 years old, met at school in Nottingham, England, during the darkest days of World War II. The two school friends are still close, so close, in fact, that they both live at the same care home, Berry Hill Park, in Nottinghamshire, UK. We knew we would always be friends when we met. She means a lot to me, Saville told the BBC. As for Woodward, her friend is the only person who really knows how to make her smile when she needs it. If Im unhappy or in trouble, I only have to go to Kathleen, and well always end up laughing, the elderly friend said. (Courtesy of Berry Hill Park Care Home) The staff at the home, including director Sally Tebbett, have come to appreciate the dynamic duo for their humor and love. They never stop chatting and giggling, Tebbett told the BBC. Its so endearing, they genuinely love each other, and you can see that. Saville and Woodward both hail from Mansfield, and they sat next to each other in Ravenshead School in Nottingham in 1941, which saw the beginning of their epic friendship. Since then, the two have had jobs, husbands, and children but have always remained close no matter what else was going on in their lives. (Courtesy of Berry Hill Park Care Home) A big part of their relationship has been their honesty, sense of adventure, and mischievous humor. Weve stayed friends by telling each other what we think and never arguing, Saville told SNWS. We are 89 but we look 63. We are still good-looking. Tebbett confirmed that the sparkle is still there. Kathleen is a proper flirt, she said. Olive is a bit more reservedbut they egg each other on. Though the two have always lived close to each other, moving in together has been the best medicine. After the deaths of both of their husbands, Savilles in 1989, and Woodwards in 2004, the friends moved into the Berry Hill facility in 2018 together. When Kathleen moved into the home, I missed her, and I used to go and see her every Saturday for lunch, Woodward said. We lived around the corner from each other all our lives, so living down the hall seemed an obvious thing to do. With both friends together again, the two have been able to make the most of their golden years. As Woodward put it, I feel very lucky to have my best friend down the hall. Weve built many memories together and were making more every day. Meanwhile, Saville having her wingmate living near her has meant lots of fun. Were like giggling schoolgirls, and we still put on our [lipstick] and get dressed up, she said. We always say to each other, If youve got it, flaunt it. Tebbett was touched to see the pair back together again. Since they have been reunited, Kathleen and Olive have been inseparable, causing just as much mischief in the home as they used to when they became friends 78 years ago, she said. Saville joked, We dont cause any trouble in the home, but we sometimes have to knock the staff into shape. How have the two ladies managed to stay so close over all those years? Put yourself out and go and see your friend, Saville said. Dont always wait for them to come and see you. (Courtesy of Berry Hill Park Care Home) We would love to hear your stories! You can share them with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.nyc WASHINGTON The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington condemned President Donald Trump on Monday for his visit to St. John's Episcopal Church near the White House after law enforcement officers used tear gas to clear protesters from the area. "Let me be clear: The president just used a Bible, the most sacred text of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and one of the churches of my diocese without permission as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and everything that our churches stand for," Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde told CNN. "And to do so... he sanctioned the use of tear gas by police officers in riot gear to clear the church yard. I am outraged," Budde said. Budde is the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese Washington, overseeing more than 80 Episcopal congregations, including St. John's. She is the first woman to serve in her position. Follow this story: For first-in-the-morning updates, sign up to get USA TODAY's Daily Briefing in your inbox Trump had just delivered an address from the Rose Garden Monday evening, pledging to be a "law and order" president and calling himself an ally to peaceful protesters. As he spoke, officers used tear gas canisters, rubber bullets and shields to force hundreds of protesters out of Lafayette Park by the White House. They had been peacefully demonstrating for several hours, demanding justice for George Floyd, who died while in police custody after a Minneapolis officer pinned Floyd's neck down with his knee. Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde: "The President just used a Bible ... and one of the churches of my diocese without permission as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and everything our churches stand for....I am outraged." pic.twitter.com/yegcO7xoJ0 Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) June 2, 2020 George Floyd protests rage for seventh night: New York protesters smash windows on Fifth Avenue; National Guard in Chicago, Philadelphia Story continues Despite an official D.C. curfew set for 7 p.m. ET, the officers began pushing the crowd out at 6:30 p.m., shortly before Trump's remarks. The president later walked with White House aides to the historical St. John's Episcopal Church, where protesters set fire in the basement on Sunday night. Across from Lafayette Park, St. John's is known as the "church of presidents" and has been attended at least once by every president since James Madison. "It's a Bible," Trump told reporters as he held it up for photos outside the boarded-up church. Trump addresses nation: Calling violent protests 'acts of domestic terror,' Trump says he'll send in military if they aren't controlled Trump's visit drew immediate backlash from those who criticized the police's use of force to clear his path to the church for a "photo op." "Were thousands of peaceful protestors just tear gassed so Trump could have a photo op?" tweeted Dan Pfeiffer, a communications director for former President Barack Obama. President Donald Trump holds a Bible while visiting St. John's Church across from the White House on June 1, 2020. Rev. Robert Fisher, of St. John's Church, told Fox News Monday evening that whoever set the fire in the church's basement "does not represent the majority of people that are out there peacefully protesting with an important message." He said clergy members were present during the afternoon to hand out water and prayed with protesters, which was "very hopeful, very peaceful, very loving." Fisher called Trump's visit "surreal." Budde said she and her colleagues were given no notice Trump would be visiting the church, and found out while watching the news. "The president did not pray when he came to St. Johns, nor did he acknowledge the agony of our country right now, and in particular, the people of color in our nation who wonder if anyone in public power will ever acknowledge their sacred work, and who are rightfully demanding an end to 400 years of systemic racism and white supremacy in our country," Budde said. The Diocese of Washington distances itself "from the incendiary language of this president," Budde said. She said the diocese stands with those protesting racism and police brutality. "I just cant believe what my eyes have seen tonight," Budde said. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mariann Edgar Budde slams Trump church visit during DC protest NEW YORK Looting and vandalism in cities across the country have dealt another blow to small businesses that were already reeling from the coronavirus outbreak. Along with big chain stores like Target, Walgreen and Macys, independent retailers in neighborhoods and downtown sections were targets of vandals and looters who struck as police mobilized to contain large demonstrations over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Many businesses had been closed by state and local government orders as officials tried to contain the spread of the coronavirus, leaving owners with little or no revenue since March. Now, already facing an uncertain future amid ongoing restrictions related to the virus, owners must figure out how to rebuild or relocate their companies. Over three nights, Ahmed Muhumuds Minneapolis optician shop was vandalized, looted and burned, leaving Midtown Eye Care in ruins. The store was just getting back to business after having been shut since mid-March by the virus outbreak. This has been a difficult couple of months, and now with the protesters and everything that followed its very difficult, Muhumud said. Hes trying to figure out what to do next; the building, which may not be salvageable, is in a hard-hit area with many minority-owned businesses that were also looted and burned. We dont know where to move, Muhumud said. Small businesses employ nearly 60 million people, or nearly half the U.S. workforce. Since the coronavirus brought the U.S. economy to a virtual standstill, the government has loaned businesses hundreds of billions of dollars to help them survive and keep their employees on staff as unemployment soars toward 20%. But some wont make it, and bankruptcies are already on the rise. Even as they pick up pieces of broken glass and try to assess their losses, many owners say they understand the anger over the killing of Floyd, who died after a police officer pressed his knee into Floyds neck for several minutes even after he stopped moving and pleading for air. Johnny Grimes reopened his hair salon in Birmingham, Alabama, on Sunday after being closed for two months due to the virus outbreak. That night the windows of the Wheelhouse Salon were shattered and the establishment looted. As Grimes boarded up the salon Monday, he said he was devastated by what had happened to his business but was sympathetic with those who demonstrated against police brutality. I just hope that this isnt all for nothing, he said. I hope that this does spark some kind of national conversation on race, racial reconciliation, police brutality and how the African American, the black community, is treated in America, said Grimes, who is white. Sam Mabrouk tried to save his denim clothing store from being vandalized and left barren amid demonstrations Friday in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Mabrouk, who arrived from Egypt over a decade ago, owns two retail stores in the city; one, 89 and Pine, was destroyed. Mabrouk said he tried to convince the people ransacking his store and other minority-owned businesses nearby that he understood their cause and begged them to leave his store alone. I lost everything in one night, Mabrouk said of the estimated $70,000 in stolen merchandise. That was my savings from 11 years of working. Thats what hurts more than anything. Mabrouk had already lost business due to being shut down amid the virus outbreak but said he wouldnt give up. Even if I only have a thousand pairs of jeans to sell and nothing else, I will start from there, Mabrouk said. In Boston, vandals shattered the front windows at Clarendon Wines Sunday night and stole much of the alcohol at the front of the shop in the citys high-end Back Bay neighborhood. We never thought this could happen, said Kayla Levine, a manager at the store thats been family-owned since the 1940s. Boston has been good about protests. Theyve been mostly peaceful. We were hoping for the best this time. Levine said she supported the mostly peaceful demonstrations but felt other people had taken advantage of Sundays protests to cause destruction. Its just really sad because the message gets skewed, she said. Like other stores, Clarendon Wines has been contending with a steep drop in revenue due to the pandemic. The store normally relies heavily on workers in nearby office complexes for its sales, but those customers have been working from home. The pandemic remains an issue for businesses that are able to keep operating because social distancing requirements and weak consumer spending are likely to limit their revenue and income. Many owners, especially restaurateurs, have been uncertain about the future because of the virus, and the violence following Floyds death has added to that uncertainty. On Monday, one of Patrick & Co.s two San Francisco stationery stores was held up at knifepoint; the thief took backpacks and threatened employees but no one was hurt. The attack came after both stores had windows broken and merchandise stolen, not only during the protests, but also twice as they were shut due to the pandemic. Owner Jamie Patrick estimates that even with insurance reimbursement, the damage will cost between $15,000 and $20,000, a lot of money in the best of times for a small business, but harder to come up with when revenue is still down because of the pandemic. Having to replace windows and deal with everything else at this point is tough. But we stand with all the people who are protesting peacefully, Patrick said. Mercado, a Minneapolis marketplace for Latino retailers and restaurants, has been closed since March because of the virus outbreak. The restaurants planned to open for outdoor seating on Monday, but last weeks violence and looting has forced a delay, says Mercado general manager Eduardo Barrera. The tenants have not yet visited Mercado, and so the damage was still being assessed, Barrera said. I have no idea when were going to begin coming back, he said. _____ Associated Press reporters Farnoush Amiris in Columbus, Ohio; Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama; and Philip Marcelo in Boston contributed to this story. Some 13 Burkina Faso nationals have been arrested at the Beat two and Botoma checkpoints in the Upper West Region on Monday, June 1, 2020. Preliminary investigations by the Ghana Immigration Service, (GIS) revealed that the thirteen (13) had sneaked into Ghana through unapproved routes. According to a release from the Ghana Immigration Service, the thirteen illegal ECOWAS migrants were destined for Wa for religious purposes. They were made up of ten males and three females with their ages ranging between two and 40 years. They were ceased on Apsonic motorbikes with registration numbers M-16-UW 6974, 32-UO-1400, 25-MX-2079, 32JT8019-30, 32FV-8094 and 38-ZE-4471. Meanwhile, the illegal migrants have been screened and cleared by the Port Health Officials. They have since been handed over to the Burkina Faso authorities on the other side of the border. Arrests after border closure Since the border closure, many foreign nationals have been arrested in different parts of the country using unapproved routes to enter the country. Most of these people, after investigations and tests, are noted to be carriers of COVID-19. In one of the most recent developments, for instance, some four Burkina Faso nationals were arrested by Immigration officials at Babile in the Upper West Region for illegally entering Ghana for economic purposes. Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo has indicated that foreigners who enter into Ghana when the country's borders have been closed will be dealt with together with their Ghanaian accomplices. citinewsroom A police inspector in Madhya Pradesh was suspended and another cop given a showcause notice on Monday by the district Superintendent of Police (SP) for showing negligence in an incident in which a four-year-old girl was allegedly raped and murdered. The incident took place in Chhatarpur district on Thursday night, said the police. According to police, the girls father residing in a village under Nowgaon police station lodged a complaint with the police on Friday that his daughter was asleep with him outside his house on Thursday night. When he woke up on Friday morning, his daughter was missing. During a search by the family and others, her dead body was found in a well. Superintendent of Police, Chhatarpur district, Kumar Saurabh said, During a post-mortem examination a sexual assault on the girl was confirmed. However, its yet to be confirmed whether it is a case of rape or gang rape. An FIR was lodged against an unknown person under sections 376 AB and 302 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of Protection of children against sexual offences (POCSO) Act. An arrest is yet to be made in this connection. Some persons have been detained and interrogation is going on. He said police inspector of Nowgaon police station Baijnath Sharma was suspended and sub-divisional officer of police (SDOP) of the area was issued a show cause notice on the charges of dereliction of duty after the crime was reported to the police station. Explained: Trumps G7 offer for India, how it may help amid China standoff Amid a fierce standoff between India and China, Donald Trump, President of the United States of America, has made a significant offer. Trump has floated the idea of expanding the G7 by including India, Australia, South Korea, and possibly Russia. The G7 currently consists of some of the biggest economies in the world and the grouping discusses almost all major international issues. This year, the US wants to bring together 'traditional allies' to discuss the China question. But will a seat at the 'high table' benefit India? And how would Beijing react to the consolidating anti-China bloc? Watch the full video to know more. ...read more Type address separated by commas Your Email: Domestic flights in Turkey resumed today. The first connections provided direct flights from Istanbul Airport to Ankara, Izmir, Antalya, and Trabzon. According to the government services to other provinces will resume gradually over the coming months. The news saw share prices rise for the national carrier Turkish Airlines, low-cost carrier Pegasus and airport operator TAV. The civil aviation directorate issued a set of guidelines and procedures for airport authorities with only passengers being allowed into airport terminal buildings and those without valid tickets will be denied entry in an attempt to keep crowds to a minimum. All passengers will also be required to wear face masks at all times, social distancing will be enforced, transactions will be contactless where possible and restaurants will provide disposable items. Temperature checks will be carried out routinely, and anyone found to have a fever will be referred to a dedicated health care unit. Turkish Airports have also been tasked with ensuring their central ventilation systems only circulate fresh air inside the venues and that they carry out individual risk assessments for each public area, including prayer rooms and childrens areas. Any operators who fail to meet these new requirements will face administrative action, which is likely to include a fine and/or suspension. Forbes has included Georgia in the list of seven countries that may become the main tourist destinations after the coronavirus pandemic, Georgia-News reports. In the article titled Rising Stars in Travel, Georgia is mentioned along with Ethiopia, Iran, Myanmar, the Philippines, Slovenia and Tunisia. According to the author, while the global tourism industry is seeing an unprecedented downfall, many countries are preparing to receive foreigners, and the crisis may serve as a wonderful opportunity for some of those countries to present themselves. The author also recommends visiting small and beautiful cities in the west of the country, enjoy the beautiful nature in the country, as well as taste Georgian wine. Starting from July 1, Georgia will open its borders for tourists, but not all tourists will be able to visit the country, as Minister of Economy Natia Turtava explained in an interview. She stressed that Georgia is expecting tourists from countries where the epidemiological situation is more or less similar to the situation in Georgia. The Ministry of Health has set special rules for hotels and apartments that will ensure the tourists and the locals safety in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. Paramount aims to resume production on Mission: Impossible 7 this September after it was shut down in late February due to the coronavirus pandemic. We hope to restart in September. We hope to visit all the countries we planned to, the films first assistant director, Tommy Gormley, said in an interview Tuesday on BBC Radio 4s Today. We hope to do a big chunk of it back in the U.K. on the backlot and in the studio, so September through to end April-May is our target. The studio does intend to start production in September, another individual with knowledge of the production said Tuesday. Also Read: All the Movies Suspended or Delayed Due to Coronavirus Pandemic (Updating) Director Christopher McQuarries production was four or five days away from beginning shooting in Venice, Italy, in February when the pandemic forced the planned production to halt, Gormley said. Italy was an early epicenter for the pandemic and has reported 233,000 cases and 33,000 deaths. Gormley also praised the excellent guidelines issued this week by the British Film Commission on how to safely resume film and TV production. If we have the protocols in place and we break down all the procedures very carefully, he said, we will get it going again. Some things are very challenging, such as stunt scenes, crowd scenes, et cetera, but we cant do a Mission: Impossible movie and not have a fight scene or car scenes in it. Tom Cruise is set to reprise his role as superspy Ethan Hunt in the film, with Vanessa Kirby, Rebecca Ferguson, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames and Esai Morales also on board. The film is currently slated to hit theaters Nov. 19, 2021. Read original story Mission: Impossible 7 Aims to Resume Production in September At TheWrap Though they may never fully realize it, life recently began anew for two bobcat kittens that had spent the last eight months in Northeast Ohio. The rescued siblings, one male and one female, were released May 22 and are back in their natural habitat, thanks to the efforts of Lake Metroparks and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife. In September, the Kevin P. Clinton Wildlife Center at Penitentiary Glen Reservation in Kirtland received a call from the Division of Wildlife regarding the two orphaned kittens discovered alongside a road in Belmont County. While the center frequently receives calls concerning injured and/or orphaned animals and birds, staff managers at the facility were somewhat surprised to be alerted to the situation so late in the year, as past bobcat kittens have normally arrived in the spring. According to Lake Metroparks, first-year female bobcats, or those who have had an unsuccessful litter, may produce another litter in the fall. New arrivals Upon admittance to the center, the kittens weighed just under two pounds, were dehydrated and had parasites but there was some strength and fight in them. Our veterinarian performed a full physical on the kittens, in which he determined them to be rather healthy and about 8 weeks old, said Wildlife Care Manager Tammy ONeil. They began lapping formula and soon were eating meat, and continued to gain weight and grow stronger. After four weeks in care, they weighed over 5 pounds and were ready to move into an intermediate outdoor enclosure that provided more space and natural elements, and most importantly, even less human contact. In November, the kittens were moved into the reservations specialized bobcat enclosure, a larger space equipped with a webcam. Staff members added a sod pile and rearranged rocks, in addition to a new climbing structure for agility, in efforts to help the cats exercise and hone natural deportment to survive in the wild. Over the winter, the bobcats grew and developed into strong, fierce predators, displaying many innate behaviors such as play-fighting, stalking, running and climbing while building up strength and endurance, often seen in siblings in the wild, said Wildlife Care Assistant Manager Traci Keller. Spring is the perfect time to release the bobcats, a season with an abundant food source, and the break in weather gives the kittens a great chance for survival out in the wild. Now, after more than seven months of rehabilitative care, these two have developed their natural instincts and are ready to be returned to the wild. Growing up The Division of Wildlife contacted Lake Metroparks due to the experience, knowledge and success the center has in bobcat rehabilitation. The park system has released four bobcats under its care in the previous six years. The wildlife center is currently the only rehabilitator in the state with such experience and success, ONeil noted, adding each year, nearly 2,500 injured or orphaned animals receive first aid and rehabilitation. Patients include common backyard wildlife such as rabbits, squirrels and songbirds, and uncommon species such as the peregrine falcon and bobcat. Our goal is to return healthy wildlife back to the wild, ONeil said, adding special attention is given to animals whose populations are in decline. During the novel coronavirus shutdown, the animals currently under our care have been, and continue to be, a priority as well. Animal care staff continues to provide daily husbandry and health care during the closure. We are not accepting new animals until further notice. While its unknown what happened to the mother, both Keller and ONeil believe she may have been hit by a car. The death rate for bobcats in the state, primarily due to being struck by vehicles, is high about 80 to 100 a year especially since the animals are active primarily during twilight. The population in Ohio totals about 500, with the majority in southern and southeastern counties, and remains healthy, ONeil said. They are almost adult weight when released, which is between 19 and 30 pounds, she added. The bobcats we released previously are between 18-22 pounds when we release them. Females are sexually mature around 1 year of age and males become sexually mature at 2 years of age. Avoiding domestication Keeping the cats wild while theyre cared for remains a priority. In fact, Lake Metroparks limits the staff to just two who provide daily care. The time in between their feedings, the cats remain isolated from other people. As soon as the cats are weaned off milk and moved to the enclosure, feeding chutes are utilized to avoid human presence inside the space. The staff members also wear gloves when handling food. We feed them as much natural prey as possible, ONeil said. We receive donated venison, waterfowl, fish and other game from local hunters and fisherman. We also feed them at different times with different amounts and some days, they dont get any food to mimic the fact they wont get to eat every day in the wild. In the winter we were able to put a whole deer carcass in the enclosure with them, donated from local cities or road departments that find a freshly killed deer. This allows them to practice tearing through tougher hides and caching food for later consumption, she added. These carcasses can last about two to four weeks, which allows us to stay away from their enclosure for longer periods of time. And we have the cameras on them so we can check on them and watch them as they develop, making sure they are displaying natural behaviors for survival. After a final check-up with the veterinarian, the cats had a microchip placed under their skin in case they are ever found injured or deceased. Back home The cats were released in Belmont County close to the spot they were found to prevent diseases from spreading and to keep the area population healthy, though ODNR usually chooses the best remote location based on the habitat. Previous Lake Metroparks bobcats have traveled about 13 to 20 miles from the release location before settling into their own territory. One male bobcat can have several female bobcats overlap his territory, ONeil said. Releasing an apex predatory back into the wild, especially one that was just removed from Ohios threatened and endangered species list six years ago, and working with other agencies to collectively contribute to their long term survival, is such a rewarding feeling one that you always remember, she said. In cities across the country, police departments have attempted to quell unrest spurred by the death of George Floyd by firing rubber bullets into crowds, even though five decades of evidence shows such weapons can disable, disfigure and even kill. In addition to rubber bullets which often have a metal core police have used tear gas, flash grenades, pepper spray gas and projectiles to control crowds of demonstrators demanding justice for 46-year-old George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck, while other officers restrained his body. Some peaceful demonstrations have turned violent, with people smashing windows, setting buildings afire and looting stores. The use by police of rubber bullets has provoked outrage, as graphic images have flashed on social media showing people who have lost an eye or suffered other injuries after being hit. A study published in 2017 in the BMJ found that 3% of people hit by rubber bullets died of the injury. Fifteen percent of the 1,984 people studied were permanently injured by the rubber bullets, also known as "kinetic impact projectiles." Rubber bullets should be used only to control "an extremely dangerous crowd," said Brian Higgins, the former police chief of Bergen County, New Jersey. "Shooting them into open crowds is reckless and dangerous," said Dr. Douglas Lazzaro, a professor and expert in eye trauma at NYU Langone Health. In the past week, a grandmother in La Mesa, California, was hospitalized in an intensive care unit after being hit between the eyes with a rubber bullet. Actor Kendrick Sampson said he was hit by rubber bullets seven times at a Los Angeles protest. In Washington, D.C., the National Guard allegedly fired rubber bullets Monday to disperse peaceful protesters near a historic church where President Donald Trump was subsequently photographed. In a statement, Attorney General William Barr defended the actions of local and federal law enforcement officers in Washington, saying they had "made significant progress in restoring order to the nation's capital." Barr did not mention the use of tear gas or rubber bullets. Freelance photographer Linda Tirado said she was blinded by a rubber bullet at a protest in Minneapolis. In an email, Minneapolis Police Department spokesperson John Elder said, "We use 40 mm less-lethal foam marking rounds. We do not use rubber bullets." No one knows how often police use rubber bullets, or how many people are harmed every year, said Dr. Rohini Haar, a lecturer at the University of California-Berkeley School of Public Health and medical expert with Physicians for Human Rights. Many victims don't go to the hospital. Police are not required to document their use of rubber bullets, so there is no national data to show how often they're used, said Higgins, now an adjunct professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. There are no nationally agreed-upon standards for their use. When aimed at the legs, rubber bullets can stop a dangerous person or crowd from getting closer to a police officer, Lazzaro said. But when fired at close range, rubber bullets can penetrate the skin, break bones, fracture the skull and explode the eyeball, he said. Rubber bullets can cause traumatic brain injuries and "serious abdominal injury, including injuries to the spleen and bowel along with major blood vessels," said Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency physician in New York City and a spokesperson for the American College of Emergency Physicians. Firing rubber bullets from a distance decreases both their force and their accuracy, increasing the risk of shooting people in the face or hitting bystanders, Lazzaro said. Physicians for Human Rights, a nonprofit advocacy group based in New York, has called for rubber bullets to be banned. The British military developed rubber bullets 50 years ago to control nationalist rioters in Northern Ireland, although the United Kingdom stopped using them decades ago. Rubber bullets are used by Israeli security forces against Palestinian demonstrators. French police were criticized for using rubber bullets last year after dozens of "yellow jacket" demonstrators were blinded and hundreds were injured. "Rubber bullets are used almost every day somewhere in the world," Haar said. "Using them against unarmed civilians is a huge violation of human rights." Many "less than lethal" police weapons can cause serious harm, according to Physicians for Human Rights. Acoustic weapons, such as sound cannons that make painfully loud noises, can damage hearing. Tear gas can make it difficult to see and breathe. Pepper spray, while painful and irritating, doesn't cause permanent damage, Lazzaro said. Pepper spray balls, which have been used to quell recent protests, can be deadly when used incorrectly. In 2004, a 21-year-old Boston woman was hit in the eye and killed by a pepper spray pellet fired by police to disperse crowds celebrating the city's World Series win. Disorientation devices that create loud noises and bright lights, known as concussion grenade or flash-bangs, can cause severe burns and blast injuries, including damage to the ear drum. Panicked crowds can cause crush injuries. Water cannons can cause internal injuries, falls and even frostbite during cold weather. Physical force, such as hitting someone to subdue them, causes about 1 in 3 people to be hospitalized, said Dr. Howie Mell, a spokesperson for the American College of Emergency Physicians and former tactical physician, who worked with SWAT teams. Rubber bullets are less harmful than subduing people by "physical force or regular bullets, Mell said. "But we're firing a lot more of them this week than we usually do." Our customers need the best quality data to power their business processes. Our collaboration will make it easy and seamless to integrate Leadspace data and realize immediate value. Satish Thomas, Director, Microsoft Business Applications. Leadspace today announced new real-time data connections planned for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights. Organizations will be able to seamlessly enrich profiles in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights with Leadspaces unrivaled B2B company data. Our customers see incredible results by improving the quality and completeness of their data. Leadspace takes a unique source-and-channel-agnostic approach to unifying and activating B2B data that gives companies a single source of truth to power their go-to-market efforts. Were excited to be able to offer a seamless connection to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, and help them improve their ability to target, segment, prioritize, and personalize experiences, shares Leadspace CEO, Doug Bewsher. As customers demand more personalized and consistent experiences with brands across channels, companies are working hard to take control of all their data and keep up. Especially in B2B, where deals are bigger, take longer, and involve more stakeholders, go-to-market teams need deep, trustworthy data on companies to better understand them and have a full picture. With that more unified and complete understanding, organizations can better predict customers' needs, get guidance on next best actions, and take advantage of the revenue opportunities that might otherwise be missed. Our customers need the best quality data to power their business processes. Our collaboration will make it easy and seamless to integrate Leadspace data and realize immediate value, notes Satish Thomas, Director, Microsoft Business Applications. The Leadspace connection for Company Data will be available in preview beginning in June, 2020. Customers will be able to try it in Preview mode prior to general availability later this Summer. To learn more about the Leadspace company data connection in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights click here. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights is a real-time, enterprise-grade customer data platform (CDP) that powers personalized experiences with a holistic view of customers and unmatched time to insight. Companies can gain a comprehensive view of customers by unifying data across the full range of sources. Native integration with Leadspace will help drive out-of-the-box insights and meaningful actions with quick-start templates and advanced analytics solutions. ABOUT LEADSPACE Leadspace is the leading B2B Customer Data Platform (CDP) empowering go-to-market teams to accelerate growth through effective, personalized engagement across all channels. With the most expansive and open B2B data engine in the industry, sophisticated AI, a proprietary graph of B2B personas, and activations across the tech stack, customers like Microsoft, AMEX, and RingCentral use Leadspace to power more data-driven and effective inbound marketing, outbound targeting, and ABM efforts. Leadspace is based in San Francisco, Austin and Israel, and is trusted by more than 200 B2B brands including 7 of the 10 largest enterprise software companies. Learn more at http://www.leadspace.com HOUSTON, June 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Group 1 Automotive, Inc. (NYSE: GPI), ("Group 1" or the "Company"), an international, Fortune 500 automotive retailer, today announced the appointment of Daniel McHenry as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) effective August 15, 2020. He will replace long time Group 1 CFO John Rickel, who has elected to retire from the company at the end of this year after almost 15 years of service. McHenry has served as Group 1's UK Finance Director since 2007. He is a native of Belfast, Northern Ireland and holds a Bachelors degree in Economics from Queens University Belfast and a Masters degree in Accounting and Management Science from Southampton University. Additionally, he is a member of the Association of Chartered and Certified Accountants in the UK. Mr. McHenry joined Group 1 in 2007 as part of the acquisition of Chandlers BMW in southern England, Group 1's first venture in the UK. Prior to entering the auto retail business, McHenry had five years of experience with KPMG in the UK. Group 1 CEO Earl Hesterberg commented, "Working with Daniel directly over the past 12 years I have witnessed firsthand his passion for the retail automotive business. He has been responsible for the creation of our back-office systems, processes and financial controls, as we have grown our UK operations from three dealerships in 2007 to 50 dealerships today. His familiarity with our company, people and processes makes him the perfect candidate to step into this important role." Current Group 1 CFO John Rickel came to Group 1 in December 2005 after a 21-year career at Ford Motor Company. At Ford, Rickel held a variety of key positions including the roles of CFO of Ford of Europe and CFO of the Americas. Group 1 Chairman of the Board Steve Quinn stated, "John has been a driving force in the growth and development of Group 1. His international experience and extensive knowledge of processes and controls have been invaluable to Group 1 over the past decade and a half." Hesterberg added, "We could not have asked for a better person to establish the infrastructure and systems for a fast-growing international auto retailer over these years. All of us, especially myself, owe John a great deal of gratitude for his accomplishments at Group 1. He will be sorely missed." ABOUT GROUP 1 AUTOMOTIVE, INC. Group 1 owns and operates 186 automotive dealerships, 242 franchises, and 49 collision centers in the United States, the United Kingdom and Brazil that offer 31 brands of automobiles. Through its dealerships, the Company sells new and used cars and light trucks; arranges related vehicle financing; sells service contracts; provides automotive maintenance and repair services; and sells vehicle parts. Investors please visit www.group1corp.com, www.group1auto.com, www.group1collision.com, www.facebook.com/group1auto, and www.twitter.com/group1auto, where Group 1 discloses additional information about the Company, its business, and its results of operations. Investor contacts: Sheila Roth Manager, Investor Relations Group 1 Automotive, Inc. 713-647-5741 | [email protected] Media contacts: Pete DeLongchamps Senior Vice President, Manufacturer Relations, Financial Services and Public Affairs Group 1 Automotive, Inc. 713-647-5770 | [email protected] or Clint Woods Pierpont Communications, Inc. 713-627-2223 | [email protected] SOURCE Group 1 Automotive, Inc. Related Links https://www.group1auto.com The Vietnam Climate Innovation Centre (VCIC) under the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) is implementing programmes to help domestic firms find strategic partners in technology, finance and trade. A bioplastic production line of An Phat Holdings. The Vietnam Climate Innovation Centre is supporting local firms in technology transfer to enlarge export markets. Photo courtesy of the company During a conference in Ha Noi on Monday, Pham Duc Nghiem, deputy director of the MoSTs Department of Business and Market Development, said the support would help local firms better have access to the global value chain. According to Nghiem, Vietnamese products, such as woodwork, seafood and engineering, have become the countrys key export staples in recent years with annual growth rates of 7-19 per cent thanks to the Governments support policies, including technology transfer. However, many firms are facing major challenges related to markets, finance and human resources due to the COVID-19 pandemic as up to 90 per cent of 764,000 Vietnamese firms are small- and medium-size, said Pham Quoc Anh, general secretary of the Ha Noi Association of Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises. It is estimated that only some 11.4 per cent of Vietnamese firms invest significantly in technology annually. They are firms that have more than 300 employees and an annual turnover of VND100 billion (US$4.34 million). Due to limited investment, Anh said only 21 per cent of Vietnamese firms could join the global value chain by the end of last year, compared with 46 per cent in Malaysia. Therefore, further support from the Government is needed to help local firms join the chain, Anh said. To help firms promote investment and connect to the global market, Tran Hai Linh, chairman of the Vietnam-Korea Businessmen and Investment Association, suggested the Government support firms in legal frameworks and help them have a better awareness of the legal regulations of importing countries. At the meeting, the VCIC also announced the launch of the VCIC Connect Programme to support projects and firms in technology transfer, investment promotion and market connectivity, especially in two major markets with technology strength in South Korea and Australia. The programme will be a bridge for local firms to access and connect with international partners on technology transfer, trade and investment. It will help them seek business opportunities, market development and investment attraction according to their needs, Nghiem said. Vietnamese firms, which have been developing new and creative technologies, products and business models in coping with climate change, can register for the programme until June 15 this year. In addition, firms, which operate in renewable and effective energy, sustainable agriculture, water management and filtration, information and technology to develop clean technology and respond to climate change, will get priority, according to the organiser. VNS Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, with more than 47,500 new cases in the UK each year. Now ground-breaking research, together with greater awareness highlighted by the Daily Mail's End The Needless Prostate Deaths campaign is changing the outlook for men with the condition. The latest figures suggest it is the most commonly diagnosed cancer, ahead of breast and lung cancers. 'For many years, prostate cancer was a neglected form of the disease but UK scientists are leading the way in prostate cancer research,' says David Montgomery, director of research at the charity Prostate Cancer UK. Today, men with the disease are living longer, with fewer side-effects than ever, thanks to advances in detection and more precise methods used to target it. Research this week revealed genetic screening could spot thousands of cases of prostate cancer that would otherwise go unnoticed until it is too late. Today, men with the disease are living longer, with fewer side-effects than ever, thanks to advances in detection and more precise methods used to target it The study at the Institute of Cancer Research, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference, found DNA testing in GP surgeries identified the disease in a third of apparently healthy men. A larger study is planned. And in some rare good news from the lockdown, it was recently announced that for three months men with advanced prostate cancer will be given hormone treatment tablets to take at home instead of going to hospital for chemotherapy. Experts have been campaigning for years for enzalutamide and abira- terone tablets to be given as a 'first-line' therapy as soon as men are diagnosed. Trials show that giving patients the drugs early can cut the risk of dying within three years by a third. There is still a long way to go: by the time around a third of men are diagnosed, the disease is advanced, and more than 12,000 still die each year. Currently, a blood test checking for levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) a protein made by the prostate gland, which increases when cancer is present remains the most common way of diagnosing the disease despite the test being notoriously unreliable. All men over 50 can ask their GP for a PSA test if they are concerned about prostate cancer or have any symptoms, which can include frequent trips to the loo (especially at night), blood in the urine and erectile dysfunction. A PSA score of 3 or above requires further investigation. However, PSA levels can rise after vigorous exercise or sex as pressure from such activities squeezes more PSA from prostate tissue into the blood and 75 per cent of men who get a high score are cancer-free (a false positive), while 15 per cent who do have cancer don't have a raised PSA level (a false negative). However, there's a plethora of new technology in the pipeline that could improve outcomes for men with different types of prostate cancer, as the country's leading specialists tell Good Health . . . BEST FOR DIAGNOSIS NOW: High-tech scans UNTIL recently, men with a PSA score of 3 and above underwent a biopsy cells extracted from the prostate to see if they were cancerous. This can be painful and risks bleeding and infection. However, a study published in The Lancet in 2017, found that giving men with raised PSA a detailed MRI scan using four images (known as a multi-parametric MRI), identified 27 per cent as cancer-free without a biopsy. It also almost doubled the rate of correct diagnosis of fast-growing prostate cancers. Last May, the National Institute for Heath and Care Excellence (NICE) recommended the NHS use this scan for all men with suspected prostate cancer. But, figures published by Prostate Cancer UK earlier this year revealed a quarter of UK hospitals are still not using these scans. The charity put this down to a shortage of scanners and staff. 'This is not good enough,' says Professor Hashim Ahmed, chair of urology at Imperial College London. 'Men are entitled to an MRI scan before a biopsy, and if they are not offered it, they should ask for it.' FUTURE: Screening and a 'fingerprint' blood test TWO UK trials PROSTAGRAM and ReIMAGINE are looking at whether a 15-minute MRI scan, the prostate equivalent of a mammogram for breast cancer, is better than the PSA test. Patients identified as being high risk by this scan go on to have more detailed assessments, such as the multi-parametric MRI. Results of the PROSTAGRAM trial, carried out by Imperial College London and announced last month, revealed screening men aged 50 to 70 for prostate cancer using the MRI scan would pick up 8,000 additional cases of the disease. This would save thousands of lives as the earlier cancer is picked up, the better the prognosis. The trial, which involved 411 healthy men, found MRIs picked up 50 per cent more aggressive cancers than using the standard PSA test. Old drugs with new tricks: A DRUG for ovarian cancer called olaparib stops damaged DNA repairing in cancer cells, leading to the cells dying, and could be used to fight prostate cancer In the ReIMAGINE trial, 300 men will receive a PSA test and a 15-minute MRI scan. Scientists will compare results to work out which is better at finding signs of cancer. 'We want to see if MRI could be effective for screening healthy men, in the same way that there are NHS screening programmes to detect breast or cervical cancers,' says Mark Emberton, a professor of interventional oncology at University College London, who is part of the research. To introduce a screening programme would be a massive undertaking, but is a possibility in ten to 15 years, says Professor Ahmed, who led the PROSTAGRAM trial. Meanwhile, researchers at University College Hospital in London have developed a blood test that could diagnose prostate cancer even before PSA levels rise, by detecting DNA fragments released into the bloodstream by tumours. They say the test, which could be available in five years, could also monitor how well a treatment works, because if DNA fragments are detected this indicates the cancer is spreading, suggesting a treatment is not working and a different approach can be tried. 'This test could be the first to identify prostate cancer before it is large enough to see on a scan,' says Professor Emberton. And a new urine test, revealed in journal The Prostate in March, could reduce unnecessary biopsies by 60 per cent. The ExoMeth test used a computer program to pinpoint markers for identifying the disease, based on urine samples collected from 197 patients. In the future, GPs could carry out these tests, send them to a lab and have results within days, says Professor Ahmed. BEST FOR EARLY STAGE NOW: Ultrasound, cryotherapy and precision radiotherapy AROUND two-thirds of prostate cancers are diagnosed before the disease has spread. However, traditional techniques surgically removing the entire prostate and standard radiotherapy can damage nearby tissue and nerves, with side-effects such as incontinence and impotence. More precise treatments, known as 'focal' therapies, which minimise side-effects, have been developed. These include high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU), introduced in the UK in 2005, to heat and destroy cancer cells, or a freezing technique known as cryotherapy, both of which are carried out under general anaesthetic and only target the cancer, preserving the rest of the prostate. With HIFU, a probe put in the back passage delivers ultrasound energy into the prostate, while to freeze the tumour, thin needles are put into the prostate and gas is passed down them to kill the cancer cells. Both techniques can also be used to treat the whole prostate if needed. This sort of therapy is only available at specialist centres or as part of clinical trials. New radiotherapy technology also reduces side-effects by minimising the amount of healthy tissue damaged during treatment. It also means that men with prostate cancer can have five high-dose treatments rather than the standard 20, lower-dose sessions. The technology is delivered using machines called MR Linacs, which use real-time MRI to provide live, detailed images of the tumour and surrounding tissue. A study in the journal Lancet Oncology last year showed this type of radiotherapy was just as effective for early stage prostate cancer, with shorter treatment, while side-effects such as incontinence and sexual dysfunction were comparable despite giving higher doses of radiotherapy. 'It's a real breakthrough,' says Professor Pat Price, chair of the charity Action Radiotherapy. FUTURE: Curved radiotherapy and testing during surgery EARLIER this year, scientists revealed a new 'curved' radiotherapy technique, which could halve side-effects. Scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research said the therapy involves 'intensity modulated' radiotherapy in which beams of radiation of different intensities are 'curved' around other parts of the body so that they target the tumour and reduce damage to surrounding tissue. The prostate is also injected with tiny pieces of gold which show up on scans to make sure the beams hit the tumour. The new approach is expected to be available within months. Another approach on the horizon is testing the prostate during surgery, by sending the removed prostate to the lab for checks a process that takes around 30 minutes. Identifying the precise location of the tumour in the prostate gives surgeons greater confidence in the operating theatre to only remove nerve and tissue close to the tumour, preventing unnecessary damage to other areas. The NeuroSAFE trial, run by University College London, will compare side-effects after a year in men who had standard full prostate removal using MRI and biopsy results, with those having the tumour tested during surgery. BEST FOR ADVANCED PROSTATE CANCER Researchers at University College Hospital in London have developed a blood test that could diagnose prostate cancer even before PSA levels rise NOW: Hormone treatment and chemotherapy FOR the 15,000 men each year diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer, that has spread, commonly to the bones, the standard treatment is hormone therapy to block the testosterone which encourages its growth. These drugs are initially effective, but often eventually stop working as the cancer becomes resistant. Recently chemotherapy which works by stopping the growth of the most quickly dividing cells and is normally administered intravenously in hospital has been added to the treatment, after a trial in 2015 found that men who were taking the chemotherapy drug docetaxel at the same time as hormone therapy lived an average of 15 months longer than those on hormone therapy alone. However, chemotherapy can have side-effects such as fatigue, nausea and vomiting, a significant proportion of men don't respond to it, and as with hormone therapy, the cancer can eventually become resistant to its effects. FUTURE: Old drugs with new tricks and immunotherapy A DRUG for ovarian cancer called olaparib stops damaged DNA repairing in cancer cells, leading to the cells dying, and could be used to fight prostate cancer. Research presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology conference in Barcelona last year revealed these drugs, known as PARP inhibitors, slowed progression of the disease by about four months compared with standard hormone therapy, and prolonged survival by over three months. Another drug being investigated at Imperial College London targets a type of genetic material called microRNAs which change as prostate cancer progresses. By working out which microRNAs are most important for cancers that are becoming resistant to treatment, it may be possible to develop new drugs to block them. Immunotherapy, harnessing the body's immune system to attack the cancer, may be another option. So far success has been limited with prostate cancer, but research published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology last year found one in 20 men so-called 'super responders' gained up to an additional two years of life thanks to an immunotherapy drug called pembrolizumab. Another radical approach is treating the cancer in the prostate even when it has spread. 'Cancer cells in the prostate send growth signals to cancer elsewhere in the body,' explains Professor Ahmed. 'The idea is if we treat the prostate with radiotherapy or surgery, it could break this communication.' A trial of 900 men is under way and results should be available within five years. Identifying tumours that have become resistant to treatment and 'picking' them off is another option. The theory is that when cancer begins to grow again despite hormone treatment, it may be just some of the tumours that have become resistant rather than all of them. Dr Alison Tree, a consultant clinical oncologist at Royal Marsden Hospital, is researching whether identifying and treating just these resistant tumours with targeted radiotherapy means the rest of the cancer will respond to hormone treatment. 'I hope that in five years we'll be using radiotherapy as standard to pick off drug-resistant parts of the cancer, and this will mean we can keep men on hormone therapy for longer,' she says. 'That means fewer men will die.' 'Ultrasound spared me from side-effects' says one of the first patients to benefit from a new treatment to treat the tumours called high intensity focused ultrasound Andy Cutler visited his doctor in 2009 after suffering stomach pains, which turned out to be irritable bowel syndrome. Andy Cutler photographed at his home in Guildford, Surrey. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer eleven years ago As a precaution, his GP sent him for blood tests and, to Andy's surprise, they revealed elevated levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA). Andy, 58, a retired salesman from Guildford, Surrey, says: 'I was only 48 and had no typical symptoms, so it was a real surprise.' He was referred for a scan and biopsies, which showed he had prostate cancer it hadn't spread. Andy was given a choice of options to remove the tumour. 'I couldn't bear the idea of incontinence and erectile dysfunction, so whole prostate removal or radiotherapy wasn't for me,' he says. 'Focal therapy, where only the part of the prostate containing the tumour is removed, seemed a better option, so I went for that.' The treatment was carried out using high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) energy to destroy the cancer cells. At the time, this technique had been available for only a couple of years in the UK, but Andy wasn't concerned. 'It seemed the least risky option,' he says. Mr Cutler visited his doctor in 2009 after suffering stomach pains. As a precaution, his GP sent him for blood tests and, to Andy's surprise, they revealed prostate-specific antigen The treatment was a success, but it took longer to recover than he expected; he experienced pain and needed frequent trips to the loo for the first three months, and erection problems for about six to seven months. He has since made a good recovery, although monitoring has revealed a small number of low-grade prostate cancer cells that do not require treatment. 'I'm so pleased to have had the opportunity to have HIFU,' he says. 'I couldn't bear the side-effects of traditional treatment. 'I go for check-ups every six months, but otherwise my prostate cancer doesn't affect me at all any more.' 1. Paatal Lok is getting a solid response and people are calling it one of the best web shows in recent times. Did you feel it will be so big when you signed the show? I always knew that Paatal Lok is a special show, but never imagined that it would be such a big success. When I read the script, I realised that it is something very special as it was written very well and it covered a lot of aspects, social issues. It covered different worlds, literally, as shown in the show as Dharti, Paatal and Swarg Lok. I realised that it is a great mix, a fresh concept that has never been done before. I was expecting a lot of critical acclaims, but this kind of commercial success was really unexpected and I'm extremely thankful and grateful for this. 2. Paatal Lok shows the socio-economic division in India, metaphorically compared to the Indian mythological concept of realms - Swarga Lok, Dharti Lok and Paatal Lok. Do you believe in the concept? Yes, I think the metaphors have been used beautifully. You see the three worlds at a larger level as well as a very localised and a micro-level in everyone's life. I think people have experienced all three spheres, in fact, the whole concept of hell and heaven, according to the various interpretations, these realms exists while we are living. We create our own hell or heaven. We experience these realms, the concept of Dharti Lok, Paatal Lok and Swarg Lok, pretty much on a daily basis. So, I think it is pretty much an extension of the understanding where you see these things not happening in your afterlife but in the living. We create these realms for ourselves. 3. Your character in Paatal Lok, Imran Ansari, is balanced and deals with situations in a mature manner. How much of Imran is you? Yeah, I do relate to Ansari, it's because other than being mature and balanced, he is also someone who is very positive, he is very focused towards his goals, which is one of his character traits that I can relate to. Mostly, he is the way he is because he is starting out a new life in a new city positively, and when you are in that kind of space, you have a larger goal ahead of you, which while trying to achieve you may have to take minor disturbances in stride. Which is why he comes across as a positive and hopeful person. 4. There are some scenes in Paatal Lok which provoke us to think and change our perspective on certain issues in society. Which scene really blew your mind while shooting for it? This is a very intelligent script, especially for an actor. It's not the individual scenes that are changing one's perspective, but the story and the whole compilation of such scenes which makes you think and change your perspective. As you watch the show and talk about it more, your ideas about certain stuff might change as well. 5. Your camaraderie with actor Jaideep Ahlawat is one of the highlights of Paatal Lok. Tell us your experience on sharing screen space with him. I had a great rapport with Jaideep as we have a lot in common. He has a keen interest in theatre and I have done a lot of work on-stage, so we used to talk about that. I think he is a great team player because he brings a lot to the table in terms of not only acting but his understanding of filmmaking, direction and other aspects. He is a perfect model of a protagonist and exemplifies how a team leader, a protagonist should lead the entire team. 6. The lockdown has made viewers more inclined towards OTT platforms. Things are changing and it seems like web shows would overtake films. What is your take on it? I think web shows are definitely becoming everyone's favourite and people are enjoying it as much as the movies, but if you think about the films releasing on OTT platforms and theatres, it will always be there because the two and a half hour experience is something which is amazing and that can never be replaced with anything else. It will stay for sure and web-shows have their own relevance, it's just that there will be more options for the viewers and opportunities for creative people to create content. 7. After Paatal Loks release, you have become more popular among girls. Ishwak Singh has now become the Internets new crush. Does it give you a high? Well, not just girls but I'm getting a lot of appreciation from all quarters. From the industry to pretty much everyone who has watched the show. I receive hundreds and thousands of messages on social media and it feels really great because I think this is one thing that an artist or any actor really looks forward to, the recognition and love which is immeasurable. There no other feeling or reward that measures up to it, so it's definitely a high. 8. Tell us something about your upcoming projects. Is Paatal Lok 2 on the way? I have not received any confirmation over Pataal Lok season 2, so I can't speak about that, but I do have a film which is gone to the International film festival, and a couple of projects in the pipeline. So once things resume work-wise, I'm looking forward to an exciting year ahead. Hong Kong as we know it is being extinguished under the boot of Chinese authorities determined to bring the territory under ideological control. Australia has opened its heart and border to people newly suffering under oppressive government crackdowns in the past, after Tiananmen, and from South Vietnam. Its time for Australia to activate a similar humane migration policy to support Hong Kong residents and welcome the brave, young and smart Hong Kong residents who can no longer live in the husk of their city. Thousands attended a candlelight vigil in Hong Kong last year for victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Credit:AP Every June 4, tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents gather to remember the day, almost 31 years ago, when military tanks rolled down the streets of Beijing, with soldiers in tow, shooting indiscriminately into crowds of people asking the government for reform. Last year, organisers estimate that over 100,000 people attended the event. This week, the June 4 vigil is banned. In the last year, more than a thousand popular demonstrations have been held across the territory. Originally in opposition to proposed laws that would have allowed for Hong Kong citizens to be tried under the opaque and unfair judicial system of Mainland China, these protests have rapidly become an all-out revolt against Beijings influence, which is undermining the systemic independence of the city. VICTORIASmall businesses in British Columbia struggling to pay rent this month will be protected from eviction by an emergency government order that encourages landlords to take advantage of a federal relief program. Finance Minister Carole James said Monday the order under the Emergency Program Act will protect small business owners from being evicted if they cant pay rent due to the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic. Landlords who choose not to apply for the federal governments Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance program, launched May 24, will not be able to evict their small business tenants for unpaid rent, she said. This order restricts lease terminations, rent repayment lawsuits and the repossession of small businesses goods and property, James said at a news conference. This emergency order will be in place while the federal program is in place. The B.C. eviction protection program could be extended if the federal relief program goes beyond June, she said. The federal program offers reductions of 75 per cent in monthly rent to small businesses by providing forgivable loans to landlords. James said the federal and B.C. governments will cover 50 per cent of the rent payments, while the tenants are responsible for 25 per cent and landlords are expected to cover the remaining 25 per cent. Its a federally designed and delivered program that offers forgivable loans to commercial landlords who have tenants whove lost significant income during the pandemic, at least 70 per cent, she said. There are landlords who have not applied for the relief and unless the landlord applies for the program, the program isnt available to small business tenants. James said she does not have current data on how many landlords have applied for the program or how many are eligible but have not registered. She said she has heard reports of landlords working with their small business tenants who are trying to stay afloat. The B.C. order is a measure to fill a gap in the federal program and aims to help small business endure hardships during the pandemic, James said. She said small business will help drive B.C.s economic recovery in the coming months and aiding their recovery benefits the province. The emergency order should be viewed as an encouragement to landlords to allow small businesses to rebuild, the minister said. To make the move to encourage that support, I think, is certainly the right thing to do, she said. For landlords to have a reliable tenant, who is there in your business and who you have a relationship with, is a benefit to the landlord as well. Read more about: Animal experiments are typically conducted under highly standardized laboratory conditions. While standardization is meant to improve reproducibility of scientific results, in reality reproducibility is surprisingly low. To produce more robust results, experts from different fields of research now recommend introducing biological variation into the design of animal experiments. "The ability to reproduce scientific findings through an independent replication study is the acid test by which scientists distinguish facts from mere anecdotes," says lead author Bernhard Voelkl, who hosted the workshop together with Hanno Wurbel, professor of animal welfare at the University of Bern. Wurbel adds: "Poor reproducibility produces economic costs and scientific uncertainty - and also raises ethical concerns, if it hampers medical progress and animals are used for inconclusive studies." Last year, Voelkl, Wurbel and other experts in animal biology, experimental design, and biostatistics convened to discuss strategies to address this challenge. They concluded that a paradigm shift in experimental design is needed and present their considerations in the journal "Nature Reviews Neuroscience". More biological variation needed Strict standardization of both the animals' characteristics and their environment is the norm when studying the effects of an experimental intervention, such as being given a candidate drug. Eliminating all sources of variation other than the experimental intervention is meant to increase the precision of the results, while at the same time reducing the number of animals per experiment. However, this rigorous standardization narrows down the range of animals and conditions to which the findings can reliably be generalized. Many animal experiments are conducted under such a narrow range of conditions that there is a significant risk of obtaining results that are unlikely to be reproducible." Hanno Wurbel, Professor of animal welfare, University of Bern The team therefore advocates "heterogenization", the deliberate inclusion of biological variation into the design of animal experiments to improve the range of conditions to which findings can be generalized and thus improve reproducibility. Maximizing knowledge gain per animal and experiment "With this design we can balance the need to compare interventions under similar conditions with the ability to introduce heterogeneity, which allows us to determine whether effects are robust over a range of conditions,"says Naomi Altman, professor emeritus of statistics at Penn State. Researchers can introduce biological variation to study populations in many ways, for example, by including different strains of animals, age groups, or animals housed under different housing conditions. Alternatively, they may split experiments into several independent batches of animals or conduct multi-laboratory studies. "There is no single best solution for every experiment,"says Voelkl. "Therefore, we recommend heterogenization of animals and environmental conditions in general terms. Researchers should justify their choices with respect to the range of animals and conditions to which their findings should generalize."Potential strategies should be explored in future studies to provide researchers better guidance in their choices. The experts are convinced that by introducing biological variation into study desigsn, fewer studies, and thus fewer animals, will be needed to produce robust results. Therefore, although in some cases the number of animals used in a single study may increase, the overall number of animals used in research will be reduced, the authors emphasize. "We propose a paradigm shift to increase the benefit of the research and reduce the number of animals used in research,"says Wurbel. "Instead of minimizing the number of animals per experiment, we should maximize the amount of knowledge we gain per animal and experiment." Reconsideration by funders and regulators o promote this paradigm shift, the team recommends that funders, regulators and scientific journal editors consider heterogenization as the default option and ask researchers to justify study designs in terms of the range of conditions to which their findings should apply. The workshop was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and the Animal Welfare Division of the University of Bern. Dear Mediator: Our neighborhood has a longstanding problem with a property owner who repairs cars all night long, with lots of banging noises and people coming and going. Our street is not zoned for an auto repair shop. Our Neighborhood Watch group has complained repeatedly to police, city staff and elected officials. They all say the same thing: He has been cited, he has agreed to clean up his property, and they will monitor the situation. But instead of cleaning up, he keeps adding more cars to his lawn and along our street. Outraged in El Cajon Dear Outraged: Advertisement In a perfect metropolis, agencies that enforce city codes would have enough resources and tenacity to pursue justice relentlessly, and violators would face swift consequences. In the real world of modern cities, code enforcement units are underfunded and overburdened, and the imposition of penalties involves herculean administrative work. Knowing that, offenders can keep on offending with rueful promises of compliance they never intend to keep. The resulting cat-and-mouse game the sluggish municipal cat never quite catching the wily scofflaw mouse puts too many neighborhoods in a state of siege. Our community mediators are well-versed in these standoffs. One of the resolution strategies they offer is based on the Safe Streets Now initiative, a model that could give your group a new path forward. Launched in California in 1990, Safe Streets Now empowers citizens to carry out their own nuisance abatement measures through civil courts. The program began as a response to illegal drug activity in residential communities, but it quickly expanded to cover boisterous party houses, incessantly barking dogs and industrial activities that pose environmental risks. Such public scourges are addressed by California Civil Codes 3479 and 3480, which rule out anything which is injurious to health ... so as to interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property and which affects at the same time an entire community or neighborhood. The last phrase is pivotal. An individual who lives next to a house-from-hell faces a lonely uphill battle. Several neighbors with such a house in their midst can join forces. Your group has already completed the first two of the four steps in the Safe Streets Now playbook. You have documentation of the infractions (and you should continue building that record of notes and photos), and you have carried out notification of authorities, who in turn have notified the violator. Steps three and four are negotiation and litigation via San Diego Countys small claims court, which allows individuals to seek up to $10,000 in civil damages. Given how long this problem of environmental toxins and disruptive noise has lasted, your group might consider pursuing both steps simultaneously. The key to the success of Safe Streets Now has been neighbors filing consolidated small claims cases that put defendants at risk of substantial civil judgments. The threat of financial ruin, especially where evidence of wrongdoing is clear, can move people from intransigence to compliance. These are the legal options available to your group. Now lets consider the human dimensions of the problem. A person who persists in operating an illegal business in the face of imminent reprisals is suffering from one of two afflictions: delusion that he can somehow evade justice or desperation because he sees no other course. Either way, this man could use assistance. Offer to help him scout alternative sites for fixing cars by drawing on your groups collective resources. That could provide the stimulus he needs to get his business on a viable footing. His personal difficulties are not relevant under the law. But engaging him in an effort to surmount those difficulties would be an act of neighborly kindness. Such an exchange would help you understand his situation, and youll need that when you enter mediation and work with him on achieving resolution. Steven P. Dinkin is a professional mediator who has served as president of the San-Diego based National Conflict Resolution Center since 2003. Do you have a conflict that needs a resolution? Please share your story with The Mediator via email at mediatethis@ncrconline.com. All submissions will be kept anonymous. I have serious concerns about using military forces to respond to protesters, Smith said in a statement. The role of the U.S. military in domestic U.S. law enforcement is limited by law. It must not be used in violation of those limits and I see little evidence that President Trump understands this fundamental premise. A momentous weekend of protests that saw violent clashes between South Florida police and demonstrators gave way to a relatively quiet Monday morning as city crews and business owners worked to clean up and re-open vandalized stores and buildings from Miami to Fort Lauderdale. The demonstrations in Miami and Fort Lauderdale and similar protests in almost every major metropolitan area of Florida appeared to avoid the level of widespread violence reported in cities such as Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Atlanta. There were no deaths or serious injuries reported in South Florida. Protesters returned to the streets of South Florida Monday afternoon one day after peaceful demonstrations devolved into a violent clash between police and protesters in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday. There were no arrests reported Monday as of 9:30 p.m. On Saturday, police used tear gas and rubber bullets on marchers in Miami, arresting dozens in a confrontation outside Miami Police headquarters. The demonstrations were among many around the country in reaction to the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in police custody on May 25 after a Minneapolis policeman drove a knee into his neck for nearly nine minutes while the man was face down, handcuffed on the ground. Memorial march for George Floyd in Key West In Key West, several hundred turned out at Nelson English Park in the Bahama Village neighborhood for a memorial march for George Floyd Monday evening. The violence, although I understand it, I never will condone it, said City Commissioner Clayton Lopez. It only tears down where we live, that which weve built, destroys who we are as a people and causes the loss of more lives, mostly our own. The crowd gathered at the park before walking through downtown, including along Duval Street, with signs that read, Black lives matter, I cant breathe, and similar sentiments. The march was peaceful; no arrests or conflicts were reported. Story continues They listened to a series of speeches from county and city leaders, including Key West Police Chief Sean Brandenburg and Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay, who both denounced the police actions that preceded Floyds death. Brandenburg said Floyds death hurts the relationships between residents and police officers who have dedicated their lives to service. It means we must work harder to retain your trust, Brandenburg said. Ramsay drew cheers by saying the other three officers involved in the Floyd incident deserve to be in jail. It was despicable, it was horrendous, Ramsay said of the video that captured a police officer kneeling on Floyds neck. The first thing I said is that person needs to go to jail, Ramsay said. The other three need to go to jail. Their days coming. And they will go to jail and that will be just one more step toward justice for this travesty. Key West Mayor Teri Johnston said Key West is different from other cities, with different morals and values. Lets show the world what a community looks like and how a community acts and how we take care of each other, Johnston said. Miami protesters gather downtown A small group of protesters gathered near the Torch Friendship in downtown Miami on Monday afternoon, holding signs and getting honks from drivers on Biscayne Boulevard. There were about 100 people gathered, though the crowd was slowly growing. Many of them said this was their first time protesting after a long weekend of peaceful demonstrations that ended in tense confrontations with police, who fired rubber bullets and tear gas and arrested 57 on Saturday. On Sunday, 35 people were arrested and held at Miami-Dade jails. Even though the crowd was small, protesters like Jasmine Valentine said its meaningful to hear honking horns of support. I see more unity right now than Ive experienced in a long time, said Valentine, 30, of Miami. I feel a lot of love. A few dozen protesters standing along Biscayne Blvd. in Miami today, much smaller crowd than the past several days. pic.twitter.com/2UFSSrunM2 Bianca Padro Ocasio (@BiancaJoanie) June 1, 2020 The news of George Floyds death struck a nerve with Maxsill Gracia, who lost her 22-year-old brother Max Gracia after he was bitten by an Orlando Police K9 in 2015. He was accused of robbery at a local convenience store and died a few days later at the Orange County Jail. It affected my family in a negative way and I understand the emotions going forth throughout our nation and throughout the world right now, said Gracia, 29, who was raised in Orlando and now lives in Miami. I understand the hurt, so you never know until youre in those shoes, she added. Gracia, whose familys case was heavily covered by Orlando media, has joined the Miami protests that have drawn large crowds in recent days. Angel Severin, a 22-year-old Miami Dade College student, said while hes been scared in the past he felt safe among the crowd. He stood with about 100 others outside American Airlines Arena as organizers reminded protesters to stay safe and to maintain a peaceful response when approached by police. The speakers, some of whom were associated with the Dream Defenders, asked people to keep up with the groups other initiatives. Severin carried a target-practice sheet covered with the names of black people who have been killed in high-profile cases. He said he was sick of sitting at home sad and scared. Angel Severin, 22, is a student at Miami Dade College who attended a third day of protests Monday afternoon in downtown Miami. Severin said that while hes been scared in the past he felt safe among the crowd. As a black man, I go to school and Im scared every day, he said. After I went to the range, I looked at the sheet and looked at a list of black names, and it just felt right. At 5:20 p.m., organizers instructed the crowd gathered in front of the Freedom Tower that they would be marching toward the Miami-Dade County Courthouse, about a 15 minute walk. Protesters were singing Bob Marleys Is This Love while others gave interviews to media. Joseph Martinez, an activist with Dream Defenders Miami, a group that advocates for the elimination of jails and policing, emphasized that Mondays protests would be peaceful Here in Dade County we move in a certain fashion to protect the most vulnerable, said Dahmec Denson, an activist who lives in Miamis Overtown neighborhood. By 5:35 p.m., the crowd marched away from a line of police officers in riot gear standing across the street in front of the AmericanAirlines Arena. As protestors continued down Northwest Sixth Street into Overtown, they grew in size. We are going to show our solidarity with the low-income residents of this neighborhood right now, Denson told the crowd. Young children came out of their houses with their fists in the air. Black lives matter! they said, echoing the protestors. Rapper Swae Lee pulled up to the crowd on Northwest 12th Avenue in a black Cadillac SUV, cheering on the protestors as they neared the Miami-Dade County courthouse. I wish I could get out and walk with yall, he said. Protestors made their way to the office of State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle, who has been widely criticized by activists for the handling of accusations of police brutality in Miami-Dade County. Elaine Williams, whose son, Labrant Dennis, is at the Miami-Dade County Pre-Trial Detention Center across the street, started to cry. Dennis was convicted of the murders of University of Miami linebacker Marlon Barnes and a girlfriend, Timwanika Lumpkins, inside a campus dorm room in 1996. My son is up there, said Williams, 62, of Liberty City, crying and pointing at the building. We hear you mama, protestors said. Rose McFarlane, who has lived in Overtown for 35 years, said shes been outraged by Floyds death. Hearing Floyd say Mama on video had her in tears, she said. She leaned against her fence and watched protestors and a large group of police on bicycles pass by. Were all supposed to be brothers and sisters, she said, with tears in her eyes. If it was you, youd feel real bad. As protesters looped back downtown from Overtown, Martinez asked the crowd to kneel briefly for a special announcement. He told the crowd that protesters had been shot with rubber bullets in Washington D.C., as president Donald Trump was making an announcement on the death of George Floyd. His speech was a war declarance on protesters. Thousands and thousands of military will be deployed across the nation, said Martinez. We gotta keep us safe tonight but we have to stay together. The crowd chanted Whose streets? Our streets. Across the street on a patch of grass in front of a Winn-Dixie on 11th Street and 10th Avenue, a few kids jumped gleefully and waved at the protesters. Were fighting for you, one protester said. The Monday evening protest ended peacefully and without incident at the Miami Freedom Tower downtown, which was lit up in blue. About 200 protestors gathered to hear organizers speak. Across the street at AmericanAirlines Arena, police lined the streets and blocked the PortMiami bridge. Police dont keep us safe, Martinez said. We keep us safe ... the police are looking for reasons to be violent. Organizers congratulated protestors on a peaceful demonstration, and closed by saying they will protest Tuesday and every day, whether publicly or in their private lives. If we are going to destroy, we are going to destroy organized, Denson said. We all need to stay in contact so we can organize with each other, for each other. A handful of protesters remained downtown around 8:30 p.m. Monday as police in riot gear reminded them that they would be subject to arrest if they broke a 9 p.m. countywide curfew order. But the crowd dispersed without incident, and just before 9:30 p.m., Miami-Dade police said on Twitter that they had not made any arrests. County police also said they hadnt received any reports of damage to police vehicles, PortMiami or Government Center downtown. Police had made dozens of arrests Saturday and Sunday, many for violations of the curfew order. By Samantha J. Gross and Bianca Padro Ocasio Broward extends curfew after protest reports Broward County Administrator Bertha Henry signed an emergency order Monday afternoon extending the curfew imposed Sunday night in the wake of a violent clash between police and protesters in Fort Lauderdale. The curfew begins at 9 p.m. and extends to 6 a.m. Tuesday. The curfew was extended in response to credible reports of possible civil unrest that could potentially threaten the health, safety and welfare of the people of Broward County, according to a news release. The curfew could remain in place through June 7, but Henry has the discretion to extend or end the order based on her assessment of the threat of unrest. It is unclear what credible reports county officials have received or whether protests are planned in Broward for Monday. The Sawgrass Mills mall in Sunrise closed early at 4 p.m. on Monday. Sunrise police said on Twitter that they were aware of threats made on social media that there would be rioting and looting at the mall. Under Browards curfew, county residents may travel between their homes and workplaces. Theyre also allowed to walk their pets near their homes. By Aaron Leibowitz and Daniel Chang Two South Florida malls close due to protest fears The Aventura Mall in Miami-Dade County and the Sawgrass Mills mall in Sunrise, the two largest malls in South Florida, both closed their doors early Monday due to rumors about potential protesting and looting that never materialized. Aventura Mall shut down at 2 p.m. Monday, five hours before it usually does. Sgt. Hans Maestre, a spokesman for the Aventura police department, said police received information about a potential protest but wouldnt provide details. We went ahead and made notifications and prepared ourselves logistically to address any issues that could occur like they have been occurring over the last two to three days, Maestre said. We do not expect the same incidents but are taking every precaution. Maestre later said no protesters showed up in the area. While we welcome protests, there was no activity tonight, he said. There have been no incidents. The situation was similar at Sawgrass Mills, which shut its doors at 4 p.m. Sunrise police replied to someone on Twitter saying they were aware of a rumor circulating on Snapchat about a riot and looting at the Target at the mall. But there were no reports of any such activity at the mall Monday evening. There were reports of possible protests and potentially some unrest in the area but nothing happened, a Sunrise police spokesman said. In South Dade, about a dozen Miami-Dade County police cars and a few Florida Highway Patrol troopers patrolled the parking lot of Southland Mall at 20505 South Dixie Highway in Cutler Bay Monday afternoon into the evening. The cruisers roof lights were on as they slowly drove throughout the parking lot and posted in front of stores, but a county police officer sitting in his car outside an LA Fitness gym said the officers were not reacting to any specific reports of potential protest activity at the southwest Dade shopping center. Were just showing a presence, the officer said. By Aaron Leibowitz, Daniel Chang and David Goodhue Autopsy says Floyd was asphyxiated An autopsy commissioned for George Floyds family found that he died of asphyxiation due to neck and back compression when a Minneapolis police officer held his knee on Floyds neck for several minutes and ignored his cries of distress, the Associated Press reported on Monday. The autopsy by a doctor who also examined Eric Garners body found the compression cut off blood to Floyds brain, and weight on his back made it hard to breathe, said Ben Crump, an attorney for Floyds family. He called for the third-degree murder charge against Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to be upgraded to first-degree murder and for three other officers to be charged. The familys autopsy differs from the official autopsy as described in a criminal complaint against the officer. That autopsy included the effects of being restrained, along with underlying health issues and potential intoxicants in Floyds system, but also said it found nothing to support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation. DOJ sends riot teams to Miami Attorney General William Barr is reportedly directing the Federal Bureau of Prisons to deploy riot teams to Washington, D.C., and Miami as part of the Trump administrations response to protests, according to reports in USA Today and The Washington Post. The federal prison riot team arrived Sunday in Miami, where protests had turned violent on Saturday night as vandals burned police cars and threw rocks and bottles at police in riot gear, including helmets and shields. According to USA Today, a federal official said every FBI field office is setting up command posts and will work with local police to bring charges against persons who traveled from out of state to incite violence and participate in rioting. The FBI also will review whether those in custody committed any federal crimes. In Miami-Dade and Broward, police and politicians have blamed the flare-ups on outside agitators unaffiliated with organized marches. The Justice Department did not immediately return a request for comment from the Herald. Miami gave marchers free range, mayor says At Bayside Marketplace Monday afternoon, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said the three-decade old shopping court downtown remains open for business after five stores sustained damage during weekend protests. Suarez said that 3 arrests were made during Sundays demonstration, compared with 57 Saturday, and that two of those three individuals came from out of state. He said he did not agree with language reportedly used by President Trump calling on governors to dominate demonstrators, saying the city had given marchers a lot of free range over the weekend. Pamela Weller Garcia-Serra, Senior General Manager at Bayside MarketPlace, said she was optimistic about Baysides short-term prospects, saying July was usually one if its strongest months thanks to July 4 events. She also said 50 tenants had received Paycheck Protection Program loans. By Rob Wile South Florida starts clean up Fort Lauderdale awoke on Monday to find National Guard troops standing watch on city streets as cleanup crews swept sidewalks and scrubbed graffiti from buildings after more than 1,000 people gathered at Huizenga Park on East Las Olas Boulevard for a demonstration. The gathering began peacefully but later turned violent. On Monday, Fort Lauderdale police suspended an officer after video showed he pushed a kneeling woman to the ground during Sundays demonstration. Other police officers pushed him away from the woman and down the street after the incident. Ofc. Steven Poherence was relieved of duty and will be investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Rick Maglione. Poherence was hired in October 2016 and had worked for the Florida Highway Patrol prior to joining Fort Lauderdales police department, said spokeswoman Casey Liening. On Sunday night, Maglione told reporters that an officers call for assistance may have been the spark that led to the confrontation between police and protesters. Maglione said details about the skirmish remained fuzzy in the early going. But he said an officer had called for help around the time protesters began throwing water bottles at police and officers fired tear gas into the crowd. There was an officer in need of assistance. Several officers responded to provide that assistance, Maglione said. That officer was in fear. Video of the protest appeared to show that protesters began throwing water bottles at police after an officer shoved a woman from behind while walking back toward the Broward County Public Library and away from the crowd. Maglione said the officer has been suspended and the incident is under investigation. Fort Lauderdale declared a state of emergency and Broward County officials ordered a curfew after the confrontation between police and protesters. On Monday morning, National Guard Members stood watch over the stretch of street with the most damage. Many of the restaurants and bars on Southwest Second Street had at least one broken window, as did a Broward County government building and the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale in downtown. City cleanup crews were busy power washing graffiti off buildings and sweeping sidewalks of the leftover protest signs and bandannas. Windows were blown out at the county government center and a few shops on Las Olas Boulevard were looted. Some protesters said they were fired upon outside the Broward County library without warning. Fort Lauderdale police reported two arrests from Sundays demonstrations and unspecified damage to a couple of police cars, said spokeswoman Casey Liening. By Alex Harris and Daniel Chang A train seen on the railway of the Cat Linh - Ha Dong Metro Section in Hanoi. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy. Vietnam has refused to pay the Chinese company building its first metro route the $50 million it wants in advance to test run trains. Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Ngoc Dong told reporters on Tuesday that Vietnam has been making payments on schedule to China Railway Sixth Group Co Ltd for the Cat Linh Ha Dong route in Hanoi, and so the request, made at a recent meeting, would not be met. "Even if the Chinese contractor has financial difficulties, it has to test run the train. Vietnam does not have any responsibility to pay this money." Vietnam has so far paid 78 percent of the contracted amount and the rest would be paid just before the contractor hands over the project, he added. But it remains unclear when this handover will happen. More than 150 Chinese experts needed for the remaining work have not been able to enter Vietnam since the novel coronavirus broke out in China earlier this year. They are set to come this month and will be quarantined for 14 days, according to the Hanoi Metropolitan Railway Management Board. Construction is more or less finished, but a safety evaluation is needed before commercial operation begins. Again the experts who will do the evaluation, this time from French firm Apave-Certifer-Tricc, have not been able to enter Vietnam. The 20-day test run has therefore been postponed since February, and the Chinese contractor has not set a new date. The Cat Linh-Ha Dong Metro Section runs 13 kilometers from downtown Dong Da District to Yen Nghia in the southwestern Ha Dong District. It is one of eight lines planned in Hanoi. Construction began in October 2011 and was originally scheduled for completion in 2013. But several hurdles, including loan disbursement issues with China that were only resolved in December 2017, stalled it for years. Its cost has doubled to VND18 trillion ($775 million), with 77 percent of it coming from official development assistance (ODA) loans from China. They say when the going gets tough, the tough get going. This is exactly how the farmers in Hupseykot, Nawalpur, have reacted to the lockdown set in by COVID-19. With the majority of farmers' produce not making its way to the markets, the vegetables were beginning to perish and incur a huge loss. Determined to help farming families, the Lekbeshi Social Entrepreneurs Women's Cooperative came up with an ingenious idea to collect and sell the fresh produce: by utilizing an agri-ambulance. The agri-ambulance is now connecting farmers to customers during Nepal's lockdown. The cooperative acquired a transport pass and started collecting vegetables from the farmers, all while social distancing and adhering to the national protocol. Farmers like Renuka Gaha, who make their livelihoods selling vegetables, never thought theyd be able to market their produce during the lockdown. After taking out a loan from Machhapuchchhre Bank and with interest to pay, Gaha was becoming more worried by the day, but now shes feeling somewhat relieved. Because of the lockdown, farmers were unable to send their produce to the market and it began to rot, said Mani Pandey of Lekbeshi Cooperative. There was no way we could let the hard work of our member families go to waste, so in recommendation and permission of the Rural Municipality, we began the agri-ambulance service. The lockdown has not only impacted the farmers but has also affected the consumers of the surrounding region, who look to farmer-owned, agribusinesses like Lekbeshi for their daily supply of nutritious vegetables. The services of the agri-ambulance have been a win-win for both struggling farmers and isolated customers. The ambulance has not only helped farmers receive a better deal for the vegetables but also our consumers are equally overjoyed, said Agribusinesses Manager Sushila Pariyar. On the first day of its operation itself, the ambulance was able to transport more than 350 kilograms of vegetables to the market. Prolific vegetable farmer Bishnu Timalsina recalled how, up against the stressful prospect of all her produce spoiling, she endured many sleepless nights. "As soon as I heard that the cooperative would be collecting and selling vegetables, I breathed a sigh of relief," she said. For farmer Moti Sara Saru, whose vegetable enterprise the cooperative helped set up, the lockdown went into effect just as their vegetables were ready for picking. "We had never felt so helpless," Saru said. "When the cooperative began the ambulance service and began going door-to-door collecting the vegetables and handing us our money, we felt as though a guardian had come to our rescue. Another happy customer of the agri-ambulance service is Kam Maya Thapa. Though she has her own vegetable patch, it was at quite a distance from her home, and she was unable to buy any fresh produce in the market. When she heard the ambulance announce vegetables, she was thrilled. To be able to have fresh vegetables during the lockdown seems so unreal, she stated. Lekbeshi Cooperative member Bishnu Timalsina can now sell her produce using the agri-ambulance. With a family of five to feed, Achyut Khanal managed to source rice and lentils before the lockdown, yet was having difficulty managing the ration. I live in a rented house, so I do not have space for growing vegetables, and it seemed unsafe to venture out to the market as well," Khanal said. "So, when I heard the ambulance making rounds it was a great relief to me to be able to get vegetables at my own doorstep. Since beginning this service, farmers have received better prices for their vegetables by removing the middleman and prices for consumers have also decreased. Lockdown or not, the cooperative realized the importance of the agri-ambulance. Though they initially rented the vehicle as an immediate intervention, the cooperative has now bought their own vehicle, meaning they can continue providing this vital service of transporting vegetables from the farmers' gates to the consumers' plates. Story and photos by Bishnu Pandey and Regeena Regmi The Supreme Council of Antiquities and the Sovereign Fund of Egypt signed on Tuesday a contract to develop and manage the provision of services to visitors of the Bab Al-Azab area of Salah al-Din al-Ayyubis historic Citadel. The Council will solely manage the historic site while the Fund will manage the operations and services in the Bab Al-Azab site, which reflects the new collaboration between the two parties to revive the area and increase its historical and economic value. The contract was signed by Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mustafa Waziri and CEO of the Sovereign Fund of Egypt Ayman Soliman. The signing was attended by Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala Al-Said, the chairman of the board of the Sovereign Fund of Egypt, and Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Khaled Al-Anani. This contract is part of efforts to renovate historical Cairo, reflecting the governments focus on improving the quality of services to visitors at the Citadel, one of the most important historical sites in Egypt. Negotiations between the Fund and the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities took a little over six months after the collaboration between the Fund and the Council was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers. This step is considered the first investment project by the Fund in the tourism and services sectors, in cooperation with the ministry, which will include the complete development of the Bab Al-Azab area in the Citadel to provide services to its visitors. Opening an unutilised area of the Citadel to the public after reviving it will place it on the list of historical and cultural tourist attractions and provide cultural services to the area, in addition to establishing and operating traditional markets and handicraft shops, theatres and cultural events. Minister Al-Said said that this agreement reflects the Funds role in increasing returns on state owned assets through value accretive investments to better utilise Egypts resources for future generations. The minister added that it is important for the Sovereign Fund to contribute to developing historical areas to introduce new generations to Egypt's history and generate positive returns on state assets through creative projects. The minister noted that the objective of the Fund is to attract investors to contribute technically and financially in such projects to increase state revenues and create employment opportunities in sectors with high potential. Tourism Minister Al-Anani said that this collaboration directs more investments to touristic development, as we are working to develop a model for investment projects to provide and operate attractive and efficient services to visitors in major touristic destinations. It also confirms the success of the ministrys vision in developing and operating services in historical sites, enhancing their cultural value and diversifying Egyptian touristic products while adding new cultural tourism destinations, the minister added. Mustafa Waziri, the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that the Council seeks to re-utilise, preserve and develop some historical areas in a sustainable manner, as well as provide services to the visitors of these areas to enrich the cultural experience of the Citadel. Waziri emphasised that the rehabilitation of the historic buildings after their restoration is one of the most important methods of preserving them, which works to raise their efficiency and cultural and economic value, promoting the area as a new touristic and cultural destination. Ayman Soliman, the CEO of the Sovereign Fund, said, The fund will team up with experienced private investors to develop the Bab Al-Azab site. We will equip the buildings in the area to offer visitors and tourists a rich cultural experience that accentuates the Citadels historical value and highlights the pivotal events it witnessed and its role in Egypts modern history. It is essential that the private sector plays an integral role in adding economic and cultural value to the historical tourism sector. The Fund aims to boost sustainable economic development in Egypt through attracting private investments to develop state assets, in accordance with best international practices, to optimise their returns and maximise their long-term value for future generations. Soliman added that the Bab Al-Azab area will include a museum with interactive technologies, a market for spices, traditional crafts and foods, a design school, a theatre for traditional and cultural arts, as well as a historical library. The importance of this project is that we are utilising an undeveloped closed part of the Citadel which will positively impact the entire area in historic Cairo, creating jobs and value in the tourism sector with private partners, and adding new investment products in the Egyptian economy. Search Keywords: Short link: Protesters assembled at a courthouse in central Tunis on the morning of May 28, waving placards as preliminary hearings got underway in a highly charged and unusual criminal case of blasphemy. On May 6, the Tunis prosecutor for the Court of First Instance charged blogger and student Emna Chargui, 27, with offending authorized religions and inciting hatred between religions after a Ramadan Facebook post ignited furor across Tunisian social media. The case has roiled Tunisias largely conservative society, igniting impassioned protests among human rights activists and exposing deep cultural divides in a nation that has been widely regarded as a bastion of free speech in the Arab world. Chargui uploaded a satirical image earlier in the month to her Facebook profile titled The Sura of Corona, a post that seemed to imitate a Quranic verse in diction, flow and visual appearance. Lyrically invoking events of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that has swept the world in recent months, the verse described a virus from China that will eliminate the differences between kings and slaves, slipping in a final line about washing your hands with good soap. The piece was reportedly penned by a friend living in neighboring Algeria. Online reaction to the post was swift and overwhelming, as enraged messages lit up social media during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, even drawing condemnation from Issam Chebbi, secretary-general of the Al-Jomhouri party. In a Facebook post, Chebbi urged the judiciary to prosecute Chargui, claiming that the state is charged with protecting the sacred and prohibiting any infringement. According to her lawyer Ines Trabelsi, death threats also swamped Chargui's inbox. Amid the furor, public prosecutors quickly took notice. On May 4, two days after the post appeared online, judicial police summoned Chargui for the first in a series of questioning, which culminated in formal charges later that week. She now faces up to three years in prison, and a fine of 2,000 Tunisian dinars ($700). The case has rippled through the countrys press and civil society, reviving dormant fears of censorship that many young Tunisians associate with a bygone era of authoritarian rule that ended with the Arab Spring of 2011. We are really afraid, said Adel Azouni, a graduate student among the protesters outside the courthouse. The case of Emna is symbolic, and its so important for freedom of expression, and our general social freedom. I had really thought we had advanced beyond this. A growing movement has been organizing a public campaign in defense of Chargui, and in support of Tunisians right to free speech. A declaration signed by over three dozen Tunisian civil society organizations is urging the state to drop the charges, and condemning the tactics of police and prosecutors against the blogger. Amnesty International has also taken up Charguis case, issuing a statement hours before the May 28 trial was set to begin. The trial of Chargui echoes a similar case from 2012, when Tunisian bloggers Ghazi Beji and Jabeur Mejri were charged with transgressing morality after they posted naked caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad online. Mejri was ultimately sentenced to seven years in prison, while Beji escaped to claim political asylum in Europe and was convicted in absentia. Some fear that blasphemy allegations can also be used to silence dissenting voices in the political arena. Fearing prosecution and violence, LGTBQI rights activist and openly gay former presidential candidate Mounir Baatour fled to France late last year, claiming an organized defamation campaign had spread rumors that he insulted the prophet online. Freedom of expression is still not totally protected in Tunisia, and there are existing gaps and contractions between good intentions and reality, Amna Guellali, the deputy director for North Africa at Amnesty International, told Al-Monitor. This case has a chilling effect on freedom of expression in Tunisia and says that people who even ironically touch on religion, or do so in a way that isnt linked by the majority, can be liable to prosecution. Tunisia has always walked a fine line between values of secularism and the conservative, Islamic sensibilities of large segments of society. The post-Arab Spring constitution of 2014, enshrining freedom of expression, conscience and press, was heralded as a major victory for civil society and activists. However, the constitution also names the state as the guardian of religion, without specifying what role that implies. Messaoud Romdhani, a member of the Executive Bureau at Euromed Rights, said the lack of clarity is intentional and was crafted to allow for a constitution that all major parties could ultimately support at the time. The constitution was a compromise between the Islamists of Ennahda and all these secular groups that were with them in the national assembly, he told Al-Monitor. As a result, freedom of expression is there to a certain extent online and in the media, but its less accepted when dealing with religion. The ambiguous role of the state in regulating religion also harkens back to another, more restrictive political era. Prosecutors have charged Chargui under Article 52 and Article 53 of the Tunisian Press Code, which predate the 2014 constitution and date back 30 years from the days of censorship under deposed autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. In the Arab Springs only widely lauded success story, a nationwide civil protest movement ousted Ben Ali in a peaceful uprising, ushering in a new era of political reform that signaled a radical departure from the censorship that had defined Tunisian public life under dictatorship. While Romdhani said that Tunisian society has grown more culturally conservative in recent decades, he believes the space opened up for free speech has grown dramatically after the Arab Spring, along with a vibrant activist community that is committed to protecting those hard won rights. We are lucky to have a civil society that is very vigilant, and who have rallied to support [Chargui], he added. The assistant to the public prosecutor of the Tunis court, Mohsen Dali, told the media May 28 that the trial would be adjourned until July 2, leaving the explosive case, and the divides it has exposed in Tunisias pluralistic society, to simmer for another month. Chargui will remain free until the trial reconvenes. Ryanair Holdings Plc and Chief Executive Michael O'Leary failed to persuade a U.S. judge to dismiss a securities fraud lawsuit accusing Europe's largest budget airline of defrauding them by downplaying its willingness to recognize labor unions. While dismissing much of the proposed class action, U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken said shareholders could try to prove that Ryanair intended to mislead them with statements indicating a "near certainty" it would not welcome unions, the recognition of which could increase costs and reduce profitability. The Manhattan judge said this included O'Leary's statement at Ryanair's September 2017 annual general meeting that hell would "freeze over" before the Dublin-based carrier accepted unions. Such statements "are impossible to reconcile with O'Leary's subsequent admission that he had 'long anticipated' unionization," and were "direct evidence" of possible intent to mislead shareholders, Oetken wrote. Ryanair offered that December to recognize pilot unions, to avert a possible strike, and its American depositary shares fell 5.2% that day. Oetken also dismissed claims concerning other statements about Ryanair's labor relations, profitability and growth targets, finding no proof the statements were false. Ryanair and its law firm did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Lawyers for the lead plaintiff did not immediately respond to similar requests. The lawsuit was filed in November 2018 by an Alabama fund, the City of Birmingham Firemen's and Policemen's Supplemental Pension System, on behalf of Ryanair ADS investors from May 30, 2017 to Sept. 28, 2018. Ryanair cited labor issues when it cut its full-year profit forecast on Oct. 1, 2018. Its share price closed that day more than one-third below its level in mid-March. O'Leary has been Ryanair's chief executive since 1994. The case is City of Birmingham Firemen's and Policemen's Supplemental Pension System v Ryanair Holdings Plc et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 18-10330. (Reuters) Source: www.businessworld.ie Police face off with activists during a protest march near the Manhattan Bridge on Sunday, May 31, 2020, in New York. AP Photo/Kevin Hagen China has been furious at the US government for criticizing its handling of protests in Hong Kong and for backing pro-democracy demonstrators. Over the weekend, state-run media made the most of the current protests in America, sparked by the police-related death of George Floyd. On Saturday, the editor-in-chief of state-affiliated newspaper Global Times compared the two, saying both groups of protesters broke the law and caused destruction. "US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi once called the violent protests in Hong Kong 'a beautiful sight to behold,'" he wrote. "Now, the 'beautiful sight' is extending from Hong Kong to over a dozen US states." Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. China's state media is harnessing the current wave of protests across America to call out the US government for 'hypocrisy' after it criticized China's handling of Hong Kong protests last year. Beijing has been outraged at the US for criticizing how it handled months of protests in Hong Kong including the White House openly supporting Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement. Over the weekend, Chinese officials and its state-run media made the most of the current US protests, according to The Straits Times. The protests were triggered by the death of George Floyd, a 45-year-old black man who died after a white officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes. Police in Atlanta detain demonstrators protesting, Friday, May 30, 2020. Associated Press/Mike Stewart On Saturday, Hu Xijin the editor-in-chief of the Chinese state-affiliated newspaper Global Times, published an article claiming the protests that swept through Hong Kong had spread to the US. "US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi once called the violent protests in Hong Kong 'a beautiful sight to behold,' he wrote. "Now, the 'beautiful sight' is extending from Hong Kong to over a dozen US states." "US politicians now can enjoy this sight from their own windows," he added. Story continues Xinhua, a Chinese state-run agency, described the protests as "Pelosi's beautiful landscape," according to the South China Morning Post. Hu compared the two movements, saying both groups broke the law and caused destruction. Yet the US condoned those in Hong Kong, and saw the protests in the US as unacceptable, according to The Guardian. It was "as if the radical rioters in Hong Kong somehow snuck into the US and created a mess like they did last year," he wrote. A protester gives his middle fingers to riot police at the Causeway Bay area in Hong Kong during a pro-democracy demonstration. Miguel Candela / Echoes Wire/Barcroft Media via Getty Images This statement is likely tied to a claim the Chinese government made in 2019 that foreigners were to blame for much of the protests in Hong Kong. On Sunday, Hu took it further, writing that he suspected Hong Kong protesters had "infiltrated American states" and that "vicious Hong Kong rioters obviously are [the] mastermind of violent protests across the US." According to The Guardian, Hu was then accused of backing conspiracy theories. On Sunday, China's foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying leaped in when she tweeted: "I can't breathe" with a screenshot of a tweet from State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus, which said China had "flagrantly broken its promises to the people of Hong Kong." Hua Chunying (@SpokespersonCHN) May 30, 2020 That same day, the People's Daily shared videos on Weibo of CNN journalist Omar Jimenez being arrested during a live broadcast of a protest. The Chinese newspaper compared the footage with a clip showing Hong Kong police leaving a protest last year, with a hashtag reading: "How restrained are the Hong Kong police." The state-run paper did not provide details, however, about complaints by Hong Kong journalists of police violence during protests in 2019. A protester is injured in Mong Kok district of Hong Kong on February 9, 2016 in Hong Kong. Getty Images/Anthony Kwan Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lijan Zhao said China hoped the government "would take all necessary measures to deal with the violent law enforcement of police, so as to protect and safeguard the legitimate interests of racial minorities," state-media outlet CCGTN reported on Monday. It's not the first time China's state media has picked at the US in recent weeks. In May, Chinese media latched onto comments made by President Donald Trump about when the US first started working on a vaccine for the coronavirus. Outlets focused on Trump's comment to dismiss international criticism it had delayed releasing vital information about the coronavirus. Read the original article on Business Insider At least 812 health workers have, so far, tested positive for COVID-19 in Nigeria, the Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Chikwe Ihekweazu, has said. Mr Ihekweazu while speaking at the daily Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing on Tuesday said 29 of the infected health workers are staff of the NCDC. We have had 812 health care workers infected, these are not just numbers. 29 of them work with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control. About eight of them are in the Idu treatment centre right now, he said. He said the centre is distributing enough Personal Protective Equipment to health workers who are front liners in the fight against COVID-19. We have distributed over 40,000 pieces of complete PPE and we will continue to do this. By this weekend, a new consignment will be going out to every FMC in the country, he said. As of April 30, about 113 health workers had already been infected with the COVID-19 virus, according to the minister of health Osagie Ehanire. Mr Ehanire explained that only health care workers with training in infectious diseases control are eligible to handle COVID-19 patients. The federal government had earlier barred private hospitals from treating COVID-19 cases, saying many of the health workers there are not trained to handle such a disease. It has, however, now asked private hospitals willing to treat COVID-19 patients to register with their states health ministry and ensure proper training of staff. As of June 2, 10, 578 persons have been confirmed to have COVID-19 in the country. Although 3,122 persons have been successfully treated and discharged, 299 deaths have been recorded. HEALTHCARE WORKERS AT RISK Healthcare workers, being the first responders to patients, have continued to be at risk of exposure to COVID-19 virus. On April 4, Aliyu Yakubu, a medical doctor aged 60, died at the Nigeria Air Force Reference Hospital, Daura, Katsina State, after contracting the deadly virus. A week later, his wife and children tested positive for COVID-19. Due to their vulnerability to this disease, health workers have been advised to take extra precautions in handling suspected cases. Mr Ehanire had said health workers who cannot handle the COVID-19 pandemic have the option of leaving. It is important for healthcare workers to understand that nobody is forced or conscripted to handle the coronavirus. Those who cannot handle it have the option of requesting to be excused and someone else will come in. The pressure on health care workers if they have a crisis can be quite severe and I do think that mental health counselling can be extended to those who feel they are impacted in that way, he said. ALLOWANCES Following numerous complaints by health workers and their unions, the federal government announced its decision to give 5,000 front line health workers life insurance, which has been fully paid for by the Nigerian insurance industry. A special COVID-19 hazard and inducement allowance of 50 per cent of Consolidated Basic Salary will also be paid to all health workers in Nigerian Teaching Hospitals, Federal Medical Centres (FMCs), and designated COVID-19 centres for the first three months in the first instance. 40 cent of the Consolidated Basic Salary would be paid as special COVlD-19 Hazard and Inducement Allowance to health workers at special Non-Public Hospitals and clinics in the Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for same three months period, the minister of state for health, Olurunnimbe Mamora, said He also said 20 per cent of the Consolidated Basic Salary will be paid to all health workers directly managing COVlD-19 at the Infectious Diseases Hospitals (IDH) isolation and treatment centres. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2020) - Core One Labs Inc. (CSE: COOL), (OTCQX: CLABF), (FSE: LD6), (WKN: A14XHT) ("COOL" or the "Company") provides this news release as correction to Mr. Shacker's bio, who was appointed to the Company's board of directors on May 29, 2020. Mr. Shacker has worked extensively in the cannabis and finance space over the past six years. Taking over as chief executive officer of Primary Energy Metals in early 2019, Mr. Shacker implemented a new vision for the company. Under his guidance, the company transitioned from a mining and asset acquisition to a vertically integrated fully licensed non-psychoactive cannabidiol (CBD) business based out of Vancouver, B.C., now Mota Ventures Corp., with wholly-owned subsidiaries in The United States, Europe and Colombia. Mr. Shacker has been instrumental in achieving several critical milestones for Mota Ventures, including the acquisition of a fully licensed Colombian producer, Ihuana, and onboarding Sativida, a premium leader in the European CBD space, as well the acquisition of Natures Exclusive CBD, an ecommerce CBD retailer based out of the US. In early 2020, Mr. Shacker transitioned his role from CEO to president. As president, Mr. Shacker works to execute the long-term vision to build Mota Ventures into a leader in the non-psychoactive cannabis space globally. Mr. Shacker is currently the CEO of RewardStream Solutions Inc. and previously sat on the board of directors for publicly trading cannabis lifestyle company Weekend Unlimited Inc. Mr. Shacker holds a business administration degree (honours) from Ivey Business School, specializing in finance. About Core One Labs Inc. Core One Labs Inc. is a technology company that licenses its technology to a state-of-the-art production and packaging facility located in Southern California. The Company's technology produces infused strips (like breath strips) that are not only a safer, healthier option to other forms of delivery but also superior bioavailability of cannabis constituents. Some strips will also include supplemental co-active ingredients such as nutraceuticals, vitamins and peptides. The technology provides a new way to accurately meter the dosage and assure the purity of selected product. From start to finish, the production process, based on the Company's technology, tests Story continues for quality and composition of all the ingredients used in every strip which results in a delivery system that is safe, consistent and effective. In addition, through its efforts to develop a better CannaStripsTM product, the Company has developed considerable expertise in cannabis extraction and nursery activities. The operational expertise developed by the Company as a result of these efforts has created new market opportunities for the Company in white label sales. Core One Labs Inc. Brad Eckenweiler CEO & Director FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: InvestorRelations@coreonelabs.ca 1-866-347-5058 Cautionary Disclaimer Statement: The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release. Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are not guarantees of future performance. The Company cautions that all forward looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to the Company's limited operating history and the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations. In addition, marijuana remains a Schedule I drug under the United States Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Although Congress has prohibited the US Justice Department from spending federal funds to interfere with the implementation of state medical marijuana laws, this prohibition must be renewed each year to remain in effect. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/57088 The unleashing of angry protest across the US over the last week shows how rotten society still is when it comes to people of colour. In America, demonstrations against the treatment of minorities are a regular occurrence. Politicians and administrations on both sides of the political divide are reluctant to act for two reasons: They know how deeply-entrenched it is in society, and how riddled with racism state institutions can be. They may feel that in any serious attempt to tackle this decease rigorously, some institutions could break up. The Iraq war in 2003 is one example that briefly unveiled what American institutional racism looks like. The real reason behind the brutal treatment of prisoners in Abu Ghraib - later described by then-secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld as "blatantly sadistic, cruel, and inhuman" - was that some soldiers believed Arab inmates were less than them because of their race and skin colour. The shocking photographs showed a systematic way used by some in the US military for subjugation. The unprecedented scandal then forced Washington to transfer all prisoners out of Abu Ghraib and hand the prison over to the Iraqis. Eleven US soldiers were convicted of crimes relating to the scandal, but major change was lacking. But that was in the past. Now, Donald Trump himself enflames tensions over race. On Monday, he threatened to deploy "heavily armed" US military troops to quell the protests over the death of a black man George Floyd after he was arrested. Footage of the arrest shows a white police officer, Derek Chauvin who has been charged with murder kneeling on Mr Floyd's neck while he was pinned to the floor. We seldom see an American president promoting such authoritarianism and violence against his citizens. In St. John's Episcopal Church, close to the White House, Trump appeared holding the bible in an attempt to appeal to the Evangelicals and his right-wing vote base. Protesters were cleared by police using tear gas ahead of the president's visit. The clearance of protesters, journalists being arrested for reporting on the demonstrations and President Trump promoting a when the looting starts, the shooting starts narrative has sent a clear message to the outside world, especially despots in the Middle East. The message is simple and straightforward: The moral authority of the American democracy that once held the liberal, rules-based conduct of the state towards its citizens is crumbling. The relationship between governments and their citizens must now be based even in the beacon state of democracy on order, whoever that has to come about. Many didn't waste time celebrating this new get-out-of-jail card, including in Egypt, home to the repressive regime of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Hundreds of fake accounts rushed to Twitter and Facebook to promote the idea that the moral supremacy of democratic societies, which forms a central legitimacy complex for dictators, has been laid low. Their central argument is that the live scenes from the US of police violence and institutional racism not bad apples- against peaceful protesters, many of them black, showed a system no longer fit for purpose. An Arab friend, who is not very keen on democracy, seized the moment to tell me: Human rights end where the threat to order begins. This is what the president of the United States is telling us. Previous White House administrations have been using the promotion of democracy as a political card whenever it suited the US interests. This American hypocrisy is not new. Many in the Middle East, on both sides of the government and opposition, saw the efforts by US officials trying publicly to sell democracy as a core US interest in the region as a joke. But sometimes it has effectively held back some of the most brutal actions among US allies towards freedom of expression and political dissent. Since Trump became president, siding with the establishment against their people in Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt and Sudan became a central foreign policy principle. This included cutting funds and shutting down offices working on promoting democracy in the White House and the State Department. CNN reports that Trump's church photo op was because he was upset about being taken to a bunker But the death of George Floyd and the violent response to protesters and journalists by police, makes for very similar images with protests in the Middle East. Although itd be wise not to draw comparisons between the demonstrations, their driving motives and the number of victims among protesters are different, tear gas and anger are common themes. The coronavirus pandemic will likely set the stage for major transformations in the values and images of many countries. Although the US is still a developed democracy, the swift rise of China as a superpower will blur the fault lines between democratic and authoritarian governments for some in the Middle East. China for its part too has sought to flag up what Beijing sees as US hypocrisy over how they view the protests in Hong Kong versus what is happening across America. These are the diplomatic seeds Trump is sowing with his actions. In threatening to deploy the US military to silence his critics and by holding up the bible during a political row, Trump is certainly reading from the Middle Eastern despot playbook. Sure his chums in the region will enjoy what they are seeing. Chinese police in Sichuans provincial capital Chengdu confiscated the merchandise of hundreds of Tibetan street vendors on Monday, citing health concerns over the possible spread of coronavirus in the city, sources say. The move following a lifting of restrictions on other businesses in the city has led to growing tensions between Tibetans and the police, with Tibetan vendors in Chengdus Wohao Ci neighborhood claiming they are being discriminated against, a local source told RFAs Tibetan Service on June 2. For the first time after months of shutdown, Tibetan traders and street peddlers have started again to sell clothing, jewelry, and fruit at the Xime Chu Huo street market in Chengdu, but Chinese plainclothes and uniformed police have now ordered them to leave the area and have confiscated their goods, the source, a local Tibetan businessman, said. From now on, they are not allowed to sell anything in the area, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. A video clip circulating on social media, and seen by RFA, shows Tibetan traders pleading their case with police, with one woman asking why they are being treated differently from other vendors in the area, saying We are Chinese citizens, too. Of the nearly 200 to 300 street vendors in the area, almost all are Tibetans, with the others Han Chinese, RFAs source said. Some of the Tibetans are engaged in petty business to make a living while theyre here in Chengdu looking after loved ones who are in hospital. Most of them came from Amdo and Kham and were expelled from [Tibets capital] Lhasa during the national uprising in 2008, he said. Theyre only trying to make ends meet, and this denial of the Tibetans' rights is only making their lives more difficult and sad, he said. The traders have now been told that the market area lacks proper hygiene, and that they are therefore not allowed to sell goods there, the source said. But in reality, the Chinese Public Security Bureau is more concerned about the large crowds of Tibetans that the market area attracts. Police have also warned the Tibetans that they will be taken into custody if they come down to the police station to try to recover their goods, he said. Tibetans not officially residents of Chengdu are finding it harder and harder to get leases from Chinese landlords, and even Chinese taxi drivers hesitate to take Tibetans on as passengers, he said, adding that discrimination against Tibetans in Chengdu is now widespread. Reported by Chakmo Tso for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney. GRUNDY CENTER Three people were arrested over the weekend after protesting the killing of hogs at a confinement in rural Aplington. Grundy County sheriffs deputies arrested Cheyanne Malia Holliday, 20, Justin Jeske, 24, both of Fairfield, and Scott Gilbertson, 19, of Albert Lea, Minn., Sunday night for trespassing at an Iowa Select Farms confinement on 120th Street. Court records indicate protesters chained themselves to a chain link gate at the sites driveway around 9:40 p.m. Sunday and refused to leave. Firefighters were called in to cut the chains. The three are associated with Direct Action Everywhere, an animal rights group. The group has been protesting the use of a process called ventilation shutdown which implements high temperature steam to euthanize hogs. Direct Action infiltrated an Iowa Select facility in Wright County in May and placed a hidden camera to record the process. In a video of the incident, Direct Action Everywheres investigator Matthew Allan Johnson likened the method to roasting the hogs alive. An element of good that has emerged from the ravages of COVID-19, and of this investigation, is that the longstanding systemic abuses of animal agriculture have been openly exposed for the world to see, said Johnson, who was cited for trespassing for a visit to the facility May 19. Iowa Select officials said the process is humane, and the culling is the result of processing plant closures in the wake of coronavirus outbreaks. Every U.S. pork producer has been forced to make difficult decisions on how to manage the impact of this backlog on their operation. Sadly, we were also forced to make the painful decision to euthanize some of our herd. We worked with industry-leading animal welfare experts, veterinarians and technical experts to design this heart-wrenching task, Jeff Hansen, president and CEO of Iowa Select Farms said. Prosecutors have sought a court order keeping protesters from the rural Aplington site and other properties used by Iowa Select. Love 3 Funny 0 Wow 2 Sad 2 Angry 1 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A Black Lives Matter protest took an unexpected turn Sunday night when from the parking lot at Midland Park Mall one could hear, Here comes the Christians. The self-proclaimed Nino America led his counter protest to the BLM movement to back Midland police and offer his perspective on protests that resulted in violence and looting. America told the Reporter-Telegram he self-identifies as Nino America because he doesnt believe in labels, such as being a Hispanic or conservative. Although he made it clear, he is a Christian. That mattered during the evening back and forth with BLM protesters as he asked them why they were OK with abortions that killed blacks. He also said that as a born-again Christian it was important for the event to be non-violent. Ill tell you right now, I will Ill let them beat me down because I dont believe in violence whatsoever., America said. Im a Christian. As BLM protesters who are frustrated by the death of George Floyd, America said his frustration is from watching the fires set, damage done and looting taking place in riots across the nation. I could not sleep last night, seeing my country being burned to smithereens, and criminals and hoodlums taking liquor and shoes out of stores and beating people to a pulp, America said. Its disgusting. And Americas better than that. Politics was part of the protest. The counter-protest included a flag supporting President Donald Trump and Making America Great Again, and their leader had a red hat that called for MAGA and a shirt with the stripes and stars of the American flag. America had previously protested against the Reporter-Telegram for coverage that he deemed wasnt fair to the president. Oh, I dont consider myself nothing but an American, he said. I do not like labels. Im not a minority. Im not a Mexican. I am an American. And its not very hard for me (to protest) because Im a born-again Christian. I have a loud mouth, and the Lord Jesus Christ is my Savior. I dont fear the rona (coronavirus). I dont fear Black Lives Matter. I dont fear Antifa. I only fear God. Photo: (Photo : Facebook/AyannaTatum) Ayanna Tatum was excited to see her son, Derrick Williams, climb the stage on his graduation from Baylor University. After experiencing so much from the family's movement from New Orleans to Houston during the wake of Hurricane Katrina, she wants to make her son happy. Williams' graduation did not proceed due to the pandemic, so his mom made him a personalized backyard ceremony. Ayanna Tatum created a backyard stage for Williams' graduation. On May 23, Tatum got creative and set up a stage in their backyard to proceed with Williams' graduation. She even had a Baylor University banner and podium with a microphone to look like a real one. She also invited a small group of family and friends to celebrate with her son on his big day. Tatum told People that Williams is a sweet and hardworking kid. She wants to do whatever she can as long as within her budget because he deserves so much. Williams said that he felt so blessed to experience precisely how he wanted his graduation to be, and that is to celebrate with his family and friends. He also said that the substitute backyard ceremony was more than enough compared to the original graduation ceremony. Read also: LA County Schools to Reopen: Students Required to Wear Face Masks. Tatum's priorities are her children. The 41-year-old mom wanted to give her son and daughter a better life and education. She moved her family to Houston after the 2005 hurricane as she continued to finish her online college degree. She said that her son overcame a lot of challenges because their family struggled financially. Other than that, he had to endure the hardship after Tatum's mother, who lived with them and was a "major influence" to her children, died in 2019. Initially, the family planned to leave every detail about their hardships and celebrate Williams's psychology degree from Baylor with a dinner celebration. They even rented an Airbnb in Waco, Texas, so that their family and friends who were from out-of-state to stay at, but the crisis changed everything. The cancelation of everything made Williams upset. Thankfully, Tatum's 19-year-old daughter sent her an impromptu backyard graduation ceremony of someone else, which she thought was a brilliant idea, so she decided to make one herself. At first, Tatum thought it was impossible, but when she realized that it was, she made it happen with the help of friends and family. She even arranged Williams with the "Pomp and Circumstance March" with two of his former middle school administrator and family friends, Anita Harris and Frank Fraley walk into the backyard. After the ceremony, Tatum had a gourmet dinner prepared for everyone. Despite reports of potential rainstorms earlier that week, the day turned out perfectly, said Tatum. She said that the most memorable part was seeing her son's reaction upon learning of the backyard ceremony. What pushed Tatum to proceed with the surprise backyard ceremony was Williams's saying that he might not be able to attend the rescheduled Baylor graduation. He is attending McGovern Medical School at UTHealth in the fall to become an orthopedic surgeon. Williams is so thankful for his mom for molding him into who he is today, being his biggest cheerleader, and serving as his rock. Protesters rally around a bonfire in the midst of protests against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd near the White House in Washington, May 31, 2020. A Twitter account claiming to belong to a national "antifa" organization and pushing violent rhetoric related to ongoing protests has been linked to the white nationalist group Identity Evropa, according to a Twitter spokesperson. The spokesperson said the account violated the company's platform manipulation and spam policy, specifically the creation of fake accounts. Twitter suspended the account after a tweet that incited violence. As protests were taking place in multiple states across the U.S. Sunday night, the newly created account, @ANTIFA_US, tweeted, "Tonight's the night, Comrades," with a brown raised fist emoji and "Tonight we say 'F--- The City' and we move into the residential areas... the white hoods.... and we take what's ours " This isn't the first time Twitter has taken action against fake accounts engaged in hateful conduct linked to Identity Evropa, according to the spokesperson. More from NBC News: The antifa movement a network of loosely organized radical groups who use direct action to fight the far-right and fascism has been targeted by President Donald Trump as the force behind some of the violence and property destruction seen at some protests, though little evidence has been provided for such claims. Other misinformation and misleading claims spread across Twitter on Sunday night and into Monday related to the protests. Two hashtags that trended worldwide on Twitter falsely claimed that there was a "cover-up" or a "blackout" of protests in Washington, D.C., overnight. Both appeared to insinuate that protesters have been silenced in some way, perhaps by a secret internet blackout. Twitter says it has removed the trend from its "trending topics" section because of "coordinated attempts to disrupt the public conversation" around the protests. Twitter said it suspended several hundred accounts and is investigating the viral spread of the hashtag, which it said was boosted by "hundreds of spammy accounts." "We're taking action proactively on any coordinated attempts to disrupt the public conversation around this issue," a Twitter spokesperson said. The spokesperson said the company sometimes pulls down hashtags that violate the company's rules, like platform manipulation. "We want trends to promote healthy discussions on Twitter. This means that at times, we may prevent certain content from trending. These include trends that violate the Twitter Rules," the Twitter spokesperson said. NetBlocks, a nonprofit group monitoring worldwide internet access, found no indication of a mass-scale internet disruption in the Washington area overnight or in the last 48 hours. Journalists covering the protests also took to Twitter to disprove the hoax. "A lot of people are asking me about a possible #dcblackout. I've been out near the White House since 4 am and haven't experienced any outage," tweeted Victoria Sanchez, a reporter for WJLA, the local ABC affiliate, adding that her colleagues had posted multiple updates throughout the night. Many accounts tweeting the message had few to no followers. The same messages were also posted on Reddit and 4chan late Sunday. The posts pushing the #DCBlackout hashtag peaked in popularity around 12:30 a.m. ET Monday. A second narrative boosted by bots and hacked accounts claimed that #DCBlackout is a misinformation campaign. The same message was tweeted verbatim by multiple accounts. "Yeah...... as someone seeing #dcblackout trending, who lives and works in the DC metro area, and who has friends telecommuting into DC rn..... This hashtag looks like misinformation," read the tweet, which was posted hundreds of times. Some accounts had few to no followers, while other tweets were posted by users who claim to have been hacked. One verified Twitter user, Jason Elia, said his account was hacked to tweet the message. Elia lives in Oklahoma City and said he wouldn't go to Washington "unless they build an In-N-Out there." He said he has since changed his password. The goal of the hashtag seems to be to sow confusion and fear during a chaotic time and to push the #DCBlackout hashtag to the front page of Twitter, where all users would at least glance at the disinformation. Josh Russell, an independent bot researcher who identifies foreign and domestic hacking and trolling operations, said events like the weekend's protests are ripe for this kind of platform manipulation. "Any large 'online' event is going to have these types of things happen. Every bad actor that sees the opportunity to create some panic is going to leverage the situation to do so. It's nothing new," Russell said. Off Twitter, viral text messages of screenshots of doctored tweets have circulated throughout the country. Some of the false text messages claim that extremist groups are plotting to move into residential areas this week. Bot researchers call this kind of disinformation distribution "hidden viral" text messages, which go undetected on mainstream platforms like Facebook and Twitter and can spread like wildfire without moderation. Similar "hidden viral" text messages went viral at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., with messages claiming that the institution of martial law was imminent, vaguely citing friends or co-workers. American officials later claimed that the texts were boosted by Chinese disinformation agents to spread panic. Russell said hostile foreign governments frequently "look at opportunities to make it seem as though there is an infrastructure failure" during times of crisis. "This is a common thing for foreign disinformation agents," Russell said. "They would be trying to get people to believe that things are much worse on the ground than they are." Bloomberg photo by David Kawai. TORONTO - Asked to comment on President Donald Trump's threat to use military force against protesters and the attacks on demonstrators in Washington to clear a path for a presidential photo op, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday paused for more than 20 seconds, then offered a response that did not directly criticize the U.S. leader's handling of the unrest. "We all watch in horror and consternation [at] what's going on in the United States," Trudeau told reporters after the long pause. "It is a time to pull people together. . . . It is a time for us as Canadians to recognize that we, too, have our challenges, that black Canadians and racialized Canadians face discrimination as a lived reality every single day." A kitesurfer in the sea off Portmarnock Beach, Dublin (Brian Lawless/PA) Irish Water has warned it is highly likely a hosepipe ban will be imposed nationwide as some water supplies are in drought conditions. Yvonne Harris, head of customer operations at Irish Water, said demand for water has been soaring over recent weeks with the hot weather. Sixteen of its drinking water schemes are in drought, with 38 at risk of going into drought. Ms Harris said the Irish Water technical team is assessing the weekends data, adding that it is highly likely it will implement a Water Conservation Order. Water Conservation Order / hosepipe ban increasingly likely as demand for water soars and drought conditions prevail. This comes during the ongoing Covid-19 crisis when handwashing and hygiene remain critically important. See https://t.co/pbxAv1meFr for more. Irish Water (@IrishWater) June 1, 2020 This is really about the protection of water supplies for consumption for our users, she told RTEs Morning Ireland. She appealed to people to only use water for necessary reasons, including hand washing during the coronavirus pandemic. Ms Harris said: We find on really hot days that demand is soaring beyond any previous levels. Last Saturday when it was a very hot and sunny day in Dublin, we experienced an additional demand of 30 million litres of water that would be the equivalent of an additional 200,000 people in Dublin. Our data is showing similar trends throughout the country. On very warm days, our behaviour around water usage is causing an unprecedented demand and were appealing to people to only use water for necessary activities. Irish Water is required to prove that there is deficiency in the water available for distribution before a decision is made to implement a Water Conservation Order. Expand Close Crowds on Brittas Bay beach, Co Wicklow (Niall Carson/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Crowds on Brittas Bay beach, Co Wicklow (Niall Carson/PA) We have experienced very, very dry weather over recent weeks and months, she added. April was the driest April for a number of years the average summer rainfall will be between 15 to 16 millimetres per month. While we did have a bad winter, we had a very, very warm and dry spring. The warning comes as Met Eireann said temperatures will hit 27C in Leinster and Munster. An activist stages a protest against Chinese legislature's approval on national security laws for Hong Kong in front of the Chinese embassy in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap By Lee Min-hyung With U.S. President Donald Trump threatening to revoke Hong Kong's special trade status with the world's largest economy, financial companies here are keeping a close eye on how the escalating political feud will unfold. The dispute is widely seen as part of an extension of the U.S.-China trade dispute, as Trump's decision came shortly after China's "legislature" approved plans to impose a security law on Hong Kong. Up until now, the chances have remained slim for Trump to actually turn his message of warning into reality, as the move will bring bigger-than-expected economic chaos across the globe, economists argue. They said, however, the escalating political tension, in itself, would come as a clear anxiety factor to non-Hong Kong-based firms operating business there, even if their actual damages from the political tension will likely remain minimal for the time being. A number of Korean financial companies represented by securities firms, such as Mirae Asset Daewoo have set up branches there, but most players are taking a wait-and-see approach and have not viewed the Hong Kong unrest as a very serious external risk. "For now, the Hong Kong issue is casting a limited impact on most Seoul-based brokerage firms doing business in there," an official from one of the major securities firms here said. "Major Korean financial companies there have not changed their business strategies due to the single issue, but are keeping close tabs on how the situation escalates further and plan to take action in the event that the feud develops to a worrying level," the official said. Amid the heightened political tension between the world's two largest economic powerhouses, there have been rumors that Chinese authorities will raise taxes on overseas firms in Hong Kong from the current 5 percent profit tax to 30 percent, which turned out to be false. "But we are closely watching the unceasing political unrest in Hong Kong," the official noted. Korea Capital Market Institute economist Kim Han-soo said Korean financial firms in Hong Kong would not be exposed to potential damages from the political uncertainty there. "The Hong Kong unrest will unlikely cause a lot of damage to Korean and non-Hong Kong-based companies there, as Trump will definitely be aware of lingering concerns that such an action may end up deteriorating the global money flow," he said. "Against the same backdrop, Korean financial companies in Hong Kong will not suffer from any serious near-term damages due to the ongoing power struggle between the U.S. and China," he said. Losing luster as financial hub But he pointed out that Hong Kong may end up losing its leading status as Asia's financial hub in the long term. "China is strategically developing Shanghai with the aim of turning the city into the next financial center in Asia," he said. "But my view is that Trump will continue exchanging a war of words against the Chinese authorities for a longer period of time, but is unlikely to take any specific actions against Hong Kong," the economist said. Despite the outlook, financial players there have to keep a close watch on the political dispute, even if the issue, in itself, will not be a serious risk factor in determining the survival of Korean firms there, he added. Poll Do you like your egg yolks runny or hard? Runny Hard Do you like your egg yolks runny or hard? Runny 1621 votes Hard 238 votes Now share your opinion An online debate has been sparked over whether egg yolks should be runny or hard after pictures of different yolk consistencies were shared on social media. Australian Eggs shared an image of various styles of egg dishes to Facebook, with people in the comments debating which yolk type tasted better. While some were of the opinion that a runny egg on avocado toast with feta was the 'ultimate breakfast choice', others preferred the consistency of a fully cooked egg. According to the health website SF Gate, there are benefits to eating both styles, and they might factor into how you prepare your next brunch. While some were of the opinion a runny egg on avocado toast with feta was the 'ultimate breakfast choice' (pictured) others preferred the consistency of a fully cooked egg RUNNY YOLKS A survey completed by The Carousel in 2016 confirmed that 69 per cent of Aussies like their eggs runny, whether they come boiled, fried, poached or scrambled. The egg yolk contains almost all of an egg's iron, zinc, vitamin B6, folate, vitamin B12 and calcium levels, including heat-sensitive antioxidants like lutein and zeaxanthin that keep your eyes functioning properly. When an egg is heated these heat-sensitive antioxidants are partially destroyed - so when frying you'll lose 17 per cent of the total lutein quantity and 19 per cent of the zeaxanthin. This fact would encourage some people to only fry their egg a small amount so the white is only just set and the yolk itself is runny. SF Gate also reveals that all of an egg's cholesterol is in the yolk, and it is similarly heat-sensitive. 'When cholesterol is exposed to heat during cooking, some of it oxidises, or combines with oxygen, and forms new substances called oxysterols,' the website read. 'Once in your system, oxysterols are active compounds that help regulate fat metabolism and may contribute to the hardening of the arteries, reported a review in the Circulation Journal in October 2010.' To avoid oxysterols you'd be best to eat lightly cooked yolks. Australian Eggs shared an image to social media of six boiled eggs prepared at varying degrees of softness - which sparked a debate over whether yolks should be runny or hard HARD YOLKS One of the main reasons people prepare their eggs with a hard yolk - outside of taste - is because heating it in this way eliminates all bacterial contamination. 'While egg farmers supply a safe, clean, fresh product, it is possible for eggs to become contaminated by the food poisoning bacteria salmonella,' Australian eggs reported. 'The good news is that salmonella is killed instantly at 74 degrees Celsius. So even if you are unlucky enough to get an egg with bacteria on it, the food will become safe by cooking it properly.' One of the main reasons people prepare their eggs with a hard yolk - outside of taste - is because heating it in this way eliminates all bacterial contamination There has been debate over whether eating eggs is safe for pregnant women - because of the bacterial risk - but the Australian government recommendations support them eating a hard yolk egg There has been debate over whether eating eggs is safe for pregnant women - because of the bacterial risk - but the Australian government recommendations support them eating a hard yolk egg. The New South Wales government advises women to eat eggs only if they have been cooked thoroughly to at least 74C. In the case of boiled, poached or fried eggs, this means cooking them until the white has set and the yolk has started to thicken. However, pregnant women should avoid raw eggs in foods like aioli, homemade mayonnaise, cake batter or mousse. The Bombay high court on Tuesday directed the Centre to provide data on passengers who tested negative for Covid-19 while boarding Vande Bharat Mission flights from foreign countries but tested positive after arriving in India. The matter came up while the court was hearing a petition from an Air India pilot, who complained the national carrier violated social distancing norms while repatriating Indians stranded abroad on the special flights. The court directed all parties to the petition to file their written arguments by Wednesday evening, and posted the matter for hearing on Thursday. A division bench of justices SJ Kathawalla and SP Tavade, while hearing the petition filed by Air India pilot Deven Kanani through video conference, was informed by senior advocate Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Air India, that special flights under the Vande Bharat Mission had adhered to all safety norms to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Mehta said Air India, DGCA and the civil aviation ministry had taken all precautions for passengers who were seated in middle seats. He said apart from the three-layered face mask provided to all passengers, those in the middle seats were provided personal protective equipment such as face shields for the entire duration of the flight. Mehta further said an expert committee, constituted to review social distancing norms on special flights, had expressed its satisfaction at the measures adopted for in-flight passengers, more so those seated in middle seats, and hence the petitioners apprehensions were unfounded and the petition should be dismissed. At an earlier hearing, advocate Abhinav Chandrachud, who along with advocates Arsh Misra and Kavita Anchan had represented Air India, had said the DGCA circular on social distancing norms was not applicable to unscheduled commercial flights and the petition was not valid. The Central government, through additional solicitor general Anil Singh, informed the court that though it was represented in the petition by DGCA, it wanted the civil aviation ministry to also be impleaded in the petition. The court said it would decide on this issue after hearing the application by the ministry. After hearing the submissions, the court sought to know from the Central government whether there is any data pertaining to the repatriated passengers who were negative for Covid-19 when they boarded flights but later tested positive after disembarking. The court said such data should be placed before the judges at the next hearing on Thursday morning. Global rating agency Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday downgraded the long-term issuer ratings of eight 'non-financial' companies, including software majors TCS and Infosys along with oil marketing companies ONGC, OIL, IOCL and BPCL. The agency, however, affirmed the long-term issuer rating of billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries, but warned that it could be lowered if the Indian sovereign rating is further downgraded. The agency downgraded the long-term issuer ratings of eight non-financial companies - Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), Oil India Limited (OIL), Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), Petronet LNG Limited, Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS) and Infosys Limited. The outlook on all these companies remains negative. The rating actions follow the downgrade of India's sovereign rating to Baa3 negative from Baa2 on June 1, 2020. Meanwhile, the ratings agency has affirmed the long-term issuer ratings of UPL Corporation Limited and Genpact Limited with stable outlook. Moody's has cut Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the country's largest software exporter, rating to Baa1 negative from A3 negative in wake of downgrade of India's sovereign rating. The agency said that TCS' rating will not be upgraded unless India's sovereign rating is upgraded, which is unlikely given the negative outlook. Also Read: Coronavirus effect: Moody's takes ratings action on 11 banks; downgrades SBI, HDFC, IndusInd, EXIM Bank The American rating agency warned that IT major's rating could also be downgraded if it provides support to its affiliate companies other than through its parent, Tata Sons, and undertakes material debt-funded acquisitions or increases its returns to shareholders, significantly undermining its credit profile. In line with rival TCS, Moody's has also lowered Infosys' rating to Baa1 negative from A3 negative, which is unlikely to be upgraded unless India's rating is upgraded. The agency said that Infosys' rating can be further downgraded if it undertakes material debt-funded acquisitions or increases returns to shareholders that significantly undermine its credit profile, or its operating performance deteriorates significantly. Also Read: Moody's cuts India's sovereign rating to Baa3, maintains negative outlook In case of Reliance Industries (RIL), the rating is unlikely to be upgraded over the next 12-18 months due to negative outlook, Moody's said. The outlook could return to stable if the stance on India's sovereign rating returns to stable. The agency said that RIL's rating could also be downgraded if its credit metrics deteriorate as a result of protracted weakness in its operations which results in significantly lower earnings beyond Moody's expectations. Adding to it, delay or cancellation of planned stake sales in its business segments and large debt-funded capital spending or acquisitions could also impact the firm's rating. In the last one month, RIL has raised a total of Rs 78,562 crore by selling minority stakes in its digital arm, Jio Platforms to Facebook as well as private equity firms such as General Atlantic, Vista Equity, Silver Lake, and KKR. Britain's two-metre social distancing rule is remaining in place, Number 10 said today - despite growing pressure on ministers to reduce it. MPs have called for the distance to be loosened in line with other countries such as Germany, to save jobs and allow more businesses to reopen. If pubs, theatres and other hospitality venues have to abide by the two-metre rule, it would severely restrict how many could enter and businesses could go bust. The Prime Minister's official spokesman said the matter is 'under review' but added: 'The current guidance is the two-metre rule should remain in place.' The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH), which represents workers, today argued it is vital the two-metre rule stayed in place to protect staff. It comes after a major study last night keeping one metre apart can slash the risk of catching coronavirus by 80 per cent. The World Health Organization-funded review revealed there is a roughly 1.3 per cent chance of contracting the virus when two metres from an infected patient. But halving this gap raised the risk to only 2.6 per cent. Guidance from WHO stipulates one-metre social distancing and Britain is one of only a handful of countries going farther. France, Sweden, and Austria all follow the UN agencys advice. Germany, Australia and the Netherlands have opted for 1.5 metres. Researchers found there was roughly a 1.3 per cent chance of contracting the virus when two metres from an infected patient. But halving this gap raised the risk to only 2.6 per cent. This means the disease would spread to fewer than three in 100 people, against 13 in 100 without any social distancing at all. That equates to an 80 per cent reduction in risk Politicians and business leaders have claimed the small increased risk from relaxing the two-metre restriction would be worth the economic benefits. Environment secretary Theresa Villiers called for the distance to be reduced in line with some other countries' rules to save jobs and help the hospitality sector reopen. Miss Villiers told BBC Radio 4: 'I think we should take comfort from the World Health Organization that one to two metres is safe. 'And the fact many other countries have taken the approach of one or 1.5 metres, that demonstrates that can be managed safely.' She added: 'Unless we ease the two metre rule, the hospitality sector is likely to stay closed.' Former chancellor Norman Lamont said halving the rule to one metre was 'the single most important measure we must take' to avoid 'devastating mass unemployment'. Commons Science Committee Greg Clark revealed he had written a letter to Boris Johnson urging the Prime Minister to relax the two metre rule. Mr Clark said: 'The difference between 2m and 1.5m may seem small but it can be the difference between people being able to go to work and losing their jobs.' However, on Tuesday Number 10 said the Government believes the two-metre rule should remain in place. What is the science behind two-metre social distancing rule? The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a one metre distance between two people from separate households. The reason for this, as stated on its website, is that: 'When someone coughs, sneezes, or speaks they spray small liquid droplets from their nose or mouth which may contain virus. If you are too close, you can breathe in the droplets, including the COVID-19 virus if the person has the disease.' But other countries have taken advice from their own health experts and social distancing varies from two metres (in the UK) down to one metre (in France) The two metre rule can be traced back to research in the 1930s that showed droplets of liquid from coughs or sneezes would land within a one-two metre range. Social distancing varies between different countries: TWO METRES: UK, Switzerland, US, Spain, Italy 1.5 METRES: Germany, Poland, Netherlands ONE METRE: Austria, Norway, Sweden, Finland SO, WHAT HAVE THE STUDIES SHOWN? ONE METRE Number 10's chief scientific adviser - Sir Patrick Vallance - has said that the one metre rule is up to 30 times more risky than the two metre rule. He told MPs earlier this month the risk of spending a minute next to a Covid-19 patient for two minutes was 'about the same' as being within a metre of a Covid-19 case for six seconds. The latest evidence, published in The Lancet, found there was roughly a 2.6 per cent chance of catching the virus when one metre from a Covid patient. But doubling the gap cut the risk to only 1.3 per cent. TWO METRE One of the top scientific advisers to the British Government said the two metre social distancing rule is based on 'very fragile' evidence. Professor Robert Dingwall, a member of Nervtag, referred to it as a 'rule of thumb' rather than a scientifically proven measure. Other experts have said the distance may be a non-scientific estimate that just caught on in countries around the world. IS TWO METRES ENOUGH? The UK's coronavirus social distancing limit is four times too short and the gap should be 26 feet, said experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in March. They found viral droplets expelled in coughs and sneezes can travel in a moist, warm atmosphere at speeds of between 33 and 100ft per second. This creates a cloud in the atmosphere that can span approximately 23ft to 27ft (seven metres to eight metres) to neighbouring people, the team said. Another study by scientists in Cyprus, published a fortnight ago, added to the evidence when it found the two-metre rule may not be far enough. Researchers found even in winds of two miles per hour (mph) - the speed needed for smoke to drift - saliva can travel 18 feet in just five seconds. And scientists from the universities of California Santa Barbara and Stanford last week said the two metre rule may have to be trebled when winter strikes. They found droplets that carry SARS-CoV-2 - the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 - can travel up to 20feet (six metres) in cold and humid areas. Advertisement First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has also urged Scots to continue to adhere to the current guidance of two metres. Ms Sturgeon said today: 'You might be reading or hearing in the media today some voices saying that one metre is sufficient, so I want to take the opportunity today to stress that the clear and the strong advice from the Scottish Government is to stay two metres apart from those in other households.' It comes after a new study suggested physical distancing of two metres only reduced the risk of coronavirus transmission by a small amount compared to one metre. The WHO found there was roughly a 1.3 per cent chance of contracting the virus when two metres from an infected patient. But halving this gap raised the risk to only 2.6 per cent. This means the disease would spread to fewer than three in 100 people, against 13 in 100 without any social distancing at all. That equates to an 80 per cent reduction in risk. The study showed nothing could provide complete protection, although face masks have a strong shielding effect reducing the risk of catching the virus by up to 85 per cent. The research, published in medical journal The Lancet, added to the clamour for Britain's two-metre rule social distancing rule to be relaxed. Previously scientists have said the two-metre rule lacks any validity. Professor Robert Dingwall, who sits on the governments scientific advisory body New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group, which feeds into SAGE, said the two metre rule 'has never had much of an evidence base', suggesting it is safe to stand closer to someone. Following the Lancet publication, the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) stressed the 'vital' importance of the two-metre distance as more businesses prepare to open. The professional body, which represents those who work in environmental health roles such as in the food, housing and transport industries, urged the Government to maintain the two-metre guidance especially as 'riskier' businesses including pubs prepare to open. CIEH Wales director Kate Thompson said: 'The World Health Organisation advice for distances of at least one metre to be maintained, to prevent the spread of coronavirus, has led to strong pressure from certain industries to reduce social distancing between individuals from the current two metres. 'However, this advice was only ever an absolute minimum, rather than a safe distance, and new evidence published today supports this longer distance. 'Protecting public health and avoiding the possibility of a second peak of infections should be key. It is, therefore, vital that the two-metre rule is not reduced due to pressure from industry.' The WHO study reviewed data from 172 existing studies on the spread of Covid-19, SARS and MERS. It concluded: 'Keeping a distance of over one metre from other people was associated with a much lower risk of infection compared with less than one metre. 'However, the modelling suggests for every extra metre further away up to three metres, the risk of infection or transmission may halve.' The study also adds to evidence that face masks should be worn on public transport and in busy areas, and highlights the importance of PPE for healthcare workers. It found that the risk of catching the virus when wearing a mask was just three per cent, compared to 17 per cent when not wearing a mask. Co-author Dr Derek Chu, from McMaster University, said: 'We believe that solutions should be found for making face masks available to the general public. However, people must be clear that wearing a mask is not an alternative to physical distancing, eye protection or basic measures such as hand hygiene, but might add an extra layer of protection.' Former ministers Mr Lamont and Miss Villiers had pointed to the smaller social distancing recommendations in other countries. Figures from the British Beer and Pub Association figures show that, with the current two metre rule, only 20 to 30 per cent of premises will be able to open at a sustainable level. However, if the rule was reduced to one metre, 70 per cent would be able to open. Mr Lamont said: 'The onus is on the (Government's) advisers to explain why it is that, while Britons must stay two metres apart, the World Health Organisation recommends one metre - as do many other European countries, acting on their scientists' advice.' Last Thursday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson reiterated his support for the two metre rule, saying: 'I must stress that to control the virus, everyone needs to stay alert, act responsibly, strictly observe social distancing rules, and stay two metres apart from those who you do not live with.' MASHANTUCKET, Conn. Electronic signs warned travelers to two of the worlds largest casinos about COVID-19 on Monday, the first day they partially reopened to the general public over the governors objections. Four portable signs installed by the state Department of Transportation near Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun flashed Avoid Large Crowds, Don't Gamble With COVID as cars many with Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York license plates passed by. Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont had asked the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, owners of the Foxwoods Resort Casino, and the Mohegan Tribe, owners of Mohegan Sun, to delay their reopenings, to no avail. Both casinos, which have been hit hard economically by the pandemic, reopened some areas over the weekend to invited patrons. We tried to put some good, strong advice in place as people are on their way to taking a gamble, said Lamont, who acknowledged he wasn't happy about the tribes' decision to push ahead with their partial reopening plans. Rodney Butler, chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, conceded the signs were kind of catchy" and credited Lamont with not taking stronger action. At one point, the governor, who has limited power when it comes to sovereign nations, suggested pulling the casinos' liquor licenses. All in, when you think about everything that we were talking about, between he and I and the Mohegans, I think he really did a great job in managing the situation, all things considered. There was a lot of pressure for him to do things that were a little bit more aggressive," said Butler. He said he believes Lamont got comfortable with the safety steps the tribes were taking after having his commissioners walk through the properties and hearing from state legislators, who also received tours. Butler said the tribes implemented some of the recommendations made by Lamont's team, including more signs warning people 65 years and older, and patrons with preexsiting conditions, of the dangers of the coronavirus. Foxwoods also swapped out two remote indoor smoking areas with an outdoor space. Over the weekend, about 200 invited players turned out each day at Foxwoods. Butler said a couple players who didn't want to wear masks were asked to leave the property. He said over 1,000 visitors had visited Foxwoods by midday on Monday, about what had been anticipated. He said there was a line of cars 50 deep on the state road leading to Foxwoods, early Monday morning. Chef Bruiser was one of them. He left his home in New Jersey at 7 a.m. to visit both casinos. He was one of the first people to enter Mohegan Sun when the doors opened to the public at 9 a.m. After spending about an hour-and-a-half there, he planned to try his hand at Foxwoods after buying coffee at a local Dunkin Donuts. He saw the state's signs, but wasn't fazed by the warnings. I'm not worried because I'm doing social distancing, he said. The secret is boost your immune system. Jeffrey Bowen, a real estate broker from Chelsea, Massachusetts, was among the first patrons to walk through the doors at 9 a.m. at Foxwoods. Bowen, who owns another home near the casino, also downplayed the state's warnings. Let's face it. We live in the United States of America. Our Bill of Rights have been taken away. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," said Bowen, who believes steps can be taken to make sure people are safe from the virus while still providing freedom for enjoyment. On Monday morning, Bowen said he saw only about 40 to 100 other people walking around the sprawling complex, which still remains partly shuttered. He doesn't expect there will be large crowds until all the gambling and amenities reopen. Lets face it, no one is going to touch chips anymore. Then you have to stand so far apart at the dice table, only a maximum of three people per table, said Bowen, who said he likely wont return to Foxwoods until the shows, spa, hotels, and poker tables reopen. It remains unclear when that will happen. Lamonts office plans to keep in touch with the casinos on a weekly basis about their ongoing reopening plans. The issue must be addressed by the higher education system, President says. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking at the meeting with heads of leading higher education facilities, said Ukraine is experiencing shortage of qualified personnel. "If we don't seek a solution together, the staff shortage in the country will remain. The state should solve this problem together with higher education," the president told the meeting, also attended by Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Yuriy Kostiuk and Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Science and Innovation Serhiy Babak. Volodymyr Zelensky emphasized that of more than a million students studying in Ukraine, most express no willingness to get employed in Ukraine. And of those who remain in the country fail to build careers in the fields they have studied. "Why did you waste your experience, why did the state spend its money if we can't involve these really talented students later?" the president said. Read alsoUkraine launching "National Online School" project Serhiy Babak stated that the task of the Committee on Education, Science and Innovation, as well as that of Parliament as a whole is to create legislative conditions for the development of the higher education system and its further evolution. So far, the Verkhovna Rada has already taken certain steps to change the university funding system. Contracts with rectors will now include KPI and assessment mechanisms. Heads of the leading higher education institutions stressed the importance of opportunities for the development of education provided by the new law on higher education, involvement of businesses in education, creation of venture fund mechanisms, financing of startups, and the need for new legislative initiatives. Supplier News 2 June 2020 Albert Einstein said, "in the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity." There's no question that we're in the midst of a global crisis. The implications of COVID-19 have been felt far and wide, but perhaps no industry has faced a more pronounced impact than hospitality. Right now, a hotel's ability to adapt will, in many ways, determine its ability to survive the course of this downturn. Recovery readiness is no small task, but hoteliers can take steps to mitigate the impact and lay the foundation for a strong comeback. With that future upon us, StayNTouch has created a comprehensive guide to recovery readiness that outlines what hoteliers can do today and how they can prepare for the inevitable upswing in a post-pandemic world. Over the coming months as travel bans and social distancing measures are lifted, the hospitality industry will begin forging its path to recovery. However, our long-awaited return to business as usual, will not be a "return to normal." As history has shown, global events like the coronavirus pandemic are an integral catalyst to innovation and long-term change. Things will look different after COVID-19, and hoteliers will be expected to embrace new and improved standards, adopt new business policies and technology, and digitize touchpoints with contactless technology to ensure guest and staff safety. Areas that have perhaps previously been seen as 'nice-to-haves' by the industry are now a necessity. The question then, on the minds of hoteliers, is what does it mean to be adaptable during a worldwide pandemic? What does the path to recovery look like? Recovery readiness is no small task, but hoteliers can take steps to mitigate the impact and lay the foundation for a strong comeback. Download The Hotelier's Complete Guide to Recovery Readiness today! Hoteliers ready to give guests a safe and seamless contactless experience are invited to schedule a live demo of StayNTouch's Mobile PMS at stayntouch.com. Running for cover: Protesters part in panic as a lorry is driven at them in Minneapolis. Photo: Reuters George Floyd's brother pleaded for peace in the streets yesterday as US cities brace for more violence amid a coast-to-coast outpouring of rage over police killings of black people. Terrence Floyd told a vigil in memory of his brother that violence is "not going to bring my brother back at all". By contrast, US President Donald Trump berated most of the nation's governors as "weak" for not cracking down harder on the lawlessness that has convulsed cities from coast to coast. The competing messages - one conciliatory, one bellicose - came as the US braced for another round of disorder at a time when the country is already buckling because of the coronavirus outbreak and the Depression-level unemployment it has caused. President Trump told the governors they must "dominate" protesters to keep the peace as the country braced for another night of violent clashes and looting. Leaked audio of the US president's call with governors revealed he suggested 10-year jail sentences for offenders and warned against the authorities becoming a "laughing stock". Expand Close George Floyds brother Terrence kneels at a memorial. Photo: Lucas Jackson/Reuters / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp George Floyds brother Terrence kneels at a memorial. Photo: Lucas Jackson/Reuters "You have to dominate," Mr Trump said. "If you don't dominate, you're wasting your time - they're going to run over you, you're going to look like a bunch of jerks." The tough talk contrasted with prominent black figures, from former president Barack Obama to the grieving brother of George Floyd, pleading for demonstrators not to use violence. The wave of anger at the death of Mr Floyd, a black American, after having his neck pinned to the ground by the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer, shows no sign of fading. By Sunday evening, the sixth night of protests, demonstrations had spread to more than 140 US cities, double Saturday's total. Dozens adopted curfews to keep the streets clear. They did not work. Across the country, protests that had been largely peaceful throughout the day descended into violent clashes with police at night. In Washington DC crowds were pushed back from the White House with tear gas and pepper spray as fires once again broke out, smoke drifting above the nation's capital. In New York, shop windows along Fifth Avenue were smashed, with people storming into Bloomingdales, Chanel, Adidas and North Face and grabbing items. Elsewhere, rubber bullets were deployed. In Louisville, Kentucky, a man was shot dead by police. Officers did not initially name him but said they had been fired on first. Other acts of shocking aggression emerged. In Minneapolis, the city where Mr Floyd died and protests began, a tanker sped into hundreds of protesters marching on a highway. Footage showed demonstrators sprinting for safety. Miraculously no one was killed. The motive was not clear. The full scale of the protests is becoming clearer. Every one of America's 50 states has seen demonstrations, according to CNN. More than 26 have deployed the National Guard. By yesterday afternoon the number of arrests across all days was at 4,400, but figures filtering in from cities made clear that would rise. Such a scale of impromptu race protests has not been seen in America since the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968. Even the US president has not been immune from impact. On Friday night, with protesters tussling with police outside, he was rushed into an underground bunker in the White House. Mr Trump reportedly remained there for around an hour. White House officials stressed the risk had always been low. The president did not appear on camera on Sunday, leading to criticism that he had been "silent" as the country erupted in anger. He did tweet, however, declaring "LAW & ORDER!" Mr Trump has talked up the role of "radical" organisers in the protests, including left-wing militant group Antifa, and did so again yesterday. "Anarchists, we see you!" he tweeted. Facebook was facing a revolt from staff yesterday over its failure to take action over Mr Trump's protest posts, with senior figures being publicly critical and some staff walking out. Twitter hid Mr Trump's "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" comment from users last week unless they clicked a link, saying it glorified violence, but Facebook did not. In New York, tens of thousands protested. It emerged the mayor's own daughter was arrested for protesting over the weekend. Joe Biden, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, visited a protest in Delaware. The party's last president - the only African-American ever to hold the role - also spoke out. "Let's not excuse violence, or rationalise it, or participate in it," Mr Obama wrote in a 1,000-word piece urging protesters to remain peaceful. In a sign of compassion, the Minneapolis police chief visited the site of George Floyd's death and took a knee. Floyd's brother Terrence made an emotional plea for peace at the same site. "Let's switch it up ya'll. Let's switch it up. Do this peacefully, please," he said. The gathering was part rally and part impromptu eulogy as Mr Floyd urged people to stop the violence and use their power at the ballot box. MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine president has suspended his decision to terminate a key defence pact with the United States, at least temporarily avoiding a major blow to one of Americas oldest alliances in Asia. Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said Tuesday he dispatched a diplomatic note to the U.S. ambassador in Manila informing the U.S. government that the Philippines is delaying its decision to abrogate the Visiting Forces Agreement by at least six months. Washington immediately welcomed the move. Our longstanding alliance has benefited both countries, the U.S. government said in a statement released by its embassy in Manila. We look forward to continued close security and defenceco-operation with the Philippines. President Rodrigo Dutertes administration notified the U.S. government on Feb. 11 that it intends to abrogate the 1998 agreement, which allows the entry of large numbers of American forces for joint combat training with Filipino troops and lays down the legal terms for their temporary stay. The termination would have taken effect after 180 days, in August, unless both sides agreed to keep the agreement. The waiting time will be suspended by at least six months and could be extended by another half a year, according to the diplomatic letter to the U.S., which cited unspecified political and other developments in the region. Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Manuel Romualdez told The Associated Press by telephone that he and his American counterpart, Sung Kim, helped discuss what could be done after the coronavirus pandemic hit and hampered possible talks ahead of the agreements actual abrogation in August. We both were concerned about the deadline for the termination which was coming close, Romualdez said. U.S. President Donald Trumps expression of readiness to help the Philippines deal with the pandemic during a telephone call with Duterte in April fostered the Philippine decision, Romualdez said. Key Duterte officials led by Locsin have cited the security and economic benefits the allies have gained from the treaty alliance. Former Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said the alliance has deterred aggressive Chinese actions in the disputed South China Sea, including possible construction of structures in Scarborough Shoal, a disputed fishing area off the northwestern Philippines that China effectively seized after a tense standoff in 2012. The Philippines has protested other assertive actions by Beijing in recent months in disputed waters where Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei are also locked in increasingly tense territorial disputes with China. Duterte has defended his decision to abrogate the pact with the U.S., saying the Philippines can survive and address a long-running communist insurgency and threats by Muslim extremists in the largely Roman Catholic nations south without American military assistance. Do we need America to survive as a nation? Duterte asked in February. Do we need the might and power of the military of the United States to fight our rebellion here and the terrorists down south and control drugs? The (Philippine) military and police said, `Sir, we can do it, Duterte said. NEW HAVEN City police are offering up to $5,000 in return for information regarding the two incidents in which Molotov cocktails were thrown at police substations early Monday morning. Capt. Antony Duff, a police spokesperson, said the department is offering up to $2,500 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any suspect or suspects involved in each of the two incidents. Around 2:11 a.m. on Monday, police responded to the police substation at 596 Winchester Ave. in the Newhallville neighborhood and found evidence of an attempted arson. Later that morning, officers discovered a similar scene at the police substation at 410 Howard Avenue in the Hill Neighborhood. A NHPD arson detective responded to the location and determined the incident occurred around 1:00 a.m. when an incendiary device was thrown at an exterior wall. Investigators found the damage to the exterior brick wall at 410 Howard Avenue to be similar to the damage at 596 Winchester Avenue, Duff said. Police are asking anyone with information about the incidents to contact the Connecticut Arson Hotline at 1-800-84ARSON (1-800-842-7766) or the New Haven Police Department Investigative Services/Fire Investigation Unit at 203-946-6304. Callers may remain anonymous or submit tips anonymously by calling 1-866-888-TIPS (1-866-888-8477). Tips can also be texted, just text NHPD plus your message to short code 274637 (CRIMES). New Haven Police Chief Otoniel Reyes said the department is working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) and the Joint Terrorism Task Force (J.T.T.F) and will hold responsible whoever committed the acts. Reyes also said he understood the incidents are not representative of the sentiments of the community. Somebody tried to burn two community buildings, he said. Ukraine and Norway believe that the coronavirus pandemic cannot be the reason for lifting international sanctions against the Russian Federation. This issue was discussed during a phone conversation between Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Vasyl Bodnar and State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Norway Audun Halvorsen, the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported. "The diplomats noted the high dynamics of a political dialogue and agreed to continue to take steps aimed at further strengthening of Ukrainian-Norwegian interstate partnership," the report says. The parties discussed the current state of bilateral cooperation, taking into account the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, noting the successful interaction in returning the citizens of Ukraine and Norway to their homeland. Bodnar drew attention to the need to effectively counter Russias attempts to lift the sanctions imposed by the international community under the guise of the COVID-19 pandemic. "Audun Halvorsen emphasized that Norways position on maintaining sanctions against Russia as an aggressor, as well as supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within internationally recognized borders, remains unchanged. In addition, he confirmed Oslos commitment to continue implementing projects aimed at overcoming the consequences of Russian aggression," the Foreign Ministry said. The interlocutors also discussed the prospects for bilateral cooperation on historical issues, in particular, on assessing the events of the Second World War and countering Russias manipulation of this topic. The parties also exchanged views on the interaction of Ukraine and Norway in multilateral formats, including at the UN. ish President Trump has said: "Nothing beats the Bible, not even 'The Art of the Deal.' " (Evan Vucci / AP) You dont have to be religious to be offended by President Trumps decision to stage a photo op in front of St. Johns Episcopal Church. Trump holding a Bible outside the historic church of the presidents was just as grotesque as his previous forays into public professions of religiosity. Remember his claim that "nothing beats the Bible, not even 'The Art of the Deal.'" He also insisted that he liked to take Holy Communion, or as he put it: When I drink my little wine which is about the only wine I drink and have my little cracker, I guess that is a form of asking for forgiveness, and I do that as often as possible because I feel cleansed. On Tuesday, Trumps prospective Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, took a swipe at the presidents display of the Good Book, saying: I just wish he opened it once in a while instead of brandishing it. If he opened it he could have learned something." Trump had it coming, but I wonder whether Biden might have been wiser not to accuse Trump, in effect, of being a bad Christian. Implying that Trump is ignorant of the teachings contained in Holy Writ is a dicier proposition that accusing him of exploiting religion for political ends, which Trump obviously has done. Trump did it again Tuesday when he traveled to a Roman Catholic shrine dedicated to the late Pope John Paul II, a visit that originally had been planned in connection with Trumps signing an executive order on religious freedom. The presidential candidates battle over the Bible comes against the backdrop of attempts by liberals and conservatives in a variety of Christian denominations to declare some political views unholy. Im most familiar with the debate in Roman Catholic circles over whether a given politician is faithful to church teachings. Liberal Catholics find fault with conservatives such as former House Speaker Paul Ryan because they supposedly depart from the churchs social teachings, which mostly overlap with political liberalism. Conservative Catholics are more likely to hurl their anathemas at Catholic politicians who support abortion rights or same-sex marriage. (Last year a priest in South Carolina refused to allow Biden, a pro-choice Catholic, to receive Communion.) Story continues But if Catholic teaching is subject to a variety of interpretations, so is the Bible. (A former colleague who decided to read the Bible from cover to cover remarked after a few months that theres a lot of weird stuff in that book.) Biden made it clear that Trump should read passages in the Bible that promote the idea that we are all called to love one another as we love ourselves. Indeed, there are several such passages, including a saying in Matthews Gospel in which Jesus counsels that if someone sues to take away your tunic, you should let him have your cloak as well. But the Bible also includes some passages that might be more to Trumps liking, such as the ones dealing with God smiting Trump might say dominating various people. All of which suggests that Biden should keep away from suggesting that Trumps a bad Christian or needs to sign up for a Bible study. Its enough to point out that Trump is using religion for political ends. And maybe its better for Biden if even that critique comes from others. It turns out that religious leaders are able and willing to call out the president. Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C., said she was outraged" by Trump's stunt. The bishop explained: I am the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and was not given even a courtesy call, that they would be clearing [the area] with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop. Buddes Roman Catholic counterpart, Archbishop Wilton Gregory, issued a similar statement denouncing Trumps visit to the shrine to John Paul II. I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles, which call us to defend the rights of all people, even those with whom we might disagree, Gregory said. Trump supporters no doubt will see these prelates as meddlesome priests. But when it comes to exposing Trumps exploitation of religion, they pack a more powerful punch than Biden ever could. SPRINGFIELD One day after calling up 375 members of the Illinois National Guard in Chicago, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced another 250 guardsmen will be activated as he issued disaster proclamations for nine counties amid ongoing protests and riots across the state. Since that deployment, we have received additional reports of escalating situations and requests for assistance from communities around the state, Pritzker said at a news conference in Chicago Monday. We have now called up an additional 250 members of the Illinois National Guard, to be ready to assist other cities across the state that have faced a surge of destructive action, notably looting, over the last 24 hours. The counties receiving disaster proclamations are Champaign, Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Macon, Madison, Sangamon and Will. The governor also ordered Illinois State Police to provide an additional 300 state troopers to support local municipalities Monday night into Tuesday. Pritzker made the announcement at the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago. Protesters took to the streets in that city in objection to police violence against black Americans over the weekend. Those protests were sparked around the nation, and around the world, by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed man who died Monday, May 25, in Minneapolis after being pinned to the ground for nearly nine minutes with a white police officers knee on his neck. Some at the protests engaged in widespread looting, arson and property destruction, but Pritzker and members of law enforcement drew a line at the news conference between those who protested peacefully and those who incited violence or destruction. Lt. Col. David Byrd, deputy director of the Illinois State Police, said as a black man, he was hurt by Floyds death. As an officer, he said he was also ashamed when he watched the footage. The ISP supports the peaceful protests that are occurring across the nation and across the state of Illinois for members of our community who want their voices heard, Byrd said. We're also committed to protecting the fundamental rights of life and property. Byrd said ISP helped several local departments with crowd control over the weekend, and the officers will help with traffic control, investigative components and several missions that have been identified moving forward. Pritzker said the disaster declarations will allow the state to coordinate state agencies and resources as we work to assist local governments with their disaster response and recovery operations. It is difficult to put into words the damage that has happened to our communities over the weekend, Pritzker said, noting the difficulties of a second rebuilding after COVID-19-related shutdowns. He added the pain will fall disproportionately on the backs of our small business owners, our working families and our communities of color. It has to stop, the governor added. We have to take care of our people. And for that reason we will continue to flexibly deploy Illinois State Police and the National Guard strategically as we work with the dual purpose of protecting Illinoisans, as well as the First Amendment rights of peaceful protesters. While Pritzker said some will point to the looting and use it to dismiss the pain and the anguish and sorrow of the moment, the peaceful protesters should not be overlooked. We cannot allow those who have taken advantage of this moment to loot and smash to also steal the voices of those expressing a need for real, meaningful change, he said. That will not be our story here in Illinois. Because this anger doesn't come out of nowhere, it's born of decades and centuries of systemic racism and injustice. Brig. Gen. Richard Neely, adjutant general of the Illinois National Guard, said the Guard was used to provide a cordon around the city of Chicago Sunday, setting a perimeter and supporting those peaceful protesters and ensuring control of the downtown area. Again, we will continue to support local law enforcement, Illinois State Police, well continue to plan, along with each of the emergency managers across the state and the local communities and mayors, to support a response to this civil disturbance that's currently ongoing, and we just echo the governor's call for peace, Neely said. Pritzker said the disaster declarations allow the state to quickly mobilize resources if needed, and thats the extent of what they will be used for at this point. I think what we're trying to do, again, is to operate flexibly and that's what a disaster proclamation allows us to do in these circumstances, the governor said. But it is limited right now to simply law enforcement and being responsive to the needs of those counties without having to deal with a lot of red tape when you need to move quickly within minutes or hours to help local law enforcement. Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government and distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. Southern Illinoisans hold demonstrations in response to George Floyd's death Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Iranian scientist Sirous Asgari has been deported from the US to Iran after recovering from coronavirus while imprisoned: Charkhin CC An Iranian scientist who was imprisoned in the US and acquitted in a federal trade secrets case had been deported, the countrys foreign minister said. Sirous Asgari was congratulated by Mohammad Javad Zarif in an Instagram post while he was on a flight back to Iran. Hello friends, a good news, the plane carrying Dr Sirous Asgari was flying from the United States. Congratulations to his dear wife and family, Mr Zarif wrote. Mr Asgari, a professor at Irans Sharif University of Technology, was accused by federal prosecutors of trying to steal secret research from Case Western Reserve University and was indicted in April 2016. The school, based in Cleveland, had been working on a project for the US Navy Office of Naval Research to create and produce anti-corrosive stainless steel. The case was tossed out by US District Judge James Gwin and Mr Asgari was acquitted in November last year. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) started trying to deport the scientist on 12 December following his acquittal, but Iran refused to recognise him as legitimately Iranian, said Ken Cuccinelli, acting deputy Homeland Security secretary. Mr Cuccinelli told the Associated Press that Iran only provided Mr Asgari with a valid passport in late February. DHS made several attempts to deport him, purchasing tickets for flights on 10 March, 18 March, 23 March, 1 April and 1 May but each flight was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Mr Asgari had been held at Louisianas Winn Correctional Center by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement before his deportation, said his supporters, who told The Guardian he had contracted coronavirus while imprisoned. In April, he asked to be released to a medical facility so he could receive treatment. Mr Asgari reportedly has a history of respiratory problems. State-run news agency IRNA reported Irans deputy education minister, Hossein Salar Amoli, recently said Mr Asgari had recovered from coronavirus and would be able to travel. Story continues Iranian officials had associated Mr Asgaris release with US prisoners held in Iran potentially being freed, which Mr Cuccinelli strongly disputed. On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Abbas Mousavi rejected speculation of a prisoner swap, adding that Mr Asgari would arrive in Tehran on Wednesday. Mr Mousavi was quoted by state TV as saying: Speculations about an exchange of Asgari for other individual is not accurate. His freedom came about based on his acquittal from charges. The release comes as the Trump administration continues a maximum-pressure campaign targeting Iran after unilaterally withdrawing from Tehrans nuclear deal with world powers in May 2018. Since then, both countries have seen a series of escalating incidents, including a US drone strike that killed Iranian major general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad earlier this year and an Iranian ballistic missile attack targeting American troops in Iraq. Additional reporting by AP The issue of the occupied peninsula will always be among the priorities until it is returned to Ukraine. Ukraine is initiating the creation of an international platform to end the Russian occupation of Crimea. "As for Crimea, this is a question that we raise at negotiations in various formats, and we are primarily interested in two elements. Element number one is the protection of human rights in occupied Crimea and, in connection with this, the release of persons illegally held by the Russian Federation," Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba said at a joint press conference with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in Berlin on June 2. Read alsoUkraine calls on international community to condemn violations by Russia of Crimean Tatars' rights, freedoms "As you know, most of them are Crimean Tatars. This is a task-oriented policy," he added. According to Kuleba, the second element is global. "It is about in which format we will discuss with our international partners the situation in Crimea and its inevitable de-occupation," he said. This issue was mentioned by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at his recent press conference and it is also on the foreign ministry's radar screen, Kuleba said. "We will talk with our partners about the exact format for us to establish this dialogue and what the international platform regarding Crimea should look like, and this topic will be a subject of our discussion with Mr. Maas in the future," he said. According to him, the issue of Crimea will always be among the priorities until the peninsula is returned to Ukraine. Nacha has approved Paychex, Inc., a leading provider of HR, payroll, benefits, and insurance solutions, for a two-year renewal of its Nacha Certified status, good through May 2022. Nacha Certified is a voluntary program that helps Third-Party Senders in the ACH Network to set themselves apart in todays competitive market. Successful Nacha Certified candidates demonstrate effective ACH Rules compliance and risk management, and sound corporate governance. Paychex was the first payroll provider to become Nacha Certified in 2018 when the program was implemented. The program requires a full review every two years. Nacha commends Paychex for its commitment to meeting Nacha standards for sound practices in ACH payment processing, said Michael Herd, Nacha Senior Vice President, ACH Network Administration. Paying one out of every 12 American private sector employees, Paychex has a long history of expertly navigating the risk and compliance obligations associated with processing ACH transactions, said Frank Fiorille, Vice President of Risk, Compliance, and Data Analytics at Paychex. Being Nacha Certified is an important demonstration of our ongoing commitment to meeting the highest standards in the payments industry. To learn more about the Nacha Certified program for Third-Party Senders, visit us at nachacertified.org. About Nacha Nacha is a nonprofit organization that convenes hundreds of diverse organizations to enhance and enable ACH payments and financial data exchange within the U.S. and across geographies. Through the development of rules, standards, governance, education, advocacy, and in support of innovation, Nachas efforts benefit all stakeholders. Nacha is the steward of the ACH Network, a payment system that universally connects all U.S. bank accounts and facilitates the movement of money and information. In 2019, 24.7 billion payments and nearly $56 trillion in value moved across the ACH Network. Nacha also leads groups focused on API standardization and B2B payment enablement. Visit nacha.org for more information, and connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. About Paychex Paychex, Inc. is a leading provider of integrated human capital management solutions for human resources, payroll, benefits, and insurance services. By combining its innovative software-as-a-service technology and mobility platform with dedicated, personal service, Paychex empowers small- and medium-sized business owners to focus on the growth and management of their business. Backed by more than 45 years of industry expertise, Paychex serves approximately 670,000 payroll clients as of May 31, 2019 across more than 100 locations in the U.S. and Europe, and pays one out of every 12 American private sector employees. Learn more about Paychex by visiting paychex.com and stay connected on Twitter and LinkedIn. A takeover of one of the largest and most high-profile police agencies in the nation would have been yet another blow to a city fighting for statehood, forcing it to surrender control of all or part of a 4,000-member armed force to federal officials who do not answer to District residents and whose policies and practices differ from those of local leaders. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Just hours before a citywide curfew goes into effect at 8 p.m., NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said the department would not allow violence and disorder ... after the sun has set." We encourage people to come out to peacefully protest, Shea wrote on Twitter. We hear you & understand your concerns, & well get through this TOGETHER, as we did yesterday afternoon & the afternoon before that people who care about their communities & neighbors. And as part of that same sentiment, & of the oath our officers have sworn we cannot we will not allow the violence & disorder that has plagued our city after the sun has set, he continued. And as part of that same sentiment, & of the oath our officers have swornwe cannotwe will notallow the violence & disorder that has plagued our city after the sun has set. Commissioner Shea (@NYPDShea) June 2, 2020 Sheas comments come after a first night of curfew, which began at 11 p.m. on Monday, was unable to fully quell mayhem that occurred in various parts of the city. As a result, Mayor Bill de Blasio set Tuesdays curfew earlier than Mondays and said it would remain in place until at least Sunday. The decision was made in response to protests that ended with violence, rioting and looting in Brooklyn and parts of Manhattan over the weekend. The protests were sparked by the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis last Monday after a white police officer kneeled on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes. While pushing back on utilizing the National Guard, which multiple Staten Island elected officials have fervently advocated for, de Blasio said additional NYPD resources would be deployed to areas where more backup is needed in the city going forward. We do not need, nor do we think its wise for the National Guard to be in New York City nor any armed forces, he told reporters during a press conference Tuesday. Shea joined de Blasios calls to true, authentic leaders of communities including members of the clergy, civic leaders and block associations to step in to help quell the looting and violence on the streets in recent days. Each day, our officers leave their own families & homes to protect yours, while being shot at, having Molotov cocktails thrown into their vehicles, & getting intentionally struck by cars they put their very lives on the line to fulfill the oath they took to ensure public safety, Shea said on Twitter. I appeal to every resident, & all of our leaders community, faith, and elected to support our brave cops who are holding this great city together, he wrote. They need you to stand together with them to condemn these senseless acts of mayhem, & the factions behind those acts. Police and local officials quashed false rumors of looting on Staten Island, and the boroughs protests have been peaceful, the Advance/SILive.com previously reported. About 2,000 protesters, including around 700 people on Monday, have been arrested in New York City, according to News 4 New York. A former Health Minister, Alex Segbefia, has questioned the lack of detail in the Electoral Commission (EC) and National Identification Authoritys (NIA) safety protocols for covid-19 as compared to religious gatherings. Churches and Mosques have been hit with almost 30 conditions each ahead of the June 5 deadline where they would be allowed to worship. This has compelled Dr. Segbefia to suggest that the government is favouring the under-fire EC and NIA. The government has taken copious detail on what should happen in churches and schools but have given absolutely no guidelines for the Electoral Commission or for the National Identification Authority, he said on Citi TVs The Point of View. In response, the Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah insisted that the EC and NIA will certainly apply general preventive etiquettes in their activities. I don't see how you are going to have the Electoral Commission gather more than a 100 people at a place at a point in time. It cannot happen under these guidelines. Mr. Nkrumah further argued that the government could not dictate details to the EC and NIA. Remember, ideally, they are supposed to be independent organisations and if you read the constitution, in the performance of their tasks, you cant even be dictating too much to them. They themselves are required to come up with the details in the light of their independence that would ensure that they don't put people's lives at risk, he added. The EC plans to begin the voter registration later in June 2020 whilst the NIA plans to resume the Ghana Card registration before the voter registration begins. Because of the EC's move to make the Ghana Card and Passports the only valid forms of identification for registering onto the electoral roll ahead of the registration in June, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), which Dr. Segbefia served under, has accused the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) of conniving with the EC and the NIA to rig the 2020 elections . citinewsroom Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Intelligent virtual assistant market is anticipated to reach $21.52 Billion by 2026 according to a new study published by Polaris Market Research. In 2019, the BFSI segment dominated the global market, in terms of revenue. North America is expected to be the leading contributor to the global market revenue during the forecast period. The growing need to improve customer service, streamline enterprise communication, and increase productivity has boosted the adoption of intelligent virtual assistants. The rising penetration of mobile devices, and integration of virtual assistants with smart home appliances further support the growth of this market. Additionally, the increasing demand of intelligent virtual assistants from small and medium enterprises has supported market growth over the years. Increasing investments by vendors in technological advancements coupled with growing need to improve customer experience would accelerate the adoption of intelligent virtual assistants. However, lack of awareness is expected to hinder market growth. Growing demand from emerging economies is expected to provide numerous growth opportunities in the coming years. Get sample copy of this report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/intelligent-virtual-assistant-market/request-for-sample The use of digital assistants and bots is expected to increase in the coming years. Computer programs in the form of bots simulate conversation with users through chat windows and voice calls. They have the ability to perform a number of different automated tasks such as scheduling meetings, managing finances, and others. They also assist in successful use of unified communication tools. These bots could be used as an automated attendant monitoring the interactions and offering instructions to users. Intelligent virtual assistants are gradually replacing traditional interactive voice response systems. Use of intelligent virtual assistants is proving effective by enhancing customer and brand experience, and providing a consumer-friendly environment. The virtual assistants also offer a platform for convenient communication within businesses through voice, text, and other channels. North America generated the highest revenue in the market in 2017, and is expected to lead the global market throughout the forecast period. The presence of established telecom and cloud infrastructure in this region, and growing trend of BYOD drive the market growth in the region. The growing demand of mobile devices, and technological advancements further support market growth in the region. Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period owing to growing demand of virtual assistant technologies in the developing countries of the region. Complete Summary with TOC Available @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/intelligent-virtual-assistant-market The end-users in intelligent virtual assistant market include healthcare, education, retail, BFSI, government, and others. In 2017, the BFSI segment accounted for the highest market share owing to increasing need to offer enhanced customer services, and improve productivity. The demand for intelligent virtual assistants has increased from organizations operating in this sector to improve workforce collaboration, client interaction, and reduce costs. The well-known companies profiled in the report include Apple Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Google, Nuance Communications, IBM Corporation, Oracle Corporation, [24]7.ai., Speaktoit Inc., CodeBaby Corporation, Next IT Corporation, Intel Corporation, and Clara Labs among others. These companies launch new products and collaborate with other market leaders to innovate and launch new products to meet the increasing needs and requirements of consumers. Intelligent Virtual Assistants Market Size and Forecast, 2017-2026 by Technology Text-based Speech Recognition Text-To-Speech-Based Others Intelligent Virtual Assistants Market Size and Forecast, 2017-2026 by Type Rule-based Conversational Ai-Based Intelligent Virtual Assistants Market Size and Forecast, 2017-2026 by Service Customer service Marketing assistant Intelligent Virtual Assistants Market Size and Forecast, 2017-2026 by End-User Healthcare Education Retail BFSI Government IT & Telecom Others Intelligent Virtual Assistants Market Size and Forecast, 2017-2026 by Region North America U.S. Canada Mexico Europe Germany UK France Italy Rest of Europe Asia-Pacific China India Japan Rest of Asia-Pacific Latin America Brazil Middle East & Africa Avail discount on this report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/intelligent-virtual-assistant-market/request-for-discount-pricing About Polaris Market Research Polaris Market Research is a global market research and consulting company. We provide unmatched quality of offerings to our clients present globally. The company specializes in providing exceptional market intelligence and in-depth business research services for our clientele spread across different enterprises. We at Polaris are obliged to serve our diverse customer base present across the industries of healthcare, technology, semi-conductors and chemicals among various other industries present around the world. We strive to provide our customers with updated information on innovative technologies, high growth markets, emerging business environments and latest business-centric applications, thereby helping them always to make informed decisions and leverage new opportunities. Contact us- Polaris Market Research Phone: 1-646-568-9980 Email: sales@polarismarketresearch.com Web: www.polarismarketresearch.com A doctor holds up a mask that reads "Black Lives Matter" during a rally against the killing of George Floyd, Foley Square on May 29, 2020 in New York. Kevin Mazur | Getty Images As people across the United States protest the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, infectious disease experts and doctors fear the large gatherings will spur more Covid-19 infections and make a second wave of the coronavirus in the fall much worse. "It is difficult to imagine that we will not see a spike in Covid-19 transmission due to the protests," said Ryan Demmer, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota. "Many days of large, in-person gatherings are powerful forces that can accelerate transmission." The virus has hit the U.S. harder than any other country, with more than 1.8 million cases and 105,000 deaths as of Tuesday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Risk of infection While cases in hot spots such as New York state have slowed in recent weeks, the "gap between doing OK to being back into a state where we might not have enough ventilators is a narrow gap," said Dr. Preeti Malani, chief health officer and a professor of medicine and infectious disease at the University of Michigan. To be sure, infectious disease experts and doctors say it's difficult to balance the desire to protest injustice against the risk of infection. While protesters cannot eliminate coronavirus risk, they can take steps to decrease the spread or chance of getting it, according to interviews with a dozen epidemiologists, doctors and infectious disease specialists. Scientists know the coronavirus can spread through respiratory droplets that pass when an infected person coughs, sneezes or even breathes. The droplets of infected fluid can land on nearby surfaces like desks, tables or telephones and infect anyone who touches them. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine in March found the virus can survive for several hours in aerosols and last days on surfaces such as copper, cardboard, plastic and stainless steel. Hand sanitizer, hand shakes Infectious disease experts and doctors recommend using hand sanitizer and avoiding physical contact while greeting people, including shaking hands. They said protesters should watch what they are touching and avoid touching their eyes, nose and mouth, where the virus can enter the body. They also recommend maintaining at least 6 feet of distance from others when possible. "You can have a buddy system and stay in smaller groups. Ideally, you want to stay away from big groups," said Dr. Leana Wen, a professor of health policy and management at the George Washington University. "Don't hug and kiss. Don't share drinks. Bring your own water bottle. ... Don't use the same microphone that's been touched by hundreds of people." Protesters should also wear a face covering and eye protection, said Bob Bednarczyk, an epidemiologist at Rollins school of public health at Emory, adding that yelling is another way the virus can be transmitted. Megaphones He recommended the use of a megaphone or other voice amplifier. Wen echoed those sentiments, saying, "you can use signs and a noisemaker instead." Some experts are concerned police tactics such as tear gas may cause sneezing and coughing, but Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist and professor at the University of Toronto, said that may not have much impact on coronavirus spread. "Maybe you could say it inflames mucus membranes. But I don't know if it will significantly impact," he said. He also said it's more difficult for the virus to spread outside versus indoors, but cautioned, "in those settings you can't control the environment around you." Imported cases [June 02, 2020] VMware Introduces Delivery of Elastic Infrastructure for AI/ML Applications with VMware vSphere 7 VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW) today introduced a new integrated feature in VMware vSphere 7 that will enable enterprises to deliver elastic infrastructure on-demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) applications. This new feature-VMware vSphere Bitfusion-is developed out of VMware's 2019 acquisition of Bitfusion, a pioneer in the virtualization of hardware accelerator resources including graphics processing unit (GPU) technology. Organizations use hardware accelerators such as GPUs to dramatically improve the performance of AI/ML workloads that may run several hours or longer. IT teams have come to realize that these hardware accelerators are isolated islands-unable to be shared across many parts of the business. The inability to share those resources leads to inefficient and poor utilization of both existing and newly purchased resources. The combination of Bitfusion and VMware vSphere will help organizations achieve cost savings, enable resource sharing out of the box, and deliver the right hardware accelerator resource, like a GPU, to the right workload at the right time. "We aim to deliver the same value to GPUs that we delivered for CPUs," said Krish Prasad, senior vice president and general manager, Cloud Platform Business Unit, VMware. "By breaking down existing silos of GPU resources, organizations will be able to achieve better utilization and efficient use of them through sharing-resulting in immediate cost savings. More importantly, organizations will be able to jumpstart new or stalled AI/ML initiatives to drive their business forward by sharing those GPU resources with their teams on-demand with VMware vSphere 7." VMware vSphere 7 with Bitfusion Enables Efficient GPU Pooling and Sharing AI and ML-based applications-deep learning training in particular-rely on hardware accelerators to tackle large and complex computation. With the newly integrated Bitfusion capabilities, VMware vSphere 7 will enable enterprises to pool their powerful GPU resources on their servers and share them within their data centers. That will enable organizations to efficiently and rapidly share GPUs across the network with teams of AI researchers, data scientists and ML developers relying on and/or building AI/ML applications. Released in April 2020, VMware vSphere 7 was rearchitected into an open platform using Kubernetes to provide a cloud-like experience for developers and operators. The Bitfusion feature of VMware vSphere 7 will leverage GPUs for applications running in virtual machines or containers. Bitfusion can operate in a Kubernetes environment such as VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid, and is expected to run side-by-side as customers deploy AI/ML applications as part of an overall modern applications strategy. The Bitfusion feature of VMware vSphere will be available through a single download with no disruption to current infrastructure and will seamlessly integrate with existing workflows and lifecycles. VMware acquired Bitfusion last year with the intention to integrate the technology into VMware vSphere. Bitfusion offered a software platform that decoupled specific physical resources from the servers they are attached to in the environment. This included sharing GPUs in a virtualized infrastructure, as a pool of network-accessible resources, rather than isolated resources per server. Dell Technologies Taps VMware for Dell EMC (News - Alert) Ready Solutions Today, Dell Technologies also announced two new Ready Solutions: Dell EMC Ready Solutions for AI: GPU-as-a-Service and Dell (News - Alert) EMC Ready Solutions for Virtualized High Performance Computing (HPC). Read more details here. With the new Dell EMC Ready Solutions for AI: GPU-as-a-Service, customers will be able to quickly and conveniently take advantage of GPUs to supercharge AI projects including predictive analytics, machine learning and deep learning. These Ready Solutions will incorporate VMware Cloud Foundation including VMware vSphere Bitfusion along with Dell EMC servers, storage, networking and services. These solutions will help customers to provide developers and data scientists self-service access to a virtualized accelerator pool to increase the utilization and efficiency of these valuable resources. The new Dell EMC Ready Solutions for Virtualized HPC (vHPC) will make it simpler for organizations to run demanding AI applications in VMware environments. The ability to virtualize HPC and AI operations with VMware Cloud Foundation including VMware vSphere Bitfusion or VMware vSphere Scale-Out Edition will offer rapid hardware provisioning on demand, faster initial setup, and configuration and ongoing maintenance with centralized management and security. Dell EMC Ready Solutions for vHPC support the intensive compute needs for bioinformatics, computational chemistry and computer-aided engineering. Supporting Quote "What we're seeing among data science departments is that many of their artificial intelligence applications are already running in containers. There's a great opportunity for us to serve them better by combining vSphere with Bitfusion and the native scaling abilities of vSphere with Kubernetes to accelerate their research." - Johan van Amersfoort, Technologist EUC & AI, ITQ Consultancy Pricing and Availability VMware vSphere Bitfusion is expected to become available in VMware's Q2 FY21. The new feature is part of the VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus edition entitlement. Additional Resources Read the "Announcing vSphere Bitfusion - Elastic Infrastructure for AI/ML Workloads" blog post Learn more about VMware vSphere 7 Connect with VMware on Twitter and Facebook About VMware VMware software powers the world's complex digital infrastructure. The company's cloud, app modernization, networking, security, and digital workspace offerings help customers deliver any application on any cloud across any device. Headquartered in Palo Alto (News - Alert), California, VMware is committed to being a force for good, from its breakthrough technology innovations to its global impact. For more information, please visit https://www.vmware.com/company.html. VMware, vSphere, Bitfusion, Tanzu, and Tanzu Kubernetes Grid are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other jurisdictions. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005347/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 612 new coronavirus cases Tuesday, raising the statewide total to 72,894. Across Pennsylvania, 5,667 deaths have been tied to COVID-19, including 100 new fatalities reported today. About two-thirds of the coronavirus deaths have occurred in long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes. About 67% of those who are known to be infected have recovered, according to the health department. The health department released new figures Tuesday; the numbers reflect cases and deaths as of midnight and are cumulative from early March. The number of daily new cases has dropped over the past three weeks. This is the 23rd day in a row when there have been fewer than 1,000 new cases, according to health department data. Just under 400,000 people in the state have tested negative. Nursing homes Statewide, 3,597 of the total coronavirus deaths have been people in long-term care facilities, including nursing homes, according to the health department. The department said 15,660 residents of those facilities have contracted the virus, along with 2,696 employees. Cases have been found in 609 long-term care facilities, the department said. Overall, medical workers have accounted for about 5,500 of the total cases of coronavirus. Reopening Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has lifted the stay-at-home order for most of Pennsylvania under his color-coded plan to reopen Pennsylvania (red, yellow and green). The governor said he will lift the stay-at-home order from the remaining 10 red counties, including the Philadelphia area, on Friday. On Friday, the Pittsburgh area and other counties are supposed to enter the green phase, the least restrictive. Thatll put half the state in green. On Friday, Dauphin County and seven other counties entered the yellow phase, which allows more businesses to reopen, with restrictions. This story has been updated with more information on nursing home cases. More: How voting is happening in 9 states, including Pa., among protests, coronavirus and curfews You can flush, but the virus cant hide: Harrisburg starts testing sewage for COVID-19 Will there be high school sports this fall? Pa. could release guidelines for a return to play this week Hundreds join Lecrae, Christian pastors in calling for racial justice, unity in Atlanta OneRace Movement announces 'March on Atlanta' June 19 Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment After a weekend of protests and riots sparked by the killing of George Floyd, hundreds of Christians and hip-hop artist Lecrae gathered in Atlanta to call on churches and government leaders to ensure fair treatment and an end to racially-motivated crimes. Additionally, leaders also announced plans for a March on Atlanta that will take place in just over two weeks. The OneRace Movement, a Christian coalition that exists to displace the spirit of racism and release a movement of racial reconciliation across Atlanta, the Southeast, and the nation, held a news conference at Liberty Plaza outside the state capitol building in downtown Atlanta Monday. Today, we are not here to talk about the protests," OneRace co-director Josh Clemons told the crowd. "We are not here to talk about the riots. We are not here to talk about the looting. What we are here to talk about today is the injustice in our land." The news conference, which was announced last week, drew hundreds following a weekend of protests, violence and destruction in the city and elsewhere in the country. Thousands demonstrated in the streets after the death of Floyd, 46, who was filmed with a white police officers knee on his neck as he died on a Minneapolis, Minnesota street on Memorial Day. Floyds death follows the recent killings of Ahmaud Arbery, who was killed in Georgia while jogging, and Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot by police in Louisville, Kentucky. I think this is a moment for the Church, for you, for me to cry out: Enough is enough! Its time for a change. Its time for reform and it's time for the Church to lead the way. Led by several Christian leaders and pastors, the coalition released The OneRace Statement on Righteousness and Justice: A call to end Racial Violence. The Christian Community must engage this issue spiritually & civically, the document reads. This engagement must begin with understanding the deep history of racism in our nation, then owning that history as our collective spiritual responsibility, and then engaging in our spheres of influence constructively to change the story for future generations. Lecrae, a 40-year-old Christian hip-hop recording artist who resides in Atlanta, also spoke at the news conference. My burden [is] my mother marched in the 60s and 70s and protested these issues of systemic racism and injustice, he said. She took me to my first march after Rodney King was unjustly beaten. I marched and protested in Ferguson for Mike Brown, for Sandra Bland. Here we are four years later in the same situation doing the same thing. Something different has got to happen. There has to be a change. I am all for the idea that the Gospel is what changes hearts. But the Gospel is both explicit and implicit, Lecrae said. The Gospel is in the form of the cross. The cross is vertical but it is also horizontal. So there has got to be some horizontal implications in what you believe, taking action in your churches, in your communities and in your jobs. The new OneRace statement calls on Christians to work to end racially-motivated acts of violence by voting in local elections for candidates that uphold our values of equity and dignity toward all races and serving in our communities across racial lines. The statement also encourages believers to speak up and participate in nonviolent protest whenever we see the injustice that demands our attention. We all have varying degrees of power, position, and privilege, the statement reads. In following the example of our Savior as described in Philippians 2:3, we must count others as more important than ourselves, exercising our power, position, and privilege for the betterment of those not like us. The statement calls on elected officials to make changes to ensure that "laws are written and enforced in ways that are equitable towards all." "When legislation and enforcement enables one segment of the population to feel safe and another segment of the population to feel endangered, changes are necessary," the statement adds. Area pastors who spoke at the Monday event included: Crawford Loritts of the Fellowship Bible Church, Jeff Norris of Perimeter Church, Lee Jenkins of Eagles Nest Church, Dennis Rouse of Victory Church, and Arthur Breland of Woodland Hills Church. The OneRace Movement, which released the Atlanta Covenant signed by thousands of faith leaders in August 2018, also announced that tens of thousands of people will be invited to participate in a march in Atlanta on June 19 to call for changes that will ensure that there will be no more Arberys, Taylors or Floyds. In the news conference, Lecrae said the country needs to see prayer, policy, programs, publicity and protest. We need all of those pieces to that puzzle, Lecrae said. This is a system that has been set up from the inception for black people to fail. Black people cant tear down a system that we didnt build. So it is important for my brothers and sisters in Christ to use their power and privilege to help tear down these evil infrastructures that hold us back. Lecrae continued by calling for there to be more leaders of color within churches. It is one thing to have black friends. But do you have black leaders in your life who can guide you and lead you and inform you on how this should go? Lecrae asked. When you look around your Facebook pages or your jobs, who are your hiring? Are you hiring friends that look like you? Or are you hiring people that are qualified but do not come from the community that you come from? That is how you tear down the infrastructure of systemic justice, he continued. Those are the implications of the Gospel. If we truly believe that, it is going to make us uncomfortable. The Gospel makes us uncomfortable. If we are truly living out our faith, it should make us uncomfortable. We should look strange to people. [June 02, 2020] 'Caregiver Makeover with Brandi': Fashion Stylist Brandi Hill Pampers Front Line Heroes in new Series available on Facebook DENVER, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Eden Life Care announced today the launch of an online Video series honoring front line healthcare heroes with a makeover from fashion blogger, stylist Brandi Hill. The first episode features nurse Ashley Lancaster from FairAcres Manor in Greeley, Colorado. Ashley Lancaster cares for 50 residents as a nurse at the Colorado senior living facility that has suffered more than 80 COVID-19 cases this year. The mother of two works 12-hour shifts caring for residents at the nursing home. "It's good to know that people are out there who care for you, when you are caring for everybody else," said Lancaster. "We're all looking for ways to give back to our communities during this difficult time," aid Brandi Hill. "It was such an honor to have a chance to meet and pamper Ashley and make her feel great about herself. I can't wait to feature more front-line heroes in our new series as we honor those who give so much to care for our loved ones around the U.S." 'Caregiver Makeover with Brandi' can be found at www.facebook.com/EdenLifeCare ABOUT EDEN LIFE CARE Eden: Life Care App is a user-friendly technology connecting families to loved ones in nursing homes, hospitals, and assisted living facilities. It provides healthcare facilities with a simple way to comply with new reporting guidelines from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) www.EdenLifeCare.com Media Contact: Casey McConnell, 9705561120, [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/caregiver-makeover-with-brandi-fashion-stylist-brandi-hill-pampers-front-line-heroes-in-new-series-available-on-facebook-301069615.html SOURCE Eden Life Care [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] General Motors Chairman and CEO Mary Barra on April 1, 2020 tours one of the company's facilities in Warren, Michigan that will produce Level 1 face masks. General Motors CEO and Chairman Mary Barra is "impatient and disgusted" following the deaths of George Floyd and other black Americans, she said in messages this week to employees, suppliers and dealers. "The recent deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor astonishingly add to the important and unconscionable list of black Americans who have lost their lives based on the color of their skin," she wrote. "I am both impatient and disgusted by the fact that as a nation, we seem to be placated by the passive discussion of 'why.' Why does this happen? Why can't we get to a different place? Why is the response so visceral?" Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man, died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest despite cries that he could not breathe. Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, was chased and shot dead by armed white men in a South Georgia neighborhood in February. Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman, was killed by police executing a "botched" search warrant in Louisville in March. Barra said let's stop asking why and start asking what we can "do individually and collectively to drive change meaningful, deliberate change. As one of the largest global companies, there is much we can do." GM is among companies such as Apple and Snap in addressing employees regarding Floyd's death. Other companies such as Amazon and Nike have released statements and messages as well with mixed reactions. Los Angeles, June 2 : Actress Halle Berry took to social media to urge her followers to help out an immigrant family that is struggling after their store was looted and burned in the protests in the city over the weekend. The 53-year-old actress took to Instagram Stories to post about Ned Harounian, an 81-year-old immigrant, who lost a lot when his shop on Melrose was destroyed. She asked her followers to donate to a fundraiser set up to cover the costs of restoring the shop, reports dailymail.co.uk. "An 81 year old immigrant father and business owner, Ned Harounian, had his Melrose shop looted and burned to the ground over the weekend," she wrote. "He immigrated in 1985 and for 30 years he put his life into his business and community. His recently deceased wife's jewelry was also stolen," she added. "Los Angeles - I know things are crazy right now, but I hope we can all take a minute to help this man out!!' she added. "An immigrant business owner in his 80s had his Melrose store looted then burned, and his recently deceased wife's jewelry stolen. Things are crazy right now, but I hope we can all take a minute to help this man out!! Donate if you can," she tweeted. Several clashes erupted between protesters and police here over the death of an unarmed black man in police custody. Demonstrations and riots have spread to cities across the US after a video went viral of George Floyd being suffocated to death by a white police officer in the mid-western US state of Minnesota last week. Our people 4 LGBTQ+ employees share stories of finding freedom to be themselves at work Bringing your whole self to work allows you to be happy not just in your personal life but also in your professional life" It can be as simple as sharing your weekend plans with coworkers, or having a photo of your partner on your desk. When you feel free to be yourself at work, even the seemingly small things can have a big impact on your happiness and wellbeing. Still, many employees struggle with the decision to reveal aspects of their identities they worry may be problematic for co-workers and managers. They end up covering those parts of themselveswhether its being gay, being a parent, practicing a certain religion, or having a disabilityin order to avoid discomfort or discrimination. Covering is emotionally draining. It can lead to poor performance at work, not to mention feelings of isolation and depression. Four of our LGBTQ+ colleagues from around the worldin the U.S., U.K., Colombia, Poland, and Japanshare their own experiences with the fear and anxiety of covering who they are, and the joy of finding freedom at a workplace that encourages them to be themselves. Finding a support system at work Tracy A. White, Executive customer representative, chronic care division, Missouri I came out at Merck before I came out at home, says Tracy White, whose story starts in 2010, when she saw a video of then Merck CEO Ken Frazier talking about the importance of bringing your whole self to work. Watching that video had a powerful impact on me, she says. I thought about the gifts that people were missing in me, and the gifts I was missing in others, by not relaxing and being myself. Tracy started talking more openly about her partner, Kristyn, with her coworkers. And a simple gesture from Tracys manager ultimately gave her the freedom to come out: She said, Thank you for sharing Kristyn with me. That was her way of making it safe for me. And thats when I started crying and came out to her. That was a turning point for me to feel more comfortable at work. After that, Tracy came out to her siblings and parents. She became a co-chair of the sales organizations Rainbow Alliance chapter. And she and Kristyn got married in 2013. When I came out at work, I embraced my job so much more, says Tracy. For me, coming out was just a beautiful gift I gave myself. Taking off the mask Daniel Muriel Specialist, Clinical Operations, Medical Writing, Colombia Before joining the company in 2018, Daniel Muriel worked as a flight attendant, a job that allowed him to explore cities throughout South America and Europe. During his off hours, he immersed himself in local LGBTQ+ culturebut on the job, things were different. I wore a mask the majority of the time, Daniel says. Because of the stigma that all flight attendants are gay, customers would put this label on you. So I would put the mask on to earn respect from them. When Daniel left to pursue a different career, he decided to seek out a company where he could be completely himselfand he found it at our company. I said, Im not going to put the mask on; Im going to show them who Daniel really is. That was one of the biggest and most positive changes in my life. Instead of deflecting questions about his personal life, as hed done in the past, he told his colleagues about his fiance, and about their plans to get married, buy a house, and adopt a child. Even my fiance says, Since you started working for Merck, youre different. I know youre happy, not just in your personal life but in your professional life. Leading by example Thomas Johansson Executive director, clinical research, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Ukraine In his 20 years with the company, Thomas Johansson hid his sexual identity from a manager only onceonly to discover later that the manager was an LGBTQ+ ally. I was shocked, and I felt so stupid, he says. The lesson learned was, you should not cover up; the worst thing that can happen is someone doesnt like you, and that can happen to anyone. Now in a leadership role himself, Thomas says he tries to be open as much as possible, to show that as a gay man you can have a career. You dont need to cover up to be successful at Merck. He acknowledges that the recent rise in conservatism and anti-gay sentiment in Poland and across Eastern Europe has made it more difficult to live openly. Indeed, more than 90 Polish municipalities have declared themselves LBGT-free zones in the past year. Its not as safe as it was in the past to speak up. Thomas is working to make sure employees know that our company is a safe space. In 2019, he helped organize the first Diversity and Inclusion Day in Polandand while none of the participants asked LGBTQ+-related questions during the meeting, several people approached Thomas afterward. Some of them privately said, thank you so much for your courage, thank you for being visible. Speaking up for change Marie Sagi Associate Director, Policy, Communications and Population Health, Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa, Lucerne, Switzerland Same-sex marriage is not legal in Japan, but Marie Sagi and her partner live in one of a growing number of municipalities that offer same-sex partnership certificates. With the certificate in hand, Marie applied for a with spouse housing allowance through the HR department in 2018. Her application was denied. At first, I felt helpless, Marie recalls. But then I thought, if I allowed the status quo to stand, how many others were going to feel demoralized and isolated? So I decided to take action. Marie learned that our company didnt offer benefits for same-sex partnersit had simply never come up. Although same-sex partnership certificates had been introduced in Japan just a few years earlier, in 2015, being openly gay in Japan is still largely taboo. Marie was the first employee to bring the issue to the companys attention. One week later, she began working with HR to advance LGBTQ+ inclusionand as a result, our company became one of the first in Japan to provide full benefits to same-sex partners. For Marie, that was just the first step. Her mission is to help LGBTQ+ employees feel comfortable coming out at work if they want to. In 2019, she established the first Rainbow Alliance chapter in Japan, and shes continuing to work with HR to increase LGBTQ+ awareness and support. Ive been the only one working on this for a long time, she says, but last November, two colleagues said, We are LGBT also, and they joined the Rainbow Alliance chapter. One of them told me he joined our company because we have this [same-sex partner program]. Im so happy he said that, because we worked so hard. I hope more people will join us. James Onuoha, a former engineer with Exxon Mobil has bagged a 15-year jail term for raping a 14-year-old girl name withheld. He was handed the jail term without the option of paying fine. He was said to have committed the offence in 2016 after luring the girl who was 14-year-old at the time into his apartment. Read Also: Obaseki Orders Investigation Of Student Raped Inside Church Advertisement The prosecution led by Dr. Jide Martins said the defendant willfully had an unlawful sexual act with the teenager without her consent. He said the offences contravened Sections 134 (2), 135 (1), and is punishable under Sections 137 and 258 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011. Onuoha, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge. A state regulator estimates that plugging a single oil well in North Dakota will put 27 people to work, an effort that is expected to begin this summer targeting hundreds of abandoned wells and a task on the minds of officials in other oil-rich states. North Dakota Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms told a panel of congressional Democrats on Monday that many of the workers likely to be involved in the states program are either recently unemployed or remain on their employers payrolls only because their companies have secured funding through the federal Paycheck Protection Program, which is part of the governments coronavirus stimulus package. Many businesses will run out of those funds in June, but it shouldnt be long before some see more aid. The state has designated $33 million in federal stimulus money to the new program, which officials hope to have running in July. The workers who will benefit are skilled laborers whose jobs involve tasks such as welding, truck driving, designing and cementing, Helms said. Each well will require about 15 people to facilitate the plugging process and another 12 to handle cleanup work at the site over the course of several days. These are very valuable people, Helms said. Its unknown exactly how many wells the state will plug until regulators hear from their operators at a hearing June 10, but Helms said the state has identified nearly 370 candidates. Wells are considered abandoned when they have not produced any oil for over a year. Operators tend to idle older, less-productive wells when oil prices are low and the sites are no longer economic to run. Since the oil downturn brought on during the coronavirus pandemic, the idea of plugging abandoned wells has gained traction across North America. The Canadian government is funneling $1.7 billion to three provinces for such work, and its a hot topic in states with numerous orphaned wells, which are often described as abandoned wells without a responsible operator, likely due to a bankruptcy. Some states are hoping for an infusion of federal dollars to facilitate plugging during the oil downturn. Several panelists discussed the idea Monday during a virtual forum held by Democratic members of a U.S. House subcommittee on energy and mineral resources. A federal program to plug orphaned oil and gas wells has the potential to support these workers and communities while also providing environmental benefits, said Daniel Raimi, a senior research associate at Resources for the Future. Abandoned wells pose risks to water sources both above and below ground, he said. They can also leak methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. The Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, which represents oil-producing states, estimates there are more than 56,000 orphaned wells nationwide, though Raimi said the number is likely significantly higher due to a lack of documentation for many wells. Some states with lengthy histories of oil production could have hundreds of thousands of abandoned wells. In North Dakota, where oil production began relatively late in the 1950s, the state has just under 800 abandoned wells. North Dakota estimates that it costs $150,000 to plug and reclaim a well site, but the costs can vary greatly by state depending on factors such as the depth and terrain of a well. The IOGCC puts the national average at $24,000, which means it would take approximately $1.4 billion to clean up all the wells identified by the group, Raimi said. An official from New Mexico, the nations third biggest oil producer behind Texas and North Dakota, said her state already has a program in place that contracts with oilfield service providers to plug 50 wells per year. New federal dollars would allow the program to expand. We could begin ramping up those contracts immediately, said Adrienne Sandoval, director of the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division. Raimi said hes confident the oil industry could quickly begin plugging wells if federal funding were made available, but it could take time for some states to develop and staff their programs. Sandoval asked lawmakers to ensure that if any money comes to states, a portion could be used to cover those administrative expenses. The IOGCC already has a partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy, and Helms said the commission is suggesting the agency start a three-year grant program that funnels money to states based on their number of orphaned wells or oil production. Gov. Doug Burgum chairs the group. Sara Kendall, program director for the Western Organization of Resource Councils, told lawmakers that federal efforts to address the abandoned well problem should give special consideration to wells on federal and tribal land. She said bonding requirements also need to be strengthened on wells so that adequate funding is available for cleanup down the road. Reach Amy R. Sisk at 701-250-8252 or amy.sisk@bismarcktribune.com. Love 0 Funny 2 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Husband and wife design duo Cortney and Robert Novogratz are best known for the bright, fresh, and fun style they infuse into their eponymous brand of furniture, textiles, and home accessories. Still, the bulk of the couples work is actually in interior design, with projects ranging from a 300-square-foot bungalow in San Diego to an 8,000-square-foot residence in the Hamptons. The Nongratz family's former Hollywood Hills home, which they renovated themselves. Quarantine is offering many people a little extra time to work on projects around the house, including redecorating. If youre in search of a little inspiration, theres plenty to be mined in the way the couple blends modern and traditional styles, explores the contrasts between different materials, and mixes and matches clashing patterns. Even better, you can thumb through 11 of their favorite projects in their new book, Novogratz Design Fix: Chic and Stylish Tips for Every Decorating Scenario. Cover of Cortney and Robert Novogratz' new The Novogratz, as they refer to themselves, cover everything from their own former Hollywood Hills home renovation to a small Airbnb space in the book, with a wide range of stylistic influences interspersed throughout. Each chapter details the challenges of an individual project, offering up solutions for all kinds of interior design problems. The first, Castle House, features a 100-year-old house once owned by a silent screen star, which was later sold to actors Norman Reedus and Diane Kruger when the Novogratz work was done. Some of the tips youll glean include scoring the best finds at flea markets, artfully arranging items on shelves, creating beautiful and functional open floor plans, and carefully choosing items to splurge on (and understanding which ones youre better off finding at a bargain). Some of the best advice focuses on choosing art. The Novogratz family enjoys a fun afternoon in their colorful Bellport home. Art is something people think they need permission to start collecting. They dont know how to get going what do I spend, what kind do I buy? We talk about art in one chapter; art is a great way to add color to a home, Bob tells the Houston Chronicle. I say everything is relative to your own budget. If youre buying something expensive, research it a little. Find out where youd buy it and who else is in the gallery. Have they had any art in museums? Story continues Theres also inexpensive art. You can buy oil paintings in flea markets or limited-edition prints. Colleges all over the country have great art departments and you can buy from students. I always bought young artists. Now, very few people can afford anything but young artists. Its fun to buy a young artist and later see them do well. Neat, colorful bookshelf designs straight from the Novogratz' new decorating book. More than anything, they say, they want readers to come away with the confidence to take chances. Find a tip or two that resonates from each chapter and use it to create something thats uniquely you. Cortney and Robert Novogratz, along with their children. You can find Novogratz Design Fix: Chic and Stylish Tips for Every Decorating Scenario at retailers like Target and Barnes & Noble for about $30. Plus, check out their website for lots more photos of the work theyve done around the United States, and to shop their line (which is full of cool stuff at great prices). Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 18:20:15|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ISTANBUL, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The nostalgic tram services in central Istanbul resumed operations on Tuesday after being stopped for more than two months because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Istanbul municipality said the tram that travels from Taksim Square along the pedestrian Istiklal Street would provide service with 50 percent of capacity given the "continuing danger of the pandemic." A journey with the historic tram on Istiklal, lined with cafes, restaurants and stores of world-famous brands, is one of the favorite activities for tourists in the Turkish largest city. The tram line on the street was first inaugurated in 1883 during the Ottoman Empire era. Today it carries around 400,000 passengers per year. Enditem Former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro joined forces with former Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday, giving him a wholehearted endorsement and agreeing to help Biden push police reforms in the wake of the killing of former Houston resident George Floyd. After Castro endorsed Biden on Twitter, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president replied to Castro directly asking him for help in crafting policies on the matter. Julian I made a promise to George's family that he wouldn't just become another hashtag. We're going to tackle this head-on and we're going to need your help to do it, Biden said. Up until now, Castro has been noticeably absent from the campaign trail for Biden. While other former Democratic contenders for the White House, including Beto ORourke and Elizabeth Warren, have done campaign events for Biden, Castro had offered limited expressions of support. Castro was one of the earliest candidates for the White House to roll out a comprehensive plan for police reform. That plan, released in June of last year, called for ending over-aggressive policing aimed at minority communities and doing more to hold bad police accountable for their actions. The system is broken, Castro said when he released that plan. Floyd, a Houstonian, died in Minnesota police custody last week as an officer pressed his knee into Floyds neck, pinning him to the ground for nearly nine minutes. TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox Earlier Tuesday, Castro tweeted out a portion of a speech Biden delivered in Philadelphia in which he called for Congress to pass immediate police reforms such as ending chokeholds, stopping the federal governments practice of sending military-style equipment to police forces, and setting a model use-of-force standard for the police nationwide. Castro, 45, praised Biden on social media, then later in a statement to his supporters. These policies are important first steps that we need to take to protect our communities, particularly communities of color, Castro said. Castro and Biden both served in the Obama administration together. While Biden was vice president, Castro was the secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 2014 to 2017. Castros own campaign for the White House ended at the start of 2020 as polls showed him unable to build widespread support. However, Castro had an impact on the race by helping frame debates around issues including police reforms, studying reparations for slavery, and immigration reform. The EUs chief diplomat on Tuesday warned President Donald Trump he did not have the power to change the format of G7 summit, after the US leader said he wanted to invite several other countries, including Russia. Moscow was expelled from the club of the worlds leading industrial nations in 2014 after annexing Crimea from Ukraine, but Trump says the current membership is outdated. Trump said on Saturday he would delay the summit scheduled for this month and invite other countries, including Russia, to join the meeting. But EU foreign affairs high representative Josep Borrell said that Russia had not changed course since 2014 and so should not be re-admitted. The prerogative of the G7 chair, in this case the United States, is to issue guest invitations -- guest invitations reflect the hosts priorities, Borrell said. But changing membership, changing the format on a permanent basis, is not a prerogative of the G7 chair. Leaders from the Group of Seven -- the US, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan -- had been scheduled to meet by videoconference after coronavirus scuttled plans to gather in-person at Camp David, the US presidential retreat outside Washington. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rejected the idea of inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin, citing his continued disrespect and flaunting of international rules and norms. Lisa Vanderpump's husband Ken Todd was spotted boarding up her closed restaurant Pump in West Hollywood on Monday, amid the George Floyd protests in Los Angeles, California. The restauranteur, 74, was seen wearing a black face mask and plastic gloves as he fixed large panels of wood to the eatery's doors with Vanderpump Rules co-stars Jax Taylor and Peter Madrigal. Hundreds and thousands of people started protesting in California over the weekend after footage emerged of a handcuffed George Floyd choking to death while being restrained by white police officer Derek Chauvin in Minnesota on Monday May 25. Protests: Lisa Vanderpump's husband Ken Todd was spotted boarding up her closed restaurant Pump in West Hollywood on Monday, amid the George Floyd protests in Los Angeles, California Ken got stuck in as he oversaw the building work, which involved large wood panels being fitted to the doors, windows and outside area. The famous restauranteur, who has been married to Lisa, 59, since 1982, cut a casual figure in denim shorts and a black T-shirt for the work. Pump restaurant looked almost unrecognisable as it was covered in wood boarding to protect its glass windows and doors during the protests. Protests have been sparked across the US and the world over the death of Floyd in Minneapolis. Los Angeles deployed the National Guard for the first since the 1992 riots and California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency. Working together: The restauranteur, 74, was seen wearing a black face mask and plastic gloves as he fixed large panels of wood to the eatery's doors with Vanderpump Rules co-stars Jax Taylor and Peter Madrigal Outrage: Hundreds and thousands of people started protesting in California over the weekend after footage emerged of a handcuffed George Floyd choking to death while being restrained by white police officer Derek Chauvin in Minnesota on Monday May 25 (Ken pictured) Rage: Floyd, 46, pictured, could be heard pleading for the officer get off him saying 'I can't breathe!' he was taken to hospital where he died. Officer Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter on Friday Demonstrations have been seen in Denver, Louisville, Washington DC and New York after shocking footage emerged of police officer Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck. There have also been protests in the UK, Ireland and Australia. Floyd, 46, could be heard pleading for the officer get off him saying 'I can't breathe!' He was taken to hospital where he died. On Friday, Officer Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The trio of officers he was with, who were also fired, are expected to face charges. In the wake of the jarring sequence of events, riots began in Minnesota and spread both nationwide and internationally, with hundreds and thousands of protesters taking to the streets, even amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Friends: Jax, 40, and Peter, 35, were spotted on site helping Ken out with the building work (L-R) Unrecognisable: Pump restaurant looked almost unrecognisable as it was covered in wood boarding to protect its glass windows and doors during the protests Casual: The famous restauranteur, who has been married to Lisa, 59, since 1982, cut a casual figure in denim shorts and a black T-shirt for the work Boarded up: As well as the windows and doors, Pump's outdoor area was also boxed off with wood panels In the three straight nights of rioting over the weekend, The Associated Press reported that at least 4,100 arrests were made in connection with the demonstrations in major metropolitan areas nationwide. Los Angeles deployed the National Guard for the first since the 1992 riots when the police officers who beat up black man Rodney King walked free of all charges and California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in LA County. A total of 11 states and the District of Columbia had activated the National Guard by the early hours of Sunday, as law enforcement buckled under the strain of the protests. States calling for Guard assistance included California, Georgia, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Washington state. Cautious: Ken made sure he was cautious amid the COVID-19 crisis and wore a black mask and gloves while Jax was spotted moving large decorate trees outside Protesting: Protests have been sparked across the US and the world over the death of Floyd in Minneapolis Demonstrations: Demonstrations have been seen in Denver, Louisville, Washington DC and New York after shocking footage emerged of police officer Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck. There have also been protests in the UK, Ireland and Australia Riots: In the wake of the jarring sequence of events, riots began in Minnesota and spread both nationwide and internationally, with hundreds and thousands of protesters taking to the streets, even amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic Meanwhile at least 25 cities rolled out emergency curfews to try to bring rioting and looting under control, including San Francisco, Atlanta, Louisville, Los Angeles, Portland, Columbia, South Carolina, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Seattle. Almost 1,000 protesters had surrounded the White House grounds Saturday night, where they engaged in a tense standoff with Secret Service, DC police and US Park Police. Law enforcement struck protesters with batons and sprayed pepper spray into the crowds. Several protesters hit back by hurling fireworks and bottles at the officers. A slew of celebrities have thrown their support behind the protests and singer Halsey reported from the scene on Monday as she shared footage of police officers firing tear gas at seemingly peaceful protesters. Over the weekend: Floyd's killing reignited tensions between law enforcement and the black community in the US causing unrest across the country over the weekend Los Angeles, California: Los Angeles deployed the National Guard for the first since the 1992 riots when the police officers who beat up black man Rodney King walked free of all charges and California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in LA County The 25-year-old singer shared her and her ex-boyfriend Yungblud's efforts to administer first aid to other protesters bleeding from rubber bullets fired by police. Jamie Foxx sang before protesters urging them to decry police brutality following the shocking killing of Floyd. The singer and Oscar-winning actor, 52, spoke to a crowd of over 1,000 in San Francisco at a 'kneel in' demonstration at the Civic Center Plaza on Monday. Madison Beer also joined in the protests over the weekend and claimed she had been tear-gassed while out in Santa Monica. Michael Jackson's daughter Paris was seen holding up a peace sign on Sunday as she joined the protests in Los Angeles. Pay attention: Several celebrities have thrown their support behind the protests and singer Halsey reported from the scene on Monday as she shared footage of police officers firing tear gas at seemingly peaceful protesters Statement: Jamie Foxx spoke to a crowd of over 1,000 in San Francisco at a 'kneel in' demonstration at the Civic Center Plaza on Monday Courtney Stodden also joined dozens of protesters letting their voice be heard about the tragic death of Floyd over the weekend in Los Angeles. Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello took to the streets on Sunday in downtown Miami to join protests. While Machine Gun Kelly marched through Santa Monica with a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters over the weekend. Ken's appearance comes after a man was allegedly trying to cut open the heavy duty blue chain lock on the main gate of Pump restaurant on May 24, according to TMZ. The police spoke to the restaurants' general manager and they are not pressing charging since no damages occurred, a source told the publication. Horrific experience: Madison Beer also joined in the protests over the weekend and claimed she had been tear-gassed while out in Santa Monica Lisa's husband Ken Todd told TMZ: 'He was desperate for a Pump-tini. We can't blame him.' In January, the same restaurant was hit by a swerving Ferrari, damaging the patio of the establishment. 'No, we are not a drive-thru!' Lisa wrote on Instagram after it happened, with shots of the crash. The English socialite and her spouse opened the upscale eatery in May of 2014, as it's one of the many venues they own and operate. 'We have created a space that feels as if you alone have discovered it, as you wonder how on earth you havent been here before,' Vanderpump said on the restaurant's website. Scary: Ken's appearance comes after a man was allegedly trying to cut open the heavy duty blue chain lock on the main gate of Pump restaurant on May 24, according to TMZ (Lisa pictured inside Pump restaurant) 02.06.2020 LISTEN The Savannah Regional Organizer of the National Democratic Congress, Mr. Inusah Abdulai has disclosed the readiness of the party to resist attempts by the country's electoral body to disenfranchise qualified voters in the region. He said the posture of the Jean Mensah led Electoral Commission gives a clear indication that the body was conniving with the failed NPP government to rig the 2020 election. Whilst addressing party faithful, the field marshal noted that should the adamant Electoral Commission insist on compiling a new voters registration exercise, the NDC will not sit aloof and allow its eligible voters to be disenfranchised. He described as unfortunate the decision by the Electoral Commission not to pay heed to calls from well-meaning Ghanaians, Civil Society Organizations and the National House of chiefs in compiling the new voters register amidst COVID-19. "The tumbling NPP government has failed to deliver on its mouth-watering promises to Ghanaians and hence, has become unpopular. It's unfortunate the Jean Mensah led Electoral Commission has allowed itself to be used as a machine to erode the democratic gains of our country. We will resist any attempt by the compromised EC to rig the 2020 elections by attempting to disenfranchise our members," he said. The chief mobiliser for the umbrella party also revealed that the ongoing pilot registration exercise in the Savannah Region has been a total failure considering the system failure and network challenges. He admonished the youth to hold the fort and work hard to deliver victory for President John Dramani Mahama and the various parliamentary candidates of the NDC. According to him, the NDC is the only alternative that can rescue the people of Ghana from the shackles of poverty and mismanagement of the economy unleashed on the ordinary Ghanaian by President Akufo-Addo and his hirelings. He called on party faithful and sympathisers to remain resolute whilst the leadership of the party defends the constitution of the Republic and the devilish and war mongering agenda of the Jean Mensah led the electoral commission. It was his hope that the youth will continuo to gauge the mood of supporters and preach the rescuing mission at the grassroots level to consolidate the collective gains of the party. HALIFAX - The Nova Scotia government has failed to meet "certain statutory duties" to protect species at risk says a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge, who also ordered the province's minister of lands and forestry to fulfil his obligations under the Endangered Species Act. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/6/2020 (598 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. HALIFAX - The Nova Scotia government has failed to meet "certain statutory duties" to protect species at risk says a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge, who also ordered the province's minister of lands and forestry to fulfil his obligations under the Endangered Species Act. In a ruling issued Friday, Justice Christa Brothers says the public record has shown a "chronic and systemic failure" to implement action required under the act. "The minister and the department must uphold the law, all the more so when their duties are as plain as they are in this case," Brothers wrote. "If they conduct themselves unlawfully without good reason, the court must hold them to account." The judge quoted from the 1971 Dr. Seuss book "The Lorax" in the preamble to her 58-page ruling: "UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." Brothers also cited a 2016 report by the provincial auditor general that criticized department inaction, a followup report by the department on the auditor's recommendations in 2018, and the 2018 Lahey Report on forestry practices to back her conclusion. The ruling is the result of a judicial review application by the Federation of Nova Scotia Naturalists, the Blomidon Naturalists Society, the Halifax Field Naturalists and wildlife biologist Bob Bancroft that was heard last fall. The groups argued that Lands and Forestry Minister Iain Rankin has failed to meet requirements under the act, including requirements to devise and implement recovery plans for species at risk, create recovery teams and identify core habitats. They cited six animal and plant species as examples the mainland moose, Canada warbler, eastern wood pewee, wood turtle, ram's head lady's slipper and black ash. "Nature won," Bancroft said of the court ruling in an interview Monday. "The question is whether they (politicians) will actually do anything or not." Bancroft said he believes nature has been compromised over the years on many fronts because of an "industrial agenda" within the department, particularly when it comes to forestry practices. "At least we got to the bottom of the species at risk issue effectively in law, so I'm grateful to the lawyers and Judge Brothers for that." Brothers noted that in the case of the Canada warbler, which was listed as endangered in 2013, the minister had one year to appoint a recovery team under the act. But she said a team wasn't appointed until March 2019, shortly after the naturalist groups filed for judicial review and "some five years after the time frame contemplated by the Endangered Species Act." Brothers said little action also occurred when it came to the ram's head lady's slipper, a plant listed as endangered in 2007. "The minister neither appointed a recovery team nor prepared a plan in 2008," she wrote. "According to the record, a draft recovery plan was created in 2009. There is nothing in either the record or submissions to explain why this plan was never finalized." Brothers said a plants recovery team was appointed in May 2019 that included the lady slipper and a recovery plan is pending. "What of the 11 years that elapsed between the designation of the species and the appointment of the team?" the ruling asks. The judge also said lawyers for the province had cited "several somewhat vague suggestions" of limited departmental resources as justification for the delay. "There is no apparent support in the record for the claim that institutional restraints, such as lack of resources, are at fault for this failure to observe statutory requirements," she said. During two days of hearings last September the lawyer for the naturalist groups, James Simpson, argued that the language in the act, with its use of the word "shall'', creates an imperative for the department to enforce the existing law. Brothers agreed in her ruling. "The minister has no discretion to avoid this duty," she wrote. In an email, Lands and Forestry Department spokeswoman Lisa Jarrett said there's no word yet on a potential appeal of the ruling. "The province has just received the ruling and is currently reviewing it to determine next steps," she said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 1, 2020. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2020) - Nicola Mining Inc. (TSXV: NIM) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has filed an independent technical report (the "Technical Report") on SEDAR. The Technical Report was prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101- Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") supporting the Inferred Copper Resource for the Southern Dump and 3060 Portal Dumps ("Portal Area") at its wholly-owned New Craigmont Copper Mine, located near Merritt, British Columbia. The full Technical Report with an effective date of May 21, 2020 is entitled "NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Preliminary Copper Resource for the Southern Dump and 3060 Portal Dumps". It was prepared by Kevin Wells, P. Geo. of KWW Geoscience & Exploration Corporation and James N. Gray, P. Geo. of Advantage Geoservices Limited, both of whom are independent of the Company and are qualified persons. The Technical Report can be found under the Company's issuer profile at www.sedar.com and the Company's website www.nicolamining.com. The Inferred Copper Resource as at May 21, 2020 is presented in Table 1. Table 1: Inferred Surface Material Copper Resource at a cutoff of 0.06% Cu1 To view an enhanced version of Table 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4873/57014_8a1ddfdcd4e8fa6b_002full.jpg Notes and key assumptions: CIM definition standards were followed for the resource estimate. The inferred mineral resources that are not mineral reserves as the company has not yet demonstrated the economic viability. The southern dump material was assigned a density of 1.8 tonnes/meter3 and the portal area material was assigned a density of 2.15 tonnes/meter3. The variance in densities between these dumps is due to the variance in dump material type and size differences and include a ~30-25% "void space" factor. Inverse distance weighting was chosen as the most appropriate grade estimation approach due in part to the fact that the material being evaluated is not a naturally occurring mineral deposit. The southern dump material was estimated using 15x15x8 meter blocks with composites averaging 4 meter from 60 reverse circular ("RC") drill holes and the Portal Area was estimated using 5x5x4 meter blocks and composites averaging 3.7 meter from 39 RC holes. The Inferred Copper Resource on the Southern Dumps covers an area of 82.5 hectares (ha), tested at an approximate drill spacing of 100m. The 1.4 ha Portal Area was drill tested at approximately 10-20m spacing. The Inferred Copper Resource associated with the Technical Report is based on two areas, the Portal Area and Southern Dumps and not the entire dumps (Figure 1). In order to establish reasonable prospects of eventual economic extraction a three-year trailing average copper price of US$2.8/lb and an anticipated annual production scenario was considered. A cut-off grade of 0.06% copper is deemed appropriate, given that material has already been extracted (i.e. is broken material at surface). Figure 1: Map of the limits of the Inferred Copper Resource. To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4873/57014_8a1ddfdcd4e8fa6b_003full.jpg Preliminary metallurgical testing and mineral processing of the dump material is reported to have produced very encouraging results2. Mineral processing of the dump material by the Tomra COM Series XRT sorter demonstrated the ability to: Differentiate copper-bearing material from non-copper bearing material3; Upgrade the material into a copper product and non-copper waste4, thereby significantly reducing the mass (by between 38 to 54%) required to produce a copper concentrate. Metallurgical testing of the Tomra sorted copper product demonstrated the ability to produce a final copper and magnetite concentrate5. The two concentrates were produced from a blend of material collected from the dumps that contained an initial grade of 0.34% Cu and 6.87% Fe: A Cu concentrate containing 29.6% Cu and 29.4% Fe. Copper recovery was 73.1%, and; A magnetite cleaner concentrate containing 64.8% Fe, which was comprised of 93.9% Fe 3 O 4 and approximately 2.9 % of the overall feed mass. The Technical Report recommends the Company to conduct additional work to further increase the confidence of this initial inferred copper resource. This work includes: Bulk Density testing: Bulk density testing should be done to ensure the values used in the resource are appropriate. Additional testing on the cost benefits of the Tomra sorting process on the resource material. Trench sampling of both the Southern and Portal areas to determine the grade and volume of the fine material within the dumps. Additional RC drilling of the Northern historic waste pile to determine if there is additional material to add to the resource. A total budget of C$199,500 is proposed to advance the confidence of this resource. Qualified Person Kevin Wells, P.Geo, a consulting geologist to the Company is the independent qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects for the technical disclosure contained in this news release. QA/QC Protocol Kevin Wells (P. Geo) reviewed the sample preparation, analyses, and security6 as well as data verification7. The QA/QC manual and operating procedures developed by the Company were deemed to be adequate and in line with accepted industry practices and procedures. These procedures were examined prior to, and subsequent to, the commencement of the RC drilling. No quality control issues were discovered by the QP (Kevin Wells, P.Geo) for Nicola's RC Drilling programs (Phase I and II) upon which this inferred copper resource is based. About Nicola Mining Nicola Mining Inc. is a junior mining company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and is in the process of recommencing mill feed processing operations at its 100% owned state-of-the-art mill and tailings facility, located near Merritt, British Columbia. It has already signed four mill profit share agreements with high grade gold producers. The fully permitted mill can process both gold and silver mill feed via gravity and floatation processes. The Company also owns 100% of Treasure Mountain, a high-grade silver property, and an active gravel pit that is located adjacent to its milling operations. About New Craigmont The New Craigmont Project (the "Property") is a wholly owned copper property with an active mine permit (M-68), located within the world-class Highland Valley porphyry district. It benefits from excellent infrastructure. In November of 2015, Nicola became the first group in decades to consolidate ownership of the Property and has been actively conducting mineral exploration since. "Peter Espig" Peter Espig CEO & Director For additional information contact: Peter Espig Telephone: (778) 385-1213 Email: peter@nicolamining.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. 1 Wells, K & Gray, J.N., 2020. Prepared for Nicola Mining., NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Preliminary Copper Resource for the Southern Dump and 3060 Portal Dump. New Craigmont Mine, Merritt, British Columbia, Canada. Technical Report dated May 21, 2020. Section 14, p. 67-74 2 Wells, K & Gray, J.N., 2020. Prepared for Nicola Mining., NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Preliminary Copper Resource for the Southern Dump and 3060 Portal Dump. New Craigmont Mine, Merritt, British Columbia, Canada. Technical Report dated May 21, 2020. Section 13, p. 66 3 Nicola Mining. News Release (March 19, 2019). Nicola Mining announces positive results on copper X-Ray sorting as a first step to copper ore upgrading (https://nicolamining.com/nicola-mining-announces-positive-results-on-copper-x-ray-sorting-as-a-first-step-to-copper-ore-upgrading/) 4 Nicola Mining. News Release (November 27, 2019). Nicola Mining announces up to ten-fold copper upgrading and solid copper recovery from its ore sorting testing (https://nicolamining.com/nicola-mining-announces-up-to-ten-fold-copper-upgrading-and-solid-copper-recovery-from-its-ore-sorting-testing/) 5 Nicola Mining. News Release (February 11, 2020). Nicola Mining announces positive copper and magnetite recovery results on historic mine terraces material (https://nicolamining.com/nicola-mining-announces-positive-copper-and-magnetite-recovery-results-on-historic-mine-terraces-material/) 6 Wells, K & Gray, J.N., 2020. Prepared for Nicola Mining., NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Preliminary Copper Resource for the Southern Dump and 3060 Portal Dump. New Craigmont Mine, Merritt, British Columbia, Canada. Technical Report dated May 21, 2020. Section 11, p. 60 7 Wells, K & Gray, J.N., 2020. Prepared for Nicola Mining., NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Preliminary Copper Resource for the Southern Dump and 3060 Portal Dump. New Craigmont Mine, Merritt, British Columbia, Canada. Technical Report dated May 21, 2020. Section 12, p. 61-65 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/57014 (Natural News) Our ruling elites, devoid of leadership, are little more than the scum of self-interested, greedy grifters who rose to the top of Americas foul-smelling stew of corruption. The Founding Fathers were wary of institutional threats to liberty and the citizenrys sovereignty, which included centralized concentrations of power (monarchy, central banks, federal agencies, etc.) and the tyranny of corruption unleashed by small-minded, self-interested, greedy grifters who saw all elected offices and positions of government influence as nothing more than a means to increase their own private wealth. (Article republished from CharlesHughSmith.Blogspot.com) The Founders feared the dominance of self-interested, greedy grifters because they had no concept of the public good: to the greedy grifters, the government existed solely to serve their petty private interests and the interests of their fellow grifters. The Founders understood that a republic required disinterested leadership capable of looking past petty self-interest to the common good of the people and their nation. They feared the election of self-interested, greedy grifters because once no one served the common good, the republic would fall into a fatal disunity. We are living the Founders nightmare, for America is corrupt to the core. While everyone gorging at the public trough bleats about the common good, their single-minded focus is on aggrandizing as much power and private wealth as possible, and feeding their corrupt crew of insiders, lobbyists, business interests, bankers and assorted other legalized looters. America has plenty of law enforcement, prosecutors and prison cells for those who loot a Whole Foods, but none for those who loot the public treasury, commit stock market swindles or financial fraud on a monumental scale. Not only did no one go to prison for the rampant institutionalized fraud of the 2008 looting, a.k.a. the Global Financial Meltdownthe looters were bailed out by the Federal Reserve and Treasury. More recently, no one was even questioned when a biotech company issued a press release about a Covid-19 vaccine trial that boosted the stocks price just long enough for insiders to dump millions of dollars of shares on a credulous public and also sell new shares in the company at a premium: a classic looting strategy known as pump and dump. Members of Congress were caught red-handed in what amounted to insider trading, selling millions of dollars in their stock portfolios based on their secret briefings of the coming pandemic, while they reassured the public Covid-19 was no biggie. The farcical investigation found no wrong-doing. Corruption in our political parties is so endemic nobody even bothers listing it except as a parlor game of pondering which party is more corrupt. Our ruling elites, devoid of leadership, are little more than the scum of self-interested, greedy grifters who rose to the top of Americas foul-smelling stew of corruption. As for the nations infinitely greedy billionaires, if there was any justice left in America, Apple CEO Tim Cook would be rotting in a cell on Devils Island for buying back billions of dollars of Apple stockbuybacks were illegal not that long ago. The cells next to his would be crowded with Big Pharma CEOs who advertised their products directly to consumersalso illegal not so long ago. America is now a pay-to-play paradise of greed and corruption. The public good is a PR cover for legalized looting, much of which now depends on the Federal Reserves free money for financiers, parasites and predators. If you think this is far too harsh on our current crop of greedy grifters and looters, please read historian Gordon Woods epic account Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815, which details the many critical debates between founders with fundamentally different views of what structures and safeguards were essential for the Republics survival. When we look back at the genius of Hamilton, Madison, et al., and Washingtons obsession with ethics and promoting national unity, we are forced to weep for the pathetic, venal scum that passes for leadership in America today. The feedback loops the Founders designed to restrain the tyranny of corruption have all failed, as the biggest looters serve their interests under the guise of legality. The Founders werent saints; they were flawed as are all humans, and like all humans, they were products of their era. But they did have a keen, abiding sense of the public good, and when they clashed over ideas about banking, the power of the presidency, etc., it was not for personal gain but for their vision of the common good. If any of Americas leadership over the past 30 years had an ounce of concern for the common good, why did they enable financialization and globalization to hollow out the nations economy and social order? Why did they enable the frauds, skims, scams, cartels and monopolies that are the foundation of virtually every American billionaires we pay no taxes empires of greed? The tyranny of corruption thrives in an amoral cesspool of anything goes and winners take all. In todays America, the tyranny of corruption has been so normalized that Americas polarized populaces are blind to the profound corruption of their parties and institutions. As in the last days of the Western Roman Empire, the masses are made complicit with bread and circuses, mimicking their leaders debasement of the public good to feeding at the public trough. These are the troubled years that came before the deluge (Jackson Browne), for as Mr. Dylan put it, a hard rains a-gonna fall. Read more at: CharlesHughSmith.Blogspot.com The Diaspora African Forum has petitioned the United States of America (USA) government to arrest and prosecute all four police officers who were caught on video manhandling George Floyd at Minneapolis, USA, resulting in his death. The Forum further called on the USA government to seek a drastic change in systemic policies which oppresses and suppresses African-Americans and violates their human rights. The petition, signed by members of the Diaspora community in Ghana, some Ghanaians and civil rights activists and presented to the USA Ambassador to Ghana, Stephanie Sanders Sullivan, in Accra yesterday further urged the American government to put in place measures that protect the lives of African-Americans and other minorities or risk losing its global status as a model of democracy and freedom. In brief remarks ahead of the presentation, Rabbi Kohain H. Halevi, Convener, Universal Pan African Diaspora Coalition of Ghana, said it was time to end growing killings of African-Americans by police officers and white supremacists. He said, for far too long, the USA government and laws have failed to protect them from hateful executions and other racially-motivated actions stating that we have brought ourselves to a new level of consciousness and responsibility to end this terror. According to him, African-Americans have been convicted guilty because of their clout and origin, resulting in senseless executions and cycle of pain on families and the larger society. Although the Forum was against any form of violence, Rabbi Halevi explained that years of suppression, pain and lack of equality accounted for the anger and violence that has characterised the ongoing protests across the USA. After 400 years of slavery, we will not remain silent for this to continue. We want a different ending to this script. Africans demand a new deal from the world after years of oppression. We will continue to honour our fallen heroes and solidarise with our brothers in the USA, he noted. Ambassador Erieka Bennet, Head of Mission, Africa Diaspora Forum, stated that Africans have for years faced terror and oppression as well as constant human rights abuses owing to their skin colour and not illegalities as it was mostly misreported. He said African-Americans would demand for justice now and commit to fighting inequality. The Chief Executive Officer of Diaspora Network Television, Jermaine Nkrumah advised Africans to change the narrative of Africans by first respecting the African race and create opportunities that would spur other Africans to flourish economically and socially. First of all, we all have a role to play in changing the narrative about Africans. And this involves showing respect to the black race and just as we have done to other races. The new mantra going forward is respect, he added. Mr Akwasi Agyeman, Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Tourism Authority reiterated calls on Africans to demand for justice and promote solidarity toward ending inequity. Source: The Ghanaian Times Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A ctor Gregory Boyce and his girlfriend Natalie Adepoju died after accidental drug overdoses, a coroner has said. Boyce, 30, and Adepoju, 27, were found dead in the Twilight stars Las Vegas home on May 13. On Monday, Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg ruled that their tragic deaths were the result of cocaine and fentanyl overdoses, reports Time. Fentanyl, an opioid up to 100 times stronger than morphine, has been linked to thousands of deaths in the US. Their bodies were found after police were summoned to a report of a dead body in a residential complex several miles east of the Las Vegas Strip, police previously said. At the time, officials confirmed that foul play was not suspected. Boyce was best-known for playing Tyler Crowley, a friend of Bella Swan, in the Twilight trilogy. He is survived by his 10-year-old daughter, Alaya, while Adepoju had a young son, named Egypt. Visit Mind for a list of resources to support those affected by addiction and dependency. KABUL -- Afghan officials say a bomb exploded at a mosque in the Afghan capital, killing two people, a day after seven civilians died in a roadside bombing in the country's north. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, which came amid a reduction in overall violence across much of Afghanistan since last-week's cease-fire between the Taliban and the government. Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said the bomb targeted the Wazir Akber Khan Mosque on June 2 as worshipers gathered for evening prayers. Arian said the mosque's imam, Mohammad Ayaz Niazi, was one of two people killed in the attack, which wounded at least two other people. The Taliban condemned the killing of the imam "in strong terms." The attack was also condemned by President Ashraf Ghani and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), which said those responsible should be held into account. The Islamic State extremist group has been active in Kabul in recent weeks and has in the past targeted mosques in Afghanistan. Reports initially said the attack was conducted by a suicide bomber. Kabuls Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood is home to embassies and government buildings. Earlier, officials said an explosion struck a small truck carrying a group of laborers late on June 1 in the volatile district of Khan Abad, in the northern Kunduz Province. Provincial spokesman Esmatullah Muradi said he suspected the Taliban. "The Taliban plants roadside bombs to target security forces, but their bombs usually kill civilians," Muradi said. Two of the six people wounded in the attack were in critical condition, said district chief Hayatullah Amiri. President Ashraf Ghani had welcomed the Taliban cease-fire declared to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr and authorities responded by announcing that they would accelerate the release of Taliban prisoners as a "goodwill gesture" before the launch of peace talks. Afghanistan's former chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, who has been appointed to lead the talks, said his team was ready to begin negotiations "at any moment." The United States and the Taliban signed an agreement in February aimed at ending the longest war in U.S. history that lays out a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in return for security commitments from the Taliban. The deal, of which the Afghan government was not a signatory, also stipulates that Kabul nevertheless must free 5,000 Taliban prisoners, while the militants are to release 1,000 captives. Afghan authorities have so far released around 2,700 Taliban militants while the militant group has freed some 400 government captives. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has been pushing for intra-Afghan peace talks to begin, held a video conference with top officials in Kabul including Ghani and his top deputy, Amrullah Saleh. Ghani's office said in a statement that Saleh highlighted the importance of the ongoing drop in violence and the need for the cease-fire to hold. The two sides discussed the future steps needed to bring peace in Afghanistan, the statement said, adding that the release of Taliban prisoners and the venue for the intra-Afghan peace talks were also tackled. U.S. Support In Washington, U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said he was optimistic that the Taliban and Afghan government will begin peace talks, adding that U.S. troops could be pulled out ahead of schedule if all goes well. Khalilzad said on June 1 that there'd been a lot of progress as the Afghan government speeds up the release of prisoners. "We are in a good place," Khalilzad said, adding that levels of violence in Afghanistan have remained relatively low since the Eid al-Fitr cease-fire. "We are optimistic that finally we're moving forward to the start of the intra-Afghan negotiations." Speaking to reporters in Washington, Khalilzad did not set a date and cautioned that "still more needs to be done" on freeing prisoners. Under the February agreement, the United States will pull troops out of Afghanistan by mid-2021 in exchange for the insurgents' commitments to keep out Al-Qaeda and other foreign extremists. U.S. officials have said that troops already are returning home and the withdrawal is ahead of schedule. The United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and toppled the Taliban regime, saying it had provided a safe haven to Al-Qaeda, which carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks. With reporting by AFP, AP, Reuters, and dpa WASHINGTON - More than 60 million residents of U.S. cities have been placed under curfews in recent days, as cities burned in protest of the death of another black man in police custody. It is a measure pandemic-weary government officials hoped would deter violence and stanch the damage to their battered cities. The curfews affected people in more than 200 U.S. cities and at least 27 states, including all of Arizona, and followed intense protests over the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old man who died a week ago after a Minneapolis police officer handcuffed him, put him facedown on a city street and pressed his knee against the back of his neck for eight minutes. While officials expressed horror at Floyd's death, they said the curfews were necessary to discourage the arson and smashed storefronts in cities still struggling to contain the novel coronavirus that has killed more than 100,000 people this year. Protests surged just as many localities were cautiously reopening businesses to counter soaring unemployment. Curfew violators risked arrest and, in some cities, jail time. San Francisco started its curfew Sunday night at 8 p.m. and extended it until the emergency abates, joining other cities in the Bay Area in an emergency lockdown. Miami-Dade County, Florida, which had been planning to reopen its beaches as temperatures climbed into the 80s, shut down from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., and beaches remain closed round-the-clock. In Birmingham, an Alabama city that is a cornerstone of the civil rights movement and has survived decades of racial terror, Democratic Mayor Randall Woodfin announced a curfew on Monday after a grim night of looting. He blamed the unrest on "looters and anarchists" and said authorities would "happily" arrest them if they are out between 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. "Birmingham, this is not us," he said Monday, evoking memories of the nonviolent marches led by leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. "This is not how we taught the world to protest. Violence, looting and chaos is not the road to reform." Curfews were imposed in municipalities large and small, from the town of Hibbing, Minnesota, pop. 15,800, to the 7 million residents in the state of Arizona. Scott County, Iowa, home to the city of Davenport, imposed a curfew. So did sprawling Los Angeles County, home to 10 million people, citing the "national chaos" surrounding the demonstrations. While the curfews have generally run from dusk to dawn, the hours varied. Los Angeles County's lockdown runs from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., and it bars residents from all parks, roads and streets "until further notification." Violators face arrest and up to six months in jail. New York City's curfew is far more abbreviated: It kicked in at 11 p.m. Monday and is scheduled to end at 5 a.m. Some lockdowns lasted a few hours - Jacksonville, Florida, lifted its after limited demonstrations, according to the city's Facebook page - while others remained fluid as city and state leaders monitored each day's events. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, extended the curfew Monday after a night of flames and looting. Exceptions were made for people such as first responders, medical emergencies, the media and military personnel. Other cities already had curfews or stay-home orders because of the coronavirus. Boston's curfew, for instance, runs from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. and has been in place for months. Several mayors who imposed the curfews also denounced Floyd's killing and the ensuing destruction heaped upon many cities where black people already were being disproportionately killed by covid-19, the disease the coronavirus causes. "Seeing the murder of George Floyd sickened me and it still does," said Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a Democrat. She said Sunday that she supports peaceful protests but was angry with those who wreaked havoc on the city. Though she would rather be fighting racism, she said, "we have instead been forced to turn our focus and energy towards preventing wanton violence and destruction." Cities such as Floyd's hometown of Houston eschewed curfews in favor of direct entreaties to demonstrators. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo joined the protesters wearing his police uniform and a face mask, and implored them not to follow others' destructive impulses, calling looting the "devil's work." "I will march until I can't stand no more. But I will not allow anyone to tear down the city, because this is our city," he said in an emotional speech captured on a now-viral video. "Pay close attention," he added, "because these little white guys with their skateboards are the ones who are starting all the s---." Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, a Democrat, is not considering a curfew, spokesman Tejal Patel said in an email Monday, though Turner did impose a curfew in 2017 to prevent looting in homes evacuated because of Hurricane Harvey. Patel said those circumstances were different. "Mayor Sylvester Turner is pleased that the protests have, for the most part, been peaceful and respectful," he said, noting that Acevedo has "engaged positively with those who want to exercise their constitutionally protected right to demonstrate." Hurricane Harvey, in contrast, "was a natural disaster of epic proportions" that made it unsafe to go outside. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat who initially resisted imposing a curfew on a city already hit hard by the coronavirus, changed his mind Monday after a weekend of violence, including an instance of police SUVs driving into demonstrators. "There are advantages and disadvantages, to say the least, to instituting a curfew," de Blasio, whose 25-year-old daughter, Chiara, was among those arrested during the protests, said before he imposed the curfew. "Previous nights, I think, were different than what we saw last night." Several New York counties imposed curfews, including areas home to the larger cities of Rochester, Syracuse and Buffalo. In Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina, Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin announced a curfew Monday "after two nights of violence and destruction" and said she hoped the community would "pause, collect ourselves, begin to repair the damage." "There are so many people hurting throughout this city, and we need to come together peacefully and as one community," said Baldwin, a Democrat, in a statement announcing the curfew Monday. "For those who have protested peacefully, your voices are being heard and will always be welcome. The call for change can't be answered, however, if we continue to allow destruction of our property and attacks on our small businesses that have already been hurt by this as well as the impacts of COVID-19." The growing certainty that at least part of the Republican National Convention, scheduled for Aug. 24-27, will leave the Democratic-led state underscores the depth of the turmoil the pandemic has brought to the presidential contest. With about 150 days until the election, neither major candidate has been able to resume normal campaign activities, with offices shuttered and staff working remotely. After jumping into the river from the Virginia shore in the Sandy Landing area, the man appeared to be in distress and friends went in to help, said Pete Piringer, spokesman for the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service. Approximately three quarters of the deaths associated with COVID-19 in the nation's capital have been among the African American community. A new Georgetown University report illuminates entrenched health and socioeconomic disparities that explain one reason this is occurring. Health Disparities in the Black Community: An Imperative for Racial Equity in the District of Columbia is a publication of the School of Nursing & Health Studies (NHS) at Georgetown University Medical Center. Christopher J. King, PhD, FACHE, chair of the Department of Health Systems Administration at NHS, is its lead author. The rate of death from COVID-19 in the Black community is a "trifecta of high risk day-to-day survival needs, pre-existing illnesses, and limited access to timely, high-quality healthcare," says King. Black residents in our city face a disproportionate burden of disease, such as cancer, diabetes, heart and respiratory diseases, and obesity. These health disparities result from long-standing injustices and makes the African American community much more vulnerable to a highly infectious virus like COVID-19." Christopher J. King, PhD, FACHE, chair of the Department of Health Systems Administration at NHS The newly issued report builds on the 2016 publication, The Health of the African Community in the District of Columbia: Disparities and Recommendations, which King led at the request of the D.C. Commission on African American Affairs. Maurice Jackson, PhD, associate professor of history at Georgetown and former commission chair, co-authored the new report's opening letter with King. 'Racial inequity is a public health issue' "COVID-19 transmission methods are a reminder that racial inequity is a public health issue," Jackson and King write. "The pandemic serves as yet another reminder to course correct and dismantle racial injustice for the sake of humanity. In that spirit, we will continue to monitor the health and well-being of the District's Black community particularly as the city rapidly changes. Findings of this report will inform policymaking, advocacy agendas, appropriation of equitable resources, and education for the general public." The report, which provides pre-COVID-19 figures, delves into topics ranging from disease burden and education to economic status. Some of the stark data: There is a 15-year difference in the life expectancy between residents in Ward 3 (87) and Ward 8 (72); Residents from Wards with higher volumes of Black residents (5, 7, and 8) represent the majority of those hospitalized for preventable health conditions; The number of Black residents who are obese is 3 times higher than White residents; The number of Black residents living with diabetes is 7 times higher than White residents; The number of Black residents who die from heart disease is 2.5 times higher than White residents; Compared with all racial and ethnic groups, the median household income for Blacks is lowest ($43,546) three times less than Whites ($135,263); and Compared with all racial and ethnic groups, Blacks have the lowest percentage of bachelor degree attainment. Progress and recommendations In addition to its synthesis and analysis of more recent data, the report highlights progress that has been made since 2016 in terms of local government initiatives, philanthropic opportunities, and health care innovation. The publication also lists a series of 18 recommendations in two categories, "social, economic and environmental" and "clinical care and health systems." "One sector cannot fix the problem," the report's authors write. "The journey to racial equity requires an explicit and cross-sector approach to eliminate social, economic, and environmental conditions that stymie upward mobility and compromise well-being across the lifespan. As the city continues to experience growth and economic progress, proactive efforts are needed to address policies, practices, and norms that perpetuate segregation and inequitable distribution of resources." King authored the report with Patricia Cloonan, PhD, RN, associate professor of health systems administration, and students (graduate and undergraduate) Grace Keegan, Amelia Bedri, Edward Kasper, Xerxeser Kayode, Phebean Sheriff, and Jonathan Wagner. The work complements various related efforts on Georgetown's campus, including the Health Justice Alliance, the Institute for Racial Justice, and the Georgetown Initiative to Reduce Health Disparities. Chris Hemsworth has inspired other Aussies to trade the city in favour of a quieter life in Byron Bay in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. According to a report by realestate.com.au on Tuesday, 'the Chris Hemsworth effect' has seen a record number of Sydney-siders looking at properties in the Byron Bay hinterland town of Bangalow, on the far north New South Wales coast,. The 36-year-old Thor star resides in a $20million mansion in Broken Head, overlooking nearby Seven Mile Beach after trading Hollywood for the coastal town. Making a move: Chris Hemsworth has inspired other Aussies to trade the city in favour of a quieter life in Byron Bay in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Pictured with wife Elsa Pataky Both Chris and his wife of 10 years, Elsa Pataky, regularly share photos of themselves and their three young kids embracing the local culture on their respective Instagram pages, and it seems many people want the same laidback lifestyle. 'We've been so busy it's phenomenal. A lot of my listings have been the most viewed properties in Australia,' Byron Bay First National's Denzel Lloyd told realestate.com.au. Bangalow is situated just 15 minutes away from Byron Bay and its popular beaches, and Denzel said many of the enquiries have come from Aussies living abroad in places such as New York, Hollywood, Bali and Shanghai. Sea change: According to a report by realestate.com.au on Tuesday, 'the Chris Hemsworth effect' has seen a record number of Sydney-siders enquire about properties in Byron Bay 'They're all expats looking to come home,' he explained, adding that many potential buyers are attracted to the idea of open space living. He said the recent shift to working from home as a result of the pandemic has also made people realise they no longer need to work out of a city office. In an interview with Woman's Day in September 2019, Chris admitted he hasn't looked back after relocating his family from Los Angeles to Byron Bay back in 2014. The simple life: The 36-year-old Thor star resides in a $20million mansion in Broken Head, overlooking nearby Seven Mile Beach after trading Hollywood for the coastal town 'Moving back to Australia was a very good decision for us,' he said. 'I can be with people and talk about things that have nothing to do with the film business. That's almost impossible in LA.' Chris said he's 'much more at ease' in Australia, and claimed the relaxed lifestyle has allowed him and his family to live like 'normal people'. Living the dream: Elsa, who hails from Spain, said she had always wanted to live in a place like Byron Bay. 'It is my dream,' she admitted Meanwhile, Elsa, 43, who hails from Spain, said she had always wanted to live in a place like Byron Bay. 'It is my dream. I always wanted to be in a place like [Byron Bay],' she added. 'Growing up, I was very happy in nature, with animals, and I dreamed of living in a place where my kids can run around with no shoes on, surrounded by all kinds of animals.' Its not surprising, of course, that Gannett is pulling out all the stops to find advertising revenue with its Rebuilding America effort. Newspapers have been devastated by the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic; some have shut their doors permanently. Others have laid off staff or instituted deep pay cuts, often in the form of mandatory furloughs. Thats true at Gannett, long one of the nations largest newspaper owners, now merging with another giant chain, GateHouse Media. The place 'where Jesus miraculously fed the 5,000' has been totally submerged by flooding, forcing archaeologists to abandon the excavation site. Bethsaida hometown to disciples Andrew, Peter and Philip was reputedly where Christ performed the miracles of feeding the multitude and helping a blind man see. Archaeologists have been working to prove that the lost ancient town once stood at El-Araj, an excavation site on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. However, their efforts have ground to a halt after heavy rains caused the Sea of Galilee also known as Lake Kinneret to flood the site. The place 'where Jesus miraculously fed the 5,000' has been totally submerged by flooding, forcing archaeologists to abandon the excavation site. Pictured, the flooded El-Araj site Bethsaida biblical hometown to disciples Andrew, Peter and Philip was reputedly where Christ performed the miracles of feeding the multitude and helping a blind man see. Pictured, flooding has halted efforts to prove that El-Araj is the true site of Bethsaida THE BIBLICAL MIRACLES OF BETHSAIDA Bethsaida the biblical hometown to disciples Andrew, Peter and Philip was reputedly where Jesus performed a number of miracles. These included the feeding of the 5,000, in which Christ following the death of John the Baptist used five loaves and two fishes supplied by a boy to feed a crowd of his followers. The Gospel of Mark, meanwhile, tells of a blind man of Bethsaida whose sight was restored after two blessings from Jesus. Pictured, the feeding of the multitude Advertisement Lead archaeologist Moti Aviam of Kinneret College said that there was no way digging could continue this year. 'During the past 30 years, the amount of the rain in Israel was not enough to bring the lake to its full capacity,' he said. 'This year it happened. All of our excavated squares, even the highest the mosaic floor of the Byzantine church were covered.' 'The entire site is covered today with a large lagoon in which catfish are swimming.' 'We think that nothing will happen to the antiquities below the water and the water level will reduce slowly, but we will not be able to dig this year.' 'Even if the level of the water drops 80 centimetres [31.4 inches], we will still have to walk and work in mud. It is impossible.' After the rains, Professor Aviam said that he had expected some flooding, but was surprised by its extent. 'I was thinking about the fact it would be flooded, but when I came to see it with my own eyes I was astonished!' he said. 'Especially when I got the photos from the drone.' In the Bible, Bethsaida a name which translates as 'house of fishing/hunting' is described as a 'village' with 'green grass' that can be reached by boat. El-Araj is one of two sites usually identified by archaeologists as the ancient settlement the other being Et-Tell. But for Professor Aviam, the former is clearly the better contender. 'El-Araj is on the lake shore, not like Et-Tell which is two kilometres inland. This is more appropriate for a fishing village,' he explained. Professor Aviam believes that the case for El-Araj is further helped by the writings of the Roman historian Titus Flavius Josephus. Josephus described the village as being close to where the River Jordan enters the Sea of Galilee. He also wrote about how, under Herod Philip II, the village was 'advanced unto the dignity of a city, both by the number of inhabitants it contained and its other grandeur'. Archaeologists efforts at El-Araj have ground to a halt after heavy rains caused the Sea of Galilee also known as Lake Kinneret to flood the site Bethsaida hometown to disciples Andrew, Peter and Philip was reputedly where Christ performed the miracles of feeding the multitude and helping a blind man see. The latter miracle is depicted here in this painting by Gioacchino Assereto Lead archaeologist Moti Aviam pictured here checking the depth of the water which has flooded the El-Araj site said that there was no way digging could continue this year 'During the past 30 years, the amount of the rain in Israel was not enough to bring the lake to its full capacity,' Professor Aviam said. 'This year it happened. All of our excavated squares, even the highest the mosaic floor of the Byzantine church were covered' Professor Aviam says El-Araj not only matches the location, but it even shows signs of the enlarged Roman settlement Josephus describes. 'The location of El-Araj is more appropriate according to the Josephus Flavius description,' he said. 'We also discovered evidence of a Roman-type bathhouse which is more typical to an urban sphere than a village. Nothing like that was found at Et-Tell.' There's even a Byzantine church at the site, which Professor Aviam and his team believe is the Church of the Apostles. According to Christian tradition, this church was built in Bethsaida over the home of Jesus' disciples Peter and Andrew. 'The entire site is covered today with a large lagoon in which catfish are swimming,' Professor Aviam (pictured here at the site before the flood) said. 'We think that nothing will happen to the antiquities below the water and the water level will reduce slowly' 'Even if the level of the water drops 80 centimetres [31.4 inches], we will still have to walk and work in mud. It is impossible,' said Professor Aviam. Pictured, part of the excavation site seen here before flooding made work untenable In the Bible, Bethsaida a name which translates as 'house of fishing/hunting' is described as a 'village' with 'green grass' that can be reached by boat. Pictured, the El-Araj excavation site prior to the flooding El-Araj, pictured here before the flood, is one of two sites usually identified by archaeologists as the ancient settlement the other being Et-Tell. But for Professor Aviam, the former is clearly the better contender. 'El-Araj is on the lake shore, not like Et-Tell which is two kilometres inland. This is more appropriate for a fishing village,' he explained Professor Aviam believes that the case for El-Araj is further helped by the writings of the Roman historian Titus Flavius Josephus. Josephus described the village as being close to where the River Jordan enters the Sea of Galilee. He also wrote about how, under Herod Philip II, the village was 'advanced unto the dignity of a city, both by the number of inhabitants it contained and its other grandeur' Ironically, professor Aviam believes that it was probably flooding that caused the site to be abandoned in the first place. 'We can only assume that during the third century AD the level of the lake was slowly getting higher and the land, the floors, and the courtyards were wet, so people decided to leave,' he said. 'Floods came with the Jordan river and covered Bethsaida with two metres of silt.' 'It was only in the sixth century that Christians identified the spot as Bethsaida, the home of the apostles, and built a church to commemorate them.' Archaeologists have been working to prove that the lost ancient town of Bethsaida once stood at El-Araj, an excavation site on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee After the rains, Professor Aviam said that he had expected some flooding, but was surprised by its extent. 'I was thinking about the fact it would be flooded, but when I came to see it with my own eyes I was astonished!' he said. 'Especially when I got the photos from the drone' This workforce, to begin with, it's very low-wage work. So it's not like people had a savings to be able to stock up on groceries or even buy a whole bunch of toilet paper. And working paycheck to paycheck, you don't have any paid time off. Eighty percent of domestic workers going into the corona crisis didn't have a single paid sick day. So if you don't work a day, you don't have income. There's no safety net. No job security. Even if you wanted to choose to stay home and practice social distancing to keep yourself and your family safe, for most it just isn't a choice. Because if your employer wants you to come in, and you don't, you lose your job. And then the nannies who are supporting the emergency room doctors and the public health officials and government officials still working around the clock helping us navigate this crisis [are] having to figure out what to do with their own children who are home from school. Conditions of availability of the preparatory documents Regulatory News: In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and within the framework of Ordinance n2020-321 of March 25, 2020, ESI Group (Paris:ESI) would like to inform Shareholders that the Combined General Meeting will be exceptionally held behind closed doors, that is without their physical presence, on Thursday 25 June 2020 at 4 p.m. at the head office, 100-102 avenue de Suffren, 75015 Paris, France. The meeting notice, including the agenda and the proposed resolutions to be voted on by Shareholders, was published in the French Bulletin des Annonces Legales Obligatoires (BALO), on May 6, 2020. The convening notice will be similarly published in the French BALO as well as in a legal gazette on 8 June 2020. The documents and preparatory information referred to in article R. 225-73-1 of the French Commercial Code may be consulted and downloaded on the Company's website: https://www.esi-group.com/company/investors/documentation/annual-shareholder-meeting. The documents and information referred to in article R.225-83 of the French Commercial Code are made available to shareholders on the above-mentioned website. They will also be available for consultation, under the conditions provided for by the regulations in force, at our current administrative place of business due to the Covid-19 located in Rungis, Le Seville, 3 bis rue Saarinen, 94528 Rungis Cedex. About ESI Group Founded in 1973, ESI Group is a leading innovator in Virtual Prototyping solutions and a global enabler of industrial transformation. Thanks to the company's unique know-how in the physics of materials, it has developed and refined, over the last 45 years, advanced simulation capabilities. Having identified gaps in the traditional approach to Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), ESI has introduced a holistic methodology centered on industrial productivity and product performance throughout its entire lifecycle, i.e. Product Performance Lifecycle, from engineering to manufacturing and in operation. Present in more than 40 countries, and in major industrial sectors, ESI employs 1200 high level specialists around the world and reported 2019 sales of 146 million. ESI is headquartered in France and is listed on compartment B of Euronext Paris. For further information, go to www.esi-group.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005469/en/ Contacts: ESI Investors Relations investors@esi-group.com +33 1 53 65 14 51 SHAN Media Investors Relations Esigroup@shan.fr Just four black CEOs run Fortune 500 companies in America, and three of them are speaking out about racial inequality following the death of George Floyd. That's four black leaders among the largest 500 companies in the United States: Marvin Ellison of Lowe's, Kenneth Frazier of Merck, Roger Ferguson of TIAA, and Jide Zeitlin of Tapestry. 'This is personal' On Monday Jide Zeitlin, CEO of the luxury goods brand Tapestry which owns Kate Spade, Coach, and Stuart Weitzman, posted a personal message on LinkedIn to his employees. "I sat down several times to write this letter, but stopped each time. My eyes welling up with tears. This is personal," Zeitlin wrote. Zeitlin reported that stores across the country were damaged from New York to San Francisco, but viewed the destruction as secondary to the broader issue. Tapestry is making changes to address these inequalities, said Zeitlin, and over the weekend leadership worked to "convene a number of social justice, legal, and corporate entities to formulate a longer-term plan for addressing systemic inequality" in areas like health, economic opportunity, and public safety. "We hope to join with government, but events of this past week make it clear that we cannot wait," he wrote in the letter. Zeitlin was born to a single mother in Nigeria before being adopted at the age of 5 by an American family who lived in Nigeria and employed his young mother. He spent 20 years at Goldman Sachs before coming to Tapestry. 'Fear and frustration' Lowe's CEO Marvin Ellison posted a letter to his team on Saturday. "I grew up in the segregated south and remember stories my parents shared about living in the Jim Crow South," wrote Ellison. "So, I have personal understanding of the fear and frustration that many of you are feeling." Ellison reiterated the company's zero tolerance for racism and his commitment to fostering an environment of safety. Leadership will have new resources to better support employee and communities, the letter states. "At Lowe's, we are committed to helping people make their homes better, and today, we recognize that our homes extend beyond our walls, and into our neighborhood, communities and country," said Ellison. George Floyd 'could be me' Merck CEO Ken Frazier told CNBC on Monday that he could have just as easily been George Floyd. "What the African American community sees in that videotape is that this African American man, who could be me or any other African American man, is being treated as less than human," Frazier told CNBC's "Squawk Box." Frazier grew up in the inner city of Philadelphia in the 1960s during the time when Martin Luther King, Jr. was leading protests. Frazier said he was part of a handful of kids chosen by the city to be bused 90 minutes to white schools to get "a rigorous education," where which he was just one of nine black students. Frazier says he was one of the lucky ones afforded an opportunity that set him on a different trajectory in life. But he noted the "huge opportunity gaps" still exist today. "It is the responsibility of corporate America to bridge those gaps," Frazier said. "If we don't try to create opportunities for these people to be employed joblessness creates hopelessness." TIAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Please register or log in to keep reading. No credit card required! Stay logged in to skip the surveys. Advertisement Marks & Spencer have revealed how their post-lockdown shops will look as many are set to open on June 15 - amid revelations that the number of shoppers out in UK high streets yesterday was 31 per cent higher than the previous Monday. Yesterday saw Britain's coronavirus restrictions partially lifted, with outdoor markets, car showrooms and Ikea furniture stores among those businesses reopening for business. Retail analyst Springboard told MailOnline they recorded an increase of shoppers in UK high streets of nearly one third by 5pm on June 1, compared with the bank holiday Monday on May 25. Britain's Retail Parks saw a 12 per cent increase from the previous Monday, and a 36 per cent increase in the number of people in shopping centres, according to the data. The data comes as pictures from inside M&S Hempstead Valley branch show staff wearing face shields, notices outside the changing rooms saying they have cancelled all bra fitting appointments and social distancing markers on the shop floor. Alison Woolgar, customer assistant at Marks and Spencer, Hempstead Valley branch, wears a face shield as works at the soon to be opened clothes branch of the store in Gillingham, Britain, June 1 A notice saying that fitting rooms are closed is seen at Marks and Spencer, Hempstead Valley branch at the soon to be opened clothes branch of the store in Gillingham, June 1, The number of shoppers out yesterday was 31 per cent higher than the previous Monday as lockdown was eased, new data shows Marks & Spencer have revealed how their post-lockdown shops will look as many are set to open on June 15 Social distancing markings are seen at Marks and Spencer, Hempstead Valley branch at the soon to be opened clothes branch of the store in Gillingham, Britain, June 1 M&S have outlined their plans to keep customers safe, including plans for staff to manage people coming in and out of the shops, hand sanitiser on entry and floor markings to keep customers socially distancing. WHAT'S CHANGING IN MARKS AND SPENCER? Staff will manage the flow of customers in and out all M&S stores to enforce social distancing protocols. Customers will have access to hand sanitiser, and baskets will all be metal, meaning they can be cleaned easily. Floor markings and signs will remind shoppers to give each other space - and to help customers find their products. All close contact services will be temporarily closed. Some stores will offer coffee to take away with contactless collection, but customers will not be able to sit in and eat. Perspex screens will be brought in for all M&S tills and contactless payment will be encouraged. Advertisement Services that require close contact, such as clothes fittings, will not be available, and fitting rooms will stay shut, Drapers reported. Cafes will stay closed, but some shops will offer coffee to take away. Perspex screens will be installed by the tills and signs will encourage contactless payment. Andrew Walmsley, M&S retail operations director, said: 'Preparation is now well under way for the 15th from the installation of perspex screens at tills, to putting in new signage. While shopping may feel different, there will still be the same great service and expert advice customers expect of M&S, as well as more digital solutions to supplement the in-store experience such as our enhanced online bra-fit tool.' The news comes as Henrietta Brealey, director of policy and strategic relationships at the Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, stressed that there were still 'plenty' of businesses that are not yet able to operate, particularly those in the hospitality sector Ms Brealey told BBC's Radio 5's Wake Up to Money her organisation was surveying for its quarterly business report survey, and an early look at results for around 600 businesses shows 'really stark' results across cash flow, business confidence, domestic sales, and export sales. 'We're seeing lower figures than we even saw at the height of the recession for business on the impact that they've had over the last quarter,' she said. 'It has been a real big sharp shock to the business community.' Ms Brealey added that restaurants say putting in social distancing measures would mean they would only be able to serve roughly 20 per cent of the customers they normally would. Additional Springboard data shows similar figures for England as for Britain as a whole. Footfall at English high streets was up 31 per cent; retail parks saw a 12 per cent increase and shpoping centres saw a 36 per cent increase in traffic yesterday, compared to the previous Monday. A notice saying that fitting rooms are closed is seen at Marks and Spencer, Hempstead Valley branch at the soon to be opened clothes branch of the store in Gillingham, June 1 Alison Woolgar, customer assistant at Marks and Spencer, Hempstead Valley branch, wears a face shield as works at the soon to be opened clothes branch of the store in Gillingham, Britain, June 1 A health and social distancing notice is seen at Marks and Spencer, Hempstead Valley branch at the soon to be opened clothes branch of the store in Gillingham, Britain, June 1 Clothes are seen on sale at Marks and Spencer, Hempstead Valley branch at the soon to be opened clothes branch of the store in Gillingham Retail analyst Springboard told MailOnline they recorded an increase of shoppers in UK high streets of nearly one third by 5pm yesterday, compared with the bank holiday Monday on May 25 (pictured: Ikea in Belfast, June 1) Additional Springboard data shows similar figures for England as for Britain as a whole (pictured: Shoppers in Kirkgate market in Leeds yesterday) REISS WILL REOPEN 26 STORES ON JUNE 15 - WITH NEW SOCIAL-DISTANCING RULES Fashion retailer Reiss said it will reopen 26 UK stores on June 15. Bosses will implement a number of health and procedures including a restriction on number of customers at any one time and clear social-distancing markers. It will also limit access to fitting rooms, encouraging customers to try products on at home, while extending its returns policy to 60 days. Reiss said it will also reduce its trading hours and provide staff with face masks and disposable gloves. Advertisement For all UK shopping destinations, the increase was 31 per cent. For England, it was 28 per cent. It comes as fashion retailer Reiss becomes the latest outlet to say it will reopen its first 26 UK stores on June 15. The company said it is in the latest stage of its phased reopening plans, having already resumed trading in some stores in Europe. It said it will implement a number of health and safety procedures to help comply with Government guidance, such as restricting the number of customers in stores and limiting access to fitting rooms. Primark owner Associated British Foods (ABF) said it is working to reopen all its 153 stores in England on June 15, after the Government gave non-essential retailers the go-ahead to welcome customers again. Sports Direct is expected to reopen from the same date, with House of Fraser doing the same shortly after. But the president of the Association of Directors of Public Health said today that their experts are concerned ministers are lifting the coronavirus lockdown too quickly, saying the Government's own five tests have not been met. Two people hold protest signs outside Maison Herron, a long-term care home in the Montreal suburb of Dorval, Que., on April 11, 2020. (The Canadian Press/Graham Hughes) Seeking Solutions for Canadas Care Home Crisis A military report highlighting deplorable conditions in care homes has left politicians searching for solutions. The Canadian Medical Association and Ontario Premier Doug Ford are both looking to the federal government to set guidelines and provide funds. We need the federal government at the table as a funding partner. Support us as we move forward. Help us fix this problem. We cant fix it alone, no province can fix it alone, Ford told reporters on June 1. Ford said whats needed is a standard operating procedure for the long-term care system across the country. No matter if its in Quebec or Ontario or B.C., we need a system that everyone goes by, he said. Herb Emery, chair of economics at the University of New Brunswick, says poor policies in the care home sector have allowed low-wage work with high patient-to-staff ratios to create basically a tinderbox of problems. The long-term care sectors problems are not new. Its just now theyve been hit with a crisis that has [made things] worse, Emery, who formerly taught health economics at the University of Calgary, said in an interview. The Canadian Armed Forces were sent to five struggling care homes in Ontario to provide humanitarian relief and medical support due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On May 26, the Ontario government released a report by the military which documented grave problems with substandard care. Reported problems include rooms with feces and cockroaches, residents poorly fed and unbathed for weeks, wounds and bleeding left untreated, expired medications administered, catheters shared between residents, the delayed changing of soiled diapers which led to skin breakdown, and fallen and wounded residents ignored. Pandemic protocols were not being followed in the five facilities, which have seen at least 225 deaths due to COVID-19. Over 1,600 virus deaths have occurred at Ontario care homesroughly three-quarters of the provincial total. Statistics are similar across Canada. The Ontario government is investigating the incidents detailed in the report and plans to launch an independent commission in September to examine its long-term care system. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, while noting that seniors homes are under provincial jurisdiction, has said the government stands ready to support the provinces on the issue with more resources, more money. We will be there depending on what the provinces need, what their situation is, to make sure all seniors are protected, he told reporters on May 29. Meanwhile, five Ontario Liberal MPs whose ridings are home to some of the care facilities hit by COVID-19 have written to Trudeau and Health Minister Patty Hajdu urging them to call on the Ontario government to launch a full public inquiry into the failings of the provinces long-term care system and recommend solutions. They also want Ottawa to work with the provinces to establish enforceable national standards for long-term care homes across the country. During question period in the House on May 27, federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called for an end to for-profit private care homes, saying they have been the site of some of the most deplorable conditions. Emery says that would be a mistake, however, because the provinces have no capacity to build and operate them. And theres no reason other than ideological ground to get rid of a private operator, unless you failed to regulate correctly. Ultimately, Emery finds the discussion hard to take given that the problems in the long-term care system have been evident for a long time. I cant even watch the politicians that have been around for decades saying that they are outraged at the situation. Theyre the same people who ignored all of the arguments that this is where we need to focus effort [and] resources, he says. Anyone who claims that this has come as a surprise or they didnt see it as a risk is just disingenuous. The Canadian Medical Association has called on the federal government to commit to a comprehensive pan-Canadian plan to improve seniors care, including new federal funding. The CMA wants staff levels to increase, with safer working conditions and publicly available reporting on the condition of care homes. This call rings hollow to Emery. The CMA is a bit disingenuous when they say they want to fix this because they are one of the interest groups that has prevented resources from shifting from medical treatment to the long-term care sector, he says. He believes the answer is to move care away from the physician and the hospital as a focus to multi-based, team-based care. Get out in the community, keep people living in their homes longer, [and] promote health. Then we would have less money spent on medical treatment by as much as 25 to 30 percent and we would not have the same need for institutionalized care, he said. [June 02, 2020] Impossible Foods Wins Injunction in EU Trademark Infringement Case A prominent European Union court granted Impossible Foods a preliminary injunction this week, ordering the global food conglomerate Nestle S.A. to stop using the product name "Incredible Burger." The District Court of The Hague ruled 27 May that the use of "Incredible Burger" in Europe infringed upon Impossible Foods' ImpossibleTM trademarks, including Impossible BurgerTM, and was likely to confuse customers. As a result, Nestle subsidiaries in Europe are prohibited from branding products "Incredible Burger." If they fail to remove the infringing branding within four weeks, each of 10 separate Nestle subsidiaries involved in the case would be subject to a penalty of 25,000 per day -- a companywide penalty of up to 250,000 per subsidiary during the duration of the injunction. "People specifically seek out Impossible Burger because it's a superior product unique in the world of plant-based food," said Dana Wagner, Impossible Foods' Chief Legal Officer. "While we applaud other companies' efforts to develop plant-based products, we don't want consumers confused by simulacra. We're grateful that the court recognized the importance of our trademarks and supported our efforts to protect our brand against incursion from a powerful multinational giant." Innovation -- not imitation Impossible Foods makes meat from plants -- with a much smaller environmental footprint than meat from animals. The U.S.-based company uses modern science and technology to create wholesome and nutritious food and feed a growing population sustainably. The plant-based Impossible Burger is sought out by consumers globally because of its unique taste, texture, mouthfeel and cooking characteristics that rival ground beef from cows. Impossible Burger is the result of nearly a decade of basic science and hard-core research and development in the company's headquarters in California's Silicon Valley. Named Inc. Magazine's company of the year and one of Time Magazine's 50 Genius companies, Impossible Foods has an unrivaled intellectual property portfolio with hundreds of patents and patents pending. Its intellectual property includes methods to decode and reverse-engineer the molecular foundations and entire sensory experience of animal-derived meat, including how it tastes, cooks, sizzles and smells -- and how to recreate the experience without animals. In its ruling, the European court endorsed the validity of the Impossible BurgerTM trademark and noted the visual, phonetic and conceptual similarities between that trademark and Nestle's "Incredible Burger" branding and it cited considerable evidence that consumers and commentators were actually confused by the similarity in names. The court also stated that Nestle, the world's largest food company, appeared to have deliberately tried to impede Impossible Foods' entry into the European market hoping to capitalize on the strength of Impossible Foods' brand by promoting its own plant-based foods under a similar name. For the full news release with more details on Impossible Foods' intellectual property and the case against Nestle, click here. More information: impossiblefoods.com Twitter Facebook Instagram YouTube Medium LinkedIn Media kit: www.impossiblefoods.com/media View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005187/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] What became known as the MINARET program had its basis in earlier efforts to create watch lists initially for suspected threats to the president, for drug dealers, and then, according to the NSA history, for domestic terrorism. Matthew M. Aid and William Burr, Disreputable If Not Outright Illegal The National Security Agency Versus Martin Luther King, Muhammad Ali, Art Buchwald, Frank Church, Et Al., The National Security Archive, 2020. From left to right: Martin Luther King Jr., President Lyndon B. Johnson, Whitney Young, and James Farmer. Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, On-line Photo Archive, W425-21. As civil unrest grew in the late 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson became increasingly concerned that civil rights movements, peace groups, military deserters, and black power organizations were funded by insurgent foreign powers (Moscow gold). The federal government was already attempting to automate the monitoring of foreign communications and had slowly taken steps to turn this ear on its own citizens. The effort culminated in 1969 with an program called MINARET. The project, which became known officially as Minaret in 1969, employed unusual procedures. NSA distributed reports without the usual serialization. They were designed to look like HUMINT reports rather than SIGINT and readers could find no originating agency. Years later the NSA lawyer who first looked at the procedural aspects stated that the people involved seemed to understand that the operation was disreputable if not outright illegal. Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP) July 2013 declassification review by the National Security Archives. As reported by the New York Times: David Kahn, Big Ear Or Big Brother?, The New York Times, May 16, 1976. In addition to sucking up and disgorging its daily load of intercepts from abroad, the N.S.A. had improperly eavesdropped on the conversations of many Americans, such as the antiwar protesters Benjamin Spock and Jane Fonda and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, successor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., current director of the National Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs and other Government agencies, its vast technological capabilities had invaded the domestic field. The program included a specific watch list that targeted both Martin Luther King Jr. and Whitney Young (pictured above with President Johnson). It ran totally without judicial oversight or legislative charter. The NSA, which was created to assure the security of American communications and gather intelligence on foreign adversaries, had no authority to target Americans. Regardless, no one at the agency was ever held accountable for breaking the law. Stretch, Harvest, Tractor, and Rye The NSA was tasked with broadly monitoring American communications because they had the best tools for the job. The IBM Stretch supercomputer with its custom NSA modules, Harvest, Tractor, and Rye, was the most capable machine of its era. It was specifically built to satisfy the NSAs emphasis on manipulation of large volumes of data and on great flexibility and variety in nonnumerical logic processes. Samuel S. Snyder, Influence Of U.S. Cryptologic Organizations On The Digital Computer Industry, Cryptologic Spectrum 7/8, 4/2 (1977/1978). In other words, the NSA wasnt looking to process numerical bank statements or compute the routes of subatomic particles, it was processing large amounts of communication data in a variety of formats. Harvest was a stream processing unit that could process 3,000,000 characters a second. A keyword search could scan roughly 30,000 intercepted messages/minute. There was simply no equivalent machine in the 1960s. Tractor was an enormous magnetic tape unit that could hold 44 billion characters (~40 GB), Each TRACTOR reel contained an 1800-foot-long tape, capable of holding 120 million characters. The tape reel, together with a take-up reel, was enclosed in a dust-proof cartridge designed to be mounted, dismounted, stored and retrieved by the automated tape library. [] TRACTOR could swap one cartridge for another in 18 seconds. IBM Archives: TRACTOR, ibm.com, 2003 and Rye offered remote terminal access that allowed agents abroad to input signals intelligence. Before the assassination of King ignited days of civil unrest, signals intelligence used computers to help in the government effort to defame King and undermine his cause. Large organizations have always invested in machines like Stretch because information is often the most effective weapon in a conflict. As America is once again gripped in strife, remember that there was a time when widely admired citizens like Martin Luther King and Whitney Young were suspected of being domestic terrorists by their own government. The narrative can change. But we must overcome the disinformation and fear that has overtaken the United States. A former Malaysian beauty queen has been put on blast over her offensive remarks to black people protesting in the U.S., telling them to relax, take it as a challenge. Among those who have shut her down was the Miss Universe Malaysia organization itself, saying that Samantha Katie James online posts were inappropriate, offensive, unacceptable, and hurtful. The 25-year-old, who is of Chinese-Brazilian descent, won the beauty pageant in 2017. Miss Universe Malaysia Organization (MUMO) notes with dismay the recent social media posts made by Samantha Katie James, a past winner of Miss Universe Malaysia. We also note that these posts are inappropriate, offensive, unacceptable, and hurtful, a statement by the organization said. The views expressed on Samanthas personal Instagram account are her own personal views and are neither the view nor the position of MUMO. The organization noted that James was no longer tied to it since her contract expired in June 2018 and that her details would be removed from its website. James did not respond to Coconuts KLs request for comment sent to her yesterday. The Black Lives Matter movement has been trending online ever since protests against racism and police brutality spread in the U.S. following the death of a black man after a white police officer kneeled on his neck. James was among those who had jumped on the online conversation, but only to fuel more hate and ignorance, it seems. Through her Instagram stories, James wrote the following: To the black people. Relax, take it as a challenge, it makes you stronger. You chose to be born as a coloured person in America for a reason. To learn a certain lesson. She went further to say that the angry protests made it look to her like the white people had won. I dont live in America. It (racial protests) has nothing to do with me, but to me, it seems like the whites won. Because if youre angry, you respond in rage and anguish. That means it has power over you. THEY HAVE POWER OVER YOU, she said. Story continues An Instagram exchange between her and an unknown Instagram user showed her attempt to clarify her statement. Like our souls. Chose this life, this country, this race, this human form. Specifically. For a reason, it said. James Instagram stories that sparked the backlash. Photo: Samantha Katie James / Instagram Beauty pageant director Elaine Daly was among those who told James off yesterday. Elaine told James that it was not ok for her to tell people to suck it up and get over racism. People of colour in the USA deserve the space to express their outrage at not just the death of George Floyd, but centuries of slavery, racism, and oppression, she said. Elaine Daly, Alexis Sue Ann, and Henry Golding have weighed in on Samanthas remarks. Photo: Elaine Daly, Alexis Sue Ann, and Henry Golding / Instagram Crazy Rich Asians actor Henry Golding said James needed to be called out. You have zero idea what black people have to go through on a day to day bases. For you to be talking such racist shit on a platform like yours needs to be called out, Golding wrote online. Former Kim Kardashian assistant Stephanie Shepherd also directed comments to James, saying: YOU ARE THE PROBLEM. Meanwhile, Miss World Malaysia 2019 winner Alexis Sue Ann had urged people online to refrain from directing anymore hate towards James. What she did was unacceptable, but you would be just as guilty if you project the same hatred the same way the person did on her page, she said. Strangely enough, Coconuts KL saw that James has amassed nearly 6,000 new Instagram followers since posting up her stories, pushing the total number to 166,000 followers as of today. Other stories to check out: Malaysia university proposes robots for graduation ceremonies 18 youths detained in Ipoh house party Malaysias interracial romance film Sepet streaming on YouTube this week This article, Ex-beauty queen put on blast after telling black people protesting in US to relax, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company. Want more Coconuts? Sign up for our newsletters! Canberra, June 2 : Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday demanded an investigation into the assault of an Australian journalist and cameraman at the hands of US police. The US correspondent of 7NEWS Australia, Amelia Brace and cameraman Tim Myers were assaulted during their coverage of riots near the White House in Washington on Tuesday morning. While live on air, Myers was struck in the chest by a riot shield and Brace was clubbed with a police baton. Morrison has now requested the Australian Embassy in Washingon D.C., to investigate the incident and provide further advice on registering the government's concern. Craig McPherson, Seven Network Director of News and Public Affairs said: "The attack on our reporter and cameraman in Washington today is nothing short of wanton thuggery. "They weren't in anyone's way just simply doing their job. To be belted with an armoured shield and then our reporter cop a truncheon in the back is abhorrent." Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese earlier described the incident as "completely unacceptable" and called for a review, a 7NEWS report said. The development comes as some 40 cities across the US, including Washington D.C., have imposed curfews to curb acts of violence in extensive demonstrations against police brutality and racism. Nationwide protests have erupted after George Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old African-American man, died in Minneapolis on May 25 after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, held him down with a knee on his neck though he repeatedly pleaded, "I can't breathe", and "please, I can't breathe". All four police officers involved in the incident have been fired, and Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. "Lofton Island" "For close to 15 years, the Gates Organization has been associated with Loftons Island, a private island located in the heart of Fort Myers with easy access to the Gulf of Mexico. With its strategic location, the island is an integral part of the Fort Myers waterfront... - Todd Gates Fisher Auction Company and One Sothebys International Realty are pleased to present via an ABSOLUTE Auction a 9.3 Acre Private Island. For close to 15 years, the Gates Organization has been associated with Loftons Island, a private island located in the heart of Fort Myers with easy access to the Gulf of Mexico. With its strategic location, the island is an integral part of the Fort Myers waterfront. Since it is such a valuable and truly unique asset to our community, the decision has been made to offer this rare and exclusive piece of real estate at Auction and let the world compete for it! We remain committed to help develop and nurture such a special amenity to its highest and best use for the City of Ft. Myers and the entire Lee County community. - Todd Gates Loftons Island was previously offered at $5.9 Million and will now be sold to the highest bidder with No Minimum or Reserve. The Absolute Auction will be conducted Online beginning July 21st through July 23rd on Fisher Auction Companys exclusive bidding platform and Mobile App. The Private Island boasts a total of 9.3+/- acres with 3.4+/- acres of upland. Centrally located on the Caloosahatchee River which provides easy access to the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Ocean and Pristine white sand beaches of Sanibel Island and Captiva. With a $2 Million Dollar Directional Boring Line in place, approval for 30 Boat Slips and 1 Berge Landing, the Island is ready for development. About Fisher Auction Company A family-owned business founded in 1967 and based in Pompano Beach, FL, Fisher Auction Company is comprised of highly trained and skilled individuals with backgrounds in auctioneering, real estate, development, finance, accounting, law, appraising, banking, sales and marketing. The firm is dedicated to a superior code of ethics with the highest degree of professionalism whose reputation has and continues to be built on handling one successful sale and auction at a time. About One Sothebys International Realty Spearheaded by Miami real estate agent Mayi de la Vega, ONE Sothebys International Realty was founded in December 2008. Building on a reputation for emphasizing experience, reputation and passion to its customers, qualities that define the Sothebys International Realty brand, the company has now quickly grown to 18 offices between Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Treasure Coast and Brevard Counties with more than 900 top producing agents. For media information: Lamar Fisher, Fisher Auction Company, (754) 220-4113. An officer has been shot in Las Vegas and authorities are responding to another shooting as people protest the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, authorities said. The officer was shot in the area of the Las Vegas Strip and an officer was involved in a shooting in the downtown area, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. The department said both shootings were on Las Vegas Boulevard. Protesters have been rallying for days across the country over the death of Floyd, who was seen on video pleading that he couldn't breathe with a white police officer pressing his knee into his neck for several minutes before Floyd stopped moving. More follows By ANI NEW DELHI: France has affirmed commitment to ensure timely delivery of Rafale aircraft despite challenges posed by COVID-19 pandemic, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday after holding a telephonic conversation with French Minister of Armed Forces, Florence Parly. During the telephonic conversation, the two leaders discussed matters of "mutual concern" including the COVID-19 situation and regional security. "Had a telephonic conversation with French Minister of Armed Forces, Ms Florence Parly today. We discussed matters of mutual concern including COVID-19 situation, regional security and agreed to strengthen the Bilateral Defence Cooperation between India and France," said Rajnath Singh in a tweet. We also appreciated the efforts made by Armed Forces of India and France in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. France has affirmed its commitment to ensure timely delivery of Rafale Aircraft despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) June 2, 2020 "We also appreciated the efforts made by Armed Forces of India and France in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. France has affirmed its commitment to ensure timely delivery of Rafale Aircraft despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic," the Defence Minister said in another tweet. ALSO READ | Rafale not enough for our needs; indigenous weapons to be game-changer: IAF chief The first four Rafale fighter aircraft would start arriving in India by July-end this year from France. The delivery of the aircraft was earlier supposed to have been done by May end but this was postponed by two months in view of the COVID-19 situation in both India and France. India had signed a deal worth over Rs 60,000 crore with France in September 2016 for 36 Rafales to meet the emergency requirements of the Indian Air Force. Armed with the long-range Meteor air to air missiles and SCALP, the Rafales would give India an edge over both Pakistan and China in terms of air strike capability. - King Lestsie III of Lesotho has been adjudged to be the ninth person in the world who has the most land sites - The 56-year-old monarch first became king when his father was forced into exile in 1990 before he finally became the leader of the country in 1996 when his dad died - Lestsie III had his first degree in Law from the National University of Lesotho after his college education in the UK PAY ATTENTION: Click See First under the Following tab to see Legit.ng News on your Facebook News Feed According to Africa Facts Zone, King Lestsie III is the ninth biggest landowner in the world and he is the proud owner of the huge landmass of 11,720 square miles in Lesotho. It should be noted that in his country, there is no individual ownership of land as sites are given to people to farm on in the bid to ensure a balanced land distribution. Aged 56, he became king after his father, Moshoeshoe II, went into exile in 1990. Though the position of his father was briefly restored in 1995, Moshoeshoe II soon died in a car crash in early 1996, and Letsie again ascended the throne. He had his education in the United Kingdom at Ampleforth College. Afterward, he proceeded to study at the National University of Lesotho where he graduated with a BA in law. See his photos below: The king has a law degree from the University of Lesotho. Photos sources: Commonwealth, Office Holidays Source: UGC Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that Nigeria ranked the most populated country on the African continent with a whopping population of 206.1 million people. In a table of six African populous countries according to UN estimates, Ethiopia and Egypt followed in the second and third positions with 114.9 million and 102.3 million people respectively PAY ATTENTION: Download our mobile app to enjoy the latest news update In other news, Oye Diran is a Nigerian photographer who has been using his creativity and acute lenses to capture history in photographs. His latest project which got him featured on CNN was inspired by his old family photo album as he was hooked by the clothes of iro and buba his parents wore in the 60s and 80s. Now resident in New York, the Nigerian said that he was attracted by the richness and elegance of the old outfits, saying they reminded him of how well dressed his parents were when he was young. I married four wives, built houses under Buhari's regime - farmer boasts| Legit TV Source: Legit.ng Six Atlanta police officers were charged after video footage emerged showing they pulled two students from a car during Saturday night protests in response to the death of George Floyd, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said in a Tuesday press conference. The state of play: Body camera footage released by law enforcement on Sunday depicts officers using excessive force to arrest 22-year-old Messiah Young and his girlfriend, Taniyah Pilgrim, per AP. An officer used a stun gun on Pilgrim as she tried to exit the car and then police pulled her from the vehicle. An officer repeatedly hit the drivers side window of the car with a baton, while another broke the window and then used a stun gun to remove Young from the vehicle. What they're saying: Young's lawyer said in a Monday media conference he believed they were targeted by police because they were filming the protests after curfew, per Atlanta Intown. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Pilgrim was released without charges, while she is ordering Young, who was also discharged, to have all charges against him dropped, per AP. Howard said Officers Ivory Streeter and Mark Gardner, both of whom were fired on Sunday, face charges of aggravated assault in the case. Streeter faces another charge of pointing or aiming a gun at Young. Go deeper: Cops in Dallas and D.C. trap protesters en masse Some Facebook employees staged a virtual walkout on Monday to protest CEO Mark Zuckerberg's decision not to take action on a series of controversial posts from President Donald Trump last week, a person familiar with the plans told CNN Business. As part of the walkout, employees took the day off work. Managers at Facebook have been told by the company's human resources department not to retaliate against staff who are planning to protest, or to make them used paid time-off, the source told CNN. The New York Times first reported the protest. The walkout comes alongside a rare wave of public dissent from Facebook employees on Twitter. Jason Stirman, a design manager at Facebook, said he disagreed with Zuckerberg's decision to do "nothing" about Trump's recent posts. "I'm not alone inside of FB. There isn't a neutral position on racism," he wrote in a tweet on Saturday. "Giving a platform to incite violence and spread disinformation is unacceptable, regardless who you are or if it's newsworthy," Andrew Crow, head of design for Facebook's Portal devices, tweeted over the weekend. "I disagree with Mark's position and will work to make change happen." MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian oil and gas condensate production fell to 39.7 million tonnes (9.39 million barrels per day) in May, near its target under a deal within the OPEC+ group, Interfax news agency reported on Tuesday, citing energy ministry data. The figure was in line with data from sources, reported by Reuters on Monday, and down from 11.35 million barrels per day (bpd) in April. Under the agreement between Russia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, a group known as OPEC+, Moscow has pledged to reduce its output by around 2.5 million bpd to 8.5 million bpd to help support oil prices. The deal does not include output of gas condensate, a light oil. Russia usually produces 700,000-800,000 bpd of gas condensate. That means that excluding gas condensate, Russia produced 8.59-8.69 mln bpd of crude oil in May. The ministry does not disclose gas condensate output on a monthly basis separately. Interfax also said that Russian oil exports outside former Soviet Union in May reached 17.36 million tonnes, or 4.1 million bpd, down 14.2% year-on-year. OPEC+ agreed to cut its combined output by around 10 million bpd, or 10% of global oil production, in May and June, with a subsequent easing of the reductions, to tackle economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. OPEC+ may hold an online conference as early as Thursday to discuss its policy, compared with the original schedule of next week. The group is due to discuss extension of the output cuts in its current pace. Interfax also said that Russia's natural gas production fell by 9.2%, year-on-year, in January - May, to 293.26 billion cubic metres. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Maxim Rodionov, editing by Louise Heavens) A father and son living with a genetic iron-overload condition which left untreated can lead to premature death have called for a national screening program. Fine Gael councillor Damien Boylan, and his father Tony, from Blarney, in Cork, said a simple blood test for haemochromatosis, nicknamed the Celtic curse, can prevent a life of misery. Damian, who was elected to Cork City Council last year, said he will use his role as a local politician to call on government to implement a national screening program for haemochromatosis. A simple blood test to check iron levels can pinpoint the condition and the treatment is simple and drug-free, he said. There are very few conditions where treatment is so simple and effective. Its not something that dictates your life in any huge way but it can lead to serious illness if you dont get treatment. Tony had a difficult time before his diagnosis, with one doctor labelling him a heavy drinker because of elevated liver function. He went a month without alcohol before returning for a medical check, which showed no improvement in his liver function. Damian said his father was effectively thrown out of the surgery with a tick in his ear and told not to waste the doctors time again. Thankfully, Tony was subsequently diagnosed with haemochromatosis and received the proper treatment. Haemochromatosis, or iron overload, is Irelands most common genetic condition and is more common in Ireland than anywhere else in the world. Iron builds up slowly so symptoms may not appear until people are in their 30s or 40s. The symptoms include unexplained weakness or fatigue, abdominal pain, diminished sex drive or impotence, arthritis, particularly if it occurs in the first and second knuckles or in the ankles, and diabetes, as well as liver disorders, and discolouration of or bronzing of skin. Cllr Damian Boylan (right) and his dad, Tony who is cocooning, who are both warning about the need to be tested for hemochromatosis, the hereditary blood disorder. pictured in Blarney. Picture: Eddie O'Hare The main treatment is venesection, where a unit of blood is taken from the patient every week or two until their iron levels are reduced to 50-100 ug/litre. After that it is a question of maintenance and regular checks. Ive often said that if you were to choose a condition from a list, you would choose haemochromatosis," Damian said. Venesection happens once every six months and that maintains my ferritin levels at around 40, which is quite good. Over the years I have gone from someone who hated needles to someone who isnt bothered in the least. At his worst, my dads levels were up to 4,500. My mothers when tested were 600. For my brothers Jason and Julian and myself, there was no escape." However, thanks to the treatment and ongoing medical care, Damian said haemochromatosis has little or no effect on his life. The Irish Haemochromatosis Associations (IHA) awareness week runs this week. See haemochromatosis-ir.com or Text IRON to 50300 Pakistan, India In Diplomatic Spat Over Spying Allegations June 01, 2020 Pakistan has protested the expulsion of two of its embassy officials in India, which accused them of spying. India's Foreign Ministry said that the two officials were detained on May 30 for "indulging in espionage activities" and given 24 hours to leave the country. Pakistan on June 1 summoned India's charge d'affaires in Islamabad, saying the accusations were "baseless." In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said India's decision was a "clear violation" of "diplomatic norms." Pakistan also recalled its ambassador from New Delhi and sent back the Indian envoy. The row comes amid escalating tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-led India have fought two wars over control of Kashmir. Officials in India-administered Kashmir said on June 1 that three men were killed after a shootout near the de facto border known as the Line of Control (LoC). India accuses Pakistan of funding militant groups fighting Indian troops, a claim Islamabad denies. Based on reporting by AFP and dpa Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/pakistan-india -in-diplomatic-spat-over-spying -allegations/30647067.html Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Asia faces a wave of instability unless it unites on trade, stimulus, travel and the development of a vaccine for the coronavirus, according to prominent former government officials from across the region. As Beijing reportedly threatens to renege on key components of its phase-one trade deal with Washington and Hong Kong and the United States grapple with escalating protests, a group that includes former officials from Indonesia, China and Australia has called for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to convene an urgent regional leaders' summit. Pro-democracy supporters scuffle with riot police during a rally in Hong Kong. Credit:Getty The summit would focus on six key immediate steps to drive co-operation, including the development and equitable distribution of vaccines, treatments and testing kits, expanding bilateral currency swap deals and the finalisation of the Regional Comprehensive and Economic Partnership, a European Union-style trade deal across Asia. It has also raised the possibility of an international travel bubble within Asia similar to the arrangements Australia is working on with New Zealand to help kickstart international commerce and tourism. With cyclone Nisarga expected to make landfall south of Mumbai on June 3, several teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed at various places of the state. Two NDRF teams have been deployed in Palghar, three teams in Mumbai. one in Thane, 2 teams in Raigad and one team in Ratnagiri. The administration of these districts has been asked by the state government to shift all the people along the shoreline to relief centres. According to the India Meteorological Department, the depression over east-central and adjoining southeast Arabian Sea has moved north northwestwards with a speed of 9 kmph during past 6 hours and lay centered over the east-central Arabian Sea near latitude 14.2N and longitude 71.2E about 310 km southwest of Panjim (Goa), 570km south-southwest of Mumbai (Maharashtra) and 800 km south-southwest of Surat (Gujarat). It is very likely to intensify into a Deep Depression during the next 12 hours and intensify further into a Cyclonic Storm over the East-central Arabian Sea during the subsequent 24 hours. It is very likely to move nearly northwards initially till June 2 Noon and then recurve north northeastwards and cross north Maharashtra and south Gujarat coasts between Harihareshwar (Raigad, Maharashtra) and Daman during the afternoon of June 3, the IMD stated in its advisory. Also Read: Cyclone Nisarga: Uddhav Thackeray holds meeting with Amit Shah over preparedness in Maharashtra The Depression over Eastcentral Arabian Sea moved northwards with a speed of 11 kmph during past 6 hrs intensified into a Deep Depression&lay centered at 0530 hours today:IMD (India Meteorological Department). (1/2) pic.twitter.com/cPEBUosncX ANI (@ANI) June 2, 2020 Further, Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray also held a discussion with Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday over the cyclone which is expected to reach the coast on June 3. In the meeting, all the preparations taken by the state to tackle the cyclone were reviewed. For all the latest National News, download NewsX App Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images Theyre bringing in the big guns now. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) made its first known intervention on Monday into the spiraling crisis in Minnesota, following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin. The federal agency charged two men with firebombing a county building in the town of Apple Valley on Friday, and with possessing Molotov cocktails not registered to them in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer. The criminal complaint, brought against Garrett Ziegler and Fornandous Henderson, coincided with warnings from President Donald Trump and U.S. Attorney General William Barr of increased federal involvement in local law enforcement efforts to counter the violence that has wracked multiple American cities. Washingtons Hottest Hoax Trend Is #DCBlackout The ATFs deposition leans heavily on the findings of the Apple Valley Police Department, which arrested Ziegler and Henderson early on May 29, moments after an explosion at the Dakota County Western Service Center. The center contains mostly local judicial facilities and municipal offices. But the ATF complaint notes that it also houses a passport office and provides voter registration assistance and serves as a polling placewhich the agency asserted makes it a site of interstate or foreign commerce, thus justifying federal intervention. Further, the ATF claims at least one tenant of the building receives federal funding. The local cops reported picking up Zieglers dropped car keys in the parking lot shortly after responding to a fire alarm at the county building, then encountering the pair as they walked along the road just blocks away. After an unsuccessful alleged escape attempt by the two men, police took them into custody. Police described the pair as sooty, and on opening Zieglers car said they discovered bottles of lighter fluid and rubbing alcohol, an empty box for Mason jars, removed price tags for bandanas, and a receipt for nail polish. Story continues The ATF cites an analysis it conducted, and another by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which determined these materials were similar to those used in the Molotov cocktails that hit the Dakota County Western Service Center. It also notes that Henderson related to the AVPD that he and Ziegler had attended protests in Minneapolis near the site of Floyds killing, although the agent involved described elements of his story as implausible. Besides accusing Ziegler and Henderson of aiding and abetting one another and damaging the building, the ATF noted that a Molotov cocktail is a destructive device and a firearm. As such, Molotov cocktails must be registered on the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (NFRTR), which is maintained by the ATF, the deposition reads, adding that a query of the database did not turn up any Molotov cocktails licensed to either man. Efforts to reach Ziegler and Henderson were not immediately successful. The complaint identifies the former as an employee of the Minnetonka Target store where several of the items in his car were purchased. The deposition alludes to several individuals, all unnamed, whom it alleges participated in similar attacks on public and private buildings. The Sun-Thisweek, a local outlet, reported on the damage to the building shortly after the incident occurred, and the subsequent arrests. But the perpetrators names and the involvement of federal authorities and of the ATF in particular, have not been previously revealed. Apple Valley sits due south of the Twin Cities, and is home to 55,135 people and the Minnesota Zoo. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. Police arrested black business owners and good Samaritans who were defending a neighbouring store from alleged looters, despite a reporters pleas. The arrest was broadcast live on Fox 11 as reporter Christina Gonzalez described the situation unfolding on the street outside a Van Nuys, Los Angeles, liquor store on Monday. Monet, a local black woman, had been challenging the alleged looters before she flagged down police. But when the officers arrived at the scene, one turned his gun towards the business owners and Monet. Ms Gonzales, who was watching from the sidelines, shouted: No, no, theyre fine. Oh no. Recommended Minnesota governor mobilises National Guard The live camera turned to watch more police officers chase down the alleged looters, before Monet and other black community members were then arrested and hand-cuffed as Ms Gonzales tried to explain that they had been protecting the store. It began when armed businesses owners and community members confronted alleged looters who had assembled outside a gold store on the same street. Theyre having a stand-off here, arguing about why they arent being allowed to break in to the place, Ms Gonzalez said as the confrontation between the group and the armed businesses owners began. Monet told the looters: Were not doing that. Were not tearing up anything over here. I was handcuffed, thrown up against a wall with my husband and brother-in-law, and Im like, What the hell? Monet later told Fox 11. The news people are here and telling you its not her, shes trying to stop the situation. Monet, who was later released along with other community members, added that she did not want to see destruction amid the protests against George Floyds death. She told Fox 11: I understand the protest. I understand what this is about. I get it. I understand that Im fighting for the same protest, but we dont want people from other cities to come and tear [apart] where we live because we have to rebuild this. We did this once before. I understand the anger. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More The benchmark indices added another 3 percent on June 1, the first day of lockdown 5.0 as the government allowed resuming economic activities in non-containment zones. On June 1, the Nifty50 closed 252.25 points, or 2.63 percent, higher at 9,832.55 and the BSE Sensex gained 893.74 points, or 2.76 percent, to end at 33,317.84. "The rally we are seeing could be on the back of hope of more government action in terms of measures to get economy on fast growth track. Also, the market feels that the worst in terms of pain may be behind," Shailendra Kumar, CIO at Narnolia Financial Services told Moneycontrol. Sanjiv Bhasin, Executive VP-Markets & Corporate Affairs at IIFL also feels the lockdown is behind us and the economy may get back on track, market was unhappy with banks but banks look to be in a good position now, stimulus announced recently will reflect in the economy. Hence, given the positive momentum with respect to economy, experts feel 10,000 on Nifty is expected soon, and the market will get the new range for trading with upper band at 11,000. "Counting all above mentioned factors, the market is expected to breakout 3-month high soon and I expect Nifty at 10,300 this week itself," said Bhasin. Shailendra Kumar also feels the current rally has strength to hit 10,000 on the Nifty. Experts suggest these 10 stocks are a good bet to participate in the up move in the coming years: Prashanth Tapse, AVP Research at Mehta Equities Granules India We believe Granules India is a leading global midcap Pharma value chain company manufacturing all the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), Pharmaceutical Formulation Intermediates (PFIs) and Finished Dosages (FDs). It is also homes the one of the World's largest Paracetamol API facilities providing Ingredients for Paracetamol, Metformin, Ibuprofen, Guaifenesin and Methocarbamol. The recent news stating that government lifted restrictions on export of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) of common pain reliever Paracetamol would be beneficial going forward. The management also expects to settle and resume the plants in a few days. They plan to bring the facilities to 25 percent working of the capacity immediately and slowly improve it to 50 percent which would be reflected in Q1FY21E. The promoter has announced that the recent buyback would lead to a meaningful reduction of the pledged shares which acts as positive catalyst for the stock. HDFC Life Insurance Company Investor looking for a high quality business with consistent earnings growth, HDFC Life offers the best in class investment opportunity to accumulate at the current levels. We see opportunity for insurance industry amid COVID-19. We believe people would start realizing the importance of insurance and the backing it provides in the trying times like the current ones. Even though there has been a slowdown in the last 2 months in terms of adding new policies, we still believe HDFC Life is optimistic on protection growth and as soon as things get normalised in near future people will look for brand and take up policy for life. HDFC Life continued to be the market leaders in terms of total new business received premium with a leading market share in the private sector compared to others. Hence we believe the stock to deliver steady returns over the medium term. BPCL We like BPCL business best in segment operating four refineries with a combined capacity of 38.3 million tonnes per annum, which is 15 percent of India's total refining capacity of 249.4 million tonnes. BPCL also owns 15,177 petrol pumps and 6,011 LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) distributor agencies in the country. Besides, it has 51 LPG bottling plants. The company distributes 21 percent of petroleum products consumed in the country by volume as of March this year and has more than a fifth of the 250 aviation fuel stations in the country. We believe the key catalysts for BPCL is developments on disinvestment which should keep news flow supportive. The proposed strategic disinvestment of its entire shareholding in BPCL looks to sell it to an overseas oil firm. The government has for the second time extended the deadline for bidding for privatisation of India's second-biggest oil refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) by over a month to July 31. On valuation parse BPCL is trading at an attractive valuation of 1.8 times P/B (3-year avg P/B is above 2 times) and stock is trading at P/E: 8.2 FY21E with good dividend yield above 5 percent. Tata Consumer Products We like Tata Consumer Products (formerly Tata Global Beverages) business which is on its way to becoming a diversified FMCG company with the addition strong foods portfolio from Tata Chemicals (salt, pulses, spices) to its already strong tea, coffee and water portfolio both in India and internationally. We believe the acquisition of the consumer products portfolio of Tata Chemicals is transformational strategic plan for Tata Consumer as it provides long-term revenue growing opportunities. We also consider a positive opinion on recently managerial change with Mr Sunil Dsouza (ex Unilever, Coca Cola, PepsiCo, Whirlpool) taken over as MD & CEO in April 2020. Tata Consumer Products would be in a unique position to leverage the strong brand, wider product portfolio and distribution reach to serve the growing aspirations of consumers across the country. Hence we hold a positive outlook on the counter. Mishra Dhatu Nigam Mishra Dhatu Nigam is a government promoted leading manufacturer of special steel, super alloys and titanium alloys catering to niche end-user segment. We like Midhani business model and its presence in one of the few metallurgical plants of its kind in the world, designed to manufacture a wide range of special metals and alloys using integrated and highly flexible manufacturing systems. Midhani also aims to expand geographically and operate from multiple locations. The company has been servicing the requirements of core strategic sectors like defence, space, power and nuclear for nearly three decades. Company is a strategic material supplier/ partner to Indian defence, space and energy sectors and last year Midhanis growth has been primarily driven by space and energy sector due to increased number of launches by ISRO and Make in India program respectively. Hence we believe vocal for local tagline Midhani would stand well placed to tap the opportunity. Sumit Bilgaiyan, Founder of Equity99 VIP Industries Enhanced product mix and focus on product designs over utility will aid growth. It is a niche company in travel related industries which will have a long runway for growth. It has shown stellar RoCE/RoE performance over the last decade. It is currently trading at 22x trailing EPS which is considerably lower than pre-COVID valuations. Ashok Leyland We expect revenue growth to rebound in FY22 on the back of a revival in commercial vehicle cycle. We expect cash accruals to improve, led by a strong volume uptick in FY22, an improvement in Ebitda margin, better product mix and operating leverages. Ashok Leyland will be facing a sharp drop in volumes in FY21. Historically, commercial vehicles cycle has seen a 2 yr bearish period followed by a 3-4 year bullish period. It is currently trading at 12x trailing EPS which gives significant margin of safety to the investor. Crompton Greaves The company has made significant efforts in branding, premiumisation and product innovation which are driving growth under the new management. Its looking to increase its distribution reach by 50-60 percent. It is one of the best performing companies in the consumer durables space, also a mass premium brand which is best suited for India. Bharti Airtel Bharti Airtel is one of the top telecom players in India, and is currently in an oligopolistic market with only rivals Jio and Voda Idea. The barriers to entry is extremely high in this industry, and the pricing power has come back with the players due to consolidation over the last decade. Mobile revenues would benefit from a steep tariff hike of 20-40 per cent taken across prepaid plans with effect from December 4, 2019. We believe it would be the best stock to hold to play the digitalisation theme in India. Prince Pipes Prince Pipes is the 5th largest pipe players in India with market share of 5 percent in a Rs 30,000 crore industry. It has all four varieties of resins, namely, PVC, CPVC, PPR and HDPE and caters to all end-user applications like agriculture, plumbing and infrastructure. It has created a good brand image by the advertising activities in recent years and also has a robust distribution network (1,408 distributors) comparable to the market leader. It has manufacturing plants spread across India which helps it to reach all the markets, also it is planning to add a new plant in Telangana from the IPO proceeds which will fuel further growth in East and South India markets. Current it is trading at 8x trailing EPS (60 percent below IPO valuation), which makes it a compelling buy. : The views and investment tips expressed by investment expert on Moneycontrol.com are his own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. News Desk Editor Jack is the news editor at the Emerald. He is a journalism and political science major at the University of Oregon who enjoys reading alone, drinking coffee alone and eating in parks...alone. Send tips or food recs to jforrest@dailyemerald.com New York, June 2 : New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he was planning to discuss with other officials about a potential curfew, after several nights of chaos emerged in protests over the death of Minnesota black man George Floyd. Some 40 cities across the United States have imposed curfews to curb acts of violence in extensive demonstrations against police brutality and racism, which usually erupted at night, Xinhua news agency reported on Monday. The mayor said he would talk with New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Commissioner of New York Police Department (NYPD) Dermot Shea on whether to follow suit. "We have to look at it as an option," he said. Sunday's protests in New York started peacefully in the afternoon but tensions escalated in the evening, the same as the previous two nights. "When it got dark, it got ugly, and it got ugly quick," Shea told NBC's Today Show on Monday. Over the past four days, some 1,000 protesters were arrested in the nation's largest city due to various acts, including attempting to take over roads or highways, looting, setting fire on police vehicles, and attacking police, vandalism, among others, law enforcement officials said. Meanwhile, over 40 police officers have been injured since Thursday, none with serious injuries. Three people have been federally charged with using and attempting to use "Molotov Cocktails" to damage and destroy NYPD vehicles early Saturday morning in Brooklyn, according to a statement of the US Department of Justice on Sunday. The mayor on Monday reiterated his stance on violent and destructive behavior in protests, saying they will not be tolerated and the city will "address that very aggressively." He also confirmed that his 25-year-old daughter was arrested in a protest Saturday night in Manhattan. Local newspaper New York Post said on Sunday that Chiara de Blasio refused to leave a street when police asked her to do so. She was given a court summons and then released. "She was abundantly clear she was peacefully protesting, not doing anything that would provoke a negative response," said the mayor of his daughter at his daily briefing. The NYPD is also under criticism due to some seemingly excessive moves toward protesters. On Saturday, two police vehicles, which were surrounded by dozens of protesters, accelerated in an attempt to get out of the crowds, knocking several people down on the ground. Commissioner Shea said on Monday that the department is investigating officers' behaviour in six incidents during the clashes between protesters and police. BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - Switzerland's retail sales declined at a faster rate in April, amid the Covid-19 outbreak, data from the Federal Statistical Office showed on Tuesday. Retail sales declined a working-day adjusted 19.9 percent year-on-year in April, following a 5.8 percent fall in March. All the sectors were affected to varying degrees due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the agency said. Sales of other goods that includes clothing, chemists, watches and jewelry, decreased 55.5 percent. Sales of non-food sector dropped 40.2 percent. Other household equipment, textiles, DIY and furniture segment sales logged the biggest fall in April, down 44.9 percent. Meanwhile, sales of food, beverages and tobacco rose 3.5 percent. Sales through market stalls, mail order houses or internet increased and those of 'information and communication equipment' grew 12.1 percent. On a monthly basis, seasonally adjusted retail sales decreased 14.7 percent in April, following a 6.7 percent fall in the prior month. In nominal terms, retail sales fell 20.6 percent annually in April and fell 14.8 percent from a month ago. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. South Africa: Tying the knot under level 3 of lockdown During alert level 3 of the nationwide lockdown, lovebirds can officially tie the knot at Home Affairs offices following the resumption of marriage services. Under level 3, the department will also receive late registrations of birth. These services will be provided by appointment. This is in addition to the services rendered in level 4, namely: Issuance of uncollected Identity Documents; Issuance of temporary identity certificates; Registration of births and deaths; Reissue of birth and death certificates and Issuance of passports to those in export and cargo transport. Home Affairs offices will continue opening Monday to Friday, from 08h30 to 15h30. For marriages, couples are required to book an appointment by calling their nearest Home Affairs office. On the day of the marriage, couples are requested to visit our offices with only their witnesses to keep the numbers of people at our offices at a bare minimum, said the department. An appointment is also required when applying for a late registration of birth (LRB), which refers to a birth registration application lodged after 30 days of such a birth. Children born during the lockdown will not follow the LRB process. This includes children who were born from 26 February 2020 but could not be registered because of the lockdown, said the department. Birth registration during lockdown Between 27 March 2020 and 28 May 2020, a total of 133 251 births were registered. Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal each registered more than 27 000 children during this period. Deaths registered were 68 768. A total of 55 761 temporary identity certificates were issued, showing a high demand for these certificates, as is the case also for re-issuance of birth certificates. In total, 51 844 birth certificates were replaced, said the department. To support economic activity and food security, 475 passports were issued to those in export and cargo transport. Uncollected smart IDs Only 66 665 uncollected smart ID cards were cleared. This, the department said, is a drop in the ocean considering that the number of uncollected smart ID cards exceeds 411 000. The department invites citizens whose smart ID cards are not yet collected to visit offices where they had applied, to collect their valuable smart IDs your ID is your identity. All offices were disinfected. People visiting our offices are requested to wear masks and to observe social distancing protocols inside and outside the offices, it said. As part of coordinated security operations, the DHA said its inspectorate will ensure that any undocumented or illegal nationals who are detained will be subject to deportation. Refugee reception offices remain closed. However, permits issued lawfully, and expired during the lockdown, would be deemed to be valid until 31 July 2020, it said. During Level 3 lockdown, no visa or permitting functions will be open in South Africa and at missions abroad. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2020-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. While signing for multiple films in Bollywood usually is a good sign for an actor, there is no sense of surety that all films end up releasing on the scheduled date. Some films get delayed by a year or two and some take even longer, unfortunately among the lot, there are films that never end up seeing the light of the day. Here is a list of films that were abandoned or weren't released for some reason or the other. 1. Shoebite Almost ten years ago, Amitabh Bachchan was approached by Percept Picture Company to act in a film directed by Shoojit Sircar. Called Johnny Walker back then, the film never saw the light of the day. Sircar then sold the film rights to UTV Motion Pictures and renamed it Shoebite. Unfortunately, what stalled it was a huge legal battle between the two media houses, in the middle of this chaos, Shoebite, although complete has still not been given a go-ahead. Last we heard, Bachchan tweeted a post demanded the release of the film but to no avail. T 2753 - PLEASE .. PLEASE ... PLEASE .. Utv & Disney , or whoever else has it .. Warners , whoever .. JUST RELEASE THIS FILM .. !! lot of hard labour been put in .. don't KILL creativity !! pic.twitter.com/wSlpABMkx6 Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) March 24, 2018 2. Apna Paraya IMDB Before Do Anjaane, Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha were supposed to star together in Apna Paraya. However, at the time, the two actors were newcomers in the industry and this project sadly never materialised. Although, four years later, the duo did end up sharing screen space in Do Anjaane. 3.Time Machine IMDB A star cast with the likes of Aamir Khan, Raveena Tandon, and Naseeruddin Shah, the film was going to center around the idea of time travel. The movie was helmed by Shekhar Kapur who filmed most of the film before abandoning it for bigger projects that came his way. 4. Zameen IMDB Starring Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit, the film was unfortunately abandoned midway because of major budget issues. The film, Zameen was helmed by Ramesh Sippy. With a star cast that also included Vinod Khanna and Sanjay Dutt, we wonder how the film would have turned out. 5. Dus IMDB There was a time when Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt were going to star in the much-awaited film directed by Mukul S. Anand, called Dus. The film would have been about two Indian agents who were trying to prevent an Indo-Pak war. However, the untimely death of the director Mukul Anand on the sets left the film as it is. 6. Sarfarosh IMDB Manmohan Desai and Amitabh Bachchan were going to star in a film called, Sarfarosh. Amitabh Bachchan was going to play the role of a convict in the film. Constituting a talented cast with the likes of Parveen Babi, Rishi Kapoor, Kader Khan, and Shakti Kapoor, it's strange that the film never hit theatres. 7. Munna Bhai Amreeka Post two successful Munna Bhai films in a row, the makers, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani were aiming for a third one, to make the series a trilogy. In fact, they even released a trailer in anticipation back in 2007. However, Dutt was soon served a jail sentence, and filmmakers weren't too happy with the premise of the film. The film was abandoned only to be picked up later with a different premise entirely, and we wonder if that version ever releases. For the second day in a row amid a week of widespread unrest over racial injustice and the death of an unarmed black man in Minneapolis, President Donald Trump posed for cameras Tuesday in front of a place of reverence and peace in the nations capital. The president and First Lady Melania Trump visited the St. John Paul II National Shrine on Tuesday morning, holding hands and looking out toward photographers before facing the wreathed statue of the saint. Washington, D.C. Archbishop Wilton Gregory quickly denounced the appearance, saying the former pontiff never would have condoned the clearing of protesters that paved the way for Sundays photo opportunity in front of the storied St. Johns Episcopal Church. I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles, which call us to defend the rights of all people even those with whom we might disagree, Gregory said in a statement. Saint Pope John Paul II was an ardent defender of the rights and dignity of human beings. His legacy bears vivid witness to that truth. He certainly would not condone the use of tear gas and other deterrents to silence, scatter or intimidate them for a photo opportunity in front of a place of worship and peace. The presidents Monday stroll to St. Johns filmed and edited with dramatic music for a video posted online by White House staff and Trumps 2020 campaign team came after peaceful protesters at Lafayette Square across from the Executive Mansion were forced to disperse nearly 30 minutes before a city curfew. Mounted federal police and shield-wielding authorities pushing through the legal gathering using smoke, teargas, rubber bullets and flash-bangs, according to several reporters, protesters and clergy. Known as the presidents church because of two centuries of visits and worship from American presidents, St. Johns suffered minor damaged after a fire during unrest on Sunday in the wake of the death of George Floyd, who died last week while pinned under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. Authorities in Minnesota charged officer Derek Chauvin with third-degree murder, and three other officers connected to Floyds arrest have been fired and remain under investigation. Trump has expressed sympathy for Floyds family and peaceful protesters several times, but he has increasingly pushed for crackdowns by the National Guard and police on thugs," looters and lowlife scum, and threatened protesters with vicious dogs and ominous weapons. Rev. Gini Gerbasi, who serves a different episcopal church in Georgetown but was at St. Johns on Sunday, told Religion News Service that police in riot gear and black shields started pushing on to the patio of St. Johns Lafayette Square." She heard people cry out in pain after being shot with nonlethal projectiles, she said. Thats what it was for: to clear that patio so that man could stand in front of that building with a Bible, she said. The presidents allies and the Trump campaign team championed the staged event as a show of leadership. Hard to imagine any other @POTUS having the guts to walk out of the White House like this: @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/R9Da6W7Hhb Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) June 2, 2020 They also noted that U.S. Park Police reportedly said they did not use tear gas and pushed through the crowd because police were being attacked. Republican Sen. John Cornyn told CNN the protesters were cleared for security purposes specifically because of Trumps walk over to the church. He argued protesters werent acting peacefully because they were asked to clear but refused to do so." He made the case that Americans cannot ignore what law enforcement officers are telling them to do for the security of the president or anybody else. But multiple reporters on the ground and protesters said the clearing, which occurred on live TV, was unprovoked, included teargas and occurred before a 7 p.m. curfew. Hey Neal. I was there. Tear gas was definitely used, and park police cant that. And there was no object-throwing before the mounted park police moved in. Dont want to tell you how to do your job, but using a background source to deny observable fact seems like a bad call. Garrett Haake (@GarrettHaake) June 2, 2020 Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally, said he didnt know what the point was of the photo op. I guess hes trying to say were reclaiming the church," Graham told CNN. "But the point is that we need to focus on what happened to Mr. Floyd. Its a systematic problem, but you cant do that until you get order. The photo op sparked sharp rebuke from top Democrats and the mayor of Washington, D.C., who said the early sweep of protesters made the work of District police more challenging. On Tuesday, the incident also drew criticism from Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska. There is no right to riot, no right to destroy others property and no right to throw rocks at police, Sasse said in a statement. But there is a fundamental a constitutional right to protest, and Im against clearing out a peaceful protest for a photo op that treats the Word of God as a political prop. Archbishop Gregory said he would take part in an online dialogue on racism with the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University on Friday at noon. Related Content: Thiruvananthapuram, June 2 : Congress leader and MP from Wayanad in Kerala, Rahul Gandhi extended his support to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's initiative in starting the online classes for school students but expressed concern for the online accessibility of the tribal students. The online classes were launched by the Chief Minister on Monday in view of the ongoing lockdown. In a letter addressed to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the District Collector Adeela Abdullah on Tuesday, Gandhi said the 'First Bell' initiative launched is an innovative move to establish digital classrooms. "While this is a temporary alternative, its success depends on students access to digital infrastructure like computers, smart phones, television and reliable internet connections," wrote Gandhi. It was on Monday that Vijayan launched the online classes for around 4.5 million students studying in 16,000 schools offering the state syllabus. Gandhi in his letter also pointed out that a large number of tribal students in his constituency do not have access to the infrastructure needed for this online classes. "Hence they will be in a disadvantageous position right from the start of the academic year. This may worsen the education inequalities in a district which has the highest school dropouts. Hence, I request to kindly extend necessary support to tribal students to access the digital tools for them. I understand efforts are being made and we will work collectively for this. I would extend my full support to augment the digital infrastructure in my constituency," said Gandhi. The Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) is the backbone of the education system in the state and has taken on to fuel the intricacies of the IT enabled education in over 16,000 schools in the State. Speaking to IANS, Anwar Sadath, Vice Chairman and Executive Director, KITE said the first day's response has been very good. "Our plan of action is from June 1st to 7th, which is the first week of the trial run. By the end of the first week, we will be able to precisely know how things are going and how many students failed to get the connection. This is a very simple process and we are confident that we will be able to reach out to each and every student who will be able to get access. Moreover, in case a student misses a class, it is readily available in the YouTube also. The concerned school teacher will ensure that all their students get this online," said a confident Sadath, the person who is coordinating this. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text An International Law and Governance analyst, Kwame Mfodwo says government has taken a huge risk in lowering the restrictions that were previously imposed on Ghanaians as means to control the spread of the novel coronavirus. Government imposed a ban on all social gatherings in March. These included the suspension of all activities in schools, churches, mosques, and even some businesses. But in the latest development, the President, Nana Akufo-Addo announced a partial easing of these restrictions on gatherings. He made the declaration during his tenth address to the nation on Sunday, May 31, 2020. Schools are to reopen for final year students of the various levels of education. Religious activities can also take place, with a maximum of just 100 congregants, alongside following strict safety protocols. Reacting to this on The Point of View, Kwame Mfodwo admonished that the government had done well in handling the pandemic so far, but stated that the recent move posed a high risk to the country as most Ghanaians were already not obeying the initial protocols. We are now in a situation where I personally think the government is taking an extremely risky gamble. if they are lucky, they will pull it off and they would be okay. But my view on this is based very simply on the fact that the positivity rates from the contact tracing and the routine surveillance have not gone down. And also, most importantly, the strategies that the government is using now to manage the situation is not being followed by Ghanaians properly. So the government has a problem. The strategy that they are relying on now is adequate but it is not understood by people it is not being complied with, and it is not being properly enforced. So its a huge gamble, he remarked. Reasons for easing restrictions According to President Akufo-Addo, the ban on social gatherings was partially lifted after stakeholder consultations from which a consensus emerged that we should embark on a strategic, controlled, progressive, safe easing of restrictions to get our lives and economy back to normal. Among the various reasons which influenced the decision was the countrys considerable improvement in the ability to trace, test, and treat persons with the virus. He also stated that our hospitalisation and death rates have been, persistently, very low, some of the lowest in Africa and in the world. As I have already said, everything that has been achieved, so far, would not have been possible without the strong co-operation of you, the Ghanaian people. I know, at firsthand, the devasting impact the measures employed to defeat the virus has had on our social, religious, cultural and economic lives, as well as on our jobs, and the education of our children, and yet, because of the love of country, we have borne with them. I know, however, that we cannot live with these restrictions forever, and that it is imperative we find a safe way to return our lives to normality, as other nations across the globe are trying to do, Akufo-Addo added in the address. The Aftermath The easing of the coronavirus-induced restrictions has been met with mixed reactions from Ghanaians, especially the institutions in question. The National Association of Charismatic and Christian Churches (NACCC). for instance, has welcomed the commencement of religious activities in the country. The Associations General Secretary, Bishop Titi Offei, speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday, June 1, 2020, said they are delighted to be able to hold church services again. However, churches like the Spiritual Revival Ministries, The Keepers House Chapel International and City Life Church have issued statements asking their members to remain home as they will continue to have their services online despite the Presidents decision. citinewsroom Maharashtra was on Tuesday bracing to face Cyclone Nisarga, which is expected to hit the Raigad district on Wednesday afternoon, even as state health officials expect the Covid-19 pandemic to reach its peak in the coming days. The state is already experiencing a rise in cases in several districts where there were no cases in the past or very few cases after lockdown restrictions were relaxed on May 20. State health officials also expect cases to surge further in the post-lockdown scenario. Amid this health crisis, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted damage in a few districts of Maharashtra along the west coast due to Cyclone Nisarga. Sixteen teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), comprising 45 personnel each, are on alert in Maharashtra. Ten teams have already been deployed, while six are on standby. Three teams were deployed in Mumbai, two each in Palghar and Raigad, and one each in Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri and Thane, a state official said. Kishor Raje Nimbalkar, the secretary for relief and rehabilitation, said: We are taking all measures and precautions to tackle the situation. There is no need to worry. Districts along the coast have been put on alert and we have alerted NDRF. Union home minister Amit Shah held a review meeting on Monday with chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and officials of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to assess preparedness for dealing with Nisarga. Collectors in seven districts were instructed to shift all informal settlements and people living in homes with thatched roofs along the shore. Maharashtra said those shifted to relief centres must adhere to physical distancing norms in place to prevent the spread of Covid-19. The Maharashtra government said on Sunday beaches may open from June 3, but the state official cited above said it is standard operating procedure to close beaches during a cyclone. The state may issue an order to close beaches on Wednesday. The official also said that though 90% of fishermen have returned home, many from Palghar are still out at sea. A total of 577 boats from Palghar district had ventured out to sea, and only 477 have returned, collector Kailash Shinde said. Shinde asked fishermen from Dahanu, Palghar, Vasai, and Talasari not to venture out to sea. Industries, shops and commercial establishments have been shut for a day. Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus cases in the state has crossed the 70,000-mark. Data showed Maharashtra has been recording more than 2,000 new Covid-19 cases every day for the past 15 days, except on May 24, when the figure shot up to 3,041, the highest single-day spike at the time. On Monday, 2,361 new cases were reported, pushing the states case count past the grim 70,000-mark. The states total case stands at 70,013. Before that, there were 2,347 cases on May 17, 2,033 cases on May 18, 2,127 on May 19, 2,250 cases on May 20, 2,345 cases on May 21, 2,940 cases on May 22, 2,608 cases on May 23, 2,436 case on May 25, 2,091 cases on May 26, 2,190 cases on May 27, 2,598 cases on May 28, 2,682 cases on May 29, 2,940 cases on May 30 and 2,487 cases on May 31. The data further showed that 84.72% of the states total of 67,655 cases (till May 31), or 57,323 cases, were reported in May alone, or an average of 1,850 cases daily. In comparison, 10,201 cases were registered in Maharashtra in April. To put the steep hike in further perspective, the states first coronavirus case was reported on March 9 and it took 30 days for the figure to cross the 1,000-mark. State health minister Rajesh Tope said on Monday the recovery rate has improved by more than 3% and the doubling rate of cases too has improved. The state government is trying to improve the situation. It is due to these efforts that the recovery rate has improved by 3.5% and is currently at 43.35%. The doubling rate has also increased to 17.5 days from 11 days, he said. We are trying our best to further improve the recovery rate and doubling rate of cases, he added. Officials, however, believe there will be a surge in cases in the next few days as more people will be exposed to the Coronavirus following the ease in restrictions. Our concern is the rise in cases as more people will come out in red zones due to relaxations. It also means more people will be exposed to the virus and there will be more cases at the same time. This also could be the peak and that is the reason we have augmented health facilities to deal with any situation, said a senior official, requesting anonymity. Maharashtra has augmented the hospital bed capacity to 25,000 to treat infections in 2,576 hospitals, while the isolation bed capacity has been ramped up to 250,000 beds. Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill believes there is a "danger" in analysing Northern Ireland's R rate every day as the figure needs time to stabilise. The R rate - Covid-19's infection gauge - currently stands at 0.9 here. It must remain below one to avoid exponential growth in cases. The easing of the lockdown regulations is dependent on the R rate and Ms O'Neill said she was "a bit disappointed" after learning the R value stood at 0.9 on Friday. Speaking during yesterday's Covid-19 daily briefing alongside First Minister Arlene Foster, Sinn Fein's northern leader hopes an update on the R rate can be provided on Thursday. "I was a bit disappointed where our R rate was sitting and I know it takes a bit of time," Ms O'Neill said. "There's a danger in analysing it every day because you have to give it time to stabilise and be steady for a number of days. "We hope to be in the position to have an analysis of all of that for Thursday's Executive meeting and we will be able to say more about it then. "Certainly, I think a lot of people were surprised that we were sitting at 0.8/0.9 at the end of last week, but we will be able to say more about that later in the week." Despite a drop in the number of positive coronavirus tests, hospital admissions and Covid-19 related deaths, Mrs Foster said the R rate is based on where the virus is in the community. She stressed, however, that the more relaxations that are put forward, the more the virus can spread. "We have to assess those relaxations [that were announced] on May 15, which came into place on May 18, and what impact that they have had on the transmission of the virus - because if you're infected with Covid-19, you won't be going into hospital until about 10 days after that," Mrs Foster added. "The number of general hospital admissions, certainly last Thursday, had increased slightly. "We have to take all of that into consideration when we look at the overall picture and we need to be able to move forward on a step by step basis." Mrs Foster also said that the Executive wants Northern Ireland to return to normality as quickly as possible. "We do, of course, want to make sure that people aren't inconvenienced and that these restrictions aren't in place any longer than they need to be," she stated. "We have to take into consideration where the virus is at after relaxations. "We need to pause for a while, see where it's at after that relaxation and then if things are still below one then we can make the next step forward. "That's why it is a phased return and that's why we're moving in the fashion that we are." The First Minister also said if the rate of transmission continues to fall, they will consider easing further restrictions. The R rate in the Republic of Ireland is around 0.5-0.7. UK chancellor Rishi Sunak dropped in at Falafel Rush in central London. (Simon Walker / Treasury) Charge him double, someone joked as Britains chancellor Rishi Sunak weighed up what to order at a falafel stall at a London market on Monday. The man in charge of Britains public finances eventually went for a falafel salad box as he dropped in at Tachbrook Street Market near Victoria station in central London. Sunak visited to mark the reopening of outdoor markets in England from Monday (1 June), as the governments coronavirus restrictions are gradually lifted. He called it a major milestone in our plan to kickstart the economy in a an announcement shared with journalists by the Treasury. Ratib Albudoor, who has run the Falafel Rush stall for over a decade, admitted he had not recognised the high-profile visitor in a shirt and tie, but said the man came across as a friendly, normal person. Altuboor, 43, told Yahoo Finance UK he was delighted to be open at all after 10 weeks at home while the market was closed. Im very excited to go back to normal life after this period sitting at home doing nothing. READ MORE: UK cuts furlough aid for firms but extends self-employed lifeline But while the chancellor may have bought lunch, the number of other customers passing through on the first day back trading proved a disappointment. Albudoor said sales of his vegan and vegetarian falafel dishes were around 20% of pre-coronavirus levels. Its very poor it wasnt good for me, he said. Today we just covered our expenses only, and are not doing any profit. The picture was even tougher for a neighbouring trader. Turnover at Newdlez & Co, which specialises in Thai noodle dishes, was just 10% of usual levels, according to one of its founders, Navy Wollweber. Most of our customers are business people, but a lot are still working from home, he said. Turnover was not as expected. There was no queue whatsoever. The market is normally reliant on lunchtime trade from busy central London offices, but both traders said Mondays trickle of trade was mainly from local residents. Story continues Itll definitely get busier, Sunak tried to reassure Falafel Rush staff in a video seen by Yahoo Finance UK. The entrepreneurs behind both stalls shared his optimism that trade will eventually pick up. The hope is that growing awareness of re-opening, more shoppers venturing out as non-essential retailers resume trading later this month and more workers returning to offices will boost business. Well have to struggle another two weeks to build business, added Albudoor. We need more time for people to know were back to normal. Demand is not the only challenge facing such firms, with the coronavirus also causing supply chain problems at Newdlez & Co. Some suppliers have shut up shop with restaurant demand so low, leaving Wollweber struggling to get hold of beansprouts before the opened. I had to run around finding a new supplier, he said. Getting hold of chives from Thailand has also proved difficult, though generally the company is fairly well-stocked. My wife was panic buying before, he added. READ MORE: Shopkeepers brace for uncertain reopening: 'Lifes changed completely now forever' Albudoor only found out from another trader on Monday about government grants for high street firms, but Wollweber said his family firm had benefited from some government support. Wollwebers brother Louis, who was at the noodle stall when the chancellor passed by, said he would have thanked Sunak personally if he had stopped at their tent. But there are no hard feelings that the chancellor chose falafels instead. He obviously knew what he wanted to eat, he laughed. Some voters in some cities around the state are finding their experience of participating in Tuesdays primary to be confounding, intimidating, and frustrating. Changes made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and having an election in the shadows of civil unrest gripping the nation added a new level of emotion to carrying out ones civic duty. Many polling places werent in the locations where they used to be and many longtime poll workers sat out this election as a result of concerns about exposure to coronavirus. County election officials in midstate counties reported little to no problems with that. However, in other places around the state, voters showed up at their standard polling place only to be met with a sign directing them to another location or simply seeing no notice at all, said Erin Kramer, executive director of One Pennsylvania, an organization monitoring issues arising at polling places across the state as part of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. In Philadelphia, 18 polling places are consolidated in the Philadelphia Convention Center, which currently finds itself in the middle of a militarized zone in the citys downtown accessible by foot or bicycle as a result of the violence erupting out of protests, said Suzanne Almeida, interim executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, which also works with the lawyers committee. Having a strong National Guard and police presence surrounding the area is obviously a deterrent to voters, she said. Another concern is Philadelphias 8:30 p.m. curfew tonight. Even though voting is a permitted activity to be out after the curfew and voters are permitted to still cast ballots if they are standing in line when polls close at 8 p.m., Almeida said it could still have a chilling effect on voters. The Pennsylvania Election Protection coalition, a nonpartisan voter protection organization, fielded more than 350 calls to the toll-free Election Protection Hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE, including 191 reports of problems, as of 10 a.m. The number of calls rose to 950 by late afternoon. Generally, turnout was reported as lower than usual for a presidential primary due to historic levels of voters who chose Pennsylvanias new no-excuse mail-in ballot options. Dauphin County received 32,000 mail-in and absentee ballots, which is 43% of the total number of votes cast in the 2016 presidential primary, said its election director Jerry Feaser. Cumberland County, meanwhile, received 37,311 mail-in and absentee ballots, which is far more than its previous high-water mark of 7,000, said spokeswoman Samantha Krepps. Still, there were reports of long lines in other locations, including a couple in Allegheny County resulting from delayed openings of the polls, poll books not being at the appropriate locations, and in one case, voting machines were delivered while people were waiting to vote. In Wilkinsburg, a majority black borough in Allegheny County, the polling location was inside the municipal building that also houses the police precinct office. That made for a difficult voting experience for black voters in that community in the midst of the ongoing civil unrest in response to police violence against black citizens. Black voters are required to stand in line while police officers are entering and leaving the polling location for official police business, not exactly how people want to spend their election day, Kramer said. Other issues reported to the election protection hotline included reports of workers at a Lehigh County polling place refusing to wear personal protective equipment and in one Philadelphia precinct, not enough personal protective equipment was provided so poll workers had to bring their own. There also were complaints about difficulties in social distancing at polling places. One of the most egregious examples reported to the election protection hotline took place in Philadelphia, where 12 voting machines were crammed together in a 500-square-foot room. Voting machine failures were reported in Bucks and Lancaster counties, as well as in two polling places in Philadelphias East Mount Airy where wait times were reported as long as two hours, causing voters to vote provisionally or not at all. In another Philadelphia polling place, there werent enough secrecy envelopes for provisional ballots provided to voters who had issues with receiving their mailed ballot in time. And in Delaware County, delays in receiving mailed ballot to residents of a nursing home in quarantine for COVID-10 led to them not getting to vote at all. The state and counties are doing the best that they can today, amid incredibly challenging circumstances, and we appreciate that, Almeida said. However, if county elections offices dont receive additional resources to address problems like these, we are very concerned about what will happen in November. Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy. Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. The State's agreement to take over private hospitals will cost around 300 million for three months. The deal, which saw the State take over the operations of 19 hospitals for the duration of the Covid-19 emergency, was estimated to be costing the exchequer 115 million a month. However, the Oireachtas Special Committee on Covid-19 heard that the cost will be lower. Last week, the Taoiseach announced that the deal would not be renewed at the end of this month, amid questions around its cost and the fact that usage of the hospitals was considerably below the worst-case scenario. Liam Woods, national director of acute services at the HSE, told Sinn Fein's David Cullinane it would cost somewhere in the region of 100 million a month for the months of April, May and June. "The cost until the end of April was 97 million. The cost is based on what work is actually getting done, so it will vary slightly. It would appear that it will be between 97 million and 100 million per month. Those are estimates; the first cost is a validated figure." The Irish Hospital Consultants Association, which represents consultants across the health service, told the committee: "The test of time has confirmed that the private hospital agreement, which is costing around 115million per month, represents very poor value for money from patient care and taxpayer perspectives. "The experience is that of very low private hospital bed capacity occupancy at around one third on average and low utilisation of theatre and other ancillary facilities. "The fact that patient access to hospital care is deteriorating at a time when the State is now paying 115 million per month for under-utilised private hospitals defies logic." However Jim Breslin, Secretary General of the Department of Health, said he did not agree with that assessment. "We looked at different means of securing this capacity. A full cost-benefit would ask the question of whether or not we really wanted the capacity: that question was answered for us. We were staring that question of whether we needed that capacity in the face every night on the 9pm news. "To me, that sounds like a fire alarm went off and we sent four fire tenders to put out the fire and people are now saying we only should have sent three. I am very happy that we sent four fire tenders because what if it needed more than three?" The HSE's statement to the committee said hospitals will not be able to meet physical distancing requirements. "Our existing infrastructure in many of our public hospitals is not fit for purpose in terms of meeting the emerging requirements in terms of safe distancing. The Irish Medical Organisation's Anthony O'Connor told the committee the crisis has shown that public patients can no longer be left out of the private system. "We need to see a roadmap by which that care can open as soon as possible for everybody, not just for private patients but for public patients too. One could have a situation where the private sector is allowed to operate as it normally does but the public patients are still completely locked out of all elective care and all cancer care." Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 3 2020 State-owned steelmaker Krakatau Steel reported its first profit in eight years, thanks to its continuous measures to lower expenses. The company booked US$74.1 million in profit in the first quarter this year, a major switch from the $62.3 million loss it suffered in the same period last year, as its cost of revenue as well as general and administrative expenses dropped 39.8 percent and 41.5 percent respectively. Krakatau Steel president director Silmy Karim attributed the positive performance to the companys concerted move to improve its performance since last year. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Tuesday, June 2, 2020 at 7:49AM Sony planned to launch the PlayStation 5 on June 4 but has decided to postpone the event. In a simple statement released on Twitter, Sony said, While we understand gamers worldwide are excited to see PS5 games, we do not feel that right now is a time for celebration and for now, we want to stand back and allow more important voices to be heard. The company defers holding the launch for its next-generation console as numerous protests against police brutality and racism are happening in the US, Canada, and other parts of the world. The protests were sparked by the death of the American George Floyd in the Minneapolis police's hands. Kotak, the richest banker in Asia, is the Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, which is the fourth largest private sector lender in the country. Billionaire banker Uday Kotak, who had a long run-in with the Reserve Bank over his excess personal holding in Kotak Mahindra Bank, will sell 2.8 percent stake in the lender for at least Rs 6,800 crore. The move would bring the curtains down on a long standoff between the regulator and the bank over the issue, which saw Kotak dragging the RBI to the Bombay High Court in December 2018, and the case is still pending. Uday Kotak sells 5.6 cr shares in Kotak Mahindra Bank to comply with RBI normshttps://t.co/PGOD5i1QDQ CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) June 2, 2020 "The stake dilution will be done through a block deal and will be completed shortly at a price band of Rs 1,215 to Rs 1,240 a share," a person familiar with the development told PTI. As per the term sheet, the deal would be worth Rs 6,800 crore at the lower end of the price band. Currently, Kotak and his family holds 28.8 percent stake in the bank as against the RBI mandate of 26 percent. Kotak, the richest banker in Asia, is the Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, which is the fourth largest private sector lender in the country. RBI nod for trimming promoters' stake In February, Kotak Mahindra Bank had said the RBI had granted its final approval for reducing promoters' stake in the bank to 26 percent. On 30 January, the bank had informed about RBI's in-principle acceptance for reducing promoters' shareholding to 26 percent of the paid-up voting equity share capital (PUVESC) of the bank within six months from the date of final approval of the regulator, PTI had reported. The RBI had asked the bank to cut promoters' shareholding to 20 percent of paid-up capital by 31 December, 2018, and 15 percent by 31 March, 2020. "Further to our intimation dated 30th January 2020,...the Reserve Bank of India has granted its final approval vide its letter dated 18th February 2020 in the matter relating to dilution of promoters'' shareholding in the bank," Kotak Mahindra Bank said in a regulatory filing. With this, the bank is also moving towards withdrawing a case concerning dilution of promoters' shareholding in the bank which it had filed against the RBI in the Bombay High Court. "Our board of directors has resolved to abide by the above. The bank is withdrawing writ petition No. 3542 of 2018 filed by it in the High Court of Bombay," Kotak Mahindra Bank had said in late January filing. In August 2018, Kotak had proposed the issuance of perpetual non-cumulative preference shares (PNCPS) to cut promoter holding to 19.70 percent, which the RBI rejected. The bank then challenged the RBI's contention in the Bombay High Court. The RBI's bank licensing rules mandate that a private bank's promoter will need to pare holding to 40 percent within three years, 20 percent within 10 years and to 15 percent within 15 years. In 2003, Kotak Mahindra Group's financial arm Kotak Mahindra Finance had received banking licence from the RBI, becoming the first NBFC in India to convert into a bank. Effective April 2015, another private sector lender ING Vysya Bank was merged into Kotak Mahindra Bank. Two teenagers were violently assaulted inside a Boston train station Monday by a group of individuals they had apparently spent the day with, according to police. A 17-year-old boy and a 19-year-old man were found inside the Park Street MBTA station naked and bloodied, transit police said in a statement. Both individuals had come to the Boston Common for a day of leisure when they met a group of males and one female, whom they had never met before. They proceeded to spend the day with the group in the common, according to the statement. Around 10 p.m., both individuals were led to Park Street station and assaulted by the same group they had spent the previous several hours with, the statement said. The victims were punched and kicked and threatened with a knife, transit police said. The teenagers clothes, shoes, cell phones and cash were also stolen as well, according to police. Police searched the area and found two men, later identified as 18-year-old Dashone Eures of Dedham and 21-year-old Keshaun Wilkie of Dorchester, according to authorities. Eures and Wilkie were identified by the victims as two of several suspects accused of beating, stripping and robbing the teenagers, authorities said. Both men were placed into custody and taken to transit police headquarters to be booked, according to law enforcement. Authorities did not disclose what motivated the suspects to assault and rob the victims. A tweet by Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz (R) has been flagged with a warning label after violating the platform's rules against "glorifying violence" by calling for the far-left antifa groups to be hunted like "terrorists." What he's saying: Gaetz, a relentless ally of President Trump, tweeted Monday: "Now that we clearly see Antifa as terrorists, can we hunt them down like we do those in the Middle East?" Twitter's addition of the warning label limits engagements with the tweet, including likes, retweets or replies. of the warning label limits engagements with the tweet, including likes, retweets or replies. Antifa, short for anti-fascism, is a decentralized group. Gaetz tweeted in response to Twitter on Monday evening: "Their warning is my badge of honor. Antifa is a terrorist organization, encouraging riots that hurt Americans. Our government should hunt them down." "Twitter should stop enabling them. I'll keep saying it," the congressman added. Why it matters: The post came after Trump announced on Sunday that he plans to treat antifa as a terrorist group amid ongoing protests over the death of George Floyd. It also comes as Twitter is increasing its fact-checks on lawmakers, including Trump himself. LAVAL, Quebec, June 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Savaria Corporation (Savaria) (SIS.TO) one of the global leaders in the accessibility industry, today announced that to create a more centralized operations team, Savaria will move the CFO function to Brampton, Ontario, home of its core North American manufacturing facility and the home base for the Corporations CEO and VP of Operations. As a result of this decision, Laval-based CFO, Mauro Ferrara will be leaving Savaria effective August 21, 2020. I wish to thank Mr. Ferrara for his contributions to Savaria and wish him success in his future endeavours. While our accounting headquarters will remain in Laval, Quebec, our desire to focus on operational strategies in Ontario and in other manufacturing facilities is consistent with our desire to grow and constantly improve efficiencies, declared Marcel Bourassa, President and Chief Executive Officer of Savaria. Mr. Ferrara said, I would like to thank all of my colleagues, as well as Marcel Bourassa, for my time at Savaria. Savaria is a well-run corporation, with a noble cause and a great product offering, that will undoubtedly be even more well positioned post COVID-19 crisis. About Savaria Corporation Savaria Corporation (savaria.com) is one of the global leaders in the accessibility industry. It provides accessibility solutions for the physically challenged to increase their comfort, their mobility and their independence. Its product line is one of the most comprehensive on the market. Savaria designs, manufactures, distributes and installs accessibility equipment, such as stairlifts for straight and curved stairs, vertical and inclined wheelchair lifts and elevators for home and commercial use. It also manufactures and markets a comprehensive selection of pressure management products for the medical market, medical beds for the long-term care market, as well as an extensive line of medical equipment and solutions for the safe handling of patients. In addition, Savaria converts and adapts vehicles to be wheelchair accessible. The Corporation operates a sales network of dealers worldwide and direct sales offices in North America, Europe (Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Poland and United Kingdom), Australia and China. Savaria employs approximately 1,450 people globally and its plants are located across Canada in Laval and Magog (Quebec), Brampton, Beamsville and Toronto (Ontario) and Surrey (British Columbia), in the United States at Greenville (South Carolina), in Huizhou (China), in Milan (Italy) and in Newton Abbot (United Kingdom). Story continues For further information: Marcel Bourassa President and Chief Executive Officer 1.800.661.5112 mbourassa@savaria.com Nicolas Rimbert, CFA Vice-President, Corporate Development 1.800.931.5655 nrimbert@savaria.com Srinagar, June 2 : In Kashmir doctors and psychologists are providing online counselling to those suffering from lockdown-induced depression. The J&K administration has created a Whatsapp group to help Kashmiris battling depression. The 'COVID Counselling Kashmir' group with 30 doctors and psychologists is helping those stranded in the lockdown. Doctors say away from their loved ones many are showing signs of anxiety, sleeping disorders, irritability and even suicidal tendencies in some extreme cases. "Most of the people who get in touch with us are either from Kashmir or from elsewhere in the country. There are many causes of depression mostly people who are facing financial problems and those who are stranded and want to return to their homes to be with their families," one doctor who is a member of the group said. The contact details of the callers who get in touch with the Divisional Commissioner's office in Kashmir are forwarded to this group. Around a dozen distress calls are received daily. The effort is to quickly reach out to the people who need help. "We have given numbers of the psychologists which are in the public domain, anybody who is facing a psychological problem or mental disturbance, he can make a call to them for getting technical advice, they would be available on the phone, people can get the advice sitting in their homes, doctors will attend their calls round the clock," P.K. Pole, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, said. Kashmir is witnessing a second lockdown in less than a year causing huge losses to the people. The online counselling is an effort to help those who are depressed to shun negative emotions and to counter the sense of loss. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text As protests over police brutality rage across the nation, President Donald Trump predictably responded with a call for an aggressive response against rioters. "Get tough Democrat Mayors and Governors," he tweeted Sunday. "These people are ANARCHISTS. Call in our National Guard NOW." On Monday, he held a conference call with the nation's governors, urging them to seek "retribution" against rioters he characterized as "scum" and "terrorists." "You have to dominate or you'll look like a bunch of jerks," he told the governors; "you have to arrest and try people." His approach was summed up in a simple all-caps tweet: "LAW & ORDER!" The president's theme is a familiar one for him. During the 2016 campaign, he insisted that "I am the law and order candidate" and during his inaugural address he promised that "this American carnage stops right here and right now." Now his aides reportedly believe the approach will work well for his reelection campaign, staged against a drumbeat of demonstrations and uprisings. "Some in the president's circle see the escalations as a political boon," the New York Times reported Monday, "much in the way Richard M. Nixon won the presidency on a law-and-order platform after the 1968 riots." While the future of American politics is impossible to predict, that statement reveals a serious misreading of the past. This year, Trump may try to replicate the rhetoric of his predecessor's campaign, but there's one important aspect he can't copy - the fact that Nixon, unlike Trump, wasn't president when he waged it. To be sure, Nixon did rely heavily on the theme of "law and order" as the Republican presidential candidate in 1968. Over the previous decade, the nation had been rocked by political assassinations, urban uprisings, rising crime rates and Supreme Court rulings extending new rights to criminal defendants. Kevin Phillips, a Republican strategist, asserted in a campaign memo that Nixon "should continue to emphasize crime, decentralization of federal social programming, and law and order" to win over white voters. At the GOP convention that August, the nominee pledged he would "restore order and respect for law in this country" as president. "The wave of crime is not going to be the wave of the future in the United States of America." This theme defined the campaign. "By every sign and portent," one veteran journalist noted that summer, "Nixon will accentuate the 'law and order' issue." He spoke often about it on the campaign trail and even devoted a memorable minute-long television ad to the topic. Images of violent protesters and armed police officers flashed across the screen, a discordant montage set to jarring music, followed by Nixon's solemn promise: "I pledge to you: We shall have order in the United States." It worked, largely by winning over disaffected Democrats, most notably white Southerners and white ethnics from northern cities. Peeling away those white Democrats, Phillips argued, would be the key to winning in 1968 and creating a lasting political realignment that would usher in what he called "the emerging Republican majority." And the "fulcrum of realignment," he argued in a campaign strategy memo, "is the law and order/Negro socioeconomic syndrome." Newspapers tracked its effectiveness. "It's well documented by now that law and order is the No. 1 domestic issue of this election," the Wall Street Journal reported in late October 1968. "Countless voters across the land, even in places lacking muggers and rioters, are gripped by fear for their safety." Polls asking which candidate could "maintain law and order" gave Nixon a 12-point lead. Thanks to that commanding margin on a key issue, Nixon secured a narrow victory in November. The message worked, but only because Nixon was the outsider running against the incumbent vice president, not the sitting president. The call for "law and order" is a complaint that those tasked with upholding the law and maintaining order have failed at the job and need to be replaced. In 1968, Nixon's law-and-order campaign rested on his repeated claims that Lyndon B. Johnson's administration was largely to blame for the nation's lawlessness and that only replacing it with a new administration would solve them. "If we are to restore order and respect for law in this country," Nixon vowed in his acceptance speech, "there is one place we are going to begin. We are going to have a new attorney general of the United States of America." As a presidential candidate, Nixon was able to run, and win, on a critique of the status quo. But once he was president, that critique no longer worked. Nixon learned this the hard way in the 1970 midterm elections. He spent the fall campaigning across the country for GOP candidates, with the "law and order" message front and center. "From Missouri to Tennessee to North Carolina and Indiana," a reporter noted in late October, "he urged more respect for police, plugged the virtues of Republican congressional candidates and asked 'the silent majority of America to stand up and be counted against violence and lawlessness.' " The president urged Americans "in the quiet of the polling booth" to vote for Republicans and thereby strike a blow against politicians who "condoned lawlessness and violence and permissiveness." This time, the appeal fell flat. Republicans lost 10 seats in the House and, more significantly, lost a large number of governors' races across the country, including almost all the Midwest. The Los Angeles Times captured the rebuke well in a headline: "Silent Majority Speaks Out, Rejects Law-And-Order Alarm, Votes Liberal." An astute politician, Nixon learned the lesson immediately. "The White House has already begun a campaign to alter President Nixon's image in preparation for the 1972 elections," the Boston Globe reported just a week after the midterm defeat. "Law and order, the principal issue of the disappointing 1970 campaign, will be soft-pedaled." Sure enough, it was. While the 1968 campaign had featured a fearmongering ad on the theme of "law and order," the 1972 reelection effort was characterized by an upbeat commercial filled with beachgoers and butterflies. As the campaign drew to a close, politicians and political observers alike marveled at how the "law and order" theme had evaporated. The incumbent Nixon had realized he couldn't use it, while Democrats - who saw the phrase as inherently racist - refused to use it against him. As a result, the issue faded away with Republican Sen. Jack Miller of Iowa observing how the issue "has certainly gone on the back burner." Nixon won a landslide reelection that year, of course, but not because of any concerted appeal to the "law and order" crowd. Rather than highlight divisions and court controversy, the incumbent president emphasized the changes he had made in foreign policy and his promise to end the war in Vietnam, as well as an assortment of other domestic issues. As a presidential candidate, Nixon manipulated the issue of "law and order" for his own ends. But as president, he learned it was a losing issue for the politician then in charge. The call for "law and order" is, at heart, a call for a new order, a call for the current leadership to be replaced. An incumbent who presses the issue is effectively making the case for his opponent, not himself. - - - Kruse is a professor of history at Princeton University. He is co-author of "Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974." WASHINGTON, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In a joint statement, emergency medicine and other leading medical associations, academics and psychiatry experts outline steps to support the mental health of emergency physicians and other health professionals currently risking their lives to treat patients during this pandemic. "A physician's choice to address his or her mental health should be encouraged, not penalized," said William Jaquis, MD, FACEP, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). "Efforts to preserve and protect the mental health of emergency care teams should be prioritized now and in the aftermath of this pandemic." Optimal physical and mental health of physicians and other medical clinicians is conducive to the optimal health and safety of patients, the joint statement reads. Physicians and other health care professionals should feel comfortable seeking treatment for psychiatric symptoms, just as anyone else should. A health professionals' history of mental illness or substance use disorder (SUD) treatment should not be used as an indicator of their current or future ability to competently practice medicine. These leading medical groups believe that credentialing entities should refrain both from discouraging physicians from seeking professional help and from dissuading physicians from joining peer support groups. There should be no reprisals for a physician who engages in such therapeutic endeavors. According to the statement, "For most physicians and clinicians, seeking treatment for mental health triggers legitimate fear of resultant loss of licensure, loss of income or other career setbacks. Such fears are known to deter physicians from accessing necessary mental health care. Seeking care should be strongly encouraged, not penalized." "As important as providing personal protective equipment is the need to ensure the mental health of our frontline clinicians is attended to during the COVID-19 pandemic," said American Psychiatric Association President Jeffrey Geller, MD, MPH. "Each health care professional should seek help if needed without hesitation, and should be helped to do so by a colleague if such assistance is necessary." The joint statement is signed by the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI), American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM), American Academy of Neurology (AAN), American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (AAPMR), American Association for Emergency Psychiatry (AAEP), American Association of Suicidology (AAS), American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), American College of Physicians (ACP), American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM), American College of Surgeons (ACS), American Epilepsy Society (AES), American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), American Geriatric Society (AGS), American Medical Association (AMA), American Psychiatric Association (APA), American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP), American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons (ASCRS), American Society of Hematology (ASH), American Society of Nephrology (ASN), American Thoracic Society (ATS), American Urological Association (AUA), Coalition on Psychiatric Emergencies (CPE), Council of Residency Directors in Emergency Medicine (CORD), Council for Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS), Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA), Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes' Foundation, Emergency Medicine Residents' Association (EMRA), Emergency Nurses Association (ENA), Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), North American Spine Society (NASS), Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM), Society of Emergency Medicine Physician Assistants (SEMPA), Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM), Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR), and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS). SOURCE American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Related Links www.acep.org Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 02:12:59|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close FRANKFURT, June 1 (Xinhua) -- German flag carrier Deutsche Lufthansa AG's Supervisory Board said Monday that it has voted to accept the German government's nine-billion-euro (10 billion U.S. dollars) stabilization package. The package of loans and various measures was offered by Germany's Economic Stabilization Fund to help the airline weather the coronavirus crisis. Monday's decision also means accepting the promises announced to the European Commission, according to the company. According to a statement issued last Saturday, Lufthansa said it will be obliged to transfer to one competitor each at the Frankfurt and Munich airports up to 24 take-off and landing rights for the stationing of up to four aircraft. The option is only available to new competitors for one and a half years, and will be extended to existing competitors if no new competitor makes use of it, the airline said last Saturday. Karl-Ludwig Kley, chairman of the Supervisory Board of Lufthansa said in Monday's statement that the company has made "a very difficult decision." "We recommend our shareholders to follow this path, even if it demands substantial contributions to stabilize their company. But it must be said clearly that there is a very difficult path ahead of Lufthansa," Kley said. The package still needs the approval of the competition authorities and the shareholders after it was okayed by both the Management Board and the Supervisory Board of the company. A general meeting with shareholders to discuss the package is scheduled for June 25. Lufthansa's CEO Carsten Spohr said that stabilizing Lufthansa is not an end in itself, and that the company will work to defend its leading position in global air traffic together with the German government. Lufthansa said that it is foreseeable that international air traffic will not reach the pre-crisis level in the coming years. Enditem The opportunity for Indian manufacturers are humongous if there is a sizable shift in opportunities from China to India. A look at the India-USA trade gives some clue. A good portion of Indias current exports to the USA consist of apparel, pharma, chemicals, vehicles and furniture. However, except for a few sectors such as pharma, fish/sea creatures and carpets, exports from China are several times more than that of India. There are multiple sectoral opportunities which investors can keep an eye on: Chemicals Sub-segments such as aromatic chemicals, fluorochemicals dyes & pigments and contract research and manufacturing services (CRAMS) /Contract manufacturing are expected to continue to benefit from this trend. In recent times business inquiries from developed markets have increased with the intention of diversification of supply chain. Time and again, such opportunities have been called out by the likes of NOCIL, Aarti industries and Atul industries. One of the ways this opportunity can express is with multi-year dedicated deals as exhibited by Aarti Industries and Navin Fluorine. Also Read: How dependent is India on China? Here is what trade data reveals Agrochemicals UPL, PI Industries, Bharat Rasayan, Excel Industries, Insecticides India are the names that are positioned to benefit from the shift and would be worth watching out for. PI Industries indicated that it has witnessed big order wins and a significant surge in enquiries and is ready for high growth in the CSM (Custom Synthesis Manufacturing) segment. UPL, another major player in this space, sees this as an opportunity to seize market share and the management believes that there is opportunity for UPL to emerge as an alternative supply source. Pharma/APIs On the API space, companies which appear to be well positioned given the wide portfolio are Laurus Labs, Solara Active, Ipca labs and Divis Lab. Divis Lab has recently completed Rs 1700 crore expansion plan and as 60 percent of business comes from CRAMS. It can further enhance its position as a global sourcing partner. Further, Fermenta Biotech which has a significant market share in the Vitamin D3 API can benefit as it competes with Chinese players in the global market. In the formulation space, companies such as Cipla, Dr Reddys, Cadila Health having a reasonable export exposure particularly in the USA market and demands attention. Further, companies better positioned for complex generics such Biocon, Lupin and Dr Reddys should also be kept on a close watch. Durables Traction for contract manufacturers is a likely fall out of reduced import dependency. Last year, contract manufacturer Dixon Technologies had indicated the company is looking to scale up its presence in the export market through the lighting and mobiles segment. Likewise, AC manufacturer Amber Enterprises could also benefit from the market opportunities thrown across by the pandemic. Also Read: The reset of globalisation: How big is it an opportunity for India Inc? Auto component makers Many companies associated with making components are expected to gain. In the Electricals segment, Nippon Electricals is a key player. In suspension & braking part, Jamna Auto, Gabriel India, Munjal Showa are the companies which are expected to benefit and in the cooling systems category, Subros is expected to hog the limelight. Capital goods MNCs with the technological advantage and strong parentage in global markets, such as Cummins, ABB and Siemens with reasonable export exposure to benefit. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 2 By Fidan Babayeva Trend: Azerbaijan exported first batch of persimmon to the UAE in May 2020, Chairman of the Persimmon Producers and Exporters Association of Azerbaijan Gadir Yusifov told Trend. The volume of the first delivery of frozen persimmon amounted to 20 tons. Meanwhile, the revenues from persimmon export amounted to 100,000 manat ($58,823). A second batch of frozen persimmon is scheduled for delivery in late June, he said. Yusifov noted that Azerbaijan has a great potential in this sector. "In order to increase production, it is necessary to educate the entrepreneurs. To this end, the association is discussing a joint project with the Ministry of Agriculture. It is about conducting trainings with entrepreneurs in areas where persimmons are grown - in Goychay, Shamkir, Tovuz, Balakan and Zagatala districts. During the trainings, manufacturers and exporters of persimmons will receive information on the collection of fruits, their packaging, warehousing and organization of sales, Yusifov said. The Persimmon Producers and Exporters Association of Azerbaijan was created in August 2017 on the initiative of entrepreneurs and with the support of the Ministry of Economy. The main objectives of the association are to increase the production of competitive and export-oriented products, as well as increase persimmon exports. Income from exports in 2019 significantly exceeded revenues for 2018, amounting to $114 million. (1 USD = 1.7 manat on June 2) --- Follow the author on Twitter: Fidan_Babaeva PCUSA lost 50K members, 120 congregations in 2019; celebrates apparent slowing of decline Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Presbyterian Church (USA) recently reported that it lost around 50,000 members and over 100 congregations in 2019, which was hailed as a slowing of their years-long decline. The largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States released a report last Thursday regarding the current membership and church numbers. From 2018 to 2019, PC(USA) went from approximately 1,352,000 active members to approximately 1,302,000 members, or a drop of around 50,000. The number of congregations belonging to PC(USA) also declined, going from 9,161 in 2018 to 9,041 in 2019. This is around 400 fewer congregations than the denomination had in 2016. The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, stated clerk of the PC(USA) General Assembly, said that report was good news since membership did not drop below the 1.3 million mark. We must celebrate while knowing that there remains work to be done, stated Nelson, claiming that this was the first time in three decades that they were not reporting membership losses. We are witnessing congregational transformation and renewal through innovative leadership, discipleship training, spiritual renewal, and contextual ministry implementation. Nelson went on to state that he believed a key feature of eventual growth for the denomination will be dependent on evangelizing immigrant communities. Church planting in immigrant communities is leading the way towards our current and future church growth, he continued. We are not dying. We are Reforming. Jeff Walton of the Institute on Religion & Democracy was critical of Nelsons optimism, noting that the losses over the past year are consistent with reports from recent years. Apparently in Nelsons assessment the vanishing of more than 50,000 church members does not count as decline because of rounding, wrote Walton. The rate of decline continues to be greater than the most recently reported membership numbers in the Episcopal Church, which reported a loss of 36,214 persons in 2018 (the Episcopal Church customarily releases statistics in the autumn of the following year). As with other mainline Protestant denominations, PC(USA) has experienced severe decline over the past several years, having had about 1.2 million more members in 2000 than at present. In 2011, membership slipped below the 2 million mark and in 2014, the number of congregations affiliated with the denomination went below the 10,000 mark. One factor has been the liberal theological direction of the PC(USA), as seen with its increased acceptance of homosexuality, which prompted large numbers of congregations to seek dismissal. Many of these departing congregations formed a new conservative denomination called ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians in 2012. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-03 00:58:45|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HONG KONG, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Chief Executive of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam said Tuesday that the decision by the national legislature to establish and improve the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the HKSAR to safeguard national security demonstrates the commitment of the central authorities, while some foreign countries applied double standards on the matter. Speaking at a media session on Tuesday, Lam pointed out that national security embodies a nation's sovereignty and sets up the foundation of the governance. It is the jurisdiction of the central authorities to enact laws on national security, as all other nations do, and current laws in Hong Kong are nowhere near adequate to deal with issues related to national security. Lam said China's national security law should be applied in each part and corner of the country, and the central government had thus authorized the HKSAR to complete on national security legislation in accordance with the "one country, two systems" principle, "Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong" and a high degree of autonomy. Hong Kong however has yet to enact such laws. Lam said there has been an increasing threat on national security in Hong Kong since last year, with some advocating "Hong Kong independence," as well as foreign interference harming the national security. Lam, rebuffing some foreign countries' criticism on China, said the central authorities shoulder the responsibility by making the decision under the special situation. Some foreign governments treasure so much of their own national security but look through colored spectacles when viewing China's security and Hong Kong's current situation, Lam said, blasting those foreign governments of taking double standards. Any sanctions or removing of Hong Kong's special status would hurt the United States itself and would not benefit anyone, Lam warned. She said that the United States, for the past over 10 years, has enjoyed its large trade surplus with Hong Kong, the non-reciprocal visa-free access and etc. Lam said that the acts and behaviors to hit businesses and people will only make the economy and people's livelihood worse as the COVID-19 epidemic has already weakened the global economy. Enditem The class action alleges that Farmers Insurance is summarily denying any claims for loss of business income made by small businesses as a strategy a strategy to dissuade those small businesses from pursuing litigation. The lawsuit also alleges that this is not the first time Farmers has employed the tactic, saying that the insurer tried to pull the same thing after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. According to California insurance law, insureds are entitled to a fair and thorough investigation of claims, but Farmers chose to deny this completely legitimate claim sight unseen, said Arias Sanguinetti Wang & Torrijos LLP managing partner Mike Arias in a statement. The franchisee was one of the many non-essential businesses ordered to close on March 19 by the state government, in response to the COVID-19 pandemics spread. Since the lockdown, the farming store has not made a single sale. It had purchased a uniform business owners policy, which it alleges should cover the government lockdown. The franchisee also noted that its policy has an additional coverages clause that covers business income should a business sustain losses due to the necessary suspension of your operations during period of restoration. The franchisee reported a claim to Farmers Insurance on April 08, 2020, over the phone, which was immediately denied. Farmers also sent a written denial to the store the next day. When the franchisee hired an attorney to determine why the claim was denied without Farmers assessing and investigating the claim, the insurer refused to cooperate and did not provide any justification for the denial, it is alleged. A statement from Arias Sanguinetti Wang & Torrijos LLP said that the lawsuit seeks to represent a class of other retail and service business in California that just like the plaintiff do business in-person with customer but were not considered essential during the statewide lockdown order. President Trump cut funding to the World Health Organization which resulted in a backlash from the WHO members who did not agree with the move. To recall, US threatened to withdraw from WHO due to the allegation that China is dictating on their moves and that they do not have any autonomous decision making since the start of the pandemic, according to AFP. Also, the American government asked for reforms that were largely ignored and criticized as well. Loss of American funding has made the European Union ask the US to rethink its position of withdrawing it and rejoining. Recently, the Chinese pledged $ 2 billion as the US was threatening to cut funding permanently, as support for coronavirus spending by the health organization, CNBC says. The US faced wide condemnation last Saturday from the severance of WHO ties, with the Trump administration doing what it said it will do, especially the increased coronavirus cases in Latin America, with the gradual reopening from Europe that will need support from WHO health programs. For the EU, with the exit of Washington from the perception of WHOs conduct during the pandemic, comes when a global economy in tatters, with 6 million cases and 346,000 which is more or less the number of people who died from COVID-19. As pleas for America to return to the fold of the WHO, the European Union said working together and looking for solutions is needed, not actions that decrease international cooperation. Just last month, US President Trump cut funds to the WHO and called it lax on the virus, especially treating China with kid's gloves for its complicity in the rise and secrecy where COVID-19 does come from. Last Friday, Trump made it official that no more funds from the US are forthcoming, striking the WHOs coffers critically especially now because of an annual fund of $400 million that more than any other WHO member gives. Also read: Beijing Pointing Fingers: China Accuses US of Starting a New 'Cold War' The fallout from US withdrawal had responses from Jens Spahn, Germany's Health Minister, calling it a setback, Chancellor Angela Merkel will snub a G7 summit that Trump would host overall. The loss of US funds is seen as a severe blow, confirmed the Jakarta Post. Richard Horton an editor of the Lancet Journal said, "madness and terrifying both at the same time", was verified by Twitter. One more criticism is that the US is not cooperative when a humanitarian emergency is afoot. Lawrence Gostin, connected to the public health law at Georgetown University and WHO collaborator, disagreed with Trump's decision to back off from the WHO that was not without approval from US Congress, call it unlawful, reckless, and dangerous. With US disengagement from the WHO, according to detractors harping on the action say that it comes at a bad time when the coronavirus is spreading more, at different places all over the world. Funds from the US would have been helpful, but there isn't now and the WHO needs to find more sources of funding. Many EU nations under lockdown are now under pressure to get out of lockdown phase and restart economic engine left idle. Yet, the vaccine needed is not in reach yet with a second wave coming in to hit populations soon. In Asia, India stated that starting Saturday there will be a gradual reopening in early June. Loss of US funding from the WHO and its permanent withdrawal is unexpected, but the EU needs to deal with it. Related article: China Side Stepped Accusations at the World Health Assembly @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. In 2015, the Turks shoot down the ageing Su-24 fighter bomber. It will be different with the acquisition of the Su-34 fighter bomber to improve Russian strike capability. The Russian Airforce is acquiring several Su-34 multi-role fighters as a replacement for the Su-24s that are getting vulnerable to counter-attack. A two-seater fighter bomber that offers more capability than Su-24s that was shot down close to Syria in 2015, reported by Forbes Aerospace & Defense. According to reports, the Kremlin has inked a deal in late May with the United Aircraft Corporation's Sukhoi division for an order of 76 new Su-34s, a delivery of 14 fighter jets until 2027. A total of 76 Su-34s will be used for two regiments or groups, confirmed by War News Updates. This Su-34 is a basic model that has a similar Su-27 airframe, but with side-to-side seating in a two-seater plane. The fighter bomber has a range of 600 miles with loadout capacity of bombs and missiles at 12 tons, including air to air missiles. What makes the Su-34 tick are these weapons that give it a menacing edge multi-role operation. These weapons include a 30-millimeter cannon with a radar of several functions, plus Khibiny electronic-countermeasures suite to protect it from missiles or other radar threats. It will cost about $40 million that is comparable to the US F-15E. These variants of the Su-34 are different with changes and improvements as Su-24M variants that offer improvements for a new pod with three different sensors. This is called the UKR-RT Pod with functions like electronic search measures included. Another system is the UKR-OE which is a camera module, UKR-RL is equipped with a synthetic aperture radar that will enable sighting targets in bad weather. When interviewed, the UAC director-general Yuri Slyusar spoke to TASS, he said that Su-34M has the better capacity with double efficacy from a basic model that improve its overall performance. Compared to the older Su-24, the Su-34Ms improved equipment will make it hard for opposing air forces to defeat it in combat. Case in point is the Turk air force which was able to defeat the Su-24. Also read: Pentagon Plans to Protect America From Ballistic Missiles, Sets Up Plan B for Assurance Basic differences of the Su-34 and the Su-24 which is a swing-wing jet that was introduced in the 70s, an older plane from an older generation. One of the weaknesses of the Su-24 is weapons for air to air combat, while the Su-34 can survive and engage enemy fighters. An expert commented this new generation multi-role fighter can dog fight and bomb targets at the same times. In November on 2015, Su-34s of the Russian Air force was dispatched to Syria. In air combat, a Turk F-16 defeated a Su-24 which entered Turk air space. For the most part, Su-34s were part of Russia's bombing campaign that struck civilians and medical people, reported by TASS. Samuel Bendett commented that Russia air assets in Syria gave the Russian air force, an idea of how to modernize the Su-34 properly. He is connected to the Center for Naval Analyses and a Russia studies fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, according to CNA. For the record, this new set of Su-34s is the third delivery, first acquisitions of 32 Su-34s started in 2008, with another 92 fighter jets in 2012. By the year 2030, there will be 200 Su-34s in the Russian air forces. In 2020, there are 275 Su-24s left with a hundred of them kept from mothballs, as extra assets for the Kremlin. Once the Su-34s get online to replace Su-24s the Russian air force will have a formidable air force. Related article: Spy Photos of Russian Jets Captured in Libya, US General Says @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Mark Clennon, 32, is a photographer living in Harlem with his wife, and three-month-old daughter. On May 30, five days after George Floyds killing in Minneapolis, Clennon went out to photograph a peaceful protest winding through Manhattan. The energy was different to other protests, and I had to go out. Part of it was that everyones faces were covered and you just had to look people right in the eye. I started walking from Harlem on 125th Street. Not long after that, there was a police altercation and I kept walking with the crowd. At one point, I saw Korey Wise of the Exonerated Five. I photographed him supporting people. He didnt want to make a big deal of it. He explicitly didnt want to attract any attention from law enforcement. I respected his history and moved on. Korey Wise of the 'Exonerated Five' in New York City on May 30. | Mark Clennon Walking further down Fifth Avenue, I knew Trump Tower was ahead, so I hopped on a Citi Bike and cycled to the front of the crowd. When people got there and noticed it was Trump Tower, the whole protest stopped. I spotted a man. I never saw the front of this mans face. I never spoke to him. I snapped about 10 photos and the first one is the one I used. I kind of waited for him to raise his fist. I had a feeling he would. Parts of the crowd kneeled for a bit and then people started getting rowdy, shaking the barricades before eventually moving on. During the protest, I kept making sure I took photos of signs with Breonna Taylors name on it. This specific case with Floyd is about black men, but the black women who were involved in the protest were the loudest voices on behalf of the black men. I feel like many black women are frustrated that these deaths dont spark in the way that many mens deaths do. Protesters marched from Harlem to Times Square on May 30. | Mark Clennon A short while later, in Times Square, I was standing on a barrier and could see my friend Chris and his girlfriend Ria at the intersection of Seventh Avenue and 41st Street. On the loudspeakers, the police were saying, This is an unlawful assembly. Then an officer, who they were not even looking at, grabbed them. These are my friends so I just started running toward them and was pushed back. Story continues What did they do? I was asking the officer. I was yelling loudly the whole time, I had my camera above my head, just snapping and trying to make sure my friends were safe. It was like a scuffle. Fortunately, I found Chris and stayed with him as he was processed and placed in the van. He yelled out his moms phone number to me. Ria Foye as she is arrested in Times Square after peacefully marching from Harlem on May 30. She was detained for more than seven hours. | Mark Clennon I went back home after Chris mother confirmed that she was on her way to the precinct. I decided to take the train back to Harlem. I knew once the sun went down, it would be a little worse. I posted the image of the protest at Trump Tower just before 9 p.m. I was just sharing an image that encapsulated how I was feeling about being black in America today. I could tell people were responding to it. People were reaching out to me from Brazil, Germany, Russia, from all over the world. I didnt realize how people would react to the image. Today it has over 33 million impressions on Twitter alone. But its tough its tough for me. I feel a certain weight because I made that image and people are responding to it. This has happened because somebody was killed. As I look at that picture, its meaning has evolved. I think that picture was bigger than that one moment and represents the past few years since the Trump Administration has been in Washington. I had never noticed the flag inside the Trump Tower all the times I passed it before, but in that moment, I was an active participant in that protest. Im chanting, too, and my fist is up. The American flag behind the glass, in that gold, gilded case, its inaccessible to me. I have an urge to just break through that glass because that flag is for me, too. Thats the visceral feeling I had when I noticed the flag, and I think thats the feeling this man had when he saw it, too. Ive been to many protests, so instinctively I just knew where to be. But I would actually not like to experience any more of these uprisings. In an ideal world, there would be no need. I went out that day to make sure a black voice got to tell our story. I wanted to give the protests the nuance they deserved. In a way, my audience was my daughter, I wanted her to see what the world was like in the first few months of her life. YouTube star Myka Stauffer and her husband are being investigated by authorities in Ohio after revealing last week that they had 'rehomed' their adopted autistic son Huxley by handing him over to another family. The bombshell admission that he had been rehomed has sparked furious backlash online and has already cost Myka her partnership with Kate Hudson's sportswear company Fabletics and other lifestyle brands. By Tuesday, it appears that Myka had scrubbed her Instagram page boasting more than 204,000 followers of all images showing the four-year-old Huxley, leaving behind only photos of her four biological children. Scroll down for video Where is Huxley? Myka Stauffer, 32, and her husband James posted a tearful video last Tuesday saying they've decided to 'rehome' their adopted 4-year-old son Huxley. Now, authorities in Ohio are trying to find the child Scrubbed: By Tuesday, Myka had removed all photos showing her adopted son (pictured in her arms) from her Instagram page As BuzzFeed News first reported on Tuesday, the Delaware County Sheriff's Office in Ohio has launched an investigation seeking to track down Huxley to make sure the child is safe. Tracy Whited, a spokesperson for the sheriff's office, told the news outlet it is working with 'several other agencies' to find the child. 'Were very aware of this case,' said Whited. 'We are investigating, but it is an active case, and as such, we cannot divulge too much information just yet.' A week ago, Myka, 32, and her husband, 34, posted an emotional video on their popular YouTube channel, saying they have decided to 'rehome' Huxley after adopting him from China in 2017. James explained that he and his wife had discovered 'there were a lot of special needs that we were not aware of.' Myka and James cited medical privacy concerns for not explaining in detail why they decided to give Huxley up. Myka adopted son Huxley from China three years ago, but has now decided to 'rehome' him citing medical issues she and her husband weren't prepared for She has previously stated that the toddler has autism and brain trauma, and required a lot of specialized care. In the video, which has gone viral and has been viewed 4.2million times in the last week, Myka said she has been told by 'numerous medical professionals' that Huxley needed 'a different fit. He needed more.' She added that an adoption agency had helped place Huxley with his 'forever family'. 'He's thriving, he's doing really well, and his new mommy has medical, professional training,' she added. After facing a barrage of criticism on social media, Myka allegedly responded in the comments, saying Huxley 'wanted this decision 100 per cent.' The message appears to have been deleted but is now circulating online. 'Multiple scary things happened inside the home towards our other children, and if these events happened with one of my biological kids, after all the help and after the behaviors we witnessed sadly we would have no other choice then to seek help and get their needs met.' The mom-of-four went on to insist that rehoming Huxley who turns five this week was what was best for him and something he wanted. Response: After coming under fire for her announcement, Myka allegedly responded in the comments. The message appears to have been deleted but is now circulating online 'Huxley wanted this descion [sic] 100% we saw that in family time with other poeple [sic], he constantly chose them and signed with and showed tons of emotion to show us and let us know he wanted this,' she explained. 'Huxley never had a say in his adoption, and he needed more help and also wanted this and we know that 100%.' Attorneys Thomas Taneff and Taylor Sayers who represent the Stauffers told BuzzFeed the parents had personally hand-picked 'a family who is equipped to handle Huxleys needs.' The lawyers said the decision was made in consultation with multiple healthcare and education experts. 'Over time, the team of medical professionals advised our clients it might be best for Huxley to be placed with another family. This is devastating news for any parent,' the lawyers stated. Many questions remain unanswered at this time, including: where is Huxley? Who helped the Stauffers transfer him to the new family? Have the new parents been vetted by anyone? Neither Myka nor James have publicly commented on the controversy since releasing their tearful video. Others angered by the couple's decision have called on Myka's (pictured with her family) sponsors to drop her When the Stauffers brought Huxley home from China in October 2017, Myka documented his international adoption on her YouTube channel, which now has more than 700,000 subscribers. Myka also wrote about Huxley's adoption and his special needs. In a piece she had penned for Parade in September, she said that they were surprised when they came home with their adopted son and realized his file was 'inaccurate.' 'Our son ended up having a stroke in utero, has level 3 autism, and sensory processing disorder,' she wrote. 'It took a lot of time to process and to readjust to his new diagnosis.' She shared that Huxley receives '30 hours of ABA [Applied Behavior Analysis] in-home therapy a week and goes to private preschool' to help with his needs. 'He is a great kid and his condition doesnt involve that much overall careall you need is a big heart and practice patience every day,' she said. The May 30 commentary, Regime change in Iran shouldnt be taboo for the U.S., ignores our countrys history of violent covert action against foreign governments. In advocating for the overthrow of the current Iranian government, the writers neglect to mention that the United States overthrew a democratically elected Iranian government in 1953, ushering in the dictatorial rule of the shah of Iran, a close U.S. ally. The shahs iron-fisted rule led directly to his overthrow by the current theocracy that the United States loves to hate. The willingness of the writers of this essay to encourage the United States to overthrow another countrys government displays an ignorance of history not only in Iran but in places like Afghanistan, where our governments Cold War calculations helped put the Taliban in power. Now, 20 years of war leave us ready to pull out, abandoning allies who were counting on us. There are numerous other examples of disastrous and undemocratic covert action by the United States, from Hawaii to Iraq. Please, lets finally learn from history. Piet van Lier, Cleveland Forensic experts will begin testing 15 skeletons uncovered at an ancient Spanish chapel this week to see if any belong to 16th-century Irish rebel chief Red Hugh O'Donnell. The discovery of the chapel in the northwestern town of Valladolid where O'Donnell was buried with full honours in 1602 has sparked a wave of interest among historians in Spain, Ireland and beyond. Known as Red Hugh, the young Irishman led a rebellion that nearly ousted Elizabeth I's English troops from Ireland, sparking a nine-year war which the rebels ultimately lost, despite help from the Spanish crown. Just 29 at the time, O'Donnell quickly sailed to Spain to seek further support for their cause but died en route to Valladolid, the capital at the time. He was buried in St Francis' monastery in the prestigious Chapel of Wonders. But for centuries, the location of the chapel -- where Christopher Columbus was initially buried 100 years earlier before being moved to Seville -- has remained a mystery, until archaeologists began excavating a site in the town centre in mid-May. "It's been confirmed that this is the chapel where Christopher Columbus and Red Hugh were buried," said Carlos Burgos, head of the Hispano-Irish association and spokesman for the dig. "What hasn't been confirmed is whether any of the 15 bodies that have been found are Red Hugh O'Donnell," he told AFP. "There is one body which is bigger and stronger than the rest and seems to be a foreigner because it's taller than normal and may have been a fighter." Although O'Donnell's remains might have quickly been identified by the fact he lost both big toes to frostbite during a winter escape from prison in Dublin Castle, Burgos said most of the corpses did not have feet. "There was only one with the feet intact, and that had its big toes," he told AFP, saying the experts would run DNA testing. - 'Emblematic place' - To date, only around half of the chapel has been excavated -- around 50 square metres -- with another 40 square metres extending underneath the nearby Santander bank. Burgos said talks were under way with the bank to secure access to the rest of the site. Ana Redondo, who is responsible for culture and tourism in Valladolid, described the chapel as "an emblematic place", writing on Twitter at the weekend that it would become "a place of pilgrimage and an important place for the history of Ireland". If the chapel was confirmed as O'Donnell's last resting place, it would be "very important" for both Spain and Ireland, Burgos said. For Ireland, he was "a very important leader" and for Spain it would reinforce its historic alliance with the Irish people. "Many Irish come to Valladolid asking about Red Hugh and until now, there's been nothing except for a plaque that was put up a few years ago," he said. "It's important that we try and create a respectful and visible memorial for those who want to know more about his history." Hugh O'Donnell led a rebellion that nearly ousted Elizabeth I's English troops from Ireland Only around half of the chapel has been excavated Technavio has been monitoring the global concrete admixtures market size and it is poised to grow by USD 3.54 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of almost 5% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005639/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Concrete Admixtures Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire) Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Latest Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. Arkema SA, Ashland Global Holdings Inc., BASF SE, CEMEX SAB de CV, Dow Inc., Fosroc Group, GCP Applied Technologies Inc., Mapei Spa, RPM International Inc., and Sika AG. are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments. The increasing demand for plasticizers has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. Concrete Admixtures Market 2020-2024: Segmentation Concrete Admixtures Market is segmented as below: Application Residential Commercial Infrastructure Geography APAC Europe North America South America MEA To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR40068 Concrete Admixtures Market 2020-2024: Scope Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our concrete admixtures market report covers the following areas: Concrete Admixtures Market size Concrete Admixtures Market trends Concrete Admixtures Market industry analysis This study identifies the growing demand for green buildings as one of the prime reasons driving the concrete admixtures market growth during the next few years. Concrete Admixtures Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the Concrete Admixtures Market, including some of the vendors such as Arkema SA, Ashland Global Holdings Inc., BASF SE, CEMEX SAB de CV, Dow Inc., Fosroc Group, GCP Applied Technologies Inc., Mapei Spa, RPM International Inc., and Sika AG. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the Concrete Admixtures Market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports. Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Concrete Admixtures Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024 Detailed information on factors that will assist concrete admixtures market growth during the next five years Estimation of the concrete admixtures market size and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the concrete admixtures market Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of concrete admixtures market vendors Table Of Contents : PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT 2.1 Preface 2.2 Preface 2.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE Market ecosystem Market characteristics Value Chain Analysis Market segmentation analysis PART 04: MARKET SIZING Market definition Market sizing 2019 Market size and forecast 2019-2024 PART 05: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market condition PART 06: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY APPLICATION Market segmentation by application Comparison by application Residential Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Commercial Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Infrastructure Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Market opportunity by application PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE Geographic segmentation Geographic comparison APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024 North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024 MEA Market size and forecast 2019-2024 South America Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Key leading countries Market opportunity PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES Market drivers Market challenges PART 11: MARKET TRENDS Rapid urbanization and rising disposable income Growing demand for green buildings Diversified product portfolio and strategic positioning of R&D centers PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE Overview Landscape disruption Competitive scenario PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS Vendors covered Vendor classification Market positioning of vendors Arkema SA Ashland Global Holdings, Inc. BASF SE CEMEX SAB de CV Dow Inc. Fosroc Group GCP Applied Technologies Inc. Mapei Spa RPM International Inc. Sika AG PART 14: APPENDIX Research methodology List of abbreviations Definition of market positioning of vendors PART 15: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005639/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: media@technavio.com Website: www.technavio.com/ On May 29, China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) held the inaugural meeting and unveiling ceremony of the Strategy Institute of CSCEC at the company's headquarters in Beijing. CSCEC Chairman Zhou Naixiang attended the meeting and jointly inaugurated the the Strategy Institute of CSCEC along with CSCEC President Zheng Xuexuan. CSCEC Vice President Ma Zeping presided over the unveiling ceremony. At the meeting, Zhou issued letters of appointment to a group of distinguished fellows of the newly established institute. Distinguished fellows Mao Zhibing, Li Jian, Qin Yuxiu, and Ye Haowen expressed their determination to focus on CSCEC's mission of establishing a global top-tier enterprise with solid business performance, international competitiveness, industry influence, brand power, and soft power, as well as to make due contributions to the strategic decision-making and the sustainable development of the company by presenting high quality research findings. On behalf of the board of directors, Zhou congratulated the establishment of the the Strategy Institute of CSCEC, expressed gratitude to the distinguished fellows for their important contributions to the development of the company, and spoke highly of the efficient and pragmatic preparatory works of the institute. Zhou pointed out that, at this pivotal moment of CSCEC's Reform and Development, the the Strategy Institute of CSCEC will play a vital role not only in the company's current process of transformation and upgrading, but also in its long-term development in the future. For the new institute to play a larger role, Zhou put forward three requirements on its work: First, the institute should function as an internal consulting agency that is capable of giving strategic insights into the company matters, and is available for any advisory role that the company might desire on any specialized domain, including international and domestic macroeconomic conditions, industrial development trends, regional economic layout, and the company's transformation and upgrading strategies and approaches. Second, the institute should adhere to the problem-oriented approach and serve as a think tank devoted to CSCEC's mission of establishing a global top-tier enterprise with solid business performance, international competitiveness, industry influence, brand power, and soft power. The institute must adhere to the unity of knowledge and practice, take solving major practical problems as the basic principle to follow, and constantly search for new ideas, new perspectives, and new plans. Researchers of the institute should stay updated with the latest academic achievements and advance their research work with high quality. Third, the institute should adhere to the talent development strategy and strive to build a team of high-quality research talents. An advisory committee should be organized to set up a database of both internal and external expert resource. A major objective of the institute is to optimize the utilization of research resources, and to establish mechanisms and platforms for internal and external resource sharing and research cooperation, thereby improving the company's research capability and incorporating the research findings into enterprise development practices. CSCEC President Zheng Xuexuan said at the ceremony that the establishment of the the Strategy Institute of CSCEC was a monumental moment in the history of the company. The institute should focus its work on the practical needs of the company, conduct in-depth market investigation, and improve the reputation and influence of its research findings. Zheng also said the institute should develop a standardized working mechanism to convert the talent pool into actual productivity. After the Election Commission decided to hold the pending Rajya Sabha polls, which were deferred in March to June 19, the poll panel announced on Monday that it will also hold Rajya Sabha polls for six additional seats whose members will be retiring either in June or July, taking the total number of seats to 24. The results will be declared the same day. Four out of the six new seats are from Karnataka and one each from Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram. The person holding the Arunachal seat will retire on June 23, while the four from Karnataka will retire on June 25. Rajeev Gowda and B.K. Hari Prasad are the prominent names among the four from Karnataka who will be retiring. The person holding the Mizoram seat will retire on July 18. Earlier, the Election Commission had issued a notification on March 6 for filling 55 Rajya Sabha seats from 17 states. The polling was scheduled for March 26. The last date for filing nominations was March 13. After the last date of withdrawal on March 18, a total of 37 candidates were declared elected, as the states from where they got elected saw exactly as many candidates as the number of vacant seats. Those who made it to the Upper House in the first go included NCP President Sharad Pawar, Union Minister of State and RPI leader Ramdas Athawale (both from Maharashtra) and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh. The elections for the remaining 18 seats were postponed due to the Covid-19 induced lockdown and the curfew that followed. Of the 18 outstanding seats, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat account for four each, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan three each, Jharkhand two and Manipur and Meghalaya one each. Now these six more seats will go to the polls along with the remaining 18. Jyotiraditya Scindia, who defected to the BJP along with 22 MLAs and paved the way for the overthrow of the Kamal Nath-led Congress government in Madhya Pradesh, is in the Rajya Sabha fray on a saffron party ticket from MP. Also pitted in the contest is senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh. While both are expected to sail through comfortably, Sumer Singh Solanki of the BJP and Phool Singh Baraiya of the Congress will fight it out for the third seat. Congress' prospects are marred by defections and continuing factionalism. Similarly, Gujarat has four seats, while a total of five people are in the race, three on behalf of the BJP and two as the nominees of the opposition Congress. The BJP is working hard to pick up three seats, leaving only one for the Congress. The ruling YSR Congress may make a clean sweep of all four seats in Andhra Pradesh. The Telugu Desam Party, with barely 23 people in the 175-member Assembly, is not in a position to garner the 36 votes needed for winning a single seat. The JMM has fielded party patriarch Shibbu Soren in Jharkhand. The party has left the second seat for its ally, Congress. The BJP has put up its state president Deepak Prakash. The Congress may end up putting up a token fight. AICC General Secretary K.C. Venugopal is the Congress nominee in Rajasthan. The BJP nominee is Rajendra Gehlot, senior party leader from Jodhpur. In Manipur, the BJP has fielded former royal Leisemba Sanajaoba. The Congress has put up T. Mangi Babu. The BJP is certain to win the solitary seat. In Meghalaya, ruling National People's Party candidate Wanwei Roy Kharlukhi is expected to win by defeating Congress nominee Kennedy Cornelius Khyiem. The protesters stopped traffic and for periods shut down stretches of highway around Connecticut this weekend in response to the death of George Floyd. They held signs, took knees and chanted slogans like hands up, dont shoot. In some parts of the state, they clashed with police and were pepper-sprayed. Many, if not most, of the protesters wore mask. But in the disorder of impassioned demonstrations, adherence to ongoing social distancing measures took a backseat to communicating a political point on racism. Obviously, with the march, there wasnt social distancing, said Jalin Sead Sr., a Norwalk demonstrator who spoke at the citys rally, which drew hundreds of demonstrators. But everybody was doing the steps like wearing a mask. People had hand sanitizer. Natalie Rincon, an organizer of #JusticeForBrunch, which coordinated Sundays Stamford protest, said similarly. According to Rincon, she and other organizers had consistent messaging to protesters about the importance of wearing face coverings and masks. Organizers also distributed masks, hand sanitizer and water and reiterated calls to maintain distance during the protests. We at Justice For Brunch plan to organize future demonstrations and events in our community, Rincon said. We managed to organize (Sundays) protest in 32 hours. We learned a lot from (Sundays) march and will take further precautions at the next demonstration. Despite attempts by organizers to safely gather, some epidemiologists are concerned the large protests, compounded by more liberal application of social distancing measures, could lead to a spike of coronavirus cases. Any time people are together in the same area, theres always a risk that respiratory viruses or other respiratory pathogens, including COVID, could be transmitted from one person to the next. At protests or any other gathering, theres that risk, said Dr. Rick Martinello, medical director, infection prevention for Yale New Haven Health. So theres an increased risk. But among the people Ive spoken with over the last several days and week now, I think everybody understands the urgency that the protesters have in communicating their message. According to Martinello, the risk of transmission might be slightly reduced because the gatherings were outdoors, where viral particles become diluted and spread less easily than they might indoors. Protective steps described by Rincon like mask wearing and hand hygiene may also be helpful, though social distance is not realistic in such a setting. And, even without the increased exposure from the protests, as restaurants and other businesses begin to open, already the risk of transmission is on the rise. With or without protests, a second wave of the virus is expected, Martinello said. Of course, over the last several weeks, across many states and cities, economies and societies are opening up again, Martinello said. So Im not sure ones going to be able to tell the difference between people involved in the protests from the general opening of society in those areas. Dr. Majid Sadigh, director of global health at Nuvance Health, said any spike in cases as a result of protests would likely become visible within the next two weeks. The incubation period of the virus is five days and symptomatic carriers generally show signs of illness seven to eight days after infection, Sadigh said. At this point in time, we really have to follow public health measures, Sadigh said. I know it was a one-time event, but no question in mind, if people broke rules and regulations of public health, we are going to see more number of the cases coming up, in 10 to 14 days. Those measures, Sadigh said, were apparently extremely effective and helped to greatly reduce the number of people who might have become infected. What we did is we followed public health advisories, stayed home, didnt travel often, washed our hands, learned about sneezing and coughing etiquette, stayed away from vulnerable populations, Sadigh said. I think these measures pushed the virus down. But, that success comes at a price. According to Sadigh, in many places, as much as 90 percent of the population has not been exposed to the virus and is thus susceptible. That information, combined with the knowledge that, despite mutations, the virus is behaving similarly now as it did in March when the Connecticut outbreak began, and the lack of a vaccine, is cause for continued social distancing, Sadigh said. Still, he recognized that adhering to such measures is more difficult for certain groups of people. Following public health measures is a privilege, Sadigh said. Having a home, extra rooms, not being forced to go out for food, or for life in general, is a privilege. And for many who gathered in recent days, there was simply no choice to stay home in the face of injustice. The virus was on the mind of protesters, Sead said. But it was outweighed by the social importance of the moment. I think people were so passionate about it, I think that fear was overwhelmed and overpowered by just the anger and the frustration of the killing of George Floyd, Sead said. justin.papp@scni.com; @justinjpapp1; 203-842-2586 Lee released the short during an appearance on CNN, where he told anchor Don Lemon that "the attack on black bodies has been here from the get-go." He said that, while he does not necessarily condone violence, he understands why people are reacting to Floyd's death - as well as other instances of police brutality - the way they are. Protests such as the ones happening nationwide are "not new," Lee continued. "We saw this with the riots in the '60s, with the assassination of Dr [Martin Luther] King. Every time something jumps off and we don't get our justice, people are reacting the way they feel they have to, to be heard." The Oscar-winning filmmaker shared a short film Sunday night called 3 Brothers, referring to Eric Garner and George Floyd, black men who died in police custody, and Radio Raheem, a character killed in Lee's feature film. The 94-second video cuts back and forth between Radio Raheem's on-screen death and cellphone footage of officers choking Garner, who died six years ago, and Floyd, who died last week. Before his death on May 25, Floyd echoed Garner's final words: "I can't breathe." The four Minneapolis officers involved in Floyd's death were fired the next day, but it was not until Friday that Derek Chauvin, who was captured on video pressing his knee into a handcuffed Floyd's neck, was arrested and charged in his death. Last year, after nearly half a decade of legal proceedings, the Justice Department declined to bring federal charges against anyone involved in Garner's death - including Daniel Pantaleo, the former New York officer seen on video with his arm around Garner's neck. Spike Lee as Mookie in Do The Right Thing. Demonstrations after Floyd's death summoned questions that, as Lee noted, have been asked many times before: "Why are people rioting? Why are people doing this, doing that?" In Do the Right Thing, Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn), who is arguably positioned as the moral centre of the film when he speaks to Mookie (Lee) about the struggle between love and hate, chokes to death at the hands of a New York officer after getting into a fight with a local pizzeria's white owner. After this climactic moment, Mookie throws a trash can through the pizzeria window, sparking a riot that leads to additional arrests. On CNN, Lee criticised initial reviews that claimed the film would encourage viewers to riot. (He also spoke about this on its 25th anniversary, telling Rolling Stone that he could not recall "people saying people were going to come out of theatres killing people after they watched Arnold Schwarzenegger films.") After Lemon asked Lee to respond to accusations made nowadays against public figures like them, who say they understand why some demonstrators are behaving as they are, the filmmaker said, "The reason why people are out is because black people are killed left and right. It has nothing to do with you and I." This is not the first time Lee has revisited Do the Right Thing to highlight events. After Garner died in 2014, Lee shared a different video comparing the cellphone footage with Radio Raheem's death. The film itself was inspired by real life, according to The Washington Post's Elahe Izadi, who noted that it concludes with a dedication to the "families of Eleanor Bumpurs, Michael Griffith, Arthur Miller, Edmund Perry, Yvonne Smallwood and Michael Stewart," black New Yorkers killed before the film's release. New Delhi: The Delhi will file two charge sheets in Delhi riots case on Tuesday (June 2, 2020). The first case is of the Chand Bagh riots incident and the second is on the Jafrabad riot incident. In the Chand Bagh riots case, suspended Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain will be named as the Special Investigation Team (SIT) had found petrol bombs in his house. Along with Tahir Hussian, 15 other people will also be named as accused in the Delhi riot incident including Tahir's brother Shah Alam. The charge sheet will be filed in the Karkardooma court. Chand Bagh was one of the worst-hit area during the riots. IB staffer Ankit Sharma was also found murdered in a drain here. The second chargesheet will be filed in connection with riot that took place in Jafrabad area in which Pinjra tod activist are facing prosecution. The chargesheet in Jafrabad riot incident will be filed against ten people and the Pinjra tod members will be named in supplementary chargesheet. On Friday, the Delhi Police's Special Cell arrested Pinjra Tod activist Natasha Narwal and booked her under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for alleged conspiracy in the northeast Delhi riots in February and were sent to judicial custody for 14 days. Narwal, along with another JNU student Devangana Kalita have already been arrested in another case, being investigated by the Crime branch, related to communal violence in northeast Delhi and are in judicial custody till June 11. Metropolitan Magistrate Kapil Kumar sent both to judicial remand after the Delhi Police told the court that they longer seek their custody for probe. Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 this year over anti-Citizenship Act, leaving more than 50 people dead and around 200-250 injured. Name: Zak Arogundade (a.k.a. Ecco2K) Age: 25 Hometown: raised in Stockholm (with his mother) and London (with his father). Now Lives: in a two-bedroom apartment in Stockholm that he shares with a friend. Claim to Fame: Mr. Arogundade is a member of the Drain Gang, a fashion-forward Swedish music collective known for its atmospheric rap. Music, however, is just Mr. Arogundades youngest medium, he said. He is also a graphic designer (like his father) and started his first fashion brand, Alaska, at 16. His multidisciplinary endeavors have included designing for Eytys, a Swedish sneaker brand, and walking the Alyx runway show in 2018. The ex-wife of a Chinese biotech tycoon has seen her wealth rocket overnight after receiving some 2.6billion worth of shares from her former partner in one of the world's most costly break-ups. Canadian-Chinese Yuan Liping, 49, became a multi-billionaire after recently ending her marriage with 56-year-old magnate Du Weimin, who is dubbed the 'vaccine emperor' of China. Mr Du, who was worth 5.3billion, gave nearly half of his stocks from his vaccine manufacturer to his ex-wife, instantly making her one of the richest women in China. Vaccine tycoon Du Weimin (file photo) transferred more than 161.3million shares of his company to his ex-wife Yuan Liping after the couple had agreed to divorce, a statement said Mr Du, the chairman of Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products, transferred more than 161.3million shares to Ms Yuan, according to a statement released by the company on May 29. Each Kangtai stock was worth 140.78 yuan (15.8, $19.8) as of Monday's close, making the total value of the settlement a whopping 22.7billion yuan (2.6billion, $3.2billion). Mr Du owned 51.26 per cent of the company's shares before passing 23.99 per cent of the firm's total to his ex-wife, according to China's Securities Times. Mr Du, the chairman of Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products, spoke to state-run CCTV Kangtai's statement said that Ms Yuan did not seek to have control over the company and delegated the voting rights to Mr Du. Ms Yuan, who lives in Shenzhen, keeps a low profile and rarely appears on media. She served as a director of Kangtai between May 2011 and August 2018, reported Bloomberg. She is said to be the current vice general manager of subsidiary Beijing Minhai Biotechnology. Mr Du, a self-made mogul, gained his business success by being a major producer of the Hepatitis B vaccine in the country. He ranked the 81st on the China Rich List 2019 by Forbes. Mr Du amassed his wealth by being producing the Hepatitis B vaccine in China (file photo) The tycoon was born in 1963 to an impoverished farming family in the southern province of Jiangxi. He started studying in a local health school in 1984 and got his first job as an inspector at the Jiangxi Provincial Health and Epidemic Prevention Station in 1987. His fate changed when he quit his job at the state-run health station to become a vaccine salesman in the 1990s. In 1995, he was promoted to be a sales manager for a biotech company. He stepped into the chairman's role in Kangtai in 2009 after the firm acquired Minhai, a company Mr Du had founded five years earlier. Mr Du and Ms Yuan's dissolution of marriage has been one of the most expensive break-ups in China. The world's most expensive divorce settlement was agreed upon between Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his ex-wife MacKenzie, who ended their 26 years of marriage last year Local media outlets have compared it to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's divorce, though the latter involved a much higher settlement. Mr Bezos, the world's richest man, and his wife MacKenzie agreed upon their divorce in April 2019. Mr Bezos kept 75 per cent of their joint $144billion (115billion) Amazon stake, leaving MacKenzie with a quarter which represented a four per cent stake in the company worth $35.8billion (28billion) at the time. Groomer honeybees can boost a colony's immunity by clearing deadly parasites off their nestmates using their mandibles, a study has found. For a short period of their lives, some worker bees take on the role of removing debris including dangerous pests from other members of the colony. These bees - dubbed allogroomers - develop a stronger immune system for the task which, scientists say, may help them tolerate a higher risk of infection. The find offers hope for dealing with serious pests including the infamous varroa mite, that attaches itself to a worker's abdomen and sucks out its bodily fluids. The study found workers bees that perform grooming, between days six and 13 of their adult lives, use their mandibles to remove debris and have a stronger immune system Scientists think the behaviour, pictured above, could help protect colonies against deadly pests and infections such as the varroa mite - which sucks bees bodily fluids For the study, published in Scientific Reports, entomologists took comb with a queen, brood, and around 2,000 western honeybees, Apis mellifera, from 11 different hives. They marked some bees with dots and observed them for 30 minutes on each side of the comb every day for 13 days, noting down each time a bee displayed a grooming behaviour. Any bees that were observed grooming others were followed for ten minutes later the same day, in order to obtain the results. To establish how strong an allogroomer's immune system was, 108 groomers and 126 non-groomers of similar ages were collected from four hives. They were then injected with E.coli, and had their bacterial clearance response measured. 'We found worker bees that specialise in allogrooming are highly connected within their colonies, and have developed stronger immune systems,' said lead author Dr Alessandro Cini, who began the project at the University of Florence before moving to UCL. 'We suspect that if more bees engaged in these allogrooming behaviours that ward off parasites, the colony as a whole could have greater immunity.' In the experiment the scientists marked certain bees (pictured) and then monitored their behaviour for 30 minutes every day for 13 days Groomer bees did not have specialised equipment. However, it is thought they work out who needs attention through other means. Bees can also perform the 'grooming invitation dance' (pictured) to encourage others to clean them What is the deadly Varroa mite? A varroa mite is pictured above What is it?: A pest that attaches to the lower abdomen of bees and sucks their bodily fluids. Can prove fatal. What happens to infected bees?: Youngsters often survive metamorphosis if they are sealed with the mite. However, when they may suffer from a shorter lifespan, reduced weight, shrunken and deformed wings, and reduced natural defence How is it controlled?: Beekeepers currently either apply chemicals to the colony, or by trapping the mites on brood combs before having them removed and destroyed. Problem in the UK?: Yes. Beekeepers are urged by DEFRA to monitor their hives for the pest. Advertisement Co-author Dr Rita Cervo from the University of Florence added: 'By identifying a striking difference in the immune systems of the allogrooming bees, which are involved in tasks important to colony-wide immunity from pathogens, we have found a link between individual and social immunity.' The research also showed that allogroomer bees do not develop specialist equipment for the task. Their antennae, used for sensing, remain the same length as those of other bees, meaning they were not finely tuned to detect relevant odors. They may, however, rely on other methods to detect those in need, such as the 'grooming invitation dance', where a bee wiggles its body from side to side. The researchers used the western honeybee as this is the most common species worldwide, used in private apiaries and agriculture. Bees usually perform grooming tasks when they are aged between six and 13 days, with a peak at around ten to 11 days, before focusing on other responsibilities. 'Only a tiny fraction of bees however perform allogrooming inside the hive,' Dr Cini told MailOnline. 'Some bees might be doing allogrooming for their whole life, but this is very uncommon. 'Our results show that it is related to age. Apart from doing allogrooming, allogroomers perform all the other tasks they are supposed to do according to their age.' Varroa mites are one of the main threats to British bees. Although young bees can survive when one is latched onto them, they often pay the price later in life through a shorter lifespan, reduced weight, shrunken and deformed wings, and reduced infection resistance. In cases of extreme infestation, the National Bee Unit warns they can also trigger colony collapse as weakened bees rapidly spread diseases among themselves. The research offers hope for tackling the varroa mite, which can ransack colonies Control methods currently available for fighting the mites involve applying chemicals to bees or trapping them in brood combs, which are then removed and destroyed. It is hoped that the research may lead keepers to find a way to stimulate more grooming behaviour which, in turn, could offer a less costly way of dealing with the mites. Allogrooming has been recorded in several species of bee and ants. With the unexpected popularity of the Netflix docuseries "Tiger King," it seems timely to reconsider a story out of South Africa that emerged a while ago compliments of Newsweek, headlined, "Three Poachers Eaten by Lions After Breaking Into Game Reserve to Hunt Rhinos." Although not a recent event, it certainly takes the spotlight away from the humans and places it squarely on the animals, where Tiger King's emphasis should have been all along. Three men were said to have entered the Sibuya Game Reserve in Kenton-On-Sea to hunt rhinos in July 2018, according to the park's owner, Nick Fox. They were identified by their remains three pairs of shoes, wire cutters, high-powered hunting rifles outfitted with silencers, and a type of ax commonly used to remove rhino horns. "The only body part we found was one skull and one bit of pelvis; everything else was completely gone," Fox said. He called the incident "sad" but said it should send a message to other poachers who risk their lives to hunt game. Fox said he had received a large number of calls from people concerned about the fate of the lions. "They won't be killed," he promised. " The status quo will continue." The status quo is what worries me. Up to $150 billion is spent in the illegal wildlife trade every year, making it one of the five most lucrative global crimes. Animals are hunted to extinction for their horns, skin and teeth. Poaching is no small potatoes. Take rhino poaching alone: One animal is killed every 10 hours for their horns. South Africa has 80 percent of the world's population, but around 1,000 are killed each year. Elephants, arguably one of our most popular animals, have seen numbers plummet; 15,000 are killed each year, which works out to 96 each day. As for lions, there were 200,000 a century ago; now only 20,000 remain. They are poached for their body parts, bone, teeth, claws and skin, which are traded, mainly in Asia. It is feared poaching could have as much of an effect on lions as it has had on wild tigers, whose numbers in the wild are fewer than those held captive in private homes or roadside zoos. What's needed is a multifaceted, multinational approach to prevent the deaths of these animals. Support can come from many sources: first, well-trained and well-equipped rangers on the ground to defend animals against the poachers who seek to destroy them. Then a secure habitat, like the parks and reserves, and monitoring so scientists can keep track of the animals. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Also important is for local communities living near the animal habitats to see and feel and understand the benefits of conservation, so they feel protective of the animals and not turn to poaching or encroaching on their habitat. Education is key, not just in Africa but also in Asia, where the animal parts are in demand. Finally, captive breeding or intensive management for the rarest species is vital to maintain genetic diversity. Everyone can play a role. Donate to a conservation or wildlife charity. Contact legislators about bills protecting wildlife and their habitats. Don't buy or wear animal parts. And cheer for the underdog. Or cat. Lion or tiger. Whilst workers, health professionals and the general population have been absorbed by the coronavirus pandemic and the ruling elites reckless push to reopen the economy, Justin Trudeaus Liberal government has moved to patch up its relations with the despotic Saudi regimeincluding as a leading arms supplier. On April 9, just as Canada was beginning to see a dramatic surge in COVID-19 infections across the country, the Trudeau government lifted its moratorium on the issuing of new export licences for arms shipments to Saudi Arabia. The ban was originally adopted as part of a hypocritical public relations exercise, undertaken by the Trudeau government after the Saudi regimes grisly murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018 had provoked international anger and revulsion. The Liberals moratorium was adopted above all to divert attention from revelations that the Saudi army used Canadian-made light armoured vehicles (LAVs) and other military equipment to suppress an uprising in the eastern part of the country in 2014. Canadian military equipment has also played a role in Riyadhs bloody war on neighboring Yemen, which has led to the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians and left the country in ruins. The Trudeau government launched a year-long review of how the Saudis have used LAVs manufactured at a London, Ontario-based General Dynamics subsidiary under a $14 billion Canadian government-brokered arms deal. The probe was conducted by Global Affairs, the new name given to Canadas Foreign Ministry, which plays a central role in advancing Canadas imperialist interests and ambitions abroad. Predictably, the government review, which will not be made public, concluded that there was no substantial risk that the Saudi government, which beheads dozens of people every year and tortures political opponents, would use Canadian-made arms to violate human rights. It even claimed that the exports would contribute to regional peace and security. Amnesty International, Project Ploughshares, Oxfam and other groups have condemned the Trudeau governments decision, which they claim will inevitably cause death and devastation in the entire region. These organizations also criticized the hypocrisy of the Canadian government for approving military exports to Saudi Arabia while voicing support, only days later, for a UN call for a global ceasefire during the pandemic. The attempt by Canadian imperialism to pose as a defender of human rights merits unreserved condemnation and contempt. As the Trudeau government works behind the backs of the population to ratchet up exports of weapons to one of the most worlds repressive regimes, it has engaged in public criticism of China over its human rights violations in Hong Kong. In alliance with the Trump administration, which has incited police and National Guard troops to brutally attack the mass protests against police violence currently sweeping the US, Trudeaus Liberals are cynically invoking human rights to facilitate an imperialist campaign of aggression against Beijing. This includes economic pressure and preparations for military conflict. The government review of Canadas Saudi arms exports was, from the beginning, a democratic farce not worth the paper it is written on. It is no secret that the absolutist Saudi regimelong the worlds largest purchaser of foreign weaponshas one of the worlds worst human rights records, at home and abroad. Now led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, it has invaded Yemen, financed al-Qaeda linked militias in Syria and Libya, and in close cooperation with Washington is engaged in intrigue across the Middle East, above all in US preparations to wage war on Iran. While government officials still refuse to divulge details of the contract between Saudi Arabia and General Dynamics Land Systems Canada (GDLS), CBC obtained details of the 2014 contract two years ago. It called for the sale of more than 700 of the newly developed LAV 6s, including 119 with heavy assault 105-millimetre cannons. It also included a 14-year support program that involves maintenance, as well as ammunition and crew training in Canada and Europe. Showing that the humanitarian rhetoric of Trudeau and his Liberals is nothing but demagogy, Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne acknowledged that the human rights record of Saudi Arabia remains troubling even as he announced the lifting of the ban on new military export permits. Typical of the Liberals deceit and hypocritical cant, he went on to claim that Canada will continue to advocate for human rights. Champagne pledged to create an advisory panel of experts to strengthen Canadas arms export approval process and to push for an international inspection regime for arms sales. These gestures are transparently democratic varnish meant to cover over Canadian imperialisms criminal activities abroad. With the aim of obscuring Canadas support for the Saudi regime, Champagne justified Ottawas decision to resume issuing export licences for the LAVs with the claim that failure to do so would have resulted in billions of dollars in damages. He also said the decision would save thousands of Canadian manufacturing jobs and help alleviate the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Liberals supposed concern for jobs should not be taken seriously by anyone. It comes from a government whose response to the coronavirus crisis has focused on bailing out the major banks and big business to the tune of more than $650 billion, while placing workers on rations. The widely-touted wage subsidy program, through which the government pays 75 percent of a workers wages if their employer keeps them on the payroll, has largely been shunned by businesses determined to carry out job cuts, so they do not have to pay payroll taxes and any benefits. Even those companies that initially participated in the scheme, like Air Canada, have used it to buy time in order to carry out comprehensive restructuring plans at workers expense. (See: Air Canada announces layoff of up to 22,800 workers) Another argument advanced by the Liberal government to justify the arms deal is that it was imposed upon them by the Conservative government of Stephen Harper. This claim passes over the fact that although the deal was signed under Harper, it was finalized under the Liberal government. The Liberals employ somewhat different foreign policy rhetoric than did Harper, who celebrated Canada as a warrior nation. This includes Trudeaus claims that Canada is pursuing a feminist foreign policy. But behind phony human rights rhetoric, the Liberal government has integrated Canada ever-more fully into the military-strategic offensives of US imperialism, the worlds most aggressive and lawless power, including in the Middle East. Ottawa has lent support to the development of a US-led anti-Iranian alliance involving Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf sheikdoms. This found its clearest expression in the Trudeau governments endorsement of the Trump administrations illegal assassination of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani in January. The Trudeau government, like its Liberal and Conservative predecessors, has invoked human rights to justify a series of violent Canadian imperialist military interventions around the globe. Under Trudeau, Canada expanded its involvement in the ongoing US-led war in Syria and Iraq and is playing a major role in NATOs drive to threaten and strategically encircle Russia and China. The trade union-backed New Democratic Party and Bloc Quebecois have criticized the Trudeau governments highly unpopular decision to continue arming the Saudi regime. But their criticisms of Liberal hypocrisy over human rights are utterly hollow since they themselves fully support Canadian imperialisms alliance with Washingtonthe bulwark of the Saudi regime, Israel and reaction in the Middle East, as around the world. During the campaign for last Octobers federal election, the NDP even attacked the Liberals from the right, demanding that their planned massive military spending increases be implemented more effectively to ensure the rapid rearmament of Canadas Armed Forces. (See: NDP advocates spending tens of billions on Canadas military) For the Canadian ruling class, the Saudi arms deal will serve to improve relations with the despotic regime in Riyadh, as well as pleasing Washington. Canada-Saudi diplomatic relations soured in 2018 when Riyadh reacted angrily to Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freelands criticism of the Saudi security forces arrest of womens rights activists, including Samar Badawi, the sister of jailed blogger Ralph Badawi, whose wife is a Canadian citizen. Freelands social media post was part of the Liberal governments efforts to conceal Canadas substantial economic ties with, and political support for, the Saudi dictatorship. But to the ruling elites dismay, Saudi Arabia retaliated with punitive economic and diplomatic measures, including threats to block commercial deals with Canada and conduct a fire-sale of Canadian-held assets, with no opposition from the Trump administration. (See: Canada and Saudis in raucous diplomatic spat over Ottawas posturing over human rights) Behind the diplomatic standoff, the two countries pursued their commercial relations. It was revealed that even pending the outcome of Ottawas investigation of Saudi human rights violations, Canada sent military equipment to the country, including LAVs worth more than $1 billion. Reports have documented how the Saudi regime has deployed Canadian-made weaponry as part of its near-genocidal war against the Yemeni population. The conflict, launched in 2015, has killed tens of thousands of people, including countless innocent women and children. According to relief agencies, 80 percent of Yemens population is in need of humanitarian aid, while over half of the 30 million population is on the brink of starvation. World WHO Chief Urges Trump to Think Twice About US Withdrawal WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus / KYODO Its been a rough month for schools, as Lee Buddy Jr., the principal of Wade Park School in Cleveland, well knows. Hes been guiding his K-8 students and teachers through the abrupt shift to online learning. He and his team had developed partnerships to get devices and WiFi hotspots into the hands of students and begin a robust distance learning program. Students, in emotional Zoom meetings, talked about how much they missed their friends. Then, as May came to a close, a new trauma hit: protests all over the nation in the wake of George Floyds death at the hands of police in Minneapolis. This would be a heavy load for any principal, let alone one in Cleveland, given its own troubled history of policing conduct and reforms. But in the middle of a lot of anxiety and sadness for students and staff alike, Buddy has seized on it as an opportunity to engage his students in an important civic question: What does it mean to be a Clevelander in a time of crisis? Buddy had attended one of the protests in the city on his own, and had considered bringing some students, too, but nixed the idea over concerns that the protests could take a more dangerous turn. That impulse turned out to be correct. As Saturdays demonstrations wore on, a minority of protesters broke store windows and looted in the citys downtown area. So late that evening, he thought: What if students could be involved in helping to clean up some of the damage? Youth Ambassadors Thanks to a program Lee had set up in at the school a few years back, it was a fairly simple idea to organize. For several years, Wade Park has had a youth leadership program, called student ambassadors. Its a three-pronged initiative focused on community service, empowerment, and academic supports. Students have to apply, completing essays and sitting for an interview. In addition to getting to craft awesome videos about their activities, they have extra opportunities to shadow local business owners, access study help, and even travel to visit their peers in schools in other cities, like Atlanta, Washington, and Chicago. They also, fortuitously, all share a group chat, and thanks to these close relationships, these students parents are generally trusting of Lees work. So Buddy sent the query to the group chat, and by the next morning, was headed with a carload of studentsranging from raising 6th graders to rising 9th gradersto downtown Cleveland. Most of the students had already seen images of the protestsand the damageon Instagram and other social media about the protests. And while they were generally supportive of the protesters intent to bring focus to the overpolicing of black citizens in the United States, they did have questions. There have been conversations the last few days when everything started with the kids: So, you understand the purpose [of the protests]? What are your thoughts on it? Most of them have said, We understand, we support it, but then, they are also asking: Why are they tearing up my city? Its a difficult set of questions that, of course, Americans all over the country are now asking themselves: Is the destruction legitimate if it calls attention to the reality of racism in Americaand even if only a small number of protesters are engaging in it? Buddy said he didnt try to tip students opinions either way. Mainly, he said, he wanted them to see that, even in extremely difficult times, Clevelanders can come together to take stock, clean up, and heal. Weve been using the hashtag #clevelandproud, and its just really about taking ownership of their city, Buddy said. They parked at Playhouse Square downtown. Buddy let students take the lead; in less than a minute or two, the broom-and-garbage-bag-toting students had asked a cleanup crew at the PNC Bank if they could help. And that was without me having to say anything, Buddy recounted. From there, they went to another bank across the street with major damage, where a grateful vice-president, annoyed about his late contractors, readily accepted their help. Across the street again to a pizza joint, whose owners dished out some pies for lunch as students worked. Students were able to think about some of the implications of the weekends events: If a business is broken into, they cant open, serve customers, or make money, for instance. Yes, theres a reason folks are protesting, and definitely, wed never push them to pick a side, Buddy said about the conversations. But we provide a platform for them to think themselves. And what are some ways they can positively impact or guide their decisions? It has pushed them to be more of a keeper of the dream of: This is my city, and this is what I can do for it. Image: Principal Buddy, left, and his students sweep up glass in downtown Cleveland. Photo credit: Thom Sivo. Courtesy of Lee Buddy Jr. As Education Week begins to probe the impact of the ongoing protests on K-12 schooling and policies, stay in touch with us, and share your own stories with our staff about how the nationwide protests will affect your work. You can leave a comment, or tweet to @educationweek or any of our reporters if youd like to chat. Further to a press release on May 7, the European Union (EU) announced that it has added Ghana to its list of blacklisted countries for money laundering. Indicating that the measure is not yet in force, this decision follows a similar one on 19 February 2019 to blacklist Ghana. The major media networks in Ghana unsurprisingly reported this development. What was not clear in these reports, however, were the legal basis for the EUs action and its implications for Ghana. This article provides a brief background to EU law on money laundering and examines the implications for transactions involving Ghana. Though principally for mass educational purposes, the article also touches on whether there are double standards in how the EU enforces anti-money laundering and countering terrorism financing (AML/CTF) laws in relation to its Member States and Third Country jurisdictions, where Third Countries refer to jurisdictions outside the EU or the EEA. What is money laundering? Generally speaking, money laundering refers to the processes employed by persons to legalise illegally acquired money or proceeds of crime. There are three recognised processes involved in money laundering: placement, layering and integration. Self-explanatory, placement involves criminal persons putting illegally money acquired funds into the financial system including depositing into a bank account and purchasing valuable assets. Layering involves the deposited funds been used for complicated transactions such as purchase of real estate. The successful disguising of the funds or proceeds of crime is called integration. Regulating money laundering is vital due to the trite need to ensure criminals do not benefit from the proceeds of criminal activities. Regulating money laundering is similarly important since it is strongly linked to terrorism. Terrorist activities have grave negative consequences including economic chaos, political instability and killing of innocent lives. The rational need to transnationally regulate money laundering and terrorism financing (AML/CTF) have been globally recognised. This is critical as ML/TF activities cut across international borders. AML/CTF in the EU As the largest trading block in the world, the EU has since 1991 been at the forefront of measures needed to combat money laundering through the issuance of directives. Under EU law, directives have direct effect, which means they are immediately enforceable whether or not the Member State has implemented it into its domestic legislation. The current law regulating money laundering in the EU are the 4th and 5th Money Laundering Directive the latter of which came into force on 9 July 2018. Together these Directives strengthened the criteria for money laundering regulation in the EU. Further to Article 9.2 of the 4th Directive, the EU is required to regularly report on Third countries systems on money laundering and to ensure laundered money does not flood into the EU financial system. It was pursuant to this requirement that the EU has since 2016 produced a regular report on priority Third Country jurisdictions considered by the EU to amongst others have systemic impact on the integrity of the EU financial system and who have economic relevance and strong economic ties with the EU. The EU stresses that it is not driven solely by self-interest but it also seeks to assist third countries as well as global efforts in AML/CTF. Money laundering-practical compliance and implications for blacklisted countries The basic practical way Member States comply with EU money laundering laws involves putting in place the broad legislative frameworks and policies to combat money laundering including the establishment of institutions that would be at the forefront of such efforts. Compliance by private institutions on the other hand fundamentally requires businesses knowing their customers and clients (KYC) well and ensuring that they are not criminals seeking to disguise proceeds of crime. There are two fundamental types of KYC-Customer Due Diligence (CDD) and Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD). Whilst compliance to CDD involves establishing the customers' identity through official documents and keeping records of same, EDD applies to complex transactions including those involving politically exposed persons (PEPs) and high-risk countries. The implications for Ghana is that countries and businesses dealing with Ghana must go through greater hurdles by applying EDD principles. For instance, when Party A, established in the EU is dealing with Party B in Ghana, Party A must, amongst others, obtain additional information about Party B's beneficial owners including source of funds and wealth, intended nature of the business relationship and reasons for the transaction. Party A must also obtain senior management approval. Moreover, businesses who engage in commercial relations with blacklisted countries stand the risk of facing sanctions should problems occur. Banks must be cautious in approving payments and transfers where they relate to blacklisted jurisdictions thus leading to additional costs. In short, there are bureaucratic hurdles, cost, reputational and serious legal implications should businesses deal with entities in blacklisted countries. For Ghana, the implications include damage to its reputation and reluctance by businesses to engage in commercial relations with Ghanaian businesses. Since the EU is a major trading destination for Ghanaian businesses, Ghana is obliged to work with the EU to ensure that its money laundering regulations, systems and policies meet EU standards. Some may query, understandably, why the standards must be EU requirements. Ignoring for a moment the political dynamics of such an enquiry, the starting point in resolving the EU's blacklisting of Ghana involves the latter knowing the reasons for the EU's action. The particular reasons why the EU blacklisted Ghana do not seem to have been made public yet. Basic informal enquiries with banking professionals in Ghana confirm this curious position. The EU states generally that it takes account, amongst others, of 'the work of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the international standard-setter in this field' in deciding to blacklist any country. Reference therefore to the FATF's money laundering report on Ghana might logically assist in appreciating the reasons for the EU's action. Money laundering law and the role of the FATF Money laundering laws, like corporate governance and banking laws, are heavily influenced by international standards. Established in 1989 by the G7 Paris Summit, the FATF has been very influential in establishing principles that influence money laundering laws across the world. Influenced amongst others by UN treaties, there are presently 40 FATF recommendations for regulating money laundering in jurisdictions across the world. Ghana subscribes to the FATF standards, pursuant to which it enacted the Anti Money Laundering Act 2008 (As amended), the main statute which sets the general framework for AML/CTF. There are other plethora of legislations, guidelines and various institutions which work towards fighting ML/TF such as the Bank of Ghana (BOG) and the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC). Where ML/TF feeds into broad economic crime or financial crime there are institutions such as the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) which is required to prosecute offences. The broad framework is thus not dissimilar to the EU money laundering directives as they all spring from the FATF recommendations. Although Ghana has implemented the FATF principles, FATF reported on 21 February 2020 that Ghana is presently under monitoring. This was after the government in October 2018 made a commitment to the Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) to strengthen its AML/CFT regime. GIABA was established by ECOWAS in 2000 to strengthen its fight against money laundering. Required under AML/CTF regulations, the Ghana National Risk Assessment (NRA) report of 2016 to which reference was made by the FATF, identify that fraud, drug trafficking, corruption, tax evasion and cybercrime are rampant. Ghana is however not blacklisted by the FATF so why has the EU? EU Methodology for assessing Third Country jurisdictions The crucial point to note is that the EU has stated that it has made its requirements for assessing Third Countries stricter. It appears to place greater emphasis now on prompt access to data on beneficial ownership in its 'revised methodology'. Ironically, the EU maintains its position made clear in the previous methodology that its methodology does not apply to an assessment of the AML/CFT regime of EU Member States. Indeed even when the FATF has blacklisted an EU Member State, the EU would still refuse to put such Member State in its blacklist. Buried in a footnote, the EU has stated that as a consequence, should an EU Member State be considered by the FATF as presenting strategic deficiencies it could not be included in the EU list of high-risk countries. In the event that an EU Member State presents such deficiencies, the Commission acting as Guardian of the Treaties will use the specific procedures provided directly by the Treaties (such as infringements).' This is curious. Some may question, reasonably, this difference in how the EU treats its Member States from how it treats Third Countries. Further, if the EU is going beyond the standards of the FATF by adopting its own requirements, then critics may further question whether it is not an indirect way of imposing its laws on seemingly vulnerable Third Countries. Indeed one of the major disputes in the Brexit negotiations is the UK's allegation that the EU seeks to make the agreement subject, not to international standards, but to the latter's laws and governance structures. Objectively assessed, Ghana's AML/CTF regime needs strengthening. Ghana's NRA in 2016 identified some weaknesses and vulnerabilities including 'very low enforcement activity', relaxed oversight by domestic competent authorities, inadequate record-keeping amongst others. Some may contend, and perhaps validly, that this report may be outdated. It may be contended in response that the FATF also in February 2020 highlighted some weaknesses including the need to improve risk-based supervision, 'ensuing timely access to adequate, and accurate and current basic and beneficial ownership information' and 'applying a risk-based approach to monitoring non-profit organisations'. Nevertheless, the FATF has recognised that 'Ghana has taken steps towards improving its AML/CTF regime' and should continue to do so. Concluding thoughts and recommendations It is regrettable that the EU has taken this action against Ghana at this time. Ghana generally takes its international reputation seriously. Its commitment to global standards in all fields of endeavour is commendable. It is the present author's submission that due to the negative impacts on the economic undertakings of countries, particularly developing ones, where a country has demonstrated high level political and identifiable practical efforts to strengthen its AML/CTF regime unless, in exceptional circumstances, such countries should not be blacklisted. The Ghana government made such high-level political commitment to GIABA in 2018. Moreover, formalisation of Ghana's economy is being vigorously pursued, with biometric identification required as pre-condition for most services, including even state services. It is submitted that this requirement is stricter than those that exist in some jurisdictions in the EU. UK nationals, for instance, have flatly rejected biometric identification. Ghana has however made significant strides in ensuring it captures biometric data on every Ghanaian. Ghana is also advanced in formalised and digitised financial systems including prevalent mobile money transactions which are not even available in some Western countries. While it is admitted that vulnerabilities exist in Ghana's AML/CTF regime, there are recognisable efforts from stakeholders in addressing these weaknesses. In the real estate sector to prevent fraud and economic crime, the Vice President of Ghana has made it a personal mission to ensure the completion of the digitization of land records which would greatly assist in dealing with informal real estate transactions. Indeed he has sought to elicit international support from both the UK and the US in achieving this objective. The need to regulate charities or non-profit organisations is long overdue and a possible balanced workable model has been proposed by Gilbert Crentsil in another titled ' A model for regulating religious charities in Ghan . In light of the above, Ghana has rightly challenged the EU's decision to put her on its AML blacklist. Describing the EU methodology euphemistically as 'unfortunate,' the Finance Ministry in Ghana cited substantive reasons why the EU's decision is wrong. Ghana might wish to consider gleaning strategies from the failure of the EU Blacklist in March 2019 when its own Member States unanimously rejected it. Diplomatic pressures were also brought to bear on the EU by Saudi Arabia which was among the list when it threatened to cancel lucrative contracts with EU countries. It is not clear whether Ghana has such clout. Moreover, prompt rejection by the affected countries pointing to other countries left off the list but with similar circumstances is according to Julia C Morse of the University of California at Santa Barbara, a strong case to make. Reference in this respect could be made to countries in the EU and across Europe in general. It would be expected that Ghana would join forces with other countries in this quest. The EU's Methodology for assessing Third Countries and moral authority The EU as an institution is unapologetic that it exists for the fundamental benefits of its Member States. It is hard to say same for most regional bodies in the African continent. The EU sets standards for its Member States to which they must comply. If however, the EU has decided to extend its reach to assessing Third Countries, then it must ensure that as an institution that preaches fairness as one of its principal legal principles, it has the moral authority to do so. Whilst it is within the EU's right to set its own AML/CTF methodologies, it is valid to enquire whether such regional approaches would not undermine the work of international bodies such as the FATF. Despite the EU's stated intention to strengthen the activities of international bodies in the AML/CTF fight, the EU's setting of its own standards and its decision not to recognise the FATF's sanction of blacklisting any EU Member State in the EU's blacklist register, raise questions about whether it is not undermining the work of the FATF. Furthermore, it is valid to enquire into the inherent fairness of the EU applying stricter EU requirements to assessing the AML/CTF regimes of Third Countries including applying penal sanctions, and yet exclude EU Member States from the draconian sanction of blacklisting. The present author must stress that none of these questions excuse the need for Ghana to work hard to implement and enforce strong AML/CTF regimes. This article has dealt briefly with the reasons why the EU has blacklisted Ghana. Post establishing the legal basis, the article discussed the implications for Ghana and queried the fairness in how the EU treats its Member States from how it approaches Third Counties to whom it applies stricter requirements further to its 'unfortunate' methodology. The present author agrees with Ghana's decision to challenge the EU decision to blacklist her principally on the basis of the significant efforts Ghana has put into addressing weaknesses in its AML/CTF fight so far. The article further indicated that Ghana must continue its AML/CTF fight and deal with vulnerabilities as identified by international bodies such as GIABA, FATF further to Ghana's NRA. Finally, in light of the legitimate questions from various sources about the credibility of the EU's methodology for assessing Third Countries' AML/CTF frameworks, it should be expected that it would consider the future destination for its methodology. The author, Gilbert Crentsil BA (Ghana) LLM (Northumbria) (PhD) (London) is a practising solicitor in England and Wales. Gilbert's research expertise is in financial services regulation including fraud and consumer protection. He also practices in property law and is interested in AML/CTF in the real estate sector. A specialist in UK immigration law and compliance, Gilbert is also interested in how countries' immigration laws affect vulnerable migrants. The views of the present author expressed in this article are his own and in no way reflect that of any respective organisation with which he is associated. A person runs through a cloud of tear gas while being sprayed with a chemical after police dispersed a large crowd near the Foot Locker at 52nd and Chestnut streets in Philadelphia on Sunday. Read more Christopher Rapuano, chief of the cornea service at Wills Eye Hospital, got a small dose of tear gas a few years ago as he stood on the fringes of a demonstration in Hong Kong. His eyes started to burn. Then they teared up and his vision blurred. He ran to fresher air. Chris Cramer, a University of Minnesota chemist, got much bigger doses while in the Army, where he was a chemical-weapons specialist. To underscore the value of gas masks, soldiers in training would don the masks, wait until tear gas had been fired, then take them off. It feels as though bees are stinging you in your eyes," Cramer said. The tearing is like onions taken to the hundredth power. Your throat involuntarily closes. Mucus streams from your nose. Your skin feels sunburned. Its a special kind of misery. A new generation is learning about tear gas the hard way as authorities try to control demonstrations after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Police used it in Philadelphia on Monday night and in Washington to clear the way for a presidential photo op. What is tear gas? Tear gas can be made of a variety of substances that irritate the mucous membranes of the eyes and cause tearing. It was first used in combat by the French against the Germans in World War I. The U.S. Chemical Warfare Service began using it to disperse crowds in the 1920s. It is now banned for use in war. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls tear gases riot control agents. The most common ingredients in tear gas, according to the CDC, are chloroacetophenone (CN) and chlorobenzylidenemalononitrile (CS). CS is the ingredient used most often in crowd dispersal, Cramer said. Others include chloropicrin (PS), bromobenzylcyanide (CA), and dibenzoxazepine (CR). The compounds are actually liquids or powders, not gases. They are released into the air as droplets or particles. Grenade-like canisters are thrown or launched into a crowd to release white, heated vapors, Cramer said. The particles land on mucous membranes, skin, and clothing. What does tear gas do to the body? Tear gas activates receptors at the end of pain-sensing nerves in your eyes, nose, throat, and skin, said Sven-Eric Jordt, an associate professor of anesthesiology, pharmacology, and cancer biology at Duke University. If you come in contact with enough of it, it can burn your corneas or skin. In addition to causing tearing and blurred vision, the gas can irritate the upper respiratory tract, causing coughing and choking. People exposed to tear gas can have a runny nose, difficulty swallowing, chest tightness, rash, nausea, and vomiting. The amount of exposure matters. Dose makes the poison, Cramer said. Most of the time, people run away from it, and they have a very brief exposure, said Edward Jasper, an emergency physician at Jefferson Health. READ MORE: Tear gas, then handcuffs: An Inquirer reporter was arrested at a demonstration Prolonged exposure, especially in an enclosed area, may cause eye scarring, glaucoma, and cataracts, according to the CDC. In a worst-case scenario, tear gas can cause blindness, respiratory failure, and even death. People can also be seriously hurt if hit by a tear gas canister. Jordt said there is not good evidence about how often people suffer serious consequences. Most of the data we have about safety were generated in the 50s and 60s using outdated techniques, he said. Police are now using technology that releases higher amounts of chemicals. There are really no studies backing up safety of tear gas the way its used now. Could it increase the spread of the coronavirus? Yes. The disease spreads less efficiently outside, but, because tear gas causes people to cough, that could help the virus spread in crowded conditions. I suspect we will see some case uptick, Cramer said. Jordt added that a study by the Army found that soldiers exposed to tear gas were 2.4 times more likely to get respiratory viruses in the following week than during a previous week of training. Im really stunned its currently being used to that extent when COVID-19 is around, he said. How long do the effects of tear gas last? The CDC says the effects of tear gas should diminish after 15 to 30 minutes in fresh air. Jordt calls that optimistic. Most people are fine after a day or two, he said. What to do if youve been exposed? If youre exposed, you want to get out of the area where this is in the air, Rapuano said. Move as quickly as you can to fresher air and higher ground. Rinse your eyes out with water and wash your skin. Rapuano said you dont need a lot of water to rinse your eyes. Remove contact lenses. (Better yet, experts said, dont wear them if youre worried about tear gas.) Cramer suggests standing in a breeze to let the wind blow particles off. As soon as possible, remove your clothing, which will be contaminated with the chemicals. Dont pull shirts over your head. Cut them off, the CDC says. The CDC suggests double-bagging clothes that have been exposed to the chemical and disposing of them. Cramer says you can just air clothes out and wash them. Youll know theyre fine if you sniff them and nothing happens. READ MORE: Mayor Kenney defends tear gas on 676, but blasts vigilantism in Fishtown What about people with asthma? Jasper said people with asthma and underlying lung disease are at risk for worse reactions to tear gas. Is there a better way? Tear gas has been used for years without serious long-term problems, Cramer said. Alternative ways to disperse crowds could be water hoses or noxious noises. Its about as humane as any of those other techniques, he said. He said, though, that tear gas typically does not deescalate a situation. If a crowd shows no propensity for violence," he said, "it seems like an awfully violent way to go about doing things. US President Donald Trump on Tuesday invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the next G7 Summit, conveying his desire to expand the ambit of the grouping to include other important countries including India. The invitation was extended during his conversation with the Prime Minister over the telephone. The Prime Minister commended the US President for his creative and far-sighted approach, acknowledging that an expanded forum would be in keeping with the emerging realities of the post-COVID world. He said that India would be happy to work with the US and other countries to ensure the success of the proposed summit in the United States. A PMO release said that President Trump spoke about the US Presidency of the Group of Seven "and conveyed his desire to expand the ambit of the grouping beyond the existing membership, to include other important countries including India". "In this context, he extended an invitation to Prime Minister Modi to attend the next G-7 Summit to be held in USA," the release said. "Prime Minister Modi commended President Trump for his creative and far-sighted approach, acknowledging the fact that such an expanded forum would be in keeping with the emerging realities of the post-COVID world. The Prime Minister said that India would be happy to work with the US and other countries to ensure the success of the proposed summit," the release added. The G7 comprises the United States, Britain, France, Japan, Germany, Italy and Canada and the European Union also attends its meetings. Prime Minister Modi had attended an outreach session at the G7 meet in Biarritz, France in August last year on the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron. The call comes days after Trump had announced that he would postpone a G7 summit he had hoped to hold in June until September or later and expand the list of invitees to include Australia, Russia, South Korea and India. Trump suggested that the Group of seven be called "G10 or G11", and proposed that the grouping meets in September or November this year. Trump had cancelled an in-person G7 meeting that was scheduled for March as the coronavirus spread but had recently sought to revive it. (ANI) Also Read: India will definitely get its growth back: PM Modi New Delhi, June 2 : In wake of the Central government beginning 'Unlock 1', Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, as part of his series of discussions with experts on various aspects of the Covid-19 crisis, will be interacting with industrialist Rajiv Bajaj and this will streamed from 10 a.m. on Thursday on all his social media platforms. In a teaser released by the Congress, Bajaj, asked by Gandhi about opening up of the supply chain, said that there is no unlocking as such, if a factory opens up and if any case is detected, it is shut again. "I am not seeing smooth, concerted rhythmic move towards unlocking of the supply chain," the Bajaj Auto Managing Director said. He said that the alignment within the system is missing as there are divergent views from the upper to lower leves, so there is need of alignment from the Union government to the DM (District Magistrate) level. This will Gandhi's fourth such interaction in his ongoing series of dialogues with globally recognised experts in the fields of economics, social sciences, healthcare and other fields on the tackling the Covid-19 crisis. The former Congress chief spoke to globally renowned public health expert, Professor Ashish Jha of Harvard and Swedish epidemiologist Johan Giesecke, Professor Emeritus at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Gandhi had also spoken to world renowned economist and former RBI Governor Dr Raghuram Rajan and Nobel Economics laureate, Professor Abhijit Banerjee. The Federal Government says it cannot continue to subsidise television forever but will work with relevant stakeholders to design right policy framework and create sustainable ecosystem for the industry. The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, stated this on Tuesday in Abuja at the virtual inauguration of the Task Team on Audience Measurement. Currently, government is subsidising the signal distribution because the channels cannot pay for the carriage of their stations by the licensed Signal Distributors, who have invested in equipment and transmission. Things cannot continue like this. Government cannot continue to subsidise television forever, hence we must create a sustainable ecosystem, he said. The minister noted that Audience Measurement is the missing link in the entire broadcasting ecosystem. Audience Measurement qualifies the number of people in the audience, particularly in relation to radio listeners and television viewership. He said the broadcast industry needs an Audience Measurement system that would encourage investment, mainly through increased advertising spend driven by confidence in the Audience Ratings data. He said increase in advertising revenue will in turn encourage current and prospective channel owners to create additional television channels necessary for the success of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT). We need an objective and scientific Audience Measurement System that articulates the value of the content to consumers, as well as the value of the audience to advertisers, particularly in the television sector. The absence of a world class measurement regime has resulted in under-investment in the sector, which is necessary to foster the growth of the industry. This is because the advertising community continues to rely on subjective factors when making decisions on the content they want, as opposed to how many viewers the content truly attracts, he said. The minister said the consequence of lack of scientific audience measurement system is that television platforms are subjected to renting out space on their channels to sustain their businesses. He added that content producers are also at the mercy of sponsors which, unfortunately, skews the authenticity of their creative output in favour of a few decision makers, instead of the millions of TV viewers. He stressed that the existing model will never enable Nigerias creative industry to reach its full potential. More population, less revenue The minister said the value of Nigerias Broadcast Advertising Market is not proportional to the countrys population, when compared to the Top 3 Markets in the Sub-Saharan Africa. Despite having a population more than three times that of South Africa, Nigerias Television Advertising Revenue in 2016 was $309 million compared to that of South Africa, which was $1.301 billion. It is imperative that we urgently put in place an Industry Framework that will ensure that content producers receive their just due for the value of the content they create. We must also provide objective guarantees to the Advertising community on their Return-On-Investment on media placements. This will then have the overall effect of guaranteeing greater spend by the Advertisers, who are all seeking to grow their market share, he said. The minister said with the right policy framework, the Nigerian TV advertisement market will grow two to three times its current size and generate additional $200 million to $400 million revenue to the industry. He, therefore, charged the committee of industry experts to help solve the Audience Measurement issue in the country once and for all. He said the Terms of Reference of the committee included to identify best practice Audience Measurement System that will support the sustainable growth of the Nigeria Creative Industry. The committee is to recommend a Framework for supporting the sustainability of the Audience Measurement System, independent of the federal government; Advertisements The committee is also to recommend a Payment and Disbursement Framework among the key stakeholders in the industry. The members of the Task Team, which has six weeks to submit its report, are Garba Kankarofi as Chairman and Joe Mutah as Secretary. Other members are Obi Asika, Saaa Ibrahim, Mahmoud Ali Balogun, Pauline Ehusani and Tolu Ogunkoya. Responding on behalf of other members, Mr Kankarofi thanked the minister for their appointments and assured that they would engage every sector of the industry to come up with good report. (NAN) The outgoing Mayor of Derry and Strabane has paid tribute to workers on the frontline of domestic abuse - who have faced additional challenges during the coronavirus lockdown. Foyle Woman's Aid had been chosen by the Sinn Fein councillor as her nominated charity during her year as mayor which has seen the numbers of people reporting domestic abuse soar as a result of the lockdown. Michaela Boyle, whose sister Mairead McCallion (36) died in hospital from a bleed on the brain days after being assaulted by her partner of six years in 2014 at their home in Omagh, said: "Since I took up the post of Mayor, no one could have foreseen what lay ahead of us and the very sad irony in my chosen domestic abuse charity seeing the number of people needing their help soar. "Even within families never impacted by domestic violence before, there have been reports - whether that was coercive control, physical or mental abuse and there has been a sharp spike in cases during lockdown. "Personally I want to pay tribute to those on the frontline working with victims of domestic abuse who have had had the amount of people needing help increase sharply. "Unfortunately fundraising for my chosen charities had to be curtailed because of Covid-19 but over the course of the past few weeks so many businesses, groups, sporting clubs and individuals have stepped up and filled that gap so I want to thank them because they have been phenomenal." Mrs Boyle also remembered the 21 families in the Derry and Strabane Council area who were bereaved by Covid-19 but commended the community for the way they bought in to the Chief Executive, John Kelpie's decision to follow the lead of the Irish Government and go into lockdown 10 days in advance of the British Government. She continued: "My heartfelt sympathy and thoughts remain with the families of our city and district who lost loved ones to Covid-19. "Their pain and sorrow and the circumstances in which they had to say their last goodbyes is something I think we were all touched by. "Being a Mayor of a border council wasn't easy during this pandemic especially when things happening across the border were not in tandem with what was happening here, but I do think the brave decision to go into lockdown at the same time as Donegal made a huge difference and contributed to the fact that Derry and Strabane has the second lowest number of Covid fatalities in the six counties. John Kelpie's decision was made easier by the buy-in of our business owners and by the community who shut their doors before St Patrick's Day and Mother's Day and stayed at home. "Looking back over this very unique time to be Mayor, I am most proud of the community spirit and community resilience that shone through - something I hope will remain long after the coronavirus has disappeared." Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 18:56:08|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close People work at a musical instrument factory in Wuqiang County of Hengshui, north China's Hebei Province, June 2, 2020. Authorities in Wuqiang County have carried out a poverty-relief initiative which encourages local musical instrument industry to employ rural residents living below the current poverty line and help them start new careers. (Xinhua/Zhu Xudong) A longtime Schuyler businessman who has spent decades helping the community in various roles is officially calling it a career this summer. Lyle Dostal, of Castlerock Financial Management Group, has announced his plans to retire from his role as a Certified Financial Planner Practitioner and partner at the downtown Schuyler firm, 1011 B St. The Howells native, who will be 71 this year, will continue living full-time in Omaha with his wife, Elizabeth Schmidt Dostal. Weve got a lot of ties to Schuyler, he said, noting his wife is actually a Schuyler native. Although Im retiring, people can still track me down through the business. I wont be a stranger. Dostal has lived in Omaha, where the firm has another office, since 1989. But, Schuyler and Colfax County have always had his heart. Throughout the years, he served on the Schuyler City Council and the Planning and Zoning Commission, among other things. He was also active in a lot of clubs, including local Rotary and Sertoma chapters. Thats why, in a way, it will be home no matter what. Through all of those interactions, I met a lot of fabulous people, Dostal said. And I continued to have those great relationships throughout all of those years. Dostal has always prided himself on hard work. He grew up on a family farm near Howells, where his work ethic developed at a young age, and eventually graduated from Howells High School in 1968. He did serve his country as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, though eventually went on to obtain an MBA from the University of Nebraska Kearney, and a B.A. from the University of Nebraska Lincoln. Dostal and his wife have two grown sons, Jon (Carrie) and Nick (Leslie). Nick will continue to run Castlerocks Schuyler and Omaha locations. He noted he had mixed feelings about his father stepping away from their business. His retirement is bittersweet, Nick said. Ive been fortunate to get to work with my father. My dad has been a mentor, he has been with me every step of the way I am very fortunate and blessed. Coming from Howells, his heritage is to work hard and take care of others He has always been willing to lend a hand and help others. Of course, theyll still see plenty of each other. Dostal said when he isnt visiting Schuyler, he will likely be spending plenty of time on the links with his grandson and Nicks son, 9-year-old Jack, who he proudly claims to be my best bud. The fun out on the course will give him more time to bond with his grandson and work on his game a little bit. I dont embarrass myself, he said of his skill. Those wanting to wish Dostal well are still in luck. Castlerock is hosting an open house in his honor from 1-4 p.m. June 26 at the fairly new Library Event Center in Schuyler. Thats the beauty of slowly retiring, Dostal said of the planned gathering. I have always appreciated Schuyler and Colfax County for embracing me and my family. Nick agreed. Our family has been absolutely blessed because of Schuyler, he said, noting his hope people will come out to celebrate his dads retirement. There is so much we owe to it, so were happy to be part of it. Securities offered through J.W. Cole Financial, Inc. (JWC) Member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory services offered through J.W. Cole Advisors, Inc. (JWCA). Castlerock Financial Management Group and JWC/JWCA are unaffiliated entities. Matt Lindberg is the managing editor of the Schuyler Sun. Reach him via email at matt.lindberg@lee.net. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Native Sun News Today Columnist The quick answer to that is yes, but Sacredness is not without the duality of Evil. Sacred is a religious term. In terms of violence toward women in the U. S. Its usefulness as a religious term may be more emotional than substantive. Since the murder of a Native woman from a tribal group in Canada has become cause celebre, in Sioux Country many organizations have emerged to protect abused or neglected or missing Indian women across the country. The mantra of the sacredness of women and the sacredness of the earth is being heard everywhere. If Indian women are so sacred, as it is alleged in many contemporary narratives, why isnt her sacredness inviolable? Why is it the case that that the female of the species has to be protected by others, or she has to learn to protect herself from the male of the species. Why isnt her sacredness enough to guarantee her own life? I dont know the answer to that question but I do know that I had a Dakotah Sioux grandmother who told me a long time ago (though she didnt speak English), that men are predators. I dont remember the Indian word she used but I do remember her explanation. It may be because the sexual urge between males and females is the strongest of all human needs. And if that urge is sacred, it is not without the dark side of the need to survive as a species. The male-female urge to survive is stronger than hunger, more compelling than thirst. It is more than mere desire. It drives the male of the species to violence against the female as the lion kills his own offspring! It is a human requirement of the drive of most biological gropings (species) that protect against the extinction of human life on this planet. In the process there are victims. The human or the animal is in the orbit of an enigma, a mysterious force which means that groupings have always sought ways to understand its own nature. Because of their sexual nature, animals are taken for food by others without which they would starve and die. It is why a human preys on another, becoming what is known in civilized society as a predator, because it must reproduce rather than become extinct. It is like all the rivers in the world which cannot stop themselves from their natural coming and going, killing and saving, destroying and healing at the same time. Destruction results without outside intervention. A recognition of its nature is vital to humanitys survival. When we talk about whether or not human beings can have any solutions to their own dilemmas concerning domestic violence, it is important to remember that the male of the species is far deadlier than the female. Dare we say, without being sexist and mean or even wrong, that it is men who are violent? Look at the worlds violence! Even the UN says (in its office of Drugs and Crime) that men are the ones who start wars, (generally speaking) and an average of 95 percent of the people convicted of homicide are men. When that UN study looks at the school shootings and mass murders that are so much in the news today, they say: gang warfare, murder-suicide and familicides and matricides and even genocides: all men. (See: No Visible Bruises by R. L. Snyder, 2020). Contact Elizabeth Cook-Lynn at ecooklynn@gmail.com Copyright permission Native Sun News Today Join the Conversation The Rs 7,442 crore equity offering of Uday Kotak-led Kotak Mahindra Bank has attracted as many as 370 institutional investors from across the world. The University of Cambridge, which is legally called the Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the Cambridge, has invested in Kotak's equity offering for generating longer term returns. The bank offered the share at a price of Rs 1,145 per share, which was 4.45 times the book value of the bank. Many banks like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank are currently available at a much lesser price to book value. The most valued bank also attracted investment from International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s retirement staff benefits investment account. This fund of IMF covers the cost of post-retirement employee benefits. Similarly, the Ministry of Defence Pension Fund of Sultanate of Oman is also banking on the private sector bank for long-term returns. UK's Essex County Council has also invested in the private bank. This county council manages the non-metropolitian county of Essex in England. At a time when many global economies are facing a likely recession, the Indian economy, also in slowdown mode, is likely to bounce bank faster than the global peers. Apart from these interesting names, the big marquee investors who have corned a major part of Kotak's equity subscription are Invesco, Canada Pension Plan and ICICI Prudential Asset Management. Other global investors include T Rowe Price, Aberdeen, Goldman Sach, Fidelity, JP Morgan and HSBC Global. Indian institutional investors include Aditya Birla Group, Tata AIA, Axis MF, SBI MF, Max Life , UTI AMC and others. The current equity offering was part of billionaire Uday Kotak's plan to reduce the promoters stake to 26 per cent by August this year. Also Read: India receives record high foreign direct investments in financial year 2019-20 Also Read: Infographic: Rs 21 lakh crore won't stop recession Also Watch: PM Modi optimistic about economic recovery; Is India Inc. convinced? LEASES Moorabbin Hops distributor Bintani is the latest tenant to commit to Goodman Group's Chifley Business Park at Moorabbin Airport. Colliers International's James Stott said Bintani negotiated a seven-year lease for the 4161 sq m site at 8 Grange Road. Face rents in the estate are believed to be about $105 to $110 per sq m. Meanwhile, bicycle accessories supplier Bikecorp has committed to a brand-new distribution centre in the same facility in a deal negotiated by Mr Stott and Premier Commercial's Jason Perry. Bikecorp signed a seven-year lease over 6049 sq m at 10 Grange Road. Hawthorn Nelayan Indonesian restaurant will move into 787 Glenferrie Road after relocating from a few doors down the road. Nelayan signed a 5-year lease at commencing rent of $55,000 a year for 125 sq m space. Glenferrie Road is showing positive signs of improved retail confidence, GormanKelly's Richard Munday said. Hawthorn Fuse Recruitment has chosen the building at 313 Burwood Road as its next office. Fitzroys' Stephen Land negotiated a secure six-year lease over 300 sq m on part of level 2 with the recruitment agency at $147,000 per annum rent, plus GST. Truganina Sidelink Transport has committed to a seven-year pre-lease for a purpose-built 10,000 sq m, 100-tonne rated hardstand site and a 200 sq m office at 10 Mayer Place. The landlord, FR Investments, is now constructing the facility. Industry Property Group's Stuart Macqueen negotiated the deal with Sidelink's Robert Verdino. The deal was struck at normal rates for the area, which Market Wrap estimates at $80 to $90 per sq m for warehouses and $55 per sq m for hardstand. Sidelink Transport has committed to a seven-year pre-lease. Credit: Mordialloc Within 30 days of being on market, the 1024 sq m industrial building 40 Hinkler Road was leased at a rate of $78 per sq m. Gorman Commercial's D'Andra Rao negotiated the $80,000 per annum net lease to Greenway Turf Solutions. Mr Rao said it was one of the larger vacancies in this precinct. Cremorne Mindset Health will move into a former music studio at 7-11 Jessie Street after leasing the premises for $85,000 net plus GST in a deal negotiated by Prowse Burns Commercial's Philip Prowse. Hawthorn Students in Tokyo started to return to school Monday, with fitness gyms, saunas and cinemas among businesses reopening their doors in the capital after nearly two months under a loose lockdown. Japan has been slowly reopening economic activity across the country after a state of emergency to tackle the coronavirus was lifted nationwide last week. Schools in the capital are resuming, albeit with staggered student attendance, for the first time in about three months, after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for their closure at the end of February. In Tokyo, Governor Yuriko Koike has laid out a three-stage reopening roadmap for when businesses can resume operations, with the city entering stage two of the plan on Monday. That's allowed gyms to resume -- with operators asking for patrons to exercise in masks -- as well as a range of businesses from private cram schools and department stores. There were five new cases of coronavirus reported in Tokyo on Sunday. Key words such as "crowded trains", "remote work", and "resuming business" were among the top trending phrases on Twitter in Tokyo Monday, with many commenting that trains and stations in the city were busier than they had been recently. The seven-week state of emergency gave regional governors the power to ask firms to close and urge residents to stay home to contain the coronavirus. Despite having no penalties for disobedience, many firms and citizens complied. Even without the hard lockdown seen in other parts of the world, Abe last month was able to lift the state of emergency earlier than expected, with new infections having dropped to zero in many prefectures. Many businesses in Tokyo, ranging from karaoke boxes and theme parks to mahjong parlors and strip clubs, will be asked to remain closed for longer. Night clubs, hostess bars and small music venues, which had been identified as sites of infection clusters, will stay shut until the national government decides on guidelines to reopening. Tokyo Disney Resort will also stay closed for the time being, its operator said Monday. Meanwhile, the city of Osaka has gone ahead and removed restrictions on all business sectors as of June 1, contingent upon businesses following the prefectural government's guidelines on how to operate using social distancing measures. India and China are dealing with some tough times due to the Coronavirus outbreak that has led to a movement to boycott Chinese products completely. The movement is looking to ban Chinese smartphones and popular applications like TikTok, PUBG Mobile. Sonam Wangchuk recently posted a video on social media that is related to boycotting Chinese products. Sonam Wangchuk has been trending on social media after the video he posted. Speaking about products, the number of people in India who are using smartphones and the internet is increasing daily. After the people of India received a message about boycotting Chinese products, they have been searching for some of the Indian mobile brands and other made in India products. India has become the 2nd largest manufacturing hub when it comes to phones. The popular brand Apple already manufactures some iPhone models locally in India with the help of its collaboration with contract manufacturers Wistron and Foxconn. Take a look at some of the Indian phone brands. Indian phone brands Micromax Informatics In 2014, Indian smartphone brands held a massive market share of around 54%. Among them, Micromax Informatics was the biggest brand. It is said that at that point of time the company even managed to overtake Samsung to become the top smartphone brand in the country. It took only three years for the situation to change completely and by the end of 2017, Micromax Informatics had only 6% while other Chinese brands had 40% of the market. Reportedly, in 2020 companies like OnePlus, Realme Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo captured close to 70% of the Indian market and it did not take long for Indian brands to quickly fall behind. Lava International Lava International is a multi-national Indian mobile company, dealing in the mobile handset industry in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Middle East. Lava also owns the brand Xolo. The headquarters of Lava International Limited is in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. ALSO READ | Baba Ramdev Joins 'Boycott Chinese Products' Movement, Shares Video Deleting Chinese Apps Karbonn Mobiles Karbonn Mobiles is also one of the popular mobile brands in India. The Indian company was founded in March 2009. Karbonn Mobiles has tie-ups with Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and Jio. Karbonn is also the first Android One phone to be sold in the United Kingdom. ALSO READ | 'India 2nd Largest Manufacturer Of Mobiles In The World,' Claims Union Min RS Prasad iBall iBall is an Indian consumer electronics company. It not only sells mobile phones but also other goods like headphones, speakers, earphones and more. The latest product of the brand is a Wireless AC Router for the people to enhance their work from home experience during the coronavirus lockdown. ALSO READ | Milind Soman Uninstalls TikTok, Joins Sonam Wangchuk's 'Boycott Chinese Products' Movement LYF LYF, also known as Reliance LYF, is an Indian Smartphone manufacturer company. The company was founded in 2015 and in 2016, LYF mobiles reportedly became the fifth most bought smartphone brand in India. It is also the second-largest LTE phone supplier in India. ALSO READ | Top 25 Chinese Apps List In India Celkon Celkon is also one of the Indian mobile brands. It manufactures smartphones and tablets. Initially, its mobile and tablets were assembled in China. As per reports, the company's website no longer functions. As violent protests triggered by the murder of an unarmed African American man, George Floyd, by a white police officer on May 25 continue across the United States, American and foreign journalists are being targeted by police. Members of Turkeys state-run TRTWorld news channel were among them. Sally Ayhan, the Washington correspondent of the outlet, was struck by rubber bullets while covering events there. Fellow correspondent Lionel Donovan was similarly injured in his groin while reporting on demonstrations in Minneapolis where Floyd was slain. The news prompted an angry response from one of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans top aides. Fahrettin Altun, head of Erdogans communications team, aired his ire via Twitter, saying he condemned the attack against Donovan in the strongest possible terms. Altun added that press freedom is the backbone of democracy. I will raise this issue with the relevant US officials without delay. Thank you for your support, responded Ayhan, though she didnt feature in Altuns tweet. Many others greeted his opprobrium with mirth. If anyone asks you How many journalists do you have in jails now in Turkey? Or How many newspapers and television stations did you close in the last four years? Do you have an answer?" tweeted a certain Mehmet Kurt. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe said in a May 22 report that there were 95 journalists imprisoned in Turkey, more than in any country in the world, a distinction Turkey has preserved for several years running. On May 8, for example, an Istanbul court charged seven journalists with violating the countrys intelligence laws for reporting on the death of a Turkish National Intelligence Agency asset in Libya, where Ankara has intervened militarily on the side of the internationally recognized Government of National Accord. Six of the journalists are in prison and face up to 17 years if convicted of revealing state secrets. A seventh has eluded jail because he is in Germany. A trial date has been set for June 24. News of the operatives death was publicized by a member of the Turkish parliament in late February after two of the journalists disclosed the dead officers name on Twitter. Another newsman, Fatih Portakal, was charged on April 30 with breaching Turkeys banking laws when he suggested in a tweet that the financially stretched government was dipping into savings at private banks for relief. The popular news anchor for Fox News local franchise Fox TV faces up to three years should his sentence be upheld. What was especially egregious for many about Altuns finger wagging is that he is at the center of the governments most recent bout of muzzling of the secular oppositions flagship title, Cumhuriyet. Terror investigations were launched against three Cumhuriyet journalists in April for a story in which they investigated charges that Altun had illegally erected a gazebo on a plot of land adjacent to his house in Kuzguncuk, a trendy village on the Asian side of the Bosporus. The gazebo was demolished by the Istanbul municipality, which was wrested from Erdogans Justice and Development Party in a June 30 rerun last year. The journalists were accused of exposing Altun to terrorist attacks by publishing the whereabouts of his house. Cumhuriyet was slapped with a fine, depriving the paper of publishing government tender notices for three months. The advertisements are a big source of income for the media. Cumhuriyet has also been ordered to publish a retraction on its front page for three days running, with the first appearing yesterday. Berating other countries for the same abuses Turkey showers on its own citizens is by now standard for Erdogan and his vast propaganda machine. The protests in the United States provide fresh opportunities to both condemn America and, in doing so, implicitly justify Turkeys own police brutality and crackdown on the press, said Nicholas Danforth, a fellow at the Wilson Centers Kennan Institute. Danforth observed in emailed comments to Al-Monitor, At the same time some pro-government voices are presenting the protests as a backlash to Americas longstanding racism, others are suggesting they are actually a FETO/PKK-backed deep state conspiracy to unseat Trump. FETO refers to the so-called Fethullah Gulen Terror Organization that is allegedly led by Sunni cleric Fethullah Gulen. The Pennsylvania-based Turkish preacher is accused of masterminding the failed 2016 coup to overthrow his former ally, Erdogan. The PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) is the Kurdish militia that is fighting the Turkish army for self-rule in the predominantly Kurdish southeast. Erdogan and his acolytes support Trump because of his perceived affinity for the Turkish president, which saw US troops withdraw from northern Syria in October, allowing Turkish troops to move in against the PKKs Syrian franchise that is backed by the Pentagon. For them, the protests in the United States present a chance for trolling, whataboutism and outreach to the White House, all rolled into one, Danforth concluded. The coronavirus pandemic has dealt an immense blow to businesses and nations all around the planet, yet there is one specific sphere where it might actually deliver some positive outcomes namely, ending long-standing and costly wars. The Yemeni civil war, one of the most sanguinary conflicts of the 21st century that has rekindled internecine distrust and elevated regional tensions to a new peak, might be the most realistic case in point as countries of the Gulf prepare for a virtual donors conference next week, organized for the alleged purpose of helping Yemen overcome COVID-19. As the country remains split between the Houthi north and the Saudi-backed south, there is no easy military victory to achieve for Saudi Arabia and its allies and hence, the money spent on Yemen might be rerouted for domestic purposes, such as alleviating the discontentment of the populace. Yemens oil-producing story has plenty of similarities to that of Syria before the oil crash of 2009 it used to produce some 300-350kbpd, however first due to external market conditions and then due to the immediate effects of armed conflict Yemeni crude output has plummeted quite spectacularly. The low point was reached at the height of fighting in 2016, then Yemeni production hovered around 40kbpd. As of late 2019 Yemen has managed to produce some 60kbpd of crude and, with domestic refining virtually non-existent, even managed to export some of it to predominantly Chinese customers. The past years have seen Yemeni deliveries to India, Japan, Italy or Malaysia, however all of 2020 cargoes have been to China. As opposed to Syria whose oil sector is still heavily debilitated by international sanctions, Yemen could move towards a restart of oil production relatively soon the only thing it needs is a cessation of hostilities. In early April 2020 Saudi Arabia has announced a unilateral ceasefire, the official reasoning for this bold move was revolving around the start of Ramadan, however the reason why Riyadh would want to end the conflict is much more trivial in times of missing government revenues (2020 budget is breakeven at an oil price of $85 per barrel) the Saudi kingdom needs to go into saving mode if it wants to survive the pandemic without domestic upheaval. In addition to domestic pressures, the dissociation of the United Arab Emirates and Sudan from fighting in Yemen puts Riyadh even more at the forefront of a potential diplomatic settlement with the Houthis. Related: Russia Is Quickly Becoming The Most Dominant Force In Energy Saudi Arabias unilateral withdrawal presents a double whammy for Yemen under conditions of a dual government it needs to confront COVID-19 (it has one of the worst corona virus death rates globally, 77 deaths per 310 cases as of June 01) all the while its healthcare-related infrastructure was pounded for 5 years by Saudi-led air strikes, as a result of which only half of the countrys pre-civil war hospitals are operating. Hence, the current situation remains largely hazy for international oil companies the lack of clarity on Saudi Arabias plans with Yemen, the continuous partition into two parts and low oil prices render any IOC return quote unrealistic. Hence, most probably the only company to continue drilling new acreage in Yemen in the near future will be the state-owned PetroMasila and Safer. It must be pointed out that Yemen already hosts two foreign companies, although one of them seems to be intent on leaving the country. The Indonesian independent oil firm PT Medco controls the Block 82 concession (Wadi Amed) but has already filed last year for its relinquishment which still failed to take place as the relevant government approval is missing. This leaves the Austrian OMV in the privileged position of being the only NOC that is currently producing in Yemen on its Block S-2 it resumed oil production in April 2018 and has been pumping some 4kbpd of crude from the Habban oil field. Generally speaking, very little of Yemens hydrocarbon bounty is located in Houthi-controlled territory. Nevertheless, the Yemeni authorities are experiencing intense difficulty in bringing crude, most of which is in the Marib Basin in the central part of the country, to seaside ports from where they can be shipped elsewhere. First of all, before the Civil war Yemeni crude was sent to the Ras Isa port on the Red Sea coast the pipeline connecting the Masila and Marib Basins to Ras Isa was blown up in 2015 and remains non-serviceable to the present day. Second, in order to use the Bir Ali port on the Indian Ocean coast companies have to truck their production to the collection point in the Marib Basin this in itself is a great achievement as before 2020 they had to truck the crude for 100-150km as the pipeline extension to Marib was still not ready. Yemens flagship export grade Masila is shipped from the Ash Shihr terminal on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Aden being the farthest from Houthi-controlled territory, this crude stream is at the same time the safest from the above mentioned ones. One of the very few bright stories that one might search for in the past 5 years of continued conflict is the relative intactness of Yemens LNG industry. Albeit out of operation, the Yemen LNG plant located in Balhaf is without substantial damage (so far only one pipeline was damaged in fights) and might be restarted relatively easily given that safety conditions are suitable. Total remains the operator of Yemen LNG and along with Kogas is the main marketer of Yemeni liquefied gas (Totals LNG marketing portfolio also includes 2.5mtpa of gas from Engie, transferred to the oil major on the back of a global deal whereby all of Engies LNG is transferred to Total). The LNG terminal ought to be fed by some 12.5 BCm per year of natural gas from Block 18 in the Marib Basin, it only functioned a bit more than 5 years before going into force majeure and evacuating all relevant staff in 2015. By Viktor Katona for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Dental hygienists like Tahita Ross of Newark, Del., are concerned about going back to work. Read more Seta MacCrory describes herself as a dental cupid. She matches up hygienists looking for temporary work with dentists in need of staff through her business, Substitoothfairy, which she runs out of her Delaware County home. Before COVID-19, MacCrory facilitated 300 matches each month. Now that number is close to zero. On May 8, the Pennsylvania Department of Health set new safety guidelines for reopening dental practices. Since then, MacCrory said, shes been flooded with calls from dentists desperate to restart their practices, but struggles to find hygienists willing to risk constant exposure to saliva and respiratory droplets that could be swarming with the coronavirus. As a licensed hygienist with diabetes, MacCrory, 36, said she understands her peers concerns. But she sympathizes with dentists who call her, crying, telling me they have two more months before they completely fold. I see all angles, she said. My head is spinning. Im in the eye of the storm. Saliva, tartar buildup, bleeding gums: As businesses lurch toward reopening, there may be no workforce facing as tough a challenge as dentists and hygienists. The very nature of their work can put them at high risk for the coronavirus. Yet most hygienists work for independent dental practices that must reopen if they want to survive. On top of all that, numerous dentists and hygienists told The Inquirer, the states vague protocols do little to help and potentially much to hurt. We will be right on the front line in the mouth, working with the bacteria that spread COVID, said Tahita Ross, a hygienist who is licensed to practice in Pennsylvania and Delaware. I mean, we cant help but work in saliva. And thats how its transmitted, through droplets. Now that Im talking about it, its like making me scared." Murky guidelines for addressing safety During the initial weeks of the pandemic, the state Health Department advised dentists to suspend any procedures that arent emergencies. Thats no longer the case. And heres where it gets complicated: State guidelines have been updated several times, including most recently on June 3, when the health department said dentists could resume nonemergency work including routine cleanings that may generate aerosols so long as they have proper protective equipment and follow all CDC guidelines. Those CDC guidelines call for dentists to wear full face shields and masks when performing procedures that generate aerosols and avoid such procedures on patients that may be positive for the virus, except in emergencies. READ MORE: A PPE fee at the dentist? New requirements could raise prices for patients. If theres a patient in the chair and you do anything that gags them or they have allergies and they cough in your chair, there can be aerosols that can be produced even if you are not using a drill or an ultrasonic cleaner, said dentist Michael Barnes, who owns a practice in South Philadelphia. Lisa Maisonet, a hygienist who helps run 22 Philadelphia-area dental practices, put it bluntly: Everything we do creates aerosols. Everything," she said. Its like the state said, Heres a swimming pool, jump in, but please dont get wet. Adding to the confusion, the Health Department says dentists should apply their clinical judgment when deciding what is safe. They should go ahead with treatment if not doing so would cause irreversible damage to the patient." Barnes said some of the Health Department guidelines directly contradict other parts. That creates a heavy burden on dentists to determine the right thing to do in uncharted terrain. For now, hes decided not to perform routine cleanings, deeming them too risky. But he would use a drill, which can create aerosols, for a few seconds to smooth a sharp edge of a broken tooth that is cutting into the patients tongue or cheek, as long as hes wearing adequate personal protective equipment, he said. I do have concerns that some dentists may swing too far in either direction, Barnes said. Some may try to get back to normal volume too quickly and risk the spread of the virus. Others may be too conservative and risk leaving their patients with difficulty in accessing urgent dental care. HELP US REPORT: Are you a health care worker, medical provider, government worker, patient, frontline worker or other expert? We want to hear from you. High stakes to return to work The vast majority of dentists in Pennsylvania and New Jersey work in privately owned solo or group practices. They remain both medical provider and small-business owner a dual identity that requires them to consider the health of their employees and patients, as well as the health of their business. All of a sudden, they have to shut down, lay off staff. They have loans and business expenses, said Anjana D. Patel, a lawyer with Epstein Becker & Green in Newark, N.J., who advises health-care businesses. Once they start opening up, theyre not going to see patient flow like they used to, especially with all these protective measures they have to implement. Its not going to be the same for a long time, and some of them may not be able to survive that. Unlike most medical offices, independent dental practices have not had a larger health system or management organization to help cover ongoing business expenses, such as rent and malpractice insurance, during the pandemic. While emergency dental work was allowed to continue in most states, including Pennsylvania, emergencies account for just 10% of revenue for dental practices, on average. During the pandemic, general practice dentistry revenue plummeted 95% and oral surgery revenue fell 70% nationally, according to the Levin Group, a dental management consulting firm in Baltimore. Physicians who work within a health-care system are more likely to see more emergencies," said Roger Levin, a dentist and the CEO of Levin Group. "The independent practice is going to get hit harder because there are no guidelines, no resources, no administrator getting the PPE together. Increased infection control, ongoing uncertainty Barnes and many other dentists are following the recommended safety protocols: They screen patients for virus symptoms before a visit; take their temperature upon arrival; require patients to wear masks and wait outside until its time for their appointment; and permit only one adult to accompany a pediatric patient. READ MORE: Is it safe to go to my doctors office? Your questions answered. The states order authorizing dental practices to resume nonemergency services said they should follow these infection-control guidelines but did not outline specific penalties for not complying. However, the State Board of Dentistry, which licenses dentists and hygienists, can discipline or issue violations to providers who flout infection-control protocols. Its very confusing because even in the dental world, none of us knows whats allowed, hygienist Tahita Ross said. Nothing is mandated for us not to do. Its all recommended. One hygienist who returned to work May 18 for the first time since mid-March said her dental practice forced her out two days later after she complained that the office wasnt following safety guidelines, including taking patients temperature and limiting the number of people allowed in the office at one time. The 36-year-old hygienist from Delaware County asked The Inquirer not to publish her name because shes looking for a new job. She shared text messages that, she said, were between her and one of the dentists. Honestly, I am shocked we arent taking everyones temperatures! the hygienist texted on May 19. The dentist responded that taking temperatures could create a false sense of security and wouldnt prevent asymptomatic spread, the hygienist said and text messages show. The hygienist also complained about having to fudge chart notes stating a routine cleaning was necessary to prevent irreversible damage," in order to meet state Health Department recommendations. I took a stand and said, Im not willing to risk my license or my familys safety, said the hygienist, who has a 6-year-old with a kidney condition and a 4-year-old with asthma. And they basically said, So is this your resignation? And I had to say, yes. Ross, the 39-year-old hygienist who was raised in West Philadelphia and now lives in Newark, Del., said her employer plans to reopen for emergency cases only in early June. She said she has reservations about returning to work but sees little option, although right now, she doesnt know who is going to watch her children, ages 10 and 6. If schools and camps were to reopen, I would have to go back because I wouldnt have an excuse not to. It would be like a fear of losing my job, Ross said. I do want to go back to work. I love my job. I will go back as soon as I can. MacCrory, who runs the dental staffing service, said if dentists cant guarantee hygienists a 40-hour workweek because they dont have enough patient volume, theres little incentive to put their health at risk and return to work. Thats because some hygienists are earning more money not working, between collecting unemployment pay and an additional $600 a week from the federal government in pandemic relief. But that wont last forever. Andrea Pelonero, a 50-year-old hygienist from North Jersey, one of the nations hardest-hit regions for the coronavirus, said she doesnt understand why hygienists are worried, given that theyve always had to take precautions against infectious disease, such as HIV. I assume everybody is a bag full of infection at every visit, so what exactly do I need to do differently now? Pelonero said. Its like being a nurse you knew this when you signed up for it, so I dont understand, like people dont want to do it anymore because now theyre scared. What? Werent you afraid of getting AIDS before? Seriously. The U.S. has sent to Brazil more than 2 million doses of a malaria drug touted by President Donald Trump as potentially protecting against and treating the coronavirus. Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate resumes session today with no plans to consider fresh relief for Americans. Get caught up on the morning's virus developments here. Former president Barack Obama is urging those angered by the death of George Floyd to focus their efforts on state and local elections and to push officials on those levels for specific reforms to the criminal justice system. "If, going forward, we can channel our justifiable anger into peaceful, sustained, and effective action, then this moment can be a real turning point in our nation's long journey to live up to our highest ideals," Obama said in a Medium post on Monday. At a time when protesters are gathering nightly outside the White House, Obama said those seeking change should be fighting for a president and other federal officials who recognize "the corrosive role that racism plays in our society and want to do something about it." But he argued that "the elected officials who matter most in reforming police departments and the criminal justice system work at the state and local levels." READ MORE: From Monday: Large protests, mass arrests "It's mayors and county executives that appoint most police chiefs and negotiate collective bargaining agreements with police unions," Obama wrote. "It's district attorneys and state's attorneys that decide whether or not to investigate and ultimately charge those involved in police misconduct. Those are all elected positions." Obama also cited documents developed during his presidency and by the Obama Foundation that he says can provide guidance on reforms to seek. "The more specific we can make demands for criminal justice and police reform, the harder it will be for elected officials to just offer lip service to the cause and then fall back into business as usual once protests have gone away," he wrote. In the post, he said the waves of protests have been driven by genuine and legitimate frustration, but he also urged those seeking reforms not to excuse violence, or rationalize it, or participate in it. Kolkata: Countrys largest car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki, which recently made entry into the commercial vehicle segment, will launch its first LCV Super Carry across the country in phases. In the first phase, we are piloting the launch of the LCV in the five Indian places of Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Ludhiana Haryana and Rajasthan, ED (marketing and sales) of Maruti Suzuki T Hashimoto said. We want to see the response first. Then, we will start rolling out the vehicle in other Indian states. Launching Super Carry here on Monday, he said Maruti is a new entrant in the segment where other major players like Tata Motors and Mahindra are already present. Executive Director (marketing and sales) of Maruti Suzuki R S Kalsi said the LCV is being manufactured at the Gurgaon plant of the company. We are ramping up capacity while the Gujarat facility will become operational in the last quarter of the current fiscal with an initial capacity of 2.5 lakh per annum, he told reporters. He said the LCV has been specifically designed for India, adding that the pan-India rollout will be done in the next financial year. Like Nexa, he said, a separate delivery channel will be created for the LCV. Presently, 50 dealers will be appointed for the sales of Super Carry in the five states, he said. In Gurgaon, Manesar and Gujarat, Marutis combined planned capacity is 22.5 lakh at 7.5 lakh each. For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Storyful A small but mighty icebreaking boat was in action on Maines Penobscot River as part of a program to support Northeastern communities through the winter months.Footage posted by the US Coast Guard Sector Northern New England shows the USCGC Tackle breaking ice on the Penobscot River as part of OPRENEW. Ice can be heard cracking and breaking as the boat moves down the river.Operation Reliable Energy for Northeast Winters (OPRENEW) is an annual Coast Guard program that supports communities in the Northeastern United States. Goals include helping prevent loss of life on the water and making sure communities have fuel, food, and medical supplies. Credit: US Coast Guard Sector Northern New England via Storyful Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was silent for about 20 seconds when asked to react to Monday's scenes from outside the White House, where police officers forcefully removed peaceful protesters to make way for a Trump photo op in front of St. John's Church. What he's saying: "We all watch in horror and consternation at what is going on in the United States," Trudeau said after the long pause, declining to specifically react to Trump's threat to deploy the military on U.S. soil. "It is a time to pull people together, but it is a time to listen. It is a time to learn, when injustices continue despite progress over years and decades." Trudeau then highlighted Canada's own challenges with racism and discrimination, saying black Canadians face many of the same hardships as African Americans. The big picture: The international community is watching as the Trump administration looks to crack down on U.S. protests that followed the killing of George Floyd as they continue for the eighth consecutive day. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an investigation on Tuesday after video appeared to show two Australian journalists being attacked by police officers during protests outside the White House. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said his government would question U.S. officials after a reporter with German public outlet Deutsche Welle said he was shot at live on air while reporting in Minneapolis. Democratic countries must apply the highest standards in protecting press freedom. In this context, all violence must not only be criticized by also prosecuted and clarified so that journalists can be effectively protected while carrying out their work, Haas said. Go deeper: More reactions to the protests from around the world Election officials across Pennsylvania are bracing for a chaotic day of voting in Tuesday's primary as the convergence of the coronavirus pandemic and protests over the death of George Floyd threaten to close in-person polling locations even as thousands of voters who requested mail ballots still haven't received them. In Philadelphia, city officials said they were working with police and other emergency personnel to prevent violence from disrupting voting. The city planned to open 190 polling places instead of the usual 831, but with a late surge of poll workers canceling their commitment out of fear of unrest, there was no guarantee that even that number would emerge Tuesday morning. "This was already a difficult task with the pandemic, and the current events have only made that difficult task harder," said Nick Custodio, a deputy city commissioner. "We won't know anything until first thing in the morning." In Delaware County, a large suburb of Philadelphia, officials said they had fulfilled an unprecedented total of 80,000 mail-ballot requests. But 6,000 of them went out just Monday - giving those voters little wiggle room to return them on time. Officials said they would be unable to fulfill another 400 ballot requests at all, due to insufficient staffing and time. To help alleviate the crush, Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, extended the mail-ballot deadline by a week in six counties where the pandemic and protests have been most acute, but ballots still must be postmarked or received in person by 8 p.m. Tuesday. "This is an unprecedented time for Pennsylvania and our nation as we face a major public health crisis and civil unrest during an election," Wolf said in a statement. "Voting is the cornerstone of our democracy, and I want to ensure that voters can cast their ballot and that it is received in time." Pennsylvania, notably the ring of suburbs around Philadelphia, is widely expected to be a crucial battleground in the November presidential election. If thousands of voters are unable to cast ballots in the primary, election officials will be under tremendous pressure to better prepare for a general election that four years ago was decided by the narrowest of margins. Eight states plus the District of Columbia will hold primaries Tuesday. All of them have experienced a surge in interest in mail balloting, and several have experienced hiccups or worse. In Indiana, the clerk of the state's most populous county warned last week that some voters would not receive their ballots in time and that thousands of ballots might not be counted because they would not be returned by the deadline of noon Tuesday. Voters in Maryland and Rhode Island also complained about not receiving their requested ballots. In the District of Columbia, election officials resorted to hand-delivering ballots that were at risk of not arriving on time. The Pennsylvania primary is the state's first major contest since state lawmakers expanded absentee balloting to all voters last fall, long before they could have predicted how dramatically interest in voting by mail would surge as a result of the pandemic. The onset of violent protests after Floyd, who was African-American, was killed in police custody in Minneapolis, compounded the challenges that Tuesday will bring. Philadelphia has been under a mandatory 6 p.m. curfew since Sunday. The city's top prosecutor, District Attorney Lawrence Krasner, announced Monday that his office would not prosecute residents who violate the curfew to vote or work the polls. Meanwhile, former vice president Joe Biden was scheduled to deliver a speech in Philadelphia on Tuesday morning. Wolf ordered his deadline extension for mail ballots to apply to Philadelphia and two of its suburbs as well as the counties that include Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Erie. Republicans fought efforts to extend the ballot deadline in Wisconsin's spring elections in April. Republican National Committee spokesman Mike Reed said Monday that the party was considering whether to bring legal action to block Wolf's order. "We want everyone to have the opportunity to vote, but we have an Election Day for a reason," he said. "Postponing this deadline would require county election offices to verify ballots for weeks after the election, potentially delaying the outcome and opening the door for unnecessary litigation." In Philadelphia, the crunch for in-person voting access could be more acute in the city's black enclaves, notably West and North Philadelphia, where requests for mail ballots were lower than in white areas, according to an analysis by Jonathan Tannen, a demographer who crunches city data. And the challenges could repeat in other cities. In Allegheny County, home of Pittsburgh, officials consolidated about 1,300 polling locations down to 147. - - - The Washington Post's Elise Viebeck, Jenna Portnoy and Julie Zauzmer contributed to this report. The bishop who oversees the historic St. John's Church in Washington DC has slammed President Donald Trump for using the church as a prop to justify his 'agenda' soon after authorities used tear gas to clear the area of peaceful protesters. The Rev. Mariann Budde, who is the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington which St. John's belongs to, criticized Trump after he posed for photos with a Bible outside the historic church opposite the White House on Monday evening. Budde said she was 'outraged' by Trump's visit and noted that he didn't offer condolences to those who are grieving or pray while stopping by the church, which was partially burned in protests on Sunday night. In an interview with ABC's Good Morning America on Tuesday, Budde said she felt compelled to disassociate the church from Trump's staged photo opportunity, adding that he hasn't been to the church since the morning of his inauguration. 'This is an excruciating moment of crisis in our country where we need healing, reconciliation and justice,' she said. The Rev. Mariann Budde, who is the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington which St. John's belongs to, criticized Trump after he posed for photos with a Bible outside the historic church opposite the White House on Monday evening Budde said she was 'outraged' by Trump's visit on Monday and noted that he didn't offer condolences to those who are grieving or pray while stopping by the church, which was partially burned in protests on Sunday night 'The president cleared the park and courtyard of our church stood in front of St Johns as if it were spiritual validation and justification for a message that is antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and God of justice. 'He is welcome to pray as citizens are welcome to pray but he is not entitled to use the spiritual symbolism of our sacred spaces or texts to promote or justify an entirely different message.' In a separate interview with NBC's Today, Budde accused Trump of using the Bible like a 'prop or an extension of his military and authoritative position'. 'He stood in front of our church like it was a background to his agenda,' she said. 'It did not serve the spiritual aspirations or the needed moral leadership. It served as an instrument of his own forceful presences in the nation. It did not address the wounds... and the agony of the country. 'It was an abuse of the spiritual tools and symbols of our tradition and of our sacred space. 'I cannot speak of his motives. He did not consult us, he did not warn us he was coming across the street to the church.' Budde went on to say she was 'deeply disappointed' Trump didn't take the opportunity to pray at the church or offer his condolences. 'He didn't come to commit to healing our nation - all the things you would expect or long for from the highest leader in the land,' Budde said. Trump walked from the White House to the church shortly after addressing the nation on Monday evening. Shortly before Trump spoke, police officers dispersed a peaceful crowd of protesters, firing tear gas and using flash bangs Trump held up a bible and gathered a group of advisers to pose for photos but did not comment on Floyd, the church or the clearing of the protesters. Pictured is U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr, National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien and White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany Her statements on Tuesday echo the outrage she expressed the night before when it emerged that priests from the historic church were part of the peaceful crowd of protesters teargassed by police to clear a path for Trump to walk from the White House to St. John's. 'I am outraged. I am the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and was not given even a courtesy call that they would be clearing with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop, holding a Bible, one that declares that God is love and when everything he has said and done is to enflame violence,' she said. Budde said Trump did not 'acknowledge the agony and sacred worth of people of color in our nation who rightfully demand an end to 400 years of systemic racism and white supremacy in our country'. The bishop firmly aligned her faith with the goals of peaceful protesters driven by Floyd's death to decry systemic racism. 'In no way do we support the Presidents incendiary response to a wounded, grieving nation,' Budde said in her statement. 'In faithfulness to our Savior who lived a life of non-violence and sacrificial love, we align ourselves with those seeking justice for the death of George Floyd.' Thousands of protesters had gathered at Lafayette Park by the White House in Washington DC on Monday afternoon as part of demonstrations over the death of George Floyd in police custody a week earlier. Shortly before Trump made an address to the nation, police officers dispersed the peaceful crowd, firing tear gas and using flash bangs. Police officers dispersed the peaceful crowd gathered at Lafayette Park by the White House in Washington DC on Monday afternoon by firing tear gas and using flash bangs The protesters were forced out of Lafayette Park on Monday afternoon. Thousands of protesters had gathered at Lafayette Park by the White House in Washington DC on Monday afternoon as part of demonstrations over the death of George Floyd in police custody a week earlier After the president had used his speech to threaten to deploy the military if US state governors did not stop ongoing protests across the country, he walked from the White House to the nearby St John's church. Trump held up a bible and gathered a group of advisers to pose for photos but did not comment on Floyd, the church or the clearing of the protesters. Among those in the crowd forced to disperse was Gini Gerbasi, a rector at St. Johns Church. She revealed in shaken Facebook post that she and other Black Lives Matter organizers were passing out water and help to protesters when police flooded the area, pushing protesters, deploying tear gas, and unleashing rubber bullets. 'That man turned it into a BATTLE GROUND first, and a cheap political stunt second,' Gerbasi said. 'Friends, I am ok, but I am, frankly shaken...Around 6:15 or 6:30, the police started really pushing protesters off of H Street...They started using tear gas and folks were running at us for eyewashes or water or wet paper towels,' she said. She said she was appalled when she learned the clash with protesters was to clear the area for Trump. 'I literally COULD NOT believe it. We were driven off the patio at St. Johns a place of peace and respite and medical care throughout the day so that man could have a photo opportunity in front of the church. People were hurt so he could pose in front of the church with a Bible,' she said. Glenna Huber, a priest and rector with The Church of the Epiphany, was also at the church aiding protesters when the police came and forced the crowd out. 'Im horrified. Just moments before we were handing out snacks and water. There was some men singing on the steps. People were chanting and peacefully assembling. I left as the National Guard arrived. They sprayed tear gas. I was gone before the rubber bullets. And then the President spoke,' Hubber posted on Facebook. Rector Gini Gerbasi (left) and priest Glenna Huber (right) say they were apart of the crowd of peaceful George Floyd protesters that were teargassed and hit with rubber bullets by police clearing a path for President Donald Trump to take photos in front of St. John's Church Priest Glenna Hubber shared this post showing how volunteers were passing out water bottles when the police came Episcopal church leaders responded to President Donald Trumps use of St. Johns Episcopal Church for a photo-op Monday evening, after police forcibly cleared what was by all accounts a peaceful protest outside the White House with flash-bangs, tear gas, and brute force. I am outraged, Rt. Rev. Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, told the Washington Post, in the immediate aftermath of the staged spectacle. Budde told the Post that the church was unaware of Trumps intention to use the place of worship for what was essentially a photo shoot with a Bible, and that the church does not condone the presidents conduct. Everything he has said and done is to inflame violence, Budde said. We need moral leadership, and hes done everything to divide us. The head of the Episcopal church in the U.S., presiding Bishop Michael Curry, accused the president of using a church building and the Holy Bible for partisan political purposes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He did not pray, Budde said of Trumps publicity stunt in an interview with the New York Times. He did not mention George Floyd, he did not mention the agony of people who have been subjected to this kind of horrific expression of racism and white supremacy for hundreds of years. We need a president who can unify and heal. He has done the opposite of that, and we are left to pick up the pieces. The Bible teaches us to love God and our neighbor; that all people are beloved children of God; that we are to do justice and love kindness. The President used our sacred text as a symbol of division. Mariann Budde (@Mebudde) June 2, 2020 Advertisement Advertisement Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, who oversees St. John Episcopal Church, reacts to Pres. Trumps visit and says police using tear gas to clear out peaceful protestors is antithetical to the the teachings of Jesus. https://t.co/F4NBSBmfRU pic.twitter.com/p5Mbi8Ogt2 Good Morning America (@GMA) June 2, 2020 Advertisement The rector of St. Johns Episcopal Church, Georgetown, Gini Gerbasi, recounted in a Facebook post Monday night the moments that led up to the presidential publicity stunt: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The police in their riot gear were literally walking onto the St. Johns, Lafayette Square patio with these metal shields, pushing people off the patio and driving them back. People were running at us as the police advanced toward us from the other side of the patio. We were literally DRIVEN OFF of the St. Johns, Lafayette Square patio with tear gas and concussion grenades and police in full riot gear. We were pushed back 20 feet, and then eventuallywith SO MANY concussion grenadesback to K street. By the time I got back to my car, around 7, I was getting texts from people saying that Trump was outside of St. Johns, Lafayette Square. I literally COULD NOT believe it. WE WERE DRIVEN OFF OF THE PATIO AT ST. JOHNSa place of peace and respite and medical care throughout the daySO THAT MAN COULD HAVE A PHOTO OPPORTUNITY IN FRONT OF THE CHURCH!!! PEOPLE WERE HURT SO THAT HE COULD POSE IN FRONT OF THE CHURCH WITH A BIBLE! HE WOULD HAVE HAD TO STEP OVER THE MEDICAL SUPPLIES WE LEFT BEHIND BECAUSE WE WERE BEING TEAR GASSED!!!! I am deeply shaken. I did not see any protestors throw anything until the tear gas and concussion grenades started, and then it was mostly water bottles. I am shaken, not so much by the taste of tear gas and the bit of a cough I still have, but by the fact that that show of force was for a PHOTO OPPORTUNITY. The patio of St. Johns, Lafayette square had been HOLY GROUND today. A place of respite and laughter and water and granola bars and fruit snacks. But that man turned it into a BATTLE GROUND first, and a cheap political stunt second. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I am DEEPLY OFFENDED on behalf of every protestor, every Christian, the people of St. Johns, Lafayette square, every decent person there, and the BLM medics who stayed with just a single box of supplies and a backpack, even when I got too scared and had to leave. I am ok, Gerbasi concluded. But I am now a force to be reckoned with. This post has been updated with additional comments from Rt. Rev. Mariann Budde and to clarify that Gerbasi is the rector of the Georgetown parish. For more of Slates news coverage, listen to What Next. A Belgian prince has apologized, after testing positive for coronavirus two days after attending a social gathering in Cordoba, Spain. Prince Joachim, 28, who is a nephew of Belgium's King Philippe, attended a social event with the family of a Spanish female friend, his lawyer's office confirmed to CNN on Monday. "I would like to apologise for travelling and not having respected the quarantine measures," the prince said in a statement released by the Cordoba law office of Mariano Aguayo. "I did not intend to offend or disrespect anyone in these very difficult times and deeply regret my actions and accept the consequences." The prince had traveled from Belgium to Spain on May 24 and attended a social gathering with "12 or 27 guests" on May 26, the palace press office said. He tested positive for Covid-19 two days later. Under Spain's state of emergency, travelers arriving in the country, with a few exceptions, are required to go into quarantine for two weeks. In addition, gatherings of more than 15 people who don't live together are not currently permitted under the confinement rules in place in Cordoba. Authorities are now investigating whether the social event the prince attended had more than 15 people in attendance, the spokeswoman for Rafaela Valenzuela, the Spanish government's chief representative in Cordoba, told CNN Monday. The spokeswoman added that regional health authorities had informed the Spanish government that there may have been up to 27 people at the event. Police in Spain have the power to fine individuals who break confinement rules. Amounts vary across the country but several hundred thousand fines have been issued since the state of emergency began on March 14. But a spokeswoman for the prince's law office told CNN there were two social events on consecutive days last week at which the prince met with the family of a female friend. Neither event was attended by more than 15 people, she added. The prince is now in isolation with mild coronavirus symptoms, the spokeswoman said. Prince Joachim is the third child of Princess Astrid, the younger sister of King Philippe. Spain has been one of the European countries hit hardest by Covid-19, with more than 239,000 confirmed cases and more than 27,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. As the infection rate has declined, the government has slowly eased confinement restrictions, while focusing on early detection through increased testing and contract tracing to quickly stamp out any new outbreaks. Volunteers help clean up the streets of Minneapolis after protests, sometimes violent over police brutality. Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA As the sun rose on Minneapolis, Minnesota, Monday morning, so did groups of volunteers shovels and rubbish bags in hand, heading to areas to where protests raged the night before. In an effort to clean up the city, community-based volunteers and others have descended on south Minneapolis nearly every morning since demonstrations against the death of Geroge Floyd in police custody began on Tuesday. While protests have largely started each day peacefully in major cities nationwide, some have turned violent as night fell with vandalism, looting and fires, leaving small pockets of destruction in their aftermath. [We want] to help bless the city, give the city hope, give the city some faith, and give the city some love, said Richie Stark, a pastor a Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis and one of the founders of the group, Support the Cities, which has helped led efforts to do morning clean-ups in the city. Richie Stark, who has been a pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church for the past five years, helped create an organisation called Support the Cities to help bless the city, give the city hope, give the city some faith, and give the city some love. Stark, along with hundreds of volunteers some with his group, some showing up on their own have picked up debris and used snow shovels to clear water, which had gathered when the sprinklers went off in buildings set on fire. Some have participated in protests, while others have used the clean-up effort to support the protesters and do their part. Floyds death was heartbreaking, said Julianna Alex, 30, who moved to Minneapolis five years ago. Its a commutation of whats happening this year, Alex told Al Jazeera. And as much as Id love to show my support, I didnt know how, and this I know how to do, she said speaking of the clean-up effort. [Im] just trying to make it look a little more put together show that we as a community can pick up some of this and give our city a little bit of rise up that things are gonna get better. Floyd died on Monday after being pinned down by a white police officers knee for nearly nine minutes while pleading: I cant breathe. A woman posing for a photograph with name of George Floyd written in chalk on the ground in Minneapolis, Minnesota [Lucas Jackson/Reuters] That officer Derek Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. The three other officers involved have not been arrested, angering protesters. The protests have since spread to more than 100 cities nationwide, with protesters marching against Floyds death and other acts of police violence. Similar clean-up efforts have taken place nationwide, with volunteers sweeping glass, picking up rubbish and painting over profanity-painted walls. $2.4m raised to rebuild In Minneapolis, there have been efforts to protect community-owned businesses, but some have been destroyed, particularly on the citys well-known Lake Street corridor, which is lined with immigrant-own restaurants, bakeries and markets. The street was believed to be hit so hard because it is in the same area where the officers involved in Floyds death were based. Some residents have told local media they are devastated by the loss of their business, but they also support protesters and are angered by Floyds death. Volunteers clean up outside looted stores during nationwide unrest following in Santa Monica, California [Lucy Nicholson/Reuters] Some clean-up volunteers also had mixed feelings. I think theres a lot of anger. I dont personally know how smashing something solves it, but if it gets people talking about it, unfortunately, our society does show riots more than they show peaceful protesting, Alex said. I wouldnt support it, but I can do what I can to support the people in my community. More than $2.4m has been raised to help those businesses rebuild, according to Lake Street Council, which set up a fund which will go directly to small businesses and nonprofits to help rebuild their storefronts, reopen their businesses and serve the neighbourhoods. It will take millions of dollars to rebuild, and over 27,000 people have chipped in to make that a reality, the ground said on its website. For Stark, and many others on Lake Street earlier this week, the efforts are not just about one day. Stark says he lived and worked in Ferguson when Michael Brown, an unarmed Black 18-year old who was killed by police in 2014, and does not see an end to the demonstrations any time soon. He expects more damage, but does not let it deter him. You always gotta love, right? he said. Always gotta love people, so whatever is needed, well wake up, and well do it. LOUISVILLE, Ky. A police officer involved in the fatal shooting of West End business owner David McAtee had celebrated earlier on Facebook when a protester was shot by pepper balls. Officer Katie Crews, who was placed on administrative reassignment Monday in the fatal shooting, posted a Courier Journal photo of a protester across from her and said, "I hope the pepper balls that she got lit up with a little later on hurt." A screenshot of the post circulated on social media sites. New Police Chief Robert Schroeder said Monday night he is aware of the post and started a professional standards investigation into it. The photo in Crews' post, taken Thursday, shows a protester offering flowers to Crews. "She was saying and doing a lot more than offering flowers to me. Just so for it to be known," Crews wrote in the post. "For anyone that knows me and knows that facial expression tells everything." Related Video: Several Officers Shot Amid George Floyd Protests After mentioning the pepper balls, Crews ended the post with "Come back and get ya some more ole girl, Ill be on the line again tonight. Crews joined the Louisville Metro Police Department in 2018 and does not have any disciplinary records, according to the department. After learning that Crews and LMPD Officer Allen Austin had no body camera footage from the shooting incident in which McAtee died, Mayor Greg Fischer fired Police Chief Steve Conrad, who was slated to retire at the end of the month. Police said that shortly after midnight Monday, someone shot at officers from a parking lot at 26th and Broadway where a large number of people were gathered. LMPD and National Guard troops returned fire, killing McAtee, who ran a popular barbecue stand nearby. Police said they don't know whether McAtee was the person who fired at police. Contributing: Olivia Krauth Follow Ben Tobin on Twitter: @TobinBen. This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: David McAtee shooting: Officer Katie Crews mocked protester LOGOS Property has cemented its partnership with the Asian giant LF Logistics, developing a new operational site at the $250 million logistics park in Sydney's west. The plans will see the development of a 13,000 square metre purpose-built logistics facility for LF Logistics, which will add to the 102,197sq m facility LOGOS provided for the group at its Wujiang FOHO eCommerce Hub Logistics Centre in China. LOGOS Property is developing a 13,000sq m Logistics Facility for LF Logistics at its Marsden Park Logistics Estate, Sydney. LOGOS has started development of the Marsden Park Logistics Estate inclusive of a multi-level mezzanine. LF Logistics has committed to a long-term lease on the facility, which is scheduled for completion in August 2020. It has already opened Stage 1 of the estate, which is home to global produce distributors, Valleyfresh and a 12,515sq m facility for eStore Logistics, Australia's largest third-party logistics provider. On completion, it will comprise over 100,000sq m of prime logistics space. Golden Gate Park, Ocean Beach, Outer Richmond, Outer Sunset, Sea Cliff Photo: Camden Avery/Hoodline With temperatures set to hit the upper 70s today, San Franciscans searching for opportunities to get outside have a new option. As of Monday, the parking lots at some of the city's most popular beaches are once again open to cars, as part of the city's phased reopening plan. Ocean Beach, China Beach, and Baker Beach have all reopened their lots. However, other beaches in the Golden Gate Park National Recreation Area including Fort Funston, Lands End and the east beach lot at Crissy Field continue to have limited or no parking due to the COVID-19 shutdown. Visitors to Ocean Beach will also see some amenities missing: fire pits, picnic areas, and the Sloat Boulevard parking lot remain closed for now. Ocean Beach parking is open, save for the lot at Sloat Boulevard. | Photo: Camden Avery/Hoodline The news will be welcome to residents of San Francisco's beach-adjacent neighborhoods, whose streets have been flooded for weeks with drivers flouting the city's stay-at-home order on a quest for outdoor time. Parking/traffic craziness Great Highway Sloat Ocean Beach no parking anytime No parking control presence. pic.twitter.com/VV6QZ0UlCi marymcnamara (@marymcnamara) May 25, 2020 In the Presidio, some residential streets remain blockaded to non-residents, who overwhelmed the neighborhood in recent weeks. The return of Ocean Beach parking should also alleviate congestion in the western end of Golden Gate Park, which parkgoers reported was being overwhelmed by vehicular traffic. Social distancing was also a challenge, as drivers passed cyclists and pedestrians on their trips from their cars to the beach. All parking lots at Baker Beach (pictured) and China Beach are open. | Photo: Camden Avery/Hoodline However, the return of parking isn't welcome for everyone. Given the continued shelter-in-place orders, some urbanists have called for a reconsideration of the lots for uses other than parking. While we're re-thinking the use of public space, would love to see movement in turning the enormous Ocean Beach parking lot into: - picnic tables - restrooms - showers - landscaping - local businesses (coffee anyone?) pic.twitter.com/rS4sUaatCH Marcel Moran (@marcelemoran) May 28, 2020 In the meantime, Golden Gate Park's JFK Drive remains partially closed to cars, allowing more space for pedestrians and cyclists. Tamara Aparton, spokesperson for SF Rec & Park, said the agency was still encouraging people to walk or ride to the park, rather than drive. While Yousefs intellectual curiosity has been rewarded in the Netherlands, it got his entire family in trouble in Syria. In 2012, when Yousef was 11 and about a year had passed since the start of the protests against the regime, armed men from the Mukhabarat, the countrys notorious internal security force, burst into the family home. The problem? The childs telescope, which he used to look at Mount Qasioun from the dining-room window, was visible from the street, and on that same street was a Mukhabarat office. They suspected that somebody might be spying on them. Inside Yousefs home, the men shoved his mother aside, confiscated the offending telescope and took all the familys laptops and mobile phones. Despite his shock and fear, Yousef, not quite understanding fully what was happening, asked one of the men innocently, When are you giving it back? The violent intrusion reinforced what Syrians had been taught for generations under authoritarian rule: The country was not for them. They did not have meaningful rights as citizens of a state. Rather, Syria is Assad, as the indoctrination went, and Yousef had already had lessons to that effect in both his history and nationality classes and in the schoolyard, where students had to line up in the mornings to salute Bashar al-Assad. Its a kind of education that he doesnt miss in the Netherlands. But as different as his life experiences have been from those of his Dutch classmates, Yousef insists that he has more in common with them than not. Im an introverted, Syrian-born Gen Z nerd of above-average intelligence living in the Netherlands. Beyond that, he says, hes not actually sure who he is but hes quick to add that too is a typical Generation Z characteristic. Though he says hes not super into anything these days, Yousef is working his way through the discography of the Australian rock band King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and reading a lot of Japanese comic books. He tries to ignore the news out of Syria and confine his fretting to things closer to home, like whether hes genetically bound to lose his hair, which he wears long now, usually pulled back at the neck. He also jokes that it is a great injustice that he cant grow an even beard something hes wanted to do for a long time. If I let my beard grow out, he says, Ill just look Amish. While he does acknowledge the gravity of what happened to him, he says knowing at the time that it wasnt permanent and knowing now that hell soon acquire Dutch citizenship (and the opportunities and freedom of movement it offers) has mitigated any lingering bitterness. Nor does he think theres anyone to blame for what happened to his family. Blame the Man? he asks rhetorically. But no, the world is more complicated than that. You cant blame anyone. His sister Souad, who lives a few hours away in Amsterdam, thinks that Yousef doesnt want to give too much weight to his hardships because he doesnt want to be seen as a refugee. It is hard to accept its a part of who you are, she says. He can be uncomfortable, but hes not ashamed of being from Syria. Besides, as Yousef sees it, others have it much worse, and on balance, he thinks he got to be a kid, at least for a while. Whats more important, he says, is that a lot dont. The father a miner falsely declared Australia's youngest coronavirus victim has put to bed rumours about his health and expressed his sympathy for the nurse who had been accused of infecting his son. Nathan Turner, 30, was found dead by his shattered fiancee at his home in Blackwater, in regional Queensland, on May 26. Queensland Health initially said Nathan died from COVID-19, sending the infection-free town into panic-mode, before yesterday revealing an autopsy found he did not have the virus. Nathan's father Rodney Turner released a lengthy statement on Tuesday, saying he and his wife Carmel remained in the dark. 'We do not have a cause of death and have been told by the Coroners office that due to his complicated medical history and the volume of tests being carried out, this may take quite some time to be finalised,' Mr Turner said. Nathan's father Rodney shared an emotional statement on Tuesday, saying he and his wife Carmel are still waiting to find out what caused their son's death Queensland Health initially said Nathan died from coronavirus, before yesterday revealing an autopsy found he did not in fact have the virus Nathan Turner is pictured with his partner Simone Devon, who discovered his body last Tuesday after she returned from work There was widespread speculation on social media that Nathan had cancer, however, Mr Turner put those rumours to bed. 'The "social media" experts had plenty to say "confirming" his past and current health... Yes, Nathan had symptoms of a cold something not uncommon for Nathan,' he said. 'But he had not displayed any other symptoms of COVID-19. No, he did not have cancer.' Mr Turner said he felt for the nurse who was thought to have been the source of infection after breaking travel restrictions to drive from Rockhampton to Blackwater. 'I feel for the nurse in Rockhampton, falsely accused of transmitting the virus to Blackwater,' he said. 'None of us know her and I'm sure she and Nathan never knew each other either. But given the media experience we have had, I can only imagine how she must feel right now.' Mr Turner confirmed the coroner's office contacted his family and fiancee Simone Devon personally. 'After further blood tests and lung tests conducted in the autopsy process so far, they can tell us that they have not found any evidence that Nathan died from or with COVID-19,' he said. 'COVID-19 testing swabs were taken from Nathan after his death in his home. The first showing positive to the virus and the second showing negative. Mr Turner said he sympathises townspeople of Blackwater, who were 'subjected to unnecessary testing and concerns for their health'. Pictured: Locals queue to get coronavirus tests last week Nathan Turner, who was thought to be Australia's youngest COVID-19 victim, didn't die from the virus, it was revealed on Monday Family and friends at Nathan Turner's Blackwater home where his fiance found him dead last Tuesday 'So, I completely understand the reaction of Queensland Health to this situation. As a matter of public interest they had to take precautionary action based on the evidence they had before them. 'What I don't understand is how a false positive came about in the first place.' Mr Turner also set the record straight on why his son hadn't been at work since November. 'Yes, he did have a workplace, single vehicle, truck driving accident in November last year and has not worked since,' he said. Mr Turner said the locals of Blackwater are also in his thoughts, after they were 'subjected to unnecessary testing and concerns for their health'. 'At the same time I would like to thank this wonderful community who have rallied together to support Simone and her family at this time,' he said. Mr Turner said he sympathises with the nurse who was thought to have been the source of infection after breaking travel restrictions to drive from Rockhampton to Blackwater Mr Turner said Ms Devon and her family were forced to isolate due of the false positive test result. 'Neither Simone nor her family showed symptoms of COVID-19 and were all tested negative Simone three times,' he said. 'No, Simone was not suffering symptoms of COVID-19 and was not forced to isolate in Rockhampton Hospital. 'Despite knowing in her heart that she had not been exposed to the virus, she has remained isolated at home with her lovely family's support.' On Tuesday, Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said Mr Turner's family may never know the truth. 'There are two potential answers here. One is that it was a false positive. The other is that it was a true positive and we won't know which it was,' Dr Young told reporters. 'But I am confident about the actions that were taken on that night to protect the community of Blackwater.' Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she felt for Mr Turner's loved ones, but the government had to take the initial positive test on face value. The decision was backed by federal Health Minister Greg Hunt, who said officials did the right thing with the information they had. 'Not to have tested the population with the evidence they had would not have been the right thing,' he said. 'None of this brings him back, so his family, his friends, they still have to grieve. 'But they are now able to grieve without the extra weight.' On Tuesday Ms Devon changed her Facebook display picture to a photo of her late fiance, with the caption 'family is everything'. Within days of Nathan's death, health authorities had been investigating whether a nurse, whose name hasn't been revealed, brought coronavirus into Blackwater. The nurse told authorities she had taken a 400km round trip to 'watch the sunset' in the mining town. She was re-interviewed last Thursday as authorities tried to piece together how COVID-19 reached the town - with the nurse admitting she had been on a recent holiday to Malaysia. Since his May 26 death, Nathan's family maintained they didn't believe COVID-19 caused his death, as he also suffered from epilepsy and asthma, and regularly caught the flu. Mr Turner said his son Nathan had a workplace single vehicle truck driving accident in November last year and had not worked since Mystery surrounded the suspected coronavirus case, after it was revealed Nathan had not left the small town in months and there were no other known local cases. The results sparked a full-scale health response, with fever clinics set up and locals urged to get tested immediately. The state government even announced the town's sewage would be tested to determine if the virus was prevalent. So far there have been no other cases. Ms Devon tested negative to the virus three times and more than 500 Blackwater residents also returned negative results. After the 30-year-old's death was made public, Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said suggestions he did not have coronavirus appeared incorrect. 'There was a test done ... which is a very sensitive test and it came back positive,' Ms Young told reporters. 'I believe it was a positive.' Queensland Health confirmed to Daily Mail Australia on Monday that further tests returned negative for COVID-19. 'The Coroner tonight advised that further tests have returned negative for COVID-19. He is yet to determine the man's cause of death,' Dr Young said. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- An NYPD officer was the victim of a hit-and-run crash while five police officers were shot throughout the United States as mayhem continued during protests in New York City and nationwide connected to the cop-involved death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. In attempts to curb the violence, the curfew for Tuesday has been moved up to 8 p.m. in New York City. Restrictions in movement also have been implemented in other major cities including Philadelphia, Washington, Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles. Rep. Max Rose slammed Mayor Bill de Blasio for losing control of the situation and called on the National Guard to be deployed to New York City to enforce the curfew. About 2,000 protesters, including around 700 people on Monday, have been arrested in New York City, according to News 4 New York. Police and local officials quashed false rumors of looting on Staten Island. Injuries to officers here and nationwide are mounting. In the Bronx, a sergeant was investigating reports of looting when he stepped out of his unmarked vehicle and was struck by a black sedan in the intersection of 170th Street and Walton Avenue in the Mount Eden section, according to the NBC News local affiliate WNBC. Four officers were shot and injured in St. Louis during demonstrations. A man died and an officer was seriously wounded during protests in Las Vegas, according to USA Today. After trashing SoHo Manhattan, looters moved uptown from Monday night into Tuesday morning, busting into Macys Herald Square and shops along Madison Avenue and near Rockefeller Center, according to the Daily News and the New York Post. In the Bronx, fires were set and stores were broken into along Fordham Road. Fordham is on fire, said a Twitter post from the Uptown Collective. This is an ominous sign familia. This is not good for communities of color. Protest is called for but destroying our own community is not. Stay safe. Tiger Woods joined a long list of celebrities who decried Floyds death and called for peaceful demonstrations. My heart goes out to George Floyd, his loved ones and all of us who are hurting right now, Woods said in a statement. I have always had the utmost respect for our law enforcement. They train so diligently to understand how, when and where to use force. This shocking tragedy clearly crossed that line. While the local medical examiner ruled Floyds death a homicide, the report listed other significant conditions including heart disease, high blood pressure, fentanyl intoxication and recent use of methamphetamine, according to ABC News. The medical examiner ruled that Floyd suffered cardiopulmonary arrest while being restrained by one or more law enforcement officers. Communicating for America Today Communicating for America (CA) announced it has sent a letter to President Trump encouraging his administration to exclude cultural exchange programs that provide education to international agriculture interns and trainees from executive action to suspend employment-based immigration into the United States. Exchange visitors participating in CA programs are a vital support system to our farmers and ranchers during the agriculture year, said Patricia Strickland, Chief Operating Officer of CA. During the program, interns and trainees learn a variety of agriculture skills such as learning to operate large farming machinery that U.S. farmers use, making them one of the few people in the world to have such skills. Once they have received training on agriculture machinery, many buy machinery manufactured in the United States and bring it back to their farming operation at home. This is a tremendous contribution to U.S. manufacturing businesses and the economy in rural states. In total, these cultural programs bring in more than $1 billion dollars in revenue to the U.S. every year while providing an educational building block for students and host families alike. Cultural exchange programs also support national security by forming relationships with allies that help maintain partnerships for years to come. We want the administration to understand cultural exchanges are education programs, not work programs, and help support the U.S. economy. Because these agriculture exchange programs are such a vital part of agriculture, we have asked the administration to exclude the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery Industry from any limitations on student trainees entering the United States, said Strickland. About Communicating for America Communicating for America, Inc. (CA), once known as Communicating for Agriculture, is a nationwide nonpartisan organization that represents approximately 75,000 small businesses, self-employed and agricultural members across America. Since 1972 CA has been working on small business, tax, healthcare and agricultural policy issues on behalf of its members. For more information visit http://www.communicatingforamerica.org. Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh recently launched a month-long drive, which is a part of Mission Fateh, to spread awareness about coronavirus and also urged people to follow all the norms. Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has launched a month-long drive, as part of Mission Fateh, to spread awareness about COVID-19. He urged the people of Punjab to follow social distancing norms, wash hands properly, and wear face masks to make the state win the battle against the virus. We have to control the disease and take care of people of Punjab, Singh said. The campaign, which will broaden the ambit of Mission Fateh beyond the frontline workers, will bring the people of Punjab into its fold to make the fight against COVID a battle of the people, by the people, and for the people, said the Chief Minister. Describing Mission Fateh as a symbol of the resolve of the people of Punjab to check the spread of novel coronavirus through discipline, cooperation, and compassion, the Chief Minister stressed the need for adherence to all safety protocols, cooperation with the state government through compliance with the lockdown restrictions, and compassion towards the poor. It is a true reflection of the Punjabi spirit that can overcome all odds to emerge victorious, he added. A series of activities will be launched as part of the campaign, which will be driven collaboratively by the Department of Information and Public Relations, as well as various NGOs, charitable institutions and social organisations, which will be encouraged to undertake similar drives within their localities, according to an official release. Also Read: India-China Standoff: Amit Shah says wont compromise one bit on the matter All the state government departments would come together and work in unison to create a positive atmosphere in the state, enabling the people to push forward and make Mission Fateh successful. To implement the campaign in an effective and result-oriented manner, the Department of Information and Public Relations has prepared a comprehensive roadmap of activities aimed at spreading awareness on wearing masks, washing hands, maintaining social distance, taking care of the elderly, remaining vigilant about the entry of outsiders in the locality, use of COVA App to track patients of the virus and maintaining safe distance from them, read the release. Other focus areas include creating awareness on the importance of home quarantine, symptoms of flu and actions thereafter, restrictions during Lockdown 5.0 and penalties/fines in case of violations, community mobilization to jointly fight against the pandemic. For all the latest National News, download NewsX App Due to the efforts of a group of mid-Michigan sewers, several area organizations are able to obtain face masks to slow the spread of COVID-19. The Mid-Michigan Mask Makers (4M) is coordinating efforts to create and distribute homemade cloth masks for free. The group's founder, Tami Davis of Saginaw, is a sewer and knitter at heart. When the COVID-19 pandemic came to Michigan, she heard about friends downstate who were making face masks. Davis reached out to local groups and hospitals and confirmed a need for personal protection equipment, including homemade cloth masks. She began a chat on Facebook with about 20 people, sending out the call for material and people willing to sew. "I dug into my stash of fabric and started handing out to people. It grew from there. I've said that anyone who sews and has a stash may save the world," Davis said with a laugh. The chat eventually evolved into a group of 350 members, including donors and about 50 sewers. Donations continue to come in, whether as supplies or money. Davis recalled how one member who had a relative die donated their fabric while another individual clipped a $5 bill to her fence. 4M will take anything, from old fabric to bedsheets which make an excellent second layer to the masks, according to Davis. A woman from Oregon even donated 50 spools of elastic at a time when elastic was difficult to acquire. "We will take anything. If we can't use it, we're stockpiling it for later," she said. To handle the large amount of donations as well as the requests from the community, 4M has administrators to keep things in check. One administrator, Lynn Klammer of Frankenmuth, helps coordinate requests for masks. One issue that she has experienced is people trying to stockpile masks to sell. Klammer explained how 4M has safeguards to better detect duplicity. "They might say they're with a particular organization when they're actually not," Klammer said. "When someone said she was with an agency, I called the next day to learn nobody by that name worked there." 4M also works to avoid duplicate orders from organizations. There have been times when multiple people from the same organization each ask for a certain number of masks for employees. To avoid confusion, 4M will ask to speak with one administrative contact to coordinate deliveries. "Otherwise, if you've got six people each asking for 200 masks, the next thing you know, the organization will have a huge surplus," Davis said. The members of 4M will continue to keep making masks, as older masks will wear out. They also understand that homemade cloth masks are not the ideal solution to preventing the spread of COVID-19, but it offers a thin layer of protection and a sense of security. "We realize that the amount of protection may vary, but we always say that a barrier is a barrier. It's not perfect, but it's better than nothing," Klammer said. "We have no way that that sense of security is false," Davis stated. Davis explained how she has seen a shift in the need for masks. Initially, the group donated masks to medical facilities. Now the focus is more toward the general public. 4M has donated to organizations including King's Daughters Home in Midland, New Hope Valley Assisted Living and Memory Care in Saginaw, Morley in Saginaw, the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan in Flint, Covenant HealthCare and MidMichigan Health. "There's nothing like the feeling of helping others," said Klammer. "I feel incredibly grateful to have been a part of a group like this." For more information about 4M and to make donations, visit its public Facebook page by searching for 4M: Mid-Michigan Mask Makers or visit its GoFundMe page at https://www.gofundme.com/f/nceph-eee Protests across the US over the death of unarmed African American George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota have entered their sixth day . At least 40 cities have imposed curfews, and National Guard members have been activated in 15 states and Washington, DC. Even the White House is no longer safe, with President Trump being briefly taken to an underground bunker. Armored vehicles and armed troops can be seen everywhere. Protests are spreading rapidly and gaining momentum. Although one former officer, who was seen in a video with his knee on Floyd's neck, has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter, protesters and critics believe the charge is not harsh enough. Protesters want to see charges brought against all four police officers involved in Floyds death. Demonstrators are arrested during a protest against the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the United States, May 31, 2020. (Photo by Angus Alexander/Xinhua) Although it seems that the immediate concern is Floyds death, the background to this story is long and sad. Racism in the US has victimized many blacks, Asians, and other minorities, and the feeling of white supremacy has become more obvious, especially under President Trump's administration. Discrimination, hate, and injustice are widely felt. The public has suddenly exploded at this moment, and wants to settle all previous accounts too. It has been noticed from videos and eye-witness reports that it is not only blacks, but also many white people among the protesters. It is not only black people, but sometimes poor white people who are also victimized. The highly polarized society of the US is on the verge of collapse. As long as the country was prospering and everyone was getting sufficient dividends to live a comfortable life, none of these problems surfaced. However, with the decline of the economy, people are suffering and getting mad. The protests are not only against a single incident; in fact, so many incidents of injustice, hate, and discrimination have piled up to such a degree that the outbreak of protests was inevitable. The government's capacity for handling such protests was limited, and wrong decisions just made things worse. Peaceful agitation and protests are the legal right of US citizens under their constitution. However, the use of force by the authorities and brutality has forced the protesters to be violent. Remarks like "Shoot on the Spot" are dangerous orders indeed. It is time to deliver justice. The more the government delays or protects the criminal police, the more anger may rise among the protesters. This "Gun Culture" society is highly charged and can lead to a very dangerous situation. The government's inability to address public concerns promptly and appropriately may complicate the situation further. In fact, the CIA has been involved in subversion and sabotage activities in foreign countries. The CIA has always been involved in toppling legitimate governments around the world if they consider them unfriendly". The US penetrates a country under the umbrella of friendship and cultivates disgruntled or destitute people, trains them, funds them, and finally exploits them through various sabotage and subversion activities. The US government is always meddling in the domestic affairs of other countries. Unfortunately, they are not trained to handle protests on their own soil. Human life is the most precious thing in this universe. The loss of even one life is a net loss to humanity. Whether it is protesters or the administration, the loss of life is regretted. Whether a victim is black or white, the loss of life is not acceptable. Whether it is in America or any other part of the world, the suffering of humankind is not acceptable. Whether rich or poor, whatever religion or ethnicity they belong to, human lives are sacred and must be respected. We sincerely hope for an early end to violence and urge both sides to cool down and observe restraint and patience. Save human lives and respect humanity. The opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to People's Daily Online. Zamir Ahmed Awan is a senior fellow with the Center for China and Globalization (CCG) and a sinologist at the National University of Sciences and Technology in Pakistan. E-mail: [email protected] 'They Want To Kill Me' Social Distancing Abandoned Free Rides Lure Care-Free Riders 'You Can't Live a Normal Life' (TNS) As the lockdown over the coronavirus softens, people have begun to gingerly leave their homes.But one group had already been going out. In fact, they never stopped.Theyre not brave. Theyre not crazy. Theyre just regular Detroit, Mich., denizens who need to go to work or the store. They dont have the types of jobs that can be done from home, and they dont own a car.They have to choose between their lives and livelihoods, which is no choice at all. Its insane, said Lorenzo Smith, 33, who is a manager at a Lowes. It makes a good man not want to go to work.Every morning Smith is one of 17,000 people who roll the dice, schlepping to a bus stop in Detroit and clambering aboard an enclosed box populated with the poor and infirm. And they hope today isnt the day they catch the novel coronavirus.In fact, some might unknowingly bring the disease aboard the vehicle and leave it behind. With 1,614 deaths and 10,927 cases, Detroit is one of the hardest-hit cities in the U.S.The Detroit News spent a week riding the No. 17 bus, talking to passengers, surveying the damaged landscape around them.Stretching from the eastern edge of Detroit to the western one, the route passes through some of the most infected neighborhoods of the city.And it travels along Eight Mile, where the predominantly white suburbs on one side mostly have been spared the worst ravages of the disease while the black populace on the other side has been shattered by it.One in four Michigan deaths from COVID-19 have been in Detroit, according to state figures. Blacks account for 14 percent of the state population but 40 percent of the deaths.The passengers last week were going to stores, friends homes and a doctors appointment. Others were going to jobs as janitors, cashiers, clerks and home health aides.Roughly 1 in 4 workers living in Detroit are deemed "essential" and are working on the front lines, according to the Census.The workers were helping prop up a sputtering economy. And some were doing it for the princely sum of $8 an hour.But Jerry Barker, 26, who makes that wage at a car wash, considers himself fortunate. At least hes working, he said.If he can avoid getting sick on the bus, he would be happier still."Its scary, more than anything, Barker said. You dont know if people are sick or whats going on.Riding a Detroit bus was a joyless affair long before it began carrying a whiff of death.Its loud. The seats are worn. Every bump of Michigans rugged roads can be felt.The buses were littered with candy wrappers, empty coffee cups, an orange peel. A discarded mask had a large brown stain matched by a stain on the seat beside it.Ads above the windows contributed to the gloom, describing crime prevention, addiction recovery, mental health services and human trafficking.With dread added to the despair, a cough by a passenger sets nerves on end. A cough by a passenger without a mask last week ignited the bus driver.Oh, no, you got to put the mask on, said the driver, Andrew Love. The last time a guy coughed, my co-worker died.He was referring to driver Jason Hargrove, who died from COVID-19 after posting a Facebook video about a customer coughing on him. Of the 327 city bus drivers, 24 have tested positive for the disease, the city said.Eric Colts, a Detroit bus driver, told a U.S. House committee last week he feels unsafe and it will only get worse as the state opens its workforce.But Hakim Berry, Detroit's chief operating officer, said the city offers an unlimited supply of personal protective equipment to bus drivers.Passengers are entering and exiting through the back of the bus while there's an eight-foot separation between riders and bus drivers to avoid direct contact, he said Thursday."We're asking people to social distance on the bus and to please wear their mask so the conscientious rider can feel safe," he said. "We're all playing in the sandbox together, let's play fair."The department sanitizes buses twice a day and deep cleans them every night, he said. About 20,000 masks are distributed to the 155 buses each day.While masks arent mandatory, virtually every passenger wore one last week. A few donned gloves. One clutched a Bible.Every bus is supposed to have a box of masks near the back door, but the box was invariably empty or missing completely. Riders said theyve seen people mount the bus, grab a handful of masks and jump back off.The passenger on Loves bus put on a mask, but the driver was still revved up. Love launched into an expletive-filled soliloquy that described how some people confront him when he insists they wear a mask.They act like youre from the streets like they are, said Love, 50. They want to fight you. They want to kill me.The 40-foot buses had limited seating. The front third was roped off with a yellow chain to prevent commuters from getting close to the driver. Boarding is in the rear.Quaint notions of limited gatherings and staying six feet apart were routinely discarded.Because of the virus, the buses are supposed to be limited to 10 people but quickly eclipsed that number and sometimes doubled it.Riders often changed seats as they scrambled to fill a row that had just become vacant. But they quickly ran out of options.Signs saying alternate seats should be left vacant were ignored.A man made a sweeping motion with his hand to shoo away a younger man who had tried to sit next to him.I aint dead yet, said the older man, Anthony Smith, 59.Other passengers just got up and switched seats when someone sat next to them.Even when riders arent sitting shoulder to shoulder, theyre within several feet of each other in the cramped conditions.Commuters werent the only threat on the city bus. Pathogens could be lurking on the seats, poles, pull cords. They could be in the air.Many travelers blithely grabbed the bus poles with their bare hands.But not Steffan Bostic. Before sitting down, he swept a seat with his hand and then cleaned the hand with sanitizer.Its crazy, Bostic said. Now they say dogs get it. I was gonna get a puppy. I think Im gonna wait.At the end of each run, workers armed with spray bottles of disinfectant wipe down the bus interior for several minutes.The city transit system received $64 million from the federal government, the Trump administration said Thursday.The money for the Detroit Department of Transportation, which comes from the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package, will be used for increased bus cleaning and additional masks and gloves for workers.Fares have been waived during the pandemic so drivers wouldnt have to interact with passengers.But the free rides have attracted casual travelers, including the homeless.Some of the dispossessed, who seemed to prefer the rear seat, panhandled during the trip.Bill McLoven, 35, who had slept in an abandoned home, was taking the bus to a grocery store, where he planned to ask shoppers for money.He wore a mask made from a Hulk bed sheet. The sheet and his entire wardrobe came from a clothing bin outside a gas station.If I havent had it, its a miracle, McLoven said about the virus. Im not going to be able to stop it.While some drivers ignored the 10-passenger limit, others strictly enforced it.On the strict buses, the casual commuter prevented workers from riding because all the allotted seats were taken. So the bus whizzed by bus stops as the people waiting there fumed.Because the buses were on a reduced schedule, the riders had to wait 25 minutes for the next one.Passengers arent the only ones upset by all of the homeless.Love, the driver, continuing his dissertation from before, fumed that the homeless spent their nights drinking and drugging and then sleep on the bus during the day.Its terrible, man, he said. This is the dirtiest thing you can ride on in your life.Love made it sound like he was driving a petri dish on wheels.The buses are doing more harm than good, just transporting the disease from one part of the city to another, he said.If this werent discomfiting enough, an automated voice repeatedly interrupted Love to blurt welcome aboard despite the bus being far from any stop.It made one wonder, in the middle of a pandemic, what exactly was entering the vehicle.As the bus slouched toward Bethlehem, the scene outside its windows also told the story of Detroit.After two months of slumber, Eight Mile was rumbling awake.The bus passed the full parking lots of supermarkets and the empty ones of shopping malls.The loneliest spot along the route might be the bus stop in the middle of the oceanic parking lot of the Eastland Center.Thats where Andre Morris joined the fray. He was going to a store in Warren to get his cellphone fixed.Not really, Morris, 17, said when asked if he felt safe aboard the bus. You dont know who has it (the virus).But that didnt stop him from taking the bus to the store or school, when there was school. It was too convenient to pass up, Morris said.The bus passed pot shops and fast-food restaurants that were doing a steady business.Alas, churches and strip clubs, who compete against each other for the most fanciful facades along Eight Mile, remained closed.The bus passed the dispossessed, who were taking precautions against the virus.At the Woodward Avenue overpass, a homeless man asking motorists for money collected it in a basket tied to the end of a six-foot pole.Finally, the bus passed car-related businesses whose sheer number mocked those relegated to public transit.Every other site along the 25-mile route seemed to be a used car lot, auto repair, oil change, car wash, gas station, muffler shop, car detailing or auto parts store.Ray Autrey, 48, would love to have a car. Then he wouldnt have been waiting for the bus in the rain last week holding a torn bag of groceries in both arms.The virus was just one more thing he said he had to worry about.I cant live a normal life, Autrey said at the bus stop next to Ascension St. John Hospital. How are you gonna live a normal life when you have the disease around? The tragedy of the war on poverty is that the promise of grass-roots empowerment and representation was not sustained on a wider level, or for entire communities, but only for individuals. While remnants of critical reforms are still with us, like the Head Start program, on the whole policymakers at all levels believed maximum feasible participation worked against their self-interest. By 1965, as many promising grass-roots initiatives began to receive the initial O.E.O. grants, they were required to design programs with public officials and municipal authorities in top-level positions. Soon after, policymakers defunded and dissolved anti-poverty programs. Following Johnsons escalation of the war on crime during the second half of the 1960s and amid the long hot summers that marred his presidency, the national government began to invest in police forces and entrust officers to assume a more prominent role in urban life and the administration of social services in low-income neighborhoods. The United States would look entirely different today had policymakers embraced maximum feasible participation with the same level of resources and the same length of commitment as they devoted to the wars on crime and drugs. As well as divesting from grass-roots initiatives while shoring up law enforcement, policymakers and officials consistently dismissed the ideas for social change that emerged among people of color themselves resistance largely rooted in their own racism. There has never in history been an adequate black nation, President Richard Nixon told his chief of staff, Harry Haldeman, and they are the only race of which this is true. This thinking prompted Nixon to defuse the O.E.O. and join its programs with the Justice Department, relegating community involvement in federal social programs to the crime control arena and bolstering omnipresent police patrol, surveillance and law enforcement technologies in black and brown neighborhoods. During this period, only about 2 percent of the grants the Justice Department dispersed to fight the war on crime went to community-based measures like tenant patrols and block watches. Although public officials rarely assert their racism in such blatant terms as Nixon did, their consistent resistance to supporting autonomous community organizations reflects a longstanding unwillingness to disrupt the racial hierarchies that have defined the United States since its founding. For instance, President Jimmy Carter emphasized the need for grass-roots participation in a program he established to revitalize public housing projects in the late 1970s. In practice, however, citizen groups like the League to Improve the Community in Chicagos Robert Taylor homes were denied funding even though activists called for the very same strategies as federal officials, but sought to carry them out without oversight from law enforcement and housing authorities. The rhetoric of community involvement evaporated from the domestic policy arena when Ronald Reagan took office. As the wars on drugs and gangs unfolded in the 1980s and 90s, and federal policymakers continued to shore up policing and incarceration over social welfare provisions, the police became even more central to the provision of social services in isolated communities. The COVID-19 pandemic has popularized concepts that were once reserved for health professionals. Twitter in particular is teeming with budding epidemiologists and data scientists, liberally debating concepts such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the context of healthcare and disease modeling. COVID-19: A Catalyst for AI Of all terms relating to the Internet of Things (IoT), the expanding ecosystem of interrelated and connected computing devices, AI was the most mentioned on Twitter in the first quarter of 2020. AI has advanced and proven capabilities in healthcare, offering a wide range of use cases from digital patient access to care delivery and management. A concept that was once considered science fiction, has now become a springboard for wider adoption of digital health. It's Time to Talk About Conversational AI Conversational AI, whereupon companies utilize AI-powered conversational interfaces to enrich the customer experience, is developing at a rapid pace, acquiring greater levels of nuance, and contextual awareness while sporting a market share that is expected to grow from $5.8 billion in 2019 to $13.8 billion in 2023. Conversational AI has already proven itself clinically viable, with New York's Montefiore Health System joining forces with conversational AI platform Hyro to deploy a cutting-edge COVID-19 Virtual Assistant within 48 hours. To date, the virtual assistant has logged tens of thousands of patient conversations, answering queries, performing risk assessment and directing patients to their requested information or service with both text and voice. New York has been one of the worst-affected states in the country, with over 350,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 27,000 deaths at the time of writing. Amid the mass panic triggered by such figures, Montefiore understood that a sophisticated AI-driven tool was necessary to meet urgent patient needs and ease the pressure on the healthcare professionals and contact centers. Incidentally, Seattle's Providence St. Joseph Health came to a similar realization and built a comparable online screening and triage tool to handle tens of thousands of inquiries, working with Microsoft, digital prescribing platform Xealth, and the automation startup Twistle. From Diagnostics to Disinfection Robots Staying in the clinical setting, an AI-based chest X-ray system has been used to identify certain characteristics unique to COVID-19. The diagnostic software dXR was created by Mumbai-based startup Qure.ai as a radiology audit tool, but has been used by Bolton NHS Foundation Trust to monitor the extent of the viral infection. As well as being able to identify probable COVID-19 cases, dXR can quantify the percentage of lung affected. Diagnosis is just one area where AI has come to the fore. UV Disinfection Robots are also gaining greater attention: these bacteria-killing autonomous machines use ultraviolet light to disinfect surface areas and prevent the spread of infectious diseases, making them almost purpose-built for our current moment (bonus: they're immune to infection). In South Korea, one hospital is deploying such robots to sterilize negative pressure rooms while using others to transport items to a disposal site and conduct temperature checks. So-called interactive elder-bots, meanwhile, could prove valuable during a time when the elderly population is self-isolating; particularly since they may be advised to avoid all human contact until a vaccine is made available. AI is being deployed outside the hospital too: in China, police wear temperature-screening helmets to identify possible virus carriers. The so-called smart helmets were developed by Shenzhen-based Kuang-Chi Technology, and feature real-time heat maps and waveguide displays that can simultaneously screen multiple people at once. The Italian government has already purchased several of the N901 helmets for use at Rome's Fiumicino Airport, and a similar technology is behind iThermo, a smartphone fitted with thermal and 3D laser cameras currently being trialed in Singapore. Amazingly, iThermo can screen up to 5,000 people per day - and here lies the attraction of AI-powered tools in the age of coronavirus. Conversational AI interfaces, wearable thermal headsets, autonomous robot cleaners and diagnostic tools: innovative tech is demonstrating its utility when it's needed most. Expect governments to increasingly leverage AI-driven solutions in healthcare as in other areas of life as such technology becomes part of "the new normal." On the receiving end, the shape of a persons nostrils and the amount of nose hair and mucus present as well as the distribution of certain cellular receptors in the airway that the virus needs to latch on to can all influence how much virus it takes to become infected. Shainu Mohan By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With more women who require prenatal care returning to the district from abroad, the district medical office (DMO) has decided to upgrade Fort Hospital as a Covid care centre exclusively for asymptomatic and symptomatic pregnant women. Currently, the Women and Children Hospital (W&C) at Thycaud and Sree Avittam Thirunal (SAT) Hospital deal with prenatal cases. SAT treats all high-risk cases, while normal delivery cases are referred to Women and Children Hospital. Since the number of women coming from abroad and requiring prenatal care is on the rise, we have decided to establish a Covid care centre in Fort Hospital only to tend to pregnant women who have minor symptoms, are asymptomatic or have a travel history in red zones. We will maintain W&C as a non-Covid care hospital, said a health official. increase in flow of patients to W&C The flow of patients and number of deliveries in W&C have gone up drastically since the outbreak. In May alone, the hospital recorded around 550 deliveries, which are the highest compared to figures recorded before the lockdown. Since SAT treats Covid patients, people feel W&C is safer, as a result of which the number of OP patients has increased. Also, several patients consulting SAT are being referred to us for prenatal care and we have so far been able to accommodate all of them without any issues, said an official with W&C. Patients who have neurological or cardiac complications are referred to SAT Hospital, said the official. Only SAT Hospital is equipped to treat such complicated cases as there are specialist doctors there, added the official. Fort Hospital all set to go The DMO has already held discussions with authorities of Fort Hospital and all arrangements are in place to deal with pregnant Covid suspects. Besides our maternity block, which has 12 beds, we have 50 more beds that can accommodate pregnant Covid suspects. Those with severe symptoms and other complications will be referred to SAT Hosptial, said an official with Fort Hospital. The official said that Fort Hospital has started taking swab samples and has so far sent 150 samples for testing, all of which came back negative. Fort Hospital covers around five corporation wards and provides medical assistance to suspected Covid cases in paid quarantine centres. We have an on-call doctor and medical team to provide assistance to suspected cases in Covid centres, added the official. Locals troop to the accident scene at Moliwe WhatsApp Four people are said to have been burnt to death in Limbe Monday evening when their cars collided with another transporting illicit fuel at Moliwe along the Limbe-Mutengene motorway. As security officials ramp up investigations to shed light on the incident, eyewitnesses say excessive speed is to blame for the accident. They say a vehicle transporting illicit fuel, called funge, was driving from Limbe when it collided with a car heading to Limbe. The second Limbe-bound car hit the first as flames spread. While four of the vehicles occupants died in the flames, two were said to have been rescued and taken to hospital. Eyewitnesses say it took about 15-20 minutes for the flames to char the vehicles. We only struggled to rescue two persons as the flames rapidly grew wild. The vehicles were completely charred. Even the number plates were burnt to ashes, an onlooker said. Security officers at the scene maintained that fuel leakage was the most likely cause of the blaze. In Cameroon, UN Road Safety Review suggests that accidents in interurban areas over the 2008-2014 period were caused by three major issues: drivers' inattention and distraction (30.67%), speeding (19.97%) and drivers' lack of control (18.53%). To remedy this situation, the Review recommends accelerating the reform of the driver training programme, raising awareness among the various road users, and systematizing and strengthening sanctions for risky behaviour. The country's road network, which accounts for 85 per cent of transport in the country, suffers, among other problems, from a lack of signalling and markings, cracks, potholes, poor rainwater drainage, lack of sidewalks and cycle paths, and disorderly parking. The ongoing crisis in the North West and South West Regions may also be blamed for todays accident. Armed separatists say Mondays should be ghosted, making drivers plying the roads in the area on such days to over speed. It is worth noting that Limbe is a booming port city for illicit fuel, as well as nearby Idenau. "People come from all over to buy, from Yaounde, Limbe, Douala and all the towns around," a local familiar with the trade says. Despite the risk of prosecution, the locals say they have no choice but to use the black market fuel they call "funge" or zoazoa" to fill up their cars. The fuel believed to enter the country from neighbouring Nigeria costs FCFA 500 on Cameroon's black market, whereas a petrol station charges about FCFA 700 for fuel from the country's lone oil refinery located just a stone throw away. GREENWICH Harold may have a purple crayon, but Greenwich youth will create a rainbow of colors across town Friday to bring those enduring the coronavirus lockdown together while staying apart. A Walk with Chalk is an event that challenges kids to take a stroll, using a piece of chalk to mark their way on the ground. Their efforts will artistically reunite the remote and physical worlds in vibrant lines and create a community-based social practice art work, said organizers Michael Manning and Ben Quesnel. Its a lighthearted, simple project, said Manning, an artist and former Greenwich art teacher now leading a school art department in New York City. Its a way to show what everyones going through. Whats not to like about it? Made possible through a grant from the Greenwich Alliance for Education, the walk was organized by The Developing Artist Project, which helps to give students a broader understanding of what it means to be an artist through talks, tours and exposure to career possibilities in the field. On Friday, children will be invited to draw lines as they head to friends houses, walk to parks or stop off at the Greenwich Boys & Girls Club, where they can pause to create artwork in the parking lot, along sidewalks and on the main canvas of the clubs semicircular driveway. Young artists can use email and social media hashtags to share their walks with The Developing Artist Project, which will map the pastel pathways into a piece of abstract art, Quesnel said. The project ties to the street art unit he teaches at Eastern Middle School, which covers cave painting through graffiti and social practice performative action. Teaching art classes during digital learning has been a challenge, Quesnel said, but some things do translate, especially if they resonate with current events. Were trying to inspire kids to be engaged, said Quesnel, who teamed with fellow Eastern art teacher Stacy Cleary to plan the project. Since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, the Developing Artist Project has conducted virtual interviews and studio tours involving the aspiring artists at the Boys & Girls Club, where Manning teaches classes. An upcoming interview includes an animator/editor from Greenwich-based Blue Sky Studios, producer of Ferdinand, Robots and the Ice Age films. Safety is key during A Walk with Chalk, said Manning. Children are asked to social distance while creating their lines. About 2,000 pieces of free chalk will be available during regular lunch distribution this week. Families can pick up a piece at Greenwich High School from 12:30 to 1 p.m. Wednesday. Organizers will be on hand at the Boys & Girls Club from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday to celebrate the project and provide more chalk. College student volunteers will travel around town taking photos of the lines and artwork. The rain date is Friday, June 12. Share your lines and connections using the hashtag - @thedevelopingartist and #walkwithchalk. For more information on this and other projects, visit www.thedevelopingartist.com/. As the pandemic lockdown and the Eid al-Fitr holidays were winding down, a Jerusalem resident with special needs fell victim to Israeli brutality. Late on May 30, Iyad al-Hallaq, a 32-year-old Palestinian, was excited to be going back to the center that caters to autistic persons. Two Israeli security officers shouted at Hallaq to stop, but he ran away and hid behind a garbage container. His caregiver shouted in Hebrew to the Israeli soldiers that he is a disabled person, but they paid no attention to her. They ran after him and sprayed him with bullets causing his immediate death. Israels newly appointed Defense Minister Benny Gantz quickly announced an investigation into the incident and apologized for what happened. While a serious investigation is necessary to avoid a war crime investigation, PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat wrote in a May 30 tweet in response to the killing, A crime that will be met with impunity unless the world stops treating Israel as a state above the law and the International Criminal Court [ICC] fulfills its mandate. International and Israeli human rights organizations have for some time come to the conclusion that Israeli investigations of killings of unarmed Palestinians are not taken seriously. Amit Galutz, spokesman for the Israeli B'tselem human rights organization, has said that his organization has stopped since 2016 assisting the Israeli army in investigations, because the Israeli activities are nothing more than a whitewash. A serious investigation and follow-up are necessary to avoid a war crimes investigation. According to rule 158 of the International Humanitarian Law, " States must investigate war crimes allegedly committed by their nationals or armed forces, or on their territory, and, if appropriate, prosecute the suspects. They must also investigate other war crimes over which they have jurisdiction and, if appropriate, prosecute the suspects." While Israelis were trying to calm Palestinian anger, protests in Israel and around the world erupted almost simultaneously. In the United States, the death of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, by a Minneapolis policeman May 27 and captured on video, provoked comparisons with the fate that unarmed Palestinians often face. Khalil Jahshan, executive director of the Arab Center Washington DC, told Al-Monitor that the comparison is very fair. A picture of a Palestinian being pinned to the ground and their neck being pressed by Israeli soldiers brought to life this comparison, he said. Jahshan noted that we are desensitized because every day in Palestine there are similar killings. He added, I think the militarization of the US police force, and the constant drum beat from an authoritarian leader like [Donald] Trump produced this zero-sum mindset where the security forces shoot first and yet see themselves as the victims even though they are committing the crime. Linda Mansour, a US immigration lawyer of Palestinian origin in Dayton, Ohio, told Al-Monitor that the death of Floyd brought back the daily images of Israeli brutality experienced by Palestinians. The minute I saw the knee on the neck, my mind flashed to the daily images of the Israeli brutality experienced by Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank, in the dark of the night and during the day ignored by the world. The aftermath images of the handling of the protests [in the United States] including the arrests, tear gas and rubber bullets are all too familiar to those of us acquainted with Israels tactics in the face of resistance or protests by Palestinians to the continuing brutality and slow murder of an entire society over 70 years. The comparisons of the killing of unarmed persons by the security has also been connected to the training in Israel by US police officers, including the very precinct in Minneapolis. Mansour said, Since 9/11, at least 31 US states have been involved in police exchange training programs of their officers in Israel. The repressive and dangerous tactics learned include the knee on the neck. Veteran American Arab leader James Zogby told Al-Monitor that the killings in Minneapolis and Jerusalem have an ideological basis. He said, Both are the tragic results of systemic racism, endemic violence against victim peoples, and the impunity with which the armed authorities carry out their violence resulting in a license to do it again. The US-Israeli cooperation in training is reflected in the methods of brutality, according to well-known Palestinian novelist Susan Abulhawa. She told Al-Monitor, US police have been receiving training by Zionist military forces, in particular the use of choking via headlocks and knees to the chest and neck, which are Israeli tactics well known to Palestinian bodies. Abulhawa, author of Mornings in Jenin and the founder of the nongovernmental organization Playgrounds for Palestine said, "[Both American and Israeli] nations are settler-colonial states nourished by intense racism. Reverend Khader El Yateem, a Lutheran pastor and the assistant to the Lutheran bishop in Florida, pointed out the injustice in both cases. There is injustice in a white police officer killing an unarmed black man in handcuffs; and the Israeli police killing an unarmed disabled man in Jerusalem is the injustice that is the root of all evil. El Yateem, who grew up in Beit Jala, Palestine, and was the victim of Israeli army brutality and imprisonment as a young person, objected to the fact that US police are trained by Israeli police. Israel treats the Palestinians as enemies with no rights. Killing people in the name of the law or security for no reason is a sin, the American Palestinian pastor told Al-Monitor. Similarities in the training and killings are also reflected in the US polices attitudes to the press. Shooting rubber bullets at journalists, terrorizing camera persons and other anti-press freedom actions have been recorded in the way US police are dealing with nationwide protests. A CNN reporter was arrested May 29 while covering the protests in Minneapolis. Andrea Sahouri, a reporter with the Des Moines Register, was pepper-sprayed and arrested despite the fact that those journalists and others were clearly identified as members of the press. Palestinian journalists have often been similarly harassed. The Vienna-based International Press Institute condemned the attacks on journalists covering the events in the United States. Maysoon Zayid, an American-Palestinian actress and comedian, told Al-Monitor that the case of attacks against disabled people is commonplace both by Israeli soldiers and American police. 50% of all Americans killed are disabled, she said. While the context in major US cities and the Palestinian territories might be different, the security forces attempts to put down protests using exaggerated force that has led to the death of unarmed persons cant be ignored. Political greenlighting in both cases contribute greatly to the sense that those security officers can get away with murder with little or no accountability, reflecting an inhuman racist mindset that doesnt see the other as deserving life and the right to basic human rights. The Bachelorette's Carlin Sterritt has denied he's split from girlfriend Angie Kent. Earlier this week, rumours surfaced the couple had quietly called it quits after fans noticed they were seemingly living separate lives. Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on Monday, the 30-year-old F45 trainer slammed the 'silly' speculation and insisted he and Angie were still together. Fake news! The Bachelorette 's Carlin Sterritt has denied he's split from girlfriend Angie Kent 'It's silly. Angie is just visiting home for a bit to change things up,' Carlin said. 'We've been in each other's pockets enough over the past few months and family is important,' he added. Angie relocated from Queensland's Sunshine Coast to Sydney in February to be closer to her boyfriend, but they aren't living together. The truth: Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on Monday, the 30-year-old F45 trainer slammed the 'silly' speculation and insisted he and Angie were still together The former Gogglebox star confirmed she'd moved into a flat in Rose Bay by sharing a photo to Instagram of herself and Carlin in her unfurnished room. But after three months away from her family, Angie decided it was time to return home. She also had no work in Sydney due to the coronavirus pandemic. Carlin told Daily Mail Australia he had noticed fans were speculating about a break-up on social media, but decided not to address it. Speculation: Earlier this week, rumours surfaced the couple had quietly called it quits after fans noticed they were seemingly living separate lives 'A few people commenting and asking if we're still together is not a big enough alarm, in my opinion,' he said. Carlin said that he and Angie hadn't been on Instagram as much lately because they were enjoying spending time with their families. The aspiring actor had confirmed Angie's move to Sydney back in December. Back to the Sunshine Coast: Carlin said Angie was 'just visiting home for a bit to change things up'. Pictured together in Bondi Junction, Sydney, on April 9 But when asked if Angie would be moving in with him, he told Daily Mail Australia: 'No, we're not going to be living together for a while. I'm in Cronulla.' Angie has been dating Carlin since choosing him as her winner on The Bachelorette last year. Because of the delay between filming and the finale airdate, they had to keep their relationship a secret for the first few months. Ignoring it: Carlin told Daily Mail Australia he had noticed fans were speculating about a break-up on Instagram, but decided not to address it A UN report said that the ties between the Taliban, especially its Haqqani network branch, and al Qaeda remain close even after a peace deal signed with the United States. The report claimed that the Taliban regularly consulted with al Qaeda during negotiations with the United States and offered guarantees that it would honour their historical ties. The independent UN sanctions monitor said that the ties stemmed from friendship, intermarriage, shared struggle and ideological sympathy. The report suggested that the success of the US-Taliban agreement may depend upon the Islamic fundamentalist groups willingness to encourage al Qaeda to put a stop to its current activities in Afghanistan. The US-Taliban pact was weaved around American troops withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Talibans promise to not let al Qaeda use Afghan soil for activities threatening the security of the US. The report said that if the Taliban honoured the pact, it may prompt a split between pro- and anti-al-Qaeda camps. Read: Afghan President Pledges To 'expedite' Release Of Taliban Prisoners Amid Eid Ceasefire No date for complete withdrawal Last week, US President Donald Trump reiterated his wish to completely pull out the US troops stationed in Afghanistan, adding that he has not set a specific date for it. During a White House press conference, Trump said that the US security forces have been there for 19 years and have been acting as police and not soldiers. Were really not acting as soldiers; were acting as police. And were not sent over there to be policemen. But were there 19 years. And, yeah, I think thats enough. And they understand, said Trump. The US President emphasised that the government is having very positive talks with the stakeholders, adding that they want to bring soldiers back home not only from Afghanistan but from other countries as well. However, when Trump was asked whether the Thanksgiving holiday on November 26 was a target date for full withdrawal, he said that he has no target. No. I have no target. But as soon as reasonable. Over a period of time but as soon as reasonable, added Trump. Read: Afghanistan To Release Up To 2,000 Taliban Prisoners After Ceasefire Declaration (Image: AP) Romanian interim Prime Minister Ludovic Orban delivers a speech before a no-confidence vote session in the Romanian Parliament in Bucharest, Romania on Feb. 5, 2020. (George Calin/Inquam Photos/Reuters) Romania Cancels Deal With Chinese Nuclear Power Company After Raising Concerns in January The Romanian government requested state-owned energy company Nuclearelectrica to end its 5-year-old partnership with China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), which intended to build two new 700-megawatt reactors at the countrys nuclear power plant in Cernavoda. The deal came under the governments scrutiny earlier this year. The Nuclearelectricas majority shareholder, the Romanian Ministry of Economy and Energy which owns 82.49 percent of share capital, formally requested that the shareholders repeal the current strategy for the expansion of Cernavoda nuclear plant, according to a company statement (pdf). The Ministry authorized the companys management to terminate negotiations with CGN, and terminate the effects of both the memorandum of understanding and the investors agreement with CGN, the statement said. The companys management was also requested by the Ministry to research and devise an alternative solution for constructing two new reactors at Cernavoda. In 2015, Nuclearelectrica and CGN signed a memorandum of understanding on the construction of two new units (Units 3 and 4) at the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant, that had already been approved by the shareholders, Nuclearelectricas press statement said. Bucharest signed a preliminary investors agreement with CGN in May 2019 to form a new joint venture company for an initial period of two years that would carry out the project of constructing two new energy units. The new company would be owned 51 percent by CGN and Nuclearelectrica would hold the remaining 49 percent, reported World Nuclear News. The agreement was signed by the then-Energy Minister who served in the former Social Democratic (PSD) government led by Prime Minister Viorica Dancila which was ousted in October 2019. A cut-away model of the Chinese Gen-III nuclear power technology HPR1000 by CGN is displayed at the World Nuclear Exhibition (WNE), the trade fair event for the global nuclear community in Villepinte near Paris on June 26, 2018. (Benoit Tessier/Reuters) The total cost of the project was estimated at about 7.2 billion euros by CGN in 2016, according to Profit.ro. It was an increase in the official cost estimate at 6.5 billion euros that was based on the feasibility study conducted by Ernst & Young in 2012, reported Profit.ro. Some technical and cost-related difficulties needed to be resolved before construction began, according to HotNews. The cost of constructing two new reactors is so high that some of it would need to be passed on to the energy consumers. In October 2019, Dancila and former U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry signed a Memorandum of Understanding of cooperation in the civil nuclear energy field. The new government led by Ludovic Orban of the center-right National Liberal Party (PNL) criticized the agreement with CGN in January. Romanias Minister of Economy and Energy Virgil Popescu said in January 2020 that Nuclearelectrica could construct one new reactor by itself, but a more feasible option would be forming a partnership with a NATO ally, according to Balkan Insight. Nuclear Deal With Chinese Company Under Scrutiny The United States accused CGN of spying in 2016 but its deal with the Romanian company continued. The deal came under scrutiny after the United States blacklisted CGN in August 2019 for its activity to acquire advanced U.S. nuclear technology. No major developments took place in the project during the last five years and in January 2020, Ludovic Orban said the government could exit the deal with the Chinese firm. Some Romanian officials raised their concerns about the terms of the Chinese investment and the trustworthiness of Chinese know-how, said Andreea Brinza, Vice President of The Romanian Institute for the Study of the Asia-Pacific, in her report in The Diplomat. The European Union wants to limit foreign investments, especially Chinese ones, in European critical infrastructure, so it may also be concerned with the Chinese investment in Cernavoda, wrote Brinza. The construction of the Nuclear Power Plant in Cernavoda started in the 1980s (in the communist era), however, its first reactor was put into operation in 1996 and the second one in 2007. Both reactors were supplied by the Atomic Energy of Canada (currently Candu Energy). The Cernavoda power plant supplies 18 percent of Romanian electricity. Twitter on Monday temporarily suspended the account of a major New York City police union which posted the arrest report for Mayor Bill de Blasios daughter which contained her personal information. The Sergeants Benevolent Association, the second-largest police union in the city which represents some 11,000 sergeants in the NYPD, doxxed 25-year-old Chiara de Blasio. The mayors daughter was taken into police custody on Saturday night after police infiltrated an unlawful assembly of about 100 protesters at 12th Street and Broadway in Lower Manhattan. Doxxing is a term to describe using social media or the internet to post sensitive information about an individual so as to embarrass them or cause them harm. Twitter on Monday temporarily suspended the account of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, the second-largest police union in New York City, after it posted Chiara de Blasio's arrest report which included personal information The police union, a frequent critic of Mayor Bill de Blasio, said it 'doxxed' his daughter (seen left with her father in Harlem in 2015) to criticize the mayor for not adequately supporting police in their efforts to deal with protesters The SBA posted a screenshot of Chiara de Blasios arrest report which included her address as well as government ID information, her drivers license data, and other personal details. The union justified its action by accusing de Blasio of failing to offer police officers the necessary support as they face off with protesters angry over the police-involving killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, in Minneapolis last Monday. How can the NYPD guard the metropolis of NY from rioting anarchist when the Mayors item throwing daughter is a person of them, the SBA tweeted on Sunday. Now we know why he is forbidding Mounted models to be mobilized and maintaining the NYPD from undertaking their work opportunities. The tweet violated the rules of Twitter, which forbids its users from doxxing. The unions account was temporarily suspended, according to The New York Times. The account was allowed to come back online after it agreed to delete the tweet about the mayors daughter. DailyMail.com has reached out to SBA seeking comment. Ed Mullins, the president of the SBA, said the union posted the tweet as a means of criticizing de Blasios policing strategy when it comes to the ongoing protests. The message was that cops are being pelted with rocks, cars are being set on fire and our police department is being held back, Mullins told the Times. Is that why youre tying our hands, because your daughter is out there? He added: This needs to be looked at. Mullins denied leaking Chiara de Blasios arrest report. He claims he took a screenshot of the report after it appeared in a news story on DailyMail.com. The SBA has for years been one of de Blasios fiercest critics. The union has accused the mayor of being too lax on crime. In early February, when two police officers were ambushed by a gunman in The Bronx, the SBA tweeted in response to de Blasio: Mayor DeBlasio, the members of the NYPD are declaring war on you! We do not respect you, DO NOT visit us in hospitals. Chiara de Blasio, 25, was taken into custody on Saturday night after police infiltrated an 'unlawful assembly' of about 100 protesters at 12th Street and Broadway in Lower Manhattan You sold the NYPD to the vile creatures, the 1% who hate cops but vote for you. NYPD cops have been assassinated because of you. This isnt over, Game on! Earlier on Monday, de Blasio defended his daughter, saying she was 'acting peacefully' and he is proud of her after she was arrested during a George Floyd protest in Manhattan. A police report obtained by DailyMail.com showed that Chiara was among those arrested for refusing to move off the road and throwing objects at NYPD officers. She was arrested at about 10.30pm on Saturday, which was about an hour before her father publicly urged protesters to disperse. Chiara was released from custody at about 8am on Sunday after receiving a desk appearance ticket. At a press conference on Monday, de Blasio admitted that he and his wife Chirlane McCray didn't know their daughter was out protesting on Saturday but were aware she had been involved in protests on Thursday. He said they only learned about her arrest when his office was contacted by the media on Sunday. 'If I had known my daughter was arrested I would've been the first to say something,' de Blasio said when asked why he didn't inform the public earlier when he was publicly addressing the protests. 'Even though this was a surprise to Chirlane and I, I respect my daughter, I honor her, and I know her heart.' The Mayor said his daughter had told him she believed she was following police instructions when she was taken into custody. At a press conference on Monday, de Blasio admitted that he and his wife Chirlane McCray didn't know their daughter was out protesting on Saturday but were aware she had been involved in protests on Thursday At a press conference on Monday, de Blasio admitted that he and his wife Chirlane McCray didn't know their daughter was out protesting on Saturday but were aware she had been involved in protests on Thursday. The Mayor, his wife and their two children Chiara and Dante are pictured above 'She was very clear that she believed she was following the instructions of police officers and doing what they were asking... absolutely, she was abundantly clear she was peacefully protesting, not doing anything that would provoke a negative response,' de Blasio said. He added that he admired her for peacefully 'trying to change something that she thought was unjust'. 'I love my daughter deeply, she believes a lot of change is needed. I am proud of her, that she cared about it so much she decided to go out there and do something about it.' Chiara gave 181 East End Avenue - the mayor's residence at Gracie Mansion - as her address, according to the police report. It is understood she didn't tell arresting officers who her father was. Her arrest came about an hour before de Blasio urged protesters to disperse. 'We appreciate and respect all peaceful protests, but now it is time for people to go home,' the mayor said at a 11.30pm press conference in downtown Brooklyn. 'If you went out peacefully to make a point about the need for change, you have been heard and change is coming in the city. I have no doubt about that. It's time to go home so we can all move forward.' New York City police said that nearly 730 people had been arrested since protests erupted in the city late last week. De Blasio did not mention that his daughter had been arrested during either of the two briefings he held about the protests on Saturday night and Sunday morning. A police report obtained by DailyMail.com (pictured) showed that Chiara was among about 100 protesters who were arrested after they refused to move out of the roadway and were throwing objects at officers Police in riot gear walk down a street during protests in Brooklyn on Saturday night. Chiara's arrest came about an hour before de Blasio urged protesters to disperse At the Sunday morning briefing, he said that officers had showed 'tremendous restraint overall' during the weekend's demonstrations and appointed two city officials to review how the protests unfolded and how they were handled by police. The NYPD has come under criticism for confrontations with demonstrators over the weekend. NYPD Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said the department is investigating officers' behavior in about six incidents, including one in which two police vehicles plowed through a group of protesters Saturday in Brooklyn. De Blasio, who said Saturday that the officers acted while under attack, shifted his tone Monday, saying: 'it is still not acceptable for our officers to ever drive into a crowd.' De Blasio has promised an investigation into the video showing two police cruisers lurching into a crowd of demonstrators in a Brooklyn street, knocking people to the ground. 'We all better get back to the humanity here,' de Blasio said. 'The protesters are human beings. They need to be treated with tremendous respect. The police officers are human beings. They need to be treated with tremendous respect.' De Blasio also suggested that the protests had been co-opted by 'people who came to do violence in a systematic, organized fashion'. He said that the 'small' number of people were motivated by 'the anarchist movement' rather than the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a Minneapolis cop knelt on his neck during an arrest on May 25. New York City police said that nearly 730 people have been arrested since protests erupted in the city late last week At a press briefing Sunday morning, de Blasio said that officers had showed 'tremendous restraint overall' A protester throws a traffic barrel at police during a protest in Brooklyn on Saturday night Protesters are seen vandalizing an NYPD vehicle near Union Square on Saturday night 'They plan together online, they have very explicit rules,' he said, noting how officers have gotten their teeth knocked out and have been targeted by projectiles. 'Some come from outside of the cities, some are from inside the city. Some are from the neighborhoods where the protests take place, some are not. 'But what we do know is there is an explicit agenda of violence and it does not conform with the history of this city.' 'Thank God, there was no loss of life, there were no major injuries.' After the news of Chiara's arrest broke, the NYPD's Sergeants Benevolent Association tweeted an attack on de Blasio's handling of the protests. 'How can the NYPD protect the city of NY from rioting anarchist when the Mayors object throwing daughter is one of them,' the SBA said in a tweet. 'Now we know why he is forbidding Mounted Units to be mobilized and keeping the NYPD from doing their jobs.' Chiara graduated from Santa Clara University in 2016 and planned to pursue a career in social work. The 25-year-old has been open about how she struggled with drug and alcohol addiction after her father became mayor in 2014. Chanel in Soho on Monday morning after looters smashed windows to ransack luxury stores in another night of chaos The looters pulled down plywood to get into the stores. They are not thought to have been part of the Floyd protests NYPD officers on Monday morning outside Chanel in New York City. More than 250 people were arrested in NYC on Sunday night Another jewelry store on West Broadway that had its windows smashed on Sunday night It comes as New York City will be imposing an 11pm curfew as the nation's biggest city tries to head off another night of violence erupting amid protests over George Floyd's death. The curfew will last from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday. The limitation on 8.6 million people's movements comes on top of coronavirus restrictions and as the mayor and governor deplored the outbreaks of violence, but also criticized some police actions. Protests in New York City on Sunday descended into chaos with thieves raiding luxury stores, including Chanel, Rolex and Prada in Manhattan's Soho neighborhood. It remains unclear if those who smashed up the stores were part of protests against George Floyd's death, or if they belonged to different groups and were merely taking advantage of the chaos unfolding across the country. Across New York City on Sunday night, more than 250 people were arrested. Six cops were injured, none seriously, and a man in his twenties was shot in the abdomen after an argument with a different group of young men. There are growing calls for the National Guard to be mobilized amid increased fears that the violence will continue on Monday night. Neither de Blasio nor Gov. Cuomo have mobilized the military and say they've done enough to warn people of the danger. NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea on Monday defended the city's response and said implementing a curfew - as other cities have done - would be useless. Videoconference organised by the UN and war actor Saudi Arabia fails to achieve $2.41bn fundraising target. International donors have pledged $1.35bn in humanitarian aid to war-torn Yemen, well below a $2.41bn fundraising target, according to the United Nations. The videoconference on Tuesday was organised by the UN and Saudi Arabia, a major player in Yemens long-running conflict since it first launched a bombing campaign in 2015 to try to push back Houthi rebels who seized the northern half of the country. It came as some relief groups say they have been forced to stop their work even as the coronavirus pandemic rips through the country. A total of $1.35bn in pledges has been announced from a wide range of donors to the humanitarian response in Yemen including to fight COVID-19, a UN spokeswoman told reporters. Mark Lowcock, UN emergency relief coordinator, said the global body would continue its fundraising efforts. This is not the end, he added, calling on donors to pay the funds immediately, since pledges on their own achieve nothing. Attempt to [gloss over] crimes Saudi Arabia pledged $500m in aid to support a UN Humanitarian Response Plan for Yemen. The United Kingdom, a leading arms supplier to Saudi Arabia, stepped in with a new aid package for Yemen worth $200m. The United States, another weapons provider to the kingdom, said it would offer $225mi, while Germany announced $139.8m in assistance to Yemen. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Rabeeah, the supervisor of Saudi Arabias King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre, said he was pleased by the level of attendance, despite the lower than expected pledges. 200515044151085 Al-Rabeeah said the amount raised is a good response taking into consideration the coronavirus pandemic and the economic crisis resulting from it. Yet, critics question the kingdoms high-profile role in rallying humanitarian support even as it continues to wage a war as do the Houthis that has created the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. The air attacks and fighting on the ground have killed more than 100,000 people and displaced millions of others, pushing the impoverished country to the verge of famine and gutting its healthcare facilities. A spokesman for the Houthis dismissed the Saudi-led conference as a silly attempt to [gloss over] their crimes, according to rebel-run Masirah television. The Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Houthis killed or wounded 729 children during 2018, accounting for nearly half the total child casualties, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a report to the UN Security Council (UNSC) in July 2019 that blacklisted the alliance for a third year. The UN report said the Houthis killed and wounded 398 children and Yemeni government forces were responsible for 58 child casualties. Maysaa Shuja al-Deen, a Yemeni researcher and a non-resident fellow at the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies, said the kingdom is trying to repair its international image by changing the conversation. Saudi Arabia has always tried to change the narrative of the war and present itself as a backer of the legitimate government, not part of the conflict, she said. Addressing the conference, Guterres said aid agencies are in a race against time in Yemen, warning that unless we secure significant funding, more than 30 out of 41 major United Nations programmes will close in the next few weeks. Todays pledges will help our United Nations humanitarian agencies and their partners on the ground to continue providing a lifeline to millions of Yemenis, he added. 200514134553478 Yemen has so far confirmed a total of 354 infections and 84 deaths from the coronavirus but aid groups believe the actual numbers are much higher. According to data compiled by the International Rescue Committee, Yemen has one of the worlds lowest testing rates, even compared with other conflict-hit countries, at just 31 tests per one million citizens. Guterres said reports indicate that mortality rates from COVID-19 in Aden, the temporary seat of Yemens internationally-recognised government, are among the highest in the world. That is just one sign of what lies ahead, if we do not act now, he added. Tackling COVID-19 on top of the existing humanitarian emergency requires urgent action. The pandemic is making it even more difficult and dangerous for humanitarian workers to reach Yemenis with life-saving aid, he said. Yemen has been in the grip of a devastating power struggle since the Houthi rebels took over the capital, Sanaa, and other cities late in 2014. The Houthiss advance on the Saudi-backed Yemeni government seat of Aden prompted Saudi Arabia to form a military coalition in early 2015 and start its ferocious air campaign against the rebels. The first two patients to be diagnosed with Coronavirus in Namibia have been cleared by health authorities after 79 days in the hospital, Health Minister Kalumbi Shangula announced on Monday. The couples recoveries mark the end of the chapter involving the first 16 cases. The response team is excited about this good news, the minister said. The Romanian couple, who became known as case No. 1 and No. 2, baffled experts for staying too long in hospital after the 35-year-old man and his 25-year-old wife were diagnosed with the disease on March 14. Studies indicate that the virus that causes COVID-19 can stay in the human body for up to 37 days. Namibia has so far reported 25 confirmed cases with 16 recoveries, nine active cases but no death. The latest confirmed case was a 32-year Namibian woman, who returned from Cape Town on May 29 and tested positive while in quarantine. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Just 254 hectares of forestry has been planted so far this year, according to the Department of Agriculture. With planting running some 22pc behind 2019 levels, more pressure will be heaped on the Department over its failure to reach its afforestation targets. Planting 8,000ha a year is a critical component of the Government's plan to offset emissions from the agriculture sector - and last year just 44pc of this target was met. Despite the fall-off in planting this year, the Department will take some hope from a 14pc increase in the total number of hectares applied for year-on-year, at just over 3,000 hectares. The Department said it has a detailed action plan in place to expedite the number of licences processed and issued, which includes additional ecology resources and the recruitment of additional forestry inspectors. "This has already had an impact, with more hectares approved in April than any other month this year to date," it said. Speaking to the Farming Independent this week, the Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed, rejected the notion of compulsory planting. "I don't like the idea of compulsory, but I think we will have to have a new forestry programme and we'd have to look at what incentives will be necessary," he said. "Afforestation is a win-win, from biodiversity to carbon sequestration. Unfortunately, a noisy minority have managed to hijack the industry and damage its reputation." Photo: Jen Hunter/Flickr Read on for the most recent top news you may have missed in Denver. Polis modifies Safer at Home guidelines, extends them to July 1 Read the full story on KDVR. Denver curfew extended: 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Monday through Thursday Read the full story on KDVR. COVID-19 update: Good signs amid fears of Denver riots spike Read the full story on DenverWestword. Denver police chief marches with peaceful protesters Read the full story on CBS Denver. Controversial Instagram post leads to Denver police investigation Read the full story on CBS Denver. This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback. Gov. Jared Polis modified the state's "Safer at Home" guidelines Monday, relaxing some restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of coronavirus. Denver mayor Michael Hancock has extended a curfew as protests in the city for the death of George Floyd and nighttime riots continue. Even as new data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reveals positive developments related to the pandemic, officials are concerned that the lack of social distancing and scattershot mask use by both non-violent demonstrators and vandals seemingly more interested in wreaking havoc than racial justice could reverse the progress being made against the novel coronavirus. The police chief for the Denver Police Department marched arm and arm with peaceful protesters on Monday. MILFORD - A 43-year-old Milford woman has been arrested after police said she left two children in a vehicle in the Walmart parking lot on last Thursday afternoon. Jessica Israel, of Herbert Street, was charged with two counts of leaving an unsupervised child in a motor vehicle. As thousands of active-duty troops mobilize to quell violence in the nations capital, and potentially in other cities as well, its worth asking, far from the first time in recent weeks: What the hell is going on? Few contest that President Donald Trump has the legal power to send the U.S. military onto American streets. In principle, the Posse Comitatus Act forbids the use of troops to enforce domestic laws, but other legislationnotably the Insurrection Act of 1807 (revised several times over the years) as well as several emergency statutesallow for exceptions, and considerable leeway for the president to decide what those exceptions are. Advertisement The question is whether he is right to do this here and now. It would hardly be the first time presidents have sent active-duty troops to settle domestic unrest that state and local police are unable to handle. In 1992, the governor of California asked for the Army and the Marines to come restore order during the riots prompted by the police beating of Rodney King. In 1967, the Armys 82nd Airborne Division was sent to Detroit to calm riots and, a year later, to D.C. after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The current turmoil is vastly different. For instance, the 1968 riots in Washingtonthree days of looting and arsonleft 13 people dead, hundreds injured, and thousands arrested, with hundreds of blazes and whole swaths of the city left in rubble, which took decades to repair. According to Robert Kaiser, a former Washington Post reporter who covered the riots, the 82nd arrived after the violence had pretty much ended. They didnt walk the streets, Kaiser recalled. They mainly drove around in big trucks. Advertisement Advertisement Todays troubles amount to nothing remotely so devastating. But they do reveal that the police in many cities are ill-trained to useor, more to the point, refrain from usingthe heavily militarized arsenals that their departments have purchased, or that have been handed down by the Pentagon, to deal with terrorists, real or imagined, since the 9/11 attacks. Hoisting so much firepower, and shielded by so much protective gear, some (though far from all) of these police swagger into hot zones, psyched up to meet and defeat the enemy, instead of looking for opportunities to defuse tension. Sending in the Army and the Marinesnot mere National Guard reservists, who have already been deployed in some cities, but active-duty battalions trained to fight in places like Fallujah, Iraq, and Kandahar, Afghanistanwould only aggravate the turmoil. The armed forces, flying in to a city for the first time, have neither any knowledge of the local scene nor any time or incentive to scope out distinctions between the peaceful protesters and the looters or provocateurs. And their presence would legitimize the us-versus-them aggressions of the more gung-ho police. Advertisement Advertisement Trump has waved away any need for fine-tuning, slamming the full panoply of crowds on the streets as anarchists, terrorists, losers, and lowlifes, and heaving contempt on democrat governors who call for unity or understanding as laughing stocks and weak, exhorting them to get much tougher. Advertisement Advertisement Always eager to satisfy the boss, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, perhaps in a swoon of nostalgia for his days as an infantry officer in the Gulf War before settling into a string of desk jobs, spoke of the need to control the battle space, as if his own countrys cities were theaters of foreign wars. Then there is Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, assigned by Trump to coordinate military operations in the cities, strutting around the streets of D.C. Monday night in full battle uniform, even escorting Trump to his photo-op across the street from the White House in front of St. Johns Episcopal Church, where a fire was set in the basement the night beforea scene, with Trump hoisting an unopened Bible, that his aides have already memorialized as a made-for-campaign video. Left on the cutting room floor was a scene, just minutes before, when police fired tear gas at peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square so the president could make his appearance unimpeded by bottles or catcalls. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its unclear what Milley was doing there in the first place. Since the Goldwater-Nichols reforms passed in 1986, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs has no role in military operations. U.S. Northern Command was created in 2002 to defend the homeland (though the premise was that we might be attacked by foreigners). But this is high reelection drama for Trump, so he wants the nations top officer to survey the scene. Its head-shaking that Esper and Milley signed up for these scenery-chewing roles. Michael Hayden, retired four-star general, former director of the CIA and NSA, tweeted of the chairmans appearance, I was appalled to see him in his battle dress, adding, Milley (hes a general?!?) should not have walked over to the church with Trump. Advertisement Advertisement Again, the president can do all this, if he wants. He could have named Jared Kushner to devise battle tactics, if hed wanted (who knows, maybe he has). But it is way disproportionate to the crisis at hand. The militarization might swiftly crush the troublemakers, though it might also crush a lot of legitimate protesters and bystanders. It will likely prolong and intensify the protest, too. In the long run, it will further discredit the institutions of our government and further splinter our politics and society. Advertisement This, of course, is what Trump wants. Reuters reported on Sunday that some White House officials advised him to hold listening sessions with mayors and community leaders and to deliver a speech to the nation. But, as the Washington Post reported, they dropped the idea when they realized Trump had nothing to say. Advertisement Trump has made it very clear that he has no interest in calming the nation or unifying its factions. He phoned the family of George Floyd, the man killed by police in Minneapolis, in the horrible videotaped incident that triggered the protests. But the victims brother, Philonise Floyd, later said that the conversation lasted probably two minutes and that Trump didnt give me an opportunity to even speak. I was trying to talk to him, but he just kept, like, pushing me off. Lacking the inclination to pay so much as lip service to the concept of bringing the people together, Trump is instead reverting to his default strategy of firing up his base. Hence his hoisting the Bible in front of the fire-damaged churchthough only for a photo-op, moving the Rt. Rev. Mariann Budde, Episcopal bishop of Washington, to decry his tactic as outrageous and antithetical to the teachings of Jesus. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hence, too, Trumps ultratough rhetoric and his call-up of the toughest of the tough, seeing no needbelieving it would be seen as an act of weaknessto try to solve the crisis through a shrewd mix of conciliation, dialogue, and more traditional law enforcement. The mix might have been a plausible one: Many protesters have decried the looters and, when possible, turned them over to police. Trump wants fire and bloodshed, then he wants to douse it with more and take credit for the smoldering peace. This is the only path to a queasy stability thats consistent with his character and thus the only road open to reelection, which, in everything he does, is his one and only aim. Since it would be too much of a stretch to refer to a series of stage performances as Carnival, the Government has decided to offer instead a Taste of Carnival. For traditional Carnival interests whose events will be facilitated and supported by the State, the proposal presented on Wednesday by the Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts, Randall Mitchell, must be a welcome case of half a loaf being plenty better than none. As the Ford government makes plans for a regional reopening of Ontarios economy, the latest COVID-19 case numbers from across the province suggest we may be already feeling the effects of loosened restrictions. On a day when the province once again fell short of reaching capacity of 20,000 COVID-19 tests, the number of new reported cases of the virus in Ontario rose above 400 on Monday for the first time in six days. If reopening the economy is something Ontario simply must do, then a lot more has to be done to mitigate the impact of increased social interactions, said Susan Bondy, associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Torontos Dalla Lana School of Public Health. The challenge is, if you regain your freedom and try to go back into lockdown, are people more likely to resist the lockdown a second time? Bondy and other experts spoke with the Star to provide their thoughts on the following data points that show how Ontario is faring in its battle with the new coronavirus. Here is what they told us: Cases on the rise in Ontario On Monday, regional health units in Ontario reported another 458 new COVID-19 cases since Sunday, marking a significant increase. Mondays increase in reported Ontario cases included a jump of more than 100 new cases in Haldimand-Norfolk, which has seen dozens of cases in an outbreak among migrant farmers. The latest numbers represent an increase from April, when cases appeared to steadily decline throughout the month before climbing again at the beginning of May. The provinces health units had been reporting fewer than 400 cases per day for nearly a week before the figure climbed above that on June 1. Rather than show a steady decline in the number of cases per day, as we did in April, our numbers have gone back up and appear to be staying roughly within the same ballpark, said Isaac Bogoch, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of Toronto and Toronto General Hospital. Bondy noted that with the increasingly busy streets weve seen lately as the weather has warmed, we might expect to see a rise in cases. We know that things are loosening up, we know that there are more human interactions on average than at the severe lockdown, she said. We may already be seeing an increase. Since the outset of the pandemic, 30,044 Ontarians have tested positive for COVID-19 and 2,336 people have died. Toronto accounts for big chunk of cases A rolling seven-day average of daily new cases in the city of Toronto, compared to the rest of Ontario, shows that the provinces capital accounted for nearly half of all Ontario cases towards the end of May. On June 1, the city reported 164 cases while regional public health units excluding Toronto reported 294 cases. It shows that Toronto, being the dense urban centre that it is, still carries much of the burden of COVID-19 in Ontario right now, said Todd Coleman, an epidemiologist and assistant professor in health sciences at Wilfrid Laurier University. While Torontos share of COVID-19 cases is nearly the equivalent of the rest of Ontarios share, Coleman says he believes the gap between the two regions could widen if a second wave of the pandemic ensues from new reopening measures. Reopening in Ontario means something different than reopening in Toronto, Coleman explains. In Toronto, going to places like retail stores or parks means potentially taking public transit or walking through crowded neighbourhoods. The rest of Ontario doesnt experience the same density. GTA cases outpacing those outside GTA Up until around the beginning of April, the number of new cases reported daily within and without the Greater Toronto Area were similar. But then numbers in the GTA began to increase rapidly compared to non-GTA cases, peaking at 559 reported cases on April 22, before dropping down at the beginning of May to around 300 daily cases, where the seven-day rolling average remained more or less constant for about three weeks. In the second half of May, new daily GTA cases jumped above 400 for three days (May 19, 22 and 23), bringing the rolling average up again. The number of new GTA cases reported on June 1 was 270. Meanwhile, the number of reported daily cases outside the GTA has continued to decline, widening the gap. After hitting 102 cases on May 19, non-GTA cases stayed in the double digits until June 1, when 188 new cases were reported, thanks in part to the more than 100 new cases in Haldimand-Norfolk. Bondy said that while the gap between the GTA and the rest of the province is wide, regional reopening carries the risk that people who have the virus will move and take it with them. Youre quite likely to then have outbreaks in smaller communities, she said, noting that depending on the public health capacity of smaller communities, it could be devastating to individual towns and you wont know where or who is going to get hit. Its uncomfortable from a purely public health disease protection standpoint to suggest regional opening. Toronto vs. Montreal On Monday, Quebec embarked on its next phase of jump-starting its economy, with numerous public and private institutions and businesses given the go-ahead to open their doors. These include courthouses across the province, daycares in the Greater Montreal area, campgrounds and marinas, pet-grooming services and shopping malls outside Greater Montreal. The moves to reopen Quebec so quickly come as its biggest city, Montreal, has seen much higher COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people than Ontarios largest city. Cases in Ontario and Quebec make up 87 per cent of the total reported cases in Canada to date. Compared to Montreal, Toronto has fared well with fewer than 10 new cases per 100,000 people reported per day on a rolling seven-day average since the beginning of the pandemic. Montreal, on the other hand, has seen its rolling seven-day average fluctuate between 10 and 20 cases per day per 100,000 for the most part. Jack Siemiatycki, an epidemiology professor at the University of Montreal, cautioned that confirmed cases are not representative of the total number of cases in the population because the threshold to meet just to get tested, at least until recently, was high. With that in mind, he said he doesnt think we have enough good data to open the economy, but at the same time we dont have good data to allow us to make the incredibly costly decision to remain closed indefinitely. So were caught between a rock and a hard place. Any decision we make is based on imperfect and possibly erroneous data, said Siemiatycki, who has been advocating for better surveillance data in the population at large, including random sampling, since the beginning of the epidemic. With files from Ed Tubb Kenyon Wallace is a Toronto-based investigative reporter for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @KenyonWallace or reach him via email: kwallace@thestar.ca Police in Walnut Creek and Oakland fired tear gas at protesters during the fourth night of demonstrations in the Bay Area to condemn the killing of George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer. The tear gas in Oakland came after the conclusion of a large peaceful march that included speeches outside City Hall. Police fired canisters into a group of more than 100 protesters who had marched to the citys police headquarters near Interstate 980 as an 8 p.m. curfew approached. Earlier, Walnut Creek police used tear gas on marchers who briefly closed Interstate 680. The unrest came as more Bay Area cities and counties imposed curfews on Monday. Alameda County announced a curfew for 8 p.m. Oakland, Berkeley, Vallejo and other cities announced curfews of their own, while San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Rosa and other cities extended curfews already in place. Contra Costa County asked residents to stay off the streets but did not impose a curfew. Now Playing: East Bay columnist Otis R. Taylor Jr. talks about the rage and unrest that's followed the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, and his experience covering the protests as a black journalist. Video: San Francisco Chronicle In Oakland, an organized protest began after 4 p.m. with a march down Broadway from Oakland Technical High School to City Hall. The marchers paused at Frank Ogawa Plaza outside City Hall, where speakers decried the killings of black men and women by police. Police estimated that as many as 15,000 people were in the march and subsequent rally. Stanley Petey Cox, an Oakland rapper known as Mistah F.A.B., stood on a red flatbed truck with a sign that listed the names of black Americans killed by police and spoke to the crowd of hundreds gathered in front of City Hall. We are here because were fed up. This is a boiling point, America, Cox told the crowd to roaring cheers. A protest without a plan and a list of demands is more like a parade. At the same time, Cox condemned violence and urged protesters to honor the Alameda County curfew and to get home safely. If your intentions are negative, please exit stage left, he said. Now Playing: From peaceful protest to mass arrests: Police in Oakland fires tear gas at protesters condemning the killing of George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer during the fourth night of demonstrations in the Bay Area. Video: Matthias Gafni, Mallory Moench, Erika Carlos Among the people marching and listening was Falilah Bilal, who brought her family of seven and stood near the flatbed truck where Cox and others addressed the crowd. Changes need to happen in our nation and young people need to be part of that, the 47-year-old said. My daughter said, Mom, we need to be out here with the people. Another participant was James Fisher, 19, who marched near the front of the protest proceeding down Broadway holding high a sign that read What do you gain from killing us? People say violence is not the answer the only thing I can say is that violence is the thing that started this, said Fisher, an Oakland resident who is a sophomore at Howard University in Washington, D.C. We cant live like this forever. As for President Trumps message urging governments to crack down on violence, Fisher shrugged his shoulders: I dont really care what he says. Its not worth my time and energy. Michael Short/Special to The Chronicle Though most participants headed back toward Oakland Tech, others stayed behind and went to police headquarters where they were stopped by a large skirmish line of police. The first tear gas canisters were fired at around 7:45 p.m. shortly after police announcements of the impending curfew. The remaining protesters then headed back Broadway to around 14th Street, followed by police. No more tear gas was fired, and there were approximately 40 arrests on the scene of the protesters who remained, said police spokeswoman Johnna Watson. Asked about the level of response at the very start of curfew, Watson indicated it was a strategic change following this weekend, when late night looting was extensive both downtown and in several neighborhood commercial districts. There would now be zero tolerance for violence and destruction of businesses, Watson said: We absolutely cannot have the level of violence and damage that weve had in our city over the last five days. Watson said. In San Francisco, the one protest Monday evening was outside City Hall, where about 100 people kneeled in the street at Civic Center Plaza while chanting Kneel for George Floyd. Some carried signs, including one in white neon that said White Silence is Violence on one side and Revolution does not end at 8 pm on the other. Most of the protesters wore masks to protect themselves from the coronavirus, as did police. Only a dozen or two protesters remained on the scene at 8:10 p.m., when police announced three times that the curfew would be enforced. Officers spilled out from Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, and arrested at least two people who had lingered on the scene. Earlier, as people assembled, Cara Patricia of San Francisco had sat with a group of protesters facing City Hall holding a sign that read: All power to the people. Black Lives Matter. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Michael Short/Special to The Chronicle Its important to put my body in places of support for black and brown people who have been victimized in our country for decades, Patricia said adding that this was the first protest she has attended related to the killing of George Floyd but: Unfortunately, Im able to use the same signs that I have before. Looting hit San Francisco in the afternoon. At around 3 p.m., a group of 30 to 50 juveniles burglarized Target on Geary Boulevard, San Francisco police said. The youths entered the store, took several items and fled before police officers arrived. Store employees were still determining the loss and no arrests were made, police said. Some of the worst violence as of early Monday evening occurred in Walnut Creek. After protesters moved onto Interstate 680 and blocked traffic in both directions at around 5:30 p.m., police officers used tear gas, rubber bullets and flash bangs to clear them out, according to multiple reporters at the scene. There also was a march with several hundred participants that gathered peacefully in Civic Park and marched through the upscale suburbs downtown. But after the the citys curfew took effect at 6 p.m., police reported that several police and protesters were injured and there were several arrests. According to the police statement, vandalizing of property occured and some in the crowd refused to disperse. Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The Chronicle There also were protests that briefly closed Highway 101 on two ends of the region, in Palo Alto and Santa Rosa. As the night wore on, instead of the protests and marches that took place throughout the region during the day and early evening, there was looting. In Richmond, after 200 or so people broke into Hilltop Mall near Interstate 80, police arrived on the scene and arrested about 15 looters. There also was looting further north on I-80 in Vallejo and Fairfield. In Vallejo, police were inundated with reports of looting, and in Fairfield, police responded to reports of looting at Solano Town Center, with stores such as Best Buy apparently targeted. Chronicle staff writer John King and Anna Bauman contributed to this report. Matthias Gafni, Lizzie Johnson, Mallory Moench and Matthew Kawahara are Chronicle staff writers. Email: matthias.gafni@sfchronicle.com, ljohnson@sfchronicle.com, mkawahara@sfchronicle.com, mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mallorymoench, @matthewkawahara, @lizziejohnsonnn, @mgafni Clockwise from top left: Neil Gordon Buchan, Joseph William Poynter, James Titus Beatt, Bao Nguyen Brown, Jeffrey George Brown, Michael Czerny and Perry Scott Blair. (PHOTOS: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore) SINGAPORE Six men and one woman were charged in court on Tuesday (2 June) for breaching COVID-19 safe distancing measures at Robertson Quay on 16 May. The six men are Neil Gordon Buchan, Perry Scott Blair, Jeffrey George Brown, Michael Czerny, James Titus Beatt and Joseph William Poynter, while the woman is Bao Nguyen Brown and is married to Jeffrey George. They are aged between 30 and 52. All were charged for meeting individuals outside of their residence to chat and have drinks, contravening the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) (Control Order) Regulations 2020. Jeffrey George, Czerny and Bao Nguyen, all share the same lawyer, Mirza Namazie. Lawyers Shashi Nathan and Jaya Y represented Buchan and Beatt, while lawyer Christopher Bridges represented Poynter and Blair. Shashi told Yahoo News Singapore that he was appointed last week, and will be sending in representations to calibrate the sentences for his clients. All will return to court on 16 June. A bail of $3,000 was offered to each. If convicted of their offences, each will be jailed up to six months and/or fined up to $10,000. Michael Czerny walking into the State Courts on 2 June. (PHOTOS: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore) Michael Czerny Czerny, a 45-year-old Austrian citizen and Singapore permanent resident, is charged with one count of meeting Jeffrey George and Bao Nguyen, individuals not living in the same residence, without reasonable excuse, on 16 May between two 6.08pm and 6.40pm in the vicinity of TAP @ Robertson Quay to chat and have drinks. Namazie told the court that he has two children studying in Singapore. Bao Nguyen Brown walking into the State Courts on 2 June. (PHOTOS: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore) Bao Nguyen Brown Bao Nguyen, a 40-year-old US citizen on employment pass, is charged with one count of meeting Jeffrey George and Czerny, individuals not living in the same residence, without reasonable excuse, on 16 May between two 6.08pm and 6.40pm in the vicinity of TAP @ Robertson Quay to chat and have drinks. Her lawyer Namazie told the court that she has a son in school here and has been in Singapore for 14 years. Jeffrey George Brown walking into the State Courts on 2 June. (PHOTOS: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore) Jeffrey George Brown Jeffrey George, a 52-year-old US citizen, is charged with one count of meeting Bao Nguyen and Czerny, individuals not living in the same residence, without reasonable excuse, on 16 May between two 6.08pm and 6.40pm in the vicinity of TAP @ Robertson Quay to chat and have drinks. Story continues James Titus Beatt walking into the State Courts on 2 June.(PHOTOS: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore) James Titus Beatt Beatt, a 33-year-old British citizen who works in the finance industry, is accused of meeting Buchan, Blair and Poynter, individuals not living in the same residence, without reasonable excuse, on 16 May between two 6.19pm and 6.44pm in the vicinity of Rosso Vinto at 15 Merbau Road to chat and have drinks. Beatt is on an employment pass. Neil Gordon Buchan walking into the State Courts on 2 June.(PHOTOS: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore) Neil Gordon Buchan Buchan, a 30-year-old British citizen in the marine industry, is accused of meeting Beatt, Blair and Poynter, individuals not living in the same residence, without reasonable excuse, on 16 May between two 6.19pm and 6.44pm in the vicinity of Rosso Vinto at 15 Merbau Road to chat and have drinks. Buchan is also on an employment pass. Perry Scott Blair walking into State Courts on 2 June. (PHOTOS: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore) Perry Scott Blair Blair, a 37-year-old British citizen and employment pass holder, is accused of meeting Beatt, Buchan and Poynter, individuals not living in the same residence, without reasonable excuse, on 16 May between two 6.19pm and 6.44pm in the vicinity of Rosso Vinto at 15 Merbau Road to chat and have drinks. Joseph William Poynter walking into the State Courts on 2 June.(PHOTOS: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore) Joseph William Poynter The 35-year-old British citizen and employment pass holder is charged with one count of meeting Beatt, Buchan and Blair, individuals not living in the same residence, without reasonable excuse, on 16 May between two 6.19pm and 6.44pm in the vicinity of Rosso Vinto at 15 Merbau Road to chat and have drinks. Convicted foreigners risk having work passes revoked: MOM The charges came after photos of people having gatherings outside various bars and restaurants at Robertson Quay went viral on social media on 16 May, sparking investigations by the Urban Redevelopment Authority and the police. The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has reminded foreigners working in Singapore on work passes to abide by the countrys laws, especially as a slew of measures have been implemented as part of a nationwide effort to break the chain of COVID-19 transmission. Regardless of pass types, those who are convicted for offences risk having their work passes revoked, in addition to an employment ban, a MOM spokesperson told Yahoo News Singapore. We have consistently revoked the work passes of persons convicted of criminal offences or for making false declarations in work pass applications. They include holders of work permits, S Pass and Employment Passes. In the last three years, more than 100 Employment Pass holders have their work passes revoked. As part of a nation-wide circuit breaker to break the chain of COVID-19 transmissions, the Singapore government has introduced a range of measures such as requiring for everyone to wear a mask whenever they leave their homes. These measures are enforced to strictly regardless of nationality. Singaporeans and foreigners alike have been penalised for flouting the rules. These have been widely publicised. Work pass holders are reminded to take these rules seriously, for their own protection and the safety of the community at large. For each charge of flouting COVID-19 regulations, the accused can be jailed for up to six months, fined up to S$10,000, or both. Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore Related story: Seven to be charged for Robertson Quay gatherings amid circuit breaker Police investigating non-Singaporeans over crowding at Robertson Quay: Masagos MADISON, Wis., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Through the Wisconsin Food and Farm Support Fund, Rural Mutual Insurance and Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation are raising money and awareness for Feeding Wisconsin and the Harvest of Hope program. Corporate partners of Rural Mutual have stepped up to donate to the fund, including the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago. Their donation, in combination with individual contributions, brings the total amount raised to approximately $43,000 during the last four weeks. "It's encouraging to see how these tough times have brought many people closer together to support their communities. We've raised a significant amount in a short period of time and look forward to seeing the fund continue to grow," says Jason Feist, VP of Customer Acquisition and Service at Rural Mutual Insurance. During this time many need support, that's why Rural Mutual Insurance and Wisconsin Farm Bureau partnered their fundraising efforts to create the Wisconsin Food and Farm Support Fund. Rural Mutual Insurance is focusing on collecting funds for Feeding Wisconsin. Feeding Wisconsin is the statewide association of the Feeding America food banks. Specifically, the funds have been used to provide dairy products to the food pantries to encourage movement/consumption of milk and other Wisconsin agriculture products. Wisconsin Farm Bureau is focusing on collecting funds for Harvest of Hope, a farm family crisis relief fund that is supported by the Madison Christian Community. Wisconsin farm families that are experiencing financial stress can fill out a short application requesting up to $1,500. "We are grateful to everyone who has contributed to this effort," said Wisconsin Farm Bureau President and Rural Mutual Insurance President Joe Bragger. "We take pride in providing some support to those who need it." Learn more about the Wisconsin Food and Farm Support Fund by visiting ruralmutual.com/about/donations or wfbf.com/wisconsin-food-and-farm-support-fund. Rural Mutual Insurance Company has been protecting Wisconsin for 85 years. As an AM Best A+ Superior company, Rural Mutual provides a full line of insurance products exclusively to families, businesses and farms in Wisconsin. The company is headquartered in Madison, WI with over 150 local agents across the state. For more information, visit RuralMutual.com. Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation is the state's largest general farm organization and is made up of 61 county Farm Bureaus. WFBF represents farms of every size, commodity and management style. For more information, visit wfbf.com . SOURCE Rural Mutual Insurance Company Related Links www.RuralMutual.com Auction markets across capital cities continued to show signs of improvement as restrictions are being lifted by state governments, according to CoreLogic. Over the weekend, 867 homes went under the hammer, up from the previous weekend's 612 homes. Preliminary figures show that 65.9% of the auctions over the weekend were successful. Caitlin Fono, analyst at CoreLogic, said activity continues to be more muted compared to last year and the months pre-COVID-19. Over the same period last year, 1,661 homes were auctioned. However, the number of auctions over the weekend showed that the market activity is on its way to recovery. "The trend has been towards more auctions held and a substantial reduction in the proportion of auctions withdrawn prior to the event. The number of auctions held this week was the highest since the week ending 19 April," she said. Also read: How To Reap A Profit From Property Auctions Melbourne dethroned Sydney as the most successful auction market, with 71.9% of 259 auctions pushing through a sale. However, Sydney remained the busiest, hosting 469 auctions that returned a preliminary auction clearance rate of 68.1%. Leanne Pilkington, president of the Real Estate Institute of New South Wales, said Sydney's recent auction results indicate signs of confidence from potential buyers. "Property is a long-term asset acquisition; it cannot be lumped in with share-market volatility. We cannot predict what will be happening in the housing market in six months' time, but the data makes it clear, it is not collapsing around us right now." The table below show the recent auction figures for each capital city: Protests against police brutality have erupted across the country over the past three days, leading to tough classroom conversations about race, racism, and police violence. Teachers, already struggling to reach students during the coronavirus pandemic, are now searching for ways to help them work through their feelings about the protests and the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other unarmed black men and womenwithout being with their students in person. The death of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was shot while jogging by two white men in Georgia earlier this month, has also inflamed national tensions. Its a daunting conversation to have through a screen, many teachers said. The death of Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis who died last week as a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, has sparked national outrage. Protesters took to the streets in dozens of U.S. cities over the weekend, chanting phrases like No justice, no peace, and I cant breathe. In many cases, peaceful protests turned into violent unrest, with police shooting tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowds and protesters setting fires, smashing storefront windows, and looting stores. More than 4,000 protesters were arrested, according to the Associated Press. Black teachers are facing an additional burden when discussing these events with students, said Evin Shinn, an 11th grade U.S. history and language arts teacher at Cleveland High School in Seattle. Hes one of only three black teachers at his school, and he feels called upon to address the protests and police brutality with his students, despite the emotional toll. Ninety percent of students at his school are students of color, and 20 percent are black. Its hard because as a teacher, youre not a therapist, youre not a social worker, youre not a doctor or a nursebut those are all roles we take on when you become a teacher, Shinn said. Particularly as a black educator, its so important to show up for students in moments like this. He messaged his students on the app Remind and told them he wasnt assigning any work this week. Instead, he wrote that students should do something to stop racismlike write a letter to elected officials, make a protest sign, or write a poem reflecting on inequities and the protests. Then, he messaged his black students individually to see if they were OK and if theres anything he could do for them. I was very open, Shinn said, telling students that Im feeling definitely sad, and Im feeling hopeless and angry, and I feel rage. How are you doing? How are you feeling? Students told him they felt like this was one big emotional rollercoaster. One student said they were staying off social media because theres a lot going on, and its really sad. Usually, Im there to process with students, Shinn said. Theres something about showing up and being in that space together and trying to figure out what its going to look like together, and we dont have that space. On Wednesday, hell hold a virtual class meeting for any students who want to talk and process their emotions. Abdul Wright, who teaches 8th grade language arts in North Minneapolis, also dropped his planned lessons last week. As protests filled the streets in his students neighborhoods, he devoted his virtual classroom to discussing the death of George Floyd, and the response from the community. Right now, in his class, Wright says, nothing else matters. I have to find a way to make meaning of this in a way that creates a better society for them, he said. Still, the idea of creating a lesson around these events drained him. Wright is black, and most of his students are as well. When you lived it and endured it, what it means to live unjust experiences, it triggers you. My people and the people in my community, we carry so much trauma, he said. In a virtual meeting with his students last week, Wright introduced the Martin Luther King Jr. quote about riots: A riot is the language of the unheard. He gave students space to talk about their feelings toward the protests that have, at times, turned violent, with protesters setting fires and breaking into businesses. Students disagreed about protest tacticssome said that confrontation and damaging property would make protestors look bad, Wright said. But another student said that protestors shouldnt be seeking public approval, and that black people have been criticized for protest of all forms. It doesnt matter, Wright remembers her saying, were going to look bad regardless. For many teachers, however, the school year is over, and they dont have the opportunity to hold complex class discussions. Patrick Harris, a 6th and 7th grade English and social studies teacher at the Detroit Achievement Academy, had wrapped up his virtual classes last week. This week was meant to be spent preparing for his end-of-year conferences with students and their parents. But after protests spread throughout Detroit over the weekend, Harris, who is black, asked his students, who are mostly black, to write a reflection. So far, he said, students have commented about how unfair the killing of Floydand other unarmed black men and womenwas. Theyre confirming that this is something weve always seenthis is not a new image, he said. Theyre not shocked by the revelation that black people are being assaulted by police officers, killed and murdered by police. Right before school buildings shut down due to the coronavirus outbreak, Harris had wrapped up a unit about the origins of race, where students learned about DNA and skin color, the history of the racial hierography, and the concept of race as a social construct. He hopes students will be able to draw connections between that foundation and whats happening now. If school buildings were open, Harris said he would be helping students make those explicit connections, as well as creating space for students to express their feelings and frustrations. The one thing thats the hardest with distance learning is that students are not able to be around their peers as often, and theyre not able to talk to them and process in kid language, Harris said, adding that while he knows students are likely texting with each other, theres nothing like the classroom in really guiding a safe space, [with] the teacher being a facilitator whos pushing them to go deeper. George Floyd Could Be Me In Minneapolis, teachers first priority is helping their students and their neighborhoods survive, Wright said. Staff at the charter school where he works have gone out into the community to support clean-up efforts during the day, picking up trash, organizing food donations, and checking in on local businesses. Our school is closer than any other to the epicenter of the protests and the police violence. Our students are just hugely affected. This is their community, said Corinth Matera, an English teacher and journalism adviser at South High School in Minneapolis. Its the Target where they work burning down, or the grocery store they were just at with their mom being taken over. And a lot of students saying, George Floyd could be me. Many of Materas students are protesting, or supporting community relief efforts. I got an email from a student yesterday saying, I got shot by a rubber bullet and I cant feel my hands, so I probably cant finish my essay, Matera said. Teachers at South voted on Monday to award all students credit for the 4th quarter, which ends this week. The staff had already discussed the option in weeks prior, in light of the pandemic, but the weekends events crystalized a final decision, she said: We dont want any student to be worried about or thinking about school work at this point. For now, teachers at the school are focused on emergency aid, Matera said, like getting food and necessities to families now that many grocery stores in the city have been closed or burned. But the protests have underscored how important it is for white teachers to examine their own practice, said Matera. We have too many white teachers in Minnesota. I am a white teacher. And I have been, and other folks have been, calling on our fellow white teachers to really challenge them to see where we are doing damage to our students of color, she said. We need more teachers of color, but we also need, as white teachers, to examine ways in which were complicit in the institutions that are perpetrating this violence against our students. Meanwhile, in Louisville, Ky., Matthew Kaufmann, the states high school teacher of the year, was arrested on Sunday while participating in a protest over the police shooting of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman, in her apartment. Many students and recent graduates were also out there protesting, said Emilie McKiernan Blanton, a high school English teacher. Kentucky teachers have had experience protesting in the past couple years over changes to their pensions, so they gave their students tips, Blanton said, such as bringing water and an external charger for their phones. Shes friends on Facebook with several former students who posted about being tear gassed at the protest. Blanton sent them her phone number and told them to call her if they need a ride, or if theyre arrested and need to be bailed out. Theyre doing peaceful assembly, it just happens to be next to something dangerous, she said. Im very proud of them. Im always proud of my students when they stand up for themselves and do whats right. A Teachable Moment Its important for teachers to address issues of race and racism with their students, educators say, both in these last few weeks of school and when classes resume in the fall. Educators. This is a teachable moment. Dont be afraid to teach about the meaning of justice and the murder of George Floyd by the police. Our students are watching. Pedro Noguera (@PedroANoguera) June 1, 2020 Here are some resources from nonprofits and media outlets that can help guide classroom conversations on race: The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture launched an online portal called Talking About Race thats designed to help steer conversations about racism, racial identity, and the way these forces shape every aspect of society. thats designed to help steer conversations about racism, racial identity, and the way these forces shape every aspect of society. PBS NewsHour Extra released a lesson plan for grades 6-12 about the death of George Floyd. The plan includes a news video (that omits the footage of Floyds death) and discussion questions about the protests, police brutality, and media literacy. for grades 6-12 about the death of George Floyd. The plan includes a news video (that omits the footage of Floyds death) and discussion questions about the protests, police brutality, and media literacy. The New York Times Learning Network shared an article about the protests, along with discussion questions, and opened comments for students to share their opinion . . The Pulitzer Center partnered with the New York Times to turn the 1619 Project, a collection of essays and literary works observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery, into a curriculum for teachers of all grade levels . The curriculum includes reading guides, activities, and other resources about the history of race in America. . The curriculum includes reading guides, activities, and other resources about the history of race in America. Teaching Tolerance, a project by the Southern Poverty Law Center, periodically updates its package on teaching about race, racism, and police violence . Educators also shared book recommendations on Twitter, both for their students and for themselves. And Joe Truss, a middle school principal in San Francisco, tweeted a list of actions for white teachers to take nowincluding learning about restorative practices and redesigning curriculum to empower and engage students of color. Think about how you can elevate and center the black experience in your curricula, year around, not just a negative stories of oppresssion but lift up stories and examples of resistance, affirmation, and empowerment. Joe Truss (@trussleadership) June 1, 2020 Harris, the Detroit teacher, said its the responsibility of all educators to adopt an anti-racist approach and amplify the voices of the marginalized in their classrooms. To start the conversation, he said, teachers should ask their students, from kindergarten on up, two basic questions: Is this fair? And how does this make you feel? Teachers cannot be silent during this time, Harris said. Teachers have to take a stand. Students are absorbing this, [and] theyre going to ask themselves later on in life or even now, What was my teacher doing during this time? Image: Protestors in New York City rally against the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd at the hands of police on May 31. John Nacion/STAR MAX via AP EXCITING TIMES By Naoise Dolan Already drawing comparisons to Sally Rooneys work, Exciting Times, by Naoise Dolan, has many of the familiar tropes of the millennial novel covered: Jealousy and obsession, love and late capitalism, sex and the internet all come whirling together in a wry and bracing tale of class and privilege. The protagonist, Ava, is an intelligent, 22-year-old loner who moves from her native Dublin to Hong Kong to teach English, with no discernible qualifications other than being white. Not long after her arrival, she finds herself on a lunch date with Julian, an Oxford-educated British banker in his late 20s. She hopes hell be as impressed by her youth and attractiveness as she is by his salary, which she has Googled, thoroughly. I wasnt good at most things but I was good at men, Ava confides in the reader, and Julian was the richest man Id ever been good at. Soon they are sleeping together, and Ava moves into Julians flat. She is highly attuned both to the power dynamics at play (do you want me to depend on you? she asks him) and to her moral predicament, as she adds up how much money she is saving on rent, as well as on the clothes and meals Julian pays for with the funds he doesnt know what to do with. Ava admires how Julian handles his advantages, how he could calmly note where he benefited from unfairness not self-indulgently like I often did, but factually. As their undefined relationship goes on, she begins to develop her own brand of romantic longing, which begins with a desire for his life of privilege. I loved him potentially, she thinks. That, or I wanted to be him. LONDON, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The extraordinary situation in which we find ourselves as a result of the COVID-19 crisis has led to a temporary sale decline in many economic sectors, but has also led to an increases in others. Industries such as pharmaceuticals, food and technology have seen an increase in turnover in recent months. However, other sectors have also been able to adapt the products and services that they offer to meet the needs of the market. Many businesses have either taken the leap into the online sphere or strengthened their existing resources in this channel in order to lessen the negative effects caused by the pandemic. According to statistics provided by Easy Payment Gateway, the Spanish payment services and fraud management aggregator, their clients saw a 10% growth in transaction processing volume compared to the data from the previous month. This was especially evident within the gambling sector, in which companies have managed to increase their sales during this period thanks to their vast presence on the internet. Over the past few weeks, Easy Payment Gateway have been able to observe how many of their customers - especially those in the gambling sector - have asked them to manage their expansion into other markets like Latin America, Asia and some African countries. "Offering products or services in other countries requires a wide variety of payment options, so as not to lose sales in any region," warns Manuel Prieto, CEO of Easy Payment Gateway. In fact, according to Modularbank data, 83% of UK consumers say that payment technology is a key criterion when making purchases online. In addition, 42% admit that they would abandon a high value transaction if their favourite payment method were not available. Thanks to the one-of-a-kind technology provided by this Spanish company, it is possible to offer the customer a wide range of payment methods to ensure that their preferred option is available, thus improving their shopping experience which is reflected in increased sales. The Easy Payment Gateway platform offers customers 240 suitable payment methods, of which 190 are alternatives. In addition, they work with 35 bank card processors worldwide, all with a single integration. "In this extraordinary situation you have to look for solutions that bring in business and help to promote growth, always considering the varying characteristics of each sector. At Easy Payment Gateway, we have a unique, user-friendly payment technology that helps to finalise transactions and facilitates internationalization," concludes Prieto. In brief: Samsung unveiled its Odyssey lineup of curved high-end gaming monitors at CES this year and has now launched the smaller G7 variant, which comes in 32-inch and 27-inch display sizes. Samsung literally went ahead of the curve with its Odyssey gaming monitor lineup revealed at CES 2020. The company has now announced the global launch of the G7 model, which boasts an impressive 1000R curvature for increased immersion, 1ms response time (GTG), and a 240Hz refresh rate on a 2,560 x 1,440 QLED display. Other specs include HDR 600 certification, a 350 nit bright display that maxes out at 600 nits, as well as support for Nvidia's G-Sync and AMD's FreeSync Premium Pro. In terms of connectivity, there's 2 x DisplayPort 1.4, 1 x HDMI 2.0, 1 x USB 3.0 uplink, 2 x USB 3.0 downlink, and a headphone jack. Apart from the monitor's rear I/O, Samsung has also given the back a unique look with what looks like a floating orb or an energy core powering the display. It isn't, obviously, but the hardware is part of Samsung's "infinity core lighting" system, which the company says can be dimmed or set to static during gaming, with support for up to 52 color options and five lighting effects. The Odyssey G7 is now available to pre-order on Amazon, where it releases on July 13, 2020. Prices are set at $700 for the 27-inch model and $800 for the 32-inch variant. For UK residents, the monitor comes out ten days earlier, priced at 550 (27-inch), and 630 (32-inch). They also can - apparently - pre-order the flagship 49-inch Odyssey G9 on Overclockers UK for a whopping 1,280 ($1,600+). Irish MEP Luke 'Ming' Flanagan this morning joined a video conference meeting of the EU Agriculture Committee wearing just a shirt and underpants. Mr Flanagan was participating in the Agriculture Committee's meeting to debate the EU long term budget, but when his remote camera was activated, he could be seen sitting on a bed wearing a shirt and underpants. Mr Flanagan could be seen rubbing his upper leg as he said to the committee: "We read in some European newspapers how this money will be broken down state-by-state. Where can MEPs get definitive information on this rather than reading it second-hand from European journalism?" Chair of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, Norbert Lins hid a smile when the camera returned to him, as his English translator attempted not to laugh when putting Mr Flanagan's question to the committee for debate. Taking to Twitter after the incident, the Roscommon Independent politician saw the funny side. Retweeting the video of him, he told Wexford MEP Mick Wallace, who is known for his colourful shirts, "Ill see your pink shirt and raise you a pair of underwear Mick." Replying to comments under the video Mr Flanagan explained that he had been out for a run shortly before the meeting. "Just back from a run James was in a T-shirt two minutes before. Decided to put on shirt to look respectable," he said. "That worked really well." Replying to another tweet, the 48-year-old said: "Just back from a run! Hope you like the legs." Mr Flanagan was also criticised, with one social media user saying: "I dont think its wise to show up with no pants in an official meeting, especially when youre supposed to be an EU decision-maker. Id personally get fired if Id do that. Lack of respect really." To which Mr Flanagan replied: "Youre some craic." U K shares made modest gains despite the pound shooting higher. In the UK, the FTSE-100 Index finished up 53.72 points at 6220.14. The rise came as sterling above $1.25 against the dollar, its highest in a month, as signs emerged that Britain might be willing to compromise on sticking points in Brexit negotiations with the European Union. Britain is expected to indicate flexibility over fisheries and trade rules if the European Union agrees to lessen its demands regarding regulatory alignment and fishing access as a new round of talks kicks off. Britain has until July 1 to ask for an extension to the current transition period, which ends in December. Meanwhile reports that senior Conservative MPs were rallying against UK quarantines boosted travel stocks again today. The idea of reciprocal agreements between the UK and other countries deemed relatively safe would see quarantines lifted. Easyjet and Carnival leapt, while Intercontinental Hotels Group and British Airways owner IAG headed upwards. Away from the FTSE-100, Tui's UK-listed shares gained as it benefited from hopes for better sales to German tourists. Electronics distributer Electrocomponents had a strong session, up on the back of decent revenues. The group said it was trading so well that it will consider making a half-year dividend payment, although it will defer its final divi payment. It said it had so far done no staff furloughing or used the Bank of England's covid commercial paper bond scheme for big companies. Bravo. Across the water and President Trump's threat last night that he would be sending in the National Guard to quell civil unrest in states that fail to stop it themselves received a mixed response from analysts at a time when most investors were grappling with the implications of countries relaxing covid travel restrictions. CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "The main focus once again appeared on the longer-term prospects of the easing of lockdowns across the world, though if the violence on US streets continues for much longer, US investors might have to cope with a lockdown of a different kind, imposed by the National Guard." US shares have so far largely shrugged off the unrest, with investors more concerned about more global factors such as Washington's approach to China in the face of Beijing's belligerence towards Hong Kong. President Donald Trump has had a complicated relationship with US citizens. In wake of the gruesome death of an African-American man George Floyd at the hands of the police, US erupted in protests and shows of solidarity across the country. Trump's tweet "When the looting starts, the shooting starts" labelling the protestors as thugs added fuel to the fire and outraged many on and off social media. To make matters worse for Trump, news of US President taking shelter in the White House bunker when the anti-racism protestors gathered outside his residence became a subject of mockery on social media. Needless to say, Trump isn't in the best of spots and the photos of his vandalised Hollywood Walk Of Fame star have now surfaced on the Internet. THEY DESTROYED TRUMPS STAR pic.twitter.com/0g3Db9ejeF Lucy #BLM (@ghostinevans) June 1, 2020 whoever destroyed trump's star is a hero. thank you. pic.twitter.com/LcHoTC9lab (@catrasvoice) June 1, 2020 Donald Trumps star. pic.twitter.com/2mKjXt7PTj The Academy Music Business (@BenjaminEnfield) May 31, 2020 Did protestors really destroy his star in retaliation of his controversial statements? Not really. Vandalism did take place but the photo of the destroyed Trump star dates back to July 2018, as reported here. An unknown man had annihilated Trump's star with a pickaxe. Later that year, Trump's star was put "behind bars" by a Guerrilla artist who proceeded to add a metal grill on the POTUS' star in Los Angeles. Web Toolbar by Wibiya The current COVID-19 pandemic continues to change how people work, live, and even approach home repairs. Stay at home restrictions and other guidelines are becoming less stringent. However, navigating life in the midst of COVID seems to be a never ending process. Homeowners are feeling the effects of the coronavirus pandemic more than most. This is due to the limited options homeowners have when emergency home repairs become a cause for concern. Preventing emergency home repairs, like plumbing emergencies, is best, according to a blocked drains plumber in Canberra. But what do you do if an emergency hits your home? How does COVID impact getting the problem fixed? Lets take a closer look at a few major home repair emergencies, and how you can get things done amid COVID. Common Emergency Home Repairs To Consider During COVID There are certainly a number of home repairs you can get done during the pandemic. Mainly because you are at home more often. Instead of that Sunday brunch with friends and family, you can tackle tasks around the house. But what happens when emergency home repairs are needed? Here are a few common emergencies to consider: Water heater leaking? This is a pretty common emergency homeowners deal with, especially if your water heater is older. To prevent a major emergency when it comes to your water heater, take a proactive approach. Check the temperature and pressure valve to ensure it is working properly. A broken valve or cracked tank may be causing the leak. Ants in the house? As summer approaches, the little critters around your home will begin coming out. This is a common issue, however, what if ants move into your home by the masses? This may not be a repair by definition, but it is definitely a home emergency. Take a look around your home to see if ants or other bugs have taken up residence. Broken water pipes? This is a serious home emergency, since water can damage your home. Most broken water pipes begin with a leak from a crack that may have developed over the winter. To check, head to the basement of your home to see if any water is pooling or leaking from a pipe. If you see leaks or pools of water, you may have a major broken water pipe emergency coming soon. A water emergency can be costly and annoying, so take action to prevent it. Plumbing becoming a problem? Plumbing is a big time homeowner amenity, because when plumbing emergencies happen, it can cause serious damage. It is also an issue with lifestyle, since using the bathroom normally becomes impossible. Toilets are usual suspects of plumbing problems. Clogs happen, especially in older homes, but continuous clogs are signals of a bigger issue. Maybe even an issue with the septic system of the home. Navigating Home Repairs Amid COVID-19 If any of the above emergency home repairs are an issue for you, it may be time to call in a professional. The first thing you need to do is decide if the home repair is absolutely necessary. This is important, because you will need to let a repair specialist into your home. And you dont know if that repair specialist has COVID. How do you protect you and/or your family from coronavirus while getting emergency home repairs done? Here are a few helpful tips you can employ: Ask The Repair Company The Right Questions Before hiring a repair company, ask the right questions to protect you and/or your family from COVID. For instance, ask the company managers if they are screening workers prior to their shifts. This includes testing, checking temperatures, and ensuring no repair worker is coming to work feeling under the weather. Ensure Repair Specialists Are Taking Protective Measures You should also be asking the repair company if the workers are using protective equipment while on shift. This includes masks, gloves, face shields, and even aprons.If the company says they are, but the worker shows up like there is no pandemic happening in the world, do not let that repair specialist in your home. KIndly tell them they need to wear the proper protective gear and report the incident to the repair company. Keep Your Distance And Clean Post-Repair Even if the repair specialist is wearing the proper protective gear while doing repairs, dont assume you and/or your family isnt at risk. Keep at least six feet from the repair specialists, and be ready to clean post-repair. This includes wearing a mask and gloves when cleaning all areas the worker had been. When done cleaning, wash all clothing used when cleaning and take a shower for at least 15 minutes. Wrapping Up . . . If an emergency home repair happens, take actions to get it fixed. Just be mindful of COVID. You can still tackle repairs around the home, but you will need to take extra measures in order to keep you and/or your family safe. [June 02, 2020] The Fourth Annual WISE Scholarship is Now Accepting Applications from Women in Washington Pursuing a Degree in STEAM SEATTLE, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Alexander Sobel, DO, FAACS, of Bellevue, is pleased to announce that the fourth annual WISE (Women in STEAM Excel) Scholarship is now accepting applications. Created in 2016, the WISE Scholarship was designed to support women who live in Washington as they pursue a degree in a STEAM-related field. "It's no secret that men have long dominated STEAM industries, and I truly believe that reversing the underrepresentation of women in these fields is essential for accelerating the sciences," Dr. Sobel explains. "It is my hope that this scholarship can afford these students greater opportunity to take their rightful seat at the table." In previous years, the WISE Scholarship has been awarded to an engineering student at Seattle University, a geophysics at Western Washington University, and a student of biochemistry and molecular biology at Lewis & Clark College. "Now more than ever, we are happy to give back to our community and support in way we can the growing demand for quality, affordable, and accessible higher education. Above all, there are so many incredible young student leaders who are giving hope to th future of our country in these uncertain times," states Dr. Sobel. All female students living in Washington State who plan to pursue a STEAM-related degree are encouraged to apply for the $1,500 scholarship via a downloadable application . The awarded scholarship funds can be used to offset the cost of tuition and educational expenses, including things like supplies and textbooks, required technology, transportation costs, and on-campus expenses. Applications will be accepted through July 24th, 2020. Submitted applications will be reviewed and vetted by the WISE Scholarship Committee, who will select an award recipient based on the quality of the application and adherence to the scholarship requirements. The chosen recipient will be notified upon selection, and the award will be disbursed via a cash prize. "We are excited to launch the fourth iteration of this scholarship which will introduce us to yet another talented and diverse group of women with a passion for the sciences," says Dr. Sobel. "I wish all of our applicants the very best of luck." About Dr. Alexander Sobel: Dr. Sobel is a triple board-certified surgeon based in Bellevue, Washington. Both in and out of his practice, Dr. Sobel is well-known and respected for his kindness, generosity, and commitment to providing patients with access to safe, quality treatment. His practice is located at 1632 116th Ave. NE, Suite A, Bellevue, WA. For more information, call 425-453-9060 or visit www.andersonsobelcosmetic.com . Media Contact: Pheara Daley, Anderson Sobel Cosmetic Surgery, 425-453-9060 [email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-fourth-annual-wise-scholarship-is-now-accepting-applications-from-women-in-washington-pursuing-a-degree-in-steam-301069062.html SOURCE Anderson Sobel Cosmetic Surgery [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Racism against Nigerians and other Africans is not new in China. Africa-China history is marked by solidarity, but also dented by old and new racism. Nothing at this moment suggests that the current situation will drastically change. Some recent events are low moments in the ever-oscillating relationship between China and Nigeria. A video emerged on 10 April of a Nigerian diplomat in China, Razaq Lawal, publicly criticising his compatriots maltreatment in Guangzhou by Chinese officials. Lawal protested that Nigerians were kept in COVID-19 quarantine beyond the normal 14 days for Chinese citizens. Chinese officials were also seizing their passports. He pointed out that the Nigerian government did not treat Chinese citizens living in Nigeria any differently from its own citizens. The video drew the ire of Nigerians and the Nigerian government. The speaker of Nigerias House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, demanded answers from the Chinese ambassador to Nigeria, Zhou Pingjian. At about the same time the Nigerian Medical Association was protesting a government decision to invite a Chinese medical team to assist in the fight against COVID-19. Based on my research on relations between the two countries (especially in terms of labour relations) over the past decade, I believe that incidents like this may keep recurring. Thats despite the assertion by Nigerias foreign minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, that Nigeria would take definitive steps against China. I identify three main reasons. Why things wont change Official relations date back to February 1971, when Nigeria established diplomatic relations with China. But contact between ordinary Nigerians and Chinese predates the 1967-70 Biafran Civil War. Though some argue that China supported the Biafran forces against the Nigerian government, no post-war government in Nigeria has confirmed Beijings involvement. Along with other African countries, Nigeria supported China as the genuine representative of the Chinese people in 1975. This led to the replacement of Taiwan at the United Nations. High-level bilateral visits followed, setting the stage for increased trade. Although accurate figures are difficult to find, Nigeria-China trade galloped from about $1.8 billion in 2003 to $13.5 billion in 2018. As the relationship grew, more Nigerians established business and other relationships in China. Nigerians maltreatment must, however, be understood within the broader maltreatment of Africans in China. This can be traced to the 1960s, when African students began to arrive in China. It intensified in the 1970s and 1980s when there were protests against and by Africans in China. Coincidentally, a landmark incident that led to the death of a Nigerian happened in 2009 in Guangzhou, where Nigerians were recently maltreated. It led to protests by Nigerians and other Africans, demanding justice from the Chinese police after officers chased the man out of a high-rise window in a tightening security crackdown on illegal over-stayers in the city this year. In 2012, there was another protest by Africans in Guangzhou over the death of a Nigerian in police detention. Its my view that Nigerias reluctance to call out Chinese actions over the years is the main reason why the status quo persists. While publicly painting a picture of equality, China continues to dominate relations with Nigeria, as I observed in a 2015 paper co-authored with Bukola Ajayi. We see this in imbalanced trade, Nigerias growing dependence on China, and Chinas growing importance in Africa. We also drew attention to the issue of counterfeit, adulterated and sub-standard drugs and other products imported from China into Nigeria. Back then, I commented on Chinese labour relations in Nigeria and the challenges of fostering the International Labour Organisations decent work agenda. My paper pointed to the weakness of the Nigerian government to respond to the maltreatment of its citizens by Chinese companies. I argued that this created a space for both civil and uncivil responses by non-state actors. In April 2020 five years later we witnessed another report of maltreatment. The second reason is due to Chinese investment in Nigeria. A good number of Chinese multinationals and small companies operate in Nigeria. Chinese companies in Nigeria are building much needed roads and railways, airports, and telecommunications infrastructure. There are currently about 218 registered Chinese firms in Nigeria. They are involved in construction, furniture, food and beverages, beauty, and product assembling plants, among others. Meanwhile, Nigerias trade deficit against China remains huge. Between 2015 and 2018, for instance, the trade deficit stood at N6.83 trillion (which exchanges for about $17.5 billion today) in favour of China. This affirms that China benefits more at the moment. Though accurate data remains difficult to get, it is estimated that total trade between both countries between 2015 and 2018 was about $49 billion. This means that goods imported from China into Nigeria in that period were about $17.5 billion more than those exported from Nigeria to China. In any case, a significant amount of Nigerias export to China is a primary product: crude oil. With the crash in the crude oil price and a global economic downturn caused by the new coronavirus, Nigeria needs Chinese investment and loans now more than ever. The third reason concerns Chinas financing of development projects. China is a major financier of large projects in Nigeria. These include the $874 million, 187km Abuja-Kaduna rail; the $1.2 billion, 312km Lagos-Ibadan expressway; the $1.1 billion Kano-Kaduna railway lines and the $600 airport terminals in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano. An estimate puts the current cost of Chinese projects at $47 billion. Many of these are financed by Chinese loans. It will be difficult for a country that relies so much on China to take action against Beijing. With the poor labour standards in China itself and institutions weakness in Nigeria to check periodic abuses of Nigerians by Chinese companies, the chances seem low that Nigerian politicians and government will or can seriously respond to Nigerians maltreatment in China. What to do? The latest treatment of Nigerians in China is a dent on Nigeria-China relations. But if relations are to make progress, at least two important issues must be addressed. First, the Chinese government must do more to educate its people, making ordinary Chinese sensitive to issues of racism. Second, Chinese citizens in China must understand that their actions could have implications for their compatriots in Africa. This could affect Chinas long-term relevance in Africa as a partner. But these issues concern not just ordinary Chinese citizens. Racism may be a symptom of much bigger problems for the Chinese government. This could be an opportunity for the Xi Jinping government to learn, and more importantly act. Source: Abdul-Gafar Tobi Oshodi, Lagos State University/ theconversation.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah has claimed that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is going to form the next government in West Bengal with full majority in the upcoming 2021 assembly elections. In an exclusive interview to Network 18s Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi on Monday, Shah said, If Mamata-ji (Banerjee; Bengal Chief Minister) wishes that the BJP should run the government in West Bengal, I promised that her wish will be fulfilled soon as people of Bengal are looking for Parivarta. The BJP will form the next government in the state with full majority. Shahs statement comes two days after Banerjee blamed the central government of adding to the woes of migrant workers with the nationwide lockdown. Migrant workers are facing problems because of the sudden lockdown announcement made by the Centre without keeping the states in the loop. I had earlier told Union Home Minister Amit Shah that if his government feels that we cannot handle the COVID-19 crisis, why dont they (Centre) handle it on their own? This is not the time for doing politics. Where will we keep these migrant labourers for institutional quarantine? Who will take the responsibility if number of COVID-19 cases increases? Bengal is facing a very tough situation due to COVID-19 and Amphan. We need time and space to tackle it. I request the prime minister and the Union home minister to look into the matter to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the state, she had said. Reacting to Banerjees statement, Shah said, I cannot run Bengal because I am a sansad (MP). But I would like to assure that her wishes will be fulfilled as BJP is certainly going to form the government in Bengal with full majority. The law and order situation has collapsed completely in Bengal and we will fulfil her wish by forming the next government there. This is not for the first time when Shah has claimed to form the government in Bengal in 2021. On October 17 last year, in an exclusive interview to Network18s Group Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi, Shah had said, My prediction is that BJP is going to form the government in West Bengal with two-thirds of majority. He had said, Earlier, there was doubt among the people of Bengal whether BJP will win or not. When I used to say that we will win 20 seats (in Bengal), people used to doubt me. Now the doubt is no longer there after we won 18 seats (in the last Lok Sabha polls). In three seats, we lost with a margin of 5,000 - 7,000 votes despite atrocities and rigging. I would like to say that BJP will form the next government with two-thirds of majority in Bengal. With nearly 40 per cent vote share, BJP had managed to win 18 of the states 42 Parliament seats and emerged as a main challenger before Mamata Banerjee in last Lok Sabha polls. United Nations, June 2 : As India begins easing the COVID-19 lockdown, its challenge is population density, but there is optimism because are good models within the country to deal with it, according to Soumya Swaminathan, Deputy Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO). "I think there are big challenges and one of the unique challenges, I think, is the density of population, particularly in the urban areas," she said on Monday. In meeting the challenges, "there are good models within India that have shown that it is possible to do and so we have to remain optimistic", Swaminathan, who is also WHO's chief scientist, added. According to data from India, 70 per cent of cases and deaths are in the 13 most cities and "that's where there is really a need to focus attention and even within those cities there are areas that are microclusters of disease", she said. And the people there "are also in the most weakest, most vulnerable conditions as well". Speaking at a news conference in Geneva, she said that the challenges of keeping the COVID-19 infection down can be met by a strategy involving the local community, developing a plan that is bottom up and is participatory while based on real data. There has to be a lot testing, contact tracing and constant monitoring along with a constant reorientation of the plans according to the data that emerges, she added. The WHO Health Emergencies Programme's technical lead for COVID-19, Maria Van Kerkhove warned that there may be an increase in cases two to three weeks after the lockdown is lifted and everyone should be on "high alert" for this. "So while some countries are starting to see an increase again with the lifting of those lockdowns - and that is not necessarily a negative thing - we don't want to see any more cases, we want to see transmission suppressed," she said. For this, it is important to monitor and report on the increase in cases and "more importantly take the measures to stamp it out, take the measures to suppress transmission", she said. Van Kerkhove explained that reason for the spike in two to three weeks after lifting lockdowns is that the incubation period, the time between when someone is exposed to COVID-19 and develops it, is on average five to six days and after the first spread there is another. Health Emergencies Programme Executive Director Micheal Ryan sounded hopeful, saying" "India is one of the largest countries in the world, centre of science, a centre of public health as I have said many times in the past. It did implement measures early and has a huge capacity to continue doing this surveillance and community engagement that is so much demonstrated in the past." He said that handling the twin needs of opening up the economy and keeping people safe from COID-19 "comes from a responsible government listening to science, listening to the population and balancing these very difficult questions in a way that people can look at and see that a transparent job is being done to protect them, their economy, their society". "Not easy, not easy to achieve but I think governments that have done that seem to have had success." (Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis) Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text By Jeff Lewis TORONTO (Reuters) - The shift to electric vehicles and other low-carbon technologies could disrupt crude oil demand on a similar scale to the coronavirus pandemic, Suncor Energy Inc's chief executive said on Monday. The comments are a stark prediction in an industry that frequently downplays the impact of electrification and points to forecasts of rising global oil demand to justify new investment and pipeline expansions. Canada is the world's fourth-largest oil producer and the sector accounts for 10.6% of the country's gross domestic product. "While Canadian oil and gas will remain a significant part of the global energy mix for some time, we have to take advantage of new opportunities that offer attractive growth prospects," Suncor CEO Mark Little said in an opinion article for Canada's Corporate Knights magazine. "The temporary economic lockdown triggered by the 2020 pandemic is giving us a glimpse into a not-too-distant future where the transformation of our energy system could disrupt demand on a similar scale." Economic shutdowns to limit the outbreak's spread ground travel to a halt, cutting fuel demand by roughly 30% worldwide. Suncor, Canada's No. 2 oil producer, curtailed output and cut its dividend by more than half. [nL2N2C31VY] The sector also faces mounting pressure from a growing number of investors who screen companies based on environmental, social and governance guidelines. Norway's $1 trillion wealth fund in May blacklisted Suncor and other large oil sands producers for producing excessive greenhouse gas emissions. [nL4N2CV14K] Little called for federal investment to help the industry diversify into hydrogen, renewable jet fuel and carbon fiber. Bitumen is rich in asphaltenes, the feedstock for carbon fiber, used for producing lighter vehicles including EVs, he said. "If we can figure out how to do this affordably at scale, it has the potential to quadruple the revenue from Alberta's current bitumen output," he wrote. (Reporting by Jeff Lewis; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) When the $30 billion merger between wireless carriers Sprint and T-Mobile was finalized on April 1, T-Mobile CEO John Legere claimed that the combined company was about creating new, high-quality, high paying jobs, and the deal would be jobs positive from Day One and every day thereafter. However, reports are now emerging that thousands of jobs are being eliminated as T-Mobile has moved aggressively to close down between 1,200 and 2,000 of its Metro prepaid phone retail locations. The total number of layoffs from these closures is projected to be around 6,000. Prior to the closures and layoffs, it was estimated that there were 10,000 Metro by T-Mobile locations in the US. According to TotalTelecom, T-Mobile have argued that this move has nothing to do with the coronavirus pandemicwhich, in fact, could have provided them a handy excusebut have rather positioned the closures as optimizing their retail footprint. The company has not responded to those noting that this mass of job losses runs contrary to their pre-merger promises. T-Mobile CEO John Legere outside the New York courthouse on the eve of the approval of the merger with Sprint. Legere claimed that the merger would be "jobs positive from Day One." In response to the reports, T-Mobile issued an official statement that said, We are always optimizing our retail footprint as a normal course of business to ensure we are in the best position to support the thousands of communities we serve across the U.S. We recently notified some dealer stores that we will transition them to T-Mobile stores and we will also close a small number of redundant locations. Since early on in the merger process, industry and Wall Street analysts have projected that layoffs from redundant staff will impact anywhere from 15,000 to 30,000 jobs. The upper end of this estimate is greater than the total number of pre-merger Sprint employees. With the majority of the layoffs expected in retail, approximately 4,500 jobs will be cut at the corporate headquarters of Sprint in Overland Park, Kansas, and T-Mobile in Bellevue, Washington. The merger between the number three and number four largest wireless companies, T-Mobile (70 million subscribers) and Sprint (54 million subscribers), is creating the second largest firm in the US market, leapfrogging the current number two AT&T (100 million subscribers) and still behind Verizon (154 million subscribers). The deal was approved on February 11 when Judge Victor Marrero of US District Court for the Southern District of New York overruled the objections of the attorneys general of 13 states and the District of Columbia who said that the reduction in competition would harm consumers with higher prices. With a transparently pro-monopoly position, Judge Marrero wrote that he was not persuaded that the combined company would pursue anticompetitive behavior that, soon after the merger, directly or indirectly, will yield higher prices or lower quality for wireless telecommunications services, thus likely to substantially lessen competition in a nationwide market. The lawsuits against the merger concentrated on the impact on consumers and did not raise the issue of job redundancies and the likelihood of mass layoffs. The merger between Sprint and T-Mobile was long in the making. After an earlier attempt to merge the firms was blocked in 2014 during the Obama administration, ongoing discussions eventually led to a new deal in the spring of 2018. With the prospect of the wireless carrier industry being reduced to just three giant monopolies, the merger was finally engineered through the intervention of the US Justice Departments antitrust division and the Federal Communications Commission. These agencies came through with a convoluted arrangement involving the entry of Dish Networka direct-broadcast satellite TV provideras a fourth competitor in the market. The deal required Sprint to sell to Dish, at a price of $5 billion, its prepaid wireless business units Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile and move 9.3 million mobile subscribers to the satellite TV company, which was otherwise going to go out of business. The idea that Dish represents a legitimate major competitor with about 2 percent of the market indicates the fig leaf nature of the arrangements involved in getting the Sprint and T-Mobile deal to go through. As analyzed by The Motley Fool, Aside from the massive investment, Dish must excel at something its never doneoperate a nationwide mobile network. And it will have to go up against three entrenched competitors. Thats a huge challenge that many doubt Dish can pull off The backdrop to the consolidation of the wireless carriers is the transition to 5G networks. The ultra-highspeed, fifth generation of broadband wireless technologies is being rolled out to consumers by Verizon and AT&T currently with marketing promises that it will change everything and transform the future. The next-generation 5G wireless technology promises to enable things like ultra-high definition (4K) video streaming, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and the much-vaunted internet of things (IoT). Through IoT, millions of intelligence devices will be wirelessly connected, enabling the self-driving vehicle and transportation infrastructure and creating smart cities and factories. In all of these endeavors the improvement of life is a tertiary concern behind the enormous profits that are expected from the anticipated $1.1 trillion in investment being poured into 5G development projects internationally. In the consolidation process that is required to implement the latest generation of wireless broadband communications technology, the wireless carriers and the manufacturers of devices are being driven to reduce the number of employees and extract greater profits out of those who still have jobs by reducing their wages. Knowing full well about the impending job destruction from the Sprint and T-Mobile merger from the start, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) has collaborated with the wireless carriers in the restructuring of the industry that is underway. By diverting the struggle of telecom workers in defense of jobs, wages and benefits into various fruitless appeals to the Democrats in Congress and keeping the workers at the different firms isolated from each other, the CWA operates as a willing accomplice in the attacks on workers. The first step in the fight against the destruction of jobs is the development of rank-and-file committees of wireless employees in every workplace whether it is the corporate offices, technology centers or retail locations. Telecom workers must reject the anti-Chinese chauvinism of the Trump administration, the Democrats and the unions and must unite across borders in a common fight for a socialist program, including the transformation of telecom monopolies into public utilities, owned and controlled by the working class. Allu Arjun's upcoming project, Pushpa, directed by Sukumar is undoubtedly one of the much-awaited movies of the year. With the Telangana government's recent announcement on the partial relaxation of COVID-19 lockdown for the film industry, the makers are gearing up to resume the shooting of their films. Earlier, the team had planned to start the shoot from March first week in Kerala, but due to the sudden Coronavirus outbreak, the state government denied permission to the makers. Now, Sukumar and his team are planning to resume their shoot in Kerala forest, if the government grants permission, also considering the less cases of COVID-19 in the state. Interestingly, the makers have also found an alternate location to shoot, if Kerala govt denies permission. It is said that the shoot might take place in Maredumilli in the East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. The makers are planning to shoot with available and limited artists for the time being. With Allu Arjun's last venture, Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo, which performed tremendously at the theatres, and with the actor-director combination that scored two successful films Arya and Arya 2, the fans are having high expectations from the Stylish Star's action-thriller. As per reports, Allu Arjun is gearing up to dub for the movie in all 5 languages- Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu. Interestingly, a six-minute action sequence featuring the actor is being made on a budget of Rs 6 crore. Pushpa, bankrolled by Mythri Movie Makers in association with Muttamsetty Media, will feature Bobby Simha, Prakash Raj, Jagapati Babu, Harish Uthaman and Vennela Kishore in pivotal roles. Karnataka crush Rashmika Mandanna will be seen essaying the female lead. The music for the film will be composed by celebrated music director Devi Sri Prasad. Touted to be a full-blown entertainer, Pushpa revolves around the story of sandalwood smuggling, wherein Allu Arjun will portray the role of a smuggler. Allu Arjun To Dub In 5 Different Languages For Pushpa! Read Deets Inside! No Stylish Dance Moves For Allu Arjun In Pushpa? Here Is The Reason! - Newmont trainees have donated Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to help in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic - The items included 4,000 pieces of hand gloves, 1,000 pieces of face masks, 80 bottles of hand sanitisers and four gallons of liquid soap worth GHC 12,000 - The trainees presented the PPEs to four health facilities in the Asutifi North and Tano North Districts of the Ahafo Region Our manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in Install our latest app for Android and read the best news about Ghana Trainees under Newmont Ghana Ahafos Apprenticeship Training Programme have donated Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) worth GHC 12,000 to help in the fight against the coronavirus. Four health facilities in the Asutifi North and Tano North Districts of the Ahafo region benefited from the generous donation. Beneficiary health facilities included Kenyasi, Gyedu, Yamfo and Techire, all within the Ahafo mines host communities. The gesture is the groups voluntary contribution to the regions fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Items donated included 4,000 pieces of hand gloves, 1,000 pieces of face masks, 80 bottles of hand sanitizers and four gallons of liquid soap. READ ALSO: Ghanaian dad blasts stunning photos with wife and daughter in dashiki wear to mark wedding anniversary Presenting the items, leader of the apprentices, Franklin Boakye said: We see the fight against covid-19 as a shared responsibility so we decided to put our allowances together and support these health facilities to make the fight against corona virus in our region successful. The Asutifi North District Director of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Foster Nyarko, who received the equipment on behalf of the four health centers, thanked the apprentices for the gesture. He revealed that so far, the district had sent samples of six (6) suspected cases of COVID-19 to the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research, (KCCR), but all came out negative. Dr. Foster Nyarko urged the public to observe all safety protocols to prevent the spread of the disease. The Ahafo Region has not recorded any COVID-19 case yet. The Apprenticeship Training Programme was established by Newmont Ghana in 2005 as part of the companys commitment to help young people within its host communities acquire employable skills. In a related story, YEN.com.ghearlier reported that the Head Pastor of Maker's House Chapel International, Pastor Boadi Nyamekye, introduced an emergency food relief van to provide packaged food for the poor and homeless when parts of Accra were under lockdown. READ ALSO: Love birds: Couple who fought for love while in school get to practice in same hospital Ghanaian female accounting graduate and mushroom farmer recounts her experience | #Yencomgh Have national and human interest issues to discuss? Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page. Source: YEN.com.gh Berlin, June 2 : German flag carrier Lufthansa's Supervisory Board said that it has voted to accept the government's 9 billion euro ($10 billion) stabilization package. The package of loans and various measures was offered by Germany's Economic Stabilization Fund to help the airline weather the impact due to the coronavirus pandemic, reports Xinhua news agency. Monday's decision also means accepting the promises announced to the European Commission, according to the company. According to a statement issued last week, Lufthansa said it will be obliged to transfer to one competitor each at the Frankfurt and Munich airports up to 24 take-off and landing rights for the stationing of up to four aircraft. The option is only available to new competitors for one and a half years, and will be extended to existing competitors if no new competitor makes use of it, the airline said last Saturday. Karl-Ludwig Kley, chairman of the Supervisory Board of Lufthansa said in Monday's statement that the company has made "a very difficult decision." "We recommend our shareholders to follow this path, even if it demands substantial contributions to stabilize their company. "But it must be said clearly that there is a very difficult path ahead of Lufthansa," Kley said. The package still needs the approval of the competition authorities and the shareholders after it was okayed by both the Management Board and the Supervisory Board of the company. A general meeting with shareholders to discuss the package is scheduled for June 25. Lufthansa's CEO Carsten Spohr said that stabilizing the flag carrier is not an end in itself, and that the company will work to defend its leading position in global air traffic together with the German government. Lufthansa said that it is foreseeable that international air traffic will not reach the pre-crisis level in the coming years. New coronavirus infections and fatalities continue to fall steadily in Italy. Italy registered 178 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours on 1 June, the lowest daily rise since 26 February, reports Italian news agency ANSA. This figure comes after 355 new cases were registered the day before, 31 May, with 416 new cases on 30 May and 516 new cases on 29 May. Italy recorded 60 coronavirus-related fatalities on 1 June - against 75 the day before - according to figures released by the nation's civil protection agency. Six regions registered zero new infections on 1 June: Marche, Sicily, Umbria, Molise, Calabria and Basilicata - reports ANSA - while there were no fatalities recorded in nine regions on 1 June: Veneto, Marche, Sicily, Trentino Alto Adige, Umbria, Valle d'Aosta, Calabria, Molise and Basilicata. The number of people in intensive care in Italy, currently 424, also continues to fall. Read also: The encouraging new figures come as Italy prepares to reopen its internal regional boundaries as well as opening its international borders to visitors from European Union nations and the Schengen area on 3 June. On the night before Italy's national day, Festa della Repubblica on 2 June, the country's president Sergio Mattarella said that Italy has "shown its best face" during the covid-19 emergency, stating "I am proud of my country." Today 2 June, after laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Rome's Altare della Patria at 09.00, Mattarella will fly to Codogno, in the northern Lodi province of Lombardy, where Italy's first coronavirus patient was diagnosed on 20 February. Describing Codogno as "a symbolic place of the beginning of this dramatic period," Mattarella said he would "pay homage to all the victims and attest to the courage of all Italians, who have faced the front line, often in extreme conditions, with courage and self-sacrifice, in the fight against the coronavirus." The total number of confirmed cases in Italy (counting those currently positive, the deceased and those who have recovered) is now 233,197, the sixth highest global tally behind the US, Russia, Brazil, Spain and Britain. The total number of fatalities in Italy stands at 33,475, reports ANSA. For full statistics relating to the covid-19 pandemic in Italy see the Protezione Civile website. Photo TgSKY24 S horeditch-based online fashion retailer SilkFred was one of countless UK businesses that temporarily shut their offices in March. The firms chief executive Emma Watkinson recalls closing just a week before the Covid-19 lockdown came in: It was an emotional day for us having to leave our buzzy hub. It felt hard not knowing when we would return. Today Ms Watkinson, 33, feels more upbeat. The entrepreneur said: It has been tough, but the whole team has pulled together to embrace new ideas and make sure we can keep selling. Ms Watkinson, who co-founded SilkFred in 2011, says the start-up, which sells products from hundreds of independent fashion designers, has adopted a range of temporary measures to help see it through the crisis. That includes getting models to take their own pictures using phone cameras and equipment SilkFred bought quickly when the outbreak started. It couldnt be more different to the high-tech photography studios in the office. Ms Watkinson said: The pictures have turned out surprisingly well and show how we can adapt when we need to. The firm is known for its party dresses and jumpsuits, but it has gone on a major social media push to promote comfortable working-from-home clothes. It asked customers early on what they wanted to see and adapted marketing around responses. It also extended its returns policy to 60 days from 30 to make it easier for shoppers who might not be able to get to a Post Office quickly. The efforts are starting to pay off and help SilkFred improve sales that dropped sharply at first. Ms Watkinson says: We noted a fall in revenues in March when consumers were understandably cautious about spending. I think people were nervous about job security and concerned about loved ones. It is no surprise online shopping for clothes was at the back of minds. But, as the Government announced furlough details and people adapted to working from home, SilkFred saw traffic to its site surge in April. Ms Watkinson said: I would like to think we have kept loyal customers on side and won some new ones for the future when things feel easier. I am proud we have shown how we can work at home when needed and cope with unusual circumstances. The governor of Tokyo has issued a coronavirus alert for the Japanese capital amid worries of a resurgence of infections only a week after a state of emergency ended. Governor Yuriko Koike issued a "Tokyo alert" on Tuesday after 34 new cases were confirmed in the city, where confirmed infections had slowed to a few per day in late May. Koike said, "The alert is to precisely inform the people of the status of infections and to advise caution." Lighting on Tokyo's Rainbow Bridge will be changed from rainbow-coloured to red as a sign of alert. However, the alert does not mean restrictions that just got eased will be reimposed immediately. Experts say the rise in new cases reflects the increased movement of people since mid-May and could increase further. Koike said: "I want to remind everyone once again that we are fighting against an unknown virus as we still don't have any vaccines or treatment for it." Under the second phase of a three-part plan for resuming business activity, Tokyo's theatres, fitness gyms and other commercial facilities reopened. Night clubs, karaoke parlours and other highest-risk establishments are still closed. shut observing shutdown requests. Kitakyushu in southern Japan is also experiencing what local officials say is a second wave of infections. New cases exceeding 110 in the last 10 days following a three-week hiatus. The Samsung Galaxy A21s unveiled last month is now on sale in Russia. It has two memory versions - 3GB/32GB priced at RUB15,990 ($230/210) and 4GB/64GB that costs RUB16,990 ($245/220). It's available for purchase through Samsung's official Russian site in Red, Black, and Blue colors. The Samsung Galaxy A21s is built around a 6.5" Infinity-O LCD of 1600x720 pixel resolution. The smartphone's powered by the Exynos 850 SoC and boots Android 10 with One UI 2.0 on top. The Galaxy A21s comes with a total of five cameras - a 13MP selfie shooter on the front and a 48MP main camera at the back joined by an 8MP ultrawide, 2MP macro and 2MP depth sensor modules. The Galaxy A21s features a rear-mounted fingerprint reader for biometric authentication and packs a 5,000 mAh battery that charges through a USB-C port at up to 15W. Source (in Russian) MIAMI, June 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Cansortium Inc. (CSE:TIUM.U) (OTCQB: CNTMF) ("Cansortium" or the "Company") and the Special Committee of the Board of Directors announced today completion of two important initiatives that were part of its strategic plan, developed during the second half of 2019, to focus the Company's capital and other resources on the most promising growth opportunities in Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Texas. The Company has completed the sale of its non-core Canadian assets, previously announced on December 17, 2019. As part of the consideration for the sale of its non-core Canadian assets, a total of 1,500,000 common shares were returned to the Company for cancellation; and the purchaser, the Company's former in-market partners in Canada, has assumed the on-going liabilities associated with such Canadian assets. The Company has also amended and restated a prior agreement pursuant to which Cansortium Michigan, LLC, the Company's indirect wholly-owned subsidiary, intends to acquire 100% of the outstanding shares of Green Standard, Inc. ("Green Standard"), a company operating in the Michigan marijuana market with 12 existing Class C Grower Licenses and pre-qualification for a processor license and up to eight (8) provisioning centers. Green Standard operates an outdoor cultivation facility in Arlington Township, Michigan, and expects the first 2020 harvest in late summer. Under the amended terms, Green Standard shareholders will receive U.S.$10 million in aggregate consideration to consist of common shares and proportionate voting shares exchangeable into an aggregate of 2,727,723 common shares of the Company, which shall be escrowed until May 15, 2021, plus cash consideration to be generated by profits from Green Standard's Michigan business. The same number of shares of the Company that were previously issued to Green Standard shareholders and subject to vesting conditions have been returned to treasury for cancellation. Closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory approval. Neal Hochberg, Executive Chairman of the Board of Cansortium, noted, "We continue to make important progress on the Company's strategic plan. Focusing the Company's capital and resources on large, actionable opportunities enabled us to achieve our first quarterly EBITDA(1) profit during the first quarter of 2020. The sale of our non-core Canadian assets and amendment of our acquisition agreement with Green Standard further position us to pursue growth in our target markets of Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Texas." (1) EBITDA is a non-IFRS financial measure that does not have any standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. The Company calculates EBITDA from net income (loss), plus (minus) interest expense (income), plus income taxes, plus depreciation and amortization. Reconciliations from EBITDA to Net Loss are available on the Company's investor relations website at www.investors.getfluent.com. About Cansortium Inc. Headquartered in Miami, Florida, and operating under the Fluent brand, Cansortium is focused on being the highest quality cannabis company in the State of Florida driven by unrelenting commitment to operational excellence from seed to sale. Cansortium has developed strong proficiencies in each of cultivation, processing, retail, and distribution activities, the result of successfully operating in the highly regulated cannabis industry. In addition to Florida, Cansortium is seeking to create significant shareholder value in the attractive markets of Texas, Michigan and Pennsylvania, where the Company has secured licenses and established operations. Cansortium Inc.'s common shares and warrants trade on the CSE under the symbol "TIUM.U" and "TIUM.WT.U", respectively, and on the OTCQB Venture Market under the symbol (OTCQB: CNTMF). Investors can find current financial disclosure and Real-Time Level 2 quotes for the Company on www.otcmarkets.com. Forward-Looking Information Certain information in this news release, may constitute forward-looking information. In some cases, but not necessarily in all cases, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "targets", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "an opportunity exists", "is positioned", "estimates", "intends", "assumes", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate" or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances contain forward-looking information. Statements containing forward-looking information are not historical facts but instead represent management's expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events. Forward-looking information is necessarily based on a number of opinions, assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company as of the date of this news release, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to the factors described in the public documents of the Company available at www.sedar.com. These factors are not intended to represent a complete list of the factors that could affect the Company; however, these factors should be considered carefully. There can be no assurance that such estimates and assumptions will prove to be correct. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release, and the Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or alter statements containing any forward-looking information, or the factors or assumptions underlying them, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. For further information: www.getfluent.com SOURCE Cansortium Inc Related Links https://www.getfluent.com/ Anne Heraty is against an extension next to her home Two of the country's business leaders have become involved in a planning row with a neighbour over a proposed extension to a guesthouse in an upmarket Dublin suburb. Tech millionaire Niall Turley, who founded the online car hire firm CarTrawler, and Anne Heraty, the group chief executive and founder of one of the country's largest recruitment agencies, CPL Resources, have opposed plans for a six-bedroom extension next to their homes on Highfield Road in Rathgar. Mr Turley has lodged an appeal with An Bord Pleanala against the recent decision of Dublin City Council to grant planning permission for the proposed extension to Ardagh House. The 22-bedroom guesthouse sold for 5m when it was recently bought by its current owner, PBD South River, a property investment firm. The company is proposing to continue to run the guesthouse business but wants to demolish an existing rear extension to the Victorian building dating from the 1950s. It plans to replace it with a new single-storey extension, as well as providing 11 additional car park spaces. PBD South River claims the proposed extension is of low height and respectful of the height of surrounding buildings, while not visible from the public road. However, consultants acting for Mr Turley said the proposed extension represented an intensification of use which would have "undesirable effects". The consultants said it would reduce the amount of open space of Ardagh House. Congestion They also claimed the extension could create increased traffic congestion in the area and called for existing signage on Ardagh House to be removed because of its "very poor" quality. In a submission to the council, consultants for Ms Heraty and her husband, Paul Carroll, CPL's business development director, said they were not opposed to an extension in principle. However, they believed the proposed development would have significant negative impacts on their own property including on its value. They expressed concern that there was a possibility that the guesthouse could be converted into a "hostel with care" and noted that the proposed layout of the extension was akin to a design for "shared living", as well as providing for two additional offices. The couple have called on the planning authorities to impose a condition that the building could only be used for tourist accommodation. Outlining its decision to approve the development, Dublin City Council said it would secure the ongoing use of the site as a guesthouse, which would contribute to the city's stock of tourist accommodation which was a key pillar of the city's economy. Council planners had ruled that the proposed extension would not adversely impact on the amenity of adjoining residents. A ruling by An Bord Pleanala in the case is due by the end of September. On Saturday, during the demonstrations sparked by George Floyds killing, two New York Police Department SUVs drove into a crowd of protesters in Brooklyn who were pelting them with projectiles. The cars knocked several people over. In aerial footage, the road behind the vehicles was mostly clear it looked as if they could have backed up instead. It was one of several scenes of New York Police Department violence caught on video over the last several days. On Friday, State Senator Zellnor Myrie of Brooklyn, who told my colleagues he went to a protest to try to serve as a mediator with the police, was pepper-sprayed and arrested. Video showed a police officer violently shoving a young woman to the ground; she ended up in the hospital. The next day, a cop approached a young black man who was standing with hands in the air, yanked down his mask and pepper-sprayed him. Many of the New Yorkers who elected Bill de Blasio mayor seven years ago once thought he was made for a moment like this. In one of his campaign ads, titled Dignity, he spoke about talking to his biracial son, Dante, about the inevitability of being stopped by the police. A voice-over called de Blasio the only candidate to end the stop-and-frisk era that targets minorities. He took office just before New York City agreed to pay $18 million to settle wrongful arrest lawsuits stemming from the police crackdown on protests at the 2004 Republican National Convention. It was hard, at the time, to imagine anything like that happening on his watch. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday launched a mobile application to help people know how many beds are lying vacant in which hospital in the national capital. We have been telling you that the Delhi government has made adequate arrangement for Covid-19 patients - in terms of number of hospitals, beds in there, the ICU facility in those hospitals and how many ventilators are there, Kejriwal said while addressing a press conference. Also Read: Delhi hospitals - for all, or residents only? He said there is an information gap because people tell the government that they could not find any bed in hospitals. This app will fill that gap, said Kejriwal. He also said that the same can be accessed on the internet too, bly logging on to https://delhifightscorona.in/beds. The chief minister also released a WhatsApp number 8800007722 to get a link for downloading the app. He said that the status of the hospitals can also be accessed through 1031 helpline number. The app will be updated twice daily - at 10 am and 6 pm - so that people are aware of the latest status of hospitals across the national capital. Kejriwal also said that if the app tells a patients that beds are empty in a hospital, but the staff refuses to admit them, they can call on the helpline number 1031. The special secretary will immediately speak to hospital authorities and ensure that patients get help. The chief minister, however, urged people to not insist for hospitalisation if there is no need. If the doctors tell you that you can rest at home, and continue the treatment there, please do that, said Kejriwal. On Monday, Delhi eased restrictions on shops and markets and allowed salons to open, but at the same time put stringent curbs on interstate travel for a week while deciding against opening malls and places of worship, aiming to strike a cautious balance and protect the city-states healthcare resources on the day coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases in the capital crossed the 20,000-mark. Two days after the central government allowed the opening of religious places, malls and hotels and dine-in restaurants from June 8, the Delhi governments guidelines, for now, did not approve any of these activities that have been prohibited in the city-state since March 25, the day a nationwide lockdown was first imposed to stop the spread of Covid-19. According to a senior government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, an assessment of the ground situation will be conducted on June 7 before taking a call on possible relaxations in line with the central guidelines. The lockdown in containment zones will continue till June 30. BAINBRIDGE, Ga., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- First Port City Bank (FPCB), Bainbridge, Georgia, is pleased to announce its hiring of Mathis Coxon as Senior Credit Analyst. In his position, Coxon will be responsible for performing credit analysis functions, including analyzing financial statements, conducting credit investigations, and assisting in the preparation of financial/credit information reports for loan officers and committees. "One of the main reasons I joined First Port City Bank is that they serve, they give, and they deliver," said Coxon. "Their motto is 'Putting People First.' I have not only seen it, I've experienced it. They give back to the community in a big way, and I am excited to be a part of it." "We are excited to welcome Coxon to our team," said Scott Ewing, President and CEO of First Port City Bank. "With his diverse banking experience, and a specific focus on Risk Mitigation and Management, his expertise will further strengthen our team as we continue to grow the bank and provide first class customer service that exceeds our customer's expectations." Founded in 1974, First Port City Bank is approximately a $258 Million community bank offering a full line of financial services and solutions thru 5 full-service banking offices in Bainbridge and Donalsonville, Georgia, and Yulee and Fernandina Beach, Florida. First Port City Bank is consistently ranked as one of the top community banks in the nation and continues to receive a "5-Star, Superior" financial rating from Bauer Financial, Inc., of Coral Gables, FL. First Port City Bank has been voted "Best Bank" in Decatur County for 8 Years. For more information, visit www.firstportcity.com. Member FDIC and Equal Housing Lender. Follow FPCB on Twitter @portcity_bank, Instagram #firstportcitybank, Facebook @firstportcity, LinkedIn @First Port City Bank. SOURCE First Port City Bank Related Links http://www.firstportcity.com Picture released on Aug. 23, 2016 by lunar probe and space project center of Chinese State Adiministration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence shows the concept portraying what the Mars rover and lander would look like. Image of China's Mars probe was also released Tuesday. (Xinhua) China is eyeing the period between July and August this year to launch its first-ever Mars probe mission, codenamed Tianwen-1, with the probe expected to reach the Red Planet gravity field by February 2021. The details of the mission were revealed on Monday by Bao Weimin, an academician from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the Science and Technology Commission of the State-owned space giant China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the contractor of the probe mission. According to Bao, the Long March-5, which is currently China's largest and strongest carrier rocket, will be tasked with the launch mission. "The probe will reach the Mars gravity field by February 2021, before it is 'captured' by Mars and then initiates the key orbiting and landing process," Bao noted. The minimum distance between Mars and Earth is about 55 million kilometers, as the two planets only come this close every 26 months, the CASC told the Global Times on Monday. After landing, the lander-rover will stay on the surface of Mars for 90 Martian days, which is slightly more than three months on Earth, during which the rover will seek to achieve objectives such as conducting patrol and detection work as well as carrying out Martian geomorphic feature studies. China's Mars orbiter will carry seven scientific payloads, while the rover will have six, according to the CASC. Safely landing the Mars rover after the probe enters the planet's orbit, which will take around 7 minutes, will be one of the most decisive stages of the whole mission. After leaving the Earth, the Mars probe will travel in space at a speed of 4.8 kilometers per second, and a safe soft landing on the Red Planet would mean it will decelerate to 0 meter per second at the landing site, which will take around seven to eight minutes, Bao explained. The landing process will be separated into four stages. First, the aerodynamic decelerator will reduce the flight speed of the probe from 4.8 kilometers per second to 460 meters per second, which will take roughly 290 seconds, the CASC scientist said. Then the probe will deploy the parachute to further decelerate to 95 meters per second within approximately 90 seconds, before the thrust reverser kicks in and reduces the speed to 3.5 meters per second, which will take 80 seconds. As the Mars lander reaches about 100 meters above the surface, the lander will enter a hovering form and decelerate to a relative speed of 0 meter per second with the ground, while the hovering form will enable it to automatically avoid obstacles and uneven terrain, the CASC revealed. China had earlier successfully conducted a Mars landing test of the country's Red Planet lander in November 2019 in North China's Hebei Province. Study shows today's atmospheric carbon dioxide levels greater than 23 million-year record Boulder, Colo., USA: A common message in use to convey the seriousness of climate change to the public is: "Carbon dioxide levels are higher today than they have been for the past one million years!" This new study by Brian Schubert (University of Louisiana at Lafayette) and coauthors Ying Cui and A. Hope Jahren used a novel method to conclude that today's carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) levels are actually higher than they have been for the past 23 million years. The team used the fossilized remains of ancient plant tissues to produce a new record of atmospheric CO 2 that spans 23 million years of uninterrupted Earth history. They have shown elsewhere that as plants grow, the relative amount of the two stable isotopes of carbon, carbon-12 and carbon-13 changes in response to the amount of CO 2 in the atmosphere. This research, published this week in Geology, is a next-level study measuring the relative amount of these carbon isotopes in fossil plant materials and calculating the CO 2 concentration of the atmosphere under which the ancient plants grew. Furthermore, Schubert and colleagues' new CO 2 "timeline" revealed no evidence for any fluctuations in CO 2 that might be comparable to the dramatic CO 2 increase of the present day, which suggests today's abrupt greenhouse disruption is unique across recent geologic history. Another point, important to geological readers, is that because major evolutionary changes over the past 23 million years were not accompanied by large changes in CO 2 , perhaps ecosystems and temperature might be more sensitive to smaller changes in CO 2 than previously thought. As an example: The substantial global warmth of the middle Pliocene (5 to 3 million years ago) and middle Miocene (17 to 15 million years ago), which are sometimes studied as a comparison for current global warming, were associated with only modest increases in CO 2 . ### FEATURED ARTICLE A 23 million-year record of low atmospheric CO 2 Ying Cui; Brian A. Schubert; A. Hope Jahren CONTACT: Brian Schubert, schubert@louisiana.edu URL: https:/ / pubs. geoscienceworld. org/ gsa/ geology/ article/ doi/ 10. 1130/ G47681. 1/ 586769/ A-23-m-y-record-of-low-atmospheric-CO2 GEOLOGY articles are online at http://geology. geoscienceworld. org/ content/ early/ recent . Representatives of the media may obtain complimentary articles by contacting Kea Giles at the e-mail address above. Please discuss articles of interest with the authors before publishing stories on their work, and please make reference to GEOLOGY in articles published. Non-media requests for articles may be directed to GSA Sales and Service, gsaservice@geosociety.org. https:/ / www. geosociety. org This story has been published on: 2020-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Mission: Impossible - Fallout (Credit: Paramount) Mission: Impossible 7 is to kick off filming again in September, after it was shutdown in February due to the coronavirus outbreak. Tommy Gormley, the movie's first assistant director, told the Today program on Radio 4 that cameras are set to roll again in the autumn. We hope to start shooting again in September. We were days from shooting in Venice we were right at the epicentre when it all kicked off so we had to shut down in Venice where we were four or five days from shooting, he said. Read more: The movies set to come out post-lockdown We hope to restart in September, we hope to visit all the countries we planned to and look to do a big chunk of it back in the UK on the backlot and in the studio, so September through to end April/May is our targets. We are convinced we can do this. Actor Simon Pegg, who plays IMF agent Benji Dunn in the action franchise, says the shoot will resume in the fresh air to begin with. That will begin with the outdoor stuff. That feels fairly doable, and obviously there will be precautions put in place, Pegg tells Variety. People that are involved in any close proximity stuff, it will have to be determined that theyre safe to do that. I dont know what the testing situation is, how that works, or whether theyll be able to be tested regularly. Director Christopher McQuarrie, Henry Cavill and Tom Cruise on the set of Mission: Impossible - Fallout (Credit: Paramount) Mission: Impossible 7, which finds Tom Cruise back as agent Ethan Hunt, was the first major movie casualty of the lockdown. Northern Italy was initially among the hardest hit regions of Europe as the coronavirus travelled into Europe from Asia. Gormley also added that the recently announced guidelines from the British Film Commission, released yesterday and which will set in place the restarting of filming for movies and TV in the UK, were 'excellent'. Read more: How will social distancing work in cinemas? We have to get back to work for every person in the film industry, tens of thousands of us, we have to get back to work. We have to do it safely and protect our colleagues, but it is definitely possible and were working flat out to make it happen, he went on. The 44-page document has been written in conjunction with the BFI, and puts in place instructions for social distancing and other protocols. Among them are reducing the instances of filming crowd scenes, close face-to-face filming with actors, and other guidelines for everything from transport to hair and make-up. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 2, 2020 13:23 598 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb816c8 1 National coronavirus,COVID-19,reopening-plan,school-reopening,Education,Muhadjir-Effendy Free The government is mulling over plans to reopen school campuses by the end of the year or at the beginning of 2021, after students were required to study from home in the final few months of the school year to remains safe from the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the governments official academic calendar, the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year is slated for July 13. However, it may order schools to reopen for on-campus activities in late December at the earliest if the pandemic shows signs of receding. That's just an estimation. According to our calendar, [the new school year starts] in mid-July, but I wont recommend [students going back to campus], Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy said in a statement on Monday. Read also: Ministry suggests shorter school hours as part of 'new normal' He assured that the government would make a decision soon, saying the education sector would be the last to be reopened after the implementation of large-scale social restrictions (PSBB). "Compared to other sectors, education will be the last. Given the unmeasured risks, we cant calculate [the exact date] just yet. President Joko Jokowi Widodo previously suggested to delay the start of the school year, as allowing schools to reopen their campuses as scheduled would be a great risk to the countrys education, tribunnews.com reported on Sunday. The ministrys deputy coordinator of education and religious affairs, Agus Sartono, said the ministry had considered allowing students to return to campus in late August or early September. "But the end of December is better [] We dont want to be like France and South Korea. They reopened their schools too early and many students were exposed [to COVID-19]," he said. The Jakarta Education Agency previously planned to reopen schools on July 13, in line with the governments academic calendar. The plan, however, had to take into account the central government's policies and each schools preparations in curbing COVID-19 transmission. According to agency head Nahdiana, authorities have formulated three different scenarios for students returning to school. The first option is to reopen some schools and allow all of their students to attend, the second is to reopen several schools and only allow half of their students on campus and the third option is to reopen all schools while requiring some students to study from home. Medical examiners finding on homicide confirms same conclusion of the private autopsy, but differs in part on cause. A medical examiners office on Monday ruled that the death of George Floyd, the Black man whose killing in Minneapolis, Minnesota, police custody last week triggered nationwide protests, was a homicide and that he died from asphyxiation. The medical examiners finding that the death was a homicide confirms the same conclusion of the independent autopsy that was also released on Monday, but there are key differences over the cause. A news release from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner said that Floyd, who struggled to breathe as an officer pinned him down by kneeling on his neck, had recent methamphetamine use and fentanyl intoxication along with hypertension and coronary artery disease all of which were possible contributing factors to his death. But two doctors who carried out that independent autopsy of Floyd, 46, and two lawyers for the family said that he had no underlying health conditions that may have contributed to his death. They argued that not only the officer who was kneeing Floyds neck killed him, but also two officers who were pressing their weight onto Floyds back while he was on the ground. They added that they did not have information on toxicology and any drug or alcohol use by Floyd. Dr Allecia Wilson of the University of Michigan, one of the two forensic doctors who performed the independent autopsy, said the evidence pointed to homicide by mechanical asphyxia meaning from some physical force that interfered with oxygen supply. While the countys full autopsy report has not yet been released, Mondays news release appeared to show authorities walked back their conclusions on what killed Floyd. The original criminal complaint against the police officer who pinned Floyd with his knee cited the medical examiners office when it said it found no findings of strangulation. Carolyn Marinan, a spokeswoman for Hennepin County, did not confirm any reversal, saying only that Mondays news release was the final findings. Ambulance was a hearse Bystander video showed Floyd pleading to be let up and repeatedly saying that he could not breathe as police officer Derek Chauvin pinned Floyd to the ground for nearly nine minutes. Two other officers applied pressure with their knees to Floyds back. Chauvin, who is white and has been fired from the Minneapolis police department, was hit with third-degree murder and manslaughter charges last week. But Dr Michael Baden, who took part in the independent autopsy at the behest of Floyds family, said that the two other officers actions also caused Floyd to stop breathing. We can see after a little bit less than four minutes that Mr Floyd is motionless, lifeless, Baden said, adding he found no underlying health conditions in Floyd that caused his death. Baden has worked on several high-profile cases, including the 2014 death of Eric Garner, a Black man who died after being choked by police in New York City. Baden countered the argument that if Floyd could speak, then he could breathe. Many police are under the impression that if you can talk, that means youre breathing. That is not true, Baden said. I am talking right now in front of you and not taking a breath. Antonio Romanucci and Ben Crump, the attorneys representing the Floyd family, said all four officers at the scene should be facing charges, not just Chauvin. Crump added the independent autopsy and video evidence make it clear that Floyd was dead while he was still lying on the street with police atop him. That ambulance was his hearse, he said. Crump said the Floyd family wants to see charge lodged against all four officers who were at the scene and for Chauvin, who pressed his knee into Floyds neck, to be facing first-degree murder charges. But they are also seeking an end to the violent protests that have beset the United States. George died because he needed a breath, a breath of air, Crump said. I implore you all to join his family in taking a breath taking a breath for justice, taking a breath for peace. Beirut: At least 18 people were killed and dozens wounded in a series of bombings across mostly government-controlled areas of Syria on Monday, state media reported. The blasts hit government-held Tartus and Homs, as well as Hasakeh, which is mostly controlled by Kurdish forces but where the regime maintains a presence. State media said at least 11 people had been killed and 45 injured in a double bomb attack just outside the city of Tartus, in the coastal province of the same name, which is a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad's government. "Two terrorist blasts on Arzuna bridge, the first a car bomb and the second a suicide bomber who detonated his explosive belt when people gathered to help the wounded," state television said. State media also reported five people killed in Hasakeh, in the northeast of the country. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the blast hit a checkpoint belonging to the Kurdish Asayesh security forces. And state media also reported a car bomb at the entrance to the Al-Zahra neighbourhood in central Homs city, which is controlled by the government. It said at least two people were killed and four wounded in the bombing, which is the latest in a series of attacks targeting Al-Zahra neighbourhood, where most residents are Alawite, the sect to which Assad belongs. State media also reported another bomb attack on a road west of the capital Damascus, but gave no immediate toll in the blast. The Observatory said that attack targeted a checkpoint and gave a toll of three dead. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. (HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that it has filed an emergency action and obtained a temporary restraining order and asset freeze against a California-registered investment adviser and his entities to halt an ongoing Ponzi scheme targeting senior citizens in Southern California. According to the SECs complaint, from at least January 2018 through the present, Paul Horton Smith Sr. offered and sold securities in his company Northstar Communications LLC, and used his investment advisory firm eGate LLC and insurance and estate planning company Planning Services Inc. to market the securities. Smith and Northstar through free workshops and other investor events allegedly promised investors guaranteed annual interest payments between 3 percent and 10.5 percent if they invested in so-called private annuity contracts. In reality, as the complaint alleges, Smith did not invest the funds raised in any securities and instead used new investor funds to pay investor returns in a Ponzi-like fashion. According to the complaint, Northstar raised more than $5.6 million from at least 35 investors and paid out $5.2 million to those investors as interest payments or principal returned. Smith also allegedly used investor funds to settle investor fraud lawsuits. The SECs complaint, filed on May 19 and unsealed late yesterday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, charges Smith, Northstar, eGate, and Planning Services with violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws. The complaint seeks injunctions, the return of ill-gotten gains plus interest, and civil penalties. On May 20, in addition to granting a temporary restraining order and an asset freeze, the court ordered an accounting and appointed a temporary receiver. A hearing is scheduled for June 3, 2020, to consider continuing the asset freeze, issuance of a preliminary injunction, and appointment of a permanent receiver. As alleged in our complaint, Paul Horton Smith Sr. raised millions of dollars by touting his purported investment expertise and guaranteeing returns, said Michele Wein Layne, Director of the SECs Los Angeles Regional Office. Investors should be wary of investments promising no risk and high returns, which are classic warning signs of investment fraud. First review of all available evidence including 172 observational studies looking at how physical distancing, face masks, and eye protection affect the spread of COVID-19, SARS, and MERS in both community and healthcare settings across 16 countries First review of all available evidence including 172 observational studies looking at how physical distancing, face masks, and eye protection affect the spread of COVID-19, SARS, and MERS in both community and healthcare settings across 16 countries. Physical distancing of at least 1 metre lowers risk of COVID-19 transmission, but distances of 2 metres could be more effective. Face coverings and masks might protect both healthcare workers and the general public against infection with COVID-19, and protective eye covering may also provide additional benefit--although the certainty of the evidence is low for both forms of protection. Importantly, even when properly used and combined, none of these interventions offers complete protection and other basic protective measures (such as hand hygiene) are essential to reduce transmission. Keeping at least one metre from other people as well as wearing face coverings and eye protection, in and outside of health-care settings, could be the best way to reduce the chance of viral infection or transmission of COVID-19, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis synthesising all the available evidence from the scientific literature, published in The Lancet. However, none of these interventions, even when properly used and combined, give complete protection from infection, and the authors note that some of the findings, particularly around face masks and eye protection, are supported by low-certainty evidence [1], with no completed randomised trials addressing COVID-19 for these interventions (table 2). The study, conducted to inform WHO guidance documents, is the first time researchers have systematically examined the optimum use of these protective measures in both community and healthcare settings for COVID-19. The authors say it has immediate and important implications for curtailing the current COVID-19 pandemic and future waves by informing disease models, and standardising the definition of who has been 'potentially exposed' (ie, within 2 metres) for contact tracing. Many countries and regions have issued conflicting advice about physical distancing to reduce transmission of COVID-19, based on limited information. In addition, the questions of whether masks and eye coverings might reduce transmission of COVID-19 in the general population, and what the optimum use of masks in healthcare settings is, have been debated during the pandemic. "Our findings are the first to synthesise all direct information on COVID-19, SARS, and MERS, and provide the currently best available evidence on the optimum use of these common and simple interventions to help "flatten the curve" and inform pandemic response efforts in the community", says Professor Holger Schunemann from McMaster University in Canada, who co-led the research. "Governments and the public health community can use our results to give clear advice for community settings and healthcare workers on these protective measures to reduce infection risk." [2] The currently best available evidence suggests that COVID-19 is most commonly spread by respiratory droplets, especially when people cough and sneeze, entering through the eyes, nose, and mouth, either directly or by touching a contaminated surface. At the moment, although there is consensus that SARS-CoV-2 mainly spreads through large droplets and contact, debate continues about the role of aerosol spreading. For the current analysis, an international team of researchers did a systematic review of 172 observational studies assessing distance measures, face masks, and eye protection to prevent transmission between patients with confirmed or probable COVID-19, SARS, or MERS infection and individuals close to them (eg, caregivers, family, healthcare workers), up to May 3, 2020. Pooled estimates from 44 comparative studies involving 25,697 participants were included in the meta-analysis. Of these, 7 studies focused on COVID-19 (6,674 participants), 26 on SARS (15,928), and 11 on MERS (3,095). The COVID-19 studies included in the analysis consistently reported a benefit for the three interventions and had similar findings to studies of SARS and MERS. Analysis of data from nine studies (across SARS, MERS and COVID-19, including 7,782 participants) looking at physical distance and virus transmission found that keeping a distance of over one metre from other people was associated with a much lower risk of infection compared with less than one metre (risk of infection when individuals stand more than a metre away from the infected individual was 3% vs 13% if within a metre), however, the modelling suggests for every extra metre further away up to three metres, the risk of infection or transmission may halve (figure 3). The authors note that the certainty of their evidence on physical distancing is moderate [1] and that none of the studies quantitatively evaluated whether distances of more than 2 metres were more effective, although meta-analyses provided estimates of risk. Thirteen studies (across all three viruses, including 3,713 participants) focusing on eye protection found that face shields, goggles, and glasses were associated with lower risk of infection, compared with no eye covering (risk of infection or transmission when wearing eye protection was 6% vs 16% when not wearing eye protection). The authors note that the certainty of the evidence for eye coverings is low [1]. Evidence from 10 studies (across all three viruses, including 2,647 participants) also found similar benefits for face masks in general (risk of infection or transmission when wearing a mask was 3% vs 17% when not wearing a mask). Evidence in the study was looking mainly at mask use within households and among contacts of cases, and was also based on evidence of low certainty [1]. For healthcare workers, N95 and other respirator-type masks might be associated with a greater protection from viral transmission than surgical masks or similar (eg, reusable 12-16 layer cotton or gauze masks). For the general public, face masks are also probably associated with protection, even in non-health-care settings, with either disposable surgical masks or reusable 12-16 layer cotton ones. However, the authors note that there are concerns that mass face mask use risks diverting supplies from health-care workers and other caregivers at highest risk for infection. They also stress that policy makers will need to quickly address access issues for face masks to ensure that they are equally available for all. "With respirators such as N95s, surgical masks, and eye protection in short supply, and desperately needed by healthcare workers on the front lines of treating COVID-19 patients, increasing and repurposing of manufacturing capacity is urgently needed to overcome global shortages", says co-author Dr Derek Chu, Assistant Professor at McMaster University. "We also believe that solutions should be found for making face masks available to the general public. However, people must be clear that wearing a mask is not an alternative to physical distancing, eye protection or basic measures such as hand hygiene, but might add an extra layer of protection." [2] The authors also stress the importance of using information about how acceptable, feasible, resource intense, and equally accessible to all the use of these interventions are when devising recommendations. "Across 24 studies of all three viruses including 50,566 individuals, most participants found these personal protection strategies acceptable, feasible, and reassuring, but noted harms and challenges including frequent discomfort and facial skin breakdown, increased difficulty communicating clearly, and perceived reduced empathy from care providers by those they were caring for", says Dr Sally Yaacoub from the American University of Beruit in Lebanon. [2] According to co-author Karla Solo from McMaster University in Canada: "While our results provide moderate and low certainty evidence, this is the first study to synthesise all direct information from COVID-19 and, therefore, provides the currently best available evidence to inform optimum use of these common and simple interventions." [2] Despite these important findings, the review has some limitations including that few studies assessed the effect of interventions in non-healthcare settings, and most evidence came from studies of SARS and MERS. Finally, the effect of duration of exposure on risk for transmission was not specifically examined. Writing in a linked Comment, lead author Professor Raina MacIntyre (who was not involved in the study) from the Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales in Australia, describes the study as "an important milestone", and writes, "For healthcare workers on COVID19 wards, a respirator should be the minimum standard of care. This study by Chu and colleagues should prompt a review of all guidelines that recommend a medical mask for health workers caring for COVID19 patients. Although medical masks do protect, the occupational health and safety of health workers should be the highest priority and the precautionary principle applied." She continues, "[They] also report that respirators and multilayer masks are more protective than are single layer masks. This finding is vital to inform the proliferation of homemade cloth mask designs, many of which are singlelayered. A well designed cloth mask should have waterresistant fabric, multiple layers, and good facial fit...Universal face mask use might enable safe lifting of restrictions in communities seeking to resume normal activities and could protect people in crowded public settings and within households." ### NOTES TO EDITORS The study was in part funded by the World Health Organization. It was conducted by researchers at McMaster University, Canada; the American University of Beirut, Lebanon; German Hospital of Buenos Aires, Argentina; Southlake Regional Health Centre, Canada; University of British Columbia, Canada; McMaster University, Canada; The Research Institute of St. Joe's Hamilton, Canada; Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Chile; Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, China; Dongzhimen Hospital, China; Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, The Fourth Clinical Medical College, China; China academy of Chinese Medical Science, China; American University of Beirut, Lebanon; Rafik Hariri University Hospital, Lebanon; The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK; University of Hull, UK. The labels have been added to this press release as part of a project run by the Academy of Medical Sciences seeking to improve the communication of evidence. For more information, please see: http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/AMS-press-release-labelling-system-GUIDANCE.pdf if you have any questions or feedback, please contact The Lancet press office pressoffice@lancet.com [1] This study used GRADE categories of evidence. These include: high certainty (ie, we are very confident that the true effect lies close to that of the estimate of the effect); moderate certainty (we are moderately confident in the effect estimate; the true effect is probably close to the estimate, but it is possibly substantially different); low certainty (our confidence in the effect estimate is limited; the true effect could be substantially different from the estimate of the effect); very low certainty (we have very little confidence in the effect estimate; the true effect is likely to be substantially different from the estimate of effect). [2] Quotes direct from authors and cannot be found in the text of the Article. Peer-reviewed / Systematic review and meta-analysis / People Our experience with Pushpin has been exceptional. From our test run a few months ago to our recently completed full county project, Randy and his team at Pushpin have been a joy to work with. We will definitely be working with Pushpin on future projects. Pushpin announced today that it had completed a parcel change detection project for Payne County, Oklahoma. Pushpin analyzed the countys 34,351 parcels in 4 weeks. Pushpin found that 3,713 parcels (11%) had property changes between 2017 and 2020. Property changes included additions, construction, decks, flatwork, garages, new homes, pools, and sheds. Pushpin estimated an assessed value increase of $150,970,000 associated with the changes. Pushpin is currently executing a record number of change detection projects for cities and counties. Municipalities are leveraging Pushpins platform to remain productive while many employees are working remotely due to stay-at-home advisories. Pushpin leverages aerial imagery to perform its analysis, so assessors and their staff can review results and update property records without having to go into the office or visit properties in person. Our experience with Pushpin has been exceptional, said James Cowan, Payne County Assessor. From our test run a few months ago to our recently completed full county project, Randy and his team at Pushpin have been a joy to work with. The work was completed ahead of schedule and fit our budget nicely. We will definitely be working with Pushpin on future projects. We enjoy working with tech-forward customers like James Cowan in Payne County. We were delighted to help the assessment office continue operating under the current work and travel restrictions, said Randy Milbert, President, Pushpin. We are looking forward to working on future projects with Payne County and others within Oklahoma. About Payne County Assessor Payne County is in central Oklahoma. Its population is 77,350. The county seat is Stillwater. The Payne County Assessors Office embraces technology and works hard to make access to public records and information a priority. While the office is high-tech, we are also personal. You will find a real person who can answer property related questions during normal business hours. For more information, please visit https://paynecountyassessor.org. About Pushpin Founded in 2015 and based in Minneapolis, Pushpin believes that people and computers intelligently combined can solve difficult mapping challenges better, faster, and cheaper than the alternatives. Pushpin works with tech-forward customers and partners to dramatically increase automation, accelerate workflows, and decrease costs. Pushpin applies patent-pending deep learning algorithms to aerial and satellite imagery to identify parcel changes, extract building footprints, estimate impervious areas, and more. Pushpin has worked with 56 cities and counties in 20 states as well as partners such as CoreLogic, CycloMedia, and Nearmap. For more information, please visit https://pushpin.us. Protests in occupied East Jerusalem against killing of Iyad el-Hallak, an autistic Palestinian man, by Israeli police. There have been further protests in Israel over the shooting of an autistic Palestinian man by Israeli police. Iyad el-Hallak, 32, was chased and killed in occupied East Jerusalem on Saturday. Officers said they suspected he was carrying a gun and fired at him after he ran away when ordered to stop. His family says he would not have understood instructions to stop. Al Jazeeras Harry Fawcett Umm al Fahm, Northern Israel. ALBANY Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced the Capital Region can move on to phase two of reopening Wednesday, as local officials again issued pleas for people to wear masks and socially distance while out in public so that infection rates dont spike. Cuomo said Tuesday afternoon that a team of international experts he's hired to review regional data has confirmed it's safe for the region to move on to phase two of the states reopening plan, which will loosen restrictions imposed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. "As more businesses begin to reopen in this next phase, residents should remain responsible and diligent and continue to follow all social distancing and other public health guidelines to help prevent an increase in the spread of the virus," he said. Albany County Executive Dan McCoy said he expects 123,000 jobs in the county alone could come back online once phase two begins. Those include jobs in professional services, financial and insurance services, retail, barbershops and hair salons, administrative support, real estate and rental leasing, among others. But as McCoy expressed excitement over the loosening restrictions, he also voiced concern about the impact recent police brutality protests could have on the reopening process. The protests have swept the nation after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last week, including locally in Albany and Schenectady. But multiple public health experts have warned that large gatherings could lead to a new spike in infections. We really wont know the effect from Memorial Day, we really wont know the effect from all these protests going on until eight to 14 days down the road, McCoy said. So yeah, it could affect us, it could slow us up, and I hope it doesnt. If the region sustains acceptable COVID-19 hospitalization and infection levels, it can move onto phase three of reopening June 17. During that phase, restaurants and hotels could reopen for sit-down dining. Latest coronavirus-related cancellations, postponements The latest coronavirus numbers in NY Sign up for the Times Union coronavirus newsletter Full coronavirus coverage The spread of coronavirus has slowed considerably in the region amid widespread shutdowns that have kept people apart. The Capital Region recorded 26 new cases of coronavirus Tuesday for a total of 4,586 known cases to date across eight counties. Two more individuals died from the virus Tuesday, including one nursing home resident, bringing the overall known death toll from the virus in the region to 288. Fifty-six residents from seven local counties were hospitalized with COVID-19 on Tuesday. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. McCoy said Tuesday that he has received a long list of reopening plans from businesses in the region that in some cases go above and beyond the safety precautions for reopening recommended by the state. Many of those precautions recommend the wearing of masks and practices that encourage social distancing, such as hair salons having people wait for their turn in the car versus a waiting area. McCoy said hes heard from businesses that are nervous to reopen amid widespread national protests over deaths of black people while in police custody. The protests, while largely peaceful, have in many cities including Albany been marked by violence, looting and property destruction as night falls. Dozens of windows were broken and stores looted as violence erupted in Albany late Saturday night, and businesses have begun boarding up their windows and doors in anticipation of continued destruction. Many people are going to be coming out for the first time in phase two that have been home almost 13 weeks, McCoy said. Theyre watching things on Facebook or on YouTube or watching the news or listening to the radio and reading the papers, and theyre going to come out into a new worldYoure going to see a different place. McCoy called Tuesday for pastors and community leaders across the Capital Region to help bring people together in the wake of a second night of looting, vandalism and chaos that erupted after peaceful protests in Albany Monday. Two students walk on a road in a school zone in Seoul in this file photo. A new law delivers harsher punishment to drivers who either kill or injure children in school zones, but it has also drawn a backlash from drivers for possible discrimination against them. Korea Times file By Kim Se-jeong Korea is not a safe place to be a pedestrian. According to OCED statistics, Korea has the highest pedestrian casualty rate from car accidents, 3.3 per every 100,000 compared to the OECD average of one. The same goes for children in school zones. Although drivers are required to slow down to 30 kilometers an hour in designated school zones, not all children are protected last year six lost their lives and 577 were injured. Lax law has been to blame. In March, the law was finally toughened, triggered by another tragic accident, imposing graver punishments on drivers who either kill or injure children in school zones. Under the revised law, a driver who kills a child younger than 13 years old is now subject to a minimum three years in prison and up to life imprisonment. If a child is injured, the driver, depending on the degree of injury, can face up to 15 years in prison. Previously, the driver received no more than five years in prison even for killing a child, or a fine of up to 20 million won. The National Police Agency said 78 cases have been investigated for violating the new las since March. However, car insurance companies said they have seen more customers purchasing coverage for school zone accidents. However, drivers show backlash to the move which was welcome by parents. Critics of the new law argue they can make all drivers guilty even if the accident isn't their fault. Also, they said drivers bear the excessive burden of proving innocence. They took their opposition to Cheong Wa Dae's online petition site demanding a revision and gained more than 350,000 endorsements in one month. The public anger also targeted the parents of the eight-year-old victim who was killed by a vehicle last September. While mourning the death of their son, the parents tirelessly shared the story to the world and successfully pushed lawmakers to revise the laws. In a recent interview with the Hankook Ilbo, the sister paper of The Korea Times, the parents said they have been targeted by growing hatred and criticism online. Answering the petition, the interior ministry stressed the importance of protecting children and made sure the law won't make the innocent guilty. "The worries that all drivers in school zones will be found guilty is excessive," the ministry said. Police said the law has room for interpretation which could generate criticism, but it will not always assume drivers are guilty. Police Chief Min Gab-ryong held a press conference Monday, vowing fair investigations for drivers. An expert from the Korea Transportation Safety Authority (KTSA) said the goal of the new law is to develop behavior where pedestrians, especially children who tend to act unpredictably, are protected. The All Karnataka State Government Employees Federation has announced that its members will show up to work wearing black badges on June 4 as a sign of protest against the anti-employees and anti-labour decisions of the B S Yediyurappa government. The Federation has flayed the governments move to freeze dearness allowance increases from January 2020 to June 2021, disallowing employees to encash earned leave, removal of sanctioned posts in the name of merging departments among other decisions. It also opposed the governments move to increase work hours from 8 hours to 10 hours a day. Cbcfeedback.com scored 40 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2/5.0 Stars by Social Team This CoolSocial report was updated on 8 Dec 2012, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the cbcfeedback homepage on Twitter + the total number of cbcfeedback followers (if cbcfeedback has a Twitter account). The total number of people who shared the cbcfeedback homepage on Delicious. The total number of people who shared the cbcfeedback homepage on StumbleUpon. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the cbcfeedback homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if cbcfeedback has a Facebook fan page). The total number of people who shared the cbcfeedback homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. Basic Information PAGE TITLE Corner Bakery Cafe Guest Satisfaction Survey DESCRIPTION KEYWORDS OTHER KEYWORDS The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The title found in the head section of the homepage. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. Domain and Server DOCTYPE XHTML 1.0 Strict CHARSET AND LANGUAGE English UTF-8English DETECTED LANGUAGE English English SERVER (ASP.NET) OPERATIVE SYSTEM Operative System running on the server. Type of server and offered services. Character set and language of the site. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) The language of cbcfeedback.com as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world. Referring domains for cbcfeedback.com by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines. Facebook link FACEBOOK PAGE LINK NOT FOUND The type of Facebook page. The total number of people who like website Facebook page. The URL of the found Facebook page. The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. Twitter account link TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND President Volodymyr Zelensky considers that Ukraine has managed to get through the first wave of coronavirus pandemic relatively well. "We actually managed to get through the first wave of the pandemic relatively well. This was facilitated by both the responsibility of Ukrainians and the deterrence strategy, which we developed in detail and carefully changed as needed. Now we have the experience, understanding and endurance if the second wave comes. I hope that humanity will be better prepared then," the President said at a traditional conference call on combating the spread of coronavirus, the press service of the Head of State informs. The President was told that adaptive quarantine had been introduced in all but three regions of Ukraine: Lviv, Rivne and Chernivtsi. The transition to the third phase of mitigation of restrictive measures has taken place almost everywhere. The participants of the meeting said that no significant outbreaks of the disease had occurred in the country since the introduction of quarantine mitigation. In addition, Ukraine has a plateau of morbidity. Over the past 24 hours, 388 people have recovered and 328 have been infected. In addition, Minister of Health Maksym Stepanov said that almost all hospitals had signed agreements with the National Health Service of Ukraine, and allowances for doctors for the fight against COVID-19 were already being transferred. Large batches of medicines against various diseases, purchased in previous years, are currently being supplied. Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Ruslan Khomchak said that the first checkpoints on the delimitation line in the JFO area were being prepared for opening after June 10. ol By Stanley White TOKYO, June 2 (Reuters) - Japanese shares hit a more than three-month high on Tuesday as hopes for a global economic recovery bolstered expectations for a rebound in corporate earnings, with more countries gradually reopening after coronavirus-related lockdowns. The Nikkei index ended 1.19% higher at 22,325.61 points after earlier rising to its highest level since Feb. 26. Industrial and technology shares led the advance. Japanese stocks also got a boost from overnight Wall Street gains, after U.S. manufacturing data suggested the worst of the sector's virus-related slump may be over. The Nikkei has rallied around 36% from its low of March 16 as coronavirus infections in Japan fell, prompting the officials to remove lockdown restrictions and allow more retailers to resume operations. However, some investors remain cautious due to uncertainty caused by mass protests in the United States against police brutality and diplomatic tension between Washington and Beijing over civil liberties in Hong Kong. "Hopes for economic recovery are supporting gains in Japanese stocks," Hideyuki Ishiguro, senior strategist at Daiwa Securities in Tokyo. "In the bigger picture, equity markets have stopped reacting to negative news. Many investors were short in futures and now they are losing money. These players are being forced to buy back." There were 196 advancers on the Nikkei index against 27 decliners on Tuesday. The largest percentage gainers in the index were printer and medical imaging company Konica Minolta Inc, up 6.11%, followed by beer maker Asahi Group Holdings Ltd, gaining 5.52%, and industrial machinery maker IHI Corp, up by 5.47%. The largest percentage losses in the index were drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd ,down 4.38%, followed by Astellas Pharma Inc ,losing 1.88%, and Kansai Electric Power Co Inc, down by 1.27%. The broader TOPIX index rose 1.21% to 1,587.68. The volume of shares traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's main board was 1.16 billion, compared to the average of 1.38 billion in the past 30 days. (Reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Kim Coghill) A video showing Kurdish women believed to have been kidnapped by a rebel group in the northern Syrian city of Afrin has renewed calls for an independent investigation of Turkeys proxy forces operating in the region. After deadly clashes erupted last week among various Turkey-backed factions in the city, fighters from the Jaysh al-Islam group reportedly attacked a detention center run by another Turkey-back faction, Hamza Division. Kurdish authorities say a video that emerged on social media shows eight women inside the secret prison, all of whom were abducted for ransom and found naked and abused. They were subjected to all sorts of immoral treatment and abuses by the notorious groups linked to Turkey," the Kurdish-led autonomous administration said in a statement. We demand an international investigation to hold the perpetrators accountable for these violations. TEV-DEM, an umbrella group of Syrian Kurdish parties, called the kidnapping an insult to women all over the world, and said the responsibility lies with the United Nations, which has lost its legitimate role in the region. The multi-ethnic city of Afrin has been gripped by violence since Turkey, backed by Free Syrian Army rebels, took control in March 2018 after a two-month-long offensive against the Kurdish militia known as the Peoples Protection Units (YPG). Ankara views the YPG, which makes up the backbone of the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as an offshoot of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and has sought to push the group away from its border through a series of military campaigns in recent years. Human rights organizations have since detailed widespread abuses in parts of Syria under Turkish control, including arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances and confiscation of property. A 2018 UN report noted that many civilians from Afrin returned to find their homes occupied by ethnic Arabs from elsewhere in Syria. I dont think that the Turkish army wants to prevent it because the goal is to cleanse the Kurdish population from this area, said Fabrice Balanche, a Syria expert and an associate professor at Frances Lyon II University. These groups are not well disciplined. They do what they want, Balanche said of Turkeys proxy force in the region, the Syrian National Army. The coalition, formerly known as the Free Syrian Army, consists of both moderate Syrian rebels who once fought the regime and hard-line factions. The people who are doing all these things in Afrin, they are not so different from ISIS, said Sinam Mohamad, the US representative of the Syrian Democratic Council, the political arm of the SDF. Mohamad, who is from Afrin but works in Washington, said her familys homes and factory were seized by rebel groups. You work all your life for having these things for your children and suddenly you have nothing. All has gone to these mercenaries, she said. We ask for the international community to intervene, so the people of Afrin can go back to their city. The calls for an investigation have been echoed by Yazidis who say their small religious community, long persecuted by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, is also targeted. The advocacy group Yazda reports that since Turkeys military incursion in October 2019, thousands of Yazidis from 22 villages across the region have fled their homes, including 3,000 from Afrin. Rebel fighters in the city destroyed 18 Yazidi shrines, and most recently looted a Yazidi cemetery in the village of Jan Tamer, the group says. After 2014 in Sinjar, there was widespread outrage about how this could have been allowed to happen, Pari Ibrahim, founder and executive director of the Free Yezidi Foundation, told Al-Monitor over email. This is not on the same scale, of course, but similar patterns and similar actors. And the same mentality extremist militias cleansing areas through force and commission of atrocities. It is as though the world has learned nothing." Following Turkeys offensive last year on Kurdish-held territory, during which one of its factions carried out a roadside execution of a prominent female politician, Ankara said it would investigate any potential human rights violations. The Syrian National Army also said it would form an investigative committee of its own. But if Turkey isnt willing or able to hold its allied troops accountable, there are few alternatives for justice. The international community has shown little appetite to set up a tribunal or ad hoc court to prosecute the myriad war crimes committed by the various warring parties during Syrias nine-year-long war. The International Criminal Court in the Hague is also out of the question as the Syrian government is not a member state, and the workaround a referral from the United Nations Security Council is subject to Russian and Chinese vetoes. In Europe, a handful of one-off cases of members of the Islamic State or the Syrian regime are being tried in national courts under the concept of universal jurisdiction. While a positive step, those individual trials are far from comprehensive, said Roger Lu Phillips, a human rights lawyer with the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre in Washington. Its time to start thinking out of the box a little. The European Court of Human Rights presented itself as an opportunity, Phillips said. Turkey must adhere to the standards of European Convention on Human Rights, of which it is a state party, not just within its own borders but also in areas under its effective control. Given the military operation and the administrative functions carried out by Turkey in Afrin, residents could make a strong case that Turkey is an occupying force and seek redress in the European court, said Phillips. For now, womens organizations in northeast Syria are urging governments to break their silence and form an independent inquiry over the treatment of local women by Turkeys proxies. Despite all the practices to which women are subjected and which aim to break the conscious and organised will of women, their insistence on resistance and their struggle to build a free and democratic society [has] made them a symbol, they wrote. Local News, Arts & Culture By Ls Cohen Published: June 02 2020 Nikola Tesla chose a site in Shoreham for his visionary experiment to distribute electricity and information wirelessly in the early 20th century. Around the turn of the century, potato farmers on the east end of Long Island along the North Shore could be seen driving their products past the looming tower of scientific achievement that was Nikola Teslas Wardenclyffe Tower. Possibly confused or ignorant of the basic principles of the science - as was Teslas dramatic nature to wax wistfully of the philosophical implications of his project without much hard evidence to back it up - the farmers probably shook their heads in disbelief at what was happening in their backyards. What Tesla hoped to achieve was very clear: wireless communication and distribution of electricity by using the earths surface as a conducting and transferring method. (Sounds slightly familiar.) How he hoped to accomplish this, or if it was feasible, will never be known as the project was doomed to fail, embattled by his increasing competition with fellow inventor Guglielmo Marconi and ultimately, financial strain. It became his scientific and fiscal downfall. Regardless, Teslas grand experiment on Long Island has attracted serious scientists and physics buffs from across the globe who were actually successful in this century in preserving Teslas legacy. In the intervening years, Tesla has become sort of a cult figure and icon. He is considered a visionary genius whose inventions are profoundly influential to this day and pioneered advances in radio, television, motors, robotics and electricity. His connection to Long Island has also become more well-known. Here we present some crazy facts and history about Teslas Wardenclyffe Tower in Shoreham on Long Island. History Teslas idea was speculative and revolutionary: a global, wireless system for communication and power transfer by using the Earths conductivity for transmission of electrical currents The tower was a prototype for his telecommunications system similar to the modern internet but totally wireless - considered nearly impossible at the time He envisioned the system to be a World Wireless System transmitted by terrestrial resonance Tesla described how the tower would work in this way, similar to todays world wide web: As soon as completed, it will be possible for a business man in New York to dictate instructions, and have them instantly appear in type at his office in London or elsewhere. He also proposed the transmission of electricity through the Earth to be picked up by receiving stations around the world saying, More important than all of this, however, will be the transmission of power, without wires, which will be shown on a scale large enough to carry conviction. Wireless transmission of energy was a lifelong obsession of Teslas Construction of the Wardenclyffe facility began in 1901 Tesla purchased 200 acres of land in Shoreham from a land developer named James S. Warden who was constructing a resort community known as Wardenclyffe-On-Sound The tower was 187-feet high, with a 55-ton steel hemispherical structure at the top, which was 68 feet in diameter A 120-foot deep well was dug below the tower The well was 12-foot square, lined with 8-foot timbers There was a spiral staircase built into the well Tunnels were supposedly built emanating from the bottom of the well 100 feet to the north, south, east and west In 1902 the Patchogue Advance reported that the particular use to which all this is to be put is one of the mysteries of the wireless system In 1902, The Port Jefferson Echo reported that the project at Wardenclyffe marks the beginning of the real war between Marconi and Nikola Tesla In 1902, Tesla moved his lab from New York City to the new lab in Shoreham Design and tragedy Architect, Stanford White designed the laboratory on the property The lab was designed in an Italian Renaissance style White famously designed Washington Square Arch in 1889 The tower was designed by W.D. Crow, one of Whites associates White was involved in an affair with teenaged actress Evelyn Nesbit He was murdered by Harry Kendall Thaw, son of a Pittsburgh coal and railroad baron, who became Thaws wife after the affair ended The murder trial became infamous and was dubbed The Trial of the Century" in the press Left photo: Stanford White. George Cox / Public domain. Right photo: Evelyn Nesbit. Gertrude Kasebier / Public domain. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1925. Financial Downfall In response to the success of Guglielmo Marconis long-range radio transmissions (which Tesla through would be physically impossible) he decided he needed to scale up the towers abilities He wanted to add wireless power transmission to the project Teslas financial backer was J. P. Morgan, who refused any additional investments Morgans refusal became the death toll for Teslas dream project Investors saw the proven successes of Marconis experiments as a safe bet over Teslas unproven ideas Soon after, newspapers reported that the Wardenclyffe tower brilliantly shot off flashes of lighting into the sky for the next few nights The New York Sun reported that for a time, the air was filled with blinding streaks of electricity, which seemed to shoot off into the darkness on some mysterious errand Tesla was quoted in the paper as saying that if people were awake at other times would have seen even stranger things Tesla did not explain why this was or what they were trying to accomplish with the display Wardenclyffe never operated again after that It was abandoned in 1906 and never became fully operational In 1917, the unfinished tower was demolished and sold for scrap to pay Teslas debts It is said that the salvage company made $1,750 from the demolition The towers failure proved to be Teslas financial and scientific downfall Sadly, Tesla died penniless in a New York City hotel room in 1943 Photo: Attributed to the American Press Association / Public domain. This media file is in the public domain in the United States. This applies to U.S. works where the copyright has expired, often because its first publication occurred prior to January 1, 1925, and if not then due to lack of notice or renewal. Aftermath Rumors surrounded the demolition of the property including the idea that it was destroyed by the U.S. Government to prevent it from being used by German spies during WWI The property was foreclosed on in 1922 The property changed hands a few times over the years for commercial use AGFA Corporation, a photography company, bought the property and used it from 1969 to 1992 In 2009, AGFA put the property up for sale for $1,650,000 Past Preservation Efforts In 1976, a plaque from Yugoslavia was installed on the property to honor Teslas 120th birthday The sign was stolen in 2009 In 1976, an application was made to list the main building on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). It failed Wardenclyffe was unused for almost twenty years, until the property drew the interest of board members of a science museum in nearby Shoreham-Wading River High School Amazingly after all those decades, the brick laboratory still stood as well as the base of Teslas tower Photo: Tesla's Wardenclyffe plant on Long Island circa 1902 in partial stage of completion. Work on the 55-foot-diameter (17 m) cupola had not yet begun. There is a coal car parked next to the building. Famous Fundraiser and Preservation AGFA put the property up for sale for $1.6 million In August 2012, cartoonist Matt Inman joined a grassroots effort to purchase the property and convert it into a museum The campaign was called Let's Build a Goddamn Tesla Museum on the Indiegogo crowdfunding site The campaign was a success, raising $1.37 million Elon Musk, Tesla Motors CEO, gave a $1 million donation for the effort In May 2013, the organization that began with the school science board successfully purchased Wardenclyffe In 2016, the American Physical Society deemed Wardenclyffe as an historic site in physics In 2018, the property was finally listed on the National Register of Historic Places The Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe Joe Biden could seize the number of delegates needed to formally clinch the Democrats presidential nomination on Tuesday as seven states and the District of Columbia push through a pandemic and exploding racial tensions to host the largest slate of primary elections in almost three months. Voters are navigating curfews, health concerns and a sharp increase in postal balloting as elections take place from Maryland to Montana. Four states were originally scheduled to vote in April but delayed their contests because of the Covid-19 outbreak. Pennsylvania offers the days biggest trove of delegates and represents a high-profile test case for Republicans and Democrats working to strengthen their operations in one of the most important general election battlegrounds. In this moment, the very soul of America is at stake. We must commit, as a nation, to pursue justice with every ounce of our being. We have to finally make real the American promise: That all men and women are not only equal at creation, but throughout their lives. Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 1, 2020 We think were prepared, said state Democratic Party chairwoman Nancy Patton Mills. Thank goodness we have the opportunity of working this out in the primary because we dont know where well be with the pandemic in November. Mr Biden needs to win 89% of all delegates at stake on Tuesday to clinch the nomination, but his role as his partys clear presidential nominee is not in danger should he fall short. With a dominant showing on Super Tuesday in early March, the former vice president pushed out all his major opponents. He will almost certainly secure the needed delegates later in the month if necessary. Tuesday offers a historic opportunity for the 77-year-old Democrat, who is waging his third presidential campaign and who hopes to amass as many delegates as possible to show strength before going up against President Donald Trump. Story continues Donald Trump and Joe Biden will duel for the keys to the White House in November (Patrick Semansky/AP) Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is not actively campaigning, having suspended his operation and endorsed Mr Biden, but his name is appearing on the ballots. On the eve of Tuesdays primaries, senior adviser Jeff Weaver encouraged progressives to vote for Mr Sanders anyway. People who support Bernie Sanders and his agenda, who want to maximise the influence of progressives at the convention, should cast their vote for Bernie Sanders, Mr Weaver said, reminding voters that the Vermont senator is seeking leverage to shape the partys platform and rules. The comments serve as a reminder that Mr Biden may have no legitimate Democratic rivals remaining, but he must still win over sceptical activists from his partys far-left flank who worry he is too close to the political establishment. Party unity will likely be an afterthought this week, however, as more immediate health and safety concerns dominate the national conversation. Sleepy Joe Bidens people are so Radical Left that they are working to get the Anarchists out of jail, and probably more. Joe doesnt know anything about it, he is clueless, but they will be the real power, not Joe. They will be calling the shots! Big tax increases for all, Plus! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 1, 2020 The coronavirus death toll has surged past 100,000 nationwide, and thousands of new cases are reported each day. At the same time, several major cities, including some voting on Tuesday, are grappling with protests following the killing of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyds neck for several minutes. Washington DC mayor Muriel Bowser ordered a 7pm curfew, though voting places will be open until 8pm. Voting has been deemed essential, and city officials say voters will not be subject to arrest if they cast ballots during the curfew. It is much the same in Philadelphia, where officials have promised that voters would not be arrested should their citys 6pm curfew be extended for a fourth consecutive night. We are in unique times and voting is a unique challenge for people, said Josh Schwerin, chief strategist for the pro-Democrat super PAC Priorities USA. President Donald Trump (Patrick Semansky/AP) He said that his organisation and others will be watching closely to see how well it works, where issues are, and where obstacles have been put in place. Political groups have had to adjust as some states move to a system that relies largely on voting by post. They include Montana, where all 56 counties decided to vote entirely by mail. Voting rights watchdogs in multiple states have expressed concerns about access to mail ballots, confusion about deadlines and a shortage of poll workers that could lead to long lines. Those voting on Tuesday include the District of Columbia, Indiana, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and South Dakota. An eighth state holding primary elections, Iowa, chose its presidential nominee early in the year and focused on other offices. Following a week of nationwide unrest and protests following the death of George Floyd, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and former vice president Joe Biden delivered an emotional speech Tuesday morning condemning President Donald Trump, and addressing what he describes as a wake-up call for a country upended by racial upheaval. I cant breathe. I cant breathe. George Floyds last words. But they didnt die with him. Theyre still being heard. Theyre echoing across this nation, Biden said in Philadelphia. PHOTO: Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden speaks in Philadelphia, June 2, 2020. (Matt Rourke/AP) Biden, who held his first in-person campaign event in over two months Monday in Wilmington, Delaware, hearing from members of the African American community about their priorities in the wake of Floyds death, also emphasized that the protests, coupled with the disproportionate impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on minority communities, highlight the need to address systemic racial injustices. They speak to a nation where too often just the color of your skin puts your life at risk. They speak to a nation where more than 100,000 people have lost their lives to a virus and 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment with a disproportionate number of these deaths and job losses concentrated in the black and minority communities, he said, calling it a wake up call for the country. It's time to listen to those words, to try to understand them. To respond to them, respond with action. The country is crying out for leadership. Leadership that can unite us, leadership that brings us together. Leadership that can recognize pain and deep grief of communities that have had a knee on their neck for a long time, Biden said. (MORE: Police used tear gas, pushed back peaceful protesters for Trump church visit) Biden also addressed the protests across the country, critical of those seeking to insight violence and destruction in the midst of the demonstrations, and police officers increasing tensions with the groups. Story continues We need to distinguish between legitimate peaceful protests and opportunistic violent destruction, Biden said. The Democrat, offering his first major in-person address since essentially securing the nomination, took direct aim at President Trump, following a night defined by the decision to use tear gas to push back peaceful protestors near the White House so that Trump could walk to the historic St. Johns Church nearby and pose with a Bible alongside senior members of administration. When peaceful protestors are dispersed by the order of the president from the doorstep of the peoples house, the White House using tear gas and flash grenades in order to stage a photo op at a noble church, we can be forgiven for believing that the president is more interested in power than in principle, Biden said. "More interested in serving the passions of his base than the needs of the people in his care, Biden added. For thats what the presidency is: a duty of care to all of us, not just our voters, not just our donors, but all of us. The president held up the Bible at St John's Church yesterday. I just wish he opened it once in a while. Instead of brandishing it. If he opened it he could have learned something. They're all called to love one another as we love ourselves, it's really hard work. But it's the work of America, Biden said, adding that Trump has no interest in doing that work. In addition to the Bible, the president might also want to open the U.S. Constitution once in a while. If he did he'd find a thing called the First Amendment. And what it says, in the beginning, it says: 'The right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition their government for redress of grievances. That's kind of an essential notion built into this country. Mr. President, that's America. That's America, Biden added. Joe Biden: "I wish I could say that hate began with Donald Trump and will end with him. It didn't and it won't." "American history isn't a fairy tale...The battle of the soul of this nation has been a constant push and pull for more than 240 years." https://t.co/oVL3Owrw7b pic.twitter.com/2ZwKUIT3Iv ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) June 2, 2020 PHOTO:Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden poses for a picture with Pastor of the Bethel AME Church, Rev. Dr. Silvester S. Beaman and attendees during a visit to the Bethel AME Church in Wilmington, Delaware, June 1, 2020. (Jim Bourg/Reuters) The former vice president also said that now is the moment to deal with systemic racism in America, adding that its going to take more than talk and pushing Congress to act this month to pass policing reform, specifically referencing a bill put forward by New York Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries. It's going to take the work of a generation. But if this agenda will take time to complete it should not wait for the first 100 days of my presidency to get started. A down payment on what is long overdue should come down should come immediately, Biden said. Outlining the bill's priorities, Biden backed legislation that would: If Mitch McConnell can bring in the United States Senate to confirm Trump's unqualified judicial nominees, who will run roughshod over our Constitution now, it's time to pass legislation that will give true meaning to our constitutional promise of equal protection under the law, Biden added, slamming the Senates Republican leader from Kentucky. Biden also condemned recent tweets from President Trump that Twitter itself deemed to be glorifying violence, likening them to the rhetoric of racist figures of the Civil Rights era at a time when the nation is grappling with protests fueled by racial division. (MORE: Former President Barack Obama puts out guidelines to 'get to work' amid George Floyd protests) In a speech carried live by all three cable news networks, Biden implored all Americans to take a moment of self-reflection in the wake of the unrest that has upended the nation just as some states began to finally emerge from the brutal toll of the coronavirus pandemic. [Trumps] narcissism has become more important than the nation's well-being that he leads. I ask every American, I mean this from the bottom of my heart, I ask every American, look at where we are now and think anew, is this who we are? Biden asked. Is this what we want to be? Is this what we want to pass on to our children and our grandchildren? Fear, anger, finger pointing, rather than the pursuit of happiness? Incompetence and anxiety, self-absorption, selfishness? Or do we want to be the America we know we can be. The American we know in our hearts we could be, and should be? Joe Biden: "I ask every Americanlook at where we are now and think anew: Is this who we are? Is this who want to be? Is this what we want to pass on to our children?" https://t.co/oVL3Owrw7b pic.twitter.com/kvyZ1Et91z ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) June 2, 2020 The former vice president said that while no person can promise to be a perfect president, the former vice president pledged to try to unite the country and heal the racial wounds. "I promise you this. I wont traffic in fear and division. I wont fan the flames of hate. I will seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued this country not use them for political gain," Biden said. "Ill do my job and take responsibility. I wont blame others. Ill never forget that the job isnt about me. Its about you. And Ill work to not only rebuild this nation. But to build it better than it was." (MORE: Independent autopsy finds George Floyd died of homicide by asphyxia) PHOTO: Former vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden meets with clergy members and community activists during a visit to Bethel AME Church, in Wilmington, Delaware, June 1, 2020. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images) Throughout his campaign, Biden has centered his message around the core message that the country is in a battle for the soul of the nation, and has long focused on President Trumps exploitation of division, launching his run with a video that focused on the events of Charlottesville in 2017 as the catalyst prompting his third run for the White House. Thats when we heard the words of the president of the United States that stunned the world, and shocked the conscience of this nation. He said there were 'very fine people on both sides.' Very fine people on both sides? Biden said in the April 2019 video launching his campaign. "With those words, the president of the United States assigned a moral equivalence between those spreading hate, and those with the courage to stand against it. And in that moment, I knew the threat to this nation was unlike any I had seen in my lifetime, Biden continued. During a roundtable on Monday with mayors from major American cities, Biden described the widespread protests as a manifestation of justifiable anger, but urged those protestors to refrain from violence and looting, which he argues overshadows their main message. We need that anger. We need that to tell us to move forward. It helps us push through this pain and reach the other side to hopefully greater progress, equality and inclusion, Biden said. But we're also seeing a justifiable public outrage and protests turned to acts of needless destruction in cities across the country, which are not justified. I think we all agree that the act of protesting should never be overshadowed by the reason we're protesting. It shouldn't drive people away from a just cause that a protest is meant to advance, but violence is endangers lives, it guts local businesses, it is no way forward, he added, speaking with the mayors of Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and St. Paul. Biden addresses nationwide Floyd protests, condemns Trump church photo op in Philadelphia speech originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Fred Rogers said, Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping. America is full of helpers. And during times of crisis, the desire to help others is strongest. These months have brought unimaginable change to our workplaces, our homes, and of course, our schools. Many parents are working on the front lines or in essential fields, and with the closing of schools and some day cares, parents can be at a loss for child care. Moms and dads who once depended on school to provide breakfast and lunch are now worried if they can put a meal on the table. And children may struggle with emotional uncertainty as their routines have been put on hold, they no longer see their teachers and friends, and their parents juggle work, homeschooling and trying to remember how to multiply fractions or do long division. Despite the challenging circumstances, and the dire headlines we read, there is still reason for hope in our country. Loria Yeadon, president and CEO of YMCA Greater Seattle, leads one of more than 500 National YMCA facilities that have sanitized their gyms and converted them into socially distanced daycare centers. First responders, health care workers, and other essential employees can send children to the Seattle YMCA at no cost, and other families can pay $45 a day, or seek financial aid. YMCA wants to ensure that no parent, in any city, who is exhausted from work, is at a loss for child care. In Maine, teacher Gretchen Lane reads a new book every single day, records it and loads the video on YouTube. Then she shares it on her Facebook page so parents of her second graders can cuddle up and bond with their child during a daily story-time. And since some of her students dont have computer or internet access, she made sure her readings were available on a smartphone. Andrea Restrepo is a fifth grade teacher in Charlotte, North Carolina. When her students left school on March 13, none of them knew it would be their last day in the classroom. Andrea took swift action, calling on internet companies to install internet at her students homes so they could continue with their curriculum. And she organized school supply, grocery and meal kits for families in need. Her school provided a video career fair to replace the in-person one students look forward to each spring. Keara Williams, an English teacher who works in the Los Angeles Unified district, follows up with students who arent responding or showing up for their online classes. Shes been resourceful. When she was unable to communicate with a Spanish-speaking mother of one of her students, Keara called her native Spanish-speaking grandmother to help translate via a three-way call. And these are just a few of the hundreds of inspirational stories we hear. All around us, there are helpers. Some of them look like those weve recognized as heroes before doctors, nurses, firefighters and police officers. But we found that heroes can also be teachers, store managers sewing masks to fit children, principals who organize community car parades to show students they are still loved, or even a neighbor who picks up groceries so a mom can stay healthy at home with her newborn baby. Now is a great time to teach our children that everyone can be a hero. When your children look back on the impact COVID-19 had on their lives, they wont remember having frozen pizza three nights in a row, or that the laundry piled up for a week. Theyll remember that you helped with homework and read to them; that you sat with them for dinner and listened to their concerns; that you had popcorn for movie night, drew with chalk on the sidewalk, or went for a family walk. You can be the hero for your children. Love them, hug them, spend time with them, keep them safe and tell them that sunny days will return again. The coronavirus pandemic has made clear that there have always been inequities in the community, she said. There has been a hugely disproportionate burden of death and disease among marginalized communities and communities of color. As the 7 p.m. cheer broke out, doctors and hundreds of protesters who had come to support their efforts marched to the center of Times Square chanting Black Lives Matter! and How do you spell racist? N.Y.P.D.! Nurses know the cops are racist! one woman in blue scrubs and a floral face mask yelled. We see the patients they beat! Many of the doctors who took part in the protest said they were uneasy about speaking to reporters, citing reports from earlier in the pandemic about hospital workers who had been penalized for speaking out about conditions at local hospitals. One doctor, a 30-year-old emergency room doctor from Brooklyn who immigrated to the United States as a teenager, said she was frustrated by what she said were racist double standards in the country. She asked not to be publicly identified, fearing retaliation by her employer. I feel disheartened as a black person who has been in the United States for 13 years because no matter what you do here, you will never be treated equally by the police or by society, she said. It is not about your achievements or who you are as a person, as soon as I take off this white coat I am treated as badly as every other black person. As a doctor, we treat every single patient we see equally, no matter their race or gender or anything else, she added. But as black people in America we are never given that same treatment by the police or by society. Red Lake Gold Inc. Triples Size of Its District-Scale Fenelon North Gold Project VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2020 / Red Lake Gold Inc. (CSE:RGLD)(FWB:P11) ("Red Lake Gold" or the "Corporation") is pleased to announce that it has entered into an arm's length purchase agreement for a large portfolio of mining claims in Quebec, the result of which more than triples the area size of its Fenelon North Gold Project. The Fenelon North Gold Project is adjacent to Wallbridge Mining Company Limited's ("Wallbridge Mining") flagship Fenelon gold exploration project. Red Lake Gold's substantially expanded Fenelon North Gold Project now shares more than 50 km of contiguous claim boundaries with Wallbridge Mining. "Red Lake Gold has become one of the largest claim holders in the emerging Fenelon gold camp. We believe that our industry is only beginning to understand the diversity of depositional environments in the area. As example, the Jeremie Pluton (which is significantly contained within mining claims held by Red Lake Gold) was only recently understood to be a robust gold-hosting pluton and our research leads us to believe that other nearby structures may similarly offer our shareholders additional gold-endowed exploration opportunities in previously unrecognized and untested geological settings. With today's news, we have now successfully set the course for Red Lake Gold's future in Ontario and Quebec having established our own district-scale project footprints in the two new gold discovery camps in Canada that are delivering the most significant capitalization growth stories, being our 21,238 ha Whirlwind Jack Gold Project adjacent to and on-trend with Great Bear Resources Ltd.'s LP discovery and our 25,932 ha Fenelon North Gold Project contiguous with Wallbridge Mining and their Fenelon project," stated Ryan Kalt, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Red Lake Gold. Fenelon North Gold Project (https://www.redlakegold.ca/fenelon_north) As a result of today's announcement, the Fenelon North Gold Project more than triples in area size from the prior 180 mining claims covering approximately 8,095 ha (20,000 acres) to a camp-scale 515 mining claims covering approximately 25,932 ha. (64,052 acres). Since acquiring its initial footprint in the Fenelon gold camp in February 2020, Red Lake Gold has been engaged in a variety of data compilation efforts to refine future field work programs for its Fenelon North Gold Project. The Corporation is also encouraged by certain geophysical structures identified within its newly acquired claim portfolio and intends to direct additional work thereon. Figure 1: Map of the Expanded Fenelon North Gold Project An online project map for the Fenelon North Gold Project may be found at: https://www.redlakegold.ca/files/RGLD_Fenelon_North_Gold_Project_June_2020.jpeg The arms-length purchase agreement announced today was executed at a cost equivalent to license fees paid to the Government of Quebec. A pre-existing two percent royalty on the claims was assumed by the Corporation. The Corporation cautions that results or discoveries on proximal or adjacent properties may not necessarily be indicative as to the presence of mineralization on the Fenelon North Gold Project. Qualified Person Toby Hughes, P.Geo., is the Qualified Person as defined in Canadian National Instrument- 43-101, who has reviewed and is responsible for the technical information presented in this news release. On Behalf of the Board of Directors Ryan Kalt Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Email: info@redlakegold.ca Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore, involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently expected or forecast in such statements. Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: Red Lake Gold Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/592462/Red-Lake-Gold-Inc-Triples-Size-of-Its-District-Scale-Fenelon-North-Gold-Project LAYS, Indias favourite potato chip brand, today launched a campaign to share gratitude towards the unsung heroes who have brought joy to millions. Aptly titled #HEARTWORK, this campaign is a heartfelt, emotional ode to each hero in the brands supply chain who works relentlessly against all odds to ensure Lays brings joy to millions across the country. The campaign film signifies that each pack of LAYS is a celebration of the #HEARTWORK of unseen heroes; Farmers, Factory Workers, Truck Drivers, Distributors, Sales Force, Retailers, and Delivery Executives, whom we dont always get a chance to thank in person. Through this film the brand extends its sincere appreciation and gratitude to them on behalf of the company and every consumer who enjoys LAYS. The film applauds the Heartwork of the Indian farmer who puts in utmost care and love in growing the best quality potatoes that go into making of LAYS. It thanks the factory workers, who work day and night to ensure production of Lays. It recognizes the efforts of the truck drivers who often drive long miles across the country, to reduce the distance between the consumer and one of their most loved brands. And, last but not the least, the film expresses gratitude to the retailers and delivery executives who ensure that the snack brand reaches the consumer. Its a succinct yet heartwarming depiction of #HEARTWORK from lush green potato farms to fingers that consume a pack of Lays with utmost joy. Explaining the idea behind the special ode, Dilen Gandhi, Senior Director and Category Head Foods, PepsiCo India said, Every step of the journey from farm to finger is filled with countless stories of people who face tough challenges but overcome them with dedicated efforts and with a smile on their face. They might be working behind the scenes, but they are the real heroes of the story. With the #HEARTWORK campaign, we want to extend our sincere gratitude & appreciation to each one of them. It is thanks to their efforts that LAYS is able to bring joy to millions of consumers in India. Ritu Nakra (WPP India Lead PepsiCo Foods) said #Heartwork is our latest endeavour acknowledging the tireless spirit of all the people who are behind the scenes who have ensured the uninterrupted supply of LAYS to the consumers. She added, This community spirit inspired Team WPP to create a warm and touching story of deep gratitude. LAYS helps build and celebrate connections and with this film we expand the narrative of heartfelt connections to the unsung heroes. LAYS India works with over 24,000 farmers, 4300 factory workers, 2400 distributors, 6.5 lakh retailers, and 5000 sales staff, who are proudly delivering joy across the country each day. TVC CREDITS: Creative Agency: Wunderman Thompson, India WPP India Lead PepsiCo Foods: Ritu Nakra Chief Creative Officer: Senthil Kumar Vice-President & Executive Creative Director: Udayan Chakravarty Vice-President Strategy: Atishi Pradhan AVP & Strategic Planning Director: Arnab Datta Chaudhuri Senior Creative Director: Sameer Kumar Client Services Director: Yashi Vikram Senior Account Executive: Shivangi Shubham Production House: Full Moon Productions The #HEARTWORK campaign debuts with television spots starting today. This will be followed by a longer version of the film on digital media. MindMed is specifically interested in the adult segment for ADHD as it comprises over 46.5% of the total ADHD medication market in the United States. The total U.S. market size for ADHD medications is currently valued at $12.9 billion annually. Of the estimated 10 million American adults that have ADHD, it is projected that a meager 10.9% actually seek and receive treatment for their condition. MindMed Co-Founder & Co-CEO JR Rahn said, "The genesis of MindMed came as I was hearing anecdotal evidence from friends in Silicon Valley that microdosing was helping them to get off stimulant based ADHD medications and with other medical ailments. I started exploring and talking with leading scientists around the world and discovered that what is happening in the shadows should be brought to light, understood by the medical community and be available in a safe, regulated way, to everyone. MindMed is focused on becoming the global leader in microdosing to help millions who suffer from illnesses like ADHD. We are quickly amassing a strong group of preeminent clinical researchers and scientific minds to focus on this important and innovative work." As part of the Phase 2a multicenter trial, the world leading researcher in psychedelics pharmacology and clinical research, Dr. Matthias Liechti will now also serve as an additional Principal Investigator on the first ever Phase 2a Proof of Concept clinical trial evaluating LSD for the treatment of Adult ADHD. MindMed previously signed a clinical trial agreement with Maastricht University, a leader in microdosing research based in the Netherlands, as part of the same Phase 2a clinical trial. The world's top psychedelics microdosing clinical researcher Maastricht University Associate Professor Dr. Kim Kuypers will also serve as a Principal Investigator for the trial which is scheduled to begin both in the Netherlands and Switzerland by the end of 2020. About MindMed Mind Medicine (MindMed) Inc. is a neuro-pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops and deploys psychedelic inspired medicines to improve health, promote wellness and alleviate suffering. The company's immediate priority is to address the opioid crisis by developing a non-hallucinogenic version of the psychedelic ibogaine. In addition, the company has established a microdosing division to conduct clinical trials of LSD microdosing for adult ADHD. The company has also added MDMA to its R&D pipeline in order to explore MDMA's potential to treat mental health disorders. The MindMed executive team brings extensive biopharmaceutical industry experience to this ground-breaking approach to the development of next-generation psychedelic medicines. For more information: www.mindmed.co. MindMed trades on the NEO Exchange under the symbol MMED. MindMed can also be traded in the US under the symbolOTCQB: MMEDF and in Germany under the symbol DE:BGHM. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meanings of applicable securities laws, which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to anticipated business plans or strategies of MindMed, the anticipated date of completion of micro-dosing studies, the timing of any drug trials, the success of its clinical trials and the ability to enter into acquisitions or collaborations to enhance its drug development platform and IP portfolio. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of MindMed to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this press release and MindMed disclaims, other than as required by law, any obligation to update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, results, future events, circumstances, or if management's estimates or opinions should change, or otherwise. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Media Contact: Anna Walsh E: [email protected] P: 212-254-4730 Investor Relations: [email protected] SOURCE Mind Medicine (MindMed) Inc. Related Links https://www.mindmed.co The new Commissioner of Police posted to Gombe Command, Maikudi Shehu, on Tuesday assumed duty with a promise to add value to what his predecessor had done. Addressing a news conference at the command headquarters in Gombe, Mr Shehu said that patrols to hinterlands would be strengthened to protect areas that were vulnerable to crime. He said that visibility and community policing would also be prioritised. We might need to do things a bit different because crime is not static, and since we are living in a dynamic society, we will modify and re-strategise mechanisms to checkmate crimes, Shehu said. The CP pledged to ensure the protection of lives and properties in line with the mandate of the Police by adopting results-yielding approaches to fight crime in the state. He warned the officers and men against extortion, vowing to deal with anyone caught. If they (policemen) extort, let us know, I will fish them out and deal decisively with them because that is not their mandate, Mr Shehu said. He said the command under his leadership would liaise with sister agencies to ensure a crime-free state for everyone to engage in their lawful businesses. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Shehu, who hails from Gwandu Local Government Area of Kebbi State, took over from Bello Makwashi following the latters redeployment to the Airport Command. (NAN). DGAP-Ad-hoc: Aroundtown SA / Key word(s): Share Buyback/Real Estate AROUNDTOWN SA RESOLVES ON SHARE BUY-BACK PROGRAM WITH A VOLUME OF UP TO 500 MILLION EURO 02-Jun-2020 / 08:42 CET/CEST Disclosure of an inside information acc. to Article 17 MAR of the Regulation (EU) No 596/2014, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. Disclosure of an inside information acc. to Article 17 MAR of the Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION (IN WHOLE OR IN PART) IN, INTO OR FROM ANY JURISDICTION WHERE TO DO SO WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OF SUCH JURISDICTION. AROUNDTOWN SA RESOLVES ON SHARE BUY-BACK PROGRAM WITH A VOLUME OF UP TO 500 MILLION EURO Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, 2 June 2020, 08:10 CEST The Board of Directors of Aroundtown SA has resolved today on the details of its share buy-back program. The volume of such new program will amount to up to 500 million euros. The program shall start on June 3, 2020 and shall be finalized by December 31, 2020 at latest. The acquired shares in Aroundtown SA may be used in accordance with the authorisation resolved by the Ordinary General Meeting of Aroundtown SA held on 6 May 2020. About the Company Aroundtown SA (symbol: AT1), trading on the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, is the largest listed and highest rated (BBB+ by S&P) German commercial real estate company. Aroundtown invests in income geneRating quality properties with value-add potential in central locations in top tier European cities mainly in Germany/NL. Aroundtown SA (ISIN: LU1673108939) is a public limited liability company (societe anonyme) established under the laws of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, registered with the Luxembourg Trade and Companies Register (Registre de Commerce et des Societes, Luxembourg) under number B217868, having its registered office at 40, Rue du Cure, L-1368 Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Contact Timothy Wright T: +352 285 7741 E: info@aroundtown.de www.aroundtown.de DISCLAIMER THIS ANNOUNCEMENT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL OR THE SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY ANY SECURITIES. THE SECURITIES MENTIONED IN THIS ANNOUNCEMENT HAVE NOT BEEN, AND WILL NOT BE, REGISTERED UNDER THE UNITED STATES SECURITIES ACT OF 1933, AS AMENDED (THE SECURITIES ACT), AND MAY NOT BE OFFERED OR SOLD IN THE UNITED STATES ABSENT REGISTRATION OR AN EXEMPTION FROM REGISTRATION UNDER THE SECURITIES ACT. THERE WILL BE NO PUBLIC OFFERING OF THE SECURITIES IN THE UNITED STATES. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS DIRECTED AT AND IS ONLY BEING DISTRIBUTED IN THE UNITED KINGDOM TO (I) PERSONS WHO HAVE PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE IN MATTERS RELATING TO INVESTMENTS FALLING WITHIN ARTICLE 19(5) OF THE FINANCIAL SERVICES AND MARKETS ACT 2000 (FINANCIAL PROMOTION) ORDER 2005 (THE ORDER), (II) HIGH NET WORTH ENTITIES, AND OTHER PERSONS TO WHOM IT MAY OTHERWISE LAWFULLY BE COMMUNICATED FALLING WITHIN ARTICLE 49 OF THE ORDER, AND (III) PERSONS TO WHOM IT MAY OTHERWISE LAWFULLY BE COMMUNICATED (ALL SUCH PERSONS TOGETHER BEING REFERRED TO AS RELEVANT PERSONS). THIS COMMUNICATION MUST NOT BE READ, ACTED ON OR RELIED ON BY PERSONS WHO ARE NOT RELEVANT PERSONS. ANY INVESTMENT OR INVESTMENT ACTIVITY TO WHICH THIS ANNOUNCEMENT RELATES IS AVAILABLE ONLY TO RELEVANT PERSONS AND WILL BE ENGAGED IN ONLY WITH RELEVANT PERSONS. IN MEMBER STATES OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA (EEA), THIS ANNOUNCEMENT AND ANY OFFER IF MADE SUBSEQUENTLY IS DIRECTED ONLY AT PERSONS WHO ARE "QUALIFIED INVESTORS" WITHIN THE MEANING OF ARTICLE 2(1)(E) OF DIRECTIVE 2003/71/EC, AS AMENDED (THE PROSPECTUS DIRECTIVE) (QUALIFIED INVESTORS). ANY PERSON IN THE EEA WHO ACQUIRES THE SECURITIES IN ANY OFFER (AN INVESTOR) OR TO WHOM ANY OFFER OF THE SECURITIES IS MADE WILL BE DEEMED TO HAVE REPRESENTED AND AGREED THAT IT IS A QUALIFIED INVESTOR. ANY INVESTOR WILL ALSO BE DEEMED TO HAVE REPRESENTED AND AGREED THAT ANY SECURITIES ACQUIRED BY IT IN THE OFFER HAVE NOT BEEN ACQUIRED ON BEHALF OF PERSONS IN THE EEA OTHER THAN QUALIFIED INVESTORS, NOR HAVE THE SECURITIES BEEN ACQUIRED WITH A VIEW TO THEIR OFFER OR RESALE IN THE EEA TO PERSONS WHERE THIS WOULD RESULT IN A REQUIREMENT FOR PUBLICATION BY AROUNDTOWN OR ANY OF THE MANAGERS OF A PROSPECTUS PURSUANT TO ARTICLE 3 OF THE PROSPECTUS DIRECTIVE. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT MAY CONTAIN PROJECTIONS OR ESTIMATES RELATING TO PLANS AND OBJECTIVES RELATING TO OUR FUTURE OPERATIONS, PRODUCTS, OR SERVICES, FUTURE FINANCIAL RESULTS, OR ASSUMPTIONS UNDERLYING OR RELATING TO ANY SUCH STATEMENTS, EACH OF WHICH CONSTITUTES A FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENT SUBJECT TO RISKS AND UNCERTAINTIES, MANY OF WHICH ARE BEYOND THE CONTROL OF AROUNDTOWN SA. ACTUAL RESULTS COULD DIFFER MATERIALLY, DEPENDING ON A NUMBER OF FACTORS. Statistics speak louder, Trump's accusation over China's incompetence in handling virus contrary to fact: Chinese FM Global Times Source:Global Times Published: 2020/6/1 18:35:54 China's Foreign Ministry rebuked US President Donald Trump's accusation that the world suffers from COVID-19 because of China's malfeasance, saying that the allegation disrespects Chinese people's efforts and sacrifice in their fight against the pandemic and statistics from the two countries' battle against the virus speak for themselves. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, China has adopted the most comprehensive, strict and thorough measures to stop the virus from spreading, and cut the chain of transmission, said Zhao Lijian, spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, citing scientific journal Science's publication that said China's control measures during the first 50 days of the COVID-19 epidemic may have delayed the spread of the virus to cities outside of Wuhan by several days and prevented more than 700,000 infections nationwide. Meanwhile, the US has recorded more than 1.8 million infections and over 100,000 coronavirus deaths so far, 722 times higher than China's numbers, said Zhao. He also quoted a New York Times report as saying the delayed response from the US government cost 36,000 lives, and if the government had taken measures two weeks earlier, 83 percent of US coronavirus deaths could have been avoided. "Who [China or US] is incompetent? Who has failed in virus prevention? Let the figures speak for themselves," said Zhao, at a Monday press conference. Zhao's response came after Trump said on Friday that "China's cover-up of the Wuhan virus allowed the disease to spread all over the world, instigating a global pandemic that has claimed over 100,000 American lives and infected over a million lives worldwide." "I don't know if it was incompetence or it was done for some other reason. They stopped it from going to China, but they didn't stop it from going to the rest of the world," he added. Zhao said that facts are the best rebuke to Trump's accusation: China imposed a lockdown in Wuhan on January 23, with no commercial flights allowed into or out of the city from January 24 to April 8. The US also suspended direct flights between China and the US since January 31, and banned Chinese nationals, along with foreigners who travelled to China in the last 14 days, from entering the US, said Zhao. According to an open report, it was US travelers who brought the virus to Canada, and the source of France's outbreak remains unclear, while imported cases from China account for less than one tenth of those from other countries to Singapore. The US is still ravaged by the virus, and it is urgent for the US government to save lives, and passing the buck to China does nothing to beat the coronavirus, Zhao said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Rents are rising nearly twice as fast as a year ago, according to an index. (PA) Demand for rental properties surged after the UK government gave the green light for home moves in England in May, new figures show. Miles Shipside, director of Rightmove (RMV.L), which released the data, said relationship breakdowns, job losses, pent-up demand and an easing of lockdown rules were likely to explain the rise. The property websites figures show tenant interest, based on viewing data for its rental property listings, leapt 22% year-on-year in Britain in the week starting 18 May. The housing secretary Robert Jenrick had announced an easing of restrictions in England the previous week, sparking many estate agents to resume viewings and expand operations. Jeremy Leaf, a north London estate agent and a former RICS residential chairman, also told Yahoo Finance UK: We have noticed that the lettings market has particularly revived as tenants express dissatisfaction with unsuitable properties and relationships, and appreciate that making a move is much easier that way than perhaps buying. The surge marks a stark reversal of previous lockdown trends, which had seen demand far lower than a year earlier. A week after the UK went into lockdown at the end of March, visits on rental property listings were down 24% year-on-year. READ MORE: UK homeowners can apply for another mortgage holiday Demand in mid-to-late May saw the steepest gains compared with a year earlier in south-west England, the East Midlands and the West Midlands, where it was up around a third. London demand is up 17% according to the figures, made public by Rightmove and the BBCs shared data unit. But in Scotland, where the devolved government has eased fewer restrictions, demand remained down 11% year-on-year. Wales also saw only a modest rise, up 6%. The figures show rental demand rebounding far more than demand for property purchases, though the latter is still up 4% year-on-year despite an economic crisis and ongoing lockdown. Rightmove saw six million visits on 27 May, its busiest day ever. Story continues READ MORE: Coronavirus sparks biggest monthly fall in UK property prices since 2009 They may need to move for a job, he told the BBC. In this environment we are in now, there is a need for people with specialist jobs to be in a certain place - just think about the Nightingale hospitals that have sprung up. "Where some people have enjoyed lockdown, others' relationships haven't survived it and this has had knock-on consequences. There could be people who need to move because of job losses too. "And working from home has left a lot of people looking for a change in surroundings. Effectively we have two months of pent-up demand that needs to be satisfied." Leaf added that increased virtual tours were also making moving easier, while further changes in the job market could also influence demand. Looking forward, we do anticipate demand to continue quite strongly as younger people in particular find out whether the end of their furlough arrangement results in continuation of employment or redundancy, he added. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo Finance UK Three decades later, video of another act of police cruelty, last weeks Memorial Day killing of George Floyd, 46, by Minneapolis police, shocked the nation into one of the most widespread series of protests to roil the nation in years. The Minneapolis Police Department was not under a consent decree, according to a Justice Department document, and thats unlikely to change with Trump in the White House. ISTANBUL Ethnic and religious minorities in Turkey are on edge after a series of threats and attacks, with both government officials and their critics warning societys most vulnerable are being targeted to foment strife. Kurds, Christians and others have all faced intimidation or outright violence in recent weeks in what appear to be mostly unrelated incidents. Yet they coincide with growing economic uncertainty and political tensions wrought in part by the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 4,500 people in Turkey and hammered the economy. Conflicting reports about the motive behind the stabbing death of a 20-year-old Kurd in Ankara has stoked anger on both sides of the divide in Turkey. Members of Baris Cakans family initially said a group of men stabbed him in the heart for listening to Kurdish music. His father then said a dispute between Cakan and his killers erupted when he told the group to turn down their music during the call to prayer. Three men have been arrested in the probe. Fahrettin Altun, a senior adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, tweeted that allegations Cakan was killed for listening to Kurdish music were an ugly perception operation and that a recent spate of fake news revealed a systemic campaign to tarnish security forces and harm national unity. Separately, Altun expressed sadness that an Armenian church was vandalized last week, which he also said sought to undermine social cohesion. It was the third attack on an Armenian church in one month, and a suspect who allegedly set fire to a church gate earlier in May told police he was angry because he believed Armenians were responsible for the coronavirus outbreak. The Hrant Dink Foundation, which was named for the assassinated Armenian-Turkish journalist and promotes human rights and reconciliation between Turks and Armenians, received death threats last week, some of them directed at Dinks widow. Two people have been detained in connection with the menacing emails. It is not a coincidence that these events have followed one after the other. I dont have evidence they are an organized effort, but I believe they are the result of the polarizing rhetoric used by the most senior members of government, Tuma Celik, an opposition lawmaker who is Christian, told Al-Monitor. Celik pointed to comments last month by Erdogan, who said that Armenian and Rum lobbies were among evil forces plotting against Turkey. (Rum is a term used for Turkeys ethnic Greek citizens and Greek Cypriots.) Erdogan also called militants in the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party remnants of the sword, a derogative term for survivors of the World War I-era genocide of Armenians. Turkeys chief rabbinate, the Armenian Patriarchate and the Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate all called for legal action against a magazine that published slurs against their communities last month. The magazine is owned by Albayrak Media Group. Just 3,000 mostly elderly Greeks live in Turkey, which is also home to 60,000 or so Armenians and fewer than 20,000 Jews. If those media outlets that are closest to the government engage in hate speech and are not punished or even warned their impunity will trigger acts of hate, said Celik, a deputy for the People's Democratic Party (HDP), whose base is largely Kurdish. Other recent statements and acts against minorities include a pronouncement by the head of the states religious affairs directorate in April that homosexuality brought disease and corruption. Yazidis, who number fewer than 1,000 in Turkey, saw graves desecrated in March. Last month, a mob attacked the funeral of Ibrahim Gokcek, an Alevi musician in a leftist folk group who was jailed on terrorism charges. He died after a hunger strike before a verdict was reached in his case. Kurds, who make up 20% of the population, have been subject to a deliberate clampdown by authorities since the novel coronavirus outbreak, alleged HDP lawmaker Dirayet Dilan Tasdemir in a parliamentary motion submitted Tuesday. The motion called for the legislature to investigate several incidents including Cakans killing and allegations this week that police had abused a suspect in the killing of a police officer in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir. On Sunday, an aide to a lawmaker from the Nationalist Movement Party, the junior partner in a coalition with Erdogans ruling party, tweeted photographs of the suspect in police custody, including an image showing him on the floor without clothes while someone stepped on his back, lauding treatment of what the aide said was a traitor dog. The post was later deleted and the Interior Ministry rejected accusations such treatment amounted to torture, saying proportional force had been used during a strip search and the suspect still had his underwear on. Since the start of the pandemic [in Turkey] in March, the attacks on Kurdish citizens are not discrete, but carried out in a deliberate and systematic way, and the policy of impunity has once again legitimized them, Tasdemir said, according to an emailed copy of the motion. Rusen Cakir of the independent news site Medyascope said the string of events may be unconnected but that official explanations have failed to address the indignation they have roused and eliminate the fears of those who feel alienated." Cakir said on his program on Monday, There are elements who seek to threaten Turkeys internal peace, which is already extremely fragile, by attacking or threatening those whose numbers are small, including Christians and Kurds. Turkey has a long history of striking out at minority groups during periods of political tension, both domestic and foreign. In 2007, Dink was gunned down outside of his office in a crime still shrouded in mystery. The trial of state officials accused of complicity continues to this day. Some analysts are warning the incidents may be aimed at harming Erdogan as much as the groups who are targeted. The recent hostility occurs amid speculation, including from the president himself, that some may be hoping for another military coup in Turkey. The unrest is reminiscent of what Turkey saw more than a decade ago, when hard-line nationalists targeted non-Muslims to undermine the governments efforts to join the European Union, wrote Murat Yetkin, who runs the Yetkin Report news analysis site. With the economy in a serious squeeze, its not clear how Turkey will be impacted by the global uncertainty caused by COVID-19, and relations with the West are at another crossroads. This means there is a chance to realign and develop relations with the EU. Attacks and threats on non-Muslim citizens are increasing at this turn, Yetkin wrote. The developments pave the way for suspicions that another process has started. Correction: July 27, 2020. An earlier version of this article mistakenly stated that Albayrak Media Group is run by the family of Berat Albayrak. YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian airlines have been banned from flying to the European Union, ARMENPRESS was informed from the official website of the EU. The European Commission updates the EU aviation safety list on June 2, the list of airlines that are subject to an operating ban or operational restrictions within the European Union as they do not meet international safety standards. All airlines certified in Armenia have been added to the list after further assessment of the country's safety oversight capabilities. Aircompany Armenia, Armenia Airways, Armenian Helicopters, Atlantis Armenian Airlines, Atlantis European Airways, Mars Avia- Skyball have been included in the list. A total of 96 airlines have been banned from flying to the EU. Reporting by Anna Grigoryan, Editing and Translating by Tigran Sirekanyan Photo: Desiree Kane/Flickr Here's the most recent top news you may have missed in Charlotte. Protesters gather for peaceful demonstration near SouthPark Mall Read the full story on WCNC. Jail records: Number of protesters arrested in Charlotte from out of state grew from Friday to Saturday Read the full story on WCNC. Uptown business owner victim of looting during protests: It was disheartening Read the full story on WCNC. Man's fall sparks questions about who keeps sidewalk grates safe in uptown Charlotte Read the full story on WCNC. This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback. Several dozen people assembled, chanting, "I can't breathe" as part of their protest. Based on addresses listed on the jail's website, all of the people arrested were from the Charlotte area on Friday night, but that wasn't the case on Saturday. "It's your worst nightmare to see on the screen everything you've worked for being burglarized," the small business owner said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-03 00:44:27|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MOSCOW, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Holding an expanded session of the Group of Seven (G7) is right in principle, but the format still lacks representation, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. Any global affair could not be a success without China's participation, the ministry's spokesperson Maria Zakharova told RIA Novosti news agency. Russia agrees with the comments made by U.S. President Donald Trump that the G7 is "a very outdated group of countries," which does not properly represent "what's going on in the world," she said. Zakharova also praised the Group of 20 as an effective and well-established format, which includes both the G7 and BRICS countries. She made the remarks after Trump said Saturday that leaders of Russia, South Korea, Australia and India should be invited to this year's G7 summit. Enditem According to intelligence data, two members of Russia-led forces were wounded on that day. Russia's hybrid military forces on June 1 mounted three attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, with one Ukrainian soldier reported as wounded in action. "The Russian Federation's armed formations violated the ceasefire three times in the past day," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation Headquarters said on Facebook in an update as of 07:00 Kyiv time on June 2. "As a result, one Ukrainian serviceman was wounded in enemy shelling." Read alsoUkraine's JFO HQ reports enemy death toll in Donbas in May Russian-led forces opened fire from grenade launchers of various types and used an UAV. Under attack were Ukrainian positions near the town of Popasna and the village Hnutove. The Joint Forces returned fire in response to each enemy attack. According to intelligence data, two members of Russia-led forces were wounded on June 1. "Since Tuesday midnight, Russia-led forces have attacked Ukrainian positions near the village of Mayorsk, using hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers and rifles," the update said. There have been no Ukrainian army casualties since Tuesday midnight. The Bombay high court (HC) has held that in the case of literary works, copyright extends not only to expression of the core idea but also to its theme, plot, and storyline. The order, which was pronounced on Friday, was in regards to a plea filed by Urdu writer Shamoil Ahmad Khan claiming that Falguni Shah and two others had infringed his copyright on one of his short stories, Singardan and produced a web series under the same title which was being aired on online platforms. Khan claimed that producers of the web series had not only copied his title, but also the entire plot, narrative, and characters of his story. Producers of the web series opposed his plea for an injunction, claiming that except for the central idea of Singardaan, there was no other similarity between Khans literary work and the web series. They claimed that the central idea, set during riots, about a man taking a dressing table from a brothel to his home and how its use leads to changes in the behaviour of the womenfolk at home, was not entitled to any copyright protection. They submitted that the depiction of the central idea in the web series, scene to scene, situation to situation, in-climax to anti-climax, including the pathos, texture, treatment, purport, and presentation, was materially different from Khans story and therefore, there was no question of infringement. The argument, however, failed to impress upon justice SC Gupte. The judge agreed that that copyright does not extend to ideas, schemes, systems, or methods and it is confined to their expression; and if the expression is not copied, the copyright is not infringed. However, he clarified that in a literary work, a germ of an idea is developed into a theme and then into a plot and then finally a story, with the help of characters and settings. It is the combination of all these elements which give substance to the work. If one goes on stripping the final work of these various elements, one may finally come to the bare idea or abstraction which no longer enjoys copyright protection, Gupte said. The narration is the life and blood of the plaintiffs [Khans] story, said the judge, adding that it cannot be said that the writer has copyright only in the details of expression. If someone steals this theme, plot, and storyline, is he not thereby plagiarising the expression of the plaintiffs work? Can the theme, plot, and storyline be simply dismissed as non-protectable ideas of the plaintiffs work and not its expression? I think not. We have not yet reached that level of extraction where the work can be stripped to its non-protectable idea, the judge said. Gupte concluded that though the producers of the web series developed Khans theme, plot, and storyline differently, prima facie it was a case of copyright infringement. The court restrained the producers from making any further adaptation of Singardaan and directed them to maintain accounts of the revenue earned from the web series, right from its inception till the disposal of Khans suit. Despite a sovereign rating downgrade by Moodys, the rupee strengthened, and bond yields fell as markets shrugged off the downgrade. Currency dealers say the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) intervened in the currency markets, and may have even bought some bonds anonymously from the secondary markets. For now, it seems that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is not letting the rupee appreciate. The central bank is soaking up all the inflows coming due to stake sales in Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. In the week ended May 22, the RBI added $3 billion in its kitty to take the forex ... Community therapists across north Wales change working patterns to support COVID rehabilitation This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Jun 2nd, 2020 Community therapists across the region have changed their working patterns to provide more cover for rehabilitation of patients recovering from COVID-19. At Wrexham Maelor Hospital, a round-the-click shift pattern is in place for physiotherapists to provide proning support to patients. Proning is a treatment to help support people with breathing difficulties, lying a patient on their front which helps improve the amount of oxygen which gets into the blood stream. In Conwy a group of Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists and Therapy Technical Instructors are now working seven days a week to support people in their own homes. The team are among many therapies colleagues across Wales who have changed the way they work or been redeployed into different roles to help tackle COVID-19. The Conwy Community Therapy Team, which previously worked Monday to Friday, can now help more people return from hospital sooner and support people to stay in their own homes rather than be admitted where appropriate. Their work includes provision of equipment or advice required to support people to maintain independence and safety at home, advice around falls, provision of exercise programs and rehabilitation within peoples own homes as well as linking closely with other services such as District nurse teams, social services and GP practices. Alongside their work to help get people back on their feet after being poorly from COVID, the team are also looking at new, innovative ways of working. Gwawr Job-Davies, Interim Deputy Head Of Physiotherapy Central Area, said: We are also working on rehab pathways and have already developed new ways of providing services given the current restrictions in place. As well as visiting people in their own homes, were offering telephone and video consultations which we havent done before. Were doing all we can to help people stay well and independent at home. The team is one of many across North Wales changing the way they are working to meet the demands of COVID-19. Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy teams working at Glan Clwyd Hospital and Ysbyty Gwynedd are also working new seven-day, 12-hour shift patterns to support colleagues. All three main hospital sites now have increased therapist coverage throughout the week at their Emergency Departments, and community Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy teams in Gwynedd and Anglesey have already been working to the seven-day service model. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 2 By Elchin Mehdiyev Trend: Head of the Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, MP Tural Ganjaliyev, has criticized the "congratulatory letter" sent by Canadian MP Rachael Harder to the representative of the illegal regime created by Armenia in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, Trend reports. Tural Ganjaliyev has spoken on the issue at extraordinary session of the Azerbaijani Parliament on June 2. Ganjaliyev stressed that the Letter of Protest has been sent to the MPs of the Canadian Parliament. The assistant to Rachel Harder is a Canadian citizen of Armenian descent. Its very likely that this assistant provided Rachel Harder with false information. It would be good if after receiving this information the MP would clarify it and take a step after an objective study of the issue, Ganjaliyev added. Canada recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, and attaches great importance to high democratic principles and the rule of law. Therefore, such a step of the Canadian parliamentarian arouses feeling of regret, the head of the community said. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts. Union Home Minister Amit Shah is set to launch the BJPs political campaign for the upcoming Bihar assembly elections by addressing the people of the state through a "virtual rally". The rally will be telecast live on all social media platforms and will also be live streamed by the BJP. The exact dates for the event are being worked out and the sources said June 9 is expected to be the final date. Preparations are in full swing at the partys state headquarters, with party state president Sanjay Jaiswal spearheading all arrangements for the polls that are slated to take place later this year. "Our preparations are in full swing. We are confident that over one lakh people will be listening to the Home Minister. Thousands of our office bearers will connect people through video conferencing and on live streamingwe have tested ourselves by organising the connection with people in the recent Mann Ki Baat and it saw a tremendous response," Jaiswal told CNN-News18. Nitish Kumar led Bihar government has been accused of mishandling the migrant crisis in the wake of nationwide lockdown to curb the Covid-19 spread. Kumar has drawn a lot of flak the Opposition and Tejaswi Yadav, RJD leader and leader of opposition in the Bihar Assembly, recently made a stinging remark, calling the scenario a disastrous state of affair for the CEO of Bihar. To counter the BJP, RJD is now planning to hold a Garib Adhikar Divas agitation at 11 am on June 9 to show how inefficient and insensitive the JDU led and BJP supported government in Bihar functioned. "People are hungry and their food platters are empty, but the ruling party is desperate to grab the power.at a time when the country and the state are fighting the war of pandemic. We urge the people of Bihar to bang their empty plates and bowls in the face of this self-obsessed, insensitive and emotionless government and ruling parties, in the their trademark diversionary tactics style, to show their anger to whatever they have suffered and wake them up from their apathetic slumber on June 9 the very day BJP will blow their electioneering bugle, Tejaswi told CNN News18.. The criticism coming in from the opposition as far as Nitish Kumars performance during the coronavirus crisis is concerned has no bearing on the relationship between the JDU and the BJP and their prospects of fighting the elections together in Bihar. Party in-charge for Bihar, Bhupendra Yadav, told CNN News18, "We have expressed our intent well in advance. Our leadership had said it clearly even during Lok Sabha elections that we will contest Assembly polls with JDU, and Nitish Kumar shall be our chief ministerial face. There is no scope for any speculation in that." Asked why JDU is not participating in these virtual rallies, the senior Rajya Sabha member of parliament added, "This is an initiative of the BJP. We will speak about the achievement and work of the Narendra Modi Government 2.0 . it's not a government programme... JDU is in NDA but not in BJP." Sources said while speaking about the Modi governments achievements in its second term's first year, Shah would also touch upon what has been done to help Bihar, and may also announce that all is well between Nitish and BJP to quell any rumours.. If party sources are to be believed, at least one such rally or press conference in all the districts is being planned by BJP...A total of at least 400 such interactions with the public are expected to be addressed by Central, State Ministers and MPs too. The grand alliance of JDU, RJD and Congress won the 2015 Bihar Assembly Elections comprehensively and formed a government with Nitish Kumar as the Chief Minister. But soon fissures started to appear and in July 2017, Kumar snapped ties with Lalu Yadav's party and resigned from the CM post. But he did a Ghar Wapasi soon and returned to the NDA fold with BJP and was made the chief minister again. A total of 2,361 new cases of coronavirus and 76 deaths were reported in Maharashtra on Monday. The State Health Department said that Maharashtras Covid-19 case count has gone up to 70,013. After 76 more people succumbed to the disease today, the toll has increased to 2,362, it said. Mumbai crossed the 40,000-mark for Covid cases on Monday, with 1,413 new cases taking the tally to 41,099. The toll stood at 1,319, with 40 new deaths. Also, the G-North ward, which covers areas such as Dharavi, Dadar and Mahim, became the first of the 24 wards in the city to cross the 3,000-case mark with 79 new cases. The jump from 30,000 to 40,000 cases came within eight days and the city is expected to cross the case count of 50,000 next week, said civic officials. So far, 16,985 people have been discharged, putting the citys recovery rate at 42%. Civic officers said while the cases are rising on a daily basis, the doubling rate, too, has improved. Suresh Kakani additional commissioner, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), said, We have managed to improve our doubling rate to 14 days, which was four-five days in the initial stages of the outbreak. A lot of positive cases are from among those in quarantine, which has helped contain the spread, as these people cannot come in contact with anyone in the community. According to BMCs ward-wise break-up of cases, as of June 1, while G-North ward topped the list, L ward (Kurla) was second with 2,668 cases. In F-South ward (Parel), the tally jumped from 2,572 on May 31 to 2,622. The sharpest spike was in N ward (Ghatkopar), from 1,804 cases on May 31 to 1,892 cases on June 1. In terms of ward-wise growth rate for a week, R-North ward (Dahisar) topped the list with 7.5%, followed by P-North ward (Malad) at 7% and S (Bhandup) ward at 6.8%. Wards such as E (Byculla), F-North (Matunga) and G- South (Worli and Prabhadevi) recorded lowest growth rate at 2.1%, 2.4% and 2.6%, respectively. Mumbais average growth rate stood at 3.85% on Monday, lower than Sundays 4.26% Meanwhile, Dharavi reported 34 cases on Monday, pushing its tally to 1,805. A total of 2.5 lakh from the area have been screened. The Indias largest slum cluster houses 8.50 lakh people. Dadar reported seven new cases, taking the total to 326. Mahim saw 17 new cases (total: 524). State health minister Rajesh Tope and additional municipal commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal on Monday visited the Covid Care Centre in Dharavi, a 200-bed facility set up within 14 days. Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner, G-North ward, said, This centre will exclusively have 200 beds with oxygen facility for moderate symptomatic patients. All medical and paramedical staff will start working in three shifts from Tuesday. (With agency inputs) A Zoom meeting of the Los Angeles Police Commission has descended into chaos after being flooded by callers demanding the police chief's resignation. The commission's meeting on Tuesday, the first since protests began over the death of black man George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis, was held online due to the coronavirus pandemic. Black Lives Matter's Los Angeles chapter, which has organized protests there, urged its followers to call in, and they did by the hundreds. Within minutes of the meeting's start, it had reached its 500-person limit, and proceedings were delayed as furious residents clamored to speak their minds. After a 40-minute delay, the meeting opened with comment from LAPD Chief Michel Moore, who said that protests had escalated into widespread looting and attacks on officers in the downtown and Fairfax areas in recent nights. Arrestees in Los Angeles are loaded onto a sheriffs bus to be taken to jail as large numbers of people are arrested after a curfew went into effect on Monday night 'There were reports of individuals who believe officers used excessive force or misconduct. I want to assure you that we will investigate each complaint, and I promise to hold accountable anyone who violates our policy or commits other misconduct,' Moore said. Moore also apologized for comments he made Monday during a news conference, in which he said those 'capitalizing' on the protests have the death of George Floyd 'on their hands.' 'I understand that there are those that are not able to accept my apology,' Moore said. 'I'm hopeful that my words and deeds, as well as those in our department, will show others the genuineness of our intentions, our values and our beliefs.' The Zoom meeting of the LA Police Commission went on for more than 5 hours on Tuesday Police are blurred as they ride on a vehicle during demonstrations over George Floyd's death on Monday in Los Angeles Demonstrators walk along the 110 Freeway during a protest Tuesday in Los Angeles The meeting then opened to public comment, with each participant allowed up to two minutes to speak their mind. For hours during the comment portion, angry residents lashed out at the police department and demanded the firing or resignation of Moore. Among the comments were: 'Shame on you,' 'ignorant,' 'unacceptable,' 'disgusting,' 'despicable.' Many of the callers were audibly emotional, cursing as they demanded Moore be removed. Protesters kneel in front of police along Hollywood Boulevard during a peaceful demonstration over George Floyds death on Tuesday in Los Angeles Protesters are detained by police before being arrested for a curfew violation in the Hollywood area while peacefully demonstrating over George Floyds death on Monday They voiced frequent demands for the LAPD to be entirely defunded and disbanded. One caller blasted the department for using tear gas to break up crowds during the pandemic, saying that it could irritate respiratory symptoms. Several voiced disgust at the commission members for appearing distracted or looking at their phones during the comment portion. The calls dragged on for more than five hours, with the meeting still ongoing at 3pm PT. JACKSON, MI More than 400 people marched against police brutality in two peaceful protests in Jackson on Monday. The protests were in response to the death of George Floyd. Floyd, 46, who is black, died after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, knelt on his neck for several minutes May 25. The protests in Jackson did not turn violent, as many nationwide have. The demonstrations started after video footage of the incident spread far and wide, showing Floyd repeatedly saying I cant breathe while Chauvin pinned his knee on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes. Grand Rapids and Detroit have curfews in place Monday, June 1, after peaceful protests Sunday, May 31, turned into riots that left cars on fire, business windows smashed and protesters facing off against armored police. Jacksons first protest started at 1 p.m., June 1, outside the Jackson Police Department, 216 E. Washington Ave. About 100 people gathered and marched to the Jackson County Sheriffs Office and Jail, 212 W. Wesley St. Outside the jail, people spoke against police brutality and racism in policing. When chants of No justice, no peace and I cant breathe echoed through the crowd, inmates could be seen and heard banging on windows. Mayor Derek Dobies spoke at the first protest and attended the second, along with Interim City Manager Jonathon Greene. Like so many of you, I spent the last week in tears, Dobies said. Today is about recognizing some of the hard truths that many of you face everyday of your lives. The implicit bias, systemic racism that you face right here in Jackson. Mayor supports peaceful protest against police brutality in Jackson Pastor James Hines, of Lily Missionary Baptist Church, led the first protest. He said he attended the protest because his son, Joseph Hines, was beaten by police in 2012 when he was taken into custody for littering in Columbus, Ohio. I still live with the injustice, Hines said. (We need) more people coming together, talking and understanding, more people speaking against the injustice. Jackson Police and Fire Services Director Elmer Hitt and Blackman-Leoni Public Safety Director Mike Jester attended the second protest, which started at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and High Street around 3:30 p.m. They spoke to protesters in attendance and tried to answer their questions. Both departments are part of South Central Michigan Advocates and Leaders for Police and Community Trust, which examines police relationships with the community. The organization said Floyds death is unacceptable. Protesters questioned Jester and Hitt about their departments use of force and asked the police to treat them with respect. We want when we get pulled over, we dont get jitters in our stomach, feeling like were going to get murdered, a protester said into a megaphone. Dont look down on us, look up on us. When I was a kid, I used to want to be a police officer. Then I realized it was full of racist bull****. Hitt has been part of JPD for almost 25 years he said. While wearing a mask, he thanked protesters for listening to him and said the departments goal is to allow protests with as little police interference as possible. There were around four uniformed police officers and a Michigan State Police trooper at the protest. No police in riot gear were seen at either protest. Its important for you to share your message, Hitt said. I do ask everyone to do this peaceful, which I think you are. I know theres no doubt in my mind that what occurred in Minneapolis was an injustice. People need to be held accountable for their actions. Police officers need to be held accountable for their actions. A second protest against police brutal is happening in the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and High Street in Jackson, Michigan. ***Warning: Graphic language*** Posted by Jackson Citizen Patriot on Monday, June 1, 2020 Protesters spoke of anger in the black community, describing difficult conversations theyre forced to have with their children, like teaching them to be careful when reaching for their car registration if they are pulled over. The crowd of more than 400 people marched a mile down Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to downtown Jackson and the police department. As the group walked, they chanted Say his name. George Floyd and What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now. Residents of MLK Drive came out of their homes to watch the protest and many joined the march that spanned at least three city blocks. Chants of I cant breathe echoed off buildings in downtown Jackson as protesters gathered to listen to more speakers. Hines thanked participants for coming and asked them to remain peaceful as the protest ended and the crowd dispersed. Around half the protesters marched back to the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and High Street where many of them had parked their cars earlier before clearing the streets. Thank you for everyone who came out tonight!!! organizer Akearah Anderson posted in the Facebook event page. Jackson community is beautiful! Thank you to the speakers and everyone who donated materials and helped me. I love my Jackson community and can not wait to accomplish many more projects!! Another protest is planned for 3 p.m., Wednesday, June 3, outside the Jackson County Courthouse, 312 S. Jackson St., according to the Facebook page. Irish fighter Conor McGregor has urged people to 'learn from those in pain' as the fallout continues from the shocking death of George Floyd. As widespread protests against police brutality take place in America and beyond, McGregor said: "There is no place for injustice, racism and intolerance in this world! We must really listen and learn from those in pain. Be the example of the change you want to see!!" "Praying, hoping, and believing everyday that this is all a part of the lords plan to lead us to a better and brighter future ahead," the UFC star stressed. Mass protests and broke out in Minnesota and other U.S. states after a video of Floyds May 25 detention was posted online. Floyd, suspected of paying with counterfeit money at a local shop, was handcuffed by a white police officer, who put him to the ground and pressed his knee firmly against his neck. Floyd pleaded that he cannot breathe, but the police ignored him. Floyd died at the local hospital, shortly after the incident. The four arresting police officers were fired on May 26. One of them - Derek Chauvin, the officer who had his knee on Floyd - was arrested on Friday afternoon and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Researchers at Mount Sinai have discovered that human acute myeloid leukemia (AML) stem cells are dependent on a transcription factor known as RUNX1, potentially providing a new therapeutic target to achieve lasting remissions or even cures for a disease in which medical advances have been limited. In a study published in June in Cell Reports, the team described how they used induced pluripotent stem cells from a patient with AML to recreate leukemia stem cell biology in the lab, revealing that AML leukemia stem cells lose their leukemic properties once the transcription factor is knocked down or deleted. The researchers further showed that AML cells from other patients were RUNX1-dependent. "Our development of a new leukemia stem cell model for AML allowed us to study these cells in greater detail than ever before, leading to the unexpected finding of specific dependency of leukemia stem cells on the transcription factor RUNX1," says Eirini Papapetrou, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Oncological Sciences, at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and senior author of the study. "Digging further, we found earlier studies suggesting that RUNX1 expression is a marker of poor prognosis for patients with acute myeloid leukemia. Our work may now provide an explanation, namely that RUNX1 is required to sustain leukemia stem cells and thus propagate the leukemia." Acute myeloid leukemia is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, the spongy tissue inside bones where blood cells are made. AML, which primarily affects white blood cells, is one of the most common leukemias in adults, with more than 20,000 newly diagnosed cases each year in the United States. While several new drugs have been introduced in recent years targeting the disease, they have fallen short of significantly changing patient outcomes or survival. Dr. Papapetrou was one of the first investigators to derive patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells and use them in disease modeling, with the goal of better understanding the mechanisms of acute myeloid leukemia and identifying promising new therapeutic targets. Induced pluripotent stem cells, which won their developer the Nobel Prize in 2012, are generated from adult cells and can be differentiated into almost any type of cell type in the body, making them different from and in some ways preferable to embryonic stem cells. Through the use of induced pluripotent stem cells, Dr. Papapetrou and her research team were able to recapitulate a leukemia stem cell state that was difficult to capture and study with traditional models. "Our model made it much easier to isolate and culture leukemia stem cells over a long period, which meant we could obtain them in large numbers for ongoing research," she explains. That work uncovered other intriguing genes that appear to play a role in the mediation of RUNX1 effects in leukemia stem cells. Most prominent is TSPAN 18, which scientists believe could prove to be an even more attractive therapeutic target than RUNX1 since, as a cell surface protein, it can be targeted with antibody or chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell approaches. TSPAN 18 and other candidate genes that lie downstream of RUNX1 could be future subjects of investigation by Dr. Papapetrou's lab, which is committed to the study of blood disorders, particularly myeloid malignancies. Indeed, the lab's advances with human leukemia stem cells have broader implications for the entire field around therapeutic targeting of leukemia stem cells. "We're demonstrating that you can't appreciably affect leukemia without addressing leukemia stem cells," Dr. Papapetrou emphasizes, adding that her work has provided datasets and characterized gene signatures of AML leukemia stem cells that will be critical to future studies. "It's impossible to say at this early stage when or if our work will lead to significant improvements or possibly a cure for AML," she says, "but the results we've seen so far are very promising and underscore the tremendous potential in this field." ### Researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Weill Cornell Medicine, and University of Miami Miller School of Medicine contributed to this research. About the Mount Sinai Health System The Mount Sinai Health System is New York City's largest integrated delivery system, encompassing eight hospitals, a leading medical school, and a vast network of ambulatory practices throughout the greater New York region. Mount Sinai's vision is to produce the safest care, the highest quality, the highest satisfaction, the best access and the best value of any health system in the nation. The Health System includes approximately 7,480 primary and specialty care physicians; 11 joint-venture ambulatory surgery centers; more than 410 ambulatory practices throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and 31 affiliated community health centers. The Icahn School of Medicine is one of three medical schools that have earned distinction by multiple indicators: ranked in the top 20 by U.S. News & World Report's "Best Medical Schools", aligned with a U.S. News & World Report's "Honor Roll" Hospital, No. 12 in the nation for National Institutes of Health funding, and among the top 10 most innovative research institutions as ranked by the journal Nature in its Nature Innovation Index. This reflects a special level of excellence in education, clinical practice, and research. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 18 on U.S. News & World Converse City Council will start the process of filling a vacancy after an appeals court struck down an injunction barring the 2019 removal of a councilwoman. Kate Silvas, first elected in November 2018 after eight years as the citys Economic Development Corporation executive director, was ousted Oct. 22 by a 4-0-1 council vote. Her ouster was tied to allegations that she requested information directly from two staff members, interaction that is prohibited in the citys charter. The Fourth Court of Appeals on May 20 released a judgment lifting an existing district court injunction blocking Silvas removal from council. The trial courts order granting the temporary injunction is reversed and the judgment is rendered denying the temporary injunction, said the order, a 3-0 decision in the Fourth Court of Appeals. The councils decision to oust Silvas came just days before the November election, when she faced incumbent Mayor Al Suarez and fellow Councilwoman Deborah James for the mayors seat. State District Judge Martha Tanners order on Oct. 28 blocked the attempt to remove Silvas. A subsequent district court hearing resulted in a temporary injunction to keep Silvas on city council until the trial could be held this year. We are pleased that the Court of Appeals upheld the will of the citizens of Converse as expressed in the City Charter and dismissed the majority of former Councilmember Silvas lawsuit, Suarez said in a May 27 news release. We anticipate that the remaining claim will be disposed of in a timely manner. Silvas, meanwhile, thinks the opinion keeps alive her assertion that actions by council and city officials were illegal. This judgment and opinion do not dissolve, but leave intact, my allegations that the mayor, several members of council, the city manager and city secretary all engaged in illegal misconduct in their attempt to remove me, Silvas said through a statement issued by her attorney, Dennis Drouillard. In fact, the trial courts preliminary rulings determined I was likely to win those claims and the Fourth Courts opinion does not change that, she added. The appellate courts ruling remands the case back to the trial court for further proceedings. I am confident that whether I am in or out of my council seat, I will prevail on the merits of the case and will be vindicated at last, she said. These banana-republic efforts to overthrow duly elected representatives occur outside of the United States, but no one could have imagined, she said, that they would occur in our own country much less in Converse, Texas. A release by the city said Silvas forfeited her position as a City Council member by violating the Converse City Charter, and she is no longer a sitting council member. Discussion at the Oct. 22 council meeting centered on Suarezs multiple requests of several city officials for public information, including copies of all city budgets and audits for the past 20 years, copies of all text messages sent and received by City Manager Le Ann Piatt since April 2018, and copies of all EDC budget and audits since it was created in 2000. Two of the more than two dozen requests Silvas made were directed to two city staff members one to then-city secretary Holly Nagy, who left the position in May for a job elsewhere in Texas; and another to John Quintanilla, the citys community services development director. The city charter forbids council members from directly interacting with staff without first contacting or consulting with the city manager. Quintanilla said the building permits information she requested to be located and assessed for the Oct. 22 meeting yielded 25 pages. Quintanilla said he had doubts that he could perform the feat in the given time requested at 3 p.m. ahead of the 7 p.m. meeting so he brought the matter to Piatts attention. But Silvas disputes the claim, saying she was only exercising her legal rights to information and questions the councils ability to remove her under the charter. The citys charter does not stipulate any process or procedure for the council to remove a member from office, she said. Nonetheless, I have done nothing wrong in exercising my Constitutional right to request public information as a citizen of the United States and as a duly-elected public official. I have a duty to be informed before voting on public business. Converse has 30 days from the May 20 decision to appoint a replacement for the now-vacant Place 4 seat. City Council meetings were scheduled for June 2 and June 16, both within the 30-day window. jflinn@express-news.net Why did the chicken cross the road? To clear Pennsylvania Ave. of American vermin so he could walk with an entourage to a boarded-up and deeply offended church for a photo-op and jiggle an upside-down Bible as if it were a sack of Shake n Bake. What is he doing, we asked ourselves, again. And why? It was a surreal interlude in a prolonged police riot that had spread across the U.S. since the weekend. The pitilessness was shocking, almost as agonizing as hearing George Floyd beg for his life as bored, uniformed men pressed him to death. They knelt on his neck, a sick parody of taking a knee. Here in Canada, I was guessing how many American bodies would be struck by that marauding New York City police van, or the transport truck in Minneapolis. We saw a woman deliberately trampled by a Houston cop on a horse, a young man beaten for trying to help a friend collapsed in the street, demonstrators shoved so violently they flew into the air, a news photographer with her eye shot out, and many other attacks that were personally intended, not randomly directed. It was particularly sorrowing that so many demonstrators were young, dressed in light summer clothing, and still idealistic enough to believe their right to protest would be respected. The media were singled out for police punishment and arrest, as they had been at Trump rallies for years. White reporters tended to do better than those of colour, but that was just as true before Trump won power. Protesters armed with nothing more than a bit of cloth on their faces werent prepared for military thugs who came at them in sound-blocking helmets, face shields, uniforms and body armour, in armoured vehicles, and carrying guns, batons, tasers, gas canisters and other instruments to cause instant pain and terror. And the mix was there too: white supremacists posing as average citizens online and egging on the hate; good cops forced to join the riot; Trump thugs rejoicing; men at their worst; men at their best; good-hearted rally organizers trying to keep things calm; and above all, Americans with black skin displaying with their bodies, hearts and minds that life so long after slavery was still intolerable. Trump was hiding in the bunker under the White House, shades of the German chancellery. Cant you just see Trump jabbing his finger at street maps and shouting at his officials? What a silly man. Yet he will have his way. The blood on the streets of American cities this week was a read-through, not even a rehearsal. But what is to be done? It is intolerable to be something other than white in the U.S. and that has to change. But Canada has to change too, though not by these means. I am proud that Canadians marched peacefully on the weekend for racial justice but it seemed somehow faux-American at this time of extreme U.S. racism to seize on a heartbreaking but as yet unproven story about Toronto police racism. Many Americans of colour who are alive and breathing at this moment will not see this year out. Trump, whether by coronavirus or bullets, will cause that. It is not my job to agree with received wisdom, which is fortunate as I often dont. I am of mixed race and in these fraught times, more racism is directed at me from the left than the right. It is possibly a borrowed American twitch. Oh Canada. I am always taken aback by how quickly Indigenous torment, Canadas great shame, is forgotten in favour of mimicking loud, bloody, urban American pain under Trump and his retro-tribe. What of missing and murdered Indigenous women or young Indigenous men shot on a Prairie night? Canada has different ends, different means. We are not Americans, not by any stretch. You can get killed just for living in your American skin, Bruce Springsteen once sang about murder by cop. So much American blood will flow before November thanks to Trump chickenry. That wont be true of Canada, not if we keep our thoughts raised high, our kindness undimmed, and our intellect in flow. Downing Street is to scrap ministerial coronavirus briefings at the weekend, blaming poor TV viewing figures. The move comes after ministers were blasted by the UKs statistics watchdog for misleading use of figures on Cover-19 testing at the daily briefings. Downing Street said that the prime minister Boris Johnson will commit to appearing once a week in the new five-a-week schedule of press conferences, to give statements and answer questions from the media and members of the public, alongside scientific and medical advisers. Asked why the briefings were being cut back from seven to five a week, with none on Saturday or Sunday starting this weekend, Mr Johnsons official spokesperson said: It is just a fact that numbers viewing at weekends do tend to be significantly lower. However, questions are certain to be raised about the governments commitment to transparency after a number of briefings produced negative headlines over breaches of lockdown by Mr Johnsons aide Dominic Cummings, as well as problems with the deployment of the new test and trace system and delays to the app to track contacts of Covid-19 patients. The sequence of daily updates from Downing Street on the progress of the fight against coronavirus began on 16 March, with the first few held in front of an audience of reporters inside No 10. However, they quickly switched to a virtual format after the introduction of social distancing rules, with questions asked via video link. They have made national figures of backroom advisers like the chief medical officer Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance. After hosting a number of the briefings himself and famously stating at one that he was continuing to shake hands, even when visiting a hospital with coronavirus cases Mr Johnson stepped back after being diagnosed with Covid-19. Subsequent briefings have seen cabinet ministers including Matt Hancock, Rishi Sunak, Priti Patel and Alok Sharma take to the lectern. Announcing the move to five-a-week briefings, Mr Johnsons spokesperson said: We will carry on doing the press conferences on weekdays and ministers will also continue to provide regular updates to parliament and conduct a wide range of media interviews. Boris Johnson is expected to hold press briefings at least once a week from now on (Reuters) The PM will do a press conference every week. Its possible he could do more. We are absolutely committed to keeping people updated and we will be continuing to do this through regular press conferences, also through information campaigns, media interviews and parliamentary updates. Asked whether the change reflected a new approach to the crisis as numbers of cases move downwards, the spokesperson said: We have moved into a new phase of the pandemic response. Weve obviously taken some cautious steps, easing social distancing measures. Schools are now open to more pupils and you are seeing a careful easing in the rules around social contact and also some aspects of non-essential retail have reopened. We are moving into a different phase of the response, but in terms of the pandemic and the governments response, it continues to be the absolute priority for every department across Whitehall. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The city of Midland Health Department is currently conducting its investigation on three new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Midland County, bringing the overall case count to 132. The 130th confirmed case is a male in his 30s who was tested by Midland Health. He is currently self-isolating at home. The source of exposure is community acquired. With CPRIT funding, UTA cancer researcher establishes new lab With $2 million in support from the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), The University of Texas at Arlington has added an emerging leader in cancer biology to its faculty and fortified its cancer research enterprise. Piya Ghose, assistant professor of biology, came to UTA in January 2020 with an established portfolio of investigations into programmed cell death, which has major implications for cancer treatment. Ghose describes the CPRIT award, established to support young investigators and first-time, tenure-track faculty members, as an honor and coming to UTA as an exciting opportunity to have her scientific voice heard. "To be recognized among a cohort of numerous strong, young scientists is an honor, and it is motivating to look at the CPRIT scholars that have come before me," Ghose said. "This award has opened up my world and is allowing me to pursue big, ambitious questions from the jump. It, along with the supportive and connected nature of UTA, really allows me to hit the ground running." Since arriving on the UTA campus, Ghose has been building her laboratory team and using the CPRIT funds to acquire sophisticated equipment that will expand her research in a "game-changing way." Ghose's broad interests in genetics and cell and developmental biology led her to study programmed cell death, which, when defective, can lead to cancer through the creation of tumors. She describes her work as a "fundamental approach to cancer biology," looking at how cells remodel, live and die. Ghose is currently studying a special form of programmed cell death she discovered in her postdoctoral studies at the Rockefeller University called compartmentalized cell elimination, in which different parts of a cell degenerate in different ways. She said understanding this concept could lead to an understanding of how tumors behave throughout the body. "I'm excited to discover what this concept can teach us in how we approach cancer," Ghose said. "Through the CPRIT proposal, I got the chance to think about how I identify as a scientist and how I can utilize my interests to have an impact that will benefit the world. I feel at home at UTA and in what I'm doing. The years of effort are proving to be worth it." Ghose said she has been excited by the climate and energy of UTA and is thrilled by the level of diversity of all kinds on campus and how it is playing into her lab. "It is invigorating for people of all backgrounds and cultures to come together through a love of science, and it definitely enhances our work," she said. "CPRIT's investment in bringing Dr. Ghose to UTA is a recognition of not only the critical role she will undoubtedly play in the Texas cancer research community, but also of our University as one that cultivates excellence and empowers young faculty to make an impact," UTA College of Science Dean Morteza Khaledi said. "I am thrilled to have Piya on our faculty and look forward to the numerous ways she will enrich all facets of scholarship in our college and at UTA." ### This story has been published on: 2020-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. These are the best offers from our affiliate partners. We may get a commission from qualifying sales. Burma Displaced Children in Western Myanmar Unable to Attend Reopening Schools Children at an IDP camp in Paletwa. / Ko Myo Htike Yangon More than 2,000 children from displaced families in Chin States Paletwa Township will have difficulty going to school when public schools reopen in July, according to Chin State government. Tens of thousands of residents in Paletwa and Samee in Chin State have been displaced by the fighting between Myanmars military and the Arakan Army (AA) since last year. There are around 1,500 school-age children from 1,170 households at camps for the internally displaced people (IDPs) in Paletwa, and 750 children from 707 households at IDP camps in Samee, according to the Chin State government. I am afraid their schools will not be able to reopen. So if only the schools in urban areas open, we will need a large number of classrooms as well as teachers. And I am afraid textbooks cannot be sent here, said the head of Paletwa Township education department, Salai Aung Min. The Basic Education Department said public schools will reopen on July 21, but the two towns lack classrooms, desks and books to teach the displaced children. Chin State government is working to build temporary schools for displaced children in the two towns, said Chin State minister for municipal affairs, electricity and industry U Soe Htet. We are setting up tents with makeshift desks and chairs with government funds and cash contributions from donors. Teachers also fled the clashes, but we hope they will be able to come to urban areas of Samee and Paletwa where IDPs are gathered, said U Soe Htet. The minister held discussions with the chairman of Relief and Rehabilitation Committee for Chin IDPs (RRCCI) Salai Issac Khin on Friday on the schooling of displaced children. I suggested using churches as classrooms if there is a shortage of classrooms. This is for children in urban areas. But it will be really difficult for rural children to get to school, he said. Although Paletwa and Samee towns are relatively stable, clashes are still reported in around 20 villages near Paletwa, according to Salai Issac Khin. Teachers dont want to go to Paletwa. Even if schools reopen, I am afraid all the teachers will not come and teach, added Salai Issac Khin. U Soe Htet in January told The Irrawaddy that civil servants are refusing to work in Paletwa because of security concerns. There are 384 basic education schools in Paletwa but 212 schools had already been closed since 2019 due to a lack of teachers before the fierce clashes resumed in February, which blocked transport links to the town. There were around 30,000 basic education students at public schools in Paletwa Township in the 2019-20 academic year. Of 1,253 teachers in the township, around 100 have applied for transfers to other areas, according to the township education office. In Paletwa Township, which has a population of just over 100,000 people, the fighting has affected around 60,000 people, displacing some 9,000. Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko You may also like these stories: South Koreas SK Telecom to Help Myanmar Boost Cybersecurity Govt to Build Temporary Classrooms to Aid Social Distancing in Schools Japan to Provide US$46 M Emergency Loan to Small Businesses in Myanmar CIAL so far caters to 10,000 evacuees, flights from Djibouti, Cairo, Cebu, Vietnam in the schedule Kochi, Jun 2 (UNI) As the number of evacuees facilitated by CIAL comes close to 10,000, the airport is gearing up to receive more flights from new sectors from Cairo in Egypt to Cebu in The Philippines. Apart from the National carrier, a number of private airlines and chartered airlines have already approached the authorities to obtain necessary approvals for operating evacuation flights to Kochi, an official press release said on Tuesday. The Vande Bharath Mission had a head start in the country with the first airline touched down at Cochin International Airport on May 7, 2,020. Till May 31, the airport handled 8,554 inbound passengers; majorly from GCC, US and EU. Seth Rogen isnt mincing his words when responding to those who disagree with his support for Black Lives Matter. The actor and comedian expressed his support for the movement on Instagram in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a black man who died aged 46 on 25 May in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after a white police officer knelt on his neck. Rogen wrote next to his Black Lives Matter post: If this is a remotely controversial statement to you, feel free to unfollow me. Many supported his stance in the comments section, but some challenged Rogens position, insisting instead that all lives matter. Asserting that all lives matter is often used as an attempt to challenge the credibility of Black Lives Matter and is considered dismissive and disrespectful of the movement. Black Lives Matter is not a term of confrontation or an exclusionary demand, writer Rachel Elizabeth Cargle noted in a 2019 Harpers Bazaar piece on the matter, adding: Why do those who counter black lives matter act as though black people arent aware of the glaring disproportionate statistics of police brutality, of health care racism, and of mass incarceration? This is our reality. You deciding to ignore it for your own comfort doesnt make it any less true. Rogen had little patience for the all lives matter rhetoric on his Instagram page. To one person complaining that others were making this only about black people, Rogen responded: F*** off. You dont deserve my movies anymore. Stop watching my s**. Several other people left variations of all lives matter on Rogens post, to which he replied with messages such as shut the f*** up, f*** off, and f*** you and both your parents. Rogen has been praised for his reaction on Twitter, where people have been sharing screenshots of his Instagram responses and applauding his approach. OTTAWA - A Canadian legal activist is warning the federal government to grant asylum to democracy activists in Hong Kong and expanded settlement to those with links to Canada before China prevents them from leaving. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/6/2020 (598 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Protesters gesture with five fingers, signifying the "Five demands - not one less" in a shopping mall during a protest against China's national security legislation for the city, in Hong Kong, Monday, June 1, 2020. The mouthpiece of China's ruling Communist Party says U.S. moves to end some trading privileges extended to Hong Kong grossly interfere in China's internal affairs and are doomed to fail. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu) OTTAWA - A Canadian legal activist is warning the federal government to grant asylum to democracy activists in Hong Kong and expanded settlement to those with links to Canada before China prevents them from leaving. The warning came Monday from Avvy Go, the director of the Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic, which has already helped bring Hong Kong pro-democracy activists to Canada. There are 300,000 Canadians of Hong Kong descent in China, and Go says if Ottawa doesn't act now to accommodate those who want to leave, Beijing will prevent them from leaving in the future. "The time to act is now. As China continues to crack down on the democracy movement in Hong Kong, it may soon find ways to prohibit Hong Kong activists from leaving that city, period," Go said Monday at a joint video press conference hosted by Amnesty International. "Even with those who are Canadian citizens, China may refuse to recognize their dual citizenship status and deny their exit from Hong Kong." MPs from the four major Canadian political parties and one independent senator stood in solidarity with the proposals Go put forward at a virtual press conference convened by Amnesty International. Canada, along with the United States, Britain and Australia, have condemned Beijing's imposition of a new national security law that they say violates Hong Kong's freedom from Chinese communist interference. "This is the Beijing government's most breathtaking, threatening and callous attack yet ... discarding any pretence of fulfilling China's international promises made when Hong Kong was handed over in 1997," said Alex Neve, the secretary general of Amnesty's Canadian branch. Go called on the federal government to implement several immigration and asylum measures, to help people get out of Hong Kong before it is too late. They are: Expediting family sponsorship applications by Canadians with spouses and parents in Hong Kong. Expanding family-reunification sponsorship programs beyond parents and spouses. Issuing more temporary-resident permits, work visas and student visas. Granting refugee status to democracy advocates, and offering them stepped-up resettlement options. Last year, Hong Kong residents took to the streets in mass protests against a proposed extradition law from Beijing that was eventually abandoned. During that unrest, Go's clinic received requests from Canadians of Hong Kong descent whose relatives participated in pro-democracy protests, she said. Since Beijing announced the new security law, the clinic is getting calls from Canadians who are worried about their families even though they may not have been involved with the democracy movement, said Go. "These are our people. And as parliamentarians dedicated to promoting and protecting democracy, we cannot stand by silently. I endorse all of the actions," said Independent Sen. Marilou McPhedran. McPhedran said she has travelled across Africa and seen the effect of China's massive development spending, an influence-buying effort that many analysts say is a power play by Beijing's ruling communist party. "The weaponization of economic support is something that we need to understand better as we look at what is happening in Hong Kong," said McPhedran. "The violation of the Hong Kong Basic Law, which is the essence of what China is saying it is going to do, is in fact a precursor to threats to democracies in many other countries as well." Conservative MP Kenny Chiu, who was born in Hong Kong, said the people of his homeland respect human rights and the rule of law, and they are prepared to commemorate Thursday's anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre that saw the Chinese army kill scores of pro-democracy student protesters in 1989. "We're witnessing in Hong Kong basic dictatorship in disguise, exerting its power out of fear for these values," said Chiu. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 1, 2020. 2 3 Quantum Hall effect (QHE) is one of the most important discoveries in physical sciences. Due to the one-dimensional (1D) dissipationless edge states, QHE exhibits exotic transport properties with quantized Hall resistance ofand vanishing longitudinal resistance. Here,is Plancks constant,is Landau filling factor andis electron charge. QHE usually originates from the formation of remarkable energy gap and the broken time-reversal-symmetry, which requires materials with high mobility, high magnetic field and ultralow temperature. These rigorous conditions greatly limit the deep exploration and wide applications of QHE. In 1988, Haldane theoretically proposed that QHE can be realized without applying external magnetic field, i.e. Chern insulator state or quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE). In 2013, QAHE with Chern number=1 was experimentally observed in thin films of chromium-doped (Bi,Sb)Teat the temperature down to 30 mK. Afterwards, Haldane was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics for his early theoretical works on topological phases of matter including the prediction of QAHE. The 1D dissipationless edge states of Chern insulators provide a possible solution to the inevitable heating in integrated circuits. In general, only one 1D dissipationless edge state can be realized at ultralow temperatures in magnetically doped topological insulators, which is far from the application requirements. Therefore, realizing multiple dissipationless edge states and increasing the working temperature of Chern insulator states are not only the most important research topics in physical sciences, but also expected to promote the development of low-consumption electronics and integrated circuits. Recently, a research collaboration led by Professor Wang Jian at Peking University, Professor Xu Yong and Professor Wu Yang at Tsinghua University has discovered high-Chern-number and high-temperature Chern insulator states in MnBi 2 Te 4 devices, representing a great breakthrough in Chern insulators and topological quantum states. Kelly Howard spends some of the winter and spring making glass floats, the colorful orbs that have become a Lincoln City staple during the past 20 years. Howard, who owns Lincoln City Glass Center, builds a glass floats stockpile for the busy summer season. Then coronavirus hit, and suddenly Howard had a dilemma. What if summer comes and visitor traffic to Lincoln City isnt as robust as years past? Its not as if glass floats go stale. Still, Howard wanted the floats to go to use. A former official from Taft High School floated a suggestion to Howard. How about donating a glass float to each of the graduating seniors in Tafts 2020 class? Given the pandemic, the grads and their moment have been hit hard. This small gesture might brighten graduation that was otherwise muddied by coronavirus. Howard accepted, and donated a four-inch glass float which retails for $35 at her store to each graduate. I feel so bad for the kids having their senior year end this way, Howard said. This is a small gift that lets them know were thinking about them. Just doing something positive. It didnt end there. It was then suggested to Howard, what about Eddyville High grads? And Nestucca? Before long, Howard was donating glass floats to 2020 graduates at Lincoln Countys seven high schools: Taft, Eddyville, Siletz, Newport, Waldport, Toledo and Career Tech. Coronavirus in Oregon: Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter In all, Howard gave away 418 glass floats, with a retail value of more than $14,000. The time and materials came out of Howards pocket, though she says its been partially mitigated by local donations. Waldport senior Karissa Punneo says graduation hasnt been so bad thanks to gifts like the donations from Howard. Waldport has hung banners of all members of the 2020 graduating class around town. There have been plenty of what Punneo calls shoutouts for the class. I feel like my school has done a really good job of making the best of it, Punneo said. Punneo said classmates appreciate Howards gesture. Its something we can keep forever, Punneo said. Waldport senior Karissa Punneo Howard is hopeful that some of the eight to 10,000 people who typically visit her glass shop during summer months show up in 2020. But whether its one or 10,000, shes glad 418 floats found their way to a good cause. I hope we made the seniors day, Howard said. --Nick Daschel | ndaschel@oregonian.com | @nickdaschel Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Many poets in Jammu and Kashmir have used their free time amid the Covid-19 lockdown to pen verses and turned to social media to organise virtual poetry sessions, and cultural organisations believe this could become the new norm till the disease fades away. Since March, not a single big gathering of poets has been organised in Jammu and Kashmir or any other part of the country, depriving poets and intellectuals of the opportunity to meet and recite their latest poems before an audience. But now poets and cultural organisations are using social media to arrange virtual mushairas or symposiums. Muneer Raqib, Jammu and Kashmirs secretary for art, culture and language, said the local academy for art, culture and languages started the trend and he hoped this would be replicated across the country. We have organised six full-fledged mushairas, sessions for songs, skits and magic shows, and plan to have similar activities in the near future, he said. The academy started with online sessions of songs in different languages, and poets then requested that online mushairas be arranged. This was done along with several cultural organisations of Kashmir, he said. From the past one year, the academy had plans to switch over to online and virtual sessions to reach a larger audience, especially among youngsters. The Covid-19 gave us an opportunity. We have asked people to use our facilities or help to reach their target audience, Raqib said. Two days ago, one of the oldest cultural organisations in Jammu and Kashmir, the Rafiabad Adbi Markaz, joined hands with the Academy of Art, Culture and Languages for a long online poetic symposium that was joined by more than 17 poets. Mohammad Ashraf Tak, chief editor of the academy, said local literary organisations played a key role in making the online platform a great success at a time when such activities have been curtailed by the Covid-19 crisis. This is just the beginning and more programmes and projects are in the offing, he said. The verses and compositions of some of the poets and writers were inspired by the Coronavirus and its deadly impact on day-to-day activities. These online sessions have attracted good audiences and people have liked this very much. For us, it is lockdown literature. We have done two so far and its just the beginning, said Rafiq Masoodi, who served as secretary of the academy for several years. Many poets are now regularly uploading their latest poems in English, Urdu, Hindi and Kashmiri on social media and some have written long verses on the pandemic as they try to give the people hope that it wont last long. However, Tajamul, one of the participants in an online mushaira, said: Its not easy to conduct a mushaira on 2G connection, and despite the slow internet speed, we completed it. For us, this mushaira was an act of resilience. Authorities snapped internet connectivity across Kashmir after the erstwhile states special status was scrapped last August. Recently, 2G connectivity was restored in the region but there have been numerous complaints about the slow speeds. Athar Bashir, a young poet well versed with social media, said the Covid-19 lockdown has given a fillip to poets to write about recent happenings. Through social media, we can share our literary creations to a cross-section of society and its encouraging when they reach a large audience, especially among the younger generation who are hooked to social media. Also, it helps us to maintain social distancing and poets are not at risk of being infected by the Coronavirus, he said. By Associated Press NEW YORK: New York City imposed a late-night curfew Monday as officials tried, unsuccessfully, to prevent another night of destruction amid protests over George Floyd's death. With an 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, New York joined other cities around the country in imposing such measures after days of unrest. The limit on a city of more than 8 million people comes after months of restrictions already imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic. As the deadline to get off the streets approached, bands of protesters marched through Manhattan and Brooklyn, and police simultaneously responded to numerous reports of roving groups of people smashing their way into shops and emptying them of merchandise. ALSO READ | George Floyd: Trump threatens to use military to quell violent protests across US People rushed into a Nike store in Manhattan and carried out armloads of clothing. Near Rockefeller Center, storefront windows were smashed and multiple people arrested. Wreckage littered the inside of an AT&T store. Video posted on social media showed some protesters arguing with people breaking windows, urging them to stop, but instances of vandalism and smash-and-grab thefts mounted as the night deepened. "We worked hard to build up the business and within a second someone does this," said the owner of a looted Manhattan smoke shop, who identified himself only by the name Harri. "Really bad. Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the outbreaks of violence the previous two evenings, which left stores ransacked and police vehicles burned, gave them no choice to impose a curfew, even as they insisted they stood with the throngs of peaceful demonstrators who have spoken out for several days against police brutality and racial injustice. "We can't let violence undermine the message of this moment," de Blasio said in a statement. Cuomo blamed "people who are looking to distract and discredit" the protests and said they couldn't be allowed to undermine public safety. The two leaders, both Democrats, said many more police officers would be deployed Monday night. Big crowds rallied in Times Square and Brooklyn on Monday afternoon and marched through the streets for hours. As in previous days, the demonstrations held in daylight hours were peaceful with officers mostly keeping their distance from marchers. A nighttime march through Brooklyn was also peaceful, with limited action with police. But midtown Manhattan descended into chaos as night fell. Earlier in the day, one Times Square demonstrator, Giselle Francisco, considered the curfew necessary. "There are people who have ulterior motives and they're trying to hijack the message," the New Yorker said. Police Commissioner Dermot Shea expressed doubts earlier Monday about whether a curfew would be heeded. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, a retired police captain whose borough has been a focal point for demonstrations and some damage, also had doubts. "There are real deep, legitimate wounds, and if we're not going to put the same level of energy into correcting those wounds as we're going to put into telling people not to come out at 11, then we're going to fail, and this is going to prolong the problem," said Adams, a Democrat. The New York City Liberties Union said it was "deeply problematic that our leaders are imposing a curfew and essentially silencing New Yorkers from expressing their outrage at the racism that permeates the nation." After largely peaceful protests Sunday, groups of people poured down the sidewalks in Manhattan's chic Soho neighborhood and other areas overnight, breaking into Rolex, Kate Spade and Prada boutiques and electronics stores. Hundreds of people were arrested. "People are doing this so next time, before they think about trying to kill another black person, they're going to be like, 'Damn, we don't want them out here doing this again," New York City resident Sean Jones said as he watched the destruction. A 21-year-old man was shot in chic SoHo around 12:30 a.m. and was taken to a hospital with injuries that weren't life-threatening, police said. On Monday morning, police were visible on some of SoHo's hardest-hit streets as stores boarded up. After the National Guard arrived in Philadelphia, Meek Mill tweeted his hope for an end to rioting at all costs, after the city was struck by unprecedented violence over the weekend. 'I hope Philly riots stop today... a bunch of kids and women just died about nothing! If you official take control of ya hood no matter what it takes!' the 33-year-old Going Bad rapper tweeted on Monday. Mill appeared to be referring to the 31 people shot over the last three days, which resulted in eight deaths, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. Tweeting: As the National Guard arrived in Philadelphia, Meek Mill tweeted his hope for an end to rioting at all costs, after the city was struck by unprecedented violence over the weekend; pictured in May In the city, rioting and looting has run rampant, in addition to peaceful protesting going awry, after police officers fired tear gas at demonstrators on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. On Sunday, Mill also praised his pal Jay-Z for sharing his powerful phone call with Minnesota governor Tim Walz. The screenshot, which quoted the Run This Town hitmaker read: 'After our very earnest conversation, thank you to Governor Walz for doing what's right and calling in Attorney General Keith Ellison to take over the George Floyd case.' Outraged: Mill appeared to be referring to the 31 people shot over the last three days, including eight deaths, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer 'Earlier today, Governor Walz mentioned having a human conversation with me a dad and a black man in pain. YES, I am human, a father and a black man in pain and I am not the only one,' the husband of Beyonce stated. In the post he also explained: 'This is just a first step. I am more determined to fight for justice than any fight my would-be oppressors may have.' 'I prevail on every politician, prosecutor and officer in the country to have the courage to do what is right,' he added. 'Have the courage to look at us as humans, dads, brothers, sisters and mothers in pain and look at yourselves.' Unrest: Rioting and violence has swept the nation over the past week; a man arrested in Soho, New York on Monday Additionally, Mill shared quotes from California's Governor Gavin Newsom about holding institutions accountable.' 'The black community is not responsible for what is happening in this country right now,' Newsom said. 'We are, we are.' Additionally on Sunday, the songwriter shared an image that simply read: 'If YOU ain't wit us, WE ain't wit Y'ALL!' GOP Lawsuit: Newsom Overstepped His Emergency Powers in Changing Election Law Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order last month to send vote-by-mail ballots to all registered voters in California ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election. Republican groups suing Newsom in response to this order say their main objection is his use of emergency powers to change election laws. In California, as well as across the nation, a debate has been raging as to whether vote-by-mail ballots open the door to widespread fraud. Following the GOP lawsuit announcement on May 24, much of the media discussion revolved around fraud and mail-in ballots. While voter roll problems and fraud are major concerns, said attorney Harmeet Dhillon, the lawsuit isnt a stab at mail-in voting by and large; its about Newsom overstepping his emergency powers amid the pandemic to make major changes to elections. This is for the legislature to decide, and he decided on his own, she said. Dhillon is also a Republican National Committee (RNC) committeewoman. RNC and the California Republican Party joined forces in the lawsuit. Thats pretty obviously a power grab on his part. And, by the way, theres no emergency in November necessarily, so his emergency powers dont extend indefinitely, she said. Newsoms office did not reply to inquiries. California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at a news briefing in Rancho Cordova, Calif., on April 9, 2020. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo/Pool) After issuing his executive order on May 8, Newsom said in a statement, No Californian should be forced to risk their health in order to exercise their right to vote. Mail-in ballots arent a perfect solution for every person, and I look forward to our public health experts and the Secretary of States and the Legislatures continued partnership to create safer in-person opportunities for Californians who arent able to vote by mail. His order requires all counties to send vote-by-mail ballots to all registered voters in California preceding the general election, although in-person voting at polling stations will still be permitted. One of the issues that the governor put in his executive order is he gets to decide where there are in-person polling places, unilaterallynot that the state or county officials would decide that, not the normal way that its decidedbut he would decide that, Dhillon said. For the special election in May a few days before the election, he decided that there were going to be extra in-person polling places put in Democratic areas of Congressional District 25. Thats not how we run elections in this country, she said. Whatever the rules are, they need to be known in advance; they need to be fair; they need to be done according to some normal process, and they need to be transparent. And none of those things apply with a governor saying, I will mail ballots to people. I will spam everybody here with ballots whether they want them or not, and whether theyre active voters or not, and then Ill tell them whether you can also vote in-person somewhere and Ill tell them at the last minute where I want it. Thats not fair, right, or appropriate. Thats unconstitutional, she said. She said that since the lawsuit was filed, Secretary of State Alex Padilla has backtracked and said ballots would only be sent to active voters, rather than every registered voter as both Padilla and Newsom had publicly stated. Padilla said in a May 8 media release that California would be the first state in the nation to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic by mailing every registered voter a ballot. We are meeting our obligation to provide an accessible, secure, and safe election this November. Sending every registered voter a ballot by mail is smart policy and absolutely the right thing to do during this COVID-19 pandemic, Padilla said. Dhillon said its better that only active voters will be sent ballots, but it still doesnt address the problem of Newsom making these decisions without the legislature. And it doesnt cure the fact that even active voters include people who are not eligible under California law, she added. Election workers sort vote-by-mail ballots for the presidential primary at King County Elections in Renton, Wash., on March 10, 2020. (Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images) Addressing Security Concerns Padillas press secretary, Sam Mahood, told The Epoch Times that the state had never intended to send vote-by-mail ballots to every voter. The RNC has spent days lying claiming that vote-by-mail ballots would be mailed to voter registrations that had become inactive. Sending vote-by-mail ballots to only active registered voters has been our plan from the beginning and long before the RNC filed this frivolous lawsuit, Mahood said via email. Mahood laid out some of the states measures to make vote-by-mail ballots secure. California elections officials conduct regular voter list maintenanceusing death records from the Department of Public Health, felon records, National Change of Address data, and DMV [Department of Motor Vehicles] change of address data. California county elections officials check each and every vote-by-mail ballot that is cast, so even if a ballot was somehow sent to the wrong voter it would be caught, he said. A voters signature on the vote-by-mail ballot return envelope is compared against the voters registration record. If a signature is missing or does not match the registration record, elections officials will reach out to the voter. If the voter does not respond and provide a missing/corrected signature, the ballot will not count. Mahood said voters can also sign up for the Wheres My Ballot? tool (wheresmyballot.sos.ca.gov) and receive automatic updates by text, email, or voice calls on the status of their vote-by-mail ballots. This allows voters to know their vote-by-mail ballot has been mailed to them and when their cast ballot has safely arrived to county officials and has been counted, he wrote. Padilla said via Twitter on May 29, Republicans have it wrong. California has a long successful history with vote by mail, as do many other blue, red and purple states. It is secure, convenient, and can protect lives in a pandemic environment. Voting by mail is not the issue, Dhillon said. Look, I mean there is a health crisis here, and I think some people will choose to vote by mail. My husband already does that, she said. In general, its fine if the person who is expecting the ballot gets the ballot and votes with it themselves. The problem is that people who dont expect ballots are getting them when ballots are not secure, and ballots are being sent to people without any verification of whether theyre actually voters or whether theyre a dog or whether theyre a fictitious person, Dhillon added, referring to cases of voter fraud cited in the lawsuit. Item 65 in the lawsuit states that a 62-year-old man pleaded guilty for allegedly offering money and cigarettes to homeless people on L.A.s Skid Row in exchange for false and forged signatures on ballot petitions and voter registration forms in 2016 and 2018. The lawsuit also states that a Monterey County man successfully registered his four dogs to vote beginning in 1996, but was not stopped until 2018 when he began the process of registering his deceased father. While the Newsom administration may argue a few anecdotes dont add up to widespread voter fraud, Dhillon said, they are just a few examples to show the weaknesses in the voter registration system and that it is prone to abuse. And then you add ballot harvestingpaid gathering of ballots and dumping them off en masse dropping them off a few hundred at a time. How do you verify who brought them in and any of that stuff? On May 24, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel announced the lawsuit on Twitter, calling Newsoms executive order a recipe for disaster that would create more opportunities for fraud [and] destroy the confidence Californians deserve to have in their elections. She also accused Democrats of trying to use this pandemic to redesign our entire election system for political gain. Padilla responded via Twitter on May 27, accusing Republicans of exploiting the pandemic for voter suppression. California GOP Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson told The Epoch Times via email that the states election system is already burdened with serious issues. The disastrous Motor Voter program arbitrarily changed voter registration for thousands casting doubt on the integrity and accuracy of our voter rolls. Using this pandemic in a unilateral power grab to change our election laws with an executive order will further put the integrity of our elections into question, Patterson said. Watchdog Sounds Alarm Election Integrity Project, California (EIPCa), a nonpartisan citizens watchdog group, has repeatedly warned that the increased use of vote-by-mail ballots could compromise the integrity of elections unless the state cleans up its voter rolls. Ellen Swensen, EIPCas chief analyst, told the Epoch Times on May 29 there are still more than 450,000 ineligible voters registered to cast ballots in the Nov. 3 presidential election. Just because they are listed as active voters, doesnt mean they actually are active voters, she said. They have an A by their names on the voter list, but they havent voted or even updated their registration or had any communication with the registrar since November 2008 or prior. Some have never voted and theyve been registered for years. Hundreds of thousands of active-status registrants will be sent a vote-by-mail ballot and theyve probably died or moved away and just havent been inactivated yet, she said. Of the 450,000 ineligible registrants, about 30,000 are registered as permanent vote-by-mail voters, Swensen said. That 30,000 is bad enough, but now another 420,000 are going to be mailed ballots. Theyre not permanent active vote-by-mail voters, but now they are just going to get ballots automatically because they are on the active list, she said. EIPCa has also alerted Padilla that there are currently thousands of people registered to vote twice in the Nov. 3 election. There are 24,000 people who are going to get two ballots because they have two active voter registrations each, Swensen added. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), double voting in California is a felony which can carry a prison term of up to three years. In April, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) won a court battle in Nevada to have ballots mailed to all registered votersnot just those with active statusin the states June 9 vote-by-mail primary election. A bomb exploded inside a mosque in the Afghan capital Kabul on Tuesday, killing two people, including the mosque's prayer leader, and wounding two others an Afghan official said. Tariq Arian, spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, said the bomb targeted the Wazir Akber Khan Mosque around 7:25pm, when worshippers had gathered for evening prayers. Mullah Mohammad Ayaz Niazi was one of two people killed in the attack, Arian said. He was wounded in the attack and died later at a hospital. Niazi was a well known cleric who was active as Friday prayer leader at the mosque. According to reports, the mosque is accessible from inside the fortified Green Zone, where several embassies and international offices are located. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State group has been active in Kabul in recent weeks and has in the past carried out attacks inside mosques in Afghanistan. Taliban insurgents have never carried out an attack inside of a mosque. IS claimed responsibility for the roadside bomb attack against a bus belonging to a local TV station in Kabul on Saturday, killing two employees of the station. Attacks against worshippers have increased in Afghanistan: Last month, an unknown number of attackers stormed a mosque in northern Parwan province, killed 11 worshipers and wounded several others. On her last legal day in the United States, Tatiana Angulo awoke before sunrise in her attic bedroom and listened for a few moments to the sounds of what her life had become. Her boyfriend, Pablo Ruiz, was still sleeping next to her. He would be up soon, telling her what she already knew, that when midnight came, "things are going to be different for you," but for now, what she heard was the unsettling sound of someone coughing in one of the bedrooms downstairs, and more coughing from the closet next to her room, where a man had recently begun living because he had nowhere else to go. In all, there were eight people in the little house, eight people crammed together because of the coronavirus, including the man in the closet, the man coughing downstairs in the bedroom he shared with his nephew, and a husband and wife and baby running a fever in another bedroom. Was it the virus? No one was sure. But it was something, so Tatiana waited. Everything had to be choreographed in the house now, and only when it was quiet did she go downstairs to make Pablo breakfast, hoping that no one would be there. "You'll need to be more careful now," Pablo told her as he got dressed for work. By 7 a.m., he was gone. Theirs was a densely packed neighborhood of immigrants, where the people still lucky enough to be working had jobs in construction and landscaping. As Pablo joined them, Tatiana saw him off from the front porch and then, mindful of his advice, returned to the attic. There were so many ways the pandemic was changing lives, especially those of Latino immigrants, who have been getting sick and dying in numbers that increasingly outstrip their share of the population. Latinos now account for more cases of the coronavirus than any other group in cities across the country, and in immigrant-heavy states such as New Jersey, they make up 20% of the population but 30% of the infections. Because of the virus, they have been disproportionately losing their health, livelihoods and immigration status, all of which Tatiana could feel slipping away a year after coming to the United States legally on a visa with the intention of doing everything right. Tatiana's luck: The state where she had moved was now one of the hot spots of the virus. The restaurant where she had found work had closed. The house in which she lived was filled with sick people. And, with only a few hours left to figure out how to stay in the United States, she was now sitting on her bed, coughing and sneezing and telling herself, "It's just some stress." To calm her nerves, she did a set of deep-breathing exercises she had learned in yoga class. More sounds from the house. The man in the closet should have been at work already, but she heard him walking up the narrow attic stairs. She waited until he shut his door. Then she went down to take a shower. - - - Thirteen months earlier, before the virus existed, she had been living in Colombia with no intention of ever leaving. Despite growing up poor, she had won a scholarship to one of the country's most elite universities and, after graduating, had found satisfying work on an anti-corruption task force. By 32, she was married, with three children and a large house. But her husband grew controlling, she said. He made her stop working and seeing friends. One day, she said, he slammed her into a wall in front of the kids. At the police station, Tatiana saw a poster listing indicators of domestic abuse. She realized she met every one. She filed for divorce and was horrified when a judge granted her husband custody of the children, at least until Tatiana could show financial independence and provide a home for them. A job in Colombia would never provide the money quickly enough, so at the urging of a friend in New Jersey who offered a couch if she could get there, she applied for a tourist visa to the United States and soon was on her way to Asbury Park, a rapidly gentrifying beach town where a new version of possibilities quickly fell into place: a job in the kitchen at a white-tablecloth restaurant on the boardwalk, a co-worker with an attic to rent in a Victorian, a chef named Pablo who was sweet in a way her ex-husband never had been. He brought Tatiana flowers and appreciated her exuberance and curiosity. Together, they were making $2,000 a week, enough to send hundreds of dollars to her family each month and put more away as savings to buy a house in Colombia. The attic was small, with no bathroom and just enough space for a bed, a dresser and a TV, but Tatiana enjoyed having the floor to herself and decorated the small window under the eaves with a couple of small American flags. Sometimes, she watched the baby downstairs and shared meals with the others in the house. In February, with three months left on her legal permission to be in the country, she realized that if she could get an educational visa and stay longer, she could earn what she needed to regain custody. She applied to a technical school that she thought would give her a visa, and while waiting to hear back, continued her routine of walking along the beach in the morning, working until midnight, coming home to the attic and watching CNN as a way to practice her English. That was how she first heard about the coronavirus. Every day brought more stories, and she grew worried, but it wasn't until mid-March, when the virus forced her restaurant to close, that it became clear that the pandemic threatened everything she had been working to achieve. With no income, her savings began shrinking. When her visa application hit a snag, she could not get anyone on the phone to help sort it out. When the couple who held the lease told the man with nowhere to stay that he could temporarily rent the attic closet for $300 a month, she moved her clothes out to make room for him. And when it became clear he wouldn't be leaving soon, she did not complain, because her options in life had now become no job, no income and nowhere to go except the attic, where she was now folding her clothes into a suitcase and laughing at the things she had brought to the United States a year before, a time when she was filled with so many expectations. "I didn't have a clue what to pack, so I brought my nicest clothes," she said, looking at the dress she had worn to her college graduation. She closed the suitcase. The house rattled as a train passed and she looked out the window toward the nearby station. She unwrapped a fresh piece of chewing gum, which she was increasingly depending on to fight off hunger pangs that had been building since she lost her job. She noticed her passport and picked it up, flipping to her U.S. visa with its illustration of the Lincoln Memorial. "When I first saw it, I thought it looked like money," she said. Sixteen hours until it expired. "When you get a chance like this, you have to take it. And I almost made it work," she said. Through the wall came a wheezing sound. The man in the closet apparently was staying home from work for the day. He had introduced himself as Chucho when he moved in, and that was all Tatiana knew about him. Mostly he stayed in the windowless closet, which was just big enough for a piece of foam to sleep on. Sometimes he left the door open and Tatiana could see him in there, a shadow sitting on the mattress beneath the rod where her clothing had hung. Usually the door was shut and she knew he was in there only by the sounds coming through the wall. "Coughing," she said of what she had been hearing lately. And now wheezing. - - - More sounds as the morning passed. "Shut up! Shut up!" Tatiana heard through the floor. It was coming from the bedroom below, where the baby's mother was talking on speakerphone to someone whose voice Tatiana could not make out. "Shut up!" Tatiana heard again. And then she heard the baby start to cry and the mother cooing, "What, baby? What?" A week before, the mother and baby had both developed fevers. Because her husband was at work, the mother had asked Pablo to pick up medicine. He was home that day from his temporary job on a construction crew and had been happy to help, in part because he and Tatiana had not paid their share of the rent for more than a month. New Jersey had adopted an eviction ban, but their situation still felt precarious. The medicine had not seemed to work, though. A few days later, the mother was complaining of chills and a bad sore throat. She withdrew into her bedroom, and Tatiana and Pablo withdrew to the attic, promising each other that they would be disciplined about keeping their distance from the others in the house, who were still going to work and inviting people over. "They're just not careful," Tatiana said to Pablo. "It would be nice to be able to go down and cook, though," Pablo said. He mentioned that the restaurant owner had called and said he was hoping to reopen in a month. "Possibly," Pablo said. "If it wasn't for all this, we'd be working seven days a week right now. We'd be going for a little night swim when we got off. How nice would that be?" Through the wall, they could hear the man in the closet talking with his wife back in Mexico. "And the baby with that fever," Tatiana said. "Did you hear her crying in the middle of the night?" Pablo said he had, and then he fell silent and showed Tatiana his phone. The baby's father was texting him from downstairs, asking why they were talking about his family. Tatiana and Pablo exchanged a look, and Pablo turned up the volume on the TV. Sometimes the attic could seem even smaller than it was. That day, Tatiana had felt desperate for space, so she'd left the house on her own for the first time since the restaurant had closed. She walked over the train tracks and kept walking past blocks of three-story mansions with wraparound porches, past bookstores and boutiques and art galleries with rainbow flags, until she reached the beach. She'd stood with her feet in the sparkling water, wearing disposable gloves from the restaurant and a painter's mask even though there was no one around, and spread her arms wide, enjoying the feel of the warm breeze. Then she stopped by the restaurant and cupped her hands around her eyes to peer through a window. She wanted to see the framed magazine article about Pablo's career as a chef and a newspaper clipping describing the restaurant as the most beautiful in Asbury Park. A few days later, she'd gone back to the beach again, this time with a friend named Yesenia Sarria. Together, they walked along the miles-long waterfront, collecting smooth white rocks to decorate their rented rooms as they vented to each other about the rising tensions in their houses. Tatiana showed her friend the text messages the baby's mother had sent her after her husband's message to Pablo. "Keep your head up. Know I always love you," the mother had written. "Me too," Tatiana had written back. But she still felt self-conscious about having missed rent. "Morally, you feel bad when you know you haven't paid your share," she said. "I'm not used to being that person." Yesenia nodded. She was also struggling to make rent without access to unemployment or stimulus benefits. "It's so uncomfortable," she said. Tatiana wondered aloud whether she would have been better off returning to Colombia, where at least she could visit her children, prompting Yesenia to reassure her that she was doing the right thing by staying. Yesenia reminded her how amazed she'd been when Tatiana managed to get a visa. "That's not an easy thing, to get to the U.S.," Yesenia said. "You have to try, because you've been given everything. Everyone in Colombia wants the American Dream." They looked up and down the empty beach. Tatiana remembered how scared she had been when she first came. "People always said there was lots of drug addiction here," she said. "And crazy people, like in the movies," Yesenia said. "But then you get here and it's just normal. Beautiful," Tatiana said. Now, back in her room, the mother quiet, the baby quiet, the man in the closet quiet, she wondered whether she would still want to walk on the beach once tomorrow came. Would it feel too risky without legal status? She remembered the two policemen she had seen posted at the boardwalk entrance, there to monitor social distancing. Perhaps there was still time to figure out a solution. Tatiana made a video call to her mother in Colombia and listened to the phone ring. "I am calling, and you don't answer me," she sang aloud to herself as the phone kept ringing, then she stopped, realizing her voice was carrying through thin walls and floorboards. She dialed again, and this time her mother picked up. "And how are you?" she asked Tatiana. "Good. Here at home," Tatiana said, mentioning nothing else about what home had become. Her 6-year-old, Elah, was visiting and grabbed the phone. "Hi, Mommy. Where are you?" "I'm here at home, my love," Tatiana said. "How are you? How did you sleep?" Elah swung the phone around, showing a blur of a neat house. She told Tatiana she was doing her homework, making sure to wash her hands carefully and making plans for when Tatiana came back. "I'll hug you and ask you what presents you brought me," she said. Tatiana felt like crying when she hung up. "It'll probably be two years now before I see them again. That's what I tell myself, anyway," she said. "I don't think I could take more." If only the educational visa had worked out, she said. If the offices she called again and again had not been closed because of the virus, or if the person who did answer by chance one time had been able to speak Spanish, she could have gone back to visit, but once tomorrow came, she would have to stay until she was ready to leave the United States for good, or until she was deported. "Better not to think about it and just focus on right now," she said. But then on impulse, she decided to see whether she had enough money to fly back that day. Sitting on her bed, she looked up the website for Colombia's largest airline. "Wow," she said. Because of the pandemic, the company had filed for bankruptcy the day before. "No more flights." She shuddered and grabbed her stomach, which suddenly hurt. "Butterflies," she said. - - - There was a rich, savory smell coming into the room. Someone was in the kitchen cooking. It was midafternoon, and Tatiana realized she hadn't eaten all day. She waited again until it was quiet before going downstairs and was surprised when she ran into the young man who lived in the bedroom with his uncle. He was by himself, drinking a beer, leaning against a wall. Tatiana knew that he and the uncle had both fallen sick in the past few days. He had a feverish look, shiny-eyed and sweaty. The little house was getting sicker and sicker. She tried to keep her distance from the nephew as she spooned out cold rice from a container. Before the pandemic, she had been on a health kick, eating egg-white omelets and tacos wrapped in lettuce instead of tortillas. These days, when they could afford groceries, she and Pablo bought rice and beans. The restaurant had let them take home some produce when it shut down, and she was surveying what remained - one last tomato, an onion, a single apple - when the nephew came up behind her. She tensed. He reached over her to get something in a cabinet, bumping her shoulder. She ate the rice in her room, door closed, TV on, waiting for Pablo to come home. When a familiar commercial came on, she sang along with the jingle. "Liberty, liberty, liberty!" she sang. "Liberty." It was one of the ways she practiced English, a complement to the lessons she had been taking twice a week through a community center. The virus had changed those, too. They were online now as video chats, but she had kept up with them faithfully, even the one a few days earlier that had started just after her ex-husband had called her from Colombia, berating her for falling behind on her remittances to the children. "I thought you went to that country to make money," he had said. "No one knew this was going to happen," she told him, trying to calm him down like she used to when they were together. "You abandoned us," he told her before hanging up. After the call, Tatiana hugged her knees to her chest and cried and decided she would transfer the last of her savings to Colombia that afternoon. "And then there will be nothing left," she said. She wanted to splash water on her face before joining the class but didn't want to risk going downstairs, so her eyes were still red when she signed on, red enough that another student noticed and asked whether she was OK. "I need to work. My visa is about to -" she said, and made a throat-slitting gesture, mindful of the thin walls. The class was about to begin. Other students were signing on from their own cramped bedrooms. One was in the back seat of a car. Quickly, Carlos mentioned that he worked as a maintenance man in a nursing home and that because of the pandemic, there were openings. "But I don't have papers," Tatiana said. "Right now, I don't know if you need papers," Carlos said. "We need workers. The manager for housekeeping? Coronavirus. The manager for the kitchen? Coronavirus. The manager for marketing? Coronavirus. Residents? Maybe 15 with coronavirus. Three or four pass away. More in the hospital. Me? No coronavirus yet. Or maybe, coronavirus, no symptoms." Think about it, he said as the teacher appeared, and Tatiana was thinking about the chance for a work permit, or at least the ability to pay rent, as the teacher said to the class that the day's lesson would be about making purchases. "Let's practice the pronunciation of some words," she said. "Please repeat: 'merch-an-dise.' " "Merch-an-dise," Tatiana said, and then she sent Carlos her phone number, to be put in touch with his manager. Now, as she sat on the bed, still waiting for Pablo to come home, door still closed, TV back off, her phone rang, but it was Carlos, not the manager. It turned out she did need papers after all. "Thanks anyway for trying," she said. She hung up and saw a message from someone who had been trying to help her sort out her visa problems: Yes, the government had received her request, but with everything on hold because of the pandemic, it was not going to be able to process a visa adjustment in time. In other words, her visa would be canceled the moment she overstayed, and if she was caught by law enforcement, she'd be deported and banned from coming back to the United States. "Just telling you so that you know," the woman had written. It wasn't a surprise, but it had been a last bit of hope, and with that gone now, Tatiana began going through the calculations of what her life was about to become. How would she pay taxes when she was undocumented? How would she be able to get a driver's license? "It's a whole world I don't understand," she said. She shivered and put on a sweatshirt. One thing she did know was that she could not use any kind of public service because of a Trump administration rule from February that blocked immigrants who used state benefits from getting visas and green cards. It was one reason the others in the house hadn't gone to the hospital to get their symptoms checked, and why she wouldn't go either, if it came to that. "I can't get sick now," she said. Sundown - and here came Pablo. She could hear him coming up the narrow steps. The door opened. He was smiling his shy smile and carrying a spray of blue flowers from the garden of the house he was working on. She made him dinner and set the flowers in a water glass by the TV, near the smooth stones from her beach walk. They turned off the lights. They watched some movies. They heard the man in the closet wheezing. They heard the baby crying. "I guess you're stuck with me now," she said to Pablo at one point. Eventually they stopped talking and fell asleep, and when she awoke, she was in the country illegally. - - - She listened in the dark to the house. It was quiet. She went downstairs to the kitchen. No one was there. She grabbed the last apple, which she had been saving as a treat for Pablo, and took it up to the attic. "Where did you get this?" he asked when he woke up and saw it. "I've been saving it for you," she said. She packed it for him to take to work, and as he pulled on his construction boots, he mentioned that he was feeling achy. She watched him finish getting dressed. Even if he was getting sick, they decided, he should go to work because they needed the money. Yesterday, she had watched him leave from the front porch. Now she said goodbye in the attic, closing the door when he left and looking around in silence at the place where her year in the United States had brought her. Clothes in a suitcase. A fistful of flowers already starting to wilt. A view out a window of a street, in a city, in a country that yesterday was feeling normal and beautiful and today was feeling forbidding. This was her life now, and as the morning passed, and the baby downstairs was once again crying and the man in the closet was once again stirring, she wondered what she could do with such a life, right up until it was time for her English class. She decided to dial in. Just because. Just in case. "Please repeat after me," the teacher was saying. "Bar-be-cue." "Bar-be-cue," Tatiana said. "Pic-nic," the teacher said. "Pic-nic," Tatiana said. Her voice sounded raspy. She got up to make sure the window was closed. "I can't wait," the teacher said. "I can't wait," Tatiana said, alone now, a woman in an attic. Her palms were clammy. Her throat hurt. She felt her forehead and wondered if she had a fever coming on. "Looking forward to it," said the teacher. "Looking forward to it," repeated Tatiana. State Sen. Chris Brown, R-Atlantic, said what took place Sunday night was an anomaly and placed much of the blame on people who came in here from other communities. Brown said Mondays cleanup effort represented everything thats great about Atlantic City and Atlantic County. Everyone came together (today) because they want to rebuild, they want to clean up, they want to fix, Brown said Monday after Smalls press conference. And they want to send a message that, yeah, some hoodlums may have come into our town from other counties and from other states, but they dont represent the heart and soul of Atlantic City or Atlantic County. Early Monday morning, about 54 workers from the CRDAs Special Improvement Division were out cleaning the streets in the aftermath of the prior nights damage. CRDA Executive Director Matt Doherty said the state agency would continue to provide the city resources to assist in the recovery effort. Several residents also started the cleanup efforts early. By the time of the mayors press conference, much of the initial damage had been cleaned up by SID and locals. RALEIGH, N.C., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As residents across North Carolina continue to face challenges beyond medical care due to the COVID-19 pandemic, WellCare of North Carolina, a subsidiary of Centene Corporation, a leading multi-national healthcare company, is partnering with community-based organizations and other programs across the state to provide access to food and other essential supplies. Unmet social service needs such as lack of food, housing or transportation can be key barriers to improving overall health. In fact, research shows social and environmental factors, or so-called "social determinants of health," can account for 80-90% of health outcomes. As a result, social service agencies and nonprofits are playing an even more critical role in supporting local communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. "The pandemic has impacted the ability of individuals who live in vulnerable communities to access food, essential supplies, employment, connectivity, and other critical resources across our state," said Troy Hildreth, WellCare's Plan President and CEO in North Carolina. "Without appropriate social supports, recovery for both individuals and communities is at risk. As a result, WellCare of North Carolina is committed to ensuring we're supporting the needs of our members and communities during this challenging time." Hunger and Food Insecurity The demand on food banks has significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Feeding America, a national hunger relief nonprofit, estimates these organizations will need an additional $1.4 billion in funding during the next six months to provide food assistance to people facing hunger. In partnership with Feeding America, Centene and WellCare will coordinate a donation of 1 million meals a month for the next 12 months to feed those in North Carolina and across the country. In addition, WellCare of North Carolina has donated $40,000 directly to local food pantries and community partners across the state. The donation will help increase access to food support initiatives that serve vulnerable populations in high-need areas due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Local food pantries and organizations receiving support from this donation include: Gangfree Inc Durham Public Schools Public Schools Brigade Boys and Girls Club CARE Resource Center Fayetteville Urban Ministries Make a Difference Food Pantry Catholic Charity of Greenville Family Promise of Carteret County Amexcan Manna Food Bank Catholic Charities of Charlotte Loaves and Fishes of Union County Grateful Heart Community Services Cooperative Christian Ministry Helping Hands Iredell Christian Ministries St. Paul United Methodist Church Guilford Child Development: New Hope Community Development Group The Salvation Army of Rockingham County Hunger & Health Coalition "Just like many nonprofit organizations, Fayetteville Urban Ministry heavily relies on community giving in order to provide support to those experiencing crisis within our community. The COVID-19 pandemic has presented an array of novel challenges that would be very difficult to overcome without the support of our community partners like WellCare. Thank you so much for your support of our organization, our mission, and the people we serve," said Patricia Jackson, Operations Manager at Fayetteville Urban Ministry, Inc. "We are thrilled to be awarded funding from WellCare of North Carolina and will use your gift to help feed homeless and low-income individuals and families. Family Promise has spent the past 45 days helping either homeless families with children or those individuals with no children continue to feed themselves daily. Thank you again for your support as we continue to fight COVID-19 in our communities," said Sandy Hewitt, Family Promise of Carteret. "COVID-19 relief funds will be used in the acquisition and distribution of nutritious food and other essential household items to improve access for families struggling through the virus response," said Ed Hosack, Executive Director of Cabarrus Cooperative Christian Ministry. "As part of our community safety net, those who give to support our mission are making a difference now more than ever. The virus has slowed us down, but it will not prevent us from protecting our community from poverty, poor health, and hunger," said Elizabeth Young, Executive Director of the Health & Hunger Coalition. "On behalf of our Board of Directors, staff and enrolled children and families, I want to thank WellCare for your contribution of $2,000 in support of our COVID 19 crisis response. Your generosity enables our staff to distribute healthy meals for the children and families of our program. We are currently preparing breakfast and lunch for over 850 people daily, plus providing weekend meals. All of our clients are low-income and need extra support during this crisis. Your donation will help the many families in Guilford County struggling with food insecurity," said Maria Layne-Stevens, CEO of Guilford Child Development. Healthcare & Essential Supplies WellCare also purchased nearly $35,000 worth of Walmart gift cards to support vulnerable populations in the community who are in need of food, supplies and support during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each gift card holds a value of $35 and can be used to purchase essential items like diapers, over-the-counter medicines, and cleaning supplies. WellCare is partnering with local community-based organizations and school districts in some of the state's most vulnerable counties to distribute gift cards to families in need, including: Catawba Partnership for Children Blue Ridge Partnership for Children SafeSpace Durham Urban Ministries Wake Urban Ministries Cleveland County School District School District Catawba County Schools Schools Avery County Schools Schools Cherokee Central Schools Robeson County Schools Schools Rockingham County Schools Additional Support Activities WellCare of North Carolina has also set up a number of other initiatives to support local communities during the pandemic. The company: Donated 1,600 bottles of hand sanitizer to UNC Health; Donated meals for the Durham County Department of Public Health Emergency Operation Center to support frontline workers; and, Distributed WellCare of North Carolina Community Resource Guides to community members. WellCare is committed to supporting its members and local communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. To learn more, visit https://www.wellcare.com/en/North-Carolina/COVID-19 About WellCare of North Carolina WellCare of North Carolina provides government-sponsored managed care services to families, children, seniors and individuals with complex needs primarily through Medicare Advantage and Medicare Prescription Drug Plans across the state. In 2019, WellCare was awarded a contract by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to administer the state's Medicaid Prepaid Health Plans (PHPs). WellCare is a wholly owned subsidiary of Centene Corporation, a leading multi-national healthcare enterprise that is committed to helping people live healthier lives. For more information about WellCare, please visit www.wellcare.com/northcarolina. SOURCE WellCare of North Carolina Related Links https://www.wellcare.com/northcarolina PARIS Tear gas choked Paris streets as riot police faced off with protesters setting fires Tuesday amid growing global outrage over George Floyds death in the United States, racial injustice and heavy-handed police tactics around the world. French protesters took a knee and raised their fists while firefighters struggled to extinguish multiple blazes as a largely peaceful, multiracial demonstration degenerated into scattered tensions. Police said at least 20,000 people joined the demonstration, defying a virus-related ban on protests to pay homage to Floyd and Adama Traore, a French black man who died in police custody. Electric scooters and construction barriers went up in flames, and smoke stained a sign reading Restaurant Open on the first day French cafes were allowed to open after nearly three months of virus lockdown. Chanting I cant breathe, thousands marched peacefully through Australias largest city, while thousands more demonstrated in the Dutch capital of The Hague and hundreds rallied in Tel Aviv. Expressions of anger erupted in multiple languages on social networks, with thousands of Swedes joining an online protest and others speaking out under the banner of #BlackOutTuesday. Diplomatic ire percolated too, with the European Unions top foreign policy official saying the bloc was shocked and appalled by Floyds death. Floyd died last week after a police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes even after he stopped moving and pleading for air. The death set off protests that spread across America and now, beyond. As demonstrations escalated worldwide, solidarity with U.S. protesters increasingly mixed with local worries. This happened in the United States, but it happens in France, it happens everywhere, Paris protester Xavier Dintimille said. While he said police violence seems worse in the U.S., he added, all blacks live this to a degree. Fears of the coronavirus remain close to the surface and were the reason cited for banning Tuesdays protest at the main Paris courthouse, because gatherings of more than 10 people remain forbidden. But demonstrators showed up anyway. Some said police violence worsened during virus confinement in working class suburbs with large minority populations, deepening a feeling of injustice. As the Paris demonstration wound down, police fired volley after volley of tear gas and protesters threw debris. Police were less visible than usual at the citys frequent protests. Tensions also erupted at a related protest in the southern city of Marseille. The demonstrations were held in honor of Traore, who died shortly after his arrest in 2016, and in solidarity with Americans demonstrating against Floyds death. The Traore case has become emblematic of the fight against police brutality in France. The circumstances of the death of the 24-year-old Frenchman of Malian origin are still under investigation after four years of conflicting medical reports about what happened. The lawyer for two of the three police officers involved in the arrest, Rodolphe Bosselut, said the Floyd and Traore cases have strictly nothing to do with each other. Bosselut told The Associated Press that Traores death wasnt linked with the conditions of his arrest but other factors, including a preexisting medical condition. Traores family says he died from asphyxiation because of police tactics and that his last words were I cant breathe. I cant breathe were also the final words of David Dungay, a 26-year-old Aboriginal man who died in a Sydney prison in 2015 while being restrained by five guards. As 3,000 people marched peacefully through Sydney, many said they had been inspired by a mixture of sympathy for African Americans and to call for change in Australias treatment of its indigenous population, particularly involving police. The mostly Australian crowd at the authorized demonstration also included protesters from the U.S. and elsewhere. Im here for my people, and for our fallen brothers and sisters around the world, said Sydney indigenous woman Amanda Hill, 46, who attended the rally with her daughter and two nieces. Whats happening in America shines a light on the situation here. Even as U.S. President Donald Trump fanned anger by threatening to send in troops on American protesters, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau refrained from directly criticizing him and said the protests should force awareness of racism everywhere. We all watch in horror and consternation whats going on in the United States, he said after pausing 21 seconds before answering. But it is a time for us as Canadians to recognize that we, too, have our challenges, that black Canadians and racialized Canadians face discrimination as a lived reality every single day. There is systemic discrimination in Canada. More protests in various countries are planned later in the week, including a string of demonstrations in front of U.S. embassies on Saturday. The drama unfolding in the U.S. drew increasing diplomatic concern. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrells remarks in Brussels were the strongest to come out of the 27-nation bloc, saying Floyds death was a result of an abuse of power. Borrell told reporters that like the people of the United States, we are shocked and appalled by the death of George Floyd. He underlined that Europeans support the right to peaceful protest, and also we condemn violence and racism of any kind, and for sure, we call for a de-escalation of tensions. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said peaceful protests in the U.S. following Floyds death are understandable and more than legitimate. I can only express my hope that the peaceful protests do not continue to lead to violence, but even more express the hope that these protests have an effect in the United States, Maas said. More African leaders are speaking up over the killing of Floyd. It cannot be right that, in the 21st century, the United States, this great bastion of democracy, continues to grapple with the problem of systemic racism, Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo said in a statement, adding that black people the world over are shocked and distraught. Kenyan opposition leader and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga offered a prayer for the U.S., that there be justice and freedom for all human beings who call America their country. Like some in Africa who have spoken out, Odinga also noted troubles at home, saying the judging of people by character instead of skin color is a dream we in Africa, too, owe our citizens. ___ Associated Press writers Rick Rycroft in Sydney, Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, Lori Hinnant in Paris, Aritz Parra in Madrid, Frank Jordans in Berlin, Lorne Cook in Brussels, Peter Dejong in The Hague contributed. ___ Follow APs latest news about the protests at https://apnews.com/GeorgeFloyd Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal has approved the premature release of Jessica Lal murder case convict Manu Sharma, who is currently serving a life sentence, according to an official order. This comes after the Delhi Sentence Review Board (SRB), which comes under the Delhi government, had recommended Sharma's premature release last month. On April 30, 1999, a 34-year-old model Jessica Lal was working at the Tamarind Court restaurant in south Delhi's Mehrauli when she was shot dead by Manu Sharma for refusing to serve him alcohol. Sharma was the son of former Haryana Congress leader, Venod Sharma. Enraged at Lal's audacity, he shot her at around 2 AM in the morning. Lal was subsequently rushed to the Apollo hospital in Delhi but was pronounced dead upon arrival. The Lal murder case resulted in nationwide outrage, especially after Sharma was initially acquitted in 2006 by a trial court. However, the Delhi High Court then took up his case and he was convicted on murder charges. Sharma was handed a life imprisonment sentence. Sharma had even appealed to the Supreme Court but in 2010, the top court upheld the life sentence. But had justice been served? No. As per reports, Sharma has been granted parole at least ten times in the last sixteen years - all for myriad reasons. In 2009, when Lal got parole on account of his mother's ill health, he allegedly got involved in a bar brawl. Proof that history repeats itself? A couple of years ago, Sharma was moved to an open prison. For the unaware, this means the convicts are allowed to step out of prison during the day and return in the evening. In these last few years, Sharma had been leaving Tihar Jail very day to attend office in South Delhi. And now, reports suggest that Sharma has been granted premature release on grounds of good behaviour. The news has enraged netizens who feel that this does injustice to the memory of Lal, whom he brutally murdered 21 years ago. #ManuSharma commits a murder, get convicted after a long struggle, get many paroles, enjoy the benefit of OPEN JAIL (free from morning to evening), and then get released.Thank you @ArvindKejriwal @LtGovDelhi for looking after the well being of rich murderers.#Jessicalal Sunil Sihag (@sunilsihag1024) June 2, 2020 Let's not forget that murderer of Jessica Lal was also given the privilege of Open Jail! He could go out from morning to evening!But our govts would not even allow bail pleas of anti-CAA activists or those accused in Bhima Koregaon violence! Sunil Sihag (@sunilsihag1024) June 2, 2020 Really?Manu Sharma, who shot dead Jessica Lal in 1990, released from Delhi prisonHe killed a young aspiring women shouldn't be allowed out of jail @BJP4Delhi @CPDelhi @LtGovDelhi What example are we setting hello..its me (@Sundeep123) June 2, 2020 Are you serious? He killed a Girl for a Drink. I condemn this. #JessicaLal https://t.co/Zr1esdRH5U Harsh Singh (@hsingh21) June 2, 2020 Delhi government released the murder convict of Jessica Lal murder. So much for women protection! pic.twitter.com/G8H42TEE60 Nishchal (@nishchaldwivedi) June 2, 2020 Sad to see Jessica Lals murderer go scot free under the pretext of good behaviour in jail. She was murdered because she dared to show the mirror to a spoilt brat. U only realise the implication of him walking away when u have someone close to u working in night duty. IbraKaDabra {Laxman FC} #LUHG (@IbrAp1KAchU20) June 2, 2020 Why are convicted murderers being released? Who takes these decisions & on what basis? Sheer mockery of judiciary This is no country for girls/women. Cos they will get ra*ed, murdered, it will take years for conviction and then murderer is freed #JessicaLal #WomenSafety https://t.co/s4GlHJRqsV Akancha Srivastava (@AkanchaS) June 2, 2020 Manu Sharma , the Murderer of Jessica Lal got released today after LG Delhi approved it.Meanwile People who just took part in Anti-CAA protest are arrested. Nh_ 2.0 (@WhoNehr) June 2, 2020 OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has rejected Donald Trumps latest proposal to readmit Russia to the G7, stoking old divisions between the American president and the rest of the group. Trump was to host the G7 summit later this month but postponed it to the fall because of the mass protests rocking the United States. He also mused that he would like to see Russia, India, South Korea and Australia added to what he calls a very outdated group of countries. It wasnt the first time Trump has raised the possibility of bringing Russia back to the G7 he made similar comments two years ago on the eve of a leaders summit that Trudeau hosted in Charlevoix, Que. Trudeau said Monday that nothing has changed since the G7 ejected Russia from what was then the G8 in 2014, over its annexation of territory from Ukraine. Russia was excluded from the G7 after it invaded Crimea a number of years ago. And its continued disrespect and flaunting of international rules and norms is why it remains outside of the G7, and will continue to remain out, the prime minister said. The 2018 summit ended in disarray with Trump hurling insults at Trudeau over Twitter after he departed Charlevoix. Canada and the U.S. were mired in a contentious renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement at the time, and Trudeau reiterated his opposition to U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs at the summits closing press conference. Trump was bound for a historic summit in North Korea when he heard them. Trump threw a monkey wrench into the start of the summit, when he said before arriving that Russia should be participating. Trump has always been outraged by the findings of U.S. intelligence services that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election that brought him to power. Bessma Momani, an international affairs expert at the University of Waterloo, said many G7 leaders might not want to be associated with Trump given he has become such an international outlier in recent weeks. It would be difficult for many political leaders to give Trump the aura of global leadership at a time when race relations are their worst in the United States, said Momani. There is some global support for the Black Lives Matter movement and many of the G7 governments may be mindful that providing Trump with a photo-op will be misconstrued as support for his actions and words in these tense times. John Kirton, the University of Toronto professor who has made a career out of studying the G7 summitry, said Trump could have still hosted the summit, albeit in a videoconference format, despite the current challenges. Why he wouldnt have wanted to show the American people that he was working, and doing it, and that he had gotten these important countries ... to work co-operatively, only he knows. If, in fact, he can remember what his thinking was. Ben Rowswell, the president of the Canadian International Council, said the postponement could potentially lead to the summit being missed altogether this year. President Trumps proposal to add countries that are hostile to the group, such as Russia, greatly reduces the likelihood that the group will agree to a communique, he said. Frankly, skipping a year may be the best outcome for the ongoing relevance and effectiveness of the G7, to avoid the kind of confrontation that would put future summits in jeopardy. Late last month, Trump and White House officials were considering the idea of holding an in-person G7 summit near Washington. Trudeau said then that in-person G7 meetings leaders are more effective than the virtual alternative, but he said he wanted to make sure the U.S. had plans to deal with the health risks posed by COVID-19. Weve always been working with the United States to co-ordinate when we can hold this important G7 meeting. Its really important to keep holding these meetings and co-ordinating internationally in this time of crisis, Trudeau said Monday. The G7 includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the U.S., with the presidency rotating annually among member countries. The European Union is also a member. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 1, 2020. By John Miller ZURICH (Reuters) - Lonza aims to speed completion of two commercial production lines for Moderna Inc's trial COVID-19 vaccine so manufacturing could start four to six weeks earlier than planned if the project is successful, the Swiss drugmaker's chairman said on Tuesday. Lonza, which hopes to make smaller batches of active ingredients for the U.S. biotechnology company's experimental vaccine by July, now aims to finish a commercial production line in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a month or so earlier than its original December 2020 target, Albert Baehny told Reuters. A second commercial line, at Lonza's site in Visp, Switzerland, had been slated for completion in January or February 2021 but now could be ready in December, he added. Moderna, which enlisted Lonza in May in a 10-year manufacturing contract, is racing with 100-plus other vaccine projects, having last week dosed initial participants in a 600-patient study. With accelerated deadlines, Lonza hopes to be ready to make vaccine ingredients quickly, should Moderna's candidate pass muster with regulators. "Four to six weeks would be remarkable, if we can gain this time," Baehny, also Lonza's interim CEO, said during a video interview. "We know the technology, we feel comfortable with the manufacturing steps. If we can accelerate, let's do it. This is pandemic speed." POSSIBLE OBSTACLES He acknowledged potential bottlenecks, including hiring 60-70 employees to run each production line, availability of contractors and possible shortages of equipment like fermentation gear, could slow things down. Lonza is financing the first $60-$70 million commercial production line in Visp, he said. Moderna, flush with $483 million from the U.S. government and $1 billion-plus in fresh capital, is paying for the first U.S. production line, and up to three more at Lonza facilities in Portsmouth and Visp, Baehny said. Combined capacity could produce ingredients for 600 million to 1 billion vaccine doses annually, he said, depending on the size of the dose needed. Story continues Moderna's vaccine is based on so-called messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, which instructs human cells to make specific coronavirus proteins that produce an immune response. The approach has yet to be approved in any medicine, so Moderna is treading uncharted territory. Lonza's Baehny said an mRNA facility has advantages, being generally smaller, cheaper and faster to scale up than traditional biological production lines. But making ingredients for a vaccine like Moderna's is also very specialized, he said, requiring production of mRNA, then encapsulating it inside lipid nanoparticles for delivery to humans. Baehny said he is optimistic for Moderna's vaccine, but that facilities being built can be used for new Lonza projects with the U.S. company should this one fall short. "We feel confident that if the vaccine does not work, we can use these assets for other mRNA-based projects," he said. "This is the advantage of this deal with Moderna for us." (Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne) US President Donald Trump has told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he plans to invite India to join an expanded Group of Seven summit in September. In a telephonic conversation with PM Modi on Tuesday, Trump discussed his plans for the US Presidency of G-7, the COVID-19 pandemic, and many other issues. He also invited the Indian Prime Minister to attend the next G-7 Summit to be held in United States in September. In a tweet, PM Modi said, "Had a warm and productive conversation with my friend President Trump. We discussed his plans for the US Presidency of G-7, the COVID-19 pandemic, and many other issues." "The richness and depth of India-US consultations will remain an important pillar of the post-COVID global architecture," he added. G-7 is the group of top seven developed economies. These include the US, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada. Heads of states of these countries meet annually to discuss issues of global governance, including climate change, security and the economy. Trump has postponed the G7 Summit till September and expressed his desire to expand the "outdated" bloc to G-10 or G-11, including India and three other nations to the grouping of the world's top economies. According to statement released by Prime Minister's Office (PMO), President Trump spoke about the US Presidency of the Group of Seven (G-7), and conveyed his desire to expand the ambit of the grouping beyond the existing membership, to include other important countries including India. In this context, he extended an invitation to Prime Minister Modi to attend the next G-7 Summit to be held in the US, the release said. "Prime Minister Modi commended President Trump for his creative and far-sighted approach, acknowledging the fact that such an expanded forum would be in keeping with the emerging realities of the post-COVID world. The Prime Minister said that India would be happy to work with the US and other countries to ensure the success of the proposed Summit," PMO stated. PM Modi expressed concern regarding the ongoing civil disturbances in the US, and conveyed his best wishes for an early resolution of the situation. The two leaders also exchanged views on other topical issues, such as the COVID-19 situation in the two countries, the situation on the India-China border, and the need for reforms in the World Health Organisation (WHO). "President Trump warmly recalled his visit to India in February this year. Prime Minister Modi said that the visit had been memorable and historic on many accounts, and had also added new dynamism to the bilateral relationship," the release said. "The exceptional warmth and candour of the conversation reflected the special nature of the Indo-US ties, as well as the friendship and mutual esteem between both leaders," it added. By Chitranjan Kumar Also Read: US reprimands China over border 'aggression' with India Also Read: Infographic: Rs 21 lakh crore won't stop recession Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Nicholas Mcavaney (Agence France-Presse) Banbury, United Kingdom Tue, June 2, 2020 10:04 598 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb6e908 2 Health drive-in,social-distancing,Britain,United-Kingdom,elderly,coronavirus,COVID-19 Free The cars snaking past the bunting-adorned entrance of a British care home point to an era when even cherished family visits have to be socially distant because of the coronavirus. Gracewell of Adderbury home for the elderly, in central England, is trying out drive-through family visits to protect its vulnerable residents from the omnipresent dangers of the new disease. The anxious visitors sit in their cars, smiling encouragingly at their loved ones, while the elderly, some of them in their 90s, relax in comfy armchairs in the small driveway, soaking up the warm spring sun. They try to chat a little at a safe distance, making the best of a trying time in which families have been forced to live apart for over two months while the government tries to stamp out a virus that has officially claimed around 38,000 lives -- second only to the United States. "Emotional, yeah, very emotional. I just wanted to hug them," said Helen Hughes, daughter of one of the residents. How difficult was it to resist that urge to reach out and hug? "Huge. Huge," Hughes said. "I just want to hug them because they don't understand what's going on," she said, trying to smile through the pain of being forcibly apart from her mother. Read also: Belgian elderly get a lift from cherry-picking platforms 'Hello my lovely' Care homes have been ravaged by the virus across Europe. The British government said on Friday that 6,182 -- or 39.8 percent -- of the ones in England currently had "a suspected outbreak of symptomatic or confirmed coronavirus". Britain's Office of National Statistics (ONS) has counted around 13,500 care home deaths attributed to COVID-19 in Britain, although the real number could be higher because not all of those who pass away get tested first. The ONS has counted more than 46,000 total fatalities in the UK "involving" the virus as of mid-May. Gracewell manager Arlene Acuavera said her home has been thankfully spared by the disease. "We are very, very fortunate and lucky that we haven't had any residents or staff that are positive with COVID-19," she said with evident relief. "We are maintaining that through our infection control management," the manager said of the drive-through visits. "We are just fortunate and we keep on praying that it will continue until the end." Britain is now easing its way out of lockdown, although the four countries -- England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland -- are each taking slightly different approaches to what might be allowed when. The new freedoms are laced with added danger, and socially distant visits like the one adopted at the Gracewell are likely to continue for many more months. All of which leaves Britons slightly perplexed but stoic. "I think he enjoyed it. I do think he enjoyed it," said Nicola Finch, a granddaughter of one of the residents, after driving away and letting the next family take its turn. "As soon as I got the 'Hello my lovely', I knew he was fine," she said. "Because although he doesn't remember a lot, he still recognizes voices and things like that." Big Number: $58,340. The average median household income in the 30 neighbourhoods with the highest per capita rates of COVID-19, compared to $82,360 in the 30 least-affected neighbourhoods a difference of $24,020 per household Ive been seeing some articles over the last few months about how the COVID-19 pandemic will cause some of us to permanently rethink city living. Americas biggest cities were already losing their allure. What happens next? wondered a New York Times headline from mid-April. In and around Toronto, theres been talk of a return to a more suburban-centred culture more driving, less transit. Office parks with parking lots instead of skyscrapers near subway stations. Houses over condos. I dont buy it. From the earliest days of this pandemic, the link between COVID-19 cases and urban density has never seemed clear. Sure, dense New York City was walloped, but dense cities in Asia managed to avoid runaway growth. If urban density alone led to virus spread, the worldwide data would show the big population centres overwhelmed with cases. It hasnt. We now know a connection between density and virus spread isnt showing up in Torontos local data either. Last week, the city released a neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood breakdown of COVID-19 cases to date. To check whether there was a link between the pandemic and people who live in denser areas, I looked at the 30 neighbourhoods with the highest per-capita caseload, and the 30 with the lowest. Heres what I found, using data from the citys Neighbourhood Profiles: the average density across both groups was almost identical. The most-hit neighbourhoods have, on average, 6,075 residents per square kilometre. The least-hit neighbourhoods have 6,029. Thats what stats nerds might call a statistically insignificant difference. But heres something way more significant: that group of the 30 neighbourhoods with the most per-capita cases has a median household income of $58,340, on average. The group of the 30 least-hit neighbourhoods comes in at $82,360. Its a tale of two cities. In the hardest-hit neighbourhoods, the percentage of people living below the after-tax low-income measure averages 23 per cent, compared to 16 per cent in the least-affected neighbourhoods. The pandemic is more a story about poverty than it is about density. The citys data suggests poor people have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Its the working class neighbourhoods many of them located in the inner suburbs with precarious jobs, long transit commutes and substandard housing, that have been at greater risk. For city hall and the provincial and federal governments, this should illuminate the path forward. Addressing inequality and poverty should be a post-pandemic priority. Because while, sure, urban living has had its challenges over the last few months, and residents may struggle with changes in the short- and medium-term, city life has a lot of good points in non-pandemic times. Poverty, on the other hand, always sucks. I will admit there have been moments recently when I have lamented my decision to live in a small downtown home. There were days when I longed for the suburban house I grew up, so spacious we had both a family room and a living room that served the exact same purpose. There were days when I wished I still owned a car, instead of having to fight for grocery store delivery slots. But I also recognize that this is temporary. In time, this will pass. Without government action, though, poverty will endure as a deadly reality long after COVID-19, disproportionately affecting people of colour, new immigrants and people with disabilities. In typical times, poor people in Toronto are more likely to die before the age of 75 than the rest of the population. Rates of cardiovascular disease and other chronic illnesses are higher. And climate change, the other global crisis, is likely to affect people living in poverty more than the rest of us. An exodus to the suburbs will only make things worse, limiting mobility options and further isolating lower-income neighbourhoods. Meanwhile, the data suggests wealthy people in big suburban homes could be just as safe in a downtown neighbourhood. Leaving cities behind is the wrong conclusion. The pandemic should not cause us to rethink urban living. It should push us to end poverty. A Facebook engineer who quit the company on Monday used the platform to announce his news, accusing founder Mark Zuckerberg of lying about the companys policy regarding Donald Trumps tweets. Timothy J Aveni wrote that the president had been exempted from Facebooks Community Standards for years, posting abhorrent, targetted messages that would get any other Facebook user suspended from the platform. Hes permitted to break the rules, since his political speech is newsworthy, said Mr Aveni. He then references Mr Trumps post: when the looting starts, the shooting starts, which intentionally or not was a quote from Miami police chief Walter Headley in 1967 that provoked an angry response at the time. It seems this was the final straw for Mr Aveni. He writes: Mark always told us that he would draw the line at speech that calls for violence. He showed us on Friday that this was a lie. Facebook will keep moving the goalposts every time Trump escalates, finding excuse after excuse not to act on increasingly dangerous rhetoric. He continues: Since Friday, Ive spent a lot of time trying to understand and process the decision not to remove the racist, violent post Trump made Thursday night, but Facebook, complicit in the propagation of weaponised hatred, is on the wrong side of history. Saying that he cannot keep excusing Facebooks behaviour providing a platform that enables politicians to radicalise individuals and glorify violence he likens what is happening in the US to the social media-fueled division that has led to death in places such as the Philippines, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka. Im scared for my country and Im done trying to justify this, says Mr Aveni. His last day will be on 12 June, and he signed off his post with the hashtag #blacklivesmatter. Meanwhile, The New York Times reports that Mr Zuckerberg defended his hands-off approach to Trumps posts in a question and answer session with employees on Tuesday. The timing of the session was moved up by two days after hundreds of employees staged a virtual walkout on Monday. He argued that it was a tough decision not to do anything about Mr Trumps inflammatory posts, but the process had been pretty thorough. Mr Zuckerberg said that Facebooks principles and policies around free speech show that the right action where we are right now is to leave this up. Civil rights groups say that Facebooks position is totally confounding. The company is under pressure to change its stance after Twitter began flagging Mr Trumps tweets for glorifying violence and being inaccurate. By Aradhana Aravindan and John Geddie SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore rolled out its fourth multi-billion-dollar stimulus package in as many months on Tuesday, as it forecast a deeper recession than previously expected with the COVID-19 pandemic battering the bellwether economy. The new S$33 billion ($23.25 billion) package, unveiled by its finance minister in parliament takes the city-state's support for households and businesses to nearly S$100 billion, or 20% of its GDP. It came shortly after Singapore lowered its GDP forecast to a contraction range of -7% to -4% from the prior range of -1% to -4%, paving the way for its deepest recession in its 55-year history. "This is a landmark package and the necessary response to an unprecedented crisis," Heng Swee Keat said. Singapore's economy shrank 0.7% year-on-year in the first quarter and 4.7% quarter-on-quarter, a less severe decline than advance estimates, although officials and analysts warned of more pain ahead. "There continues to be a significant degree of uncertainty over the length and severity of the COVID-19 outbreak, as well as the trajectory of the economic recovery," said Gabriel Lim, permanent secretary at the ministry of trade and industry. Following the downgrade, the central bank said monetary policy remains unchanged and will next be reviewed in October, as planned. Singapore also cut its 2020 forecast for non-oil domestic exports to -4.0% to -1.0%, from -0.5% to 1.5% previously. Exports have been a rare bright spot for the trade-reliant economy in recent months mainly due to a surge in pharmaceutical shipments. Singapore's main price gauge, the core consumer price index, contracted for the third straight month in April, hitting a fresh 10-year low. Analysts expect the Southeast Asian economy to see a deeper contraction in the second quarter due to a two-month lockdown, dubbed a "circuit breaker" by authorities, in which most workplaces were closed to curb the spread of the virus. Story continues The city-state has among the highest number of infections in Asia and has said that easing of the lockdown from next week will only be done gradually. Jeff Ng, senior treasury strategist at HL Bank, said Singapore's lockdown could result in more than a 20% year-on-year contraction in the second quarter, underlining the need for hefty fiscal stimulus. "Singapore has given a strong dose of medicine to try to support the current sickness of the economy," Ng said. Finance Minister Heng said the stimulus packages required the government to draw down up to S$52 billion from past reserves and are forecast to result in its biggest deficit in history of S$74.3 billion in FY2020. The government first flagged the possibility of recession in February when it cut its 2020 GDP forecast to -0.5% to 1.5%, from 0.5% to 2.5% previously. (Additional reporting by Fathin Ungku and Anshuman Daga; Editing by Sam Holmes and Jacqueline Wong) Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 2) As countries around the world continue to devise ways to curb the spread of COVID-19, local lawmakers are proposing a different approach in testing for the infectious disease. The House of Representatives on Monday approved on second reading House Bill 6865, or the Crushing COVID-19 Act, which mandates the conduct of polymerase chain reaction or PCR tests to detect COVID-19 among members of the vulnerable sector, including asymptomatic ones. Iloilo Rep. and former Health Secretary Janette Garin, principal author of the measure, said officials are also proposing to make use of the "pooled" testing approach, where patients' samples will be grouped into 10 and undergo one PCR test. Garin said the proposal will prove to be more cost-efficient and can accelerate the testing and isolation protocols of the country. "We still swab the vulnerable asymptomatics, pool their samples into 10, test them as one, and the results will actually be less kits being utilized, maximizing government resources, early test results, and most importantly, early isolation," Garin explained in an interview with CNN Philippines' The Source on Tuesday. The former Health chief added the approach would provide a faster and clearer picture of the prevalence of COVID-19 in a specific area or sector. "If you have a thousand employees in your company, then you swab all of them, you have 1,000 tests. If 95 tests turned negative that means 950 employees are already negative. You will be able to establish the prevalence of COVID in specific niche of our society, in unique workplaces, and even among non-health frontliners," she further noted. Some health experts have earlier called for the testing of "unsuspecting" virus carriers, saying the move will help in the mitigation of the spread of the disease. Garin said the bill aims to cover more workers and sectors, especially with Metro Manila and other areas easing into more relaxed quarantine policies. Among the priority individuals for testing, according to the House bill, include healthcare workers, non-health frontliners, persons with co-morbidities and other health risks, and persons arriving from abroad, among others. Garin likewise appealed to fellow lawmakers in the Senate to consider and "schedule" a discussion for the measure, should it hurdle the lower chamber. "We appeal to the Senate to possibly schedule this as soon as possible because the Philippines has started to open. And when we open we have to be sure we dont have a second wave, or a second lockdown," the solon said. "A second lockdown can happen if people unknowingly transmits. So this pooled piece-by-piece testing will identify the carriers , the asymptomatics and will pave way for immediate and early isolation." RELATED: Another strict COVID-19 lockdown may 'destroy' PH, Duterte adviser warns Tiger King star Joe Exotic has been forced to hand over his zoo to his nemesis Carole Baskin. The court ruling comes after Exotic left the GW Exotic Animal Memorial Park in Oklahoma to his former business partner Jeff Lowe and his mother, but a judge has ruled that his transfer of the zoo land to them a few years ago was fraudulent. The judge awarded Baskin full control of the land to help satisfy a $1m judgement that Exotic was ordered to pay her for copyright infringement. Lowe has 120 days to vacate the premises and remove all of his exotic animals from the property. Baskin, who owns an animal sanctuary in Florida, has been a vocal critic of Exotics animal park for many years. Her feud with Exotic escalated into a court battle, with Exotic arguing that Baskin was trying to destroy his business with an online smear campaign. Baskin, however, argued that Exotic was abusing his animals. Exotic is currently serving 22 years in prison after being convicted in 2019 of trying to hire a hitman to kill Baskin, as well as numerous animal abuse charges. Tiger King was a huge hit when it aired on Netflix earlier this year, and it was recently announced that Nicolas Cage will be playing Exotic in a scripted adaptation of the documentary. [June 02, 2020] GoCardless and YayPay Form Partnership to Address YayPay's Growing Global Customer Base SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- GoCardless, the leading fintech for recurring payments, today announced a strategic partnership with YayPay, a leading predictive accounts receivable (AR) automation solution. This wide-ranging partnership will see YayPay integrate GoCardless's global network with its AR offerings to provide direct debit payments to its expanding base of customers in North America and Europe. By offering bank debit as a payment option, YayPay will help its customers to get paid faster, improve cash flow, and significantly reduce payment costs. YayPay joins a growing number of SaaS-based businesses choosing GoCardless to power global payments. YayPay is among many U.S. businesses looking to increase international growth through the use of bank debit. Research conducted by GoCardless and YouGov indicates that while 69% of U.S. businesses collect international payments, and 72% of them have ambitions to increase their international growth over the next five years, 58% of them believe the complexity of cross-border payments is holding them back from this expansion. "A growing number of our customers are seeking ways to expand their global reach by collecting invoice payments from customers in other parts of the world," said Anthony Venus, CEO & Co-founder, YayPay. "By partnering with GoCardless and offering bank debit, we are empowering them to do this, while also addressing the payment options we make available to our own rapidly expanding list of customers worldwide. The GoCardless payment network is the ideal solution for addressing the international aspirations of our customers." Kevin Permentr, Research Manager at the International Data Corporation (IDC) said, "YayPay has continually leveraged innovation to increase their market presence in the accounts receivable software market. This partnership between YayPay and GoCardless is a further step in realizing the internationalization and expanding the global reach of YayPay's customer base." "YayPay is a rapidly-growing business at the forefront of back-office automation and machine learning, and we are thrilled to be partnering with them to integrate the GoCardless network into their payment options," said Andrew "AG" Gilboy, General Manager, North America, at GoCardless. "This partnership will expand the payment options offered through YayPay's AR solutions and allow YayPay's customers to operate in a way that's truly borderless." About YayPay YayPay is an accounts receivable software that simplifies the collections process and improves the invoicing experience by providing real-time visibility into the AR pipeline. Our solution leverages machine learning and automatic payment communications to accelerate collections, eliminate and streamline the manual effort associated with following up on late invoices, and report on KPIs. YayPay integrates with multiple accounting, ERP, billing, and CRM applications, for a complete look into the AR process, from collections to cash application. For more information visit https://www.yaypay.com . About GoCardless GoCardless is a global leader in recurring payments. Our global payments network and technology platform takes the pain out of getting paid for more than 50,000 businesses worldwide, from multinational corporations to SMBs. Each year GoCardless processes US $15 billion of payments across more than 30 countries. We now have five offices around the world in the UK, France, Australia, Germany, and the United States. For further information, please visit https://gocardless.com/en-us/ and follow us on Twitter @GoCardless. Media contacts: Devonne Spence GoCardless Headquarters (UK) [email protected] Peter Gorman Black Rocket Consulting for GoCardless (U.S.) +1-617-669-4329 [email protected] Lawrence Chiu YayPay Inc. (U.S.) [email protected] James Isola Maitland/AMO for YayPay Inc. (UK) [email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gocardless-and-yaypay-form-partnership-to-address-yaypays-growing-global-customer-base-301069475.html SOURCE YayPay [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment I cant breathe was the ceaseless, tenuous cry of a dying black man suffocating from the pressure on his neck by a racist murderer acting in the authority of law enforcement! George Floyd is yet another casualty in the homogeneous history of barbaric racism against blacks in the United States of America. COVID-19 has been called a pandemic in America for only a few months. Racism, however, is a longstanding pandemic on this soil dating back to 1619. This country has yet to reckon with its malicious, racist history. The problem is so deeply interwoven in societys fabric until the broader culture has been anesthetized to the pain. It privileges some people at the expense of holding others back. Throughout history, civilians and police officers have killed many black people. Some of the perpetrators died without paying the price. Others, such as George Zimmerman and Darren Wilson, were legally exonerated. We are not surprised. The system is not broken. It was built to protect racists! Some of the laws have changed; but the foundation remains, and each generation produces racists who wreak havoc in every sphere of society. Blacks have lived in this reality for many generations with little hope for an equal playing field for all Americans. The recent protests, riots, and lootings are a social outcry: Enough Is Enough! George Floyds murder, caught on video, is a tipping point. Derek Chauvins knee mercilessly pressing Floyds neck is a graphic visual of how this country unfailingly has had its knee on the neck of black America. If that image is not convincing enough, consider how Omar Jimenez, the black CNN reporter, was taken into custody on national television while simply reporting the protest. His ID nor gentle explanation of his role as a journalist meant nothing against his black skin. Not far away from him, the Minneapolis state police treated the white CNN reporter, Josh Campbell, cordially and with dignity. Juxtaposing both situations denotes an intelligible expression of the racism America has far too long embraced. Blackness comes with a negative assumption amid white normativity. This is a systemic, structural, and social cultural problem that dominates the practices of far too many systems of power, as evident in unscrupulous policing, and the racial acts of many civilians the same. Breonna Taylor and George Floyd murders are reminiscent of a history of policing that has historically targeted black communities, dating back to its origin as slave patrol in the South. Arbery's assassination is painfully reminiscent of the 1955 Emmitt Till murder in Money, Mississippi. The allegations surrounding the two cases are different; however, the racial actions taken by citizens to assume the power of protecting the community from a black man is the same. Moreover, whether George Junius Stinney, Jr., Emmitt Till, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Jamee Johnson, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor or a host of others, American history proves that there is an assumption of mysterious guilt when a white person says a black man did something wrong. History is paved with morbid pre-judgemnts for which black people had no day in court. Racist narratives have shaped the entire existence of blacks in America, including the post-Civil War era of Jim Crow as evidenced in the 1920 Tulsa Race Riot when thousands of blacks were killed at the hands of the KKK (who were never charged). Mischaracterization of blacks, negative blink responses to black skin, and the black experience in general are all resulting harms from white supremacy. Any reasonable and good-hearted person should see that the pain is real. We need all hands-on deck to realize the overdue change of systems and social culture. Our debaters often argue that Black people should just get over it. Some dismiss these important concerns as a mere leftist agenda. Some white Christians attempt to reframe and demonize concerns that blacks continuously address and suggests certain responses to racial misconducts against us, such as riots, are creating the problems. It should be noted, however, urgency is the mood of the black community. We must affirm the anger, sadness and even fear that set hearts ablaze; at the same time, condemn those who infiltrate the protests to stir up riots and lootings with a separate agenda. Their malicious intent is focused on stoking the problem that the protests aim to address. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. correctly said, Riots are the language of the unheard. However, events over the past week have revealed that riots are also tools in the hands of the malevolent whose purpose is to take advantage of socially vulnerable moments to undermine the worthy mission. Both are simultaneously true. Prayerfully, more information about the trifling, malicious groups will emerge, soon. Yet, everyone (black, white, brown, and anyone else) must diligently attend to the main issues that have been screaming from the social structures of America since 1619. What is it that America has failed to hear? Frankly, to be heard, you have to matter. Black people have not mattered equally as whites for centuries! The Christian position should be forward thinking and intentional about hearing the language of the black community, irrespective of dialects. We must reconsider the faith that Jesus intended one of justice, mercy, love and hope. Everyone is created in the image of God. As is argued in the book, Is Christianity the White Mans Religion?, written by one of us (Antipas) biblical Christianity is for everyone; it connects with the anguish on the streets and fights for the equal, merciful, and loving treatment of all of Gods children. Christians must distance faith from party politics, regain Christ-centered, Spirit-filled moral authority, and show solidarity with the angry protesters over social injustice. New Delhi, June 2 : Lockdown 4.0 in Delhi -- between May 18 and 31 -- saw 10,780 new Covid cases and 363 deaths, which were more than the tally of previous editions combined, as per the Health Department data. The national capital recorded 1,543 positive coronavirus cases in the first lockdown, 3,320 cases in the second, and 5,159 cases in the third edition of the nation-wide lockdown, resulting in a total of 10,022 cases. In a similar fashion, the number of deaths due to the deadly virus in the first three phases of the lockdown were 31, 32, and 96, respectively -- totalling 159 deaths in total. The casualties more than doubled in the lockdown 4.0. However, the increased number of deaths in the fourth edition was also due to late reporting of deaths by the hospitals, a Health Department official said. "The hospitals were not reporting the deaths in a timely manner. However, after the government directed, the deaths which occurred in the last 35-40 days were also reported, which contributed to the rise in toll," the official told IANS. It is significant to note that as the restrictions were gradually relaxed through the consequent lockdown phases, the number of cases and death also increased in the national capital. In the first lockdown (March 25 - April 14), when only essential services were allowed to function and an almost complete restriction on movement was imposed, the city registered 73 cases and roughly one death per day on an average. When the lockdown was imposed, Delhi had reported 35 cases and one death. However, within a week, with the Nizamuddin Markaz incident, the number of cases saw a jump. With gradual reopening of shops in May and relaxations on movement of vehicles and resumption of public transport in lockdown 4.0, the number of positive cases kept increasing. Delhi has allowed more relaxations within the city from Monday. The second edition of lockdown (April 15-May 3) recorded 174 cases per day on an average, while the death average remained roughly the same as the previous version. The daily average, however, in lockdown 3.0 was about 369 cases and over six deaths reported daily. Similarly, lockdown 4.0 saw about 26 deaths per day on an average -- over four times of the deaths reported in lockdown 3.0 between May 4 and 17. The per day average of positive cases in the lockdown 4.0, at 770, was also more than double of the average in the lockdown 3.0 at 369. The total coronavirus cases in the city stood at 20,834 while the death toll mounted to 523 as of Monday. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text ALTON An estimated 150 people gathered Monday afternoon in front of the Alton Police Station for a peaceful demonstration of the Black Lives Matter cause. The protest, organized by two area residents, came just one week after a man named George Floyd died while under restraint by a Minneapolis police officer. This is the best way to respond peacefully, said activist Javon McBride. The rioting, thats getting their attention but thats not the best way to do it, he said. The looting, thats getting their attention, but thats not the best way to do it. We need to come out here as a unit and change, McBride said. We black people cant change it on our own. We tried that for so long. Organizer Megan Weller said that, by having family members in the black community shes seen examples of racism throughout the country and locally and shes just sick of it. I think were all uniting because were all just very angry, she said. Its bringing back memories of other things that have happened, even in our own community. That anger and just the sadness is all just coming out, she said. And were all standing together united in solidarity and showing our town that we will not stand for it if it happens here. So far, Weller has organized two protests in front of the Alton Police Department on Broadway since the incident in Minneapolis last week. The first, held on Friday, took place without incident and the Alton Police Department has continued to show its support for the publics right to demonstrate. Well always defend everyones right to peacefully protest, said Alton Police Chief Jason Jake Simmons before the event. We had another protest Friday that went off without a hitch, so hopefully theres no issues. Well have ice water and everything available in case someone gets overheated, and well accommodate them the best we can. Longtime activist Lee Barham said he was happy to see young people come out to support each other against the violence thats going on in the country. Were trying to make a difference, you know, because we have to start being proactive instead of reactive, he said. City leaders need to come together. We need to have something in place before things like this happen. Charles Teague, another activist and Barhams great-great-nephew, said he feels like the riots happening in other parts of the country have been uncalled for. It made him happy to see everyone standing together peacefully in support of the cause Monday afternoon in Alton. We just need to be peaceful, just so we can let people know that violence doesnt solve anything at all, he said. Im just happy were all here right now. Mondays crowd was split almost equally between black and white participants, something that didnt go unnoticed by activist and minister Stanton Holliday whos been demonstrating since 1968. The very impressive thing is that there is a very large number of white people protesting, he said. Probably because the video was so obvious. The younger generation dont realize it, but the Civil Rights Movement has always been blacks and whites. With around 75 demonstrators remaining on site several hours later, Mondays event wont be the last protest Weller or Teague plan to organize. It means a lot to me to see everyone standing together, said Weller. Theres obviously no discrimination here whatsoever. We all love each other as human beings. The Bono East Region's COVID-19 case count has increased from one to six. This was announced by the Bono East Regional Director of Health Services, Dr. Fred Adomako Boateng in a Citi News interview on Monday, June 1, 2020. According to him, the five additional cases are as a result of targeted testing the health directorate has been conducting. Through some targeted testing that we are doing, we have detected five positive cases bringing the total number to six in the whole Bono East Region. In fact, the results came in yesterday [Sunday, May 31, 2020] morning and we have been working around the clock to put in the necessary interventions to prevent any further spread. Dr. Boateng also disclosed that the regional health directorate has commenced the contact tracing process with the hope of getting it done effectively. We started the process of contact tracing yesterday. We are still continuing and definitely, we will be able to come up with a realistic number of people we have contacted, he said. The Bono East Region recorded its first COVID-19 case on Friday, May 29, 2020. It became the 15th region in the country to record a case of the novel coronavirus leaving the Ahafo Region as the only region without a reported infection. The case involves a commercial driver who plies Yeji in the Pru East district to the Ashanti Regional capital, Kumasi. Ghanas case count Ghana's case count of the novel COVID-19 rose to 8,070 with 2,947 recoveries on Sunday, May 31, 2020. This was announced by President Akufo-Addo in a televised address to the nation As at today, Sunday, 31st May, under these measures, we have conducted 218,425 tests; the number of positive cases stands at 8,070; 2,947 persons have recovered; 36 have sadly died; 13 persons are severely ill, with three critically-ill for one is on a ventilator; and 5,087 are responding to treatment at home, isolation centres and hospitals, he disclosed. Per the new figures, 189 new cases have been recorded since the last update and 106 persons have also recovered from the disease. ---citinewsroom On Friday, May 29, peaceful protesters took to the streets of cities from Los Angeles to New York. They marched on behalf of George Floyd as well as the Black Lives Matter movement. Though Floyds death occurred in Minneapolis, Minnesota, communities across the country took to the streets in solidarity. Celebrities joined by either marching and/or donating to bail funds set up for protestors. Cole Sprouse also joined protestors in Santa Monica, California on May 31. Cole Sprouse | Bettina Strauss/The CW RELATED: John Cusack Spent the Day Covering Chicagos George Floyd Protests and Police Attacked Him On June 1, Sprouse wrote a long post on Instagram describing his experience at the Santa Monica protests. Instead of a photo, he posted the text Black Lives Matter on a yellow background. Warning, Sprouse describes intense situations in the post. Cole Sprouse does not want this story to be about him As the star of Riverdale and a celebrity since acting as a young man, Sprouse has been in the spotlight. He does not want his involvement in the arrests to make him the subject of stories, such as this one. Rather, he shared his story to illuminate the Black Lives Matter movement and protests on behalf of the late George Floyd. Before the voracious horde of media sensationalism decides to somehow turn it about me, theres a clear need to speak about the circumstances: Black Lives Matter, Sprouse wrote. Peace, riots, looting, are an absolutely legitimate form of protest. the media is by nature only going to show the most sensational, which only proves a long standing racist agenda. The circumstances of Cole Sprouses arrest Throughout the weekend, peaceful protests gave way to looting, and in some cases video shows provocation by the police. Sprouse described the scene in Santa Monica. I was detained when standing in solidarity, as were many of the final vanguard within Santa Monica, Sprouse wrote. We were given the option to leave, and were informed that if we did not retreat, we would be arrested. When many did turn to leave, we found another line of police officers blocking our route, at which point, they started zip tying us. Sprouse felt his own arrest was the least among many concerns for the protestors vulnerable in that situation. Cole Sprouse | Taylor Hill/FilmMagic, RELATED: How Hamilton and Lin-Manuel Miranda Are Supporting the George Floyd Protests, and How You Can Help It needs to be stated that as a straight white man, and a public figure, the institutional consequences of my detainment are nothing in comparison to others within the movement, Sprouse wrote. This is ABSOLUTELY not a narrative about me, and I hope the media doesnt make it such. Cole Sprouse hopes to be an example of allyship This story is not about Cole Sprouse the celebrity. Sprouse was one of many allies on the ground in Santa Monica. He hopes his example can show others, who may not have his fame and resources, how they can help too. Cole Sprouse | Jack Rowand/The CW RELATED: How Harry Styles, Colin Kaepernick, John Legend, John Cusack and Other Celebs Are Supporting George Floyd Protests This is, and will be, a time about standing ground near others as a situation escalates, providing educated support, demonstrating and doing the right thing, Sprouse said. This is precisely the time to contemplate what it means to stand as an ally. I hope others in my position do as well. Further action Sprouse put a link to a Google Doc (bit.ly/BlackLives/Action) in his Instagram stories. The documents include summaries about victims of police violence in different cities, and resources for donations and protest. He hopes his post will raise awareness for those resources. He also hopes video of his arrest from the police cruisers comes to light. RELATED: Killer Mike Called George Floyds Death Murder Porn in a Powerful Speech to Atlanta Citizens Ill speak no more on the subject, as Im (1) not well versed enough to do so, (2) not the subject of the movement, and (3) uninterested in drawing attention away from the leaders of the #BLM movement, Sprouse wrote. I will be, again, posting the link in my story to a comprehensive document for donations and support. Gaza, June 2 : Hamas authorities announcedthat all mosques in the Gaza Strip will reopen on Wednesday after a three-month closure due to the coronavirus pandemic. Abdul Hadi el-Agha, director general of the Hamas-run Ministry of al-Waqf (Islamic properties) said in press statement on Monday that all mosques, which have been shut down since March, will reopen for the daily five prayers on Wednesday, reports Xinhua news agency. He called on the worshippers to abide by the personal precautionary measures, mainly wearing facemasks, keep social distancing, and avoid shaking hands. Meanwhile, Palestinian Minister of Health in the West Bank Mai al-Kaila announced that since March 5, the total number of Palestinians infected with COVID-19 has reached 628. Founded in 1988 by Holger Bosch and his two brothers, the club itself was initially an outlandish idea. They built Index from scratch in an empty field outside the small and otherwise unremarkable town, hoping it might attract visitors living farther afield by hosting all-night raves.Their hunch paid off. Over the next three decades, Index became a destination venue, hosting international artists like Snoop Dogg and Sean Paul, and allowing the brothers to expand the club. Press Release June 2, 2020 De Lima files bill to tighten anti-illegal recruitment law Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima seeks to redefine the crime of illegal recruitment committed by a syndicate by lowering the number of perpetrators from three to two to qualify as large-scale illegal recruitment. De Lima filed Senate Bill (SB) No. 1466 to address the injustice suffered by Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in the hands of illegal recruiters by amending Article 38 of Presidential Decree no. 442, or the "Labor Code of the Philippines," as amended and Section 6 of Republic Act (RA) No. 8042, or the "Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995," as amended. "Illegal recruitment is a great menace to our society. It is one of the most detestable crimes a Filipino can commit to a fellow Filipino; a crime that has brought about sufferings to thousands of poor and innocent victims and their families," she said. "Under the present set up, persons accused of illegal recruitment by a syndicate may evade the penalty as provided by the existing law, by simply alleging that the victim failed to establish that the crime was carried out by a group of three or more persons conspiring or confederating with one another. Under the present law, illegal recruitment by a syndicate is meted with life imprisonment and a fine of not less than P2 million but not more than P5 million. In filing the measure, the lady Senator from Bicol cited the case of Mary Jane Veloso, a human trafficking victim convicted for carrying 2.6 kilograms of heroin at the Yogyakarta Airport in 2010, as she continues to be at the brink of death to this date. Last 11 October 2019, the Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals' ruling and allowed her to testify via a deposition in a local trafficking case against her recruiters. "This is perhaps just one of the most heart wrenching realities of some of our countrymen who fly abroad, dreaming of better futures for their families but instead finding themselves trapped and helpless in a foreign country," De Lima said. If De Lima's proposed measure will be enacted into law, De Lima said illegal recruitment will be deemed committed by a syndicate if carried out by two, instead of three, or more persons conspiring or confederating with one another. "With this bill, our OFWs shall have greater and mightier shield from injustice," said De Lima, chairperson of the Senate Social Justice, Welfare and Rural Development. During the previous Aquino administration, De Lima chaired the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) which spearheads the country's campaign against all forms of human trafficking. Incidentally, in the 17th Congress, it may be recalled that De Lima pursued her advocacy against human trafficking by filing a measure which seeks to designate human rights attaches in select Philippine embassies and consulates to address cases of human rights violations committed against overseas Filipino workers. Hundreds of people stood outside of the Saskatchewan Legislative Building on Tuesday to show solidarity for Black Lives Matter. The rally in Regina comes as protests continue throughout the United States following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after a police officer knelt on his neck for a number of minutes. Protests have also spread throughout Canada, including one in Montreal and Halifax. Organizers of Tuesday's rally in Saskatchewan say racism is a problem here as well. "A lot of people here think that Canada isn't racist," Faith Olanipekun, one of the organizers, said. "So it's important for us to come out, voice our concerns and let people know that we are suffering in Canada just as much as people in the U.S. are suffering." The rally began at about 11 a.m. CST, with the crowd chanting "Black Lives Matter" and "We want justice, peace, freedom." Speakers included organizers and Speaker of the House Mark Docherty. CBC reporter Alex Soloducha is reporting live from the event. On mobile? Click here. Olanipekun is a University of Regina graduate and black activist. She said the rally is for the black lives lost in the United States and in Canada. "I want people to know that we cannot be silenced," she said. Olanipekun said many people come to Canada for opportunities and to be safe but there is bias and discrimination when they arrive. "We want people to identify and understand that this is happening to us and we need to all be united and stand up for each other because we all bleed the same blood at the end of the day," she said. Olanipekun said she has faced discrimination herself in Canada. She said people told her to go back to where she is from, she's had to change her last name to get job interviews and more. "Little things like that add up and it really causes a strain on mental health for black people in Regina, in Canada," Olanipekun said. "We're just bringing a focus to that." Story continues Alex Soloducha/CBC "This is happening, this is real, and we are frustrated and we want something to change." Olanipekun said she wants Caucasian people to be allies, call their MLAs, amplify black voices, stand up against micro-aggressions and discrimination, and add their voices to the calls against systemic racism. The reaction to the rally gives her hope, Olanipekun said. "The response to this event has been amazing. It's amazing to see people coming out to support and we want that to continue even after this is over," she said. "If we all come together as one, I think we can definitely change a lot of things." 'Vandalism is not acceptable': Moe Premier Scott Moe tweeted earlier Tuesday to condemn an act of "vandalism" at the war memorial at the Saskatchewan legislature. "Peaceful protest is always welcome at our Legislature, such as the rally taking place later this morning against racial injustice. Vandalism is not acceptable," the premier said on Twitter. Moe's tweet shows the war memorial with "Justice for Floyd #BLM" written on it in spray paint. Moe told reporters later Tuesday that he understands why hundreds of people gathered to protest racism, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. He praised those who rallied lawfully and said he was travelling during the protest so couldn't attend. He also said he's horrified by Floyd's death and the police use of tear gas on peaceful protesters, and that racism has no place in society. Meanwhile, a Regina artist did a chalk drawing of Floyd on the sidewalk in front of the legislature in advance of Tuesday's event. Zoe Stradeski said she got permission to do the piece from her MLA, Nicole Sarauer. Judy Stradeski/Facebook Police, Sask. Roughriders join calls The Saskatoon Police Service, Regina police and Saskatchewan Roughriders are adding their voices to the calls for equality of all peoples following the George Floyd protests. "We were left feeling shocked and appalled at the events on May 25 that led to the death of George Floyd," the Saskatoon Police Service said on social media. "The action, and inaction, of the police officers involved was unacceptable, but we offer today that they are not representative of the policing profession as a whole." The SPS said officers are held to a higher standard and should hold their core values of honesty, integrity, compassion, fairness, respect, and more during each interaction. The SPS said it has people helping guide them as they develop and deepen relationships with the diverse Saskatoon community but that the work is not done. "We are committed to maintaining and enhancing the strong community support that is necessary for a safe, secure, and healthy community," the police service said. The Regina Police Service tweeted a similar statement around 10 a.m. CST on Tuesday. It called the actions of the officers involved in George Floyd's death "inexcusable and unacceptable." It also said Regina police are working to build an inclusive, diverse and understanding police service. "We are all hurting right now," the statement said. "Community safety means a community free of racism and we all have a role to play." The Saskatchewan Roughriders also put out a post, saying the community, team and fan base are diverse. "We grieve with you over these overt acts of racism and injustice," the Roughriders said. "No one should live in fear because of the colour of their skin." Transiting through Turkey, the UN on Tuesday sent 106 truckloads of humanitarian aid to northwestern Syria, where millions of people are in need of assistance due to internal conflict in the country. The trucks carrying supplies entered Idlib, Syria, through the Cilvegozu border gate in Turkeys southern Hatay province, reported the Turkish news agency Anadolu. The aid will be distributed to residents of Idlib and nearby rural areas. Syria has been ravaged by a civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protesters. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced, according to UN estimates. Idlib falls within a de-escalation zone forged under an agreement between Turkey and Russia. The area has been the subject of multiple cease-fire understandings, which have frequently been violated by the Assad regime and its allies, Anadolu Agency explained. It is currently home to 4 million civilians, including hundreds of thousands displaced in recent years by regime forces throughout the war-weary country. Tatevik Revazian didnt treat her job seriously, and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency checked and found out that the Civil Aviation Committee of Armenia isnt capable of ensuring and inspecting observance of the safety rules of airline companies. This is what deputy of the Bright Armenia faction of the National Assembly of Armenia Gevorg Gorgisyan told reporters today. The Bright Armenia faction has been stating that the governments personnel policy is an embarrassment since the very first day the cabinet was formed. The government appointed a person who doesnt understand the aviation sector and the problems and doesnt even understand the gravity of the agency that had come to conduct inspections. Tatevik Revazian should have resigned already, to say the least, the deputy said, adding that even though it is possible to fix the shortcomings, it will require time and funding. Touching upon the fact that Georgia cant let tourists travel from Armenia, Gorgisyan said if a particular country has managed to combat the pandemic and create a situation that is under control, that country simply wont allow the entry of people from a country with unprecedented spread of the pandemic. Dating cave art is a key issue for understanding human cognitive development. Knowing whether the ability for abstraction and conveying reality involved in artistic development is unique to Homo sapiens or if it was shared with other species, or simply knowing at what moment these abilities developed, is vital in order to understand the complexity of human evolution. Currently in Spain, for the most part, when trying to find out the age of artistic expressions in caves, dating is done with U-series dating, using the two elements uranium and thorium in the underlying and overlapping layers of calcite in the paint itself. However, the timeline this system proposes seems to provide evidence for erroneous ages and an inverse relationship between the concentration of uranium and the apparent ages. In order to test the reliability of this dating method, Prehistory Professor at the University of Cordoba, Jose Luis Sanchidrian Torti and associate researcher in Prehistory at UCO Maria Angeles Medina Alcaide, who do not doubt the cognitive abilities of the Neanderthals but rather adhere to scientific rigor, performed a study in which they analyzed the reliability of Uranium-thorium dating and refute Neanderthals being the creators of the Paleolithic art in Spanish caves via the Nerja Cave. The key, according to the Cordoba team, seems to be in the mobility of uranium, which would have assigned older (and inaccurate) ages to the cave art in some Spanish caves, ascribing the art to Homo neanderthalensis. The research team analyzed several samples of calcite related to the chronometric test of a set of rocks in the Nerja Cave, obtaining proof of the complexity of the dating on calcite for the study of the chronology of cave art. In this way, they directly question the generally accepted conclusions to date about the artistic manifestations in several caves being the work of Neanderthals, which had been determined based solely on the Uranium-thorium dating method. In order to reconstruct the timeline of the history of cave art, Sanchidrian and Medina's research proposes an action protocol for dating Paleolithic art samples that uses data from three measuring systems: Uranium-thorium testing, Carbon 14 (C14) testing and a second mineralogical study of the sample before dating. It is essential to study in more detail the evolution of these artistic manifestations in order to establish a rigorous and reliable chronological framework that allows us to understand and comprehend human artistic development. ### This research is part of several national and international projects, listed as follows: the General Research Project of the Nerja Cave, headed by Professor Sanchidrian, and also the national project called Learning and Development of Artistic Capacity in Anatomically Modern Humans: A multidisciplinary approach (HAR2017-87739-P) (led by the University of Salamanca), the Before art: social investment in symbolic expressions during the Upper Palaeolithic project (directed by the Universidad of Cantabria) and the Cross dating by uranium-thorium, uranium-protactinium and radiocarbon of secondary carbonate cave deposits: the search for validation criteria of samples and ages. Application to rock art project?(headed by the French National Centre for Scientific Research). Pons-Branchu, E., Sanchidrian, JL., Fontugne, M., Medina-Alcaide, M.A., Quiles, A., Thil, F., Valladas, H. (2020) U-series dating at Nerja cave reveal open system. Questioning the Neanderthal origin of Spanish rock art. Journal of Archaeological Science, Vol. 117, ISSN 0305-4403, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2020.105120 The Armenian government would like to determine the terms for serving punishment for prisoners and convicts suffering from serious illnesses and permit their release due to the presence of serious health problems. This is what Deputy Minister of Justice of Armenia Srbuhi Galyan said during a discussion on the bill on making supplements to the Criminal Procedure Code in parliament today. The deputy minister particularly emphasized that the bill proposes to specifically determine and envisage an opportunity to release a prisoner due to presence of a serious illness and envisage an opportunity for an overseeing prosecutor to adopt a decision on immediate consideration of a motion to grant or reject the motion for release. All these decisions need to be based on the conclusion of doctors. The bill also provides for an opportunity to appeal a decision in court in the case of a negative conclusion. Moreover, as the deputy minister mentioned, the decision on release must be in effect no later than the following day. The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) has indicated that it will commence an enhanced mandatory medical examination for all foreign nationals seeking to work and reside in the country. The mandatory medical examination is an add-on to the already existing medical examination conducted by the Service as one of the requirements for acquiring Work and Residence permits by foreign nationals. The directive takes effect from Monday, June 15, 2020, and will include testing for COVID-19 and also cover other permits such as Indefinite Residence, Right of Abode and Naturalization, as well as renewal of other Residence permits. According to the GIS, the enhanced mandatory medical examination is not only to help streamline and regulate the issuance of Work, Residence, and other permits in the country but also safeguard public health and security as directed by the Immigration Act of 2000, ACT 573. Additionally, the directive will help obtain information on the health status of immigrants and its consequence on the countrys public health. It will also assist the immigrants to known their health status in order to take the appropriate steps to seek medical intervention or otherwise observe precautionary measures for a specific disease. The official fee for medical examination for a one-year Residence permit of a new applicant, a four-to-five-year renewal of Residence permit, and an Indefinite Residence permit, as well as Right of Abode for other African descents in the Diaspora is GH1,100.00. A one-to-three year renewal of Residence permit will be done at GH600.00. All medical examinations for these permits would be done at the GIS Clinic, located at its National Headquarters in Accra. Source: Ghana Immigration Service Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A man wearing a face mask to combat the spread of the coronavirus reads a newspaper in Madrid, Spain. Read more The local news system is collapsing throughout the country, leading to discussions about whether the government needs to help. But that raises a tough question: How on Earth can journalists hold politicians accountable if were getting money from them? Actually, there are government policies that can help address the collapse of local news while protecting editorial independence. These strategies borrow from the experience of The Inquirer and the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, its nonprofit owner. Its important to understand the size of the crisis. I led an effort for the Federal Communications Commission in 2011, warning of a collapse of local news. Even before COVID-19, local newspapers had lost about half their jobs since 2008 about the same scale as the contraction of the coal and steel industries. COVID-19 has accelerated the decline. Estimates are that in the last two months, 36,000 newsroom workers were laid off, furloughed, or had their pay cut. In my current role, as president of Report for America, which places journalists into local communities, were seeing that news organizations now have a flood of readers and a drought of revenue. This isnt just a matter of losing more jobs. Studies have shown that communities with weak local news have more government waste, corruption, and pollution and less civic involvement and ability to solve local problems. How can government help without making matters worse? Lets take a cue from the Founding Fathers. They subsidized the growth of the free press by giving discount postal rates to newspapers. Those policies were content-neutral and indirect. Here are a few specific ideas that meet those tests: First, run more public health advertising and have it go through local media. Before COVID-19, the federal government spent about $1 billion a year in advertising. The government should now spend another $1-$2 billion on advertising for public health, military recruitment, and census completion. This time, a good chunk should reach the public through local media. And at least half of that local share should be advertising or underwriting in news organizations that are locally owned or nonprofit, including ethnic weeklies, local nonprofits, public ratio, and other community-grounded news organizations. Second, encourage the replanting of newspapers back into communities. Attorney General William Barr recently decried media consolidation and praised the days when the press was so fragmented that the power of any one organ was small and a multiplicity of newspapers cultivated a wide variety of views and localized opinion. Hes right. About 700 newspapers are owned or controlled by a few private equity or hedge funds. COVID-19 is likely to be another wave of mergers and acquisitions by private equity funds. In truth, many great newspapers could survive and serve as important local institutions if they werent laden with debt or required to produce double-digit profits and if they could to draw philanthropic support from the community as an additional revenue stream, such as the Inquirer/Lenfest model. Lets allow owners to take a significant charitable deduction on their taxes if they donate the newspaper to a local nonprofit or public-mission-oriented B corporation. Third, change the tax code to create incentives for journalism. The IRS should clarify that nonpartisan, local journalism can be considered a legitimate public purpose. Nonprofit news organizations should also be able to accept underwriting or advertising without jeopardizing their tax-exempt status. And taxpayers should be able to take deductions when buying a news subscription. Commercial news organizations should get tax incentives to hire journalists; and local businesses should get tax credits for advertising in local media. Finally, lets recast local journalism as a public service profession. We need to get more local reporters on the ground and again view local reporting as a public service calling. These are all measures that resemble the Founders approach content-neutral and broad-based. COVID-19 is terrifying. Curing local media does not need to be. Steven Waldman is the president and cofounder of Report for America and a leader of Rebuild Local News, a campaign to help locally owned and nonprofit media. The Lenfest Institute, which owns The Inquirer, is part of that coalition. AUSTIN, TX Austin Public Health announced plans to launch mobile and targeted testing sites in key locations in Austin-Travis County to help address the disproportionate impact of cases of the coronvirus on vulnerable populations, officials said Tuesday. The targeted test sites will complement work being done by community partners such as CommUnity Care to increase testing availability to individuals who have not been able to receive testing through previously established programs, health officials said. The aim of the effort, officials said, is to fill the gaps in the community via targeted testing, mobile testing, cluster testing, home testing, and static testing sites. The two key vulnerable groups identified by Austin Public Health are residents of nursing homes and communities of color. Testing sites in predominantly white neighborhoods During a May 28 briefing to update on coronavirus trends, Patch asked officials about disproportionate illness rates among Hispanics. Questions posed by Patch were in response to a National Public Radio study showing coronavirus testing locations disproportionately clustered in predominantly white neighborhoods in four of the biggest cities in Texas. In Austin, the NPR analysis showed that of the city's 25 public testing sites, 16 were in neighborhoods whiter than the city median. In response to questions from Patch, Dr. Mark Escott, Interim Health Authority for Austin-Travis County, said the health authority was working with its GIS mapping team to ensure equity among testing sites. He ticked off a number of other organizations that provide additional testing sites throughout the community in addition to the public sites. He referred residents to the Austin Public Health website for information on testing site locations. The public is alerted to free COVID-19 testing on the Austin Public Health website. "Are you experiencing symptoms of COVID-19?" the site reads. "Click the button below to use this online assessment to pre-register for FREE testing for you or a loved one. Schedule a no-cost, drive-through COVID-19 test at a local Austin Public Health facility. Please note that at this time, Austin Public Health testing sites are drive-through only. You must be in a vehicle to be tested at these sites." Story continues In response to questions from Patch on the NPR study, former Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt noted further testing site availability at various parks. While unfamiliar with the sites NPR was counting in its analysis, she pointed to the number of groups partnering with the city in amplifying the number of testing sites while encouraging employers to implement testing for their workers. Without such partnerships, "We would not be able to get to the level of testing saturation this community really needs to manage this viral infection," Eckhardt said. More could be done, mayor says In a subsequent telephone interview with Mayor Steve Adler the day after the briefing, he acknowledged the city could do more in providing ample testing sites. "Obviously, we haven't done enough to stop the disproportionate impact that we're seeing," the mayor said. But it's not been for lack of trying, the mayor suggested: "We're playing real close attention to communities more susceptible to this virus, and that has always been a front-and-center and immediate priority. You find the people who are at risk where you see clusters, and then you try to immdiately address them as quickly as you can." Adler said the disproportionate local rates had been anticipated based on trends in other Texas cities. Informed by such evidence, the city moved early to install testing sites in the so-called "Eastern Ccrescent" peopled by a predominantly Hispanic population. But he acknowledged that full-fledged operation at some sites cannot be justified given the low numbers availing themselves of testing: "There's not enough demand to stand those up with staff five days a week, scheduled with regular days and times," the mayor said. Factors that may play into the lack of testing are culturally innate in a group overrepresented in blue-collar work that prevents the luxury of working from home, he suggested. Moreover, a general distrust of government among many Hispanics including the undocumented or those with relatives who also lack citizenship papers may further frustrate efforts to have them tested, Adler added. He pointed to an effort about a month ago when health officials visited construction sites to offer testing. "A large proportion of construction workers declined to be tested," the mayor said. "Part of it is when you have people who are on the front lines that don't have the opportunity to work from home, and are faced with the difficult choice of 'do I work' or 'do I get paid' over fear of losing their jobs if they get tested." Nursing home residents also disproportionately afflicted Nursing home residents also are among the most vulnerable to infection. Austin Public Health figures show that 30 percent of nursing home residents who contract COVID-19 end up in the hospital compared with 15 percent of COVID-19 patients among the general population. Health officials added the case fatality rate for nursing home residents is 22 percent compared with 1.7 percent for the general population. Health officilas provided graphs to illustrate the trends: Austin Public Health graphic. Austin Public Health graphic. COVID-19 has a devastating impact on our nursing homes and in our population over the age of 65," Escott said in a prepared statement. "This data conclusively demonstrates the critical importance of an overhaul of infection control procedures and nursing home design to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 as well as other communicable diseases." With nursing home cases removed, the preliminary data show a rate of COVID-19 hospitalizations in March-April 2020 was 12 percent for White Non-Hispanic individuals, 17 percent for LatinX individuals and 18 percent for African American individuals, according to Austin Public Health data. Similarly, the COVID-19 fatality rate was 1.9 percent for White Non-Hispanic individuals, 1.6 percent for LatinX individuals, and 5.4 percent for African-American individuals. These statistics are concerning and unfortunately, not unexpected given the history of disparities in access to health care and in the social determinants of health impacting communities of color," Escott said. "While this data is preliminary and the actual magnitude of the impact on these communities is not yet certain, we will not sit idly by watching and waiting until we reach scientific certainty before taking action. Austin Public Health graphic. People of color predisposed to illnesses COVID-19 aside, communities of color experience higher incidences of chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and heart disease Escott said. Such residents disproportionately work in low-paying or hourly-wage jobs that leave them unable to provide care or interrupt work, are more likely to be uninsured, live in medically underserved areas, and live in ZIP codes with lower life expectancy, health officials noted. People of color are over-represented in every characteristic that puts you at risk for complications from COVID-19, Brion Oaks, the citys chief equity officer, said in a prepared statement. They are also over-represented in essential work and employed in positions that do not allow working from home. We may be in the same storm, but we are not in the same boat. We must focus on supporting our communities of color and other vulnerable populations as we work to respond to this crisis. Health officilas said additional factors can also make an individual more vulnerable to COVID-19, including immigration status, multigenerational housing situations, concern about losing wages if quarantine is required, limited transportation options, or employment where telework is not possible. As a community, weve done a relatively good job keeping our total number of COVID-19 cases at bay, Escott said. But, our raw numbers should not distract us from the disturbing fact supported by preliminary data that communities of color are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. Escott added: This message cannot fall on deaf ears. This disease is real and does not discriminate in who it infects. However, because of long-standing disparities in the social determinants of health, our communities of color are less likely to recover physically and financially from the impacts of this pandemic. Health officials said a so-called Testing Group has been created to oversee all Austin-Travis County testing efforts and ensure a collaborative approach among all other testing entities with a focus on priority populations. The aim is to provide support to those already existing entities, and through continuous evaluation meet the testing needs of the community. The Testing Group, in conjunction with Austin Public Health's Social Services Branch and Equity, are in the process of identifying key locations throughout Austin-Travis County where mobile and targeted testing will be stationed, health officials said. The disparities we are seeing in COVID-19 impacts among Austin-Travis Countys diverse communities are disturbing but sadly not surprising in the context of nationwide inequities in access to health care, healthy food, and income, Austin Public Health Director Stephanie Hayden said. We must redouble our efforts to address these disparities, particularly in the eastern crescent of Travis County. Hayden added: Our testing strategy is intended to be flexible to rapidly respond to emerging community needs to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and reduce the impact on high-risk populations. It is going to take a community-wide effort to increase testing in targeted communities. Austin Public Health, in addition to mobile and targeted testing, is also working on community-informed communications and engagement strategy to target these vulnerable populations.The city is planning a conversation with communities of color currently scheduled for the morning of Saturday, June 13, to discuss ways to improve health outcomes among our most vulnerable populations. More details on this forum will be forthcoming. It will take more than testing to alleviate the unequal health outcomes in vulnerable Austin populations, Hayden said. We will have to continue this effort on a broader scale, with a focus on strengthening communities across Austin. We will also be working to provide targeted interventions, health education, face coverings, access to isolation facilities, and basic needs assistance. Individuals can see if they qualify for a free COVID-19 test by completing an online assessment at AustinTexas.gov/COVID19 or by calling (512) 972-5560. COVID-19 data can be found on the COVID-19 dashboard. Hispanic community leaders voice their concerns Before the Austin Public Health announcement centered on additional testing sites, community activist Paul Saldana said he and other advocates for the Latinx community calling themselves the Austin Latino Coalition including Austin City Council member Pio Renteria, Chicana activist Martha Cotera and Gina Hinojosa of the Texas House of Represenatives met with city officials remotely in calling attention to the disproporationate rate in their community. A remote meeting via Zoom lasting more than two hours grew testy amid a perception that city officials were averse to doing more to safeguard the Hispanic community, Saldana told Patch in a recent telephone interview. In preparing for the meeting, Hispanic community leaders were armed with statistics showing disproportionate rates of confirmed coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths among Hispanics, he said. Community leaders also prepared a presentation on the need for more direct outreach in Spanish in the way of public service announcements geared to the population. "I don't mean to be disrespectful to the mayor, but he said Latinos live in multi-generational settings," Saldana said, referring to cultural norms of housing customs among some Hispanics that may heighten the threat of infection. Saldana suggested he found the observation reductive, and as painting Hispanic cultures as a monolith rather than suffused with nuance and myriad customs. "I know that's not what he intended, but it was an epiphany," he said. "There's always an assumption that we're monolithic, but there are at least 25 subcultures of Latinos in Austin." As for health officials' visits to construction sites, Saldana suggested the effort was culturally tone deaf. Rather than arriving en masse to the sites in offering testing, he suggested health officials should have secured a third party to tag along as a figure of respect resonating among many Hispanics the parish priest, for example as part of the persuasion to get tested. During the meeting, Saldana said city officials also cited specific examples of information provided to Hispanics that was not culturally relevant and pointed to the dearth of literature in Spanish. There is a Spanish-language portal within the Austin Public Health website, Saldana noted, but it's hardly user-friendly: "When you click on Spanish, it opens to another page with a 60-page PDF document if you can imagine that whole thing," he said. What's more, the language used is not universal despite the myriad idiosyncracies of Spanish among the various cultures, he added. "In light of what we had discussed, our ask at the end of the conversation was we feel there should be a greater sense of urbgency, and perhaps putting together a Latino task force working with Austin Public Health to put together a mitigation plan expanding the bandwidth of what the city is already doing." Austin Latino Coalition call to action The verdict: "It didn't end well," Saldana said succinctly in noting the lack of a commitment from city officials for the ambitious outreach plan. "We were not asking for special treatment or preferential treatment," he said. "It was all based on their own data." Saldana said he also felt a sense some city officials were jealously guarding their own agendas and may have felt their turf being infiltrated by the group of advocates. "Politics and egos and personal agendas have taken precedence over developing a plan to address disproportionate rates among Hispanics," he said. "They're the ones who are dying or in the hospital. We have wasted so much valuable time, and we feel our concerns have been minimized and marginalized." As Austin Public Health officials unveiled their plan to add testing sites, Saldana issued something of a call to action from his group in the aftermath of the tense meeting with city officials. He sent Patch a copy of the statistics-laden missive titled Our Message to the Austin City Council. "Our Latino community DESERVES better!" officials wrote. "As we enter week 15 of COVID-19, Latinos in Austin continue to be disproportionately impacted by this pandemic." They broke down the numbers: Latinos represent 66 percent of all COVID-19 hospitalizations; Latinos represent 55 percent of all COVID-19 cases; Latinos represent 38 percent of all COVID-19 deaths; Latinos positivity testing rate for COVID-19 is 24.55 percent or 3.5 times greater than the average positivity rate of 7 percent for non-Latinos. "Among the concerns expressed by our Austin Latino Coalition and community is that very little to no public information, communications, public education, news briefings, prevention and outreach has been bilingual and culturally sensitive. We applaud our Latino Community partners in Spanish media like Univision 62 for joining our efforts to reiterate these concerns." Meanwhile, the rate of illness among Hipanics in Austin continues to grow. According to the latest data on the Austin Public Health dashboard, Hispanics represent 56 percent of all recorded cases. The Hispanic population in Austin is just under 49 percent. This article originally appeared on the Austin Patch A large law enforcement response is seen near the White House after a protest was dispersed in downtown Washington on June 1, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) White House to Establish Central Command Center for Response to Riots The White House will establish a central command center to oversee the federal response to riots that have flared nationwide alongside peaceful protests over the death of George Floyd, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany announced on June 1. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Attorney General William Barr, and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will be involved, McEnany told reporters on June 1, without elaborating. There will be additional federal assets deployed across the nation, McEnany said. There will be a central command center in conjunction with the state and local governments. That will include General Milley, Secretary Esper, and AG Barr. But I wont go any further in announcing what actions, she added. The announcement came as President Donald Trump said hes deploying military personnel along with other federal assets to stop violent riots in Washington. Police begin to clear demonstrators gathered as they protest the death of George Floyd near the White House in Washington on June 1, 2020. (Alex Brandon/AP) As we speak, I am dispatching thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel, and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting, looting, vandalizing, assaults, and wanton destruction of property, Trump announced during a press conference on June 1. Trump called the violence in the nations capital on May 31 a disgrace. We must never give in to anger or hatred. If malice or violence reigns, then none of us is free, he said. The president also said that he strongly recommended that governors deploy the National Guard in their states. Mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled, he said. If a city or a state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them. Lawmakers have publicly condemned the widespread rioting, violence, and looting that has marred the otherwise peaceful protests over the death of the 46-year-old Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. Rioters destroy a car near the White House in Washington in Washington on May 31, 2020. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo) According to a tally compiled by The Associated Press, at least 4,400 people have been arrested across the United States and several people have died in days of protests. Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis police officer, was charged on May 29 with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyds death. Chauvin and three other officers involved in Floyds arrest were fired. A widely circulated video showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyds neck while Floyd told officers, I cant breathe, before he eventually became unresponsive. According to a Minneapolis Fire Department report (pdf), Floyd was unresponsive and pulseless when being transported in an ambulance by paramedics to the hospital. According to Floyds family, the results of an independent autopsy they commissioned said that sustained pressure on the right side of Floyds carotid artery impeded blood flow to the brain, and weight on his back impeded his ability to breathe. The criminal complaint against Chauvin cited a preliminary autopsy report showing that there were no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation. Allen Zhong contributed to this report. Reach key decision makers with sales-ready leads that shorten your sales process. Move the needle by delivering funnel qualified leads to your sales team. Learn more The United States Business Association of E-Commerce is poised to open for business on June 9. Its mission is to help small and mid-sized enterprises, as well as minority- and veteran-owned startups, to bridge the e-commerce digital divide. The B2B marketplace platform will connect small and medium-sized firms to domestic and global buyers. USBAEC founder Tayde Aburto expects to have at least 70 companies signed on and 17-20 exporters from Mexico on board for the official launch next week. Based in San Diego, the USBAEC bills itself as a disruptive business ecosystem of buyers, partners and suppliers. The association is committed to providing access to business resources and services to help businesses thrive in the digital economy and compete more effectively in domestic and global markets, according to Aburto. Business associations are currently disconnected, limiting business opportunities and access to resources for their members. We will connect them under one businessecosystem, he told the E-Commerce Times. Viable Opportunity for Success Many e-commerce sites and small businesses today struggle to compete, with a poor Internet presence and lack of knowledge about how to apply best practices, noted Osiris Parikh, sales marketing manager at Lilius. The nascent effort of USBAEC is very intriguing, he told the E-Commerce Times. Many established business associations have similar missions, but USBAEC stands apart due to its focus on e-commerce, as well as through its platform to connect different businesses with each other and provide a range of resources that initially will be free, Parikh said. I think there is some viability to USBAEC, but they will have to prove to business owners that the effectiveness and user base of the platform are worth their time, he cautioned. Whos Involved For its membership campaign, the USBAEC is targeting SMEs especially businesses that are Hispanic-, Black-, LGBT-, Asian-, Women- and Veteran-owned. The new group also is appealing to business owners located in rural areas. Membership is open to certified minority suppliers, business associations, and exporters/importers. A D V E R T I S E M E N T That potential membership base represents a large portion of struggling businesses in the U.S., Aburto noted. There are 11 million minority-owned businesses within U.S. borders: 4.6 million Hispanic-owned businesses employ 4.2 million people; 2.6 million Black-owned businesses employ 920,000 people; 1.9 million Asian-owned businesses employ 3.6 million people; 2.5 million veteran-owned businesses employ 5 million people; and 13 million women-owned businesses employ 9.4 million people. There are 1.4 million LGBT-owned businesses contributing US$1.5 billion to the U.S. economy. Another 1.1 million small businesses and 2.1 million farms round out the impact of the target membership marketplace. A large swath of business already exists across the U.S. border into Mexico, which is central to the associations marketing platform. U.S. goods and services trade with Mexico totaled an estimated $671 billion in 2018, Aburto pointed out. The top export market for 27 states in the U.S. is Mexico. Mexico was the United States second largest supplier of imported goods in 2018. What Members Get USBAEC membership benefits include business networking, access to marketing apps and e-commerce apps, as well as various business apps for payroll, electronic invoicing and accounting. Members get access to business resources for growth and development, including business training, mentoring, access to capital markets, and lobbying. They also get access to suppliers. Members can take advantage of API integrations with online tools provided by third-party vendors to help businesses thrive. Cost of membership: Small business $19.97/month Mid-sized business $24.97/month Enterprise $49.97/month Key Goals The hoped-for disruptive business ecosystem of buyers, partners and suppliers will focus on helping SMEs grow and compete more effectively in domestic and global markets. A D V E R T I S E M E N T Goals include the creation of jobs and other economic opportunities; investment in digital skills training for small businesses; and greater visibility for underrepresented entrepreneurs. The new association will provide outlets for members to invest in trade and export education for small businesses. The training will make it easier for SMEs, regardless of geographic location, to use technology to run their businesses and to leverage economies of scale. The digital platform will provide business apps to help SMEs promote their products and services. The online tools will be provided by third-party vendors and will be available on any device with access to the Internet. Mobile apps are available on Google Play and the App Store. Future amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act could put a stop to what some have called the militarization of police forces and bar leaders from turning to troops to respond to peaceful protests. Senators from both major political parties are eyeing the 2021 defense policy bill to effect change as unrest continues across the country in the wake of George Floyd's death. Protesters have flooded major cities in recent days after Floyd, a black man, died in police custody last month. Read Next: Here's What You Need to Know About The Pentagon's Riot Response and Martial Law Police units and thousands of National Guard members have been called on to respond to sometimes-violent protests and looting in several cities. President Donald Trump is also considering sending active-duty forces to some states after blasting some governors as "weak" in their response. But not all lawmakers are happy with how the response is playing out as armored vehicles and troops and cops in riot gear line city streets. Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Tuesday he'll introduce an amendment into the NDAA that would block Defense Department funding from being used for force against U.S. citizens who are exercising their First Amendment rights. Kaine said his committee is scheduled to debate the NDAA, which determines how the Pentagon spends its money, next week. "I never thought we would have to use the National Defense Authorization Act to make clear that the U.S. military shouldn't be used as an agent of force against American citizens," he said. "... We need to put guardrails in place, now." Peaceful protesters were pushed out of a park near the White House on Monday after Attorney General William Barr ordered law enforcement personnel to clear the area as Trump prepared to walk to a nearby church. Flash-bang explosives and pepper balls were used. Defense officials said Tuesday that Guard members did not carry or employ any nonlethal weapons. Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate also say they want to stop the military from transferring surplus equipment to police departments. That's a debate that has raged for years, particularly after the 2001 terror attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., when police departments bulked up to meet new threats. Rep. Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat and Marine veteran who served in Iraq, said Monday that "our neighborhoods aren't war zones." "I will push for the House to restrict the program that provides military gear to police departments," Gallego said. "... Militarized police make communities less safe by growing the divide between officers and citizens they are sworn to protect." In the Senate, Brian Schatz, a Hawaii Democrat, said he'll introduce an amendment to the NDAA to discontinue the program that transfers military weapons to local police departments, which is known as 1033. "It is clear that many police departments are being outfitted as if they are going to war, and it is not working in terms of maintaining the peace," Schatz told The New York Times. "... It's time to recalibrate this program. Just because the Department of Defense has excess weaponry doesn't mean it will be put to good use." Doug Stafford, chief strategist for Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, tweeted his support for Schatz's plan. "We've been doing this one [for] years," he said. "Happy to help." Editors note: This story was updated to reflect the U.S. Park Police statement about actions taken against some protestors. -- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @ginaaharkins. Related: Active-Duty Troops Remain Outside DC as Guard Force Grows Council President Chris Jerram, who cast the only no vote, echoed the voices of many people who attended the meeting and opposed giving Stothert another week of emergency powers. He outlined concerns about limiting peoples basic freedoms. The people who started our country listed the First Amendment No. 1 for a reason, and in a democratic society, if we dont cherish that right and defend it above all others, then we risk the deterioration of other rights, Jerram said. And the right to peacefully assemble and seek redress from your government is so important. The Omaha City Charter grants the mayor the power to declare a state of emergency for up to 72 hours if the city is in imminent danger of suffering civil disturbance, disorder, riot or other occurrence which will seriously and substantially endanger the health, safety and property of the citizens. Such a declaration includes the ability to set a curfew. Extending an emergency declaration beyond 72 hours requires council approval. Discussion on the extension drew several opponents, who said they thought the order was a violation of their rights and an attempt to suppress the voices of minority groups. A young man who "practically strangled" a shop worker in an alleged robbery was suffering from "rampant paranoia" and believed assassins were coming to hurt him, a court has heard. Jonathan Murtagh (25) is accused of assaulting the staff member while stealing a bottle of rum, but his defence said he grabbed the bottle to protect himself because he thought he was being followed. Mr Murtagh had been given a Garda Information Message - or 'GIM' notice - that he was under threat because of a family member at the time of the incident, his defence said. He is the brother of Keith Murtagh - a senior member of the Hutch gang, who survived several attempts on his life linked to the Hutch-Kinahan feud. Keith Murtagh was jailed last November for 12 years for his role in the armed robbery of a Dublin post office. Judge Patricia McNamara refused to grant Jonathan Murtagh bail and remanded him in custody when he appeared in Dublin District Court. Mr Murtagh, of Mariner's Port, Sheriff Street, is charged with robbery and assault at Spar, Five Lamps, on May 20. Objecting to bail, the prosecuting garda cited the nature and strength of the evidence. He said there was "compelling" evidence against Mr Murtagh and "excellent quality CCTV" footage. He said it was alleged the accused entered the shop and made his way to the till, where he climbed over the counter and Covid-19 barrier and entered the staff area. It was alleged he grabbed a bottle of Captain Morgan rum from a display and when he was confronted by a staff member, he put his arm around the man's neck in a choking manoeuvre. The store manager called 999 and when gardai arrived, the accused was still at the scene. It was further alleged Mr Murtagh was violent after his arrest, stripped naked in his cell in a garda station and urinated. The garda said Mr Murtagh had been caught red-handed and lived close to the shop. Gardai believed if granted bail, he could return to the shop and put staff in fear. Mr Murtagh had been given a a GIM notice because of a family member and was suffering from "rampant paranoia", his solicitor said. He came to believe someone was following him, ran into the shop and grabbed a bottle to protect himself, she said. He had asked staff to ring gardai and stayed in the shop because he "believed there were assassins outside who were going to hurt him", his solicitor added. "He thought the gardai weren't really gardai, he thought they were people dressed up in garda uniforms." Poisoned When he got to the garda station, he believed they had poisoned his food. The accused's family were very concerned about his mental health, his solicitor said. The prosecuting garda agreed that it was stated that Mr Murtagh had "asked the staff to call the cops". "It's an extremely unusual situation where an alleged robber would invite the person who he is alleged to be robbing to call the police," the solicitor said. The garda said: "It could also show how out of control he was." The judge said the allegation was the accused "practically strangled" the shop worker. She refused bail and remanded the accused in custody to appear in court again on a later date. India had last week said it remained firm in its resolve on the borders to ensure its security and national sovereignty New Delhi: Russia on Monday finally broke its silence, saying it was worried over the ongoing Sino-Indian military face-off in the Ladakh sector but expressed confidence the two Asian giants would peacefully resolve the problem. Russian Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) in Delhi Roman Babushkin told a TV channel, Of course, we are worried with the current situation at the Line of Actual Control (LAC). However, as we know, there are dedicated specific mechanisms developed by both countries (India and China) including hotlines and special representatives dialogue and even informal summits. We are confident that the India and Chinese friends are duly equipped to find a way out for mutual satisfaction. We would encourage every endeavour in this regard. It may be recalled that Russia has been a time-tested friend of India and a key defence supplier for several decades both as a separate nation from 1991-92 onwards and also in its earlier avatar as the Soviet Union and continues to be a key strategic partner. In recent years however, it has been somewhat miffed over Indias growing strategic proximity to the United States. However, the Indian Government has made every effort to maintain strong ties with Russia and Moscow remains a close friend. Russia is also a permanent member of the UN Security Council along with China and also has close ties with Beijing. India had last week said it remained firm in its resolve on the borders to ensure its security and national sovereignty but had added that it is engaged with the Chinese side both at the diplomatic and military level to peacefully resolve the border issue. India had last month accused the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) of blocking Indian Army patrols on the Indian side of the LAC which is the de-facto Sino-Indian border. New Delhi had also said that occasionally such incidents do occur as both sides do not have a common perception of the LAC. This comes in the backdrop of two separate incidents last month in the Sikkim and Ladakh sectors when Indian and Chinese soldiers had punched each other, resulting in injuries to troops on both sides. The incident in north Sikkim had taken place on May 9 while that in eastern Ladakh had taken place on the intervening night of May 5-6. In both incidents, aggressive Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) patrols were stopped by Indian troops inside Indian territory that China claims as its own. Most of the victims are in El Salvador, where heavy rains led to deaths of 15 people and disappearance of seven others. Tropical Storm Amanda has killed at least 20 people in Central America, most of whom in El Salvador, as it swept across several countries causing floods and landslides. In El Salvador, officials said some 7,000 people have taken refuge in 154 shelters as torrential rain and strong winds destroyed hundreds of homes and damaged roads. We have 15 people dead and seven missing, El Salvador Interior Minister Mario Duran told reporters on Monday, adding that rescue efforts were under way. Carolina Recinos, a senior aide to President Nayib Bukele, said the storm had dumped the equivalent of almost 10 percent of the annual rainfall on the country in a relatively short space of time. Bukele declared a 15-day state of emergency to cope with the effects of Amanda, which he estimated to have caused $200m in damage. 200531091844325 On Sunday, officials said the storm had destroyed at least 900 homes. Weve never experienced this, Maria Torres, whose house was damaged, told The Associated Press news agency. The rain was so strong and suddenly, the water entered the homes, and we just saw how they fell. The storm came as the country of some 6.6 million people is grappling with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. To date, El Salvador has reported 2,582 confirmed infections and 46 related deaths. We are experiencing an unprecedented situation: one top-level emergency on top of another serious one, said San Salvador Mayor Ernesto Muyshondt. The Legislative Assembly approved the governments use of a $389m loan from the International Monetary Fund to deal with the pandemic and the storms impact. The storm has come to show how vulnerable this country is, as well as the lack of investment in infrastructure, Duran said. In neighbouring Guatemala, officials reported the deaths of two people due to the storm, including a boy of nine. The rains also killed at least three people in Honduras, including a brother and sister swept into a river in a car, according to local authorities, which reported landslides and flooding in several parts of the country. 1. Yes. Too many kids are staying home. They need a virtual learning option to keep up. 2. Yes. Teachers are out sick and subs cant handle the load. Online learning is needed. 3. No. Its too late in the school year to make a wholesale switch in teaching platforms. 4.No. Many parents arent in a position to stay home while their kids learn virtually. 5. Unsure. It may seem like a good idea from a health standpoint, but it has shortcomings. Vote View Results The CBIC said late fee is imposed to ensure that the taxpayers file return in time and pay taxes on the amount collected from buyers and due to the government. New Delhi: The GST Council in its next meeting will discuss waiver of late fee for non-filing of GST returns for August 2017 to January 2020 period. In a tweet, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) said, "Issue of GST late fee for the past period (August 2017 to January 2020) to be discussed in the next GST Council meeting." Press Note - Issue of GST late fee for the past period (August 2017 to January 2020) to be discussed in the next GST Council meeting. pic.twitter.com/biUZLyDkIv CBIC (@cbic_india) June 1, 2020 The next meeting of the GST Council is likely to be held on 14 June. The CBIC said there have been demands for waiver of late fee for returns which were required to be filed from the beginning of Goods and Services Tax (GST), that is August 2017. For helping small businesses, having turnover of less than Rs 5 crore, in the current situation arising out of COVID-19, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had already announced extension of GST returns of February, March, April and May 2020 till June 2020. No late fee will be charged for this period, it said. The CBIC said late fee is imposed to ensure that the taxpayers file return in time and pay taxes on the amount collected from buyers and due to the government. This is a step to ensure that a certain discipline is maintained regarding compliance. Honest and compliant taxpayers would be discriminated negatively in the absence of such a provision, it added. "In GST all decisions are taken by the Centre and the state with the approval of the GST Council. It would not be possible or desirable for the Central government to unilaterally take a view on this issue and therefore, the trade is informed that the issue of late fee would be taken up for discussion in the next GST Council meeting," it said. Homeless charity, Focus Ireland has been ordered to pay a 68-year-old mediator 22,000 for unlawfully retiring him at the age of 66. At the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), Adjudication Officer, Kevin Baneham found that Focus Ireland discriminated against Joseph McGrath because of his age in not allowing him to continue beyond June 20, 2018 after he turned 66 earlier in 2018. Mr Baneham found that Mr McGraths role with Focus Ireland "was ended through unlawful and less favourable treatment because of his age". Mr McGrath stated that he had been recruited by Focus Ireland in 2016 to work on a new project involving family mediation to prevent young people entering homelessness. Mr McGrath told the WRC that age should have been a positive and not a negative. He stated that said that he felt humiliated and hurt, in particular as this was a role he had dreamed about. Mr McGrath told the WRC that he had always wanted to work with young people who were on the margins and signed a two-year fixed term contract for the role. Prior to his Focus Ireland role, Mr McGrath worked for a Government Department and previously in the Defence Forces and is in receipt of a pension earned by his service with the Defence Forces. Mr McGrath stated that the project was for five years and its funding from a named philanthropy group was dependent on achieving outcomes. An 'effective process...delivering effective change' In January 2018, Focus Ireland published its second-year report on the project and concluded that the target for the year had been exceeded and "the mediation service has proven itself to be an effective process which is delivering effective change in the lives of young people and families referred to it". Mr McGrath and his colleagues on the project worked with 25 families, who were almost all able to stay in the family home. Mr McGrath stated that in February 2018, Focus Ireland emailed all staff to say that the retirement age had been raised to 66 and Mr McGrath received a phone call that day to acknowledge he would turn 66 on April 23, 2018. Mr McGraths post was then advertised internally as part of an extension to the project and his application was not processed. Mr McGrath stated that he applied again as an external candidate and he was told by Focus Ireland that he would not be considered because of his age. Mr McGrath claimed that what had occurred was a flagrant breach of the Employment Equality Act and Focus Ireland had not advanced any objective justification for the ending of his employment. Mr McGrath agreed that his contract would end at the expiry of the fixed term, but not considering him for the role was an act of discrimination. In his findings, Mr Baneham found that the aims relied on by Focus Ireland relating to fitness and dignity of employees, were legitimate. He stated: I, however, find that the means used to achieve these aims were not appropriate or necessary. It was not necessary to use the blunt indicia of age when fitness could have been readily assessed in other ways. Mr Baneham stated that the project, for example, was evaluated, and the line manager gave Mr McGrath a glowing reference. Mr Baneham stated that while Mr McGrath had reached the revised retirement age, Mr McGrath advanced a strong case to continue for a further two years or for some other fixed term. Mr Baneham stated that Mr McGrath had successfully rolled out the first two years of the project and that a mix of ages was appropriate in addressing the challenges faced by the project. Mr Baneham stated that this possibility was not considered by Focus Ireland and it only looked at the complainants age and this was disproportionate and, therefore, beyond what was necessary. Focus Ireland submitted that Mr McGrath was engaged on a two-year contract and could have no expectation of working beyond the term of the contract. This was why there was no age of retirement stated in his contract of employment. Focus Ireland stated that Mr McGraths employment ended at the end of the fixed-term and not because of his age. At the hearing, Focus Ireland submitted that there was no discrimination in this case and that Mr McGraths application was not processed because he was then above the retirement age of 66. Focus Ireland said that this was justified by Mr McGraths entitlement to pension. New Delhi: Rejecting the claims of Pakistan that two of its High Commission (HC) officials had not carried out any espionage, Indian Government sources on Monday said the two Pakistani officials had been caught red-handed but had not been subjected to any torture as alleged by Pakistan. Sources said the two Pakistan HC officials initially did not disclose that they were officials at the Pakistan High Commission but on questioning, confessed to espionage and that they were Pakistan HC officials. Sources said the two Pakistani officials had also undergone a medical examination and added that Pakistan appeared to be making the false allegation that they had been tortured in order to create grounds for torture of Indian embassy officials in Islamabad. India had on Sunday summoned the Pakistani CdA in Delhi and had issued a demarche in which a strong protest was lodged with regard to the activities of these (two) officials of the High Commission of Pakistan against Indias national security. New Delhi had asked the two concerned Pakistan HC officials to leave the country within a day and had declared them persona non grata. Pakistan has denied the allegations. Speculation is meanwhile rife that Islamabad may take further retaliatory action to expel Indian diplomats. New Delhi appears to be bracing for some retaliation. Late on Monday evening, Indian Government sources said that the assertions of the Pakistan foreign Office were false. "The two (Pakistani) officials were caught red handed while indulging in espionage activities. They did not disclose their identity that they were High Commission officials. When they were taken into custody and questioned, they confessed to indulging in espionage and also informed that they were High Commission officials. The Pakistan High Commission was immediately informed and then handed over. They were never subjected to any torture. They have also undergone medical examination. Pakistan appears to be making false accusations and possibly creating ground for some tit-for-tat reaction and torture of Indian officials in Islamabad. Pakistan had earlier lashed out at India and issued a demarche to it and had summoned the Indian Charge dAffaires (CdA) in Islamabad in a retaliatory move. In a statement, Islamabad said, Indian Charge dAffaires summoned to the Foreign Office for a demarche over declaring two officials of Pakistan High Commission persona non grata. The Indian Charge dAffaires was summoned to the Foreign Office for a strong demarche, conveying Pakistans condemnation of the Indian decision to declare two officials of the High Commission for Pakistan in New Delhi persona non grata ... . In a statement on Sunday, New Delhi had said, Two officials of the High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi were apprehended today by Indian law enforcement authorities for indulging in espionage activities. The Government has declared both these officials persona non grata for indulging in activities incompatible with their status as members of a diplomatic mission and asked them to leave the country within twenty four hours. New Delhi had added, "Pakistans Charge de Affaires was issued a demarche in which a strong protest was lodged with regard to the activities of these officials of the High Commission of Pakistan against Indias national security. Pakistan's CdA was asked to ensure that no member of its diplomatic mission should indulge in activities inimical to India or behave in a manner incompatible with their diplomatic status. LexisNexis Risk Solutions received the Judge's Choice Award from top payments industry news source ATLANTA, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- LexisNexis Risk Solutions is honored to announce that it received the Judge's Choice award for the Best Anti-Fraud Solution (Established) category as part of the Card Not Present 2020 CNP Awards program. Card Not Present is an independent outlet dedicated to providing original news and information for and about companies operating in the card-not-present space. A panel of five card-not-present and payments industry expert judges presented awards in 13 categories and ultimately recognized LexisNexis Risk Solutions for its industry-leading anti-fraud capabilities within its LexisNexis ThreatMetrix solution. To win this award a company must be the provider of a solution with more than three years in the market that "best identifies and prevents fraudulent activity through fraud case management, rules engines or big data analysis while enabling merchants to accept as many transactions as possible." LexisNexis ThreatMetrix is an enterprise solution for global digital identity intelligence and authentication powered by insights from billions of transactions, embedded machine learning and an orchestration and decision platform. LexisNexis Risk Solutions recently added an additional layer of defense to LexisNexis ThreatMetrix with LexisNexis Behavioral Biometrics. Behavioral Biometrics integrates the way a user interacts with their device with information relating to the trustworthiness, integrity and authenticity of that device in order to improve the detection of high-risk scenarios. "Our digital fraud solutions were designed to help customers manage fraud risks in a continually evolving environment," said Kimberly Sutherland, vice president, fraud and identity strategy, LexisNexis Risk Solutions. "Our solutions provide a comprehensive view of physical, digital, device and behavioral intelligence for a complete view of an identity. We are thrilled that Card Not Present recognized our efforts to innovate and create impactful solutions for our customers." LexisNexis Risk Solutions recently co-hosted a webinar with Card Not Present as part of Card Not Present's Virtual Summit Series. The series includes presenters from LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Emailage, a global email intelligence leader acquired by LexisNexis Risk Solutions in March 2020. The discussion focused on effective fraud prevention during the current global crisis. Access a rebroadcast of the webinar here. About LexisNexis Risk Solutions LexisNexis Risk Solutions harnesses the power of data and advanced analytics to provide insights that help businesses and governmental entities reduce risk and improve decisions to benefit people around the globe. We provide data and technology solutions for a wide range of industries including insurance, financial services, healthcare and government. Headquartered in metro Atlanta, Georgia, we have offices throughout the world and are part of RELX (LSE: REL/NYSE: RELX), a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers across industries. For more information, please visit www.risk.lexisnexis.com and www.relx.com. Media Contact: Marcy Theobald 678.694.6681 Marcy.Theobald@lexisnexisrisk.com Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/494562/LexisNexis_Risk_Solutions_Logo.jpg Developed countries have traditionally regarded Southeast Asia as a beneficiary of, not a contributor to, the international system because of the region's poor economic resilience and scarce material capabilities. Naturally, then, skeptics deem the region a lame duck in the global battle against COVID-19. The region is ready to prove them wrong. Southeast Asia hosts two of the world's largest vaccine producers -- Indonesia and Thailand. Thailand is the region's leading candidate in the vaccine race: last month, it declared that its vaccine prototype had successfully produced antibodies in mice. The prototype will soon undergo human trials to see if a viable vaccine can be produced. Thailand began vaccine development in 1953, producing the BCG vaccine, used to prevent tuberculosis, for local consumption. In last year's Global Health Security Index, Thailand emerged as the best prepared Asian country for preventing, detecting and responding to epidemics, coming sixth in the world. In fact, Thai hospitals were among the first to treat COVID-19 patients using anti-HIV drugs, a strategy now under wider trial. Closely trailing Thailand is the region's most populous nation, Indonesia. In early May, its Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology completed three genome sequences of the coronavirus strain, which can speed up contact tracing. State-owned vaccine manufacturer Bio Farma has invited the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation and a Chinese biopharmaceutical company to collaborate on this project. A doctor and nurses take care of a COVID-19 patient at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital in Bangkok on Apr. 22. Reuters A doctor and nurses take care of a COVID-19 patient at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital in Bangkok on Apr. 22. Reuters Bio Farma is the largest vaccine manufacturer in Southeast Asia, capable of producing two billion doses annually, and in 2016 it exported two-thirds of the world's polio vaccines. Suppose Indonesia's COVID-19 initiative materializes: Bio Farma alone can cater for the entire region's vaccine demand. Vietnam is another Southeast Asian country with remarkable vaccine self-sufficiency. The country had eradicated polio by 2000 and tetanus by 2005 through mass vaccination. In 2013, Vietnam's state-owned vaccine manufacturer mass-produced vaccines in just six months, using Japan-developed techniques, to contain a measles outbreak in the country, and three years later it became the fourth Asian country to manufacture a measles-rubella combined vaccine. With the MR vaccine, Vietnam was able to locally produce 11 out the 12 vaccines required for its Expanded Program for Immunization in 2017. Vietnam's quick response to contain the spread of COVID-19, leaving it so far with no deaths, has won praise from the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. It is designing a human trial to test the efficacy of the BCG vaccine in preventing COVID-19 infections. The ambitions of these countries to locally produce COVID-19 vaccines is natural, given their past exploitation by richer countries. Pharmaceutical companies in developed countries often acquire free viral samples which have been shared by poorer countries with the World Health Organization for free. These companies then produce, patent and profit from the resulting vaccines without sharing the benefits with the donor country. In 2007, this led the Indonesian government to lock horns with an Australian company which had produced a bird flu vaccine using the Indonesian strain of H5N1. Indonesia even temporarily stopped sharing viral samples with the WHO. Despite a resolution from the World Health Assembly, the WHO's governing body, richer countries have refused to hold up their end of the bargain. In 2009, they hoarded H1N1 vaccines, depriving poorer nations of equitable access to the cure. Southeast Asian countries realize that they must become self-reliant in vaccine production to survive. These countries have not abandoned multilateral commitments altogether. Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines are participating in the WHO's Solidarity Trial, a worldwide trial of four potential COVID-19 treatments. Malaysia has offered to become a research hub for other countries to conduct clinical trials on their vaccine candidates. Richer countries ensure that collaborations with foreign companies serve their national interests. For example, Singapore's partnership with an American company to develop a COVID-19 vaccine guarantees its right to use the vaccine, while allowing the company to profit by marketing the vaccine worldwide. However, the region's least developed countries such as Cambodia and Laos remain excluded from these developments. Some segments of their populations are vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases. For example, last year a sudden outbreak of H1N1 struck the indigenous hill tribes living in the northern provinces of Laos. Thailand stepped in by swiftly sending anti-influenza drugs to Laos. In the present pandemic, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam have a moral obligation to assist their less privileged counterparts. For instance, they can involve Cambodia and Laos in clinical trials for their vaccine candidates. More importantly, they must guide Cambodia and Laos to devise a feasible strategy prioritizing high-risk groups, like the Laotian hill tribes, for vaccination. A vaccine strategy is crucial because it is not the vaccine by itself that saves lives, rather the vaccination process. No state stands alone in this battle. Southeast Asia's challenge is not just to come up with a vaccine -- but to ensure the whole region benefits from it. Nikkei Protests have erupted in cities around the world in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the United States. The protests follow the death in Minnesota of George Floyd, a 46-year old black man, last week in police custody. In central London, demonstrations turned violent Sunday as police tried to clear a road junction outside Parliament. Police made 23 arrests. Protesters accused the police of triggering the violence, an accusation that authorities denied. "We came out here peacefully to protest the injustice in the U.K.," one demonstrator told reporters. "It's now a global issue with the murder of George Floyd, everything that's going on in the world." Hundreds of people also gathered in central London's Trafalgar Square chanting, "George Floyd, Say His Name." Demonstrators also chanted, "I Can't Breathe" as they marched on the U.S. Embassy -- the words spoken by Floyd as Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes as Floyd lay handcuffed and prone on the ground after he was arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit bank note. He was pronounced dead later that day. Chauvin was arrested Friday and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Protests were held throughout the city over the death of George Floyd, a black man in police custody in Minneapolis who died after being restrained by police officers on Memorial Day. AP Photo/Wong Maye-E A woman's impassioned speech to protestors in New York City went viral after destruction during the protests. The woman, who has not been formally identified, pleads with a crowd of people to stop destroying neighborhoods, facilities, and resources that many desperately rely on. "You took down bus routes. There are people who live in this neighborhood who have to go back uptown to work, and you are here profiting off of our f------ pain," she said. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. A New York City woman urged protestors to stop the destruction and looting during protests over George Floyd's death, in a powerful video the went viral on social media. "These are f------ people who live in public housing and you just made a f------ melee," the woman said. "You took down bus routes. There are people who live in this neighborhood who have to go back uptown to work, and you are here profiting off of our f------ pain." In her impassioned speech, the woman addresses the destruction that has happened amid protests demanding justice for George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis last week, after a police officer knelt on his neck. "You think about what it's like to be a black woman in this f------ neighborhood who lives with people in public housing who now has f------ sh-- to walk through," she said. She urged demonstrators to be respectful as they protest and conscious of the people whose property they're destroying or whose lives will be made harder by the destruction. "So as you're out here, be f------ responsible. Have a f------ plan. You can protest all you want but the sh-- I just saw take place. I know there are people out here, homeless people who f------ rely on those banks to charge their phones," she said. "And you think it's okay to take down a neighborhood. You don't see corporations here. There are human beings that live in this goddamn neighborhood." Story continues The video was taken by Dan Ladue who told Insider, he was returning from a protest on Saturday and heard the woman's speech as he was taking videos of destruction on his route. LaDue said he's not sure how long the woman was speaking before he began filming but was captivated by her message. LaDue said he regrets not asking for the woman's name and information, but felt compelled to share her message. "I filmed the wreckage walking down the street and at one point I'm on the right side of the street and I hear someone over on the left side, and it's just this woman yelling extremely passionately," he said. "It was the first person I heard yelling of 'why the f--- are you doing this?' like the first person who was seemingly some sort of voice of reason of why are you doing this in this neighborhood?" He said he added pictures of what he saw to the video for context. LaDue described turning down 2nd Avenue and seeing "carnage." In the video, the unnamed woman encouraged protestors to think about other ways to get change. "I gave my f------ sweat, blood, and tears for this country. I served this country for ten goddamn years so when you think about this anger and this f------ rage cause there's a way to get answers, every single last one of you better be f------ registered to vote," she said. Read the original article on Insider FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Fort Lauderdale police suspended an officer after video showed he pushed a kneeling black woman to the ground during protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota, escalating a clash where bottles were thrown and tear gas was fired. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/6/2020 (598 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A line of City of Miami police officers block a ramp for Interstate 95 as protesters march against the death of George Floyd, Sunday, May 31, 2020, in Miami. Floyd died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee) FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Fort Lauderdale police suspended an officer after video showed he pushed a kneeling black woman to the ground during protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota, escalating a clash where bottles were thrown and tear gas was fired. Also in Fort Lauderdale, the state attorney's office fired a prosecutor Monday for calling demonstrators "animals" at the zoo in a quickly deleted Facebook post. In the officer's case, colleagues quickly pushed him away from the woman and down the street Sunday. Police and city officials said it happened as a peaceful demonstration attended by about 1,000 people was dispersing, and smaller groups broke some store windows and sprayed graffiti. Police Chief Rick Maglione did not defend the actions of Officer Steven Pohorence, but said Monday that Pohorence pushed the woman after he and other officers had just rescued one colleague who had become surrounded and another from a patrol car that people began jumping on. Maglione said Pohorence's actions will be investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement before an internal investigation is conducted. A group of peaceful protesters gather at Curtis Hixon Park to demand justice for victims of police brutality, Sunday, May 31, 2020, in downtown Tampa, Fla. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP) Maglione said he understands why some believe the shove provoked the crowd to throw bottles, but he said there were people in the crowd with bricks, bottles, fireworks and other weapons who were hoping to start a fight with officers. "I don't think (Pohorence's) action created what occurred," the chief said. But he said Pohorence's actions "could have added to what was going on," and he commended Officer Krystle Smith who pushed Pohorence away from the woman. "She did what you are supposed to do: When you see either adrenaline or emotion or some kind of interaction going south ... that is our job to do, is intervene," he said. Police declined to make Smith available for an interview Monday. Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said he felt the Pohorences actions were "offensive," and hes happy the department has suspended him. Demonstrator Samantha Sweeting Davis said she didn't see the shove, but heard yelling, then saw about six police cars arrive with sirens on. Then she saw bottles being thrown at officers, heard an explosion, and tear gas burned her eyes and throat. It was upsetting to see that kind of behaviour from an officer who is supposed to "protect and serve," the 29-year-old high school counsellor from Fort Lauderdale said. "Suspension is a great first step, but honestly I want to see the officer de-badged." Two workers inspect the damage to a sporting goods store, Monday, June 1, 2020, in Tampa, Fla., after the establishment was looted and burned by protesters during a demonstration Saturday night. Several counties across Florida issued curfews to curb large crowds gathering to protest the killings of black people by police. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara) The Fort Lauderdale Fraternal Order of Police, the union that represents the city's officers, declined comment Monday. Meanwhile, the State Attorney's Office in Broward County, fired prosecutor Amy Bloom for writing on Facebook: "Act civilized and maybe things will change. Ive never seen such animals except at the zoo." She said her description applied to protesters regardless of race. The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported Bloom quickly deleted the post, but someone copied it and it eventually reached her bosses. The State Attorney's Office confirmed the firing in a statement, saying her views are "entirely inconsistent" with its "ideals and principles." Bloom said Monday on Facebook that she realized the post could be misinterpreted, deleted it within seconds and that "I believe in justice for all and that ALL lives matter." A curfew remains in effect in Broward County. Elsewhere in Florida, mostly peaceful protests were held over the weekend, but some Miami police cars were burned and storefronts damaged. That led Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez to postpone Monday's reopening of the county's beaches after a coronavirus shutdown. Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Monday that 700 national guard troops and 1,300 Florida Highway Patrol troopers are being deployed to help local law enforcement. "Florida has zero tolerance for violence, rioting and looting. George Floyds murder was appalling, and the Minnesota perpetrators need to be brought to justice, but this cannot be used as a pretext for violence in our Florida communities," DeSantis said in a statement to media and on Twitter. In Orlando, Police Chief Orlando Rolon said Monday that officers had to fire tear gas Sunday night after some demonstrators started throwing objects found at a highway construction site. He said his officers made 30 arrests Sunday night, including some who broke into stores. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. At one point during Sundays protests, Rolon and Orange County Sheriff John Mina knelt in solidarity with protesters outside the Orlando Police Department. In Tampa on Monday, six members of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity prayed outside two businesses, Saigon Vietnamese Restaurant and Champs Sports, that were destroyed by arson on Saturday. Pastor James Gallon said the people who were destructive were from elsewhere. "Then they leave and drive away on the interstate," he said. ___ Associated Press reporters Adriana Gomez Licon in Miami; Freida Frisaro Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Mike Schneider in Orlando, Florida; Tamara Lush in Tampa, Florida; and Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee contributed to this report. International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife: A Celebration and Commemoration of Indispensable Defence Team Members June 1, 2020 Defence Stories Caption Captain Isabelle Dube, Nursing Officer with 41 Canadian Forces Health Services Centre, and Mater Corporal Isabelle Brochu, Medical Assistant with 51 Field Ambulance, clean the medical equipment for the tracheotomy of a resident at Ste. Annes Hospital in Montreal, Quebec, as part of Operation LASER on May 15, 2020. Photo: Corporal (Cpl) Genevieve Beaulieu, Imagery Technician, Valcartier Imagery Section The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated this year as International Year of the Nurse and Midwife (You are now leaving the Government of Canada website). It is an especially fitting tribute, given the challenges currently faced by Canadian Forces Health Services Group, and particularly its nursing community during the pandemic. This international commemoration is meant to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing. More importantly, this commemoration hopes to raise the profile of nurses and midwives globally in an effort to achieve universal health coverage for the world's population by 2030. This is an important global undertaking as nurses are often the first, and in some instances, the only health professionals people may have access to in some countries. Nurses are indispensable members of the healthcare team. They make up one of our largest health care professions in the department with over 295 civilian and 363 military nurses employed across the country. Department of National Defence nurses have diverse clinical expertise which ensures quality care is delivered to our Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members. They have specialized education and training in community health, primary care, advanced practice nursing (Nursing Practitioners), case management, home care, medical-surgical, perioperative care, emergency and intensive care, mental health, and aeromedical evacuation. Caption Captain Myriam Moreau, nurse with 25 Canadian Forces Health Services Centre (Bagotville) works at the Auclair residential and long-term care centre in Montreal, Quebec during Operation LASER on May 9, 2020. Photo credit: Corporal (Cpl) Genevieve Beaulieu, Imagery Technician, Valcartier Imaging Section Since the COVID-19 initial breakout, CAF Nursing Officers have been deployed to China, Japan and the United States to support repatriation efforts of our own Canadian citizens during the ongoing pandemic. Recently, they have answered the call to care for Canadian elderly in Long-term Care Facilities in Ontario and Quebec. At this time, approximately 70 military nurses are deployed under Operation LASER. Like all nurses, their unwavering commitment during this unprecedented time is fully recognized and most appreciated. In celebration of the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife (link accessible only on the National Defence network), we encourage you to celebrate and thank all in the nursing profession, as well as all of our health services professions, who are working tirelessly to make a difference during these challenging times. Related Links: Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 2) Despite the easing of quarantine measures across the country, the government is not ready to allow more than ten people to gather in places of worship under general community quarantine. "Sa ngayon po, hindi pa po papayagan ang mass gathering for religious purposes (For now, mass gathering for religious purposes is still not allowed)," Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque announced in an online media briefing on Tuesday. Only ten people are allowed in religious gatherings in areas under GCQ: Metro Manila, Pangasinan, Zamboanga City, Davao City and several cities and provinces in Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, and Central Visayas. Meanwhile, a more relaxed modified GCQ is in place in the rest of the country. It remains unclear whether more people can gather in churches under MGCQ. Roque said there are no new guidelines yet for religious activities in places under MGCQ, so the 10-people limit would be in effect. However, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra in an earlier statement said churches have been allowed to reopen at 50 percent capacity in areas under MGCQ starting June 1. He said this was agreed upon following a meeting of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, the policy-making body in the government's COVID-19 response, with representatives from the church and local government units on Monday. On April 30, Roque announced that the government would allow church activities and essential work-related meetings in cities and provinces with low- to moderate-risk of COVID-19 spread. Roque took back this announcement the next day, saying local officials protested the government's initial decision. Guevarra said the Department of Health will submit new data on June 10, "which will be the basis for possible reclassification of community quarantine regimes by June 15." Both Roque and Guevarra said restrictions may be eased if new information would point to an improvement in the coronavirus situation in the country. There are now 18,638 COVID-19 cases in the Philippines, with 960 deaths and 3,979 recoveries. P olice have been filmed trying to arrest shop keepers instead of the people looting their stores during protests in the US. Fox 11 live footage shows Los Angeles police handcuffing three African American people who were trying to protect the store from looters, while those responsible flee the scene. The video of the incident has sparked outrage on social media. A tweet of the footage has been liked more than 136,000 times and has received more than 76,000 retweets. Rioters were filmed approaching a gold store on Monday evening in Van Nuys while shop keepers came out to defend their store. The looters fled the scene as several armed police officers arrived. LAPD officers instead handcuffed three people who had been defending the store. Fox 11 reporter Christina Gonzalez is shown in the footage telling the police they are arresting the wrong people. No theyre fine, theyre good, she says. Theyre the store owners. They were protecting [from] the looters, sir. Theyre protecting the store, the looters are over there. An officer tells Ms Gonzalez to relax, and another says: Will you stand down for a sec please? Youre losing your looters, she responds. An officer asks her to point, and she does. Were putting those in handcuffs right now. A voice off-camera tells the officers that the people being handcuffed had been helping protecting this building. The three handcuffed people were eventually released by the police. LAPD officers were then shown on camera taking an African-American woman out of a car, as a voice off-camera says that she has just come to pick up one of the arrested people. Shes not involved, she just stopped to look, the person says. I think she is with these people, and she came over to get her mom, because she saw it on TV. Demonstrations in America began last week following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota after a police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes. The protests have since spread across the country and worldwide, with some people rioting and looting stores. Police officers in several states have been accused of violence against protesters, the media, and bystanders. Los Angeles has been under a 6pm to 6am curfew due to the protests. - Northern Ireland based company uses multi award winning platform to develop and launch new online platform, OBBI Lite which specifically helps employees get back to work safely and effectively - Business leaders already hailing OBBI Lite as 'comprehensive and extremely useful' BELFAST, Northern Ireland, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- OBBI Solutions, an multi award-winning, Northern Ireland based IT company has launched an online platform which can help employers who need to re-open their businesses but are concerned about the consequences of doing so. The company is launching 'OBBI Lite" which specifically and exclusively deals with the challenges of restarting business after Covid-19. The company is giving OBBI Lite away for free to employers to offer immediate help in getting staff back to work safely and effectively. OBBI's Chief Technical Officer, John Paul McCorley said the platform is available to employers with between 100 to 1500 members of staff. "The original OBBI platform was designed to allow employers to perform a range of essential business tasks, including On-boarding of new staff, Training and Compliance. Now OBBI Lite allows employers to bring their staff back to work with confidence by helping them distribute, manage and digitally sign off new policies and procedures around Covid-19, helping to stay compliant with new rules and regulations. The platform offers practical information on handwashing, PPE use, social distancing, health screening and working practises. Employees can be continuously tested on those regulations as well as complete daily Covid pre checks, so they understand what is required to work safely." He continued, "It brings together details of government restrictions, regulations and forward plans, as well as details from representative organisations in the Manufacturing, Food Processing and Construction industries. We are offering OBBI Lite for free which will host standard guidance and checks which we believe will be an indispensable tool for companies. However, we recognise that many companies will want to upload, distribute, and have teams sign off their own policies, procedures and check lists, which can be done at a nominal fee." "OBBI Lite users will get access to pre-loaded Covid safety content for all staff who can then validate that they have seen it whilst testing for both learning and competence. This is all accessible from anywhere in the world, at any time and from any web-enabled device such as a mobile phone or tablet." Each employee will have their own Covid portal which can be accessed through any device including their own smart phone or tablet which enables staff to remotely and safely get training and be kept informed whilst managers and supervisors can monitor the fact that their staff are adhering to the regulations. This offers assurance to both staff and employers that everything feasible is being done to maintain a safe and efficient working environment. You can register your interest for the Obbi Lite platform at www.obbisolutions.com Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1175252/Team_OBBI.jpg For further information contact Barry Turley on +44(0)7734-256-318 MINNEAPOLIS - An Illinois man who allegedly travelled to Minneapolis to participate in riots after the death of George Floyd has been arrested and charged with federal counts, after prosecutors say videos posted to his Facebook page showed him handing out explosives and damaging property. Matthew Lee Rupert, 28, of Galesburg, Illinois, was arrested in Chicago and charged Monday by criminal complaint with three counts, including civil disorder, carrying on a riot and possession of unregistered destructive devices. According to an FBI affidavit, Rupert posted self-recorded videos on his Facebook page last week that show him in Minneapolis. In one video, he is seen handing out explosive devices to others and encouraging them to throw them at law enforcement. Hes also shown damaging property and attempting to light a business on fire. In that video, Rupert says: We come to riot, boy! This is what we came for! Floyd, a black man, died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyds neck while Floyd was handcuffed and saying that he couldnt breathe. The arrest was recorded by a bystander and viewed widely. Floyds death sparked protests in Minneapolis and around the country, some of which became violent. A medical examiner said Monday that Floyds heart stopped as police restrained him and compressed his neck. The charges against Rupert come as civic leaders nationwide have frequently blamed outsiders for bringing trouble into their communities. In Minnesota, Gov. Tim Walz made the assertion in the early days of protests that outsiders were responsible for most of the violence. He later backed away from that, and arrest data so far have showed most people taken into custody were from Minnesota. But authorities have also said they have made arrests involving people with equipment, including incendiary devices, that could be used to burn and damage. Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington said authorities in the Minneapolis area had stopped cars without license plates, driving without lights, then found such material inside. Harrington said Monday he had at least two confirmed incidents and was working to verify other reports. The FBI affidavit says that on Thursday, Rupert posted references to the protests in Minneapolis on his Facebook page, and later that night he said he was heading there. By Friday, he was posting videos of himself in Minneapolis. One video lasts more than two hours. In it, Rupert references SWAT vehicles and says, Ive got some bombs if some of you all want to throw them back bomb them back here I got some more light it and throw it. As he is making the comments, he hands out an item with a brown casing and a green wick. Shortly after one person throws a device, an explosion can be heard in the background. In that same video, he is seen entering a boarded up liquor store, then asking for lighter fluid and entering a Sprint store which he says he lit on fire. He is then seen entering and stealing from an Office Depot, according to the affidavit. The FBI affidavit says that on Saturday, Rupert posted on his Facebook page that he was headed to Chicago, and that he would loot there. Early Sunday morning, he posted more videos of himself in and around Chicago. In one video, he talks about starting a riot and causing damage. He was arrested early Sunday by Chicago police for violating an emergency curfew in the city. Officers found several destructive devices, a hammer, a heavy-duty flashlight and cash in his vehicle, according to the affidavit. Rupert appeared in federal court in Chicago for a hearing to have him moved to Minnesota to face charges. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney to comment on his behalf. ___ This story has been corrected to show that Rupert is from Galesburg, Illinois, ___ Follow Amy Forliti on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/amyforliti A manhunt is under way after a daring daylight robbery that saw a smash-and-grab gang steal HK$3 million (US$387,000) worth of valuables from a Hong Kong jewellery store on Tuesday morning. The robbery took place about five minutes after staff from the Tai Sang Jewellery and Goldsmith shop on Tak Ching Court in Tuen Mun pulled up their rolling shutter and opened for business. Three employees two men and a woman were inside when two robbers carrying a sledgehammer and a knife rushed into the shop, according to police. The knife-wielding man threatened the staff with the weapon and the other used the hammer to smash the glass on two display counters, then he snatched gold ornaments from five to six trays, and stuffed them into a bag, a police source said. The pair, wearing masks and gloves, ran out of the shop and fled in a dark-coloured getaway car that was driven by a third man. Most of the stolen valuables were gold necklaces and gold bracelets, the source said. Hong Kong are scouring the city for three men connected to a Tuesday morning robbery of a jewellery story in Tuen Mun. Photo: Warton Li Officers combed the area, but no arrests were made. Police said no one was injured in the incident. The sledgehammer used by the robbers was found inside the shop, where glass fragments were scattered on the floor. As of noon, officers were checking CCTV footage to gather evidence. In 2017 and 2018, there were a number of high-profile smash-and-grab robberies, prompting local jewellery and goldsmith shops to enhance security. In September 2017, three thieves fled on a motorbike with HK$24 million worth of goods after smashing a store window with hammers at a Canton Road jewellery shop in the Tsim Sha Tsui shopping district. In March 2018, police arrested three tourists from Colombia after they made off with HK$40 million worth of jewellery in a smash-and-grab in Central. Tuesdays hold-up was the citys first major robbery in less than two weeks after the force again shifted officers from their normal duties to the 6,000-strong riot squad. The move came amid concerns about potential unrest tied to the pending national security law and upcoming anniversary of the start of last years anti-government protests. Story continues The riot squad, set up last June to handle anti-government demonstrations, was partly disbanded in March as the protests quietened down amid the coronavirus pandemic. About 4,000 officers returned to their original posts at the time, only for the squad to be reassembled on May 24. According to official statistics, reports of robbery across the city increased about fivefold to 122 in the first three months of this year, from 23 in the same period last year. This article Daring daylight robbery sees gang make off with HK$3 million in gold from Hong Kong jewellery shop first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2020. You may not have room on your desk for a gargantuan monitor, but that doesnt mean you cant have quality gear. Lenovo is selling the 24.5-inch Legion Y25f-10 FreeSync monitor for $200 right nowRemove non-product link. Thats about $75 cheaper than elsewhere and an excellent price for a 1080p high refresh rate FreeSync display. This ultra-fast 144Hz TN panel offers a 1 millisecond response time perfect for those tense esports moments when any delay means taking the L. Its decently bright, too, at a 400 nit rating, and unlike many TN panels it claims to have wide 160- to170-degree viewing angle. Its also a near-edgeless panel making it a good candidate for multi-monitor gaming, if you have the room. The stand for the monitor supports tilt, lift, swivel, and pivot to help you get the perfect viewing angle for your particular set-up. This monitor uses HDMI and DisplayPort, both of which support FreeSync up to 144Hz. AMDs technology synchronizes the refresh rate of your monitor and GPU to eradicate stuttering and make games buttery smooth, and it works with both Radeon and GeForce graphics cards. The monitor is also TUV eye comfort certified, meaning it is supposed to reduce eye strain and passed several requirements from an independent party. This should be an excellent gaming monitor, and today Lenovo is selling it at an excellent price. [Todays deal: Lenovo Legion Y25f-10 FreeSync monitor for $200 at Lenovo.Remove non-product link] There is no place for hate and racism in our society. Empathy and shared understanding are a start, but we must do more, Nadella said. I stand with the Black and African American community and we are committed to building on this work in our company and in our communities, Nadella said Washington: There is no place for hate and racism in the society, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said, asserting that empathy and shared understanding are a start, but more needs to be done. Nadellas remarks come in the wake of the custodial death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man who was pinned to the ground in Minneapolis on May 25 by a white police officer who kneeled on his neck as he gasped for breath. There is no place for hate and racism in our society. Empathy and shared understanding are a start, but we must do more, Nadella said in a tweet on Monday. I stand with the Black and African American community and we are committed to building on this work in our company and in our communities, Nadella said. A day earlier, Google CEO Sunder Pichai expressed solidarity with the African-American community. Today on US Google & YouTube homepages we share our support for racial equality in solidarity with the Black community and in memory of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery & others who dont have a voice, Pichai wrote on Twitter on Sunday. For those feeling grief, anger, sadness & fear, you are not alone, Pichai said, sharing a screenshot of the Google search home page which said, We stand in support of racial equality, and all those who search for it. Nadellas Microsoft also said they will be using the platform to amplify voices from the Black and African American community at the company. Nadella had also spoken out a few months ago about the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act passed in his native country. Talking to BuzzFeeds editor-in-chief, Ben Smith, in Manhattan, Nadella said whats happening in the country is sad. I think what is happening is sad. I feel, and in fact quite frankly, now being informed (and) shaped by the two amazing American things that Ive observed which is both, its technology reaching me where I was growing up and its immigration policy and even a story like mine being possible in a country like this. I think, its just bad, if anything, I would love to see a Bangladeshi immigrant who comes to India and creates the next unicorn in India or becomes the CEO of Infosys. That should be the aspiration. If I had to sort of mirror what happened to me in the US, I hope thats what happens in India, Microsofts India-born CEO was quoted as saying by BuzzFeed. Representative Image (Image: Reuters) Uttar Pradesh has reportedly asked the Rural Development Ministry to deem migrants returning to villages as eligible for housing under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Rural (PMAY-R). The state government in a letter to the ministry said allowing this would help many migrants who find themselves shelter-less after returning to their hometowns, said a report by The Economic Times. It said that migrants often occupy public spaces or live with relatives. The letter argues that reopening the Awaas+ website for 15 days period will allow the state to survey people not covered under the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011. Follow our LIVE Updates on the coronavirus pandemic here This will give workers and deserving beneficiaries who were unable to register earlier, access to the Centres scheme, the letter stated. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report. UP state rural development commissioner Ravindra Nayak said as per the report that a positive reply is being expected from the Centre. Today is the 70th day of Indias nationwide lockdown, meant to curb the novel coronavirus pandemic. The Centre has extended the lockdown, now called 'Unlock 1', till June 30. A number of activities will be allowed to resume in a phased manner over the next month. Confirmed COVID-19 cases in India stand at 198,706. The death toll from the outbreak in India is at 5,598. Globally, there have been over 62.7 lakh confirmed cases of COVID-19. At least 3.7 lakh people have died so far. As Americas left abandons its working-class roots and embraces identity politics, outlawing hate speech will become not merely one among many items on its policy wish-list, but the lynchpin upon which its political success and moral promise depends. Many still underestimate how possible it is for hate speech to be banned in America, and how enormous is the movement already pushing to accomplish it. We all have already see the growing list of cavalier assaults on speech: from Kamala Harris Senate resolution proposing to outlaw the phrase Wuhan Virus; to New York Citys attempt to fine anyone using the phrase illegal alien $250,000; to Big Techs one-way speech banning ratchet; to the ever-expanding closedmindedness of our campuses. These are not merely isolated instances of outlandish far-left ploys they are the direct and necessary outgrowths of identity politics. The phrase identity politics is a misnomer, implying that it is the politics of all identities. To the contrary, it a winner-takes-all politics of the victimized or marginalized who demand liberation, celebration, and equal self-respect against the so-called oppressor group, which in the American context is defined especially as whites. The oppressor identity must be condemned, punished and silenced. As I recently explained in a detailed report, for its most influential advocates, hate speech is speech which harms the so-called marginalized. Indeed, the very purpose of hate speech regulation is one-sided: The marginalized are permitted to speak freely, while the oppressor group must be silenced. On this logic, Malcolm Xs expression white devil is as tolerable as it is to say today that the greatest terrorist threat in this country is white men. As leading criminalization advocate Mari Matsuda writes, society must tolerate speech that comes from an experience of oppression. In fact, such speech should not merely be tolerated, but encouraged when directed against the oppressor group. If, as identitarians posit, the liberation of marginalized groups comes to depend on disrupting or undermining the power and identity of the oppressor, then hate speech toward it is courageous, heroic, and necessary. An angry, hateful poem by a person from a historically subjugated group should be interpreted as a victims struggle for self-identity in response to racism, writes Matsuda. Not surprisingly, in Europe and Canada, where hate speech is already criminalized, the public square is filled with speech which freely maligns Christianity, heterosexuality, and the legacy populations of those nations. Their hate speech laws do not stop such speech because they are not supposed to. America is already half-way there. What speech then is prohibited to the oppressor group? First, and needless to say, it is racial epithets but this is not at all whats at stake for criminalization advocates, it is merely the public argument used. More important is silencing all criticisms of marginalized groups, which they (or their white liberal advocates) judge as harmful to their self-respect. Perhaps most astonishingly, this logic even extends even to facts that may call into question the self-respect of the marginalized. As leading criminalization advocates Richard Delgado and Gene Stefancic write, speaking of the statistically documented disparities in educational preparedness of affirmative action recipients is deplorable hate speech. Labeling as hate speech factual, provable claims would extend to any number of issues that conflict with the self-respect of the marginalized. One already sees this conflict underway between medical doctors and transgender activists. On this logic, so too would broader factual disputes be judged impermissible. As Delgado and Stefancic write, because even a determined judiciary will not be able to enforce equality and racial justice by banning hate speech, ridding society of the underlying sentiments contained in it requires that the oppressor groups culture and opinion of itself be reshaped so that positive depictions of marginalized groups predominate in the minds of oppressor group and in society. Identitarians, in other words, must replace the oppressors cultural images and narratives with new mythologies about the marginalized while also removing these from scrutiny or criticism. It would thus become impermissible to dispute the truthfulness of the narratives of the marginalized: for instance, that all of history is patriarchal oppression designed to subjugate women, or that gender is a social construct to be freely chosen, or that the United States is founded fundamentally on white supremacy, as the New York Times 1619 Project claims. Banning hate speech requires nothing short of a revolution which marks the end not only of the freedom of the mind, but also what remains of political self-rule in America: all essential political question which may harm the self-respect of the marginalized must be removed from the legitimate spheres of political deliberation. For example, any serious political deliberations of immigration legal or not harms the self-respect of marginalized immigrants. The only legitimate discussion therefore becomes how to increase it. Defenses of the traditional family harms the self-respect of both feminists and the LGBTQ. Discussion of crime rates harm the self-respect of groups who commit crimes at higher rates. As the sphere of permissible political speech narrows to the point of irrelevance, even seemingly neutral topics like welfare also become off limits. As some academics write: race-neutral [political] campaign themes like welfare policy carry demonstrably racially loaded undertones. Almost nothing is left in the sphere of political deliberation even tax policy likely harms some marginalized group. Most Americans do not yet understand how far along this powerful movement has progressed, nor the stakes involved. Today, only 53% of college students a bare majority still support the freedom of speech. Judicial and regulatory precedents are already on the books. While these will be exploited in the coming years by activists and the administrative state, so too will Big Tech companies, whose platforms have become an essential venue for political deliberation, continue to implement bans following this logic. The conflict between identity politics and republican self-government will become more obvious and pronounced in the coming years. The freedom of speech, unlike most policy disputes, is a civilization level issue: only it can guard republican self-government, and only it can cool the fanatical hatreds and false theories underneath identity politics. But Americans should not count on the courts to save them. A new political class with courage and an understanding of the stake is needed. Arthur Milikh is associate director of The Heritage Foundations B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies and AWC Family Foundation Fellow. NORRISTOWN Saying a man scared and threatened an NBC 10 television news anchor by sending packages of lingerie, pornography and letters expressing romantic feelings for her to her Lower Merion home, a judge determined some jail time was warranted as part of a lengthy period of court supervision. She was scared. She was alarmed. She felt threatened. His conduct did cause certain serious harm, Montgomery County Judge Steven T. ONeill said on Tuesday as he sentenced David E. Silvan to 2 to 23 months in the county jail for harassing and stalking local news anchor Tracy Davidson. I consider this a very serious offense. Right now, Mr. Silvan, you present a dangerous individual, ONeill added. ONeill also ordered Silvan, 43, of Philadelphia, to complete five years probation following parole, meaning Silvan will be under court supervision for about seven years. The judge also ordered Silvan to comply with all recommendations of a psychosexual evaluation. ONeill warned Silvan he faced more jail time if he violates a stay away order once hes released from jail. Any contact with Tracy Davidson or NBC News will be met swiftly with sanctions by this court and that will include incarceration, ONeill warned Silvan, who did not react to the sentence, was handcuffed by sheriffs deputies and removed from the courtroom to begin serving the sentence. During a non-jury trial in February, the judge convicted Silvan of multiple misdemeanor charges of harassment and stalking, finding he annoyed and alarmed the morning news anchor by sending her lewd, lascivious or threatening materials on multiple occasions between October 2017 and January 2019. Silvan did not apologize for his conduct before learning his fate and continued to deny the conduct. Im just trying to stay quiet. I want to clear my good name. I am anything but a criminal, Silvan uttered at one point. Assistant District Attorney Bridget Gallagher argued for jail time against Silvan. His acts were no less than menacing. He refuses to accept responsibility for this. I do think jail is absolutely appropriate, said Gallagher, arguing Silvan poses a danger to the community. Davidson was not in the courtroom. But during the hearing, at which all participants wore face masks and practiced social distancing measures due to the coronavirus epidemic, Gallagher read a letter in which Davidson described the crimes impact on her life. I was shaken to my core. It was deviant material. The experience was frightening. The safety and security I always felt in my home was now shattered, Davidson wrote. Davidson, who began at the station in 1996 and worked as an anchor and consumer reporter, did not know Silvan and did not have any previous contact with him, prosecutors said. Defense lawyer Christopher Bagnato asked the judge to consider the testimony of Silvans mother who said Silvan, at 24, was injured in a serious motorcycle crash, suffered a brain injury and is hearing impaired. There was absolutely no traumatic brain injury counseling at all. He became reclusive. He really is totally struggling to live life on a daily basis, Silvans mother told the judge. We request leniency in this matter, Bagnato argued to the judge. ONeill didnt doubt testimony that Silvan suffered a brain injury but said he also must consider protection of the public and the seriousness of the offense. ONeill said Silvans rehabilitative and counseling needs can be explored by court officials while he is serving his parole and probationary periods. Silvan did not testify during his trial. At that time, Bagnato argued prosecutors didnt have real, pure and direct evidence to link Silvan to the delivery of the items to Davidson and that someone else could have sent them in Silvans name. But Gallagher showed the judge legal documents containing Silvans handwriting, which matched the handwriting on the packages and letters sent to Davidson. This is not a coincidence. This defendant harassed Tracy Davidson, Gallagher argued at trial. Testimony revealed the first packages were delivered to Davidsons residence, addressed to Misty D, between Oct. 10 and Oct. 16, 2017, and they contained several pornographic DVDs, womens lingerie and other items from Adam and Eve, an online adult store. Silvans address was listed as the billing address, according to testimony and court papers. This had never happened to me. I didnt really know what to do. I was just scared, Davidson testified at trial, adding she notified her supervisors at NBC 10 and later Lower Merion police. Prosecutors alleged investigators met with Silvan and made it clear to him he was not to contact Davidson. But between late 2018 and early 2019, Silvan delivered several unwanted handwritten letters to Davidsons residence, some mailed through the postal service and others apparently hand-delivered with no post mark. The letters, according to court papers, were addressed again to Misty D and signed with only the letter D. The letter expressed having romantic feelings toward Davidson and wanting to initiate an amorous relationship, wrote Lower Merion Police Officer Michael Stieber, referring to one letter in the arrest affidavit. In another letter, Silvan wrote, Gosh, you looked smashing Thursday morning. That red dressWow, testimony revealed. Investigators also linked Silvan to a letter offering to perform landscaping services for Davidson. Stieber testified he went to Silvans residence in February 2019 and while there showed the letters to Silvans mother. She immediately said, Yup, thats Davids handwriting, Stieber claimed. Judge Bars Kyrgyz Ex-President From Attending His Own Trial By RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service June 01, 2020 BISHKEK -- A judge in Bishkek has barred former Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev from being present at his high-profile trial after the ex-leader of the Central Asian nation refused to sit together with other defendants in the courtroom's caged area. Judge Marat Sydykov of the Birinchi Mai District Court in Bishkek announced the decision on June 1 as the trial over deadly clashes with security forces last year at Atambaev's compound in a Bishkek suburb resumed. Atambaev's lawyer, Sergei Slesarev, told reporters that guards had taken his client out of the courtroom after the judge ruled that Atambaev will not be present in the courtroom until the trial is over. Slesarev said that Atambaev, who had sat at an open desk next to his lawyers in the trial's previous sessions, had a right not to sit together with other defendants because he was charged in another case as well. Dozens of Atambaev's supporters and opponents rallied in front of the court's building as the trial resumed. On May 11, the judge sustained the prosecutor's demand to have Atambaev seated with other defendants on the bench in the glass-caged compartment. The high-profile trial has been postponed several times since March due to Atambaev's health problems, the failure of some defendants' lawyers to show up, and because of the state of emergency imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Last August, security officials were sent to Atambaev's compound in Koi-Tash near Bishkek after he refused to obey three subpoenas calling him to the Interior Ministry for questioning in an investigation into his alleged involvement in the illegal release of a jailed organized-crime boss in 2013. Atambaev was arrested on August 8 after he surrendered to police following a violent two-day standoff. The standoff involving the former president and his supporters resulted in the death of a 47-year-old security officer, Usenbek Niyazbekov, and injuries to more than 170 others, including 79 law enforcement officers. Atambaev and the 13 co-defendants were charged with murder, attempted murder, threatening or assaulting representatives of authorities, hostage-taking and the forcible seizure of power. All 14 defendants have pleaded not guilty and call the case against them politically motivated. Five more defendants in the case made plea deals with investigators and will be tried separately. The 63-year-old former president currently faces a separate trial for charges linked to the release of the crime boss Aziz Batukaev, who had been convicted for several high-profile crimes, including the murders of a Kyrgyz lawmaker and an Interior Ministry official, before his illegal release in 2013. Kyrgyzstan saw a smooth and peaceful transfer of power from Atambaev to his ally, Sooronbai Jeenbekov, a move welcomed by the international community after presidential transitions in 2005 and 2010 came following violent rioting. However, the deadly clashes in August at Atambaev's compound underscored a power struggle between him and Jeenbekov. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/judge-bars-former -kyrgyz-president-atambaev-from-taking- part-at-his-own-trial/30646675.html Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address In the first major study of COVID-19s effect on the brain and nervous system, researchers at the University of Cincinnati and in Italy found that of 725 patients in the study, 108 developed serious neurological symptoms including stroke. Nearly a third of the 108 patients had no history of or risk factor for stroke. These results were published in the journal Radiology. Read the full Cincinnati Enquirer story. Read the full UC release. NPR affiliate WVUX-FM, 91.7, also covered the study. Featured photo courtesy of Unsplash. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Reuters) Tue, June 2, 2020 14:07 598 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb85e3d 2 Science & Tech Facebook,Snapchat,George-Floyd,Racism,police-brutality,unrest,protest,united-states Free Facebook Inc and Snapchat developer Snap Inc became the latest US companies condemning racial inequality in the United States as violent protests flared up across major cities over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died while in police custody in Minneapolis last week. The two tech companies followed Intel Corp, Netflix Inc, Alphabet's Google, International Business Machines Corp and Nike Inc in taking a public stance against Floyd's death - calling out discrimination against African-Americans. But tech companies such as Facebook and Google for years have struggled to quell concerns about discrimination against African-Americans in their own workplaces, and black engineers remain underrepresented in their workforces relative to the U.S. population. The challenges are not expected to ease as the novel coronavirus pandemic forces the companies to slow hiring and work remotely for months to come. Facebook employees on Monday urged Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg to take stronger action against an inflammatory post last week by US President Donald Trump about the Minneapolis protests. But Zuckerberg already said in a Friday post that Facebook would not take action on the post. He said Facebook will commit $10 million to organizations working on racial justice. Read also: Facebook denies sidelining research on site's 'divisiveness' Floyd's death has renewed outrage across the US on the treatment of African-Americans by authorities, polarizing the country politically and racially. "We cannot end systemic racism without simultaneously creating opportunity for all people, regardless of their background," Snap Chief Executive Officer Evan Spiegel told employees in an email criticizing racism and calling for increased taxes "to create a society that benefits all of us". Twitter, which last week was at the center of a fight with Trump over its actions on his tweets, including a warning over one about the protests, added the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter to its account bio on the site. The US Google and YouTube homepages bore a notice saying they stood in support of racial equality. On Friday, Nike flipped its iconic slogan to raise awareness about racism. "For Once, Don't Do It. Don't pretend there's not a problem in America. Don't turn your back on racism," the company said in a video that has over six million views on Twitter and was shared by celebrities and rival Adidas AG. H-E-B H-E-B will no longer require customers to wear face masks to enter its stores, the grocery chain said Tuesday. H-E-B encourages customers to wear masks but are no longer mandatory, said H-E-B spokeswoman Julie Bedingfield. Employees and vendors will still wear masks, H-E-B said. TOMBALL, Texas, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Traditions Health, LLC ("Traditions"), a hospice and home health provider in Texas, California and Arizona, announced that it has acquired Hospice with Grace. Hospice with Grace is a provider of hospice services based in Tomball, TX. Their footprint strategically expands Traditions' presence in the north Houston area, allowing Traditions to provide a high quality of clinical care to a broader base of patients. As a leading provider of hospice and home health services, Traditions offers skilled nursing, therapy services, and both physical and spiritual end of life care. The announcement was made by Bryan Wolfe, the President and CEO of Traditions. "I am extremely excited to extend our presence in Texas and serve the community of Tomball and the greater Houston area," said Mr. Wolfe. About Traditions Health, LLC Headquartered in College Station, TX, Traditions Health is a leading provider of hospice care, home health care, consulting services and online policy manuals. The company provides care to over 2,100 patients across Texas, California and Arizona. The company has recently been named to Inc. Magazine's Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing businesses. Traditions Health is a portfolio company of Dorilton Capital Advisors. For more information, visit our website at www.traditionshealth.com. About Dorilton Capital Advisors, LLC Dorilton Capital Advisors is a family equity office that provides long term, patient capital to lower middle market companies across a variety of industries. As a partner, Dorilton works with entrepreneurs on growth while preserving the legacy and culture of their companies. Please visit www.doriltoncapital.com. For media inquiries or relevant opportunities, please contact [email protected] SOURCE Traditions Health, LLC Related Links https://www.traditionshealth.com The government has released Resolution No 79/NQ-CP on granting e-visas to citizens from 80 countries, which will take effect on July 1. However, this doesnt mean that Vietnam will open its doors to foreign travelers on July 1. The resolution includes a list of 80 countries whose citizens will be allowed to enter Vietnam using e-visas, as well as a list of 37 air, road and sea international border gates that will accept electronic entries. Many travel firms have expressed excitement about the resolution, mistakenly believing that the government has officially allowed foreign travelers into the country again. Some international tourism websites have similar misunderstandings, thinking that Vietnam will begin receiving international tourists again in July. Even TripAdvisor has asked us about the information, said Nguyen Son Thuy, director of Indochina Unique Tourist. However, a high ranking official from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) affirmed that July 1 is just the day when Resolution No 79 takes effect. The document has no relation to the policy on receiving international tourists again. A high ranking official from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) affirmed that July 1 is just the day when Resolution No 79 takes effect. The document has no relation to the policy on receiving international tourists again. On May 25, the government released two resolutions related to visas. The first was Resolution No 79 on e-visas, and the second was Resolution No 80 on granting visas to international citizens entering Phu Quoc Island. The e-visa was implemented a long time ago but it was just on a trial basis, because the law on entry, exit, transit, and residence of foreigners in Vietnam (2014) did not contain provisions on e-visa. Later, as the provisions on e-visa were added to the law in late 2019, the government released Resolution No 79 on granting e-visas to citizens from 80 countries. The time for reopening the market for inbound travelers is still under consideration. An official of VNAT confirmed that the government has asked ministries and branches to reopen the international tourism market with the principle that Vietnam will be able to both control the epidemic and develop the tourism and service sector. He said the view of VNAT is to reopen the market step by step with criteria to ensure safety for travelers, tourism service providers and the community. Travel firms and airlines are making every effort to recover the domestic travel market and hope the international tourism market will reopen soon. We want to exploit the international market again. Aircraft will continue to be on the ground until the international market is open, said Dinh Viet Phuong, deputy CEO of Vietjet Air. Thanh Lich Travel firms resume operation, design tours for young clients Specializing in outbound tours for young clients, IGo is now considering launching domestic tours after two months of hibernation because of Covid-19. A day after downgrading India's sovereign rating, Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday took rating action on eleven Indian banks. These banks include State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, Canara Bank, Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank and EXIM Bank. "Economic disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak and the downgrade of the sovereign rating are the key drivers for today's rating actions," Moody's said. The rating action on Indian banks follows Moody's recent downgrade of the Indian government's issuer rating to Baa3 from Baa2 with a negative outlook. Moody's has maintained India's macro profile, which serves as an input for the bank ratings, at moderate. The action indicates the impact on the Indian banks of the breadth and severity of the economic shock, and the deterioration in credit quality it has triggered, it said. SBI, HDFC Bank and Exim India ratings downgraded Moody's has downgraded the long-term local and foreign currency deposit ratings of State Bank of India, the country's largest lender, and HDFC Bank to Baa3 from Baa2, and the long-term issuer rating of EXIM India to Baa3 from Baa2. The agency also maintained their rating outlooks as negative. "EXIM India's issuer ratings and SBI's deposit ratings are at the same level as the sovereign rating because of the uplift to their ratings, based on Moody's assumption that the two banks will receive government support in times of need. Consequently, the downgrade of the sovereign rating has led to the downgrade of their long-term issuer and deposit ratings to Baa3 from Baa2," the agency said. Also Read: Moody's cuts India's sovereign rating to Baa3, maintains negative outlook For EXIM Bank, Moody's has affirmed its ba3 Baseline Credit Assessment (BCA), as it believes the bank's strong capital provides a buffer to absorb incremental asset quality stress. In the case of SBI, Moody's expects its asset quality and profitability to weaken, which could hurt its capitalisation. As a result, Moody's has placed its ba1 BCA under a review for downgrade. As for HDFC Bank, the agency has cut its BCA to baa3 from baa2 given the strong linkages between the bank and the sovereign, including its large direct exposure to government debt and exposure to common underlying operating conditions. The negative outlook indicates Moody's expectation that HDFC Bank's ratings and BCA will likely move in tandem with India's sovereign rating. BOB, BOI, CANARA AND UBI'S ratings under review for downgrade Moody's has placed the ratings, BCAs, Counterparty Risk Ratings (CRR) and Counterparty Risk Assessment (CRA) of Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank and United Bank of India under review for downgrade. The review for downgrade reflects its expectation that the forward-looking improvements to the three bank's credit profiles that it had previously assumed will be more difficult in the current environment. Also Read: Fitch Ratings downgrades Future Retail, Tata Motors; revises JSW Steel, Tata Steel outlook to negative IndusInd Bank rating downgraded The rating of IndusInd Bank was downgraded to ba2 from ba1 in wake of the risks to bank's asset quality and profitability amid the deteriorating macro environment and financial market volatility. IndusInd Bank's funding is weak compared with other rated Indian banks, as reflected by its high deposit concentration and low share of retail deposits. This weaker funding makes the bank more susceptible to dislocations in financial markets, including in terms of wholesale funding sources, Moody's said. Punjab National Bank's rating affirmed In the case of Punjab National Bank, Moody's has affirmed its ratings and changed the outlook to stable from positive. It expects the strain on the asset quality and profitability, due to the coronavirus outbreak, will be largely mitigated by the improvements in the bank's credit profile over the past year. As such, Moody's expects the bank's BCA and ratings to remain stable at the current level, against its earlier expectation of an improvement to its BCA and ratings. Central Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank rating affirmed In the case of Central Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank, Moody's has affirmed their ratings and BCA with a stable outlook. The agency expects the asset quality and profitability pressures due to the coronavirus outbreak will be largely mitigated by the improvements in the banks' credit profile over the past year. Rating Rational According to Moody's, the Indian banking sector has been affected given the disruptions to economic activity from the coronavirus outbreak, which is weakening borrowers' credit profiles. The agency opined that disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic will worsen the economic slowdown in India that has been underway in the past year and will accelerate deterioration in the banks' asset quality and profitability. On stimulus measures, the agency said that relief packages announced by the Indian government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) since the start of the outbreak will help mitigate some of the credit pressures, but the longer and broader the economic slowdown, the more these banks will face asset quality and profitability issues. At the same time, heightened liquidity stress at non-bank financial institutions will pose a risk to the stability of the broad financial system, given banks' large direct exposures to these entities, it added. Moody's expects the standalone credit profiles or BCAs of most rated public sector banks (PSBs) to deteriorate as the economic shock will strain their already weak solvency. Also, in the absence of external capital support from the Indian government, Moody's expects the capitalisation of the public sector banks to deteriorate. Despite the near-term asset quality, profitability and capital strain, it expects their funding and liquidity to remain a key credit strength. For the private sector banks covered in this rating action, in Moody's opinion, their asset quality and profitability will also deteriorate driven by rising loan delinquencies and defaults due to the coronavirus outbreak, which will result in an increase in credit costs. However, most rated private sector banks have better loss absorbing capacity and stronger BCAs than their PSB peers because of stronger capitalisation and loan loss reserves, it said. Martin Luther King Jr. once said that the arc of the moral universe bends slowly, but that it bends towards justice. No doubt hes right when one steps back to look at race in America over the last century. But get up close, focus on recent years, and its tough to see much progress. Not with another black man being lowered into his grave because he had the misfortune to cross paths with a vicious white police officer. Not when that officers three companions stood by and watched, even after George Floyd passed out, and even after their buddy kept his knee pressed into the unresponsive body for three minutes longer, as if to make sure. The explosion of rage has gone national this time, with curfews imposed in more than 40 cities. We may be witnessing a moment when history pivots, when the conscience of the nation is shaken. This killing was so heartless, the death came so slowly, the cops expression was so casual, with his hand in his pocket. The killing, to him, seemed to have no more weight than putting down a barnyard animal. You cant lynch a person if you see that other person as a human being, says the Rev. David Jefferson of Metropolitan Baptist Church in Newark. This murder demands, first of all, that we do more to root out racist and abusive police, to get their badges and take away their guns. We need civilian review boards with subpoena power, as Mayor Ras Baraka is trying to establish in Newark. We need public data showing which cops are using force most often, and which face the most complaints. We need to build robust internal affairs departments in every department, so that good cops can help us find bad cops. We need a federal government that gives a damn and is willing to force reform on departments that are shown in court to be serial offenders. The Department of Justice did that to fight racism in the New Jersey State Police in the 1990s and it yielded concrete improvements. They are doing it today in Newark. President Trump has disqualified himself as a leader of racial reconciliation and is charging the wrong way. He ordered the Justice Department to stop intervening with bad police forces, saying thats a local matter. He urged cops to be tougher with suspects, to stop shielding their heads as they are lowered into squad cars. And who can forget the fine people he saw marching with white hoods in Charlottesville? All that is a signal to the police, that when you act this way, the Trump administration is on your side, says Larry Hamm, a leading activist for police reform in Newark. There is a spiritual side to this fight that goes far beyond police brutality, a need to scrub more of the racism from the nations soul. Black people are dying from Covid-19 at triple the rate of whites. The average black family has one-tenth the wealth of the average white family. In education, housing, health care, the discrepancies are shameful. It is encouraging that so many people of all races spontaneously poured out of their homes, in the midst of a pandemic, to express their rage at this killing. It shows that Americans are eager to do better, even the president is not. The looters are doing all they can to diminish the moral power of the moment, and to give the defenders of racist cops a chance to change the subject. Anyone who knows how badly the 1967 riots crippled Newark, how many years passed before the city recovered, and how much of that pain landed on African-Americans, cannot abide any contrived justification for burning down local businesses. Its just wrong. But we saw beautiful moments during these demonstrations, too, when cops and protestors looked beyond their tribes, when they shook hands, and even embraced. In Oklahoma City, cops took a knee to show solidarity with protestors. In Camden, police joined the march, saying they were as appalled by this murder as anyone else. This is a rebellion by young people, says Junius Williams, a civil rights activist and author who was a student leader during the Newark riots in 1967. And if you notice in some cases, most of the people in the streets are white. Its a reminder that we are all connected, and that young people of all colors and dispositions are sharing the painMaybe this is the arc bending towards justice. It is an optimistic takeaway on the weeks events, the stubborn determination you often hear from veterans of the Civil Rights Movement who have seen much worse, people who got up every time they got knocked down. Yes, the arc is bending, they tell us. But not without lots of help. Heres hoping that the looters go home, and that the peaceful demonstrators keep up the pressure. We have, as a country, a great deal of work to do. More: Tom Moran columns Tom Moran may be reached at tmoran@starledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @tomamoran. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. Scores of people lined up outside liquor stores in South Africa's township of Soweto on Monday, waiting to buy drinks for the first time in nine weeks after a ban on alcohol sales was lifted. Buying booze was prohibited when Africa's most industrialised economy went into lockdown on March 27 to stem the spread of coronavirus. The ban -- meant to ease pressure on emergency wards and prevent a feared spike in domestic violence -- was lifted for home consumption on Monday as South Africa moved to level three of its five-tier shutdown. The mood was festive in Soweto, on the outskirts of Johannesburg, where customers carrying crates of empty beer bottles waited out the meandering lines, some stationed in their cars, blasting loud music from their stereos. "We are overwhelmed, over the moon, so excited," said queing customer Bongani Khumalo. "This place is jamming," he exclaimed, adding that celebrations were expected throughout the township. "I'm here to buy my beloved beer," said 31-year-old nurse Anele Mapoma. "It has been a while since I had a taste of that foam and burping (so) I am here so early to satisfy my habit," he said. Another Soweto resident, who asked not be named, said she had been looking forward to "this day for an entire month". "I had to wake up super early to be here so I'm all good now," the 24-year-old said as she stood outside a liquor store in the suburb of Pimville, wearing a face mask and dark hoodie. -'Traumatising' black market- As shop doors opened at 9:00 am (0700 GMT) , customers queueing in face masks were ordered to keep a safe distance from one another and allowed one small group to enter at a time. Security guards took their temperature at the door and anyone with a fever was turned away. South Africans still harboured mixed feelings about the controversial booze ban, which caused black market sales to flourish. "That one was very traumatising whereby people had to get liquor illegally, they raised prices so high," said customer Khumalo. "It's month's end, people got paid and others are excited to go back to work, I think people have every reason to celebrate." But for 22-year-old Asenathi Faleni, a self-confessed "serious drinker", the government's decision to shutter the alcohol market was a brilliant idea. "The virus would have spread much more because as drinkers we don't really listen once we're drunk," Faleni said. "We just want to be out and about and around people and at taverns, and the taverns get full." Under level three restrictions, everything except high-risk economic sectors will be allowed to reopen, as will schools and places of worship. However an ongoing ban on cigarette sales remains a thorny issue, with the country's biggest tobacco producer British American Tobacco South Africa launching legal proceedings against the government last week. - 'Reduce consumption' - The country ranks 30th in the world in terms of per capita alcohol consumption, according to the World Health Organisation's 2010 figures. At the beginning of the lockdown, the South African National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence warned that a sudden cut in supply of alcohol causes physical and mental problems. In response to reports of long queues for booze, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize pleaded with citizens not to "panic-buy" alcohol and to "reduce consumption". Local online news outlet News24 reported that a liquor store in Johannesburg was robbed by thieves who tunnelled through the solid concrete floor to gain access. The robbery was discovered by the store manager on Friday, the report said. South Africa has recorded the continent's highest coronavirus numbers, with 32,600 infections and 683 deaths. Health experts have predicted that South Africa's coronavirus outbreak will peak between July and November, causing at least 40,000 deaths. NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) Cyprus is launching a multilingual SMS campaign to head off more migrant arrivals by dispelling the mistaken belief the European Union member country is a gateway to the continent, the Cypriot interior minister said Sunday Nicos Nouris told the Associated Press the text-message blitz aims to counter disinformation propagated by people traffickers that securing asylum status in Cyprus will grant would-be migrants a passport to other EU countries. Nouris said arriving migrants are effectively trapped in Cyprus because the island nation isnt part of the Schengen area those 26 European nations that have abolished their borders and permit unrestricted travel between them. The minister said Cyprus, with a population of roughly 880,000, has by a wide margin the largest number of migrants relative to its population in the 27-member bloc. He said 3.8% of those living on Cyprus are asylum seekers, while that number is under 1% in other front-line EU states, like Greece, Italy, Spain and Malta. Its estimated that 25-30% of all migrants currently in Cyprus are refugees fleeing conflict. According Asylum Service Statistics, Syrians filled the most asylum applications last year, followed by people from Georgia, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Cameroon, Vietnam, Egypt, Nigeria and Sri Lanka. Nouris had previously said that most migrants arrive to ethnically divided Cyprus breakaway north and cross a United Nations-controlled buffer zone to seek asylum in the internationally recognized south. Meanwhile, Nouris said around 700 migrants will remain confined to a reception center on the outskirts of the capital Nicosia until a small scabies infestation there is completely eliminated. The minister said he expects confinement measures to be lifted soon after all those with scabies have been treated. The migrants were confined to the center since late March when the government enacted a strict, stay-at-home order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Those restrictions were lifted May 23, but the migrants weren't allowed to leave the center. Sydney, June 2 : A video posted on social media which showed a police officer pinning down an aboriginal teenager in Sydney has led to heightened racial tension in Australia over the treatment of indigenous communities in the country. The New South Wales police on Tuesday said in a statement that the officer implicated in the incident has been put on restricted duties until the investigations were underway, reports Efe news. Meanwhile they would contact the aboriginal leaders of the area to keep them informed of the process. The 16-year-old teenager was detained in central Sydney after allegedly threatening an officer of breaking his jaw. According to the mobile phone video, the officer goes to him and takes him facedown to later handcuff him. The person recording the video said, "you just slammed him on his face". The boy was taken to a hospital, "with bruised shoulder, cuts & grazing to knee, face & elbow & chipped teeth", CEO Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation Justin O'Brian tweeted. The incident led to a context of uneasiness in Australia, where protests have been held over the death of an African-American GeorgeFloyd, who died in police custody in the US city of Minneapolis on May 25. In a similar incident, David Dungay Jr, a 26-year-old aboriginal man who died in Sydney prison in 2015 as five officers pinned him down. The detention of the 16-year-old in Sydney, comes amid the National Reconciliation Week - which is commemorated between May 27 and June 3 - by the Australian aboriginals, who make up 3 per cent of the 24 million strong population. Despite being a minority, the indigenous people represent 29 per cent of the country's adult population and 48 per cent of the younger population. Australia is working towards the gap with the aboriginals who arrived in the country 50,000 years ago and have suffered constant abuses, have been robbed of their lands, and faced systematic discrimination since the British colonized the region in the 18th century. One of the deepest wounds of the time were from the 20th century practice of taking away their children who would be put under the care of white institutions and families, termed as the "stolen generation" which had affected some 100,000 aboriginal minors in the years between 1910 and 1970. Operators of Alabamas Wind Creek gaming properties, on the verge of opening their doors to guests after a shutdown that began more than two months ago, gave a preview Tuesday of how theyre adapting to coronavirus concerns. As Jay is fond of saying, we dont want to have a plan to reopen, said Ken Rohman, Wind Creek Hospitalitys executive vice president and chief marketing officer, referring to CEO Jay Dorris. We want to have a plan to stay open. Demonstrations Tuesday at Wind Creek Atmore showed how things will work at the three Wind Creek casinos that the Poarch Band of Creek Indians operates in Atmore, Wetumpka and Montgomery. The casinos are operating at reduced capacity: In the case of Wind Creek Atmore, thats 901 people on the gaming floor or about a third of the normal maximum. Guests are strongly encouraged to take advantage of a new reservation system going online June 3, due to the occupancy limit. Guests will get a temperature check at the door before checking in and will be required to wear masks. Patrons are encouraged to bring their own, but new ones will be available from a vending machine at the entrance for $1, with proceeds going to first responders. On the floor, patrons will find the familiar banks of hundreds of electronic bingo machines. In some cases, machines are separated by clear plastic partitions; elsewhere you might find three chairs for a row of six machines. Rohman said that in the interest of maintaining choice of title, operators have decided not to shut down machines. Leaving access to all the machines does raise the possibility that patrons can move chairs around to suit themselves, possibly leading to a loss of separation. Rohman said casino staff will be proactive about monitoring the situation. Clusters of up to four people will be allowed if those people came as a group, but otherwise staff will ask people to relocate and spread out. Its an active approach that will require manpower, but Rohman said that isnt an issue. Were running with a third of the normal customers weve got, but weve got a hundred percent of the staff, he said. Other changes include shutting down self-serve fixtures such as drink fountains, where attendants will now provide service. Wind Creek Atmores buffet, Taste, has switched to an all-you-can-eat table service model. The gaming floors will be run in four sessions per day, with deep cleaning between sessions. Attendants will clean each machine between guests. Most Mississippi casinos were open for Memorial Day weekend and reported bigger receipts than the same weekend in 2019. Thats among the signs that lead Wind Creek operators to believe patrons are eager to get back on the floor. Were grateful for them for showing that people are excited about coming back, Rohman said of developments in Mississippi. Employees and patrons alike have signaled that theyre ready to return to something like normal. They were champing at the bit, said Rohman. Its a close-knit community. Our players are here on a regular basis. Wind Creek properties in Alabama will begin soft openings for Alabama on Thursday, June 4, followed by general opening to the public on Monday, June 8. Online reservations open June 3 at www.windcreekcasino.com; they also can be made by calling 866-946-3360. Reservations can be taken up to 14 days in advance of a visit. The tribe also operates properties in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Aruba and Curacao, in addition to racetracks in Alabama and Florida. Some of those properties have already reopened, while others are in the process of reopening. Full details of COVID-19 safety protocols can be found at www.windcreekstandard.com. United Nations: Ties between the Taliban, especially its Haqqani Network branch, and al Qaeda remain close, independent UN sanctions monitors said in a report made public on Monday, despite a US-Taliban pact Washington hoped would sever them. "The Taliban regularly consulted with al Qaeda during negotiations with the United States and offered guarantees that it would honor their historical ties," they said in a report to the UN Security Council, saying ties stemmed from friendship, intermarriage, shared struggle and ideological sympathy. Under the February 29 US-Taliban deal that could pave the way toward a full withdrawal of foreign soldiers from Afghanistan, the Taliban promised to prevent al Qaeda from using Afghan soil to threaten the security of the United States and its allies. The deal also committed the United States to reduce its military footprint in Afghanistan to 8,600 troops by mid-July - a level US and NATO officials said it had nearly reached last week - and, conditions permitting, to zero by May 2021. US forces invaded Afghanistan to topple the Taliban in 2001 after the September 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. The Taliban had provided a safe haven in which al Qaeda planned the attacks. "The success of the agreement may depend upon the Taliban's willingness to encourage al Qaeda to put a stop to its current activities in Afghanistan," the UN monitors said, saying if the Taliban honored the pact, "it may prompt a split between pro - and anti-al-Qaeda camps." US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad said he believed the report covered the period through March 15, about two weeks after the US-Taliban pact, and it may take time for the Taliban to deliver. "They have taken some steps. They have to take a lot more," he told reporters, saying if the Taliban failed to keep its promises, Washington could reconsider its own. Zebra-Meds AI1platform is integrated in Apollo Radiology Internationals dedicated COVID Reporting Center Israel based Zebra Medical Vision, the deep-learning medical imaging analytics company, has partnered with Apollo Hospitals Group to deploy its software to assist Apollo Hospitals doctors with efficient and accurate diagnoses of COVID-19, by leveraging the companys AI1 platform. In March 2019, Zebra-Med announced a collaboration with Apollo Hospitals chain, deploying AI-based tools at scale across India, supported by India-Israel Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund. Following the deployment of the intracranial hemorrhage, the AI COVID-19 solution will enable future collaboration on additional medical findings, such as tuberculosis (TB). While laboratory testing has served as the first line of diagnostics during the coronavirus crisis, these tests have limited accuracy and do not indicate the state of disease progression. Zebra-Meds software offers a faster alternative for detection of COVID-19 when PCR testing is unavailable or delayed, monitoring patients with COVID-19, as decision support for the allocation of ER, ICU resources and quantifies the disease burden and its progression. The AI solution for COVID-19 leverages Zebra-Meds GGO (Ground-Glass Opacities) patented algorithm, which is a dominant imaging feature of COVID-19 pneumonia and modified it to include consolidations and provide an automated indication and quantification of suspected COVID-19 findings on standard chest CTs, both contrast and non-contrast, by measuring the percentage of affected lung-burden volume relative to the entire lung volume, segmentation of the suspected findings, and classification. As protests rocked the United States last week after the killing of a 46-year-old African-American man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the United States, ripples of outrage spread to several parts of the world including India. While several Indians protested with the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag on social media, many also seemed to Google the song "This is America" by Donald Glover. The 2018 song which was released under the artist's moniker Childish Gambino went viral upon release due to its powerful lyrics and music video, which was symbolic against systemic racial oppression and police brutality as well as public shootings in the US. With the killing of Floyd by four policemen, one of whom had him pinned to the ground by his neck under his knee while arresting him, the video has once again become relevant in the US. Even as violent clashes between police and protesters continued throughout last week, many on social media have been using the song and its lyrics to portray the violence taking place in several cities. And a search on Google trends reveals that not just Americans but Indians are also looking up the song. Indians have also been searching for the song, with searches spiking in June after the song started trending on social media in the US. As per Google Trends, the maximum searches came from the state of Goa while Delhi, Chattisgarh and Maharashtra followed. Since its release, the Donald Glover song has time and again been revoked to critique the growing number of racial crimes and shootings in the US since the election of Donald Trump as President. With Floyd's killing outraging Americans, several have taken to platforms such as TikTok to post videos of violence with song as its background score. Especially on the short-video sharing app, the song is used as the background score to highlight the reality of police brutality, especially videos showing the ground reality from the protests. An election coordinator processes a mail ballot at the Bucks County Board of Elections office on May 27, 2020, in Doylestown, Pa. Read more The mail ballot deadline is being loosened for voters in Bucks and Delaware Counties, judges ordered Tuesday. Bucks County voters whose ballots were postmarked by Monday, June 1, will have their votes counted as long as county elections officials receive them by next Tuesday, June 9, county spokesperson Larry King said. He quoted Common Pleas Court Judge James McMaster as saying it is within his power to enforce the intent of the law and that the clear intent of the election code is to allow people to vote. An order was still being written late Tuesday afternoon and was expected to be available Wednesday. Delaware County voters will have their ballots counted if they are postmarked by Tuesday, June 2, and arrive by 5 p.m. next Tuesday. In addition, Delaware County elections officials will send out ballots to the final 400 to 500 voters whose ballots they never mailed. Officials had previously said those ballots couldnt arrive in time, so they wouldnt be sent. Those ballots will be counted if they are returned to the county by 5 p.m. on June 12 regardless of when they are mailed and postmarked. "Our election bureau is printing them, and we called in people to assemble them, and they'll be driven down to the post office tonight," said Delaware County Councilwoman Christine Reuther. READ MORE: Live coverage of the 2020 Pennsylvania primary election In both counties, the ballots affected by the order will be kept separate from ballots that arrive before the normal deadline. That will allow for any legal challenges to the order. (If the orders are later overturned, those ballots will be able to be removed from the rest of the countys results.) Elections officials in both counties had petitioned their respective Courts of Common Pleas to extend mail ballot deadlines that they said would disenfranchise voters who received ballots too late to return them by 8 p.m. election day, as state law requires. Elections officials have warned that thousands of voters could be disenfranchised, despite their efforts to set up drop boxes at the last minute. Like other counties in the state, they have faced an unexpected surge in mail ballots due to both the coronavirus pandemic and a change to state law that for the first time allows any voter to vote by mail. Citing the civil unrest that broke out over the weekend, Gov. Tom Wolf on Monday signed an 11th-hour order allowing ballots in Philadelphia and five other counties, including Delaware County, to be counted if they are postmarked by Tuesday and arrive by June 9. Bucks County was not included in that order. Despite that order, Delaware County filed its request in court Tuesday because, Reuther said, they needed a specific solution for the 400 to 500 voters whose ballots were never mailed out. In addition, if the governor's order is successfully challenged in court, the county-specific order would remain intact. Now, county officials said, voters who risked disenfranchisement will now their votes counted. It gives you faith in the system, said Diane M. Ellis-Marseglia, chair of the Bucks County commissioners. There may not have been a legislative fix for this, but there was a judicial fix for this. And thats why our constitutional system works. Public officials throughout the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area are rushing to reopen the regions businesses, even as medical experts warn of the dangers of resuming normal economic activity. As of Friday, the Washington, D.C. region, which consists of the District of Columbia and its outlying suburbs in Maryland and Virginia, had recorded 100,000 COVID-19 infections. Last week, the D.C. area was cited by top White House coronavirus task force members as one of the United States main centers for the infectious disease. As of Monday, the state of Maryland reported having 52,778 cases with 2,532 dead; Virginia on Friday had 44,607 cases and 1,375 deaths; Washington, DC had 8,801 cases and 466 deaths. Throughout the course of the week ending Friday, the region added over 10,000 new COVID-19 cases. Despite this, officials throughout the region all gave pronouncements that it was time for the areas hardest hit to reopen. On Friday, the heavily infected Northern Virginia suburbs began phase one, with restaurants, nonessential retail, childcare and places of worship resuming. In the days following Democratic Governor Ralph Northams announcement last week, the state posted records for new infections. The Washington Post reported the previous weeks daily average to be 1,028 cases on Wednesday, over 100 cases more per day than in mid-May. On May 15, Governor Northam permitted rural parts of the state to begin reopening. Virginia may begin phase two as early as next week. In Maryland, officials in Montgomery and Prince Georges counties are planning to reopen this week. The two counties, which lie on the immediate borders of the District of Columbia, have by far produced the highest numbers of infections in the state, with Prince Georges County having over 15,000 cases and Montgomery County over 11,000. As of Wednesday, Montgomery County had met only two of its nine basic metrics for reopening. Perhaps most absurd was the decision by Washington, D.C.s Democratic mayor, Muriel Bowser, to begin reopening on Friday. Earlier in the week, the city government announced that, despite increased COVID-19 infections last weekend, the city was back on track to meeting its goals of seeing 14 days of lowered infections. Following another decrease last Monday, Bowser reset the countdown to day 11. The infection rate for the Northern Virginia D.C. suburbs averaged about 20 percent. In Maryland and Washington, DC the rates were 12.5 percent and 17.2 percent last week. In Marylands Montgomery County and Prince Georges County, the rates were much higher, standing at 14.4 percent and 19.4 percent, respectively. According to the World Health Organization, states and cities should be aiming for positivity rates of less than 10 percent before even considering reopening. Demonstrating local officials utter disregard for public safety, on Sunday, Marylands Republican governor, Larry Hogan, expressed concern that a resurgence of COVID-19 might occur due to recent protests against police brutality. When you put hundreds or thousands of people together in close proximity, when weve got this virus all over the streets, its not healthy, he said on CNNs State of the Union program. Despite these fears, Maryland and other jurisdictions will continue the reopening process as planned. State officials have sought to downplay the continued rise in infections by claiming that growth in COVID-19 infections reflects a corresponding rise in the number of tests being done. If you have a high number like we have currently in D.C., it just shows that really people who are the sickest, who are showing up for care, are the people who are getting tested and diagnosed. It shows us that we really dont have a great grasp of whats happening in the community as a whole, said Dr. Anne Monroe to the regional publication DCist.com. Monroe is a professor of epidemiology at the George Washington Universitys Milken Institute School of Public Health. Similarly, testing numbers themselves continue to lag in the various jurisdictions. An article in the Washington Post notes, Demand for testing has been slow in the District and elsewhere, experts say, because of a lingering sense of test scarcity, confusion about who qualifies to get one, a lack of easy access in underserved communities and skepticism about testing operations. The District has averaged little more than 1,000 tests a day recently and has only broken 1,500 once, in mid-May. The city reported only 344 test results on Friday, even as experts advise the city to do 5,500 tests daily, the Post added. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) officials have likewise indicated a willingness to begin service at a higher capacity than previously stated. Originally, in May, the transit system, which has seen a daily train ridership decrease of nearly 90 percent since the pandemic began, announced that it would not plan to restore full service until spring of 2021. However, last week at an online regional Metro board hearing, David Horner, a representative of the federal government, pressed transit officials to consider raising [their] sights for the stabilization period for bus capacity from 85,000 to 130,000 given that there is already robust demand. Metro has reported millions in losses due to decreased demand. Responding to this, WMATA General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld suggested consolidating routes and reopening first and last train cars to facilitate increased usage, placing operators in danger of job loss and infection. According to the Post, the region as a whole has experienced a staggering budget crisis, as 1.4 million individuals have been laid off from jobs since the pandemic began. Last weekend, D.C. Mayor Bowser introduced a 2021 fiscal year budget proposal that includes pay freezes for the city governments 37,000 employees for four years. In nearby Montgomery County, workers protested against plans for budget cuts outside the homes of county legislators earlier this month. Baltimore County, which also reopened earlier this month, announced $58 million in budget cuts at a legislative meeting on Thursday. The budget targets schools and municipal employees hardest, with $20.2 million in cuts in just those two areas. The county is also planning on $69 million in reduced general spending over the coming fiscal year. Rescheduled primaries have led to June 2 being one of the busier days on the 2020 calendar. Seven states and the District of Columbia will hold presidential primaries. Six of those states will also hold downballot primaries, as will Idaho and Iowa. Those latter two states held their presidential primaries earlier this year. Polls Close (Eastern Time) Your individual polling place may have different hours. Do not rely on this to determine when to vote. Total Democratic pledged delegates by closing time* are displayed 6:00 PM 0 Indiana+ (ET) 7:00 PM 82 Indiana+ (CT) (82) 8:00 PM 328 District of Columbia (20), Maryland (96), Pennsylvania (186), Rhode Island (26), South Dakota+ (CT) 9:00 PM 50 New Mexico (34) South Dakota+ (MT) (16) 10:00 PM 19 Idaho^ (MT), Iowa, Montana (19) 11:00 PM 0 Idaho^ (PT) *For states holding presidential primaries today. +Indiana polls close 6:00 PM local time; South Dakota is 7:00 PM local time. Delegate count is listed with the later ET closing. ^Ballots not yet mailed can be returned to a drop box before 8:00 PM local time. Democratic Delegate Count Heading into June 2, presumptive nominee Joe Biden is 425 delegates short of the 1,991 he needs to clinch the Democratic nomination. 479 delegates are available Tuesday. While it is mathematically possible for Biden to get there, he'll need to hold Bernie Sanders below 15% in almost all the jurisdictions (states and individual congressional districts) distributing delegates today. If he doesn't make it Tuesday, he'll almost certainly cross the threshold with primaries next week in Georgia and West Virginia. A late caveat: Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf issued an executive order on June 1 extending the deadline for some ballots returned by mail to be received and counted. It applies only to six of the state's 67 counties, but those counties include Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Since the ballots must be postmarked by June 2, we may still see some presidential vote counts Tuesday, and perhaps a projected winner. However, it is unclear how many delegates will be projected before the June 9 deadline. As the state has nearly 40% of the 479 delegates available, this change may remove the possibility of Biden reaching 1,991 before next Tuesday. Results Summary Results by State The Democratic presidential primary results as well as results for other races we're watching closely are on this page, broken out by state. There are links to the full results for each state, including - as applicable - presidential, congressional and gubernatorial primaries. Idaho Idaho held its presidential primary on March 10. June 2 is the extended deadline to receive ballots for a primary that has been conducted entirely by mail. Senate/House: While there are a couple congressional primaries, the U.S. Senate seat held by Jim Risch as well as both congressional districts are seen as safely Republican this November. All Idaho Results >> Back to Top Indiana President: There are 82 pledged delegates available in the Democratic presidential primary. House: While there are contested primaries in both parties in most of the nine congressional districts, the seven incumbents seeking reelection are seen as safe in November. In District 1, 18-term incumbent Rep. Peter Visclosky is retiring. A very large field is attempting to succeed him, with the winner Tuesday likely to be the next member of Congress from this safely Democratic district. The leading candidates look to be state Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon and Hammond mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. In District 5, Republican Susan Brooks is retiring. 14 Republicans are vying for the party's nomination. On the Democratic side, state Rep. Christina Hale is the likely nominee. The general election race for this suburban Indianapolis district is expected to be somewhat competitive, although most forecasters give the GOP a small edge. All Indiana Results >> Back to Top Iowa Iowa held its presidential primary on February 3. Senate: Theresa Greenfield is favored to become the Democratic nominee, although the party's state convention will make the final decision if no candidate reaches 35%. Whoever emerges will face off against Sen. Joni Ernst (R) in November. While not the most likely Democratic pick-up this year, the general election race is definitely on the competitive radar. Most forecasters see it as Leans Republican. House: One of the more interesting races of the night is in the state's 4th district, where Rep. Steve King attempts to stave off a challenge from state Sen. Randy Feenstra. King is a nine-term incumbent, but one of the more controversial members of the GOP House caucus. The party is supporting Feenstra. The winner will meet Democrat J.D. Scholten, who held King to a 3 point win in 2018. A Feenstra nomination will make things much more difficult for Scholten in this conservative district that Donald Trump won by 27 points in 2016. Iowa's other three congressional districts are all held by Democrats and are all seen as highly competitive in November. Incumbents Abby Finkenauer (IA-1) and Cindy Axne (IA-3) will be seeking a 2nd term. Axne is likely to face a rematch against former Rep. David Young, who she unseated in 2018. Finkenauer's likely opponent is state Rep. Ashley Hinson. In District 2, state Sen. Rita Hart will be the Democratic nominee; Rep. Dave Loebsack is retiring after seven terms. There is a contested primary among five candidates on the Republican side. For any primary where no candidate reaches 35%, a nominee will be selected at a convention of county parties within the district. All Iowa Results >> Back to Top Maryland President: There are 96 pledged delegates available in the Democratic presidential primary. House: There are contested primaries in each of the state's eight congressional districts. All eight incumbents are running, and all eight districts are safe in November. The only incumbent races that might have a bit of suspense are in the 5th and 7th districts. In District 5, Steny Hoyer, the House Majority Leader, is being challenged from the left by activist Mckayla Wilkes. She is hoping to replicate what Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accomplished with her surprise primary win in the 2018 midterms. Wilkes has generated some buzz, but the demographics of the district make this a steeply uphill climb. In District 7, Rep. Kweisi Mfume recently won a special election to replace the late Rep. Elijah Cummings. Mfume emerged from a crowded Democratic field - which included Cumming's widow - to win the nomination in February. Because of filing deadlines, most of the candidates from the special election primary will again be on the ballot. Regardless of who emerges, that person will almost certainly prevail in the general election; this is one of the bluest districts in the country. All Maryland Results >> Back to Top Montana President: There are 19 pledged delegates available in the Democratic presidential primary. Senate/Governor/House: As discussed in the Montana Road to 270 article, the state isn't likely to be competitive at the presidential level in November. However, the races for Senate and Governor are expected to be closely-contested. The at-large House seat is open, as Rep. Greg Gianforte (R) makes a run for governor. The current governor, Steve Bullock (D), is termed-out and is running for Senate. Bullock is expected to win his primary and face incumbent Sen. Steve Daines in the general election. The Democratic gubernatorial primary is between Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney and businesswoman Whitney Williams. Both candidates are doing well in fundraising and endorsements; with no polling to guide, the race is seen as a true toss-up. Gianforte is favored in the GOP primary. All Montana Results >> Back to Top New Mexico President: There are 34 pledged delegates available in the Democratic presidential primary. Senate: Sen. Tom Udall (D) is retiring; Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (NM-3) will be the party's nominee for this safely Democratic seat. House: The seven-candidate primary to fill Lujan's seat in the House is drawing a bit of added interest due to former CIA operative Valerie Plame being on the ballot. This is a competitive primary in a safe Democratic district: whoever wins Tuesday is likely to be headed to Congress. In terms of November, the more important primary to watch is for the GOP nomination in District 2. Democratic Rep. Xochitl Torres Small flipped the district in 2018; regaining it is a top GOP target. The primary is between 2018 nominee Yvette Herrell and businesswoman Claire Chase. It has gotten rather personal around who is more loyal to President Trump. A Democratic PAC has also thrown money at the race, attacking Herrell as a Trump loyalist. This will help Herrell in a GOP primary; so the thinking must be that she will be the easier Republican to defeat in November. All New Mexico Results >> Back to Top Pennsylvania President: There are 186 pledged delegates available in the Democratic presidential primary. House: All 18 incumbents are standing for reelection in November. Only two have a contested primary: Brian Fitzpatrick (R, PA-01) and Michael Doyle (D, PA-18). Although he is expected to prevail, Fitzpatrick's is the more competitive of the two. His District 1, as well as Districts 8 and 10 are seen as the most competitive in November. Because of Gov. Wolf's order extending the mail-in deadline in parts of the state, we may not have race calls for all of the associated primaries until June 9. All Pennsylvania Results >> Back to Top Rhode Island President: There are 26 pledged delegates available in the Democratic presidential primary. The state holds its primary for other offices on September 8. Back to Top South Dakota President: There are 16 pledged delegates available in the Democratic presidential primary. Senate/House: Sen. Mike Rounds and at-large Rep. Dusty Johnson have drawn primary challenges from GOP state representatives. Regardless of how those play out, both seats are safely Republican in the fall. In fact, no Democrat qualified for the U.S. House primary, so the party will not field a candidate for that office in November. All South Dakota Results >> Back to Top President: There are 20 pledged delegates available in the Democratic presidential primary. Glee actor Samantha Marie Ware has claimed that her co-star Lea Michele made her life a living hell due to traumatic microaggressions on the set of the show. The feud became public on Monday night (1 June), when Ware responded to a tweet from Michele about the death of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter. George Floyd did not deserve this. This was not an isolated incident and it must end. #BlackLivesMatter, Michele had written. Ware then quoted Micheles tweet, writing in all caps: Remember when you made my first television gig a living hell?!?! Cause Ill never forget. I believe you told everyone that if you had the opportunity you would s*** in my wig! amongst other traumatic microaggressions that made me question a career in Hollywood. Ware starred in the sixth season of the musical comedy as Jane Hayward, while Michele played Rachel Berry, one of the main cast members throughout all six seasons of the show. In support of Ware, Community star Yvette Nicole Brown commented: I felt every one of those capital letters. This is not the first time one of Micheles former co-stars has spoken out against the actors behaviour on set. Naya Rivera revealed they fell out when making the 2016 adaptation of her memoir Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes and Growing Up. The Independent has contacted Wares representatives for comment. Voluntary COVID-19 testing in Western Australia has been expanded to include Department of Education employees, tourism staff and transport workers. From Wednesday and until June 10, people aged over 18 working in the following sectors will be eligible for testing: School staff involved in any function in a school setting, from pre-kindergarten to year 12, including Department of Education employees. Staff at accredited tourism businesses. Transport workers, including truck, bus and train drivers, maritime workers, security and customer service staff working in public transport, and aviation workers. Healthcare workers including WA Health staff, employees in private hospitals, residential aged care facilities, general practices, pharmacies, the disability sector, or any worker employed by an organisation delivering health services. WA Police staff, meat workers employed in an abattoir, meat packing or in further processing such as small goods manufacture. Retail workers such as employees in supermarkets, department stores and specialty stores. Hospitality workers such as employees in cafes, restaurants, pubs or hotels. WA Health Minister Roger Cook said the additional testing was part of the government's DETECT Snapshot program, which hopes to identify undetected cases of COVID-19 in WA. Since the program was rolled out last Thursday, 3000 asymptomatic people have been tested for the disease statewide, bringing the total number of tests performed in WA up to 94,948. "Over 80 per cent are from the healthcare workforce so I'd like to see other workforces take advantage of the clinics," Mr Cook said. "But it is early days and this is a good opportunity to continue to promote the clinics." He encouraged eligible people to come forward and get tested. "Every person that comes through is another piece of evidence we have to inform us about where this disease is and how we need to respond to it," he said. "Asymptomatic testing is a really important way that we can make sure that Western Australia isn't having aspects of this virus go undetected." Adams Oshiomhole, National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), says the party had not received any official letter from Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, rejecting direct mode of primary adopted by the National Working Committee(NWC). Oshiomhole, a former governor of the state said this while fielding questions from newsmen after a closed-door meeting with some governors elected on the platform of the party. According to Oshiomhole, the governors had agreed to support winner of the forthcoming gubernatorial primary election. On claims that Obaseki had rejected the direct mode of primary, he said: I dont have any letter or document to that effect. These are very formal matters. Advertisement We have since published our time-table because under the law, we are required to give INEC at least 21 days notice to monitor our primaries and to state the mode of our primaries. And of course, the NWC had approved direct primaries for Edo. That of Ondo has not been discussed because that will come much later, because Edo will come about three weeks before Ondo. Read Also: Appeal Court Fails To Sit Over Oshiomholes Suspension We have commenced the sale of forms, I think as of last Friday to my knowledge, three people had picked the forms. I think by today (Monday) more people have picked the forms. So, were selling forms to all those who wish to buy based on the guidelines and of course as the Chairman of the Progressives Governors rightly said, we have ensured in our letter to INEC and even this (Monday) morning, we had a virtual meeting with INEC leadership. We will conduct primaries taking into account the protocols on COVID-19 by the PTF and NCDC. I think everything has been going fine. Oshiomhole also dismissed the speculations that the meeting was set up to resolve the feud between him and Obaseki, stressed that it was a regular interface between the NWC and the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF) LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 04: 4-year-old Braydon Deauce White fist pumps a National Guardsmen at LAPD Headquarters Thursday morning as National Guardsmen remain on patrol surrounding the police headquarters with only a few protestors in sight. Braydon's Mother KimiRochelle Porter, said, "He wants to be a policeman so we brought him here to see how they keep us safe." Central on Thursday, June 4, 2020 in Los Angeles, CA. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) In a dramatic display of outrage over police brutality and the death of George Floyd, thousands converged across Southern California for peaceful protests that began in the morning and continued into the night. Marchers streamed through Hollywood, downtown Los Angeles and outside Mayor Eric Garcetti's home. A citywide curfew that began at 6 p.m. Tuesday is in effect until 6 a.m. Wednesday. By 7:30 p.m., police were beginning to arrest downtown protesters who refused to leave. In Larchmont at around 8:30 p.m., 40 or so people entered an apartment complex on the 400 block of Van Ness Avenue and went to the roof in order to avoid arrest. The complex was surrounded by helicopters and police ordering the presumed demonstrators to get down. Helicopter footage showed the demonstrators laying down on the roof, forming the letters BLM Black Lives Matter with their bodies. Around the same time in Koreatown, police detained more than 40 people near West 8th Street & South Crenshaw Boulevard. The protesters chanted peaceful protest intermittently and for the most part, calmly complied with police as they were cuffed with plastic bands and escorted to a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department bus. The effort to keep people at home comes after the Los Angeles Police Department's Hollywood Division made more arrests Monday than on any single day in history in response to protests that devolved into a series of looting incidents, mostly in Van Nuys and Hollywood. Officers took at least 585 people into custody Monday. Most arrests were for curfew violations, but officers detained 20 people on suspicion of looting and impounded 50 vehicles, a law enforcement source told The Times on Tuesday. Authorities arrested about 2,500 people from Friday to Tuesday morning after a mix of peaceful protests and property destruction rocked downtown, the Fairfax district, Van Nuys and Hollywood, LAPD Chief Michel Moore said. "Each day has seen the continuation of peaceful protests, but we have seen instances of burglaries and looting of businesses in various parts of the city," Moore said. "For the first time in decades, every sworn member of the Los Angeles Police Department is working. Days off have been canceled." Story continues Booking records reviewed by The Times show the vast majority of those arrested in L.A. County on looting, vandalism and burglary charges are county residents, seeming to refute perceptions that outside agitators were fueling unrest. Even still, Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia blamed looting and nearly 100 small fires in his city on organized criminals unaffiliated with peaceful protests. Its pretty clear, given the type of activity and how organized the activity was, there is a strategy going city to city and doing this criminal work, Garcia said this week. The damage to small business owners, he said, was unacceptable. Speaking Tuesday evening, Garcetti said he has directed LAPD to minimize their use of rubber bullets during interactions with peaceful protesters. I think that weve seen less of any of those tactics, and I hope that we can see the most minimal, if not zero, of those tactics, said Garcetti, who earlier in the day took a knee with protesters outside City Hall. Garcetti took the extreme step of asking for the National Guard to be brought to Los Angeles, evoking for many in this city the bloody memories of the 1992 riots sparked after the police officers acquittal in the beating of Rodney King. Garcetti said that about 1,000 guardsmen were on the streets as of Tuesday night. Earlier in the evening, more than 1,000 people gathered outside Garcettis residence in Windsor Square, chanting defund police! as an LAPD helicopter circled overhead. About half the crowd left as the clock struck 6 p.m. To Whitney Peterson, 35, of Los Angeles, the chant was not a call for abolishing law enforcement but limiting it and steering resources elsewhere. When ... people are getting killed by police, and yet we have schools and lower-income communities struggling, it's hard to swallow, she said of public spending for police. These communities are not being protected, and that needs to change. An independent autopsy commissioned by Floyd's family this week found he died of asphyxiation caused by neck and back compression after a Minneapolis police officer pinned him to the ground with a knee on the handcuffed man's neck for several minutes. Hundreds of protesters gathered at Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street late Tuesday morning to express their dismay over recent and historic oppression. After a few minutes, the group began walking through the streets of Hollywood, where they approached a line of several dozen officers holding batons. The officers blocked the crowd's advance. "Let us walk," the crowd yelled. Chants of I cant breathe and No justice, no peace echoed throughout. Aijshia Moody, 30, was among the crowd, holding a cardboard sign that read, Am I next? Her brother is 14 years old and has often dealt with racial profiling in Pacoima where they live, she said. He cant even get on his skateboard, she said, adding that she's dealt with racism throughout her life. Thats why Im here." Walking alongside the crush of protesters, community organizer Pete White briefly stopped in front of a Chase bank branch to snap a photo of a scrawled message: Chase yo dreams. Nearby, Kendrick Lamars Alright and N.W.As F tha Police blasted from a speaker. State violence brings me out here today, said White, who turned 49 on Tuesday. We see the signs that say Justice for George Floyd, but also, when you see the kaleidoscope of faces, its justice for immigrants, its justice in thinking that housing is a human right," said White, a South L.A. resident and founder of the Los Angeles Community Action Network. There is no peace without justice, he added. "How do you get justice? By making sure you defund the police and take all of those resources and put it in schooling, put it in services, in housing, in universal healthcare," White said. "Were saying we dont need another commission, another study or implicit bias training. Weve been there and the same thing keeps happening. Again and again." In addition to the countywide curfew, three cities in L.A. County have opted to extend their own curfews through at least Wednesday morning. Beverly Hills will be under curfew from 1 p.m. Tuesday till 5:30 a.m. Wednesday. Police will be "actively patrolling" the city, including residential areas, officials said. In Torrance, officials imposed a curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily for as long as L.A. County is under a state of emergency. Los Angeles city officials and Gov. Gavin Newsom declared the emergency shortly before midnight Sunday after protests in the Fairfax district turned violent and widespread looting erupted. And in Santa Monica, where several businesses were vandalized and looted Sunday, a curfew went into effect at 2 p.m. Tuesday and will last till 5:30 a.m. Wednesday. Santa Monica police made 41 arrests Monday after taking 438 people into custody Sunday. The city also recorded 347 damage reports, including 84 for graffiti, with the majority affecting retail businesses. More than 150 buildings sustained significant damage, city officials said Tuesday. If you were out around our city Monday morning, as I was, you know our streets were full of residents with brooms and sweepers. Volunteers cleaned graffiti off walls. The resilient spirit of our city was evident everywhere. Even after the shocking events of Sunday, it is again great to be a Santa Monican," Mayor Kevin McKeown said. Under the curfews, people are prohibited from being on streets and sidewalks or in parks and other public spaces. The restrictions do not apply to law enforcement, first responders, people traveling to and from work, or individuals seeking medical care. Although the county curfew applies to all cities and unincorporated areas, individual cities can impose stricter limits. After peaceful protests across the region, tensions escalated in Hollywood and Van Nuys on Monday evening, when numerous stores were looted. Just after 1 p.m. in Hollywood, dozens of activists chanted, Take a knee at members of the National Guard. After several minutes, at least two guardsmen complied. The crowd cheered. National Guard troops take a knee with protesters on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. pic.twitter.com/dwxjrYww9g Dorany Pineda (@DoranyPineda90) June 2, 2020 Other protesters encountered a line of police officers and began chanting, Walk with us, and Let us walk. The group was trying to reach another crowd of demonstrators farther up Hollywood Boulevard, past Cherokee Avenue. The marchers were met with a line of at least 20 LAPD officers who wouldnt let them pass. As the group neared the line, their hands up, police began raising their batons to hold them back. One protester placed a white flower in an officer's pocket. The officer threw it to the ground. A segment of the protest hit a snag later Tuesday afternoon as part of the crowd that had gathered near Ivar Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard surrounded police. The confrontation came after law enforcement received a radio call about armed looters, authorities said. Protesters began throwing bottles and sticks in response to a growing police presence. Officers then fired rubber bullets. As police pushed the crowd down Ivar, they confronted two women in a red pickup. The driver did not want to stop or put her keys on the dashboard as police tried to pass by, officers said. She was quickly detained. We dont need a confrontation, one officer later said into megaphone. Leave the area. Get out of the street, you can continue with your peaceful protest, he continued. Another officer, who declined to give his name, acknowledged that the protest had mostly been peaceful. "Just a few people who ruin it for everybody else," he said. Heaven Bouldin had been demonstrating for several hours as the curfew neared. At 25, she said, she has been protesting for 10 years. "Im tired, Im tired, Im tired, she said, holding a sign that read, "Stop killing black people." "My people have been getting killed for the last 200 years. Were in 2020 and we still cant bring an end to this," she said. "Somebody has to do something. On North Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood, police were standing in a line blocking the road as a crowd chanted and screamed at them. One woman shouted: All of you ... are found guilty. You violent criminals. All of this because yall dont want to stop killing black people. You treacherous snakes! One officer approached the protesters to announce through a megaphone that they were standing in a line to protect businesses that had been looted. We understand why youre here, the officer said before assuming his position in the line again. When the crowd began chanting, Take a knee! Take a knee! at the officers, the woman screamed, We will not take a knee! and charged toward officers, the yellow caution tape stopping her. Back up, sis! A young woman told her. The woman explained, emotionally, why they should not ask the officers for a knee. Ive been doing this longer than youve been alive, she said. Yall are stupid.... They already took a knee ... and they took a life. This dont look like that to you? she said, taking a knee herself and raising her fist in the air. Yall are ... ignorant. This aint a time to take a knee. The crowd stopped the chant and started a new one: Say his name! George Floyd! Times staff writers Richard Winton, James Queally, Matthew Ormseth, Laura J. Nelson, Gustavo Arellano, Seema Mehta, Taryn Luna, Luke Money, Alene Tchekmedyian, Julia Wick, Jaclyn Cosgrove, Benjamin Oreskes and Anita Chabria contributed to this report. Colombian cement market contracts 76% in April ICR Newsroom By 02 June 2020 Dispatches of grey cement in Colombia declined 75.6 per cent to 241,900t in April 2020 from 991,100t in April 2019, according to the national statistics office, DANE. Consumption in some of the countrys key cement markets were particularly hit. Sales in Antioquia were down 13.3 per cent, followed by Bogota (-9.8 per cent), Cundinamarca (-6.8 per cent) and Valle del Cauca (-6.5 per cent) Deliveries to the retail sector fell by 64.5 per cent, while ready-mix concrete companies reduced their offtake by 94.5 per cent YoY in April 2020. These trends are further supported by a reduction of 91 per cent YoY in bulk shipments and a 68.8 per cent drop in bagged cement deliveries. Cement production plummeted to 198,900t in April 2020, down 79.5 per cent from 971,000t in April 2019. January-April 2020 In the first four months of 2020, domestic dispatches fell 23.4 per cent to 3.001Mt when compared with deliveries of 3.917Mt in the year-ago period. The drop has been attributed by DANE to a contraction in sales to the retail sector (-20.7 per cent) and the ready-mix concrete companies (-32.8 per cent). Dispatches in Bogota and Antioquia saw a decrease of 3.8 and 3.3 per cent, respectively, while sales in Cundinamarca noted a 2.5 per cent drop YoY in the 4M20. Valle del Cauca and Bolivar saw a market contraction of 2.2 and two per cent, respectively. Atlantico reported a 1.5 per cent drop in dispatches while offtake in Meta was down one per cent. Markets in the rest of the country saw deliveries drop by less than one per cent with sales remaining stable in Casanare and edging up 0.2 per cent in Sucre. Bulk deliveries were down 26.9 per cent YoY while bagged cement dispatches fell by 21.7 per cent YoY in January-April 2020. Output from Colombias cement plants decreased 22.3 per cent YoY to 3.126Mt from 4.024Mt in the 4M19. Published under Roswell, New Mexico Season 2 Episode 11, titled Linger, hinted that the new characters, Diego and Steph, may factor heavily into the narrative. With that in mind, here are a couple of questions to ponder about The CW show until the next episode. [Spoiler warning: This article contains details about Roswell, New Mexico Season 2.] Justina Adorno | Rodin Eckenroth/WireImage Is Diego as perfect as he seems? Previously on Roswell, New Mexico, Lizs dad, Mr. Ortecho, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known as ICE. In desperation, Liz reached out to her ex-fiance, Diego, a brilliant scientist who happens to have government connections. Diego swoops into town to help get Lizs pop released from custody, thereby saving the day and making Max look pretty helpless in the process. Diego and Liz say their farewells, but not for long. In Roswell, New Mexico Season 2 Episode 11, Diego pops into the diner to Lizs surprise. Instead of leaving town, hes decided to stick around until Lizs father is free and clear. As if on cue, two ICE agents show up at Lizs diner to harass and threaten her. Diego flexes his influential muscles again and sends the bullies packing. When your boyfriend meets your ex-fiance Stream free only on The CW: https://t.co/J6drcdoGja #RoswellNM pic.twitter.com/1IMou3Vs8k Roswell, New Mexico (@CWRoswellNM) May 27, 2020 RELATED: Roswell, New Mexico: Heather Hemmens Explains Why Its Complicated for Michael and Maria In between the immigration drama, Liz and Diego mix it up like old times. They cook, banter, and bounce scientific theories off of each other. Liz stops to question why Diego would go out of his way to help the woman who dropped him like a hot potato without a goodbye. The smooth talker convinces her that he is happy with his new life and new ladylove and simply wants to do Liz a favor out of the goodness of his heart. Liz buys what Diego is selling. But in the spirit of the soapy brand of science fiction that Roswell, New Mexico typically peddles, the other shoe could drop. Time will tell if Diego has something nefarious up his sleeve or if he really is just a nice guy. Will Liz find a cure for Stephs condition? RELATED: Roswell, New Mexico: Nathan Dean Parsons Dishes on His Weird Day at Work Since her success in bringing Max back to life, Liz has been on a mission to help others with chronic and terminal illnesses. The biomedical engineers current project revolves around Kyles love interest, Steph. Liz has been secretly researching a DNA sample that she swiped. Unfortunately, Max is peeved that she would keep him in the dark about her extracurricular activities, which could put him and his alien cohorts at risk. Meanwhile, Kyle stops by the hospital to visit Steph, whose condition appears to be deteriorating. Although they are in a tiff over Kyles liberation of hospital equipment at the expense of her father who runs the place, the chemistry between the two cannot be ignored. Fans can only hope that Liz will find a cure for what ails Steph before it is too late so she and Kyle can have a chance at happiness. RELATED: Roswell, New Mexico and The Vampire Diaries: Heres How They Are Connected Experts fear that a spike in coronavirus cases in West African nations will be devastating for the region. People in countries such as Sierra Leone and Liberia are still traumatized from the Ebola pandemic, which killed 11,000 people in the region over two years. The region is home to some of the poorest countries in the world, and are lacking doctors and vital resources such as ventilators. View more episodes of Business Insider Weekly on Facebook. A new outbreak of Ebola has killed five people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to multiple sources. The announcement of new Ebola cases came just two days before officials were set to declare an end to the most recent outbreak of the virus in Congo. Authorities say the outbreak is in its final stages, but it nonetheless is digging up painful memories for many people on the continent, who fought another deadly Ebola pandemic from 2014 to 2016. And now, those that survived are bracing for spikes in another pandemic: the coronavirus. In West Africa, countries being hit by the coronavirus have barely recovered from Ebola. West Africa is home to some of the poorest countries in the world. With coronavirus cases beginning to surge in the region, nations with already dire health systems are facing the almost unthinkable prospect of another widespread pandemic. Although coronavirus outbreaks have been relatively small in the region so far with Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Burkina Faso each having reported less than 1,000 cases experts fear a sharp increase in cases may be inevitable. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa has warned that the wider African continent could see as many as 123 million cases and 300,000 deaths this year. Authorities in both Liberia and Sierra Leone have responded quickly to the threat, but they know a large outbreak of coronavirus would bring them to their knees. "If we get a large number of cases, we're going to get overwhelmed and we may have to make some hard decisions. Some people will have to die," Mosoka Fallah, head of Liberia's Public Health Institute, told Business Insider Weekly. Story continues Locals are hoping the lessons they learned from Ebola will help them with the current pandemic. Experts warn the African continent could see as many as 123 million coronavirus cases and 300,000 deaths this year. Business Insider Weekly People in the region hope the vital lessons they learned last time about the importance of early contact tracing and prevention can stave off the kind of disaster that is still fresh in their memories. In Liberia, the coronavirus response has been much swifter than than it was for the pandemic six years ago. The government ordered a nationwide lockdown on April 8, when there were only around 25 reported cases of the virus. Temperature controls, checkpoints, movement restrictions, and handwashing stations were put in place in an attempt to reduce the rate of transmission. And for those with the virus, a system of contact tracing, again learned from Ebola, has kicked into action. "We can either go the more aggressive way or we see people falling down and dying all around us before, like Ebola when the truth started to hit," Fallah said. "It might get late, we might go in to help, but then there will be consequences. There will be the trauma, there will be the lives that we could have prevented." And in Sierra Leone, a state of emergency was declared even before the first registered case. Three-day lockdowns were then imposed to allow contact tracers to track down anyone who may have been exposed to infected people to keep the spread of the virus to a minimum. But the odds are still stacked against them. Healthcare workers in West Africa know that if the coronavirus outbreak worsens, the results could be devastating. And for those with the virus, a system of contact-tracing, again learned from Ebola, has kicked into action. Liberia only has around 200 doctors to go around not to mention just 180 intensive-care hospital beds and a handful of ventilators, according to Reuters. If a large-scale outbreak hits the country, "we're probably going to run out of PPEs within a matter of weeks," one doctor, Heounohu Hessou, said. In neighboring Sierra Leone, doctors face a similar challenge: a fragile healthcare system and high levels of poverty. According to Reuters, there are only 13 ventilators and around 150 doctors nationwide. Liberia only has 200 doctors to go around, and Sierra Leone only has 150. Business Insider Weekly Where some projections see the death toll from COVID-19 in Africa being lower than other continents in part because of large young populations who are more resilient to the virus fear and hunger, coinciding with the peak of the malaria season, may see many children dying avoidable deaths. "People get scared not to go to the different health centers," said Mariatu Kamara, a nurse supervisor in Sierra Leone with Doctors Without Borders. "They maybe might not be suffering from the COVID itself it might be malaria, it might be HIV, it might be tuberculosis and sometimes you find out when they rush with the child to the hospital that sometimes it's already late." "It's really heartbreaking to see as a health worker, seeing children dying from conditions that are curable that can be managed in the hospital rather than coming with them half-dead and then maybe ending up dying in the health centre, it's really heartbreaking." Medical teams know that prevention and education may be the only tools they really have. "We are all scared," Mamadu Baldeh, a doctor in Sierra Leone, told Business Insider Weekly. "Health workers in other parts of the world are scared equally, and we do not want to have a situation where we're not considering prevention, we're considering care having to fight the disease." "I think the best shot we have is to prevent prevent prevent prevent that it doesn't come." Read the original article on Business Insider Anonymous has seen a huge surge in support as protests against racial inequality sweep across the US. The online activist collective has seen millions of new accounts follow its profiles and huge numbers of people sharing its posts. But even the biggest accounts involved seemed confused by the new attention, which appears to have been partly supported by fans of Korean pop music. In recent days, many of the biggest Anonymous accounts have pledged their support to protestors against police brutality and racism that began after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The tweets and Facebook posts in which it gave its support as well as indicating that it would pursue action against police departments and others have been seen millions of times, being repeatedly shared on both platforms. That has led those accounts to receive an outpouring of messages of support, and a vast influx of new followers to the various accounts affiliated with the group. Probably the most high-profile of the Twitter accounts affiliated with Anonymous, which tweets at the handle @YourAnonNews, posted to welcome its new followers but noted that it was not clear why it had gained so many new people so quickly. "Ok. We don't know why we got 3.5 million new followers, putting us at 5 million - but if you're new to our feed, and you're not a bot we can be pretty gruff. We don't mince words, we tell it like it is and when we want lulz, it upsets many people. "Welcome aboard." George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Show all 30 1 /30 George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Police spray mace at protestors to break up a gathering near the Minneapolis Police third precinct after a white police officer was caught on a bystander's video pressing his knee into the neck of African-American man George Floyd, who later died at a hospital, in Minneapolis Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester holds a sign with an image of George Floyd AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters demonstrate against the death of George Floyd AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester throws a piece of wood on a fire in the street just north of the 3rd Police Precinct Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets People in other US cities also protested the murder, like Los Angeles AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A police officer lobs a canister to break up crowds Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester is treated after inhaling tear gas Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Two police officers stand on the roof of the Third Police Precinct during a face off with a group of protesters Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters outside a Minneapolis police precinct two days after George Floyd died EPA George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters run from tear gas Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Demonstrators gather to protest in Los Angeles AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Police remove barricades set by protesters AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A fire burns inside of an Auto Zone store near the Third Police Precinct Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Flowers, signs and balloons are left near a makeshift memorial to George Floyd near the spot where he died AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A policeman faces a protester holding a placard in downtown Los Angeles AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A couple poses with a sign in Los Angeles AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets MINNEAPOLIS, MN - MAY 27: A man is tended to after sustaining an injury from a projectile shot by police outside the 3rd Police Precinct building on May 27, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Four Minneapolis police officers have been fired after a video taken by a bystander was posted on social media showing Floyd's neck being pinned to the ground by an officer as he repeatedly said, "I cant breathe". Floyd was later pronounced dead while in police custody after being transported to Hennepin County Medical Center. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) Stephen Maturen Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester reacts after inhaling tear gas Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty Images George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters use shopping carts as a barricade Getty Images George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters clash with the police as they demonstrate against the death of George Floyd AFP via Getty Images Gabriella Coleman, a research who has studied the group extensively, also tweeted to say that there appeared be something unusual about how many people were engaging with Anonymous accounts and posts. "I will say that major accounts got millions of new followers, tweets are exploding, and so there is something interesting going on just on that front," she wrote in a tweet. In another post, she said that "something is up" with the huge increase in numbers that Anonymous were seeing. Much of the increase appears to have been driven by accounts that usually post about K-Pop. One account usually devoted to Korean popstars, for instance, posted a long thread documenting the history of Anonymous which has been tweeted hundreds of thousands of times. Others speculated that at least some of the followers and engagement may be from bots, though it is not clear why or how such a mass following would have come about. Video above: Breonna Taylor's family calls for peace after protests erupt last week A board member with the Louisville Metro Police Foundation says there is a fake fundraising website using Breonna Taylor's name. The fake website, Breonnataylor.com, urges people to "support good police" by donating to the COVID-19 fund, LMPF or Norton Healthcare. The site features three links which give people the option to donate at least $100. It also features text condemning the recent riots and says emergency workers are "putting themselves at risk" during the COVID-19 pandemic. SaferLouisville.com director, Tracie Shifflett, says she is "disheartened" that someone would do this. "We are saddened and disheartened that someone would do this, especially during this time when we need unity and not division. Please let us know if you hear who has done this and we will work on it from our end as well. We have temporarily shut down our page until we can figure out who did this. We are praying for our city and our country." According to the LMPD, the person that purchased the domain name was from Phoenix, Arizona. Taylor was shot and killed by Louisville Metro Police in March while officers were conducting a raid at her apartment. There is a legitimate site that asks citizens to call for accountability in Taylor's case. Smash actor Jeremy Jordan is mourning the loss of his 14-year-old nephew, who tragically took his own life on Monday. The actor made the heartbreaking revelation on social media, where he remembered his late loved one. The 35-year-old wrote on Tuesday: 'Please take a moment amidst the chaos and say a prayer for my family. A couple of days ago, my 14-year-old nephew took his own life. We are devastated. In memory: Jeremy Jordan spoke up Tuesday about teen suicide as he paid tribute to his 14-year-old nephew, who took his own life Monday 'Teen suicide is a serious issue we cannot forget. Please talk to your children. Listen to them. Look for signs. Take action. They are the most vulnerable amongst us in these times of turmoil. RIP Bubba.' He also shared a link to a GoFundMe page, which was set up by Joseph's parents to help with funeral expenses. In addition to being an uncle, Jordan became a father last year, as he and wife Ashley Spencer, 35, welcomed their first child. RIP: The 35-year-old wrote: 'Please take a moment amidst the chaos and say a prayer for my family. A couple of days ago, my 14-year-old nephew took his own life. We are devastated' Funeral expenses: He also shared a link to a GoFundMe page, which was set up by Joseph's parents to help with funeral expenses Proud dad: In addition to being an uncle, Jordan became a father last year, as he and wife Ashley Spencer, 35, welcomed their first child Reunited: Jordan appeared last month with some of his Smash co-stars, including Katharine McPhee and Debra Messing, for a Zoom reunion The talented Broadway couple recently celebrated their daughter Clara's first birthday back in April. Jordan also appeared last month with some of his Smash co-stars, including Katharine McPhee and Debra Messing, for a Zoom reunion. He starred as playwright Jimmy Collins on the NBC musical series, which ran for only two seasons from 2012 to 2013. In association with People, the event benefitted The Actor's Fund, helping artists in need amid the growing coronavirus pandemic. The Supergirl star also recorded a socially-distanced duet of You Matter to Me with McPhee as a tribute to essential workers. If you or anyone you know needs to talk, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or click here. German English French Italian MeMed Receives CE Mark for Two Pioneering Technologies: The MeMed BV Test and MeMed Key Point-of-Need Platform Cutting-edge instrument platform and a novel host-immune response signature test rapidly distinguish between viral and bacterial infections to improve patient outcomes HAIFA, Israel, June 2, 2020 MeMed Ltd., a leader in host response-based solutions, today announced that it has received a CE Mark in Europe for use of its diagnostic test MeMed BV and point-of-need platform MeMed Key. At its core, MeMed is about decoding the signals of the host-immune response to help physicians make better informed decisions that improve patients lives, said Eran Eden, MeMeds co-founder and CEO. The CE-IVD mark brings us closer to impacting patients around the globe. We believe MeMed BV and MeMed Key will be a major addition to the clinical arsenal, improving outcomes for patients with acute infections, lowering healthcare costs and combating antibiotic resistance. We are indebted to the United States Department of Defense and the European Commission for their continuous support, helping us reach this significant milestone, as well as to our research collaborators who are generating an unprecedented amount of clinical evidence in the US, Europe and other regions around the globe. MeMed BV measures host-immune response proteins from a small sample of blood and applies machine learning in order to accurately distinguish between bacterial and viral infections. This provides actionable information enabling better informed antibiotic and antiviral treatment decisions. By relying on the immune response, rather than direct pathogen detection, MeMed BV complements conventional technologies, allowing rapid and accurate diagnosis even when the infection site is inaccessible. MeMed BV has been validated by an unprecedented level of high-quality real-world data from over 15,000 patients and multinational, double-blind clinical studies, published in leading peer-reviewed journals, showing over 90% sensitivity and specificity (NPV>98%) across multiple pathogens.15 MeMed Key is a cutting-edge technology platform that allows highly sensitive and rapid measurements of multiple proteins at the point of need, and specifically it runs MeMed BV within 15 minutes. The CE Mark clearance of our MeMed Key instrument marks an exciting milestone that builds on years of development work, said Kfir Oved, MeMeds co-founder, CTO and Chairman. The MeMed Key platform is not only paving the way for wide implementation of the MeMed BV test, but also opens the way to highly sensitive, rapid and multiplexed protein measurements at the point of care, which, so far, was mainly available using expensive central lab equipment. Leveraging the MeMed Key platform will allow us to expand our host-response test pipeline to other indications outside infectious diseases, furthering our efforts to continue addressing big clinical dilemmas and areas of unmet need. We are now expanding our partnerships to make these technologies widely available. Professor Louis Bont, MD, PhD, Division of Pediatric Immunology and Infectious Disease, University Medical Center, Utrecht, the Netherlands, noted: While traditional diagnostics focus on identifying the disease-causing viruses or bacteria, this technology works differently. It identifies whether the patients immune system is actively fighting a bacterial or viral infection. Our international, double-blind study conducted and published in Lancet ID1 and BMJ Paediatrics5, as well as studies by others, showed that this host-response solution enables more accurate diagnoses compared to todays routine tests and will meaningfully aid clinicians in improving antibiotic treatment decisions. This diagnostic is an essential step in our collaborative fight against antimicrobial resistance." In addition to the CE Mark in Europe, MeMed has received AMAR clearance from the Israeli Ministry of Health to market and sell MeMed BV and MeMed Key. About MeMed Our mission is to translate the immune system's complex signals into simple insights that transform the way diseases are diagnosed and treated, profoundly benefiting patients and society. For additional information on MeMed, please visit http://www.me-med.com. About MeMed BV MeMed BV is a pioneering immune-based protein signature test, developed and validated over the course of decade-long collaborations with leading academic and commercial partners. It provides physicians with an indispensable tool to distinguish between bacterial and viral infections and address key clinical dilemmas with over 90% sensitivity and specificity (NPV>98%) across multiple pathogens, times from symptom onset and irrespective of colonizers.14 MeMed BV measures and computationally integrates the levels of three immune system proteins: TRAIL, IP-10 and CRP. When run on the MeMed Key instrument platform, the MeMed BV test provides a result within 15 minutes. MeMed BV has been validated by an unprecedented level of high-quality clinical data from more than 15,000 patients and multinational, double-blind clinical studies, which have been published in leading peer-reviewed journals (including Pediatrics, The Lancet ID, PLOS One, BMJ Peds and European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases). The MeMed BV test has received a CE Mark in Europe and AMAR clearance from the Israeli Ministry of Health. About MeMed Key MeMed Key is a first-of-its-kind technology platform, enabling highly sensitive measurements of multiple proteins, within minutes, at the point of need. It opens the way to quantification of a vast array of human proteins in healthy and disease states, where and when it actually matters. The MeMed Key development program has been partially funded by the US Department of Defense and the EU Commission. MeMed Key has received a CE Mark in Europe and AMAR clearance from the Israeli Ministry of Health. MeMed Contacts: Media: Adee Mor, VP Marketing, MeMed pr@me-med.com IR: Kfir Emmer, VP Finance, MeMed kfir.emmer@me-med.com Phone: +972-4-8500302 References 1. Oved, K. et al. A Novel Host-Proteome Signature for Distinguishing between Acute Bacterial and Viral Infections. PLoS ONE, e0120012 (2015). 2. van Houten, C. B. et al. A host-protein based assay to differentiate between bacterial and viral infections in preschool children (OPPORTUNITY): a double-blind, multicentre, validation study. Lancet Infect Dis (2016). 3. Srugo, I. et al. Validation of a Novel Assay to Distinguish Bacterial and Viral Infections. Pediatrics 4. Ashkenazi-Hoffnung, L. et al. A host-protein signature is superior to other biomarkers for differentiating between bacterial and viral disease in patients with respiratory infection and fever without source: a prospective observational study. Eur. J. Clin. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. (2018). 5. van Houten, C, et al. Update of a clinical prediction model for serious bacterial infections in preschool children by adding a host-protein-based assay: a diagnostic study. BMJ Paediatrics Open (2019). Attachment The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Tuesday. (this story is no longer updating. Click here to read Wednesdays file). Web links to longer stories if available. 8 p.m. About one third of students returned to classrooms in British Columbia Monday and Education Minister Rob Fleming said he expects those numbers to rise. In countries like New Zealand and Denmark, more families sent their kids back to classrooms after hearing it was safe. The B.C. government is anticipating a similar pattern, he said during a news conference at a Victoria-area middle school on Tuesday. Schools opened Monday on a part-time and optional basis for students in kindergarten through Grade 12, while online learning also continues for the final four weeks of the year. The partial return will allow staff to prepare for a fresh term in the fall, and they will spend summer fine tuning how it will work, Fleming said. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said during her briefing Tuesday that officials cant predict what will happen between now and September, so they also cant say what the next school year will look like. 4:30 p.m. A New Brunswick doctor blamed by many, including the premier, for spreading COVID-19 in a growing cluster of new cases told Radio-Canada on Tuesday hes not sure how he picked up the virus. Dr. Jean Robert Ngola said he recently travelled from Campbellton, N.B., to Quebec to pick up his 4-year-old daughter because the girls mother had to attend a funeral in Africa. Ngola admitted that upon his return from the overnight trip, he did not self-isolate for 14 days, but added he does not know if he caught the coronavirus on his travels or from a patient. Perhaps it was an error in judgment, but I did not go to Quebec to go to take the virus and come to give it to my patients, Ngola told morning show La Matinale. There are 13 active COVID-19 cases in the province that had just weeks ago seen all of its coronavirus cases recovered. All of New Brunswicks active cases are in the health region known as Zone 5, and all have been linked to a cluster in the Campbellton area. Officials, including Premier Blaine Higgs, have said the cluster began when a health-care worker travelled to Quebec and returned to work at Campbellton Regional Hospital without self-isolating. 3 p.m. The federal government has inked a contract for 37 million syringes roughly enough for the entire Canadian population as it prepares for mass vaccinations against COVID-19. Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand said Tuesday that the contract was signed with the Canadian branch of Becton Dickinson, a global medical tech giant. Read the full story from the Stars Alex Ballingall. 2:30 p.m. Contact tracing was delayed for hundreds of positive COVID-19 cases in Ontario when they werent relayed to their respective local health agencies because of a breakdown in communication, according to Ontario Health. In a statement to the Star on Tuesday afternoon, Ontario Health spokesperson Gillian Wansbrough said that at least 485 positive COVID-19 tests done by a provincial lab werent flagged to the corresponding local health agency, and that a huge backlog of cases now need to be sorted through. The impact of the error may not be fully understood for some time, Wansbrough said. When public health agencies complete their case management and contact tracing, there will be a greater understanding of the impact. Ontario Health has confirmed that all of the labs doing COVID-19 testing are clear on who contacts the patients and who contacts the public health agencies, Wansbrough said. The focus for Ontario Health now, she says, is ensuring that people with positive tests are contacted and that public health agencies know who they must involve in case management and contact tracing. The majority of patients knew that they had had a positive test, Wansbrough said. This is because people can go online to see their results and/or theyve been contacted by a physician responsible for suggesting they be tested. However, many of these patients still require case management by public health, which is being rectified by the public health units. 2:10 p.m.: Ontario government announces $2.8 million in funding for homegrown manufacturers to ramp up PPE production. Premier Doug Ford says just because the state of emergency has been extended until June 30 does not mean opening up the economy further is on hold. 2 p.m.: A livestream of Fords daily news conference will be available at thestar.com 1:49 p.m.: The number of COVID-19 cases at a farm in southwestern Ontario has nearly doubled, local authorities said Tuesday as they worked to contain an outbreak that has hit dozens of migrant workers. The Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit said 164 people most of them migrant workers have tested positive for COVID-19 at the Scotlynn Groups farm in Norfolk Country, up from 85 cases reported on Sunday. The agency said seven people have been admitted to hospital but gave no update on their condition. 12:30 p.m.: Ontario has taken over Forest Heights nursing home in Kitchener, which despite hospital help has been unable to contain the spread of COVID-19. St. Marys General Hospital will now run the 240-bed facility for at least 90 days. Fifty-one residents have died at the home. There are 55 residents currectly infected with the virus, along with 69 staff members. 12:05 p.m.: Prince Edward Islands chief public health officer says essential workers who travel back-and-forth from jobs off the Island will now be required to self-isolate. Dr. Heather Morrison says she is removing an exemption that was in place for such workers because of the recent outbreak of COVID-19 in northern New Brunswick, which occurred after a health-care worker returned from Quebec and didnt self-isolate. There were no new cases of the infection on the Island reported on Tuesday. The last positive case was reported April 28, and all 27 of the provinces confirmed cases have recovered from the virus. 11:56 a.m.: The federal government continues to add to the supply of personal protective agreement and related medical equipment needed to fight COVID-19. The prime minister says the race to accumulate what Canada needs requires a balance between shopping all over the world and continuing to bolster manufacturing capabilities at home. Justin Trudeau pointed out that over half the face shields acquired so far have been made by a Canadian company that expanded its workforce to contribute to the effort. He says Canada has whats required to meet the provinces demands at the moment but as the slow reopening of the country begins, more will be needed. The federal government is in the market for hundreds of millions of pieces of gear, from gloves to gowns to ventilators. The numbers on hand of most goods are ticking steadily up, though not for ventilators as of May 26, only 203 had arrived out of the nearly 40,000 ordered. 11:55 a.m.: There were 52 new deaths attributed to COVID-19 in Quebec over the past 24 hours. That number is more than double the 20 COVID-19 deaths recorded on Monday. But public health officials have stated that the daily number of recorded deaths isnt always exact, because some deaths are only attributed to the novel coronavirus days after they occur. The number of new confirmed daily cases of the virus, however, continued its downward trend today, with 239 cases the lowest number since March 25. The total number of confirmed cases in Quebec now stands at 51,593, including 4,713 deaths and 16,803 people who have recovered. There were 10 fewer patients being treated in hospital for COVID-19, for a total of 1,175. 11:30 a.m.: Ontarios regional health units are reporting another day with more than 400 new COVID-19 cases as an outbreak among farmworkers in Southwestern Ontario continues to result in dozens of newly reported cases. At least 164 workers have tested positive so far at a large-scale agricultural facility in Norfolk County, southwest of Hamilton; seven migrant workers are in hospital, with three in intensive care, according to the Hamilton Spectator. In the last two days, the total number of reported cases in the Haldimand-Norfolk health has jumped by more than 70 per cent, to 382 from 220. Before this week, most of Ontarios recent new infections were coming in the GTA, with cases in the rest of the province slowing to a relative trickle. As of 11 a.m. Tuesday, Ontarios regional health units are reporting a total of 30,132 confirmed and probable cases, including 2,338 deaths. The jump of 414 new cases since the same time Monday was the second consecutive day above 400 cases after 10 straight below. Meanwhile, the eight fatal cases reported in the province since Monday morning was well below recent trends; before this week, the last full day to see fewer than 10 reported deaths came on April 5. The rate of deaths is down considerably since peaking at more than 90 deaths in a day earlier this month, about two weeks after the daily case totals hit a first peak in mid-April. Earlier Tuesday, the province once again reported that testing labs had failed to hit a target of 16,000 completed tests daily, however activity at assessment centres across the province was up, with nearly 20,000 samples added to the test queue, a sign the dip in completion is likely not to last. The province says the labs have the capacity to complete about 20,000 tests daily. Premier Doug Ford, who has called for widespread testing as a key part of Ontarios response to the pandemic, faced criticism after the labs reported daily totals far below target for 10 straight days in late May. The province also reported 801 patients are now hospitalized with COVID-19, including 125 in intensive care, of whom 87 are on a ventilator numbers that fall sharply last month. The province also says more than 22,000 patients who have tested positive for the coronavirus have now recovered from the disease about three-quarters of the total infected. The province says its data is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. The province also cautions its latest count of total deaths 2,284 may be incomplete or out of date due to delays in the reporting system, saying that in the event of a discrepancy, data reported by (the health units) should be considered the most up to date. The Stars count includes some patients reported as probable COVID-19 cases, meaning they have symptoms and contacts or travel history that indicate they very likely have the disease, but have not yet received a positive lab test. 11 a.m.: A livestream of Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus daily news conference is available at thestar.com 10:48 a.m.: Ontario is reporting that there were 15,244 tests completed in the previous day, the second day in a row the province did not meet its goal of 16,000 a day amid a push to increase testing levels. 10:18 a.m.: Ontarios patient ombudsman is launching a systemic investigation into the resident and caregiver experience at Ontarios long-term-care homes homes after receiving 150 complaints. The investigation will focus on staffing levels, visitor restrictions, infection prevention and control procedures and communication of information. About 1,700 nursing home residents have died and more than 5,000 are infected. Read the full story from Rob Ferguson. 9:55 a.m.: Tokyo issued an alert to residents for the first time urging additional caution against the coronavirus pandemic, after a spike in new cases. The Japanese capital saw 34 new infections on Tuesday, the most in a single day in more than three weeks. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike triggered what she has dubbed a Tokyo Alert, aiming to heighten Tokyo residents awareness of the state of the pandemic, and which could lead to businesses in the capital again being asked to close their doors should a surge continue. While the alert itself wont immediately lead to new restrictions, if cases continue to climb in the city the government has said it could reinstate its call for companies to shut and residents to stay at home. Of the 34 cases Tuesday, 13 came from a cluster at a hospital in Koganei in the west of the city, where more than 30 infections have been reported to date. Koike also said that many of the cases over the past week came from Tokyos nightlife districts, with dozens of the infections linked to areas populated by hostess clubs and other such entertainment venues. 9:40 a.m.: The college football season opener between Notre Dame and Navy has been moved out of Ireland because of the cornavirus pandemic. The Irish and Midshipmen were scheduled to meet in Dublin on Aug. 29, but instead will seek to play at the Naval Academy during the Labor Day weekend. The decision to move the venue came after discussions between the Irish government, medical authorities and the leadership teams at Navy and Notre Dame. Our priority must be ensuring the health and safety of all involved, Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk said. I am expecting that we will still be able to play Notre Dame as our season opener, but there is still much to be determined by health officials and those that govern college football at large. Notre Dame and Navy planned to stage the 94th consecutive installment of the longest continuous intersectional rivalry in the United States at Aviva Stadium in Ireland. Instead, the schools will strive to play at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland, on Sept. 5 or 6. This will be the first time the Fighting Irish will play at Navys 34,000-seat stadium. The game is usually played at a larger alternative site when the Midshipmen host. 8:49 a.m.: It looks like hockey fans will be able to cheer on their favourite NHL team this summer but Canadians have issued a collective shrug about whether the Stanley Cup is hoisted on their home ice. Less than one-quarter of those who took part in a recent survey said it was very important that a Canadian city be host to some of the playoffs. The web survey, conducted by polling firm Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies, found 47 per cent thought it wasnt important that the puck drop in a Canadian arena. The NHL plans to resume its 2019-20 season, brought to a halt in March by the COVID-19 pandemic, with games played in two hub cities. Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto are among the 10 possible locations, but Canadas mandatory 14-day quarantine for people entering the country remains in place and could scuttle the prospect of hockey north of the 49th parallel. 8:38 a.m. Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed his government to take quick steps to repair economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin reported to Putin on Tuesday that the Cabinets plan contains measures designed to stimulate economic growth, raise incomes and reduce unemployment. A partial economic shutdown that Putin ordered in late March to stem the countrys outbreak badly hurt an economy already battered by a sharp drop in oil prices. The Russian leader says the nation is now past the peak of contagion, allowing regional officials to gradually ease the restrictions. However, some experts warned that a daily increase of about 9,000 confirmed cases makes a quick lifting of the lockdown dangerous. On Monday, Putin set July 1 as the date for a nationwide vote on constitutional amendments allowing him to extend his rule until 2036, if he chooses. 8 a.m. The two main Russian Orthodox cathedrals in Moscow have reopened their doors as officials take more steps to ease the countrys coronavirus lockdown. The Christ the Savior Cathedral and the Epiphany Cathedral at Yelokhovo welcomed parishioners again on Tuesday. The move was co-ordinated with federal and city officials. Church-goers are supposed to wear medical masks and maintain a proper distance from others during services. Other churches in the Russian capital are scheduled to reopen on Saturday. Moscow churches have been closed to parishioners since April 13. Orthodox churches in many other regions across the vast country already have reopened as provincial authorities started lifting restrictions intended to stem the outbreak. Russian officials say that the nation is now past the peak of contagion, making it safe to gradually ease lockdown measures. Some experts warn that with new confirmed cases increasing by about 9,000 daily, lifting restrictions quickly is dangerous. 8 a.m.: South Africas total confirmed coronavirus cases have jumped to more than 35,000 while the province anchored by Cape Town remains a worrying hot spot with more than 23,000. South Africa has the most confirmed virus cases of any nation in Africa. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the total number across the continent is now above 152,000. South Africa took another step in easing lockdown restrictions on Monday with alcohol sales allowed again. Authorities have warned that the rate of new cases is expected to quicken. South Africa has seen cases double roughly every 12 days while cases in the Western Cape have been doubling every nine days. A major test lies ahead this weekend as places of worship are allowed to operate with a limit of 50 people, despite warnings from some religious leaders about the risk of spreading the virus. 7:47 a.m.: Global stock markets rose Tuesday as more economies reopened for business after long and painful shutdowns to contain the coronavirus pandemic. While the social unrest in the U.S. continued to provide a gloomy backdrop, international investors remained focus on the prospects for global economic growth. More countries and sectors are reopening, though activity is expected to remain subdued as social distancing rules complicate plans to get back to business. Futures for the Dow and the S&P 500 indexes on Wall Street were up 0.6 per cent and 0.5 per cent, respectively. In Europe, Frances CAC 40 jumped 2.1 per cent to 4,863 as the country opened restaurants, cafes, parks and beaches and launched a contract tracing app to help keep tabs on new contagions. Germanys DAX, which had been closed Monday, caught up with previous global markets gains and surged 3.9 per cent to 12,033. Britains FTSE 100 added 1 per cent to 6,2130. In Southeast Asia, where shutdowns are beginning to ease, Indonesias benchmark jumped nearly 2.0 per cent and Singapores surged 2.3 per cent. Despite the bright mood across, fears persist about a possible resurgence in coronavirus outbreaks in some countries. There were 34 new confirmed cases in Tokyo on Tuesday, seeming to reaffirm growing risks as people begin to mingle more in crowded commuter trains with the reopenings of more offices, schools, restaurants and stores. The daily numbers had dropped below 20 recently. 7:21 a.m.: Formula One will finally get underway with back-to-back races at the Austrian Grand Prix in July as part of an eight-race European swing. The Red Bull Ring in Spielberg will host races on July 5 and 12, governing body FIA said in a statement on Tuesday. The next race will be in Hungary on July 19 followed by consecutive races at the British GP at Silverstone on Aug. 2 and 9 after the British government exempted elite sports from an upcoming quarantine on foreign visitors. Further races are scheduled for Spain on Aug. 16 and Belgium on Aug. 30, with Italy completing the European swing on Sept. 6. Over the past two months Formula One has been working closely with all partners, authorities, the FIA and the 10 teams to create a revised calendar that will allow a return to racing in a way that is safe, the FIA said. Due to the ongoing fluidity of the COVID-19 situation internationally, the details of the wider calendar will be finalized in the coming weeks. There will be no spectators allowed to attend, although there may be later in the year if health conditions allow it. 7:13 a.m.: Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte marked Italys national day with an appeal to citizens to work together to revive the country, as his government prepares to lift restrictions on domestic travel from Wednesday. With the number of new coronavirus cases continuing to decline, Italians will be allowed to travel freely around the country again, ending almost three months of confinement to their home region to limit transmission of the disease. Conte is sticking with the plan announced last month despite threats from officials in the south to turn away citizens from Lombardy. Italys richest and most populous region around Milan was the epicenter of one of Europes most-extensive outbreaks. Lets combine and concentrate all our energy in the shared effort to pick ourselves up and begin again with maximum determination, Conte said in a message posted Tuesday on Facebook, evoking efforts to rebuild the nation after World War II. Everyone must do their part, as it has always been in the most difficult moments in our history, he added. Italy, our community, is our strength. 6:30 a.m.: The City of Toronto urged the province Monday to immediately begin collecting race-based and occupational data on COVID-19 cases, calling preliminary information showing the pandemics disproportionate impacts disturbing. In a letter addressed to top provincial health officials, Toronto Board of Health chair councillor Joe Cressy (Spadina-Fort York) highlighted data collected by Toronto Public Health which shows that areas of the city with the highest percentages of people who are low-income, racialized, and recent immigrants have the highest case rates of COVID-19. It is clear that this is a virus that preys on poverty and existing health inequities. In order to tackle COVID-19, we must fully understand the virus, and who is most at risk, Cressy writes, noting that city council voted last week to send the request. We need to have access to this data on a province-wide scale, the letter adds. Read more of the Stars Kate Allens reporting. 5:30 a.m.: Ontario is expected today to extend its state of emergency until June 30. The measure bans gatherings larger than five people. It also orders the closure of some businesses such as restaurants and bars, except if they offer takeout or delivery. If the vote passes, the measure which had been set to expire today will be extended for another 28 days. Independent legislator Randy Hillier has said he will vote against the measure, saying it gives the government too much authority. Ontario declared a state of emergency on March 17 as COVID-19 cases began to climb in the province. 5:15 a.m.: As protesters keep up their anti-racism rallies on both sides of the border, top health officials are hoping they dont forget about the risk of COVID-19. Canadian health officials are not suggesting people avoid protests, but they are stressing the importance of hand sanitizer and masks. With physical distance being nearly impossible in some of these settings, rally-goers may have to find other ways to try to keep themselves safe. Protests have taken place in several Canadian cities in the aftermath of a black man dying last week in Minneapolis after a white police officer pressed a knee into his neck. George Floyds death has sent throngs into the streets in several U.S. and Canadian cities to decry systemic racism and police brutality. Meanwhile, House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota is scheduled today to appear at a committee on procedure and House affairs. He is expected to discuss the hybrid Parliament and how it is functioning during the pandemic. The Senate Finance Committee also meets today with many major industry leaders set to appear. 3 a.m.: South American countries at the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic are choosing to reopen even as case numbers rise, ignoring the example set by Europe in which nations waited for the worst to pass. Meanwhile in the U.S., there are concerns that widespread protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man pinned at the neck by a white police officer, could cause new outbreaks in a nation where the virus has disproportionately affected racial minorities. And a new estimate by the Congressional Budget Office cautioned the damage to the worlds largest economy could amount to nearly $16 trillion over the next decade if Congress doesnt work to mitigate the fallout. Experts are concerned about whats happening in South America. Clearly the situation in many South American countries is far from stable. There is a rapid increase in cases, and those systems are coming under increasing pressure, said Mike Ryan, the executive director of the World Health Organizations emergencies program. His warning came as some of Brazils hardest-hit cities, including the jungle metropolis Manaus and coastal Rio de Janeiro, were starting to allow more activity. Brazil has reported more than 526,000 cases of the virus, second only to the 1.8 million reported by the U.S. Elsewhere in the region, Bolivias government has authorized reopening most of the country, while Venezuela has unwound restrictions. Ecuadors airports are resuming flights and shoppers are returning to some of Colombias malls. Further north in Mexico, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador kicked off the nations return to a new normal Monday with his first road trip in two months as the nation began to gradually ease some of its virus restrictions. Monday 10 p.m. Large public gatherings, including anti-racism protests, pose health risks during a pandemic, British Columbias top health officials said Monday. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said people in B.C. have the right to protest and express their feelings, but warned there could be COVID-19 health consequences associated with a weekend protest in downtown Vancouver. Peaceful demonstration is our right, one that is important to all of us, but we cannot forget we are still in the middle of a pandemic, she said at a news conference in Victoria. Henry said she saw many people wearing masks and practising safe distancing but she urged those who attended to monitor their health over the coming days. We also know right now large gatherings remain very high risk, even outdoors, she said. Those who were there (Sunday), you may have put yourself at risk. An estimated 3,500 people gathered in Vancouver following protests across the United States over the death of George Floyd, an African-American man who died in Minneapolis after a white police officer pressed his knee into Floyds neck for several minutes. B.C. has a public health order limiting the size of gatherings to 50 people. Weigh your options, think about the impacts, particularly if you are a health-care worker or have vulnerable people in your circle, in your household, in your family, Henry said. The province reported 24 new COVID-19 cases since Saturday and one death of an elderly resident at a Metro Vancouver long-term-care home. B.C. now has 2,597 cases of COVID-19 and there have been 165 deaths. The province says 2,207 people have recovered from the illness. Monday 6:50 p.m. Ontarios regional health units are reporting a spike in new COVID-19 infections on a day that saw the fewest reported deaths in nearly two months, according to the Stars latest count. As of 5 p.m. Monday, the health units have reported a total of 30,044 confirmed and probable cases, including 2,336 deaths. The eight new deaths reported since Sunday evening marked the first day with fewer than 10 new fatal cases since April 5, back when both cases and deaths were still growing rapidly in Ontario. That day also saw eight deaths reported in the province. The rate of deaths is down considerably since peaking at more than 90 in a day in early May, about two weeks after the daily case totals hit a first peak in mid-April. Meanwhile, the 458 new cases since the same time Sunday ended a string of six consecutive days with fewer than 400 cases. Unlike in recent days that have been dominated by case growth in Toronto and Peel Region, Mondays case spike included a very large increase outside of the GTA, including more than 100 confirmed infections in Haldimand-Norfolk, which has seen dozens of cases in an outbreak among migrant farm workers. Earlier Monday, the province reported 781 patients are now hospitalized with COVID-19, including 125 in intensive care, of whom 89 are on a ventilator numbers that have fallen sharply this month. The province also says more than 22,000 patients who have tested positive for the coronavirus have now recovered from the disease about three-quarters of the total infected. The province says its data is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. The province also cautions its latest count of total deaths 2,276 may be incomplete or out of date due to delays in the reporting system, saying that in the event of a discrepancy, data reported by (the health units) should be considered the most up to date. The Stars count includes some patients reported as probable COVID-19 cases, meaning they have symptoms and contacts or travel history that indicate they very likely have the disease, but have not yet received a positive lab test. Read more of Mondays coverage. Read more about: STOCKHOLM, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Wood raw-material costs in British Columbia fell for both sawmills and pulpmills in the second half of 2019. This fall comes after a seven-year period of record high costs on two fronts - high log costs for the sawmilling sector, and high wood fiber costs for the pulp industry. The decline in sawlog prices came as a result of declining demand and generally sufficient log supply for the sawmills in the province. In the Interior of BC, prices for mixed softwood sawlogs fell from an average of US$78/m3 in the 4Q/18 to US$67/m3 in the 4Q/19. This is the lowest level in two years but is still higher than prices in both Eastern Canada and the US South, according to the Wood Resource Quarterly. The forest industry in western Canada benefited from reduced log exports in late 2019. In the 4Q/19, shipments to Asia were down 11% q-o-q to just over 1.1 million m3 (see chart). This represented the lowest quarterly export volume since the 3Q/11. The biggest changes from the 4Q/18 included a 24% decline in the export volume of hemlock logs to China, and an increase in Japanese purchase of Douglas-fir logs y-o-y by 43%. Both export price and export volume declined during 2019. The average price for softwood logs shipped to Asia in the 4Q/18 was US$108/m3, and by the 4Q/19, the average price had dropped to US$96/m3 with the biggest declines seen in logs bound for China. In the second half of 2019, reduced log exports and lower lumber production in the province contributed to the downward pressure on log prices in Coastal BC. From the 4Q/18 to the 4Q/19, Douglas-fir and hemlock sawlog prices were down by amounts of 20% and 2%, respectively. Interested in wood products market information from around the world? The Wood Resource Quarterly (WRQ) is a 56-page report, established in 1988 and has subscribers in over 30 countries. The report tracks prices for sawlog, pulpwood, lumber & pellets worldwide and reports on trade and wood market developments in most key regions around the world. For more insights on the latest international forest product market trends, please go to www.WoodPrices.com. Contact Information Wood Resources International LLC Hakan Ekstrom, Seattle, USA info@WoodPrices.com www.WoodPrices.com This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/wood-resources-international-llc/r/sawlog-prices-in-british-columbia-fell-to-two-year-lows-in-the-4q-19--but-remained-higher-than-those,c3126735 The following files are available for download: https://news.cision.com/wood-resources-international-llc/i/screen-shot-2020-06-02-at-2-56-49-pm,c2792482 Screen Shot 2020-06-02 at 2 56 49 PM SOURCE Wood Resources International LLC Chinese officials have been engaging in an aggressive Wolf Warrior style of diplomacy in recent months, and this aggressive mindset has now spread to Chinas internet, with online commentators lashing out at the United States and posting images of a simulated Chinese invasion of the self-governing island of Taiwan. "Wolf Warrior" diplomacy, named after a 2017 action blockbuster movie that brimmed with jingoism and set box-office records in China, features Beijing envoys taking to Twitter to insult their host countries or threaten trade war against governments that criticize China. A popular WeChat account called Zhidao Xuegong, or Scholarly Hall of the Ultimate Truth, was shut down by government censors last month after spreading misinformation and dozens of rumors deemed to have spread an online culture of anti-intellectualism. On May 20, the day that Taiwans Tsai Ing-wen was sworn into office to begin her second term as president, the Chinese military magazine Naval and Merchant Ships uploaded on an 11-minute video titled 2020 Taiwan Strait Combat Drill, boasting that the island could be taken by Beijing within 24 hours. The video simulation of the Chinese takeover begins at 4:00 a.m. with missile attacks targeting Taiwans missile bases and blanketing airports in order to control the airspace in the Taiwan Strait. A strike group led by the aircraft carrier Liaoning follows soon after. At 1:00 p.m., Chinese troops depart from Fuzhou in Fujian province. They arrive offshore of Taipei by 5:00 and land in force when the tides change in order to accomplish their mission of liberating Taiwan. And on May 21, an account holder on the social media platform Weibo called Wild Gray Bear shared an album of 18 photographs depicting an armed takeover of the island. Titled Unification by Force, the album is described as a special project produced by students of the Military Aficionados Club at the Sichuan Art Institute to express our disdain for those who support Taiwan independence. Whether prepared as propaganda or as an effort to destroy morale in Taiwan, these images of landings by Chinese troops have gone too far, says Chen Kuo-ming, a Taiwanese military expert and senior editor of the magazine Defense International. Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, a prominent Chinese "Wolf Warrior" diplomat with a pugnacious Twitter account, takes a question at the daily media briefing in Beijing, April 8, 2020. AFP Small smear campaign victories In the face of such hostility from the Chinese public and even from academics, you cant blame the Taiwanese people for seeking independence, Chen said. There are 1.4 billion people in mainland China, while there are only 23 million people in Taiwan, Chen said. Its very easy for those keyboard commentators who hide behind their computer screens to Like a post or to comment +1 on a post, so when it comes to the total number of likes a post can get, we are always outnumbered. This has something to do with the so-called Wolf Warrior diplomacy that China has been engaging in recently, he added. They have been very aggressive globally. Chen suggested looking at these events from a different perspective. As people on the other side of the Taiwan Strait cant freely discuss how U.S. troops might take down Beijing, the Taiwanese people might as well take it easy and let the Chinese enjoy themselves talking about how they might take down Taiwan. Let them enjoy some freedom of speech to express their views, he said. Meanwhile, how the Chinese people engage in online debates, and how they achieve gratification by winning small victories in smear campaigns and by belittling others, baffles observers outside the country. In April, the widely popular Zhidao Xuegong WeChat account ranked number one in the original posts category of the Xigua Index, an index tracking the influence of WeChat public accounts, averaging more than 1.7 million page views during the month. No rumors too wild to spread An article by Yu Gui writing on qq.com has collected some of Zhidao Xuegongs more outrageous articles, with the author commenting, In my opinion, the principle of this account is that there are no rumors too wild to spread; there are only rumors that you fail to think of. In one recent post titled Almost Dead: the Sinking of the United States, Zhidao Xuegong claimed that the United States has been overwhelmed by the number of its citizens dying from COVID-19, and that as a result, the U.S. has processed the bodies into frozen meat, human burger patties, and human hotdogs. And in another post, the account claimed that as Chinas time zone is one day ahead of that of the U.S., a guided missile launched by China on Jan. 10 can strike America on Jan. 9, U.S. time. There is no way that the United States is able to defend itself against such attacks across time and space, the account goes on to say. Many similar posts by Zhidao Xuegong go far beyond common sense, and the account was shut down on May 25. Speaking one day later to RFA, Chinese human rights activist Hu Jia said he is now under house arrest and cant break through Chinas Great Firewall on the internet, but has seen many postings on Chinas own internet smearing the United States. Its amazing not only that someone would fabricate such stories which have garnered so many views, but that so many people would really believe them, Hu Jia said. They are the adult babies, or brainwashed babies that exist under communist rule, he said. They are the freak products created by a process of constant brainwashing and the gradual formation of very narrow perspectives. They can invent all kinds of farfetched nationalist rumors, absorb them, and then spread them, he said. Many of these posts include the comment Share if you are Chinese, and are eventually shared across many different chat groups, Hu Jia said. It is as if that person is trying to prove to himself or herself or to others that he or she is a patriot. The true victims of the fake news created by groups like Zhidao Xuegong are not foreigners, but rather the deceived Chinese people and ultimately the tens of thousands of these groups true believers, Yu Gui said on qq.com. Any satisfaction over the shutdown of Zhidao Xuegongs account may be short-lived, however, the author says, urging people to be on the lookout for the rise of the next Zhidao Xuegong. Reported by RFAs Mandarin Service. Translated by Min Eu. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 2 By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend: Azerbaijani Parliament discussed issue of fines for not wearing masks during the coronavirus pandemic at the parliamentary meeting on June 2, Trend reports. The corresponding amendment to the Code on Administrative Offenses of the Republic of Azerbaijan was discussed by MPs in the third reading. According to the amendment, fines will be imposed for violation of the requirements established by the relevant executive authority in connection with the use of personal protective equipment during epidemic, sanitary-hygienic and quarantine regimes. Furthermore, for failure to prevent the violation of these requirements, the fines for physical persons is 50 manat ($29.4), for officials - 100 manat ($58.8), and for legal entities - 200 manat ($117.6). For repeated violation of Article 211.2 of the Code by a person who has received an administrative penalty from the date of entry into force of the decision to impose an administrative penalty until the end of the anti-epidemic, sanitary-hygienic and quarantine regimes, fines for individuals will amount to 100 manat ($58.8), for officials - 200 manat ($117.6), and legal entities - 400 manat ($235.2). After discussions, the amendments were put to a vote and adopted. Los Angeles, June 2 : Hollywoods bigwig director JJ Abrams has pledged donations of $10 million towards the Black Lives Matter movement to take the fight against racism forward, following the death of George Floyd. The "Star Wars" director has joined hands with his wife Katie McGrath and production company Bad Robot to pledge the donation over the next five years to groups with anti-racist agendas, reports variety.com. In a statement posted on the Bad Robot Instagram page, Bad Robot Productions and the Katie McGrath & JJ Abrams Family Foundation announced charitable donations to a number of organisations. As a start, they will donate $200,000 each to groups -- Black Lives Matter LA, Black Futures Lab, Community Coalition, Equal Justice Initiative, and Know Your Rights Camp. "Enough is enough," the statement began. "Enough police brutality. Enough outsized privilege. Enough polite conversation. Enough white comfort. The centuries long neglect and abuse of our Black brothers and sisters can only be addressed by scalable investment. Corporate and private philanthropy can never achieve the impact needed to address these systemic inequities, but companies and individuals who are able must do what we can until our political leaders lead," it continued. The pledge comes at a time when the US is facing wide protests following the death of Floyd. Floyd, aged 46, died last week after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, held him down with a knee on his neck though he repeatedly pleaded, "I can't breathe", and "please, I can't breathe". Chauvin was arrested and charged with three-degree murder and manslaughter. The Russian special serviced detained Ukrainian military, missing since May 30 for supposed violation of the state border with the Russian Federation, as RIA News reported. Ukrainian military Dobrynsky was drunk and had no documents with him. Besides, Russias special service stated that a man allegedly kept drugs, and the substance was sent to the expert study. The criminal case is opened due to the illegal crossing of the border. As we reported, a Ukrainian soldier was kidnapped on an administrative border with occupied Crimea. Search activities immediately began upon the disappearance of the serviceman, but they did not give results. The soldier did not answer the phone, his whereabouts were unknown. According to preliminary information, he was abducted. Earlier, the State Border Guard of Ukraine sent the interested central executive bodies a draft of Cabinet of Ministers' decree amending the Action Plan for the Wall, which envisages completion of construction on the border with the Russian Federation in 2025. "When you refuse to treat the problem of racism ... it leads to what we see in the United States," said Dominique Sopo, head of French activist group SOS Racisme. "The case of George Floyd echoes what we fear in France." Floyd died last week after a police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes even after he stopped moving and pleading for air. The death set off protests that spread across America -- and now, beyond. Assa Traore, sister of Adama Traore, answers reporters outside the Palace of Justice in Paris. Credit:AP Fears of the coronavirus remain close to the surface and were the reason cited by the police for banning Tuesday's protest at the main Paris courthouse. Gatherings of more than 10 people remain banned in France as part of virus confinement measures. But the Paris protest plans drew attention online, and demonstrators showed up anyway. Demonstrations also were held in other French cities in honour of Traore, who died shortly after his arrest in 2016, and in solidarity with Americans demonstrating against Floyd's death. The Traore case has become emblematic of the fight against police brutality in France. The circumstances of the death of the 24-year-old Frenchman of Malian origin are still under investigation after four years of conflicting medical reports about what happened. The lawyer for two of the three police officers involved in the arrest, Rodolphe Bosselut, said the Floyd and Traore cases "have strictly nothing to do with each other." Bosselut told The Associated Press that Traore's death wasn't linked with the conditions of his arrest but other factors, including a pre-existing medical condition. Traore's family says he died from asphyxiation because of police tactics -- and that his last words were "I can't breathe." Loading "I can't breathe" were also the final words of David Dungay, a 26-year-old Aboriginal man who died in a Sydney prison in 2015 while being restrained by five guards. As 3000 people marched peacefully through Sydney, many said they had been inspired by a mixture of sympathy for African Americans amid ongoing violent protests in the US and to call for change in Australia's treatment of its indigenous population, particularly involving police. The mostly Australian crowd at the authorised demonstration also included protesters from the US and elsewhere. "I'm here for my people, and for our fallen brothers and sisters around the world," said Sydney indigenous woman Amanda Hill, 46, who attended the rally with her daughter and two nieces. "What's happening in America shines a light on the situation here. It doesn't matter if it's about the treatment of black men and women from here or from another country; enough is enough," she said. A total of 432 indigenous Australians have died in police detention since a 1991 Royal Commission - Australia's highest level of official inquiry - into Aboriginal deaths in custody, according to The Guardian newspaper. Another protest was planned Tuesday in the Dutch capital The Hague, and more than 6000 people attended a Sweden-organised online protest to express support with the Black Lives Matter movement. Among speakers was Aysha Jones, a Gambia- born and Sweden-based activist and fashion blogger. Jones said the protest was important to show support to people in America, but also to remind Swedes that racism "does exist here, it's very real and people are being harmed from it." More protests in various countries are planned later in the week, including a string of demonstrations in front of US embassies on Saturday. The drama unfolding in the US drew increasing diplomatic concern. "We all watch in horror and consternation what's going on in the United States," Canadian PM Justin Trudeau said. "But it is a time for us as Canadians to recognise that we, too, have our challenges, that black Canadians and racialised Canadians face discrimination as a lived reality every single day. There is systemic discrimination in Canada." EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell's remarks in Brussels were the strongest to come out of the 27-nation bloc, saying Floyd's death was a result of an abuse of power. Borrell told reporters that "like the people of the United States, we are shocked and appalled by the death of George Floyd." He underlined that Europeans "support the right to peaceful protest, and also we condemn violence and racism of any kind, and for sure, we call for a de-escalation of tensions." German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said peaceful protests in the US following Floyd's death are "understandable and more than legitimate." "I can only express my hope that the peaceful protests do not continue to lead to violence, but even more express the hope that these protests have an effect in the United States," Maas said. More African leaders are speaking up over the killing of Floyd. "It cannot be right that, in the 21st century, the United States, this great bastion of democracy, continues to grapple with the problem of systemic racism," Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo said in a statement, adding that black people the world over are shocked and distraught. Kenyan opposition leader and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga offered a prayer for the US, "that there be justice and freedom for all human beings who call America their country." BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 2 By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend: Turkmenistan and Ukraine have discussed the prospects of cooperation in trade and economic sphere, Trend reports with reference to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan. Mentioned topic was discussed during a telephone conversation between the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba on June 1, 2020. The ministers of the two countries stressed the special role of the two states on international organizations, primarily in the UN. At the same time, the sides highlighted the importance of continuing inter-ministerial consultations and resuming regular meetings between representatives of the public and private sectors of the two countries. According to the source, the parties also considered cooperation in the fight against coronavirus, as well as joint cooperation to counter the threats of epidemics. Representatives of the countries expressed interest in strengthening cooperation in various areas of partnership, as well as in intensifying interaction on the cultural and humanitarian component of bilateral relations. The foreign ministers of Turkmenistan and Ukraine also held a videoconference on bilateral cooperation in trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian spheres on April 15, 2020. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @JeilaAliyeva The music industry will halt business operations on Tuesday so employees can pause to respond to issues of racial injustice. The initiative, called Black Out Tuesday, quickly gathered steam online after founders Jamila Thomas of Atlantic Records and Brianna Agyemang of the creative services company Platoon issued a call to action on Friday in response to protests in Minneapolis over police brutality and the killing of George Floyd. Using the hashtag, #TheShowMustBePaused, the initial post urged: Please join us as we take an urgent step of action to provoke accountability and change As gatekeepers of the culture it is our responsibility to not only come together to celebrate the wins, but also hold each other up during a loss. Join us on Tuesday June 2 as a day to disconnect from work and reconnect with our community. On the movements website, theshowmustbepaused.com, Thomas and Agyemang have compiled a recommended list of links where music business professionals and others can help Floyds family, donate to community bail funds to support protesters, and otherwise take action. READ MORE: The Inquirer is continually updating reports on protests locally and nationally They also share some self-care words of wisdom: If you have been impacted by recent events, take a break theres a lot going on and sometimes we need a minute. Take that minute. By Monday, major record labels had joined in with the Black Out concept. Columbia records, the label home to Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen, and John Legend, said in a statement: This is not a day off. Instead, this is a day to move forward in solidarity. Its hard to know what to say because Ive been dealing with racism my entire life," legendary producer Quincy Jones said on Twitter. "That said, its rearing its ugly head right now & by God its time to deal with it once & for all. My team & I stand for justice. Convos will be had & action will be taken. On Monday, Derek Corbett of iHeartMedia Philadelphia, which owns the Power 99 hip-hop and R&B station WUSL-FM (98.9) and the old-school R&B WDAS-FM (105.3), said that the company is an advocate of the Black Out Tuesday movement, but because this falls on Pa.s primary election day our core mission for both WDAS and WUSL is getting people out to the polls to let their voices be heard. "Tomorrow we will inform and educate our audience with information throughout the day as to how they can make a difference for our city and their respective communities by exercising their constitutional right to vote, Corbett said. READ MORE: Inquirer coverage of the primary It is not clear what the industry blackout will mean in practice nationally, beyond record label corporate shutdowns. Tuesday used to be the day new music was released, but for years now, singles and albums come out on Friday. Universal Music Groups Interscope-Geffen-A&M imprint, known as IGA, did announce that it will be postponing all releases that were due to come out this week. Noteworthy albums that have been postponed include releases from MGK, 6lack, and Jessie Ware. With real-life concerts on indefinite hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there arent any tour dates to cancel. But some virtual shows are being postponed. Guitarist Captain Kirk Douglas of Philadelphia hip-hop band The Roots was scheduled to play Lets Stay [In] Together, a benefit for Harlems historic Apollo Theater on Tuesday night, along with Keb Mo, Gary Clark Jr., Michael McDonald, Dionne Warwick, and others. Theyll be posting updates at @pausetheshow on Twitter and @theshowmustbepaused on Instagram. Beyond the unified music-biz response, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, and many other individual musicians have posted on social media in the wake of the protests over Floyds death. Jay-Z released a statement Sunday calling for Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to prosecute those responsible. New Delhi, June 2 : Historically significant documents related to the second World War, including "the document that forced the surrender of Nazi Germany", will go under the hammer at a live auction next week. The letter, estimated to sell for a million USD, is the official authorization for Germany's top general, Field Marshal Alfred Jodl, to negotiate an unconditional surrender with the Allied powers. It is signed by Karl Donitz, president of Germany following Hitler's suicide. Jodl presented this letter when he came to negotiate Germany's final surrender at Allied headquarters. His authorization to sign the surrender, the "sister" to this document, was called "one of the foremost documents of the 20th century" by the Archivist of the United States, and it rests today in that repository. The live auction titled "No Surrender to Coronavirus" by United States-based auctioneers Alexander Historical Auctions, known internationally for their military sales, will sell some of the most important surrender documents of World War II on June 9. Some of them as never seen before, the auction house said. Image Source: IANS News According to the auction house, included in the 60-piece monumental sale is the British order to surrender the last troops in Hong Kong, along with the Japanese surrender of Hong Kong back to the British four years later; the German peace negotiator's last-ditch telegram insisting there must be a "signature or chaos"; a German general's order that saved 1,500,000 soldiers' lives; an Eisenhower-signed telegram announcing the German surrender; inspiring Winston Churchill signed quotations; and the signed British and American surrender of Java. In Adolf Hitler's last signed military message, sent to a top general who begged him to flee Berlin, the "doomed dictator" writes: "I shall remain in Berlin so as to take part in honourable fashion in the decisive battle for Germany and to set a good example to all those remaining. I believe that in this way I shall be rendering Germany the best service..." Six days later, Hitler committed suicide with a pistol shot to his head. This last letter from his bunker will be sold as well. The entire proceeds of its sale will be donated to the World Health Organization, Doctors Without Borders, Direct Relief, and N.H.S. Charities Together in recognition of Captain Tom Moore's contribution to the British N.H.S., according to the auctioneers. Additional items to be sold include agreements between Germany and the Allies to airdrop food to the starving Dutch in the closing days of the war; the first military telegram of the war, sent by a German commando who attacked Poland in error a week before the war actually commenced; a pass through the lines for German peace emissaries, signed by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery; President Harry Truman's proclamation declaring the "a day of prayer" upon the end of the war in Europe, a signed quotation from Winston Churchill "This was their finest hour..."; and a signed photograph from the Japanese surrender on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. "75 years ago this month, the world finally conquered Hitler, an evil against whom we pledged 'no surrender'. Today, history repeats itself with the worldwide fight against the insidious Covid-19 virus, and again we must be determined never to slacken or surrender," auctioneer Bill Panagopulos said about the theme of the sale. (Siddhi Jain can be contacted at siddhi.j@ians.in) -- Syndicated from IANS New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday exuded confidence that India will definitely get its economic growth back. "Yes, we will definitely get our growth back," he asserted. Speaking at industry association CII's annual session, he said the government has taken tough steps to fight the coronavirus pandemic and has also taken care of the economy. India has left the lockdown behind. Large part of the economy has opened up in Unlock Phase 1 and more parts will open up from June 8, said PM Modi. The PM said that we have double task for making the economy resilient and also focus on the well-being of the people. "On the one hand we have to safe lives of our people and on the other hand we have to stabilise the economy and speed up the economy," he said. He said he is so optimist about getting the economy back on track because he has confidence on the farmers, small businesses and entrepreneurs, innovators and researchers. "Corona may have slowed our speed (of growth) but India has now moved ahead from lockdown with the phase one of unlock. Unlock Phase-1 has reopened a large part of the economy," he said. Modi also highlighted 5 I for getting back to the growth path -- intent, inclusion, investment, infrastructure and innovation. "For us, reforms are not any random or scattered decisions. For us reforms are systemic, planned, integrated, inter-connected and futuristic process," he said, adding that for the government, reforms mean courage to take decisions and taking them to logical conclusion." This is the PMs first major speech on the Indian Economy since the announcement of Unlock-1. The virtual online meeting at the annual session of the CII assumes significance as companies are resuming operations after the government has allowed gradual phasing out of the lockdown. The CII is an industry association in India and is completing 125 years of its journey this year. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 17:38:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A girl washes her hands under a staff member's instruction at Meilong Kindergarten in east China's Shanghai, June 2, 2020. All public kindergartens in Shanghai have reopened Tuesday with COVID-19 prevention and control measures applied. Meanwhile, the city's non-public pre-school educational institutions will reopen in phases. (Xinhua/Liu Ying) SHANGHAI, June 2 (Xinhua) -- More students in the Shanghai Municipality returned to school as public kindergartens and the first to third grades of primary schools reopened on Tuesday. Private child-care institutions will also reopen as a result of COVID-19 infections waning in the city. Related departments jointly carried out inspections in advance. They prepared sufficient epidemic prevention materials and launched exercises for epidemic prevention and control before the reopening. Prior to this, junior and senior high school students and fourth and fifth graders in primary schools resumed classes on campus. Shanghai reported one new imported COVID-19 case and zero increases in locally transmitted COVID-19 cases on Monday, the municipal health commission said on Tuesday. Students had a prolonged winter vacation and later had classes online due to the spread of the novel coronavirus. To date, most students across the country have returned to school for their spring semester. By Associated Press PARIS: Thousands of Paris protesters defied a virus-related police ban and rallied Tuesday against racial injustice and heavy-handed police tactics, as global outrage over the death of George Floyd in the United States kindled frustrations across borders and continents. Clapping, cheering and waving signs reading Black Lives Matter and Police Everywhere, Justice Nowhere, the largely young, multiracial crowd streamed to the main Paris courthouse and rallied peacefully while police monitored closely from nearby corners. Chanting I can't breathe," thousands marched peacefully through Australia's largest city, while thousands more demonstrated in the Dutch capital of The Hague and hundreds rallied in Tel Aviv. Expressions of anger erupted in multiple languages on social networks, with thousands of Swedes joining an online protest and others speaking out under the banner of #BlackOutTuesday. Diplomatic ire percolated too, with the European Union's top foreign policy official saying the bloc was shocked and appalled by Floyd's death. As protests escalated worldwide, solidarity with U.S. demonstrators increasingly mixed with local worries. This happened in the United States, but it happens in France, it happens everywhere," said Paris protester Xavier Dintimille. While he said police violence seems worse in the U.S., he added, all blacks live this to a degree. Floyd died last week after a police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes even after he stopped moving and pleading for air. The death set off protests that spread across America -- and now, beyond. Fears of the coronavirus remain close to the surface and were the reason cited by the police for banning Tuesday's protest at the main Paris courthouse. Gatherings of more than 10 people remain banned in France as part of virus confinement measures. But demonstrators showed up anyway. Some said police violence worsened during virus confinement in working class suburbs with large minority populations, deepening a feeling of injustice. Similar demonstrations were held in other French cities in honor of Adama Traore, who died shortly after his arrest in 2016, and in solidarity with Americans demonstrating against Floyds death. The Traore case has become emblematic of the fight against police brutality in France. The circumstances of the death of the 24-year-old Frenchman of Malian origin are still under investigation after four years of conflicting medical reports about what happened. The lawyer for two of the three police officers involved in the arrest, Rodolphe Bosselut, said the Floyd and Traore cases have strictly nothing to do with each other." Bosselut told The Associated Press that Traore's death wasn't linked with the conditions of his arrest but other factors, including a pre-existing medical condition. Traores family says he died from asphyxiation because of police tactics -- and that his last words were I cant breathe. I cant breathe were also the final words of David Dungay, a 26-year-old Aboriginal man who died in a Sydney prison in 2015 while being restrained by five guards. ALSO READ | 'There is no place for hate, racism': Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on George Floyd's death As 3,000 people marched peacefully through Sydney, many said they had been inspired by a mixture of sympathy for African Americans amid ongoing violent protests in the U.S. and to call for change in Australias treatment of its indigenous population, particularly involving police. The mostly Australian crowd at the authorized demonstration also included protesters from the U.S. and elsewhere. Im here for my people, and for our fallen brothers and sisters around the world, said Sydney indigenous woman Amanda Hill, 46, who attended the rally with her daughter and two nieces. Whats happening in America shines a light on the situation here." A total of 432 indigenous Australians have died in police detention since a 1991 Royal Commission inquiry into Aboriginal deaths in custody, according to The Guardian newspaper. Australia has also never signed a treaty with the countrys indigenous population, who suffer higher-than-average rates of infant mortality and poor health, plus shorter life expectancy and lower levels of education and employment than white Australians. Even as U.S. President Donald Trump fanned anger by threatening to send in troops on American protesters, Canadian Premier Justin Trudeau refrained from directly criticizing him, and said the protests should force awareness of racism everywhere. We all watch in horror and consternation whats going on in the United States," he said. But it is a time for us as Canadians to recognize that we, too, have our challenges, that black Canadians and racialized Canadians face discrimination as a lived reality every single day. There is systemic discrimination in Canada. More protests in various countries are planned later in the week, including a string of demonstrations in front of U.S. embassies on Saturday. The drama unfolding in the U.S. drew increasing diplomatic concern. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrells remarks in Brussels were the strongest to come out of the 27-nation bloc, saying Floyds death was a result of an abuse of power. Borrell told reporters that like the people of the United States, we are shocked and appalled by the death of George Floyd. He underlined that Europeans support the right to peaceful protest, and also we condemn violence and racism of any kind, and for sure, we call for a de-escalation of tensions. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said peaceful protests in the U.S. following Floyds death are understandable and more than legitimate. I can only express my hope that the peaceful protests do not continue to lead to violence, but even more express the hope that these protests have an effect in the United States, Maas said. More African leaders are speaking up over the killing of Floyd. It cannot be right that, in the 21st century, the United States, this great bastion of democracy, continues to grapple with the problem of systemic racism, Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo said in a statement, adding that black people the world over are shocked and distraught. Kenyan opposition leader and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga offered a prayer for the U.S., that there be justice and freedom for all human beings who call America their country. Like some in Africa who have spoken out, Odinga also noted troubles at home, saying the judging of people by character instead of skin color is a dream we in Africa, too, owe our citizens. The cessation of shelling is a basic condition for further disengagement of forces and demining During the working visit to Germany, Head of the Presidents Office of Ukraine Andriy Yermak discussed the security policy and humanitarian situation in the east of Ukraine with Federal Minister of Defence Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, as the Presidents Office reported. Deputy Head of the Presidents Office Ihor Zhovkva, Vice PM, Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Oleksiy Reznikov, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba and Minister of Defense Andriy Taran also participated in the meeting. Andriy Yermak noted that it is necessary to provide the fulfillment of the agreements reached by the leaders of Normandy Format during the December summit in Paris to accelerate the progress towards peace, particularly, the provision of full and comprehensive implementation of the ceasefire regime. The cessation of shelling is a basic condition for further disengagement of forces and demining," he stated. He noted that the OSCE SMM observers should have the complete freedom of movement as recently, it was blocked by the illegal armed formations. Moreover, the partakers of the meeting discussed the possibility of deepening the interaction of Ukraine and NATO and bilateral cooperation issues. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer noted that Ukraine is a friend of Germany. Berlin supports it on the way to peace and does not recognize the occupation of the Ukrainian territories Donbas and Crimea as it is the flagrant violation of international law. She underlined that the normalization of the relations with Russia is possible only after the restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Germany also supports the initiative of Ukraine on the intensification of Minsk Talks and expects the continuation of the negotiations in Normandy Format. German Minister of Defence noted that Germany is ready to assist Ukraine in the implementation of reforms. Earlier, Yermak stated he believes that the recognized representatives of the local civilians should participate in talks on Donbas. Indian Navy's INS Jalashwa arrived at the V O Chidambaranar Port in Tamil Nadu's Tuticorin at 10 am on Tuesday and has initiated the process of disembarkation of 685 stranded Indian nationals that it was carrying from Colombo. The disembarkation sequence would begin with differently-abled people first followed by women and thereafter district-wise commencing with Chennai. All the evacuees disembarking at Tuticorin port will undergo another round of medical check-ups at the port. Yesterday the embarkation completed around 17:30 hours followed by registration and evacuees were escorted to their respective living areas, demarcated for male and female passengers. Jalashwa sailed at 1900 hours to repatriate the Indian nationals. According to the onboard immigration list the evacuees consists of 557 male and 128 female including seven children, 36 elderly males and 15 elderly females. However, four people were asked not to board the ship as they had body temperature higher than normal. "Despite being checked thrice with thermal scanners, two people had higher temperature. Moreover, one patient who required dialysis was also asked not to undertake the journey following medical condition considering his safety and safety of evacuees on board. His family (wife) too stayed back with him," Surgeon Lt Commander Prashant Jambunathan, principal medical officer, onboard the vessel told ANI. One of the passengers who was on board said: "It feels great to be back home. We had a pleasant trip. We are grateful to Indian govt for bringing us back." Once the vessel set course towards Tuticorin, the evacuees were addressed by the ship's captain on the main broadcast which was audible at the respective staying areas. The disembarkation is being carried out in a streamlined manner area-wise to ensure social distancing and avoid overcrowding at the gangway. The rescue mission is a part of operation Samudra Setu under Vande Bharat Mission that so far facilitated 1286 evacuees from Male twice on May 8 and May 16. Under the phase II naval repatriation mission INS Jalashwa with base at Vishakhapatnam would sail forth for evacuation in Male (Maldives) and Bandar Abbas (Iran) now. Vande Bharat is an initiative by the Government of India to bring back Indian nationals stranded overseas during lockdown, both via air and sea route. -ANI Also Read: UP: Yoga camps being organised for policemen in Moradabad A Welland woman is considering legal action against a construction company that has been working in her neighbourhood for about two years, alleging it caused about $25,000 in damage to her home. Kelly Kelly lives on Elgin Street near the south end of Niagara Street. She claims a water and sewer main project with a price tag of more than $5 million has caused structural damage to her 90-year-old house, which she and her husband moved into about six years ago. In a recent interview, she said it is her belief that vibration caused by equipment rolling up and down the street has created structural issues. When they bought the house, an inspector said there were no structural problems with the home. The home inspection shows there was no damage, that the floor was fine, she said. After the project started, she reached out to the city-hired contractor, Niagara Falls-based Provincial Construction, which sent an insurance adjustor to have a look. The adjustors report said the vibration had no bearing on the structural soundness of her residence, she said. Kelly said she brought in her own insurance adjustor who said otherwise, claiming the damage was definitely due to the construction. Given the age of her home, she feels if a problem were to arise with its structural condition its something that would have already been dealt with. The main floor is starting to buckle in spots, she said. If it was going to buckle, I think it would have by then, she said at her home while pointing to the slightly inconsistent floor. We watched it gradually happen, she added. Another area of concern for Kelly came after she contacted the City of Welland, when she learned the municipality has a clause in its agreements with construction companies that they are indemnified from any damages caused by work not responsible for issues such as the one she has raised. They have no responsibility for the quality of work, she said. Sherri Marie-Millar, the citys manager of engineering, infrastructure and development services, said contracts include a provision for a pre-construction inspection at homes adjacent to the project. These inspections are completed by independent consultants and help homeowners substantiate claims in the unlikely event that their property is damaged as a consequence of the construction activities. Similarly, the inspections protect contractors from frivolous claims, she added. She confirmed construction companies would be on the hook for any wrongdoing, not the city. Claims received shall be dealt with immediately by the contractor, said the clause provided by Millar. If it is determined that the contractor is not liable for the damage and the claim is denied, residents are still able to take legal action against the contractor, she said. Kelly has retained a lawyer. Thats what Ill be doing, at my expense, she said, worried she may not be able cover the legal costs. Can I really afford to go head-to-head with these people? she asked, adding she could be satisfied with a split bill shared with the construction company. Kelly is also bothered by the grade of some stretch of sidewalk in her neighbourhood during the project, claiming she has seen an elderly couple on the street struggling to get in and out of their house. Millar said late last week the city has advised Provincial Construction to backfill new sidewalk as soon as possible to close the gaps along the edges of the sidewalk. Kelly said she did not receive a pre-construction survey that is distributed in neighbourhoods before major projects. That never happened, she said, claiming that other nearby homeowners have told her they also did not find one in their mailboxes before work started. Project manager Kevin Tissera said Kellys first contact with him was in November and that he hasnt spoken with her since December. He said he was aware of her contacting the company last week. He said the pre-construction survey should have been delivered to her mailbox three times over a two-week span before work began. The purpose of the survey is to document the state of your house so if there are concerns as the project continues, there is a baseline to compare it to, he said. Asked about Kelly saying she was not in receipt of one, he said hes not sure if thats true. Tissera said this is the first time in his career he has ever heard of a resident alleging structural damage to a home as a result of equipment operating nearby. He said a very good response from most of the homeowners there has been received since the project started, but the company still understands residents frustration. Its kind of difficult when projects like this come in. Were tearing up the roads and the sidewalks, said Tissera, acknowledging the city requested late Friday that sidewalks in the area get backfilled. On Monday morning, he said this had not yet been done but that the sidewalks would be completed in the next couple of weeks. Tissera said its hard to keep everything perfect and that he encourages residents in the area with issues to come forward. Asked about Kelly possibly taking the matter to small claims court, he said her not having the pre-construction survey completed may not help her case. Its her prerogative if she wants to pursue that, but at the end of the day, its on her to prove that we caused damages, which is very difficult to do if there is no baseline, he said. (TNS) To Terry King, Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Free Library has long meant more than a place to read books. Its branches have been venues for everything from seeing movies and meeting friends to getting one-on-one counsel about job searches and taxes, all for the low, low price of nothing.So the closing of its 22 locations across the city due to the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted life for the East Baltimore resident. He has been worried, for instance, about whether the Pratt will reopen soon enough to help him with his taxes before the extended IRS deadline of July 15.He now knows he wont have to wait that long.The Pratt has announced that it will roll out on Monday a program that offers free Wi-Fi access in the streets and parking lots surrounding eight of its locations, making its multiple services available online even for the whopping 40% of Baltimoreans who lack internet access at home, according to a recent study.The sites, each of which will support hundreds of digital devices, will include Kings own neighborhood library, the Herring Run Branch in Bel Air-Edison, which the 57-year-old city schools custodian says he normally visits several times a week. The full list of sites is available below.This library is usually packed to the gills. Its an anchor for the neighborhood. I think youre going to see a lot of people here, signing on and doing what they normally do."Terry King, 57, about the Herring Run Branch in Bel Air-Edison in East BaltimoreHe says hell definitely be using the service once its in place, to connect virtually with librarians and to access other services, and so will many others he knows.This library is usually packed to the gills, he says at a table outside the visibly closed branch, where he has been getting together regularly with a friend for several weeks. Its an anchor for the neighborhood. I think youre going to see a lot of people here, signing on and doing what they normally do."The use of nearby parking lots and streets as drive-in Wi-Fi hot spots has become a relatively common practice at public libraries across the country during the pandemic, including in Baltimore County, which has installed Wi-Fi capacity in the parking lots of 10 of its locations But the program in Baltimore has special resonance given the citys ranking as among the worst in the United States for internet access.About two in five city residents have no access to broadband internet at home, the third-worst rate in the country, according to the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, a nonprofit that advocates for national broadband access.The U.S. Census Bureau also ranks Baltimore near the bottom among 296 American cities for internet access.The problem has given rise to a number of public-interest campaigns in recent weeks.Baltimore City Councilman Zeke Cohen, among the areas most vocal advocates for expanded access, and City Council President Brandon Scott secured $3 million from the Baltimore Children and Youth Fund last month to support the provision of more devices and internet connections for city students.Cohen, fellow council member Shannon Sneed, representatives of Students Organizing a Multicultural & Open Society, or SOMOS, and others held a news conference in front of City Hall on Tuesday to ask Comcast to help close the digital divide by extending a free 60-day internet-access offer and increasing upload and download speeds.Cohen, who says he and the others are still waiting for a reply from Comcast, has been keeping an eye on Pratt officials progress as they developed the Wi-Fi program, and hes impressed by the effort.Like I said [Tuesday], if you cant get online, you cant learn, especially in the middle of this pandemic, he says. "Its hard to attend school. Its hard to work. Its hard to do any of the essential things we all need to do.I think this idea is another example of how during this global pandemic Baltimore has been scrappy and innovative in trying to support the needs of our communities," he adds. "The Pratt providing this service around its buildings is a great metaphor. Just as you should be able to get library books for free, you should be able to get internet access.Pratt officials began brainstorming ideas for increasing access as soon as it became clear that government restrictions on social gatherings would mean the Pratt which draws some 5.5 million visitors to its branches each year would have to close its buildings for the foreseeable future, Meghan McCorkell, a library spokeswoman, says.The Pratt has already been adding programs to address what McCorkell calls the incredible digital divide in Baltimore, including last years Wash and Learn initiative that turned four laundromats into access points for digital learning and online community development.Weve been doing that kind of equity work for years, and we knew the digital divide was only going to get deeper with the shutdowns, McCorkell says. We started on this as soon as we knew there would be extended closures, and it has been a top priority."Four of the sites the Herring Run, Orleans Street, Patterson Park and Forest Park branches have actually been making free Wi-Fi available in parking areas near their structures for several weeks , but the signals were comparatively weak, in many cases blocked or compromised by the kinds of physical obstructions that dot any urban landscape.The Pratt has used $18,500 in emergency broadband education access funding from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development to remedy those problems.Contractors have been installing antennas at each location to expand Wi-Fi range and, in some cases, to direct signals around obstacles such as trees, architectural protrusions and external structures.Where users once had to park in certain limited areas to gain access, they should be able to park anywhere along the curbs of the streets on all four sides of each building, or in the few parking lots that exist, McCorkell says.It hasnt always gone according to plan.A lot of our buildings are historic, so the contractors have had a few surprises, McCorkell says. At the Northwood Branch [in Northeast Baltimore] we had to run wires in places we didnt expect. But we expect all eight should be open for business as of Monday.The Brooklyn, Edmondson, Waverly and Northwood branches will be part of the network, along with the updated original four.Upload and download speeds will vary between 20 and 40 megabits per second, McCorkell says, generally enough to support the use of such internet services as YouTube and Amazon Video.The Pratt has posted banners at all eight sites bearing the user ID and password needed to log on (both are epfl-wpa). Users need not have a library card.McCorkell says the Pratt is also looking at putting together a budget and potential plan to put antennas up at its other locations across the city and looking to outfit its three mobile units the Bookmobile, Book Buggy, and Mobile Job Center with Wi-Fi hot spots that could then provide access to up to 60 devices."After the stay-at-home is lifted, wed be able to deploy those mobile units to parks or parking lots in areas of the city where we dont have a physical building, she says.The Pratt has also secured funding for 100 individual hot spots that people should be able to check out like books, McCorkell says, though no timeline exists for that.Its all good news for King, a man who visits Herring Run and the flagship location downtown so often he says he knows most of the librarians by name, especially the ones who have been around for years.He says hell enjoy logging in beside his neighborhood branch and chatting with his old friends one-on-one, not to mention simply checking his email every day.Then things will be a little closer to where they ought to be.I love the Enoch Pratt Library. Its one of my favorite places to go. I cant wait for it to open back up," he says. Only wholly-owned indigenous oil companies and investors with substantially Nigerian interest operating as oil exploration and production businesses would participate in the bid for 57 oil fields put up for auction under the forthcoming 2020 marginal field bid round. Also, companies whose promoters are either indebted to the government, or currently holding oil assets not operated in a business-like manner would not be pre-qualified to participate in the bid. These are part of the bid guidelines issued by the DPR and published in its website on Monday as the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources announced the commencement of the bid process. The DPR said all the oil fields included in the bid basket are located in the countrys land, swamp and shallow offshore terrains. Bid fees, process Details of fees payable by prospective bidders include N500,000 as registration fees; N2 million application fees per field; N3 million bid processing fee per field; $15,000 data prying fees per field; $25,000 data leasing fees per field; $50,000 competent persons report per field and $25,000 field specific report per field. The bid guidelines signed by the director of DPR, Sarki Auwalu, said the entire process is expected to run over the next six months, from date of the announcement and completed with the signing of Farm-out agreement with the leaseholder. A marginal oil field is any field discovered by a license holder, but has become abandoned for about 10 years and above from the date of first discovery on the consideration that its oil find is assumed not of commercial volume to produce. Also, they include oil fields with high gas and low oil reserves as well as fields that have been abandoned by leaseholders for upwards of three years for economic or operational reasons and may be considered for farm-out to other operators. The bid guidelines said the exercise would be conducted under the provisions of Section 17 of the First Schedule to the Petroleum Act 1969 (as amended) which cedes the powers to approve the outcome of the bid to the President, who is also the Minister of Petroleum Resources. The provision also allows the government to recover from international companies oil and gas discoveries in the country that have been abandoned or left unproductive for several years on Oil Mining Leases (OML) and transfer to independent and indigenous operators. Under the award process, the DPR said following the formal announcement of a marginal fields bid portal has been launched through which prospective bidders would access all requirements for the exercise. The DPR said bidders would be expected to submit an Expression of Interest (EOl) for registration to participate in the bid, after which interested companies would be prequalified to submit their bids. Announcement of pre-qualified companies, the bid process stated, would be allowed to conduct data room prying, leasing and purchase of bid reports, before submitting technical and commercial bids for evaluation. The final stage of the bid process, the DPR said, would be the announcement of winning bids. Bid requirements The regulatory agency said prospective bidders would be required to submit to the online portal evidence of companys existence, its details, including registration, staffing, organisational chart, as well as affiliates and other business interests. The bidders are also expected to submit their management systems (Business and Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) principles, recruitment and training policy, business controls), post award business strategic plans and evidence of financial capability to develop the acreage. READ ALSO: Besides, bidders are also expected to demonstrate capacity for Nigerian content development, particularly training and growth of indigenous capability and manpower as well as plan for local input in the provision of materials and services to the industry. At the completion of the pre-qualification and selection processes, the guidelines said recommendations would be forwarded to President Muhammadu Buhari for approval of winners to pay the mandatory signature bonus. Civil society express fears Recently, a coalition of civil society groups expressed fears the proposed marginal oil field may not attract credible investors if the outcome of the bidding process would be subjected to any approving authority. Citing poor public confidence and lack of trust by serious investors as reasons previous marginal field awards failed to realise their objectives, the coalition called for a bid whose outcome would be a product of a transparent, open and unfettered process not subjected to the approval of an individual. The group also called on the government to ensure the bid guidelines included a demand for all prospective bidders to disclose the details of their beneficial owners to allow Nigerians to know the award holders of the countrys oil assets. However, a review of the latest bid guidelines does not include a provision requiring the disclosure of detailed information about the beneficial owners of the bidders except their evidence of business registration. But, the spokesperson of DPR, Paul Osuh, told PREMIUM TIMES on Monday, it was too early to talk about beneficial ownership disclosure as the guidelines have just been released for prospective bidders to review. Advertisements The bid is an open process. Prospective bidders would need to register to get to the stage where they would be expected to disclose their beneficial owners. Every Nigerian will know. Where we are now is for bidders to read, understand and digest the conditions and guidelines. The process will unfold as we go on, Mr Osuh said. By Express News Service BENGALURU: Just a few days ago, Amphan hit the east, lashing West Bengal with ferocious rain. Now, Nisarga, an Amphan-like cyclone which has been brewing over the Arabian Sea, is expected to cross Maharashtra and the South Gujarat coast on June 3. While Amphan did not bother Karnataka, Nisarga may have some effect over the State. Wind speeds are expected to reach 65-75 kmph over east-central Arabian Sea and along the Karnataka- south Maharashtra coasts from Tuesday morning. With this, an alert for the states, including Karnataka, has been issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs. The rains which Bengaluru and the state are experiencing now are because of the cyclone and also are part of the pre-monsoon showers, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). Into this gloomy scenario comes the cheering forecast that the South-West Monsoon will hit the Karnataka coast by June 5. The monsoon arrived in Kerala on Monday, marking the commencement of the fourmonth- long rainfall season, the IMD said. The country receives 75 per cent of its rainfall from the South-West Monsoon during June to September. It is not only crucial for farming in the country, but also for replenishing the reservoirs, and more importantly to the economy, which is still largely dependent on agriculture. Geeta Agnihotri, Director incharge, IMD-Bengaluru, told The New Indian Express that the date for the monsoon to hit Kerala was forecast to be June 5, but was later revised to June 1. Now since the conditions are favourable, it will hit the Karnataka coast by June 5. According to the weatherman, if it rains for five consecutive days and the winds are also favourable, then the onset of monsoon is announced. Fishermen warned At present it has not entered the State. The present rise in temperatures in Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka are part of the pre-monsoon period, Geeta said.The IMD stated that the monsoon has advanced into entire south Arabian Sea and Lakshadweep area, remaining parts of Maldives area, most parts of Kerala and Mahe, and some parts of Tamil Nadu. It has advised fishermen not to venture into sea as squally weather and wind speed reaching 65 kmph are likely to prevail along and off Karnataka coast. It has also forecast rainfall for the next five days from June 1. An officer with the Minnesota National Guard told protesters angry over the police-involved killing of George Floyd that he would agree to their request to pull back the troops from the state capitol while they continued to assemble peacefully. Lieutenant Colonel Sam Andrews emerged to address the protesters who had gathered on the steps of the state capitol in St. Paul on Monday afternoon. Several National Guard armored personnel carriers were seen in front of the capitol building. Andrews knelt on the ground and gave a short speech expressing sympathy for Floyd while empathizing with the protesters. Im sorry for your loss, he said. As a citizen of Minnesota, Im sorry for the loss of George Floyd. This Minnesota National Guard soldier knelt with protesters, telling them his "heart hurts as a human being" after the death of George Floyd. The soldier announced the guard would remain inside the state Capitol until curfew. https://t.co/zWc385s6pV pic.twitter.com/VhG7vcRpaT ABC News (@ABC) June 2, 2020 Lt. Col. Sam Andrews of the Minnesota National Guard addressed protesters on the steps of the state capitol in St. Paul on Monday Andrews knelt on the ground and gave a short speech expressing sympathy for George Floyd while empathizing with the protesters Andrews told the assembled crowd that he had struck an agreement with protesters to have National Guard troops stay away from the demonstrators as long as they continued being peaceful My heart hurts as a human being. Andrews told the protesters that National Guard soldiers would agree to remain out of sight while they demonstrated in the area. Last night when I talked to the group out here, who peacefully assembled, they peacefully assembled to have their voice heard, he said. And what were asking tonight is for the same thing. Andrews continued: One of the things that the crowd asked for last night was to have the officers in the Army removed, so were off. Lt. Col. Sam Andrews addressed the #GeorgeFloyd marchers on the Capitol steps, saying he was going to pull back his soldiers so they wouldnt be an unwelcome presence. The crowd thanked him. A few marchers hugged him. pic.twitter.com/ZZJXvKqTGc Nick Woltman (@nickwoltman) June 2, 2020 After Andrews pledged to keep his troops inside the capitol building, the demonstrators erupted in applause Afterward, some of the demonstrators came up to Andrews and gave him a hug Andrews is seen above hugging another demonstrator in St. Paul on Monday So for the men and women and children that came out last night to have their voices heard, we heard it, and were gonna stay back behind invisible so that you cant see us. He then asked: Is that OK? The demonstrators applauded and cheered. After his remarks, several of the demonstrators were seen hugging Andrews. Witnesses said that National Guard soldiers pulled back and stayed inside the capitol building. The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul were placed under a curfew beginning at 10pm local time and extending until 4am. At least 5,600 people have been arrested in cities around the country since demonstrations broke out protesting the death of Floyd, according to a tally compiled by AP journalists from police department press releases, police agency Twitter activity and media reports. The protests began after the May 25 death of Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis after a white police officer who is now charged with murder, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee into Floyds neck for several minutes even after Floyd stopped moving and pleading for air. The arrests come as protests in some cities become more violent and as police and governors are urged by President Donald Trump to take a stronger hand in quelling the demonstrations. In Minneapolis, where Floyd died, some 155 arrests have taken place. Some of the biggest cities in the US have made a significant number of arrests, including nearly 800 in New York City and more than 900 in Los Angeles. The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed a Delhi high court order in which it had on May 27 criticized the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for whisking away activist Gautam Navlakha from Delhi to Mumbai even as his interim bail was pending before it. The high court had directed the investigating officer to produce the entire set of records filed before NIA courts in Mumbai and Delhi for obtaining a production warrant and for extension of Navlakhas judicial remand and fixed the matter for hearing next on June 3. NIA moved the apex court against the order. A bench of Justices Arun Mishra, S Abdul Nazeer, and Indira Banerjee directed the stay and sought response of Navlakha on NIAs plea by June 15 when the case will be heard next. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who represented NIA, said that the high court has no territorial jurisdiction to call for records. He added the petition pending before it related to interim bail which was not maintainable. Mehta told the apex court that NIA did not act in haste while moving Navlakha to Mumbai. He said Navlakha surrendered in Delhi on April 14 but could not be moved to Mumbai due to the Covid-19 lockdown. Mehta added Navlakha was moved only after necessary permission was obtained from the NIA court in Mumbai. Navlakha and other activists face charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for their alleged links with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). They are accused of making inflammatory speeches at an event on December 31, 2017, that allegedly triggered violence in Bhima-Koregaon near Pune. NIA argued since cases under UAPA are tried by special courts, even bail applications will have to be filed before them. It added even the jurisdictional court to approach for interim bail will be the Bombay and not the Delhi high court. The high court on May 27 pulled up NIA for whisking away Navlakha from Delhis Tihar Jail on a production warrant issued by a special judge in Mumbai, where he is lodged at Taloja Jail. The NIA has acted in unseemly haste to instead remove the applicant out of the very jurisdiction of this court; and, if the applicant is right, without even informing the Special Judge (NIA), Mumbai or the Special Judge (NIA), Delhi of the pendency of the present proceedings. EXPERT COMMENT, ANY REACTIONS Manila, June 2 (IANS) Human rights organizations in the Philippines have expressed concern about the imminent approval in congress of a new anti-terrorism law, which they consider seeks to persecute government critics and punish both dissent and political activism. The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) warned that the law is "the last piece of the puzzle" that the Rodrigo Duterte government needs to impose a martial law, which it has threatened on several occasions, reports Efe news. "We are appalled that the Philippine government is giving priority to repressive legislation but remains bungling in addressing the pandemic. We have seen too many deaths both from the virus and the violence President Duterte has unleashed against his people," said ICHRP President Peter Murphy. The new anti-terrorism law was already approved in the Senate in February and the plenary session of the House of Representatives - dominated by the president's allies - is expected to pass that version in the coming days, after Duterte certified on Monday as urgent the processing of that law. The proposed law would replace the current Human Security Law of 2007 and, among other modifications, expands the number of days that a terrorism suspect can be detained without an arrest warrant, from currently three days to 14 days, to which 10 more can be added. It also broadens the range of crimes that can be considered terrorism, such as "threat or incitement to commit terrorist acts," punishable by 12 years in prison, a provision that according to legal experts seeks to punish political dissent, since any protest against the government could be classified as terrorism. "From its murderous war on drugs and a rabid counter-insurgency campaign to extending emergency executive powers, as well the numerous attacks on freedom of expression, the passage of draconian amendments to the Anti-Terrorism law will seal the deal in Duterte's brutal campaign of State terrorism-the final piece in the regime's bid to establish a full blown fascist dictatorship and de facto martial law," said Karapatan, a national network of human rights organizations. The civilian population has also expressed disgust with the new rule and since last week - when two lower house committees gave the text the green light - the hashtag #JunkTerrorBill has been trending on several occasions in the Philippines. The Philippines has within its borders the threat of various insurgencies classified as terrorists: jihadi groups, related to the Islamic State, on the island of Mindanao; and to Asia's oldest and deadliest communist guerilla, the New People's Army (NEP), the military wing of the outlawed Communist Party. Duterte regards the NEP as the greatest threat to national security and has pledged to end them before the end of his term, tightening military offensives against his bases and suspending the peace dialogue. The President has also accused numerous human rights organizations and leftist groups of acting as "legal fronts" of the NEP, also targets of his verbal attacks, while there has been an increase in acts of violence, harassment and harassment against activists. --IANS ksk/ Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says he will visit Iran shortly to sign cooperation agreements in energy and other sectors after Iran sent five fuel tankers to the South American country. "I am obliged to go to personally thank the people," Maduro said on June 1 in an address broadcast on state television. He did not provide a date for his visit to the Islamic Republic. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Musavi said earlier that Tehran will continue to export fuel to Venezuela if the country requests more supplies. Both Iran and Venezuela are under U.S. sanctions and Washington has sought to deter such shipments. "Iran practices its free trade rights with Venezuela and we are ready to send more ships if Caracas demands more supplies from Iran," Musavi told a weekly news conference on June 1 that was broadcast live on state television. Venezuela, once South America's top oil producer, is suffering from a gasoline shortage amid a deep economic crisis. The United States has warned governments, seaports, shippers, and insurers that they could face measures if they aid the tankers. Four of the five tankers have entered Venezuelan waters so far. The Refinitiv Eikon analytical company said on May 31 that the first two tankers have started their return journey. Tensions have been on the rise between longtime foes Tehran and Washington since 2018, when President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers and reimposed crippling sanctions that have battered the Iranian economy. Based on reporting by Reuters More than 250 Tajik migrant workers stranded in Kazakhstan have called on Uzbekistan's president to allow them to travel through his country so they can return home. They made the appeal to President Shavkat Mirziyoev on June 2 from the Kazakh village of Zhinel Zholy, near the Uzbek border. The migrant workers have been stuck there since late March after they lost their jobs when Kazakhstan imposed a nationwide quarantine to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Washington, June 2 : The US censured China for resorting to aggression along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India and not resolving the conflict as per the international law. While expressing concern about the Chinese aggression against India in the Union Territory of Ladakh, Eliot Engel, Chairman of the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said on Monday that Beijing was demonstrating "once again that it's willing to bully its neighbours rather than resolve conflicts according to international law". Hitting out at the Xi Jinping government, Engel said: "Countries must all abide by the same set of rules so that we don't live in a world where might makes right." He strongly urged China to respect norms and use diplomacy and existing mechanisms to resolve its border questions with India. The statement follows the US President Donald Trump's offer of mediation in the ongoing face-off between Indian and Chinese troops along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh. So far, both India and China have been using the established mechanisms and channels to resolve the border stand-off. PARIS (AP) As many Europeans reclaim their rhythm of life, health experts warned that virus cases are still rising in Latin America, the worlds latest COVID-19 epicenter. Clearly the situation in many South American countries is far from stable. There is a rapid increase in cases and those systems are coming under increasing pressure, said Dr. Mike Ryan, the executive director of the World Health Organizations emergencies program. His warning came as some of Brazils hardest-hit cities, including the jungle city of Manaus and the sprawling metropolis of Rio de Janeiro, were starting to allow more business activity. Brazil has reported more than 526,000 infections, second only to the 1.8 million cases reported by the U.S. Meanwhile, thousands of Muscovites complain they have been wrongfully fined by a quarantine app. In slightly over a month, authorities issued some 54,000 fines, totaling $3 million among its nearly 70,000 registered users. Authorities insist the fines were justified, issued to those who repeatedly violated quarantine. But the apps users say it has glitches and flaws, sometimes demanding selfies in the middle of the night, adding that the fines were dished out arbitrarily. Live coronavirus tracker Coronavirus news in the U.S. Coronavirus will have long-lasting effects on US economy for next decade, CBO says (USA Today) Dentists extract new fee from patients to keep up with rising COVID-19 costs (NBC News) ICUs become a delirium factory for Covid-19 patients (CNN) Nearly 26,000 nursing home residents have died during coronavirus pandemic: federal report (Fox News) Working from home? Get ready for higher utility bills (CBS News) Coronavirus news around the globe Russias fight against the coronavirus may give Putin even more power (Washington Post) Global shares gain on hopes for regional economies reopening (ABC News) Global experts go head-to-head over claims the coronavirus no longer exists clinically (CNBC) Japan allows saliva-based tests to boost coronavirus detection (Reuters) Worlds biggest coronavirus lockdown ends in India despite soaring infections (CBS) Deaths in England at lowest levels since March (BBC) Cases surpass 150,000 in Africa (Al Jazeera) Latest local coronavirus news Cleveland curfew lifts at 8 p.m.: Coronavirus reopenings and cancellations in Northeast Ohio for Tuesday, June 2, 2020 Solon mayor rolls out phase one of reopening recreation this summer Medina school board discusses plans for 2020-2021 school year Cleveland approaches 2,000 coronavirus cases with 20 new reports, three more people have died Brunswick cancels Independence Day fireworks Summit Metro Parks camping facilities, picnic areas to reopen June 1 Read complete prior coronavirus coverage. Actor Vikram and filmmaker Karthik Subbaraj are most likely to join hands next for a yet-untitled Tamil project, as per the industry grapevine. Dubbed Chiyaan60, the project will be produced by Seven Screen Studio and will have music by Santosh Narayanan or Anirudh Ravichander. Hashtag Chiyaan60 figured prominently on Twitter on Monday. An official announcement regarding the project can be expected to be made soon. On the career front, Vikram will be next seen on screen in Cobra. The project, which marks the third time union of Vikram and AR Rahman after Raavanan and I, stars former Indian pacer Irrfan Pathan as the antagonist and this project marks his acting debut. Also produced by Seven Screen Studio in association with Viacom 18 Studios, the project went on the floors in August 2019. The project marks the maiden collaboration of Vikram and director Ajay Gnanamuthu, who is best known for helming Demonte Colony and last years Imaikka Nodigal starring Nayanthara. Talking about the project, Ajay had told Times of India: The only thing I can divulge right now is that Vikrams role will be a challenging one. Of course, he has always taken up challenging roles, but I think this one will be better than all of those. Also read: Shah Rukh Khan to provide aid to child who tried to wake up dead mother at train station, says I know how it feels to lose a parent Cobra, which also stars KGF fame Srinidhi Shetty as the leading lady, will see Vikram playing a photographer and donning as many as 25 different avatars. Vikram also has Mani Ratnams upcoming magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan in his kitty. The project went on the floors last week in Thailand in December where the first schedule will be filmed for over 90 days. Ponniyin Selvan, which will be released in two parts, also stars Karthi, Jayam Ravi, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Aishwarya Lekshmi among others. Follow @htshowbiz for more ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktop A Senior Lecturer at the History and Political Science Department, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Dr Kwasi Amakye-Boateng, says calls for the postponement of this years election in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic will be terribly imprudent. It will affect Ghanas democratic dispensation, he insisted, explaining that under the Fourth Republican Constitution, the tenure of elected leaders had been duly stipulated and ought to be adhered to. In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Dr Amakye-Boateng said postponing the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for December this year could hamper political stability. The COVID-19 pandemic has come to stay with us, he said, stressing that it was, therefore, necessary that the preventive protocols were put in place for the safety of the people, while also not disrupting the electoral processes. Monetisation Dr Amakye-Boateng cited poverty as the main cause of monetisation in Ghanaian politics. We have been facing this problem as a nation because of the level of poverty in our system, he noted. Over the years, concerns had been raised by many political analysts and opinion leaders about the systematic payment of money to voters with the intention of buying their votes. Advertisement That trend, according to experts, was a setback to building a resilient democracy where the people were at liberty to choose their own preferred leaders. Economy Dr Amakye-Boateng observed that there had been vast improvement regarding the manner in which money could influence voters, especially under the Fourth Republican Constitution. Gradually, we will get to the stage where voters can no longer be bought with money, he stated. He said voters were becoming more conscious of their rights and responsibilities, casting their ballots based on developmental issues. Dr Amakye-Boateng stressed the need for the country to stay focused and work seriously to improve the economy, thereby creating jobs and wealth for the people. When this is done, it will reduce the tendency of the Ghanaian voter being influenced with money in order to sway his or her decision during elections, he said. Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Residents of Idleb have begun fleeing their home, in anticipation of another assault by the regime forces reports Zaman Al-Wasl. A new wave of displacement began Sunday in the northern province of Idleb, as residents fear a new offensive by regime forces despite the three-month-long ceasefire. Khalid Raslan, 35, along five families fled the Jabal al-Zawiya region to the Turkish border on Sunday. Raslan told Zaman Al-Wasl that all residents are expecting an imminent offensive by regime forces and allied militias. Turkey, which backs rebels opposed to Bashar al-Assad, agreed a ceasefire with Russia in early March after a terrifying three-month air and ground campaign that killed hundreds and sent a million people fleeing towards the Turkish border. The agreement did not force Assads forces to roll back the significant military gains made during the Russian-backed offensive over the past three months a key Turkish demand prior to the talks. The regime offensive in Idleb province and parts of Aleppo has displaced more than 1,041,000 people from their homes and killed 700 people, including 91 women, 212 children and 17 rescue workers, the Syrian Response Coordination Group said. Over the past three months, Turkey has sent hundreds of army vehicles and advanced weapons, setting up about 60 military outposts. Local observers say Ankara is prepared for any offensive. The nine-year-old war has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands and forced 13 million people from their homes, half of whom have left their shattered homeland. This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. (Newser) President Trump has now angered two Washington, DC religious leaders in two days. Washington Archbishop Wilton Gregory slammed the president Tuesday ahead of the Trump's visit to the Saint John Paul II Shrine, the Washington Post reports. "I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles, which call us to defend the rights of all people, even those with whom we might disagree," the Catholic archbishop said. On Monday, the Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, DC's Episcopal bishop, said she was "outraged" by Trump speaking in front of St. John's Church after police had used tear gas to clear peaceful protesters from the area. story continues below "Saint Pope John Paul II was an ardent defender of the rights and dignity of human beings. His legacy bears vivid witness to that truth," Gregory said. "He certainly would not condone the use of tear gas and other deterrents to silence, scatter, or intimidate them for a photo opportunity in front of a place of worship and peace." During Tuesday's shrine visit, the president and first lady Melania Trump, who identifies as a Catholic, posed for photos in front of a statue of the former pope. They stood facing the statue for a few minutes but did not make remarks, USA Today reports. On the way to the site in northeast DC, the presidential motorcade passed dozens of protesters holding signs with messages including "God is not a prop" and "Trump mocks Christ." (Read more President Trump stories.) Albany, N.Y. Summer day camps in New York can open June 29, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said today. The state has not made a decision yet on sleep-away camps. Cuomo spoke briefly about camps during a press conference today in Albany. He had previously closed schools in the state through the end of the current academic year and canceled in-person summer school, although remote summer classes can still run. The decision on camps comes as large sections of the state have started reopening after months of coronavirus-related shutdowns. Central New York and four other regions met state reopening requirements and began the first phase of reopening earlier in May. Those regions began phase two last week. Two other regions, Western New York and the Capital Region, are starting phase two this week. New York City, the only remaining region of the state still closed, is set to start reopening June 8. Nonessential businesses and schools in New York first closed in March to help slow the spread of the virus. Cuomo did not discuss any specific restrictions or operating guidelines for camps today. He spent most of the press conference talking about protests, unrest and looting in New York City overnight. Many camps in the Syracuse area were uncertain theyd be allowed to open at all this year. Lourdes Camp in Skaneateles called off its entire summer season last week. MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources McMahon: Ugly reopening was making sausage,' but state made the right call in the end Central New York, 4 other regions clear to move to phase 2 of reopening NY releases guidelines for offices, retail shops, real estate and other phase 2 businesses Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com Contact Kevin Tampone anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-282-8598 Veterans Affairs officials announced Monday they will remove a series of of grave markers bearing Nazi swastikas and tributes to Adolf Hitler from department cemeteries after lawmakers and veterans advocates complained the markers were offensive and disrespectful. The move represents a turnaround from last week, when VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said he was looking for ways to put the problematic grave markers in historical context rather than remove them from the cemeteries. But critics said any result that left the controversial symbols alongside the graves of American war heroes was insufficient. After about two weeks of controversy, VA officials relented. It is understandably upsetting to our veterans and their families to see Nazi inscriptions near those who gave their lives for this nation, Wilkie said in a statement Monday. Thats why VA will initiate the process required to replace these POW headstones. Nazi swastikas at veterans cemeteries prompt outrage, but VA calls them protected history At issue are three grave sites at two VA cemeteries: Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in Texas and Fort Douglas Post Cemetery in Utah. Both were used to inter dozens of unclaimed remains of enemy troops following World War II. The sites were administered by the Army for decades until responsibilities were transferred to VAs National Cemetery Administration. While most of the foreign troops grave markers list only names and dates of death, the three in question which all date back to the 1940s are also engraved with a swastika in the center of an iron cross and inscription in German which reads He died far from his home for the Fuhrer, people and fatherland. Earlier this month, following complaints from local veterans about the offensive messages, leaders from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation demanded VA remove the grave markers, saying their presence alongside American veterans was unforgivable. But VA leaders have said that the sites are governed by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, which assigns stewardship responsibilities to federal agencies, including VA and Army, to protect historic resources, including those that recognize divisive historical figures or events. Story continues Last week, in testimony before the House Appropriations Committee, Wilkie said the law prohibited him from simply removing the stones, but he also argued that doing so would amount to ignoring history. I happen to think that making sure when people visit our cemeteries they are informed of that horror is an important thing to do erasing these headstones removes them from memory, he said. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., and a vocal critic of Wilkies initial decision, accused VA leadership of hiding behind the law instead of taking proper action. Former soldier with neo-Nazi ties planned to bring assault rifle to Virginia gun rights rally VA officials on Monday did not give a date for removal of the grave stones, saying that under the NHPA that VA is not permitted to unilaterally remove them or alter them. Department leaders did promise that later this month staff will will begin taking required steps about how to replace these headstones with historically accurate markers that do not include the Nazi swastika and German text. Officials do not plan to dispose of the headstones, but instead store them in the National Cemetery Administration History Collection. VA will also install signs at all VA national cemeteries where foreign enemy prisoners of war are buried in order to provide historical context about how non-U.S. service members from World War I and World War II were interred and buried on American soil. Wilkie said that despite the change, Americans must always remember the horror of the Nazi regime and why so many Americans sacrificed so much to free the world from its reign of terror. B. G., Opalesque Geneva: Amid the current market turmoil, this is our regular report on hedge funds and alternative asset managers who are bucking the trend. Sweet spot in property rental The MSS Millennials Property Rental Fund is up +8.4% YTD after returning +0.75% in March and +0.65% in April. It has returned +15.6% since its October 2018 inception. The fund generates annual distributions and capital appreciation for shareholders by acquiring a diverse portfolio of private rental rector properties domiciled in the UK. It is managed by MSS Capital Ltd, based in London and established in 2001. CEO Simon Hookway will present in Opalesque's upcoming webinar: The Corona Fighters, Episode 3, on June 23rd at 10 am EST. "As government measures to quell the spread of Covid-19 have depressed economic activity globally, commercial property tenants across a broad range of sectors are struggling to cope with the simultaneous shocks to both supply and demand in their businesses," says a manager commentary seen by Opalesque in April. "As a result, many commercial property funds, facing the prospect of uncertain and potentially dwindling future income streams, are finding it hard to value their assets and have moved to suspend redemptions for investors as a result. It is not clear what lasting effect the current economic turmoil will produce for future commercial property demand and especially for retail space (already suffering from on-line competitive pressures) and office buildings (given the current success of large numbers of office workers now adapting to working remotely). "By contrast, an allocation to residential real estate offers investors an alternative portfolio diversification opportunity. Everyone needs somewhere to live and there is no virtual substitute for that. The MSS Millennials Property Rental Fund provides high-quality rental accommodation to a diverse range of 18-35-year-old tenants (including students, key workers, young urban professionals) in various locations in England and Wales carefully selected by a robust investment process perfected over many years of successful operation." New manager trading bitcoin The Westridge Digital Alpha strategy has been live since May 2019 in a managed account, and since the end of March 2020 in a Cayman fund structure. The managed account has returned +71.5% since inception, after gaining +1.3% in March 2020 and +9.2% in April 2020. The Cayman structure, OX1 Fund Ltd, returned -3.5% in March and +12.3% in April (+8.4% YTD). It is a completely systematic absolute return strategy that seeks to derive alpha from trading Bitcoin, based exclusively on proprietary quantitative models. Model signals are executed by taking long and short positions on Bitcoin futures, using the most liquid exchanges for cryptocurrencies. The manager, Westbridge Markets, is based in London. "Our partners have over 20 years each of experience in tier one houses running systematic trading strategies across FX," a spokesperson told Opalesque. " We set up Westridge markets 18 months ago and have been trading live for the most recent 15 months of that period with a good level of AuM. The initial focus was FX according to our background. "Over 12 months ago, we turned our focus to the liquid tradeable end of the cryptocurrency market as we identified some key alpha. For the last 11 months, we have been live trading strategies in liquid BTC futures and generating consistent returns with a Sharpe of over 2. Just over one month ago, we launched a Cayman-based fund to work alongside our managed accounts. Our YTD performance in 2020 is +28%." *** Last issue of The Corona Fighters Report: Report 37. Opalesque's Corona Fighters reports are open articles. To see all past reports, type Corona Fighters in our search engine: www.opalesque.com/index.php *** Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. Opalesque has not verified this information and gives no warranty of accuracy or completeness. Past performance is not indicative of future results. See our Terms & Conditions for more information. *** WEBINARS: Meet 10 fund managers and learn how and why their strategies delivered positive returns and/or protected capital during the Corona led market meltdown! Each webinar lasts one hour and features five managers. "A well-chosen topic of discussion and a great set of speakers to hear and learn from." "I enjoyed the webinar and found the introduction to the strategies to be diverse and insightful. "Very resourceful and insightful." VIDEO REPLAY of CORONA FIGHTERS - Episode 1 webinar: www.opalesque.com/webinar/#pw4 VIDEO REPLAY of CORONA FIGHTERS - Episode 2 webinar: www.opalesque.com/webinar/#pw5 Video replays of Opalesque's past webinars can be found here: www.opalesque.com/webinar/#pastwebinar Don't miss our new webinars! - How quants achieve material improvements in ESG investment performance Time: Thursday, June 18th, 10 am EST Details and registration: www.opalesque.com/webinar/ESG/ - Corona Fighters Episode 3 Meet more asset managers who delivered during the melt down Time: Tuesday, June 23rd, 10 am EST Details and registration: www.opalesque.com/webinar/ Opalesque's upcoming webinars: www.opalesque.com/webinar/ A pro-democracy supporter is detained by riot police in Hong Kong on May 24, 2020. (Anthony Kwan/Getty Images) Canadian Parliamentarians Join 37-Country Coalition to Support Hong Kong An international coalition of parliamentarians that includes Canadians is calling on governments around the world to unite against the national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the Chinese regime. On June 1, a cross-party coalition of 760 parliamentarians and policymakers from 37 countries, including 180 Canadians, issued a statement decrying Beijings unilateral introduction of national security legislation in Hong Kong and calling for sympathetic governments to unite against this flagrant breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration. Garnett Genuis, shadow minister for multiculturalism & Canada-China relations; NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh; Liberal MP Judy Sgro; Leona Alleslev, deputy leader of the Conservative Party and shadow minister of foreign affairs; and Conservative leadership candidates Erin OToole and Peter MacKay are among the Canadian signatories. The Canadian signatories also include dozens of current and former MPs, four members of the Senate, and several former cabinet ministers such as former environment minister Peter Kent, former justice minister and attorney general Irwin Colter, Maxime Bernier, former foreign affairs minister and current leader of the Peoples Party of Canada, and former premier of Ontario and federal MP Bob Rae. On May 28, Beijing passed a national security law that would grant its security apparatus the ability to operate in Hong Kong, effectively ending the one country two systems principle in place since 1997. The move sparked widespread criticism as the law could be used to target people and groups suspected of sedition or other threats to safety and security, and follows recent arrests of many leading pro-democracy activists in the former British colony. Several countries have since moved to counter Beijings aggression toward Hong Kong. The U.S. has led the charge with a series of sweeping measures announced May 29: the revocation of Hong Kongs special status with the United States, sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials, the barring of Chinese graduate students tied to the Chinese military, and a review of Chinese companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges. Critics say Canada needs to do more to help Hong Kong at this critical time. On Monday, human rights activists and federal politicians urged Ottawa to take further steps in response to the deepening crisis in Hong Kong, noting that any measures taken should include anticipation of the potential that a growing number of refugees from Hong Kong will be seeking Canadas protection. At a virtual press conference hosted June 1 by Amnesty International Canada, Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Conservative MP Kenny Chiu, NDP MP Heather McPherson, and Bloc MP Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe joined democracy activists calling for strong multilateral action. Beijings national security law targets separatism, subversion of state power, terrorism and foreign interference, said a press release from Amnesty International, adding the legislation would also allow central government agencies responsible for national security to operate in Hong Kong, posing a clear threat to human rights in the city. There is a mounting crisis in Hong Kong, with implications for Canadas relationship with China, an increasingly urgent situation for refugees and immigrants and a pressing need for strong multilateral action. Here's something the movie buffs that frequent our site will probably already know, but that myself, and many others, that were too young or too busy breastfeeding (We realize that those things can be mutually exclusive.) to realize when Terminator 2 came out: T2 is more than just a large Austrian cyborg learning why humans cry. Yes, it turns out that James Cameron didn't decide to make the T-1000 an LAPD cop just because he had an extra outfit lying in wardrobe. Cameron was making a statement about the nature of humanity, arguing that cops desensitize themselves to do their jobs, ultimately becoming heartless killing machines. Again, in retrospect, it seems obvious, but it's an observation that completely slipped past me. Heck, the Rodney King riots were happening while this movie was being filmed, so if anything you could dock Cameron for not being subtle enough. It also sheds more light on this little tidbit: The Rev-9 in Terminator: Dark Fate is a border patrol agent. It seems eons ago, but immigration enforcement was a major issue back then in the distant year of 2019. It's still a major issue, but it is overshadowed by the infectious disease that's now killed 106,550 Americans and the literal war happening right now between cops and citizens. Perhaps if a Terminator movie were made today our T-69420 or whatever it would be called would take the form of a Minneapolis police officer or it would take the form of airborne illness or a spray-tanned man with a whispy blonde wig and a baggy suit. Advertisement This is the heartbreaking moment a young elephant collapsed and died in agony after being shot multiple times in Thailand. The five-year-old Asian elephant was found suffering at least five gunshot wounds on the outskirts of Kui Buri National Park, in the south of the country, on May 29. He had been shot in the shoulder, waist, hip and leg. Medics tried to save the animal by washing and plugging the wounds with gauze, administering antibiotics, then hoisting him up using a winch so that he could eat. A five-year-old elephant collapsed and died in agony despite medic's attempts to save it after it was found suffering gunshot wounds on farmland in southern Thailand Police say the elephant had been shot at least five times, probably with a shotgun, and had two piece of metal lodged inside its body - one of which ruptured its large intestine Medics used IV drips inserted into the back of the elephant's ear to administer food and antibiotics in an attempt to revive him Video captured the elephant chewing on palm fronds and green bananas while doctors stood around assessing his progress. But his condition slowly deteriorated and he eventually collapsed, writhing in pain. Medics were filmed giving him painkillers and inserting drips into his ear to give him antibiotics and food, but they could not save him. The elephant eventually died on March 31, two days after he was found. Scans and tests have since shown at least two metal objects lodged in his body, local station INN News reports, one of which ruptured his large intestine. He was also suffering from parasitic worms which had infected his liver and stomach, causing him to be emaciated. Medics spent two days treating the animal, disinfecting and plugging its wounds with gauze and using a winch to pull it upright so it could eat (pictured) Video captured the badly-emaciated animal chewing on palm fronds and green bananas before collapsing from exhaustion Tyres were placed around the elephant to cushion its fall in case it tumbled over, while police and medics were stationed on the farm where it was found in order to watch over him Medics examine a large wound next to the elephant's tail where they believe he was shot. Investigators have yet to establish how long the elephant was walking around wounded for being being found The elephant was found around half a mile outside a national park where the animals are allowed to roam freely. Police believe the young male - driven by hunger - wandered out of the park and into a jackfruit farm, where he was shot. National Park director Pichai Watcharapongpaibul said: 'The elephant was seriously exhausted and could not stand up or move so he was treated at the scene and monitored closely. 'Unfortunately he suddenly became weaker and died. 'We don't know how long the bullets had been inside the elephant's body or what type of gun they came from as an autopsy must be performed.' He said National Park staff will start an investigation to find the hunter who shot the elephant, which is believed to have been in retribution for damaging farm land. Police use a metal detector in an attempt to find any bullets or pellets lodged in the animal's body. They found at least two before the elephant died As well as being shot, investigators say the elephant was infected by parasites and worms which led to it becoming emaciated Medics used IV drips to pump antibiotics and painkillers into the animal's system in an attempt to save him, but he died after a two-day battle. An investigation has been launched He added: 'Initially, we will ask the locals living nearby whether they have seen this elephant before or if anybody was angered by the elephants.' Hunting wild elephants has been illegal in Thailand since 1992. Anyone caught hunting or killing the animals can be fined up to 1,000 or jailed for four years. There are thought to be 320 Asian elephants living wild in the park, which covers 374 square miles and stretches across the border into neighbouring Myanmar. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 3) The House of Representatives passed on third reading on Tuesday the anti-discrimination bill for COVID-19 frontliners, patients, and returning overseas Filipino workers. Two-hundred four lawmakers voted for the approval of House Bill No. 6817 or the COVID-19 Related Anti-Discrimination Bill, while one solon abstained and no negative vote. The measure penalizes those who commit discriminatory practices against confirmed, suspect, probable and recovered COVID-19 patients, repatriated land-based or sea-based Filipinos, healthcare workers, responders, service workers, and families and household members of the persons mentioned. Discriminatory acts include harassment or assault, stigmatization, failure to give assistance, and unlawful refusal to honor valid and existing contracts. Violators who commit harassment among the aforementioned COVID-19 related persons are subject to at least one but not more than 10 years of jail time and will pay a fine of at least 200,000 up to 1 million. The bill also provides that those who perform the other discriminatory acts will be imprisoned for at least six months up to five years or will have to pay 50,000 to 500,000, or both. If the violator is a juridical person or someone from a legally organized group, its president, director, head or officer will also be held liable, the bill stated. On the other hand, if the person is a civil servant, the Civil Service Commission may dismiss the violator from service. The Senate version of HB 6817 is still pending at the committee level, where it needs to be passed also on third reading. Both chambers need to approve the bill before being signed by the President as a law. President Rodrigo Duterte earlier called out against attacks on health workers and entry refusal of repatriated OFWs to their hometowns amid multiple harassment and non-assistance reports. TORONTO, ON The 2020 edition of the Inside Track Motorsport News Canadian Racing Guide (CRG) presented by ContiTech Canada, Inc. is now available as a free digital flipbook edition. Dubbed the pandemic edition of the CRG, the guide features as many Canadian track and series schedules as we could find, as well as several major international series skeds. With so much uncertainty and schedules evolving on a daily basis, were going to update the digital edition regularly so that fans will know which races have been cancelled, confirmed, rescheduled or postponed. If your track or series has updates or changes, please let us know (at editor@insidetracknews.com). As always, please check with the promoters websites if youre thinking of heading to an event. Well also attempt to keep you in the loop as to when fans are permitted at various facilities across Canada. As of early June, no spectators are allowed to attend races, in Canada, that were aware of. In addition to the schedules, there are a few fun flashback features from years past, including the inaugural APC Late Model Series and Canadian NASCAR Truck Series races (at CTMP), as well as Paul Tracys huge win on the streets of Toronto, in 2003. Thank you to ContiTech Canada, Inc. for its ongoing sponsorship of the Inside Track Canadian Racing Guide, as well as our other advertisers who have a presence in this issue. If you click on their ads, youll be taken directly to their homepages. Please support the businesses that support Canadian motorsports. We hope to see you all back at the track again soon. In the meantime, we hope you, your family and friends are safe. Britannia Industries Ltd is quoting at Rs 3460.1, up 0.74% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. The stock is up 16.49% in last one year as compared to a 17.64% drop in NIFTY and a 2.41% drop in the Nifty FMCG. Britannia Industries Ltd gained for a fifth straight session today. The stock is quoting at Rs 3460.1, up 0.74% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is up around 1.33% on the day, quoting at 9956.7. The Sensex is at 33757.23, up 1.36%. Britannia Industries Ltd has risen around 11.87% in last one month. Meanwhile, Nifty FMCG index of which Britannia Industries Ltd is a constituent, has risen around 7.06% in last one month and is currently quoting at 29571.3, down 0.08% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 5.32 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 8.94 lakh shares in last one month. The benchmark June futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 3435.7, up 0.76% on the day. Britannia Industries Ltd is up 16.49% in last one year as compared to a 17.64% drop in NIFTY and a 2.41% drop in the Nifty FMCG index. The PE of the stock is 60.14 based on TTM earnings ending December 19. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) We know that George Floyd was killed and we have a right to protest, Rockingham said. But we do not have a right to go out and riot. That is not something that should be a part of our community, Lake County or our country. S unny weather and soaring temperatures are set to continue as the mercury is expected to hit sweltering highs of 29C today. The heat will remain until the middle of the week across the UK, with the south likely seeing the hottest temperatures of the year so far on Tuesday. But the unseasonably warm period will give way to more changeable weather from Wednesday, just days after the relaxation of coronavirus lockdown measures. It comes after forecasters confirmed May was the sunniest calendar month on record, and spring was the sunniest spring. UK beaches packed during bank holiday heatwave 1 /10 UK beaches packed during bank holiday heatwave Southend beach has been flooded with sunbathers under the bank holiday Monday sun AFP via Getty Images Crowds enjoy the hot weather on Bournemouth beach PA People are seen sunbathing on the beach in Southend REUTERS Crowds enjoy the hot weather on Bournemouth beach AFP via Getty Images People are seen sunbathing on the beach in Southend REUTERS People are seen sunbathing on the beach in Southend REUTERS People are seen sunbathing on the beach in Southend REUTERS Bournemouth beach was packed out this afternoon PA Met Office meteorologist Marco Petagna said: "From Tuesday we are starting to see some more unsettled weather across Scotland and the gradual trend will be turning cooler across the UK from Wednesday. He said northerly winds will bring cooler air and some areas in the south of England could experience thundery showers. The warm end to the month confirmed a significant milestone for the UK with the nation recording its sunniest spring since records began in 1929. The Met Office recorded more than 573 hours of sunshine between March 1 and May 27, beating the previous record of 555.3 hours which was set in 1948. It is also expected to be the driest May for 124 years, with official figures on rainfall to be published. People across England took advantage of the hot weather over the weekend to visit beaches and beauty spots, despite some authorities urging the public to stay away. Nancy Platts, leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, asked people not to visit the area on Sunday and called on the Government for more powers to implement a local lockdown. As revellers enjoyed temperatures of up to 28C (82.4F), emergency services attended incidents involving water, fires and littering, despite warnings being issued to the public. The French government has released a contract tracing app, called StopCovid, to notify people when theyve been in contact with someone who is later diagnosed with COVID-19, as reported by Bloomberg. Usage of the app is entirely voluntary in France, although the effectiveness of contact tracing depends on how many people are using it. Buoyed by the release of the Apple-Google framework for contact tracing, many countries, including Italy and Switzerland, have released contact tracing apps in the last few weeks. But the French app has been in development since before Apple and Google released their APIs. StopCovid uses ROBERT, a contact tracing protocol developed by the Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing project. It works by assigning each user a permanent, pseudonymous ID, which is then used to create several ephemeral IDs. The ephemeral IDs are communicated to other nearby devices via Bluetooth. If someone reports that theyve been diagnosed with COVID-19, the server flags all of the ephemeral IDs associated with their permanent ID. This triggers a notification for anyone whos been in contact with one or more of those ephemeral IDs. As of last month, the French government has been doing manual contact tracing, using a small team of advisors to personally notify those whove been exposed to someone whos contracted the virus. The contact tracers rely on doctors to notify them when a patient has been diagnosed. The StopCovid app is available for download from the App Store and the Google Play Store. [June 02, 2020] Incognia Fights Mobile Fraud and Protects Privacy with Location Behavioral Biometrics for Frictionless Authentication and Identity Verification PALO ALTO, Calif., June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Private identity company, Incognia , announced the launch of its location-based behavioral biometrics solution developed to combat rising rates of mobile fraud. Incognia's Anti-fraud SDK and APIs enhance identity verification and authentication for banks, fintech and retailers with mobile applications. Working in the background, Incognia builds a unique location fingerprint for each mobile user, without capturing or storing any PII, to create a private digital identity. In 2019, 93% of all mobile transactions (1.7 billion in total, across 20 countries) were found to be fraudulent. As the volume of mobile transactions continues to grow rapidly with the global mobile payments market reaching $4.7 trillion by 2025, fraudsters remain eager to capitalize. With fraud techniques continually evolving, existing static solutions such as passwords and knowledge questions are unable to provide users with a private and frictionless experience. Incognia location behavioral biometrics provides a new frictionless weapon for enhanced fraud detection and prevention. The phone is the new keyboard for conducting digital transactions; the bad guys know it and theyre after our privacy with the intent to commit fraud, said Jay Bretzmann, Research Director at IDC. Incognias Anti-Fraud Solution is the tool mobile banking, fintech, and retail solution developers need to seriously combat mobile fraud and keep users secure. Dynamic, adaptive technology like Incognias location behavioral biometrics will help smell the rats and ferret out the attackers before damage is done. Incognias proprietary location technology uses network signals from GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth along with on-device signals to identify precise location without capturing any PII. By building an anonymous location behavioral pattern, unique for each user, Incognia provides a private identity that is dynamic and adaptive. Key features of the Incognia Anti-Fraud Mobile SDK include: Continuous Address Verification API: Incognias technology continuously validates location information, and can detect and alert for changes in behavior that indicate a changeof address (or possible fraudulent activity). Location data is collected by the Incognia SDK which matches device visit history to each address claimed during an account opening. Incognias technology continuously validates location information, and can detect and alert for changes in behavior that indicate a changeof address (or possible fraudulent activity). Location data is collected by the Incognia SDK which matches device visit history to each address claimed during an account opening. Location Fingerprint API: Incognia location fingerprint can be used to validate existing account holders, specifically those re-engaging and logging in on a new device, and prevent account takeover fraud while keeping false positives low. The location fingerprint is a behavioral biometric signature based on a users unique location behavioral pattern and no two are alike. Incognia location fingerprint can be used to validate existing account holders, specifically those re-engaging and logging in on a new device, and prevent account takeover fraud while keeping false positives low. The location fingerprint is a behavioral biometric signature based on a users unique location behavioral pattern and no two are alike. Trusted Location API: Incognia compares the users current location with their historical location behavior and assigns a risk score based on whether the location can be considered familiar or trusted for this user. This information is used to validate actions such as account login and in-app transactions and flag attempts at account takeover and fraudulent payment. Incognia compares the users current location with their historical location behavior and assigns a risk score based on whether the location can be considered familiar or trusted for this user. This information is used to validate actions such as account login and in-app transactions and flag attempts at account takeover and fraudulent payment. Device Integrity API: Incognia uses several techniques to validate device integrity. This solution ensures the data quality of Incognias continuous Address Verification and Location Fingerprinting solutions. The Incognia SDK scans numerous device attributes, including app and file details, to identify anomalies that may indicate malicious intent. It can detect rooting, as well as other attempts to produce fraudulent data. The U.S. needs a privacy-first solution to combat mobile fraud, said Andre Ferraz, CEO and Founder of Incognia. With the Incognia SDK, our customers can reduce fraud through the use of location behavioral biometrics, provide a secure frictionless experience for their users and above all, protect their users' privacy. By using Incognia, companies will operate more securely at a lower risk while ensuring their customers are protected every step of the way. Our team has the expertise and talent to help the mobile commerce and baking market keep their valued customers secure at all times. The new solution comes as Incognia welcomes Paula Skokowski into the role of Chief Marketing Officer. Skokowski brings more than 20 years of experience launching startups, pioneering technology products and scaling companies. She has worked with top companies including Yubico, Shape Security and Accellion, where she demonstrated leadership in go-to-market strategy, product definition and development, marketing and sales enablement. Incognia products are available now. To get started, request access to the SDK at www.incognia.com About Incognia Incognia is a private identity company offering location awareness for use in mobile apps and connected devices. Incognia uses network signals and on-device sensors to deliver highly precise location information without capturing any Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Incognia behavioral biometrics enable banks, fintech and retailers with mobile applications to deliver private location context aware services, frictionless user ID verification, background authentication, risk assessment and fraud detection, all while protecting user privacy. Incognia is privately held and headquartered in Palo Alto, California with teams in New York and Brazil. Stay connected and follow Incognia on Twitter and LinkedIn . Media Contact Madeline Kalicka, Karbo Communications for Incognia (240) 427-8961 [email protected] A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/14480b93-c195-4b19-955c-942f505fb934 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Editors note: This article has been updated to note that Worcester police used smoke grenades and pepperball rounds, not rubber bullets. Hours after a peaceful protest had ended, police were in a stand-off with a group of people who marched into the Main South neighborhood of Worcester Monday night. The group began marching down Main Street sometime around 11 p.m. The group was met by police officers on Hammond Street, where they took a knee and chanted Black Lives Matter and held signs in front of a police vehicle. Protesters are now on Hammond St. pic.twitter.com/AYavxXbWJW Tom Matthews (@writtenbytom) June 2, 2020 Police outfitted in riot gear arrived on the scene and formed a barricade between Hammond and Main Streets. The officers then began to move toward the crowd repeating, Move back, Move back. Police in riot gear on the scene at Main and Hammond St pic.twitter.com/DX9CE1xEnm Tom Matthews (@writtenbytom) June 2, 2020 The crowd was dispersed in two separate directions with some heading up Hammond Street and others continuing down Main Street. Worcester protesters have reached Hammond St. Posted by MassLive Worcester on Monday, June 1, 2020 The crowd on Main Street later would start to set off fireworks and throw rocks toward the officers dressed in riot gear. Glass bottles were thrown at police cruisers. At one point, the bumper of a Worcester police cruiser caught on fire. A person was seen lighting a fire in bushes in front of the Main Street Dunkin'. People in the crowd shouted to the police, Hands up, dont shoot." Police fired smoke grenades and pepperball rounds, which dispense oleoresin capsicum, the same ingredient found in pepper spray, into the crowd of about 70 people. There were reports of people getting on top of the PennyWise Market on May Street. One Clark University police cruiser had its windows smashed in. Some participants claim police boxed in the group and gave them no outlet to leave. Fireworks were still being set off in the streets as of midnight as police and the crowd remained in the street Tuesday morning. Protesters on Main Street Posted by MassLive Worcester on Monday, June 1, 2020 A SWAT team arrived in the area at one point. People could be seen being taken into custody by police. Someone getting arrested on Main St pic.twitter.com/lJ1TZJiosv Tom Matthews (@writtenbytom) June 2, 2020 Officers rushed to EbLens, a clothing and sneaker store, on Park Avenue for a report of looting. At least one person was taken into custody there. Merchandise from the store could be seen in the parking lot. Around 12:40 a.m. Main Street had cleared out. The police in riot gear lingered for a bit before leaving. Main Street is pretty much empty now all but the police pic.twitter.com/fHtWjWy5aA Tom Matthews (@writtenbytom) June 2, 2020 A peaceful protest where people gathered in solidarity over the death of George Floyd took place earlier Monday. The Worcester Common was packed with thousands of people. The group eventually made their way to the Worcester courthouse on Main Street where the protest continued. At one point, police took a knee with the protesters. The early evening event ended without any issues. Riots broke out in major cities across the United States as people protested the death of Floyd. In Boston, police arrested 53 people after violence erupted Sunday night. The violence came after the organized protests ended in the city. Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man, died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes, even after he had passed out, according to authorities. Derek Chauvin, the police officer, has since been charged with murder and manslaughter. Related Content: Reverend Emmanuel Obour, the Kumasi Maakro District Minister of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, has asked Christians to strengthen their prayers to seek the face of God in the era of the Coronavirus. He pointed out that, though it was important for all Ghanaians to adhere strictly to the preventive and restrictive protocols, it was only God who could save the country from the further spread of the pandemic. Delivering a sermon during a virtual service of the church on Sunday, Rev. Obour said it was important for Christians to share the word of God with others and pray for the nation. He stressed the need for Christians to use their lives as examples to transform this sinful world and the people leaving in it. We are leaving in a very crucial world because many attend church but have given themselves to fake pastors by following their principles instead of the word of God, he stated. He encouraged Ghanaians to leave their lives according to the word of God by praying and staying away from sin. This according to him would pave way for God to listen to our prayers especially, in this era of the coronavirus pandemic. Rev Obour urged Ghanaians to regularly wash their hands with soap under running water, wear nose mask, use alcohol base sanitizers, ensuring social distancing and stay home as possible as they could, as had been directed by the government. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video By Ayya Lmahamad Chairman of the Board of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) Elman Rustamov has described as satisfactory the country's financial sector. Addressing the presser of CBA and the Deposit Insurance Fund on June 1, Rustamov said: The loan portfolio of banks has grown by 2.8 percent since the beginning of this year, in particular, by 0.8 percent in May. The main growth was achieved due to business and mortgage loans, whose portfolio grew by 4.9 percent and 9.5 percent accordingly during the reporting period," Rustamov said. Moreover, the CBA head noted that since the beginning of 2020, banks have issued new loans to the real sector worth AZN 2.6 billion ($1.53 bn). "In general, the banking sector has sufficient liquidity. To date, banks' liquid funds exceed AZN 9 billion ($5.3 bn), which amounts to 29 percent of the banking sector's assets. Banks also fulfill all their obligations in a timely manner. Deposits of the population decreased by 3.7 percent since the beginning of the year, which is explained by the excitement in the market. In May we are already witnessing a growth of AZN 53 million ($31.2M) or 0.3 percent," he emphasized. Touching upon the statistics of restructuring of loans, Rustamov noted that Azerbaijani banks have received 57.000 applications so far. He said that the volume of restructured loans envisaged in the applications reached AZN 1.4 billion ($823 million), of which 94 percent are business loans and 3 percent are mortgage and consumer loans. The chairman also stressed that the volume of actually restructured loans exceeds AZN 301 million ($177 million). --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Former RBI Deputy Governor R Gandhi has expressed doubt over the efficacy of the government's stimulus package, terming the aim of Rs 7.9 lakh crore-uptick in lending to small businesses, agriculture and power discoms as not "feasible". On Monday, PTI erroneously reported that Gandhi was a former RBI Governor. Speaking at a webinar hosted by payment system company Electronic Payments and Services, Gandhi said that the RBI needs to re-introduce a one-time restructuring package and mere moratoriums will not suffice in unprecedented times like the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the over Rs 20 lakh crore package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rs 3 lakh crore was devoted to collateral-free loans to micro, small and medium enterprises, Rs 2 lakh crore were to be given to farmers through kisan credit cards and a liquidity injection of Rs 90,000 crore was assured to the fund starved power distribution companies. Gandhi, who used to handle the banking regulation function at the central bank, said all the banks put together gave out incremental loans of Rs 6 lakh crore in the entire fiscal year 2019-20, when the growth had not plummeted as it is expected to now. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show Additionally, there are other segments of the economy as well which are in need of credit, Gandhi said, adding that the same number will be over and above the Rs 7.9 lakh crore. "Feasibility of the package ...(it) is unlikely to be really possible because actually the calculations which have been made by the government are based on the total eligibility based on the government's assessment," Gandhi said on Monday. He said it is "unlikely" that all the borrowers from the MSME sector will be availing the entire credit which they are assumed to be taking because of the economic sluggishness and added that many such businesses have folded up as well. "Credit only gives you a little bit of liquidity, whereas the businesses have to look forward that there will be a demand for services, hope for profitability, then only they will come to avail credit," he said. He also said that bankers will be hesitant about extending loans to such companies because of concerns on the borrowers' profitability and also to reduce their own dud assets positions in an environment like this. Over two years after the RBI completely did away with the loan restructuring system, Gandhi sought a reintroduction of the same in the current times. "It (a loan) should not be stamped as an NPA. The forbearance should be given in the current days, mere moratorium is insufficient," he said, adding that the troubles on the economic front, including aspect like an entire quarter lost to lockdowns will make it necessary for the relief to be extended. He, however, said that the RBI must also increase the general provisioning on assets given the volatile times we are in. He also pitched for the government to rely more on cash transfers, rather than spending on infrastructure building, to revive the economy, explaining that the latter is good in normal times while the former helps create consumption demand which is very much needed. Gandhi also said that despite the COVID-19 situation, the government or state-run entities have not released payments for small businesses, and sought the introduction of an automated system to make the payments possible so that the small businesses do not suffer. He also said that the government and the RBI have laid out the enabling regulation and bankers should start taking their credit calls based on their assessments, and not depend on spoon-feeding on what to do. Given the change in environment and a larger portion of credit being taken by the services sector, there is a need to reimagine credit delivery where a banker does not depend on collaterals alone while assessing a proposal, he said, stressing on the need for looking at cash flows as well. The career central banker said loan monitoring has become topsy-turvy during the last quarter because of the lockdowns and the same should be internalized by the top management. If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here A decision on establishing and improving the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) to safeguard national security was recently approved by deputies to the 13th National Peoples Congress (NPC). However, the U.S., attempting to obstruct the decision, even threatened to impose sanctions on Hong Kong. It is blatant intervention in Hong Kong affairs and the internal affairs of China, as well as insolent violation of the international law and the basic norms governing international relations, fully exposing the double standards and bullying practices of Washington. We sternly warn the U.S. that sanctions against the HKSAR are doomed to fail, and it will only meet a dead end playing Hong Kong cards. Hong Kong belongs to China, as well as the 1.4 billion Chinese people, including 7.5 million compatriots in the SAR. The high degree of autonomy in the region has never been defined by the U.S. Washingtons accusation on the national security legislation for impeding the high degree of autonomy and freedom of the SAR is total defamation that distorts the principle of "one country, two systems." Its recognized by everyone non-biased that the practice of one country, two systems has achieved universally acknowledged success since Hong Kong returned to China, and the compatriots in Hong Kong have enjoyed wider democracy and freedom than ever before. The national security legislation is a right and responsibility of the central government of China, and the national security law only targets the minor practices and activities that seriously damage national security. The law doesnt affect the high degree of autonomy of Hong Kong, the legitimate rights and interests, as well as the freedom of Hong Kong residents, or the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors in the SAR. It will only complete the legal system of Hong Kong and bring more stability to the regions social order, and help protect the principle of one country, two systems and maintain the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong. National security is fundamental for a sovereign country, and national security legislation is a sacred and inviolable sovereign right of a country. While the U.S. is doing everything around the world to protect its so-called national security, it is demonizing China for the latters legitimate and reasonable practices in national security legislation and even threatened to impose sanctions. Such double standards and bullying practices are just arbitrary, rude and shameless. The U.S. said blatantly that it has taken Hong Kong as a bastion of liberty for decades, and hoped that free and prosperous Hong Kong would provide a model for China. Such confession exactly revealed the White Houses vicious intention to use the SAR as a bridgehead to split, subvert, infiltrate and undermine the Chinese mainland. It also proved that it is urgent for the NPC to make relevant laws and plug its national security loopholes. It is self-evident why the U.S. has been making ceaseless and groundless accusation on China. Threats and intimidation will never shake Chinas resolution and will to safeguard national security, or stop Hong Kong citizens from supporting the national security legislation. So far, over two million residents in Hong Kong have signed petition in support of the legislation. Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai, former president of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, noted that the NPCs decision to make national security law for Hong Kong has no impact on the regions high degree of autonomy. On the contrary, if the violent and almost terrorist activities keep going on, there would be no future for Hong Kong, she said, adding that the special status of the region would be meaningless then. Since Hong Kong returned to its motherland, it has established reciprocal cooperation with multiple trading partners, including the U.S., which has 1,344 companies and around 85,000 Americans live in Hong Kong. In the past decade, the U.S. enjoyed a trade surplus of $297 billion with Hong Kong, the biggest among all of Washingtons trading partners. The U.S. will be the first to fall if it imposes sanctions on Hong Kong. If the country is not clear about this, the so-called sanctions would be another farce. The attempts of Washington to contain Chinas development progress at the sacrifice of Hong Kong are doomed to end up in vain. The U.S. had better estimate the current situation and stop its wrongdoings as early as possible. Justice will ultimately prevail over the evil. The Chinese government is determined in implementing the one country, two systems policy, safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests, and opposing external interference in Hong Kong affairs. The central government of China, as well as the government of the HKSAR are well prepared to take forceful countermeasures. Some countries, including the U.S. and the UK, tried to push the UN Security Council to discuss Hong Kongs national security legislation, which was strongly opposed by China. It was also rejected by most of the members of the UN Security Council as they believe Hong Kong affairs are Chinas domestic affairs and have nothing to do with the UN Security Council. The unique position of Hong Kong in international economic and trade relations is granted by the Basic Law, rather than foreign countries, and the prosperity and stability of the region are created by Hong Kong compatriots under the strong support of the Chinese mainland, not given by foreign countries, either. The development and progress of China are the source of Hong Kongs confidence in conquering challenges and difficulties, as well as the huge opportunities for the regions prosperity and development. U.S. sanctions are not able to frighten Hong Kong or undermine China. Any individual and any so-called sanction will not stop Hong Kong from integrating into national development or prevent China from realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. (Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People's Daily to express its views on foreign policy.) Conan O'Brien addressed the killing of George Floyd by a former Minneapolis police officer by handing the mic over to and choosing 'not to speak but to listen.' The 57-year-old host released a video statement on Monday about Floyd and the subsequent nation-wide protests over his death that erupted in the last week. O'Brien admitted in the statement that he didn't feel that it was 'right' for him to talk about his feelings over the fraught matter and, instead, invited CNN's Van Jones on to take the reigns. Time to listen: Conan O'Brien released a video statement on Monday about the killing of George Floyd and turned the microphone over to CNN's Van Jones because now is 'a time to listen' 'We have a ritual now in America whenever something terrible happens our nation goes into shock and hundreds of people like myself go on television and try to make sense of it all,' Conan began. The late-night host said it used to be news anchors and reporters who had the job of speaking to the nation about these issues but it had 'inexplicably expanded to included celebrities and comedians. Conan explained that far too often he'd been put in this position following acts of terrorism or school shootings, but the death of George Floyd was different. 'Today feels very different,' O'Brien said. 'We're rightfully sickened by the needless killing of a black man named George Floyd.' 'It doesn't feel right to talk about my feelings of sadness and anger. To do that today feels inadequate and even somehow wrong,' Conan said in his statement. 'Our national crisis is that a large and vital community in our country is in real pain pain because they do not feel safe, or dignified or seen. And most important of all, they do not feel heard' Floyd died on May 25, after Officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes while he cried out that he couldn't breathe. Chauvin was later fired and charged with third-degree murder and second degree manslaughter in the killing of Floyd. The three other officers on the scene have not been charged. 'It doesn't feel right to talk about my feelings of sadness and anger. To do that today feels inadequate and even somehow wrong,' Conan said in his statement. 'Our national crisis is that a large and vital community in our country is in real pain pain because they do not feel safe, or dignified or seen. And most important of all, they do not feel heard,' he continued. Sparking outrage: George Floyd died on May 25, after Officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes while he cried out that he couldn't breathe - his death catalyzed a week of nationwide protests 'So I'd like to use my very small piece of television today not to speak but to listen to someone who knows what it's like to be black in America in 2020.' Conan invited CNN political commentator and the CEO of Reform Alliance Van Jones to lead a 30 minute conversation about the death of George Floyd, systemic racism and the road forward. 'Lynchings were designed to humiliate and intimidate the whole community. When it's law enforcement, you really feel helpless,' Van said. 'That's why, I think, you see this real despair in the black community.' Issues that matter: Conan invited CNN political commentator and the CEO of Reform Alliance Van Jones to lead a 30 minute conversation about the death of George Floyd, systemic racism and the road forward Since Floyd's killing, thousands of people poured into the streets of major cities across the U.S. demanding justice for senselessly slain black Americans and an end to police brutality and racist practices. Some of the protests got out of hand, turning violent - videos showed officers driving directly into crowds of protesters with their SUVs and firing rubber bullets and tear gas at peaceful demonstrators. Meanwhile, agitators disrupted the peaceful protest with violence, looting and arson. 'We need to come together,' Van said. 'If we don't come together, we're going to end up where we're headed, and where we're headed is not good.' World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus gestures during a daily press briefing on COVID-19 at the WHO headquarters in Geneva on March 2, 2020. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images) WHO Praised Beijing in Public While Complaining Internally About Its Withholding of Virus Data: Report The World Health Organization (WHO) struggled to obtain critical information about the CCP virus from Beijing in the early stages of the outbreak, contradicting the bodys public statements that praised the regimes response to the crisis, according to recordings of internal meetings obtained by The Associated Press (AP). The recordings show that WHO officials complained in meetings during the week of Jan. 6 that Beijing wasnt sharing data needed to assess how the virus spreads between people and its risk to the rest of the world. Beijing didnt confirm that the virus was contagious until Jan. 20, and prior to that said there was little to no risk of human-to-human transmission. That talking point was repeated by the WHO. Were going on very minimal information, said Maria Van Kerkhove, an epidemiologist and WHO technical lead for COVID-19, in one internal meeting, AP reported. Its clearly not enough for you to do proper planning. In another meeting, WHOs top official in China, Dr. Gauden Galea, said: Were currently at the stage where, yes, theyre giving it to us 15 minutes before it appears on CCTV, referring to Chinese state broadcaster China Central Television. The revelations come amid heightened scrutiny of both the Chinese regime and WHOs handling of the pandemic, with mounting calls for an independent investigation into the origins of the virus. President Donald Trump on May 29 announced the United States withdrawal from the WHO over its role in aiding the regimes coverup of the outbreak. The United Nations agency has been criticized for repeatedly heaping praise on China for its transparency and handling of the crisis, despite evidence that authorities suppressed those who tried to sound the alarm about the disease during the early days of the outbreak in Wuhan. By the second week of January, WHO officials were exasperated at the lack of information coming from the regime, the recordings show. The fact is, were two to three weeks into an event, we dont have a laboratory diagnosis, we dont have an age, sex, or geographic distribution, we dont have an epi curve, said Dr. Michael Ryan, WHOs chief of emergencies, referring to a chart used to show how an outbreak is progressing. We have informally and formally been requesting more epidemiological information, Galea said. But when asked for specifics, we could get nothing. Although a state-affiliated lab had documented the full virus genome by Jan. 2, the Chinese regime didnt share the sequence with the WHO until Jan. 12. That was one day after a Chinese lab published the genome sequence on virological.org without authorization by authorities, AP reported. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus later lauded the regimes efforts in sharing the virus sequence as very impressive, and beyond words. On Jan. 3, Chinas National Health Commission issued a notice to local researchers to hand over virus samples to designated pathogen detection agencies or destroy them, as first reported by Chinese financial magazine Caixin and corroborated by documents obtained by The Epoch Times. The WHO, in a statement to AP, defended its handling of the pandemic: Our leadership and staff have worked night and day in compliance with the organizations rules and regulations to support and share information with all Member States equally, and engage in frank and forthright conversations with governments at all levels. According to AP, recordings from the second week of January showed that Ryan feared a repeat of the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak that originated in China in 2002, which authorities also initially covered up. This is exactly the same scenario, endlessly trying to get updates from China about what was going on, he said, according to AP. WHO barely got out of that one with its neck intact, given the issues that arose around transparency in southern China. Ryan criticized Beijings lack of cooperation, saying, This would not happen in Congo and did not happen in Congo and other places, likely referring to the Ebola outbreak that originated there in 2018. We need to see the data. Its absolutely important at this point. He advocated for applying more pressure on China, noting that last September, the WHO had issued a rare public rebuke of Tanzania for not sharing enough information about the Ebola outbreak. We have to be consistent, Ryan said, according to AP. The danger now is that despite our good intent especially if something does happen, there will be a lot of finger-pointing at WHO. After the brutal killing of George Floyd, a nationwide movement began in America which united several people to fight against the ill-treatment meted out to people of colour. Amid this, several celebrities including Drake, Jimmy Fallon, and more, pledged their support for the movement. Major business and franchises too showed their support towards the people of colour protesting against the insensitive treatment. The Former Miss Malaysia also spoke out about the ongoing protests and made some insensitive comments for which she received tremendous outrage from fans. Former Miss Malaysia says 'African-Americans chose to be born coloured', sparks outrage Also Read | George Floyd's Death: Syrian Artists Paint Memorial On Remainder Of A Destroyed Wall Samantha Katie James recently took to Instagram where she allegedly called the protestors in America Foolish Humans. The model did this and also criticized the movement that the protestors have been a part of. She also made several statements which said The Whites Won. She said that she does not live in America and has nothing to do with it. However, from the information she has received it seemed to her as if the whites have won. She explained this statement by saying that people are protesting and are angry and thus their rage means that the Whites have power over them. Ending this statement, Samantha Katie James added "Foolish Humans". Also Read | Adele 'stands In Solidarity' Over George Floyd's Death; Ask Fans To Be 'focused' She then went on to address people of colour and asked them to relax and take this as a challenge. She told them to keep themselves stronger and to accept the fact that they chose to be born as a coloured person in America. She added that it was all for a reason and a certain lesson as well. Samantha Katie James added that hunger and poverty still exist and it is what it is. She also called the situation as inevitable. The former Miss Malaysia then proceeded to tell the people of colour to be calm and protect their heart and to not let it crumble during such times and said that this is their responsibility. Also Read | George Floyd's Death Sends Clear Message That Common Man's Life Values: Mayawati These comments made by Samantha Katie James did not go down well and she received tremendous criticism for her remarks. Her followers too commented on her posts advising her to not make such comments as they are insensitive in nature. However, as the outrage grew, the hate kept flooding the comments section of the former Miss Malaysia; hence according to a news portal, the official managing body of the Miss Universe Malaysia made a post about this issue. They mentioned that they do not support such act and that they are aware of the post being unacceptable and harmful in nature. They also mentioned sternly that the opinions placed forward by Samantha Katie James are her own and the managing body has nothing to do with it. They then condemned her action and concluded by saying they are an organisation that takes racism very seriously and therefore they strongly condemn all such acts. Also Read | George Floyd's Death: Thousands Gather For Students-led Rally, Risk COVID-19 Spread Get the latest entertainment news from India & around the world. Now follow your favourite television celebs and telly updates. Republic World is your one-stop destination for trending Bollywood news. Tune in today to stay updated with all the latest news and headlines from the world of entertainment. The government is set to try an app to monitor religious gatherings, among others as the coronavirus restrictions are eased. The app is expected to keep track of events and details of persons who attend these events. At a press briefing on Monday evening, the Minister of Communication Ursula Owusu Ekuful said the app, known as PANABIOS (Pan African BioSurveillance Application) is to help us stay compliant with all of these [conditions for resuming certain public gatherings]. The minister expects the app to ready in 48 hours. We are trialling in Ghana and hopefully it will be rolled out on the rest of the continent, Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful. Providing a few details on how the app would work she said a passcode or a USSD code will be generated for people to book for a registered event. Event organisers will have to download the application and register the event and venue that the event is taking place, the minister explained. Mrs. Ekuful stressed the need to comply with conditions put in place for the resumption of religious gatherings and other events. For our collective peace of mind, every event needs to keep an accurate register of everyone who attends those functions so that when need be, you can provide that information to the health authorities and they can help all of us. President Akufo-Addo announced a review of social gathering protocols in Ghana in a televised address on May 31. Religious gatherings, schools, weddings among others can resume partially under strict conditions. Churches and mosques, for example, are to allow only 100 congregants while schools are to open for final year students. The cap on participants for private burials has also been raised to 100 persons. ---citinewsroom Voters in primaries around the country reported problems with mail-in ballots and confusion about where to turn out in person, as protests over the killing of George Floyd threatened to combine with the coronavirus pandemic to disrupt elections. Primaries were held Tuesday in eight states and the District of Columbia, with nearly every jurisdiction facing a surge of interest in voting by mail and accompanying logistical problems. In several places, the number of in-person voting places was significantly reduced, and cities including the District experienced long lines that grew into the early evening. The problems, though not critical, occurred on the heaviest day of voting since the novel coronavirus emerged in full force and suggested challenges ahead for the November presidential election. "This surge is one thing, but I think we can expect a lot more than this in November, even without covid-19," Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said about absentee voting. She described the day's contests as running "remarkably smoothly, with no widespread issues to report." The story appeared different in the District, which opened just 20 of its typical 143 polling places and reported wait times at each location of more than an hour around 7:30 p.m. The lines stretched for blocks, even as the city's curfew took effect. Despite the problems, the voting landscape was a sharp departure from the partisan and court battles earlier this year in Ohio and Wisconsin over whether to postpone elections because of the threat of the coronavirus. Yet as they cast ballots in person on Tuesday, voters encountered conditions that have become a hallmark of this unusual election year: fewer voting locations, newly installed ballot dropboxes, signs encouraging social distancing and poll workers in protective gear. The public was also cautioned not to expect complete results on Tuesday night, with some states saying they might not be released until next week. In one Pennsylvania county, a judge on Tuesday ordered the mail-in deadline extended for as many as 500 people who had requested but not received mailed ballots. Election officials in Delaware County had struggled to fulfill an "unprecedented number" of absentee ballot requests, County Solicitor William Martin wrote in a last-minute court petition. Voters in other jurisdictions faced similar hurdles. In the District of Columbia, Maryland and Rhode Island, some reported not receiving mail-in ballots or struggling to submit requests. District election officials resorted to hand-delivering ballots that were at risk of not arriving on time. Long lines formed in spots. At about 6 p.m., 300 or more people waited to vote in a line that stretched about six blocks around the Sherwood Recreation Center. In one predominantly African American area of Pittsburgh, voters complained of feeling intimidated by having to cast ballots in a polling location that also houses a police department during a time of tension between black residents and law enforcement. Lakiya Brown of northeast Philadelphia said she was not afraid of contracting the coronavirus or encountering danger from police or protesters when she cast her ballot Tuesday. But the 37-year-old said she planned to be at home before it got dark. "People are angry. I get it. I am angry. I am hurting," she said, wiping away tears. "I may not act the same way, but I get it." Some troubles appeared to stem from poor communication to voters about changed routines. In Philadelphia, for instance, where only 190 of 831 polling places were opened, some voters showed up at their normal location to find facilities shuttered with no signs directing them to a consolidated location. Most of the problems emerged before Election Day and were related to the overwhelming increase in demand for mail-in ballots, which was up more than 1,000 percent in some jurisdictions, according to election officials. Pennsylvania, notably the ring of suburbs around Philadelphia, is widely expected to be a crucial battleground in the November presidential election. If thousands of voters are unable to cast mail-in ballots in the primary, election officials will be under tremendous pressure to better prepare for a general election that four years ago was decided by the narrowest of margins. Deadlines - and voters' confusion about them - also caused issues. In Indiana, the clerk of the state's most populous county warned last week that thousands of ballots might not be counted because they would not be returned by the deadline of noon on Election Day. And in New Mexico, voting rights advocates reported that several thousand applications for absentee ballots were received the day after the deadline. Several of Tuesday's contests drew special interest. In Iowa, firebrand conservative Rep. Steve King, a Republican, faced four GOP rivals. In Maryland, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Democrat, was being challenged from the left by first-time candidate Mckayla Wilkes. And in New Mexico, former CIA operative Valerie Plame ran in a competitive primary for the seat being vacated by Senate hopeful Ben Ray Lujan, a member of House Democratic leadership. The presidential campaigns were taking note of turnout in Tuesday's primaries. Election officials across the board expected low in-person turnout because of the surge in mail-in ballots, although that could mask the number of voters who were unable to or chose not to vote at all due to confusion over mail balloting rules or fear of infection at the polls. There was uncertainty about where to drop mail-in ballots. Philadelphia election officials set up dropboxes at only 11 locations, not at every polling location. At the A.W. Christy Recreation Center in predominantly black West Philadelphia - where 15 separate polling locations were consolidated - voters arrived with mail-in ballots in hand, unsure of what to do with them. With no ballot dropbox available, officials directed voters to a public library a mile away. Advocates said black voters have struggled to cast absentee ballots out of a combination of mistrust about dropping their ballots in the mail and a lack of access to information about how to do it. "To have these folks have to specifically come to the polls is unconscionable to me," said Sergio Cea, 35, a community organizer. One voter, Dorsey Williams, 52, came to the Lucien Blackwell West Philadelphia Regional Library to drop off his mail-in ballot, only to be told - incorrectly - that he had to submit his ballot in the council district where he lives. "Voter suppression is for real," he said. "They just did it to me." In Delaware County outside Philadelphia, officials said they had fulfilled an unprecedented 80,000 requests for mail-in ballots. But 6,000 of them went out just Monday - giving those voters little wiggle room to return them on time. Officials said they would be unable to fulfill another 400 ballot requests at all because of insufficient staffing and time. To help alleviate the crush, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, extended the mail-in ballot deadline by a week in six counties where the pandemic and protests have been most acute, but ballots still must be postmarked or received in person by 8 p.m. Tuesday. "This is an unprecedented time for Pennsylvania and our nation as we face a major public health crisis and civil unrest during an election," Wolf said in a statement. "Voting is the cornerstone of our democracy, and I want to ensure that voters can cast their ballot and that it is received in time." The Pennsylvania primary was the state's first major contest since state lawmakers expanded absentee balloting to all voters last fall, long before they could have predicted how dramatically interest in voting by mail would surge as a result of the pandemic. The onset of violent protests after Floyd, who was black, was killed in police custody in Minneapolis compounded the challenges that Tuesday brought. Philadelphia has been under a mandatory 6 p.m. curfew since Sunday; the curfew in Washington is set at 7 p.m., while polls remained open. Both cities declared voters and poll workers exempt. The mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, imposed a 9 p.m. curfew, one hour after polls were scheduled to close. Wolf ordered his deadline extension for mail-in ballots to apply to Philadelphia and two of its suburbs, as well as the counties that include Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Erie. Republican National Committee spokesman Mike Reed said Monday that the party was considering whether to bring legal action to block Wolf's order. The GOP fought efforts to extend the ballot deadline in Wisconsin's spring elections in April. "We want everyone to have the opportunity to vote, but we have an Election Day for a reason," Reed said. "Postponing this deadline would require county election offices to verify ballots for weeks after the election, potentially delaying the outcome and opening the door for unnecessary litigation." In Philadelphia, the crunch for in-person voting access could be more acute in the city's black enclaves, notably West and North Philadelphia, where requests for mail-in ballots were lower than in white areas, according to an analysis by Jonathan Tannen, a demographer who crunches city data. - - - Pompilio reported from Philadelphia. The Washington Post's Joe Heim, Joseph Marks, Jenna Portnoy and Julie Zauzmer contributed to this report. President Moon Jae-in listens to U.S. President Donald Trump during their phone conversation at Cheong Wa Dae, Tuesday. Courtesy of Cheong Wa Dae With U.S. President Donald Trump's invitation to a Group of Seven summit in the fall, South Korea finds itself in a tough diplomatic position between its ally the United States and its strategic partner China, according to analysts. The White House has made clear that an expanded meeting would bring together traditional U.S. allies to talk about the future of China as tensions between Washington and Beijing have soared over the coronavirus pandemic and civil liberties in Hong Kong. President Moon Jae-in was quick to accept Trump's offer during a phone call between the leaders Monday, saying his country will do its part in quarantine and economic recovery efforts. But given that the United States will likely use an expanded G-7 to add pressure on China, South Korea may need to weigh its benefits against its risks, according to analysts. "South Korea, in many respects, is in a nearly impossible position when it comes to the budding Cold War between China and the United States," Harry Kazianis, senior director for Korean studies at the Center for the National Interest, told Yonhap News Agency. "President Moon needs a strong trade relationship with China and their help with North Korea. At the same time, he needs to make sure Washington continues to see the U.S.-South Korea alliance as critical to its long-term Asia strategy," he said. A second doctor from northern Italy told the national ANSA news agency that he was also seeing the coronavirus weaken. "The strength the virus had two months ago is not the same strength it has today," said Matteo Bassetti, head of the infectious diseases clinic at the San Martino hospital in the city of Genoa. The Syrian army has discovered a large cache of machine guns, rifles, explosive rounds and drugs reports Al-Masdar. The Syrian army uncovered a large weapons cache while combing through the formerly militant-held areas of southern Syria on Monday. The army seized a plethora of weapons, including 23mm machine guns, assault rifles including US-made M-16 rifles, night-vision and regular binoculars, communication devices, anti-tank missiles, RPG rounds, and hundreds of kilograms of hashish. The items also included more than half a million rounds for machine guns and assault rifles, as well as anti-tank landmines. This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. Flash A fresh outbreak of the Ebola virus disease was declared on Monday by Congolese Minister of Health Eteni Longondo in the city of Mbandaka, in Equateur province in northwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo). "The samples taken in Mbandaka and sent to the National Institute of Biomedical Research in Kinshasa were positive," said the health minister during a press conference in Kinshasa. According to Eteni Longondo, the heads of the National Institute of Biomedical Research in Kinshasa confirmed on Monday the result of the test taken from the patients on the spot in the town of Mbandaka. A few days ago, the authorities of the city of Mbandaka in Equator province alerted at least four cases of suspicious deaths in the same health zone of Mbandaka. For health authorities in Kinshasa, the Ebola response team is already in place at the provincial level and another team will be deployed from Kinshasa to strengthen the response. The announcement comes as health authorities started a countdown to declare the end of the tenth Ebola epidemic that has plagued the east part of the country since 2018, which has left more than three thousand people contaminated and 2,280 people dead. According to WHO Secretary-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who has confirmed six cases, including four already dead by his Twitter account, WHO already has its teams on scene to support the fight against the epidemic. The tenth epidemic has been the deadliest in the history of the country since the discovery of the first Ebola epidemic around 1977 in the province of Bandundu. The government was planning to announce the country Ebola free on June 25, but with new cases resurfacing, the country has to continue fighting it, media reports said. Moscow, June 2 : A swarm of blood-sucking ticks including a deadly 'mutant variety has hit Russia's Siberia region, leaving some hospitals without vaccines and medications, the media reported. The attack of the ticks come at a time when hospitals are already stretched with increasing coronavirus deaths and infections, 7NEWS reported on Tuesday. "Mutant ticks are attacking -- this is not a tabloid headline but a fact," said the report quoting Zvezda, the Russian defence ministry's newspaper. The mutant ticks, found in several regions of Siberia, attack people in both long and short grass. A "large number inter-species hybrids" which produce "fertile offspring" have invaded Novosibirsk and Tomsk regions, Nina Tikhunova, of the Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine, Novosibirsk, was quoted as saying. This mutant "is capable of carrying infectious agents associated with both parent species". The resulting tick bites are "very unpleasant for people", she said. A particularly badly affected region is Krasnoyarsk which witnessed 428 times more ticks than usual, amid fears of encephalitis and Lyme disease. The region's Epidemiology and Hygiene Centre reported that almost two per cent were found to carry tick-borne viral encephalitis, which can lead to permanent brain damage, with a third capable of passing on tick-borne borreliosis -- or Lyme disease, attacking the joints, heart, and nervous system. At this time, in 1871, all types of things were punished with solitary confinement. Somewhere between three days and 14 days was pretty common punishment, she said. Lennon served three days in solitary confinement for smoking in his cell in October 1871. St Helena Island heritage consultant Belinda Daly in front of the restored prison. Credit:St Helena Island Community association. It was very harsh times. It was totally underground, no light and very little ventilation. There was just total silence and bread and water obviously, Ms Daly said. He was punished a second time on December 14, 1871. He was singing in his cell and at the same day another prisoner was dancing in his cell; so it was all going off that day, Ms Daly said. The dancing prisoner, William Reed, got seven days' solitary, but Johnny Lennon was only reprimanded. No extra time. But singing and dancing were absolute no gos at that time. Prison notes showing John Lennon charged with singing in his St Helena Island prison cell on December 14, 1871. Credit:Belinda Daly Queensland Colonial Secretary's correspondence. There is no information that Lennon played an instrument, she said. But the chances are that he was singing a bawdy drinking song, or it could have been an Indigenous song, she said. On a third occasion, on March 3, 1872, he was caught concealing a pipe in the prison and was docked one weeks tobacco rations. John Lennon was an Indigenous man working for a squatter, William Kelman, who owned the original big pastoral run called Meteor Downs west of Rockhampton. He hadnt been in trouble before, so it looks like this was a once-off crime, she said. This tailor and his wife were asleep in Rockhampton at night. She was literally wearing the gold rings and he slipped them off her hands while she was sleeping and robbed the place. He ended up stealing two gold rings, a brooch, a pipe, two pen-knives, a tweed coat, linen trousers and two razors. John Lennon was sentenced to three days in solitary confinement for smoking in the cell of Ward B on October 12, 1871. Credit:Queensland Colonial Secretary's correspondence Ms Daly said the court documents showed Johnny Lennon was later arrested in the hayshed behind Rockhamptons Leichhardt Hotel. His response after his arrest according to the court documents - was Me must have been drunk last night, she said. Lennon was sentenced on February 13, 1871 by Judge Hirst in Rockhampton to a two-year jail term. Ms Daly has researched dozens of stories linked to St Helena Island and said the John Lennon story highlighted so much about Queensland society in the 1870s. His Honour in passing said he might send him to imprisonment for life, she said. So he was on the verge of sending him to prison for life but then he said he hoped the two-year sentence would be a caution to him." Lennon was sent to St Helena islands B-Ward, or the coloured cells. So he would have been put with other Aboriginal people, other South Sea Islander people and anyone who came from overseas who was not classed as white or Caucasian," Ms Daly said. Trouble-makers and pretty hardened criminals also went in B-Ward. These cells held 12 prisoners in hammocks in a cramped space with the night buckets in the middle. Its narrow. Theres only enough room to lie down and when you wake up in the morning you roll your hammock up and move around in the cell, she said. Ms Daly said Lennon began life on St Helena Island on February 27, 1871 clearing land, digging holes and emptying the night bucket. St Helena Island then had big pastures of sugar cane, a sugar mill and maize. Because that is what they had for breakfast, maize porridge, Ms Daly said. Prisoners tending fields of crops on St Helena Island around 1900. The prison warders have black uniforms. Credit:Belinda Daly. St Helena Island Community. Eventually, the singing prisoner was released on remission on October 22, 1872. So they think hes been pretty good, so they let him go under his two-year term, she said. Ms Daly said St Helena Islands heritage in Brisbane's history has been overlooked. It was the first national park for heritage value established in Queensland, she said. Looking at Stradbroke Island, Peel, Fort Lytton and St Helena and the way they were used in isolation, it is so relevant to what we are living with right now. Lennon never reappeared in a Brisbane jail, according to prison records. From everything I have read and been told, he never came back to jail, Ms Daly said. As Veere Di Wedding and Bhavesh Joshi Superhero completed two years of release on Monday, proud mother Sunita Kapoor shared a heartfelt post for her children, Sonam Kapoor, Rhea Kapoor and Harrsh Vardhan Kapoor. June 1st. 2018. Proud moment for Anil and me. Our 3 kids had a release on the same day. Youll make us so proud, she wrote on Instagram. Sunita shared a collage of a picture of the Veere Di Wedding Team -- Sonam, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Swara Bhasker, Shikha Talsania and Rhea (producer) and a poster of Harrsh Vardhans Bhavesh Joshi Superhero. Celebrating 2 years of #VeereDiWedding and #BhaveshJoshiSuperhero. One received great commercial and theatrical success and the other created a massive cult following digitally. Breaking barriers and winning hearts! So proud of all 3 of you! @sonamkapoor @rheakapoor @harshvarrdhankapoor, she wrote. However, Harrsh Vardhan had a complaint -- Sunita used an inverted poster of Bhavesh Joshi Superhero in her post. He commented, My poster is inverted, to which his mother replied, @harshvarrdhankapoor ohh sorry. As Bhavesh Joshi Superhero completed two years of release, Harrsh Vardhan shared behind-the-scenes photos from the sets of the film on his Instagram account. Directed by Vikramaditya Motwane, the vigilante action film also starred Priyanshu Painyuli and Nishikant Kamat. Also read | Tahira Kashyap says she needs to earn a position to direct Ayushmann Khurrana: He is senior to me Rhea shared a collage of the lead actors of Veere Di Wedding and said that she could hardly wait for the next chapter. She wrote, Happy veere day. @vdwthefilm we laughed, we cried, we fell in love and pissed a lot of people off. It was everything I couldve hoped for. Heres to lifelong friendships and growing into your guts. Can hardly wait for the next chapter. #2yearsofveerediwedding. Earlier this year, in an interactive session on Instagram, Rhea confirmed that Veere Di Wedding will have a sequel. I think its gonna happen actually. It might happen sooner than I thought it would happen. But things look good. I am excited, she said. Follow @htshowbiz for more An independent autopsy ordered by George Floyd's family found his death was a "homicide caused by asphyxia due to neck and back compression that led to a lack of blood flow to the brain," according to early findings from the examination released Monday. Floyd was apprehended by police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota, last Monday, and one of the officers pinned his knee to Floyd's neck as Floyd called out that he couldn't breathe. The independent examiners found that weight on Floyd's back, the handcuffs and the positioning were contributory factors because they impaired the ability of Floyd's diaphragm to function. The report concluded that Floyd, 46, died at the scene. MORE: George Floyd remembered by friends and family as hardworking 'gentle giant' "The ambulance was the hearse," Ben Crump, an attorney for Floyd's family, said at a news conference announcing the findings. Later Monday, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's office released its initial findings of their autopsy and also declared Floyd's death was a homicide caused by "a cardiopulmonary arrest whilebeing restrained by law enforcement officer(s)." PHOTO: George Floyd is pictured in an undated photo released by the office of Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump. (Courtesy Ben Crump Law) Dr. Michael Baden and the University of Michigan Medical School's director of autopsy and forensic services, Dr. Allecia Wilson, handled the newly announced independent examination. Baden, who was New York's medical examiner in 1978 and 1979, had previously performed independent autopsies on Eric Garner, who was killed by a police officer in Staten Island, New York, in 2014 and Michael Brown, who was shot by officers in Ferguson, Missouri, that same year. Baden said Floyd was in good health before his death and said the video of his death showed the compression of his neck and back very clearly. "When he said 'I can't breathe,' unfortunately, many police are under impression that if you can talk that means you're breathing. That is not true," he said during the news conference. Story continues MORE: 'We're sick of it': Protesters explain method to the madness of violent demonstrations Wilson said toxicology reports and other examinations are still ongoing and acknowledged that since they conducted a second autopsy, as the medical examiner had done one previously, they did not have access to Floyd's tissue samples in their original state. "We feel those items will not change or alter the cause of death with mechanical asphyxia," she said. PHOTO: Dr. Michael Baden and Dr. Allecia Wilson discuss the preliminary findings of their independent autopsy of George Floyd during a news conference on June 1, 2020. (Courtesy Ben Crump Law) The medical examiner's preliminary report, however, said Floyd had "other significant conditions," including "arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease, a fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use." Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, identified as the officer who put his knee to Floyd's neck, was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Floyd was heard saying "I can't breathe," while the officer had him pinned for nearly nine minutes, according to the criminal complaint. MORE: Derek Chauvin had his knee on George Floyd's neck for nearly 9 minutes, complaint says Three other officers who were involved in the arrest have been fired but haven't been charged as of Monday afternoon. The criminal complaint said the official examination of Floyd's body by the medical examiner is still ongoing, but prosecutors provided some information about this death. This is separate from the independent autopsy requested by Floyd's family. The medical examiner's initial findings were that Floyd had underlying health conditions including coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease, the complaint said. Independent autopsy finds George Floyd died of homicide by asphyxia originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Prev 1 of 23 Next First there was a candlelight vigil attended by thousands of community members Sunday night to stand in solidarity with those killed by police. Then, protesters marched up and down Central chanting I cant breathe and waving signs referencing the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Finally, nearing midnight, chaos broke out in Downtown Albuquerque. Rioters shattered business windows and damaged other property across multiple Central Avenue blocks and, officials say, broke into the historic KiMo Theatre and climbed onto the roof. Thirty-three fires were set in the area and dozens of firearms were looted from at least one gun store, officials say. Police say shots were fired at them, although they did not provide any more information and no one was injured. Around 11:45 p.m. the Albuquerque Police Departments Emergency Response Team, wearing riot gear, arrived at the scene. Over the next several hours they tried to get the demonstrators to disperse. A helicopter circled overhead, and officers moved in formation through the streets, throwing tear gas canisters into the group. Some protesters shouted profanities and taunts at the police and threw the canisters back at them. Officers were called off shortly before 5 a.m. Two men were arrested for unlawful assembly and obstructing or evading the police, misdemeanor charges. Jim Harvey, executive director of the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice, said he was saddened and disappointed to hear about how the situation unfolded Downtown, but he wasnt necessarily surprised. However, he said, he doesnt believe those who attended the candlelight vigil were involved. He said at least 2,000 people attended the vigil at the center near the University of New Mexico and it ended around 7:30 p.m. as protesters began to march, for the most part peacefully. One of the things were continuing to hear a lot about is there are people who are unrelated to and uninterested in the issue, and simply want to create more problems, Harvey said. I dont know if thats necessarily who did damage last night or not, but we will continue to do what we have to do, which is to make our voices heard and raise the issues we are concerned about in a peaceful way. Harvey referenced the APDs history with excessive use of force, which prompted the Department of Justice to intervene. The city is still in the midst of the reform effort and officials acknowledge they have a long way to go in changing the police departments culture. Its all about accountability, Harvey said. I think the overarching concern and need even goes beyond local police. I think we need to be talking about a national move to change the culture of policing everywhere. It was not Albuquerque Standing in front of the boarded-up KiMo Theatre on Monday, Mayor Tim Keller called the mornings events an especially heinous attack on a business community already struggling to survive the COVID-19-related economic shutdown and blamed it on a small, separate group from the hundreds who gathered Sunday evening for a candlelight vigil and march from the UNM area to Downtown and back again. City leaders had not calculated the cost of the damage, but said the city will help with board-ups at affected businesses. Last night was scary and dangerous for everyone involved and, of course, it should not have been for anyone, Keller said. What we saw last night in Downtown was not a protest. It was not Albuquerque. Asked if police had been too lenient, Keller said they intervened as soon as they could in a safe way that would not lead to serious injury. By that measure, because there was no serious injury, I am absolutely grateful. Keller and other officials said the police worked to keep protesters safe during the earlier event, with APD even helping keep traffic clear. But what happened afterward required police intervention, Chief Administrative Officer Sarita Nair said. We need to come together in a way that respects all of the pain and frustration, but it must be in a way that doesnt endanger lives, she said. Theres been a national conversation about riots and whether cities are valuing property over human life. We have deliberately chosen not to take that approach, but events like last night did endanger more than just property. An APD spokesman said early Monday morning that officers reported someone firing at them in front of the KiMo Theatre. Albuquerque Police Department Deputy Chief Harold Medina later said they didnt know who shot at them or from which direction they fired. Nobody was seriously hurt during the chaos, but two people were arrested on misdemeanor charges, Medina said. One of them, 39-year-old David Ellis, sat on the curb and refused to move as the police line advanced toward him after deploying smoke canisters and gas into the crowd of protesters, according to the complaint. When the police line reached Mr. Ellis, they had to stop their advance because of Mr. Ellis sitting on the curb, an officer wrote in the complaint. The complaint does not say what the other man, 29-year-old Salomon Cordova, did. Both men were arrested and held for several hours, but were later released because the power was out at the Metropolitan Detention Center, said Gilbert Gallegos, an APD spokesman. A consequence of systemic issues On Monday morning, city workers and volunteers cleaned up the damage to Downtown businesses, removing graffiti and boarding up broken windows. Several Downtown business owners said they dont blame the vandalism on peaceful protestors. Effex Nightclub had several windows broken, but owner Carri Phillis said it does not appear vandals made their way into the club. She said she was told this morning that each time it seemed someone was about to enter the building, bystanders intervened. These were not protesters that destroyed Downtown, she said. These were a bunch of punks and all they wanted to do was commit crimes in the city. Phillis said that she hopes the vandals dont detract from the movement, which she said she supports. As far as what happened last night, that does not change the narrative for me and I truly hope that it does not change the narrative for others, she said. As of Monday afternoon, the nightclub was fully boarded up. The irony is next weekend we should be celebrating our 10-year anniversary and today we are boarding up our windows, Phillis said. The Box Theater at Gold and Second had rocks thrown through several windows and a door kicked in at about 2 a.m. Monday, according to co-owner Doug Montoya. Although the damage will cost a few thousand dollars to repair, Montoya said he views the damage as a consequence of systemic issues. I dont even know that I am upset that they broke the windows. Im just kind of at ease with it because it seems par for the course, he said. This seems appropriate that people are going to be angry . Montoya said hes planning on keeping the windows boarded up while protests continue. Other buildings in the area also took precautions. Metropolitan Court in Downtown Albuquerque closed early as a precautionary measure to allow employees time to safely leave the area. Windows were boarded up at Silver Street Market, as well. Co-owner Kelly Ortman said only two windows were damaged, but the grocery store made the decision to cover all exposed windows to prevent potential damage from future protests. She says the damage to her business was minimal compared to others in the area. Its sad, Ortman said. I know that these were not the demonstrators, it was just opportunists. As he pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about his conversations with a Russian diplomat, Mr. Flynn also admitted that he had violated foreign lobbying laws while working with Mr. Kian, though prosecutors agreed not to pursue those charges in their plea agreement with Mr. Flynn. As part of that deal, Mr. Flynn agreed to testify against Mr. Kian. But then Mr. Flynn abruptly changed his story on the eve of Mr. Kians trial, blaming his previous lawyers for filing inaccurate foreign lobbying disclosure forms without his knowledge. The move was a blow to the prosecutions case. The about-face was part of Mr. Flynns broader reversal. He moved to withdraw his guilty plea this year, claiming he never lied to the F.B.I. about several calls with Sergey I. Kislyak, who was then the Russian ambassador to the United States, and that he simply did not recall what he said during the conversations. Mr. Barr assigned Mr. Jensen, the top federal prosecutor in St. Louis, to review the matter. Mr. Jensen recommended the charge be dropped after finding documents and other evidence that the Justice Department said showed that the F.B.I. lacked sufficient reason to question Mr. Flynn about his calls with Mr. Kislyak. In determining that Mr. Flynns lies were not material to an ongoing counterintelligence investigation into Russias interference in the 2016 election, the department reversed its position of two years on the matter. In their motion to drop the case against Mr. Flynn, prosecutors argued that the frail and shifting justifications for its ongoing probe of Mr. Flynn, as well as the irregular procedure that preceded his interview, suggests that the F.B.I. was eager to interview Mr. Flynn irrespective of any underlying investigation. Mr. Kians lawyers seized on that reasoning to suggest that his prosecution was also misguided. They called it the direct progeny of the investigation and charging of Flynn a process that has now been exposed as fundamentally corrupt. Though the governments motion to drop the Flynn case does not mention his lies about his work for Turkey, Mr. Kians lawyers said the cases were inseparable. They also suggested that Mr. Trumps influence contributed to Mr. Barrs decision to withdraw the charge against Mr. Flynn. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 2) The Department of Health said it expects to receive the complete COVID-19 case data from four remaining laboratories on Thursday, which it needs to clear its reports backlog. "Kapag dumating na ang kumpletong line list na 'to mula sa natitirang apat na laboratoryo, mavavalidate na natin ang lahat na natitirang kaso at mauubos na natin ang cases for validation na hindi pa naipapasok sa ating official count," said Health Spokesperson Ma. Rosario Vergeire during the agency's regular briefing online on Tuesday. [Translation: When the complete line lists arrive from the remaining four laboratories, we can validate all of the remaining lists and we will finish all cases for validation that were not included in our official count.] Vergeire said 38 out of the 42 accredited laboratories in the country have submitted on Monday their full line lists which consist of all COVID-19 tests done since the facilities started operating. The arrival of these lists led to an increase in the number of "late" cases or infections whose results were released to the patients at least four days ago. The agency recently changed its COVID-19 reporting format by separating late cases from "fresh" cases whose results were released to patients within the last three days. The DOH said it expects to report only fresh cases after it clears its backlog and if laboratories send their daily accomplishment reports on time. The accomplishment reports detail all the tests the facility has given in a day. DOH noted that 38 laboratories also submitted on time on Monday which the agency said is a significant improvement in the facilities' submission rate, since there were only 15 laboratories that were on time on just the previous day. "Kapag ang lahat ng laboratoryo natin ay nagpapasa on time ng kanilang daily accomplishment reports, wala po tayong maiiwang backlogs for validation at ibig sabihin ay fresh cases na lamang po ang ating irereport," said Vergeire. [Translation: If all of our laboratories pass their daily accomplishment reports on time, we won't have remaining backlogs for validation and this means we will only report fresh cases.] "Kapag nangyari ito masasabi natin na mas accurate na ang sitwasyon na nakikita kada araw base sa mga bagong kasong papasok dito sa ating case bulletin," she added. [Translation: If this happens, we can say that we are seeing a more accurate situation each day based on the new cases appearing in our case bulletin.] The country COVID-19 total is now approaching 19,000 after 359 more cases were reported 189 of which were late cases while 176 were fresh. More than 4,000 people have now recovered from the disease while 966 have died from it. There have been reports swirling around that the two Toyotas will make their premiere by June 4. It's right on schedule too, as our source said back in April that production for both will begin by June. The Hilux and Fortuner will be assembled in Thailand, although the Philippine-bound Fortuners might still be sourced from Indonesia. Since these were spied way back in January, we've been looking forward to seeing the facelifted Toyota Fortuner and Hilux. During the past six months, the Fortuner has been spotted with no camouflage, while the Hilux had been leaked. But in a matter of days, we might just be seeing it in full detail. Toyota's teaser just shows the silhouettes of the two, but we have a general idea of their designs already. For the Fortuner, the headlights are new, so is the grill, bumper, and fog light housings. Even the hood has a new design with more defined creases on the surface. Toyota had omitted some of the chrome strips that connect the grill to the center air intake as well. Also, the front apron seems to have been re-profiled. As for the Hilux, there's a bit of a 4Runner and Tacoma vibe for its front end. It gets a wider grill opening and more chiseled bumper edges. Air intakes have also been made slimmer, likely due to the new grill design as well. Even the shape of the headlights seems to be mildly tweaked with an edgier design, at least according to the leaked photos. Now, for the engines and there's a juicy rumor about its 2.8-liter turbodiesel mill. According to our friends at Headlightmag.com, it might get a significant power bump. From 177 PS and 450 Nm, the 2021 edition could get as much as 204 PS and, more importantly, a whopping 500 Nm of torque. If that's the case, that puts the Fortuner and Hilux toe to toe with the Ford Everest and Ranger's torque figure. If the Hilux and Fortuner will be revealed this week, we'll be able to confirm if that power and torque increase rumor will be true. Even though the world is going through a lot right now, there's still a lot to look forward to in the automotive sector. For one, we're excited to see the 2021 Fortuner and Hilux in the metal too. Solidarity: People gathered at the GPO on OConnell Street and marched to the US embassy in Ballsbridge protesting over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Photo: Mark Condren Around 1,000 people took part in a 'Black Lives Matter' solidarity protest in Dublin yesterday. The protests are a sign of solidarity over the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis last week. Dublin resident Anna Heverin said it was important to show solidarity with the protesters in the US. "It's important that we have somewhere where we can express our anger and frustration at what's going on in America and show our solidarity," she said. "There is a problem with endemic racism in America and with police brutality, even though it is a small minority." She said that there is also an issue with racism in Ireland. "The racist element does exist in Ireland and I would have friends of colour who would have faced incidents or being called different names. That element does creep into Irish society. We have to take a stand against it and show the majority of Irish people don't have these feelings," she said. "It's a stain on our modern world." Ms Heverin also attended the protest outside the US embassy yesterday. "I could hear voices yesterday that there were a lot of American citizens and people who felt very strongly. "It's very important that we come out and show our solidarity." The United States has returned an acquitted Iranian scientist to his home country after holding him for months in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday. Both Washington and Tehran shot down rampant speculation that the United States had detained Sirous Asgari despite his acquittal on sanctions evasion charges in November to secure the release of Americans detained by Iran. Speculation about an exchange of Asgari for other individuals is not accurate, said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Abbas Mousavi. His freedom came about based on his acquittal from charges. Asgari contracted COVID-19 in April while in the ICE facility. Why it matters: Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli rebutted Iranian claims that the United States was holding Asgari as leverage in a potential prisoner swap in remarks to the Associated Press. Cuccinelli said that the United States had tried to return Asgari in December following his acquittal but that Tehran had refused to recognize him as an Iranian citizen, failing to provide him a passport until late February. He went on to explain that once Asgari received his passport, multiple flights booked to return him to Iran were cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Whats next: Asgari is expected to finally arrive in Iran on Wednesday. Iran still retains four known jailed Americans: Michael White, Siamak Namazi, Baquer Namazi and Morad Tahbaz. Know more: A US-Iran prisoner swap may not be immediately in the cards, but Iranian Foreign Mininster Mohammad Javad Zarif nonetheless called for one as recently as last month. And Laura Rozen has the details on last years prisoner-swap agreement between the United States and Iran. Milk & Honey Market in 2010, shortly after its opening on Baltimore Avenue in West Philadelphia. Read more Milk & Honey Market on Baltimore Avenue near 45th Street in West Philadelphia, which had been targeted with protests for the last week over wage and safety issues, has closed indefinitely, its owners say. The shops dozen workers had considered themselves on strike. In a letter posted on Milk & Honeys website, Annie Baum-Stein, who founded the business in late 2009 with husband Mauro Daigle (and, later, operated a satellite location at Sister Cities Park in Center City), wrote that in the midst of this horrible pandemic, we have been faced with demonstrations and social media attacks that have attempted to portray us as people we are not and to intimidate us and our customers over a series of perceived grievances. The striking workers created an Instagram account, @milkandhoneyworkersunited, to list demands, including personal protection equipment, the ability to raise safety concerns with management, a policy of no staff working alone at any point on a shift, thermometer checks for staff, and a $15-an-hour wage. A representative of @milkandhoneyworkersunited declined to provide further comment Monday. Meanwhile, the Milk & Honey owners in the letter said they were committed to the health and safety of our workers, our customers, and our community" and described themselves as "proudly pro-worker, pro-living wage, pro-universal [health] care, and pro-negotiation kind of people. The letter lays out a timeline: May 12: Milk & Honey, which employed a dozen people, reopened with protocols to protect workers and customers, based on government-issued rules and recommendations. May 25: Owners said they were told that some staff members, many of whom had not returned to work, had concerns regarding protocols, transportation, and financial issues as a result of the pandemic. May 26: A staff meeting was held, during which owners made clear that we were committed to addressing the issues raised and to accommodate our staff to every extent possible, the letter said. "It was agreed that concerns would be presented in writing and addressed in a coordinated manner. May 27: Milk & Honey was open for business while trying to understand how best to stay open and accommodate our staff, the letter said. May 28: The store was closed. Workers affixed a cardboard sign to the outside of the door announcing that they had unionized, according to a post on the Facebook page of Dignity, a workers-rights organization. The Dignity post noted that the store was trying to hire replacement workers for $17 an hour, which was $2 an hour more than current employees had been offered. The letter says that on May 28, before being given enough of an opportunity to fully review and respond to the 22 items listed, most of which we are in full agreement with, a cohort of our staff in conjunction with many who have no affiliation with Milk & Honey began protesting in front of our store. Weve been harassed and threatened, and our good name in the community has been marred, Baum-Stein wrote. READ MORE: Labor issues vex a grocery store in Fishtown. "We are reasonable, hardworking, caring people whove invested all that we have into this business. In the best of circumstances, its not easy, under COVID-19 conditions [its] monumentally difficult. We were hoping to be able to address the concerns raised and collectively approach pulling our business and our staff back up from the brink that this pandemic has put us all on the edge of. Regrettably, with the extremely aggressive approach taken, that now feels and appears unattainable. Accordingly, with love for the support weve received through the years and unimaginable disappointment weve decided we cannot continue and will remain closed indefinitely. We do so at enormous personal and financial loss along with the knowledge that 12 jobs are lost, customers will no longer have the convenience and warm-heartedness of our store, and the business community will be faced with yet another shuttered storefront." The owners have not returned The Inquirers messages for comment. This article has been updated with information about the workers Instagram account. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. According to a new report published by Polaris Market Research the worldwide kitchen appliances market is anticipated to reach USD 340.9 billion by 2026. In 2017, the refrigerator segment dominated the global market, in terms of revenue. North America is expected to be the leading contributor to the global market revenue during the forecast period. The changing lifestyles and hectic schedules of the working professionals lead to growing demand for kitchen appliances. Consumers prefer kitchen appliances, which are easyto-operate and facilitate faster cooking. Rising disposable income is one of the factors responsible for the growth of the market. Increasing propensity of consumers to spend on appliances to lead convenient lives has also resulted in an increased demand for kitchen appliances. Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/kitchen-appliances-market/request-for-sample The other factors responsible for the growth of the market are convenience in fast cooking and healthy food consumption. Players in the market are launching cooking appliances which enable faster cooking while keeping the nutrients of food intact. Introduction of energy efficient cooking appliances equipped with multiple cooking functionalities are available in the market to cater to the consumers in the market. Moreover, the increasing trend of smart appliances would also encourage manufacturers to launch innovative kitchen appliances, which are compact and easy-to-use. There has been a considerable increase in middle class and young working population across the globe. Rising female working population and busy schedules of people have led to an increasing demand of kitchen appliances. Increase in the number of social gatherings coupled with growing need for quick and efficient kitchen activities has boosted the market. Growing purchasing power of individuals has led to increased spending on consumer goods. Rising disposable income enables consumers to purchase multipurpose and easy-to-operate kitchen appliances to simplify and ease their kitchen activities. Consumers generally opt for stylish and technologically advanced kitchen appliances, which complement their living standards. Market players are introducing new products equipped with advanced features at affordable prices to cater to the growing consumer demands. North America generated the highest revenue in the market in 2017, and is expected to lead the global market throughout the forecast period. The high living standards along with high disposable income in the region encourage consumers to purchase kitchen appliances to simplify kitchen activities. The growing adoption of smart technologies and home automation systems is further expected to augment market growth in the region. Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at a significant rate during the forecast period owing to the increasing population and improving living standards. Browse for full research summary: https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/kitchen-appliances-market The different types of kitchen appliances include cooking appliances, refrigerators, dishwaters, and others. In 2017, refrigerators accounted for the highest market share owing to increasing need to conserve edible items at a range of different temperatures. Consumers prefer to use energy efficient refrigerators owing to growing environmental concerns. Introduction of advanced refrigerators equipped with smart technologies is expected to drive the market in the future. The various end-users of kitchen appliances include residential and commercial users. In 2017, residential users accounted for the largest share in the global market, and are estimated to grow at a substantial rate during the forecast period. Residential consumers are increasingly spending on kitchen appliances to simplify kitchen chores and lead comfortable lives. Household consumers are opting for kitchen appliances, which are energy efficient and have minimal space requirements. In addition, improvement in living standards has encouraged consumers to buy technology-driven and luxury kitchen appliances. Integration of technologies such as Internet of Things and smart technologies into kitchen appliances is expected to provide growth opportunities in the coming years. The well-known companies profiled in the report include Whirlpool Corporation, Robert Bosch GmbH, LG Electronics, AB Electrolux, Haier Group Corporation, Panasonic Corporation, Samsung Electronics, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Sharp Corporation. These companies launch new products and collaborate with other market leaders to innovate and launch new products to meet the increasing needs and requirements of consumers. Avail discount on this report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/kitchen-appliances-market/request-for-discount-pricing About Polaris Market Research Polaris Market Research is a global market research and consulting company. We provide unmatched quality of offerings to our clients present globally. The company specializes in providing exceptional market intelligence and in-depth business research services for our clientele spread across different enterprises. We at Polaris are obliged to serve our diverse customer base present across the industries of healthcare, technology, semi-conductors and chemicals among various other industries present around the world. We strive to provide our customers with updated information on innovative technologies, high growth markets, emerging business environments and latest business-centric applications, thereby helping them always to make informed decisions and leverage new opportunities. Contact us- Polaris Market Research Phone: 1-646-568-9980 Email: sales@polarismarketresearch.com Web: www.polarismarketresearch.com Joe Biden's campaign for president is seeing a surge in fundraising in the wake of George Floyd's death, particularly as President Donald Trump comes under scrutiny for his response to protests across the country. Biden supporters and bundlers have seen a massive uptick in new contributions and donor commitments since the protests began last week, according to people with knowledge of the matter who declined to be named due to the private nature of their conversations. Fundraisers said that they have each helped to raise between $200,000 and more than $1 million over the past week. In some cases, bundlers say they are raising money at a much faster clip than they had in similar lengths of time. Some are seeing individual fundraising highs compared with the same points in time in previous election cycles. Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell told CNBC that he recently organized a virtual fundraiser, scheduled for next week, which was expected to raise close to $500,000. Instead, he said, it is likely to bring in over $1 million. "A lot of the data is coming back, because Biden has performed well and we'll probably end up doing $1.1 million or $1.2 million," Rendell said Tuesday. Part of these fundraising efforts could show up in Biden's next Federal Election Commission filing, which will show how much the campaign brought in last month. The filing deadline for all campaigns' May fundraising totals is June 20. Biden and the Democratic National Committee combined to raise just over $60 million in April. Trump and the Republican National Committee brought in a touch more than $61 million over that same period of time. Biden is ahead of Trump in most national polls; a RealClearPolitics polling average shows him with a nearly 6-point lead. Although the GOP groups had more than $225 million on hand going into May, Biden has an ace in the hole. His ties to former President Barack Obama, who created a fundraising juggernaut of his own during the 2008 and 2012 campaigns for president, is likely going to be another difference maker for him in the final stretch of the election. Biden's and Obama's teams, according to a source, are working on a potential big money fundraiser that may feature Obama himself. It could help bring in millions of dollars to the former vice president's run for president. This person declined to be named as the discussions are fluid and nothing has been officially scheduled. The recent boost to Biden's campaign war chest over the past week came ahead of a speech in Philadelphia on Tuesday, when the apparent Democratic nominee blasted Trump's handling of the protests that have ensued since Floyd's death. Floyd, a black man who was unarmed, died as a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Biden's speech laid out his strategy for reforming the police system if he became president. Trump's response to the protests includes threatening to deploy the U.S. military if states can't handle quelling the vast demonstrations on their own. As Trump made that threat, riot and military police advanced outside the White House to clear Lafayette Square of what appeared to be peaceful protesters. After they were moved, Trump and members of his administration walked to St. John's Church, where the president posed with a Bible. Charles Myers, a former vice chairman at Evercore and one of Biden's fundraisers in the finance industry, told CNBC that he has seen a massive increase in fundraising, more than he has at a similar point in time in other election years. "I'm seeing a 30% to 35% increase in what I would normally see at this point five months out from the election in money," Myers said, while noting that jump includes what he is raising for Senate races. Joe Donnelly, a former Democratic senator from Indiana who is now a partner at the law firm Akin Gump, said he's noticed donors have been going beyond just raising a ton of money. According to Donnelly, they have also been trying to spread the word about how Biden, in their opinion, is the solution to a now-sluggish economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and has been more of an empathetic voice when it comes the civil unrest across the country. Since states were forced to lock down due to the pandemic, more than 40 million Americans have lost their jobs. "What I can tell you is there is an increased commitment to say 'I will do anything I have to. I will crawl on my knees to Wisconsin to talk to a group of veterans about how there needs to be real change,'" Donnelly told CNBC in an interview on Tuesday. Donnelly hosted a virtual fundraiser for Biden on Monday that brought in $500,000. Robert Wolf, a longtime ally in the business community of both Biden and Obama, explained to CNBC that he has been hearing that fundraising over the course of at least the past week has been strong. "I am hearing fundraising is going very well," Wolf said. Biden's "thoughtful approach to Covid-19 and empathetic response to racism and civil unrest is clear to all especially to the current administration," he said. Meanwhile, outside groups that are both backing Biden and vehemently opposed to Trump are seeing big fundraising hauls as well. That big money could be a boost to these groups' future TV ad buys that mainly have been attacking the president. American Bridge 21st Century, a super PAC that's backing Biden, has seen $6.9 million come into its coffers since May 14, a PAC official told CNBC. It's been their best two-week fundraising haul of the 2020 election cycle, this person added. The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump super PAC that's run by a group of never-Trump Republicans said May, which included the start of the Floyd protests, was its best month of fundraising since it was created in the early stages of the 2020 election, according to Reed Galen, one of the group's founders. The group's monthlong success also included their best single day of fundraising after launching an attack on Trump titled "Mourning in America," which triggered a scathing response from the president. The super PAC was co-founded by the likes of conservative strategists and lawyers Steve Schmidt, John Weaver, Rick Wilson and George Conway, the husband of Trump's senior advisor Kellyanne Conway. Benjamin Wittes, an associate of former FBI Director James Comey and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, gave his first-ever political donation to Biden's campaign after the incident involving apparent peaceful protesters being forced out Lafayette Square with tear gas during Trump's walk to the church. The $2,800 donation is the legal maximum one can give directly to a campaign. Wittes' research often focuses on national security. In an interview with CNBC he said that historically he has tried to be apolitical but, he contends, the president's politicization of the military and intelligence services led him to contributing to Biden's campaign. Wittes co-authored a book about Trump's presidency titled "Unmaking the Presidency: Donald Trump's War on the World's Most Powerful Office." "We have a president who is energetically attacking and trying to destroy the professional national security apparatus of the country and under those circumstances I don't feel a stance of political neutrality is appropriate," Wittes told CNBC. Wittes said he has seen support from some of colleagues in the national security sector after giving to Biden. The nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, meanwhile, showed that employees of the U.S. Department of Defense have combined to give just more than $160,000 to Biden's campaign. Tweet: Representatives for the Biden campaign did not return a request for comment. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 02:57:14|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Xinhua file photos of Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump Trump informed Putin about his idea of holding a G7 summit with the possible invitation of the leaders of Russia, Australia, India and South Korea. MOSCOW, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin had a phone conversation with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump at the initiative of the U.S. side, discussing issues related to the Group of Seven (G7) Summit and oil markets, the Kremlin said Monday. "Trump informed Putin about his idea of holding a G7 summit with the possible invitation of the leaders of Russia, Australia, India and South Korea," it said in a statement. The importance of enhancing the bilateral dialogue on strategic stability and confidence-building measures in the military sector was noted. In addition, the presidents addressed world oil market developments in the context of implementing the OPEC+ agreement. "It was stated that this multilateral agreement, reached with the active support of the presidents of Russia and the United States, would lead to a gradual restoration of oil demand and price stabilization," it said. Putin and Trump also touched upon space cooperation and fighting coronavirus, agreeing to continue contacts at various levels, according to the statement. At 20 years old, Jayda Hope is already familiar with the heart-wrenching feeling of watching the death of another black person through her phone screen. She says its impossible to detach from, impossible to numb. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/6/2020 (598 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. At 20 years old, Jayda Hope is already familiar with the heart-wrenching feeling of watching the death of another black person through her phone screen. She says its impossible to detach from, impossible to numb. "Every single time we see a black person who is killed by the police, or assaulted by the police, its like that is literally our brother or sister that its happening to. Our heart is breaking," the black Winnipegger said Monday. Hope is organizing a peaceful rally to be held Friday in solidarity with those who have flooded streets in cities across the United States (and increasingly Canada) to protest acts of police violence against black people. The recent protests were triggered after George Floyd died during an arrest by police officers in Minneapolis on May 25. (An autopsy commissioned for Floyd's family found he died of asphyxiation.) There was a noticeable vacuum of action locally, Hope said, which spurred her and 10 other black Winnipeggers to come together to try and get momentum behind an event. They are not a formal organization, but are using the name Justice 4 Black Lives Winnipeg. The event is set for 6 p.m. Friday outside the provincial legislature. "(It's) allowing black people to have a space to mourn and grieve, and have their feelings be validated and feel support from allies; feel like their issues matter, they matter, their lives matter not just when theyre dead and on the news," Hope said. In early 2019, Winnipegs black community and supporters came out to protest the death of Machuar Madut, a 43-year-old South Sudanese man, who died after being shot by a city police officer during a mental health crisis intervention. The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba, which looks into cases of serious injury involving law enforcement, found Maduts death to be "reasonable, necessary, justified, and unavoidable." More recently, Winnipeg Police Service officers were involved in three separate incidents in a 10-day period that led to the shooting deaths of Indigenous people. Eishia Hudson, 16, was shot April 8 after a reported robbery of a Liquor Mart. The following day, Jason Collins, 36, was killed following a reported domestic dispute. On April 18, Stewart Andrews, 22, was shot when police responded to a 911 call from a man who said he was threatened and assaulted while taking out his garbage. All three deaths are still under investigation by the IIU. In their pain and loss, the Indigenous and black communities are tragically united, said Grand Chief Jerry Daniels of the Southern Chiefs' Organization, representing 34 First Nation communities in Manitoba. "Indigenous leaders want to lend their voices, and I think there needs to be space for that, but theres no doubt that its time for black leaders to be heard," Daniels said Monday. WPS Insp. Bonnie Emerson leads the force's community support division. She spends a lot of time thinking and listening to new ideas about how to connect with local groups and find creative ways to try and divert people from the justice system. "I became a police officer because I believe in the concept of police officers being peacekeepers," Emerson said. Over the past 2 1/2 decades shes worked as a police officer in the city, Emerson said, the service has greatly improved in terms of how it connects to minority groups. However, "Has the escalation of conflict both locally and globally gotten better? I dont know. It certainly doesnt seem that way," she said. Emerson maintains hope further improvements can be made because officers care, they want to help. Emersons team will be reaching out to the event co-ordinators for Fridays protest and will be asking how they can best work with them. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. While the flashpoints of conflict for minorities are often connected to police officers, the problems are more deep-rooted and systemic and cant be mended with changes to policing alone. "If you look at justice systems, they disproportionately have impacted Indigenous and black lives across the country," said NDP MP Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre). Gazan, a former organizer with the Idle No More movement, said shes alarmed whenever she hears of violent clashes with minorities and police, but she doesnt blame the issues on a lack of goodwill or support from the people. "With the onset of Idle No More, people from all walks of life said they care. I saw families and advocates from across this country pushing for a national inquiry (on murdered and missing Indigenous women), how we got that. So its not that," she said. "Its from a lack of political will to actually listen, to take our positions of privilege and figure this out, in solidarity with community. "I put the onus on us as elected officials to figure out a way forward." sarah.lawrynuik@freepress.mb.ca The cabinet on Monday approved the expanded definition of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and finalised modalities for the Rs 20,000 crore subordinate debt for stressed units, and Rs 50,000 crore fund to boost growth of the sectormoves that will help more companies benefit from a package announced for small and medium companies, and also relieve the financial stress on them. The upward revision of MSME definition is broadly on the lines of that detailed in the Rs 21 lakh crore Atmanirbhar Bharat (Self-reliant India Initiative) package announced on May 13, but for one change the turnover limit ofmedium manufacturing and service units have been further raised to Rs 250 crore, according to an official statement. While announcing the package on May 13, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the definition of MSMEs is being expanded to accommodate units that have grown bigger than the defined limit. Accordingly, the investment and turnover limits for micro manufacturing and services unit were raised to Rs 1 crore and Rs 5 crore, respectively. The limit of small unit was increased to Rs 10 crore of investment and Rs 50 crore of turnover. Similarly, the limit of a medium unit was increased to Rs 20 crore of investment and Rs 100 crore of turnover. The last has now been made Rs 250 crorea move that will help more companies benefit from the package. MSME minister Nitin Gadkari told reporters that the government has also decided that the turnover with respect to exports will not be counted in the limits of turnover for any category of MSME units whether micro, small or medium. This is yet another step towards ease of doing business. This will help in attracting investments and creating more jobs in the MSME sector, he said. The cabinet approved Rs 50,000 crore equity infusion for MSMEs through a fund of funds to help them grow, he added. This will establish a framework to help MSMEs in capacity augmentation. This will also provide an opportunity to get listed in stock exchanges. Gadkari said the government has approved the proposal that will have a provisioning of Rs 20,000 crore as subordinate debt to provide equity support to the stressed MSMEs. This will benefit 2 lakh stressed MSMEs. The alleged president of the Rhode Island chapter of Hells Angels Motorcycle Club has again challenged a judges refusal to recuse herself from his case. Superior Court Judge Kristin Rodgers previously denied the request by Joseph Lancia to step down on April 29, the Providence Journal reported Monday. Lancia was arrested June 2019 after an investigation into reports of shots fired and faces charges related to attempting to kill a former club prospect. Lancia has argued that Rodgers marriage to Little Compton Police Chief Scott Raynes, formerly of the state police for 24 years, could appear improper. Lancias request stems from a raid on the Hells Angels clubhouse by state police, a raid that Rodgers says her husband was not involved in. To suggest that Chief Raynes entry into that particular premises decades ago creates an appearance of impropriety is as unreasonable as concluding that recusal is required in a motor vehicle accident case where a judicial officers spouse patrolled the roadway on which that accident occurred in his role as a police officer many years before, Rodgers wrote. Lancia has requested that the ruling is delayed, arguing that the decision was reached using information from Raynes work with the state police. Cameron Daddo is tracing his famous family's roots on Who Do You Think You Are? The 55-year-old, who is taking part in season 11 of the SBS documentary, told Huffington Post Australia he has always been interested in finding out more about the origins of his family. 'There's always been a curiosity on my part about it, to the point where a few years ago I did try one of those DNA testing things, but it wasn't very conclusive,' he said. 'There's always been a curiosity' Home And Away actor Cameron Daddo is set to discover his family's history on Who Do You Think You Are? He said that he only knew 'some snippets of information' from his parents about their family's history. But in the episode, which will air on Tuesday night, Cameron's journey will see him visit Hobart, Tasmania to discover the convict history on his mother's family tree. Cameron also travelled abroad to the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey in the UK to trace father's family. Uncovering the past: Cameron's journey will see him visit Hobart, Tasmania to discover the convict history on his mother's family tree. Cameron also travelled abroad to the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey in the UK to trace father's family There, the Home and Away actor found the noble lineage on his father's side going as far back 34 generations. He spoke highly of the experience, which was filmed back in August, and said: 'Its such a wonderful adventure, and I was grateful for the opportunity of it.' Cameron is one third of the famous Daddo brothers - Andrew and Lachlan - who rose to fame in the 1990s as actors and TV presenters. Eye opening journey: Cameron spoke highly of the experience, which was filmed back in August, and said: 'Its such a wonderful adventure, and I was grateful for the opportunity of it' He is married to former model Alison Brie and the couple share three children: daughters Bodhi, 14, and Lotus, 23, and son River, 20. Among the other famous faces to take part in the documentary include Bert Newton, Lisa Wilkinson and former Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop. Season 11 of Who Do You Think You Are? airs Tuesday at 7:30pm on SBS [June 01, 2020] American Campus Communities Provides COVID-19 Interim Update in Advance of REITWeek 2020 American Campus Communities, Inc. (NYSE: ACC), the nation's largest owner and manager of high-quality student housing properties, today provided a COVID-19 interim update on universities' planned delivery of curriculum for the fall, leasing for the 2020-2021 academic year and progress on rent collections in connection with REITWeek 2020: NAREIT's Investor Forum, which will begin on June 2, 2020. Universities' Plans for Fall Curriculum Delivery As reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, 47 of the 68 universities served by the company's properties are planning for a return to in-person classes for Fall 2020, while 12 are still considering a range of possible scenarios or a hybrid model. At this time, only three universities the company serves, which are part of the California State University System and account for only 3 of its 166 properties, are planning for primarily online classes. Fall Curriculum Plans for ACC's 68 Universities As of May 31, 2020 Delivery Method Number of Universities % of Universities Planning for In-Person 47 69.1% Planning for Online 3 4.4% Proposing Hybrid Model 5 7.4% Still Considering a Range of Scenarios 7 10.3% Waiting to Decide 6 8.8% Total ACC Universities Served 68 100.0% Source (News - Alert): The Chronicle of Higher Education. Note: The Chronicle of Higher Education currently does not track the University of Central Florida which is considering a range of scenarios and is included as such in the above chart. Academic Year 2020-2021 Preleasing Update COVID-19 Leasing Update As of May 31, 2020 Pre-Leasing Status % of Leases Current Year % Prior Year % Variance % Design Beds Same Store Beds Planning for In-Person 83.1% 83.8% (0.7%) 74,086 78% Planning for Online 89.7% 95.7% (6.0%) 1,012 1% Proposing Hybrid Model 68.5% 70.9% (2.4%) 4,877 5% Still Considering a Range of Scenarios 86.7% 95.9% (9.2%) 8,489 9% Waiting to Decide 81.5% 91.0% (9.5%) 6,890 7% Total 2021 Same Store Owned Properties 82.6% 84.9% (2.3%) 95,354 100% As of May 31, 2020, the company's same store owned portfolio was 82.6 percent preleased compared to 84.9 percent preleased for the same date prior year. "We are very pleased that since our earnings call on April 21st, we have signed more than 5,500 additional leases bringing us to a total of over 10,000 leases signed for Fall 2020 since COVID-19 was designated a pandemic in mid-March," said Jennifer Beese, American Campus Communities COO. "At universities planning for in-person classes we are currently 83.1 percent preleased as compared to 83.8 percent preleased in the prior year, while the remainder of our portfolio is 81.0 percent preleased as compared to 88.6 percent in the prior year. Only two of our same store properties are impacted by the California State University System's decision to hold classes primarily online in the fall, and one of those properties is fully leased under a three-year master lease with San Diego State University. We have also commenced our no-show management process a month earlier than usual in an attempt to identify and mitigate any cancellations that may occur. We view this preleasing activity with cautious optimism and believe that most students intend to return in the fall regardless of the curriculum being delivered in-person, online, or in a hybrid format." COVID-19 Monthly Delinquency and Resident Hardship Program Update With regard to the company's private off-campus properties and on-campus 12-month ACE apartment communities, approximately 94.8 percent of residents made their April rent payments, representing April rent delinquency of approximately $3.0 million. In addition, through May 31, 2020, the company estimates that approximately 93.3 percent of residents have made their May rent payments, representing May rent delinquency of approximately $3.8 million. As previously announced, the company has formed a Resident Hardship Program to provide relief on a case-by-case basis to those residents and families who have endured financial hardship due to COVID-19. For the months of April and May combined, the company has granted approximately $4.3 million in rent relief to over 4,800 qualified residents. As reported in the company's first quarter earnings release, in collaboration with its university partners, the company has agreed to refund a portion of students' rent at certain on-campus ACE properties that primarily have lease terms ending in May. The company is still working through the ultimate amount of refunds that will be provided, but the company continues to believe refunded revenue will be in the range of approximately $13 to $17 million. "We continue to be encouraged by our preleasing and rent payment activity over the last two months," said Bill Bayless, American Campus Communities CEO. "As the majority of universities plan to return to in-person classes in the fall, they are making those plans under the assumption that some degree of social distancing and limitations on group gathering size will likely continue to exist. Shrinking in-person class sizes, holding larger lecture hall classes online, alternating in-person lectures with online lectures and other creative solutions are being incorporated into their operational plans. As universities seek to de-densify their older, traditional community bath residence halls, American Campus has put in place an extensive outreach program to make sure universities in all of our markets are aware of the amount and availability of private modern off-campus housing that is well-suited to achieve CDC guidelines and to facilitate students' desire to control their own environment and sanitization. We hope this outreach and information will aid universities in achieving their goals of safely bringing students back on-campus this fall." About American Campus Communities American Campus Communities, Inc. is the largest owner, manager and developer of high-quality student housing communities in the United States. The company is a fully integrated, self-managed and self-administered equity real estate investment trust (REIT) with expertise in the design, finance, development, construction management and operational management of student housing properties. As of March 31, 2020, American Campus Communities owned 166 student housing properties containing approximately 111,900 beds. Including its owned and third-party managed properties, ACC's total managed portfolio consisted of 201 properties with approximately 137,900 beds. Visit www.americancampus.com. Forward-Looking Statements In addition to historical information, this press release contains forward-looking statements under the applicable federal securities law. These statements are based on management's current expectations and assumptions regarding markets in which American Campus Communities, Inc. (the "Company") operates, operational strategies, anticipated events and trends, the economy, and other future conditions. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks and uncertainties, which are difficult to predict. These risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward looking-statements include those related to the COVID-19 pandemic, about which there are still many unknowns, including the duration of the pandemic and the extent of its impact, and those discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 under the heading "Risk Factors" and under the heading "Business - Forward-looking Statements" and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, including our preleasing activity or expected full year 2020 operating results, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200601005772/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- With this years official hurricane season beginning this week, we thought wed take a look at the 2020 storm names that have been issued by the National Hurricane Center. Hurricane researchers are predicting 2020 will see an above-average Atlantic hurricane season -- with at least four storms reaching major strength. The tropical Atlantic is somewhat warmer than normal right now. Warmer-than-normal sea surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic provide more fuel for tropical cyclone formation and intensification," according to researchers at Colorado State University, who released an initial forecast last month. "They are also associated with a more unstable atmosphere as well as moister air, both of which favor organized thunderstorm activity that is necessary for hurricane development. The university is scheduled to release another forecast on this years hurricane season on Thursday. The National Hurricane Center has been monitoring a storm developing near the west coast of Mexicos Yucatan Peninsula this week. The center is forecasting that the tropical depression will strengthen to a tropical storm by Tuesday afternoon. While the official hurricane season began Monday and will run through November, storms can form both early and late. In fact, Tropical Storm Arthur and Tropical Storm Bertha both formed in May. Below is the full list of names for the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, according to the National Hurricane Center. Arthur Bertha Cristobal Dolly Edouard Fay Gonzalo Hanna Isaias Josephine Kyle Laura Marco Nana Omar Paulette Rene Sally Teddy Vicky Wilfred Storms are given short, distinctive names to make them easier to talk and write about and to reduce confusion when discussing multiple storms, according to the National Hurricane Center. The information was released at a press conference in Hanoi on June 1 held by the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (ICHAM), and the Italian Embassy in Vietnam. According to ICHAMs Chairman Mihele DErcole, the programme is under the True Italian Taste project that was launched by the Italian Government and which has been implemented in over 40 countries worldwide. Early evidence shows that the consumption of pasta dates back to over 3000 years ago and pasta was hung to dry for the first time in the 9th century, he said, adding that throughout the history of Italy, pasta has always been present and has played a vital role in daily life as well as in areas such as tourism, and the arts. The event is expected to provide food-lovers of Italian cuisine with accurate and detailed knowledge as well as information about the world of famous Italian pastas. During the programme, visitors will be immersed in various unique cultural and culinary activities, as well as having an opportunity to enjoy original Italian dishes selected from leading Italian restaurants in Vietnam. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. The Report Varicose Vein Treatment Market Analysis By Treatment Mode (Sclerotherapy, Endovenous Ablation (Laser Ablation, Radiofrequency Ablation), Stripping, And Segment Forecasts To 2024 The global varicose vein treatment market is expected to reach USD 475 million by 2024, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The increasing technological advancements coupled with the increased availability of the advanced varicose vein treatment devices and shift towards less-invasive procedures are the contributing factors for the growth of the market. The huge burden of vascular diseases in Europe and North America and the increasing patient compliance and reliability, growth in healthcare expenditure, and the rapid growth in geriatric population is majorly driving the varicose vein procedure market. The upward trend in lifestyle disorders, such as increasing obesity, sleep disorders, blood pressure levels, hormonal changes, genetic disorders and pregnancy are the few major factors contributing to the peripheral vascular diseases. Untreated venous insufficiency, such as varicose vein and venous ulcers cause progressive syndromes including chronic veinous insufficiency. In 2015, according to FutSci, chronic veinous insufficiency is widespread and is a socially isolating condition caused in adults. It is the most common disease in the world and is estimated to affect 5% of the population in the Western countries. Access Research Report of Varicose Vein Treatment Market @ www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/varicose-vein-treatment-devices-market Further key findings from the report suggest: In 2015, the sclerotherapy segment was identified as the most profitable procedure owing to the benefits, such as the requirement of minimal incision and reduced scarring, related to the procedure. Moreover,the following advantages: increased penetration, cost and time efficiency, reduced risk of collateral damage to surrounding tissues, fewer post-operative complications, and painless procedure are the main contributors for the growth of this segment. The endovenous ablation segment is expected to be the fastest growing segment due to the benefits of short treatment time and improved blood circulation after the procedure. The ClosureFast technique in the endovenous ablation treatment segmenthas gained momentum due to the minimized side effects, potential cost-saving ability, and better patient outcomes. In 2015, the endovenous chemoablation or chemical sclerosis segment was the most widely used medical procedure among the ablation procedures. Sclerotherapy, intense-pulsed-light therapy, laser ablation, radiofrequency, and ambulatory phlebectomy are the modern techniques that are usedmore oftendue to their less invasive nature. In 2016, North America held the largest market share due to the increasing incidence rate of varicose and spider vein in the population, favourable reimbursement policies, increased healthcare awareness, government spending, and the rising aesthetic awareness in the region As of 2016, Europe is characterized by a shift towards less-invasive procedures in treating large varicose veins. It is expected to witness a high growth rate over the forecast period due to the favorable government initiatives and advanced treatment procedures. The Asia Pacific is expected to register the fastest growth due to factors, such as the improving healthcare infrastructure, the increase in patient awareness level regarding the benefits of early treatment of the varicose veins, and the rising disposable income Some key players of the market include Quanta Systems S.p.A, Vascular Solutions, Inc., Eufoton S.R.L, Energist Group, Medtronic plc, Dornier MedTech GmbH, Lumenis Ltd., Syneron Medical Ltd., Biolitec AG, and AngioDynamics, Inc. AngioDynamics, Inc. and MerzPharma GmbH & Co. KGaAin North America established a multi-year relationship to market Asclera for patients with peripheral vascular diseases.In the U.S,.MerzPharma GmbH & Co. KGaAserves as the exclusive distributor of the Asclera Injection. Asclera is approved for the treatment of spider and reticular veins, which showed good improvement in 95% of the patients treated with asclera. In 2016, Medtronic plc acquired Italian hemodialysis player Bellco, Inc.This acquisition is projected to enable the medical device giant to gain market position in newly formed renal care solution business. In 2015, Medtronic plc acquired Covidien plc with the objective to move into the additional therapeutic areas, such as chronic venous insufficiency. Covidien plc markets the Venefit procedure that uses radiofrequency energy and minimally invasive radiofrequency ablation to treat the disease. Grand View Research has segmented the global varicose vein treatment market on the basis of procedures, devices,and regions: Varicose Vein Treatment Outlook ByType (Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024) Sclerotherapy Endovenous Ablation Stripping Varicose Vein Treatment Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024) North America Europe Asia Pacific Latin America MEA About Grand View Research Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a chargesheet against senior Congress leader and former Union minister P Chidambaram in the INX Media money-laundering case. A password protected e-chargesheet was filed against Chidambaram, his son Karti and others before the court of Special Judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar here on Monday. The judge has directed the agency to file a hard copy of the chargesheet once the court starts functioning normally. Besides the Chidambarams, the chargesheet also names Karti's chartered accountant S S Bhaskararaman and others. Chidambaram was arrested by the Centreal Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the INX Media corruption case on August 21 last year. On October 16 last year, the ED arrested him in a related money-laundering case. Six days later, on October 22, the apex court granted bail to the senior Congress leader in the case lodged by the CBI. In the ED case, he got bail on December 4 last year.The CBI had registered its case on May 15, 2017, alleging irregularities in a Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance granted to the INX Media group for receiving overseas funds of Rs 305 crore in 2007, during Chidambaram's tenure as finance minister. Subsequently, the ED had lodged the money-laundering case. Bishops of Northern Ireland call on Members of their Assembly to oppose new abortion regulations introduced by the Westminster Parliament. By Vatican News In a letter addressed to the Members of the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly (MLA), the countrys Bishops express their concern over the "extreme" nature of Wetminsters Regulations regarding a new law decriminalising abortion in Northern Ireland. Ahead of the debate, taking place on Tuesday in the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly, the Bishops open their letter by saying that as the Catholic Bishops of Northern Ireland, they have a responsibility to do all they can to promote a culture of care and respect for life in our society. They explain that this includes a responsibility to inform the conscience of all members of the Catholic Church and people of good will regarding the fundamental moral values at stake in the issue of abortion. The Bishops explain that their opposition to the new abortion regulations brought into effect in their country by the Westminster Parliament is rooted in the Catholic Churchs teaching concerning the dignity of every human life, regardless of age, ability, gender or background. This teaching, they explain, prohibits the direct and deliberate intention to end the life of an unborn baby at any stage of his or her development. The Bishops urge the Members of the Assembly to "take steps to formulate new Regulations that will reflect more fully the will of a significant majority of the people in this jurisdiction to protect the lives of mothers and their unborn children. The letter underlines the "extreme nature" of Westminster's provisions, which extends the possibility of abortion to cases where there are no lethal malformations for the fetus, such as Down's Syndrome. It is for this reason that the Bishops make an urgent call to defend the equal right of children with disabilities to appropriate protection and care both before and after birth, as enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Finally, the Bishops reiterate their belief that politicians and all people of good will, who recognise the extreme nature of the Regulations, should not meekly acquiesce to their promulgation. They call for urgent action, expressing their desire to enter into dialogue with MLAs and reaffirming their willingness to contribute to the formulation of the new Regulations. (Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc.s Instagram was flooded with images of black squares on Tuesday, when users, influencers and celebrities took to the platform to express support for the protests raging across the country to oppose police brutality. The images -- accompanied with hashtags including #blacktuesday, #blackouttuesday and #theshowmustbepaused -- originated with a music industry display of support for the protesters, with calls for a pause in operations and blacking out stations on Tuesday, according to the Guardian. As of just after noon on Tuesday in New York, the hashtag #blackouttuesday had been included in more than 16 million Instagram posts. The image became so popular that celebrities reminded users to stick to the original blackout hashtags. Thats because the use of #blacklivesmatter and #blm hashtag -- used for communicating with protesters -- risked drowning out needed information. As black squares took over Instagram, the hashtags and image began spreading on Facebook and Twitter as well. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. The Bergen | Facebook This year has been trying for all of us, and its been especially difficult for black Americans, who have had to endure the worst of COVID-19 (according to the CDC, 33 percent of hospitalized patients were black compared to 18 percent in the community) while being largely overlooked in the federal governments initial round of CARES Act funding. The tragic deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd have only served to reinforce the pattern that the black members of our communities are all-too-often placed in disadvantageous or impossible positions. One simple way to make a positive impact is to patronize and support African American businesses. So many companies around the country have been forced to furlough employees, limit hours or close for good. Supporting these businesses in need can help keep people employed, help them retain their health insurance and ensure that those restaurants, shops and businesses will still be around in 2021. Arrest Warrants Issued for 6 Officers in Atlanta Excessive Force Case Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said June 2 that six Atlanta police officers will be charged for using excessive force during the arrest of two college students during protests. The officers were seen in Atlanta breaking the windows of a vehicle before tasing a man and pulling out a woman. Arrest warrants were issued for Lonnie Hood, Willie Sauls, Ivory Streeter, Mark Gardner, Armond Jones, and Roland Claud. The charges include aggravated assault of Messiah Young, aggravated assault of Taniyah Pilgrim, simple battery, and criminal damage to property, Howard told reporters. Two of the officers, Streeter and Gardner, were fired over the weekend by Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms. Howard said that the students involved were innocent, adding that an investigation concluded they were so innocent almost to the point of being naive. The conduct in this incident isnt indicative of the way we treat people in the city of Atlanta and it certainly isnt indicative of how we treat our children, he said, without elaborating. Demonstrators vandalize the CNN logo during a protest march in Atlanta, Ga., on May 29, 2020. (Mike Stewart/AP Photo) Howard said that the officers have until June 5 to surrender, and theyre being held on a $10,000 signature cash bond each. Over the weekend, Bottoms said she opposes acts of violence that were carried out during protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis police custody on May 25. We as a people are strongest when we use our voices to heal our city instead of using our hands to tear it down, Bottoms said. We know our citizens are angry. We are angry and we want justice. If we are to enact change in this nation, I implore everyone to channel their anger and sorrow into something more meaningful and effective through non-violent activism. She added that recent unrest was not a protest. You are disgracing our city. You are disgracing the life of George Floyd and every other person who has been killed in this country, Bottoms said. We are better than this. We are better than this as a city. We are better than this as a country. Go home. Meanwhile, Gov. Brian Kemp mobilized about 3,000 National Guard troops in the state, CBS46 reported. President Donald Trump also increased the pressure on governors to crack down on rioters, demanding New York call up the National Guard to stop the lowlifes and losers. A former senator and a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State, Munirudeen Muse, is dead. He was 81. His death was announced by APC Lagos State publicity secretary, Joe Igbokwe on Tuesday. Late Mr Muse was a former lawmaker who represented Lagos central senatorial district in the Senate between 2007 and 2011. He was preceded by Musiliu Obanikoro and succeeded by Oluremi Tinubu. He was also a former manager of Apapa Port and former Chairman of Apapa local government, Lagos. His son, Sulaimon Muse, told Punch Newspaper his father was kind-hearted. I saw you last, right inside the Lagos Central mosque. I never knew that was the last time I would set my eyes on you alive, the younger Muse said in a tribute. I called you two Fridays ago. You even called me back thereafter, and we discussed. I never knew you were saying goodbye to me. Also, in a statement by House Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, who hails from the same Lagos Central Senatorial District, he described Mr Wases demise as sad and painful. On this day, I join millions of Lagosians to mourn a very distinguished man, who served his people with uttermost dedication and commitment. He was a perfect gentleman and silent achiever, the statement signed by Mr Gbajabiamilas aide, Lanre Lasisi, read. As a politician myself, I learnt from his wealth of experience. I remembered our public engagement at Eko Club, Surulere in 2018 where he encouraged me not to renege on the pursuit for the speakership seat in the interest of the country. Though he is no more today, we find solace in the fact that he lived a life worthy of emulation, Mr Gbajabiamila said. Whenever I would go to the COVID-19 ward, I had to tell everyone that I was the consultant to get their attention; this taught me that ultimately every human on this earth is equal It was New Years Eve, and I was at home after almost four years. I had been working non-stop, first as a medical intern and then as a resident doctor. 2020 was going to be my year off I had planned to spend time at home, study for the entrance exams, and visit my fiancee in London. For many people, New Years Eve has been about that making resolutions, travel plans, and anticipating what the next year will have in store. But who could have predicted that within three months, 2020 would indeed become a year off for the entire world! The first two months went by as people started taking cognisance of the novel coronavirus which was raising its ugly head in some parts of the world. Until then, news channels had just started to report the outbreak in China as other news. Definitely not the headlines. Then came the routine WhatsApp forwards, memes and jokes about Go Corona Go. People also joked that The Simpsons had already predicted the outbreak, as had the movie Contagion. But, later as the disease progressed, the jokes and memes about the end of the world came worryingly close to home. The mood had changed to panic. Finishing touches were added by the World Health Organisation when it finally declared, in early March, that the world was facing a new flu pandemic. Suddenly, the coronavirus was everywhere: not only in terms of its rapid transmission rate, but also infected our vocabulary. People learnt new terms such as social distancing and quarantine, along with the slogan of stay home, stay safe. Educational institutes and offices started shutting down. Borders were sealed. Airports were empty. Travel came to a standstill. As a doctor practising in a small city in India, I personally had many thoughts in my mind. Firstly, whether a nation like India, which is one of the most populous countries in the world, would be able to sustain this kind of crisis. With our extremely dense cities and poor living conditions, it would be extremely difficult to control the spread of the virus in the country. Secondly, would our healthcare system be able to tackle this crisis? As we all know, India is a nation of disparity. Even when it comes to healthcare, which is supposed to be a universal right, only those with money are able to access it easily. But as the days progressed, it became clear that the coronavirus did not discriminate on the basis of class/gender/caste/religion/age or any other parameter. It had already started spreading like wildfire in the country. As expected, since the number of cases in India had started rising alarmingly, the Government of India imposed a nationwide lockdown to curb the community spread of the virus. The news became flooded with coronavirus updates in India and around the world. The first pictures of healthcare workers in hazmat suits went viral. They showed doctors, nurses, and other healthcare staff working non-stop for the care of patients. Being a doctor myself, and that too a recent MD in the most core clinical subject (Internal Medicine), this was when I really started to think about this whole situation and my role in it. I wanted to be on the frontlines despite the risks associated with it. Seeing my own colleagues, friends, and members of the fraternity battling one of the most severe pandemics of the modern world, I could not just stand by and watch. As luck would have it, I got a call from the district civil hospital to be on duty as the locum physician in-charge of the COVID-19 ward, as a respite to the current physician who had been working there for 60 days continuously. When I first got the call, I didnt know how to react. On the one hand I was happy that I got this opportunity, but on the other hand, like any other human being, I felt apprehensive as well. There were many questions inside my head, such as would I be able to manage all patients properly? Could I be able to handle serious cases? How would I adjust to the new environment and staff? How would I tolerate wearing the PPE and hazmat suits in this scorching heat? And most importantly, would I be safe? I did not have much time to process these questions, as I was to start my posting just a day after I got the letter of appointment. But I was determined to give my best in this situation. My near and dear ones were obviously worried, especially my mother. She herself is a doctor, but a mother always puts her childs safety first. Doing COVID-19 duty meant that I would have to remain in quarantine too, and won't be able to get in close contact with anyone, especially my parents and grandparents. Thus, I shifted my stuff to the top floor bedroom in my house which is on the terrace and separated from the rest of the house and made it my new humble abode. It was the perfect place to maintain distance from my family and still get home-cooked food! This also meant that I had to wash my own clothes. I got to experience how untouchability must have functioned in the old days, and realised, sadly that it is still prevalent in many parts of India. On the first day of duty, I was told to take rounds with the outgoing physician so that I would get oriented with the space and also learn my responsibilities. I was going to take his place for the next week. Once I got out of my car and met him, we started walking and he told me that the structure in front of us was the corona ward. It was once the swine flu ward of the hospital. Suddenly, the speed at which I was walking reduced drastically. Maybe it was a reflex action to the fear in my mind. The human mind is a complex structure indeed. It functions with the help of stimulatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters. Maybe at that moment, the inhibitory neurotransmitters were released into my nervous system. Seeing my pace slow down so suddenly, the physician chuckled, assuring me that it was going to be fine as he had been doing this for almost two months. We finally reached the ward and started to wear the personal protective equipment (PPE) which included a suit with a hood, shoe covers, an N-95 mask, gloves and a goggle for eye protection. I took my time in getting inside the protective gear as I double checked each and everything I wore. Other than this, I wore another pair of gloves and ultimately a face shield. Looking at the small mirror, I couldnt recognise myself! I looked like I was an astronaut in some other world, fighting an invisible alien object. I guess this is somewhat true! We finally stepped into the ward. It was actually an open courtyard in the middle with individual rooms surrounding it, which I thought was good as it is better for the purpose of isolation. We visited the first patient who had a recent travel history abroad. He had some non-specific complaints of a sore throat but generally appeared to be alright. I couldnt believe that I was seeing my first patient afflicted with the coronavirus. I dont know why I was so surprised, maybe because the media portrayed the situation in such a horrible light that I pictured only coughing and breathless patients. As the other physician had already developed a rapport with everyone, he knew everybodys history properly along with their current medication. In all this, I already started to sweat inside the suit and was generally feeling suffocated due to the tight mask. I had the silly thought of taking short breaths as I correlated less air with fewer germs, which was really stupid, considering the 11 years of rigorous medical education I had undergone. Fear literally makes you forget everything. Thankfully, all the patients were stable and most of them were there since about 10 days. As these patients didnt have any acute medical issues, other than their routine tablets, talking to them was one of the most important interventions from our end. Could we imagine how would it feel if we were to test positive for the virus? We would be socially isolated in an unfamiliar environment until the repeat test came negative. What would the repercussions of this situation be on our mental health? Taking care of the patients mental health, giving hope and reassurance is thus an equally important part of the medical practice. The government authorities had also made a dedicated COVID-19 hospital for admitting positive as well as suspect patients which I visited, and thought was impressive. The main physician introduced me to the nursing staff and ward boys saying that I would be in charge from tomorrow, and that they should call me if anything happened. Unsure about how to react, I just nodded, grateful that the suit and mask did such a perfect job of concealing my face! Finally, after taking a round of the entire ward, we removed the PPE. As expected, my clothes were completely drenched with sweat as if Id been walking in the Sahara Desert. I thanked the physician and drove back home. I was extra careful not to touch any surface while going to my newly-made quarantine pad. That day a lot of people called and messaged me to get to know the exact number of cases and about my experience in general. After a long day, I finally hit the sack, trying not to worry about what was in store for me in the coming week. The next two days were uneventful. I finally got the hang of wearing the PPE, and spent my time trying to build a rapport with the patients. As doctors, we are an important part of any patients life. Some people pour their hearts out to a doctor, not only in describing their ailment but also talking about other issues which are bothering them. So, we invariably get attached to certain people who share everything with us. I cannot say I got attached to the patients I was examining, but I definitely took an interest in a few particular patients. There was one patient who was not only doing well physically, but also sound mentally. He was cheerful and would always think positively. The courtyard had some potted flowering plants. This patient would water them daily, which I thought was a lovely initiative on his part. When I complimented him for it, he told me that plants helped him stay positive and brought him mental peace. For patients in the COVID-19 ward, the protocol was that if two throat swabs taken 24 hours apart come negative after 14 days of isolation, then the patient could be discharged. I saw that one patient had completed 14 days of isolation, so I sent his repeat throat swabs and to my relief, both came negative. I could see the relief on his face when he heard the news that he was being discharged. That day, I felt happy that I could discharge a patient who was suspected to be coronavirus positive amidst the increasing numbers. As they say, every drop makes an ocean! Then there was a family comprising of the father, mother and son, all of whom had tested positive. They had almost no symptoms, but mentally, they were always worrying about their five-year-old daughter. Fortunately for her, she was found to be negative for the virus and was admitted in another ward in the same hospital. Whenever I would ask the parents how they felt health-wise, they had only one answer, We are fine, but please see that our daughter is taken care of and well fed! Thus, I would check on the daughter every day and see to it that she was given proper meals. The next few days, the ward saw a sudden increase in the number of patients, but fortunately all were stable. The only time I was taken aback was when the nurse informed me that two of the new patients were only 11 and 13 days old, respectively! Luckily, they did not have any symptoms and were found to be positive through contact tracing. The paediatrician also came to examine the infants daily, but I would also make it a point to talk to their mothers, who had also tested positive. They liked the fact that two doctors were coming to check on them daily. I believe that making sure the patients voice and concerns are heard restores the faith of the public in doctors. Once after a tiring day, I got a call from the hospital at 10 in the night that 16 new patients had been admitted and that I would have to see them right away so that they could start their treatment. When I reached there, I was relieved to find all of them stable, but at the same time I was surprised to know that all of them were police personnel who were posted at various places in the city. Unfortunately for them, they came positive while answering the call of duty. The police force is another cohort that is targeted for the wrong reasons. I believe that there are negative elements in every profession, but that doesnt mean that the whole profession has to be maligned. My respect for the police grew that day. The rest of the week flew by, and to my astonishment, I was at the last day of duty. I would remember that day forever, only because I had to stay in the PPE suit for six hours in one stretch. It drained me physically as well as mentally. I had to see many patients that day, and also inform the nursing staff that I would not be coming from the next day as I would be in quarantine. I finally removed the PPE and drove back home, utterly exhausted. I dont usually sleep in the afternoon as I think it a sign of laziness, but that day I slept like a log. However, the evening held a pleasant surprise. We all know about this sudden obsession with video calling, and my family wasnt too far behind. That evening, my close family members held a Zoom meeting with me. All of them gave me a virtual applause from their own homes. I was really touched by their gesture. I was also happy to inform all my friends that I had finally finished my duty and would be available for online Ludo sessions. The next day when I woke up, it felt nice that I did not have to go to the hospital, but I also realised that this is definitely not the end. As cases continue to multiply at an alarming rate, I know for a fact that I will have to do another duty again soon and that duty could be marred with complicated cases along with an immense workload. Whatever the situation, I will always be prepared. But here, I would like to talk about the plight of doctors and healthcare workers in general. We all are here to protect the public and do our best with whatever resources we have. Be it a super specialist, a post graduate doctor, a nurse, or a ward boy, we try to ensure that the best care has been given to every patient. But the public perception about doctors needs to change. On the one side we see people clapping, banging utensils, and showering petals for doctors and medical staff, only because the prime minister said so. On the other hand, we see people from my fraternity being socially outcasted and thrown out of their homes for working in COVID-19 hospitals. This really is unfair. I agree that there are negative elements in every profession, including the medical profession. But that does not mean that the public should generalise this perception and harass the people who are genuinely working to ensure everyones safety and well-being in this pandemic. This pandemic has really shown me my place in this world. Whenever I used to wear the PPE suit, there was no indicator of whether I was a consultant, a staff nurse, or even a ward boy, as everyone working in that environment used to wear the same suit. Whenever I would go to the ward, I had to tell everyone that I was the consultant to get their attention. This taught me one very important thing, that ultimately every human on this earth is equal. Some of us are fortunate enough to be born with silver spoons in our mouths, while others arent so lucky. But we should treat everyone equally, with dignity and the respect they deserve. As they say in Hindi, Koi bhi kaam chota ya bada nahi hota. After this pandemic settles down, my only hope is that people realise the importance of healthcare. By people, I also mean the law makers and the bureaucrats. Investing in infrastructure projects like the bullet train may sound cool, but I would like to point out that there should be people wanting to ride it in the first place, and that entirely depends on their health! Hence, this is a sincere appeal to consider healthcare as an investment, I assure you that investing in our collective health will give returns like no other! The author is a physician at Dr Vasantrao Pawar Medical College Hospital and Research Centre in Nashik, Maharashtra Editors note: The Star asked people across Canada to share their experiences with racism and their wishes for the future. The stories below are told in their own words. The conversation doesnt stop here. If youre interested, please share your story with us by email at social@thestar.ca. As racial tensions in the U.S. boil over, leaders here are warning that anti-Black racism doesnt stop at the border. Protesters have spilled out across America following the death of George Floyd whose last moments, captured on phone video as a police officer knelt on his neck, set fire to long-simmering concerns about police brutality against the Black community. Back home, Canadians have also taken to the streets in solidarity, with leaders quick to dispel what they say are misconceptions that racial tensions only exist in the U.S. Racism exists in Canada. Anti-Black racism exists in Canada. Police brutality exists in Canada, read signs at a protest that drew thousands in Toronto Saturday. It was led by the family of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a Black woman who fell to her death after police responded to a call at her home last week. A Minneapolis police officer is facing charges in connection with Floyds death, while the full details of Korchinski-Paquets death remain unclear and are the subject of an investigation by Ontarios Special Investigations Unit. Regardless, the leaders in Canadas Black community say the incidents have again exposed an undercurrent of racism that must be addressed. Dr. Chika Oriuwa, MD, 2020 valedictorian for the University of Torontos faculty of medicine (Monday) morning, the day before I earn my Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Toronto, I awoke to an online comment which stated I would never let her treat me. This was tweeted in response to a Toronto Star article written about my narrative of being the only Black student in a class of 259, and now graduating as valedictorian after being selected by my peers. These words came as a blow to me, despite it not being the first time I have been told this on online platforms, but also in my experience as a medical student on clinical rotations. I have spent the past four years tirelessly advocating for diversity in medical education, equity in medical admissions and enhancing inclusive practices across all professional spheres. This has culminated in being invited to give over two dozen keynotes, seminars, and panelist discussions, alongside writing articles and engaging in public education through media syndication. However, like many advocates, this left me vulnerable to attacks on my character and merit as a physician. Throughout the last four years, I have fielded several racist and sexist comments and have tried to develop an armour against this kind of vitriol. I am fortunate to have the support of the community and their rallying messages of encouragement at this time. Yet, there is a part of me that broke with disillusion over the past week. There is a misconception that once youve attained a certain level of success, education and accolade as a Black person, you would somehow become immune to the racism. I will admit that even I held onto this notion. I thought that when I finally earned my medical degree and joined the ranks of this noble profession, they would only ever respectfully view me as Dr. Oriuwa. The aforementioned tweet reminded me poignantly within a day of becoming a physician that there is no escaping the vise-like grip of anti-Blackness. It exists in the fabric of our society, throughout all systems and strikes without impunity. And so, during a time where there is civil unrest due to persistent anti-Black violence in Canada and abroad, I am reminded more than ever the importance of aligning myself closely with my community. I am, and have always been, immensely proud to be a Black woman and physician. I cannot divorce my identity from my profession because the world has not given me that allowance, and I wouldnt do so if the opportunity arose. Through my professional, clinical, and community work I will strive to address anti-Blackness in all of its permutations, and hope to create a world where it will be safer for us to simply exist. Yasin Osman, photographer, cartoonist and founder of Shoot for Peace Racism isnt a political view, and it isnt a sickness. Having hate in your heart because of the colour of someones skin does not deserve compassion, forgiveness, understanding or empathy in any way. This is something that is systematic and deeply engrained. It is not an illness, but a choice to be a terrible person. As someone who has been a victim of racial profiling and someone who has lost a friend at the hands of police, it upsets me to hear from Canadians that racism doesnt exist in Canada. We literally exist on stolen land. The last residential school closed in 1996. People of colour have been brutally harassed, assaulted and killed in this country since the day we stepped foot here. Just because youve never experienced it, it does not mean it doesnt exist. That just means youve been fortunate enough to never have experienced such circumstances and aggressions. You cannot believe something you choose to ignore. Pretending that racism doesnt exist by creating and engaging with hashtags like #MeanwhileInCanada does not help the cause. Canadians need to do better because If you ignore the problem you are part of the problem. Anthony N. Morgan, father and racial justice lawyer, Toronto To my daughter, Daddy loves you very much. I know you know and feel this every time were together. But I also know that as a Black child, its important that youre reminded of this early and often. Youre growing up in a world where despite my best efforts, Im not able to insulate you from recurring media cycles, images, attitudes or experiences that sting with the soul-throbbing pains of anti-Black racism. None of what you will be made to feel and experience because of this is your fault. My heart aches at thinking about what it will be like for you weathering anti-Blackness. Though I will give you all I can, nothing I have done or will do will keep you from times where you feel that, because you are Black and especially because you are a Black girl, you are unloved or that youre somehow not as special, valued and as treasured as you are. Sweetheart, forever and always, your beautiful Black life matters and youre loved fiercely, no matter what the world around us tells you. You cant read this yet. But one day, you will. When you do, you wont remember what these last days and weeks have looked and felt like for our Black communities in our city and across the African diaspora. My love, its been really sad and painful. Not because its new because it isnt. By the time you read and fully understand this letter, Im sure your generations technology will show you the pictures and articles on what this moment is meaning for our movement for Black freedom. What they are describing as riots, are rightful expressions of Black resistance. All people have the right to fight for the protection of their humanity, dignity and well-being of their communities, by any means necessary. What I mean is, if the people really experienced lives and histories where they could legitimately and reasonably feel they had other options than to burn and break things to protect their Black lives, they would not burn and break things, my love. I hope and trust that you will learn from daddy to recognize that the fires of racist social, political, cultural and economic neglect burned long before those buildings. And learn to realize that these systems that are said to be meant to protect us were broken in anti-Black ways well before any of those replaceable pieces of property were damaged. Black lives arent similarly replaceable. Thats part of the point our people are making and have been making since our first revolts against enslavement centuries ago. For you, the names George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, DAndre Campbell and Regis Korchinski-Paquet, will be what the names Raymond Lawrence, Kenneth Allen, Marcellus Francois, Presley Leslie, Sophia Cook, Michael Wade Lawson, Lester Donaldson, Anthony Griffin, and too many more, are to me. I hope you will remember these dead in how you grow to live your Black life: free, full, happy and resistant to anything that threatens this, your birthright. Daddy loves you. Chanelle Marshall, DJ What I feel is not a new feeling. What Im feeling is composed of many feelings. What I feel Im not alone in feeling this way. What I feel doesnt need to be said. We know. I feel this way when I see my friends driving and I send up a quick prayer they return home safely. I have felt this way when my friends tell me theyre having a son and I cry for hours thinking about the conversations that will be had with him about police brutality. I felt this way one time when I was biking and a driver almost hit me then yelled the n-word at me. I have felt this way when my mom used to teach me about Jamaican history. I felt this way in Grade 11 and my teacher based whole lessons on Obamas inauguration. I felt this way when there are issues with me and other Black women. I have felt this way when family relationships are strained because Im queer. I feel this way when I see those with more privilege or access to resources choose not to use it to help those who dont. I feel this way when I think of beauty. I feel this way when I think about having my own children. I have felt this feeling because I am a Black woman. Thats all. No other reason but I would never change who I am or the skin I was born into. The powerful history that had helped build the person I am today. What I want to enjoy living comfortably and freely, without worry of death by the hands of racism. Its been hard to put into words to say anything on social media because its been overwhelming. Im seeing content on the climate for an issue that is constantly reminding me of a whole system that was designed to make sure I finish last. As much as I am thrilled conversations are being had, its like Im reliving trauma over and over again. Im constantly thinking to myself I need to do more and pressure to take action but I can barely go without a couple hours before crying. Whats weighing on me is moving forward. The conversation can not fizzle out. Actions can not stop. Thinking about next steps is so important. Maintaining the momentum. How are we as a community going to keep making changes to ensure a safer future? We are playing in their system. I question, how do we build our own? How do we build wealth? How do we make sure that all Black people are protected by our own networks? Do we keep our buying power only within Black communities? How do we make sure that change continues to happen? I just want to learn more about what we intend on doing as we move forward. This battle wont end once the posts on social media die down. I just keep thinking if this war will have to take more innocent lives to be stopped. Im exhausted. But I will always be up for this battle. Teaunna Gray, director and photographer Being Black right now is nothing short of overwhelming. Its been hard to articulate all the emotions weve been feeling. And these feelings are not new. After coming back from the protest in Toronto on May 30th for Regis Korchinski-Paquet, I felt invigorated to start talking. Regis is an Afro-Indigenous woman with roots in Nova Scotia, which also happens to be my exact mix and where my roots are traced back to. She inspires me to use the voice I still have. Racism and hatred against Black and Indigenous people is not a new phenomenon. North America was built on this. The responsibility to change systems that oppress should not fall on the ones being oppressed. The call to action during this time is for those in the white community to Do The Work. I shared an example of what that can look like and why it is important on my Instagram. Its called, Dear White People and it explains the outcome of what it was like confronting a white person on their problematic ideals and then my boyfriend, who is also white, doing the same and looking at the differences in the responses we each received. Dear white people, be reflective. When you come across examples shared by Black voices, do not take it as an attack on you personally take the time to listen. Stories compiled by Star reporters Jenna Moon, Evy Kwong and Alex Boyd. When Leticia Riascos property management company moved to evict her, she had no idea she may be protected by policies meant to aid those harmed by the pandemic. Instead, she watched in frustration and disbelief as workers changed the lock on her apartment weeks after her job grilling burgers and hot dogs for crowds at NRG Stadium had been cut, an early casualty of the novel coronavirus. Is this really happening right now? she recalled thinking. Can I overcome this? Raiscos is among a large number people of unaware of policies meant to keep renters and homeowners in their homes during the economic crisis spurred by the pandemic. Sixty-nine percent of renters and roughly half of federal mortgage holders responding to a Fannie Mae survey said they were not aware of measures taken in response to the pandemic to suspend foreclosures and evictions. Half of mortgage holders did not know what forbearance, or temporary deferral of monthly payments, meant. More than 60 percent of homeowners with a mortgage were unaware of a mortgage payment deferral offer from their lender. With Texas eviction proceedings having resumed May 19 and Harris County foreclosure auctions resuming June 2, that could put both renters and homeowners in unnecessary financial distress. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, passed in March, has made homeowners with government-backed mortgages eligible to reduce or suspend payments if they have been impacted by the economic crisis. Renters who live in units with federally backed financing cannot be penalized or evicted for the nonpayment of rent until Aug. 23. The protections cover 70 percent of mortgages and roughly 30 percent of renters, according to federal research. But many renters, landlords and homeowners do not understand the protections. Its not something thats clear to everyone, said Sapna Aiyer, an attorney for the civil rights nonprofit Lone Star Legal Aid. Your best defense is to know whether or not your property is subject to the federal moratorium and the (CARES) Act. But a lot of people dont even know to ask or how to check. On HoustonChronicle.com: Here's how to check if your apartment has eviction protection Aiyer said its possible that renters protected by the CARES Act could be evicted because they do not know their rights. While Texas landlords must fill out a form swearing that the CARES Act does not apply to their building meaning it does not have federal assistance or federally related financing before they can file an eviction, its up to renters and their lawyers to protest if landlords are mistaken, she said. How do you know your loan wasnt sold to Fannie or Freddie? she asked. What tools did you use? Its our job to dig into it. To educate homeowners and renters of their options, the government-sponsored mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have announced that they are rolling out awareness campaigns. While we have taken unprecedented action to help millions of owners and renters struggling due to this pandemic, our efforts cannot be fully effective without widespread awareness, David Brickman, Freddie Macs CEO, said in a release. Homeowners and renters can look up whether their home is covered by the CARES Act by checking to see if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are backing the loan. Fannie Maes look-up tools are at knowyouroptions.com, and Freddie Macs are at myhome.freddiemac.com. Homeowners with mortgages not covered by the act are still encouraged to contact their servicer to see what options are available if they are struggling financially. There are also federally backed buildings that do not have loans owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Aiyer explained for example, apartment buildings that benefit from federal tax credits. Renters in such buildings are also protected. The National Low Income Housing Coalition has created a partial database of apartment buildings that fall in that category at nlihc.org/federal-moratoriums and the Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation has created another at gcaflcio.org/eviction-relief-list-harris-county. Lone Star Legal Aid has also put together a tool to help renters check whether their unit may be covered, called the LSLA CARES Tool, and an application for free legal aid at lonestarlegal.org. Riascos was able to secure an attorney from Lone Star Legal Aid who hopes he will be able to use her lockout, which he said took place during the states moratorium on evictions, to allow her to stay. But to Riascos, the piecemeal policies meant to keep her in place until she can regain her financial footing still seem opaque and uncertain. I dont know, she said. Well see. rebecca.schuetz@chron.com; twitter.com/raschuetz Britains GCHQ spy agency is running secretive educational programs in dozens of schools and disseminating propaganda to children as young as four years old, without the knowledge of parents, its been revealed. The intelligence agency is running the programs in at least 40 schools with access to 22,000 children who are potentially being spied on, according to an investigation by Declassified UK. According to the investigative website, GCHQ officers themselves are operating in at least one of the schools and parents of the pupils involved have not been made aware of the extent of the spy agencys role in the so-called Cyber Schools Hub (CSH) programs also known as CyberFirst. GCHQ publicly describes the programs as giving children between the ages of 11 and 17 the chance to experience new ways of learning in an innovative cyber environment and aims to use the school activities to help recruit kids for the cyber security industry. Yet, Declassified revealed that the efforts have now expanded into primary schools where GCHQ has access to children as young as four years old and that while the program literature states it is operational in 23 schools, it is actually running in nearly double that number 10 of which are primary schools. One of the primary school level code clubs is in fact staffed entirely by officers from GCHQ. The agency gains access to schools by offering to provide technology to local libraries and recruitment teams field enquiries from schools interested in being part of the program, the website said. More disturbingly, the investigation revealed, local police worked with GCHQ on a joint tag team event to gain access to a student who had been reported to authorities as very talented by teachers who were worried he may be about to cross the line with his cyber activities though there was no evidence that the child had done anything wrong. The revelations about GCHQs activities in British schools are unsurprising considering US whistleblower Edward Snowden had previously revealed that one of the spy agencys top objectives was to target children and create a reporting service on radicalisation. Children are told that GCHQ, which conducts unlawful mass surveillance, according to the European Court of Human Rights, is the heart of the nations security system and has saved countless lives. Asked what information was given to parents about the taxpayer-funded program, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) told Declassified it had no contact with parents and that what teachers share with parents is up to them. Declassified UK was rebuffed by both GCHQ and the schools themselves when trying to glean more information about the projects, with both citing national security exemptions in order to block freedom of information requests. The spy agency is attempting to drip-feed children with messages aimed at recruiting them for the field over time, Jen Persson, director of Defend Digital Me, told Declassified. There is regulation in other areas to protect [children] from undue adult influence, like online advertising yet it sounds like spies can walk into schools whenever they want with no transparency or independent oversight, Persson said. GCHQ has posted comments from children on social media apparently praising the program as the best thing EVER, fabulous and masses of fun but some of these quotes are seemingly made up. A newsletter on an event for girls includes an alleged quote from Ella and Chloe in Year 8 (12-13 years old) expressing the need for diversity in perspectives, leadership and experience. Aside from sounding more like language used by GCHQ media relations, Declassified found that the same quote is attributed to 13-year-old Evie in another CSH blog post. Asked about this curious detail, NCSC told the website that teachers provide the quotes from students. During an unannounced visit to a GCHQ "hub school," one principal told Declassified that the program has brought his school no investment or new facilities but has simply made the school put more of a focus on cyber security. Following a successful pilot phase in England, the government is now planning to expand the GCHQ program across the whole UK. More than 1,000 war crime accusations tabled against British soldiers in Iraq have been dismissed - with only one case remaining to be resolved, it emerged today. Former lawyer Phil Shiner and his firm Public Interest Lawyers made more than 1,000 claims involving the British military following the invasion of Iraq in 2003. But independent investigators have since dismissed almost all of those allegations due to the 'low level' of offending and a lack of credible evidence. British soldiers are pictured in Basra, Iraq, in December 2004. More than 1,000 war crime accusations tabled against British soldiers in Iraq have been dismissed Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Law in Action programme, Service Prosecution Authority director Andrew Cayley said although one case was still being considered, it was 'quite possible' the accusations will ultimately result in zero prosecutions. Mr Shiner was struck off as a solicitor in 2007 after being found guilty of misconduct and dishonesty relating to false abuse claims against British troops. Several of the allegations centered on the Battle of Danny Boy, when 28 Iraqi insurgents were killed and nine militants were taken to the Camp Abu Naji military base to be questioned - later claiming they had been subjected to torture. Mr Cayley also told the programme he was confident no action would be taken in a separate International Criminal Court probe into alleged abuses by British soldiers. 'My sense is these matters are coming to a conclusion; (ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda) will close the preliminary examination this year in respect of Iraq and the United Kingdom,' he said. Former lawyer Phil Shiner (file picture) and his firm Public Interest Lawyers made more than 1,000 claims involving the British military following the invasion of Iraq in 2003 The fall of British 'tank chaser' Phil Shiner He once boasted that he had not 'accepted a single case that turned out to be a try-on'. But in a spectacular fall from grace, human rights lawyer Phil Shiner, 61, was struck off the roll of solicitors for a string of misconduct charges. The father of five set up his Birmingham firm Public Interest Lawyers (PIL) in 1999 and led it until it was closed down in August 2016. In 2007, at the height of his career, he was named the Law Society's solicitor of the year. He continued to make his name by suing the Government at the taxpayer's expense. His firm handed over hundreds of allegations of criminality by British troops in Iraq, many of which have been thrown out. The beginnings of his downfall were marked by a news conference in February 2008 that paved the way for the 25million Al-Sweady inquiry. Mr Shiner alleged that the Army had unlawfully killed, tortured and mistreated innocent Iraqi civilians during a clash known as the 'Battle of Danny Boy' in 2004. But in December 2014 the judge leading the public inquiry concluded the allegations were 'wholly and entirely without merit'. The Ministry of Defence then passed a damning dossier on PIL to the Solicitors' Regulation Authority (SRA), which started an investigation. In April 2016 the SRA concluded its inquiry and Mr Shiner was referred to a disciplinary tribunal over 'serious allegations of professional misconduct'. In August that year, his legal aid was pulled by the Government, forcing him to shut down his firm. In February 2017 he was struck off after being found guilty of professional misconduct. Advertisement Mr Shiner, owner of the now defunct Public Interest Lawyers, once attempted to dodge a 7million bill by gifting his house, two guitars, artwork and a pile of cash. But the Government's Insolvency Service managed to recover nearly 500,000 and sold the former solicitor's home. He 'undertook bogus damage claims' against the Ministry of Defence and former soldiers that alleged 'fictitious murder and torture incidents'. He was struck off as a solicitor in 2017 after a disciplinary tribunal that he failed to attend and has been left with a huge bill owed to the taxpayer, the solicitors' watchdog and others. Mr Shiner, 64, once named solicitor of the year, was found guilty of professional misconduct three years ago for his role in drumming up cases against troops. The human rights lawyer, who made his name suing the Government at the taxpayer's expense, was found to have been repeatedly dishonest in falsely accusing soldiers of war crimes. Mr Shiner's firm took on clients for a public inquiry into alleged abuses, but then cut a 'lucrative' deal with Leigh Day, which pursued compensation claims, a court heard in 2017. Leigh Day then carved up the profits from suing British troops between PIL and a middleman. Mr Shiner's firm brought the vast majority of 3,380 allegations of wrongdoing by British troops to the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (IHAT). It received millions of pounds of public money but failed to secure a single conviction yet caused misery to hundreds of veterans. The lawyer had 12 charges of misconduct found proved against him by the Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal, including 'cold-calling' to find potential complainants in Iraq and making payments to alter evidence. Mr Shiner's firm made more than 1.6million pursuing unfounded torture and murder claims that cost the public purse 31million to investigate. A separate Baha Mousa inquiry - named after the Iraqi hotel receptionist who died in British custody - cost around 13million. And other probes by the Iraq Historic Allegations Team is estimated to have brought the cost the taxpayer to around 57million. Boris Johnson vowed to protect former servicemen from 'vexatious claims' when he entered Number 10 in July. On Armistice Day last November, in the grips of a hotly-contested election campaign, the Prime Minister pledged to amend the Human Rights Act to safeguard veterans from hounding. Its June Dairy Month, and we need to tell dairys great story. In early April, as the novel coronavirus pandemic took hold in the U.S., demand for dairy was in the dumps. In many parts of the country it got so bad that dairy farmers began discarding milk that didnt have a home. What was the reason? Though demand for dairy at retail was up, it couldnt compensate for the decreased demand in food service and overseas purchases. As this all took place, unemployment was rising and food banks were seeing record numbers of patrons. It was frustrating to watch high-quality, nutritious milk being discarded when people were hungry. There had to be a way. Dairy farmers rallied In late April, Dairy West, the dairy promotion organization representing farmers in Idaho and Utah, quickly rallied an entire regional dairy community around a solution. Curds + Kindness is an initiative that took hold immediately and captured the attention and collaboration of processors throughout the region. The concept is simple match milk that was destined to be discarded with excess processing capacity to produce and package products for personal consumption. Butter and cheese were being distributed within days through an existing network of feeding sites associated with local food banks and school districts. The collaboration from farm to co-op to processor and the logistical and allied industry support has been incredible. To date, over 560,000 pounds of product has been donated since the end of April. As the supply chain begins to rebound, Dairy West plans to run this program in its current capacity through mid-June. During June, as a tribute to National Dairy Month and farmers commitment to feeding communities and saying thank you, Curds + Kindness will go mobile. From June 1 through June 26, a Curds + Kindness branded food truck will be providing grilled cheese sandwiches and bags of cheese curds as a thank you to frontline workers across Idaho and Utah, visiting healthcare facilities, police stations, fulfillment centers, and more. For more about the program and its collaborators, visit unbottled.com. To comment, email your remarks to intel@hoards.com. (c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2020 June 1, 2020 It is far too sad to think of a black man who met the end of his life due to a knee pressing down on his neck by a white police officer. The act continued even with the dying man crying out that he could not breathe. The horrific crime for this arrest was the possible passing of a $20 counterfeit bill at a grocery store. The ensuing rioting and protests, from both blacks and whites, were against the injustice inflicted by those who are supposed to serve and protect us. The officer is a person sworn with keeping the peace, enforcing the law, protecting people and property, and investigating crimes. He needs to be tried for murder. The other officers present need to be tried as accessories to murder for watching and not stopping the death of this man who leaves behind a 6-year-old daughter. We must do better. This type of enforcement against the black community happens far too often. I am thankful to the policemen and policewomen who do not put themselves above the law because they wear a badge. SUSAN NOSOTTI Flynn Street Summerville Destruction detracts Another senseless death at the hands of those entrusted with the public good is mind-boggling. Just as mind-boggling is how looting and destruction of property correlate to protesting the despicable actions of others to make a point. Sadly, it only takes away from the real issue. Please let level heads prevail. LARRY LADUE Wespanee Drive Charleston Dont misread King During these turbulent, disturbing times, many have understandably turned to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s words for guidance and comfort. But I say Dr. King would never have wanted his words used to make white people feel comfortable with the state of racial relations in America. In fact, Dr. King proclaimed tension as the overarching goal of any peaceful protest, tension as the only true way to bring about change: tension between classes, between races, between the status quo and the future potential for true equality and justice. Would Dr. King have endorsed the violent acts committed by protesters in cities across the country? No. But Dr. King himself said, The riot is the language of the unheard. He would have stressed that the current anger coming to fruition is not simply in response to George Floyds death. The protests are in response to the underlying issues we face that have coalesced to create this world in which Floyd could have died senselessly, needlessly, pleading, I cant breathe. The implicit racism in our communities, our economic structures, our schools, our streets. The combination of intolerance, unaccountability, unchecked power and bigotry that have created such a broken, unequal world. These protesters are protesting everything America is hiding under the surface, everything that Dr. King tried to bring to light, everything that he was murdered fighting against. Until we celebrate all that he was, we only insult his memory by fitting his words to our own agendas. ANNA DOWLING Wethersfield Drive Florence Protesters vs. criminals The killing of George Floyd was a reprehensible crime. It was especially heinous because it was committed by officers of the law, sworn to protect citizens and uphold the law. Peaceful assembly to protest this kind of injustice, marching and carrying provocative signs, shouting provocative things at the top of ones lungs, these are American civil rights, protected by our Constitution. And civil disobedience in the name of justice is a well-honored American tradition. People who do these things can be called heroes and should be respected and applauded. Inciting to riot, physical violence, vandalism, arson and looting are crimes, as defined by every legal code in the world. People who do these things are not protesters. They are criminals who should be arrested, jailed and convicted. ROBERT P. STOCKTON Montagu Court Charleston Whos to blame? As we watched Charleston, the city we love, dissolve into looting and rioting on Saturday night, I and other business owners wondered who is to blame. As President Harry Truman said, The buck stops here. No warning was given to business owners, some who had families dining and shopping. As the police retreated, Upper King Street became a stronghold for rioters for three hours without police responding to 911 calls in a meaningful way. How shameful this boiled over for eight-plus hours with the first police car being ignited three hours before curfew. The writing was on the walls as to what was to come. What a shame. JACK HANDEGAN Beaufain Street Charleston Gardai searching for drugs in Darndale have found three large bags of cannabis herb hidden in a hedge in a public park. The find, believed to have a street value of 60,000, was made on Sunday. Gardai investigating the sale and supply of drugs in the Santry district area of Dublin found the stash during a planned search of Darndale Park in Dublin 17. Members from the Divisional Crime Task Force Santry, assisted by uniformed members from Coolock, carried out the searches and found three large bags containing cannabis herb hidden along a hedgerow in the park. Stored While no arrests were made, gardai are following a definite line of inquiry. They are investigating if the drugs were being stored there on a long-term basis, or were left there to be picked up by someone. It is also possible the drugs were ditched in a panic by someone who feared being caught with them. The narcotics are understood to have been well concealed. It is unclear whether the cannabis is connected to one of a number of gangs embroiled in different feuds. They have left a trail of death and destruction across northside Dublin suburbs for more than a year now, starting with the shooting dead of Zach Parker (23) at Applewood, Swords, on January 17 last year. In a quick and bloody escalation of the Coolock feud this time last year, Sean Little (22) was lured to Walshestown Road, Balbriggan, where he was murdered on May 21. Murdered A motive for the murders of Little and Parker has never been established, but gardai believe they were probably killed over a drugs debt that they could not or would not pay. Just 17 hours after Little was murdered, his drug-dealing friend Jordan Davis (22) was killed after being shot several times as he walked his four-month-old baby in a pram in Darndale. A man has been charged in relation to his murder. Iranian national Hamid Sanambar was killed less than a week after Little. Last November, Eoin Boylan (22) became the feud's fifth victim. What ASUU is saying is laughable. Your employers will dictate how they will pay you. They can decide to pay you with a cheque which you sign in your regional office every month and you take your salary and go. They can decide to do electronic transfer. You bring your account number and they do a transfer electronically to you, he said. BANGALORE/DENVER (Reuters) - Hedge fund Angelo Gordon & Co aims to raise as much as $1.5 billion to buy the debt of distressed oil and gas companies, according to a person familiar with the matter and an investor presentation viewed by Reuters. The U.S. shale boom, financed by access to cheap capital, is drying up as weak oil and gas prices and investors reluctance to refinance debt has companies cutting production and some seeking protection from creditors. U.S. output is expected to fall as much as 2 million barrels per day this year. The Angelo Gordon fund will be called AG Energy Credit Opportunities Fund IV LP and will seek to acquire distressed debt in the oil exploration and production, pipeline and services sectors, according to a presentation seen by Reuters. Todd Dittmann, head of energy at the $38 billion company, will manage the fund, which will pursue senior secured loans and discounted reserve based loans, the presentation showed. Dittmann and an Angelo Gordon spokeswoman declined to comment. If Angelo Gordon completes the fundraising, it would be the firm's second this year to target the debt of struggling companies. In February, it completed a $1.8 billion fund raising that had its initial closing in July 2019. [tinyurl.com/yayhvmtz] A US citizen was sentenced to more than five years in prison for attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State (IS). Alison Marie Sheppard of Florida purchased 10 mobile phones and arranged to ship them to undercover officers posing as IS supporters, according to a press release by the US Justice Department. Sheppard believed the phones would be sent to the Middle East for IS operatives to use as bomb detonators. She also provided IS instructional material on how to travel to Syria to a person she believed was a sympathizer with the extremist group. That person was later caught by the FBI and provided information to investigators. Sheppard also told an undercover law enforcement officer that she had pledged loyalty to IS supposed caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who died in a US Special Operations raid in northwest Syria late last year. Sheppard, who went by the name Aiisha Abdullah, pled guilty on May 17. The FBI has investigated IS affiliation in all 50 US states, where more than 200 people have been charged with crimes related to the group. A majority of those convicted in the United States were arrested following investigations involving at least one undercover agent or informant, according to George Washington Universitys Project on Extremism. More than 70 of those sentenced had been accused of traveling or attempting to travel abroad on behalf of the group; a third were accused of involvement in planning attacks in the United States. IS was territorially defeated in March 2019 by Syrian Kurdish-led forces backed by the US-led military coalition; some 12,000 captured fighters remain in prisons across northeast Syria. Some 68,000 suspected wives and children of IS fighters remain in al-Hol camp, which is run by Kurdish-led security forces. A number of Western countries have refused to take citizens that have wound up in the prison camps. Working in fashion wasn't something she'd ever considered. But looking back, she says she's been the most successful at "willing to align myself to get where I want to go." In our long-running series, "How I'm Making It," we talk to people making a living in the fashion and beauty industries about how they broke in and found success. Before Solange Franklin was styling Tracee Ellis Ross for the cover of Porter, Solange Knowles for the cover of L'Officiel or a whole crew of talent for Teen Vogue's annual Young Hollywood portfolio, she was on a whole different track a pre-med track, to be precise. As she tells it, growing up in the Midwest, the career paths she felt she could pursue felt a little more traditional: journalist, lawyer, doctor. (Hence, pre-med.) She loved fashion magazines would consume them voraciously but she didn't see herself in the pages. "I typically don't call out publications, but I would peruse my favorite magazine, read every single page, and religiously just take the entire beauty section and pluck it over like, 'This doesn't apply to me,'" she says over the phone. "'I know I'm not going to be in here, so why would I even bother reading about the hair and skin products?' I could ignore the price tags on the dresses, but the beauty products didn't make sense to me." In college, she created her own major while completing her pre-med requirements and working in labs. But outside of her coursework, she'd read the blogs that were starting to very slightly lift the curtain on the fashion industry and give outsiders a peek into how it operates and how the people who work in it got their start. And that's where Franklin saw an opportunity. It wasn't something she'd ever considered or even thought was possible, working in fashion. But looking back on her career, she says she's been the most successful at "willing to align myself to get where I want to go." Story continues "Once you know what you want, at least then you can break it down into what's achievable," Franklin explains. "Some of us just don't know what we want, but once we do, we start researching to figure out how to do it anyway." First step was getting an internship. (She did, at Teen Vogue, and then at Essence after graduation.) Early on, styling caught Franklin's eye. "I think people don't understand how instrumental stylists are to making a picture happen," she says. "Of course, it varies per shoot, but you just don't think how they're influencing everything in some way, from set to nails to hair and makeup. It's much more than picking the clothes." From interning, Franklin began assisting, and then eventually struck out on her own. Now, she splits her time between editorial (which still makes up most of her work and she describes as her true love) and celebrity styling (with clients that have included Zazie Beetz and Kate Bosworth). Ahead, read about her professional journey, from how her undergraduate education shaped her worldview and how she fell into styling (and other gigs she took on to make ends meet) to working with paradigm-shifting women and creating imagery that represents and celebrates community. If you were to go through the highlight reel of your career, what are the moments that really stand out to you? I went to a liberal arts school no focus in fashion. I did not think that fashion was a viable career for me. I was an African American studies major. Initially, I was pre-med and a self-design major: race, gender and health relations. Once I took all my bio courses and fun things like that, I was like, "Actually I feel like I want to try to pursue fashion, in some manner." I was already very committed [to pre-med]. I'd done my internship and my summers in labs, but I felt that I had a strong enough trajectory to come back to a career in medicine if fashion didn't work out. I was like, "Okay, I can do a post-bac or something after, if I really want to. But I'd rather try now." It opened up my schedule to use the other side of my brain, like [take classes in] costume construction and delve more into African American literature. I feel like that liberal arts education honestly has given me a wonderful background for what I do in media and in fashion, putting women and people of color forward, which has always been at the center of my goal of who I want to serve, as somebody who was like, "Well, if I'm going to be in publishing, then this is absolutely something to look out for." Was there something that triggered that switch that made you think to try to pursue fashion professionally? This was the advent of blogs. I grew up in Des Moines, Iowa I'm a Midwest girl and the industry there is insurance, or very straightforward careers like medicine. I was like, "Okay, I like to write, but I don't feel like I want to be a journalist." Much respect to all the writers. We did have publishing in Des Moines, but that seemed like a writing path rather than a fashion path. So it just wasn't something that I could see or imagine. My best friend and I would scour the Teen Vogue blog, and I was just like, "Oh, I want to be closer to this. How are they making these things? Who's behind this product that I love so much?" I do remember reading Eva Chen's profile I don't know if she was the beauty director at the time, but she was definitely an editor and she was talking about how she was pre-med at Johns Hopkins. I was like, "Okay, this type of woman can like make it in this career and be seen as formidable, effective and inspiring and also look just full of joy." I remember feeling like I wanted that, I could do that. At what point did you land on styling, specifically, as a path that you wanted to pursue? Oh man, baby Solange. So I was interning at Teen Vogue, actually, when I was still in college, and I remember being in this ecosystem and seeing how everybody does this dance together the fashion director meets with the market director meets with the freelance stylist that comes in, then the beauty director... Just to see how a magazine comes together. It's not just about one single shoot: It's about a theme, it's about the writers, it's about everything. But I remember seeing the stylist, and I would be helping them by funneling the merchandise and in rare instances get to help choose some of the looks for shoots. I was like, "I want to be close to this part of the job. I feel like this is the heartbeat of the creativity of the magazine, where your hands get dirty in the best of ways, for creating the images that go into the hands of little girls in the country" which is who I imagined working for: my younger self, especially for me as a girl of color and in predominantly white spaces and at a time when magazines were not focused on centering us in any kind of major way. Teen Vogue was famous for having way more racks than American Vogue. You just had your hands in dreamy, frosty fashion and poppy stuff because [the reader is] 14 and they're more experimental. You're not as worried about, "Can I wear this to the office?" But I thought that I wanted to be a market editor because I didn't feel like I had all the sewing skills or something to be a certain type of stylist. I felt like [styling] was something that I admired but couldn't do. I could be of assistance. I just wanted to be within proximity. [I was] watching and absorbing, I just didn't feel worthy of it. But I positioned myself to be of use. What was your first fashion job? I was a paid intern at Essence when I graduated, which was essentially a freelance assistant position. Everybody was just astounded that I'd gotten a job in the great recession. It didn't matter if it was an internship you were getting paid to work in fashion. I was over the moon. I'd dreamt of working at Essence. I knew that I had the internship well before graduation, so I could actually breathe and enjoy myself, which was super rare, and I knew it was on a path I wanted to go, so I feel very grateful for that. But in terms of the financial side of it, just negotiating and being socialized Time, Inc. [Essence's parent company] had a very clear outline of what their internship program entailed, inclusive of payment. I don't feel there was room to negotiate there. I compromised on post-graduate title at Essence, but I knew and believed this to be acceptable for the financial climate and my experience at the time. Teen Vogue was my first salaried position, and HR told me the salary was non-negotiable. I believed her and it didn't occur to me that that could be the starting point to a negotiation. (I learned this later from male colleagues.) These experiences, graduating during the great recession; being a woman of color who was told I should be grateful for not only being employed, but vying for competitive publishing positions; and the general socialization of women to accept what's presented to them in corporate settings, led me to undervalue myself monetarily. I've had to deprogram a lot to fight for what I feel is right and it has not been easy in an industry that does not compensate junior level associates well, if at all. How did you go about, then, getting the skills you felt you needed to become a stylist? When I was at Essence, print was queen. And so I was like, "I want to be a market editor. I want to be in the mastheads. I want to be a full-time employee." I felt like I had the taste level and the logistical capability because that's what people don't realize: how organized you have to be to produce these shoots. I felt like I had the strength and the overall wherewithal to be a great market editor. Coinciding with the recession, we saw the jobs dissipate and magazines fold. I was like, "What else do I do?" I felt positioned to be the market editor. Then I was like, "Is this a dream that's still realistic?" [Styling] wasn't even necessarily my first choice. I felt like I meandered into it. I started freelancing. I felt like, "Okay, I need to stay close to magazines, but in the meantime I know how to be on set. I know how to be of assistance." I didn't realize that that was such a transferable skill, being a market assistant to being a stylist. I felt like I was actually forced to do this just to survive in New York. I was a casting assistant. What else did I do? Talk about #10YearChallenge: I was going door to door working with the census 10 years ago. More specific to styling, freelance is about word of mouth. This set me up for my career as an independent contractor, inadvertently. It wasn't something I was pursuing for freedom I was like, "I feel like I'm a good bee in the hive. I don't need to be the queen bee, doing their own thing." I do remember at Essence, the managing editor saying, "You never know who's watching you." It's the advice you get from a career site hat you just think seems trite advice, right? But somebody from some random department could just be like, "I've watched this girl." And this would happen to me. Like, the tailor on set passed my resume to this stylist, and therefore I got to go on this campaign. I definitely feel like the freelance path elucidated the power of people seeing you no matter where you are, especially when you stand out for being different and then also for being a hard worker. In terms of concrete steps, I'd say it was truly just scouring the internet for anybody's anecdote Ed2010 was a thing and talking to people. I kind of collected mentors without saying, "You're my mentor." It was more that I showed up to them and made myself indispensable; in exchange, I'm observing what this person is doing that I respect. And then I think, in turn, people take you under their wing in whatever capacity they can offer. The assistant gig that you're probably most well known for is your work with Giovanna Battaglia. How did you get that job? I got that job from my days at Teen Vogue. Giovanna's first assistant at the time knew me from then, so when my name came across her desk as somebody to work as a second assistant, she was like, "Oh, I know Solange. She can handle this 100%." I had been recommended by Melaney Oldenhof, who's an amazing stylist that I had been freelancing [for]. This is where the word of mouth and the tiny village of networks overlap, which is incredibly exciting and comforting, in many ways. It was also terrifying, because I think we've all failed in some regard, and I was like, "Oh, so if I mess this up, everyone will know." That kind of fear would drive you, I think, to excellence. It's also, of course, a bit unfair for some people. But anyway, I got that job by word of mouth. I started off as a freelance second assistant for her. Giovanna's first assistant, Michaela Dosamantes, eventually left to go assist Carine Roitfeld, and basically positioned me to take over her job. I think in many ways I was groomed to do so, but in others... Whenever you take that next step, you don't know what that other person was doing until you're in their shoes. I became Giovanna's first assistant because Michaela said that I should be, and I think Giovanna was like, "Okay, I like her," but it's such an intimate relationship, stylists and their assistants. You really have to speak a language without speaking. And that took a lot of time to develop, but I think it does, for any stylist relationship. A highlight from that, really, was just exposure. This was the bridge between, "We'll pay to send crews to the middle of Russia to get the shot," versus, "We need to do five shoots in one day in studio because we don't have the budget" straddling old-world glamour, in many ways, and the new wave of, "We've got to make this work on $10." [It taught me] a 360 degree thoroughness. As a first assistant, you learn how to run the business of styling in many regards. Now, there's a dearth of information to understand how to operate as your own entity, especially if you don't have financial backing from somewhere else and this is compounded with financial strains within the entire industry. But in terms of how I operate, I think it's seeing the amount of time and preparation that goes into a shoot, from mood-boarding to the true artistry of collaboration, and seeing that magic come together in the different ways. I think I've learned to give people the space to be creative, and that you're in the room for a reason. Why stifle that for your creative collaborators? One thing that I did learn from Giovanna that I love is that it shouldn't make sense. It shouldn't be what's so easy to digest, because if it's exactly the dress that you would walk out onto the street in, then what are you pushing? I think it's one thing to be a documentarian. It's another to be a dreamer, or someone who's pushing some type of vision. I feel like I've internalized that in terms of [asking]: Are you replicating something that already exists or are you creating dynamic here and how? And I appreciate that. Tell me about the transition of going out on your own as a stylist. What made you feel ready? First of all, it's so bizarre with styling. It's like, you're an intern, then you're an assistant, then you're a stylist. There's no true junior or senior stylist assistant role in the independent contractor world maybe within a structured company, yes. But there are, of course, levels to what the assistants can do: It could just be that you're on set steaming; you could have chosen the model and the makeup and put together an entire mood board. It's just a vast difference in what you can achieve. I think people have different ideas of what it means to be ready to do something on your own. I'm definitely more of an observer. I'd rather gather all the information that I possibly can before I make a move, which can honestly work to your detriment. I don't know if I just lacked confidence, but I felt like there are so many different ways that we can do this, I wanted to see how the best do it to then know who I'm going to be. I really admire the people that have a strident vision of, "This is exactly my aesthetic, this is exactly what I want to do." That's just never been who I am. I think if I forced myself to be that, I would not be in this job now, because I wouldn't have said yes to so many meandering opportunities. I felt like I had the confidence to finally leave after people were like, "Listen, you could miss your exit. You don't want to stay too long." I had famous photographers be like, "Never leave. It will never be the same." It's like living between this fear of missing out and the fear of starting too soon and not being enough. But I was being offered jobs while also assisting. So I was like, "Listen, I've been offered not just editorials, but paid jobs. If only I had the time to say yes to everything, I could develop the base to survive." I was really grateful that I had visibility as Giovanna's assistant. For instance, I was doing a lot of styling for Paper [as editor-at-large] that was confidence-inspiring, to be like, "I'm valued within this elite structure that I'm working in, with Gio and her world, and then I can explore my own voice in Paper." I both had a steady income and was able to accept the title and opportunity to be my own entity. I've maintained a lot of the same clients. Now that said, even with all the people that I interviewed and spoke to, some things just did not occur to me [about going on my own]. Like, I didn't understand that you might have three clients, but you really need six clients to survive because three may not be available for shooting, or they want to work with another stylist. It's incredibly hard to understand how to financially plan for this lifestyle because, especially at that time [when I started on my own], even the 30-day payment periods didn't exist for freelancers. So you're like, "Okay. They said they're going to pay me by August 1st, I should be able to pay my rent by September 1st, but [the check's not coming. What do I do?" How do you safeguard against that other than just writing to 100 million people and saying, "I want to work, I want to work." It's just so not standardized in the industry. So many professional safeguards don't exist. What have been projects that you've worked out since you've gone out on your own that stand out to you? Being able to work with somebody like Serena Williams, because that's part of our job, and they're not coming to be idolized they're brought in as a collaborator. That's what I appreciate about jobs: I love watching that communication between artists and the team, like how much these revered people respect magazine folks and like what we do. It's validating, in so many ways. I remember working with her on a GQ shoot and then she asked me to do a Gatorade commercial with her. I was like, "Wow, Serena Williams has asked me to fly across the country to work on her specific commercial. She could have had anybody in the world." So it's moments like that where you're like, "The little girl from Iowa needs to pinch herself." It's not something where I've been chomping at the bit to get to Hollywood, but I highly revere these women that embody defiance. That's how I made the transition to doing VIPs through meeting them through editorial, which is my true love and what I've been trained in. VIP dressing is based on the subject that I pursue or that I find intriguing to collaborate with, like Zazie Beetz. They want to feel like the best version of themselves and to incorporate their vision and their identity into how they're presented to the world. It doesn't work to say, "I've made a mood board. You're trying to veer from the mood board. What's going on?" That's been an interesting, very cool negotiation. I've really enjoyed meeting these women, like Kerry Washington for a Marie Claire cover and then dressing her. It establishes a relationship where I think they see what you can do and how you can create. Getting to do the Met Gala [with Kate Bosworth] was incredible working with Oscar de la Renta team, getting to see the sketches that designers make for custom looks. You can go back and forth talking about fabric choices and silhouettes, and just think: These are the people that we revere the most in the industry, the designers. To have that direct portal feels like a different level of artistry. How do you want people to know and recognize your styling work? Honestly it all comes back to what I said from my little baby pre-med days: I work to serve women, people of color and underrepresented communities. My medium or my tools might change, but I hope that that shines through in my work. I feel like there's just a sense of vibrancy and joy that I equate to freedom, with the power to dream and the desire to be unrestricted in many ways. That's so powerful because it unleashes your ability to succeed in how you see yourself, which then allows you the agency to do whatever you want. It doesn't have to be restricted to glamour. I guess how I want people to see my work is empowering, and worthy of a collective shift. Aesthetically speaking, just vibrant that doesn't have to be just with color or silhouette, it's about the framing of the subject and letting that person lead. I really hope that comes through, through the alchemy that we all achieve together. That's what makes me really happy and excited and shiver with pride, looking at what you've created with people. Want more Fashionista? Sign up for our daily newsletter and get us directly in your inbox. [June 01, 2020] Hanafundme Launched COVID-19 Campaign to Help Supply PPE Items for Hospitals in Sabah KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently launched Women Crowdfunding platform, Hanafundme.com has embarked on a CSR fundraising campaign to supply PPE to the Hospital's front liners in Sabah. The said campaign that had taken place since March 2020 hopes to raise RM50,000 or more and has raised over RM22,000 to date, will be continued until end of the year to ensure that the supplies will be sufficient whenever there is a delayed supply due to logistic issues. Its first delivery will take place just after Raya this year and will comprise of disposable 3 ply masks and face shields. The platform hopes to raise more funds to meet its mission and to sustain the hospitals with the much needed supplies. Through the Ministry Of Health's logistic partner, supplies will be delivered via TUDM (Malaysia Air Force) directly to Queen Elizabeth Hospital (the main receiving hub for PPE supples in Sabah) for their further distribution to other hospitals that are in need throughout Sabah. According to Angie S Chin, the CEO & Co-Founder of Hanafundme.com, "We are aware that the MOH has also been supplying to the Hospitals in the state, however it's been noted there have been times when the delivery of supplies have been delayed due to unforeseeable logistic issues. Hence the continuous supply of PPE to the front liners from those who can provide is necessary until the pandemic is under control." Being the first Women Crowdfunding platform in Malaysia, Hanafundme also hope to do their part by offering its platform to assist those affected by the pandemic by raising the necessary funds to stay afloat by encouraging small business owners, startups and freelancers to put up their campaigns on the platform. Since the platform does not take any equity or offer loan money and unlike e-commerce platform that only sells products and services online, the platform allows the campaigners to share their story and reach out to their family, friends, customers and supporters to offer products or services in return of the funding support. Kind of like selling products and services in advance, where customers / supporters can redeem or receive the products or services later when the pandemic subsides. To support this mission, the platform is currently open to all although initially it was created to support Girls or Women-owned start-ups, businesses, non-profits and side hustles raise funds to kick start or support innovative or impacting ideas, projects or missions by tapping on the Community's support. Hanafundme aspires to be one of the preferred women crowdfunding platform for enterprising and inspiring Women in Malaysia/ASEAN. The platform also supports the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to transform communities and the world, in particular the SDG pillars 5, 8, 9 and 10. To keep up with the latest from Hanafundme, visit www.hanafundme.com or contact the hub at +603 2789 2470. Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200601/2818302-1 SOURCE Hanafundme.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] EDWARDSVILLE Saturday marks the first day of in-person shopping for the Land of Goshen Community Market. But the community market will look more different than normal. After getting approval from the city of Edwardsville last month, the market will open Saturday at 8 a.m. and run until noon. The market will open on St. Louis Street adjacent to the Madison County Courthouse. In an effort to maintain social distance, Goshen Market Board Treasurer Jessica DeSpain said a limited number of vendors will be present. Only those vendors that the Land of Goshen considers to be essential will be included. Typically, there are about 65 vendors but on Saturday, about 40 vendors are expected. While the number is lower than usual, it is large enough to not be able to support a drive-thru market. Because we are a large market and have a smaller space, we couldnt do it (drive-thru), she explained. The market will only include sales of food and hygiene items to limit the number of vendors and allow for at least ten feet of space between all stalls. Artisans, musicians, demonstrations and the childrens program will not be included this season. Both cash and cards will be accepted. Due to the temporary changes in light of COVID-19, the Land of Goshen expects a small dip in attendance. We normally see about 2,000 shoppers each weekend, Goshen Market Board Treasurer Jessica DeSpain said. Without the artists and live music, it will be less of a festival than it usually is. I dont think we will have those who like to come and meet and talk with vendors and friends for hours. I do believe those who come just for the vendors and their produce will still come. Goshen has also issued some guidelines for shoppers attending the market: Only one shopper per family, when possible Only touch products if you are buying them Wear face masks or some sort of face shield Maintain social distancing Capacity of 50 shoppers will be maintained For those who are either immune-compromised or do not want to risk their own health, the online market will remain live and up-to-date. The option of pre-ordering will also be available on Wednesday. Goshen will publish a list of vendors shoppers can pre-order from Wednesday to make their experience on Saturday as fast and contactless as possible. To shop online, go to: www.goshenmarket.org/shop/. To stay up to date on any announcements, follow their Facebook page: @goshenmarket. DeSpain explained that the measures were made with the help of the Illinois Farmers Market Association, state guidelines and input from board members. Overall, she said their main goal is to help local farmers. We do see the market as an essential business just like a grocery store is, DeSpain said. We just want to have our community support local farmers and businesses. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has warned of looming job losses if the wage freeze for frontline workers is blocked by Labor. The proposed 12-month wage freeze for NSW police, teachers and nurses is aimed at saving about $3billion, which would be reinvested in public projects - creating up to 20,000 jobs. Frontline workers have been offered a $1,000 bonus to help sweeten the deal which would block their 2.5 per cent pay rise. However, the proposal is facing a tough battle to get through the upper house with Labor and the crossbench looking to sink it. Ms Berejiklian stood firm on the plan, saying it was the only way the government can guarantee jobs for all public servant. She said without it, not all jobs would be safe. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has warned the pay freeze would allow the government to guarantee jobs for all public servants, without it not all jobs would be safe The proposed 12-month wage freeze for NSW police, teachers and nurses is aimed at saving about $3billion 'If the New South Wales parliament disallows the regulation we've put forward, we won't be in a position to be able to guarantee the jobs,' she told the Daily Telegraph. 'We can go to the Industrial Relations Commission and get the wage freeze, but we can't get the jobs guarantee or the $1000 (bonus).' The peace offering would be available for non-executive frontline workers. Part-time public servants would receive a pro-rata payment. More than 330,000 public servants would be eligible for the $1,000 but they would forego an expected 2.5 per cent pay rise. The NSW Opposition is opposed to the pay freeze, with Labor's upper house leader Adam Searle saying last night he was 'appalled' by the proposal. 'Labor is appalled the Berejiklian government is now making threats about sacking workers if they do not get their way.' Cross benchers were also against the proposed pay freeze. One Nation and the Animal Justice Party said they would block the proposal. More than 330,000 public servants would be eligible for the $1,000 but they would forego an expected 2.5 per cent pay rise (pictured: a nurse testing a patient for coronavirus A promise of no forced redundancies is also part of the offer from NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, who approached union leaders on the weekend in the hope of striking a deal before parliament resumes this week, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. 'I want to work with the unions to get a good outcome,' Mr Perrottet said in a statement. 'Given the economic downturn, we want to ensure every dollar counts towards creating jobs and keeping people in work.' The NSW public sector makes up 10 per cent of the state's workforce. The wage freeze will give the NSW government an additional $3billion to pay for projects to create jobs and stimulate the economy which has been crippled by recent lockdown restrictions. This would be the first package of penalties within the cyber sanctions regime of the European Union Open source The diplomats of the European Union would start work on imposing sanctions against persons responsible for cyberattack on German Bundestag in 2015, as Radio Liberty correspondent in Brussels Rikard Jozwiak reported on Twitter. EU diplomats will this week start to work on sanctions against the people responsible for the cyber attack on the German Bundestag in 2015, he wrote. It is noted that if the sanctions are imposed it will be the first punitive measures within the cyber sanctions regime of the European Union. In 2019, the EU states agreed to launch the regime, which allows imposing sanctions due to the cyberattacks, including the ban for travel and freezing the assets. It was agreed to prevent cyber attacks on the EU countries. Earlier, hundreds of politicians in Germany suffered from cyber attack. Their personal data appeared in the public domain on the internet Members of almost all political forces of Germany such as Christian Democratic Union of Germany, Christian Social Union, Social Democratic Party, Alliance 90/The Greens, The Left and Free Democratic Party are among the victims whose personal data was published. Only politicians of Alternative for Germany party were not affected. It is unknown who got access to the personal data of the politicians and what was the purpose to spread it. Bundestag politicians count the inflicted harm. The 2020 spring semester at the University of New Mexico has looked a little different for my fellow undergraduate students than semesters past. Instead of walking around our beautiful green campus in between classes, we are walking into our living rooms with our laptops and chargers. Instead of opening the classroom door at 9 a.m. on a Monday morning, we are opening Zoom meetings and Lobomail with our pajamas on. I am the undergraduate student body president, a graduating senior studying business administration, and a member of the Class of COVID-19. For the past several weeks, my fellow undergraduate students and I have faced some of the toughest hardships of our lives due to the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. To name a few, some students have lost jobs, some have fallen behind (in their) finances and some have had difficulties accessing online learning to complete their coursework. For my fellow seniors, we have struggled to squeeze the last drops of our Lobo experience and accept a virtual graduation. Most importantly, we are now struggling to navigate through the pressures of finding a job in this current market. A couple of months ago, I imagined what it would feel like to graduate in May. I imagined the feeling of flipping my tassel, receiving my cherry diploma cover and celebrating the moment of accomplishment with my closest friends and family. For so many of us seniors, this moment has been a long-awaited dream. As the student body president, I can easily say this experience has served as a lesson for all of our students on adjusting to the nasty curveballs life throws. However, when those curveballs have had us off-balance, my fellow students have found ways to seek the silver linings through these trying times. For the past month, UNM students have practiced social distancing by creating memories and friendships on Zoom. They have participated in virtual community service projects to help give back to the Albuquerque community, volunteered with different organizations and initiatives to help collect and distribute PPE to those in need, and most importantly, the students at UNM have been part of the heroic efforts to provide solutions and care for our most vulnerable. The UNM community remains strong and is pushing on. I was excited to open Instagram and see UNM students and staff join President Garnett Stokes singing the university fight song with big, bright smiles. Even though we are far away from each other, the University of New Mexico has continued to remind me we are in this battle together, always as one family and one pack. Although my constituents are criticized for being the lazy generation of the social media era, my generation is currently learning some of the most essential elements to life, perseverance and adaptation. I recently heard UNM Regent Kim Sanchez Rael say that if you squeeze an orange hard enough, you eventually get orange juice. If you squeeze or press anything hard enough, you eventually see what is inside. The same applies to us, the future leaders of our city and our country. As COVID-19 continues to squeeze us, continues to put pressure on our lives with little indication of when or how normal may resume, I can promise inside we will witness young leaders embracing the challenges who will face adversity rather than running away from it. Inside will be each of our young leaders illustrating the true definition of what it means to be a Lobo. Six Atlanta police officers have been charged after forcefully pulling two college students out of a car, smashing its windows and using a stun gun in the course of an arrest as protests continued nearby, a prosecutor announced Tuesday. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said that arrest warrants were issued for Lonnie Hood, Roland Claud, Mark Gardner, Armond Jones, Willie Sauls and Ivory Streeter for the caught-on-camera incident. Howard said Hood, Sauls, Streeter and Jones repeatedly used stun guns on Messiah Young and Taniyah Pilgram and forcibly pulled them from the vehicle. They were variously charged with aggravated assault, pointing or aiming a gun, simple battery and criminal damage to property. PHOTO: This undated photo shows police Investigator Mark Gardner, who was fired June 1, 2020, over accusations he used excessive force during the arrest of two college students during protests in Atlanta. (Atlanta Police Dept/AP) Howard said there was no reason to wait for an indictment to charge these officers because the "information is available" and they "usually don't have witnesses because the witnesses are usually deceased and are police officers who refuse to interview with the district attorney's office." "I'm so happy that they're being held accountable for their actions, there was not one justifiable thing that they did," said Pilgram at the prosecutor's press conference on Tuesday afternoon. "I hope they are all held accountable because it's not OK." MORE: Photos: How protests erupted across the country after the death of George Floyd Prior to the incident, Young, who was driving Pilgram's car, stopped in traffic and appeared to shoot video as an officer was having an encounter with another man, Young told GMA on Tuesday morning. "I thought both Messiah and I were going to die," Pilgram, a student at Spelman College, told GMA. PHOTO: A still frame from Atlanta Police Department bodycam video footage of police officer Ivory Streeter, shows car driver Messiah Young being shot by a taser. (Atlanta Police Department via Reuters) Howard said Young asked the officer to allow the other young man, who was thrown on the ground and was crying, to get into his car. "You can hear the officer say, 'Go or go to jail,' so Mr. Young left," said Howard. Story continues PHOTO: Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard speaks during a press conference by the Fulton County District Attorney's Office in Atlanta, June 2, 2020. (Alyssa Pointer/AP) The car got stuck in traffic as police caught up to the car and attempted to force the door open, prosecutors said. Claud allegedly used a baton to strike the window several times, causing it to break. Gardner and Streeter allegedly used stun guns on Pilgram and Young while pulling them out of the car. MORE: 2 college students speak out on being struck with taser by police at protest PHOTO: Attorney Mawuli Davis, left, speaks on behalf of Taniyah Pilgrim, center, and Messiah Young, right, during a press conference by the Fulton County District Attorney's Office in Atlanta, June 2, 2020. (Alyssa Pointer/AP) Howard said before Young was taken to the hospital, one of the officers punched him at least 10 times in his back Young suffered a fracture of his wrist and received 24 stitches for a large gash. Howard said Young was charged with eluding the police and released on a signature bond. Pilgram was not charged. PHOTO: Taniyah Pilgrim holds Messiah Young's bandaged hand as he speaks during a news conference on the campus of Morehouse College, June 1, 2020, in Atlanta. (John Bazemore/AP) "I feel a little safer that these monsters are off the street and no longer able to terrorize anyone else from this point on," said Young, a student at Morehouse College, at the press conference on Tuesday. "We just hope there is a change in the police culture." MORE: Timeline: The impact of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis and beyond After the video went viral on social media, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms called for Young's charges to get dismissed and fired officers Gardner and Streeter. The rest of the officers are on desk duty. PHOTO: Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms at a press conference with Police Chief Erica Sheilds, May 30, 2020, in Atlanta. (Ben Gray/AP) Howard praised the mayor's swift actions as "the conduct of these officers is not indicative of the way we treat people in the city of Atlanta and certainly not our children." Howard is giving the officers until June 5 to turn themselves in. "We will ask for a $10,000 signature bond as they are trying to limit the amount of people in jail as the coronavirus pandemic is still an issue in Georgia," said Howard. 6 Atlanta police officers charged in forceful arrests of college students in car originally appeared on abcnews.go.com A New Orleans man has pleaded guilty in a case involving staged accidents between automobiles and tractor-trailers in that city, the U.S. Attorneys office announced. Mario Solomon, 48, a entered a guilty plea on May 28 to a charge of Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud. The U.S. Attorneys office said Solomon, his co-conspirators and others, beginning in approximately June 2017 and continuing through the present, conspired to commit wire fraud in connection with staged accidents, including two that occurred on June 6, 2017, and June 12, 2017. Solomons co-defendants Larry Williams, Lucinda Thomas, Mary Wade, Judy Williams, and Dashontae Young on Jan. 30 admitted their participation in a scheme to stage automobile accidents in the New Orleans area in order to defraud insurance and trucking companies. Solomon acted as a spotter for a codefendant in both the June 6 and the June 12 staged automobile accidents, according to his guilty plea. As a spotter,Solomon would follow his codefendant in a separate vehicle as his codefendant prepared to stage accidents with 18-wheeler tractor-trailers. After the accidents, Solomon would pick up the codefendant after he exited the vehicle in which he had staged an accident. Solomon was paid in exchange for serving as a spotter. According to his guilty plea, Solomon served as a spotter in at least two car accidents that his codefendant staged with 18-wheeler tractor-trailers. Solomons codefendants received a total of $43,000 as a result of the fraudulent lawsuits that were filed on their behalf. Solomon faces a maximum sentence of five (5) years. Upon release from prison, Solomon also faces a term of supervised release up to (3) three years, and/or a fine of $250,000 or the greater of twice the gross gain to each defendant or twice the gross loss to any person. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 17, 2020 before U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon. The U.S. Attorneys Office was assisted in the investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Louisiana State Police, and the Metropolitan Crime. The prosecution of this case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian M. Klebba, Supervisor of the Financial Crimes Unit; Assistant U.S. Attorney Shirin Hakimzadeh; Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward Rivera; and Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Carboni. Source: U.S. Attorneys Office Related: Topics USA The protests in the US following the murder in police custody of African-American George Floyd have shocked many Australians but they have also started a discussion about parallels between the problems in the US and the plight of Indigenous Australians. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has deplored the violence in the US but expressed relief that Australia was different. We have our problems. We have our faults. We have our issues. There's no doubt about that. But when I see things like that, I'm just very thankful for the wonderful country we live in, he said. The Prime Minister is right to highlight differences of history, ethnic composition and institutions which mean that the situation facing African-Americans and that of Indigenous people here are not directly comparable. We do not have Donald Trump as our national leader. Yet there should be no illusions that Australia is immune to the tensions that have fuelled the riots in the US. The divide between black and white in Australia is, in some ways, just as shocking as in the US but it is less visible because Indigenous people make up a smaller share of our population and many of the worst problems occur in remote and regional areas, far from media scrutiny. In the middle of Australia's national Reconciliation Week, it emerged that iron ore mining company Rio Tinto dynamited a rock shelter of high cultural significance in the Juukan Gorge in WA, which showed evidence of occupation dating back 46,000 years. Rio Tinto has apologised but failed to provide a clear explanation of why it ignored the concerns expressed by the local Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation. Green groups are expressing full-throated support for demonstrators protesting the killing of George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis police custody - even as they struggle with their own long-standing issues with addressing racial inequality and a lack of diversity in their ranks. The Sierra Club, one of the nation's oldest green groups, sent an email to its 3.8 million supporters amplifying calls by black activists to cut funding for the Minneapolis Police Department. Yet another group, 350.org, asked about half a million people in an email blast to donate funds to bail out activists arrested during demonstrations. The Sunrise Movement, a youth-led climate group, is training protesters to wear masks and carry hand sanitizer to avoid spreading the novel coronavirus. The League of Conservation Voters, along with a number of other green groups, co-signed a letter calling on Congress to ban police from using moves that restrict the flow of oxygen or blood to the brain. The group also said one of its organizers in Arizona, Jess Bristow, was arrested during a demonstration over the weekend. Floyd died after a police officer pinned his neck under a knee for nearly nine minutes. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with murder and manslaughter. The Natural Resources Defense Council, a major green group in Washington, is planning to ask its supporters to donate money to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and organizations providing legal and financial aid to protesters. "We recognize that as a predominantly white organization, we have an obligation to be fully and visibly committed to the fight against systemic racism," said Jenny Powers, an NRDC spokeswoman. Study after study shows that smoggy air, polluted drinking water and rising temperatures disproportionately affect poor and minority neighborhoods. Those communities often have fewer resources to build water-treatment infrastructure and stop polluting industries from setting up shop near their homes. "We are not an organization that works primarily on the issue of anti-black police violence," said Hop Hopkins, the Sierra Club's director of strategic partnerships, "but we recognize that our work to end the violence of polluters who target black communities is deeply connected to the demand for justice for George Floyd." Another recent viral video highlighted the history of racism black people face in parks. Last month, a white woman in New York's Central Park threatened a black birdwatcher, Christian Cooper, with calling the police. Many parks, like water fountains and bathrooms, were once segregated. "We recognize that the outdoors won't be a welcoming place for everyone until people can safely go for a run, or watch birds, without facing racialized violence," Hopkins said. White people constitute more than four-fifths of the board members and more than 85 percent of the staff of more than 2,000 environmental nonprofit organizations, according to a 2018 analysis from the University of Michigan. For many major green groups, combating pollution in urban areas often took aback seatto protecting remote wilderness popular with well-to-do campers. "The watershed moment" for changing that attitude, said Tamara Toles O'Laughlin of 350.org, "was Flint," where lead leached from aging pipes poisoned the Michigan city's drinking water starting in 2014. More recently, environmentalists have made efforts to bridge the gap between the well-funded "big greens" and smaller environmental justice groups focused on fighting pollution that hits communities of color the hardest. Last year, more than six dozen green groups endorsed a platform that acknowledged the shortcomings of past Democratic policies that aimed to reduce nationwide emissions, but that may have inadvertently pushed pollution into nonwhite areas. "Some of what's happening has been in the works for a long time," O'Laughlin said. Concentrating smokestacks and other sources of pollution in poor neighborhoods was a concern among environmental justice advocates when House Democrats tried but failed to pass a cap-and-trade bill during Barack Obama's first term. Some groups have made strides in diversifying their own ranks. Around 40 percent of the staffers at Earthjustice, a nonprofit that litigates environmental issues, are people of color after the organization bought on a vice president of diversity and reformed its hiring process. "We have made this a priority for our organization," Earthjustice president Abigail Dillen said. Green groups already had to nix most of their in-person activism scheduled for the spring - including door-to-door voter registration drives during the Democratic presidential primary and massive marches on Earth Day - due to the pandemic. Instead the climate movement largely moved online during the viral outbreak, holding protests on Zoom and using peer-to-peer texting to register voters. South Africa: Competition Tribunal penalises facemask producer A Pretoria company is in hot water after implementing excessive price hikes during the COVID-19 pandemic. In South Africas first contested excessive pricing case in the context of COVID-19, the Competition Tribunal has found Babelegi Workwear and Industrial Supplies CC (Babelegi) guilty of excessive pricing. In its order and reasons issued today, the Tribunal has found that Babelegi contravened section 8(1)(a) of the Competition Act by charging excessive prices for face masks that it sold to customers between 31 January 2020 and 5 March 2020 (the complaint period). The contravention relates to the sale of face Dust Mask FFP1 Pioneer (FFP1 masks), said the Tribunal on Monday. The Tribunal alleges that a local manufacturer of medical facemasks earned a mark-up in excess of 500% between 31 January 2020 and 5 March 2020, by increasing the price of a box of facemasks from R41 to R500. It is also alleged that the manufacturer had increased its price by at least 888% during the period 9 December 2019 to 5 March 2020. In considering the matter, the Tribunal noted the Pretoria based companys successive and significant price increases for facemasks during the complaint period. Babelegi effected several price increases before the actual increase in its supplier costs on 18 March 2020. The Comission noted that the first significant price increase occurred on 31 January 2020, a day after the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a public health emergency of international concern. Babelegis price increases became progressively bolder in February 2020 and the companys mark-ups on the masks sold increased significantly with each successive price increase during this period. On 10 February 2020, Babelegi again significantly increased its price; and on 5 March 2020 when South Africa announced its first Covid-19 case, then again significantly raised its price; and the companys mark-ups on the masks sold increased significantly with each successive price increase during this period. The Tribunal has since ordered the company to pay a fine of R76 040 for charging excessive prices for facemasks that it sold to customers between 31 January 2020 and 5 March 2020, the complaint period. The Tribunal said the company has not put up a rational and valid explanation for its successive and massive price increases. Further, the Tribunal concluded that the Competition Commission established a prima facie case of an abuse of dominance because the Pretoria-based company charged excessive prices for FFP1 masks during the complaint period in breach of section 8(1)(a) of the Act. The Tribunal also found that the company prices were of an exploitative nature. Babelegi knew full well that there was a significant increase in demand for masks and took advantage of customers and consumers amid the international COVID-19 health crisis. This leads us to conclude that prices charged during the complaint period were to the detriment of consumers and customers. It would be wholly against the public interest if Babelegi were to financially benefit from its excessive pricing conduct. This means that the administrative penalty should exceed the excess profit made by Babelegi, said the Tribunal. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2020-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 2) Manila City Mayor Francisco "Isko Moreno" Domagoso is keen in keeping the liquor ban in his city despite Metro Manilas transition to general community quarantine. Domagoso threatened to shut down stores who will sell alcoholic beverages while the liquor ban is still in place in the nations capital. "Sa mga convenience store na nagtitinda ng alak, kapag nagtinda kayo ng alak na pansamantala naming pinagbabawal dahil yan ay pribilehiyo lang na ibinigay sa inyo at vinaviolate ninyo ito, isasara po namin kayo," he said on Tuesday. [Translation: We will close down convenience stores who sell alcoholic beverages, whose sale we are temporarily banning. This is a privilege that you are violating.] Domagoso earlier issued an executive order, prohibiting the distribution and sale of alcoholic beverages in Manila amid the COVID-19 pandemic. He reiterated that the Manila government will continue to strictly implement this. "Hindi natin kailangan ngayon yan. Ang kailangan natin pagkakaisa, payapa't panatag na komunidad. [Translation: We do not need that now. What we need is unity, peace, and a safe community.] The mayor also urged the residents in his city to spend their money from the local governments financial aid program to buy essential needs rather than liquor. "Itong mga salapi na ito na binibigay na ayuda eh yan po ay para meron kayong pambili ng pagkain," Domagoso added. [Translation: The money from the financial aid program is for you to buy food.] Metro Manila eased into a general community quarantine on Monday after President Rodrigo Duterte approved the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task force (IATF) to downgrade restrictions in the countrys economic center. By PTI WELLINGTON: "Jojo Rabbit" director Taika Waititi has been made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2020 Queen's Birthday honours list. The writer-filmmaker recently became the first artiste of indigenous heritage to win an Academy Award. Waititi, who is being recognized for his "services to film", is among the 178 New Zealanders to make it to the list, which includes novelist Elizabeth Knox, and Maori linguist Ani Patene Gazala Wainu. The filmmaker told Radio New Zealand that an award from his home country meant more than any other. "Personally I make my stuff for New Zealanders first and foremost. They are my first audience. My peers and colleagues, to be recognized by them, people who are closer to my home, is more significant," he said. Waititi started his journey with films such as "Boy" and "What We Do In The Shadows". His major moment came when he directed "Hunt for the Wilderpeople", which became the highest-grossing film in New Zealand. He broke onto the Hollywood scene with Marvel Studio's "Thor: Ragnarok", starring Chris Hemsworth. The director followed it up with satirical black comedy "Jojo Rabbit", which was nominated for six Academy Awards at 2020 Oscars. He created history with his win for Best Adapted Screenplay. Waititi was most recently announced as the director for new "Star Wars" movie. He is currently working on "Next Goal Wins", starring Michael Fassbender and Elizabeth Moss, as well as "Thor: Love and Thunder". Mumbai, June 2 : As the Cyclone Nisarga whirls towards Maharashtra at a steady pace, concerns have been expressed, here on Tuesday, about the nuclear and chemical plants that would come in its direct path. The cyclone is expected to make landfall late Tuesday night or early Wednesday. "Care is being taken to prevent power outages. Precautions are being taken at chemical units and nuclear power plants in Palghar and Raigad," Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said in an update on the cyclone. While Palghar has the country's oldest Tarapur Atomic Power Plant complex and other power units, Mumbai has the BARC setup and Raigad houses power, petroleum, chemicals and other major industries, besides the Mumbai Port Trust, the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and vital installations of the Navy. As a precautionary measure, people living in non-pucca houses are being shifted to safer locations and slum-dwellers in low-lying areas been asked to evacuate. As many as 50 patients were relocated from the Bandra Kurla Complex Covid-19 hospital to the Goregaon NESCO hospital during the day. Ten National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) units have been deployed for rescue operations and six more kept in reserve. A 24x7 control room has been operationalised and the army, navy and air force and IMD have been instructed to ensure coordination. The Western Naval Command (WNC) said it was geared up for emergency response during heavy rain and flooding due to the cyclone Nisarga, along with five flood rescue and three diving teams that would be in place throughout the monsoon. The state government has implemented stringent measures along the coastal Konkan region along with Mumbai in view of the approaching cyclone. The IMD has issued 'red alert' for June 3 for Mumbai, Thane, Raigad, Palghar, Nashik, Dhule, Nandurbar. It will continue on June 4 for Palghar, Dhule and Nandurbar. Alerts have also been issued for Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts. The IMD Mumbai said the depression over the east-central Arabian Sea moved northwards at 11 kmph speed during early Tuesday and intensified into a deep depression around 5.30 a.m. around 280 km west-southwest of Goa and 490 km south-southwest of Mumbai. "It is likely to intensify into cyclonic storm during the next 12 hours and further into a severe cyclonic storm during the subsequent 12 hours (June 3)," the IMD bulletin said. The storm is expected to move towards north and recurve north-northeast later to cross north Maharashtra and south Gujarat coast between Harihareshwar (Raigad) and Daman by Wednesday afternoon. The IMD has advised DC-I signal at all ports in north Maharashtra and hoist signal No. LC-III at all ports in south Maharashtra and Goa. Apart from Thackeray, other ruling allies -- the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party -- have also urged people to stay indoors during the expected cyclonic storm. The cyclone may strain the security forces already burdened by the Covid-19 pandemic duties in the worst-hit Mumbai Metropolitan Region - most falling in the coronavirus red zone - in nearly three months now. The IMD Mumbai has also forecast "very heavy rainfall and extremely heavy rainfall in isolated places" in Mumbai and districts of north Konkan, even as drizzles or light showers have continued to soak Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, Raigad since Monday. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 03:35:32|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WARSAW, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Polish government and organizations helped the children celebrate the International Children's Day on Monday with various online activities. The Polish authorities organized a number of online readings for children. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also read a Polish children's poem for kids. As no local events were organized and theater shows have to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of theaters made recordings of their productions accessible on their websites and through social media channels. Meanwhile, playgrounds officially reopened on Monday, with restrictions on the number of children playing as well as social distancing. Restaurants are also allowed to open, with restrictions on the number of diners. Enditem Visualizing gene expression dynamics revealed how Mediator directs the delivery of the cellular gene-copying machine (RNA polymerase II) particularly to a subset of cell identity genes. Credit: Martin Jager / CeMM Using targeted protein degradation technology, researchers at CeMM, the Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, set out to understand the primary role of a key regulator of transcription, the human Mediator complex. Mediator, a 30-subunit molecular machine, was believed to be a factor that is generally required for the transcription of all protein-coding genes in human cells. However, the recent study by Georg Winter's group at CeMM discovered that Mediator particularly safeguards the transcription of a small set of cell-type-specifying genes. In collaboration with Patrick Cramer's lab at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Gottingen, the scientists revealed mechanistic details of how Mediator enables cells to robustly exert their dedicated functions. The study, "Selective Mediator dependence of cell-type-specifying transcription," was published in Nature Genetics, on 1 June 2020. Georg Winter's lab at CeMM uses chemical tools to understand the molecular basis of gene control and aberrations thereof in cancer. To do so, the team combines particularly fast-acting protein ablation systems ("degradation Tag"/ "dTAG", co-developed by Georg Winter in Jay Bradner's lab at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, in Boston) with precise and unbiased measurements of gene activity at high kinetic resolution. Together with Patrick Cramer's lab and others, the international team of scientists now unveiled how the Mediator molecular machine mechanistically directs gene activation, which had long remained poorly understood owing to challenges in experimental manipulation. Mediator was identified over 30 years ago as a molecular bridge that allows DNA-binding proteins called transcription factors to communicate with the cellular gene-copying machine RNA polymerase II (Pol II), to activate target genes. Understanding the direct role of Mediator in this process requires technologies that rapidly block Mediator function and measure changes in Pol II activity within the subsequent minutes. Using targeted protein degradation, scientists in the Winter lab now managed to rapidly remove individual parts of the Mediator complex to determine whether the copying of all human genes depends to the same extent on Mediator integrity. In contrast to the existing paradigm, the study first-authored by CeMM Ph.D. student Martin Jaeger suggests that Mediator is not generally required for transcription of all genes. Rather, the data imply that Mediator selectively safeguards the expression of a small set of genes, which form densely connected regulatory circuits to instruct cell-type-specific functions. By visualizing Pol II enzymes in cells, the scientists observed that Mediator nucleates large clusters of transcription machinery components that are thought to form around regulatory DNA regions called super-enhancers. These super-enhancers direct the expression of cell-type-specific genes by physically touching their target genes, which are often millions of DNA bases away. When Mediator was degraded, the large Pol II clusters rapidly disappeared, but super-enhancers still seemed to touch their target genes, indicating that Mediator was not required to maintain these DNA contacts. Together with experts from the Cramer lab in Goettingen, however, the team observed dramatic changes in the dynamics of Pol II turnover at super-enhancer-driven genes after Mediator loss. The data suggested that Mediator clusters drove highly efficient recruitment of Pol II enzymes to these cell-type-specific genes, allowing their copying at remarkable efficiency. At the same time, the majority of other genes seemed to be surprisingly mildly affected by acute Mediator loss, which made the scientists suspect that they undergo some unexpected type of compensatory boost. The team looked for this compensatory mechanism, and found that promoter-proximal pausing of Pol II was globally reduced in response to Mediator loss. Pausing is a phenomenon whereby Pol II enzymes are held back for several minutes right after they start copying a gene. The waiting Pol II constitutes a roadblock that prevents the passing of other Pol II enzymes behind it, thus limiting the number of RNA copies produced in a given timespan. After Mediator degradation, the scientists observed that the main factor responsible for signaling pause release, called cyclin dependent kinase 9 (CDK9), more efficiently bound to DNA in cells and more actively tagged its protein targets with a phosphate group. Chemically blocking CDK9 activity made the transcriptional defects of Mediator ablation less selective for super-enhancer target genes, which highlights that the uncovered CDK9 activation shapes how cells react to acute Mediator loss. This unexpected finding suggested that pausing may have evolved as a buffering capacity to rapidly react to and partially compensate acute defects in Pol II recruitment. The study opens up new avenues to understanding the composition of Mediator-nucleated Pol II clusters and how CDK9 is so efficiently activated in response to transcriptional stresses. Furthermore, Georg Winter imagines future possibilities to perhaps tackle diseases where Mediator function went awry: "Very preliminarily, our work might also have revealed some potential for Mediator as a drug target, and next steps might be to develop direct degrader molecules against this complex." Explore further Study explores role of mediator protein complex in transcription and gene expression More information: Martin G. Jaeger et al, Selective Mediator dependence of cell-type-specifying transcription, Nature Genetics (2020). Journal information: Nature Genetics Martin G. Jaeger et al, Selective Mediator dependence of cell-type-specifying transcription,(2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41588-020-0635-0 Provided by CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences Chezzi Denyer appears to have lost weight while self-isolating at home during the coronavirus pandemic. The wife of television host Grant Denyer showed off her slimmed-down frame in a selfie shared to Instagram last Wednesday. Chezzi, who is hunkering down at her 27-hectare farm in Bathurst, had previously taken a few weeks off social media to clear her head. New look: Chezzi Denyer appears to have lost weight while self-isolating at home during the coronavirus pandemic. The wife of television host Grant Denyer showed off her slimmed-down frame in this photo shared to Instagram last Wednesday 'Missing on social media but present in real life. It's been glorious,' Chezzi captioned a photo of herself basking in the sun in her kitchen. Chezzi displayed her trim figure in a short-sleeved sweater featuring puffed shoulders. Woman's Day suggested she had lost weight by working out at home, but it sadly could also be due to stress. Digital detox: Chezzi, who is hunkering down at her 27-hectare farm in Bathurst, had previously taken a few weeks off social media to clear her head. Pictured with husband Grant in June 2019 She had announced the 'sudden death' of a family member on May 7, which was followed by several weeks of silence on social media. At the time, she told her Instagram followers the grief was 'taking up all of our attention lately'. 'Haven't been on socials much lately... We had an unexpected and sudden death in the family. Very sad,' Chezzi wrote. Grief: Chezzi had announced the 'sudden death' of a family member on May 7, which was followed by several weeks of silence on social media Absent: 'Haven't been on socials much lately... We had an unexpected and sudden death in the family. Very sad,' she wrote 'And there's been a few other things taking up all of our attention lately, so I apologise for being quiet.' In late April, Grant had shared a photo of the family at home, and revealed they were in isolation at their Bathurst estate. Last year, Chezzi revealed she preferred to stay active by 'throwing hay' at her farm rather than going to the gym. The National Communication Officer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Sammy Gyamfi has explained the reasoning behind his controversial decision to interpolate the murder of African-American George Floyd in a cartoon criticising the Electoral Commission for compiling a new voters' register. It will be recalled that Floyd, 46, died after being arrested by police outside a shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Footage of the arrest on May 25 shows a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeling on Mr Floyd's neck while he was pinned to the floor. Sammy Gyamfi's post In a Facebook post, two-hours, after he first posted the now-controversial cartoon, Mr Gyamfi stressed that the "cartoon doesnt mock the painful xenophobic murder of George Floyd or seek to exploit same for political capital in any way". According to him, there is "nothing wrong with sharing of a cartoon which draws a parallel between the painful xenophobic murder of George Floyd, and the evil attempt by the GH EC to disenfranchise millions of eligible voters through a xenophobic voter register". This cartoon doesnt mock the painful xenophobic murder of George Floyd or seek to exploit same for political capital in... Posted by Sammy Gyamfi on Tuesday, June 2, 2020 The cartoon has shot Sammy Gyamfi's name to the top of the Twitter trends.While some social media users have branded the cartoon as insensitive, others believe it communicates his point clearly.On Twitter, the post has over 2,000 comments, see some of the reactions below; Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video People looted a watch and jewelry store on Monday in Van Nuys. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Police officers have watched from skirmish lines as protesters and others have stolen from businesses, thrown rocks, ignited fires and bashed in streetlights with skateboards. More than 1,000 people were arrested in Los Angeles alone over the weekend, but officials say they have not given up on tracking down others. The Los Angeles Police Department has been collecting evidence throughout the protests sparked by the death of George Floyd. That evidence is mostly in the form of video footage that could be used to identify individuals and bring charges against them in the future. The FBI on Monday put out a nationwide call for pictures and videos that could help identify people "actively instigating violence" at protests across the country decrying Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police. This strategy has been used in the past, including during melees that followed Lakers victories in downtown Los Angeles, as well as in other cities that have experienced unrest, such as Baltimore. But it is also generating concern. Nikhil Ramnaney, head of the union that represents Los Angeles County public defenders, expressed concern that funneling footage to local law enforcement agencies or the FBI in the hope of catching looters could allow law enforcement to use facial recognition technology to identify peaceful protesters in the area. If government agencies are stockpiling large repositories of film, in light of whats going on with widely available facial recognition technology, I wouldnt be surprised if those technologies were used on those crowd-sourced contributions, he said. If youre sourcing footage from people, you could pull metadata from that footage that could also tell you who was present at that scene. Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst for the Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at the ACLU, said the FBI "should also seek video of wrongdoing by police officers" if it is gathering video from protests. Story continues "There have been plenty of reports and videos of abusive police and National Guard behavior," he said. "They shouldn't retain any video of people exercising their 1st Amendment rights who aren't breaking the law." Police have acknowledged missteps and said they are already investigating at least one incident in which onlookers recorded a police vehicle driving into protesters before speeding away. While not every cop on the street was wearing a body camera in recent days, as specialized units don't have them, thousands of officers in areas with severe looting and vandalism were wearing them and recording hours of footage, said Josh Rubenstein, an LAPD spokesman. Police also have been provided footage from residents and business owners, not to mention the slew of images they can access on social media and in other media. Where its being brought to our attention, or where we are able to capture any evidence of people committing crimes, that is being captured for further investigation," Rubenstein said. Most of the protests over Floyd's death, which occurred after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin held a knee on Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes, have been peaceful. But some have taken a darker turn as looters have used the marches as cover to steal from stores. Arrest records reviewed by The Times show the LAPD booked just 14 people on looting-related offenses on Friday and Saturday, even as dozens of stores downtown and in the Fairfax district were being pillaged both days. On Sunday, more than 120 people were taken into custody for looting, records show. Hundreds of people also were arrested for violating nightly curfews put in place by Mayor Eric Garcetti in an effort to quell the unrest. Officials have said those intent on causing harm or stuffing their pockets and cars with stolen goods took advantage of the legitimate protesters, using them as cover. The more successful those individuals were in stealing, and the more violent they were in their destruction, the more likely it is they will be pursued in coming investigations. Law enforcement officials said they are likely to focus on major crimes that caused extensive damage or injuries, and on individuals who committed multiple crimes or were part of a group committing multiple crimes. But they also could choose to charge and prosecute others whose actions were brazen or cruel. Many people wore masks, but others did not. And even those with a mask on in one video may be identifiable in another, in a moment when they let their mask down. Similar work is likely to be conducted by other agencies beyond Los Angeles. Officials in Long Beach placed the blame for looting that marred an otherwise peaceful protest Sunday in the citys downtown area on organized criminals who had been hitting other cities in the area, according to Mayor Robert Garcia. Long Beach police arrested 75 people on Sunday, many for violations of a citywide 8 p.m. curfew. But both Garcia and city Police Chief Robert Luna promised to work with federal partners to review surveillance footage to track down looting suspects in the future. "There were a whole lot of cameras out there," Luna said Monday. "If you were looting and we have your license-plate number and your face, we're gonna come after you." Some residents and business owners said they welcome such work by police, because outsiders who drove into their neighborhoods and destroyed storefronts should be held accountable and were not over the weekend. Some say police stood by and did nothing as looters destroyed businesses already on the brink of closing for good after being shuttered for weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Steve Soboroff, a member of the civilian Police Commission that oversees the LAPD, said he understands peoples frustrations that there was a lack of police presence as some crimes were occurring over the weekend. But, he said, police were in a difficult position and had to pick their priorities, and LAPD Chief Michel Moore rightly prioritized lives and keeping people safe over confronting every looter. The job of the department, of the chief, is a high-wire act right now. Theres not a lot of space in there to do it right, Soboroff said. Whats wrong is over-policing, and whats wrong is under-policing. But people in Los Angeles should know that in terms of holding accountable those who abused legitimate protests for their own criminal means, the battle is not over, Soboroff said. Arrests arent over just because a person isnt out there anymore, he said. I dont think the department is going to make a decision to say, OK, lets just forget about all that and start over, because you saw some really dangerous stuff. Returning to investigate and prosecute crimes at a later date, when the department isnt stretched thin and officers arent in dangerous situations, makes sense, Soboroff said. Are we going to get into a shootout in a shoe store, or are we going to take video and figure all of this out later? he said. In an era of smartphones and pervasive government and business surveillance systems, using footage to retroactively target criminals who escaped immediate arrest in moments of widespread unrest is not without precedent. In 2015, after looting and arson broke out in Baltimore following the death of another black man, Freddie Gray, from injuries suffered in police custody, the Baltimore Police Department formed a task force to identify suspects. Multiple federal agencies lent a hand, including the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In the following weeks and months, officials brought charges against people for burning down a CVS, burning down a liquor store, slashing a fire hose and looting pharmacies. Some were sentenced to years in federal prison. "When the evidence proves that criminals destroyed property and jeopardized lives, they must be held accountable," said Rod Rosenstein, at the time the Maryland U.S. Atty., after the man who burned down a liquor store was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay $380,000 in restitution. Multiple federal agencies said they stand ready to assist local law enforcement in Los Angeles and other localities as well. U.S. Atty. Nicola Hanna said federal prosecutors in Los Angeles are "confronting this outlaw behavior" by working with the FBI and local police "to identify cases in which federal charges could be appropriately filed. Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report. Drake showed solidarity with protestors across the nation when he donated to the National Bail Out on Monday. The 33-year-old rap superstar shared a receipt for his $100,000 donation to the charity in his Instagram Stories after the songwriter Mustafa the Poet urged him to exceed his own contribution. The donation came as major cities across the United States have experienced massive protests inspired by the death of George Floyd. Freeing them: Drake, 33, shared his $100,000 donation to the National Bail Out in his Instagram Stories on Monday after protests errupted over the death of George Floyd over the weekend; shown in 2019 Drake initially re-posted a receipt for Mustafa's $400 donation to the National Bail Out fund. 'My Toronto Kings,' he wrote, while tagging Drake and his fellow Canadian The Weeknd. 'Swipe up and match my donation but add 3 zeros! Let's help reunite black families,' Mustafa wrote. Drake seemed to be on the same page and wrote, 'Say less brother,' meaning 'say no more.' Setting the stage: Drake initially re-posted a receipt from Toronto-based songwriter Mustafa the Poet's $400 donation to Act Blue's National Bail Out fund Sharing his wealth: Mustafa urged Drake and fellow Canadian The Weeknd to 'add 3 zeros' to his donation, so Drake donated $100,000 to the National Bail Out He followed the post with his own donation receipt for $100,000, though he didn't do the $400,000 as Mustafa had initially suggested. The In My Feelings rapper also included a check mark and a red rose emoji, which is a common symbol for the Democratic Socialists of America, though Drake hasn't previously mentioned being a supporter of the group. The donation was so large it triggered Drake's fraud alert to pop up. 'They just called fraud on my card lol,' Drake said in a text message to Mustafa, who posted the exchange onto Twitter. 'Trying to call them right now.' 'I donated 100k,' he added. 'They were like nah.' 'They just called fraud on my card': The donation was so large it triggered Drake's fraud alert to pop up Speaking out: Drake (real name: Aubrey Graham) previously weighed in on the death of George Floyd on Friday, when he posted a poem written by Assata Shakur titled Affirmation; pictured in 2017 Bailout funds have cropped up across the country to help arrested protestors get out of jail, where their risk of contracting the coronavirus is significantly increased. The organization Drake donated to 'is a Black-led and Black-centered collective of abolitionist organizers, lawyers and activists building a community-based movement to support our folks and end systems of pretrial detention and ultimately mass incarceration,' according to it's website. Drake (real name: Aubrey Graham) previously weighed in on the death of George Floyd on Friday, when he posted a poem written by Assata Shakur titled Affirmation. 'I believe in living. I believe in the spectrum of Beta days and Gamma people. I believe in sunshine. In windmills and waterfalls, tricycles and rocking chairs,'the poem began. Inspired: Drake's donation came after 46-year-old George Floyd was killed when a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee down on his neck for nearly nine minutes; shown in September The rapper also captioned the post: 'Rest in heaven George Floyd.' Drake's donation comes days after 46-year-old George Floyd died on May 25. He was killed when a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee into his neck for nearly nine minutes, including two minutes beyond when he stopped breathing and became unresponsive. So far, the four officers involved in the arrest have all been fired from the Minneapolis Police Department, and Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. An independent autopsy which was commissioned by George Floyd's family found that Floyd died with mechanical asphyxia due to sustained pressure on his neck and back. According to international media reports, Floyd sustained pressure on the right side of his carotid artery which impeded blood flow to the brain, and weight on his back impeded his ability to breathe. However, the independent autopsy reports contradict the Hennepin County autopsy report which stated that heart disease, hypertension, and potential intoxicants contributed to Floyd's death. Meanwhile, a preliminary report had found that "no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation." Read: Singer Halsey claims cops fired rubber bullets during George Floyd protests in Los Angeles George Floyd's death Police officer Derek Chauvin had handcuffed George Floyd and made him beg for breath after arresting him in Minnesota. In a video of the incident that went viral all over the social media, Chauvin was kneeling on Floyd's neck which resulted in his death. According to Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (MDPS) John Harrington, the police officer has been fired from his job and has been taken into custody by the criminal bureau. He added that a trial for the case will begin soon, with the officer facing third-degree murder and manslaughter charges. Read: George Floyd's death: Microsoft CEO says 'have empathy for what others are feeling' Protests against George Floyd's death George Floyd's tragic death has not only angered millions across the world but it has also fueled a fresh wave of protests in various US states. Several protestors also converged outside the White House shouting "Black Lives Matter" and "I can't breathe". The focus of the protests is the alleged institutional bigotry and consequent brutality in American police forces. Meanwhile, several police squads have also joined the protestors in order to express their stand against police brutality and racism. On Sunday, as many as 40 cities and Washington DC across the United States imposed curfews in response to the continuing protests. According to international media reports, around 5,000 National Guard members have been activated in 15 states, as well as in Washington DC, along with 2,000 other members who are prepared to activate if needed. Meanwhile, around 4,000 people across the US States have been arrested during the protests. Read: George Floyd Death: Police-citizen gulf widens as shocking videos of quelling protests out Read: Obama condemns violence at protests over Floyd's death; says protesters 'deserve support' (With ANI inputs) You can listen to the latest episode of Today in Pa at this link, or on your favorite app including Alexa, Apple, Google, Spotify and Stitcher. Episodes are available every weekday on PennLive. Subscribe/follow and rate the podcast via your favorite app. Today in Pa. Daily Podcast | June 2, 2020 Protests sparked by the death of George Floyd continue for a third day across Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, the deadline for mail-in ballots has been extended in six counties and the Lancaster DAs office reports $150,000 seized from drug investigations has gone missing. The coronavirus pandemic is still ongoing, but on the decline, with the state reporting the lowest amount of new cases in the past two months. Those are the stories we cover in the latest episode of Today in Pa, a daily weekday podcast from PennLive.com and hosted by Julia Hatmaker. Today in Pa is dedicated to sharing the most important and interesting stories in the state. Todays episode refers to the following articles: If you enjoy Today in Pa, consider leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts or on Amazon. Reviews help others find the show and, besides, we like to know what you think of the program. Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has appointed Water Resources Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi as the minister in charge of Belagavi whereas Food & Civil Supplies Minister K Gopalaiah has been tasked with Hassan. Mahesh Kumathalli, who was earlier made Mysore Sales International Limited chairperson, will now head the Karnataka Slum Development Board (KSDB). In an order issued Tuesday, Jarkiholi replaced Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar as Belagavi district in-charge minister. Shetter was earlier tasked with Belagavi and Dharwad districts. Gopalaiah replaced Law and Parliamentary Affairs minister JC Madhuswamy - who was handling Hassan apart from his native Tumakuru district. Kumathalli was given a Cabinet rank in the appointment order for KSDB. He was the only one among the 11 defectors from Congress and JD(S) who won bypolls in December last, not made a minister. He had earlier expressed his reservations over being appointed MSIL and sought to take charge of Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Limited. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson called on fellow chief executives on Tuesday to speak up for racial justice following the police killing of George Floyd. "All of us CEOs have large African American employee bodies. We owe it to them to make sure that we're speaking to this, that we're asking our policymakers to step up, that we're asking our political leaders to step up and recognize and just say it: 'We've got a problem,'" Stephenson said in a CNBC interview. "We have a big problem and it needs to be dealt with." Floyd died last week while being restrained by a white Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on the unarmed black man's neck. His death ignited widespread protests across the nation, and several companies have since released statements and made donations in support of the black community. But large companies need to be actively advocating for policy changes, Stephenson said on "Squawk Box." "We have an imperative to begin to use our muscle and our influence to begin to effect policy change to address this," he said. "I think we as business leaders are going to need to put our shoulder into this and begin to try to move the ball." "This is about justice. And when you're dealing with issues of just basic core justice that every CEO, every leader in America needs to step up and ask, 'What is the right thing to do?'" he added. For example, Stephenson said that business leaders, who have widespread influence, should be pushing for law enforcement to stop policies that allow racial profiling. "If I were to use those kinds of policies within AT&T, I would rightly be terminated, fired and probably sued," he said. "But we allow, we actually have systems, we have procedures that allow for racial profiling. Those kinds of policies need to be challenged." Stephenson brought up a time when a fellow executive, who is black, discussed how he instructed his children how to act around the police. If stopped by the police when driving home at night, the kids were to get out of their car immediately and put their hands on the roof, Stephenson said. "I'm thinking to myself when he told me that, I never gave that instruction to my kids," he said of the unnamed executive. "In fact, I always took great comfort in law enforcement's being around if my children were out at night. The only point being, the African American community is viewing this consistently, and it's a pervasive view." The 60-year-old Stephenson will retire from his position on July 1. He will be succeeded as chief executive by President and COO John Stankey and will serve as executive chairman of the board until January. Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube Bay of Plenty We are on the hunt for a Welder to join a heavy and light engineering company on a temp/casual basis.. so if you are in between... View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nz Mi Soon successfully took the ledger from director Myeong's office. She handed it to the team while Myeong is furious as he found out the ledger was lost. Ye-eun gets blackmailed by one of their enemies, using her daughter So Hui as a bribe. She needs to get the ledger and deliver it to the mystery caller. The ledger uses an invisible ink, Ye-eun thought of it and as they use a light, the letters appear. Team leader Dong carefully transfers all the notes on the ledger to another notebook. Meanwhile, assistant Byun Woo is suspicious of Chan Mi. He thinks of her as the person he fought with at Myeong's office the other night. Byun Woo also gets scratch on his face while Chan Mi receives a wound on her hand. CEO Seok Ho is worried looking at his assistant and Chan Mi getting all wounds on their body. Byun Woo admitted to Seok Ho that he failed to get the ledger since another person is working up to get hold of it. Byun Woo checks Chan Mi's file in the company. Dong and Ye-eun collaborated to capture the mystery caller who blackmailed her. They put a hidden camera and a tracker on the ledger. As Ye-eun gave to the person inside the car, it led them to Cheif Seo's office. They are all shocked as their NIS chief officer is the traitor. Dong arrested Chief Seo while they gathered more evidence to put him in jail. Meanwhile, Ye-eun was able to access the NIS records and found out the cause of the death of her husband, former NIS agent Kwo Min Seok. CEO Seok Ho found out the true identity of Chan Mi. He confronted her and asked a lot of questions about why she chose to lie for a long time. Chan Mi, on a mission, cannot tell Seok Ho the truth why she made the undercover. She walks away without any answer. The next day Chan Mi is relieved from work at Il Kwang Hitech. Ye-eun looked for Chan Mi and found her outside Hitech. Chan Mi took all her things as she ended her job for good. She confronted Chan Mi about her husband's death. Chan Mi took out the ring she got from Min Seok at the hospital and gave it to Ye-eun. She admitted her carelessness that caused Min Seok's death during their operation. Ye-eun cried after knowing the truth after a long time and as they worked together in Good Casting. Chan Mi asked forgiveness from Ye-eun for losing a husband and a father to So Hui. She promised to catch Michael and make him pay for what happened to Min Seok. It was a long day for Chan Mi as she lost her job and admitted to Ye-eun about her husband's death. She went out to play at the shooting range to lessen her stress. On her way home, she bought a bag of beer at the convenience store. Team leader Dong was there eating his hot ramyeon. They talked about Ye-eun's situation and how Chan Mi become impulsive in handling missions. Dong advises her to control her feelings and focus on what is important. He left Chan Mi while immersed in her thoughts about Ye-eun. Chan Mi received a call from Taek, and they are ready to make a deal. She needs to get the video from Taek, exposing who Michael is. By PTI NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Tuesday sought response from civil rights activist Gautam Navlakha on NIA's plea challenging the Delhi High Court order seeking records of judicial proceedings before special courts in the national capital and Mumbai in the Bhima Koregaon case. A bench of Justices Arun Mishra, S A Nazeer and Indira Banerjee, conducting the hearing through video conferencing, issued notice to Navlakha who has been recently taken to Mumbai from Delhi's Tihar Jail. The top court posted the matter for hearing after two weeks. The bench took note of the submission of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the high court order of May 27, seeking production of the records of trial court was patently without jurisdiction. The high court had pulled up the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for acting in "unseemly haste" in taking away Navlakha from the national capital to Mumbai while his interim bail plea was pending here. It said there was an evident haste shown by the NIA in moving pleas across Mumbai and Delhi over weekends and Gazetted holidays (Eid) and obtaining orders by e-mail, and "whisking away" Navlakha to Mumbai, which has rendered these proceedings infructuous. Navlakha, who had surrendered before the NIA on April 14 in pursuance to the Supreme Court's direction and was lodged in Tihar jail, was taken to Mumbai by train on May 26. "While ordinarily, this court would not see too much cause for hurry in this case, in view of the inexplicable, frantic hurry shown by the NIA in moving the applicant from Delhi to Mumbai while this matter was pending and the NIA had itself sought time to file status report, this court does get a sense that all proceedings in this jurisdiction would be rendered utterly infructuous if an element of urgency is not brought to bear on the present proceedings," the high court had said. The high court had noted that on the last date it had granted adequate time to the NIA to file its status report in response to the interim bail plea and the agency has filed an affidavit opposing the plea. "Prima-facie it appears that while on the last date, this court had granted adequate time to the NIA to file its status report in response to the interim bail plea and while the NIA has filed an affidavit opposing that plea, the NIA has acted in unseemly haste to instead remove the applicant out of the very Jurisdiction of this court and, if the applicant is right, without even Informing the Special Judge (NIA), Mumbai or the Special Judge (NIA), Delhi of the pendency of the present proceedings," the high court had said. The high court had earlier sought response of the NIA on a plea by 67-year-old Navlakha who had said that given his advanced age, he was vulnerable to catching coronavirus or other infections, especially in a crowded environment like prison. Navlakha had told the court that while the interim bail plea was pending, on May 23, NIA has requested the special judge (NIA) Delhi to extend his judicial custody till June 22 and on May 24, a Sunday, an application was filed by the agency before Special Judge (NIA), Mumbai seeking his production warrants. He had said warrants were issued for his production before the Special Judge (NIA), Mumbai and an application was also moved before concerned Jail Superintendent at Tihar Jail on May 25, being a Gazetted holiday for EID, seeking a transit order to shift Navlakha from Delhi to Mumbai. Navlakha through his counsel had said that after the Special Judge (NIA), Delhi allowed this request Navlakha was put on a train on May 26 and taken away to Mumbai where he is presently lodged in Taloja jail. His counsel had said the NIA did not disclose before the Special Judges about the pendency of bail plea. The high court in its order had noted that in the May 22 hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the NIA, had submitted that the agency was planning to transfer Navlakha to Mumbai sometime soon in view of opening-up of air travel after obtaining orders from the competent court. The high court had noted that in the second session of the hearing, instead of Mehta, Additional Solicitor General Aman Lekhi appeared for the NIA and Superintendent of Police Vikram Khalate, the IO, also joined. While explaining the hurry for issuance of production warrants, the IO said he had moved an application before the principal district judge, Mumbai on May 23, which came for hearing the next day when the court issued the warrants, being unsure of the future course of events in relation to the lockdown. The high court directed the IO to file before it an affidavit on the lines of response given by him and a copy of the proceedings relating to production warrants by the Mumbai court. Tihar Jail Superintendent was also directed to provide a copy of the last medical status report of Navlakha and listed the matter for June 3. In August 2018, Navlakha was arrested by the Pune Police from his Delhi residence following the violence at Koregaon Bhima village in Pune district on January 1, 2018. The transit remand order was, however, set aside by the Delhi High Court. President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to deploy US military troops in towns and cities where local officials failed to stop the violence, looting and vandalism that have accompanied protests, which he described as terror, against the death of an African American man in police custody. In a speech from the White House, the president said he has asked state officials to deploy military reservists of the National Guard in sufficient numbers to dominate the streets. If a state of official refuses, he said, I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them. To protesters, he said, I want the organisers of this terror to be on notice that you will face severe criminal penalties and lengthy sentences in jail. The president also said he had ordered swift and decisive action to bring the situation under control in Washington DC. Even as he spoke, National Guard troops moved up to the front of the phalanx of law enforcement personnel facing protesters outside the White House. Flash-bang bombs, tear gas shells and rubber bullets were used to disperse a peaceful demonstration from a side of the White House facing Lafayette Square, a park that is an unofficial venue for White House protests. The president walked out of the White House shortly after and headed to a church on one side of the park that was damaged by protesters Sunday night. He was accompanied by some members of his cabinet such as Mark Esper and William Barr and new chief of staff Mark Meadows and son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka trump. The president held up a copy of the Bible on he steps of the church, which was closed, and posed for pictures with some members of the entourage. Church officials told reporters later the president was there without their permission and wanted to have nothing to do with his appearance. Greatest country in the world, Trump said when asked for what message he was seeking to deliver. And were going to keep it safe. Critics saw it as a stunt to counter the uncharitable but brutal blowback for taking shelter in an underground bunker on the first night of protests at the White House last Friday. The president, who likes to project himself as a tough-guy, has been seething over the scorn and mockery that followed. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat who had praised Trump for federal help deal with Covid-19 in a state that had became the epicentre of the global and American epidemic, was characteristically blunt. Calling out the American military for a photo opportunity. Thats what it was. I mean, it was shameful. It was really, truly shameful. Trump had berated governors, specially those of the Democratic party, in a conference call earlier for being weak against protesters and had pressed them to do more, essentially giving them the same message that he delivered in the evening form the White House - dominate the streets with heavy presence of law enforcement personnel, including National Guard reservists. The presidents threat to deploy soldiers triggered debate about whether he had legal authority to do do. Under the Insurrection Act, a more than 200-year-old law, the president can deploy US military on American soil to deal with civil disorder, insurrection or rebellion. But it was last used at the request of a state, California in1992 to send troops into Los Angeles, a city rocked by protests in the aftermath of the acquittal of police officers accused of severely beating Rodney King, an African American man. Technavio has been monitoring the Omega 3 products market and it is poised to grow by USD 16.13 billion during 2019-2023, progressing at a CAGR of over 7% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005655/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Omega 3 Products Market 2019-2023 (Graphic: Business Wire) Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Latest Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. AKER BIOMARINE AS, Archer Daniels Midland Co., BASF SE, Bellamy's Australia Ltd., Cargill Inc., Koninklijke DSM NV, Nestle SA, Orkla ASA, Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc, and Unilever Group, are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments. The health benefits of Omega 3 products have been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. Omega 3 Products Market 2019-2023: Segmentation Omega 3 Products Market is segmented as below: Product Functional Food and Supplements Infant Nutrition Pharmaceutical Pet Food and Feed Geographic Landscape APAC Europe MEA North America South America To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR32022 Omega 3 Products Market 2019-2023: Scope Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our Omega 3 products market report covers the following areas: Omega 3 Products Market Size Omega 3 Products Market Trends Omega 3 Products Market Industry Analysis This study identifies the increasing popularity of vegan Omega 3 products as one of the prime reasons driving the Omega 3 products market growth during the next few years. Omega 3 Products Market 2019-2023: Vendor Analysis We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the Omega 3 products market, including some of the vendors such as AKER BIOMARINE AS, Archer Daniels Midland Co., BASF SE, Bellamy's Australia Ltd., Cargill Inc., Koninklijke DSM NV, Nestle SA, Orkla ASA, Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc, and Unilever Group. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the Omega 3 products market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports. Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Omega 3 Products Market 2019-2023: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2019-2023 Detailed information on factors that will assist Omega 3 products market growth during the next five years Estimation of the Omega 3 products market size and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the Omega 3 products market Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of Omega 3 products market vendors Table Of Contents : PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT 2.1 Preface 2.2 Preface 2.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE Market ecosystem Market characteristics Market segmentation analysis PART 04: MARKET SIZING Market definition Market sizing 2018 Market size and forecast 2018-2023 PART 05: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market condition PART 06: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY PRODUCT Market segmentation by product Comparison by product Functional food and supplements Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Infant nutrition Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Pharmaceutical Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Pet food and feed Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Market opportunity by product PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE Geographic segmentation Geographic comparison North America Market size and forecast 2018-2023 APAC Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Europe Market size and forecast 2018-2023 South America Market size and forecast 2018-2023 MEA Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Key leading countries Market opportunity PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES Market drivers Market challenges PART 11: MARKET TRENDS Increasing popularity of vegan Omega 3 products Technological innovations Increasing online sales of Omega 3 products PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE Overview Landscape disruption Competitive scenario PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS Vendors covered Vendor classification Market positioning of vendors AKER BIOMARINE AS Archer Daniels Midland Co. BASF SE Bellamy's Australia Ltd. Cargill Inc. Koninklijke DSM NV Nestle SA Orkla ASA Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc Unilever Group PART 14: APPENDIX Research methodology List of abbreviations Definition of market positioning of vendors PART 15: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005655/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: media@technavio.com Website: www.technavio.com/ Webb County and Laredo officials confirmed only one new case of the novel coronavirus in Laredo today in their daily update. With the added case, Laredo's number of recognized positives stands at 552. Thirteen people are currently hospitalized in Laredo hospitals with COVID-19. As of noon Tuesday, 5,232 people have been tested for the novel coronavirus in Laredo. Of those, 3,820 tests have returned negative. 860 tests are still pending results. Of the pending tests, 196 are older than two weeks old and are presumed to be negative, resulting in an adjusted pending number of 664. 409 people have recovered from a novel coronavirus infection. These people have passed a mandatory quarantine period and have been cleared by city health officials to return to the general public. The number of coronavirus-related deaths stands at 19. Removing the number of recoveries and infections, there are 124 active cases in Laredo. The health department will continue to host coronavirus testing clinics throughout the City of Laredo. On Wednesday, a testing clinic will be hosted at Slaughter Park, 202 North Stone Avenue, from 9 to 11 a.m. There has also been an update on Thursday's testing clinic, which was previously scheduled at Sanchez-Ochoa park. Due to potential parking issues, the clinic has been moved to San Luis Rey Church, 3502 Sanders Avenue. It will also be open from 9 to 11 a.m. Laredo residents who want to get tested do not have to schedule an appointment in advance. According to a press release, a test takes less than five minutes to perform, and results are typically available in 2-3 business days. More than 25,000 residents died and 60,000 were infected as the coronavirus swept through U.S. nursing homes in recent months, particularly affecting facilities with a history of low marks for staffing and patient care, the federal government reported Monday. The virus also infected 34,000 staff and took the lives of more than 400, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that oversees the nation's nursing homes. The numbers represent the first official national accounting of fatalities in the 15,000 nursing homes that receive Medicare and Medicaid funding. The tally, however, is incomplete. About 80% of the nation's nursing homes reported data to the federal government, and they were required only to include cases since early May. CMS officials nevertheless said they were confident that the figures offer a reliable snapshot of the pandemic in the nation's hard-hit nursing homes. "This represents a good picture of where we've been," CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in a call with reporters Monday afternoon. A Washington Post accounting of cases and deaths in nursing homes shows a higher toll, and that tally rounds up data from less than half of the states. Based on reports from 21 states since the beginning of the pandemic, The Post found that more than 28,000 residents have died. Of the homes that reported data to CMS, 1 in 5 recorded at least one death from covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and 1 in 4 had at least one positive case. In the District of Columbia and three states - New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts - more than 1 in 10 nursing home residents died, according to the data collected so far by CMS. An early analysis by CMS showed that nursing homes that have received poor marks for nurse staffing and patient care were more likely to see higher case counts than those with stronger track records. Statistical analyses touted by the industry, by contrast, suggest that the outbreaks have little to do with the quality of nursing homes. Instead, studies indicate that a home's location and size are better predictors of an outbreak. "Significant research from leading health experts, including analysis from Harvard medical school and Brown University as well as testimony to Congress by the University of Chicago, has shown no correlation between covid-19 outbreak and [Medicare's] star rating system," said Beth Martino, American Health Care Association senior vice president of public affairs, referring to the government's quality grades for nursing homes. "In fact, the first covid case was at a five-star rated facility. As this research shows, the amount of covid-19 cases in nursing homes has been directly linked to the level of the virus in the surrounding local community." On Monday, Verma focused heavily on infection control, saying the agency would strengthen enforcement, including civil penalties, of nursing homes with persistent violations of federal standards meant to prevent the spread of illness. The move, according to CMS, would "help prevent backsliding, improve accountability and ensure prompt compliance." Nursing homes across the country have struggled with infection control both before and during the pandemic. In April, a Post analysis of about 650 homes with cases of the coronavirus found that 40% had been cited more than once for infection control deficiencies in recent years. Verma said the agency will distribute $80 million to states to increase infection-control inspections of nursing homes during the pandemic. States that fail to inspect all Medicare-certified homes by July 31 will be required to submit a corrective plan to the federal government. Those still lagging by August will lose some of the money. The new federal data, while limited, comes after months of criticism from watchdog groups and patients' families, who argued that transparency is critical during a public health emergency. Since the first known outbreak at a nursing home, in Washington state in February, some states have repeatedly declined to name affected facilities or describe the scale of the problem, forcing families to plead for information from homes that were often reluctant to release details. "I think people have a right to know what's going on - and not all this hiding," said Toby Edelman, a senior policy attorney at the nonprofit Center for Medicare Advocacy. "If the nursing homes would just tell the truth, people would respect them a lot more than this language about 'We love our residents.'" In April, CMS announced that all nursing homes would be required to report case information to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on a weekly basis. CMS requested data by May 17 but gave nursing homes a two-week grace period to report. Mark Parkinson, president of the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living, said the newly reported numbers validate the need for widespread testing and more support for nursing homes. "Especially as we continue to expand testing for residents and staff in long term care centers in June, we should anticipate the number of cases to rise as asymptomatic residents and staff will be identified," he said. "While an increase in these reported numbers may be startling, it will improve our ability to confront this threat and protect our residents." The data released on Monday did not include case or death counts for individual facilities. Those numbers are expected to be released on Thursday. - - - Jacobs is a graduate student in journalism at Northwestern University's Medill Investigative Lab. The rebuke came a day after peaceful demonstrators were tear-gassed in front of the White House so that the president could pose for a photograph with a Bible. Demonstrators continued to march in cities across the U.S. more than a week after the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed in police custody in Minneapolis. Protesters and police officers were injured as clashes cropped up at night, a shift from the largely peaceful daytime rallies. Police officers in several cities have been fired or disciplined for their harsh tactics against protesters. In Atlanta, arrest warrants were issued for six officers after video footage showed them firing Tasers and dragging two college students out of a car on Saturday. On the ground: I am heartbroken and outraged every day, said Candice Elder, who was marching in Oakland, Calif. Im tired of being sick and tired. We talked to protesters of all backgrounds. Related: The Australian prime minister called for an investigation into an attack on two Australian journalists by police officers during protests outside the White House on Monday. CNN anchor Don Lemon hit out at Donald Trump on Monday night following the presidents address about the George Floyd protests, warning Americans that the country is teetering on a dictatorship. On Monday Mr Trump threatened to deploy the US military to diffuse protests across the country in remarks made at a press conference at the White House. In the wake of the threats Mr Lemon, speaking on CNN, condemned the presidents declaration of intent to use military force. Open your eyes, America. Open your eyes. We are teetering on a dictatorship. This is chaos. Has the president Im listening, is the president declaring war on Americans?, the anchor asked. What is happening here? He is saying that he wants to protect peaceful protesters at the same time sending law enforcement and military into the streets to push peaceful protesters back, to be aggressive with peaceful protesters. He is doing the exact opposite of what he said in that speech," Mr Lemon said. The broadcaster insisted that he was not condoning violence and that he hoped the protests would remain peaceful but also that citizens fight for their right to peacefully protest. The criticism comes in light of Mr Trumps statement during the briefing that he would protect peaceful protesters, while not far from the White House police officers deployed tear gas, rubber bullets and flash bangs to disperse peaceful protesters in Washington DC's Lafayette Square. I think the president is playing a very very dangerous game here," Mr Lemon added. Another CNN anchor, Anderson Cooper, also criticsed Mr Trump's intent to use force, stating that the country is witnessing a "failure of presidential leadership." "What happened in this past hour would be comical if it wasn't so dangerous and so destructive", the anchor said. Mr Anderson claimed that Mr Trump seems to think that dominating black people, dominating peaceful protesters is law and order. Its not. He calls them thugs. Who is the thug here?" Ive seen people dying in the streets while protesting. Ive seen countries ripped apart by hate and mystery misinformation and laws and political demagogues and racism, Mr Cooper added. We cant let that happen here. Of course violence is no answer, but people protesting deserve answers, and they havent gotten them. no matter how many black men have been murdered, lynched, in prison, mistreated, redlined, blackballed from jobs. We all know it. People protesting in the streets they know it, and theyre tired of it. And we should be too. In the press briefing on Monday the president also said that he felt state governors were not taking severe enough action to safeguard their residents. If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them, he said. Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Show all 13 1 /13 Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Donald Trump waves as he returns to the White House after visiting St John Episcopal Church for a photo opportunity after threatening to deploy the US military to crush protests over the death of George Floyd. Peaceful protesters had been cleared from Lafayette Park with tear gas to allow him to make the visit Getty Images Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military A protester demonstrating over the killing of George Floyd runs away amid a police crackdown that coincided with a statement by Donald Trump in the Rose Garden of the White House near by AP Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Police begin to clear demonstrators gather as they protest the death of George Floyd near the White House AP Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Donald Trump walks past police in Lafayette Park after he visited outside St. John's Church across from the White House AP Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Donald Trump walks past graffiti as he heads from the White House to St John Episcopal Church after threatening to deploy the US military to crush protests over the killing of George Floyd EPA Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military A demonstrator raises their hands next to US Secret Service uniformed division officers during a rally near the White House against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd REUTERS Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Donald Trump walks to St John Episcopal Church from the White House after protesters demonstrating over the killing of George Floyd were cleared from Lafayette Park REUTERS Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Donald Trump holds up a Bible after walking to St John Episcopal Church. Demonstrators protesting against the killing of George Floyd were cleared from Lafayette Park with tear gas so that he could walk to the church from the nearby White House AFP via Getty Images Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Donald Trump signals to a reporter to be quiet as he stands outside St John Episcopal Church following a walk from the nearby White House. Lafayette Park was cleared of protesters by police using tear gas so he could go there. He is flanked by Attorney General William Barr (far left), Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany AFP via Getty Images Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Demonstrators kneel in front of a line of police officers during a protest for the death of George Floyd near the White House AP Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Demonstrators gather in Lafayette Park to protest the death of George Floyd AP Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Trucks transport District of Columbia National Guard troops along West Executive Drive in support of law enforcement officers that are keeping demonstrators away from the White House Getty Images Trump visits church after threatening to crush protests with military Military vehicles carrying National Guard personnel drive along West Executive Drive at the White House, following national protests against the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody REUTERS The press conference follows days of national unrest in the wake of the death of Mr Floyd, an unarmed black man, who died after in police custody after a Minneapolis police officer pinned him to the ground by his neck for a prolonged period of time. Outrage over Mr Floyds death has spiralled in the last week with violent protests and demonstrations breaking out across the US. Washington has seen thousands of people flock to the White House and nearby Lafayette Square to protest. Mr Trump has blamed the rioting and looting of businesses in Washington, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta and other cities on professional anarchists, violent mobs and groups like Antifa. These are not acts of peaceful protests, these are acts of domestic terror, the president said, calling the violence an offence to humanity and a crime against God. Mr Lemon said that the presidents move to mobilise the US military against protesters would backfire. People are upset and theyre angry. These people ... feel like theyre occupied in their own communities by police departments, many of them militarised police departments. Now the entire country, according to his orders, we are living under a militarised country or we will be soon and it will play out in front of our very eyes on national television, he said. Cells are a little easier to understand, thanks to improved technology developed by a team of researchers based in China. Using a method called Raman-Activated Cell Ejection and Sequencing (RACE-Seq), the scientists were able to improve the success of identifying and sequencing individual cells from our environments to understand the cells' functions. They published their results recently in Analytical Chemistry. "RACE-Seq is a useful technology to identify, isolate and sequence single-cells with particular function from environment," said SU Xiaolu, paper author and a researcher with the Single-Cell Center in Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). "However, the success rate and quality of RACE-Seq has been quite low for environmental samples." Single-cell Raman sorting and sequencing tools such as RACE-Seq help researchers understand the mechanistic links between the function and genetic components of individual cells in nature. For genetically varied environments, such as soil found in the environment, RACE-Seq allows the cells to be sorted based on their function roles - without damaging them - and have their genome sequenced to establish those mechanic links between genetics and function. During RACE-Seq, cells are loaded onto a microchip surface and air-dried immediately before being irradiated with a laser. Cells identified with the function being sorted for are identified and ejected into a receiving well on another chip. The cells are then broken apart and their genetic material processed to determine the underlying mechanical link to the particular function of interest. Previously, this method can produce about 20% coverage of genome for individual E. coli cells. Now, the researchers have improved the method so the coverage reaches around 50%. SU and his team found that adjusting the laser's energy input helped protect the cells to have better output. They also found that changing the duration, temperature or other aspects of the other steps did not help improve the output. To tackle this problem, the researchers added oil before amplifying the DNA of sorted cells. This simple yet elegant operation reduces such harmful effects of Raman irradiation and increases greatly the completeness of the genomes. Moreover, for soil microbiota, which are perhaps the most complex microbial communities in nature, this new protocol dramatically improves experimental success rate of RACE-Seq. "Our findings provide a practical solution for enhancing RACE-Seq performance, and thus should make this technique more accessible to the many laboratories interested in single-cell sequencing around the globe," said XU Jian, director of the Single-Cell Center. The researchers also noted that RACE-Seq is still unable to produce good-quality genomes at precisely one-cell resolution from environmental samples. They are introducing novel technologies that can achieve the ultimate goal of functionally sorting and sequencing every microbial cell from natural environments. ### This work was supported by Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. A twelve-year-old girl has told Jigawa State Police Command how a 57-year-old man and 11 others turned her into a sex-machine. They hid me, repeatedly had sex with me and gave me peanuts, she alleged. The BBC Hausa Service said in a report monitored by Vanguard on Monday that the Jigawa State Police Command in Northwest Nigeria, have since arrested the culprits. According to the report, the 12-year-old was serially raped for a period of 2 months. Operatives of the police command had taken the girl for medical examination where it was confirmed that she had been raped. An investigation into the matter was still going on. This was coming on the heels of the gruesome murder of two ladies in separate incidences. 22-year-old Uwavera Omozuwa, was murdered with a fire extinguisher. According to the report, on Wednesday last week, the 22-year-old student of microbiology went to Redeem Church near her university where she was found later in a pool of blood. It was within that week also, that confusion arose with the police as a result of the gruesome murder of a 16-year-old girl, Tina Ezekwe in Lagos. According to the authorities, two operatives have since been arrested in connection to the incidence. Source: vanguardngr.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Indian Army recovered a huge cache of arms in Naushera sector of Jammu and Kashmir after eliminating three terrorist who were trying to infiltrate India from the Line of Control (LoC). The operation lasted for four days. It began on May 28, when Indian soldiers detected six to seven terrorists trying to infiltrate in Naushera Sector of Jammu and Kashmir. In a swift operation, the Indian soldiers eliminated three of the infiltrators while at least one was seriously injured, the Army said in a statement. The operation resulted in recovery of large cache of weapons, including 2 AK-47 Rifles, one M16 A2 Rifle, one pistol, one UBGL as well as ammunition and grenades. Pakistan markings on eatables and a few other items indicate complicity of Pakistan, a statement from the Army said. Security forces are maintaining a robust counter infiltration grid along the LoC and will continue to respond to all nefarious activities of Pakistan, it further said. The troops had launched a search operation in Rajouri and half a dozen villages in Poonch district. A separate search operation has also been launched by the Border Security Force (BSF) and police in the Hiranagar area of Jammu and Kashmirs Kathua-Samba sector. The operation was launched on Sunday night after security forces received information about the movement along the International Border. In the last few years, terrorists have infiltrated into India through Hiranagar and Samba and carried out attacks on army camps, police stations in Samba, Kathua, Jammu and Nagrota areas. Checkpoints along the International Border and on the Jammu-Pathankot highway are on alert. Boris Johnson has said he will have 'no choice' but to offer the people of Hong Kong citizenship if China erodes human rights in the former British colony. The Prime Minister said last night that a proposed new national security law in Hong Kong would 'dramatically erode its autonomy' and breach the terms of its treaty with the UK. Mr Johnson said he would 'willingly' bring in one of the 'biggest changes in our visa system in British history' as an 'alternative' to Chinese repression. Beijing's push to impose its will in the former British colony has stoked worry about its future. It has prompted Britain to offer refuge to almost three million Hong Kong residents eligible for a British National Overseas passport. Boris Johnson said he would 'willingly' bring in one of the 'biggest changes in our visa system in British history' as an 'alternative' to Chinese repression A pro-democracy protester waves a British colonial flag during a rally at a shopping mall in the Central district in Hong Kong on Monday Hong Kong riot police fire tear gas as hundreds of protesters march along a downtown street during a pro-democracy protest against Beijing's national security legislation in Hong Kong on May 24 Writing in the Times, Mr Johnson said: 'Britain would then have no choice but to uphold our profound ties of history and friendship with the people of Hong Kong. How Hong Kong's freedoms were won... and now lost Hong Kong was ruled by Britain from 1842 to 1997. China's imperial Qing Dynasty ceded the island to Queen Victoria under the Treaty of Nanking on August 29, 1842, to end the First Opium War. Between 1839 and 1842, British armies fought the opium war on behalf of drug traffickers against the Qing Dynasty. Their victory opened up the lucrative China trade to British merchants. On July 1, 1898, Britain was granted 99 years of rule over the Hong Kong colony under the The Second Convention of Peking. The lease would allow Britain to also have sovereignty over the New Territories, which is connected to mainland China, together with 235 islands. An international bilateral announcement, the SinoBritish Joint Declaration, was signed by then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her Chinese counterpart Zhao Ziyang on December 19, 1984. According to the document, Hong Kong would revert to Chinese rule on July 1, 1997, under an administrative principle known as 'one country, two systems'. The policy was to guarantee Hong Kong greater freedoms than those on the mainland until 2047, such as the freedom of speech and people's right to protest. The handover ceremony, which ended more than 150 years of British control over the territory, was attended by Prince Charles, Prime Minister Tony Blair, Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and Hong Kong's last governor Chris Patten. Memorialised by the Chinese with a blockbuster movie, the handover was touted by Beijing as a great victory, while many in Britain regarded it as not just deeply humiliating, but also a travesty for the people of Hong Kong. Patten would later write: 'Hong Kong became the only example of decolonization deliberately accompanied by less democracy and a weaker protection of civil liberties. 'This was a cause for profound regret, especially for the departing colonial power. But it was China's doing and China's decision. 'I am pleased that Britain narrowly avoided complicity in the dishonourable act of denying the citizens of free Hong Kong what they had been promised in 1984.' Many historians interpret the handover of Hong Kong as the end of British Empire, the ceding of her last substantial overseas colony - one with a colossal population and potent economic power. Britain's remaining territories consisted of tiny islands or enclaves with little to offer financially. In the last year of Britain's grip on Hong Kong the island's GDP was $180billion. In contrast the island of Bermuda's GDP was $5.6billion in 2013. Advertisement 'Today, about 350,000 of the territory's people hold British National (Overseas) passports and another 2.5million would be eligible to apply for them.' Currently the passports allow visa-free access to the UK for up to six months. He added: 'If China imposes its national security law, the British government will change our immigration rules and allow any holder of these passports from Hong Kong to come to the UK for a renewable period of 12 months and be given further immigration rights, including the right to work, which could place them on a route to citizenship. 'This would amount to one of the biggest changes in our visa system in history. 'If it proves necessary, the British government will take this step and take it willingly. 'Many people in Hong Kong fear their way of life, which China pledged to uphold, is under threat. 'If China proceeds to justify their fears then Britain could not in good conscience shrug our shoulder and walk away; instead we will honour our obligations and provide an alternative.' It is understood the people of Hong Kong will be offered a route into Britain only after the publication of full details of the proposed laws, expected this month. The BNO passport was created for Hong Kong people before Britain returned the territory to Chinese rule in 1997. Though they are British passports that allow a holder to visit Britain for six months, they do not come with an automatic right to live and work there. But the Foreign Secretary has said the six-month limit could be removed if, as is expected, China imposes its draconian legislation on the city. The pledge has seen people who held BNO passports rush to replace them. Mother of two Ming Wong, 39, was one of those to re-apply for her lost passport. 'I started filling out the applications in December after the protests, but it's the national security legislation now that really prompted me to finish the process,' Wong said. Her husband, brother and parents are also applying, she said. According to figures obtained by the Mingpao newspaper from the British Passport Office, BNO renewal applications increased in the second half of last year, amid sometimes violent anti-government protests, with the number totalling more than 120,000 in 2019 compared with about 14,000 in 2017 and 2018. Immigration consultants have reported a rush of enquiries about moving away from Hong Kong since China's announcement on May 21. 'Last week alone, the number of enquiries surged to about 100 a day,' said Swing Wong, a director the Midland immigration consultancy, from about 50 a day earlier this year. 'Most people who enquire about the UK think it would be a safety net for their children,' said Ivan Yam, director of immigration consultant Golden Emperor Properties. Mr Raab yesterday told the House of Commons there was still time for China to withdraw a bill that Beijing says is necessary to protect itself. When passed, it will allow China to put its own security measures, such as secret police and arbitary detention of critics, in place in Hong Kong, destroying the 'one country, two systems' promise that is due to run until 2047. A protester holds up the British National (Overseas) passports in a shopping mall during a protest against China's national security legislation for Hong Kong Mr Raab said: 'If China is willing to interfere on political and autonomy grounds, it is also likely to pose a longer term threat to the economic prosperty and economic model that Hong Kong reflects and embodies. 'The sad reality is that if China continues down this track, it will be strangling what has long been the jewel in the economic crown. 'There is still an opportunity for China to step back,' he said but added: 'We think that it is unlikely that will happen.' It comes as Hong Kong's Beijing-backed government was accused of 'stifling freedom of expression' of its people after police banned an upcoming vigil which will mark the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown. Beijing's push to impose its will in the former British colony has stoked worry about its future Residents in the Asian financial hub have mourned the victims of the bloody event yearly since 1990, and this is the first time the city will not be allowed to hold the commemoration. The city's police rejected permission for this year's rally, claiming it would 'constitute a major threat to the life and health of the general public' amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a letter of objection to organisers obtained by AFP. The candlelight June 4 vigil usually attracts huge crowds and Hong Kong has been the only place on Chinese soil where such a major commemoration of the anniversary is still allowed. Last year's Tiananmen vigil was especially large and came just a week before seven months of pro-democracy protests and clashes exploded onto the city's streets, sparked initially by a plan to allow extraditions to the authoritarian mainland. The candlelight June 4 vigil usually attracts huge crowds and is the only place on Chinese soil where such a major commemoration of the anniversary is still allowed. The file picture taken on June 4, 2019 shows people holding candles during a Tiananmen Square vigil in Hong Kong Hong Kong police on Monday banned an upcoming vigil marking the Tiananmen crackdown anniversary over health concerns amid the coronavirus pandemic. The picture was taken by AP photographer Jeff Widener from a sixth-floor balcony of the Beijing Hotel near Tiananmen Last year's gathering was especially large and came just a week before seven months of pro-democracy protests and clashes exploded onto the city's streets. Candlelight vigils in Hong Kong marking the anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown in Victoria Park Human rights organisation Amnesty International urged the Hong Kong authorities to lift the ban. 'COVID-19 must not be used as an excuse to stifle freedom of expression,' said Joshua Rosenzweig, Amnesty Internationals East and South East Asia Deputy Director. 'In recent weeks, we have seen the Hong Kong police repeatedly clamp down on peaceful protests with arbitrary mass arrests and excessive force - including the use of tear gas and pepper pellets. 'With this ban, and a disastrous national security law looming, it is not clear if Hong Kong's Tiananmen vigil will ever be allowed to take place again.' The changes come after Mr Johnson appointed Simon Case, a key aide to the Duke of Cambridge, to a top permanent secretary role running 10 Downing Street - Barcroft Media Boris Johnson is to take "direct control" of the Government's handling of the coronavirus crisis after a chaotic fortnight in which his chief aide was accused of breaking the lockdown rules and the Government's test and trace plans were hit by setbacks. A shake-up in Downing Street will see the Government's entire approach to the pandemic run by two centrally-run committees, covering strategy and operational delivery. Tory MPs said the changes could weaken the influence of chief adviser Dominic Cummings who was heavily criticised for a 260-mile trip during lockdown and allow Mr Johnson to tighten his grip on the fight against the pandemic after being treated in intensive care for the virus. In the past fortnight, his Government has been criticised over plans to quarantine new arrivals in the UK, while a test and trace app to track people infected with coronavirus has failed to materialise. The reforms will also free up some of the Prime Minister's top team to focus on the Brexit talks ahead of a crucial deadline next month when the UK must decide whether to extend the transition period beyond the end of this year. The changes come after Mr Johnson appointed Simon Case, a key aide to the Duke of Cambridge, to a top permanent secretary role running 10 Downing Street. A new strategy committee dubbed "CS" will be chaired by Mr Johnson, while the Cabinet Office minister, Michael Gove, will chair the new operations committee, known in Whitehall as "CO". Both will meet on a regular basis. The new approach echoes the Government's Brexit planning last year which was led by an "XS" strategic and "XO" operational committee. The committees will replace four ministerial implementation groups, set up at the start of the crisis and covering foreign affairs, health, economy and business and public services, each chaired by a Cabinet minister. Story continues The regular Covid-19 committee meeting, which has been held every morning at Number 10, is being axed. One source said the new structure would give a more "cohesive" approach to tackling the pandemic. Number 10 is also ending the weekend press conferences due to low audience figures, and only holding them on weekdays. Mr Johnson will host one of them. Officials wanted to maintain the weekday conferences because they are attracting more than three million viewers and listeners most evenings. One source said: "It is a prime time audience, and you would be foolish to give that up." A senior Tory MP said Mr Johnson's shake-up was intended "to bring some order" to the decision-making process after a difficult two months. The MP said: "Boris has decided that Cummings is there, but he is going to take more direct control. It is coming out of frustration you are seeing his reawakening after a tough old time with the Covid-19 attack. "He showed he had backbone [in backing Mr Cummings]. Cummings is not in a brilliant place and he must know it. Boris knowing that makes him more determined to do it himself." RACINE Demonstrations that began late Sunday night on Monument Square started peaceful. But they ended with looting, acts of vandalism, and police ended up using tear gas at one junction after rocks and fireworks were directed at officers in riot gear in front of the Downtown police station. Many of the protesters who joined the demonstration on Monument Square which mainly consisted of chants, flag waving and music decried those who looted or caused damage. After a scuffle between demonstrators left one man with a head injury, others stepped in, asking those who instigated the fight to leave and then nursing the mans injuries. And when a fire was lit next to a vacant building near Monument Square, demonstrators extinguished it. After a brick was thrown through a window at Lux Beauty Salon late Sunday night, other protesters stepped in to prevent more damage from occurring and asking the thrower to leave. By Monday afternoon, the window had been partially repaired. We aint about that, one man told The Journal Times regarding the property damage. The demonstration got more heated when it reached the Racine Police Department, 800 Center St., after 1 a.m. Monday. About three dozen protesters, with more than 100 standing behind, yelled at officers in riot gear from the Racine Police Department and Racine County Sheriffs Office. One woman yelled repeatedly Why do you kill our babies!? in front of a poster with a photo from the autopsy of TyRese West, the 18-year-old from Racine who was shot after fleeing from a Mount Pleasant police officer last June. Others insulted officers and tried to goad them into a fight with words. At least two people among the demonstrators, an adult woman and Racine-native National Guard veteran Jovantae Phifer, pleaded with protesters to refrain from violence. After about 10 minutes of yelling from demonstrators and little reaction from officers, some people started throwing rocks and bricks from across the street. Fireworks were also launched in the direction of the officers. At about 1:40 a.m., officers started putting on gas masks. Theres a lot of irate people here right now, Johnson confided to a Journal Times reporter after rocks started to be thrown. Minutes later, tear gas was used to disperse the crowd. Journal Times Reporter Adam Rogan was affected by the tear gas but was OK after the initial shock and returned to work Monday. Break-ins reported Several retail stores reported damage Monday morning. Vikas Modi, an employee at Liquor Depot, 1401 Washington Ave., said looters smashed a large front window of the store around 4 a.m. Modi said the looters were trying to leave with boxes of liquor when they were scared off by a passing sheriffs squad. Other than broken glass and repairing the window, the store was unscathed. A broken window was also reported at Magic Supermarket, 1007 Washington Ave. at 10th Street. Cell phone carrier stores in Racine were also dealing with the aftermath of break-ins from early Monday morning. Boost Mobile and Metro PCS locations in Racine reported broken windows and stolen items from their stores. Adham Awadalla, owner of Boost Mobile, 1957 Douglas Ave., said he received a call from police around 12:30 a.m. Monday morning alerting him that his store was broken into. He looked at security camera footage and found that about five to six men had thrown weights and large rocks into the glass windows and stolen every item in the store. So far the damage and stolen items are estimated at a loss of $20,000, Awadalla said. Awadalla also owns the Boost Mobile location at 2022 Lathrop Ave. Forty-five minutes after arriving at the Douglas Avenue store, he got another call alerting him the Lathrop Avenue location had been broken into as well. The second location had about the same costs in damage, costing Awadalla as much as $50,000 total for both stores. However, hes not planning on repairing the glass windows right away; he said hes going to wait until the chaos is over. I think (the peaceful protesters) want to get the president out of office. But the ones (damaging property) in the streets, theyre not thinking about that. Theyre just being ignorant, he said. Just any excuse to make problems, get stuff for free and take advantage of the situation to get their anger out. But its all just dirty games; it has nothing to do with George Floyd at all. A sales representative from Metro PCS who only identified herself as Sheila had similar comments. Metro PCS, 1639 Douglas Ave., was also broken into. I just think its gone too far, she said. This is not about George Floyds death. This is just a lot of people taking advantage of a sad and serious situation to commit criminal acts and try to justify it. I dont justify it. Violence plus violence does not equal peace. Sheila, who is also a supervisor of the Metro PCS, said that at about 1:23 a.m. Monday morning, a group of young girls broke a front window at Metro PCS, entering the building. They wrestled with a cabinet and got it open, taking three iPhones. Everything else was untouched. They then broke a window on the front door, climbing out through that way. Sheila said the damage costs are still being investigated and is unknown at this time. However, there are plans to repair the window damage as soon as possible. Police are conducting an investigation, she said. Its just a next level of ignorance to damage your own city, she said. Its a place where you gotta live and where you gotta shop at. These businesses are providing service to you. Theres really no explanation for it but ignorance. Pete Wicklund contributed to this report. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 1 Sad 3 Angry 3 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Rachel Kubik Reporter Follow Rachel Kubik Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today The order of de-listing 1,000 products from the police canteens, which was issued on 29 May, has been withdrawn New Delhi: The order of de-listing products from the police canteens, which was issued on 29 May, has been withdrawn. "It is clarified that the list issued by Kendriya Police Kalyan Bhandar on 29 May, 2020, regarding de-listing of certain products has been erroneously issued at the level of CEO. The list has been withdrawn and action is being initiated for the lapse," said Chairman, WARB-cum-DG CRPF, AP Maheshwari in a statement. It was earlier reported that from microwave ovens to footwear and branded products like Tommy Hilfiger shirts - over 1,000 imported products will now not be available at the Kendriya Police Kalyan Bhandar (KPKB), the parent body that runs paramilitary canteens across India, which will sell only 'Swadeshi' products from 1 June. Some companies objected to it and said that they are not importing products. The companies said that products mentioned in the list are 'Made in India'. The KPKB had divided all products into three categories. "In pursuance to the decision taken by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, Swadeshi Goods only will be sold through KPKB Bhandars, w.e.f., 1 June, 2020. In the process of implementation of the decision in letter and spirit, product-wise information was sought from all of the registered firms vide this office," the KPKB had said in a letter sent to all paramilitary forces. The central police canteens sell products to cater to almost 50 lakh family members of about 10 lakh personnel serving in CRPF, BSF, ITBP, CISF, SSB, NSG, and Assam Rifles. Some products, which had been de-listed were Colgate Palmolive products, like body wash and mouth wash, Havells products, like hair straighteners, HUL (GSK) certain categories of Horlicks, HUL Magnum chocolate ice cream, Loreal Maybelline Kajal, and several products of LG Electronics. Mars chocolates, a few Nivea products, a few products of Philips, Bajaj and Panasonic, Blue star, Abbott healthcare product Similac Isomil, several Addidas body spray sold by Cavincare, Eureka Forbes products, Gillette and vector products sold by P&G, Red Bull energy drink, Air freshener Airsick (Reckitt Benckiser), Safari Samsonite luggage products and few VIP luggage products, a few products of Samsung, Sleepwell blanket range, few range of Timex, two products of TTK Prestige, Real fruit juice, and SKECHERS footwear range has also been de-listed. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 2) - A lawyer asked the Supreme Court to annul the Bayanihan to Heal As One Act, which gives the President special powers to respond to the crisis, saying that it is partly unconstitutional. In his petition, lawyer Jaime Ibanez pointed out that President Rodrigo Dutertes proclamation of a state of calamity and of public health emergency is an undue delegation of legislative power as it lacks legislative authority. Republic Act No. 11469 is unconstitutional for granting the President legislative authority to exercise power other than what is necessary and proper to carry out the declared national policy, read the petition. Legislative power to make laws is vested in Congress," it said. "The President is merely tasked to execute the law. The Congress held a special session last March to approve the Bayanihan Law. The measure grants Duterte the power to reshuffle the savings within the 2020 General Appropriations Act to address the crisis. Ibanez' petition also asked to annul the omnibus guidelines on community quarantine saying that the Inter-Agency Task Force has no legislative authority to issue one. The power to make laws can not be delegated," the petition said. "The IATF has no power to define the law on quarantine, sets its own parameters and restrictions and to even invent the Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine according to its own bizarre definition. Section 15 of the 1987 Constitution provides that the State shall protect and promote the right to health of the people. With this, Executive Order 168 mandates the IATF to come up with measures to protect everyone from any emerging infectious diseases and this includes quarantine procedures. Furthermore, Ibanez noted that the said proclamations by the government were not able to serve their purpose of protecting people and promoting health. He added that placing people other than the infected ones under quarantine is a violation of the Bill of Rights of the 1987 Constitution. To include persons or individuals not covered by law and put them into community isolation or quarantine is not only beyond the scope of the legislative policy of the R.A. 11469 but also intrudes and overburdens individuals right to liberty and to property (including the right to work). Duterte first ordered a lockdown in Luzon last March to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 infections. Metro Manila and other areas are currently under a more relaxed general community quarantine since June 1. The Bayanihan Law is only valid until June 24 and lawmakers are currently deliberating whether to extend it or not. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) New York, United States Tue, June 2, 2020 16:00 597 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb91b87 2 Entertainment music,music-industry,united-states,Racism,George-Floyd,police-brutality,protest,unrest,Quincy-Jones,rihanna,Beyonce Free Major music industry labels are pledging to halt business Tuesday, in solidarity with anti-racist demonstrators demanding structural social change and an end to police brutality. Atlantic Records, Capitol Music Group, Warner Records, Sony Music and Def Jam were among the many organizations vowing that #TheShowMustBePaused, as mass protests have rocked US streets for days following the killing of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, at the hands of police in Minneapolis. "It's hard to know what to say because I've been dealing with racism my entire life. That said, it's rearing its ugly head right now & by God it's time to deal with it once & for all," the legendary producer Quincy Jones said in a statement. "As gatekeepers of the culture, it's our responsibility to not only come together to celebrate the wins, but also hold each up during a loss." Columbia Records emphasized Tuesday "is not a day off" but rather a moment to "figure out ways to move forward in solidarity." "Perhaps with the music off, we can truly listen." Many labels also committed donations to civil rights advocacy organizations. Largely peaceful marches nationwide voicing fury at racist police brutality repeatedly turned violent over the weekend, as police used tear gas, pepper spray and flash bang grenades to control crowds amid outbreaks of looting. The music industry blackout comes after dozens of celebrities including Rihanna, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Dr. Dre, Taylor Swift, Cardi B, Billie Eilish and Killer Mike have voiced anger and solidarity as actor Jamie Foxx and pop superstar Ariana Grande joined advocacy marches. Read also: Donations, hashtags and fancams: K-pop world reacts to George Floyd protests Actor John Cusack, who joined protests in Chicago, tweeted that police had hit him with a baton as he attempted to film a burning car. Cops didnt like me filming the burning car so they came at me with batons. Hitting my bike. Ahhm heres the audio pic.twitter.com/tfaOoVCw5v John Cusack (@johncusack) May 31, 2020 "For the last few days, the magnitude of devastation, anger, sadness I've felt has been overwhelming to say the least! Watching my people get murdered and lynched day after day pushed me to a heavy place in my heart!" said Rihanna on Instagram. Beyonce posted a video saying "we all witnessed his murder in broad daylight ... We're broken and we're disgusted. We cannot normalize this pain." She urged signatures to a petition demanding #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd, which the platform Change.org said became the largest in its history. The superstar's mogul husband Jay-Z said via his Roc Nation company that he had spoken with Minnesota governor Tim Walz and applauded the appointment of the state's attorney general Keith Ellison to handle prosecutions in the Floyd case. "I am human, a father and a black man in pain," said the rapper born Shawn Carter. "I am more determined to fight for justice than any fight my would-be oppressors may have," he continued. "I prevail on every politician, prosecutor and officer in the country to have the courage to do what is right." "Have the courage to look at us as humans, dads, brothers, sisters and mothers in pain and look at yourselves." Secretary of State Tre Hargett announces a new statewide campaign to recruit poll officials for the Aug. 6 State and Federal Primary and County General Election. Tennesseans can apply now to join the campaign, Be a Patriot. Become a Poll Official. Poll officials are the backbone of successful elections across Tennessee, said Secretary Hargett. By raising your hand to become a poll official, you will have a front-row seat to democracy during early voting and on Election Day. Poll officials perform various tasks to help polling sites run smoothly, including greeting voters, answering questions, processing voters, explaining how to cast a ballot and counting votes. Any voter is eligible to apply, regardless of political affiliation. Qualifications to be a poll official: Be a registered voter if 18 or older; Be at least 16 years old; Not be a candidate or close relative of a candidate; and Be able to read and write in the English language. The following government employees can also serve as poll officials: City, County or Metro employees, unless working directly under the supervision of an elected official on the ballot; State of Tennessee employee; or Federal employees consult your Human Resources department to ensure eligibility. Poll officials are compensated for working during early voting and on Election Day, as well as for attending required training sessions. For more information and to sign up to become a poll official, visit GoVoteTN.com. Dhaka: Authorities in Bangladesh have said the country has registered the death of the first Rohingya person due to COVID-19 infection. Large number of Rohingya Muslims have been staying in the camps in Bangladesh since fleeing Myanmar. A 71-years-old Rohingya man died in an isolation facility run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) outside the camps in Ukhiya, according to an official of an international organization, reported Dhaka Tribune. "We have bad news. A 71-years-old Rohingya male died from Covid-19 on Sunday, but the result of his test came on Monday. This is the first death in the camps," Dr Mahbubur Rahman, civil surgeon of Cox's Bazar, told Dhaka Tribune. To a question, the civil surgeon told the newspaper that so far 29 of about one million Rohingyas from Myanmar sheltered in 34 camps have been infected with the virus that causes Covid-19. The Rohingya camps reported its first case of COVID-19 infection on May 14. Nine more people, who came in the contact of the with the deceased person, have been sent to isolation. Talking to Dhaka Tribune, Dr Abu Toha MRH Bhuiyan, health coordinator of the Refugee, Relief and Rehabilitation Commission, said samples from the deceased were sent to Coxs Bazar Medical College for testing. The test results that came on Tuesday confirmed that he was Covid-19 positive. The deceased person was buried maintaining all COVID-19 guidelines. Turkish-backed Takfiri militants burn homes in northeastern Syria: SANA Iran Press TV Monday, 01 June 2020 2:01 PM Turkish-backed Takfiri militants have burned local residents' homes in the northern countryside of Syria's northeastern province of Hasakah, as they continue to commit crimes against the local population, including extortion and looting of their property. Local sources, requesting not to be named, told Syria's official news agency SANA on Monday that several homes in the villages of al-Qasimia and al-Rihaniyya, which lie northwest of Tal Tamr town, had been set ablaze by the extremists the previous day. The sources added that the acts of arson took place only a few days after Turkish-backed militants set fire to a number of farmlands in al-Qasimia village. Turkish-backed militants were deployed to northern Syria last October after Turkish military forces launched a long-threatened cross-border invasion in a declared attempt to push the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militants away from border areas. Ankara views the US-backed YPG as a terrorist organization tied to the homegrown Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region in Turkey since 1984. More than 200,000 people have been internally displaced by the Turkish-led offensive, according to the United Nations. On October 22 last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, signed a memorandum of understanding that asserted the YPG militants had to withdraw from the Turkish-controlled "safe zone" in northeastern Syria within 150 hours, after which Ankara and Moscow would run joint patrols around the area. Syria finds US-made TOW missiles in southern region Separately, Syrian government officials have discovered a considerable amount of weapons, including US-built TOW anti-tank missiles, while conducting clean-up operations in the southern sector of the war-ravaged Arab country. SANA reported that heavy machine guns, assault rifles, night-vision goggles, binoculars, anti-tank missiles, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), anti-tank landmines, communication devices and hundreds of kilograms of hashish were seized in the area. Syrian government officials also seized major stocks of Western-made weapons and munitions, including American TOW anti-tank missiles, last month while they were conducting clean-up operations in the country's southwestern provinces of Dara'a, Suwayda and Quneitra. SANA, citing an informed source speaking on condition of anonymity, reported on May 19 that the weapons were found as Syrian army troops were combing formerly militant-held areas. Among the seized weapons were heavy machineguns, submachine guns, US-made BGM-71 TOW anti-tank guided missiles, Israeli-built M72 LAW portable anti-tank rockets, landmines, rocket propelled grenade (RPG) launchers, automatic rifles, sniper rifles, hand grenades and ammunition of various calibers. Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding the Takfiri terrorist groups that are wreaking havoc in the country. The government forces have already managed to undo militant gains across the country and bring back most of Syrian soil under government control. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Funding will be used to accelerate international growth, product development and technology innovation to help empower financial services in a new era of digital connectedness Appway, a leading global provider of business process automation software focused on customer onboarding and customer lifecycle management for financial institutions, today announced a $37 million minority investment from global growth equity firm Summit Partners. This partnership represents Appway's first external capital raise and will help the company to further expand its product portfolio and accelerate international growth while maintaining the entrepreneurial spirit that has driven the company's continuous advancement since 2003. Headquartered in Switzerland with eight offices around the globe, Appway provides software designed to support the digital transformation of customer-focused organizations across the financial services industry. Ten out of 25 of the largest wealth managers in the world trust the company's award-winning software suite to aid the digitization, automation and acceleration of core business processes, such as the onboarding of new clients, managing changing client circumstances and regulatory reviews. Industry-leading institutions, including Credit Suisse, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, LGT, LPL Financial and Deutsche Bank, rely on Appway to improve customer experience and boost internal efficiencies while helping to maintain compliance with complex industry regulations. Leveraging an extensive community of consulting, implementation and technology partners, Appway gives access to a comprehensive ecosystem to support the digitization of organizations around the world. Appway will use this new funding to support expansion initiatives in core markets around the world, including Europe, the APAC region and focusing on North America. Additionally, Appway will continue to invest in its software, leveraging cloud economics and flexibility to support real-time innovation for its customers and partners. "Since its very first day, the Appway team has been driven by our mission to connect people, systems and data to automate workflows across teams and touchpoints," said Hans Peter Wolf, Appway's founder and CEO. "We look forward to leveraging Summit's extensive experience scaling global software businesses in the financial services industry to expand our vision of 'Connecting the Disconnected' and help more institutions embrace their digital future." Appway is designed to help customers create business applications in a scalable and flexible way. By assembling and configuring reusable components, Appway helps businesses to automate and adapt complex customer-centric workflows across touchpoints and channels. In a high-touch industry where customer service is a key competitive differentiator, Appway's customers have reduced their client onboarding time by 90% and have driven meaningful and measurable uplift in customer lifetime value across the full client spectrum, from individual accounts to households and complex business structures. "Over the past decade, financial institutions have had to adapt core business processes to comply with increasingly rigorous regulations and oversight related to customer identity verification (e.g., KYC), onboarding, risk and compliance," said Steffan Peyer, a Principal at Summit Partners who will join the Appway Board of Directors. "We believe that Appway has developed a versatile and scalable platform, helping its customers to onboard clients faster, automate regulatory compliance processes and reduce costs." "Unlike general purpose low-code development platforms, Appway seeks to address core pain points in the financial services industry by automating the flow of work to revolutionize the customer experience and drive digital transformation across organizations," added Dr. Matthias Allgaier, a Managing Director at Summit Partners who will also join the Appway Board of Directors. "We believe the company has delivered impressive, consistent capital efficient growth, and we are thrilled to partner with Hans Peter Wolf, his co-founder Oliver Brupbacher and the entire Appway team." About Appway By automating workflows across people, systems, and data, Appway gives financial services businesses everything they need to get the job done and provide exceptional experiences at every touchpoint. Its award-winning software is trusted by 10 of the top 25 wealth managers to digitize, automate, and accelerate core business processes, such as the onboarding of new clients, managing changing client circumstances, and regulatory reviews. With its reusable components, Appway allows firms to create business applications in a scalable and flexible way. Industry-leading institutions including Credit Suisse, HSBC, BNY Mellon, Manulife, LGT, and LPL Financial rely on Appway to improve customer experience and boost internal efficiencies in full compliance with complex industry regulations. Headquartered in Switzerland with offices around the globe, Appway serves customers while collaborating with an extensive ecosystem of consulting, implementation, and technology partners. For more information, please see www.appyway.com or follow us on LinkedIn. About Summit Partners Founded in 1984, Summit Partners is a global alternative investment firm that is currently managing more than $20 billion in capital dedicated to growth equity, fixed income and public equity opportunities. Summit invests across growth sectors of the economy and has invested in more than 500 companies in healthcare, technology and other growth industries. Notable business and financial technology companies backed by Summit Partners include 360T Group, Acturis, Calypso Technology, Clearwater Analytics, FleetCor Technologies, Flow Traders, Invoice Cloud, Multifonds, Signavio and Vestmark. Summit maintains offices in North America and Europe and invests in companies around the world. For more information, please see www.summitpartners.com or follow on LinkedIn. In the United States of America, Summit Partners operates as an SEC-registered investment advisor. In the United Kingdom, this document is issued by Summit Partners LLP, a firm authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Summit Partners LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with registered number OC388179 and its registered office is at 11-12 Hanover Square, London, W1S 1JJ, UK. This document is intended solely to provide information regarding Summit Partners' potential financing capabilities for prospective portfolio companies. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005173/en/ Contacts: Media Contacts Andreas Punter Andreas.Punter@appway.com www.appway.com/contact Meg Devine mdevine@summitpartners.com When play resumed today in the latest $2,100 Sunday Warm-Up Event on Pokerstars, it looked to be Steve "Mr. Tim Caum" O'Dwyer's title to lose, as he came into the day with a comfortable chip lead over the field. On the opposite side, Brazilian pro Joao Simao came into the day as one of the shorter stacks, and was likely hoping to just make the final table. Simao was able to double up early, and he never looked back, defeating O''Dwyer heads up to take home over $150,000. Below you will see how the final table played out. SCOOP Event 120-H Final Table Results Place Player Country Payout 1 Joao "IneedMassari" Simao Brazil $150,547 2 Steve "Mr. Tim Caum" O'Dwyer Ireland $112,819 3 Job "DeadNylan" Greben Netherlands $84,546 4 "mikki696" Austria $63,359 5 Matt "OLD TIME GIN" Stone Canada $47,381 6 ArtHouse2011 Ireland $35,582 7 "jwall888" Canada $26,665 8 Andres "wisopekeno!" Gonzalez Spain $19,983 9 "m.a-0000" Canada $14,975 Simao actually started the table as the short stack, but he would double up on one of the first hands of the final table, when he won a big coin flip against "m.a-0000." He would go on to double up again later with pocket queens against O'Dwyer, but without question, the biggest hand for Simao came when he cracked the pocket aces of Matt "OLD TIME GIN" Stone. Simao and O'Dwyer were virtually even heads up, but Simao pulled away quickly, before eventually finishing O'Dwyer off in a hand where the Irishman flopped two pair, but his Brazilian foe made a full house on the river. Congratulations to Joao Simao on his impressive victory, and thank you to everyone who tuned into the live coverage here at Pokernews! Joliet Mayor Bob ODekirk said Monday that what began as a peaceful protest at the intersection of Larkin Avenue and Jefferson Street turned violent as protest organizers pleaded for calm from those who assembled. While peaceful protesters left the area, others took to the streets, hurling bottles, chunks of asphalt, M-80 explosives and rocks at police officers, ODekirk said, noting he saw at least one officer being struck by a thrown rock. Australia is investigating a US police attack on two Australian television journalists outside the White House, the foreign minister said Tuesday, expressing "strong concerns" about the assault caught live on camera. "We have asked the Australian embassy in Washington, DC to investigate this incident," Marise Payne said after the journalists were slammed with a riot shield, punched and hit with a baton while broadcasting from the protest. "I want to get further advice on how we would go about registering Australia's strong concerns with the responsible local authorities in Washington," she said, indicating a formal complaint would follow. Footage showed 7NEWS reporter Amelia Brace being clubbed with a truncheon and cameraman Tim Myers being hit with a riot shield and punched in the face by police clearing Washington's Lafayette Square of protesters on Monday. The journalists said they were later shot with rubber bullets and tear-gassed, which Brace said left the pair "a bit sore". The incident was widely broadcast in Australia, causing consternation in a country that has been a close US ally. US police -- with support from military personnel -- had forcibly cleared the square of peaceful protesters to allow President Donald Trump to leave the White House for a photo opportunity. Trump has faced fierce criticism for his handling of week-long protests over the death in custody of an unarmed African-American man in Minneapolis. George Floyd died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. In several cities, the demonstrations have spiralled into rioting, violent confrontations with police and looting, prompting National Guard deployments to around two dozen US states and strictly enforced curfews. Payne steered clear of criticising Trump directly, highlighting the delicate balancing act US allies face when registering unease with his administration. "This is obviously a very troubling period in the United States and a very tough period at so many levels," she told ABC radio. "We are always supportive of people's right to peaceful protest and we encourage all involved on both sides to exercise restraint and avoid violence." Search Keywords: Short link: We use a range of cookies to give you the best possible browsing experience. By continuing to use this website, you agree to our use of cookies. You can learn more about our cookie policy here, or by following the link at the bottom of any page on our site. See our updated Privacy Policy here. Two arrests last month, one in the UK and the other in Murcia, have wound up the inquiry into the murder of a British man in Mijas on 21 November last year. The 39-year-old, who had a criminal record in the UK, was shot five times while he was inside his car outside his house in Calle Orfebre, Riviera del Sol. A joint investigation between the British andSpanish authorities identified the two suspects, both UK nationals who, the Guardia Civil believe, were sent to the Costa del Sol by a drug trafficking organisation to kill the victim. Detectives believe that the murder was part of an ongoing battle between two rival gangs over control of marijuana trafficking between Spain and the UK. The careful choice of the time and place of the shooting showed, according to the Guardia Civil, the criminal experience and sang-froid of the two suspects. Officers believe that the pair travelled from the UK to Barcelona from where they drove to the Costa del Sol in a rental vehicle. They followed their victim for days, studying his movements and routines, before shooting him as he arrived home. The first suspect was arrested in the UK and jailed for previous offences. A European arrest warrant is being processed so that he can be tried by Spanish courts for the murder committed inSpain. The second suspect had been travelling over the last few months, visiting different European and South American countries. When the state of alarm was declared he returned to Spain, living in a village near Murcia. He was arrested in a property used for the preparation of marijuana shipments. At the time of his arrest, officers found 20 kilos of the drug in vacuum packs. Another member of the trafficking organisation was also arrested. The arrests were the result of a joint operation between the Guardia Civil in Malaga and Murcia and the Manchester police. Chechnyas strongman leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has made an unexpected foray into US politics by suggesting that Donald Trump might have a thing or two to learn from him about human rights. In a social media post published early on Tuesday morning, Mr Kadyrov demanded American authorities put an end to mayhem and illegal actions against citizens. Police are lynching people right on the streets of American cities, he wrote. They are strangling citizens, beating them up, ramming them with cars. Mr Kadyrov called on international institutions and the United Nations to intervene to protect against human rights violations ... and extrajudicial executions. The comments will have surprised many of his compatriots in Chechnya, the Islamic republic on Russias southern border, where he has a long history of crushing dissent and systematic human-rights violations. Mr Kadyrov has been accused of being responsible for the killings of several prominent critics, including the journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was gunned down at her Moscow home in 2006; activist Natalya Estemirova, abducted from her home in Chechnya in 2009; and opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was shot near the Kremlin in 2015. Some of the worlds toughest dictators can now legitimately use Minneapolis as the basis for demanding respect for human rights Ekaterina Sokirianskaia, longtime observer of Chechnya The Chechen leader has also been credibly linked to the abduction, torture and murder of LGBT+ people living in Chechnya in a series of purges beginning in 2017. In an interview with HBO, Mr Kadyrov attempted to brush off the allegations by claiming no such people existed in Chechnya. This no-nonsense style has been on display in recent weeks too. Erring on the stricter side of a Covid-19 lockdown, Mr Kadyrov first sent his feared security forces to patrol Chechen streets with sticks. Then, he suggested executing those who failed to self-isolate properly. In May, he appeared to succumb to the virus himself, although he doggedly refused to admit falling ill. Ekaterina Sokirianskaia, director of the Conflict Analysis and Prevention Centre and an experienced observer of Chechnya, said US authorities had potentially opened themselves up to a charge of hypocrisy. Sadly, the situation in Minneapolis has deteriorated to such an extent that some of the worlds toughest dictators can now legitimately use it to demand respect for human rights from President Trump, she said. If the US fails to deal with its domestic challenge in line with the high principles it promotes worldwide, the devaluation of human rights will be catastrophic. This year TV was even more important than usual during the holy month due to the lockdown but, just as in previous years, social media played the most prominent role in assessing and endorsing programmes. Debates centred as much on the content of shows as the appearance of the stars whose sometimes inappropriately extravagant style against a backdrop of austerity Reham Haggag as an advertising executive wearing the latest Dior, Gucci, Armani and Chanel in Mohamed Alis When We Were Younger, also starring Mahmoud Hemeida and Khaled Al-Nabawi was the subject of criticism. According to fellow actress Salwa Mohamed Alis Facebook, in one scene Haggags Dior purse made it impossible to concentrate on the acting: It even took half the frame. But in the story of five American University in Cairo graduates who start working for their professor Selim Mansour, whose illegal activities come to the fore when a murder takes place, Haggag argued the bag and especially its colour played a crucial role in the scene. This was hardly convincing. One Facebook viewer wrote, I work at an advertising agency just like the characters of When We Were Younger, but I have never seen a colleague or client dressed like that. The same criticism was levelled at Nelly Karim, who plays the lead, Sokkar, in Kamla Abu Zikris comic Multifaceted, starring Asser Yassin, Ola Roshdi, and Donia Maher. A professional swindler who joins forces with Omar (Yassin) and several others for bigger and bigger heists, Sokkar wears expensive clothes and accessories. This prompted Karim to appear in a $5,085 Gucci jacket. As a wealthy woman being plotted against by her family, Ahd, in Sameh Abdel-Azizs The Betrayal of Ahd starring Hala Shiha, Abeer Sabri and Bayoumi Fouad long-time star Yousra too appeared in a Dolce & Gabbana dress, at one point also wearing an expensive wedding dress designed by top fashion designer Hani Al-Beheiri. Perhaps Dina Al-Sherbinys appearance in Tamer Ashri and Ahmed Shafiks Forgetfulness Game starring Ahmed Dawoud and Injy Al-Moqaddem was the most controversial of the lot, however. Playing Rukaya who on waking up from a four-month coma that started when her husband was murdered remembers nothing of the past six years of her life she appears with some 13 designer purses ranging in price from $1,570 to $5,500. Another subject of social media criticism and parody was a four-minute advertisement for Madinaty, one of the compounds established by the Talaat Mustafa Group, headed by the Egyptian businessman Hisham Talaat Mustafa. Directed by Mark Chalhoub and costing LE300,000 (according to company statements), it shows drone images of the compound and interviews with overjoyed residents who, though supposedly middle-class, make offensively classist and discriminatory statements denigrating fellow citizens: Everyone here looks the same; On my return from London Madinaty was the only place I could live in; Im happy to be here for a year without stepping outside... Playing two lead roles in Yasser Fahmys The End Egypts first science fiction series, also starring Amr Abdel-Gelil, Sahar Al-Sayegh, Ahmed Wafik, Nahed Al-Sebaai and Mohamed Lotfi actor Youssef Al-Sherif, who has been known to counsel prayer rather than watching TV during Ramadan, courted controversy by reportedly refusing to engage in any tactile contact with female actresses, so that even when the character is injured his girlfriend does not touch him. Through a fake Twitter account in the name of actress Sahar Al-Sayegh, the rumour spread to the effect that Al-Sherif, who plays an engineer engaged in solving the worlds energy problem and his robotic doppelganger, made it a condition of his contract with the director that there should be no physical contact between him and any female actress. Another moral issue concerned Cottonils underwear advertisement featuring Jordanian actress Mais Hamdan lustfully viewing her handsome neighbour through binoculars which having been accused of violating personal dignity, Egyptian culture and social customs and traditions ended up being cut, with two scenes removed following the Consumer Protection Agency threatening to take action against company head Bassel Samakia. *A version of this article appears in print in the 4 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: EDWARDSVILLE The inclusion of Madison County in Gov. J.B. Pritzkers emergency disaster declaration because of civil unrest in other parts of the state specifically Chicago caught local officials by surprise. On Monday Pritzker announced a disaster declaration including Madison and eight other Illinois counties. But officials with the county, the sheriffs department and Emergency Management said they had not requested any assistance. In addition to Madison County, the order includes Champaign, Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Macon, Sangamon and Will counties. The declaration stated there had been protests in the nine named counties, and some outbreaks of violence and civil unrest had been reported. The unrest stems from the May 25 death of George Floyd after Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin restrained him on the ground by putting a knee of his neck for almost 10 minutes. It is the latest incident involving blacks killed or severely injured by white police officers using questionable or improper tactics. Chauvin was fired and later charged with manslaughter and third degree murder. Widespread protests have evolved into rioting and looting in many parts of the country. In a press conference Monday, Pritzker noted a surge of destructive action, notably looting over the past 24 hours in Illinois. He specifically cited Chicago, but said it has been reported in other areas of the state too. Pritzker said he had deployed 375 members of the Illinois National Guard to Chicago to help law enforcement and was making an additional 250 guardsmen available for other areas of the state. He also said the Illinois State Police was making 300 state troopers available to assist local law enforcement. Late Monday, several Madison County officials said it was the first they had heard of the declaration and it had not been requested. They noted the county has been relatively quiet despite its proximity to St. Louis and St. Louis County which has seen demonstrations, looting and arson. Peaceful protests have been held in Edwardsville and Alton, with more planned this week. The only incidents reported was Thursday night vandalism in Troy and a sometimes-unruly crowd Monday night at Ketchums Corner Kreem, an Alton ice cream store whose owner allegedly made racially insensitive Facebook posts. Alton Police Chief Jason Simmons on Tuesday said Pritzkers announcement was a shock to me and the mayor. Madison County officials met Tuesday morning to discuss the declaration. Were communicating and preparing; thats what we need to be doing, said Madison County Board Chairman Kurt Prenzler. Were hoping that things settle down in St. Louis. The declaration allows the coordination of resources if needed. Were still planning at this stage, said Madison County Emergency Management Director Tony Falconio. The disaster declaration for us kind of puts us at an advantage should the need arise. The announcement also caught some state legislators by surprise. I have called the governors office and told him we do not want or need the National Guard here, said State Sen. Rachelle Crowe, D-Glen Carbon. Ive also told IEMA (Illinois Emergency Management Agency) that local government is telling IEMA the same. Some information for this story provided by reporter Sanford Schmidt. An Uber Eats delivery driver has been kicked in the face and robbed by a man armed with a knife. Police released footage of the moment the 20-year-old man was approached by another man wearing a jumper and red Converse shoes while he sat out the front of Wentworthville Railway Station in Sydney's west. The robber kicked him in the face, sending the man's phone flying. He then pulled a knife out of his pocket and held it in his hand while standing over the delivery driver. The robber kicked him in the face, sending the man's phone flying A conversation ensued before the Uber Eats driver, with his hands raised in the air, was forced to walk to a nearby ATM to withdraw cash. The Uber Eats driver was able to escape and ran into a pizza shop to call for help. The robber then snatched the helmet and backpack and before fleeing the scene on the stolen delivery scooter. The scooter was last seen turning into a park near Finlaysons Creek, a short drive from the station. An inaudible conversation ensued before the Uber Eats driver, with hands raised in the air, was forced to walk to a nearby ATM to withdraw cash Police are now appealing for public assistance to locate the robber. They shared footage and pictures of the assault, including one which appears to show the bottom half of the offender's face. His eyes are covered by a black cap and hoodie. Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Uber for further information. Confederate monument removal part 3. Posted by al.com on Monday, June 1, 2020 Workers on Monday night began the process of taking down the 115-year-old Confederate Soldiers and Sailors monument in Birminghams Linn Park - the focal point of protests that turned into unrest in the city Sunday night and early Monday. The process to remove the monument started on the 212th birthday - on June 1 - of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy. Davis birthday is still celebrated as a state holiday in Alabama. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin vowed to work quickly to remove the Confederate monument demonstrators tried to tear down Sunday night, though he did not give a time frame or specifics. As of Monday evening, concrete barricades were being brought in to block off the streets surrounding the park and a flatbed truck bearing the name of a demolition company sat idle in front of Birmingham City Hall, as did at least one other piece of heavy machinery. A large crane arrived and just after 10 p.m. the top section of the obelisk was removed. The second section was removed an hour later followed by a smaller one. But workers struggled to get the third, and largest section, removed. Once it was placed by the crane on the flatbed, the trailer shifted to one side. After getting that situated with the crane and a heavy lifter, workers stopped for the night about 3 a.m. today. Work is expected to continue later today to remove the base of the statue and steps where a Bible, Confederate flag, and Birmingham newspapers were placed inside the cornerstone when it was built. Workers on Monday night began the process of taking down the 115-year-old Confederate Soldiers and Sailors monument in Birminghams Linn Park.(Ian Hoppe | ihoppe@al.com) About an hour before the crane arrived nearly a dozen protesters were arrested in the park. The monument in Linn Park has been the subject of a legal fight between Birmingham and the Alabama Attorney Generals Office over a state historical monuments law. The City of Birmingham has wanted it removed but has lost a legal fight with the Alabama Attorney Generals Office. As protesters efforts failed to remove the statue Sunday night, comedian Jermaine FunnyMaine Johnson told the crowd gathered there that Woodfin had asked for 24 hours to get the monuments removed. He was met with some resistance as protesters wanted to move forward with the destruction. Demonstrators did chip away at the monument and spray painted words on it before attempts to topple to tall obelisk failed. Johnson, who earlier on Sunday had suggested to a crowd that the monument should be removed, told the crowd later that night that the mayor and his team deserved that time to get it done legally but he finished by saying, But if that shit aint down by Tuesday morning, I will see you here at 12 Tuesday. Woodfin on Monday said, The Legislature enacted a law that prevented cities from removing Confederate statues in the state of Alabama for all 169 cities, so Birmingham is not alone in this fight. Moving forward, what took place in the park put many of the residents and the peaceful protesters in physical danger. In addition to that, it could possible put our officers in danger. In order to prevent more civil unrest, it is very imperative that we remove this statue in Linn Park. That has a cost to it Woodfin said. I understand the AGs office can bring a civil suit against the city and if theres a judgement rendered from a judge, then we should be held accountable and I am willing to accept that because that is a lower cost than civil unrest in our city. AL.com coverage of protests Following Woodfins Monday-morning press conference, Attorney General Steve Marshall said the Alabama Monuments Preservation Act provides a singular avenue for enforcement the filing of a civil complaint in pursuit of a fine - which the Alabama Supreme Court has determined to be a one-time assessment of $25,000. The Act authorizes no additional relief. Should the City of Birmingham proceed with the removal of the monument in question, based upon multiple conversations I have had today, city leaders understand I will perform the duties assigned to me by the Act to pursue a new civil complaint against the city, Marshall said. In the aftermath of last nights violent outbreak, I have offered the City of Birmingham the support and resources of my office to restore peace to the city. A Go Fund Me page was created to help the city pay any fines. By 10 p.m. Monday the account had raised nearly $45,000 of a goal of $50,000. Once collected the $50,000 raised here will be sent to Birmingham City for the fine that will be incurred with the statues removal from Linn Park. Anything beyond that $50,000 that is raised will go to Faith in Action Alabama in their multi-faith and multi-racial work to end systemic racism in Alabama. The statue was dedicated in 1905 after years of fundraising efforts led by prominent Birmingham citizens gathered $4,000. At the dedication, there was a parade of 1,000, including Birmingham students, police and firefighters. The manner of their death, was the crowning glory of their lives, a quote from Confederate President Jefferson Davis reads on one of the obelisks inscriptions. The Alabama Supreme Court in 2019 ruled that the city of Birmingham violated Alabamas monument protection law when it placed a plywood screen around the monument in Linn Park in August 2017. The court said the city would have to pay a $25,000 fine. The plywood was placed there on orders of former Birmingham Mayor William Bell after the state passed the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act in 2017 in response to removals and calls for removal of Confederate monuments on public property. Marshall filed a lawsuit against Birmingham for block the view of the monument. Protests over the death of George Floyd a week earlier by a Minnesota police officer turned toward take down of the monument. On Monday, a steady stream of onlookers filed past the defaced monument from dawn until past dusk following the overnight riots in the city. Late Monday afternoon, The Birmingham Foot Soldiers, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Birmingham Urban League and the National Action Network addressed the unrest and again called for the monument to be removed. Those who spoke at the press conference included William Barnes, Urban Leagues CEO, Jefferson County Commissioner Sheila Tyson, Isaiah Armstrong of the Foot Soldiers and longtime civil rights activist Bishop Calvin Woods of the SCLC. The people of this city demand this monument be removed, Barnes said, so were going on record, the civil rights community, and were asking all leadersto have this monument removed immediately. It is nothing more than scratching the sore of what weve seen in this community for multiple years, he said. And with the recent deaths of many across the nation, we say enough is enough. We are done dying and were done being reminded of the atrocities against African Americans. With the impending landfall of Cyclone Nisarga in the next 24 hours, authorities are racing against time to deal with it and ensure minimum damage to life and property from the cyclonic storm. Nisarga is expected to make landfall very close to Alibagh in Maharashtra on the afternoon of June 3. An alert has been sounded in Mumbai, its suburban districts, Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts in view of the cyclonic storm. According to the Met department, there is a possibility of extremely heavy rain in these districts on June 3 and 4 under the impact of the cyclone. Along with Maharashtra and Gujarat governments, agencies like the NDRF and the NDMA, the armed forces have also geared up to deal assist in the relief and rescue operations. To that end, Indian Navys Western Naval Command has mobilised adequate resources for flood relief, rescue and diving assistance in the event of excessive rainfall and flooding of both urban and rural areas in coordination with the respective state governments on the Western seaboard. According to a press release, In Mumbai, the Navy will be on standby with five Flood Rescue Teams and three Diving Teams throughout the monsoon season. These teams are stationed at various naval areas across the city to enable early response over a larger area. These teams are fully equipped and have been trained for rescue operations. Recce of known flood-prone areas has been undertaken and all necessary preparations are in place. Similar arrangements have been set up within the Karwar Naval Area, the Goa Naval Area as well as Gujarat Daman and Diu Naval Areas. The respective Area and Station Commanders are in touch with the State authorities, NDRF and SDRF to be able to respond to a crisis situation in the shortest possible time, the press release said. Meanwhile, 2700 people from Alibaug where Cyclone Nisarga is expected to make a landfall, have been evacuated to nearest relief centres. Fifteen teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed in Maharashtra to deal with the situation after Nisarga makes a landfall. (Photo : Screenshot from Twitter post of @cbleiker) Peaceful Demonstrators Were Dispersed By US Police Using Rubber Bullets and Tear Gas; One Person Killed In Kentucky As Police Returned Fire (Photo : Screenshot from Twitter post of @Dacheslow) Peaceful Demonstrators Were Dispersed By US Police Using Rubber Bullets and Tear Gas; One Person Killed In Kentucky As Police Returned Fire United States Police dispersed peaceful protesters near the White House on Monday, June 1, using rubber bullets and tear gas. According to Reuters' latest report, the U.S. government vowed to end violent protests over the death of a black man in police custody using a massive show of force. U.S. President Donald Trump stated that he would deploy the military to end unrest in major cities across the nation if state governors refuse to call out the National Guard. "Mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled," said Trump. "If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them," he added. President Trump walked from the White House to nearby St. John's Episcopal Church as a safe passage was actioned by the U.S. Police, along with officials U.S. Attorney General William Barr. The death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American, who died in Minneapolis custody after being pinned for nine minutes under an officer's knee, sparked anti-police brutality rallies and marches that turned violent over the last week. Peaceful demonstrators were dispersed by US Police using rubber bullets and tear gas; One person killed in Kentucky as police returned fire According to Reuters, dozens of cities across the U.S. remain under curfews at levels not seen since the 1986 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., which triggered riots that pushed the National Guard to be deployed in 23 states and Washington, D.C. One person was killed when the police and National Guard troops returned fire, trying to disperse a crowd in Louisville, Kentucky. Derek Chauvin, a since-fired 44-year-old officer, was arrested and charged with second-degree manslaughter and third-degree murder. The death of George Floyd sparked protesters while the country was easing sweeping lockdowns to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. People visited Cup Foods, the scene of Floyd's death, on June 1 to pay respect, leaving signs and flowers to honor George Floyd. "I'll fight with you," a little girl wrote in the road using aqua blue chalk. "Let's do this another way," said Terrence Floyd, the victim's brother. He told the people to get educated, vote, and not destroy their own communities. The Bureau of Prisons was directed by the U.S. Justice Department to send riot-control teams in Washington, D.C., and Miami, to manage the protests. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. India voices serious concern over increasing spread of terrorism in Africa at UN UN peacekeeping chief says India has great potential for more cooperation UN report vindicates India's position that Pak epicentre of global terrorism: MEA India pti-PTI New Delhi, June 02: Indian on Tuesday said a UN report on terrorism has vindicated its long-standing position that Pakistan remained the epicentre of international terrorism, saying terrorist entities and individuals continue to enjoy safe havens in that country. According to the report, Pakistan-based terror groups Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba are engaged in trafficking fighters into Afghanistan who are threatening to derail the peace process in the war-torn country. Jessica Lal case convict Manu Sharma to be released prematurely, LG accepts | Oneindia News "This vindicates India's long standing position that Pakistan remains the epicentre of international terrorism," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said. In response to media queries on the report, he said proscribed terrorist entities and individuals continue to enjoy safe havens and and operate with impunity from Pakistan with state support. Terrorist trying to infiltrate from Pakistan killed by Indian Army "They inflict violence and spread terrorism in the region and other parts of the world. Pakistan has failed in fulfilling its international obligations, including under relevant UNSC resolutions and the Financial Action Task Force, to put an end to support to terrorism," he said. Srivastava said the international community should hold Pakistan accountable and seek sustained, verifiable and irreversible action by Pakistan against terrorism. The 25th report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team concerning ISIL (Da'esh), Al Qaeda and associated individuals and entities, was submitted to the UN Security Council. "We note with serious concern reference in the report to the continued presence of the senior leadership of the UN designated terrorist organisation Al Qaeda and its affiliates in Afghanistan as well as a large number of foreign terrorist fighters, including up to 6500 Pakistan nationals, operating in Afghanistan," Srivastava said. Error. Page cannot be displayed. Please contact your service provider for more details. (21) KYODO NEWS - Jun 1, 2020 - 23:25 | Japan, All Information on the communications networks of Japan's Self-Defense Forces may have been leaked since an NTT Communications Corp. server in the country was accessed without authorization in mid-December, sources close to the matter said Monday. The leak could have occurred up to the point in May when the Japanese provider of technology solutions detected cyberattacks. An internal probe by the affiliate of Nippon Telegraph and Telecom Corp., Japan's telecommunications giant, found indications that information stored on the server had been stolen by a third party, the sources said. The revelation came after NTT Communications said in late May that information regarding 621 client companies and organizations may have been leaked due to unauthorized access to its servers, but it did not release any of the names citing the need to maintain confidentiality. The domestic server contained information about communications devices at a Maritime Self-Defense Force facility in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, as well as of communication lines in about 10 SDF locations, sources with knowledge of the situation said earlier. The Defense Ministry is investigating the case with the company suspecting that the possible leak could affect the operations of the SDF communication system. On Monday, the sources said the hacking followed a series of cyberattacks on its servers in other countries. NTT Communications' ongoing probe has found that a server in Thailand was hacked via a server in Singapore in September 2019, according to the sources. Three months later, a server in the United States was accessed without authorization via the Thai server, before the Japanese server was attacked, they said. In response to a question from Kyodo News, an NTT Communications spokesperson admitted that the server in Singapore was used in the intrusion as it was about to be removed and its security had not been updated at the time. Related coverage: U.S. alerts researchers to protect virus study from Chinese hackers U.S., Germany got secrets via encryption devices sold to 120 nations Int'l group agrees to control military software exports In just a few days, bail funds across the country have received tens of millions of dollars in donations after the killing of George Floyd, a black man, while in police custody in Minneapolis. The influx of donations is so large in such a short period of time that some funds, including the Minnesota Freedom Fund and the Brooklyn Bail Fund, are asking people to donate to other organizations and causes that need the money more. The Minneapolis Freedom Fund received $20 million in donations between Wednesday, May 27, and Monday, June 1, the New York Times reported. The swell in donations comes in large part from people publicizing their donations on platforms like Twitter and Instagram and encouraging their followers to match their donations, Octavia Smith, emeritus board president of the Minnesota Freedom Fund, told the New York Times. Celebrities, including Chrissy Teigen, comedian John Mulaney and actress Stephanie Beatriz, who plays a police officer on "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," have also publicized the funds and encouraged their millions of followers to donate. Bail funds are charitable organizations that collect money to pay for the release of people who have been arrested as they await trial. Around 450,000 people who have not been convicted of a crime remain in jail each day in the U.S. because they cannot afford to pay bail, according to the ACLU. Activists, too, are harnessing the outpouring of donations to support other causes, including mutual aid groups, such as NYC United Against Coronavirus and NYC Mutual Aid Network. These volunteer groups provide resources and financial assistance to those in need in their communities. Donations to mutual aid groups can be used to pay for medical bills, rent and other necessities. After hearing from a friend at a bail fund that the organization had received more donations than it could use "for the foreseeable future," Lydia Mason, 21, started encouraging people on Twitter to donate to mutual aid groups nationwide. "You almost forget that we're in the middle of Covid-19 and there are so many people who need help," Mason tells CNBC Make It. "It's not just about combating police brutality, but making sure the communities we're fighting for are supported beyond the next few weeks." tweet Mason, who has been organizing with the Black Lives Matter movement since she was 15, has attended a protest for George Floyd. But she lives with people who are immunocompromised and has decided it is too risky to keep going out. Raising money for bail funds and other organizations on social media is her way of continuing to support the movement. "I was feeling kind of frustrated with myself that I wasn't able to make as much of an impact," she says. "It's so important to me, so I decided to pivot to helping people learn how to donate money effectively." On Twitter and Instagram, Mason has witnessed fellow Gen Zers post screenshots of their donations and ask followers to match; others, who don't have as much money, have offered services or artwork to followers who can donate in their stead. The creativity people are showing is "amazing," she says. "It's really refreshing to see a new generation of people being so motivated to ignite change," she says. "There are a lot of ways to make our country better." Don't miss: Why activists are pushing for rent forgiveness during the coronavirus pandemic Photo from Getty Images SINGAPORE A man who harassed others on behalf of loansharks during the circuit breaker period admitted to his offences in court on Tuesday (2 June). A reformative training report was called for Chua Jun Yong, 20, who is currently serving national service with the Singapore Armed Forces after enlisting on 2 April. Chua pleaded guilty to a breach under the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act 2020, two counts under the Moneylenders Act and one each under the Road Traffic Act and the Motor Vehicles (Third-Party Risks and Compensation) Act. Three similar charges were taken into consideration for sentencing. According to Chuas lawyer Ng Shi Yang, his client had turned to loansharks for the first time in March, in a moment of desperation. (Chua) fully supports himself financially. At the material time when he borrowed from the loanshark, he was working as a food deliveryman, said Ng, who is from the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme fellowship. There was a slump in his earnings at that time. He therefore needed cash for his phone bill (which he relied on for work) and daily expenses...He did not expect the loanshark to turn on him, particularly when he had been making gradual repayments. When Chua met the unlicensed moneylender, known as Jasper, he initially took a loan of $800. However, he was unable to repay the instalment sums later. Jasper offered him work to harass other debtors and promised Chua to deduct $150 for each unit that was harassed. Chua was required to take a photograph of the harassment and send it to Jasper as proof. He agreed to harass eight apartment units to settle his total outstanding loan amount of $1,200. Chua rented a car for the acts of harassment. He did not have have a license or a valid insurance policy at the time. On 6 April, when he reached the locations, he would use a bicycle lock to lock the debtors gates and scribble on the wall with an indelible marker O$P$ along with the alleged debtors name. Story continues On 9 April, at around midnight, Chua left his house to harass another unit under Jaspers instructions. By then, Singapores circuit breaker had been in force for two days. Chua had left his residence without reasonable excuse, thus breaching the circuit breaker regulations. Mitigating for Chua, Ng turned to his clients pitiful upbringing. Chuas parents separated since he was three. His father brought him to Singapore, while his mother remained in Malaysia. His father, a bankrupt, did nothing to raise him nor did he provide for Chua. Jun Yong was forced to support himself at 14 years old (i.e. 2013) when, during an argument with his uncle (who lived in the same house), his uncle beat him up until he bled from his nose, said Ng. Chua then left home for his safety and stayed with his maternal aunt. He worked as an office clerk, at a stall at a night market, and at a workshop as an apprentice. In 2016, Chua was given reformative training for an undisclosed offence and three years later, he was fined $2,000 for affray. When he was arrested for his current offences, he was chased out of the house and told not to return, said Ng. Chua now stays with a friend. This episode has also had a sobering and maturing effect on Jun Yong. This is owed in no small part to the media exposure Jun Yong has received, ironically, given the medias interest in persons who breach circuit breaker regulations. Jun Yong is deeply embarrassed by the national attention on his actions. Chua will return to court on 9 June. Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore More Singapore stories: On The Mic: Family violence amid the COVID-19 pandemic (Part 1) 2 Don Don Donki outlets among 7 more places visited by COVID-19 cases FAQ: Your guide to Phase 1 reopening of Singapore after COVID-19 circuit breaker COVID-19: MOM draws up slew of measures for migrant workers to gradually resume work WASHINGTON - The Trump administration on Monday floated the idea of taking control of the D.C. police force to quell protests in the nation's capital, according to city officials. The government did not follow through with that threat, but did invoke its broad powers over the District of Columbia to send the National Guard and federal riot control police onto the streets. It was not immediately clear if the military troops were armed. John Falcicchio, the chief of staff for Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, confirmed the overture from the Trump administration on Tuesday. The District of Columbia is a federal enclave governed by a mayor and the council, but the federal law granting self-governance allows the president to take control of local police officers in emergency situations. "We believe we are firm in our understanding that what was presented yesterday would not be a prudent move," Falcicchio told reporters. "Although there were discussions yesterday, (D.C. police officers) still report to Mayor Bowser." President Donald Trump had signaled he was prepared to take some kind of military action in cities roiled by protests over the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. Although many of the demonstrations were peaceful, some devolved into looting, property destruction and rock and bricks thrown at police. Trump had sharply criticized the response by individual cities and states to the demonstrations, accusing some governors of being "weak" and telling them they should "dominate" unruly protests. In an interview Tuesday, D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham said the mayor "disagrees that the president has the authority to take over the police department. She believes it is a legal question to do that without her consent." Newsham, a nearly 30-year veteran of the force and police chief since 2017, would not say whether he would have resigned had Trump followed through on the threat. "We are living in unprecedented times," Newsham said on Tuesday. "I work for the mayor of the District of Columbia. I think her leadership has been exemplary, especially during the covid-19 crisis, and more recently the events we've seen sweep across the country." Newsham added, "I feel comfortable that I'm doing the best job I can possibly do to protect this city. I'm happy to do it today. I'm happy to do it tomorrow. I'm happy to do it well into the future." Officials said staff at the White House and at the Wilson Building, which is the District's city hall, began discussing a possible takeover before federal agencies, including the U.S. Park Police and the National Guard, forcefully cleared Lafayette Square Tuesday evening. They removed hundreds of protesters from the area around the park in front of the White House so Trump could walk to St. John's Episcopal Church across the street, where a fire had been set during the demonstrations Sunday night. The president posed in front of the church holding a Bible, but did not enter the building, which was empty and boarded up. Bowser, at a news conference Tuesday, did not directly address specifics of what she described as a "flurry of conversations" with officials in the White House and Justice Department over Trump's desire to deploy the National Guard, military troops and federal riot police to the District. But the mayor said she "absolutely" pushed back against those proposals. "We don't want armed military, we don't want any of those things on D.C. streets," she said. Newsham said D.C. officials "made it known at every meeting with regard to this event that we did not want the National Guard to be armed." The White House did not dispute the mayor's account. "We're glad to see that after two nights of inaction, riots and looting against innocent civilians - the president's actions restored order in the nation's capitol," a White House official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations. A second senior official said Trump was fixated on the rioting and raucous protests in D.C. streets and instructed his team to talk to city officials and the D.C. National Guard about how to stop it. Because of the city's unique status as a federal district, the D.C. National Guard is appointed by the president and can be deployed without the consent of D.C. officials. In states, that power rests with the governor. The 1973 Home Rule act, which granted the District limited autonomous authority, contains provisions for the "emergency control of police" via a federal takeover of the local force, which has nearly 4,000 sworn officers. To invoke that act, the president would have to determine that "special conditions of an emergency nature exist which require the use of the Metropolitan Police force for federal purposes." The president may "direct the mayor to provide him ... such services of Metropolitan police force as the president may deem necessary and appropriate." The takeover may last up to 48 hours and may be extended with approval of the members of Congress that oversee District affairs, the act states. Bowser said she did not believe the president can enact the emergency provision at will. She said she would regard such an action as "an affront to our limited home rule and to the safety of the District of Columbia." "I think you heard the president yesterday, that he wanted a show of force in D.C.," Bowser told reporters at her briefing. "We know they examined a lot of ways to do that. ... We all heard the ominous warning. I later was told they would be seeking National Guard support and federal police from other federal entities." The clearing of the park, which occurred a half-hour before a 7 p.m. curfew ordered by Bowser, pushed hundreds of peaceful protesters onto D.C. streets. D.C. police and other agencies set up riot-control lines and eventually began making arrests for curfew violations. Through the night and early morning hours, city streets were filled with police vehicles from many different law enforcement agencies and the National Guard. It was not immediately clear if they were under a single command. Newsham said numerous command posts with federal and local law enforcement were operating around the city. Bowser expressed concern about outside police forces that do not "share our values and are not accountable to the chief of police and to me." Bowser said the city asked for support from the National Guard to help at checkpoints and to manage traffic flow. "We did not, and we do not, want an armed guard for any purposes in the District of Columbia," she said. Several top federal officials made appearances on D.C. streets Monday night, including Attorney General William Barr. A military helicopter flew over the city, and at least once hovered at treetop level, scattering branches and creating a down draft - a technique that can be used to scatter people on the ground. "I did not find that to be helpful," Newsham said Tuesday. The chief said federal agencies were reporting to Barr, while the D.C. police reported to him. The National Guard assisted D.C. police. Newsham said decisions were coordinated and ran smoothly. In a Tuesday statement, Barr said the federal government would pour "greater law enforcement resources and support in the region tonight." He also praised D.C. police and said the District is "well served by this exceptional force." Bowser said the possibility of a federal takeover illustrated the importance of independent statehood for the District, a top political priority for the mayor and other D.C. elected officials that has been blocked by Republicans at the federal level. "The events of the last several days demonstrate that the fight for statehood is about more than getting two senators," Bowser said at the start of her news conference. "It's also about our right as taxpayer Americans to autonomy." - - - The Washington Post's Josh Dawsey contributed to this report. Hyderabad, June 2 : Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday urged the Centre to withdraw the proposed draft electricity amendment bill, saying this is neither in the public interest nor in the interest of state power utilities. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he voiced the state's serious concerns over amendments to the Electricity Act (Draft Electricity Bill Amendment Act 2020). He made it clear that this would have an adverse impact directly on the management of the state electricity organisations. Against the backdrop of the centre asking the states to express their opinion on the proposed draft Electricity Bill Amendment Act 2020, the Chief Minister, in his letter, stating that the proposed amendments to the Electricity Act, 2003 would have a direct bearing on the functioning of power sector. KCR, as Rao is popularly known, wrote that the bill takes away certain functions/powers of the state government. "The provision to appoint state electricity regulatory commission by a selection committee constituted by the government of India and entrusting the responsibilities to a neighbouring state electricity regulation commission under certain circumstances is hitting on the core of the federal polity, which is enshrined in the Constitution," reads the letter. "Merely a particular subject is in the concurrent list of the Constitution does not mean that the Government of India/Parliament will enact laws which have a direct and major influence on the functioning of the state government. We strongly oppose such a tendency," he wrote. The Chief Minister said the proposal to take away the functions of the state government in constituting State Electricity Regulatory Commission is against the spirit of federalism. Referring to the provision in the draft bill for the direct benefit transfer of subsidy provided to consumers, KCR wrote that this would work against the interest of farmers and very poor domestic consumers. "It has been the policy of Telangana government that the farmers should receive 24X7 free power. Mode of payment of the subsidy should be left to the state government. Any proposal to modify the current statute on this specific subject matter will be highly objectionable to our government," he said. He strongly opposed the provision that the Commission will fix the tariff for all the consumers without any subsidy. He pointed out that presently tariff fixation includes some cross subsidy to be borne by certain category of consumers. He demanded that discretion to levy cross subsidy on certain sections of consumers should be left to the state government. The Chief Minister conveyed that any national renewable energy policy should be formulated with explicit consent of the state governments, but not merely in consultation with the state governments. KCR also pointed out that the proposed bill would make National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC) all powerful with regard to scheduling of power throughout the country which will result in backing down of state thermal units. He demanded that intra-state transmissions decisions should be left to the SLDCs only. A person enters a store through a broken window, in New York City, New York, on June 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) George Floyd Protests Turn Violent Again, Trump Vows Tougher Response to Riots Peaceful protests sparked by anger over the police custody death of George Floyd again descended into furious riots after nightfall Monday in several U.S. cities, while the Trump administration vowed to mount a more forceful response to contain the chaos. We must never give in to anger or hatred. If malice or violence reigns, then none of us is free, President Donald Trump said at a Monday press conference, at which he urged mayors and governors to establish an overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled. The death of Floyd, a black man who died after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest last week, sparked widespread outrage. Chauvin was arrested and charged with second-degree manslaughter and third-degree murder, though that did little to temper the anger. The initially peaceful protests, expressing grief and anger over police brutality, have in many cases devolved into riots. Protests continued on June 1 in dozens of cities around the nation, including Atlanta, Buffalo, Detroit, Louisville, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, with occasional looting, arson, and vandalizing. The unrest in Minneapolis, where Floyd died during an arrest last week, seemed to stabilize on Monday, the same day his brother made an impassioned plea for peace, saying destruction is not going to bring my brother back at all. The Minneapolis National Guard posted a late-night message on Twitter, saying it was a quiet night for our service members. Thank you to everyone who peacefully protested and stayed safe at home. It was a quiet night for our service members. Thank you to everyone who peacefully protested and stayed safe at home. Our Airmen and Soldiers ran nearly two dozen missions across the Twin Cities last night. pic.twitter.com/00fFSs96fr MN National Guard (@MNNationalGuard) June 2, 2020 In New York City, nonviolent demonstrations were punctuated by people smashing storefront windows near Rockefeller Center and breaching the doors into the storied Macys store on 34th Street, littering parts of Manhattan with broken glass. A vehicle plowed through a group of law enforcement officers at a demonstration in Buffalo, injuring at least two. Demonstrations erupted in Philadelphia, where hundreds of protesters spilled onto a highway in the heart of the city; Nashville, where more than 60 National Guard soldiers put down their riot shields at the request of peaceful protesters who had gathered in front of Tennessees state Capitol to honor Floyd; and Atlanta, where police fired tear gas at demonstrators. Legendary civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis, a Democrat who represents Georgias 5th Congressional District that lies at the heart of Metro Atlanta, urged demonstrators to protest in a non-violent way. To the rioters here in Atlanta and across the country: I see you, and I hear you. I know your pain, your rage, your sense of despair and hopelessness, Lewis said in a May 30 statement, but insisted that rioting, looting, and burning is not the way. Be constructive, not destructive. History has proven time and again that non-violent, peaceful protest is the way to achieve the justice and equality that we all deserve, he said in a statement. Trump, in his remarks Monday, said that if local authorities were unable to quell the violence, federal troops might be brought in to restore order. If a city or a state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them, Trump said. Right now, America needs creation, not destruction; cooperation, not contempt; security, not anarchy, Trump said in a speech on Saturday. And there will be no anarchy. Civilization must be cherished, defended, and protected, he added. According to a count compiled by The Associated Press, as of Monday, at least 4,400 people have been arrested nationwide in connection with the unrest that was sparked by Floyds death. The several thousand arrests have been for such offenses as blocking highways, theft, and assault. The Associated Press contributed to this report. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Toronto entrepreneurs have launched Maskwell, a collaboration between air filter e-commerce startup PureFilters and marketing agency Now Creative Group, in response to the growing shortage of protective masks. Maskwell produces reusable locally designed masks for everyday life featuring high-efficiency air filters while supporting frontline healthcare workers with every purchase. Launched in April 2020, Maskwell entered the market as an accessible, affordable Canadian option for high-quality filter masks. Fitted with the same quality of materials used in MERV-13 filters, each mask comes with a set of replaceable filters, and the ability to subscribe for fresh filter refills. Created with its core values in mind, Maskwell thrives on being accessible community-driven and informative. The simple yet effective design highlights quality at the forefront of the Maskwell approach. With expertise from the founders of PureFilters, Maskwell promotes the important correlation between clean air and good health. As COVID-19 has affected communities, organizations and medical facilities across the country, Maskwells social impact is at the core of its operation. From day one, Maskwell partnered with The Home Front to provide PPE and medical supplies to charities working on the frontlines. Ten percent of all sales are being donated to The Home Front, with the first donation made within two weeks of launching pre-orders at getmaskwell.com. The Home Fronts co-founder and Executive Director of The Upside Foundation Jen Couldrey stated that the organization has been very impressed to see the team launch Maskwell so quickly to respond to one of the most urgent needs in the world right now. We are deeply humbled by their commitment to giving back to the organizations that need their support the most through the proceeds generated from this social enterprise. Huge kudos to them for stepping up and showing leadership during this time." The Maskwell team also participated in a national technology challenge by Canadians for the world called #HackTheCurve, to develop a solution that could alleviate some of the greatest difficulties being faced by Canadians as a consequence of COVID-19. Its been great to see the progress Maskwell has made since participating in the HackTheCurve program, said Shane Flynn, Ryerson DMZs Director of Incubator & Alumni Relations. The success theyre seeing commercially, and philanthropically through their donation program is a testament to the hustle and passion the team has. It was an absolute pleasure to be able to mentor them during the virtual program, and I cant wait to see what they accomplish going forward. For businesses currently open and scheduled to re-open, Maskwell provides corporate rates on masks that help protect employees in sectors such as retail, hospitality, delivery and other essential organizations. As businesses begin to re-open, Maskwell has committed to supporting local small businesses by running a mask giveaway for business owners and their staff. Nominations are being accepted through Instagram @getmaskwell. Nadir Chaudhry, the co-founder of PureFilters and Maskwell, was inspired to take action in launching the mask company. When worries of the pandemic started to materialize, I became aware of the massive problem of personal protective equipment shortages that front line workers were facing. Having quite a few doctors and nurses in my personal life, I was naturally concerned and wanted to do something about it. I realized it was possible to repurpose the high-efficiency filtration media we use at PureFilters and use it to create a filter on masks. After weeks of tireless communication with existing mask makers, I was unable to find the right partner. Ultimately I decided to create the perfect solution alongside the team at Maskwell: re-usable masks that feature high-efficiency replaceable filters. About Maskwell: Maskwell builds re-usable masks that feature high-efficiency replaceable filters to help keep people healthy during uncertain times. Launched in 2020, the company donates a portion of all sales to support those on the frontlines. About PureFilters: PureFilters was founded with a mission of making superior indoor air and water quality simple and affordable, as it is essential to wellbeing. Founded in 2013, the companys dedication to customer service and satisfaction has enabled PureFilters to become a household name in Canada. About Now Creative Group: Now Creative Group is fueled by entrepreneurial thinking and positive impact. The agency focuses on strategic branding paired with quality content to share stories, create change, and enable growth. Recipients of a Business Excellence Award and Social Good Design Award, Now was founded in 2013 and is based in Toronto. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-01 23:51:29|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A staff member tests samples of the COVID-19 inactivated vaccine at a vaccine production plant of China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) in Beijing, capital of China, April 11, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei) China's inactivated COVID-19 vaccine is expected to get ready for the market by the end of this year or early next year. BEIJING, June 1 (Xinhua) -- China's inactivated COVID-19 vaccine is expected to finish clinical trials and get ready for the market as early as the end of this year or early next year, according to developer China National Biotec Group (CNBG). As a subsidiary of the China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm), CNBG has two inactivated COVID-19 vaccines under Phase-2 clinical trials and has increased its vaccine production capacity. The company said more than 2,000 people have received the vaccines and clinical data has verified their safety and efficacy, showing that adverse reactions are far lower than other similar products. To increase manufacturing capacity, the company has built a large production unit in Beijing that can meet high bio-safety protection requirements. The unit will be able to produce 100 to 120 million inactivated COVID-19 vaccines per year once mass production begins. Another vaccine production facility in Wuhan is expected to be completed by the end of June or early July. Together, the two production units are expected to produce 200 million inactivated COVID-19 vaccines per year, which will help ensure adequate supply. Film schools will spend the summer anticipating what a fall semester trying to shoot student films will look like amid a pandemic. Hollywood, meanwhile, is trying to establish new production protocols for the industry, but what works for Hollywood may not necessarily work for all students. Universities across the country will have the added complication of trying to juggle those demands, while also educating remotely or in socially distant conditions. Each college has its own challenges depending on its size, location and access to technology. We want to give the students the opportunity that they would get and that they paid for, Henry Grillo, the interim dean for the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) said. We have to walk a balance between what we feel is the smart way to do production and being certain that we dont deny students that opportunity they have hoped to have. Also Read: Are Studios and Networks Liable if Actors or Crew Contract COVID-19 on Set? Because UNCSA is a smaller institution with just 360 students in the filmmaking department, theyre expecting to be back on campus with a hybrid virtual and in-person experience. USC is doing something similar, with roughly only... Read original story Film Schools Brace for Virtual Classes and New Production Protocols At TheWrap Reality TV star Stephanie Pratt is facing major backlash on Twitter after echoing US President Donald Trumps calls to shoot the looters on Sunday. Pratts tweet was in response to the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, which began following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers last week. Some of the weekends protests led to violence and looting, the latter of which Pratt was most concerned over. Shoot the looters, a screenshot of Pratts since-deleted tweet read. Using this tragedy as their excuse to rob and burn all of our towns down, the Los Angeles native continued. Dave Benett Unfortunately for Pratt, she appeared to have forgotten her 2006 arrest for shoplifting $1,300 worth of clothing from a Neiman Marcus in Hawaii. Twitter, however, did not forget, and people were quick to remind her. Dont worry, youll still be able to shoplift from them later, one person wrote in response to Pratts tweet, sharing a photo of her mugshot as well. Uhh, werent you arrested for stealing $1,300 worth of clothing? another questioned. Others seemed to be confused as to why Pratt, who appeared on MTVs The Hills before moving to the UK to appear on Made in Chelsea, was even famous. Wait a minute, who are you? read a gif that was tweeted in response to a different post from Pratt. Pratt continued to tweet about the rioting taking place, but her failure to acknowledge why protests began drew criticism from hundreds of people on Twitter. Anyone else sobbing watching their town being burned down? Pratt asked. No, we are sobbing watching a black man murdered in front of our own eyes by a cop. Things can be replaced lives cannot. Check your white privilege, one person on Twitter responded. The man says he wanted to "draw attention to problems in his life." A male resident of Kyiv who on June 1 threatened to blow up the city's Metro bridge has been served with charge papers. The 32-year-old resident's offence is qualified under Part 2 of Article 259 (knowingly false report about a threat to citizens' safety, preparations for an explosion with serious consequences) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the press service of the Kyiv Prosecutor's Office said. The man explained his act by an attempt to "draw attention to problems in his life." The police did not find weapons or explosives. Read alsoKyiv's Metro bridge blocked over bomb threat, 'bomber' detained (Photos, videos) No casualties were reported during the incident and amid the offender's detention. The prosecutors are now drafting documents for Kyiv's Dniprovsky district court to select a preventive measure for the offender in the form of detention in custody. As UNIAN reported earlier, Kyiv's Metro bridge was blocked over a bomb threat on June 1. According to police, an unknown man called the police at 13:41 Kyiv time on that day, threatening to blow up the bridge. A special police operation was launched in the capital city. The man was standing on the bridge with a bag beside him. At around 15:30 Kyiv time on June 1, the "bomber" was apprehended by the police. Police begin to clear demonstrators gathered as they protest near the White House, in Washington on June 1, 2020. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo) Barr Sends Riot Teams to District of Columbia, Miami Amid Protest Violence Attorney General William Barr has directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to deploy riot teams to the District of Columbia and Miami to help quell the outbreaks of violence as peaceful protests against police brutality across the country have morphed into chaotic scenes of looting and destruction. Many nonviolent protests in cities across the United States after the police custody death of George Floyd have erupted into chaos, with Barr saying in a statement Sunday that law enforcement would target violent radical agitators who have hijacked peaceful protest. The chief of the Office of Public Affairs at the BOP, which is part of the Department of Justice (DOJ) that Barr oversees, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that highly trained BOP tactical units capable of responding to prison disturbances and crowd control scenarios have been dispatched to Miami and the nations capital. It is time to stop watching the violence and to confront and stop it. Preventing reconciliation and driving us apart is the goal of radical groups. We cannot let them succeed, Barr said in a statement. A senior DOJ official told USA Today and The Washington Post that the FBI has also deployed its elite Hostage Rescue Unit to the capital, adding that every FBI field office was setting up command posts to coordinate its response with local law enforcement. DOJ spokesperson Kerri Kupec said in a statement that President Donald Trump had directed Barr to lead federal policing efforts in the nations capital. The Department of Justice has deployed all of its law enforcement componentsFBI, ATF, DEA, U.S. Marshals, and BOPand is closely coordinated with the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security to maximize federal security presence throughout the District, Kupec said. The moves come as mostly peaceful protests following the police custody death of George Floyd have turned violent, with fires across Washington, scores of businesses with broken windows, and dozens of police officers injured. Protests near the White House erupted into violent confrontations with police ahead of the citys 11 p.m. curfew Monday, with authorities later announcing the curfew would be revised to 7 p.m. in a bid to prevent a further descent into violence. Miami has also seen an eruption of unrest, with a South Beach restaurant owner telling the Miami New Times that the riots are hitting the restaurant industry at a time when theyre hurting due to pandemic-driven closures. There were protests and I understand that. But my restaurant stays open through everything, said Stephanie Vittori, owner of Cheeseburger Baby. This is kicking us while were down. In a call with governors on Monday, Trump and Barr encouraged more aggressive action against those who exploit peaceful protests to cause violence. Barr told the state leaders that law enforcement officials must have adequate force and go after troublemakers. Law enforcement response is not going to work unless we dominate the streets, Barr said. Trump said he was taking immediate presidential action to stop the violence and restore security and safety in America. Srinagar, June 2 : Two Jaish e Mohammad terrorists were killed in an encounter at Awantipore Tral in South Kashmirs Pulwama district on Tuesday. Police said both slain militants were Kashmiris. There was no collateral damage. Arms and ammunition were recovered from the spot. The operation was launched jointly by the police and the army on Monday night on the basis of a credible input. Army said announcements were made for the terrorists to surrender. When in the morning as the security forces tightened their cordon and zeroed in on the terror hideout, the terrorists fired at them triggering the gunfight in which both men were killed. The Ukrainian parliament urged to lift the illegal restrictions on Crimean Tatars' right to keep their representative institutions, including the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people. The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has adopted Resolution No. 3449, urging the international community to honor the victims of the genocide of the Crimean Tatars and condemn violations by Russia as an aggressor state of the rights and freedoms of the Crimean Tatar people. Read alsoSix countries express support to Crimean Tatars in struggle for their rights joint statement The document is addressed to the United Nations (UN), the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC), as well as governments and parliaments of foreign nations. The document was backed by 310 out of 372 MPs registered in the session hall, an UNIAN correspondent reported on June 2. The resolution provides for the approval of the relevant appeal and instructs the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada to immediately forward it to the addressees. In particular, the Ukrainian parliament calls on the said organizations to take additional measures to continue the policy of non-recognition of the attempted annexation of Crimea and introduce international monitoring of their full implementation. The Verkhovna Rada also urges to apply more pressure on the aggressor state, using all possible sanction, political, diplomatic, and economic tools to stop violations by Russia of fundamental principles of international law and the requirements of the international community. In particular, this refers to the end of the Russian occupation of Ukrainian territories, restoration of Ukraine's state sovereignty over the Autonomous Republic Crimea and the city of Sevastopol and the adjacent waters of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Read alsoU.S. urges intl community to impose sanctions against Russia over repression in Crimea In addition, the Verkhovna Rada calls upon the international community to press Russia, as an occupying state, to comply with international humanitarian law and to end human rights violations in Crimea as an integral part of Ukraine's sovereign territory, in particular the rights of Crimean Tatars as representatives of the indigenous people there. The Ukrainian parliament also called on the community to seek from Russia full and unimpeded access to the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol by convention and monitoring bodies of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, UNESCO and other international organizations in particular, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine and the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine to monitor the human rights situation there in line with their authority. The Rada also urged to actively respond to new cases of human rights violations in Russia-occupied Crimea through the urgent introduction of additional sanctions, both against responsible persons and sectoral ones against Russia. Moreover, the Ukrainian parliament called on the international community to raise the issue of restoring Ukraine's state sovereignty over Crimea and the city of Sevastopol and the adjacent waters of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov during all communications at the highest level with the aggressor state. The Verkhovna Rada urged to recognize the 1944 deportation of Crimean Tatars from Crimea as genocide of the Crimean Tatar people and to join events to commemorate the victims of the genocide on May 18. In addition, it called on the community to seek from Russia, as a UN member state, to comply with the order of the International Court of Justice dated April 19, 2017, on the application of provisional measures in the case "The application of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination" (Ukraine v. Russian Federation). Moreover, it urged to lift the illegal restrictions on Crimean Tatars' right to keep their representative institutions, including the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people. The resolution comes into force from the date of its adoption. To the editor: The Midland County Emergency Food Pantry Network held its ninth mobile food pantry of the year on Thursday, May 21 in the parking lot of Trinity Lutheran Church in Midland. The food giveaway was provided by the church, as the congregation has done in May for many years. Forty volunteers served 88 families (218 individuals) with 22,121 pounds of food purchased from the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan. The free distribution included the usual canned fruits and vegetables, certain boxed foods, breads and pastries as well as assorted meats, apples, oranges, raisins, walnuts, rice, chickpeas, bottled beverages and milk. In accordance with the COVID-19 pandemic guidelines, recipients of food remained in their vehicles for registration and for food delivery during which time the volunteer workers wore face masks. (This drive-up process will be the standard for upcoming MFP events.) We are very thankful to the Midland Police who provided assistance during this food giveaway. The next MFP is scheduled for Friday, June 5, at Aldersgate United Methodist Church, located on Airfield Lane in Midland. As a reminder: In addition to food assistance from the mobile events, Midland County residents in (financial) need of food and personal care items and cleaning supplies during the year also may call the network number of 486-9393 to leave your name and phone number. You will receive a call to set up an appointment at one of our eight food pantries in Midland County to receive a weeks supply of food. During your appointment, you will remain in your vehicle as the pre-packaged food and other items are placed in your trunk by the pantry volunteers. Please visit us at midlandcountyfpn.org or on Facebook for additional information. The network is very grateful to the many donors of food, money and time throughout the year to the networks mission of Always food in every home. SALLY ANN SUTTON Midland County EFPN Outraged citizens have called for local prosecutors to levy first- or second-degree murder charges against Derek Chauvin in the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. But the third-degree charge is a wiser choice. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times) There is an understandable clamor to throw the book at Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on George Floyds neck for nearly nine excruciating minutes, all captured in a video that has sparked violent protests around the country. Outraged citizens are calling on prosecutors to raise the state charges against him to first-degree murder from third-degree murder and manslaughter in the second degree. Others want the federal government to step in and prosecute Chauvin for civil rights violations. But if avoiding the potentially cataclysmic consequences of acquittal is the goal, the case is exactly where it should be: charged with caution and in the hands of Hennepin County, Minn., prosecutors. Police misconduct cases are notoriously difficult to prove. In direct contrast to other crimes, more often than not the jury acquits or settles on a lesser charge. It is incumbent on the prosecutor to fully appreciate the differences between the slice of the case everyone may see in a high-profile video, and the complete case, along with the legal standards, that a jury of 12 will one day use to come to judgment. If you remember the Rodney King case, you remember the searing video recording of officers beating King 33 times with a baton. But the case in court also included testimony that King took the police on an 80-mile chase after he was ordered to pull his car over, and that the officers reasonably believed King was high on PCP (he wasnt, though he did have marijuana in his system) when they stopped him. Combined with law that told the jury to consider the situation from the vantage point of a reasonable police officer, and the tendency of many juries to give police the benefit of the doubt in dangerous situations, that evidence led the state jury to acquit on most charges. The federal team, at that point prosecuting not a murder case but a "denial of civil rights" case, had the benefit of seeing the way the jury reacted in the state trial. They approached the facts very conservatively. The theory they presented conceded the reasonableness of the initial force against King but isolated the very end of the beating as the point where the officers crossed the constitutional line. Story continues The lessons are clear for the Chauvin case. The bystander video shot outside Cup Foods in Minneapolis understandably persuades nearly everyone that there is no punishment that is too severe for Chauvin. But what can prosecutors actually prove? Under Minnesota law, murder in the first degree, the charge many are calling for, requires premeditation. A 911 call brought Chauvin and Floyd together; premeditation is plainly not suited to the facts. What about murder in the second degree? It requires the prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant intended to kill. Look carefully and soberly at the video all 8:46 minutes of Chauvins knee on Floyds neck and put yourself in the prosecutors shoes. Can you confidently predict that a jury, shielded from outside commentary during the trial and exposed just to the strongest arguments on both sides, will unanimously determine that Chauvin without a doubt intended to kill Floyd? The defining fact of this killing relative to other cases of unreasonable force is Chauvins chilling cavalier nature as his knee pushes on Floyds neck, a move that Minneapolis police are permitted to use only if a suspect is actively resisting. (Floyd was lying flat, in handcuffs.) Prosecutors will argue that Chauvins almost lackadaisical attitude reveals the very essence of a depraved heart or extreme indifference to human life, which is the level of intent required to prove murder in the third degree. To be safe, prosecutors added another, lesser charge manslaughter in the second degree. That requires not depravity but just negligence under Minnesota law, that Chauvin created an unreasonable risk, and consciously [took]chances of causing death or great bodily harm, as the complaint against him reads. The defense will present that very same evidence Chauvins impassivity as an indication not of depravity but simple inattention. His lawyers will be able to point to important additional facts besides the video. According to the store clerk who called 911, Floyd was awfully drunk and not in control of himself. Floyd resisted getting into the police car, saying he was claustrophobic, and he complained about not being able to breathe before he was handcuffed on the ground. Finally, the lawyers will mount an argument over the exact cause of death. There are, after all, competing autopsies. The county medical examiner concluded that the cause of death was cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression. He also noted underlying heart disease. The examiner hired by the Floyd family said there were no underlying conditions and the cause of death was mechanical asphyxiation. Hennepin County Atty. Mike Freemans charges against Chauvin may seem too modest, but they fit the facts. As for the prospect of a federal prosecution, the more appropriate role for the Department of Justice at this point is exactly what its doing helping with the investigation. The feds will be ready to serve as a backstop if justice isnt served at the state level, as they did in the Rodney King case. Given the video, the community outrage and the righteous national anger engendered by Floyds killing, theres a temptation for prosecutors to go for broke. But in this case, they were wise, not to mention fair, in going no further than a conservative view of the evidence could take them. @HarryLitman Three indicators will help researchers find the perfect size for renewable wind and solar energy storage facilities while optimizing energy harvesting. WASHINGTON, June 2, 2020 -- Generating power through wind or solar energy is dependent on the abundance of the right weather conditions, making finding the optimal strategy for storage crucial to the future of sustainable energy usage. Research published in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, by AIP Publishing, identifies key indicators that will help achieve balance between green energy storage capacity and harvesting capability and determine the energy potential of a region. This research was conducted by Jacek Kapica, with the University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Poland. Kapica gathered data from the NASA Langley Research Center POWER Project to complete his study. "The wind and solar energy sources have big potential. However, in order to increase their share in the overall production, there is a need for a greater storage capacity," said Kapica. The indicators identified by Kapica were the ratio of generation power to storage days, the ratio of photovoltaic to wind energy, and a reliability improvement indicator. He argues these factors can be used to help scientists solve the long-standing issue of sizing energy storage units and power generation. "The investors and designers of wind and solar energy systems need indicators to help them make decisions about the size of the generator power and storage capacity," said Kapica. "This study reveals that, in some cases, the distance of just several dozen kilometers can improve or decline the generation power to storage capacity ratio." Kapica found increasing power reliability from 95% to 98% influences the nominal power of the energy generation units at a given size of the storage. The indicators were used to study 5,701 locations across Europe but can also be applied to regions across the globe. "I have determined how increasing the capacity of energy storage influences the possibility of decreasing the power of the generating unit and how does the relationship between storage size and generation power influence the reliability of the power supply in different regions of the continent," said Kapica. As well as developing these indicators, Kapica identified ideal locations in Europe where solar or wind energy could be farmed. The results can be applied to both grid-connected systems and stand-alone systems. Kapica explained future research might consider how renewable energy prospects will be affected by climate change. "There is also room for a study that takes the unit prices of various technologies into account, as the economy is fundamental in every investment," said Kapica. ### The article, "Wind and photovoltaic potential in Europe in the context of mid-term energy storage," is authored by Jacek Kapica. The article will appear in Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy on June 2, 2020 (DOI: 10.1063/1.5131560). After that date, it can be accessed at https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.5131560. ABOUT THE JOURNAL Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy is an interdisciplinary journal that publishes across all areas of renewable and sustainable energy relevant to the physical science and engineering communities. Topics covered include solar, wind, biofuels and more, as well as renewable energy integration, energy meteorology and climatology, and renewable resourcing and forecasting. See https://aip.scitation.org/journal/rse. ABC/Image Group LAPortugal. the Man is selling an anti-racism t-shirt to raise money for those arrested during the protests over the death of George Floyd. The shirt features the phrase "Racism Is for Ch**ds," and the PTM logo on the sleeve. "Reissuing our 'Racism Is For Ch**ds' shirt with 100% of profit supports bailing out #GeorgeFloyd protestors," the band says. You can order yours now via the Portugal. the Man web store. By Josh Johnson Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Norman Harsono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 2, 2020 14:16 598 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb8675c 1 Business pertamina,pharmaceutical-industry,hospitals,pertamedika,kimia-farma,COVID-19,petrochemical Free State-owned oil and gas giant Pertamina plans to explore opportunities in the pharmaceutical industry and expand its hospital business as Indonesian fossil fuel demand sinks amid the partial COVID-19 lockdowns. Pertamina is in talks with state-owned pharmaceutical producer PT Kimia Farma to supply certain petrochemicals needed for drug production. The oil company, through a hospital subsidiary, also plans to acquire dozens of new hospitals over the year. We see an opportunity, said Pertamina president director Nicke Widyawati on April 30. What kind of business, during any crises, continues to survive or even grow? Its medicine. The oil companys dive into medicine followed a slump in fuel demand across partially locked down Indonesia. Consumption plunged 35 percent to 65,678 kiloliters (KL) per day in April from the daily average in January and February before the country introduced a physical distancing policy requiring people to stay at home to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. As of Tuesday, four provinces and 26 regencies/cities nationwide have implemented large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) or partial lockdowns that closed offices, factories and schools, and limited peoples movements. Due to the falling demand, Pertamina projects its revenue almost all of which comes from fuel sales to fall by up to 45 percent below initial expectations under a worst-case scenario. Pertamina spokeswoman Fajriyah Usman told The Jakarta Post on May 18 that the oil company would prepare the base ingredients for pharmaceutical production, then either Kimia Farma or Kimia Farma with Pertamina will process the ingredients into pharmaceuticals. We are still discussing the details, Ganti Winarno, corporate secretary at Kimia Farma, told the Post on Wednesday. Diversifying into petrochemicals is a common strategy among refiners to weather the risks of changing fuel demand. However, the global pharmaceutical market is much smaller than the global petrochemical market, noted principal analyst Darryl Xu of energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie. Based on 2019 estimates, for example, phenol, a chemical used to produce the painkiller paracetamol, has a market over 60 times larger than that of paracetamol itself. Xu added that while Pertaminas plan could prove lucrative, it only provides a tiny outlet for your volumes. Phenol is more widely used to produce disinfectants and plastics. Pertamina disclosed plans in April to begin the monthly production of 9,000 KL of benzene, a main ingredient in phenol. Otherwise, the oil company planned to cut production of every other product. Pertamina also plans to convert hospital subsidiary PT Pertamina Bina Medika (Pertamedika IHC) into a holding company for 63 state-owned hospitals by December at the behest of the State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Ministry. SOE Minister Erick Thohir previously said the holding would eventually have 6,500 beds with an estimated revenue of Rp 5.6 trillion (US$380.9 million) and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of Rp 510 billion. After the establishment, total revenue could increase to Rp 8 trillion, he said. Consolidation began in early 2017, when former SOE minister Rini Soemarno appointed Pertamedika as holding, but the process was accelerated over the course of COVID-19. In addition to the acquisitions, Pertamina spent Rp 130 billion on upgrading 14 of its hospitals into COVID-19 hospitals, which included acquiring two popular robot nurses nicknamed Penny and Amy. Pertamedika owns 16 hospitals as of 2018, more than any other SOE, according to the companys 2018 report, which is the latest available. The company is slated to acquire hospitals operated by state-owned ship operator PT Pelayaran Nasional Indonesia (Pelni) in June. Microsoft is known to roll-out new Windows 10 updates like clockwork every couple of months. It is also known for halting its updates as they are usually bugged. Recently the company rolled out the Windows 10 May 2020 update for devices last week, and it didn't take long for Microsoft to acknowledge that there is a raft of issues associated with it. Therefore, the company is taking a rather measured approach with the rollout. In case your device hasn't got the May 2020 update already, it's most likely that Microsoft has put it on hold and might go through some testing before you finally get it. So, what are the issues precisely? Some of the annoying issues include unexpected errors or reboots, inability to connect more than one Bluetooth device, no mouse input with apps and games, and many more. The issues are also said to be affecting devices like Microsoft's Surface Pro 7 and Surface Laptop 3. Interestingly, if you are on the previous update and looking for the new one, Microsoft is also adding a prominent warning that your device "isn't quite ready for it." Having said that, if you still want to the risk and install the May 2020 update before Microsoft rolls out the fixed version, you can still do it through the Windows Update Assistant. The tool will force the latest May 2020 update regardless of your system status. However, you should only do this if you are ready to deal with the vexing problems that have been listed by Microsoft. Have you Also Read? Be Warned! Windows 10 May 2020 Update Can Potentially Render Your PC Useless Don't Want Windows 10 May 2020 Update For Your PC Just Yet? Here is How to Pause Windows Updates The good thing is, once you get the update, there are a bunch of new features lined up for you. Cortana has been updated with a new chat-based interface where you can either speak or type your requests. The new and updated interface can be accessed from the Windows 10 taskbar and there are now quick searches for weather, news and more. The Task Manager gets new features as well, with the GPU Temperature data now available for compatible hardware. The Swift Pair for Bluetooth accessories has been further simplified. The Settings app gets some design changes, while Windows Hello biometric authentication for compatible PCs adds a new layer of security for your data. The biggest under-the-hood change to the May 2020 Update is the inclusion of the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL 2), with a custom-built Linux kernel. This should help improve the performance of Microsofts Linux subsystem in Windows. The updated Virtual Desktops feature should be quite useful in organizing open apps and switching between them, especially if you are someone who juggles with a lot of apps. Queen Maxima of the Netherlands sported a summery ensemble as she cycled to visit an art museum today after it re-opened following the coronavirus crisis. Mother-of-three Maxima, 49, arrived on bicycle to visit The Hague Art Museum in the Hague which on Monday re-opened under strict social-distancing conditions, having been shut for 11-weeks amid the pandemic. The royal was all smiles in a loose button-up linen shirt paired with matching smart yellow trousers, which cut off at her ankle to reveal stylish straw coloured pumps. Her waist was clinched with a brown leather, tasseled belt and she sported a pair of dark oversized sunglasses teamed with chunky yellow earrings. Queen Maxima of the Netherlands (pictured) sported a summery ensemble today as she visited The Hague Art Museum, which had re-opened after the coronavirus crisis The mother-of-three appeared relaxed as she rode along a cycle path through the city, and could be seen smiling at photographers as she made her way to the museum Maxima's manicure was painted bright red, while she wore her blonde tresses loose around her shoulders. The royal carried a leather camouflage print clutch paired with an intricate gold bangle and matching gold ring. Appearing to be comfortable riding along the road's cycle path, Maxima smiled at photographers as she made her way through the city to the museum. The royal beamed at onlookers as she parked her bike before being pictured inside the museum looking fascinated as she browsed the exhibits. The royal was all smiles in a loose button-up linen shirt paired with matching smart yellow trousers, which cut off at her ankle to reveal stylish straw coloured pumps Her waist was clinched with a brown leather, tasseled belt and she sported a pair of dark oversized sunglasses teamed with chunky yellow earrings On Monday, The Netherlands re-opened certain cultural institutions following a downward trend in their COVID-19 figures death figures for over a month. Restaurants, cafes, theaters, concert halls, museums and cinemas returned with strict 1.5-meter social distancing measures observed after two and a half months' in coronavirus lockdown. In museums, the maximum number of visitors depends on the available space. The royal appeared overjoyed to be making the visit to the museum as she parked her bike up, smiling at onlookers The mother will have followed strict 1.5-meter social distancing rules on her visit to the museum today Reservations are required for all activities and two people who are not from the same household can sit together at one table in restaurants and cafes. A maximum of 30 people are allowed in restaurants, cafes, theaters, concert halls and cinemas, as long as the 1.5-meter social distancing rules can be kept. The visit comes nearly a week after the royal joined a meeting to discuss the impact of Covid-19 on the Dutch tourism industry. The royal beamed at onlookers as she parked her bike before being pictured inside the museum looking fascinated as she browsed the exhibits Queen Maxima spoke to representatives including Michiel Uitdehaag, mayor of Texel, and Ineke van Gent, mayor of Schiermonnikoog, about how the pandemic has impacted the tourism industry. The mother-of-three - who is a member of the Dutch Committee for Entrepreneurship - then spoke to businessmen and women at De Lindeboom hotel about the impact the crisis has had on their endeavours. Days prior to the visit, Maxima had visited healthcare workers who are working on the frontline in the fight against the virus. Hong Kong: NPC decision understanding urged (To watch the full media session with sign language interpretation, click here.) Chief Executive Carrie Lam today urged Hong Kong people to understand the rationale behind the decision by the National Peoples Congress (NPC) on the national security legislation in the city. Mrs Lam made the appeal ahead of the Executive Council meeting this morning. I hope people in Hong Kong will first understand why we have now arrived at this situation that the NPC has to act in order to protect national security and also by that doing to protect Hong Kong. She noted that the NPC Standing Committee will adopt five fundamental principles in drafting the legislation, including to firmly safeguard national security. Secondly is to better, the whole purpose is to better the system of one country, two systems. So whatever is in the one country, two systems that has been valued by Hong Kong, certainly it will be upheld. The third principle is to govern Hong Kong in strict accordance with the law. So there should be no worry that there will be illegal acts by certain people in Hong Kong. And fourthly is to resist external interference in Hong Kong affairs. Finally - which is the most important point in my view and hence I have quoted it extensively in one of my press releases or statements - is to uphold the legal rights and freedoms of Hong Kong people. Mrs Lam also cited a Hong Kong & Macao Affairs Office statement that said the legislations enactment will not change the high degree of autonomy and will have no impact on the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's judicial independence, including that of final adjudication. I find these principles and clarifications very reassuring, but of course, one has to wait for the draft legislation before you will be truly convinced that the law has complied with each and every of those principles. This story has been published on: 2020-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. President Uhuru Kenyatta is very excited to have a grandson after his son Jomo Kenyatta and his wife Fiona welcomed their second child. Last week, we reported that Fiona Achola Kenyatta delivered a baby boy on Wednesday, May 27, 2020, at Nairobi Hospital. The boy was named Uhuru after the Head of State, and he arrived a little over two years after Jomo and Fiona welcomed a baby girl named Wanjiru after First Lady Margaret Kenyatta. With the First Family keen to keep the news of baby Uhuru under wraps, President Uhuru Kenyatta was recently caught by surprise when Nation Editorial Director Mutuma Mathiu congratulated him on the birth of his grandson. Mr President, I dont know if it would be appropriate but maybe I should start by congratulating you on the latest good news from your family, Mathiu said at the start of the interview. To which a visibly surprised Uhuru Kenyatta responded: How do you know? The journalist replied: Mr President, Im a journalist its my business to know, I know you must be very happy. The President, with a beaming smile on his face, simply responded: Im very excited and thank you very much. Social media allows us to connect with friends and loved ones in meaningful ways even when we arent together in person, which is wonderful. It also allows us to get to know and interact with people in other places, whether thats in the United States or around the world. That, too, is great Dear Colleagues, The video of the horrific and senseless killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, last week has already been viewed many millions of times around the nation and the world. Every replay exposes the lethal racism and the searing injustice represented by his words, I cant breathe. George Floyds tragic death brings to mind the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, which did not lead to criminal charges for months, until a recording had been made public. It comes several months after Louisville police killed a 27-year-old emergency medical technician, Breonna Taylor, after bursting into her own apartment, and less than a year after a Fort Worth police officer killed Atatiana Jefferson as she played video games at home. It comes just a few weeks after the five-year anniversary of the homicide of Freddie Gray in the custody of Baltimore police. Law enforcement violence is a public health issue. It is just one dimension of racism as a present and deadly force in our society. As shocking as these high profile examples are, they represent the tip of the iceberg of persistent racial inequities that constitute a crisis for public health. African American babies die before their first birthday at more than twice the rate of white newborns. African American women die at more than twice the rate of other women during pregnancy and childbirth. African American adults suffer far higher rates of hypertension, diabetes, and other serious chronic illnesses. The life expectancy of African Americans is 3.5 years shorter than for white Americans. The roots of these and other mortal disparities run deep to the structural and institutional racism that shapes policing, housing, transportation, education, and health. The COVID-19 pandemic has reexposed the consequences of this legacy. With less secure housing, less stable access to food, greater reliance on crowded public transit, more low-wage work without adequate protection, and less access to health care, many predominantly African American communities are suffering staggering losses. African Americans are nearly twice as likely to die from COVID-19 compared to others in the U.S. population. The profound impact of racism on life and death demands a full response from every part of our society, includingand especiallyour field of public health. Our own efforts must include becoming aware of and challenging our own biases, more work to document the problem and its consequences, more research into practical solutions, and more effective advocacy to embed these solutions into practices and policies. There are many at the Bloomberg School and beyond who are already working in different ways to bring about needed change, but this responsibility is not theirs alone. It is shared by every one of us. The School and the Urban Health Institute will pursue new ways to work together to counter racism and improve health equity alongside many partners and advocates across campus, our community, and beyond. We ask that each of you make a personal commitment to this work. Together, we can create a society free from the oppression and injustice of racism, so we all can breathe. We recognize that this is a particularly challenging time, and we want you to know that your School community is here for you. We encourage you to stay connected with your colleagues, friends, and family. Students who may be struggling with stress or trauma related to these events should reach out to the Student Assistance Program at jhsap.org. Faculty and staff are encouraged to reach out to the Faculty and Staff Assistance Program at fasap.org. Sincerely, Ellen and Lisa Ellen J. MacKenzie, PhD 79, ScM 75 Dean Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Lisa A. Cooper, MD, MPH 93 Director, Urban Health Institute Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Former Vice President Joe Biden on Monday attended a campaign event in Delaware and addressed criticism by saying, I know Ive made mistakes. Video transcript JOE BIDEN: I'm going to be-- in the next couple of weeks-- making some-- what I hope to be very serious national speeches about what I think we got to go, what we have to do. And I am-- I know I'm going to make mistakes. But I know it's [INAUDIBLE] familiar expression-- what comes from the heart goes straight to the heart. And it's going to come from the heart, but I need help. I don't need help to elect me. I'm not asking for-- to-- that's not what I'm-- I need help and advice to go along as to what I think I should and shouldn't be doing. And by the way, when I decided to decide-- when I made the decision, Jill and I-- that was Jill and I made the decision that it was important that there be a woman vice president. By the way, I promise you there are multiple African-American candidates being considered. As well-- well, as Latino, as well as white Caucasian. But one of the things that I realized is that, if you take a look at my campaign-- my campaign looks like the country. It's represented by leading African-American-- Cedric is my national co-chair. I mean, [INAUDIBLE], you know. Anyway, it's represented by African-American leadership-- men and women, and an awful lot of young folks. A male model who was caught dealing 33 kilograms of liquid fantasy from his mother's home has been jailed for nine years. Benjamin Gordon Zaubzer, 38, supplied the huge quantity of the drug, also known as GHB, to undercover police officers between September 2018 and March 2019 - all while living with his mother in western Sydney. Zaubzer, who had also distributed MDMA, was arrested in May last year. The 38-year-old was sentenced to nine years in jail last week and will be eligible for parole in September 2024. Benjamin Gordon Zaubzer, 38, has been jailed after dealing 33kg of liquid fantasy to undercover police officers Zaubzer's barrister Ben Clark told Parramatta District Court last month that $19,000 in cash was also seized during the arrest. 'As far as a drug dealer is concerned, he's not a particularly successful one, taking into account the fact he was living at home with his mother,' Mr Clark said, The Daily Telegraph reported. 'The fact he was dealing from his own mother's home shows a degree of naivete.' Zaubzer had also used his personal mobile number and real bank details during the deals. The 38-year-old started working in the drug syndicate after suffering brain injuries in a car accident in 2017. 'There is a mitigating factor that none of this stuff actually ended up in the community being used,' Mr Clark said. Zaubzer was convicted on seven charges last week including commercial drug supply and pleaded guilty to all offences. The 38-year-old had worked as a model and make-up artist, along with managing a car rental company. The family of British author Richard Adams have won a court battle over the rights to Watership Down against American film producer Martin Rosen. The book, which presents animals in the British countryside as refugees fleeing destruction wrought by man, was written by civil servant Richard Adams and released in 1972. Adams, who passed away in 2016, came up with the idea for the novel while reading bedtime stories to his two daughters, Juliet and Rosamond. The High Court in London ruled on May 27 that US filmmaker Mr Rosen, who produced the 1978 film adaptation, had wrongly claimed that he owned all rights to the novel. The family of British author Richard Adams have won a court fight over the rights to Watership Down against American film producer Martin Rosen. Above, Adams pictured with his daughters Juliet and Rosamond in 2014 The book, which presents animals in the British countryside as refugees fleeing destruction wrought by man, was written by civil servant Richard Adams and released in 1972 The book, which presents animals in the British countryside as refugees fleeing destruction wrought by man, was written by civil servant Adams (above) and released in 1972 The court heard that Mr Rosen had made 68,000 ($85,000) from signing contracts for an unauthorised audio book and had entered into contracts worth more than 400,975 ($500,000) while claiming that he held all rights to the novel. Mr Rosen, 83, failed to pay the Adams estate and family its share of merchandising royalties and royalties from a 2018 adaptation of the novel, on which he worked as executive producer, the High Court heard. Judge Hacon ordered Mr Rosen and his companies to pay an initial 80,000 ($100,000) for copyright infringement, agreeing unauthorised license deals and denying royalty payments.. The court also terminated the contract in which motion picture rights for Watership Down were granted to Mr Rosen. Adams (pictured), who passed away in 2016, came up with the idea for the novel while reading bedtime stories to his two daughters, Juliet and Rosamond Adams's eldest daughter Juliet Johnson, now aged 62, is the managing director of Watership Down Enterprises. She said of the ruling: 'Six years ago I started trying to help dad with his finances because I couldn't understand why so little was coming in,' The Times reported. 'A lawyer told him he would never have been allowed today. It was a shame because my father regarded him as such a friend. 'My daughter said my father would be proud of us for getting back the rights but I think he would have been humiliated. Sometimes bills would come in and either parent would have to sell something, either ceramics or rare books, to pay them. 'It should be joyful that we have won these rights back but in reality it is a tragedy.' Watership Down was one of the most famous, successful, and in its own way shocking novels of the 20th century Released in 1972, the year that Greenpeace was just being launched, Watership Down presented animals in the British countryside as refugees fleeing destruction wrought by man Watership Down was one of the most famous, successful, and in its own way shocking novels of the 20th century. Released in 1972, the year that Greenpeace was just being launched, Watership Down presented animals in the British countryside as refugees fleeing destruction wrought by man. The rabbits would be gassed, caught in snares, poisoned, shot at, betrayed, drawn into cults, and beaten to death. President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday approved the lifting of the ban on religious gatherings across the country. This was made known by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, during the daily briefing of the panel on Monday, June 1, 2020. According to him, Churches and mosques are now allowed to open their doors for worship in accordance with guidelines or protocols handed by state governments. Mustapha said the PTF submitted its recommendations and the President approved the following for implementation over the next four weeks spanning 2nd 29th June 2020, subject to review-: Nationwide curfew remains in place, timing now 10pm4am. (No longer 8pm to 6am). Full opening of financial sector. That is, banks and the likes will now open all through normal working hours. There is a ban on gatherings of more than 20 people outside of a workplace. Relaxation of restriction on places of worship based on guidelines issued by the PTF and protocols agreed by state governments. Managed access to markets and locations of economic activity to limit the risk of transmission; Ban on inter-state travels except for the movement of agricultural produce, petroleum products, manufactured goods, and essential services; Mandatory use of non-medical face masks in public places; Mandatory provision of handwashing facilities/sanitisers in all public places. Schools are still closed. Hotels may reopen. Bars, gyms, cinemas, nightclubs, parks remain closed until further evaluation. The aviation industry has been requested to start developing protocols for domestic flights to possibly resume from June 21. The June 21 date for opening of domestic flights is tentative. Certain conditions have to be fulfilled between now and that date. Aircraft have to be good and safe to fly (checks/maintenance) with necessary recertifications + medicals for pilots/crew. According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), 416 new cases of coronavirus were recorded on Monday, bringing the total number of infection in the country to 10,578. [June 02, 2020] Danske Bank, Denmark's Largest Bank, Embraces Advanced Analytics From Behavox Compliance Solution to Enhance Risk Management Behavox, which provides the world's only AI-based end-to-end data operating platform that enables enterprises to aggregate, analyze, and act on their entire organization's data, today announced that Danske Bank A/S, Denmark's largest, full-service bank, has selected Behavox as its platform for electronic and audio communication compliance supervision. As Behavox's momentum in the finance sector continues to grow globally, Danske Bank represents its latest customer win in Europe. Danske Bank's decision to select Behavox stems from the banking giant's strategy to grow its business on the back of advanced data analytics - analytics that will help Danske Bank become faster, smarter, and more agile in supporting hundreds of branch sites and millions of clients throughout the Nordics. According to Simon Kingsbury, Executive Vice President at Danske Bank, the use of effective data analytics t strengthen regulatory compliance controls is part of the wider efforts to modernize banking. Compliance efforts must be executed quickly, efficiently, and intelligently. To achieve greater agility and speed, particularly in a macroeconomic environment with increasingly distributed work environments, Mr. Kingsbury said Danske Bank is using Behavox to establish compliance operations that are fueled by cutting-edge artificial intelligence and machine learning. The Behavox Compliance solution's AI and ML capabilities provide powerful data analytics to help Danske Bank identify immediate actions for ensuring regulatory compliance. "At Danske Bank, compliance is not a checkbox," said Mr. Kingsbury. "It is an integral part of our strategy in a competitive and demanding regulatory environment." Behavox supports financial regulatory compliance requirements for Dodd-Frank, MAR, FCPA, SMR, and MiFID II. Its solutions meet the requirements of the most demanding global regulators, such as FINRA, CFTC, and FCA. After conducting extensive due diligence, Mr. Kingsbury and the Danske Bank team selected Behavox because of its performance, the ability to deploy quickly, and key functional benefits. "Danske Bank is our latest European customer with a vision to enhance risk management and compliance through agile SaaS (News - Alert)-based operations. They understand the value of SaaS, AI, and ML working together," Behavox Founder and CEO Erkin Adylov said. "As the only vendor who can enable enterprises to aggregate, analyze, and act on data to maintain regulatory compliance, we are committed to helping Danske and other customers uphold their risk management commitments." About Behavox Ltd. Behavox is the leading, end-to-end Data Operating Platform that enables organizations to aggregate, analyze and act on their internal data. As a high-growth technology company, our mission is to organize and make useful all communications data on Earth. Through advanced analytics and machine learning, Behavox is your organization's single-entry point for internal data. Behavox, founded in 2014, is headquartered in New York City, with offices in London, Singapore and Montreal. For more information visit here. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005024/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Meanwhile they were getting squeezed. The dwarf plantagos they preferred were drying out in the southern part of their range, as the carbon-torched climate in northern Mexico grew hotter and drier. The urban sprawl of growing cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, meanwhile, swallowed up the gentle, sun-drenched slopes of the northern end of their range. Trapped between climate change on one end and urban expansion on the other, the checkerspot, most butterfly experts believed, was doomed. [ Return to the review of The Next Great Migration. ] It was a pretty simple story, being told in a range of variations across the globe. Parmesan had no illusions about changing the basic plotline, but she thought she might be able to document the specific ways in which the butterfly responded to the pressures it faced. A few of the colonies might exhibit some subtle local adaptation, perhaps, or emit some striking signal before their inevitable collapse. If she conducted a proper census, then crunched the data, with some sophisticated statistical analyses she might be able to scrape a passable dissertation out of it. Her research would be, in a way, an elaborate documentation of a species death throes, but thats what a lot of ecology had become in this age of mass extinctions. There were worse ways to get a PhD. Plus, the butterflies hatched in glorious spring weather, didnt wake up until ten a.m., and were most easily spotted on sunny windless days. For four years, Parmesan spent her summers driving up and down the West Coast, hunting for butterflies by day and camping out in the mountains by night. She didnt have particularly high hopes for her resultsI wasnt sure I would come out with anything at the end of it, she says. Then she started analyzing the data. The butterflys numbers had contracted, compared to the historical records, which was what shed expected. But there was something more, too: a signal in the noise, one that would upend her career and draw the attention of journalists like me from all over the world. I start looking at the pattern, she told me when we met at a Tex-Mex restaurant in Austin. And I see that the extinction rate is really high in the south, and really low in the north and in the mountains. I was expecting this complex pattern, and I thought, this is really simple! . . . I couldnt have gotten clearer data. Like the wild species her mom had told her about on summer camping trips years ago, the butterfly had responded to the changing climate the way wild species had in millennia past. It had moved. Its just shifting its range northward and upward! she says. The finding, now more than two decades old, still fills her with surprised delight. She gathers her hair with both hands and tosses it behind her back with a little shimmy. My goodness! By Ayya Lmahamad Azerbaijan loosened the coronavirus quarantine regime on May 31, while taking measures to encourage social distancing among residents to curb the further spread of the virus. Thus, the Agency for Small and Medium business development (KOBIA) under the Ministry of Economy and representatives of business entities involved in the sphere of hairdressing services and beauty salons have discussed the possibility of introducing online booking for attending hairdressers and beauty salons. In a meeting held via videoconferencing on June 1, the representatives of the agency also discussed residents compliance with rules of social behavior and sanitary- epidemiological requirements, the creation of necessary conditions for employee and customers, as well as the use of medical protective means (gloves, medical masks, disinfectants, etc.). They gave recommendations to prevent the spread of coronavirus COVID-19 infection in these spheres. Azerbaijan first introduced special quarantine regime on March 24 and the fourth stage of quarantine regime easing came into force May 31. The lockdown will last till June 15. As of June 2, Azerbaijan has registered 5.662 COVID-19 cases and 68 coronavirus- related deaths so far. The total number of recovered patients is 3.508. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Major firms in Japan on Monday fully started interviews, written tests and other activities to hire students graduating in spring 2021, with companies and students both struggling to adjust to unprecedented online recruiting methods introduced to cope with the new coronavirus pandemic. Major trading house Mitsubishi Corp. started holding online interviews with some 2,000 job-hunting students on Monday morning. No students were seen at the front desk of the company's head office in Tokyo's Marunouchi business district in Chiyoda Ward, unlike around this time of the year in the past when students formed lines there to sit for job interviews. About 70 to 80 percent of Mitsubishi Corp. interviewers are working from home, and those who are at the company's office are asked to sit in a room alone or with another interviewer while keeping some distance from each other when they hold online job interviews with students. According to a survey by job information provider Recruit Career Co., 45.7 percent of job-seeking students had received informal job offers as of May 1, down 5.7 percentage points from the year before. The decline came apparently because many major firms are waiting for the virus crisis to settle down in order to see students in person before making informal job offers, and because small and midsize companies that are having difficulty introducing online procedures have been suspending their hiring activities. Mitsubishi plans to hold final interviews with candidates in person. Takeyuki Nakagawa, leader of the company's recruiting team, said, "This is a process for both students and companies to choose whether to work with each another, so there were concerns about making decisions without letting students see the workplace and meet workers in person." By contrast, Hitachi Ltd., which started online group interviews with students on Monday, has decided to hold final interviews online. The Covid-19 pandemic has sharpened these divisions. Last month, the court held oral arguments over the phone, and the justices spoke in order of seniority. The new format shifted more responsibility to the chief justice. In the courts usual argument structure, the chief justices role is to referee among justices when more than one speak at the same time. But in the new format, the chief justice was tasked with ensuring that each justice had the opportunity to speak for roughly the same amount of time. That gave the chief justice the power to decide when to end each justices time for questions (unless the questioning justice concluded it). Looking at all the cases together 10 in total the chief justice arguably succeeded at being evenhanded. The justices who spoke the most, per questioning period that they used, were Justice Neil Gorsuch and Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who represent different wings of the court. Justice Samuel Alito also spoke for a similar amount of time. But the devil is in the details, and in some striking respects, the chief justice fell short of the ideal of the neutral umpire. The three justices who were allowed to speak the most in the very politically salient cases the two cases about the president and one about access to contraception under the Affordable Care Act were conservative men: Justice Brett Kavanaugh had two of the longest amounts of time in a case, and Justice Alito had the other. The justices who received the three longest individual questioning periods were also all conservative men: Justice Alito had two such periods, and Justice Gorsuch had the other. By contrast, the justices who received the three shortest questioning periods that the chief justice ended were all liberal women: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had two, and Justice Elena Kagan had the other. When it came to the controversial topic of a womans right to contraception access, the conservative Justice Alito was given over a minute and a half longer than the longest questioning period by a justice appointed by a Democratic president or any of the female justices. There were also notable differences in whom the chief justice interrupted or cut off. The chief justice ended questioning periods nearly 160 times, typically by interrupting an advocate or concluding after an advocates response to another justices question. But on 11 occasions, the chief justice interrupted or cut off another justice. Every one of those 11 occasions involved justices who were appointed by Democratic presidents, and nine of the 11 involved female justices. That is not because the female or Democratic-appointed justices were taking more time. The chief justice interrupted Justice Ginsburg and Justice Stephen Breyer even though they used less time than a majority of their colleagues, including Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh, whom the chief justice never once interrupted. CLEVELAND, Ohio Myles Garrett has offered to the help the family of slain BBQ chef David McAtee, who was shot and killed by law enforcement officers early Monday morning during a protest in Louisville, Ky. over the death of George Floyd. McAtee, the owner of YaYas BBQ, died after police and the Kentucky National Guard were called in to disperse a large crowd during the protest. Officers said they were shot at and returned fire, which resulted in McAtees death. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer admitted that the police did not have their body cameras on, which prompted him to fire police Chief Steve Conrad. He described McAtee as a wonderful citizen whom many knew as the BBQ man. Family members and friends were also outraged that McAtees body remained on the street for 12 hours after his death, until about noon on Monday. If anyone can get me in contact with the family, Ill take care of anything they need," Garrett posted Tuesday afternoon on his Twitter account. No body cams??? Not one? Then left his corpse on the street? FOR 12 HOURS? Nah, man, this is despicable. He deserved better.#DavidMcAtee." FBI Louisville, Kentucky State Police and the U.S. Attorneys Office are investigating McAtees death. Riots have erupted all over the country during protests over the death of Floyd, who suffocated when Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes. Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Many Browns players, including Garrett, have spoken out against racism and called for positive action since Floyds death. If anyone can get me in contact with the family, Ill take care of anything they need. No body cams??? Not one? Then left his corpse on the street? FOR 12 HOURS? Nah man, this is despicable. He deserved better. #DavidMcAtee https://t.co/Du9QFGAX58 Flash Garrett (@MylesLGarrett) June 2, 2020 - New Browns face masks for sale: Heres where you can buy Cleveland Browns-themed face coverings for coronavirus protection for adults and youth, including a single mask ($14.99) and a 3-pack ($24.99). All NFL proceeds donated to CDC Foundation. More Browns coverage Letter to Baker Mayfield: Will 2019 be the best thing to happen to your pro career? Ranking the best Browns to wear each jersey number: 6-10 Joel Bitonio: Jarvis Landry 'emotional while addressing racism in Browns virtual meeting Players calling for justice reminiscent of 2017: Podcast Browns and Columbus Crew: We must do more work to end racism Join Football Insider to be part of Baker Week with reporters, fans on June 9 Garrett: This is what Colin Kaepernick was kneeling for Ranking the best Browns to wear each jersey number: 1-5 Brady Quinn: Baker Mayfield will be a top 10 QB in 2020 Why is Jadeveon Clowney hesitant about signing with the Browns? Hey, Mary Kay! GM Andrew Berrys big moves, Clowney situation: Lets talk Browns: Pluto But now it gets really interesting, with the competitive lines drawn between a buyer that wants to retain a full-service premium airline and one that wants a scaled-down version of Virgins pre-administration structure. The two bidders have different ideas on what a revamped Virgin will look like. Credit:Getty Bain had long been considered the favourite in the race for Virgin. Cyrus was the dark horse that has now come from behind. The most highly contested corporate battle in recent years is finally down to a clash of two titans. The Bostonians from Bain Capital versus the late contender from Wall Street, Cyrus Capital. Loading One thing both contenders have in common is an association with Richard Branson. Cyrus and Branson launched Virgin America together before Alaska Air bought it in 2015, and they bought British regional airline Flybe in February 2019 before it went into administration. Bain has a joint venture with Branson's adults-only cruise line Virgin Voyages. Thus, in all likelihood, the Virgin brand will remain. Cyrus and Bain both have extensive experience in aviation and they have significant resources. Bain has been less than clear about where it would like to pitch Virgin in the market - in the event it is the ultimate winner. However, Bains declaration that it wants to "make flying fun again" suggests a focus on the leisure market (given travel weary corporate flyers are less concerned with the joy of the Sydney-Melbourne shuttle). Bains plan for Virgin, as described in its pitch to the administrators, is to relaunch the airline as a hybrid product. "We started by asking what do we think is possible for this business in five or six or seven years," Bain's local chief executive, Mike Murphy, was quoted saying last week. "I think it will have to look a little different, that is the reality." Historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Rick Perlstein says that history suggests the looting and sometimes violent protests now occurring on American streets could hurt President Trump with voters come November. Perlsteins 2008 bestseller, Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America, is a social and political history that begins with the 1965 Watts riots and reveals how out of the ashes of the tumult of the 1960s, Richard Nixon rose to and stayed in power. When asked if he sees parallels between 1968 and today and how they might apply to the coming presidential election, Perlstein said he believes the unrest of the past shows that Trump could be vulnerable, if only because voters have shown they worry about too much disorder. Between 1968 and 1970 there was lots of disorder two-thirds of the colleges in America went on strike crazy stuff, tanks running down the street in Berkeley in 1969, ... Kent State, Perlstein said in an interview with Yahoo News Skullduggery podcast. That unrest, Perlstein argues, damaged Nixon and the GOP in the 1970 midterms, in which Democrats kept control of the Senate and increased its majority in the House. Richard Nixon was very explicit: He toured and gave dozens of speeches for congressional candidates in which he basically said ... he used the words thugs and hoodlums and made that basically a nationalized election around the theme of law and order. The Republicans way underperformed expectations. Perlstein said that in 1992 when Bill Clinton challenged incumbent President George Bush, Clinton found himself on the defensive as the president implied that Democratic policies contributed to that years riots in Los Angeles. Clinton rejected that notion forcefully and won, Perlstein said. People may blame the disorder and this is a pretty good discernment on the part of voters if they do on the guy whos in charge, Perlstein said. He added that history shows most Americans do not want to vote for outright bigots. Nixon and Reagan understood that, Perlstein said. Even as they used race to fearmonger in their campaigns, he said, both were careful not to be too overt. Story continues New York in March 1968 and Washington, D.C., this week. (Jerry Engel/New York Post Archives /(c) NYP Holdings, Inc. via Getty Images, Alex Brandon/AP) Download or subscribe on iTunes: Skullduggery from Yahoo News Americans dont want to be seen as racist, and they dont want to be associated with people that are perceived as racist candidates, Perlstein said. Nixon and Reagan profoundly understood this. Richard Nixon always publicly upheld the goals of the civil rights movement. Reagan did too, Perlstein said. He added that his new book, Reaganland: Americas Right Turn 1976-1980, which hits bookstores in August, includes details about Reagans pollster, Richard Wirthlin, who in 1980 decided to counter some voters assumptions that Reagan was racist. Wirthlin came up with this idea: People think that were racist, people think that Reagan is running on white backlash why dont we have lots of campaign events before black audiences? Perlstein said. Wirthlin realized the tactic would reassure voters that theyre not voting for a bigot and theyre not bigots themselves. I dont think the candidate of Theyre sending their rapists can credibly pull off that trick. _____ Click here for the latest coronavirus news and updates. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised continue to be the most at risk. If you have questions, please refer to the CDCs and WHOs resource guides. Read more: With nearly 30,000 dead in Brazil and more than 10,000 dead in Mexico, the novel coronavirus epidemic threatens to shatter hospital systems across Latin America -- while France, which is emerging from a similar nightmare scenario, begins on Tuesday a gradual return to normalcy. Four of the 10 countries showing the greatest number of new COVID-19 cases over the last 24 hours were in Latin America, the World Health Organization's emergencies director Michael Ryan said. The pandemic has now killed more than 377,000 people and infected at least 6.3 million since erupting in China in late 2019. Efforts to halt its spread by imposing restrictions on everyday life have plunged economies into recession. However in Europe, schools, pools, pubs and tourist sites have begun to open, defying warnings that this could trigger a second wave of infections. The United States -- where the pandemic has been overshadowed by unrest following the death of a black man at the hands of a white police officer -- remains by far the worst-affected country. But novel coronavirus cases are spreading quickly in Latina America. Brazil, Peru, Chile and Mexico are experiencing the largest daily increases, while the numbers are on the rise in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia and Haiti. "Countries are having to work very, very hard to both understand the scale of infection but also health systems are beginning to come under pressure across the region," said Ryan, speaking at a virtual press conference from Geneva. He expressed particular concern for Haiti. Latin America has passed one million cases and recorded more than 50,000 deaths. Brazil has reported more than half of those cases and close to 60 percent of the fatalities. Even so, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro announced Monday that the popular tourist city would begin to gradually ease lockdown measures starting Tuesday, beginning with the reopening of places of worship and water sports. Mexico also began reopening on Monday, reactivating the automotive industry, mining and construction even though the country has recorded more than virus 10,000 deaths -- second only to Brazil in Latin America. Ryan warned that the region is not out of danger yet. "I would certainly characterize that Central and South America in particular have very much become the intense zones for transmission of this virus," he said. "I don't believe we have reached the peak in that transmission and, at this point, I cannot predict when we will." Britain moving too soon? In Europe, from Russia to France, Italy and Britain, countries have started to emerge from months-long lockdowns, cautiously adopting a post-pandemic version of normal. Patios were packed in Finland as bars reopened. By Alessandro RAMPAZZO (AFP) Bars began to serve again in Finland and Norway -- with distancing restrictions or shortened hours in place -- while some schools in Britain and Greece opened their doors again. Britain reported 111 more virus deaths on Monday, the lowest daily toll since the lockdown started on March 23. But critics of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government say it is moving too soon. "COVID-19 spreading too fast to lift lockdown in England," scientific advisor Jeremy Farrar said on Twitter. In Russia, Moscow shopping malls and parks reopened on Monday even though the country ranks third in the world in new daily cases. Shopkeepers were eager to see business pick up again. "I'm pretty optimistic," a vendor named Olga told AFP at her shop selling handbags and jewelery in central Moscow. Russia's President Vladimir Putin meanwhile called Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to wish him a speedy recovery, as he became the latest leader to test positive for the virus. Colosseum reopened Greece opened some hotels, schools, pools and tattoo parlors, while in Slovenia a mandatory rule to wear masks was eased as the country declared the end of the outbreak. Rome's famed Colosseum reopened to Italian nationals, but foreign tourists were still banned. By Filippo MONTEFORTE (AFP) In Romania, Bucharest's Grigore Antipa Natural History Museum reopened, as did Rome's famed Colosseum, although only to Italians. The latest official figures from Italy were encouraging: over the last 24 hours there were 178 new cases and 60 deaths, continuing a downward trend. There was also good news from Spain, another country badly hit by the virus: on Monday it recorded its first 24-hour period without a COVID-19 death since March 3. France registered 31 deaths over the last 24 hours, a day before it was due to reopen cafes, restaurants and bistros, closed since the lockdown began on March 17. Drinkers queued up in South Africa as an alcohol ban was lifted. By Luca Sola (AFP) In South Africa, scores of joyous people blasting music queued outside liquor stores in the Johannesburg township of Soweto, waiting to stock up after a nine-week ban on alcohol sales ended. "We are overwhelmed, over the moon, so excited. This place is jamming," said one customer, Bongani Khumalo. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize pleaded with citizens not to "panic-buy" and to "reduce consumption". Fresh Ebola outbreak The pandemic has devastated the global economy, which is facing the worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. With businesses and citizens growing tired of confinement pressure is building on national leaders to end the lockdowns -- especially in countries where the outbreak appear to be slowing. But health experts continue to warn of a possible second wave of infections if authorities and citizens let their guard down. In the United States, Washington and Los Angeles resumed outdoor dining, while New York City is on track to begin reopening from June 8. The US now recorded almost 107,000 novel coronavirus deaths, and over 1.8 virus million cases. The WHO insists it wants to keep working with US authorities despite President Donald Trump's decision last week to cut ties with the organization. Meanwhile, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, there was a reminder that the threat of other deadly infections continues. The health ministry reported a fresh outbreak of Ebola in the northwest region of the huge central African country. burs-bc/ch Some critics use US unrest to highlight what they see as American hypocrisy on protest movements at home vs abroad. Demonstrators from Australia to Europe identified with the cause of US protests and urged their own governments to address racism and police violence. Opponents of the United Statess foreign policy under President Donald Trump, meanwhile, took the opportunity to pour scorn on the violence that has engulfed the country after the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by police officers in the city of Minneapolis last week. Floyd died last week after he was pinned to the pavement by a police officer who put his knee on the handcuffed mans neck until he stopped breathing. His killing set off protests that spread rapidly across the US. Thousands of protesters marched through downtown Sydney, Australia, on Tuesday, voicing their solidarity with Americans demonstrating against Floyds killing. Protesters in Australias largest city chanted, I cant breathe some of the final words of both Floyd and David Dungay, a 26-year-old Aboriginal man who died in a Sydney prison in 2015 while being restrained by five guards. Demonstrators carried placards reading, Black Lives Matter, Aboriginal Lives Matter, and White Silence is Violence. Linda Burney, an opposition spokeswoman on Indigenous Australians, said more than 430 Indigenous people had died in Australian police custody since 1991. While Indigenous adults make up only 2 percent of the Australian population, they account for 27 percent of the prison population. I think we should be using it as an opportunity, Burney told Australian Broadcasting Corp, referring to Floyds death. Whether we like it or not, it doesnt take much for racism to come out of the underbelly of this country. American hypocrisy Some have seen the US unrest as a chance to highlight what they see as American hypocrisy on protest movements at home versus abroad. Chinas foreign ministry spokesperson called out US racism as a chronic disease of American society. Chinas comments come at a time when relations with the US are particularly strained. Chinese state media is giving extensive coverage to the violent protests roiling American cities, while the unrest has also featured widely in Chinese social media. On social media platform Weibo, at least five news items on the protests were among the top 20 trending topics by midday, led by reports Trump had been temporarily taken to a bunker as protesters surrounded the White House. On Twitter, the protests also featured widely among the top 20 trending items, with the hashtag #BunkerBoy at a prominent second place. In Europe, thousands spilled across streets in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to denounce police brutality, and those demonstrating in Paris urged the French government to take police violence more seriously and held up signs including Racism is suffocating us. The EUs diplomatic chief Josep Borrell condemned the abuse of power, saying Europe is shocked and appalled by the police killing of Floyd. He urged US authorities to rein in the excessive use of force as Trump ordered the military to intervene. Germany announced its support for the demonstrations. The peaceful protests that we see in the US are understandable and more than legitimate. I hope that these peaceful protests wont slide further into violence, but even more than that I hope that they will make a difference in the United States, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters. Let them breathe Irans foreign ministry called on the US to stop violence against its own people. To the American people: the world has heard your outcry over the state of oppression. The world is standing with you, foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said at a news conference in Tehran. And to the American officials and police: Stop violence against your people and let them breathe, he told reporters in English. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, meanwhile, questioned foreign criticism of China, including from the US, over an imminent national security law being imposed in the Chinese territory. They take their own countrys national security very seriously, but for the security of our country, especially the situation in Hong Kong, they are looking at it through tinted glasses, she said. Unhelpful adversity Ghanas President Nana Akufo-Addo said Black people across the world are shocked and distraught by Floyds killing. Black people, the world over, are shocked and distraught by the killing of an unarmed Black man, George Floyd, by a white police officer in the United States of America, Akufo-Addo said in a statement. We stand with our kith and kin in America in these difficult and trying times. Kenyan opposition leader and former prime minister Raila Odinga offered a prayer for the US that there be justice and freedom for all human beings who call America their country. Like some in Africa who have spoken out, Odinga also noted troubles at home, saying the judging of people by character instead of skin colour is a dream we in Africa, too, owe our citizens. And South Africas finance minister, Tito Mboweni, recalled leading a small protest outside the US Embassy several years ago over the apparent systemic killings of Blacks. Mboweni said the US ambassador at the time, Patrick Gaspard, invited me to his office and said: What you see is nothing, it is much worse. Zimbabwe summoned the ambassador of the United States to the country over remarks by a senior US official accusing it of stirring anti-racism protests following Floyds death. In an interview with ABC News, US national security adviser Robert OBrien referred to Zimbabwe and China as foreign adversaries using social media to stoke unrest and sow discord after the killing. Zimbabwes foreign ministry spokesman James Manzou said US Ambassador Brian Nichols was called in to explain OBriens remarks. Government spokesman Nick Mangwana said Zimbabwe did not consider itself Americas adversary. We prefer having friends and allies to having unhelpful adversity with any other nation including the USA, Mangwana said. Amazon delivery driver pauses during busy day to pray for baby with heart condition Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment An Amazon delivery driver's prayer for a baby boy with a heart condition in Idaho has gone viral and is inspiring many. As Monica Salinas was making a delivery to a home in Nampa, Idaho, she noticed a sign on the door explaining that a high-risk child named Lucas lives inside. Lucas is under a year old and has a heart condition that puts him at heightened risk for respiratory complications, such as the coronavirus. Derek and Raquel Pearson had been taking extra precautions during the pandemic and were depending on online orders for many products so they wouldn't have to go shopping elsewhere and then risk exposing their son to the disease. He needs special thickeners to be able to eat, otherwise he aspirates his milk. So we really depend on getting all of these supplies online so we don't have to go out to the store and bring a virus home, 30-year-old Raquel Pearson said in an interview last week with news station KTVB. We just want to minimize exposure to coronavirus. While waiting for an important order to arrive a few weeks ago, Pearson noticed on the doorbell camera that Salinas, a delivery driver for a company called Custom Services through Amazon, paused after she rang the doorbell and placed the package on the doorstep. There was a note and it said their baby's food was essential, and every time I see that note, it just touches my heart, Salinas, 41, told the local news station. I just stopped to do what my heart told me to do, to say a prayer for the baby and for the parents because that's got to be very painful for all of them to see their baby hurt and struggle. I just prayed that they can make it through another day, one day at a time. Salinas, who sings in her parish choir, subsequently told Catholic News Agency in an interview Sunday that when she saw the message on her May 2 route, she felt moved to pray: "Dearest God, please protect this family through your Precious Blood, and this baby, so that he may grow to become a man. Pearson did not know at first what Salinas was doing standing there for a moment after she dropped off the package. But then, she saw Salinas make the sign of the cross and realized she was praying. Pearson told Catholic News Agency that when she saw the gesture, she started crying. We were very grateful that a stranger would take time out of her very busy day to pray for our baby, Pearson explained. Pearson shared the video and expressed her gratitude in a local COVID-19 Facebook group. The video soon caught the attention of many people online as well as international media outlets. God has always been very important in my whole life," Salinas explained. "And I would like to let everyone know that God is good. I always tell people, every day, that God is good, one day at a time." Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched an app on Tuesday that would help people find how many beds are vacant in which hospital. Kejriwal while addressing a press conference said that the Delhi government has made adequate arrangements for coronavirus patients in terms of facilities and equipment available. "We have been telling you that the Delhi government has made adequate arrangements for COVID-19 patients - in terms of the number of hospitals, beds in there, the ICU facility in those hospitals and how many ventilators are there," he said. The Chief Minister acknowledged that there is an information gap. People have told the government that they could not find any bed in the hospitals, he said. "This app will fill that gap," said Kejriwal, adding that it will furnish information on beds in both private and government hospitals. There are still beds vacant, he added. One can also check the number of ventilators. "Total 302 ventilators are available in Delhi, of which 210 are vacant. All this information will be updated on this app twice a day, 10 am and 6 pm," said the CM. CM Kejriwal said that the app can be accessed on the internet as well. One can also call on helpline number 1031 for information on hospitals and beds. "They will send you an SMS with the status of bed availability in Delhi hospitals," he said. Also read: Delhi coronavirus cases: 13 people test COVID-19 positive at Delhi LG's office The Chief Minister said that in case the app shows vacancy in a hospital but they refuse to admit the patient, then one can call on 1031. He said that the Special Secretary would then get in touch with the hospital and help in availing a bed. "Number of cases in Delhi are increasing, but there's no need to worry about medical care for coronavirus patients as we have made sufficient arrangements. If any member of your family tests positive, then they'll get the required medical services," said Kejriwal. CM Kejriwal however urged people to not opt for hospitalisation if the doctor has asked them to rest at home. Delhi eased the restrictions on Monday following the new guidelines by MHA even as cases are on the rise in the national capital. The Delhi government allowed shops, markets and salons to open but sealed inter-state borders for a week. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Delhi has 20,834 cases with 523 deaths and 11,565 active cases. A total of 8,746 people have been discharged. Also read: Coronavirus update: Delhi govt turns five hotels into COVID-19 hospitals Bosch has announced the appointment of Per Johansson as General Manager for Robert Bosch Middle East FZE, making him responsible for the companys regional operations. Johansson will also drive the teams efforts to achieve market growth, synergy utilisation and comprehensive stakeholder management. Steven Young, President, Bosch Turkey and Middle East said: Per Johansson has dedicated 17 years of his career to Bosch, enabling the growth of Power Tools and Security Systems divisions. He brings with him robust knowledge and experience of Boschs businesses which will enhance our strategy and ambition in the region. As an accomplished senior leader, Johansson brings over 25 years of international industry experience gained in markets including Europe, Asia Pacific and North Africa. Commenting on his appointment, Per Johansson expressed his delight to lead the Middle East operations, adding: I hope that my longstanding relations across different divisions and markets at Bosch would further strengthen its position within the region. I look forward to working closely with the team, partners and customers in the market while contributing to Boschs great success. Prior to this role, Johansson led the Power Tools Division as Vice President of both Western and Northern Europe. He has also played a fundamental role within Boschs Security Systems Division in Sweden and Singapore. Johansson has held senior positions with leading industry players in Europe as well.TradeArabia News Service The first term tenure of Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola was great, peaceful and people oriented. He made Osun fanciful and a state of pride. But his second term in office was nothing to write home about. He failed to organize free, fair and credible council elections in his first term in office. It took him many years during his first term tenure to appoint local government caretaker committee members. It even took him close to three years or so before he appointed board members and other political appointments. When the Interior Minister of Nigeria who is also the immediate past governor of Osun state adopted the parliamentary system for his proposed council election, Osun citizens welcomed it not knowing that its a corrupt way of stealing their mandate and the mandates of the participating political parties. Till date, the All Progressives Congress (APC) members see Aregbesola as the modern Architect of Osun State; they see him as a political Messiah who brought true dividends to the masses of the state. It would also be recalled that Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola emerged as Governor of the state through court judgment which sacked the former Governor of the State, Governor Oyinlola who had almost spent four years in office as governor of the state. Governor Oyinlola was preparing his own local government council election when the court judgment that sacked him as governor of the state came from Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State. That was how the baton of political leadership came into Governor Rauf Adesoji Aregbesolas hand. Before Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola left the office, nomination forms for elections were given to political parties free of charge, he gave them peaceful political atmosphere to organize their primary elections and he equally equipped the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission also known as OSSIEC to organize a free and fair election. All these preparations of Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola went into oblivion when the court case which announced Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola as Governor of the Living Spring. Nobody even talked about Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlolas government in Osun anymore. Some see his government as spend rift government while others see it as the friendliest government. The opinion of people about his government differs likewise that of Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola. In the past few years Gov. Olagunsoye Oyinlola has been unstable politically, as he has been switching and moving from one party to another. Though he has officially decamped back to his former party, People Democratic Party (PDP) in recent times. A day before the Election Day, a popular newspaper published how 10 registered political parties stepped down to the ruling All Progress Congress (APC) then in power under Governor Adesoji Aregbesola. It was later learnt that the 10 political parties that backed out in that election were bribed to do so. The political parties collected money from Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola led government and it was also learnt that the parties involved were given forms to participate in that election free of charge (though their N100,000 nomination fees were paid by his government) which made it easy for them to withdraw their participation in that election. Though the People Democratic Party (PDP) did not participate in that election they had learnt earlier that the proposed parliamentary council election as coined by Ogbeni Adesoji Aregbesola wont be free, fair and credible. In fact, no registered political party contested against the All Progressive Congress (APC) candidates in that local government election. The election was sham, fake and undemocratic; no wonder Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola termed it parliamentary election, an old, uncommon and outdated system of Government. No wonder Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesolas parliamentary election in Osun gave birth to corrupt council councilors and chairmen. Weve heard of recent how most of them were impeached by their councilors and later brought back to office by Governor Gboyega Oyetola led political administration. The type of elected candidates the parliamentary election of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola brought to power are not only corrupt but irresponsible mainly because they were elected without strong opposition and serious contenders. The irony of the undemocratic parliamentary council election organized barely a few months to leave office was mainly set as a trap should be in case the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) emerged as the winner of the 2018 Osun Governorship election. The same political scenario eventually happened between the immediate past Governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi who is now the national deputy Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and his successor, Governor Seyi Makinde of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Barely few months Senator Abiola Ajimobi would be leaving office in 2019, he organized an undemocratic local government elections, though nomination forms were not sold unlike the Osun Council where form was sold at the rate of N100, 000 (hundred thousand naira only), few political parties later participated in that local government election, at the end of the election, the All Progressives Congress (APC) cleared all the seats. When the 2019 General elections were conducted, Governor Seyi Makinde of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won with wider margins. After he was sworn into office, the elected local government council chairmen and councilors started constituting a nuisance to his government. In short Governor Seyi Makinde scrapped them. The issue resulted in legal tussle, now in Court. The undemocratic parliamentary election Governor Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola organized before he left office has given Governor Gboyega Oetola and his cabinet a strong headache despite being in the same All Progressive Congress (APC). Almost every month there are always petitions written against two or three chairmen of different councils by their councilors addressed to the Speaker of the House. The parliamentary council election introduced by the immediate past governor, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Argebesola is a failed system; Governor Gbeoyega Oyetola should not try to repeat the same. Osun Citizens want free, fair and credible elections where they will go out and vote for any party or candidate they want. They are tired of electing candidates unopposed in the case of the last council election organized by Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola. This is indeed a great lesson for Governor Gboyega Oyetola and he should learn from. Wole Adedoyin is the president of Society of Young Nigerian Writers (SYNW) and Democratic Writers Association of Nigeria (DWAN). Parents have revealed that their children are watching Harry Potter movies after returning to primary school this week. From Monday, up to two million pupils in reception, year one and year six were told to return to school after two months at home amid the coronavirus lockdown. Now, parents have shared what their children have been doing in schools since they reopened yesterday. Nikki Flavin, 42, a full time carer and mum of two from Hall Green, Birmingham, told MailOnline: 'My son George is ten and has been back in his year six class this week. 'There are three kids in out of his class of five or six. They've been doing some work and watching Harry Potter.' It comes as teaching unions were accused of 'sabotaging' the reopening of schools in England as Boris Johnson's plan to have all primary pupils back before the summer holidays appear to be in tatters. The Prime Minister has been told by headteachers and councils that it would be 'impossible' for some schools to have all younger children back safely within six weeks because many classrooms, buildings and playgrounds are too small. A survey by the National Governance Association has revealed three out of four of the 2,350 governors spoken to said it was 'unlikely' the remaining students would come back by late July. A number of schools were forced to close after staff fell ill, including one in Derby where seven workers went off sick. A year six pupil has his temperature checked by a member of staff at St John's Primary School in Fulham today Mulberry House School in West Hampstead put balloons on the front gate and welcomed pupil Lana Adesemowo who was helped with some hand sanitiser Boris Johnson was last night dealt a major blow to his plans to have all primary school students return before the summer holidays after education leaders said it would be 'impossible' for some schools to have children back safely. Pictured: Pupils at St Michael's C Of E Primary School in Bournemouth Ms Flavin, whose son attends Lakey Lane Primary, Junior and Infant School in Hall Green, Birmingham added: 'When we drop them off and pick them up we have allocated time slots - his is from 8.45am to 9am and after 3.15pm. 'It has been quite easy to be fair. Obviously they have to do social distancing and sanitise hands before going in, but there aren't temperature checks at the gate. 'Then they are constantly washing hands through the day. He was complaining yesterday about how often he had to do it. 'There are three kids in out of his class of five or six. They've been doing some work and watching Harry Potter. 'I think it's safe and I'm happy to send him in, but it depends on whether the parents feel comfortable. 'The school isn't saying the children have to go in and parents aren't being fined if they keep them at home, but if the government starts fining then that might change.' A year 6 girl arrives on her bicycle at Watlington Primary School in Oxfordshire A schoolchild has her temperature taken at the Harris Academy Primary in Croydon - a common sign up and down the country Batool Malik, 28, a mother of two and housewife from Hall Green, Birmingham, said: 'My son Rohaan is four and he's been back in nursery. He's one of two in his year back out of 25, so there's no problem with social distancing. 'It has been alright. The school had been very good. They sent lots of letters before on social distancing and handwashing and sanitising. 'He knows about staying apart from others and that there are germs so he needs to wash his hands lots. 'He's only in for two and a half hours, so doesn't need lunch but has to bring in his own fruit and snacks. 'I think more parents should send in their children. I think it's safe and the school and government have put in place all the right procedures. 'Being off for two months is a long time and a lot of education to miss. He's been asking for school for a while and was excited to be back.' Union chiefs earlier told teachers to demand detailed answers to at least 169 questions from their bosses on issues such as bin lids, coronavirus counselling and employing extra staff to clean paint brushes, scissors and glue sticks before agreeing to return to school. The National Education Union also urged its 450,000 members to stop marking work and keep online tuition 'to a minimum' for any children still at home and not to try remote teaching if 'they feel uncomfortable'. One mother in Brighton told the Telegraph: 'Our head teacher has managed to get Year 6 in for a few days from next week. He had pushed for Reception and Year 1 to be back too, but it is unlikely he will be able to get more years back until September, mostly due to teacher opposition and the requirements of their union'. Parents desperate for their children to return to school say this has stymied the return to school from June 1 - with unions celebrating the low numbers reopening yesterday. NEU District Secretary Emma Parker sent a celebratory tweet last night: 'Less than a quarter of schools across the northern region reopened more widely today' NEU District Secretary Emma Parker sent a celebratory tweet last night: 'Less than a quarter of schools across the northern region reopened more widely today', adding: 'Everyone deserves to be safe. Our education professionals and children are not guinea pigs'. One critic hit back: 'Nothing to be proud of'. Schools close as staff test positive for coronavirus Schools have been shut or had their reopening postponed after staff fell ill with Covid-19, it was revealed today. Thorpe Primary School in Idle, Bradford, joins a number of schools to have to shut as pupils prepared to head back to the classroom. The school told parents it would have to close on Saturday, pushing back its reopening until June 8. Parents were told by the school: 'We have been informed today that a member of our staff has tested positive for COVID-19. 'Therefore any key worker parent or parent of a vulnerable child who is planning to send their child back to school on Monday 1st June will not be able to do so. Arboretum Primary School, in Derby, was also forced to shut when seven staff members tested positive. A spokesman for the Derby Diocesan Academy Trust confirmed the school had been closed 'due to a number of staff having confirmed cases of COVID-19'. He said all seven members of staff have only had mild symptoms and are recovering well at home. Advertisement Nationally as few as 40 per cent of eligible primary pupils returned to classes, with around 550,000 staying at home, as schools stayed shut, turned children away or even held 'staff training days'. Many schools will not reopen for another fortnight, if at all. School governors and headteachers say some primary schools are simply 'too small' to allow proper safety measures to mitigate the risk of coronavirus to be implemented in time for students to return ahead of summer. And although hundreds of thousands of primary school students returned to schools across the country today, Downing Street now say the government's plan to have the remaining 550,000 children back before the start of next month is 'under review'. It come as a poll by the National Governance Association, the biggest head teachers' union in Britain, revealed how three out of four of the 2,350 governors surveyed said it was 'unlikely' the remaining students would return ahead of the school holidays,as reported today by The Times. Yesterday, more than half a million primary school children were kept at home as dozens of councils sided with unions to defy the government's aims to ease students back into schools. At least 54 councils in England took the side of teaching unions, who have argued it is not yet safe for its members to return to schools amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The councils have either told schools not to reopen, or left the decision up to headteachers. It meant as few as '40 per cent of eligible primary pupils' returned to classes today, with around 550,000 staying at home, as schools stayed shut, turned children away or even held 'staff training days'. The Association of School and College Leaders said that of the facilities that are open attendance is 'highly variable' and ranges between '40 per cent and 70 per cent'. But the union's general secretary Geoff Barton said this figure is likely to increase as 'parents become become confident about sending their children to school'. Answers to questions about bin locations, staff to wash paint brushes and scissors and counsellors for staff and children as the lockdown eases have been demanded before teachers return Up to two million pupils were due to return to lessons but some were turned away because headteachers 'weren't ready' for them while around half of parents have chosen to keep their children at home because of safety fears. Meanwhile, the children's commissioner Anne Longfield yesterday called for pupils to be offered summer schools to help them catch up on their education. Across the UK, pupils in Year 1, Year 6 and Reception returned to their classrooms yesterday for the first time since March following the enforced closure of schools due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Ministers are now said to be considering leaving schools open over summer to help disadvantaged children cover missed work, according to the Daily Telegraph. Children across the UK returned to their classrooms on Monday as schools began to reopen St Michael in The Hamlet Community Primary School in Liverpool has reopened but only to the vulnerable and the children of key workers The NEU instead is urging strict two metre social distancing measures remain in place - as is being done in other workplaces. The planning document also includes a 20-page safety checklist, written jointly with fellow unions, Unite, Unison and GMB, which it will urge its members to go through with bosses before they return to schools 'Health and safety reps have the legal right to be consulted on the risk assessment and future amendments,' the document states. Pictured right is a summary of checklist questions for representatives to answer, including: 'Are you satisfied with the cleaning and hygiene arrangements that will operate from when extended opening begins?' Pictured left are more steps from the summary of checklist questions for reps to answer. Right are questions for reps to ask about site preparation 'Reps need assurances about the systems that the head teacher will be able to implement. Without these assurances there can be no 'expectations' on either staff or parents,' the document states The DfE is asking head teachers to undertake an audit of how many staff are available, both teaching and support staff The document states: 'The Planning Guide is explicit that 'unlike older children and adults, early years and primary age children cannot be expected to remain 2 metres apart from each other and staff' The unions have asked more than 100 questions of a headteacher, which it describes as a safety checklist The unions have asked more than 100 questions of a headteacher, which it describes as a safety checklist Reps are given guidance to ask if individual pupil risk assessments will be in place for all pupils who 'exhibit anti-social behaviour, eg biting, before a decision is made' The workplace checklist tells reps to ask about what guidance will be given to staff on how to support children - and will visitors be provided PPE where necessary Writing in the newspaper, Anne Longfield, the Children's Commissioner, said: 'Based in school buildings and running throughout the holidays, summer schools could provide activities of all kinds, meals and potentially some learning too. 'The idea is also likely to be popular with parents, who however well-intentioned and motivated may need a break from home schooling and may also be in desperate need of childcare as they return to work.' Ms Longfield was appointed Children's Commissioner in 2015, with the role aimed at bringing about long term change and improvements for all children. Since taking up the post, Ms Longfield has championed several campaigns and schemes focused on children's mental health, vulnerable children and the digital world. Downing Street said the Government was looking at the support available for children over the summer months following calls for pupils in England to be offered catch-up classes. The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'The Education Secretary has set out his commitment to doing everything he can to make sure young people are not losing out as a result of coronavirus. 'We are looking at what additional measures may be required to ensure every child has the support they need, including over the summer.' Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 2) Private vehicles may now use the yellow lanes along the entire stretch of EDSA as buses will now take the two leftmost lanes of the highway under the new traffic system of the Metro Manila Development Authority. MMDA traffic chief Bong Nebrija reiterated this on Tuesday, following reports of motorists still confused with the new scheme, which he said contributed to the heavy buildup of vehicles on the first two days of the general community quarantine in Metro Manila. "For private vehicles, they can use the old yellow lanes and service roads which are actually now pretty open and free-flowing...they could use that so we can decongest the main artery of EDSA," Nebrija told CNN Philippines' New Day. "We observed traffic building up early on in the morning. Motorists were sort of confused that the inner lane or the medial lane has been closed for the buses," said Nebrija, describing the situation on EDSA. Under the new system, the buses, which were previously assigned to the yellow lanes, will now be plying the left lanes to control the number of passengers and travel faster along EDSA. Passengers may get off at the middle island of EDSA and cross from the center to the either sides of the highway. So far, only four places are designated loading and unloading areas for buses: North Avenue, Quezon Avenue, Ayala Avenue, and Taft Avenue. The drop-off and hop-in stations are located near the respective MRT-3 stations in these places. From the original 2,500 buses, only 600 will be allowed to ply their routes on EDSA. Nebrija said they will be putting up barriers to separate buses from private vehicles and minimize congestion. "We're procuring concrete barriers to separate buses from private vehicles for good," he said. At least 30 motorists were apprehended on EDSA alone on the first day of the GCQ, Nebrija said. Aside from violations of the new scheme, others were seen to have violated social distancing protocols by either back-riding and not wearing masks. Meanwhile, the number of vehicles significantly increased by 50 to 60% along Metro Manila's major thoroughfare, he added. "We significantly felt the volume increase yesterday. When we started with the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), we counted around 15 to 21% of the volume in EDSA," Nebrija said. "When we shifted to the modified ECQ, the number rose to 40%. Yesterday, maybe around 50% to 60%." Eduardo Yap, chairman of the national affairs committee of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, previously noted the three factors that are keys to implement the massive shift in the traffic situation in EDSA: engineering, education and enforcement. Quarantine measures were eased in Metro Manila and several cities and provinces on Monday, with the rest of the country now under a less strict modified general community quarantine. However, workers struggled to commute to their offices even as public transportation was allowed to partially resume after months of closure. Commuters were seen enduring long lines and extended waiting time just to be able to get a ride in the morning. Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said sought for more understanding from the public, saying the national government did not promise it can provide rides for all workers. UPDATE: My heart was wrenched with pain, assistant chief says of ordering tear gas on protesters UPDATE: Kalamazoo protesters urge police to join them, are tear-gassed after curfew UPDATED 7:45 p.m.: Police deployed tear gas at the intersection of Park Street and Michigan Avenue in an attempt to clear the crowd. At least one person appeared to be arrested. State police began marching west on West Michigan Avenue to keep the crowd moving. They deployed more gas there. UPDATED 7:17 p.m.: Shortly after Coakley finished speaking with protesters, state troopers with bicycles, helmets and padding replaced the uniformed troopers on West Michigan Avenue, facing the protesters. Similar troopers with bicycles were deployed Monday evening in Grand Rapids to disperse protesters after the curfew went into effect. Coakley and City Manager Jim Ritsema knelt with some of the protesters and told them they agreed with their message. Black lives do matter, Coakley said. I stand with you. UPDATED 7:10 p.m.: Assistant Chief Vernon Coakley of the Kalamazoo Department Safety addressed the crowd gathered in the middle of West Michigan Avenue at Park Street at the curfew went into effect at 7 p.m. Michigan National Guard and Michigan State Police troopers formed a line blocking West Michigan. Coakley urged the protesters to move to a safe space. Today as a community, we want to hear your voice in a safe space, Coakley said. A line of protesters stood defiant in the street facing the officers. KALAMAZOO, MI -- The presence of police in Kalamazoo was heightened late Tuesday afternoon as the 7 p.m. citywide curfew approached. Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety and other local agencies are being assisted by the Michigan National Guard in Kalamazoo Tuesday, June 2, in anticipation of another night of protests and enforcing a mandated 7 p.m. curfew. The city of Portage has also imposed a 7 p.m. curfew. Chief Karianne Thomas announced the curfew at a press conference earlier Tuesday after businesses and storefronts in downtown Kalamazoo were damaged overnight Monday. The late-night vandalism followed an evening of peaceful protests along Michigan Avenue. If you are viewing this via Facebook app, click here to view the full photo gallery. The Michigan National Guard is blocking streets downtown, including Lovell Street and the Kalamazoo Mall where many businesses are boarded following overnight vandalism and in anticipation of potential troubling Tuesday night. West Michigan Avenue, the main eastbound thoroughfare through downtown, is also closed. Protests are happening across Michigan and elsewhere in the U.S. in response to the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis after being restrained by a white police officer. The officer, who was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, knelt on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes after putting him in handcuffs. Members of the Michigan National Guard were in downtown Kalamazoo, Mich., on Tuesday, June 2, after the city imposed a 7 p.m. curfew following a night of vandalism. Photo by Joel Bissell, MLive.com More on MLive: Protesters cause chaos overnight in downtown Kalamazoo Outside agitators forced officers to deploy tear gas, pepper spray in Kalamazoo, police say Kalamazoo city leaders met with protesters, who demanded answers about public safetys use of force Chief explains use of crowd management team at Kalamazoo protests Silent protesters hold demonstration in Kalamazoo Throngs crowd downtown Kalamazoo from days second protest For NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and ABC journalist Annabel Crabb, the cropped tailored jackets in Irish linen, luxury jacquard and tweed woollen fabrics were among favourites. Australian fashion designer Anna Thomas. TV interviewer Jane Hutcheon embraced some of the more colourful and adventurous patterns including cat faces, owls and love hearts. NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant mixed up the classics with fun designs including a silk shirt covered in colourful hot-air balloons. These women are just a few loyal customers mourning Australian fashion designer Anna Thomas, who died on Friday at the age of 49. Thomas, who battled illness for three years, leaves behind her husband David Barrington, the managing director of her fashion brand and their three children, Lilla, Angus and Oscar. [June 02, 2020] Bigfoot Biomedical Closes Series C Financing with $55 Million as Company Readies for FDA Submission of Bigfoot Unity Bigfoot Biomedical, Inc. announced today that the company has raised a total of $55 million to close its Series C equity financing. The round was led by Abbott with support from existing investors, including Quadrant Capital Advisors, Senvest Capital, Janus Henderson and Cormorant Asset Management, along with new investors including Smile Group. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005791/en/ Conceptual rendering of the Bigfoot Unity Diabetes Management Program. Product under development and not for sale in the United States. (Photo: Business Wire) Proceeds from the financing will support the completion of product development and FDA submission and clearance for the Bigfoot Unity System, part of the Bigfoot Unity Diabetes Management Program, a real-time, dose-decision support system for people with insulin-requiring diabetes relying on Multiple Daily Injection therapy, the most common form of insulin therapy for people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Bigfoot Unity utilizes proprietary, smart pen caps for basal and meal-time insulin dosing recommendations integrating Abbott's FreeStyle Libre platform. FDA submission of Bigfoot Unity is anticipated in 2020 with a target launch soon after clearance. "The urrent pandemic has only crystallized the need for medical solutions like ours that facilitate remote care, remote support and home delivery," said Jeffrey Brewer, chief executive officer of Bigfoot Biomedical. "Necessity has forced a giant leap forward in telemedicine, and there will be no looking back. Raising $55 million in equity financing during this time of economic hardship underscores the urgency and focus on getting real-time solutions in the hands of patients, providers and payers." In conjunction with closing its Series C financing, Bigfoot also announced changes to its board of directors. Co-founder Bryan Mazlish will transition from day-to-day involvement as Bigfoot's President to a new role as Executive Board Director focusing on the company's strategy and governance initiatives. In addition, Joy Mashaal of Senvest Management has been appointed to the board of directors. Senvest has supported Bigfoot across every financing since 2016. Bigfoot is a medical device company dedicated to simplifying and optimizing insulin delivery and dosing decisions for people living with insulin-requiring diabetes through the use of algorithms, artificial intelligence and automation. The company's integrated system and services are being developed to address many of the challenges facing people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, health care providers, and insurance institutions by leveraging many of the advances happening today in digital health and, in particular, opportunities for telemedicine engagement. With Bigfoot Unity, the patient and the health care provider will be able to view and share glucose readings and dosing decisions to better refine daily diabetes management with the goal of better overall health outcomes. Bigfoot plans to package the Bigfoot Unity system as a monthly subscription and intends to include Unity's proprietary insulin pen caps for both basal and bolus dosing, the Abbott glucose sensing technology, pen needles, backup blood glucose meter, glucose test strips and alcohol swabs. The system will also include a mobile phone app. The insulin pens will need to be obtained separately. Bigfoot's product portfolio also includes the Bigfoot Autonomy (News - Alert) Diabetes Management Program with a pump-based, closed-loop, automated insulin delivery system. Bigfoot Autonomy's loop system, which received the FDA Breakthrough Device designation, will require a pivotal clinical trial and subsequent regulatory approvals. "Right now, we're laser focused on validating and launching the technology for Bigfoot Unity," said Brewer. "Breaking ground with this initial Bigfoot Unity product offering provides us a better commercial foundation for launching an automated insulin delivery system, like Bigfoot Autonomy, in the future." About Bigfoot Biomedical, Inc. Bigfoot Biomedical was founded by a team of people with personal connections to Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes and, with its Bigfoot Unity and Bigfoot Autonomy programs, seeks to change the paradigm of care for insulin-requiring diabetes by leveraging data, connectivity, automation, and machine learning to reduce the burden on people with insulin-requiring diabetes and maximize the leverage of health care providers. Learn more at bigfootbiomedical.com. Follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) @BigfootBiomed and Facebook. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005791/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] NEW YORK, June 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SIGA Technologies, Inc. (SIGA) (SIGA), a commercial-stage pharmaceutical company focused on the health security market, today announced that it will host its 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders (the "Annual Meeting") as a virtual-only meeting that will be held via live audio webcast due to the public health and safety concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic, recommendations and orders from federal, state and local authorities, and to support the health and well-being of its stockholders, employees, and others. The previously announced date and time of the Annual Meeting, Tuesday, June 16, 2020 at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, as disclosed in the proxy materials previously distributed by the Company, has not changed. Stockholders will not be able to attend the Annual Meeting in person. A notice regarding this change to a virtual meeting format is being filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission together with this press release. Attending the Meeting; Process for Submitting Questions Stockholders as of the close of business on April 24, 2020 are entitled to attend the Annual Meeting. Stockholders of record wishing to attend the annual meeting may do so by visiting https://web.lumiagm.com/294073489 , entering the 11-digit control number included on the proxy card, voting instruction form or notice they previously received and entering the password siga2020 (the password is case sensitive). Stockholders holding their shares through a broker, bank or other intermediary as of the close of business on April 24, 2020 and wishing to attend may do so by visiting the same website, by logging in as a guest and providing the additional identifying information requested at such time. All stockholders may log into the meeting platform beginning at 10:15 a.m. Eastern Time on June 16, 2020. If you have questions regarding access to the annual meeting, please visit https://go.lumiglobal.com/faq . Story continues Prior to the Annual Meeting, stockholders may submit questions relating to the subject matter of the meeting via email to annualmeetingquestion@siga.com. All questions from stockholders must be received by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, June 11, 2020. Questions will be answered depending on the availability of time and members of management participating in the Annual Meeting. Voting All stockholders, whether or not planning to attend the virtual Annual Meeting, will be required to vote promptly in advance of the meeting by using one of the methods described in the proxy materials for voting prior to the Annual Meeting. The proxy card included with the previously distributed proxy materials will not be reissued and may continue to be used to vote shares in connection with the Annual Meeting. Stockholders who have already voted do not need to take any additional action. Stockholders who have not yet voted are urged to submit their votes promptly, as voting will not be available during the meeting. ABOUT SIGA TECHNOLOGIES, INC. and TPOXX SIGA Technologies, Inc. is a commercial-stage pharmaceutical company focused on the health security market. Health security comprises countermeasures for biological, chemical, radiological and nuclear attacks (biodefense market), vaccines and therapies for emerging infectious diseases, and health preparedness. Our lead product is TPOXX, also known as tecovirimat and ST-246, an orally administered and IV formulation antiviral drug for the treatment of human smallpox disease caused by variola virus. TPOXX is a novel small-molecule drug and the US maintains a stockpile of TPOXX in the Strategic National Stockpile under Project BioShield. The oral formulation of TPOXX was approved by the FDA for the treatment of smallpox in 2018. The full label is here https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2018/208627s000lbl.pdf . In September 2018, SIGA signed a contract of more than $600 million with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, for additional procurement and development related to both oral and intravenous formulations of TPOXX. For more information about SIGA, please visit www.siga.com. ABOUT SMALLPOX1 Smallpox is a contagious, disfiguring and often deadly disease that has affected humans for thousands of years. Naturally-occurring smallpox was eradicated worldwide by 1980, the result of an unprecedented global immunization campaign. Samples of smallpox virus have been kept for research purposes. This has led to concerns that smallpox could someday be used as a biological warfare agent. A vaccine can prevent smallpox, but the risk of the current vaccine's side effects is too high to justify routine vaccination for people at low risk of exposure to the smallpox virus. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Such forward-looking statements are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, and SIGA cautions you that any forward-looking information provided by or on behalf of SIGA is not a guarantee of future performance. More detailed information about SIGA and risk factors that may affect the realization of forward-looking statements, including the forward-looking statements in this press release, is set forth in SIGA's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including SIGA's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, and in other documents that SIGA has filed with the SEC. SIGA urges investors and security holders to read those documents free of charge at the SEC's web site at http://www.sec.gov. Interested parties may also obtain those documents free of charge from SIGA. Forward-looking statements are current only as of the date on which such statements were made, and except for our ongoing obligations under the United States of America federal securities laws, we undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. The information contained in this press release does not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the Government and no official endorsement should be inferred. Contacts: Investors David Carey 212-867-1768 david.carey@finnpartners.com Media Stephanie Seiler 206-713-0124 stephanie.seiler@finnpartners.com " " Members of the National Guard patrol Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles on May 31, 2020. They were among the thousands of National Guard troops that were deployed to several major U.S. cities after five consecutive nights of protests over racism and police brutality boiled over into arson and looting. JAVIER TOVAR/AFP via Getty Images The National Guard serves a dual role in the U.S. military by serving the community and its country. Most of the time, it's under the control of individual states, with the state governor acting as commander in chief. When this occurs, guard units are used to supplement the U.S. Army, bolstering its forces with additional combat units. The Guard responds to domestic emergencies, overseas combat missions, counterdrug efforts, reconstruction missions and more. However, the president can activate the National Guard and place it under federal control. Soldiers in the National Guard train one weekend each month, with one two-week training period each year. They're typically called into action by a state governor, who can send them to the site of any officially declared emergency in the state. This is usually a weather-related emergency, but civil unrest or terrorist attacks are other emergencies they may respond to. Advertisement For example, the death of George Floyd (during his police custody in Minneapolis) was followed by mass protests, arson and looting in cities across the U.S. in May 2020. National Guard personnel were activated in 23 states and the District of Columbia [source: Soucy]. In June 2020, 600 to 800 National Guard members from five states were requested to augment the D.C. National Guard in dealing with civil unrest in the nation's capital [source: Browne and Starr]. Guard troops can also be used for security details at borders and airports. While state governors command their state's guard troops, each state has an adjutant general who acts as a liaison, interpreting the governor's orders into specific tactical decisions. When the president federalizes National Guard troops, they can be used in domestic emergencies much like they are used in state emergencies. However, the troops are not limited to emergencies within their home states. For example, in 2005, National Guard units from all 50 states were used to aid in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. There were actually more out-of-state National Guard personnel deployed to Louisiana and Mississippi than those states' own National Guards provided [source: Congressional Research Service]. " " A National Guard Humvee departs the New Orleans Superdome in Louisiana to patrol the streets after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city leaving thousands stranded. The National Guard/U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 1st Class (AW) Brien Aho Federalized Guard troops can also be folded into the U.S. Army and be called upon to active service in military operations overseas. In fact, 40 percent of the U.S. Army's current combat capacity, including 43 percent of its piloted and unmanned aircraft are National Guard members [source: Soucy]. The National Guard played a critical role when the U.S. entered World War I, with the 27th "Empire" Division, composed mostly of New York National Guard members, and the 30th "Old Hickory" Division from Tennessee and the Carolinas helping to break through Germany's Hindenburg Line during the 1918 Somme offensive [source: National Guard Bureau]. From 2001 to 2016, the National Guard had 780,000 individual overseas deployments [source: Soucy]. One out of six U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq came from a National Guard Unit. Most of the time, when someone refers to the National Guard, they're talking about the Army National Guard. However, the Air Force has a National Guard as well. The Air National Guard is a separate organization with the same functions as the Army National Guard, but units (usually wings) can be activated to supplement the U.S. Air Force. The two guards were split in this way by a reorganization of the U.S. military after World War II. The National Guard's existence is ensured by the Constitution, which has a series of clauses outlining the states' rights to create militias and the federal government's right to utilize those militias. These are a long chain of federal laws, the most important of which are the 1903 Militia Act and the National Defense Act of 1916. A more recent law, the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act of 2007, expanded the president's authority to activate guard units during a natural disaster, terrorist attack, epidemic or other public health emergency, even without the approval from the states' governors [source: Melnyk]. But presidential power to use the National Guard still has limits. Federal law still restricts the president's use of National Guard forces to enforce federal laws within U.S. borders, unless it's to suppress an insurrection [source: Congressional Research Service]. About half of the states in the United States also maintain a state defense force. These forces are more like militias all of the troops are volunteers, they receive no federal funding and often have to purchase their own uniforms and equipment. A state defense force is separate from the state National Guard, though they may be organized in parallel. Technically, the president has the authority to call on these state militias when needed, but in practical terms, state defense forces are largely immune to federal activation. For more information on the National Guard and related topics, check out the following links: Sources Army national guard. "About the National Guard." http://www.ngb.army.mil/About/default.aspx Browne, Ryan and Starr, Barbara. "Additional National Guard members have been requested for DC." CNN. June 1, 2020. (June 1, 2020) https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/george-floyd-protests-06-01-20/index.html Congressional Research Service. "Hurricane Katrina: DOD Disaster Response. " Fas.org. Sept. 19, 2005. (June 1, 2020) https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL33095.pdf Congressional Research Service. "The Posse Comitatus Act and Related Matters: The Use of the Military to Execute Civilian Law." Fas.org. Nov. 16, 2018. (June 1, 2020) https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R42659.pdf GlobalSecurity.org. "Army National Guard." http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/army/arng.htm Meeks, Brock N. "Guardsmen on a rescue and relief mission." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9117367/ Melnyk, Maj. Les. "New defense laws show Guard the road ahead for 2007." Nationalguard.mil. Oct. 18, 2006. (June 1, 2020) https://www.nationalguard.mil/News/Article/572792/new-defense-laws-show-guard-the-road-ahead-for-2007/ National Guard Bureau. "History: National Guard assisted WWI allies in ending war." Nationalguard.mil. Nov. 7, 2018. (June 1, 2020) https://www.nationalguard.mil/News/News-Features/Article/1684584/history-national-guard-assisted-wwi-allies-in-ending-war/ Soucy, Sgt. 1st Class Jon. "National Guard remains a vital component of the war fight." Army.mil. March 22, 2016. (June 1, 2020) https://www.army.mil/article/164663/national_guard_remains_a_vital_component_of_the_war_fight Soucy, Sgt. 1st Class Jon. "Response to civil unrest." Army.mil May 21, 2020. (June 1, 2020) https://www.army.mil/article/236089/guard_members_in_23_states_d_c_called_up_in_response_to_civil_unrest Woodruff, Judy. "National Guard Underfunded, Not Prepared for Crises." http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/jan-june07/military_03-01.html Advertisement Originally Published: Apr 4, 2007 Credit: CC0 Public Domain The number of suspected and confirmed deaths from coronavirus in Britain has risen to 48,000, official data showed Tuesday. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures tallied all fatalities in which COVID-19 was suspected or mentioned on death certificates up to May 22. The total of 48,106 is significantly higher than the government's latest daily figure of 39,369, which only includes deaths where the patient tested positive for coronavirus. By either measure, the toll is Europe's worst and puts Britain behind only the United States in officially announced deaths, although each country has different reporting lags and methods. The data also showed there had been 56,308 more deaths in England and Wales than the five-year average since the outbreak took hold in March. But in the week ending May 22, there were 2,589 mentions of "novel coronavirus" on death certificates in England and Walesthe lowest since the seven days to March 27. Britain is one of the last European countries to start easing its stay-at-home restrictions, which were imposed on March 23. Some younger children returned to school in England on Monday while some shops were allowed to reopen. However, some critics say the government is moving too quickly while infection rates and deaths remain high. Separately, England's public health agency on Tuesday published a new report confirming previous evidence that the outbreak is hitting ethnic minorities the hardest. People of Bangladeshi origin had around twice the risk of dying than white British people, even accounting for age, sex, deprivation and regionalthough not accounting for comorbidities, occupation or obesity. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said coronavirus had "emphasised the existing health inequalities in the country", and promised further work on the issue. He said the report was timely given global protests over the death of George Floyd in the United States, adding: "Black lives matter. "And I want to say this to everyone who works in the National Health Service and in social care: I value the contribution that you make, everybody equally. "And I want to say it right across society too. I want to thank you." Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak 2020 AFP Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 03:15:19|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close People rally in front of the White House during a protest over the death of George Floyd in Washington, D.C., the United States, on May 31, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) Incidents of arson, vandalism and clashes between police and protesters happened when demonstrations turned violent Sunday evening in Washington, D.C., with fire flaring up near the White House. WASHINGTON, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Monday that a curfew will be effective 7 p.m. Eastern Time in the city and extend through the next morning, and similar restrictions will also be issued for Tuesday. The order came as protests over the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man in Minneapolis, turned violent not only in the U.S. capital, but also cross the nation. Bowser, who issued an 11 p.m. curfew Sunday night, said at a news briefing that journalists covering the demonstrations and other essential personnel are exempted from the new measure. "We want your voices to be heard, but we also want to protect the safety of everyone in our city." Protesters rally near the White House during a protest over the death of George Floyd in Washington, D.C., the United States, on May 30, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) Describing the violent protests over the last few days as causing "significant damage" to the city's downtown areas, Bowser said while "every American should be outraged by the murder of George Floyd," Washingtonians should be "part of the solution, not part of the destruction." Incidents of arson, vandalism and clashes between police and protesters happened when demonstrations turned violent Sunday evening in the capital, with graffiti seen on buildings and monuments in the city center and fire flaring up at the Lafayette Square directly north of the White House. Bowser said the fire near the White House -- which rekindled Monday morning, forcing the closure of nearby streets and firefighters to put the blaze under control -- was "intentionally set," adding "that type of destruction is intolerable." Protesters rally near the White House during a protest over the death of George Floyd in Washington, D.C., the United States, on May 30, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) Washington, D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham said at the briefing that 88 people were arrested Sunday night and two-thirds of those charged will face felony counts, and that seven police officers were injured but without need for hospitalization. He added that more arrests may occur as investigators are examining "expansive" video footage. "We're prepared for multiple days of demonstrations," Bowser said. "We're working with all of our intelligence to figure out who's coming here." Pleading in vain for his life, Floyd died on May 25 after a white policeman, Derek Chauvin, kneeled on his neck for minutes. All four police officers involved have been fired, and Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. BRUSSELS With American cities burning and the coronavirus still raging, killing more people than in any other country, President Trump also has growing problems overseas. He has never before been so isolated and ignored, even mocked. In Europe, after years of snubs and American unilateralism, Americas traditional allies have stopped looking to him for leadership, no longer trust that this president will offer them much, and are turning their backs on him. That was evidenced most obviously this week by the decision of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, not to attend the Group of 7 meeting Mr. Trump wanted so badly in Washington this month to show that the virus was behind him and the world was returning to normal. Ms. Merkel cited the lingering threat of the virus, but a senior German official who spoke on the condition of anonymity made clear that she had other reasons to decline: She believed that proper diplomatic preparations had not been made; she did not want to be part of an anti-China display; she opposed Mr. Trumps idea of inviting the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin; she did not want to be seen as interfering in American domestic politics. Wayfair, UMass Memorial Health Care and the New England Aquarium have all posted photos of black squares on Instagram on Tuesday, and theyre certainly not alone. The posts are part of a larger social media movement to express solidarity with the Black Lives Matter protests after the death of George Floyd. The event, known as Blackout Tuesday, involves simply posting a photo of a black square, and commit to not post on the social media platform the rest of the day. Instead of focusing on social media, the day is to be used to consider how best to fight against racism, the Independent reported. The movement on Instagram was originally inspired by The Show Must Be Paused, which was started by two Atlantic senior directors of marketing, Brianna Agyemang and Jamila Thomas, who are both black. Agyemang and Thomas explained the effort is to intentionally disrupt the work week... The music industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. An industry that has profited predominantly from Black art. Our mission is to hold the industry at large, including major corporations + their partners who benefit from the efforts, struggles and successes of Black people accountable," Billboard reported. See below for more Massachusetts organizations and celebrities participating. Related Content: By PTI DHAKA: Bangladesh has confirmed its first coronavirus death among the Rohingya refugees on Tuesday, amid growing concern from the international rights groups on the high transmission rate in the packed camps which house over a million displaced people from Myanmar, according to media reports. A 71-year-old man died in the Kutupalong Refugee Camp in southeast Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar city, BDNews24 reported. "We have bad news. A Rohingya male died from COVID-19 on Sunday, but the result of his test came on Monday. This is the first death in the camps," Dr Mahbubur Rahman, civil surgeon of Cox's Bazar, told the Dhaka Tribune. The man was kept in isolation at a facility run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Another nine refugees who came in contact with the deceased have been sent to the isolation centre, the newspaper reported. ALSO READ: Bangladesh reopens offices, transport services amid spike in coronavirus cases Bangladesh is currently home to over a million refugees from neighbouring Myanmar. The camps in Cox's Bazar are the most populous. At least 29 of the refugees have tested COVID-19 positive. The camps were shut down after Bangladesh reported its first coronavirus case on March 11. International rights groups have warned of a potential outbreak if the virus reaches the camps. The US-based Human Rights Watch has decried the Bangladesh government's lockdown measures which has led to food and water shortages. 'Bangladesh authorities need to protect against the spread of COVID-19 in the Rohingya refugee camps, but every effort should be made to limit the harm from lockdown measures,' said Brad Adams, HRW Asia director. The camps are a series of plastic shacks which have an extraordinarily high population density. Mass Rohingya migration began in August 2017 after the Myanmar Army launched an counterinsurgency operation against the Muslims. With the development of science and technology, human's activity was and is expanding from land, sea and sky to the space and other planets. In the near future, deep space and other terrestrial planets will become the next main territory of human. Sun is the nearest star in the universe. It affects the (interplanetary-)space of our planets in many time scales. Thus, observing and understanding the solar activity and its evolution in interplanetary space and influence on the space environment of planets is one of the necessary capabilities for us to enter the deep space and expand our territory. Recently, Professor Wang Yuming and his team from the University of Science and Technology of China, in collaboration with the teams from Purple Mountain Observatory of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Innovation Academy for Microsatellites of CAS, Shandong University, and the University of CAS, proposed a new concept of space exploration for understanding Sun and the inner heliosphere, which was published online in "Science China Technological Sciences". This concept for the first time proposes to deploy six spacecraft, grouped in three pairs, in three elliptical orbits between the earth and Venus around the Sun to observe and study the Sun and the inner heliosphere in a full 360-degree perspective. The separation angle between two spacecraft in each group is about 30 degrees, and that between every two groups is about 120 degrees. Through this configuration, the mission will be able to image the vast area from the photosphere to the inner heliosphere with high resolution, and perform the in situ measurements. Three unprecedented capabilities will be established: (1) determine the photospheric vector magnetic field with unambiguity, (2) provide 360-degree maps of the Sun and the inner heliosphere routinely, and (3) resolve the solar wind structures at multiple scales and multiple longitudes. With these capabilities, the Solar Ring mission aims to address the origin of solar cycle, the origin of solar eruptions, the origin of solar wind transients and the origin of severe space weather events. In order to achieve these scientific objectives, researchers suggest the following science payloads equipped on the six spacecraft: Spectral imager for magnetic field and helioseismology, Multi-band imager for EUV emissions, Wide-angle coronagraph, Radio investigator, Flux-gate magnetometer, Solar wind plasma analyzer, and High-energy particle detector. It is preliminarily estimated that the total mass of the payloads on each spacecraft is less than 110 kg, the power consumption is no more than 180 W, and the peak data transmission rate is about 52.06 Mbps. According to the carrying capacity of China, Long March 3A or Long March 3B can be used to deploy the spacecraft in three launches by using one rocket two spacecraft technology. The deployment period and the selection of the launch vehicle depend on the orbital parameters. The most challenging difficulty in the whole task is the data transmission. In the traditional communication mode, the data transmission rate is about 5 Mbps at a distance of 0.25 AU (the average distance between the Sun and Earth is 1 AU) away from the Earth, and it will decrease to as low as 70 kbps at a distance of 2 AU. This data transmission rate is far lower than the desired scientific demand. To solve or relieve this problem, we either reduce the data rate by enhancing the capability of the onboard data processing, compression and storage and decreasing the sampling frequency, or develop more efficient techniques for the deep space communication, e.g., laser communication. The mission has a long implementation period and high cost, but its scientific and application prospects are significant. It can be implemented in three phases, with two spacecraft deployed in each phase. The successful implementation of any stage can bring great progress in detection ability and scientific research; at the same time, the design idea of grouping makes the task have the prospect and possibility of international cooperation. The successful accomplishment of the mission will greatly advance our understanding of the Sun and interplanetary space environment sounding our planets, so as to enhance our capability to enter the deep space and expand the next new territory of human. ### Read More: Wang Y M, Ji H S, Wang Y M, et al. Concept of the solar ring mission: Overview. Sci China Tech Sci, 2020, 63, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-020-1603-2 Amethi: Union minister Smriti Irani, in a series of tweets, has slammed the Congress for questioning her `absence` from her constituency Amethi. Unsigned posters of `missing` Smriti Irani had appeared in Amethi on Monday and Congress MLC Deepak Singh questioned her absence from his Twitter handle. "When Corona struck Amethi, your (Congress) leaders violated lockdown rules. Do you want me to encourage people to come of out their homes so that you can play Twitter-Twitter? Amethi may not be dear to you, but it is to me. Stop playing with people`s lives," she tweeted. In another tweet, the minister said, "Till now 22,150 migrants have returned to Amethi by bus and 8,322 by train after following all rules. I can give the name of each person, each family. Can Sonia ji give similar details for Rae Bareli?" Tweeting about the missing posters put up against her, the minister said in another tweet, "If you had put up posters, you should have, at least, given your name too. Why so shy? Is it because you know that people will never forgive those who have shamefully referred to the incident where I joined in the cremation procession of a local leader?" The minister further stated that she was constantly in touch with the district officials and had made efforts to ensure that every deserving person got the benefit of the Prime Minister`s Garib Kalyan Yojana. "Please let us know how many times Sonia ji has made such efforts for her constituency?" she asked. The minister wrapped up her series of tweets by informing about her visits to Amethi. "I have visited Amethi ten times in eight months and spent 14 days in Amethi. How many times has Sonia ji visited her constituency?" she stated. The missing posters, interestingly, were widely shared on the social media platforms by various Congress leaders even though they refused to own up to the fact that the posters had been put up by party leaders. The poster said that the BJP MP had visited the district `just for a few hours twice since she won the 2019 election.` The black and white posters, carrying an image of the MP, further said, "We have seen you play `antakshari` on Twitter, give food to some individuals, but the people of Amethi are now looking for you to address their needs and difficulties." The posters said that `Amethi was a tour destination for Irani`. The All India Mahila Congress shared the poster from its official twitter handle. `Missing` poster wars in Amethi have been a regular phenomenon and till 2019, it was Rahul Gandhi who faced similar flak that questioned his absence from his constituency. Supple leather, gleaming clasps not to mention very recognisable logos. A designer bag is the must-have finishing touch to any discerning fashionistas outfit, and often the one big investment piece women may have in their wardrobe. Theres just one snag. For chic as these Chanel, Prada and Gucci offerings are, anyone buying them could well be purchasing a counterfeit and putting money in the pockets of ruthless criminal gangs. Fraudsters have upped their game with a booming market in superfakes handbags so convincing it can take a detailed examination from an expert to spot them. Logos are carefully copied, the same materials used and they may also come with similar luxurious linings, date stamps and even serial numbers. But while that bag may look good on your arm, there is a price to be paid. Experts warn that superfakes are likely to made in the Far East, Italy and Turkey by workers sometimes children on very poor pay. We asked handbag expert Claudia Valentin, of poshbagslondon.com, which authenticates and sells designer bags, to examine eight lookalike bags and reveal how not to be fooled. GUCCI MARMONT VELVET SHOULDER BAG ORIGINAL: 1,510 FAKE: 196 PRICE DIFFERENCE: 1,314 REAL Gucci Marmont velvet shoulder bag (left) and fake (right) Both bags are made from plush purple velvet, moulded into an elegant chevron pattern, with substantial shoulder chains and identical Gucci monograms. But if you want to keep up the illusion, keep your bag firmly shut, says Claudia. Counterfeiters tend to put the most time and effort into the outside of the bag and skimp on the lining, she says. In a real Gucci, this would be exquisitely crafted. But this bag has a cheap lining that is loose and baggy. She says a trained eye would also spot another giveaway in the spacing of the chevron designs. In the real bag, the chevron lines are spaced at different distances. On the fake, they are parallel. And fake handbags can even sound different. If you snap the clasp shut, you get a satisfying click because its substantial and well-made of a heavy metal. On fakes, sometimes theres more of a squeaky sound. CLAUDIAS VERDICT: This is convincing as long as you dont open your bag and no one looks too closely.8/10 PRADA SAFFIANO TOTE BAG ORIGINAL: 2,113 FAKE: 25 PRICE DIFFERENCE: 2,088 REAL PRADA SAFFIANO TOTE BAG (left) and FAKE (right) From a distance, this bright red tote, bought on a stall at Londons Camden Market, looks attractive enough, and the shape and size are close to the original. However, those in the know would spot that on a real Saffiano, the triangle with the Prada name on it is made of leather, which is the same colour as the bag, says Claudia. As this is fake, they have used a bulkier, raised, black version. CLAUDIAS VERDICT: This is a decent copy. But the fake logo is an instant giveaway.6/10 YVES SAINT LAURENT CROSS-BODY BAG ORIGINAL: 780 FAKE: 25 PRICE DIFFERENCE: 755 REAL YVES SAINT LAURENT CROSS-BODY BAG (left) and FAKE (right) While this replica clutch bag is a similar shape and size, the difference in the logo which says Y8L, not YSL is a giveaway. Claudia says the change was probably so the manufacturer could attempt to argue it is not infringing copyright. If youre paying this much for a handbag, it should sit nicely on a flat surface, she says. But if you put a fake and an original side by side, the fake would fall over because all the weights are wrong. The fakes are not as well constructed and the sides dont keep their shape as well. In a real bag, the leather edges are rounded off. In fake ones they often have a rubbery seal and this black colour can spill over. CLAUDIAS VERDICT: No one will be fooled by this bag. 2/10 REAL: Model Lily Donaldson carries a Hermes Birkin HERMES BIRKIN ORIGINAL: 7,000 FAKE: 150 PRICE DIFFERENCE: 6,850 Both the real and the fake were made of calf leather, but the grain on the counterfeit was rougher. The fakes handles are also a different shape and not as well made. On a real Hermes bag, the hardware is either gold or palladium-plated, which looks like white gold, says Claudia. On this fake, its just an ordinary metal. Real Birkins are made by one artisan working on that one item for 20 hours. The stitching on the fake is more regular because its done by machine. CLAUDIAS VERDICT: Ive been shown better fake Birkins than this one.2/10 FAKE HERMES BIRKIN: Both the real and the fake were made of calf leather, but the grain on the counterfeit was rougher CHANEL CLASSIC FLAP BAG ORIGINAL: 2,669 FAKE: 24.99 PRICE DIFFERENCE: 2,644 REAL CHANEL CLASSIC FLAP BAG (left) and FAKE (right) while this fake mimics the quilted design and chain shoulder strap, the counterfeiters have altered the logo joining up the signature double CC lock to form two Os. Changing the logo means the bag will be just different enough to be allowed to be sold on sites like Amazon, where this one was bought, explains Claudia. Given the low price, the stitching and quality are good. However, one key difference is the fake is a man-made material, rather than calf, lamb or goat skin. CLAUDIAS VERDICT: The logo means that you wont fool anyone who knows the first thing about designer handbags for more than a millisecond. 4/10 LOUIS VUITTON KEEPALL ORIGINAL: 1,160 FAKE: 100 PRICE DIFFERENCE: 1,060 REAL LOUIS VUITTON KEEPALL 1,500, (left), WITH FAKE, 100, (right) This is an attempt to copy the LV Keepall though it doesnt use its classic monogrammed canvas fabric. The colour of the leather handles, which should be tan, is too pale and the fakers have missed one of the originals interior pockets. CLAUDIAS VERDICT: The makers of this bag have managed to keep the patterns symmetrical. However, all the attention has gone on the outside. 7/10 STELLA McCARTNEY FALABELLA SHOULDER BAG ORIGINAL: 340 FAKE: 10 PRICE DIFFERENCE: 330 REAL STELLA MCCARTNEY FALABELLA SHOULDER BAG (left) and FAKE (right) With its super-soft fabric and chain-link strap, Stella McCartneys Falabella bag is a celebrity favourite. This is a pale imitation. Claudia says: The fact that the fake is not made of real python is not a problem because as a vegetarian, Stella uses no real leather or fur. However the weaker fabric also means the bag does not maintain its shape. CLAUDIAS VERDICT: This fake has used Stellas styling to make a very distinctive statement, but there is none of the craftsmanship. 2/10 GUCCI SOHO DISCO BAG ORIGINAL: 805 FAKE: 5 PRICE DIFFERENCE: 800 REAL GUCCI SOHO DISCO BAG (left) and FAKE (right) At first glance, Claudia says the Gucci monogram on this fake, bought on a market stall in the Far East, is well stitched. But look more closely and the logo is more oval than it should be. It is also stitched in a different colour thread. Another giveaway of counterfeit bags is the hardware in the chains. Many real designer bags have gold- or palladium-plated chains so they are more of a gold colour, says Claudia. But the hardware here is yellowy. CLAUDIAS VERDICT: For its price this may be good, but that doesnt take into account the human price of counterfeits. 8/10 Dauphin County reported 695 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on May 5th and 851 cases on May 12. But what people were flushing down their toilets at that same time told a different story. Daisy-Daisy/iStockBy ALLISON PECORIN, KATHERINE FAULDERS and MATTHEW MOSK, ABC News (WASHINGTON) -- The federal government has begun sharing its tracking data for nursing home fatalities for the first time since the novel coronavirus outbreak, a step long urged by members of Congress as an important way to guide efforts to protect the elderly and frail as the nation tries to reopen. Without this information, adequate testing and a full supply of [personal protective equipment], our seniors will continue to suffer, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said last month. The new, initial numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services were shared in a letter to U.S. governors dated Sunday and obtained by ABC News. The numbers document that at least 25,923 nursing home residents have died as a result of COVID-19, though the figure doesn't include reporting from some states prior to May and differs from state-by-state reports due to disparities in the way data is tracked. The federal regulators also acknowledge their first release of figures may account for about 80% of the nations nursing homes, and that data maybe inconsistent with state data, particularly state death data. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Seema Verma said Monday afternoon that she expects the dataset to represent more nursing homes each week during a press call with reporters. The survey is the first to include the number of nursing home staff killed in the outbreak, which federal officials list at 449 fatalities across the country. And it marks the first public accounting of deaths in 10 states that were not previously publishing any data about the outbreaks severe impact on those in long-term care facilities during ABC News' most recent survey. Along with the new figures, the federal agency that regulates nursing homes told governors they intend to step up penalties and enforcement of infection control efforts. Problems containing infections using trusted methods, like frequent hand-washing and changing gloves and masks, have surfaced frequently during inspections of facilities where there have been deadly coronavirus outbreaks. In inspections, multiple facilities have been shown not to be using certain infection control methods properly. "Many of the surveys we have done we have found that hand washing continues to be a challenge, and many facilities are not prepared to adequately isolate and cohort patients that have COVID or are suspected of having it," Verma said. The federal totals remain lower than the numbers gathered through a state-by-state analysis conducted by ABC News in mid-May. That survey found more than 37,600 deaths attributed to the coronavirus in nursing homes and long-term care facilities from 40 states and the District of Columbia stretching back to the beginning of the crisis. Just over 100,000 total coronavirus deaths in the U.S. have been reported since the outbreak reached America's shores, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The new federal count shows that in the 10 states that were not reporting nursing home fatalities during ABC News' last survey of national data, an additional 794 residents and staff have died. Those states are Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Montana, Missouri and Utah. Federal officials said one reason for the disparity in the counts is because some states only provided figures to the federal government starting in May, when they were first required to provide data specific to nursing homes. That means earlier staggering nursing home outbreaks like the ones that killed dozens in Seattle, Virginia, Massachusetts and New York may not be counted in the federal data. Verma said Monday however, that she believes many nursing homes did report retrospectively despite the fact that they were not required too. "My thought is that most of the nursing homes did report because I don't think the numbers would have been that high if they didn't," Verma told reporters. "I mean there's no way that we had 26,000 new cases in the week in nursing homes, but that being said, the requirement was only to report as of that week." Also, when responding to ABC News inquiries, some states included deaths in assisted living centers, over which the federal government does not have authority, so they are not tracked by federal regulators and not included in their tally, officials said. The omission of deaths from assisted living facilities in federal counting had already drawn criticism from Senate Democrats and advocates. The reality is this virus doesnt care whether seniors are living in assisted living facilities or living in nursing homes it can affect them regardless, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said during a Senate hearing earlier this month. University of Chicago Professor R. Tamara Konetzka, who studies nursing homes and assisted living facilities, said that the differences between nursing and assisted living facilities varies by state. Assisted living often allows for slightly more separation between residents, but still involved staff care that has shown to be a cause of outbreaks. Theyre just older populations who probably are very vulnerable to the virus, Konetzka said. The release of this data has been long awaited by Senate Democrats who have for weeks called on the federal government to make more info about the affects of COVID-19 in nursing homes available. Earlier this month, Casey said incomplete data was part of the reason Congress was struggling to provide appropriate aid to nursing homes. "Still to this day, we are trying to help those residents and workers in nursing homes with one hand tied behind our backs because the Administration... is not releasing any data on outbreaks in these facilities," Casey said during a hearing last month. "This is unconscionable." While this data set represents the first installment of national data, it is expected that more nursing homes will comply with their reporting requirement next week, when they would otherwise begin to face a daily fine for failure to do so. Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Advisers are calling for lower servicing test rates as mortgage rates plummet and banks continue to widen the gap between servicing test rates and market rates. Despite the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ)'s effort to convince banks to lower their mortgage rates further, advisers still believe that borrowers would not be able to survive the current servicing test rates. According to Landlords.co.nz, banks are testing customers at servicing rates of over 7% despite two-year mortgage rates dropping to 2.65%. Russia has raised the diplomatic level of its relations with Syria in a move that could have wide implications in the countrys reconstruction phase, writes Bassel Oudat in Damascus With the Syrian conflict remaining at a standstill politically and militarily, Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed the Russian Ambassador to Damascus Alexander Yefimov as the special representative of the Russian president for the development of relations with the Syrian Arab Republic in an announcement that has raised speculation about the meaning and implications of the appointment. The decision comes at a time when the Syrian economy is deteriorating, the national currency is collapsing and there are few hopes that Syria can begin reconstruction or recovery any time soon. It also comes at a time when infighting among the ruling family in Syria has spilled over into the public domain, especially between President Bashar Al-Assad and his wife Asmaa Al-Assad on the one side and the presidents maternal cousin Rami Makhlouf, a businessman who has dominated parts of the Syrian economy for decades, on the other. Rifts have also been beginning to show among supporters of the regime. The Russian appointment coincides with the implementation of the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act by the US Congress, which places sanctions on the Al-Assad regime and its supporters, whether individuals or states. The act will likely put pressure on countries supporting the Syrian regime, especially Russia and Iran. In a statement, the US State Department said that under the Caesar Act, the president will be required to impose new sanctions on any person or entity that deals with the Syrian government or provides it with funding, including Syrian intelligence and security agencies and the Central Bank of Syria. The law also allows the US to sanction any international company that contributes to Syrias energy, construction or engineering sectors, or any entity or individual that provides financial aid to the regime. The sanctions could thus include Russian and Iranian entities that provide the Syrian regime with financial, material and technological support. Many Russian institutions are likely to face US sanctions, including the Russian military, Russian weapons manufacturers and Russian businessmen, military contractors and energy producers. The Caesar Act may lead Putin to put pressure on the Syrian regime to speed up the work of the Constitutional Committee put together to draft a new Syrian Constitution and move forward the political process. It will also impact the regime by adding more sanctions and further isolating it in the world arena, sending a clear message that the US will not support Syrian reconstruction as long as Al-Assad remains president. Against this background, commentators say that Russia needed to raise its level of representation inside Syria. Yefimov will be reporting to the Russian presidents office directly and will have access to Putin himself, meaning that political decisions can be taken promptly without the need for bureaucratic red tape. According to commentators, Russias goals in naming Yefimov as the presidents special envoy in Syria are to show its grip on power inside Syria at the presidential level and to weaken Irans role and influence in the country. The appointment has also come amid ongoing tensions between Russia and Turkey about the resolution of the crisis in Syria, with these almost erupting into open clashes between Ankara and Moscow. The raising of the diplomatic level of the Russian representation in Syria will help Russia to extend its influence over Syrian economic decisions, allow for economic expansion in future projects and in those that will be awarded after the political transition phase when reconstruction begins, and help to diminish Irans role and influence in Syrian institutions. One key investment contract between Russia and the Syrian regime was signed in April 2019 and guarantees Russian investments in the Tartous Port for 49 years. There have been other contracts signed by Russian companies in sectors such as oil and gas, airports, military bases, agriculture and other ports. Syria is a strategic pivot for Moscow in the Middle East, and its continuing role in the country will diminish the role of other international players, especially Iran, in line with demands made by the US, Turkey and the Syrian opposition. At the same time, the Russian move could increase tensions with Turkey, especially in Syrian territory not under US influence or control. Military operations in Idlib in northwest Syria may take place soon to recover control of the last opposition stronghold supported by Turkey, ushering in political solutions in which Russia will likely play a key role. *A version of this article appears in print in the 4 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Minneapolis (AFP) - The Fehrenkamp brothers were excited to reopen outdoor seating on their pub's patio on Monday, when Minneapolis began easing COVID-19 lockdown restrictions -- but before that could happen rioters set their restaurant ablaze. Like them, dozens of business owners across this populous city in the northern state of Minnesota have found themselves in a difficult financial situation, facing both the effects of the novel coronavirus and violent protests over the death of George Floyd. Floyd was killed on May 27 after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on the 46-year-old black man's neck for almost nine minutes. A bystander video of the incident sparked a nationwide uproar over police brutality, and protests have broken out every night since. The demonstrations have often turned into rioting and looting. The Iron Door pub, located about half a mile from a police station, paid the price of the protesters' anger Friday night. Daniel Fehrenkamp, watching from his home on a security camera feed, saw a small group of people break down the door, steal beers and set a fire behind the bar. The sprinklers activated, and water rained inside the building for six hours -- causing more damage than the flames. On Monday, the two brothers met with an insurance agent to assess the damage. "This is the fifth location I've looked at today," said insurance agent Trevor Winter, visibly upset at damage caused by vandals. He took note of the broken windows, the swollen, water-logged floor, the flooded televisions and blackened walls. - 'Thin ice' - "This is at least three months' rebuild," said Daniel Fehrenkamp, adding that Minneapolis tradespeople are overwhelmed with work because of widespread riot damages. "Glass replacement is nine to 10 weeks out in the city already. And I'm sure that will get worse," he said. "We were already on thin ice with the pandemic," said Daniel's brother Jack. "Hopefully we will bounce back." Story continues Their pub had been closed for two months and was only able to start offering take-out service for three weeks, thanks to a federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan. The brothers failed to get their insurance to compensate for their loss of income. Daniel said it was "heartbreaking," but he's hopeful for a more favorable outcome this time. While awaiting the answer, he will rely on his wife's income and take a small part-time job to make ends meet. In order to avoid the same fiery fate, Jack McCrery -- the owner of Zoe Bakery Cafe, just 100 yards away -- has been spending every night in his restaurant. "We've been inside our business the last three nights in a row," he said. "Hopefully that plays some part in it." The store at a neighboring gas station was reduced to ashes. Others have boarded up their shops with panels that read "Justice for George," "Kids live here" or "Minority Owned," in an attempt to deter protesters. - 'It will be alright' - On the other side of the city, in the primarily black neighborhoods, Tom Bernard was preparing to take up his scissors and razor once more after two months of lockdown when a Molotov cocktail set a neighboring shop on fire late Sunday. The flames damaged his barber shop. "The grand reopening tomorrow is gonna have to wait a while," he said ironically. Bernard said he plans to "stay at home for a couple months. That's about it. Drove my wife nuts, but nothing we can do about it." Like the Fehrenkamp brothers, Bernard praised the Minneapolis residents who rushed in early in the morning armed with armed with shovels and brooms to help clean up the debris. City residents have also generously participated in fundraisers, organized online or by neighborhood councils, to support the city's small-business owners. "Us Minnesotans will get by. We will suck it up, it will be alright," said Bernard. "Keep our fingers crossed that it does not happen again." An American traveller has listed the things he 'hates' about Australia - including the 'aggressive' flies, glaring sun, slow WiFi, and bicycle helmet laws. Backpacker Tristan Kuhn has been travelling around Australia, visiting Melbourne, Tasmania, Adelaide and Cairns since moving from Texas in October. The 22-year-old shares his biggest culture shocks since arriving in Australia eight months ago in a YouTube video video. 'I'm going over the things this American hates about Australia. You know "hate" is a little bit of a strong word but I would say these are things that I dislike, frustrate or annoy me about Australia,' Tristan said. 'I don't hate Australia for these things, like I freaking love Australia, why do you think I'm here? Australia is a wonderful place I think in many ways is much better than America. But these are just some ways I think Australia can improve.' Tristan Kuhn has been travelling around Melbourne, Tasmania, Adelaide and Cairns after moving from Texas in October last year (pictured at the Millaa Millaa Waterfall in Queensland) HARSH SUN Tristan said one of the things he doesn't like about Australia is the harsh sun. Australia receives higher UV radiation levels than the US because it's located close to the ozone hole over the Antarctic so the Earth's orbit brings the country closer to the sun over summer. 'Even though the sun in Australia is the same sun you see in America, the sun here is different,' he explained. 'There is actually a hole in the ozone layer of the atmosphere above Australia so the sun here is much more strong and it burns you way more quickly than it will anywhere in the States. 'I don't burn easily but if I go into the sun here for 30 minutes to an hour like I'm gonna be pink. The extra strong stinging sun is the first thing that I do not like about Australia.' PAYING FOR PETROL AT A COUNTER Tristan said another thing he noticed was having to pay for fuel at a counter inside a petrol station instead of paying at the pump like the US. 'Now this is a minor inconvenience but you cannot pay for gas at the pump, you actually have to walk inside the gas station to pay for gas,' Tristan said. 'This is annoying for two reasons - one I don't want to go all the way into the gas station to pay, it just takes extra time. 'Two - there's often a line of other people who are paying for gas or just buying stuff from the gas station so you have to wait in line to pay for gas. I don't understand why you just can't pay at the pump like you do in America.' Tristan said he heard there are pay options at the pump around Australia but he has 'never seen one' since living here. 'If they do have them then they're just really rare,' he added. In his YouTube video, the 22-year-old has shared some culture shocks he discovered since living around Australia - including the 'aggressive' flies, sun, slow WiFi, and bicycle helmet laws NOT TURNING AT A RED LIGHT 'Oh this really frustrates me sometimes and that is you cannot turn on red here,' Tristan said. 'In America you can turn right at a stop light. Australians drive on the left side of the road here so it'd be like turning left here but you're not allowed to turn on red. 'Nothing is more frustrating than being stuck at a red light, knowing that you are perfectly safe to turn left, there are no cars but you're not able to do it.' In Australia, red light means stop, wait behind the stop line. However, drivers can turn left on red light at intersections where the sign: 'Left turn on red permitted after stopping' has been placed. NO SOFT DRINK REFILLS Tristan said he noticed cafes and restaurants in Australia don't offer soft drink refills. 'This is something that doesn't bother me one bit because I don't drink sodas but it would really p*** a lot of Americans off and that is there are no free refills,' he said. 'A soft drink would cost $4.50 which is about US$3. Once you put ice in, it's so small like probably less than half a can of soda that actually goes in. 'There are kids who would get two or three soft drinks over their meal and just right there that would be the same amount as their meal. 'So all you Americans out there who like your refills, be thankful that you're in America because there's pretty much nowhere else in the world that does free refills like we do.' Tristan said he noticed cafes and restaurants in Australia don't offer soft drink refills SPEED CAMERAS Tristan said speed cameras are one of the things he 'really hates' about Australia. 'They have speed cameras everywhere. You cannot speed here in Australia. Now you can argue that speed cameras keep people safe. 'But the speed cameras here aren't like the police in the US - they're not gonna get you for going four miles over the speed limit. Once you're getting close to 10, that's when you get a ticket. 'Here if you're going three kilometres over the speed limit, which is equal to about two miles per hour, you're gonna get a ticket. 'i just don't think that's reasonable to me, it seems like a little bit of an overstep from the government to just mailing tickets because they've got you on camera.' Tristan said he didn't 'like the feeling of being surveyed everywhere' he drives. 'Having cameras all around me is just one thing that I don't really agree with here. To me that just seems a little too strict,' he said. SLOW WIFI Despite Australia inventing WiFi, the country has notoriously been known for its woeful internet speed in previous years. And this is something Tristan said he finds 'really frustrating'. 'The next thing I don't like about Australia is the WiFi here. It's not complete c*** but it's definitely much worse on average than it is in the US,' he explained. 'If you go to a typical free WiFi cafe or restaurant, the WiFi is gonna be lower quality than what you'd find in the US. 'But even if you are paying for your own internet and you're paying for the fastest WiFi that you can get, you're still gonna have really slow upload speed. 'As someone who uploads YouTube videos, it usually takes a 10 minute YouTube video around 20 to 30 minutes for it to upload in the US.' In Australia, Tristan said when he tried to upload a 10-minute YouTube video, it took him 'between five-and-a-half to seven hours to upload'. Other things Tristan said he 'hates' are the 'aggressive flies' and having to pay extra for condiments with his meals (pictured at Behana Gorge Waterfall in Queensland) PAY EXTRA FOR SAUCES Another thing that Tristan found a 'little annoying' is having to pay extra money for condiments. 'You pretty much always have to pay extra for any condiment you want and it's usually quite expensive for some sauce like you're gonna be paying between 50 cents and $2 for a little bit of sauce,' he said. 'For something that is usually free and included in your meal that definitely frustrates me about Australia.' BICYCLE HELMET LAWS In Australia, it's compulsory for all ages of riders to wear a bicycle helmet. People could face a hefty fine if they are found riding their bikes without a helmet. According to research, wearing a bicycle helmet can reduce the risks of a serious head injury by up to 70 per cent, including skull fractures and bleeding in the brain. But Tristan said he believed adults should be allowed to choose whether or not they want to wear a helmet while riding. 'This is another thing I think is just kind of like an overstep of the government... it's illegal to ride a bike here without wearing a helmet,' he said. 'Obviously it's smart to wear a helmet, no one is doubting that but I think I should be able to choose whether I wear a helmet or not. I'm an adult, I think most adults should be able to make decisions like that. 'Additionally this helmet rule doesn't apply for skateboarding. Skateboards are so much more deadly and so much more dangerous than a bike but you don't need a helmet for them. 'I know more people than I can count on one hand that have gone into a coma or have died from skateboarding from hitting their head. But a bike, I don't know anyone, so I get a little frustrated.' 'AGGRESSIVE' FLIES Tristan said he asked some of his Australian friends what they hate about the country, to which they responded 'the damn flies here'. 'The flies are so pesky and annoying here,' he said. 'The bugs in general get in your face, they're annoying but the flies are aggressive... They just attack you when you try to hit them off your face, they just come back, they buzz right around here and you cannot get rid of them.' The next test comes Tuesday in states such as Indiana, where Republican Rep. Susan Brooks one of 13 Republican women in the House is retiring. With more than a dozen candidates vying for the GOP nomination, theres no guarantee a woman will win or be able to hold the seat if she does. Democrats have been eyeing the district, which includes parts of Indianapolis and its fast-growing suburbs, as a potential pickup, due largely to the suburban women who have turned against President Donald Trump and the GOP. The likely Democratic nominee is Christina Hale, a former state lawmaker. Republican women have always had a tougher time winning office. The party has eschewed identity politics, operating more as a meritocracy that believes the best candidate will rise to the top, said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University. Voters often perceive women as less conservative than men, and particularly in the South, voters may have more socially conservative views about gender roles, in which politics is more of a man's job, Walsh said. Only one out of 12 students injured by a falling tree at a Ho Chi Minh City middle school last week remained hospitalized on Monday, while one of the other discharged students is being treated for psychological trauma at home. The remaining student is being treated at Childrens Hospital 2 in District 1 for multiple injuries including fractures in the right arm and pelvis. He underwent a surgery a few days ago and is still in recovery at the infirmary. He is among 13 sixth-graders at Bach Dang Middle School in District 3 who were hit by an uprooted Royal Poinciana tree on the schools premises on the morning of May 26. One victim succumbed to his wounds at An Sinh Hospital in Phu Nhuan District later the same day. Eight of the twelve injured students were brought to Childrens Hospital 2, while the other four were admitted to the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Traumatology and Orthopaedics. Shortly after they were admitted, four students were released from Childrens Hospital 2 as they only sustained minor injuries. Two others were discharged on May 28 after being treated for soft-tissue wounds. Doctors at Childrens Hospital 2 in Ho Chi Minh City perform a surgery on a student who was hit by a falling tree at school in this supplied photo. The other two young patients at Childrens Hospital 2 suffered more severe wounds including bone fractures and required surgical procedures. One of them was discharged on Monday morning. Meanwhile, Dr. Nguyen Thanh Tam, director of the municipal Hospital for Traumatology and Orthopaedics, stated that the institution had released one student with minor scratches on May 26. Among the other three students at the hospital, one suffered face and ear injuries and a dislocated collarbone; one had a broken left leg; and the other sustained shin fractures on both legs, a broken pelvis, neck fractures, along with a head injury, Dr. Tam elaborated. All of them underwent surgeries on May 26 and were discharged on Monday. One of the three still has trouble sleeping due to psychological trauma and is now being treated by a psychologist at home. The three will be brought back to the infirmary for a follow-up next week, Dr. Tam continued, adding that their medical bills have been paid for by the hospital. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! SPRINGFIELD A parent of a student killed in the 2018 mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida has filed a federal complaint against Springfield-based gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson. The parent, Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jamie was among 17 killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, was joined by two gun control advocacy groups in filing the complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, according to the New York Times. Guttenberg and the advocacy groups Brady and Everytown for Gun Safety accused the firearms manufacturer of using what they described as deceptive and unfair marketing to promote assault-style rifles, the Times reported. A spokesman for Smith & Wesson was not immediately available for comment. A spokesman for the Federal Trade Commission declined comment, saying FTC complaints are nonpublic. The mass shooting at the Florida high school in February 2018 triggered protests outside Smith & Wessons headquarters on Roosevelt Avenue. Smith & Wesson is the maker of the M&P15 .223 rifle used in the attack by the 19-year-old Parkland shooter. The FTC complaint accuses Smith & Wesson of targeting teens and young adults with advertising that relies on imagery similar to first-person-shooter video games, the Times reported. The companys marketing campaigns for its AR-15-style firearms attracts, encourages and facilitates mass shooters and played a significant role in the Parkland shooting, according to the complaint, as described by the Times. Smith & Wesson is among the largest firearms manufacturers in the country. A man in his 20s has been rushed to hospital after being stabbed in broad daylight in north east London. Officers were called shortly before 5pm to Walthamstow amid reports of a stabbing in Boundary Road. Pictures on social media showed an air ambulance arriving at the scene and a police helicopter hovering nearby. Walthamstow Police said on Twitter they are waiting for an update on the man's condition in hospital. "In relation to this incident there are several road closures in place on Boundary Rd & Colchester Rd, E17 please avoid the area where possible," said the officers on Twitter. A police helicopter was seen in Walthamstow as police responded to reports of a stabbing in east London / @LadyCity_ Police said a Section 60 Criminal Justice & Public Order Act giving officers additional search powers within the E17 and E10 areas, has been authorised until 5am tomorrow. No arrests have been made. Witnesses are asked to call 101 ref 5994/02jun or alternatively contact Crimestoppers to make an anonymous report. More updates to follow... Nearly six years after I cant breathe became Eric Garners last words, the same plea is reverberating across a horrified nation. This time, it was George Floyds. Today, these words represent our failure to respond to law enforcement misconduct in a meaningful way. They are an indictment of our inaction in the face of injustice. And they are evidence that the legal deterrents compelling nationwide reform are inadequate. Systemic racism cant be changed overnight, but the law can be. Advertisement On Sunday, Rep. Justin Amash announced plans to introduce the Ending Qualified Immunity Act. Qualified immunity shields police officers from civil liability for violating a civilians constitutional rights in most circumstances. Reforming it is an important step toward holding law enforcement accountable for abuse of power. But Congress must also act to address the less-well-known but equally pernicious rules governing municipal liability. Its time to hold local governments accountable for police violence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Under state tort law, when a commercial truck driver causes injury or death, the victim can recover damages in one of two ways. First, the victim can sue the truck driver. But if the accident is severe, it is unlikely the driver will have the resources to fully compensate the victim. So, the victim has a second option: suing the trucking company that employed the driver. The company is more likely to have pockets deep enough to pay the victim. And it is generally responsible for the actions of its drivers under a legal concept known as respondeat superior, Latin for let the master answer. Or, in ordinary parlance, the boss pays. Advertisement Advertisement Holding both the employee and the employer responsible is good policy: It ensures victims are fully compensated, incentivizes employees to discharge their duties with care, and incentivizes employers to promote safe business practices. But when it comes to law enforcement misconduct, municipalities do not have the same legal responsibility to ensure their employees abide by the Constitution. This is because of a 1978 Supreme Court case called Monell v. Department of Social Services of the City of New York. In Monell, the court held that municipal employers cannot be held responsible for the unconstitutional actions of their employees through the principle of respondeat superior. Instead, under Monell, cities are responsible for their employees deprivations of constitutional rights only when the employee acts through an official government policy or custom. Advertisement Advertisement The Monell standard creates serious injustice. Cities are not likely to have official policies condoning law enforcement misconduct. So, to hold a city responsible, a victim must prove the misconduct was so regular as to become a de facto city policy. This bar is impossible to clear in most cases; where the burden can be met, the damage will already have been done. Advertisement Advertisement This problem played out in yet another police shooting case just last fall. There, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled that Memphis, Tennessee, could not be liable for the death of 19-year-old Darrius Stewart, an unarmed black man shot in the back and killed by a white police officer. The 6th Circuit determined the officer used excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment. But dutifully applying Monell, the court determined Memphis was not liable for Stewarts death because Memphis police officers do not use excessive force frequently enough to constitute an official city policy or custom. So the city of Memphis bore no legal responsibility for Stewarts death. Advertisement Advertisement Cities are similarly insulated from lawsuits alleging a constitutional deprivation caused by their failure to train law enforcement employees. Monell nominally holds cities liable for failure to train, but by the Supreme Courts own admission, this is the most tenuous brand of municipal liability. Only if it is highly predictable that officials will violate the Constitution in the absence of training can a city be liable under this standard. Advertisement Advertisement Cities are insulated from lawsuits caused by their failure to train law enforcement employees. And thats rarely the case. The Supreme Courts 54 decision in 2011s Connick v. Thompson shows just how extreme this protection can be. In criminal prosecutions, the Constitution requires that prosecutors turn over potentially exculpatory evidence to the defense. Failing to do so is known as a Brady violation. In Connick, New Orleans prosecutors hid a lab report that revealed their suspect, John Thompson, did not have the blood type of the person who committed the crime. With that evidence concealed, Thompson was convicted and sentenced to death. He spent 14 years on death row until, just one month before his execution date, a private investigator discovered the hidden lab report and exonerated him. Advertisement Advertisement Thompson sued the Orleans Parish, seeking compensation for his 14 years on death row. The parish admitted that its failure to turn over the evidence violated the Constitution. And the evidence also showed the city never trained its prosecutors to comply with Brady requirements. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court concluded the city could not be liable for failing to train its district attorneys because it was not highly predictable they would violate Brady (even though the same office had convictions overturned for four earlier Brady violations). Advertisement Under Monell, cities can only be held accountable when police officers or prosecutors abuse their power so frequently that it becomes a de facto policy or obvious indicator of a need for training. For George Floyd, this comes too late. Advertisement The upshot of the Supreme Courts Monell doctrine is that local governments have little legal incentive to take proactive measures to prevent law enforcement misconduct. This perpetuates bad policy in three ways. First, it absolves local governments of financial responsibility for their employees actions. Most municipal employers indemnify law enforcement officers, covering their damages when theyre held liable in court. Qualified immunity, however, often protects these officers from lawsuits, letting the city off the hook. If civil rights plaintiffs could sue a city instead, they would not face this qualified immunity roadblock. Second, Monell liability blocks a plaintiffs ability to obtain an injunction that would require the municipality to reform its practices. Finally, it provides political cover, allowing local governments to shift blame to individual officers without accepting responsibility themselves. Advertisement But Congress has the power to change this. The Supreme Court based its decision in Monell on statutory interpretation, common law, and public policynot on the Constitution itself. Because Monell is an interpretation of Congress own laws, not an immutable principle enshrined in the Constitution, Congress can override the decision and impute liability to municipalities through respondeat superior. Its about time we hold our communities to the same standards as our trucking companies. Amashs bill to reform qualified immunity for law enforcement officers is an appropriate first step in reforming law enforcement accountability. But to spur systemic change, we must also hold the governments who employ them responsible for these tragedies. If we dont, we may never regain our breath. Police have hit journalists with rubber bullets, tear gas, pepper spray and arrested 20 of them, media watchdog says. A media watchdog has called on US authorities to stop targeting journalists covering protests over the death of an unarmed Black man in police custody and exempt them from curfew restrictions. In a statement published on Tuesday, the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said that since May 29, at least 125 press freedom violations had been reported nationwide by journalists covering the demonstrations over the death of George Floyd, who died a week ago after a white police officer pinned his neck under his knee for nearly nine minutes. We are horrified by the continued use of harsh and sometimes violent actions of police against journalists doing their jobs. These are direct violations of press freedom, a fundamental Constitutional value of the United States, said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna in New York. We call on local and state officials to explicitly exempt the news media from curfew regulations so that journalists are able to report freely. Police have hit dozens of journalists with tear gas, pepper spray, or rubber bullets and arrested 20 even as they displayed their press credentials, CPJ wrote. On May 29, the statement said, quoting the Reno Gazette Journal, that two photojournalists, Ellen Schmidt, who works for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and freelancer Bridget Bennett in Las Vegas, Nevada, had been arrested while working and charged with the misdemeanour of failure to disperse, before being released the next day. The statement also said a journalist for Minnesota Public Radio had a gun pointed at her by police even as she identified herself as a member of the press. On May 30, NBC photojournalist Ed Ou told CPJ that police fired tear gas, pepper spray, and concussion grenades directly at a pool of journalists in Minneapolis covering the protests. CPJ noted that not all the curfew orders have explicitly exempted press, although some officials, including in Minneapolis, have said that media are exempt after the initial announcement. A journalist is seen bleeding after police started firing tear gas and rubber bullets in US protests [Chandan Khanna/AFP] Anti-police brutality rallies, which have turned violent over the last week, erupted over the death of the 46-year-old African American. A second autopsy ordered by Floyds family and released on Monday found his death was a homicide and that he died from asphyxiation. The report also says three officers contributed to his death. A news release from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner said Floyd showed signs of recent methamphetamine use and fentanyl intoxication along with hypertension and coronary artery disease all of which were possible contributing factors to his death. But two doctors who carried out the independent autopsy of Floyd said that he had no underlying health conditions that may have contributed to his death. They added that they did not have information on toxicology and any drug or alcohol use by Floyd. Derek Chauvin, the 44-year-old white Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on Floyd, was arrested after he was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Three other officers involved in the arrest have not been charged. Floyds death was the latest case of police brutality against Black people caught on video and prompting an outcry over racism in US law enforcement agencies. Protesters have been met with, at times, excessive force by authorities. Two officers were fired over the weekend in Atlanta, Georgia, for pulling two Black people out of a car and throwing them to the ground. Videos have shown police targeting angry but peaceful protesters with tear gas and mace. Lesothos new leader faces enormous hurdles ensuring peace and political stability Moeketsi Majoros installation as Prime Minister is welcome. But it does not guarantee much needed political stability in an era of complex coalition politics. Tom Thabane (81), the embattled veteran Lesotho politician, has finally bowed to pressure to resign as the Prime Minister of the politically volatile southern African nation of 2.2 million. This comes at least two years before the end of his term. But, will his replacement by Moeketsi Majoro (58) enable Lesotho to move in a more progressive direction? Majoro is an economist, former executive at the International Monetary Fund as well as the countrys former finance minister. He was recently appointed to lead the governing coalition of the majority All Basotho Convention, and the Democratic Congress of Lesotho, ahead of Thabanes resignation. The Thabane saga, revolving around allegations that he was party to a conspiracy to murder his then estranged wife, and that his new wife interferes in state matters, has been dragging on for more than a year. These events have fed into a the raging political conflict within his ruling party, All Basotho Convention, and its governing coalition with the Democratic Congress of Lesotho. This has provided a major distraction to any attempt to address the countrys massive developmental problems. But, setting Lesotho on a significantly different political trajectory will not be easy. Majoros installation as Prime Minister is welcome. But it does not guarantee much needed political stability in an era of complex coalition politics in which none of Lesothos parties has a clear majority. Nor does it guarantee internal peace when the military and police both remain significant political players, with linkages to different political parties and actors. Questions have correctly been posed whether Majoro, a technocrat with a great deal of international experience, has the political skills to hold his governing coalition together. For the moment, Thabane remains leader of the All Basotho Congress, and cannot be guaranteed to lend his support to the new government. Balancing act Thabane can be expected to use his position to try to secure immunity for himself from prosecution for his alleged role in the murder of his estranged wife, Lipopelo Thabane (58). She was shot dead in June 2017 - two days before he was sworn in as the Prime Minister. Maesaiah Liabiloe Ramoholi (42), the woman he was living with at the time, and eventually married, is on trial for the murder. Thabane was also later charged with the murder. Majoro must know that if he concedes this immunity, he will lose a great deal of domestic and global credibility. But if doesnt show some leniency he may lose the support of a disgruntled element of his party which continues to back Thabane. How this plays out may influence whether Majoro can secure the leadership of the party at its next congress, expected in February 2021. This may not be plain sailing. One of the big factors will be the willingness of the deputy leader of the party, Nqosa Mahao, to support him. Mahao defeated Majoro for leadership position in the party in February 2020. Though both will now want Thabane out of the way (a conviction in court would be convenient), its not clear whether they will work cooperatively together. Key challenges Beyond the immediate political problems, there are three major issues which need to be confronted. One is whether the countrys electoral system can be restructured to render the political landscape more predictable. Another is whether a recent tendency for the judiciary to be politicised can be reversed. A third is whether the political entanglements of the police and military can be neutralised. To appreciate how difficult this may be, it is necessary to recall that Lesotho is governed by a small elite (military and judicial as well as political), whose members knowledge of each other and their families often goes back decades. In a country where poverty is intense and resources are so few, personal feuds can easily translate into political issues. The National Dialogue process, launched in 2015 under the auspices of the Southern African Development Community, has led to proposals for electoral reform. Introduced in 2002, Lesothos Mixed Member Proportional electoral system combines first-past-the-post constituency elections with a national list proportional representation system to ensure proportionality of party representation. But, its outcomes have been undermined by politicians crossing the floor for personal advantage, upsetting the intended proportionality and encouraging fragmentation of political parties. The Southern African Development Community has now proposed that such floor crossing should be banned, and parties should obtain a minimum proportion of the vote before they secure representation in parliament. The real issue still to be resolved is how to form political parties which are genuinely constructed around political programmes rather than personal ambitions. Lesothos political parties have often sought to resolve their problems by directing them to the courts. Most recently, the battle for control of the All Basotho Convention led to Thabane throwing his weight behind Acting Chief Justice Maseforo Mahase, whose curious rulings in Thabanes favour were to be thrown out by the Court of Appeal, amid popular accusations of her political bias. It seems unlikely, with Thabane out of the way, that Mahase will now be confirmed in her position. But, Majoro will need to avoid the temptation of securing the appointment of a crony as the Chief Justice. Prior to Thabanes politicking, the judiciary had more or less been kept above the political fray. This neutrality now needs to be restored. Yet the major problem confronting stability in Lesotho is presented by the military and police. They have been a major factor in the countrys politics, stretching back to 1970, when the then Police Mobile Unit backed Prime Minister Leabua Jonathan to overthrow the adverse results of the first post-independence election. Headache for new PM The militarys penchant for direct intervention in the political arena has been curtailed by the insistence of South Africa, Southern African the Development Community, and the African Union that the legitimacy of coups will not be accepted. But this has not stopped governments seeking protection from political opponents by forging strong links with the senior military. In an era of unstable government coalitions, this has itself become a source of major tension, with incoming governments seeking to counter-balance military leaderships left over by the previous government by cosying up to the police. Determined efforts to neutralise the military have been made via training programmes carried out by, among others, South Africa, the Southern African the Development Community, India, Britain and Zimbabwe. None have yet succeeded. For all that Majoro may want attend to tackling Covid-19 and the economy, his biggest headache may yet turn out to be the army. Roger Southall, Professor of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Miss Edwina Seidu Yahaya who is representing the Savannah Region in the 2020 Miss Ghana Competition has appealed to the people of the Region to rise up and support her by voting massively for her to bring the crown home. Speaking exclusively to Bole based Nkilgi FM she said the competition is largely about voting hence entreating all to vote for her by texting her stage name EDWINA. Edwina who is a student of the University of Ghana said her grandfather is the late Mr. Yahaya Seidu from Daboya in the North Gonja District of the Savannah Region but has lived with her Ewe (Volta Region) mother since childhood. She said as an Ambassador of the Savannah Region she will do her best in the competition but need the support of her people. I would like to address issues of mental health in particular postpartum depression which is a mental condition that affects women to make them kill their babies after delivery or even commit suicide because it is a mental illness that makes them lose interest in their babies, Edwina stressed. Lucknow, June 2 : After the doctors informed Seema Shukla that she would not be able to conceive a child, the woman stole a newborn from the Queen Mary's Hospital here and has now landed in jail with her husband. It was a cake that she had distributed among her neighbours to celebrate the baby's arrival that led to her arrest. The incident took place on May 24 when Seema stole a 12-day-old child from the hospital. Her husband, who sells snacks near the Queen Mary's Hospital had informed his wife about the child. The child's father Jagdish Pihani had lodged an FIR at the Chowk police station of his baby going missing from the hospital. Jagdish's wife Mamta had given birth to a child through C-section on May 13 but had to undergo another surgical procedure on May 24. While Mamta was being taken for surgery, her husband Jagdish handed over the baby to a woman whose face was covered. He apparently presumed her to be a hospital staffer. When he returned, the woman and the child were missing. He lodged the complaint with the police that scanned the CCTV footage, interrogated people from nearly 250 families and questioned eunuchs and then caught Seema and Sanjay on Monday. Station House Officer, Vishwajeet Singh, said, "We scanned CCTV footage of areas around the hospital. The woman was spotted at Daliganj crossing on a rickshaw. From there she was caught taking a turn towards River Bank Colony. During interrogation of various families living in the area, one man informed that cake was distributed near a semi-constructed house where the couple lived on rent. Sanjay confessed to the crime during interrogation." Sanjay, meanwhile, said that his wife had been under depression since she suffered a miscarriage and the doctors told her that she would not conceive again. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Bhubaneswar, June 2 : Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, here on Tuesday, asked officials to keep vigil on the locust movement at least for the next 10 days. Chairing a review meeting, the Chief Minister stressed the importance of farmers' awareness about the locust menace. Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Kalahandi, Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Jharsuguda, Sundergarh and Bargarh districts are likely to be affected by locust swarm. If required, the fire service personnel could be engaged for spraying insecticide to control locust control. The Chief Minister was informed that the locust swarms had returned to Madhya Pradesh from Chhattisgarh because of the wind direction. Control rooms have been set up at the state and the district levels, said an official. The government would send text messages to around 6.5 lakh farmers through WhatsApp and voice message to nearly 8 lakh farmers to spread awareness. "We have issued alert to 15 lakh farmers in Odisha," said Agriculture Special Secretary Suresh Kumar Vashist. New York City, United States -- The change during the COVID-19 pandemic has overhauled our dependence on pattern setting developments, for instance, expanded reality, computer generated reality, and the Healthcare web of things. The unfulfilled cash related targets are persuading the relationship to grasp robotization and forefront advancements to stay ahead in the market competition. Associations are utilizing this open entryway by recognizing step by step operational needs and showing robotization in it to make an automated structure as far as might be feasible. A recent published report by PMR, titled, Endodontic Reparative Cement Market: Global Industry Analysis 2014-2018 and Opportunity Assessment 2019-2029, reviews the major factors influencing the structure of the endodontic reparative cement market. According to the study, endodontic reparative cement is a vital part of the growing dental care industry. Research shows that, dental care, on a global level, is in a period of transformation. The global population is aging and becoming more diverse in nature. The trend is to adopt more convenient and approachable treatment patterns that come with affordable pricing and effective results. Get Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/20839 Company Profile Angelus Dental Products Industry S / A Ultradent Products Inc. Pulpdent Corporation Coltene Group Ivoclar Vivadent Innovative BioCeramix, Inc. Septodont USA Brasseler USA B.J.M. Laboratories Ltd. Dentsply Maillefer Parkell, Inc. FKG Dentaire SA Essential Dental Systems, Inc. Insight Endo Kerr Corporation The healthcare delivery system is now changing with time. The implementation of affordable plans are responsible for the change of consumer outlook. Consumers are reaching out to seek greater value in return for their spending. According to key opinion leaders, the current state of dental care and considerable investments for affordable dental care plans are in a state of change. There are factors quantified in the report that are responsible for the expansion of the endodontic reparative cement market. Major factors include, but not limited to, the ageing population that is leading to different disease patterns, treatment plans, and ability to pay. Research shows that, consumers are transforming their selection habits; they are becoming more incisive regarding their healthcare plans, and are seeking value for their spending. This creates a more value-based endodontic reparative cement industry paradigm, than volume-based. Also, the payment scenario has changed over the years for any dental care service. The current structure shows a shift from commercial dental insurance to public coverage initiatives and personal out of pocket payments. All these factors create a competitive endodontic reparative cement market structure, leading to less number of companies operating in this specific market. Get To Know Methodology of Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/20839 The ideal resource for small-scale companies then shifts towards distributors, who play an efficient role in expanding their market presence. According to the study, it is reported that, distributors are responsible for the products to be shipped to a selective class of consumers, creating an indirect presence for manufacturer in regions where they have no direct sales. This exposes different types of endodontic reparative cement to places where traditional methods are still being used. Two of the biggest names in the distribution of dental care products, including endodontic reparative cement, are Henry Schein, Inc., and Patterson Companies, Inc They lead the distribution side of the business, which is not restricted to only sales but also caters to consumer preference that changes with evolving trends in the endodontic reparative cement market. As per the endodontic reparative cement market report, it is clear that, the dental health industry still needs an integration of oral health policies into general health schemes, and such promotional activities are limited in emerging economies. It disturbs the potential consumer count, which is likely to impede the actual estimation of people diagnosed with a condition that requires endodontic reparative cement. Oral health policies are one of the last inclusions in most of the bills passed by the government in most emerging regions. Such factors restrict endodontic reparative cement manufacturers from expanding their direct geographical presence, even more by affecting the overall potential present in the market, which is directly related to the adoption pattern. Access Full Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/20839 The report segments the endodontic reparative cement market into seven key regions, which explains the regional trends affecting treatment plans. South Asia is supposedly the fastest-growing market for endodontic reparative cement. Factors explained in the report for market growth include the present ageing population and rise in the number of regional manufacturers. Government initiatives to include dental care in primary healthcare benefits have changed the entire outlook of the endodontic reparative cement industry in South Asia. As per our research, India is one of the prominent countries for companies planning to enter a new geographical landscape. Targeting emerging economies has proven to be more affective for endodontic reparative cement manufacturers. It provides a better growth rate for companies, though the average pricing in these regions has to be less than what is available in developed economies such as the U.S. and Germany. But, the considerable number of target population present in these emerging regions is likely to overcome the pricing factor, not by a significant margin, but definitely can be considered in order to see potential in these developing economies. Most endodontic reparative cement manufacturers have a direct presence in U.S. or EU5 countries. P arents of a London Bridge terror attack victim have renewed calls for tougher car rental rules as they mark the third anniversary of the tragedy. Christine Archibald was one of eight people killed when terrorists used a hire van to mow down pedestrians before running amok around Borough Market with knives on June 3 2017. The 30-year-old Canadian had been visiting the capital for a short trip while her fiance, Tyler Ferguson, was in the UK for work. The couple had shared a romantic stroll on the bridge moments before Ms Archibald was killed. An Old Bailey inquest last year heard how ringleader Khuram Butt, a known terror suspect, was able to hire the white van used in the attack. Christine Archibald's parents have settled compensation claims with Hertz's insurer Probus over the London Bridge terror attack / REUTERS Ms Archibalds parents Greg and Barbara, along with other victims families and survivors, have now settled compensation claims with Hertzs insurer Probus for undisclosed sums. They said: Were approaching the third anniversary of the London Bridge terrorist attack which resulted in the deaths of eight beloved people and changed forever the lives of many more through physical and emotional injuries. The process of bringing a civil claim has allowed us to campaign to prevent another similar attack. We continue to appeal to the bodies that govern vehicle rental agencies in the UK to make it mandatory for all vehicle rental agencies to have to adhere to the UK Governments rental vehicle security scheme (RVSS). This CCTV image shows the van driven by the terrorists / PA The scheme that aims to minimise the risk of hire for terror attacks is currently voluntary for short-term vehicle rental operators, they said. It provides that a vehicle rental operator has to demonstrate that it has a system in place to train staff to identify risks, share data with law enforcement and conduct identity checks when a customer hires a vehicle. The Archibalds said: We also believe that rental vehicle operators should have to submit the identity of a prospective renter to a red flag/alert system when the RVSS process identifies a risk, similar to that used by airlines. Following a terrorist attack, people say a lot of important-sounding words. Were very concerned that the security scheme remains voluntary, it has to be compulsory and all rental companies have to adhere to it. London Bridge attacker Khuram Butt / PA Jennifer Buchanan, of Fieldfisher law firm, who represented the Archibalds in their civil claim, said: Unless this becomes compulsory and rental systems actually change, the scheme is meaningless and the risk of similar attacks remains. The scheme has been taken up by the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA), whose membership includes a large number of hire firms, but not all. Since November 2019, the BVRLA has been working with the Department for Transport to monitor and assess compliance. From January 1, it has been incorporated into the associations mandatory code of conduct and governance regime, with more than 450 of the associations rental and commercial vehicle member organisations participating. BVRLA chief executive Gerry Keaney said: We believe that it is vital to take an industry-led approach to dealing with the threat of vehicle-as-a-weapon terrorism, and this is why we have made the RVSS part of our mandatory code of conduct and governance regime. The number of new coronavirus cases and deaths registered in Armenia has reached another record high, health authorities said on Tuesday. The Armenian Ministry of Health said that 19 more people died from coronavirus in the past day, up from the previous daily high of 15 deaths reported last Thursday. The official death toll from the epidemic thus rose to 158. The figure does not include the deaths of 56 other people who were also infected with the virus. The ministry says that they were primarily caused by other, pre-existing diseases. One of these fatalities was registered on Monday. The ministry also reported that the total number of coronavirus cases in the country of about 3 million rose by 517 to just over 10,000. It said that a total of about 1,250 COVID-19 tests were carried out on Monday. The number of COVID-19 infections and resulting deaths in Armenia has grown steadily since the government began easing in mid-April a nationwide lockdown imposed by it in late March. All sectors of the Armenian economy were allowed to resume their work by May 10. Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian, who coordinates government measures taken against the epidemic, indicated on Monday that the authorities still do not intend to again issue stay-at-home orders, ban public transport and shut down most businesses. He said that a renewed lockdown would be an extreme method of dealing with the coronavirus crisis. The spread of the virus in the country is still controllable, Avinian claimed at a joint news briefing with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. It was held just hours after Pashinian announced that he and all members of his family have tested positive for COVID-19. Commenting on the growing number of new cases and fatalities, Pashinian complained that many Armenians continue to ignore safety rules set by the health authorities. He again urged them to wear face masks, frequently wash hands and observe social distancing. Pashinian ordered law-enforcement and sanitary authorities to toughen the enforcement of those rules when during a video conference with senior government officials held on Tuesday. The crisis is putting a growing strain on Armenias underfunded healthcare system and, in particular, intensive care units of hospitals treating COVID-19 patients. As of last week, hose units had only about 200 hospital beds and the vast majority of them were occupied. Health Minister Arsen Torosian, who also spoke at Mondays news briefing, reiterated that the authorities will set up dozens of more such beds in various hospitals in the coming days and weeks. He said about 500 of the infected persons are currently in a serious or critical condition. NEW YORK, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Global Plant Growth Chambers Market is expected to grow from USD 393.47 Million in 2018 to USD 625.50 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.84%. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05871304/?utm_source=PRN The positioning of the Global Plant Growth Chambers Market vendors in FPNV Positioning Matrix are determined by Business Strategy (Business Growth, Industry Coverage, Financial Viability, and Channel Support) and Product Satisfaction (Value for Money, Ease of Use, Product Features, and Customer Support) and placed into four quadrants (F: Forefront, P: Pathfinders, N: Niche, and V: Vital). The report deeply explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Plant Growth Chambers Market including are Binder GmbH, Caron, Conviron, Percival Scientific, Thermo Fisher, Aralab, Freezers India, Hettich Benelux B.V., Saveer Biotech Limited, and Weiss Technik. On the basis of Equipment, the Global Plant Growth Chambers Market is studied across Reach-in Growth Chamber and Walk-in Growth Chamber. On the basis of Application, the Global Plant Growth Chambers Market is studied across Environmental Optimization, Plant Growth, Seed Germination, and Tissue Culture. On the basis of End User, the Global Plant Growth Chambers Market is studied across Academic Research and Clinical Research. For the detailed coverage of the study, the market has been geographically divided into the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The report provides details of qualitative and quantitative insights about the major countries in the region and taps the major regional developments in detail. In the report, we have covered two proprietary models, the FPNV Positioning Matrix and Competitive Strategic Window. The FPNV Positioning Matrix analyses the competitive market place for the players in terms of product satisfaction and business strategy they adopt to sustain in the market. The Competitive Strategic Window analyses the competitive landscape in terms of markets, applications, and geographies. The Competitive Strategic Window helps the vendor define an alignment or fit between their capabilities and opportunities for future growth prospects. During a forecast period, it defines the optimal or favorable fit for the vendors to adopt successive merger and acquisitions strategies, geography expansion, research & development, new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth. Research Methodology: Our market forecasting is based on a market model derived from market connectivity, dynamics, and identified influential factors around which assumptions about the market are made. These assumptions are enlightened by fact-bases, put by primary and secondary research instruments, regressive analysis and an extensive connect with industry people. Market forecasting derived from in-depth understanding attained from future market spending patterns provides quantified insight to support your decision-making process. The interview is recorded, and the information gathered in put on the drawing board with the information collected through secondary research. The report provides insights on the following pointers: 1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on sulfuric acid offered by the key players in the Global Plant Growth Chambers Market 2. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and new product developments in the Global Plant Growth Chambers Market 3. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyzes the markets for the Global Plant Growth Chambers Market 4. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new products launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments in the Global Plant Growth Chambers Market 5. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players in the Global Plant Growth Chambers Market The report answers questions such as: 1. What is the market size of Plant Growth Chambers market in the Global? 2. What are the factors that affect the growth in the Global Plant Growth Chambers Market over the forecast period? 3. What is the competitive position in the Global Plant Growth Chambers Market? 4. Which are the best product areas to be invested in over the forecast period in the Global Plant Growth Chambers Market? 5. What are the opportunities in the Global Plant Growth Chambers Market? 6. What are the modes of entering the Global Plant Growth Chambers Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05871304/?utm_source=PRN About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker Related Links www.reportlinker.com McCallum believes that if election officials can work out the kinks by making it easier to satisfy the state's voter ID requirement, even more people will vote without having to leave their homes. Advocates from both parties have been debating how much to expand the use of voting by mail. Some say it's needed to protect people's right to vote. Others suggest such a system would foster voter fraud. According to a study by researchers at Stanford University, claims that vote-by-mail fundamentally advantages one party over the other appear overblown. Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington state have full vote-by-mail elections, while three states California, North Dakota and Nebraska allow counties to opt for voting by mail. The study found that voting by mail modestly increases participation while not advantaging either party." While only a few states automatically mail ballots to their voters, every state provides for absentee voting. Two-thirds of U.S. states do not require the voter to give a reason for requesting an absentee ballot; one-third require an excuse. Experts believe states will accept concern over the coronavirus as a legitimate reason to request an absentee ballot. Forty states and the District of Columbia also conduct early voting, which allows people to vote when lines are minimal. On the campaign trail Experts suggest that the pandemic could dramatically change the tenor of this fall's campaigns. "Campaigning is going to be more virtual, says veteran Democratic pollster Celinda Lake. She predicts that there will be more early television ads and that voters will rely on trusted sources and trusted friends for their information. The practice of canvassing going door to door to persuade people to vote for a specific candidate or urging them to vote may not be in play this year. People are not going to be opening their doors, Lake says. Big rallies and selfies with candidates may also go by the wayside, experts say. How many babies will go unkissed? Bolger asks. How much, if any, face-to-face campaigning happens this fall will depend, experts say, on the status of the pandemic after Labor Day, when campaigning traditionally ramps up. Experts also say that campaigns are having to find new ways to raise the money they need to communicate with voters. Fundraising dinners and happy hours where donors get to hobnob with candidates and have their pictures taken with politicians have just not been happening. Tim Lim, a digital campaign strategist based in Washington, D.C., says many campaigns are becoming creative about fundraising. They're using Zoom, they're using Google Hangouts to create those kind of intimate events, Lim said. And some campaigns are trying some new, wacky, fun things, like trivia nights and bingo online, to try to get people to donate." Campaign operatives had already predicted that this election would see more virtual communication than ever before. Now, experts say especially when it comes to some older voters, low-income citizens and people in rural areas who may not have access to the full range of devices traditional television advertising may well rule the day. And that could make campaigns even more expensive. "The biggest cost for campaigns by far is TV, says Elizabeth Doyel, an Austin, Texas-based political strategist with Superior Blue, a direct-mail firm. Absent the ability to knock on doors or hold rallies, candidates will need to pour more money into television, phone and direct mail. Lim believes the already big influence of 50-plus voters could be even more pronounced than usual in 2020: For older Americans, voting is muscle memory. Older voters excel at voting by mail. So I think older Americans are going to decide who is the next president of the United States." Experts have backed the Chief Health Officers handling of the situation in Blackwater, where a man tested positive for COVID-19 after dying before subsequent tests came back negative. Further testing on the body of 30-year-old Nathan Turner have been confirmed as negative, after an initial test returned a positive result. Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young says it will likely never be known whether the initial test result was a false positive. Credit:AAP On the back of that positive result, Chief Health Officer Jeanette Young brought the full weight of the states coronavirus measures to bear on the small community, setting up fever clinics, deploying contact-tracing teams and ordering close contacts of Mr Turners, including his grieving partner, into quarantine. Mr Turner had serious underlying health issues before experiencing coronavirus symptoms in the weeks before he died, and was not tested for the virus while alive. NetworkNewsWire Editorial Coverage NEW YORK, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In times of financial crisis, there's no safer investment than gold. Gold's historic reputation as a safe haven asset will be a boon for mining companies as the global economy witnesses the plunging valuation of currency. Kingman Minerals Ltd. (TSX-V: KGS) (KGS Profile) has been preparing operations on a historic mine site in Arizona, benefiting from the cost efficiencies of revitalizing an already established exploration site. Coer Mining Inc. (NYSE: CDE) has recently reopened operations in Mexico as the country's government relaxed pandemic restrictions. Kinross Gold Corporation (NYSE: KGC) is hoping to benefit not only from renewed investor interest in gold but also from the mineral's applications in medical testing. Hecla Mining Company (NYSE: HL) has been expanding from silver into gold and has renewed operations in Quebec as precious metals mining was designated a vital economic activity. Agnico Eagle Mines (NYSE: AEM) has also recommenced work in Quebec after a shutdown that will affect many mining companies' output, but the company will still produce over a million ounces of gold this year. Click here to view the custom infographic of the Kingman Minerals Ltd. (TSXV: KGS) editorial. The Renewed Value of Gold Gold has long been one of the most stable assets for investors, a safety net in an arena of economic risk. With the world facing a global health crisis in the form of COVID-19, and the prospect of a deep and extended recession looming in its wake, the precious metal is seeing renewed attention from investors. Bank of America recently raised its 18-month gold-price target to $3,000 an ounce, while others believe that gold is on the cusp of a new decade long bull market that will push the price well past $5,000 an ounce. Little wonder there's such strong interest in gold companies such as Kingman Minerals Ltd. (CVE: KGS). While gold initially had a small retracement at the onset of the current crisis, it was just part of a pattern historically seen in every period of economic turmoilone from which gold always returns, and one that has done nothing to undermine the asset's worth as a safe investment in a crisis. Gold has a number of advantages it holds its value better than stocks, is more liquid than bonds, and as the original measure of wealth, it has retained its position of value while other alternatives have risen and fallen. While it doesn't have the spectacular returns some stocks do during boom times, it has always been a good hedge against a crisis and a reliable option in times of trouble. Gold's sturdy staying power and vast upside potential has sparked keen interest in Kingman Minerals, which intends to very profitably extract new gold from old mining sites. Gold always has intrinsic value, whether for use in jewelry, electronics, or as an investment, and that value tends to climb relative to other investments during financially difficult times. Even before the COVID-19 crisis took full hold, commentators were predicting that gold would beat the market this year, and when gold rises in value, the mining companies typically see a corresponding rise in demand. National banks are frantically print money to cover the costs of the COVID-19 crisis and in all likelihood will devalue those currencies and any assets directly tied to them. If history is any guide, the intrinsic value of gold should soar and only be impacted to the upside during the devaluation process. This puts gold in an incredibly advantageous position over the next few years and presents a compelling opportunity. Digging in the Right Place That companies need to dig for gold in the right place might sound like a statement of the obvious, but it's actually a complicated proposition. Profitable mining involves identifying accessible, financially viable deposits within mining friendly jurisdictions, and on sites that are accessible for the transportation of equipment, staff, and the gold once it is extracted. Kingman's Mohave project checks all these boxes and poses promising potential for the company. Located in Mohave County, Arizona, the Mohave Project benefits from being located in a mining friendly jurisdiction. This support makes it easier for mining companies to work within the state. Kingman has chosen ground for its work that is known to contain valuable deposits and that is accessible enough to support a new mining operation. Located 35 miles outside the town of Kingman, from which the company takes its name, the Mohave site has direct road access from Historic Route 66 and Antares Road. This will allow supplies and resources to easily be brought onto the site as mining operations are established and expanded. Water supplies on site will keep down costs for this part of the operation, while the proximity of a town ensures that there is support for staff coming in. But perhaps the greatest asset of the Mohave Project is one that might surprise the inexperienced minerals sector enthusiast the ground had already been mined. Returning to Past Sites Part of Kingman's strategy is the return to an old mining claim the 167-hectare Rosebud Mine. Discovered in the 1880s and mostly mined in the 1920s and 1930s, the Rosebud Mine is a critical part of the Mohave Project. Previously worked mines are increasingly being exploited by modern mining companies as proven sites of minerals. Reactivating existing sites with new mining techniques offers the potential for easy picking and bigger profits. Though the most accessible resources have usually been extracted from these sites, the land still holds the promise of untapped discovery. Modern mining techniques ensure that previously difficult-to-extract lodes can be accessed safely and cost effectively. This technique has been applied to extract newly valuable battery minerals such as cobalt from old copper mines and to revive abandoned precious metals sites. Kingman will be tapping into wealth that previous generations of miners left behind. Those previous generations are one of the great advantages of renewed digging on old claims. Records from their work help to direct new operations, providing evidence for metal deposits. At the Rosebud Mine, records from the original digging era have been combined with surveys from the 1980s to calculate the likely wealth on the site an estimated 664,000 ounces of gold and 2,600,000 ounces of silver. Equipped with old records, Kingman has set about new sampling work on the site. While old records are helpful, they can't be relied on for modern operations, so companies like Kingman test to confirm the existence of predicted or previously recorded deposits. Two rounds of underground reconnaissance and testing, combined with historic data, will allow Kingman to provide new estimates of the value of the site in the next few months. The presence of historic mining workings makes it easier to exploit deposits once they are confirmed. With workings that stretch 2,500 feet underground, the Rosebud Mine's historic conditions allow for a significant decrease in the costs of mining goldincreasing the potential profits of a valuable and sought-after commodity. Mining Across America Another company that will be hoping to benefit from a gold boom is Coer Mining Inc. (NYSE: CDE). With sites in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S., Coer has an established mining presence across North America. The focus of its operations is on gold, with two operations dedicated to this and two more extracting both gold and silver. A fifth site, in British Columbia, provides zinc and lead alongside silver. While the current crisis has had an impact on some of Coer's operations, it has recently restarted mining at its Palmarejo complex in Chihuahua, after the Mexican government designated precious metals mining as an essential activity. Kinross Gold Corporation (NYSE: KGC) also focuses on gold in extraction operations, which last year produced precious metals equivalent to 2.5 million ounces of gold. While the company has operations in Russia and West Africa, more than half of its production takes place in the Americas. The company has taken extensive steps to tackle the challenge of COVID-19, to maintain the safety of its workers as well as its business continuity. It has also drawn attention to one of the more overlooked uses of gold in the current crisis that its plays a vital part in virus testing kits. If these tests are widely used, then the value of gold could further increase. Idaho-based silver producer Hecla Mining Company (NYSE: HL) has been expanding its gold production and now looks set to benefit from the increased focus on this metal. At the end of 2019, the company was already seeing increased production of both silver and gold, along with lower debt and growing cash balances. Like many other companies, it has seen some disruption to its work as governments responded to COVID-19. And like Coer, Hecla is now benefiting from the vital role that mining plays in maintaining the economy, as the government of Quebec allowed its Casa Berardi operation to restart in mid-April. While many businesses are still struggling to find their niche in lockdown, the fundamental necessity of producing raw resources is leading to a return to work in the mining sector, even in countries where rigorous restrictions are in place. A senior Canadian gold mining company, Agnico Eagle Mines (NYSE: AEM) also has operations in Mexico and Finland as well as exploration work underway in the U.S. and Sweden. Its policy of not making forward gold sales gives shareholders full exposure to gold prices, and it has provided a cash dividend every year since 1983 through a strategy of low-risk, high-quality operations. Like Hecla, it was quickly able to recommence operations in Quebec after restrictions hit. The company has been direct with investors in detailing the likely impact of COVID-19 on production, but it still expects to produce 1.63-1.73 million ounces of gold in 2020, and a widespread reduction in production could elevate prices. With a renewed interest in gold and companies making effective use of old sites to cost-effectively extract the metal, the market looks good even in a time of crisis. For more information about Kingman Minerals, please visit Kingman Minerals Ltd. (CVE: KGS). About NetworkNewsWire NetworkNewsWire ("NNW") is a financial news and content distribution company, one of 40+ brands within the InvestorBrandNetwork ("IBN"), that provides: (1) access to a network of wire solutions via NetworkWire to reach all target markets, industries and demographics in the most effective manner possible; (2) article and editorial syndication to 5,000+ news outlets; (3) enhanced press release solutions to ensure maximum impact; (4) social media distribution via IBN millions of social media followers; and (5) a full array of corporate communications solutions. 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The forward-looking statements in this release are made as of the date hereof and NNW and FNM undertake no obligation to update such statements. Corporate Communications Contact: NetworkNewsWire (NNW) New York, New York www.NetworkNewsWire.com +1-212-418-1217 Office Editor@NetworkNewsWire.com Media Contact: FN Media Group, LLC NNW@FinancialNewsMedia.com +1-(954)345-0611 SOURCE NetworkNewsWire ALBANY Several people who clashed with police Tuesday morning were arrested after a confrontation near Quail and West streets. "They were hurling rocks and bricks at police officers," Officer Steve Smith, a police department spokesman, said. The clash at Quail and West occurred shortly after midnight and followed a tense standoff around the city's public safety building on Henry Johnson Boulevard. During protests near the Henry Johnson Boulevard building, Police Chief Eric Hawkins and other police officers took a knee in solidarity with those protesting police brutality and the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. A member of the Common Council also tried to lower the tension, too. But police said some protesters tossed fireworks and objects at police. Police responded by firing tear gas cannisters. The crowd moved through the West Hill neighborhood before the clash at Quail and West prompted the arrests of nine people. They face a variety of charges including charges of attempted assault and inciting a riot, Smith said. The names of the individuals were not yet available but four of the people facing charges are from Albany, three are from Schenectady, one is from Clifton Park and one is from Rensselaer, police said. Earlier, protesters threw bricks and stones at police who responded by launching tear gas as what for hours was a peaceful but tense rally against police brutality turned into a confrontation between demonstrators and officers near the public safety building. Two other people were arrested overnight night after police said they were caught looting the Family Dollar store at 484 Central Ave. On Tuesday morning, a woman stepped in front of a live TV camera and shouted an obscenity while Mayor Kathy Sheehan was being interviewed by reporters. Monday night's confrontations went on well into the evening with demonstrators shouting "hands up, don't shoot," pushing toward rows of police in riot gear who fired the gas to keep the marchers at bay. Police said they made several arrests connected to vandalism on Sunday night, which saw little unrest compared to Saturday and Monday. It is the second time in three days that a protest - like many around the country inspired by the death of George Floyd, a black man killed May 25 at the hands of Minneapolis police - turned violent as the night went on. A confrontation late Saturday behind South Station led to vandalism throughout the South End neighborhood, downtown and Central Avenue. On Monday, some protesters left once police started to use tear gas but a group remained. One protester tried to light a box spring on fire and push it under a police SUV. Hawkins tried to lower the tension at Monday night's rally around Henry Johnson Boulevard, at one point trying to coordinate police and protesters taking a knee in solidarity over the anguish of black men who have died in police custody. But one of the protesters responded, Why should we take a knee? We didnt kill him. Albany Common Councilman Jahmel Robinson's efforts to calm the crowd also drew ire. Why dont we know you? one protester shouted. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. A new round of clashes between police and protesters broke out across the country Monday night. While many protesters delivered a peaceful message that the killings of black men like Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, the 25-year-old allegedly killed by white men as he jogged through a neighborhood in Georgia, must end, others were being blamed for widespread looting and vandalism. Saturday's chaos in Albany led to the arrest of James Vail, a 21-year-old from Bethlehem who allegedly hit a uniformed police officer in the head with a brick during the melee on Arch Street. The officer suffered a concussion, police said. Monday evening, police announced that several other arrests were made in the aftermath of the first disturbance. Three teenagers, a 15-year-old and two 16-year-olds, were caught removing plywood from the entrance of a shuttered cellphone store on Delaware Avenue late Sunday night. All three were charged with third-degree burglary and one of the 16-year-olds was charged with false personation for giving a bogus name to police. A short time later, detectives say they saw a man throw a brick through the window of a clothing store on South Pearl Street near Norton Street. Nashon Joseph, 26, of Albany was charged with criminal mischief after a brief foot chase, police said. On Monday afternoon, protesters shut down Henry Johnson Boulevard and confronted Hawkins. Hawkins, who was out of town when protesters clashed with police behind South Station and then damaged businesses and government buildings late Saturday and early Sunday, was surrounded by demonstrators who wanted to speak with him. Protesters expressed dissatisfaction with Hawkins initial responses to their questions and demands, saying to him, Im tired with the political responses, and Youre not here to be silent, chief. The crowd started chanting to Hawkins to take a knee to show his solidarity with them, which he did about a minute later. I get social injustice because Ive heard the stories from my parents, Ive heard it from my grandparents, I lived it, Hawkins told the crowd through a megaphone. Thats one of the reasons why I wear a uniform. Because change comes from the inside many times in many types of institutions So how do I take whats personally inside of me and use it to help my organization relate better to my communities? NEW YORK, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Asian American Business Development Center, Hispanic Federation and One Hundred Black Men issues the following joint declaration in response to recent events fatally impacting multi-cultural communities. As representatives of the Asian, Black and Hispanic communities, we stand together against all acts of racism and violence and stand against those who would divide us and sow mistrust and fear. We mourn the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, and call for swift and sure justice to prevail. We embrace the fact that the United States is a multiracial, multiethnic nation, and affirm our commitment and responsibility to advance the many elements that unite us: a belief in the value of diversity, the contributions of immigrants and the power of multi-cultural collaborations. We believe that taking action is as important as expressions of support, and will soon be announcing a groundbreaking effort to provide long-term support for Black, Latinx and Asian small businesses impacted by Covid-19. We are also preparing a webinar that will bring together journalists from our communities to have an open discussion about how race relations are being reported, and how the media can influence a change in perspectives. These efforts are just a beginning. Today, we reaffirm our solidarity with diverse leaders and institutions all across our nation and pledge to fight to turn the tide against racism everywhere. John Wang, President, Asian American Business Development Center Frankie Miranda, President, Hispanic Federation Michael J. Garner, President, One Hundred Black Men SOURCE Asian American Business Development Center Related Links www.aabdc.com Mindful of the threat the virus posed to the regime, North Korea instituted one of the worlds earliest and strictest lockdowns. The country closed its border with China in January, placed foreigners under effective house arrest and severely restricted domestic travel. Britain and Germany were forced to close their embassies in Pyongyang as a result of the restrictions and their inability to rotate staff in and out of the country. Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via Email SpaceX could go public within a couple of years, says Morgan Stanley's Adam Jonas Saturday ushered in a new era of space exploration and it marked a milestone for Elon Musk. SpaceX successfully launched two astronauts into space, the first launch from American soil in a decade. On Sunday, for the first time ever, a commercial rocket docked at the International Space Station. Adam Jonas, head of global autos and shared mobility research at Morgan Stanley, joins "Squawk Box" to discuss. COVID-19 became a pandemic because airplane passengers carried the new coronavirus with them around the world. As that became clear, airlines grounded nearly all of their fleets, governments issued travel restrictions and mandatory quarantines, and tourist attractions and conferences closed down. With no reason to fly, a quick recovery for air travel seemed unlikely. Warren Buffett even dumped his airline stocks, claiming that the "world has changed." Airlines around the world have been decimated by the coronavirus, but there are signs of a recovery beginning. Credit:Getty Passengers also wouldn't feel safe packed inside a metal tube for hours, would they? Happily for the industry, if not for the climate, the seemingly insurmountable barriers to air travel have begun to look less daunting. "We believe the worst is behind us, and we're on the uptick," American Airlines boss, Doug Parker, said after a surge in travel over the US Memorial Day holiday weekend. Investors have taken notice. The Bloomberg Americas Airlines stocks index has rebounded by almost one-third from the mid-May low, and European carriers have made similar gains. Shares in German tour operator Tui have risen too. [June 02, 2020] Blue like an Orange Sustainable Capital Raises Over $200 Million For Its First Fund, Latin America Fund I LUXEMBOURG, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue like an Orange Sustainable Capital has closed its first fund, raising just over $200 million for its Latin America Fund I ("the Fund"). The Fund focuses on mobilizing private, primarily institutional, capital for Latin America, and counts over 25 investors as Limited Partners - including AXA, HSBC, CNP Assurances, BNP Paribas Cardif, SG Insurance, and MACSF, alongside several family offices, including those of private equity and social impact pioneers, Sir Ronald Cohen and Ray Chambers. In addition, investors in the management company include former Unilever CEO, Paul Polman; businessman and philanthropist, Alejandro Santo Domingo; businessman and former US Ambassador to Brazil, Clifford Sobel; and philanthropist, Jamie Cooper. The company benefits from an international and interdisciplinary advisory network including renowned economist, Olivier Blanchard, and physician and anthropologist, Dr. Paul Farmer. "We are honored to steward each, and every dollar entrusted to us by such an incredible group. I know that each member of our Blue like an Orange ecosystem is joining us on this journey to prove as these extraordinary times highlight the important role that finance can, and must, play as a force for good in the world," said Bertrand Badre, Founding Partner and CEO of Blue like an Orange. The Fund has a co-financing agreement with the Inter-American Development Bank's private sector lending arm, IDB Invest, with Blue like an Orange and IDB Invest working jointly to originate, structure and execute transactions allowing both groups to leverage each other and deploy even more capital to the region. In addition, and importantly as the current pandemic is making clear, the close relationship to IDB Invest enhances connectivity to governments across Latin America, and allows Blue like an Orange to benefit from the Inter-American Development Bank's deep understanding of the macro-economic and political situations across the region. "IDB Invest is pleased o continue working with Blue like an Orange," said James P. Scriven, CEO of IDB Invest. "In these extraordinary times, we are committed to supporting our clients across Latin America and the Caribbean, putting our money to work and encouraging more private capital like that from Blue like an Orange to flow to the region. It is mobilization like this that will take our development impact and make it exponential at this critical moment." The Fund, which has already invested over $80 million, provides private credit primarily in the following thematic areas Access to Finance, Infrastructure and Technology Enabled Services, Agriculture, and Social Infrastructure such as Healthcare and Education. To date, IDB Invest has deployed over $40 million in funding to certain transactions alongside Blue like an Orange, and both groups expect to jointly commit over $50 million more for the co-financing of new mezzanine transactions within the next several months reflecting the strong demand for this sort of capital in the region. "The coronavirus pandemic has reminded all of us that we live an interconnected world, and that challenges such as inequality can only be overcome if governments, civil society and the private sector work together," said Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the Inter-American Development Bank Group. "We congratulate the Blue like an Orange team on reaching this important milestone at a time when capital is so critical to enabling the region's economic recovery." Recent transactions include efforts to expand equitable access to transportation, through the ride-hailing company, Cabify; providing IT services to small-to-medium size enterprises and other key groups in Brazil through Qintess; providing increased access to financial services and "climate-finance" in Ecuador through Produbanco, and to the underbanked, in Colombia, through Movii. In Movii, for instance, the financial technology company aims to reduce inequality in Colombia by providing access to financial services to those who are unbanked and underbanked, including refugees from neighboring countries, which now total over 1.4 million. The company has also been asked by the Colombian government to play an important role in getting relief funds to Colombians suffering from the COVID 19 situation. Blue like an Orange applies a rigorous "no-tradeoff" approach to investing the capital provided by its investors, and puts equal weight behind achieving risk-adjusted financial returns and clear impact in the form of supporting the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Alongside the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos in January 2020, Blue like an Orange released an open-sourced ratings tool for impact measurement tied to the UN SDGs known as SDG Blue. "There is simply no going back when it comes to long-term sustainable investing", said Olivier Goudet, Managing Partner and CEO of JAB Holding Company. "The Blue like an Orange team has achieved an extraordinary result in their first effort, but I know it is only the beginning of much more to come given the immense need for the thoughtful approach and capital that they are bringing to the world." About Blue like an Orange Sustainable Capital Blue like an Orange Sustainable Capital seeks opportunities to lend to companies and projects that deliver both strong risk-adjusted returns and positive social impact in support of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Blue like an Orange Sustainable Capital focuses primarily on Sustainable Infrastructure & Technology Enabled Services, Social Infrastructure (Healthcare and Education) & Agriculture and Access to Finance. The Company strives for sustainable development outcomes to foster inclusive and sustainable growth without a trade-off with respect to market level rates of financial returns. Blue like an Orange Sustainable Capital's founding partners are Bertrand Badre, Amer Baig, Suprotik Basu, Rashad Kaldany and Emmanuelle Yannakis. For more information, please visit http://www.bluelikeanorangecapital.com. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/blue-like-an-orange-sustainable-capital-raises-over-200-million-for-its-first-fund-latin-america-fund-i-301069011.html SOURCE Blue like an Orange Sustainable Capital [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] M ore than 400 British travellers will be flown home on special chartered flights after weeks of being stuck in central and South America for weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic. The UK Government announced on Monday that two transatlantic flights from Costa Rica and Ecuador will leave for London Stansted on June 11. Meanwhile, British travellers in Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Chile will be able to board sweeper flights which will take them to Costa Rica and Ecuador ahead of the final transatlantic passage back to the UK. The Government has already brought back more than 2,100 British travellers from the region during the Covid-19 crisis. Foreign Office minister for the Americas, Wendy Morton, said: Our teams across the region are doing everything they can to get as many people as possible home to their families and will continue to provide support to British nationals who remain. The two flights will leave from San Jose in Costa Rica and Quito in Ecuador. The World on Coronavirus lockdown 1 /60 The World on Coronavirus lockdown Getty Images A UK government public health campaign is displayed in Piccadilly Circus Reuters Chinese paramilitary police and security officers wear face masks to protect against the spread of the new coronavirus as they stand guard outside an entrance to the Forbidden City in Beijing AP A usually busy 42nd Street is seen nearly empty in New York AFP via Getty Images Bondi Beach, Australia Getty Images Military vehicles cross Westminster Bridge after members of the 101 Logistic Brigade delivered a consignment of medical masks to St Thomas' hospital Getty Images View of the illuminated statue of Christ the Redeemer that reads "Thank you" as Archbishop of the city of Rio de Janeiro Dom Orani Tempesta performs a mass in honor of Act of Consecration of Brazil and tribute to medical workers amidst the Coronavirus (COVID - 19) pandemic Getty Images Rome AFP via Getty Images An Indian man paddles his bicycle in front of a mural depicting the globe covered in a mask, as India remains under an unprecedented lockdown over the highly contagious coronavirus Getty Images Aerial view of the empty 9 de Julio avenue in Buenos Aires in Argentina AFP via Getty Images A view of an empty Grand Canal Reuters Las Ramblas, Barcelona, Spain Getty Images Aerial view of the empty Central cemetery in Bogota, Columbia AFP via Getty Images The facade of the Palacio de Lopez (seat of the government palace) AFP via Getty Images Miami, Florida AFP via Getty Images Aerial view of the empty Simon Bolivar park in Bogota AFP via Getty Images An LAPD patrol car drives through Venice Beach Boardwalk AP Venice Beach, California Getty Images Los Angeles, California Getty Images Surfers Paradise is seen empty in Australia Getty Images Many shops stand shuttered on the Venice Beach boardwalk Getty Images Empty escalators are seen at a deserted train station during morning rush hour after New South Wales began shutting down non-essential businesses Reuters A nearly empty Times Square in New York AFP via Getty Images Caracas AFP via Getty Images Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador AFP via Getty Images A general view of an unusually quiet Midland Park in Wellington, New Zealand Getty Images A general view of an unusually quiet Civic Square at lunchtimein Wellington, New Zealand Getty Images A policeman rides his motorcycle wearing a face mask in front of a closed shopping mall in Buenos Aires, Argentina AFP via Getty Images Florida Keys AP The historic Channel 2 Bridge closed to fishermen, bikers and pedestrians in Florida Keys AP The Beach on Scenic Gulf Drive near Seascape Resort in south Walton County, Florida sits empty of tourists AP Surfers Paradise is seen empty in Australia Getty Images A deserted Rajpath leading to India Gate in New Delhi AFP via Getty Images A general view is seen of a closed Luna Park in Sydney, Australia Getty Images A general view is seen of a closed Luna Park in Sydney, Australia Getty Images Empty roads are pictured following the lockdown by the government amid concerns about the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Kathmandu, Nepal Reuters An empty New York Subway car i AFP via Getty Images The empty pedestrian zone is seen in the city of Cologne, western Germany, AFP via Getty Images Place de la Comedie in the city of Montpellier , southern France AFP via Getty Images An empty street in Kuwait city AFP via Getty Images A building is covered by the Portuguese message: "Coronavirus: take precaution" over empty streets in downtown Sao Paulo, Brazil, AP A general view shows an empty street after a curfew was imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Reuters Parliament of Canada is pictured with empty street during morning rush hour AFP via Getty Images A near empty beach on Southend seafront in England PA Near empty Keswick town centre in Cumbria, England PA Priority will be given to short-term British travellers aged over 70, those who have medical requirements, people travelling with young children and others located in remote or at-risk areas, the Government said. It comes after hundreds of Brits were left stranded in the region as it went into lockdown in March. At the time, some said they felt let down by the Governments effort to fly them home and said they are effectively stuck. Jane Fonda has been an outspoken activist and change maker on many issues from politics to climate change, and this weekend she used her platform to discuss another current and pressing issue: race relations in this country. The two-time Oscar winner, 82, appeared in discussion with CNN's Don Lemon on Sunday, during which time she touched upon the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Minnesota last week at the hands of the police, as well as racism in general and her own sense of white privilege. A fervent critic of Donald Trump, Fonda also called out his administration as one that has enabled situations such as this to arise. Speaking her piece: Jane Fonda appeared in discussion with CNN's Don Lemon on Sunday, discussing the death of George Floyd as well as racism in general and her own white privilege 'When Donald Trump was elected, and the bandaid was torn off,' Jane said, 'people could see very blatantly the racism in this country thats always been there. 'But it was revealed in a new and more robust way to us,' she continued, 'and then encouraged by this administration, I think a lot of white people "got it." 'And maybe [they were] like me,' Fonda added. 'I realized that I didnt understand enough about the history of racism.' Calling out Trump: 'When Donald Trump was elected, and the bandaid was torn off,' Jane said, 'people could see very blatantly the racism in this country thats always been there' A fervent critic of Donald Trump: Fonda also called out his administration as one that 'encouraged' racism in this country Later, the Grace And Frankie star also commented specifically on white privilege, and the broken systems that she feels perpetuate racism in this country. 'Because were white, we have had privilege, even the poorest of us have had privilege,' she shared with Lemon. 'We need to recognize that, and we have to understand what it is that keeps racism in place the policies, redlining, banking policies, mortgage policies. All of the things that are really making it very, very difficult for black people to lift themselves up.' Later: The Grace And Frankie star also commented specifically on white privilege, and the broken systems that she feels perpetuate racism in this country; seen here in December 2019 Fonda, who's been arrested on multiple occasions in recent history due to her protesting on the issue of climate change, helped to establish Fire Drill Fridays in conjunction with GreenPeace last year. The charity is a 'weekly protest standing up to the climate crisis in collaboration with scientists, movement leaders' and regular people, according to the GreenPeace website. Recently, the initiative has also included racial justice issues as part of the action items being addressed, as seen on the organization's Instagram page. Climate activist: Fonda, who's been arrested on multiple occasions due to her protesting on the issue of climate change, helped to establish Fire Drill Fridays; seen at a rally last year New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday (June 2) said that he had a warm conversation with US President Donald Trump on several issues. The Prime Minister took to social media and tweeted, "Had a warm and productive conversation with my friend President @realDonaldTrump. We discussed his plans for the US Presidency of G-7, the COVID-19 pandemic, and many other issues." Had a warm and productive conversation with my friend President @realDonaldTrump. We discussed his plans for the US Presidency of G-7, the COVID-19 pandemic, and many other issues. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 2, 2020 PM Modi's conversation with President Trump hold a significance as the United States is set to chair the upcoming G-7 summit. President Trump spoke about the US Presidency of the Group of Seven and conveyed his desire to expand the ambit of the grouping beyond the existing membership, to include other important countries including India. In this context, he extended an invitation to Prime Minister Modi to attend the next G-7 Summit to be held in USA, said a government statement. Prime Minister Modi commended President Trump for his creative and far-sighted approach, acknowledging the fact that such an expanded forum would be in keeping with the emerging realities of the post-COVID world. The Prime Minister said that India would be happy to work with the US and other countries to ensure the success of the proposed Summit. Prime Minister Modi expressed concern regarding the ongoing civil disturbances in the US, and conveyed his best wishes for an early resolution of the situation. The two leaders also exchanged views on other topical issues, such as the COVID-19 situation in the two countries, the situation on the India-China border, and the need for reforms in the World Health Organisation. President Trump warmly recalled his visit to India in February this year. Prime Minister Modi said that the visit had been memorable and historic on many accounts, and had also added new dynamism to the bilateral relationship. The exceptional warmth and candour of the conversation reflected the special nature of the Indo-US ties, as well as the friendship and mutual esteem between both leaders, the statement added. As protests against police brutality continue in Michigan and throughout the country in the wake of George Floyds death, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and her administration are asking demonstrators to remain peaceful and channel their anger into meaningful action. Whitmer, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist and Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun focused heavily on the unrest during a Monday press briefing on the coronavirus, telling the public that communities of color are bearing the brunt of the pain caused by both the COVID-19 pandemic and systemic injustice. To the overwhelming majority, who have taken to the streets and protested peacefully...I hear you, Whitmer said. I see you, I respect you and I support your efforts to enact real, structural change in America. Whitmer said every public official with a platform should work to bring down the heat in communities where protests have devolved into violent demonstrations, such as Detroit, Lansing and Grand Rapids. She said shes in ongoing talks with city mayors, community leaders and activists and encouraged people to channel their frustration into meaningful action instead of resorting to violence. When I see some of the things play out across the state as soon as it gets dark, Im very troubled by it, because its by and large not the peaceful demonstrators who are upset about George Floyd and all of our nations history around police brutality, she said. Theres people with different agendas who are abusing someone elses pain in order to inflict damage on the community. Gilchrist, who Whitmer said would be leading the administrations efforts to address police brutality, said he emphasizes with those who feel unheard or unseen in the aftermath of Floyds death, because these have been my experiences too. To everyone who feels silenced, I will use this position to help uplift your voices, he said. Whitmer also reiterated her concerns with President Donald Trumps comments during a call with governors earlier Monday, where Trump said officials should dominate the protesters. It was galling because we are at a point in time where people need hope and unity and a strategy to pull people together and to save lives, she said, calling the presidents comments dangerous. The protests began last week following the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old man who died after being handcuffed by Minneapolis police during an investigation. Video captured at the scene shows an officer driving his knee into the back of Floyds neck for more than eight minutes despite pleas from Floyd who said he couldnt breathe. That officer has been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Three officers who were on the scene at the time have not been arrested, but there have been calls for their arrest for their complicity in Floyds death. Related stories: Detroit, Grand Rapids and Lansing under curfew as police brutality protests continue Organizers call for seat at the table with police during second night of protests in Flint Things feel so dark, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says on riots, coronavirus and Midland flooding Gov. Whitmer wants designated areas for peaceful protesting as unrest continues nationwide Police brutality protests in Michigan: What you need to know from this weekends rallies, riots Flint-area police join protesters marching to seek justice for George Floyd Peaceful protest in Grand Rapids devolves into riot, looting and fires Look at their audacities while they are in actions!Lying is a completely acceptable tactic used to help Jamaat-e-Islam gain a foothold in local and national level populations. by Anwar A. Khan We should remember the 9 months of our bloody struggle in 1971 to liberate Bangladesh from the deadliest Pakistani army and their dreadful local associate, Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI). We must not forget to revisit JeIand their accomplices. We remember with heavy hearts that in December 1971, they used excessive use of force, in some cases amounting to horrific torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment to send the best intellectuals of Bangladesh to death. This is not an easy legacy to shoulder. Make no mistake, the abomination of JeI is a clear and still danger to Bangladesh. The only question really is whether the government will act decisively now while they can still shape events to destroy JeI like ferocious killing squad, an act that seems increasingly self-obvious. Where humanity is gone? DOCTRINE OF DECEPTION, LYING AND RELIGION TRADING When you see quote like this, it shows that Jamaat-e-Islami is a doctrine of deception, mass killing, arson, looting, raping and revenge, not peace and tolerance.Their policy is to lie, deceive or omit critical truths if they promote the spreading of their so-called philosophy.This is the Jamaati principle of lying for the sake of theirends. Falsehoods are told to prevent denigration of them, to protect them, or to promote their cause using our Holy Religion, Islam. They are lying or making distorted statements to the media and to the people in general claiming that they are an Islamist political party of peace and thus deceive the Muslims to garner their support, and to make them their party men and pretend to be saints. But the truth is that Jamaat-e-Islam is aso-called religion trade based and criminal organisation that allows lying and deceit as part of their doctrine. Islam promotes honesty, integrity, and love for fellow man, but not they. Deceit is an integral part of them. They allow themselves the option of lying in any communication or negotiation as a tenet of their policy. This deceit is a product of Jamaat-e-Islami teachings of its followers to disrespect Muslims and non-Muslims as they are not worthy of honesty. Look at their audacities while they are in actions!Lying is a completely acceptable tactic used to help Jamaat-e-Islam gain a foothold in local and national level populations. Any and all unethical behaviours are acceptable to help them gain domination over all people and all other religions.Muslims cant lie any time. Lies and deception are merely tools to be used to destroy anything that restricts, prevents, or gets in their way of achieving this goal. There is no iota of truth when Jamaati men say to spread Islam. When dealing with Muslims, what they say is not the issue. The real issue is what they actually mean in their hearts. In other words, it is best to remember their history of past actions rather than to listen to their false promises of peace. Read or try to know what these cruel beasts did to our people during our glorious Liberation War in 1971. To fully understand the danger of Jamaat-e-Islami, you need to have the courage to accept the truth about them. Every one of their actions was done in the name of Islam. How many times have we heard that they profess peaceful teachings, tolerance, and love? Jamaat-e-Islami is a very real danger to Islam, Muslims, non-Muslims, humanity, the country-Bangladesh, its flag, its security and the like. They propagate only Islam exists in their political party and in their people. How many more examples do you want?How many more examples do you need?The truth is evident for all to see in their actions and reactions. JAMAATS VIOLENCE IS ITS INHERENT POLICY Islam has not been associated with any sort of violence. But the 1971 days were horrific and tragic days millions of people were perished in the terrorist attacks by the Jamaati Al-Badr and Al-Shams forces that drove a knife straight into the hearts of the freedom-loving people of Bangladesh. They made brutal blows to our pride and stature.To elucidate the Jamaati men penchant for bloodlust, violence and terrorism, one merely has to consult the historical record. They killed/kill men, women, and children irrespective of ages, at times using terrible torture. The most infamous bloodbaths were committed by them in every nook and corner of the country during our glorious Liberation War in 1971. Jamaati griffins, in their perilous quest to exterminate anything thats not Jamaatis from the soil of the-then East Pakistan to establish a state of their own, have systematically carried out a genocidal policy of freedom-loving people and Bangladesh-loving people cleansing all who would be found on their ways.For more than four decades the arrogant, eternally deceitful Jamaati people refused to admit responsibility for the grave misdeeds they committed to the freedom loving people in Bangladesh in 1971. These ferocious people learned in the great art of deception. Golam Azam was the mastermind of all mass killings, genocide, en-masse rape, blazing of innumerable habitats of human beings. Since our glorious Liberation War, Golam Azam and his gangsters, such as Mollah Nizami, Ali Ahsan Mujahid, Mollah Saidee have committed a litany of false flag of terror attacks, millions of targeted assassinations, and have murdered tens of thousands of Bangladesh loving people. These historical precedents irrefutably demonstrate that it is certainly within the power of Jamaat-e-Islami in connivance with the Brutal Pakistani crime network to commit mass murder without any repercussions. It is because of their brutal actions, we lost Bangladeshs best intellectual sons and daughters on or before December 14, 1971 for which every year, we observe 14 December as Martyred Intellectuals Day. WHERE IN JAMAAT-E- ISLAMI DO YOU FIND PEACE AND TOLERANCE? In the eyes of Jamaat-e-Islami, if you are not a follower of their own fabricated Islam, then you are not worthy of living. In fact, the practice of other religions is actually forbidden. Freedom of Religion, i.e. the freedom to worship as you please, the very cornerstone of the freedom on which Bangladesh was founded, is nowhere to be found in their doctrine. This is one of the reasons Jamaat-e-Islami is so hated by people of Bangladesh.As usual and right on cue, all of the victims of 1971 and afterwards were non-threatening, unarmed civilians. But they are all Jamaat's favourite and primary targets. Men, women, and children, aged persons, sick persons - it does not matter. Unarmed and not a threat to anyone, they are preferred targets for Jamaati terrorists. JAMAAT-E-ISLAM IS NAZISM; JAMAAT-E-ISLAM IS JAMAATI-FASCISM They will chase you everywhere! These are the people that drink blood, and we know that there is no better blood than the blood of people other than them. They will not leave you alone.They committed violent acts of terrorism in the name of Islam in 1971 and they are still on the same violent and anti-Islamic path.Terrorism is everything that Jamaat-e-Islami embraces. These are just more examples proving that these cruel animals have been, are now, and forever will be their excuse for terrorism, killing, arson, looting, raping and so forth.This is the final word of their own Islam: Just believe as they say because they are right only and you are wrong.If you do not live as they say,death is your punishment. Anyone who rejects their beliefs as their own leaves them with no other choice but to kill themin the name of Allah, Islam, and Muhammad(SM) pronouncing Nara-e-Takbir; Allah-hu Akbar and so forth.They made/make terrorist attacks on us in the name of Islam. The vast majority of Muslims do not control the direction of Islam. They are not in control of their religion. The terrorists are in control of Islam and the vast majority of Muslims are doing nothing to stop them. It is these Jamaatis, the bitter enemies of Islam and humanity who systematically slaughteredmillions of our innocent people in 1971. It is these fanatics who committed mass killing, beheaded, murdered. It is the anti-human-beings who teach their young to kill human beings to achieve their purpose. And it is all done in the name of our Holy Religion- Islam, Muhammad (SM), and Almighty Allah.The hard, quantifiable fact is that the peaceful majority of Muslims, the "silent majority", is cowed and extraneous. Many people think thatJamaat-e-Islami, Islami Chhatra Sangha and Shibir as wellas their new killing outfit - ABPwere /are agreat threat to human community. History has shown that they were/ are truly a danger.Remember, these are the people with an extreme Nazi belief system that glorify the killing of others in the name of Islam and they are working at a ferocious pace to acquire their so-called empire.These violent creatures teach their children and their supporters the values of Terrorism and Hate at a young age.This is what they refer to when they speak of teaching Islam, Peace, Love,and Tolerance. This is the past, present, and future of Jamaat-e-Islami.These neo-Nazis were/are not flexible on anything. YOU CANNOT NEGOTIATE WITH NEONAZIS, JAMAATIFASCIST, OR THEIR TERRORISTS Where is the Tolerance?Where is the Compassion?Where is the "Religion of Peace"?Tragic are the consequences of Jamaat-e-Islami thoughtand violence that is now and has always been their true face but of course, trading in the name of Islam.They want to kill anyone and everyone that hold different religious views about anything. They oppose freedom and everything else that Bangladesh stands for.Much of Jamaat-e- Islami can be quickly summed up on the following idea - "Accept the life and word of us as the absolute and final Truth or we will kill you."They do not want to help people, they only want to kill people and then they want everyone to believe they only want Peace, Love, and Tolerance for all people. Should we be more insulted because they are lying to us or because they think we are so stupid that we will believe their lies?To Muslims and non-Muslims, it is a death threat. This is just another example of the dishonest nature of Jamaat-e-Islami in its treatment. They say that their Islam is a superior way of life, and then they have to force people to accept their own Islam often under penalty of death. The destruction was on. The dangers are around for all to see. The signs are everywhere. Take the violent atrocities they also committed in 2013 and early 2015 and also in 2016 in their different other namesfor example.Anyone that believes and advances the theory that Jamaat-e-Islam is a peaceful and tolerant religion is at odds with him/her.Jamaat-e-Islami is like rabies, it turns an ordinary peaceful human being into a dangerous madman or madwoman.These people are truly dangerous and they should not be trusted. They are "EVIL" in every sense of the word. They will lie, cheat, and kill as a means to achieve their ends. Lying to human beings is an accepted practice for them. They are the real masters of deception. The on-going ICT trials against the war criminals is an another phase of our Liberation War. A war of the free Bangladesh against all of the terror groups is on. This is a war between the good and the bad, between humanity and those who are bloodthirsty. The criminal attack today on innocent civilians in Bangladesh, is a turning point in war against the terrorists belongs to Jamaat-e-Islami and their present murdering squad-Shibir. Even if the war against terror is long and even if the terror will try to raise its head again there wont be any room for it in our beloved country, Bangladesh in which terrorists, their assistants and those who send them to be able to find a shelter or a refuge. The fight against terrorists is a firm struggle against the forces of darkness who seek to destroy our liberty and our way of life. I believe that together we can defeat these forces of evil. When somebody is frivolously pointing their finger at others, loudly and aggressively making accusations and casting blame in every direction other than his/her own, it is usually because that person is guilty of something and is trying to project his/her own guilt onto someone else. This is precisely what the cruel Jamaati people did in 1971 to baffle us from winning Bangladesh and what they always did in the past. Remember, Jamaatis believe that their own Islam is the only true religion, superior to all other religions and beliefs. They also believe there are no innocent people other than Muslims, therefore, killing of innocents is acceptable to Allah as some legitimate form of retribution as they believe they are on a mission with orders directly from Allah to destroy anything they see as a threat or an insult to them. The bloody legacy of Mawlana Abul Ala Mawdudi, the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan and its Bangladesh branch office Ex-Chief Golam Azam and the present kingpin war criminals belong to JeI are constant challenge for anyone living within the borders of Islamic belief and the creation of Bangladesh.We all should take a vow throughout the country to eliminate these evils and devils for their horrific terrorist attacks on our nation in 1971 and afterwards. Our country and our world will never be the same, and we are only beginning to understand the enormity of the threat and the challenges that lie ahead while we are lawfully giving due punishment to them. Our first and greatest priority must be to recognise that our enemy is evil to the core and, if not deterred, has the means to cause even greater destruction. The people of Bangladesh are looking to the present government to be the beacon of freedom that will take the lead, with support from every corner of the globe, in turning back this enemy. PM Hasina and her Administration have risen to the occasion and we should stand firm with them, offering our full support in the difficult time which may be ahead. Famous war crimes activist Shahriar Kabir has rightly pointed out, Jahanara Imam was also able to convey a strong message to the young generation of the country. Those born after 1975 were taught a different, distorted history. The new generation that had not witnessed the Liberation War the dark generation as we call it- is unfamiliar with the Liberation War or the correct account of history. Jahanara Imam oriented this new generation toward the Liberation War.I have absolute confidence that if we, the citizens of Bangladesh, led by PM Hasina, marshal the enormous reserves of power at our disposal, harness the steely resolve of a free people, and mobilise our collective will we shall eradicate this evil from the face of the earth. The time for action is now. Today, the Jamaati terrorists have the will to destroy us, but they do not have the power. There is no doubt that we have the power to crush them. Now we must also show that we have the will. BANNING OF JAMAAT-E-ISLAMI The Jamaat-e-Islami is violent enough that it should be banned in Bangladesh in no time, and the remaining members of it should be arrested for their participation in the violent activities to bring about unspeakable sufferings to us and prosecute them lawfully to inflict due punishment. Their all properties should be confiscated to compensate the same to the family members of war victims because of their grave misdeeds in 1971. And these are the dire emergency needs of the hour now. -The End The writer is an independent political observer based in Dhaka, Bangladesh who writes on politics, political and human-centred figures, current and international affairs. The coronavirus crisis is likely to reduce U.S. economic growth by $7.9 trillion, or 3%, through fiscal 2030, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., used the bleak CBO estimate as an argument for more pandemic funding. (CNBC) Some automakers report monthly U.S. sales today, although Ford (F) and General Motors (GM) only report on a quarterly basis. Auto website Edmunds estimates that U.S. sales fell 32.5% last month compared to May 2019, but registered a 50.5% jump from April. This afternoon, Zoom (ZM) issues quarterly numbers after the closing bell. (CNBC) Dow futures were pointing to a gain at Tuesday's open. After a strong month of May, the Dow started June on the upside as Wall Street continued to bet on a successful reopening of the U.S. economy after the coronavirus halt. The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Monday rose 0.4%. The move higher came despite violent protests, sparked by the killing of George Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis. (CNBC) * Cramer on Wall Street's relation to protests: 'The market has no conscience' (CNBC) Investors are monitoring whether the protests will set back state coronavirus reopening plans or lead to a spike in Covid-19 cases. Dr. Scott Gottlieb , the former FDA chief, told CNBC on Tuesday it will be difficult to parse the contribution of protests to any new cases from the general reopenings that have started to also bring people together again. (CNBC) President Donald Trump has threatened to deploy the military if states and cities fail to control the unrest. As Trump spoke Monday evening, ahead of another night of tumult across America, riot police and military police used tear gas to clear demonstrators out of Lafayette Square, a public square in front the White House. (CNBC) After the demonstrators were cleared out, Trump left the White House and walked through the square to raise a Bible in front of St. John's Church, which had been set on fire by protesters Sunday night. During a teleconference earlier Monday, Trump berated governors for not using harsher tactics to bring demonstrations under control. (CNBC) Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford and CEO Jim Hackett sent a letter to employees regarding the "tragic killing of George Floyd" as well as the coronavirus pandemic and America's "systemic racism." The letter said Ford leaders will hold dialogues with their teams "to understand how people are feeling and discuss how we can get better together." (CNBC) Chipotle (CMG) CEO Brian Niccol spoke out about the Floyd killing and the protests. Niccol told CNBC's "Mad Money" on Monday evening that a number of franchises were damaged. "Fortunately, all of our employees have been safe," he said. "We have had some damage to restaurants, but it's all damage frankly that we can patch up and fix." (CNBC) Amazon (AMZN) shoppers are stocking up on pepper spray and Black Lives Matter merchandise as protests continue to erupt nationwide, according to sales rankings on its web site. The rankings show that the protests against police brutality are at the forefront of some consumers' minds. (CNBC) Facebook (FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to hold a company town hall meeting Tuesday, a day after hundreds of employees staged a "virtual walkout." They were protesting the decision by Facebook's leaders to leave up a Thursday post from Trump, in which he said that "when the looting starts, the shooting starts," about the Floyd demonstrations. (CNBC) Uber, Lyft and DoorDash are suspending operations during the curfew hours that some U.S. cities imposed to try to defuse the violent protests. The unrest has added to the mounting list of challenges for many companies trying to recover and reopen as many states begin lifting coronavirus restrictions. (CNBC) Bank of America (BAC) announced Tuesday that it will commit $1 billion over four years to help local communities deal with the widened economic and racial inequality caused by the Covid-19 outbreak. In a press release, the bank said the program will focus on "assisting people and communities of color that have experienced a greater impact from the health crisis." (CNBC) Starbucks' (SBUX) plans to further cut back on employee hours reflect expectations that pandemic-hit sales probably won't recover until the fall, according to The Wall Street Journal. The coffee giant reopened U.S. locations in May with reduced operations, only allowing drive-thru, delivery and pickup. Southwest Airlines (LUV) is offering workers buyout packages and temporary paid leaves, in what CEO Gary Kelly described as an effort to ensure the carrier's survival as the coronavirus killed air travel demand. Southwest has never laid off or furloughed employees in its 49-year history. (Reuters) The ongoing dry spell could lead to an 'extremely challenging' season for farmers and growers across the country, the NFU has warned. Concerns are mounting within the industry over the extended period of dry weather that started early in the agricultural calendar. Government officials and farming industry leaders are set to meet and discuss the issue at the National Drought Group on Friday 5 June. According to the Met Office, this year's spring has been the sunniest on record for the United Kingdom. The lack of rain last month has also broken records in areas of England, with parts of north west, central and south east seeing their driest May ever. Now the NFU is in the process of collecting much-needed information and analysis from farmers across all regions and sectors impacted by the weather. Soils were currently 'drier than average' across England, explained Paul Hammett, the union's national water resources specialist. He added that the dry weather impact was 'particularly acute' in the north and west regions of England, which are dependent on rain-fed water supplies. And if rainfall remained low into the summer, coupled with high temperatures, it could lead to a 'widespread impact' for farming and the environment. Many farmers are currently feeling the effects of a dry April and May, with some cereal crops already suffering from the early dry spell. With irrigators working flat out across the UK, in addition to the disruption caused by Covid-19, the issue could shape up to be an 'extremely challenging' season for farmers and growers, NFU deputy president Stuart Roberts said. "The irrigation season has started early for some and it is fortunate that, as a result of widespread heavy winter rainfall, which was a problem for many, reservoirs were filled. "At the moment there is generally good water availability from both groundwater and surface water sources, although these are being closely monitored." He added: "Farmers are following predictions of possible hot, dry spells in the weeks ahead and what this could mean for water availability, especially with livestock now turned out to graze and harvest not far away." As the UK moves into what is shaping up to be a third consecutive dry year, the NFU is pushing the government to consider the impacts of climate change on farming. It comes as long-term weather predictions increasingly point towards more frequent and more severe droughts and floods. The union is thus continuing its call for the British food and farming sector to be recognised as an 'essential user' of water. A woman walks past the Macy's store in Herald Square after it was looted and damaged by protesters who participated in demonstrations against the death of George Floyd, in the Manhattan borough of New York City, on June 2, 2020. (Mike Segar/Reuters) Iconic New York Macys Looted in Chaotic Night of Smash-and-Grab Thefts President Donald Trump urged New York City authorities to call in the National Guard after initially peaceful George Floyd demonstrations devolved into scenes of chaos late June 1, as a curfew failed to prevent a spate of smash-and-grab thefts in Manhattan and looters from breaking into the flagship Macys store on 34th Street. As the 11 p.m. deadline to get off the streets approached, bands of protesters marched peacefully through Manhattan and Brooklyn, but police simultaneously responded to numerous reports of roving groups of people smashing their way into shops and emptying them of merchandise. Looters at one point breached the doors of Macys iconic Manhattan store, with footage shared on social media showing a large crowd swarming around the entrance as an explosion outside sent a fireball about a dozen feet into the air. In the Bronx, an NYPD sergeant was hit by a car, with the NYC Police Benevolent Association (PBA) saying in a tweet: This A.M. we are praying for our injured @NYPD44Pct sergeant who was struck by a fleeing vehicle last night, and all of our brothers and sisters who have been run down, knocked down or almost shot down during this chaos. It has to stop. NOW. In a separate incident caught on camera and shared by NYC PBA, an NYPD officer unholstered his weapon after his supervisor was struck in the back of the head by an assailant throwing a brick. Another video showed a group of men beating a police officer who was alone and down on the ground, smashing him with pieces of wreckage until he pulled his gun and they ran. A police spokesperson told NBC News that around 700 people were arrested as a result of looting and rioting late June 1, with authorities announcing that the curfew would be brought forward to 8 p.m. on June 2. Trump wrote on Twitter on June 2, saying that New York City had succumbed to looters, thugs, Radical Left, and all other forms of Lowlife & Scum, adding that Gov. Andrew Cuomo had refused his offer to bring in the National Guard. Yesterday was a bad day for the Cuomo Brothers. New York was lost to the looters, thugs, Radical Left, and all others forms of Lowlife & Scum. The Governor refuses to accept my offer of a dominating National Guard. NYC was ripped to pieces. Likewise, Fredos ratings are down 50%! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2, 2020 In a follow-up tweet, the president urged New York City authorities to bring in the Guard, saying, The lowlifes and losers are ripping you apart. Act fast! NYC, CALL UP THE NATIONAL GUARD. The lowlifes and losers are ripping you apart. Act fast! Dont make the same horrible and deadly mistake you made with the Nursing Homes!!! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2, 2020 Besides trashing Macys, looters smashed storefronts of designer shops along Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue, as well as other establishments, many of which were ransacked by perpetrators of smash-and-grab thefts. Dramatic video posted on Twitter on June 2 by the account NYC Scanner, captioned West 34th street is out of control after FootLocker was looted, showed dozens of looters swarming a Sprint store, reportedly just 50 feet away from a Foot Locker shop that had been broken into and burglarized. The looters are seen dispersing as a police officer approaches and triesbut failsto apprehend one of the suspects running out the door. As the officer has his back turned to the store, the camera pans to show two individuals lurking by the door, as if ready to dart back inside for more looting. As in previous days, the demonstrations in daylight were peaceful, with chaos descending on parts of the city as night fell. Iranian scientist Dr Sirous Asgari is due to arrive in Tehran tomorrow The families of British dual nationals imprisoned by Iran today criticised the Foreign Office for complete inaction in trying to secure their release, as an Iranian scientist previously jailed by the US was allowed to fly home. A plane carrying Sirous Asgari took off early this morning and was on its way back to Tehran to bring him home, Irans foreign minister announced, raising hopes of a potential prisoner swap for Western dual nationals in Iran. Mr Asgari was accused by a US court in 2016 of stealing trade secrets while on an academic visit to Ohio, where he visited a university working on projects for the US Navy. However, the 59-year-old scientist from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, was acquitted in November when an American judge dismissed the case against him. Several British, US and other dual nationals remain imprisoned or on temporary release in Iran, typically on controversial charges of espionage. They include British-Iranian mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, jailed in 2016, and retired engineer Anoosheh Ashoori, 66, who has been held in Tehrans notorious Evin prison since August 2017. Both the US Department of Homeland Security and the Iranian Foreign Ministry today denied reports that Mr Asgaris release was part of a prisoner swap, but such arrangements have been made in the past, despite the breakdown in diplomatic relations between Washington and Tehran. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was briefly released from prison as part of Iran's response to the coronavirus pandemic - PA Mr Ashooris wife, Sherry Izadi, from South London, contrasted previous prisoner exchanges by Washington and Tehran with the complete inaction of the Foreign Office to secure British citizens release. Once again Iran and US may have agreed a prisoner swap despite their very hostile and tense relationship, but the UK has yet to secure anyone's release, she said, adding that she feared for her husbands health. Covid-19 fears in prison remain in force, especially in view of the unprecedented rise in cases in Iran [including] 3,000 in one day. Story continues Richard Ratcliffe, husband of Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, added that this week could prove decisive for his wifes case, after the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced he would grant clemency to thousands of prisoners who have less than five years of their sentences left to serve. Obviously we are keeping a tally on the relative success of different Western countries in resolving Iranian hostage cases, and bringing their people home, and our fingers are crossed for all the Americans held In Iran right now, he said. I think the next week or so will be decisive for whether Nazanin will get clemency, or whether the law will not be followed again in her case. Yesterday I wasnt very positive, but this news again gives us all hope. In December, Iran released American citizen Xiyue Wang, who had been imprisoned for three years on controversial spying charges, in exchange for the release of an Iranian scientist detained in the United States. Other prisoners include Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a British-Australian academic jailed since 2018 , and Aras Amiri, who works for the British Council in London and was arrested on a family visit to Iran the same year. The current pandemic has accelerated calls for both Washington and Tehran to release foreign prisoners who could be at risk. Mr Asgari, who is expected to return to Tehran tomorrow, was said to have contracted coronavirus in a US holding centre while awaiting deportation. The Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy is expected to renew pressure on Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to secure the release of British prisoners in Iran, after speaking to their families this week. Providence Health & Services, the $5.2 billion-a-year behemoth of Oregon health care, plans sweeping pay cuts and other cost-cutting moves that will hit doctors and other health care employees. At least 1,800 Providence employees will be impacted by the reductions. Compensation reductions will range from 5% to 50%. About 1,200 employees got the word late Monday that they were among those caught up in the expense reduction plans, Providence confirmed Monday evening. Thats on top of 600 other employees who got hit with mandatory furloughs or other pay reductions in May. The more than 600 employees of the Providence Medical Group, most of them physicians, will have their compensation reduced by 10% to 17%. Physician assistants, occupational and physical therapists and others also will be subject to the cuts. Providence officials said the pay cuts will last only through a single quarter of this year. Earlier memos suggested that the reductions could extend longer if Providences financial results didnt improve. But the nonprofit confirmed Monday that salaries will be restored after three months. Virtually every hospital and health system in the state has taken steps to rein in costs since the virus hit in March. It was just weeks ago that healthcare workers were being widely celebrated as heroes who risked their own health to treat victims of the COVID-19 pandemic. But today, with the first wave of the novel coronavirus on the wane, hospitals and health systems claim they must take decisive action because the killer virus has put them into critical condition financially. In other words, last months toast of the town is now just toast. Some hospitals are going for more than just a temporary expense reduction. Salem Health, operator of that citys main hospital, hopes the lessons of the pandemic will help it fundamentally change its business model. It became obvious that the manner in which we delivered care before COVID-19 is no longer sustainable, managers at Salem Health said in a May 29 memo to employees. The hospital is in the process of developing a new staffing model that provides both excellent care and financial sustainability through a combination of lean efficiencies, centralization and restructured teams. Salem Health officials said it is restructuring only its network of primary care clinics. Doctors and other health care providers said its not fair for their employers to cut their compensation in the middle of a dangerous pandemic. Dr. Chris Strear, an emergency room physician at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center, said doctors understand the financial realities. We get it, if theres no money theres no money, said Strear, president elect of the Oregon chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians. At the same time, its sort of a bitter pill to swallow. Were out there taking these risks every day. You worry about the pandemic, about the virus, about PPE, and then on top of that you have to worry about your paycheck and your livelihood. More than 600 health care providers in Oregon have contracted the coronavirus. Legacy Health, owner of Emanuel, imposed its own compensation reductions and other cost-cutting measures last month. Providence doctors reached by The Oregonian/OregonLive declined to speak on the record about the pending pay cuts. Their employer takes a hard line on discussing corporate information. As we all go through tough times, it is hard not to express yourself on social media sites, Providence said in one of the memos to employees. It's important for Workforce Members to remember that individuals can be held personally and legally responsible for their publicly made opinions and comments, even on personally maintained sites and pages. Dr. John Santa, a retired physician and member of the Oregon Health Policy Board, said its not unreasonable to ask relatively well-paid doctors to share the pain of expense cuts. Physicians at the Providence Medical Group, one of the primary targets of the cost-cutting, can earn $200,000 to $900,000 a year. Doctors argue that theyve earned their pay after four years of college, four years of medical school and typically three to seven years of residency and specialty training. Many accumulated hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of college debt as well. The Providence doctors say privately that given their employers enormous financial resources, it shouldnt need to lean on employees to stay afloat. Providences Oregon operation alone listed $4.7 billion in total assets at the end of 2019. More than $806 million of it was in cash and cash equivalents. One Providence physician explained the logic in going to work for Providence in the first place: In doing that, I give up quite a bit of freedom, this person said. My practice is run by the hospital. While that structure may limit doctors upside, it also protects them in case of a disaster. Its the hospital, rather than me, that has to worry about building up a rainy day fund, that doctor said. And this is that rainy day. But Providence argues its spring quarter was so bad, it does need to spread the pain. Providences parent operation, which operates hospitals from Alaska to west Texas, suffered $276 million in operating losses in its first quarter. But COVID-19 was just beginning to have an impact toward the end of the quarter. In April alone, the parent organization lost another $179 million, according to a Providence internal memo. Those losses were driven by the suspension of elective surgeries, which all hospitals implemented in order to concentrate on COVID-19 cases. That step cost Providence $503 million. Santa, the retired doctor, said health systems must protect their primary care operations, particularly the clinics in rural areas that serve vulnerable populations. The huge racial disparity in COVID-19 outcomes has vividly illustrated the need for more and better care for the poor and people of color, he said. The Providence Medical Group operates clinics in Hood River, the North Coast and elsewhere in the state. Salem Health operates several clinics in Salem and more rural parts of Marion County. That network of clinics is precisely what Salem Health is now restructuring. Salem Health confirmed late Monday that it will close two of them, one in Salem one in Independence. It will also limit service and reduce staff at some of the others. Salem Health is emphasizing a move to so-called tele-health and other means of virtual health care. Providing more care in a virtual setting means less physical space is necessary, the internal memo states. In order to adjust to this new reality, some clinics will close. The memo goes on to say that the restructuring will include some leadership changes, a reduction in the number of supervisors and the reclassification of some managers into different roles. One employee said they are being required to reapply for their current positions. Salem Health confirmed Monday evening that about 20 employees will not secure their jobs within the department. Jeff Manning 971-263-5164 jmanning@oregonian.com Huawei has been facing tough times with the aggressive restrictions imposed by the US government. The company can no longer produce new Kirin chipsets through its Taiwanese partner TSMC. However, the company is reportedly in talks with South Korean semiconductor companies for a possible chipset deal. While Huawei is the third largest global smartphone brand, its HiSilicon semiconductor business is the fifth largest in the world. A majority of the Huawei and Honor smartphones are powered by the HiSilicon Kirin chipset. Huawei only designs its chipsets and modems, and the actual manufacturing is done by semiconductor foundry companies. Huawei could make a new chipset deal with Korean companies The earlier restrictions banned the US companies from doing business with Huawei without regulatory approval. Now, the recently imposed restrictions even prevent foreign companies that use the US technology from working with the company. To stay afloat in the business, Huawei must replace the US supply chain with alternatives. Advertisement As per the latest report, Huawei is in talks with South Korean semiconductor industry leaders for producing new chips for its smartphones. The deal will also help local Korean companies gain greater exposure in a market dominated by the US and Chinese players. Earlier rumors hinted the company has already started working with SMIC, the largest foundry in China. Huawei might maintain close ties with the Korean companies and alternatively develop a production facility in partnership with SMIC. The Chinese government will also be boosting local semiconductor companies to keep them in the global race. Taiwan-based TSMC has been the sole supplier for Kirin mobile chipsets for a very long time. Expect to see more MediaTek-powered Huawei smartphones The company can procure the chipset orders from TSMC which are already in production or placed before the ban. Moreover, TSMC has to ship these orders before September 14th. Also, MediaTek has seen a 300% surge in orders from Huawei in 2020. The recently launched Huawei Enjoy Z 5G came with the MediaTek Dimensity 800 5G processor. Advertisement Until Huawei has a chipset deal with Korean companies, more Huawei and Honor smartphones will be launched with MediaTek chipsets. With the restrictions over Huawei, OPPO is also accelerating its own chipset plan. It has already hired several engineers from MediaTek to work on its new chipset division. While OPPO has to start from scratch, Huawei is already experienced in designing smartphone chipsets. With the new deals, it will also actively participate in the production by involving with its partners. A communicator of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Agya Yaw Nsiah, has said President Akufo-Addo's current decisions on coronavirus epidemic is based on science and data. Agya Yaw Nsiah indicated that Akufo-Addo's decision to ease restrictions in the country despite a hike in Coronavirus cases, was based on science and not politics. President Akufo-Addo just dont make decisions like that, all decision he makes is based on science and data-advise from health experts and all stakeholders, Agya Yaw Nsiah told Okatakyire Obeng Mensah on Anopa Nkomo on Accra-based Kingdom FM 107.7 Is better for all Ghanaians to give full support to the President in the fight against coronavirus, he added According to him, the only effective method of checking the spread of this virus is aggressive contact tracing and testing. On Sunday, 31 May 2020, Akufo-Addo eased certain restrictions as part of his governments first phase of opening up the country. He stated that continuous maintenance of the restrictions would have worsened our economic structures. Contrary to popular opinions, the coronavirus restrictions obviously isnt a panacea for the novel coronavirus especially in developing economies. He explained, the governments decision encapsulated concern about the impact on various facets of the economy, despite a high increase of the virus. Despite the effective precautionary measures and efforts put in place by the government, Ghanas confirmed Covid-19 case count keeps increasing rampantly. The new update announced by President Akufo- Addo indicates that Ghanas COVID 19 case count has pushed to 8070. (Newser) The officers involved in a Monday shooting that left a black Louisville business owner dead did not have their bodycams turned ona revelation that has led to the firing of the police chief. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer announced Monday that Steve Conrad had been relieved of duty, NBC News reports. The fatal shooting took place just after midnight, amid protests over the deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville itself, both at the hands of cops. In the wake of Taylor's death, officers have been required to wear active body cameras; the officers involved in the Monday incident either weren't wearing them at all or didn't have them activated. Conrad had just last month announced an abrupt retirement after coming under fire over Taylor's shooting, but he originally planned to work through the end of June. story continues below It's still not clear exactly what happened after Louisville police and the National Guard responded to a parking lot to break up a crowd that was breaking curfew. Conrad said earlier Monday that officers were then "shot at" and returned fire, but it has not yet been confirmed who shot first and who fired the fatal shot. David McAtee, a well-known owner of a local barbecue joint whose mother describes him as a pillar of the community, was killed. Those who knew him say McAtee often gave free food to those in need, as well as to police officers, USA Today reports; the mayor says he was known as "the BBQ man." "We are working diligently to determine what happened. The community has a lot of questions, and we share those same questions," the acting police chief said Monday. The two officers involved have been placed on administrative leave. The FBI, US Attorney General's Office, and Kentucky State Police will investigate the shooting, WLKY reports. (Read more Louisville stories.) CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Weekends got a little sweeter for Clevelands Little Italy neighborhood this summer. A new food cart, Mount Granita, will serve up Italian ice in the neighborhood every weekend, Thursdays through Sundays, according to a press release. The new business, stationed at 2024 Murray Hill Rd., will be open during good weather in the summer months, serving freshly made Italian ice. Its grand opening will take place on Thursday, June 4. Owner Christopher Giancola said that the cart was inspired by Little Italys history, specifically Zammataros, a popular spot that was open in Little Italy for more than 40 years, according to The Plain Dealer Records. The business was inspired by stories told by my family, the Pinzones, who used to describe growing up in Little Italy after immigrating from Sicily in 1955. They would frequent a bakery called Zammataros at the corner of Murray Hill and Piggy Street,' which was known throughout the neighborhood for having the best lemon ice -- and for only a nickel, Giancola said in a press release. Mount Granita aims to fill the void left behind by the nostalgic neighborhood markets of the past. Mount Granita will mix up its Italian ice flavors depending on seasonal fruit; currently, the food carts website lists lemon, mojito, watermelon, cantaloupe, mixed berry, coconut and pineapple as this weeks flavors. The cart is open from 5-9 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays, and offers catering through its website too. I am proud to be investing back into this neighborhood to offer a taste of the past, and I am confident in the future prosperity of Clevelands Little Italy, which is widely beloved by so many, Giancola said. You can find more information about Mount Granita at mountgranita.com. Five central Connecticut theater and arts organizations issued statements of solidarity with Black Lives Matter protesters Monday and Tuesday in the wake of the George Floyd killing and resulting protests and violence. Goodspeed Musicals addressed the why in a statement on so-called BlackoutTuesday, noting that theaters have always had a role in cultural leadership. We are saddened and angered at the horrible injustice served on Mr. George Floyd and by extension the entire country. We stand in solidarity with peaceful protesters around the country and offer prayers for their safety and for the safety of those public servants who take seriously their oath to protect and serve. The statement said Goodspeeds staffers stand up against racism by speaking out. Further, we commit to taking a more active role in promoting the voices of black artists and administrators. We can do better. And we will. Jacob G. Padron & Kit Ingui of Long Wharf Theatre released a statement late Monday noting, Our nation, our city and our communities are grieving the continued violent murders of Black people like George Floyd, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Mubarak Soulemane. The statement mentions the work of local groups such as activist organizer CTCORE and said Long Wharf is complicit in upholding oppressive systems if it only communicates a powerful vision but doesnt act on the issues. Telling stories of the oppressed on our stages does not exempt us from living anti-oppression principles off of it. We know that watching theater develops our capacity for empathy, the Long Wharf statement said. Therefore, we commit to working to correct a history marked by ambivalent empathies and empathies rightly placed but wrongly quiet. Silence is a powerful way to calcify the very structures that perpetuate violence, fear and hate. For this, we are deeply sorry. The emailed release went on to promise to speak up against racism, train staffers in workshops, fight for inclusivity, continue a partnership with inclusion consultant artEquity on healing and anti-racist principles and build a body of work involving artists of color. A statement from Elm Shakespeare Co. top officials James Wright and Rebecca Goodheart also stated that black lives matter and the troupe stands in solidarity with black artists and neighbors in condemning systemic racism and demanding justice for the murders of black Americans. As a predominately white-led organization, we recognize that anti-racism is more than a one-time statement in a time of crisis. It is a daily commitment in our workplace, classrooms, rehearsals and performances. The statement also said that the anti-racism fight must address economic injustice, housing and health care inequities. We recognize that telling (Shakepeares) stories inclusively must include the participation of all members of our community. Two leaders of Hartford Stage, Melia Bensussen and Cynthia Rider, issued a statement in solidarity with those calling for justice and equity in this time of profound pain and deep anger. We honor the lives and mourn the murders of Floyd ... and countless others. So, too, do we add our voices to those who stood on the steps of the Connecticut Capitol and in cities nationwide this weekend proclaiming: Black Lives Matter. We pledge to engage in further education and action to dismantle the systems of oppression that infect Hartford Stage, our industry and our beloved city of Hartford. The International Festival of Arts & Ideas also issued a statement on Twitter that Black lives matter at all times. Police violence is unacceptable, and silence in the face of injustice is intolerable. Festival officials said they stand in solidarity with communities targeted and abused by an unjust systmem and We will do everything we can to help dismantle systemic racism. We see you. We are with you. We look forward to working alongside you to create transformative change in New Haven, the statement read. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Gemma Holliani Cahya and Made Anthony Iswara (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 2, 2020 17:38 597 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb990c5 1 National #education,Education,schools,#school,COVID-19,#COVID19,COVID-19-in-Indonesia Free It has been three months since Heriyanto, 52, a fifth-grade teacher at SD 08 elementary school in Berinang Mayung in remote Landak regency, West Kalimantan, last taught his students in the classroom. Like many other schools in the nation, Heriyantos school has temporarily closed since President Joko Jokowi Widodo urged people in March to work and study from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Education and Culture Ministry was quick to call on schools to turn to e-learning, and teamed up with public broadcaster TVRI to air a new educational program nationwide as an answer to the problem of school closures. But e-learning was not an option for Heriyanto's students who mostly have neither television nor access to electricity, let alone internet access. Heriyanto and fellow teachers had to go door to door each day during the pandemic to teach their pupils one by one, or in small groups for students who lived near one another, despite possible exposure to the virus that has infected at least five people across Landak regency. The children really miss school. We want to keep them safe, at the same time prevent them from falling further behind [in their education] because of COVID-19," headmaster Kristina Ponia said. Across the country, not every household has the privilege of a stable internet connection during the pandemic. A 2018 Indonesian Internet Providers Association (APJII) survey showed that although 64.8 percent of the total Indonesian population were already connected to the internet, these were centralized in the most populous island of Java and other urban areas. Despite knowing about the digital divide, the Education and Culture Ministry is pressing ahead with starting the new academic year in the third week of July as planned. It is encouraging schools to continue providing online classes for students during the new academic year, which is expected to see around 11 million elementary and secondary school students enroll. Read also: Family-friendly policies crucial to help parents bear brunt of COVID-19, experts say The plan to start the academic year was immediately met with objections from parents, who feared that it might lead to schools reopening during the so-called new normal, even though Indonesia continues to report hundreds of new COVID-19 cases daily. However, the ministrys director-general for elementary and secondary education, Hamid Muhammad, said starting the academic year is not the same as opening schools. The academic year will begin around July 13th, but this does not mean that the learning process has to be face-to-face at school. The method will depend on the condition of each region, said Hamid, adding that a very strict process would be needed before a school reopened. School reopening, he said, would only be allowed in regions listed as green zones, where no COVID-19 cases have been recorded. As of Sunday, health authorities listed 102 regencies and cities as green zones, of the total 514 regencies and cities in 34 provinces. Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy told Kompas TV on May 29 that Jokowi had instructed him not to rush in lifting COVID-19 restrictions on the education sector as the health risks were too great. In a later statement, he said the education sector would be the last to be reopened, with plans to reopen school campuses by the end of the year or at the beginning of 2021. Jokowi said on Tuesday that schools should reopen only after weighing health risks based on scientific data like the COVID-19 basic reproduction number, R0, as well as its effective reproduction number, Rt, in respective regions. Read also: Home learning hindered by technology gap, Nadiem acknowledges The education ministrys plan has also raised concerns among education experts and teachers. Indonesian Teachers Association (IGI) chairman Muhammad Ramli Rahim rejected face-to-face learning and believed that schools would be unable to strictly impose health protocols on children should schools reopen. Some experts have recommended the government extend the current academic year and push back the new academic year to January to give students a chance to learn better and at the same time help parents to focus on their familys basic necessities. By pushing the new academic year back to January, we can try to reduce the disparity in access to quality education during remote learning, education observer and member of the Association of Taman Siswa Family (PKBTS) Darmaningtyas said. He also called for regional administrations to subsidize public school tuition, saying parents, especially those who have lost their jobs and sources of income, should not be burdened with school tuition and their childrens safety. Read also: Jakarta administration plans to reopen schools on July 13 To continue the learning process amid the digital divide, Cahaya Guru Foundation chairwoman Henny Supolo advised the relevant authorities to vary their measures according to the diverse situations in their regions and use the COVID-19 map to detect vulnerabilities. She said teachers themselves had been innovating even without the internet or electricity, from scheduling visits to students and parents, to studying together at home or out in the field, and asking parents to lend their devices after work. "The teachers and schools that are ready are those that understand and use their potential, or can discover the potential in their environment, and then use both measures for meaningful learning activities. With this pattern, whatever the school situation, an effective learning process can still take place," she said. Education expert Jimmy Paat urged authorities to build a program involving teachers going to students' houses and handing out learning modules. In other parts of the world, several countries that have seen declining COVID-19 cases, such as South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, have already reopened some of their schools. However, hundreds of schools in South Korea have been forced to close again just days after they reopened following a spike in COVID-19 cases in that country. Haftar's Army Wrestles Control Over Alasaba From GNA, Spokesman Says Sputnik News 14:27 GMT 01.06.2020 MOSCOW (Sputnik) The Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar has regained control over the country's northwestern town of Alasaba, which has been recently seized by the Government of National Accord's (GNA) troops, LNA spokesman Maj. Gen. Ahmad al-Mismari said on Monday. "This morning, the LNA military units have managed to re-establish control over the Alasaba area after a series of airstrikes on the armed groups' positions in the Jabal al-Gharbi district," the spokesman wrote on Facebook. On May 21, Alasaba, southwest of the capital of Tripoli, came under the control of the GNA's military-led by Fayez Sarraj after violent clashes with the LNA as part of the GNA's Volcano of Rage offensive. Next day, a local source affiliated with the LNA told Sputnik that Haftar's air forces carried out several air raids on the GNA's positions in northwestern Libya, targeting Alasaba in particular. Libya has been torn between the two rival administrations an elected parliament in the country's east, supported by the LNA, and the GNA in the country's west since 2011 when long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown and killed. In April 2019, the eastern-based LNA resumed efforts to drive the Turkish-backed GNA away from Tripoli. The GNA responded by conducting the so-called Volcano of Rage offensive. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Washingtons Roman Catholic archbishop has roundly criticized President Donald Trumps visit to the Saint John Paul II National Shrine on Tuesday. One day after Trump used federal police to forcefully disperse a peaceful protest in front of a D.C. Episcopal church for a photo op with the Bible, Archbishop Wilton Gregory insisted that the former pope the shrine is named after would never have condoned the presidents tactics. I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles, which call us to defend the rights of all people even those with whom we might disagree, Gregory, the first Black archbishop of Washington, said in a statement. Saint Pope John Paul II, known for opposing communism in his native Poland during his papacy, was an ardent defender of the rights and dignity of human beings, the archbishop said. He certainly would not condone the use of tear gas and other deterrents to silence, scatter or intimidate them for a photo opportunity in front of a place of worship and peace, Gregory added. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump visit Saint John Paul II National Shrine, June 2, in Washington. ((AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)) Trump briefly visited the Saint John Paul II National Shrine with first lady Melania Trump, who identifies as Roman Catholic. The pair posed for media photos before turning to gaze at a statue of the former pope for a few minutes. They also laid a wreath of flowers at the shrine. Trump did not make any public comments at the shrine, The Washington Post reported. The president then returned to the White House and signed an executive order intended to promote international religious freedom. The Saint John Paul II National Shrine is managed by the conservative lay Catholic mens organization, the Knights of Columbus. In a statement, its leaders said that the shrine welcomes all people to come and pray and learn about the legacy of St. John Paul II. The White House originally scheduled this as an... Continue reading on HuffPost [June 02, 2020] Molina Healthcare Announces Closing of Offering of $800 Million of 4.375% Senior Notes Due 2028 Molina Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE: MOH) (the "Company") today announced the closing of its previously announced offering of $800 million aggregate principal amount of 4.375% Senior Notes due 2028 (the "Notes") sold in a private offering to "qualified institutional buyers" pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and to certain persons outside the United States in reliance on Regulation S under the Securities Act. The Notes bear interest at a rate of 4.375% per annum. Interest on the Notes is payable semi-annually in arrears on June 15 and December 15 of each year, commencing December 15, 2020, and accrues from June 2, 2020. The Notes will mature on June 15, 2028. After deducting fees and expenses payable by the Company, the net proceeds from the issuance and sale of the Notes was $789 million (the "Net Proceeds"). The Company used approximately $603 million of the Net Proceeds to fully repay indebtedness outstanding under its existing term loan facility (including accrued interest thereon) and permanently reduce commitments in respect thereof. The Company may use a portion of the remaining Net Proceeds to fund the pending Magellan (News - Alert) Complete Care ("MCC") acquisition. If the Company determines not to use a portion of the remaining Net Proceeds to fund the pending MCC acquisition, it intends to use the remaining Net Proceeds for general corporate purposes, which may include repayment of indebtedness, funding for acquisitions, capital expenditures, additions to working capital and capital contributions to the Company's health plan subsidiaries to meet statutory requirements in new or existing states. The Notes have not been registered under the Securities Act or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within he United States or to, or for the benefit of, a U.S. person (as defined in Regulation S) except in transactions exempt from, or not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase the Notes and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any state or jurisdiction where such offer, solicitation or sale is prohibited. About Molina Healthcare Molina Healthcare, Inc., a FORTUNE 500 company, provides managed health care services under the Medicaid and Medicare programs and through the state insurance marketplaces. Through its locally operated health plans, Molina Healthcare served approximately 3.4 million members as of March 31, 2020. For more information about Molina Healthcare, please visit www.molinahealthcare.com. Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 This press release contains "forward-looking statements," including statements related to the Company's intended use of Net Proceeds, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Additional information regarding the risk factors to which the Company is subject is provided in greater detail in its periodic reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 and in its quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2020. These reports can be accessed under the investor relations tab of the Company's website at www.molinahealthcare.com or on the SEC's (News - Alert) website at www.sec.gov. Given these risks and uncertainties, the Company can give no assurances that its forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, or that any other results or events projected or contemplated by its forward-looking statements will in fact occur, and it cautions investors not to place undue reliance on these statements. All forward-looking statements in this release represent the Company's judgment as of the date hereof, and, except as otherwise required by law, the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to conform the statement to actual results or changes in its expectations. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005861/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Nearly 95 per cent of the lawyers are not comfortable with virtual court hearings, the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association (SCAORA) told Chief Justice of India (CJI), SA Bobde on Tuesday. The body of lawyers said that video hearings posed a major deterrent to present cases effectively. The SCAORA, body of lawyers eligible to file cases in the Supreme Court, urged the CJI to commence physical court hearings at the Supreme Court from July. Most lawyers (almost 95%) are not comfortable with the virtual court hearings. The common feedback seems to be that the lawyers are unable to present their cases effectively in the virtual medium and the same is acting as a major deterrent for lawyers to consent for such virtual hearings, the SCAORA said in a letter addressed to the CJI through its president, Shivaji M Jadhav. The court, after receiving such requests from various quarters, agreed to consider the feasibility of allowing physical appearance of advocates while adhering to social distancing norms. A notice to that effect was issued on Tuesday evening. All the advocates involved in a case should give their consent for physical hearing for a case to be listed in open court, the notice said. Only on receipt of consent of all the parties to that effect, the matter will be considered for listing before the honble court, subject to availability of the bench, the notice issued by the court stated. The apex court started hearing cases through video conferencing on March 23, a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the nationwide lockdown in view of the coronavirus pandemic. The top court also issued a circular on March 23, suspending entry of lawyers and litigants to the court premises. It said only extremely urgent cases will be taken up for hearing through video conferencing during the lockdown period. The hearing in the top court is conducted through Vidyo app, which can be downloaded on mobile phones and computers. The platform is hosted on the servers of the National Data Centre of National Informatics Centre. While the judges on the bench join the video conference from the residence of one of the judges, the lawyers join from their respective houses. In matters involving several parties and appearances by many lawyers, not all lawyers are given a chance to speak and sometimes their mics are put on mute by the coordinator as a result of which their matters get heard in their absence. There are problems with audio and video quality of hearings, which results in the lawyers not being able to effectively put forth their arguments, SCAORA said in its letter. The SCAORA, while acknowledging the work done by the court during the lockdown period, pointed out that many lawyers are not well equipped with knowledge of the use of computers and are, hence, unable to participate in the hearings effectively. Many a time, when a Senior Advocate or arguing Counsel appears, he/she is left to appear on their own. The AOR/briefing lawyer is unable to assist them effectively in this virtual medium, the letter added. The bar body also highlighted the difficulties faced by lawyers due to staggered working of courts for the past 3 months. The number of cases which are being heard by courts, including the Supreme Court, reduced drastically after video conference hearings were introduced. From March 23 to May 1, the Supreme Court heard 835 cases. On a normal working day when physical hearings used to happen, the court used to hear 800 cases in a single day. Several lawyers have expressed their concern over to the Executive Committee of SCAORA over the loss of livelihood during the past few months. Unless the normal functioning of Courts is resumed, the said concern will not abate, Jadhav said in the letter. The SCAORA, therefore, requested the CJI to go back to physical court hearings from July when the court reopens after the summer break. The court is expected to shut on June 19 and go on a summer break till the first week of July. I, on behalf of SCAORA and thousands of lawyers, request the court to resume physical Court hearings upon re-opening in July 2020 after summer vacations. More so, in light of the announcement of the Unlock 1.0 and measures to be undertaken to resume normalcy in a phased manner, Jadhav said. Justice DY Chandrachud, Supreme Court judge and chairperson of the e-committee of the court, had said on May 24 that virtual court hearings will not replace or be a substitute to physical courts I want to dissuade people from the idea that virtual court hearings are some sort of a panacea. They will not be able to replace physical court hearings. We had to resort to virtual court hearings because Covid-19 descended without warning and we had no other choice. We had to protect those who come to court: lawyers, litigants, media personnel, para-legal, interns, he said at a webinar organised by Nyaya Forum of National Academy of Legal Studies and Research, Hyderabad. WASHINGTON The capital was awash with anger and pain as tear gas blew along the streets and rubber bullets flew Sunday night and into the early hours of Monday morning. Protesters clashed with law enforcement for the third straight evening outside the White House, and numerous businesses were vandalized by rioters defying a citywide curfew. Flames and smoke rose into the night, and officials and journalists struggled to understand who exactly was responsible for the worst of the damage. Protesters gathered throughout Sunday in Lafayette Park, which is across the street from the White House and has been a focal point of the demonstrations that began here Friday evening. During that first night, protesters breached barricades in front of the White House leading to hours of clashes with the Secret Service, which eventually cleared the park using pepper spray and reinforcements from the U.S. Park Police. The situation reportedly led security officials to move President Trump into a secure bunker. On Saturday, the park was fully barricaded by Secret Service, Park Police and National Guard troops. Barred from the area, the protesters swept through downtown, where they vandalized local businesses by breaking windows, spraying graffiti and lighting fires. The crowds were back in the park on Sunday evening, which began with relative calm. A law enforcement contingent that included the Secret Service, Park Police and military police troops stood behind barricades and periodically launched tear gas and pepper spray at the demonstrators, some of whom threw objects and fireworks. I met this guy Lafayette Park across from the White House before things really heated up last night. He wore a Hawaiian shirt, a symbol of right wing activists who hope to provoke racial conflict called "Boogaloo." He was aware of the meaning but insisted it was a coincidence. pic.twitter.com/0qSNKgRSyo Hunter Walker (@hunterw) June 1, 2020 Two African-American men, who said their names were Donny T. and Rev, explained why they came to the park despite the potential of danger. Story continues People keep getting killed, Donny said. I want people to stop dying. The protests in the nations capital are part of a wave of civil unrest that has swept the country since George Floyd died in Minneapolis after being taken into police custody on May 25. A Minneapolis police officer was filmed pressing his knee on Floyds neck for several minutes while Floyd moaned and pleaded. The officer, Derek Chauvin, was fired along with the other three officers on the scene, and he has since been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. The man who goes by Rev contrasted the situation with the arrest of Dylann Roof, a white supremacist who shot and killed nine African-Americans in 2015 during a Bible study at a church in Charleston, S.C. When police apprehended Roof, they calmly cuffed him and walked him toward their cars. What happened to him? They walked him out, Rev said of Roof. A guy who didnt kill nobody [gets a] knee on his neck. Demonstrators vandalize a car near the White House on Sunday as they protest the death of George Floyd. (Evan Vucci/AP) Regarding the protests, Donny added: People get aggressive because they feel like the cops are aggressive. Donny also theorized that the violence was fueled by frustration over lockdowns and unemployment resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. What are people going to do? he asked. Theyre tired of being in the house. People are not getting money. As the protests have spread through the country, there have been mounting questions about the motivations for the looting and vandalism witnessed in numerous cities. Some observers have placed much of the onus for the unrest on violent police responses to the demonstrations. Some protesters have also expressed concerns that anarchist groups and white supremacists may be fueling the vandalism and detracting from the core message of the demonstrations. Law enforcement has recently become concerned with white supremacists adopting accelerationist ideology that calls for exploiting situations including the pandemic in an effort to provoke widespread violent racial conflict. One man in Lafayette Park on Sunday was shouting at the National Guard troops over the barricades. Its no point for them to be here. Its not a military issue, the man, who declined to give his name, told Yahoo News. Its an issue that has to deal with us black people against racist white people, period racist cops. Were not saying all cops are bad, but they need to hold the ones as an example for the s*** that they do. Protesters in the park also focused their anger on President Trump, who was assumed to be nearby in the White House and spent part of Sunday evening posting messages on Twitter indicating his support for an aggressive response to the demonstrations. Protesters on Sunday at the White House. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) With the mounting tension, Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser ordered a citywide curfew starting Sunday at 11 p.m. With about an hour to go before the deadline, Yahoo News spotted a white man in Lafayette Park wearing a mask, a large tactical backpack and a Hawaiian shirt, which has become a symbol of right-wing accelerationists who hope to spark a race war they have termed the Boogaloo. The man said his name was John and explained why he came out to the protest. Its a bit of a historical event, figured Id ought to show up, he said. Yahoo News asked if he was aware of the potential symbolism of his shirt without using the phrase boogaloo, which is still relatively obscure. John indicated he was aware of the potential message but denied it was one he meant to send. I have heard, he said. It was the first shirt I picked up. Ive heard of it. Theres the whole Boogaloo thing. Its really more of a meme than everything. John said he was at the park just for George Floyd and, I guess, all the problems we have in this country, experiencing police brutality and such. He added that he was planning to take an exam to become an emergency medical technician. Our first responders are a critical part of what makes this country great, he said. But weve got to get rid of the problems. John also offered an ominous prediction for the evenings protests. I was here last night and it was a bit of a s***show, he said. Somethings telling me, if somethings going to kick off, its going to be in about an hour. At around 10 p.m. the protests did indeed take a turn. Protesters lit multiple fires, igniting a small building on the edge of the park. Flames also reportedly spread in historic St. Johns Church, located across from the park on H Street Northwest. At around 10:20, law enforcement advanced in the park and repeatedly shot tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bangs toward the crowds who spread into the downtown. Demonstrators in Washington, D.C., on Sunday protest the death of George Floyd. (Alex Brandon/AP) After the curfew took effect, protesters remained in the area in defiance of the order. They continually clashed with law enforcement from multiple agencies, including FBI teams in military gear, the National Guard and officers from the Drug Enforcement Administration who were dispatched to deal with the continued demonstrations on Sunday. Multiple businesses and office buildings in the downtown area were damaged as demonstrations continued into the early hours of Monday morning. An ATM was removed from a SunTrust bank near Farragut Square. Protesters moved in a large column down I Street Northwest, where they smashed windows, set fires and looted businesses including two coffee shops, La Colombe and Compass. The demonstrators also lit fires inside buildings on I Street. Eventually officers from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, supported by FBI teams with military camouflage and assault rifles, moved down the block and dispersed the crowd with flash-bangs, gas and rubber bullets. The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department did not respond to questions on Monday morning about how many arrests were made or the number of injuries. After the large confrontation on I Street, bands of protesters and looters and squads of heavily armed officers continued to move through the downtown area. The groups spread far farther north, away from the federal buildings and toward the commercial heart of the city and the residential neighborhoods beyond raising the ominous question of whether the unrest would persist and spread in the nights to come. _____ Click here for the latest coronavirus news and updates. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised continue to be the most at risk. If you have questions, please refer to the CDCs and WHOs resource guides. Read more: The article published recently about a legislative committee compromise about a bill to outlaw vaccine declination based on religion is amazing. The current thinking seems to honor an exclusion from vaccinations of school-age children on the basis of religion, but require vaccinations for incoming students for whom religious exemptions would no longer be recognized. That means a child in elementary school who has been enabled to refuse flu vaccination on the basis of religion would be allowed to carry this dispensation through the remainder of their school experience. The law would require, however, that newcomers to the system would not be able to decline an annual flu shot, for instance, on the basis of religion. It seems a generation of students can omit a proved disease prevention or mitigation while their successors would be required to prove vaccination to attend school. Within just a few days of the release of Gov. Greg Abbots guidelines for summer school, Splendora ISD announced how it would be safely educating students during June and July. When COVID-19 closed schools for the last half of the spring semester, one of the questions that lingered as summer drew closer was what would be happening with summer school. Especially after such a tumultuous year when some students may need extra help. As June drew closer, districts desperately needed guidance about summer school, which is federally mandated for bilingual students in kindergarten through first grade. On May 28, Splendora ISD released the details of its summer school options, which are primarily being held online instead of in the classroom. The only grades currently being offered face-to-face instruction for summer school are students in grades kindergarten through fifth grade. Because the learning there is way more impactful if its face to face, because those babies, they need a lot of extra support with their teachers, with that one-on-one, said Tami Greggerson, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning for Splendora ISD. Where, when you get up and you have older kids, those older kids are more adept at the technology, and the programs and everything that were providing. The governors guidelines do not allow for more than 11 individuals in a classroom at a time, including teachers, staff, and students. In-class instruction for summer school must be optional, according to the guidelines, Students who are mandated by their school system to attend summer school as a condition of promotion to the next grade or to otherwise obtain course credit may not be required to attend in-person but would still need to satisfy district academic and/or participation requirements virtually if they do not attend in person. The K-5 summer school will be July 7 through 24 and will take place in two different time sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Instruction will be located at Piney Woods Elementary School and transportation will not be provided. Greggerson said the district has tried to think of every possible scenario, including the possibility that face-to-face instruction will end if something like a spike in positive cases happens. First and foremost, the number one thing is student safety, she said. Student and staff safety. The federally mandated kindergarten through first-grade summer school option for bilingual students started on a virtual platform on June 1. Its virtual, Greggerson said, because districts were not given instructions until just a few days before June and the program must meet a certain number of hours. Thankfully, they will be given leeway to extend the program through the rest of the year to meet those hours. Theyve been preparing for that for the past few weeks, Greggerson said because the district kept hearing from the federal government that this program would be happening. Both high school and junior high summer school will be held virtually. Greggerson said currently the district is using Google Classroom but is working on switching to Canvas for online learning. High school summer school has already started and will last through July 18, focusing on seniors and supporting their graduation. Junior high will be July 7 through 17 with morning and afternoon sessions. For students who would like instruction but dont meet the requirements for summer school, Greggerson said the district will provide packets of instructional educational materials. jamie.swinnerton@chron.com On April 7, a top court in Ecuador sentenced the countrys former left-wing President Rafael Correa to eight years in jail in absentia for corruption. The ruling in the case, which came to be known as Sobornos (Bribes) 2012-2016, is still pending appeal and Correas lawyers will no doubt take this matter to international institutions where they will argue he has been the victim of a political witch-hunt with no respect for due process. Correa, who has been living in his wifes home country, Belgium, since before Ecuadors current president, Lenin Moreno, unleashed the judiciary against him, is unlikely to be extradited in the context of what has become a highly politicised process. The fact that Interpol has already rejected a red notice that Ecuador had requested against Correa, albeit for a different case, is a strong indicator that there is little international trust in the political neutrality of Ecuadors justice system. The primary goal of the trial, however, is not to imprison Correa, but to make sure he is prevented from entering the country and from appearing on any ballot in the 2021 presidential and parliamentary elections. This manipulation of the judicial system in order to prosecute opponents is familiar enough to observers of Latin America; indeed, it is such a well-worn strategy of the regions resurgent right that it has its own name: lawfare. What is new in the case of Ecuador is the scale of this practice. Perverting the legal system in order to subvert the democratic process has become the defining strategy indeed, the essence of the current government, which is faced with plummeting popularity and an opposition that would win in any fair election. This is not good news for democracy in Ecuador or Latin America. The Moreno government has faced rising unpopularity (his credibility rating oscillates between seven and 14.7 percent depending on the pollster, and a recent poll put his approval rating at 18.7 percent) amid the disastrous state of the economy, the gross mismanagement of the COVID-19 crisis, and major backsliding in the area of social policy. All this has meant that Correa, whose 10-year rule was crowned by a sharp reduction of poverty and inequality, and sustained economic growth, once again looms large on the political horizon. Polls suggest that were elections to be held tomorrow, Correa, or even Correas candidate of choice, would come first place in the first round of presidential elections and possibly even win the runoff. The possibility that Correas movement might return to power has led a desperate government to take lawfare to new heights, a tendency that has serious implications for democracy in the region, as similar political battles will no doubt play out throughout Latin America in the coming years. With elections scheduled for February 2021, Morenos government has accelerated its attacks on Correa and his followers. In the aftermath of large-scale protests against Morenos IMF-driven reforms in October 2019, several Correa allies were arrested on dubious charges, including Paola Pabon, the elected governor of Pichincha province, which encompasses the countrys capital. Several legislators belonging to Correas party sought refuge in the Mexican embassy to avoid being arrested. Under international pressure, including some exerted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Ecuador eventually released some prisoners and allowed safe passage for some who wanted to seek asylum in Mexico. Some prominent supporters of Correas political movement, however, were not as lucky. Jorge Glas, the former vice president of Ecuador and a close Correa collaborator, for example, remains in jail on charges of corruption, despite criticism that his trial was aimed at removing him from the vice-presidency. Correa can no longer run for the presidency after the Ecuadorian constitution was amended in 2018 with a provision barring elected officials from running more than once for the same office. The amendments were approved in a referendum, which the Moreno government convened and which IACHR and the Organization of American States criticised. However, Correa can still vie for other elected office. If he were to run for the vice presidency or for a seat in the National Assembly, it could draw a great deal of popular support to his political movement and help it win next years election. Only a criminal conviction against Correa, confirmed in appeals, could prevent that. Coincidentally or not, as of April 2020, Ecuadors chief prosecutor, Diana Salazar, a fervent anti-correista, was overseeing more than 25 investigations against the former president. But only certain types of crimes, in the cases of former civil servants, can be tried in absentia. And only a final conviction, after the appeals process has been fully exhausted, can lead to the stripping of someones political rights and bar that person from participating in elections. So, in May 2019, the prosecution opened a corruption investigation against Correa and several of his former collaborators for illegal campaign financing. The case soon rested on the testimony of one of Correas former advisers, Pamela Martinez, who claimed to have accepted money, with Correas knowledge from several donors. After offering her testimony against Correa, Martinez, who had been arrested as part of the investigation, was able to secure her freedom. Part of the evidence used against Correa is a notebook supposedly detailing illegal transactions in 2013-2014. Martinez claimed she had written the whole notebook from memory on an impulse during a flight from Quito to Guayaquil in 2018. The defence has argued that this seemed unlikely, given that she documented amounts to the exact dollar for dozens of cash deposits from different individuals. On April 6, the day before the court announced its verdict in the case, what appeared to be emails between the secretary of the Prosecutor General and the judge presiding over the case, containing a draft of the final sentence, were leaked by a group of people claiming to be judicial workers. These claims, if proven true, could lead to the judge and those involved in the prosecutors office being criminally tried for perverting the course of justice. The COVID-19 crisis has brought Ecuadorian judicial proceedings to a standstill. But the case against Correa has proceeded, and we can expect to see the appeals process speed up too. If the former president registers as a candidate in the 2021 electoral race on September 18, he would be immune from prosecution until voting is done. The clock is ticking. The case itself has been marred by irregularities, which could discomfit the judges in the appeals process. And only time will tell whether Correas appeal to a higher court will yield the same result or lead to the ruling being overturned. Likewise, Ecuadors dire economic travails, its disastrous handling of COVID-19, rising social unrest, and popular anger against the government could still disrupt elites carefully crafted plans to subvert the democratic will of the people and be rid of Correa and his politics. Regardless, nothing less than democracy itself will be at stake in Ecuador during the coming months. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. Wellington: New Zealand's Prime Minister said on Tuesday that all remaining restrictions to limit the spread of the coronavirus may be lifted next week, after the country all but eliminated the virus domestically. Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand could move to alert level 1 next week, which means all social distancing measures and curbs on mass gatherings will be lifted. Borders will remain closed, she said. "Our strategy of go hard, go early has paid off... and in some cases, beyond expectations," Ardern said at a news conference. The cabinet will decide on June 8, earlier than the planned date of June 22, she said. New Zealand recorded no new cases of coronavirus for a 11th consecutive day on Tuesday, and has just one active case in the country. This was largely because of a strict lockdown enforced for nearly seven weeks, in which most businesses were shut and everyone except essential workers had to stay at home. "We will be one of the first countries in the world to return to this level of normality so quickly," Ardern said. Thousands of New Zealanders marched on Monday decrying the death of George Floyd, a black American, in police custody in the U.S. last week, despite social distancing restrictions. Ardern said she was "horrified" by Floyd's death but noted that the protesters had flouted rules. "I think I stand with everyone else in being horrified in what we've seen," regarding Floyd, Ardern told state broadcaster TVNZ in an interview earlier in the day. "I don't want to stop peaceful protests... but rules are there to protect people," she said, adding that she understood the sentiment of the protesters. Ardern has been described by some liberal supporters as an "anti-Trump," promoting issues such as social justice, multilateralism, and equality. MINNEAPOLISThe Minnesota Department of Human Rights will launch an investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department after filing a civil rights charge related to the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died in police custody last week. The investigation, announced Tuesday by Gov. Tim Walz, will look at Minneapolis police policies and procedures over the past 10 years to determine whether the department has engaged in discriminatory practices toward people of colour. Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero will lead the investigation. The investigation follows the arrest and charges against former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin, a white officer who knelt on Floyds neck for almost nine minutes before he died. Three other police officers were fired after the deadly encounter. We are going to establish peace on the streets when we address the systemic issues, Walz said. The move is the first time the Human Rights Department has launched a systemic investigation into the largest police department in the state, the governor said. The state is also seeking an agreement with the Minneapolis Police Department to implement immediate measures to address systemic issues of racial discrimination, Walz said. Its an action investigating patterns of racial discrimination in the Minneapolis Police Department, said Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender. I think its an unusual move and, to their credit, the state department reached out to the city ahead of time and weve been able to have some really productive conversations, Bender said. She said Lucero began reaching out to council members Monday evening. Well start with an investigation and the process requires the city and the state to work together through the court system to come to an agreement on next steps, Bender said. Those will be both short-term next steps for the department, as well as longer-term structural change. Bender said council members have been asking what the partnership could mean for increasing civilian oversight and for future police union contracts. My colleagues are 100 per cent at the table, Bender added. While 40 per cent of city residents are people of colour, they are involved in 74 per cent of all cases of police use of force, according to the most recent department data available. Black people are involved in 63 per cent of the cases. Staff writer Liz Navratil contributed to this report. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz's expressive sign language interpreter is being hailed as a 'bright spot in the darkness' amid the coronavirus pandemic and protests over George Floyd's death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. Nic Zapko, 49, from Minneapolis, has been helping deliver messages to the Deaf community through American Sign Language (ASL) during press conferences about both the health crisis and civil unrest in the state. The ASL interpreter, who is deaf, is being praised online for her spirited delivery during the briefings, with fans taking to Twitter share their love for her. Scroll down for video Helping hands: Nic Zapko, 49, from Minneapolis, has been helping Minnesota Governor Tim Walz deliver messages to the Deaf community through American Sign Language (ASL) Stealing the show: The ASL interpreter, who is deaf, is being praised for her expressive delivery during press conferences regarding the pandemic and protests in Minnesota 'This interpreter for #Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is absolutely wonderful. Small ray of light in this sad, sad situation. #GeorgeFloyd,' one person tweeted. 'Generally the only good part about Walzs press conferences is the ASL interpreter. I love her,' another gushed. 'Is anyone else not paying any attention to him because she has stolen the show?' someone asked on Sunday. 'Her gun fingers & facial expressions are everything... Great coverage @FOX9 as this night is far from over... #JusticeForFloyd #RestoreMinneapolis.' It's been a week since Floyd, 46, died after a white police officer used his knee to pin down the black man's neck for nearly nine minutes. Grief and anger over his death have sparked protests and civil unrest in Minneapolis and other cities across the country. How it's done: Zapko has been working with a hearing interpreter who sits in the front row at press conferences and signs to her. Zapko then relays the message in ASL on stage Advocacy: The Minnesota Commission of the Deaf, Deafblind and Hard of Hearing (MNCDHH) had advocated for real-time ASL interpretations of Governor's Walz's briefings During Walz's briefings about the protests in Minnesota, Zapko has been by his side, expressively sharing his message with the Deaf community. She has also helped relay his messages about the coronavirus pandemic and the state's plans to reopen, making her a familiar face to many in Minnesota natives in recent weeks. '[Love] the spirit of the ASL / sign-language interpreter in Minnesota. Her engagement and enthusiasm is a bright spot in the darkness,' one person tweeted about Zapko. 'Gov. Walz's ASL interpreter is the most popular person in Minnesota these days. She rocks!' someone else shared. Spreading the word: Fans of Zapko have been taking to Twitter to share their love with her, with many agreeing she is a 'bright spot in the darkness' A few people even went as far as insisting her performance as an ASL interpreter is worthy of an Emmy. The Minnesota Commission of the Deaf, Deafblind and Hard of Hearing (MNCDHH) had advocated for real-time ASL interpretations of Governor's Walz's briefings, according to CBS affiliate WCCO. 'The Deaf community in Minnesota is incredibly thrilled, and they are finally able to feel included and feel a part of the state and say we are here, we arent separate,' Zapko told the outlet while opening up about the benefits of having an ASL interpreter on stage. 'For example, my kids are hearing, my wife is hearing. We can all watch together, I dont have to wait for them to tell me whats going on.' Zapko is part of a push for Deaf interpreters to take center stage while hearing interpreters play a secondary role. She has been working with hearing interpreter and Keystone Interpreting Solutions CEO Patty McCutcheon, who sits in the front row at press conferences and signs to her. Zapko then relays the message in ASL on stage. 'People all over the country are talking about access and the hard work of these interpreters,' McCutcheon said of the growing popularity of Zapko and others like her. Regarding California students should strike for better treatment (Insight, May 31): Thank you, Joe Mathews, for your column. It is outrageous that Gov. Gavin Newsoms proposed budget cuts will hit schools. California is the 5th major economy in the world, but its spending on our schoolchildren, our future, is barely at the national median (21st). New York spends almost twice as much per student. California has chronically underspent on schools for years. Teachers are disgracefully paid and classrooms are understaffed and without supplies or maintenance. California has not figured out a decent system of funding for schools since Proposition 13 deprived local school districts of huge amounts of money. Theres clearly a lack of will and sense of urgency by legislatures and governors. Economic downturns should never result in funding cuts for children, but rather, more money for children should be added to the budget. Along with others who are powerless, children are at the bottom of an inverted pyramid, getting the least, while the unimaginably rich the 1% to 10% who have sucked up so much of the proceeds of the productive capacity of this state and country get almost everything. The rich, first and foremost, must be asked for more. They will barely notice. Suzanne Baker, Oakland Secure the funding So, according to Joe Mathews latest column, a statewide student strike in the fall is the best way to pressure Gov. Gavin Newsom to restore proposed educational budget cuts? Instead, how about urging our youth to lobby Congress for a multi-trillion-dollar stimulus package (proposed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi) to help our states? And since Mathews notes that there is no state worse than California at providing sufficient educators and counselors for its schools, why not remind students how poorly many of their teachers are being paid? The key to better public education in this state lies in sufficient funding for programs and better salaries to attract and then maintain qualified educators. Naomi James-Washburn, Brisbane Punish the bad cops My father was a policeman and he used to say, Theres two kinds of cops, bad cops and good cops. Bad cops want to hurt people and good cops want to help people. Now is the time to punish and remove these bad cops so our good cops can get on with their job. Kathleen Joynes, Palo Alto Dont cut the services The events of the past few days remind me of how important it is to build strong communities and raise respect for all people. Relying on the police to solve problems means letting problems fester until it is too late, then expecting an entity built on violence to quell violence. Now is absolutely the wrong moment to cut funds for human services. I realize we are in a desperate economic moment, but who is suffering the most? It is the same group that will suffer the most from cuts to social services, schools and health services. They should not be made to carry societys burdens. Our local, state and federal governments need to look again at their priorities. Amy Valens, Forest Knolls Gloomy homes Regarding Why paint it black? Try a new house hue (May 24): John Kings article on the doomsday-gray houses proliferating in San Francisco is right on. Particularly in these times of COVID-19 and street protests, the last thing we need is dark, gloomy houses to look at when we do get out in our neighborhoods. When the fog rolls in and stays for a couple of months in the summer, what we need is cheery shades of yellow to brighten our days. Agatha Hoff, San Francisco Skeptical reopening Regarding Reopening at your own risk (Editorial, May 31): Its distressing to read that many retailers and restaurants in the nine Bay Area counties are allowing indoor purchasing and dining, even though only one (Marin) has reached our states daily testing benchmark. Perhaps hastily reopened Sonoma and Napa County wineries should start offering customers a COVID-19 Cabernet or a So-What-To-Safety Sauvignon, while retailers sell Corona Is Just A Beer T-shirts. As for me, Ill refrain from engaging in any business-as-usual activities until Californias infectious-disease experts indicate that its OK to do so. Gretchen Von Schmidt, Healdsburg Protesters call to vote We are going through another unspeakable tragedy and I am just a very old white guy and perhaps part of the problem. But my belief in our Constitution and experience leads me to recommend that the marchers and callers for justice add an additional chant to their calls, We will vote. Hopefully, if they say it, they will do it and politicians on every side will respond quickly, even before November. This double whammy of a pandemics impacts on our most needy coupled with another killing will show us that it is past time for a lot of things to get better for all. Howard Strassner, San Francisco Insightful column Otis R. Taylor Jr.s column Another race lesson, but nothing learned (June 1) contained two brilliant sentences that sum up race relations in this country and why we are in this current crisis. The fragility of blackness hangs over my head every time I leave the house is something that every black man can identify with and something every black mother fears relative to her children on a daily basis. Taylors other key sentence, The President has his knee on the neck of democracy, expresses the ongoing and growing threat to our values and institutions posed by President Trump. This was a column that was beautifully stated and piercingly insightful. Research from Curtin University has found that pre-historic climate change does not explain the extinction of megafauna in North America at the end of the last Ice Age. The research, published today in Nature Communications, analysed ancient DNA from bone fragments and soil found inside Hall's Cave, located in central Texas. The researchers discovered important genetic clues to the past biodiversity in North America and provided new insights into the causes of animal extinctions during the Ice Age. The research was an international collaboration between Curtin University, University of Texas-Austin, Texas A&M University and Stafford Research Labs. Lead researcher Mr Frederik Seersholm, Forrest Foundation Scholar and PhD candidate from Curtin's School of Molecular and Life Sciences, said the analysis tracks how biodiversity in Texas changed as temperatures dropped, and then recovered around 13,000 years ago. "At the end of the last ice-age, Earth experienced drastic climate changes that significantly altered plant and animal biodiversity. In North America these changes coincided with the arrival of humans," Mr Seersholm said. "When we combined our new data with existing fossil studies in the region, we obtained a detailed picture of the biodiversity turnover against the backdrop of both human predation and pre-historic climate changes. "Our findings show that while plant diversity recovered as the climate warmed, large animal diversity did not recover. "Of the large-bodied animals, known as megafauna, identified at the cave, nine became extinct and five disappeared permanently from the region. "In contrast, small animals which are not believed to have been hunted intensely by humans, adapted well to the changing climate by migrating. Hence, the data suggests a factor other than climate may have contributed to the extinction of the large mammals." While the research team acknowledges it is difficult to assess the exact impact of human hunting on the megafauna, they believe there is now sufficient evidence to suggest our ancestors were the main driver of the disappearance of ice age species such as the mammoth and sabre-toothed cat. Mr Seersholm said the findings demonstrate how much information is stored in seemingly insignificant bone fragments. "The study builds on years of research at Hall's cave, which have helped shape our understanding of the North American megafauna since the first analyses were conducted in the 1990s," Mr Seersholm said. "By combining new genetic methods with classic stratigraphy and vertebrate palaeontology, our research adds to this story. "We found that while small mammals and plants in the region seemed to be able to cope fine with the changing climate, the megafauna did not. Because humans are the only other major factor, we hypothesise that human hunting of megafauna was the driving force of the animals' decline." ### The full paper, Rapid range shifts and megafaunal extinctions associated with late Pleistocene climate change, can be found online here. Dozens Injured As Fresh Clashes Erupt Along Kyrgyz-Uzbek Border By RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, RFE/RL's Uzbek Service June 01, 2020 BISHKEK -- Dozens of people have been injured in the latest clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbek citizens in a disputed border region. The Kyrgyz Health Ministry said on June 1 that 25 Kyrgyz nationals had been injured in the clashes that erupted the day before near Uzbekistan's Sokh exclave in Kyrgyzstan's southern Batken region. According to the ministry, four of the injured people are hospitalized in the town of Aidarken, with two in very serious condition after surgery. Residents of the exclave told RFE/RL that 16 locals were injured in the clashes. There was no official confirmation of the claim from the Uzbek authorities. The Uzbek Border Guard Service said in a statement on May 31 that the situation was under control. The incident ignited around noon on May 31 after residents of the Kyrgyz village of Chechme and residents of the Uzbek village of Chashma argued about the ownership of a spring located in the area. RFE/RL correspondents reported from the scene that the villagers started throwing stones at each other before several houses on each side were set on fire. The Kyrgyz government's press service said on June 1 that Deputy Prime Minister Kubatbek Boronov and Uzbek Prime Minister Abdula Aripov had met at a border checkpoint in the area and discussed ways to resolve the tensions. Many border areas in Central Asia have been disputed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The situation is particularly complicated near the numerous exclaves in the volatile Ferghana Valley, where the borders of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan meet. One such exclave is Sokh, an ethnic Tajik-populated Uzbek territory within Kyrgyzstan's Batken region, where clashes have been common for years. In 2013, border crossings through Sokh were closed for several weeks after Sokh residents clashed with Kyrgyz border guards over the installation of electric power lines to a new Kyrgyz border post. Five Sokh residents were reportedly wounded by Kyrgyz border guards and at least 30 Kyrgyz citizens were subsequently taken hostage. The latest clashes occurred as Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have accused each other of escalating tensions near another disputed segment of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/dozens-injured-as- fresh-clashes-erupt-along-kyrgyz- uzbek-border/30646065.html Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address K-pop superstars BTS have been forced to apologise over a song featuring the voice of cult leader Jim Jones who massacred hundreds of people in 1978 by ordering them to drink poison. The seven-piece South Korean boy band released a statement through their management company on Sunday after a torrent of social media backlash for the song 'What do you think' by Min Yoong-gi, 27, who is known by his stage names Suga and Agust D. The song uses a muffled audio sample from a speech used by American preacher-turned cult leader Jones in Philadelphia in 1977. The sermon was recorded one year before Jones and his inner circle directed 900 of his followers, 304 of whom were children, to drink cyanide-laced punch in a mass murder-suicide at Jonestown, his jungle temple in Guyana. Suga used a sample of Jones' 1977 sermon in Philadelphia, which says 'though you are dead, yet you shall live, and he that liveth and believeth shall never die' Dead bodies litter the ground after a mass suicide of the People's Temple followers, led by Jim Jones. Over 900 adults and children died after drinking cyanide-laced punch Pictured: (left to right) Jungkook, Jin, Suga (top row), J-Hope, V, RM, and Jimin of BTS inside Katz's Deli in New York City on February 24, 2020 The sample says: ' though you are dead, yet you shall live, and he that liveth and believeth shall never die'. In a statement, Agust D's managers Big Hit said: 'The spoken sound sample of a speech inserted at the beginning of What Do You Think? was selected by a producer who worked on the track for the song in consideration of the overall ambience of the song, without specific intention or awareness of the identity of the individual whose voice is featured. 'After the sound sample was selected, Big Hit proceeded with verification of the suitability of the content as per internal procedures. However, an oversight occurred during the selection and review process, and the sound sample was included in the song without awareness of its extremely inappropriate nature. 'In this instance, we did not properly identify the issue, nor did we have sufficient understanding of the historical and social backgrounds and circumstances. We apologize to anyone who experienced pain and discomfort due to our oversight. 'Big Hit removed the section immediately after identifying the issue and the track was re-released. The artist is considerably disconcerted that an issue with such gravity has occurred that he could not foresee, and feels a profound sense of responsibility.' An aerial view of the Jonestown site in Guyana shows dead bodies lying around the compound in November 18, 1978 The track has been updated across platforms to remove Jones' sermon. Despite the apology, some fans are convinced that the sample was chosen on purpose, the Korea Herald reported. One BTS fan from Texas, Celeste Hollister, told the Herald: 'I don't believe that Yoongi (Suga) meant any harm in sampling that speech. Like many rappers before him, he is using an emotionally-charged speech to underscore the feeling of the song.' 'He is not endorsing Jim Jones in any way,' she added. In 2018, BTS were under fire after one member Jimin was photographed wearing a T-shirt celebrating Korean independence from Japan. The offending shirt featured a picture of a mushroom cloud from an atomic bomb and featured the phrase 'PATRIOTISM OURHISTORY LIBERATION KOREA' repeated multiple times. P arisians were today enjoying their cafe culture once more in a significant step towards ending lockdown. Cafes and restaurants reopened across France with some throwing open their doors from midnight. Tables had to be one-metre apart to maintain social distancing. In Paris, the latest relaxation only applies to outdoor spaces because the virus is more active in the capital than the rest of the country. Its amazing that were finally opening up, but the outside area is just a fraction of the inside space, said Xavier Denamur, who owns five popular cafes and bistros in the Marais district. The reopening comes after Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo declared that the city authorities stood in solidarity with our restaurants and bars, adding: They are the soul of our city. France yesterday recorded its lowest number of Covid-19 deaths since lockdown began in mid-March, with 31 deaths in hospital, bringing total fatalities to 28,833. However, there was grim economic news today as finance minister Bruno Le Maire said the French economy is set to contract 11 per cent this year. Even if it is hard to hear on a day when the sun is shining and the cafes are reopening, the hardest part is still ahead of us in social and economic terms, he said. Spains tourism minister has cast doubt on the prospect of UK holidaymakers visiting early this summer. Maria Reyes Maroto said British coronavirus figures still have to improve. Madrid will begin to lift its two-week quarantine on international visitors from July 1. In Germany, the Covid-19 death toll increased by 11 to 8,522, officials revealed today, while the number of confirmed cases rose by 213 to 182,028. Florences Uffizi gallery today became Italys latest cultural site to reopen after more than three months. Romes Colosseum and the Vaticans museums opened again yesterday. Leave the diplomats out and put fishermen in charge of Brexit talks, says former World Trade Organisation boss by Daniel O'Donoghue June 02,2020 | Source: The Press and Journal Fishing industry leaders in the UK and European Union should be brought into the Brexit trade talks to break the deadlock, the former head of the World Trade Organisation has told us. As the UK and EU teams begin their final round of negotiations this week, Pascal Lamy called for the politics and legal complexities to be taken out of the fisheries talks, which are at an impasse. The UK team has accused the EU of not accepting the reality that Britain will be an independent coastal state at the end of the year, while the EUs chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has rejected UK proposals for annual negotiations on quotas, saying EU fishermen needed predictability in the form of continued status quo access to UK fishing grounds after Brexit. Mr Lamy, who was director general of the WTO from 2005 to 2013, said it is time for compromise on both sides. If I had to frame a solution, it would be: leave diplomats out and put the fish industry on various sides of the table and let them do the deal, he said. Get this out of politics, out of legal complexities, put around the table the people who know what sustainable fishing is about, who are the real stakeholders, who will have reasonable expectations if the deal is left in their hands. Otherwise, we know the dead end in which previous fishing talks have gone. Mr Lamy acknowledged the suggestion, this late in the negotiation, was out of the box thinking but said it could be what is needed to get past such a sensitive area of the trade talks. Look, we have exactly the same coastal sensitivity in Europe, if you measure the coast from south of Spain to the Baltic states thats a big amount of sensitivity and we French know that full well, he said. Weve been fighting with our Spaniard friends for centuries and exchanged cannonballs centuries before the EU policy came in. Asked whether a Norway-style agreement on fisheries, as has been suggested multiple times by Michael Gove, was possible Mr Lamy was doubtful. He said: The Norway statute is linked to the rest of the agreement which Norway has with the EU including the internal market, the cohesion policy, court of justice and the rest its part of a deal. I expect the EU reaction to be: look, guys, you cant cherry pick in the Norway relationship and not take the rest. Mr Lamy said the rational thing to do would be to postpone talks until the pandemic is fully under control. But, as we all know, in this negotiation there is a lot of irrationality, he said. He added: The Brexit equation is very simply to write, its how can you exit politically as much as possible and economically as little as possible. Exiting politically is what you want to maximise, because this is what your constituency has been asking for and you are serving them, on the one side and then on the other side, I think there is no dispute at all that economic distancing will be costly. Looking to the longer term, the former European commissioner for trade said the issue of Brexit will still be here 70 years from now. The relationship will be up and down, of course weve been instructed by experience that when the debate is rational, UK joined the EU, when economics overcame politics the UK joined and when politics overcame economics the UK left. Its a permanent fixture, he said. This is one episode of a long saga, with rapprochement and then distancing. David Henig, former assistant director at the department for international trade, told us that whatever the final settlement is, its not going to give everything that everybody ever wanted. Mr Henig said: Expectations are quite low for this round of talks, a good result is probably that you dont end the week with both sides issuing statements attacking the other and writing letters to the same effect. Youre coming now to some pretty thorny political issues and political decisions, theres actually not a lot negotiators can can do about that, that is shaped by their instructions from politicians and at the moment I dont think either side has the flexibility to move away from their position. This is very normal in the early stages of trade talks, whats not normal is that youve only got about another four months, max, to sort it out. Mr Henig said it was unlikely the negotiating teams would produce a breakthrough next week and said it would come down to a political decision on the part of the prime minister later in June. I think there will be a political summit in June, whether its virtual or real, and coming out of that I expect the two sides to say, we discussed it, we think theres a deal to be done, weve instructed our negotiators to proceed at great pace and at the beginning of September well have a possible deal. If there is not an agreement before September, which is the last feasible date at which a deal could be agreed and ratified by the EU, the UK would leave in December without a deal. Aberdeen Journals Ltd 2020. All Rights Reserved. Theme(s): Post Harvest Technology and Trade. The Lagos state government on Tuesday, June 2, made known its position on the possibility of lifting the coronavirus-induced ban worship centres like churches and mosques. Speaking on Tuesday, Prince Anofiu Elegushi, the commissioner for home affairs, stated that as the epicentre of coronavirus, Lagos is not yet ripe to contain the risk involved in allowing religious gatherings again for now. Elegushi pointed out that the agreement to keep worship centres shut until further notice was reached at the 2020 ministerial press briefing convened to honour Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olus first year in office, The Guardian reports.The commissioner said that many religious leaders in the state have claimed that they cannot take the responsibility of ensuring compliance with social-distancing rules by their congregations. He, therefore, noted: So in the meeting, we ruled out in totality the issue of reopening the religious houses until we have a clear coast for us to do so. The Federal Government mentioned it, but it never ruled out the state in achieving that pronouncement, so all states will have to look at the possibility of doing so in their respective states. The post COVID-19: Churches, mosques will remain shut in Lagos State government appeared first on . Share this post with your Friends on Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Reuters) Milan, Italy Tue, June 2, 2020 17:53 597 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb9ba36 2 Lifestyle Virgil-Abloh,Louis-Vuitton,designer,united-states,protest,looting Free Virgil Abloh, the designer for Louis Vuitton's menswear collections and founder of streetwear label Off-White, has apologized after being criticized for chastising looting by US protesters. Abloh, the highest-profile black designer in fashion, said in an Instagram post late on Monday that he supported "every movement to eradicate racism and police violence. "I am a black man. A dark black man. Like dark-dark. On an average trip to the grocery store in Chicago I fear I will die. Any interaction with the police could be fatal to me," he wrote. Abloh, 39, had been attacked on social media for criticizing the looting of shops in Chicago and Los Angeles to which he had a connection amid protests against the killing of George Floyd. In a post after a store owned by a fellow streetwear designer was damaged Abloh wrote: "This disgusts me. To the kids that ransacked his store and RSVP DTLA, and all our stores in our scene just know, that product staring at you in your home/apartment right now is tainted and a reminder of a person I hope you aren't." Read also: Suits ain't square: Paris fashion rethinks a men's classic Abloh was also criticized for donating $50 to an organization helping with protesters' legal expenses when his creations can cost several hundred dollars or more. "Yesterday I spoke about how my stores and stores of friends were looted. I apologize that it seemed like my concern for those stores outweighed my concern for our right to protest injustice and express our anger and rage in this moment," he said on Monday. He said his contributions to causes related to the protest movement totaled $20,500. Abloh has been artistic director for menswear at Louis Vuitton, the biggest revenue driver at French luxury giant LVMH , since March 2018. More than 3,800 agri-environment bridging payments worth around 43 million have been made to farmers, the Rural Payments Agency has said. The payments have been made in recognition of the disruption to cash flow for rural businesses caused by the coronavirus crisis. In March, the government announced that farmers would be offered bridging payments for 75% of the current estimated value for unpaid 2019 revenue claims on their stewardship agreements. Over the past month, payments have been made to all eligible outstanding claimants, meeting the RPAs commitment to complete bridging payments by the end of May. The loans covered Countryside Stewardship and Environmental Stewardship 2019 payments, ensuring farmers are paid for the important work they do to protect the environment. RPA chief executive, Paul Caldwell said farmers were facing a 'challenging period': "We will continue to focus on completing the remaining work on these claims to ensure land managers are paid as quickly as possible," he added. The NFU called on the government to release outstanding 2019 payments for agri-environment schemes earlier this year. Given the additional challenges with the appearance of Covid-19, the union said it was 'delighted' to see the RPA deliver on its promise. NFU vice president Tom Bradshaw said: "I am hopeful that the RPA will deliver on their target of finalising payment processing by the end of June so that the remaining monies lands in farmers bank accounts in the coming weeks. Farmers have finally been rewarded for their vital work enhancing and protecting our environment that was delivered throughout last year. "This is a positive step and I call on RPA to make full payments for 2020 in December following what has become a hugely challenging year as a result of Covid-19, a relentlessly wet winter, and now the ongoing dry weather, Mr Bradshaw said. It appears that at least a small part of Hershey Chocolate World will open Friday. Per an email sent out Monday to the retail team, the attraction will open in a limited capacity, meaning retail will be the only area that will open and even that will be just from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. All attractions will remain closed. Grab-and-go food will be available in addition to our retail products, the email sent out by the retail operations manager said. Only a limited number of guests will be permitted into the building and all of them will require a free ticket to get in. All guests and employees will be temperature-scanned before being allowed to enter, the note said, and masks will be required during the entire visit. More information on the new policies and procedures will be released over the next few days, the email said. Hersheys Chocolate World locations in Hershey as well as in Times Square, New York City, closed March 15, at that time for two weeks because of the spread of the coronavirus. That expected short closure turned into something a lot longer, extending through April and May. La Serre in Albany closes La Serre, a bastion of fine dining and French-based Continental cuisine in downtown Albany since 1977, will not reopen after coronavirus-related restrictions are eased later this month and restaurants are again allowed to welcome patrons into their dining rooms. The news came from Anne Trimble, who with her late husband, Geoff, founded the restaurant on a tiny jag of an alley called Green Street, off lower State Street, and has run it ever since. (Geoff died in 2005.) Their son John co-managed the restaurant. Anne Trimble said, Over the years we have realized that a majority of our business was moving towards banquets and special events. With so much uncertainty looking forward, we were faced with the realization that restrictions were coming. So ultimately COVID-19 made the decision for us. She adds, We have no regrets 43 years is a long time. Once one of the hottest dining spots in Albany, known for its packed power lunches and impossible weekend reservations, La Serre was resolute in its commitment to an upscale, Old World atmosphere. Green-leather banquettes lined the dark-paneled walls, a solarium and courtyard provided brighter spots for warm-weather dining, and the menu, though in later years evolving to include spring rolls and Thai shrimp, right until the end featured such French classics as duck- and goose-liver pate, duck a lorange and beef Bourguignonne. It served roast goose every holiday season from 1977 until last year. Trimble said she plans to list the property, at 43 Green St., with Tracy Metzger, who specializes in downtown real estate. Farmers markets: Washington Park, Voorheesville The Voorheesville Farmers Market returns for its 12th season on June 17. The market is held 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday through Sept. 30 in the parking lot of the First United Methodist Church at at 68 Maple Ave. It will observe the states limitations on vendors, products and participants, which at the moment preclude crafts and live music. Masks and social distancing will be required. There are a dozen vendors signed up so far. The Washington Park Farmers Market, which debuted last summer in Albany, has opened its online store for Saturday pickup this weekend. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Products at first are mostly meat, prepared food and meals, eggs, cheese and crafts, with produce to come. Order at washingtonparkfarmersmarket.com by 11 p.m. Fridays for pickup on Saturdays: senior citizens, 11 to 11:30 a.m.; vehicles, 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; walk-up, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Pickup is at the Washington Park Lakehouse. Vehicles enter the interior park road from Washington Park Road at the top of Hudson Avenue and exit at Madison and New Scotland avenues. Masks must be worn and social distancing observed. The physical market will return July 4 along Knox Street Mall, the name of the wide path that runs north-south through the park parallel to Washington Park Road and Willett Street. The markets Guilderland sibling opened for online ordering and Sunday pickup on April 25. Gujarat, along with Maharashtra, is bracing for the approaching Cyclone Nisarga and the state government has begun evacuating thousands of people from the areas which are likely to be impacted by the cyclonic storm. The India Meteorological Department had earlier said that Nisarga was likely to make landfall between Harihareshwar (in Maharashtras Raigad) and Daman during the afternoon of June 3. However, later on Tuesday the weather agency said that Nisarga is likely to make a landfall in Alibagh, near Mumbai on the afternoon of June 3. Though this has come as a major relief for people living in the coastal areas of Gujarat, but the cyclonic storm will have an impact in the form of gusty winds coupled with heavy rainfall in these areas, state MeT centre director Jayanta Sarkar said. The district administrations of Navsari as well as Valsad have already have started the evacuation process as a precautionary measure. Nearly 20,000 people from 47 villages located close to the coastline in these districts are being evacuated to safer place, news agency PTI reported on Tuesday quoting state officials. Valsad collector RR Rawal told PTI that nearly 10,000 people from 35 coastal villages are being shifted. We have already identified shelter homes and started the evacuation process, he added. The Navsari administration also has begun the evacuation process. As per the alert issued by India Meteorological Department, there is a possibility that Cyclone Nisarga may hit Navsari area tonight or by morning of June 4; all required measures have been taken, Navsari district collector Ardra Agarwal told news agency ANI. Besides this, the National Disaster Response Force, NDRF, has deployed 16 teams in the state. NDRF director-general SN Pradhan said that most of the teams have been deployed in coastal areas. (With inputs from PTI and ANI) BISHKEK -- A Kyrgyz national has been hospitalized with a gunshot wound in another shooting near a disputed segment of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border. The Kyrgyz Border Guard Service said on June 2 that the incident took place overnight in the southern Batken region. According to the service, unknown individuals opened fire at a car with Kyrgyz license plates in the Eski-Tash district at around 1.30 a.m. local time. The man in the car was wounded and is being treated at a hospital in the village of Samarkandek, the Border Guard Service said, adding that law enforcement officials from both nations are working together on the issue. The Tajik side has not commented on the situation yet. It is the fourth shooting incident in the area in recent weeks. The two countries have accused each other of escalating tensions along the border since early May. Many border areas in Central Asia have been disputed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The situation is particularly complicated near the numerous exclaves in the volatile Ferghana Valley, where the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan meet. Dozens of people were wounded on May 31 in clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbek citizens near Uzbekistan's Sokh exclave in the same region. File Photo Jalandhar: The cases of corona virus are increasing day by day in Punjab. Meanwhile, ten new corona virus cases have been registered from Jalandhar in Punjab today. In addition, three NRIs have recently tested positive for corona who had returned from Kuwait. CoronavirusWith the emergence of these new cases, the number of active cases of corona virus in the state has risen to 257. In addition, 2263 cases of the corona virus have been reported in the Punjab so far and 45 people have died due to the epidemic. Advertisement At the same time, it is a matter of relief that about 2,000 people in the state have recovered from the epidemic. CoronavirusIt may be mentioned here that the recovery rate of coronavirus in Punjab is quite positive as compared to other states. A mannequin sits in a burned police vehicle in the Soho neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, N.Y., on June 1, 2020. (John Moore/Getty Images) Violence Incited by Organized Groups at Protests in New York, Chicago, Evidence Suggests: Officials Officials in New York, Chicago, and other cities say they have seen evidence suggesting that organized groups sought to incite violence at the recent weekend protests sparked by the death of George Floyd. New Yorks top terrorism official, Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller, told reporters on Sunday that there was a high level of confidence within the NYPD that unnamed coordinated groups had organized roles such as scouts and medics, as well as equipment such as supplies of rocks, bottles, accelerants for breakaway groups to commit vandalism and violence. Before the protests began, organizers of certain anarchists groups set out to raise bail money and people who would be responsible to be raising bail money, they set out to recruit medics and medical teams with gear to deploy in anticipation of violent interactions with police, Miller said, according to NBC New York. A looted and destroyed shop is seen after a night of protest in Minneapolis in Lower Manhattan in New York City on June 1, 2020. (Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images) A destroyed NYPD police car is seen after a night of protest in Lower Manhattan in New York City on June 1, 2020. (Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images) He added that the groups sought to damage property only in wealthier areas or at high-end stores run by corporate entities. The groups also had a complex network of bicycle scouts to move ahead of demonstrators in different directions to help determine where police were located, so as to help direct people of the group to areas to commit acts of vandalism, where they believed law enforcement officials would not be present. Miller also said that about one out of every seven arrestsof the 686 arrests since May 28 in New Yorkhas been from out of state, and that they were from Massachusettes, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Iowa, Nevada, Virginia, Maryland, Texas, and St. Paul, Minnesota, according to the news station. The interior of an Urban Outfitters store sits heavily damaged after a night of destruction and looting in lower Manhattan in New York City on June 1, 2020. (Scott Heins/Getty Images) Attorney General William Barr warned on May 30 that it is a federal crime to cross state lines or to use interstate facilities to incite or participate in violent rioting. One witness told the New York Post that hundreds of looters have been going systemically from store to store. The outlet reported that the upscale Soho neighborhood in Lower Manhattan appeared to be the worst hit on Sunday evening. In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot told a news conference on Sunday that she believed there is no doubt that organized groups have tried to take advantage of the peaceful protests in the city, Crains Chicago Business reported. There is no doubtthis was an organized effort last night, she said. There were clearly efforts to subvert the peaceful process and make it into something violent. Theres no question that both the people who were fighting and brought the weapons, that was absolutely organized and choreographed, Lightfoot added. It seems also clear that the fires that were set, both of the vehicles and buildings, that that was organized and that was opportunistic, as well as the looting. Lightfoot did not single out any specific incidences, but said that there were instances where a group would break into and loot businesses, and load the goods into a U-Haul vehicle, or caravans or cars, and sometimes also set fires. Lightfoot said she has reached out to the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms & Explosives (ATF), and the U.S. Attorneys office for help in investigating the situation, with a focus on the ATFs bomb and arson unit. Rioters set fire to a Wells fargo bank across the street from the Minneapolis Police 5th Precinct during the fourth night of protests and violence following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) A Dollar Tree store is broken into and looted near the Minneapolis Police 5th Precinct during the fourth night of protests and violence following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Federal, state, and local authorities in Minnesota also recently expressed concerns that people from outside of the state have incited and participated in the violence alongside peaceful protests about Floyds death. In Minneapolis on Sunday, State Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington said that officials found several caches of flammable materialssome of which looked like they may have been planted days agoin neighborhoods where there have already been fires, reported the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Police have found stolen vehicles with number plates removed that were used to transport the flammable materials. They also found stolen goods and weapons in the cars, Harrington added. The fact that weve seen so many of them in so many places now makes us believe that this is part of that pattern that shows that this is in fact an organized activity and not some random act of rage, he said, according to the newspaper. President Donald Trump on Sunday praised the National Guard in shutting down unrest and chaos in Minneapolis that he said was guided by ANTIFA-led anarchists, among others. Trump has said that his administration will designate Antifa as a terrorist organization. George Floyd in a file photograph. (Christopher Harris via AP) Floyd was pronounced dead on May 25 after he was taken into police custody in Minneapolis on the same day. The 911 call that drew police to Floyd described a man suspected of paying with counterfeit money. He was awfully drunk and hes not in control of himself. Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneels on the neck of George Floyd, a handcuffed man who was pleading that he could not breathe, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 25, 2020. (Darnella Frazier via AP) Disturbing video footage on the day showed a police officer using his knee on Floyds neck to pin him to the ground. Floyd, who was unarmed and handcuffed, pleaded to the officers while repeatedly calling out I cant breathe during the episode. A local medical examiner from Hennepin County in downtown Minneapolis on Monday classified Floyds death as a homicide. Mumbai, June 2 : Tuesday marks Bollywood's original 'Showman' Raj Kapoors death anniversary. The evergreen actor-filmmaker passed away 32 years ago, and he is still remembered by fans for his immense contribution to Hindi mainstream cinema. "First superstar", "Showman", "Legend" - these are a few titles with which fans paid tribute to the screen icon. "His legacy will live on. He was the perfect 'sangam' of acting, producing and directing," a user tweeted. From posting throwback pictures to praising his art and fondly recalling the movies he had made, tributes poured in on social media on Tuesday. Paying tribute to the legendary actor and filmmaker, a user shared an old video in which Kapoor is seen talking in Punjabi. "Have never heard Raj Kapoor speak Punjbai until now! What a gem of an old punjabi quote he touches upon,'Maan jivendi satt, karam na dindi vand (a mother can bear seven children, but it's not up to her to decide/divide their individual fate)'," the fan wrote. Raj Kapoor was the eldest child of Prithviraj and Ramsarni Kapoor. At the age of nine, he first appeared on screen in the 1935 film "Inquilab". His major break in the industry in a lead role was in the film " Neel Kamal" (1947) opposite Madhubala. Image Source: IANS News Later in 1948, at the young age of 24, he established his own studio -- RK Films. "Aag" was his first directorial project. "Awara", "Shree 420", "Mera Naam Joker" and "Sangam" are some of Raj Kapoor's evergreen films. RK, as he was fondly known to fans and colleagues alike, got married to Krishna Kapoor in 1946. The late couple had five children -- Randhir, Ritu, Rishi, Rima and Rajiv Kapoor. Rishi and Ritu are no more. On May 2, 1988, Raj Kapoor was conferred with Dadasaheb Phalke Award. He was unwell, and he attended the function with an oxygen mask. Reportedly, when his name was announced by then President R. Venkataraman, he was unable to get up, and seeing his discomfort, the President came down from the stage to present him the award On June 2 1988, after battling for life for about a month, Kapoor breathed his last. -- Syndicated from IANS A further 36,200 people have returned to work in the last week, with numbers claiming the Pandemic Unemployment Payment now down to 543,200. That figure is down from a peak of 598,00 at the beginning of May, with the weekly cost of the payment at 190 million. The Assistant General Secretary at the Department of Taoiseach Liz Canavan today said that another 28,400 people have notified the Department of Social Protection that they are returning to work. Of those, 21,100 will receive their last payment this week. However, over half a million people are now in receipt of the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme, figures show. In total, 508,100 people have received at least one payment through their employer towards their salary. Those payments are in addition to the 214,700 people who were reported on the Live Register as of the end of April. Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Regina Doherty said the fall in claims reflected the first phase of reopening the Irish economy. The peak demand for the Pandemic Unemployment Payment has passed in parallel with the flattening of the Covid-19 curve and each week, if the current progress on the health front holds firm, we will see an incremental drop on the numbers in need of this assistance. However, not everybody will be getting back to work in the first phases of the reopening of our society and, as I confirmed in the Dail last week, the Pandemic Unemployment Payment will extend beyond the original June end date." Public amenities, Ms Canavan said, were busier over the weekend but gardai had reported largescale compliance with physical distancing guidelines. However, Ms Canavan warned that a hosepipe ban was "likely necessary" in the coming days as warm weather and extra demand on domestic water continues. Ms Canavan asked people to be mindful of their water usage while at home, saying that people could use watering cans instead of hoses, for example. There is some good news amid the coronavirus pandemic in the country. While the infection has been spreading, the number of patients recovering from the disease is inceasing. In 14 states, the number of recovered patients is more than those admitted to the hospital for Covid-19 treatment, according to data analysis doe by Hindustan Times Hindi language publication Hindustan. According to Union health ministry data quoted by Hindustan 48 per cent of those who contracted the disease have been cured. The highest rate if recovery is in Punjab which has seen 86 per cent of its patients leaving the hospital competely recovered, according to the health ministry. Out of 2,301 patients in the state, 2,000 have been cured. Only 256 active cases are there in the state. Next in line is Uttar Pradesh. Out of 8,075 patients, 4,843 have been discharged - a recovery rate of 60 per cent - and 3,015 are still in hospitals. In Tamil Nadu, out of the total 23,495 cases, 13,170 have recovered whereas 10,141 are still in hospital. The recovery rate here is just above 56 per cent. Giving details about some other states, the health ministry data said that Telangana has 1,491 recovered patients out of total 2,792 (and 1,213 are in hospitals), Andhra Pradesh has 2,378 cured patients out of a total of 3,783. At least 1,341 patients are still in hospitals. Similarly, in Chandigarh 199 patients out of 294 have been cured or discharged and only 91 remain in hospitals. The overall recovery rate in the country, now 48.19 per cent, has improved from 11.42 per cent on April 15 to 26.59 per cent on May 3 and to 38.29 per cent on May 18, the ministry said. The ministry also said that there has been a steady decline in Indias Covid-19 fatality rate which now stands at 2.83 per cent, much lower than in countries like the US, the UK, France and Italy. From 3.3 per cent on April 15, it declined to 3.25 per cent on May 3 and came down further to 3.15 per cent on May 18, the ministry said. A steady decline can be seen in the case fatality rate in the country. The relatively low death rate is attributed to the continued focus on surveillance, timely case identification and clinical management of the cases, the ministry said. Two specific trends are thus noticed, while the recovery rate is increasing on one hand, case fatality is going down on the other, it said.The ministry also said that the testing capacity has increased in the country through 472 government and 204 private laboratories. India is the seventh worst-hit nation by the Covid-19 pandemic in terms of the number of infections, after the US, Brazil, Russia, the UK, Spain and Italy. New Delhi: Russia on Monday finally broke its silence, saying it was worried over the ongoing Sino-Indian military face-off in the Ladakh sector but expressed confidence the two Asian giants would peacefully resolve the problem. Russian Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) in Delhi Roman Babushkin told a TV channel, Of course, we are worried with the current situation at the Line of Actual Control (LAC). However, as we know, there are dedicated specific mechanisms developed by both countries (India and China) including hotlines and special representatives dialogue and even informal summits. We are confident that the India and Chinese friends are duly equipped to find a way out for mutual satisfaction. We would encourage every endeavour in this regard. It may be recalled that Russia has been a time-tested friend of India and a key defence supplier for several decades both as a separate nation from 1991-92 onwards and also in its earlier avatar as the Soviet Union and continues to be a key strategic partner. In recent years however, it has been somewhat miffed over Indias growing strategic proximity to the United States. However, the Indian Government has made every effort to maintain strong ties with Russia and Moscow remains a close friend. Russia is also a permanent member of the UN Security Council along with China and also has close ties with Beijing. India had last week said it remained firm in its resolve on the borders to ensure its security and national sovereignty but had added that it is engaged with the Chinese side both at the diplomatic and military level to peacefully resolve the border issue. India had last month accused the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) of blocking Indian Army patrols on the Indian side of the LAC which is the de-facto Sino-Indian border. New Delhi had also said that occasionally such incidents do occur as both sides do not have a common perception of the LAC. This comes in the backdrop of two separate incidents last month in the Sikkim and Ladakh sectors when Indian and Chinese soldiers had punched each other, resulting in injuries to troops on both sides. The incident in north Sikkim had taken place on May 9 while that in eastern Ladakh had taken place on the intervening night of May 5-6. In both incidents, aggressive Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) patrols were stopped by Indian troops inside Indian territory that China claims as its own. BRUSSELS - The European Unions top executive and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will meet this month for talks that could give new momentum to the stalled post-Brexit negotiations. As a fourth round of talks between teams of negotiators resumed Tuesday with little hope for a breakthrough on a future trade deal, the blocs executive arm said a meeting is planned between EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Johnson by the end of June. Daniel Ferrie, the commission spokesperson for EU-U.K. negotiations, said the date and the format of the encounter has yet to be determined. The U.K. left the political institutions of the EU on Jan. 31, but it remains inside the EUs tariff-free single market and customs union until the end of the year. That so-called transition period can be extended by two years although a deal to do so has to be made by July 1, according to the legal documents accompanying Brexit. Johnson has repeatedly said he will not extend the transition period beyond Dec. 31. Ahead of this weeks round of talks, Britain accused the EU of making unbalanced demands, while EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier warned in an interview with the Sunday Times that there would not be an agreement at any cost. The three previous rounds of discussions have failed to produce much headway, notably around fishing rights. The U.K. wants a fisheries deal to be a standalone agreement whereby the two sides negotiate access and quotas. The EU, for its part, has sought to link fisheries to other trade issues. Another major roadblock is the so-called level playing field. The EU is concerned that Britain may diverge on rules and regulations to gain a competitive advantage and wants to make sure that EU standards will be kept by London in return for a high degree of access to the single market. The U.K. has been taking a step back two steps back, three steps back from the original commitments, Barnier said. The U.K. negotiators need to be fully in line with what the Prime Minister signed up to with us. Because 27 heads of state and government and the European Parliament do not have a short memory. Despite the apparent stalemate, Johnsons spokesman, James Slack, insisted progress could be made. We hope this latest round is constructive and we hope that it will keep the process on track ahead of the high-level meeting later this month, he said. ___ Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report. ___ Follow APs full coverage of British politics and Brexit trade negotiations at https://apnews.com/Brexit Researchers have shown that the prevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Brazil varies significantly by city and region, with the highest prevalence observed in the North of the country and the lowest seen in South and Center-West regions. Cesar Victora from the Universidade Federal de Pelotas and colleagues report that some of the highest prevalence was observed in cities located along a stretch of the Amazon river and among indigenous populations. Prevalence did not significantly vary by age group up to 79 years but did fall by about two-thirds among those aged 80 years or older. The findings come from the first of a series of surveys planned for 133 large cities in Brazil. A pre-print version of the paper is available in medRxiv*, while the article undergoes peer review. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil April 29, 2020. An overview of an emergency field hospital is seen at Riocentro to receive the coronavirus covid-19 infections. Image Credit: Antonio Scorza / Shutterstock Population-based data is needed Despite the urgent need for population-based data on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), few studies based on national surveys are available. Recently, population-based studies have been attempted in some countries, and a national serological survey carried out in Spain identified a range in prevalence, of less than 2% in some regions, and up to 11% in the city of Madrid. In Brazil, the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Sao Paulo on the 27th of February, and as of 29th May, more than 440,000 cases and about 26,000 deaths had been reported. Controversy has surrounded the governments response, with Brazils president having opposed the introduction of social distancing measures and many hospitals being unable to cope with the number of patients affected, particularly in critical care. Despite the extremely high number of official reports, many cases are going unreported due to testing being limited to severe illness only. Evidence also suggests that deaths due to COVID-19 are being undercounted. In light of the present crisis, there is an urgent need for population-based data on the pandemic, writes Victora and colleagues. What did the researchers do? Victora and team conducted a nationwide seroprevalence survey between the 14th and 21st May among households in 133 cities across the 26 Brazilian states and the Federal District. In each household, one person was randomly selected to undergo rapid serological testing for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, before completing a short questionnaire to provide sociodemographic information. The team had planned to sample 250 people in each of the cities, but in one city it was not possible to conduct any interviews; in 28 cities, it was possible to test between 1 and 99 people, and in 14 cities, it was possible to test between 100 and 199 were tested. In 44 cities, 200 to 249 people were tested and in 46 cities, 250 were tested. The overall number of people tested was 25,025. To our knowledge, this is the largest population-based study of the prevalence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in geographical scope, and the second largest after the national survey in Spain in terms of sample size, writes the team. Seroprevalence varied significantly across the country Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies varied significantly across the country, from less than 1% in many cities in the South and Center-west regions to as high as 25% in a city called Breves located in the Amazon. Of fifteen cities with the highest prevalence, eleven were in North Brazil, including six located along a 2,000 km portion of the Amazon river. Overall, SARS-CoV-2 antibody prevalence across the 90 cities where at last 200 people were tested was 1.4%. The authors say that extrapolation of this 1.4% to the cities overall populations, resulted in an estimated 760,000 cases of infection, as opposed to the officially reported 104,782. Prevalence was similar among men and women and did not significantly vary by age group up to the age of 79, although it did fall by around two thirds at age 80 or older. The highest prevalence, of 3.7%, was observed among indigenous people, and the lowest prevalence, of 0.6%, was observed among white people, an effect that remained once analysis was confined to the North region, where indigenous people mostly reside. Most remarkable finding The team says that perhaps their most remarkable finding was the high prevalence observed in the six cities located along the Amazon River. In the city of Breves, the prevalence of 25% appears to be the highest ever reported anywhere so far, write the researchers. This finding of high prevalence in a tropical region contradicts common wisdom that continents such as Africa may be protected against COVID-19 due to high ambient temperature, they add. The team says one possible explanation is that the long river trips that take place from Belem to Breves and from Manaus to Tefe, for example, may represent periods of intense transmission due to overcrowded boats and many people sleeping or resting in close proximity. Except for road travel between Belem and Castanhal (67 km), all other transportation among the six cities is by riverboat or for a minority who can afford it by plane, write Victora and colleagues. The surveys will continue The team says their study has shown how differently the COVID-19 pandemic has affected different regions of Brazil, with rapid escalation in Brazils North and Northeast, and slow progression in the South and Center-West regions. The researchers say this is just the first in a series of national surveys that will now be repeated every three weeks to help track how the pandemic is progressing in the country. *Important Notice medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information. Terminates Apolo Project - Focus on Valeriano Oxide Gold Mineralization Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 1, 2020) - ATEX Resources Inc. (TSXV: ATX) ("ATEX") announces that it has terminated agreements to acquire the Apolo Concessions and will focus activities on its 3,705 hectare Valeriano copper gold property located in the northern portion of Chile's prolific El Indio Belt. "The results from sampling and prospecting of the Apolo properties conducted over the past few months did not meet with our expectations, therefore, we have terminated the acquisition agreements", stated Carl Hansen, CEO of ATEX. "In the near term, we will focus our activities on the Chilean Valeriano copper gold project which hosts a large copper gold porphyry system overlain by near-surface, oxide gold mineralization. The oxide gold mineralization was partially tested by a Barrick Gold and Phelps Dodge in the 1990's. In early 2010's, Hochschild Mining discovered the deeper copper gold porphyry underlying the oxide gold mineralization. ATEX has identified additional near surface oxide gold targets which it will examine while preparing to explore the porphyry mineralization." Valeriano Project The Valeriano copper gold project overlies a large copper gold porphyry deposit over which near surface oxide gold mineralization has been intersected in past drilling programs conducted by Phelps Dodge (1990-91), Barrick Gold (1995-97), and Hochschild Mining (2010-2014). Highlights from the near surface oxide gold drilling results are shown in Table 1. Table 1 - Highlights from Historical Valeriano Epithermal Oxide Gold Drilling Hole # from metres to metres length metres Au g/t Cu % Company RDH-V27 19.0 73.0 62.0 1.23 0.05 Phelps Dodge RDH-V31 54.0 64.0 10.0 1.79 0.14 Barrick Gold and 84.0 154.0 70.0 0.68 0.05 VALDD12-09 35.9 58.4 22.5 0.64 0.02 Hochschild Mining and 68.0 78.0 10.0 0.50 0.02 NOTES: Assay intervals based upon a 0.3 g/t Au cut off grade. Insufficient information is available to estimate the true widths of the drill hole intervals. Further results can be found in the "NI 43-101 TECHNICAL REPORT ON THE VALERIANO PROJECT" filed on SEDAR. Story continues The underlying copper gold porphyry mineralization was partially tested by three diamond drill holes completed in 2013 by Hochschild Mining. Two of the drill holes intersected a potassic altered, granodiorite porphyry including drill hole VAL13-14 which returned 1,194 metres ("m") grading 0.52% copper ("Cu"), 0.24 grams per tonne gold ("g/t Au") and 36 parts per million ("ppm") molybdenum ("Mo") or 0.73% copper equivalent ("Cu eq.") and included 416 m of granodiorite porphyry which graded 0.67% Cu, 0.32 g/t Au and 31 ppm Mo for 0.94% Cu eq. The drill hole ended in mineralization. Hochschild Mining terminated its option agreement over the Valeriano concessions in 2014 due to market-related conditions. Apolo Concessions ATEX conducted surface examinations, including sampling and prospecting, of the Apolo concessions over the past months and determined that the properties were of no further interest. In light of the operational difficulties resulting from the "COVID-19" coronavirus. Discussions were held with the owners of the property to extend project commitments in order to allow additional work, however, these discussions with not successful and the option was terminated. Corporate Update ATEX is pleased to announce that Dr. Raymond Jannas was elected to the Board of Directors at ATEX's annual meeting held on March 26, 2020. Dr. Jannas, who was previously on ATEX's advisory committee, has over 35 years' experience in the mining geology and exploration industry focused in South America. He has held senior positions with Gold Fields, Barrick Gold, LAC Minerals, Hochschild Mining and Metallica Resources. Dr. Jannas headed exploration teams that led to the discovery of Pascua-Lama, El Morro and Johanna in Chile, and Choco 10 in Venezuela. Dr. Jannas has a Ph.D. from Harvard University. Dr. Jannas has been granted 40,000 stock options. Each option has a five year term and is exercisable at $0.15 per common share. NI 43-101 Statement The Qualified Person, as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards for Disclosure, for Valeriano Project is David Hopper. Mr. Hopper is a Chartered Geologist of the Geological Society of London, Fellow No. 1030584 with over 25 years of relevant experience in the exploration of porphyry-epithermal deposits. He resides in Santiago, Chile and is independent of ATEX within the meaning of NI 43-101. About ATEX Resources Inc. ATEX is a minerals exploration company focused on the acquisition, development and monetization of projects throughout the Americas. On behalf of ATEX Resources Inc. Carl Hansen, CEO For more information, email info@atexresources.com or call 604 684 7160. Forward Looking Information - This new release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially because of factors discussed in the management discussion and analysis section of our interim and most recent annual financial statement or other reports and filings with the TSX Venture Exchange and applicable Canadian securities regulations. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/57020 Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute (FCS) is pleased to announce the opening of a new office location in Middleburg, Florida on June 1, 2020. Fort Myers, Fla., June 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute (FCS) is pleased to announce the opening of a new office location in Middleburg, Florida on June 1, 2020. FCS currently has a clinic location in Fleming Island , making the Middleburg site its second location in the greater Jacksonville area. Located at 1658 St. Vincents Way, Suite 340, Middleburg, FL 32068, the clinic will be open for patients from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Fleming Island medical oncologists Jeffrey Bubis, DO, Elizabeth Kent, MD and Augusto Villegas, MD will also be seeing patients at the Middleburg location. Although Middleburg and Fleming Island are only about 10 miles apart, travel time between the two towns is around 30 minutes, Dr. Jeffrey Bubis explained. The new location provides an additional option to patients who live closer to Middleburg and allows them to receive services closer to home. As a community oncology practice, FCS is able to bring world-class treatments and services to smaller communities and rural areas, so that patients dont have to travel far to receive the care they need, said Dr. Elizabeth Kent. Dr. Augusto Villegas added, Years ago, we actually had an office in Middleburg, so this is kind of like returning home. Its a wonderful community and Im looking forward to seeing patients at the new location. FCS President and Managing Physician Dr. Lucio Gordan said, We are very excited to bring state-of-the-art treatments and services to the Middleburg community. Initially, patients at the new location will be able to see their doctor for office visits, get their labs done on site and receive injections. We plan to add additional services, as needed. ### About Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute, LLC: (FLCancer.com) Story continues Recognized by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) with a national Clinical Trials Participation Award, Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute (FCS) offers patients access to more clinical trials than any private oncology practice in Florida. In the past four years, the majority of new cancer drugs approved for use in the U.S. were studied in clinical trials with Florida Cancer Specialists participation. * Trained in prestigious medical schools and research institutes, our physicians are consistently ranked nationally as Top Doctors by U.S. News & World Report. Founded in 1984, Florida Cancer Specialists has built a national reputation for excellence that is reflected in exceptional and compassionate patient care, driven by innovative clinical research, cutting-edge technologies and advanced treatments, including targeted therapies, genomic-based treatment, and immunotherapy. Our highest values are embodied by our outstanding team of highly trained and dedicated physicians, clinicians and staff. *Prior to approval Attachment Shelly Glenn Florida Cancer Specialists (770) 365.6168 SGlenn@FLCancer.com Michelle Robey Florida Cancer Specialists (813) 767-9398 Michelle.Robey@FLCancer.com China shut down 48 churches after lifting lockdown Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment After easing the COVID-19 lockdown, the communist government of China has intensified its crackdown on state-controlled churches, removing crosses from their rooftops and closing them down in the southeastern province of Jiangxi, according to a report. In Yugan county, authorities shut down at least 48 Three-Self churches and meeting venues between April 18 and 30, according to Bitter Winter, an Italy-based online magazine on religious liberty and human rights in China, published by the Center for Studies on New Religions. Of the more than 1 million people who live in Yugan county, over 10 percent are Protestants who attend over 300 officially registered Three-Self churches. A member of a local Three-Self church, who was not identified, said that officials, including the mayor, of the Shegeng town stormed the church in April and forcibly removed its podium, cross and all other religious symbols. Some congregation members wept in distress, the believer said. If you try to protest, they will accuse you of fighting against the Communist Party and the central government. A believer in Yugans Daxi township told the magazine that a village Party secretary told area Christians that authorities wanted to shut down churches and demolish crosses because there were too many believers in the county. When so many believe in God, who will listen to the Communist Party? There is no other choice but to remove crosses from your churches, he quoted the secretary as saying. On Open Doors USAs World Watch List, China is ranked as one of the worst countries in the world when it comes to persecution of Christians. The organization notes that all churches are perceived as a threat if they become too large, too political, or invite foreign guests. Bitter Winter reported that countless number of churches were ordered to remove their crosses in Jiujiang, Fuzhou, Fengcheng, Shangrao, and a few other cities in the province in April. A believer in the Yangbu town said local authorities in mid-April demolished the cross of a Three-Self church, with plans to convert the 300-square-meter church into a facility for the elderly. The churches that are outside of the government-controlled Three-Self Patriotic Movement are considered illegal by the Chinese Communist Party, and are, therefore, persecuted more severely. Gina Goh, a regional manager for Southeast Asia at International Christian Concern, recently said that China has clearly resumed its crackdown on Christianity after the threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic has reduced. In recent weeks, we have seen an increased number of church demolitions and cross removals on state-sanctioned churches across China, as house church gatherings continue to face interruption and harassment. It is deplorable that the local authorities not only conducted this raid without proper procedure but deployed excessive use of force against church members and bystanders, she said. The crackdown on churches has been underway since before the pandemic began. David Curry, president and CEO of Open Doors USA who was in China on a fact-finding trip days before COVID-19 emerged from Wuhan province, witnessed firsthand how the Chinese government is using mass surveillance and data modeling to monitor and punish citizens who choose to attend church or share religious material. The forced closure of thousands of churches and the removal of crosses from buildings are now-commonplace tactics by the Chinese government in order to limit, if not extinguish, Christian practice, Curry wrote in an op-ed for The Christian Post. Even charitable coronavirus relief provided by people of faith is strongly discouraged by the regime. Last December, at the height of the coronavirus epidemic, numerous crosses were removed from Three-Self churches in Hegang, a prefecture-level city in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang. In November, government officials ordered the removal of the cross from the Ranfang Church in Gushi county in the central province of Henan, telling believers that its the Communist Party that gives you food and money, not God. Kildare Fire Service has paid tribute to local farmers who helped contain a significant forest fire in the north west of the county in recent days. It is estimated that up to 100 hectares of a Coillte forest have been destroyed since the blaze broke out at Hortland last Wednesday, resulting in damage of up to 150,000. Local firefighters have been working alongside Coillte officials and a Coillte-hired helicopter as well as an Air Corps helicopter to drop thousands of tonnes of water onto affected areas. The scene of the fire, which is being contained at the moment, is close to the Irish Industrial Explosives plant at nearby Clonagh. Kildare Chief Fire Officer Celina Barrett told the Leinster Leader on Monday: The worst of the fire was last week and since then there has been a lot of bog and forestry destroyed. The fire was very difficult to extinguish due to the extremely dry vegetation and the strong winds. I have no crews there today as the Air Corps is working to dampen hot spots and local farmers are helping to bulldoze fire breaks into the ground to remove vegetation. The Chief Fire Officer added: I want to pay tribute to everybody who was involved, including local farmers. Kildare County Council insisted that there is no immediate risk to the Irish Industrial Explosives site from the fire but crews will continue to be vigilant. The Council also explained why fire crews didnt work at night. A spokesperson said: Bogs are dangerous places especially in fire conditions. For their safety our firefighters do not actively firefight on bogs during darkness. If residents are concerned about their properties during darkness, they should call 999 or 112 and we will respond to protect life and property. The Council also issued general health advice to local residents to stay out of the smoke if possible. A spokesperson added: Smoke is an irritant and can make your eyes and throat sore. Provided there is no risk from the fire itself, staying indoors with doors and windows closed can give a good level of protection. "Some people may be sensitive to the effects of smoke. Those with existing heart or lung disease (including asthma), young children and the elderly may experience symptoms. If you are experiencing symptoms, reduce your level of activity, take your medications as appropriate and seek medical advice. Fire at Derryvarogue Bog over the weekend. Picture: Naomi Tansey By Bahk Eun-ji Inha University said Tuesday that medical students who cheated on the school's online tests will be given zero points as punishment for their misconduct. The university found that 91 students on pre-intern undergraduate courses engaged in the collective cheating that took place during online tests between March and April. Among them, 50 are first years and 41 are second years. The 50 first year students took the online exam April 11 in groups of two to nine, and 41 took the exam on March 12, 22 and April 18 in groups and shared answers through phone calls and social media. Inha University /Korea Times file Although Russia would try to claim that the "Crimea issue is closed," the occupation of the peninsula and related issues remain the focus of both the Ukrainian state and the international community. This issue is considered at meetings of the governing bodies of international organizations, primarily the UN and the OSCE, and in international judicial institutions. At the same time, Ukraine still does not have an official document on the strategy for the de-occupation of Crimea. There is no respective format for discussions such as "Minsk" or "Normandy" for Donbas. Ukrinform spoke with Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Anton Korynevych to discuss the situation with key aspects of the de-occupation of the peninsula, as well as sanctions, water supply, Russia's obstruction of navigation through the Kerch Strait, access for international organizations, and the COVID-19 pandemic in Crimea. PART OF DE-OCCUPATION STRATEGY WILL BE SECRET Question: Does Ukraine have a strategy for the de-occupation of Crimea? Answer: The Representative Office of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea clearly understands that such a strategy is extremely necessary. It's not very good that seven years have passed since the occupation of Crimea but Ukraine still does not have a single strategy to regain control over the peninsula. The president's office in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea has currently managed to resume the process of developing this strategy together with colleagues from the Ministry for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories and the National Security and Defense Council. A working group, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, has already been set up at the ministry. Its main task is to develop a strategy for the de-occupation and reintegration of temporarily occupied territories. At the same time, we need to understand that some developments in this regard exist in different bodies and ministries: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs writes a draft of its part, the reintegration ministry has its own set of issues, and the president's representative office has its own set of issues. Now we need to bring it all together. The strategy is needed, and there are no other points of view. In addition, it is clear to all parties involved that part of this strategy must be open and public so that people can see what the state is doing to return the temporarily occupied territories and the people who live there. But, of course, much of it must be closed and secret, especially when it comes to security issues. Therefore, the process has been resumed. I hope and believe that we will finish it because it is really important to us. Question: Are there any approximate time frames? Answer: I would not like to say anything about time frames, but my colleagues and I believe that it would be good to have this de-occupation strategy this year. SEPARATE PLATFORM FOR CRIMEA SHOULD BE CREATED Question: The issue of Russia's occupation of Crimea is raised at various international platforms, especially in the OSCE, but there is no separate format for discussing its termination. How can this situation be changed? Answer: Of course, this is an important issue. The president has recently talked about it at his big press conference. It is really difficult to discuss the issue of ending the occupation of Crimea at the existing platforms. This was also noted by the deputy prime minister and minister for reintegration of temporarily occupied territories and the foreign minister of Ukraine, and we in the representative office also share this opinion. We need to introduce a separate platform for Crimea. I think now is a good time, as well as the shared vision and desire of key stakeholders, to raise this issue. At the same time, there is an understanding that in the beginning this platform, this format, may not include the Russian Federation. But it is important to start the process. SANCTIONS WORK, BUT THEY NEED TO BE TIGHTENED Question: Are the current Crimea-related sanctions against Russia effective? Answer: They work - both Ukrainian and international. Of course, everyone would like to see immediate positive changes after the introduction of sanctions. But the situation is a little different here. Sanctions work, but they should be constantly strengthened and in no way allowed to be eased. Question: Isn't it time to transform the Crimea-related sanctions package in accordance with the new situation and ongoing violations by the occupying state? Is there any readiness for this on the part of Ukraine's leadership? Do you see it among our international partners? Answer: I am sure that the package of sanctions on Crimea should be tightened. A new package of Ukrainian sanctions against Russian cultural and scientific institutions for illegal activities in Crimea has recently been introduced. That is why the issue of tightening sanctions is on the agenda. The president's office in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea is currently working on the introduction of certain restrictions against individuals and legal entities involved in violations of international law and legislation of Ukraine committed in the territory of the temporarily occupied Crimea. We hope that our foreign partners will also tighten the sanctions regime. I think many of them are ready to do so. INTERNATIONAL MONITORING OF NAVIGATION THROUGH THE KERCH STRAIT IS NEEDED Question: Russia continues to impede free navigation to the Ukrainian ports of Berdiansk and Mariupol. What are the prospects for the introduction of international monitoring of freedom of navigation through the Kerch Strait? Answer: As of April 2020, delays last an average of 17 hours for ships moving from the Black Sea to the ports of the Sea of Azov. On the way back - from Mariupol or Berdiansk to the Black Sea - these delays last on average 20 hours. Therefore, the problem of obstruction of free navigation by the Russian Federation is really serious. Of course, we say that we consider it appropriate to introduce international monitoring and ensure the presence of ships of our partner countries, in particular NATO countries, in the Kerch Strait in order to monitor the situation during the passage of the strait. Monitoring by our partner countries would be effective. So far, it has been carried out more by civil society - some expert organizations in Ukraine that deal with Crimea. IT IS IMPORTANT TO ESTABLISH MARITIME BORDER WITH RUSSIA Question: The maritime border between Ukraine and Russia - in the Black and Azov Seas and the Kerch Strait - has not yet been established. What measures under international law can be taken to establish a maritime border with Russia? How can Russia be prevented from turning the Black and Azov Seas into "Russian lakes"? Answer: Crimea is the territory of Ukraine. In view of this, Ukraine considers the sea areas around Crimea to be its own. That is right, and so it is for the international community. The occupier, the Russian Federation, takes a "slightly different" approach, to put it mildly. I think this issue is more within the competence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, which deals with border issues and relevant agreements. The maritime border with Russia has really not been established, and it is necessary to take all possible measures to establish it. It is possible that the procedures provided for in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea can be used here. But this is a difficult issue that needs to be analyzed in detail by all the bodies involved. As for the Sea of Azov, according to the relevant agreement, the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait are the internal historical waters of the two states, and therefore, in fact, there is no border there. Accordingly, if this issue is to be resolved, it is necessary to raise the issue of the validity of certain international agreements. UKRAINE NOT PLANNING TO RESUME WATER SUPPLY TO CRIMEA Question: Will Ukraine resume water supply to the occupied peninsula? How realistic is the scenario of a Russian military offensive on mainland Ukraine in order to gain access to water supply? Recently, U.S. think tank The Jamestown Foundation has not ruled out the possibility of such a scenario. They say the Kremlin can take advantage of the moment when the whole world is focused on the coronavirus pandemic and carry out the offensive, showing it as a "humanitarian action"? Answer: Ukraine is not planning to resume water supply to the territory of the temporarily occupied Crimean peninsula. This will be done only when the territory is de-occupied. We in the Representative Office of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, while communicating with all state bodies, constantly emphasize the impossibility of water supply to Crimea. They all know our position, and no agency has spoken differently about it. If other positions were heard somewhere, they were most likely due to thoughtlessness or lack of understanding of the issue. At a serious level, no one in Ukraine is talking about the resumption of water supplies to Crimea. Regarding possible provocations from the Russian Federation. The issue of restoring water supply is constantly raised in Russia and the occupied Crimea. We see all this information about possible military and security threats, but so far everything is as it is. Water supply is one of the issues that the occupying state cannot solve on its own as of now, both financially and technically. And here it is important not to succumb to pressure and not to comply with Russian requirements. RUSSIA NOT FOLLOWING ORDER OF INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE Question: With the help of cynical deception, Russia is avoiding the implementation of a ruling of the International Court of Justice on resuming the activities of the Mejlis and education in the Ukrainian language in Crimea. Are there mechanisms to make Russia comply with the ruling? Answer: Yes, this is a big problem. It is already the fourth year since the adoption of the order on provisional measures of the International Court of Justice dated April 19, 2017. Russia did not implement both of the provisional measures it did not ensure the resumption of Ukrainian-language education in Crimea and did not remove the status of "extremist organization" from the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, further banning its activities in Crimea. Everything is bad with Ukrainian-language education in general. In fact, there is no Ukrainian language as such in any Crimean school. This is an element of erasing the national identity of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars in Crimea. This is a kind of mechanism for creating a Soviet citizen - he or she remembers his or her origin, culture, traditions somewhere but does not associate himself or herself with Ukraine or the Crimean Tatar people. The same happens with the Mejlis: warnings are constantly issued to its members who are in Crimea, and criminal cases are opened against individual members. That is, the Russian Federation does not comply at all with the order of the International Court of Justice on provisional measures. What can be done here? First and foremost, we need to seek justice in international courts. This strategy seems right to me. Ukraine should use international law because it is on our side. The International Court of Justice last November recognized its jurisdiction over both conventions under which Ukraine sued Russia. Now the trial on the merits begins. It is important. And all these things should be included in Ukraine's portfolio for further action on the international stage. In particular, I would like to point out the support of the Ukrainian authorities for internally displaced persons, in particular Crimean Tatars, and cooperation with the Mejlis. The president has recently met with representatives of the Crimean Tatar people, and this meeting was attended by almost all members of the Mejlis who are in government-controlled territory. This issue is actually very important to the state. INTERNATIONAL MISSIONS MUST ENTER CRIMEA IN ACCORDANCE WITH UKRAINIAN LAW Question: What is the current situation with access for international human rights and humanitarian missions to Russian-occupied Crimea, in particular the OSCE SMM? Answer: We constantly emphasize that international monitoring missions, especially those working within international intergovernmental organizations such as the UN and the OSCE - the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission, the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine - should have access to the territory of Crimea. Legally, they have it because their mandate extends to the entire territory of Ukraine, including Crimea. However, the physical access of the missions is blocked by the occupying state, which says: 'We are ready to grant access to Crimea but according to Russian law.' Of course, no monitoring mission working under the umbrella of an international intergovernmental organization will do so. This is absolutely clear and correct. International monitoring missions must arrive in Crimea in accordance with the provisions of Ukrainian legislation. I think Ukraine is doing the right thing, emphasizing at all possible platforms the need for international human rights monitoring missions to be granted access to the occupied Crimea. We need to understand the situation on the ground, talk to people, see the families of political prisoners, and so on. But, of course, all this must happen in accordance with the legislation of Ukraine as a sovereign state. RUSSIA BUILDING INFIRMARY IN SEVASTOPOL FOR MILITARY WITH COVID-19 Question: The coronavirus epidemic is now raging in Russia. Is there any information on the situation with the spread of the virus in the occupied Crimea? Answer: Everything is really bad there but there are certain things that seem most glaring. First, conscription into the armed forces of the occupying power continues despite the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a real threat to the lives of our citizens in Crimea and a serious violation of international humanitarian law, not to mention that the draft itself is illegal - Ukraine is talking about it at various platforms, including the OSCE. Second, the Russian Federation considers the Crimean peninsula as a territory for placing an infirmary for military with COVID-19 from the Russian Federation. To this end, a special hospital has already been built in Sevastopol in Omega Bay exclusively for the military infected with coronavirus. While construction continues, the Russians use the hospital ship Yenisei of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which did not go to sea for years and has now been reequipped for servicemen with COVID-19. We see this as creating an additional threat to the sanitary situation in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine. Third, in the context of COVID-19, the situation with Ukrainian citizens illegally detained by the occupation authorities should also be considered. We have a lot of information that in places where they are held - both in Crimea and in the Russian Federation sanitary, hygienic and anti-epidemiological measures are often not observed. Fourth, in the occupied Crimea, there are traditionally problems in the medical sphere: few doctors, bad drugs or their shortage, closure of hospitals. And fifth, illegal flights from Russia to the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea do not stop. On these flights, Russian citizens can and do bring this dangerous virus to the temporarily occupied Crimea. The cherry on the cake is that parades "in honor of the 75th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War" will take place in Sevastopol, Simferopol and Kerch on June 24. This is a crowd of civilians, military. In less than a month. And we don't think the coronavirus pandemic and threat will go down to zero in late June. Vasyl Korotkyi, Vienna Photo credit: Olena Khudiakova, Ukrinform Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Rich Pedroncelli/AP Democratic governors widely shunned President Donald Trump's request to "dominate" the protests across the country by using National Guard troops. "Society that's about dominance and agression, this is what you get," Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said. "Not because of the protesters, but the conditions that led to this moment where protests was inevitable." Some states like Oregon have been reluctant to activate their National Guard forces. Gov. Kate Brown activated 50 Oregon National Guardsmen as a "support function only" service to law enforcement operations "behind the scenes." Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Democratic governors widely attempted to cool the president's fiery rhetoric following a contentious conference call earlier on Monday, in which Donald Trump advised the state leaders to "dominate" the ongoing protests after the killing of George Floyd. On Monday morning, Trump held a phone call with governors as riots erupted throughout the country. Protests demanding justice for Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who was initially arrested on suspicion of passing counterfeit currency, and riots took off shortly after his death earlier last week. During the call, which was obtained by several news outlets, Trump said the governors would look like "fools" if they failed to restore order. "If you don't dominate, you're wasting your time. They're going to run over you," Trump said. "You are going to look like a bunch of jerks. You have to dominate." Trump also criticized their hesitancy to activate the National Guard and encouraged the leaders to reinforce law enforcement operations. Around 5,000 National Guard troops from 15 states and the District of Columbia were activated as of Monday. "I don't know what it is politically where you don't want to call out people," Trump said, referring to the state's National Guard assets. "They're ready, willing, and able. They want to fight for the country. I don't know what it is. Someday you'll have to explain it to me. But it takes so long to call them up." Story continues Some states like Oregon have been reluctant to activate their National Guard forces. Gov. Kate Brown activated 50 unarmed Oregon National Guardsmen as a "support function only" service to law enforcement operations "behind the scenes." "Our goal, and the goal of the overwhelming number of protesters should be to reduce violence," Brown said Monday afternoon. "You don't defuse violence by putting soldiers on our streets. Having soldiers on the streets across America is exactly what President Trump wants. He's made that very clear on a call this morning." Protesters rally in front of Pennsylvania National Guard soldiers, Monday, June 1, 2020, in Philadelphia. Matt Slocum/AP Following the call, Democratic governors scrutinized Trump's remarks and accused him of fueling the discontent emanating throughout the country. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said in a press conference on Monday that it was "time for more empathy, more care, more capacity to collaborate." "Society that's about dominance and aggression this is what you get," Newsom said to reporters. "Not because of the protesters, but the conditions that led to this moment where protests was inevitable." Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts said the call with Trump was disheartening but not unusual. "I know I should be surprised when I hear incendiary words like this from him, but I'm not," Baker said. "At so many times during these past several weeks, when the country needed compassion and leadership the most, it was simply nowhere to be found." "Instead, we got bitterness, combativeness, and self-interest," Baker added. "That's not what we need in Boston, it's not what we need right now in Massachusetts, and it's definitely not what we need across this great country of ours, either." Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker expressed his concern to Trump directly during the conference call: "I am extraordinarily concerned about the rhetoric that has been used by you," he said, adding that "the rhetoric coming out of the White House is making it worse." "Right now our nation is hurting," Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan also said in a statement. "Americans are in pain and desperate for leadership from the White House during one of the darkest periods in our lifetimes." "The president's dangerous comments should be gravely concerning to all Americans, because they send a clear signal that this administration is determined to sow the seeds of hatred and division, which I fear will only lead to more violence and destruction," Whitmer added. "We must reject this way of thinking." Republican governors, however, applauded Trump's tough stance and supported the activation of National Guard troops. "I don't think we're prosecuting enough people," South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said, adding that "strength works." "You have to dominate, as you said," McMaster reportedly said. "I think now is really the time to get serious prosecuting these people, finding out where their organizations are, who is paying the money." Read the original article on Business Insider In order to support fashion designers, artisans and the business of fashion amid the coronavirus pandemic-led lockdown, Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) has announced the launch of a Virtual Showroom. A first of its kind phygital concept in India, LEWs Virtual Showroom has on an aim to support designers, artisans and the fashion industry. The virtual showroom is an important step towards sustainability and slow fashion, especially in current circumstances that the world is engulfed in. Lakme Fashion Week will roll out several digital fashion innovations starting soon for the next few months starting with the Virtual Showroom. Lakme Fashion Week is also promoting the All About India initiative that aims to bring to light, localisation and sustainability while actively supporting homegrown businesses that work collaboratively with craftsmen to bring their designs to life. What is Virtual Showroom? Virtual Showroom is a marketplace platform for designers and artisans to showcase their past and current collections to consumers. This will enable sales for inventories that have been stuck due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. At the same, designers will be able to showcase their upcoming collections, connect with buyers from around the world and more. Additionally, Lakme Fashion week will be supporting designer sales without charging designers any fee to be a part of the platform. From a business perspective, the Virtual Showroom aims to lift buyer interactions order management and brand discovery digitally and at one place. Designers can upload their product catalogue and costing that will be easy to navigate. Buyers will be approved access to browse through designer collections and have the option of placing orders directly with the designers. With an understanding that this will be a transition from a physical model of operations for the business of fashion in India, all efforts will be made such that the experience of buying will not be compromised. The Virtual Showroom will go hand-in-hand with the on-ground Lakme Fashion Week currently planned to take place in the 3rd quarter of 2020. Jaspreet Chandok - Head of Lifestyle Businesses, IMG Reliance said, With the Virtual Showroom, theres hope for the fashion world to continue as best as it can and adapt in new ways that may provide better solutions. We hope that innovations such as these in the changing times will provide the strength and support our industry is in the need of. We are also looking at partnering with a major E-commerce player to further strengthen the consumer connect part of the initiative. Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter Anyone who participated in Saturdays police brutality protests in Newark should be tested for COVID-19 immediately, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said on Monday. If you were downtown at that protest in any capacity, whether youre a cop, a civilian, whether you were cleaning up, whether you were helping out whether you were part of the clergy, whatever you were doing go get tested immediately, Baraka said during a Facebook Live. Hundreds of people gathered in downtown Newark on Sunday to rally against police brutality in the wake of George Floyds death at the hands on police in Minnesota. Many protesters wore masks, but their numbers far exceeded Gov. Phil Murphys 25-person cap on outdoor gatherings. Baraka said he was tested on Sunday, and was negative for the coronavirus. Free testing is available for all Newark residents. Do not assume you did not contract the virus down there with thousands of people in close proximity, go get tested. In fact, you should do that immediately because if you are positive you should stay home, Baraka said. Murphy said he supported the right to protest, while asking participants to wear masks and practice social distancing. I would say to anybody who goes out: You have the absolute right to go out and peacefully, rightfully protest, Murphy said during a Monday afternoon press briefing. But please, be smart about your health. Protests against police brutality are different from previous protests against coronavirus restrictions on businesses, Murphy said. I dont want to make light of this, and Ill probably get lit up by everybody who owns a nail salon in the state," Murphy said. But its one thing to protest what day nail salons are opening. Its another to come out in peaceful protest overwhelmingly about somebody who was murdered right before our eyes and the trail of data points that highlights systemic racism and the stain that slavery still leaves in our country today. I put those into different orbits." Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription. Katie Kausch may be reached at kkausch@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here. On the eve of the city's march for George Floyd, friends and family members spent hours reminiscing and celebrating while watching a new mural made in his honor come to life outside the Scott Food Mart corner store in Houston's Third Ward. Houston artist Alex Roman Jr., also known as Donkeeboy, spent upwards of four hours creating the mural alongside his mother Sylvia Roman, also known as Donkeemom, and artist Mandi Quintanilla. A GENTLE GIANT: Before dying in Minneapolis police custody, George Floyd grew up in Houston's Third Ward "This is something I have to do for the city, for Floyds family and friends, Roman said. "It's an honor that I even got the opportunity to do this." The large-scale mural shows Floyd with angel wings and a halo that reads "Forever breathing in our hearts," an homage to Floyd's last words that were caught on video after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck, resulting in his death. Floyd, also known as Big Floyd and described by others as a gentle giant, attended Yates High School and made music with the late Houston rapper DJ Screw. The mural is located across the street from Cuney Homes, where Floyd grew up, and is catty-corner to the house where his mother, Ms. Cissy, lived. This is what he made it out of, Floyds friend Mugsy said of his mother's now-boarded up home. "We are doing something he would do," Travis Cains, a friend of Floyd, said. "We wanted to make everyone understand, we love him, this community loves him...the Third Ward loves him...the world loves him." ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Heres what you need to know about todays George Floyd march in downtown Houston A large, respectful crowd is expected to attend Tuesday's citywide march, which was organized by Houston rappers Trae Tha Truth and Bun B. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said during a Monday press conference most of the protests thus far have been peaceful, with the exception of some rioting and arrests on Friday night. "If you are going to protest, protest right," Cains said. "Don't protest to tear up people's stuff out of anger. Protest for a cause, protest for George." As Roman finishes up the mural, one of the organizers known as Ms. Kim starts playing one of Floyds songs off of the Tre World Screw Tape out of her Nissan Rogue. Everyone knows all the words. Ana Goni-Lessan contributed to this report. Rebecca Hennes covers community news. Read her on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | rebecca.hennes@chron.com President Trump spoke about the US Presidency of the Group of Seven, and conveyed his desire to expand the ambit of the grouping beyond the existing membership, to include other important countries including India. In this context, he extended an invitation to Prime Minister Modi to attend the next G-7 Summit to be held in the US. Prime Minister Modi commended President Trump for his creative and far-sighted approach, acknowledging the fact that such an expanded forum would be in keeping with the emerging realities of the post-Covid world. The prime minister said that India would ... Project cancellations, spending cuts, well shut-ins: the problems and dilemmas plaguing onshore oil producers have also spread to offshore. And while the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on onshore drilling may already be wearing off here and there where drilling is cheap, they may linger for longer offshore. Despite major progress made by oil companies in the cost department, offshore drilling often remains more expensive than onshore drilling, not least because the process of extraction is more complex. These are costs that one cant cut or forgo. What this means in the current environment, is that offshore oil may suffer more than onshore oil. In the North Sea, almost a third of the oil left on the UK continental shelf is no longer economical to extract, a recent study found. According to it, with Brent crude at $45 a barrel, 28 percent of the oil was uneconomical. But Brent hasnt traded at $45 a barrel for months and is unlikely to reach even $40 a barrel by the end of this year if we are to believe oil analysts. This means that more oil will become uneconomical, and not just in the North Sea. In the U.S. section of the Gulf of Mexico, Baker Hughes reported a rig count of just 12 in its latest weekly rig count report. Thats down from 22 in March and 19 in April. Forbes Scott Carpenter notes this was the lowest weekly rig count in ten years. And it is not unlikely the rig count will continue to fall if prices stay where they are. Meanwhile, production platforms are shutting down, too. Related: $30 Oil Isnt Good Enough For U.S. Shale When shale drillers began suspending production because their breakeven prices were higher than the production costs of a barrel of oil in most parts of the U.S. shale patch, there was worry some of that production may be lost forever. The same is true of offshore production. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that producers in the Gulf are shuttering production, and many fear it might take years before this production returns. What is happening in the Gulf of Mexico is happening elsewhere as well, with producers pressured by crippled demand. I felt like I had a pretty good handle on it (2020 activity) three weeks ago, but I just dont know right now, one industry executive told WorkBoat in mid-March. What I would have told you then is that based on what we saw through the course of 2019, and even at the beginning of this year, activity was increasing in the deepwater, the executive VP of Jackson Offshore Operators said. The truth is, nobody knew any of this would happen. The oil industry was caught unawares by both the price war and the pandemic, and it is still reeling from the blow. In the offshore segment, there appear to be three main challenges, according to Rystad Energy: a sharp drop in offshore oilfield services and equipment, financial vulnerability, and excessive capacity, Offshore Magazines Jessica Stump reported last month. These are by no means unique to offshore but they may have more severe consequences there: offshore projects take longer to get from approval to launch, which means the current project delaysand the cancellationscould stump offshore production growth for years, if not permanently. Then there are the bankruptcies. According to Rystad Energy, the Covid-19 pandemic could lead to a drop of $5 billion in oilfield services purchases in Europea continent that extracts almost all of its oil offshorewhich means that a fifth of providers of these services could go under. And Europe is not the only place where offshore oil accounts for most or all oil output. Related: Have Oil Traders Abandoned Fundamentals? Many frontier regions, notably in Africa and South America, would suffer setbacks because of the crisis, which IHS Markit estimates may wipe out 14 percent of oil demand this quarter. Thats about 14 million bpd, based on 2019 oil demand of some 100 million bpd. Others are more pessimistic. BP expects demand decline during the second quarter of 16 million bpd. Rystad estimates demand loss at as much as 27 million bpd for April alone, and Trafigura sees the April demand loss at 35 million bpd. Offshore oil accounts for almost a third of the global total. It tends to be costlier to extract than onshore oil, but it has a longer life than unconventional onshore oil. A whole segment of oilfield services is focused exclusively on offshore drilling and production. Many of the companies in that segment might not survive the crisis. And then there are the wider economic repercussions of the offshore oil crisis. For areas such as Brazil and the Gulf of Guinea, project delays and cancellations in offshore projects, which have suddenly become too expensive to develop, would mean economic trouble on top of already weak oil revenues because of international prices. Last time, offshore oil emerged from the crisis leaner, more cost-efficient, and with lower breakevens, among the supermajors, at least. We are yet to see how the industry will emerge from this crisis. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Manila: The coronavirus pandemic is giving Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte a reason to reduce overcrowding in Manila, which in recent decades has swelled into one of the most heavily populated areas on Earth. Duterte is offering cash and goods to induce city-dwellers to move out of the greater capital region in an ambitious program called "Back to the Province", one of the most aggressive attempts in decades to lure Filipinos to the countryside. With the pandemic exposing how swift population growth and urban migration have overstretched the city's transport, utility and health services, the government is now attempting to alter long-entrenched patterns of labour mobility. A worker wearing a novelty face mask is illuminated by a traffic light in Manila on Monday, the first day of relaxed quarantine measures. Credit:Getty Images The program is designed to help people like Joel Gortina, a 38-year-old electrician, who wants to return to Cebu province after 15 years studying and working in Manila. With work drying up amid the outbreak, Gortina planned to leave the city in mid-March, but got stuck when much of the country was placed on lockdown. "I have no work. I have no money left. I was kicked out of my boarding house," said Gortina, who has been sleeping mostly under roadway overpasses. "It's a crisis here." Chanting, enough is enough, hundreds of protesters are in Asbury Park protesting the police killing of George Floyd a week ago in Minnesota. Its one of several demonstrations that have taken place across New Jersey after the death of Floyd, who was killed after an officer knelt a knee on his neck for about nine minutes. About 200 protesters remained by 9:30 p.m., when police began attempting to disperse the crowd. Asbury Park earlier in the day announced a curfew for 8 p.m. Monday, which will conclude at 5 a.m. Tuesday. The protest started at 5 p.m. We want police to be fair with us, just like they are fair with other cultures. We just want a chance too," Jean Gue of Ocean Township, who grew up in Asbury Park, said. If youre going to arrest us, arrest us the proper way. We dont want to die while were getting arrested. We dont want to die while getting pulled over. We just want justice, Gue said. Former Asbury Park Mayor Myra Campbell, the citys first first female, African American mayor, addressed the crowd. Dont give up. Be consistent. Dont give up, ever, because thats the only way you will make progress in this movement, she said. Protesters chanting enough is enough pic.twitter.com/6H4gw302Mj Avalon Zoppo (@AvalonZoppo) June 1, 2020 Anna Johnson, of Matawan, was also among those in attendance. Being here is so moving and powerful," Johnson said. A lot of people try to say theres a divide, but just coming here and seeing young, old, black, white, Hispanic, just reinforces the idea that its not about black or white its about the people versus a racist institution, and police brutality, Johnson said. Though billed as a speaking event, participants began marching after about an hour. The main organizer, Felicia Simmons, had urged everyone to stay by the post office steps. Some were saying, hand ups, dont shoot, as they walked down a street, and eventually toward the boardwalk. On Main Street, police officers from several departments including Ocean Township, Belmar, Fair Haven Rumson, and the county prosecutors office knelt with protesters, eliciting applause. When a few protesters began yelling at officers lined up outside the police station, other protesters began shouting, keep the peace. Demonstrations in New Jerseys largest cities have been mostly peaceful with protestors doing a line dance in the middle of the street in Newark, and the police chief marching alongside residents and helping them hold a banner in Camden. But both Trenton and Atlantic City became hotbeds for looting and vandalism Sunday night, hours after peaceful protests ended. More than 60 businesses were vandalized in Trenton, causing hundreds of thousands in damage. And in Atlantic City, 17 people were arrested after windows were smashed in and merchandise was stolen from clothing stores at the Tanger Outlets. Police on roof of Asbury Park City Hall watch the crowd, On Monday June 1, 2020.Andy Mills / NJ Advance Media for NJ.com Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Several gun stores in Central Alabama say they saw a jump in firearm and ammo sales Monday in reaction to Sunday nights vandalism following a day of peaceful protests in downtown Birmingham. Everyone is making ammo runs, said Alabama Guns and Outdoors Owner Russell England about sales Monday, a response, he says, to (the) current state of the world. The stores business was already booming, first from coronavirus, and again since nationwide protests against the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. Its been all week really. It started right after the TV started putting all these riots on TV, said Randal Murphree, who owns Murphrees Guns in Blount County. Anytime theres unrest, it seems like thats when it happens, he said of rising gun sales for self-defense. Murphree recalls gun sale upticks after the election of president Bill Clinton and in reaction to various gun control battles in Congress. But this Spring, with coronavirus sales went up. In March I sold more guns that I have in 30 years, he said. And now, protests sometimes turning into revolts against police-involved killings, has changed things. New gun owners, people who didnt used to like or want guns and dont know how to use them, are coming into his store. I think the destructive part is what bothers the public, he said of the protests, adding he doesnt see the connection between vandalism and Floyds death. I think its terrible what happened to (Floyd), and the people who did it should pay. Murphree says business is so brisk hes sold out of Glock pistols and is having a hard time getting a resupply. Right now, its hard to get guns. Shane Thomas at Birmingham Pistol Wholesale said hes also seen a busy Monday after Sunday nights vandalism in downtown Birmingham. Folks are just coming in and as fast as you can wait on them, he said. Its part of an upward trend for Thomas. His stores also saw a 40 percent increase in sales in March because of coronavirus. This week sales are doubled from two weeks ago. He says he doesnt get a chance to ask people about why they are purchasing guns and ammo now. Theres an overwhelming amount of customers so theres not much time to talk, he said, But Thomas believes the sales are a reaction to Sunday night. I think its fueled by scared residents of Jefferson County, he said. Central Alabamians may not be alone in clamoring for weapons. Gun stocks jumped in value Monday, reflecting investors expectations that sales will increase nationwide. To Murphree, the Blount County store owner, the reaction among people watching the unrest on TV is a fear instinct. When people get angry they do things they wouldnt normally do, he said of protesters. - A Nigerian man identified as Tunde Omotoye says he travelled to Canada as a student five years ago, unsure of what the future had for him - He says despite the uncertainty, he has launched his own company in the North American country - His company's aim is to help immigrants like him navigate their immigration and career journeys confidently and swiftly Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in A Nigerian man who arrived Canada as a student five years ago has taken to Twitter to share his success story. The man identified as Tunde Omotoye said he arrived Canada five years ago as a student who was unsure of what the future had for him in the North American country. Despite the uncertainty, he revealed that he has launched his own country five years after leaving the shores of Nigeria. According to Omotoye, his company's aim is to help immigrants like him navigate their immigration and career journeys confidently and swiftly. He tweeted: "5 years ago, I arrived Canada. A student unsure of what the future had for me in Canada. "Today, I launched a Canadian company that will help immigrants like me navigate their immigration and career journeys confidently and swiftly. "Pay close attention to my journey." In other news, at just 14 years of age, Dorothy Jean Tillman of Chicago has become a perfect example of black excellence after she obtained her graduate degree from Unity College in the United States. Through distance learning, the teen prodigy grabbed her masters degree in sustainable science and environmental planning. At just 8 months old she began talking, by four she was completing math problems and by nine she was starting high school. Tillman has always loved learning and once she finished high school, she figured she should pursue her associate's degree which worked in her favour since many of the credits counted towards her bachelors. She just kept going and at the age of 12, she earned her bachelors degree in humanities from Excelsior College. Before that, Tillman earned her associates degree in psychology from the College of Lake County at the age of 10. With interest in STEM, she went on to pursue a graduate course in sustainable science and environmental planning. Enjoyed reading our story? Download YEN's news app on Google Playstore now and stay up-to-date with major Ghana news! Bawumia fires Mahama - Stop embarrassing yourself; always check the data before you talk | #Yencomgh Want to be featured on YEN.com.gh? Send us a message on our Facebook page or on Instagram with your stories, photos or videos Source: YEN.com.gh Children under the age of 16 would be able to legally change their gender under plans being discussed by Fine Gael. A Fine Gael policy paper drafted for the government formation talks recommends changing laws to allow all children change their gender. Read More Under current legislation in Ireland, only those over the age of 18 can legally do so. Children aged 16 and 17 can apply to the courts to have their gender changed if they have parental consent and medical approval. However, in the report drafted by Fine Gael's LGBT committee, it is recommended that these children should be free to legally self-declare their own gender. The committee, which includes Taoiseach Leo Varadkar as a member, also says laws need to be changed to allow all children under 16 change their gender with parental approval. It says laws should be changed to "permit children aged under 16 years of age to secure legal recognition of gender by removing the criterion relating to minimum age". The 15-page report also recommends that the Gender Recognition Act 2015 be changed to "allow for the recognition of a gender other than male or female in law". It says that current legislation allows changes of gender "only from female to male and from male to female". "Where a person declares in the female gender, the sex of that person will be listed as female and where a person declares as male gender, the sex will be listed as male," it adds. The committee notes that a number of countries, including Germany, Denmark and Canada, allow people to declare a "third gender" on official documentation. It recommends that the next government should allow people who do not consider themselves either male or female to be permitted to mark X on their passports. This would mean Irish passports would have three gender categories - male, female and X. The policy paper also calls for changes to the Road Traffic Act to allow for the introduction of rainbow-coloured pedestrian crossings. The legislation at present allows only black and white markings and the Dail would have to pass an amendment to allow rainbow-coloured crossings similar to those in Brussels, San Francisco and Sydney. The report says Dublin City Council officials have welcomed the idea of commemorating the passing of the Marriage Equality Act with a rainbow crossing - but are prohibited from doing so by legislation. The committee also calls for an easing of restrictions on gay men who wish to donate blood. Gay men who wish to give blood must not engage in sexual activity for 12 months before donating under laws introduced in 2016. Prior to this, they were banned from donating blood. The Fine Gael LGBT committee wants the deferral period of sexual activity reduced to three months as in Britain and Northern Ireland. It also called for controversial conversion therapies to be banned in Ireland because they can be "extremely damaging to a person's mental health and, in certain circumstances, physical wellbeing". It also wants major legislative reforms to address the "alarming" lack of LGBT sex education in schools. The report also says the Government's Anti-Bullying Plan should be updated to recognise gender identity bullying. It also called for the criminal records for homosexual men convicted of historical offences to be expunged. YEREVAN, 2 JUNE, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 2 June, USD exchange rate down by 0.53 drams to 482.49 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 2.50 drams to 539.28 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.10 drams to 7.02 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 7.88 drams to 606.25 drams. The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals. Gold price up by 0.02 drams to 26845.78 drams. Silver price up by 8.55 drams to 281.71 drams. Platinum price up by 79.01 drams to 12890.81 drams. Government leaders promise to do "everything possible" to ensure inter-religious harmony and respect for minorities. Fahrettin Altun: violence "is an element of profound pain" and "will not go unpunished". A man detained over attack on church of St. Gregory the Illuminator in Galata. Istanbul (AsiaNews) - After the repeated cases of violence against Christians, the Turkish authorities have admitted the problem and are trying to take cover by ensuring that they will do "everything possible" to ensure inter-religious harmony and respect for minorities. The director of communications of the Fahrettin Altun government intervened on the matter, promising to protect "peace and harmony between Turks and members of other minority faiths", following the two recent attacks that hit the Armenian churches in Istanbul. According to reports from the Turkish official agency Anadolu, confessional violence "is an element of profound pain" and "will not go unpunished" for government authorities. The attacks, continues Altun who is also head of communications for President Erdogan, will be followed by thorough investigations and those responsible for the violence will be prosecuted by criminal justice. He added that the executive is firm in condemning any gesture that could "undermine fraternity" in the country and that "all resources will be deployed" to ward off any further episode of violence. Finally, he said he called the leaders of the Armenian church Surp Krikor on behalf of the government and institutions, expressing his displeasure and apologies for the attack. The words of the presidential communications manager follow the attack, which took place last week, on an Armenian church in Kuzguncuk, a suburb of Istanbul, in which an unknown assailant removed the cross from the facade of the building. The ecclesiastical authorities have filed a complaint and have put a new cross in place of the one torn down. Following the complaint, law enforcement officers stopped a suspect who is now in pre-trial detention in prison, pending further investigation. At the moment the police did not want to reveal the identity of the arrested man and the motive for the attack, which is part of a context of growing violence towards Christians in the country fueled - according to some activists and opponents - by state apparatuses. Attacks and violence in the name of nationalism and Islam, according to an anti-Christian policy not only affect the churches but also people. This is testified by the story of a Christian married couple, Houmouz Diril and his wife Simoni, who disappeared in south-east Turkey in January. In the second half of March the corpse of the woman was found while there is still no sign of her husband five months later. Opposition parliamentarian Tuma Celik concludes: We are been given the impression that powerful people of the state apparatus want to prevent a new Christian presence in the area through arrests and disappearances, even of priests". The railways has deployed its disaster management units in Maharashtra to deal with any operational challenges presented by cyclone Nisarga that is projected to make a landfall in the coastal region close to Alibag in Raigad district of Maharashtra tomorrow afternoon before moving to Gujarat and said that services on the central, western and Konkan railway will continue for passenger trains and Shramik specials. The railways disaster management units will be positioned near the railway tracks to monitor water logging on the tracks following rains accompanying the cyclone. The state government had earlier today requested the railways to tweak schedules if necessary in the view of the impending cyclone so that the operation of Shramik specialstrain service being run to ferry migrants to their home statesis not impacted. As the appointed hour of cyclone Nisargas landfall comes closer, the disaster management preparations on the ground have gained further momentum with the decision to deploy five additional teams of NDRF in Mumbai. The additional units being airlifted from Vishakhapatnam this evening will take the total number of NDRF teams in Mumbai to eight. Each of these have around 45 personnel and they are laced with equipment such as rescue boats, tree and pole cutters, life jackets, ropes, breathing masks, floaters, etc. Also Read: Cyclone Nisarga expected to bring 100 kmph winds: All you need to know A total of 20 NDRF teams have been put on active duty in Maharashtra including eight in Mumbai, four in Raigad, two each in Ratnagiri, Palghar and Thane and one each in Sindhudurg and Navi Mumbai. Evacuation of people living in mud houses in Palghar and other areas in the projected path of the cyclone has been carried out. Six Maharashtra districts have been put on alert including Mumbai, Raigad, Thane, Palghar, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg. Indian Coast Guard ships, aircraft and on shore stations are also continuously relaying warnings about impending adverse weather to merchant vessels and the fishermen. The Brihanmumbai electricity supply and transport (BEST) undertaking, which supplies power to Mumbai city, has put teams of engineers on standby to ensure supply restoration, especially to Covid hospitals and care centres, in case of a power failure. Coved-19 patients have been shifted from BKC Covid quarantine center to NSCI Worli quarantine Center due to the cyclone alert in Mumbai. Drills have been conducted at Girgaon and all six beaches to ensure ground coordination between beach safety and flood response teams. As of Tuesday afternoon, the cyclonic storm Nisarga was reported to be moving northwards from eastcentral Arabian Sea with a speed of 13 kmph and was stationed about 290 km west-northwest of Panjim in Goa, 380 km south-southwest of Mumbai and 600 km south-southwest of Surat at around 2:30 pm on Tuesday, according to the weather department. Also Read: Cyclone Nisarga: IMD issues red alert for Mumbai It said that was very likely to intensify into a severe cyclonic storm during the next 12 hours and move and cross north Maharashtra and adjoining south Gujarat coast between Harihareshwar and Daman, close to Alibag in Raigad during the afternoon of 03rd June with a maximum sustained wind speed of 100-110 kmph gusting to 120 kmph. NEW YORK, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- KEY FINDINGS The global AR in healthcare market is projected to record growth at a CAGR of 15.64% during the forecast period of 2019-2028. Advancement of technology in healthcare, growth in startups providing AR technology and services, improvement expenditure on healthcare, increasing AR application in the healthcare industry, and growing aging population are some of the crucial factors boosting the global market growth. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05903630/?utm_source=PRN MARKET INSIGHTS Healthcare is emerging as one of the significant sectors integrating the use of AR in its existing system.This is changing and enhancing the overall experience of both, healthcare professionals and patients. Ongoing innovation and upgradation of existing technology with the help of startups has led to the development of new products that can enhance the healthcare industry in terms of quality and efficiency.The scarcity of trained professionals who can perform AR procedures is restraining market growth. Health professionals living in remote areas are not trained and lack the infrastructure to use AR technology. The hospitals & clinics are the largest and fastest-growing end-user of AR in the healthcare market.The head-mounted technology segment is expected to record the highest growth rate during the forecast period. Low product differentiation and minor trading off costs result in the moderate bargaining power of the buyers. REGIONAL INSIGHTS The global AR in healthcare market growth is analyzed across the regions of North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. As of 2019, the region of North America contributed the largest revenue share, owing to a surge in government and private expenditure towards the development of AR technologies for the healthcare sector, and availability of advanced healthcare infrastructure in the region. COMPETITIVE INSIGHTS The competitive rivalry among manufacturers is high in the market due to low product differentiation and nominal exit costs. Some of the leading players in the market are Koninklijke Philips NV, Auriga SPA, Microsoft Corporation, Siemens, Sony Corporation, etc. Our report offerings include: Explore key findings of the overall market Strategic breakdown of market dynamics (Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities, Challenges) Market forecasts for a minimum of 9 years, along with 3 years of historical data for all segments, sub-segments, and regions Market Segmentation cater to a thorough assessment of key segments with their market estimations Geographical Analysis: Assessments of the mentioned regions and country-level segments with their market share Key analytics: Porter's Five Forces Analysis, Vendor Landscape, Opportunity Matrix, Key Buying Criteria, etc. Competitive landscape is the theoretical explanation of the key companies based on factors, market share, etc. Company profiling: A detailed company overview, product/services offered, SCOT analysis, and recent strategic developments Companies mentioned 1. AURIGA SPA 2. ALPHABET INC (GOOGLE) 3. MICROSOFT CORPORATION 4. SONY CORPORATION 5. SIEMENS 6. KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS NV 7. ACCUVEIN INC 8. ECHOPIXEL 9. DAQRI 10. ORCA HEALTH Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05903630/?utm_source=PRN About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker Related Links www.reportlinker.com Regarding the killing of George Floyd: As the world has watched yet another senseless death because of a horrible decision by a police officer, and the officers who stood by and did nothing, we must pause and reflect: What role have we played in this behavior that has become more and more frequent? We cannot sit back and ignore this heinous behavior without calling it out for what it is a violent act of racism. We must act, or we are no better than those who have taken Floyds life. As mayor, I am tasked with ensuring the welfare of our community. I take that responsibility seriously. We are beyond lucky to live in a community that is safe for all families because we have a police department with officers who are a part of our community. They were chosen because of the value they have for life and their ability to contribute to our health and safety. As chief of police, every single one of my officers share my values. They place the health and public safety of this community above all else. They would not stand idly by while one of their own senselessly took the life of another, and neither would I. To anyone who would question our commitment to community safety: There is zero tolerance for unethical or racist behavior in the Town of Clinton Police Department. My fellow officers and I will not tolerate the behavior that led to the terrible death of George Floyd. We want to reassure you that we are trained to do what is right. If we fail to do our duty, we will be punished by law. Together, we call on all members of law enforcement and elected officials to join us in denouncing this behavior publicly and saying "NO MORE." Janice Kovach, Mayor Cory Kubinak, Chief of Police Town of Clinton Pride in how Newark reacted George Floyd died needlessly. But, by all accounts, he was a peaceful man. His girlfriend has pleaded to remind others that George would not have wanted violence as a reaction to his tragic death. I shared in a collective pride that Newark made national news for having peaceful protests this past weekend, unlike the terrible violence in so many other cities. We all need to remember that non-violence will ultimately win over the alternative. Our society, still in the midst of recovering from a global pandemic, needs to heal in so many ways. The separation of people is mirrored by the division of those choosing to protest peacefully and those choosing to riot thoughtlessly. Every police officer I know, and those whose thoughts have been shared publicly, agree that what happened in Minnesota was a horrific act perpetrated by an individual whose behavior was the antithesis of his sworn mission. I am not a Republican or a Democrat, nor a liberal or conservative. I'm a white immigration lawyer who has spent half his life trying to help people of all different colors. Many of my immigration clients are essential workers, including firefighters, paramedics, nurses, doctors, and, indeed, law enforcement personnel. Violence only creates more division. I hope and pray that the police and politicians in every city in America take their lead from Newark; Flint, Michigan; Schenectady, New York, and Santa Cruz, California, just to share some significant examples. Everybody should have the right to breathe without fear. Harlan York, Newark The writer is former immigration chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association. Dont view civil unrest as uplifting Whoever penned the June 2 Star-Ledger editorial (Violence aside, protests provide moments of unity, beauty) celebrating uplifting elements of the civil unrest currently permeating this country probably returns to their ivory-castle home each night unscathed and intact. If pontification, bloviating and inane idealism could cure the ills of this world, Utopia should have been created over the past few days in America. There are both white and Black people whose lives and livelihoods have been utterly decimated over the past few evenings by thugs and worse, who also happen to be of both races. Does that make the editorial writer feel better, too equality in lawbreaking and misery production? What is even more tragic is that this editorial mirrors the sentimentality and naivety of the progressive elected officials whose hands-off posture feeds this wave of civil disorder. A pox on all of their houses! Frank P. Puzycki, Long Valley Martial law if Trump loses in November? What we saw when police and National Guard members broke up a George Floyd demonstration near the White House on June 1 so that President Donald Trump could walk from there to a church that was previously vandalized looked like the Chinese government breaking up a protest in Peking. More and more, Trump acts as if hes the president of China. He thinks he can run the country like he ran his The Apprentice television show. I greatly fear for the true rule of law and the Constitution in this country. Will this man declare martial law if he doesnt win re-election? No wonder he admires North Korean leader Kim Jung Un. Allen Edelstein, Highland Park Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. The Star-Ledger/NJ.com encourages submissions of opinion. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow us on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and on Facebook at NJ.com Opinion. Get the latest news updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. Kyushu Railway Company Faces Second Proxy Fight with Fir Tree Partners ISS, Glass Lewis Backed Fir Tree Last Year But Activist Lost by Narrow Margin Kyushu Railway Company Appears Slow to Embrace Modern Corporate Governance Fir Tree Wants More Transparency, Nominated Three Directors with Financial, ESG Backgrounds Kyushu Railway Company Continues to Trade at Discount to Peers By John Jannarone Long known for entrenchment and all-too-cozy relationships with shareholders, Japan has made a concerted effort in recent years to bring corporate governance up to a higher standard. But as the case of Kyushu Railway Company shows, progress can be slow. Now, a longtime shareholder is making a second push to get the company on the right track. Kyushu Railway Company, also known as JR Kyushu, is the incumbent railway operator on the Japanese island of Kyushu, where it operates the shinkansen bullet train along with hotels and real estate assets in other locations. It was the last of the major government-owned railway companies in the JR family to go public in 2016. Fir Tree Partners, which invested at the IPO and now owns 6.1% of the company, made several proposals last year that narrowly failed to pass. The investment advisor asked the company to adopt a board structure designed for stronger corporate governance and suggested three directors who brought experience in finance and real estate. Notably, both Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) and Glass, Lewis & Co. supported key elements of the Fir Tree proposal package. Why did the proposals fail? Some of the reason likely has to do with traditional corporate relationships in Japan. Under the keiretsu system, Japanese companies formed a protection network involving cross shareholding, virtually ensuring boards and management were protected from voices of dissent. Corporate governance experts in Japan say many companies, especially former state-owned enterprises like JR Kyushu, are still hobbled by such traditional practices. Story continues Indeed, high on the JR Kyushu shareholder register are companies such as West Japan Railway Company, East Japan Railway Company, and Kyudenko Corporation all of which look unlikely to side with an activist. Even companies that do contract work such as construction projects may be required to own shares to get chance at bidding for an assignment, Japanese corporate governance experts say, which can further entrench incumbent management or directors. Perhaps surprisingly, there was another shareholder last year that voted against all of the Fir Tree proposals: BlackRock, Inc. The U.S.-based asset manager (and the companys biggest shareholder) even voted to leave one board seat empty rather than take any of Fir Trees suggestions. BlackRock has spearheaded a drive for better environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues around the world, but appears to take a different stance in Japan. Thats despite the fact that BlackRock publishes a voting framework indicating high corporate governance standards for Japanese companies. For example, according to the firms voting guidelines for Japanese companies, it supports an audit-committee structure or a three -committee structure. Fir Tree proposed a three-committee structure last year, which is regarded as the stronger of the two options for corporate governance, but BlackRock voted against it. At least one large Japanese investor seems impatient with BlackRock. Japans Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), the worlds largest pension manager, pulled some assets from BlackRock in 2019. According to an interview with GPIFs Chief Investment Officer in The Financial Times, BlackRocks overall voting record played a role in the decision. [W]e have been tracking the consistency of their engagement and proxy voting, GPIFs Hiro Mizuno said to the FT. Spokesmen for BlackRock and Fir Tree both declined to comment to CorpGov. This year, Fir Trees proposals look tougher to brush off. They dont include buybacks or other measures that could be regarded as short-term solutions and instead focus on corporate governance issues. One of Fir Trees requests is for better financial disclosure that will allow investors to evaluate JR Kyushus real estate assets, which account for roughly half of its profit. Fir Tree is asking for disclosure of revenues, EBITDA, net operating income and appraised cap rates for each of the companys commercial and residential real estate assets, as well as growth capex details. We are keenly aware of the importance of disclosing information, and is constantly examining ways to enhance information disclosure of the real estate business, JR Kyushu spokesman Yasuhisa Miura said in an email to CorpGov. We believe the proposal from Fir Tree does not reflect the interest of other shareholders, whose needs we have been trying to recognize through engagement with our shareholders and investors. (Notably, BlackRock seems to value disclosure at Japanese companies. Its voting guidelines state that financial transparency is crucial for a company to enjoy favorable valuations in the capital market. We thus expect companies to maintain a high level of accountability to their shareholders.) Also, Fir Tree has nominated three new directors all Japanese with extensive experience in the country who bring a skill set that is more important than ever as the company responds to the impact of the coronavirus. As the pandemic took its toll, JR Kyushu said it needs to focus on areas such as evaluation of financing alternatives, securing liquidity, and reevaluation of the business portfolio. Fir Tree worked with third parties to recommend directors on a friendly basis in the last several months but the company rejected all of them and again recommends one seat remain vacant. One of Fir Trees nominees is Fumiyo Takei, who brings two decades of experience in investment banking and real estate, including roles at bulge-bracket banks and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC). Ms. Takei is also a woman an important addition to a board comprised of all but one man. The second nominee, Yoshiko Nagao, is also a woman, with extensive background in real estate investment including roles at GIC and other major firms. She is also focused on ESG investing initiatives as an active member of NEXUS Global, The ImPact and Toniic, a global community of asset owners seeking to make a positive impact on the planet. The third nominee, Daizo Motoyoshi, has a Columbia MBA and three decades of experience in finance. He also brings important ESG credentials as an Audit & Supervisory Board Member at The Board Director Training Institute of Japan, which promotes best governance practice to Japanese corporate leaders. Regarding Director election proposed by Fir Tree, we already appointed additional outside directors with knowledge of finance / IR and real estate (development) in June 2019, JR Kyushus Mr. Miura said in an email to CorpGov. Our Nomination and Compensation Advisory Committee discussed the skillsets of the Board of Directors necessary for increasing corporate value over the medium and long term, and decided that JR Kyushu should keep the existing structure of the Board of Directors and increase capable personnel who can promote ESG management and diversity. For Fir Trees directors to join the board, only two existing members need to exit since once seat is vacant. Fir Tree has suggested the removal of two people who have the longest tenure for outside board directors and appear to lack any real estate investment or ESG experience. JR Kyushu looks undervalued relative to peers, especially considering its exposure to real estate, which tends to command a higher valuation than railway assets. The company trades at an enterprise value of 8.8 times March 2021 consensus EBITDA, according to Sentieo, an AI-enabled research platform. West Japan Railway Company trades at 9.7 times and Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc. trades at 12 times. To narrow the valuation gap, change is likely needed at JR Kyushu. With the vote approaching later in June, investors would be well served to accept the latest shareholder proposals and get JR Kyushu on the corporate governance train. Contact: editor@corpgov.com www.CorpGov.com Editor@CorpGov.com Twitter: @CorpGovernor ANCHORAGE, Alaska - In April, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Atqasuks tribal co-ordinator Millie Frankson received word that the grocery order she was counting on wouldnt be delivered to her remote arctic village. To get her $535 worth of food, she would have to drive two hours on a makeshift road across the ice to reach a cargo storage facility in Utqiagvik, where her purchase remained. I was lucky enough that the ice road was still open, she said. The unexpected trip was due to the abrupt shutdown of Alaskas largest regional airline, Ravn Air Group, which on April 4 announced it had filed for bankruptcy, citing the COVID-19 pandemic and the unprecedented loss of 90 per cent of passenger revenue. The airline halted all service with only a few hours notice, leaving people in the more than 115 Alaska communities it served with little to no time to make other arrangements. Nearly all of them are accessible only by plane or boat. In the days that followed, community leaders, the U.S. Postal Service, and other local air carriers scrambled to ensure essential freight would reach Alaskas remote villages and passengers could get where they were going. I was impressed with the leadership, and just how adaptable we were in a couple days, U.S. Postal Service representative David Rupert said of the combined effort. The sudden closure exposed vulnerabilities in a supply chain that relies heavily on air travel to deliver everything from building supplies and car parts to bananas, baby food, laundry detergent and mail to hundreds of communities. (Ravns closure) hit the North Slope really hard, said Frankson. It was just a big shock to the whole North Slope Borough. Like, how are we gonna get our food, our mail, our medical needs? Air service is vital in Alaska, where about 82% of communities lack road connections, according to the states transportation agency. But the pandemic has limited travel and flights in the state, forcing some air carriers to manage increased loads. Villages are taking steps to prepare in response to the uncertainty. The Native Village of Deering has been providing additional fuel and ammunition for subsistence use, so residents can hunt for caribou and ptarmigan if cargo shipments are delayed. Similarly, the Organized Village of Kake recently requested emergency permits to hunt deer and moose out of season, after their grocery shipments didnt arrive on schedule. Frankson started devising a plan to get the food shed ordered from an Anchorage store to her Atqasuk home soon after getting word that completely out of nowhere, Ravn Air had shut down. Such orders already face a long journey to the village of 300 people. Another airline, Northern Air Cargo, carries them the 900 miles from Anchorage to Utquiagvik. But Northerns planes cant land at Atqasuks small runway, so the food is transferred to Ravn for the last 60 miles. Northern Air Cargo still had access to Ravns cargo area the day Ravn closed, so Frankson called her sister to pick up the meat package during business hours. Me and my other half drove on the ice road. It took us two and a half, three hours to drive and get our food. So we lucked out. Frankson was worried others may have had fresh produce, fruit and meat still sitting at Ravn. Almost all of the communities served by the airline are accessible only by plane or boat. For about 20 villages, RavnAir was their sole air service provider. (Ravn) had a very big footprint, and when a large, strong carrier goes out of business in just a short period of time and closes that many stations and discontinues that many flights its very disruptive to a small market, explained Rob Everts, president of Everts Air Cargo, an airline company based in Fairbanks. Filling the gap in service was a logistically complicated process that involved about a half-dozen other local carriers, including Grant Aviation, Ryan Air and Everts Air Cargo. The states various regions can be vastly different from one another in terms of weather, geography, population and demands. Seventy-two communities are going to have 72 different ways of doing things, said Lee Ryan, president of Ryan Air, an Inupiaq-owned air cargo carrier based in Unalakleet that primarily serves western Alaska. While essentials are now reaching their intended destinations, the air carriers and villages are still adjusting to the changes caused by coronavirus and the Ravn bankruptcy. In Alaskas new normal, flights dont come as often or as reliably as they once did. There are fewer jet flights from Anchorage or regional hubs to smaller villages. Scheduling is more difficult, and trips can take longer. With fewer flights available for passengers, villagers are troubled that they cannot travel to do household shopping. Also, some air carriers are having to take on much larger loads while still ensuring they have the necessary equipment to do so safely. Ive been amazed at our team, at how well theyve adapted to move the kind of mail weve needed to, said Rob Kelley, president of Grant Aviation, which serves communities throughout southwest Alaska, an area slightly larger than California. It used to be 25,000 to 30,000 pounds would get moved out of Bethel on a busy day. A couple weeks ago, they moved 87,000 pounds of mail in one day, Kelley said. Its been helpful that fewer people have been travelling due to social distancing orders. This has enabled the carriers to focus on cargo delivery for the time being. However, there will be new considerations when passenger travel starts to open up again. How do you maintain the whole social distancing while you have to get in a small airplane and fly to a larger community to grocery shop, and then when you get there, inventories are down and groceries that you might have needed are gone? asked Alice Ruby, mayor of Dillingham. Questions also remain about what flight prices, routes and schedules will look like in the altered aviation landscape. I think when the passengers start moving again, what they will see is pretty reasonable transportation service, but it wont be with the frequency that they enjoyed in the past. And if its a one-time flight here and there, the pricing isnt necessarily gonna be the same, said Everts, of Everts Air Cargo. He believes the recent events could have lasting effects for people who live in remote Alaska. The states aviation community seems committed to working through the changes. This week, several stakeholders met for an Aviation Advisory Board Task Force Meeting to discuss the issues. Being an Alaska Native-owned (airline) company, just serving our people is the baseline of everything, Ryan said. You conduct good business, but you keep the focus on the people and ensure that their needs are met. And then everything else should fall into place. Governments new schemes are aimed at boosting electronic production and creating more jobs in India. The government on Tuesday announced three new schemes to boost production in the electronics sector in India as a part of its Aatmanirbhar Bharat plan. These schemes not only aim to invite global tech companies to set up roots in India but they also aim to help the local tech companies grow while incentivising them for the milestones that they achieve. The global and local will work together to make India a manufacturing hub..a talented country supporting the global chaim, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology ministry RS Prasad said while announcing the schemes. The first scheme announced by the government today is called the Production Linked Incentive. This scheme gives an incentive between 4% to 6%, which amounts to 40,995 crores, to the companies for increasing their production capacity in the country. This scheme is valid for a period of five years and the incentives will be applicable starting August 1, 2020. As a part of this scheme, the government is targeting mobile phones and electronic components manufacturers via this scheme. Companies can apply for this scheme by submitting their application via a new portal, pli.ifciltd.com, until July 31, 2020. The second scheme is the Scheme for Promotion of Electronic Components and Semiconductors (SPECS). This scheme gives an incentive of 25%, which amounts to 3,285 crores, on plant, machinery, equipment, research and development, utilities and transfer of technology. The government is targeting active and passive components, semiconductors, specialised sub assemblies and Assembly Testing Making and Production (ATMP) via this scheme. Additionally, the government has set a minimum threshold between 5 crore to 1,000 crore for the companies under this scheme. This scheme too is valid for five years and companies can apply for it via the governments specs.ifciltd.com portal. Last on the list in the Modified Electronics Manufacturing Cluster Scheme (EMC 2.0). This scheme gives an incentive of 50% of the project cost, which amounts to 3,762 crores, to the companies. With this scheme, the government aims to lure big companies along with their ancillaries to set up base in India. Apart from the incentive, the government is also giving a minimum land area of 200 acres (100 acres for North East and hill states) for large manufacturing clusters. The government has set up emc20.stpi.in portal to help the companies with the details. With these schemes the government aims to achieve five objectives, which include expansion of manufacturing base on the lines of Korea, China and Taiwan, developing a trusted value chain, 20%-30% higher value addition, increase foreign exchange savings and generate up to 10 lakh jobs in India. THE INFORMATION CONTAINED WITHIN THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS DEEMED BY WELNEY TO CONSTITUTE INSIDE INFORMATION AS STIPULATED UNDER THE MARKET ABUSE REGULATION (EU) NO. 596/2014, AS AMENDED ("MAR"). ON THE PUBLICATION OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT VIA A REGULATORY INFORMATION SERVICE ("RIS"), THIS INSIDE INFORMATION IS NOW CONSIDERED TO BE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. Welney plc ("Welney" or the "Company") Explanatory Circular and Notice of General Meeting Funding to Raise 50,000 before expenses, Capital Reorganisation and Change of Name General Meeting The Company is pleased to announce that it has today posted a notice convening a General Meeting of the Shareholders to be held on 29 June 2020 at 10:30 a.m. at the offices of Bushwood Accountants, The Barn, Tednambury Farm, Tednambury, Herts, CM23 4BD. Conditional on passing of the Resolution at the General Meeting, Simon Grant-Rennick and Mark Jackson will join the board of Directors. Information about Simon Grant-Rennick - Proposed Director Simon Grant-Rennick (62) has a background in mining and metals trading, and graduated in mining engineering at the Camborne School of Mines, now a faculty of the University of Exeter. He trades base metal concentrates on the world markets on behalf of several mining companies and has extensive knowledge of doing business in sub-Saharan Africa and other emerging markets. Information about Mark Jackson - Proposed Director Mark Jackson FCA, MBA (57), has been a chartered accountant for 30 years, and now runs his own audit and accountancy practice in Kingston upon Hull, East Yorkshire, advising clients on business and taxation issues. Proposed Share Sub-division and Consolidation It is proposed to consolidate the Ordinary Shares of GBP0.001 on a one for 100 basis. Each resulting Ordinary Share of GBP0.10 will simultaneously be sub-divided into one Ordinary Share of GBP0.001 each and one Deferred Share of GBP0.099 each, which latter class of share shall have no effective economic value or rights and in respect of which the Company proposes not to issue certificates or other evidence of title other than by means of recording holders' ownership in a register of holders of the Deferred Shares resulting from the Sub-division described above. Placing Subject to the Resolutions being passed at the General Meeting, the Company has conditionally, on a post Sub-division and Share Consolidation basis, placed 5,000,000 new Ordinary Shares at a price of GBP0.003, to raise GBP15,000 before expenses, representing approximately 22.5% of the Company's Enlarged Share Capital. Subscribers have also been procured for 35,000-worth of 5% unsecured loan stock which shall, under certain circumstances, be convertible - in full or in part - at the loan stock holders' option (but not at the option of the Company) into new Ordinary Shares of 0.1p at 0.3p per share. Proposed Name Change Conditional upon the passing of the other resolutions before shareholders at the General Meeting, a change of the Company's name from Welney Plc to Quetzal Capital plc shall be proposed. A copy of the Chairman's letter, the expected timetable of principal events and definitions' sections contained in the Circular, are set out in full below in this announcement, without material amendments or adjustments. The Directors of the Company have issued this announcement after due enquiry and they accept responsibility for its content. ENQUIRIES: Welney plc Darren Edmonston, Director Telephone: +44 (0)1279 635511 Corporate Adviser Keith, Bayley, Rogers & Co Limited Telephone: +44 (0)20 7464 4900 / +44 (0)7506 43 41 07 Graham.Atthill-Beck@kbrl.co.uk / Brinsley.Holman@kbrl.co.uk LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS WELNEY PLC (Incorporated and registered in England and Wales with the registered 05840813) Directors: Darren Edmonston Cameron Luck Registered Office: Welney plc The Barn, Tednambury Farm Tednambury Hertfordshire CM23 4BD Proposed Capital Reorganisation; Subscription for new Ordinary Shares; Changes of Directorate; Change of name; Notice of General Meeting Dear Shareholder, Introduction This Circular sets out the background to and the reasons for matters to be proposed at the General Meeting, the notice of which forms a part of the Document. It also explains why the Directors consider the Proposals to be in the best interests of the Company and Shareholders as a whole and why the recommend that Shareholders should vote in favour of the Resolutions to be proposed at the General Meeting. In the last month, the Company, following proposals put forward by the Proposed Directors, has worked on an informal creditors' voluntary arrangement, whereby they would receive cash and New Ordinary Shares in the company in settlement of the amounts due to them, the cash being provided by the Subscribers. Over 90% of the creditors have agreed to this proposal and I would like to thank these creditors for their support. The Company has conditionally placed 5,000,000 new Ordinary Shares at a price of GBP0.003 per share, raising GBP15,000 before expenses, pursuant to the Subscription. The funds raised will be used to recapitalise the Company. The Company has also conditionally raised 35,000 in unsecured, convertible loan stock. The loan stock shall bear interest at 5% per annum, payable annually in arrears. The New Ordinary Shares will be issued following the passing of the Resolutions and their allotment is conditional upon the passing of the Resolutions contained in this Notice. Conditional on the passing of the Resolutions, Cameron Luck will retire as a Director immediately following the conclusion of the General Meeting, and Simon Grant-Rennick and Mark Jackson will be appointed as Directors of the Company to join me on the board. A notice convening a General Meeting at 10:30 a.m. on 29 June 2020 at the offices of Bushwood Accountants, to consider the Resolutions, is set out at the end of this Circular. Background to and reasons for the Proposals With the Company having no material value and approximately GBP380,000 in creditors/debts as at 30 April 2020, the Company has taken the decision to put forward the Proposals to Shareholders. The Proposals will also facilitate the agreement under the informal creditors' arrangement, outlined in the introduction above. The Proposals are intended to give the Company a future. The Company was approached by investors and, after review, the Board has decided that the Proposals are in the best interests for Shareholders as a whole. Under the Proposals, the overheads of the Company will be reduced and the proposed Board changes, Subscription and other refinancing described here will give the Company a new direction. Share Consolidation, Share Sub-division and Subscription It is proposed that, simultaneously with the other proposed Resolutions, the share capital of the Company be reorganised as follows: (a) The Ordinary Shares of GBP0.001 will be consolidated into new ordinary shares of GBP0.10 each on the basis of the one New Ordinary Share for every 100 ordinary shares of GBP0.001 each. (b) Each existing Ordinary Share with a par value of GBP0.1 will then be subdivided into: (i) One ordinary share of GBP0.001 each; and (ii) One deferred share of GBP0.099 each Where the share capital reorganisation results in any Shareholder being entitled to a fraction of a new Ordinary Share, such fraction shall be aggregated and the Directors intend to sell (or appoint another person to sell) such aggregated fractions in the market and retain the net proceeds for the benefit of the Company. Existing share certificates will cease to be valid following the Share Consolidation. New share certificates in respect of the new Ordinary Shares will be issued on or around 21 June 2020. No certificates will be issued in respect of the Deferred Shares, nor will CREST accounts of Shareholders be credited in respect of any entitlement to the Deferred Shares. No application will be made for the Deferred Shares to be admitted to trading on the Aquis Exchange Growth Market or any other investment exchange. The new Ordinary Shares will be freely transferrable, and application will be made for the new Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on the Aquis Exchange Growth Market. The Deferred Shares will be transferable only with the consent of the Company and will not be admitted to trading on the Aquis Exchange Growth Market (or any other investment exchange or facility for the trading of unlisted securities). The holders of the Deferred Shares shall not, by virtue or in respect of their holdings of Deferred Shares, have any right to receive notice of any general meeting of the Company nor the right to attend, speak or vote at any such general meeting. Save as required by law, the Company need not issue share certificates to the holders of the Deferred Shares in respect of their holding thereof. The holders of Deferred Shares shall not be entitled to receive any dividend or distribution and shall only be entitled to any repayment of capital on a winding up once the holders of Ordinary Shares have received GBP1,000,000 in respect of each Ordinary Share held by them. One consequence of the Share Consolidation is that Shareholders holding fewer than 100 Existing Ordinary Shares will receive no Ordinary Shares. This consequence of the Share Consolidation is illustrated in the table below: Number of Existing Ordinary Shares currently held Number of New Ordinary Shares held 100 1 300 3 15000 150 To effect the Share Consolidation and Share Sub-division, it will be necessary to issue an additional 95 Existing Ordinary Shares so that the Company's issued ordinary share capital is exactly divisible by 100. These additional existing Ordinary Shares will be issued to the Registrar before the record date for the Share Consolidation and Sub-division. Since these additional shares would only represent a fraction of an Ordinary Share, this fraction will be held in the Company's treasury and accounted for when the next external audit is conducted, as the Company's auditors advise the Directors to be appropriate. Directors' Ordinary Shares and Options in the Company Conditional on approval of the Proposals, the Directors' interests in Ordinary Shares and rights to acquire Ordinary Shares in the Company will be as follows: Director Ordinary Shares Ordinary Shares as a percentage of the Enlarged Share Capital Darren Edmonston 431,309 1.95% Mark Jackson 4,060,000 18.3% Simon Grant-Rennick 2,500,000 11.3% Use of Proceeds The proceeds of the Subscription will be used for general working capital purposes. Dis-application of pre-emption rights and authority to allot shares In order to facilitate the proposed Subscription, allot New Ordinary Shares to certain creditors as described above and to enable the Company to raise further funds to implement its intended Investment Strategy with minimal limitations, it is necessary for the Directors to seek authority from Shareholders at the General Meeting pursuant to the Companies Act 2006, inter alia, to issue the Subscription Shares and to issue further Ordinary Shares for cash. The Directors may look to raise additional funds for the Company following the General Meeting, subject to any necessary resolutions being approved by the Shareholders. Full details of the authorities the Directors are seeking at the General Meeting are set out in the attached notice of General Meeting. Proposed Directors Subject to the Resolutions being passed, it is proposed that immediately following the General Meeting, Simon Grant-Rennick will join the Board as a non-executive director and Mark Jackson will join the board as an executive director. Cameron Luck shall retire with immediate effect and without compensation for loss of office, and shall waive all claims against the Company. In addition to the proposed directorships of the Company, the Proposed Directors hold or have held the following directorships (including directorships of companies registered in jurisdictions other than England and Wales), or have been a partner in the following partnerships, within the five years prior to the date of this Document: Director Current Directorships/ Partnerships Past Directorships/ Partnerships Mark Jackson Sport Capital Group plc Lombard Capital plc Ventura Finance Limited Quetzal Securities Limited Quetzal Capital Limited Small Company Reporting Limited Humberside Accountancy Courses Limited Simon Grant-Rennick Selection Mines Limited Global Recovery Limited IMFH Limited Standfast Press Limited IM Performance Minerals Limited Kardav Limited Gunmakers Hall Limited Glyncastle Resource Limited Elk Investments Limited Assertis Limited Langleycourt Properties Limited Langleycourt Limited Sport Capital Group Plc Philippine Gold Limited Jacoma Estates Limited Glyncastle Plc Anglo African Conservation Limited Glyncastle Mining Limited Force Commodities Limited HIPO Resources Limited All Active Asset Capital Limited There is no further information that is required to be disclosed pursuant to Appendix 1, Table A, paragraph 5.1.2 of the Aquis Exchange Growth Market - Rules for Issuers. Change of Name Subject to the Shareholders' approval of the other Proposals, it is proposed that the name of the company be changed to Quetzal Capital plc. Share certificates New share certificates will be issued in respect of the Ordinary Shares (following the Share Consolidation and Share Sub-division) held in certificated form if, as and when transfers of Ordinary Shares evidenced by certificates for Existing Ordinary Shares are presented to the registrar for certifying against the Company's share register and either a) the transferee specifies that he/she requires the Ordinary Shares being transferred to be in certificated form; and/or b) the transferor is due to receive a balance certificate, not having disposed of his/her entire holding of Ordinary Shares. Such new share certificates will be issued in the name of Quetzal Capital plc, and in post-Share Consolidation and Share Sub-division form. General Meeting There is attached to this Document and forming a part of it the notice convening a General Meeting of the Company to be held at the offices of Bushwood Accountants, at 10:30 a.m. on 29 June 2020 at which the Resolutions will be proposed, inter alia, to elect the Proposed Directors, to give the Directors authority to issue the New Ordinary Shares and to change the name of the Company. A summary of the Resolutions is set out below. Please note that unless all of the Resolutions are passed the Proposals outlined in this Document will not proceed. At the General Meeting, the following Resolutions will be proposed, of which Resolutions 1 to 4 will be proposed as ordinary resolutions and Resolutions 5 and 6 will be proposed as special resolutions: Resolution 1 - which will be proposed as an ordinary resolution, seeks approval for the Share Consolidation and Share Sub-division Resolution 2 - which will be proposed as an ordinary resolution, seeks approval to authorise the Directors to issue shares pursuant to section 551 of the Act Resolution 3 - which will be proposed as an ordinary resolution, seeks the election of Simon Grant-Rennick to the Board of the Company Resolution 4 - which will be proposed as an ordinary resolution, seeks the election of Mark Jackson to the Board of the Company Resolution 5 - which will be proposed as a special resolution, seeks approval to disapply the statutory pre-emption rights under section 561 of the Act Resolution 6 - which will be proposed as a special resolution, seeks approval to change the name of the company to Quetzal Capital plc Action to be taken Shareholders will find enclosed a Form of Proxy enclosed for use at the General Meeting. Whether or not you intend to be present at the General Meeting, you are requested to complete and return the Form of Proxy in accordance with the instructions printed thereon as soon as possible. To be valid, completed Forms of Proxy must be received by Registrars, not later than 10:30 a.m. on 16 June 2020, being 2 business days before the time appointed for holding the General Meeting. You are entitled to appoint a proxy to attend and to exercise all or any of your rights to vote and speak at the General Meeting instead of you. Completion of the Form of Proxy will not preclude you from attending and voting at the General Meeting in person if you wish. Your attention is drawn to the notes to the Form of Proxy. Recommendation The Directors considers the Proposals to be in the best interests of the Company and the Shareholders as a whole and therefore recommend that you vote in favour of the Resolutions, as the Directors intend to do in respect of their beneficial shareholdings. Yours faithfully, Darren Edmonston For and behalf of the Board Welney Plc EXPECTED TIMETABLE OF PRINCIPAL EVENTS Publication of this Document 2 June 2020 Latest time and date for receipt of Forms of Proxy in respect of the General Meeting 10:30 a.m. on 25 June 2020 Record Date for the General Meeting 6:00 p.m. on 25 June 2020 General Meeting 10:30 a.m. on 29 June 2020 Share Consolidation and Share Sub-division becomes effective 30 June 2020 Despatch of definitive certificates for New Ordinary Shares in certificated form w/c 6 July 2020 Issue of New Ordinary Shares and Admission of these to trading on Aquis Exchange Growth Market On or around 6 July 2020 CREST stock accounts credited with New Ordinary Shares in uncertificated form On or around 2 July 2020 Proposals and Subscription become effective 29 June 2020 SHARE CAPITAL STATISTICS Existing Ordinary Shares of GBP0.001 each in issue as at the date of the Document 1,545,511,405 Ordinary Shares of GBP0.001 each in issue after the Share Consolidation and Share Sub-division 15,455,115 New Ordinary Shares to be issued pursuant to the Subscription 5,000,000 New Ordinary Shares to be issued to certain creditors 1,690,620 Enlarged Share Capital 22,145,735 Subscription Shares as a percentage of the Enlarged Share Capital 22.6% Subscription Price 0.3 pence Gross proceeds of the Subscription and loans GBP50,000 Estimated net proceeds of the Subscription and loans GBP50,000 DEFINITIONS The following definitions apply throughout this Circular unless the context requires otherwise: "Act" the Companies Act 2006, as amended; "Admission" admission of the New Ordinary Shares to trading on the Aquis Exchange Growth Market, which is expected to become effective on or shortly after 6 July 2020; "Aquis Exchange" Aquis Exchange Limited, a recognised investment exchange under section 290 of FSMA, operated by Aquis Exchange plc; "Aquis Exchange Growth Market" the primary market for unlisted securities, operated by Aquis Exchange; "Aquis Exchange Rules" the Aquis Exchange Growth Market Rules for Issuers, which set out the admission requirements and continuing obligations of companies seeking admission to and whose shares are admitted to trading on the Aquis Exchange Growth Market; "Articles" of "Articles of Association" the articles of association of the Company from time to time; "Board" or "Directors" the directors of the Company at the date of this Document: Darren Edmonston and Cameron Luck. "Circular" or "Document" this document and its contents; "Company" or "Welney" Welney plc, a company registered in England and Wales with registered number 05840813; "Deferred Shares" the Deferred Shares of GBP0.099 each in the capital of the Company to be created by the Share Sub-Division described herein; "Directors" the directors of the Company as at the date of this Document; "Enlarged Share Capital" the issued ordinary share capital of the Company as enlarged by the issue of the Subscription Shares; "Existing Ordinary Shares" the ordinary shares of GBP0.001 each in the capital of the Company currently and prior to the proposed Share Consolidation and Share Sub-division; "FCA" the Financial Conduct Authority of the UK, a statutory body regulating the non-banking segment of the financial services sector under the Financial Services Act 2012, as amended; "Form of Proxy" the form of proxy accompanying the Circular for use at the General Meeting; "General Meeting" the General Meeting of Shareholders to be held at 10:30 a.m. on 29 June 2020, notice of which forms a part of the Document and any adjournments thereof; "Investment Strategy" the existing investment strategy of the Company as required by the Aquis Exchange Rules; "New Ordinary Shares" the 6,690,620 Ordinary Shares, including the Subscription Shares, to be issued if, as and when the Proposals become effective; "Ordinary Shares" ordinary shares of GBP0.001 each in capital of the Company, following the Share Consolidation and Share Sub-division; "Proposals" the proposals set out in this Circular, whereby Shareholders are being asked to consider and, if thought fit, approve the Resolutions set out in the General Meeting which forms a part of this Document; "Proposed Directors" Messrs. Simon Grant-Rennick and Mark Jackson, whose appointment as directors of the Company is conditional upon the passing of the Resolutions; "Resolutions"" the resolutions set in the notice of General Meeting contained within the Circular; "Shareholder(s)" holder(s) of Existing Ordinary Shares in the capital of the Company; "Share Consolidation" the consolidation of the Company's share capital in accordance with Resolution 1; "Share Sub-division" the sub-division of the Company's share capital into Deferred Shares and Ordinary Shares in accordance with Resolution 1; "Sterling" or "GBP" the pound Sterling, the lawful currency of the UK; "Subscriber" the subscribers for the Subscription Shares; "Subscription" the conditional subscription of the Subscription Shares at the Subscription Price; "Subscription Price" GBP0.003 (0.3 pence) per new Ordinary Share; "Subscription Shares" The 5,000,000 new Ordinary Shares to be issued by the Company pursuant to the Subscription; "UK" or "United Kingdom" the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. NOTICE OF GENERAL MEETING Notice is hereby given that a General Meeting ("Meeting") of Welney Plc ("Company") will be held on 29 June 2020 at 10.30 am at the offices of Bushwood Accountants, The Barn, Tednambury Farm, Tednambury, Herts. CM23 4BD for the purposes of considering and, if thought fit, passing the following Resolutions of which Resolutions 1 to 4 will be proposed as Ordinary Resolutions and Resolutions 5 and 6 will be proposed as Special Resolutions. ORDINARY RESOLUTIONS: 1. That the Company be authorised to consolidate the Existing Ordinary Shares of GBP0.001 each into shares of GBP0.10 and then to subdivide such shares into Ordinary Shares of GBP0.001 and Deferred Shares of GBP0.099 2. That the Directors be authorised to allot Ordinary Shares in the capital of the Company up to the sum of GBP28,836 pursuant to Section 551 of the Companies Act 2006 3. That Simon Grant-Rennick be elected to the board 4. That Mark Jackson be elected to the board SPECIAL RESOLUTIONS: 5. That the Company be authorised to disapply the statutory pre-emption rights under section 561 of the Companies Act 2006 in respect of allotments of Ordinary Shares in the Capital of the Company up to the sum of GBP28,836 6. That the Company change its name from Welney Plc to Quetzal Capital plc In connection with Resolutions 1 to 3, Shareholders' attention is drawn to the Circular of which this Notice of General Meeting forms a part and which has been prepared by the Directors. The Directors recommend Shareholders vote in favour of all the Resolutions. By order of the Board Darren Edmonston Director Welney Plc The Barn, Tednambury Farm Tednambury Hertfordshire CM23 4BD 2 June 2020 Given the number of protesters and journalists that have been shot in the face, the police aren't taking kindly to the current BlackLivesMatter protests, violently suppressing activists on trumped-up accounts of looting and rioting taking over the mostly peaceful protests. But if they're so keen on people only calmly resisting their totalitarianism, what's more chill than fighting the power by dropping your favorite tracks? While not everyone can go to the streets to show their disgust with the wanton killing of George Floyd by officer Derek Chauvin, online allies have found ingenious ways of supporting the brave protesters on the ground in their fight against the police. And a surprising non-zero number of these tactics involve flooding the cops with music bombs to reduce the chance of them catching protesters. This is how the Chicago PD police scanners were taken over by hackers -- some claim none other than Anonymous themselves -- who decided to do some DJ'ing. So, instead of hearing each other, police officers on coms were treated to non-stop loops of NWA's "Fuck The Police" and Tay Zonday's "Chocolate Rain," an appropriate reminder that this internet artifact is, in fact, a polemic about racial relations in America that just happens to mention the words "chocolate" and "rain" roughly 6,000 times. The Capital reported 1,298 new cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) on Tuesday, taking the total number of cases reported in the city so far to 22,312, as per the Delhi governments daily health bulletin. The number of new cases shot up again after a slight dip on Monday, when Delhi added 990 patients to its tally. The number of people facing severe symptoms and in need of ventilator support also shot up as compared to Monday. On Tuesday, 92 people were put on ventilator support, as compared to 42 the previous day. This means, of the 12,573 active cases in the city, 0.7% needed to be put on the ventilator. This is a shade higher than the national average of 0.48% that Delhi had been mimicking so far. Over 22% active cases are currently admitted to Covid-designated hospitals with severe symptoms such as respiratory distress and oxygen saturation below 90% (normal is between 95 to 100%). Delhi also tested more samples on Tuesday than on Monday 6,070 on Tuesday, as compared to 4,753 on Monday. On an average, 6,539 samples have being processed on a daily basis since Delhi started recording over 1,000 cases a day, higher than the daily average of 4,868 samples that were being processed the week before. Not only has the number of tests gone up, the positivity rate the percentage of people testing positive among those tested has also shot up to over 20% in the last three days. This means one in five people tested in the city, turn out to be positive for Covid-19. As per national guidelines, only those with Covid-like symptoms or high-risk contact of a laboratory-confirmed case are tested for the infection. On Tuesday, 33 more deaths were added to the cumulative total after review by the three-member death audit committee. Of these, 11 took place on May 31, and were confirmed by the committee on Monday. The earliest of the other deaths dates back to April 19. The Delhi government had over the weekend sent show cause notices and memorandums to seven government hospitals for delaying their death reports. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday said Covid-related deaths were not being under-reported in the country. None of us thinks that there is gross under-reporting of deaths, if you look at the figures, India has been doing very well in reduction of mortality, compared with other nations. As for dead body testing, there is always a term called causality assessment. Not all patient deaths in a hospital can be attributed to Covid-19. There are a lot of other factors responsible for a patients death. Its not fair to link every death to Covid-19. Many of the states we know are doing a causality assessment attributing the cause of death to Covid- or non-Covid related causes, said Dr Nivedita Gupta, ICMR scientist. The Delhi governments data also shows that the Capital has 6,731 Covid-19 beds across government and private hospitals in the city. Of these, around 42% are currently being utilised. Additionally, 30% of the 302 available ventilators are being utilised. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Some churches in Tema say there will be no auditorium service on Sunday even though the President announced easing of restrictions on social gathering starting June 5, 2020. The churches indicated that they needed to meet, discuss and put in appropriate measures that would ensure safety of members before re-opening for service hence their decision to offer virtual service in the interim. Reverend Kwodwo Osei-Bonsu, Minister-in-charge of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Redemption Congregation, Tema Community Nine, told the Ghana News Agency that his management was yet to receive detailed directives from the churchs head office. Rev Osei-Bonsu stated however that the session of the church would be having meetings to outline measures that would best suit the congregants taking into consideration the directives and measures from the President and the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs. He added that they were looking at having about four services with no children service and considering having family services to ensure that families would sit together while observing social distancing. According to him, a disinfection exercise would be carried out at the premises in addition to the provision of hand washing sets, sanitizers, social distancing, wearing of nose masks and checking of temperature when the church decides resume service in the auditorium. He added that there would be 30 to 40 minutes break in between services to allow for cleaning while forms and appropriate apps would be used to structure the service to ensure that not more than 100 congregants attended a particular service. The Minister-in-charge observed that God gave humans spirits and wisdom therefore the need to apply such wisdom in times of trouble. He said the leadership of the church would ensure that members strictly obeyed the protocols adding that there would be no dancing, hugging, handshaking and waving of handkerchiefs to prevent the spread of the virus. Reverend Francis Guggisberg Tetteh, Minsiter-in-Charge of Gateway Baptist Church, on his part, said there would also be no church service at his premises on Sunday as they were yet to receive the green light from their headquarters. Rev. Tetteh, who is also the Chairman of the Tema Local Council of Churches, said online services would still go on until a decision was made at a meeting scheduled for Thursday, stating that they would look at the cost implication of implementing the various directives and how best to put them in place. He said the Church was about saving of lives therefore they would not want to do anything that might endanger the lives of its members hence the decision not to immediately open the halls for service on Sunday. Touching on other churches, he said the Local Council of Churches would not prevent any church from holding service but would rather advise them to take all the precautions and measures into consideration. Rev. Steven Baafoa Awuah, Head pastor of Christ Apostolic International, Ashaiman Jericho Branch, told the GNA that his outfit would hold at least two church services on its premises on Sunday. Rev Awuah said they would duly follow all the precautions, saying they would disinfect the auditorium and the premises by Friday and provide at least four hand washing sets, and hand sanitizers would be available for members, adding that they had procured face masks for members who might come to church without any. On the issue of childrens service, he indicated that they had enough classrooms on their premises which would be used for the children to ensure the observation of social distancing and the other protocols. The Minister of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Mr Samuel Kofi Dzamesi, says children's services will not be allowed. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video By Trend Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops 24 times, Trend reports on June 2 referring to Azerbaijani Defense Ministry. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding regions. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz (Bloomberg) China Youran Dairy Holding Ltd. is working with advisers to raise between $300 million and $400 million in a new funding round before its potential initial public offering, according to people familiar with the situation. The company contacted prospective investors for the latest round, which could give it a valuation of about $2 billion, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. Hong Kong-based private equity firm PAG holds 41% and Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co. 40% of the dairy product maker, Youran said in an announcement when it acquired control of another dairy company last year. PAG invested in Youran in 2016, according to its website. Deliberations are ongoing and details of Yourans pre-IPO funding round could still change, according to the people. A representative of PAG declined to comment, and a representative of Yili said the company hasnt received the relevant information. A representative of Youran didnt immediately respond to requests for comment. Founded in 2007, Youran produces and sells fresh milk and engages in related animal farming activities in China. The companys revenue in 2019 was 8 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) and its net income was around 500 million yuan, according to Yilis latest annual report. Youran bought a majority stake of Inner Mongolia Saikexing Reproductive Biotechnology Co. last year for more than 22 billion yuan. The French revelled in a return to cafe terraces Tuesday as Europe emerges from its darkest days of the coronavirus pandemic, which has shifted its centre to Latin America where pressure is mounting on fragile healthcare systems. The virus has claimed more than 375,000 lives in its more than six-month tear around the globe, upending ordinary and economic life in nearly every country on the planet. After suffering some of the highest human losses, Europe and the United States are now emerging from months of confinement in a bid to soften the blow of a looming recession. In the French capital, Parisians reclaimed the beloved morning rituals at cafe terraces that were allowed to sprawl across pavement to accommodate social distancing measures. "It's really nice, we got up just for this, so we appreciate it, we're really happy," said Charlotte, who made a morning stop at a cafe near the Canal Saint-Martin. "It's a bit of a feeling of regained freedom, that's what it is," added another patron, 61-year-old Philippe. Elsewhere in France, bars and restaurants were allowed to go a step further and allow customers to sit inside, while beaches and weddings were also back in business. The excitement was visible in western Nantes where customers lined up to eat at the restaurant La Prison du Bouffay at one minute past midnight. In the UK, British MPs were set to return to parliament in person after ending a virtual system. By Paul ELLIS (AFP) Yet the country, which has suffered the world's fifth highest toll with nearly 29,000 deaths from the virus, still faces tough times ahead with the economy expected to shrink by 11 percent this year due to the pandemic. A similar story is playing out elsewhere on the continent where schools, swimming pools, pubs and tourist sites are steadily reopening to ease the economic pain of their lockdowns, despite fears of a second wave of infections. In the UK, British MPs were set to return to parliament in person after ending a virtual system, with plans to debate quarantine requirements for those entering the hard-hit country. And in the sporting world, Formula One organisers announced an eight-race schedule for Europe starting in July, though fans are not expected to join at the start. Rio reopens On the other side of the Atlantic, Latin American countries are still facing an upward curve of infections, with cases surging particularly high in Brazil, which has logged the fourth highest number of deaths worldwide. Latin America has detected at least one million cases and recorded over 50,000 deaths, more than half of which are in Brazil. By Douglas MAGNO (AFP) The region has detected at least one million cases and recorded over 50,000 deaths, more than half of which are in Brazil, according to an AFP tally. The World Health Organization has warned the region's healthcare systems could be overwhelmed by the influx of patients, with Peru, Chile and Mexico also seeing high daily increases in infections. Yet Rio de Janeiro will start gradually easing lockdown measures Tuesday, the Brazilian city's mayor said, beginning with the reopening of places of worship and water sports. Children returned to school in Singapore, with new safety measures in place. By ROSLAN RAHMAN (AFP) Mexico also began relaxing restrictions, reactivating the automotive industry, mining and construction even as the country recorded more than 10,000 virus deaths. Meanwhile, the United States still leads the world with more than 105,000 deaths from COVID-19, though its daily tolls are no longer on a steep incline. The crisis there has recently been overshadowed by anti-racism protests that have erupted across the country in response to police killings of black Americans. While many US states had started relaxing virus measures, several major cities have imposed curfews in the face of the protests, which have turned violent in some zones. Gatherings hit Much of East Asia, meanwhile, has seen infections slow to a trickle in recent weeks, but restrictions on mass gatherings remain. Hong Kong's annual candlelight vigil for those killed in China's 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown has been banned for the first time due to COVID-19 concerns. Indonesia pulled out of the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca over coronavirus fears, the religious affairs ministry said Tuesday, removing the largest contingent of worshippers. And in New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern criticised protesters demonstrating in support of America's Black Lives Matter gatherings for flouting social distancing rules when the country is on the verge of eliminating the virus. Students wearing face masks returned to schools in Singapore and some workplaces reopened as restrictions were eased Tuesday in the Asian city-state. But there was alarm from Bangladesh, where an official said a 71-year-old became the first Rohingya refugee to die of the virus in camps for those fleeing Myanmar. The man was among at least 29 Rohingya to test positive in the shelters, which are home to nearly one million people. burs-ssm/jv I legit thought this post was recent and they were trying to adopt again. Also she's been losing subscribers as she should. I hope people run them off. Edited at 2020-06-02 01:50 am (UTC) Reply Thread Link They should be banned from adopting ...& Frankly YT too Reply Parent Thread Link I agree. Reply Parent Thread Link if you adopt and then give up the kid you promised to raise and love unconditionally....you don't get to fucking do that to another innocent child, you just shouldn't Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I reported their channel for child endangerment Reply Parent Thread Expand Link ontd just full of posts right now about motherfuckers i'd like to see dead. pieces of shit. that poor little angel. and what about the other kids? imagine being in that household and seeing your whole sibling get thrown the fuck out for acting up? imagine how that affects your entire future. not to MENTION losing someone you've come to love and think of as your sibling. this cold bitch didn't care about any of her kids. Reply Thread Link Id be down with an all-ghoul ONTD for a little bit tbh Reply Parent Thread Link this poor kid is going to be so traumatized from all this I am so heartbroken and angry Reply Parent Thread Link those "parents" are fucking devils, fuck them FUCK THEM i honestly wish nothing but the best for huxley i hope his next parents love him unconditionally and support him unlike those fucking wankers who wanted to use him for views etc Reply Parent Thread Link I don't need a timeline to know anyone that "rehomed" an adopted child years after adoption is a trash piece of shit. Im honestly so angry at so much I don't think I will do my mental health any good reading this. Reply Thread Link (sorry op not to bring y down u clearly worked very hard on this post and for that congrats) Reply Parent Thread Link Nah, I get what you're saying! Reply Parent Thread Link I should have listened to myself now I'm fuming Reply Parent Thread Link Children from other countries aren't exotic pets. They are human, complex, and oftentimes traumatized from the adoption process alone. I hope Huxley has a better future ahead of him with guardians who are patient, kind, and empathetic. Reply Thread Link From the limited footage I've seen, that's the part that really gets me. They legitimately treated this boy like a fucking dog. Reply Parent Thread Link NO. I DIDN'T WATCH THE CLIP OF HER REFUSING TO HUG HIM LISTEN MAN i'm losing my shit right now, torn between getting fully drunk enough to pass out or sobbing. this bitch. Reply Thread Link Well, this confirmed that I made the right decision to stop reading the post. I want to fucking scream right now. Someone come take the other kids from her she shouldnt raise anyone. Reply Parent Thread Link please don't watch any of her videos or clips (and not just because of monetary reasons). it's so goddamned hard to handle, thinking about what this poor angel has likely gone through in his short time on this planet. god. and maybe, just maybe, it's a little confusing for a child to see his 'mother' talking to a camera or a laptop to nobody instead of interacting with him? could that not be leading to some of his acting out? like - why does no one ever think about what these kids are going through with parents like these?? jesus christ. sorry, i'm venting and all out of sorts right now. today's been a DAY. i'd like to get to the, "i'm too numb to be angry and depressed" portion of the evening. Edited at 2020-06-02 02:12 am (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Mte! I didn't watch the clip, but just reading the description was heartbreaking! What kind of cold hearted piece of shit would deny their child affection?!? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I watched it and I regret it Reply Parent Thread Link I refuse to give them clicks or views. Their YT should be shut the fuck down. Reply Parent Thread Link i'd love to give this bitch a round, i really would. right now nothing would please me more than breaking a few of her teeth for her behaviour honestly it's the least she deserves. Reply Parent Thread Link Reading that summary line of refuses to hug child is a real gut punch Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Out of birth order? Like adopting a 12 year old when you have a 2yr old? Im not familiar with this term! Reply Thread Link Yes, exactly right. I believe Huxley and her 3rd bio child were either the same age, or Huxley might have been a bit older. Reply Parent Thread Link Yes. Apparently Huxley was the same age as her other child. Reply Parent Thread Link I just learned about that from this post as well. Reply Parent Thread Link I believe it means adopting a child that's either older than your oldest or younger than your youngest Edit: oops it could also mean when you adopt a child who will not join the family as the youngest. Edited at 2020-06-02 02:47 am (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link i don't have the energy for this today Reply Thread Link same, same. I didnt think I could feel worse at least thats one thing that the current administration and all of their cult-like followers can say they were successful at Reply Parent Thread Link Usually when children are added to a family, they come in as the youngest (for obvious reasons). Therefore it can be confusing to navigate family dynamics when you adopt a child who is older or the same age as your other children. Reply Parent Thread Link https://nightlight.org/2012/10/adopting-out-of-the-birth-order/ Edited at 2020-06-02 01:58 am (UTC) Like when you have a 4 and a 2 year old but you adopt an older child who will need a shit ton of attention and nurturing, therefore you'll end up neglecting all the kids and their needs since none of them are getting the psychological care they need at those ages. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I think one of the issues is that it can mess up the existing kids' 'status' in the family. So like if a kid is the oldest sibling, and then you adopt someone older and they become the youngest or the middle child, it can be hard for them to navigate that dynamic overnight. Reply Parent Thread Link Damn that house is only 700K? Reply Thread Link It's Ohio. Welcome to the midwest. Reply Parent Thread Link I thought it was the renovations that were $700K but I could be wrong... Reply Parent Thread Link Housing makes more sense when you're not in a state with absurd dysfunctional costs. Reply Parent Thread Link I clocked that too Reply Parent Thread Link *cries in Toronto* Reply Parent Thread Link These racist, ableist pieces of shit. Reply Thread Link As a mother my heart tightened reading and watching some of these videos. I hope with all my heart these fuckers had the decency to find someone who can give him the life and love he deserves. Reply Thread Link I'm a mom too and this makes me feel sick to my stomach. They should have legal consequences for this. Reply Parent Thread Link Every time I read something on this poor baby my own baby is asleep in her crib and I just want to squeeze her!!! Those whole thing has really messed with me Reply Parent Thread Link these fuckin monsters are TRAAAAAASH horrible people Reply Thread Link https://www.reuters.com/investigates/adoption/ https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/11/children-who-have-second-adoptions/575902/ In case you want to know more about rehoming adopted children... Reply Thread Link omg the first 2 paragraphs of that Atlantic article alone...wtf is wrong with people!?!?!? Reply Parent Thread Link That Reuters article was nightmare inducing Reply Parent Thread Link That Reuters article... jfc, I had to stop reading after the 2nd bullet of Part 1. And people wonder why there's so many red tape to adoption. So many parents no qualms or self-awareness in abusing their biological children, they'll have no problem abusing their adopted kids. Reply Parent Thread Link Oh my god the Reuters article Reply Parent Thread Link I live in Columbus, I wonder what part of town they live in. Reply Thread Link nvm, found it. Reply Parent Thread Link leak the address Reply Parent Thread Link spill the tea sis Reply Parent Thread Expand Link As an autistic person, this story along with Alejandro Ripley's murder coming in such quick succession was a reminder that people really do hate us, we're seen as burdens and disposable, worth absolutely nothing. Reply Thread Link Please dont think that My brother has autism and I love him to pieces. Some people are just trash through and through Reply Parent Thread Link Your brother is blessed to have you! I know if I didn't have my sister I would have struggled a lot more managing. People are awful, yes, but we do live in a society that is hostile to those of us with accessibility needs. We need more allies and more people to listen to us about what life is like for us. Reply Parent Thread Link please do not believe that. i've believed that for so long about having and being bipolar, but - it's not true. it's just the SHITTY people that can't handle others. the people who look at anyone as a burden are people whose opinions DO. NOT. MATTER. they are the worst of the worst and they are loud, but that doesn't mean they are the majority. they're just more obnoxious in their hate, and the good ones are out there, quietly waiting to be there for you. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link As a fellow disabled person and a sibling to an autistic guy, just want to send you some love bb. It can be hard to live in an inaccessible world that turns its back on disabled people but youre def not a burden. Society has some shitty people who are unfortunately very loud with their ableism. Reply Parent Thread Link same. professionals used to recommend my parents put me into foster care often when i was a small child. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link You are a valuable, loveable person who is worth fighting for. Reply Parent Thread Link same. they rly hate us. Reply Parent Thread Link IKR We're just not human to some people Reply Parent Thread Link My sons are both autistic and I feel blessed to be their mom. But I definitely get where youre coming from. The best thing I ever did as a parent was try to find autistic adults to listen to for advice on raising my sons and not autism moms who treat their childrens privacy like it is irrelevant and feel they should get an award for doing the bare minimum. Reply Parent Thread Link Trade negotiators from Britain and the EU embarked on a fourth round of post-Brexit negotiations Tuesday, but no-one in London or Brussels expects a breakthrough this week. Instead, once the latest cross-Channel video conferences are over, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen will meet to decide how to proceed. A "high-level" June meeting to take stock of the talks was already foreseen in the political declaration signed by both parties alongside the divorce accord last year. But it may take on more urgency now, as talks between EU negotiator Michel Barnier and his UK counterpart David Frost have revealed stark differences in approach. Britain is not expected to ask for any extension to the post-Brexit transition and so is on track to leave the single market and EU customs union on December 31. If no trade deal is in place by then, experts predict severe disruption to businesses already reeling from a coronavirus pandemic that no-one expected when Britain voted to leave the union in June 2016. - 'Dead end' - Barnier, the Brussels veteran and former French minister tasked by the remaining 27 EU members with negotiating an orderly Brexit, has said the week would have to show Britain's intentions. "A crucial week ahead of us to make tangible progress across all areas, in line with the Political Declaration," Barnier tweeted on Tuesday. "A high-level meeting later this month will take stock of progress. I will brief the press on Friday." A European official, talking condition of anonymity, warned: "It's not at all a decisive week, but a predictable one, which will just confirm we're at a dead end." Some have suggested that there may be some movement on fishing rights, with the EU giving ground on access to EU waters in exchange for Britain signing up to European level-playing field rules. But Number 10 briefed reporters that this was "wishful thinking by the EU." - 'Independent state' - Barnier has been given a mandate to seek an ambitious overarching agreement to oversee a so-called "level playing field" in manufacturing, labour and environmental standards. This would give British firms access to most -- but not all -- of the benefits of the single market, without exposing their European rivals to attempts to undercut standards. Frost and Johnson, however, say they only want a simple trade deal that would preserve UK sovereignty while allowing the vast majority of trade to remain tariff-free. And, rather than placing this under the aegis of a unique EU-UK pact, they want to pursue a series of deals in separate sectors such as trade, fisheries, aviation and energy. "We expect the round to be constructive and to keep the process on track ahead of the high-level meeting later this month," a British spokesman said. "However... it's clear that the EU needs to evolve its position to reach an agreement," he warned. Barnier has complained that Frost's more aggressive "tone" in pushing the British case in an exchange of letters last month could disrupt progress. Brussels officials are annoyed that Britain has, in their eyes, backtracked on a written agreement to accept level-playing-field guarantees as part of a future trade deal. But London insists the draft UK proposals meet these commitments, and complains the EU is refusing to offer the same kind of trade deal it signed with Canada or Singapore. "A balanced solution is needed which reflects the political realities on both sides, and we will continue to make sure our position is understood," the spokesman said. "We won't agree to any EU demands for us to give up our rights as an independent state." With the sides camped out in conflicting visions of the way ahead, few experts expect this week's talks to bear fruit. - Late compromise - But, with so much at stake, nobody expects the talks to break down irretrievably either. "Barnier and Frost are saying the same thing, a no deal is perfectly plausible. At the same time, both sides would prefer to have a deal," said Anand Menon, director of the think-tank UK in a Changing Europe. He expected little from this week's talks, nor from Johnson and von der Leyen's meeting by the end of the month. "They will probably say that both sides are willing to continue talking," he told AFP. "If we get a compromise it will come very late in the talks, in the autumn." Don't expect him to ask for an extension EU negotiator Michel Barnier says failing to reach agreement will have consequences British Brexit negotiator David Frost and Johnson say they only want a simple trade deal that would preserve UK sovereignty while allowing the vast majority of trade to remain tariff free The GoCardless payment network is the ideal solution for addressing the international aspirations of our customers. GoCardless, the leading fintech for recurring payments, today announced a strategic partnership with YayPay, a leading predictive accounts receivable (AR) automation solution. This wide-ranging partnership will see YayPay integrate GoCardlesss global network with its AR offerings to provide direct debit payments to its expanding base of customers in North America and Europe. By offering bank debit as a payment option, YayPay will help its customers to get paid faster, improve cash flow, and significantly reduce payment costs. YayPay joins a growing number of SaaS-based businesses choosing GoCardless to power global payments. YayPay is among many U.S. businesses looking to increase international growth through the use of bank debit. Research conducted by GoCardless and YouGov indicates that while 69% of U.S. businesses collect international payments, and 72% of them have ambitions to increase their international growth over the next five years, 58% of them believe the complexity of cross-border payments is holding them back from this expansion. A growing number of our customers are seeking ways to expand their global reach by collecting invoice payments from customers in other parts of the world, said Anthony Venus, CEO & Co-founder, YayPay. By partnering with GoCardless and offering bank debit, we are empowering them to do this, while also addressing the payment options we make available to our own rapidly expanding list of customers worldwide. The GoCardless payment network is the ideal solution for addressing the international aspirations of our customers. Kevin Permenter, Research Manager at the International Data Corporation (IDC) said, YayPay has continually leveraged innovation to increase their market presence in the accounts receivable software market. This partnership between YayPay and GoCardless is a further step in realizing the internationalization and expanding the global reach of YayPays customer base. YayPay is a rapidly-growing business at the forefront of back-office automation and machine learning, and we are thrilled to be partnering with them to integrate the GoCardless network into their payment options, said Andrew AG Gilboy, General Manager, North America, at GoCardless. This partnership will expand the payment options offered through YayPays AR solutions and allow YayPays customers to operate in a way thats truly borderless. About YayPay YayPay is an accounts receivable software that simplifies the collections process and improves the invoicing experience by providing real-time visibility into the AR pipeline. Our solution leverages machine learning and automatic payment communications to accelerate collections, eliminate and streamline the manual effort associated with following up on late invoices, and report on KPIs. YayPay integrates with multiple accounting, ERP, billing, and CRM applications, for a complete look into the AR process, from collections to cash application. For more information visit https://www.yaypay.com. About GoCardless GoCardless is a global leader in recurring payments. Our global payments network and technology platform takes the pain out of getting paid for more than 50,000 businesses worldwide, from multinational corporations to SMBs. Each year GoCardless processes US $15 billion of payments across more than 30 countries. We now have five offices around the world in the UK, France, Australia, Germany, and the United States. For further information, please visit https://gocardless.com/en-us/ and follow us on Twitter @GoCardless. (Update: The man has been identified by the public and police are investigating) JACKSON, MI Police are seeking help in identifying a man seen allegedly trying to set a Jackson County Sheriffs Office vehicle on fire during the police brutality protests in Jackson on Monday. During the June 1 protests in downtown Jackson, the man was witnessed pouring a flammable liquid on a patrol vehicle and attempting unsuccessfully to ignite it, according to the Jackson County Sheriffs Office. Investigators have released a photo of the man and the car he arrived in at the protests hoping someone might recognize him and contact police. Police are asking those who can identify the man, or anyone with pictures or video of him, to contact Det. Sgt. Bryan Huttenlocker at 517-768-7931, or call Mid-Michigan Crime Stoppers at 517-483-STOP. Two Jackson protests stay peaceful with little police interference More than 400 people marched against police brutality in two peaceful protests in Jackson on Monday. The protests were in response to the death of George Floyd. Floyd, 46, who is black, died after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, knelt on his neck for several minutes May 25. Jacksons first protest started at 1 p.m., June 1, outside the Jackson Police Department, 216 E. Washington Ave. About 100 people gathered and marched to the Jackson County Sheriffs Office and Jail, 212 W. Wesley St. The second protest started at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and High Street around 3:30 p.m. Both protests were peaceful and did not turn violent, as many nationwide have. Another protest is planned for 3 p.m., Wednesday, June 3, outside the Jackson County Courthouse, 312 S. Jackson St., according to the Facebook page. Police ask for dashcam footage after bottles and stones thrown at cars on Ruthin Road This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Jun 2nd, 2020 Police have asked for dashcam footage as they continue an investigation after several vehicles were damaged on Ruthin Road on Friday and Saturday. In a statement North Wales Police said, We are appealing for information and dash-cam footage as we investigate numerous incidents of criminal damage and anti-social behaviour on the A525 Ruthin Road close to the junction with the A483 at the weekend. The Force received more than 20 calls about bottles and stones been thrown on to the A525 and the A483 with several passing cars being damaged, including two vehicles which had windows smashed. Temporary Inspector Mike Norbury said: This criminal anti-social behaviour is extremely dangerous and irresponsible and very frightening for motorists. We will not tolerate it and an investigation is underway. We attended the location on Friday and Saturday and will continue to monitor the situation. In the meantime I am appealing for any witnesses and anyone with dash-cam footage who travelled past the area between Friday afternoon May 29 and late Saturday night May 31 to contact us . There have been numerous posts on social media relating to that timeframe and location, reporting large gatherings of people along with damage to vehicles, along with reports police had also closed roads temporarily. Just had a phone call from the Mrs. A bottle was thrown at her car from the Gypsy site in Ruthin Rd @wrexham, exactly what she wanted after a 12 hour shift in the Maelor . Be careful if heading that way, think they're having a party. Kyle Jones (@KyleJonesIV) May 29, 2020 Any information is asked to be called through to police on the 101 number, or use the North Wales Police webchat facility on https://www.north-wales.police.uk/contact/live-chat-support Senior Pastor of the Household of God Church,Pastor Chris Okotie has kicked against the new guidelines issued by the Christian Association of Nigeria CAN, for the reopening of churches. President of CAN, Reverend Samson Ayokunle, released a statement on Thursday, May 28, saying the government had given the Christian Association the go-ahead to draw up guidelines for worship in compliance with the COVID-19 containment requirements and submit it for approval. Part of the guidelines as stated in his statement includes social distancing, washing of hands, checking of temperatures among others The temperature of every worshipper must be taken before admission into the church auditorium and people with high temperature should not be allowed into the church, but advised to go and see their doctors. Every worshipper must wear face mask. Social distancing should be observed in the sitting arrangement with one meter gap between two worshippers. One and a half hour service is enough for a start. There should be a gap of 25 or 30 minutes between one service and another where there are multiple services to avoid crowd. Churches can make use of classrooms and multipurpose halls for services where available, especially in big churches in order to accommodate more worshippers at a go. Closed circuit TV screens and speakers can be used for those who are not inside the main auditorium. Handshaking and hugging should be avoided before, during and after the service. Prayers should be offered to God for a speedy end of COVID-19 and quick recovery of all that are afflicted by the pandemic. Prayers should also be offered for the frontline workers for divine protection. The CAN chapter in each state and local government should constitute a committee together with law enforcement agencies in their areas to enforce full compliance. Such civilian compliance officials should be given backing by the governments to apprehend those who contravene the worship regulations and hand them over to law enforcement agents. Churches observing Holy Communion service should use separate cup for each participant. In a statement released on Sunday, May 31 in reaction to the new guidelines, Rev Okotie, said it is un biblical to follow such rules in the house of God. According to him, the church and Christians cannot bow to the idol called Coronavirus. It is bereft of any authority to speak on behalf of the Church of Jesus Christ. Arrayed in Episcopalian vestments, they are the modern-day Pharisees who arrogate divine honors to themselves. They have a form of godliness and yet hobnob Nicodemusly with enemies of the Lord Jesus. The true ministers of the sanctuary must recognize CANs treachery and reprehensible Phariseeism. That which a man spits against heaven shall fall back upon his face. We shall not bow to the idol called coronavirus. Jesus is Lord he said The clergyman added that no true minister of God would support such guidelines. With schools closed, children across Ontario are missing out on in-person celebrations of their accomplishments this year. Peterborough GreenUps Wonders of Water team would like your help celebrating the remarkable achievements of a group of Grade 8 students at Monsignor ODonoghue School in the east end of Peterborough. Please toast with us as you read this story: raise a glass of water in honour of these student leaders. This story begins in September. The Grade 8 class at Monsignor ODonoghue (MOD as it is affectionately known) was starting their science program for the year. As part of a new deep learning process, the students were given the freedom to lead their own learning through problem-solving and collaboration. The teachers, Ashley Fitzgerald and Krista Wells-Skinners, assumed the role of supportive facilitators instead of directors or leaders. Their science program began with a screening of The Plastic Ocean. This 2016 documentary film looks at plastic pollution choking the worlds oceans and emphasizes the need for a wave of change. We had group discussions about (the documentary), explains student A.J. Whitney. We had to be patient and inclusive. It was so much fun sharing my ideas and having very loose guidelines. After much discussion, the students narrowed their focus on how they wanted to proceed in their science program for the year. The kids were the ones making all the decisions, observes Grade 8 student Erin Livings. The students felt strongly about being part of that wave of change in the documentary. They wanted to support water preservation with real actions, and they wanted to start with goals for change right at home by focusing on the use of water in the school itself. We chose the water refill station as our goal, says Austin Gallagher, one of the students who led this project. Our water stations at the time barely worked. We wanted to promote reusable water bottles so less people would bring in disposable water bottles. Applying for a WOW Deep Learning Water Retrofit was one way to realize that goal. Karen OKrafka, co-ordinator of GreenUPs Wonders of Water program, had sent the Retrofit Grant Expression of Interest criteria to all Peterborough city and county schools. The students reviewed the criteria and wrote an email to OKrafka asking for support to change their schools infrastructure and, ultimately, their relationship with water. Citing aging water fountain infrastructure at MOD as a driving reason for dependence on single-use plastic water bottles, this email proposed a student-researched solution. They would install water bottle refill stations at MOD, and use this important water retrofit as the catalyst for a school-wide water education program designed and delivered by the Grade 8 students themselves. The students named their project CAPS off Water, an acronym representing the Conservation, Awareness, Protection, and Stewardship of Water. These are the core pillars of the Peterborough Childrens Water Festival and the basis of the Wonders of Water Program. CAPS off Water is also a useful mnemonic for remembering the goal of reducing single-use plastic water bottles. The students formed groups to focus on all the different areas they wanted to cover. As part of this school-wide education program, students took on a broad range of projects. They made art displays communicating the core elements of water conservation. They applied for additional grants, including Ecoleague funding. They designed reusable water bottles. They wrote childrens books about plastic pollution in water. They created awareness-building posters. These students even planned to lead their own World Water Day assembly in advance of the Peterborough Childrens Water Festival. Each of these projects were completely spearheaded by the students and their vision for creating an enduring legacy at MOD. We had come to a decision, says student Lucas Pronk, that we thought would have a lasting impact on the school. As a result of the collaborative efforts of these students, two water refill stations were installed at MOD before March break. After the water stations were installed, observes student Ireland Payne, it was amazing to see how many kids were using them. It was so much fun, says student Macy Harper, to see this project go from an idea to having a lineup at the water refill station. To celebrate Earth Day in April, the students had planned to host an assembly, a media event and a ribbon-cutting. They had eagerly designed an activity centre for the Peterborough Childrens Water Festival to demonstrate peer-to-peer learning. Then the schools closed and the water festival was cancelled because of COVID-19. We cannot demonstrate this remarkable student-led learning and leadership in large gatherings as the students had planned. We can, however, still celebrate and share the accomplishments of these students with you at home. Together apart, we can share with you that this group of remarkable student leaders at Monsignor ODonogue School has been awarded with GreenUps School Engagement Award for participation in education workshops and events, including the Wonders of Water workshops and Active School Travel planning. Thank you for reading this article and sharing in this celebration from home. Businesses may increase their prices a reasonable amount due to COVID-19, Reichman said in an emailed statement. However, this price increase must be disclosed prior to purchase, and businesses cannot claim that this surcharge is a tax. Furthermore, the Department of Finance has indicated that any surcharge customers are required to pay for food or beverages is considered taxable and should be included in the basis upon which restaurant tax is calculated. AUSTIN, Texas, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Red Oak Compliance Solutions, a leader in the financial advertising compliance industry, has announced the release of Smart Review(SM), an enhancement designed to provide faster approvals, fewer touches, increased efficiency and reduced regulatory risk for marketing and compliance professionals. Smart Review(SM) allows compliance professionals to effectively build and maintain a single source repository of disclosures, including an audit trail for disclosure updates and changes. This disclosure library allows firms to streamline their advertising review process, increasing accuracy and confidence in disclosure management, while reducing the risk of disclosure errors and omissions. While the software supports compliance efforts, Smart Review(SM) is also designed to streamline efforts of marketing teams and increase their efficiency in getting materials to market. Knowing which disclosures are needed, then finding the most up to date version in a timely manner can be an ongoing struggle. Smart Review(SM) reduces the pain points marketers experience during the review process through both its disclosure repository and the implementation of business intelligence rules to flag potential missing, outdated or unneeded disclosures on material. "In today's fast-paced digital environment, marketing teams need the capability to move quickly and take advantage of opportunities and market trends," said Stephen Pope, Chief Executive Officer for Red Oak Compliance. "The development of Smart Review(SM) is another example of how Red Oak focuses its development on listening to clients, incorporating their suggestions into our product, and strengthening our core value proposition of delivering faster approvals, fewer touches, and 100% books and records compliance." Smart Review(SM) is an enhancement to Red Oak Compliance's flagship SaaS advertising compliance review software and comprises three key features: Disclosure Manager: Smart Review's (SM) base functionality consists of a centralized disclosure library and management tool that serves as a single source of truth for disclosures. The library component houses all disclosures, as well as providing importing, exporting, versioning, usage instructions, language variations and a full audit trail of updates/changes made to each disclosure. Disclosure Manager replaces the manual task of attempting to manage, distribute and version disclosures with spreadsheets. Smart Review's (SM) Disclosure Manager scans uploaded content for disclosures to identify current or outdated disclosures on the material to both the content submitter as well as the compliance reviewers, reducing time to market and risk to the firm. Smart Review's base functionality consists of a centralized disclosure library and management tool that serves as a single source of truth for disclosures. The library component houses all disclosures, as well as providing importing, exporting, versioning, usage instructions, language variations and a full audit trail of updates/changes made to each disclosure. Disclosure Manager replaces the manual task of attempting to manage, distribute and version disclosures with spreadsheets. Smart Review's Disclosure Manager scans uploaded content for disclosures to identify current or outdated disclosures on the material to both the content submitter as well as the compliance reviewers, reducing time to market and risk to the firm. Disclosure Intelligence: Disclosure Intelligence builds on Smart Review's (SM) Disclosure Manager functionality by allowing firms to create deterministic rules for identifying when a disclosure should be included on a piece. Disclosure Intelligence gives clients the ability to further define the required disclosures based on data such as text in the material, type of content, audience and country. It identifies the list of disclosures that should be on a document, as well as any extra disclosures on a document that may not be required based on these rules, improving both consistency and efficiency. Disclosure Intelligence builds on Smart Review's Disclosure Manager functionality by allowing firms to create deterministic rules for identifying when a disclosure should be included on a piece. Disclosure Intelligence gives clients the ability to further define the required disclosures based on data such as text in the material, type of content, audience and country. It identifies the list of disclosures that should be on a document, as well as any extra disclosures on a document that may not be required based on these rules, improving both consistency and efficiency. Disclosure API: Disclosure API gives clients the ability to programmatically access Red Oak's Smart Review(SM) functionality within their favorite content creation tool. The new enhancements provided by Smart Review(SM) are a natural evolution of Red Oak's core product values, as well as a response to pain points frequently expressed by both marketing and compliance professionals. "With this release, Red Oak is applying effective technology in the most intuitive way to help customers deal with their toughest and most manual problems - in this case, creating a single disclosure library, codifying tribal knowledge, and incorporating cutting-edge, automated intelligence to streamline the review process," said Rick Grashel, Chief Technology Officer for Red Oak. "All of these improvements in combination equate to quicker compliance reviews, faster time-to-market and better partnerships between marketing and compliance." ABOUT RED OAK COMPLIANCE SOLUTIONS Red Oak Compliance Solutions is the advertising review software of choice in the financial services industry, serving clients with more than $19 trillion in assets under management. Red Oak's advertising compliance review software offers quick implementation timelines, as well as agile technology that responds to client needs and is 100% Books and Records compliant. Clients of Red Oak typically see at least 35% faster approvals, and 70% fewer touches or better. To learn more about Red Oak Compliance Solutions, visit redoakcompliance.com. For More Information, Contact: Amy Watson Vice President, Director of Marketing and Sales (512) 696-1491 [email protected] Learn More SOURCE Red Oak Compliance Solutions Related Links https://www.redoakcompliance.com Tamara and Petra Ecclestone have jetted to their mother Slavica's native country Croatia from their respective homes in London and LA. Joined by their partners and children, the sisters, aged 35 and 31, headed on their F1 boss father Bernie's 28million ($35million) yacht for a day of fun, in the country which has boasted of having 'no bans, just precautions' amid the pandemic. As the coronavirus crisis continues to throw travel plans into chaos, the sisters proved to be unaffected by the woes as they made their way to Croatia. Tamara was followed by her husband Jay Rutland, 39, and her daughter Sophia, six, while Petra was joined by her fiance Sam Palmer and her four children. Reunited: Tamara and Petra Ecclestone (left-right) have jetted to their mother Slavica's native country Croatia from their respective homes in London and LA The sisters, who are famously close, opted to flee their native countries to head to the safer location which has seen low death tolls compared to other countries. Last month, Krunoslav Capak, the director of Croatia's Institute of Public Health, said there would be 'no bans, just precautions' on the country's beaches, after Croatia reported 103 deaths overall as of Monday. He said: 'I will certainly go to the beach. I can't wait. Lifeguards, local authorities and hoteliers will have to make sure that sun beds and towels are not too close together because the virus will still be present.' The duo were lucky enough to have their father's yacht at their disposal. The 176ft yacht, which boasts six cabins, is named Petara - after Bernie's daughters - with her name being an amalgamation of the Petra and Tamara's name. Heading off: Joined by their partners and children, the sisters, aged 35 and 31, headed on their F1 boss father Bernie's 28million ($35million) for a day of fun, in the country which has boasted of having 'no bans, just precautions' amid the pandemic Lavish: The duo were lucky enough to have their father's yacht at their disposal. The 176ft yacht, which boasts six cabins, is named Petara - after Bernie's daughters - with her name being an amalgamation of the Petra and Tamara's name Fresh-faced: Petra looked pretty and natural as she kicked back on the boat Jetting away: The day before their arrival in Croatia, Sam shared a selfie with Petra from LA, on which they appeared to be on a runway London life: Meanwhile, Tamara shared videos of her beloved Sophia from the garden on their lavish London home The girls often discuss missing each other due to their transatlantic distance, so were no doubt happy to be united on the boat trip. Petra shares daughter Lavinia, seven, and twin boys Andrew and James, five, with her ex-husband James Stunt, with whom she suffered an extremely acrimonious split, with their war of words raging on to this day. Their divorce was finalised in October 2017, after six years of marriage The happy couple: Sam and Petra stayed close during the outing as she was left holding their beloved baby girl United: Sam and Jay were friends before the former met and fell for Petra Weighed down: Tamara juggled her expensive handbags and kids' bags The strict new rules What is going to happen? All passengers arriving in the UK will have to fill in a form before heading to Britain. This will include British nationals coming home, as well as foreign visitors. You must provide the address at which you will be staying in the UK and self-isolate there. You will not be allowed to leave that address at all, or receive visitors, for 14 days. How will it work? Passengers will be able to complete 'contact locator form' on the Government's website up to 48 hours before departure. There will be no paper versions of the form. Failing to complete the form before travelling is a crime, but there will be a short grace period and allow travellers to fill in the form electronically in the arrivals hall. How will this be enforced? There will be spot checks to ensure all passengers have completed a form. Border Force staff will interview people as they leave planes and at border checkpoints. What happens if I refuse to fill in a contact locator form? You will be given an on-the-spot 100 fine by Border Force officers. When will this come into force? June 8. What checks will take place during the 14-day period? Public health officials will carry out random checks by telephone. If these raise doubts, police will visit the address, issuing a fine where necessary. What happens if I leave the address I provide in the form? In England, you will be issued with a 1,000 spot fine. You could even be prosecuted, and face an unlimited fine if convicted. The fine could increase beyond 1,000 if the 'risk of infection from abroad increases', the Home Office says. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will have their own enforcement systems. Will foreign visitors be treated differently? Yes. They could be removed from the UK 'as a last resort' if they fail to comply, the Home Office says. Officials could also refuse entry to non-UK nationals who are resident here. But they cannot refuse entry to British nationals. Can I use public transport to travel from the airport to my isolation address? Yes, but the Home Office says it would be preferable if you used your car. Why is all this necessary? The Government says it must be able to contact you if it emerges, for example, that someone on your flight is diagnosed with coronavirus. And if you get sick, the authorities will be able to warn everyone you came into contact with. Advertisement She has now found love with Sam, who is a friend of Jay's, and who popped the question last January. Sam has since revealed Petra's kids call him dad, while the couple also welcomed their own child - a baby girl - earlier this year. In April, Sam revealed their baby news on Instagram. He made the announcement, revealing that they welcomed their child into the world last month. Recruitment consultant Sam's message read: 'I have received lots of messages asking when the baby is due. We had a beautiful daughter a few weeks ago. 'Thanks for all the messages. Mother and daughter are both very well. She is yet to see the world, but I've told her she will one day if she behaves.' It appears that the announcement was spurred on by a selfie of the new parents, which was shared on Sam's Instagram account hours earlier. The couple were seen basking in the sunshine together in the garden as they observed the government guidelines on isolation amid the COVID-19 crisis. The family have further happy news, as it was revealed that their father Bernie, 89, was expecting to be a father for a fourth time, as his wife Fabiana Flosi, 44, is expecting. The day before their arrival in Croatia, Sam shared a selfie with Petra from LA, on which they appeared to be on a runway. Meanwhile, Tamara shared videos of her beloved Sophia from the garden on their lavish London home. Their outing comes just days after it was revealed that virus passports and travel corridors could allow families to travel abroad this summer. A quarantine regime will be introduced on June 8 requiring arrivals to the UK to self-isolate for 14 days. But ministers hope to strike quarantine-free pacts or 'air bridges with summer destinations such as France, Spain and Greece by August and possibly July. They are also examining the idea of 'Covid passports' to let those who have had the disease travel more widely and without having to go into quarantine on their return. Home Secretary Priti Patel said she is 'absolutely open' to the idea of air bridges between nations sparking fresh hope for Britons wanting to travel abroad in the summer months. The new border regime will apply to almost all arrivals, including incoming Britons. Rule breakers face an initial fine of 1,000. Further non-compliance could result in unlimited fines. Limited quarantine exemptions will be allowed for truck drivers, seasonal fruit pickers and a small number of essential workers. The ban is understood to have been opposed by multiple cabinet ministers, including transport Secretary Grant Shapps and business secretary Alok Sharma. Ms Patel said: 'When it comes to air bridges, look, I think we should be absolutely open to all ideas... 'This is not for today, but this doesn't mean we should rule this out in the future.' Ms Patel said quarantine was vital to prevent new cases of coronavirus being brought in from abroad. But the policy was criticised by the aviation and tourism sectors, the wider business community and even some Tory MPs. Be careful! Sophia seemed accustomed to yacht life as she teetered on to the boat The whole gang: The Ecclestones, Rutlands, Palmers and Stunts were assisted by aides as the boarded the yacht Baby mama: Petra held on to the car seat while sporting gloves and a mas Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. The Battlefield Management System Market research report provides the latest industry data, growth, key segments and future trends on the basis of the detailed study. Moreover, this market report also allowing you to identify the opportunity and growth rate of the leading segment, revenue growth and profitability. The entire battlefield management system market has been sub-categorized into platform, system, and component. The report provides an analysis of these subsets with respect to the geographical segmentation. This research study will keep marketer informed and helps to identify the target demographics for a product or service. Request a FREE Sample Copy of Global Battlefield Management System Market Report with Full TOC At: https://www.valuemarketresearch.com/contact/battlefield-management-system-market/download-sample By Platform Computing System Navigation & Imaging System Communication & Networking System By Systems Computing System Navigation & Imaging System Communication & Networking System By Component Computer Hardware Devices Computer Software Display Devices Imaging Devices Night Vision Devices Tracking Devices Wired Communication Devices Wireless Communication Devices Identification Friend or Foe The research report also covers the comprehensive profiles of the key players in the market and an in-depth view of the competitive landscape worldwide. The major players in the Battlefield Management System market include SAAB AB, Rockwell Collins, Inc., ROLTA India Ltd, Raytheon Company, BAE Systems plc, Thales Group, Harris Corporation, Leonardo S.p.A., and Systematic A/S. This section includes a holistic view of the competitive landscape that includes various strategic developments such as key mergers& acquisitions, future capacities, partnerships, financial overviews, collaborations, new product developments, new product launches, and other developments. This section covers regional segmentation which accentuates on current and future demand for Battlefield Management System market across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. Further, the report focuses on demand for individual application segment across all the prominent regions. Browse Full Global Battlefield Management System Market Research Report With TOC At: https://www.valuemarketresearch.com/report/battlefield-management-system-market About Us: Value Market Research was established with the vision to ease decision making and empower the strategists by providing them with holistic market information. We facilitate clients with syndicate research reports and customized research reports on 25+ industries with global as well as regional coverage. Contact: Value Market Research 401/402, TFM, Nagras Road, Aundh, Pune-7. Maharashtra, INDIA. Tel: +1-888-294-1147 Email: sales@valuemarketresearch.com Website: https://www.valuemarketresearch.com Volunteers are essential to Houston Food Banks operations, and are needed now more than ever, the organization said in a press release. The Food Bank is now distributing approximately 1 million pounds of food daily, a 600,000 increase from the number of meals being distributed before COVID-19. In the early hours of Tuesday morning an estimated 200 to 300 people gathered at the Providence Place Mall in a protest against the killing of George Floyd that quickly escalated into chaos. These were folks who gathered purposefully late, late, late at night, Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza said Tuesday. They were out to cause trouble. Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo spoke of the action Tuesday, saying, They have a right to be angry. They have a right to be frustrated and demand change. But violence is not the answer. The group was overwhelmingly young people and 65 were arrested. While officials - including the governor - have claimed the participants were largely coming from out of state, the vast majority of those arrested were Rhode Islanders. Of the 65 people arrested, the mayor of Providence said 35 are city residents, 25 are from elsewhere in Rhode Island and five are Massachusetts residents. Police were aware of the planned gathering but quickly became overwhelmed by the number of people gathered when they wanted to gain entry into the mall, Elorza told reporters. Crowds of people can be seen running through the Providence Place Mall. Fireworks being let off outside. Police have not been successful in quelling this crowd. @wpri12 pic.twitter.com/mJG10wZEFw Corey Welch (@CoreyWelch) June 2, 2020 The participants hurled hammers, bricks and other objects at the mall entrance and, once inside, broke into over a dozen stores in the mall, stealing objects from stores, officials said. There were about 60 Rhode Island state troopers and an additional 60 Providence police officers were deployed Tuesday night. Several officers were hit with bricks, Rhode Island State Police Col. James Manni said. Up to 10 officers were injured. Officials said people were quickly dispersed from the mall, damage continued in downtown Providence and other parts of the city. A police cruiser was set on fire and several storefronts were smashed. We just spoke with the owner of St. Pierres His store on Washington Street was looted and a fire was started inside. His employee tried to stand guard all night, but looters made their way in. @ABC6 pic.twitter.com/xzAKIDkUBh Amanda Pitts (@APittsABC6) June 2, 2020 Doors, windows shattered at TD Bank at corner of Dorrance and Westminster St @ABC6 pic.twitter.com/rsZxDmRuRa Amanda Pitts (@APittsABC6) June 2, 2020 Protests have held been held in dozens of cities nationwide following the death of George Floyd. The 46-year-old died Monday after he was pinned to the ground by officers, including one who constricted his breathing by putting his knee on his neck. In video captured by witnesses, Floyd is heard pleading that he is struggling to breath and in severe pain, as Officer Derek Chauvin remains with his knee on his neck. Floyd was declared dead a short time later at a Minneapolis hospital. Chauvin and three other officers involved in his death were fired Tuesday as community activists called for their arrests. Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter on Friday. In the four-day period between Floyds death and charges being brought against one of the officers involved, a series of protests were held in Minneapolis. Protests at the Minneapolis 3rd Precinct - where the four officers involved in Floyds death were stationed before their firing - turned violent Wednesday evening. The Target store location across the street from the precinct was damaged and items were taken from the store. 40 Protests break out in Minneapolis following death of George Floyd Related Content The mother of Belgian backpacker Theo Hayez, who has been missing for more than a year, has thanked the community that refuses to stop looking for him. The 19-year-old vanished on May 31 last year in Byron Bay, northern New South Wales and has not been seen or heard from since. The Belgian backpacker's mother Vinciane Delforge thanked the Byron Bay locals who created a moving tribute to the teenager on Sunday night - the one year anniversary of his disappearance. A photo of Hayez was projected across the town's famous lighthouse while the tribute was live streamed online. The lighthouse was also lit up in orange, Theo's favourite colour. Vinciane Delforge (pictured with son Theo Hayez) has thanked the Byron Bay community that refuses to give up looking for her son who was last seen in the beach town a year ago Theo Hayez with his girlfriend Severine Marcotty. Theo vanished on May 31 last year after leaving Cheeky Monkey's in Byron Bay, northern New South Wales 'From the bottom of my heart, I would like to thank all those who contributed to (Sunday's) incredibly beautiful event in honour of Theo,' Ms Delforge said in a statement on Tuesday. 'I wish I had been there with you all and I think a lot about you, the Byron Bay community, my Australian friends. 'Your continuous support means a lot to us. 'It helps us endure this very difficult time and the pain of not knowing what happened to Theo.' Ms Delforge had previously taken a relatively minor role in the public appearances and appeals by Theo's family, with his father Laurent Hayez leading the campaign after flying to Australia soon after the disappearance. The backpacker's cousin, Lisa Hayez, also paid tribute to the backpacker and Byron Bay community during Sunday's service. Locals created a Looking for Theo Facebook page which regularly carries out searches for the missing teenager and shares any updates on Hayez' disappearance. Theo's family have fought tirelessly to find out what happened after he went missing in Byron Bay last year (Mr Hayez (centre) pictured with his friend and Theo's female cousin) at a media conference in 2019 Theo Hayez was last seen leaving the Cheeky Monkey Bar on May 31 in Byron Bay, northern New South Wales 'We all miss you so much. You're the kind of person who brings so much happiness to everyone who meets you,' Lisa said in a video displayed on the lighthouse. 'You cannot imagine how much I miss your laugh... every time I saw you I couldn't stop laughing because you were naturally making me so happy. 'Since the 31st of May, Byron Bay changed. People who didn't know each other before united with the same goal; finding you. 'They never stopped for a second, and trust me they're not ready to stop til we know what happened to you. 'I promise you that we're never going to give up. I hope so much that wherever you are, you're okay and happy.' The family have maintained Hayez was not alone on the night he disappeared. The leading theory in Hayez's disappearance is that he fell into the sea while trying to climb cliffs near Tallows Beach and his body was washed away. Police began a land, sea and air search when they were alerted to his disappearance by staff at the Wake Up! Hostel in Byron Bay on June 6. Hostel staff raise the alarm after finding his belongings, including his passport, left untouched. The only possible trace of the teenager was a cap similar to one he wore that was found in bushland near the lighthouse The only possible trace of the teenager was a cap similar to one he wore that was found in bushland near the lighthouse. Hayez's father made an emotional public appeal to help find his son after news broke he was missing. 'I promised Theo's little brother that I would bring his brother home. Please, help me keep my promise to him,' he told reporters through tears at Tweed Heads Police Station. Hayez's disappearance made headlines around the world and several volunteer groups formed to search for him. The case has been referred to the NSW coroner. Hayez's godfather Jean-Philippe Pector says he is still overwhelmed with grief as the one year anniversary of Theo's disappearance looms. 'In my mind, somewhere, I don't want to believe that it happened I don't know if it's a way to protect myself,' he told ABC. 'When I wake up at night, my brain does not stop working on what should I do, or is there more to do?' He insists that the search for Theo will not stop until 'we think we have nothing more to do'. In the latest twist to the Tiger King saga, the very woman Joe Exotic was convicted of plotting to kill is set to take control of his former zoo in Oklahoma. A judge ruled Carole Baskin, owner of Big Cat Rescue, a cat sanctuary northwest of Tampa in Hillsborough County, will soon take over Exotics property in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, according to People Magazine. Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, also known as Joe Exotic, subject of the Netflix documentary series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness. The judge made the ruling in Baskins favor, because Exotics property transfer to his mother and Jeff Lowe was deemed fraudulent, according to CNN. TMZ reported Baskin won a $1 million trademark lawsuit against Exotic and his mother years ago, but did not receive any money and the judges ruling Monday takes care of that settlement. According to multiple reports, the courts order means the Greater Wynnewood Development Group, LLC the company Exotic previously owned has to vacate the property in 120 days with removal of all zoo animals. Exotic, real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage, was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison in January for hiring a hitman to kill Baskin, according to NBC News. A Netflix documentary series, Tiger King, was then released in March and quickly became the No. 1 trending show on the streaming service. A retired Garda detective inspector, who investigated some of Irelands most infamous crimes, has called for cold case units to be installed in every Garda jurisdiction in the country. Pat Marry, who was involved in investigating the murder of Rachel OReilly by her husband Joe in Co Dublin in 2004, as well as the killing of Garda Adrian Donohoe in Co Louth in 2013, said the Garda senior leadership team has not provided enough manpower to solve missing persons cases, unidentified remains or unsolved murders that have gone cold. It is not a lack of resources, rather a lack of a coherent strategy and planning for such cold cases, he said. Mr Marry, now a private investigator since retiring in 2018, spent years unsuccessfully trying to identify a skull found off Lambay Island, Co Dublin, in 2006. Other cases of unidentified remains include a body of a man found in Ballincollig, Co Cork, in 1999, the bizarre mystery of Peter Bergmann in Sligo in 2009, and the case of Busker Dave from 2002. Mr Marry said: Garda management has to take responsibility and examine case by case to see if cold investigations can be brought on any further. "All of these cases involving missing persons, unidentified remains and unsolved major crimes are totally solvable. They just need that shot in the arm. There has been a huge lack of co-ordination in the gardai to match up or compare evidence when it comes to tracing missing people or matching body parts that have been found. He said cold cases could now benefit from advances in DNA testing, online media and social media. In many instances, senior gardai will retire and their unsolved cases will remain there until someone takes it on. "Garda management needs to push these cases, to assign people in every jurisdiction to take them on, especially now with tools at our disposal such as DNA, online media and social media. He said he is a big believer in genealogical websites which, he said, have got a huge bank of DNA profiles. I believe we should be able to run cold case DNA through it, to see if we can finally get justice for cold- case victims. "I would have been relentless about this when I was in the gardai because it is a huge bank of knowledge sitting there. There are obviously privacy issues and the likes of GDPR, but surely some kind of process could be established that addresses concerns but also brings closure for victims families, he said. In his book, Without Trace: Irelands Missing, RTE reporter Barry Cummins, highlights one of Corks least-known mysteries, the discovery of a body in Ballincollig in 1999. The State Parties to the Joint Declaration are the United Kingdom and China. If it is argued by the United Kingdom that China is in breach of this treaty there may be a remedy under international law. by Dr. Ruwantissa Abeyratne Writing from Montreal Our responsibility is to strive to work for the people. Every sentence, every action, every policy, must all be to the peoples benefit. If there are mistakes, they shall be rectified. This is what is called to work for the people. Taken from a poster carried by a Hong Kong Protester British rule over Hong Kong can be traced to the 19th century, The British House of Commons Library says: Hong Kong island was ceded to Great Britain by China after the first Opium War in 1842. Further territory was added after the second Opium War and in 1898, when Great Britain obtained the New Territories on a 99-year lease. Preparations for Hong Kongs return to China began in the 1980s. On 19 December 1984, the UK Government and the Government of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) signed The Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong. On 1 July 1997, the UK transferred sovereignty over Hong Kong to the PRC. Hong Kong is now a Special Administrative Region of the PRC. Jiang Zemin and Prince Charles at the handover ceremony in 1997 CREDIT: AFP On 30 June 2017 Reuters reported that China said the joint declaration with Britain over Hong Kong, which laid the blueprint over how the city would be ruled after its return to China in 1997, was a historical document that no longer had any practical significance. In response, Britain said the declaration remained in force and was a legally valid treaty to which it was committed to upholding. The Sino-British Joint Declaration states inter alia: the current social and economic systems will remain unchanged for 50 years following the handover (to 2047), as would its existing rights, freedoms and lifestyle. This explicitly includes rights and freedoms of the person, of speech, of the press, of assembly, of travel, of movement, of correspondence, of strike On 4 April 1990, The Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (The Basic Law) was adopted by the National People's Congress of the PRC. It entered into force on 1 July 1997. The Joint Declaration is an integral part of the Basic Law. The Basic Law is a constitutional instrument for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It encompasses within a legal document the concept of "One Country, Two Systems", bestowing a high degree of autonomy which the Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong are endowed with. In May 2020 The Central Government in Beijing adopted a law that would make criminal any act of: secession - breaking away from the country; subversion - undermining the power or authority of the central government; terrorism - using violence or intimidation against people activities by foreign forces that interfere in Hong Kong. The people of Hong Kong are concerned that China could set up under this law its own institutions in Hong Kong responsible for security. The current protests on the streets are for two reasons: one is that the Chinese law is contrary to established principles of international treaty law, argued on the valid basis that the Sino British Joint Declaration is a treaty recognized and registered in the United Nations under treaty law; and the other is that the autonomy of the Hing Kong people guaranteed under the Joint Declaration and attendant incorporated law as discussed above is infringed leading to arbitrary and capricious arrests of people of Hong Kong will prejudice democratic principles enunciated under the rule of law prevalent in Hong Kong will be seriously eroded. There are some in Hong Kong who are reported as believing that the judicial system in Hong Kong will come to be a replication of the system that prevails in Beijing (whatever that means) while the BBC says : China expert Willy Lam is concerned the law could see people punished for criticizing Beijing - as happens in mainland China. People believe this will affect free speech and their right to protest. In China, this would be seen as subversion. As mentioned above, Chinas response to the position taken by the people of Hong Kong is that the Joint Declaration is a historical document that no longer had any practical significance. From a legal standpoint the Joint Declaration is an international treaty under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties which defines a treaty as an international agreement concluded between States in written form and governed by international law, whether embodied in a single instrument or in two or more related instruments and whatever its particular designation; The Convention goes on to say that the consent of a State to be bound by a treaty may be expressed by signature, exchange of instruments constituting a treaty, ratification, acceptance, approval or accession, or by any other means if so agreed. The Vienna Convention provides further that every treaty in force is binding upon the parties to it and must be performed by them in good faith and that a party may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its failure to perform a treaty. A treaty is interpreted in good faith according to the ordinary meaning of the words contained therein. One of the important provisions of the Vienna Convention carries the requirement that the invalidity, termination or denunciation of a treaty, the withdrawal of a party from it, or the suspension of its operation, as a result of the application of the present Convention or of the provisions of the treaty, will not in any way impair the duty of any State to fulfil any obligation embodied in the treaty to which it would be subject under international law independently of the treaty. The State Parties to the Joint Declaration are the United Kingdom and China. If it is argued by the United Kingdom that China is in breach of this treaty there may be a remedy under international law. Anthony Aust, in his celebrated book Modern Treaty Law and Practice says: If the breach has a continuing character, the State in breach is under and obligation to cease the conduct causing the breach. To do so would not of course absolve it from responsibility for the consequence of the breach. The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties goes on to say that any one of the parties to a dispute concerning the application may, by a written application, submit it to the International Court of Justice for a decision unless the parties by common consent agree to submit the dispute to arbitration; and any one of the parties to a dispute concerning the application or the interpretation of any provision may set in motion the procedure specified in the Annex to the Convention by submitting a request to that effect to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The author is a former senior official of the United Nations system The falling death of Afro-Indigenous woman Regis Korchinski-Paquet in the presence of police officers is sparking outrage and protest in Toronto as cities across the U.S. have meanwhile erupted in several days of anger over the shocking death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer. Floyds death is, of course, the latest in a long string of police killings that have sparked protest against anti-Black racism by U.S. police. Closer to home, Toronto has its own long history of deaths, incidents and investigations that have sparked outrage and accusations of racism. A timeline of the last three decades of racial controversies in Toronto: August 1988 The death of Lester Donaldson: The 44-year-old Black man was shot at point-blank range in a Toronto rooming house. Metro police said they were responding to a call of a man holding hostages, but found Donaldson alone in his room. They said he had lunged at them with a knife. In 1990, the outcry from Donaldsons death helped establish Ontarios Special Investigations Unit (SIU), the civilian police oversight agency that is investigating Korchinski-Paquets death. December 1988 The death of Michael Wade Lawson: The 17-year-old Black teen was reportedly shot in the back of the head while driving a stolen car in Mississauga. Two white Peel police officers were charged in his death, and were acquitted by a Brampton jury in April 1992 May 1992 The death of Raymond Lawrence: The 22-year-old Black man was shot in a west-end backyard after police said he wouldnt drop a knife. Two days later, the Lawson verdict, Lawrences death and outrage over the acquittal of four Los Angeles police officers in the videotaped beating of Rodney King spark a riot on Yonge Street. October 2002: The Star publishes Race & Crime, the first series in what became a more than decade-long investigation into Toronto police practices. The first analysis of crime data finds Black people are treated more harshly than white people by Toronto police. June 2004 The death of OBrien Christopher-Reid: The 26-year-old Black man was shot dead by Toronto police in June 2004, after reportedly advancing toward them with a knife. He had been diagnosed with paranoid delusional disorder. July 2004: A report on low-income women of colour documents stories of racialized women being refused boarding on TTC vehicles, leading to calls for an inquiry into discrimination on the transit system June 2006 The death of Duane Christian: The 15-year-old Black teen was shot dead by police while at the wheel of a stolen van in the parking lot of his Scarborough apartment building. Two months later, the SIU cleared Const. Steve Darnley, saying he was justified in shooting Christian to prevent his partner from being deliberately run down. 2010-2012: Two Star series, Race Matters in 2010 and Known to Police in 2012, reveal people of colour are far more likely than white people to be stopped by police in a carding stop, which involves an officer stopping and questioning someone who is not a suspect of crime. The Star finds cards for Black people make up 25 per cent of the data in a city with a Black population of 8.3 per cent. May 2010 The death of Junior Manon: The 18-year-old Black teen died after he was tackled to the ground by Toronto police following a traffic stop. Manon fled after he was pulled over for driving a car with an expired temporary licence plate sticker. Ontarios chief pathologist testified at a coroners inquest into Manons death that the cause was positional asphyxia after the chase and exertion. Although the two police officers involved claimed they never put their weight on the teens back, multiple witnesses testified they had. The officers were cleared by the SIU and jurors at Manons coroners inquest ruled his death an accident, but said police actions during his arrest contributed to his death. November 2011 The Neptune Four incident: Four Black boys, ages 15 and 16, were on their way to an after-school learning program in a Lawrence Heights public housing complex on Neptune Drive when they were stopped by two Toronto police officers with the controversial and now-disbanded Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy (TAVIS) unit. When one of the boys asked why they were being stopped, the incident escalated, one of the officers drew his gun and the teens were charged. The controversial incident was a source of division between police and the Lawrence Heights community and is still the subject of an ongoing police misconduct hearing, nearly nine years later. February 2012 The death of Michael Eligon: The 29-year-old Black man was shot by Toronto police in the middle of an East York street while carrying two pairs of scissors. Although the officers were cleared of wrongdoing in Eligons death, the SIU director at the time said the tragedy raised legitimate questions about how police are trained to deal with mentally ill people. November 2013 The death of Ian Pryce: The 30-year-old Black man was shot by two Toronto police officers after an hour-long standoff. Police believed Pryce, who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, was about to shoot a weapon they believed was a handgun. It was later revealed to be a pellet gun that appeared almost identical to a handgun. April 2014-2015: The police board passes a policy dealing with carding, with new rules allowing carding only around specific offences. A standoff ensues between then-chief Bill Blair and the board as the chief delays implementing the policy. June 2015: Mayor John Tory calls for a permanent end to carding, citing eroded public trust in police. July 2015 The death of Andrew Loku: The 45-year-old South Sudanese man who was experiencing a mental health crisis at the time he was shot dead by a Toronto police officer while he was wielding a small hammer. His death prompted protests and a review of police oversight by Ontario Court of Appeal judge Michael Tulloch. December 2016 The beating of Dafonte Miller: The then-19-year old Black Whitby man was severely beaten during an encounter with off-duty Toronto police officer Michael Theriault and his brother, Christian Theriault. He sustained serious damage to his eye, which required surgical removal. The brothers were charged with aggravated assault; the trial was completed earlier this year but the verdict has been delayed by COVID-19 court closures. July 2016: Activists with Black Lives Matter Toronto brings the Toronto Pride parade to a halt. The group demands, among other things, that police no longer be allowed to march and that organizers apologize for historic anti-Blackness both of which happen as a result. July 2017: A Star analysis finds that between 2003 to 2013 Black people with no history of criminal convictions were three times more likely to be arrested by Toronto police for possession of small amounts of marijuana than white people with similar backgrounds. February 2018: A Black teen named Reece Maxwell-Crawford is shoved and then pinned to the ground outside a streetcar stop by TTC fare inspectors. Maxwell-Crawford sues the TTC for alleged racial profiling, and the agency settles after the city ombudsman concludes it mishandled its investigation into the incident December 2018: A report by the Ontario Human Rights Commission finds Black people are grossly overrepresented in cases in which Toronto police have used force, including in seven of 10 fatal shootings by police between 2012 and 2017. March 2019: A Star investigation into 40,000 records of personal information collected by TTC officers from riders who werent charged with an offence suggests Black passengers were stopped at a disproportionately high rate, prompting comparisons to the police carding controversy. July 2019: CEO Rick Leary acknowledges there is public concern about racial bias at the TTC as the agency launches an anti-racism strategy aimed directly at preventing racial profiling, and covering all aspects of the TTCs operation. October 2019: Research based on Statistics Canada data finds Black families are twice as likely to go hungry as white households, even accounting for income and education. May 2020 The death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet: The 29-year-old fell 24 storeys to her death from her apartment balcony after police say they were summoned to the apartment for multiple calls for an assault in progress, at least two of which mentioned knives. Her family says there were no weapons by the time police arrived and that Korchinski-Paquet needed mental health support. Her death prompted thousands of protestors to take to the streets in Toronto demanding justice and decrying excessive use of force against members of the Black community. With files from Ben Spurr, Laurie Monsebraaten, Jim Rankin, Alyshah Hasham and Star Staff Wendy Gillis is a Toronto-based reporter covering crime and policing for the Star. Reach her by email at wgillis@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @wendygillis Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-03 01:10:44|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close An Afghan security force member is seen near the site of an explosion in Kabul, Afghanistan, June 2, 2020. One person was killed and three others were wounded in a bomb explosion in downtown Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, on Tuesday, an Interior Ministry spokesman confirmed. (Photo by Rahmatullah Alizadah/Xinhua) KABUL, June 2 (Xinhua) -- One person was killed and three others were wounded in a bomb explosion in downtown Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, on Tuesday, an Interior Ministry spokesman confirmed. "One worshiper was martyred and three wounded after an improvised explosive device detonated in the courtyard of Wazir Akbar Khan mosque at 7:25 p.m. local time," spokesman Tariq Arian told Xinhua. He revised earlier preliminary reports that the blast was caused by a suicide bomber, adding that a bomb disposal team also found and defused explosive materials at the site of the blast after the incident. The blast damaged two adjuncts and a main building of the mosque in Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood, where the cluster of foreign embassies is located. A university lecturer and praying leader of the mosque, Mohammad Ayaz Niazi, was among the wounded, according to Arian. The injured were shifted to a nearby hospital. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far. The blast was the latest in a string of bomb attacks in the city within the past one month. On Saturday, a journalist and a driver were killed and six people wounded after militants of Islamic State (IS) targeted a local TV channel's bus by a roadside bomb near a traffic circle in Kabul. Hong Kongs leader criticised the double standards of foreign governments regarding national security, pointing to the current unrest in the United States as an example of how attitudes differ when protests hit home. We have recently seen these kind of double standards most clearly with the riots in the United States, chief executive Carrie Lam said on Tuesday. We can see how local authorities have reacted. But then last year when we had similar riots in Hong Kong, what was their position? The US, Britain and some other Western democracies sharply criticised police crackdowns on anti-government protests in Hong Kong last year. Riot police standing guard in Hong Kong (VIncent Yu/AP) Ms Lam pointed to more recent criticism of an imminent national security law that many foreign politicians have characterised as Beijing eroding freedoms promised to Hong Kong. They take their own countrys national security very seriously, but for the security of our country, especially the situation in Hong Kong, they are looking at it through tinted glasses, she said. Ms Lam will lead a delegation of senior Hong Kong officials to Beijing on Wednesday to present her views on the planned national security laws to Chinese government officials, the Hong Kong government announced. Chinas ceremonial legislature last week approved a decision to create national security laws for Hong Kong, aimed at curbing subversive and secessionist activity after the months-long pro-democracy movement last year that at times resulted in violent clashes between protesters and police. In response to the proposed laws, US President Donald Trump on Friday pledged to take action to revoke Hong Kongs preferential treatment as a separate customs and travel territory. Police in Atlanta, Georgia (Ben Gray/PA) Ms Lam said if any countries imposed sanctions or made moves to affect trading relations, they would only be hurting their own interests. She went on to highlight the US trade surplus with Hong Kong. Story continues Foreign governments have been responding in a high-profile manner, some have threatened certain actions, and I can only say that they are adopting double standards, Ms Lam said. Ms Lam also expressed concern over the latest coronavirus outbreak in the city, after a cluster of nine people in the same public housing building tested positive for the virus over the past few days, ending a streak of nearly two weeks without locally transmitted cases. Hong Kong on Tuesday said it would implement a two-week extension of social distancing measures, including a ban on public gatherings of more than eight people, to June 18. The citys entry restrictions will also remain in place until September 18 for foreign non-residents, with the exception of those who have stayed in mainland China, Taiwan and Macau for 14 days prior to their arrival in Hong Kong. Residents of those places are also allowed into the city if they have not travelled elsewhere prior to their arrival. Australian holidaymakers are being forced to fork out more money to travel around the country as airlines jack up the price of flights. Travellers noted the price for a flight from Perth to Broome in July had skyrocketed from $199 to $500 this week. The move comes after the WA Government launched its new $2million tourism campaign 'Wander Out Yonder' encouraging Western Australians to explore their own state. Travellers noted the price for a flight from Perth (Pictured) to Broome in July had skyrocketed from $199 to $500 this week Tourism to remote places like Broome (pictured) will likely take a hit as international travel remains on hold amid the coronavirus pandemic The campaign is aimed at boosting the state tourism industry while international travel remains on hold amid the coronavirus pandemic. WA closed its border in early April to combat the spread of the deadly illness, it is expected to remain closed 'for some time'. Without international or even interstate tourists the government is in dire need of getting its own residents out and about. But the strict border closures have given airlines the upperhand and its not just Western Australia that has been affected. Before the coronavirus crisis hit a return flight from Sydney to Melbourne cost as little as $100 but tickets are now more than $1,000 for a return trip. Flying from Sydney to Brisbane and back now costs $1,730 on the same dates flying with Qantas then Jetstar on the return. Those hoping to travel from Perth to Sydney will have to pay $1,875 if they want to fly next week. To get from Melbourne to Cairns, travellers would have to fly with a mix of Qantas, Airnorth and Fly Corporate and pay $3,268. Federal Trade and Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham said he was currently having discussions with airlines about the importance of operating in a price competitive way The Sydney Harbour bridge and Opera House at dusk. Return flights from Sydney to Melbourne, which are normally as low as $100, now cost upwards of $1,300 between May 28 and June 4. With lockdown and travel restrictions in place, demand for flying has decreased resulting in a drastic fall in the number of flights in between Australian cities. Speaking to The West Live, Federal Trade and Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham said he was currently having discussions with airlines about the importance of operating in a price competitive way. He said 'especially regions that might be more reliant on international visitors'. 'My focus is usually on getting international visitors to come to Australia, and around 9million do each and every year...now our effort is to try to get Australians to back-fill some of those spaces that some of our international guests would typically go to. 'We're talking to the airlines they have businesses to run, but we do want to make sure they get the right model.' A Qantas spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia: 'Since the Government lifted travel restrictions within Western Australia, we have seen a surge in bookings for flights to Broome. As with all flights, the cheapest flights book out quickly. 'We are looking to put on extra flights from Perth to Broome to meet this demand which will see more low fares added. A tram goes by Flinders Street Station in Melbourne. NSW, Victoria and the ACT have no border restrictions, which is why flights between these locations are more abundant, although they are still expensive An aerial view of Cairns in north Queensland. Limited return flights from Melbourne to Cairns now cost $3,000 'At this time, Qantas is operating only a minimal domestic network on behalf of the Federal Government and when non-essential travel is allowed, restrictions lift and we see demand increase, we will look to add more flights across the various interstate routes.' In a social media, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said there would be 'plenty of good deals' once travel resumes because airlines would be keen to stimulate travel demand. 'The Australian domestic market has huge potential. And for that reason this is never going to be a one airline town or it wouldn't be one for long. 'Stiff competition has made Qantas better over the years and we don't want that to stop now. And, frankly, the regulatory pressures on entrenched monopolies tend to make them unattractive.' Lea Michele's former Glee co-star Samantha Ware, has claimed the actress made her life 'a living hell' on-set - even once threatening to defecate 'in her wig.' The leading lady, 33, who played Rachel Berry on the show, took to social media on Saturday to pay tribute to George Floyd and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, yet the message was met with an acerbic response from Samantha, 28. In response to Lea's short message reading: 'George Floyd did not deserve this. This was not an isolated incident and it must end', Samantha, who played Jane Hayward on the show, made her bold allegations about behind-the-scenes drama. Shocker: Lea Michele's former Glee co-star Samantha Ware, has claimed the actress made her life 'a living hell' on-set - even once threatening to defecate 'in her wig (Lea, pictured left in character as Rachel Berry, Samantha, pictured right in character as Jane Hayward) Lea joined millions of social media users in drawing attention to George Floyd's horrific death, after he passed away in an incident of police brutality. Despite the kind intentions behind her message, Samantha swiftly hit back with the bold allegations about the behind-the-scenes dramas on the Glee set. The star, who appeared in 2015's sixth season, responded to Lea's tweet - which rounded out with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter, by writing: ''Remember when you made my first television gig a living hell?!?!... 'Cause I'll never forget... I believe you told everyone that if you had the opportunity you would 's*** in my wig!' amongst other traumatic microaggressions that made me question a career in Hollywood.' Statement: The leading lady, 33, took to social media on Saturday to pay tribute to George Floyd and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement Remember me? The message was met with an acerbic response from Samantha, 28 Alex Newell, Amber Riley and Dabier Snell - who all co-starred in 'Glee' - reacted to the tweet in support of Samantha. Alex and Amber shared gifs, with Alex posting the 'Get her, Jade' meme from Drag Race, while Dabier wrote: 'GIRL YOU WOULDNT LET ME SIT AT THE TABLE WITH THE OTHER CAST MEMBERS CAUSE 'I DIDNT BELONG THERE' F**K YOU LEA (sic).' Community actress Yvette Nicole Brown showed her support for Samantha by writing: 'I felt every one of those capital letters.' And Alex replied: 'Felt like claps!!' Meanwhile, back in 2011, Hailee Steinfeld, now 23, revealed how Lea made her cry on the Paramount lot. Speaking out: Samantha Ware, 28, a former Glee costar of Lea Michele, 33, said the star was abusive and made her life 'a living hell' on the set of the Fox series Not so subtle: Glee's Amber Riley posted this GIF of her raising her hand, amid rumors that Lea Michele was less than kind to work with on the Ryan Murphy show Not happy: Community star Yvette Nicole Brown, who did not appear on Glee, also voiced her opinion In agreement: Alex Newell, who starred as Unique Adams on series for four seasons, wasn't so subtle - and began replying to fans about the drama. Ouch: Actor Dabier Snell, who appeared in an episode of the show, did not hold back Staying out of the matter: Kevin McHale, who played Artie Abrams from the show's debut, swerved a response when asked about the controversy on Twitter She told J-14 magazine: 'When I was auditioning for 'True Grit', I was on the Paramount lot. I was wearing clothes from the 1800s that were big and uncomfortable. Glee' also films on the lot and I love that show... 'I saw Lea Michele just walking to her trailer, and I was like, ''That's the girl from 'Glee'. I've got to go ask for her autograph!' 'So I walked up to her and asked for her autograph, but she walked by and a guy came and said, 'Sorry, now's not a good time!' I was so sad! I was practically crying on the way home.' Expecting: Lea is expecting a child with her husband, businessman Zandy Reich Tough times: Michele, 37, played the role of Rachel Berry (back row) on the show's six seasons, getting nominated for an Emmy and two Golden Globe awards with the part Michele, who is expecting a child with her husband, businessman Zandy Reich, 37, played the role of Rachel Berry on the show's six seasons, getting nominated for an Emmy and two Golden Globe awards with the part. Ware was on the show for 11 shows in 2015 in its sixth season. Her career has flourished with turns on shows such as What/If, Chicago Med and God Friended Me. MailOnline has contacted representatives for Lea for comment. Oh dear... Four years ago, former Glee star Naya Rivera said Michele brought ego, tension and hostility onto the set with her Four years ago, former Glee star Naya Rivera said Michele brought ego, tension and hostility onto the set with her. In her 2016 book, Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes and Growing Up, she wrote: 'If I'd complained about anyone or anything, she'd assumed I was b****ng about her'. In the tome, Naya said Michele eventually stopped speaking with her altogether. 'She started to ignore me, and eventually it got to the point where she didn't say a word to me for all of Season 6,' Rivera said, 'Lea and I definitely weren't the best of friends, and I doubt we'll ever sit on her couch and eat kale together again.' Tough times: Meanwhile, back in 2011, Hailee Steinfeld, now 23, revealed how Lea made her cry on the Paramount lot Piling on: Another actor who starred on GLEE, Dabier Snell, also chimed in claiming Michele did not let him sit at the table with other cast members JJ Abrams, along with his wife Katie McGrath and production company Bad Robot, pledged a $10million donation over the next five years to groups with anti-racist agendas. 'We at Bad Robot are grateful to the many scholars, activists, organizers and leaders fighting on the frontlines of change in our systemically unjust country,' the Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker director's company captioned a slideshow via Instagram on Monday. The initiative will begin with an immediate $200,000 donation to Equal Justice Initiative, Black Futures Lab, Know Your Rights Camp, Black Lives Matter L.A. and Community Coalition. Generous: JJ Abrams, along with his wife Katie McGrath and production company Bad Robot, pledged a $10million donation over the next five years to groups with anti-racist agendas; pictured in 2019 The funds will continue to be gradually relayed in the form of an annual $2million donation spread among the advocacy organizations, according to Deadline. 'In this fragile time, words matter, listening is critical and investment is required,' the company, who is responsible for the television series Alias, Lost and Westworld, explained. They added: 'The centuries long neglect and abuse of out Black brothers and sisters can only be addressed by scalable investment. A massive and thoughtful overhaul of tax policy, one that effectively meets the needs of the many in this country, and not just the few, is long overdue.' 'We at Bad Robot are grateful to the many scholars, activists, organizers and leaders fighting on the frontlines of change in our systemically unjust country,' the Star Wars: The Force Awakens director's company captioned a slideshow via Instagram on Monday Anti-racist agendas: The initiative will begin with an immediate $200,000 donation to Equal Justice Initiative, Black Futures Lab, Know Your Rights Camp, Black Lives Matter L.A. and Community Coalition 'Corporate and private philanthropy can never achieve the impact needed to address these systemic inequities, but companies and individuals who are able must do what we can until out political leaders lead,' read one of the post's black and white slides. Bad Robot continued: 'We are committing an additional $10m over the next years to organizations and efforts committed to anti-racist agendas that close the gaps, lift the poor and build a just America for all.' Abrams' donation comes in the wake of protests over the death of George Floyd, which have swept across the globe with demonstrations for the past week. Years to come: The funds will continue to be gradually relayed in the form of an annual $2million donation to the advocacy organizations 'In this fragile time, words matter, listening is critical and investment is required,' the company, who is responsible for the television series Alias, Lost and Westworld, explained On Friday, ex-police officer Derek Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter after a video surfaced of him crushing 46-year-old Floyd's neck with his knee in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Abrams is known for his charitable acts, which have also included donating to the Time's Up fund launched by 300 female Hollywood stars to help 'less privileged women' fight sexual harassment. He and his wife, who share three children, made a $1million contribution. Advocates: The centuries long neglect and abuse of out Black brothers and sisters can only be addressed by scalable investment. A massive and thoughtful overhaul of tax policy, one that effectively meets the needs of the many in this country, and not just the few, is long overdue.' The police of the Houston city in the US state of Texas has advice for President Donald Trump after his comments to governors following the murder of an African American at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Houston Police chief Art Acevedos reaction came after Trump, who last week tweeted when the looting starts, the shooting starts, urged governors to get tough on the violent protests following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in police custody in Minneapolis. A white officer has been charged and three others fired. Widespread protests have raged all over the United States following George Floyds death on May 25, starting with Minneapolis. Protesters have attacked and vandalised stores as well as police property. Let me just say this to the President of the United States, on behalf of the police chiefs of this country: Please, if you dont have something constructive to say, keep your mouth shut, Acevedo said while peaking to CNNs Christiane Amanpour. President Donald Trump in a video conference call with governors on Monday had called them weak for not being able to control the growing nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd, suggesting that they use the National Guard to dominate protesters. Trump also praised the National Guard response in Minneapolis, saying it cut through [protesters] like butter while calling on state leaders to adopt more brutal tactics to put down the uprisings. You have to dominate. If you dont dominate, youre wasting your time. Theyre going to run over you. Youre going to look like a bunch of jerks. You have to dominate, Trump said on the call, according to reports. Acevedo also accusing Trump of putting men and women in their early 20s at risk. This is not about dominating. It is about winning hearts and minds. And lets be clear, we do not want to confuse kindness with weakness. We dont want ignorance to ruin what we have managed to do to restore normalcy, the Houston Police chief said. Acevedo quoted from the Hollywood film Forrest Gump, saying if you dont have anything to say, dont say it. Because thats the basic tenet of leadership and we need leadership now more than ever.. and its time to be presidential and not try to be like on The Apprentice. This is not Hollywood, this is real life and real lives at risk, he said, referring to the popular reality show that starred Trump. Floyd, who was in handcuffs at the time, died after police officer Derek Chauvin ignored bystander shouts to get off Floyd and Floyds cries that he couldnt breathe. The Minneapolis police officer was charged last week with third-degree murder in Floyds death, and three other officers were fired. Bystander video showed Chauvin holding his knee on Floyds neck despite the mans cries that he cant breathe until he eventually stopped moving. A medical examiner on Monday classified Floyds death as a homicide, saying his heart stopped as police restrained him and compressed his neck, in a widely seen video that has sparked protests across the US. (With agency inputs) A Bangladesh national, who was arrested by the BSF troops while trying to cross the Indo-Pak border illegally on Sunday, told police that he was trying to go to Pakistan to meet his lover. Nain Mian alias Abdullah, 25, of Shariatpur in Bangladesh, was arrested near the Attari checkpost without a passport. He was then handed over to the Gharinda police in Amritsar rural district. Abdullah had entered India through Kolkata and then come to Attari, said Gharinda SHO Amandeep Singh. During questioning, the accused failed to produce his passport and visa. He said that he is in love with one Sufia of Karachi. He had been in contact with her through social media. She told him that her family has fixed her marriage with someone. After this, he entered India and planned to go to Pakistan via Attari, police said. Nothing suspicious was found from the accuseds possessions and further investigation is on to ascertain if there was any other motive behind his visit. Talking to media in police custody, Abdullah said he crossed Bangladesh border 10 days ago. I paid Rs 10,000 to cross the Bangladesh border. I reached Kolkata, and then travelled to Amritsar via Agra. After reaching Amritsar, I enquired from people regarding crossing the border to reach Pakistan. I learnt that the Indian government is allowing those stuck here to reach Pakistan via Attari. So, I reached Attari but was arrested. Im in love with a girl from Karachi and she would have married me if I had reached there. For past seven months, we are in touch. If I dont reach there, her parents will get her married to someone else. He said that he was aware of the risk of being caught and has appealed to the Indian government to allow him to visit Pakistan once. Police have registered a case under Section 14 of the Foreign Act against the accused. On Monday, the local court had granted four-day police remand of the accused. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal For more than 30 years Scalo stood at the top of Albuquerques food scene, serving its take on Northern Italian fine dining. Now with new ownership, a new chef and a $1 million renovation, the Nob Hill restaurant is preparing to open after being closed for nearly a year and a half. Doors will open again the second week of June, according to co-owner Kristie Sawant. Although the restaurant is opening in the same space it has occupied since the 80s, the team behind the reopening doesnt intend to keep everything the same. We still want to bring back the familiarity, Sawant said. This is Scalo, a very similar feel to Scalo that theyre used to but with a fresh new taste on the menu and a fresh new look. In addition to a cosmetic facelift, the menu will be fully revamped. Executive Chef Gaetano Ascione said his approach to cooking is simple, rustic and brutal. Ascione has spent his decades-long career working around the world and will be bringing that expertise to Albuquerque. He said the reopening of Scalo is an opportunity to elevate the restaurant while bringing something new and different to the city. The intent of the menu is to avoid boring or slipping into familiarity with the same dishes on the menu for years at a time. What they did was good, but what we have to do is very good, Ascione said. He said the menu will change frequently as a way to expand peoples palette. This will be the first foray into the restaurant world for the Kristie Sawant and her husband, Prashant Sawant. Both spent the majority of their careers as engineers and took on ownership as a passion project since the two were such fans of the restaurant. With the reopening Kristie said she realizes many people will be drawn to the restaurant due to a sense of familiarity, but she hopes to wow them with something new. When we started this project the whole aim was a total experience of good dining for our customers, Prashant Sawant said. Good service, good ambiance. The restaurant was initially slated to open this spring, but the date was delayed several months as New Mexico battled with the coronavirus. It is unclear what the opening day will look like restaurants only started welcoming dine-in customers with a 50% cap on capacity on June 1. Since the outbreak began, researchers have rushed to publish new findings about the coronavirus spreading swiftly through the world. On Tuesday, for the second time in recent days, a group of clinicians and researchers has questioned the data used in studies in two prominent medical journals. A group of scientists who raised questions last week about a study in The Lancet about the use of antimalarial drugs in coronavirus patients have now objected to another paper about blood pressure medicines in the New England Journal of Medicine, which was published by some of the same authors and relied on the same data registry. Moments after their open letter was posted online Tuesday morning, the editors of the N.E.J.M. posted an expression of concern about the paper, and said they had asked the papers authors to provide evidence that the data are reliable. The Lancet followed later in the day with a statement about its own concerns regarding the malarial drugs paper, saying that the editors have commissioned an independent audit of the data. The coronavirus pandemic, which has reshaped the Massachusetts Democratic Senate primary between Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Joe Kennedy III, arose several times during the debate between the candidates in Springfield on Monday night. The debate was sponsored by a media consortium that included MassLive, the Boston Globe, WCVB, Western Mass News, UMass Boston, UMass Amherst and New England Public Media. Both candidates have recently touted their own efforts to combat the pandemic, but they were also asked on Monday to grade Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Bakers response to the crisis. Markey avoided giving a grade though he strongly implied hed give the Trump administration an F. Charlie Baker is working very hard, said Markey. Hes been severely handicapped by Donald Trumps lack of national leadership. Hes let down the state and let down the country. Kennedy said at this point, hed give the governor an incomplete. When it comes to the Holyoke Soldiers Home, an F, Kennedy added. Out of about 210 veterans living at the home since the outbreak began, at least 76 have died after contracting COVID-19 and another 75 residents have tested positive. Superintendent Bennett Walsh says he notified state officials earlier in March, but Baker and other officials say they were left in the dark until March 28. Baker has ordered an investigation into the outbreak. Both Kennedy and Markey have pushed legislation during the pandemic calling for investigations and improved oversight and accountability at nursing homes. Baker, in a news conference Monday at the State House, touted the states first-in-the-nation contact tracing program and noted the state was pushing toward a capacity of 45,000 tests per day. Mondays report from the Department of Public Health put the states total COVID-19 cases at 100,805 and the total deaths at 7,035. - The man was on nature walk with his wife when they were attacked by cows that were grazing - Emergency services who arrived at the scene to save the man found he had already died - His wife also suffered serious injuries and was rushed to hospital A man from Lancashire in England who was on nature walk with his wife has died after he was attacked by a herd of cows. The 82-year-old man was walking with his 78-year-old wife in Ivescar, near Ingleton, when the incident took place at about 1.45pm on Saturday, May 30. READ ALSO: Police officers, fire fighters retrieve body of unknown man from septic tank in Mombasa This breed of cows with long horns is very common in Uganda. Photo: Daily Monitor Source: UGC READ ALSO: Coronavirus: Kenya's tally jumps to 2021 after 59 more are diagnosed with COVID-19 In a report by the Guardian, emergency services were called to attend to the man but by the time they arrived he had died. His wife was badly bruised and was taken to Royal Lancashire Infirmary by air ambulance. An 82-year-old man, from Foulridge, Pendle, sadly died yesterday after being attacked by a herd of cows. Emergency services attended and sadly the man was pronounced dead at the scene, read a police report. One of the locals who witnessed the attack warned dog walkers to always let them go when attacked, though police could not confirm if this was the case with the octogenarian. The wife was badly bruised and was taken to Royal Lancashire Infirmary by air ambulance.Photo: Thevisitor.com Source: UGC READ ALSO: Mvulana wa darasa la 3 atuzwa na Rais Uhuru kwa ubunifu wake Cows have been known to attack both dogs and humans while protecting their calves. So rampant are the attacks by cows that they have been identified as the most dangerous animals in the United Kingdom due to the high number of deaths associated with attacks by cows. Many fatal accidents involve farm workers, with dog walkers also prone to attacks. Figures recorded by the HSE show that of the 18 members of the public who died between 2000 and 2015 following an incident involving cattle, 17 were accompanied by a dog. In September 2019, an 87-year-old woman was also killed by cows at Linchmere Common, near Chichester in West Sussex. Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly. Source: TUKO.co.ke New Delhi, June 2 : In the tough times, it is difficult for weavers sell their products and sustain their craft during these difficult times. Showcasing their work online can be immensly helpful. One needs understand that the lockdown has had a severe impact on artisans as it has severely affected their sales and production. "With artisans and weavers having been hit badly because of the lockdown, Weaverstory a specialised online marketplace, has decided to give reasonable prices, so that customers can buy different products from across India and abroad too. This is helping the weavers sell their products to sustain during these difficult times. Every artisan or weaver is given a separate space to exhibit their products and this is the first time they are trying something like this," said Nishant Malhotra co-founder of Weaverstory. WeaverStory launched an "Authentic Chanderi Collection" which helps artisans to become self-reliant. Chanderi, from central India is one of the best-known handloom clusters, particularly famous for its sarees, made with a mix of silk and cotton. "Most of them sustain themselves only by selling their products and what is really important is to sell their products on time. Hence, this is the only way to sell whatever they have produced in the past two months. We ensure that the money goes to the artisan's account within three working days and provide financial support to them during the lockdown," Malhotra added. The chanderi saree is a handwoven variety from the traditional weavers of Madhya Pradesh. Woven predominantly in cotton and silk yarn, the material has a subtle sheer surface. The assortment has in store the variety of sarees, dupattas, suits in vibrant colours, royal blues, and red and mustards. There have been changes in the methodologies, equipment and even the compositions of yarns over the years, but there is a heritage attached with the skill associated with high quality weaving and products. The weavers from this area a have even received appreciation and royal patronage. WeaverStory has been focussing predominantly on the weaves, reviving designs from museums and traditional forms, and working with weavers themselves. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Demonstrations and protests about social justice and the death of George Floyd while in police custody last week are still going on around the country. Meanwhile, people in Oklahoma quietly marked the 99th anniversary of one of the most egregious acts of racial violence in the nations history the Tulsa race riots of 1921. Not a lot of folks know about it. But it happened, and when it did, hundreds died and an entire community was looted and destroyed. I was reminded of this ugly chapter when Paula Peebles of the National Network brought it up during her speech at a peaceful protest outside City Hall on Sunday. READ MORE: Police turn more aggressive against protesters and bystanders nationwide, adding to violence and chaos My ears perked up at the mention of it. My husband and I had visited the Greenwood section of Tulsa for the first time in February. The bloody massacre that took place there isnt taught much in U.S. history classes, and we were curious. Before the area was burned down in 1921, Greenwood was a racially segregated but thriving neighborhood dubbed the Negro Wall Street by Booker T. Washington, a former slave who became a leading educator of his time, according to the Greenwood Cultural Center. Considered the nations wealthiest black neighborhood, the 35-block area boasted 15 black doctors, a movie theater, churches, a large hotel, and its own newspapers. But over a two-day period, all of that was destroyed after a murky random encounter that somehow went wrong. A black male teenager tripped and may have bumped against a white female elevator operator who screamed. After his arrest, armed black residents stationed themselves outside a nearby courthouse hoping to prevent his lynching. White residents confronted them and things spiraled out of control. Whites outnumbered black residents and were better armed. Bullets were flying and fires started. Tulsa officials summoned the National Guard to quell what they called a Negro uprising. According to History.com, by the time it was over on June 2, Greenwood had been destroyed and 10,000 African Americans were homeless. No one was ever held responsible for what happened. People were left to rebuild as best they could. It was one of the deadliest and most devastating racial massacres in American history as well as one of the least known. A lot of people had not heard of it until the HBO series Watchmen depicted it. READ MORE: Center City retailers endure epic looting on top of coronavirus closures I find it ironic that Greenwood commemorated the 99th anniversary at the same time that Philly and other cities were dealing with violent confrontations that followed peaceful demonstrations protesting Floyds violent death. Nearly 100 years have passed and America still cant get past its original sin of racism. Decades have gone by, yet we are still fighting many of the same battles. African Americans still want to be treated fairly in a system that has a long history of not doing right by us. Floyds death was only the latest in a string of high-profile cases of brutality against African Americans. Other victims include Ahmaud Arbery, 25, who had been jogging in Georgia when he was fatally wounded in February after being stopped by two white men, and Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician killed in Louisville, Ky., in March after police burst into her apartment while she slept. Meanwhile, the National Guard has been activated here and is attempting to restore order as local business owners take stock of whats left. And the protests and demonstrations continue. Mayor Jim Kenney said on Monday that Philadelphia is in the middle of one of the biggest crises in the citys history. I hope that the systemic issues and racism that gave us the Tulsa race riots and now this current unrest will finally be addressed, so that America doesnt have to go through this again. 2 June 2020 ALTONA ENERGY PLC ("Altona" or "the Company") MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING WITH MALAWI RARE EARTH MINING COMPANY Altona (AQSE: ANR.PL), a mining exploration company, announces that following a period of discussion, it has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding ("MoU") with mining consultancy company, Akatswiri Mineral Resources ("Akatswiri"), to acquire a majority stake in a rare earth mining project in the Chambe Basin, Mulanje in Southern Malawi. Akatswiri is currently the 100% owner of Akatswiri Rare Earths Pvt Ltd ("ARE"), a Malawi registered company, which has applied for Exploration licence APL 0153 - the Chambe Rare Earth Project ("Chambe"). It is expected that the licence will be granted in June, following government final approval. The terms of the MoU state Altona will initially acquire a 51% holding in ARE, rising to 75% on certain project milestones being met. Akatswiri will remain a 25% shareholder. The consideration for the transaction will be Altona Energy ordinary shares. Chambe is a large, ionic adsorption clay-hosted Rare Earth Elements ("REE") project bearing appreciable quantities of critical heavy and light REEs, particularly Ytterbium, Dysprosium, Yttrium, Neodymium and Praseodymium. Extensive exploration work has been carried out on the site since September 2010, confirming the presence of mineralised Rare Earth Oxide clays, similar to many of the larger REE mines in China. The benefits of extracting REE from ionic clay deposits include lower operating and capital costs, as well as shorter times for development. The expansion of new energy sectors and increases in the demand for electric vehicles is driving demand for neodymium, praseodymium and other "technology" metals which are used in permanent magnets, a key component in electric vehicle manufacturing. It has been widely reported that many companies are looking for alternative REE supplies outside China, which has controlled the supply for the past several years. Christian Taylor-Wilkinson, Interim CEO of Altona, commented, "Although still at an early stage, we are in active discussions with Akatswiri's highly experienced team, led by Hilton Banda. We are looking to commence our due diligence in June which we hope will quickly lead to a binding agreement. We are also speaking with a number of parties to work with us through the acquisition and fund the subsequent mining project." Hilton Banda, CEO of Akatswiri, commented, "We are happy to work with Altona Energy Plc as our partners in developing the Chambe Rare Earths Project. Working with Altona gives us confidence that we will secure the funding necessary to develop Chambe as a strategic and sustainable producer of rare earths. The project has already received support from Government, local communities and key stakeholders, through our active engagement and involvement with local communities over the past three years." Both the Company and Akatswiri have commenced due diligence to examine the feasibility of the acquisition of ARE by Altona. However, until a formal agreement has been signed, the deal is conditional, and not binding on either the Company or Akatswiri. There can be no guarantee that the discussions in respect of the MoU signed with Akatswiri will be successful, however, the Board believes that this is a positive step towards the Company's goal of acquiring a majority investment in a viable mining project. The due diligence process is expected to take up to three months to complete and is dependent upon certain factors, including Akatswiri providing an up to date geological report which it expects to gain access to in due course. The report, it is understood, will form the key components of a Competent Persons Report ("CPR"), which the Company believes will be required ahead of a fund raise, which is a necessary element of the project's success. -ends- For further information, please visit www.altonaenergy.com or contact: Altona Energy plc Christian Taylor-Wilkinson, Interim CEO Philip Sutherland, Non-Executive Director +44 (0) 7795 168 157 +61 (0)402 440 339 Alfred Henry Corporate Finance Ltd (Aquis Corporate Adviser) Jon Isaacs / Nick Michaels +44 (0) 20 3772 0021 Leander (Financial PR) +44 (0) 7795 168 157 Company Information Altona is a mining exploration company focused on the evaluation, development and extraction of minerals. The Company was admitted to trading on AIM on 10 March 2005 and was subsequently admitted to NEX (now Aquis Stock Exchange) on 1 February 2019. A copy of its admission documents dated 4 March 2005 can be accessed on its website, www.altonaenergy.com. This website is where items can be inspected under Rule 75 of the NEX Rules for Issuers, from 1 February 2019. VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2020 / Mota Ventures Corp. (MOTA.CN)(FSE:1WZ:GR)(OTC PINK:PEMTF) (the "Company") a leading ecommerce provider of CBD products to consumers in the United States and Europe, is pleased to announce the completion of its' Cdn$20,000,000 acquisition (the "Transaction") of all of the outstanding share capital of Verrian Ontario Ltd. ("Verrian") effective June 1, 2020. Verrian is an established and well advanced European psychedelic medicine company that is focused on delivering and developing products related to addiction reduction, with a focus on alcohol and opiates. Ryan Hoggan, CEO of the Company stated, "The massive shift towards psychedelic derived medicines is no longer in doubt and this acquisition sends a strong signal to the market that Mota Ventures intends to be a serious participant this coming decade. Unlike some companies that use psychedelics as a marketing term, this acquisition of Verrian brings Mota market ready products, world renowned addiction medicine experts, R&D facilities and a 110,000 square foot facility to make it happen. In my opinion this is the most complete psychedelic asset on the market, and therefore should immediately make Mota a market leader in the space." Hoggan further added, "In 2020, we have proven our e-commerce ability to acquire tens of thousands of customers and generate millions of dollars in monthly revenues from CBD sales. We intend to bring that same market expertise to bear with our psychedelics business in 2020 and far beyond." ACQUISTION PROVIDES MOTA WITH IMMEDIATE ENTRY INTO FAST GROWING $100 BILLION PSYCHEDELICS INDUSTRY The market for psychedelic derived medicines and therapies is estimated to be as high as USD$100 Billion*. Over the past decade, growing societal awareness and acceptance of mental disorders and addiction as real diseases has accelerated the push for new and innovative treatments using psychedelics, including psilocybin. Story continues As a result, psychedelic research published back in the 50s and 60s has resurfaced and once again highlighted their curative properties. Moreover, the recent legalization of Cannabis in Canada, as well as, across 33 US states for medicinal purposes, has significantly mitigated any stigma, leading to accelerated interest and investment in the psychedelics industry. Verrian has already developed two psilocybin products that are natural psilocybin extracts, from organically cultivated mushrooms, combined with metabolism enhancing natural herbs. This is only the beginning with further products in various stages of development. ESTABLISHED EUROPEAN PSYCHEDELIC MEDICINE COMPANY Verrian owns and operates a 110,000 square foot pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Radebuel, Germany. Operations within this full suite pharmaceutical manufacturing site include analytical laboratory and finished dose manufacturing, which exceed all international quality standards. The facility and equipment of Verrian have been independently appraised at Cdn$10,600,000 and include an analytical laboratory and full pharmaceutical manufacturing suite. Verrian operates three distinct business segments: Pharmaceutical Manufacturing - A portfolio of medical & wellness products Phyto API - API creation from medical plants Analytical Testing - European Medicine Agency Standards PRODUCTS FOCUSED ON OPIATE ADDICTION REDUCTION Verrian's singular focus is rewiring the mind to overcome addiction through natural medicine. Specifically, the micro dosing of psilocybin demonstrates potential to remove the dopamine reward of addictive substances, potentially diminishing the desire for addictive substances, thereby reducing or eliminating the need for the addictive substance. To date Verrian has developed two psilocybin products: PSI GEN and PSI GEN+. These Psilocybin products are focused on opiate addiction reduction. As natural psilocybin extracts, from organically cultivated mushrooms, combined with metabolism enhancing natural herbs, they are ideal for individuals commencing micro-dosing and capable of being combined with additional anti-addiction therapies. All of Verrian's compounds are derived from organic, glyphosate free naturally occurring plants, grown specifically for its own purposes. GOALS AND VISION In addition to the facility and equipment outlined above, Verrian has invested approximately Cdn$2,400,000 in clinical trial design and development of proprietary formulations for its psilocybin trademarked PSI-GEN products, and cannabis products, including trademarked CBDaily and CBNight. Verrian's world renowned addiction medicine experts are moving ahead to develop new potential treatments for therapy, with rigorous clinical research. Once EU GMP and narcotics handling recertification are secured, capabilities will extend to: specialty pharmaceutical formulations; and psilocybin refinement and production for micro dosing. In consideration for the acquisition of all of the outstanding share capital of Verrian, the Company has issued 54,347,826 common shares (the "Consideration Shares") to the existing shareholders of Verrian at a deemed price of $0.368 per Consideration Share. 50,543,478 of the Consideration Shares are subject to terms of a thirty-six month time release pooling arrangement, during which time they may not be transferred, assigned, pledged or otherwise traded. The Consideration Shares will be released from the pooling arrangement in tranches, of which ten-percent will be released after four months, fifteen percent after six months, and the balance in five equal tranches every six months thereafter. In addition to the Consideration Shares, upon closing of the Transaction, the Company has arranged for repayment of $150,000 of existing shareholder loans of Verrian, and will arrange for repayment of the balance of $950,000 within sixty days of closing. The Company is at arms-length from Verrian, and each of its shareholders. The Transaction does not constitute a fundamental change for the Company, nor has it resulted in a change of control of the Company, within the meaning of applicable securities laws and the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange. In connection with completion of the Transaction, the Company has paid a finders' fee of 5,434,783 common shares to certain arms'-length parties who have assisted in facilitating the Transaction. The Company has also paid an administrative fee of 1,086,957 common shares of the Company to a consultant who assisted with the Transaction. We encourage shareholders and prospective investors to visit the Company's AGORACOM Discussion Forum, a moderated social media platform that enables civilized discussion and Q&A between Management and Shareholders. About Mota Ventures Corp. Mota Ventures is an established natural health products company focused in the CBD and psychedelic medicine sectors. Through its powerful eCommerce business, Mota is a leading is a direct-to-consumer provider of a wide range of natural health products throughout the United States and Europe. In the United States, the Company sells a CBD hemp-oil formulation derived from hemp grown and formulated in the United States through its Nature's Exclusive brand. Within Europe, its Sativida brand of award winning 100% organic CBD oils and cosmetics are sold throughout Spain, Portugal, Austria, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. Through its German-based Verrian operation, Mota is researching and testing the efficacy and application of natural psilocybin products for the treatment of opioid and other life altering addictions. Mota is also seeking to acquire additional revenue producing CBD brands and operations in both Europe and North America, with the goal of establishing an international distribution network for CBD and other natural health products. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS MOTA VENTURES CORP. Ryan Hoggan Chief Executive Officer For further information, readers are encouraged to contact Joel Shacker, President at +604.423.4733 or by email at IR@motaventuresco.com or www.motaventuresco.com The Canadian Securities Exchange has in no way passed upon the merits of the Transaction, and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release, which has been prepared by management. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statement All statements in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, are "forward-looking information" with respect to the Company within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including with respect to the operations and activities of Verrian, and its plans to acquire revenue-producing CBD brands and operations in Europe and North America. The Company provides forward-looking statements for the purpose of conveying information about current expectations and plans relating to the future and readers are cautioned that such statements may not be appropriate for other purposes. By its nature, this information is subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and which give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that assumptions may not be correct and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited those identified and reported in the Company's public filings under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise unless required by law. SOURCE: Mota Ventures Corp. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/592330/Mota-Ventures-Closes-20000000-Acquisition-of-European-Pharmaceutical-Manufacturer-of-Natural-Psilocybin-Extracts The director of a Montana animal shelter got a call before sunrise about an injured dog from an Indian reservation. The poor animal had been shot in the neck with an arrow, nearly hitting his spine. The pooch was lucky to be alive. Anita Wilke, director of a non-profit called RezQ Dogs near Dodson, got a call in the early morning hours in September 2019, and an associate of hers, with help from members of the Rocky Boy Indian Community, were able to locate and rescue the dog to safety. The dog, named King, was driven over 100 miles to the Bear Paw Veterinary, where staff tended to his wound, 4KXLF reported. The following day, RezQ Dogs took the pup into their care. X-rays taken of Kings injury showed that the arrow had missed his spine by mere millimeters. Miraculously, the pup was due to make a full recovery. After the rescue, Wilke recalled the incident in a message that was posted on Facebook, along with some photographs of King, sharing her gratitude to everyone involved in saving his life. Thanks to all of you and our rescue family this dog is safe, loved, and on the way to a happy, healthy future, she wrote. Not long after, Wilke shared an update on the poochs recovery, noting Kings understandable apprehensions about his surroundings starting to melt away. For all of you that have been asking, King is doing awesome, she wrote. In just about every different situation, this poor boy has been frightened. It is kind of difficult watching such a big, beautiful animal be scared. She adds, King is an absolute sweetheart. He has, for the most part, gotten over his fears. He gives us tail wags and kisses. Wilke ended her update assuring everyone that as soon as King is fully healed, they will be looking for a new home for him. The poor pups plight did not go unnoticed on social media, and Wilkes post garnered nearly 100 comments from people appalled by what happened to the dog. Often, when I am not feeling well, I will go do nothing more than hang out with some of our furiends. Whether it is a RezQ Dogs One commenter wrote: God must have a very special mission for this boy because the outcome could have been so much worse. As we all know King will only have the best things life has to offer from now on, Another comment read, Thank you and your angels for saving another beautiful furry soul. Thanks to the work of Anita Wilke, those who came to Kings rescue, and the medical staff who treated him, hes survived his ordeal. And with luck, he will be adopted and find his new loving forever home. Photo: The Canadian Press Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is seen as he pauses during a response to a question on racism during a news conference outside Rideau Cottage in Ottawa on Tuesday June 2, 2020. As long-standing anger about discrimination boils over in the United States, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canadians must recognize there is systemic racism in their own country. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld Calls to turn anger into action rang out in the House of Commons on Tuesday as politicians embraced pleas to stamp out discrimination in Canada though outside the House, they disagreed on how deeply the problem is seated. One by one, party leaders acknowledged the racism tearing apart the United States is also present in the daily lives of many Canadians and must be addressed with deeds as well as words. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said people are fed up with empty rhetoric. "How many more people need to die before there is action? How many more speeches will be made? How many more protests need to happen before something is done?" Singh asked in the House. "Government after government prefer lip service to concrete action. When it's time to take action, they don't have the courage to do so or the desire to do so." Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged the last thing many people wanted to hear was another speech on racism from a white politician. "I'm here because I want you to know that our government is listening. We hear your calls for justice, equality and accountability. We acknowledge your frustration, your anger, your heartbreak." The comments followed days of demonstrations and violence in many U.S. cities after a video showed Minneapolis police killing a black man, George Floyd, fanning the flames of fury over racism in the States. A police officer knelt on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes while he pleaded that he couldn't breathe. Ontario Premier Doug Ford played down the notion Canada is struggling with the sort of racism found in the States. "They have their issues in the U.S. and they have to fix their issues, but it's like night and day comparing Canada and the U.S." Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet said the first step should "be to show our solidarity and friendship." And he said Canada could also quickly process applications from black people and other minorities from abroad seeking asylum. "We have the power and the duty to do so. Let's do it right away. Thus, we'll be able to put our words into action, and this will make us more credible." Blanchet said historical racism has left "traces of odious things in our institutions that colour our relations with people of different origins or people who were here long before us," though he resists the idea that federal, provincial or municipal governments are racist, or that we are all drawn into systemic discrimination today. He compared that discussion to doing politics at a funeral, however, and said this is a time for expressing solidarity. In his own news conference, Trudeau was asked about the protests in the U.S. and President Donald Trump's talk of deploying the military to stop unrest. He paused a full 20 seconds, lips pursed, jaw working, before saying that despite watching the United States with "horror and consternation," Canadians must be aware of the challenges facing black Canadians and other minorities and take steps to address them. "It is a time to listen, it is a time to learn what injustices continue despite progress over years and decades," Trudeau said. "But it is a time for us as Canadians to recognize that we too have our challenges, that black Canadians and racialized Canadians face discrimination as a lived reality every single day." In the House, Singh called on Trudeau to end racial profiling as well as the over-policing and excessive jailing of black people in Canada. "The prime minister of this country has the power to go beyond pretty words and pretty speeches and do something." Trudeau said his government had provided millions of dollars for programs aimed at young black Canadians, invested in mental-health services for those who have experienced racism or intergenerational trauma, and created an anti-racism secretariat to eliminate obstacles to employment, justice and social participation. "We have made some progress, but we know that this work is far from over," the prime minister said. Denouncing racist acts is one thing, said Green Leader Elizabeth May. "But can we get to the root of it?" She urged an inquiry to weed out white-power groups in Canada and make sure they are not infiltrating police forces. "Because if there is one thing scarier than a white supremacist with a gun, it's a white supremacist with a gun in uniform." The George Floyd tragedy has sparked marches, sit-ins, protests and, sadly in some cases, riots, noted Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer. "But I hope more importantly it has sparked conversations," he said in the Commons. "Racism is real, it is painful and it is wrong. No one should ever feel unsafe because of the colour of their skin, especially around police officers, who have a duty and responsibility to uphold the law for all. "In order to ensure that we as a people remain free, we must continue to fight efforts to infringe upon our freedoms, including racism and all forms of brutality and injustice in Canada and around the world." (HealthDay)"Social distancing" is the watchword for keeping the new coronavirus at bay, but how far apart is enough? Researchers say they may have an answer. While most public health officials recommend you put 6 feet between yourself and others, a new review of 172 studies from 16 countries concluded that keeping 3 feet apart might also protect you to some degree. And while face masks and eye protection might add even more layers of protection, these precautions aren't 100% foolproof, the researchers added. Still, the Canadian study found that face masks, eye protection and keeping at least 3 feet away from people gives you the best chance of avoiding infection. "Our findings are the first to synthesize all direct information on COVID-19, SARS and MERS, and provide the currently best available evidence on the optimum use of these common and simple interventions to help 'flatten the curve' and inform pandemic response efforts in the community," said study co-author Dr. Holger Schunemann, a professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. "Governments and the public health community can use our results to give clear advice for community settings and health care workers on these protective measures to reduce infection risk," Schunemann added. He and his colleagues found that keeping 3 feet or more apart from others was linked with a lower risk of infection, compared with less than 3 feet of distancing. The risk of infection by keeping a distance of 3 feet or more away from the infected individual was 3% versus 13% when the distance was less than 3 feet. The report was published June 1 in The Lancet medical journal. When it comes to face masks, N95 and other respirator-type masks might confer greater protection from COVID-19 infection for health care workers than simple surgical masks. For the general public, face masks are also associated with protection, even in non-health care settings, the researchers said. "With respirators such as N95s, surgical masks, and eye protection in short supply, and desperately needed by health care workers on the front lines of treating COVID-19 patients, increasing and repurposing of manufacturing capacity is urgently needed to overcome global shortages," said study co-author Dr. Derek Chu, an assistant professor at McMaster University. "We also believe that solutions should be found for making face masks available to the general public," Chu said in a journal news release. "However, people must be clear that wearing a mask is not an alternative to physical distancing, eye protection or basic measures such as hand hygiene, but might add an extra layer of protection." In an accompanying commentary, Raina MacIntyre, head of the Biosecurity Program at the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales in Australia, describes the study as "an important milestone." "For health care workers on COVID-19 wards, a respirator should be the minimum standard of care," MacIntyre said. "This study by Chu and colleagues should prompt a review of all guidelines that recommend a medical mask for health workers caring for COVID-19 patients." The study also offers important guidance on the homemade masks many Americans are wearing, MacIntyre added. Since the researchers report that respirators and multilayer masks are more protective than single-layer masks, homemade cloth masks should have "water-resistant fabric, multiple layers and good facial fit," MacIntyre added. Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak More information: Derek K Chu et al. Physical distancing, face masks, and eye protection to prevent person-to-person transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis, The Lancet (2020). Journal information: The Lancet Derek K Chu et al. Physical distancing, face masks, and eye protection to prevent person-to-person transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis,(2020). DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31142-9 Copyright 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved. Beachgoers who crowded onto a Dorset beach at the weekend were blasted by a local MP today as he said they would be to blame if the area had to go back into a full lockdown. Former defence minister Tobias Ellwood said he was worried that idiotic scenes at picturesque Durdle Door on the south coast could see a spike in coronavirus cases in the area. The beach was packed on Saturday, even before restrictions on gatherings outdoors were lifted yesterday to allow up to six people to gather - but socially distant from each other. And in astonishing scenes hundreds of people were forced to cram together in a small section of beach to allow an air ambulance to land to help three people badly injured jumping from rocks. They also had to later walk close together up the only rocky way off the beach. Ministers have said that localised spikes in the R infection rate could see areas having their lockdown fully re-imposed, with people only allows to leave their homes for exercise in the local area. Discussing the lockdown rules on Good Morning Britain today, Bournemouth East MP Mr Ellwood said: 'The bigger point to be made as we ease the lockdown rules, we saw this on the coast in Dorset in Bournemouth and indeed Durdle Door, where people are operating by guidelines at work ... as soon as we look at recreations, those rules go out the window. 'I'm really concerned that Dorset is going to move up the R rating to above 1 and we will be the first place to get that second spike.' Durdle Door beach was packed on Saturday, even before restrictions on gatherings outdoors were lifted yesterday to allow up to six people to gather - but socially distant from each other Discussing the lockdown rules on Good Morning Britain today, Bournemouth East MP Mr Ellwood said: 'I'm really concerned that Dorset is going to move up the R rating to above 1 and we will be the first place to get that second spike' Handout photo issued by Dorset Police of air ambulances landed at Durdle Door on Saturday after three people were seriously injured jumping off cliffs into the sea Figures in Doset called on the Government to take steps to limit travel to the area. The Lulworth Estate owns five miles of Dorset coastline that includes Durdle Door beach, which saw people travel from as far away as Birmingham and Leicester. James Weld, the estate manager, said: 'It is clear that the restriction on travelling should have been limited to local journeys only which would not have resulted in the huge pressures being suddenly foisted on local road networks and on sites such as Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door. 'Unrestricted travel has undoubtedly lead to the unacceptable influx of visitors, despite the enormously damaging effects of restrictions on the economy and on jobs.' And Spencer Flower, the leader of Dorset Council, said: 'I am worried that we will see a second wave of infection here in Dorset as a result of the high number of visitors to the area over recent days. 'I'm asking the government to act now to save the lives of Dorset residents. My plea to the government is to review the unrestricted travel guidelines currently in place and require people instead to stay local. 'The current guidelines have a disproportionately negative effect on areas like ours which are popular with visitors but do not have the infrastructure to cope right now.' Vikki Slade, the leader of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, said the area was struggling to cope with the influx of visitors. She said: 'Since the government eased lockdown and let people travel wherever they wanted it has been a disaster for us. 'We have seen crowds on our beaches, in large groups clearly not from the same household, we have had council officers spat at, abused and intimidated as they go about their work. 'I have written to all our local MPs asking them to lobby the government to restrict people travelling to within their county or post code boundary.' Some senior Tory MPs have urged Boris Johnson to reduce the UK's two metre social distancing rule as they warned failure to do so could risk a wave of redundancies in the hospitality sector. There is a growing campaign for the existing restriction to be eased to one and a half metres or even just one metre. This would give pubs, bars, restaurants and theatres much more room for manoeuvre when they are allowed to reopen and significantly increase the number of patrons allowed in a specific premises. That could in turn boost the financial health of businesses and stop them from having to make staff redundant because of lower revenues. Keeping one metre apart can slash the risk of catching coronavirus by 80 per cent, according to a major study funded by the World Health Organization (WHO). Researchers found there was roughly a 1.3 per cent chance of contracting the virus when two metres from an infected patient. But halving this gap raised the risk to only 2.6 per cent. The sun-seekers were crammed into one area on Saturday in order to vacate the Dorset beach through the one accessible exit Pictured: A man jumps from the 200ft ancient limestone arch at Durdle Door, Dorset on Saturday This means the disease would spread to fewer than three in 100 people, against 13 in 100 without any social distancing at all. That equates to an 80 per cent reduction in risk. The study showed nothing could provide complete protection, although face masks have a strong shielding effect reducing the risk of catching the virus by up to 85 per cent. Mr Ellwood told GMB: 'The World Health Organization has stipulated one metre is enough, we have to question whether we can move down to one metre to make sure that we're able to socially distance, more people can then get back to work. 'Parliament will be aware only 50 of us can get into that chamber because of the two metre rule, that could very much change if we go down to one metre. 'My bigger concern is at Dorset beach they weren't even honouring the one metre rule and that will impact all the amazing work in keeping those numbers down in getting us through the peak. I'd hate to see Britain go back up. MBABANE Over 400 mine-workers who came back home after the announcement of the full lockdown in South Africa, are expected to report for work in the neighbouring country from today, but this will be an impossibility. It might take longer for local miners employed in South Africa to get back to work as the mining sector has resumed operations in the eased level three lockdown. Overwhelmed quarantine centres in South Africa are the primary reason for the delay in the return process of locals to the neighbouring country. This was revealed by Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Thuli Dladla, who noted though, that unlike before, the level that South Africa was in now made it less difficult to get to the neighbouring country. Chaired The minister said they convened a meeting which was chaired by the Ministry of Home Affairs, and present were representatives from the Ministries of Education and Training, Labour and Social Security, and her ministry, to look into their roles in facilitating the return of the miners to SA. As a ministry, we concluded that the repatriation was not our (ministry of Foreign Affairs) assignment alone, but the others have a role to play as well. What the other ministries do is give us a list of the people who wish to go to South Africa, either for school or work purposes, and we take the list to South Africa at Delco, the International Relations office. It is the Delco office that then takes the list to the relevant structures and they then give us feedback on when the people can actually come, she submitted. The minister said currently, the quarantine centres in South Africa were overwhelmed, which was slowing down the process. The miners will go back to work, but only when South Africa has organised the quarantine centres for them. EmaSwati should be patient in these situations because we dont want to be seen as distracting the current operational processes in South Africa. We can promise that they will definitely be allowed back to work and school, she submitted. Meanwhile, the Minerals Council in South Africa said last Friday that the mining industry was working with government to get mineworkers from neighbouring countries back to work as the national lockdown had been eased to level three. Senior Executive for Environment, Health and Legacies, Nikisi Lesufi, said the council was working with the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure to facilitate the return of nearly 10 000 employees from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, as reported in Moneyweb. Submitting We have a list of 9 500 workers from neighbouring countries who are supposed to have come back from Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Eswatini and Zimbabwe. We are submitting all the details of the transport logistics, and quarantine facilities. The list is to be finalised tomorrow, Lesufi said. Thuthula Balfour, the councils head of health, said 384 mineworkers had tested positive for COVID-19. Balfour said 216 of the affected miners worked in the gold sector. We have ended up with more infections in the gold sector because of outbreaks, Balfour said. The government announced that all deep mining operations were expected to ramp-up to full capacity under level three of the lockdown, bringing the mining industry to full capacity of production. However, Gold Fields spokesperson Sven Lunsche said reaching 100 per cent capacity and bringing back 100 per cent of employees would be challenging, according to Moneyweb Lunsche said bringing back the SADC nationals, who constituted 10 per cent to 15 per cent of the industrys workforce, would not be easy. He said the industry would take time to reach maximum production as returning employees needed to get tested before entering the mining premises. That alone will take a couple of weeks before we are at full capacity again, Lunsche said. I suspect it is going to be a month before we reach full capacity from June 1, and it might even be later than that, he was quoted by the online publication. Gold Fields operates the South Deep mine in Westonaria, which has managed to ramp its operations up to 50 per cent after being in care and maintenance for three weeks from the start of the lockdown up to April 18. The mine had one returning employee testing positive for COVID-19. Sibanye-Stillwater spokesperson, James Wellsted, said the company had not yet recalled all employees, as reported by Moneyweb. Situation We have a situation where we have migrant-sending provinces like the Eastern Cape. So far we have not called back employees from those labour sending areas. We have to strike a balance by saying do we bring our people to work immediately or do we have a slower approach to the return of employees, Wellsted was quoted saying. Council Chief Executive Roger Baxter said, according to Moneyweb, some coal mines were already operating at 90 per cent capacity because they were able to operate for the duration of the lockdown. Baxter said collieries that supplied Eskom and oil refineries were allowed to operate at full capacity under level five of the lockdown. He said this was extended to open cast mines under level four. We must also recognise that for some operations on the coal side, we are limited to the availability of transport. However, it (the ability to reach full capacity) is going to be different from commodity to commodity, said Baxter. We know people done did a lot worse, Abdullah, 58, who is self-employed, said of the circumstances surrounding Dixons resignation in 2010. When she was the mayor, she was doing a lot for the city. We didnt have a whole lot of trash in the city. She was looking out for the elderly. Joe Biden supporters before the former vice president and Democratic presidential candidate arrived for a rally on Eakins Oval in Philadelphia on May 18, 2019. Read more When David Bradford hosted a Joe Biden debate watch party in his Philadelphia apartment in October, only one person showed up. More than a dozen people were running to be the Democratic presidential nominee back then, Bidens early lead in the polls was slipping, and pundits were pointing to the lack of enthusiasm for his campaign as a sign it was doomed. Eight months later, Biden easily won the Pennsylvania primary Tuesday, and was expected to win primaries in six other states and the District of Columbia. (Bernie Sanders suspended his campaign in April but remains on the ballot.) That put Biden close to formally clinching the nomination. In Pennsylvania, where Biden is something of a favorite son, with roots in Scranton and a home nearby in Wilmington, the army of establishment Democrats who long backed him and fans who liked him from the get-go are celebrating briefly, socially distanced, and with eyes toward defeating President Donald Trump in November. Im excited, Bradford said last week. I was amazed then how few people in his own backyard were showing up for him. That feels like a whole different time now. Hes the guy to beat Trump. Im not an I told you so person, U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans said with a laugh. I think there was always enthusiasm from the beginning, and I know that was a constant issue people kept raising, but look I came out for him on Day One because I thought its what America needed, and I still do. U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, another Philadelphia Democrat, said Democratic voters are completely animated to end this presidency. The enthusiasm question is one of the more overrated story lines in politics. READ MORE: Live coverage of what's happening on primary day Despite winning a roller-coaster of a primary season, and now with the robust backing of Democrats who ran against him, Biden still doesnt poll as well as Trump when it comes to at least one metric for enthusiasm. In an Economist/YouGov poll last week, just 39% of registered Democrats had a very favorable opinion of Biden. Trump, meanwhile, was viewed very favorably 66% of registered Republicans. And given the coronavirus pandemic, Bidens nomination is unlikely to bring the typical spectacle of celebration. The Democratic National Convention, where he will officially become the nominee, is slated for Aug 17 to 20 in Milwaukee. But both the party and Biden have said the event could take place virtually, at least in part. READ MORE: What were watching for in Tuesdays unprecedented Pennsylvania primary election When Hillary Clinton clinched the nomination in June 2016, her supporters attended a huge victory rally at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. That followed an A-list concert-fundraiser where John Legend and Stevie Wonder played. But Biden has been doing appearances mostly from a TV studio in his Delaware basement since early March. The campaign has held virtual fundraisers and rallies with varying degrees of reach and technological success, several focused on Pennsylvania, a key state in November and where his campaign is headquartered, in Philadelphia. Protests over the police killing of George Floyd have shifted Bidens campaigning back into the public this week. He walked through downtown Wilmington to meet with members of the community Sunday, and on Monday he did a rare in-person meeting with clergy and community leaders in Wilmington. Earlier in May, his wife, Jill, did a virtual tour of Pennsylvania. He also hosted a livestreamed chat with Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf last week. While being out of the public eye has its political downsides, it has also kept other controversies largely at bay, including a sexual assault allegation by former staffer Tara Reade, which Biden has denied. Last month, Biden drew criticism for an exchange on The Breakfast Club radio program, in which he said, If youve got a problem figuring out whether youre for me or for Trump, then you aint black. He later apologized, calling the comment too cavalier. Biden polls best with voters over 45. He does particularly well with African American voters and women. In Pennsylvania, Trump currently trails him by about 6 percentage points in an average of state polls. That hes leading Trump despite the handicaps of campaigning from his basement is notable, said Elizabeth Fiebach, a self-described Biden superfan. READ MORE: The top races to watch in Tuesdays Pennsylvania primary Fiebach runs the Pennsylvania Women for Biden Facebook group and was part of the draft Biden movement in 2016, when he ultimately decided not to run following son Beaus death. When Beau Biden died, to me it seemed like he was Americas Dad," Fiebach said. "But now I see that 2016 was not his time, that everything thats happened to him and all of his experience in his life has led him to this moment. She met Biden at a fundraiser at former Comcast senior executive David L. Cohens house last year. You know, he just kind of twinkles with this good humor," she said. Now her group is one of several Women for Biden state groups that have sprouted up as the general election draws closer a sign, she said, of growing energy around the campaign. Theres also a Philly for Jilly group dedicated specifically to Jill Biden. Cohen, a longtime Democratic power broker locally and nationally, also celebrated Bidens coming win for the nomination. I dont want to say Im some genius," Cohen said. I didnt get 2016 right, but I got the 2020 Democratic primary right, and I really did think this would be where we would be from the very beginning. Ive known Joe Biden for a very long time, 25 years, and his strengths are exactly what this country needs right now. Cohen has continued organizing fundraisers virtually, including last month for the Biden Victory Fund, a joint committee for the Biden campaign and the party. The event raised seven figures, according to a source with knowledge of it. Cohen said there were tiered Zoom rooms for people giving $50,000 or more, those giving $25,000 or more, and for young supporters. READ MORE: Another loss from coronavirus: The rituals of election day Cohen said he thinks voters connect with Bidens empathy. They also think he can win. Ultimately, all you needed was the belief that Joe Biden was the best pick to beat Donald Trump," Cohen said. "Thats all the enthusiasm you need. Marilyn Silberstein, 74, a Biden supporter from Germantown, used to get annoyed at all the people who told her Biden didnt have the goods. I always felt he was our best bet, but I wasnt so sure he could do it," Silberstein said. "And then he pulled it off. Im thrilled. I wanted it with all my heart. Mike Donahue, another supporter, lives three blocks from where Biden grew up in Scranton. Donahues been working with Democratic organizations and talking to neighbors he thinks might be on the fence. In the end, he predicted, it wont be loud Biden supporters who make the difference, but former Trump voters who quietly pick Biden on Election Day. I think the quiet people are why Trump did win in Pennsylvania, why he did so much better than the polls were showing," Donahue said. "A lot of people were going to vote for him secretly but didnt say. And now, its hard to find people who admit it, but I think this time, theyll quietly vote for Joe Biden. 02.06.2020 LISTEN Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC), informally called NOVA is one of the most internationally diverse colleges in the United States with 77332 students population with a student body consisting of individuals from more than 180 countries around the world. It offers a dual-enrollment with more than 1000 courses for which students receive grades. NOVA is a great place to get a degree, earn credits and transfer them to a four year institution, enhance career or something new. Justice Mensah, a bold NOVA, a Ghanaian International student of this institution speaks amidst Covid - 19 pandemic. " I have the passion to pursue a bachelor degree programme in pharmacy, it is for this reason why I got enrolled in NOVA to go through the college system to finish certain prerequisite courses which will be transferred to the university of my choice. That's the only way I can pursue my pharmacy programme. COVID -19 All campus activities were suspended for a short while but that did not hinder the smooth run of academic activities. E-learning We were enrolled on our e-learning platforms. We have our lectures, do our assignments, take quizzes and exams respectively. Support from the college to foreign students The special offers they put in place for us were that those who had not paid their school fees by then were allowed to defer it and pay later. Those of us who had paid also had the opportunity to request part of it to sort ourselves out. Secondly, the United States government gave each citizen and legal foreigner an amount of $1,200 as a relief fund. I must confess, it really helped me, my Brother. Also, the government has provided hand sanitizers by the walls at vantage points on the street. You're free to timely apply them on your hands anywhere you go or wherever you find yourself. Source of Survival America is very sweet most especially here in Virginia. Not having a girlfriend here is even a taboo but life here depends on you. It usually favours the hard-working people. The system will beat you if you're not careful. I work as a medication aid in one reputable hospital here and with my skill in driving, I render Ubah Service when I close from my first work. With the medication aid work, it is my responsibility to give medication to patients suffering from Alzheimer and Dementia disease. This is a common disease in people over the age of 65. It rarely affects young people too. It has no cure but we only give the medication to sustain them. I clock in at exactly 11 pm and close at 7 am. After this work, I go and rest for a while or quickly run to school for lectures depending the time I have lectures but whichever way, I make sure that I catch some sleep within that space of time. By 6 to 7pm, I begin my Ubah Service which sometimes fetches me a lot of money. I use my own car and so anytime I feel like I'm tired, I just drive home and rest. By 10 pm on the dot, I return to the hospital. I mostly do my assignment in the hospital since I have limited time. Students Associations Associations? There aren't associations here in my school like how we do have in Ghana. For instance in Ghana, you will see some associations like Brong Ahafo Students Association, Ashanti Students Association etc. It is totally different here. We don't have that time. There is nothing like "afekubo" here oo because every time you waste, you are directly losing money. Besides, our time is limited. You easily get fired when you make late for work. The only thing I know of is the electing of the SRC executives and even with that, everything is done online. They mostly campaign online and we vote online as well. Wherever you are and at any point in time, you can vote for your favourite candidate. *Advice to Colleagues students in Ghana* If you say education is expensive, then try ignorance. They should not be dismayed when pursuing their educational glories. To those who want to come here, I will advise that they wait and come next season. EMMANUEL BARTELS ANKRAH HON. BARTELS NUGS, ENSEMBLE [email protected] Victoria Mahoney is negotiating with Paramount Studios to direct Kill Them All, a film adaptation of Kyle Starks' graphic novel, in what would be her first feature film for a major studio. Mahoney, the second unit director on The Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, is in discussion with the studio to take the helm of the director's chair, insiders told The Hollywood Reporter Monday. The New York City native made headlines last year after she was the first woman and person of color to be the director of one of the Star Wars movies. On the rise: Victoria Mahoney is negotiating with Paramount Studios to direct Kill Them All, a film adaptation of Kyle Starks' graphic novel, in what would be her first feature film for a major studio Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec will produce, according to the outlet, while James Coyne has penned a screenplay for the adaptation. The film is 'described as a love letter to 1990s action movies,' sources told the outlet, with the storyline centered around the partnership between a drunken ex-cop and a betrayed murderess seeking vengeance against a Miami mob boss. They must venture through a litany of killers, gangsters and others in their path. The graphic novel, which was released in 2015, initially was placed on Kickstarter and later published by Oni Press. The force is strong with her: Mahoney worked as the second unit director on The Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Rerto feel: The film is 'described as a love letter to 1990s action movies' Mahoney's first foray into directing came with the 2012 indie film Yelling at the Sky, which featured Zoe Kravitz and Jason Clarke. She's also had experience in the director's chair on shows such as American Crime and Power, as well as the upcoming J.J. Abrams-Jordan Peele collaboration for HBO, Lovecraft Country. In addition, she's slated to work with acclaimed filmmaker Ava DuVernay for an Amazon Studios show called Dawn, based off the sci-fi novel from Octavia E. Butler. Extremist movements on the left and right are pushing back at claims by President Donald Trump and others including some Democrats that their members are primarily to blame for the violent unrest convulsing the country in recent days. In interviews with POLITICO, followers of both the far-left Antifa and the far-right Boogaloo Bois diffuse, mostly white, movements without any clear hierarchy or central organization pointed their fingers back at government officials and expressed their support for black protest leaders. "This is really just one more attempt from the Trump administration to distract from real problems," said David, a spokesman for Rose City Antifa of Portland, Ore., who offered only a pseudonym in responding to statements from President Donald Trump and administration officials blaming the movement for the outbreak of violence. Patrick Fairbairn, an administrator of several Boogaloo Facebook groups, said most people affiliated with the movement were showing up at at sites of unrest to protect protesters, and he offered praise for Black Lives Matter. "If they havent been heard and they need to be heard, theyve got to do it their way," said Fairbairn, who identified himself as a 23-year-old electrician. "The worst thing is to have this artificial separation between the people." On Friday, another far-right group, Oath Keepers, which is affiliated with the militia movement, condemned Trumps statement that when looting starts, the shooting starts. This is a disaster, the group tweeted. President Trump needs to retract that statement ASAP, stating that he misspoke & did not mean to say that National Guard should shoot people for stealing. Arson is a very different matter that's lethal force because setting fires can kill. The comments go to the heart of one of the conundrums surrounding the riots that have raged in cities since the death of George Floyd: Are outside groups with anarchistic agendas using their large internet followings to fan the flames of violence? There is anecdotal evidence in cities that members of Antifa, the Boogaloo Bois, Oath Keepers and other groups are joining rallies alongside thousands of grassroots protesters. The groups dont deny that some of their members have been present at the riots but representatives insist theyre there to support the grass-roots protesters and have no agendas other than calling attention to the police violence that led to Floyds death or protecting property and protesters. Story continues President Donald Trump walks from the White House through Lafayette Park to visit St. John's Church Monday, June 1, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) Politicians, meanwhile, have insisted the groups are ramping up violence, even though they offer little conclusive evidence to support the claims. Trump has pointed the finger at left-wing Antifa, while Democratic officials in Minnesota, including Gov. Tim Walz, blamed out-of-town white supremacists. Meanwhile, a new Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by POLITICO warns of Boogaloo followers advocating violent insurrection. A white supremacist extremist Telegram channel incited followers to engage in violence and start the boogaloo a term used by some violent extremists to refer to the start of a second Civil War by shooting in a crowd, the memo stated. Citing information from the FBI, the memo also warns that suspected anarchist extremists and militia extremists allegedly planned to storm and burn the Minnesota State Capitol on Friday. In Minneapolis, reports have emerged of clean-cut young white men, described by regular protest attendees as looking out of place, instigating some of the property destruction. Video showed one such young man, holding a black umbrella and systematically breaking the windows of an Autozone with a hammer as other protesters sought to question his motives. On Saturday, Walz estimated that 80 percent of those arrested in Minneapolis on Friday were from out of state. John Harrington, commissioner of Minnesotas Department of Public Safety, said white supremacists were among those being detained. But KARE 11, the local NBC affiliate, found that in a sample of arrests recorded at a local jail, 86 percent of those arrested listed Minnesota addresses. Of those arrested from out of state, the outlet said it found only one person whose social media presence showed clear support for white supremacy. Walz later backed off his claim. The truth is, nobody really knows, Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison said on Sunday about the composition of those committing violence. Trump and Attorney General William Barr, meanwhile, have blamed unrest on Antifa, and Trump has threatened to designate the movement as a terrorist organization. Representatives of Antifa groups have dismissed those accusations. Of 17 people arrested in Washington on Saturday, most had ties to the region, according to information provided by police. Part of the problem with making attributions is that the extremist groups are not centrally organized. David said he was unaware of Antifa members participating in violence: I don't know of anybody in particular or specifically, and I probably wouldnt comment if I did." A Richmond-based Antifa group, known as Antifa Seven Hills, wrote in an email: Antifascists arent coordinating or organizing these rebellions in the way that many on the Right think, the group wrote. But we do provide support, (largely in the forms of food/water, medical, legal) and hold defensive spaces for individuals to make autonomous choices. We certainly dont get paid to incite any violence or fear. The Georgia-based group known as Atlanta Antifascists said in an email that it did not have the capacity to answer a question about whether members of Antifa groups had participated in recent violence. We're a nonhierarchical group, so we can't speak for other groups, it wrote, and we don't even speak for our own members when they're not with our group. The same is true for The Boogaloo, a much newer movement that emerged from right-wing, anti-government online forums. Its name is an indirect reference to a second civil war, and it has gained momentum in recent months through armed protests of government coronavirus lockdown measures. Its imagery and anti-government sentiments have traveled widely online, but adherents are spread across countless social media and chat groups. There's not really direct communication at all, or really any real names, said Matthew, a 23-year-old student active in Boogaloo groups, who asked that his last name be withheld. Boogaloo adherents also have no single unifying ideology. The movement has attracted a grab-bag of different anti-government activists, including some white nationalists. "There's kind of a complicated intersection for white supremacy and the Boogaloo groups," said Daniel Stevens of the Tech Transparency Project, which published an investigation of the movement in April. But many of its members expressed solidarity with George Floyd, the black man whose death in Minneapolis at the hands of police officers has sparked a week of protests and rioting. Many members of the Boogaloo compare Floyd to Duncan Lemp a member of a far-right militia group who was fatally shot during a police raid at his home in Maryland in March and who is now considered a martyr by the nascent movement. One Facebook group associated with the Boogaloo, Sons of Liberty Information Network, is organizing a protest against government oppression later this month at the Arkansas Capitol in Little Rock. The groups image for the event features a photo of Floyd, and several posts on its page are supportive of the recent protests. People affiliated with the movement also express varying degrees of seriousness about the idea of overthrowing the government. Stevens said Boogaloo groups share documents about the use of weapons and combat tactics. But Matthew Kelley, a Massachusetts security guard who engages in online Boogaloo groups and describes himself as sympathetic to anti-government movements, said people who post seriously about civil war are called "smooth brains" slang for morons in many of the forums. Another difficulty of dealing with extremist movements in the digital era is the speed at which they evolve. Matthew, the 23-year-old Boogaloo follower from Missouri, said he attended a protest this week in the city of Columbia while carrying a sidearm. But he said he had little interest in civil war and that many of the Boogaloo groups were moving on to other goals. He said he was becoming more interested in exposing pedophiles. "People are really starting to share different ideas about what they want for their own personal boogaloo," he said. Around 6:30, there was more tear gas, more concussion grenades, and I think I saw someone hit by a rubber bullet he was grasping his stomach and there was a mark on his shirt, Gerbasi wrote in the post, which had been shared more than 125,000 times on Facebook by early Tuesday afternoon. The police in their riot gear were literally walking onto the St. Johns, Lafayette Square patio with these metal shields, pushing people off the patio and driving them back. People were running at us as the police advanced toward us from the other side of the patio. A child has been rushed to hospital in an air ambulance after falling 'from height', police have confirmed. Officers were called to Walworth, South London, at 7.31pm and the child, whose gender and age are unknown, was airlifted to hospital 'for assessment'. Londons Air Ambulance was seen landing in Nursery Row Park just before 8pm. A spokesman for Metropolitan police told MailOnline: 'A child fell from height at 1931hrs at an address in King & Queen Street, SE17. Officers were called to Walworth, South London, at 7.31pm and the child, whose gender and age are unknown, was airlifted to hospital 'for assessment' 'The child has been taken to hospital for assessment. No crime scene is in place.' One witness revealed they saw the child fall from a window, although this is unconfirmed. More to follow. In a tragic incident, a 22-year-old nurse has committed suicide after she tested positive for COVID-19. Bismi Scaria, who worked as a nurse in Gurugram's Medanta Hospital attempted suicide by hanging on Thursday, hours after she was told that she had tested positive for COVID-19. FACEBOOK Bismi was rushed to the hospital's ICU but died on Monday night. Bismi, a native of Punalur in Kerala had joined Medanta Medicity after completing nursing just three months ago. She was staying at an accommodation near the hospital and had undergone the COVID-19 test after she developed symptoms like cough and fever. Bismi was working in the Emergency Department of the hospital and is believed to have contracted the virus from a patient who was admitted there. AFP On Thursday, after she was informed by the hospital that her results are positive, Bismi went back to her room and in the afternoon when her friends who could not reach her went to check on her and found her hanging from the ceiling. According to a staff of the hospital who did not want to be named, Bismi was upset and tensed after her she developed COVID-19 symptoms. The staff also said that it was the first time that Bismi had been staying away from her family and that could have added to her worries. BCCL Bismi is the second nurse from Kerala working in Delhi NCR to die after contracting COVID-19. Ambika PK, a native of Kerala, was working at Kalra Hospital in Kirti Nagar died at the Safdarjung Hospital on May 24 after being infected. Following Ambika's death, her colleagues had alleged that there was a shortage of PPE kits for them and nurses were asked to reuse them, while doctors were given fresh ones. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 19:41:47|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ANKARA, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Turkey on Tuesday said it will continue the planned drillings in the Eastern Mediterranean upon a deal made with Libya's UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA). "The new licensed areas that the Turkish Petroleum applied for, regarding the exploration and drilling activities, lie within the Turkish continental shelf as declared to the UN. Turkey will be resolutely continuing to exercise its sovereign rights over the area that we repeatedly announced," Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hami Aksoy said in a written statement. On Monday, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said that Turkish plans on drilling for hydrocarbons in the eastern Mediterranean were part of its attempts "to usurp the sovereign rights of Greece." Greece was prepared to face this new "provocation if Turkey finally puts it into effect," the minister stated. Turkish energy minister Fatih Donmez on Friday said Turkey would start oil exploration in the eastern Mediterranean in three or four months under a deal it signed with Libya. In 2019, Turkey signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for maritime delimitation with Libya's GNA. Enditem Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Reuters) Athens, Greece Tue, June 2, 2020 18:02 597 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb9dc75 2 News greece,Hotel,tourism,travel,coronavirus,COVID-19 Free Greece allowed year-round hotels to open on Monday, restarting its vital tourism sector hobbled by weeks of lockdown, although business remained quiet with international flights from its main airports only set to resume from June 15. With borders also still shut in key tourism markets, some hotels have pushed back their openings due to low reservations. "We got our jobs back, but there is stress and uncertainty over the future," Spyros Divanis, managing director of Divani Hotels, told Reuters. Only one seaside hotel in Athens of seven hotels in the chain opened on Monday. The rest will open depending on bookings, he said. Greece, which emerged from international bailout programs in 2018, is banking on the lure of its rich culture and stunning landscapes for an economic recovery. Tourism accounts for about 20 percent of national output. Read also: Greece to test visitors from airports on EU high-risk list Having contained the spread of COVID-19 better than many European Union countries, Greece has been easing restrictions since May. Year-round hotels also rely on conferences, which have switched to the internet since the health crisis erupted, and on cruise shipping, which is not expected to resume anytime soon. The central Athens King George hotel and the historic Grande Bretagne, which has survived wars and hosted kings and queens, political leaders and celebrities over its 148-year history, will open at the end of June or early July, their director said. "It will definitely be a tough summer, but we are here to restart tourism, to help the economy," said Greek Chamber of Hotels' Vice President Christina Tetradis. Former vice president Joe Biden promised Tuesday to secure the nation's unmet promises to minority Americans, drawing a sustained contrast with President Donald Trump as he vowed not to "traffic in fear and division" and "fan the flames of hate." Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, sought with the somber pageantry of a flag-draped background and echoes of past American leaders to distinguish himself from the divisive presence of Trump, whose administration Monday night roughed up and pushed back peaceful protesters on a street one block from the White House. Trump then crossed the newly cleared path to pose with a Bible in front of a historic church. "We can be forgiven for believing that the president is more interested in power than in principle," Biden said. Trump is "more interested in serving the passions of his base than the needs of the people in his care." "I'll do my job, and I will take responsibility. I won't blame others," Biden said, adding, "I'll seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued this country - not use them for political gain." Biden announced one major new proposal - a ban on police chokeholds - and reiterated many of the plans he had released earlier in the campaign. He also promised to tackle larger themes and lay out more robust policies on systemic racism and the country's pain in the coming weeks. But much of his approach rested on familiarity and empathy. For days, as the nation has convulsed with protests and occasional violence, Biden has sought to offer voters a distinct choice in November, presenting himself as a candidate who, unlike Trump, is sympathetic to the anger in the streets over the police killing of a Minneapolis man, George Floyd, and generations of other abuses. Floyd died May 25 after one officer drove a knee into his neck and others put pressure on his back as he lay handcuffed on the street, begging for air. Tuesday's speech marked a potentially pivotal moment for Biden, who has put African American support at the center of his campaign but has struggled at times to move past a record on criminal justice and other issues that puts him at odds with many current civil rights activists. Just less than two weeks ago, he told a largely African American audience on a popular radio show that "you ain't black" if you're considering supporting Trump. He quickly apologized after he was criticized as taking black votes for granted. Tuesday's speech generated differing reactions. "The main point of today's speech was to try to call the country together, to root out a very serious problem that affects too many people in America," said Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., a Biden campaign co-chair. "I think he was being candid. One, showing America what real leadership looks like, what real leadership should sound like. And real leadership should call America to come together and answer this crisis." Cornell William Brooks, a former president of the NAACP and a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, said he thought Biden would be judged by "not what he said perfectly, but what he tried to say at all." "Was it a perfect speech? No. But was it the kind of speech you can hear in the words a president? I don't think you can deny that," Brooks said. Biden's nationally televised appearance was designed to put him on the same plane with the president he will meet on Election Day in November. While Philadelphia is the headquarters for Biden's campaign, he has not been there for months, having remained in his Wilmington, Delaware, home under restrictions meant to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. It was the first speech he has given before an audience rather than a solitary camera since March. For the past three days, however, Biden has emerged and repeatedly made the point with protest-connected appearances that he would be a different president - stylistically and in terms of policy - from Trump. On Sunday, Biden visited protesters in Wilmington, while Trump issued scattershot messages on social media, including one that read simply: "LAW & ORDER!" On Monday, Biden listened to critics and mayors during sessions aimed at understanding how to address the unrest spreading across the nation. Trump that day berated governors for not using proper force to quell it. Also on Monday, Biden took a knee after listening to critics and praying with them in a Wilmington church. Trump relied on force - including flash-bang grenades - to clear peaceful protesters so he could stand in front of a boarded-up St. John's Episcopal Church, across Lafayette Square from the White House, and pose with a Bible. The gesture drew an angry denunciation from the church's leaders. He later mobilized the U.S. military, which flew Blackhawk helicopters over Washington neighborhoods in a show of force. Implicit in Biden's approach has been the suggestion that while his record may have shortcomings, he has more affinity and empathy for the black community than Trump, who days ago derided protesters as "thugs." "He did exactly what he needed to do," said Roland Martin, an African American activist and radio host who has been critical of Biden. "The reality is, the contrast is his greatest strength, Biden's empathy and tone. Compare that with the fake John Wayne persona from Trump." "But he needs to keep this up," Martin said, suggesting that the former vice president should travel to Minneapolis, where a street memorial on the site of Floyd's killing has attracted tens of thousands of visitors. Biden launched his speech by speaking to the nation's concerns over police brutality, paying homage to Floyd and making a mantra of his final utterances - "I can't breathe." "George Floyd's last words. But they didn't die with him. They're still being heard. Echoing across this nation," Biden said. "They speak to a nation where too often just the color of your skin puts your life at risk. They speak to a nation where more than 100,000 people have lost their lives to a virus and 40 million have filed for unemployment - but the disproportionate number of those deaths and job losses is concentrated in the black and brown communities." "It's a wake-up call for our nation, in my view," he added. "For all of us. And I mean all of us." He noted that Eric Garner, who died six years ago in police custody in New York under similar circumstances, had uttered the same words. "It's time to listen to those words," Biden said. "To try to understand them to respond - to respond with action. Our country is crying out for leadership. Leadership that can unite us, leadership that brings us together." He also criticized the president's recent repeated use of language that evoked scars of the civil rights era. The president tweeted in recent days that looting would be followed by shooting, playing on a saying uttered by a police chief in the 1960s against civil rights protesters. And Trump threatened the use of dogs and force against demonstrators, as was commonplace during that time. "I truly believe in my heart of hearts, we can overcome," Biden said, one of several times he drew on phrases from the era in solidarity with its cause. During the roughly 20-minute address, Biden repeatedly quoted or echoed civil rights leaders from earlier generations, including Rosa Parks and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. But he also named some of today's leaders, including the Rev. William J. Barber, and called on Congress to act now to reform policing laws - including passage of a bill introduced by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.,to outlaw chokeholds. "It was powerful to hear Joe Biden acknowledge that it's important to now make [the police chokehold] unlawful," Jeffries said in an interview. "The Congressional Black Caucus is leading the legislative effort to develop, in partnership with the nation's leading civil rights groups, a comprehensive legislative response. And Joe Biden's voice in support of that response once it has been developed will be incredibly important." The former vice president also made it clear that the demonstrations are pushing him to rethink some parts of his agenda. "Biden probably did just as much, if not more, sympathizing with the protesters and their plight than even Obama did during Ferguson," said Jon Favreau, a former speechwriter for President Barack Obama, referring to the unrest in 2014 following the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. "Because the debate has moved since then. . . . He could have gone out there and just given a rhetorical speech about 'Let's all come together.' But he proposed some pretty serious police reform policies as well." Until Tuesday, Biden had largely avoided calling for specific new reforms to deal with the repetitive use of force by police departments, most notably against nonwhite communities. His criminal justice reform plan, released last summer, lacks many of the proposals that were part of the 2016 Democratic Party platform, including the training of officers to avoid use of force, required use of body cameras and federal investigations of all police shootings. Biden's speech repeated some promises, including establishing a police oversight commission and encouraging departments to embrace community policing programs. He said that every police department needs to undergo a comprehensive review of its hiring practices, training programs and de-escalation tactics - and that the federal government should give cities and states "the tools and the resources they need to implement reforms." "Bad cops should be dealt with severely and swiftly," he said. "We all need to take a hard look at the culture that allows for the senseless tragedies to keep happening. And we need to learn from the cities and the precincts that are getting it right." Apart from his call for a ban on chokeholds, Biden largely posited that the solution to continuing abuses was not to create a sheaf of new proposals but to enact measures that have long been debated and never pursued. "It's going to take more than talk. We've had talk before," Biden said, implicitly criticizing his generation of political leaders. He added that changing American responses would be "the work of a generation." Biden's strongest support has been among older black voters and suburbanites of all races, and those appeared to be his target audience for his speech. But he also needs to build support from younger black voters, a connection that has not always gone smoothly and had some rough spots, again, on Tuesday. Brooks, the former NAACP president, said Biden struck the wrong note when he predicted that fixing systemic racism will take a generation. "For activists, protesters, and demonstrators in the street, his political realism may sound more like fatalism," Brooks said. And Biden's closing line - "God bless our troops," which he routinely uses - could come across as off-key at a time when the streets are growing more militarized. "The troops he's speaking of aren't abroad. They're here, and on the street," Brooks said. "So when you say protect - protect from whom? Rioters and arsonists? Yeah. But we have people in the streets who aren't rioters and looters." - - - The Washington Post's Jenna Johnson contributed to this report. CHICAGO, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- RED BEAR Negotiation Company, a global leader in business-to-business negotiation training, announced today a partnership with Beyond ROI, a third-party, independent measurement firm, to study the impact of client negotiation training outcomes. Chad Mulligan, Founder and CEO of RED BEAR, said, "Client sponsors of negotiation initiatives don't make investments lightly. They are being asked to prove the ROI and sustainability of these initiatives. Simply put, this partnership with Beyond ROI removes the guesswork for our clients." Beyond ROI, founded in 2006, allows companies to connect participant skill adoption to business results. The company employs a proven methodology honed from more than 2000 studies. Beyond ROI has developed a platform to handle data collection, analysis, and results reporting on behalf of RED BEAR. "We are honored to help RED BEAR's clients understand the business impact that correlates to their training investment," said Susan Trumpler, President of Beyond ROI. "The negotiation skill and principles introduced in the RED BEAR programs fit our methodology perfectly as they tie directly to KPI's on the C-Suite's mind cost savings, cost avoidance, increased margins, and working capital improvements." The partnership, already underway, provides RED BEAR clients an independent assessment of the value and results derived from RED BEAR's negotiation workshops. Working with a trusted, third party, independent measurement company like Beyond ROI provides clients an unbiased accounting of the return on their training investment. "What gets measured gets improved and what gets measured and reported gets improved exponentially. Our commitment is to ensure our clients maximize the value of their relationship with RED BEAR and our partnership with Beyond ROI is another example of this focus," added Mark Sharp, Director of Marketing at RED BEAR. In addition to benefiting RED BEAR clients, both companies plan to aggregate results for an annual report entitled "Measuring the Impact of Negotiation Training." This study will focus on three critical aspects of success: Adoption, Support, and Impact. About RED BEAR Negotiation Company. RED BEAR Negotiation Company is a global leader in business-to-business negotiation training. Our discovery-based learning approach, first developed by BayGroup International, empowers sales and procurement teams to negotiate more profitable agreements and build stronger relationships with clients, suppliers, and colleagues. SOURCE RED BEAR Negotiation Company When Elon Musk said that the trampoline was working, it confused many people. Most people thought he was spouting nonsense, but there's a story behind what he said. The founder and CEO of SpaceX Elon Musk, said, "The trampoline is working!". Musk said so shortly after the company's first crewed mission launched successfully. The mission was the Demo-2 test flight that was headed for the International Space Station. What Is The Trampoline Elon Musk Is Talking About? What Musk was referring to with his statement was a barb by Dimitry Rogozin from April 2014. Rogozin was the deputy prime minister of Russia at the time. But today, he is the chief of Roscosmos, the space agency of Russia. Back then, the United States imposed sanctions in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine irritated Rogozin. Some of the sanctions imposed were targeting Russia's space industry, including individuals involved with it. Rogozin made the argument that the sanctions would, in general, harm global space efforts and not solely NASA. The American space agency did rely on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft and rockets to send its astronauts to the International Space Station after they retired their space shuttles in 2011, after all. Rogozin jokingly stated that he analyzed the United States' sanctions against his country's space industry, which led him to suggest that the USA should use a trampoline to send their astronauts to the International Space Station. Read Also: One of the Best VPNs For Streaming Just Got Cheaper: ExpressVPN Now Sells Almost Half the Price! What's Different About This Space Flight Mission? Since 2010, NASA has been assisting private industry in filling in their shoes due to an issue with government funding. NASA awarded contracts worth billions of dollars to SpaceX and Boeing in September 2014. These contracts were meant to help SpaceX and Boeing develop their spacecraft, the Crew Dragon, and the CST-100 Starliner. They were contracted to have six crewed missions to fly to the International Space Station and back to Earth. The final obstacle that SpaceX needs to get through before they can start with the contracted flights as Demo-2. The test mission has succeeded so far, where Crew Dragon docked at the International Space Station on May 31. NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken successfully made it to the orbiting lab. Rogozin took the success of Demo-2, and the trampoline comeback by Musk, in stride. He gave congratulations to Jim Bridenstine, NASA's chief, on Twitter. Rogozin wished NASA good luck for them to get their commercial crew missions started up. Demo-2 is meant to last for up to four months. The duration is still being decided on by SpaceX and NASA. Officials at NASA have stated that if it all goes according to plan until the splashdown, then Crew-1, which is the first contracted human-crewed mission of SpaceX, can launch before this August is over. On the other hand, Boeing isn't ready to launch any astronauts. Last December, Boeing's Starliner didn't succeed in meeting up with the International Space Station in an uncrewed test flight mission. They will, however, retry the test mission before they proceed with a human-crewed flight mission. Read Also: Bug Bounty Hunter Discovers Severe Authentication Bypass in Apple's Servers and Earns $100,000 MBABANE Where is the E7 million that was pumped into the voluntary deferred pay special fund for ex-miners? This question was posed by the former miners who said they were inquisitive over the money that they claimed should be given to them at this difficult time posed by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The miners claimed that it had been over two years since they last heard anything concerning the funding that was deduced from their salaries as a benefit which they were entitled to upon return home from South Africa. It was estimated that over 1 000 ex-miners stood to benefit from the fund. It was gathered that about 1 000 of them had recorded their views to a commission that was investigating the benefits of the ex miners. Struggling One of the ex-miners said there was no better time for government to release the fund to them than now as they were struggling to make ends meet due to circumstances that saw their silicosis and TB benefits distribution delayed. The last time I checked, the money was with the Ministry of Labour and Social Security and its intended purpose was for the ex-miners to form cooperatives and start businesses. Nothing has been said about the fund in many years and we implore the ministry to give us access to the fund so that we explore means to get income in these difficult times, he submitted. Swaziland Migrant Mineworkers Association General Secretary Vama Jele confirmed knowledge of the fund. He said it was a voluntary deferred pay special to be used by former miners upon return home. He said every one of them used to get the money when they came back to the country. He added that it was around 1998 and 2000 when many ex-miners were swindled on pretence of getting other benefits. They hired buses and travelled to Welkom, South Africa where many of them had been employed to demand answers regarding the fund. Claims Jele said claims of people being paid were made but none ever received the money. He said widows and ex-miners were meeting under trees discussing this Welkom issue. It pulled a lot of interest to many. A Commission of Inquiry was gazetted by Parliament in 2000. The Commission of Inquiry was chaired by Titus Mlangeni and Khabonina Dlamini was the Secretary. More than 1 000 ex-miners recorded their views to the commission. Then the commission went to South Africa to meet other key stakeholders such Teba, Chamber of Mines and others, he said. Jele said in South Africa, the commission was unable to meet the stakeholders except Teba. He said the inquiry finally came up with E7 million which was held by two local banks. The money was managed by Voluntary Deferred Pay Special Fund Board. He said it was made of government department officials and regulated by the Finance Act under the Ministry of Finance. He said they came with concrete recommendations which called for the fund to be managed under the Ministry of Labour, devising means of utilisation of the funds and incorporating ex-miners representative into the fund board. It was during this time that the voluntary deferred pay special fund issue became public information. Then Minister of Labour Lutfo Dlamini publicly declared the E7 million fund and also declared the gazetted board that was entrusted with the fund which was chaired by the Principal Secretary of the ministry at the time, he explained. He said the minister advocated that ex-miners should come forth with ideas on how to utilise the fund. There were a lot of propositions and some of them were welcomed while others were thrown out the window. Some of them suggested that it should be distributed fairly to the ex-miners while others made submissions that it should be invested in cooperatives or income generating schemes, he said. Successful He stated that Parliament at the time formed a Select Committee led by Magwagwa Mdluli who made his own report and the conclusion was that the money be loaned out to the claimants who eventually came through to make requests and were successful. However, it was not established the minimum or maximum sum each person got in loans. That was the arrangement that was made between the Board and another financial institution at a value of E2.5 million which was a commitment towards surety of the money that was loaned out by the institution to the people, he added. Jele said the money was still with the financial institutions as government did not move it. He said the board which would be the custodian of the money had not been instituted yet and for this reason, there was nothing being said about the money now. Ministry of Labour and Social Security Principal Secretary Thulani Mkhaliphi also confirmed knowledge of the fund. He said the voluntary deferred pay meant that the mine workers signed contracts whereby they agreed to get their salaries at the end of their contracts. Mkhaliphi shared the same sentiments with Jele, stating that the E7 million was made up of interest that had accumulated overtime as the salaries of the mine workers were invested in financial institutions while the miners were still contracted in their place of employment. The money did not belong to any individual but it was interest that accumulated while the miners were still in contracts because the arrangement was that they would be salaried when they got back, he added. However, TEBA introduced a new system of contracts and the miners shifted from the initial ones to the newly crafted way of remuneration which entailed that they would be salaried each month. Accumulated When quizzed how much the money totalled to now, Mkhaliphi said he did not have that information but stated that as the money was invested in credible financial institutions, it was a given that it had accumulated over the years. He said the ministry was yet to form a board that would regulate the utilisation of the money so that it could serve its purpose of financially assisting the ex-miners in forming income generating projects. Washington, DC - June 2, 2020 - To protect medical laboratory personnel from infection when testing clinical samples for SARS-CoV-2, most laboratories inactivate the virus before testing. , The effect of inactivation on the detection of results had not been determined, but the rate of false negatives for one time testing of inactivated virus has been estimated to range from 30% to 50%. A team of investigators led by Chaofeng Ma of Xi'an Center for Disease Control and Prevention hypothesized that viral inactivation may contribute to false negatives. They have now tested several inactivation methodologies to determine if and to what extent they reduce detectible virus in a clinical sample. The research appears in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, a publication of the American Society for Microbiology. The investigators took clinical samples from 63 patients who had been infected with SARS-CoV-2. They first used a technology called digital PCR to determine the total number of virus particles in each sample. They then inactivated virus from the samples and determined how much less virus was detectible at 2 sites within the genome, a gene that codes for the "nucleocapsid" protein and a section of genome called ORF 1ab. The first inactivating treatment used a reagent called TRIzol and destroyed 47.54% of nucleocapsid genes, and nearly 40% of ORF 1ab. The second inactivation treatment heated the samples to 56C for 30 minutes and reduced the quantities of the two sections of genome by 48.55% and 56.40%, respectively. Heating to 80C for 20 minutes reduced viral copy numbers further, and boiling, or autoclaving at 121C left virtually no detectible virus. Future studies should include inactivation reagents besides TRIzol, the researchers wrote. But for now, "...TRIzol is recommended for sample inactivation... as TRIzol has the least effect on RNA copy number among the tested methods." ### The American Society for Microbiology is one of the largest professional societies dedicated to the life sciences and is composed of 30,000 scientists and health practitioners. ASM's mission is to promote and advance the microbial sciences. ASM advances the microbial sciences through conferences, publications, certifications and educational opportunities. It enhances laboratory capacity around the globe through training and resources. It provides a network for scientists in academia, industry and clinical settings. Additionally, ASM promotes a deeper understanding of the microbial sciences to diverse audiences. An aged care facility and kindergarten are the latest businesses to be hit with coronavirus cases as authorities warn of a possible surge in infections following the loosening of social distancing measures on Monday. Ten fresh cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in Victoria, including four linked with the Rydges hotel cluster in Melbournes CBD, bringing that outbreak to 12. One of the new cases is a staff member at an aged care facility in Reservoir, in Melbournes north. Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said Embracia Aged Care had been locked down after the positive test result and all staff and residents would be tested for coronavirus on Tuesday. The Spanish state seems willing to sink the monarchy so that the Crown may stay afloat. If the play on words strikes you as twisted, let me put it this way: in order to save King Felipes reign (and, with it, the Crown as an institution) they have decided to bring down his father, King Juan Carlos, [who was given the title of King Emeritus after abdicating]. These days we have seen a sudden avalanche of news features published in European newspapers (with Le Mondes being the most recent and probably the biggest of all because of the French dailys influence and reputation) exposing the dirty laundry of the incumbent kings predecessor. It beggars the question of why now. Anyone who is involved in corrupt practices deserves to be called out and held to account. But anyone should really mean anyone: did Spains royal household have nothing to do with King Juan Carlos shady dealings? Did the racketeering patriarch fly under everyones radar? Has his son Felipe, at the tender age of 52, only just found out about it? As PM Pedro Sanchez spoke about his concern over the news that foreign media have been publishing about the King Emeritus (the penny has only just dropped for the Spanish leader, too, apparently by reading the papers), in the background you could almost hear the tune that plays when a statesmanship decision has been made and all the powers-that-be act as one to achieve the common goal. The Spanish PM went on to say that, nevertheless, he felt hopeful because King Felipes announcement that he intended to renounce his fathers embarrassing inheritance marked the start of a new era where the Spanish Crown will be wholly sleaze-free. Power goes about things in such a magical, premonitory manner: from now on things wont be like they used to anymore because we say so. The fact is, though, that you cannot escape the past and its memory. So pretending that King Juan Carlos and his reign have nothing to do with the Crown as it stands today, as if it had undergone a surgical makeover, is simply impossible. The temptation to undermine the reputation of the King Emeritus in Spain and abroad in order to boost his successors is understandable. But falling for it is a sign of ineptitude and, above all, desperation. Us republicans may actually find ourselves thanking the Spanish royal household for knocking down their own narrative. King Juan Carlos is a key figure to explain the present status quo in Spain and, in particular, the narrative of the Transition [from Francos regime] which he embodies. For forty years it was drilled into us that the head of state was instrumental to the consolidation of democracy in Spain and we were presented with an immaculate version of him and the royal household that mirrored the virtues which they sought to attribute to the Transition and post-Franco Spain (a label that is much more factual than calling it a democracy). If that ideal king was a lie, so was the official version of the Transition. We already knew this, but we should thank its perpetrators for admitting to it so blatantly. They might leave Juan Carlos without supporters, but I doubt if they will ever manage to build Felipe a fanbase. Hong Kong police have banned a vigil marking the deadly Tiananmen Square crackdown for the first time in 30 years amid concerns over Chinas influence over the territory. Authorities rejected an application on Monday to hold the annual candlelight vigil, which tends to draw a huge crowd outdoors and commemorates those who were killed in the military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijings Tiananmen Square in 1989. In a letter to the organisers of the vigil, police said the event would violate coronavirus social distancing rules which ban gatherings of more than eight people. The decision also followed a vote by Chinas ceremonial parliament to bypass Hong Kongs legislature and impose a controversial national security law on the semi-autonomous region. Democracy activists and many legal experts have expressed concerns that the law could curtail free speech and opposition political activities, sparking a rush to apply for passports which could allow some residents to move to the UK. Organiser Lee Cheuk-yan, chair of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, expressed disappointment at the cancellation and urged people to light candles individually and observe a moment of silence. Meanwhile, Amnesty International said authorities should have facilitated a socially distanced vigil rather than ban it. Covid-19 must not be used as an excuse to stifle freedom of expression, Joshua Rosenzweig, the group's deputy director for East and Southeast Asia, said. With this ban, and a disastrous national security law looming, it is not clear if Hong Kong's Tiananmen vigil will ever be allowed to take place again. Hong Kong has reported five local coronavirus infections in the last two days, breaking a nearly two-week streak of no new cases outside of those brought in from abroad. On Monday, a large crowd lined up at DHL courier outlets across the city with many people sending documents to the UK to apply for or renew a British National Overseas (BNO) passport. My BNO passport expired in 2004, but at the time I didn't renew it because I trusted China, Peter Chan, a 40-year-old who waited in line for more than two hours, told AP news agency. Mr Chan said he was worried about political and security issues in Hong Kong stemming from the national security law as well as a push by the territory's legislature to enact a bill that would make it illegal to insult the Chinese national anthem. Although he acknowledged rising anti-immigrant and anti-Asian sentiment in the UK, he said it was still better than Hong Kong at this time. The rush for passports came after the UK said last week it was considering allowing BNO passport holders to stay in the country for a year or more. The UK government has estimated there are 2.9 million people in the city who are eligible for the document, although only about 350,000 Hong Kong residents held BNO passports as of February. Additional reporting by AP Nearly 20,000 hospital patients most of whom hadnt been tested for coronavirus were discharged into care homes during the first weeks of lockdown, it emerged yesterday. Up until April 16, government guidelines said patients should be released into care homes even if they had tested positive for Covid-19. Official public health guidance issued on February 25 stated: It remains very unlikely that people receiving care in a care home or the community will become infected. This disastrous policy has been blamed for the catastrophic spread of the virus in care homes, killing nearly 15,000 elderly and vulnerable residents. Caroline Abrahams (pictured), charity director at Age UK, said: If as a country we had got this right from the start, it seems certain that many older peoples lives would have been saved' NHS England data yesterday revealed that 19,124 people were admitted to care homes from hospitals in the 25-day period between lockdown being announced on March 23 and April 16. More than 23,000 patients had been discharged into care homes in the first three weeks of March, as the epidemic took hold in Britain. The figures show that the number of people discharged from hospitals into care homes during the height of the outbreak had fallen to about two thirds of the level over the same period last year. But charities say it was a failure to allow a single person to be discharged into care homes without being tested. Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: This awful statistic shows how devastating the consequences have been in care homes from the failure to get enough tests for the virus organised quickly enough. Fiona Carragher (pictured), of the Alzheimers Society, said: 'Serious questions need to be asked as to how many of the 20,000 discharged did have coronavirus, and why all people werent tested before discharge. There must be accountability for the lives lost' If as a country we had got this right from the start, it seems certain that many older peoples lives would have been saved. As it was, care homes were left playing Russian roulette when it came to taking in patients being discharged from hospitals. Weve been playing catch-up ever since and the truth is that there still isnt enough testing in care homes, all these weeks on. Sorting this out still needs to be an urgent priority. Fiona Carragher, of the Alzheimers Society, said: These figures are a terrifying confirmation of the extent people with dementia were forgotten at the start of this crisis. Its clear that the Government did next to nothing in the first weeks of the pandemic to keep them safe from infection. Serious questions need to be asked as to how many of the 20,000 discharged did have coronavirus, and why all people werent tested before discharge. There must be accountability for the lives lost. A survey revealed that one third of homes have taken hospital patients with the virus, despite fewer than half being able to properly isolate them Despite repeatedly raising our concerns with the Government, we didnt see a plan until after Easter for keeping care homes safe and, in the weeks after promises were made to provide PPE, 43 per cent of homes told us they still didnt have enough. Last month, the Daily Mail revealed that the Care Quality Commission is investigating several cases of hospitals returning people to care homes despite suspecting or even knowing they were infected. A survey revealed that one third of homes have taken hospital patients with the virus, despite fewer than half being able to properly isolate them. At the St Nicholas home in Bootle, Liverpool, 12 residents died after Aintree Hospital discharged two patients to it without testing them for coronavirus. The patients were discharged into the homes empty beds between March 30 and April 4, and soon after staff and other residents began displaying symptoms. Residents died almost every day over two weeks after the virus ripped through the home. The NHS data published yesterday revealed that by mid-April the number of people being discharged into care homes had fallen by about 700 a day. A spokesman for the NHS said: This new data reinforces what hospitals have already made clear: clinicians have pulled out all the stops to do the right thing for their individual patients, and to get people the right care and support where and when they need it. [June 02, 2020] Buyers Meeting Point Acquires MyPurchasingCenter BOSTON, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Buyers Meeting Point, a knowledge and engagement resource for procurement and supply chain professionals, has announced its acquisition of MyPurchasingCenter, a website designed to provide procurement professionals with the information required to keep their companies competitive in a dynamic global marketplace. Buyers Meeting Point will restore industry access to MyPurchasingCenter's valuable content on categories such as MRO, logistics, and indirect spend and engage with the MyPurchasingCenter audience via social media. This acquisition will increase Buyers Meeting Point's social media following and expand the volume of information already available via their blog. The move also preserves a credible and recognized brand with strong ties in the procurement community, one that dates back to 2011. "Over the years, MyPurchasingCenter.com established itself as a successful forum that encouraged procurement professionals to share ideas and engage in enlightening conversations on how to be more successful and strategic while managing cost center restrctions. We are excited to preserve the brand, content and collaboration of MyPurchasingCenter through Buyers Meeting Point to help purchasing and procurement professionals succeed in today's economy," said Michelle Palmer, Publisher, MyPurchasingCenter.com. "I am excited for the overall procurement and supply chain community that Buyers Meeting Point has made a new home for MyPurchasingCenter," said Susan Avery, former Editorial Director, MyPurchasingCenter.com. "Bringing together the content of MyPurchasingCenter with the valuable resources of Buyers Meeting Point creates the one source of news and information for procurement and supply chain professionals going forward." "I have always respected MyPurchasingCenter for their ability to meet the critical information and networking needs of the procurement community through leading writers and editorial professionalism," said Kelly Barner, Owner and Managing Director, Buyers Meeting Point. "This acquisition will allow Buyers Meeting Point to serve a larger segment of spend management professionals and will increase the scope of our audience and social media reach while preserving the MyPurchasingCenter legacy." About Buyers Meeting Point Buyers Meeting Point is an online knowledge and professional development resource for procurement and supply management professionals owned and managed by career procurement professional Kelly Barner. Buyers Meeting Point provides the procurement industry with an events calendar, blog, content, and active social media network, all of which are trusted sources of information for practitioners and solution providers alike. For more information, please visit www.buyersmeetingpoint.com or follow @BuyersMeetPoint. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/buyers-meeting-point-acquires-mypurchasingcenter-301068853.html SOURCE Buyers Meeting Point, LLC [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] As cities across the country descend into chaos in response to a clear case of police misconduct, theres a lot of pressure on the Supreme Court to reconsider a doctrine known as qualified immunity. Under federal law, police officers who infringe on civilians constitutional rights can be sued in federal court, but the qualified-immunity doctrine shields them from such suits unless their actions violated clearly established law. In other words, plaintiffs have to show not only that their rights were violated, but also that the officers conduct had been addressed in similar previous cases and found to be unconstitutional. If no previous case involving the disputed conduct exists, as often happens because each case is unique, the officer is immune. The Court has been reluctant to reconsider this doctrine, but its currently mulling whether to hear several relevant cases. These cases could have huge ramifications, because qualified immunity had come under intense fire for the last several years, starting long before the death of George Floyd. Many legal scholars say the doctrine should go entirely. And at minimum, its clear from a string of incidents in which courts gave cops immunity despite flagrant wrongdoing that the rule needs reform. The Court should take up this matter. But it should not have the final word. Going forward, Congress should rewrite the law at issue to resolve the countless problems that have arisen from it in the 150 years since it was passed. The fair treatment of both civilians and police officers is at stake, and only Congress can reform qualified immunity in a way that fully addresses our current situation and concerns. Courts are limited to applying the law as it currently exists, and we need more than that right now. * * * Lets start with a brief overview of the relevant history. My purpose here is not to argue for any particular interpretation of the statute, but simply to establish that this is a murky, old, and confused area of the law. Story continues The story begins in the wake of the Civil War. States in the South were doing everything in their power to oppress former slaves, and the 14th Amendment had recently empowered Congress to stop them from doing so. An enforcement act passed in 1871 allowed victims whose constitutional rights were violated to sue in federal court. This is the key language of that provision, Section 1983, as it currently stands (the section has been adjusted only mildly in the century and a half since its enactment): Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage . . . subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress. This rule didnt have much of an immediate impact. Very few 1983 suits were filed for nearly a century, in part because it took a long time for the Supreme Court to incorporate the Bill of Rights so that it applied to the states, making far more state-level official misconduct count as a violation of the federal Constitution. The floodgates didnt truly open until the 1961 decision Monroe v. Pape. This case involved an enormous issue that apparently had gone unresolved for 90 years: When someone sues a government official under 1983, does he have to show that the officials conduct was sanctioned by a specific statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, or is it assumed that anything a government official does while on duty is done under color of the law? The Court adopted the latter interpretation, meaning that henceforth, any violation of the Constitution by a police officer could be addressed in federal court. Quickly, however, the Court scaled back this liability. In 1967, it allowed officers to assert a good faith defense. This rule eventually solidified into a two-part test: Immunity was available unless the officer knew or reasonably should have known that the action he took would violate constitutional rights or he took the action with the malicious intention to cause a deprivation of constitutional rights or other injury. But in 1982, unhappy with how often these cases were still going to trial, the Court eliminated that test and replaced it with a new one: Officials are immune unless their conduct violates clearly established law. None of these immunity rules came from the text of the law itself. But as it issued them, the Court offered a variety of justifications. For one thing, laws in 1871 often did not explicitly lay out the defenses that could be invoked by those sued for the infractions they established; instead, lawmakers counted on judges to apply widely accepted common-law rules and one such rule, the Court argued, was immunity for public officials who discharged their duties in good faith. Second, since police officers have to make fast decisions and since even judges can disagree after the fact as to whether a cops conduct was unconstitutional it would be unfair to hold them liable for actions they reasonably believed were legal. And third, the Court openly admitted that it was relying in part on public policy considerations, including a desire to give government officials space to do their jobs vigorously. A policemans lot is not so unhappy, the 1967 decision declared, that he must choose between being charged with dereliction of duty if he does not arrest when he has probable cause and being mulcted in damages if he does. The complications have only continued to pile up in more recent years. In 1996, Congress added some language to Section 1983 that did nothing to undermine qualified immunity, taking a kind of legislative action that courts have sometimes interpreted as a tacit endorsement of the jurisprudential status quo over the years. In cases in 2001 and 2009, the Court waffled on the question of whether courts should decide if conduct is unconstitutional before deciding if its constitutionality is clearly established, ultimately giving lower courts discretion over the matter. (When a court decides that the constitutionality of an action isnt clearly established, but doesnt also rule on whether the conduct is constitutional, the case fails to clearly establish a binding precedent for similar cases in the future.) Meanwhile, a series of incredibly stupid cases pushed the issue of qualified immunity into the spotlight. Courts have begun to interpret clearly established in a highly exacting way, demanding that plaintiffs show a previous case where a cop did precisely the same thing that happened to them and tossing common sense out the window. In one classic example, cops were accused of stealing someones belongings theyd confiscated during a search, but they couldnt be held liable under Section 1983 because no previous case had clearly established that its an unreasonable search and seizure for cops to flat-out commit theft. A Ninth Circuit panel actually published these words: At the time of the incident, there was no clearly established law holding that officers violate the Fourth or Fourteenth Amendment when they steal property that is seized pursuant to a warrant. There have been academic developments, too. Most prominently, the legal scholar Willam Baude published the seminal article Is Qualified Immunity Unlawful? He offers a sweeping case against the practice: Monroe v. Pape, he argues, was correct in interpreting the term under color of broadly, and there was not, in fact, a common-law good faith immunity in 1871 that would have applied to Section 1983. Even concerns about cops being held liable for conduct they reasonably thought was legal arent warranted, he says, because, among other reasons, such leeway isnt given to non-cops in many situations. After Baude made his case, Aaron L. Nielson and Christopher J. Walker highlighted some of its weaknesses in A Qualified Defense of Qualified Immunity. Theyre not so sure about Monroe v. Pape, and they write that if qualified immunity is on the chopping block, that decision should be reconsidered as well. (Overruling Monroe would make it much harder to file a 1983 suit at all, and thereby reduce the need for cops to assert immunity against such suits.) They think theres at least some evidence of a relevant good-faith immunity in the common law, and that its a legitimate concern whether cops have fair notice that their conduct is illegal before theyre held liable. And because all of this is so murky, they think theres a solid case for letting existing precedent mostly stand. * * * The courts hear cases and have to rule on them based on existing law, in this case a statute passed 150 years ago and resurrected in 1961. They have to take their best shot at deciphering the text and history of the law and deciding how much weight to give to their own previous decisions. Good luck to them as they wade through the resulting mess. But going forward, there is a better way for our country to decide how its police officers are to be punished when they violate the Constitution. This is the year 2020. As you may have noticed, holding police accountable matters a lot to a whole lot of people right now. We need a fair way of doing that, with buy-in from lawmakers and the public. Why would we instead allow our policy to hinge on what nine unelected judges think the term under color of meant in 1871? On what they think the common-law backdrop constituted back then? On how much deference they feel like giving to the last 60 years worth of their Courts own precedents? Congress needs to debate these issues and decide how to resolve them on policy grounds, without regard to how a different Congress, dealing with different issues, handled the matter after the Civil War. I have my own views on how to do this, of course. I dont trust states to hold police accountable even when cops violate state law, so I would continue to allow federal lawsuits in these cases. I dont think its right to tell cops that a court can retroactively decide their conduct was unconstitutional and hold them personally liable, even though they reasonably believed they were within the bounds of existing law, so I would maintain a good-faith exception though one far narrower than the one we have today. Finally, in cases where qualified immunity protects officers, I would encourage courts to rule on the constitutionality of the disputed conduct so its clear going forward what the law is. Congress might do that or it might do something else. Representative Justin Amash has proposed a bill to end qualified immunity entirely, and Senator Cory Booker is working on legislation to reform it. But whatever policy Congress settles on, it will be one the peoples representatives created to address the present crisis. And that is what the country needs. More from National Review After six days of unrest, many cities and neighborhoods across the United States face damage from violence and stealing. Political leaders are struggling to contain the nation-wide anger over the killing of a black man by police in Minnesota. There are curfews in some cities and National Guard troops have been deployed to keep order. But, peaceful daytime protests again have turned to violence at night. In Washington, D.C. protesters set fires, overturned cars and threw an American flag into the flames near the White House on Sunday. Police fired tear gas and stun grenades to control a crowd of more than 1,000 people across the street in Lafayette Park. Protesters threw rocks and burning bottles at police in Philadelphia as public transportation and city streets were closed. Police shot tear gas to control the protests in many cities, including Atlanta, Georgia and Austin, Texas. A man was killed when police and national guard soldiers returned fire after being shot at first early on Monday morning in Louisville, Kentucky. Two were reported dead over the weekend in Indianapolis, Indiana, adding to deaths recorded in Detroit and Minneapolis. Looters smashed their way into stores selling expensive goods like Chanel perfume and Rolex watches in New York City. Others walked away with boxes of shoes and clothes in Los Angeles. Many shops were just beginning to open after the coronavirus shutdowns. Some police officers tried to calm tensions by marching and kneeling with demonstrators in several cities, including Des Moines, Iowa and Spokane, Washington. The demonstrations were incited by the death of George Floyd, a black man, on May 25 in Minneapolis. A video recorded at the time shows a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeling on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes as he lay on the street. Floyd who was handcuffed, repeatedly said, I cant breathe, and, Please, I cant breathe, as the crowd asked the officer to stop. Chauvin has been arrested and charged with murder. At a protest in Boston, 15-year-old Mahira Louis told the Associated Press, They keep killing our people. Im so sick and tired of it. Recent incidents also increased racial tensions in the U.S. Two white men shot and killed Ahmaud Arbery, a black man in Georgia who was running on the streets, in February. And police in Louisville, Kentucky shot a black woman Breonna Taylor to death in her own home in March. The incidents happened as the country was under stay-at-home orders to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The disease has killed over 100,000 Americans and put 40 million people out of work. It has also affected minorities more than the general population in job losses and deaths. As the unrest spread across the country, U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican, denounced an anti-fascist movement called ANTIFA. He also blamed the media, Democratic mayors and governors and his opponent for the upcoming November election, Joe Biden. During a conference call with governors and law enforcement officials Monday, Trump called them weak. He said, Youve got to arrest people, you have to track people, you have to put them in jail for 10 years and youll never see this stuff again. Former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate, visited the site of protests in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware on Sunday. He talked to demonstrators and wrote on Twitter, We are a nation in pain right now, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us. In Salt Lake City, Lex Scott, a founder of Black Lives Matter Utah, condemned the destruction of property. But, he said breaking into buildings is not the same as killing a black man like Floyd. Maybe the next time a white police officer decides to pull the trigger, he will picture cities burning, he said. Im John Russell. Hai Do wrote this story for VOA Learning English based on Associated Press reports. Mario Ritter Jr. was the editor. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story stun grenade(s) n. a device that makes an extremely loud sound and that flashes light which is designed to temporarily surprise and disorient people handcuff v. to place restraints on a persons wrists, which prevent them from moving * The Hamden Rotary Club recently made a $500 donation to the Home Pantry Mission, which is in its third year of operation providing food security to elderly men and women residing at the Davenport-Dunbar Residence in Hamden. Shown accepting the check from Rotarian Dick Baxter are Sandra Kops and Kerry-Ann Dyce. * The East Haven Rotary Club recently had the opportunity to deliver 486 surgical masks, to help lessen the risk of COVID-19, to residents at Woodview Elderly Housing on North High Street and East Farm Village Apartments on Messina Drive. The masks were obtained through the generosity of East Hampton Rotarian Ted Rossi, who generously donated masks to each of the Connecticut Rotary Clubs to be passed onto the communities that they serve. The local clubs then in turn made donations to the Rotary International Foundation Annual Fund. Delivering the masks to Woodview were East Haven Rotarians (l to r): President Joan Adamczyk, Barbara Brow, Bill Richardson and Tammy Afragola. Delivering the masks to East Farm Village were Rotarians Lee DeLoughery, Barbara Brow and Bill Richardson. GEELONG, Australia, June 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A next-level smartphone App that encourages consumers to discover the story behind the wine they're sipping is set to become a new sales channel for the wine industry worth up to a billion dollars. Winerytale, which was purpose-built for millennials, uses augmented reality to deliver authentic content straight from winemaker to the wine lover, virtually, in front of the label. Augmented Reality Platform Winerytale Discover the story behind every wine - Winerytale Augmented Reality Platform With a focus on bit-sized content, themes of authenticity, and a strong social media component, the concept is widely expected to capture the millennial market. See Winerytale demonstration video This week, the company announced its plan to develop the platform into a new consumer channel, and a significant driver of wine sales to its target audience. Winerytale, which is only days away from a Share Issue Offer, experienced a surge in investor interest on announcement of the news. This follows recent announcements of the inclusion of language and location-awareness in early 2021, both of which promise significant opportunity for marketers and sales teams alike. Dave Chaffey, Managing Director of Winerytale, said the sales and distribution proposition was compelling. "There's significant opportunity here, on many levels there's terrific value in the platform as a marketing engine, and as a means to reach the millennial market." "But the bigger opportunity comes from opening direct-to-consumer purchase pathways, and decentralized distribution channels." "Our next move is to fully build out the language and location-awareness, to deliver meaningful, engaging experiences to a global audience of millennials, in their native languages, and then to facilitate sales to local distributors, earning a fee along the way." "It's a compelling concept with a lot of industry support, and an army of eager young consumers ready to go." "We've run through the modelling, and we're confident that Winerytale will drive $1 Billion in sales by 2024." Time will tell of course both wine and augmented reality are growth industries and demand will continue to soar in such competitive sectors. Details of the Winerytale Share Issue offer are available through the Birchal Platform. WINERYTALE MEDIA CENTRE For information, demonstration videos, and images please visit https://winerytale.com/media Download the App | Google Play | iOS Media inquiries: Dave Chaffey, [email protected] | Ph: +61 1300 633 390 SOURCE Winerytale SPRINGFIELD, Mass., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Mercy Medical Center and Providence Behavioral Health Hospital nurses, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association and joined by a large coalition of families, advocates and colleagues, will hold a press conference on Thursday, June 4 outside the office of the board chair in downtown Springfield. The coalition will call on the board of directors to fulfill its duty to represent the needs of local community members and to protest the proposed closure of 74 child and adult psychiatric beds at Providence and the unfair treatment and unsafe conditions perpetuated by Trinity Health at Mercy during the pandemic. Press Conference Details Date: Thursday, June 4 Time: 2 p.m. Location: Outside the office of Trinity Health of New England and Mercy Medical Center Boards of Directors Chair Paul Mancinone at 1441 Main St., Springfield across from Monarch Place Details: A socially distanced event. Speakers include nurses and other healthcare workers from Mercy and Providence, a Providence Hospital patient family member, additional advocates On June 1, the state Department of Public Health published Trinity Health's response to the agency's finding that the Providence services are "necessary for preserving access and health" on June 1. "Trinity's response to DPH fails to grapple with the devastating loss eliminating these beds will inflict on families across an entire region," said Cindy Chaplin, RN at Providence and Co-Chair of the MNA Bargaining Committee. "Getting the message that these beds are essential to so many families through to a billion-dollar corporation based in Michigan is an immense challenge, and so we are calling on local board members to represent the public health needs of their communities. The chair of the board tasked with making sure the hospital fulfills its healthcare mission has come out in favor of the closure. Others have remained silent. This is unacceptable to those of us who believe the duty of a hospital's board is to provide local oversight and ensure access to safe, quality care." "Trinity's behavior is actually making it harder for staff to safely care for patients and support our families during this pandemic," said Alex Wright, RN and Co-Chair of the MNA Bargaining Committee at Mercy Medical Center. "They are not listening to nurses and healthcare workers on the front lines and are ignoring the concerns expressed by members of our community and elected officials." On May 15, the state Department of Public Health found the 74 beds are "necessary for preserving access and health," and that owner Trinity Health must prepare a plan showing how it will maintain access to inpatient psychiatric and pediatric services, and reveal information about how it sought psychiatrists before deciding to close beds. The DPH finding followed a virtual public meeting in which nurses and healthcare professionals, patients, elected officials and residents advocated to keep the beds open to ensure access to quality, specialized psychiatric treatment. Trinity has also not consistently provided proper personal protective equipment (PPE) to staff at Mercy, has not appropriately isolated COVID-19 positive patients and suspected COVID-19 patients, and has cancelled or laid off staff rather than provide fair redeployment and paid time off protocols. These conditions came into stark view in April when the Boston Globe published an article about Mercy ICU nurse Lindsay Manning. Despite being six months pregnant and expressing concerns about her health and health of her unborn child if she were exposed to COVID-19, Trinity management would not guarantee Manning work separate from infected patients. Then Manning became symptomatic and tested positive. Mental health is public health and the closure of these services at Providence would have a devastating impact on our communities. The lack of quality inpatient mental health services and the impact of that shortage on patients, their families and communities has been widely documented. The child psychiatric beds in particular are extremely essential. The closest inpatient child mental health services to Providence Hospital are more than an hour drive away in Worcester. There are child and adult patients waiting in emergency departments across Massachusetts for mental health beds like those at Providence, including at Mercy Medical Center. A large coalition of nurses, healthcare professionals and other advocates held a socially distanced picket outside Mercy Medical Center on May 7 to protest how Trinity Health is treating its staff during the COVID-19 pandemic and its proposed bed closures. Trinity's plan would put additional strain on a system facing a public health crisis in COVID-19. Patients should not have to choose between seeking mental healthcare in an emergency department full of potential COVID-19 patients and not receiving care at all. The way Trinity has responded to COVID-19 has exacerbated the risk associated with closing these beds. Trinity has not provided proper personal protective equipment (PPE) to staff, has not appropriately isolated COVID-19 positive patients and suspected COVID-19 patients, and has cancelled or laid off staff rather than provide fair redeployment and paid time off protocols. These failures mean that patients receiving inpatient care at Providence could re-enter the community as a result of the closure and spread the virus. Read more about Trinity's failure to protect and support staff during the pandemic: https://www.massnurses.org/news-and-events/p/openItem/11656 Read more about the issues surrounding Trinity's proposal to close behavioral health beds and services: https://www.massnurses.org/news-and-events/p/openItem/11693 MassNurses.org Facebook.com/MassNurses Twitter.com/MassNurses Instagram.com/MassNurses ____________________________________________ Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 23,000 members advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public. SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association Related Links http://www.massnurses.org Earlier this month, Cloud of Things, an IoT company based in Tel Aviv and Boston, announced a new CEO had taken the reigns, days before the company announced with Microsoft and Nordic Semiconductor that its software platform and plug and play edge device (called Genie) was added to the Azure marketplace. The news took many in the industry by surprise, given that Avner Ziv is well known in Israel and around the world as one of the top leaders in the fintech space, driving innovation for the Central Bank of Israel for the last five years as CIO and Director of the Board. This is an unusual career pivot in and of itself, one we rarely see in the world of IoT which is both a relatively small, tight-knit community at the same time which has always been global since society began connecting things over the Internet twenty-plus years ago. Why would an expert in financial markets infrastructure, technology and cybersecurity make a move into IoT? One major clue may have to do with his career prior to joining the bank. Ziv grew up through the ranks of the Israeli Army, rising to the rank of Colonel, and leading a 700 professionals elite technological unit. Ziv served as most young people do, but staying longer than most, with thirty years of service and a drive to driving innovation in military technology and security over a period of time where advancements, including the onset of the Internet, created serious challenges and threats. What is the common thread? We caught up with Ziv and he explained his motivation in one word: mission. Ive been very fortunate to be given the opportunities I have been, very fortunate to serve, Ziv said. When I was in the Army, Israel was undergoing tremendous change, and the work we were doing to protect our country, our region and the world from terrorism drove us to work harder, work smarter and work with determination and commitment. These were intense times, but my fellow soldiers were up to the tasks, whether supporting military intelligence programs, combat troops, or humanitarian efforts. Given what he calls an endless curiosity when it comes to technology Ziv left the military and vectored into a new life as CIO of the Bank of Israel made complete sense to him. Five years ago, in 2015, I was called to another mission, to strengthen and protect society in a different way, by ensuring the Israeli economy become even more robust, and competitive with advanced new services, Ziv said. "To do so, we had to assume responsibility of new fields that has never been done by the central bank. We have done so understanding that we're the only ones who has the power to do so. We promoted some new national-level market financial infrastructures like a central credit scoring system, and an Open Banking API standard program. Given the growing threat landscape, it was mission critical for the bank to implement the most sophisticated infrastructures and cyber security systems, policies and procedures to thwart attacks, and fortunately for us, Israel has many of the greatest minds and companies in the world when it comes to protecting all we connect. This five-year period was spent on many major projects, Ziv met leaders across all market segments, and was exposed to the most disruptive ideas and latest technologies rising in the increasingly digitally transforming world. This was an intense and inspiring time in my life, Ziv said, and an incredible honor to be able to contribute to society in new ways. After three decades of military service, I was able to see things through a more commercial, business lens and to understand and support the innovators who would lead in software, security, cloud, mobile, applications and above all data. data analytics, AI and machine learning to name a few. It became clear to me that connected systems held the potential to dramatically improve how we live, how we protect our communities, how we protect our planet and reverse damage to the environment. His eyes open to new possibilities, Ziv was drawn to the IoT as he became more and more active in the Israeli tech community, and eventually crossed paths with Cloud of Things, a company started in 2016 by a team out of Ness Technologies, one of the leading IT firms in Israel. I was so impressed by the founders David Chouraqui and Eliav Gnessin and the more time I spent with them, the more I came to understand the real potential of IoT and the company's unique vision I could easily relate too making IoT simple through automation and other advances, Ziv said. What they had invented and were continuing to innovate was so unique and so directly addressed the hardest problems in IoT that it became clear Cloud of Things had built a powerful platform for improving life. I was sold, and today I am so honored to be part of their team and leading a new mission. The company, whose offerings include a ready-to-run IoT system, including the Genie device, which was a collaborative effort with AES, based on their minIot innovations self-provisions securely to networks, clouds and applications, earlier this week announced the availability of DeviceTone Suite on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, an online store providing applications and services for use on Microsoft Azure. IoT Plug and Play allows developers to get all IoT devices connected, up and running more easily, removing the resistance associated with hardware and software configuration steps. The DeviceTone Genie is a plug-and-play module designed for integration into any electronic product when a brand wishes to introduce production-grade IoT capabilities, and secured connectivity to client's business applications. For example, it can be used in lighting or utility metering applications to make luminaires or meters smart. Who knows how far and fast we will go, Ziv said. What I do know is that when we instrument everything from our water supplies to our transportation systems, when we can track and manage everything from food security to more efficient supply chains and logistics, and when we add sensors and cameras in public buildings and venues, we can protect people and even save lives. All this will require the kinds of discipline and policies Ive had the opportunity to develop in both military and financial services settings, but as I have come to understand, when we connect the physical and digital worlds and do so with integrity and positive purpose, we can build a next generation legacy. I have a lot to learn, and we have a lot to discover and do together but I am 100% sure this is where I am supposed to be today, on a continued mission to simply make life better. Edited by Ken Briodagh WASHINGTON - Republicans shied away from criticizing President Donald Trump for his administration's forceful ouster of largely peaceful protesters outside a historic church near the White House so authorities could clear his path for a photo opportunity with his advisers. As the episode drew widespread condemnation from Democrats, Republicans either embraced the president's tougher tone toward the mounting protests across the nation or sidestepped the issue altogether. "I'm not going to critique other people's performances; I can speak for myself," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters Tuesday after a GOP luncheon, just weeks after he had criticized former president Barack Obama for challenging Trump's handling of the pandemic. On Monday night, Trump walked from the White House across Lafayette Square to St. John's Episcopal Church, where he posed for pictures holding up a Bible. Before his trek, federal authorities used rubber bullets, stun grenades and smoke canisters to clear protesters gathered near the park. They have been protesting the death of a black man, George Floyd, in custody of a white Minneapolis police officer. By Tuesday morning, the White House had produced a 30-second campaign-style video about the episode, set to triumphant music, drawing sharp denunciations from Democrats but a muted response from many Republicans and some applause from other GOP senators. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla/, newly installed as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, defended the use of stun grenades and other militaristic tactics to clear the area by the church, saying there was nothing wrong with that approach. "No, not given what we've seen the last three nights in front of the White House, incredibly dangerous," Rubio said, suggesting that injuries to Secret Service officers justified the strong show of force. He also said he believed the motivation behind the timing was about the pending 7 p.m. curfew, announced earlier Monday by District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, and not the president's walk to the church. "It was time to clear the square given the last three nights. It was known that it needed to be clear," Rubio said in the early afternoon. Soon afterward, Justice Department officials confirmed that Attorney General William Barr personally intervened to ask federal authorities to extend the perimeter and push back the protesters so Trump could safely walk to the church. Some Republicans applauded the tough tone the president took during his Rose Garden address, which included demands for governors and mayors to "dominate" their streets. "This can't go on. So hopefully, you know, the president talking that way will put a little spine in some of these governors that aren't calling out the National Guard, to the extent that they need to restore order," said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Johnson expressed dismay at a report on the Fox News show hosted by Tucker Carlson about beatings endured by people at the hands of violent protesters. Asked for his opinion on Trump's church visit, Johnson had less to offer. "I haven't seen it," he said. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., continued his call for Trump to use the Insurrection Act to allow active-duty military to help state and local police, decrying violence in other cities and applauding the lower amount of looting Monday in Washington. "The only way to end this insurrection is the overwhelming display of force," Cotton said in a statement. Some Republicans opposed calling in the military. "That should be our last resort. I don't think the Pentagon is keen on getting brought into this unless they absolutely have to," said Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. John Thune, S.D., the No. 2 Republican leader in the Senate, reiterated to reporters that he would like to see Trump adopt a softer tone more broadly and that he is opposed to using the military to contain protesters on U.S. streets, as Trump has advocated. "I would prefer that these things be handled by the state and local authorities," Thune said. "You want to de-escalate, rather than escalate." Asked whether Trump is projecting calm, Thune said the president "has his moments." "But, you know, I mean, as you know, it lasts generally as long as the next tweet," he added. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., decried the violence that had been seen on previous nights in Washington but voiced strong support for the constitutional right to protest. "I'm against clearing out a peaceful protest for a photo op that treats the Word of God as a political prop," Sasse said in a statement that made no explicit mention of Trump but said that all public servants "should be lowering the temperature." Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only black Republican in the Senate, said he did not think Trump's visit to St. John's - a frequent place of worship for some past presidents - was helpful. "Obviously, if your question is, should you use tear gas to clear a path so the president can go have a photo op, the answer is no," Scott said during an event hosted by Politico. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who is locked in a tough reelection bid in her Democratic-leaning state, said Trump "came across as unsympathetic and as insensitive to the rights of people to peacefully protest." "It was painful to watch peaceful protesters be subjected to tear gas in order for the president to go across the street to a church that I believe he's attended only once," Collins said. Reading from a Bible, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called Tuesday for "a time to heal" and pleaded for Trump to become a "healer in chief and not a fanner of the flame" in a direct contrast to the president's actions Monday evening. Pelosi, who had just signed legislation designed to try to help a Muslim minority in China, held up a Bible just as Trump did after walking to the church Monday, a day after the church basement had been set on fire by protesters. She read from Ecclesiastes' "A Time for Everything" from the Old Testament, and from a speech that then-President George H.W. Bush delivered after video emerged in 1992 of Los Angeles police beating Rodney King. "Let's focus on the time to heal," Pelosi said. Senate Democrats tried to pass a resolution condemning Trump "for ordering federal officers to use gas and rubber bullets against the Americans who were peaceably protesting in Lafayette Square." McConnell blocked the resolution. Some Republicans were critical of Trump but struggled with the reasoning. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., who previously directed a youth ministry, said he did not object to Trump's trip to the church - but questioned the timing of the visit. "If he had gone out there yesterday morning, rather than right before curfew, that would have been a nonissue," Lankford said. But Lankford said making the trip right after a Rose Garden statement on the need to crack down on violent protesters "distracted from the message he had just given." "The whole appearance at that time, at that moment - right before curfew, everyone knew there were going to be protesters in that area - I thought was the wrong timing for that message," Lankford said. George Floyds family will join Houston protesters Tuesday in what is being billed as a peaceful march to City Hall. The march will begin 3 p.m. at Discovery Green, 1500 McKinney. The route has not been made public but will be announced when protesters arrive. Rappers Trae Tha Truth and Bun B, whose given names are Frazier Thompson III and Bernard Freeman, respectively, coordinated with Floyds nephew Brandon Williams in organizing the march. Mayor Sylvester Turner and Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo will also participate, although it is not an official event. MORE ON RALLY: Trae the Truth: 'Lets show the world what we are capable of' All city of Houston facilities downtown are scheduled for early closure. Click here for more details. Turner said Monday that he expects large crowds but doesnt anticipate violent or destructive behavior. Houston police will oversee the event in coordination with the Harris County Sheriffs Office, Texas Department of Public Safety and federal agents. Given the continued threat of the coronavirus, the mayor has urged the public to wear face masks and do their best to social distance, although it doesnt appear that officials will enforce those measures. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in Minneapolis police custody last week, sparking days of protests around the country. FROM LISA GRAY: Protesting in a pandemic? Heres how to stay safe from violence, COVID-19. A video captured a police officer kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes as the handcuffed man pleaded for air. The officer, Derek Chauvin, now faces charges of third-degree murder and manslaughter. Floyd grew up in the Third Ward and graduated from Yates High School in 1993. He and Thompson were long-time friends. Floyds funeral is scheduled to be held in Houston on June 9. samantha.ketterer@chron.com Russia will mark the 75th anniversary of the Soviet victory in World War II with a military parade later this month having cancelled its initial May 9 demonstration due to the coronavirus. Asymptomatic Russian troops and those who have developed an immunity to the disease will march in the parade, Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday. Last week, President Vladimir Putin ordered the military to hold the rescheduled parade on June 24, while declaring that Russia's coronavirus outbreak had stabilised despite posting its record death toll from the virus on the same day at the time. Shoigu went into more detail today, and said that 14,000 troops will march across Red Square in Moscow, while 50,000 more will march through 27 other cities that house military units, according to The Moscow Times. A report in May estimated that around 400 Russian troops had been infected with Covid-19 participating in rehearsals for the May 9 parade. Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, pictured on May 29, 2020 at a military awards ceremony, announced on Tuesday that 14,000 troops will march through Moscow in a postponed parade to mark the 75th anniversary of the soviet victory in World War II. A further 50,000 troops will march in 27 other cities around the country 'Mostly military personnel with immunity to Covid-19 and without signs of infectious diseases will be allowed in the parade,' Shoigu said at a meeting of the Defense Ministry board. 'I demand that contacts are eliminated between the parade crews and troops and civilians not involved in rehearsals.' In his statement, Shoigu said the number of coronavirus cases and recoveries among the military had started to trend in the right direction. 'All personnel are regularly tested for coronavirus. Since May 9, the number of people who have recovered daily exceeds the number of people being treated,' he said. 'Since the beginning of March, six and a half thousand people have been infected in the Armed Forces, more than four thousand three hundred of them have already been discharged.' In a separate newsletter from the Ministry of Defense, a reported 1,500 troops are currently being treated for Covid-19, or are self isolating, as of Monday. President Vladimir Putin, pictured on June 2, 2020 speaking to Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin during a teleconference meeting ordered the Russian military to hold the parade on June 24 after postponing it in April due to the coronavirus Fireworks illuminate the evening sky over Moscow, Russia, 09 May 2020. Russia marked the 75th anniversary since the defeat of Nazi Germany in WWII amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, but was unable to hold a military parade on the scale it intended The public statement from the Ministry announcing the rescheduled parade said that people from 19 foreign countries are also invited to join, and also announced that the country will be taking the opportunity to display new military equipment. '25 units of weapons, military and special equipment, 75 aircraft will be presented. Viewers will see over 20 new models of military equipment, including Su-57 and MiG-31K aircraft,' the statement read. Shoigu said that 'special anti-epidemic measures' will be taken on the day to protect military personnel from further risk of infection, and that each location will have 'round-the-clock medical centres' available. Due to the coronavirus, on April 16 Putin postponed the parade that was set to take place on May 9, which would have marked 75 years to the day that the Soviet Union achieved victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. Instead, Russia held subdued celebrations, which saw Putin lay roses at the Eternal Flame war memorial, fighter jets fly over Moscow and fireworks set off all over the country. Putin gave a solemn speech at the war memorial outside the Kremlin walls and made no mention of the coronavirus, focusing squarely on the sacrifices of the Soviet era. 'Our veterans fought for life, against death. And we will always be equal to their unity and endurance,' Putin said, adding: 'We know and firmly believe that we are invincible when we stand together.' Russia and ex-Soviet countries hold their victory celebrations a day after the UK and many other countries, who host theirs on May 8. This is due to the fact that all combat actions ceased on May 8 at 23:01 Central European Time, which was already May 9 in the USSR. 14,000 troops will march through Moscow's Red Square, pictured empty on May 31, 2020 Meanwhile, Putin yesterday announced that a nationwide vote on reforms that could allow him to stay in power until 2036 will be held on July 1 after coronavirus delayed the initial April 22 referendum. Putin told a government meeting today that the situation had broadly stabilised and the vote could go ahead on 1 July. The number of coronavirus infections in Moscow has dropped sharply, he said, allowing the capital to start easing some restrictions. The changes, already approved by parliament and Russia's Constitutional Court, would reset Putin's presidential term tally to zero, allowing him to serve two more back-to-back six year terms until 2036 if reelected. Putin is currently required by the constitution to step down in 2024 when his second sequential and fourth presidential term ends. 'I really hope the country's citizens will take part actively in the vote on the amendments to the constitution,' Putin told a televised government video call from the Novo-Ogaryovo in Moscow. Critics have dismissed the vote as a constitutional coup which they fear will be rigged and urged voters to stay away or to reject the proposed changes. Others have accused him of failing to support businesses and ordinary Russians battered by the coronavirus. His approval rating fell to a historic low of 59 per cent in an April poll. According to the Jonhs Hopkins University, Russia is the country with the third highest number of reported coronavirus cases, after the U.S. and Brazil, seeing 423,186. It has reported a relatively low 5,031 deaths related to the virus. New England Episcopal bishops are among religious leaders across the country critical of the June 1 appearance of President Donald Trump, Bible in hand, before a historic Washington, D.C. cathedral The cathedral, which Trump walked to from the White House after law enforcement officials used force to dispense gathered demonstrators, suffered minor damage the night before during protests following the police killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who had been accused of using a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes May 25 at a Minneapolis deli. The seven bishops, including the Right Rev. Douglas Fisher, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts, issued a statement calling Trumps visit disgraceful and morally repugnant. What President Trump did in front of St. Johns Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square on the evening of June 1 was disgraceful and morally repugnant, the statement reads. Displaying a Bible from which he did not quote, using as a mere backdrop an Episcopal church where he did not pray, and more callously ordering law enforcement to clear, with force and tear gas, a path through demonstrators who had gathered in peace, President Trump distorted for his own purposes the cherished symbols of our faith to condone and stoke yet more violence. Saying Trumps tactic was obvious," the statement continues, Simply by holding aloft an unopened Bible he presumed to claim Christian endorsement and imply that of The Episcopal Church. Far more disturbingly," the signers add, he seemed to be affecting the authority of the God and Savior we worship and serve, in order to support his own authority and to wield enhanced use of military force in a perverted attempt to restore peace to our nation. His actions did nothing to mend the torn social fabric of our nation, reads the statement, a reference to the nationwide protests and violence that have followed Floyds killing and Trumps response. Instead, they were a blatant attempt to drive a wedge between the people of this nation, and even between people of faith. No matter where we may stand on the partisan spectrum, we, as Christian leaders called to proclaim a God of love, find his actions repugnant. Jesus taught us to love our enemies, to seek healing over division, and make peace in the midst of violence. While saying Episcopalians may rightly feel outraged and insulted by having the symbols of our faith used as a set prop in a cynical political drama," that statement adds, The real abomination before us, however, is the continued oppression of and violence against people of color in this nation. Let us reserve and focus the energies of our indignation to serve our Lord Jesus Christs higher purpose: to extend love and mercy and justice for all, and especially for those whose life, liberty, and very humanity is threatened by the persistent sin of systemic racism and the contagion of white supremacy, it concludes. Other signers include the Right Rev. Laura J. Ahrens, Bishop Suffragan, Connecticut; the Right Rev. Ian T. Douglas, Bishop Diocesan, Connecticut; the Right Rev. Thomas James Brown, Bishop Diocesan, Maine; the Right Rev. Alan M. Gates, Bishop Diocesan, Massachusetts; the Right Rev. Gayle E. Harris, Bishop Suffragan, Massachusetts; the Right Rev. A. Robert Hirschfeld, Bishop Diocesan, New Hampshire; the Right Rev. W. Nicholas Knisely, Bishop Diocesan, Rhode Island; and the Right Rev. Shannon MacVean-Brown, Bishop Diocesan, Vermont. A number of the signers had also issued separate statements, including Fisher who said Floyds killing points to the racism that is part of our society." We have all been traumatized by the footage of one mans death, Fisher said of the video of Floyd, with Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvins knee on his neck, telling Chauvin who has been charged with his murder he could not breathe. We have also seen people of every color take to the streets to give voice to their anger and frustration. This moment asks something of all of us. More than ever, we need God to breathe on us. We need the courage of the Holy Spirit to stand up against the brutalization of black lives. I bid your prayers for Mr. Floyds family, for the safety of all those giving witness to his murder, and for those police officers doing their jobs to keep the peace. The Most Rev. Mitchell T. Rozanski, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, also issued a statement on the diocesan website calling Floyds death tragic and unnecessary and the fallout from it, has once again served as a sad and painful reminder of the racial divide which still cuts across our nation. While saying every one of us needs to confront the injustice that is the reality of life for people of color, Rozanski added that undertaking violent protests and targeting law enforcement personnel is not a solution. As a people of faith who believe firmly in the sanctity of life and that racism is a sin, let us pray for an end to this violence and the beginning of a meaningful effort to address the underlying currents of the racial divide found everywhere in our country, a dialogue in which we listen attentively to hear and acknowledge the voices of those who deal with racial injustice in their daily lives, Rozanski said. "Then work to achieve real change in our communities. Today, Trump visited Washingtons Saint John Paul II National Shrine, which is run by the Knights of Columbus. Federal D.C. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, through his attorney, filed a response to the writ of mandamus from former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn ordering him to dismiss the charges against him. A response that had been ordered by a three-judge panel from the Court of Appeals two weeks ago. In his response, Judge Sullivan maintained that Attorney General William Barrs prosecutors have not conclusively established that they acted properly in moving to drop the charges against former Trump National security Advisor Michael Flynn. Particularly given the unusual refusal of several prosecutors working on the case to sign the motion to dismiss. Sullivan, in the response, insisted there was no merit to Michael Flynns accusation that the court has already decided to rule against him. Just because he appointed retired Judge John Gleeson to oppose the DOJs position explaining that someone needs to fill the adversarial gap to ensure full consideration of the issues, and a former prosecutor and a federal judge is well-positioned to do so. Former General and national security advisor Flynn initially pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about his correspondence with Russian officials. Flynn subsequently claimed, with no solid evidence, that the FBI unlawfully strong-armed him into doing so. The DOJs move to side with Flynn and drop the charges sparked outrage and suspicion that the Trump administration is playing politics with a case involving a former ally. The accusation of political foul play was buttressed late Friday afternoon when the Trump administration released the transcript of a conversation between Flynn and the Russian U.S. Ambassador in 2016 that makes Flynns call look even less innocent and show that Flynn colluded with Russia in 2016. In response to the allegations that Russias interfered in the 2016 presidential and general election President Obama on December 29, 2016, President Obama announced economic sanctions against Russia. Flynn, Trumps incoming national security adviser, quickly got on the phone with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. When word of the phone call leaked, the administration announced that the call had merely served the purpose of touching base and exchanging pleasantries. On Christmas Day, General Flynn reached out to the ambassador, sent him a text, and it said, you know, I want to wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, I look forward to touching base with you and working with you, announced Press Secretary Sean Spicer. The call centered around the logistics of setting up a call with the president of Russia and the president-elect after he was sworn in. The FBI was already conducting a counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaigns ties to Russia, asked General Flynn if he and Kislyak had discussed the sanctions. Flynn outright lied and insisted he hadnt, a lie he later pleaded guilty. Along with pleading guilty to not registering as a foreign agent while taking more than $400,000 from Turkey for his influence, a crime that could put him behind bars for several years. Flynns lawyers insisted his call was consistent with him advocating for, not against, the interests of the United States. That depends heavily on how one defines the interests of the United States. In December 2016, the United States had a strong interest in punishing and deterring hostile foreign governments that had stolen the private communications of American political figures to affect the outcome of the election. By January 20, the United States would have a very different interest. That context looms over the Flynn-Kislyak call. The U.S. government at the time was treating Russias efforts to help Trump win as a hostile act. The beneficiary of those acts was not. A recent lengthy polemic supporting Flynn by conservative reporter Eli Lake presented this defense of the call: The idea that Flynn had behaved illegally, let alone unethically or immorally or unconventionally, in discussing U.S. foreign policy with the Russians during the transition is beyond absurd. He was the incoming national-security adviser. Phone calls between incoming senior administration officials and foreign governments are common during a presidential transition. And given what is now known about the context of that phone call, the initial spin in the press that Flynns conversation with Kislyak had undermined the outgoing administrations policy was misleading. The transcripts released on Friday quote Flynn telling Kislyak Do not, do not uh, allow this (Obama) administration to box us in, right now, okay? If that does not constitute undermined the outgoing administrations policy, what does? Two days later, the two men held a follow-up call, in which Kislyak made the premise more explicit I just wanted to tell you that we found that these actions have targeted not only against Russia, but also against the president elect. Flynn replied, telling the Russian Ambassador to accept the premise. Kislyak then said he agreed with Flynns request not to retaliate Yeah, yeah, we have decided not to act now because its because people [presumably the outgoing Obama administration] are dissatisfied with the loss of elections, and its very deplorable. Flynns discussions with Kislyak were not part of a criminal conspiracy. Still, they were, however, part of a secret illegal channel of communications, the premise of which was that the two parties had a secret common interest against the United States government. It all adds up to a relationship that can only be described as collusion. Barr under fire over review of Michael Flynn case A 53-year-old barbeque stand owner in Louisville, Kentucky was shot and killed by police officers involved with National Guards on Sunday night. According to an initial investigation, the local law enforcement authorities did not activate their body cameras during the incident. Louisville has seen its fourth night of protests following the death of two members of the black community under police custody-George Floyd, who died from asphyxia after a police officer pinned him by the neck, and Breonna Taylor, who was killed in her home by an officer who was looking for someone else. Shot and Killed According to reports, the authorities were sent to break up a large crowd that had gathered at a parking lot next to the barbecue business owned by the victim, David McAtee. The troops were reportedly shot at, forcing them to return fire at around 12:15 AM local time. Only McAtee was hit. Sources say the crowd in the parking lot were not engaged in protest. The victim's sister claimed McAtee and others meet in the area weekly for food and music. McAtee's body was left at the scene until Monday afternoon while police conducted a forensic investigation. Louisville Metro Police Chief Steve Conrad said it was unclear whether the victim was the person who shot at authorities. The department released few details about the incident. They also declined to indicate whether multiple officers opened fire. Conrad was fired following an initial probe where it was discovered two police officers involved in the fatal shooting had their body cameras turned off. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear ordered the state police to conduct an independent investigation on the incident. Remembering David McAtee David McAtee was well-known as the owner of a popular West End eatery, Yaya's BBQ. His mother described him as a community pillar who never hurt others. "He left a great legend behind. He was a good person. Everybody around him would say that," she said. The victim was once featured in a February interview for a photoblog by Walt and Marshae Smith. During the interview, he revealed he had always dreamed of setting up a brick-and-mortar restaurant at 26th and Broadway. The chef, who had been cooking for nearly three decades, was often seen participating in community events in the area's nine neighborhoods. Greg Cotton, a Middletown resident, said McAtee had been volunteering to help with Californian Day for almost 15 years. "He was one of the ones who would donate all his time and all his food; everybody could just come up and take it and he wouldn't charge because it was for the neighborhood." The chef was also known to go around and offer free food to law enforcement officers and those in need. Councilwoman Jessica Green called the chef a staple in the community who was always friendly towards other people. Odessa Riley, McAtee's mother, remembers his son as a cook, even when he was still growing up. "It's alright to lose a mother or father. You get hurt by that, too. But when a mother loses her child, a piece of you goes along with that child," she said. Read more here: Today is the 2020 Pennsylvania Primary Election, a day when we devote this space to a reminder to vote. The responsibility of citizens in a democracy is sacred and should be exercised even in foul weather and even in a primary election where there may be few choices on the ballot. Voting matters, and twice a year, we urge readers to stand up and be counted by going to the polls and voting. This year, that passionate reminder comes with some reservation, tempered by counties working to combat a pandemic, businesses trying to restore a shattered economy, and the nations cities erupting in a tinderbox of racial protests. This year is the pandemic primary, fraught with nervous poll workers, closed polling places, mail-in ballot snafus and political sparring. Montgomery County Commissioner and Board of Elections Chairman Kenneth Lawrence called it a perfect storm. This is the first election in which Pennsylvania voters could request an absentee ballot without an excuse, a change in law that was a beneficial coincidence during the states stay-at-home orders which are just starting to be lifted. The primary today was scheduled for April 28 but postponed due to coronavirus concerns and state Department of Health restrictions on gatherings. As of Friday, Montgomery County had already received more than 70,000 ballots. But a voter services error in the county that sent out 1,984 incorrect ballots left some voters in the lurch without enough time to receive and return a ballot by the 8 p.m. deadline tonight. The Montgomery County Board of Elections met Monday to add several drop-off spots for the ballots so that voters could get them in today. Drop-off sites were added in Chester County as well. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and the same rules apply that anyone in line by 8 p.m. will be permitted to cast a vote. Polling places have been changed in many precincts throughout the region because places where they were held may be closed due to the coronavirus. On the ballot are candidates for president, delegates to the nominating conventions and several contests for legislative and congressional races, as well as the state auditor general. This election comes at a time of protests and violence. Fires, looting and police confrontations were widespread during the weekend in reaction to the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis police custody while a white officer knelt on his neck, a video showed. The officer has been charged with murder. In our towns, leaders in Lansdale and Norristown issued calls for peaceful efforts to establish trust between police and people of color. In Pottstown, a large protest was held outside borough hall with police taking a knee alongside the protesters. In Reading, about 500 people of varying ages and racial and ethnic makeup marched through town in a show of unity. Were hurt, were angry, were sad, were unheard, said march organizer Kiya Towles in Reading, but it is a beautiful thing because we are all here in unity. As we strive to beat back the coronavirus and reopen the economy, we must first accept dealing with these racial tensions that we have brought upon ourselves through years of prejudice and unequal treatment of people of color. While we exercise today the opportunity to vote and participate in the worlds greatest democracy, lets also start this long overdue process of working toward equality. We urge local police and community leaders to lead the way in speaking out, admitting and owning responsibility for the thoughts and actions that further inequality. We can start by talking to our children, our community leaders, and our neighbors, and also going outside our neighborhoods and leaving our comfort zones for honest dialogue with those whose experiences are different from our own. No one should be unheard. We have ahead of us a tall climb from how far our society has fallen in racial mistrust and inequality. We must strive in our towns to come together in ways that resist violence and foster trust. Be a part of the peace and not the chaos, said Kiya Towles. Thats a path to the future we endorse and urge everyone to embrace. LONDON, June 2 (Reuters) - The United Kingdom warned China on Tuesday not to cross the Rubicon over Hong Kong, saying the People's Republic should step back and adhere to its international obligations over the former British colony. "The ball is in the court of the government in China, it has a choice to make here," British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told parliament. "It can cross the Rubicon and violate the autonomy and the rights of the people of Hong Kong or it can step back, understand the widespread concern of the international community and live up to its responsibilities as a leading member of the international community. "We don't seek to prevent China's rise, far from it, we welcome China as a leading member of the international community and we look to engage with China on everything from trade to climate change," Raab said. (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton; editing by Michael Holden) CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A large law enforcement presence surrounded Clevelands First District police station Tuesday ahead of a protest of the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd and police brutality and misconduct. A demonstration is planned for 3 p.m. outside the police station on West 130th Street near West Avenue. Organizers advertised the event on social media as a peaceful protest, and said it will run until 5 p.m. Police also blocked traffic in the area ahead of the protest. Here is live video from the protest by cleveland.coms Hannah Drown: Rally for Black Lives protest at Cleveland Police First District headquarters. Hannah Drown shows the scene. Leave your thoughts, messages in the comments. Posted by cleveland.com on Tuesday, June 2, 2020 The protest is the first within the city of Cleveland since a Saturday demonstration that began peacefully at the Free Stamp devolved into rioting in the downtown area. Demonstrators and Cleveland police officers clashed outside the Justice Center before law enforcement used pepper-spray and flash-bangs to try to disperse the crowd. Agitators then set fire to police cruisers, vandalized storefronts and looted businesses in downtown Cleveland. Other protests held in Northeast Ohio since then have been peaceful. Marches held Sunday in Lorain and Monday in Painesville and East Cleveland remained non-violent. Saturdays riot in Cleveland left businesses on edge, and the city of Cleveland issued a civil emergency proclamation establishing a curfew in the downtown area and Ohio City. The city has extended its curfew through Wednesday morning and set overnight curfews through Friday morning. East Cleveland also set a curfew overnight Monday in advance of the planned protest there. Floyd died on Memorial Day after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin restrained him by holding a knee on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes. Three other Minneapolis police officer stood by and did not intervene as Floyd died. A medical examiner ruled Floyds death a homicide on Monday. The Minneapolis Police Department fired each of the four officers involved; Chauvin has been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Floyds death, in addition to the recent killings of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky and Ahmaud Arbery in south Georgia, has ignited protests in cities across the U.S. over the past week. While many protests have been peaceful, others have escalated into law enforcement using tear gas, rubber bullets, flash-bangs and other aggressive tactics toward protesters and journalists, and violent agitators vandalizing major cities and looting businesses. UNH Space Science Center offers out of this world experience DURHAM, N.H.--Scientists from the University of New Hampshire's Space Science Center will use a $4.6 million grant from NASA to create a project that will offer a diverse group of college students from across the country hands-on research experience designing and building small satellites that will be launched into outer space and collect data for one of NASA's space missions. The Student Collaboration Project, led by Noe Lugaz, a research associate professor of physics, aims to work in conjunction with NASA's Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission and build off of the collected data to provide firsthand research experience for undergraduate and graduate students and help to diversify the field of space science. "We're missing out on so much potential with great people out there," said Lugaz. "Most science projects are publicly funded, and we want to expand access to college students who are qualified and have a passion for science to get involved, no matter what their major. We are hoping to inspire them, even if it's just for one year. We think we can really start to make a difference." Project coordinators will recruit the first group of students from three universities--UNH, Howard University in Washington, D.C. and Sonoma State University in California. During the five-year project, students from each university will design and build a CubeSat--a small satellite the size of a half-gallon of milk--that will have an instrument that can quantify the concentration of oxygen in the Earth's upper atmosphere and provide scientists with clues about the effects of the solar wind. This is the region where many satellites are located and knowing more about the atmosphere's density could help determine their orbit and lifetime. "The students from each university have a variety of strengths and experiences that will allow them all to learn from one another," said Lugaz. "They're not just doing this on their own, they'll be collaborating and interacting with each other via online learning tools and technology so they can talk to one another and learn together." The student built CubeSats will launch in 2024 separately from the main IMAP mission but at the same time in order to collect complementary data. The CubeSats will be in space for about four months and will be located much closer to the Earth than the other IMAP instruments. UNH was chosen as the lead because of its strong space physics program and its history of students developing payloads for numerous rocket science missions. Other UNH SSC scientists involved include Marc Lessard, professor of physics, and Jason Legere, research engineer, who will provide mentoring and Sonya Smith, a UNH project manager, will provide support. ### The University of New Hampshire inspires innovation and transforms lives in our state, nation and world. More than 16,000 students from all 50 states and 71 countries engage with an award-winning faculty in top-ranked programs in business, engineering, law, health and human services, liberal arts and the sciences across more than 200 programs of study. As one of the nation's highest-performing research universities, UNH partners with NASA, NOAA, NSF and NIH, and receives more than $110 million in competitive external funding every year to further explore and define the frontiers of land, sea and space. This story has been published on: 2020-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Essentially, the current rally lacks the momentum to continue as bullish traders await the next catalyst to drive gold prices higher. Gold futures are trading flat shortly before the regular session opening on Tuesday as hopes for a gradual recovery of the global economy amid the easing of lockdowns capped gains, while deteriorating U.S.-China relations and protests in the United States, which spurred fears of coronavirus spreading, underpinned prices. Essentially, the current rally lacks the momentum to continue as bullish traders await the next catalyst to drive it higher. National Australia Bank economist John Sharma put it this way, It appears that there are factors both supporting, and limiting appreciation in the gold price. At 10:48 GMT, August Comex gold is trading $1749.30, down $1.00 or -0.06%. Simmering US-China Tensions The U.S. is likely to revoke Hong Kongs special status, and China would retaliate by limiting purchase of U.S. products putting the China-U.S. trade deal in doubt, and providing support for gold. Some Optimism about Economies Gradually Reopening In a sign that the worst of the economic downturn from the coronavirus pandemic might be over, U.S. manufacturing activity crawled up slightly from an 11-year low, and Chinas factory activity unexpectedly returned to growth- in May, CNBC reported. Turmoil in the United States Some traders said that bullion was supported by fears that the demonstrations over the death of an African American in police custody could worsen the spread of the coronavirus, and hamper the worlds biggest economys recovery, said Reuters. U.S. President Donald Trump stated he would deploy the military, if required. Buyers Supporting SPDR Gold Trust Reflecting investor sentiment, SPDR Gold Trust, the worlds largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings rose 0.5% to 1,128.40 tonnes on Monday, the highest in seven years. Daily Forecast With gold prices holding steady even with the U.S. Dollar on the defensive, we have to conclude that demand for risk is probably the main reason prices are being capped. Were going to key on that factor over the short-run. Basically, were going to have to see a meaningful stock market correction to rev up the short-term bulls. Longer-term, the possibility of more fiscal and monetary stimulus means higher prices are still a possibility. In this case, investors should watch the coronavirus numbers because a second wave of the virus will likely slow down the recovery process. DA-62 was on a calibration mission at Dubai International when it crashed having suffered wake turbulance. PICTURE (C) Dubai Media Office Analysis by the UAEs regulator, the GCAA, showed the Flight Calibration Services DA62, which had been conducting approaches to runway 30L, had been 90 seconds behind a Thai Airways International Airbus A350-900 descending to the parallel 30R. Vortices from the A350's left and right wing drifted with the crosswind at about 4.5m/s and respectively reached the 30L approach path after 74 seconds and 87 seconds, GCAA said The analysis calculates that the vortices decayed to about 81% of their initial circulation strength at the point they reached the DA62 at 1,300ft altitude. The aircraft lost height, rolled and then dived steeply into the ground. None of the four on board survived the impact. The preliminary report confirmed that wake vortex was the likely cause of the accident. There had already been ten approaches by the DA62 with the captain having discretion to self-separate horizontally. Two A380s and four Boeing 777s were among the aircraft followed by the DA62, which trailed them by just 5-6nm compared with the Dubai standard of 9nm for the 777 and 11nm for the A380. The captain had previously informed that Dubai air navigation service that he was experienced with calibration flights at the airport and was "content to be tighter" than normal wake separation. Investigators said that other company pilots described him as safety conscious and they sometimes consulted him on flight operational issues. "The investigation carefully considered possible causes for the captain's misjudgment which led him to generally reduce the separation from other air traffic, but could not determine his reasoning," GCAA said. According to Flightglobals analysis of the accident report, during the 10th approach the aircraft was 200ft below and 3.7nm behind the A350-900 - compared with the 6nm separation standard for ICAO and 9nm standard for Dubai - when it was struck by the wake vortex. Airbus analysis using ICAO separation said the vortex would have been 35-49% of its maximum strength at the point of the DA62 encounter, the report said. TRAVERSE CITY, MI The U.S. Coast Guard rescued a man who spent more than 2 hours the frigid waters of Lake Huron. Coastguardsman stationed in Traverse City were launched over the weekend on a report of a kayaker who was stranded on the shore of Georgian Bay in Canada, according to an announcement by U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City. They used a helicopter to reach the location, and lowered a basket to raise the man up to the aircraft. After falling off his kayak, the man spent over 2 hours in the water before reaching shore. He was suffering from hypothermia. Thankfully, the survivor had been wearing a life jacket and a wetsuit, which likely saved his life, the announcement said. The man was with two friends who also fell into the water, but they quickly made it to shore and built a fire. This case is a great reminder to dress for the temperature of the water, not the air temperature, the announcement said. And always wear a life jacket; it can save your life! READ MORE: Where to watch F-16 training in skies above Camp Grayling Huron-Manistee National Forest begins reopening recreation sites, campgrounds From hair salons to gyms, experts rank 36 activities by coronavirus risk level A Maoist commander, carrying a reward of Rs 8 lakh on his head and being allegedly involved in Dharbha Valley attack in 2013, was gunned down in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarhs Dantewada district on Tuesday. Police said that the Maoist, Dashru Punem, was working as section commander of Military Company Number -2 of CPI (Maoist). He was involved in about a dozen cases of Maoist violence including Dharbha valley attack in 2013. According to Dantewada Superintendent of Police Abhishek Pallav, the encounter took place in a forest between Hurrepal and Bechapal hills in the wee hours of Tuesday. A joint team of District Reserve Guard (DRG) and the Special Task Force was out on an anti-Naxal operation. After a brief encounter, the Maoist fled from the spot. Later, we recovered a body of a Maoist in a uniform who was identified as Punem, said the SP. Also read: Chhattisgarh sees record intake of labourers under MGNREGS in last two months The SP further said that Punem was carrying Rs 8 lakh reward on his head and was involved in about 14 cases of Maoist violence in different districts of Bastar. As per the press release issued by the Dantewada Police, Punem was involved in Maoist attack and violence in Bijapur, Dantewada and Sukma district. He was also involved in Dharbha valley attack in which 27 people including Congress leaders were killed, said the SP. First participants treated at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine with intravenous RLF-100 Clinical trial to enroll 144 patients total with expansion to additional sites including the University of California, Irvine and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia RLF-100 is a patented formulation of Aviptadil (synthetic human Vasoactive Intestinal Polypeptide VIP), which binds to alveolar type2 cells in the lungs inhibiting pro-inflammatory cytokines. Type 2 cells are essential to oxygen exchange and are selectively targeted by the SARS-CoV-2 virus RELIEF THERAPEUTICS Holding AG (SIX:RLF) (Relief) and its U.S. partner, NeuroRx, Inc. today announced treatment of the first patients with RLF-100 at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Fla. This is part of a Phase 2b/3 clinical trial to assess RLF-100 as a treatment for Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) in COVID-19 patients on mechanical ventilation. RLF-100 is a patented formulation of Aviptadil, a synthetic human vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP), that targets alveolar type 2 cells in the lungs that could be the major target of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. VIP is known from numerous animal models of lung injury and lung disease to inhibit inflammatory cytokines and to protect pulmonary epithelial cells that line the air sacs (alveolae) of the lungs. "ARDS is the primary cause of COVID-19 related deaths triggered by acute inflammation in the air sacs (alveolae) of the lungs. As a result, they fill with fluid rendering them unable to deliver oxygen to the body. There is an urgent need for a treatment that can specifically protect type 2 alveolar cells and suppress excessive inflammation," said Dushyantha T Jayaweera M.D., principal study investigator at the University of Miami. "We are pleased to be the first site to treat patients with RLF-100, it reflects our commitment to advancing clinical research on COVID-19 to provide critically ill patients the best care and improve their chances of survival." Jonathan Javitt, M.D., MPH, CEO of NeuroRx, added, "RLF-100 previously showed promising phase 1 results in ARDS related to sepsis and promising phase 2 results in the treatment of other inflammatory lung conditions. Aviptadil specifically binds to the cells in the lung that are essential to transmitting oxygen to the body and to making surfactant that is essential to oxygen exchange (the Alveolar Type II cells). These are the same cells that are targeted and killed by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Fifty years of research into the biology of VIP suggests that it may protect the vulnerable cells in the lungs while inhibiting the inflammatory cytokines that contribute to disease progression, without impairing the immune response necessary to clear the infection." The multicenter randomized placebo-controlled trial aims to enroll 120 patients with COVID-19 who have Acute Respiratory Distress and require intensive care with mechanical ventilation. Patients will be randomized to intravenous (IV) RLF-100 plus maximal intensive care or placebo plus maximal intensive care. The primary endpoints will be mortality and index of respiratory distress. The secondary endpoint will include levels of TNFa and multi-system organ failure free days. For more details on the clinical trial, go to the government's website: www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04311697). Relief Therapeutics and NeuroRx are engaging clinical trials authorities in the European Union, the United Kingdom, Russia, and Australia in order to broaden the clinical study and increase access to RLF-100. About VIP in Lung Injury Vasoactive Intestinal Polypeptide (VIP) was first discovered by the late Dr. Sami Said in 1970. Although first identified in the intestinal tract, VIP is now known to be produced throughout the body and to be primarily concentrated in the lungs. VIP has been shown in more than 100 peer-reviewed studies to have potent anti-inflammatory/anti-cytokine activity in animal models of respiratory distress, acute lung injury, and inflammation. VIP has a 20-year history of safe use in humans in multiple human trials for sarcoidosis, pulmonary fibrosis, asthma/allergy, and pulmonary hypertension. COVID-19-related death is primarily caused by Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). The trigger for ARDS is widely attributed to a cytokine storm in the lungs, in which the virus causes release of inflammatory molecules called cytokines. As a result, the air sacs (alveolae) of the lungs fill with water and become impermeable to oxygen, even in the setting of mechanical ventilation. Before this acute phase, however, there is evidence of early viral infection of the alveolar type 2 cells. These cells are known to have angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors at high levels, which serve as the route of entry for the SARS-CoV-2 into the cells. Although not yet shown for COVID-19, the coronavirus that causes SARS (SARS-CoV) is shown to replicate in alveolar type 2 cells, but not in the more numerous type 1 cells. 2 These same type 2 alveolar cells have high concentrations of VIP receptors on their cell surfaces giving rise to the hypothesis that VIP could specifically protect these cells from injury. Injury to the type 2 alveolar cells is an increasingly plausible mechanism of COVID-19 disease progression. These specialized cells replenish the more common type 1 cells that line the lungs. More importantly, type 2 cells manufacture surfactant that coats the lung and are essential for oxygen exchange. Patients with early COVID-19 lung injury commonly describe "crackling sounds" in their lungs, combined with extreme shortness of breath. No currently proposed treatments for COVID-19 specifically target these vulnerable type 2 cells. About RELIEF THERAPEUTICS Holding AG The Relief group of companies focus primarily on clinical-stage projects based on molecules of natural origin (peptides and proteins) with a history of clinical testing and use in human patients or a strong scientific rationale. Currently, Relief is concentrating its efforts on developing new treatments for respiratory disease indications. About NeuroRx, Inc. NeuroRx draws upon more than 100 years of collective drug development experience and is led by former senior executives of Johnson Johnson, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca, PPD. In addition to its work on RLF-100, NeuroRx has been awarded Breakthrough Therapy Designation and a Special Protocol Agreement to develop NRX-101 for the treatment of suicidal bipolar depression and is currently in Phase 3 trials. Its Board of Directors and Advisors includes Hon. Sherry Glied, former Assistant Secretary, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services; Mr. Chaim Hurvitz, former President of the Teva International Group, Lt. Gen. HR McMaster, the 23rd National Security Advisor, Wayne Pines, former Associate Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Judge Abraham Sofaer, and Daniel Troy, former Chief Counsel, U.S. Food and Drug Administration. About RLF-100 RLF-100 (Aviptadil) is a patented formulation of Vasoactive Intestinal Polypeptide (VIP) that was developed based on Dr. Said's original work and was originally approved for human trials by the FDA in 2001 and the European Medicines Ageny in 2005. VIP is known to be highly concentrated in the lungs and to inhibit a variety of inflammatory cytokines. Relief's predecessor company, Mondo Biotech, was awarded Orphan Drug Designation in 2001 by the U.S. FDA for Aviptadil in the treatment of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome and in 2005 for treatment of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension. Mondo was awarded Orphan Drug Designation by the European Medicines Agency in 2006 for the treatment of acute lung injury and in 2007 for the treatment of sarcoidosis. Both the U.S. FDA and the EMEA have granted Investigational New Drug licenses for human trials of Aviptadil. RELIEF THERAPEUTICS Holding AG is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the symbol RLF. Disclaimer: This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning RELIEF THERAPEUTICS Holding AG, NeuroRx, Inc. and their businesses. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of RELIEF THERAPEUTICS Holding AG and/or NeuroRx, Inc. to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forwardlooking statements. RELIEF THERAPEUTICS Holding AG is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. 1Mason R. Pathogenesis of COVID-19 from a cell biologic perspective. Eur Respir J. April 9 Epub ahead of print. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7144260/ 2 Moseel EC, Wang J, Jeffers S, et. al. SARS-CoV replicates in primary human alveolar type II cell cultures but not in type 1-like cells. Virology 2008;372(1):127-135 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18022664/ View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200601005788/en/ Contacts: CORPORATE CONTACTS Jonathan C. Javitt, M.D., MPH CEO NeuroRx, Inc. ceo@neurorxpharma.com Yves Sagot, Ph.D. Chief Scientist Relief Therapeutics Holding, SA yves.sagot@relieftherapeutics.com MEDIA CONTACT Gloria Gasaatura LifeSci Communications ggasaatura@lifescicomms.com 646-970-4688 A comic book called El Pesos Hero by Hector Gonzalez Rodriguez III is about a superhero who defends people from various evil forces such as corrupt individuals. Furthermore, the literary masterpiece focuses on a superhero saving people from drug cartels. Also, the comic book tells the story of a superhero who also combats human traffickers, according to an article. Many of his heroic acts involve the US-Mexican border which for many years had played a significant role in the history of Mexico and the immigrants who crossed the borders to live in the United States. The New Heroes In the latest edition of El Peso Hero, the comics bring the spotlight of heroism to those who are working in the frontlines and supporting every household amid the dangers of an unseen enemy, the novel coronavirus. Aside from the extraordinary efforts, medical professionals had to go through to take care of COVID-19 patient, other professionals continue to offer their services to the public even if their health is put at risk due to a possible infection. These workers include farmers, of which many are Latinos working in the United States, restaurant staff, workers in the food industry, and delivery personnel. These are some of the workers who sometimes get unrecognized for the efforts they put to keep the economy going and help supply the basic needs of the public. The comic book emphasizes these people's contribution to the country amid the coronavirus pandemic. Who is El Peso Hero? His inspiration for his heroic acts is his family. He was a kid when he accidentally acquired his powers such as super strength and unbreakable skin. With his newfound gifts, he was able to find a way to use them and help the community. As the crime rates and violence grow in his community, he was able to help by beating the bad guys. However, El Peso does not only offer protection to one side of the US-Mexican border, he equally protects those who are on both sides, according to an article. Check these out: The Author of El Peso Hero His interest in comic books was influenced by his father when he was a child. He grew up in Texas, according to an article. He was raised in a town near the US-Mexican border. He made El Peso Hero while he was working full-time as a 1st-grade teacher. He was raised in a community where a significant number of Hispanic individuals lived. It means that he had a clearer view of how a Hispanic community living which may have helped him get inspiration for the stories he included in his comic books. Aside from being the mind behind El Peso Hero, he is also the founder of an independent publisher of comic books. The company is called Rio Bravo Comics, according to an article. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 11:25:04|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Job seekers are seen at a job fair held at Jianghan University in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, June 1, 2020. The first offline job fair for graduates after the coronavirus outbreak kicked off in Wuhan on Monday. Over 80 enterprises participated in the job fair. (Xinhua/Cheng Min) WUHAN, June 2 (Xinhua) -- An offline job fair for college graduates in Wuhan, the Chinese city once hardest-hit by the novel coronavirus, was held at Jianghan University on Monday. This was the first on-site job fair for college students held in Wuhan since the outbreak of the epidemic, as the number of new graduates reached new levels this year. With 83 colleges and universities, Wuhan will see 317,000 fresh graduates this year, up 9.3 percent from 2019, said Xiong Jun, director of Wuhan Municipal Talent Service Center. Wuhan will also hold another eight job fairs for recent university graduates, covering fields such as the modern service industry and financial industry. The city has taken a variety of measures to attract graduates to primary-level jobs, including increasing jobs in communities, as well as positions as civil servants. Enditem For high school seniors such as Yesenia Rodriguez, the final year of high school has not turned out the way as expected. The coronavirus pandemic led to the disruption of a traditional school year and the cancellation of several senior year traditions, leaving many high school seniors disappointed and wondering about what could have been. On Sunday afternoon, a drive-by parade was held in honor of graduating seniors in the Solana Ridge subdivision in southwest San Antonio. I enjoyed every moment of it and honestly, it was a day to remember and yes, I got emotional, said Rodriguez, a graduating senior at Southwest High School. It was emotional because this (coronavirus) pandemic is going around and we understand we got to be six feet apart, but at least we got to have fun doing something that weve never done before. Rodriguez was one of approximately 100 seniors and their families in the parade who were cheered by residents and parents along the parade route which followed Sol Trace, the main thoroughfare in the subdivision, and wound its way through every neighborhood in the subdivision. The San Antonio Police Department provided an escort for the parade. The parade was organized by Ruby Herrera, a member of the Solana Ridge Homeowners Association Board of Directors and chairwoman of the HOA social committee. It was awesome having all the community gather together, Herrera said. You see all the residents outside and supporting all these seniors. It turned out really good. Herrera said she wanted to do something memorable for the seniors who havent been able to participate in events that would have marked their final year in high school, including prom and field trips. I felt bad for the seniors because I feel they should be acknowledged for all their hard work that theyve done all year long, Herrera said. This is for the seniors. So, Im hoping they enjoy themselves, just to make it memorable for them. Most of the seniors who participated in the parade attended Southwest High School. The parade also had seniors from several other high schools including Southwest Legacy, Harlandale, and Brooks Academy of Science and Engineering. Several of the seniors in the parade were from other neighborhoods and subdivisions. During the parade, Solana Ridge residents were allowed to come up to the vehicles and put snack, beverage and other items in empty laundry baskets provided to the seniors before the start of the parade. Amanda Lopez was one of the subdivisions residents who filled the seniors baskets as they drove by her home. Yelling Go seniors! Lopez enthusiastically gave a variety of snack items, from popcorn to Pop-Tarts, to the grateful seniors. After the parade, the seniors and their parents met at the subdivision community park, where a flatscreen TV and DVD player was raffled off to a senior. Two gift cards to area restaurants were given to the senior with the best decorated vehicle in the parade. In addition, gift baskets were given to 45 seniors from Solana Ridge that were put together by subdivision residents. The baskets contained each of the seniors favorite goodies and snacks, which the residents gathered from a list provided to them before the day of the parade. THE DEVIANTS WAR The Homosexual vs. the United States of America By Eric Cervini If the L.G.B.T.Q. movement had saints, a Jewish homosexual atheist scientist named Franklin Kameny would have an exalted place in the pantheon. Most people believe the 1969 Stonewall riots gave birth to militant gay politics. But for almost a decade before Stonewall, Kameny boldly challenged the reigning orthodoxy that homosexuality was a mental illness and led an audacious campaign against the federal governments ban on employing gay workers. Brilliant, fearless, cantankerous and unstoppable, he was lionized in his old age by a movement that by the Obama era had achieved victories not even he could have anticipated. In Eric Cervini, a young historian of L.G.B.T.Q. politics and the author of the exhaustively researched and vividly written biography The Deviants War, Kameny has found his hagiographer. Born into a middle-class family in Queens in 1925, Kameny showed his smarts and determination early on. When he was 4, he taught himself to read and decided to become a scientist. By 6 he had set his sights on astronomy, and as a teenager he set up a telescope at home to study the stars. After seeing combat in World War II, he earned a Ph.D. from Harvard, taught astronomy for a year at Georgetown, then put his training to work for the Army Map Service. His credentials and drive seemed to promise a rewarding career when the United States began scrambling to catch up after the Soviet Union put Sputnik in orbit. His ambition, though, soon collided with government policies, enacted in the 1940s and early 1950s, that prohibited homosexuals from working for the government or many private employers with a federal contract. The ban was only one element of a larger system that began to be put in place in the 1930s to exclude homosexuals from full citizenship and membership in the community; it included censorship rules preventing Hollywood films from featuring queer characters, and liquor regulations preventing bars, restaurants or cabarets in many states from employing or serving homosexuals. Most worrisome to gay men were the threat of being arrested by the police, who kept gay bars and hookup spots under surveillance, and the F.B.I.s growing capacity to funnel arrest records to federal agencies conducting employee security checks. The devastated mother of a 21-year-old who died suddenly in her sleep has spoken of her heartache after losing her daughter and says she wishes it was her who had 'never woken up'. Demi-Lea Dawson, died at her home in Prenton, Wirral, on Tuesday 19 May after she had returned home from her part-time job at a fish and chip shop and said goodnight to her parents. The final year University of Liverpool student did not feel ill before she went upstairs, but was found by her mother Tracey Nolan, 39, who went into her room to check on Demi the following morning. Tributes have poured in for the student who has left behind her heartbroken family and friends, including her mother Tracey, father Ken Dawson, 40, brother Harry, 13, grandmother Franny Nolan, uncle James Dawson and best friend Codie. Posting a tribute online, Tracey said: 'I wish it was me who never woke up. There is no god or he wouldn't of taken my baby girl away from me. She had her whole life ahead of her. I'm broken why, why.' Demi-Lea Dawson, 21, died in her sleep at her home in Prenton, Wirral, on Tuesday 19 May after she had returned home from her part-time job at a fish and chip shop Demi-Lea, who was in her final year studying sociology and criminology at the University of Liverpool, loved to dance and do gymnastics in her spare time. Demi was diagnosed with epilepsy three years ago but she had not suffered from a seizure for the last 18 months. The cause of her death is not yet known and an investigation is currently being carried out, the Liverpool Echo reported. She was born with a disfigurement to her face, meaning one eye was slightly lower than the other. Tributes have poured in for the student who has left behind her heartbroken family including her mother Tracey, father Ken Dawson, 40, brother Harry, 13 (pictured) Her uncle James revealed: 'When she got older and became a young woman she wanted it altering because she didn't like the way it looked. 'She had two operations to correct it in the last six months at Aintree Hospital. 'They finally got it right during the second operation and she was happy with how it looked but she wasn't able to show it off. 'She said after the operation in December that "2020 is going to be my year".' Earlier this year in February, Demi-Lea was taken to Florida by her family to celebrate her 21st birthday. James said: 'Her mum and dad and Harry took her to Florida for her 21st. She always wanted to go to America and she loved Walt Disney so they went to Disneyland while they were over there. The sociology and criminology student (pictured) spoke of how 2020 was going to be her year following an operation in December 2019 'They're so glad as a family that they got to share that with her.' James added: 'It's hard to lose someone at anytime but to lose our baby in the middle of this Covid pandemic is even harder.' In a message shared on social media, Ms Nolan told of her heartache at losing her daughter who 'had her whole life ahead of her.' Amy Marsh said: 'Heartbreaking. Demi was a few years below me in our high school, she seemed like a lovely girl. 'Rest In Peace, my thoughts are with your family & friends. X' Nicola Gorman added: 'So heartbreaking thinking of Tracey and all her family at this awful time. Shine bright Demi-Lea like the star you was.' Jackie Wallace said: 'This is absolutely heartbreaking. Thinking of this beautiful young woman's family. RIP Demi-Lea.' WHAT IS EPILEPSY? Epilepsy is a condition that affects the brain and leaves patients at risk of seizures. Around one in 100 people in the UK have epilepsy, Epilepsy Action statistics reveal. And in the US, 1.2 per cent of the population have the condition, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Anyone can have a seizure, which does not automatically mean they have epilepsy. Usually more than one episode is required before a diagnosis. Seizures occur when there is a sudden burst of electrical activity in the brain, which causes a disruption to the way it works. Some seizures cause people to remain alert and aware of their surroundings, while others make people lose consciousness. Some also make patients experience unusual sensations, feelings or movement, or go stiff and fall to the floor where they jerk. Epilepsy can be brought on at any age by a stroke, brain infection, head injury or problems at birth that lead to lack of oxygen. But in more than half of cases, a cause is never found. Anti-epileptic drugs do not cure the condition but help to stop or reduce seizures. If these do not work, brain surgery can be effective. Source: Epilepsy Action Advertisement 'So sorry for the loss of your beautiful daughter, RIP fly high in the sky angel,' Lois Birchall said. Anne P Owens wrote: 'How sad, with deepest sympathy to the family, a beautiful girl x may she rest in peace. x' Speaking on behalf of Tracey and the family, James revealed: 'Life is never going to be the same for any of us. She was loving, caring and kind. 'She had such a great sense of humour, she loved to wind you up and she was so quick-witted. He added: 'There are no words to describe how much she will be missed. She was a popular girl, she had a lot of friends. They are all heartbroken too.' Demi-Lea, who was in her final year studying sociology and criminology at the University of Liverpool, loved to dance and do gymnastics in her spare time The day before the funeral, Demi-Lea will be brought home on June 16, to spend one last night with her family. James added: 'We can't thank people who live on our estate enough for what they've done. When I came over a few days ago people we've never even spoken to were out pulling weeds out and cleaning the street ready for her coming home. 'Around 5,000 has been raised by the community and people that knew her, it's absolutely amazing. 'Demi-Lea's dad works as a post man for Royal Mail and they've donated 2,500 towards the funeral. Kelly the manager has been amazing. 'We're going to tie ribbons, balloons and flowers in the street and give her the send off she deserves. 'Only 25 family members are allowed in the chapel but the cemetery is big enough for more family members to be able to social distance.' The funeral will be held at 12pm on June 17 at North Chapel and Landican Cemetery and Crematorium in Wirral, with the cars leaving Demi-Lea's home in Prenton at 11.15am on the day. Sajin Shrijith By Express News Service A few months back, we had reported that after Kumbalangi Nights, writer Syam Pushkaran and producer Dileesh Pothan will be collaborating once again with actor Fahadh Faasil for a project titled Thankam, to be helmed by Saheed Arafath. Initially, the names of Fahadh, Joju George and Dileesh Pothan were announced along with the title poster. Now we learn that Aparna Balamurali will be once again sharing the screen with Fahadh after Maheshinte Prathikaram. Aparna plays one of the significant characters in the film aside from that of Fahadh, Joju, and Dileesh, says a source close to the Thankam team. The team had initially announced that the shoot was expected to begin by December last year. However, things didnt exactly pan out the way they wanted to. They were then looking at a May start when the Covid-19 pandemic forced them to reconsider. As of now, there is no clarity on the shoot plan as the script has Coimbatore and Mumbai as principal locations. As for the possibility of filming in alternate locations, the source tells us, Thats going to be a little difficult as the story happens mostly in these two locations and it will be a major challenge to tweak the script at this point. The team thinks its best not to make any immediate decisions now given how unpredictable the situation is. Syam and Dileesh are shepherding the project under their Working Class Hero banner in association with Fahadhs home banner Fahadh Faasil and Friends. Saheed had told us earlier that the film will be a crime drama and is different from Syams previous scripts. Besides Thankam, Fahadhs upcoming projects include a film of debutant Akhil Sathyan which he was slated to join when the pandemic hit. Akhil is the brother of Varane Avashyamund director Anoop Sathyan.Fahadh recently completed filming Mahesh Narayanans second directorial feature Malik, which is slated for a theatrical release. Meanwhile, Dileesh is set to return from Africa after shooting for Djibouti, in which he has a starring role. An employee of the Woodbridge Township Police Department has resigned after he was suspended for posting a racist comment on social media. Marc Repace, who worked as a dispatcher, submitted his resignation Monday after the Facebook exchange came to light. He was immediately suspended once we identified the post as coming from him, John Hagerty, Woodbridge Township spokesman, told NJ Advance Media. He said Repace resigned after an official review of the Facebook messages. In the messages, Repace comments on a photo taken Friday of a child at a Boston protest of police brutality and racial injustice. The protest was one of many that have taken place across the country following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Floyd, a black man, was killed as police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyds neck. In a video of the encounter, Floyd said multiple times that he could not breathe. The police dispatchers comments can be seen in screenshots of a Facebook exchange between Repace and an anonymous Woodbridge resident that have since been deleted but circulated by other locals. In the exchange, Repace reacts to the photo of the 8-year-old boy. In the photo, the boy, who is black, holds a sign that says, At what age do I go from handsome to a threat? 17 give or take a year or two, Repace said in his reply to the photo. LMFAO totally kidding. You are absolutely disgusting, the anonymous resident replied. You were in the military and now you work for the Woodbridge Police Department you fit the stereotype. I honestly dont understand how you can be making jokes at a time like this when the country is completely divided. Marc Repace, a dispatcher for Woodbridge Township Police, was suspended after residents began sharing screenshots of his recent Facebook messages. Repace commented on a photo of a boy at a Boston protest of police brutality. Screenshots: Facebook/anonymous; original protest photo: Nick Emmons | WBZ-TV The police department acknowledged Repaces comment Sunday in a Facebook post. The Woodbridge Police Department is saddened and dismayed by a recent social media post attributed to one of its civilian employees, the statement said. Immediate action has been taken to discipline the employee. The Woodbridge Police Department does not condone this type of behavior from any of its personnel and is dedicated to the fair and impartial administration of justice for every member of our community. The photo of the boy was taken on Bostons South End by Nick Emmons, an anchor for WBZ-TV, who tweeted the image the same day. On Sunday, Bernice King, daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and CEO of The King Center, included the photo in a tweet. It pains me that the answer to his question is that racist minds, racist systems and racist America consider him born a threat, King said of the boy. Protests following the death of Floyd have come to local areas including Newark, Trenton, Atlantic City, Camden and Asbury Park. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription. Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com or send a coronavirus tip here. Change: Open-plan offices are likely to fall out of favour LEASES for a third of the office space agreed in the first quarter have fallen through or been placed on hold since lockdown, according to a survey of the Dublin office market. Savills Ireland said of the Q1 agreements on new leases for 88,448sqm of office space, some 15,460sqm had fallen through, with 13,730sqm postponed indefinitely "pending greater certainty on the impact of Covid-19". "Inevitably, progress has slowed on many other transactions," the Savills report said. It found only six lease deals have concluded since the onset of lockdown, including software firm Guidewire's take-up of 7,900sqm of space in Blanchardstown. The property firm said that, in the longer term, landlords and tenants alike faced many challenges to make offices pandemic-resistant. It said decades of industry effort to make offices more open and collaborative may need to be reversed back to a world of cubicles - if only to make office workers feel safer in a post-Covid environment. "The long-term impact of Covid-19 remains to be seen and current sensitivities could pass once a medical solution becomes available," said Andrew Cunningham, director of offices at Savills Ireland. But, if not, Savills identifies multi-let buildings as particularly problematic, with new regimes required for receptions, lobbies, lifts and toilets. "We are likely to see an increased focus on 'easy clean' fit-outs with design features, surface materials and technologies that facilitate sanitation. "In post-Covid China, lifts in some office buildings are currently allowed to run only at 50pc capacity," it said. "To facilitate contact tracing, lift operation is likely to move towards an access-control model." This could mean firms with large offices seeking their own dedicated lifts, while the demand for lower-floor offices will probably rise as firms seek to reduce dependence on lifts. Hot-desking and other practices designed to allow multiple workers to use the same space will give way to dedicated space for each worker. While some new Dublin buildings pre-crisis were being developed on the basis work space would average as little as 5sqm a person, Savills said occupiers may need to redraw floor plans to increase average space per employee above the current Dublin average of 10.3sqm of room. If the search for a vaccine proves prolonged, ventilation systems may be overhauled. The most common design today, pipe fan coil, allows air to circulate between floors. While there is no proof that air filtration provides any effective safeguard against virus transmission, Savills said, some office blocks may invest in more expensive systems which manage air quality floor by floor. The biggest change of all may be turning offices back into a maze of walls. "In a reversal of trends over the last 20 years, there may be less emphasis on open, deep-plan and densely occupied floors that had offered long sight lines to promote collaboration," Savills said. Back in fashion would be "cellularisation of office spaces and semi-private team collaboration spaces". These would be designed to limit "untraceable mixing". There isnt an election office in this country that doesnt know how many ballots theyve mailed out, how many theyve gotten back in, and who they were sent to, said Tammy Patrick, a former election official with Maricopa County, Ariz., and now a senior adviser to the bipartisan foundation Democracy Fund. It is absolutely not the case that someone could create a multitude of ballots and in some way infuse them or inject them into the system without detection. Prasanta Mazumdar By Express News Service GUWAHATI: You can call it a hospital in your pocket. From facilitating a doctors appointment to live-tracking it and finally, buying medicines, one can do all these on this mobile app. Quickobook, the health tech startup, has already connected 2.3 lakh patients in Assams Barak Valley and Tripura with doctors. The man who came out with this technological solution is Biswajit Paul. The 28-year-old from Silchar in Barak Valley claimed it is Indias only software, which can live-track the status of appointment with doctors. He said the apps importance increased during these times of COVID-19 pandemic when people are required to maintain social distancing norms. He said around 1,200 doctors were using the technology. Paul told The New Indian Express that the app could be downloaded from Google Play Store to avail of the service. Doctors as well as people will have to download the app to avail of its benefits. First, it helps a patient to get an appointment fixed with a doctor. The patient will be given a serial number for an appointment. Then, by sitting at home or wherever, he or she can track the status of it. He or she can schedule his or her visit to the doctors chamber accordingly. This helps avoid crowding, Paul explained. Along with this, he came up with data analytics work where every doctor is provided with a panel to archive the history of patients. It forms a pattern and helps doctors to predict the probability of upcoming diseases of the patients. Paul said once he had come up with these solutions, he had hit upon the idea of the distribution of medicines to patients. We have a warehouse of medicines and the cash-on-delivery system as in the case of any e-commerce company. People can place orders from the app. The consignment will be delivered at their doorsteps, Paul further explained. He is a commerce graduate and has a degree in MBA. After working for about a year and a half in Tata handling finance, he had launched the startup in 2016. A year later, his friend Jewel Sen joined him. The software is my brainchild. It was developed by Dream Web Services, a local IT firm, and Keendroid, which is a Delhi-based IT company. We have given employment to 23 youth, including women, and we work as a team, Paul said. His Quickobook is a registered startup company under the Centres Make in India programme. It is incubated in IIM-Calcutta, IIT-Guwahati, Assam Start Up Nest, Nasscom, KIIT University, Bengal Chamber of Commerce and NIT Silchar. It already received seed funding grants of Rs 50 lakh from the Assam government under My Assam Startup ID. Nacogdoches, TX (75965) Today Some clouds in the morning will give way to mainly sunny skies for the afternoon. High 48F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Clear skies. Low 21F. Winds light and variable. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 23:59:59|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close RIGA, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Latvia will continue to assist the European Union's (EU) Eastern Partnership countries (the EU members plus Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) in their efforts to cope with the COVID-19 crisis and supports the EU's joint efforts to provide a global response to the related challenges, the Baltic country's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday in a report to the government. The ministry drafted the report in preparation for a videoconference of EU ministers in charge of development cooperation, scheduled for June 8. Latvia also calls for continued support to the partner countries' ongoing reforms and sustainable development, taking into account the persisting challenges like security and stability risks, as well as the effects of climate change. Enditem Police are hunting thieves who have stolen 67 six-week-old piglets from a farm in the New Forest. The piglets were stolen from the farm at Damerham in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, between May 20 and May 28, and have the reference HB0789 tattooed on them. A Hampshire Constabulary spokesman said: 'The piglets were being kept in their family groups, which is important for pigs as they are social animals. The 67 six-week-old piglets were stolen from the farm at Damerham in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, between May 20 and May 28, and have the reference HB0789 tattooed on them 'Moving them to a different location could expose them to dangerous bugs and cause unnecessary stress which may lead to premature death. 'The farmer who owns the piglets is understandably extremely concerned for their welfare and we want to hear from anyone who can assist with our inquiries.' Detectives said their Countrywatch team is investigating and asked people if they had noticed any new piglets at a smallholding or similar location recently. In response to concerns on Facebook that the theft was not noticed for eight days, the force said that the piglets were 'being kept as part of a much larger group'. Police confirmed to MailOnline that the piglots were part of a larger group of around 200 pigs, and that they are Landrace-Duroc-Hampshire breed. Damerham is a village near Fordinbridge in Hampshire of about 500 people on the River Allen It is believed that they would likely be being fattened up at a small holding somewhere to then be sold on, but officers are investigating all possibilities. On May 26, a post on the Damerham local residents' Facebook page said: 'There have sadly been reports of burglaries and suspicious activity... in recent days. 'Please take care to lock belongings away and block open gateways to land. Stay safe.' Damerham is a village of about 500 people on the River Allen, located ten miles south of Salisbury with an average house value of 630,000. Anyone with information can call 101 quoting 44200190321, call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or email countrywatch@hampshire.pnn.police.uk New AI-based test uses X-rays to detect Covid in a few minutes Mask not required for children below 5: Govt issues revised Covid guidelines Hospitalisations in Delhi during third Covid wave significantly lower than second PM SVANidhi launched to benefit over 50 lakh street vendors amid COVID-19 crisis India oi-Briti Roy Barman New Delhi, June 02: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 01 launched a new scheme Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor's Atmanirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) Scheme to provide financial help for to street vendors for their businesses. Through the PM SVANidhi scheme, the street vendors can get a loan of Rs 10,000 to restart their businesses. PM Modi assures India Inc that growth will be back, stresses self-reliance | Oneindia News Centre launches micro-credit scheme to provide loans to street vendors This is a special micro-credit facility scheme to provide affordable loans to street vendors to resume works and livelihoods amid COVID-19 crisis. Features of the PM SVANidhi scheme The scheme to benefit over 50 lakh street vendors. Can avail working capital loan of up to Rs 10,000 repayable in monthly instalments in tenure of one year. To restart their livelihoods affected due to Covid-19. On timely/early repayment of the loan, an interest subsidy of 7 per cent pa will be credited to beneficiaries through DBT on 6 monthly basis. Monthly cashback incentive on digital transactions receipt/payment. Mobile App and Web Portal Based Application Process. No Collateral Security Required for Loan. The loaning will commence in the month of July. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, June 2, 2020, 14:41 [IST] [June 02, 2020] NWN Named a Top Solution Provider on CRN's 2020 SP500 List WALTHAM, Mass., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- NWN Corporation, a leading technology-enabled service provider focused on transforming the customer experience, announced today that CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, has named the company to its 2020 Solution Provider 500 list. Each year, CRN releases its list of top 500 solution providers, a ranking of the leading IT channel partner organizations across North America by revenue. CRN's Solution Provider 500 list serves as the industry's benchmark for recognizing the top-performing technology integrators, strategic service providers and IT consultants and as a valuable resource for technology vendors looking to partner with top solution providers. NWN once again ranked inside the top 100 on the list, at #80. Over the past year, NWN has delivered its solution-as-a-service platform to power more than 1300 leading organizations with integrated Unified Communications, Contact Center, Endpoints, Security and Connectivity solutions that transform employee and customer experiences. Named a top 20 UCaaS provider by Frost & Sullivan, NWN's team utilized its expertise in cloud, sofware and services to launch new Remote Worker and First Responder bundles to support customers as they transition to a distributed work posture during the COVID19 pandemic. To continue to deliver innovation for customers, the company has recently welcomed new key hires across multiple regions, including: Kevin Basden Contact Center Offering Lead Contact Center Offering Lead Kerry Cox Named Account Executive Texas Named Account Executive Cari Fisher Named Account Executive -- California Named Account Executive -- John McLeod Technical Advanced Technology Solutions Offering Lead Jim Sullivan, NWN's President and Chief Executive Officer, said, "During these unprecedented times, I'm extremely proud of the NWN team's focus and dedication to supporting our customers and each other. We're fortunate to deliver essential services for our many state and local government, education, and enterprise customers that positively impact the everyday lives of their employees and end-users. Thanks to CRN for again recognizing NWN's innovation and progress against our strategic platform vision." "CRN's Solution Provider 500 list showcases the top IT channel partner organizations across North America," said Bob Skelley, CEO of The Channel Company. "This year, companies on this list represent a combined revenue of $393 billion, a data point that underscores the impact and influence these solution providers have on the IT industry. On behalf of The Channel Company, I'd like to congratulate these companies for their outstanding contributions to the growth and success of our industry." CRN's complete 2020 Solution Provider 500 list is available online at www.CRN.com/SP500 and a sample from the list will be featured in the June issue of CRN Magazine. About NWN: NWN Corporation, headquartered outside Boston, is an established leader in technology-enabled services that support remote work and transform customer and employee experiences for commercial, enterprise and public sector organizations through its solution-as-a-service platform. With 1,300 customers throughout the U.S., NWN provides a unified customer experience with the NWN Experience Management Platform and integrated offerings for unified communications, security, contact center, DaaS (device-as-a-service), connectivity and advanced technology solutions. To learn more about NWN's solutions and offerings, visit www.nwnit.com. Media Contact: Carissa Ryan, CTP for NWN [email protected] About The Channel Company The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequalled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelcompany.com Follow The Channel Company: Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook Copyright 2020. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved. The Channel Company Contact: Jennifer Hogan The Channel Company [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nwn-named-a-top-solution-provider-on-crns-2020-sp500-list-301069360.html SOURCE NWN Corporation [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine Osnat Lubrani calls for urgent action to systematize vetting and approval of exceptions for civilians to cross the contact line in Donbas. In eastern Ukraine, the closure of all entry-exit crossing points since late March has meant that hundreds of people who are potentially facing such exceptional situations have been unable to systematically be heard or assisted, reads the statement of UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine Osnat Lubrani. In general, the UN acknowledges Ukraines efforts to implement some exemptions to allow individuals to cross the contact line for a number of exceptional reasons. The UN Coordinator considers that the introduction of clear and well-defined criteria is critical to serve those with legitimate reasons to be granted an exception to cross the contact line. Lubrani underscores that the number of Ukrainian citizens desperate to cross the entry-exit checkpoints on the contact line with the occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions is already high and continues to grow daily. I urge all relevant actors to introduce a transparent and effective vetting mechanism to consider such cases and to facilitate and expedite crossing permissions on emergency grounds while COVID-19-related restrictions remain in place, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine emphasizes. On March 22, the entry-exit crossing points on the contact line in Donbas were temporarily closed due to coronavirus quarantine. The points could be fully operational no earlier than June 22. ol More important, explicit limits should be placed on the use of lethal force, including bans on chokeholds and other tactics that restrict oxygen or blood flow to the head or neck. Protocols should be established for the very few occasions when force may be deployed. And alternatives to armed police interventions should be used when possible, particularly in confrontations involving mental illness. Such measures have been modeled successfully in some police departments around the country. Laredo City Council on Monday unanimously approved the appointments for two assistant city managers from within Laredos administration: City Attorney Kristina Hale and Utilities Director Riazul Mia. Council touted these appointments, calling this city management team the strongest and most diverse in the citys history. With Rosario Cabello as deputy city manager, this makes the city managers office half female. Mia is originally from Bangladesh, but he has lived in Laredo half his life. It has been 2 1/2 years since Laredo has had assistant city managers, and 1 1/2 years since the city management team has been more than two people. Even as the city budget has been under significant strained during the COVID-19 pandemic, City Manager Robert Eads has maintained that filling these appointments is necessary to take the city to the next level. Sixty-eight people applied for the position, 37 of whom were qualified, Eads said. The city interviewed 11 applicants; six were local. The applicants were interviewed by Eads, Cabello, Airport Director Jeffrey Miller, Human Resources Director Melina Bermudez and Hale. Hale herself was interviewed by only Eads and Cabello, according to a city spokesperson. Hale has demonstrated leadership at the city by representing them in major legal issues and will be an even bigger asset in the city managers office, Eads said. And Mia is someone who is always true to his word and is an innovator, the city manager said. Councilman Marte Martinez said that this year will be a really challenging one for the city, and this team may be the only hope the city has. Mr. Eads, this is your team, no political pressure, no nothing, Martinez said. Eads suggested that Hale stay on as acting city attorney while they search for her permanent replacement. Mia will be overseeing the building, engineering, environmental services, parks and recreation, planning and zoning, public works, traffic and utilities departments. Hale will oversee the airport, animal control, bridge, community development, fleet, health, library, solid waste and transit departments, plus Sames Auto Arena. Riazul Mia Mia grew up in Bangladesh and received a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 1988. He graduated from Louisiana State University with a Master of Science in civil and environmental engineering in 1996 and obtained a Master of Public Administration from Texas A&M International University in 2003. Furthermore, he completed the Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program at Harvard Universitys J.F.K. School of Government in 2006. He became director of the Environmental Services Department in May 2001 and has been in his current role of utilities director since July 2015. Since that time, he led the efforts for the Chacon Creek Restoration Project and the River Vega Master Plan: two projects that protect local natural resources while allowing for better flow and drainage of Laredos watershed system while allowing residents another opportunity to enjoy nature, the City of Laredo noted. Mia is a members of several professional organizations including the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Texas City Manager Association, the Texas Floodplain Management Association and the Texas Water Utilities Association, among others. Kristina K. Laurel Hale Kristina Hale is a native Laredoan. She earned a Bachelor of Science from St. Marys University in 1994. She studied law at Texas Southern University School of Law and became a licensed attorney in 1997. Hale has devoted her legal career to the practice of government law, having served as an assistant attorney general in the Laredo Child Support Division, assistant district attorney and assistant Webb County attorney before joining the City of Laredo as an assistant city attorney in 2007. She was named interim city attorney in December 2016 and appointed city attorney December 2017, the first woman to hold the position. Throughout her tenure with the city, Hale has served as legal counsel to all city departments, boards and commissions of the city, served as the attorney for the Ethics Ad Hoc Committee, helped to draft the initial Ethics Code of Conduct, and subsequently was appointed to serve as the citys ethics compliance officer. Julia Wallace may be reached at 956-728-2543 or jwallace@lmtonline.com The public has been advised not to book any holidays for the foreseeable future by the Secretary-General of the Department of Health. Jim Breslin appeared before the Oireachtas Covid Committee today and said that all non-essential travel, including booking holidays, both at home and abroad is not advisable. "The position at the moment is there should be no non-essential travel overseas, that'll be kept under review," Mr Breslin said. "We will advise the government but I won't make that decision, nor will it be made only on public health grounds. It's important that people hear that they do not undertake non-essential travel, including booking or entering financial arrangements by booking. "There's a risk and if you can avoid it you should, at the moment if it's non-essential you don't undertake it." Mr Breslin added that the situation is fluid and the continuation of mandatory isolation for travellers entering Ireland will need other input from departments and remain under review. Testing at airports has been dismissed on the grounds that the test may not give an accurate reading depending on how advanced the virus is within the person being tested, and could give a false negative due to how long it takes to become symptomatic. "If we go back to where we were, if we get to community transmission really low in the country, we can circulate again and get the economy back," he said. "If during that process you start importing cases from travel from overseas, you can restart cases and it will lead to a wave, it's a trade-off and carries a certain level of risk. "There is a point down the road where we will have sufficient knowledge of community transmission in other countries and may be able to have reciprocal arrangments." Mr Breslin believes there will be an unwillingness of the public to travel as normal again, due to anxiety about spreading the virus. He said: "EU authorities are working with airlines for those who have to travel, and national authorities are making an assessment in terms of public health strategy and moving through phases. "That may involve different arrangements for different countries. Mr Breslin suggested there may be reciprocal travel arrangments later in the summer to countries who have low levels of transmission. He added that there is a case for lifting restrictions earlier if the virus continues to decrease. Likewise, Niall Burgess from the Department of Foreign Affairs said that Irish people should avoid all non-essential travel. "As the situation evolves in other countries and our public health advice evolves, travel advice will too. "I don't want to speculate where that might take us, we've worked closely with the Department of Health and CMO in giving advice on public health risks of travelling overseas." Renewvia minigrid servicing the Oloibiri Community Renewvia Energy is thrilled to partner with All On to bring reliable, clean energy to communities who need it most, said Trey Jarrard, CEO, Renewvia Energy Corporation. We have connected hundreds of households in Akipelai and Oloibiri to our minigrids, and we expect to see measurable economic ben Renewvia Energy Corporation, a global solar developer, and All On, a Nigerian off-grid impact investor, today announced a partnership to electrify rural communities unserved by conventional utilities in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The agreement includes a commitment of $1.2 million from All On to enable Renewvia to develop and operate solar minigrids to bring clean energy, and ultimately spur economic development in the region. The first two minigrids have been commissioned and are operating in the villages of Akipelai and Oloibiri, to support the surrounding communities. Renewvias minigrid in Oloibiri will power the new Oloibiri Health for Life Medical Center (H4LC) and Knowledge Management Institute, one of the hub health facilities funded by the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) under the flagship Oloibiri Health Program. The program is a local government-wide health system strengthening partnership with the Bayelsa State government. It will provide reliable, consistent power, at a reasonable cost, to enable frontline healthcare workers to provide affordable, accessible and quality assured health care to Ogbia communities. Renewvia Energy is thrilled to partner with All On to bring reliable, clean energy to communities who need it most, said Trey Jarrard, CEO, Renewvia Energy Corporation. We have connected hundreds of households in Akipelai and Oloibiri to our minigrids, and we expect to see measurable economic benefits for these communities in the near future. The solar minigrids in Akipelai and Oloibiri utilize lithium ion battery storage to provide reliable power throughout non daylight hours and are designed to scale as individual and communal power demand increases, without any financial burden to the community. These minigrids will immediately help over 400 households and multiple small- and medium-businesses scale activities and drive community-level economic growth. We are happy to announce this partnership in line with our mission to increase off grid energy access to unserved and underserved communities in Nigeria with a focus on the Niger Delta, said All On CEO, Wiebe Boer. We are particularly pleased that one of the first minigrid projects under this partnership is supporting health care providers during this time of crisis. About Renewvia Energy Corporation Renewvia Energy Corporation is a top 500 Global Solar Developer headquartered in the Atlanta, Ga. It designs, installs, owns and operates commercial and community solar power systems across three continents and provides a complete range of solar energy solutions including turnkey solar installation, integrated financing and solar consulting services. To learn more, visit: http://www.Renewvia.com. About All On All On, an independent impact investing company, was seeded with funding from Shell, and works with partners to increase access to commercial energy products and services for unserved and underserved off-grid energy markets in Nigeria, with a special focus on the Niger Delta. All On invests in off-grid energy solutions spanning solar, wind, hydro, biomass and gas technologies deployed by both foreign and local access-to-energy companies that complement available grid power across Nigeria and help bridge the significant energy gap. To learn more, visit http://www.all-on.com Media Inquiries Renewvia Energy Laura Kline Email: laura@renewvia.com All On Adaobi Oniwinde Email: All-On-Communications@all-on.com Europe is so awash with natural gas amid weak demand and limited storage capacity that gas suppliers may have to cut flows to prevent natural gas prices from plunging further. Demand for natural gas is still very weak as major economies in Europe are emerging from lockdowns while gas in storage across the continent is at a record high for this time of the year. The natural gas glut has depressed the prices at key European hubs such as the Dutch TTF benchmark. Prices didnt move much even after the biggest gas exporter to the continent, Gazprom, saw its flows on a key pipeline fall to zero last week. The flow of natural gas from Russia to Europe via the Yamal-Europe pipeline crossing Poland completely stopped early last week after a two-and-a-half-decade-old transit deal between Russia and Poland expired and after the COVID-19 pandemic battered gas demand in Europe. Poland has aligned its legislation with the energy regulations of the European Union (EU) and Polish operator Gaz-System began offering capacity bookings on the Polish section of the Yamal-Europe pipeline in accordance with EU regulations, including for Russias gas giant Gazprom. But the capacity bookings for the first days following the expiration of the gas transit deal showed little appetite for gas in Europe, according to analysts. Related: Worlds Top Solar Panel Producer Opens New Mega Factory Natural gas demand is very weak and low prices are signaling supply must be cut, Trevor Sikorski, an Energy Aspects gas analyst, told Bloomberg. According to the analyst, another major natural gas supplier to Europe, Norway, could delay some production from the Troll and Oseberg fields due to the weak prices. For liquefied natural gas (LNG), U.S. exports are currently unprofitable because the natural gas prices in Europe are lower than the prices of the U.S. Henry Hub benchmark, analysts told Bloomberg. Although Europes total gas demand is down in comparison to last year, reductions in domestically produced gas and Russian pipeline imports have created more room for LNG to be absorbed. However, the single largest fundamental difference from 2019 is Europes vast gas inventories, which currently sit at record seasonal highs and will reduce the continents ability to absorb global surplus LNG in Q3 2020, Wood Mackenzie said in a note on Tuesday. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Epoch Inspired staff cover stories of hope that celebrate kindness, traditions, and triumph of the human spirit, offering valuable insights into life, culture, family and community, and nature. A new study by University of Alberta geologists is proposing a new model for explaining the eruption of diamond-bearing kimberlites in Northern Alberta. The research demonstrates that 90 to 70 million years ago, the movement of an ancient slab of oceanic rocks buried hundreds of kilometres beneath Earth's surface caused the eruption of diamond-bearing kimberlite in Northern Alberta. "We are able to provide a new theory about why we have diamond-bearing kimberlites in Northern Alberta, which has been a source of debate for decades," explained Yunfeng Chen, who conducted this research as part of his graduate studies with Jeffrey Gu, professor in the Department of Physics. "Our work is based on geological, paleomagnetic, and seismic data from our collaborators both at the University of Alberta and around the world." The model enables scientists to match the seismic structures with the time and location of kimberlite eruptions in the area, explaining how these diamonds came to Earth's surface in the Late Cretaceous period--and providing key insight for those on the hunt for other deposits in the region. "The kimberlites in Northern Alberta were discovered in relatively young parts of Earth's crust--an unconventional setting for diamond-bearing kimberlites," added Chen. "This distant location relative to other major kimberlite groups in North America plus the large variability of compositions further highlight the complex nature of the origins of kimberlite." The multidisciplinary study combines the work of geophysical imaging, geochronological dating, and plate motion calculation. "What we have observed in Northern Alberta is similar to Hawaii," said Gu. "In both scenarios, a relatively stationary mantle heat source essentially burned through the migrating plates above it, leaving 'scars' on the Earth's surface. Diamonds were carried to the surface through this 'upwelling' process." A key difference is that the generation of the mantle upwelling in Northern Alberta took place no deeper than 700 kilometres below surface, whereas the ongoing Hawaii 'plume' appears to have occurred much deeper, at approximately 2,900 kilometres under Earth's surface. ### This study also involves researchers from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Curtin University, and National Taiwan University. This work was supported by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and Future Energy Systems (FES) at the University of Alberta. The paper, "Reconciling seismic structures and Late Cretaceous kimberlite magmatism in northern Alberta, Canada" was published in Geology (doi: https://doi.org Hong Kong protesters are arrested by riot police during a rally against China's national security law at Mongkok district in Hong Kong on May 27, 2020. (Billy H.C. Kwok/Getty Images) US Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Sanction Officials Who Violate Hong Kongs Autonomy Two House representatives, Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) and Ted Yoho (R-Fla.), introduced new legislation aimed to defend Hong Kongs autonomy on June 1. I commend our Senate counterparts for moving quickly to address Beijings unilateral move to impose a new national security law after years of unsuccessful attempts to use the local Hong Kong legislature to pass other anti-democracy measures, said Sherman in a press release. The bill, named the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, is the House version of a Senate bill (S.3798) introduced by Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) on May 21. It proposes authorizing sanctions on foreign individuals who are on an annual list of people found to be involved in subverting Hong Kongs autonomy. The two senators introduced the bill after Chinas rubber-stamp legislature, National Peoples Congress (NPC), proposed a national security law for Hong Kong earlier that same day. NPC adopted the laws draft resolution on May 28 after a ceremonial vote. The security law would ban activities the Chinese regime considers related to secession, subversion, terrorism, and foreign interference. Beijings security agencies would also be allowed to set up operations in Hong Kong. The NPCs standing committee will draft details of the law before it is added to Annex III of Hong Kongs mini-constitution, the Basic Law. The House bill proposes that a list of people violating Hong Kongs autonomy be economically sanctioned. If those individuals are identified as repeat offenders, the U.S. State Department would be authorized to seize property and ban them from entering the United States. The State Department would also identify foreign banks that have done significant transactions with Chinese officials found to be undermining Hong Kongs autonomy, to be subjected to a range of financial sanctions that the president can choose from, according to the press release. If these banks are identified again a second time, they would face sanctions such as the denial of access to loans from U.S. financial institutions and the prohibition of dealing in U.S. government debt. Congress must act to support the residents of Hong Kong, and uphold the key obligations that China made to Hong Kong in the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law, Sherman said. Yoho criticized the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for its complete disregard of the SinoBritish Joint Declaration, which outlined Hong Kongs future upon its transfer of sovereignty to China from Britain in 1997 and guaranteed a high degree of autonomy. By destroying any sense of autonomy in Hong Kong, the CCP has admitted to the world that one country, two systems does not work, and it will resort to underhanded tactics and the use of force in getting what they want, Yoho said. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the American Enterprise Institute on May 29 that Washington was considering allowing people from Hong Kong to seek refuge in the United States following Beijings law. He didnt provide details for the plan, such as immigration quotas or visas. UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab said on June 2 that if China follows through with the Hong Kong law, the UK would allow British national overseas passport holders to come to the UK and extend their stay indefinitely, thereby also providing a pathway to citizenship. Hongkongers born before the territory reverted to Chinese rule in 1997 have such passports. The Hong Kong government issued a press release on June 2, saying that a group of local top officials, including Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, Secretary of Justice Teresa Cheng, and Secretary of Security John Lee, will leave for the Chinese city of Shenzhen that evening. The government didnt provide details about their schedule in Shenzhen. Lam will then travel to Beijing on June 3, when Beijing will listen to Mrs. Lams views on the national security law. She is expected to return to Hong Kong in the morning of the following day. At the time of writing, its not known whom Lam will meet while holding talks about the security law. AnTuTu issued its monthly ranking of the best-performing smartphones and for the first time, there are three devices that cross the 600,000 threshold. The mightiest phone, according to the Chinese benchmark, is the Oppo Find X2 Pro, with an average score of 604,123, followed by its non-Pro sibling, while the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro sits at third. Interestingly enough, all Top 10 devices are powered by a Snapdragon 865 chipset - Kirin 990 5G and Exynos 990 are nowhere to be seen. The Top 10 is overwhelmed by BBK Electronics brands - only the Mi 10 Pro and the Redmi K30 Pro are not from the vast portfolio of the Chinese conglomerate. The midrange battlefield is a bit more diverse - Oppo is once again on top and the only one with a phone scoring north of 400,000, thanks to the vanilla Reno3 5G and its Dimensity 1000L chipset. It is followed by a quintet of Huawei and Honor phones, just to have the streak broken by the Reno3 Pro 5G. One interesting takeaway from the midrange chart is the Kirin 985 and Kirin 820 are performing equally well in the AnTuTu test. Source (in Chinese) | Via Banks have lent more than 30billion to 745,000 businesses under emergency schemes but hundreds of thousands are still missing out. One in five companies which have applied for a lifeline loan under the Government's Bounce Back Loan Scheme, are still waiting for aid. Although 21.3billion has been lent by High Street banks under the scheme, to 699,354 firms, another 173,838 applications are yet to be approved. One in five companies which have applied for a lifeline loan under the Government's Bounce Back Loan Scheme, are still waiting for aid Bounce Back was set up as an alternative to the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), Under CBILS, the Government agreed to bear 80 per cent of any losses which lenders suffer. Chancellor Rishi Sunak drew up Bounce Back, for smaller firms, providing a 100 per cent Government guarantee on losses, to assure banks that they wouldn't be on the hook if borrowers fail to repay. But delays, errors and the volume of applications mean most banks have left many customers hanging for weeks. One HSBC customer, who runs a plumbing and drainage company, had to sell his van after waiting for more than four weeks for a loan. The lockdown meant he was not able to work, had no income, and was struggling to put food on the table. Ian Cass, at the Forum of Private Business, said the implementation of schemes had been 'shambolic'. He said: 'The Government was naive to believe banks could effectively deliver these loan schemes.' Some experts are worried thousands of firms will be unable to repay Government-backed loans, which would be a headache for the Treasury, as the taxpayer is guaranteeing 29.3billion worth of debt. Banking insiders have warned up to half of borrowers may never repay Bounce Back loans, and the Institute of Directors has called for more time for debts to be paid off. Gallatin County Sheriff Brian Gootkin said in a phone interview with Lee Newspapers on Monday that he had no thoughts to share on Floyd's death, but was confident in the department's hiring process to root out any problematic officers. "We spend a lot of time and effort hiring the right people," Gootkin said, adding that process includes a psychological test and training. "We're not changing anything." Bozeman Police Chief Steve Crawford on Monday decried not only Chauvin's actions but those of the three officers who stood by while Floyd was pinned down. "There is no justification for the actions of the now-former officer, nor for the failure of the other officers at the scene to intervene, that resulted in Mr. Floyds tragic death," Crawford said in an emailed statement to the Missoulian. "Our organization values the sanctity of human life and the importance of treating all persons with dignity and respect and this act was none of that." At a press conference on Monday, Yellowstone County Sheriff Mike Linder said Floyd's death "should not have happened" and acknowledged the public's right to protest was "encouraged." But Linder condemned the destruction that's ripped through major cities across the United States. Description GIS 02 June 2020: The Textile and Apparel manufacturing industry must be revamped, by taking advantage of intelligent networking, so as to move towards Industry 4.0. For instance, Robotics and 3-D printing must be an integral part of the industry so as to evolve with modern and advanced technologies. The Minister of Industrial Development, SMEs and Cooperatives, Mr Soomilduth Bholah, made this statement during a meeting held, today, with prominent exporters in the Textile and Apparel manufacturing industry, at the SME Mauritius Coromandel Branch Office, in Coromandel. The aim of this meeting was to adopt a collective and coordinated approach engaging all stakeholders to respond to the resulting threats and to identify new opportunities to reorient the sector for sustained development following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Minister Bholah highlighted that Mauritius exports some Rs 43 billion of products every year, out of which approximately Rs 22 billion account for Textile and Apparel manufacturing industry. This industry, he stated, employs around 31 000 persons but is now on its knees following the Covid-19 pandemic. However, some manufacturers are still receiving orders from the main markets, that is South Africa, United States of America and United Kingdom, despite the lack of visibility of the sector for the forthcoming months, he added. Furthermore, the Minister urged the exporters to reassure their clients that, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, all factories, employees and logistics are ready to relaunch the textile and apparel production. He also underlined that a Standing Committee for the manufacturing sector, comprising his Ministry, the Mauritius Export Association and the Economic Development Board, holds a meeting on a monthly basis to take stock of the situation and work on the recovery of the sector and suitable marketing strategies. Some exporters present for the meeting expressed their concerns with regards to the freight system due to the lack of flights over the past two months. They also informed the Minister that, despite the help received from Government through the Wage Assistance Scheme, they still have financial problems. Manufacturers also informed Minister Bholah that they have already sent their proposals to the Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Planning to be considered in Budget 2020/2021. A comprehensive review of existing evidence supports physical distancing of two metres or more to prevent person-to-person transmission of COVID-19, says an international team led by McMaster University and St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton. Face masks and eye protection decrease the risk of infection, too. The systematic review and meta-analysis was commissioned by the World Health Organization. The findings were published today in The Lancet. "Physical distancing likely results in a large reduction of COVID-19," said lead author Holger Schunemann, professor of the departments of health research methods, evidence, and impact, and medicine at McMaster. Schunemann is co-director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases, Research Methods and Recommendations. He also is director of Cochrane Canada and McMaster GRADE Centre. "Although the direct evidence is limited, the use of masks in the community provides protection, and possibly N95 or similar respirators worn by health-care workers suggest greater protection than other face masks," Schunemann said. "Availability and feasibility and other contextual factors will probably influence recommendations that organizations develop about their use. Eye protection may provide additional benefits." The systematic review was conducted by a large, international collaborative of researchers, front-line and specialist clinicians, epidemiologists, patients, public health and health policy experts of published and unpublished literature in any language. advertisement They sought direct evidence on COVID-19 and indirect evidence on related coronaviruses causative of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). The team used Cochrane methods and the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach which is used world-wide to assess the certainty of evidence. They identified no randomized control trials addressing the three coronaviruses but 44 relevant comparative studies in health-care and non-health-care (community) settings across 16 countries and six continents from inception to early May 2020. The authors noted more global, collaborative, well-conducted studies of different personal protective strategies are needed. For masks, large randomized trials are underway and are urgently needed. The scientific lead is Derek Chu, a clinician scientist in the departments of health research methods, evidence, and impact, and medicine at McMaster and an affiliate of the Research Institute of St. Joe's Hamilton. "There is an urgent need for all caregivers in health-care settings and non-health-care settings to have equitable access to these simple personal protective measures, which means scaling up production and consideration about repurposing manufacturing," said Chu. "However, although distancing, face masks, and eye protection were each highly protective, none made individuals totally impervious from infection and so, basic measures such as hand hygiene are also essential to curtail the current COVID-19 pandemic and future waves." The work was funded by the World Health Organization and involved close collaboration with the American University of Beirut, Lebanon and many international partners. U.S. Secretary of State says he is confident that the United Nations arms embargo against the Islamic Republic of Iran set to expire in October will be extended. Washington will push for the extension, and if failed, it will use its diplomatic muscle to prevent Irans arms trading, Mike Pompeo asserted on Monday, June 1. In an interview with researchers at a conservative think tank, American Enterprise Institute (AEI), on Monday, June 1, in Washington, Mike Pompeo reiterated that the United States has a much larger plan to change the Islamic Republic's behavior than the current sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic. Meanwhile, he disclosed that the US has put all its resources in place to deter Iranian aggression. "The most obvious thing that people see us do is the sanctions that we put in place, but the campaign is much greater than that. We've put resources in place to deter Iranian aggression on the ground. We've put diplomatic power behind uniting the world in a number of ways", Pompeo noted. Referring to Germany's recent decision to designate the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah as a terrorist entity, Pompeo insisted that it was Washington that persuaded Berlin to do so. "With respect to Iran's terrorism, we convinced the Germans just last month to designate Hezbollah. We're working with partners all around the world to continue to constrain Iran's capacity to ultimately get a nuclear weapon and to limit their capabilities on missiles and terrorism as well", Pompeo said, adding that President Donald Trump administration is hopeful to achieve an international consensus against the Islamic Republic. However, he immediately stressed, "We'd love to extend the prohibition on arms sales to Iran by agreement of all of the parties, all of the parties to the participants in [the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution] 2231. In the event that doesn't happen, we're going to use our diplomatic capability to prevent it from happening. It's too important." Based on the UNSCR 2231, the arms embargo against the clergy-dominated Iran ends on October 18, and Tehran will be allowed to buy and sell conventional arms. Should that happen, Pompeo believes Beijing and Moscow are set to sell arms and military equipment to Tehran. "They're lining up. The Chinese will be able to sell tanks to Iran. I'm confident looking to figure out how they can make money from that. We have a plan that we believe will successfully prevent that from happening", Secretary Pompeo promised. Furthermore, he repeated that Washington is hopeful to unite the world against the Islamic Republic. "We are hopeful that the United Kingdom and other parties to the JCPOA will recognize the threat from the expiration of the arms embargo that occurs just, goodness, a few months from now and themselves use their rights to make sure that doesn't happen," Pompeo said. In recent months, U.S. officials have repeatedly expressed concern over the lifting of UN arms embargoes on Iran, saying the United States would prevent this. One of the ways Washington is trying to make it possible to extend the arms embargo is through the "trigger mechanism" under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with five permanent members of the UNSC, China, France, Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, along with Germany. The JCPOA's trigger mechanism is devised to resolve disputes over the deal. The mechanism stipulates that if Iran does not fulfill its obligations, the other parties to the deal can return the case to the United Nations Security Council and resume sanctions against Tehran. However, Iran, China, and Russia argue that, since the United States has withdrawn from the JCPOA, it is no longer a member of the deal and could not activate the trigger mechanism. So far, the European Union (EU) has taken a similar stance, saying the United States dropped the JCPOA in May 2018, and it is no longer a party to it. At the same time, the Secretary of the powerful Supreme National Security Council of the Islamic Republic, Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani, warned that if Tehran's arms embargo by the UN Security Council is extended, Iran's nuclear deal with world powers (JCPOA or its Persian acronym Barjam) will "die for good". Rushan Abbas holds up a photo of her sister, Gulshan Abbas, in a photo posted to social media on Feb. 12, 2019. Gulshan Abbas, a Uyghur doctor from northwest Chinas Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) who went missing after her Washington-based sister spoke out against Beijings policies in the region, has been confirmed detained nearly two years after her disappearance. The retiree, who formerly worked at the Nurbagh Petroleum Hospital in the regional capital Urumqi, disappeared along with an aunt in September 2018days after her sister Rushan Abbas took part in a panel on China at the Hudson Institute in Washington exposing conditions in the XUARs network of internment camps, where up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities are believed to have been held since April 2017. Rushan Abbas has maintained that her sister and aunt were detained as part of what she said was a bid to silence her and stop her activism within the U.S., where she serves as director for the Campaign for Uyghurs exile group. In the 21 months since her disappearance, the U.S.-based family members of Gulshan Abbaswho include two other siblings and two daughtershave worked relentlessly to determine her whereabouts and why she may have been targeted by authorities. Calls to friends, relatives, and local authorities in the XUAR have yielded little information, as have several letters to the Chinese Embassy in Washington. RFAs Uyghur Service has spoken with several police officers in Urumqi who said they had no knowledge of Gulshan Abbas, as well as one who responded to questions about her by saying that he was restricted from commenting due to rules of confidentiality. These things are not within the scope of what we can discuss, the officer added. RFA also recently spoke with a staffer of the Nurbagh Petroleum Hospital who said Gulshan Abbas doesnt work here and that no employees had ever been detained in internment camps. But a Han Chinese employee of the hospitals ruling Communist Party Cadres Office confirmed to RFA that Gulshan Abbas had been detained, although she was unsure of why or where the retired doctor had been taken. We have studied and seen some of the archival materials and so forth about her, but I dont know exactly which department took her away, said the employee, speaking on condition of anonymity. The employee said her department had been notified about Gulshan Abbass detention in an announcement circulated by higher-level officials, but that she was unsure whether she had been placed in an internment camp. Vow to keep searching Gulshan Abbass daughter Ziba Murat, who has campaigned widely for her mother on social media, told RFA that she would not stop working to find her and get her released. The evening of Sept. 10, 2018 was the last time I spoke with my mom, but as of now we still havent gotten any clear information about her, she said. Murat expressed concern about her mothers health, noting that she has high blood pressure. What could [authorities] possibly give as the reason to lock up and detain such a physically weak person for 21 months? she asked. In the meantime, my younger sister had a baby. My mom doesnt even know. Its really difficult, but we cant give up. Im going to do everything I can until my mother is free. Rushan Abbas told RFA that the way her sister was targeted is typical of how XUAR authorities attempt to get Uyghur activists to stop their campaigns and to punish them. Six days after my talk, they kidnapped my sister as though they were banditsnot a government, but bandits, she said. All Uyghur activists living outside of China and working for the Uyghur cause are experiencing this sort of ransom-holding, this revenge-seeking. Its a widespread situation. But she warned that such measures would ultimately backfire and provide a record of Beijings policies of persecution in the region that will lead to a reckoning. In their attempts to exact their revenge on us, the Chinese government is handing us even more powerful truths and evidencean authentic, living testimonythat we can use to inspire the world to pay closer attention to our cause, she said. Reported by Shohret Hoshur for RFAs Uyghur Service. Translated by Elise Anderson. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. Cerberus Capital Management has agreed to sell control of community hospital group Steward Health Care back to the company, as first reported by the New York Times and confirmed by Axios. Why it matters: This would make Steward one of the country's largest physician-owned and operated companies. It also marks the end of a 10-year ownership period for Cerberus, which was most recently marked by threats to shutter a Pennsylvania hospital in March, despite the pandemic, if the facility didn't receive state bailout funds. While Israel might need a few more days or weeks beyond 1 July to finalise its plans to annex the West Bank, the policy remains unchanged A key figure in Israels Likud Party, a member of the governments security cabinet and minister of two cabinet portfolios, announced this week that Israels annexation of the West Bank might take a few more days or weeks beyond 1 July, till the mapping process is finalised. I know theyre working on the map, and that process could take some more time, he said. 1 July is the first day when the matter can be brought to the cabinet and the Knesset. It could possibly take a few more days or weeks, but generally I think the prime minister is very clear that he intends to advance this, Zeev Elkin, minister of higher education and water resources, was quoted as saying to Israels Army Radio. Elkin added that the overall situation shows that the mapping process will be completed sometime in July. Under the recent coalition government deal between Premier Benjamin Netanyahu and his political rival Benny Gantz, Israel declared that the annexation plan will be brought to the cabinet and the Knesset by 1 July. Netanyahu has continuously stressed his determination to move forward with this controversial plan. He recently noted that extending Israels sovereignty to its settlements and the Jordan Valley would take place after a joint committee between the Israelis and the Americans completes a map of the actual territory that will be annexed and the status of each part of it. This is the only reason for any delay. The overall policy remains unchanged. Israeli insistence on annexing the West Bank comes in light of US President Donald Trumps peace plan that was drafted by his administration. The plan recognises Jerusalem as Israels eternal and undivided capital. It also gives Israel absolute security control over the occupied Palestinian territories and a Palestinian capital in only East Jerusalems northern and eastern areas. For the Palestinians, they want a two-state solution on the basis of the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. Practically, Trump moved the US Embassy in Jerusalem, and stopped funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). The Palestinian Authority, so far, enjoys the support of the Arab League and the European Union. The latter has engaged in a war of words with Israel over its annexation plans, warning against the political and security implications. But the Israelis are not happy with the pro-Palestinian, European position. Even China stepped in to offer a similar vision. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi sent a letter to his Palestinian counterpart, Riad Malki, to stress deep concern about the unilateral plan to annex parts of the Palestinian territories. For China, Israels plan contravenes international law and relevant UN Security Council resolutions. Beijing called on Israel to avoid unilaterally annexing the West Bank to avoid an escalation in the conflict, calling on the United States to take a responsible position towards the history and long-term interests of the Palestinian and Israeli peoples. This week, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) publicly said that the annexation of the West Bank would negatively affect the peace process. Continued Israeli talk of annexing Palestinian lands must stop, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash tweeted. Any unilateral Israeli move will be a serious setback for the peace process, undermine Palestinian self-determination [and] constitute a rejection of the international [and] Arab consensus towards stability [and] peace, he added. *A version of this article appears in print in the 4 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Sensitive records of more than 7 million Indians were left exposed by a government website. The breach was discovered by an Israeli cybersecurity website. Sensitive data of more than 7 million BHIM app users have been compromised after a BHIM-related website was found exposed to the public, containing sensitive documents like Aadhaar cards, caste certificates and more, by an Israeli cybersecurity website called vpnMentor. Calling themselves a group of ethical hackers, they had reported the breach to the Indian authorities in April. The website, http://cscbhim.in/, now taken down, was reportedly storing data on an Amazon AWS server which was kept exposed to the internet. The breach was later plugged by CSC e-Governance Services that built the website on May 22nd, according to the blog post by the cybersecurity firm. Personal and financial records of 7 million BHIM app users left exposed The magnitude of the breach is extraordinary. The report claims everything from scans of Aadhaar cards, caste certificates, photos used as proof of residence, professional certificates, degrees, diplomas, screenshots taken within the app as proof of fund transfers, PAN cards, and more have been left exposed for any malicious hacker to find it. The breach also included the names, date of birth, age, gender, home address, religion, caste status, biometric details, fingerprint scans and ID numbers for government social security services. The corpus of the breached data indicates this is by far the most comprehensive leak of Indian data, one that can easily be used for identity theft. And there have been quite a few over the past few years. The report mentions that the breached website also contained data of minors with some records belonging to people under 18 years. Similarly, over 1 million CSV lists of individual app users and their UPI IDs were also left exposed. Furthermore, the breach contained an APK which could potentially give key access to all data, and the ability to start and stop the AWS servers at will by a malicious agent. NCPI denied the breach Digit.in independently reached out to NCPI to verify the breach. To which, the payments corporation that overlooks the online payments landscape in India, as well as the operations of the BHIM app, denied any compromise in their data. We would like to clarify that there has been no data compromise at BHIM App and request everyone to not fall prey to such speculations, the organisation said in a statement. NPCI follows a high level of security and an integrated approach to protect its infrastructure and continue to provide a robust payments ecosystem, the statement added. How did the data breach happen? The website was reportedly used in a campaign to sign up more users and merchants on the BHIM UPI app. The personal records dated as far back as February 2019 with the total size of the dump going up to 409GB. VpnMentor found an unsecured Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3 bucket housing the data. S3 buckets are a common way of storing data in the cloud but require the developer to designate security protocols to secure the data. The team was quickly able to identify who the data bucket belonged to. The cybersecurity firm was reportedly working on a huge web mapping project and using port scanning to examine particular IP blocks to test for weaknesses and vulnerabilities. This is when they discovered the unsecured AWS S3 Bucket. Data left exposed even after informing NCPI and CERT-In After investigating the breach, vpnMentor first reached out to the website developer CSC e-Governance, for which they did not receive a reply. After that, the group also contacted Indias Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) twice, and only after the second instance was the breach plugged. The website has now been taken down. The Taliban militant group on Tuesday rejected a UN report that alleged relations between the group and the al-Qaeda terrorist organisation, calling them baseless and bigoted. The Islamic Emirate strongly rejects the contents of this report, the Taliban said in a statement, using the name the group used in Afghanistan when they were in power. The UN reported that the Taliban has assured al-Qaeda their historical ties will remain, despite the militants commitment with the U.S. that it will break ties with all terrorist groups in return for the withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan. The Taliban regularly consulted with Al-Qaeda during negotiations with the United States and offered guarantees that it would honour their historical ties, the report said. The U.S. special envoy for Afghan peace, Zalmay Khalilzad, had on Monday said that the UN report covers the period until March 15, just two weeks after the U.S.-Taliban agreement was signed. Khalilzad added that the U.S. was monitoring Taliban compliance with the agreement. The militant group also reiterates that it is committed to the agreement signed with Washington. The Islamic Emirate, in accordance with the Doha agreement, will not allow anyone to use the soil of Afghanistan against anyone else or maintain training camps or use our soil to fundraise against others. According to the UN report, al-Qaedas senior leadership remains in Afghanistan. It estimates that between 400 and 600 al-Qaeda fighters are currently in the country. (dpa/NAN) New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs said Monday a full investigation is under way to find out how Peterborough Coun. Stephen Wright was allowed into the province earlier this month, past provincial border checkpoints meant to restrict non-essential travel in the COVID-19 pandemic. Wright told The Examiner on Friday he went to New Brunswick recently to see whether restaurants are attracting customers since reopenings are occurring sooner there than in Ontario. Higgs was asked by reporters in a news conference in New Brunswick on Sunday how Wright got across the border. Its under full investigation, because it does not seem like a legitimate reason to be in province, Higgs said. So we will evaluate just what questions were asked but more importantly, what answers were given. Wright said Monday he hadnt been contacted by any officials looking for any more information from him for an investigation. If Higgs is so worried about COVID-19, he should have health-care workers at the border not public safety officials or RCMP officers, Wright said. The real question is, why is the province allowed to close the border? Wright asked, adding that governments ought to be debating whether its right to impinge on Canadians right to cross-provincial travel. Wright also said Monday he paid for his trip to New Brunswick and a statement from the mayors office confirmed it. Mayor Diane Therrien was not available for interview on Monday, but her assistant Ashley Webster released a statement saying Wrights trip was not a directive of the mayor or council, and was not funded by the city. Going to New Brunswick was a personal decision made by Coun. Wright without prior consultation with the mayor or council and he went on the trip at his own expense, it states. Saint John Mayor Don Darling said he was shocked about Wrights trip when New Brunswickers are asked to limit their errands to the local grocery store. Wright has no call to invoke his Charter right to travel across provincial borders, Darling said. He sees no justification for coming into the province under a state of emergency. Others have been charged, he said, although he didnt know whether that would happen to Wright. What implications will come of this joyride, I dont know. RCMP Cpl. Jullie Rogers-Marsh told The Examiner on Monday that the force was not involved in Wrights visit and she directed questions to Public Safety Canada (whose spokesperson wasnt available for comment by deadline). While The Examiner reported on Friday that Wright spent three days in New Brunswick and never left his car, news outlets in New Brunswick reported he spent 10 days in the province. And CBC reported Monday that Wright stayed in a private home that was vacant at the time, while the Telegraph-Journal reported that he stayed at a friends house. Darling noted the inconsistencies. This is a guy who appears to just add to the story every time hes interviewed, he said, adding that hed like an apology from Wright to the people of New Brunswick. When asked by The Examiner on Monday how long he was in New Brunswick, Wright said he was there from May 14 to 23. He said on Monday he was imprecise when asked last week by The Examiner about the duration of his stay because didnt have his calendar in front of him during the interview. Thats on me, he said. On Monday he wouldnt tell The Examiner where hed stayed in New Brunswick because it would breach someone elses privacy. He also told The Examiner that he called ahead to the offices of New Brunswicks premier and the medical officer of health to see whether hed be welcome. I set out because I got no answers. joelle.kovach@peterboroughdaily.com Premier Blaine Higgs comments on Peterborough councillor's trip at around the 50-minute mark of his remarks Read more about: CAIRO A brutal police killing. A wave of public anger that sends citizens rushing into the streets, clashing with the police. Journalists under attack. A president who justifies draconian measures by invoking the threat of saboteurs and terrorists. That was the Arab Spring in Egypt almost a decade ago. But in recent days those momentous events have been revived in the minds of many Egyptians as a strikingly similar dynamic has played out in the United States, with familiar images of flames, tear gas and anguish, even if the context is very different. OK, now Im really having Egypt flashbacks, Ashraf Khalil, an Egyptian-American journalist who covered the Arab Spring and later wrote a book about it, remarked as he posted a photo of a masked protester in America gripping a silver drum, his clenched fist held aloft. For other Egyptians, many of the most shocking images from Americas upheaval a lone protester standing defiantly before a phalanx of riot police, a police vehicle smashing through a crowd of protesters, a police station going up in flames bring to mind nearly identical events and images that occurred during the 18 days of protest that culminated in the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Activists have urged caution about the "Blackout Tuesday" event on Instagram, which is intended to show solidarity with people fighting against racism and police violence. The event has seen huge numbers of Instagram users post a black square to their feed as a message of support for the protests. Those posting are then encouraged not to post in their feed, and instead use the time to reflect or read other content. But numerous people have warned that the messages threaten to cover up other important information, as well as failing to offer the support that the posts aim to convey. Chief among the concerns are that many of the posts are using the Black Lives Matter hashtag, in an attempt to show the support That has led anyone who looks at either of the hashtags on Instagram to see a wall of black squares, rather than the news, posts or other information that might ordinarily appear under that topic. Users have been encouraged to use the "#BlackoutTuesday" tag rather than any others to identify their posts. Other activist groups, including UK Black Pride, suggested that users should delete the black squares and instead continue to post helpful information. Recommended Why people are posting black squares to their Instagram "UK Black Pride would like to encourage those who care about Black lives to delete their black squares and post useful, helpful, uplifting and empowering information and images that further the #BlackLivesMatter cause," a message on its official Twitter account read. "Social media is a vital tool in the fight for equality, and a feed full of black squares does not let us know that you stand in solidarity with us. It is a silence and an erasure that we cannot afford. "For our allies, there are many conversations you all need to have with each other. Please continue to share information, educate each other and donate to causes that directly support Black people and protests. #BlackOutTuesday is not a day off, pls." Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela's president, waits to greet Michelle Bachelet, high commissioner for human rights at the United Nations, not pictured, at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, on Friday, June 21, 2019. WASHINGTON The Department of Treasury slapped fresh sanctions on four companies operating in Venezuela's oil sector, a frequent target of the Trump administration for its financial support to President Nicolas Maduro's regime. "The illegitimate Maduro regime has enlisted the help of maritime companies and their vessels to continue the exploitation of Venezuela's natural resources for the regime's profit," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement Tuesday. "The United States will continue to target those who support this corrupt regime and contribute to the suffering of the Venezuelan people." "Maduro's corrupt regime is directly responsible for the political, economic, and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement, adding that "the international community should increase pressure against the Maduro regime until it relinquishes its illegitimate hold on power." The sanctions are targeted at the following entities, according to Treasury: Afranav Maritime is based in the Marshall Islands and is the registered owner of the vessel Athens Voyager. Athens Voyager is a Panamanian-flagged crude oil tanker that has continued to lift oil cargoes from Venezuelan ports as recently as mid-February. Seacomber is based in Greece and is the registered owner of the vessel Chios I. Chios I is a Maltese-flagged crude oil tanker that has continued to lift oil cargoes from Venezuelan ports as recently as mid- to late February. Adamant Maritime is based in the Marshall Islands and is the registered owner of the vessel Seahero. Seahero is a Bahamian-flagged crude oil tanker that has continued to lift oil cargoes from Venezuelan ports as recently as late February. Sanibel Shiptrade is based in the Marshall Islands and is the registered owner of the vessel Voyager I. Voyager I is a Marshall Islands-flagged crude oil tanker that has continued to lift oil cargoes from Venezuelan ports as recently as late April. The latest revelation comes as the last of five Iranian tankers carrying gasoline was escorted by Venezuela's navy through the South American nation's waters this week. The Iranian tankers brought approximately 1.5 million barrels to the gas-starved country, which was once a prominent fuel exporter. Gasoline is scarce in Venezuela due to a near-complete breakdown of the OPEC nation's 1.3 million barrel-per-day refining network. The move was likely to anger Washington as Tehran and Caracas sidestep U.S. sanctions. The Trump administration has previously said that it was considering a response to the shipments. The two OPEC nations have previously helped each other in the face of U.S. sanctions. In 2010-2011, Venezuela's state-run oil company, PDVSA, sent fuel to Iran, which was targeted by sanctions aimed at stifling its nuclear weapons program. A ground-breaking trial will examine the long-term damage inflicted by Covid-19 on major organs. While growing evidence suggests the virus attacks not only the lungs but other parts of the body, including the heart, liver and kidneys, the severity and prevalence of these injuries, the type of people most at risk and how they recover is as yet unknown. Now, a two-year study the first of its kind in the UK hopes to answer these questions, using scans of coronavirus patients. The COVERSCAN trial is recruiting 500 people who have recovered from confirmed Covid-19 infection. They will be monitored for a year for signs of health changes triggered by the virus. Rehab Support workers talk with Morag Ellison, 77, at the NHS Seacole Centre at Headley Court, Surrey. The facility will help care for and support patients recovering from COVID-19 Patients will have an MRI scan when they sign up, then another a year later. The researchers will look for liver inflammation, kidney swelling or shrinkage and loss of elasticity in the lungs, among other symptoms of damage. Blood tests will be carried out to check for conditions such as type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol, which can also affect the health of organs. The results will be compared with control samples taken from tens of thousands of volunteers long before the pandemic. It is difficult to estimate accurately how common organ damage might be until the trial is completed. However, data from patients with SARS a disease caused by a virus which behaves in a similar way to the novel coronavirus showed that nearly half had heart abnormalities 12 years after being diagnosed. Depending on the trial outcome, early action would save patients and the health service from the potential long-term burden of Covid-19 related disease, says Dr Matt Kelly, a biomedical scientist who is involved in running the trial for Perspectum, a spin-out company of the University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust. Rehab Support workers talk with patient Audrey Buckland, 92, as the first patients are admitted to the NHS Seacole Centre at Headley Court, Surrey, a disused military hospital It could mean the difference between having a heart attack or not; needing a liver transplant or reversing the damage. Blood samples taken from patients in the trial will also be analysed for any gene variations that could help determine who is most susceptible to organ damage. Early studies have suggested certain genes make some people more vulnerable to the virus getting into the lungs and cause lasting damage after theyve recovered [from Covid-19], says Dr Kelly. Identifying who is most at risk could also help identify what treatments they need to protect them. Nursing staff work in a ward where another drug testing trial, named TACTIC-R, is being carried out at Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge. Thursday May 21, 2020 Much remains unknown about exactly how the virus harms the body. But viruses similar to the one that causes Covid-19 are known to invade organs. In response, the body tries to fight back by releasing infection-attacking chemicals which cause swelling and inflammation. In extreme cases, healthy tissue is damaged in the process, leading to scarring, which makes organs stiff and unable to function healthily. The patients selected for the Coverscan trial will be monitored at Mayo Clinic Healthcare in London, and at a mobile screening unit in Oxford. The results are for research purposes only so participants wont receive them. But any medically significant findings will be sent to their GP, who will discuss them with the patient. For more information, write to coverscan@perspectum.com or visit coverscan.com A top plastic surgeon is being probed following accusations he allegedly sent inappropriate messages to a female model client, it was reported last night. Olivier Branford, one of the UK's leading breast surgeons, is accused of sending sexually explicit messages to the well-known woman in her 30s, according to The Sun. Reports say the General Medical Council has launched an inquiry into the claims made against the married father-of-three. Olivier Branford (pictured), one of the UK's leading breast surgeons, is accused of sending sexually explicit messages to the well-known woman in her 30s The General Medical Council (office pictured) has launched an inquiry into the claims made against the married father-of-three Branford is said to have been required to have a chaperone while treating female patients and is only permitted to contact them by work email while the probe is carried out. The client has accused Branford, 46, of sending her sexual messages after she was given surgery on her breasts at his Chelsea clinic in West London, The Sun reported. Branford lives with his wife, who works as a doctor, in a 2million home in Finsbury Park. His social media accounts have been removed in recent days. He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1994, then from the Royal Free Hospital Medical School in London in 1998. He has published over 60 peer-reviewed papers in aesthetic and reconstructive plastic surgery and has presented his work at 40 national and International meetings. YAKUTSK, Russia -- A court in Russia has ruled that Aleksandr Gabyshev, a shaman in the Siberian region of Yakutia who gained notoriety in 2019 after declaring that he wanted to drive President Vladimir Putin from power, must be forcibly placed in a psychiatric clinic. Aleksei Pryanishnikov, a legal coordinator for the opposition group Open Russia, told RFE/RL that a court in the city of Yakutsk announced the decision on June 2. According to Pryanishnikov, the court's decision was based on the medical conclusion of the central psychiatric clinic in Yakutsk, which said Gabyshev suffers from an "overestimation of his personality" because he expressed his intention to drive Putin out of the Kremlin. Pryanishnikov rejected the decision, saying that such a medical conclusion did not prove that Gabyshev is mentally ill, and complained that the ruling did not say how long Gabyshev must stay in the clinic. Amnesty International said Gabyshev "has been made an enemy of the state solely for voicing his dislike of Putin." "By co-opting first the police and now the psychiatric system to do their bidding, the Russian authorities have revealed the astonishing lengths they will go to repress critics," the London-based watchdog said. Gabyshev was placed in a psychiatric clinic against his will after 20 officers from a special police unit of Russia's National Guard stormed into his home in Yakutsk on May 12 and detained him. Gabyshev's lawyers said on May 26 that they filed a complaint with the European Court for Human Rights, challenging their client's being held in a psychiatric clinic against his will and without a court ruling, which they said was illegal. Gabyshev was released on May 29, a day after his lawyer, Olga Timofeyeva, filed a complaint with the Yakutsk city court questioning the legality of his forced placement in the clinic. Pryanishnikov told RFE/RL that the June 2 ruling was illegal because police detained three defense witnesses, who "most likely" will be charged with violating coronavirus restrictions, just prior to the hearing. In early May, Gabyshev posted a video on YouTube that showed him performing a traditional Yakut shaman's dance while declaring, "Very soon you all will break out to freedom." Gabyshev made headlines in 2019 when he called Putin "evil" and announced that he would march to Moscow in an attempt to drive the Russian president out of the Kremlin. Starting the journey in March 2019, Gabyshev walked more than 2,000 kilometers -- speaking with hundreds of Russians along the way. As his notoriety rose, videos of his conversations with people were posted on social media and attracted millions of views. In July, when Gabyshev reached the city of Chita, he gathered about 700 people together for a rally under the slogan "Russia without Putin!" At the time, Gabyshev said, "God told me Putin is not a human, but instead a demon, and has ordered me to drive him out." His march was halted when he was detained in the region of Buryatia in September. He was transferred to Yakutia, where he was confined to a psychiatric clinic and then released. In October, psychiatrists in Yakutsk said Gabyshev was mentally unstable. But independent experts hired by the shaman's lawyers concluded that Gabyshev is mentally sound, does not need treatment in a psychiatric clinic, and is not a danger to society. In December, Gabyshev and two supporters attempted to resume the march to Moscow, ignoring Yakutia's sub-zero temperatures. But they were stopped again by police and forced to return home. Shamans have served as healers and diviners in Siberia for centuries. During the Soviet era, the mystics were harshly repressed. But in isolated parts of Siberia, they are now regaining importance. John Harris was 16 when his mom sat him down for the talk. The same talk he would have with his own children, more for his sons than his daughter. The talk he hopes that daughter wont have to have with his grandsons one day. The Talk. The one that doesnt need any more explanation if you are black and living in America. About being careful. Not doing anything to draw the attention of the police. Being respectful. What many black parents have to talk to their kids about, Harris said Monday morning. Harris was raised in St. Louis, in the predominantly black community of Wellston, where his parents had moved to offer their children better lives and more opportunity. His parents grew up in the Depression. They grew up with Jim Crow. His dad in Arkansas, his mom in Mississippi, where 14-year Emmett Till was murdered. She walked to school with the stench of young black men hanging from trees, the minister said. She wanted us to know a part of her reality that we had no idea about. He listened to that talk about the dangers in the white world out there all those years ago. But he was young. We thought she was crazy. Harris is 58 now. A preacher and community organizer, a bridge-builder and the founder of Encouragement Unlimited, the nonprofit designed to give families hope and support, giving away school supplies and scholarships, being a source of inspiration. Being of intentional service. Its what he did Saturday afternoon, after spending the weekend and the days before the weekend in despair and anger over the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. He stood outside of the Capitol on Saturday, after a gathering on O Street had turned violent the night before. I thought, Oh, no, not here, not in my city, he said Monday. Dont tear our city down and leave us with the ashes. Harris had seen that happen in Missouri in 2014, after Michael Brown was killed by police in Ferguson. I drove down West Florissant at 10 miles an hour, past where Id shopped and where I got gas and where I got food, and I looked at the buildings and my heart was broken. He thought about protesters who had come from outside to instigate and cause trouble there. And I didnt want the same thing to happen here. More violence would come to Lincoln last Saturday night, but that afternoon, he joined a peaceful gathering of protesters, introducing his fellow ministers, Tremaine Combs from Mt. Zion Baptist and John Goldrich from Newman United Methodist. Black men of faith who shared their own pain, their visions and advice. Harris invited Lincoln Police Chief Jeff Bliemeister to speak, too. And he came, the crowd occasionally voicing its frustration. It was uncomfortable for him, Harris said. But that was OK. Its the way hes felt in a predominantly white city the city he now calls home all of these years. Walking into a restaurant, being the only black face in the room. People saying, Your kids are so well-behaved. Well, why wouldnt they be? All those decades ago, after the talk, Harris ventured outside the world beyond Wellston, a young black man off to see a movie. He loaded the car up with his two sisters and a teenage neighbor. He drove until he saw lights flash behind him and a police officer on the drivers side of the car. He pulled me out of the car and thrust me up onto the trunk. The officer told him to say his name and then he commanded him to say it again. The third time he pulled a gun from his holster and was holding it to my right temple. He thought about his sisters and the neighbor inside the car, stunned into silence. And then he heard the voice of a second officer: This is the wrong car. The police had been looking for another black man, a suspect in a robbery. There was no apology, Harris said. No, sorry, young man, we made a mistake. They didnt go to the movies. With our hearts beating in our chests, we decided to go back home. He still can feel that moment in his body and recall the hatred that burned in his heart for years after. I held that for a very long time. He left St. Louis for college and met Charlene Maxey, the daughter of Joanne and Albert Maxey Sr., and the woman he would marry, in 1984 at the University of Missouri. He found out she was the daughter of a police officer, and he found out not all cops were bad. Hed grown in his Christian faith, and that had changed his heart. He had learned as he grew up to know people as people. He attended a college prep school with both wealthy white students, Harris said, and black students with more resources than he had growing up. I got to experience and interact and engage with people who are different from me. But the burden of that of understanding that all white people arent the same shouldnt fall on black shoulders. When will we move from that place where we are strangers? Why is this still our fight? Hes been sitting a lot with the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. lately. Hes been thinking about Malcolm X, too. How they both wanted the same thing, how its not yet been achieved. He sees hope in the young people on the streets, and he sees a place for himself and those who seek justice and who know history to help guide and support them. We must not cast them out or write them off, he wrote on his Facebook page at the start of a new week. They didnt create this mess and they will deal with it on their own terms right or wrong. Dont be fooled by the troublemakers, he wrote. Those seeking justice must outlast them. Then he spoke like the preacher he is. The murder of George Floyd and the others who have died is primary. The killing of black folks right before our eyes is primary. The prosecution and incarceration of those who kill black people unjustly is primary. Everything else is secondary. He felt tired, Harris said Monday morning. He felt tired mentally, he had a sense of anxiety. Its wearing on you, when youve been fighting this for the majority of your life. And he knows his is just one tired voice in an ocean of black voices. Its been 42 years since that talk, since the police officer at his window and the gun to his head. He recited the names of his three young grandsons. I pray they will not be fighting this fight when they grow up, that they will not be weary, the way their grandfather is weary. Reach the writer at 402-473-7218 or clangekubick@journalstar.com. On Twitter @TheRealCLK The Boris Johnson government on Tuesday urged China to re-consider its new security law for Hong Kong, but if it failed to do so, the United Kingdom will offer pathways to full citizenship to holders of British National (Overseas) status in the former colony. Foreign secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement in the House of Commons that the UK will not just look the other way when it comes to the people of Hong Kong. We will stand by them, we will live up to our responsibilities. There is cross-party consensus in the UK over official response to Chinas new law, which is perceived as curtailing political and other freedoms enjoyed by Hong Kong citizens under the Sino-British Joint Declaration signed before it was handed over to China in 1997. Raabs announcement last week that the UK would offer pathways to citizenship to Hong Kong people prompted an angry response from Beijing, where it was seen as interference in the countrys internal affairs. Raab told MPs: (We) are not seeking to intervene in Chinas internal affairs. Only to hold China to its international commitments, just as China expects of the United Kingdom. We dont seek to prevent Chinas rise. Far from it, we welcome China as a leading member of the international community, and we look to engage with China on everything from trade to climate change. And it is precisely because we recognise Chinas role in the world that we expect it to live up to the international obligations, and international responsibilities, that come with it. Seven former foreign secretaries have urged the Johnson government to lead the international response to Beijings move. Soon after Chinas National Peoples Congress adopted the new law on May 28, four countries UK, US, Australia and Canada expressed deep concern. Raab reiterated the offer of citizenship to holders of BNO status, estimated to be nearly 2 million (about 3 lakh current holders of the passport and others eligible to acquire the status). He said: The House will recall that BNO status was conferred on British Dependent Territories Citizens connected with Hong Kong as part of the package of arrangements that accompanied the Joint Declaration in 1984, in preparation for the handover of the territory. And under that status, currently, BNO passport holders are already entitled to UK consular assistance in third countries. And the British government also provides people with BNO passports visa-free entry into the UK for up to six months as visitors. If China follows through with its proposed legislation, we will put in place new arrangements to allow BNOs to come to the UK without the current 6 month limit, enabling them to live and apply to study and work for extendable periods of 12 months, thereby also providing a pathway to citizenship. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Some Prisoners Released, But Iran Continues Crack-Down on Christians The COVID-19 crisis in Iran has resulted in freedom for several Christians among the roughly 85,000 people released from prison, but convictions have continued in spite of a short-lived lull in actions against converts to Christianity, sources said. The release of imprisoned Christians as part of the regime's efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus was pragmatic and not an indication of a change of policy by the Iranian government, rights advocates said. "For a time it looked like the authorities were too busy with coronavirus to bother with the Christians," a researcher at Middle East Concern (MEC) told Morning Star News. "Now we know they have really turned their attention again to targeting Christian converts." On April 21 Christian convert Mary (Fatemeh) Mohammadi, 21, was sentenced to flogging and three months plus one day in prison for taking part in a January protest in Tehran over the downing of Ukranian Airlines Flight 752 by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran. Though the case is unrelated to her faith, since previously serving a six-month prison sentence for charges due to Christian activity, Mohammadi has been harassed and denied education, according to MEC. In the hearing, the judged asked Mohammadi about her Christian faith, although it had no bearing on the charges of "disturbing public order" that she faced, raising concerns as to whether her faith influenced the judge's handling of the case. Mohammadi will not appeal her sentence, which has been suspended due to the coronavirus crisis. Mohammadi's court hearing was suspended in April due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The MEC researcher said he was surprised that the court pursued the charges despite recent postponements within the judicial system. "Personally, I thought they would have given priority to more serious cases," he said. 'Disturbing' Sentence Similarly, multiple sentences handed down to Christian convert Ismaeili Maghrebinejad based on virtually no evidence remain in effect, alarming advocates. Maghrebinejad, 65, was sentenced to two years in prison on Feb. 27 for "membership of a group hostile to the regime" for receiving a Bible verse from Philippians from a Christian media organization, according to MEC. According to a court document, the organization advocates "Evangelical Zionist Christianity," which is not tolerated by the regime. When appealing the sentence, instead of a reprieve, Maghrebinejad was given an additional one year for "propaganda against the state." This followed a three-year sentence for "insulting Islamic sacred beliefs," in a civil court hearing on Jan. 8. The crime: Maghrebinejad had responded to a joke on social media deemed critical of the clergy -- with a smiley face emoji. "This was the only evidence that they could find after arresting him without cause and searching his house without a warrant," the MEC researcher told Morning Star News. "This is very disturbing. This is an elderly man. His family is not living in the country anymore, and he is really being targeted by the authorities. They are determined." Maghrebinejad is released on bail and appealing all three convictions. Releases The disappointing conviction came on the heels of more positive developments due to the virus, including the release of Christian converts Amin Khaki, Rokhsareh (Mahrokh) Ghanbari and Fatemeh Bakhteri. The three Christians initially were released temporarily on bail of several thousand dollars, but as the novel coronavirus crisis continued, so did their release. Khaki was released conditionally on March 2 after paying a bail bond and serving eight months of a 14-month sentence for "propaganda against the regime and establishing house churches." Roughly one month later, Khaki was notified that he was not required to return. After serving about seven months of their one-year sentences for "spreading propaganda against the regime," Ghanbari and Bakhteri were also released temporarily in March. Prison authorities informed Ghanbari in early April that she was not required to return, while Bakhteri was informed that her temporary release was extended, according to advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). Remaining in Prison Several other Christians with longer sentences remain in prison despite the threat of contracting the virus, including pastor Yousef Nadarkani and three others arrested with him -- Mohammadreza Omidi, Yasser Mossaybzadeh and Saheb Fadaie. All four are still serving 10-year sentences handed down in June 2017 for charges of "acting against the national security through propagating house churches and promoting Zionist Christianity," according to CSW. They requested furlough due to several coronavirus cases within some of the wards of Evin Prison, according to MEC, but it was denied. Nadarkani's case was reviewed by the revolutionary court in May, but the outcome is unknown, according a Middle East expert at CSW. He said it was unclear why Pastor Nadarkani has not been released. "I guess he is a very high-profile case, so maybe to give a message to the Iranian society, and especially Iranian Christian converts, that, 'Don't think we are relaxing our policies -- it is just temporary,'" he said. Challenges Advocates are hoping that more prisoners will be released permanently, and that those who were first released temporarily will be able to retrieve bail amounts that are often several thousand dollars. The novel coronavirus hit Iran hard economically, and released Christian converts experience an additional layer of suffering, as it is harder for those targeted by the government to find jobs, the Middle East specialist at CSW said. They and potential employers are often harassed, eventually forcing them to leave the country. The recent releases are largely image control by the Iranian government, he added. "This serves the Iranian propaganda, because they release the prisoner," he said. "They get some credit for that...but they make life so difficult for them that they have to leave Iran. They use these tactics to sort of dissuade and discourage others form converting or expressing their new faith in public." Iran was ranked ninth on Christian support organization Open Doors' 2020 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. In its last issue, Al-Ahram Weekly published my article, Confrontation and stalemate, in which I dealt with the military and diplomatic implications of the endless battles raging in Libya. When writing the article, a major air force base in western Libya, Al-Watiya, was a major military prize. The base was still in the hands of the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), under the command of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, which had lately incurred significant military losses at the hands of forces loyal to the internationally-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA). Four days after publication, the air base fell and the LNA said it had undertaken what it termed a tactical retreat. The fact of the matter is that the fall of this major air base means that the military momentum in Libya has shifted favourably to the forces of the GNA, aided, assisted and advised by the Turkish army. The Tripoli-based government has made clear that it intends to pursue its military offensive against the LNA with the objective of pushing Haftar to lift the siege of the southern parts of Tripoli. Some political and military sources have even raised the prospect of chasing the Haftars forces out of the western parts of Libya. Actually, the Tripoli forces are attacking the town of Tarhouna, south of the capital. No one knows whether by the time you will be reading this article the town would be still in the hands of the LNA or not. In case it falls, that would be a major military setback to the LNA and the international and regional powers that have been aiding Haftar, particularly after the ill-advised offensive against Tripoli on 4 April 2019. In retrospect, this ill-planned offensive proved disastrous for the LNA and its backers. It brought expansionist Turkey into the Libyan equation. The next move for Turkey could be the installation of Turkish military facilities in Libya. That would be a very grave game changer in terms of the security and stability in North Africa and the southern and the eastern Mediterranean. For Egypt, it would be a major escalation on the part of the Tripoli government and its Turkish backers. Trying to contain the conflict and avoid an uncontrollable escalation, Russia and Turkey, each supporting opposing sides in Libya, called on Thursday, 21 May, for a ceasefire and emphasised the importance of reaching a political solution in accordance with Berlin Declaration on 19 January 2020. Whether their moves on the ground would lend credibility to such a public position remains to be seen. Many experts and observers believe that the present situation in Libya is not dissimilar from the status quo in Syria. A conflict situation, fought by proxies, and no one of the influencers either has the will or the capacity to bring the conflict to a close. Open-ended battles of attrition for the belligerents without an end in sight. Probably one major difference between the two situations is that in Syria and the neighbouring countries there are red lines that all outside powers involved respect. For Libya, and in its immediate neighbourhood, no clear lines have been drawn within the country itself and in North Africa. In this context, the Egyptian president in remarks after the fall of Al-Watiya, said that the national security of Egypt is linked to the security and stability of Libya. In a video conference with the heads of state in the Contact Group of the African Union last week, Egypt and other member countries in the group reiterated their commitment to a peaceful resolution of the Libyan conflict, and Egypt stressed how important it is to fight terrorist groups in Libya. Stephanie Williams, the acting UN envoy to Libya, told the Security Council this week that from what we are witnessing in terms of the massive influx of weaponry, equipment and mercenaries to the two sides, the only conclusion that we can draw is that this war will intensify, broaden and deepen. A very scary scenario. Egypt rightly follows recent developments on the battlefield with serious concern. It has 1,000 kilometres of joint borders with Libya that should be defended around the clock against the infiltration of terrorists particularly Syrian mercenaries brought by Turkey from Turkish-backed terrorist groups in northern Syria to fight the LNA. With the deployment of 14 Russian MiG fighters and Su fighter bombers in Libya, the overall situation in Libya becomes very complicated, and the prospects of escalation are greater today. Last week, the French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, warned while addressing a session of the French National Assembly that what the world is actually witnessing in Libya is what he termed the Syrianisation of the Libyan conflict. If this is true, then a peaceful resolution to the conflict wont materialise anytime soon. The Russians and the Turks will be the arbiters, and Libya will become a destabilising hot spot in North Africa and in the southern and eastern Mediterranean. On the other hand, getting directly involved in the Libyan quagmire is not a viable option. Recent military developments in Libya, coupled with the poor performance of Haftars forces at the gates of Tripoli after more than a year of laying siege to the southern districts of Tripoli, call for a pause and a reassessment of our diplomatic alternatives in Libya. Betting on the Field Marshal is one option that calls for deep rethinking on our part. The writer is former assistant foreign minister. *A version of this article appears in print in the 4 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: OTTAWA (dpa-AFX) - Canada-based cannabis company Hexo Corp. said Monday that it's cannabis manufacturing and processing facility in Belleville, Ontario, has received a Health Canada licence amendment for the sale of dried and fresh cannabis, cannabis extracts, cannabis topicals and edible cannabis products. The company noted that the license amendment will enable it to expand the licensed area for beverage production dedicated to the Truss/HEXO beverage division. Molson Coors and Hexo's joint venture, called Truss Beverages, plans to produce non-alcohol cannabis-infused beverages for the Canadian market. Hexo is a consumer packaged goods cannabis company. The company serves the Canadian adult-use markets under its HEXO Cannabis as well as Up Cannabis brands, and the medical marijuana market under HEXO medical cannabis. Sebastien St-Louis, CEO and co-founder of Hexo, said that receiving the sales license for the company's Belleville facility was extremely positive news for HEXO and Truss, its joint-venture with Molson Coors Canada. 'This license allows us to increase our processing capability significantly, achieve greater economies of scale, and continue to roll out more innovative 2.0 products across all of our brands Powered by HEXO, including hash, vapes, cannabis beverages, and other edible cannabis products,' Hexo's CEO added. The Belleville facility will act as the main development, processing and distribution facility for Hexo's cannabis products. The facility, located along primary shipping routes in Ontario, will enable Hexo to deliver on its national expansion strategy. It will ensure the company has the necessary capacity to manufacture and distribute advanced cannabis products to fulfill purchase orders across Canada. In April, Molson Coors Beverage Co. and Hexo said they formed a joint venture to explore opportunities for non-alcohol hemp-derived CBD beverages in Colorado. Established in Colorado, the Truss CBD USA joint venture will be majority owned by Molson Coors. It will operate as a standalone entity with its own board of directors, management team, resources and go-to-market strategy. The two companies' Truss Beverages joint venture in Canada was launched earlier. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de PALM BEACH, Fla., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Republican Congressional candidate Laura Loomer who is running for Congress in Florida's 21st Congressional District is leading the #TWEXIT movement, encouraging social media users to dump Twitter and get on Parler, a pro-free speech platform. As one of Parler's most popular users and one of the first people to ever create an account on Parler in 2018, Loomer says it's long overdue that Big Tech companies like Twitter and Facebook lose their "Platform" protections and are instead classified as the publishers that they are currently operating as. The Laura Loomer For Congress campaign @LauraLoomerForCongress is the first federal campaign in US history to open a Parler account. Loomer, who is the "most banned woman in the world" as a result of her high-profile, hard-hitting investigative reports which exposed the radical-left's agenda, has been de-platformed from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Paypal, all of which are being used by other campaigns across the nation to fundraise, communicate with constituents, and virtually campaign in the era of COVID-19. Loomer's congressional campaign is the only active campaign in the nation that has been denied access to Twitter. Despite this clear act of election interference and political bias by Big Tech, Loomer has been outperforming and out-fundraising all of her opponents combined, including 4-term sitting Democrat incumbent Lois Frankel. Loomer has been able to do this by using Parler and Gab. Loomer became the original, first Twexiter when she was permanently banned from Twitter on November 21, 2018, and warned the world that more censorship would follow, and that she was only the beginning of the bans. Since being banned, there have been daily occurrences around the world of conservatives being silenced by big tech, and Loomer correctly predicted that the severity of the situation would get worse closer to election year. Loomer said, "Last week Twitter censored the Commander in Chief while allowing for Iranian dictators, jihadist organizations, and ANTIFA domestic terrorists to incite global violence and riots throughout America. Twitter is clearly a publisher that is trying to steal the election for Democrats, and President Trump is correct in calling for their Section 230 protection to be revoked. I am leading the charge to strongly encourage the President of the United States to get off Twitter and get on Parler to ensure uncensored communications with the American people. Until the government takes action against these publishers, the American people will continue to have their speech squelched unless they take the first step towards change by Twexiting and getting Parler." Karen Giorno, the chief strategist for Laura Loomer For Congress said, "The bedrock of our Constitutional Republic depends upon fair and free elections. Twitter is now directly and intentionally interfering with that sacred process. In order for the American public to make informed decisions, we can't have a handful of elite, biased content moderators deciding what is and isn't 'acceptable speech.'" Loomer added, "It is shameful that the current sitting Democrat Congresswoman, my opponent Lois Frankel has spent more time advocating for the Internet rights of the Iranian people than the two most politically censored Americans who reside in her district, myself and President Donald Trump." When elected, combatting Big Tech tyranny and political censorship online will be one of the key issues Loomer will fight to fix with her colleagues in Congress, and she has already pledged to use Parler to communicate with her constituents. SOURCE Laura Loomer for Congress Related Links lauraloomerforcongress.com Developing countries are reeling under the burden of drug-resistant infections. Poor availability and utilisation of diagnostics and compromised infection-control in communities and hospitals result in an overuse of anti-microbials. It contributes to the development of highly-resistant pathogens which are difficult to destroy. It is well-known that diarrhoea and upper respiratory tract infections are usually caused by viruses, but account for more than 60% of anti-microbial prescriptions. With an increasing focus on anti-microbial resistance globally, India has initiated small but important steps to introduce anti-microbial stewardship to rationalise its prescriptions in hospitals. The coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic threatens to undermine these efforts, more so in resource-poor settings with fragile health systems. Like most other viral respiratory tract infections, Covid-19 is self-limiting and causes a mild form of the disease in most patients. In the absence of a specific antiviral treatment, patients are prescribed antibiotics in hospitals across the world. Research published in China, Italy and the United Kingdom show that the majority of people hospitalised with Covid-19 infection were given antibiotics despite little evidence of associated bacterial infections. Although there are no published reports from India, anecdotal evidence suggests that bacterial co-infections are infrequent in patients with suspected severe Covid-19 requiring hospitalisation. With labs quickly shifting their focus to Covid-19 and deprioritising cultures/anti-microbial susceptibility testing, evidence of secondary bacterial or fungal infections in Covid-19 patients is limited. Not enough cultures are being sent for confirmation for the presence of secondary bacterial or fungal infections from Covid-19 patients. There is a significant risk to the laboratory staff collecting samples and technicians processing them due to the shortage of personal protection equipment (PPE) and biosafety challenges in the labs. Such concerns have led many hospitals not conducting routine microbiological examination on Covid-19 patients, undermining the diagnosis and treatment of secondary infections. Since it is challenging to distinguish between bacterial or fungal infections and existing viral pneumonia based on clinical symptoms and radiological findings, the microbiological examination will be valuable for diagnosing secondary infections to guide anti-microbial prescription. Its imperative to strengthen the investigation of secondary infection and/or co-infection in Covid-19 patients at all health facilities without compromising the safety of the laboratory staff. Until there is evidence that Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, is associated with bacterial or fungal co-infections, antibiotics should not be prescribed and the patients must be treated symptomatically. Even when antibiotics are prescribed, the narrowest spectrum agent should be prioritised to target the likely pathogens. India has very high resistance rates to some of the broad-spectrum anti-microbials. It is advisable that such antibiotics should be reserved for situations in which the differentiation between the bacterial and viral aetiology is not possible based on clinical symptoms. If symptoms are severe, antibiotics should be prescribed based on local epidemiology and antibiograms (susceptibility of a specific micro-organism to a battery of anti-microbial drugs). If Sars-CoV-2 infection is confirmed, the antibiotic prescription should be reviewed and discontinued, unless there is clear evidence of bacterial co-infection. In the absence of a vaccine and doubts about Sars-CoV-2 immunity, the coronavirus pandemic may last longer than expected. Having better infection control practices are expected to bring down the incidence of hospital-acquired infections. Yet, there will always be a chance that a certain percentage of patients may require anti-microbials to treat secondary infections. The pipeline of new anti-microbials is running dry and no novel antimicrobials are in immediate sight. We will need antimicrobials long after the coronavirus crisis is over. It is, therefore, important to define indications of antibiotic use in Covid-19 patients and follow the principles of anti-microbial stewardship. If indiscriminate prescribing continues, it will compromise the gains the country has made by introducing anti-microbial stewardship in hospital. Treading with caution and using the available anti-microbials judiciously will save us from jeopardising anti-fungal and anti-bacterial treatments after Covid-19 is over. Kamini Walia is the programme officer, anti-microbial resistance, Indian Council of Medical Research. The views expressed are personal The views expressed are personal BRASILIA, June 1 (Reuters) - Brazil cannot rely on foreign financing in the short term, central bank president Roberto Campos Neto said on Monday, citing the recent record capital outflow as the coronavirus crisis and investor jitters intensified. In testimony to lawmakers, Campos Neto also said he expects the economic recovery to begin in the third quarter although some parts of the services sector will take longer, and warned that emergency government spending must not be allowed to become permanent. (Reporting by Jamie McGeever Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) United States Park Police push back protesters near the White House. (Roberto Schmidt / AFP-Getty Images ) America is in peril tonight. The days and hours ahead could define our nation, in the same way that the turmoil of 1968 did. Today, President Trump took another page from the authoritarian playbook, threatening to deploy active-duty troops to quell the unrest that has roiled dozens of American cities. Even by the depraved standards he has set, this is a new low. It risks exacerbating the tragic violence and loss of life that have marred the legitimate and necessary protests that erupted a week ago following the death of a black man, George Floyd, in the custody of four Minneapolis police officers. It is shocking even to write these words, but Trump does not abide by the constitutional norms of our democracy, and we must stop pretending that he can or will. His style is that of the demagogue and the strongman and the only thing he understands is confrontation and spectacle, as was evinced on Monday night when law enforcement officers fired tear gas on peaceful demonstrators in Lafayette Park in Washington so that Trump could walk from the White House to St. John's Church in what he no doubt believes to be a show of strength. This would be comparable to the conduct of a truculent teenager, were it not for the enormous might of the military Trump commands, and his total lack of the temperament, character and ability to carry out his oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution." Our president has become the greatest living threat to that document, and he risks provoking a crisis unlike any since our nation's basic law was enacted in 1787. Military deployment in support of law enforcement should be contemplated only as a last resort, and only if state officials have requested it. America is an experiment. Our country is not a nation-state founded on an ethnic identity sorry, white supremacists but a democratic and constitutional republic based on a set of ideas, chief among them the rule of law, not of men. Yet the Constitution has often failed us. It took the Civil War, and the loss of 620,000 American lives, to begin to overcome our country's original sin: the denial of the humanity and equality of enslaved people of African descent. It took the turmoil and suffering of the Depression to bring about a modern welfare state, with protections against old-age poverty. It took the sacrifice and struggle of the civil rights movement to advance the unfinished work of Reconstruction. Story continues Trump's actions tonight risk turning our democracy flawed as it is, ever a work in progress into a failed experiment. We must not give him the perverse satisfaction we know he craves. We must avoid the slide into authoritarianism, and the erosion of democratic institutions and values, that his actions threaten. We must turn out in protest peacefully, purposefully but we must also stop and condemn anyone who would exploit this fragile moment to sow mayhem and disorder. If we give in to violence, we know how this story ends: consolidation of state power, further moves toward autocracy and censorship and a slide into dictatorship. This is how democracies die. The causes of our democratic erosion are many: decades of rising inequality; stagnation of wages and loss of economic opportunity; growing mistrust of all institutions, since the era of Vietnam and Watergate; hyper-polarization, exacerbated by new technological platforms such as Facebook; race-based disparities in health, wealth, income and opportunity; reduced confidence in the integrity and validity of our elections; and, perhaps most tragic, a loss of faith among young people that nonviolent social change, via democratic processes, can bring about improvements to the human condition. Our system of education has left too many young people ill-equipped, and, by extension, our country insufficiently prepared, to compete globally. It is not too late to pull back from the brink. Reviving our economy in the midst of a pandemic that has claimed more than 100,000 American lives, and resuscitating our democracy after decades of institutional and moral erosion, will be the work of years, if not generations. But it has to start somewhere. It has to start today. We sleep tonight fitful and restless, glued to our smartphone or TV screens, numbed by the staggering suffering that has brought America closest to the brink of chaos since 1968. The young people marching in the streets of America's cities from Minneapolis to Birmingham, Ala., from Los Angeles to Columbus, Ohio were not alive then. Nor was I. But we can and indeed must absorb its lessons if we are to avoid calamity. If you are a young person reading this, please know that your anguished demands for justice have been heard. If you are a parent, guardian or relative of a young person, please keep them close to you. If you are tempted to rob, steal, vandalize or loot, please listen to George Floyd's brother, who moved us all with these simple words: Thats not going to bring my brother back. If you are next to someone who wants to rob, steal, vandalize or loot, stop them with all your might. By all means, flood the streets during the day, and engage in righteous struggle "good trouble," in the words of Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who put his body on the line so that African Americans could have the right to vote. But at night, please go home. Heed the curfews. Obey lawful orders. Don't give Trump the crackdown that he is itching to mete out. Your voice is too important right now to be silenced. And when this is all over, vote like your life is on the line because it is. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - A United Nations appeal Tuesday for countries to fund emergency aid in Yemen, where more than five years of war have collapsed the countrys health care system, raised $1.35 billion a billion dollars short of what aid agencies needed. The amount raised is also half of the $2.6 billion that countries pledged at the same conference last year. It is meant to cover Yemens needs through the next six months. Aid agencies say Yemen is in dire need of assistance as the coronavirus threatens to decimate a health care system already ravaged by civil war. Saudi Arabia, which co-hosted the U.N. pledging event, said it would pay half a billion dollars in aid for Yemen this year, $300 million of which will be funneled to the U.N. and related aid agencies. It was the largest amount pledged by any country. The kingdom, which has been at war in Yemen since 2015 against Iran-allied Houthi rebels, hopes to use the event to showcase its role as one of the largest donors of aid to the war-torn country. The conflict has killed more than 100,000 people and displaced more than 3 million. The United Arab Emirates, an active and close partner of the Saudis in the war in Yemen, offered no funding during the conference. In his remarks at the virtual pledging event, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed that ending the war is the only way to address the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. The situation is catastrophic, added Mark Lowcock, the U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief co-ordinator. That is what more than five years of war has done to Yemen. The health system is in a state of collapse, he said. Things are worse today than at any time in recent history. Meanwhile, Guterres said death rates from the COVID-19 virus in the southern city of Aden alone are among the highest in the world. There are shortages of testing devices, oxygen, ambulances and basic protective equipment, he said. Even hospitals that are operational and equipped may not have a reliable electricity supply. Compounding myriad problems Yemenis face is access to consistent electricity and clean, running water needed for sanitization in the fight against the coronavirus, as well as cholera, which more than 2.3 million people have contracted since 2017. Additionally, two-thirds of the countrys roughly 30 million people rely on food assistance, while more than 310,000 children suffer severe acute malnutrition due to starvation. The U.S. commitment to Yemen this year stands at $225 million. Other major pledges came from the U.K. with $195 million and Germany at $138 million. The dwindling funds are the result of several factors, but among the top reasons is obstruction by Yemens Houthi rebels, who control the capital, Sanaa, and other territories. The United States decreased its aid to Yemen earlier this year, citing interference by the Houthis. Also, more than a dozen U.N. aid workers deployed to deal with Yemens humanitarian crisis have been accused of joining with combatants on all sides to enrich themselves from the billions of dollars in donated aid flowing into the country. Furthermore, nations around the world are facing domestic economic fallout from the coronavirus, which could impede efforts to shore up aid for countries like Yemen. Aid groups had called for at least $2.4 billion to cover essential needs in Yemen for the coming six months, including programs to counter COVID-19. The U.N. warned that if funding is not secured, more than 30 U.N. programs in Yemen will close in the coming weeks. Already, some 75% of U.N. programs in Yemen have had to shut their doors or reduce operations. The global bodys World Food Program had to cut rations in half and U.N.-funded health services were reduced in 189 out of 369 hospitals nationwide. Lowcock said the biggest challenge now facing Yemen is money: The country is in urgent need of it and most of the pledges made by countries have not been paid. While Saudi Arabia was the top donor country to Yemen in 2019, this year the kingdom has paid just $16 million of the $500 million pledged, according to tracking figures by the U.N. Lowcock urged countries to pay their pledges immediately because pledges on their own do nothing. Critics questioned Saudi Arabias high-profile role in rallying humanitarian support even as it engages in continued warfare against the Houthis. Yemen researcher at Human Rights Watch, Afrah Nasser, accused Saudi Arabia of trying to whitewash its coalitions role in the deepening humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen. She called on all parties to the war to immediately cease the conflict and put an end to the crisis. ___ Michael reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer contributed from the United Nations. A ministerial decision temporarily to suspend construction permits has impacted the construction sector, already suffering as a result of the coronavirus pandemic Minister of Local Development Mahmoud Shaarawi instructed Egypts governors last week to suspend the issuance of new construction permits and to halt existing building activities for a period of six months in a bid to limit building violations and illegal construction across the country. The decision applies to Greater Cairo, Alexandria, and other major cities and stipulates a halt to current construction work until reviews have taken place regarding their adherence to legal requirements. Shaarawi said that industrial, touristic, and government facilities, as well as national projects, were exempt from the decision, adding that the issuance of building permits in smaller towns and villages would not be affected. The heads of local municipalities and the engineering departments affiliated to them have been asked to review previously issued building licences and ensure that those responsible follow legal regulations, including building garages to accommodate cars in every building. Shaarawi said the state would deal firmly with any building violations, warning that offenders could be tried before a military court. The violations could include building without a licence, building higher than stipulated in a licence, building on land not allocated for construction, breaching plans filed for a building, or not building sufficient garage space. Construction violations in Egypt significantly increased following the 25 January Revolution in 2011, and Alexandria witnessed a large number of them. According to Governor of Alexandria Mohamed Al-Sherif, the coastal city could be considered to be the capital of violations. He said in a telephone interview on television last week that there had been 133,000 decisions to demolish buildings built without proper regard for regulations in Alexandria alone, though only 9,000 of these had been implemented. Procedures will be tightened from now on, and violators will stand trial before the military prosecution, Al-Sherif said. Mustafa Mahmoud, a bank employee in Alexandria, said that some contractors in the city had started construction and had only obtained licences after they had finished a building. This was because they could apply for a relaxation of violations in a city where construction is supposed to be limited to six floors only, he added. I hope that this is a real beginning to address the phenomenon of the illegal construction that had harmed the appearance of the city, Mahmoud said. The coronavirus pandemic has already slowed down the economy, and many sectors have been affected in Egypt including real estate. The ministerial decision has raised questions about its further effects on the sector. Ahmed Al-Wakil, head of the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce, said the decision to suspend building permits for a period of six months was needed, but that those working legally and abiding by the regulations should not be punished. We are living in harsh conditions, especially with businesses stalling because of the coronavirus crisis, and many companies are likely to be affected if the situation continues, with many workers possibly losing their jobs, Al-Wakil said. Mechanisms should be put in place to protect companies and developers working regularly and legally, he stressed, adding that the Alexandria Chamber would coordinate with the office of the prime minister and the governor of Alexandria to discuss the effects of the problem on the sector and proposals to remedy it. Ahmed Al-Zeini, head of the Building Materials Division at the Cairo Chamber of Commerce, said the decision was important in order to limit violations in construction and that it would not heavily affect the sector negatively as some might think. Even those who have legal permits and abide by the regulations cannot work normally at the moment because of weak demand in the real-estate market caused by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, he added. Demand for steel and cement has dropped enormously over the last couple of months, and sales of building materials have fallen by more than 60 per cent, Al-Zeini said. However, he said that construction in the new cities and the New Administrative Capital was going well, since they were national projects exempt from the ministerial decision. National projects represent 40 per cent of the demand for building materials in Egypt, while private projects make up about 60 per cent, he noted. Al-Zeini also said that there had been significant impacts on construction during the present coronavirus pandemic, especially luxury housing and tourism projects, and that demand for these had decreased significantly as buyers had opted to hold onto their cash instead. *A version of this article appears in print in the 4 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Iranian scientist Sirous Asgari has flown out of the United States after being released from prison and will return to the Islamic republic on Wednesday, the foreign ministry said. A US court had in November cleared Asgari of charges of stealing trade secrets in 2016 while he was on an academic visit to Ohio from Tehran's Sharif University of Technology. The 59-year-old told British newspaper The Guardian in March that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency was holding him at a Louisiana detention centre without basic sanitation and refusing to let him return to Iran despite his exoneration. "Good news, a plane carrying Dr. Sirous Asgari has taken off from America. Congratulations to his wife and family," Iran's top diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote Tuesday in an Instagram post. Foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said later on state television that Asgari was scheduled to arrive in Iran on Wednesday. "Mr. Asgari was stranded in America for a while because of (being infected with) the coronavirus and the situation with flights," he added. Mousavi denied Asgari's release was part of a prisoner exchange and said "he was freed after being exonerated". ICE's database was still showing Asgari's status as "in custody" in the state of Mississippi on Tuesday. - Stalling accusation - The State Department has yet to respond to an AFP request to comment on his apparent release. However Ken Cuccinelli, the acting deputy secretary of US homeland security, said on Twitter that the US had been "trying to deport Asghari since last year" but that it had been "stalled every step of the way by the Iranian government". "We wish Iran was so enthusiastic to get its illegal nationals back as they would have us all believe," he added, noting that there were 10 other Iranians currently in ICE custody. Both Iran and the United States hold a number of each other's nationals and they have recently called for them to be released amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Iran is battling what is the Middle East's deadliest outbreak of the virus, while the US has reported the highest total number of deaths worldwide from the disease. The Islamic republic is holding at least five Americans and the US had 19 Iranians in detention prior to Asgari's release, according to a list compiled by AFP based on official statements and media reports. Tensions between Tehran and Washington escalated in 2018, after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from a landmark nuclear agreement and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran. - Past swaps - The sworn enemies have also appeared to come to the brink of a direct conflict twice in the past year. The most recent was in January when Iran fired a barrage of missiles at US troops stationed in Iraq in retaliation for a US drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, a top Iranian general. But Trump refrained from taking any military action in response. The two have at times swapped prisoners despite having no formal diplomatic relations. Iran exchanged Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian in January 2016 for seven Iranians held in the US, on the day the nuclear agreement entered into force. In December, Iran freed Xiyue Wang, a US academic, in exchange for scientist Massoud Soleimani and said it was open to further swaps. Americans and dual nationals currently known to be held by Iran include US Navy veteran Michael R. White, Siamak Namazi along with his father Baquer, Morad Tahbaz, Gholam Reza Shahini, and Karan Vafadari. Most of the Iranians held in the United States are dual nationals charged with evading sanctions by either exporting goods to Iran or using the US financial system. A prisoner swap in December saw the US free Iranian scientist Massoud Soleimani who flew home with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif SAO PAULO - An anti-racism protest in the southern Brazilian city of Curitiba ended in violence Monday night with police using rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the crowd of hundreds of people. Footage on local media showed about a dozen demonstrators pelting rocks at a courthouse and police in a different location hitting protesters with batons as they chanted against President Jair Bolsonaro. About 20% of Curitibas 1.7 million residents are black or multiracial, less than many other large Brazilian cities. The protest was called by anti-fascist groups on social media. It started peacefully in front of the Parana state federal university, but local media said it turned violent as demonstrators got closer to the governors palace. Gov. Ratinho Jr. is a close ally of Bolsonaro. Police said that no one had been arrested. Google was originally scheduled to make some announcements on June 3 that were on hold due to the cancelling of Google I/O. It was also supposed to release the Android 11 Beta on June 1 for the public (Android 11 is still under an extended Developer Preview phase). The event was recently postponed due to the ongoing tension across the United States. Despite Googles decision to postpone the event and release of the Android 11 Beta, it seems that the update was inadvertently pushed to some small number of Pixel devices. This, as reported by @mishaalRahman on Twitter. Its unclear whether the users were on the most recent Developer Preview or if they were running official software. Rather than be super vague about this, I'll just say it up front: Two people DMed me saying they got the Android 11 beta OTA update on their Pixel 4 XL. Build #: RPB1.200504.018 Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) June 1, 2020 Some new features of Android 11 were found in the new Beta. First, the new power menu that we reported about on Monday was in the build. Rahman ran a thread on Twitter showing the updates that were found so far. This is the new "power menu" settings in Android 11. This will control the cards & passes and Controls feature that I tweeted about earlier today. pic.twitter.com/EdHNpXmwiR Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) June 1, 2020 There are new icon styles for the home screens including: pebble, vessel, and tapered rectangle. Theres a new Bubble menu which lets you minimize apps to a bubble that floats over the UI (much like Facebook Messengers Chat Heads). Here's the animation that plays on that page. pic.twitter.com/iVuU9jzTom Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) June 1, 2020 The Pixel Launchers app suggestions (as seen in the top row of the app drawer) can now be put in the bottom row of the home screens. Onboarding/tutorial messages for the feature. pic.twitter.com/GS2K7gzizP Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) June 1, 2020 To see the full list of features found in the Android 11 Beta, check out this Twitter thread. Source Ukraine raises the issue of Crimea at negotiations in various formats and wants to create an international platform to discuss its "inevitable de-occupation" with partners. "As for Crimea, this is an issue that we raise at negotiations in various formats. We are primarily interested in its two elements. The first element is the protection of human rights in the occupied Crimea and the release of persons illegally detained by the Russian Federation. You know that the vast majority of them are Crimean Tatars, so this is a purposeful policy," Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said at a joint press conference with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in Berlin, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. In this context, the Ukrainian minister noted that he had once again appealed to Maas for help to ensure that the International Committee of the Red Cross had access to Ukrainians whom Russia illegally detained in the occupied Crimea. "We are also interested in the visit of the ICRC representatives to Ukrainians who are illegally detained in Russia," Kuleba said. According to him, the second element is more global, namely the format in which Ukraine will discuss the situation in Crimea and its inevitable de-occupation with international partners. Kuleba reminded that President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky had recently commented on this issue, but it was also relevant for the Foreign Ministry. "We will talk with our partners about the format in which we should establish this dialogue and what the international platform on Crimea should look like. This topic will also be the subject of our conversation with Mr. Maas in future," the diplomat said. He assured that for him as a minister the issue of Crimea would always be among the priorities "until Crimea is de-occupied and returns to Ukraine." As reported, the Ukrainian delegation led by Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba arrived in Berlin today to hold talks with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. ol Delhi recorded yet another highest single-day spike in its Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, taking the total count pass 22,000-mark. There were 1,298 new coronavirus infections in the national capital, according to the Delhi State Health Bulletin. With this, the overall Covid-19 count in Delhi now stands at 22,132. The previous single-day spurt -1,295 cases - was reported on May 31. Delhis #COVID19 case count rises to 22132, with 1298 new cases in the last 24 hrs; total death toll is 556: Delhi Health Department pic.twitter.com/kx3icCP9Qi ANI (@ANI) June 2, 2020 Eleven more deaths reported in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll in the city to 556. The record spike came on a day when at least 13 people at Delhi Lieutenant Governor s office were reported to have tested positive for the coronavirus disease. According to reports, the first case came from the extended branch of the Lieutenant Governors office following which 13 people were found positive for coronavirus. Expressing concern about those who tested positive, L-G Anil Baijal said that the health of all of them is stable and is being closely monitored. Deeply concerned about health of officials of my secretariat who tested positive for COVID-19 Health of all officials is stable & is being closely monitored. All of these officials were working tirelessly in these difficult times shoulder to shoulder with other frontline workers, his office said in tweet . Deeply concerned about health of officials of my secretariat who tested positive for COVID-19 Health of all officials is stable & is being closely monitored All of these officials were working tirelessly in these difficult times shoulder to shoulder with other frontline workers LG Delhi (@LtGovDelhi) June 2, 2020 Also on Tuesday, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal hindustantimes.com/india-news/delhi-launches-app-to-help-track-hospital-beds-for-covid-19-patients/story-hXqAkjGqze28mQIVPcGZTM.html to help people know how many beds are lying vacant in which hospital in the national capital. We have been telling you that the Delhi government has made adequate arrangement for Covid-19 patients - in terms of number of hospitals, beds in there, the ICU facility in those hospitals and how many ventilators are there, Kejriwal said while addressing a press conference. The national capital has the fourth highest number of Covid-19 cases among the states after Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Just imagine if Bollywood would have never found a talent like Anurag Kashyap, how would have it been? Well, I should really delete this thought that just struck my head as this man has given us some realistic pieces of cinema. His films show the dirty reality and sometimes, its like a pill thats too hard to swallow but we need reality checks. We, always, cant have movies where its all about heroines clad in chiffon sarees, heroes are all about flaunting their ripped bodies and story plots are way too dreamy to be true. Known for his guerrilla-style of filmmaking, Anurag Kashyap is not someone wholl give you a plate with some lavish food items as he believes in taking the viewers to understand the true roots. His pictures wont be like the ones where you will walk out with any catharsis but his movies will move you to the core and question certain aspects of the society. His movies will keep you at the edge-of-your-seat and force you to keep thinking even after you walk out of the theatres. "I enjoy the darker side of things. I'm interested in violating a person's sense of being. I like to shake people up and make them restless," Kashyap, once, said in an interview with The Telegraph India. If you are a fan of his style of filmmaking, you would be knowing that he is coming with one more real story, Choked, on June 5. Once again, he has managed to do what he does best, explore into the territory of the dark stories. With this one, he is exploring the dark days of demonetization and also shows the daily struggles of a middle-class woman balancing work and home. While we are excited to watch Choked, here are 5 movies from the director Anurag Kashyap that prove he is not scared of showing you the dark reality. 1. Black Friday It takes guts to choose such a controversial film for your debut. As a matter of fact, the movie was also stuck with the censor board for a good two years. Based on Hussain Zaidis novel, Black Friday explores the story behind the 1993 Bombay bomb blasts. The movie showed how the hatred between religions resulted in bombings. It was raw and as real as it can get. 2. Ugly It might not be as powerful as Black Friday, but its worthy of taking a slot in this list of the Anurag Kashyap movies. As the names suggest, this movie is all about showing you the ugliness of a human being. Kashyap doesnt hesitate even once in making you meet your own flaws through the characters. 3. Gulaal In Anurag Kashyaps world, you cannot escape the brutal realities of this society. Gulaal puts you at a tough spot as it throws uncomfortable questions at you about masculinity, politics, ragging, the pride of a cast, love, anger, lust, and betrayal. You cant help yourself asking these questions as the movie will have such a deep impact on you. 4. Gangs of Wasseypur You can trust Kashyap for going against the set notions of filmmaking. This movie also shows you the harsh reality of clans vying for power and they leave no opportunity to rip apart other clans if they have to be at the top of this dirty game called power and politics. 5. Masaan Masaan is yet again one thought-provoking movie that will introduce to the old age conventions that are still being followed by our Indian society. You might keep showing that things are changing but the reality is never fancy. This movie questions the whole idea of a woman being branded names if she wants to have sex before her marriage. It also questions the whole caste system and how deeply rooted it is in the Indian culture. He might not have directed this one but he was one of the producers of the movie. You need an eye for great content. Lets end this article by quoting him from one of his interviews with PTI, Indian films have this obsession with hygienic clean spaces, even though the country's not so clean. London, June 2 : Young British skateboarder Sky Brown survived a life-threatening ramp accident during a training session in California on Monday. She was airlifted to a hospital where she was reportedly non-responsive initially but is now expected to get better soon. Brown, who is set to become Britain's youngest-ever Olympian at the Tokyo Games, suffered skull fractures and a broken left hand and wrist. "Sky landed head-first off a ramp on her hand. When she first came to hospital, everyone was fearful for her life," her father Stewart was quoted as saying by BBC Sport. "Sky had the gnarliest fall she's ever had and is lucky to be alive. She remains positive and strong, the whole medical team is shocked to see her positivity," he added. Brown, later, shared the video of her fall on her Instagram account which also included paramedics reaching her and she being airlifted to the hospital. Despite suffering such a horrific injury, Brown remains upbeat and stated she will be going for gold when Olympics takes place next year. "I don't usually post my falls or talk about them because I want people to see the fun in what I do, but this was my worst fall and I just want everyone to know that I'm okay," Brown said in the video uploaded on her Instagram account. "It's okay to fall sometimes. I'm just going to get back up and push even harder. I know there's a lot going on in the world right now and I want everyone to know that whatever we do we've got to do it with love and happiness. "This will not stop me. I am going for gold in Tokyo 2021. Stay strong. Stay positive." Monday evening, in three Southern statesFlorida, Alabama, and Virginiaprotesters toppled graffiti-covered statues celebrating the former Confederate government that fought to uphold the institution of slavery, as crowds cheered. The Daily Beast India will return to growth, won't depend on others: Modi to India Inc India would return to the growth path while the rest of the world was struggling with the coronavirus outbreak, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, even as the latest government data showed India's economy had in 2019-2020 grown at the slowest pace in 11 years. Getting growth back is our motto, too, as we reopen the economy. Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor Press Release Nicox Initiates First Phase 3 Trial of NCX 470 in Glaucoma Mont Blanc clinical trial to randomize 600+ patients at sites primarily across the U.S. Adaptive dose selection in Mont Blanc allows the start of the second Phase 3 trial, Denali NCX 470 will compete in the >$6 billion worldwide glaucoma market1 June 2, 2020 - release at 7:30 am CET Sophia Antipolis, France Nicox SA (Euronext Paris: FR0013018124, COX), an international ophthalmology company, today announced the initiation of the first Phase 3 clinical trial, named Mont Blanc, evaluating NCX 470 for the lowering of intraocular pressure (IOP) in patients with open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension, by enrolling the first 12 patients yesterday. NCX 470 is the company's novel, second-generation nitric oxide (NO)-donating bimatoprost analog. The Mont Blanc trial is a multi-regional, double-masked, 3-month, parallel group, adaptive design trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of NCX 470 ophthalmic solution, 0.065% and 0.1% compared to latanoprost ophthalmic solution, 0.005% in patients with open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension. In an adaptive portion of the trial, one NCX 470 dose will be selected to continue in the subsequent head-to-head 3-month safety and efficacy evaluation of NCX 470 vs. latanoprost. The primary efficacy evaluation is based on time-matched IOP at 8 AM and 4 PM at Week 2, Week 6 and Month 3. The trial is expected to randomize 600+ patients, primarily at clinical sites in the U.S. and at a small number of clinical sites in China. Michele Garufi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Nicox, said, "The initiation of the Mont Blanc trial is a pivotal step forward for Nicox. The Dolomites Phase 2 trial has already shown that we have an excellent product candidate in our hands by demonstrating that NCX 470 0.065% is statistically superior vs. latanoprost in IOP lowering. NCX 470 is Nicox's lead product candidate and value driver, with the potential to be an improvement over the current standard of care for patients with elevated IOP." Tomas Navratil, PhD, EVP & Head of R&D of the Nicox Group and General Manager of Nicox Ophthalmics, Inc., said, "We have assembled a group of top glaucoma clinical investigators who are enthusiastic to participate in the Mont Blanc trial, based on the promising NCX 470 results from our Phase 2 Dolomites trial. The adaptive design of the Mont Blanc trial will allow us to select the optimal NCX 470 dose for the remainder of the trial and, shortly thereafter, to start our second Phase 3 trial, Denali. Both of these pivotal trials benefit from agreement by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to conduct the primary efficacy analysis based on time-matched IOPs at 8 AM and 4 PM, rather than the traditional 8 AM, 10 AM and 4 PM measurements, due to Nicox's use of latanoprost as the active comparator in both the Mont Blanc and Denali trials." In the Phase 2 Dolomites trial, NCX 470 demonstrated both statistical non-inferiority and superiority to latanoprost, the U.S. standard of care for patients with open-angle glaucoma and ocular hypertension, and the market leader in prostaglandin analog prescriptions. We believe the 7.6 to 9.8 mmHg IOP reduction from baseline at 8 AM, 10 AM and 4 PM across the Week 1, 2 and 4 Visits in the Dolomites trial is the highest reduction demonstrated by an eye drop in a glaucoma clinical trial. COVID-19 Situation Due to potential delays caused by COVID-19, the Company is not currently providing a target date for the Mont Blanc topline results. Although we currently do not anticipate delays to our clinical timelines, we are closely monitoring the situation and will apprise the market if there is any impact on our development timelines. Notes: 1. IQVIA Analytics Link 2019 About Glaucoma Glaucoma is a group of ocular diseases in which the optic nerve is injured, leading to peripheral and, ultimately, central visual field loss. Glaucoma can eventually lead to blindness if not treated and is currently considered to be one of the three leading causes of irreversible blindness worldwide. Glaucoma is frequently linked to abnormally high intraocular pressure (IOP) due to blockage or malfunction of the eye's aqueous humor drainage system in the front of the eye. Current medications are targeted at reducing IOP to slow the progression of the disease. The requirement for multiple medications to lower an individual patient's IOP to their target level highlights the need for more effective treatments. In 2019, worldwide sales of treatments targeting glaucoma were over $6.0 billion out of a $21.9 billion worldwide market for ophthalmic drugs. In the U.S., sales of treatments targeting glaucoma totaled $3.2 billion in 2019 or 37% of the $8.8 billion U.S. market for ophthalmic drugs. Of the U.S. sales of treatments targeting glaucoma, $1.5 billion, or almost 50%, was sales of prostaglandin analogs, of which nearly 90% were branded products, led by Lumigan (bimatoprost ophthalmic solution), 0.01% and Travatan Z (travoprost ophthalmic solution), 0.004%. Currently, we estimate that 3.5% of the worldwide population between 40 and 80 years of age are affected by the most common forms of glaucoma, and we estimate that, in 2018, around 36 million prescriptions were written in the U.S. annually for glaucoma drugs. About NCX 470 NCX 470 is a novel, second generation nitric oxide (NO)-donating bimatoprost analog in development for the lowering of intraocular pressure (IOP) in patients with open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension. NCX 470 is designed to release both bimatoprost and NO following instillation into the eye. Bimatoprost, marketed under the brand name LUMIGAN by Allergan, Inc., is one of the leading products in the class of prostaglandin analogs, the most widely used class of drugs for IOP-lowering in patients with open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension. About Nicox Nicox S.A. is an ophthalmology company developing innovative solutions to help maintain vision and improve ocular health. Nicox's lead program in clinical development is NCX 470, a novel, second-generation nitric oxide-donating bimatoprost analog, for lowering intraocular pressure in patients with glaucoma. The company is also developing NCX 4251, a proprietary formulation of fluticasone, for acute exacerbations of blepharitis. Nicox generates revenue from VYZULTA in glaucoma, licensed exclusively worldwide to Bausch & Lomb, and ZERVIATE in allergic conjunctivitis, licensed in multiple geographies, including to Eyevance Pharmaceuticals, LLC, in the U.S. and Ocumension Therapeutics in the Chinese and Southeast Asian markets. Nicox is headquartered in Sophia Antipolis, France, is listed on Euronext Paris (Compartment B: Mid Caps; Ticker symbol: COX) and is part of the CAC Healthcare, CAC Pharma & Bio and Next 150 indexes. For more information on Nicox, its products or pipeline, please visit: www.nicox.com (http://www.nicox.com) . Analyst coverage Bryan, Garnier & Co Victor Floc'h Paris, France Cantor Fitzgerald Louise Chen New York, U.S. H.C. Wainwright & Co Yi Chen New York, U.S. Oppenheimer & Co Hartaj Singh New York, U.S. The views expressed by analysts in their coverage of Nicox are those of the author and do not reflect the views of Nicox. Additionally, the information contained in their reports may not be correct or current. Nicox disavows any obligation to correct or to update the information contained in analyst reports. Contacts Nicox Gavin Spencer Executive Vice President, Chief Business Officer & Head of Corporate Development T +33 (0)4 97 24 53 00 communications@nicox.com (mailto:communications@nicox.com) Investors & Media United States & Europe LifeSci Advisors, LLC Hans Herklots T +41 79 598 71 49 hherklots@lifesciadvisors.com (mailto:hherklots@lifesciadvisors.com) Media France LifeSci Advisors, LLC Sophie Baumont M +33 (0)6 27 74 74 49 sophie@lifesciadvisors.com (mailto:sophie@lifesciadvisors.com) Forward-Looking Statements The information contained in this document may be modified without prior notice. This information includes forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. These statements are based on current expectations or beliefs of the management of Nicox S.A. and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Nicox S.A. and its affiliates, directors, officers, employees, advisers or agents, do not undertake, nor do they have any obligation, to provide updates or to revise any forward-looking statements. Risks factors which are likely to have a material effect on Nicox's business are presented in the 3rd chapter of the 'Document d'enregistrement universel, rapport financier annuel et rapport de gestion 2019' filed with the French Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF) on March 6, 2020 which are available on Nicox's website ( www.nicox.com (http://www.nicox.com)). New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday delivered the inaugural address at Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Annual Session 2020- Getting Growth Back. This is PMs first major speech on the Indian Economy since the announcement of Unlock-1. The virtual online meeting at the annual session of the CII assumes significance as companies are resuming operations after the government has allowed gradual phasing out of the lockdown. The CII is an industry association in India and is completing 125 years of its journey this year. Here are the updates Let us pledge to make the country Atmanirbhar Bharat and invest all our energy for making this a success. Government stands with you: PM Our government considers private sector as the partner of countrys growth chart. Government will take care of all your concerns and need regarding Armanirbhar Bharat. I have continuously held discussion with all the stakeholders and this will continue: PM You can participate in the rural economy by making investment. Infrastructures are being built in villages for clusters on local agro products. CII members have a lot of oportunities here I am very proud to say that in just 3 months you have started Personal Protective Equipment -PPE industry worth crores of rupees. We need products that are Made in India and Made for the World Government is doing such policy reforms that people had stopped expecting about: PM Getting Growth Back is not very difficult. Indian Industries have a clear path for this which is Atmanirbhar Bharat. Atmanirbhar Bharat can be completely integrated with world economy. Atmanirbhar Bharat means we become stronger and embrace the world. We must invest in such a robust Local Supply Chain that will strengthen Indias participation in Global Supply Chain Governments direction in mining sector, energy sector, research and technology will give immense opportunity to the industries and also open job opportunities for the youth: PM The participation of Private players is becoming a reality in the countrys strategic sectors There has been a long standing demand to change the definition of MSMEs Government has taken steps to bring relief to farmers via amendment of APMC Act, opened up non-strategic sectors to private sector, freed up coal sector by allowing commercial mining. We are also undertaking long pending labour reforms, says PM World is looking for a trusted, reliable partner. India has the potential, strength and ability. Industry should take the opportunity of the trust that has developed for India all over the world For us, reforms does not mean some random or scattered decisions. For us, reforms means systemic, planned, integrated, inter-connected and futuristic process. For us, reforms means the ability to take decisions and take them to logical conclusion: PM During lockdown, government has provided more than 8 crore gas cylinder for free Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yogna has helped the poor and needy. Nearly 74 crore Beneficiaries have got ration under this scheme We need to highlight on 5 I: Intent, Inclusion, Investment, Infrastructure and Innovation We have gone past the lockdown, opening large part of economy. More parts of economy will open up from June 8: Modi Making the economy strong post COVID-19 is the top priority now, says Modi I say so because I believe in India's innovation capabilities. I say so because I am confident on India's intellect, MSMEs and entrepreneurs: Modi From Getting Growth Back, I will go a step ahead and say 'Yes we will definitely get our growth back' says PM Online events like these are becoming new normal in times of Corona: PM Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulates CII on completing 125 years CII has been dedicated to nation building. We are most privileged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has agreed to inaugurate the session: Vikram Kirloskar, President, CII CII is the only industry association with a social compact for a caring industry. CII has played an important role in the nation's development agenda: Kirloskar CII connects and has vast network across geographies and opens a new door for India on foreign shores: Kirloskar CII has touched the lives of almost 80 lakh people during the current pandemic crisis: Kirloskar As we bring back growth, CII is committed to ensuring that it is inclusive for all sections of society. Industry will need to play a major role in this: Kirloskar Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc was all smiles Sunday on a trip to an industrial park, where he inquired about workers health, patted their children on home visits and admired the speakers being made in factories. The trip was part of reopening the economy after curbing COVID-19, across much of the nation where there is little sign of the pandemic that is raging around the world. Bad news elsewhere is good news in some cases for Vietnam, whose 46 days without local infections let it reopen and gain an advantage over other economies. HSBC bank dubbed it Pho'nomenal Vietnam, a reference to the iconic noodle soup, in a report last week that said it is the only economy in the region that will grow in 2020. We think the headwinds created by COVID-19 and the trade tensions, which are hurting so many other economies, are turning into tailwinds for Vietnam, said Devendra Joshi and Herald van der Linde, equity strategists at HSBC, in the report. The trade tensions between China and the United States is only one example of news that has been bad for some, such as the consumers who are paying higher prices because of tariffs, but has worked out for Vietnam on balance. The Southeast Asian nation has been called the main winner in the trade war because companies moved there from China. COVID-19 is another example of the bright side for Vietnam. It was not immune to the virus, which forced schools and companies to close for weeks or months and led to the economy growing only 3.8% annualized in the first quarter, the lowest rate in a decade. However the pandemic is one more reason for companies to move to Vietnam, analysts say. The emergency led to canceled flights and closed borders, which disrupted global supply chains. That got companies worried that they were too reliant on single suppliers, so the push to diversify has meant more foreign investment moving into Vietnam. Social distance COVID-19 and increasing U.S.-China trade tensions should accelerate the process of companies rejigging their supply chains, Joshi and van der Linde said. The economy has had a patchy reopening since Vietnam lifted the national lockdown order for most areas in mid-April. People have returned to work and school with new measures, from the coffee shops that seat customers farther apart, to the grocery stores that place tape on the ground to separate people in line. Companies that have adjusted include Ford Vietnam. It has added steps to disinfect cars when being sold or repaired, transitioned to cashless payments and offered sales consulting remotely. The COVID-19 pandemic brings a challenging and volatile time to individuals, businesses and countries across the globe," said Pham Van Dung, general director of Ford Vietnam, adding that the company is committed to keeping the safety of our employees, agents, customers and partners first. Startup opportunity Just as COVID-19 has been a boon for video conferencing apps and home workout gear, some startup companies in Vietnam spy an opportunity. Vibeji, based in Ho Chi Minh City, is a platform where people earn money by offering a service, usually via video, from reading Tarot cards to teaching others how to make a book cover. This is a good time to social distance and work remotely, the company said. We all should play a part during this difficult time, Tri Lecao, chief executive officer of Vibeji, said. Moving work and services online are parts of the solution. Companies in the communist nation are also alert to the chance that the virus could come back. Herbert Laubichler-Pichler, the general manager of the Alma Resort, said in the hospitality industry for instance, companies should not be content just to put out hand gel for customers. He urged people to take more precautions and be aware of ongoing risky behavior, such as eateries leaving out condiments for all to share. We cannot go back to acting like we did before, as if nothing has happened, he said, adding, We dont want to undo all of the fantastic work that has been achieved in Vietnam so far. EDITOR'S NOTE: After the dam failure in Midland impacted residents throughout the area, we decided to take a closer look at dams. This is part one of a two part series; today we will focus on what oversight exists and how it functions throughout the state. MANISTEE Anyone can own a dam in Michigan. This means a resident, private company or public entity can operate a dam in the state. But what does that mean for the rules they need to follow while running the dam? THE STATE There are about 2,500 dams in the state according to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE). The state considers about half of those too small or insignificant to regulate. The state defines a dam as an artificial barrier that impounds, diverts, or is designed to impound or divert water or a combination of water and any other liquid or material in the water and is taller than 6 feet high and has an impounding capacity of 5 surface acres or more. About 33% of dams in Michigan fall under the states dam safety regulations and about 9% are regulated by the state for their inland lake level mandates, according to EGLEs numbers on its dam safety part of its website. There are 99 hydroelectric dams in Michigan that are overseen by federal regulations. The Peters Bayou Dam in Manistee and Edenville Dam owned by Boyce Hydro are listed as examples of several dams EGLE regulates, according to EGLEs online map of dams it oversees. Anyone planning to construct, enlarge, repair, alter, remove, abandon or reconstruct a state-regulated dam must get a permit from EGLE. While a dam can be public or privately owned, all owners need to hire a licensed professional engineer to do the required inspections, said Nick Assendelft, public information officer for EGLE. They conduct the more thorough inspections that they report to EGLE and then our dam inspectors review that report, Assendelft said. We have two dam inspectors essentially, for the whole state. Even on a schedule where dams need to be inspected every three years type of thing, and thats not the case for all of them, but even at that kind of schedule they cant get to them all. Inspection reports are required every three to five years for state regulated dams based on their hazard potential rating. And then if theres anything that raises a flag based on that report, then we go back to the owner and say this report says X, you need to do Y to fix that situation, Assendelft said. How frequently a dam needs to be inspected is determined by its hazard designation, which indicates what downstream impacts might be if a flood occurs. The designations are not based on a dams condition. If a dam is high hazard, where environmental degradation would be significant or where danger to individuals exists with the potential for loss of life, inspection reports are required at least every three years. Dams deemed as having significant hazard potential downstream are required to have inspection reports submitted to the state once every four years. More Information Hazard designations definitions High hazard potential dam: A dam located in an area where a failure may cause serious damage to inhabited homes, agricultural buildings, campgrounds, recreational facilities, industrial or commercial buildings, public utilities, main highways, or class I carrier railroads, or where environmental degradation would be significant or where danger to individuals exists with the potential for loss of life. Significant hazard potential dam: A dam located in an area where its failure may cause damage limited to isolated inhabited homes, agricultural buildings, structures, secondary highways, short line railroads, or public utilities, where environmental degradation may be significant or where danger to individuals exists. Low hazard potential dam: A dam located in an area where failure may cause damage limited to agriculture, uninhabited buildings, structures, or township or county roads, where environmental degradation would be minimal, and where danger to individuals is slight or nonexistent. See More Collapse For low hazard potential dams, the report is required once every five years. Inspection reports include an evaluation of the dams condition and structural integrity, whether deficiencies could lead to failure and maintenance and repair recommendations. Assendelft said if an issue persists, there are several enforcement options. He said EGLE can issue a violation notice or notice of intent with potential financial penalties attached. Another step to enforce compliance is to issue a unilateral order or a dam safety order. If an inspection indicates deficiencies that endanger a dam, EGLE confirms with their own site inspection, and then can order the owner to take immediate action to alleviate the danger, Assendelft said. Usually (this) includes language requiring repair, rehab, modification or removal. He said EGLE could also request a court order or an emergency order, if needed. Assendelft said violations are considered part of the public record with EGLE-regulated dams. However, to access any related information, one would need to file a Freedom Of Information Act request from the state. FERC SIDE When it comes to dams, anything hydropower usually means oversight by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Does the dam generate electricity? Thats the first question, said Mark Breederland, of Michigan Sea Grant Extension and the Northwest Michigan Grand Traverse MSU Extension. Because if it does generate electricity, then it falls under the (Federal) Regulatory Commission. However, in some cases like systemic noncompliance, regulation can be transferred back to the state. Breederland said this was the case with the Boyce Hydro dam that failed. The dams are always regulated but it transfers if FERC somehow says OK, we are done, weve revoked your license then instantly state laws on the dam safety act take over within the state of Michigan, Breederland said. In some instances, the Department of Natural Resources plays a role within the management responsibilities on rivers that have hydroelectric facilities on them, according to the DNRs website. Jessica Mistak, of the DNRs Fisheries Division, said FERC issues 30-, 40- or 50-year licenses. That license will cover everything from how they operate to how they take care of land, how they provide recreation, how environmental and natural resources issues are addressed, Mistak said. Owners of a hydroelectric project go through a National Environmental Policy Act environmental impact statement or assessment, and part of the process means there will be a notice of intent sent. And anyone who wants to be engaged in the license and especially those who have standing, can apply for legally recognized standing as a participant in the license process, Mistak explained adding that the Michigan DNR always opts to participate in the licence processes. She said there are also other entities like tribal governments, non-governmental organizations and interest groups, that tend to want to participate in the process. There are a lot of groups that care, she said. Were part of that process from that ground floor, and recommending the different types of studies that need to be done to understand what exists at the project and how proposed operations could impact the environment, natural resources, recreation, impact the water itself. She said the DNR makes recommendations on how the facility should be operated and how the operators should provide for recreation, water quality and how it takes care of fisheries and wildlife. After the DNR makes those recommendations, a decision on the hydrodam licensing is up to FERC and the DNR remains involved. Mistak said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission weighs the recommendations and decides if it will issue a licence for 30, 40 or 50-years on a dam. For example, if part of the license stipulates the dam has a wildlife plan that requires nesting boxes for waterfowl around the impoundment or that the area needs to monitor for invasive species the DNR will monitor those reports from the dam holder and give feedback. Although the agencies governing these operations are public, requesting information on violation history and the current status of dams under FERCs regulation may return few results and the Homeland Security Act may be cited as the reasoning for limiting public information on hydropower dams. FERC could not be reached by press time Monday for a clarification on which part(s) of the Homeland Security act apply to excluding some or all hydrodam reports and information from the public. The construction, use and repair of hydroelectric dams are inspected and supervised by FERC or that agencies authorized representatives, as are periodic safety inspections, according to guidelines posted on the FERC website. Those guidelines indicate that inspections are once a year for high and significant hazard dams, and every three years for others. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. This market research report includes a detailed segmentation of the global visitor management system market by system (check-in & check-out, appointments, security, contractor management, and notifications), industry (critical infrastructure, BFSI, IT & telecom, retail, government, manufacturing, and others), and region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East Africa, and Latin America). The market research report identifies iLobby, SwipedOn, Envoy, Proxyclick, Sine, Cogent Innovations, Traction Guest, Lobbipad, EasyLobby, and WhosOnLocation as the leading players in the global visitor management system market. Request For Report Sample @ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/sample/11553 Overview of the Visitor Management System Market Infoholics market research report predicts that the global visitor management system market will grow at a CAGR of more than 15% during the forecast period 20192025. The market trends for visitor management systems are primarily driven by the increasing demand from organizations to inspect and detect intruders in facilities. An integrated approach to screen and monitor visitors is driving the growth of the market. Industries and countries that are prone to security threats are expected to focus more on visitor management systems. The admin team is responsible for properly planning their activities when a visitor arrives at the facility. Mobile notifications and alert systems help companies to optimize their revenue generation and enhance the customer experience. Globally, organizations are adopting various technologies to streamline the activities to ease out visitor monitoring. According to our visitor management system market analysis, Europe accounts for the largest market share in 2019. With the presence of the high number of technology innovators and market disruptors in North America, the adoption of these platforms is expected to rapidly increase in the US and Canada. Several enterprises in this region are focusing on enhancing entire facilities with better security and visitor management. Asia Pacific is anticipated to grow substantially due to the market potential in China, India, & Australia and investments in IoT, mobility, & RFID. The visitor management system market is growing with an increase in investments from governments in smart infrastructure and construction. The Europe region is anticipated to grow at a high CAGR owing to the presence of many large & emerging enterprises in utilities and telecom equipment providers in Germany, UK, and France. The visitor management platform creates visibility and control for enterprises to plan guest, interviews, and maintenance works. The key components in the market would be various technology influx in bringing mobility and a centralized control system for visitors. The significant adoption of the visitor management system is witnessed in commercial and public buildings. Few of the societies are adopting the visitor management system, looking into the increasing need to monitor contractors and technicians in the housing societies. One of the most important features that a visitor management system provides is automation in processes, which were previously done by manual writings. Get Complete TOC with Tables and Figures@ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/discount/11553 Visitor Management System Competitive Analysis and Key Vendors The report covers and analyzes the visitor management system market. The system mainly consists of emerging players focusing on digital technologies, including IoT, RFID, and analytics. The key players in the market are adopting various organic growth strategies, i.e., new product launches and expansion strategies, to be in a strong position with distinguished products. The software modules help in pre-registration and agile & easy way to connect to guests or visitors for meetings. It also helps in keeping a database to check their previous visits, entry or exit, to the building or premises. Some of the Key Vendors in the Visitor Management System Market: iLobby SwipedOn Envoy Proxyclick Sine Cogent Innovations Lobbipad TractionGuest WhosOnLocation These companies are striving in the market sphere by leveraging smart and intelligent technologies that help visitor tracking in facilities. Most of the vendors are offering cloud-based visitor management software with web and mobile applications. There are few other vendors that have been studied based on the portfolio, geographical presence, marketing & distribution channels, revenue generation, and significant investments in R&D for analysis of the entire ecosystem. Visitor Management System Segmentation By System Check-in & Check-out Appointments Security Contractor Management Notifications The notifications segment is expected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period 20192025. Visitor Management System Segmentation By Industry Critical Infrastructure BFSI IT & Telecom Retail Government Manufacturing Others The IT & telecom segment is estimated to hold the largest market share in 2019, and this trend is likely to continue during the forecast period 20192025. Benefits The report provides an in-depth analysis of the visitor management system market. The visitor management combines various technologies of automation, mobility, cloud, analytics, and visitor tracking capabilities with mobile apps to offer multiple innovative, intelligent features in enterprise visitor management. By analyzing and categorizing visitors, the vendors are expected to grow multi-folds during the forecast period. The adoption of digital technologies suffices security and identity management, along with smooth visitor co-ordination for managing visitors. The report discusses the market size in terms of system, industry, and region. Furthermore, the report provides details about the major challenges impacting the market growth. <<< Get COVID-19 Report Analysis >>> https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/covid-19-analysis/11553 Luiji Vilain was healthy for the first time in three seasons last year, a welcome change for Michigans highly-touted defensive end. But while he was 100 percent from a physical standpoint, his mental state was a different story. Back-to-back knee surgeries, sidelining him for the 2017 and 2018 seasons entirely, took a toll on Vilain's confidence. Could he regain what he had? Id say last year was trouble, Vilain recently told MLive. Like, I was healthy, but mentally I wasnt fully there. Just being able to trust me knee with certain movements, he explained. Just taking it day by day. Its a process." MORE: Michigan football discussing possible return with university Vilain, whos listed at 6-foot-4 and says he weighs 255 pounds now (up from the 244 Michigan listed him at last fall), appeared in seven games as a rotational defensive end during the 2019 season. He had seven tackles (one for a loss) and a sack, but most of his playing time was late in games. Starters Kwity Paye and Aidan Hutchinson, both all-Big Ten players, received most of the snaps while graduate transfer Mike Danna jumped ahead of him on the depth chart. Luiji is healthier than ever, Paye told MLive. Hes missed two seasons already and hes just trying to get back out there and keep working. Trying to earn his way to contribute to the team. Michigan defensive coordinator Don Brown predicts productive, solid play from Vilain an Ottawa, Ontario, native but his role remains unclear. Both Hutchinson and Paye are back this season, leaving everyone else to compete for backup time. RELATED: Vilain, other U-M players find unique ways to stay in shape during COVID-19 But theres more the possibility for more. Brown called Vilain and redshirt freshman David Ojabo functional package players in 2020, opening the door for either to seize additional playing time. I go back and watch Luiji play last year at times, Brown said. Obviously he was hurt because Mike Danna was there, but the bottom line is its his time now. And hell have an opportunity to prove what he can do. So far this offseason, so good. Vilain, a former four-star recruit and top-150 player in the U.S., after moving to Virginia prior to his junior season, got his first injury-free season out of the way and spent the winter and spring working to get his body into even better shape. Hes joined Paye for regular workouts in southeast Michigan, hoping, waiting for the call to return to Schembechler Hall. But I truly feel like Im there now, Vilain said. "I feel like Im ready to go. Get Wolverine Confidential texts straight to your phone from our Michigan football writers. Cut through the clutter of social media and communicate directly with our beat reporters, just like you would with your friends. Sign up for insight on the Wolverines for $4.99 a month (with a 60-day free trial) by texting 734-215-6605. Read more on Michigan football: This is U-M football in a time of social distancing Recruiting hot streak continues: 3-star OL Tristan Bounds commits Deep RB room could mean more 2-back sets for Michigan The old Chris Evans in a new offense could be key Quinn Nordin will have to win Michigans kicking job, again Linta Mary Philip By Express News Service KOCHI: Varapuzha market, one of the major fish markets in the district, has been grappling with waste issues for a long time. But the issue has worsened over the past few weeks, since the re-opening of all commercial units after lockdown. This is after the parties who were earlier involved in the removal of waste refused to resume operations. Though the district collector has instructed the local body to address the issue, the hundreds who throng the market fear an outbreak of diseases with the onset of monsoon. In addition to retail fish stalls, the market has around 30 units, consisting of vegetable and meat stalls and hotels. All these units generate a great deal of waste. The fish wholesale unit has been shifted to a ground outside the market, to avoid crowding and to maintain social distancing. The major issue is the absence of a designated area for depositing or processing the trash. The traders often collaborate with local authorities to remove waste from the market area. However, we cant find a dumping ground for the entire waste generated here, said Jimmy Chakketh, president of Varapuzha Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samithi. The panchayat had placed a request before the collector to make arrangements for disposing of the market waste. The request was studied by the District Disaster Management Authority and a proposal to let the waste be deposited at Brahmapuram Waste Treatment Plant was placed before district authorities. A meeting with the corporation authorities ensued and the rates for the waste collection were discussed. The final decision will be taken after the corporation council meets, said K S Muhammed, Varapuzha panchayat president. Biogas plant A tender for setting up a biogas plant too is in the final stages. This is the second time that the tender had to be called since the contractors who had taken up the work initially refused to start it until the waste pile is removed. It is expected that the ` 1 crore project from MLAs fund will be a permanent solution to the problem. The panchayat is taking steps to remove the waste immediately. The company entrusted with the task was responsible for that, till March 31. With the beginning of the new financial year, they are refusing to resume activities until all the accumulated waste is removed, said Valsa Balan, panchayat ward member. Varapuzha panchayat has also set up a plastic waste shredding unit, which is yet to start functioning. For Immediate Release Chicago, IL June 2, 2020 Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: The Boeing Company BA, Leidos Holdings Inc. LDOS, Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. SPCE, Northrop Grumman Corp. NOC and Lockheed Martin Corp. LMT. Here are highlights from Mondays Analyst Blog: 4 Tech Stocks to Soar on SpaceX's Historic Voyage Since NASA retired the Space Shuttle in 2011, astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) are being sent through Russian vessels. However, on May 30, SpaceX launched the Dragon capsule on top of a Falcon 9 rocket, boarded by NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken. They are the first astronauts to be launched into space in nearly a decade from American soil. The Dragon capsule or spacecraft that is capable of ferrying up to seven astronauts is called the Crew Dragon, while the Cargo Dragon ferries cargo to outer space. The Crew Dragon capsule, now known as Endeavour, has successfully docked with the ISS. SpaceX now holds the record of being the first private company to send man into outer space, which was earlier done only by the governments of the United States, Russia and China. An Era of Commercial Space Travel The recent success not only marks the restart of Americas venture into the space through its own soil but also opens up an arena for private companies dealing with space technology. In fact, private companies like SpaceX have shown that launching satellites to outer space can be cheaper than expected. SpaceX's partially-reusable Falcon9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule combination is more than competitive in price even though the company is the latest to enter the market. NASA has provided massive funding to The Boeing Company and SpaceX to develop and operate a new generation of spacecraft and launch systems capable of carrying crew to low-Earth orbit and the ISS. NASA has also announced another partnership with SpaceX, Blue Origin and Leidos Holdings Inc.s subsidiary Dynetics to work on the landing systems for its Artemis program. NASA aims to land the first woman and next man on the moon by 2024. Story continues The SpaceX launch was a giant success in the growing space tourism sector, which includes players like Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. In fact, space exploration and tourism along with long-haul travel on the Earth are expected to grow into a more than $800 billion industry in the coming decade.The global space launch services market size was valued at $9.88 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach $32.41 billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 15.7%. Trumps Space Force Program For a decade now, America has been relying on Russia for sending its astronauts and supplies to the ISS at a hefty cost of $86 million per seat. During U.S. President Donald Trumps first year in office, he signed a directive for NASA to work with private sector partners to send man on moon again, followed by Mars and outer space. Last December 2019, Trump launched the United States Space Force (USSF), which is the space warfare service branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. The program is responsible for organizing, training and equipping forces for space service support. This includes missile warning and provides freedom of operation for the United States in, from, and to space. Per a Reuters report on May 6, the U.S. administration is drafting a legal blueprint for mining on the moon. This new U.S.-sponsored international agreement is called the Artemis Accords, which is a named after the NASAs new Artemis moon program. The accord supports NASAs plan to put humans and space stations on the moon within the next decade. However, the draft plan for the accordhasstill not been formally shared with Americas allies and has neither been signed. 4 Stocks to Watch Out For The success of SpaceX and plans of launch of new constellations of satellites to enter low-Earth orbit in the coming years brighten prospects for space technology. Hence, we have shortlisted four stocks that belong to the Zacks Aerospace - Defense industry and can make the most of this boom. All the stocks carry Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 (Strong Buy) Rank stocks here. The Boeing Company designs reusable space vehicle technologiesin collaboration with NASA. The company is working on the Boeing CST-100 Starliner (Crew Space Transportation-100), which is a reusable crew capsule. Its primary purpose is to transport crew to the ISS and to private space stations, such as the proposed Bigelow Aerospace Commercial Space Station. The company has an expected earnings growth rate of 45.4% for the current year. Northrop Grumman Corp. offers mission systems and solutions that are applicable to aerospace along withend-to-end space and launch systems. The company has an expected earnings growth rate of 4.3% for the current year. Lockheed Martin Corp. provides the U.S. government, the Department of Defense and NASA with satellites, rocket launch systems, ground systems and plays an immense role in the Space Force program. The company has an expected earnings growth rate of 9.6% for the current year. Leidos Holdings, Inc. has processed, packaged and shipped ISS cargo for 87 visiting vehicles that include SpaceX and Orbital ATK. Leidos offers services for commercial low-Earth orbit and lunar spaceflight which includes payload design, mission integration, and human factors engineering. The company has an expected earnings growth rate of 1.4% for the current year. Zacks Single Best Pick to Double From thousands of stocks, 5 Zacks experts each picked their favorite to gain +100% or more in months to come. From those 5, Zacks Director of Research, SherazMian hand-picks one to have the most explosive upside of all. This young companys gigantic growth was hidden by low-volume trading, then cut short by the coronavirus. But its digital products stand out in a region where the internet economy has tripled since 2015 and looks to triple again by 2025. Its stock price is already starting to resume its upward arc. The skys the limit! And the earlier you get in, the greater your potential gain. Click Here, See It Free >> Media Contact Zacks Investment Research 800-767-3771 ext. 9339 support@zacks.com https://www.zacks.com Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performancefor information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. Click to get this free report Northrop Grumman Corporation (NOC) : Free Stock Analysis Report The Boeing Company (BA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Leidos Holdings, Inc. (LDOS) : Free Stock Analysis Report Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (SPCE) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Two years after its release, Robin DiAngelos book White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, is a national bestseller. In fact, as I write these words, it is the number one bestselling book on Amazon. This is a very rare achievement for a book when it is first released, let alone 24 months later. DiAngelo obviously hit a nerve. According to the New Yorker, The value in White Fragility lies in its methodical, irrefutable exposure of racism in thought and action, and its call for humility and vigilance. And note that word, humility. Author Resmaa Menakem used the same word when reviewing the book, calling it, A rare and incisive examination of the system of white body supremacy that binds us all as Americans. . . . With authenticity and clarity, she provides the antidote to white fragility and a road map for developing white racial stamina and humility. White Fragility loosens the bonds of white supremacy and binds us back together as human beings. Now, if you are white, you might already be reacting to the phrases white fragility and white supremacy. But rather than react, why not ask yourself a series of simple questions? 1) Do you want true equality for every American? 2) Is justice a value that you affirm? 3) Do you believe that, ultimately, there is one race, the human race? 4) Do you reject the idea that people of color are inherently inferior? 5) Do you reject any form of apartheid or segregation? 6) If you consider yourself a follower of Jesus, do you agree that the spirit of racism is contrary to the spirit of the gospel? I would hope that every person of conscience would answer the first 5 questions in the affirmative and that every follower of Jesus would also answer the 6th question in the affirmative. That being the case, there is no reason for white fragility. If something is wrong, let us fix it. If the problem runs deep, let us look for deep solutions. If we are part of the problem, let us be part of the solution. Thats what humility calls for. Let the truth come to the light. There is no reason for fragility. Let us do what is right. And if we are falsely accused, let us push back with the truth. If some of our earliest laws enshrined racism, let us acknowledge it. No one claims that America has been perfect, plus we werent the ones who made those laws. That means that we can praise our founders for the good they did and remain indebted to that good while also acknowledging the wrong they did. Theres no reason to be fragile when it comes to our history. Like the history of every nation, the history of our nation is mixed. And when it comes to the present, where this is wrong, let us face it. Thats what humility does. It is those who are secure who can be humble. The insecure take refuge in carnal pride. But being humble when it comes to race issues doesnt mean that we justify todays looters and rioters. Or that we follow the lead of professional race baiters. Or that we automatically affirm a group like Black Lives Matter. Or that we accept every claim of injustice. Each instance must be judged on its own merit and each charge evaluated for itself. For example, the Department of Justice, under the direction of Eric Holder, produced a scathing report on the practices of the Ferguson police department in the aftermath of the death of Michael Brown, my namesake. (See here for the full document.) But when it came to Browns death, that same Department of Justice cleared Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot and killed Brown. As the report stated, there is no evidence upon which prosecutors can rely to disprove Wilsons stated subjective belief that he feared for his safety. Yet many white conservatives who rejected the, Hands up, dont shoot claims from Ferguson are outraged over the death of George Floyd. (Ill be documenting this in a separate article.) But, to repeat, theres no reason for white fragility. I am secure in the fact that I am not a racist. But when I have a blind spot when it comes to the treatment of a fellow-American, I want to be made aware. I would hope you would feel the same. That doesnt mean we walk around feeling guilty. (Why should we, unless we are guilty?) That doesnt mean we embrace identity politics or intersectionality. That doesnt mean that we agree with every solution being put forth. That doesnt mean that we encourage others to have a victim mentality. And that doesnt mean that people of color bear no responsibility or are above criticism. It simply means we are willing to ask the difficult questions, including the systemic questions, and that we are committed to working towards justice and equality for all. Why be fragile about that? DAVENPORT Mayor Mike Matson urged the people of Davenport to be vigilant after hours of unrest on the streets late Sunday into early Monday that included four shootings, two fatal, and two people injured, including a police officer. What happened overnight, Matson said, was not about justice or honoring the memory of George Floyd. Matson said he joined the more than 700 people who peacefully protested Saturday the death of Floyd, who died at the hands of a Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer. I stood with them and I will stand with those peaceful protesters. But Sunday nights protesters intended to create chaos and purposely inflict damage throughout our community, Matson said. This was a blatant disregard for the rule of law and the sanctity of human life and does not reflect our community, he said. Officers responded overnight to 45 serious disturbance calls and numerous reports of gunfire. There were four shooting victims including the two fatalities and the wounded Davenport officer. Please be vigilant, report any suspicious activity, Matson said at a 9 a.m. news conference at the Davenport Police Department, the second such conference Monday morning. He also advised people to lock their homes and vehicles, to keep their firearms safely secured and to leave their exterior lights illuminated. A mandatory curfew has been put into effect until further notice for all of Scott County that will run from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. daily beginning tonight, Scott County Board of Supervisors Chair Tony Knobbe said during the news conference. Knobbe said the curfew will apply to all citizens except those people going to and from their work or performing their work, government officials and credentialed press. The Iowa National Guard will assist, Gov. Kim Reynolds said in an afternoon press conference. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 1 Sad 7 Angry 15 Nirupama Viswanathan By Express News Service CHENNAI: On May 31, 63-year-old Manickavel (name changed), a COVID-19 patient was found out on the street hoping to find some food for himself, much to the shock of his neighbours. However, it was soon found that he was not to be blamed. After he developed a fever, Manickavel, a resident of Besant Nagar, gave a COVID-19 test, the results for which came back positive on May 31 morning. By 3:30 pm, Corporation staff reached his home and transported the rest of his family to the Guru Nanak higher secondary school in Velachery to be quarantined, leaving the 63-year-old who already suffered from kidney ailments and blood sugar, alone at home. By 7:30 pm, Manickavel who had no idea if he will be taken to the hospital or be given dinner, went out to the road to find food. His family, who came to know of this alerted an activist who in turn informed a senior Corporation official. The senior official then immediately responded by arranging for Manickavel to be taken to the Government Multi-Super-Speciality Hospital, Omandurar Government Estateat around 8 pm. "None of the Corporation staff went back to even check on him until an activist called them. We found out that he went out to the street looking for food. He usually gets very hungry because of his diabetes," said Saravanan (name changed), Manickavel's son. Speaking to Express, Manickavel whose health condition is currently stable said that he came back inside the house after his neighbours began yelling at him. "Then, my elder brother who lives nearby then sent food for me. I did not know when I would be taken to the hospital before the ambulance came to pick me up. I had already waited for three to four hours and it was getting dark so I thought they might not come that day," he said. Manickavel's wife, son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren along with 21 others who lived in the same building as him were taken to the school in two trucks. According to zonal corporation officials, the family and others in the building had to be taken away for institutional quarantine since each family lived in around 200-square-feet houses which made physical distancing impossible. "We were told that he will be taken to the hospital soon after they took us to the quarantine facility. So, we left. But, we called him hours later to check on him and found that he was still at home," said Saravanan However, even on Tuesday morning, Manickavel was asked by the Omandurar hospital staff he could be sent home for home quarantine. "He said that it was not possible since there would be no one to take care of him. Also, he is a high risk patient with diabetes and kidney problems so he refused and they've agreed to let him stay," said Saravanan. When contacted, a senior Corporation official said that he will look into the issue. "I will cross-check with my staff and ask them how this might have happened," the official said. Another senior Corporation official of the South region said that the man was taken to the hospital by around 8 pm, four hours after the family was taken for quarantine. "I got a call from the said activist and we immediately arranged for food and also for the man to be transported to the hospital," the official said. PM Modi speaks with Maha, Guj CMs on cyclone Nisarga situation; assures all help India pti-PTI New Delhi, June 02: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday spoke with the chief ministers of Maharashtra and Gujarat over the cyclonic situation in the two states and assured them all possible help from the Centre. Jessica Lal case convict Manu Sharma to be released prematurely, LG accepts | Oneindia News Cyclone Nisarga will cross north Maharashtra and south Gujarat coasts late in the evening on June 3. Modi also spoke with the administrator of Daman, Diu Dadra and Nagar Haveli Praful K Patel, the Prime Minister's Office office said. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said the low-pressure area formed over the Arabian Sea has intensified into a depression and it will further intensify into a cyclonic storm. Cyclone Nisarga': Mumbai Police restricts movement of people near beaches "PM @narendramodi has spoken to CM of Maharashtra Shri Uddhav Thackeray, CM of Gujarat Shri @vijayrupanibjp and Administrator of Daman Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli Shri @prafulkpatel regarding the cyclone situation," the PMO tweeted. Modi assured all possible support and assistance from the Centre, the PMO said. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and President Donald Trump are both on the ballot in Pennsylvania's primary election Tuesday. Read more Pennsylvanians are voting Tuesday in an atmosphere with few precedents if any. On top of a pandemic that had already scrambled elections across the country, the vote will come after days of protests over the killing of George Floyd as Minneapolis police knelt on his neck and violent clashes that have added more tension and left an already stricken Philadelphia smoldering in places. The Democratic presidential primary is effectively over, so the biggest test may be for election officials. How people vote may be as important as who they vote for. Pennsylvania will be holding its first statewide election since the onset of the coronavirus, and officials were already facing huge challenges amid social distancing, short-staffing, and a flood of requests for mail ballots far beyond anything Pennsylvania has ever seen before protests and looting. And there was even a last-minute twist: Gov. Tom Wolf on Monday extended the deadline for receiving mail ballots in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and a handful of other counties. Even with that change, could Tuesday produce another Wisconsin, where voters in April were forced to stand in long lines and thousands of ballots didnt reach voters in time? How long will it take to get results? And is there anything the outcome can tell us about the state of play in a swing state critical to the presidential election? READ MORE: Live coverage of what's happening Tuesday, Pennsylvanias primary day Heres what well be watching: Will it be chaos? Put simply: Will people be able to safely and efficiently exercise one of their fundamental rights? Even before the coronavirus and civil unrest, this was likely to be a challenging election for Pennsylvania. Its the first since a change in state law allowed anyone to request a mail ballot for any reason. So officials were preparing for a surge in mail-in ballots, but the coronavirus put that into overdrive. About two million people had applied for mail ballots as of late last week, up from 107,000 for the states 2016 primary. Voting by mail gave voters another option for avoiding crowds, but it also meant a heavy lift for election officials left short-handed by the virus. Theyve been struggling to process the requests, and to staff polling sites for people who choose to vote in person. Some places have dramatically reduced polling places, including by 60% in Montgomery County and 77% in Philadelphia. That could create long lines and confusion. If its harder to vote in certain counties, that could also have significant political implications in November, since geography and party affiliation are closely linked. Some counties face greater staffing shortages than others. Some sent out mail-in ballot applications to voters, while others required people to request one. READ MORE: Philly will have mail ballot drop boxes for voters today. Find yours here. At least the primary will give officials a chance to see the challenges before Novembers general election, when the presidency may hinge on how Pennsylvania votes. The mail race With the coronavirus a potential factor again in the fall general election, both parties have emphasized vote-by-mail in the primary, hoping to get supporters accustomed to it. Except for President Donald Trump. Despite using mail-in ballots himself, and the established rarity of voter fraud, the president has falsely attacked them as prone to fraud. That has discouraged some Republican voters from using mail voting, even as the national and state GOP promote it. READ MORE: Pennsylvania Republicans dont want to vote by mail: Were listening to Trump on this As of late last week, almost 1.3 million Democrats had been approved for mail-in ballots, compared with about 529,000 Republicans. So will Republicans instead turn out in person in big numbers? Or has Trump depressed turnout within his own party? And which regions and demographics will show up? In Philadelphia, voters in low-income neighborhoods requested mail ballots at disproportionately low rates. Who will vote by mail, who votes in person, and who, in the face of a public health threat, wont vote at all? Both sides see the primary as a test run for November, so even a small imbalance in who votes could be significant in a state decided by less than one percentage point in 2016. In some ways voting is like exercise, if youre used to doing it you do it more and if you dont its really hard to do, said J.J. Balaban, a Democratic strategist in Philadelphia. People in Pennsylvania are used to voting a certain way and now were getting to vote in an entirely different way. READ MORE: The top races to watch in Tuesdays Pennsylvania primary How many people wont get their ballots in on time? Before Wolfs election-eve order, it looked likely that thousands or even tens of thousands of voters wouldnt receive their mail ballots in time to return them, threatening to disenfranchise them or forcing them to face the health risks of voting in person. Now, mail ballots still have to be postmarked by Tuesday, but in Philadelphia, Delaware, Montgomery, Allegheny, Dauphin, and Erie Counties, they will be counted if they are received by election officials by 8 p.m. June 9, a week from the original deadline. But the pandemic has slowed the process and some counties expected that some voters wouldnt receive their ballots until Monday or even Tuesday. That could still make it difficult for those voters to mail ballots back in time. Counties have scrambled to set up drop boxes for voters to hand-deliver ballots, and mail voters can instead use a provisional ballot at polling places. But not everyone is willing or able to do so. Will people get sick? Lines of voters. Shared voting machines. Poll workers interacting with hundreds of people. All of it adds up to the possibility some people could become sick from voting in person, and officials are scrambling to provide personal protective equipment and cleaning supplies. Voters and poll workers in other states have contracted the coronavirus, and a poll worker in Chicago died of COVID-19 15 days after a primary there in March. When will we get results? Be prepared to wait for results. Elections officials had already said for months that counting votes would take much longer with the increase in mail ballots. Many counties had planned to begin counting mail ballots on election day but didnt expect to finish until at least the next day. Some werent even planning to start until the day after the election. And after Wolfs order, several counties could still be counting many votes for a week or longer. READ MORE: Want to know who won the presidential race on election night? Get ready to wait. The process will give us the first look at what could be an even more agonizing wait in in November, with higher turnout and greater stakes. 2020 tea leaves Its risky to extrapolate from primaries, which draw different electorates than general elections. Normally, wed examine Tuesdays results for signs of strength and weakness for Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Can Biden draw white Democrats who fled to Trump in 2016? African American voters in Philadelphia? Progressives? Can Trump produce another surge of rural enthusiasm? But those questions are tough to answer now. Political strategists in both parties said theyll be looking maybe for which party does better getting their supporters to vote in difficult circumstances. After that? Interpret at your own risk. Primaries are not usually very good indicators of general election performance, said Mark Harris, a Republican strategist from Pittsburgh. How willing people are to vote by mail might be an interesting thing. I would be really skeptical about drawing a conclusion, one Pennsylvania Democratic operative said. I just think the data is going to be so influenced by external events itll be hard to tell whats real and whats not. Trump was elected expressly to disrupt the norms of Washington, and he has consummate confidence in his direct link to his supporters his use of social media to promote his personal brand. Just as Franklin D. Roosevelt harnessed the power of radio with regular fireside chats and John F. Kennedy was the first made-for-television president, Trump has shown politicians around the world how to make an impact with a well-timed tweet. Future presidents may be a bit more circumspect in their rhetoric on Twitter and whether they use it to spread falsehoods and attack rivals but they certainly will not ignore the power of social media to make their case. Besides Twitter, Trump has mastered Facebook, microtargeting supporters to keep them engaged and supportive and going after political rivals. Gold prices were steady at Rs 47,075 per 10 gram in the Mumbai bullion market on rupee appreciation and increasing US-China trade war. The rate of 10 gram 22-carat gold in Mumbai was Rs 43,121 plus 3 percent GST, while 24-carat 10 gram was Rs 47,075 plus GST. The 18-carat gold quoted at Rs 35,306 plus GST in the retail market. Gold prices witnessed range-bound trading on Tuesday over strong equity indices as easing lockdown measures increased investors appetite for riskier assets. The violent public protest in several US cities and tensions between US and China is the developing story which may keep down side limited in gold prices, said Tapan Patel, Senior Analyst (Commodities), HDFC Securities. The bullion metal traded within a $100 range over the last month at $1,775 at the higher end and $1,675 at the lower end. Indias gold import for May dived 99 percent to 1.4 tonnes from 133.6 tonnes a year earlier, a second successive month of 99 percent fall due to nationwide lockdown in world's second-largest gold consuming country. The US is considering welcoming people from Hong Kong in response to Beijing's push to impose national security legislation in the city, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. In a sign that the worst of the economic downturn from the coronavirus pandemic might be over, US manufacturing activity ticked up slightly from an 11-year low. Ravindra Rao, VP-Head Commodity Research at Kotak Securities said: "Risk-on is upbeat amid optimism over reopening of economies, signs of stabilisation in global factory activity and hopes of more stimulus from major economies despite lingering worries over US-China and worsening social unrest in the US is keeping gold in a narrow range. Weakness in the US dollar is supporting the gold bulls. While bias for safe-haven gold may be sideways to lower buying might remerge in corrections." The broader trend on COMEX could be in the range of $1,720-1,755 and on domestic front prices could hover in the range of Rs 46,800-47,500, according to Navneet Damani, Vice President, Motilal Oswal. The gold/silver ratio or the amount of silver required to buy an ounce of gold stood at 95.02 to 1. Silver prices rose Rs 210 to Rs 49,540 per kg from its closing on June 1. In the futures market, gold rate touched an intraday high of Rs 47,200 and an intraday low of Rs 46,865 on the Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX). For the June series, the yellow metal touched a low of Rs 36,572 and a high of Rs 47,980. Gold futures for June delivery slipped Rs 133, or 0.28 percent, at Rs 46,950 per 10 gram in evening trade on a business turnover of 57 lots. The same for August delivery declined by Rs 210, or 0.45 percent, at Rs 46,928 on a business turnover of 15,315 lots. The far month October contract declined Rs 201, or 0.43 percent to Rs 47,066 with a business volume of 5,339 lots. The value of the August and October contracts traded so far is Rs 2,007.62 crore and Rs 38.69 crore, respectively. Similarly, Gold Mini contract for June gained Rs 106, or 0.23 percent at Rs 47,124 on a business turnover of 509 lots. Patel expects gold prices to trade sideways to up with MCX Gold August support at Rs 46,600, resistance at Rs 47,350. MCX Gold has given negative breakout from a rising trend line channel, price is expected to trade negatively. Sustaining below Rs 47,000 next leg of correction would drag price towards Rs 46,700-46,600 levels in intraday, according to Axis Securities. The price is trading below 20 EMA which is a bearish sign. Motilal Oswal said spot gold has support at $1,727-1,720 whereas resistance is at $1,745-1,755 levels. At 12:20 pm (GMT), spot gold was flat at $1,740.07 an ounce in London trading. Fishermen load nets onto their mechanized vessels at the fishing harbour in Visakhapatnam on Monday. Fishermen gear up for the deep sea fishing which starts from midnight on Tuesday after a banned period of 45 days. DC photo Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh reported 105 fresh Covid-19 cases and two deaths on Monday. The state now has 3,118 cases. Of them, 2,169 patients have been discharged while 885 are in hospitals. With two deaths in Kurnool, the toll has shot up to 64. The State command control room, in its 10 am bulletin, mentioned that 10,567 samples were tested for coronavirus and of them 76 were found to be positive. Among 76 fresh cases, eight were reported from Nellore as they had links with Koyembedu market. Additionally, one fresh case was reported among foreign returnees and 28 were returnees from other states. Moreover, the cumulative positive cases from foreign returnees stand at 112, five of whom are active. Cumulative positive cases from other states is at 446 and among them, 249 are active. Nellore district reported five fresh cases with two from Nellore town and one each from Vanamthopu, Mahadevaiah Nagar and Ganapathi Nagar in Sullurpeta. With this, the total cases stand at 256. In Prakasam district, with five fresh cases, the total has touched 86, including two women. Fresh cases were reported from Ulavapadu, Jalapalem,Vetapalem, Karedu and Besthavaripeta. Two fresh cases were reported from Kadapa district taking the total positive cases to 138. While one was from Mylavaram the other had returned to Kadapa from Vijayawada. In Chittoor district, of seven fresh cases, four were from Puttur and one each from Srikalahasthi, Nindra and KVB Puram. District medical and health officer, Dr M. Penchalaiah, stated that a family of five, hailing from Puttur, migrated to Mumbai some time ago and returned home recently. They were sent to quarantine at the government facility, he added. He said, When their swab samples were tested, four of them, including the 45-year-old father, two brothers, aged 12 and 14, and 12-year-old daughter, were found to be positive and sent to Covid hospital at Tirupati, where their condition is stable. The district reported 286 cases overall. Of them, 89 are active while 195 patients were discharged and two died. In Guntur district, six fresh cases have been reported with three from within Guntur Municipal Corporation limits and one each from Tenali and Chialakaluripeta and a Macharla native, who returned from Delhi. Demonstrators marched in Spokane, Washington, on May 31, to protest against the police-involved death of George Floyd. Footage shows the rally of protesters, many holding signs, marching in downtown Spokane and chanting: No justice, no peace and Black lives matter. Despite looting later in the evening, local news reported the majority of the protest was peaceful. According to reports, Spokane was one of the cities where police were seen taking a knee in solidarity with protesters. Credit: @HaleyAbercromb1 via Storyful An endangered species is a species that may soon become extinct, either worldwide or in a particular area. Species become endangered because of loss of habitat, an invasive species, human behavior, or poaching. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) will determine if a species is endangered or not, and other agencies will help access and record data about species. 20% of mammalian species are hoping to still exist on Earth, and some of those mammals live in the United States. Read through the following paragraphs to learn about the ten most threatened mammals of the U.S. 10. Giant Kangaroo Rat The giant kangaroo rat is facing habitat destruction. Image credit: wikimedia.org The giant kangaroo rat is an endangered species that lives in California. It is the largest of the kangaroo rats at about 15 centimeters in length. It is tan-colored with a large head and large eyes. The Giant Kangaroo Rat lives in grasslands and digs burrows. It is experiencing severe habitat destruction. They feed on seeds, green plants, and insects. Agricultural development and human behavior have reduced the giant kangaroo rat's habitat size. 9. Ocelot Ocelots face plenty of threats, but the greatest threat to the species is habitat destruction. Image credit: nature.org The Ocelot is a small, wild cat that lives in Southwestern U.S., Mexico, and Central and South America. The cats are about 35 inches long and weigh between 28-35 kg. They have piercing black eyes and a spotted coat that many hunters desire. Ocelots are good swimmers and live in areas with plenty of vegetation. Ocelots have plenty of threats to their survival. Ocelots live in areas like wetlands, tropical forests, scrublands, and grasslands. Loss of habitat has forced them to travel further and further away from their homes to find prey. Ocelots are not able to find mates then, which means they cannot reproduce. Habitat destruction also makes it harder to find food and a safe home. 8. Beluga Whale Beluga whales are threatened by oil drilling, hunting, and climate change. Image credit: insideclimatenews.org Beluga whales live in the Arctic region of the United States, and they migrate during winter. They are known as sea canaries because of their high-pitched calls. Beluga whales face a number of threats to their population. They are still hunted by some Arctic indigenous peoples. The largest threat the species faces is human activity, including oil and gas development, climate change, and pollution. Chemical contaminants have hurt them by increasing bacterial infections, parasites, ulcers, and cancer. 7. Utah Prairie Dog The Utah prairie dog is protected under the endangered species act. Image credit: nature.org The Utah prairie dog became federally managed on August 17, 2017, and the species is now protected under the endangered species act. It lives in Southwestern Utah. The Utah prairie dog is about 12-14 inches in length and weighs between 1-3 pounds. They are usually light brown or tan in color with black markings above their eyes. These prairie dogs eat seeds, flowers, grasses, leaves, and insects. Utah prairie dogs build tunnels underground where they live. They are threatened to extinction by human behavior, disease, climate change, and habitat loss. 6. Carolina Northern Flying Squirrel The Carolina northern flying squirrel faces extinction because of habitat loss and pollution. Image credit: fws.org The Carolina northern flying squirrel lives in high elevation areas of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Southwest Virginia. The Carolina northern flying squirrel is bigger than the southern flying squirrel. Carolina flying squirrels like cool and moist areas to live in. They eat fungi, lichen, seeds, and insects. The Carolina flying squirrel is endangered mostly due to human behavior. Habitat loss, deforestation, pollution, recreation and residential development, and invasive species are all a threat to the survival of the species. Efforts to expand the forest areas they live in should help their survival. 5. Northern Sea Otter Sea otters dive together to find food on the ocean floor. Image credit: mmc.gov The Northern sea otter is protected from hunting and harassment by the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. It is also listed as endangered in Washington under the State Endangered Species Act. The threats to its survival are mostly human-related, which include habitat destruction, pollution, competition for shellfish, and even accidents with commercial fishing equipment. Sea otters are part of the weasel family and live in the nearshore waters on the North Pacific Ocean. Sea otters dive together to find food on the ocean floor such as clams, crabs, sea urchins, snails, octopus, and sometimes fish. They can remain underwater for up to 4 minutes. Their average lifespan is about 15 to 20 years. Sea otters usually have only a single pup during each breeding cycle. 4. Sierra Nevada Red Fox The Sierra Nevada red fox is very elusive. Image credit: courthousenews.com The Sierra Nevada red fox has darker colored fur compared to the red fox. It prefers to make its den in rock outcrops, hollow logs, or a burrow in the soil. Not much is known about the Sierra Nevada red fox since a sighting of the fox is rare. It is assumed that they act similar to a red fox in its choices of dens, hunting tactics, and breeding behavior. The Sierra Nevada red fox is shy and may even avoid humans. The California Department of Fish and Game is surveying high-elevation habitats near Yosemite National Park to learn more about the Sierra Nevada red fox. 3. Woodland Caribou The South Selkirk herd of caribou no longer exists in the US. Image credit: www.spokesman.com Woodland Caribou are no longer found in the lower 48 states, and they are considered functionally extinct. These caribou are internationally known as Selkirk caribou. The herd was once part of a larger group of caribou that lived throughout the Pacific Northwest. Human activity such as hunting, logging farming, and snowmobiling forced the group to break into smaller groups. Adult caribou can weigh up to 600 lb. They eat a plant that grows on very old trees, so aggressive logging really hurts the animals. 2. Florida Panther The Florida panther is the only mountain lion species that lives east of the Mississippi River. Image credit: nature.org Panthers are very intelligent and agile creatures. They are usually very quiet and cautious. The animals prefer not to live around people. Panthers are also very territorial and aggressive. The Florida panther is the only mountain lion species that lives east of the Mississippi River. The Florida panther was hunted to near extinction by the 1950s. Panthers are perceived as a danger to humans, other animals, and livestock. The Florida panther was added to the endangered species list in 1973. Panthers prey on deer, wild boar, birds, rabbits, and other species. Florida panthers are experiencing habitat loss because of human development and are sometimes hit by cars. 1. Grey Wolf Gray wolves earned a bad reputation because of livestock attacks. Image credit: nhpr.org There used to be about 2,000,000 gray wolves in North America at one time. By 1920, there were only about 30 to 40 in Yellowstone National Park. Gray wolves are important to the ecosystem since they balance prey populations. They can live in a range of areas and are very adaptable. They have a bad reputation because they also preyed on livestock. Because of conservation efforts from groups like the Center for Biological Diversity, about 5,000 gray wolves live in the lower 48 states. We believe that there is progress, Khalilzad said in a telephone briefing with reporters on the compliance with the deal. He declined to specify actions the Taliban had taken to split with al-Qaeda but said they have taken some steps. They have to take a lot more steps. Nisarga, the deep depression that is currently moving northwards in the Arabian Sea, will hit the Maharashtra coast on Wednesday. The India Meteorological Department said in its weather outlook on Tuesday morning that Nisarga is expected to become a cyclonic storm on Monday morning and a severe cyclonic storm by 5.30 pm on June 2. It further said that Nisarga is moving at a speed of 11 kmph. It lay centred over East-Central Arabian Sea about 280 km west-southwest of Panjim (Goa), 490 km south-southwest of Mumbai (Maharashtra) and 710 km south-southwest of Surat (Gujarat), said the IMD. It is very likely to move nearly northwards during next six hours and recurve north-northeastwards thereafter and cross north Maharashtra and adjoining south Gujarat coast between Harihareshwar (in Maharashtras Raigad) and Daman during the afternoon of June 3, the IMD further said. The storm is currently packing in winds upto 90-100 kmph. The wind speed is expected to be 105-115 kmph gusting to 125 kmph when it nears landfall. Scientists said that Nisarga could inundate low-lying areas especially in cities like Mumbai and cause structural damage from falling trees and power poles. This has raised concern over how the city, already strained for healthcare resources on account of the Covid-19 pandemic, will cope. The weather department has advised fishermen to not venture into the southeast Arabian Sea, Lakshadweep area and along and off Kerala coast during next 48 hours. Alert has been sounded in Mumbai, its suburban districts, Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts in view of Nisarga. The IMD on Monday issued a red alert for these districts for June 3 and 4. A red alert - which indicates the possibility of extremely heavy rain of more than 204.5 mm - is a warning for residents to take action and keep safe from adverse impact. Both Maharashtra and Gujarat governments have ordered people living in low-lying areas on the coastal regions to be evacuated and shifted to safer places. With the formation of two cyclones - in the Bay of Bengal (Amphan) and Arabian Sea (Nisarga) - within two weeks of each other, scientists warn about the possibility of more pre-monsoon cyclonic storms in coming years due to warmer ocean temperatures. 13:02 Researchers have used an optical mapping system to demonstrate how the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which has been promoted as a potential treatment for COVID-19, creates serious disturbances in the electrical signals that govern heartbeat. According to the scientists, including those from Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States, the findings shed light on how the drug causes serious effects on heart rhythms. The study, published in the journal Heart Rhythm, found that the drug made it "surprisingly easy" to trigger irregular beats in the heart, or arrhythmias. In the study, the scientists assessed the effects of the drug in two types of animal hearts, and found that it altered the timing of electrical waves that control heartbeat. While the findings of animal studies cannot necessarily be generalised to humans, the scientists said the videos they created clearly show how the drug can cause electrical signals in the heart to become dysfunctional. "We have illustrated experimentally how the drug actually changes the waves in the heart, and how that can initiate an arrhythmia," said study co-author Flavio Fenton, a professor in the School of Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "We have demonstrated that with optical mapping, which allows us to see exactly how the waveform is changing. This gives us a visual demonstration of how the drug can alter the wave propagation in the heart," Fenton said. According to the researchers, there was an elongation of the T wave -- a portion of the heart cycle during which voltages normally dissipate in preparation for the next beat. They said the drug sets the stage for disturbances in the subsequent heart beat waves, potentially creating an arrhythmia. Such disturbances, according to the study, can transition to fibrillation which interferes with the heart's ability to pump. The ability to easily trigger disturbances known as "long QT" reinforces cautions about using hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in humans -- particularly in those who may have heart damage from COVID-19, cautioned study co-author Shahriar Iravanian, a cardiologist from Emory University Hospital. According to the scientists, the hearts used in the study are small and very resistant to this form of arrhythmia. "If we had not seen any HCQ-induced arrhythmias in this model, the results would not have been reassuring. However, in reality, we observed that HCQ readily induced arrhythmia in those hearts," Iravanian said. In combination with the clinical reports of sudden death and arrhythmia in COVID-19 patients taking HCQ, he said the findings are very concerning and suggest that the drug should be considered a potentially harmful medication. Iravanian cautioned that HCQ's use in COVID-19 patients should be restricted to clinical trial settings. In the study, the researchers administered HCQ to animal hearts -- one from a guinea pig and one from a rabbit -- while quantifying wave patterns changing across the hearts using a high-powered, LED-based optical mapping system. They used voltage-sensitive fluorescent dyes to make the electrical waves visible as they moved across the surface of the hearts. "HCQ shifts the wavelengths to larger values, and when we quantified the dispersion of the electrical current in portions of the heart, we saw the extension of the voltage across the tissue," said Ilija Uzelac, another co-author of the study from Georgia Institute of Technology. He said the change was very dramatic comparing the waveforms in the heart with and without the HCQ. In a normal heartbeat, the researchers said, an electrical wave is generated in specialised cells of the heart's upper chamber, the right atrium. The wave propagates through the entire atria and then to the ventricles, the study noted. As the wave moves through the heart, the researchers said, the electrical potential created causes calcium ions to be released, stimulating contraction of the heart muscle in a coordinated pattern. They said drugs like HCQ modify the properties of these ion channels, and inhibit the flow of potassium currents, which prolongs the length of the electrical waves and creates spatial variations in their properties. Ultimately, that can lead to the development of dangerously rapid and dysfunctional heart rhythms, the scientists noted in the study. In the worst case, there are multiple waves going in different directions, they said, adding that every section of the heart is contracting at a different time, so the heart is just quivering. "At that point, it can no longer pump blood throughout the body," Fenton said. Patients taking HCQ for diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis rarely suffer from arrythmia since the doses they take are smaller than those being recommended for COVID-19 patients, Iravanian said. According to the scientists, COVID-19 patients are different and are at a much higher risk of HCQ-induced arrhythmia. "Not only is the proposed dose of HCQ for COVID-19 patients two to three times the usual dose, but COVID-19 has effects on the heart and lowers potassium levels, further increasing the risk of arrythmias," Iravanian added. -- PTI Lets Make Sure This Crisis Doesnt Go to Waste A stock market crash wasnt 1929s only big event. Coca-Cola (KO) launched a new slogan: The Pause That Refreshes. Cokes marketers sensed the economy was headed down. How do you sell a completely unnecessary beverage to a struggling country? Its simple, really: You remind consumers that treating themselves is important, too. Now, in 2020, the entire world is paused. COVID-19 is horrible in more ways than I can count: lost lives, suffering, job destruction, shattered dreams and more. None of it is refreshing. But the word has other meanings. For instance, if you are working on a spreadsheet and refresh your screen, you see new, and possibly better, numbers. Could this crisis, as bad as it is, refresh the world and solve some of our problems? Maybe. Speaking at Mauldin Economics first-ever virtual Strategic Investment Conference in May, Eurasia Group and G-Zero Medias Ian Bremmer said its possible. Long before this pandemic, Ian was saying the world is in a geopolitical recession. The old order has been breaking down without a clear replacement, leaving what he calls a G-Zero World. Part of the problem relates to a Milton Friedman quote: Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program. Think of the global institutions that arose from World War II and its aftermath: NATO, the UN, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, the EU, etc. Some have outlived their usefulness. Other need major reforms. But all still exist because over time they developed constituencies that fight hard to preserve them. The same is true within national governments. In the US, we have institutions like the Federal Reserve, Social Security, Medicare and assorted regulatory agencies. They do some good things and could do more. But none work as originally intended. Ian suggested the pandemic might have a silver lining if the failures it exposes let us replace failed institutions with better ones, more suited to current needs. Which institutions to whom? Take your pick. The Federal Reserve is trying to control market outcomes. Which means we dont really have markets as such anymore. This has to stop but I see no chance the Fed will change course voluntarily. The sudden ejection of millions from their jobs exposed huge shortcomings in the US safety net programs. A top-to-bottom overhaul might let them work better and cost less. Our inability to provide adequate COVID-19 testing and get protective gear to medical workers revealed serious problems. Not just in the healthcare industry, but also the agencies like the CDC and FDA that govern it. The regulatory processes clearly impede progress, and it has been made manifest for all to see. Across the pond, the EUs prized openness and solidarity proved less so in a crisis. Members like Italy had to largely fend for themselves. The alliance needs a major overhaul if it is to survive. Numerous emerging market states are heavily indebted and completely unprepared to handle this crisis in large part because the IMF made them so. That has to change. Those are just a few things we could refresh in the coming months and years. I dont know if it will happen but, as Rahm Emmanuel famously said, we shouldnt let a good crisis go to waste. Heck, this one could still bring positive change. Just ask any of the 40 economic and investing all-stars who presented at Mauldin Economics recent virtual Strategic Investment Conference. We have all the video footage, slides and transcripts in one easy-to-access space. You really need to hear for yourself whats in store for our post-coronavirus world. The Great Reset: The Collapse of the Biggest Bubble in History New York Times best seller and renowned financial expert John Mauldin predicts an unprecedented financial crisis that could be triggered in the next five years. Most investors seem completely unaware of the relentless pressure thats building right now. Learn more here. Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors. John Mauldin Archive 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. He recently confirmed that there will be a third series of After Life thanks to its popularity on Netflix. And Ricky Gervais is said to be in talks with Netflix to create an After Life Christmas special due to the phenomenal success of the show. According to The Sun, The Office creator, 58, - who created the comedy-drama series, which he also writes, directs, and stars in - has been asked to meet Netflix bosses this month to discuss the possibility of a festive special. Wow: Ricky Gervais is said to be in talks with Netflix to create an After Life Christmas special due to the phenomenal success of the show The show portrays Gervais as a suicidal local journalist struggling to cope with the loss of his wife Lisa to cancer. A TV source told the website that 'everything Ricky writes turns to gold'. They said: 'The third series won't air until 2021 so there is a meeting in the diary to see if Ricky could create the Christmas special. 'It would just be a stand-alone episode, possibly one hour if Ricky thinks it would work. 'The only headache currently is the pandemic, but the fact that major shows like Coronation Street and EastEnders are filming again is giving them hope.' Success story: According to The Sun , The Office creator, 58, has been asked to meet Netflix bosses this month to discuss the possibility of a festive special MailOnline has contacted representatives for Ricky Gervais and Netflix for comment. This comes after the comedian confirmed that there will be a third series of After Life, with the star reportedly offered more than 5million for the deal. But along with a third instalment of the popular show, he will also be expected to write a number of standalone comedy specials, according to reports. He delighted fans as he took to Twitter last month to make the announcement. Speaking about the show, he wrote: 'Because so many of you watched #AfterLife2 so quickly and made it Number 1 again, the nice people at @Netflix have suggested that I get off my fat a*** and do another season. This is all your fault.' Ricky also told The Hollywood Reporter: 'I was planning to retire soon and just wander around the house drunk until I die, but I've grown a bit tired of doing that during the lockdown, and also Netflix made me an offer I couldn't refuse.' A source said: 'The third series won't air until 2021 so there is a meeting in the diary to see if Ricky could create the Christmas special' Fans were quick to react to his post and share their delight over a third series after season two was met with applause. One person wrote: 'Please do. Sobbing then laughing can be so cathartic. Just gets better and better.' A different fan put: 'It is such a great show!!! Fabulous cast! Fabulous story!' While a third follower commented: 'Our plan has succeeded! Get to work Ricky!' Earlier this month Gervais, who stars in the show as grieving widower Tony Johnson, had hinted at the possibility of a third instalment after saying he was inundated with emotional messages from fans. The writer said that he was met with unanimously glowing responses from viewers after the second series aired. Addressing fans in a Twitter livestream at the time, he said: 'I'd love to do a season three - I've got ideas for it. It looks like it's going to go down a storm, so if this reaction carries on then yes.' However Gervais admitted the enormous success of the show has put him under greater pressure to keep raising the bar. He said: 'The better it goes down the worst it is for me, you can do something f***ing amazing, and everyone goes, 'Oh god, it's the best thing ever, 10/10.' In the making: The actor delighted fans as he took to Twitter last month to make the announcement 'But if you do something else that is 9.5/10 people are like, 'It's f***ing awful, this is the worst show on television,' so that's what goes through my mind.' Gervais has previously enjoyed tremendous success with The Office and Extras, but has never produced more than two series of any show, opting instead to bow out before the format grows old. The star recently admitted he receives many letters from grieving widowers and is approached by fans on the street because of After Life. Speaking to Radio X's Danny Wallace, he said: 'I've never had a reaction like it. And I don't just mean the size of the reaction, as that could be a reflection of the fact Netflix has 170 million subscribers worldwide, which is mind-blowing really when you think about It, and everything's on social media now so you hear about it... 'But it was the emotional response. My agent on the first week got 300 letters. Now that is really rare, where people are bothering to write letters, and they were telling their own story, so it wasn't a tweet, it wasn't a thumbs up. 'And people come up to me on the street. Usually it's 'I loved the show,' or 'Give it to them at the Golden Globes' and now they come up and approach me and say, 'I lost my brother three weeks before I watched it' and you think, 'Oh my god. Everyone's grieving.'' He added: 'Everyone in the world is grieving about something all the time and the older you get the more you've got to grieve about. And I really didn't think of it as a document about grief.' The show's second series shows Tony trying to move on with his life as he progresses though the seven stages of grief. Gervais said a line from the second series has become even more poignant in the wake of the pandemic which has taken hold after the show stopped filming. In a flashback scene, Tony's wife Lisa, played by Kerry Godliman, says how everyone has their own problems and we should value NHS workers. In his Radio X interview, Gervais also revealed he cast After Life before he ever started writing it. He said: 'Luckily I've got a slight advantage that I cast this [After Life] before I wrote it, so I knew exactly who I was writing for so I imagined everything in my head, but I hadn't worked with Penelope Wilcock before, who's amazing.' According to a recent report published by Allied Market Research, titled, "Asia-Pacific ERP Software Market by Deployment Model, Business Function, Industry Vertical, and End User: Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2019-2026," the Asia-Pacific ERP software market was valued at $9,669 million in 2018, and is projected to reach $26,370 million by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 13.3% from 2019 to 2026. Get Sample Copy Of The Report@ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/sample/13233 Rise in need for operational efficiency & transparency in business processes and surge in adoption of cloud & mobile applications are the major factors that fuel the growth of the Asia-Pacific ERP software market. In addition, increase in demand for data-driven decision-making is one of the crucial drivers of the market. However, higher investment and maintenance costs are expected to hinder the Asia-Pacific ERP software market growth. On the contrary, increase in demand for ERP among small & medium enterprises and technological advancements in ERP are expected to provide lucrative opportunities for the market growth in the coming years. Based on deployment model, the on-premise segment dominated the overall Asia-Pacific ERP software market size in 2018, and is expected to continue this trend during the forecast period. This is attributed to wide adoption of on-premise deployment mode in large enterprises, as it involves a significant investment to implement, and organizations need to purchase interconnected servers as well as software to manage the system. However, the cloud segment is expected to witness the highest CAGR during the Asia-Pacific ERP software market forecast period, due to a paradigm shift in the deployment methods from on-premise to cloud-based models among end users. The finance business function was the highest contributor to the Asia-Pacific ERP software market share in 2018, and is projected to remain dominant during the forecast period, due to high adoption of finance modules in most of the organizations to reduce complexity in financial function and to achieve overall competency in business. However, the human resource (HR) module is expected to witness highest growth, owing to ongoing business expansion in Asia-Pacific, which compels businesses to adopt ERP HR modules for easy integration and management of all the required information of the present and additional workforce. The manufacturing industry dominated the Asia-Pacific ERP software market analysis in 2018, and is expected to continue this trend during the forecast period. This is attributed to rise in number of entrants in pharmaceutical, automotive, garment, and consumer electronics manufacturing markets. However, the aerospace & defense industry is expected to witness highest CAGR during the Asia-Pacific ERP software market analysis over the forecast period. Request For Report Discount@ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/discount/13233 This is attributed to surge in adoption of ERP software, due to development in business process, need to reduce IT complexity, and improvement in business agility. Furthermore, the adoption of cloud-enabled deployment model in high-tech sectors such as aerospace & defense sector is growing at a significant rate, which is opportunistic for the Asia-Pacific ERP software market. According to Rachita Rake, Research Analyst, ICT at Allied Market Research, India dominated the Asia-Pacific ERP software market size in 2018, and is projected to remain dominant during the forecast period. This is attributed to increased adoption of ERP among traditional end users such as manufacturing firms and retail companies, which have deployed ERP solutions. Moreover, developing industries, such as IT & telecom, education, and healthcare, have adopted ERP software for different business functions, such as HR, finance & accounting, and others, which has fueled the market growth in India. Key Findings of the Asia-Pacific ERP Software Market : By deployment mode, the on-premise segment dominated the Asia-Pacific ERP software industry. However, the cloud segment is expected to exhibit significant growth during the forecast period. Based on business function, the finance segment accounted for the highest revenue in 2018. By industry vertical, the manufacturing segment is expected to witness significant growth in the upcoming years. Depending on end user, the large enterprises generated the highest revenue in 2018. However, medium enterprises is expected to witness highest growth rate in the near future. Country wise, Bangladesh is expected to witness significant growth in the upcoming years. Some of the key market players profiled in the report include Digiwinx Infotech PVT. LTD., Synergix Technologies, Focus Softnet PTE LTD, IFS AB, Deskera, HashMicro Pte. Ltd., 3i Infotech LTD., Rorko Technologies, Tigernix Pte. Ltd., and Accentuate Pte. Ltd. This study includes Asia-Pacific ERP software market trends, analysis, and future estimations to determine the imminent investment pockets. More Info of Impact Covid19 @ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/covid-19-analysis/13233 President Muhammadu Buharis $5.513 billion external loan request to finance the revised 2020 budget, has been approved by the senate. Though the senate stood down a component of loan which the federal government said will help in execution of its priority projects and for projects to support State Governments in stimulating their economy which has been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic on grounds of lacking requisite details, the loan request was however approved after presentation and consideration of the report of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts. Lenders for the federal governments priority projects as approved by the Senate are: the AfDB $125million to strengthen healthcare system and improve response to COVID-19 and $23 million for financing smallholder farmers to mitigate food security impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic, $600million from the Islamic Development Bank to support Nigerias response to challenges posed by COVID-19 and $500 million from the African Export-Import Bank to provide critical Medical supplies to combat COVID-19. The Federal Governments intention of borrowing 995million from the Export-Import Bank of Brazil to support Green imperative and enhance the mechanisation of agriculture and agro-processing in Nigeria, was put in abeyance by the upper chamber. The $500 $750 million also being negotiated with the World Bank for State Fiscal Transparency and Sustainability Program to provide fiscal support to the States was not approved. The ongoing negotiation by the Federal Government with the World Bank for between $500million $750 million for COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus Program to support state-level efforts to protect livelihoods, ensure food security and stimulate economic activities, is also yet to be approved. The post Senate approves Buharis $5.513bn external loan request appeared first on . Share this post with your Friends on An Austin police officer critically injured a protestor Sunday by shooting him with "less-lethal" ammunition, according to Chief Brian Manley. The protester, a 20-year-old man, was struck by a bean bag round 11 p.m. outside police headquarters. The victim was standing next to a man who threw a water bottle and backpack at police, Manley said in a news conference Tuesday. "One of the officers fired their less-lethal munition at that individual, apparently, but it struck this victim instead. This victim then fell to the ground, and it appears that he hit his head when he fell to the ground as well," Manley said. As protesters carried the man toward officers for medical assistance, police reportedly fired less-lethal rounds at the group, the chief said. The victim, who has not been identified, was transported to a local hospital in critical condition. The incident is under investigation. On ExpressNews.com: On third day of San Antonio protests, demonstrators and heads of law enforcement agencies talk it out The protesters in the Texas capital were demonstrating for George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis police custody last week, and Michael Ramos, who was shot to death by an Austin police officer in late April. The Austin-American Statesman reported that police arrested about 50 people over the weekend on charges including burglary of buildings, interference with public duties, and participating in a riot. During the protests Saturday, Austin officers struck a 16-year-old, Brad Ayala, in the forehead with less-lethal ammunition. His sister, Valarie Sanchez, told the Statesman that Ayala was conscious and in a lot of pain. "The bullet stayed inside of his head for five hours," she said. "The front of his head is fractured and dented and he had some bleeding." Manley said that incident, and another where a pregnant woman was reportedly hit in the abdomen with a less-lethal round, were also under investigation. He asked the public to share videos of the incidents with police. "That is not what we set out to do as a police department," the chief said of the injuries. "That was not what we set out to do this weekend." Mark Dunphy is a breaking news and general assignment reporter for MySA.com | mark.dunphy@express-news.net | @m_b_dunphy Photo: The Canadian Press A protester confronts police during a rally in downtown Lexington, Ky., against the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor on Sunday, May 31, 2020. (Ryan C. Hermens/Lexington Herald-Leader via AP) Video released by police shows a popular barbecue stand operator firing a gun as officers approached his business in Louisville shortly before he was shot to death, the city's acting police chief said Tuesday. The video showing David McAtee opening fire early Monday was obtained from security cameras at his business and another business, acting police Chief Robert Schroeder said. McAtee fired his gun while officers and National Guard soldiers were trying to clear a crowd from a parking lot to enforce a curfew, he said. This video appears to show Mr. McAtee firing a gun outside of his business door as officers, who are using pepper balls to clear the Dinos (Food Mart) lot, were approaching his business, Schroeder said. This video does not provide all the answers. But we are releasing it to provide transparency." Among the unresolved questions: why he opened fire and where were police, Schroeder said. Police said they were responding to gunfire from the crowd. Two Louisville officers and two Guard soldiers returned fire, Schroeder said Monday. McAtee was shot early Monday amid waves of protests in the Kentucky city since last week. But witnesses said the crowd had nothing to do with the demonstrations. The demonstrations were set off by the deaths of a black woman from Louisville Breonna Taylor and a black man in Minneapolis George Floyd in encounters with police. A Louisville pastor said Tuesday that the community ultimately needs to see the full analysis of circumstances that led to McAtees death and not rely solely on the video. We would like to get all of the facts and not just some of the facts, said the Rev. Frank Smith Jr., president of the Interdenominational Ministerial Coalition. Smith, who had not yet seen the video, added: I would not see that he, ... on his own, would just decide to start shooting at the officers who were there. Id like to know were there other shooters? What provoked whatever shooting that took place? And so thats why we would like to get the full picture and not just part of the picture. McAtee was well known in the community and was friendly with officers, even providing them meals. The video did not have audio and it was unclear from watching who or what McAtee fired at, but Louisville police Maj. Paul Humphrey said it appeared that he fired at police. The conflict occurred as officers fired pepper balls to disperse the crowd, Humphrey said. The video shows officers speaking to people near McAtees business, he said. Why officers approached them is part of the investigation, he said. As the officers are addressing those individuals, Mr. McAtee appears to fire at the officers and they take cover and return fire," he said. But without the audio and without having interviewed the officers yet, that is yet to be determined exactly how those incidents occurred. He declined to say if a gun was recovered from McAtee, saying that will come out in the investigation. Witnesses said people were not gathered there to protest. Kris Smith said he was at a restaurant just outside having a good time, having drinks, eating barbecue when the soldiers arrived. As soon as I walk to my car they jump out with the sticks, the police jump out with their sticks and their shields and stuff on, Smith said. It looked like something out of a movie. It looked like a freaking war zone. On Monday, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer announced the firing of Police Chief Steve Conrad after he learned that officers involved in the shooting failed to activate body cameras at the scene. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear later called the lack of body camera footage unacceptable. Beshear authorized state police to independently investigate, promising the probe will be conducted in an honest and transparent way that will not take months. Late Monday afternoon, a huge group stretching several city blocks marched peacefully from downtown Louisville to the spot where McAtee was shot. Some motorists honked horns and raised fists in solidarity. Hundreds of protesters regrouped Monday night at downtown Jefferson Square and riot police advanced amid bursts of fired tear gas, dispersing the crowd. Military-style vehicles could later be seen occupying the emptied-out square. Louisville's curfew has been extended until June 8. Protesters have been demanding justice for Taylor, who was killed in her home in Louisville in March. The 26-year-old EMT was shot eight times by narcotics detectives who knocked down her front door as they attempted to enforce a search warrant. No drugs were found in the home. Floyd died after a white Minneapolis police officer put his knee on the handcuffed mans neck for several minutes, even after he stopped moving and pleaded for air. Charleston, SC (29403) Today Rain showers in the morning will evolve into a more steady rain in the afternoon. High 41F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Expect periods of freezing rain. Low 29F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precip 90%. The construction of a stretch of the expanded Trans Mountain oil pipeline has started in British Columbia, the province whose government has been vocally opposed to the project. The Trans Mountain company said in a statement that work had begun on a seven-kilometer section in the City of Kamloops, to continue about seven months. The company also said investment in that stretch alone will be over $450 million over the next two years. The construction of the British Columbia stretch became possible earlier this year, when the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by British Columbia to stop work on the expansion project. The provincial government argued the expansion will increase the risk of spills and leaks both along its route and in the waters around the port of Burnaby where the pipeline is supposed to load oil onto tankers bound for export markets. To prevent the expansion from taking place, the government decided to claim a right to dictate how much oil and gas pass through the territory of the province. It first took its case to the British Columbia Court of Appeals, but the court rejected the case saying that the province did not have jurisdiction over the amount of oil that can pass through its territory. The Trans Mountain pipeline currently has a capacity of 300,000 bpd of crude. After the expansion is completed, it would be able to ship 890,000 bpd of crude to the British Columbian coast. According to the Trans Mountain company, the demand for the oil is there: it said it expected the average daily demand this year to be 316,000 bpd, up from 313,900 bpd last year. In the first quarter, however, Trans Mountain transported less than that, at 297,000 bpd, which was probably to be expected amid the oil price war that led to a slump in oil prices and the pandemic, which deepened the slump. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Henry Golding (left) responds to Samantha Katie James (right) following her racist remarks on Instagram. 2 Jun "I usually try to keep a cool head when it comes to these things, but reading your comments @samanthakayty infuriated me," Henry Golding recently posted on his Instagram Stories. As mentioned in his post, the "Crazy Rich Asians" star is directing it towards a certain former Miss Universe Malaysia named Samantha Katie James. The 25-year-old beauty queen sparked the ire of many when she made several racists remarks on her Instagram Stories, downplaying the harsh reality faced by black Americans and telling them to accept things as it is since they "chose" to be born as a coloured person in America. Using the Bersih campaign as an example, where Malaysians "[put] their lives on the line to be heard", Golding stated, "If you were part of that movement then please understand where the #BlackLivesMatter protests come from." Below are the screenshots from Henry Golding's post. "I'm not going to let people have the wrong idea of what's really happening. In a country like Malaysia that has a history of the such, that we are trying so hard to move on from. Love one another. One Malaysia, one world," the Malaysian-British actor ended his post. Samantha's tone-deaf remarks were made yesterday regarding the Black Lives Matter protests in America that were held nationwide last weekend, following the death of George Floyd while in police custody. American celebrities also took part in the protests, such as John Cusack who revealed on his social media that he was even attacked by the police for filming the protests. Netizens have urged the Miss Universe Malaysia Organization (MUMO) to revoke Samantha's title. MUMO has responded with a statement on Twitter which acknowledge that her posts are indeed "inappropriate, offensive, unacceptable and hurtful", but she has not represented MUMO since June 2018 and thus her words do not reflect its views. Undeterred, netizens continue collecting signatures for the "Strip Samantha Katie James of her Miss Universe Malaysia Crown and Title" petition on Change.org. Talking about everybody following with the National Guard, I couldnt agree more with all the things that you said, Hogan said to the president during the call Monday, according to a recording obtained by The Washington Post. I think bringing up enough manpower, not letting anybody be overpowered the way they have been the past few days is exactly the right thing. A Democratic senator wants to end a federal program that transfers military equipment to local law enforcement agencies, including many school police departments. Criticism of the program, known as 1033, resurged this weekend as protestors shared photos of police donning heavy tactical gear to respond to demonstrations over the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd. Some of the concerns were surfaced in 2014, when police in Ferguson, Mo., sparked national conversations about the appropriate use of force in responding to public demonstrations. On Monday, Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz revived a proposal to eliminate the 1033 program altogether. Lawmakers from both parties had previously introduced similar proposals. It is clear many police departments dont train and supervise for restraint and de-escalation, and some officers are just plain racist and violent. Combine this with a President who appears enthusiastic about making it worse, and weaponry transferred from DOD, and here we are. Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) May 31, 2020 I will be introducing an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act to discontinue the program that transfers military weaponry to local police departments. Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) May 31, 2020 So what does that have to do with schools? As Education Week reported in 2014: A database from the Defense Department shows that tactical gear and weapons from the 1033 program have been provided to school police departments in at least 22 districts in eight statesCalifornia, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Nevada, Texas, and Utah. Surplus equipment provided to police in districts as large as the 654,000-student Los Angeles school system includes M-14 and M-16 rifles, extended magazines, automatic pistols, armored plating, tactical vests, SWAT gear, Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected, or MRAP, vehicles, and grenade launchers, which are used by police agencies to deploy tear gas and smoke in crowd-control situations. School-based police agencies that received equipment from the Defense Department said most of it would only be used in the event of a mass shooting. A spokesman for the Defense Department said some school agencies may have acquired equipment they would likely only use in cooperation with other law-enforcement agencies outside of the school environment." After those acquisitions were made public, many school police agencies opted to return the equipment to the Department of Defense. And in response to concerns about 1033, President Barack Obama signed an executive order that placed limits on the program , including restrictions on acquisitions by law enforcement agencies operated by K-12 school districts. (Many school police are employed by municipal agencies and work under cooperative agreements with school systems.) In 2017, President Donald Trump rescinded that executive order. Those restrictions went too far, then Attorney General Jeff Sessions said when he announced the action. We will not put superficial concerns above public safety. Photo: A Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle, or MRAP, sits in front of police headquarters in Watertown, Conn. The Los Angeles school district police department is among those that previously acquired such vehicles through a Pentagon surplus equipment program.--Steven Valenti/The Republican-American/AP-File Follow us on Twitter @PoliticsK12 . And follow the Politics K-12 reporters @EvieBlad @Daarel and @AndrewUjifusa . Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021. ACLU: We want you to have what you'll need to know your risks and know your rights. Protests and violent attacks by police continue across the country today, in response to the apparent killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. The murders of David McAtee today and Tony McDade last week at the hands of law enforcement officers have further fueled Black Americans' grief and rage. The ACLU recently sent out a notice to activists "taking to the streets to express their pain, their outrage, and their demands for racial justice and an end to police violence against Black people." "As this happens, we want you to have what you'll need to know your risks and know your rights." Emerson Sykes, staff attorney for the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, & Technology Project, shared these essentials in a video direct from the New York City protests over the weekend. As you come out to protest, here's what our video notes to keep in mind: The right to protest is a fundamental human right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the First Amendment. If you get stopped, ask if you are free to go. If the police say yes, calmly walk away. You have the right to record. The right to protest includes the right to record, including recording police doing their jobs. The police can order people to stop interfering with legitimate police operations, but video recording from a safe distance is not interfering. If you get stopped, police cannot take or confiscate any videos or photos without a warrant. If you are videotaping, keep in mind in some states, the audio is treated differently than the images. But images and video images are always fully protected by the First Amendment. The police's main job in a protest is to protect your right to protest and to de-escalate any threat of violence. If you get arrested, don't say anything. Ask for a lawyer immediately. Do not sign anything and do not agree to anything without an attorney present. If you get arrested, demand your right to a local phone call. If you call a lawyer for legal advice, law enforcement is not allowed to listen. Police cannot delete data from your device under any circumstances. [SOURCE] S outh American countries have begun easing Covid-19 restrictions even as the region hurtles towards its viral peak. Some of Brazils hardest hit cities, including Rio de Janeiro and Manaus, are starting to allow more activity, while Bolivia and Venezuela are also unwinding restrictions. The moves comes despite a warning from World Health Organisation that South America has become an intense zone of transmission for this virus. At least 26,000 of the 104,000 Covid-19 deaths in the US were among nursing home resident, a report has revealed. New Zealands prime minister Jacinda Ardern has announced all restrictions to limit the spread of the coronavirus may be lifted next week, after the country all but eliminated the virus. But borders will remain closed. Our strategy of go hard, go early has paid off... in some cases beyond expectations, she said. Pakistans leader Imran Khan has said people will have to learn to live with the virus as he announced a lifting of the lockdown despite rising infections and deaths, to avert economic meltdown. The country has reported 72,160 coronavirus cases and 1,543 deaths. The Queensland government has apologised to the family of a man who was wrongly identified last week as having died from the virus. Nathan Turner, 30, had been recorded as Australias youngest Covid-19 death but succumbed to unrelated medical complications. File image: Union Home Minister and BJP leader Amit Shah Union Home Minister Amit Shah will address the people of West Bengal through a "virtual rally" on June 8, state party president Dilip Ghosh said. According to state BJP sources, during virtual rallies, the state BJP would highlight the state's TMC government's "mishandling" of the dual crisis of COVID-19 pandemic and Cyclone Amphan. He said the party would reach out to people, "apprising them of the achievements of the Narendra Modi government in its first year of the second term and steps taken by the Centre to deal with the crisis caused due to the COVID pandemic." "As right now, public rallies are banned. So we are stressing on virtual rallies on social media. It will be a five-day-long campaign, with the first virtual rally on June 8. Just like normal rallies, during these virtual rallies there will be speakers, and the main speaker of the June 8 rally would be Amit Shah, he would speak from New Delhi," Ghosh told reporters on June 1. Shah last addressed a rally in Kolkata on March 1, a pro-CAA rally at Shahid Minar ground. "During those rallies, we would propagate how the state government mishandled the crisis. How our party leaders, were not allowed to carry out relief work, how our leaders were not allowed to visit the cyclone-affected areas," Ghosh said. With an eye on next year's assembly polls, the BJP reconstituted its West Bengal unit on Monday, inducting more than a dozen new faces including turncoats and dropping Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's grandnephew Chandra Bose who opposed the party's stand on CAA and NRC. It also brought in new and younger faces to head the party's women and youth fronts. The TMC has been on a sticky wicket in Bengal since the last Lok Sabha polls in which it lost 12 parliamentary seats to BJP. The saffron camp had then emerged as the primary challenger of TMC in the state by winning 18 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state and TMC's tally coming down to 22 from 34. The coronavirus pandemic is acting as a catalyst in the scramble by the great powers to redivide Africa. German imperialism sees the crisis as an opportunity to assert its global geopolitical interests by force of arms. In the last few days, the Bundestag (parliament) decided to extend or prolong two military operations. Besides Libya, Mali and Somalia, German forces may operate in Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger in the future. Sahel region On Friday, by a large majority, the Bundestag gave the starting signal for a massive escalation of the German military deployment in the Sahel region of west Africa. The stationing of 1,100 Bundeswehr (Armed Forces) soldiers in Mali under the umbrella of the United Nations (UN) MINUSMA mission was extended. At the same time, the training of African troops has been expanded. The Bundestag resolution provides for the European Union Training Mission (EUTM) programme, which has been running for seven years, to be extended until May 2024 and extended to the entire Sahel region. This means that in the future, European soldiers will also train the armed forces of the pro-Western regimes in Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Niger and Chad. The European Council had already created a corresponding mandate a week ago. In Mali, the EUTM training mission has so far built up an army of 20,000 troops. However, in a recent editorial, Lorenz Hemicker, political editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, considers the results achieved so far to be insufficient. He complains that the Malian armed forces are not yet capable of fighting insurgency on their own, although the Bundeswehr informs the government troops about the best tactics in local and house fighting. For this reason, the new mandate provides for the mission to be strengthened by Germany with 100 additional soldiers. The troops of the Bamako regime, which is hated by the population, will thus be able to go into action in the future accompanied by up to 450 German trainers. In this way, the Bundeswehr is provoking violent clashes between German soldiers and local oppositional militias, which in turn could provide the pretext for the deployment of armed combat drones in the region. A currently unarmed Heron combat drone has been in service with the Bundeswehr in Mali since 2016. In addition, the EUTM mission is being transferred from Koulikoro in southern Mali directly to the war zone in the interior of the country. The new base will be in Sevare near Mopti, where the heaviest battles between government troops and militias are raging. Only a few kilometres away, unknown persons murdered the inhabitants of the village of Ogossagou last March, including many women and children. As eyewitnesses told broadcaster Deutschlandfunk radio at the time, the murderers included heavily armed men in uniforms of the Malian army. They were equipped with bulletproof vests and modern weapons, as the Malian army has them, a witness reported. The Malian government troops, according to their own statements, had withdrawn from the village a few hours earlier and did not return to the scene of the massacre until hours lateralthough the villagers had sent desperate distress calls to the authorities. For years, the Malian regime has been demonstrably committing atrocities against the civilian population. A report to the UN Security Council spoke of at least three attacks on civilians in 2018, including a suspected mass execution with 44 dead and an attack on a cattle market in which 12 civilians were killed. UN investigators also discovered several mass graves. In 2019, the Suddeutsche Zeitung, which also supports military action, wrote that the regime-supported militiasterrorise the population in order to impose its influence in disputed regions. This policy is now being extended to Niger, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Chad in the interest of German and European imperialism. A strategy paper of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik) states that the regional security forces are indeed part of the problembut without them, it is not possible. Since overcoming the corona crisis will temporarily push everything else into the background, the German government should work towards including countries like Burkina Faso and Niger and better linking all missions [in the Sahel]. The focus initially should be on civil and medical projects, rather than military capabilities [emphasis added]. In other words, under the pretext of the fight against COVID-19, Bundeswehr troops and the murderous regional security forces trained by Europe should link up their combat strength with the UN mission MINUSMA and the French military mission code-named Barkhane. MINUSMA comprises up to 15,200 foreign soldiers and police officers who were stationed in Mali following Operation Serval in order to stabilise conditions. Barkhane, the successor mission to Serval, in turn officially includes 3,000 French soldiers for counterinsurgency measures and the killing of Islamists, as well as special forces and mercenaries of the Foreign Legion. In addition to access to gold, uranium, and labour, involvement in the region, from the German point of view, is particularly concerned with combating so-called illegal migrationi.e., using armed force to fight desperate refugees. People fleeing from ethnic violence and colonial oppression and seeking a way through the Sahara meet watering points that are blocked by the Nigerian military. The result is a gigantic death strip right across the African continent. The International Organisation for Migration estimates that the number of people who die in the desert is at least twice as high as the number of dead migrants in the Mediterranean. The organisation estimates that more than 30,000 people disappeared in the Sahara between 2014 and 2018. In Niger, which has been armed to the teeth by Germany in particular, the Bundeswehr also maintains a military base that, according to media reports, acts as a hub for all German military operations in the Sahel region. Chancellor Merkel had thanked Nigerian President Issoufou Mahamadou in 2018 for the highly successful cooperation in the fight against illegal migration. Germany is directly involved in this bloody fight. For at least half a year now, elite German navy troops (KSM) have been on combat duty in the country and training special units of the Nigerian military. The secret mission had previously taken place without a Bundestag mandate, but with the extension of EUTM, a mandate has now been created for the so-called Operation Gazelle. Those who do not die of thirst in the Sahara are threatened with enslavement. In Mauritania, whose troops will in future also be trained by European soldiers, slavery was legal until 2007, though the economic structures of it still exist. According to estimates by local anti-slavery organisation SOS Esclaves, there were still 600,000 slaves in Mauritania in 2010. Horn of Africa On Wednesday, the Bundestag extended the European Atalanta mission off the coast of Somalia by another year, by an overwhelming majority of 536 parliamentary deputies. This means that up to 400 German soldiers will continue to participate in the European Unions so-called anti-piracy mission, which has been ongoing since 2008. The German and European naval forces are defending imperialist interests in a region that has suffered unprecedented social devastation due to Western overfishing, unilateral trade agreements and decades of civil war. Through its presence in the sea area off the Horn of Africa, the EU...protects European interests and contributes to the stabilisation of the region, reads the German governments mission statement. Among other things, the mission plans to use armed force to shield UN food supplies from unauthorised access and to fight local pirates with naval forces. The military mission has not failed to have its effect over the past 12 years. According to a report by weekly Die Zeit, which welcomes the mission, the number of attacks on transnational trawlers has decreased enormously in recent years. Illegal fishing by foreign fleets, on the other hand, has continued to increase in the slipstream of European warships, according to UN sources. Somalia and other countries in East Africa are currently suffering the worst floods in 40 years. The massive rains have caused dams to burst, which in turn have destroyed infrastructure and homes, forcing people to stay in home-made huts. Nearly 1 million people have been affected, and 400,000 have lost their homes. The flood disaster is also hampering the humanitarian work of the UN, including the fight against COVID-19, and has created the conditions for the second plague of locusts since the beginning of this year. Twenty million Somalis are at risk of starvation, and almost 3 million are refugees. The countrys infrastructure has been largely destroyed after three decades of armed conflict. As for COVID-19, the country is threatened by the epidemic. The US Johns Hopkins University lists the country in second last place in its Global Health Security Index (GHS Index), which represents the state of preparedness to deal with epidemics in 195 countries. The university currently measures the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Somalia at 1,731. The number of cases has been rising rapidly since the beginning of April, and the number of unreported cases is likely to be high; the 67 officially registered fatalities include the Minister of Justice of the state of Hirshabelle. Although the imperialist powers have created the conditions for this maelstrom of displacement, natural disasters and pandemic in the last decades, they are now using the devastating situation as a pretext to prepare a geopolitical redivision of the region using military force. The Atalanta mission also fulfils a deterrent function in this respect, Die Zeit notes. Germany and Europe face several challenges in dealing with COVID-19 in the Horn of Africa, but there are also opportunities, notes a current strategy paper published by the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. Germany has proven to be a reliable partner for the East African regimes and should now lead the way in taking on the role of coordinator within the EU. In this context, the paper suggests hosting a Sudan conference, as the country on the Red Sea is of enormous strategic importance for the entire region. At the beginning of May, the Bundestag sent almost 300 Bundeswehr soldiers to Libya, where such a conference was held in January chaired by Germany. A NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) proposal to make the new Puhoi to Warkworth motorway a toll road has so far got a firm thumbs down from the One Warkworth Business Association. One Warkworth chair Chris Murphy says members views are currently being sought via the associations newsletter and website, and indications are that they oppose any tolling He says the toll amounts to an additional tax on local people. When you ask the question, Are other parts of the country taxed in the same way? the answer is no they are not. Where is the equity there? Mr Murphy says as far as he is aware there are only two similarly tolled roads the Northern Gateway toll road on State Highway 1 through the Johnstones Hill tunnels, and another in Tauranga. Mr Murphy says the presence of tolls will make the new road less attractive to users and many may choose to stick with the old road to Puhoi. He says this is especially true given the NZTA appears to be dragging its heels on a proposed southern interchange, which would connect the southern part of Warkworth to the new Puhoi to Warkworth motorway. One Warkworth has pressed the NZTA to vary the terms of the construction contract to allow enabling works for such an interchange, but says the response has been that the existing contract cannot be changed. Mr Murphy says it may well be quicker for motorists travelling from the south of Warkworth to use the old road rather than head north through the notoriously clogged Hill Street intersection to access the new motorway. An NZTA brochure on the proposed tolling says every new state highway in New Zealand is assessed to see if it meets the criteria to be tolled. In many cases tolling helps us to build roads earlier than we would have otherwise, the brochure says. It adds that revenue collected from the toll will be used to ensure the new motorway remains safe and well maintained and contribute to repaying contractor Northern Express Group for financing and building the road. The proposed toll and method of payment would mirror the Northern Gateway toll road, which is currently $2.40 for light vehicles and $4.80 for heavy vehicles. In addition to the toll road, NZTA is simultaneously consulting on proposed lower speed limits on State Highway 1 between Sheepworld and Puhoi, to make the road safer for road users. The public consultation closes on June 15. Details of the consultation can be found online at nzta.govt.nz/about-us/consultations The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments, today shares a new report on The Future of International Education, in partnership with The Future Laboratory. The white paper highlights five new student profiles that will evolve from the shifting attitudes and behaviors of todays youth. From Hybrid Thinkers to Greener Graduates, this new report predicts how academic institutions should adapt to meet these expectations. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200601005162/en/ Meet the students of the future: new student profiles uncovered in The Future of International Education (Graphic: Business Wire) The findings come as universities and colleges worldwide are evolving to navigate COVID-19, from moving online, to delaying term dates. Institutions can use the report to ensure the new policies they introduce align with the needs and priorities of international students. We are seeing an incredible response from academic institutions on COVID-19. Many of the changes they are introducing because of the pandemic are accelerating trends that will benefit the institutions and their students in the long term. By moving to virtual classrooms, for example, were seeing a rise in Transnational learning, which increases the accessibility and flexibility of the courses being offered, said Andrew Summerill, head of global payments at Western Union. Such changes will help institutions attract international students in the future, Summerill said. As we know, they increasingly want universities and colleges to invest in new technology to modernize the student experience. As a trusted partner guiding universities as they evolve to meet the expectations of future students, we conducted this research to help them navigate these challenges. The universities that actively engage with these future international student profiles will inspire exciting innovation in the sector and deliver sustainable growth to future-proof the higher education landscape, adds Summerill. These emerging trends provide a toolkit for how universities can attract future international students and truly thrive over the next decade. As education undergoes a radical rebirth to make it fit for the future international student, encapsulating and incorporating the best, most inspiring and most useful elements of the next digital revolution will be critical to maintaining an engaging campus culture and social-emotional education. Western Union Business Solutions is a trusted payments provider that has moved over $14B on behalf of education providers. Eight out of the top ten ranked universities globallyi save time and money using our solutions to have their international students pay their tuitions in 200 countries and 130 currencies. Download the report here. The Future Laboratory is one of the worlds most renowned futures consultancies. It provides a unique blend of trend forecasting, consumer insight, foresight, brand strategy and innovation, to inspire and future-proof organizations. About Western Union The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) is a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments. Our omnichannel platform connects the digital and physical worlds and makes it possible for consumers and businesses to send and receive money and make payments with speed, ease, and reliability. As of March 31, 2020, our network included over 550,000 retail agent locations offering our branded services in more than 200 countries and territories, with the capability to send money to billions of accounts. Additionally, westernunion.com, our fastest growing channel in 2019, is available in over 75 countries, plus additional territories, to move money around the world. With our global reach, Western Union moves money for better, connecting family, friends and businesses to enable financial inclusion and support economic growth. For more information, visit www.westernunion.com. WU-G iTimes Higher Education Global University Rankings 2020 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200601005162/en/ SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- For seven hours Monday, hundreds of Syracuse protesters spoke out against police brutality and the death of George Floyd. They marched for miles through the city, held signs, and chanted messages of hope, peace and justice. Then, many started dancing. They were tired and their feet were sore, but that didnt stop them from turning the third day of demonstrations into a dance party in front of the Public Safety Building on South State Street. I just wanted to have fun and get as many people involved, so we can show others were not just a militant band of people marching, said Jaedan JT Hines, 19, of Syracuse, who sported a red mohawk hairstyle in the middle of the dance floor. The whole point of us marching is for people to hear us and to make our voices heard, he said. We were marching all day. We had fun along the way, but from the outside, it looks militant. It shows were unified and solid, but it has a drawback where people have to have their guard up. The dance party was to get people to loosen up. More than 500 people joined in the demonstrations Monday, said Cliff Ryan, the founder of OGs Against Gun Violence. Were marching for justice," Ryan said. "Were marching for George Floyd and were marching for all the others who have died from police injustice and brutality. Zakia Dowdy, 12, and her 13-year-old sister, Jahnaya Dowdy, of Syracuse, were among several people who spoke at a rally at South West and West Fayette streets before marching to the police headquarters on South State Street Monday afternoon. The things happening in this world are not OK, Zakia Dowdy said. We as the people, we are the voice. The young, the teenagers, the grownups, were all the voice and we need to be heard. Her sister Jahnaya told a crowd that change needs to happen. We need to change something because all that shooting and this violence is not great for the little kids that are growing up, she said. So everybody here needs to say something to change this world because this generation is crazy. When the protesters arrived outside the Public Safety Building, they were met by another group from Victory Temple Fellowship Church in Syracuse. Geraldine Boea, 57, a member of the church, and her best friend, Pam Tucker, 58, both of Syracuse, said this was the first time they had marched in a protest. They said they felt like they needed to do something. So many African Americans have been killed at the hands of police," Boea said. Its happened time and time again. We see it and live through it, and our hearts break for the families and nothing happens as far as justice. Tucker said this needs to change. "Its not just about George Floyd. Its about peace, racism and justice, Tucker said. If you dont get justice, you dont get peace. Floyd, a black man, died in Minneapolis on May 25 when a white police officer kept his knee on his neck for more than eight minutes during an arrest. The death has spurred days of protests in Syracuse and cities across the country. Many of the protesters in Syracuse marched away from the Public Safety Building and headed to the citys South Side. After 5 p.m. the crowd chanted: What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now. Organizers at one point asked everyone to kneel and remember Floyd; nearly everyone kneeled. Dozens of vehicles followed those marching; Syracuse police helped block traffic so they could march. Motorists honked their horns and the protesters continued chanting messages, including black lives matter. They eventually made their way back in front of Syracuses police headquarters, where the Syracuse Womens March was holding a candlelight vigil to honor victims of racist violence. The group lit candles, read names of those who have died in similar circumstances and they stood silent for eight minutes to remember the eight minutes the officer kept his knee on Floyds neck. It seemed like as every minute went by, it got quieter and quieter until you were left with nothing but the noise in your head, said Dana McMullen, 48, of Syracuse. We literally got to the point where it was hard to breathe. It was such a spiritual experience. Everyone had tears in their eyes. Mari-Lee Van Scoter, 29, of Syracuse, sat on a sidewalk after marching for miles and listened to the speakers. On her lap, she held a collage of photos of friends and family members, including her 9-year-old son, DeWayne Edwards. I marched for all of them, she said. They are not a threat and their lives matter. I will not let them be another hashtag. Tayonda Estrada, 35, of Syracuse, said she walked for her nearly 1-year-old son, Terence King. She brought him along for part of the march Monday night. Tonight was very peaceful, she said. If every night goes like this, I will participate. I believe black lives matter, and its not a white and black thing; we all need to come together in unity. Then, music started playing. And the protesters broke out into dance. Protest turns into a dance party in downtown #Syracuse because they walked 23 miles today! pic.twitter.com/REZLDiKOIW Catie O'Toole (@CatieOToole) June 2, 2020 Have a tip or a story idea? Contact Catie OToole: cotoole@syracuse.com | text/call 315-470-2134 | Twitter | Facebook Kuwait City [Kuwait], June 2 (ANI): A special flight under Vande Bharat Mission departed from Kuwait with 175 stranded Indians and 10 infants for Kochi in Kerala. "#VandeBharatMission Flight for Kochi left today at 1200 hours with 175 passengers and 10 infants. Happy journey. Thanks, Indian and Kuwaiti authorities," Indian embassy in Kuwait tweeted. The Vande Bharat Mission has evacuated more than 50,000 stranded and distressed Indian citizens so far, said Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday. India has launched the largest evacuation exercise -- Vande Bharat Mission -- to repatriate Indians stranded abroad due to coronavirus-induced lockdown. The exercise began on May 7 and its second phase started on May 16. The Ministry of External Affairs recently announced the second phase of the mission has been extended to June 13. (ANI) By PTI AHMEDABAD: The tally of coronavirus cases in Gujarat rose to 17,217 on Monday with the addition of 423 new infections, while the toll increased to 1,063 after 25 more patients succumbed to the infection, 22 of them in Ahmedabad, the state health department said. As many as 861 COVID-19 patients were discharged from hospitals in Gujarat Monday, taking the number of recoveries to 10,780, it said. The state now has 5,374 active cases, of which 65 patients are on ventilator, the health department said. Ahmedabad reported 314 out of the 423 new cases, taking the total confirmed cases in the district to 12,494, the department said. The number of COVID-19 cases in Surat rose to 1,659, while in Vadodara it went up to 1,074 with 39 and 31 new cases, respectively, reported, in these two cities, it said. Out of the 25 new deaths, Ahmedabad alone reported 22, while Surat reported two and Aravalli one, the department said. As many as 2,16,258 samples have been tested so far in the state for coronavirus, the department said. Out of 17 districts that reported new infections, 11 cases were detected in Gandhinagar and 6 in Mehsana, among others. As many as 2,41,046 people are currently under quarantine, the department said. Gujarat COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases 17,217, new cases 423, deaths 1,063, discharged 10,780, active cases 5,374, people tested so far 2,16,258. Life returned to near normal in many parts of the state, notably in Ahmedabad, the state's worst coronavirus-hit district, as several restrictions were eased in the fifth phase of the lockdown that began on Monday. Roads bustled with traffic as people came out in large numbers to visit markets, which are now open till 7 pm in all areas except in containment and micro-containment zones. In Ahmedabad, a limited number of city buses began plying with 50 per cent seating capacity to maintain social distancing, while autorickshaws hit the roads for the first time in ten weeks, though the reduced number of passengers they have been permitted to ferry was a dampener. "We stayed home for 70 days. We are thankful to the government for allowing us to operate our autorickshaws, but we have, unfortunately, not got any kind of financial support from the government. We are hardly getting any passengers now as we cannot carry people in the shuttle system because only a limited number is allowed," said an autorickshaw driver. A bus station in Ranip area of Ahmedabad saw people gathering since early morning to catch intra-state transport buses, though the capacity was restricted and those boarding were first checked by conductors holding temperature guns. The textile market in Surat, among the largest in the country, resumed business after it was sanitised earlier by civic authorities, with shops opening under an odd-even mechanism from 9 am to 4 pm. "Work will begin only after transportation starts as a majority of materials go out of the market. We came here to check stock that had been lying unused for such a long time. The losses due to the lockdown has been very heavy, but we hope things pick up from here," said a shop owner. Government offices opened on Monday with full staff strength, while the sizable numbers that came to the Assembly complex in Gandhinagar were allowed to enter only after being screened with thermal guns. Face masks continued to be mandatory and police as well as civic officials were seen in large numbers to check if people were adhering to norms laid down to contain the novel coronavirus outbreak. India to move 12k workers to Chinese border to complete pending infrastructure works: Sources India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, June 02: New Delhi has told China in clear terms that it would not suspend its ongoing projects to build roads and bridges in the border areas. India further has said that it will not enter any bilateral agreements that might infringe upon its sovereign right to build such infrastructure along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). India is also organising special trains to move 12,000 construction workers from Jharkhand to areas closer to the disputed boundary with China. The Ministry of Defence is working with the Ministry of Home Affairs and also the Ministry of Railways to move construction workers from Jharkhand to areas closer to the Indo-China border. WHO says Sars-Cov-2 is still a killer virus, rejects 'losing potency' claim | Oneindia News Situation at border with India 'stable', both sides have 'unimpeded' communication channels: China Top sources tell OneIndia that India wants to send a strong message to China with this move. The infrastructure work which was slowed down owing to the pandemic will pick up pace now, the source also said. Currently, 61 border roads are under construction. Only 25 per cent of these works are pending and hence now is the time to give it a further push and complete the work, the source cited above said. These roads at Ladakh would give India better access to areas close to the LAC. The situation deteriorated after around 250 Chinese and Indian soldiers were engaged in a violent face-off on the evening of May 5 in Pangong Tso which spilled over to the next day before the two sides agreed to "disengage". However, the standoff continued. The trigger for the face-off was China's stiff opposition to India laying a key road in the Finger area around the Pangong Tso besides construction of another road connecting the Darbuk-Shayok-Daulat Beg Oldie road in Galwan Valley. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said bilateral talks were on at military and diplomatic levels with China to resolve the row. PARIS Nothing during the 11-week coronavirus lockdown could replace the ritual: a table in the sun with a tiny cup of black coffee on it. On Tuesday, Parisians rediscovered their favorite moment of sociability coming together, while remaining apart. Cafes throughout France were allowed to reopen and the relief was universal, if dispersed. Many kept tables resolutely piled indoors. In Paris, still officially classified as a virus risk zone, cafes were not allowed to serve inside. No downing the petit noir the little cup of coffee at the bar. On the outdoor terraces that did open, tables had to be three feet apart. And they were not overflowing with customers. This liberation is too new. Still, Tuesday brought a welcome hint of the life before. From luxurious carriage-trade establishments like the mirrored Left Bank Cafe de Flore to everybodys grimy neighborhood zinc (argot for bar), Paris reconnected Tuesday with a key element of its urban life. Parisians could once again sit down with one another, separately. They could be convivial without getting too close to one another, a French ideal. They could be in roughly the same space together, without ever having to talk to one another (only tourists talk across neighboring tables to strangers, a strict Parisian no-no). They could linger for hours if they needed to: the essential difference between the French cafe and its trans-Atlantic cousin. Click here to contact the firm. LOS ANGELES, June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Portnoy Law Firm advises ProPetro Holding Corp. (NYSE: PUMP) investors that the firm has initiated an investigation into alleged violations of securities laws, and may file a lawsuit on behalf of investors. Investors are encouraged to contact attorney Lesley F. Portnoy , by phone 310-692-8883 or email : lesley@portnoylaw.com, to discuss their legal rights, including eligbility for appointment as a class representative. Class representatives are appointed by the court to act as a fiduciary on behalf of other injured investors. The investigation focuses on whether the companys officers and directors violated their fiduciary duties to investors. Please visit our website to review more information and submit your transaction information. The Portnoy Law Firm represents investors in pursuing claims against caused by corporate wrongdoing. The Firms founding partner has recovered over $5.5 billion for aggrieved investors. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. Lesley F. Portnoy, Esq. Admitted CA and NY Bar lesley@portnoylaw.com 310-692-8883 www.portnoylaw.com Attorney Advertising Meghan Markle has complained that Kate Middleton 'snaps her fingers' and is quickly backed by the Palace after a negative story, yet when she was crucified by the media she received no support, sources have told DailyMail.com. 'Meghan said Kensington Palace never once came to her defense when she was being shredded by the media. Now Kate gets a bit of negative press, and the Palace comes out in less than 24 hours to rebuke the claims made against her,' a friend said. Last week, British society bible Tatler ran a cover story about Kate - headlined 'Catherine the Great' but Kate and William took issue with the article, saying it contained a 'swathe of inaccuracies and false representations'. Kensington Palace also sent legal letters to the magazine to remove the story from the internet. Meghan pointed out to friends that she was plagued by negative stories and the Palace did nothing to interfere, despite pleas from Prince Harry. The inaction eventually led to the Sussexes quitting their royal duties and moving to Los Angeles. The friend said: 'This is really a slap in the face for Harry because he repeatedly asked for an updated, revised media policy or at least a conversation about his concerns. All fell on deaf ears and then Kate comes along, snaps her fingers and gets an outpouring of support.' Meghan Markle has complained Kate Middleton 'snaps her fingers' and is quickly backed by the Palace after a negative story, yet when she was crucified by the media, she received no support, sources have told DailyMail.com The friend said: 'This is really a slap in the face for Harry because he repeatedly asked for an updated, revised media policy or at least a conversation about his concerns. All fell on deaf ears and then Kate comes along, snaps her fingers and gets an outpouring of support' Meghan told friends she's not surprised Kate is taking jabs at her for leaving the royal life and that Kate was never supportive during her transition into the royal family. A source said: 'Meghan said on her last trip to England, Kate barely said two words to her and that its absolutely preposterous for her to start playing the blame game.' Pictured: Meghan and Harry standing behind William and Kate at the annual Commonwealth Service in March They added: Meghan says its just so telling. She explained this was one of the main reasons why she and Harry said their goodbyes to royal life... the lack of support and complete disregard for the pain and anguish Meghan suffered while being crucified by the media. Meghan said rather than backing her, she was made to feel like she was asking too much, expecting too much, when all she wanted was support from the powers that be. Tatler's story on Kate included anecdotes about how the Duchess of Cambridge felt overworked and tired because she had to take on more royal duties after Meghan and Harry stepped away. Last week, British society bible Tatler ran a cover story about Kate - headlined 'Catherine the Great' but Kate and William took issue with the article The article cites a source as saying: 'Kate is furious about the larger workload She feels exhausted and trapped. She's working as hard as a top CEO, who has to be wheeled out all the time, without the benefits of boundaries and plenty of holidays.' Kensington Palace quickly blasted the quote, telling The Mail on Sunday: 'There is no truth to their claim that the Duchess feels overwhelmed with work, nor that the Duke is obsessed with Carole Middleton. It's preposterous and downright wrong.' But Meghan told friends she's not surprised Kate is taking jabs at her for leaving the royal life and that Kate was never supportive during her transition into the royal family. A source said: 'Meghan said on her last trip to England, Kate barely said two words to her and that its absolutely preposterous for her to start playing the blame game. Of all the people in the royal family, Meghan said she had hoped to develop a close relationship with Kate, but was never given the chance. It was hurtful and disappointing for Meghan. Meghan said Kate never gave her the benefit of the doubt or reached out to her when she was at her lowest, struggling to adjust with very few friends. 'Had the roles been reversed, Meghan said she would have gone out of her way to make Kate feel part of the family. She would have embraced their sisterhood. Tatler also addressed one of the rumored feuds between Meghan and Kate, stemming from Meghan's wedding in May 2018. The magazine said the fight occurred at a rehearsal and was over whether Princess Charlotte and the other young bridesmaids should wear tights. A friend told DailyMail.com: 'Meghan was not about to make her god-kids, let alone the other little girls wear tights, it was too hot and sticky and there was just no need for it' Pictured: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex emerge from the West Door of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle The friends said Meghan felt Kate 'secretly envied Meghans ability to speak her mind and make her own happiness a priority. 'Meghan said Kate only has herself to blame for not setting limits and for not speaking up for herself.' Tatler also addressed one of the rumored feuds between Meghan and Kate, stemming from Meghan's wedding in May 2018. The magazine said the fight occurred at a rehearsal and was over whether Princess Charlotte and the other young bridesmaids should wear tights. A source told Tatler: 'Kate, following protocol, felt that they should. Meghan didn't want them to. The photographs suggest that Meghan won.' A friend told DailyMail.com: 'First off, it was Meghans big day, not Kates and secondly Meghan was not about to make her god-kids, let alone the other little girls wear tights, it was too hot and sticky and there was just no need for it. 'Meghan said it really wasnt an issue until Kate made it an issue. Lockdowns and social distancing measures are beginning to ease across the GCC countries given tentative signs that these economies are passed the peak with a flattening in the curve of new Covid-19 cases on the horizon, said a new report. At the current juncture, it is too early to decipher whether the easing of lockdown is feeding through to a meaningful pick-up in economic activity, said MUFG, a leading global financial services group, in its latest Mena Economic Weekly report. What is clear is that despite the phased easing in restrictions, the GCC region is by no means out of the woods. The past couple of months have been strenuous and destabilising. The region is steadily looking to life post-Covid-19 towards a path of a new normal but there currently remain more questions than answers. However, there's room for hope, tempered with caution. Lessons from early openers across the world Our examination of countries that have reopened more versus less speedily across the world thus far, offers three encouraging lessons, the report said. First, early reopeners have not witnessed higher confirmed Covid-19 incidences thus far. Second, corporates and broader financial markets have tentatively begun to reward the early reopeners with modestly higher asset returns and easier financial conditions in contrast to the "peak lockdown" period of early April, when reopening was associated with lower asset returns and tighter financial conditions. Third, not all reopenings are homogeneous with heterogeneity abound across countries, and if medical outcomes can avoid left tails, corporates and markets may reward reopenings. Outlook Certain events split eras into times before and after. It is clear that our era will be defined by a fundamental division: what we knew as normal before Covid-19 and the new normal that will emerge in the post-viral era the next normal. For the GCC economies, the conversation is beginning about what the next normal could entail and how sharply its contours will diverge from those that previously shaped the region. What is evident in the immediate term is that all these countries continue to grapple with both the demand-side evisceration shock caused by Covid-19 induced restrictions and the supply-side shock caused by the oil price collapse. Facing either one of these shocks would be unprecedented. The combination of the two, signals a sudden deep and acute recession this year, with risks skewed to the downside. Nearly all GCC countries have announced an easing of lockdowns: Saudi Arabia The Kingdom has started implementing a three phased approach to easing restrictions, with all curfews to be lifted by 21 June. Since28 May, curfews have been reduced, between3pm to 6am and from 30 May between8pm to 6am, when mosques can also resume prayers. Makkah will remain under stricter curfews while the rest of the country starts to open and Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages continue to be suspended. Domestic flights will resume from 1 June, but international flights remain suspended, possibly up to September. UAE Dubai has relaxed free movement, allowing business activity to resume during reduced curfews from 11pm to 6am. Since 27 May, Dubai airport began welcoming returning residents, subject to 14 day on arrival quarantine, and passengers on transit. The UAE aims to welcome tourists from July and is gradually allowing a resumption of retail and hospitality activity. On 21 May, Emirates airlines which has formally requested financial support from the government, resumed flights to nine destinations. Separately, Federal government employees in UAE have resumed work since 31 May, first phased at 30% capacity. In Dubai, half of government employees have returned to offices since 31 May, ahead of a full return by 14 June. Oman Oman will allow business activity to resume and has ended the lockdown within the capital, Muscat since 29 May, allowing travel to resume in and out the city. However, Muttrah district, where the majority of Covid-19 cases have been recorded and where many low wage foreign workers live and work, remains sealed off. Since 31 May, half of government employees have returned to work. Bahrain Since 22 May, certain commercial and industrial business activities have reopened. Kuwait The Kuwaiti government did not extend its full curfew beyond 30 May and instead switched to a 12 hour partial curfew from 6pm to 6am commencing31 May, as part of a five phase plan Qatar There are few signs of an imminent easing of restrictions in Qatar as cases continue to edge up. Qatar's Minister of Health stated on 21 May that the country is entering the "peak stage" of its Covid-19outbreak. New cases have averaged 1,757a day since then, up from 1,483a day in the previous seven day period. High frequency data has demonstrated the scale of the challenge. Early activity data for April measured by the all-important Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) the leading indicator and barometer of the health of an economy which is highly correlated with non-oil GDP growth signalled that acute containment measures have taken an unprecedented toll on corporate output across the region. The impact of Covid-19 on the non-oil economy across the GCC region varies from country to country, in line with the share of economic activity in each that is most adversely impacted by government measures to control the spread of the disease. TradeArabia News Service Malappuram: A class 9 student from Kerala allegedly committed suicide by setting herself ablaze as she was unable to attend the online classes being conducted by her school. Devika, 14, a student of Government Higher Secondary School in Irimbiliyam in Malappuram, was found dead in an unoccupied house next to her residence. Balakrishnan and Sheeba, her parents, alleged that Devika was depressed as the family did not have a television or smartphone which she could use to attend online classes. The girl had been missing since Monday afternoon and in the evening her charred body was found next to the house. An empty vessel of kerosene was also found near the body. Police could not find anything suspicious after conducting the primary enquiry. Schools and colleges continue to remain shut in Kerala due to coronavirus outbreak and ongoing lockdown norms. However, online classes for students from first standard to post-graduation commenced on June 1 in the state. Teachers were entrusted to make sure the benefits of online classes reach each and every student in school. For colleges, the task was to be executed by the principal. Classes for school students were offered via Kite Victers channel in Malayalam. The classes have been receiving a rousing reception from day one itself. A handful of downtown Toronto businesses have boarded up their storefronts amid swirling rumours on social media of an upcoming protest. Toronto police Const. Michelle Flannery told the Star in an email Tuesday morning that police were aware of various social media posts regarding protest activity in the city. We will continue to monitor and respond, if necessary, to ensure the safety of everyone involved, said Flannery, who didnt provide specifics on a time or location of the rumoured protest. The Bay at Yonge and Queen Streets, and Best Buy on Dundas and Bay Streets, boarded up their storefronts Monday night. Neither company could be reached for comment Tuesday morning. But workers were taking down boards at the Bay store later Tuesday. Mark Garner, chief operating officer and executive director of the Downtown Yonge Business Improvement Area, said in an interview that the risk is real based on intel that weve heard, and businesses are mitigating the risks . . . were planning for the worst and expecting the best. Garner said he didnt know when the protest would take place but said theres obviously some notification that something is imminent. HomeSense, Nordstrom, EB Games and other stores near Toronto Eaton Centre also had their storefronts boarded up Tuesday, as trucks carrying plywood and other supplies circled the area. Some businesses around Eaton Centre had already been boarded up due to Ontarios prolonged COVID-19 shutdown. In an unrelated news conference Tuesday, Mayor John Tory said that hed been in touch with Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders the previous day to discuss the rumours. Tory said that he thinks the people of Toronto, frankly, would have no interest whatsoever in seeing the kind of activity weve seen elsewhere going on in our city, whether its the looting or other damage to property or other misbehaviour. American cities have erupted in violence and destruction as world outrage grows over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, who died when a white officer put his knee on the handcuffed Black mans neck until Floyd stopped breathing. Thousands attended a peaceful protest in Toronto over the weekend, sparked by the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, an Afro-Indigenous woman who fell 24 floors in the presence of police. This city has done itself proud in the way in which it has handled some very heartfelt protests that result from a great degree of anger and frustration about some of the issues having to do with racism, here and elsewhere, Tory said. Amid controversy and allegations police played a role in Korchinski-Paquets death, the Special Investigations Unit, along with Tory, Saunders, the Toronto Police Service Board and the Toronto Police Association have urged the public to wait for the results of the SIU investigation before rushing to any conclusions. Premier Doug Ford was asked at a news conference if the downtown Toronto business owners fears were valid, and if others should follow suit. I understand they might do that, but were different from the United States . . . were Ontarians, were Canadians, Ford said. We have such great people here in Ontario . . . and people in Ontario just wouldnt tolerate that. Were better than that. With files from Richard Lautens Francine Kopun is a Toronto-based reporter covering city hall and municipal politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @KopunF Read more about: Alliance for Governance and Accountability have seen a post on Twitter and other social media platforms by President Akufo Addo says, "Black people, the world over, are shocked and distraught by the killing of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, by a white police officer in the United States of America. It carried with it an all too painful familiarity and an ugly reminder. It cannot be right that, in the 21st century, the United States, this great bastion of democracy, continues to grapple with the problem of systemic racism. On behalf of the people of Ghana, I express my deep condolences to the family and loved ones of the late George Floyd. We stand with our kith and kin in America in these difficult and trying times, and we hope that the unfortunate, tragic death of George Floyd will inspire a lasting change in how America confronts head-on the problems of hate and racism" Meanwhile, the president did not release that Ghana is also in the 21st century and therefore he also needed to twit about Ayawaso West Wuogon when his own state-sponsored thugs stormed there during a mere by-election to course mayhem to the extent that some almost lost their lives. Moreover, the perpetrators of that crime are still leaving unpublished and are being paid with our taxes. He (The President) did not see the need to twit to express his deep condolences to the family of the Takoradi girls who just vanish into the thin air. H.E the president of Ghana Nana Akufo Addo did not even visit the families of 18 high school students who died after a large tree fell on them at the popular waterfall spot in Kintampo. Has H.E the president found it necessary to visit the families of Ahmed Suale? Has H.E the president visit the families of the 30 people who were burnt to death in the Kintampo highway in March 2020? Alliance for Governance and Accountability wants to know why our president is so much concerned about happenings outside his jurisdiction as president of Ghana. And yet shows no concern about things that happens to the very people who voted him into power. He should let us know if he is Ghana's president or an international president. This art of hypocrisy on the part of the president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo must stop with immediate effect. #THEHYPOCRISYMUSTSTOPNOW!!! Signed: Don Frank Kennedy Baah A move to limit the number of students from England who can go to university in Northern Ireland has been strongly criticised by a Stormont minister. Economy Minister Diane Dodds said it was unacceptable to impose a cap on English-domiciled students heading here in September. England's Department for Education plans to cap the number of undergraduates that universities in England can teach in 2020/21. It plans to extend the cap to include English students applying to higher education elsewhere in the UK. But the move has been opposed in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Mrs Dodds said: "I am wholly opposed to DfE England's intention to impose a student number control on full-time undergraduate English domiciles at Northern Ireland's higher education providers this coming academic year 2020/21. "I am shocked and concerned that another jurisdiction is seeking to control student numbers here in Northern Ireland and the impact that this may have on our local sector. "This intention runs contrary to what had been agreed amongst the four UK administrations at the beginning of May in regards to a number of measures relating to admissions for 2020/21 under the UK Admissions Package. "I believe that this proposal has the potential to break up the unified higher education market within the United Kingdom in terms of access to study based on student choice and academic achievement. It is a dangerous precedent to set and one I am wholly opposed to." Mrs Dodds fears the proposal will damage local higher education institutions. "Local institutions will have already started to determine their recruitment of English-domiciled students without any indication that the new DfE England restrictions would be imposed on them," she added. "For DfE England to bring this proposal to the fore at this stage in the recruitment and admissions cycle is not only unfair but unprecedented." The minister has written to Universities Minister Michelle Donelan on the issue. The DfE said its aim was to bring stability to the higher education sector, during "an incredibly difficult time for universities and their students". Twitter placed a tweet from a close political ally of the president behind a warning label Monday, citing its policy prohibiting content that promotes violence. The tweet, from Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, suggested that the U.S. government "hunt down" anti-fascist activists in the country like it would pursue international terrorists. "We have placed a public interest notice on this Tweet from @mattgaetz," a Twitter spokesperson told TechCrunch, linking its platform policy page. Twitter users can still share the tweet with comment, but regular retweets, likes and replies have been deactivated. Consistent with its previously announced policy concerning tweets from public figures that violate its rules, Twitter left the post up but placed it behind a note. "We want to make it clear today that the accounts of world leaders are not above our policies entirely," Twitter wrote in the policy, released last year. "... We will err on the side of leaving the content up if there is a clear public interest in doing so." A tourism forum took place in Hue city on May 31 under the theme Connecting travel businesses in Hue, a safe and friendly destination. The event drew the participation of provincial leaders, delegates from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, and more than 300 representatives from local tourism associations and travel agencies from both inside and outside the province. The participants reviewed the provincial tourism sectors situation and discussed target markets for Hue city after the COVID-19 epidemic while putting forward solutions to boost cooperation with their colleagues in Da Nang city and Quang Nam province to promote the central regions tourism industry. On the occasion, the provincial Peoples Committee announced a tourism stimulus programme, which will run through this year with a wide range of cultural and festive events to attract more visitors to the locality. A seminar was held in Nghe An province the same day to seek ways to revive local tourism activities post COVID-19. Delegates stressed the need to build a safe and friendly tourism environment, and design new attractive tourist products and services in order to meet the increasing demands of travellers. Also on May 31, youth union members in Da Lat city, Lam Dong province joined hands to plant more than 1,400 cherry blossoms in sub-zone 147A, ward 7. According to Vice Chairwoman of Da Lat city, Tran Thi Vu Loan, the move aims to create a new cherry blossoms space in the city, thus providing visitors with more options to explore the city while contributing to increasing the citys forest coverage rate. A 90-minute street music programme was staged at An Thuong Tourist Quarter in Da Nang city yesterday evening, featuring beautiful songs and dance by local dancing club members and students from the Da Nang College of Culture and the Arts. The event will be held every weekend to create a platform for music and dance lovers and bring a fresh experience for visitors to Da Nang city. A colourful street dance at the music programme held at An Thuong Tourist Quarter in Da Nang city on May 31. Look at their audacities while they are in actions!Lying is a completely acceptable tactic used to help Jamaat-e-Islam gain a foothold in local and national level populations. by Anwar A. Khan We should remember the 9 months of our bloody struggle in 1971 to liberate Bangladesh from the deadliest Pakistani army and their dreadful local associate, Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI). We must not forget to revisit JeIand their accomplices. We remember with heavy hearts that in December 1971, they used excessive use of force, in some cases amounting to horrific torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment to send the best intellectuals of Bangladesh to death. This is not an easy legacy to shoulder. Make no mistake, the abomination of JeI is a clear and still danger to Bangladesh. The only question really is whether the government will act decisively now while they can still shape events to destroy JeI like ferocious killing squad, an act that seems increasingly self-obvious. Where humanity is gone? DOCTRINE OF DECEPTION, LYING AND RELIGION TRADING When you see quote like this, it shows that Jamaat-e-Islami is a doctrine of deception, mass killing, arson, looting, raping and revenge, not peace and tolerance.Their policy is to lie, deceive or omit critical truths if they promote the spreading of their so-called philosophy.This is the Jamaati principle of lying for the sake of theirends. Falsehoods are told to prevent denigration of them, to protect them, or to promote their cause using our Holy Religion, Islam. They are lying or making distorted statements to the media and to the people in general claiming that they are an Islamist political party of peace and thus deceive the Muslims to garner their support, and to make them their party men and pretend to be saints. But the truth is that Jamaat-e-Islam is aso-called religion trade based and criminal organisation that allows lying and deceit as part of their doctrine. Islam promotes honesty, integrity, and love for fellow man, but not they. Deceit is an integral part of them. They allow themselves the option of lying in any communication or negotiation as a tenet of their policy. This deceit is a product of Jamaat-e-Islami teachings of its followers to disrespect Muslims and non-Muslims as they are not worthy of honesty. Look at their audacities while they are in actions!Lying is a completely acceptable tactic used to help Jamaat-e-Islam gain a foothold in local and national level populations. Any and all unethical behaviours are acceptable to help them gain domination over all people and all other religions.Muslims cant lie any time. Lies and deception are merely tools to be used to destroy anything that restricts, prevents, or gets in their way of achieving this goal. There is no iota of truth when Jamaati men say to spread Islam. When dealing with Muslims, what they say is not the issue. The real issue is what they actually mean in their hearts. In other words, it is best to remember their history of past actions rather than to listen to their false promises of peace. Read or try to know what these cruel beasts did to our people during our glorious Liberation War in 1971. To fully understand the danger of Jamaat-e-Islami, you need to have the courage to accept the truth about them. Every one of their actions was done in the name of Islam. How many times have we heard that they profess peaceful teachings, tolerance, and love? Jamaat-e-Islami is a very real danger to Islam, Muslims, non-Muslims, humanity, the country-Bangladesh, its flag, its security and the like. They propagate only Islam exists in their political party and in their people. How many more examples do you want?How many more examples do you need?The truth is evident for all to see in their actions and reactions. JAMAATS VIOLENCE IS ITS INHERENT POLICY Islam has not been associated with any sort of violence. But the 1971 days were horrific and tragic days millions of people were perished in the terrorist attacks by the Jamaati Al-Badr and Al-Shams forces that drove a knife straight into the hearts of the freedom-loving people of Bangladesh. They made brutal blows to our pride and stature.To elucidate the Jamaati men penchant for bloodlust, violence and terrorism, one merely has to consult the historical record. They killed/kill men, women, and children irrespective of ages, at times using terrible torture. The most infamous bloodbaths were committed by them in every nook and corner of the country during our glorious Liberation War in 1971. Jamaati griffins, in their perilous quest to exterminate anything thats not Jamaatis from the soil of the-then East Pakistan to establish a state of their own, have systematically carried out a genocidal policy of freedom-loving people and Bangladesh-loving people cleansing all who would be found on their ways.For more than four decades the arrogant, eternally deceitful Jamaati people refused to admit responsibility for the grave misdeeds they committed to the freedom loving people in Bangladesh in 1971. These ferocious people learned in the great art of deception. Golam Azam was the mastermind of all mass killings, genocide, en-masse rape, blazing of innumerable habitats of human beings. Since our glorious Liberation War, Golam Azam and his gangsters, such as Mollah Nizami, Ali Ahsan Mujahid, Mollah Saidee have committed a litany of false flag of terror attacks, millions of targeted assassinations, and have murdered tens of thousands of Bangladesh loving people. These historical precedents irrefutably demonstrate that it is certainly within the power of Jamaat-e-Islami in connivance with the Brutal Pakistani crime network to commit mass murder without any repercussions. It is because of their brutal actions, we lost Bangladeshs best intellectual sons and daughters on or before December 14, 1971 for which every year, we observe 14 December as Martyred Intellectuals Day. WHERE IN JAMAAT-E- ISLAMI DO YOU FIND PEACE AND TOLERANCE? In the eyes of Jamaat-e-Islami, if you are not a follower of their own fabricated Islam, then you are not worthy of living. In fact, the practice of other religions is actually forbidden. Freedom of Religion, i.e. the freedom to worship as you please, the very cornerstone of the freedom on which Bangladesh was founded, is nowhere to be found in their doctrine. This is one of the reasons Jamaat-e-Islami is so hated by people of Bangladesh.As usual and right on cue, all of the victims of 1971 and afterwards were non-threatening, unarmed civilians. But they are all Jamaat's favourite and primary targets. Men, women, and children, aged persons, sick persons - it does not matter. Unarmed and not a threat to anyone, they are preferred targets for Jamaati terrorists. JAMAAT-E-ISLAM IS NAZISM; JAMAAT-E-ISLAM IS JAMAATI-FASCISM They will chase you everywhere! These are the people that drink blood, and we know that there is no better blood than the blood of people other than them. They will not leave you alone.They committed violent acts of terrorism in the name of Islam in 1971 and they are still on the same violent and anti-Islamic path.Terrorism is everything that Jamaat-e-Islami embraces. These are just more examples proving that these cruel animals have been, are now, and forever will be their excuse for terrorism, killing, arson, looting, raping and so forth.This is the final word of their own Islam: Just believe as they say because they are right only and you are wrong.If you do not live as they say,death is your punishment. Anyone who rejects their beliefs as their own leaves them with no other choice but to kill themin the name of Allah, Islam, and Muhammad(SM) pronouncing Nara-e-Takbir; Allah-hu Akbar and so forth.They made/make terrorist attacks on us in the name of Islam. The vast majority of Muslims do not control the direction of Islam. They are not in control of their religion. The terrorists are in control of Islam and the vast majority of Muslims are doing nothing to stop them. It is these Jamaatis, the bitter enemies of Islam and humanity who systematically slaughteredmillions of our innocent people in 1971. It is these fanatics who committed mass killing, beheaded, murdered. It is the anti-human-beings who teach their young to kill human beings to achieve their purpose. And it is all done in the name of our Holy Religion- Islam, Muhammad (SM), and Almighty Allah.The hard, quantifiable fact is that the peaceful majority of Muslims, the "silent majority", is cowed and extraneous. Many people think thatJamaat-e-Islami, Islami Chhatra Sangha and Shibir as wellas their new killing outfit - ABPwere /are agreat threat to human community. History has shown that they were/ are truly a danger.Remember, these are the people with an extreme Nazi belief system that glorify the killing of others in the name of Islam and they are working at a ferocious pace to acquire their so-called empire.These violent creatures teach their children and their supporters the values of Terrorism and Hate at a young age.This is what they refer to when they speak of teaching Islam, Peace, Love,and Tolerance. This is the past, present, and future of Jamaat-e-Islami.These neo-Nazis were/are not flexible on anything. YOU CANNOT NEGOTIATE WITH NEONAZIS, JAMAATIFASCIST, OR THEIR TERRORISTS Where is the Tolerance?Where is the Compassion?Where is the "Religion of Peace"?Tragic are the consequences of Jamaat-e-Islami thoughtand violence that is now and has always been their true face but of course, trading in the name of Islam.They want to kill anyone and everyone that hold different religious views about anything. They oppose freedom and everything else that Bangladesh stands for.Much of Jamaat-e- Islami can be quickly summed up on the following idea - "Accept the life and word of us as the absolute and final Truth or we will kill you."They do not want to help people, they only want to kill people and then they want everyone to believe they only want Peace, Love, and Tolerance for all people. Should we be more insulted because they are lying to us or because they think we are so stupid that we will believe their lies?To Muslims and non-Muslims, it is a death threat. This is just another example of the dishonest nature of Jamaat-e-Islami in its treatment. They say that their Islam is a superior way of life, and then they have to force people to accept their own Islam often under penalty of death. The destruction was on. The dangers are around for all to see. The signs are everywhere. Take the violent atrocities they also committed in 2013 and early 2015 and also in 2016 in their different other namesfor example.Anyone that believes and advances the theory that Jamaat-e-Islam is a peaceful and tolerant religion is at odds with him/her.Jamaat-e-Islami is like rabies, it turns an ordinary peaceful human being into a dangerous madman or madwoman.These people are truly dangerous and they should not be trusted. They are "EVIL" in every sense of the word. They will lie, cheat, and kill as a means to achieve their ends. Lying to human beings is an accepted practice for them. They are the real masters of deception. The on-going ICT trials against the war criminals is an another phase of our Liberation War. A war of the free Bangladesh against all of the terror groups is on. This is a war between the good and the bad, between humanity and those who are bloodthirsty. The criminal attack today on innocent civilians in Bangladesh, is a turning point in war against the terrorists belongs to Jamaat-e-Islami and their present murdering squad-Shibir. Even if the war against terror is long and even if the terror will try to raise its head again there wont be any room for it in our beloved country, Bangladesh in which terrorists, their assistants and those who send them to be able to find a shelter or a refuge. The fight against terrorists is a firm struggle against the forces of darkness who seek to destroy our liberty and our way of life. I believe that together we can defeat these forces of evil. When somebody is frivolously pointing their finger at others, loudly and aggressively making accusations and casting blame in every direction other than his/her own, it is usually because that person is guilty of something and is trying to project his/her own guilt onto someone else. This is precisely what the cruel Jamaati people did in 1971 to baffle us from winning Bangladesh and what they always did in the past. Remember, Jamaatis believe that their own Islam is the only true religion, superior to all other religions and beliefs. They also believe there are no innocent people other than Muslims, therefore, killing of innocents is acceptable to Allah as some legitimate form of retribution as they believe they are on a mission with orders directly from Allah to destroy anything they see as a threat or an insult to them. The bloody legacy of Mawlana Abul Ala Mawdudi, the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan and its Bangladesh branch office Ex-Chief Golam Azam and the present kingpin war criminals belong to JeI are constant challenge for anyone living within the borders of Islamic belief and the creation of Bangladesh.We all should take a vow throughout the country to eliminate these evils and devils for their horrific terrorist attacks on our nation in 1971 and afterwards. Our country and our world will never be the same, and we are only beginning to understand the enormity of the threat and the challenges that lie ahead while we are lawfully giving due punishment to them. Our first and greatest priority must be to recognise that our enemy is evil to the core and, if not deterred, has the means to cause even greater destruction. The people of Bangladesh are looking to the present government to be the beacon of freedom that will take the lead, with support from every corner of the globe, in turning back this enemy. PM Hasina and her Administration have risen to the occasion and we should stand firm with them, offering our full support in the difficult time which may be ahead. Famous war crimes activist Shahriar Kabir has rightly pointed out, Jahanara Imam was also able to convey a strong message to the young generation of the country. Those born after 1975 were taught a different, distorted history. The new generation that had not witnessed the Liberation War the dark generation as we call it- is unfamiliar with the Liberation War or the correct account of history. Jahanara Imam oriented this new generation toward the Liberation War.I have absolute confidence that if we, the citizens of Bangladesh, led by PM Hasina, marshal the enormous reserves of power at our disposal, harness the steely resolve of a free people, and mobilise our collective will we shall eradicate this evil from the face of the earth. The time for action is now. Today, the Jamaati terrorists have the will to destroy us, but they do not have the power. There is no doubt that we have the power to crush them. Now we must also show that we have the will. BANNING OF JAMAAT-E-ISLAMI The Jamaat-e-Islami is violent enough that it should be banned in Bangladesh in no time, and the remaining members of it should be arrested for their participation in the violent activities to bring about unspeakable sufferings to us and prosecute them lawfully to inflict due punishment. Their all properties should be confiscated to compensate the same to the family members of war victims because of their grave misdeeds in 1971. And these are the dire emergency needs of the hour now. -The End The writer is an independent political observer based in Dhaka, Bangladesh who writes on politics, political and human-centred figures, current and international affairs. Industry has cautioned the government that economic recovery needs to \return quickly or else social issues would arise following the severe impact of Covid-19 on the livelihood of the poor. Sanjiv Puri, CMD, ITC said the crisis has been unprecedented and of epic proportions. He said the economic fallout has been very severe as the International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimated that four out of five of the worlds workforce will stand in immediate danger of having their livelihood destroyed. "We have to realign ourselves to the new normal. The faster we adopt to ... A Toronto Police officer has been arrested and charged with one count of sexual assault in Halton. The Halton Regional Police Service CASA Unit arrested the 53-year-old man on June 1. The Toronto officer was off-duty at the time of the alleged incident, police say. The victim and accused knew each other, and there are no other known victims, according to police. Police are not releasing the name of the man because of a high likelihood of identifying the victim. Margaryta Ignatenko is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star's radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @MargarytaIgnat1 It is the voters who dont turn out like clockwork, many of whom have weak partisan identities, who can make a crucial difference in close-fought races. Those are the voters some Republicans fear will be lost to the party if mail voting is not embraced. The president has his viewpoint and we have ours; were trying to win elections, said Dave Millage, the Republican chair of Scott County in Iowa. He anticipated that mail voting would also be popular in November, when Iowa Republicans will be defending a vulnerable senator, Joni Ernst, as well as trying to flip a congressional seat in the Second District, which includes Scott County. We will call everybody to request an absentee ballot and make sure they get them in, Mr. Millage said. You bank that vote, you dont have to spend money to get them out to vote. You can cross them off the list. But so far, Mr. Trumps disparagement of mail voting is winning out in Scott County, which encompasses Davenport. As of Monday, 10,344 Democrats had voted by mail, or 66 percent of the total, compared with 5,342 Republicans. Only 54 percent of county voters who are registered with a party are Democrats. Moreover, Republicans have a contested primary for the open House seat while Democrats do not. Before Mr. Trump made mail voting toxic to many of his grass-roots supporters, it was widely used in many states, including some in which more Republicans than Democrats tended to vote absentee. It was Republican majorities in the Pennsylvania Legislature that passed a bill last year expanding no-excuse mail voting to any registered voter. It was signed into law by Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat. Mr. Trump, who has voted by mail in Florida, has weaponized the issue recently as polls showed him falling behind in battleground states. He falsely claimed a Democratic secretary of state in Michigan had illegally sent absentee ballot requests for the November election, and he threatened to hold back federal funds to Nevada if its Republican secretary of state went ahead with plans to send mail ballots directly to registered voters before its June 9 primary. As more workers in Metro Manila return to their jobs under GCQ, what measures are in place to prevent a second wave of infection? Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion joins us live. The Government should consider making it mandatory for the public to wear face masks in certain settings, according to an immunologist. A study published in the Lancet journal shows the use of masks can reduce the risk of spreading the virus six-fold. Meanwhile, Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston halved the number of cases of the virus among staff, when it insisted employees and patients wear them. On Newstalk radio's Pat Kenny Show, Professor Luke ONeill said it is time to consider making masks mandatory in Ireland. More and more studies are showing us the real evidence that masks work, he said. Because of course there was circumstantial evidence which we all liked the look of. But now we are seeing real evidence in the Lancet. There was six-fold decrease risk overall from mask-wearing if you look at the numbers. That is a big effect isnt it you would take that. He added that the hospital in Boston brought in mandatory mask-wearing on March 25. They didnt change anything else in that period, he said. That is a really good scientific study showing mask-wearing as having a big effect. So, both of those studies make it even more compelling, as we have said all along anyway, that masks are a great thing. The next question is should we mandate them because people are not wearing them? When I am out and about in shops and so on, there are not many people wearing them. So, we will have to move towards making them mandatory. He said mandatory masks would allow health officials to seriously consider a reduction in the two-metre social distancing rule. Definitely if you go to one metre, there is a much higher risk compared to two metres, he said. They have real numbers on that. But that is without masks remember. So, one thing that is for definite, if you want to go to one metre, you better wear a mask because now you are up close. That might be the recommendation, you would be allowed to go to one metre as long as youre wearing a mask. CARGOTEC CORPORATION, PRESS RELEASE, 2 JUNE 2020 AT 1 PM (EEST) Cargotec has completed the sale of its share of the joint venture Rainbow-Cargotec Industries Co., Ltd (RCI) in China. As part of the agreement, Cargotec acquired certain operations and assets of the joint venture from Jiangsu Rainbow Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (RHI), and approximately 160 employees have moved over from RCI to Kalmar. On 11 May 2020, Cargotec announced plans to sell its 49% share of the joint venture to the other owner RHI. RHI now owns 100% of the former joint venture, and the new name of the company is Rainbow Industries Co. Ltd. (RIC). RIC will continue as Cargotec's subcontractor and provide assembly services for Cargotec's business areas Kalmar and MacGregor at the factory in Taicang, China. The change aims to simplify Cargotec's global supply chain operations. Simplification is needed mainly because the number of complex automation projects has been growing in the past couple of years. The arrangement also supports the asset light balance sheet structure. For further information, please contact: Antti Kaunonen, President, Kalmar Automation Solutions, antti.kaunonen@kalmarglobal.com Hanna-Maria Heikkinen, Vice President, Investor Relations, tel +358 40 8262 172 Cargotec Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) President and CEO Bruce Stillman has been awarded the Dr. H.P. Heineken Prize for Biochemistry and Biophysics. Stillman is being honored for his ground-breaking research on the way DNA is copied in eukaryotic cells, a crucial component to understanding genetics. The Dr. H.P. Heineken Prize for Biochemistry and Biophysics is bestowed by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. The award honors top international researchers in biochemistry and/or biophysics whose scientific work offers new perspectives, achieves breakthroughs, and opens up new avenues for others. In addition to the Heineken Prize, Stillman has been elected to the Royal Society, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Australian Academy of Science. He has received the Gairdner Award, the Basic Science award from the Society of Surgical Oncology, the Herbert Tabor Research Award, the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, and been named an American Association for Cancer Research Fellow. ### Residents in Washington DC opened their doors to hundreds of protesters overnight so they wouldn't be arrested for breaking the city's curfew after authorities cornered them on the street and fired tear gas into the crowd. One homeowner, Rahul Dubey, 44, allowed dozens of young protesters to run into his home after police cornered them in the street in the city's Dupont Circle neighborhood on Monday night. The protesters were among the thousands peacefully demonstrating near the White House earlier in the evening. Before the 7pm curfew, authorities started firing tear gas and using flash bangs into the crowds to clear the area so President Trump could walk to a nearby church for a staged photo op. Some protesters say they were chased into nearby neighborhoods and eventually cornered in one street before officers fired tear gas again. Scroll down for video Washington DC resident, Rahul Dubey, 44, allowed dozens of young protesters to run into his home after police cornered them in the street in the city's Dupont Circle neighborhood on Monday night. He is pictured above after protesters safely left his home on Tuesday morning The protesters were only able to leave Dubey's home on Tuesday morning when the city's curfew lifted at 6am. Dubey would not let the young protesters leave until he knew they could go without being arrested Dubey, as well as some of his neighbors, helped provide medical assistance to those affected by the tear gas before sheltering the protesters overnight when they realized officers were rounding up everyone on the street. Dozens of protesters spread out over the three levels of Dubey's home and remained hauled up there until Washington DC's curfew lifted at 6am. Supporters sent pizza deliveries and water throughout the night for the protesters. A group of supporters gathered outside Dubey's home first thing Tuesday morning to ensure the young protesters could leave safely and wouldn't be arrested as they left. Those gathered cheered loudly for Dubey as he stood on his front steps when the protesters finally emerged from his home. 'Get home safe, get some rest,' Dubey told the protesters as they left. 'Talk to each other. Make sure you take care of that mental health.' Police maintained a heavy presence in the area overnight and protesters say officers repeatedly tried to coax them out of the homes they were seeking shelter in. At one point, footage taken by a protesters showed an officer coming to Dubey's front door saying they had received a 911 report of someone needing medical assistance and needed to enter. One protester said officers assured them they could leave safely and avoid arrest if they left through the back alley of the home. Dubey, however, refused to let the protesters leave and would not let officers into his home. Residents in Washington DC opened their doors to hundreds of protesters overnight so they wouldn't be arrested for breaking the city's curfew after authorities cornered them on the street and fired tear gas into the crowd. Pictured above is the view from inside one home that sheltered protesters as police continued to arrest people on the street. Footage courtesy of Meka Police maintained a heavy presence in the area overnight and protesters say officers repeatedly tried to coax them out of the homes they were seeking shelter in Police officers dispersed the peaceful crowd gathered at Lafayette Park by the White House in Washington DC on Monday afternoon by firing tear gas and using flash bangs Allison Lane, who was among the protesters hauled up in the home overnight, live tweeted the ordeal, saying she had been pepper sprayed and knocked down by police after they were cornered in the street. 'There are about 100 of us in a house surrounded by cops. All the neighbors on this street opened their doors and are tending to protesters. The cops corralled us on this street and sprayed us down,' she said early on. 'Looks like I'm here until 6 am. The cops are in the alley catching people who hop the fence to leave the private property. Helicopters are everywhere. This is insane. 'I've talked to a few other people. There are at least 4 houses I'm certain that let people in. Mind you - we weren't trying to be in a neighborhood. We got pushed here while peacefully protesting.' The protesters watched on from the house for hours as police arrested the protesters who weren't able to seek refuge in homes or escape the street when the tear gas was fired. Meka, another protester inside the home overnight, tweeted: 'I cannot stress this enough: This was the most peaceful protest group I've been with in the past 3 days in DC.' Thousands of protesters had gathered at Lafayette Park by the White House in Washington DC on Monday afternoon as part of demonstrations over the death of George Floyd in police custody a week earlier. Shortly before Trump made an address to the nation, police officers dispersed the peaceful crowd, firing tear gas and using flash bangs. After the president had used his speech to threaten to deploy the military if US state governors did not stop ongoing protests across the country, he walked from the White House to the nearby St John's church. Trump held up a bible and gathered a group of advisers to pose for photos but did not comment on Floyd, the church or the clearing of the protesters. The protesters were forced out of Lafayette Park on Monday afternoon. Thousands of protesters had gathered at Lafayette Park by the White House in Washington DC on Monday afternoon as part of demonstrations over the death of George Floyd in police custody a week earlier After the president had used his speech to threaten to deploy the military if US state governors did not stop ongoing protests across the country, he walked from the White House to the nearby St John's church Trump held up a bible and gathered a group of advisers to pose for photos but did not comment on Floyd, the church or the clearing of the protesters Trump on Tuesday boasted that law enforcement 'dominated' in Washington DC overnight and claimed there were 'no problems' with rioters. He did, however, say in the same tweet that there were 'many arrests'. 'D.C. had no problems last night,' Trump tweeted. 'Many arrests. Great job done by all. Overwhelming force. Domination.' 'Likewise, Minneapolis was great (thank you President Trump!),' he added, as he continued to take credit for de-escalating riots in Minneapolis, Minnesota after he urged the Democratic governor to activate the National Guard there. Despite Trump's claim, riots in DC continued in full force Monday even after a 7pm curfew was enacted. Looting, arson and confrontations between rioters and law enforcement continued in the nation's capital as Military helicopters hovered low above the scene. Trump told governors in a call on Monday that they need to 'dominate' in cities that are being ravaged by rioters in the midst of George Floyd's death. He also claimed they look like 'jerks' and 'fools' for not doing more to mitigate the violence like making more arrests and activating the National Guard. Donald Trump claimed Tuesday morning that there were 'no problems' in Washington D.C. on Monday, but also claimed there were 'many arrests' as violent protesters continued to ransack the streets of the nation's capital in another night of riots over George Floyd's death The conservative commentator Charles Moore was appearing on a televised version of Radio 4's Today programme. He had arrived in the studio with his pet dog, a fluffy little white terrier of some sort. This dog had, he said, learned how to speak. The presenter, John Humphrys, then turned to the dog and asked it to take the listeners through its daily routine. Quite to my surprise, the dog started talking in very good English. He spoke with a slight drawl, almost as though yawning, but he was precise and easy to understand. Never in my life had I witnessed anything quite so astonishing as this talking dog. But other Radio 4 listeners seemed to take it in their stride Sadly, I don't remember the fine details of the dog's daily routine, though it involved, as you might expect, a number of meals and walks. But I remember his closing sentence exactly: 'And then I like to end each day with a glass of Campari.' Never in my life had I witnessed anything quite so astonishing as this talking dog. But other Radio 4 listeners seemed to take it in their stride. Many of them phoned in. Far from expressing amazement that a dog could speak English so fluently, they were outraged that Charles Moore let his dog drink Campari. It was, as you may have guessed, all a dream, but a dream so vivid that, days later, I still find myself irritated by the priggish reaction of those Radio 4 listeners. This was, after all, a talking dog! Where was their capacity for wonder? And what's so wrong with a well educated dog enjoying the occasional glass of Campari? A survey by the Sleep Council suggests that a third of us have experienced particularly vivid dreams during lockdown. Many report having dreams revolving around anxiety: shelves in supermarkets are empty, toilets and drains are blocked, and so on. This was, after all, a talking dog! Where was their capacity for wonder? And what's so wrong with a well educated dog enjoying the occasional glass of Campari? 'Part of the brain's function during sleep is to process emotions, including dealing with threat,' says Colin Espie, professor of Sleep Medicine at the University of Oxford. 'Our dreams are a window into the way we are feeling.' This interpretation is borne out by Samuel Pepys' diaries. Before the Great Fire of London, Pepys tended to have amorous dreams. On August 15, 1665, he enjoyed one of 'the best that ever was dreamt, which was that I had my Lady Castlemayne in my armes and was admitted to use all the dalliance I desired with her'. But on September 15, 1666, ten days or so after the fire, Pepys reports being 'much terrified in the nights now-a-days with dreams of fire, and falling down of houses'. Spookily, some of the most notable dreams have foretold real events. One of the eeriest was a dream President Abraham Lincoln reported to his wife, one evening in 1865, after she noticed he was upset about something. He had, he told her, dreamed of hearing sobbing in the White House, 'people... grieving as if their hearts would break'. In an attempt to trace the source of this sobbing, he had gone to the East Room, where he found soldiers surrounding a corpse, with bystanders pitifully weeping. 'Who is dead in the White House?' I demanded of one of the soldiers. 'The President,' was his answer. 'He was killed by an assassin.' Then came a loud burst of grief from the crowd, which awoke me from my dream.' A few days later, President Lincoln was shot and killed by an assassin attending a play at Ford's Theater in Washington. Oddly enough, Spencer Perceval, the British prime minister from 1809 to 1812, also had a dream of being shot in the lobby of the House of Commons by a man in a green coat with brass buttons. The next morning Perceval told his family about his nightmare, but, despite their warnings, went to work as usual. Sure enough, he was assassinated in the lobby of the House of Commons by a man in a green coat with brass buttons. You may say that a dream about a dog talking and drinking Campari could never be predic tive. But these are strange times, and pandemics often give rise to unexpected side-effects. What if every dog in the land were to start reaching for the Campari and chatting away in fluent English? What if all those pet dogs, from slobbery labradors to yappy pekingeses, began spreading malicious gossip about their owners, fuelled by alcohol? The world would be faced with a problem of shattering proportions. Don't say you haven't been warned. By Associated Press MONTCLAIR: Joe Biden could seize the number of delegates needed to formally clinch the Democrats' presidential nomination on Tuesday as seven states and the District of Columbia push through a pandemic and exploding racial tensions to host the largest slate of primary elections in almost three months. Voters will be asked to navigate curfews, health concerns and a sharp increase in mail balloting as elections take place from Maryland to Montana. Four states were originally scheduled to vote in April but delayed their contests because of the coronavirus outbreak. ALSO READ | US 2020 Presidential polls: How George Floyd protests can influence Joe Biden's running mate choice Pennsylvania offers the day's biggest trove of delegates and represents a high-profile test case for Republicans and Democrats working to strengthen their operations in one of the most important general election battlegrounds. "We think we're prepared," said state Democratic Party Chairwoman Nancy Patton Mills. "Thank goodness we have the opportunity of working this out in the primary because we don't know where we'll be with the pandemic in November. "Biden needs to win 89% of all delegates at stake on Tuesday to clinch the nomination, but his role as his party's clear presidential nominee is not in danger should he fall short. With a dominant showing on Super Tuesday in early March, the former vice president pushed out all his major opponents. "He will almost certainly secure the needed delegates later in the month if necessary. Still, Tuesday offers a historic opportunity for the 77-year-old Democrat, who is waging his third presidential campaign and who hopes to amass as many delegates as possible to show strength before going up against President Donald Trump. ALSO READ | Joe Biden speaks of racial 'open wound,' contrasting with US President Donald Trump Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is not actively campaigning, having suspended his operation and endorsed Biden, but his name will appear on the ballots. On the eve of Tuesday's primaries, senior adviser Jeff Weaver encouraged progressives to vote for Sanders anyway. "People who support Bernie Sanders and his agenda, who want to maximize the influence of progressives at the convention, should cast their vote for Bernie Sanders," Weaver said, reminding voters that the Vermont senator is seeking leverage to shape the party's platform and rules. The comments serve as a reminder that Biden may have no legitimate Democratic rivals remaining, but he must still win over skeptical activists from his party's far-left flank who worry he's too close to the political establishment. Party unity will likely be an afterthought this week, however, as more immediate health and safety concerns dominate the national conversation. The coronavirus death toll has surged past 100,000 nationwide, and thousands of new cases are reported each day. At the same time, several major cities, including some voting Tuesday, are grappling with protests following the killing of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd's neck for several minutes. Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser ordered a 7 p.m. curfew, though voting places will be open until 8 p.m. Voting has been deemed essential, and city officials say voters will not be subject to arrest if they cast ballots during the curfew. It's much the same in Philadelphia, where officials have promised that voters would not be arrested should their city's 6 p.m. curfew be extended for a fourth consecutive night. "We are in unique times and voting is a unique challenge for people," said Josh Schwerin, chief strategist for the pro-Democrat super PAC Priorities USA. He said that his organization and others will be watching closely on Tuesday "to see how well it works, where issues are, and where obstacles have been put in place." Political groups have had to adjust as some states move to a system that relies largely on voting by mail. They include Montana, where all 56 counties decided to vote entirely by mail. Voting rights watchdogs in multiple states have expressed concerns about access to mail ballots, confusion about deadlines and a shortage of poll workers that could lead to long lines. Those voting Tuesday include the District of Columbia, Indiana, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and South Dakota. An eighth state holding primary elections, Iowa, chose its presidential nominee early in the year and focused on other offices. Gaining great achievements in the fight against Covid-19 with membership in many FTAs, Vietnam can attract FDI but it is not the only country competing for projects. Nikkei reported that Apple has decided to increase AirPod output by 3-4 million products, or 30 percent of wireless earphones in Vietnam in Q2. The mass production of AirPods in Vietnam began in March. A report by VNDirect Securities released in April mentioned that Google and Microsoft are relocating some production lines from China to Vietnam and Thailand. The two giants plan to sell Pixel4A, Pixel5 phones and Surface computers in Vietnam in Q2. Nikkei last week reported that Panasonic plans to shut down the household-use appliance factory in Bangkok this autumn and merge it with a larger facility in Vietnam. Meanwhile, a report by SSI released some days ago said large corporations such as Pegatron, Amazon and Home Depot have begun recruiting workers and seeking supply chain links. Vietnam, together with other regional countries, including Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, is under consideration. Experts believe that Vietnam has great advantages to attract multi-national corporations. It is nearer to China than Indonesia, allowing investors to easily set up production bases near the vast market. Experts believe that Vietnam has great advantages to attract multi-national corporations. It is nearer to China than Indonesia, allowing investors to easily set up production bases near the vast market. Regarding the occupancy rate and land rent in IZs, Collier International reported that the rent is very attractive in Vietnam, which is 45-50 percent lower than in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. According to Phan Huu Thang, a respected expert in FDI, the successful control over Covid-19 is also a plus point that helps Vietnam become more attractive in the eyes of foreign investors. Foreign investors can see that not only Vietnamese, but foreigners can enjoy the best possible healthcare services in Vietnam, he said. Besides, they can also see golden opportunities here from the stable economic growth in recent years." Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on May 22 agreed on a proposal to establish a special taskforce in charge of attracting FDI. The move, as commented by analysts, once again shows Vietnams strong determination to attract FDI. However, experts are cautious when asked if Vietnam can attract foreign investment flow. Pham Chi Lan, a respected economist, said there are great opportunities, but they are not reserved only for Vietnam. She noted that while other countries have set priority orders and clear goals, Vietnam is still pursuing a policy causing Vietnam to miss many opportunities. Meanwhile, Thang said total foreign investment capital has falken from VND1.3 trillion to $1 trillion, while the competition to attract the capital is getting fierce. Le Ha Vietnam needs more efforts to lure new FDI wave While other countries are setting up specific and clear priorities to attract FDI projects, Vietnam is still pursuing a strategy with multiple targets that could lead to missed opportunities. Those hoping to spend the Fourth of July enjoying the big events may be out of luck this year. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the cancellation of several Fourth of July events in west-central Illinois that have become staples for several communities. The cloud of uncertainty surrounding whether large group events could be allowed by July 4 has left organizers with few options but to cancel the events. While some municipalities have not yet made a final decision on fireworks displays, events organized by cities and community groups have had to cancel this year. In Jacksonville, the Fourth of July Blast was canceled, according to the Fourth of July Blast committee. While the committee held off on canceling in hopes of managing to organize the event this year, the pandemic kept pushing back plans and Gov. J.B. Pritzkers Restore Illinois plan mandated that such large gatherings would not be allowed until a vaccine is made available. It is a sad day when an organization must cancel an event that an organization loves planning, especially when it comes to celebrating our nations freedom and independence, organizer Karla Stice said. The committee hopes the Fourth of July Blast returns next year and they have agreed to plan on making next years event bigger and better than previous celebrations. Stice said the committee has no role in deciding whether the fireworks display or the Jacksonville Rotary Clubs Fourth of July Parade are canceled. Jacksonville Mayor Andy Ezard said the city hopes to make a final decision on its Fourth of July activities by June 19. Jacksonville Rotary Club has not yet decided if its parade will go on as planned or be canceled, though the topic is being discussed, according to a club member. White Hall Lions Club has canceled Fourth of July events in its city. Due to the current pandemic, we cant have those types of crowd sizes, said Danny Powell, White Hall Lions Club president. White Halls Fourth of July events tend to attract thousands, Powell said, noting it could be a problem if crowd sizes continue to be restricted. Should restrictions ease enough that such crowds could come together in the fall, festivities could be held on the second weekend of October, Powell said. Events would include a parade, a carnival and fireworks. Franklins Fourth of July events, including its traditional burgoo celebration, also have been canceled, according to village officials. A decision on the villages fireworks display has not been made, they said. Beardstown officials have not yet made a decision on that citys Fourth of July events, Mayor Leslie Harris said. Restart of Production Testing with Streamlined Management Brisbane, June 2, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - As has been previously announced State Gas Limited ( ASX:GAS ) has been pleased and excited by the results of its appraisal program conducted late-2019/early-2020 at the Reid's Dome Gas Project (PL-231) in the Bowen Basin.In particular, the Aldinga East-1A core hole (in the northern area of PL 231) has produced results at the better end of the Company's prognosis, Serocold-1 confirmed the presence of coal seams with promising permeability in the central area of the permit, and the production test at Nyanda-4 flowed gas at rates well above expectations for a single well.While providing very promising early results, the production tests at Nyanda-4 and Serocold-1 have also faced challenges with failing pumps. Each new coal seam gas field presents its own set of conditions, the "code" for which needs to be "cracked" for successful production. At Reid's Dome the conditions include high number of producing seams, with some productive seams at greater than average depths at other CSG fields.The Company believes it has made significant steps in "cracking the code" over the last few weeks. Head of Operations Mike Herrington has led a process to investigate the pump failures at PL 231. With the assistance of industry experts he has established the cause (abnormal swelling of the elastomer in the stators Asian-sourced pumps, likely the result of downhole temperature and pressures). With this knowledge, new pumps designed for these conditions are now being manufactured in Canada prior to air freighting to Australia. The pumps are expected at site in approximately 4 weeks, at which time workovers to install them will be undertaken and the production tests will restart. Management expects to be flowing gas again by mid-to-late July. All related costs are within the Company's budget.The focus for 2020 is completion of the current appraisal program and design of the next phase of appraisal, building on the learnings from the present activities. In addition, building on pipeline studies already undertaken, State Gas is aiming to significantly progress its negotiations with a preferred pipeline owner/operator, establishing the basis on which a pipeline to existing infrastructure networks might be financed and constructed.In order to increase efficiency and focus on what should prove to be an exciting year ahead for shareholders, the Board is streamlining the management structure. Mike Herrington will now report directly to the Executive Chairman as Chief Operating Officer. He will be responsible for completing the present program as well as implementation of the next phase. James Crowley will continue his role analysing and guiding geological decisions, also reporting directly to the Executive Chairman. Lucy Snelling will be responsible for all areas of the Company not otherwise covered (ie commercial, legal, finance and government relations) and report to the Executive Chairman. Her title will change to Head, Corporate and Commercial from CEO.State Gas Executive Chairman Richard Cottee said he was looking forward to the next phase of the Company's development."I have been very encouraged by the progress to date at Reid's Dome. CSG production involves a "code", which needs to be cracked, and I am confident we have the right team to do that. Mike Herrington has really unparalleled experience in bringing new CSG fields to development, in the US, Europe and Mongolia, well as Australia. James Crowley's geological work has been outstanding; the accuracy of his prognoses to date has been excellent. And Lucy Snelling has done an outstanding job in implementing the Board's objective to achieve 100% ownership of PL 231 and finalise a new development plan recognising the PL-231 permit as a CSG play. I am very pleased to have her with us to lead negotiations with pipeline developers and others."About State Gas Limited State Gas Limited (ASX:GAS) is a Queensland-based developer of the Reid's Dome gas field, originally discovered during drilling in 1955, located in the Bowen Basin in Central Queensland. State Gas is 100%-owner of the Reid's Dome Gas Project (PL-231) a CSG and conventional gas play, which is well-located 30 kilometres southwest of Rolleston, approximately 50 kilometres from the Queensland Gas Pipeline and interconnected east coast gas network. Permian coal measures within the Reid's Dome Beds are extensive across the entire permit but the area had not been explored for coal seam gas prior to State Gas' ownership. In late 2018 State Gas drilled the first coal seam gas well in the region (Nyanda-4) into the Reid's Dome Beds and established the potential for a significant coal seam gas project in PL 231. The extension of the coal measures into the northern and central areas of the permit was confirmed in late 2019 by the Company's drilling of Aldinga East-1A (12 km north) and Serocold-1 (6 km to the north of Nyanda-4). State Gas is also the 100% holder Authority to Prospect 2062 ("Rolleston-West"), a 1,414 km2 permit (eight times larger than PL 231) that is contiguous with the Reid's Dome Gas Project. Rolleston-West contains highly prospective targets for both coal seam gas (CSG) and known conventional gas within the permit area. It is not restricted by domestic gas reservation requirements. The contiguous areas (Reid's Dome and Rolleston-West), under sole ownership by State Gas, enable integration of activities and a unified super-gasfield development, providing economies of scale, efficient operations, and optionality in marketing. State Gas is implementing its strategic plan to bring gas to market from Reid's Dome and Rolleston-West to meet near term forecast shortfalls in the east coast domestic gas market. The strategy involves progressing a phased appraisal program in parallel with permitting for an export pipeline and development facilities to facilitate the fastest possible delivery of gas to market. State Gas' current focus has been to confirm the producibility of the gas through production testing of the wells. Stacker examines the history of U.S.-China trade relations from the late-18th century to the COVID-19 pandemic. Particular focus regards the years and events since President Trumps inauguration. This article was first published on Stacker New Delhi, June 2 : A nett 65.69 per cent Indian are satisfied with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, says IANS-C Voter State of the Nation 2020 Survey. At a time when the pandemic has plunged approval ratings of many world leaders, 58.36 per cent Indians across all states and union territories maintain they are "very satisfied" with the performance of Modi. A 24.01 per cent Indians, across states, say they are "somewhat satisfied", while 16.71 per cent are not satisfied with him at all. Among the states, PM's approval ratings tops in a non BJP ruled state Odisha. With 95.6 per cent Odias saying they are satisfied with him, 84.87 per cent "very satisfied" and just a 2.2 per cent of them disapprove of Modi. Odisha is followed by Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh, where his popularity is extremely high with nett approval ratings of 93.95 per cent, 92.73 and 83.6 respectively. Interestingly, like Odisha, even two among these three states are ruled by non BJP parties - Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. Jharkahnd, where the BJP was recently outmaneuvered in the election, also has pretty significant approval ratings for the Prime Minister. 64.26 per cent of them say they are "very satisfied" with PM Modi, while the nett approval rating from the state is a whopping 82.97 per cent. While it's hardly a surprise that states like BJP ruled Karnataka and Modi's own state Gujarat gives thumbs up to him, he has a soaring popularity even in Maharashtra which is being ruled by the Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena combine. 71.48 per cent of the respondents from the state say they are satisfied with the performance of the Indian Prime Minister, according to the survey. Even in the Northeast 69.45 per cent gives him a thumbs up. However, what should worry the BJP, given the Bihar election is later this year, Modi's nett approval rating is 58.48 per cent in this Hindi heartland state, which is low in comparison to other states. In West Bengal, where election is due next year, Modi's nett approval rating is 64.06 per cent, which may be some reason for concern for the ruling TMC and Mamata Banerjee. Contrary to public beliefs, even in J&K, 50.84 per cent say they are very satisfied with him. Three BJP-ruled states - Uttarakhand, Goa and Haryana are at the bottom of the approval chart. They have given a nett approval of the PM as 53.53, 52.54 and 51.25 per cent respectively. However, it's Kerala and Tamil Nadu which are in the red zone when it comes to his approval ratings. The Communist ruled Kerala has given a mere 32.89 per cent while the AIADMK ruled Tamil Nadu gave 32.15 per cent nett approval for Modi's performance. May 2009 onwards, the IANS-CVoter Tracker has been carried out each and every week, 52 waves in a calendar year, in 11 national languages, across all States in UTs in India, with a target sample size of 3,000 samples each wave. The average response rate is 55%. This survey is based on CATI interviews of adult (18+) respondents across all segments. "For the analytics we are using our proprietary algorithm to calculate the Provincial and Regional Vote share based on the Split-Voter phenomenon," said C Voter. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text The leader of governors committee studying how to best reopen South Carolina after the coronavirus said one of the most critical pieces of unfinished business is protecting businesses from lawsuits if they follow safety recommendations. Freeing businesses and others from worries they could be successfully sued even if they take precautions against COVID-19 might help inject more confidence into the economy, said James Burns, executive director of the Accelerate SC reopening committee. It came up at virtually every meeting, said Burns, who plans to present Accelerate SCs final report Thursday to Gov. Henry McMaster. On Wednesday, Burns and other committee members appeared before the state Senates Reopen South Carolina Select Committee to discuss five weeks worth of meetings between the government, education and business leaders. They studied how best to reopen businesses and schools. They studied how to spend $1.9 billion in COVID-19 relief money coming from the federal governments. And they studied how to get more protective equipment for the state and boost testing. With some things, like liability protection, the group needs the General Assemblys help. State Sen. Tom Davis is leading a Senate subcommittee discussing a possible bill. The Beaufort Republican said it must pass during the week or two special session that is likely in mid-June. With so few days to meet, the bill will likely need to bypass committees in both the House and Senate and come directly before each chamber. Any member of the House or Senate could object to that. There is going to have to be a consensus bill because we do not have time, Davis said. Davis said it isnt just businesses, but doctors, community pools and gyms that are afraid to open without protection. But Sen. Vincent Sheheen said a badly crafted bill could hurt confidence in the other direction. They have immunity granted by us to negligently injure you severely and you are going to show up and eat a meal? the Democrat from Camden said. Also on Wednesday, the South Carolina Supreme Court declined a request from state Democrats to extend no excuse absentee voting to Novembers general election. When they filed suit, Democrats also wanted an extension of absentee voting to the June 9 primaries, but the General Assembly changed the law for the primaries before the justices ruled. The justices said lawmakers plan to meet in September and can take up any changes to the November election then. More than 10,600 people in South Carolina had tested positive for the coronavirus with at least 466 deaths, the state Department of Health and Environmental Control said in its Wednesday update. The 20 COVID-19 deaths reported Wednesday were the most in a single day in South Carolina. The health agency also announced it reached its goal of testing 2% of the states population or about 110,000 people in May. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Commercial Lines Business Insurance Leadership South Carolina Richard Branson is considering selling another chunk of his stake in Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc., a move that could provide about $200 million (U.S.) to support his broader Virgin business empire. Holding company Vieco 10 may sell as many as 12.5 million shares in the space-travel firm, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday. Bransons Virgin Group is the majority owner of Vieco 10, with the balance held by Aabar Space, an Abu Dhabi investment company. The British billionaires Virgin Galactic stake is worth around $1 billion, his biggest holding in a listed business. He sold 25 million shares last month worth more than $300 million. Virgin Group intends to use any proceeds from sales of our common stock pursuant to the distribution agency agreement primarily to support its portfolio of global leisure, holiday and travel businesses that have been affected by the unprecedented impact of COVID-19, according to the filing. Vieco 10 would still own around 77 million shares even if all the 12.5 million shares were sold, said Nick Fox, a Virgin Group spokesperson. Over the past half century, Branson built Virgin Group into a sprawling collection of businesses with annual revenues exceeding $20 billion. But his practice of plunging most of the profits back into the ventures has left him scrambling for cash during the pandemic as governments balk at bailing out a billionaire famous for his flamboyant publicity stunts. Along with selling Virgin Galactic shares, Branson has pledged a Caribbean island and at least $250 million to shore up an empire roiled by the virus crisis. This is the most significant crisis the world has experienced in my lifetime, Branson, 69, said in a March blog post. Because many of our businesses are in industries like travel, leisure and wellness, they are in a massive battle to survive and save jobs. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has accused the President of the Republic, H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of easing the restrictions on public gatherings to serve his own parochial political interest and not the interest of the country. As part of measures put in place to curb the spread of the deadly Coronavirus (Covid-19) disease, the government in March put a ban on all public gatherings. On Sunday, May 31, 2020, H.E Nana Addo in an address to the nation announced that his government after several consultations with key stakeholders have taken the decision to ease the restrictions gradually. Less than 24 hours later, the main opposition party has through a press briefing stressed that the move by the government is to serve the personal interest of the president. It is very clear, that the easing of restrictions was motivated by the Presidents parochial political interest and not the interest of the nation, a press release from the NDC signed by Sammy Gyamfi who is a National Communication Officer of the party has said. According to the party, the decision is mainly intended to pave way for the Jean Mensah-led Electoral Commission (EC) to carry out its rigging agenda, through the execution of their needless and wasteful new voter registration agenda. The fact that church and mosque gatherings, are not supposed to have more than 100 people in attendance, and are supposed to last for just an hour but the NIA and EC have been given the freedom to register an unlimited number of people from 7am to 5pm, thats for a period of 10 hours, shows clearly that, the so-called partial reopening of schools, churches and Mosques was only a ruse to the President's main agenda, a part of the press release explained. Meanwhile, the NDC has emphasized that they shall employ every legitimate means to stop the ECs attempt to foist a needless and wasteful voter register that is intended to disenfranchise millions of eligible voters, mostly in NDC strongholds, on Ghanaians. Full statement from the NDC below: By Akbar Mammadov President Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree approving the Regulations on the Electronic Court Information System, the presidents website reported on June 1. Under the decree, the State Agency for Citizen Services and Social Innovations under the president will ensure the coordination of the "Electronic Court" information system with the relevant state information resources and systems through the e-Government Information System. The Ministry of Justice will take necessary measures for the organization and development of the "Electronic Court" information system. In addition, Azerbaijans Ministry of Justice is assigned and Prosecutor General's Office is recommended to ensure the integration of the "Electronic Court" information system with the information system applied in the Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan. According to the Decree, Azerbaijans Ministries of Justice, Internal Affairs, Economy, Transport, Communications and High Technologies, Social Protection of Labor and Population, Education, State Border Service, the State Committee for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, the State Examination Center, the Mortgage and Credit Guarantee Fund, the National Depository Center, Azersu OJSC, Azerishig OJSC, and Azerigas Production Association are assigned, and Azerbaijans Central Bank, Compulsory Insurance Bureau, and Credit Bureau are recommended to take necessary measures within six months to ensure access to the information provided for in paragraph 11.2 of the Regulations on the Electronic Court information system through the Electronic Government Information System and to inform the President of Azerbaijan. Furthermore, the Ministry of Justice of Azerbaijan together with the State Service for Special Communications and Information Security of Azerbaijan will take necessary measures to ensure the security of the "Electronic Court" information system. On the same day, the Legal Policy and State Building Committee of the Azerbaijani parliament (Milli Majlis) held discussions on amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure of Azerbaijan. The first direction in these amendments is related to the implementation of instructions given by the Decree of the President of Azerbaijan dated April 3, 2019 On deepening reforms in the judicial system Thus, a number of changes are proposed to the code in order to further increase the accessibility and transparency of justice. The next direction is to improve the cassation appeal proceedings in criminal proceedings. The other direction is related to the procedural rules of recognition of judgments or other final decisions of foreign courts. Regarding that, it is proposed to add a new Chapter 59 to the Code of Criminal Procedure of Azerbaijan containing these rules. These changes include the introduction of the e-court information system, the use of the advantages of modern information and communication technologies, the addition of new articles to ensure the continuation of criminal proceedings by videoconference in special cases, uninterrupted audio recordings of all court hearings and the appropriate drafting of the protocol in accordance with the audio recordings of court hearings in order to ensure more complete objectivity of court proceedings. According to the Azerbaijani parliament, the bill is expected to come into force on July 1, 2020. --- Homes in Norwich as property prices drop. (PA) UK house prices saw their steepest monthly fall in May since the global financial crisis more than a decade ago, new figures suggest. Lender Nationwides closely followed house price index showed the average UK property price drop more than 4,000 between April and May as the coronavirus lockdown dramatically curbed activity. Separate official figures released on Tuesday also showed mortgage approvals in April slumped to their lowest levels since a survey began in 1993. The pandemic has brought an abrupt end to the recovery in property prices and activity seen since prime minister Boris Johnsons election victory in December. Market activity slowed to a trickle for much of the lockdown as the UK government urged against house moves, with many estate agents shutting their doors and physical viewings and valuations off the cards. The government lifted restrictions in England in May, but the severe economic downturn is taking its toll on the market and prices are widely expected to fall further. READ MORE: UK homeowners can apply for a new or second mortgage holiday until November Nationwide figurs show a May month-on-month decline of 1.7%, to an average price of 222,915 on properties lent on by the building society. Robert Gardner, Nationwide's chief economist, said it was the largest monthly fall since February 2009. On an annual basis, the rate of price growth slowed from 2.7% in April to 1.8% in May. In the opening months of 2020, before the pandemic struck the UK, the housing market had been steadily gathering momentum. Activity levels and price growth were edging up thanks to continued robust labour market conditions, low borrowing costs and a more stable political backdrop following the general election. But housing market activity has slowed sharply as a result of the measures implemented to control the spread of the virus, he said. Indeed, data from HMRC showed that residential property transactions were down 53% in April compared with the same month in 2019. Mortgage activity has also declined sharply. Story continues READ MORE: UK house price growth slowed even before the lockdown He added: The medium-term outlook for the housing market remains highly uncertain, where much will depend on the performance of the wider economy. Bank of England figures released separately on Tuesday showed mortgage approvals falling to 15,800 in April, down 80% on February levels and and almost half the levels at the worst of the global financial crisis. Approvals for remortgages with new lenders also dropped by 34% on February to 34,400 in April. Estate agents suggested activity and prices had held up more than expected, however. The market all but stopped dead overnight when the lockdown was imposed and so a -1.7% could arguably be viewed as a positive, all things considered, said James Forrester, managing director of Birmingham estate agent Barrow and Forester. Since it has reopened, estate agents and portal sites are reporting high levels of traffic, enquiries, viewings and sales. Lucy Pendleton, of London estate agent James Pendleton, said many buyers who thought they would grab a bargain as restrictions eased, had not been able to do so. A wave of gazundering has hit the market in the past fortnight but these buyers have been left feeling a little deflated. But Ross Counsell, director of Leeds-based property buying firm Good Move, said the most important shift so far had bee in buyers and sellers expectations of the market given the economic crisis. He said sellers will begin to adjust their expectations on the price they will achieve. Good Move expects house prices to bounce back despite the downturn, but flats to take much longer to recover. Meanwhile buyers were also placing increased importance on features such as outdoor space, according to Counsell. In Washington, an ugly push-and-pull between protesters and the police continued. Demonstrators poured accelerants on a wooden pole supporting a ROAD WORK AHEAD sign and set it on fire in the middle of H Street, adding further fuel with branches wrenched from nearby trees. A small fire was also set in the basement nursery of the 204-year-old St. Johns Church known as the church of presidents causing relatively minor damage. The dull clunk of projectiles against the raised shields of police officers echoed through Lafayette Square, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. It was just one of the many jarring sounds of violence and vandalism unfolding a few hundred yards from where the President of the United States and his family were protected this night by a phalanx of National Guard troops. Across the country and into the night, the unpredictability continued, now peaceful, now not. In Seattle, demonstrators knelt before police blockades to convey their peaceful intent, and were rewarded with the invitation to continue their march of protest. In Los Angeles, troops holding M4 rifles stood on the steps of City Hall, while protesters taunted soldiers and police officers in the streets. One moment a woman was offering her hand to a soldier who accepted it leading to a hug. The next, another woman was taunting a black officer, yelling, Do you get bonuses to shoot black people? In Denver, hundreds marched through streets thick with the cough-inducing remnants of tear gas. Protesters wore ski goggles and scuba masks to protect their eyes. Fireworks exploded overhead, emitting a sound that could easily be mistaken for gunfire. And in New York, well into Monday morning, people walked the streets of the SoHo neighborhood with armloads of goods just stolen from smashed-in luxury stores, as two New York Police Department vans drove down Houston Street. The officers inside those vans could be seen with their heads bowed. Over all, the night of uncertainty carried a strange feeling of anonymity. Many police officers were concealed behind riot-gear armor, with many protesters wearing masks and scarves, and not only because of the highly contagious coronavirus. It was as though the country could not quite recognize itself. Reporting was contributed by Tim Arango, Mike Baker, Peter Baker, Kim Barker, John Eligon, Richard Fausset, Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura, Thomas Fuller, Jack Healy, Patricia Mazzei, Shawn McCreesh, Jack Nicas, Adam Popescu, Nate Schweber and Dionne Searcey. They have nothing other than to rant, I challenged Nnamdi Kanu and his group to take over Owanza, Egbema, and other oil fields if they are men. We take and close down oil fields at will. The flow station on my family land I closed it now since 2000, Nnamdi Kanu should go and do the same. The global financial market, especially banking, is growing immensely akin to people's investment appetite. Among the most renowned banking institutions in the county is Consolidated Bank Ghana a premier financial company with massive assets and an excellent customer base. The firm's lucid culture and multidimensional services are perhaps the most profound features that attract clients to its doors. How many Consolidated Bank Ghana branches are there? Being a fully indigenous bank, the company understands the financial market better than any other. And it is evident through the different subsidiaries that they are out to dominate the banking industry. Image: facebook.com, @CBGBankLtd Source: Facebook When was Consolidated Bank formed? Consolidated Bank Ghana was founded in 2018 under the Specialized Deposit-Taking Institutions Act, 2016 (Act 930). It has its head office in Accra, Ghana, and numerous branches scattered all over the country. The bank is wholly owned by the government, capitalized by the Ministry of Finance. Consolidated Bank Ghana possesses a deep footing in the country and is using its vast knowledge and resources to foster the growth of small and large businesses. And with the latest developments in technology, the bank's online services are as amazing as those in their branches, which are equally distributed in different parts of Ghana. Consolidated Bank Ghana branches Are you wondering about Consolidated Bank Ghana SWIFT code? Bank branch codes are distinct to their physical locations, and it would be ideal to know as much information as you could about the branch you are transacting from. Consolidated Bank Ghana head office Image: facebook.com, @CBGBankLtd Source: Facebook The bank is headquartered in Accra, Ghana, and their address is as follows: Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited South Liberation Link, Manet Tower 3 Airport City - Accra P.O. Box CT 363, Cantonment Accra, Ghana Telephone: 0302216000 Toll-Free Lines: Vodafone 0800110055 Email Address: talktous@cbg.com.gh Website: cbg.com.gh READ ALSO: Ghana to lose over GHC15 billion, govt outdoors programme to save economy and more Greater Accra region branches These branches are in the smallest region of Ghanas 16 administrative regions, which is the countrys administrative and economic hub. Abbosey Okai Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Abeka Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Opera Square Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Accra Central Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Makola Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 American House Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Anyaa Market Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Ashaiman Market Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Ashaiman Main Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Ashalley Botwe Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Ashiyea Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Dome Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Dzorwulu Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 East Legon Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 GIMPA Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Kaneshie Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Kasoa Main Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Kasoa New Market Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Korle-Bu Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Korle Dudor Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Kwabenya Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Labone Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Lapaz Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Arena Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Kokomlemle Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Achimota Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Adabraka Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Adenta Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Airport City Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Zongo Junction Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Madina New Road Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Mallam Junction Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Pig Farm Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Mamobi Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Nima Main Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Nima Market Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 North Industrial Area Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Castle Road Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Oxford Street Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Pokuase Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Ridge Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Atomic Junction Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Atomic Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Dansoman Round-About Tel: 030 221 6000 Dansoman Exhibition Tel: 030 221 6000 Dansoman Russia Road Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Darkuman Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Roman Hill Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Sakumono Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 South Legon Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Spintex Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Baatsona Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Tema Community 1 Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Tema Community 2 Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Tema Community 25 Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Tesano Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Teshie Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Trade Fair Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Tudu Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 University of Ghana Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Weija Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Wisconsin Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Zenu Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Spintex Basket Junction Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 READ ALSO: Withholding tax in Ghana: current rates (2020) Consolidated Bank Ghana address Ashanti region Image: facebook.com, @CBGBankLtd Source: Facebook The Ashanti region is also home to a considerable number of Consolidated Bank Ghana branches. Alabar Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Asafo Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Ashtown Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Asokwa Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Atonsu Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Bantama Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Knust Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Nhyiaeso Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Ejisu Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Sokoban Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Suame Maakro Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Suame Mattias Junction Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Tafo Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Central region Winneba Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Techiman Market Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Techiman Wenchi Road Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Swedru Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Dunkwaw On Offin Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Cape Coast University Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Western region Asawinso Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Axim Road Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Market Circle Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Tarkwa Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Northern region Tamale Hospital Road Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Aboabo Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Tamale Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Bole Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Brong Ahafo region Sunyani Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Sunyani Post Office Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Techiman Market Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Techiman Wenchi Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Valley View Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Upper East Region Bolgatanga Commercial Road Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Bolgatanga Police Station Road Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Bawku Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Upper West Region Wa Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 READ ALSO: Wave money transfer: how it works, limits, charges for sending to Ghana Volta region Ho Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Eastern region Abetifi Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Koforidua Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 Mamfe Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 New Abirem Branch Tel: 030 221 6000 All banks inclusive of all the Consolidated Bank Ghana branches in Kumasi operate between 8:00 am and 4:00 pm on weekdays. However, not all are operational on Saturdays. Consolidated Bank of Ghana SWIFT code Image: facebook.com, @CBGBankLtd Source: Facebook Each of the Consolidated Bank of Ghana's branches has a distinct code that is usually part of the last three digits of the SWIFT code. The bank's SWIFT code is UBGHGHACXXX, a unique eleven-digit number that is integral for Consolidated Bank online banking. Ghana's monetary sector has been massively developing, new financial institutions setting up shop every year while those existent opening new branches. There are very many Consolidated Bank Ghana branches that offer clients unique services. Although online banking has become dominant in the current technological era, there are still services that require physical interaction. And the bank's numerous branches provide a conducive environment for ease of operations. READ ALSO: IMF defends government on NDCs false data allegations Banks in Ghana: a comprehensive list Economys growth could have been 6.8% and 6.4% in 2020 and 2025 without COVID-19 - Report Source: YEN.com.gh HONG KONG- For the first time in three decades, the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre's annual vigil has been prohibited by the Hong Kong police due to the restrictions on public gathering in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sending a letter to the vice-chair of Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, Richard Tsoi, who is also the organizer of the Victoria Park's event, the force indicated on the letter they wrote on Monday that they contradict to the gathering because of the imposed social distancing restrictions. According to The Guardian, in the letter, they specified that such public assemblies are tagged as high-risk activities due to the gathering of a large crowd. hey also emphasized that the event will not only increase attendees' risk of acquiring the virus but also threaten citizens' health and lives, wherein it will put the public safety and the right of others into danger. The annual candlelight memorial on June 4 attracts thousands of participants. But last month, authorities extended the city's coronavirus-restrictions which includes the banning of public gatherings of more than eight people, which is applicable to this event. On June 4, 1989, student-led demonstrations in China were ended by the Tiananmen massacre. Estimated thousands of people lost their lives after the deployment of the People's Liberation Army to crack down on Beijing's protesters. On the other hand, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Alliance convinced members of the public to watched an online vigil wherein the organizers will be lighting candles at Victoria Park and will observe a minute of silence at exactly 8:09 pm despite the anticipated objection. Read also: Hong Kong May Lose Indepedence As China Seizes City, Expressed Plan to Stop All Protests Alliance chair, Lee Cheuk-yan, shared that their members will be meeting in groups of eight as they will host Thursday's event. He also added that they will mourn individually but he hopes that there will be candles that will be lit up different districts around the city including the ones at Victoria Park and he also pointed out that each candlelight vigil is self-initiated and cannot be tagged as an assembly. In a report by Hong Kong Free Press, Michael Mo, who is an activist-turned Councillor in the district of Tuen Mun, also made an announcement via Facebook that the separate vigil in the area of Tsim Sha Tsui will be canceled due to restrictions caused by the global the health crisis. He also claimed that the government had utilized the COVID-19 as an excuse to push away citizens from commemorating the massacre's victims but he emphasized that in order to avoid police brutality, Hongkongers must not hold a vigil this year in front of the statue of the freedom fighter. Amnesty International responded as well to the police decision, wherein Deputy Director for East and South-East Asia Joshua Rosenzweig pointed out that the coronavirus must not be used to choke freedom of expression. Rosenzweig also added that by tagging this event as an illegal, the force has needlessly exacerbated the possible tensions when thousands of people simply want to light a candle for the people who lost their lives during the terrible event on June 4, 1989. Related article: Chinese Military Will Punish Any Movements Supporting Hong Kong Inpendence @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Woman with illegal entry tracked in HCM City The International Health Quarantine Centre of Ho Chi Minh City on June 1 said it has detected a Vietnamese woman with an illegal entry who had a fever. The woman was detected on May 28 at the local Tan Son Nhat International Airport. Earlier, after entering the northern mountainous province of Cao Bang by trails, she travelled to the Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi and took a flight to HCM City. Relevant municipal agencies have sent the woman to quarantine and collected her sample for COVID-19 test. The initial test result was negative for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that causes the disease. After receiving the news, Deputy Minister of Health and deputy head of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control Do Xuan Tuyen on May 31 directed the HCM City Health Department to take preventive measures and inform relevant agencies to carry out such measures. The committee also sent urgent dispatches to the Ministry of Defence and Cao Bang Peoples Committee, stressing the intensification of controlling unauthorised entry via trails. If a unit lets such entry take place, it must take full responsibility for the problem. People detecting unauthorised entries in the community, meanwhile, ought to report it immediately to authorities. Vietnam recorded no COVID-19 cases on June 2 morning, marking 47 days in a row without new infections in the community./. Vietnamese in Russia give free meals for COVID-19 frontline health workers Workers at pho restaurant "phoinmoscow" in Russia prepare dishes for healthcare workers. A restaurant chain owned by Vietnamese in Moscow has offered free pho for COVID-19 frontline health workers at nearby hospitals and healthcare centres despite business difficulties caused by the pandemic. The restaurant Phoinmoscow located in Moscows Kashirskaya Plaze belongs to a Vietnamese family. The restaurant owner Pham Hong Anh said that since the middle of last month, her familys restaurant started providing lunch for 40 healthcare workers in their neighbourhood. Free bowls of pho, the iconic Vietnamese dish, each costing about 300-350 roubles (US$5) are provided daily to hospitals and healthcare centres in Moscow. Hong Anh said at the beginning of the campaign, they covered costs for the food and delivery. However, 40 meals were not enough, she said, adding that she and her husband decided to raise funds through their website phoinmoscow.ru. Im so happy that many Vietnamese in Moscow welcome the idea and support us, Hong Anh said. The restaurant is now able to provide 80 free lunches for frontline healthcare workers in neighbouring hospitals and healthcare centres. The meal campaign is expected to last until the middle of this month, when the citys lockdown, which started on March 30, was planned to be lifted. It is reported that about 500 restaurants owned by Vietnamese people operate in Moscow. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they have faced serious difficulties such as high rental costs, salaries and an urgent need to boost online trade. As Moscow planned to ease coronavirus restrictions from June 1, only shopping malls and parks are set to reopen. Moscow is considered the epicentre of Russia's outbreak. Hong Anh said that their pho restaurant chain opened three weeks ago but just received online orders and delivered the food themselves or through their partners Yandex and Delivery. She said that during the pandemic, the restaurants revenue was only 20 per cent of that before the pandemic. Although their business faced difficulties because of COVID-19, they still wanted to help the host country in the fight against the pandemic, she said. On May 14, Viet Nams Embassy to Russia established a network of Vietnamese to fight against COVID-19. The network attracted Vietnamese people, both living in Russia and Viet Nam, including doctors, healthcare workers, students and post-graduates. Leading doctors in Viet Nam offered consultation to treat COVID-19 patients in Russia via online meetings, telephones or other apps. In Russia, doctors and post-graduates helped examine patients, identify suspected cases, and offer at-home treatment for those with light symptoms, which helped reduce the burden for the local healthcare sector. Meanwhile, Vietnamese people also handed out free face masks for local residents. Vietnamese people in Sadovod in Lyublino were reportedly making face masks and giving them out free of charge. Vietnamese citizens return home from Australia, New Zealand A total of 344 Vietnamese citizens were brought home from Australia and New Zealand on June 1 and 2 thanks to concerted efforts by Vietnamese authorities and representative agencies in the two countries, national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines and relevant Australian and New Zealand agencies. Vietnamese Ambassador to New Zealand Ta Van Thong (fourth, from left) and Vietnamese citizens at the Auckland Airport (Photo: VNA) They included children under the age of 18, the elderly, persons with illnesses, pregnant women, labourers with expired contracts, and others with expired visas or being stranded due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Vietnamese Ambassador to Australia Ngo Huong Nam (centre) and Vietnamese citizens at the Sydney Airport on June 1 (Photo: VNA) As the Australian and New Zealand governments have limited travelling and closed their borders to curb the spread of the disease, the flight was arranged to land in Sydney and Auckland to pick up the citizens. After arriving at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City, all the passengers and crew members on board received heath examination and were put in quarantine in line with regulations. Under the Prime Ministers directions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Transport, domestic agencies and Vietnams overseas representative agencies have arranged a number of flights to bring Vietnamese citizens home. On the basis of the pandemics developments in the country and the world, citizens aspirations and local quarantine capacity, more flights are set to be conducted in the coming time to repatriate Vietnamese citizens. Vietnam goes through 47 days without community COVID-19 infections Vietnam recorded no COVID-19 cases on June 2 morning, marking 47 days in a row without new infections in the community, according to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control. Among the total 328 patients, 188 were imported and quarantined right upon arrival. The committees treatment subcommittee reported that 293 patients have been given the all-clear, making up 89 percent of the total infections. The remaining 35 are being treated at centrally- and provincially-run hospitals. All of them are in stable condition. Seven patients tested negative for the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 once, and 10 others tested negative for the virus twice or more. At present, 7,256 people having close contact with patients or entering from pandemic-hit areas are being quarantined, including 23 at hospitals, 6,301 at concentrated quarantine establishments and 932 at home and place of residence./. Hanoi presents medical supplies to New York Chairman of the Hanoi Peoples Committee Nguyen Duc Chung presented medical supplies to New York on June 1 to help it combat COVID-19. Speaking at the handover ceremony, Chung said that on the back of the Vietnam - US comprehensive partnership, Hanoi wishes to share part of its resources to assist New Yorks administration and people, including 100,000 antibacterial cloth masks and 50,000 medical masks made in Vietnam under the Ministry of Healths quality standards and the EUs CE certificate. Receiving the gift, US Ambassador to Vietnam Daniel J. Kritenbrink congratulated the Vietnamese Government and Hanoi on becoming known as a highlight in the fight against the pandemic, applying active and effective counter-measures. He said the US is still facing the pandemic and New York is one of the hardest-hit localities. The ambassador expressed his belief that the gift will soon help New York curb the epidemic. As 2020 marks the 25th anniversary of Vietnam - US diplomatic ties, the handover ceremony proves the strength of the growing partnership between the two countries in various fields, he said./. Additional 14 COVID-19 patients declared fully recovered Fourteen COVID-19 patients recovered and were released from two treatment facilities in the southern provinces of Bac Lieu and Dong Thap on June 1 afternoon. The newly recovered patients have brought the countrys total cases being given the all-clear to 293, making up 89.3 percent of total COVID-19 confirmed cases in Vietnam, according to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Controls Sub-committee for Treatment. They are all Vietnamese nationals, including a 3-month-old baby called Patient 274. The boy was admitted to the hospital on May 7. During treatment, the patient had five tests and all tests were negative for SARS-CoV-2 from May 25 to 28. All of them were all imported cases, discovered to have contracted the virus as they returned from the UAE on a specially-arranged repatriation flight that landed in the southern province of Can Tho on May 3. They were immediately quarantined upon arrival and posed no risks of community transmission. Currently, the patients have no fever, no cough, no shortness of breath and are in a stable condition. They will continue to be quarantined and monitored for the next 14 days, according to Sub-committee for Treatment. As of June 1 morning, Vietnam reported no COVID-19 cases, making it the 46th days straight without community transmission. The total number of COVID-19 confirmed cases in the country remains at 328, with zero fatalities./. Vietnam, Japan discuss COVID-19 fight, economic cooperation Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh on June 1 had phone talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi to discuss collaboration in COVID-19 prevention and control, as well as measures to promote exchange and economic cooperation between the two countries in the coming time. This was the second time the Foreign Ministers of the two countries had held phone talks in the past two months. The two sides informed each other about the COVID-19 situation and prevention and control results in each country, as well as agreed to continue to work closely to increase exchanges and promote economic cooperation between the two countries. Minh appreciated the positive results in COVID-19 prevention and control of the Japanese Government. He thanked the Government and people of Japan for their support for Vietnam in the fight, especially the support package given to Vietnamese students and interns living in Japan. For his part, Toshimitsu Motegi congratulated Vietnam's impressive achievements in containing the COVID-19 pandemic, which were praised by the international community. He also expressed his thanks to the Vietnamese Government, National Assembly and people for providing medical masks for Japan and supporting Japanese managers and experts to return to Vietnam to work. The Japanese official said besides previous aid packages for COVID-19 prevention and control, Japan would continue to support Vietnam through providing medical equipment and supplies based on its needs. He suggested the two sides soon conduct a discussion to consider resumption of travel between the two countries people, especially managers and experts, thus promoting the economic, trade and investment cooperation. The two sides agreed to work closely at regional and international forums, including ASEAN and the Mekong Japan cooperation mechanism, and speed up the realisation of the proposal to establish an ASEAN Centre for emerging diseases and public health emergencies by Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo at the online Special ASEAN Plus Three Summit on April 14. WB economist calls Vietnam a bright star in COVID-19 fight In his blog published on the World Bank website in late May, Jacques Morisset, World Bank Lead Economist and Program Leader for Vietnam, has called the country a bright star in the COVID-19 dark sky. Based on a series of statistics including the local GDP still expanding 3.8 percent in the first quarter of 2020, the economist realised the Vietnamese economy has been extremely resilient during these unusual rough time. He attributed the reasons behind the success to the Governments smart policies, saying: The quality of the Vietnamese governments COVID-19 response has been a combination of foresight and pragmatism. In conclusion, he wrote: In the face of adversity, Vietnam has been able to tap a long tradition of preparing for the worst while staying flexible to adopt crucial reforms and transition toward the new normal. This combination of foresight and pragmatism has been applied in the COVID-19 crisis with considerable success. Morisset also said he hopes that such experience can help other countries that have been much less well-prepared for the crisis. Vietnam recorded no COVID-19 cases on June 2 morning, marking 47 days in a row without new infections in the community, according to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control./. US organisation supports fight against COVID-19 The National Hospital for Tropical Diseases on June 1 received 1,000 3M medical masks and 60 four-litre cans of hand sanitiser worth over 100 million VND (4,300 USD) from the US organisation Resource Exchange International (REI). Another 300 sets of medical protective gear (consisting of one medical cap, surgical coverall, gloves, surgical mask, safety glasses, and medical shoe cover) and 550 3M medical masks with a total value of more than 90 million VND would be presented to the Dong Nai General Hospital on May 29. Head of Project of REI in Vietnam Tran Phuong Lien said that REI was pleased to partner with various stakeholders to implement this meaningful charity programme. Taking this opportunity, we expect that REI will become a reliable partner in the long-term medical charity programmes in Vietnam, she said. According to the Project Office of REI in Vietnam, through the connection of the People's Aid Co-ordinating Committee (PACCOM), Dow Vietnam and REI donated the necessary medical supplies to the hospitals with the desire to support the frontline workers in the fight against COVID-19, helping the community health resilience and working with the whole country to effectively prevent and control COVID-19. Dr Le Van Dung, Vice President of the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases, thanked the organisation for the encouragement and support. REI has been in Vietnam since 1993 in the fields of health, education and agriculture with its headquarters located in Colorado, the US with the mission of "Building people to build a nation."/. COVID-19: Philippines eases lockdown in Manila capital Millions of people returned to work in the Philippiness Manila capital on June 1 as one of the world's strictest and longest COVID-19 lockdowns was eased to help resuscitate the economy. After nearly three months of applying the blockade order, public transport such as trains and shuttle buses are allowed to operate in Manila but on a limited scale. The majority of businesses are allowed to reopen, while residents can leave home without a permit. However, schools, bars and restaurants are still closed. Currently, both children and the elderly in the country are required to stay at home unless they need to go out to buy necessities. Earlier, the Philippine government relaxed restrictions in small towns outside Manila. The Philippine Ministry of Health reported that the country recorded 552 new cases of COVID-19 and three deaths on the same day, raising the totals to 18,638 and 960, respectively. The Philippines currently has the third highest number of infections and the second highest number of deaths in Southeast Asia. In Thailand, the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration under the Thai government has suggested considering a long holiday in July to make up for the cancellation of Songkran festivities that was supposed to be in April. However, the centre said this plan is only possible if the Thai people are able to help bring the new COVID-19 cases to only one digit, or better at zero. Previously, the Thai government delayed the Songkran holiday slated for April 13-15 until "further notice" for fear that large gatherings and the homecoming of revellers could exacerbate the COVID-19 outbreak. Meanwhile, the Indonesian Ministry of Health announced that the country confirmed 467 more COVID-19 patients and 28 deaths on June 1, bringing the total of infections and fatalities to 26,940 and 1,641, respectively./. Thailand enters third phase of lockdown Thailand entered the third phase of its lockdown on June 1, with moderate-risk businesses allowed to be reopened, while the country observes a shortened curfew from 9pm to 3am. The same day, the country recorded only one COVID-19 imported case and zero death, marking the seventh consecutive day without transmission in the community. Also as of June 1, Thailand confirmed 3,082 infections, including 57 deaths and 2,965 recovered patients As scheduled, the countrys reopening in July will be the final stage in Thailands two-month lockdown. The pandemic cost Thailands tourism industry 40 percent in revenue in the first quarter. Phuket beaches remain closed indefinitely, but the open beaches in Hua Hin and Rayong are drawing crowds of travellers./. German media decodes Vietnams success in fighting COVID-19 Germanys Marzahn-hellersdorf portal has run an article pointing to factors that contributed to Vietnams success in its battle against COVID-19, which include early action, contact tracing, and communications. Vietnam began preparations to cope with the outbreak several weeks prior to recording its first case of infection, it wrote, even when China and the World Health Organisation (WHO) had declared there was no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission. The article mentioned Vietnams effective preventive measures, such as strengthening medical monitoring at border gates, airports and seaports, cancelling all flights from and to China, and suspending entry for all foreigners. According to Guy Thwaites, a professor of infectious diseases and Director of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Vietnam, Vietnams quick response is key to the countrys success in combating COVID-19. Vietnams experience in coping with the outbreak of communicable diseases such as SARS in 2002 helped the Government and people be better prepared for COVID-19, he added. Vietnam lifted its three-week social distancing measures in late April, the portal said, and no new infections have been recorded in the community for more than 40 days./ Vietnam provides 25,000 masks to expats in RoK The Vietnamese Government presented 25,000 medical masks to Vietnamese expatriates in the Republic of Korea (RoK) on June 1, to help the fight against COVID-19. At the handover ceremony at the Embassy of Vietnam in Seoul, Ambassador Nguyen Vu Tu presented the masks to representatives from the associations of overseas Vietnamese and Vietnamese students in the country. The gift demonstrates the material and spiritual assistance the Government provides to the community, he said. The RoK Government began its no mask, no ride policy on buses and taxis on May 26, in an effort to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus on public transport. Subway passengers, meanwhile, are strongly advised to wear face masks while travelling. All passengers on domestic and international flights have been required to wear masks, starting from May 27. Such measures were applied after nine bus and 12 taxi drivers tested positive for COVID-19 on May 24./. Hospitals given foreign support in fight against COVID-19 The National Hospital for Tropical Diseases on Monday received 1,000 3M medical masks and 60 four-litre cans of hand sanitiser worth over VN100 million (US$4,300) from the US organisation Resource Exchange International (REI). Another 300 sets of medical protective gear (consisting of one medical cap, surgical coverall, gloves, surgical mask, safety glasses, and medical shoe cover) and 550 3M medical masks with a total value of more than VN90 million would be presented to ong Nai General Hospital on Friday. Head of Project of REI in Viet Nam Tran Phuong Lien said that REI was pleased to partner with various stakeholders to implement this meaningful charity programme. Taking this opportunity, we expect that REI will become a reliable partner in the long-term medical charity programmes in Viet Nam, she said. According to the Project Office of REI in Viet Nam, through the connection of the People's Aid Co-ordinating Committee (PACCOM), Dow Vietnam and REI donated the necessary medical supplies to the hospitals with the desire to support the frontline workers in the fight against COVID-19, helping the community health resilience and working with the whole country to effectively prevent and control COVID-19. Dr Le Van Dung, Vice President of the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases, thanked the organisation for the encouragement and support. REI has been in Viet Nam since 1993 in the fields of health, education and agriculture with its headquarters located in Colorado, USA, with the mission of "Building people to build a nation." Made-in-Viet Nam face masks donated to New York, South Korea Up to 150,000 Vietnamese-made facemasks were gifted to New York City by Ha Noi Peoples Committee on Monday to support the fight against COVID-19 in one of the worlds worst-hit epicentres. The 100,000 antibacterial cloth masks and 50,000 surgical facemasks produced by Viet Nams companies meet standards of the Ministry of Health and CE marking by the EU. Though small, the gift expresses the support of Ha Nois people and authorities towards New York City amid this challenging time, said Nguyen uc Chung, head of the Peoples Committee. In response, the US Ambassador to Viet Nam Daniel Kritenbrink showed gratitude towards Ha Noi. The ambassador applauded Viet Nams efforts in disclosing information and containing the disease. On the same day, 25,000 facemasks were sent to the Vietnamese community in South Korea from Viet Nam's Embassy in Seoul. These facemasks will be distributed to Vietnamese students and citizens living in South Korea. Foreign journalists hail Vietnamese efforts in coronavirus fight Recent times have seen numerous foreign journalists deliver lavish praise for the countrys sustained efforts in slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), with British freelance journalist Georgina Quach stating that the fight against the deadly virus has become a priority for millions of Vietnamese people. In a recent article published on the website OneZero, the writer detailed the proud success of the nation in its battle against the pandemic. One of the most effective tools Vietnam used to manage the spread of the COVID-19 was public education, often deployed via popular social media channels, she said. The journalist noted a key move which occurred back in February, with the Vietnamese Health Ministry releasing a viral hand-washing song Ghen Co Vy, known as Jealous Coronavirus in English. The purpose of the song was to spread advice on preventive measures that millions of people could take, with the hashtag #GhenCoVyChallenge reaching 37.7 million views and counting. Furthermore, the nations communication apparatus was also critical for implementing a range of nationwide programmes, she added, noting that the country was swift to focus on targeting, testing, and aggressively contact tracing, a tactic that similarly helped Vietnam to become the first country to have stopped the SARS pandemic 17 years prior. Along with a system in place for proactive monitoring, the nation also launched two smartphone apps which enable users to detail their symptoms and voluntarily report cases of suspected infections in their area, therefore serving to identify hot spots. In addition, journalist Dana Kenedy recently published a story titled How did Vietnam manage to avoid even one coronavirus death? for the New York Post, in which the Vietnamese achievements in response to the COVID-19 were greatly praised. She gave quotes from CNN stating that the country ignored China and the World Health Organisations initial insistence that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission, moving instead to deploy rapid measures such as strict quarantine measures and contact tracing. Although the nations first COVID-19 cases were not reported until January 23, by then the country was fully prepared, she said. Kenedy went on to state that when the nation declared a national epidemic on February 1 it had only six confirmed cases nationwide. This led to flights between the country and China to be halted, swiftly followed by the suspension of visas being given to Chinese citizens. Following a three-week shutdown, the nation later eased social distancing rules in late April and hasnt had any reports of local infections for over 40 days in a row. The article concludes by stated how businesses and schools have reopened with life slowly returning to normality. Thai Govt to discuss aid for lottery and street vendors Lottery sellers and street vendors in Thailand have asked for government assistance and remedies for the disruptions they are suffering as a result of the State of Emergency. Representatives of lottery and street vendor who are affected by the extension of the State of Emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic made the request during a meeting with the Thai Prime Ministers Office Minister, Tewan Liptapallop. Lottery vendors raised their concerns after not being able to sell tickets due to COVID-19 restrictions, with some still having to pay rent for their sales space. Some of them have complained about charges made by government agencies against overpriced lottery tickets, claiming they had to purchase lottery tickets at prices which are already more expensive. They have asked the government to provide aid, seeing themselves as SMEs affected by the pandemic. Meanwhile, street vendors have asked the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to allow them to operate at 26 locations, instead of three locations at present. City hall has clarified that these restrictions are imposed due to traffic and hygiene issues, as well as illicit leasing and permit transfer to other vendors. The PMO Minister said he will forward proposals from the meeting to the Prime Minister, in order to draft appropriate aid measures./. One of lifes great mysteries is the question of why it is so much easier to acquire and consume beer in the Southern states than here in New Jersey. I pondered that mystery recently when I was in Florida with my sailing buddy the Captain. As we biked to the beach, we could stop at any convenience store and pick up cold beer. Once on the sand, we could drink it without being touched by the long arm of the law. The same was true when I hit the beach in Texas the prior year. So naturally my curiosity was piqued when I read that the town of North Wildwood had relaxed its law banning drinking in public. An inquiry was in order. lts a long drive. Look at a map and you will see that the Wildwoods are south of Baltimore in latitude. The wide-open wetlands and beaches have a relaxed, Southern feel to them. And now they had a Southern approach to alcohol as well. I found that out when I parked and walked over to Olde New Jersey Avenue, a beach-side location known for its collection of fine drinking establishments. The interiors of those establishments were empty of customers, as required by Gov. Phil Murphys executive orders. But those orders also allow licensed premises to sell drinks on a to-go basis. On Memorial Day weekend, the owner of one such bar had put some picnic tables out so patrons could consume the food and drink theyd just bought. But someone ratted them out for violating one of Murphys endless executive orders. The picnic tables went into storage out back. Something had to be done, said Mayor Patrick Rosenello. The governor signs a law saying you can get a roadie to go, but does he really think theyre gonna wait till they get back to their hotel or condo? he asked. Rosenello sprung into action. Last week he announced that the local law would be relaxed to permit people to drink on the sidewalks in the vicinity of bars. That seemed to be working out just fine when I visited on a sunny afternoon. People were standing around drinking and talking just like you might see in a place like New Orleans. And as in New Orleans, the drinks were transferred to plastic cups for consumption. I didnt see any litter, and a good time was had by all. Well, almost all. The guy who runs a T-shirt store sandwiched between the bars told me he was having a tough time selling anything because he was prohibited from letting customers into his shop. Not only that, he said, but the flowers in a planter on the sidewalk were taking a beating. People who ordered food from the bars would set the plates down on the violets and daffodils. On an Atlantic City radio show Sunday, Murphy said that outdoor dining will finally be opened in the next couple of weeks, as will non-essential retail outlets such as that T-shirt shop. But theres no reason those activities couldnt have been opened up before Memorial Day, the mayor said. It almost feels like some of these people have never been to the Jersey Shore, Rosenello said. I feel like they have absolutely no sense of what small business is. Those three weeks can be the difference between a business failing and surviving. But if every cloud has a silver lining, this cloud may cause Shore towns to rethink those bans on outdoor drinking. Cape May officials are considering lifting the drinking ban on the boardwalk to attract some summer visitors, he said. State Senate minority leader Tom Kean Jr. has pushed to lift the drinking ban on the Atlantic City Boardwalk. That would require state approval because of the citys unique status, but the Union County Republican said its worth trying. The boardwalk itself is a contained-enough environment, Kean said. It could be done in a way that would be like a New Orleans experience. That sounded good to Seth Grossman, the former Atlantic City Councilman who is a historian of the citys colorful past. The citys hit hard times with the closure of the casinos. Anything that would put another dollar in the hands of someone trying to make a living in this environment, Id be for it, Grossman said. He said that permitting booze on the boards would hearken back to Prohibition, when political boss Nucky Johnson managed to keep the drinks flowing despite the law. The sign on this car parked near the bars on Olde New Jersey Avenue in North Wildwood embodied a common sentiment on the shutdown imposed by Gov. Phil Murphy. That goes back to Nucky Johnsons philosophy We give the visitors what they want. Grossman said. He had a saying: If people came here for Bible classes, wed give them Bible classes. Well, theyre not coming for Bible classes. But if you let them have a cold drink on a hot day, they might come back. UPDATE - TWO MORE WEEKS? OR JUST BAD DATA? Gov. Murphy has finally announced a date for non-essential retail and outdoor dining to start up. Thats the good news. The bad news is its two weeks away. Murphy claims these draconian decisions are driven by the science and the data. But that leaked letter from Health Department employees to key legislators shows that science had little to do with these decisions: "As we have been seeing, the Governor has the right talking points around data determines dates, but it is still unclear to us what data that is, and when or how it will trigger opening, according to the letter. And if it is elusive to us as public health officials in the state, it is certainly elusive to you as lawmakers, and by extension, the general public in New Jersey. Read the whole thing. I think we may be seeing the beginning of the end of the reign of King Phillip the First. Its time to give the lawmaking powers back to the Legislature. Telecom Egypt and Etisalat Misr, the Egyptian subsidiary of the Etisalat Group, have announced the signing of transmission and mobile-to-fixed interconnection deals, described as two first-of-their-kind agreements. In the first deal, Etisalat Misr has signed a long-term agreement that includes an annual commitment to Telecom Egypts infrastructure and transmission services. The agreement, say the partners, will enable Etisalat Misr to continue delivering premium offers and mobile telecommunications services to its customers in the Egyptian market. It extends for three and a half years with a total value of EGP 2bn (around $125 million). The two companies have also signed a mobile-to-fixed termination agreement. While this is the first commercial arrangement on mobile-to-fixed between Telecom Egypt and Etisalat Misr, it is said to be the second such agreement for Telecom Egypt in the Egyptian market. Adel Hamed, managing director and chief executive officer of Telecom Egypt, suggested that the agreements would allow the company to further monetize infrastructure investments that serve all local telecommunications companies and added, apparently touching on the pandemic lockdown-led boost in interest usage lately: Telecom Egypt has heavily invested in its infrastructure to accommodate the significant and ongoing increase in data usage in Egypt. Hazem Metwally, chief executive officer of Etisalat Misr, added: The development of events across the world makes telecommunications companies eager to cope with the required changes and, during the next stage, agreements like the ones we have signed today will be reflected in the products and services that we will offer our customers for the first time in the Egyptian market. Hundreds of people gathered at the Providence Place Mall early Tuesday morning, facing off with Providence police and Rhode Island state police officers. The group gained access to the mall after smashing storefronts after midnight. They clashed with dozens of officers and a police cruiser was set on fire. Crowds of people can be seen running through the Providence Place Mall. Fireworks being let off outside. Police have not been successful in quelling this crowd. @wpri12 pic.twitter.com/mJG10wZEFw Corey Welch (@CoreyWelch) June 2, 2020 A unit in riot gear arrived shortly before 2 a.m., the Providence Journal reported, and used what appeared to be tear gas to disperse the crowds. Col. James Manni of the Rhode Island State Police said in a statement to ABC6 that police believe most of the several hundred protesters were from out of state. We had received intelligence this could occur earlier in the evening. Providence police and state police were fully prepared for it. Massachusetts State Police offered support to Rhode Island State Police overnight. After the crowd left the mall, other damage was reported in downtown Providence and other parts of the city. We just spoke with the owner of St. Pierres His store on Washington Street was looted and a fire was started inside. His employee tried to stand guard all night, but looters made their way in. @ABC6 pic.twitter.com/xzAKIDkUBh Amanda Pitts (@APittsABC6) June 2, 2020 Doors, windows shattered at TD Bank at corner of Dorrance and Westminster St @ABC6 pic.twitter.com/rsZxDmRuRa Amanda Pitts (@APittsABC6) June 2, 2020 Looting on Westminster Street in Providence. Store owners will wake up to this damage soon. Police are standing guard in riot gear. @ABC6 pic.twitter.com/Ndvr3BWxxz Amanda Pitts (@APittsABC6) June 2, 2020 Protests have held been held in dozens of cities nationwide following the death of George Floyd. The 46-year-old died Monday after he was pinned to the ground by officers, including one who constricted his breathing by putting his knee on his neck. In video captured by witnesses, Floyd is heard pleading that he is struggling to breath and in severe pain, as Officer Derek Chauvin remains with his knee on his neck. Floyd was declared dead a short time later at a Minneapolis hospital. Chauvin and three other officers involved in his death were fired Tuesday as community activists called for their arrests. Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter on Friday. In the four-day period between Floyds death and charges being brought against one of the officers involved, a series of protests were held in Minneapolis. Protests at the Minneapolis 3rd Precinct - where the four officers involved in Floyds death were stationed before their firing - turned violent Wednesday evening. The Target store location across the street from the precinct was damaged and items were taken from the store. 40 Protests break out in Minneapolis following death of George Floyd Related Content More than 30 years after his breakthrough film Do The Right Thing was released in 1989, Spike Lee has released a new short film in the wake of George Floyd's death. Lee appeared on Sunday night's CNN special I Cant Breath: Black Men Living and Dying In America, anchored by Don Lemon, where he debuted the short film 3 Brothers. The 63-year-old filmmaker then debuted the short film on his Twitter page, which is comprised of footage of the 2014 death of Eric Garner in New York City, last week's death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the death of Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn) as portrayed in Lee's groundbreaking 1989 film Do The Right Thing. 3 Brothers-Radio Raheem, Eric Garner And George Floyd. pic.twitter.com/EB0cXQELzE Spike Lee (@SpikeLeeJoint) June 1, 2020 3 Brothers: More than 30 years after his breakthrough film Do The Right Thing was released in 1989, Spike Lee has released a new short film in the wake of George Floyd's death The short film opens with a question - 'Will History Stop Repeating Itself?' - before showing footage of Garner telling police officers 'Please just leave me alone.' NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo is then seen approaching Garner from behind and putting him into a choke hold. The film then cuts to a scene from Do The Right Thing, where Radio Raheem gets into a fight at Sal's Pizzeria that spills out into the street. Garner: The short film opens with a question - 'Will History Stop Repeating Itself?' - before showing footage of Garner telling police officers 'Please just leave me alone' Fight: The film then cuts to a scene from Do The Right Thing, where Radio Raheem gets into a fight at Sal's Pizzeria that spills out into the street The footage cuts back to more officers arriving to subdue Garner and a strikingly similar scene in Do The Right Thing where white cops are strangling Radio Raheem with a billy club. Raheem tells the cops to 'get the f**k off me' while being choked while Garner is heard saying, 'I can't breathe,' which became the rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement. Raheem is seen struggling for air in another shot, before cutting to another shot of Garner saying, 'I can't breathe' and then to Floyd, who says 'I can't breathe' while Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has his knee pressed against Floyd's neck. Similar: The footage cuts back to more officers arriving to subdue Garner and a strikingly similar scene in Do The Right Thing where white cops are strangling Radio Raheem with a billy club Can't breathe: Raheem is seen struggling for air in another shot, before cutting to another shot of Garner saying, 'I can't breathe' and then to Floyd, who says 'I can't breathe' while Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has his knee pressed against Floyd's neck The short cuts again to Raheem struggling to breathe against the force of the billy club choke hold before a shot of Floyd is seen where he says, 'Mama' while an officer tells him to, 'Get up and get in the car right.' While another officer tells the man holding the camera (who, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune is Tou Thao) to get back on the steps, others in the crowd are telling Chauvin to 'get off him.' The short then shows Radio Raheem taking his last breath, before cutting to a shot of Garner as a bystander says, 'All he did was break up a fight.' Struggling: The short cuts again to Raheem struggling to breathe against the force of the billy club choke hold before a shot of Floyd is seen where he says, 'Mama' while an officer tells him to, 'Get up and get in the car right' More shots of Raheem's final moments are shown along with Chauvin continuing to press all of his weight on Floyd's neck as someone is heard saying, 'You're stopping his breathing right there' and Floyd is faintly heard saying, 'I can't breathe.' Radio Raheem is seen collapsing dead to the ground, cut together with shots of officers are then seen checking on the unconscious Floyd and Garner. The final shots show Radio Raheem's dead body being hauled away by cops, while Floyd is being put on a stretcher while another cop aggressively tells bystanders to get back as bystanders say, 'You really just killed that man' as the short comes to an end. Breathe: More shots of Raheem's final moments are shown along with Chauvin continuing to press all of his weight on Floyd's neck as someone is heard saying, 'You're stopping his breathing right there' and Floyd is faintly heard saying, 'I can't breathe' Final shots: The final shots show Radio Raheem's dead body being hauled away by cops, while Floyd is being put on a stretcher while another cop aggressively tells bystanders to get back as bystanders say, 'You really just killed that man' as the short comes to an end During the CNN special, Lee wondered how people are reacting the way they are. 'This is history again, and again and again. This is not new,' Lee began, while wearing a 49ers hat and a t-shirt that read 1619, the year seen by most as the start of slavery in America. 'The attack on black bodies has been here from the get-go. I am not condoning all this other stuff but I understand why people are doing what they are doing,' Lee added. Sinn Fein party reps in Dublin say they were not consulted over a party motion that would seek to restrict abortion in the north. The party is grappling with widespread criticism of their stance on abortion in Northern Ireland, which came "out of left-field" for some TDs and Senators, some of which learned about the amendment on social media. A motion brought by four DUP MLAs is being debated in Stormont today, which seeks to limit grounds for abortion in Northern Ireland by rejecting: "The imposition of abortion legislation which extends to all non-fatal disabilities, including Downs syndrome. An amendment introduced by Sinn Fein modifies the language to reject the specific legislative provision in the abortion legislation which goes beyond fatal foetal abnormalities to include non-fatal disabilities, including Downs syndrome. Critics argue Sinn Fein's amendment to the motion would effectively support the DUPs position while appearing to reject it, while Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill has said her party cannot support legislation that would allow for abortion in non-fatal disability cases. In Northern Ireland, abortion is legal in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities but not in cases where a foetus is likely to survive. Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill Some argue that legalising abortion in cases of non-fatal foetal abnormalities would lead to abortions based on disability, while Grainne Teggart, Amnesty Internationals Northern Ireland campaign manager, said it represents a rollback of human rights: This motion will change nothing legally but is a clear signal that the DUP wants to roll back the hard-won rights of women and girls. Sinn Fein and other parties must not prop up a dangerous anti-choice agenda instead, they should support human rights and show theyre on the side of women." The motion will not change abortion legislation - which has been law since October 21, 1019 - or abortion regulations in Northern Ireland, but Arlene Foster said would: "Send a message" that Stormont does not support the regulations, and wants to create their own legislation, overturning the laws enforced by Westminster. Pro-choice campaigners say the move is a significant departure from the party's stance on abortion in the Republic of Ireland, in which the party supported the Repeal The Eighth movement, which did not include similar limits on terminations. The party headquarters and a number of MLAs submitted a templated response to journalists and media outlets on Monday, which stated: "Sinn Fein does not support CEDAWs recommendation to provide abortion in the case of severe fetal impairment, a spokesman for Sinn Fein said. DUP first minister Arlene Foster Sources within the party say there has been a rare "breakdown of communication between Dublin and Belfast", which has shocked some members. "This definitely came from left field, I'm surprised we weren't consulted in the south about it, I don't understand the logic," one senior party source said. "It took so long to get the party where it is, electorally, the stance on abortion hasn't damaged the party, even in the north where the issue is more sensitive, some would say it was actually a turning point. "People told us they saw Mary Lou in a different light during Repeal, so why they want to open this wound again, I don't know. "Maybe they thought this would give pro-lifers in the north some comfort, but we weren't damaged in the north by the position and now they've reopened this argument with a motion that won't actually change anything. "The communications have really improved north and south, and there has been huge work done on health policy specifically on all-Ireland models, so I don't know why this happened. "Maybe a disconnect because of Covid19, people aren't engaging as much, but generally that kind of communication had gotten better, purely because we've learned those lessons." Sources within Sinn Fein have also noted that the motion would bring Northern Ireland's abortion legislation in line with the current legislation in the Republic of Ireland. Figures show that from March 31 to May 22, 129 abortions have been carried out in Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein have been approached for comment. SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- VetsinTech, the leading national non-profit dedicated to advancing career opportunities for veterans in the tech industry, unveiled a new mentoring system that squarely helps veterans during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond. VetsinTech Mentorship Program pairs veterans with top technology mentors based on their relevant knowledge and skills. At the onset, the mentor and mentee will calibrate mentorship sessions aimed at giving veterans highly tangible outcomes and next steps on their path to success. VetsinTech The program augments VetsinTech's (ViT) existing programs, providing veterans valuable one-one-one access to top technology mentors, who can provide tailored guidance and expertise in education, employment, and entrepreneurship. For the launch of the ViT Mentoring Program, more than ten industry-leading technology companies have committed to participate. This includes BMC, Cloudera, Google, InfoSec Institute, Microsoft, PwC, and TIBCO. "It's an honor and privilege to support transitioning veterans as they pursue new careers in technology," said Dan Streetman, CEO of TIBCO. "Access to mentors is critical for veterans and also helps TIBCO and all participating companies build stronger, more diverse teams." "On the heels of Military Appreciation Month, we wanted to do something really impactful to support our brave veterans. We're thrilled to provide this new robust, mentoring system for our veterans to use, especially during the ongoing Covid crisis and shelter-in-place mandates," said Katherine Webster, Founder and CEO of VetsinTech. "We're humbled and indebted to the generosity and support from all of the technology leaders participating in VetsinTech's Mentorship Program." For more information about VetsinTech's Mentorship Program, interested parties can visit https://mentor.vetsintech.co/ . About VetsInTech Based in San Francisco, with more than 30,000 vets strong and 15 chapters across the country, VetsInTech is the leading national non-profit devoted 100% to springboarding veterans into tech careers. VetsinTech harnesses the national technology ecosystem to benefit veterans returning from active military duty and who want to apply their exceptional training, skills, and experience to a new career in technology. Comprised of technology industry leaders and former service members, VetsinTech is the only non-profit that supports our veterans through tech-based programs and opportunities in education, employment, and entrepreneurship. For more information, interested parties can visit www.vetsintech.co . Press Contact: Carmen Hughes Ignite X 650.4534.8553 [email protected] SOURCE VetsInTech Related Links http://www.vetsintech.co Bosnia security minister quit Tuesday to protest threats to the countrys chief prosecutor in a corruption case relating to the purchase of Chinese respirators for coronavirus patients. I will present my resignation today after a government meeting and as of that moment will no longer be the minister, Fahrudin Radoncic told a press conference. Bosnias prosecutor general Gordana Tadic, who named three prosecutors for the case, has received death threats on social media, Radoncic said. Police said they had stepped up security measures for her and her family. Transforming prosecutors, policemen or judges into targets is something that no security minister could watch without reacting, Radoncic said. Last week, the prime minister of Bosnias Muslim-Croatia half, a member of the main Bosnian Muslim SDA party, was detained as part of an investigation into the purchase of 100 respirators. But, the SDA accused the chief prosecutor of leading a political process. SDA leader Bakir Izetbegovic said Tadic was taking part in a coup against Muslim leaders and not persecuting those suspected of committing war crimes against Bosnian Muslims. Tadic warned against any direct pressure on the work of justice or endangering herself and her family. Since the 1990s war Bosnia consists of two semi-independent entities the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Serbs Republika Srpska. The two are linked by a weak central government. Novalic was arrested along with the director of civil protection authority and the head of the company hired to buy the respirators. The three men were freed on Sunday. They are suspected of having organised the purchase of respirators, then paid some 5.4 million euros ($6 million), which was, according to local media, at least 500,000 euros overpriced. Also the respirators were not the right model for intensive care units where they were needed. Bosnia, one of Europes poorest countries, is plagued by corruption. The Balkan nation has reported around 2,500 infections and nearly 160 deaths from the coronavirus. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Loan Agreement Premier Diversified Holdings Inc. ("Premier" or the "Company") (TSXV: PDH) announces that it has entered into a loan agreement with MPIC Fund I, LP ("MPIC") for a secured loan in the aggregate principal amount of up to USD$150,000 (the "Loan"). The Loan matures on April 28, 2021 and bears interest at a rate of 6% per annum. Subject to certain exclusions, the Loan is secured with all of the present and after-acquired property of the Company and ranks equally in priority with all of the loans previously made to the Company by MPIC in 2019 and 2020. The Company is not issuing any securities, or paying any bonus, commission or finder's fees on the Loan. The Loan is repayable at any time without penalty. The Company expects to repay the financing upon receiving funds from some of its other investments. Related party transaction disclosure As MPIC is a control person of Premier, the Loan constitutes a "related party transaction" within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Security holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Loan has been determined to be exempt from the requirements to obtain a formal valuation or minority shareholder approval based on sections 5.5(b) and 5.7(1)(f) of MI 61-101. Premier does not have securities listed or quoted on any of the specified markets listed in section 5.5(b) of MI 61-101. Premier is relying on the exemption from minority shareholder approval in 5.7(1)(f) of MI 61-101 as the loan was obtained by Premier from MPIC on reasonable commercial terms that are not less advantageous to Premier than if the loan had been obtained from a person dealing at arms length with Premier. Further, the loan is not convertible, directly or indirectly, into equity or voting securities of Premier or a subsidiary entity of the issuer, or otherwise participating in nature, or repayable as to principal or interest, directly or indirectly, in equity or voting securities of Premier or a subsidiary entity of the issuer. The Loan is subject to review and acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange. Amended Loan Agreement with MPIC Fund I, LP. Premier entered into a loan agreement with MPIC on April 25, 2019 with a principal amount of US$200,000. This loan matured on April 27, 2020. MPIC and Premier agreed to extend the maturity date by three months to July 27, 2020. All other terms of the loan remain the same. Letter of Intent regarding Initio Medical Group Inc. Premier announces that it entered into a non-binding letter of intent on April 30, 2020 with 2479326 Ontario Inc. (the "Buyer") for the sale of all of the issued and outstanding shares of Initio Medical Group Inc. ("Initio"). Pursuant to the letter of intent, the Buyer may acquire all the issued and outstanding common shares of Initio at a price of $200,000. The transaction is subject to the parties entering into a final purchase agreement and to approval by the TSX Venture Exchange. About Premier Diversified Holdings Inc. Premier Diversified Holdings Inc. participates in diversified industries through its acquisitions of securities and/or assets of public and private entities which it believes have potential for significant returns. It may act as a holding company (either directly or through a subsidiary) and may participate in management of subsidiary entities to varying degrees. On behalf of the Board of Directors "Sanjeev Parsad" Sanjeev Parsad President, CEO and Director For further information, contact: Sanjeev Parsad, President and CEO Phone: (604) 678.9115 Fax: (604) 678.9279 E-mail: sparsad@pdh-inc.com Web: www.pdh-inc.com Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdictions in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. Any offering made will be pursuant to available prospectus exemptions and restricted to persons to whom the securities may be sold in accordance with the laws of such jurisdictions, and by persons permitted to sell the securities in accordance with the laws of such jurisdictions. Further information regarding the Company can be found on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Not for dissemination in the United States of America. Legal Notice Regarding Forward Looking Statements: This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are indicated expectations or intentions. Forward-looking statements in this news release include that Premier will repay the loans from MPIC as disclosed in the news release, that the net proceeds of the Loan will be used as stated in this news release, and that Premier and the Buyer may enter into a transaction for the purchase of the issued and outstanding shares of Initio. Factors that could cause actual results to be materially different include but are not limited to the following: that any revenue will be insufficient to repay the loans or that the management or board of PDH may use the funds for other purposes, that the capital raised will be insufficient capital to accomplish our intentions and capital alone may not be sufficient for us to grow our business, that Premier and the Buyer may not enter into a purchase agreement, and that additional complications or unforeseen obstacles from COVID-19 may negatively impact Premier and/or MPIC or the Initio sale transaction. Investors are cautioned against placing undue reliance on forward-looking statements. It is not our policy to update forward looking statements. The Attorney Generals Department has filed an application seeking the permission of the Supreme Court to transfer to the National Security four properties belonging to Alfred Agbesi Woyome, who fraudulently took GH51.2 million from the state. The application is expected to be moved today by Deputy Attorney General (AG), Godfred Yeboah Dame. The move is as a result of challenges the licensed auctioneer is facing in his bid to sell the properties to offset the GH51.2 million Woyome fraudulently received as judgement debt. The application is necessitated by the fact that the AGs department cannot on its own transfer the properties to the National Security though it is another branch of government, as that would amount to defying the express orders of the Supreme Court for the properties to be sold through public auctions. The auctioneer has been encountering numerous difficulties in conducting a sale of the properties by public auction, as all potential buyers who express interest in buying subsequently shy away citing a number of factors including the very circumstances of the instant matter, the AGs application indicated. The properties involved are two residential properties at Ameri Court, Trassaco Valley, Accra, another residential property at Kpehe in Accra, as well as plant and machinery for quarry belonging to Anator Quarry Limited, Mafi, Volta Region. SC Order The Supreme Court presided over by a single judge, Justice Alfred A. Benin, on July 2019 ordered the state to go ahead and sell four properties of beleaguered businessman, Alfred Woyome, to defray the money he fraudulently took from the state when the NDC was in power. This was after the court had found that Woyome had colluded with the defunct UT Bank to hide the properties from the state. The properties include three residential properties two at Trassaco Valley and one at Kpehe (both in Accra), as well as a quarry at Mamfi in the Volta Region. The state has also indicated that it has discovered two more properties belonging to the businessman and will take steps to sell them off. Interest The Ministry for National Security proposed that some properties belonging to Woyome be transferred to the state to offset the GH51.2 million fraudulently paid him as judgement debt. The ministry, in a letter signed by the National Security Minister, Albert Kan Dapaah, and addressed to the AG, said they are proffering the advice due to the difficulties the auctioneer is facing in the sale of the properties. The letter further pointed out that potential buyers were staying away from the properties, some of which are located at Trassaco Valley, Accra, due to fears that they could lose them in the event that there was a change in government. AG Application Following challenges faced by the licensed auctioneer to sell the properties through public auction as ordered by the Supreme Court, the AGs Department is seeking the permission of the court to transfer the four properties to the National Security. The application states that the National Security Council, pursuant to discussions between the Minister of National Security and the licensed auctioneer, has expressed an interest in acquiring the properties. It further states that the National Security considers the location of all the properties as very vital for some of its operations and is desirous of assuming control and ownership of same. It is our respectful view that it will amount to the same if the National Security which is an organ of government acquires the said properties for its work, and the total values of the properties set off against the judgement debt, the application added. Source: Daily Guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Government as part of efforts to improve education, has instituted a new incentive for teachers and non- teaching staff dubbed Teacher Professional Allowance for their continuous professional development. As part of the allowances, every teacher is expected to receive an amount of GH1200 while the non-teaching staff would earn GH 600 for their career development. Dr Mathew Opoku-Prempeh, the Minister of Education, speaking at a press briefing in Accra on Tuesday, on government measures to ease restrictions on the educational sector, said government had approved critical support allowance for Teachers and Educational Workers' Union members who have been left out for the last eight years. The allowance is paid to staff of the service as an incentive for them to perform better. President Akuffo-Addo in his 10th address to the nation on Sunday May 31, announced that from Monday, June 15, 2020, schools and universities are to be re-opened for final year students as part of a revised measure for fighting the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country. The President explained that Junior High School three classes will comprise a maximum of 30 students in a class, Senior High School classes, a maximum of 25 students and University lectures should take place with half the class size. Dr Opoku-Prempeh said government since 2017 had recruited a total of 93,724 teaching and non-teaching staff for employment into the Ghana Education Service (GES), stressing that all teachers who were recruited in 2018 have been put on the pay roll and those who have served for more than three months have all been paid their salary arrears. The Minister said this year, the GES and the Unions have agreed and introduced a new promotional exam to do away with the tendency where somebody gets promoted and for three years the person is not put on his or her level of promotion. Under our government, all teachers who have been promoted were put on the new scale and have been paid their allowances, he added. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video New Delhi : Sacked Delhi Minister and AAP MLA Sandeep Kumar, arrested on rape charges on the complaint of a woman, was on Monday remanded to three-day police custody by a court here. Kumar, 36, was produced before Special Judge Poonam Chaudhry on expiry of one-day police custody. The former minister was arrested on September 3 after a woman approached Sultanpuri police station in north Delhi with a complaint of sexual harassment against the former social welfare and women and child development minister following which a case was filed. The woman had figured in an objectionable video with him. He has been booked under section 376 (rape), 328 (causing hurt by means of poison with intent to commit an offence) of IPC, under section 67A of IT Act (punishment for publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act) and Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act (public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration for an official act). In her complaint, the woman alleged that around 11 months ago she was raped by Kumar when she had gone to his office in Outer Delhis Sultanpuri seeking help to obtain a ration card. She has alleged that Kumar had offered her a spiked drink and when she fell unconscious, she was taken to his house adjacent to the office and raped. The woman alleged that Kumar had told her that he will get a ration card for her and ensure jobs for her children. Kumar was removed from the AAP government on August 31 by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal after the CD purportedly showing him in a compromising position with the woman surfaced. The MLA from Sultanpur Majra had surrendered before the investigators at the office of DCP (Outer) in Pitampura where his statement was recorded, police officials had said. Soon after the controversy, the MLA had defended himself, saying he has been targeted. Kumars wife has also come out in support of her husband, claiming that he was falsely implicated in the scandal. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Effect on Australian Scheme The announcement published in The Age yesterday that success had crowned the experiments in long distance wireless and that the human voice had been transmitted from England to Sydney by use of the Marconi beam, apparently portends a new and important development in the science of wireless communication. The Prime Minister has for some week been in possession of information on this subject, which he considers likely to bare a vital effect on the establishment of direct wireless services between England and Australia. He has been obliged, however, to withhold a public announcement on the subject pending the conclusion of negotiations between the British Government and himself. The subject was referred to in the House of Representatives yesterday by Mr. Coleman, who asked if the Prime Minister was yet in a position to make any announcement. Mr. Bruce replied that he was not yet able to make an announcement, but the fact that during the last weekend not merely telegraphic communication between England and Australia by the new beam system, but the human voice had been actually heard by this method, indicated that recent discoveries for the advancement of long-distance wireless transmission appeared to open a great prospect of some satisfactory arrangement by which we could get direct communication with England in the near future. WORLDWIDE TELEPHONES VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2020 / Experion Holdings Ltd. (the "Company" or "Experion") (TSXV:EXP)(OTCQB:EXPFF)(FRANKFURT:MB31) is pleased to announce the launch of its premium brand, Citizen Stash, into Ontario where it will be available in stores and online (ocs.ca) in the coming weeks. The Company's wholly-owned subsidiary, Experion Biotechnologies Inc., a Health Canada licensed cultivator and processor of top shelf cannabis, has signed an agreement with the Ontario Cannabis Store ("OCS") to officially supply premium cannabis products to the province's retail network. Ontario is the seventh Canadian province and territory with which Experion has announced distribution and is currently projected to have the largest number of cannabis retailers of any province. Approximately 450 cannabis stores applications were filed in March 2020 under Ontario's new open-market process. Mr. Jarrett Malnarich, Chief Executive Officer, commented "We are thrilled to announce our partnership with the OCS and look forward to supplying our high quality in-demand products to cannabis consumers in Ontario long-term. The province is another key milestone for Experion as we continue to build a best-in-class retail distribution network coast to coast for our premium cannabis products to solidify our position in Canada's cannabis marketplace and take steps towards near-term profitability." About Experion Holdings Ltd. Experion Holdings Ltd. is the parent company of Experion Biotechnologies Inc., a Health Canada licensed cultivator and processor of Cannabis, based in Mission, BC. Experion Holdings Ltd. is invested in a portfolio of products to address a wide spectrum of consumer needs' including Adult-use, Wellness and Therapeutic, and Medical products. Experion trades on the TSX Venture Exchange as a Tier 1 issuer under the symbol "EXP" on the OTCQB Venture under the symbol "EXPFF" and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol "MB31" For further information, please visit the Company's website www.experionwellness.com or contact Investor Relations, Email: IR@experionwellness.com Disclosure This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. Although the Company believes that such information is reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward looking information is typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, forecast, postulate and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking information provided by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking information as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to: the state of the financial markets for the Company's equity securities; recent market volatility; the Company's ability to raise the necessary capital or to be fully able to implement its business strategies; the risks identified in the Filing Statement, and other risks and factors that the Company is unaware of at this time. The reader is referred to the Filing Statement dated September 25, 2017 and/or the most recent annual and interim Management's Discussion and Analysis for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects, copies of which may be accessed through the Company page on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies ofthe TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: Experion Holdings Ltd. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/592314/Citizen-Stash-Enters-the-Province-of-Ontario Ahead of President Donald Trumps walk to St. Johns Episcopal Church on Monday, U.S. Attorney General William Barr ordered authorities to clear a crowd of protesters gathered peacefully near the White House. The Washington Post and CNN report that Barr was personally involved in the order, which led to federal police pushing through the crowd before a 7 p.m. curfew using smoke, teargas, rubber bullets and flash-bangs, according to protesters, reporters and clergy who say the crowd was peaceful at the time. Thousands have gathered near the White House and in dozens of cities across the country to protest systemic racism and last weeks death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man pinned under a white Minneapolis police officers knee for almost 9 minutes. CNN reported that top officials responsible for White House security had previously planned to expand the perimeter around Lafayette Square, a public park north of the building. But a Justice Department official told CNN that just after 6 p.m., when Barr saw the area hadnt been emptied, he told police to clear it. The official said that Barr was told police believed protesters were gathering rocks and that water bottles were thrown in his direction. CNN crews disputed the account, saying they did not witness any bottles thrown at Barr. Trumps visit to the church was denounced by religious leaders, activists and leading Democrats. I am shaken, not so much by the taste of tear gas and the bit of a cough I still have, but by the fact that that show of force was for a PHOTO OPPORTUNITY, said Rev. Gini Gerbasi. Trump allies and campaign members lauded the move as a show of strength and respect for a damaged historic church amid escalating violence. A handful of Republican senators, including Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Susan Collins of Maine, Tim Scott of South Carolina, and James Lankford of Oklahoma, criticized the president for staging an event after disrupting a peaceful protest, Politico reported. There is a fundamental a constitutional right to protest, and Im against clearing out a peaceful protest for a photo op that treats the Word of God as a political prop, Sasse said in a statement. Every public servant in America should be lowering the temperature. Related Content: With the current violence raging as a protest that includes looting and violence by protestors in the name of George Floyd, his son expressed that he is against violent protests. Instead of joining looters or violent protestors in a demonstration, George Floyd's son chose to be in a peaceful march on Sunday in Texas that was in remembrance of his father and expressed condemnation of violence committed in his father's name, reported NewsWeek. Several states were experiencing violent protests after a police officer killed him for a fake $20 that brought violence and some deaths in several states. The Texas peace march was a distinct contrast to the violence conducted by other protestors. However, the son of Floyd said that violence will not solve anything. According to Quincy Mason Floyd, who lives in Bryan Texas, where the march was held, he expressed appreciation for the show of support for his father and was touched by the concern shown by everyone, according to KBTX. Floyd said that he was not very close to his father for quite a while when the video was released of the police brutality. It never crossed his mind that he was seeing his father in the footage. His mother had to verify that it was his dad in the center of the storm in media and online. Floyd said that he has not seen him for quite some time, according to KBTX. Newsweek attempted to reach Ben Crump, who is the lawyer of Floyd's family, for comment on the story but he did not respond to the request. Also read: Major Email Program Might Be Hacked by Russian Spies for Almost a Year The cause of the elder Floyd's death was detention by a Minneapolis Police Officer. Videos of the incident were captured, then went viral that showed police officer Derek Chauvin with his knee on Floyd's neck, who was lying on the ground. This is a stark picture of a white police officer and a black man that ignited the violent and tensions that are tearing cities apart. In the video, Floyd pleaded that he had difficulty breathing, while people were telling the officer to stop what he was doing. After keeping a knee on Floyd's neck, Officer Chauvin killed Floyd when he was rushed to the hospital. The aftermath of the Floyd incident resulted in the relieve of duties for Derek Chauvin along with three other police members by the Minneapolis Police Department. It got worse for Chauvin when charges were made against him for murder and manslaughter. The Floyd protests is about systemic racism of the police that has gained awareness in different areas in the US. Peaceful protests were spreading like wildfire during the week, but others turned into wild violence and riots that have wrecked cities as protestors becoming arsonists or looters. There are also violent attacks on the police, and their equipment. Another of Floyd's relatives, Terence Floyd was critical of the violence happening, telling ABC News he was angry, saying that the violence perpetrated by rioters is not what his brother was, and George Floyd will not agree with violence. Related article: National Guard to Join Los Angeles in Protecting City as Protest Violence Rages @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Amid the rising tensions between the US and China over coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, US President Donald Trump has upped the ante by issuing a proclamation banning the entry of Chinese students and researchers having ties with the People's Liberation Army. The Trump administration has taken this decision in order to stop China from using graduate students to acquire intellectual property and technology from the US. "On May 29 President Trump issued a proclamation that limits the Peoples Liberation Armys (PLA) ability to misuse nonimmigrant student and researcher visa programs. The Trump Administration is committed to achieving a fair and reciprocal relationship with the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), and also continues to value the important contributions of international students and researchers, including from China. However, the Administration is also committed to protecting our national and economic security. We will not tolerate PRC attempts to illicitly acquire American technology and intellectual property from our academic institution and research facilities for Chinese military ends," US Department of State said in a press statement. The proclamation by President Trump suspends the entry into the US of any Peoples Republic of China national seeking to enter the country pursuant to an F or J visa to study or conduct research in the United States, except for a student seeking to pursue undergraduate study, where the individuals academic or research activities are likely to support a Chinese entity that implements and supports the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) military-civil fusion strategy. "Our actions last Friday are a direct consequence of PRC government strategies and policies that exploit the access of some of Chinas brightest graduate students and researchers, in targeted fields, to divert and steal sensitive technologies and intellectual property from U.S. institutions, taking undue advantage of our open and collaborative academic and research environment. This action will help safeguard U.S. national and economic security interests and the productivity and security of the U.S. research enterprise," added the press statement. The US, however, made it clear that it was only concerned about the malign actions of the Chinese Communist Party and specific individuals and not with the Chinese people in general. "The graduate students and researchers who are targeted, co-opted, and exploited by the PRC government for its military gain represent a small subset of Chinese student and researcher visa applicants coming to the United States. We expect this new visa policy will contribute to an improved, open, and transparent environment in which U.S. and Chinese scholars can engage with greater trust. At the same time, the United States will continue do everything in its power to safeguard U.S. technology and institutions, and to ensure our national and economic security remain safe and free from foreign interference," noted the press statement. Australians have jumped to the defense of Premier Mark McGowan after he was caught on camera breaking social distancing rules. The WA leader was at a media conference on Sunday, announcing the state's new tourism campaign when he shook hands with an attendee. Mr McGowan's coronavirus faux-pas attracted media attention as hand-shakes have been banned since the rise of the coronavirus as it is a sure-fire way to spread germs. Western Australians were more than understanding about the 'slip up', with many defending Mark McGowan's (pictured) mistake Immediately after the handshake another man intervened, telling the pair they aren't supposed to shake hands. The pair conceded they had simply 'forgot' about the rule. Western Australians were more than understanding about the 'slip up', with many defending his mistake. There were no negative comments about the incident. 'Oh for gods sake, leave him alone. Hes done a fantastic job looking after our state, better than any other premier by far. It would be quite hard to reject a handshake, as its an automatic response,' one woman wrote on Facebook. 'Like we all haven't shook hands by accident or breached the distancing rule. God forbid he isn't human like the rest of us. The premier has done a remarkable job so far give him a break,' another wrote. Another wrote: 'Its a natural instinct to shake someones hand. Its just one of those things'. Mr McGown was also praised for his handling on the pandemic with just 25 active cases in now WA; one a West Australian, four from interstate, and 20 from overseas. Opps: The WA leader was at a media conference on Sunday, announcing the state's new tourism campaign when he shook hands with an attendee Australians have jumped to the defense of Premier Mark McGowan after he was caught on camera breaking social distancing rules WA closed its border in early April to combat the spread of the deadly illness, it is expected to remain closed 'for some time, Mr McGown said. The state government is now pushing to get West Australians to holiday at home. The $2million 'Wander Out Yonder' campaign was launched on Sunday promoting destinations including Lake Ballard, Mandurah, Shark Bay, Jurien Bay, Ningaloo Reef, the Ord River, the Kimberley and Walpole's Valley of the Giants. The announcement comes after nearly all regional intrastate travel restrictions were lifted, tourism hotspot the Kimberley is expected to reopen on Friday. Israeli border police shot and killed Iyad Hallak, 32, of East Jerusalem, at the Old Citys Lions Gate on May 30. An initial investigation has found that the officers suspected he had a pistol, so they chased and fired on him. He was not, in fact, armed. Hallak, who lived in the Wadi Joz neighborhood, was autistic, so he attended the Old Citys Elwyn Center for children and adults with special needs. According to reports, he had been making his way there on Saturday as he did every morning. There is no doubt that East Jerusalem is a very tense space. When it comes to relations between Israelis and Palestinians, it is a powder keg that has known its share of terrorist attacks. Nevertheless, the question must be asked: Was this police brutality against Arabs? On May 28, Minister of Internal Security Amir Ohana posted on Facebook, A person any person who attacks a police officer any police officer must know that he is risking his own life. Regardless of whether there is a direct connection between the post and what happened on May 30, the post could be interpreted as giving a green light for the police to shoot at will. Hallak was shot while cornered in a back room at the Lions Gate used to collect garbage. He could easily have been arrested or neutralized in some other way. After he was dead and everyone could see that he had no gun, the police and Shin Bet searched his home for something incriminating. If they had found anything, they could brand Hallak as a terrorist. His father, Kheir Hallak, said that they searched the house but didnt find a thing. Reportedly, they called Iyads sister a whore. The way it looks now, whenever the police see an Arab, he immediately becomes a target, one of Hallaks relatives, Hatem Awiwi, told Al-Monitor. Iyad suffered from low-functioning autism. His whole life revolved around his mother, father and sisters. He wouldnt even connect with other members of his family. He certainly didnt know what Jews and Arabs are. Last Saturday, he was making his way to the Elwyn Center, like he did every day. He was wearing a mask and gloves because of the coronavirus. It looks like he was frightened by the police because of his condition, so he fled to the garbage collection room. Nevertheless, that didnt stop them from shooting him there, even after his counselor at the center started screaming, Hes disabled! Half an hour later, the police arrived at his home to conduct a search. They cursed at and humiliated the other family members, but they still could find nothing to incriminate him. After all, you cant incriminate a person like Iyad. Awiwis remarks that Arabs immediately become targets touches on the complicated relationship between Israels police and civilians, particularly Arab civilians. A report by the Mossawa Center found that as of last year, 57 Arab civilians have been killed by the police since 2000, while almost none of the officers involved were charged. One of the best-known cases was the tragic deaths of Yakub Abu al-Kiyan and police officer Erez Levy on the night of Jan. 18, 2017, during the forced evacuation of the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran. Then-Minister of Internal Security Gilad Erdan and former Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh claimed that the victim was a terrorist who supported the Islamic State. Internal Investigations eventually rejected the conclusion and found that there had been no terrorist attack after all. Three years after the incident, it was revealed that the policeman who fired the deadly shot told someone from the Shin Bet, I did not think that there was an immediate threat to my life or the life of my fellow officers when I fired the shot. The thread connecting these two incidents is security forces with loose trigger fingers and the idea that the police consider every Arab a suspect. When incitement against the Arab population permeates every part of the country from social networks to the government, as we saw during the last three election cycles, the associated is inevitable. After visiting the grieving family in their home, Knesset member Ahmad Tibi of the Joint List told Al-Monitor, This was a serious crime. They, the occupiers, shoot at and suppress the Palestinian population, wherever they are, including East Jerusalem. This time they shot an autistic young man who was terrified and looking for shelter. His counselor Warda screamed that he was disabled, but they kept firing anyway. They shot to kill, hoping for a citation. They executed Iyad. They shoot Palestinians and they shoot people with autism. Protesters who gathered in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv after Hallak's killing linked the incident with the riots that broke out in the US city of Minneapolis, where a black man, George Floyd, was killed by a local police officer. The demonstrators held signs reading Palestinian Lives Matter, a clear reference to the Black Lives Matter protests in the United States. Yanal Jabareen, a social and political activist who helped organized the protests, told Al-Monitor, When we first heard reports of the horrific murder of Iyad al-Hallak in the Old City, 200 people, Jews and Arabs alike, marched from King George Street to the police station in the Russian Compound. We need a committee of inquiry and an end to the occupation and abandonment of East Jerusalem for the past 53 years. We will not allow another murder to take place and we will not be silent about Iyads murder. We will stand with the family. We will be its sons, and we will continue our struggle for peace, equality and social justice in Jerusalem. UK Government could replace coronavirus quarantine plans within weeks amid backlash from MPs The UK Government could rapidly shift away from its plan to quarantine all arrivals from the UK amid a mounting backlash from MPs, it has been reported. A senior government source told The Telegraph that Boris Johnson is now personally in favour of a policy of air bridges between Britain and low-risk countries. Home Secretary Priti Patel will on Tuesday lay the regulations in Parliament imposing the quarantine, which will see all international arrivals, including Brits returning to the UK, required to self-isolate for 14 days. Police in England will be given the power to carry out spot-checks and hand out fines to enforce the measures, which are set to come into force from 8 June. But senior Conservative MPs, including former transport ministers, have joined figures from the aviation and travel industry to warn against blanket curbs. The Times reports that the Government is now planning to ease the measures three weeks after they come into force amid concerns over their potential impact on the economy. And The Telegraph says the Department for Transport and Home Office have been ordered to look at bringing in air bridges by the end of the month, with low-risk countries such as Greece, Portugal and Australia listed as potential candidates. The Department for Transport and the Home Office, which is leading on the plan, are said to be at loggerheads over the quarantine measures. A Whitehall source said: There is definitely an intention to get [air bridge] agreements in place ready to announce at the point of the next review. "Everyone in government wants to scrap it or make the air bridges work apart from the Home Office which is feeling slightly under attack. The measures will expected to go to a vote when they are brought before the Commons today, with Number 10 on Monday confirming the quarantine will be brought in through tweaks to existing legislation. The use of the 1984 Public Health Act is the most appropriate legislation for measures such as this, the Prime Ministers spokesperson said. It allows us to introduce important, timely changes to support the Government's approach to tackling coronavirus. Such regulations automatically become law when signed by a minister and there is no requirement for vote, Number 10 said. By next week, June 9, Lexus is all set to pull the covers off the fourth-generation model. The Japanese luxury automaker was also kind enough to provide a teaser photo, and it looks promising. For now, Lexus is only showing its taillights, and it's nothing like any IS we've seen before. This redesign will likely be revolutionary than evolutionary. The thing is, the current model is getting rather long in the tooth. It may not look like it, but the car is already seven years old. With its Teutonic rivals getting either fully redesigned or significantly facelifted, Lexus is now on the back foot. It's also facing stiff competition from its compatriots too, with the Infiniti Q50 (Nissan Skyline) and the fully redesigned Acura TLX looming in its rear-view mirrors. Thankfully for Lexus IS fans, it won't be the case for long. It could be said that Japan's first true answer to the German luxury sport sedan was the Lexus IS. Since the launch of the first-generation model way back in 1999, the IS has been butting heads with the BMW 3 Series, Mercedes-Benz C-Class, and Audi A4. The third-generation is no exception. Lexus says the car will have a sportier look. Judging by those full-width tail lights, that seems to be the case. It's expected to be rear-wheel drive, but we'll only know for sure once the car is revealed. As for its underpinnings, two rumors are swirling around. Publications are saying that it will use a (much) shortened version of the Toyota Crown platform. Others are saying that the 2021 IS will be a heavily facelifted model. Since the current chassis is the oldest among its competitors, it seems more likely that it will be new from the ground-up. Another big question mark looms over the engine options for the 20021 IS. Given Toyota's commitment to hybrid power, we're likely to see that continuing with the new car. A turbocharged four-cylinder might also power the car since Lexus already has the IS200t. There could also be a six-cylinder as well, but it isn't known if it will be turbocharged or stick to being naturally aspirated. It's even been said that the IS F could return in this generation, but with a twin-turbo V6 rather than an unboosted V8. Hopefully, at least for the local market, Lexus offers it with an engine that exceeds 3000cc to qualify for JPEPA tax perks; it's what makes the current generation IS 350 very competitively priced. A hybrid will be great too as it would qualify for a 50% excise tax discount. Whatever the case may be, a lot is riding on the new IS. We have high expectations for it too, given how much we enjoyed driving the soon to be outgoing model. Legacy gift features women artists, Picasso, Matisse Leaving a legacy: Sybil Shainwald (right) with W&M President Katherine A. Rowe at the James Blair Society reception on Feb. 8., 2020. Photo by Capture Photography Photo - of - Hide Caption Stepping into the New York City home of Sybil Shainwald 48, LL.D. 19 next to Central Park is like entering a museum. Youre immediately aware of being surrounded by art, says David Brashear, interim director of Muscarelle Museum of Art at William & Mary. As you move from room to room, you begin to understand that not only is it an exquisite presentation of art, but theres also a strong collecting thread that works through it. The list of artists represented is jaw-dropping: There are drawings by Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso; photographs by Richard Avedon, Man Ray and Helen Levitt; sculptures by Louise Nevelson and Henry Moore; charcoal on paper works by Willem de Kooning; a surrealist painting by Dorothea Tanning. Those are just a few of the 100 works of art that Shainwald has decided to donate via her estate to William & Mary. Upon viewing the art, a theme quickly emerges nearly all the pieces portray women, and many were created by female artists. At the time I started collecting, I thought that women artists and their work were undervalued and underrepresented, Shainwald says. That is changing and this transformative gift puts William & Mary in a position to accelerate that positive change. Advocate for Women Shainwalds approach to collecting is consistent with a storied legal career devoted to womens health cases. Since receiving her law degree in 1976, she has fought for justice on behalf of thousands of women harmed by products such as breast implants, contraceptives and drugs given to pregnant women at risk of miscarriage both in the United States and in developing countries around the globe. Shainwalds achievements have drawn accolades from William & Mary, Columbia Universitys Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, New York Law School and the New York County Lawyers Association, among others. When the history of womens health in the second half of the 20th century is written, Sybil Shainwald will be right in the middle of that history, W&M Law School Dean Davison Douglas says in a video tribute for the pioneering social justice advocate, who received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the university in 2019. She has had an extraordinary impact on womens health through her work as an attorney. Shainwalds observation about art by women being undervalued and underrepresented remains as compelling today as it was when she started collecting art in the 1950s. A survey of 18 major U.S. museums published by the Public Library of Science journal PLOS ONE in March 2019 found that 87% of the works in their permanent collections are by male artists. And despite increased attention to the gender imbalance, the numbers dont appear to be moving swiftly in a more equitable direction. According to data released in September by Artnet News and the In Other Words podcast, works by women represent just 11% of art acquired by museums over the past decade. Melissa Parris, director of collections and exhibitions at the Muscarelle, says that art by women comprises about 25% of Shainwalds collection. Incorporating those into the museums holdings not only will increase the number of works by women, but also will spotlight artists who are not currently represented at the Muscarelle, such as Joan Mitchell, Dorothea Tanning, Lynda Benglis and Lisette Model. Planned gifts such as this one are an important part of the universitys For the Bold campaign, comprising one third of the total raised to date. They also demonstrate a strong commitment by alumni and friends to invest in William & Marys future. Sybil Shainwalds extraordinary gift will forever change the representation of women artists in the universitys collections, says W&M President Katherine Rowe. She shines as a brilliant litigator and a visionary art collector. We are incredibly grateful to her for entrusting William & Mary with this transformative collection. With an expansion planned for the Muscarelles facility, Brashear envisions eventually displaying Shainwalds collection in its entirety as an exhibition of art by and about women. He says the museum is also talking with Shainwald about loaning a few pieces in the meantime as a preview and celebration of her gift. A Forward-Thinking Collection Among the first works of art Shainwald purchased was an abstract female figure by French-born sculptor Louise Bourgeois. Shainwalds husband, Sidney, was not thrilled. He said, I dont really like that sculpture, she recalls. I said, Well youll learn to love it if you look at it long enough. Sidney Shainwald, a prominent consumer advocate and certified public accountant who died in 2003, may not have learned to love all of the pieces his wife bought, but his devotion to her held strong throughout their 42-year marriage. During that time, she earned a graduate degree in history from Columbia University, then a law degree from New York Law School after Columbia declined to admit her into its law program, saying shed take the place of a man who would practice law for 40 years then embarked on a decades-long legal career. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who, like Sybil Shainwald, faced gender discrimination in pursuing a law career and has been a strong advocate for women, noticed a similarity between the Shainwalds relationship and her own marriage to Martin Ginsburg. Both women had attended James Madison High School in Brooklyn, although Ginsburg is several years younger, and they met through a shared passion for opera. Two years ago, Ginsburg spoke at the Sidney Shainwald Public Interest Lecture Series, which Sybil founded in her late husbands honor, at New York Law School. Afterward, she said, Come have a cup of coffee with me, so of course I did, Shainwald says of Ginsburg, and she said, You and I had the same husbands. They were both supportive. While working as a CPA, Sidney Shainwald represented artists including Jacques Lipchitz, George Grosz and Marc Chagall, and he and Sybil visited their studios. I started to buy what I could afford, which wasnt too much, Sybil Shainwald says. I never thought of art as an investment. I bought what I liked. Her favorite piece of art is an oil painting of a woman on a wine bottle by Belgian surrealist Rene Magritte. She had tried to buy a similar piece by the artist at a Christies auction, but someone else outbid her. I was very unhappy, she says. Afterward, I went to Christies and said, Do you think that when somebody goes over to Belgium, they could get another bottle? They called a couple of months later and they said, We have a bottle for you. They had seven, all different. I went and picked out the one I liked. Renewed Relationship Based on her time as a student at William & Mary, the university might seem an unlikely destination for Shainwalds art collection. When she entered as a 16-year-old freshman in the spring of 1945, she wasnt sure whether shed remain. I called my mother right away and said, I absolutely hate this school. I have to come back to New York, she recalls in an oral history recorded in 2017 with Carmen Bolt of W&M Libraries. Shainwald (then Sybil Schwartz) was one of the few Jewish students at the time, and she was particularly uncomfortable with the racial segregation in the South. While at W&M, she worked on The Flat Hat and took part in a protest when the Board of Visitors demanded the editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, Marilyn Kaemmerle, be fired and school officials temporarily shut down publication of the student newspaper after it published a 1945 editorial calling for African Americans to be recognized as equals and saying that one day black students should attend and fully participate in college life. Six years later, the first black student at W&M enrolled in a graduate program in 1951. Despite her qualms about the schools social environment back then, Shainwald speaks highly of her professors. An American history major, she was a President Bryan Scholar and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. I did receive a great education, she says. Over the past decade, Shainwald reconnected with her alma mater. Gerald Bullock M. Ed. 97, now the executive director of development for arts and sciences, met with her in 2010 when he was working as an advancement officer in the Northeast region. Two years later, she returned to campus for the first time since graduating in 1948 to attend Charter Day events in 2012. During that visit, Bullock introduced her to Douglas and law professor emerita Jayne Barnard. She has since returned multiple times to speak at the school, and she established the Shainwald Immigration Law Clinic Fund. She became very devoted to our law students, says Douglas, who is stepping down as dean at the end of June to return to the faculty. When the students heard her biography, they were amazed. They would just huddle around her. It was clear that the students were mesmerized by her. Barnard says that Shainwald often shared meals with students working on the W&M Journal of Race, Gender and Social Justice, and has maintained relationships with many of them as theyve moved on into their careers. Even though she did not attend William & Mary Law School, shes made it and the Journal part of her life, Barnard says. Weve been so lucky she adopted us. In addition to receiving her honorary degree during William & Marys 2019 Commencement, Shainwald was inducted in 2012 into W&Ms Eta Circle of Omicron Delta Kappa, a leadership honor society for which she was ineligible in the 1940s because membership was reserved for men. Her latest visit to campus was in February for Charter Day Weekend and induction into the James Blair Society, which recognizes donors who have made cumulative gifts of $1 million or more to the university. Now, Shainwald has another connection to strengthen her bond with William & Mary: Her granddaughter, Emma Shainwald 20, graduated in May with a degree in Asian Pacific Islander American Studies, with honors. Like her grandmother, Emma has worked to promote inclusivity at William & Mary. During a May 1 online ceremony, she received the Center for Student Diversitys Ernestine Jackson Award for Cross Cultural Understanding. The award recognizes her efforts to build positive relationships between all members of the W&M community. When asked what advice she would offer young women, Sybil Shainwald responds: Go to law school. What Im interested in is making peoples lives better, she says. I like history a lot, but I thought I could make a difference by being a lawyer. Through the Shainwald Collection at the Muscarelle, shell have yet another way to make a difference for generations to come. The art can be used to support study programs in a variety of departments, stretching beyond art and art history to talk about gender, psychology and other academic fields of inquiry, Brashear says. Thats how a university museum can have an even greater impact, because it sits so perfectly in the intersection between the art world and the academic world. Iyad al-Halak A 32-year-old Palestinian man with special needs has died after he was shot by border police while on his way to his special needs school. The death of Iyad al-Halak has sparked outrage. He was killed on Saturday, May 30, in east Jerusalem, Isreal Police said in a statement. According to the statement, police officers who were stationed near Jerusalems Lions Gate noticed a young man holding a suspicious object that they said looked like a gun, and told him to stop. However, the man began to flee. Border Police were called by Jerusalem policemen to help them chase the man on foot. During the chase, two of the border policemen fired at him, resulting in his death. After the chase, police searched the area for the suspicious object, which was allegedly in the mans hand, but found nothing. Following the incident, the gates to the Old City were closed by Jerusalem police, in fear of protests. According to The Jerusalem Post, the initial investigation by the Police Investigation Department revealed that one of the border patrol officers shot towards Iyads lower body during the chase, but missed, and the other shot him after their pursuit reached a dead end alleyway. The two are being investigated on suspicion of causing death by negligence. The two border policemen laid the blame for the misunderstanding on the Jerusalem police officers who initiated the chase. They claimed that the blue cops who had started the pursuit had told them that it was a terrorist and that they were convinced that the fugitive Palestinian was indeed planning to carry out an attack, the publication added. One of the border police officers suspected of shooting Halak was released later Saturday afternoon and placed on house arrest, according to The Jerusalem Posts sister publication Maariv. The lawyer of the deceased, Gad Kadmani, said: This is a murder, and this is not the first time this has happened. The case needs to be thoroughly investigated. Eight bullets were fired at him, there are cameras that recorded everything. The Israel Police Department released a statement later on Saturday in reaction to the incident. Unfortunately, we have witnessed blatant and irresponsible generalizations from public and government figures on both police and the Border Police who work day and night for the safety and security of all Israeli civilians. The role and mission of police forces in Jerusalem, and especially the Old City, is a complex task, and involves complex decision making, sacrifice and risking of ones life, Israel Police wrote in a press release in response to the shooting. In the past few years, including recently, we have witnessed a number of brutal attempts to harm and kill police and Border Police in the Old City and its surrounding areas. Although most of these attacks were unsuccessful, due to the alertness of the police and their quick and professional responses, some of those attempts were successful and took lives, the Police added. This mornings case was transferred to the Department of Police Investigations to be examined and investigated. It is appropriate to wait for the results of the investigations findings before drawing any conclusions, and to avoid the ugliness and wrongful outbursts of commentary on those who put protecting the citizens of Israel in front of the their own lives. SmartAC.com, a local tech startup, emerged Tuesday from stealth mode with $10 million in venture funding and a product thats very Houston: It monitors the health of home AC systems, alerting customers via smartphone if the house is about to lose its cool. Josh Teekell, the founder and chief executive who has owned a home services company since 2009, said he knows the pain points about air conditioning systems and set out to create a smart-home product that alerts homeowners to early warning signs that could signal full-blown breakdown. Most people dont think about their AC system until it breaks, Teekell said. That creates a big demand for repairs when the hottest day of the year comes. We spent a long time researching what data points would be necessary to address problems in advance. THINK SIMPLE: How to turn your house into a smart home Most of the $10 million came from Houston investors whom Teekell declined to name, saying only that many were high-wealth individuals who work in the oil and gas industry. He declined to say what value the round assigned to the business. They are all homeowners, and they have all had problems with their own AC systems, he said. They got it right away. The SmartAC.com product consists of three sensors attached to a different component of an air conditioning system that talk to a central hub via WiFi or Ethernet to a home router. One sensor is placed behind the AC filter and senses air pressure. Another attaches to an air vent in the home to monitor the temperature of the cold air blowing into the home. The third sits in the drain pan to alert when it begins to collect water. The hardware costs $99, purchased on the companys website. For homeowners with two AC units, an additional set of sensors costs $59, and all talk to the single hub. The kit is mailed to users, who install it themselves, though Teekell said he has arrangements with some AC companies to provide installation service. The sensors feed the hub data constantly, and using artificial intelligence, the system determines a baseline performance. If the data change say, the chilled air isnt as cold or the air draw isnt as strong the user is alerted through a smartphone app. The cloud service is $5 a month and includes the ability to chat with a service technician via the app. The sensors and data can help with common problems, such as when to change an AC filter or when a drain line is clogged, which Teekell said is the top reason for AC technician service calls. The hardware is available to order today, and first shipments will go out June 12, Teekell said, adding he hopes to offer retail sales soon. WYZE SCALE: At $20, this scale is a great smart-home bargain The product was originally scheduled to launch at the South by Southwest festivals in Austin during March, but that event was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Analyst Mark Vena, who covers smart-home products for Austin-based Moor Insights & Strategy, said he was not aware of any other product exactly like SmartAC.com. If you have a solution that allows you to correct a situation proactively, thats great. Its better to know something is going to fail, rather than have it fail, Vena said. To do this for $99, its a no-brainer. But SmartAC.com may not be alone for long. In January, Google emailed owners of its Nest Learning Thermostats that it was testing a new feature to monitor the health of AC systems. Called HVAC alerts, the feature will send an email warning to a Nest owner if there appears to be an issue, such as taking too long to cool down a house or a room. Teekell said his product gathers more data to make its AC health determinations, calling Googles approach just a binary, on-and-off. Release Notes: Get Dwight Silvermans weekly tech newsletter in your inbox SmartAC.com began in 2018 and is Teekells second AC-related startup. He launched a product called Mistbox in 2013 that attached to the outside unit of a AC system and blew water mist into the condensers blades to make it run cooler. Teekell said he is in the process of sunsetting Mistbox, and SmartAC.com will be his primary venture. dwight.silverman@chron.com twitter.com/silverman houstonchronicle.com/techburger During the negotiations, the parties discussed bilateral military and technical cooperation. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says that most of allies support Ukraine's accession to NATO's Enhanced Opportunity Partnership (EOP) program. "We count on Germany's support in this direction. This is very important not only for Ukraine, but we are convinced that it is important for the Alliance's greater operability in general. The absolute majority of allies share this opinion. We are working to reach a consensus, because a decision on Ukraine's participation in NATO's Enhanced Opportunity Partnership program is based on consensus," he said on Facebook after a meeting of Ukrainian delegates with German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer in Berlin on June 2. Read alsoUkraine's Rada formalizes rescheduling of NATO PA session in Kyiv over COVID-19 During the negotiations, the parties discussed military and technical cooperation between Ukraine and Germany. "There are very serious plans the Defense Minister [of Ukraine Andriy Taran] has clearly articulated this," Kuleba said. According to him, Germany's Defense Minister assured the Ukrainian counterpart that Germany supports Ukraine's rapprochement with NATO. "She said the meeting allowed her to understand much better what had been happening in the east of Ukraine, what the security situation was like there," Kuleba said. "The statement that Germany will support the rapprochement of Ukraine with NATO was very clear." Kuleba, as well as the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories Oleksiy Reznikov, Defense Minister Andriy Taran, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Ihor Zhovkva and other officials were on a working visit in Germany on June 2. As was reported, the Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly said they hope Ukraine will be granted EOP status in October 2020. Five people including a 15-year-old girl have died from a fresh Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organisation said on Monday. The DRC government made the announcement just weeks before the country was expected to be declared Ebola-free. The new outbreak occurred in Wangata health zone, Mbandaka, in Equateur province at the North-west part of the country. Nine cases have so far been reported in total. The last outbreak in the eastern part of the country was the worlds second largest Ebola epidemic on record, with more than 2200 lives lost and 3400 confirmed infections since the outbreak was declared on August 1, 2018. The outbreak occurred in North Kivu and Ituri provinces. This time around, the outbreak is affecting the North-west part of the country and is its 11th outbreak since the virus was first discovered in the country in 1976. The city of Mbandaka and its surrounding area were the sites of the outbreak, which took place from May to July 2018. With the newest outbreak, the country is also battling the worlds largest measles outbreak and the ongoing COVID-19 which is ravaging almost all the countries in the world. The DRC has recorded 3,195 coronavirus infections and 72 deaths. Fresh outbreak WHO said according to the countrys health ministry, six Ebola cases have so far been detected in Wangata, of which four have died and two are alive and under care. Three of these six cases have been confirmed with laboratory testing. It is likely more people will be identified with the disease as surveillance activities increase, it stated. The WHO chief, Tedros Ghebreyesus, said that the resurgence of Ebola in the country is a reminder that COVID-19 is not the only health threat people face. Although much of our attention is on the pandemic, WHO is continuing to monitor and respond to many other health emergencies, he said. Mr Ghebreyesus had tweeted on his twitter handle @DrTedros, the news that six cases had been reported in Mbandaka, in the countrys North-west Equateur province. Its the countrys 11th outbreak of the potentially deadly virus, which is passed by bodily fluids and has a fatality rate of anywhere between 25% and 90%, depending on the outbreak. READ ALSO: Also, the Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, said that the fresh outbreak is happening at a challenging time. Ms Moeti said there is a need to reinforce local leadership, and that WHO plans to send a team to support the response. Given the proximity of this new outbreak to busy transport routes and vulnerable neighbouring countries we must act quickly. WHO has worked over the last two years with health authorities, Africa CDC and other partners to strengthen national capacity to respond to outbreaks, she said. Ms Moeti said WHO is already on the ground in Mbandaka supporting the response to this outbreak, as part of capacity built during the 2018 outbreak. The team supported the collection and testing of samples, and reference to the national laboratory for confirmation. Contact tracing is underway. Work is ongoing to send additional supplies from North Kivu and from Kinshasa to support the government-led response. A further 25 people are expected to arrive in Mbandaka tomorrow. WHO is also working to ensure that essential health services are provided to communities despite these emergency events, she added. Setback The DRC is still struggling to end the 10th Ebola outbreak that occurred in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces, since August 2018. Advertisements On May 14, the Ministry of Health began the 42-day countdown to the declaration of the end of that outbreak. There has been no new case in the eastern region in the past 21 days. However, WHO recommends 42-day wait before declaring the disease over because the incubation period for the virus is 21 days. However, new outbreaks of Ebola are expected in the DRC given the existence of the virus in animal reservoirs in many parts of the country. A white police officer from Louisville, Kentucky who was involved in the fatal shooting of West End business owner David McAtee had earlier celebrated on Facebook when a protester was shot by pepper balls. Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) Officer Katie Crews was placed on administrative reassignment on Monday after the fatal shooting of McAtee, 53, who was black and owned YaYa's BBQ in western Louisville, and was known fondly by locals as 'The BBQ man'. None of the officers who opened fire on McAtee had their body cameras activated. On Facebook, Crews posted a screenshot of a photograph in the Courier Journal which showed a protester in front of her while she stood in a line of other police officers, offering her a flower. In the post, the officer wrote 'I hope the pepper balls that she got lit up with a little later on hurt. Come back and get ya some more ole girl [sic], I'll be on the line again tonight.' A screenshot of her post was shared widely on social media. Left: Sharing a picture taken by the Courier Journal of herself, Katie Crews (pictured being offered a flower by the protester) said she hoped the protester was hurt by pepper balls. Right: Katie Crews of the LMPD has been placed on administrative reassignment 'She was saying and doing a lot more than "offering flowers" to me. Just so for it to be known,' Crews also wrote in her post. 'For anyone that knows me and knows that facial expression tells everything.' Early on Monday morning, McAtee was shot dead by police or the National Guard after they were reportedly fired upon having been dispatched to disperse a crowd at Dino's Food Mart on 26th Street and Broadway in Louisville. McAtee was among hundreds of people who had gathered there, and LMPD Chief Steve Conrad said that officers and troops 'returned fire' at the group, killing McAtee, whose BBQ business operated next to the Food Mart parking lot. At 12.15am Louisville police and the National Guard were sent to break up a crowd of protesters at a parking lot and 'returned fire' after someone shot at them, and ended up killing David McAtee (above), 53-year-old black man who owned YaYa's BBQ in western Louisville McAtee's mother, Odessa Riley, said: 'He left a great legend behind. He was a good person. Everybody around him would say that. My son didn't hurt nobody. He didn't do nothing to nobody.' She said her son even had a good relationship with police and would give law enforcement officers free meals. 'He fed them free. He fed the police and didnt charge them nothing,' she said. While it was unclear who killed McAtee, Katie Crews and another officer, Allen Austin, were the two officers who returned fire. Neither had their body cameras activated. The identity of the shooter in the crowd is still unnown and under investigation. Following the incident, Mayor Greg Fischer announced on Monday afternoon that there was no bodycam footage from the officers involved in the incident, despite his order following the death of Breonna Taylor that all officers would activate them. For this reason, Fischer fired police chief Steve Conrad, and both Crews and Austin have been put on administrative reassignment pending further investigations into the incident. 'This type of institutional failure will not be tolerated,' Fischer said. Conrad was slated to retire on July 1. The new LMPD Chief Robert Schroeder said on Monday night that he is aware of Crews' Facebook post and has opened a professional standards investigation into it. Crews reportedly joined the LMPD in 2018, and according to the Courier Journal does not have any disciplinary records. Surveillance footage and police radio transmissions were released by the LMPF on Monday but didnt provide answers in the incident. More footage from the incident will be released. Mayor Greg Fischer shared this statement mourning the death of David McAtee Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear condemned the incident in a statement Monday morning saying: 'LMPD and the Kentucky National Guard returned fire resulting in death' and that he has asked the Kentucky State Police to independently investigate the shooting. At his morning pres conference Beshear called on authorities to release body camera footage and was outraged to learn there was none. Now he hopes for cell phone or other citizen video of the confrontation to emerge. 'I believe the people of Kentucky deserve to see it for themselves,' he said. Officials havent said if the crowd in the parking lot of Dinos Food Mart consisted of protesters or customers. The gathering came after the 9pm curfew in Louisville. Protests took place in Louisville over the weekend to denounce the death of black man George Floyd, who died last week after a white police officer in Minneapolis kept a knee on his neck for over eight minutes in a disturbing video that has sent shock waves across the country. A Louisville Metro Police officer during a protest against the deaths of Breonna Taylor by Louisville police and George Floyd by Minneapolis police in Louisville, Kentucky on Sunday night Louisville police officers had been ordered to keep their bodycams activated following the police killing of 26-year-old black EMT Breonna Taylor (above) in March during a botch drug raid Protesters also decried the police killing of Breonna Taylor. Taylor's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit claiming that she and her boyfriend thought their home was being broken into when officers entered without knocking. Her boyfriend shot at officers because they didn't identify themselves and in turn Taylor was shot eight times in her bed. On Sunday night alone more than 40 people were arrested marking the citys fourth consecutive night of protests in Louisville. On Thursday seven people were shot in the city during protests that took a violence turn. Officers were not involved in those shootings, Police Sgt. Lamont Washington said at the time, as per NBC. Late Monday a crowd gathered at the parking lot in front of McAtees shop to mourn together. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer arrived after 11am and was seen hugging and consoling McAtees mother. The Sudanese army has for the first time publicly accused the Ethiopian army of supporting Ethiopian militias that have invaded Sudan and clashed with the Sudanese army. The accusation combined with the warning that Khartoum will keep all options open if Ethiopian violations continue is a clear sign that Sudan has come to the end of its tether over the long-standing crisis over a border area where some 1,800 Ethiopian farmers seized about a million acres of fertile agricultural land and drove out local Sudanese farmers with the help of Ethiopian militias. On Thursday, 28 May, a Sudanese military spokesman announced that Ethiopian militias supported by the Ethiopian army continued their assault against Sudanese land and resources. The Ethiopian forces withdrew later that day. The following day the spokesman told Al-Arabiya news channel that a precarious calm prevailed at the border, and then said: All options are open if the Ethiopian aggression persist... We have sent reinforcements to the border to prevent any violations. The involvement of the Ethiopian armed forces in the recent assaults was evident. The warning was occasioned by renewed tensions in Al-Fashqa, a border region in the Sudanese state of Al-Qadarif. On Thursday, Ethiopian militias infiltrated across the border, attacked agricultural projects in the vicinity of Birkat Nourein and Al-Fursan village and clashed with Sudanese military forces there. A Sudanese officer and a child were killed and nine soldiers and civilians were wounded in the fighting. A week earlier, Sudanese Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Omar Qamar Al-Din said: There are 1,786 Ethiopian farmers on Sudanese land... We have agreed with the Ethiopians that the joint border demarcation committee should start installing border demarcations in October and complete the work in March 2021. In 2016, Mirghani Saleh, the governor of Al-Qadarif, complained that Ethiopia had seized more than a million acres of Sudanese land in Al-Fashqa and that the area had been completely cut off from Sudan. The approximately 250 square kilometres area is reputed for its large expanses of fertile land. Generally, the sowing and harvesting seasons experience the most frequent border infiltrations and assaults from outlaw Ethiopian militias that refuse to abide by the terms of any agreements between Addis Ababa and Khartoum. Although Ethiopia has officially recognised Sudanese sovereignty over Al-Fashqa in accordance with an agreement signed between Emperor Menelik II and the British in 1902, a subsequent protocol in 1903 and a bilateral agreement with Khartoum in 1972, Ethiopian farmers have refused to leave the area into which they infiltrated in 1957. They also effaced some of the border demarcations, built a village they called Barecht, and turned the Sudanese village of Al-Jamama into a city of their own. They then seized the whole of Al-Fashqa Minor and established 70 agricultural projects in Al-Fashqa Major. Their designs were aided by the fact that successive Sudanese governments were preoccupied by the rebel movement in southern Sudan and by Sudanese reluctance to act against the farmers, as a token of gratitude to Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie who was instrumental in brokering the 1972 agreement that brought the rebellion to an end. Meanwhile, the farmers themselves were encouraged by an earlier agreement signed between Khartoum and Addis Ababa in 1965 which gave Ethiopian farmers permission to continue working the land in Al-Fashqa until the border demarcation was complete. The situation took a dangerous turn in 1993 when Ethiopian forces intervened to protect its farmers who had encroached on some 55,000 acres of land that had been allocated to Sudanese farmers. In 1994, Khartoum and Addis Ababa worked out an agreement to distribute the land in that area between Sudanese and Ethiopian farmers, allocating two-thirds of it to the former. As the agreement prohibited national military forces from intervening in disputes that erupted between the Ethiopian and Sudanese farmers, the latter were left at the mercy of militia gangs. But Ethiopian armed forces did intervene on behalf of the Ethiopian farmers as well, especially during the period following the assassination attempt against Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa which precipitated severe strains in Addiss relations with Khartoum. Although Ethiopia officially recognised Sudanese sovereignty over Al-Fashqa, it took no serious measures to proceed with the border demarcation process and it continued to furnish protection to Ethiopian farmers there. Then, in 2013, the border demarcation committee suspended its activities. In April this year, following a visit to Khartoum, the Ethiopian Chief-of-Staffs Lieutenant General Adam Mohamed Mahmoud said that talks with Sudanese officials covered border issues, including fighting cross-border crime, smuggling and human trafficking. An Ethiopian source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the visit also dealt with the dispute over Al-Fashqa, which forces affiliated with the Ethiopian Amhara Region had seized from Sudanese farmers during the era of ousted Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir. According to the source, the Ethiopian chief-of-staffs and Sudanese officials agreed on a plan that called for the armed forces to withdraw to their international borders within two weeks and for the border demarcation committee to begin installing border signs immediately. Sudan and Ethiopia are both eager to keep rising tensions contained, especially since last weeks armed clashes. Sudan needs Ethiopia for many reasons, not least of which is its electricity requirements. Sudan suffers a 40 per cent deficit in electricity production and is looking forward to meeting its needs from GERD. Khartoum is also keen to sustain good relations with Addis Ababa to ensure that the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) does not receive assistance that will strengthen its power in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan states, both of which are adjacent to Ethiopia. Ethiopia, for its part, needs to remain on good terms with Khartoum in order to maintain easy access to Sudanese ports on the Red Sea and to prevent assistance from reaching the Oromo Liberation Front with its agenda for autonomous rule, if not secession from the Amhara dominated government. Under former Sudanese president Al-Bashir, Khartoum signed an agreement with former prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn that would grant Sudan electricity at preferential prices. Work on the electricity linkup has actually begun. Informed sources revealed that Khartoum, at the time, had approved the Ethiopian request to rent Sudanese land for the purposes of constructing a river port to facilitate riparian freight transport. A more important development towards cementing the bond between the two countries was revealed by informed sources in Khartoum in late December 2015. It involved preparations for what the sources described as the largest joint agricultural project in Africa to be carried out in the vicinity of Sudanese border villages of Al-Qallabat and Al-Qadarif. It was hoped that this would end the problem of Ethiopian tribes moving in to take over these fertile areas every autumn. The Sudanese state of Al-Qadarif occupies 265 kilometres of Sudans 902-kilometre-long border with Ethiopia. Evidently there have been mounting complaints from Sudanese citizens in the area that Ethiopian farmers were encroaching on their land, expelling them from their homes and plundering their possessions with the aid of Ethiopian militias. The complaints have roused considerable concern in Khartoum, including the Sudanese parliament which demanded the deployment of Sudanese forces along the border and an acceleration in the border demarcation process. The Sudanese are impatiently looking forward to the completion of the border demarcation process in March 2021. But their hopes might be in vein if Addis decides to use that process as a means to blackmail Khartoum into paying excessive compensation to Ethiopian farmers or to compel the Sudanese government to side with Addis Ababa in the negotiations over GERD and to refuse to sign the draft agreement that Egypt had initialled in Washington in February. A recent remark by the Sudanese military spokesman indicates that officials in Khartoum are wary of just such a scenario. He said: The Ethiopians are dragging their feet on the border demarcation. But we continue to adhere to the peaceful solution... There are Ethiopian construction activities in Sudanese territory and ongoing attacks. *A version of this article appears in print in the 4 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: For the third straight day, Midland County recorded no new cases of coronavirus, leaving its count at 82 cases and eight deaths, according to the afternoon state report. Bay County added five cases, bringing its total to 317 cases and 24 deaths. Isabella County added one new case and Gladwin County added none; their totals are 78 cases and seven deaths and 18 cases and one death, respectively. Saginaw County added two cases and one death, bringing its total to 1,050 cases and 109 deaths. MidMichigan Health which covers a 23-county region and has medical centers at seven sites, including Midland was listed as having 26 COVID-19 patients on the state page, defined by the state as confirmed positive patients, including those in ICU and patients who are currently pending and under investigation. The health system reported one COVID-19 patient in ICU and 44% bed occupancy, the percentage of staffed inpatient beds occupied by any patient regardless of COVID-19 status. This data, according to the website, reflects the status in health systems and hospitals 48 hours prior to the time that it was posted to the state page, which was June 1. The state added 199 new cases and 37 deaths; 11 of those were from reviews of death records. Overall, Michigan is at 57,731 cases and 5,553 deaths. The average death age is 75.4, according to the state website, mich.gov, with the deceased ranging in age from 5 to 107. The state lists 42% of the deceased as 80-plus and 27% age 70-79. State statistics show 53% of coronavirus deaths are male and 47% are female. The state lists the total recovered at 38,099 cases, as of May 29, which represents COVID-19 confirmed individuals with an onset date on or prior to April 29, 2020, according to the state website, mich.gov. The numbers will be updated every Saturday. The state lists the majority of races in positive cases as 31% Black/African American; 37% Caucasian and 16% unknown, and the top three races in deaths as 40% Black/African American; 51% Caucasian and 4% unknown The total positive cases are 47% men and 52% women. Midland County Department of Public Health continues to encourage residents to take precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19: Continue to practice social distancing as recommended by federal, state and local officials Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash Disinfect commonly touched surfaces Stay home when you are sick Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water are not readily available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol. We cannot stress enough how important it is for our community to be diligent in their community mitigation efforts," said Fred Yanoski, Midland County Public Health director/health officer. "We know that COVID-19 is in our community, and our residents can make a huge impact on slowing the spread of disease by following the recommended precautions." If you think you've been exposed to COVID-19 and develop a fever and symptoms such as cough or difficulty breathing, call your health care provider for medical advice. If he/she isn't available call MidMichigan Urgent Care in Midland at 989- 633-1350 or MidMichigan Medical Center's Emergency Department in Midland at 989-839-3100. MidMichigan Health has a COVID-19 informational hotline with a reminder of CDC guidelines and recommendations. The hotline can be reached toll-free at 800-445-7356 or 989-794-7600. Michigan Department of Health and Human Services also has a hotline number for Michigan residents for questions about COVID-19. The number is 1-888-535-6136 and is available seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Residents can also send an e-mail to: COVID19@michigan.gov. E-mails will be answered seven days a week between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. If you are feeling anxious, stressed, depressed and feel you need to talk to someone, reach out to Community Mental Health for Central Michigan by calling 800-317-0708. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen attended the launch ceremony of an indigenously developed 4000-tonne patrol vessel on June 2 amid rising threat from China. Ing-wen said that the offshore patrol vessel will provide an advanced frigate to Coast Guard to help protect Taiwan while providing humanitarian assistance. I was proud to attend the launch ceremony today for #Taiwans first domestically developed 4,000-tonne offshore patrol vessel. This gives our Coast Guard an advanced, fully equipped frigate that will help protect the nation & provide humanitarian assistance on the high seas. pic.twitter.com/E74GyNwlvy Tsai Ing-wen (@iingwen) June 2, 2020 Beijing has become more assertive on the reunification of Taiwan with China under one country, two systems which has threatened Taiwans claim of sovereignty. Taiwan considers itself as sovereign while China claims the province as Beijings territory under its one-China policy and has been pushing to implement the Hong Kong system in the self-governing island. Last week, Taiwan revealed that it is planning to buy Harpoon anti-ship missiles from the United States to deal with the Chinese threat. Deputy Defence Minister Chang Che-ping told the parliament that Taiwan, as part of its military modernisation efforts, plans to purchase land-based Boeing-made Harpoon missile which will serve as a coastal defence cruise missile. In recent months, China and the United States have increased their military activities near Taiwan which the later calls ordinary mission. The strait has been witnessing regular US sailings since Washington has emerged as a strong supporter of Taiwans inclusion on international platforms. Read: Taiwan To Devise Settlement Plan For Hongkongers Fleeing Security Law Crackdown US arms Sale On May 20, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible arms sale to Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO). The agency said that the sale includes 18 MK-48 Mod6 Advanced Technology (AT) Heavy Weight Torpedoes (HWT) and related equipment for an estimated cost of $180 million. China had expressed strong dissatisfaction and opposed the proposal saying the US should immediately stop arms sales to Taiwan and cease military contacts. Wu Qian, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense said during a news conference that the Chinese People's Liberation Army will resolutely safeguard the country's national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Read: China Declares War On 'problematic Maps'; Targets Taiwan Amid Larger Aggressive Posturing WASHINGTON - The State Department inspector general who was fired last month amid an investigation into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's conduct will be interviewed Wednesday by lawmakers probing his dismissal. The ousted watchdog, Steve Linick, will appear in a virtual interview before members and staff of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, according to an aide working on the investigation. The virtual arrangement will accommodate members who are not in Washington and follows coronavirus social distancing guidance. Democrats have said they are expanding their investigation into Linick's firing as they try to learn more about the sidelining of independent watchdogs in several agencies. The investigation is being led by Rep. Eliot Engel, head of the foreign affairs committee; Rep. Carolyn Maloney, chair of the oversight committee; and New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Republicans on those panels will be permitted to pose questions to Linick, and a transcript will be made public soon afterward. Pompeo has acknowledged that he asked President Trump to oust Linick, who was abruptly fired on the night of May 15. But Pompeo has denied it was an act of retaliation and said he did not know about investigations into allegations about his potential abuse of power. Linick was looking into complaints Pompeo asked a low-level political appointee to run personal errands, including walking his dog, Sherman, and into travel expenses paid by the State Department when Susan Pompeo accompanied her husband on trips abroad. In addition, lawmakers had asked Linick to look into the State Department's role in sidestepping Congress to approve a multibillion dollar arms sale to Saudi Arabia. Pompeo has conceded he was aware of the probe, because he provided written answers to questions about the transaction. The committees also have asked to interview Undersecretary of State for Management Brian Bulatao, who was a classmate of Pompeo's at the U.S. Military Academy, and Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs Clarke Cooper, acting State Department legal adviser Marik String and Lisa Kenna, Pompeo's executive secretary. Pompeo has declined to provide specifics on why he asked Trump to fire Linick, beyond saying that Linick was pursuing investigations into policies he disagreed with and was not doing enough to make the State Department function "better." Bulatao, one of Pompeo's closest aides, has said they were concerned about leaks of ongoing investigations suspected of coming from Linick's office, though they have not presented evidence showing Linick was responsible. Pompeo also was unhappy Linick was not supportive of Pompeo's "ethos statement" - a general declaration of elementary principles, including respect for co-workers, the American people and democracy - and refused to actively participate on a team directing the State Department response to the coronavirus pandemic. "I frankly should have done it some time ago," Pompeo said of firing Linick. A former assistant U.S. attorney who investigated corruption and white collar crime, Linick had a reputation of bringing a more prosecutorial mind-set to the watchdog role of inspectors general than some of his predecessors. Linick irritated Pompeo when he produced reports documenting political appointees retaliating against career public servants whose loyalty to Trump and the White House agenda was improperly questioned. Linick, who has been an inspector general under three secretaries of state, technically remains in the job until mid-June, because the law requires congressional notification 30 days in advance. But in practice, he has not been in the building since he was dismissed. Linick was immediately replaced by acting inspector general by Stephen Akard, a political appointee who worked on economic development for Indiana when Vice President Pence was governor. Akard will maintain in his position as director general of the Foreign Service, raising potential conflict of interest concerns because he still works for the agency he is assigned to monitor as a watchdog. The two companies came to a partnership as part of the partners program launched by CommBox to drive more potential partners to sign up to its partners program. The program flexible terms and conditions were of the main reasons for the quick deal to close only after several meetings. Ingenia has joined the CommBox partners program as it searched for technology partner to transform the way its customers are conducting businesses by providing omnichannel customer communications powered by AI and chatbots that work in a complete harmony with live agents. Moreover, it also needed the solution to support its customer base language - Spanish. CommBox is the leader in transforming contact centers and CRM systems to become fully omnichannel with AI capabilities to work in all communication channels and its currently supporting over 22 different languages, Spanish being among them. The major reason that Ingenia decided to join the CommBox partners program was the fact that building an omnichannel platform from scratch is time-consuming. In todays rapidly changing world, they must keep up with the pace and the evolving customer expectations! With CommBox, you get an out of the box omnichannel platform that can integrate into your existing business software. Its advanced and flexible, therefore capable of meeting a variety of needs, no matter what industry you work in or who your customers are. CommBox Head of Partnerships Lynn Kalman clarified that: Currently there are some of the worlds great businesses that use CommBox to bring world-class customer service. This list also includes partnerships we have with leading software providers which showcases the integration potential of our platform. Were always looking for great businesses to partner with throughout the partnership program, whether its to bring new communication tools and advanced automation features to our clients and their customers, or whether its to bring CommBox omnichannel and AI capabilities to the businesses that need it the most! The CommBox partners program is rapidly growing across the globe giving the ultimate solution for contact centers, CRM software, and integrators by bringing an improved concept to support its vision to become the first autonomous communication center supported by live agents. Rampur : , June 2 (IANS) The parents of a nine-month-old baby boy, who was abandoned at AIIMS Delhi when he was found to be Corona positive after his death, have been traced to Rampur and quarantined. Rampur chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Subodh Sharma, said that the samples of the baby for Coronavirus tests were collected a few days before he died on May 29 due to brain tumour. "As the report confirmed him positive after the death, his parents made a written submission before the AIIMS authorities, stating that they did not want the body of their son, following which officials cremated the body," the CMO said. However, the AIIMS authorities informed the Rampur administration about the matter and the baby's parents were traced to Bhainsori Shareef village and have been quarantined along with doctors and staff of a Rampur-based nursing home where the child was undergoing treatment before leaving for Delhi. Rampur district magistrate Aunjaneya Kumar Singh said, "AIIMS officials informed me over the phone that a nine-month-old boy from Rampur district had died at the hospital due to brain tumour before he could be operated upon. The parents, however, returned to Rampur leaving behind the body of their son when the report confirmed him Corona positive." The district magistrate said that he had ordered the sealing of the nursing home where the baby had been treated and the doctors and staff have been quarantined. Their samples are being sent for Corona tests. The CMO said that though the parents said that they had tested negative for Corona at AIIMS, they have been quarantined and their samples will be tested again. Hari Raya Aidilfitri in Malay marks the end of the month of Ramadhan and the beginning of the month of Syawal in the Islamic Calendar. A number of ambassadors have celebrated Hari Raya Aidilfitri which is the Festival of the Breaking of the Fast, a canonical festival of Islam, in Hanoi on Saturday. Ambassador of Malaysia to Vietnam Dato Shariffah Norhana Syed Mustaffa (5th from left) celebrates the festival with ambassadors of Canada, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, New Zealand, Cuba. Photo: Embassy of Malaysia in Vietnam Hosted by Ambassador of Malaysia to Vietnam, Dato Shariffah Norhana Syed Mustaffa, at the ambassadors residence in Tay Ho district, Hanoi, the Open House marked the attendance of ambassadors from all 10 ASEAN countries and other nations including Canada, Denmark, New Zealand, Uruguay, Cuba, Palestine, India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. The event was also attended by members of the Malaysian diaspora residing in Vietnam, according to the Embassy of Malaysia in Vietnam. Guests were served popular Malaysian traditional dishes, such as Nasi Lemak, Rendang, Sate, Ketupat and Char Kuey Teow. On top of that, popular Malaysian beverages such as Teh Tarik (Malaysian pulled milk tea) and Ais Kacang (shaved ice dessert) were also served. The Hari Raya Open House is an annual event hosted by the Malaysian ambassador. In the past, the event was held in a larger scale. In 2020, however, amid concerns over the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of guests was reduced, and all guests were required to pass a health-screening prior to attending the event. Ambassador of Malaysia to Vietnam Dato Shariffah Norhana Syed Mustaffa and the embassy staff at the celebration. Photo: Embassy of Malaysia in Vietnam The Hari Raya Aidilfitri marks the end of the month of Ramadan and the beginning of the month of Syawal in the Islamic Calendar. During the month of Syawal, Muslims in Malaysia would open the doors to their homes to welcome family members, loved ones, friends and visitors, bringing together all people irrespective of race, culture and religion to celebrate. The open house concept is prevalent in Malaysian culture, especially, during major festivals and celebrations observed by other major ethnicities in Malaysia such as Chinese New Year, Deepavali and Christmas. During Ramadhan, all Muslims must fast without food and water during daylight hours, usually for 29 or 30 days, and abstain from all worldly indulgences and vices. Because the Islamic Calendar uses the lunar cycle to determine important days, Ramadhan and Syawal occur in different months in the Gregorian calendar each year. While observing the fast, indulgence of any sort, like food, drink, or sexual activities, is forbidden. However, the sick and infirmed, and pregnant women, may be excused from fasting. Notwithstanding, they will need to replace the days of fasting they have missed before Ramadan takes place in the following year. According to Washington-based Pew Research Center, the number of Muslims is expected to increase by 70% from 1.8 billion in 2015 to nearly 3 billion in 2060. In 2015, Muslims made up 24.1% of the global population and might account for 31.1% of the worlds people. The Muslim community in Malaysia is roughly 16.3 million or 61.3% of the countrys total population. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to remain the home of a majority of the worlds Muslims. Hanoitimes Linh Pham BUFFALO Two law enforcement officers were hit by a vehicle, two people were shot and police fired pepper balls at protesters Monday night over about a 90-minute period near the Northeast District police station. A Buffalo police officer and a state trooper were hit by a car at about 9:40 p.m. in the vicinity of the station on Bailey Avenue near where protesters had gathered, two law enforcement sources said. Police have taken three people into custody, the sources said. Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz tweeted he believed the vehicle's driver and passengers were in police custody. Buffalo police are urging the public to avoid the area. The officers were seriously injured and taken to Erie County Medical Center, where they were listed in stable condition, Buffalo police spokesman Michael DeGeorge said. The trooper's injuries were not considered life-threatening, the State Police posted on Twitter. A video posted on Facebook Monday night by a former Buffalo police officer shows an SUV driving into a line of police officers. The incident happens close to the 10-minute mark in the video. A video tweeted by @YousefNH2 also shows the SUV drive towards the officers, hit them and then drive away. The incident happened after Buffalo police deployed pepper balls in dealing with protesters gathered outside the station, Capt. Jeff Rinaldo said. Just before 9 p.m. Monday, police used loudspeakers to ask the crowd to leave the area around the station on Bailey Avenue, a WIVB-TV reporter posted on Twitter. Some people started to throw rocks and water bottles in the direction of the police and officers started making arrests, the reporter posted on Twitter. A short time after 9 p.m., an ambulance was dispatched to treat a police officer who suffered minor injuries during the exchange, Rinaldo said. Protesters also broke a window of a police vehicle, he reported. At about 9:40 p.m., police and fire department radio transmissions indicated ambulances and firefighters were called for the report of multiple officers struck by a vehicle near Bailey and Connelly avenues. Just before 10 p.m., fire department radio transmissions indicated two people with gunshot wounds were being taken from Connelly Avenue to a hospital. Mayor Byron Brown told WGRZ-TV that the two people shot were in the SUV that ran over the police officers. One of the two was in surgery at ECMC, Brown told the station. A third person in the vehicle is in custody. The people responsible "are not at large," the mayor told the station. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 1 Angry 0 A researcher from the School of Physics contributed to a Belgian-led effort to develop open-source Covid-19 ventilators made from automotive components, to support hospitals during the peak of the coronavirus outbreak. Dr Yannick Verbelen, a Research Associate in the Interface Analysis Centre and the South West Nuclear Hub, worked with Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)s FabLab who coordinated the project between academic and industrial organisations. In particular, the team was able to secure the support of Audi Brussels, with 50 ventilators being produced on their production line in early April. Other major contributors were Mazda, Renault, Mercedes-Benz, Ford and Volvo to name just a few. The project focused on using parts from the automotive industry in order to avoid depleting valuable supplies of medical equipment. With manufacturing capability strongly hit by coronavirus lockdowns, several companies provided parts such as windscreen wiper engines and electronic components for free. The teams initial aim was to design and build 10 industrial quality ventilators which could operate for at least one week. They used open source technology such as They used open source technology such as the Arduino ecosystem and rapid prototyping methods including 3D printing, CNC milling, and lasercutting. The project has also been an excellent example of agile working and organisation, with members of the team spread across several countries and institutions. Talking about the project, Dr Verbelen said: With time as our greatest enemy, making car parts and medical electronics talk to each in a race against the clock proved to be a formidable challenge. The unprecedented urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic inspired the team to overcome the practical and logistical limitations of the lockdown. Efficient collaboration enabled us to design and prototype high end electronic circuit boards within 15 days, a process that normally takes months. Whilst initially focused on helping met Belgian demand for ventilators, the project team is now investigating possible deployment in Italy, Canada, Brazil and India. Fortunately, the ventilators were not required in Belgium as demand was not as high as anticipated, but the work continues should demand rise domestically or abroad in the future. MINNEAPOLIS, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, at the beginning of Gay Pride Month, John Mason made Minnesota history by officially entering the Democratic (DFL) Primary against sitting Representative Ilhan Omar in Minnesota. "During this especially turbulent time in our history, I am running because we need leadership who will actually make change that can be enacted into law. We need someone who will represent all of the people of my district. I am running to bring forth a united and inclusive Minnesota that stands up against all forms of hate and discrimination including racism, anti-Semitism, and homophobia. In politics, who you are matters as much as what you stand for. Representation Matters," said Mason. John Mason "Rep. Omar has failed to represent all of her constituents. Her peers in the US House of Representatives admonished her last year when Omar made anti-Semitic comments. Yet, Rep. Omar failed our LGBTQ+ community as she did not attempt to include homophobic hate speech in that House Resolution 183. I will work to make sure homophobic hate speech is acknowledged," said Mason. Mason's campaign notes that several Omar supporters have made homophobic remarks on his Facebook ads and have sent many emails containing homophobic hate speech to the campaign. "We hope that Rep. Omar would ask her supporters to stop spewing hate against John and the LGBTQ+. This is the very kind of hate that we are trying to stop," said the campaign chair. Mason wishes to use his 30-plus years of executive and public leadership experience to make meaningful change. "Seeing what Minnesota has gone through this last week has amplified the importance of my united and inclusive message. I have worked on these issues all my life including at the U of MN Senate for Diversity and Inclusion. My years of working to make change in policies of government, academia, and Fortune 500 companies will be important as we work to change our laws," said Mason. "At a time that so many things are seeking to divide us race, religion, politics we need someone who gets it. We need someone who represents all of the people of the Fifth. We need someone with credibility on the issues and is not beholden to special interests or wealthy donors." "I'm a proud supporter of Black Lives Matter. I also know why representation matters. I know what it's like to be abused by the police. I will work effectively drawing on what I learned during my years of leadership experience in public and private sector organizations to make changes for all of us so what happened to George Floyd never happens again," said Mason. Media Contact: Nick Leonard, Campaign Chair 612.805.0089 / [email protected] www.JohnMasonMN.com SOURCE John Mason, Mason for Minnesota Related Links http://johnmasonmn.com New Delhi, June 2 : The Delhi Police on Tuesday filed two charge sheets in connection with the violence in the national capital's northeast area in February, which had left at least 53 people dead and 200 injured. The charge sheets have been filed in the Karkardooma court by the Crime Branch. Both mention the name of former JNU student Umar Khalid. Three special investigation teams were constituted to investigate the cases registered during the riots. First charge sheet has been filed against suspended AAP councillor Tahir Hussain under the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, the Indian Penal Code and the Arms Act. Fifteen persons, including Hussain, were arrested in this case. Investigation has revealed that there was a "deep rooted conspiracy" to cause riots in northeast Delhi. "Tahir Hussain, a politician of Aam Aadmi Party and sitting councilor in EDMC, Delhi, played a pivotal role in the incident," the police said in an official statement. His younger brother, Shah Alam was also arrested. Tahir Hussain's licensed pistol, which was used by him during the riots, was seized during investigation. Notably, Hussain got his pistol released from Khajuri Khas police station just one day prior to the starting of riots in Delhi. "He was found connected to Khalid Saifi and Umar Khalid who are part of a larger group of persons who were organising riots and protests in Delhi," the statement added. Another charge sheet has been filed against two 'Pinjra Tod' activists Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita in connection with the Jafrabad riot case. "This case was registered for murder and riot that took place on February 22. One man died due to the gunshot injury during the riot," the police said. The police said that both Natasha and Devangana were actively involved in hatching the conspiracy to cause riots near Jafrabad Metro Station in Delhi. "They were also part of a larger conspiracy and were found to be connected to the 'India Against Hate' group and Umar Khalid. The message, found in the phone of an accused, on Whatsapp chat, reveals the conspiracy and the extent of preparation for causing riots," the statement by the police added. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text She is known for her glamorous lifestyle and polished appearance. So one would only assume that just like everyone else, Rebecca Judd, 37, is rushing at the chance to get back into the beauty salon after coronavirus restrictions were eased. But on Monday, the AFL footy WAG surprised her 3pm Pickup co-host Katie 'Monty' Dimond when she revealed she hasn't been to the nail salon in five years. Au natural: On Monday, Bec Judd surprised her 3pm Pickup co-host Katie 'Monty' Dimond when she revealed she hasn't been to the nail salon in five years While discussing the easing of restrictions in Victoria, Monty asked Bec if she would be heading straight to the nail salon after recording their podcast. 'I have never had my nails done in about five years,' Bec replied. A shocked Monty, cried: 'Really why?' Bec said there was a simple reason for choosing to cut her own nails at home instead of having them done professionally - she's busy looking after her four children. The radio host and her husband, retired AFL star Chris Judd, share four children, son Oscar, eight, daughter Billie, six, and twins Tom and Darcy, three. 'I don't have time, and I always chip them on the way out,' she said. Busy! Bec said there was a simple reason for choosing to cut her own nails at home instead of having them done professionally - she's busy looking after her four children Monty then suggested that Bec should try a Shellac manicure - which consists of having half nail posh and half gel. 'But then there's that constant maintenance. I don't like it. It ruins underneath,' Bec replied. The brunette beauty said she believes her natural nails look better than 'chipped bogan nails'. 'I always chip them on the way out,' Rebecca also revealed she has a bad habit of always ruining her nails when leaving the salon, to which Monty suggested she try a Shellac manicure If Rebecca's Instagram is anything to go by, her last visit appears to be in November 2015. At the time, she was accompanied by her 18-month daughter Billie-Kate who was also treated to a 'vegan manicure' at Melbourne's La Trobe university. Sharing a photo of her getting a nail makeover, Becc wrote: 'Billie enjoying her express mani'. 'Only $10 (I didn't make her pay though),' she joked. The bronzed beauty explained that Billie's manicure was done with Kester Black vegan nail polish, which is also Australian made, cruelty free, and free of palm oil. Despite some tense moments during protests in Fort Worth, Texas, officers and the police chief drew praise when they kneeled with protesters to show support. Protesters there voiced concerns once again Monday night, drawing attention to deaths of black people by police officers. But when a black police officer responding to the crowds kneeled to show support and other officers joined, a crowd erupted into praise, prompting protesters to shake the hands of police and hug them. Protesters in Fort Worth have been noting deaths such as George Floyd, who died on Memorial Day in Minneapolis after an officer pressed his knee on his neck for more than eight minutes. The officer, who was since fired, now faces third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges. Crowds there also have called attention to Atatiana Jefferson, whose family said she was playing video games with her nephew when a Fort Worth officer shot her in her home in October. The officer resigned and has been indicted on a murder charge. Later Monday, police in riot gear responded to the crowds, causing confusion, but police chief Ed Kraus took a knee and prayed with people, and officers in riot gear later did, too, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. "I think it's a good step," Kraus said. "I hope it was meaningful. I hope that they the people hear, see our hearts. We certainly saw their hearts and that they were hurting. And hopefully that will help us build a better community for all of us. We all live here together. We need to get along together. Hopefully that will be a foundation that we can build on." Kraus also remarked to protesters as they were departing that they "just showed the nation how to do it." KTVT contributed to this report. A 17-year-old Aboriginal boy suffered a chipped tooth and bruising over his body after he was thrown to the ground by a white police officer who has since been suspended from front line duties. After Daily Mail Australia published the disturbing footage, police suspended the officer involved pending an investigation by officers from the Professional Standards Command. Senior officers also held meetings with the community and local elders about the investigation. Footage released on the eve of an Australian Black Lives Matter protest showed the officer, who was patrolling Surry Hills in Sydney's inner east about 5.30pm on Monday, swiping the boy's feet from underneath him during an arrest. Moments earlier, the boy, who was in Eddie Ward Park with friends, had threatened to physically assault the officer. 'I'll crack you across the jaw, bro,' the teenager said. At first, the officer appeared taken aback by the outburst, asking: 'What was that?'. A 16-year-old boy suffered a chipped tooth and bruising all over his body after he was thrown to the ground by a police officer But he then approached the teenager - who was with friends at the time - and tried to handcuff him. The person who filmed the altercation groaned under his breath as his friend was put in handcuffs and had his legs kicked out from underneath him, forcing him face-first into the footpath. 'What the f**k!' the man filming said. 'You just slammed him on his face,' two other voices added. A female officer then pinned down the teenager's legs while the first officer adjusted the handcuffs behind his back. The footage emerged on the eve of a scheduled Black Lives Matter protest in Hyde Park, similar to the protests occurring in America following the death of George Floyd last week. A police officer was filmed throwing a young indigenous man to the ground after he was threatened Following his arrest, the family claim he was taken to holding cells before being transferred to St Vincent's Hospital via ambulance, where he spent the night waiting for results from x-rays to his shoulder, knee and elbow. The teenager appeared to struggle to move his arms behind his back and was wailing as he lay on the ground. 'He's in pain, bro. He's in pain,' the friend said. 'You just slammed him on the f**king face.' Following his arrest, the teenager's family claim he was taken to holding cells before being transferred to St Vincent's Hospital via ambulance, where he spent the night waiting for results from x-rays of a shoulder, knee and elbow. 'He has a bruised shoulder, cuts and grazing to his knee, face and elbow, and chipped teeth,' the relative said. 'No charges have been laid... police state he will be charged at a later date.' 'He has a bruised shoulder, cuts and grazing to his knee, face and elbow and chipped teeth,' a relative said The vision divided readers - some of whom said he should have been detained following the threats while others said the police officer was too harsh The vision sparked outrage, with commenters saying the incident was particularly unnerving as it follows the death of black man George Floyd in Minneapolis after a white cop knelt on his throat for eight minutes during an arrest. Riots had raged across the United States for a week in protest at Floyd's death, with participants setting fire to police cars and looting buildings. 'What a hero,' one person wrote. 'Instead of smashing his face, try talking to him. Show him you guys aint that bad. That kid will just grow up hating cops more.' 'Handcuffs are enough... There was no need to drop [him],' another added. But other commenters argue the officer did not use excessive force, and instead detained the young man so he could not follow through with his threats. 'That's what happens when you mouth off,' one said. 'Don't threaten the police and this won't happen,' another added. Footage shows the officer, who was patrolling in Surry Hills in Sydney at the time, swipe the feet from underneath the man during the arrest (left). While on the floor, the young man appeared to struggle to manoeuvre his arms behind his back and was wailing (right) A protester poses for photos next to a burning police vehicle in Los Angeles, Saturday, May 30 during a demonstration following the death of George Floyd Mr Floyd's death, which was filmed and circulated online, sparked uprisings globally while members of Australia's indigenous community said they received similar ill-treatment from police. At least 432 Aboriginal people have died in custody since the 1991 Royal Commission, which investigated 99 such deaths from 1980 to 1989. Two were shot dead in the past year led to police being charged with murder, both of whom pleaded not guilty and were awaiting trial. 'So many of our Aboriginal people dead in custody in Australia has came about by this exact kind of brutal procedure of the knee in the neck area causing breathing to cut off,' Perth community leader Mervyn Eades said. TV Host Shelly Ware added: 'The past few days has also shone a light on the work Australia still has to do. Our backyard is certainly not clean. 'Aboriginal deaths in custody... is still happening. Justice has not been served for these people and their loved ones and family still suffer today.' Daily Mail Australia has contacted NSW Police for more information. Officer Derek Chauvin (pictured) was identified as the officer pinning down George Floyd in video footage that was widely shared last week Mr Thomas Alonzi, Director for the Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA) has said travelling on River Oti was now safe after the Authority started uprooting tree stumps in the River to prevent accidents. Tree stumps are said to have caused several boat accidents on the Lake, with some being fatal. The exercise is being done at Njari, Kudorkope, Tumpunja, Wolubu, and Ble Yi korpe communities in the Krachi East Municipality. Mr Alonzi who inspected the ongoing exercise said the aim was to provide safe passage for boats on the Lake. He said the Authority was determined to ensure that accidents on the Lake was reduced to the barest minimum and urged boat owners and operators to cooperate with the Authority to achieve its objective. Mr Alonzi expressed satisfaction at the extent of work done and hopeful the contractors, Kete - Krachi Timber Recovery (KKTR) Limited would be on schedule. Mr Patrick Jilima Chartey, Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Krachi East was grateful to the Authority for the exercise and expressed the hope that accidents on the River would be a thing of the past. Mr Checki Akwasi, a leading boat operator in the area said people who travelled from Accra to Kete - Krachi, Chinderi, Banda, Buya and both Nanumba North and South mostly relied on boats or ferry to cross the River. Some passengers who spoke to the GNA were happy that efforts were being made to ensure their safety and commended the Authority for the exercise. Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Reuters Facebook employees walked away from their work-from-home desks on Monday and took to Twitter to accuse Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg of inadequately policing US President Donald Trump's posts as strictly as the rival platform has done. Dozens of online posts from employees critical of Zuckerberg's decision to leave Trump's most inflammatory verbiage unchallenged where Twitter had labeled it. Some top managers participated in the protest, reminiscent of a 2018 walkout at Alphabet Inc's Google over sexual harassment. It was a rare case of staff publicly taking their CEO to task, with one employee tweeting that thousands participated. Among them were all seven engineers on the team maintaining the React code library which supports Facebook's apps. "Facebook's recent decision to not act on posts that incite violence ignores other options to keep our community safe. We implore the Facebook leadership to #TakeAction," they said in a joint statement published on Twitter. The React Core team is joining the Facebook employee walkout in solidarity with the Black community. Facebooks recent decision to not act on posts that incite violence ignores other options to keep our community safe. We implore the Facebook leadership to #TakeAction. pic.twitter.com/0i33nNQTLN Dan Abramov (@dan_abramov) June 1, 2020 I don't know what to do, but I know doing nothing is not acceptable. I'm a FB employee that completely disagrees with Mark's decision to do nothing about Trump's recent posts, which clearly incite violence. I'm not alone inside of FB. There isn't a neutral position on racism. Stirman (@stirman) May 30, 2020 "Mark is wrong, and I will endeavor in the loudest possible way to change his mind," wrote Ryan Freitas, identified on Twitter as director of product design for Facebook's News Feed. He added he had mobilized "50+ likeminded folks" to lobby for internal change. I apologize if you were waiting for me to have some sort of external opinion. I focused on organizing 50+ likeminded folks into something that looks like internal change. Ryan Freitas (@ryanchris) June 1, 2020 Facebooks recent decision to not act on posts that incite violence ignores other options to keep our community safe. I've made my disagreement known internally. Remaining silent in the face of oppression only strengthens the voice of the oppressor. #BlackLivesMatter #takeaction pic.twitter.com/o3aEJ55e8I Gulay Birand (@gbirand) June 1, 2020 A Facebook employee said Zuckerberg's weekly Friday question-and-answer session would be moved up this week to Tuesday. Katie Zhu, a product manager at Instagram, tweeted a screenshot showing she had entered "#BLACKLIVESMATTER" to describe her request for time off as part of the walkout. i'm taking PTO from @instagram by @facebook today for #BlackLivesMatter. i'm deeply disappointed & ashamed in how the company is showing up the world rn. fb fam - if u feel similarly, join me & let's organize. put your ~$~zuck bucks~$ where ur tweets are. support Black-led orgs!! pic.twitter.com/TXnD5qPNer #BLACKLIVESMATTER (@ktzhu) June 1, 2020 i dont agree with facebooks decisions to leave trumps calls for violence and suppression up and im pledging to use what voice i have to speak out internally and externally #TakeAction #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/fkA8BnfyFD joe (@jttrw) June 1, 2020 We have a responsibility @Facebook to keep people safe. We are calling on leadership to reconsider decisions made last week. #TakeAction and reduce harm. pic.twitter.com/et0HyFQMJQ Angela Alarcon (@_amongstrangers) June 1, 2020 Facebook Inc will allow employees participating in the protest to take the time off without drawing down their vacation days, spokesman Andy Stone said. Separately, online therapy company Talkspace said it ended partnership discussions with Facebook. Talkspace CEO Oren Frank tweeted he would "not support a platform that incites violence, racism, and lies." Social Justice Tech workers at companies including Facebook, Google, and Amazon.com Inc have pursued social justice issues in recent years, urging the companies to change policies. Employees "recognize the pain many of our people are feeling right now, especially our Black community," said Liz Bourgeois, a Facebook spokeswoman. "We encourage employees to speak openly when they disagree with leadership. As we face additional difficult decisions around content ahead, we'll continue seeking their honest feedback." Last week, nationwide unrest erupted after the death of a black man, George Floyd, in police custody in Minneapolis last Monday. Video footage showed a white officer kneeling on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes before he died. On Friday, Twitter Inc affixed a warning label to a Trump tweet that included the phrase "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." Twitter said it violated rules against glorifying violence but was left up as a public interest exception. We have placed a public interest notice on this Tweet from @realDonaldTrump. https://t.co/jau9J2edX7 Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) May 29, 2020 Facebook declined to act on the same message, and Zuckerberg sought to distance his company from the fight between the president and Twitter. On Friday, Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post that while he found Trump's remarks "deeply offensive," they did not violate company policy against incitements to violence and people should know whether the government was planning to deploy force. This has been an incredibly tough week after a string of tough weeks. The killing of George Floyd showed yet again that... Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Friday, 29 May 2020 Zuckerberg's post also said Facebook had been in touch with the White House to explain its policies. Jason Toff, a director of product management and former head of short-form video app Vine, was one of several Facebook employees organizing fundraisers for racial justice groups in Minnesota. Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook on Monday the company would contribute an additional $10 million to social justice causes. The pain of the last week reminds us how far our country has to go to give every person the freedom to live with dignity... Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Sunday, 31 May 2020 I work at Facebook and I am not proud of how were showing up. The majority of coworkers Ive spoken to feel the same way. We are making our voice heard. Jason Toff (@jasontoff) June 1, 2020 Toff tweeted: "I work at Facebook and I am not proud of how we're showing up. The majority of coworkers I've spoken to feel the same way. We are making our voice heard." Rosenstadt Brewery owners Tobias Hahn and Nick Greiner Portland's German-inspired ales and lagers of Rosenstadt Brewery are being offered at a discount for home draft consumption for a good cause. Rosenstadt has teamed with Laurelwood Brewing and F.H. Steinbart homebrew supply to offer $40 corny keg fills of their Kolsch with net proceeds to benefit the Oregon Food Bank. How to participate: Register via rosenstadtbrewery.com/events. Drop off a cleaned, sanitized, pressurized Cornelius keg at FH Steinbart company by June 1st at 234 SE 12th Ave. Portland, OR 97214. Tag your keg with name, phone number and valid email address. Pick up time to be confirmed via email; social distance measures in effect. Pick up your filled Cornelius Keg by appointment at Laurelwood Brewing Company on Saturday June 20th between 730-11 am. Laurelwood Brewing Company: 5115 NE Sandy Blvd. Portland OR, 97213 Just $40 per Keg fill; 5-gallon size only, limit one per customer. Valid ID required, Credit Cards only. Thank you to the Laurelwood Brewing Company, FH Steinbart and the Oregon Brew Crew for their assistance in helping raise money for a great cause. About Rosenstadt Brewery Rosenstadt Brewery combines German ingredients, brewing techniques, and tradition in refreshing, distinctively hopped, malt-forward beers. Founded by Nick Greiner and Tobias Hahn, Rosenstadt Brewery has been producing with partner breweries and self-distributing its beer in Portland since 2015. Rosenstadt specializes in brewing classic German-inspired beer - including Altbier, Helles Lager, Kolsch, Weibier, and with a nod to the northwest, a Pale Ale with new German hop varieties. Seasonal specialties such as Festbier, Maibock, Schwarzbier, and Dunkles Lager are available on a rotating basis, as well as customer exclusives that can be found at some of Portlands finest restaurants. Rosenstadts uncompromising commitment to its German heritage and highest quality beer has been rewarded as it won Gold in 2017, Bronze in 2018 at the Oregon Beer Awards with its Altbier and Schwarzbier, and Bronze in 2019 with Helles Lager in the Best of Craft Beer Awards. A worshipper wears gloves to prevent the spread of Covid-19 as mosques reopened across Saudi Arabia (Amr Nabil/AP) A Yemeni sanitation worker, wearing protective gear, sprays disinfectant in a neighbourhood in the northern Hajjah province during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by ESSA AHMED/AFP via Getty Images) A private security guard stands beside a banner with at entrance gate of the English and Foreign Languages University (EFL) in Secunderabad. (Photo by NOAH SEELAM/AFP via Getty Images) An employee at reception desk protected by plexiglass mesasures the temperature of hotel staff at the lobby of the Athens Palace hotel, on the first day of the opening of hotels in Greece (Photo by Milos Bicanski/Getty Images) Follow the latest coronavirus news in Ireland and across the world on the Independent.ie live blog. 22:40 02/06/2020 Warning over non-essential journeys on public transport Expand Close People wait for public transportation during a blackout in Caracas (Ariana Cubillos/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp People wait for public transportation during a blackout in Caracas (Ariana Cubillos/AP) A large number of people are using public transport to make non-essential journeys, the head of the National Transport Authority has claimed. Chief executive Anne Graham said this is using up capacity planned for Phase Two of Irelands exit from lockdown, which is set to come into force on Monday. Ms Graham told the Dail Covid-19 committee that travel demand in the first easing of restrictions has been higher than expected. She said lockdown restrictions have had a profound and ongoing impact on the demand for public transport. Daily demand is now typically between 10% and 20% of what it was prior to mid-March, she said. 22:20 02/06/2020 March 15 was the day the music died - what now for musicians and promoters? Expand Close Sour notes: It has been a difficult time for the likes of Joe and Steve Wall from The Stunning / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sour notes: It has been a difficult time for the likes of Joe and Steve Wall from The Stunning Paddy Murray It's quiet in the 3Arena. There's not a sound coming out of Vicar Street. Dolan's Warehouse is silent. The Marquee in Cork is idle. It was March 15 when we went into lockdown. Right now, it's being remembered as the day the music died. There are something like 5,000 pay-in gigs in Ireland every year. They range from 90,000-plus in Croker to 13,000 in the 3Arena and 1,500 in Vicar Street all the way down to a few hundred in the Grand Social or a few dozen upstairs in Whelans. There are hundreds of venues. And they have all fallen silent. So what does the future hold? Full story here: Read More 22:00 02/06/2020 First results from UK's Recovery Covid-19 drug trial expected in early July The first results from the world's largest randomised trial of drugs to treat Covid-19 patients could be available in early July, one of the scientists leading the UK-based study called Recovery said on Tuesday. The first data from the study, which is testing a selection of existing drugs, is likely to come from a type of steroid called low-dose Dexamethasone and used to reduce inflammation, said Martin Landray, professor of medicine and epidemiology in the Nuffield Department of Population Health at the University of Oxford. The trial has so far enrolled 11,000 patients ranging from one to 109 years of ages at 175 UK hospitals since it was set up in March, he told reporters at a briefing. "There is unlikely to be a single big win" from the trials, which is why the project is testing several existing medicines to see if they might be able to be repurposed to help treat Covid-19, he said. "At the moment we really don't have any treatments, so the first results will give us a guide," he said. 21:40 02/06/2020 Calls for private hospitals to be used to help reduce waiting lists Public patients should be given access to private hospitals for the next month to help alleviate the escalating waiting lists, the Dail has heard. The secretary general of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) said there has been a very low private hospital bed capacity occupancy, at around one third on average. A contract which saw the state taking over private hospitals for 115 million euro a month will finish at the end of June. Martin Varley said the private hospital agreement represents very poor value for money from patient care and taxpayer perspectives. Dr Anthony OConnor, a member of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) consultants committee, told the special Covid-19 Oireachtas committee that the private hospitals should be utilised in the last few weeks to have an impact on the waiting lists. 21:20 02/06/2020 'I hope restarting the cancer screening will be made a priority as soon as they can' Expand Close Plea: Eileen Rushe urged anyone with concerns to seek help / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Plea: Eileen Rushe urged anyone with concerns to seek help Eilish O'Regan Eileen Rushe, who celebrates the first anniversary of being cancer free this week, is thankful to screening for detecting the disease. The mother of one, from Termonfeckin, Co Louth, was diagnosed with cervical cancer in December 2018 after going through CervicalCheck the previous July and getting an abnormal smear test which led to treatment. She was referred for more investigations in a colposcopy unit and it was found she had a tumour. "I ended up having 26 sessions of radiotherapy, five sessions of brachytherapy and chemotherapy. "It was high intensity for six and half weeks. I was finished with the treatment in March," she said. Read More 21:00 02/06/2020 Global airport group says pandemic safety rules to lengthen pre-departure waits Expand Close Dublin Airport / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Dublin Airport New global guidelines featuring physical distancing to restart aviation safely during the coronavirus pandemic could add up to two hours of pre-departure time for passengers at some airports during peak hours, the head of an international airports' group said on Tuesday. "A large airport with low volume, they should not need much more time for the passenger to come to the airport to keep the physical distancing," Angela Gittens, director general of Airports Council International (ACI), told reporters. "At a smaller airport or an airport that has peaking, I would say that it is going to be another hour or even two hours." A United Nations aviation agency-led task force has published guidance for airlines, airports and countries to achieve a uniform approach to flying safely during the coronavirus pandemic, although it stopped short of providing specific requirements for the hard hit industrys recovery. The guidance, which was adopted by the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO) governing council on Monday, includes having travelers wear masks, and stand at least a meter apart at airports. 20:40 02/06/2020 Home buyers confident despite pandemic disruption, research finds Irish home buyers remain confident despite widespread disruption sparked by the coronavirus pandemic, research has found. Almost 70pc of potential buyers are planning to purchase a property in the next year while 37pc expect property prices to fall by more than 10pc in the next year, according to a survey by property website MyHome.ie. The research, which involved 1,981 people, also found 69pc believe government could do more to help the property sector, 59pc believe Covid-19 will lead to more online processes in general in the long term to minimise unnecessary contact and 21pc believe it will lead to quicker sales processes in general. About half (51pc) of respondents believe online viewings and virtual tours are effective ways to view a property. Angela Keegan, managing director of MyHome.ie, said the findings reflected pent-up demand in the market. 20:20 02/06/2020 HSE sought reduction in 'unattainable targets' for treating breast cancer patients after failing to hit them Expand Close The HSE failed to meet key national targets for treating breast cancer patients last year and then sought to reduce them for 2020 Image: Stock photo / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The HSE failed to meet key national targets for treating breast cancer patients last year and then sought to reduce them for 2020 Image: Stock photo Ellen Coyne and Eilish O'Regan The HSE failed to meet key national targets for treating breast cancer patients last year and then sought to reduce them for 2020, documents reveal. The health service said there was "increased anxiety" in the BreastCheck screening service ahead of forthcoming legal cases, and hospitals were already struggling with a lack of staff. The HSE said "unattainable targets" would increase public pressure "if BreastCheck comes into the public domain". Full story here: Read More 20:00 02/06/2020 Octogenarian livid at social distancing breaches Expand Close Robert Atkinson, 82, who shielded for 10 weeks, has blasted thousands of people gathering on beaches for dismantling coronavirus progress Photo credit: Liam McBurney/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Robert Atkinson, 82, who shielded for 10 weeks, has blasted thousands of people gathering on beaches for dismantling coronavirus progress Photo credit: Liam McBurney/PA Wire A livid octogenarian who shielded for 10 weeks has blasted thousands of people gathering on beaches for dismantling coronavirus progress in Northern Ireland. Robert Atkinson, 82, was paralysed down one side by a stroke and has been treated for prostate cancer. The former meat plant manager from Belfast feared the authorities were moving too quickly to ease the pandemic lockdown and asking for trouble. People were pictured gathering at the seaside near Belfast in large numbers over recent sunny days. Mr Atkinson said: I am livid. People like us stayed in for 10 weeks and followed the rules and regulations. To think that they could actually dismantle everything that we have done. I think any sane person would think it is right that they should have thought of other people before social distancing went out the window. 19:40 02/06/2020 Primark shares surge as return date for English shops revealed Expand Close Ready to go: Primark already has reopened 112 outlets in Europe and US, and its England stores soon will follow. Photo: Reuters / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ready to go: Primark already has reopened 112 outlets in Europe and US, and its England stores soon will follow. Photo: Reuters Irish fashion retailer Primark plans to reopen all 153 of its stores in England on June 15 as coronavirus restrictions are eased, encouraged by European stores which have already resumed trading. The faster than expected reopening drove the shares of Primark's owner, Associated British Foods, 8pc higher in London trade yesterday. All Primark stores were closed over a period of 12 days from March 11 as the virus spread, costing it 650m (725m) a month in sales. With governments now easing restrictions, Primark is trading from 112 stores across Europe and the United States, representing 24pc of its total selling space. By June 15, it plans to have 281 stores open, or 79pc of selling space, including all stores in England. It hopes to have all of its 378 shops open by late June, including those in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. Read More 19:20 02/06/2020 Minister signals 'changes' to pandemic payment as 64,000 are back at work Anne-Marie Walsh Changes to the pandemic unemployment payment will be tabled by the government shortly as it was revealed that 64,000 people have returned to work since the reopening began. Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Regina Doherty, said today that the nature of the payment needs to be reviewed although it will be extended beyond its expiry date next Tuesday. She said the government needs to examine how the payment fits into its plans to keep Ireland healthy and get the country working again. We are currently considering this and will soon bring forward proposals for some changes, she said. Any future decisions will be based on our commitment that everyone who needs help will get the most appropriate assistance and also based on the ongoing progress we experience from the reopening of the economy. Read More 19:00 02/06/2020 Andrew Muir: Sun spots have seen a deluge of visitors Expand Close Crowds gathered at Crawfordsburn in Co Down on Monday despite the coronavirus restrictions (Andrew Muir/PA). / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Crowds gathered at Crawfordsburn in Co Down on Monday despite the coronavirus restrictions (Andrew Muir/PA). Neighbourhoods have been overwhelmed by a deluge of people flocking to beauty spots in Northern Ireland, a public representative said. Around a thousand gathered on Co Downs Crawfordsburn and Helens Bay beaches in recent days despite the coronavirus restrictions, police said. Whilst relaxed regulations permit travel there, with rights come responsibilities to ensure social distancing is maintained and areas not overwhelmed by influx of visitors, Alliance Party Assembly Member Andrew Muir said. He added: I would urge everyone of all ages to think twice before flocking to popular destinations. It is overwhelming neighbourhoods and stretching valuable resources of police and other public agencies. The current deluge of visitors must stop. 18:40 02/06/2020 Online grocery sales soared 76pc in the past 12 weeks John Mulligan Online grocery sales soared 76pc in the past 12 weeks as shoppers tried to avoid stores due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to research group Kantar. The latest Kantar figures published this morning also show that SuperValu was the largest grocery retailer in the 12 weeks to May 17, with a 22.4pc share based on the value of goods sold. Kantar said the jump in grocery sales in the most recent three-month period reflects both the pre-lockdown surge in spending on food by consumers and the eight weeks where they were advised by the Government to stay at home. As lockdown continues, households with more mouths to feed at home have made their way through supplies and are now starting to top up depleted store cupboards, said Kantar retail analyst Emer Hurley. Read More 18:20 02/06/2020 Hosepipe ban Q&A: How likely is one, what will be prohibited and will it be worse than 2018? Caroline O'Doherty Q. What exactly is a hosepipe ban? A. Its the common term for a National Water Conservation Order a legal power that Irish Water has to take actions to protect water supplies. Q. Protect them from what? A. In the current case, from unnecessary usage. That means anything that isnt drinking, cooking, hygiene and manufacturing related. Full story here: Read More 18:10 02/06/2020 Latest data from the HPSC, as of midnight on Sunday (25,056 cases), reveals: 57pc are female and 43pc are male The median age of confirmed cases is 48 years 3,292 cases (13pc) have been hospitalised Of those hospitalised, 408 cases have been admitted to ICU 7,986 cases are associated with healthcare workers Dublin has the highest number of cases at 12,090 (48pc of all cases) followed by Cork with 1,517 cases (6pc) and then Kildare with 1,419 cases (6pc) Of those for whom transmission status is known: community transmission accounts for 39%, close contact accounts for 58%, travel abroad accounts for 2% Dr Ronan Glynn, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health said; 47pc of people are taking longer than four days from onset of symptoms to being swabbed. We are strongly encouraging all members of the public to know the symptoms of COVID-19 and seek medical attention as soon as symptoms appear. 18:00 02/06/2020 Ten new cases of Covid-19 confirmed as eight more die with virus Only ten new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed today. This brings the total number of cases registered in Ireland to 25,066. Eight more people have sadly died after being diagnosed with coronavirus. There have now been 1,658 Covid-19-related deaths in Ireland. Dr. Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said; Over the past week there have been approximately 500 new cases of COVID-19 notified, 54pc of which are aged between 24-55 years old. Incidences of these cases are spread across 21 counties in Ireland. While we are doing well, the potential for spread remains present across all regions of the country. NPHET will meet on Thursday 4 June and submit further recommendations to Government for consideration. Dr Cillian De Gascun, Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, said: As of midnight Monday 1 June, 348,416 tests have been carried out. Over the past week, 22,621 tests were carried out and of these 389 were positive, giving a positivity rate of 1.7pc 17:40 02/06/2020 Manufacturing at 'historically low levels' as new orders fall Shawn Pogatchnik Output, new orders and exports in Ireland all dropped last month at the second-worst rates on record and to "historically low levels", according to AIB. The monthly manufacturing PMI (purchasing managers' index) found three of every five firms suffered lower productivity than in April, itself a month of staggering slumps in factory output. The headline PMI index rose in May to 39.2 from the 36.0 recorded in April, the first full month of lockdown, and the second-worst decline since the record 33.2 reached in 2009 at the low point of that recession. Numbers below 50 represent falls in activity; the lower the number, the steeper the dive from the previous month. Read More 17:20 02/06/2020 Barpark closed: Charlie Chawke's takeaway pub shut down after crowds gather Expand Close The Goat Bar & Grill located in Goatstown, serving alcohol drinks to locals and drinking in the car park. Picture by Fergal Phillips. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Goat Bar & Grill located in Goatstown, serving alcohol drinks to locals and drinking in the car park. Picture by Fergal Phillips. Eugene Masterson One of Irelands best-known publicans was forced to stop selling drink from an open-air van this Bank Holiday weekend after being told by gardai: No more! On Friday, hordes of people could be seen drinking in a car park after buying alcohol from n open-air van selling pints of beer outside The Goat bar, in Goatstown on Dublins southside. At one stage there were over 50 people in a queue, who patiently waited to be served and kept two metres apart. Full story here: Read More 17:00 02/06/2020 Queues of cars as McDonalds drive-thrus reopen in Co Down There were queues of cars in Co Down as the first McDonalds restaurants reopened in Northern Ireland following lockdown. The Bangor and Newtownards branches opened for drive-thru only customers, with a limited menu and 25 maximum spend on Tuesday morning. Friends Zoe Mellon and Hannah Thompson were among the first customers in Bangor. McDonalds is staging a phased reopening of all drive-thrus across the UK this week following a pilot in May. It had temporarily closed all its restaurants in Ireland and the UK in March. Meanwhile, in the Northern Ireland Assembly on Tuesday, TUV leader Jim Allister criticised the secrecy around the R number which indicates how quickly coronavirus is spreading. 16:40 02/06/2020 A third of new office leases cancelled or postponed by virus Shawn Pogatchnik Leases for a third of the office space agreed in the first quarter have fallen through or been placed on hold since lockdown, according to a survey of the Dublin office market. Savills Ireland said of the Q1 agreements on new leases for 88,448sqm of office space, some 15,460sqm had fallen through, with 13,730sqm postponed indefinitely "pending greater certainty on the impact of Covid-19". "Inevitably, progress has slowed on many other transactions," the Savills report said. It found only six lease deals have concluded since the onset of lockdown, including software firm Guidewire's take-up of 7,900sqm of space in Blanchardstown. Read More 16:20 02/06/52020 Doctors fear patients at risk of delay in cancer diagnoses Eilish O'Regan Growing numbers of people are at risk of delayed cancer diagnosis as hospital rapid access lung and prostate clinics suffer a big fall-off in patients referred for tests by their family doctor. Electronic GP referrals of patients with potential symptoms of lung cancer to rapid access clinics have plummeted by 41pc. They were down to just 26 cases a week in May from 44 in January before Covid-19 hit. The number of patients sent by GPs to the clinics which can detect prostate cancer have dropped by 28.9pc during that time - down from 72 a week to 51, figures obtained by the Irish Independent revealed. Full story here: Read More 16:00 02/06/2020 Cafes and restaurants reopen in Paris but customers must keep their distance Expand Close A cafe owner measures the distance between table (Michel Spingler/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A cafe owner measures the distance between table (Michel Spingler/AP) Parisians were returning to cafes on although Covid-19 restrictions meant the experience was not quite as it was before lockdown. The Paris City Hall authorised the opening of outside seating areas, but indoors will remain closed to customers until at least June 22. Dampening the mood of new freedom, social distancing of one metre between tables will be obligatory and drastically reduce the numbers. For the city well-known for its tiny chairs and fashionably-small 50-centimetre-wide round tables that often touch, this will lower capacity in some outside areas by over half. To help matters, the normally space-restricting Paris City Hall is now allowing restaurateurs to be expansive and have issued an authorisation for them to enlarge their outside areas, or create one, without the normal legal red tape until September 30. 15:40 02/06/2020 Air bridges between UK and low-risk countries could be introduced at end of June Expand Close British Airways planes grounded due to the coronavirus outbreak (Gareth Fuller/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp British Airways planes grounded due to the coronavirus outbreak (Gareth Fuller/PA) Quarantine-free travel between Britain and some countries could be introduced at the end of this month if infection rates at home and abroad are sufficiently low. The Government is understood to be considering so-called air bridges to enable people to travel without having to spend two weeks self-isolating on their return. Current plans mean all international arrivals apart from people carrying out a limited number of specified roles would need to quarantine for 14 days from Monday. The plan has been fiercely criticised by travel and hospitality businesses, and ministers are understood to be considering introducing air bridges when the policy is reviewed three weeks after it comes into force. Agreements would need to be reached with other countries before any policy could be introduced. The Daily Telegraph reported Prime Minister Boris Johnson was personally in favour of the idea. 15:15 02/06/2020 Two-metre distance more effective than one at curbing Covid-19 spread study Expand Close Dr Holohan said NPHET would keep the two metre social distancing guidance under review (Brian Lawless/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Dr Holohan said NPHET would keep the two metre social distancing guidance under review (Brian Lawless/PA) Physical distancing of at least one metre lowers the risk of coronavirus transmission, but distances of two metres could be more effective, a new study suggests. Researchers found that keeping a distance of more than one metre from other people was associated with a much lower risk of infection compared with less than one metre. The risk of infection when people stand more than a metre away from the infected individual was found to be 3%, and 13% if within a metre. However, according to the analysis published in The Lancet, modelling suggests for every extra metre further away up to three metres, the risk of infection or transmission may halve. In Ireland people are advised to keep a distance of two metres from others, but there have been calls to reduce this to 1.5 metres like in Germany, in order to help the hospitality sector reopen. 13:40 2/06/2020 Irish economy to take estimated 80m hit as American Colleges Football opener moved from Dublin back to the US Stephen Bennett The organisers of the Aer Lingus Classic football game between Notre Dame and Navy have today announced that the game will not take place at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on August 29, at an estimated cost to the Irish economy of 80million. Both teams have agreed that it is in the best interests of their staff and supporters to now play the US Colleges Football season opener at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, USA. In another huge blow to the Irish economy due to the coronavirus pandemic, almost 40,000 fans from both teams were due to travel to Ireland from the US for the game. The moving of the 2020 fixture from Dublin, will see a direct economic loss of 80million to the Irish economy according to the Steering Committee of the Game Series, which is a public / private partnership. Read More 12:50 2/06/2020 Online grocery sales soared 76pc in the past 12 weeks John Mulligan Online grocery sales soared 76pc in the past 12 weeks the fastest rate of growth in 15 years as shoppers tried to avoid stores due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to research group Kantar. The latest Kantar figures published this morning also show that SuperValu was the largest grocery retailer in the 12 weeks to May 17, with a 22.4pc share based on the value of goods sold. Kantar said the jump in grocery sales in the most recent three-month period reflects both the pre-lockdown surge in spending on food by consumers and the eight weeks where they were advised by the Government to stay at home. Read More 11:30 2/06/2020 Cafes and restaurants reopen in Paris but customers must keep their distance Parisians were returning to cafes on Tuesday salthough Covid-19 restrictions meant the experience was not quite as it was before lockdown. The Paris City Hall authorised the opening of outside seating areas, but indoors will remain closed to customers until at least June 22. Dampening the mood of new freedom, social distancing of one metre between tables will be obligatory and drastically reduce the numbers. For the city well-known for its tiny chairs and fashionably-small 50-centimetre-wide round tables that often touch, this will lower capacity in some outside areas by over half. Read More 11:20 2/06/2020 Pandemic unemployment payment claims drop by more than 30,000 The number of people claiming the State's Covid-19 pandemic unemployment payments has dropped by more than 30,000. A total of 543,000 people who are unemployed last week will receive their weekly payment of 350 under the scheme. Senior government official, Liz Canavan said it is a reduction of 36,000 people paid at the same point last week. Some 28,400 people receiving the pandemic unemployment payment have closed their claim and returned to work, while 20,100 are receiving their last unemployment payment this week. Ms Canavan said 57,800 employers are now registered for the temporary wave subsidy scheme. More than 581,100 employees have now received at least one payment under the scheme. 10:00 2/06/2020 Fears virus could spread after South America reopening and US unrest Nick Perry South American countries at the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic are choosing to reopen even as case numbers rise, ignoring the example set by Europe nations who waited for the worst to pass. Meanwhile in the US, there are concerns that widespread protests over the death of George Floyd could cause new outbreaks in a nation where the virus has disproportionately affected ethnic minorities. A new estimate by the US congressional budget office warned that the damage to the worlds largest economy could amount to nearly 16 trillion dollars (12.8 trillion) over the next decade if congress does not work to mitigate the fallout. Read More 09:10 2/06/2020 We're afraid to go out, says study in bad sign for businesses Laura Lynott Three in four Irish people are concerned about resuming normal activities such as going to the cinema or taking public transport, according to a survey. The study has highlighted just how hard it could be for businesses to resume operations as people continue to fear the spread of Covid-19. It found some 78pc are uncomfortable with going to the cinema, 76pc are anxious about returning to the gym, 74pc are concerned about having a night out in a bar and 73pc are worried about setting foot on a bus or train. Read More 08:00 2/06/2020 Violence erupts at US protests after Trump vows to bring in military President Donald Trump on Monday vowed to use the U.S. military to halt protests over the death of a black man in police custody, before law enforcement officers fired rubber bullets and tear gas to clear demonstrators and allow the president to walk to a church and pose for pictures. But as darkness fell hours after the president's remarks in the Rose Garden of the White House, violence erupted for a seventh night. Demonstrators set fire to a strip mall in Los Angeles and looted stores in New York City. "Mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled," Trump said. Read More 07:05 2/06/2020 'Two-metre gap is more effective at lowering risk of infection' Eilish O'Regan The campaign to reduce the anti-Covid physical distancing rule from two metres to one metre was delivered a new setback with a major study showing the wider gap lessens the risk of infection. Physical distancing of at least one metre lowers risk of Covid-19 transmission - but distances of two metres are more effective, the study in 'The Lancet' medical journal reveals. It comes as the death toll fell to just one in the Republic yesterday - the second lowest daily fatality total since late March. However, another 77 new cases were diagnosed, signalling that, although it is circulating at a low level, it continues to pose a risk. There was also mounting concern at breaching of safeguards over the week Read More 07:05 2/06/2020 Zoo pledges to protect public as its doors open again for 'new chapter' Laura Lynott Dublin Zoo will reopen today to a "new chapter of history" under strict social distancing and health and safety protocols. Tickets went on sale online yesterday with a high interest reported from families. Zoo director Leo Oosterweghel said: "As we approach this new chapter of our history with cautious optimism, our priority during this reopening phase will be to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of our staff, visitors and the continued provision of world-class animal care." Strict social-distancing rules will be in place, with visitors travelling through the zoo by following an outdoor one-way walking route. The route, also known as the Dublin Zoo Outdoor Safari Trail, will be listed on a map available to all visitors. Read More 07:00 2/06/2020 Greece set to open for Irish visitors after travel ban U-turn Henry Samuel in Paris Irish people are among those permitted to travel to Greece "without quarantine", its tourism minister confirmed yesterday amid a Europe-wide scramble to salvage the crucial summer holiday season. Last week, Greece appeared to slap a nationwide ban on flights from here after leaving Ireland off its "white list" of 29 nations with better-than-average Covid-19 infection records. But yesterday, it said this had been a "misunderstanding" and Irish holidaymakers will be allowed to visit as early as mid-June. However, the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs is still advising against all non-essential travel overseas until further notice. Greece has pledged to "welcome the world" from June 15, when it will resume flights to its two main airports, Athens and Thessaloniki. Others will be reopened to international flights from July 1. A Tulsa-based Quick Reaction Force National Guard unit remains on standby after some troops were deployed in support roles Sunday night to free up Tulsa police officers for civil disturbances in Brookside, officials said Monday evening. Mayor G.T. Bynum, through spokeswoman Michelle Brooks, said the troops made a big difference in freeing our officers to concentrate in protection of life and property. Lt. Col. Geoffrey Legler of the Oklahoma National Guards public information office said a similar unit has been on standby in Oklahoma City since Sunday. Legler said the units typically act in support of law enforcement officers at the direction of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. Generally, we relieve law enforcement officers and do things like direct traffic, Legler said. The teams were activated by order of Gov. Kevin Stitt. At the request of local communities, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and the National Guard have been authorized to provide support as needed, Gov. Kevin Stitt said in a written statement. (Photo : Screenshot from Twitter post of @Cybanerve) The Anonymous Repackaged Leaked Logins and Passwords of Minneapolis Police in Misinformation Showing They Didn't Hacked The Police Department (Photo : Screenshot from Twitter post of @josemhc2) The Anonymous Repackaged Leaked Logins and Passwords of Minneapolis Police in Misinformation Showing They Didn't Hacked The Police Department The "Anonymous" hacker group previously accused of hacking the Minneapolis Police department after the death of George Floyd recently drew support from the public on social media. However, new reports have revealed that the group of cyber attackers didn't actually directly hack the police department of Minneapolis. LAST MOMENT THE IDENTITY OF THE FAMOUS HACKER WHO IS BEING TRENDS IN SOCIAL NETWORKS HAS BEEN REVEALED. #Anonymous pic.twitter.com/nnaZ5mOJp0 josemhc (@josemhc2) May 31, 2020 According to CNET's latest report, the majority of the leaked logins and passwords belonging to the employees of the Minneapolis Police department were not directly extracted by the hackers but came from older breaches. Cyberattackers also targeted the Minnesota City's police department while protests spread across the country, sparked by the death of George Floyd in the custody of Minnesota police. The hacker group took credit for an attack that took down the official website of the Minneapolis Police Department on Sunday, May 31. A set of passwords and email addresses were published by the hacktivists, claiming that they were the ones who stole the data. However, a security researcher took a deeper look at the leaked 798 passwords and email addresses, suggesting that the group did not hack any data. Instead, they repackaged the sensitive information from previous, unrelated cyber attacks. The security researcher and founder of the "Have I Been Pwned," Troy Hunt, looked at the list of released login credentials, revealing that 95% of the data were already leaked in previous breaches. The Anonymous repackaged leaked logins and passwords of Minneapolis Police in misinformation showing they didn't hack the police department Troy Hunt stated that 80% of repeats cannot be seen in entirely new breaches. He also said that using old, stolen credentials with a different framing is not new since hackers usually gather billions of accounts--if they're new batches--to sell them to the market. Conspiracy theorists shared a document in April that revealed the 25,000 leaked passwords and email addresses acquired from members of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) were also compiled from older hacks. The report stated that the latest leak appears to have been taken advantage of by the group of hackers to spread disinformation online while outrage against police brutality is taking place. "There's this social outrage in Minneapolis and people want to believe that a bunch of cops has been hacked," said Hunt in an interview. "For a lot of people, Anonymous is symbolic of what social justice is," he added. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Capital expenditure loan of US$ 100 million for Turkeys leading telecommunications provider Investment programme aims to improve sustainability The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is extending a US$ 100 million loan to Turk Telekom to ensure that network upgrades aimed at further improving the sustainability of one of the leading telecommunications providers in Turkey continue despite the Covid-19 pandemic. The company, which offers telecommunications and internet services for around 48 million subscribers, is planning an ambitious investment programme. It includes the modernisation of fixed broadband infrastructure, using energy-efficient technology and equipment. Arvid Tuerkner, EBRD Managing Director for Turkey, said: There is a consensus among responsible investors that rebuilding economies after the coronavirus pandemic will not be enough. We will have to build back better to create a more sustainable corporate sector. I am pleased that this EBRD financing will ensure that Turk Telekoms modernisation aimed at greater sustainability will continue to benefit millions of people in the country, and the environment too. Dirk Werner, EBRD Director for Information and Communication Technologies, added: We are very pleased to continue to strengthen our longstanding relationship with Turk Telekom through this new facility. As a leading operator and driving force behind the innovation and growth of Turkeys telecommunications sector, Turk Telekom is instrumental in implementing energy efficient investments for the country. We look forward to supporting the company in further achieving its strategic goals. Kaan Aktan, Turk Telekom Chief Financial Officer, commented: As part of our sustainability policy, we are implementing projects and initiatives, including those in the area of energy efficiency. We plan to fully integrate the universal principles of sustainability into our business model, strategies and corporate decision-making. We are glad to have the EBRD as a strategic partner as we continue to accomplish our objectives, focused on sustainability. This new facility reinforces our strong and longstanding cooperation. The EBRD has previously financed Turk Telekoms investments in fixed broadband infrastructure in rural Turkey, the roll-out of 4G technology and the construction of a new submarine cable system connecting western Europe to south-east Asia through Turkey and the Middle East. The new financing is part of the EBRDs efforts to help countries in its regions to combat the economic impact of the coronavirus and support the recovery. The Bank stands ready to provide support worth 21 billion over the period 2020-21. The EBRD is a major investor in Turkey. Since 2009 it has invested 12.4 billion through 311 projects in various sectors of the countrys economy, with almost all investment in the private sector. The EBRDs 7 billion portfolio in Turkey is the largest among the 38 economies where the Bank invests. The Office of Insular Affairs (DOI-OIA) of the U.S. Department of the Interior has awarded $239,994 to the University of Guam College of Natural and Applied Sciences in response to a grant proposal titled "Establishment of Self-sustaining Biological Control of Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle Biotype G in Micronesia" submitted by Aubrey Moore, an entomologist at the University of Guam. Part of the funding will be used for partial support of an existing project to implement self-sustaining control of coconut rhino beetles (CRB) throughout Guam by introducing an insect disease caused by a naturally occurring insect virus that infects only rhino beetles. This virus is called Oryctes rhinoceros nudivirus, or OrNV. Different strains of OrNV have been very effective in providing long-lasting control of rhino beetles on many Pacific Islands. Typically, after the virus is introduced into the CRB population, damage to coconut palms and other palms falls to very low levels within a few months and stays at those low levels indefinitely. The other part of the grant funding will be used to pay the salary of James Grasela, an insect pathologist who has spent his career finding ways to control pest insects with insect diseases instead of poisoning them with insecticides. Grasela has been working under a contract at the University of Guam for the past two years under a previous DOI-OIA grant. He has screened OrNV strains collected from several locations in the Asia-Pacific region and has found two that have potential for controlling the biotype, CRB-G, causing so much damage on Guam. ### For more information regarding research on the CRB and other insects conducted by scientists at the University of Guam, please visit https://www.uog.edu/wptrc/entomology. For detailed information on the recent grant award, download Moore's grant proposal from https://github.com/aubreymoore/2020-DOI-CRB-Biocontrol/blob/master/doi_proposal.pdf. 02.06.2020 LISTEN The African Center for Women in Politics (ACWP) has asked civic, moral and intellectual groups in the country to come up with strategies on how to defuse the recent new voters register-induced tensions in the country. ACWP made the call in a statement on the backdrop of the mixed reactions that have greeted the Electoral Commissions decision to compile a new register of the 2020 general elections. Whereas the EC is bent on compiling the register backed by the governing New Patriotic Party, the opposition National Democratic Congress and other political parties have vowed to use every means possible to stop the exercise from happening. Several platforms aimed at resolving the stalemate have proved futile. According to ACWP, the ongoing banter and media war between the Commission and some of its major stakeholders is a scar on our otherwise fledging democracy. It is obvious that the trust and goodwill that existed between the Electoral Commission and the political parties is fast fading and an urgent intervention is needed to avert a slide of our nation into civil conflict. It is against this background that ACWP is appealing to eminent, moral, civic, and intellectual voices such as the Catholic Bishops Conference, the National House of Chiefs, the former presidents, the Christian Council of Ghana, the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), the Institute of Democracy and Development (IDEG), the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Ghana (CVCG), the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), etc. to as a matter of urgency, workout a mediatory strategy to help diffuse the tensions and restore confidence and trust in the electoral process, ACWP urged in a statement. Read the full statement below: New Voters Register: Moral, Civic, and Intellectual Voices must Intervene to break the deadlock African Center for Women in Politics (ACWP) The African Center for Women in Politics (ACWP) has noted with a deep worry the current deadlock between the Electoral Commission of the Republic of Ghana and some political parties on the issue of voters register for the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary elections. We are particularly concerned because the Electoral Commission has over the years earned an enviable reputation as an institution that prioritizes deliberative decision making and consensus-building. The ongoing banter and media war between the Commission and some of its major stakeholders is a scar on our otherwise fledging democracy. It is obvious that the trust and goodwill that existed between the Electoral Commission and the political parties is fast fading and an urgent intervention is needed to avert a slide of our nation into civil conflict. It is against this background that ACWP is appealing to eminent, moral, civic, and intellectual voices such as the Catholic Bishops Conference, the National House of Chiefs, the former presidents, the Christian Council of Ghana, the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), the Institute of Democracy and Development (IDEG), the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Ghana (CVCG), the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), etc. to as a matter of urgency, workout a mediatory strategy to help diffuse the tensions and restore confidence and trust in the electoral process. While recognizing the independence of the Electoral Commission, it is important to note that as a state institution, the Commission has a responsibility to operate in a manner that earns the confidence of all the citizenry. Elections have visited conflicts upon several nations including some in our sub-region, and the situation in Ghana presently has all the trappings of a country on the brink of chaos. It is common knowledge that in a conflict situation, women and children are not only the most vulnerable but the victims. It is against this knowledge of experience from other jurisdictions that we are urging the Electoral Commission to be alive to the enormity of the responsibility it shoulders, and carry the nation with it to peace and not conflict. In the meantime, we call on the political parties and the other stakeholders opposed to the Commission's decision to compile a new voters' register to moderate their activism and mobilization and commit to any efforts designed to end the stalemate to pave the way for constructive dialogue. For as long as there is an opportunity to engage in constructive deliberations, we urge the EC and the political parties to seize the moment and allow final outcomes to be produced from the deliberative processes. It is only in a deliberation process that the various stakeholders can speak and listen to each other in respect and candour and develop a collective decision in the spirit of compromise and consensus. It goes without saying that it is in the interest of our country that we all work towards a free, fair and transparent elections come December 7, 2020. Thank you. Signed Alimatu Issahak Executive Director Eunice Yogri, PhD Head, Gender and Policy Beryl Efua Abban Ag. Head, Political Desk Every summer in the United States, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community comes together for a monthlong celebration of love, diversity, acceptance and unashamed self-pride. Here's everything you need to know about LGBT Pride Month. What is LGBT Pride Month? The commemorative month is meant to recognize the sweeping impact that LGBT individuals, advocates and allies have on history in the United States and around the globe, according to the Library of Congress PHOTO: Lorenzo Soler poses for photos on the steps that are covered in rainbow colors for Pride Month at Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, June 14, 2019 on Roosevelt Island in New York. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images, FILE) When is it? LGBT Pride Month is celebrated every year in June. The month of June was chosen for LGBT Pride Month to commemorate the riots held by members of the LGBT community against a police raid that took place at the Stonewall Inn in New York City on June 28, 1969. The so-called Stonewall riots were a "tipping point" for the gay liberation movement in the United States, according to the Library of Congress. The uproar also paved the way for the modern fight for LGBT rights. Previous U.S. presidents have, on several occasions, officially declared June as LGBT Pride Month. PHOTO: People take part in the LGBT Pride Parade in Washington, June 8, 2019. (NurPhoto via Getty Images, FILE) How do people celebrate LGBT Pride Month? LGBT Pride Month events draw millions of participants from around the world each year. Typically, there are monthlong celebrations and in-person gatherings that take place across the nation, including pride parades, marches, parties, concerts, workshops and symposiums. Memorials are also often held for members of the LGBT community who have lost their lives to hate crimes or HIV/AIDS. The rainbow LGBT flag is prominently displayed throughout the month. Gilbert Baker, an American artist, gay rights activist and U.S. Army veteran, created the flag in 1978 as a new symbol for the gay and lesbian political movement at the suggestion of his friends and colleagues, including Harvey Milk, a San Francisco city supervisor and the first openly gay elected official in California. Milk was assassinated later that year. PHOTO: A rainbow flag and a U.S. flag are seen in front of the St Bartholomew's Church on June 11, 2019 in New York. (AFP via Getty Images, FILE) According to Baker's website, the colors of the LGBT flag each have a meaning: red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, blue for harmony and violet for spirit. Story continues Baker died at the age of 65 on March 31, 2017, though his rainbow flag remains an iconic, powerful symbol for LGBT pride. This year's LGBT Pride Month will be celebrated differently due to the coronavirus pandemic. All 50 U.S. states have started to lift stay-at-home orders and other restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, but LGBT Pride Month parades and marches planned for June were -- and remain -- canceled. The LGBT community and allies will still be able to connect virtually, though, thanks to a slew of online events. PHOTO:People take part in the LGBT Pride Parade in Washington, June 8, 2019. (NurPhoto via Getty Images, FILE) What LGBT Pride Month events will take place this year? A number of official events that would normally be held in various cities across the nation throughout the month will now be taking place online. Here are some of the more prominent celebrations. Boston Pride will host a series of virtual events throughout the month, including the raising of the rainbow pride flag on June 5 at 12 p.m. ET, a talk on June 5 with Eric Cervini, author of "The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America," the annual Pride Lights on June 9 to commemorate those affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, as well as a pride festival and concert on June 13. Los Angeles' first-ever virtual pride parade will air as a 90-minute primetime special exclusively on Los Angeles ABC station KABC on June 13 from 7:30 to 9 p.m. PT, with an encore presentation on June 14 at 2 p.m. PT. The first-ever virtual Trans March will kick off on June 26 at a to-be-decided time. The New York City Pride Rally will take place virtually on June 26 at a to-be-decided time. San Francisco Pride will host an online celebration and rally on June 27 from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. PT and on June 28 from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT. The virtual event will feature live and prerecorded performances, greetings from LGBT community members, elected officials and celebrities as well as speeches from thought leaders, drag and dance performances, DJ sets and more. Seattle Pride will hold a series virtual events from June 26 through June 28, with specific times and more information to come. PHOTO: Drag Queen Vincent Leggett warms up the crowd at the first annual Pride In The Park kick-off party, hosted by Mayors Office of LGBTQ Affairs, at LOVE park, in Philadelphia, June 6, 2019. (NurPhoto via Getty Images, FILE) How else will this year's LGBT Pride Month be different? The LGBT community has fully mobilized to support the real-time efforts of the Black Lives Matter movement and to amplify the voices of protesters marching for justice for George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died on May 25 in Minneapolis shortly after a white police officer was filmed kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes as three other officers stood by. Last week, more than 100 LGBT and civil rights organizations signed an open letter condemning racism, racial violence and police brutality while calling for action to combat those scourges. "The LGBTQ community knows about the work of resisting police brutality and violence. We celebrate June as Pride Month, because it commemorates, in part, our resisting police harassment and brutality at Stonewall in New York City, and earlier in California, when such violence was common and expected," the letter states. "We remember it as a breakthrough moment when we refused to accept humiliation and fear as the price of living fully, freely, and authentically." PHOTO: A person holds a 'Black Lives Matter' sign as as a heavy cloud of tear gas and smoke rises after being deployed by Seattle police as protesters rally against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Seattle, June 1, 2020. (Lindsey Wasson/Reuters, FILE) "We understand what it means to rise up and push back against a culture that tells us we are less than, that our lives don't matter," the letter continues. "Today, we join together again to say #BlackLivesMatter and commit ourselves to the action those words require." Sarah Kate Ellis, president of Los Angeles-based LGBT advocacy group GLAAD, told "Good Morning America" that it's important to remember the 1969 Stonewall riots were spearheaded by many people of color. She went on to explain how this year's Pride Month will undoubtedly be completely different. "Well be centering and lifting up the voices of queer people of color, whose struggles are shared by the entire LGBTQ community," Ellis said. "There can be no pride if it is not intersectional. We are Together in Pride. LGBT Pride Month 2020: What to know about its history, events, parades originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Reuters At least one child was killed in northern Syria this week when a storm blanketed tented camps in snow and brought freezing temperatures, compounding the misery of thousands of people displaced by the Mediterranean country's decade-long war. The child died and its mother was in intensive care after snow caused their tent to collapse in the Qastal Miqdad area, as a result of the storm that struck on Jan. 18, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. "I was scared the tent would fall down on the kids," Abu Anas said in Zaitoun camp in northern Syria, after his family fled from eastern Gouta, an area on the outskirts of Damascus that was devastated by the conflict. Africa Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum has partnered with AfricArena to host a webinar titled Women in tech: Is it more complicated in Africa? on Thursday, 4 June 2020 at 15:00 CAT (GMT +2). Africa is the only region in the world where more women than men choose to become entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, technology has appeared to be a powerful tool to solve some of the continents biggest challenges. Mobile money and fintech startups have brought basic financial services to millions of Africans, while decentralised energy production technology is bringing electricity in rural areas. Paradoxically, like many other tech ecosystems, Africa does not have enough women in tech entrepreneurship. According to Irene Ochem, AWIEF founder and chief executive officer, AWIEF and AfricArena are determined to promote women tech entrepreneurship, help to create role models as well as move lines to make sure that tomorrows leading tech startups will be founded and led by an equal ratio of men and women. The goal is to ask knowledgeable speakers offering various prospects their insights on different subjects. Christophe Viarnaud, AfricArena founder and Chief Maverick, says: We will be covering the role of education and technical skills, the need to have more gender-balanced VC funds as well as more role models with female founders and female leadership teams in high growth startups. Also, entrepreneurs are creating most of the value in the tech ecosystems but they are tirelessly pitching their solutions to investors with the hope to access funding. The event will also feature an investor pitch with strong female investors who will be engaging in a discussion about raising VC funds, the importance of gender balanced-fund, as well as other challenges related to investment in tech in Africa, he added. Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn Articles similaires This article is published through a partnership with New York Medias Strategist . The partnership is designed to surface the most useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change. Every editorial product is independently selected by New York Media. If you buy something through our links, Slate and New York Media may earn an affiliate commission. If youre like us, youve probably wondered what famous people add to their carts. Not the JAR brooch and Louis XV chair, but the hand sanitizer and the electric toothbrush. 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Theyre a history of my life through travel and observation, mixing images and text and ticket stubs and lots of pressed flowers. The pages in these sketchbooks are perforated, so if youre really embarrassed about something, you can always tear it out and edit history. Because I walk a lot, I only want to carry a sketchbook, a pen, a phone, and a wallet with me, and these sketch books fit exactly into my bag. I love the paper and the gold name embossed on the back. $18 from Amazon Bodum 1923-16US4 Chambord French Press Coffee and Tea Maker My two favorite times of the day are getting into bed at night and getting out of bed in the morning, which I always do with a cup of coffee from my French press. I grind the beans for seven seconds, then I wait four minutes for it to brew, and while Im waiting, I get the New York Times, which is at the door. Then, when the coffee is ready, I read the obituaries in the New York Times. Its the most satisfying morning ritual before I go out and take a walk. $31 from Amazon Gilden Tree Premium Bath Towels Quick Dry Waffle Weave 100% Natural Cotton I have these waffle towels and I have the waffle robe. I believe in waffle fabric. I think it has great integrity and I feel intelligent when Im using it. These towels are thinner and less heavy than the big thick towels that people like to use. I used to be in the thick-towel camp because I didnt know any better. Then I got introduced to these and I thought, How could anybody choose anything else? Also, they take up a lot less room in the closet. So when youre organizing your linen closet, which of course we all do very often, its nice to have the lineup of slim towels. Im just grateful they exist. $60 from Amazon C.O. Bigelow Mentha Ultra Lip Shine I live a few blocks from C.O. Bigelow. The place has been a part of my life for literally 50 years. This lip balm is critical for New York and certainly for the dry winter. They have a few different colors and I am constantly reapplying them. I like that this one is minty and that its not gooey, but its still it stays on your lips. And its cheap. I dont like expensive beauty products I think thats an unfair road people take. Buy from Amazon Im a big ironer and I could talk about ironing at great length. As I said, getting into bed is one of the great moments of life. But it has to be in a beautifully made bed with white linens that are starched and ironed. Which is something that I love, love, love to do. I use liquid starch in a spray bottle and I iron my pillowcases with it so that when I get into bed which I do very early to read, talk on the phone, or watch British murder mysteries its just one of those glorious experiences. I iron everything. Thats kind of the legacy of our family and its something that the women did back in Belarus. Who knows if they were washing by the river or what. But anyway, even with my son Alex Kalman, the joke is that we iron our underpants. And napkins, of course. If you dont iron your napkins before putting them on the table, thats a tragedy. If you can walk everywhere, iron, and mail letters, thats a nice life. Caldrea Dish Soap, Ginger Pomelo Im addicted to this dish soap. Ive not gone so far as to drink it, but I love the scent. Anything that has ginger in it gets me really excited. And pomelos, I adore pomelos. I eat them straight and use them in salads. The first pomelo I ever had was in the Sinai, in Egypt, and it was one of those revelation moments like, This is an amazing fruit. $10 from Ginger Pomelo Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. According to a new study published by Polaris Market Research the global fog computing market is anticipated to reach USD 934 million by 2026. Fog computing helps in enhancing the efficiency as well as data computing competencies for cloud computing. The major use of fog computing is to enhance efficiency however, the use of fog computing can also be done for security and compliance reasons. Fog computing is used in several applications including, smart city, smart buildings, smart grid, vehicle networks and software- defined networks. Browse for full research summary: https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/fog-computing-market On the basis of components, the market is segmented into hardware and software. The software market is growing at a highest CAGR and has accounted for the largest share attributed to low cost, increasing functionality, as well as advancements in features & designs. Furthermore, the constantly decreasing costs of sensors, storage devices, and semiconductor devices is one of the factor which is fueling the market growth of hardware in fog computing. Another factor responsible for the market growth of fog computing is the developments in network technology resulting in reduction of OPEX across business organizations. Currently, the market for fog computing is dominated by North America with countries including, US and Canada taking initiatives to promote the adoption of IoT in the region. Also, Europe is the second largest market after North America, which is also experiencing growth in the adopting of fog computing and IoT. However, APAC is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period attributed to the increasing awareness of fog computing in these regions. Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/fog-computing-market/request-for-sample Major companies profiled in the report include Cradlepoint, Inc., PrismTech, FogHorn Systems, Cisco Systems, Inc., Crosser Technologies, Nebbiolo Technologies, Microsoft Corporation, Intel Corporation, Fujitsu, Arm Holding Plc., and ADLINK Technology Inc. Key Findings from the study suggest North America is expected to command the market over the forecast years. APAC is presumed to be the fastest growing market, with highest CAGRover the forecast period. The fog computing market is presumed to develop at a CAGR of over 62.6% from 2018 to 2026. The fog computing technology is used in applications such as building & automation, smart energy, transportation & logistics, smart manufacturing, connected health, and others. Among the application segment, smart manufacturing is expected to hold the largest share. This is due to the several number of sensors required for varied functions in manufacturing facilities, that generates enormous amount data. Fog computing helps manufacturing companies to reduce operating cost by making use of real-time data to take efficient decisions. Check for discount: https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/fog-computing-market/request-for-discount-pricing Fog Computing Market Size And Forecast By Hardware Routers/Gateways Switches Controllers Sensors Others Fog Computing Market Size And Forecast By Software Fog Computing Platforms Custom Application Software Fog Computing Market Size And Forecast By Service Professional Service Training Service Fog Computing Market Size And Forecast By Application Smart Homes/Smart Cities Smart Energy Smart Manufacturing Connected Healthcare Smart Transport Others Fog Computing Market Size And Forecast By Regions North America U.S. Canada Europe Germany UK Asia Pacific China Japan Latin America Brazil Mexico Middle East & Africa Make Inquiry about this report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/fog-computing-market/inquire-before-buying About Polaris Market Research Polaris Market Research is a global market research and consulting company. We provide unmatched quality of offerings to our clients present globally. The company specializes in providing exceptional market intelligence and in-depth business research services for our clientele spread across different enterprises. We at Polaris are obliged to serve our diverse customer base present across the industries of healthcare, technology, semi-conductors and chemicals among various other industries present around the world. Contact us- Polaris Market Research Phone: 1-646-568-9980 Email: sales@polarismarketresearch.com Web: www.polarismarketresearch.com Under the current law, Putin would not be able to run for president again in 2024 because of term limits. One of the measures to be voted on would reset his term count, allowing the Russian leader to run for two more six-year terms if he chooses. The 67-year-old has been in power since 2000. The majority of Americans critically ill with the novel coronavirus become delirious, a new small study suggests. Researchers found that almost three-quarters of US adults admitted to the ICU with the virus experience delirium, which continues for about one week. What's more, coronavirus patients who experience delirium were 10 percent more likely to die than those who didn't. The team, from the Indiana University School of Medicine, said that the findings show evidence that doctors need to pay close attention to COVID-19 patients so they can quickly treat signs of delirium. More than 73% of patients admitted to ICUs with coronavirus experience delirium, which lasts for about seven days (above) About 87% had hypoactive delirium, characterized by a reduction in physical movements, and 13% ad hyperactive delirium, characterized by motor agitation (above) Coronavirus patients who experienced delirium were 10% more likely to die than those who didn't. Pictured: A medical staff member treats a patient suffering from COVID-19 in the ICU at Scripps Mercy Hospital in Chula Vista, California, May 12 For the study, published on pre-print site medRxiv.org, the team looked a patients admitted to two Level 1 trauma centers. This included patients who were admitted to ICUs with a positive coronavirus test between March 1 and April 27. Results showed that delirium occurred within the first 14 days of ICU stay in 73.6 percent of patients. Additionally, delirium or coma occurred in 76.4 percent of the 144 patients studied. Researchers also found that invasive mechanical ventilation was linked to greater odds of patients experiencing delirium. The median score on a scale (from four to seven) that measured delirium was six, which represents severe delirium. About 86.8 percent of patients with delirium had hypoactive delirium, which is characterized by a reduction in physical movements and a slowing of speech, which lasted about four days. The other roughly 13 percent had hyperactive delirium, which is characterized by motor agitation and restlessness, which lasted less than one day. Additionally, more than one-quarter of patients with delirium died compared to about 16 percent of patients without delirium who died. 'Clinical attention to prevent and manage delirium and reduce delirium duration and severity is urgently needed for patients with COVID-19,' the authors wrote. This is not the first report to find cases of delirium in coronavirus patients. A study from Wuhan, China - where the virus is believed to have originated - found that 36 percent of coronavirus patients had neurological symptoms such as strokes and headaches. Another study from France found that 84 percent of patients experienced these symptoms, even after they left the hospital. In the US, there are more than 1.8 million confirmed cases of the virus and more than 105,000 deaths. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 17:30:28|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close DHAKA, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh confirmed 2,911 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, the highest daily rise since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country on March 8, bringing the total to over 52,000. Professor Nasima Sultana, a senior health ministry official, told an online media briefing in Dhaka that "the total number of positive cases is now 52,445 and the death toll stands currently at 709." She said that 37 more people including 33 men and four women died in the last 24 hours. According to the official, 12,704 samples were tested in the 52 labs in the last 24 hours across Bangladesh. During the last 24 hours, she said 523 more patients were released from hospitals and clinics, bringing the number of recovered patients in the country to 11,120. Bangladesh had earlier recorded highest 2,545 cases in a 24-hour period on Sunday. Enditem The NHS' flagship test and trace system tracked down less than half of positive patients' 'contacts' in the first three days of its launch, figures suggested last night. A leaked report claimed that virus sufferers had provided details of 4,634 people they might have infected, of whom just 1,749 were texted or emailed. The Department of Health pointed out that the figures were four days out of date, insisting the majority of contacts had since been alerted. But the document obtained by Channel 4 News comes amid concerns that many of those employed by the scheme have had nothing to do. The NHS' flagship test and trace system tracked down less than half of positive patients' 'contacts' in the first three days of its launch, figures suggested last night (File image of NHS tracing app) Test and trace was launched by Health Secretary Matt Hancock last Thursday. He hailed it as a 'new way of life' that would enable the country to come out of lockdown. Anyone with virus symptoms is urged to order a test and if the results are positive, they are asked for the mobile phone numbers or email addresses of their recent contacts. This includes people with whom they had spent at least 15 minutes at a distance of less than two metres in the two days before the symptoms began and five days after. A government diagram explained how the NHS Test and Trace system works These contacts are then texted or emailed and asked to self-isolate for up to 14 days. Yesterday the Government launched a major information campaign on the scheme with TV, radio and online adverts. And on Monday, Mr Hancock claimed the system was 'working well', although he repeatedly refused to provide figures for the number of people who had been traced. But Baroness Harding, who is leading the programme, reportedly told MPs last week she did not expect the system to be properly up and running until the end of this month due to likely teething problems. The Government is hoping to publish up-to-date figures this week, then weekly updates thereafter, once it has confidence in the data. Department of Health officials stressed that many patients with the virus were not suitable for contact tracing because they were in hospitals or care homes. Hancock under fire over his figures Matt Hancock has become embroiled in a public row with the country's top statistician over testing figures. Sir David Norgrove accused the Government of misleading the public with its daily testing figures, saying they are 'still far from complete and comprehensible'. Matt Hancock has become embroiled in a public row with the country's top statistician over testing figures It is the second time the UK Statistics Authority chairman has hit out at the way Covid-19 tests are being presented. Sir David said it was 'not surprising' the data had been 'widely criticised and often mistrusted'. Health Secretary Mr Hancock responded by saying he would publish details of how the 200,000 tests would be counted. The Government has hit targets to have the capacity for 200,000 tests by the end of May. But in a letter to No 10, Sir David said: 'The aim seems to be to show the largest possible number of tests, even at the expense of understanding.' A Department of Health spokesman said: 'Our approach throughout has been to increase transparency.' Advertisement Up to 25,000 contact tracers have been hired alongside 3,000 clinical case workers. They earn between 10 and 27 an hour, depending on their expertise. But three contact tracers told the Mail earlier this week that they had not made a single call. Another claimed she had spent much of her time reupholstering a chair because she had so little to do. On Monday it was revealed scores of the 25,000 employees hired by the Government had come forward to say they have had no positive cases allocated to them since the launch, with one even suggesting there was a fault with the system. Contact tracers say the system remains 'shambolic' and unfit for purpose as millions of pupils return to school today. Workers last week also complained they hadn't had any training by the time it launched and had waited weeks for log-in details. Details of those who test positive are passed to a company called Sitel, which is running the track and trace handling across the UK. Agents read from a prepared script when they are given the name and telephone number of a person who has been diagnosed with Covid-19. They ask for the details of friends and family the infected person has come into contact with during the previous two weeks. The tracing agent then makes contact with those on their list and informs them they have to self-isolate. One tracer said colleagues who were on shift were 'sitting there all day waiting and just refreshing their screens'. He said: 'They've got nothing to do.' One of the 3,000 clinical case workers hired by Public Health England said she had completed three four-hour shifts, at 27-an-hour, but hadn't made any calls yet. She told The Times: 'I have had absolutely nothing to do.' The nurse said she had seen 'zero cases' on the system throughout three shifts and felt 'tremendously guilty about doing the shifts and being paid and not having anything to do really'. 'It's very obviously not ready,' she said. 'Something is not working between CTAS and the test results that are coming in.' Mr Hancock first announced the development of test and trace system on April 12, with recruitment starting on April 23. There were hopes the system would be up and running nationwide by mid-May, with a trial of a separate app starting on the Isle of Wight. By May 18, the Health Secretary revealed 21,000 contact tracers had been hired, two days later Boris Johnson revealed the test and tracing system will be up and running by June 1, while the contact tracing app will arrive later. A Department of Health spokesman said: 'These figures are outdated and fail to reflect the huge amount of work already under way, with thousands of people already contacted in just a matter of days and their contacts successfully traced. 'We are working with the UK Statistics Authority to finalise the most useful information to publish on its performance and will be providing weekly updates shortly.' The sound of thousands of people of all races and backgrounds chanting black lives matter and no justice, no peace echoed through Perth's CBD on WA Day in a united stance against racism and police brutality. The peaceful protest was organised in solidarity to the global response following the death of George Floyd, who died in the United States after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin held his knee to his neck during an arrest. People wore facemasks and tried to adhere to social distancing measures as they protested in Forrest Chase. Credit:Marta Pascual Juanola Forrest Chase was flooded on Monday night with people wearing face masks and holding placards with Mr Floyds last words I cant breathe. Event organiser Tanesha Bennell, an Indigenous teenager with Bibbulmun ancestry, said the purpose was to show solidarity on a global scale and to recognise Indigenous lives lost in custody within Australia. JERSEY CITY, N.J., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. ("Jackson Hewitt"), the second-largest retail provider of assisted tax-preparation services in the United States, today announced that Greg Macfarlane has been appointed to be the Company's next Chief Executive Officer and President. Mr. Macfarlane was most recently Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Casper Sleep Inc., and previously held a number of senior leadership roles at H&R Block. He has served on the Board of Directors of Jackson Hewitt for 2 years. Mr. Macfarlane will start June 15, 2020 and will work closely with Mr. Ferber and the rest of the Jackson Hewitt team to provide industry-leading support to clients through the completion of the extended 2020 tax season. Mr. Ferber will overlap through July 15, 2020 to ensure an orderly transition and then will remain on the Company's Board of Directors. "We are pleased to welcome Greg as our next Chief Executive Officer," said Richard E. Thornburgh, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Senior Advisor to Corsair Capital. "Greg has deep knowledge of the tax services industry as well as significant digital and retail experience, and I believe he is the ideal leader to continue and expand on the tremendous progress under Alan's leadership. On behalf of the entire Company, I would like to thank Alan for his countless contributions. Alan built an inspirational culture of service and innovation, and we are pleased that he will continue to serve on the Board." Commenting on his appointment, Mr. Macfarlane said: "Jackson Hewitt has a stellar reputation for supporting Hard Working Americans with their tax needs especially during challenging times like these and I look forward to working with this great team to build on the Company's recent success and help lead the next phase of opportunities. I appreciate the Board's confidence in my experience and capabilities, as well as Alan's support and partnership as I take on this new role." Under Mr. Ferber's leadership as CEO since early 2017, Jackson Hewitt has continued to strengthen its brand, grown its store footprint, entered long-term relationships with key financial product and retail partners, increased customer retention and launched its Tax Debt Relief business and Tax Pro From Home, a virtual assisted tax preparation business, while continuing to build a customer-focused culture. "It has been a privilege to lead Jackson Hewitt through this period of growth and success," said Mr. Ferber. "Throughout this journey, I have been continuously inspired by all the employees, franchisees and tax professionals who work tirelessly each day to support our hardworking customers across the country. While it was a difficult decision to step away from the day-to-day leadership of this great team, I'm confident Greg is the right CEO to take the Company to the next level, and I look forward to working closely with him in the coming weeks to facilitate a seamless transition." Greg Macfarlane Biography Greg Macfarlane is a highly-experienced executive with expertise in the direct-to-consumer, retail, financial services, business services, software and technology industries at both public and private companies. He most recently served as Chief Operating Office and Chief Financial Officer of Casper, the global sleep company. Prior to joining Casper in 2018, Mr. Macfarlane held numerous leadership roles at H&R Block, the largest global consumer tax services provider, including Senior Vice President of Products and Operations and Chief Financial and Strategic Officer. Before his time at H&R Block, Mr. Macfarlane was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Ceridian Corporation, a provider of human resources software and services, and spent more than 14 years in senior leadership roles at General Electric. About Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. is an innovator in the tax industry, with a mission to provide its hard-working clients access to simple, low-cost solutions to manage their taxes and tax refunds. Jackson Hewitt is devoted to helping clients get ahead and stands behind its work with its Guaranteed Biggest Refund or $100 and Lifetime Accuracy guarantees. Clients can choose to file at one of Jackson Hewitt's nearly 6,000 franchised and company-owned locations, including 3,000 in Walmart stores and online. Jackson Hewitt makes it easy and convenient for clients to file their taxes. For more information about products, services, and offers, or to locate a Jackson Hewitt office, visit www.jacksonhewitt.com or call 1 (800) 234-1040. Media Contacts Jackson Hewitt Sard Verbinnen & Co David Millar / Danya Al-Qattan [email protected] SOURCE Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. Related Links http://www.jacksonhewitt.com [June 02, 2020] Desert Financial Credit Union Partners with TCI Teledata Communications, Inc. (TCI), the provider of DecisionLender 4 (DL4), a consumer loan origination platform, announced today that Desert Financial Credit Union has entered into a new partnership with TCI for indirect, direct and online lending. Desert Financial is the largest credit union in Arizona and has $5 billion in assets, more than 320,000 members and nearly 50 locations throughout the state. The partnership will deliver a faster, more comprehensive loan experience to the members and employees of Desert Financial. Prior to partnering with TCI, the credit union identified a need for more agile implementation of new product offerings. Desert Financial chose TCI's DL4 platform because it was highly configurable, enabling the credit union to quickly and easily make changes and adapt to current market conditions. This new flexibility will enable Desert Financial stay on top of the latest trends, and adjust to provide the right loan products at the right time to meet the needs of its members. "TCI's DecisionLender 4 will provide ourcredit union the flexibility to modify workflows, deploy new decision rules and quickly implement new loan products as the market dictates, all without IT resources," said Jeff Meshey, President and CEO at Desert Financial Credit Union. "During our search for a new LOS, it was important to ensure greater flexibility." The configurability of DL4 will enable Desert Financial to design its own workflow and then determine the level of control and automation, all without adding additional IT or developer resources. "The configurability of DL4 enables us to self-administer system parameters and rules, giving us the flexibility we need to support our member needs," Meshey added. Bill Nass, president of TCI, said, "As credit unions expect to maintain and grow their competitive advantage, they need to adapt quickly. Desert Financial understands that and the experiences that members now require. DecisionLender 4 will enable the credit union to be proactive with market trends, enabling them to provide the loan products their members need. We look forward to our new partnership and working with Desert Financial to increase its automation and decisioning to process, underwrite, and close a higher volume of loans." About Teledata Communications, Inc. Founded in 1982, Teledata Communications, Inc (TCI) is the provider of DecisionLender 4, a consumer loan origination platform (LOS). DecisionLender 4 is completely configurable, hosted in the cloud, and supports branch, online lending, indirect auto and merchant lending, and deposit account opening. The robust decisioning engine is the most versatile on the market, enabling manual or automated workflows. With over 130+ different 3rd party integrations ranging from alternative data sources, to fraud protection, to esignature and more, DecisionLender 4 truly empowers you to do business YOUR WAY! www.tcicredit.com About Desert Financial Credit Union With more than 80 years in Arizona, Desert Financial is the state's largest local credit union with $5 billion in assets, more than 320,000 members and nearly 50 locations across the Valley. As a not-for-profit cooperative, Desert Financial prides itself on sharing success with its members, its team and the wider community. In 2019, Desert Financial gave nearly $11M to Valley nonprofits, the community and members. Learn more at desertfinancial.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005169/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] New Delhi, June 2 : In a major restructuring exercise, the State Bank of India (SBI), the largest lender of the country, has created a separate FI&MM vertical within the Bank with an exclusive focus on Financial Inclusion & Micro markets in rural and semi urban areas to improve customer experience in the hinterland. Under this, the Bank will offer loans predominantly for agriculture and allied activities, and micro and small enterprises. About 8,000 branches in rural and semi urban areas have been identified for providing specialised services to the micro segment including micro credit for small businesses and farmers. The thrust is also to improve service quality and availability of banking services through the Bank's network of over 63,000 Customer Service Points in rural, semi urban, urban & metro areas. The new Vertical will provide a boost to the micro-finance sector. Launching the Vertical, Rajnish Kumar, Chairman, SBI said: "The key elements of creating the FI&MM vertical are to bring sharper focus to different business lines and improve the quality of interaction with customers at the Branch. This is a key initiative by SBI to cater to financial requirements of people residing in the hinterland of the country, as part of its financial inclusion journey. The new FI&MM Vertical will provide an opportunity to serve the small business, Agri & allied segment so that they can run their businesses smoothly, especially in the current times of uncertainty." At the national level, the FI&MM vertical will be headed by deputy managing director (DMD) Sanjeev Nautiyal. To ensure special focus and smooth functioning at the local level, the FI&MM Vertical will comprise of a four tiered structure under the Chief General Manager, General Manager, RMs at Regional Business Offices (RBO) and District Sales Hub to strengthen the credit delivery system and improve the turnaround time for quick sanctions and disbursement of small loans. The primary emphasis will be on consolidating the district level presence which will provide constant sales & recovery support to branches in the FI&MM Network. The DSHs will also play an important role in strengthening the reach of Customer Service Points (CSP) and ensure improvement in quality & availability of services rendered to customers. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the SBI has been at the forefront in providing relief to existing SME borrowers, such as 10 per cent of fund based working capital limits by way of CCECL (Common COVID 19 Emergency Credit Line), easing of working capital finance along with moratorium on term loans and working capital. Ghanas President Nana Akufo-Addo has announced measures to ease restrictions on public gatherings in the country. Under the new directives, church services and Muslim prayers can take place with 100 congregants at a time and for only one hour. Social-distancing rules and mandatory wearing of masks must also be enforced. The directives take effect from Friday. The restrictions were imposed two months ago to stop the spread of coronavirus. In a televised address, President Akufo-Addo said the decision to ease restrictions on selected public gatherings was based on their risk profile, social and economic impact and the countrys ability to respond to a major outbreak. Schools will be reopened for final year students only. Conferences, weddings, burials, non-contact sport and political activities with a limited number of 100 participants will also be allowed. But festivals, sporting events, nightclubs, cinemas and political rallies remain banned. According to President Akufo-Addo, arrangements will be made to evacuate Ghanaians stranded abroad, but they will undergo mandatory quarantine and testing. Meanwhile, Ghanas borders remain closed indefinitely. Ghana has so far recorded 8,060 confirmed cases of the disease and 36 deaths. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates Scientists are urging a temporary halt to deep-sea metal mining. They warn in a report that it could cause severe, damaging effects on Pacific Ocean areas. The recently-released report examined more than 250 published studies on deep-sea mining. The research was examined by the Deep Sea Mining Campaign a collection of not-for-profit organizations. Environmental group MiningWatch Canada also cooperated on the study. The report centers on mining activities related to small metallic particles, called nodules, found on the seabed. The material can contain different metals, such as copper, cobalt, nickel and manganese. Increasing demand for these metals has led to a rise in deep-sea mining operations. The metals are commonly used in battery manufacturing and other technology products. The Deep Sea Mining Campaign says the metallic nodules have drawn intense interest by companies and investors because the Pacific Ocean covers about 30 percent of Earths surface. However, the scientists warn that mining for these nodules would cause irreversible damage to an ocean already under pressure. The operations would affect areas across the South Pacific, including the nations of Kiribati, the Cook Islands, Nauru, Tonga and Papua New Guinea. The report notes that a moratorium is the only responsible way to move forward until certain conditions surrounding deep-sea mining can be met. The scientists are calling for additional study to fully understand the environmental, social and economic risks. Andrew Chin was the reports lead researcher. He said in a statement that nodule mining will likely result in the loss of sea life and cause damage to deep sea beds for thousands of years. He added that the operations could put people at risk who depend on the ocean and its continued health. Helen Rosenbaum is with the Deep Sea Mining Campaign. She said the research showed damage will result from the removal of the nodules themselves, which unsettles sediment. In addition, waste will be released into the ocean from the mining process. At this point we dont know whats going to be in that sediment, what kind of heavy metals might be there, how bio-available they are how readily they might be taken up in the food chain, Rosenbaum said. The International Seabed Authority, an intergovernmental organization based in Kingston, Jamaica, has approved about 30 deep sea exploration requests, 25 of them in the Pacific Ocean. Eighteen of the licenses cover the area known as the Clarion Clipperton Zone. This area stretches about 4.5 million square kilometers from Kiribati to Mexico. A company planning to be one of the first to carry out mining operations in the area is Canadas DeepGreen, which aims to begin by 2024. It seeks to mine metallic nodules to be used in power systems for electric vehicles. DeepGreen Chief Executive Officer Gerard Barron defended the companys plans in reaction to the report. He said deep-sea mining offers the best alternative to surface mining, which has a long history of pollution and destroying forests and wildlife. I think it was a bias, narrow view, which doesnt address any the issues, by a group of people that have their hearts set on trying to stop the progress of this industry, Barron said. He added that the demand for deep-sea mining will keep rising as electric vehicle manufacturing increases in the future. The argument should be what has the lowest impact from an environmental and a societal perspective, Barron said. He noted that the Clarion Clipperton Zone contained enough nickel and cobalt to electrify a billion electric vehicles." Im Bryan Lynn. Luke Hunt reported this story for VOA News. Bryan Lynn adapted the report for Learning English, with additional information coming from the Deep Sea Mining Campaign. Hai Do was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story battery n. an object that provides electricity for things irreversible adj. not able to be undone or changed moratorium n. the stopping of an activity for a certain period of time sediment n. a solid substance that forms a layer at the bottom of a liquid food chain n. a series of living things that are linked because each groups of things eats the groups below it in the chain alternative n. another way of doing something bias n. the action of supporting or opposing a particular person or thing in an unfair way, because of permitting personal opinions to influence your judgment impact n. a powerful effect something has on a particular person or situation perspective n. a particular way of considering something Louisville Police Chief Fired After Officer Bodycams Found Inactive During Fatal Shooting Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer on Monday fired the citys chief of police after learning that the body cameras of police officers involved in the fatal shooting of a local business owner were inactive. Steve Conrad, Louisville Metro Police Chief, was relieved of duty Monday while the two officers involved in the killing of David McAtee were placed on administrative leave, Fischer said during a press briefing. This type of institutional failure will not be tolerated, Fischer said. Accordingly, I have relieved Steve Conrad of his duties as chief of Louisville Metro Police Department McAtee, who ran YaYas BBQ Shack near the scene of the fatal shooting, was killed when Louisville officers and the National Guard attempted to disperse a large group of protesters at 12:15 a.m. According to a statement made by Conrad earlier Monday, officers returned fire after someone allegedly shot at law enforcement. LMPD and the Kentucky National Guard returned fire resulting in death, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said in a statement Monday morning, adding that he requested the Kentucky State Police conduct an independent investigation into the shooting in an honest and transparent way that will not take months. Statement from Governor Andy Beshear: pic.twitter.com/MyHxcE3Ntn Governor Andy Beshear (@GovAndyBeshear) June 1, 2020 Beshear described the situation as unacceptable, adding, This is the entire reason that we have those cameras. The police officers involved violated department policy by either failing to activate their body cameras or not wearing them, Deputy Chief Robert Schroeder said. We will review the entire incident to determine if there were any other policy violations that occurred, Schroeder said. I assure you, there will be discipline for failing to utilize our cameras. Officials said other footage and audio of the fatal shooting will be released. The incident will also be investigated by FBI and the U.S. Attorneys Office, U.S. Attorney Russell Coleman said Monday. Conrad, who will be replaced by Schroeder, had been expected to retire later this month after eight years on the job, amid the controversial killing of Breonna Taylora 26-year-old Kentucky medical worker who was killed in her home by law enforcement officers, who executed a no-knock drug warrant after midnight. On March 13, Kenneth Walker, the boyfriend of Taylor, fired a handgun which he legally owned, believing the Louisville home he and Taylor shared was being broken into. In the confrontation, a police officer was struck by a round. Police returned fire, hitting Taylor eight times, resulting in her death. No drugs were found in the home. Since Taylors death, Fischer said Louisville officers must wear body cameras. LYNDHURST, Ohio -- The death of African-American George Floyd in Minneapolis after a white police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes following a Memorial Day arrest for allegedly passing a counterfeit bill has spurred nationwide protests, riots and looting. Peaceful protests and, later, rioting and destruction of businesses came to downtown Cleveland on Saturday (May 30). The aftermath of Floyds death has had an impact in Clevelands eastern suburbs, as well. On Monday (June 1), Lyndhurst Mayor Patrick Ward and Beachwood Mayor Martin Horwitz, who double as their respective cities safety directors, told of how, a day before, social media chatter and intelligence gathered by police told of the possibility of the downtown Cleveland riots moving east along Cedar Road to their communities -- specifically, to Legacy Village in Lyndhurst and Beachwood Place mall. Other local mayors also received this information, prompting further action in east side suburbs. It was early on Saturday, at 11:35 a.m., that a manager at Dicks Sporting Goods, 24545 Cedar Road at Legacy Village, reported to Lyndhurst police that she had heard via a former employee that the word on social media was that rioting could be coming that night to Legacy Village, located at Richmond and Cedar roads. Lyndhurst Police Chief Patrick Rhode paged all of the departments officers, telling them to be prepared to be called to duty that day. By 7:15 p.m. Saturday, as violence began downtown, police blocked entrances to Legacy Village and advised restaurant operators that they should consider closing for the evening. On Sunday morning, Ward said, Legacy Village management was in contact with management at Beachwood Place, discussing whether it would be prudent to close the two shopping centers that day. Basically, we told them we would support any decision they made," Ward said. "My suggestion was that if Beachwood Place closed, (Legacy Village) had no choice but to close, as well. So, ultimately, (closing Sunday) was their determination. "We sent some vehicles (service department plow trucks) over there to act as a visual and physical barricade to the premises. All the Cedar Road entrances (to Legacy Village) were shuttered. Ward said the Richmond Road entrance to Legacy Village was kept open, but was monitored by security and police. He said the Giant Eagle grocery store at Legacy remained open and was busy throughout the weekend, and that the Hyatt Hotel at Legacy hosted guests. I think it was well managed by Legacy security and our personnel supporting them, Ward said. Destruction of property does not serve any constructive purpose, he said. "It does not make any constructive point. It does not support any constructive cause. And, I dont think anyone who is reasonable thinks that represents justice or requests for justice. Our small businesses have suffered so much throughout these past months (due to coronavirus shutdowns), and for any group of persons to think this is constructive to destroy places of business where everyone works -- it sends no message whatsoever. Not a positive one, any way. At Beachwood Place, Beachwood Police Chief Gary Haba, with help from the citys public works department, also stationed large plow trucks at entrances in securing the mall on Sunday. I truly want to thank (Public Works Director) Chris (Arietta) and Chief Haba, Horwitz said during Monday nights (June 1) Zoom conference City Council meeting. This weekend was difficult. None of us knew what to expect this weekend. We saw what happened in Cleveland. It was a nightmare. It was a war zone, he said. "We had every reason to believe that was going to parade up Cedar Road and hit Cedar Center, and hit Legacy, and hit Beachwood. All of our intel said so and, to the chiefs credit, and his (police) force -- in the old days, they would surround the buildings with wagons; he surrounded the buildings with Chris Ariettas trucks. We closed the entrances and we had a complete show of force there (at the mall). Anybody who was scouting the area and thought they were going to come up and cause mischief just drove by" Horwitz said. "There was no way to get in, and we had a good show of force and we avoided, we think, another serious problem. We appreciate the cross-department support. If rioters were to head east from downtown Cleveland, before arriving at Legacy Village or Beachwood Place, they would have traveled past Severance Town Center in Cleveland Heights and Cedar Center North and South in, respectively, South Euclid and University Heights. South Euclid Community Services Director Keith Benjamin said Cedar Center stores closed early Saturday and remained closed on Sunday. Also, as in Beachwood and Lyndhurst, South Euclid Service Department plow trucks were used to block the entrances Sunday at Cedar Center North and Oakwood Commons, nearby on Warrensville Center Road. University Heights Mayor Michael Dylan Brennan said his city, too, called in service department workers Sunday and used the departments vehicles to block entrances at Cedar Center South and University Square. In addition to those areas, he said, We had our trucks out and blocked over by Whole Foods, by Dollar Bank (2200 Warrensville Center Road), and all along Cedar and going down Warrensville Center, too." He said that, in Cleveland Heights, stores voluntarily closed early on Coventry Road and at Severance Town Center, where city vehicles were also used to block entrances. This is my observation, Brennan said of the actions of those downtown Saturday. I hope this is being investigated. I think there is not a whole lot of overlap between the people who were genuinely, peacefully protesting early on Saturday, and the people who were later destroying and vandalizing sites downtown. While he was not downtown Saturday, Brennan said that in watching video and speaking with those who were that the crowd downtown changed as the day wore on, meaning different people arrived on the scene. I dont want to label them as a particular group, but, whoever they are, theyre not people who are there advocating for this cause, Brennan said. "They are there to create further disruption, they are there to undermine authority, and most of all, they are there to bring bring disrepute to the worthy cause that has been brought by people who are genuinely in pain, upset and aggravated by a lifetime, by centuries, of how we treat people of color, and black men, especially, in this country. We must do something about that. Even if there were people who support this and who were breaking windows, and spray-painting and looting from storefronts, you know what, theres a difference between property crime, which is wrong -- but you can clean spray paint off a building, off a statue -- but you can never bring George Floyd back. Just like you can never bring Tamir Rice back. Just like you cant bring Philando Castile back. Just like you cant bring Eric Garner back. And the list goes on and on. The fact is, we have a horrible, horrible, shameful history of killing black people. Telangana Formation Day celebrates the creation of the southern state as a geographical and political entity on 2 June, 2014. This year marks the sixth anniversary of the Telangana Formation Day. Telangana Formation Day celebrates the creation of the southern state as a geographical and political entity on 2 June, 2014. This year marks the sixth anniversary of the Telangana Formation Day. In early 2014, the Telangana Bill was passed by both the Houses of Parliament and it subsequently received the Presidents nod. On 4 March, 2014, the Government of India declared 2 June as Telangana Formation Day. In the April 2014 elections, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) emerged victorious and K Chandrashekar Rao was sworn in as the first Chief Minister of Telangana. How the state derived its name The name Telangana is derived from the words Telugu Angana, meaning a place where Telugu is spoken. The word was increasingly used during the era of Nizams (1724 -1948) to differentiate it from the Marathi speaking regions of their kingdom. History of Telangana formation day In 1953, the States Reorganisation Committee (SRC) was appointed to prepare for the creation of states on linguistic lines. On 1 November, 1956, then Home Minister Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant decided to merge Andhra state and Telangana region to form Andhra Pradesh. The period between 1969 and 1973 was marked by political protests asking for the implementation of safeguards that were promised during the formation of Andhra Pradesh. This slowly manifested into a demand for a separate state of Telangana. In 1997, the state unit of BJP passed a resolution seeking a separate Telangana. In 2000, Congress party MLAs from the region formed the Telangana Congress Legislators Forum and submitted a memorandum to their president Sonia Gandhi requesting to support the Telangana state. A new party called Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), led by Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao, was formed in April 2001 with the aim of creating Telangana state with Hyderabad as its capital. In 2001, the Congress Working Committee sent a resolution to the NDA government for constituting a second SRC to look into the Telangana state demand. This was rejected by the then Union home minister L K Advani. On 9 December 2009, the then Union Minister of Home Affairs P Chidambaram announced that the Indian government would start the process of forming a separate Telangana state On 3 October 2013, the Union Cabinet approved the creation of the new State of Telangana. The Telangana Bill was passed by Parliament and the government declared 2 June 2014 to be Telangana Formation Day. Telangana formation day celebrations Every year on Telangana Formation Day, the National Flag is hoisted in the state, however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic this year the celebration was a subdued one. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Tuesday paid floral tributes to martyrs at Gun Park near the state Assembly. CM Sri KCR paying floral tributes to Telangana Martyrs at Gun Park on the occasion of #TelanganaFormationDay https://t.co/fhKh8nVCYg Telangana CMO (@TelanganaCMO) June 2, 2020 On the occasion of the sixth Telangana State Formation Day, President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others extended their wishes to the people of the state. The entire nation is proud of the rich history of Telugu culture and literature. The hardworking people of this land have contributed significantly to the nation. May the state continue to propser in the coming year, tweeted the President. Greetings to the people of Telangana on statehood day. The entire nation is proud of the rich history of Telugu culture and literature. The hardworking people of this land have contributed significantly to the nation. May the state continue to prosper in the coming years. President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) June 2, 2020 Vice President Venkaiah Naidu wrote that Telangana is endowed with natural resources and known for its rich history. He added that the state has long been a meeting place for diverse languages and cultures. Greetings to people of Telangana on State Formation Day. Endowed with natural resources and known for its rich history, the State has long been a meeting place for diverse languages and cultures. #TelanganaFormationDay pic.twitter.com/XmDn6G9vNK Vice President of India (@VPSecretariat) June 2, 2020 Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his message, prayed for the progress and prosperity of the people of Telangana. He said that the state is making valuable contributions to the growth trajectory of India. Greetings to the people of Telangana on their Statehood Day. People from this state are excelling in a wide range of sectors. This state is making valuable contributions to the growth trajectory of India. I pray for the progress and prosperity of the people of Telangana. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 2, 2020 Indian National Congress (INC) also wished people of Telangana on the sixth foundation day of the state. Our best wishes to our brothers & sisters of Telangana on the State's foundation day. pic.twitter.com/ln5RSnlCBv Congress (@INCIndia) June 2, 2020 Several other political leaders greeted the people of the southern state on the Sixth Telangana Foundation Day. Greetings on the occasion of #TelanganaFormationDay. Remembering the indomitable spirit of all those immortal individuals who laid down their lives for the creation of Telangana. pic.twitter.com/QiPirOWPXB G Kishan Reddy (@kishanreddybjp) June 2, 2020 Warm greetings to the people of #Telangana on their Statehood Day. I pray for the progress and prosperity of the people of Telangana.#TelanganaFormationDay pic.twitter.com/CIRQcXiPee Biplab Kumar Deb (@BjpBiplab) June 2, 2020 Warm greetings to our sisters and brothers of #Telangana on their Statehood Day. I pray for peace, prosperity and progress of the State. Manohar Lal (@mlkhattar) June 2, 2020 The India Metereological Department on June 1 in a 9 PM bulletin said states in Western India, more specifically parts of Maharashtra (Mumbai, Palghar, Thane, Raigad), Goa and Gujarat may see winds as strong as 115 kmph and heavy rainfall over the next two days in what is being called as Cyclone Nisarga closes in to make a landfall. The trajectory of Cyclone Nisarga has been tracked over east-central and the adjoining southeast Arabian Sea moving towards north-north-west with a speed of 09 kmph as of 5.30 pm on June 1, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) bulletin said. The depression has moved about 310 km southwest of Panjim (Goa), 570km south-southwest of Mumbai (Maharashtra) and 800 km south-southwest of Surat (Gujarat), it noted. It is very likely to intensify into a Deep Depression during the next 12 hours and intensify further into a Cyclonic Storm over east-central Arabian Sea during the subsequent 24 hours. It is very likely to move nearly northwards initially till noon of June 2 Noon and then re-curve north-north-eastwards and cross north Maharashtra and south Gujarat coasts between Harihareshwar (Raigad, Maharashtra) and Daman during the afternoon of 03rd June, the bulletin added. Follow our LIVE Updates on Cyclone Nisarga here Rainfall The IMD has predicted light to moderate rainfall at most places with isolated heavy falls very likely over Lakshadweep area, north Kerala and coastal Karnataka during next 12 hours. It has also predicted light to moderate rainfall at most places with heavy to very heavy falls at isolated places very likely over south Konkan and Goa from June 1-3. Light to moderate rainfall at most places with isolated heavy falls on June 2; with heavy to very heavy falls at a few places and extremely heavy falls at isolated places over north Konkan and north Madhya Maharashtra on June 3 and 4. Light to moderate rainfall at most places with isolated heavy to very heavy falls very likely over south Gujarat state, Daman, Dadra and Nagar Haveli on June 3, and with heavy to very heavy falls at a few places and extremely heavy falls at isolated places over south Gujarat region, Daman, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and on June 4. Wind warning The IMD has warned of squally wind, and speeds reached 45-55 kmph and gusting to 65 kmph over east-central and adjoining southeast Arabian Sea. It is very likely to become 50-60 kmph gusting to 70 kmph over east-central Arabian Sea by the morning of June 2. It will gradually increase becoming Gale wind, speed reaching 60-70 kmph gusting to 80 kmph, over east-central Arabian Sea off south Maharashtra coast from noon of June 2 and further become 95-105 kmph gusting to 115 kmph over east-central and adjoining northeast Arabian Sea along and off Maharashtra (Raigad, Mumbai, Palghar, Thane) coast from afternoon of June 3, it said. Gale wind speed reaching 80-90 kmph gusting to 100 kmph are likely along and off Valsad, Navsari districts of Gujarat and Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg districts of Maharashtra, and 70-80 kmph gusting to 90 kmph along and off Surat & Bharuch districts of south Gujarat from 3rd June afternoon. Squally wind, speed reaching 50-60 kmph gusting to 70 kmph is likely prevail over east-central Arabian Sea along and off Karnataka-Goa coasts during next 48 hours. Squally wind, speed reaching 40-50 kmph gusting to 60 kmph is likely to prevail over Lakshadweep area and along & off Kerala coast during next 24 hours. Sea condition The Sea condition is very likely to be rough to very rough over east-central and adjoining southeast Arabian Sea during next 18 hours. It would become very rough to High over east-central Arabian Sea from noon of June 2. It will become High to very High over east-central Arabian Sea along and off Maharashtra coast from the evening of June 2. The Sea condition is very likely to be very rough to High over northeast Arabian Sea along and off south Gujarat coast on June 3, it added. The IMD also issued warning to fisher-folk: Fishermen are advised not to venture into southeast Arabian Sea, Lakshadweep area and along and off Kerala coast during next 24 hours; east-central and Northeast Arabian Sea and along and off Karnataka-Goa-Maharashtra-south Gujarat coasts till June 3. Lenovo looks to be getting closer to releasing its Legion gaming phone, as it was reportedly just certified in China through the countrys certification agency called 3C. The Legion gaming phone has at this point been confirmed by Lenovo and numerous promotional images for the device have been leaked. So what the phone looks like is known, and the specs have been confirmed to a degree as Lenovo has talked about some of them on its official Legion Weibo account. Lenovo still hasnt announced a release date yet though. So certification is a small indicator that a launch may be on the horizon. Advertisement The Lenovo Legion gaming phone is certified with 45W fast charging Based on the report from MySmartPrice, the Legion phone supports 45W fast charging. Which means itll charge up quickly after a long, energetic gaming session has depleted its battery life. Of course to do that youll need a 45W charger. Chances are Lenovo will add one of these in the box. As most or all phones that support 45W fast charging come with one. Still this is something that remains to be seen. And it probably wont be more clear until Lenovo shares more information about the device. As well as the contents of its packaging. Advertisement This is also the second certification that appears to have popped up so far in the past few months. Back in March, the Legion gaming phone was certified with CNIPA. It seems to pack a punch 45W fast charging is just the latest specification to leak about Lenovos gaming-focused mobile device. It also seems to pack a punch based on a lot of the other leaked specs. For example, in May it was reported that the phone would be powered by the Snapdragon 865, potentially come with a 144Hz display, and feature LPDDR5 RAM. Advertisement It also incorporates some interesting feature and design choices. Like the pop up front-facing camera that pops up from the side of the device instead of on the top. Which seems to be a design choice made for content creators who want to stream their mobile gaming. That sensor is also rumored to be 20-megapixels. Meanwhile the rear camera is rumored to be 64-megapixels. Theres still a lot that isnt known about the Legion phone. Like the release date or where the regions are that Lenovo plans to launch it. No prices appear to have been leaked or confirmed yet either. So it could be more or less than some of the competing gaming devices that have been announced so far this year. Industrial farming of livestock may offend the sensibilities of many people, with animals crushed into pens where they are barely able to stand up, among other distressing images. But some scientists warn such methods are also breeding grounds for mass production of new diseases. Three years before the virus that causes Covid-19 started making people sick in China, another novel coronavirus began circulating in the southeast of the country. It was fatal, but its victims were 25,000 piglets, not humans. That outbreak was swiftly followed in 2018 by a scourge on a much larger scale the Ebola-like African swine fever, which does not infect humans but killed at least 100 million pigs as it raged across China. It threw the countrys pork industry into crisis and sent the price of Chinas favourite meat soaring. The disease is still spreading in Asia. Chinas pork industry was thrown into crisis by African swine fever. Photo: EPA-EFE This flurry of outbreaks and the possible link between the Covid-19 human pandemic to Chinas wildlife trade has pressed the authorities to tighten rules. In addition to a ban in February on trade of wildlife for human consumption, China said it would revise or enact several laws related to the control of diseases in or linked to animals over the next two years. Some regulations, like those updating the animal epidemic prevention law, would be introduced as soon as possible, said Zhang Yesui on May 21. Zhang is the spokesman for the National Peoples Congress, the countrys legislative body. China aims to plug the holes that experts say have escalated past problems low standards of biosecurity, lack of oversight and responsibility, as well as local government cover-ups of outbreaks. Biosecurity covers methods to prevent disease outbreaks in animals as well as to protect crops from infections and pests. This is the real story the connection between our food systems, our meat production and infectious disease Dirk Pfeiffer, City University of Hong Kong But veterinary epidemiologist Dirk Pfeiffer says with animals this is not just a China issue; it is a bigger global problem around the competing demand to raise livestock to feed growing populations and of managing the disease risks for animals and humans that come with the expansion of meat production. Story continues This is the real story the connection between our food systems, our meat production and infectious disease, said Pfeiffer, a professor at City University of Hong Kong. Meat from the wildlife trade was only one piece of a much bigger picture, Pfeiffer said, pointing to the vast scale of livestock production that came with economic growth. Its a numbers game the more dense the biomass, the more opportunity for spread of infectious disease, he said. Livestock which makes up 60 per cent of the biomass, or total weight, of mammals globally compares with just 4 per cent for wild animals, according to researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel in 2018. It looks efficient The way livestock is raised in industrial-scale farming not only skews biodiversity, it also creates a pathogen bomb for potential disease outbreaks, experts say. Cheap chicken, cheap cow, its the creation of a pathogen factory [it] looks like an efficient system, but the costs of failure and the risk is high, said Richard Kock, a professor of wildlife health and emerging diseases at the University of Londons Royal Veterinary College. It sits there as a time bomb. Pathogens can get into livestock farms in a number of ways, including via feed or water contaminated with viruses from bat or bird droppings or humans coughing and sneezing. But in large-scale, high-density farms, the viruses can spread quickly through the ranks of cows, pigs, or poultry, with ample opportunity to mutate, recombine and otherwise practise their ability to invade cells, including those of humans, Kock said. This threat may be recognised but it is not being sufficiently monitored, said Gregory Gray, an infectious disease epidemiologist and professor at Duke University. We are artificially increasing our human risk from some pathogens, because they are allowed to thrive in these domestic animals, and we dont have a good pulse on it, he said. An example: the H1N1 influenza in 2009, the first flu pandemic in 40 years, was first identified in the United States and only later linked to pig farms in Mexico. The risk of disease broadens as the domestication of animals expands, such as the breeding farms for wild animals in China, which may have had a role in the current Covid-19 pandemic, Kock said. The World Health Organisation has said that since the 1970s about 70 per cent of emerging pathogens came from animals, which it calls a burgeoning threat because animals are intensively farmed, transported for trade and kept in close contact with other species and humans in market places. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) puts it this way: Economic growth is accompanied by an increase in consumption of animal products Changes in livestock production increase the potential for new pathogens to emerge, grow and spread from animals to humans on a global scale. Global meat production grew nearly 20 per cent between 2005 and 2015, according to an FAO report. By 2028 production was likely to be up an additional 13 per cent, the agency predicted last year. This intensification of livestock production around the world has many forms, from large industrial farms to the growth of smaller, so-called backyard farms that may be on the periphery of forests, butting up with wild animal habitats and creating spillover risks, experts say. And viruses exploit whatever points of entry are made available. That is why Juergen Richt says industrialised farming can be part of the solution. The university distinguished professor at Kansas State Universitys College of Veterinary Medicine argues that such farms are the ones with the resources needed to build the biosecurity controls to keep people and animals safe from disease. Some of these farms are taking stringent measures, Richt said. He notes a recent trip to a pig farm in Ecuador where outside vehicles were zoned off, and he needed to quarantine three days before entering and then change clothes twice and shower upon arriving and leaving. The small backyard farmer cannot introduce these kinds of measures, he said. Chinas transition This has been one lesson for China in the wake of its African swine fever outbreak, which wiped out 40 per cent of its pig herd in the space of a little more than a year. China has seen outbreaks this year and while officials say the disease is on a downward trend, they have called for vigilance to prevent a rebound. Now the country is on a fast track to replacing the small-scale farms that have dominated the industry with large, industrialised farms that can afford tighter biosecurity controls, according to Holly Wang, an agricultural economist at Purdue University in Indiana. This years proposed revisions to the animal epidemic prevention law may speed up Chinas transition to more modern, large-scale production due to the costs of compliance, Wang said. The draft revisions, which include inspection and quarantine measures for legally bred wild animals, provide more defined guidelines for identifying and eliminating animal diseases. They also clarify the responsibilities of local government, industry groups and farm operators in countering disease. The latest reforms follow decades of growth in Chinas meat consumption, starting from the opening of the economy in the late 1970s and reflecting the countrys development. Demand for meat has risen by nearly 20 per cent in China in the past two decades. Photo: AFP In the past two decades, meat demand has grown nearly 20 per cent, according to Angela Zhang, head of business intelligence at IQC Insights, a Shanghai-based agricultural consulting firm. But other countries are just starting out on their own surges in such demands, making the global situation of disease control a patchwork of different systems and levels of capability. For example, a 2019 FAO report focused on Kenya said there would be an exponential increase in the demand for animal source foods as GDP per capita was projected to increase over 140 per cent by 2050. This would increase the risk of emergence and spread of zoonotic diseases, the report said. In 2050, with human and animal densities expected to double, the impact of such an outbreak on society could be even higher. There is no perfect way to respond to an emerging disease threat. There will always be trade-offs Latiffah Hassan, Universiti Putra Malaysia Many countries struggle to find a balance between sustainable development and meeting the rapid increase in the demand for food, according to Latiffah Hassan, a professor in veterinary public health and epidemiology at the Universiti Putra Malaysia. There is no perfect way to respond to an emerging disease threat, she said. There will always be trade-offs. That is apparent in the varying opinions between experts in the field about how to solve the problem. Some stress increased surveillance and biosafety, while others call for sustainable practices and reducing global consumption. Without a consensus, and as demand for meat continues to grow, Richt says the question remains: Can we continue in the same way as we did it in the past, or do we have a train wreck in the making? Get the China AI Report 2020, brought to you by SCMP Research. Learn about the AI ambitions of Alibaba, Baidu & JD.com through our in-depth case studies, and explore new applications of AI across industries. The report also includes exclusive access to webinars to interact with C-level executives from leading China AI companies (via live Q&A sessions). Find out more. More from South China Morning Post: This article Industrial farming of livestock a ticking pathogen bomb, scientists say first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2020. PITTSBURGH, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- United Steelworkers (USW) International President Tom Conway issued the following statement in response to President Trump's threats to deploy the military against peaceful protesters. "Our nation continues to be torn apart as a result of the persistent, unlawful and unchecked violence against people of color. Now our president finally decided to leave the safety of his White House bunker and address the nation in person instead of through his Twitter account. "Yet rather than choosing to de-escalate the tensions or deliver a message of unity that recognizes the nation's pain about the ongoing racism and victimization of our fellow citizens at the hands of the police, he instead decided to fan the flames. "The president of the United States yesterday threatened to amass the military against the protesting citizens and to send armed soldiers into our states, whether the states want them or not. "We cannot underestimate the danger in his threats. "When a leader threatens to use the military to quiet our nation's voice of protest, to quell our First Amendment rights, then we are all on shaky ground. We cannot tolerate this sort of intimidation, for those who would seek to quiet even a single voice will find any excuse to do so again and again. "Our labor movement does not and has never supported the destruction of property that unfortunately has taken place under the cover of these lawful and righteous protests. "But at a time when our economy is so troubled, when so many are dealing with the uncertainty related to the COVID-19 pandemic and we are all trying to safely get back to work while making sure our families are healthy, we deserve solutions. Instead we get threats. "Our labor movement was born out of our inherent right to assemble and protest. We exist solely as a result of our right to act collectively and present grievances both in our workplaces and to our government. "The history of our union is filled with similar incidents of guardsmen and police forces being used against workers. It's not a far stretch to envision expanded use of the military against today's labor movement if we stand by while it happens against these protestors. "We cannot support a president who threatens such acts against his own citizens. These protestors are justifiably angry, and we share their anger. We will not turn a deaf ear in these desperate times during which so many need so badly to be heard." The USW represents 850,000 workers in North America employed in many industries that include metals, rubber, chemicals, paper, oil refining and health care as well as in the service and public sectors. For more information: www.usw.org. CONTACT: Jess Kamm Broomell, (412) 562-2444, [email protected] SOURCE United Steelworkers (USW) Related Links http://www.usw.org BERLIN (Reuters) - A proposed European cloud computing platform that seeks to break the continent's reliance on Silicon Valley will take shape in the coming weeks when a group of 22 French and German companies set up a legal entity to run it. The entity managing the Gaia-X platform will be registered as a company under Belgian law and will function as a non-profit, according to a status update on the project seen by Reuters. Berlin and Paris are championing Gaia-X as a counterweight to the U.S. cloud computing providers - AWS, Microsoft Azure and Alphabet's Google - that dominate the business of handling computing tasks on remote servers. The two largest economies in the European Union have cast the issue of where data is hosted and processed as a matter both of sovereignty and security. A launch for Gaia-X is targeted for early 2021. Among firms involved in developing the platform are SAP, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens and Bosch [ROBG.UL] of Germany and France's Atos, formerly headed by European Commissioner Thierry Breton. German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier and his French counterpart Bruno Le Maire will brief reporters on progress on Gaia-X on Thursday. (Reporting by Christian Kraemer; Writing by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Thomas Escritt) S ince the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25, protests decrying systematic racism have spread across the US and made their way to London. The protests, in honour of Black Lives Matter, began in the UK in early June - and thousands have already marched for systematic change. Mr Floyd, a 46-year-old black man from Minnesota, died after an incident in which a police officer was caught on camera kneeling on his neck for almost nine minutes. He was arrested for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill. These three words have now been used in protest graffiti and banners wielded by #BlackLivesMatter demonstrators - however, BLM London has advised protestors to avoid this weekend's march. When and where are the London protests? Protests took place across London and other UK cities last weekend, and there were more planned for this Saturday, 13 June in Central London - however, London Black Lives Matter has advised protestors to stay at home due to the threat of violence. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan also tweeted advising protestors not to attend the march on Saturday due to the threat of counter-protests and the risk of spreading COVID-19. He wrote: "To anyone planning to join #BlackLivesMatter protests over the coming days: for you and your families safety, please stay at home and find a safe way to make your voice heard. "To the extreme far-right groups hijacking this crucial cause: Londoners have no time for your hatred." However, a protest will be held today, Friday June 12, at 4pm in Trafalgar Square. Local protests will also continue to go ahead over the weekend. For a full list, check out the 'protest posters' highlight on the LDNBLM Instagram page. It's important to remember that lockdown restrictions - including a ban on large gatherings - remain in place across the UK. Protest organisers have asked participants to observe social-distancing, but police have arrested protesters so far for various offences, including breaching lockdown. For those wanting to show support, there are various ways to donate. Mr Floyd's siblings are raising money for his funeral costs and to support his daughter here. Donations can also be made directly to Black Lives Matter here. The protests have spread around the world / PA Protests have also convened in Manchester, Cardiff, Nottingham, Glasgow, Leeds, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Bristol, Southampton, Newcastle, Norwich, Leicester, Oxford and other UK cities. You can find the relevant information here . Nevada-based Printed Kicks is a family-owned, proudly American business with suppliers in California and Michigan. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to devastate the U.S. economy, the American and family-owned online retailer Printed Kicks is doubling down on its commitment to its employees, suppliers and USA-based production. The online apparel retailer of conservative and patriotic gear, including hats, masks, face covers, shirts and more, has seen an uptick in orders as America gets back to work and emerges from lockdown. Printed Kicks is committed to supporting the more than 150 families comprising its employees and suppliers. Never in the companys history has this been more important as the nations unemployment rate steadily rises. In California and Michigan, where Printed Kicks printing and embroidery suppliers are located, the unemployment rates are approaching 25 percent and 23 percent, respectively. Printed Kicks mission-forward goals are to maintain its workers jobs, while providing faster shipping services for its valued customers nationwide. With lockdown regulations lifting, shipping of all Printed Kicks products is resuming quickly and will be at full speed within three weeks. Presently, each and every employee at the company is working tirelessly to not just meet but exceed their customers expectations. All Printed Kicks employees are focused on ensuring customers receive their orders as quickly as possible during these unprecedented times. An advantage the company has over other similar online retailers is the majority of its products are made in the USA and all product printing and embroidery is completed by American workers in both California and Michigan. To purchase Printed Kicks conservative and patriotic gear and support the more than 150 American families involved in their production in Nevada, California and Michigan, visit https://www.printedkicks.com/ or follow them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/printedkicks/ About Printed Kicks Nevada-based Printed Kicks is a family-owned, proudly American business with suppliers in California and Michigan. The companys founders and its employees are close to those who are on the front lines, including nurses, police officers, fire fighters, military personnel and all those who work daily to keep us safe and healthy. Giving back to American communities is a cornerstone of the companys philosophy and donations are frequently made to various charities. It strives to provide products which are made in the USA and is always searching for additional American suppliers to support the U.S. economy. Media Contact Printed Kicks Customer Service info@printedkicks.com Tel. 833-875-4257 Last week offered a kaleidoscope of a Trump-addled America, a telling, if depressing, pastiche: Amy Cooper's bigoted entitlement; the homicidal tactics of Minneapolis police officers; the knowing encouragement of the president, who has mounted his second campaign on the same foundation of rank prejudices and crude stereotypes as his first. It adds up to a portrait of a nation unwilling to retreat from its racist history, unable to chart a path toward a future that pays tribute to its more egalitarian founding creed. President Donald J. Trump is merely a symptom, not a cause, not the sickness itself. During his first campaign, I worried less about his outrageous conduct and inflammatory rhetoric he is, after all, just one malign actor and more about the millions who danced to his music, rejoiced in his racist diatribes, sang in his chorus. In 2016, I would not have accused every voter who cast a ballot for Trump of racism. Some were 1-percenters bent on protecting their riches; some were lifelong Republicans leery of crossing party lines; some were Bernie Bros who couldn't curb their misogyny and vote for Hillary Clinton. Still, there were many who eagerly followed after a man who defamed Mexicans, denounced Muslims and claimed that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States. Four years later four years into what may well be recorded as the most incompetent, the most corrupt and the most divisive presidency in American history I can no longer grant any Trump supporters a lenient indulgence. Let's name this disease: a desperate, last-ditch effort by whites terrified of a demographic tide that is shifting political power and changing the cultural dynamic. In his thoughtful, if depressing, tome, "Why We Are Polarized," journalist Ezra Klein argues that human beings compete less for resources than for social esteem, which is seen as a zero-sum contest. So if black and brown Americans have gained social esteem in the hard-fought and ongoing crusade for full equality, some white Americans believe they have lost it. Or, as one sage has put it, "If you are accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression." That's why Amy Cooper was outraged that a black man in Central Park dared to ask her put her dog on a leash, as local laws require. Who was he to say that to a white woman? That's why, similarly, Tom Austin, a white Minneapolis businessman, threatened to call the police on black men working out in an office gym. How dare they claim to be entrepreneurs who belonged there, as he was? Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Throughout U.S. history, black people have been labeled lawless, lecherous and wild, and whites who believe the stereotypes are sometimes genuinely afraid of black people who represent no threat. But neither Cooper nor Austin believed they were in physical danger. Instead, the threat was psychic: Their sense of superiority was endangered by black men behaving as equals. Unfortunately, millions of white voters seem prepared to destroy democracy rather than give up their sense of entitlement, whether an explicit or implicit sense of white supremacy. Two years ago, political scientists Steven Miller and Nicholas Davis released a study, "White Outgroup Intolerance and Declining Support for American Democracy." They found a link between racial resentment and support for authoritarian rule (as long as the authoritarian agreed with them, of course). It's no wonder that so many leading conservatives have suddenly gone soft on Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. Prominent Republican politicians have laid waste to every conservative principle and every democratic tradition they once claimed to hold dear. Criminals who sided with Trump are championed by the attorney general; Russia's continuing interference in American elections is played down; federal watchdogs assigned to ferret out malfeasance are fired. Sen. Mitch McConnell and his allies are also finding new and creative ways to suppress the vote among those who might support Democrats. Perhaps the November election will turn the tide, stanching the flow of malice and ill will that seeps daily from the Oval Office. But the larger project of restoring American democracy will not be so easily finished. Wuhan has recorded zero confirmed COVID-19 infections after officials screened nearly everyone in the city in less than three weeks to prevent a fresh outbreak, according to the government. But authorities detected 300 asymptomatic patients, those who show no symptoms but can still spread the virus, an official said today. Beijing's top health official claimed that 'Wuhan is now the safest city in China' after the mass testing screened some 10million people for coronavirus. Wuhan has declared that zero confirmed COVID-19 infections was found after officials screened nearly 10million residents in 20 days during the city's mass testing to prevent a fresh outbreak. A woman wearing a face mask walks on a pedestrian bridge in Wuhan on May 14 Authorities detected 300 asymptomatic patients in the former epicentre, according to the local government today. Pictured, a medical worker takes a swab sample from a man in Wuhan Three million Wuhan citizens have been tested before the ambitious plan was announced, meaning that means that the former epicentre needs to screen approximately 800,000 people per day. Residents wearing face masks wait in line for nucleic acid testing in Wuhan on May 15 Wuhan, a city of 11million people, ordered its entire population to be tested for COVID-19 in a '10-day great battle' on May 14 after a new cluster of infection emerged. By the end of the 10-day testing, Wuhan authorities said that they had collected swab samples from over nine million residents, of which 6.5 million people completed the screening. Officials then set up 231 sample-collecting points across the city for citizens who missed the testing. Wuhan government today released a report, claiming that they conducted nucleic acid tests on a total of 9,899,828 citizens from May 14 to June 1. No confirmed coronavirus infections were detected. The authorities said that they found 300 COVID-19 infections with no symptoms during the mass-screening. But the chance of those patients infecting others is 'extremely low'. 'Currently, the possibility of Wuhan's asymptomatic patients infecting others is extremely low,' the report read. 'And no such cases were found [during the mass-testing].' The authorities said that they found 300 COVID-19 infections with no symptoms during the mass-screening. But the chance of those patients infecting others is 'extremely low'. Two medical worker are pictured taking swabs from residents on May 15 in a community in Wuhan Beijing's top health official claimed that 'Wuhan is now the safest city in China' amid the coronavirus pandemic. Residents are pictured wearing face masks as they perform group dance in a park next to the Yangtze River in the former coronavirus epicentre Wuhan A total of seven confirmed cases were found in the same residential compound, Sanmin Residence, in Wuhan. A woman is pictured being screened for COVID-19 in Wuhan on May 15 The results of Wuhan's '10-day great battle' were shared with Chinese media Tuesday during a press conference held by Hubei Health Commission. Feng Zijian, deputy chief of China's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters that Wuhan is deemed as the country's haven amid the coronavirus pandemic that has infected over 6million people worldwide. 'I have witnessed with my own eyes the whole procedure of Wuhan's nucleic acid testing,' Mr Feng said. 'The statistics just released are subjective and real. 'Wuhan is now the safest city in China.' The city's mass-screening came after authorities reported the first cluster of infections in Wuhan since a lockdown on the central Chinese city was lifted a month ago, stoking concerns of a wider resurgence of the disease. On May 15, Wuhan government ordered all residents to be tested for COVID-19 in a '10-day great battle' after a new cluster of infection emerged in early May. Workers line up for medical workers to take swabs for the coronavirus test at a large factory in Wuhan on May 15 The results of Wuhan's '10-day great battle' were shared with Chinese media Tuesday during a press conference held by Hubei Health Commission. A medical worker takes a swab from a resident for the coronavirus test during home visits in the city of Wuhan on May 14 Wuhan has recorded a total of 50,340 confirmed COVID-19 cases and at least 3,869 deaths. More than 46,000 patients have been discharged from hospitals. People wearing face masks check a health code in a neighbourhood in Wuhan of China's central Hubei province on May 1 Wuhan officials recorded a total of seven confirmed cases between May 10 and May 11. All the patients lived in the same residential compound, Sanmin Residence, in the Chinese city. Four patients had been discharged from local hospitals as of Monday, according to the Wuhan Health Commission. Three others - including one critical patient - are receiving medical treatment. Wuhan has recorded a total of 50,340 confirmed COVID-19 cases and at least 3,869 deaths. More than 46,000 patients have been discharged from hospitals. The economic storms churned up by the COVID-19 pandemic don't seem to be over quite yet for cruise lines Carnival (NYSE:CCL) and Royal Caribbean (NYSE:RCL) as Canada extends its ban on passenger vessels sailing its territorial waters. The move, intended to help fight the coronavirus, has prompted both Royal Caribbean and Carnival to cancel some of their cruises, including some offered in the New England and Alaska areas. The CDC's no-sail order is still set to expire on July 24, but Canada's transport ministry lengthened its own ban considerably a few days ago. Originally slated to end July 1, the ban on cruise ships and ferries carrying 100 individuals or more in Canadian waters will now last through Oct. 31, with a presumed Nov. 1 ending date. Canadian Minister of Transport Marc Garneau said, "I am announcing updated measures for cruise ships and other passenger vessels in Canada, which includes prohibiting larger cruise ships from operating in Canadian waters" because the government "is committed to protecting Canadians." Garneau added the government will attempt to create programs to aid the Canadian tourist industry, which is likely to sustain a heavy economic loss from the measure. Such relief does not improve the situation for major cruise lines, however. Royal Caribbean says it is canceling all of its cruises with destinations in Alaska, Canada, or New England as a result of the ban. The November sailing date effectively postpones sailings in the region until 2021. The company's spokesperson, Jonathon Fishman, says Royal Caribbean looks "forward to setting sail from and to these destinations next year." Carnival announced its British subsidiary, P&O Cruises, will halt all cruises until Oct. 15. Because Hap (my Dad) worked at what used to be Idlewild Airport, but was then John F. Kennedy International Airport, he was always getting deals on stuff that had fallen off the plane, and so we had exotic foods like pineapples and bananas. Which meant Nurse Vivian baked banana bread, in case a neighbor drops by. The recipe was a stepchild of her soda bread, leaving out the buttermilk, and putting in the sweet plantains and vanilla instead. Simple, no fussing around with nutmeg and cloves, and, as only Nurse Vivian could do, she made it in a blender. On Tuesday, Nov. 9, 1965, at 5:27 p.m., the Eastern seaboard lost all power. Hap liked to have dinner at 5:30 p.m. and this would have been a disaster, but Nurse Vivian lit a candle, got out the kerosene lamps and transistor radios, and we had a picnic on the stoop, the Carbones on our right, the McCaffreys on our left. There was a full moon, and Frank Cadden broke out the beer. He also set up a barbecue so we could grill the pork chops that were thawing. Brothers X and Not X organized stickball by flashlight, while Lisa Mangels beat me in a game of hopscotch. A few Rheingolds into it, Jeannie McCormick sang old McGuire Sisters songs, followed by my mother reciting The Face on the Barroom Floor. Sadie Cadden asked Nurse Vivian, What do you think it is? The Russians invading? Joey McCaffery, who taught me how to be a nerd, suggested, Maybe the electromagnetic field of a UFO? Nurse Vivian handed them both a slice of banana bread. Whatever it is, were together. We could have sat on the stoop any night, but the disaster made for the only evening in Queens when we could see the stars. Nowadays, the Fisher-Paulsons dont get cozy catastrophes: We get the no-sleep-at-three-in-the-morning-emergency-broken-arm-colostomy-ruptured-disc kind, not the kind we can share with the neighbors. So, Im going to sound crazy, and I know were not over this yet, but as we enter the world of the new normal, Im going to miss this quarantine. The lack of traffic. The freedom to cut my hair with clippers. The Outer, outer, outer, outer Excelsior Strong! Something about a tragedy reminds us to be kind. It started with my husband, Brian. The 43 bus hasnt been running, and a few of our neighbors are elderly (which means older than me), so Brian picked up extra groceries at Safeway. One Friday he returned with 25 onions, and I asked, OK, I get the good neighbors part, but do any of them eat two dozen Vidalias at a time? Brian shrugged and sliced. And cried. Four hours later, he had a quart of French onion soup for Christina, and Aunt JJ and Aunt Helene, and Aunt Dorla, and even a vegan quart for Maya, the girl next door. Matching croutons for each. Next day, Aunt JJ and Aunt Helene sent back the bowls we had dropped off but had filled them with lemon bars. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. We Fisher-Paulsons are competitive. If they were going to be kind, then we were going to be even kinder. Saturday morning, we chopped potatoes, carrots and rosemary, rolled out crust and we delivered chicken pot pies, in individual tins, to the outer Excelsiorites. Including Susan, the Roof Cows Mother. Yes, Virginia, there is a Roof Cow. I guarantee you that if you address a letter to Susan, the House with a Cow on Top, San Francisco, it will get to her. The next day, Susan rang the doorbell, having filled those tins with doughnuts topped with a raspberry glaze so sweet you could taste the rasp. Aidan joined in on his 15th birthday, walking around the neighborhood delivering slices of wolf cake, earning him enough service credits to get that virtual graduation June 6. Yes, for those of you worried, Sister Lil summoned up the prayers of the entire Ursuline order and transubstantiated that F in English into a D-minus. The news called for a celebration. Tiffany, mother of one of Aidans schoolmates, made paella, and we sat on dining room chairs set 6 feet apart on her lawn telling stories until the wind blew cool down the San Bruno Mountains with that first hint of fog that makes this town so splendid, and the boys lit sparklers. Likely, Id have recited The Face on the Barroom Floor if I knew all the verses. This is the new world order. Instead of banana bread, we make raspberry doughnuts. And still, Whatever it is, were together. Kevin Fisher-Paulsons column appears Wednesdays in Datebook. Email: datebook@sfchronicle.com HURON COUNTY Huron County Chief Judge David Herrington said the court system is in the process of resuming full operations, but jury trials wont start until late July. According to Herrington, the court system is waiting for its local administrative order to be approved by the Michigan Supreme Court. The order acknowledges the need to return to full capacity, Herrington said. We have to have safeguards in place, such as a preparedness plan. Herrington said the courts have nearly returned to full staffing levels, which he expects to be completed in about a week. The Huron County Court System closed March 27, as a preventative measure to combat the spread of the coronavirus. At the time, the closure was anticipated to last until April 6, however, the subsequent state of emergencies have extended that closure. The closure applied to all Huron County courts, including district, circuit and probate courts, as well as the Friend of the Court and Juvenile Office. While courts are resuming operations, Herrington said public will still be restricted from attending court proceedings because of the orders of the county. Like the courts, the county building has been closed to the general public since mid-March. The courts will mirror the countys practice, Herrington said. Public wont be allowed in the building unless by appointment. Regardless of the previous closure, the court system still maintained operations on a limited basis, utilizing virtual meetings via Zoom and other digital platforms to continue its operation. The court system also used Zoom or YouTube to broadcast its court proceedings for the public. Virtual hearings have been going very well, Herrington said. We have stayed on top of cases via Zoom hearings. Herrington said if someone was unable to meet via Zoom meetings, because of technological limitations for instance, then the court made alternative accommodations. Herrington said most proceedings continued as usual, but the court opted to postpone all preliminary examinations. In the district court we have a backlog of preliminary examinations because of our preference to have live preliminary exams, he said. We are scheduling several sessions for preliminary exams, which will begin late June. Jury trials were canceled because of orders by the Supreme Court. Herrington said the Supreme Court ordered that jury trials couldnt resume until after June 22. We scheduled jury trials to resume in late July, because we believe jurors are entitled to 30 days notice, generally speaking, Herrington said. Herrington said the closure caused a backlog in court cases, but he believes they will be caught up in a reasonable amount of time. They arent unmanageable, he said. Many preliminary examinations will likely be waived, there will be some sort of agreement and they will bind over to circuit court. Herrington said there hasnt been much discussion regarding the courts policies surrounding technology for the future. We havent talked about it, Herrington said. The Michigan Supreme Court is encouraging that to happen. I havent thought about it, and I havent talked to the other judges." Overall, Herrington said he is unsure if the courts will continue to allow remote public attendance to court hearings, but in most cases he would be in favor of it. With the exception of some sensitive type cases, I would expect that we would continue live streaming some court cases, Herrington said. A routine check on inmates at police cells in Ghanas Volta Region turned out weird when a suspect was seen ending his life by cutting off his manhood with a sharp object. Thomas Agbezuke, 35, who has been remanded at the Abor Police Station for attempted murder, was bleeding profusely in what has been described by the police as a horrific scene. On-duty officers, who sensed danger quickly rushed the victim to the Sacred Heart Hospital at Abor for treatment. Images sighted by Dailymailgh.com show the man lying on a stretcher with blood oozing from his groin region as medics race with time to save him. Shocked at the development, the Volta Regional Police Command has directed all District Police posts to step up security at various police cells to prevent such incidents. Police were yet to retrieve the object used by the Afife native to commit the act. Investigations have commenced into the bizarre incident. Source: Daily Mail Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has scolded thousands of New Zealanders for breaking coronavirus restrictions at Black Lives Matter protests. New Zealand has just one active case of COVID-19, a 50-something Aucklander currently in isolation, and will achieve elimination of the disease this week without the discovery of another positive test. Ms Ardern's coronavirus response has insisted on strict social distancing and caps on gatherings, both of which were flouted at rallies in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch on Monday. Some 4,000 New Zealand protesters demonstrate against the killing of Minneapolis man George Floyd in a Black Lives Matter protest in Auckland on June 1 New Zealand's protests included powerful hakas and were conducted peacefully Ms Ardern said that was unfair to Kiwis who had abided by the rules, including those who had postponed weddings or funerals. 'They had breached the rules. It was not right,' Ms Ardern said. 'Many New Zealanders have sacrificed an enormous amount and we continue to expect that of our team for everyone. 'I need to keep asking the team of five million to stay together so that we can reach the finish line.' New Zealand's protests included powerful hakas and were conducted peacefully. Ms Ardern, who gained an international profile for her response to the Christchurch mosque shootings last year, agreed with the anti-racism message but not the method. 'I absolutely understand the sentiment behind them, what they are standing for and what they are standing against,' she said. 'All I ask is that while we're in a pandemic in New Zealand and while we try to keep one another safe, that we find other ways at this point in time to express that solidarity.' Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has scolded thousands of New Zealanders for breaking coronavirus restrictions at Black Lives Matter protests New Zealanders participated in a peaceful protest for Black Lives Matter following the death of George Floyd Less than four months before an election, lessening societal restrictions is now at the heart of New Zealand's public debate. An Oxford University study shows New Zealand's regulations are among the lightest of anywhere in the developed world, behind only Japan and Taiwan. Still, both Ms Ardern's coalition partner NZ First - led by populist firebrand Winston Peters - and the opposition National Party have called for an end to restrictions, arguing they restrain business. Ms Ardern has signalled a review of conditions on June 8, with a potential easing to level one restrictions next week. New Zealander's took to the streets in solidarity following the death of US man George Floyd 'We're not trying to start a race war we're trying to end one,' a sign read at New Zealand's protest The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis has also renewed debate of New Zealand's own struggles with racism, specifically within its police force. Maori and Pasifika community leaders have decried a recent six-month trial of armed officers in two Auckland suburbs with high minority populations. A related claim to the Waitangi Tribunal asserts that two-thirds of people shot by police over the last decade were Maori and Pasifika people, who make up less than one quarter of New Zealand's population. Ms Ardern admitted New Zealand had a problem with racism and the police force was not immune. 'As a nation we're on a journey. I don't think the police would claim perfection,' she said. 'We have to continually strive to make sure that we address issues of unconscious bias in our own systems. 'What I am proud of is we are continuing to see an increase in diversity in our police ... that is an important part of making progress.' IRVINE, Calif., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) today reported total May sales of 24,933 vehicles, a decrease of 1.0 percent compared to May 2019. Year-to-date sales totaled 103,543 vehicles, a decrease of 10.5 percent. With 26 selling days in May, compared to 26 the year prior, the company posted a decrease of 1.0 percent on a Daily Selling Rate (DSR) basis. Sales Highlights Sales of the CX-9 increased 20.8 percent with 2,421 vehicles sold. Sales of the MX-5 Miata increased 30.7 percent with 1,102 vehicles sold. CPO sales totaled 6,223 vehicles in May, an increase of 12.6 percent compared to May 2019 . Year-to-date CPO sales decreased 10 percent, with 22,134 vehicles sold. Mazda Motor de Mexico (MMdM) reported May sales of 2,324 vehicles, a decrease of 50.0 percent compared to May last year. Year-to-date sales decreased 31.6 percent, with 17,166 vehicles sold. Mazda North American Operations is headquartered in Irvine, California, and oversees the sales, marketing, parts and customer service support of Mazda vehicles in the United States and Mexico through approximately 620 dealers. Operations in Mexico are managed by Mazda Motor de Mexico in Mexico City. For more information on Mazda vehicles, including photography and B-roll, please visit the online Mazda media center at InsideMazda.MazdaUSA.com/Newsroom. Follow MNAO's social media channels through Twitter and Instagram at @MazdaUSA and Facebook at Facebook.com/MazdaUSA. Month-To-Date Year-To-Date May May YOY % % MTD May May YOY % % MTD 2020 2019 Change DSR 2020 2019 Change DSR Mazda3 3,368 4,967 (32.2)% (32.2)% 12,978 24,533 (47.1)% (47.5)% Mazda6 1,477 2,133 (30.8)% (30.8)% 6,729 11,394 (40.9)% (41.4)% MX-5 Miata 1,102 843 30.7% 30.7% 3,354 3,155 6.3% 5.5% CX-3 842 1,188 (29.1)% (29.1)% 3,757 5,460 (31.2)% (31.7)% CX-30 3,583 0 13,430 0 CX-5 12,140 14,057 (13.6)% (13.6)% 52,571 61,145 (14.0)% (14.7)% CX-9 2,421 2,004 20.8% 20.8% 10,724 10,040 6.8% 6.0% CARS 5,947 7,943 (25.1)% (25.1)% 23,061 39,082 (41.0)% (41.5)% TRUCKS 18,986 17,249 10.1% 10.1% 80,482 76,645 5.0% 4.2% TOTAL 24,933 25,192 (1.0)% (1.0)% 103,543 115,727 (10.5)% (11.2)% *Selling Days 26 26 128 127 SOURCE Mazda North American Operations Related Links www.mazdausa.com As uncertainty continues to wreak havoc on the global crude market, a surprising partnership between Amazon and one of Canadas most controversial oil companies may be forming. On May 13th, Amazon and TC Energy announced a deal that could end up being key in the completion of the embroiled Keystone XL pipeline. In a statement, Amazon noted that TC Energy was going all-in on Amazon Web Services, and that the company has migrated almost 90 percent of its corporate and commercial applications. And the timing couldnt be worse for Amazons public image. Facing growing criticism over its treatment of front-line workers dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, the announcement that the e-commerce giant and cloud developer will now be playing a vital role in building artificial intelligence and automation tools to help extract and deliver some of the worlds dirtiest oil undermines many of its previous commitments to going green. Related: How Long Until Hydrogen Is Competitive At The Pump? Amazon, while making significant strides towards its green commitments, still lags significantly behind some of its competitors. Despite CEO Jeff Bezos new $10 billion climate fund, Amazon still has no supply-chain emissions reduction goal, a renewable energy-matching deadline sitting a decade behind its competitors, and a heavy presence in the midstream and downstream oil and gas industry. This puts the company at odds with other tech giants, such as Google. Google, for its part, announced on May 19th that it will be backing off from the development of new technology that will aid in the extraction and delivery of oil and gas. Additionally, Google has already met its renewable goals and is actively phasing out its presence in the oil and gas industry. A Greenpeace report notes, Google has undergone personnel and structural changes that seem to show Google is deprioritizing these contracts, stating recently it will no longer develop custom AI/ML solutions to facilitate upstream extraction for oil and gas companies. Story continues Only time will tell which of these tech giants has made the right decision. By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Read this article on OilPrice.com Are district leaders prepared for the fiscal firestorm bearing down on them from the coronavirus pandemic, even as they struggle to get their disrupted school systems back on track? The Lehman Brothers collapse in September 2008 sparked the start of the last Great Recession, sending sales and income tax revenue into a tailspin and forcing school districts over the next three years to lay off more than 300,000 employees. Now, just a little over a decade later, Americas public school system stands on the heels of yet another recession, this one sparked by COVID-19. Many analysts expect it to be deeper and longer than the last. How district leaders go about chiseling away at huge chunks of their budgets in the coming months will have long-term academic implications for the students in their districts. They will have little choice. Governors shutdown of the economy in order to prevent the spread of the virus has caused a precipitous drop in sales and income tax revenue, which more than 6,000 school districts rely on heavily. Fiscal analysts expect school districts in the next two years to lose more than $200 billion in revenue and more than 300,000 teachers to lose their jobs. Because this downturn was so unexpected and will come crashing down on districts sooner than expected, policymakers, advocates, and administrators who were around during the last recession are now scrambling to help their peers avoid some of the same mistakes that were made before. Theres a reason people called it the Great Recession. We really thought something like this wouldnt happen again in our lifetime, said Michael Griffith, a senior school finance researcher and policy analyst for the Learning Policy Institute. Now weve come up to something again. There are a lot of people at the district level and at the state level who werent around for the last recession. A lot of folks have retired or moved into the private sector so, in a lot of states, theres not a lot of institutional knowledge. Act early and often. In 2007, the first year of the last recession, many district administrators didnt believe that the collapse of the housing market would fiscally impact their districts. Administrators rolled their budgets over into the next year and passed along raises to teachers, fully expecting that state revenue would keep pace. Many districts were caught flatfooted when states instructed districts to cut millions of dollars out of their budgets. Marguerite Roza, a school finance professor at Georgetown University, said districts should use the time before state legislatures cut their budgets combing through academic and spending data to see which programs are most effective, which should be kept, and which should be scrapped; coming up with budget-cutting scenarios; and negotiating potential layoff scenarios with teacher union leaders. Last-minute scrambling leads to deeper, sometimes unnecessary cuts, contentious school board meetings, and sour feelings, she said. Any federal bailout money should be directed at the districts that need it most. In 2009, newly elected President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which flooded fiscally strapped states with more than $100 billion to spend on schools. The federal government directed states to roll the money out to school districts through existing funding formulas. But those state formulas, say researchers Matthew Steinberg, a professor at George Mason University, and Kenneth Shores, a professor at the Pennsylvania State University, failed to take into account districts that were suffering from high unemployment rates. Those districts also had poorer and more-academically struggling students who ultimately suffered when districts laid off teachers, said the two professors who have studied the impact that the last recession had on academics. This time around, the federal government is using the Title I formula to send to districts $13.5 billion under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the federal governments first attempt this year to revive the economy. But that formula is antiquated and it doesnt account for districts and states economically hit hard by the virus. The federal government sent out money without any consideration about which districts needed it the most, said Steinberg, pointing out that there are already large spending gaps between wealthy and poor school districts. Flat percentage cuts to K-12 funding disproportionately hurt low-income students: More than half of the nations districts get more than 50 percent of their revenue from states. These districts serve a disproportionate number of black, Latino, and low-income students, many with special needs. During the last recession, many state legislatures decided to make flat percentage cuts to their K-12 aid. While it looked fair on its face, this sort of budget cutting ultimately fell disproportionately on low-income districts, many of which were already underfunded and academically struggling. Meanwhile, wealthy school districts raised their property tax rates to offset declining state revenue and property tax value, resulting in them not having to make budget cuts and widening the spending gap between wealthy and poor school districts. Aaron Garth Smith, the director of education reform at Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank, suggests that states consider cutting from wealthier districts first, overhauling state funding formulas to even out spending cuts or redistribute property tax revenue. You want to use a scalpel instead of a sledgehammer, he said. Save, save, save: The districts that fared the worst during the last recession were districts that had little money in their reserves to fall back on when state legislatures unexpectedly began slashing away at K-12 spending. Rob Miller, the superintendent of Bixby Schools outside Tulsa, Okla., said his district decided to save much of the federal bailout money under AARA in the last recession instead of spending it on teacher salaries to avoid layoffs. That money came in handy when the federal bailout money ran out and the recession dragged on for another several years. We knew it was one-time money, and we couldnt count on it coming again, and we still needed to spend conservatively, Miller said. In 2014, we really did start having significant economic issues related to our oil and gas industry. Thats when most of the school districts had worn through that stimulus money that had been saved. AARA was critical in sustaining the quality of education for those couple of years. On the state front, while many districts didnt save their money, leading to a fiscal cliff when the federal money ran out, states enacted laws requiring legislatures to save a portion of their revenue every year in rainy day funds. Since the last recession, states have collectively stashed up more than $170 billion in savings. They are now reaching into those rainy-day funds to push them through the next recession. Think twice before deciding who to lay off and which program to get rid of: Many district employees and programs are funded through grants that operate outside state funding formulas. These are typically the first to get cut by legislatures during a recession. But Griffith, of the Learning Policy Institute, a think tank that has pushed for a congressional bailout for schools, says state and local leaders should be careful when deciding which programs to cut. Many of those programs are fundamental to some districts academic progress, he said. You really want to take your time and dont quickly make these changes, try to make sure the neediest children arent hit as hard, Griffith said. You want to do all you can to protect low-wealth districts and students in high-needs student groups. Itll be tempting to take a shot at programs that those students benefit from, but maybe your state wont benefit in the long run from that. You want to work right now to get a full understanding of how money is distributed in your state. Similarly, districts first-in, last-out layoff policies could potentially result in some schools losing a large portion of their staff, or districts losing their most-effective teachers or all of their teachers of color. Administrators should work collaboratively with teacher union leaders early in the process to establish common academic goals, Georgetowns Roza said. Take a hard look at funding systems and equity: Even though districts this year collectively spent more than $700 billion, that money was distributed to schools in an inefficient, inequitable way and many districts today, for a variety of reasons, are on the brink of insolvency. Were heading into this recession with school funding systems in states that are not in very good shape: historically there are a lot of states with school finance systems that arent built to deliver the resources to children in need, said David Sciarra, the executive director of the Education Law Center, a law firm and advocacy organization which has sued states for having inequitable funding systems. Linda Darling-Hammond, the president and CEO of the Learning Policy Institute, said this next recession may provide an opportunity to overhaul funding formulas, make districts less reliant on volatile sources of revenue, and provide more local control so that spending is more aligned with schools needs. Its hard to reallocate resources in society, said Darling-Hammond, who currently is serving as president of the California state board of education. The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. She uses California as an illustration for how a fiscal crisis could be a springboard for significant change. California during the last recession was losing money hand over fist. We probably cut budgets by more than $2,000 per pupil. Everybody had to cut below the bone, she said. Gov. [Jerry] Brown proposed and got enacted a very progressive funding formula, that prioritized homeless and foster children. Just like then, we should be seizing this moment to make long-lasting change. A Pennsylvania man who was arrested Monday during a protest in Lancaster recently has told a judge and prison officials that he was there despite testing positive for COVID-19. Lancaster Online reports that, while city police have not confirmed if 22-year-old Julio Torres V has actually tested positive, Lancaster County President Judge David Ashworth was concerned enough about the courtroom omission to make sure the public is aware of it. During the arraignment, it was discovered that (Torres) tested positive, was told to self-quarantine and chose to attend or participate in the protest without proper social distancing, without a proper facemask and has placed other people at risk both the public who were peacefully participating in the protest and law enforcement, Ashworth told LNP. I am very concerned that the public and law enforcement has been placed at risk." Hundreds of protests with crowds ranging anywhere from a few hundred to tens of thousands of people have been held in cities and towns all over the country over the last week after George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man from Minnesota, died while in police custody. An officer, Derek Chauvin, who is seen using a restraining Floyd with his knee in a now-viral video, has been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Lancaster, like many areas, has had multiple days of mostly peaceful protests and gatherings that have sometimes ended with violence in response to Floyds death, some of which have turned violent. According to charging documents obtained by LNP, Torres V was detained after confronting officers by throwing objects which could cause bodily harm at police officers, did then speak with numerous other individuals in the crowd appearing to be directing their actions while doing so, and did also remove a barricade placed in the area for said protest and threw it into the middle of the street," the documents say, per LNP. These actions taken by Torres were done with the intent to prevent or coerce official action and then with the intent to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm. Online court records show that Torres V is in Lancaster County Prison as of Tuesday after he was unable to post 10 percent of his $25,000 bail. He has been charged with two felonies and two misdemeanors, including aggravated assault, rioting, and resisting arrest. We certainly respect Pennsylvanias right to protest and demonstrate, especially in these very difficult and challenging times, Health Department Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said Monday when asked about the gatherings like the ones seen in Lancaster, Harrisburg, and other areas of the state and country. "We would want them to be safe, however, and to wear a mask and practice social distancing as much as possible while theyre exercising their civil rights. We do have concerns about the potential for spread of COVID-19 with mass protests that dont practice social distancing. The state has said on a number of occasions that it does not have evidence that protests related to reopening Pa. earlier this year amid the coronavirus pandemic led to a jump in confirmed cases, and there is no information that claims that related to the most recent protests, either. As of Tuesday, the Department of Health reported 72,894 cases statewide that have resulted in 5,667 deaths. More coverage: Boxer Floyd Mayweather to pay for George Floyds funeral The recent proposal from the Ministry of Construction to limit new investment in high-end residential property, including villas and high-rise apartments, due to already high inventories has been a cause for concern among industry experts and developers. High-end property has been developing rapidly, and developers also want to increase supply in low- to mid-end segments, Photo: Le Toan According to the Ministry of Construction (MoC), the proposal to limit high-end residences is based on the difficulties the real estate market is facing, both from the low liquidity resulting from COVID-19 and the oversupply of high- and mid-end properties, coupled with the shortage in the affordable segment. The demand for housing in the mid- and high-end segment with prices above VND25 million ($1,000) per square metre only accounts for 20-30 per cent of the total, while the affordable segment accounts for 70-80 per cent of market demand. There are more than 4,400 new residential and urban development projects nationwide with the total investment capital of VND4.8 quadrillion ($208.7 billion). Of this, the value of properties in inventory is VND104 trillion ($4.5 billion) by the end of March. Aidan Wee, co-founder and executive director of PropNex Realty Vietnam, believed the proposal is a step in the right direction and will help redirect financial resources in the real estate sector and put the development capabilities of developers to better use. This would encourage the supply of affordable housing to cater to the real demand of the urban population which is key to the sustainable development of the real estate market, Wee told VIR. Andy Han Suk Jung, CEO of SonKim Land also said that it is good that the government is making an effort to increase the supply in the low- to mid-end segments as the supply has been far below demand in the vast majority of the market. He believed the price must be set by supply and demand, especially in the mid- and high-end markets, in the affordable segment the government has an important role to play by incentivising developers and by facilitating the approval process so that development cycle can be shortened. There are many pieces of land that are under government control. If those can be allocated for affordable and mid-end apartments, the supply can be increased in rather short order, Jung said. However, according to Wee, while it is a step in the right direction, the proposal will not be effective by itself. A more comprehensive legal framework must be developed by the MoC to support mass housing. The ministry could also introduce policies to curb speculation in the affordable housing segment and issue new incentives for developers to encourage them to roll out more projects in the segment, he said. Well-meaning as it may be, limiting the premium and luxury housing segments to force developers to focus on the affordable and mid-end segments might not be entirely reasonable because there is still demand for high-end housing with better amenities and living environment. Purposely limiting supply to these segments will cause a supply and demand imbalance to greatly widen prices across different segments and put premium and luxury products out of reach for the more affluent people, Wee added. Jung from SonKim Land also explained that limiting mid- to high-end products would not help the market as Vietnams middle-income population is growing rapidly who can afford better projects, while there is also steady demand by foreign buyers who are here to work or to invest in real estate. At a while many people may be concerned that a restriction will only drive prices in the affected segments higher as demand will keep going up while supply is frozen. I think it would be advisable to adopt a hands-off approach and let supply and demand set the prices, and help to intervene in the affordable segment to give incentives to developers and shorten lengthy procedures to encourage developers to do more and more, said Han. Stephen Wyatt, country head for JLL Vietnam, said that over the past few years the residential sector has been developing and there has been a considerable amount of new mid- and high-end apartments entering the market in both major cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Key factors to consider, according to Wyatt, are that the total supply of residential apartments is coming off a very low base, especially when compared to other Southeast Asian cities and the ratio of apartments to the population is still low. At the same time, it has become incredibly difficult to find land within close proximity to the city centre. This has pushed land values to artificially high levels, which in turn has increased the prices of residential apartments. Moreover, the market needs to shift focus to more affordable housing, catering for the end user. However, this can only be achieved when there is more available land and land values are cheaper. Wyatt added that the market needs to re-calibrate and focus on real demand and a balance of all sectors. Meanwhile Damian Sung, sales director of Asia Bankers Club, told VIR that with the optimistic results of the fight against the pandemic in Vietnam, the real estate market should be largely unchanged. However, investors seeking distressed assets prove that this is not the case. For those that have invested earlier, they will likely see the value of their properties go up as high-end supply is limited, with heightened interest in current inventories or new projects being launched this year. This will also boost the secondary market for foreign quotas as there are limited supplies of good development in both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. However, the bad part is that there will not be newer projects for the time being, said Sung. Instead of limiting the high-end segment, experts suggested the Vietnamese government to issue more incentives to encourage developers to invest in mid-end and affordable housing. VIR Bich Ngoc Property firms top bond issuers, having risks as outstanding bonds much higher than equities Property firms were the top bond issuers in the first four months of this year, but the race of issuing bonds to raise capital in the context of tightened credit was creating risks as many had much higher outstanding bonds than their equities. We may be only on the second day of the official 2020 hurricane season, but already we're tracking our third named tropical system in the Atlantic. Tropical Storm Cristobal was spinning in the Bay of Campeche at midday Tuesday. By the end of the week, the system is expected to slowly intensify in the Gulf of Mexico, with some data suggesting the storm could ultimately approach or even make a U.S. landfall. Tropical storm warnings are already up in Mexico from Campeche to Puerto de Veracruz as the system continues to organize, while there is concern closer to home for possible impacts by the weekend, depending on the storm's track and intensity. The system was declared a "tropical depression" on Monday evening, and was upgraded to a tropical storm at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time. This is the earliest third named storm to form in the Atlantic basin, with the previous record being Tropical Storm Colin, which formed on June 5, 2016. The jury is out as to how exactly the storm will evolve. In fact, there's even an outside chance that not one, but two named storms brew in the Gulf. - - - For the time being, serious inland flooding from heavy rainfall is likely along the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico and west into the states of Tabasco and Campeche, where a widespread 8 to 16 inches is likely. A few localized totals of 20 to 30 inches are possible. "Some of these Pacific locations received 20 inches of rain over the weekend, and storm total amounts of 35 inches are possible," wrote the National Hurricane Center. "Rainfall in all of these areas may produce life-threatening flash floods and mudslides." Heavy rains continue to fall in Central America from the storm, which is living its second life. The system originated from a short-lived tropical storm in the eastern Pacific, and was briefly named Tropical Storm Amanda. That storm affected Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Belize. The storm already has a history of deadly flooding in El Salvador, where at least 16 people were killed in flooding and mudslides. Another seven remained missing Tuesday morning. Nearly 25,000 families were affected according to the government of El Salvador, with roughly 7,000 people in shelter. A national red alert remains in effect, the "critical level of danger" spurring the government to recommend residents remain at home. - - - There are multiple wild cards with the track and intensity forecast for Cristobal, leading to below average confidence in the system's ultimate strength, track, and impacts. Among the greatest uncertainties at this point is whether or not the developing storm will remain over water or spend some time over land in the Mexican state of Tabasco, or along the shores of the Bay of Campeche. At the mid to upper levels of the atmosphere, there is a pattern characterized by broad counterclockwise flow - known as the Central American Gyre - that has been present over the western Gulf. The system has been embedded within the vortex's circulation, and subsequently has been steered around its periphery. That's why the system first traveled east, then curved north, and then eventually northwest and west. It's as though the system is driving around a traffic circle, but we're not sure yet what exit it takes. Does it end up being thrust ashore in Mexico, where it could weaken? Or does the system linger over the warm waters of the bay of Campeche for several days? Eventually, the gyre and the tropical storm will contract and merge into one entity. That will also have a bearing on how tight the system's circulation is, and therefore the storm's intensity. - - - The European model, historically among the best-performing models, suggests the system will spin for several days over the Bay of Campeche and not travel inland enough to significantly weaken the circulation. The model concentrates the system's mid-level spin into a tighter circulation as well, eventually depicting a stronger tropical cyclone sweeping north and eventually impacting the United States. The American GFS model, however, suggests the system may move inland along the Bay of Campeche as early as Tuesday night or Wednesday. That would likely greatly diminish the intensity of the system after its core reemerges over the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday or Friday. If the American model's simulation comes to fruition, a weaker tropical cyclone would affect the United States. That scenario would could lead to another tropical cyclone being named, too, as the upper-level circulation associated with the gyre and the remnants of the first cyclone we're tracking would lead to additional storm formation in the Gulf. If that were to occur, it would be the earliest fourth Atlantic named storm in a season on record. Right now, it's unclear which of the scenarios will pan out, with the National Hurricane Center writing "[our] forecast track. . . brings the center close to the coast of Mexico on days 2 and 3." - - - By this weekend, there is an increasing risk of a tropical cyclone affecting the United States. Where it does, heavy rain and flooding is likely. A number of the most impactful tropical cyclones to have affected the Gulf Coast in recent years - including Barry, Imelda, and Harvey - will be remembered for their flooding. The time frame to watch would be beginning later on Saturday and continuing into the start of next week. A multi-faceted event, including potential wind storm surge, inland flooding or tornado risks, can't be ruled out. But confidence this far in advance remains very low. Right now, it's impossible to provide a specific location in the United States more favored to see potential impacts down the line. Instead, anyone from the Texas Coast to the Florida Panhandle should be vigilant and stay aware of the latest forecast developments. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic is likely to complicate storm preparation and response efforts, which may require people to think about and get ready for storm impacts earlier than they may have in past years. Haiti - News : Zapping... 5 people struck by lightning Saturday in Valieres, 3rd communal section of Grosse Roche (Dept. North-East) during a violent thunderstorm, 5 people died by lightning struck Anette Valcourt (42 years old) and 4 young people : Renady Altidor (12), Merline Choute (15), Johnky Saladier (12) and Renald Tanis (14) informed Fritz Saint-Fort, the Departmental Director of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) of the North-East. A police officer shot dead in Cite Soleil Monday mid-day, police officer Wismick Aristyl agent I of the 21st promotion of the Haitian National Police (PNH) was cold-blooded in front of the Cite Soleil police station when he got off a motorcycle taxi while he was about to cross the entrance barrier of the police station. Temporary closure of the Palace of Justice Bernard Saint Vil, the Dean of the Court of First Instance (TPI) of Port-au-Prince together with Lucmane Delile the Minister of Justice ordered the closure of the Palace of Justice of Port-au-Prince for disinfection following the death of a clerk tested positive for Covid-19. The disinfection will start on June 2 and the Palace of Justice will reopen on June 8. Death of the Divisional Commissioner, Carmel Florent STOP Accidents learned with sadness the news of the untimely death of the Divisional Commissioner, Carmel Florent (59 years old), Head of the Traffic and Road Police Directorate within the PNH, on the night of Sunday, May 31, 2020. Florent was a true friend of the defenders of road safety in Haiti, always ready to support initiatives going in this direction. STOP Accidents presents its sympathies to his family and to the National Police of Haiti (PNH) in general. Diaspora : Reopening of the Atlanta Consulate The Consulate General of the Republic of Haiti in Atlanta (Georgia) announces the reopening of the Mission from June 1, 2020 from Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Distribution of 18,000 food rations Several teams from the Economic and Social Assistance Fund (FAES) have provided dry rations to 18,000 vulnerable people over the past weekend in the departments of North, North-east, North-west, Center, South, South-east, Nippes , Artibonite and Grand-Anse. HL/ HaitiLibre LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The tiny barbecue shop on the corner of 26th Street and Broadway had always been a source of nourishment - for both body and soul - for the black residents on the west side of this city. But on Tuesday, the morning after another night of protests in Louisville, it was a place of mourning. Yellow caution tape hung from a chain-link fence. Flowers littered the ground. People attached blue and red streamers close to a plywood sign spray-painted in black: "0 days since an innocent black man was murdered." One by one, people pulled up to pay their respects to David McAtee. The popular owner of YaYa's BBQ was shot and killed outside his business just after midnight Monday in what city officials said was an exchange of gunfire that involved metro police and members of the Kentucky National Guard. Louisville already had been roiled with police-brutality protests. Two months ago, officers shot and killed another black resident, 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, as she slept in her home. Then George Floyd was killed in an encounter with police in Minneapolis, spurring protests nationwide. Now McAtee's death at the hands of police. It pushed protests to intensify here, and it pushed local elected officials to act, hoping to quell the unrest. Hours after McAtee's death Monday, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, a Democrat, fired Police Chief Steve Conrad after learning that police officers involved in McAtee's shooting had not activated their body cameras. He also extended the city's 9 p.m. curfew through June 8. The Louisville Metro Police Department on Tuesday released silent surveillance footage that it said shows that McAtee, 53, fired a gun first when officers arrived at the scene in response to a crowd gathering at Dino's Food Mart next to McAtee's barbecue stand. But interim police chief Robert Schroeder acknowledged Tuesday that the video does not provide many key details, including why McAtee fired or where police were standing at the time the shots were exchanged. "The video appears to show Mr. McAtee firing a gun outside of his business door as officers who are using pepper balls to clear the Dino's lot were approaching," Schroeder said in a news conference. "The video does not provide all the answers, but we are releasing it to provide transparency." City officials have said two police officers who fired their weapons have been placed on administrative leave because they either did not have their body cameras activated or were not wearing them. The city police, the Kentucky State Police and the National Guard are investigating the shooting. Protesters have no plans to let up; if Taylor's and Floyd's deaths were inspirations to take to the streets, McAtee's death has deepened their resolve. "We're at a time right now where everybody has to come together," said Louisville resident Anthony Spencer, who protested Monday at the rally near YaYa's BBQ. "I'm going to be right back out there." There were two concurrent protests in Louisville on Monday night, both of which were more peaceful than the destructive and violent demonstrations of the previous four nights - though the lone grocery store in the West End, a Kroger's, was looted and closed for a day. In the early evening hours, a diverse group gathered downtown with signs featuring Breonna Taylor's name. A gathering honoring McAtee across the street from YaYa's BBQ had been going all day. McAtee's death stirred an emotional outpouring in the neighborhood, drawing a large group to the intersection shortly after news of the shooting circulated online. Attendees were confronted with a jarring scene in the heart of West Louisville: McAtee's body was not removed from outside his shop until Monday afternoon. The shop owner, whom residents alternately called "YaYa" or simply "the BBQ man," was renowned for his cooking, usually seen poking and prodding at multiple smokers at once. "You always smelled barbecue right there at that corner," said Chanelle Helm, a core organizer of Black Lives Matter Louisville. "It's like the town square for West Louisville. . . . That's where we're going to gather. It was what YaYa was used to. That's what he operated in, his work. Those were his people." Anthony Spencer grew up on McAtee's cooking and often got free meals when he was low on cash. Spencer's mother was a close friend of McAtee's. She ran a day care in the neighborhood for years and McAtee, as he did for many community organizations, would provide food. Spencer, 28, made his last visit to YaYa's BBQ on Friday, just as mass demonstrations began to sweep the city. "Man, you all right? You behaving yourself?" Spencer said McAtee told him before serving up a hot tray of rib tips. They chuckled together and talked about old times. "It's a sacred place," Spencer said. "He's what you call a pillar for the community. He's been feeding people from since before I was born, whether it's out of his pocket, or he's running his business. A lot of people are feeling a lot of pain." Spencer said a police officer shared a similar story with him Monday night, during the protests. The officer had also visited YaYa's for years and had been provided free meals. "I personally know YaYa," Spencer said. "I just can't see him shooting at a bunch of military and police." Downtown, a largely youthful group gathered in the small park across the street from Louisville City Hall, the courthouse and the department of corrections. Shouts of "No Justice, no peace. Prosecute the police," rang out while people held signs reading "Black Lives Matter," and "Am I Next?" There was a constant, tinny buzz of a drone hovering overhead, which many in the crowd assumed belonged to law enforcement authorities. Protesters, as many white as there were black, sat or stood in small groups, chatting with cloth masks or bandannas pulled over their noses. Cases of water and dozens of full jugs of milk - meant for use as an antidote for pepper spray and tear gas - were strewn on the ground as a woman and a man roamed around with gloves on, collecting trash. Some people brought their dogs. The message of the evening, shouted explicitly again and again, was to remain peaceful. "If you throw something at the police, you endanger everyone," shouted one man, wearing a red cap and jacket that read "Black Panthers" on the back. "You need to disperse when they tell you to disperse," said a woman who stood in the center of a large circle of protesters, which then echoed her statement back in a call-and-response. At nightfall, 15 minutes after the city's 9 p.m. curfew, a horde of new protesters from Dino's marched into the park and doubled the size of the demonstration to about 400 - and everyone was on their feet. At 10 p.m., with a caravan of cars, packed bumper-to-bumper between Fifth and Sixth streets and honking in support, police and camouflage-clad Kentucky National Guard members deployed tear gas and stun grenades that sent protesters sprinting away from the square. Twenty minutes later, the park was clear, and quiet had settled over the area. Schroeder, the acting police chief, said in a news conference that police believed two people in the crowd fired guns, though no injuries were reported. Three people were arrested. The only people left in the streets were Louisville police and the National Guard. They set up a perimeter downtown, blocking off main streets and prohibiting cars from driving to Louisville's West End, where the protest over McAtee's death rolled on. TVSmiles, a Berlin-based mobile native advertising app whose users earn digital currency in exchange for engaging with branded content such as quizzes, apps and videos, has suffered a data breach. Security researcher UpGuard disclosed in a report today that it found an unsecured Amazon S3 bucket online last month -- containing personal and device data tied to millions of the app's users. According to TVSmiles' marketing material the quiz app has up to three million users. The storage bucket UpGuard found exposed to the Internet contained a 306 GB PostgreSQL database backup with "unencrypted personally identifiable information matched to individual users, profiling insights about users interests based on quiz responses, associations to smart devices, and accounts and login details for TVSmiles business relationships", according to its report. UpGuard writes that 261 database tables were present in the exposed repository -- including a "core_users" table consisting of more than 6.6 million rows. Of the entries that had an email address tied to them UpGuard says it found 901,000 unique emails. The exposed backup file appears to date back to August 2017. Screengrab: UpGuard After UpGuard reported the breach to TVSmiles, in an email sent May 13, the Berlin-based company responded on May 15, writing in an email that the repository "has been immediately secured" (UpGuard says it independently confirmed this). TVSmiles co-founder, Gaylord Zach, added in this email to UpGuard that it would "further investigate the contents of the exposed data to take further actions". Reached for comment on the incident today, Zach confirmed UpGuard's report and also confirmed that the exposed repository had been accidentally left unsecured for years. He said internal analysis of available logs has found no unauthorized access besides UpGuard's access of the data, adding that TVSmiles has yet to notify users of the incident -- but is planning a communication to users within its mobile app and a blog post on its website. Story continues "Our analysis has revealed that the data consists of a database backup that was created in 2017 and mistakenly stored in a cloud storage repository provided within the cloud hosting environment," Zach told us. "Allegedly this backup was created as a safety measure ahead of performed maintenance work. Further investigation revealed three independent but severe policy breaches: 1.) The backup was stored in plain format where all backups should have been encrypted; 2.) The affected repository was provisioned as a code repository and never intended to store data; 3.) The affected repository was intended for private use within the organization and never intended to be publicly available. "The very unfortunate combination of these three factors resulted in the long period that this data remained stored without discovery." TVSmiles reported the breach to the German Data protection authorities -- filing its report on May 17, per Zach. Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires data controllers to report all breaches of personal data that pose a risk to people's rights and freedoms to a supervisory authority within at least 72 hours of discovery. "We are very thankful to UpGuard unveiling this exposure before it has led to material data breaches and harm to our users. We are very much embarrassed by this unnecessary exposure of user data. It is a strong reminder to every developer to do regular security checks and house keeping in order to avoid these incidents," he added. Screengrab: UpGuard Clicks for data TVSmiles' business participates in a data-fuelled digital ad ecosystem that operates by linking user IDs to devices, digital activity and tracked interests, building individual profiles for the purpose of targeting screen users with advertising. Hence the interactive content that the TVSmiles quiz app encourages users to engage with -- rewarding activity with a proprietary digital currency (called 'Smiles') that can be exchanged for discount vouchers on products in its shop or directly for cash -- functions both as direct marketing material to drive deeper engage around branded content; and a data harvesting tool in its own right, enabling the business to gather deeper insights on users' interests which can in turn be monetized via user profiling and ad targeting. Such insights enable TVSmiles to plug into a wider digital advertising ecosystem in which mobile users are profiled and tracked at scale across multiple apps, services and devices in order that targeted ads can follow eyeballs as they go -- all powered by the background profiling of people's digital activity and inferred interests. According to Crunchbase the quiz app has raised a total of $12.6M in funding since being founded around seven years ago when it was pitching itself as a second screen app for TV viewers. It went on to launch its own ad platform, called Kwizzard, which packages ads into "a native, gamified ad format" -- with the aim of luring app users to engage with quiz-based ad campaigns. Given the nature of TVSmiles' business -- and a wider problematic lack of transparency around how the adtech industry functions -- this data breach is a fascinating and unnerving glimpse of the breadth and depth of data harvesting that routinely goes on in the background of ad-supported digital services. Even an app with a relatively small user base (single digit millions) can be sitting atop a massive repository of tracking data. The online ad industry also continues to face major questions over the legal basis it claims for processing large volumes of personal data under the European Union's data protection regime. A master database plus access tokens In terms of the types of data exposed in this breach, UpGuard said the 306 GB PostgreSQL database backup contained "centralized information" about users of the app, alongside what it describes as "large amounts of internal system and partnership information necessary for any business participating in the modern online advertising ecosystem". TVSmiles' LinkedIn page reports the app having in excess of 2M users in Germany and the U.K. -- per Google's Play store the TVSmiles app has had in excess of 1M downloads to date, and while Apple's iOS does not break out a ballpark figure for app downloads a video on the Play Store app page makes reference to 3M users -- so it's possible the 6.6M figure relates to total downloads over the app's lifetime since launch back in September 2013. Zach told us that the discrepancy between the user figures is a result of TVSmiles being a much smaller business now than it was in mid 2017 -- when it was spending a lot on marketing and had more active users, including as a result of operating in the UK market (which it left in 2018). "In general we are now a much smaller organisation compared to 2017," he added. Other tables in the repository were found by UpGuard to contain considerably more entries -- such as a tracking_token table, with more than 235 million entry rows. "A table in this database called "user_core" contained six million rows, with many users having their "country" field marked for other territories throughout Europe, making this data consistent with being a master database for TVSmiles at the time," it writes in the report. "The user_core table contained fields for email address, fb_user, fb_access_token, first and last name, gender, date of birth, address, phone number, password, and others." UpGuard told us that the user_core table had password hashes filled in for 626,000 of the rows. It said these passwords appear to have been hashed using a type of hashing algorithm that's known to be vulnerable to brute forcing -- the sha256 algorithm -- and therefore offers little protection against malicious attackers. It added that it was able to locate three out of three random hashed passwords it checked in publicly available indexes which are easily searchable online -- meaning these password hashes had already been reversed (which in turn suggests they may have been used elsewhere before; or else are commonly guessable). It also found Facebook user IDs ("fb_user") and access tokens ("fb_access_token") stored in the repository for some of the listed TVSmiles users -- presumably for those who used a Facebook account to login to the app. "Not all data points were present for all users for example, the Facebook specific fields would likely only be present for users who had connected with their Facebook identity, and users who had authenticated via Facebook would not inherently need to create a password for the app due to the functionality of that authentication method," UpGuard suggests. The exposed repository contained more than 312,000 access tokens tied to Facebook IDs, according to its analysis. Screengrab: UpGuard It also found a large collection of personal data stored in a table related to end user devices -- which it said were linked to tracking tokens, ad IDs and user rewards. "A table called "device_core" contains 7.5 million rows tied to physical devices," UpGuard writes. "These devices have unique device ids, access tokens, and mappings to the user ids of their owners. Those device ids, in turn, are then relevant to a "tracking_token" table consisting of 235 million entry rows. "The rows in the tracking_token table include fields such as campaign_id, placement_id, user_payout, and challenge_id, building up a picture of the TVSmiles activity like which ads and activities users responded to on each device which can then be linked back to the user." Other personal data found in the repository includes precise location data -- "users' latitude and longitude" -- with a related admin view configured for a database named full device info, which UpGuard says highlights "the "tracker_name," a token value, and the nearest weather station". It also found a collection of "insights" related to TVSmiles users -- listed in the form of "intents, interests, and other psychographic qualities". "These subjects ranged from consumer goods (e.g. books, video games, furniture, and clothing) to the users education and more esoteric interests," the report notes. Redacted screengrab: UpGuard As well as storing (unencrypted) personal data attached to millions of users of the TVSmiles app, and hashed passwords for more than half a million of these entries, the exposed repository was found to contain information related to a number of the company's own business clients -- also tied to access tokens. "It is reasonable to interpret these names as business clients, who have paid to publish ads on TVSmiles or have access to insights gleaned from end-user app interaction," UpGuard writes of the "business_clients" table. "These business users hashed passwords, phone numbers, email addresses, names, and other data points were also present. Conversely, TVSmiles own credentials for interacting with vendors necessary to provide the TVSmiles platform, like ad exchanges, fraud detection platforms, and email communication scheduling, were also present." UpGuard suggests that a hacker who stumbled across the unsecured bucket may have been able to use the tokens to gain access to a number of additional services where they could potentially obtain further user data -- such as by exporting contact data; accessing or sending mail via a third party service; or reading historic service information and performance metrics. "If this database had been located by malicious entities, prior to UpGuard discovering it and sending appropriate notification, the possibility exists that such credentials could have allowed an attacker to impersonate TVSmiles and collect additional information about arbitrary targets from those other platforms and service providers," it adds. Zach confirmed the data contained "legacy access tokens" -- but said they stem from a deprecated login methodology that had since been replaced with a OAuth based sign on service. "The data originates from August 2017. Any contained access tokens would therefore have expired by now," he told us, saying TVSmiles has not yet notified any business partners on account of seeing "no major risk based on the nature and age of the exposed tokens". "We would however not hesitate to contact and take action if we have underestimated or overseen risks," he added. Questions of consent After reviewing UpGuard's report, Wolfie Christl, an EU-based privacy researcher who focuses on adtech and data-driven surveillance, called for EU data protection agencies to launch an immediate investigation. "This is a massive data breach. But it is about more than that. It provides a glimpse into an opaque industry consisting of thousands of companies that secretly harvest extensive personal information on millions of people for business purposes," he told TechCrunch. "According to the leaked database, the company has digital profiles on 6M people and 7.5M devices. It seems that they linked names, email addresses and phone numbers to device identifiers, social media accounts, and to all kinds of behavioral data. "Data protection authorities in Germany -- and perhaps in other European countries -- must immediately start an investigation. In addition to the data breach, they must examine whether the company, and its affiliates and partners, processed this extensive amount of personal data in a lawful way. Did they have a legal basis to process it?" Screengrab: UpGuard "The wider issue is that, two years after the GDPR came into full force, it has still not been enforced in major areas," Christl added. "We still see large-scale misuse of personal information all over the digital world, from platforms to digital marketing to mobile apps. EU authorities should have acted years ago, they must do so now." In its privacy policy, TVSmiles states that it only uses app users' personal data "to the extent that this is legally permissible or you have given your consent... for the purposes of advertising, market research or the needs-based design of our offer" [text translated using Google Translate]. "We are obtaining user consent to the use of data and have created a dedicated section within our app to obtain consent like location data, advertising identifier, sharing of personal data with advertising partners," Zach told us on this, adding that consent information is provided to "various advertising and tracking partners" -- assuming users agree to be tracked via responses to its consent flows (shown below). Screenshots: TVSmiles References to a number of third party adtech companies can be found in TVSmiles' repository, per UpGuard, suggesting it was making use of their services for data structuring, enrichment and monetization purposes -- including Adex, a data management platform and marketplace whose website touts the "easy selling and purchase of data"; Adjust, a mobile measurement and fraud-prevention firm geared towards mobile marketing; mobile app monetization company, Fyber; and product user behavior analytics platform, Mixpanel. Another interesting component in this story is how TVSmiles' business straddles the TV and online advertising realms. Its business began, more than half a decade ago, with a firm focus on the notion of being a 'second screen' app for TV viewers -- including by using audio technology to automatically identify TV ads in order to serve related in-app content. This means it's forged links with traditional media giants. Back in 2014, for instance, it inked a marketing partnership for its app in Austria with European media giant ProSiebenSat.1's marketing subsidiary, SevenOne Media. At the time ProSiebenSat.1 PULS 4's MD, Michael Stix, billed the move as a "strategic step" to integrate brand communication on the second screen, lauding the tie-up as a way to offer advertising customers "additional novel touchpoints" for their target group. But the rise of smart TVs and digital sign-ins has paved the way for deeper linking of Internet activity and TV viewing. Especially as traditional mass media giants have been looking for ways to diversify their media businesses, with more competition for viewers' eyeballs than ever before. Behind all these screens a complex mass of adtech pipes is exchanging data linked to individual users -- trading IDs and insights to join dots and serve targeted ads. So connected "touchpoints" are now very much integral, not secondary, these days. UpGuard found labels (see below screengrab) in the exposed TVSmiles repository that refer to "seven_pass": Aka a single sign-on solution for all ProSieben.Sat1's digital services, called 7Pass. An FAQ on TVSmiles' website confirms TVSmiles users are able to use the 7Pass service to log in to the app. Screengrab: UpGuard In its privacy policy, TVSmiles states that "pseudonymized" data of users of the 7Pass login is sent to ProSiebenSat.1 Digital & its affiliates and to other affiliated companies of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE -- including quiz response data. "In addition, survey data collected and provided by you via survey cards in the app are also transmitted pseudonymised to ProSiebenSat.1 Digital & Adjacent GmbH and other affiliated companies of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE in order to enable you to use special quiz cards in the app, bring in more smilies and be able to offer special promotions in cooperation with ProSiebenSat.1," it adds. Of course, much like weak password hashes, "pseudonymised" personal data can be trivially easy to re-identify -- such as by unifying tracking IDs. Asked about the 7Pass service, Zach said TVSmiles had replaced its legacy user management with ProSiebenSat.1's digital sign-on service -- claiming the main objective was "to leverage a trustworthy well maintained sign-on service by a larger partner and remove the need of self managed credentials and access tokens". "Given the sensitivity of user data and access credentials it seems like a wise choice in light of this case," he added. In a more recent business development, TVSmiles sold its development division and adtech to a company called PubNative in December 2019. PubNative is a mobile SSP and programmatic ad exchange owned by a German holding company called MGI Media that's made a large number of media and adtech acquisitions in recent years (as well as being majority owner of free-to-play gamesmaker, Gamigo). At the time of this "acqui-hire" TVSmiles and PubNative suggested an ongoing business partnership. "As we recently branched into Connected TV, PubNatives advanced tech stack supports our continued growth and allows us to expand our business internationally. Advancements on demand-side business development will be introduced gradually across the entire product line," said Zach in a press statement at the end of last year. Asked about the nature of the business relationship between TVSmiles and PubNative, Zach confirmed it sold "certain people and technology" to PubNative but retained its mobile apps and user base, adding: "No user data has been shared with PubNative and they have no involvement in this case." However he confirmed TVSmiles uses advertising technology provided by PubNative. "This technology (SDK) is built into the TVSmiles app. Data sharing is limited to those authorized by user consent for advertising use," he added. A static analysis by Exodus suggests the TVSmiles app contains more than 40 trackers -- including PubNative's. This plus the fact the TVSmiles repository was found by UpGuard to be storing precise user location data is interesting in light of a separate report, published in January, by Norway's Consumer Council (NCC) -- which delved into how the adtech industry non-transparently exploits app users' data. The NCC report identified PubNative as one of the entities receiving GPS data from a number of apps it tested (NB: it did not test the TVSmiles app). The Council found a majority of apps that it did test transmitted data to entities it characterized as unexpected third parties meaning users were not being clearly informed about who was getting their information and what was being done with it, in its view. Other SDKs contained in the TVSmiles app, per Exodus and a list of software suppliers in TVSmiles' privacy policy, include Facebook Ads, Analytics and Places; Google Ads, Analytics, DoubleClick & more; and Twitter MoPub. Also present: A longer list of smaller adtech and mobile marketing/monetization players, from AdBuddiz to Vungle. "Looking through the Exodus report most of these trackers stem from advertising technology that is being used within TVSmiles app," Zach also told us. WHO staffers debated how to press China for gene sequences and detailed patient data without angering authorities, worried about losing access and getting Chinese scientists into trouble. Under international law, WHO is required to quickly share information and alerts with member countries about an evolving crisis. Galea noted WHO could not indulge China's wish to sign off on information before telling other countries because "that is not respectful of our responsibilities." The recordings suggest that rather than colluding with China, as Trump declared , WHO was kept in the dark as China gave it the minimal information required by law. However, the agency did try to portray China in the best light, likely as a means to secure more information. And WHO experts genuinely thought Chinese scientists had done "a very good job" in detecting and decoding the virus, despite the lack of transparency from Chinese officials. The new information does not support the narrative of either the U.S. or China, but instead portrays an agency now stuck in the middle that was urgently trying to solicit more data despite limits to its own authority. Although international law obliges countries to report information to WHO that could have an impact on public health, the U.N. agency has no enforcement powers and cannot independently investigate epidemics within countries. Instead, it must rely on the cooperation of member states. In the meantime, Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to pitch in $2 billion over the next two years to fight the coronavirus, saying China has always provided information to WHO and the world "in a most timely fashion." The story behind the early response to the virus comes at a time when the U.N. health agency is under siege , and has agreed to an independent probe of how the pandemic was handled globally. After repeatedly praising the Chinese response early on, U.S. President Donald Trump has blasted WHO in recent weeks for allegedly colluding with China to hide the extent of the coronavirus crisis. He cut ties with the organization on Friday, jeopardizing the approximately $450 million the U.S. gives every year as WHO's biggest single donor. "We're currently at the stage where yes, they're giving it to us 15 minutes before it appears on CCTV," said WHO's top official in China, Dr. Gauden Galea, referring to the state-owned China Central Television, in another meeting. "We're going on very minimal information," said American epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove, now WHO's technical lead for COVID-19, in one internal meeting. "It's clearly not enough for you to do proper planning." WHO officials were lauding China in public because they wanted to coax more information out of the government, the recordings obtained by the AP suggest. Privately, they complained in meetings the week of Jan. 6 that China was not sharing enough data to assess how effectively the virus spread between people or what risk it posed to the rest of the world, costing valuable time. Chinese government labs only released the genome after another lab published it ahead of authorities on a virologist website on Jan. 11. Even then, China stalled for at least two weeks more on providing WHO with detailed data on patients and cases, according to recordings of internal meetings held by the U.N. health agency through January all at a time when the outbreak arguably might have been dramatically slowed. Despite the plaudits, China in fact sat on releasing the genetic map, or genome, of the virus for more than a week after three different government labs had fully decoded the information. Tight controls on information and competition within the Chinese public health system were to blame, according to dozens of interviews and internal documents. But behind the scenes, it was a much different story, one of significant delays by China and considerable frustration among WHO officials over not getting the information they needed to fight the spread of the deadly virus, The Associated Press has found. Throughout January, the World Health Organization publicly praised China for what it called a speedy response to the new coronavirus. It repeatedly thanked the Chinese government for sharing the genetic map of the virus "immediately," and said its work and commitment to transparency were "very impressive, and beyond words." By Jan. 2, Shi had decoded the entire genome of the virus, according to a notice later posted on her institute's website . WHO officially requested more information on Jan. 1. Under international law, members have 24 to 48 hours to respond, and China reported two days later that there were 44 cases and no deaths. The next day, Chinese CDC director Gao Fu dispatched a team of experts to Wuhan. Also on Dec. 31, WHO first learned about the cases from an open-source platform that scouts for intelligence on outbreaks, emergencies chief Ryan has said. On Dec. 30, Wuhan health officials issued internal notices warning of the unusual pneumonia, which leaked on social media. That evening, Shi Zhengli, a coronavirus expert at the Wuhan Institute of Virology who is famous for having traced the SARS virus to a bat cave, was alerted to the new disease, according to an interview with Scientific American . Shi took the first train from a conference in Shanghai back to Wuhan. By Dec. 27, one lab, Vision Medicals, had pieced together most of the genome of a new coronavirus with striking similarities to SARS. Vision Medicals shared its data with Wuhan officials and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, as reported first by Chinese finance publication Caixin and independently confirmed by the AP. The race to find the genetic map of the virus started in late December, according to the story that unfolds in interviews, documents and the WHO recordings. That's when doctors in Wuhan noticed mysterious clusters of patients with fevers and breathing problems who weren't improving with standard flu treatment. Seeking answers, they sent test samples from patients to commercial labs. "Since the beginning of the outbreak, we have been continuously sharing information on the epidemic with the WHO and the international community in an open, transparent and responsible manner," said Liu Mingzhu, an official with the National Health Commission's International Department, at a press conference on May 15. China's National Health Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had no comment. But in the past few months, China has repeatedly defended its actions, and many other countries including the U.S . have responded to the virus with even longer delays of weeks and even months . "Our leadership and staff have worked night and day in compliance with the organization's rules and regulations to support and share information with all Member States equally, and engage in frank and forthright conversations with governments at all levels," a WHO statement said. WHO and its officials named in this story declined to answer questions asked by The Associated Press without audio or written transcripts of the recorded meetings, which the AP was unable to supply to protect its sources. "It's definitely damaged WHO's credibility," said Kamradt-Scott. "Did he go too far? I think the evidence on that is clear.it has led to so many questions about the relationship between China and WHO. It is perhaps a cautionary tale." If WHO had pushed too hard, it could even have been kicked out of China, said Adam Kamradt-Scott, a global health professor at the University of Sydney. But he added that a delay of just a few days in releasing genetic sequences can be critical in an outbreak. And he noted that as Beijing's lack of transparency becomes even clearer, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus's continued defense of China is problematic. However, Mokdad and other experts also noted that if WHO had been more confrontational with China, it could have triggered a far worse situation of not getting any information at all. "It's obvious that we could have saved more lives and avoided many, many deaths if China and the WHO had acted faster," said Ali Mokdad, a professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. Between the day the full genome was first decoded by a government lab on Jan. 2 and the day WHO declared a global emergency on Jan. 30, the outbreak spread by a factor of 100 to 200 times, according to retrospective infection data from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus has now infected over 6 million people worldwide and killed more than 375,000. The delay in the release of the genome stalled the recognition of its spread to other countries, along with the global development of tests, drugs and vaccines. The lack of detailed patient data also made it harder to determine how quickly the virus was spreading a critical question in stopping it. "This would not happen in Congo and did not happen in Congo and other places," he said, probably referring to the Ebola outbreak that began there in 2018. "We need to see the data..It's absolutely important at this point." Ryan said the best way to "protect China" was for WHO to do its own independent analysis with data from the Chinese government, because otherwise the spread of the virus between people would be in question and "other countries will take action accordingly." Ryan also noted that China was not cooperating in the same way some other countries had in the past. "This is exactly the same scenario, endlessly trying to get updates from China about what was going on," he said. "WHO barely got out of that one with its neck intact given the issues that arose around transparency in southern China." In the second week of January, WHO's chief of emergencies, Dr. Michael Ryan, told colleagues it was time to "shift gears" and apply more pressure on China, fearing a repeat of the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome that started in China in 2002 and killed nearly 800 people worldwide. Scientists agree that Chinese scientists detected and sequenced the then-unknown pathogen with astonishing speed, in a testimony to China's vastly improved technical capabilities since SARS, during which a WHO-led group of scientists took months to identify the virus. This time, Chinese virologists proved within days that it was a never-before-seen coronavirus. Tedros would later say Beijing set "a new standard for outbreak response." But when it came to sharing the information with the world, things began to go awry. On Jan. 3, the National Health Commission issued a confidential notice ordering labs with the virus to either destroy their samples or send them to designated institutes for safekeeping. The notice, first reported by Caixin and seen by the AP, forbade labs from publishing about the virus without government authorization. The order barred Shi's lab from publishing the genetic sequence or warning of the potential danger. Chinese law states that research institutes cannot conduct experiments on potentially dangerous new viruses without approval from top health authorities. Although the law is intended to keep experiments safe, it gives top health officials wide-ranging powers over what lower-level labs can or cannot do. "If the virologist community had operated with more autonomy.the public would have been informed of the lethal risk of the new virus much earlier," said Edward Gu, a professor at Zhejiang University, and Li Lantian, a PhD student at Northwestern University, in a paper published in March analyzing the outbreak. Commission officials later repeated that they were trying to ensure lab safety, and had tasked four separate government labs with identifying the genome at the same time to get accurate, consistent results. By Jan. 3, the Chinese CDC had independently sequenced the virus, according to internal data seen by the Associated Press. And by just after midnight on Jan. 5, a third designated government lab, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, had decoded the sequence and submitted a report pulling all-nighters to get results in record time, according to a state media interview. Yet even with full sequences decoded by three state labs independently, Chinese health officials remained silent. The WHO reported on Twitter that investigations were under way into an unusual cluster of pneumonia cases with no deaths in Wuhan, and said it would share "more details as we have them." Meanwhile, at the Chinese CDC, gaps in coronavirus expertise proved a problem. For nearly two weeks, Wuhan reported no new infections, as officials censored doctors who warned of suspicious cases. Meanwhile, researchers found the new coronavirus used a distinct spike protein to bind itself to human cells. The unusual protein and the lack of new cases lulled some Chinese CDC researchers into thinking the virus didn't easily spread between humans like the coronavirus that casues Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, according to an employee who declined to be identified out of fear of retribution. Li, the coronavirus expert, said he immediately suspected the pathogen was infectious when he spotted a leaked copy of a sequencing report in a group chat on a SARS-like coronavirus. But the Chinese CDC team that sequenced the virus lacked specialists in the molecular structure of coronaviruses and failed to consult with outside scientists, Li said. Chinese health authorities rebuffed offers of assistance from foreign experts, including Hong Kong scientists barred from a fact-finding mission to Wuhan and an American professor at a university in China. On Jan. 5, the Shanghai Public Clinical Health Center, led by famed virologist Zhang Yongzhen, was the latest to sequence the virus. He submitted it to the GenBank database, where it sat awaiting review, and notified the National Health Commission. He warned them that the new virus was similar to SARS and likely infectious. "It should be contagious through respiratory passages," the center said in an internal notice seen by the AP. "We recommend taking preventative measures in public areas." On the same day, WHO said that based on preliminary information from China, there was no evidence of significant transmission between humans, and did not recommend any specific measures for travelers. The next day, the Chinese CDC raised its emergency level to the second highest. Staffers proceeded to isolate the virus, draft lab testing guidelines, and design test kits. But the agency did not have the authority to issue public warnings, and the heightened emergency level was kept secret even from many of its own staff. By Jan. 7, another team at Wuhan University had sequenced the pathogen and found it matched Shi's, making Shi certain they had identified a novel coronavirus. But Chinese CDC experts said they didn't trust Shi's findings and needed to verify her data before she could publish, according to three people familiar with the matter. Both the National Health Commission and the Ministry of Science and Technology, which oversees Shi's lab, declined to make Shi available for an interview. A major factor behind the gag order, some say, was that Chinese CDC researchers wanted to publish their papers first. "They wanted to take all the credit," said Li Yize, a coronavirus researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. Internally, the leadership of the Chinese CDC is plagued with fierce competition, six people familiar with the system explained. They said the agency has long promoted staff based on how many papers they can publish in prestigious journals, making scientists reluctant to share data. As the days went by, even some of the Chinese CDC's own staff began to wonder why it was taking so long for authorities to identify the pathogen. "We were getting suspicious, since within one or two days you would get a sequencing result," a lab technician said, declining to be identified for fear of retribution. On Jan. 8, the Wall Street Journal reported that scientists had identified a new coronavirus in samples from pneumonia patients in Wuhan, pre-empting and embarrassing Chinese officials. The lab technician told the AP they first learned about the discovery of the virus from the Journal. The article also embarrassed WHO officials. Dr. Tom Grein, chief of WHO's acute events management team, said the agency looked "doubly, incredibly stupid." Van Kerkhove, the American expert, acknowledged WHO was "already late" in announcing the new virus and told colleagues that it was critical to push China. Ryan, WHO's chief of emergencies, was also upset at the dearth of information. "The fact is, we're two to three weeks into an event, we don't have a laboratory diagnosis, we don't have an age, sex or geographic distribution, we don't have an epi curve," he complained, referring to the standard graphic of outbreaks scientists use to show how an epidemic is progressing. After the article, state media officially announced the discovery of the new coronavirus. But even then, Chinese health authorities did not release the genome, diagnostic tests, or detailed patient data that could hint at how infectious the disease was. By that time, suspicious cases were already appearing across the region. On Jan. 8, Thai airport officers pulled aside a woman from Wuhan with a runny nose, sore throat, and high temperature. Chulalongkorn University professor Supaporn Wacharapluesadee's team found the woman was infected with a new coronavirus, much like what Chinese officials had described. Supaporn partially figured out the genetic sequence by Jan. 9, reported it to the Thai government and spent the next day searching for matching sequences. But because Chinese authorities hadn't published any sequences, she found nothing. She could not prove the Thai virus was the same pathogen sickening people in Wuhan. "It was kind of wait and see, when China will release the data, then we can compare," said Supaporn. On Jan. 9, a 61-year-old man with the virus passed away in Wuhan the first known death. The death wasn't made public until Jan. 11. WHO officials complained in internal meetings that they were making repeated requests for more data, especially to find out if the virus could spread efficiently between humans, but to no avail. "We have informally and formally been requesting more epidemiological information," WHO's China representative Galea said. "But when asked for specifics, we could get nothing." Emergencies chief Ryan grumbled that since China was providing the minimal information required by international law, there was little WHO could do. But he also noted that last September, WHO had issued an unusual public rebuke of Tanzania for not providing enough details about a worrisome Ebola outbreak. "We have to be consistent," Ryan said. "The danger now is that despite our good intent...especially if something does happen, there will be a lot of finger-pointing at WHO." Ryan noted that China could make a "huge contribution" to the world by sharing the genetic material immediately, because otherwise "other countries will have to reinvent the wheel over the coming days." On Jan. 11, a team led by Zhang, from the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, finally published a sequence on virological.org, used by researchers to swap tips on pathogens. The move angered Chinese CDC officials, three people familiar with the matter said, and the next day, his laboratory was temporarily shuttered by health authorities. Zhang referred a request for comment to the Chinese CDC. The National Health Commission, which oversees the Chinese CDC, declined multiple times to make its officials available for interviews and did not answer questions about Zhang. Supaporn compared her sequence with Zhang's and found it was a 100% match, confirming that the Thai patient was ill with the same virus detected in Wuhan. Another Thai lab got the same results. That day, Thailand informed the WHO, said Tanarak Plipat, deputy director-general of the Department of Disease Control at Thailand's Ministry of Public Health. After Zhang released the genome, the Chinese CDC, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences raced to publish their sequences, working overnight to review them, gather patient data, and send them to the National Health Commission for approval, according to documentation obtained by the AP. On Jan. 12, the three labs together finally published the sequences on GISAID, a platform for scientists to share genomic data. By then, more than two weeks had passed since Vision Medicals decoded a partial sequence, and more than a week since the three government labs had all obtained full sequences. Around 600 people were infected in that week, a roughly three-fold increase. Some scientists say the wait was not unreasonable considering the difficulties in sequencing unknown pathogens, given accuracy is as important as speed. They point to the SARS outbreak in 2003 when some Chinese scientists initially and wrongly believed the source of the epidemic was chlamydia. "The pressure is intense in an outbreak to make sure you're right," said Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealthAlliance in New York. "It's actually worse to go out to go to the public with a story that's wrong because the public completely lose confidence in the public health response." Still, others quietly question what happened behind the scenes. Infectious diseases expert John Mackenzie, who served on a WHO emergency committee during the outbreak, praised the speed of Chinese researchers in sequencing the virus. But he said once central authorities got involved, detailed data trickled to a crawl. "There certainly was a kind of blank period," Mackenzie said. "There had to be human to human transmission. You know, it's staring at you in the face I would have thought they would have been much more open at that stage." On Jan. 13, WHO announced that Thailand had a confirmed case of the virus, jolting Chinese officials. The next day, in a confidential teleconference, China's top health official ordered the country to prepare for a pandemic, calling the outbreak the "most severe challenge since SARS in 2003", as the AP previously reported. Chinese CDC staff across the country began screening, isolating, and testing for cases, turning up hundreds across the country. Yet even as the Chinese CDC internally declared a level one emergency, the highest level possible, Chinese officials still said the chance of sustained transmission between humans was low. WHO went back and forth. Van Kerkhove said in a press briefing that "it is certainly possible there is limited human-to-human transmission." But hours later, WHO seemed to backtrack, and tweeted that "preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission" a statement that later became fodder for critics. A high-ranking official in WHO's Asia office, Dr. Liu Yunguo, who attended medical school in Wuhan, flew to Beijing to make direct, informal contacts with Chinese officials, recordings show. Liu's former classmate, a Wuhan doctor, had alerted him that pneumonia patients were flooding the city's hospitals, and Liu pushed for more experts to visit Wuhan, according to a public health expert familiar with the matter. On Jan. 20, the leader of an expert team returning from Wuhan, renowned government infectious diseases doctor Zhong Nanshan, declared publicly for the first time that the new virus was spreading between people. Chinese President Xi Jinping called for the "timely publication of epidemic information and deepening of international cooperation." Despite that directive, WHO staff still struggled to obtain enough detailed patient data from China about the rapidly evolving outbreak. That same day, the U.N. health agency dispatched a small team to Wuhan for two days, including Galea, the WHO representative in China. They were told about a worrying cluster of cases among more than a dozen doctors and nurses. But they did not have "transmission trees" detailing how the cases were connected, nor a full understanding of how widely the virus was spreading and who was at risk. In an internal meeting, Galea said their Chinese counterparts were "talking openly and consistently" about human-to-human transmission, and that there was a debate about whether or not this was sustained. Galea reported to colleagues in Geneva and Manila that China's key request to WHO was for help "in communicating this to the public, without causing panic." On Jan. 22, WHO convened an independent committee to determine whether to declare a global health emergency. After two inconclusive meetings where experts were split, they decided against it even as Chinese officials ordered Wuhan sealed in the biggest quarantine in history. The next day, WHO chief Tedros publicly described the spread of the new coronavirus in China as "limited." For days, China didn't release much detailed data, even as its case count exploded. Beijing city officials were alarmed enough to consider locking down the capital, according to a medical expert with direct knowledge of the matter. On Jan. 28, Tedros and top experts, including Ryan, made an extraordinary trip to Beijing to meet President Xi and other senior Chinese officials. It is highly unusual for WHO's director-general to directly intervene in the practicalities of outbreak investigations. Tedros' staffers had prepared a list of requests for information. "It could all happen and the floodgates open, or there's no communication," Grein said in an internal meeting while his boss was in Beijing. "We'll see." At the end of Tedros' trip, WHO announced China had agreed to accept an international team of experts. In a press briefing on Jan. 29, Tedros heaped praise on China, calling its level of commitment "incredible." The next day, WHO finally declared an international health emergency. Once again, Tedros thanked China, saying nothing about the earlier lack of cooperation. "We should have actually expressed our respect and gratitude to China for what it's doing," Tedros said. "It has already done incredible things to limit the transmission of the virus to other countries." As the FBI continues hauling university scholars and researchers off in handcuffs for their work with the Chinese, academics all over Boston are asking: Am I next? by Catherine Elton Charles Lieber had a brilliant mind. So it was widely assumed, at least among the rarified upper echelons of the scientific community, that there would come a day when the esteemed Harvard nanoscientist would receive an early-morning surprise from an unexpected callersomeone with a Norwegian accent telling him he had won a Nobel Prize. No one, though, could have imagined the jolt he received on campus one cold January morning this year, just the second day of the spring semester, when FBI agents stormed the brick building that houses the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology clutching an arrest warrant with his name printed on it. Illustration by Jonathan Bartlett Surrounded by men with guns and badges, Lieber found himself listening to the unmistakable clink of handcuffs locking around his wrists. As seven black vehicles simultaneously barreled down a winding road toward the professors modest Lexington home to search it, agents in Cambridge loaded Lieber into a car and whisked him across the Charles to the Moakley Courthouse on the Boston waterfront, where federal prosecutors were waiting. His alleged crime? Failing to reportand later denying to government officialsthat he was receiving research funding directly from a Chinese university. Lieber had long been involved in a lucrative and secret deal, according to the charging documents, which alleged that the head of Harvards chemistry department was also a member of the Thousand Talents Plan, a Chinese-government-sponsored recruitment initiative designed to reverse the countrys decades-long brain drain. As part of the agreement, Lieber was eligible to receive a salary of up to $50,000 a month, $158,000 for personal expenses, and the sum of $1.74 million in exchange for building a joint lab between Harvard and the Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in China. The goal, according to intercepted emails between Lieber and a contact at the Chinese university, was to cultivate young Ph.D. students, set up international conferences, and apply for patents and publish papers in WUTs name. While its certainly not illegal to take money from a foreign university, it is a federal crime to lie about it to U.S. government agencies that are also providing you funding, as the FBI alleges Lieber did. Two days after his arrest, Lieber, who is facing up to five years in prison, posted a million-dollar cash bond and surrendered his passport to the court. Lieber is hardly the only academic whos awoken over the past few months to find themself staring down the barrel of a major federal effort targeting Chinese espionage. Several weeks before Liebers arrest, Zaosong Zheng, a 29-year-old Chinese cancer researcher who was working at Beth Israel Deaconess, was making his way to his gate at Logan for a Beijing-bound flight when customs agents pulled his checked baggage aside for inspection. His nationality, destination, and place of workas listed on his visaset off alarm bells for an agency constantly on the lookout for Chinese theft and spying. Their hunch was confirmed the moment agents looked inside one of Zhengs bags and found 21 small vials containing DNA samples stuffed into a sock. In a scene ripped straight from the pages of a spy thriller, officers raced to Zhengs gate and intercepted him on the jetway just as he was about to flee the country with his secret cargo. According to an FBI agents affidavit, Zheng allegedly admitted later that he stole some of the vials and surreptitiously replicated others from someone elses research at the lab, all with the goal of continuing his research and publishing the findings under his name in China. The day Lieber was arrested, authorities also released an international arrest warrant for Yanqing Ye, a former Boston University graduate researcher who allegedly hid the fact that she was a member of the Chinese military when she applied for a U.S. student visa, claiming shed been collecting information for her superiors back in China. These were the first three cases in Massachusetts to emerge since the Department of Justice launched its China Initiative in late 2018. Its mission? To counter the widespread theft of technologies and intellectual property that the government believes is powering Chinas quest to surpass the United States as the worlds leader in science and technology. In fact, if you ask Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling, hell tell you that Chinese espionage is the most serious national security issue that no one talks about. Here in Boston, we are fast becoming ground zero for that threat. Experts say the citys countless universities, hospitals, biotech startups, and defense contractors have given us the dubious distinction of being one of the nations prime targets for economic and military espionage. As a result, Lellingalong with four other U.S. attorneys in districts that, like Boston, are potential hotbeds of Chinese espionagewas chosen to lead the charge. Perhaps fitting given Bostons demographics, this trio of recent cases all involved academics. But its not just here that university campuses are emerging as the governments latest and most controversial frontier for rooting out Chinese espionage. From West Virginia to Kansas to Tennessee, scholars and researchers have been investigated, surveilled, and arrested. Frustrated by what they perceived to be a lax response to this threat in the past, many China experts have applauded Lellings latest crackdown; after all, protecting the knowledge generated in academia is essential to securing our place at the top of the innovation food chain, not to mention as an economic juggernaut. Some, however, say the recent uptick in federal prosecutions unfairly targets the large population of Chinese and Chinese-American scholars working in U.S. academic labs as well as those, like Lieber, who work closely with scientists from China. They worry that law enforcements newfound zeal could create a bigger problem than the one it seeks to solve. After all, limiting international collaborations with China, starving universities of Chinese funding, and scaring away Chinese scientists who have long been the greatest pool of talent for our university labs will only benefit China by handicapping our scientific efforts. What everyone can agree on, though, is that the arrests of Lieber and two other local academics signaled a clear escalation in the U.S. trade war with Chinaone trained right on Bostons ivy-draped college campuses. Lelling has demonstrated that he is unafraid of pursuing the theft of intellectual property, much of which is produced thanks to taxpayer-funded government grants. Whether it ultimately protects Bostons IP or topples us from our place as a global leader in science, the offensive has the potential to upend how research is done on Bostons campusesand in the process fundamentally change one of the most innovative academic communities in the world. There are spies among usthat much we know. They are living unnoticed in tony suburban towns outside of Boston, working inside some of our cutting-edge industries, and teaching at our world-class universities. In 2011, for instance, a Devens-based energy technology company named American Superconductor Corporation lost a billion dollars in shareholder equity and was forced to cut 700 jobs. Why? Because Sinovel, a Chinese wind-turbine-manufacturing company that was one of American Superconductors high-dollar clients, offered one of the companys engineers $1.7 million, an apartment in Beijing, and entree to women in exchange for giving them access to the U.S. companys proprietary technology. Once Sinovel had the technology, it canceled all of its orders, which it no longer had any use for. In 2018, meanwhile, the U.S. government charged a Chinese national living in Wellesley with falsifying documents to send sonar systems and hydrophoneswhich have export restrictions on them because they can be used in anti-submarine warfareto a military university in China. Both of these incidents are clear local examples of how Chinese spies came to town and threatened U.S. economic and military supremacy. The cases against Lieber, Zheng, and Ye fit into a slightly different fedora and trench coat, but, if you believe the FBI, theyre just as insidious. On the day of Liebers arrest, Joseph Bonavolonta, the FBI special agent in charge of the Boston field office, took to the podium at the front of a low-ceilinged room in the federal courthouse in the Seaport. While news cameras flashed, he told reporters that all three defendants were manifestations of the China threat posed by so-called nontraditional collectors: individuals who are not spies but professors, students, and other local residents used to gather valuable information. All of the individuals charged today, he said, were either directly or indirectly working for the Chinese government, at our countrys expense. Bostons professors and researchers, China experts say, are a key component of Chinas strategic plan to turn itself into a country that doesnt simply manufacture other nations innovations, but one that develops the innovations and produces them itself. For many years, China has employed illegal means of working toward this goal, including stealing IP and reverse-engineering products. That approach has its limits, though, says James Mulvenon, a Chinese linguist who works closely with U.S. government agencies. Chinese engineers have proven adept at reverse-engineering, he says, but they havent appeared to fully understand the organic sort of innovation that was at the heart of the product. Thats why, he says, China has begun investing in hundreds of recruitment initiatives, including the Thousand Talents Plan that Lieber was allegedly a part of. The goal of that program, he says, is to bring people to China and mine them for the intangible information they possess about particular technologies. Professor Lieber is a good example, he says, because its one thing to steal the plans or the schematics of how to do really high-end material science, but its even better if somebody explains it to you. On the face of it, a talent-recruitment program doesnt sound nefarious, but experts say theyre often hooks that allow the Chinese government to reel people in and squeeze them for sensitive or proprietary information. Roy Kamphausen, a former Department of Defense official who is now president of the nonpartisan, nonprofit National Bureau of Asian Research, says that programs like these, and the generous support they offer, are used to create relationships with Chinese scholarsand non-Chinese scholars such as Lieberthat the Chinese can later leverage to convince participants to provide access to specific IP. He says that there is a perception, real or not, among Chinese-Americans that there are limits to their professional advancement in the U.S. because of racial biases. The Chinese government, he says, manipulates these resentments and plays the nationalist card to entice them to go to China and bring IP with them. Other times, the Chinese government will resort to even more pernicious means. State officials, Kamphausen says, take advantage of the fact that so many Chinese and Chinese-Americans working in the United States in strategic industries and fields have family in China. The Chinese system can be brutal in the way it can pressure families, he says. Theyll say, Listen, your uncle, your nephew, your niecewhatever the case may beneeds to help us, or your life will be more difficult. Meanwhile, Mulvenon and others have spent the better part of the past decade trying to make U.S. government officials aware of the dangers posed by talent-recruitment programs. It wasnt until 2019, however, that people finally started paying attention. That year, a Senate committee investigation found disturbing cases of those in talent-recruitment programs acting suspiciously: setting up shadow labs in China that mimic the government-funded research they are pursuing in the United States, removing tens of thousands of electronic files before leaving for China, and filing patents based on research funded by the U.S. government, among other problematic behaviors. That same year, the National Institutes of Health announced it was investigating 180 scientists because of undisclosed relationships with Chinese universities. The National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and other U.S. government grant makers did the same. Then the FBI admitted it had been asleep at the wheel and began focusing on universities, investigating and arresting academics for failing to disclose their participation in the Thousand Talents Plan. None of them, however, were as prominent or well known as Harvards Lieber. Back in April 2018, several Department of Defense G-men knocked on Liebers door at Harvard. Over the years, the U.S. government had given Lieber $8 million to fund research at his university laban interconnected network of offices; so-called wet labs, where experiments are undertaken; and dry labs, where computational work is donethat spans two floors and two buildings within the chemistry department complex. During the visit, the Thousand Talents Plan came up in conversation. Lieber told the government officials that he had been to China and was familiar with the Chinese program, but was not a participant. After his guests left, Lieber felt rattled. That night, he tossed and turned, unable to sleep, worrying about the encounter while questions swirled through his mind. Months went by and nothing came of it. But the DOD investigators werent the only ones poking around Lieber. In November of that year, officials from the NIH, which had also funded Lieber to the tune of some $10 million, reached out to Harvard with similar questions. When Harvard called Lieber to clear things up, he again denied his participation in the Thousand Talents Plan and said he hadnt had a formal relationship with WUT since 2012. The Chinese university, he told them, was falsely exaggerating their relationship. Surveillance of his email, though, indicated otherwise and formed the basis for his arrest more than a year later. Lost in the hoopla surrounding his dramatic fall was the fact that Lieber has not been accused of espionage, nor was there any evidence that he transferred sensitive information to China. Even Lelling said he doesnt think Lieber is a spy. And by the way, there is no evidence behind an Internet conspiracy theory that Lieber invented the novel coronavirus and sold it to the Chinese. Nonetheless, making false statements to federal officials is a crimeeven if the action the person lied about doesnt turn out to be unlawful. (Neither Lieber nor his attorney responded to numerous interview requests.) Not everyone is convinced that hauling academics like Lieber off in handcuffs is a good idea. Critics of recent cases such as Liebers accuse the government ofquite literallymaking a federal case out of what in many instances is merely a professors failure to diligently fill out paperwork or a desire to hide moonlighting from an employer. These infractions might ordinarily get academics reprimanded by their superiors, fired, or banned from receiving federal grantsnot, critics stress, arrested and thrown in jail. Treating these university professors like felons is a terrible injustice, states Peter Zeidenberg, a Washington, DC-based attorney with Arent Fox and former Middlesex County prosecutor who says he is currently representing dozens of Chinese scientists facing these kinds of investigations and charges. Like with Lieber, he says, none of these recent cases involves accusations of passing sensitive information to the Chinese. Whats more, the rules surrounding academic partnerships havent always been clear, Zeidenberg says. For years, while universities encouraged professors to pursue international collaborations, they did little to emphasize the importance of funding disclosures. Suddenly, Zeidenberg says, making these disclosureseven about relationships formed years agois paramount. Theyve changed the paradigm midstream, and they go back and say, Well, lets see what you reported in 2016 or 2008. At that time, this wasnt on anybodys radar, Zeidenberg explains. And now theyre saying that that failure [to report] is critical and its not just, Hey, youre doing it wrong and if you do it wrong again you could lose your job. Theyre saying you could go to prison for it. Perhaps the gravest concern among critics is the way this paradigm shift has almost exclusively affected Chinese and Chinese-American researchers. When encouraged by their employers to set up international collaborations, these academics unsurprisingly looked to China, given their language skills and connections. Now, however, they are paying the price for it. Since China is the new strategic competitor, says Aryani Ong, a former civil rights attorney and a Washington, DC, activist on this issue, all interactions with Chinese foreign nationals elevate these violations onto a different plane. In other words, says Andrew Kim, an attorney and law professor currently at South Texas College of Law Houston, Chinese scientists are now facing scrutiny for the new crime of researching while Asian. It is the latest incarnation of what he believes is the U.S. governments biased targeting of Chinese people in the name of battling economic espionage. As proof, he points to a study he published last year in the Cardozo Law Review based on a sample of 187 individuals charged under the Economic Espionage Act. From 1997 to 2009, 17 percent of defendants were of Chinese descent; after 2009, the rate tripled to 52 percent. History has shown that many of the cases brought by the U.S. government are weakespecially, it turns out, when the defendant is Chinese. Kims study found that one out of five Chinese defendants were acquitted, had their charges dropped, or were pushed to take a plea of a lesser charge, such as making a false statement. That happened nearly twice as often as it did for non-Asian defendants, 11 percent of whom were acquittedmeaning, Kim says, that authorities were more often bringing weak cases against Chinese defendants. Since the studys completion, some high-profile cases against scientists have also fallen apart, to the embarrassment of the government. Zeidenberg, who is also a former U.S. attorney, is not surprised. This is what happens in law enforcement in general when you incentivize agents and prosecutors to bring certain kinds of cases. You end up bringing junk cases. Lelling defends the government, saying that in any new crime-fighting endeavor there is a learning curve for building cases. Meanwhile, in the university world, Chinese and non-Chinese professors alike are increasingly confounded by the whole concept of academic spying. After all, while some universities have labs working on highly classified research, such as MITs Lincoln Laboratory, the vast majority of university research, including Liebers, is basic research, which means it doesnt yet have commercial applications. Whats more, scientists point out, the whole purpose of academic research is to publish their findings. In fact, their jobs depend on it. No one needs to spy on them, they say: All of their findings appear in academic journals for everyone to readeven people in China. While reporting this story, I set out to ask Chinese scholars and researchers working in Boston what effect, if any, the FBIs recent focus on academia was having on campus and on them. The conversations I didnt have told me just about as much as the ones I did. I emailed and called academics relentlessly, and even spokespeople for local associations of Chinese scientists, only to get radio silence. I lurked on campuses for hours, only to have doors shut in my face and people scurry away when I introduced myself. When I asked a researcher to find out if the Chinese postdocs in his lab would be willing to speak with me, they all told him no. Someone I know at Harvard agreed to ask a colleague who works on China issues if he would approach some Chinese scholars on my behalf, but only at an upcoming conference where he could do it in person because, given the sensitivity of the issue, he didnt feel comfortable putting anything in writing. After several weeks of hunting, I finally found professor Shuguang Zhang, a molecular biologist who researches how peptides in the body facilitate drug delivery at the MIT Media Lab. As I sat down with him in his small book-cluttered office, he gave a name to the reactions I was getting: fear. People are flat-out scared, he told me. When I asked him if he had been approached by FBI investigators, he said, Not yet. Months before the spread of the coronavirus would lead to targeted acts of harassment and aggression against rank-and-file Chinese-Americans, academics were already feeling they were the victims of racial profiling by the governments China Initiative. For his part, Lelling insists that the Department of Justice is not engaging in racial profiling. The government isnt surveilling thousands of Chinese students. We arent targeting the Chinese because they are Chinese. We follow the behavior, not the individual, he says, adding that logically a lot of the targets will be Chinese because China is in the midst of a concerted effort to steal U.S. technology. The FBIs Bonavolonta echoed Lellings sentiments and emphasized the enormous outreach efforts the bureau is undertaking to brief local universities on real, documented cases of academic espionage and to get them thinking about what their crown jewels might bei.e., what the Chinese government might be after on their campuses, and how to protect it. In other words, the FBI says the initiative isnt just about rounding people up and arresting them; its about educating people about a threat that is so long-term that its difficult to even perceive. Despite the critiques, Lelling and Bonavolonta have a bevy of strong supporters. Furthermore, Yasheng Huang, a Chinese professor at MITs Sloan School of Management who studies entrepreneurship and U.S.-China relations, says the situation is more complicatedthat if anything, the government is practicing political, not racial, profiling. At the same time, though, he says that the fear among Chinese scholars is understandable considering the history of failed federal cases and the current administration under which this initiative is being carried out. President Donald Trump, after all, has said he thinks nearly all Chinese students are spies. That fear will likely grow as the DOJ initiative gets an injection of spy craft. Bonavolonta says that in September, the FBI launched its counterintelligence taskforce for Chinese espionage. Modeled on the counterterrorism task force launched after 9/11, intelligence agencies from the Department of Defense are now embedded with the FBI to pursue these cases. Theres also the potential for the initiative to become far more sweeping. Mulvenon, one of the China experts who originally sounded the alarm on the Thousand Talents Plan and who works closely with law enforcement, is now training his sights on other educational and professional organizations, contests, and nonprofits that he says hes found are engaging in the transfer of information to China. His list of Boston organizations is 110 entries long and includes some fairly unthreatening-sounding groups, including the Cambridge Center for Chinese Culture, Chinese student associations on college campuses, and the Chinese Actuarial Club. Even in its early stages, the crackdown already seems to be taking a toll on innovation in Boston and beyond. China has long been the biggest talent pool for recruiting people to do the time-consuming and labor-intensive experiments that produce our scientific breakthroughs, Huang says. The Media Labs Zhang says virtually all of the top labs at MIT have postdocs from Chinese universities, including his own. At least it didrecently he has not been able to find any Chinese researchers who want to work in his lab. Many are going to Europe instead, something he attributes to the anti-Chinese sentiment coming from the Trump administration. Its a strategy we pursue at our own peril: Without Chinese researchers, he fears, scientific progress in the United States will grind to a halt. Meanwhile, some critics of the government contend that law enforcements recent vigor actually encourages brain drain from the United States to China, something that will only make us less competitive. Chinese American scientists who have spent decades in the U.S. making valuable contributions are reportedly leaving because they feel that the badges of their ethnic background bring them suspicion, says the activist Ong, who adds that Chinese American parents in the U.S. are reportedly advising their children not to get into science, or work for the federal government, particularly if it requires security clearances. A top cancer researcher from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston who came under scrutiny for her ties to Chinese universities, for example, has since moved to a college in China. Weihong Tan, a University of Florida scientist who left the country because of investigations into his participation in the Thousand Talents Plan, recently developed a successful test for COVID-19for the Chinese university where he now works. And at MIT, a postdoctoral researcher questioned by the FBI about his participation in the Thousand Talents Plan last year has since returned to China. It isnt just a loss of people, of course: With universities putting more restrictions on Chinese funding and some researchers even refraining from pursuing such money, there are fewer resources to do the most innovative work on our campuses. A scientist at MIT, who asked me not to use his name for fear he would be targeted, said there are now long delays at the school for approving research funding from Chinese companies. He fears they ultimately will be denied, something that would force him to cut jobs at his lab. Zhang, for his part, says he wont seek any collaborations with Chinese universitiesin fact, he recently turned one down. When I asked why, he answered me with two words: Charles Lieber. Courtesy: Boston Magazine As the number of tests to confirm whether one is infected by novel coronavirus has increased manifold in West Bengal, results are also getting delayed under pressure, raising the chances of its transmission, officials of state health department said on Monday. Sample tests have been conducted in the state on war footing and with migrant labourers returning to West Bengal, such clinical examinations have been expedited, they said. Click here for full Covid-19 coverage Currently, there are 41 laboratories in West Bengal involved in conducting tests of samples to determine Covid-19 infection. The number of tests to determine Covid-19 infection has gone up manifold in laboratories across the state. Tests are conducted on symptomatic as well as asymptomatic people. Besides, tests are conducted on migrant labourers who are returning in large numbers, an official said. After the results come, they are matched with the lists of people on whom the tests were conducted and then submitted to the state health department, the official said. As a large number of tests are conducted, many cases could not be matched and uploaded by the data entry operators. And this has led to delay in getting the results of the tests, thereby raising the chances of transmission of the virus, he said. In May alone, samples of over 1.8 lakh have been conducted in West Bengal. Instructions have been sent to the laboratories to give the data entry operators a daily target of uploading the test results to cut down on the number of cases, the results of which are not uploaded, the official added. West Bengal till Monday has a total of 5,772 confirmed Covid-19 cases, the health department bulletin said. At the moment, there are 17,037 people in government quarantine centres and the total number of people in home quarantine is 1,44,678, it added. The death toll due to coronavirus infection in the state is 253. Seventy-two patients have also died due to comorbid conditions, and Covid- 19 in those cases was incidental. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-03 00:21:32|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close -- Wuhan, epicenter of the novel coronavirus epidemic in China, tested more than 9.8 million people in 19 days, leading to the discovery of 300 asymptomatic cases. No confirmed cases were found. -- Officials said the testing drive lifts "psychological lockdown" of Wuhan residents and proves the city as a safe place. -- Wuhan's daily testing capacity surged from 300,000 to more than one million samples during the campaign. -- The city forked out about 126 million U.S. dollars on the tests, which were voluntary and required no payment from the testees. by Xinhua writers Yao Yuan, Yu Pei, Yue Wenwan and Tan Yuanbin WUHAN, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Wuhan, in central China's Hubei Province, tested nearly 10 million residents in a 19-day drive to screen for novel coronavirus infections, with officials hailing the effort as ending "psychological lockdown" for the virus-ravaged city. The city tested 9,899,828 people between May 14 and June 1, according to a press conference on Tuesday afternoon. No confirmed COVID-19 cases were found in the process, said Lu Zuxun, professor with Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, at the event. Meanwhile, 300 asymptomatic cases were found and quarantined. All the tracked 1,174 close contacts tested negative for COVID-19 and were also quarantined, Lu told the media. Photo taken on June 2, 2020 shows the press conference about a citywide COVID-19 tests in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province. (Xinhua/Xiong Qi) On May 14, the city launched a campaign to offer nucleic acid tests to those not tested before. Officials said the move was aimed at tracing asymptomatic cases and reassuring society as the city gradually reopens its factories, businesses and schools. Executive Deputy Mayor Hu Yabo said the city spent 900 million yuan (126 million U.S. dollars) on the tests, which was "totally worthwhile" as it reassured Wuhan residents, as well as the whole nation, and will help the city bring its social and economic activities back on track. "After the citywide tests, Wuhan residents, who made great sacrifices during the city's lockdown, will also lift their psychological lockdown," he said. The city's health commission said the tests were voluntary and free, with all costs borne by the government. Li Lanjuan, a renowned Chinese epidemiologist, said the campaign brought the total number of nucleic acid testees in Wuhan to 10.9 million. Li also noted that no live virus was cultivated from the phlegm samples and throat swabs of 106 asymptomatic carriers, while over 97 percent of Wuhan's residential complexes did not find asymptomatic infections in the testing campaign. "Wuhan is now safe, and Wuhan people are safe," she told the media. A resident takes nucleic acid test at a testing site in Dongxihu District in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, May 15, 2020. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu) HOW DID WUHAN DO IT? The tests have been met with great enthusiasm from the public. Xinhua reporters saw mask-wearing residents forming long queues while maintaining their distance outside testing sites within residential compounds and in the city's public places. Wang Weihua, deputy director of the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, said 63 testing agencies in the city have been mobilized to raise the testing capacity. National resources were pulled in to support the citywide drive, and batch testing, which mixes no more than five samples in a single test, was employed to improve efficiency, she said. Batch testing mixes samples from different people to be analyzed in one test to boost efficiency. Only when the result is positive is a second round of individual tests required. Hu said Wuhan's testing drive mainly used individual testing, with batch testing being a supplement. All these efforts raised Wuhan's daily testing capacity from 300,000 to more than one million samples, Wang said. Chinese biotech firm BGI, one participating agency, said they were able to get a result within 24 hours and will preserve the samples for another two days in case a review is needed. The company's Huo-Yan Laboratory in Wuhan doubled its testing capacity to 40,000 samples a day, said Zhu Shida, who is in charge of the lab, after it deployed technicians and equipment from across China to support the drive. Residents line up for nucleic acid tests at a testing site in Dongxihu District in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, May 15, 2020. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu) IS IT WORTH IT? Some public health experts argue that testing of such a scale could be too costly. But Hu Ke, a respiratory doctor at Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, believed the citywide testing is worthwhile in a city where the virus has infected more than 50,000 people, saying it helps prevent a rebound and ease public concerns. "The mass tests helped detect asymptomatic cases, who may still infect others. Only by putting them in strict isolation and treatment can the epidemic be stemmed and the whole society be reassured," Hu said. The doctor also sees the results, with only 300 asymptomatic cases detected, as proof of the success of Wuhan's epidemic control. "It also reflects the idea of 'putting people first' in China's anti-virus fight," he said. Du Zhizhang, vice dean of the Institute of State Governance, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, said the tests will help the world better understand the real situation in Wuhan, while corporate and other employers can use the results to pave the way for accelerating work resumption. For the residents, the benefits are also psychological. "It's like issuing health certificates to Wuhan residents, which helps prevent discrimination against them," the expert said. (Hou Wenkun has contributed to the story; Video reporters: Rao Rao, Yu Pei, Fang Yadong, Yu Guoqing; Video editor: Zhao Xiaoqing) Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-03 00:21:53|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ULAN BATOR, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Ukhnaa Khurelsukh, leader of Mongolia's ruling Mongolian People's Party (MPP), on Tuesday called on voters to promote synergy and unity for the country's development and interests. Khurelsukh made the remarks during the launching ceremony of the party's election campaign for the forthcoming parliamentary elections. "There are no party interests that go beyond the interests of the country. I am calling on all people or voters to synergize their efforts to promote the interests of Mongolia, support the economic growth, strengthen justice in the country, and to improve people's livelihood," said Khurelsukh. "I am confident that the next four years will be the years for Mongolians to consolidate their achievements, increase economic growth, reduce unemployment and poverty, create new jobs, and strengthen freedom and justice," he said, calling for a resounding support from voters. A total of 76 candidates from the MPP are running in the upcoming parliamentary elections under the slogan "Let's synergize." According to the country's General Election Commission, 485 candidates from 13 political parties and four coalitions as well as 121 independent candidates are running for the parliamentary elections scheduled for June 24. Mongolia's opposition Democratic Party is participating in this year's elections under the slogan "Let's allot the benefits of economic growth to every household and protect citizens by laws." The Asian country's parliament, the State Great Khural, is unicameral, consisting of 76 lawmakers with a four-year term. The previous parliamentary elections in Mongolia were held in 2016. Enditem TUCSON, Ariz., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the Association of American Physicians & Surgeons (AAPS) filed a lawsuit, AAPS v. FDA, against the Food and Drug Administration to end its arbitrary interference with the use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), which President Trump and other world leaders have taken as a prophylaxis against COVID-19. Two million doses of HCQ are being sent by the Trump Administration to Brazil to help medical workers there safeguard themselves against the spread of the virus. But at the same time the FDA continues to block Americans' access to this medication. HCQ has been approved as safe by the FDA for 65 years , and the CDC states on its website that "CDC has no limits on the use of hydroxychloroquine for the prevention of malaria." More than 150 million doses have been donated to the strategic national stockpile controlled by the federal government, but unjustified FDA restrictions limit its use to only hospitalized patients for whom a clinical study is unavailable. Hospitals are even returning HCQ to the stockpile because they are not able to use it effectively. "It is shocking that medical workers in Brazil will have access to HCQ as a prophylaxis while Americans are blocked by the FDA from accessing the same medication for the same use," observes AAPS Executive Director Jane Orient, M.D. "There is no legal or factual basis for the FDA to limit use of HCQ," states AAPS General Counsel Andrew Schlafly. "The FDA's restrictions on HCQ for Americans are completely indefensible in court." Many foreign nations, including China, India, South Korea, Costa Rica, United Arab Emirates, and Turkey, use HCQ for early treatment and prevention of COVID-19, AAPS points out. "Entrenched, politically biased officials at the FDA should not be allowed to interfere with Americans' right to access medication donated to the federal government for public use," Schlafly says. "By preventing Americans' use of HCQ as a prophylaxis, the FDA is infringing on First Amendment rights to attend religious services or participate in political events such as political conventions, town halls, and rallies in an important election year." "FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn states that the FDA does not interfere with physicians' ability to prescribe HCQ, and yet at the same time the FDA denies access by millions of Americans to 150 million doses of it in the national stockpile," Schlafly adds. "This irrational hoarding by government is an abuse of power." The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) has represented physicians of all specialties in all states since 1943. The AAPS motto is omnia pro aegroto, meaning everything for the patient. SOURCE Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) Related Links http://www.aapsonline.org The real background is that Israel captured the West Bank in a defensive war when Jordan attacked it from there, and Jordan's occupation of the area between 1949 and 1967 was recognised by only two other countries. Moreover, Israel has legal claims to the area after the 1920 San Remo Convention and League of Nation decisions designated it as part of a future "Jewish national home". Israel thus has at least as much right to this territory more accurately described as disputed than occupied as any other country, yet has repeatedly offered it up in exchange for peace. Nevertheless, each year the UN General Assembly passes around 20 resolutions condemning Israel, while countries that genuinely and unapologetically occupy territory they have no right to such as Turkey in northern Cyprus or Russia in Ukraine get a free pass. The UN has a massive bureaucracy dedicated to asserting Palestinian claims, while other national groups seeking self-determination, like Kurds and Tibetans, are ignored. The UN Human Rights Council, since its 2006 establishment, has passed as many resolutions about Israel as every other country combined. UN Security Council resolution 2334, passed in late 2016, is so extreme and one-sided it actually declares illegal any Israeli presence in the Old City of Jerusalem despite it containing Judaism's holiest sites and having had a Jewish presence for thousands of years, except when Jordan ethnically cleansed it between 1949 and 1967. The descendants of Palestinian refugees inherit their refugee status and claim a "right of return" to Israel for those descendants (which would end Israel as a Jewish state), while for all other refugee populations only those who actually left their homes are regarded as refugees. The Trump plan, while still making clear that Palestinian statehood remains the goal, for the first time shows the PA there may be a price for its intransigence, and no longer allows it to unilaterally veto any move towards settlement of the conflict. At most, it allows Israel to assume sovereignty only over land where very few Palestinians live, and only if it also genuinely accepts a Palestinian state. It offers the Palestinians land from inside Israel and $US50 billion of economic aid in addition to all of Gaza and at least 70 per cent of the West Bank. BACK in the summer of 1988, while the rest of Ireland was in Germany cheering on the Boys in Green at the European finals, I was on my own European odyssey. I was sent to France to spend a month with an old friend of my grannys, whod met and married a Frenchwoman and set up house for their brood of three children in the Var region, in the Alpes-Maritimes, inland from Cannes and Nice. The idea was to improve my French, which Id barely passed in the old Inter Cert. But to be honest, I was more interested in borrowing their eldest sons moped, a 50cc Honda Camino, and exploring the mountains. My language skills didnt improve much that summer. I did, however, get my first taste of the freedom and exhilaration of riding a motorbike well OK, a moped, but you get my gist. Read More This week, some 30 years later, Ive been scooting around on a Piaggio Liberty S 125 ABS. Its a world away from the Camino, which looked like the neglected child of an Eighties motorcycle and a bicycle, was painfully slow and had drum brakes. My test bike, as the name would suggest, has a disc brake at the front (drum at the rear) and comes with ABS. It also boasts 16 and 14 wheels at the front and back respectively, which means it handles much more like a bigger bike than some of the small-wheeled competition in the moped class. The Liberty 125 is powered by a 124cc four-stroke, fuel-injected three-valve i-get engine. It wont break any land speed records, but because the Liberty is so light and by using the stop-go method of riding, youre away from the lights well before all but the most determined car driver. Daytime-running LED lights, a simple but informative LCD dash, decent provision for pillions and good mirrors all add to the functionality of the Liberty. Youll fit a bag of shopping under the lockable seat. Or you could use it for a full-face helmet, and instead use a handy hook in front of your knees to handle your shopping bag, and also avail of a front compartment just below it for smaller items. Both luggage compartments unlock with the press of a button on the left-hand bar once the ignition is on, so theres no need to bother with keys to lock/unlock access to your valuables. As an alternative to the hassle of a big bike, but still with the majority of advantages over a car in terms of cost and usability, a decent scooter takes some beating. And Piaggios Liberty 125, at 3,295, is certainly one to consider. Contact Megabikes in Dublin for more information call 01 4784200 or visit www.megabikes.ie OTTAWA - Nearly two-thirds of candidates in the last federal election felt there was a problem with the spread of false information online, a newly released survey report suggests. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/6/2020 (598 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Host Patrice Roy from Radio-Canada, centre, introduces Federal party leaders, left to right, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, Green Party leader Elizabeth May, People's Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, and Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet before the Federal leaders French language debate in Gatineau, Que. on October 10, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld OTTAWA - Nearly two-thirds of candidates in the last federal election felt there was a problem with the spread of false information online, a newly released survey report suggests. The survey, conducted for Elections Canada by Ekos Research Associates, found that among those who saw fake information as a headache during the campaign, 30 per cent said it had a major impact on the election outcome. Over two in five said that foreign countries or groups used social media and other means to influence Canadians' political opinions. A total of 1,172 interviews were completed 396 by phone and 776 online from Oct. 25 to Nov. 27, 2019, from a list of the 2,146 candidates who ran in the fall election that returned Justin Trudeau's Liberals to office, albeit without a majority in the House of Commons. Survey results were weighted by candidate age and party, as well as whether the nominee was an incumbent and whether or not they were elected, to reflect the population characteristics of all candidates. The federal government recently announced Canada is teaming up with tech giant Microsoft and the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a U.S.-based civil society group, on countering election meddling as part of the Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace. "For many years the internet was presented us to as a land of opportunity, one that ensured collective freedoms and was a natural ally to democracy," Privy Council President Dominic LeBlanc said in making the announcement. "These past few years have served to some extent as a cooling mechanism, showing how vulnerable we can be to threats to both cyberinfrastructure and to campaigns of disinformation." Sixty-four per cent of those who responded to the survey said there was a problem with the spread of false information online in the campaign, while 22 per cent said it was not an issue and 14 per cent didn't know. Candidates from parties represented in the House of Commons and nominees under age 35 were generally more likely than others to perceive a spread of false information, the survey report says. Candidates from Alberta were more likely than those in other regions to feel there was a problem with both the general spread of false information online and foreign countries using social media to influence political opinions. Those in Quebec were least likely to cite these things as difficulties. Support for online voting was low, with just over one-third of candidates surveyed saying ballots should be cast using the internet. Overall, the results suggest half of candidates were satisfied with the democratic system, the report says. "The two most frequently cited reasons for dissatisfaction in the way democracy works in Canada include the lack of proportional representation and that the first-past-the-post system does not reflect voters' preferences." This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 1, 2020. Follow @JimBronskill on Twitter For the third straight year some Brandonites will get financial assistance with buying a home. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 2/6/2020 (597 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us For the third straight year some Brandonites will get financial assistance with buying a home. The City of Brandon announced on Tuesday that it is partnering once again with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to offer a Homebuyer Assistance Program. Four successful applicants will get a forgivable 10-year loan to cover a 10 per cent down payment on the purchase of a home and to help cover associated closing costs to a maximum of $26,500. A further 16 successful applicants can get funding for a 5 per cent down payment on the purchase of a home to a maximum of $14,000. "The Brandon Homebuyers Assistance Program includes comprehensive evaluation criteria and a three-phase approval process to ensure we are putting the funding weve been provided to the best use possible," city director of economic development Sandy Trudel said. "Among the programs important eligibility criteria are requirements of a total household income that does not exceed $75,592, the family unit must have at least one dependent child, and that the home purchase price cannot exceed $250,000." The program's full list of eligibility requirements and details can be found online at economicdevelopmentbrandon.com/housing-programs. According to a release sent out by the city, 33 successful applicants have received homebuying assistance under this program since 2018. The Brandon Sun Briefing with Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad On Updates from the Road to Afghan Peace and Reconciliation Special Briefing Morgan Ortagus, Department Spokesperson June 1, 2020 MS ORTAGUS: Thank you. Good afternoon, everybody. Happy Monday. Welcome to June. Hard to believe we're here in June already and to this on-the-record briefing from U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. Just a reminder to everybody, if you want to go ahead and get into the questions queue now, you can by dialing 1 and 0. And also please remember that while this is on the record, the contents of this briefing are embargoed until the end of the call, please. All of you know that it has been almost 20 months and a lot of ups and downs since Ambassador Khalilzad came into the department to find a way forward in Afghanistan. Since we last spoke with the ambassador, he has traveled to the region again, which means we'll have a chance today to hear about his engagements with senior representatives of all sides involved in the Afghan conflict. Over the course of the past few weeks, we have had a number of positive developments we'd like to highlight: the Eid ceasefire and strong effort by both sides to release prisoners and address other concerns. But the road to peace and reconciliation is not linear, and we continue to work through other remaining challenges. Today is International Children's Day, and our ongoing diplomatic process in Afghanistan is all about securing a peaceful, safe future for the children of the United States, Afghanistan, and around the world. Ambassador Khalilzad will open with brief remarks, then per usual will take your questions for the remainder of the time. Again, contents of the briefing embargoed until the end of the call. It is on the record. Go ahead and get in the answer excuse me, in the Q&A queue by 1 and 0. Okay, go ahead, Zal. AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD: Thank you very much, Morgan. Good afternoon, everyone. The last time when I spoke with you, I emphasized the issues of violence and that violence has increased inconsistent with the spirit of the agreement at least that we have signed with the Taliban, and two, that the prisoners release was not where we wanted it to be. Today, I want to update you as to where we are, and as Morgan mentioned, I believe we are in a more hopeful moment that validates our approach. One, that with regard to violence, Morgan mentioned the Eid ceasefire by the Taliban which was reciprocated by the government, and by all accounts violence was down dramatically during Eid. Since the Eid ceasefire, violence has been relatively low. It hasn't gone back to pre-Eid circumstances or conditions. And at the same time the Government of Afghanistan in response to the ceasefire and the reduction of violence that has taken place has accelerated the release of prisoners. So far, we have about 2,400 to -500 number of Talib prisoners that have been released since the signing of the agreement between the United States and the Taliban, and two, that the Talibs have released some 400-plus government prisoners that they hold. We're focused now on getting to the intra-Afghan negotiations, which is really the most important for Afghans to have peace is an agreement on a roadmap for a political settlement between the representatives of Afghanistan's Islamic Republic, an inclusive team that was established some weeks ago, and the Taliban. Also, I am happy to report you knew that already that the political crisis in Afghanistan that produced two presidential inaugurations, now it's been resolved and the two leaders are working together on an agenda for peace. We're beginning to discuss with them where the intra-Afghan negotiations will take place, when it will take place, what role will the international community play, and those are the kind of issues that we are focused on. So let me conclude by saying that we are in a good place. The road ahead, as Morgan mentioned, will have challenges and difficulties, but we're optimistic that finally we are moving forward to the start of the intra-Afghan negotiations. And not only we are trying to make sure that the remaining issues dealing with the prisoners release, which is that up to 5,000 prisoners have to be released by the government, and all the prisoners that the Talibs have must be released before intra-Afghan negotiations can begin, and that we are hoping that violence will stay low so with the release of prisoners we can begin the intra-Afghan negotiations about the future of Afghanistan and an end to the war in that country which has been going on for 40 years. Thank you, and over to you for questions and comments. MS ORTAGUS: Great. Thanks. First up in the queue is Kim Dozier, Time Magazine. QUESTION: Thank you. Ambassador Khalilzad, the UN just came out with a report today that's drawing on member-states' intelligence and security services for its evidence. And it says that the Taliban has maintained relations with al-Qaida, told them throughout their talks with you they told al-Qaida they'd honor their historical ties, and they've even talked about forming a joint force, whereas Secretary Pompeo told Face the Nation after signing the deal that the Taliban had agreed they'd break that relationship and push al-Qaida out. So which is it? Is the al-Qaida relationship moving on a different timeline? AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD: Well, thank you, Kim. First, the report I have not read, but from what I've heard it covers the period until March 15th, and you remember that the agreement we signed on the 29th of February. Two, we are monitoring Taliban compliance with that agreement, which, as you know, stipulates that there will be no hosting of al-Qaida or any other terrorist group that could threaten the security of the United States and our allies. We have had good discussions with them, and we have a monitoring group that monitors in detail what's happening with regard to their commitments, the Talib commitments on terrorism, not only vis-a-vis groups such as al-Qaida but also on Daesh or ISIS. And we believe that there is progress, but we will continue to monitor those activities very closely. MS ORTAGUS: Thanks. Let's go over to Tracy Wilkinson, LA Times. QUESTION: Hi, thank you. Sort of a follow-up to that: U.S. troops withdrawal has been conditioned on the Afghani partners meeting certain requirements like, as you just talked about, the relationship with al-Qaida. Are those conditions still in place and are they being met? In other words, where does the withdrawal of U.S. troops stand at this point? Thanks. AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD: We are committed to the agreement that we have signed, which we believe historic, that opens the opportunity for us to achieve our goal of not feeling not being threatened by terrorists based in Afghanistan. And that commitment is not only from the Taliban, the result of the U.S.-Taliban agreement, but also by the Afghan Government as a result of the joint declaration between the two sides which was signed or declared, rather, on the same day. Now, as you say correctly, our commitment to what we have said we will do is conditioned on what the other side's commitments are and the delivery on those commitments. That framework is fundamental and that is very much in place. On the reduction of forces, of course based on the agreement and subject to the conditionality that I mentioned, we are proceeding with the drawdown. For details of that, I encourage you to talk to the Pentagon. MS ORTAGUS: Great, thank you. Dan Sagalyn, NewsHour. QUESTION: Thank you very much. Hello, Mr. Ambassador. Can you tell us, have the Afghan Government has the Afghan Government and the Taliban agreed that the prisoner issue that has stalled progress in the next round of talks have they agreed that this prisoner issue has been resolved, or are still more prisoners having to be or do more prisoners still have to be released before a commitment to the date and the details of the intra-Afghan dialogue begins? AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD: Of course there has been a lot of progress in the last few days on the prisoners released, as there has been progress on the violence issue. But there is more prisoners to be released by both sides, and we hope that violence will stay at very low levels before intra-Afghan negotiations begin, and those negotiations will determine and decide on a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire in Afghanistan. So we're hoping that we can get into the details of when, where, and related issues regarding the intra-Afghan negotiations, but no, more work still needs to be done, more steps need to be taken on release of prisoners and, as I said, the importance of keeping violence low. MS ORTAGUS: Thanks. Jennifer Hansler, CNN. QUESTION: Hi, thank you for doing this. Could you go into more specifics on how the U.S. intends to hold the Taliban to account on its commitments, particularly on breaking ties with al-Qaida given that our presence on the ground is being reduced? Thank you. AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD: Well, thank you for the question. We, as I said, monitor closely what happens with regard to terrorism, in terms of delivery on the commitments that the Taliban have made. We do notice that they are fighting Daesh and that's one of the commitments that have been made. Second, we know that they are moving on the other fronts in terms of commitments that they have made. You can, I'm sure, appreciate that I can't go too much in details in an open press brief on what they have done vis-a-vis particular groups, but we see progress. But they have a lot a lot more to do, and our commitment on the commitments that we have made, our delivery on those commitments, is very much conditional on them delivering on their commitments with regard to terrorism and related commitments. So we are monitoring it, as I said, closely. We have a group that pays attention to this, watches it very closely. And we also raise issues that we have if there are issues when there are issues with the Taliban, not only by me when I visit with them and with the Afghan Government when I visit with them, but we have also special channels for this effort, and they are raised in those channels, and of course raised by military and political representatives in Kabul as well. We recognize the importance of this issue this is vital the issue of terrorism. And not only we press them, but we also take measures when necessary. We continue to do the security steps, operations that are needed as well. So we have a comprehensive approach for different phases on how to deal with the issue of terrorism, but we we believe there is progress, but more work needs to be done by them. MS ORTAGUS: Thank you. Okay, let's see, Aamer Madhani I apologize if I screwed up your name AP. QUESTION: Yeah, thanks. Hi, Ambassador. How much pressure does the Islamic State's stepped-up activity put up on the deal moving forward? And from a U.S. security perspective, how critical is it to get the Taliban into the fight against IS? AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD: Well, the Taliban fight Daesh, as you know, and they've been substantial adversaries vis-a-vis each other. Daesh is working against peace, is working against reduced level of violence, and they have been responsible, some of for some of the most dastardly attacks recently, including the attack on the hospital. We believe that the Talibs have been important, besides the Afghan Security Forces and ourselves, in the fight against Daesh that has taken place. And Daesh is a fact of life in Afghanistan. We believe that an agreement between the government and the Taliban to end the that war, and cooperation between the two on a political roadmap, will put Afghanistan and the Afghan forces, Taliban, the government, in a much stronger position to pursue the fight against Daesh until Daesh is eliminated in Afghanistan. So we regard the agreement that we have made and the steps that have been taken as helpful in the fight against Daesh, but Daesh is still there and a lot of work needs to still be done to deal with the threat that Daesh poses. MS ORTAGUS: Thank you. Jessica Donati, Wall Street Journal. QUESTION: Hi, thanks for doing this. The agreement states that the U.S. will withdraw based on conditions, but if Trump pulls out on Election Day, as he is reportedly planning to do, will you be able to preserve the agreement? AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD: Well, two points on that, that one, we have agreed on a timeline already for withdrawal in the agreement, and as you said correctly, it's condition based. And the issue of whether if the conditions are met at a faster pace or sooner than the timeline that we have agreed to in the agreement, whether it is the prerogative of the President if he thinks that the conditions have been met and we could do it faster. But the key thing is that whether the conditions have been met, and I think that is a we are is the most important issue, and we are monitoring that very closely. MS ORTAGUS: Thanks, Jessica. Okay, let's see, Conor Finnegan, ABC. QUESTION: Hey, Ambassador, thanks for doing this. Just following up on my colleague's question earlier on the UN report, it also said that the Taliban was consulting with al-Qaida during your negotiations with them. Were you aware of that? And then a second question: What's the status of the $1 billion of U.S. assistance that Secretary Pompeo said was frozen? Was any of that money ever withheld? Is it being released now that there is a political agreement? Thank you. AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD: On the money, you should consult with the Pentagon. I think the Secretary has spoken on that issue. On the details of the implementation, I refer you to the Pentagon. On the al-Qaida-Taliban issue, I've said before as well that the Taliban have committed to breaking with al-Qaida and not to host al-Qaida, not to allow any group including al-Qaida to use the territory that they currently control against the United States and our allies, to threaten us or our allies, and that if they become part of a future government as a result of intra-Afghan negotiations that they will follow the same policy nationwide. And as I said before, we have the same agreement with the Afghan Government, and as I said again, that we are monitoring that very closely. And the Taliban are a complex entity individuals, subgroups and I can't speak on behalf of any individual Talib member, but the Taliban as a whole have made this commitment. We hold them to that commitment, and what we do and what we have committed to its implementation is very much dependent on them delivering on their commitments. MS ORTAGUS: Thanks. Nick Schifrin, PBS. QUESTION: Hey, Zal. Thanks for this. Got NewsHour in stereo today. Couple questions, one on the conditions-based that you said referred to with the President. Just confirming that you do believe that the President will maintain the strategy of a conditions-based withdrawal instead of a withdrawal simply based on a timeline. And to go back to the original question about the UN, as you know, you and your military colleagues found more connections between the Taliban and al-Qaida than I think a lot of people expected during these conversations. You used the word "progress." Can you detail with as much specificity what kind of progress you've gotten since February 29th? Thanks very much. On specifically on separating the Taliban and al-Qaida. Thanks. AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD: First, our approach is condition-based and remains so. And second, that the Taliban have made commitments, specific commitments with regard to al-Qaida and other groups that could threaten the United States in terms of the their presence, in terms of training, in terms of recruiting, in terms of fundraising in the territory that they currently control. And the job is not done yet on that, but as I said before, progress has been made and our future steps in terms of force reduction and related commitments depends on the Talibs delivering on those commitments. I'm sorry I can't be too specific or very specific about this as to what they have done, but we are monitoring that. That is obviously very important, and the key is the key message that I want to send is that our delivery on the commitment that we have made is contingent on them delivering on their commitment and those two are a package. Actually, there are four issues that are a package: withdrawal, terrorism, intra-Afghan negotiation, and permanent and comprehensive ceasefire. Now, with the prisoners released and the reduction of violence, we are hopeful that we will soon be able to focus on the intra-Afghan negotiations and a political agreement and on a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire. I believe that our approach by the progress we have seen recently is validated and however, you all are very experienced people. This is a complicated situation both internally and internationally, and it's it's not a straight line, this progress. There might be setbacks, but we are at a better spot than when I briefed you last. MS ORTAGUS: Thanks. Okay, the last person that I see in the queue is Kylie Atwood, CNN. If anybody has a final question, dial 1 and 0 now, because we don't have anyone else. So Kylie Atwood, go ahead. QUESTION: Thank you. Thanks, Ambassador. Two questions: So first, you've mentioned a few times that you can't be too specific about what the Taliban has done to fight al-Qaida or break from al-Qaida. And why is that that you can't be more specific about that? And my second question is: Last year Secretary Pompeo said that al-Qaida doesn't amount to a shadow of its former self and that the U.S. had delivered on its mission to oust al-Qaida from Afghanistan. Does that remain true today? Thank you. AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD: Thank you. On the second question, of course al-Qaida once used to be present in Afghanistan in a big way. Usama bin Ladin and many of the leaders of al-Qaida were in Afghanistan. We asked the Taliban to deliver them after 9/11 to us. They refused. As a result of the fight that we have had, al-Qaida has been devastated in terms of numbers of losses. And there is still some presence but a small presence, and we have succeeded in getting Taliban, which refused to break with al-Qaida at that time, to say what I have repeatedly referred to. So on that front I think no doubt that is a big change that has happened in terms of al-Qaida and Afghanistan, al-Qaida and the Taliban compared to what was the case before 9/11 and then afterwards in the so. On the second note your first question asked why I can't talk in greater detail. These are sensitive issues between al-Qaida, which is a terrorist organization, and the relationships that have existed, the break or adjustments that are being made, and these are issues of intelligence and I don't want to get into those, not surprisingly, as to exactly how what we see happening. I hope you'll understand that I can't talk about it, because if we talk about it, it may have other consequences. And besides, I'm not allowed to talk about them. That's all I can say about that. MS ORTAGUS: Zal, do you have time for another question? AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD: Sure. MS ORTAGUS: Okay. We Sami Mahdi from Radio Azadi in the queue. QUESTION: Hi. Thank you so much, Mr. Ambassador, for this opportunity. I have two questions. The first question is the inclusive government is formed and we have the High Reconciliation Council now. What do you think when will the intra-Afghan peace talks start? And some names like names of countries like Germany, Norway, Qatar, and Uzbekistan are mentioned. Any idea where this will take place? And the second question is: The change in the Taliban (inaudible) reports suggest that the COVID-19 has spread among the leadership of the Taliban. Do you see this as a positive progress and for peace or not? Thank you. AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD: Well, thank you. On the intra-Afghan negotiations, the date and the location are two of the issues that we're very much focused on right now among other issues regarding intra-Afghan negotiations. As you can imagine, both sides, meaning the government or the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan team and leadership and the Taliban, have to agree on those issues and others, location. And there are obviously several countries that have offered to host those negotiations, but two sides have to agree where. And then there is also the issue of date and the issue of date relates to prisoners issue as well and that but the fact that we are focusing on those issues right now is a sign of progress. Perhaps to some of you might have been hopeful and optimistic that we will get there by now, but a lot of people who have been pessimistic that we could get to this place where we are discussing where and when intra-Afghan negotiations would begin and that there will be enough progress on the prisoners issue. You know the evolution of the discussion among Afghans in the government and with the Taliban on that issue and on the issue of violence. So we're working on that, and we're working also with international partners both in the region and internationally. My trips are in part to make sure we have everyone together internationally in support of this process. Now, on the issue of the virus, the coronavirus issue, its impact. Yeah, we are very concerned about this impact in Afghanistan, and we have provided assistance to Afghanistan. We are concerned and worried about the impact that the virus is having, could have, as we are concerned about this issue in many other places. But as far as the specific implications for specific groups, I do not have anything to share at this time. MS ORTAGUS: Okay. Thanks, Zal. Zal, we're over time now. There's still people left in the queue, but unless you want to take anything else do you have time for anything else or do you want to go ahead and end? AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD: Well, I leave it to you, Morgan. If you want to take another one, I am willing, but it's up to you. You are the boss. MS ORTAGUS: Okay. I apologize, because we still have three or four more people in the queue, but I'm just going in the order that it came in. So this will be the definite last one. And I apologize that we can't get to everybody today. Shaun Tandon. Shaun, are you still on? OPERATOR: I don't see that participant queued up. My apologies. MS ORTAGUS: Arshad Mohammed. QUESTION: Thanks, Morgan. Ambassador Khalilzad, two things. One, going back to your comment on the UN report, the agreement that you reached was indeed February the 29th, but the UN report, as I believe you said, goes up to March 15th. That still suggests that there is a contradiction between your agreement saying that they would cut ties the Taliban and al-Qaida and what the UN report says. So can you please address that? And second, the Secretary of State said in writing on March 23rd that a billion dollars was being cut from U.S. aid to Afghanistan. The last time I checked on that, which was 10 days ago, nothing had been cut. Can you not tell us whether any of that money has been cut? And if you can't tell us, I mean, does if the money hasn't been cut, does it not suggest that your threats in this regard are empty and will be taken as empty by the Afghans and potentially others? AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD: Thank you. On your second question, I think the money is cut and the implementation is and with the Pentagon, so you'll have to get on the details of the implementation as to when, what part, from which account they are taking that's that end of it handled the Pentagon, and I would like you ask them that. With regard to the report, as I said, I haven't read it in detail, but I was just briefed by the staff a little while ago that it covers that period that I mentioned, until March 15th. Yes, the Taliban have obligations with regard to al-Qaida. This covered the period immediately after the agreement. We recognize it takes time to take the steps necessary operationally to deliver on their commitments. We observe they've taken some steps. They have to take a lot more steps. And we will monitor this very closely, and we will take appropriate steps to protect our national security. With regard to terrorism, we do not want Afghanistan to again become a platform. And if the Talibs not do deliver and I'd rather not speculate then, as I said before, the commitments that we have made is also then subject to change if the other side doesn't deliver on its commitments. And the commitment is also not only with the Taliban but with the Afghan Government as well, so all sides of Afghanistan. The commitments themselves were significant for them to commit in a public agreement the commitments that they have made. We couldn't get that a long time ago, so I would not dismiss that as important. Implementation is also very, very important, and we are saying that they have made moves, but we a lot more steps have to be taken by them, and we will be watching that very closely. So thank you, everyone. Thank you, Morgan. I appreciate this opportunity, and all the best. MS ORTAGUS: Thanks, everybody. Thanks for dialing in. Have a great one. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic may be waning. For vaccine developers, that could be a problem. Scientists in Europe and the United States say the relative success of draconian lockdown and social distancing policies in some areas and countries means virus transmission rates may be at such low levels that there is not enough disease circulating to truly test potential vaccines. They may need to look further afield, to pandemic hotspots in Africa and Latin America, to get convincing results. "Ironically, if we're really successful using public health measures to stamp out the hot spots of viral infection, it will be harder to test the vaccine," said Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health in the United States. For latest updates on coronavirus outbreak, click here A vaccine is seen as essential to ending a pandemic that has killed nearly 370,000 people and infected more than 6 million so far, with world leaders looking at inoculation as the only real way to restart their stalled economies. But running large-scale clinical trials of potential vaccines against a completely new disease at speed is complex, scientists say. Showing efficacy in those trials during a fluctuating pandemic adds extra difficulty - and doing so when outbreaks are waning makes it harder still. "For this to work, people need to have a risk of infection in the community. If the virus has been temporarily cleared out, then the exercise is futile," said Ayfer Ali, an expert in drug repurposing at Britain's Warwick Business School. "The solution is to move to areas where the infection is being spread widely in the community that would be countries like Brazil and Mexico at the moment." Vaccine trials work by randomly dividing people into a treatment group and a control group, with the treatment group getting the experimental trial vaccine and the control group getting a placebo. All participants go back into the community where the disease is circulating, and subsequent rates of infection are compared. The hope is that infections within the control group will be higher, showing the trial vaccine is protecting the other group. With COVID-19 epidemics in Britain, mainland Europe and the United States coming down from their peak and transmission rates of the coronavirus dropping, a key task for scientists is to chase fluctuating outbreaks and seek volunteers in sections of populations or in countries where the disease is still rife. A similar problem emerged when scientists were seeking to test potential new vaccines against Ebola during the vast 2014 outbreak in West Africa. Then, drugmakers were forced to drastically scale back plans for large trials because their vaccines were only test-ready late in the epidemic when case numbers were dwindling. https://reut.rs/36OmkVu For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread, open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser LOOKING ABROAD Coronavirus Worldometer | 15 countries with the highest number of cases, deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic Among the first COVID-19 vaccines to move into phase two, or mid-stage, trials is one from the U.S. biotech company Moderna and another being developed by scientists at Oxford University supported by AstraZeneca. The United States in July is planning to launch vast efficacy trials of 20,000 to 30,000 volunteers per vaccine. Collins said U.S. health officials will tap government and industry clinical trial networks in the United States first and use mapping to detect where the virus is most active. They will also consider looking abroad if domestic disease rates fall too far, he said. The U.S. government has experience in Africa of testing vaccines against HIV, malaria and tuberculosis. "Africa is now beginning to experience lots of cases of COVID-19. We might very well want to run part of the trial there, where we know we can collect the data effectively," said Collins. Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute at Britain's Oxford University which has teamed up with AstraZeneca, started mid-stage trials last month which he said would aim to recruit around 10,000 people in Britain. He told Reuters that with COVID-19 disease transmission rates dropping in the UK there is a possibility that the trial would have to be halted if they didn't have enough infections to yield a result. "That would be disappointing, and at the moment it's unlikely, but it's certainly a possibility," Hill said. CHALLENGE TRIALS Underscoring the level of concern in the industry, AstraZeneca's chief executive Pascal Soriot said his researchers were even contemplating running so-called "challenge" trials - where participants would be given the experimental vaccine and then deliberately infected with COVID-19 to see if it worked. Such trials are rare, high risk and hard to get ethical approval for. As a more practical and swifter option, Soriot and others are looking to Brazil and other countries in South America, as well as parts of Africa where COVID-19 outbreaks are still growing and peaking, as ripe drug and vaccine testing grounds. Difficulty recruiting candidates for mid-stage vaccine trials in countries where the COVID-19 pandemic is on the wane may be foreshadowed by the experience of doctors seeking infected cases for the World Health Organization's multi-country Solidarity trial of potential treatments for the disease - including the generic drug hydroxychloroquine and Gilead's remdesivir. In the Swiss portion of that trial, for instance, it took three weeks to get all of the ethical and regulatory approvals from authorities, and another week to get all the drugs, said Oriol Manuel, an infectious disease expert and national coordinator of the Solidarity study in Switzerland. "We were able to enroll some patients in (one trial centre in) Lausanne," Manuel said. "But when all centres were ready, the cases were fortunately disappearing." Prosecutors have dropped a series of child rape charges against male members of the infamous Colt family just as the men were due to face trial. Twenty charges on a joint indictment were withdrawn on Tuesday related to four incidents allegedly committed by Frank, Charlie and Cliff Colt (all pseudonyms). The Sydney District Court is expected to decide on Wednesday how the remaining allegations of child rape against the men will proceed in judge-alone trials. Police discovered that the Colt family - a pseudonym given to the family by the court - were living together in filth inside a camp in rural New South Wales About 40 members of the clan were discovered living in squalor on a rural property near Yass in 2012, with stories of suspected historic and ongoing child abuse making international headlines. The children had speech difficulties, bad hygiene, slept in tents and later spoke of alleged sexual abuse by family members. The NSW Children's Court placed 12 children found at the farm in state care in 2013 after hearing about deficient living conditions, neglect and uncontradicted genetic evidence that only one child had parents who weren't related to each other. After a six-year investigation, police in 2018 arrested the Colt men in NSW and Western Australia and charged them with multiple instances of sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 10 and other offences. Back-up charges to each child rape alleged indecent assault. Sydney District Court Judge Gina O'Rourke formally dismissed 20 charges including nine allegations of child rape against Charlie Colt. Cliff and Frank Colt had 16 and 12 charges dismissed respectively. Charlie Colt still faces six charges; sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 10, sexual intercourse with a child aged between 10 and 14, three counts of indecent assault against a child and one count of indecent assault. Frank faces two allegations of raping a child under 10, one of raping a child aged 10 to 14 and another of raping a person older than 16. He's also accused of indecently assaulting a child. Cliff no longer faces any charges related to raping a child under 10 but is still accused of sex with a person aged 10 to 14, two counts of indecently assaulting a child and one count of indecent assault. Each returns to court on Wednesday. Nisagra Cyclone that's expected to hit cities like Mumbai, Panaji and Surat will intensify into a deep depression over the Arabian sea today. The next 12 hours are crucial as weather experts are saying it'll covert into a cyclonic storm and subsequently into a 'severe cyclonic storm'. The National Disaster Relief Federation (NDRF) teams in Maharashtra and Gujarat are on standby and arrangements are being done to deal with any eventuality. The superstorm is located 360 km southwest of Panjim, 670 km of Mumbai and 900 km of south-southwest Surat but Nisarga will be packing in a wind speed of 105-115 kmph, gusting to 125 kilometre per hour on June 3. Check out all the latest updates on Cyclone Nisagra on BusinessToday.In live blog 3.23 PM: Cyclone Nisagra to hit Gujarat tonight or tomorrow The India Meteorological Department alert says Cyclone Nisarga will likely hit Navsari area in Gujarat by tonight or June 4 morning. As per the alert issued by India Meteorological Department, there is possibility that #CycloneNisarga may hit Navsari area tonight or by morning of 4th June; all required measures have been taken: Ardra Agarwal, District Collector, Navsari. #Gujaratpic.twitter.com/PbMTFT57cD ANI (@ANI) June 2, 2020 3.05 PM: Nisagra Cyclone to intensify into cyclonic storm in next 6 hours Nisagra Cyclone will likely intensify into a cyclonic storm in the next 6 hours and further into a severe cyclonic storm during subsequent 12 hours. "It is very likely to move nearly northwards during next few hours, re-curve north-northeast-wards thereafter and cross north Maharashtra and adjoining south Gujarat coast between Harihareshwar and Daman, close to Alibag (Raigad District, Maharashtra) during the afternoon of June 3 as a severe cyclonic storm with a maximum sustained wind speed of 100-110 kmph gusting to 120 kmph," the Ministry of Earth Sciences said. 3.00 PM: Praying for everyone's well-being: Modi Took stock of the situation in the wake of cyclone conditions in parts of Indias western coast. Praying for everyones well-being. I urge people to take all possible precautions and safety measures. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 2, 2020 2.48 PM: Thunderstorm/Rainfall/Strong winds warning for next two days Thunderstorm/Rainfall/Strong winds warning for next two days pic.twitter.com/S6QT7Olgzh India Met. Dept. (@Indiametdept) June 2, 2020 2.42 PM: Storm Surge Warning Storm surge of about 1-2 meters height above astronomical tide is very likely to inundate low lying areas of Mumbai up to about 1 to 1.5 km, Thane and Raigad districts and 0.5-1 meter height above the astronomical tide likely to inundate low lying areas of Ratnagiri district during the time of landfall. 1.49 PM: Heavy Damage expected The Ministry of Earth and Sciences has issued rainfall warning and forecasted damages that Nisarga will cause after making landfall in Maharashtra and Gujarat. Also read: Cyclone Nisarga threat to Maharashtra, Gujarat: All you need to know 1.40 PM: Heavy damage expected in Mumbai Cyclone Nisarga is now heading towards India and is expected to hit the shores of Maharashtra on Wednesday. The deep depression titled Cyclone Nisarga is currently moving northwards in the Arabian sea. The cyclone is expected to cause significant damage in cities like Mumbai and hence a red alert has been issued in several of the city's districts. Also read: IMD issues red alert over Cyclone Nisarga 1.38 PM: Forecast on rainfall in Northwest India Northwest India is going to get 107 per cent of long-term average rainfall, that is a good sign. Central India is going to get around 103 per cent and southern India will get about 102 per cent, while northeast India is going to get 96 per cent, Anand Sharma, Deputy Director-General, India Meteorological Department, tells ANI. 1.25 PM: 26 NDRF teams to be deployed in Maharashtra, Gujarat NDRF is deployed in both the states, 10 teams are in Maharashtra & 11 teams are in Gujarat. However, Gujarat has asked for 5 more teams so we're getting them airlifted from Punjab. They should be able to reach Gujarat by late night today: NDRF Director General SN Pradhan. 1.14 PM: When will cyclone make landfall in Gujarat, Maharashtra? In less than 24 hours, cyclonic storm Nisarga is going to make landfall in the coastal districts of Maharashtra and Gujarat. The impact of the cyclone will be also seen in Karnataka and Goa. According to the Ministry of Earth and Sciences, depression over east-central Arabian Sea intensified into a deep depression on Tuesday, June 2. This will further intensify into a severe cyclonic storm in the next 12 hours and cross north Maharashtra and adjoining south Gujarat coast in the afternoon on June 3. 12.56 PM: What do present weather conditions say? Present weather conditions indicate that Depression lies over eastcentral&its adjoining areas of southeast Arabian Sea&system is moving northwards. It's lying over 360km southwest of Panjim,670km south-southwest of Mumbai&900km of south-southwest of Surat: Naga Ratna, IMD Scientist, tells ANI. 12.50 PM: What are expected damages due to cyclone Nisagra Major damage to thatched houses. Rooftops may blow off. Unattached metal sheets might fly Damage to power and communication lines Major damage to Kutcha and some damage to Pucca roads Uprooting of trees and electric poles Major damage to coastal crops Damage to embankments/salt pans 12.40 PM: Fishermen return from the sea as they have been cautioned by the authorities not to venture out at sea, in view of impending adverse weather; Visuals from Mahim Beach. 12.39 PM: The India Meteorological Department says thunderstorm with rain would occur over and adjoining areas of Etah, Mainpuri (Uttar Pradesh) and light rain over Kurukshetra (Haryana) during next 2 hours. 12.35 PM: Supercyclone to cross Maharashtra on June 3 Depression over east-central Arabian sea intensified into Deep Depression. To intensify further into a Severe Cyclonic Storm and cross Maharashtra coast during 3rd June afternoon.Cyclone Alert for north Maharashtra south Gujarat coasts: IMD 11.30 AM: The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams deployed in Palghar conduct survey in the district and take stock of the situation, in view of impending severe cyclone. Mumbai: Fishermen return from the sea as they have been cautioned by the authorities not to venture out at sea, in view of impending adverse weather; Visuals from Mahim Beach. #CycloneNisargapic.twitter.com/Kw5xR7bSrF ANI (@ANI) June 2, 2020 11.30 AM: Indian Coast Guard issues warning to fishermen Depression over east-central Arabian sea intensified into Deep Depression. To intensify further into a Severe Cyclonic Storm and cross Maharashtra coast during 3rd June afternoon.Cyclone Alert for north Maharashtra south Gujarat coasts: IMD pic.twitter.com/Mj3wb8k72t ANI (@ANI) June 2, 2020 11.28 AM: Warning to fishermen Indian Coast Guard ships aircraft and shore stations are continuously relaying warnings about impending adverse weather to merchant vessels and fishermen, says Indian Coast Guard. Maharashtra: National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams deployed in Palghar conduct survey in the district and take stock of the situation, in view of impending severe cyclone. pic.twitter.com/Uba1CDerAc ANI (@ANI) June 2, 2020 11.20 AM: How are the sea conditions right now? As per the IMD, the sea condition is very likely to be "rough to very rough" over east-central and adjoining southeast Arabian Sea during the next 48 hours. It will be "high to very high" over the east-central Arabian Sea along and off Maharashtra coast from June 2 and "very rough to high" along and off Gujarat coast from June 3. 11.15 AM: Wind warning by Weather Department Squally wind speed reaching 40-50 kmph gusting to 60 kmph is prevailing over east-central and adjoining southeast Arabian Sea. It is very likely to become 50-60 kmph gusting to 70kmph over east-central and adjoining southeast Arabian Sea during next 48 hours. It will gradually increase becoming Gale wind speed reaching 60-70 kmph gusting to 80 kmph over the east-central Arabian Sea and along and off south Maharashtra coast from 2nd June morning. On June, the wind will pack around 105-115 kmph speed, gusting to 125 kmph. 11.05 AM: Rainfall prediction June 1: Heavy to very heavy rainfall likely over Lakshadweep area, Kerala and coastal Karnataka June 2: Light to moderate rainfall at most places with isolated heavy to very heavy falls very likely over Konkan and Goa June 3: IMD has predicted that Goa and Konkan will experience extremely heavy rainfall again on June 3. Besides, light to moderate rainfall at most places with isolated heavy to very heavy falls very likely over Gujarat, north Maharashtra, Daman, Diu, Dadra, and Nagar Haveli June 4: Heavy rainfall might continue at isolated places over south Gujarat state, Daman, Diu, Dadra and Nagar on June 4 11.00 AM: Govt issues warning to fishermen The department has forecast that the cyclone will cross Maharashtra, South Gujarat and Lakshadweep on June 3. The government has advised that fishermen should not venture into southeast and the east-central Arabian Sea, Lakshadweep area, Kerala coast; Gujarat, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra coasts on June 3 and 4. After hours of mostly peaceful protests, the streets of Lower Manhattan grew frenetic around 10 p.m., after police confronted and dispersed a large group that had crossed over the Manhattan Bridge from Brooklyn. When the march was met by the police near Canal and Church Streets, the crowd grew tense as marchers became separated from one another, kept apart by flanks of riot police. Gradually, protesters splintered into smaller groups, fanning across several blocks and continuing uptown. But as the march frayed, small bands of violent actors on its fringes began escalating. First, they threw trash cans into the street. Soon, they lit piles of trash on fire, eventually igniting scaffolding on an apartment building near the Strand bookstore. By the time the stragglers had reached the stretch of Fifth Avenue between 14th Street and the Flatiron Building, they were smashing almost any glass in sight. One small group of young men tore through a CitiBike terminal, yanking bikes from their docks and twisting the plastic. Nearby, the windows of an Anthropologie clothing boutique were smashed. An older protester, visibly distraught, rushed over and begged them to stop. They sprinted onward, shattering windows as they went. One man carried a partly clothed mannequin down the street with him. Police officers in riot gear sprinted after the group, often just a few stores behind, as peaceful demonstrators yelled, No protection for looters! It continued this way uptown for blocks, where protesters dispersed across empty streets brought to life only by ghostly red and blue patrol car lights and the periodic clatter of riot police giving chase. After midnight, a second protest march from Brooklyn crossed the Manhattan Bridge after having clashed with the police outside the Barclays Center. Once they reached Manhattan, the protesters immediately began smashing windows of stores on the Lower East Side. Not long after this group arrived in Manhattan, gunshots rang out along Crosby Street in SoHo, and people scrambled for cover. Two men dove into an idling car, which sped off. An ambulance soon arrived and picked up a man, who the police said had been shot. It is unclear whether the incident was connected to the looting or protests. Delhi Police on Tuesday filed two charge sheets in connection with two separate cases registered during the communal rioting that rocked the citys north-east in February. In one of the charge sheets, the police named suspended Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain, alleging that he played a pivotal role during the riots. The police said Hussain met former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Umar Khalid, who, the department claimed, was part of a larger group organizing the riots and protests in the city. At least 53 people were killed and around 400 injured n the violence that started as clashes between protestors for and against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act . While Hussain has been charged under sections dealing with rioting, criminal conspiracy, dacoity, promoting religious enmity and under the Arms Act, the police filed a separate charge sheet against 12 people, including two activists of the womens group Pinjra Tod. Crime branch officers associated with the probe said that none of the 12 arrested persons are registered members of the Jamia Coordination Committee but the two Pinjra Tod activists were incharge of a sub-group the committe had formed for Jafarabad protest site. None of the 12 have got bail in the case, so far. The 12 were charged under sections dealing with murder, attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy. The police said they were also part of a larger conspiracy and were be connected to the India Against Hate group and Umar Khalid. Neither Khalid nor his counsel Trideep Pais offered a comment despite repeated phone calls and text messages. Pinjra Tod, in a statement on social media on May 28, after the arrest of its activists, denied police allegations and called the arrests a witchhunt against students. On Tuesday, it did not comment on grounds that the case is sub judice. In connection with the violence outside Hussains house, the police said it charged 15 people including Hussain and his younger brother Shah Alam. Hussain had got his licensed pistol released from a police station a day before the riots broke out, the police said.The pistol and its licence were deposited in the police station in January because of the Delhi assembly elections. Hussain got it released on February 22. Police have mentioned that Hussain purchased 100 cartridges on his license, but only 64 live cartridges and 22 empty cartridges were recovered at his instance. He was unable to give them any satisfactory answer regarding the remaining live cartridges and use of 22 empty shells during interrogation. Before Hussains arrest, when videos of people throwing stones and hurling Molotov cocktails( purportedly from the terrace of Hussains house) surfaced on social media, the suspended AAP councillor denied allegations of his involvement and said he was a victim of the riots. Police said their investigation revealed that there was a deep-rooted conspiracy to cause riots in north-east Delhi. It said that Hussain was also connected to Khalid Saifi and Umar Khalid , who are part of the larger group of persons organizing the riots and protests. Saifi has been arrested. Police in the charge sheet said they recovered crates of glass bottles with some liquid filled in them and their necks stuffed with pieces of cloth. It said that these were Molotov cocktails. The police also mentioned that they recovered a large number of bricks, stones and three catapults from Hussains house. It said that this points towards the conspiracy and the extent of preparation for causing riots in the area. Police have claimed that Hussain had taken around 1.10 crore from Khalid Saifi and transferred around 1.10 crore to fake companies in January. They that Hussain got that amount in cash and distributed to anti CAA protesters and several other persons in his locality and told his supporters to get ready. Police have also claimed that they found many buildings near Hussains house damaged but Hussains house was left untouched by the rioters. According to them, there were several cameras at the house but the forensic department in its report told police that they found no recording from February 23 to 28 (period before and after the riots). Reacting to the charges against Hussain, his lawyer Javed Ali said that his client has been falsely implicated, which was evident from the fact that nothing had been recovered from him during the time he was in police custody or later on. He said certain things had been planted and manipulated against him. Ali also said the police have not produced a single piece of evidence against Hussain and added that Hussain was implicated in a political conspiracy by his rivals. In the second charge sheet against the 12 persons, including Pinjra Tod members Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, police said they recovered a WhatsApp message from the phone of one of the accused which listed the steps the women should take if a riot broke out. The case in which they have been charged, is related to a February 25 incident when protests turned violent and a man died of a gunshot near the Jafrabad metro station. The police also said they recovered 35 spent cartridges from the spot. Meanwhile, a Delhi court granted bail to Kalita in connection to her alleged involvement in the Daryaganj violence, the same case in which Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Azad has also been accused. The court said there is no direct evidence against her in connection with the violence and that the CCTV camera footage also did not specifically show her involved in any violent activity on December 20. Kalita is still in prison because she is yet to get bail in another case. A protest call by Azad on the morning of December 20, took a violent turn in the evening, when protesters pelted stones, torched vehicles and two-wheelers outside the Daryaganj police station. This article by David Roza originally appeared on Task & Purpose, a digital news and culture publication dedicated to military and veterans issues. At least sixteen West Point cadets have tested positive for novel coronavirus (COVID-19) upon returning to the New York campus President Donald Trump's upcoming speech at the school's commencement ceremony on June 13. USA Today first reported the infections. A West Point spokesman confirmed the article's findings for Task & Purpose. The 16 cadets are receiving treatment but are not showing symptoms of the disease, Lt. Gen. Darryl Williams, West Point's superintendent, told USA Today. Of the 16 affected cadets, 14 tested positive for the antibody which indicates they contracted the virus and subsequently recovered, USA Today reported. The number is a small fraction of the 850 cadets who have returned to campus since spring break in March. According to the campus newspaper, The Pointer View, the 1,100 cadets of the class of 2020 started returning to campus last week. Each cadet was screened for COVID-19 and briefed about procedures for staying socially distant and keeping surfaces sanitized. "The test wasn't bad," cadet Christopher Gouin told AThe Pointer View. "It made me tear up a little bit and I think he might have pulled some brain matter out with it. But other than that, I think I'm good to go." Other than the 16 cadets, 71 of the more than 5,000 faculty, staff and civilians at West Point have also tested positive for COVID-19 since March, USA Today reported. All but four civilians have recovered, and they are living off the post. Screening and safety procedures will allow the ceremony to be held safely, Willians told USA Today. The decision to bring cadets back to campus for Trump's speech in the middle of a pandemic was met with controversy. The cadets had been sent home after spring break in March. "Because travel increases your chances of getting infected and spreading COVID-19, staying home is the best way to protect yourself and others from getting sick," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote on its website. "Trump's reckless decision to gather 1,000 Cadets at West Point for a speech puts our future military leaders at increased risk--all to stroke his own ego," Army veteran Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) wrote in April. "I urge President Trump to evaluate the potential consequences of this vanity speech and reconsider holding the event." To make matters worse, New York has more confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths than any other state in the country. West Point is a 90-minute drive north of New York City, which is widely seen as an epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. "I understand they'll have distancing," Trump said of his West Point visit on April 17. "They'll have some big distance, so it will be very different than it ever looked. Do I like the look? No, I don't. And eventually, next year, they'll have a commencement like it's been." Williams also insisted in April that the graduating cadets need to undergo a series of medical tasks "that can only be done at the United States Military Academy." Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville noted at the time that soldiers will have to live, train, and operate despite the COVID-19 threat for a while. That is why West Point's graduation could not be held virtually, he said. "We cannot telecommute to combat," McConville said. "Our troops need to be ready to go." Earlier in March, DoD itself cancelled large-scale meetings and encouraged personnel to telework as much as possible. The U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, decided to commission roughly 1,000 midshipmen over the course of 10 days. Meanwhile, The U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs moved up its graduation date from May 28 to April 18 and made sure each cadet was at least 6 feet away from each other. Roughly 60 percent of the West Point graduating class drove back to campus, while 40 percent flew in, The Pointer View reported. The ceremony itself will be held on the academy's parade field known as The Plain, rather than the traditional location in Michie Stadium. More articles from Task & Purpose: By PTI LOS ANGELES: Hollywood superstar George Clooney has penned an essay in the wake of the protests over the death of George Floyd, the African-American man who was killed in police custody in Minneapolis. Floyd died last week in Minneapolis, Minnesota after a white police officer pressed his knee on his neck for more than eight minutes. The officer was arrested on Friday and charged with third-degree murder. In his essay, published by Daily Beast, Clooney called racism as the "greatest pandemic" of the US, lamenting that there hasn't been a "vaccine" for it even after 400 years. "This is our pandemic. It infects all of us, and in 400 years we've yet to find a vaccine. It seems we've stopped even looking for one and we just try to treat the wound on an individual basis. And we sure haven't done a very good job of that," the 59-year-old actor said. He called for "systemic change" in the country to tackle the problem of racism. "The anger and the frustration we see playing out once again in our streets is just a reminder of how little we've grown as a country from our original sin of slavery. "The fact that we aren't actually buying and selling other human beings anymore is not a badge of honour. We need systemic change in our law enforcement and in our criminal justice system," Clooney said. The actor said that Floyd's death was reminiscent of the killing of Eric Garner's in 2014, since they both pleaded to the police, "I can't breathe. How many times have we seen people of colour killed by police? Tamir Rice, Philando Castile, Laquan McDonald. There is little doubt that George Floyd was murdered. We watched as he took his last breath at the hands of four police officers," he said. "Now we see another defiant reaction to the systemic cruel treatment of a portion of our citizens like we saw in 1968, 1992, and 2014. We don't know when these protests will subside. We hope and pray that no one else will be killed. But we also know that very little will change," Clooney added. The actor then took aim at US President Donald Trump, who has been criticised for his response to the countrywide protests against police brutality. "We need policymakers and politicians that reflect basic fairness to all of their citizens equally. Not leaders that stoke hatred and violence as if the idea of shooting looters could ever be anything less than a racial dog whistle. Bull Connor was more subtle," he added. Clooney concluded his essay by urging Americans to vote for change in the upcoming US Presidential elections. "So this week, as we're wondering what it's going to take to fix these seemingly insurmountable problems, just remember we created these issues so we can fix them. And there is only one way in this country to bring lasting change: Vote," the actor said. Spain to Withdraw Troops From Iraqi Military Base in July as Mission Now Complete, Reports Say Sputnik News 14:23 GMT 01.06.2020 MADRID (Sputnik) - Spain is planning to withdraw in late July its troops from the Gran Capitan military base in the Iraqi city of Bismayah, which is Madrid's most important base in the Middle Eastern country, as troops have completed their mission to train Iraqi security forces, El Pais newspaper reported on Monday, citing military sources. According to the newspaper, before the coronavirus pandemic, the base, which is one of the Building Partner Capacity (BPC) centres run by the US-led international coalition, hosted 350 out of 530 Spanish service members in Iraq. In mid-April, Spain temporarily withdrew 200 soldiers due to the spread of the virus. Since the base has completed its mission, Spain will send a new contingent to Iraq to collect material from the site and prepare to return the facility to the Iraqi authorities, the newspaper reported. After the withdrawal of troops from the Bismayah base, Spain will continue to operate its Task Force Toro, which consists of 80 members of airborne force Famet stationed at the Taji base in Iraq, along with Spanish special operatives training and assisting the Iraqi security forces in Baghdad and Al Taqaddum, with 40 and 70 troops at each site, respectively. The newspaper added that the Spanish Defence Ministry was also planning to withdraw troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2020 or the beginning of 2021, before the 14-month deadline for the complete withdrawal of US and allied forces comes to an end, under the peace deal reached by the United States and the Taliban in late February. On 20 March, the US-led international coalition announced the reduction of its personnel on several Iraqi bases due to the coronavirus pandemic, among other reasons. The coalition added that military drills would resume as soon as the epidemiological situation improves. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Gov. Phil Murphy will return to the Trenton War Memorial on Tuesday to hold another press conference on the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 11,700 in the state since March 10. The 1 p.m. press conference will be streamed on the governors YouTube channel. Among the state officials slated to attend are Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, state Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli, communicable disease service medical director Dr. Edward Lifshitz and State Police Superintendent Colonel Pat Callahan. Grewal figures to be asked about the protests that have taken place around the New Jersey following the killing of a handcuffed black man in Minnesota. George Floyd, 46, died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes while he was handcuffed on the ground. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with murder and manslaughter. He and three other police officers were previously fired. While there were dozens of peaceful protests in New Jersey over the weekend, rallies in Trenton and Atlantic City turned violent. On Monday night, several protesters were arrested and a police officer were injured during a melee in Asbury Park after a peaceful protest. An Asbury Park Press reporter was also arrested, according to APP.com. The governor on Monday reported 27 new deaths and 509 additional cases of COVID-19 to push the states cumulative totals to 11,721 and 160,918. Officials said weeks ago that tens of thousands have recovered but Lifshitz didnt offer an update Monday when asked at Murphys press conference how many active cases remain. Murphy on Monday announced that nonessential businesses would be allowed to reopen June 15. Outdoor dining will also again be permitted. Murphy has no other scheduled media appearances on Tuesday. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Protesters gather at New York's Foley Square as part of a demonstration to protest the death of George Floyd, who died May 25 after he was pinned at the neck by a Minneapolis police officer. Read more WASHINGTON President Donald Trump on Tuesday turned up the pressure on governors to quell the violence set off by the death of George Floyd, demanding New York call up the National Guard to stop the lowlifes and losers. As more demonstrations began taking shape around the country during the afternoon, and cities girded for another round of scattered violence after dark, the president amplified his hard-line calls of a day earlier, in which he threatened to send in the military to restore order if governors didnt do it. NYC, CALL UP THE NATIONAL GUARD, he tweeted. The lowlifes and losers are ripping you apart. Act fast! Dont make the same horrible and deadly mistake you made with the Nursing Homes!!! Protests were held in such places as Orlando, Florida, where more than 1,000 people gathered in the afternoon to decry the killings of black people. READ MORE: From Tuesday: Hundreds gather in fourth day of protests This has to change, said 39-year-old Aisxia Batiste, an out-of-work massage therapist. Something has to give. Were done. This is the beginning of the end of something. It has to be. In New York, where crowds of people on Monday night smashed store windows and police made nearly 700 arrests, Mayor Bill de Blasio extended an 8 p.m. curfew all week. Were going to have a tough few days," he warned, but added: Were going to beat it back. He pleaded with community leaders to step forward and create peace. More than 20,000 National Guard members have been called up in 29 states to deal with the violence. New York is not among them, and De Blasio has said he does not want the Guard. On Tuesday, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo called what happened in the city a disgrace. The NYPD and the mayor did not do their job last night, he said said at a briefing in Albany. He said the mayor underestimated the problem, and the nations largest police force was not deployed in sufficient numbers, though the city had said it doubled the usual police presence. Monday marked the seventh straight night of unrest around the country. In Atlanta, police fired tear gas at demonstrators. In Nashville, more than 60 National Guard members put down their riot shields at the request of peaceful protesters. At a demonstration in Buffalo, New York, an SUV plowed into a group of officers, injuring three. An officer was shot and gravely wounded as police tried to disperse a crowd outside a Las Vegas hotel and casino. Four officers were shot in St. Louis; they were expected to recover. Philadelphia officials described a chaotic night in which one person was killed trying to use explosives to open an ATM, a gun shop owner fatally shot a would-be thief, and a 19-year-old died of injuries during looting. About a dozen other deaths have been reported around the country over the past week. And more than 5,600 people nationwide have been arrested for offenses such as stealing, blocking highways and breaking curfew, according to a count by The Associated Press. We have been sitting on a powder keg for some time and it has burst, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said. Some protesters framed the burgeoning movement as a necessity after a string of killings by police. I fear for my safety every time I get in the car to go for a drive. I fear of getting pulled over. I fear for all 10 of my brothers and sisters lives, for my parents lives! 19-year-old Amari Burroughs of Parkland, Florida, said Tuesday as she prepared for another protest. My goal is to use my voice and my leadership to make this world safer so that one day I can bring children here and wont have to fear for their safety. Outside the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul, where a youth protest was held Tuesday, 18-year-old Joseph Tawah agreed. Its really hard not to feel afraid, he said. Meanwhile, governors and mayors, Republicans and Democrats alike, rejected Trump's threat to send in the military, with some saying troops would be unnecessary and others questioning whether the government has such authority and warning that such a step would be dangerous. Denver is not Little Rock in 1957, and Donald Trump is not President Eisenhower. This is a time for healing, for bringing people together, and the best way to protect civil rights is to move away from escalating violence, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, both Democrats, said in a statement, referring to Eisenhower's use of troops to enforce school desegregation in the South. A senior White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the president is not rushing to send in the military and that his goal was to pressure governors to deploy more National Guard members. Such use of the military would mark a stunning federal intervention rarely seen in modern American history. Federal law allows presidents to dispatch the military into states to suppress an insurrection or if a state is defying federal law, legal experts said. But some state officials asserted that the president does not have a unilateral right to send in troops against the will of local governments. Minnesota, meanwhile, opened an investigation into whether the Minneapolis Police Department has a pattern of discrimination against minorities. Floyd died May 25 after a white Minneapolis officer, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee on the handcuffed black mans neck for several minutes. Chauvin has been charged with murder. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said prosecutors are working as fast as they can to determine if the three other officers at the scene should be charged too. All four have been fired. Amid the protests, cities struggled to keep police in line and avoid instances of excessive force. The police chief in Louisville, Kentucky, was fired after a restaurant owner was killed by police and National Guard members enforcing a curfew. In Richmond, the police chief said officers who used tear gas on a group of peaceful protesters would be disciplined. In Atlanta, six officers were charged after a video showed authorities dragging two young people from a car during protests. Many Rwandans would like to see the man accused of funding the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi put on trial in Rwanda. The legal battles over where Felicien Kabuga should be tried have begun. The former businessman accused of being a major financial backer of Hutu extremism in the build-up to, and during, the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda was arrested in a flat on the outskirts of Paris on May 16. As an international fugitive, Kabuga is thought to have lived in at least six countries in his 26 years on the run. He could now be tried in locations as diverse as Tanzania, France, the Netherlands or Rwanda. Where this trial is held matters. A trial in Rwanda will be more meaningful to the people who experienced the genocidal violence Kabuga is indicted for. When French police entered Kabugas flat, they were acting on an indictment and arrest warrant issued by the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), charging Kabuga with genocide and six other related offences. The IRMCT was set up to conclude the work of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) established by a Security Council resolution in 1994. In Kabugas first two court appearances in France, his lawyers indicated that they would oppose their clients transfer to the IRMCT on the basis of fair trial concerns before this international court and would argue for a domestic trial in France. At the same time, the IRMCT has initially rejected, although not entirely ruled out, Prosecutor Serge Brammertzs request to transfer Kabuga to The Hague in the Netherlands rather than Arusha, Tanzania, the former seat of the ICTR. A trial in Rwanda is also possible, either in situ under the auspices of the IRMCT if deemed in the interests of justice or through the referral of the case by this international court to Rwanda. To date, the IRMCT has referred three suspects along with five fugitive dossiers to Rwanda. However, it retains exclusive jurisdiction over the most senior leaders suspected of being most responsible, a category into which Kabuga is currently assumed to fall. Why does it matter where Kabuga is tried? Kabugas case fits into a wide and deeply contested picture of post-genocide justice. The Security Council, the IRMCT, the Rwandan and French states and Rwandan citizens are all embroiled in these processes and have a stake in the outcome. Inside Rwanda, among everyday citizens there are strong views on where genocide trials should be heard. A consortium of genocide survivor groups has issued a statement arguing for Kabugas trial to be held in Rwanda. In the 26 years since the genocide, in which an estimated 800,000 people lost their lives, most Rwandan citizens have directly experienced post-genocide justice primarily through their mandatory participation in the gacaca courts. Gacaca was a state-implemented but locally administered process based on a traditional Rwandan dispute resolution mechanism. With 12,000 courts in operation across the country from 2005 until 2012, most Rwandans participated in gacaca as witnesses, victims, perpetrators or lay community judges known as inyangamugayo. My earlier research found that citizens personal experience of gacaca profoundly shaped their views on the full range of judicial proceedings undertaken at the national, international and indeed, transnational level. Many Rwandan citizens strongly believe that the senior suspects should have to account directly to their community. In my interviews, international proceedings were criticised on the terms set by Rwandan citizens own experience of post-genocide justice. As one gacaca participant told me: In Arusha, the big fish are there. The victims travel there, but in gacaca, everyone is already here; survivors, perpetrators, judges, they are all here in the community. That is the difference Those in Arusha havent asked for forgiveness yet they have committed many crimes here. They should face us, the Rwandan family, but they avoid us by being there. For this Rwandan, and many others, there is a sense that they have had to grapple with domestic accountability for the crimes committed in 1994, and those who are alleged to have led and financed these crimes should do the same. However, gacaca is not the only litigation relevant to how Kabugas case is being interpreted. For the Rwandan government, his arrest fits into a wider project of tracking down genocide suspects around the world. It signals to the wider Rwandan diaspora that their governments penal powers can reach beyond its borders. According to their most recent report, the Rwandan Genocide Fugitives Tracking Unit (GFTU), a specialist unit of the National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA), has issued 911 indictments for genocide suspects still at large. With legal proceedings currently under way in 20 countries, I have been mapping this final phase of genocide-related litigation. This mapping project shows that 19 individuals have been deported or extradited to Rwanda while 31 have had their extradition denied based on concerns about fair trial rights and the legislative framework in Rwanda. Most of these refusals to extradite have occurred before French courts. For France, Kabugas arrest is part of a recent increase in litigation relating to the genocide which overlaps with its complex historical relationship with the Rwandan state and reinforces its domestic immigration controls. To date, there have been five domestic criminal trials of Rwandan genocide suspects in France, including two cases transferred from the ICTR. Also, there have been 20 cases in France denying the extradition of genocide suspects to Rwanda based initially on fair trial and then on legislative concerns. If Kabuga is not transferred to the IRMCT, Rwanda would face a very hard task trying to extradite him and a French criminal trial would likely follow. While not wanting to extradite individuals to Rwanda, immigration proceedings have gone forward in France. Six individuals, including former Rwandan first lady Agathe Kanziga Habyarimana, have had their refugee protection or residency permits revoked based on serious reasons for considering that these individuals have committed a crime against the peace, a war crime or a crime against humanity, leaving them in legal limbo. The immigration proceedings offer a far more positive reading of fair trial in Rwanda than found in the initial extradition decisions. These different judicial proceedings serve different French interests. Denying extradition expresses a view on Rwandas criminal laws and processes. Removing citizenship or refugee protection is internally oriented. It communicates a view on the types of people that are deemed not to belong in France. For the IRMCT, the arrest of Kabuga helps to justify its continued financing by the Security Council which has been pushing for the conclusion of these international proceedings relating to Rwanda since 2003. In addition, a trial in The Hague, which may still transpire, aligns with Prosecutor Serge Brammertzs own ambitions, as he is currently one of the candidates who could be appointed as the next prosecutor for the permanent International Criminal Court (ICC). All of these interests are at play in how Kagubas case goes forward. The Rwandan genocide is one of the most extensively litigated episodes of mass violence in recent history. In addition to this most recent wave of cases, at the international level, 61 people have been convicted and 14 acquitted by the ICTR, there have been extensive domestic criminal trials inside Rwanda and more than 600,000 people have been tried by gacaca for direct participation in the genocide and many more for property-related offences. All of Rwandas post-genocide justice processes have been praised for establishing crucial information about how the genocidal violence occurred, naming the specific individuals who were killed and holding particular people responsible for the violence. The arrest of Kaguba must be understood in the context of this much wider picture of post-genocide justice because that it is how it will be understood by Rwandans inside and outside of the country. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. COLUMBUS, Ohio Good news for zoo lovers in Ohio: Gov. Mike DeWine promised hell have an answer on Thursday for when the states zoos, museums and other tourist attractions can reopen. And I think for most of these facilities, it will be good news, he said. DeWine, in a Tuesday press conference, did not specifically mention amusement parks, but Ohios parks including Cedar Point and Kings Island are part of a broad group of industry insiders that have been working together for weeks to devise a list of requirements and standards necessary for the reopening of the states top tourist sites. Many industry leaders have grown impatient with DeWine for refusing to set a date for the reopening of major tourist attractions, even as restaurants, bars, hair salons, gyms and tattoo parlors have been permitted to reopen after being closed for months because of the coronavirus pandemic. Every day counts, said Melinda Huntley, executive director of the Ohio Travel Association, in an interview last week. Every day were losing more jobs, some permanently. She said many attractions depend on a short summer tourist season to make up the bulk of their revenue. DeWine, in response to a question from a reporter in Cincinnati, said he has reviewed the reopening plans for zoos and other attractions and they looked good. We have received plans, very well thought out plans in most cases, from different organizations, the zoos for example, about how they will manage crowds, how they will keep separation. His Thursday press conference is scheduled for 2 p.m.; check cleveland.com for live coverage. B oots own beauty brand, No7, is no stranger to huge demand. Last year, 36,000 people joined the waitlist to hear about its new Firming Booster Serum and Dark Spot Correcting Serums. Yet, the cult brand has topped itself again in 2020, accruing a massive 100,040 waitlist for its latest product: No7 Advanced Retinol 1.5% Complex Night Concentrate. When the brands first retinol cream dropped last Thursday, it sold more than 3,000 units of the product between 7am and 9am that morning, with one cream selling every three seconds. By lunchtime that day, there was a cream being sold every 1.8 seconds. But what is retinol and why is the product so popular? We look into No7s game-changing cream below. What are the benefits of retinol? Retinol is a derivative of vitamin A and works by increasing the skins cell turnover, which is why it's often hailed as one of the top ingredients to help fight ageing. In the 1970s, it was used as a form of acne treatment, but scientists soon discovered it has a number of other benefits like combatting pigmentation, boosting collagen and pore congestion. Vitamin A cannot be made in the body, which is why it needs to be applied topically (in the form of a retinol cream), or ingested through what we eat - fish, eggs, butter and various cheeses are all good sources of vitamin A. Those using retinol products for the first time need to be careful, as side effects include dry, flaking skin and moderate irritation, but if you gradually introduce it to your skincare routine (i.e. dont use it every night from the off), you should be able to bypass any negative side effects and reap the benefits instead. What is the No7 retinol cream and why did it accrue such a big waitlist? The cream is No7s first clinically-proven advanced retinol concentration and promises to reduce the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines, along with a slew of anti-ageing benefits. It also says it can refine pores, increase elasticity, reduce hyperpigmentation and improve collagen levels, too. Dr Mike Bell, No7's Scientific Advisor, says: For a long time, there has been a perception that the higher the percentage of retinol in a product, the better it works. However, our scientific research with the University of Manchester has found that 0.3 per cent retinol delivers virtually the same age-defying benefits as a higher concentration retinol but with minimum irritation. No7 is known for delivering high quality, budget-friendly products, which could be why its waitlist for its first ever retinol product was so extensive. Retailing for an introductory price of 25 until June 30, and 34 thereafter, the product is comparably cheaper to other similar cult retinol products on the market (such as Drunk Elephants A-Passioni Retinol Cream which retails at 62 and Paulas Choice Clinical 1% Retinol Treatment which is 53). Does No7s new retinol cream work? With the promise of wrinkle-free, glowing skin, its hard not to think the No7 retinol cream will be a miracle worker. In a 12-week clinical study, 60 women between 45 and 65 were divided into two groups with half wearing a day and night cream and the other half using the same creams but with the addition of No7s retinol concentrate. As per instructions, those in the retinol group increased their use over four weeks and then applied it every night for eight weeks. By the end of the study, those who applied the retinol cream showed double the improvement in the appearance of crows feet, firmness of the skin, hyperpigmentation and under-eye wrinkles. Further studies found the cream also increases collagen production by 55 per cent and doubles epidermal thickening. For me, the biggest issues I have with my mid-late 20s skin is enlarged pores around the T-zone and the first sign of wrinkles. Ive also never used a retinol product on my skin so I was interested to see the results and how my skin would react to the powerful concentrate. Adhering to the instructions, I applied two pumps of the retinol cream after cleansing my face at night and followed it with No7s serum, eye cream and night cream - my skin was duly hydrated as I hit the sheets. Ive applied the cream twice now, over non-consecutive nights, and have already noticed a stark difference: my pores appear smaller, blackheads noticeably reduced. My skin feels fresh and glowy in the morning, even on a morning after not using the retinol cream, its effects are still present. And, while it's probably too early to tell at this stage, the fine lines starting to appear around my eyes do look fainter, less noticeable. Using the cream has also encouraged me to use sunscreen more often, as retinol makes your skin more sensitive to the suns rays which is why it should only ever be used at nighttime, before bed, and sunscreen should be applied the next morning. Sunscreen should be at the top of your beauty regime in any case, as its protective benefits can stop the signs of ageing and reduce the amount of exposure your skin gets to the suns harmful rays. Our verdict No7s Advanced Retinol 1.5% Complex Night Concentrate is a budget-friendly retinol product that says what it does on the tin (or tube, in this case). Its lightweight, hardworking and will leave your skin with a fresh glow you didnt realise it had. No7 Advanced Retinol 1.5% Complex Night Concentrate is 25 for the month of June and 34 thereafter, boots.com 3 1 of 3 Houston Police Department Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Google Maps Show More Show Less 3 of 3 A Houston man has been charged with five counts of assault after police say he attacked several people with a wooden post and struck an officer with his car. Derek Hall, 40, was in jail Monday on four counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, one count of aggravated assault of a public servant and another count of possession of a controlled substance. London: The UK has asked Australia and other intelligence allies to consider offering residency to Hong Kongers if there is a major flight of citizens over Chinese suppression. Britain last week announced it would give roughly 314,000 British national overseas (BNO) passport holders a pathway to UK citizenship if China imposes its new security law that would punish any behaviour that endangered Chinese national security in Hong Kong. This law is a violation of the 1984 international agreement China and Britain signed that guaranteed Hong Kong its own autonomy under the so-called "one-country, two-systems" model. China's crackdown in Hong Kong galvanised British MPs from right across the parliament on Tuesday in support of a stronger stance from the UK government towards China. Dubious Deal? Uzbek Firm With Great Ties, No Experience 'Wins' $550 Million State Contract By RFE/RL's Uzbek Service June 01, 2020 There was little fanfare in Uzbekistan when a large domestic producer of household appliances like refrigerators and ovens was awarded a massive deal in a secretive process to make millions of gas meters for the most-populous country in Central Asia. But an investigation by RFE/RL's Uzbek Service showed that the tender that secured the deal for the newly minted Texnopark company showed it had never made a gas meter and that the firm has ties to one of the wealthiest men in Uzbekistan, Tashkent Mayor Jahongir Ortiqkhojaev. The RFE/RL investigation established that the companies which ultimately profit from the deal are all -- directly or indirectly -- related to Ortiqkhojaev, a close ally of President Shavkat Mirziyoev. In a country often cited by international watchdogs for corruption and cronyism, the deal is seen as yet another that lacked transparency and landed on the laps of those closely connected to the government. Uzbekistan ranked 153rd among 180 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index in 2019, a ranking that has been virtually unchanged for many years. The Plan The initiative to introduce the modern gas meters in Uzbekistan officially came from Mirziyoev, who took office in 2016 after serving as prime minister for 13 years. The Uzbek government decided in 2019 to install so-called smart gas meters in more than 3.5 million homes across the country by 2022. Officials in the natural-gas-rich Central Asian nation say the modern devices will upgrade the current "outdated" gas meters and simplify the billing and payment systems. The Energy Ministry says the process is due to begin on July 1 and will be completed in two years, with the state-controlled Hudud-Gaz-Taminot firm in charge of carrying out the work. A special government commission announced in February that the total cost of the project will be about $555 million. The very lucrative contract to make the new gas meters was awarded in a secretive tender to the Texnopark Limited Liability Company (LLC), a household appliances producer set up last year that had no experience making gas meters. Step-By-Step Setup Mirziyoev signed a decree on May 1, 2019, establishing Texnopark at the 141-hectare site of the former Tashkent Mechanical Factory. The company was launched on June 10 with the Tashkent city administration listed as its founder. A month later, Mirziyoev ordered the creation of the Hudud-Gaz-Taminot company, uniting the regional branches of the state-controlled energy giant, Uztrans-Gaz. The president tasked Hudud-Gaz-Taminot with procuring modern gas meters and installing them for all domestic natural-gas customers by 2022. A week later, on July 16, Prime Minister Abdulla Oripov held a meeting of a special group set up to implement the project. Ortiqkhojaev, who was appointed by Mirziyoev to be Tashkent mayor in 2018, was among various cabinet ministers and other government officials at the meeting. A copy of an official document obtained by RFE/RL shows the meeting confirmed that Uztrans-Gaz and Hudud-Gaz-Taminot were charged with placing the order -- on behalf of the government -- to produce the gas meters. And it was ultimately Texnopark that was chosen to produce more than 3.5 million meters bought with millions of dollars of state money. Uztrans-Gaz was given a month to finalize a contract with Texnopark, the document shows. Another company, Fido Business LLC, was given the job of creating a billing and payment system and a process to collect and store data on gas used. At the meeting, which was chaired by Oripov, the National Bank was ordered to provide cash for Texnopark to purchase the equipment and components needed to make the electronic gas meters. 'Tender' Seals The Deal In a rare action in late 2019, the State Anti-Monopoly Committee concluded that the government's handling of the gas-meter project violated Uzbek laws on competition and public procurements. The committee recommended that the government announce a public tender inviting various companies to bid for the lucrative project. RFE/RL obtained a copy of the December 26 letter. The committee's announcement as well as disagreements among different ministries over the cost of the project forced Oripov to temporarily suspend the project. But on December 31, he ordered Hudud-Gaz-Taminot to conduct the tender as ordered by the Anti-Monopoly Committee. But the way events unfolded in the following months seemed to show it was a foregone conclusion that Texnopark would be awarded the profitable contract. Hudud-Gaz-Taminot announced on February 17 that a one-month tender process would be held for firms to bid on the $555 million deal. The initial March 18 deadline for bids was later prolonged until March 28. The announcement stated that only domestically based companies could take part in the tender. The details of the process have not been made public but an Uzbek official with knowledge of the tender told RFE/RL that only three companies were deemed to have met the requirements needed to take part in the bidding. Texnopark was formally competing for the state contract with Gaz Meter LLC and Perfect Plast Profil, the source said. Gaz Meter LLC has been making modern gas meters since 2018. But Texnopark and Perfect Plast Profil had not ever made a single gas meter as the tender began. Texnopark, in fact, was only added to the state register of gas-meter producers on February 26, nine days after the tender started. Perfect Plast Profil was added to the list on March 27, a day before the tender ended. But Gaz Meter LLC -- the only one of the companies with experience in gas meters -- failed to make it to the final round of bidding, with organizers saying the firm garnered less points than the two other competitors because it did not manufacture certain components needed for the device. On April 3, the commission in charge of the tender announced that Texnopark had won the bid over Perfect Plast Profil. As the runner-up, Perfect Plast Profil would automatically take over the contract should Texnopark not be able to complete the project. RFE/RL discovered that Perfect Plast Profil is linked to Ortiqkhojaev through the Artel Akfa company, which the mayor controls. The Power Behind Texnopark The head of the household appliance producer Texnopark, Sarvar Ahadov, previously worked as the manager of Dream Production LLC, which reportedly belongs to Ortiqkhojaev. Without giving an exact date, Texnopark's website says the company began making smart gas meters under the Osten brand in February. Osten is part of the J-United Group, a holding company entirely owned by Ortiqkhojaev. The website goes on to claim that the company has the capacity to make 3 million gas meters a year, apparently implying that Texnopark is capable of producing the 3.5 million smart devices the state needs to complete the project by 2022. Mirziyoev visited Texnopark on February 28, where he was shown on state media checking the firm's first smart gas meters. According to a TV report, the president was satisfied with the quality of the devices. His visit to the firm's plant came just a month before Texnopark won the tender for the contract to make gas meters. Several government officials in Tashkent told RFE/RL on condition of anonymity that during the visit Mirziyoev gave a final "green light" for the deal to be awarded to Texnopark. In Uzbekistan, the president enjoys enormous power that goes far beyond politics. Public tenders often serve only as a smoke screen for dubious deals. Since Mirziyoev came to power after the death of longtime authoritarian leader Islam Karimov nearly four years ago, several major government projects have been given -- without a tender being held -- to companies controlled by Ortiqkhojaev. Among them is the massive Tashkent City project, a project worth some $2 billion designed to transform the Uzbek capital's downtown. 'The Real Winner' Ortiqkhojaev -- who has famously said "any business is a good business" -- has never spoken publicly about his business dealings. The mayor has also said he would not speak to Ozodlik, the local name of RFE/RL's Uzbek Service. One Uzbek government official with inside knowledge of the situation told RFE/RL that Ortiqkhojaev is, as indicated, the real winner of the tender for the huge government contract to make gas meters. "Texnopark -- which belongs to the city administration run by Ortiqkhojaev -- will produce gas meters under the brand that belongs to Ortiqkhojaev. It means that Ortiqkhojaev will make money as the owner of the brand," the official said on condition of anonymity. Ortiqkhojaev, 45, previously made headlines late last year when an alleged audio recording of him threatening journalists was released on social media. The man believed to be Ortiqkhojaev in the recording said he would "destroy" some members of the media. RFE/RL's Uzbek Service contacted Hudud-Gaz-Taminot and Texnopark for comment in mid-May. The press office of Hudud-Gaz-Taminot refused to comment, saying: "We don't talk to media outlets that don't have accreditation in Uzbekistan." When RFE/RL contacted Texnopark on May 18, a company representative said a management-authorized representative would call back. However, no one from the company has done so. Putting Lives At Risk? Another government official familiar with the process said selecting a company with no experience in gas-meter production could be dangerous and risk people's safety. "Who would be held liable if some tragic incident happens? These gas meters [made by Texnopark] haven't passed any extensive testing as required by law," the official explained. The official said the Uzbek government should learn a lesson from the recent tragedy in Sardoba, a newly built dam that collapsed in early May, killing at least four people, driving tens of thousands from their homes, and destroying massive amounts of farmland. The Sardoba collapse shone a spotlight on a wealthy senator, Addulghani Sanginov, who was involved in the construction of the dam through a private company he allegedly owns. Sanginov is said to have used his government position to gain the lucrative state contract for his own company in a fixed public tender. Written by Farangis Najibullah based on reporting by RFE/RL's Uzbek Service. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/dubious-deal-uzbek -firm-with-great-ties-no-experience-wins-550- million-state-contract/30647058.html Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address iStock/ChiccoDodiFC(LOUISVILLE) -- BY: ANTHONY RIVAS A police chief has been fired and two officers are on administrative leave after a barbecue business owner in the West End of Louisville, Kentucky, was shot dead by law enforcement trying to enforce curfew amid protests over a previous police shooting, officials said. David McAtee, who owned YaYa's BBQ, was shot and killed early Monday morning in the parking lot of Dino's Food Mart on 26th and Broadway, where he normally set up his stand. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said in a statement that the Louisville Metro Police Department and National Guard were dispatched to the lot to disperse a crowd when they were fired upon and subsequently returned fire, killing McAtee. Amid an investigation by state and local police, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said he learned that the officers involved in the incident had not had their body cameras activated when the shooting occurred. "This type of institutional failure will not be tolerated," Fischer said. "Accordingly, I have relieved Steve Conrad of his duties as chief of Louisville Metro Police Department." Fischer said Assistant Chief of Police Robert Schroeder will be taking Conrad's place. "The two officers that fired their weapons violated our policy by either not wearing or not activating their cameras," Schroeder said. "That is completely unacceptable and there is no excuse We will review the entire incident to determine if there are any other policy violations that occurred. I assure you we will follow up and there will be discipline for failing to utilize our cameras." Schroeder said that there were two LMPD officers and two National Guardsmen involved in returning fire. The two LMPD officers, Katie Crews and Austin Allen, were placed on administrative leave pending the investigation. The National Guard will also conduct its own review on its members, he said. Although there were no body cameras, Schroeder said the police department will be releasing video of the incident from nearby cameras as well as the audio from police radio transmissions in an effort to increase transparency. McAtee's mother, Odessa Riley, described him to the Courier-Journal as a "community pillar" who would feed police for free. Those who knew him told the publication he would often cook for community events as well. "David was a friend to many, well known, barbecue man," Fischer said Monday. "[He] had nurtured so many people in their bellies, in their hearts before, and for him to be caught up in this and for him not to be with us today is a tragedy that is just hard to put into words." McAtee's death comes amid protests in Louisville for Breonna Taylor, a licensed EMT, who was shot eight times while sleeping in her home by police executing a "no-knock" search warrant on March 13. On Monday, Kentucky State Rep. Charles Booker said "our community is hurting." "This trauma never really seems to go away," he said, addressing McAtee's family and demanding justice and reforms that honor the lives of those who've been killed at the hands of police. Laying out plans for what they hope to change moving forward, Fischer acknowledged that it may be hard to believe reform will happen. "We are asking people to trust a process that they don't trust," he said. "And the roots of that mistrust are in the history of our country. I think that's where again people need to have empathy for African American citizens when they say, 'Well, just follow the process.' The process hasn't worked out so well. So I'm hoping that this new time of heightened awareness in our community -- in our country -- about these issues, we can address many of these issues." Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday told employees that he was standing firm in the company's decision not to moderate a post in which President Donald Trump said "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." Zuckerberg announced this to employees during a virtual all-hands meeting on Tuesday, according to The New York Times. The decision comes despite public criticism from dozens of employees, many of whom argue that the post from Trump violates Facebook's community standards, which prohibit language that incites serious violence. Brandon Dail, a Facebook user interface engineer, tweeted on Tuesday in criticism of Facebook's leaders. tweet Zuckerberg's decision not to moderate the post is in contrast to that of rival Twitter, which placed a label warning users about the president's violent rhetoric, which they have to dismiss before they can view the tweet. Twitter is also preventing users from liking or retweeting the tweet. Aside from criticism of the decision, at least two Facebook employees posted on social media that they were leaving the company as a result of the refusal to moderate Trump. "I cannot stand by Facebook's continued refusal to act on the president's bigoted messages aimed at radicalizing the American public," software engineer Timothy Aveni posted on LinkedIn. Others in the tech industry also criticized the company for its inaction. Data scientist Ayodele Odubela on Tuesday tweeted a screenshot of her response to a Facebook recruiter, saying she refused to work for a company with policies that she fundamentally disagrees with. "Your CEO refuses to do anything about the hate speech and violence glorified by our 'president' on Facebook," she wrote. tweet Facebook has also been criticized by at least two of its partners. After speaking with Zuckerberg and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg on Monday, Color of Change President Rashad Robinson tweeted that he was "disappointed and stunned by his incomprehensible explanations for allowing Trump's incitement of violence against Black people to remain up." Color of Change is a racial justice organization that has been working with Facebook on a civil rights audit of the social network. "If regular citizens can get removed from social media sites for inciting violence ... we have to have a standard for the most powerful person in the world whose harassments and attacks can lead to the deep levels of violence that we know," Robinson told CNBC. Talkspace, a company that provides online therapy, on Monday announced that it was ending a partnership agreement with Facebook after the company's decision not to moderate Trump's post. tweet Evan Peters has apologized for condoning violence against looters, as the country continues protesting against police brutality after the killing of George Floyd. The American Horror Story star caused uproar when he re-tweeted a video of police chasing down looters to his 729k followers, which was captioned: 'I can watch these piece of s***t looters get tackled all day!!' Peters did not write the caption himself, but was seen to be endorsing the sentiment in the tweet, which he now regrets. 'I am deeply upset': American Horror Story actor Evan Peters apologizes for tweet condoning violence against looters on Tuesday Peters tweeted on Tuesday: 'I don't condone the guy watching the news at all in the video which I have deleted. I unknowingly retweeted it.' Adding: 'I'm deeply upset it got on my newsfeed. I sincerely apologize if anyone was offended. I support black lives matter wholeheartedly.' His apology came on Blackout Tuesday, a movement started by two black women music executives, Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang, to stop and reflect with the hashtag #TheShowMustBePaused. Saying sorry: Evan claimed that he did not know he re-tweeted the video, which he has now deleted Showing solidarity: The actor observed 'Blackout Tuesday' by posting a black square to his account Evans had earlier observed the day by posting a black square to his account. The country is in the middle of large civil unrest, as political leaders struggle to control the coast-to-coast outpouring of fury over police brutality, and the police killings of black people. Meanwhile, other celebrities have been demonstrating activism during this challenging time. John Legend, Lizzo and Taraji P. Henson have all signed a letter calling to stop increases to police budgets, following the murder of George Floyd which has triggered civil unrest across the country. Peters tweeted on Tuesday: 'I don't condone the guy watching the news at all in the video which I have deleted. I unknowingly retweeted it.' The 'open demand' letter, also signed by Common, the Weeknd, Natalie Portman, Jane Fonda, America Ferrera, Brie Larson, ACLU executive director Anthony Romero, and more, aims to instead increase spending on health care, education, and programs for black communities. It is claimed in the letter that in 2017, $194 billion was spent on the police by local government, despite 'continued profiling, harassment, terror and killing of Black communities.' Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2020) - Millennial Lithium Corp. (TSXV: ML) (FSE: A3N2) (OTCQX: MLNLF) ("Millennial" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Mining Court of Salta has granted Millennial's Argentine subsidiary, Proyecto Pastos Grandes S.A., the remaining mining license, Nueva Sijesyta 01, that comprised the original REMSA Properties. The REMSA Properties are comprised of 5 mining licenses totaling 6557 ha which are contiguous with Millennial's core licenses covering the Salar de Pastos Grandes. The Company has implemented operational procedures to protect the health of its office staff, field crews and contractors during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Where possible, office staff, field crews and contractors have been working from home per local government advisories. Plans for field and other work for 2020 will be evaluated on an ongoing basis but at this time, Millennial does not anticipate a significant or material impact upon its operations. Millennial's operations in Salta Province are classified as essential and are exempted from some many local and federal COVID-19 restrictions in Argentina. Farhad Abasov, President and CEO commented, "Millennial is pleased to have been granted the final mining license in the REMSA Properties area of our Pastos Grandes Project. The license granted totals approximately 109 hectares (ha) and is contiguous with the main REMSA Properties transferred to Millennial earlier this year. Despite the recent slowdown in Argentina due to the COVID-19 restrictions mandated by the government, the Company continues to advance its pilot evaporation ponds and 3 tonne-per-month pilot lithium carbonate plant. In addition, in the village of Pastos Grandes community water well construction has been completed and the sustainable business development and indoor recreation centre building is approaching completion. The demand for electric vehicles in Europe was very robust before the COVID-19 restrictions and it is expected to recover faster than demand for other vehicles after the restrictions are lifted. On corporate matters, with a strong balance sheet Millennial continues to advance offtake and strategic talks with large industry players and financial groups." In May 2020, the Mining Court of Salta granted to Millennial's Argentine subsidiary, Proyecto Pastos Grandes S.A., the Nueva Sijesyta 01 mining license which comprises 109 ha and forms part of the REMSA Properties. Millennial has now been granted by the Mining Court all of the mining licenses within the REMSA investigation area. As the underlying licenses extend beyond the investigation area boundaries, the final official properties review by the Provincial Mining office confirms the total project area controlled by the Company has expanded to 12,730 ha. Millennial previously was granted the right to earn 100% of the REMSA Properties by making cash payments to REMSA and meeting a work commitment (see News Release dated August 24, 2017). REMSA has reviewed and approved these expenditures and subsequently the Mining Court approved the transfer of the mining licenses to Millennial's wholly-owned subsidiary in Argentina, Proyecto Pastos Grandes S.A. This news release has been reviewed by Iain Scarr, AIPG CPG., Chief Operating Officer of the Company and a Qualified Person as that term is defined in National Instrument 43-101. To find out more about Millennial Lithium Corp. please contact Investor Relations at (604) 662-8184 or email info@millenniallithium.com. MILLENNIAL LITHIUM CORP. "Farhad Abasov" President, CEO and Director Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release may contain certain "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. When used in this news release, the words "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "target, "plan", "forecast", "may", "schedule" and similar words or expressions identify forward-looking statements or information. These forward-looking statements or information may relate to future prices of commodities, accuracy of mineral or resource exploration activity, reserves or resources, regulatory or government requirements or approvals including approvals of title and mining rights or licenses, the reliability of third party information, continued access to mineral properties or infrastructure, changes in laws, rules and regulations in Argentina which may impact upon the Company or its properties or the commercial exploitation of those properties, currency risks including the exchange rate of USD$ for Cdn$, fluctuations in the market for lithium, changes in exploration costs and government royalties, export policies or taxes in Argentina and other factors or information. Such statements represent the Company's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social risks, contingencies and uncertainties. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements or information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affections such statements and information other than as required by applicable laws, rules and regulations. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/56999 A new date of the event is to be agreed by the Verkhovna Rada and the NATO PA. The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has formalized a decision to postpone the spring session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, which was to be hosted by Kyiv, over the coronavirus-related quarantine. Read alsoUkraine calls on international community to condemn violations by Russia of Crimean Tatars' rights, freedoms Resolution No. 3529 to amend the Rada's resolution on holding the spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 2020 was backed by 321 lawmakers, an UNIAN correspondent reported on June 2. The event was originally to be held in May 2020. The document refers to the implementation by the governments of NATO member states and partner countries of quarantine and other restrictive measures to prevent the coronavirus (COVID-19) spread. The resolution says that "reaffirming our state's constitutionally entrenched commitment to acquire membership in the North Atlantic Alliance and full readiness to hold a session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Ukraine," the spring session of the NATO PA in Kyiv, scheduled for May 22-25, was postponed until a date that will be additionally agreed by the Verkhovna Rada and the NATO PA. The Organizing Committee must approve an action plan for preparations and holding of the NATO PA session in Ukraine within two weeks after the final date of the event is agreed. The government must, within the two weeks, decide on the participation of officials of the relevant ministries and other central executive agencies in preparations and holding of the session, as well as ensure timely financing of the event from the national budget. Frankfurt am Main (AFP) - Richard Grenell, an outspoken Donald Trump loyalist, has officially stepped down as US ambassador to Germany, ending a controversial two-year stint in Berlin that fanned transatlantic tensions. A rising star in Republican circles and one of the most high-profile gays in the Trump administration, Grenell had been tapped in February to temporarily become head of US intelligence. "Ambassador Grenell resigned from his post and the State Department on June 1," embassy spokesman Joseph Giordono-Scholz told AFP. The envoy had already indicated he would not be returning to Berlin once the interim role in Washington was over. He will remain the US special envoy for Kosovo-Serbia negotiations. The 53-year-old will be remembered in Germany for his undiplomatic approach to foreign policy, often turning to Twitter to attack Chancellor Angela Merkel's government. He regularly angered his host country with criticism of everything from the Iran nuclear deal to Berlin's defence spending and relations with Chinese tech firm Huawei. A staunch supporter of Trump's "America First" stance, Grenell faced calls for his expulsion soon after starting the job when he stated his ambition to "empower other conservatives throughout Europe". The envoy ruffled feathers again when he slammed German plans to lower military spending as "unacceptable" and "a worrisome signal". That led senior German lawmaker Carsten Schneider from the centre-left Social Democrats to label Grenell a "total diplomatic failure", while other politicians called for him to go. - 'You don't know Americans' - However, Grenell has warned that the rocky patch between the once close allies is far from over. "You make a big mistake if you think the American pressure is off. You don't know Americans," he tweeted last month. It remains unclear what Grenell will do next. His turn as acting director of national intelligence ended after the US Senate confirmed John Ratcliffe as his permanent replacement in late May. Story continues During his brief period in charge of the US spy community, Grenell forced out several officials not seen as loyal to Trump. Media have speculated that Trump may reward him with a senior role on his re-election campaign. Grenell has been as active as ever on Twitter, commenting on the protests sweeping the United States following the death of a black man in police custody. He also hailed Trump's walk from the White House to a nearby church to pose for photographs on Monday as "a triumphant moment of hope over fear", despite outrage over police use of tear gas to clear protesters from the area. It was highly unusual for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to order Judge Emmet Sullivan to explain his refusal to grant General Michael Flynn's motion to dismiss. That made it easy to miss that it also allowed the Department of Justice the right to file a brief supporting its petition. Sullivan filed his pathetic and dishonest brief on Monday. The DOJ's brief, however, is filled with devastating facts and entirely on-point legal authority. What makes it even more compelling is its front page, which is weighted with the names of big guns. The DOJ is taking this matter very seriously. You have to see the names on the DOJ's brief to appreciate just how many people in the DOJ are paying very close attention to Flynn's petition. (You can read the brief here.) According to Sean Davis, having this many heavy hitters on an appellate brief is almost unheard of: In a sign of how important DOJ views the underlying constitutional issues in the case, the formal brief to the appellate court wasn't just signed by the line attorney managing the government's case. Instead, it was signed by Noel J. Francisco, the Solicitor General of the United States who is tasked with representing the U.S. government in the most important appellate cases across the country; Brian A. Benczkowski, the Assistant Attorney General and head of DOJ's entire criminal division; Deputy Solicitors General Jeffrey B. Wall and Eric J. Feigin; assistants to the Solicitor General Frederick Liu and Vivek Suri; Michael R. Sherwin, the acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia; Kenneth C. Kohl, the acting Principal Assistant United States Attorney for D.C.; and Jocelyn S. Ballantine, the line prosecutor handling the Flynn case at trial. (Emphasis added.) The brief is both impressive and, in some ways, a no-brainer. The law is so emphatically on the side of dismissal that it practically writes itself. The statement of facts explains how egregiously the FBI set up Michael Flynn to drive him out of office as acting national security adviser. This disheartening tale manifestly merits dismissal. (It's noteworthy that everyone involved in this miscarriage of justice has been fired or quit involuntarily. It would be nice if at least some would be prosecuted.) The legal arguments are straightforward: Under Art. II of the Constitution, the executive branch has the sole power to determine whether to prosecute a case. The Judicial Branch may not directly interfere with this discretion. Nor may a judge attempt to act as a prosecutor by bringing criminal charges against any party. If the prosecutor brings a motion to dismiss with prejudice (preventing itself from playing a cat-and-mouse game with the defendant by repeatedly refiling the case), and the defendant does not object, the trial court has no discretion to deny the motion according to United States v. Fokker Servs. B.V. (D.C. Cir. 2016) 818 F.3d 733, the pre-eminent D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals case on the matter. Other decisions that would vest the judge with some discretion either pre-date Fokker or discuss the issue in an abstract way ("dicta") rather than ruling on it. Even if one assumes solely for the sake of argument that the trial court has discretion on a motion to dismiss, the DOJ argues that the facts of this case require granting the motion. The Executive Branch is acting within its authority, and its arguments supporting dismissal are facially adequate. (This goes to the FBI's gross malfeasance, combined with the Obama-holdover DOJ's willingness to file an improperly based prosecution.) The DOJ also swats back Sullivan's contention that the prosecution cannot dismiss a case after the defendant pleads guilty. Instead, federal law is clear that the government can dismiss cases even after a conviction is entered. Additionally, Sullivan hadn't entered a final judgment in this case because a judgment becomes final only after appeals are completed or skipped. Finally, the DOJ explains that the trial court lacks any power to initiate a criminal charge. Even if Flynn's initial, false guilty plea before the court (which was arrived at under duress when the FBI threatened to go after his son) constitutes criminal contempt or obstruction, it's still up to the DOJ, not to the court, to act. From a legal standpoint, the DOJ presents a compelling case. It is always possible, in this age of judicial activism, for a court to ignore the law to arrive at its preferred conclusion. I have seen it often enough practicing law in the People's Republic of California. But assuming that the circuit court in this case follows the law, it must issue the writ of mandamus and order Judge Sullivan to dismiss the Michael Flynn case with prejudice. India's top trending free app on Google's mobile app store, with more than 5 million downloads since late May, is called "Remove China Apps" and does exactly what it says on the label. Its popularity comes amid calls for a boycott of Chinese mobile apps in India as a Himalayan border dispute fuels a backlash against products from China. Popular Indian yoga guru Baba Ramdev posted a video on Twitter on Sunday showing the step-by-step deletion of several Chinese apps, a move he described as a "national service". Chinese companies have faced occasional opposition for years in India, where some supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party advocate self reliance. Remove China Apps, whose logo contains a dragon's head with two brooms, scans a user's phone for apps such as ByteDance's TikTok and Alibaba's UC Browser. Once deleted, a message pops up saying, "You are awesome, no China app found." OneTouch AppLabs, which has developed the app to remove Chinese ones, did not respond to a request for comment. The company, based in the western Indian city of Jaipur, describes the app as its first initiative toward a "self reliant India". ByteDance and Alibaba did not respond to Reuters requests for comment on the app. The Chinese Embassy in New Delhi did not immediately respond. The protest against Chinese apps comes after India in April said stricter screening rules will apply to foreign direct investments from China, worrying investors there. China has said the policy is discriminatory. "Previous boycott calls have focused on Chinese goods, whereas this one especially targets Chinese apps, which could impact Chinese technology companies who have seen India as a crucial market," said Tanvi Madan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who closely tracks Indo-China relations. The stakes are high for firms like ByteDance, which plans to invest $1 billion in India and has recently ramped up hiring. India, which has a population of 1.3 billion, is the biggest driver of installations of ByteDance's TikTok, which Bollywood actor Milind Soman said last week on Twitter that he was no longer using. Nupur Sharma, a spokeswoman for Modi's party, said it was "great to see concerned citizens setting an example". "We ought to hit them where it hurts most," Sharma said on Twitter, using the hashtag, #BoycottChineseProducts. A senior executive working for a China-based company in India, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Chinese firms were contributing to the Indian economy, especially the manufacturing sector. Also Read: Despite high unemployment rate of 23.5% in May, India added 21 million jobs, says CMIE Also Read: PM Modi's approval ratings over 65%; Naveen Patnaik most popular CM with 82.96% approval Indian Army Destroys Suspected Terror Launch Pads Along Pakistani Border, Kills 10 Militants Sputnik News 05:58 GMT 01.06.2020 New Delhi (Sputnik): India has been accusing Pakistan of aiding and abetting infiltration on the Indian side of Kashmir from past several years, however, Islamabad has categorically rejected the allegations. There are at least 15 suspected launch pads in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, which are full in its capacity as per Indian army sources. The Indian army quashed an infiltration bid on Monday in Jammu and Kashmir's Naushera Sector by killing at least 10 armed individuals alleged to have been trained in Pakistan. Indian Army sources said that troops have also destoyed suspected launch pads along the Line of Control that divides the disputed region of Kashmir between the two nuclear-armed nations. According to sources, seven purported terrorists alleged to have been trained in Pakistan were killed in the Mendhar Sector of Poonch, Jammu and Kashmir. Three other infiltrators were gunned down in the Nowshera Sector of Rajouri and several suspected terrorist launch pads were destroyed as well. The counter-infiltration operation has been going on since 28 May as the Pakistani Army continued to fire from across the LoC and the Indian side retaliated, Indian Army sources confirmed. Earlier on Sunday, top Indian military officer Lt. Gen. Raju told the news agency PTI that terrorist camps and around 15 launch pads are running at full capacity on the Pakistani side of Kashmir leading to increased infiltration attempts from across the border to compensate for diminishing terrorist cadres during encounters. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has repeatedly stressed that India is trying to divert the world's attention from the "genocide" in Kashmir and warned that "a false flag operation" by New Delhi was "imminent" in Indian-administered Kashmir. Khan also called India a threat to its neighbours Bangladesh, China, and Nepal by way of "arrogant, expansionist policies" . The tensions between India and Pakistan have increased of late, since Pakistan shot down two Indian drones within a week's time, with the latest being taken down on 29 May and India holding two Pakistani nationals on suspicion of espionage. In 2020, India and Pakistan have engaged in more than 2,500 ceasefire violations from both the sides and the firing escalated in April. Both South Asian nations have been fighting over Kashmir since 1947, but relations further deteriorated when India stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its special status by revoking Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Its hard to have much hope these days that our country will ever improve. Each week seems to bring a new, horrifying crisis and suddenly we have the pandemic of 1918, the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the racism and resulting social upheaval of the late 1960s all wrapped into one. Plus no leader to guide us through the terrible trifecta. Just some angry guy on Twitter making everything worse. But there are lots of regular people working with laser-like focus to improve our society and slowly but certainly making a difference. There is hope to be found in the efforts of people like Shannon Watts, a mother of five who lives in the East Bay, but declines to say exactly where because the National Rifle Associations supporters really hate her. She said shes received death threats from the organizations supporters, and her Twitter account boasting nearly half a million followers receives many nasty comments. The 49-year-old was a stay-at-home mom when a crazed gunman killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary, including 20 little kids. The day after that 2012 massacre, Watts posted a message on Facebook that all Americans needed to do more to reduce gun violence. That one message was the seed for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, which now has chapters in every state. Its a major part of Everytown for Gun Safety, one-third funded by billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Everytown, which has 6 million members, is sinking a historic $60 million into state and federal elections this year, twice as much as it spent on elections in 2018, the first year it outspent the NRA. It has also recruited college students to set up virtual field offices around the country and register 100,000 of their peers to vote. Jessica Christian/The Chronicle John Feinblatt, president of Everytown, said the original plan was to register students to vote in dining halls, at football games and at college bookstores. But when the pandemic shut down colleges, the organization switched to virtual registration and the results have been impressive. Students are native to using virtual tools so they took to this like a duck to water, Feinblatt said. Because of its online beginnings, its been easy for Moms Demand Action to pivot to all-virtual advocacy during the shelter-in-place orders, Watts said. Participation in advocacy events has swelled with people able to engage from their homes rather than having to drive hours to, say, a rally at the state capitol. This technology makes us so much more equitable and inclusive, Watts said. Its not easy to get from San Diego to Sacramento, especially if youre working or you cant afford it, but its easy to Zoom in for half an hour during a lunch break. The group has held virtual sessions with every woman rumored to be among Joe Bidens top picks for vice president. And each of them including Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Val Demings, D-Florida is what Watts considers a gun-sense candidate. A poll conducted by Everytown in April found that the majority of Democrats and Republicans say the pandemic has made background checks on potential gun buyers more important. I am feeling very optimistic about the 2020 election. Its the one light at the end of the tunnel right now, Watts said. Well elect a gun-sense president, flip the Senate, hold the House and continue to change the makeup of state legislatures. I think were unstoppable, she continued. We will be one of the most powerful forces booting Donald Trump out of the White House. ... It will be so wonderful to finally be playing offense at a federal level. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images Her enthusiasm is heartening, but the NRA is also ramping up its fight for the November election. According to Frontline, it spent $30 million to get Trump elected in 2016, and its longtime leader Wayne LaPierre has said, The threat that is staring us in the face right now with this election is greater than any threat weve faced in our lives. Of course theres a lot of bad news when it comes to gun control or lack thereof, Watts acknowledged. We heard a lot about people panic-buying toilet paper, but lots of Americans were panic-buying guns, too. Everytown reports that 4.2 million guns were sold in March and April, nearly twice as many guns as were sold in the same months last year. And more guns in homes where families are stuck sheltering in place and stressed about the economy is a bad combination, Watts said. As of May 20, 187 localities in 48 states reported an uptick in calls to domestic violence hotlines and police departments, according to Everytown. Suicide call centers are also experiencing spikes. Access to guns makes it far more likely that someone considering suicide will kill themselves. According to Everytown, 4% of suicide attempts not involving a gun end in death. But 90% of attempts with a gun end in death. Still, Watts said she thinks the national consciousness around the importance of gun control is moving in the right direction. And thats why the NRA and its supporters hate her, she says, filling her inbox and social media accounts with nasty messages. I wear it as a badge of honor, she said. Its just a reminder that were winning. We were their worst nightmare, and it has come true. Editors note: This story has been updated to include a quote from Everytown for Gun Safety president John Feinblatt, and to more accurately characterize Michael Bloombergs role. He funded one-third of the organization. San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight appears Sundays and Tuesdays. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf A new study published on the preprint site medRxiv* in May 2020 reports on the efficacy of interferons in treating COVID-19. The research could help evaluate the place of such therapy in the management of this disease. The COVID-19 disease pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has killed hundreds of thousands and infected millions around the world. While it presents with mild or asymptomatic infection in the majority of patients, it can lead to more severe manifestations, including often-fatal acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and multi-organ failure, in a significant minority of cases. Many drugs and antivirals are being tested in hundreds of clinical trials around the world, including the lopinavir-ritonavir combination, hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin. However, the results so far have been disappointing, and the search for an effective treatment is still on. What Are Interferons? Interferons are natural chemicals that are secreted as part of the immune response to viral infections. They activate natural killer (NK) cells and macrophages, but SARS-CoV showed resistance to their effects by STAT1 inhibition that blocked IFN signaling. Interferon beta protein, Image Credit: StudioMolekuul / Shutterstock The potential for the use of interferons in coronavirus infections was examined in the earlier outbreaks of SARS and MERS. In vitro experiments showed that interferons did have antiviral activity on the SARS-CoV, especially IFN- and IFN-, and for IFN- , against MERS-CoV as well. Follow-up animal experiments showed that IFN- had higher antiviral activity against MERS CoV compared to the lopinavir-ritonavir combination. The mechanism of action is via the interferon-stimulated gene (ISG), which arrests or delays viral replication. In addition, IFN -1a reduces the incidence of complications following ARDS by improving vascular leakage, in addition to the antiviral activity. Thirdly, it increases the expression of the CD-73 protein, which could improve the outlook in patients. These results failed to be replicated in more significant trials, though this could be due to the concomitant use of glucocorticoids, which are powerfully antagonistic to inflammatory responses. As of now, there are no published studies on the use of IFN -1a in severe COVID-19. The current trial is aimed at establishing its clinical efficacy and safety in this situation. Who Was Tested for IFN Therapy, and How? The researchers designed an open-label randomized trial in adults aged 18 years or more, and who tested positive for COVID-19, or had clinical features strongly supporting this diagnosis. All participants were admitted to one Tehran, Iran, hospital between February 29 and April 3, 2020. Severe COVID-10 was diagnosed by specific criteria, including hypoxemia, hypotension, renal failure, neurologic disorder, a low platelet count, severe digestive tract symptoms, all in relation to COVID-19, and with specific cut-off points. The patients were randomly allocated to receive either standard of care or standard of care plus IFN -1a. The dosage schedule was 44 micrograms/ml (12 million IU/ml) of interferon -1a subcutaneously injected three times weekly for two consecutive weeks. Standard of care in this hospital comprised hydroxychloroquine (400 mg BD on the first day with 200 mg BD subsequently) plus lopinavir/ritonavir (400/100 mg BD) or atazanavir/ritonavir (300/100 mg daily) for 7-10 days. Other drugs and therapies like deep vein thrombosis prophylaxis, azithromycin, other antibiotics, and steroids or intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIg) were given on a case-by-case basis. Overall, about 62% and 44% of patients in the IFN and control groups received steroids and IVIg in about 36% and 26%, respectively. Demographic, baseline, and laboratory data were collected. The APACHE II score was calculated when any patient required admission to the intensive care unit (ICU). The patients were followed up for four weeks. Regular assessment to fit in the 6-category ordinal scale was carried out on days 0, 7, 14, and 28. This includes discharge, hospital admission in 4 categories (without the need for oxygen, requiring oxygen, requiring non-invasive positive pressure ventilation (PPV), and requiring invasive mechanical ventilation), and death. Following discharge, follow-up was conducted via telephone interviews. The records were surveyed for readmissions until May 3, 2020. The researchers primarily assessed the time to clinical response, according to the ordinal scale mentioned above. Clinical response meant moving up two or more scores in the scale or being discharged from hospital, whichever came first. Other outcomes included the duration of mechanical ventilation, hospital stay length, ICU stay length, the death rate at 28 days, and the effect of IFN therapy given early or late in the course of the disease, defined as before or after ten days of onset of symptoms. The possible adverse effects of the two treatment protocols were also compiled, including allergic reactions, organ-specific injury, infectious complications, thromboembolic events, and septic shock. More Discharges, Fewer Deaths with IFN The study showed that of the 81 patients who took part in the study, 55% were men, aged 56 and 60 years on average, in the interferon and control groups, respectively. There were 42 and 39 patients in the two groups, respectively. The most common coexisting illnesses at the time of admission were hypertension in about 40%, cardiovascular disease in about 30%, diabetes in 27%, along with high serum lipids, thyroid disease, and cancers (11% to 15%). The vital signs of patients in both groups were similar, but mean blood urea levels were more than twice as high in the IFN than the control group. The primary outcome in both groups was comparable, with 9.7 vs. 8.3 days to clinical response in the IFN vs. standard of care groups. The number of discharges was more significant in the IFN group by day 14, at 68% vs. 44%. Early use of IFN was linked to lower mortality, with the odds nearly 14-times lower for death in the former case as compared to the latter. The mortality at 28 days was also lower in the IFN group at 19% vs. 44%. Other complications were comparable. The IFN caused fever, chills, and myalgia in a fifth of patients, and one patient had an allergic reaction. Neuropsychiatric disturbances occurred in four patients, but only one was thought to be the result of IFN administration. The present study thus shows that there is an increase in the number of patients discharged by day 14, the mortality rate by day 28, and a more significant benefit to early initiation of IFN therapy. While there were some side-effects, IFN was well tolerated. The Implications: IFNs Could Help Treat COVID-19 Different types of IFN are being evaluated for efficacy in the current pandemic, such as IFN -1b in combination with lopinavir-ritonavir and ribavirin in mild to moderate COVID-19, and nebulized IFN -2b with oral arbidol. The Iranian research study suggests that IFN -1a added to the standard of care increased the proportion of patients discharged by day 14, and reduced the mortality at 28 days. Early administration of the drug improved survival rates. The tolerability and safety profile of the drug was also acceptable. The study thus points to the need to confirm these findings and hopefully develop a more effective therapy for severe COVID-19 disease. *Important Notice medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information. Glee stars and other prominent figures are reacting to the claims made by actress Samantha Ware, who said Lea Michele made her life a 'living hell' on the Ryan Murphy show. Michele's former co-star Wade, 28, claimed the star, 33, even once threatened to defecate 'in her wig' - which she revealed after Michele had paid tribute to George Floyd and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement on Twitter. Amber Riley, who played Mercedes Jones in the through all six seasons, shared two GIFs of herself, one raising her hand, while the other sipping tea, caused a stir among fans who saw it as a subtle way of the actress chiming in. Speaking out: Samantha Ware, 28, a former Glee costar of Lea Michele, 33, said the star was abusive and made her life 'a living hell' on the set of the Fox series In fact, fans began to beg Riley to tell her side of the story, with one saying: 'Speak your truth you and @NayaRivera were right all along!!!! Yet you were dragged!' Meanwhile, Alex Newell, who starred as Unique Adams on series for four seasons, wasn't so subtle - and began replying to fans about the drama. 'We ain't got not a damn thing to lie about 6 years later!' he replied to one fan who suggested they were making false accusations about Michele's behavior. Not so subtle: Glee's Amber Riley posted this GIF of her raising her hand, amid rumors that Lea Michele was less than kind to work with on the Ryan Murphy show Not happy: Community star Yvette Nicole Brown, who did not appear on Glee, also voiced her opinion In agreement: Alex Newell, who starred as Unique Adams on series for four seasons, wasn't so subtle - and began replying to fans about the drama. Ouch: Actor Dabier Snell, who appeared in an episode of the show, did not hold back Staying out of the matter: Kevin McHale, who played Artie Abrams from the show's debut, swerved a response when asked about the controversy on Twitter Piling on: Another actor who starred on GLEE, Dabier Snell, also chimed in claiming Michele did not let him sit at the table with other cast members Interesting:Transgender NYC nightlife star Linux TheRobot was an extra on Glee and said Lea was a 'tyrant' He also added: 'I'm gonna say this one time... when my friends goes through something traumatic I also go through it... that's what friendship is...' 'And if you can't understand that then you're part of the problem... and that's on PERIODT! And I mean that for both sides of this coin!' Actor Dabier Snell, who appeared in an episode of the show, retweeted one of Ware's tweets, and responded, saying: 'GIRL YOU WOULDNT LET ME SIT AT THE TABLE WITH THE OTHER CAST MEMBERS CAUSE 'I DIDNT BELONG THERE' F--K YOU LEA,' Under fire: Lea - who is currently pregnant with her first child - has not responded to the comments Tough times: Michele, 37, played the role of Rachel Berry (back row) on the show's six seasons, getting nominated for an Emmy and two Golden Globe awards with the part He also wrote: 'I try to bring good vibes and create content for ppl to laugh and enjoy! Seeing her message brought back bad memories of being less than on set of glee. Aint goin stand for her being fake like she care.' Actress Yvette Nicole Brown who did not star on the show, also chimed in and gave her support to Ware. 'I felt every one of those capital letters,' the Community actress tweeted. 'EVERY person on a set matters. EVERY person on a set deserves respect. And it is the RESPONSIBILITY of every series regular to make EVERY person who visits their home feel welcome. This dismissive attitude is whats wrong in Hollywood AND the world.' Meanwhile, actress Keke Palmer unfollowed Michele on Instagram following the accusations. Remember me? The message was met with an acerbic response from Samantha, 28 Statement: The leading lady, 33, took to social media on Saturday to pay tribute to George Floyd and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement It's not the first time Michele's alleged bad behavior has been called into question. Four years ago, former Glee star Naya Rivera said Michele brought ego, tension and hostility onto the set with her. In her 2016 book, Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes and Growing Up, she wrote: 'If I'd complained about anyone or anything, she'd assumed I was b****ng about her'. In the tome, Naya said Michele eventually stopped speaking with her altogether. 'She started to ignore me, and eventually it got to the point where she didn't say a word to me for all of Season 6,' Rivera said, 'Lea and I definitely weren't the best of friends, and I doubt we'll ever sit on her couch and eat kale together again.' Montgomery police have charged four people with first degree criminal mischief, a felony, in connection with bringing down a statue of Robert E. Lee in front of the Montgomery high school named after the Confederate general. The incident happened about 9 p.m. Monday. Montgomery Public Schools has placed the damaged statue in storage. An empty pedestal stands in front of the high school on Ann Street. Capt. Saba Coleman, public information officer for the Montgomery Police Department, said those charged were Maya Holley, 28, Jonathan Williams, 34, Jeremy Selmar, 28, and Joe Pernell, 35. All four are from Montgomery. Coleman said they were identified as suspects and taken into custody at the school. The Lee statue came down while a protest over the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota and other African Americans killed by police took place near the Alabama Capitol. No violence broke out at the protest. The city of Birmingham began removal of the Confederate monument in Linn Park on Monday night and finished early Tuesday. Related: Where did Birminghams Confederate monument go? Mayor wont say Protesters had tried unsuccessful to topple the monument Sunday night before Mayor Randall Woodfin promised to have the city take it down. This story was edited at 3:45 p.m. on June 3 to correct the time of the incident to 9 p.m., not 9 a.m. While some Pennsylvanians are finally enjoying a seat at the bar or in the barbershop after a two-and-a-half month hiatus, Philadelphians and those in the surrounding counties are still biding their time. But on Friday, almost all of the states counties are scheduled to move into the yellow phase. The exception may be Philadelphia, where coronavirus restrictions might remain in place, Mayor Jim Kenney cautioned even before recent days peaceful protests, destructive looting, and curfews. And the yellow phase holds the prospect of at least one cautious and careful step toward normalcy: outdoor dining, a hallmark of summertime. As with the green phase, which allows indoor and outdoor dining at reduced capacities, there are plenty of restrictions, some required, others suggested. Heres what to expect at local bars and restaurants when counties move into the yellow phase. Where can I be in a restaurant in the yellow phase? Will I need to wear a mask? Only outside seating on patios, rooftops, porches, and sidewalks is allowed. Outdoor counter seating is allowed, but not if the counter faces a bartender. Until we get to the green phase, bar seating remains a no-go. Dance floors, play areas, and arcade games are off-limits, too. READ MORE: Outdoor dining is a go in yellow phase, according to latest reopening guidelines Customers are only allowed to pass through the inside of a restaurant to access the outside or to use the restrooms, and they must be seated to be served in-house. (No standing, even in the green phase.) Whenever guests arent seated, they need to wear masks. The only exceptions are children under 2 and those who cannot wear a mask due to a medical condition. Employees must also wear masks. How many tables will there be, and how will they be set up? Since many outdoor dining areas dont have fire-code designations specifying maximum capacity, restaurant owners will be limited by the number of tables they can safely fit in their space according to social distancing guidelines. Tables need to be spaced out so that individuals seated at them are at least 6 feet away from individuals seated elsewhere. Restaurants also need to leave room for passersby to socially distance from seated diners. Owners need to provide visual guides that remind customers of distancing guidelines, so expect to see taped-off areas and signs demarcating 6 feet in and around restaurants. READ MORE: Red, yellow, green: What to expect in each of Pa.s tiers for reopening How many people can be at one table? The state encouraged a limit of 10 people to a table. Communal tables are prohibited unless they allow at least 6 feet of distance between unrelated parties. Will there be plastic barriers? The guidelines dont mandate that restaurants install physical barriers to keep customers and/or staff distanced, but they are encouraged for point-of-sale spots like cash registers and host stands. And in the green phase, barriers might allow restaurant owners to seat more customers inside. Plexiglass and plastic sheets even shower curtains have been installed at pharmacies, supermarkets, and coffee shops since the pandemic broke out. Now theyre being employed in dining establishments in various cities and countries, from San Francisco to South Korea, as a way to allow customers to sit in closer proximity while still staying apart. Besides separating a host or clerk from a customer, the barriers can segment spaces at bars and counters, and provide separation between booths or even customers eating at the same table. How is service going to change? For one, menus will be either disposable or digital, or written on display boards. And if you want to (re)season your food, youll have to ask: Condiments arent allowed to sit out on the table. Buffets, salad bars, and self-serve beverage stations are prohibited in the yellow phase, and customers wont be allowed to refill their own containers (growlers, coffee thermoses, etc.). Real silverware, however, can stay. READ MORE: Outdoor dining is hope for normalcy, but creates challenges for restaurateurs Reservations for outdoor dining which is traditionally first-come, first-served are encouraged by the state. (This is also a way to collect contact information for diners for future contact tracing.) If lines form while people wait to be seated, they need to be socially distanced. State guidelines also recommend doing away with buzzers to let people know when their tables are ready. There will be increased cleaning of front- and back-of-house areas in the restaurant, including disinfecting tables and any barriers between customers. What if a restaurant and bar doesnt really have outdoor space? On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board announced it would streamline the process for approving applications for extension of premise, which allows restaurants to serve alcohol outside their buildings. That should allow places to get more creative with outdoor space this summer: They might set up tables in their parking lots, in front of agreeable neighboring businesses, and in streets (if local governments allow). What about the bathroom? Theyll be cleaned more often, and restaurants will need to demarcate the necessary distancing in lines that form outside of them. You can also expect to see more touchless sinks and soap and paper towel dispensers, and possibly UVC lighting, in bathrooms. Will cocktails to-go still be available? Yes, those wont go away until restaurants rebound to 60% of their normal capacity. Egypt has announced an anti-Turkey alliance that includes Greece, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and France to confront Turkish moves in Libya and the Mediterranean. The announcement was made during a virtual meeting with the foreign ministers of these countries on May 11. In a joint statement issued shortly after the meeting, the five-party alliance said it will focus on confronting the Turkish moves in the territorial waters in Cyprus, where Turkey has been carrying out illegal excavations in the Mediterranean under Cyprus sovereignty. The alliance also condemned Turkeys escalated violations of Greek airspace. Al Monitor reports in its article Egypt announces international anti-Turkey alliance that the European Union condemned May 16 the drilling and exploration operations of the Turkish drill ship Yavuz that has been drilling off Cyprus since April. On May 3, Greece condemned two Turkish aircraft flying over Greek islands, stating that the Turkish jets buzzed a Greek chopper transporting the minister of defense and army commander who were traveling over a small island in the Aegean Sea. The alliance statement also criticized Turkish actions in Libya, and the memorandum of understanding on the delineation of maritime borders in the Mediterranean and the understanding on security and military cooperation, both signed in November 2019 between Turkey and the internationally recognized Tripoli-based Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) headed by Fayez al-Sarraj. On May 14, the Turkish Petroleum Corporation submitted a request to the GNA to obtain permission to start exploration in the eastern side of the Mediterranean. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also discussed with Sarraj May 17 the executive steps of the above-mentioned memorandum. The anti-Turkey alliance also condemned the ongoing war in Libya and the Turkish military support for the GNA, calling on Turkey to stop the flow of foreign fighters from Syria to Libya. The Turkish military movements in Libya have changed the course of the battles ongoing around Tripoli between pro-government forces and eastern military strongman Khalifa Hifter. The latters self-proclaimed Libya National Army (LNA) withdrew from al-Watiya air base May 19, in light of attacks by the GNA, backed by Turkish military battleships and airstrikes, according to Ahmed al-Mismari, spokesman for the Libyan army. The alliances joint statement concluded that it will continue to hold regular consultations, which according to pundits is further confirmation of the alliance endeavors to keep Turkey at bay. The statement raised the ire of Ankara, as the Turkish Foreign Ministry announced in a May 11 statement that Ankara was successful in disrupting the sabotage schemes of these countries in the region and their efforts to support putschists. Egypt and the UAE are openly supporting the LNA, with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announcing in December 2019, We support the LNA and we will not abandon it. In April, the UAE praised the efforts of the LNA in confronting extremist militias in Libya. Tariq Fahmy, a professor of political science at Cairo University, told Al-Monitor, The five-party alliance succeeded in achieving its first goal that is to raise Turkeys concerns, which was evident in the Turkish Foreing Ministrys statement that attacked each of the countries party to the alliance. He said, Frances participation in the alliance is of paramount importance, since it is seen as an EU power, which could contribute to imposing expected sanctions on Turkey in order to protect Cyprus from Turkish violations." Fahmy added, France will play an important role in the alliance because it is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and thus can veto any decision in favor of Turkish moves in Libya. GNA Foreign Minister Mohamed Taha Siala said in a May 18 statement that his ministry is preparing a file to document violations of the countries that support Hifter through quantities of arms found in al-Watiya air base, to be submitted to the Security Council. Fahmy noted that France gives further impetus to the new alliance, as it is part of the EU naval mission, dubbed Irini, launched in April to enforce an arms embargo on Libya and stop Turkey from sending arms to the GNA to fight the LNA. About 300 people held a nearly nine minute moment of silence either by kneeling, sitting on the ground with hands crossed behind their backs or laying down, to protest the death of George Floyd at Kingwood Town Center Park on Monday night. Gabriela Diaz, Kingwood Park High School English and social action teacher, said she and Kingwood High School chemistry teacher Cindy Welch organized the protest to create a space for the community to discuss the event. Together, those in attendance stayed on the ground for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the same amount of time that Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyds neck before he died. CITYWIDE PROTEST: Trae Tha Truth, Bun B to join Floyd family march to City Hall Diaz said its important to have a vessel to talk about important issues through peaceful protest. Young children, high schoolers, and community members of all ages gathered to show their support for this movement and the statement the protest expressed. Im just super thankful for the Humble ISD community, Diaz said. I graduated from this district. I was inspired by teachers who taught me. Its just a beautiful family, and it was wonderful to have the family come together. Andre Nelson, spoke at the protest despite his mothers wishes, he said about his experience as a black man growing up in Shreveport and Houston. Now 19, Nelson just graduated from a Houston area high school. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Heres what you need to know about todays George Floyd march in downtown Houston His cousin, at age 5, died of an accidental gunshot wound from a police officer, he said. Nelson said he told his mother that he hopes to make it to 21 years old, emphasizing the inequalities highlighted by deaths like Floyds. Nelson said he will break the cycle of injustice. I am going to go to college. I am going to do whatever it takes to prove that equality matters, Nelson said Tegan Kew, who grew up in the Kingwood community, came to honor George Floyd with her sister Brittany Smith along with her eight-year-old daughter Amara Helmer. 'THE WORLD LOVES HIM': New mural honoring George Floyd on display in Houston's Third Ward The 31-year-old Kew held a sign that said, I cant breathe," and "silence = consent. While her sister Smith had a sign that saying Black Lives matter, no justice, no peace. I think that its wonderful our community can be as kind as it is, Kew said. Im proud to have grown up here and see this place grow. These times are anxious because we want to rally together over something that mean a lot to everyone. These kinds of things have been keeping us apart. Still, were trying to work to be better to each person. savannah.mehrtens@chron.com marcus.gutierrez@chron.som STAMFORD Health care information firm Sema4 announced this week that it is increasing the capacity for its new coronavirus testing program to at least 10,000 tests daily and up to 20,000, with the initiative supporting first responders, nursing homes and primary care centers in Connecticut. Sema4s partnership with the state government builds on a regimen that since April has processed several thousand COVID-19 tests at its laboratory in Branford for 30 Connecticut-based health care facilities. Sema4 is also conducting antibody testing to identify people who have been exposed and whose immune systems have responded to the coronavirus virus, with the goal of running about 5,000 of the tests per day by the end of June. As a health intelligence company, we will fully leverage our technical expertise to deliver a state-of-the-art digital solution for the ordering, tracking, analysis and viewing of test results for providers and patients, in delivering rapid and accurate COVID-19 testing, Sema4 founder and CEO Eric Schadt said in a statement. Our team is working relentlessly to provide expanded viral and antibody testing to support state employees, first responders and all Connecticut residents who need testing during this public health crisis. Today, Stamford-headquartered Sema4 is building out its system to run tests for the residents and staff at more than 30 nursing homes; patients at all Community Health Centers in the state; first responders in Stamford, Darien and other parts of Connecticut; and Connecticut National Guard members. Sema4s viral tests are manufactured by PerkinElmer and its antibody tests are run on the Abbott Alinity system, in accordance with the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations Emergency Use Authorization. Results are returned within about 24 hours of receiving the sample for the viral test and around 48 hours for the antibody test, according to the company. Sema4 accepts saliva, nasal swab and oral swab samples, which are collected by health care providers and at authorized collection sites. It plans to soon accept saliva samples taken at home. The tests are offered with no out-of-pocket cost to Connecticut residents, the company said. Testing is crucial to efforts to track and reduce coronavirus spread. As of Monday, about 259,000 people had taken tests for the virus in Connecticut. About 7,300 of every 100,000 people in the state have been tested, a rate that ranks ninth among the states, according to Johns Hopkins Universitys Coronavirus Resource Center. Rhode Island ranks No. 1, having tested about 14,800 for every 100,000 people, followed by about 10,800 for New York and 9,600 for North Dakota. To help employers manage back-to-work programs, Sema4 said it would provide an even more complete, end-to-end digital solution for those ordering and receiving tests, including portals for registering employees, tracking samples and reporting results. We are very fortunate to have Sema4 as a partner with industry-leading testing experience, state-of-the-art digital tools and analysis, outstanding clinical expertise, and the labs to be able to ramp up COVID-19 testing quickly, Lt. Col. Christopher Chabot, leader of Connecticut COVID-19 testing program, said in a statement. Our partnership with Sema4 will make a significant difference in keeping many of our residents safe, including numerous people that are particularly vulnerable to infection. Alongside its coronavirus testing, Sema4 provides genomic testing and analysis services to hundreds of thousands of patients every year that focus on womens health and oncological care. Sema4s main offices are based at 333 Ludlow St. in the South End of Stamford. It is building another lab in the Waterside section of Stamford, with the 70,000-square-foot center scheduled to open later this year. pschott@stamfordadvocate.com; twitter: @paulschott Press Release June 2, 2020 Bong Go sponsors two more health bills to capacitate and improve government hospitals; stresses commitment to continue boosting country's healthcare system amid COVID-19 pandemic Recognizing the need to improve government hospitals especially in times of crisis, Senator and Chair of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography Christopher Lawrence "Bong" Go sponsored two more local hospital bills to further improve the delivery of medical and healthcare services especially in the provinces. These were in addition to many other health-related bills his health committee tackled in series of hearings these past days. During the plenary session of the Senate on Monday, June 1, Go sponsored and sought the Chamber's support for the immediate passage of House Bill 6036 and HB 6144. "As we face the COVID-19 pandemic, it is crucial to improve our government health facilities," Go said. HB 6036 aims to increase the bed capacity of Las Pinas General Hospital and Satellite Trauma Center (LPGH-STC) from 200 to 500 beds, and upgrade its service facilities and professional healthcare services, while House Bill 6144 seeks to increase the bed capacity of the Cagayan Valley Medical Center (CVMC) in Tuguegarao City. According to Go, the LPGH-STC has already exceeded its bed occupancy rate from 2018 to 2019 at 110.53% while CVMC recorded an average bed occupancy rate of 158% in the same year as it caters to many patients from two regions. "We aim to increase the bed capacity of the Las Pinas General Hospital and Satellite Trauma Center or the LPGH-STC. Currently, the LPGH is a 200-bed DOH hospital serving the cities of Las Pinas, Muntinlupa, Paranaque, Pasay, and Bacoor and Imus in Cavite," Go explained adding that the bed occupancy rate of the hospital from 2018 to 2019 averaged at 110.53%. "[This] is exceedingly above the national standard of 85%. Thus, the need to upgrade from 200 beds to 500 beds. "In 2018, CVMC recorded 16,155 hospital admissions. From 2018 to 2019, it had an average bed occupancy rate of 158%, which is tremendously above the national standard of 85%. Thus, the bill seeks to increase the bed capacity of CVMC from 500 to 1,000 beds," Go added. The issues concerning the overcrowding in public hospitals surfaced even more as the country faces the health crisis. According to Go, this "has been one of the weaknesses of our health care system." The Senator cited that in 2018, almost 65% or 284 out of 437 public hospitals were already over its limit in terms of bed capacity and patient admittance. "This included 51 or 73% of our DOH hospitals," Go said. Go also underscored the need for the legislative branch to act urgently on health-related measures given the ongoing global health crisis. "Sana sa pandemic natin ngayon, huwag nating tagalan ang mga priority bills, lalong lalo na involving health," Go said. "As we face the COVID-19 pandemic, it is crucial to improve our government health facilities," he said. Last May 27, Senator Go also sponsored five local bills to establish the Bicol Women's and Children's Hospital (Camarines Sur), and further capacitate Quirino Memorial Medical Center (Quezon City), Western Visayas Medical Center (Iloilo City), Siargao District Hospital (Surigao del Norte) and Malita District Hospital (Davao Occidental). "I have the honor to sponsor several local hospital bills which are aimed towards the improvement of some of our government hospitals," Go said during last week's session, adding that it is crucial to take these measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Go also said that these legislative measures will boost the capacity of hospitals, especially in the provinces. Go added that this will complement the Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa (BP2) Program, citing that most modern hospitals are located in Metro Manila where people migrate in order to be treated. "We aim to capacitate our government hospitals, especially in the provinces. This is also in line with the Balik Probinsiya initiative of the government," Go said previously. "Improving health capacity and upgrading capability of hospitals in the provinces would help enhance the health and overall well-being among the entire Philippine population," he added. Aside from the local hospital bills, the Senator has also earlier pushed for legislative measures which seek to further strengthen and enhance the country's healthcare system. Among these bills are the SB 1226, or the proposed DOH Hospital Bed Capacity and Service Capability Rationalization Act, which aims to authorize the Department of Health to increase the bed capacity and service capability of its retained hospitals and to allow it to promulgate evaluation and approval guidelines. Go also filed SB 1259 or the "Mandatory Quarantine Facilities Act of 2020" which mandates the establishment of quarantine facilities in every region in the country. The measure provides for the establishment of quarantine facilities in every region. To ensure the accessibility of the quarantine facilities to healthcare facilities, the proposed bill mandates that their locations be accessible to a DOH hospital and strategically located to ensure the safety of the community. Go also filed a bill seeking to strengthen the country's efforts in disease surveillance and epidemiologic investigation. SB 1528 filed by Go seeks to amend Republic Act 11332, also known as the "Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act." In addition, Go also filed SB 1451, also known as the "Medical Reserve Corps Act of 2020," which seeks to establish a Medical Reserve Corps composed of all persons who have degrees in the field of medicine, nursing, medical technology, and other health-related fields but have yet to have their respective licenses to practice for reasons such as, but not limited to, not having taken and/or passed the licensure examinations in their respective professions. "Once we have well-equipped hospitals with increased bed capacities in the provinces, sufficient medical workers, and proper protocols in place for future health emergencies, we can assure Filipinos that a better life is waiting for them wherever they are in the country," he said. Prince Philip will celebrate his 99th birthday next week with nothing more fancy than a simple lunch with the Queen. Royal sources have confirmed that there were no plans for a party to mark the occasion, even without the restrictions caused by coronavirus. The Duke of Edinburgh is characteristically taciturn about occasion and has opted, as is his habit, not to make a fuss, they say. However, lockdown means there is no chance of his children dropping by to pass on birthday wishes in person next Wednesday. Philip's birthday will be marked by lunch with the Queen, as well as Zoom and telephone calls with family and friends Philip has been in isolation at Windsor Castle with the Queen since before Easter the longest period the couple have spent together there for as long as anyone can remember, an insider noted. Since he retired in 2017, the duke has largely lived at Wood Farm on the Queens Sandringham Estate, apart from brief visits to Windsor and a longer summer stay at Balmoral. His birthday will be marked by lunch with the Queen, as well as Zoom and telephone calls with family and friends including Prince Charles in Scotland, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in Norfolk and Harry and Meghan in Los Angeles. A small number of public birthday wishes will be released on social media by family members, while Buckingham Palace hopes to mark the occasion publicly in some small way, depending on how His Royal Highness feels. Philip has been in isolation at Windsor Castle with the Queen since before Easter the longest period the couple have spent together there for as long as anyone can remember, an insider noted But the mantra of the day is very much low key. Hes not one for fuss, as you know, a source said. Philips cousin and childhood friend Myra Butter confirmed that he has always insisted on no fuss, no bother. Lady Butter, 95 who shares a great-great-grandfather, Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, with Philip said: He has such an incredibly active mind. And hes a great reader, so interested in things. Hes got enormous knowledge and I am absolutely certain there must be a link between that and his long and healthy life. Hes such an enigma, really. 'He has that thirst for knowledge. He still paints, he sees his horses and keeps abreast of everything in the news. Philips cousin and childhood friend Myra Butter confirmed that he has always insisted on no fuss, no bother Philip has suffered several bouts of poor health in recent years and was in hospital just before Christmas but is said to be far better now, despite feeling the effects of his advancing years. Lady Butter said: The secret is that he just does everything he has previously done, but slower. He still enjoys the greatest role of all, supporting the Queen. As for a party to celebrate turning 99? Goodness me, no! He never wants a fuss, ever! Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 2) The controversial anti-terrorism bill is as "good as passed," Senate President Vicente Sotto III said Tuesday, a day after President Rodrigo Duterte certified the measure as urgent. "It's as good as passed. It will just need my signature if it comes back to us after ratification then I will transmit to the President," Sotto said in a text message when asked how Congress will fast-track the approval of the measure. On Monday, Duterte wrote a letter to House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano saying House Bill 6875 must be immediately passed "to address the urgent need to strengthen the law on anti-terrorism" and "effectively contain the menace of terrorist acts." Senate Bill 1083 or the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2019, which seeks to "preserve national security and general welfare" was so far approved at the House committee level last week. The Senate approved the bill in February. Various groups and rights advocates have raised concerns against the measure, citing amendments that they said authorize violations of basic human rights in the country. The measure repeals the Human Security Act of 2007 by giving more surveillance powers to the military and police. It imposes 12 years of jail time to any person who shall threaten to commit any act of terrorism, propose any such acts or incite others to commit terrorism. Life imprisonment may also be imposed on those who will facilitate terrorist acts or recruit people to terror groups. The bill also allows surveillance activities such as tracking down individuals or organizations, wire-tapping and recording of discussions and other communications of individuals supposedly engaged in terrorism. It seeks to extend too the number of days suspected terrorists can be detained without a warrant of arrest from three days under the current law to up to 14 days. Sotto, however, allayed fears that the measure can be used against critics and members of the opposition. "I suggest they read the bill first before reacting. Terrorists or their supporters are the only ones who will be afraid of the bill," he said. Senator Panfilo Lacson also said that there are "enough safeguards" surrounding the measure. "The concerns being raised by the progressive and leftist groups as well as human rights advocates have been adequately addressed during the Committee on National Defense and Security public hearings, as well as the debates and interpellations in plenary," he said in a statement. Lacson noted that once the House approves the adopted Senate version of the measure on third and final reading, it will be transmitted to them for enrollment. This will then be submitted to the President for his signature. "Since it is a certified urgent measure, the three-day rule restriction as required under the Constitution is lifted. That gives the bill a chance to be enacted into law within 30 days unless vetoed by the President, which is very unlikely considering the certification that he issued," Lacson added. Meanwhile, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque insisted that there are no "Draconian provisions" in the measure, which were mostly based on the rules of other countries. Sen. Risa Hontiveros, one of the lawmakers who voted against the bill, reiterated that the public's concerns are valid, and that the measure should not be prioritized in the middle of the pandemic. "Ang hiling nila (ng publiko) ay maayos na programa para sa kanilang kaligtasan laban sa kinakaharap nating pandemic," she said. "Hindi ba dapat nandoon ang prayoridad natin?" [Translation: The public is only asking for an efficient government program intended for their safety while we are facing this pandemic. Shouldn't that be our priority?] Congress is scheduled to adjourn sine die on June 5, but a lawmaker has filed a resolution to extend sessions until June 11 to pave way for the approval of all "vital bills." CNN Philippines' Glee Jalea and Joyce Ilas contributed to this report. A 25-year-old man was tied to a tree and set afire by the family of a woman with whom he was allegedly having an affair in Uttar Pradeshs Pratapgarh district late on Monday night, police said. The man, a resident of Bhujauni under Fatanpur police station, died on the spot. Upset over his death, his family and locals turned violent and set two police vehicles on fire, police said. The situation was brought under control by additional force from nearby police stations led by senior officers, they added. Abhishek Singh, Pratapgarhs superintendent of police, said as per reports some people barged into the house of Ambika Patel and dragged him away. They then tied Patel to a tree some distance away and set him on fire after sprinkling petrol on him before fleeing the spot. Soon, his family members and villagers assembled at the site and turned violent demanding immediate arrest and action against the perpetrators. They also set a 112 police response vehicle (PRV) and another police jeep on fire. This also forced the far outnumbered policemen to flee. Singh rushed to the village with an additional police force and brought the situation under control. Police said that Patels relatives claimed that he was having an affair with the woman from his village and this had resulted in many face-offs between the families. Patel had reportedly shared a video clip of the woman on social media a few months ago further increasing tension between the families. The woman had been recently selected as a police constable and was posted to Kanpur. The womans family members registered a police complaint against Patel in this connection at the Fatanpur police station resulting in his arrest. He was released from jail recently, police added. Singh said a first information report (FIR) had been registered on the complaint of the victims family and efforts were on to nab the accused. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Kingdom Tower (center) stands on the skyline above the King Fahd highway in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Simon Dawson | Bloomberg | Getty Images The Gulf region's twin shock of the coronavirus pandemic and severely weakened oil prices continues to pressure its economies, with new forecasts over the weekend painting a grim picture. As governments around the world roll out stimulus measures and rescue plans in an effort to save their hard-hit private sectors and most hard-hit industries, some have called for sovereign wealth funds which are particularly large in the Gulf to step in. "I think sovereign wealth funds and by all accounts there are about two trillion dollars of assets at these regional sovereign wealth funds these need to be deployed," Tarek Fadlallah, CEO at Nomura Asset Management Middle East, told CNBC's Capital Connection on Monday. "Sovereign wealth funds have multiple objectives, but one of them is that they are rainy day funds, and this is a rainy day. So the argument is that in the same way that the Federal Reserve and the government of the U.S. have stepped in to correct some of the market inefficiencies and market dislocations, there is a role for sovereign wealth funds to do exactly the same in the region." The call is the latest in a line of similar suggestions from economists and experts, as the Middle East's oil-dependent economies face dire contractions in business activity and economic growth. S&P Global over the weekend issued its forecast for Abu Dhabi, warning that "lower oil production and COVID-19 will reduce economic output by about 7.5% in 2020," with a gradual recovery beginning in 2021. The International Monetary Fund forecast Saudi gross domestic product (GDP) to fall by 2.3% in April, but Oxford Economics more recently forecast a decline of just under 8% this year for overall GDP and an 8.2% decline for the non-oil economy. Gulf wealth funds making strategic foreign investments Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, with more than $300 billion in assets under management, is well-positioned to step in and support the Saudi economic recovery, Fadlallah says. The kingdom's fund has recently been on a spending spree, buying substantial stakes in major Western businesses currently trading at multi-year lows as a result of the pandemic. They include roughly half-billion-dollar stakes in companies including Carnival Corp, Live Nation, Walt Disney, Marriott International, Bank of America and Facebook, among others, as well as a $714 million stake in Boeing. At the end of May, the Saudi central bank transferred $40 billion of its foreign reserves to the kingdom's wealth fund, which the Saudi finance minister called an "exceptional one-off transaction that came after a lot of deliberation." Sovereign wealth fund action can save thousands of jobs, support corporate profits, maintain non-oil revenues, avoid deflationary spiral in property and lift stock markets by 10% to 20%. Tarek Fadlallah CEO, Nomura Asset Management Middle East Thus far, however, there haven't been any large-scale programs to address the coronavirus crisis announced by GCC (or Gulf Cooperation Council) regional wealth funds. The IMF has also called on state leaders to use their wealth funds to help boost growth during the downturn. "Sovereign wealth funds can play a role, regional institutions can play a role," the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia director, Jihad Azour, said during an online conference in late April. And Turkey's wealth fund chief Zafer Sonmez told CNBC in May that "In terms of debt, the equity response should come from the sovereign wealth funds This is new for Turkey, but we will be more active, we will offset these volatile periods to help as an equity solutions provider of the sovereign." Current stimulus measures not enough? The Ambassador of Colombia in Ghana and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in the country, Her Excellency Claudia Turbay Quintero has held discussions with the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of Parliament and MP for Nsawam/Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh-Dompreh on how the Diplomatic Corps can facilitate trade between Ghana and its sister countries through the use of technology instead of physical meeting, in the midst of Covid19 restrictions. In line with the discussion, Frank Annoh-Dompreh is to submit a proposal to the Diplomatic Corps in Ghana for consideration to achieve the goal of facilitating trade between Ghana and its sister countries. Her Excellency Claudia Turbay Quintero said the economic impact of Covid-19 has been felt by all countries in diverse ways. She said the need to share ideas on how new trade opportunities can be created for the benefit of Ghana and its sister countries cannot be over-emphasized. Her Excellency Claudia Turbay Quintero described Ghana as a good example in the world in the area of creating a conducive environment to attract investors in the automobile industry. Frank Annoh-Dompreh said the fact that covid 19 has affected the world's economy is indisputable. He observed that the closure of borders by countries and restriction on the movement of persons from one country to another is affecting trade. Frank Annoh-Dompreh therefore said coming out with a strategy to engage the diplomatic corps to facilitate trade between Ghana and its sister countries is very crucial. He said the Committee on Foreign Affairs of Parliament will play every necessary role to ensure the facilitation of trade between Ghana and other countries. Frank Annoh-Dompreh also lauded the strong relation between Ghana and Colombia and commended Her Excellency Claudia Turbay Quintero for her hard work. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video North Rodney should brace itself for bad news as a result of Auckland Councils increasing post-Covid funding shortfall. That was the message from Rodney Councillor Greg Sayers to the monthly Local Board meeting on May 20, just before Council revealed its estimated revenue losses for next year would be $550 million, in addition to the $250 million estimate for this financial year. Cr Sayers said major projects will be deferred or shelved, and facilities and services cut as Council tried to recoup its losses. Hard choices are going to have to be made in the coming weeks. There are services that will be lost, and projects that wont proceed, he said. Major projects in our area like the Matakana link road, Hill St and local facilities, like opening hours at libraries, are all very much up in the air. Cr Sayers said exactly what projects in Rodney would be deferred, or what services would be cut, would not be known until after the public consultation process on the Emergency Budget had been adopted and any rates increase decided in late July. Some 60 per cent of Council revenue comes from sources such as concerts and visitor attractions, pools and leisure centres, port operations, Auckland Airport share dividends, parking, development contributions and public transport, all of which have dried up as a result of Covid-19. Mayor Phil Goff said rates revenue could also drop next year due to a proposal to allow ratepayers who could prove financial hardship due to Covid-19 to defer their rates payments. The reality is, we have less money coming in, so we have less money that we can spend on the city and less money to deliver the essential services that Aucklanders rely on, he said. All of this adds up to a huge challenge for Auckland. Were looking at every way possible to save money and reduce expenditure. (Photo : Pixabay) TikTok Promises to Promote Black Content Creators After Being Accused of Using Algorithm Suppressing Black People (Photo : Kon Karampelas on Unsplash) TikTok Promises to Promote Black Content Creators After Being Accused of Using Algorithm Suppressing Black People Tiktok has promised to promote its black creators by laying out a slate of actions after it was accused of censorship that suppressed black people. According to The Verge's latest report, TikTok addressed the criticisms stating that its recommendation algorithm suppresses black creators by setting out a series of actions shared on Monday, June 1. The company confirmed in a blog post that it will include what it calls a "creator diversity council" to uplift and recognize the voices driving culture, creativity, and important conversations on its platform once its plan is launched. TikTok also stated that it will also build a new "user-friendly" appeals process, reassess its moderation strategies, and develop a new creator portal for expanding the company's communications and opportunities for its wider creator community. According to the report, the company will stand in solidarity with the Black community by participating in "Black Out Tuesday," the day of action against racial discrimination and injustice that the music industry has planned. TikTok confirmed that its Sound Page will be shut down to observe a moment of reflection and action by turning off all campaigns and other playlists. The company also pledged to donate $3 million to non-profit organizations that support the black community, and a separate $1 million donation to address racial inequality and injustice. However, TikTok didn't provide the names of the organizations they are considering. TikTok promises to promote black content creators after being accused of using an algorithm that suppresses black people TikTok said in its blog post that the company appreciates being held accountable. "We know that getting to a place of trust will take work, but we are dedicated to doing our part as we continue to foster a space where everyone is seen and heard." TikTok users started changing their profile pictures or avatars into the black power symbol in May, to protest the censorship of black content creators. It was reported that some black creators asked their non-black allies to follow at least one new black content creator, while other users started unfollowing other creators who did not support the movement. The company suffered what it called a "technical glitch" shortly after the height of protests across the country opposing police brutality. The technical issue appeared to prevent videos uploaded under the #GeorgeFloyd and #BlackLivesMatter hashtags to receive views. Tiktok still appeared to restrict the search results for other hashtags like #fuckthepolice and #acab. Although the users could still post the tags, the videos they tried to upload would not show up when the tags were used in the search bar. In December 2019, TikTok admitted that it suppressed videos of queer, fat, and disabled creators, stating in their defense that those creators are vulnerable to cyberbullying. People with autism, birthmarks, Down syndrome, or "slight squints" were also suppressed by the company. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Ziman said she didnt know how many of those arrested lived in Aurora. She believes people from other areas came to Aurora after seeing the protest on social media. She said the crowd downtown swelled to about 1,200 people at one point Sunday night. KMCO LLC, the owner of a chemical plant in Crosby that exploded last year killing one worker and injuring dozens of others, was acquired by a Houston chemical company following KMCOs recent bankruptcy filing. ALTIVIA Petrochemicals acquired KMCOs assets for $25,000, plus an additional $623,000 in property taxes and assumption of millions of dollars in liabilities to KMCOs creditors, according to court filings. The sale was approved by the bankruptcy court Friday. ALTIVIA said Monday that it would upgrade and expand KMCOs manufacturing plant in Crosby where a huge chemical explosion occurred last April. The $25 million project will upgrade safety and control systems and add two new chemical reactors, which ALTIVIA estimates will begin production by the end of 2020. We have completed a detailed evaluation of these assets and are looking forward to starting production by year end, said Michael Jusbasche, chief executive officer of ALTIVIA, in a statement Monday. The company will extend job offers to 22 KMCO employees, according to court filings. The facility in Crosby will employ 200 workers when fully operational, the company said. In May, KMCO LLC filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which leads to a liquidation of a companys assets as opposed to Chapter 11, in which companies work with creditors to reorganize and restructure debt to continue operating the business. By opting for Chapter 7, KMCO bypassed what is usually a long process of negotiations with creditors. If there is a pre- bankruptcy deal in place to sell a business, then a Chapter 7 process potentially saves the estate millions in attorney's fees and increases the likelihood of a distribution to creditors, said Miriam Goott, an attorney at Walker & Patterson who represented KMCO through the bankruptcy process. A host of lawsuits were filed against KMCO following the explosion. Harris County, the state and several workers filed claims alleging injuries and environmental violations. US Fire Pump Company, a firefighting service and equipment company, sued for breach of contract, alleging KMCO still owes it more than $1 million for helping put out the chemical plant fire. However, ALTIVIA did not assume responsibility for the lawsuits against KMCO related to injuries or environmental violations from the explosion. The morning of the explosion, workers were making a batch of sulfurized isobutylene, a highly flammable liquid gas. A gas leak due to an equipment failure caused the huge explosion, obliterating the buildings entrance, investigators found. Workers attempted to stop the chemical leak before the explosion, according to Harris County Fire Marshals Office. After the explosion, local officials issued a five-hour shelter in place order for residents within one mile of the facility. The KMCO facilities are located on 160 acres east of Houston. The facility can manufacture products such as lubricant additives and fuel additives for the automotive and oil field industries. Last summer, state environmental regulators fined KMCO nearly $80,000 for an alleged pattern of past violations of environmental laws at the facility going back to 2012. erin.douglas@chron.com Twitter.com/erinmdouglas23 Dhaka, June 2 (IANS) Bangladesh has prohibited the presence of more than 25 per cent of employees in government offices as part of an anti-coronavirus measure, it was reported. The decision came after Bangladesh reopened its economy, ending a two-month coronavirus lockdown. "Our primary goal is not to put employees at risk of infection. So we will only do the necessary work with a minimum of employees," State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossain told bdnews24 on Monday. "We want that no more than 25 per cent of the employees will be in offices at any given time. Another 25 per cent can work remotely, meaning 50 per cent of the employees will be connected to work," he added. Bangladesh has lifted the shutdown and reopened all government offices with reduced capacity while resuming public transport services under similar guidelines. "If someone comes to the office and finishes up work in two hours, he or she will not have to wait until 5 p.m. If that person leaves work by 11 a.m., someone else may come in and work," Hossain told bdnews24. "If offices require more than 25 per cent of the employees to work, they can come in after the departure of those who came in at 9 a.m." Bangladesh has registered 22 new COVID-19 fatalities, raising the death toll to 672. The COVID-19 caseload surged to 49,534 after 2,381 positive tests were confirmed on Monday, according to the health directorate. --IANS ksk/ The activities focus on the theme of A festival for Families, including folk games, a handwriting contest, childrens painting, and a reading space for both children and visitors. There are also performances of traditional musical instruments and folklore music, reproductions of the traditional rituals of ethnic groups, gong performances, and a xoang folk dance. Visitors will have an opportunity to learn more about the craft of weaving and the tourism potential and indigenous culture of the Jarai people in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai. On June 28, the Raglai ethnic people in Ninh Thuan province will restage their traditional ritual to show filial piety. This ritual is not only observed within families but also among the entire community. Photos on the cultural activities of the Raglai people, indigenous specialties, and tourist products of the provinces Bac Ai district will also be displayed at the occasion. UK prime minister Boris Johnson must decide by the end of June whether to extend the Brexit transition period beyond the end of 2020. (Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP Photo) Prime minister Boris Johnson is hoping that crunch talks with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will inject political momentum into post-Brexit trade negotiations. Johnsons plan to hold talks with the EU chief comes as officials on Tuesday began their final round of scheduled trade negotiations. Crucially, the high-level talks with Von der Leyen would come ahead of this months cut-off for extending the Brexit transition phase. Johnson must decide by the end of June whether to extend the period beyond the end of 2020. Amid the coronavirus crisis, a looming recession, and expectations of a prolonged economic recovery, his government has faced growing calls to request an extension to the transition, which would guarantee frictionless trade with the EU for a longer period. READ MORE: Coronavirus sparks biggest monthly fall in UK house prices since 2009 The Bank of England last month warned that the UK was on the precipice of its worst recession in over 300 years, and business groups have warned that a cliff-edge withdrawal from its most important trading relationship could further cripple the country. The bank predicted that the countrys gross domestic product (GDP) could shrink by 30% in the first half of 2020, the sharpest decline since the Great Frost of 1709. Though the UK officially left the EU on 31 January, the transition period means that the blocs laws continue to apply in the country something that would cushion the country from a further blow to its economy. Because neither side is expecting much progress from the final scheduled phase of negotiations, UK officials are hoping that a high level political meeting with Von der Leyen could lead to a breakthrough that would negate the need for an extension to the transition, according to the Financial Times. Expectations of a breakthrough come despite warnings from experts that, even prior to the coronavirus pandemic, hopes of inking a trade deal by the end of 2020 were overly ambitious. Story continues The UK government has nevertheless said it will not seek an extension under any circumstances, leaving it just seven months to strike a deal that would under normal circumstances take years. Little progress has been made thus far in negotiations, with scant agreement emerging from the prior four rounds of talks between officials. READ MORE: 8.7 million people on furlough as cut off looms The UKs chief negotiator, David Frost, told his counterpart Michel Barnier in a May letter that he was perplexed by the EUs approach to the talks, calling them ideological and the deal the EU was offering unfair. For his part, Barnier told the Sunday Times that UK negotiators needed to show more realism. The Frenchman accused Johnson of reneging on the commitments agreed during Article 50 negotiations. The spat has raised the prospect that the UK could walk away from trade talks altogether. A crash-out exit from the trading relationship could mean that consumers face price hikes for European foods and cars from January, and that businesses across the country face huge new trade hurdles. The UK and the EU are likely to impose new tariffs on goods and services if no deal can be reached, and Johnsons government last month signalled that EU cars and agricultural goods would be among those facing import taxes. Ashameera Aiyappan By Express News Service Director Aravinthraj, who is known for films like Oomai Vizhigal and Uzhavar Magan, is making a comeback to Tamil cinema. The filmmaker will be helming a biopic based on the life of Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar, titled Desiya Thalaivar. It has been a cherished dream of mine to tell the story of Thevar. While several people know him, his journey isnt wildly popular. Also, he is a leader who contributed to national politics by working with Netaji Subash Chandra Bose. This would be a film that tells his journey as a leader, and will not be restricted to a state or a community, says Aravinthraj. Produced by AM Choudary, JM Basheer will play the lead in this film. Basheer is also an ardent follower of Muthuramalinga Thevar, and has undergone a fast to play the role. The film will be based on the Tamil book written by AR Perumal Thevar. Scripting is currently in progress and the makers say the film will be made on a grand scale. Several Chinese companies, including WESIZWE Platinum Corporation, Afritop South Africa and SINOSTEEL South Africa, along with local business partners, donated basic living materials to local communities in the South African Province of North West on May 26, 2020. Mr. Li Zhimin, General Manager of Jinchuan Group South Africa, the main shareholder of WESIZWE Platinum Corporation, Mr. Jacob Mothomogolo, Executive General Manager, Ms. Boitumelo Moiloan, Chairman of the Social Development Promotion Committee, Mr. Diale, Mayor of MKLM, and other representatives of the community attended the event. Li Zhimin said, We all care about South Africa during the epidemic. We want to help local people get through these difficult days. It is our honor to take on our social responsibility and give back to the local community. The food bags donated by the Chinese companies will help more than 800 families. Each food bag contains rice, flour, vegetables, milk, canned and sanitary supplies and other basic necessities. Ms. Boitumelo Moiloan expressed her gratitude to the Jinchuan Group and other Chinese companies for their significant contributions to the community, adding that the donation would greatly help poor families. WESIZWE Platinum Corporation is a mining company listed on the South African Stock Exchange Market, whose majority shareholder is Jinchuan Group and China Africa Development Fund. New Delhi: Traffic moved smoothly at some of the 29 border points in Delhi while intermittent checking was conducted at some others on Tuesday, a day after the Delhi government put stringent curbs on interstate travel for a week to protect the citys health care resources as coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases crossed 20,000-mark. On Tuesday, Delhi reported 1,298 Covid cases with the total tally reaching 22,132. Eleven more people died over the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 556, according to the Delhi governments daily bulletin. The average number of daily new cases in the last week has been 1,095 and the Delhi government has been taking several measures to augment bed strength across hospitals and medical institutions. Senior Delhi Police officers said their personnel were briefed not to unnecessarily harass anyone and allow Delhi residents to enter the Capital after seeing their residential proof. Many regular commuters HT spoke to said that their travel to Delhi from Ghaziabad and Noida was smoother than what they had experienced in the past few weeks despite curbs imposed by the district administrations of the two Uttar Pradesh cities. A Delhi government spokesperson said, The Delhi government had sent the order to seal all borders to the Delhi police. It is now the job of the police to enforce it. The Delhi police is not under us. At the Gurugram border, there was no restriction on the Delhi side as commuters, including officer-goers, drove across without any checking by the Delhi Police staff. At the Ghaziabad (UP)-Ghazipur (Delhi) border, the police conducted random checks occasionally during the day time. But in the evening peak hour, no car was being stopped from entering or leaving Delhi. Many commuters said they were confused about whether the restrictions on the border had been relaxed contrary to what the Delhi government had announced a day ago. The Gurugram police, however, closed the barricades to check for movement passes and turned away a few commuters who could not establish a reason to visit the city. The police also asked people to paste the movement pass issued by the district administration on the windscreen of their cars so that their personnel deployed at the border can check it without disrupting the traffic flow. The Haryana government had decided on Sunday evening to ease restrictions on the states borders with Delhi in Gurugram that had been in place since May 1. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday said talks will be held with the Delhi government to build a consensus on the inter-state movement issue. He, however, said some restrictions should stay in place. Our borders were already closed but when the Delhi government said these should not be opened, we felt what they are saying holds weight. Strictness should be there for now along the Delhi-Haryana border, Khattar said. Mandeep Singh, a senior executive of a private company in Gurugram, said he had left his home in Hauz Khaz for his office at 7am to avoid any screening from the police at the border. I left way ahead of my office reporting time because I did not have any pass to show to the police had they stopped me. But, my colleagues who came from Delhi at the usual office time, later told me that there was no checking of any kind. I had a sleepless night for no reason. The government should have made its intention clear, he said. At the Badarpur border, however, the police checked the identity cards and passes of all commuters entering the national capital by cars or motorcycles, but no questions were asked of those leaving the city. Many motorists had a tough time trying to convince the police that they belonged to Delhi and should be allowed to pass through.So many people are showing old passes. We dont know how to deal with them. So, we are going by our judgement in each case, said an assistant sub-inspector deployed there. I had gone to perform a puja at my clients home in Indirapuram in the morning. Nobody stopped me or asked for any pass. Now that I want to return home, the policemen at Delhi border refused to let me in as I do not have a movement pass. I told them Delhi CM has banned other states residents and showed them my Delhi residence proof. But they are not letting me in, said east Delhis Mandawali resident Anil Pandit, after a brief argument with the policemen at the Ghazipur border. When told about such confusion and confrontation, deputy commissioner of police (east) Jasmeet Singh said, The personnel deployed at borders have been briefed to assist people who are facing emergent situations. They have been asked not to harass anyone but guide and educate people properly. At the Dundahera and Mandi Border-(Chattarpur farms) in south Delhi, commuters were seen crossing the border without any checks, even as police barricades and policemen were present. Similarly, no restrictions were seen at the Maharajpur, Mayur Vihar, and Bhopura borders in east and northeast Delhi, as motorists were crossing the barricades freely. We are implementing all the provisions mentioned in the new notification. Whatever issues and confusions have come to our notice will soon be resolved. Those who require to visit Delhi should get movement passes to avoid the restrictions, said Delhi Police spokesperson, Mandeep Singh Randhawa. Movement passes, the real hassle While the traffic flow was mostly smooth, the issuance of travel passes by the district magistrates in Delhi appeared to be the real pain for the people. While senior officials in the government said those working in private firms will also be issued passes by the district magistrates (DMs), the district administrations remained divided over whether to give passes only to those engaged in emergency and essential services, or grant permission to others working in non-essential sectors as well. At a time when all offices and other economic activities have been opened up nationally, it is difficult to restrict the movement of people. Also, there is a waiting of over 4,000 e-pass applications, accumulated over the last two days, said one DM on condition of anonymity. At least two DMs said e-passes in their district are being issued only to those engaged in essential services. Government employees do not require such passes and persons having a travel pass issued by district in any other states are also allowed to travel. Trucks, cargo and good vehicles are also permitted unrestricted movement, as per the Delhi governments order. The coronavirus continues to affect all aspects of life around St. Louis. Furloughs and budget cuts are coming to St. Louis Community College. The virus-delayed municipal elections are underway. Here are Tuesday's developments: Count of known COVID-19 cases Numbers updated June 2 at 3:25 p.m. Missouri: 783 deaths, 13,575 known cases. Local officials report 5,084 cases in St. Louis County and 1,974 in St. Louis. There were 786 reported cases in St. Charles County. Illinois: 5,525 deaths, 122,848 confirmed cases. Cases include 1,172 in St. Clair County, 595 in Madison County and 96 in Monroe County, according to the state health department. National: At least 1,820,523 people across the country have tested positive for COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University, 105,644 patients with the virus have died. Worldwide: There have been 6,194,533 cases worldwide, and 376,320 confirmed deaths, according to the World Health Organization. 7 p.m. ST. LOUIS Hospitalizations for COVID-19 in the St. Louis region continue to drop despite a slight uptick in new admissions for the disease, the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force reported Tuesday. Read more. 2 p.m. ST. LOUIS The St. Louis Housing Authority will host two free COVID-19 testing sites this week that are open to everyone, the St. Louis City Department of Health announced on Tuesday. Read more. 1:45 p.m. ST. LOUIS Fearful that the stress of the pandemic is leading to increased substance use, experimentation or relapse, federal drug enforcement officials have partnered with local community services to create a website to provide an easy way for those in the St. Louis area find help. Read more. 1:30 p.m. While speaking and playing smaller wind instruments certainly emit quantities of droplets and aerosols, singing is getting most of the publicity. Along with opera companies, this has had a profound effect on professional, church and amateur choirs around the world and in St. Louis. Read more. 6 a.m. STATEWIDE Municipal elections are underway across Missouri, delayed from April 7 to try to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. But worry about COVID-19 remains part of the backdrop , with St. Louis County reducing the number of its polling places by more than half because 1,100 election judges refused to work this time around. Read more. OVERNIGHT ST. LOUIS Faced with budget cuts, the chancellor and 14 other senior leaders of St. Louis Community College have agreed to take furloughs one day a month from July through December. Other actions include a hiring freeze and reduced travel, training and operational spending. Read more. OVERNIGHT ST. LOUIS As protests continued for another day over the death of a black man in Minneapolis, St. Louis-area officials expressed concern Monday that demonstrations could allow the coronavirus to further spread and urged protesters to take precautions. Read more. 6:30 p.m. ST. LOUIS The Missouri History Museum, the Missouri Historical Society Library and Research Center, and the Soldiers Memorial Military Museum will reopen to the public on Saturday, June 20, its operators announced Monday. Read more. 4 p.m. ST. LOUIS St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson said Monday that masks will be distributed at future protests against the death of George Floyd. Read more. 2:45 p.m. JEFFERSON CITY Gov. Mike Parson on Monday announced an additional $209 million in budget cuts before the end of this fiscal year, with the majority of cuts hitting the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Read more. 12:45 p.m. ST. LOUIS Concern over the coronavirus pandemic has spurred the Church of God in Christ denomination to cancel its annual Holy Convocation event, which in previous years has drawn tens of thousands of people here. Read more. 10:45 a.m. ST. LOUIS Fort Leonard Wood is continuing forward with Army boot camp operations despite an outbreak of COVID-19 in a new class of trainees. Read more. 10 a.m. ST. LOUIS Close to 100 people lined up to enter the casino Monday. One woman in the front said she had been there since 6:30 a.m. Many were elderly; most wore masks and spaced themselves out in line. Read more. 8:35 a.m. CLAYTON Bars can open in St. Louis County on June 8 and all other businesses on June 15 with safety guidelines in place, the county executive said on Monday. Read more. 8:00 a.m. The Magic House will reopen on June 15 and the Magic House at MADE on June 8 after being closed since March due to the coronavirus. Read more. 7 a.m. ST. LOUIS Americans weren't all that well prepared for retirement before the coronavirus pandemic hit, and they're even less ready now. Between the stock market drops and millions of lost jobs, some face a steeper recovery than others. Read more. 6:30 a.m. ST. LOUIS The St. Louis Aquarium, the St. Louis Wheel and other attractions at Union Station will reopen on Monday, June 8 after closing in March due to the coronavirus. Read more. OVERNIGHT HAZELWOOD Car horns replaced air horns when members of the McCluer North High School class of 2020 walked across the stage and accepted their diplomas Sunday in a drive-in style ceremony. Read more. How is the situation affecting you? If you have a story about trying to get tested, quarantine or the way the coronavirus is affecting your daily life or planned events, we want to hear from you. You can send a news tip to the Post-Dispatch here. PHOENIX, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ReadyCloud , the ecommerce suite built for shipping, returns and CRM, has released a major update to its ReadyShipper X shipping software. ReadyShipper is an evolution in shipping software. It supports merchant growth and improves the consumer experience through faster, more efficient shipping and communications at every level of the organization. "Today's consumer is impatient," says Michael Lazar, an Executive at ReadyCloud. "As consumers, we've become accustomed to getting our online order delivered in a few days and often at no extra cost. The e-retailer can present a great buying experience, but if expectations aren't met, they risk missing out on potential future sales." Growing e-retailers, especially those experiencing unforeseen sales spikes, have been faced with doing more with less resources. But despite these surges in demand, consumer expectations do not change. The ReadyCloud Suite was built on the principals of back-office efficiency, and how it relates to delivering a great consumer experience. ReadyShipper X gives e-retailers a means to outperform their currently available resources to meet new demands and grow. This new release of ReadyShipper X excels in two key areas: Order filtering and multiple brand management. Filters can be set for virtually any combination of order elements to ensure the shipment is handled correctly and cost effectively. Common examples are by state, urgency or contents. Orders can be filtered and grouped, so urgent orders, perishable or potentially hazardous products always rise to the top and are fulfilled first. A more advanced example supports the emerging CBD industry; any product with inherent restrictions can be filtered by multiple states or postal codes to ensure error-free fulfillment to unrestricted areas. Companies with multiple websites or brands, as well as third-party logistics (3PLs), will benefit from a new feature called "Profiles." ReadyShipper X allows for an almost unlimited number of shipper accounts, company addresses and logos. The result is a fast, accurate and uninterrupted shipping process that will automatically switch company brands and UPS, FedEx or USPS shipping methods based on a simple identifier or filter. In the case of a warehouse that is handling dozens of unique clients, each with their own brand identity, ReadyShipper X will automatically switch Profiles so that the orders appear to be shipping from the correct retailer and are billed to the correct carrier account. "These new features in ReadyShipper X resolve some major pain-points," comments Lazar. "Depending on what business you're in, it means more than just avoiding a shipping error; it can be critical to remaining in compliance with your industry." ReadyShipper X is the natural evolution of shipping software. It has all the power of desktop shipping with the versatility of cloud-based systems. As part of the ReadyCloud Suite it is instantly compatible with Amazon, eBay, Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, Square and others. "Add ReadyShipper X today and you'll be over-performing without breaking a sweat," Lazar concludes. "Take a test drive with our two-week free trial and see for yourself. If you have questions or would like a demonstration, contact us. We give demos every day." ReadyShipper and ReadyCloud can be combined today for as little as $44/month. Start by creating a ReadyCloud account at: https://www.readycloud.com/accounts/signup. Next, add ReadyShipper from the ReadyCloud App Store. Other popular apps include ReadyReturns and Zapier. Got questions? Give ReadyCloud a ring at: 877-818-7447. Or email them at: [email protected]. Learn more at: https://www.ReadyCloud.com About ReadyCloud ReadyCloud is a suite of connected systems designed to improve the way you work. Shipping, Returns, Growth Marketing and more are all connected through ReadyCloud for better communications from Admin to Operations. Media contact: Mike Lazar [email protected] 877-818-7447 SOURCE ReadyCloud Related Links https://www.readycloud.com/ Beijing's decision to impose a long-delayed security law on Hong Kong reflects the mainlands growing concern with challenges to national unity ahead of next year's 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party. But it is more immediately driven by the rising violence in Hong Kong and the political evolution in Taiwan. Despite international criticism, China will strengthen efforts to fully integrate Hong Kong and to further isolate Taiwan internationally. The issues of Hong Kong and Taiwan are intimately linked for Beijing. Hong Kong was intended to be a model of effective unification under one country, two systems, to entice Taiwan to rejoin the motherland and bring to fruition the post-World War II rebuilding of China. But Hong Kong's integration has grown increasingly fractious over the past decade, and this has reinforced sentiment in Taiwan that reintegration with China would see a similar erosion of Taiwan's political and social structures. With Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen's reelection in January, driven in part by the Hong Kong protests, Beijing is aware that there is little support left in Taiwan for reintegration with the mainland. Rather, Taiwanese politics now splits between pro-status quo and pro-independence ideas. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought Taiwan's international status back to the forefront, with countries from the United States to Australia arguing in favor of increasing Taiwanese participation in International forums like the World Health Organization, something strenuously objected to by Beijing. The 2019 protesters in Hong Kong rallied around five key demands, essentially insisting on self-determination for Hong Kong. This was clearly something on which Beijing would not yield. As protests continued, elements within the movement grew more violent, with some using improvised explosives, something Beijing fears Hong Kong security forces cannot fully manage. The combination of the college break and the social restrictions implemented due to the COVID-19 crisis eased the protests, but the Chinese National People's Congress' decision to take up the security law reignited them. While these protests were small, they demonstrated a growing willingness to challenge Hong Kong's restrictions on gatherings and foreshadowed another summer of regular protest activity leading up to legislative elections in September. The security law was supposed to be something Hong Kong itself passed following the 1997 handover from the United Kingdom, but domestic opposition delayed concrete action. Beijing has now stepped in to provide the legal tools to counter separatism, terrorism or intentional economic upheaval. The law will also provide a mechanism for Chinese agencies to operate directly in Hong Kong. The timing coincides with a delayed vote in Hong Kong later this week on a bill that would outlaw parodying or disrespecting the Chinese national anthem, another measure generating ire among Hong Kong protesters. In the past year, China has grown more assertive in its international diplomacy, lashing out at anything it considers a challenge to Chinese national unity or criticism of Chinese actions. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated already-tense exchanges between China and several Western countries, but despite criticism and threats of political and economic sanctions, Beijing remains undeterred. The 100th anniversary of the CCP is an important piece of China's narrative to reinforce Chinese nationalism and challenge what it sees as an outdated and unfair Western world order. With rising international efforts to constrain China's economic and political rise, Beijing cannot allow Hong Kong, a Chinese city, to remain a challenge to central authority. The politics of one country, two systems no longer resonate, and leaving Hong Kong to its own devices no longer aids China's Taiwan policy. For Hong Kong, this means an acceleration of reintegration, and a more rapid erosion of special status something that will likely trigger a further acceleration of corporate diversification or relocation from Hong Kong, challenging its status as a financial center. For Taiwan, it means increased economic and military pressure from the mainland. And for the world, it means China will use its political, economic and, if need be, military might to assert its sovereignty over its periphery, including Taiwan and the South China Sea. Monaco's royal family turned out in force to open the newly renovated Place du Casino in Monte Carlo today. Prince Albert, 62, and wife Princess Charlene, 42, donned face masks printed with the Grimaldi family crest, proving they are taking no chances with their health even though the prince has already had coronavirus. They were joined at the event by Albert's sister Princess Stephanie, 55, and her three children, Pauline Ducruet, Camille Gottlieb, and Louis Ducruet, who attended with his wife Marie. Staying safe: Prince Albert, 62, and wife Princess Charlene, 42, donned face masks printed with the Grimaldi family crest, proving they are taking no chances with their health Like mother, like daughter: They were joined at the event by Albert's sister Princess Stephanie, 55, and her three children, Pauline Ducruet (pictured), Camille Gottlieb, and Louis Ducruet Helping hand: Eldest son Louis, 27, reaches across to help Stephanie of Monaco with her mask Family event: Stephanie of Monaco (far right) with her son Louis (pictured with wife Marie in red), and daughters Camille (centre) and Pauline (second from left)) at the event today It is thought to be the most high profile outing undertaken by the Monegasque royals since the start of the coronavirus crisis. The Place du Casino, or casino square, has undergone extensive renovations and now features a larger pedestrianised area. The family looked typically elegant for the engagement, with Stephanie choosing a classic combination of a black shirt and loose wide-leg white trousers. Her daughter Pauline, 26, complimented her mother's outfit in a cream wrap silk shirt dress, which she wore with a simple pair of nude strap sandals. Camille, 21, whose father is Princess Stephanie's former bodyguard Jean Raymond Gottlieb, put on a chic display in a cream shirt and flowing floral trousers, while her brother Louis, 27, looked dapper in a suit. Closer than ever: Charlene and Albert put on an affectionate display in Monte Carlo today Polished perfection: Princess Charlene wore a floral dress with a white blazer for the outing Arm in arm: Charlene held on tight to Albert's arm as they arrived for the photo call Back to work: The engagement is thought to be the couple's first since the COVID-19 outbreak Support: Princess Charlene held onto her husband's arm as they posed for the cameras Well-dressed: The couple cut an elegant figure as they arrived at the event together Official duties: The royal couple were on hand to open the square in the heart of Monte Carlo Princess Charlene, who held onto her husband's arm, wore a mid-length floral dress with a cropped white blazer for the occasion. It is thought to be the first time Princess Charlene has been seen in public for at least two months. The mother-of-two and their twins, Jacques and Gabriella, lived separately to Albert while he was in isolation with COVID-19 in March. Speaking on how the family kept in touch, Albert told People magazine: 'We FaceTimed usually in the evenings. We told stories and talked about what we did during the day. Family business: Princess Stephanie (in navy shirt) with daughters Camille (centre) and Pauline (right) and daughter-in-law Marie (left) at the event in Monte Carlo today Lookalike daughter: Princess Stephanie (in navy) with daughter Pauline Ducruet at the event 'I told [the twins] to be safe. They knew I was sick and that I had to stay away. I'm hoping I get a 'Welcome Home' banner.' The royal palace confirmed Prince Albert of Monaco had tested positive for coronavirus on 19 March - which made him the first known head of state to be infected with the virus. He was monitored by his personal doctor and by specialists at the Princess Grace Hospital Centre, which is named after his mother Grace Kelly. Researchers have identified a region in the Southern Ocean off the coast of Antartica as having the cleanest air on Earth. A team of climate scientists from Colorado State University, led by Sonia Kreidenweis, were curious to see just how far particles produced by human industry and activity reach. To find out, they sailed into the Southern Ocean, which encircles Antartica below 40 degrees south latitude, and measured the composition of the air at several points. Climate scientists from Colorado State University sailed to the Southern Ocean in search of the cleanest air on the planet They took measurements from the boundary layer, a part of the lower atmosphere that comes in direct contact with the surface of the ocean and reaches as high as 1.2 miles into the atmosphere. The team's samples showed no aerosols or other particles that were connected to human pollution or other activity. Instead the majority of particles and bacteria were traced back to upwind territories and other nearby areas where bacteria and microscopic matter from the ocean mixed with the wind and circulated through the atmosphere. The team combined wind data for the region with analysis of other samples collected from the ocean and atmosphere surrounding the main test site to track the origin of the particles in the original reading. 'We were able to use the bacteria in the air over the Southern Ocean as a diagnostic tool to infer key properties of the lower atmosphere,' Colorado State's Thomas Hill told the university's news blog. The measured the boundary layer of the atmosphere, a 1.2 mile layer of air that runs over the surface of the ocean, and found almost all of the particles and bacteria in air samples were traced to the ocean and other nearby landmass According to the team, the Southern Ocean is one of the few remaining places on the planet where the direct impact of human industry and activity isn't immediately obvious 'For example, that the aerosols controlling the properties of [Southern Ocean] clouds are strongly linked to ocean biological processes, and that Antarctica appears to be isolated from southward dispersal of microorganisms and nutrient deposition from southern continents.' 'Overall, it suggests that the [Southern Ocean] is one of very few places on Earth that has been minimally affected by anthropogenic activities.' The previous site of the world's 'cleanest air' was identified by researchers in 2019 on Cape Grim in Tasmania, near the northern edge of the Southern Ocean. Cattle farmers in the region advertise the quality of their beef based on the purity of the air and the clean rainwater it produces to feed the local grasses their cows feed on. New Delhi, June 2 : Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday took part in 'Cities Against COVID-19 Global Summit 2020' hosted in Seoul and said the coronavirus crisis has provided great opportunities to people to come together and help each other. "Met with leaders of various cities across the world to learn from their experiences in fighting COVID-19 at the CAC Global Summit 2020 by the Seoul government. The overwhelming challenge posed by corona (virus) offers great opportunities for us to come together and help each other," Sisodia tweeted. Sisodia also took part in the 'World Mayors Summit' through video conference where mayors and officials from cities including Moscow, Jakarta, Istanbul, Budapest, Tehran, Tel Aviv, Buenos Aires, Vancouver and Chongqing shared their responses. A comprehensive review of existing evidence supports physical distancing of two metres or more to prevent person-to-person transmission of COVID-19, says an international team led by McMaster University and St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton. Face masks and eye protection decrease the risk of infection, too. The systematic review and meta-analysis was commissioned by the World Health Organization. The findings were published today in The Lancet. "Physical distancing likely results in a large reduction of COVID-19," said lead author Holger Schunemann, professor of the departments of health research methods, evidence, and impact, and medicine at McMaster. Schunemann is co-director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases, Research Methods and Recommendations. He also is director of Cochrane Canada and McMaster GRADE Centre. Although the direct evidence is limited, the use of masks in the community provides protection, and possibly N95 or similar respirators worn by health-care workers suggest greater protection than other face masks," Holger Schunemann, Co-Director, Professor, Departments of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, McMaster University "Availability and feasibility and other contextual factors will probably influence recommendations that organizations develop about their use. Eye protection may provide additional benefits." The systematic review was conducted by a large, international collaborative of researchers, front-line and specialist clinicians, epidemiologists, patients, public health and health policy experts of published and unpublished literature in any language. They sought direct evidence on COVID-19 and indirect evidence on related coronaviruses causative of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). The team used Cochrane methods and the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach which is used world-wide to assess the certainty of evidence. They identified no randomized control trials addressing the three coronaviruses but 44 relevant comparative studies in health-care and non-health-care (community) settings across 16 countries and six continents from inception to early May 2020. The authors noted more global, collaborative, well-conducted studies of different personal protective strategies are needed. For masks, large randomized trials are underway and are urgently needed. The scientific lead is Derek Chu, a clinician scientist in the departments of health research methods, evidence, and impact, and medicine at McMaster and an affiliate of the Research Institute of St. Joe's Hamilton. "There is an urgent need for all caregivers in health-care settings and non-health-care settings to have equitable access to these simple personal protective measures, which means scaling up production and consideration about repurposing manufacturing," said Chu. "However, although distancing, face masks, and eye protection were each highly protective, none made individuals totally impervious from infection and so, basic measures such as hand hygiene are also essential to curtail the current COVID-19 pandemic and future waves." Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Jun. 02, 2020 | PADUCAH By West Kentucky Star Staff Jun. 02, 2020 | 05:36 PM | PADUCAH An arrest has been made in connection with vandalism Sunday night at Kentucky Oaks Mall. The Paducah Police Department reports that detectives arrested Decardia Key, of Paducah, at 4:11 pm Tuesday on a warrant charging him with first-degree criminal mischief. Paducah police were notified just after 8:30 pm Sunday of a large gathering of people on the parking lot of Kentucky Oaks Mall. Officers arrived a few minutes later and saw a number of vehicles leaving the parking lot, and found glass broken from the storefront of Five Below. Police received numerous tips and videos related to the incident, as well as potential suspects, and they credit the publics assistance in solving this crime. Detectives followed up on those tips and obtained surveillance video from the store, and were able to positively identify Key as the person breaking the window of Five Below. Five doors and three upper window panels at the front entrance of the mall also were broken, and the investigation into that damage is continuing. Key was taken to the McCracken County Regional Jail. Japan: One dead, two missing in landslides weeks after recovering from typhoons Maharashtra: 36 died, 30 still trapped in Raigad district due to landslides and floods At least 19 killed in landslides in Assam India oi-Vicky Nanjappa Guwahati, June 02: At least 19 people were killed and two others seriously injured in landslides triggered by incessant rains in south Assam's Barak valley districts of Hailakandi, Karimganj and Cachar on Tuesday morning, officials said. Seven people, including two children and a woman, were killed and two others seriously injured in a landslide that hit a tin house at Mohanpur area near Bolobabazar in Hailkandi district around 6 am, said a spokesman of the district administration. Jessica Lal case convict Manu Sharma to be released prematurely, LG accepts | Oneindia News The injured were rushed to the S K Civil Hospital at district headquarters Hailakandi. In neighbouring Karimganj district, five family members, including a woman and three children, were killed in another landslide at Karimpur around 3.30 am, said district Superintendent of Police Kumar Sanjit Krishna. In Cachar district, seven people were killed by landslides at Kolapur village of Jaypur, police officials said. SDRF personnel have rushed to the three landslide sites and recovered the bodies, officials added. Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal condoled the loss of lives in the landslides. "Deeply anguished at the loss of lives due to landslides triggered by incessant rain in Barak valley. I have directed Cachar, Hailakandi & Karimganj district administrations and SDRF to step up rescue, relief operations and facilitate all possible help needed to those affected," he said in a tweet. State Minister Parimal Suklavaidya, who was in Hailakandi town to review the COVID-19 pandemic situation, has directed district authorities to immediately send their reports on the landslide to the government for payment of Rs four lakh to the next of kin of each of the deceased. Advertisement Donald Trump today declared that 'the National Guard is ready' as he repeated his threat to send troops to New York City to 'put down' the George Floyd protests - but the violence in the city was less severe last night. Thousands ignored mayor Bill de Blasio's 8pm curfew to continue their demonstrations, but police arrested more than 200 people as night fell and some of the rampant destruction of the previous few days was quelled. The calmer scenes were echoed across much of America where protesters once again turned out in force but the confrontations with police were subdued and widespread rioting was limited. It followed a day of anger from President Trump's critics over the way he threatened to deploy the military to quell riots across the US and cleared protesters in Washington DC so he could visit damaged St John's Episcopal Church. He also considered using 'tanks' or other armored military vehicles to help restore order in the US after violent protests broke out across the country for a sixth night, defense officials have revealed. This morning the president repeated his demand for 'LAW & ORDER!', urged police to 'get tough' and responded to an image of a boarded-up Manhattan with a warning that 'the National Guard is ready'. In New York, De Blasio moved the city's first curfew since 1943 forward from 11pm but rejected Trump's urging and an offer from Governor Andrew Cuomo to bring in the National Guard. Looters broke into Zara near the World Trade Center, Nordstrom Rack on 6th Avenue, fought with Guardian Angels at Foot Locker in the East Village and stores were also targeted in Soho again. One alleged looter was seen pulling up in a 500,000 Rolls Royce, an NBC producer claimed. Saks Fifth Avenue was also surrounded with razor wire after looters ransacked nearby Macy's the night before. As unrest continued for a fifth night, Trump called on officials to enlist the help of the federal government to regain control of the city. 'New York's Finest are not being allowed to perform their MAGIC but regardless, and with the momentum that the Radical Left and others have been allowed to build, they will need additional help. NYC is totally out of control. [De Blasio and Cuomo] MUST PUT DOWN RIOTING NOW!' he tweeted. Mayor de Blasio later defended his decision not to deploy National Guard troops, telling CNN their presence could have raised 'a real risk of violence and someone losing their life.' He also hit back at New York governor Cuomo who has been highly critical of De Blasio's approach to controlling the riots. He said after Tuesday night's chaos: 'The NYPD and the mayor did not do their job last night,' Cuomo had said at a briefing in Albany. 'Look at the videos. It was a disgrace.' De Blasio hit back:'He dishonored the men and women of the NYPD in an absolutely inappropriate way for any leader to do. Any elected official who blames the NYPD while they were out there fighting in the streets to restore order, protect 'people that's disgraceful.' He also confirmed Tuesday night saw 'the highest number of police we have had over the last five days,' but refused to say how many officers were on the ground. Protesters leave the Manhattan Bridge after being stopped by police last night during an 8pm curfew which thousands ignored but which was followed by less rampant destruction than on previous days in New York City Donald Trump today declared 'the National Guard is ready' as he repeated his threat to order troops into New York City Looters broke into Zara near the World Trade Center, Nordstrom Rack on 6th Avenue, fought with Guardian Angels at Foot Locker in the East Village and stores were also targeted in Soho again. People are arrested for looting in New York City last night as police swooped on people who broke the city's curfew Police officers initially let people continue on their way, while making arrests in others. Pictured: Four people are handcuffed and detained for violating curfew People are arrested after looting in New York City last night on another day of angry protests following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last week Two men hold their hands aloft as protesters are held in place by police on Manhattan Bridge on Tuesday night The Empire State Building went dark for a second night in a row in honor of George Floyd, as seen from Weehawken, NJ Thousands of protesters remained on the streets after the city's 8pm curfew went into effect. Pictured: NYPD officers face demonstrators as they continue to rally Dozens of protesters and curfew-violators were detained and loaded onto police vans as chaos erupted a fifth night Police began making arrests around 9pm, when peaceful protests turned into chaos on Tuesday night An NBC producer claimed that men were pulling up luxury cars before they appeared to ransack stores in Manhattan during a fifth night of rioting after the killing of George Floyd A demonstrator is detained by a police officer after curfew during a protest against the death of George Floyd Donald Trump has the highest disapproval rating of any president at this point in office with 54% of Americans unsatisfied with his leadership According to FiveThirtyEight's poll analysis his approval rating is 42.6 percent and disapproval rating 54.1 percent President Donald Trump has the highest disapproval rating of any president at this point in office, according to a new poll. Opinion poll analysis website FiveThirtyEight shared startling numbers showing that Trump's disapproval rate is at 54 percent, the highest it's been since October 2019. 'Trump's disapproval rating has been on the rise again, now up to 54 percent. There were some presidents with lower approval ratings to this point in their first terms, but no president had a higher *disapproval* rating than Trump now has,' site creator Nate Silver tweeted Tuesday. The only president who came close to this high disapproval rating was Jimmy Carter at 52 percent at day 1,230 of his presidency. Advertisement As of 1am, police had carried out about 200 arrests across the city, with that figure expected to rise, CNN reported. Shortly after the curfew went into effect, De Blasio had urged residents to go home 'so we can keep people safe', but he was ignored by many around the city who continued protesting throughout the city's streets. In some areas, police let people continue on their way, while making arrests in others. Demonstrators who had been on the West Side Highway in lower Manhattan were herded off, with parts of the roadway blocked off behind them. But as night fell, groups of curfew-violators and looters around the city were rounded up and handcuffed by officers before being loaded on to NYPD vans. Police began making arrests around 9pm and shut down parts of the West Side Highway in lower Manhattan, blocking it off to huge crowds of protesters. The police department had announced it would not allow vehicle traffic south of 96th Street in Manhattan after curfew, though residents, essential workers, buses and truck deliveries were exempt. An estimated 5,000 peaceful protesters were also left stranded on the Manhattan Bridge for hours after NYPD officers formed a barricade blocking entry into Manhattan after the curfew came into effect. Videos shared on social media showed demonstrators chanting 'let us through' after reaching the end of the bridge. Some took to Twitter to say they were forced to wait for two hours before officers finally let crowds through. 'Currently stuck on the Manhattan Bridge. NYPD told us the would let us through 'in 10 min' - that was 40 min ago. They now brought in multiple vans to barricade us in from both sides. They are all wearing riot gear. We have been nothing but peaceful,' one woman tweeted. Social media footage showed protesters finally began to clear the bridge around 11pm. Meanwhile in Chelsea, protester Jane Rossi said she witnessed officers rip a man out of his car and arrest him around 10.45pm. The car was behind a group of several hundred protesters that had roamed Manhattan peacefully since leaving Trump Tower at 8pm. WASHINGTON DC: Dozens of masked National Guard troops stood watch over a peaceful protest in front of the Lincoln Memorial in an extraordinary show of military force on Tuesday evening.Hundreds of people gathered for the demonstration at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Washington DC's fifth consecutive day of protests following the death of George Floyd An estimated 5,000 peaceful protesters were stranded on the bridge for up to two hours after police formed a barricade to block entry to Manhattan New York police block protesters and activists crossing the Manhattan Bridge from entering the borough NYPD officers board a bus after securing the Soho area to prevent looters during curfew following demonstrations NYPD officers load detained demonstrators on to a paddy wagon after thousands ignored 8pm curfew Dozens of people were seen being taken away in paddy wagons as NYPD cracked down on curfew-violators Tensions had risen moments earlier when some in the group began trying to damage a bike rental station and banged on the windows of a JCPenny's. The vast majority of the crowd moved to stop the them. Officers surrounded the car and arrested the driver moments later. 'They were just driving behind the protesters making sure that we were safe,' Rossi told AP. 'They were part of the protest.' Just after midnight Wednesday, most of the city's streets were cleared aside from police patrolling, especially in hot-spot areas for demonstrations in areas of Brooklyn and Manhattan. There was a heavy police presence in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights, where authorities say police fatally shot a man after responding to reports of shots fired. NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan said the officer-involved shooting was not connected to the protests. Looters also took to the streets to target businesses for a fourth night, with one video showing a group of men breaking into a Zara store. Footage uploaded on Twitter showed police tackling a group of looters to the ground as they emerged from a Zara store near Fulton St, before placing them in handcuffs. Merchants were seen boarding up storefronts in a bid to protect their businesses from looters who have targeted high-end designer stores on Manhattan's iconic Fifth Ave, as well as the Macy's flagship store. Protests over the death of George Floyd had continued across the city this afternoon, with large gatherings forming in Foley Square near City Hall, Times Square, Washington Square Park and Carl Schurz Park. Demonstrators marched peacefully, with some staging a sit-in near Carl Schurz Park on the Upper East Side, before chaos erupted across the city again after sunset. It comes as officials had been gearing up for another night of carnage. The NYPD earlier had also told cops to cancel any time off in a message sent to staff reading: 'Effective immediately, all full duty uniformed members of the service RDO's are cancelled.' Police guard the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge that heads towards Brooklyn as protesters try to cross over Thousands of people took to the streets of NYC for a fifth night on Tuesday peacefully protesting the death of George Floyd A number of demonstrations were scheduled for Tuesday afternoon as Mayor Bill de Blasio was forced to bring curfew forward from 11pm to 8pm after last night's carnage A woman holds up a Black Lives Matter sign during fifth night of George Floyd protests in NYC on Tuesday Protesters chanting 'hands up, don?t shoot!' march down Flatbush Avenue, one of Brooklyn's major streets, towards the Manhattan Bridge Protesters take a knee as a sign of unity and chant during a solidarity march for George Floyd in Times Square The daytime protests comes as the NYPD announced all non-essential traffic will be banned across Manhattan south of 96th Street starting at 8pm tonight Protesters chant during a solidarity march for George Floyd in Times Square Tuesday Protesters take a knee outside of the police station in Times Square in New York City on Tuesday New York courts had also warned their workers to stay at home because of the protest. 'The entire area around the courthouse complex will be shut down,' District Executive Edward Friedland wrote in the email, obtained by The New York Post. 'At the direction of the Chief Judge [Colleen McMahon], no SDNY staff are to come to the Foley Square courthouses tomorrow.' One protest was scheduled to be held at 1 Police Plaza, the headquarters of the New York City Police Department, but organizers changed its location in order to not interfere with protesters in custody being released at the station, according to Patch. Further demonstrations in the city were planned at the Stonewall Inn and 47th Street and Broadway, in Manhattan, 98 Fifth Ave in Brooklyn, and Fort Totten and Far Rockaway-Mott Avenue Station in Queens. NBC reporter Phil McCausland posted to Twitter that thousands gathered in Foley Square Tuesday afternoon before they began a march north through the city. Before they started out, protesters took a knee, raised a fist and chanted the names of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor while helicopters circled overhead. As they walked north, they were saluted by medical workers holding signs that read, 'Nurses fought COVID. Now we'll fight the police.' Workers putting up plywood to protect businesses from further looting also showed their support banging on wood and holding 'Black Lives Matter' signs. In Times Square, thousands of protesters took a knee while holding their fists up in solidarity. Other protests unfolded at Carl Schurz Park in the Upper East Side, as well as Washington Square Park where organizers planned to march uptown towards the mayor's residence Gracie Mansion. Footage shared on social media Tuesday evening showed thousands marching peacefully, a stark contrast to Monday night's protests. At Carl Schurz Park, photos showed demonstrators staging a sit-in and sitting on the road in silence. Police officers stand guard in Lower Manhattan as protesters march through the city Thousands took a knee as they gathered in Foley Square in Lower Manhattan in a peaceful protest that comes after four nights of chaos As of early Tuesday evening, the city protests unfolded peacefully - a stark contrast to Monday night's riots Protesters spilled onto the streets of Manhattan ahead of the city's 8pm curfew tonight Protests broke out in Washington Square Park where organizers planned to march uptown towards the mayor's residence Gracie Mansion Around the country, last night's protests were largely peaceful and the nation's streets calmer - although tensions flared just before a 9pm curfew went into effect in Atlanta. Officers launched tear gas into crowds and were met with an onslaught of water bottles and fireworks before the crowd eventually dispersed. Tens of thousands gathered in Houston to pay a hometown tribute to Floyd, who grew up in the Texas city and is to be buried there next week. 'Today is... about George Floyd's family - we want them to know that George did not die in vain,' Mayor Sylvester Turner told an estimated 60,000 people. A tearful Roxie Washington, the mother of Floyd's six-year-old daughter, told a news conference she wanted 'justice for him because he was good. No matter what anybody thinks, he was good.' Elsewhere, the Pentagon confirmed that around 1,600 active duty troops had been moved to the DC area from Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Drum in New York to assist authorities in containing the unrest in Washington. Law enforcement met with some resistance as they tried to clear protesters from near the White House. A fence was later put up to stop protesters from getting too near to the President's official residence. And in Los Angeles, dozens of protesters staged a post-curfew sit-in outside Mayor Eric Garcetti's home. They held up their hands and chanted: 'Peaceful protest' while ignoring police orders to move. ATLANTA, GEORGIA: The National Guard and cops were massed together as they faced down scattered protesters who had defied a 9pm curfew WASHINGTON DC: Law enforcement in the nation's capital were met with similar resistance as they attempted to clear the streets outside the White House BOSTON: Protesters set of fireworks following a rally honoring George Floyd on Tuesday night ORLANDO: Police deploy tear gas to disperse crowds outside Orlando City Hall on Tuesday night Revealed: Trump considered using military 'tanks' and ordered helicopters to blast protesters with their downdraft as hundreds of soldiers armed with BAYONETS are deployed to Washington Defense officials revealed Trump inquired about the use of military vehicles President asked about 'tanks' or other 'hardware' that could help restore order Trump also called for helicopters to blast protesters with their downdraft as a 'show of force' against demonstrators Twitter footage showed demonstrators quaking beneath deafening gusts Hundreds of army soldiers armed with bayonets arrived at two military bases near Washington on Tuesday evening President Donald Trump considered using 'tanks' or other armored military vehicles to help restore order in the US after violent protests broke out across the country for a sixth night, defense officials have revealed. As protests over the death of George Floyd enter their second week, Trump has threatened to deploy active duty military across the country to quell the unrest. On Monday, law enforcement officials pushed hundreds of protesters out of Washington's Lafayette Park, ahead of the district's 7pm curfew. A senior White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, revealed on Tuesday that Trump hoped to make the aggressive action in Washington an example for the rest of the country. Two Pentagon officials also told AP that the president had ordered military aircraft to fly above the capital on Monday night as a 'show of force' against demonstrators. They did not say how many or what type of aircraft had been mobilized. Videos and photographs posted on social media showed helicopters flying low over buildings and hovering just above groups who were on the street despite a district-wide curfew. Law enforcement paired the tactic with heavy use of tear gas, pellets and chemical spray as protesters marched toward the White House. Trump's tactics were decried on Tuesday by some fellow Republicans as well as his presumptive Democratic opponent Joe Biden. Show-of-force missions are designed to intimidate and, in combat zones, warn opposing forces of potential military action if provoked. Three senior defense officials also told The Daily Beast that the idea of deploying military forces was being pushed by the White House, not the Pentagon. The sources revealed Trump consulted with aides about using military vehicles or 'the kind of hardware' used by the armed forces, to help bring the chaos under control. Hundreds of people gathered for the demonstration at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Washington DC's fifth consecutive day of protests following the death of George Floyd One official said Trump did not specifically order 'tanks' to patrol the streets, but said he mentioned it in discussions because 'I think that is just one of the military words he knows'. It comes as 700 soldiers dressed in riot gear and armed with bayonets arrived at two military bases near Washington on Tuesday evening, while another 1,400 are preparing to mobilize, as the nation's capital braces for another night of chaos. Hundreds of members of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division were called earlier after Trump promised a more aggressive approach on the violence and riots unfolding across the country. Defense officials told AP the US military and National Guard were operating under the mission name 'Operation Themis' - named after the titaness of divine law and order. Moments after the historic Lafayette Park was cleared of protesters on Monday, Trump walked across to pose with a Bible in front of a church damaged by fire during protests the previous evening. He hoped his personal walk to the church would send a message about how dominant force could restore law and order, sources said. 'D.C. had no problems last night. Many arrests. Great job done by all. Overwhelming force. Domination,' Trump tweeted Tuesday, after a night in which heavily armed military forces and federal officers swarmed the city. Trump added: '(thank you President Trump!).' In an evening address in the Rose Garden on Monday, Trump called on governors to ramp up the National Guard presence in their states to tamp down the protests. If they didn't abide by those orders, Trump said, he would dispatch the military to their states - a step rarely taken in modern American history. 'SILENT MAJORITY!' Trump tweeted Tuesday, embracing a phrase popularized by President Richard Nixon decades ago, in claiming broad support for his actions. Trump also emphasized the political importance of the moment to his supporters on Twitter and declared that 'My Admin has done more for the Black Community than any President since Abraham Lincoln.' The District of Columbia's federal status gives the president outsized authority to act, allowing him to direct the deployment of the National Guard. He authorized Attorney General William Barr to oversee a surge in the deployment of federal law enforcement officers, including the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team and agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency. Stunning photos show the officers clad in full riot gear lined up in separate rows as they stared down at the crowds Dozens of National Guard troops stood watch over a peaceful protest in front of the Lincoln Memorial in an extraordinary show of military force on Tuesday evening Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sought to distance themselves from Monday night's events after former military officials criticized their appearance with the president. Senior defense officials told reporters the two were not aware that the Park Police and law enforcement had made a decision to clear the square or that Trump intended to visit the church. They had been in Washington to coordinate with federal law enforcement officials but were diverted to the White House to brief Trump on military preparations, the officials said. Former chairman of the joint chiefs Mike Mullen excoriates Donald Trump saying his orders cannot be trusted, warning president will 'politicize' the troops and saying: 'Citizens are not the enemy' By Geoff Earle, Deputy U.S. Political Editor For Dailymail.com Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen broke his silence Tuesday to say he was 'sickened' by the use of U.S. National Guard forces to push protesters out of Lafayette park to make way for President Trump's photo-op. 'I am deeply worried that as they execute their orders, the members of our military will be co-opted for political purposes,' Mullen warned. 'I have to date been reticent to speak out on issues surrounding President Trump's leadership, but we are at an inflection point, and the events of the past few weeks have made it impossible to remain silent,' Milley wrote in the Atlantic. President Donald Trump walks with US Attorney General William Barr (L), US Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper (C), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark A. Milley (R), and others from the White House to visit St. John's Church after the area was cleared of people protesting the death of George Floyd June 1, 2020, in Washington, DC Trucks transport District of Columbia National Guard troops along West Executive Drive in support of law enforcement officers that are keeping demonstrators away from the White House June 01, 2020 Mullen termed Trump's staged visit to fire-damaged St. John's church Monday a 'stunt' that raised serious issues about the role of the military in U.S. society. 'Whatever Trump's goal in conducting his visit, he laid bare his disdain for the rights of peaceful protest in this country, gave succor to the leaders of other countries who take comfort in our domestic strife, and risked further politicizing the men and women of our armed forces.' He called attention to 'institutional racism' and 'police brutality' in the wake of the death of Geroge Floyd at the hands of police, while also condemning street violence. His op-ed comes a day after Trump declared himself the 'law and order president' and said he would deploy 'thousands and thousands' of troops to American cities to restore order. Mullen said he didn't have confidence in the orders Trump would give and said it would be inappropriate to use the 1807 Insurrection Act as the basis for using U.S. troops to impose order on U.S. cities. Federal law generally prohibits the use of the military for domestic purposes. 'I remain confident in the professionalism of our men and women in uniform,' Mullen wrote. 'They will serve with skill and with compassion. They will obey lawful orders. But I am less confident in the soundness of the orders they will be given by this commander in chief, and I am not convinced that the conditions on our streets, as bad as they are, have risen to the level that justifies a heavy reliance on military troops,' he added. 'Certainly, we have not crossed the threshold that would make it appropriate to invoke the provisions of the Insurrection Act. The retired Navy admiral served under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama from 2007 through 2011. Mullen's successor as chair of the joint chiefs, General Martin Dempsey, also blasted Trump's move. Former Jt. Chiefs chair Gen. Martin Dempsey wrote that America was not a 'battleground,' after Defense Sec. Mark Esper spoke of dominating the 'battle-space' here 'America's military, our sons and daughters, will place themselves at risk to protect their fellow citizens. Their job is unimaginably hard overseas; harder at home. Respect them, for they respect you. America is not a battleground. Our fellow citizens are not the enemy,' Dempsey wrote. '#BeBetter,' he concluded, in what could be a take on first lady Melania Trump's Be Best campaign. The current chair of the joint chiefs, Gen. Mark Milley, was seen in battle fatigues accompanying Trump on his walk to St. John's. Just minutes after Mullen's article was posted, the Washington Post reported on the use of military helicopters with red cross insignia being used to show force to protesters was being called a 'foolish move' by Geoffrey Corn, a former Army lawyer. HOW TRUMP MIGHT - JUST - BE ABLE TO SEND IN TROOPS THANKS TO THE 1807 INSURRECTION ACT Trump's dramatic declaration that he would impose troops on American cities if governors defied him sets up the possibility of an epic constitutional clash in a situation with little real precedent in American history. Trump did not say what his power was, but it is the Insurrection Act of 1807. On the face of it, it allows him to send in troops. But using that Act raises a series of questions about what courts would do - and even whether the armed forces would obey him. WHAT INSURRECTION ACT ACTUALLY SAYS Whenever there is an insurrection in any against its government, the President may, upon the request of its legislature or of its governor if the legislature cannot be convened, call into Federal service such of the militia of the other, in the number requested by that, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to suppress the insurrection. Whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United in any by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, he may call into Federal service such of the militia of any, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion. The President, by using the militia or the armed forces, or both, or by any other means, shall take such measures as he considers necessary to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy, if it (1) so hinders the execution of the laws of that State, and of the United States within the State, that any part or class of its people is deprived of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and secured by law, and the constituted authorities of that State are unable, fail, or refuse to protect that right, privilege, or immunity, or to give that protection; or 2) opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws. In any situation covered by clause (1), the State shall be considered to have denied the equal protection of the laws secured by the Constitution. Whenever the President considers it necessary to use the militia or the armed forces under this chapter, he shall, by proclamation, immediately order the insurgents to disperse and retire peaceably to their abodes within a limited time. Advertisement WOULD HE REALLY USE A LAW FROM 1807? Basically, yes. In the 1790s Militia Acts, Congress gave the president specific powers to call up militias - the forerunner of federalizing the National Guard. In 1807 the Insurrection Act made clear that, in addition, the president can call up 'such part of the land or naval force of the United States as shall be judged necessary.' It has not been changed substantially since but was amended in 1871, allowing the president to use it to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment - a civil rights amendment passed after the Civil War. Another amendment in 2007, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, made clear that the president can call up troops in the case of natural disasters. WHAT WOULD HE DO? The law's only requirement is a proclamation, to 'order the insurgents to disperse and retire peaceably to their abodes within a limited time.' Once that time has passed, Trump can move in troops. Trump also has to report to Congress on what he is doing and why. SO DOES IT GIVE TRUMP THE POWER HE CLAIMS TO SEND IN THE MILITARY ON HIS OWN? The simple answer is yes, it does. But the more complicated answer could lead to a constitutional crisis. If Trump has a request from a governor to send in troops, there is no question over the legality of the deployment, at least at a federal level. But to move in military force without a governor's request, Trump has to show that the people of the state do not have the basic rights of the Constitution enforced as they are entitled to, or that an 'insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy' obstructs federal law. If a state governor or attorney general goes to court to oppose the deployment of federal troops, they would argue that the protests and the violence do not deprive people of their constitutional rights in a way that cannot be dealt with by state authorities. Trump would have to show that the state authorities are failing to give people 'equal protection,' the crucial clause in the Constitution which means that laws cannot be unfairly enforced. The first clash would be in front of a federal district judge. That clash would inevitably have to reach the Supreme Court for settlement if one side or the other does not back down. It would then become a multi-faceted constitutional question with little precedent in this or the last century. It raises questions of states rights; the meaning of equal protection; the extent of First Amendment rights to protest and who decides what the limits of those rights are; and what the Founders meant about how a president can decide to act in an emergency. HAVEN'T PRESIDENTS SENT IN TROOPS WITHOUT PERMISSION BEFORE? Yes - repeatedly, but not with clear parallels to Trump's threat. The most recent examples were Eisenhower and JFK who used federal troops in the south on three occasions during the civil rights era. Each time they were used to enforce desegregation, first in Little Rock in 1957, then in 1962 in the aftermath of the Ole' Miss Riot, where pro-segregationists clashed with federal forces. 1957: Nine black students - the Little Rock Nine - are escorted into an Arkansas high school by the National Guard on the orders of Dwight Eisenhower 1963: Alabama governor George Wallace, third from left, makes his 'Stand in the Schoolhouse Door' by refusing to admit two black students to the University of Alabama - sparking a stand-off which prompted John F. Kennedy to intervene by taking over the state's National Guard Both presidents did so by citing the clear violation of the equal protection clause in the Constitution represented by segregation, and each deployment was to one state at a time. No 20th century president ever deployed troops across multiple states without requests from governors, as happened in 1968 when troops were used in Detroit, Chicago and series of other riot-hit cities, all when governors became overwhelmed. The last time a widespread deployment happened without governors' permission was in 1894 when Grover Cleveland used federal troops to break the Pullman Strike, which was paralyzing railroads. But he started by getting a federal injunction against the strike, meaning it was clear what legal rights he was enforcing with federal troops, even if the governor of Illinois - the center of the strike - did not ask for the troops to be deployed, or the governors of the other states where troops broke strikes and took control of railroad facilities. Additionally, no state challenged the invocation of the act. Trump would be the first president to try to deploy troops in the face of states going to court to stop him. COULD TRUMP BE STOPPED FROM USING THE ACT? Yes - but it could be difficult to stop him in advance. A federal judge would have to issue an injunction against the deployment, which would be appealed to the Supreme Court. Courts have historically been very reluctant to review a president's military declarations, said law professor Robert Chesney of the University of Texas. Beyond that, it would ultimately be up to voters to remove the president at the next election if they disapprove of his use of the Act. 'Historically, the real checks on abuse of these authorities have been political,' said Vladeck, the law professor. But this time might be more complicated - an injunction against deployment is a real possibility if a federal judge is being asked by a governor to stop a troop deployment because the governor claims it is unconstitutional. That would send it to the Supreme Court and until it is resolved there, the deployment is likely to stay on hold. The case would center on whether the Founders really wanted a president to be able to unilaterally intervene in the day-to-day policing of their states - over the objection of those states. SO WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN AT THE SUPREME COURT? A clash between a state - and probably groups of states - and Trump would have to go to the Supreme Court unless one or other backs down. The judges are a 5-4 conservative majority, with conservatives who say their key loyalty is to interpreting the Constitution as closely as they possibly can to the intention of the framers who wrote it. That would put two questions at the heart of it: Did the framers think the president should be able to intervene unilaterally in the 'police power' of states to guarantee their citizens' health, law and order If they did, are the circumstances right for Trump to do that? On one side states might well argue that the founding fathers wanted federal government kept out of states' affairs as much as possible, that the Articles of Confederation make that clear, and that the violence in their cities does not meet the high standards set for using the federal military. They would also be likely to argue a practical point - that states have not had a chance to decide on whether to ask for federal help, or if they have, have decided against it. And they would also be likely to claim that the 10th Amendment to the Constitution puts 'police' powers primarily in the hands of the states. Trump's case would center on the idea that the states could no longer guarantee the fundamental rights to life and liberty for the people of their cities, so it's up to the federal government to step in. He would have to argue that the founders' proclamation of equal protection is the key to his actions. And he would have to argue that military action assists people's right to protest under the First Amendment. Then it would be up to the justices in probably the most consequential decision since Bush v Gore in 2000. COULD THE MILITARY DISOBEY TRUMP? Quite possibly, yes. The military swear an oath to the Constitution, not to the president, and acknowledge him as commander-in-chief. They have a duty to follow lawful orders. If a federal judge issued an injunction again Trump's order, the military would be expected to comply. They would then have to wait for the outcome of the case. The situation could vary state by state. Trump would order the military in to each state, forcing each state which objects to go to court and seek an injunction. There could be a patchwork of deployments. And inside the Pentagon, lawyers would have to work out what the rules are and whether Trump's orders are lawful. OTHER TIMES TROOPS QUELLED RIOTS Troops have been called in to help deal with violent unrest repeatedly since World War II - and even during it. In 1943 FDR acted when the governor of Michigan asked for military help as Detroit was racked by racial violence. As social unrest gripped the nation in 1968, Johnson had to send for federal troops to put down three further riots in Washington, Baltimore and Chicago. The rioting followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968 in a wave of violence which reached dozens of US cities. Johnson was able to deploy troops in Washington without invitation, as commander-in-chief of the District of Columbia's national guard. In Baltimore and Chicago, the respective local leaders - governor Spiro Agnew of Maryland, the future vice president, and mayor Richard Daley of Chicago - requested Johnson's help to put down the riots. In the most recent case, president George H.W. Bush sent federal troops to Los Angeles during the Rodney King riots in 1992. Military units were deployed at the request of California governor Pete Wilson after the violence which broke out when four cops were acquitted of beating King. 1992: A man burns an American flag during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, the last time that a president - George H.W. Bush - invoked the Insurrection Act Other uses of the Act Having lobbied for the Insurrection Act in 1807, Jefferson was the first to use it the following year to enforce a trade embargo during the Napoleonic Wars. Jefferson declared New York's Lake Champlain on the Canadian border to be in insurrection because of its role in smuggling, allowing him to enforce the blockade. In addition to riots and civil rights clashes, presidents have dispatched federal troops to combat a variety of strikes and other brief episodes of unrest. In 1989, George H.W. Bush sent troops to keep the peace in the Virgin Islands after looting in the wake of Hurricane Hugo. His son George W. Bush considered sending troops to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but eventually decided against. The Bush White House's concerns about the legality of such a move prompted the 2007 amendment which specifically mentioned natural disasters. There have been other occasions where the military was deployed under different laws or where the mere threat of sending troops was enough to restore calm. Richard Nixon ordered the military to keep mail services running during a postal strike in 1970, citing the 1932 Economy Act rather than the Insurrection Act. In 1987, Ronald Reagan authorized his Secretary of Defense to call up the National Guard to quell an Atlanta prison riot, but the troops did not prove necessary. UACN Property Development Company (UPDC) Plc on Tuesday, listed N16 billion rights issue of 15.96 billion ordinary shares at N1 per share on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). With the listing, the company became yet another beneficiary of the Exchanges commitment to providing continued access to capital even in the face of COVID-19. NSEs Chief Executive Officer, Oscar Onyema, speaking at the virtual Closing Gong ceremony to commemorate the listing, commended the company for the successful completion of the rights issue. We congratulate the management and team at UACN Property Development Company, as well as the professional parties to the issue for the successful completion of the transaction. At the NSE, we prioritise our responsibility to support the development of issuers, dealing member firms and the investing public, and we continue to work assiduously to respond to the needs of our stakeholders at every time. We are, therefore, pleased to provide support to UPDC on this successful capital raise, and we remain committed to providing opportunities for trading activities across multiple asset classes equities, bonds, ETFs, Mr Onyema said. He said the Exchange would remain focused on leveraging technology and business innovation to sustain full operations during this pandemic. Commenting on the transaction, Folasope Aiyesimoji, UPDC Group Managing Director, lauded the NSE for embracing technology. I am deeply honoured to virtually sound the Closing Gong at the NSE today. The innovation and forward thinking displayed by the Exchange in harnessing technology to make this possible is truly commendable. We at UPDC are excited about the milestone we have achieved today, and we are confident that the funds raised will further strengthen our capital structure and position us for growth. We count ourselves fortunate to be listed on the NSE which exposes us to a wide pool of investors and funding options. We must also commend the NSE for its efforts in building investor confidence, which has made it possible for us to access this capital. We are grateful for the trust reposed in us by investors and we are keen to get on with the invaluable projects this capital will support, Mr Aiyesimoji said. (NAN) The standoff between India and China started near Line of Actual Control and in Sikkim after China has moved two brigade strength of Peoples Liberation Army of over 6000 soldiers at four locations in eastern Ladakh and three in the Galwan Valley and one near Pangong Lake. Beijing also upped the ante by sending more troops to Sikkim and trying to breach Indian border which resulted in skirmishes between the troops of the two countries. Responding to Chinese aggression, which India had also moved an equal number of high-altitude warfare troops to these areas closer to the Line of Actual Control. Here's the complete timeline of how the tension escalated between both countries and what's the current scenario: Late April: The tension regarding the boundary issue between India and China started building up. May 5 and May 6: Scuffles at Pangong Tso and at Naku La in North Sikkim which resulted in significant injuries due to aggressive behaviour on both sides. Chinese troops moved in in large numbers with vehicles and equipment objecting to road construction by India and have also pitched tents, sources said. The Army has declined to comment despite repeated requests. Chinese troops are close to Finger 2 area of Pangong Tso area and are blocking our movement forward, two sources said. The Pangong Tso is 135 km long and 5-7 km in width of which about one-third is held by India while the rest is held by China. After the scuffle on May 5, both sides moved in additional troops and are entrenched there. 12 May: The Chinese military helicopters were seen flying close to the Line of Actual Control on at least a couple of occasions after which a fleet of Su-30 fighters of the Indian Air Force too were sent to carry our sorties in the area. Additional troops were also rushed into the site following the fracas. 23 May: Army Chief General Manoj Naravane visited the Leh-based 14 Corps headquarters to review the overall situation on the ground. 26 May: Chinese President Xi Jinping directed Chinas armed forces to strengthen training of troops and to be ready for war. State media reports quoted the Chinese premier as saying that it was important to comprehensively strengthen the training of troops and prepare for war, resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and safeguard the overall strategic stability of the country. 26 May: India's top military brass meets PM Modi amid escalating border tension with China The meeting came hours after the top four generals briefed Defence Minister Rajnath Singh about the situation in Pangong Tso lake, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldi where the Indian and Chinese troops were engaged in aggressive posturing for the last 20 days. 1 June: Amid the ongoing standoff between the Indian Army and Chinas People Liberation Army at several locations in eastern Ladakh, Beijing said that the overall situation along the China-India border is stable and controllable. 1 June: Chinese fighters flying 30-35 kms from Eastern Ladakh, India watching closely "The Chinese have kept a fleet of around 10-12 fighter aircraft stationed there at the moment and they are also carrying out flying activity close to the Indian territory. We are keeping a close eye on the movement of these J-11 and J-7 fighter aircraft," sources told ANI here. 2 June: US Foreign Affairs Panel Chief Slams "Chinese Aggression" Against India Elliot Engel, chief of the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, said that he was "extremely concerned" by the Chinese aggression against India along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh and urged Beijing to "respect norms and use diplomacy and existing mechanisms to resolve its border questions". China has moved up its forces along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said, asserting that authoritarian regimes take these kinds of actions. Soldiers of the two countries are kept prepared at four locations along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. Several rounds of talks between local military commanders have failed to end the standoff that began with a violent confrontation between rival patrols on May 5-6 near Pangong Tso that left scores of soldiers from both sides injured. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc presides over the Cabinet meeting Tuesday to debate socio-economic performance in the first five months. Photo: VGP The Cabinet members also discuss the implementation of the Resolution No. 01, report on investment capital for te 2021-2025 period, report on implementation of ResolutionNo. 17 on E-government development, among others. Regarding socio-economic performance, official data showed that 5,056 enterprises resumed operation, up 32.7%, industrial production rose 11.2% and exports increased by 5.2% in May. The total retail sales of goods and services soared 26.9% from April but dipped by 4.8% against the same period last year. In the Jan-May period, industrial production only picked up 1% compared to the same period last year, due to disruptive of the supply chain. Due to the serious impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign arrivals to Viet Nam fell by 48.8% to 3.7 million in the reviewed period, the General Statistics Office said Friday. Of the total, 72.9% tourists were from Asia, down 51.4%. The fall was seen in almost all major markets, such as China (-57.2%), Malaysia (-53.9%), the Republic of Korea (53.4%), Japan (-48.2%), France (47.5%), the UK (-44.3%), and Russia (-23.2%). Tourism revenue was estimated at VND 8.3 trillion, down 54.1%. he GSO said export turnover reached US$99.36 billion, down 1.7%year-on-year. The domestic sectors export value was US$33.3 billion, up 10.4% compared to the same period last year, while the FDI sectors exports, including crude oil, were valued at US$66.06 billion, down 6.9%. Commodities seeing strong growth in export value during the period included machinery, equipment, tools, and spare parts with 25%; computers, electronic products, and components with 22.1%; rice with 17.2%; coffee with 2.9%; and cashew nuts with 2.2%. Those with declining turnover were telephones and components (8.8%), textiles (14.5%), footwear (4.6%), fruit and vegetables (10.3%), rubber (29.6%), and pepper (17.9%). Meanwhile, import value reached US$97.48 billion, down 3.% year-on-year, the GSO said. The US was the largest importer of Vietnamese goods in the period, with turnover reaching US$24.6 billion, up 8.2%. It was followed by China with turnover of US$16.3 billion, up 20.1%. Viet Nam's exports to the EU and ASEAN fell 12% and 13.4%, with turnover of US$12.9 billion and US$9.4 billion, respectively. The Southeast Asian country lured a total of US$13.9 billion in foreign investment, down 17% from the same period last year. There were 1,212 newly-registered projects capitalized at US$7.4 billion, down 11.1% in number and up 15.2% in capital. Among 58 countries and territories having new projects in Viet Nam, Singapore was the largest investor, with more than US$4.3 billion, followed by Chinese Taipei with US$743 million, China with US$694 million, Hong Kong (China) with US$500 million, and the Republic of Korea with US$441 million. PM requests striving for highest possible socio-economic targets in 2020 Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked ministries, agencies and localities to do their best to reach the highest possible socio-economic targets this year. During the monthly Government meeting in Hanoi on June 2, the PM said thanks to effective epidemic prevention and control as well as economic recovery, Vietnams prestige on international arena has increasingly improved. He noted that the USs Economics magazine had ranked Vietnam the 12th out of 66 emerging economies in terms of financial health in early May. Recently, the USs S&P rankings maintained Vietnams sovereign credit rating at BB and its outlook at stable. About challenges that must be overcome in the near future, he emphasized the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing trade and technology tension between major economies. At the same time, the countrys economic growth rate was lower than expected and industrial production dropped due to disrupted supply chains. Though the country ran a trade surplus of around 2 billion USD, the export of a number of products saw strong reduction due to disruptions in the global supply chain while budget deficit surged, forecast to account for about 5 percent of the gross domestic product. PM Phuc directed staying vigilant to the epidemic, especially in major cities and populated areas. He also required ministries, agencies and localities to step up the approval and implementation of monetary, fiscal and social welfare support packages, while carrying out the Governments Resolution 84 on removing difficulties faced by businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises. Ministries and sectors were told to accelerate public investment disbursement, particularly transportation, airport and seaport projects while stimulating domestic consumption and tourism demand, developing social housing for workers and the poor. Regarding the issue under the National Assemblys supreme supervision, the Government leader requested taking stronger actions to prevent child abuse and protect childrens rights. In order to reduce pork prices, he suggested encouraging large-scale investment in pig breeding, using modern technology and launching a movement on pig breeding on the back of African swine fever combat, as well as increasing pork import./.VGP/VNA Ngoc Van Hong Kong: More HK people to return from India The second batch of Hong Kong residents stranded in India will take a special flight arranged by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government to return to Hong Kong tomorrow morning at the earliest. The flight, tentatively scheduled to depart from Mumbai, will assist Hong Kong residents located in Mumbai and those in its surrounding areas with special needs such as people with illness, pregnant women, children as well as family members travelling with them. Over the past few days, the Immigration Department contacted assistance seekers who meet these circumstances to confirm their wishes to take the flight, and to obtain their personal particulars for applying for travel permission from the local government. It is initially estimated that the flight will carry about 300 people and the cost will be borne by the passengers. Upon arrival in Hong Kong, the returnees will proceed to the Temporary Specimen Collection Centre at AsiaWorld-Expo for compulsory COVID-19 testing. After their deep throat saliva samples are collected, the returnees will be transferred to the quarantine centre at Chun Yeung Estate for a 14-day compulsory quarantine. In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian Government has banned all international flight movements since late March. As at June 1, the Immigration Department has successfully contacted about 4,800 Hong Kong residents stranded in India. The first batch of about 250 residents stranded there returned to Hong Kong on May 18 on a chartered flight arranged by the Hong Kong SAR Government from New Delhi. There are still many Hong Kong residents in different areas of India. Considering the traffic restrictions still in place across India, and having regard to the quarantine arrangement for the returnees and the capacities of relevant facilities, the Hong Kong SAR Government will assist them in returning to Hong Kong in an orderly manner in batches subject to the circumstances. This story has been published on: 2020-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-03 01:42:55|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ATHENS, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Greece's privatization fund announced on Tuesday that six interested parties prequalify to the next phase for the privatization of the country's Public Gas Corporation (DEPA) infrastructure entity, the DEPA Infrastructure. During Tuesday's meeting, the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF) decided, in agreement with Hellenic Petroleum (HELPE), that six interested parties meet the criteria to participate in the binding offers phase of the tender process for the acquisition of 100 percent of the share capital of DEPA Infrastructure, according to an e-mailed HRADF press release. Currently a 65 percent stake in DEPA Infrastructure is owned by HRADF and 35 percent stake is owned by HELPE. DEPA Infrastructure was established earlier this year after the corporate restructuring of the DEPA group of companies. Among the interested parties prequalified to participate in Phase B of the tender is, according to the announcement, the consortium of Sino-CEE Fund & Shanghai Dazhong Public utilities (Group) Co. Ltd from China. The other five are EP Investment Advisors, a European energy group that owns and operates assets in many European countries; First State Investments (European Diversified Infrastructure Fund II); Italy's largest natural gas distributor Italgas SpA; KKR Global Infrastructure Investors III L.P. and Maqouarie (MEIF 6 DI HOLDINGS). Following the signing of the relevant confidentiality agreement, the parties prequalified will receive the documents of Phase B and be granted access to the virtual data room (VDR), where data and information related to DEPA Infrastructure are uploaded, HRADF said. Greece's privatization program was launched in 2010 as part of the bailout programs implemented to pull the country out of a severe debt crisis. The country's third bailout program ended in the summer of 2018, but Greece continues with its privatizations, remaining committed to the path of fiscal discipline and reforms. Enditem New Zealand is set to scrap social distancing from next week and move to level 1 after 11 days without a single new case of coronavirus. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said today: 'Our strategy of go hard, go early has paid off... and in some cases, beyond expectations.' Swinging into level 1 means all social distancing measures and limits on mass gatherings will be lifted, but borders will remain closed. New Zealand had just one active case of COVID-19 in the country on Tuesday, and has only recorded a total of 22 deaths and 1,154 cases since the pandemic began. Patrons enjoying a drink in Christchurch on May 21 - the date when the final phase of alert 2 came into effect. Alert level 2, which was initiated on May 13, allows for businesses to get back to work, shops, schools, restaurants, cinemas and bars to reopen and social gatherings of up to 100 people. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said today: 'Our strategy of go hard, go early has paid off... and in some cases, beyond expectations' This was largely because of a strict lockdown enforced for nearly seven weeks, in which most businesses were shut and everyone except essential workers had to stay at home. 'We will be one of the first countries in the world to return to this level of normality so quickly,' Ardern said. The cabinet will decide on moving to level 1 on June 8, earlier than the planned date of June 22, she said. Ardern said the move was contingent on there being no new cases over the next six days. New Zealand had just one active case of COVID-19 in the country on Tuesday, and has only recorded a total of 22 deaths and 1,154 cases since the pandemic began Alert level 2, which was initiated on May 13, allows for businesses to get back to work, shops, schools, restaurants, cinemas and bars to reopen and social gatherings of up to 100 people. The only curb on freedoms appears to be the enforcement of social distancing and the limits on mass gatherings. It is not clear precisely how level 1 will differ. Ardern said that 'life (at level 1) feels very, very normal,' except for tight controls at the borders. Thousands of New Zealanders marched on Monday decrying the death of George Floyd, a black American, in police custody in the U.S. last week, despite social distancing restrictions. Ardern said she was 'horrified' by Floyd's death but noted that the protesters had flouted rules (pictured: hundreds of Black Lives Matter demonstrators in Auckland on Monday) Ardern said she was 'horrified' by Floyd's death but noted that the protesters had flouted rules. 'I think I stand with everyone else in being horrified in what we've seen,' regarding Floyd, Ardern told state broadcaster TVNZ in an interview earlier in the day. 'I don't want to stop peaceful protests... but rules are there to protect people,' she said, adding that she understood the sentiment of the protesters. Ardern has been described by some liberal supporters as an 'anti-Trump,' promoting issues such as social justice, multilateralism, and equality. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-03 00:06:33|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Ga rdeners wearing masks work at a flower shop in Baghdad, Iraq, on June 2, 2020. Iraq's Health Ministry on Tuesday said that the total number of COVID-19 cases jumped to 7,387 after setting a new record of daily increase with 519 infections. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood) BAGHDAD, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Iraq's Health Ministry on Tuesday said that the total number of COVID-19 cases jumped to 7,387 after setting a new record of daily increase with 519 infections. The new cases included 350 in the capital Baghdad, 34 in Maysan, 31 in Karbala, 28 in Sulaimaniyah, 25 in Basra, 21 in Najaf, nine in Babil, eight in Muthanna, six in Duhok, five in Diyala, and one in each of Nineveh and Erbil, the ministry said in a statement. It also said that 20 people died from the coronavirus during the day, in the highest single-day rise, bringing the death toll in the country to 235, while 3,508 patients have recovered. The new cases were recorded after 13,463 test kits were used across the country during the past 24 hours, and a total of 251,714 tests have been carried out since the outbreak of the disease, according to the statement. Meanwhile, Iraqi Minister of Health Hassan al-Tamimi reiterated his call on the citizens to cooperate with the health authorities through abiding by the measures of the full curfew to avoid catastrophic consequences. "The ban of the people and vehicles movement as well as gatherings are not for security purposes, but rather to protect you and to prevent the spread of the disease, especially after the increase in the number of infections," al-Tamimi said in a separate statement. The Iraqi authorities imposed a week-long curfew from May 31 to June 6 after a meeting of the Higher Committee for Health and National Safety headed by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. The committee ordered the security forces to tighten the health restrictions through preventing all forms of gatherings that could lead to the spread of the virus. China has been helping Iraq fight the COVID-19 pandemic, through enhancing Iraq's capability of containing the spread of the contagious respiratory disease. From March 7 to April 26, a Chinese team of seven medical experts spent 50 days in Iraq to help fight the disease, during which they helped build a PCR lab and an advanced CT scanner in Baghdad. Since March 7, China has also sent three batches of medical aid to Iraq. Harpreet Bajwa By Express News Service CHANDIGARH: A Bangladeshi youth was arrested by the Border Security Force (BSF) jawans while he was trying to sneak into Pakistan at Wagah border on Sunday. He was handed over to Punjab Police. Nayanmiah Abdullah, who is in his twenties, belongs to Baiparypara village of Shariatpura district of Bangladesh. He was apprehended in front of the Integrated Check Post (ICP) exit gate as he wanted to go to Karachi in Pakistan to meet his 'lady love'. The youth did not carry any documents and when the BSF personnel inquired he requested the troopers that he should be allowed to go to Pakistan. During the questioning, the Bangladeshi national told the police that he was doing his post-graduation in his country. He met a girl from Karachi on social media about six months back and fell in love with her. They were in touch with each other through video calls. Recently, the girl told the youth that he should come to Karachi if he wants to marry her. In order to meet and marry the girl, he left home without any documents. He reached Kolkata and from there to Amritsar by hitchhiking. About 15 days ago he reached the holy city and stayed there at different places. The police have registered a case against the youth. Senior Superintendent of Police (Amritsar Rural) Vikramjit Singh Duggal said that action will be taken as per the law and the Bangladeshi embassy will be informed about the incident. By PTI NEW DELHI: Women rights activists called "unfortunate" the decision to prematurely release Jessica Lal murder case convict Manu Sharma, saying it sets a wrong precedent. Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal approved the premature release of Sharma, who is serving a life sentence in the case, according to an official order. The Delhi Sentence Review Board (SRB) which comes under the Delhi government had recommended Sharma's release from the Tihar Jail last month. ALSO READ | Hope Manu never repeats same mistake: Jessica Lal's sister Sabrina Activist-politician Brinda Karat said there is absolutely no ground for giving Sharma a lenient release and that it is surprising that a board headed by a Delhi minister should come forth with such a recommendation. "On what basis did the Delhi Sentence Review Board take a decision to recommend a criminal, who is convicted of the murder of a young woman, to be released three years earlier? It sets a very wrong precedent," she said. "Good behaviour is subjective When somebody is convicted, unless he is proved to be not guilty, but he is proven guilty. He has a 20-year sentence he should complete those 20 years and particularly in such a case in which a young girl was so brutally murdered. So it sets a wrong precedent," Karat added. ALSO READ | Jessica Lal murder convict prematurely released from jail after Lt Guv's nod Women rights activist Shamina Shafiq said the decision to release Sharma is "shocking and bizarre". "Already the country has been dealing with so much as far as crime against women is concerned. For Nirbhaya', it took so many years of turmoil to get justice for the family. Now, we see one more person walking scot-free and in the name of what? In the pretext of what?" she said. "I hope better sense prevails and the government thinks about giving stringent punishment and send a strong message to society instead of actually going so soft on the criminals, especially those with serious charges. It is not something to rejoice it is something to really think and ponder as to whether the government is actually serious about Beti Bachao' or is it only sloganeering," Shafiq, a former member of the National Commission for Women, said. Chhavi Methi from the Bharatiya Samajik Jagritik Sanghatan called the development "unfortunate". "The decision is unfortunate. It is very subjective what good behaviour is and what work he has actually done to show good behaviour'. It should not be a ground for basing early release," she noted. Yogita Bhayana, who heads the People Against Rape in India (PARI), however, said Sharma should be given the "benefit of doubt"." if he has reformed and if he is going early because of his good behaviour, it should be fine. I heard his stories about regret. What happened is unfortunate, but if he regrets it, then he should be given the benefit of doubt. And it isn't that he is coming out very early, he is coming out two-three years early. A murderer can be reformed not a rapist," she said. PARI seeks to support rape survivors and help them in their fight for justice. Manu Sharma, son of former Union minister Venod Sharma, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court in December 2006 for killing Jessica Lal in 1999. A trial court had acquitted him, but the high court reversed the order. The Supreme Court later upheld his life sentence in April 2010. Lal was shot dead by Sharma after she refused to serve him liquor at the Tamarind Court restaurant owned by socialite Bina Ramani at Qutub Colonnade in south Delhi's Mehrauli area on the night of April 30, 1999. Children in the Republic under the age of 16 will be able to legally change their gender under plans being discussed by Fine Gael. (Martin Keene/PA) Children in the Republic under the age of 16 will be able to legally change their gender under plans being discussed by Fine Gael. A Fine Gael policy paper drafted for the government formation talks recommends changing laws to allow all children to change their gender. Under current legislation only those over 18 can legally change their gender in the Republic. Children aged 16 and 17 can apply to the courts to have their gender changed if they have parental consent and medical approval. However, in the report drafted by Fine Gael's LGBT Committee it is recommended that these children should be free to legally self-declare their own gender. The committee, which includes Taoiseach Leo Varadkar as a member, also says laws need to be changed to allow all children under 16 change their gender with parental approval. It says laws should be changed to "permit children aged under 16 years of age to secure legal recognition of gender by removing the criterion relating to minimum age". The 15 page report also recommends that the Gender Recognition Act 2015 be changed to "allow for the recognition of a gender other than male or female in law". It says that current legislation allows changes of gender "only from female to male and from male to female". The committee notes that a number of countries including Germany, Denmark and Canada allow people to declare a "third gender" on official documentation. They recommend that the next government should allow people who do not consider themselves either male or female to be permitted to mark X on their passports. Blood taken for donation and pathology tests will be used to try to measure the nations rate of hidden coronavirus infections, with thousands of cases potentially missing from the official tally. The strategy is part of a new national COVID-19 surveillance plan and will see blood samples from across the nation tested for coronavirus antibodies. Blood donations will be screened in an attempt to pick up previously undetected cases of coronavirus. Credit:Tamara Dean Meanwhile, mass testing using throat and nose swabs to detect current infections will continue to focus on those most at risk, with priority given to those with a fever or acute respiratory illness, contacts of confirmed cases and people with links to outbreaks. Professor Kristine Macartney, director of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, said targeted testing had been key to the nations success to date. But she also warned against any complacency. By Express News Service KOCHI: Break the Chain may be the slogan in currency in these difficult times. But the fact that the Chain of Virtue remains unbroken was proved conclusively on Monday by the two children of heart recipient Leena. While she was discharged from Lisie Hospital after a successful heart transplant, Shiona -- an MTech student -- and her brother Basil -- a Law student -- hade little hesitation in pledging all their transplantable organs in lieu of the new lease of life received by their mother. Bearing testimony to the magnanimity of another family, their altruistic decision serves as a gesture worthy of emulation. Health Minister KK Shailaja, who participated in the farewell function through video- conferencing, complimented Leenas children, Lisie Hospital and the family of Laly, who donated her heart to Leena. The Ernakulam-Angamaly Diocese Archbishop Mar Antony Kariyil delivered the blessing sermon.Leena (49), a native of Kothamangalam underwent heart transplant on May 9 after the family members of Laly, a native of Chembazhanthi in Thiruvananthapuram, agreed to the heart donation. After the intervention of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the heart was flown from KIMS Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram, to Lisie Hospital in a helicopter owned by the state government. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2020) - Contact Gold Corp. (the "Company" or "Contact Gold") (TSXV: C) (OTCQB: CGOL) is pleased to announce it has received a Notice of Intent ("NOI") permit from the Bureau of Land Management ("BLM") to conduct drilling at its newly defined Zulu target at the Green Springs gold project located on the Cortez Trend in Nevada. Zulu is located 200m south of the property's high-grade Echo Zone. The Zulu NOI is in addition to the existing 70 Acre Plan of Operations permitting drilling at the key target areas at Green Springs. Zulu Target - Key Points: Southward extension of north-south gold mineralized corridor that yields high-grade oxide gold at the Echo Zone, highlights of which include: 5.05 g/t Au over 39.6 m 2.3 g/t Au over 70m 3.5 g/t Au over 38m Target developed through mapping and 3D modeling of gold mineralization and geology at the nearby Delta and Echo zones Three historical drill holes at the northern edge of Zulu returned 18.2m of 0.62 g/t Au in hole 87-559 22.0m of 0.34 g/t Au in hole GS15-08 10.6m of 0.30 g/t Au in hole 87-553 The NOI permit allows for road building and drill pad setup in three key locations that will be used to target gold mineralization at Zulu Gold mineralization at Zulu is interpreted to be hosted near the contact of the Chainman Shale and Joanna Limestone, which are the same host rocks as the property's Echo, Delta and Charlie Zones Zulu Target: The Zulu Target is located 200m south of the Echo Zone. This target represents the southern extension of the north-south trend of gold mineralization that defines the Delta and Echo zones, at an intersection with an east-west cross fault, which is an important control on gold mineralization in all the known zones. One historical hole along this trend, which returned 18.29m of 0.62 g/t Au, indicates that significant thicknesses of gold mineralization continue to the south of Echo. Story continues "Based on our successful drilling at Echo Zone last year, we believe the structural corridor that controls high-grade oxide gold mineralization at Echo continues south into the Zulu Target. Our team has developed a robust geological model that ties together all historical data and gives a clear picture of the controls to gold mineralization and where to target them beyond previously identified zones" stated Matthew Lennox-King, CEO for Contact Gold. Zulu and the other gold discoveries at Green Springs are located 10km east of Fiore Gold's Gold Rock and Pan mines and 10km south of Waterton Global Resources Mt. Hamilton gold deposit. For a map of the Zulu Target and the permitted drill pad sites please click: http://www.contactgold.com/_resources/images/GS-Zulu-20200601.jpg For a location map of the Green Springs target areas, please click: http://www.contactgold.com/_resources/news/GS-Targets-20200324.jpg Contact Gold signed a purchase option agreement with Ely Gold Royalties ("Ely Gold") to acquire an undivided 100% interest in Green Springs in July 2019. Green Springs is an early stage exploration property and does not contain any mineral resource estimates as defined by National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"). There has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource estimate at Green Springs. The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Vance Spalding, CPG, VP Exploration, Contact Gold, who is a "qualified person" within the meaning of NI 43-101. Drill intercepts were calculated using a minimum thickness of 3.05 metres averaging 0.14 ppm gold and allowing inclusion of up to 4.57 metres of material averaging less than 0.14 ppm gold for low grade intervals and higher grade intervals were calculated using a minimum thickness of 3.05 metres averaging 1.00 ppm gold and allowing inclusion of up to 4.57 metres of assays averaging less than 1.00 ppm gold. Gravimetric assays are used for all Fire Assays above 4.00 ppm gold. Cyanide solubility assays are completed on all Fire Assays greater than 0.1 g/t. True width of drilled mineralization is unknown, but owing to the apparent flat lying nature of mineralization, is estimated to generally be at least 70% of drilled thickness. The composited grades for comparison to the Bottle Roll assays are weighted averages of the amount of pulp used from individual 5 foot assays. Quality Assurance / Quality Control consists of regular insertion of certified reference standards, blanks, and duplicates. All failures are followed up and resolved whenever possible with additional investigation whenever such an event occurs. All assays are completed at ALS Chemex; an ISO 17025:2005 accredited lab. Check assays are completed at a second, reputable assay lab after the program is complete. About Contact Gold Corp. Contact Gold is an exploration company focused on producing district scale gold discoveries in Nevada. Contact Gold's extensive land holdings are on the prolific Carlin, Independence and Northern Nevada Rift gold trends which host numerous gold deposits and mines. Contact Gold's land position comprises approximately 140 km2 of target rich mineral tenure hosting numerous known gold occurrences, ranging from early- to advanced-exploration and resource definition stage. Additional information about the Company is available at www.contactgold.com . For more information, please contact: +1 (604) 449-3361 John Glanville - Director Investor Relations Chris Pennimpede - Corporate Development E-mail: info@ContactGold.com Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of this release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, to the anticipated exploration activities of the Company on the Green Springs property. These forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time such statements were made. Actual future results may differ materially as forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to materially differ from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors, among other things, include; business integration risks; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; fluctuations in spot and forward prices of gold, silver, base metals or certain other commodities; fluctuations in currency markets (such as the Canadian dollar to United States dollar exchange rate); change in national and local government, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments; risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining (including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected formations pressures, cave-ins and flooding); inability to obtain adequate insurance to cover risks and hazards; the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities and indigenous populations; availability of increasing costs associated with mining inputs and labour; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development (including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses, permits and approvals from government authorities); and title to properties. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the Company believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure shareholders that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. The Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/57025 This transmission electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 -- also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19 -- isolated from a patient in the US. Virus particles are shown emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab. The spikes on the outer edge of the virus particles give coronaviruses their name, crown-like. Credit: NIAID-RML A scientific group led by Skoltech Professor Evgeny Nikolaev, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, has developed a coronavirus testing technology based on mass spectrometry. The new method provides for quick detection of viral proteins in swab samples from the nasopharynx, sputum and mouthwashes. It can form the basis of a platform for rapid screening of the population for coronavirus infection. The technology description is published in the bioRxiv electronic scientific library. Every day, tens of thousands of coronavirus tests are conducted around the world. Rapid and accurate population testing is one of the main ways to control the epidemiological situation. The standard method is based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which detects the presence of viral RNA in a sample by propagating its number in the sample to the detection threshold. Though it is generally available and widespread, this method is relatively slow and leads to a significant percentage of false-negative test results. Mass spectrometry is the most informative modern technology for the analysis of molecular substances, including complex multicomponent mixtures. In mass spectrometers, substances are ionized and their mass is measured using electric and magnetic fields. In medicine, mass spectrometry is used, in particular, in biochemical analysis to identify and determine the amount of proteins, lipids of metabolites and other chemical compounds in physiological fluids and body tissues. Skoltech researchers, working together with the colleagues from Kulakov Scientific Center for Obstetrics, Gynecology and Perinatology and Russian Academy of Sciences, have discovered how to detect and identify proteins that are part of a viral particle and that are unique, found only in this type of virus. Mass spectrometry methods can simultaneously analyze hundreds of saliva and smear samples from the surface of the nasopharynx, as well as sputum, for the virus presence. This method has absolute selectivity and high sensitivity, and its use will reduce the number of false-negative results and determine the presence of coronavirus even at very low initial concentrations in the samples. Researchers plan to build a platform for rapid screening of the population for coronavirus infection. "We use mass spectrometry and identify the individual peptides that are derived by break down proteins with enzymes. It's very fast. If you do not take into account logistics, then one analysis of about a hundred samples can be performed in about 10 minutes," says Evgeny Nikolaev, professor at the Center for Computational and Data Intensive Science (CDISE). Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak More information: EN Nikolaev et al. Mass Spectrometric detection of SARS-CoV-2 virus in scrapings of the epithelium of the nasopharynx of infected patients via Nucleocapsid N protein, (2020). EN Nikolaev et al. Mass Spectrometric detection of SARS-CoV-2 virus in scrapings of the epithelium of the nasopharynx of infected patients via Nucleocapsid N protein,(2020). DOI: 10.1101/2020.05.24.113043 MINNEAPOLIS (AP) Chants of Whats his name? George Floyd! filled the air Monday as a large crowd gathered at the spot where the black man who became the latest symbol of racial injustice in America lay dying as a white police officer pressed his knee into his neck. Wearing a face mask with Georges Floyd's image on it, his brother Terrence Floyd dropped to his knees at the storefront that has been turned into a memorial covered with flowers and signs. As he kneeled silently, many who were around him joined him on the ground. The memorial site was a space of calm compared to the devastation left in the wake of fires and violence that paralyzed the city for days last week before it spread nationwide. I understand yall are upset. I doubt yall are half as upset as I am, said Terrence Floyd, who lives in New York. What are yall doing? ... Thats not going to bring my brother back at all. George Floyd, 46, died last week after he was arrested in Minneapolis, accused of using a forged $20 bill to pay for goods at a grocery store. The white officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with murder. Terrence Floyd took several minutes sitting in the spot where the officer pinned his brother, and he sobbed. Addressing the crowd, he said he did not understand why the three other police officers who arrested Floyd and who were fired with Chauvin have not also been arrested and charged. Still, he said, the Floyd family, which he described as peaceful and God-fearing, wants calm protests at this time with hopes that justice will follow. In every case of police brutality the same thing has been happening. You have protests, you destroy stuff ... so they want us to destroy ourselves. Lets do this another way, he said, encouraging the crowd to vote and to educate themselves. Lets switch it up, yall. Educate yourself and know who you are voting for," Terrence Floyd, the younger brother of George Floyd, said to a crowd gathered at memorial site.https://t.co/IVf4FqUPps "On behalf of the Floyd family, thank you. Thank you for the love." pic.twitter.com/r10zZ7rEbH ABC News (@ABC) June 1, 2020 Before his death, George Floyd like millions of Americans during the coronavirus pandemic was out of work and looking for a new job. He and some friends moved to Minneapolis from his native Houston around 2014 to find work and start a new life, his lifelong friend Christopher Harris has said. But he was laid off when Minnesota shut down restaurants as part of a stay-at-home order. My brother moved here from Houston. He loved it here, Terrence Floyd said Monday. "So I know he would not want you all to be doing this. He said he appreciates the show of support and love for his brother and their family. Civil rights leader Rev. Kevin McCall of New York, said he brought Terrence Floyd, community members and others out to the memorial site to urge calm. Were sending a message to people all over the country, he said. Stop the looting and throw up the peace sign. Dont stop protesting, but throw up the peace sign. At the end of his remarks, Terrence Floyd led the crowd in more chants. Whats his name? he said. George Floyd! the crowd answered back. In recent weeks, the United States has seen two distinct waves of protests. In April and early May, so-called Reopen America protests expressed opposition to COVID-19 lockdown measures in many states. Currently, demonstrators across the country are protesting against anti-black police brutality, in response to the killing of George Floyd by white police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis. Researchers at the Tow Center and Columbias Journalism and Engineering schools have developed a tool that can help reporters decipher the symbols and acronyms used by political groups which may be helpful as they report on political actions now and during the election season. Reopen Protests As photographers documented the Reopen America anti-lockdown protests in many cities across the country, symbols common across protests began emerging: In these photos, I have highlighted two flags in particular: the Gadsden flag and the Betsy Ross flag. What makes these flags so prevalent at the protests? The New York Times and The Washington Post have found links between the protests and large Republican donors, while research by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) and the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights (IREHR) found links between Reopen protests and movements to mobilize and arm libertarian extremists during the coronavirus lockdown to start a civil war. A document TTP researchers found on multiple Facebook groups related to preparing for the Boogaloo (the term used to denote the supposedly impending civil war) offers some clues as to why these flags may be so abundant at the protests. Sign up for CJR 's daily email Imagery is important to a revolution, the document says. It goes on to exhort supporters of the movement to use the Gadsden, Colonial US and the Come And Take It flags in their demonstrations. The Gadsden and Betsy Ross flags gained prominence during the United States Revolutionary War. The 13 stars of the Betsy Ross Flag represent the USs 13 colonies at the time. These flags have been appropriated by libertarian and extreme right groups, and often appear at demonstrations nominally about protecting American citizens second amendment rights. Though it must be noted that not all people who use these flags are associated with extremist movements. Knowledge of the context and associations of these symbols could be very helpful to a reporter as they prepare to interview a demonstrator. The value of using symbols to gain immediate context for an interview or photo at a demonstration, occurred to photojournalist and Columbia Professor Nina Berman at the Unite the Right 2 rally in Washington, D.C., in 2018. Her insights have led a team comprising researchers at Columbias School of Engineering, researchers at the Tow Center and Berman herself to build an app, called VizPol, to identify political symbols in real-time. The app has a simple user experience: a user uploads an image containing a symbol they are interested in identifying, and if the symbol is in the apps database, the app identifies it, and provides the user with some context about it. If the app fails to recognize the symbol, the user has the option of sending us the image of the symbol so that we can examine it and add it to the apps database. In the examples above, I have pointed out relatively well-known symbols. But weve seen protesters at demonstrations use a wide variety of less recognizable symbols, each one denoting a different, often far-right group or ideology. Here are some more examples, taken purely from Reopen protests. Most of these symbols can be identified by our app, and we are working on adding the ones that cant to its recognition database: Also at yesterday's ReOpen Kansas rally in Topeka, this guy wearing his AltRight "KEK" sweatshirt pic.twitter.com/psgc35W4be Devin Burghart (@dburghart) April 24, 2020 On this mans t-shirt we see the KEK symbol. This symbol is part of the larger Kekistan flag. The flag, modeled after the German Nazi War flag with kek replacing the swastika, represents the fictional country of Kekistan created by 4 chan members as an online political meme that gravitated to the real world (The 4 chan logo is seen in the upper left corner). Members of the alt-right use the flag and its symbol to ridicule identity politics and troll social justice progressives by claiming that kekistanis are an oppressed ethnicity. The words spell Molon Labe, Ancient Greek for Come and Take [Them]. This epigram, used by Spartan King Leonidas in 480 BC to defy the Persian King Xerxes demand that he lay down his arms, has been appropriated by gun-rights groups. It could also be related to the Texan Come and Take It flag (also referenced in the document found by TTP above), though, like the historic flags discussed above, many people, especially those entirely unaffiliated with extremist movements, use this flag. However, that these flags dont automatically denote extremism is often a convenient excuse for real extremists. Often, the words Molon Labe are seen under a cartoon Spartan helmet: Since Huntington Beach is just a few miles from the University of Southern California, this is most likely just a USC Trojans t-shirt without any sinister meaning. But given that hiding behind mundane symbols or mundane interpretations of symbols is a common technique used by extremists, it is possible that this woman wore the USC Trojans t-shirt deliberately because the USC Trojan symbol looks like the animated Spartan character from other Molon Labe symbology. This highlights the most important rule of thumb to keep in mind when using the VizPol appthe app can never give context about the symbol users intent. That is entirely incumbent upon the reporter to determine. In this image from Austin, we can see a demonstrator wearing a Guy Fawkes mask: One group that uses Guy Fawkes masks, Anonymous, is a decentralized international online hacktivist community known for cyberattacks against various governments, institutions and corporations. Their actions have broadly been against censorship and government control, but critics have labeled them cyber terrorists. Protesters around the world show solidarity with the Anonymous movement by wearing the masks. More recently, devotees of the far-right conspiracy movement Qanon have begun to use the symbol of the mask as well. This video from Lansing features this modified US flag, similar to the most common modification to the US flag at political protests, the Blue Lives Matter or thin blue line flag: Chants of recall Whitmer, USA and lock her up outside Michigan Capitol. #OperationGridlock pic.twitter.com/7Q7niiNFUF Malachi Barrett (@PolarBarrett) April 15, 2020 Blue Lives Matter is a national movement advocating that those who are convicted of killing law enforcement officers should be sentenced under hate crime statutes. The movements other goal is to counter media coverage perceived to be anti-police. The name responds to the Black Lives Matter movement, which seeks police accountability in the killing and harassment of people of color. Similarly, movements related to other law enforcement bodies are represented by replacing one stripe of a regular or grayscale US flag with a stripe of a different color. Blue denotes police, green denotes Federal Agents such as Border Patrol, Park Rangers etc., orange denotes Search and Rescue personnel, and so on. Other research conducted by the IREHR has also documented the presence of members of the neo-fascist, misogynistic Proud Boys at various Reopen rallies. Symbols associated with extremist political groups, much like the groups themselves, are constantly evolving. The apps database began with 52 symbols seen at rallies prior to mid-2019, but we have already identified symbols associated with new groups since then. One such group also affiliated with the Boogaloo movement discussed above, Patriot Wave, was seen at the January 20th Gun Rally in Richmond, Virginia. Many of these symbols originate online and make their way into the physical world on flags, patches, t-shirts, etc. like symbols used by so-called Boogaloo Bois and a militia-movement group calling themselves the Michigan Liberty Militia, which reporters saw at Reopen protests. Recent research by Bellingcat explains the significance of Hawaiian shirts, which are connected to the Boogaloo movement, at Reopen protests. Protests Against Police Brutality Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey tweeted on Saturday, May 30th that white supremacists and other outside instigators were trying to destroy Minneapolis. Governor Tim Walz echoed this claim. However, officials in Minneapolis and St. Paul have offered little evidence of it, and have had to reduce their originally exaggerated estimates about the number of people arrested that were from out of Minnesota. Researchers studying far-right militia, one set of groups that these claims might refer to, warn that these groups often rely on the media and social media to amplify their presence at such rallies, while being less successful at actually organizing offline. Meanwhile, President Trump and Attorney General William Barr have blamed violence on far-left extremist groups using antifa-like tactics. Trump even tweeted that he is going to designate antifa as a terrorist organization. This is misleading. The antifa movement is a network of autonomous groups who believe in opposing fascism by direct action and antifa refers to an assortment of tactics rather than any single organization. Neither Trump nor Barr has offered any evidence that members of antifa-aligned groups instigated violence that led to arrests anywhere. Misinformation about white supremacists, militias and antifa groups participation in these protests is abundant. Identifying symbols that point to the political group a protester belongs to can help substantiate claims about individual people, and thereby help establish objective facts about who might be involved in demonstrations. Concrete information about such symbols can contextualize the actual impact of extremists, who often make up just a small minority of protesters. While the presence of members of the Boogaloo movement, discussed above, at these protests is exaggerated in some cases, Boogaloo symbols have certainly appeared at recent anti-police brutality protests, as documented by Vice and in this Twitter thread by Bellingcat researcher Robert Evans: Oh boy I'm running into claims (https://t.co/29n75g8ugS) that the boogaloo boy with the flag was shot by a police rubber bullet. pic.twitter.com/7YLDYTJMQ4 Robert Evans (The Only Robert Evans) (@IwriteOK) May 27, 2020 The Bellingcat report referenced above, titled The Boogaloo Movement Is Not What You Think, suggests that a violent civil war is the ultimate goal of the Boogaloo movement. There is division within the movement about how bigoted and racist it should be. Many members are more focused on fomenting any kind of resistance to law enforcement, and even express a willingness online to ally with the current protests sparked by a white police officer killing a black man. This explains why memes churned out [on Boogaloo groups added] George [Floyd] to the movements list of martyrs. However, though they have rallied around opposition to police brutality on their online fora, members of the movement generally do not recognize police brutality as a scourge that specifically targets black people. Antifascist researchers warn that right-wing and neo-Nazi groups, collectively referred to as accelerationists (accelerationists seek to promote violence to speed up the collapse of society) are gathering at these anti-police brutality protests to harm black protestors and spark a race war. They sometimes sport clown-related symbols. We are looking out for symbols associated with specific accelerationist groups. The Bellingcat report explains that Boogaloo fora are fertile recruiting ground for neo-Nazi groups, so it is possible that some people using Boogaloo symbols might be more accurately described as neo-Nazis or white supremacists rather than members of the Boogaloo movement as characterized above. Other researchers have documented the presence of members of the Proud Boys at these protests: A central issue raised by these protests is that action must be taken against police officers that have white supremacist beliefs. UCLA social media scholar Sarah T. Roberts recently tweeted, How many police orgs around the US have surveyed their officers for white supremacist tattoos, affiliations, clothing and symbol use? Comprehensively? And what were the findings? What actions were taken? NYPD officer in Union Square throws down a White Power sign and his fellow officer cheers him on. #NYCPROTEST pic.twitter.com/CZrb9nzFEM Chad Loder (@chadloder) May 31, 2020 The above video from protests in New York show a police officer flashing the Okay hand gesture. It is entirely possible the officer was just signalling okay to someone off-screen, but it is also possible that he was deliberately signalling white power. Our app is able to identify and contextualize this hand gesture, but without talking to the police officer or looking for other contextual clues, the video of the gesture alone is not enough to establish whether this police officer holds white supremacist beliefs. While we strongly resist applying the term extremist to members of antifa groups, the goal of our app is to help reporters on the ground identify groups at demonstrations in order to combat widespread misinformation about the demographics of protests and the motives of protesters. Therefore, our app can identify symbols associated with antifa groups as well. However, in our experience antifa groups employ more straightforward symbols than far-right extremists that require much less knowledge of obscure dog-whistles to decipher. VizPol can only identify symbols and offer some context about these symbols. It is a tool for reporters to gain context before interviewing someone or analyzing a photo. A symbol on its own can be misleading and so it is incumbent upon the users of our app to use the context it provides to make any actual inferences about a person, their affiliation, and their motive at a rally. Inviting Researchers to Use Our App We understand that a team of researchers at a university, away from the field, will never be able to keep the database of symbols current, especially as these movements proliferate. Instead, we have endeavoured to create a method that, given a few examples of a new symbol, can then instantaneously identify it for reporters in the field. Our goal is to build a community of photographers, reporters and researchers who can benefit from our app, and in turn help us keep the database up-to-date by sharing new symbols or instances of symbols with us through the app. Our greater project is to improve researchers and reporters visual literacy about these symbols. To help ensure the accuracy of the apps results, it is currently available to beta testers by invitation only. To preserve the privacy and intellectual property of users, moreover, the app can be used anonymously; by default, we dont collect any device or image information. Instead, we hope that test users will choose to contribute their images and some optional metadata about them to help improve the apps symbol-recognition functionality and augment the database of symbols it can recognize, with the understanding that we will never display, share or sell any of this information without explicit prior consent from the image owner. Likewise, we intentionally avoid collecting identifying information about individual app users or the people who may appear in their images: we do not collect device IDs and are working on a filter that blurs all faces within images before upload to our database. We hope that these precautions will encourage both researchers and reporters to test out the app, and welcome any questions, suggestions or requests to participate. If you are interested in testing the app (available currently for iOS and Android and presently on web browsers), please contact the author at [email protected]. CORRECTION: An earlier headline incorrectly characterized the symbols tracked by VizPol. Over the past few years, The Atlantic has provided a hopeful example of how a legacy publication can engage digital audiences and adapt to a changing media landscape without diluting its brand or sacrificing the quality of its journalism. Backed by the Emerson Collective, an organization founded by multi-billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs, the magazine has grown since 2016, emphasizing subscriptions over advertising revenue. Its coverage of the coronavirus pandemic has been especially successful, with science writer Ed Yongs dispatches quickly becoming essential reading and new initiatives like its COVID Tracking Project and the podcast Social Distancing serving an information-hungry public. Since March, The Atlantic has added 90,000 new subscribers according to Atlantic Media chairman David Bradley. Yet despite all of this, amid the coronavirus pandemic, The Atlantic laid off 68 people, nearly 20% of its staff, last week. In announcing the layoffs, Bradley cited the overnight and near-complete undoing of in-person events and, for now, a bracing decline in advertising. While the Tow Centers ongoing study of the relationship between tech platforms and news publishers tends to focus on the production and distribution of digital journalism, a different kind of story caught our eye this week. Several local TV news stations are running a story touted as an inside look at Amazons response to COVID-19, which turned out to be produced by Amazon itself in an attempt to combat unflattering stories about working conditions its fulfillment centers. The package includes pre-recorded footage of its fulfillment centers, interviews with workers and a prewritten script for anchors to read on air. While company-produced segments like this (essentially sponsored content) are not new, many pointed out that TV stations that ran the segment did not disclose that it was produced by Amazon. A supercut of the segment as it appeared on 11 different stations can be found here. In other platform news, the Google News Initiative announced the first recipients of its Journalism Emergency Relief Fund on Thursday, granting funding ranging from $5,000 $30,000 to more than 5,300 small and medium local newsrooms around the world. A partial list of grant recipients can be found here. Stories You May Have Missed The New York Times documents how a 26-minute conspiracy video called Plandemic (a slickly produced narration that wrongly claimed a shadowy cabal of elites was using the virus and a potential vaccine to profit and gain power) went viral. By the time YouTube and Facebook removed the video for violating their misinformation policies, the video was fully in the mainstream. Along similar lines, a report from the Wall Street Journal revealed that Facebook largely ignored internal research from 2018 showing that its algorithms exploit the human brains attraction to divisiveness. Sharing the article on Twitter, Senator Elizabeth Warren called the platform a disinformation-for-profit machine. Our founding director Emily Bell talks all things misinformation and propaganda in the age of COVID-19 on Kara Swishers Recode Decode podcast, including the spread of Plandemic, right-wing conspiracies about Bill Gates, President Trumps confusing Obamagate allegations, and Facebooks misinformation factories. Listen to the full episode here. Harvards Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society will host a virtual event on data and COVID-19 on 6/2. Topics will include contact tracing programs, including AI surveillance; the role of big data holders in COVID-19 efforts; and the impact of misinformation/disinformation. You can register here. Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Ishaan Jhaveri and George Civeris work at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, a research and teaching center based at Columbia Journalism School. PM Modi recalls K N Lakshmanan' role in anti emergency movement India pti-PTI Chennai, June 02: Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed anguish over the passing away of BJP senior and party's former president of Tamil Nadu unit K N Lakshmanan and recalled the leaders' role in the anti-emergency movement. "Anguished by the demise of Shri K N Lakshmanan ji. He was at the forefront of serving the people of Tamil Nadu and expanding the BJP organisation there. His role in the anti-emergency movement and participation in socio- cultural activities will always be remembered. Om Shanti," Modi tweeted. WHO says Sars-Cov-2 is still a killer virus, rejects 'losing potency' claim | Oneindia News CII annual event: PM Modi calls for cut in imports; says export more K N Lakshmanan passed away due to age related problems at his residence in Sevvaipettai in Salem on Monday night. He was 92. Lakshmanan who had represented the Mylapore assembly constituency in Chennai from 2001-06, is survived by his wife Ranganayaki Ammal, daughter Bhuvaneshwari and son Sekhar. He had been President of the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP twice. Party president J P Nadda, too paid rich tributes to the leader and said, "Lakshmanan's remarkable journey from Jan Sangh to BJP and his dedication to serve the people will always inspire us." Nadda expressed his sympathies to the bereaved family members and followers of Lakshmanan. "He was very simple but deeply committed to the ideology of nationalism and public service, unassuming but unswerving from the path of empowering people and nation," P Muralidhar Rao, BJP national secretary, said. Starting that the former president excelled in all spheres from politics to religion and education, state president L Murugan said Lakshmanan was a nationalist. " His contribution in the field of education was remarkable. In 1970, along with N P Vasudevan, he started the Sri Vidhya Mandir school in a modest manner with mere 35 students. Now the institution has grown in stature accommodating over 1,000 students," Murugan said. Party seniors, former union minister Pon Radhakrishnan, former Coir Board chairman C P Radhakrishnan, state general secretaries Vanathi Srinivasan and K T Raghavan were also among those who paid their tributes to the departed leader. Mom, Daughters launch Pro-life Fashion brand; Name Alex Clark their Global Ambassador Carla DAddesi and Turning Point USA (TPUSA)leader/ Host of POPlitics, Alex Clark have lots in common. They are both passionate about fashion & empowering women to choose life. Combine these passions and these two women and the prolife movement will win the popculture war for life! DAddesi prayed outside of Planned Parenthood clinics as a teen & continues to be a voice for the voiceless at National events, and Clark regularly addresses the importance of protecting all life on her daily show POPlitics with zeal and wit and speaks nationally with TPUSA. And now the two women are joining forces to promote what is the first line of prolife fashion that celebrates a culture of life, provides women with beautiful and empowering clothing, and raises money for pro-life organizations. DAddesi and her three teenager daughters Vittoria, 19; Isabella, 17; and Giulia, 14; launched COL 1972 (Culture of Life and the year before the U.S. Supreme Courts Roe v. Wade decision made legal abortion the law of the land) in January, 2019. The company is only 17 months young and is already changing the pop culture for life through the mechanism of fashion. But high fashion was not the priority that inspired the new company or Clark joining the effort as the brands global ambassador. It was the desire to find a practical way to advance their Christian faith and pro-life values. Abby Johnson, the author of Unplanned, was our very first COL1972 Global Ambassador (GA). She will continue as our GA. We wanted our Second GA to have a passion for life but be totally different from Abby. Alex Clark is an addition to our Global Ambassador Program. We did a Global Ambassador Search the month of May and called on our Life Tribe to suggest whom they wished to see as our next GA. We received many great suggestions for athletes, actresses, authors, models and journalists. Alex was a perfect fit to accompany Abby Johnson as our next GA. Alex is gorgeous, fashionable, bold and witty for life. DAddesi told the Christian Post. In conjunction with the brand, DAddesi and her daughters started the COL 1972 Foundation, formed to give back 100 percent of all profits raised from sales. COL 1972 line carries a limited mens collection, bump-friendly collection for expecting moms, street chic and contemporary chic styles sizes XS-3X. They are now expanding the brand, with the CUTEservatives collection set to debut on June 14, as this is the name Clarks following calls themselves. The AbbyJ Collection inspired by the companys first GA will continue to add new pieces. COL1972 has their Life Tribe and I have my CUTEservatives. This is going to be a combustible match for fashion and the pro-life community. We are building a strong, attractive, witty following for life together. I was introduced to COL1972 when I read an article about their fashion show at Liberty University. I was immediately intrigued by a brand that was inspired by life. I have a 1972 necklace and a few other pieces that I love wearing even before I became the companys GA. Said Clark. And Clark also knew of the fashion worlds support for the abortion industry. Clark said she wished she could help support the pro-life movement with her love of fashion and now she is doing just that. I think more and more people are searching to put their purchasing power where their mouth is. I also love that everything is made in the USA. Clark said. This is really a partnership to move the pro-life movement forward in a really healthy fun way, DAddesi said. Meanwhile, expect lots of fashion inspos for life with COL1972 & POPlitics, Alex Clark. Join the Life Tribe and CUTEservative movement @COL1972official on FB, Insta, Twitter & YOUTube. Check out their new SUMMER collection at COL1972.com. Join the fashion movement for life and begin giving back today! JOIN OUR LIFE TRIBE Culture of Life 1972 is inspired by LIFE! We are a squad, a posse, a tribe, a community. We are thinkers and doers. We are creative and adventuresome. We are generous and strong. We are blessed and bold. We are prayer warriors and faith-igniters who are united by the belief that every life has priceless value and great purpose. Everyone is welcome! Join us! Today, easyJet has announced it will resume flying to almost 75 per cent of its route network by August, and has put one million summer flight seats on sale for 29.99 each way. The sale includes the travel period from July 1 to October 31 and the airline says it plans to fly 50 per cent of its 1,022 routes in July and 75 per cent in August, although with a lower frequency of flights - equating to around 30 per cent of the normal July to September capacity. This includes flying to and from all of its UK bases throughout the months of July and August to a wide selection of destinations, like Paris, Milan, Rome, the Canary Islands, Croatia, Portugal and further afield to destinations such as Morocco and Egypt. Of course, Brits being able to enter the country they are flying to will depend on restrictions put in place at that time. Yesterday, Spains tourism minister Maria Reyes Maroto said that British data has to improve before Brits can head to Spain and that every tourist should arrive well and return well. Airlines have called for the two-week quarantine being imposed on all incoming travellers from June 8 to be lifted, so that more people will travel this summer. There are also talks of 'air bridges' being introduced between the UK and low-risk countries like Portugal this month which would allow for quarantine-free travel between the nations. Robert Carey, Chief Commercial and Planning Officer at easyJet, said: We are delighted to announce that we will be flying the majority of our route network across Europe, meaning customers can still get to their chosen destination for their summer holidays this year. Were passionate about helping our customers get back flying, which is why were offering one million seats at 29.99 for those planning on booking a holiday this summer. Travel restrictions are being lifted and demand is starting to return, so theres no better time for us to introduce this sale. Yesterday, the airline also announced it would provide kids with free comic book face masks to ease flight anxiety, as all passengers will be required to wear flight masks once flights resume. When Ismaila Jammeh, 48, appeared before the Gambias Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC), the first few words that got to him were: lying is a no-go area. In response, Jammeh just nodded. Sitting right across him was Essa Faal, a man in a blue suit who from being a little-known international lawyer rose to fame in the country as the lead witness cross-examiner of the TRRC. You have to be absolutely truthful, warned Faal. This is a standard procedure at the Commission for anyone who may have a crime to confess. It is an offense to lie under oath and to lie before the TRRC and Faal would not miss the opportunity to remind Jammeh. Four meters to his right, Jammeh could also read a promise on the wall. The truth shall set you free, said the Commissions mantra. The truth eventually set some people free. But Ismaila Jammeh and one of his former colleagues, Alieu Jeng, were not among them. Four are released, two remain in jail Under the regime of president Yahya Jammeh (1994-2017), members of Gambias Republican Guards had formed an elite team in charge of protecting the head of state. They transformed into a group of infamous and feared hitmen known as the Junglers. In January 2017, Yahya Jammeh fled into exile in Equatorial Guinea after enduring a shocking election defeat. Several Junglers left the country, including their operational commanders. Six of them Pa Ousman Sanneh, Malick Jatta, Omar Jallow, Amadou Badgie, Alieu Jeng and Ismaila Jammeh stayed. They were immediately arrested by Gambias military chief. The six men acknowledged at least some of their crimes while in detention but from July to August 2019, their confessions became public when they appeared before the TRRC and admitted to several unlawful executions. After their testimony four of them Pa Ousman Sanneh, Malick Jatta, Omar Jallow and Amadou Bargie were released from prison in August 2019, despite widespread condemnation from victims of the dictatorship. Ismaila Jammeh and Alieu Jeng, however, remained in jail at the Yundum Barracks, a military encampment 40-minute drive from Banjul, Gambias capital city. On May 25, 2020, Bully Jammeh, a younger brother of Ismaila, went with his mother to visit his brother. We are asking why these people are being detained up to now, he told Justice Info. Ismaila Jammeh, former Jungler, during his testimony before the Gambian Truth Commission. Mustapaha K. Darboe The Ministry of Justice decides who is honest The arrangement between the Justice Ministry and the Junglers was never made fully public. The Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou would not respond to Justice Infos questions. However, in August last year, following the release of the four Junglers, Tambadou met with some victims of Jammehs regime. He essentially indicated that he may need the confessed killers in future cases and that they may be an incentive for others to come forward. Tambadou said he agreed they would be granted temporary release it wasnt an amnesty, he warned pending the outcome and final recommendations of the Truth Commission. In turn, the Junglers were to tell the whole truth to the TRRC an assessment that was made by the Justice Ministry. Hinting at the fact that two of the Junglers had not been released, Tambadou said that these two were not truthful. If they cannot help the victims then I am sorry we cannot help them too. They have had two years to think about it. They have been reminded constantly to tell the truth, the Justice Minister said. I have decided that the test of outrageous dishonesty will be based on a number of factors. It will be based on the evidence adduced so far before the TRRC, the nature or gravity of the human rights violations, the alleged role of the perpetrator, and the materiality of the dishonesty. The TRRC claims no role in this. The TRRC has nothing to do with the release of some Junglers or the continued detention of other Junglers, Baba Galleh Jallow, the TRRC executive secretary, told Justice Info. The Commission was neither informed nor consulted prior to the release or the continued detention of some Junglers. We heard the news like everyone else. There certainly was no recommendation at all from the TRRC in these matters. Allegations against Jammeh and Jeng Ismaila Jammeh is a native of Bwiam, a settlement about two-hour drive from Banjul. He joined the army a year before the July 1994 military coup that brought Yahya Jammeh to power. In his testimony, he said he was of the same ancestry with the former president. Following the coup, he was deployed to State House from mounting a guard post at Gambias Central Bank. He would later serve as an orderly to the military leader. Ismaila Jammeh has been implicated by his former comrades in several killings, including the murder of Almamo Manneh in 2000, Daba Marenah and six others, as well as the torture of some military officers following a 2006 foiled coup against president Jammeh. He was also named in the killing of Ndure Cham, a former Gambian army chief suspected of leading the 2006 foiled coup. Alieu Jeng, 41, who hails from Banjul, faces equally murderous allegations. He joined the army in February 2001. He was accused of participation in close to fifty unlawful executions. One of his former colleagues, Malick Jatta, put Jeng at the center of several executions including the killing of prominent journalist Deyda Hydara and Dawda Nyassi. Jeng denied firing at Nyassi. However, he admitted involvement in the killing of Hydara. Jeng was also allegedly involved in the unlawful execution of Ndongo Mboob, Haruna Jammeh, Daba Marenah and 5 others as well as over 40 West African migrants. In 2003, Jeng was deployed to Kanilai, President Jammehs home village, where he became a member of the patrol team, a product of the Junglers, according to Jatta. Jeng denied it. Have you been told that you are going to be a member of a killer squad? asked TRRC Lead Counsel Essa Faal on August 8, 2019. No, replied Jeng. You see, this is the problem. You dont want to be part of that killer squad. You want to try to extricate yourself from all the activities that made you know that you are going to be a member of a killer squad. I am not trying to extricate Malick Jatta cannot speak on my behalf. But some people died and you were there, only that you wouldnt have the courage to say you were there. Illegal detention? Both Alieu Jeng and Ismaila Jammeh were generally perceived to have been not truthful before the Commission. The reactions to their testimonies in Gambian social media sites were clearly different than to the testimonies of their four fellow Junglers. The main issue today is about the legality of their detention. According to Bully Jammeh and several other sources, their detention has continued without any court order which would be a clear violation of their rights. The Ministry is not the authority to decide the detention of a citizen beyond 72 hours. That power lies only with the courts. If the Ministry wants to keep them beyond 72 hours then it must go to court. Since these detentions are already beyond 72 hours then their continued detention is a violation, said Madi Jobarteh, a leading Gambian rights activist and head of a local advocacy team called the Jammeh-to-Justice campaign. It is the TRRC who should determine the truth or falsity of testimonies and then recommends what measures to be taken against them, Jobarteh added. Ismaila Jammehs family has not hired a lawyer. They cant afford one, said Bully Jammeh. Early May, he however visited the National Human Rights Commission to lodge a complaint over his brothers prolonged detention. A week later he was informed that the Commission had written to the Justice Ministry over his brothers issue. A letter was written to the army and the Justice Ministry as to whether the two [Junglers] have been officially charged. We want to be updated on their status, confirmed the Chair of the National Human Rights Commission, Emmanuel Joof. We also want to know, if they are not charged, what is the position of the Ministry or the army on their case. If they are charged, why are they holding them? added Joof, who said the 5-member Commission would meet the Attorney General over the issue. STAMFORD A Bridgeport judge on Monday doubled the bond on a Stamford man being investigated in the shooting death of a woman on the citys West Side. Gary Greig, 66, was held over the weekend in lieu of a $250,000 court appearance bond on an illegal gun possession charge, after police responded to his West Main Street apartment Friday, where they found a woman shot to death, police said. Greig has not been charged in the death, but was arrested on the gun charge. He is a convicted felon for second-degree murder in New York State in 1984. At his arraignment in Bridgeport Monday morning, Senior Assistant States Attorney Maureen Ornousky said Grieg told authorities he killed the woman, who police identified on Monday as Staci Magazzi, 50, believed to be of Bridgeport. Mr. Greig is being investigated in the death of a woman who he has identified as his girlfriend, Ornousky said. He has made statements that he killed her and that she committed suicide and that is currently under investigation. Judge Joan Alexander responded by doubling Griegs bond. Based on his criminal record, which includes a conviction for second-degree murder, and the fact that there is an ongoing investigation, I am setting the bond at $500,000, she said. Greig was in the basement lockup on camera during the hearing and did not say anything. He was assigned a temporary public defender for the hearing who declined to comment. Police responded to Greigs apartment Friday to check the occupants. Lt. Tom Scanlon, who heads up the Bureau of Criminal Investigations, declined to discuss who called for a welfare check or why. Inside the fourth-floor apartment, at 182 West Main St., police found Magazzi dead. The apartment was treated as a crime scene and searched after a search warrant was applied for. In a statement Monday afternoon Scanlon and Capt. Richard Conklin said Magazzis death was caused by a single gunshot wound. But the manner of death whether Magazzi was killed by accident, homicide or suicide has not yet been determined by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Scanlon declined further comment on the case. jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com Newly arrived NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, joined by astronaut Chris Cassidy participated in a press conference on the International Space Station Monday. Cassidy welcomed the two astronauts and said the smell of the hatch was like a 'new car.' "When we've got that hatch open, you could tell it was a brand new vehicle with smiley faces on the other side, smiley face on mine, just as if you had bought a new car. The same kind of reaction. Wonderful to see my friends and wonderful to see a brand-new vehicle," he said. Hurley showed off the small U.S. flag during a news conference and again in a linkup with SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. "You can bet we will take it with us when we depart back to Earth," said Hurley, floating alongside Dragon crewmate Bob Behnken. The flag flew on the first space shuttle flight in 1981 and the final one in 2011. Hurley was on that last shuttle crew. The flag was an added incentive for Elon Musk's SpaceX company and Boeing, competing to be the first private company to launch a crew to the space station. LIVE from space: @AstroBehnken & @Astro_Doug speak with @SpaceX officials and employees, and present the Class of 2020 mosaic image that flew with them aboard Dragon Endeavour to the @Space_Station. Watch: https://t.co/mxlaPIRAzV https://t.co/mxlaPIRAzV NASA (@NASA) June 1, 2020 Saturday's liftoff of NASA astronauts was the first from the U.S. in nine years. Boeing's first astronaut flight isn't expected until next year. The crew will include Chris Ferguson, commander of the last shuttle flight who now works for Boeing. Behnken said one of the first things he did upon reaching the orbiting lab was call his 6-year-old son, Theo, to hear what is was like to watch his father blast into space "and share that a little bit with him while it was still fresh in his mind." Hurley and Behnken spent Monday making sure their docked Dragon is ready to make an emergency getaway, if necessary. The capsule will serve as their lifeboat during their space station visit. They joined three station residents an American and two Russians. NASA will decide in the coming weeks how long to keep them there. Their mission could last anywhere from one to four months. The timing will depend on Dragon checkouts in orbit and launch preparations for the company's next astronaut flight, currently targeted for the end of August. With so much uncertainty and so many variables, Behnken said it was a little hard explaining to his son when he'd back. "From his perspective, he's just excited that we're going to get a dog when I get home," Behnken said with a smile. Image credits: AP When you look at Victor Aguileras Instagram account, youll see a few selfies along with several photos of arepas, a griddled corn cake common in Venezuela. Theyre pictured grilled, fried, filled with avocados and cheese, or steak and plantains. But Aguilera is not just an arepa enthusiast. Hes a professional chef, and for the past few months, his Instagram account has served as a way to drum up business. Aguilera is just one of hundreds of restaurant workers who were recently laid off due to the pandemic. Before launching his arepa enterprise, he worked at the Brixton, an American gastropub in San Francisco. As a way to make ends meet, he took to Instagram to sell food inspired by his home country of Venezuela. Interested customers can either DM or text him for orders. (He leaves his phone number prominently displayed right on his Instagram bio.) He then personally delivers the food by bicycle all over San Francisco, directly to the customers door. After some recent press, Aguilera now has a regular clientele, and he says orders have been coming in nonstop. He is not the only chef who has turned to technology as a side hustle during the coronavirus pandemic. Adahlia Cole (also known as hungry hungry hooker online), who used to give custom food tours of the city, has compiled a list of former restaurant workers in the San Francisco Bay Area who have pivoted to Instagram to generate income. The range of cuisine listed has everything from Italian pasta to apple pie. Several of these enterprising Instagram chefs arent just amateur cooks; some have culinary school credentials while others have worked in critically acclaimed restaurants. Sometimes both. The selling-food-through-Instagram method varies, but in general, this is how it works: A chef posts what theyre offering and then interested customers can call, text or DM them to place orders. Sometimes theres a link in their bio where people can order through an e-commerce site like Shopify. If the order is made via text or DM, the chef sometimes asks for payment through Venmo or a similar service. If the chef has offered delivery as an option, the customer would obviously provide an address. Then, on an agreed on day and time, an order of hot, tasty, homemade food arrives at the customers front door. Since the order hasnt gone through a delivery service like Grubhub or Doordash, all of that money goes directly to the chef who actually made the food. The legality of the practice is somewhat questionable -- state laws generally allow selling food made out of a home, but permits and licenses are often still required depending on your region. Enforcement can also vary. But the idea is not a new one, and the concept of the so-called InstaChef has been around for quite some time. (A Thrillist video series with the same name debuted in 2018.) Michael Lawless, also known online as El Chefe, began his LA-based business in 2013 when he started promoting and selling his style of cajun fried chicken on Instagram, and he now has over 45,000 followers. Trap Kitchen, a South London-based operation run by Prince Cofie Owusu (also known as Shakka), started in 2016 out of his mothers apartment. He now has over 123,000 followers and offers boxed meals that contain everything from lobster tails to Belgian waffles. Aside from just offering chefs an additional source of income, social media sites like Instagram have also helped food workers build a community with each other. Instead of competing with one another, chefs often amplify other chefs, creating a word-of-mouth campaign that has proven far more successful than traditional advertising. I was first introduced to the InstaChef world when I saw an Instagram story posted by Tracy Goh, a San Francisco-based food entrepreneur who specializes in Malaysian fare like chili crab and laksa, usually a spicy coconut-based noodle soup. (Im a fan of her Malaysian-centric pop-up dinners and backed her recent Kickstarter campaign to launch a brick-and-mortar restaurant focusing on Malaysian laksa.) It was the early days of the San Francisco shelter-in-place order, and she was promoting the Instagram account for a recently laid-off Singaporean chef (she goes by the alias of Spice Dom) who was offering up Singaporean-Malaysian classics (the two cuisines are often interchangeable) like chicken rice and assam laksa, a spicy and sour noodle soup. As diverse as the culinary scene is in San Francisco, there just arent that many restaurants that focus on the foods of Singapore or Malaysia, my homeland. Keen on tasting the cuisine of my childhood, I leapt at the opportunity and slid into Spice Doms DMs. Within hours, she responded with the weeks menu. I made my order and Venmoed her the cash along with my home address. Was it risky to give a stranger my address? Probably, but Gohs recommendation made me trust her, plus Spice Dom had pretty decent culinary credentials to boot. (Her resume includes being an executive sous chef at a critically acclaimed restaurant.) A few days and several back-and-forth chats later, a container of assam laksa arrived at my front door. It was spicy, briny, full of umami and absolutely hit the spot. Spice Dom didnt always sell Singaporean fare through her Instagram account. Instead, she started out with slightly more mainstream Asian fare like ramen or chicken teriyaki. But it wasnt until she started offering Singaporean-Malaysian foods that her orders skyrocketed. Thats partly due to fellow chefs like Goh amplifying her message, but also due to a seemingly untapped market of Singaporean-Malaysian food devotees in the San Francisco Bay Area. I was completely shocked that there were so many people who liked it, she said. The business expanded further when she roped in fellow Singaporean and former coworker Nonya Queen as a pastry chef to offer Singaporean desserts like kuih lapis and mango sago. Then, as luck would have it, another Singaporean-based Instagram operation popped up by the name of Makan Place. (Makan translates to eat in Malay.) It was also helmed by two other San Francisco-based Singaporeans, both of whom were also former restaurant workers. After Makan Place was featured in outlets like Eater and the San Francisco Chronicle, Spice Dom and Nonya Queen were getting confused with them, so they decided to brand themselves under a new Instagram account called Dabao Singapore. (Da bao roughly translates to take out in Cantonese.) The [Dabao] menu is more streamlined, while any additional desserts have to go through Erika, Spice Dom said. Weve also increased the frequency of our menu drops to three times a week as opposed to one or two. As for the rising competition, Spice Dom isnt mad that Makan Place exists. Instead, shes happy to promote them, along with other Instagram accounts that are also offering Singaporean-Malaysian food during the pandemic, such as Nora Haron in Oakland and Satay by the Bay in San Francisco. That also extends to Goh, who recently started offering a Malaysian snack platter through her online store. When perusing their Instagram accounts, I often found that they were promoting and tagging each other as well. Were supporting our own people, she said. Goh, who had her own laksa business in San Francisco prior to the pandemic, published a photo on Instagram a few weeks ago of a bowl of laksa that she ordered from Dabao, ostensibly a rival shop. But, as she wrote in her post, she wasnt worried about the competition. The reason Goh started her venture in the first place was because she couldnt find any representation of her cuisine in the city. For years, I had felt quite alone on this quest with only one voice, she wrote. For me, the dream is to make laksa one of the Asian noodle soups an average San Franciscan thinks about when theyre hungry, hungover, on a chilly foggy day like this ... I welcome and root for other players in this field. Through Instagram, chefs of all different cuisines have not only figured out a way to survive the pandemic, but thrive in it. Dabaos business is now so popular that Spice Dom says shell soon be able to hire staff -- great news for former coworkers who have remained unemployed. Theyre also in the process of securing a commercial kitchen space, which will offer a lot more prep space than just their homes. Aguilera is in the same position. He said that thanks to his successful arepa business, once the coronavirus pandemic is over, he no longer plans to go back to working in someone elses kitchen. Instead, he hopes to open up his own restaurant. I really hope to find a location and open a small place so everyone can come and [get] take out. GRAND RAPIDS, MI Kent County is launching a program to provide free personal protective equipment (PPE) to businesses with 100 employees or less. The county is using $2 million of its federal CARES Act funding to launch the program. Officials say they will provide qualifying businesses with eye and face protection, hand sanitizer and thermometers, according to a press release. Businesses may place requests for the free equipment starting Tuesday, June 2. To qualify, businesses must be based in Kent County. We need to focus on getting our economy back on track, making sure employers have what they need to safely reopen and employees feel safe to go back to work, Kent County Board of Commissioners Chairperson Mandy Bolter said in a statement. Our Board listened to countless business representatives who were concerned about the ability to source PPE. We want to remove that roadblock and use the County buying power to help where we can. Businesses can place a request online or by calling the PPE fulfillment center at (616) 245-3636 between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. Qualifying requests received before midnight on Thursday, June 4 will be entered into a random selection process, according to the county. The first-round of businesses will be selected on Friday, June 5. The county says it will continue accepting requests for PPE until its funding runs out. Employers who apply but are not selected in the initial round to receive equipment will remain eligible until they are selected or funding runs out, according to the county. Organizations across the country have been scrambling to get PPE, said Kent County Administrator/Controller Wayman Britt said in a statement. Our purchasing team has been working for months to ensure that our communitys first responders dont run short. Now, as our businesses start to reopen and with the CARES Act funding available, weve leveraged those supply lines to build an inventory that we can make available to Kent County employers. The CARES Act was signed into law in March. It is the federal governments third supplemental response package to the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more: Grand Rapids protesters scatter after police, backed by Michigan National Guard, move in Michigan coronavirus stay-at-home order lifted: Heres what opens when Michigan Gov. Whitmer calls on public officials to bring down the heat, urges peaceful protest Washington on May 29 "upgraded" its farce of challenging the World Health Organization (WHO), announcing to terminate its relationship with the UN health organ and redirect its funding to other organizations because the latter had failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms. By doing so, the U.S. aimed to turn the WHO into a scapegoat of its own inability to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, but only exposed its hegemonic practices in dealing with international organizations. When COVID-19 is still spreading around the globe, to cure patients and save lives is an urgent task, and collaboration is needed in pandemic response. However, the U.S. blatantly shirked its international responsibility and chose to stand against justice and common sense at this critical moment. Some American politicians, setting the world in trouble with unilateralism and bullying practices, are just despicable, especially when more than 6 million people worldwide - including more than 1.7 million in the U.S. - have been infected with the novel coronavirus. What they encountered is widespread criticism both at home and abroad. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova criticized the U.S. decision, describing it as trampling on the international legal basis for world health cooperation at a time when the world needs to unite against the novel coronavirus. The American Medical Association expressed in a statement that the decision of the U.S. served no logical purpose, saying it will make the work of fighting the global pandemic "dramatically more challenging." Just when the world was trying to come together over an unprecedented health crisis, its all splintered apart, said Lawrence O. Gostin, professor of global health law at Georgetown University, adding that this kind of disruption and setting global health on fire is going to cost lives. Apparently, combating the pandemic through cooperation and solidarity is the mainstream consensus of the international society. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the WHO has actively fulfilled its responsibilities under the leadership of Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Several thousand staff members of the organization have fought day and night on the international anti-pandemic frontline to promote and coordinate global cooperation on COVID-19 response, receiving wide recognition and high praise from the international society. A resolution regarding COVID-19 was adopted by the 73rd World Health Assembly (WHA) on May 19. The resolution unequivocally affirms and supports the leading role of the WHO. The 76th session of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) adopted a resolution on May 21, reiterating the key role of the UN in responding to the global pandemic and emphasizing the important role of the WHO in coordinating global response and curbing the spread of the virus. The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a President's Statement on human rights implications of COVID-19 on May 29, reaffirming the fundamental role of the UN system in coordinating the global response to control and contain the spread of COVID-19 and in supporting Member States, and acknowledging the crucial leading role played by the WHO. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the most serious global public health emergency since the end of World War II, the international community is increasingly aware that the WHO must be supported because it is essential for the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Lying to others is the highest extent of self-deception. By ignoring the safety of the people and severing the U.S. relationship with the WHO, the American politicians aimed at nothing but shirking responsibility and deceiving others for private political gains. These shady tricks have been seen through by the world. A scholar with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security believes that the latest decision of the U.S. is unlikely to change the operation of the WHO and the U.S. severing ties with the WHO when the pandemic spreads globally is actually shifting the responsibility for its own mistakes. U.S. media pointed out that the latest U.S. statement serves the purpose of shifting the blame for the inadequate response to COVID-19 that caused more than 100,000 deaths in America. People have come to realize clearly that some American politicians would rather tear off the fig leaf covering the reality of the U.S. democracy and human rights, and destroy the international rules and order that are conducive to maintaining the health and well-being of people of all countries, than take the responsibility for pandemic control and health governance at home, not to mention shouldering the international humanitarian responsibility. At present, the global fight against COVID-19 is at a critical stage. To support the WHO to earnestly fulfill its responsibilities is to support international cooperation in the fight against the pandemic and saving lives, and shows the greatest respect for the right to life - the basic human right. On the contrary, unilateralism and the blame game reflect indifference to life, challenges to humanitarianism, and infringement on the right to life. In front of the pandemic, to choose justice or injustice is a test to human conscience. The U.S. should see clearly that it is impossible to always act arbitrarily and any act that damages global anti-pandemic cooperation will only hurt the U.S. itself ultimately. (Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People's Daily to express its views on foreign policy.) The village has a population of around 170 people. Bhopal: A tribal village in Madhya Pradeshs Balaghat district set alarm bells ringing in the state administration when a large number of residents suddenly took ill. Fearing coronavirus outbreak, the state government on Monday rushed a team of doctors to Harri Bhata village, under Baihar tehsil, to conduct rapid tests of some villagers to find out if any of them have Covid-19. We have done rapid tests of 31 people in the village. But all the cases have been found asymptomatic. We are keeping a close watch on the situation, Balaghat district chief medical health officer (CMHO) Manoj Pandey told this newspaper. The village has a population of around 170 people and about 70 guest workers belonging to the village returned to their homes from different states in May this year. The district has reported a total of seven coronavirus positive cases. We are concerned because it would be a challenging task for us to handle the situation if the pandemic spreads to the area, a senior district officer said. Tribals are particularly vulnerable to community transmission because of their culture of community living. Also at the event, the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County said it would hire 75 "peace keepers" to de-escalate tension with protesters and police. Police arrive at Macy's mall after it was broken into by people hours after a solidarity rally calling for justice over the death of George Floyd Monday, June 1, 2020, in New York: AP / Wong Maye-E Manhattans flagship Macys store was among dozens of businesses hit by looters on Monday evening, as a nighttime curfew in New York failed to prevent widespread looting in the city. While peaceful protests and marches over the police killing of George Floyd were taking place across the city, roving groups caused chaos in Midtown, smashing their way into shops and stealing merchandise. The looting began around 8pm, lasting into the night and beyond the 11pm curfew. One video showed what appeared to be dozens of people streaming into the stories Macys store in Herald Square. Other videos showed mostly young men taking part in the looting, ignoring the objections of protesters and unbothered by police stationed nearby. The New York Police Department said 700 people were arrested throughout the night in the city. New York governor Andrew Cuomo called out the looters on Tuesday, saying they were not part of the protests - but also criticised the city authorities, saying mayor Bill de Blasio and the NYPD " did not do their job last night". That criminal activity hurt everyone, he said during a press conference. The looting and criminal activity must be stopped immediately. Mr de Blasio said the citys curfew would be moved up to 8pm on Tuesday following the previous nights incidents. These protests have power and meaning. But as the night wears on we are seeing groups use them to incite violence and destroy property, he wrote on Twitter. Our first priority is keeping people safe, so Im extending the curfew to Tuesday. It will begin at 8pm. Mr de Blasio said there were also "real problems" in the Bronx on Monday. Video posted on social media showed multiple piles of rubbish on fire on a debris-strewn street and people smashing into stores. Another video showed a group of men beating a police officer who was alone and down on the ground, smashing him with pieces of wreckage until he pulled his gun and they ran. Story continues Protesters march through Brooklyn on Saturday, May 30, in response to the killing of George Floyd. (Richard Hall) The images of looting in Manhattan threatened to overshadow larger, peaceful protests across the city. As in previous nights, numerous marches made their way through Brooklyn and Manhattan simultaneously to demand action over the killing of Mr Floyd. Protests sparked by the killing have morphed into wider calls for racial justice in the US. They have taken place in Minneapolis, the city where the killing took place, in Louisville, Los Angeles, California; Atlanta, Georgia and more than 70 other cities. More than 25 cities have introduced curfews in an attempt to bring calm. With agencies @DanSlott: The photo op Trump wanted wasnt the church. It was walking out the gates of the White House. Why? People made fun of him being in a bunker and it hurt his ego.So he gassed peaceful protestors to get them out of the way. So he could leave the house and show he wasnt scared. Prominent Nigerian Pastor TB Joshua has reacted to the announcement from the Nigerian Government regarding the reopening of churches, insisting he will only open The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations (SCOAN) when he hears from God to do so. Joshua, whose church is one of Nigerias major tourist attractions, said he received a revelation from God about the churchs initial closure. In a video posted to YouTube, the cleric can be heard forewarning of The SCOANs closure on three occasions in February 2019, April 2019 and January 2020 long before the coronavirus outbreak resulted in a ban on public gatherings. The thing God is still telling me you will just get here one day and learn that there is no church, he had stated during a regular Sunday service, adding that congregants would only view him on Emmanuel TV, the popular Christian channel. Viewers, that same God we are waiting to hear from on when to reopen when things will go back to normal as usual, Joshua said in a statement released to his official social media channels. Gods time is the best. We are waiting at His feet for that time. We are tarrying for the Holy Spirits instruction, he continued, calling on his followers to pray without ceasing. The cleric added he would continue his usual broadcasts on Emmanuel TV until we hear from God when to reopen. It is Gods work, not our work, he added. Here, our thanks go to the authorities for understanding. Jesus is Lord! On Monday 1st June 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari had announced the easing of lockdown restrictions in Nigeria, including the reopening of churches and mosques in line with state government protocols. SOURCE: YouTube - Ihechukwu Njoku is a freelance Nigerian journalist John Legend, Lizzo and Taraji P. Henson have all signed a letter calling to stop increases to police budgets, following the murder of George Floyd which has triggered civil unrest across the country. The 'open demand' letter, also signed by Common, the Weeknd, Natalie Portman, Jane Fonda, America Ferrera, Brie Larson, ACLU executive director Anthony Romero, and more, aims to instead increase spending on health care, education, and programs for black communities, Variety reports. It is claimed in the letter that in 2017, $194 billion was spent on the police by local government, despite 'continued profiling, harassment, terror and killing of Black communities.' Speaking out: John Legend has signed a letter calling to stop increases to police budgets, following the murder of George Floyd which has triggered civil unrest across the country. The letter is signed off with: 'We call for defunding of police and for those dollars to be rerouted to create a public national healthcare system.' It is being supported by the organization Movement 4 Black Lives, which has launched 'five days of action' in a bid to fight systemic racism - including Blackout Tuesday - with Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors encouraging other music industry figures to get involved. 'We're looking at all the black musicians who are showing up and standing up like Lizzo, who I just had a phone call with yesterday,' Cullors told Variety. 'She's excited about joining, and [last week] she was up in Minneapolis protesting outside the fourth [police] precinct.' Lending their voice: Taraji P. Henson and Lizzo have also signed the letter, in association with the organization Movement 4 Black Lives However, Cullors added: 'But we need every single musician black, white, Asian, whoever to show up right now. Were not going to change whats happening between law enforcement and black people until everybody shows up to change it.' On Sunday, CNN anchor Don Lemon also called upon celebrities to do more in their part to fight the fight against systemic racism. Lemon said: 'A lot of people I ask to come on this show, to talk about this, [such as] wealthy celebrities, wealthy political people, [say], 'I can't do it. I'm mad. I dont want people to see me mad. It might hurt my business. Im so upset that I had to go to my country house,'" Riot act: Police are seen standing guard outside The White House on Sunday following protests across the country triggered by fury over the death of George Floyd Hero: Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors in 2018 'Where are you? Why aren't you fighting for these young people? If you don't do it now, when are you going to do it? if you are a millionaire or a gazillionare or a movie star or a politician and you don't step up now, when the hell are you going to do it?" 'I hate that. You are your brand. Step up, people. Step up, Black Hollywood,' Lemon added, explaining that 'Beyonce released a message, you can't?' 'By me calling out your name, it doesn't mean I'm calling you out. It means I love you, Ellen [DeGeneres]. It means I love you, Oprah,' he stated, adding 'I know they give millions of dollars to charity every year.' Representative Image The coronavirus pandemic may have created stress in the overall real estate market but investors continue to scout for Grade A commercial real estate properties at higher yields and distressed prices. To cash on the opportunity, PropShare Capital, a tech enabled commercial real estate investment platform, has raised Rs 80 crore in its first COVID-19 Distressed Opportunities Portfolio Management Scheme offering. The firm closed a Grade A distressed listing offering for Rs 80 crore with participation from more than 150 investors across HNIs, family offices, retail and institutional investors including a Japanese family office, within a span of two weeks through its platform. While demand was in excess of Rs. 500 crore, the firm chose to make a first closing within two weeks to deploy money quickly as distressed opportunities become available. Through this distressed property, the committed investors will get first and exclusive access to all opportunities with a minimum investment of Rs 50 lakh as mandated under SEBI PMS regulations. Investors get 25 percent lower management and performance fees in addition to improved liquidity and asset management. Over the past few weeks, institutional investors around the world have been committing higher capital towards real estate as Grade A assets suddenly become available at lower prices. Smart money managers are aware that investments of the 2020 vintage are likely to provide above average returns over the long term, Kunal Moktan, co-founder and CEO, PropShare Capital, said. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show Founded by IIT/IIM alumni with a track record of investing over $1 billion in India real estate, mostly in the 2009-10 financial crisis, PropShare Capital has been instrumental in providing investors access to leased Grade A assets at much lower thresholds with the benefit of liquidity and asset management. One of the things that led up to Margaret Thatcher's resignation as Britain's prime minister was the imposition of a poll tax on every adult in the U.K.: a crude per-head charge just for existing. Londoners rioted on 31 March 1990, with hundreds hurt and 339 arrests made. Trafalgar Square was wrecked, police charged the crowds on horseback only to be forced back, and shops throughout the west end were looted. It's a world away from the experience of black people in America and contemporary protests here, but interesting all the same because of what's different and what's the same. The rioters included many people with large family sizes (a head tax!), people with limited incomes but too well-off to escape the tax. It was a hard-to-define segment on the margins of prosperity, working white people rubbing shoulders with immigrant Muslims and well-off Catholics. All sharing the burden of those targeted by the law. The police lied through their teeth about their incompetent tactics and excessive use of force and, in an age before ubiquitous video recording devices, enjoyed largely servile coverage in the press. But almost all those arrested were ultimately acquitted, suggesting the police had fabricated or inflated charges. Thatcher was gone within months, the poll tax proved hard to collect, and her replacement won re-election after promising to abolish it entirely, then did so. People reenact the pinning down of George Floyd during a protest in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 29. REUTERS/Bryan Woolston David McAtee, the owner of a barbecue restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky, was killed during a protest on Monday. McAtee was known in the community for giving food away, including to police officers, according to the Louisville Courier Journal. McAtee was killed after police and Kentucky National Guard members were fired upon and they returned fire, according to Gov. Andy Beshear. Locals expressed anger over reports that his body was left on the street for 12 hours after the shooting. Beshear called for an investigation and said body-camera footage should be released by Monday evening. Later on Monday, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said the police involved in the shooting did not have their body cameras on and that the police chief had been fired. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. David McAtee, the owner of a barbecue restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky, was killed after police and National Guard members opened fire at a protest over the death of George Floyd. McAtee was the owner of YaYa's BBQ, according to the Louisville Courier Journal. He was known as a "community pillar," his mother, Odessa Riley, told the paper. McAtee, who was 53, often gave food to the community for free, including police officers. "He fed them free," Riley told the paper. "He fed the police and didn't charge them nothing." McAtee died early Monday morning after police and the Kentucky National Guard were sent to disperse a crowd in the city, where protests have continued over the death of Floyd in Minneapolis. Police said they were shot at and that they and National Guard members returned fire, which resulted in McAtee's death, according to a statement from Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. Members of the community were especially angered by reports that his body was left on the street for 12 hours after the killing. The shooting occurred shortly after midnight, and his body appeared to be removed from the scene after noon later that day, according to WFPL, a local radio news station. Story continues Beshear on Monday called for an investigation into the shooting and said body-camera footage should be released by Monday evening, acknowledging that people may not trust claims made by police over what happened. "I'm not asking people to trust our account," Beshear said. But later on Monday, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said that the police did not have their body cameras turned on. The police chief, Steve Conrad, has been fired, Fischer said, according to the Courier Journal. Disciplinary action for the officers involved is forthcoming, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. McAtee's death comes as police have escalated protests across the country, sometimes turning violent toward unarmed and peaceful protesters. Police in New York rammed cars into a group of protesters and law-enforcement officers around the country have shot nonlethal bullets, pepper spray, and tear gas at protesters, bystanders, and journalists. A police officer was seen in Salt Lake City shoving an elderly person with a cane to the ground. Protests have erupted across the country and in some nations around the world over the killing of Floyd, who died after a police officer in Minneapolis pressed his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes. Read the original article on Business Insider CLEVELAND, OH / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2020 / Mace Security International Inc. (OTCQX:MACE) is pleased to announce that President and CEO Gary Medved has purchased 450,000 shares of MACE common stock. Additionally, board member Denis Amato acquired 100,000 MACE common shares and board member Hussien Shousher acquired 425,812 shares. All the insider share transactions were of existing outstanding shares, and no new shares were issued, preventing any dilution to MACE equity holders. Medved commented: "I am pleased with the direction the company has taken over the last 15 months, including lowering our breakeven point through disciplined SG&A spending, customer acceptance of our refreshed product line, and the resulting strong EBIDTA generation. I believe our company represents a good investment, as these recent stock purchases demonstrate." Virtual Investor Day MACE today also announces details for its annual Virtual Investor Day to be hosted Thursday, July 2, 2020. The Investor Day Presentation begins at 10:30 am EDT and concludes at 11:30 am EDT. A live question and answer session will be included in the Investor Day session. Mace's Investor Day 2020 will feature an overview of the company, a discussion of business performance and strategy, and a showcase of current products, branding, and eCommerce initiatives. Speakers include Gary Medved, President and CEO, and Sanjay Singh, Executive Chairman. To attend the Virtual Investor Day please use the following address: www.malone-media.com/mace and enter the password pepper20. About Mace Security International, Inc. Mace Security International Inc. is a globally recognized leader in personal safety products. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, the Company has spent more than 30 years designing and manufacturing consumer and tactical products for personal defense and security under its world-renowned Mace Brand - the original trusted brand of pepper spray products. The Companies other leading brands include Tornado Brand stun guns and pepper spray, and Vigilant Brand alarms. The Company also offers aerosol defense sprays for law enforcement and security professionals worldwide through its Take Down Brand. Mace Security International distributes and supports its products and services through mass-market retailers, wholesale distributors, independent dealers, e-commerce channels and through its website, www.mace.com. For more information, please visit www.mace.com. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements and information included in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Federal Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this press release, the words or phrases "will likely result," "are expected to," "will continue," "is anticipated," "estimate," "projected," "intend to" or similar expressions are intended to identify "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to certain risks, known and unknown, and uncertainties, including but not limited to economic conditions, dependence on management, our ability to compete with competitors, dilution to shareholders, and limited capital resources. Contacts: Gary Medved President and Chief Executive Officer gmedved@mace.com SOURCE: MACE SECURITY INTERNATIONAL INC View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/592464/Mace-Reports-Insider-Stock-Purchases-and-Announces-Virtual-Investor-Day-Date BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro urged his supporters on Monday to put off their protests against the country's Supreme Court next weekend after counter-demonstrations triggered violent clashes on Sunday. 'Leave things alone on Sunday,' the right-wing president said, referring to the protests. BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro urged his supporters on Monday to put off their protests against the country's Supreme Court next weekend after counter-demonstrations triggered violent clashes on Sunday. "Leave things alone on Sunday," the right-wing president said, referring to the protests. He spoke at the gates of his official residence the day after he greeted supporters on horseback at a rally against the top court. Bolsonaro's critics say he has undermined democracy by endorsing almost weekly protests against the top court, which authorized an investigation into the president for allegedly interfering with police appointments for personal motives. The judge heading that probe compared Bolsonaro's approach to Hitler's Germany. Some leftist opposition parties have sought to impeach Bolsonaro. But the speaker of the lower house of Congress, Rodrigo Maia, who would decide whether to open impeachment proceedings, said now was not the time to "add more wood to the fire." Maia said during an online event he would decide on impeachment requests at "the appropriate time" but Brazil needed to focus on uniting to fight an accelerating coronavirus pandemic to save lives and jobs. In rallies in Brasilia, Sao Paulo and other big cities on Sunday, militant Bolsonaro supporters urged the military to intervene and close down Congress and the Supreme Court. Anti-Bolsonaro demonstrators protesting against what they called "fascism" clashed with police in a counter-demonstration on Sao Paulo's main avenue, hurling stones at riot police who responded with tear gas. Bolsonaro said he had no role in organizing the protests against the Supreme Court. "I don't coordinate anything ... I just attend," he said. The confrontation between Bolsonaro and the court thrust Brazil into a political crisis in the midst of the world's second worst outbreak of coronavirus that has paralyzed Latin America's largest economy and raised fears of a military coup. In a newspaper interview published on Monday, Vice President Hamilton Mourao, a retired army general, said there was no danger of a coup. But he urged the country's institutions to allow the democratically elected Bolsonaro to govern. "Let the guy govern! If he makes mistakes, as others have in the past, there are elections in 2022 and he will be judged by voters," the vice president told newspaper Valor Economico. (Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu, Maria Carolina Marcello and Anthony Boadle; Editing by Richard Chang and David Gregorio) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said on Monday China has moved up its forces along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India and has made continued efforts to expand militarily in several places. Earlier this month, China had moved a large number of its troops to four points in Ladakh sectors Galwan Valley and Pangong Tso area. It has turned out to be the biggest confrontation between the two countries after the Doklam episode in 2017. That was in an apparent effort to browbeat the Indian side to stop border construction projects including a 60-metre concrete bridge being built near Daulat Beg Oldie, the last military post south of the Karakoram Pass. On Sunday, the Indian Army dismissed a video purportedly showing a clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers in eastern Ladakh describing it as malafide. The two-and-a-half-minute video ostensibly shows a brawl between Indian and Chinese troops on the banks of the Pangong lake. We see even today increasing forces of China moved up to the north of India on the Line of Actual Control there on the Indian border. These are the kinds of actions that authoritarian regimes take and they have a real impact Pompeo told Marc Thiessen and Danielle Pletka of AEIs What The Hell Is Going On In The World podcast. The top US official also mentioned Hong Kongers in Hong Kong and said the United States has a responsibility and the capability to push back against that, ensure that the American people are properly served by foreign policy that recognizes the threats that emanate from China today. Pompeo, responding to a question, said that the recent Chinese actions on the Indian border or Hong Kong or the South China Sea have been part of the Chinese behaviour in the recent past. Its not just over the past six months. Weve seen over the past number of years, continued Chinese build-out of the military capabilities and then continually more aggressive action. I mentioned India. You mentioned the South China Sea, he said. We see these same kinds of things with them attempting to build ports around the world as part of their Belt and Road Initiative, places where they can move the Peoples Liberation Army, Navy. Weve seen their continued efforts to expand militarily, he said. For the past 20 years, the US has not responded to these things in a real way, he said. Weve viewed the 1.5 billion people in the Chinese market as so important to the American economy, and the risk that the Chinese would respond by closing us out for the favour of some other nation I think people have just been too worried about that to actually take the responses that we take to every other country that behaves in the way that China has done, Pompeo said. President Donald Trumps approach has been different, he said. Trumps made it very clear whether its the signature issue on trade... reciprocal trade... and now beginning to move to all the other elements of power that the Chinese Communist Party is trying to expand, he added. The Communist Party of China (CPC) continues to hide and obfuscate and delay the global response to the coronavirus pandemic that began in Wuhan. It has taken actions destroying the freedom of Hong Kongs people, he said. Those are just two pieces of the behaviour of this regime of the Chinese Communist Party. The nature and the activity that theyre undertaking, the continued efforts to steal intellectual property, to advance in the South China Sea, he said. (With agency inputs) Store That Called Police on George Floyd Says They Wont Call 911 in Future The owner of the store where employees called 911 on George Floyd says that in future neither he nor his workers will contact the authorities in similar situations. Police are supposed to protect and serve their communities; instead, what weve seen over and over again is the police abusing their power and violating the peoples trust. We realize now that escalating situations to the police almost always does more harm than good, even for something as harmless as a fake bill, Cup Foods in Minneapolis said in a statement. The 911 call was in accordance with state policy that requires stores to contact the police upon receiving counterfeit bills. Because Cup Foods operates a check-cashing service, they routinely call the police over fake money. A Cup Foods worker called 911 (pdf) on May 25 just after 8 p.m., telling a dispatcher that a man entered the store and paid with fake bills. Workers asked the man, later identified as Floyd, to give them back the products purchased with the forged money but he refused. Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneels on the neck of George Floyd, a handcuffed man who was pleading that he could not breathe, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 25, 2020. (Darnella Frazier via AP) Floyd died after police arrived. An independent autopsy found Floyd died from being deprived of oxygen. The actions of the officers, including one who knelt on the mans neck, led to Floyd not being able to breathe, the familys lawyer said. An official autopsy from a medical examiner concurred that the manner of death was homicide, saying the cause of death was cardiac arrest, complicating law enforcement restraint, and neck compression. Decedent experienced a cardiopulmonary arrest while being restrained by law enforcement officer(s), it stated. Significant conditions contributing to the death included heart disease, fentanyl intoxication, and recent methamphetamine use. Mahmoud Abumayyaleh, who owns the store, wasnt there when the Floyd call took place, the statement said. His nephew was present and yelled for police officers to stop but was pushed away by one of them. Protesters march along the freeway that exits St. Paul on their way to U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis via the Saint Anthony Falls bridge on the fourth day of protests and violence following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) The store said that what happened with Floyd wasnt an isolated incident, adding, They have shown time and time again that they do not know how to peacefully handle conflicts in our community. By simply following procedure we are putting our communities in danger. Until the police stop killing innocent people, we will handle incidents like this one using non-violent tactics that do not involve police. We must stand together to fight against institutional racism, the statement said, calling on people to demand justice by calling and emailing the Minneapolis District Attorneys office and donating to groups that say theyre fighting racism. Derek Chauvin, the officer who knelt on Floyds neck, was arrested last week on murder and manslaughter charges. Hes being held in a maximum security prison outside Minneapolis. He and the three other officers involved with Floyds apprehension were fired. The other officers have not been charged. Some are calling for their arrests and Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said they were complicit in Floyds death. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-01 23:45:53|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 1 (Xinhua) -- China stands ready to work with Africa to firmly oppose all forms of racial discrimination and remarks inciting racial discrimination and hatred, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Monday. Spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks when asked to comment on an African American who died in police custody after white police officers in the United States placed their knee on his neck during arrest. China expresses its solidarity with and support for Africa's call for justice as African countries and people suffered great misfortune on racial discrimination, Zhao said at a news briefing. Zhao said leaders of the African Union and African countries have given just calls against racial discrimination in the United States, which represents the general consensus of the international community. "We hope that the United States can face up to and listen carefully," the spokesperson added. Enditem By Ayya Lmahamad Azerbaijan increased exports of tomatoes and chocolate in the period between January and March in 2020. The country's tomatoes exports increased by 53.3 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of the year, amounting to 32.769 tons, local media reports with reference to State Customs Committee. Tomatoes ranked first in the list of non-oil export products. The cost of exported tomatoes is estimated at $43.9 million with a 72.5 percent growth. Russia was the main importer of the Azerbaijani tomato second year in the row, exporting 32.718 tons of product worth $43.8 million in the period between January and March. Tomato exports to Russia increased in quantitative and value terms by 53.6 and 34.1 percent accordingly. Moreover, during the reporting period, Azerbaijan exported 475.9 tons of chocolate (with 39 percent growth) worth $1.2 million (with 72.9 percent growth). Out of this, export to Russia amounted to 459.48 tons (3.9 times growth) worth $1.1 million (4.8 times growth). At the same time, during first quarter of 2020, Azerbaijan imported 4.629 tons of chocolate worth $11.9 million, with increase in quantitative and value terms by 8.3 and 5.2 percent accordingly. As reported earlier, Azerbaijan exported non-oil products worth $549 million in January- April 2020, which is 5.8 percent less compared to the same period last year. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Houston will not need to furlough roughly 3,000 city employees nor cancel its police cadet classes in the upcoming budget year, Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin announced during a city council budget committee meeting Tuesday. Instead, the city will use federal coronavirus relief funds to help bridge its projected $169 million shortfall in the fiscal year that begins July 1. No employee in the (City of Houston) will be furloughed, Martin said. The administration has updated Mayor Sylvester Turners initial budget proposal, eliminating many of the most dire consequences attributed to the revenue gap. The revised budget plan eliminates furloughs and adds back five cadet classes for police, Martin said. It also adds another fire department cadet class, giving that department four classes. The new proposal also adds $15 million back into the citys rainy day fund as hurricane season gets underway; Turners original spending plan would have exhausted that fund entirely. The changes comes as the city has weighed how it can spend $404 million in federal funds it received through the CARES Act, part of a stimulus package approved by Congress. The administration plans to use roughly $19 million of those funds to cover expenses for redeploying city employees from their normal duties to address the coronavirus pandemic, freeing some budgetary space. It is not clear if the city plans to use additional federal funds to cover the remaining costs of the budget revisions. The initial budget proposal said the furloughs would save the city roughly $7 million. The five police cadet classes cost $13.9 million. Martin said the administration would use city employees for newly-required temperature checks at City Hall and other duties, instead of outsourcing them to private companies. The proposed revisions, however, do not mean the city is out of the financial woods. Martin said during the budget committee meeting that the budget for Fiscal 2022 will be even more dire, when the economic downturns effects are compounded by anticipated hits to property taxes. And Controller Chris Brown the citys independently-elected financial watchdog has been sounding an alarm in recent weeks that Turners budget proposal relies on an overly-optimistic assumption about sales tax revenues. That revenue stream is City Halls second-largest, accounting for roughly a quarter of the general fund operating budget that pays for police officers, firefighters and most other day-to-day city services. Amid the double whammy of plummeting oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic, the citys sales tax receipts took an immediate hit, plunging 10.3 percent or $6.5 million in March. The April numbers, to be unveiled next week, are expected to be worse. Turners budget assumes the city will collect $675 million in sales tax in the upcoming fiscal year, a reduction of less than 1 percent from the $680 million the administration expects to collect this year. Brown, however, is projecting the city will collect $610 million in sales taxes next fiscal year, a decrease of more than 9 percent, and $65 million less than Turners estimate. That is part of a broader guess, Brown said, that the economy is not going to quickly recover over the coming months. My job as controller, the taxpayers watchdog, is to alert people when were headed down a bad path, Brown said. And I think were heading down a bad path. Finance Director Tantri Emo said Tuesday that the administrations budget revisions involving federal funds would help the city build a fund balance in case economic conditions prove worse than it anticipates. At this point, we are trying to build this fund balance, Emo said. If something is moving to the south, in terms of our projection, then we do have some cushion to handle that. Emo said the administrations sales tax estimates were based on estimates from a pair of consultants, using the midpoint of their projections. Brown said his office uses the same two consultants, and he said they have revised their numbers downward. In past years, the Turner administrations projections have proven conservative, with the city collecting more sales tax revenue than it anticipated in its budget. From fiscal years 2017 through 2019, the city took in an average of $32.9 million more per year than it projected. The current budget is the first under Turner that expected to collect less than the budgeted amount, due to coronavirus. The expected hit will be about $14.6 million. City Council is scheduled to take up the mayors budget proposal June 10. dylan.mcguinness@chron.com This week the F-16's will be training at the 40 complex. If anyone wants to view this training take Marlette Rd. east of... Posted by Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center on Monday, June 1, 2020 GRAYLING, MI Fighter jets will be in the skies above Northern Michigan this week. F-16s will train daily at the Range 40 Complex used for air-to-ground training at Camp Grayling this week, according to a Facebook post by Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center. Anyone who wants to watch the training can watch from the north side of the fence line at the 40 Complex. The best viewing time is 2 p.m. To reach the viewing area, travel east on Marlette Road all the way to the complex; Marlette intersects with Old Highway 27 in the community of Waters. A word of caution for would-be viewers: The military wants people to know the viewing location is accessed by a narrow dirt road that can easily get congested. It is not meant for a large crowd. Community members are encouraged to watch from anywhere in the Grayling vicinity. READ MORE: From hair salons to gyms, experts rank 36 activities by coronavirus risk level Northern Michigan casino possible coronavirus exposure site, health department says Huron-Manistee National Forest begins reopening recreation sites, campgrounds Krispy Kreme proclaims National Doughnut Week, offers free doughnuts all week long MBABANE Disastrous! This best describes the situation in the country as medical laboratory technicians, who play an integral role in the operations of the Mbabane Government Hospital, downed their tools. Everything came to a standstill as over 60 medical lab technicians at the countrys major hospital, yesterday converged at the Blood Bank to deliver a list of demands to the Principal Laboratory Administrator, Stukkie Motsa. In essence, with the technicians downing tools, it means there will be no coronavirus (COVID-19) tests conducted, among other things in the country. Other operations that will be affected include TB testing and treatment, viral load testing and blood sugar levels testing. Laboratory This is because medical laboratory technologists and technicians analyse body fluids, such as blood, urine, tissue samples and record normal or abnormal findings. They further discuss results and findings of laboratory tests and procedures with physicians. Mbabane Government Hospital is currently the only hospital that analyses COVID-19 samples and others by virtue of being a referral hospital. In an interview with this publication, the laboratory technicians, who are based at the COVID-19 laboratory, said processing of the results would definitely be affected. They mentioned that they were not prepared to go back to work unless their demands were met. The technicians want to be provided with personal protective equipment (PPE), among other things. They said they had risked their lives from the first day when the country recorded the first COVID-19 case to date. We are tired of compromising our lives, especially because we directly work with the virus itself when handling the test samples for COVID-19, they said. Meanwhile, they alleged the Ministry of Health was undermining them, hence their grievances were not addressed. According to the technicians, they required proper and full PPE which included head covers, eye shields, masks, scrubs, disposable coats, aprons, shoe covers, sanitisers, soap and a sink. They want the employer to provide them with a safe working environment. Meanwhile, the laboratory technicians said they wanted their employer to clearly state whether they were an essential service or not. They noted that they wanted the issue of risk allowance to be addressed by their employer, adding that their work was undermined and they were not considered an essential service. Further, they noted that there was no treatment without laboratory results as doctors also needed to be informed by same. The laboratory is the heart of the hospital, they said. If their demands are not met, the technicians stated that they would be shutting down all the public laboratories in the country, which included the main labs and mini labs. There are currently about 97 laboratories and 267 technicians countrywide. Demands When sought for comment on the matter, Director of Health Services Dr Vusi Magagula said they received the demands and would address them accordingly. The director said they would make sure that the COVID-19 test samples continued to be run and were not affected by the technicians protest. He said senior managers would be the ones who would be responsible, while they tried to normalise the situation. We are sure that the COVID-19 testing will not be affected for now, said the director. Magagula said the ministry discussed with laboratory supervisors on a way forward, adding that he was hoping that they would engage the technicians on their behalf and resolve the issue amicably. Meanwhile, President of the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU), Bheki Mamba, said they supported the protest by the medical laboratory technicians. Mamba said this showed that things were not going well on governments side. He said the country was far from winning the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. Already, he said there was a backlog of samples at the laboratory as the processing was slow due to a number of factors, including the unavailability of tests kits, among other things. If the employees are on strike, it means the results will be delayed further. This also means that infected people will be spreading the virus by infecting others because their results would not have been issued. Mamba said on several occasions, they had engaged government to take seriously and address the issue of PPE and risk allowance to motivate the health workers. He said they were not suggesting that huge amounts be paid, but just simply appreciating the frontline workers, adding that when they raised the issues of PPE and risk allowance, they were seen as people who were troublesome. Mamba said COVID-19 cases continued to rise and their contacts would not be able to be tested, resulting in them infecting many people. This is a serious disaster for the country. Government should address the issue of health workers, he said. In March, nurses also downed tools to petition the ministry and Cabinet over PPE. This was shortly after the first case of COVID-19 was recorded in the country, where the nurses threatened that they would not attend to any patients without protective gear. Nurses noted that while the nation was worried about contracting the virus, they were equally troubled that they were being made what they termed as sacrificial lambs. There is no appropriate personal protective equipment for us. The equipment said to be available was stock left over for the 2008 H1N1 response, reads part of the petition. The latest news on the protests over the death of George Floyd Tuesday. This file will be updated throughout the day). 11 p.m.: NEW YORK Thousands of demonstrators protesting the death of George Floyd remained on New York City streets on Tuesday after an 8 p.m. curfew put in place by officials struggling to stanch destruction and growing complaints that the nations biggest city was reeling out of control night after night. Mayor Bill de Blasio had doubled down on a citywide curfew, moving it up from 11 p.m. a night earlier, but rejected urging from President Donald Trump and an offer from Gov. Andrew Cuomo to bring in the National Guard. Protests had resumed Tuesday during the day over the death of Floyd, a black man who died on May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee on his neck even after he stopped moving and pleading for air. People marched in groups of thousands in parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, as merchants boarded up their businesses. As the the curfew time arrived, many were still in the streets and continued marching, with officers initially standing by and allowing them. But officers started ordering people to move along, and began taking people into custody. Demonstrators who had been on the West Side Highway in lower Manhattan were herded off, with parts of the roadway blocked off behind them. Something has to break, and its not going to be us, said Evan Kutcher, one of hundreds of demonstrators who stood outside the Barclays Center chanting Floyds name Tuesday evening. Were here because something needs to change. WASHINGTON The protest in the nations capital on Tuesday night lacked the tension of the previous nights demonstrations. The crowd outside Lafayette Park near the White House was peaceful, polite even, as they protested the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minnesota. Instead of the spray-painted tags, the protesters Tuesday favoured colorful childrens street chalk, writing Black Lives Matter slogans on the asphalt in front of St. Johns Church. Protesters chanted and talked among themselves, most wearing masks, but not social distancing in the age of COVID-19. One protester, Mati Yiheyis, a 21-year-old college student at the University of Virginia, speculated that fears of coronavirus kept many older people away. When one protester climbed a lamp post and removed a street sign he was roundly booed by others. Its not what were about, said protester George T.J. Pierce of Washington. The crowd started thinning out on its own after 8 p.m., an hour after a curfew went into place, although a core group of several hundred remained at the fence, chanting at the line of police and soldiers in riot gear on the other side. On Monday, law enforcement officers on foot and horseback aggressively drove protesters away from Lafayette Park, clearing the way for President Donald Trump to do a photo op at St. Johns Church, known as the church of presidents. On Tuesday, pastors at the church prayed with demonstrators and handed out water bottles. MINNEAPOLIS The Minneapolis school board has voted to end its contract with the Minneapolis Police Department following the death last week of George Floyd. The Star Tribune reports the vote was unanimous Tuesday. Minneapolis Public Schools will stop further negotiations with the Police Department. Schools Superintendent Ed Graff must come up with a new plan for school safety by the boards Aug. 18 meeting. School board chairwoman Kim Ellison said in an interview that she values people and education and life. Ellison said shes now convinced, based on the actions of the Minneapolis Police Department, that we dont have the same values. The Minneapolis and St. Paul school districts have faced criticism over the use of school resource officers. Both districts have sought to transform the role to be more of a mentor than an enforcer. BEIJING An official Chinese Communist Party newspaper is hammering President Donald Trumps call to send in troops to put down protests and rioting with an editorial published Wednesday entitled Quelling Protests With Troops Self-Contradictory For US. The paper, known as strongly nationalist and for its anti-American views, wrote: This could be argued as the most extreme response to disorder among governments across the world. Then why did Washington arrogantly and unreasonably accuse other countries of quelling riots? Why did politicians in Washington overbearingly portray the U.S. as the beacon of democracy and human rights? Have they really not anticipated that the U.S. could one day confront the situation as it does today and that their previous big talk could become a slap on their face? The editorial attacked the U.S. for continuing to criticize Hong Kongs heavy-handed approach to sometimes violent anti-government protests, and for Beijings move to enact national security legislation for the territory, while the U.S. failed to respond earlier to the coronavirus pandemic and police now battle protesters on American city streets. The hooligan nature of Washington makes it a complete nuisance, the paper said. 8:21 p.m.: LOS ANGELES It was the kind of scene that, it seems, only this tumultuous year of 2020 could produce. With the National Guard patrolling the streets of Los Angeles after several nights of looting, violence and fires, hundreds of people gathered downtown to protest the death of George Floyd and police brutality against so many other black people. After weeks of calls for strict social distancing amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Mayor Eric Garcetti pulled down his blue Los Angeles Dodgers face mask, joined the crowd and took a knee. 7:04 p.m.: WASHINGTON President Donald Trump on Tuesday turned up the pressure on governors to quell the violence set off by the death of George Floyd, demanding New York call up the National Guard to stop the lowlifes and losers. As more demonstrations began taking shape around the country, and cities including Washington girded for another round of scattered violence after dark, the president amplified his hard-line calls of a day earlier, in which he threatened to send in the military to restore order if governors didnt do it. NYC, CALL UP THE NATIONAL GUARD, he tweeted. The lowlifes and losers are ripping you apart. Act fast! Dont make the same horrible and deadly mistake you made with the Nursing Homes!!! One day after a crackdown on peaceful protesters near the White House, thousands of demonstrators massed a block away from the presidential mansion, facing law enforcement personnel standing across a black chain-link fence. The fence had been put up overnight to block access to Lafayette Park, just across the street from the White House. Read more live analysis from Edward Keenan, the Stars Washington bureau chief 6:09 p.m.: A white supremacist group created a fake Twitter account, posed as the leftist Antifa movement and called for violence during the ongoing protests sweeping the nation, the social media giant said Monday. Tonights the night comrades, the group tweeted on Sunday. Tonight we say f-- the city and we move into residential areas ... the white hoods ... and we take whats ours. The tweet, which also featured an emoji of a black fist and a misspelled Black Lives Matter hashtag, has since been removed and the account was suspended for violating Twitters manipulation and spam policy. The company identified the organization behind the fake account as Identity Evropa, which is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The racist organization was founded in Virginia in 2016 and focuses on recruiting white, college-aged men to transform them into the fashionable new face of white nationalism, according to the centre. Twitter has seen a wave of fake accounts spreading false information about the ongoing protests in recent days. Were taking action proactively on any co-ordinated attempts to disrupt the public conversation around this issue, the company said in a statement. 5:55 p.m.: CHARLESTON, W.Va. The West Virginia National Guard is pursuing disciplinary action against a guardsman who posted on social media that he would shoot at people protesting the death of George Floyd, officials said Tuesday. The guardsman, Noah Garcelon, has already resigned his position as an officer with the Winfield Police Department after making the comments. In a series of now-deleted posts, Garcelon wrote that he would start firing live rounds at protesters and see how many I can run over before my car breaks down. Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, who leads the states National Guard, said officials will be taking the appropriate disciplinary action related to Garcelon and any others who make inflammatory comments related to protests going on across the nation. Winfield Police Department Chief Ron Arthur said Garcelon acknowledged that he made the comments and stressed that he wasnt a racist before resigning. West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican, has urged people to remain peaceful but said he would not hesitate to call in the National Guard if demonstrations in the state became violent. 5:00 p.m.: MINNEAPOLIS The Minnesota Department of Human Rights will launch an investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department after filing a civil rights charge related to the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died in police custody last week. The investigation, announced Tuesday by Gov. Tim Walz, will look at Minneapolis police policies and procedures over the past 10 years to determine whether the department has engaged in discriminatory practices toward people of colour. Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero will lead the investigation. The investigation follows the arrest and charges against former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin, a white officer who knelt on Floyds neck for almost nine minutes before he died. Three other police officers were fired after the deadly encounter. We are going to establish peace on the streets when we address the systemic issues, Walz said. The move is the first time the Human Rights Department has launched a systemic investigation into the largest police department in the state, the governor said. The state is also seeking an agreement with the Minneapolis Police Department to implement immediate measures to address systemic issues of racial discrimination, Walz said. 4:49 p.m. RICHMOND, Va.Some governors are rejecting President Donald Trumps request to send National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., for a massive militarized show of force in the nations capital after several days of unrest over the death of George Floyd. At least three states New York, Virginia and Delaware have so far rejected the request, with at least one governor citing Trumps rhetoric about using troops to dominate protesters as a reason why. All of those states are led by Democrats. Meanwhile, several other states around the country are sending troops to Washington with more expected in coming days. The Trump administration has asked multiple states to send troops to Washington at the same time as the president derided many governors as weak for not using the National Guard more aggressively in their own states. 4:29 p.m. Rihanna, Katy Perry, Oprah Winfrey, Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Chance the Rapper and more stars have gone dark on social media for the music industrys Blackout Tuesday initiative in solidarity with the black community. The initiative, originally called #TheShowMustBePaused, is a response to the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and other victims of racial violence. Industry executives Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang launched it as a way for artists and executives to pause and reflect on how they can better support the black community. While several in the music world and beyond have embraced the movement by posting black squares to their Instagram feeds, others questioned the effectiveness of a blank post and a hashtag. Country rapper Lil Nas X and singer-songwriter Kehlani were among the skeptics who worried the well-intended gesture might do more harm than good. I know yall mean well but ... bro saying stop posting for a day is the worst idea ever, Lil Nas X tweeted early Tuesday, adding, I just really think this is the time to push as hard as ever. I dont think the movement has ever been this powerful. we dont need to slow it down by posting nothing. we need to spread info and be as loud as ever. While Kehlani credited Thomas and Agyemang for championing solidarity and strength in numbers, she echoed the Old Town Road hitmakers concerns, calling the effect counterproductive. Kehlani, Lizzo, Chance the Rapper and other musicians also cautioned participants not to attach the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter to their Blackout Tuesday squares, in order to avoid clogging up a feed used to share important updates and resources connected to the cause. 4:26 p.m WASHINGTONAttorney General William Barr ordered law enforcement officials to clear Lafayette Park and push back the perimeter around the White House when he arrived there Monday evening, leading to police using tear gas to disperse protesters. A person familiar with the matter tells The Associated Press that Barr expected the perimeter to have been extended much earlier Monday. The person could not discuss the matter publicly and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity. The person said officials had met that morning and decided the perimeter had to be moved by at least one full block after multiple fires were set in the park the night before. They said that was expected to happen by Monday afternoon. The person said Barr was surprised it hadnt been done when he arrived in the early evening and directed action to be taken. They said he assumed police would use typical crowd control measures against protesters who resisted commands to clear the area. MINNEAPOLISProsecutors are delaying the case against a man who drove his semitrailer into a crowd of protesters on a closed Minneapolis freeway. The 35-year-old man drove his tanker truck into the midst of thousands of people who had gathered on Interstate 35W near downtown Minneapolis on Sunday. Authorities said it appeared no one was hurt and the man was arrested. Gov. Tim Walz said the man became confused and somehow got on the freeway before traffic officials closed it. Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced Tuesday that the case against the man has been deferred pending further investigation and hell be released from jail. Freeman said investigators are working to gather additional information to help in making a charging decision. 4:10 p.m. ATLANTAJournalism organizations are condemning authorities detainment of two journalists who were covering protests in Atlanta. The Georgia chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists said in a news release that one journalist was detained Sunday and another on Monday covering protests and unrest that has followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Both were quickly released without charges. Atlanta Journal-Constitution photographer Alyssa Pointer, a black woman, was detained by Georgia Department of Natural Resources officers Monday while wearing press credentials and after identifying herself as a journalist, the release says. Haisten Willis, a freelance journalist on assignment for The Washington Post, said he was handcuffed and briefly held by Atlanta police Sunday while trying to explain that he was a reporter. Willis is a white man. Live video of Pointer being detained was streamed on Facebook by a WXIA-TV reporter. It shows Pointer sitting on the ground with her hands restrained behind her back, before being released after other journalists interceded. 4:07 p.m. WASHINGTONPresident Donald Trump ordered military aircraft to fly above the nations capital on Monday night as a show of force against demonstrators protesting the death of George Floyd, according to two Defence Department officials. Show-of-force missions are designed to intimidate and, in combat zones, warn opposing forces of potential military actions if provoked. The officials, who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss ongoing operations publicly, did not say how many or what type of aircraft had been mobilized. Videos and photographs posted on social media showed helicopters flying low over buildings and hovering just above groups of people on the street who were outside despite a district-wide curfew. On Tuesday, roughly 700 members of the 82nd had arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland and Fort Belvoir in Virginia. In addition, 1,400 more soldiers are ready to be mobilized within an hour, according to the two Defence Department officials. The soldiers are armed and have riot gear. They also have bayonets. RICHMOND, Va.An angry crowd shouted down Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney on Tuesday after police lobbed tear gas at a group of peaceful demonstrators during a protest over the death of George Floyd. Several hundred people gathered outside City Hall chanted Fire Them! and repeatedly drowned out Stoney as he apologized and promised that the officers involved will face disciplinary action. Video posted to social media of the Monday night incident shows a line of police launching tear gas toward a group of protesters who appeared to be yards away from the officers and peacefully gathered on the grass near a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Police Chief William Smith also apologized and took a knee briefly after being invited to do so by a woman in the crowd. The tear gas was used on a group of protesters during a fourth night of protests over the killing of Floyd. The Richmond Police Department initially defended its use of tear gas but later retreated from that position after Smith reviewed video of the incident. Stoney also apologized on Twitter and invited protesters to the meeting outside City Hall on Tuesday. PHOENIXThe Arizona National Guard is assessing a request from President Donald Trump to provide troops to other states, Guard spokesman Maj. Aaron Thacker said Tuesday. The Guard already has about 900 military police and other troops on duty after Gov. Doug Ducey ordered them to help back up state and local law enforcement dealing with weekend protests that at times turned violent. Thacker said the Guard isnt yet ready to send troops to other states. CLEVELANDCleveland Browns Pro Bowl guard Joel Bitonio hopes the NFL and its owners will use their platform to promote love and racial equality in the wake of protests following the death of George Floyd. People listen, kids listen, Bitonio said Tuesday. You start the younger generation and you teach them to love each other and to have that compassion and empathy for other people. Thats where it grows in this country, and so I hope players and ownership and the NFL as a whole uses the platform to really promote that love. Bitonio, who is white, said he has always appreciated the struggles some of his black teammates have endured in really tough situations with law enforcement, or just in general. A six-year veteran, Bitonio said its more vital than ever to show empathy because people are hurting. He said new Browns coach Kevin Stefanski spoke with his team on Monday about the situation. 3:54 p.m. TORONTOOntario Premier Doug Ford says Canada doesnt have the systemic, deep roots of racism that the United States does. Ford was asked today to comment on the protests in cities across the U.S. that were sparked by the death of a black man at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis. Ford, who spent a lot of time in the U.S. for his familys label business, said the difference between the two countries is that in Canada, people for the most part get along, working and shopping together. He says comparing Canada and the U.S. is like night and day, and he hopes America can straighten out its problems. Ford says he doesnt have time to watch the news these days, but believes in peaceful protest, without getting anarchy involved. The premier says he has zero tolerance for racism and has always stood up for the black community. 3:30 p.m. PARISParis riot officers fired tear gas Tuesday as scattered protesters in Paris pelted them with debris and set fires during an unauthorized demonstration against racial injustice and heavy-handed police tactics. Several thousand people had previously rallied peacefully for two hours at the main Paris courthouse as global outrage over what happened to George Floyd in the United States kindled frustrations across borders and continents. The protesters also paid tribute to Adama Traore, a French black man who died in police custody. Police had banned the protest because of coronavirus restrictions that had forbidden any gathering of more than 10 people. As the demonstration wound down, police fired tear gas and protesters could be seen throwing debris. Two small fires broke out, and green and gray barriers surrounding a construction site were knocked over. Tensions also erupted at a related protest in the southern city of Marseille. 3:14 p.m. MINNEAPOLISThe state of Minnesota filed a human rights complaint Tuesday against the Minneapolis Police Department in the death of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer who pressed his knee into Floyds neck for several minutes, even after he stopped moving. Gov. Tim Walz and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights announced the filing at a news conference Tuesday afternoon. Widely seen bystander video showing Floyds death has sparked protests around the world. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been fired and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Three other officers involved were fired but have not been charged. The department enforces the states human rights act, particularly as it applies to discrimination in employment, housing, education, public accommodations and public services. Mediation is one of its first-choice tools, but the cases it files can lead to fuller investigations and sometimes end up in litigation. The Minneapolis Police Department has faced decades of allegations brutality and other discrimination against African Americans and other minorities, even within the department itself. Critics say its culture resists change, despite the elevation of Medaria Arradondo as its first black police chief in 2017. 2:59 p.m. WASHINGTONThe Trump administration floated the idea of taking over the police force in the nations capital after days of violent demonstrations that led to fires and vandalism. Officials with the District of Columbia mayors office said Tuesday that the White House raised the possibility of taking control of the Metropolitan Police Department. The officials said they told the White House they strongly objected and would challenge any attempt to do so in court. The revelation comes a day after President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr told governors they needed to get tougher with violent protesters and to deploy the National Guard. PROVIDENCE, R.I. Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo activated the National Guard Tuesday and is considering a curfew in response to a violent night in Providence that officials say was not a protest over the death of George Floyd but an organized effort to cause destruction. Police received intelligence several hours prior to the violence late Monday and into Tuesday that people were coming from out of state armed with crowbars, flares and gasoline, State Police Col. James Manni said. A crowd of hundreds of people he described as a mob smashed storefront windows, stole merchandise, broke into a closed mall and torched a police cruiser. More than 60 people were arrested and as many as 10 police officers were injured when they were hit by rocks or bricks, authorities said. organized attack on our community. 2:33 p.m. PROVIDENCE, R.I.As demonstrators flooded streets across America to decry the killing of George Floyd, public health experts watched in alarm the close proximity of protesters and their failures in many cases to wear masks, along with the police using tear gas, could fuel new transmissions of the coronavirus. Many of the protests broke out in places where the virus is still circulating widely in the population. In fact, an Associated Press review found that demonstrations have taken place in every one of the 25 U.S. communities with the highest concentrations of new cases. Some have seen major protests over multiple days, including Minneapolis-St. Paul, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. The protests have come just as communities across the nation loosen restrictions on businesses and public life that have helped slow the spread of the virus, deepening concern that the two factors taken together could create a national resurgence in cases. As a nation, we have to be concerned about a rebound, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser warned Sunday after days of protests rocked the nations capital. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo bemoaned the crowds, saying that hundreds could potentially have been infected, undoing months of social distancing. A fresh outbreak in the places where protesters gathered could lead to reinstituting shutdowns. 2:25 p.m. ST. LOUISA retired St. Louis police officer was shot and killed early Tuesday by people who had broken into a pawn shop during unrest that followed a peaceful protest over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, police said. David Dorn, 77, was found dead on the sidewalk in front of Lees Pawn & Jewelry. Police have not released details of what led to the shooting about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday and no one has been arrested. The shooting and theft at the pawn shop apparently was posted on Facebook Live, but the video has since been taken down. It came on a violent night in St. Louis, which saw four officers shot, officers pelted with rocks, and businesses burned and robbed. Cities across the U.S. have seen protests and violence since Floyd died last week after an officer pressed his knee into Floyds neck for several minutes even after the handcuffed black man stopped moving and pleading for air. Dorn was a friend of the pawn shops owner and frequently checked on the business when alarms went off, his wife, Ann Marie Dorn, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 2:10 p.m. TEL AVIV, Israel Over 200 demonstrators protested outside the U.S. diplomatic mission in Tel Aviv on Tuesday to decry the killing of George Floyd. The protesters held signs reading Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter and If you arent livid, youre not listening. Some carried placards with Floyds name written. Some protesters also wrote the name of Solomon Teka, an 18-year-old Ethiopian Israeli who was fatally shot last year by an off-duty officer who claimed he felt threatened by a group of teenagers. Ethiopian Israelis complain of racism, lack of opportunity, endemic poverty and routine police harassment. Ethiopian Jews began arriving in large numbers in the 1970s and many were airlifted to Israel in clandestine operations in the 1980s and 90s. The community is now estimated at approximately 150,000, or around 2% of the countrys population. 2:03 p.m. MINNEAPOLISA family attorney says a medical examiners findings that George Floyd had drugs in his system is a red herring meant to distract attention away from a Minneapolis police officers responsibility for his death. During a news conference Tuesday, attorney Ben Crump also disputed the findings released by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner that the cause of death was cardiac arrest, which happened as police restrained Floyd and compressed his neck in a widely seen video that has sparked worldwide protests. The medical examiner also listed fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use, but not as the cause of death. An autopsy commissioned by the family, which Crump released Monday, concluded that Floyd died of a lack of oxygen caused by the officers knees on his neck and back. Crump called drug allegations an attempt to assassinate his character and said any drugs in his system were irrelevant to his cause of death. DALLASThe family of George Floyd is expected to join a march in Houston on Tuesday as protests continue nationwide in response to his death and other police killings of black people. The march will begin shortly after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to lay out in Dallas how the state plans to curb unrest and destruction that has followed largely peaceful daytime demonstrations. Dallas has imposed a curfew, and Monday night police conducted mass arrests on a downtown bridge where protesters marched. Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall said most were released after being charged with obstructing a roadway, which came after demonstrators got down on one knee. She emphasized Tuesday that most protests were peaceful but warned if you break the law, we will arrest you. WASHINGTONOne of the nations premier performing arts centres says it will dim its lights starting Tuesday for nine nights to mark the final nine minutes of George Floyds life. The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts says on Twitter that it will lower the lights to honour Floyd and others who lost their lives as a result of racial violence and bigotry. The centre also says its working on strategies for greater collaboration with black artists, audiences and communities, and will share those initiatives in the weeks ahead. Floyd died last week after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes, continuing after Floyd had stopped moving and was pleading for air. All four officers were fired and Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyds death. PORTLAND, Ore.The mayor of Portland, Oregon said the city will not enact a curfew on Tuesday night for the first time in four days after several thousand demonstrators remained largely peaceful during a march the night before. Mayor Ted Wheeler thanked protesters and organizers who kept an hours-long march and gathering peaceful and said he saw a community ready for healing and reconciliation. I saw progress and I am 100 confident that Portland is primed to do the difficult and important work ahead, Wheeler said. The protest marked a turning point for Oregons largest city after demonstrations the previous three nights spun into violence, with protesters setting fires, breaking windows and breaking into a police headquarters and corrections centre. The evening was not without some violence, however. After the protest disbanded late Monday, about 100 people confronted police officers guarding the Justice Center in downtown Portland and threw projectiles at them, Police Chief Jami Resch said. Twelve people were arrested and two guns were seized from protesters, she said. 1:54 p.m. PARISThousands of French protesters defied a virus-related police ban and rallied Tuesday against racial injustice and heavy-handed police tactics, as global outrage over what happened to George Floyd in the United States kindled frustrations across borders and continents. Clapping, cheering and waving signs reading Black Lives Matter and Police Everywhere, Justice Nowhere, the largely young, multiracial crowd streamed to the main Paris courthouse and rallied peacefully while police monitored closely from nearby corners. Diplomatic ire percolated too, with the European Unions top foreign policy official saying the bloc was shocked and appalled by Floyds death. As protests escalated worldwide, solidarity with U.S. demonstrators increasingly mixed with local worries. When you refuse to treat the problem of racism ... it leads to what we see in the United States, said Dominique Sopo, head of French activist group SOS Racisme. The case of George Floyd echoes what we fear in France. 1:52 p.m. WASHINTON, D.CPresident Donald Trump on Tuesday turned up the pressure on governors to quell the violence set off by the death of George Floyd, demanding New York call up the National Guard to stop the lowlifes and losers. As cities around the U.S. witnessed a seventh straight night of both peaceful demonstrations and bursts of theft, vandalism and attacks on police, the president amplified his hard-line calls of a day earlier, in which he threatened to send in the military to restore order if governors didnt do it. NYC, CALL UP THE NATIONAL GUARD, he tweeted. The lowlifes and losers are ripping you apart. Act fast! Dont make the same horrible and deadly mistake you made with the Nursing Homes!!! 1:35 p.m. WASHINTON, D.CPresident Donald Trump toured a Catholic shrine on Tuesday in his second straight religious-themed appearance as the nation grappled with widespread unrest over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Critics said the president was misusing religious symbols for partisan purposes. The White House said Trump and first lady Melania Trump were observing a moment of remembrance, laying a wreath in a quiet visit to the Saint John Paul II National Shrine. The visit came a day after Trump declared himself to be the president of law and order and then walked to St. Johns Episcopal Church across from the White House after Lafayette Park was forcibly cleared of protesters. He held up a Bible for photos in front of the church, known as The Church of the Presidents, which had been damaged by fire during weekend protests. On Tuesdays drive to the shrine, Trumps motorcade sped past National Guard members deployed around the World War II Memorial. Some onlookers along the route booed, held Black lives matter signs or made obscene gestures as the convoy rolled past. 1:07 p.m. LOUISVILLE, Ky.Video shows that a man fatally shot while police and National Guard soldiers were enforcing a curfew in Louisville fired a gun as officers approached his business during protests, the citys acting police chief said Tuesday. The video showing David McAtee opening fire was obtained from security cameras at McAtees business and an adjoining business, acting police Chief Robert Schroeder said. It shows McAtee shooting while officers were trying to clear protesters from a parking lot, he said. This video appears to show Mr. McAtee firing a gun outside of his business door as officers, who are using pepper balls to clear the Dinos (Food Mart) lot, were approaching his business, Schroeder said. This video does not provide all the answers. But we are releasing it to provide transparency. It does not answer every question, including why did he fire and where were police at the time he fired. McAtee, the owner of a barbecue spot at the location, was shot early Monday amid waves of protests in the Kentucky city set off by the death George Floyd. WASHINGTONThe nearly 1,300 D.C. National Guard members who have been activated to deal with the civil unrest were joined Monday evening by Guardsmen from Utah and New Jersey, and almost 1,500 guardsmen are coming today from Indiana, South Carolina, Tennessee and Mississippi, according to Gen. Joseph Lengyel, chief of the National Guard Bureau. The general said more are due to arrive Wednesday. A senior defence official said later that some states have turned down requests to send their Guard members to the District of Columbia, in some cases because governors are concerned about dealing with problems in their own state. The official spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon. The official said New York and Delaware have declined to send Guard members to Washington, and Pennsylvania is considering the request but not yet given an answer. 1:04 p.m. PARISFrench authorities banned a protest Tuesday over racial injustice and heavy-handed police tactics as global outrage over what happened to George Floyd in the United States kindled frustrations across borders and continents. Fears of the coronavirus remain close to the surface and were the reason cited by the police for banning Tuesdays protest at the main Paris courthouse. Gatherings of more than 10 people remain banned in France as part of virus confinement measures. But the Paris protest plans have drawn growing attention online, and demonstrators started showing up anyway. Similar demonstrations are planned in other French cities in honour of Adama Traore, who died shortly after his arrest in 2016, and in solidarity with Americans demonstrating against Floyds death. The Traore case has become emblematic of the fight against police brutality in France. The circumstances of the death of the 24-year-old Frenchman of Malian origin are still under investigation after four years of conflicting medical reports about what happened. 12:49 p.m. OTTAWA As long-standing anger about discrimination boils over in the United States, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canadians must recognize there is systemic racism in their own country. Speaking during his daily news conference in Ottawa, Trudeau says many dont see this bias but it is a reality for visible minorities in Canada. Trudeau was asked about the protests in the U.S. and President Donald Trumps talk of deploying the military to stop unrest. He paused a full 20 seconds, lips pursed, jaw working, before saying that despite watching the United States with horror and consternation, Canadians must be aware of the challenges facing black Canadians and other minorities and take steps to address them. It is a time to listen, it is a time to learn what injustices continue despite progress over years and decades, Trudeau said. But it is a time for us as Canadians to recognize that we too have our challenges, that black Canadians and racialized Canadians face discrimination as a lived reality every single day. There is systemic discrimination in Canada, which means our systems treat Canadians of colour, Canadians who are racialized, differently than they do others. 12:32 p.m. MINNEAPOLISMore than $3 million has been raised to help rebuild south Minneapolis businesses damaged or destroyed in the sometimes violent protests that followed George Floyds death. More than 38,000 donors have given to a fund set up by the Lake Street Council, a non-profit that advocates for the areas business community, at welovelakestreet.com. Many protests since Floyds death have been peaceful. But dozens of businesses, many owned by immigrants and people of colour, were hit by looting and arson. Floyd died May 25 after a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes even after he stopped moving and pleading for air. The officer is charged with 3rd-degree murder. RICHMOND, Va.Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam rejected a request from Secretary of Defence Mark Esper to send between 3,000 to 5,000 of the states national guard to Washington D.C. as part of a massive show of force organized by the Trump administration in response to violent protests, according to Northams chief of staff, Clark Mercer. Mercer said Trumps comments to governors in a phone call Monday, in which the president said most governors were weak and needed to dominate the streets, played a role in the decision. The presidents remarks to the governors heightened our concerns about how the guard would be used, he said. MADISON, Wis.Protesters spray painted graffiti on the Wisconsin state capitol, dumped paint on the beloved Forward statue outside, broke into businesses downtown and defaced the Wisconsin Veterans Museum before police in riot gear used tear gas to disperse the crowd. Police say that around 1 a.m. Tuesday someone fired a handgun in the air, two men were beaten with a crowbar and others attempted to light Molotov cocktails. Madison Police Chief Vic Wahl says in his blog that multiple police officers were struck with rocks and projectiles. It was the third night of violence in Madison, the liberal state capital with one of the deepest racial divides in the nation. There was also a peaceful protest Monday night in Milwaukee in reaction to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The unrest late Monday in Madison came after an hours-long peaceful protest during which the mayor spoke with marchers who stopped traffic on a busy six-lane street downtown. Although the demonstration was tense at times it had moments of levity, with participants line dancing in the street. Madison police said 15 people were arrested Monday night, bringing the number of arrests since Saturday to at least 32. LAS VEGASSeparate shootings in Las Vegas during continuing protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis have left one man dead and a police officer gravely wounded. Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said Tuesday that the officer was on life support after being shot as police tried to disperse a crowd of protesters outside a Las Vegas strip hotel and casino. Lombardo says the other shooting happened outside a federal building. He says a man was shot by officers several times after he reached for a weapon. The identities of the wounded officer and the fatally shot man have not been made public. STOCKHOLMMore than six thousand people have attended a Sweden-organised online protest to express support with the Black Lives Matter movement. The digital Sweden in solidarity with Black Lives Matter rally Tuesday urged participants to check in at the Facebook accounts of the U.S. Embassy in Sweden and Nordic neighbours Denmark, Finland and Norway and post photos inspired by the ongoing U.S. events with George Floyds death. The one hour-long online event with several speakers including poets, activists and politicians was organised by Swedish non-governmental organisations and Aysha Jones, a Gambia-born and Sweden-based activist and fashion blogger. Jones said the protest was important to show support to people in America, but also to remind Swedes that racism does exist here, its very real and people are being harmed from it. In his speech, Rashid Musa, head of the Young Muslims of Sweden, called the current situation with African Americans in the United States as colonialism 2.0. Malcom X said it best: Racism is like a Cadillac, they bring out a new model every year, Musa said. ORLANDO, Fla.The U.S. Census Bureau says it has temporarily closed offices in several cities as a precaution as cities grapple with unrest following the death of George Floyd. The Bureau would not say Monday which offices have been closed. A spokeswoman says in an email that the closures were done out of an abundance of caution. The Census Bureau is in the middle of the 2020 census, which is attempting to count every resident in the U.S. Census Bureau offices around the country were closed for a month and a half as field operations were suspended in March to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The offices only began reopening on a rolling basis in the past several weeks. 12:26 p.m. ARLINGTON, Va.Arlington County, Virginia, pulled its officers out of the District of Columbia Monday night after they played a supporting role in clearing protesters from a park outside the White House so the president could walk to a church for a photo opportunity. The County Board issued a statement Monday night saying its officers were used for a purpose not worthy of our mutual aid obligations. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, for her part, said Tuesday that the District of Columbia never put out a call for mutual aid. I might suggest their officers shouldnt have been there in the first place, Bowser added. Arlington officers joined a team of federal law enforcers using chemical agents and flash bangs to forcibly remove a large group of peaceful protesters from Lafayette Park. That cleared a path for President Donald Trump, vowing a crackdown from the Rose Garden, to walk in front of the White House over to St. Johns Church, which had been damaged in earlier protests. Trump then posed with a Bible for a few minutes. County Board Chair Libby Garvey said on Twitter shes appalled that the mutual aid agreement was abused for a photo op. 12:16 p.m. ATLANTASix Atlanta police officers have been charged after a dramatic video showed authorities pulling two young people from a car during protests over the death of George Floyd, a prosecutor said Tuesday. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard announced the charges during a news conference. I feel a little safer now that these monsters are off the street and no longer able to terrorize anyone else, said Messiah Young, who was dragged from the vehicle along with his girlfriend, Taniyah Pilgrim. The Saturday night incident first gained attention from video online and on local news. Throughout, the couple can be heard screaming and asking officers what is happening. Five of the officers are charged with aggravated assault, in addition to other charges. Two of the officers, Investigator Ivory Streeter and Investigator Mark Gardner, were fired earlier this week. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Pilgrim was released without charges. She said Young, was released, too, and shes ordering the charges against him dropped. She didnt specify what charges he faced. A police report says Young was charged with attempting to elude police and driving with a suspended license. 12:11 p.m. REGINASaskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is chastising those responsible for defacing a war memorial outside the legislature ahead of a rally in support of black lives. In social media posts, Moe says peaceful protests are always welcome, but vandalism is not. Protests have been happening in cities across the United States and in Canada since George Floyd died in Minneapolis last week as a white police officer knelt on the black mans neck. A solidarity rally is expected at the Regina legislature later this morning for people to express their outrage over anti-black racism. Moe shared a photo of the war memorial with Justice For Floyd #BLM written on one of the stones. He called it outrageous and encouraged anyone with information to contact police. 11:40 a.m. WASHINGTON, D.C.Joe Biden on Tuesday blistered President Donald Trump a day after police drove back peaceful protesters near the White House so Trump could pose with a Bible before a damaged church. Biden said Trumps narcissism has become more important than the nation that he leads. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee delivered a speech at Philadelphias City Hall, addressing the civil unrest across America following the death of George Floyd. Biden said the moment has come to deal with systemic racism and deeply ingrained economic inequality and insisted that the nation cant wait until Novembers election and its outcome. I call on the Congress to act this month, Biden said, urging lawmakers to start with real police reform and citing proposed legislation outlawing choke holds. But Biden stepped up his criticism of Trump as he works to elevate his voice in the national debate after more than two months of the campaign for the White House being frozen amid the outbreak of the coronarvius. This president today is part of the problem and accelerates it, Biden said, adding that Trump is consumed with his blinding ego. 11:35 a.m. ATLANTAThe base of a massive Confederate monument in Alabamas largest city was all that remained Tuesday after crews dismantled the towering obelisk and trucked it away in pieces. Other symbols came down elsewhere, leaving an empty pedestal and a bare flagpole. Workers hired by the city of Birmingham began removing the top portion of the 115-year-old monument from Linn Park late Monday. By daybreak, the pedestal was the only thing left, covered with graffiti and pock marks from protests against police brutality. Sarah Collins Rudolph, whose sister Addie Mae Collins died in a racist church bombing that killed three other black girls in the city in 1963, came to see the remains. She lowered a protective face mask to take in the sight. Im glad its been removed because it has been so long. Its a hate monument, said Rudolph. She was seriously injured in the blast at 16th Street Baptist Church, and testified against Ku Klux Klansmen who were convicted in the killings. 11:25 a.m. NEW YORK CITY New Yorks mayor extended an 8 p.m. curfew all week in hopes of stopping destruction that continued overnight despite the citys efforts to stop protests over George Floyds death from devolving into lawless mayhem. Were going to have a tough few days. Were going to beat it back, Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference Tuesday as he announced that an 8 p.m.-to-5 a.m. curfew would hold through Sunday. The plan came after a night when chaos broke out in midtown Manhattan and the Bronx. On Monday, an 11 p.m. curfew the citys first in decades failed to prevent destruction as groups of people smashed their way into shops, including Macys flagship Manhattan store. Police said nearly 700 people were arrested and several officers were injured during the chaos Monday night and early Tuesday. 11:17 a.m. WASHINGTON, D.C.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday called on President Donald Trump to be a healer in chief and not a fanner of the flame as the nation reels from mass protests over the treatment of black people in the United States. Reading from Bible scripture at the Capitol, Pelosi drew on past presidents including George H.W. Bush speaking in the aftermath of the Rodney King unrest and Barack Obama following the death of Eric Garner as models of the nations chief executive at a time of crisis. We would hope that the president of the United States would follow the lead of so many presidents before him to be a healer in chief and not a fanner of the flame, Pelosi said. The remarks of the California Democrat, who is the partys top ranking elected official, offered a stark contrast to the Republican president as the world watches a nation in turmoil. Pelosi criticized the use of force to disperse the crowd of protesters late Monday at the White House so Trump could cross the street to nearby St. Johns church in what was widely seen as a photo opportunity and was later criticized by the Episcopal congregations bishop. Some people came out and beat them so they could clear the area so the president could come out and go forward. What is that? asked Pelosi. That has no place and its time for us to do away with that. 11:07 a.m. Hong Kongs leader blasted the U.S. for double standards in the way it handles protests after the Trump administration vocally supported sometimes-violent demonstrations in the Asian financial hub. Look at how the local governments handle chaos in the U.S. and what stance they took on a similar level of chaos in Hong Kong last year, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said at a weekly news briefing Tuesday. They are highly concerned about their national security, while holding different standards for our country, especially over Hong Kongs situation. Lams government is facing renewed anti-government protests as Chinas plan to enact sweeping national security legislation over the city fuels public anger. President Donald Trump vowed to revoke some of the citys special trading privileges and impose sanctions against Chinese and Hong Kong officials directly or indirectly involved in eroding the citys autonomy. The U.S., which has passed bipartisan legislation backing Hong Kongs pro-democracy camp, now finds itself engulfed by widespread unrest of its own, triggered by the death of George Floyd. Lam on Tuesday addressed the possibility of U.S. sanctions, saying there was no justification whatsoever for any foreign governments to level them on Hong Kong. 10:38 a.m. MINNEAPOLISMinnesotas attorney general says prosecutors are working as fast as they can to determine whether more charges will be filed against officers involved in the death of George Floyd, but they also have to work carefully and methodically. Attorney General Keith Ellison was appointed lead prosecutor in the case Sunday. He told Good Morning America on Tuesday that those who have culpability will be held accountable. Floyd, a Black man, died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee against Floyds neck as Floyd said he couldnt breathe and became motionless. Derek Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. But members of Floyds family and many others are calling for more serious charges, as well as charges against the three other officers who were there. Ellison says despite the widely viewed bystander video of Floyds final moments, cases against police are hard. He pointed to the deaths of Freddie Gray and Philando Castile, and the beating of Rodney King, as examples of cases where striking video of an incident did not lead to convictions of officers. Ellison did not give a timeline for any new charges. All four officers have been fired. 10:35 a.m. TOPEKA, KANSASKansas Gov. Laura Kelly says that bringing the military into this contentious moment would do more harm than good. Kelly on Monday expressed sympathy for George Floyds family, families of other people killed by police and people outraged by Floyds tragic murder. She promised to work to address systemic racism. We need our leaders myself included to listen to those who felt their only means of being heard was to take to the street in protest, Kelly said after President Donald Trump threatened to deploy the military to states if they did not stamp out violent protests. We need action to change the systemic inequalities we have ignored for far too long. We need to stop with the divisive language and instead, come together and do whats right for our state, Kelly added. She noted that Kansas protests have been peaceful and promised to work closely with local officials to ensure public safety. 10:30 a.m. NEW YORK CITYBroken glass and burned piles of debris littered parts of New York Citys early Tuesday after its first curfew in decades failed to prevent destruction as groups of people smashed their way into shops, including Macys flagship Manhattan store. Police said more than 200 people were arrested and several officers were injured during the chaos Monday night and early Tuesday. As the day dawned, the city appeared to have made progress limiting violent clashes between police and large groups of demonstrators marching throughout the city over the death of George Floyd. Several big marches went off peacefully, with one hours-long demonstration in Brooklyn allowed to continue long after an 11 p.m. curfew. But for a second night, roving bands of young people attacked businesses in Manhattans glitzy shopping districts and a poor neighbourhood in the Bronx, where shops were looted and rubbish set on fire. People rushed into a Nike store and carried out armloads of clothing. Storefront windows were smashed near Rockefeller Center and wreckage littered the inside of an AT&T store. One officer was struck by a hit-and-run driver in the Bronx and was taken to a hospital in critical condition, police said. Another video showed a group of men hitting a police officer with pieces of wreckage until he pulled his gun and they ran. 10 a.m. As protesters keep up their anti-racism rallies on both sides of the border, top health officials are hoping they dont forget about the risk of COVID-19. Canadian health officials are not suggesting people avoid protests, but they are stressing the importance of hand sanitizer and masks. With physical distancing being nearly impossible in some of these settings, rally-goers may have to find other ways to try to keep themselves safe. Protests have taken place in several Canadian cities in the aftermath of a Black man dying last week in Minneapolis after a white police officer pressed a knee into his neck.o 9:41 a.m. WASHINGTON, D.C.The streets around the White House complex were shut Tuesday morning, guarded by a mix of Secret Service officers and FBI agents. Overnight, a fence was constructed around Lafayette Park and along 17th St at Pennsylvania Ave, two areas that have been focal points for protests. Work crews were still at work boarding up businesses in the area and attempting to remove graffiti from federal buildings. 9:40 a.m. BUFFALOA state trooper who was run over by an SUV that barrelled through a group of officers at a George Floyd demonstration in Buffalo broke his leg and shattered his pelvis, police said. Another trooper and a Buffalo police officer were treated for minor injuries after being struck by the Ford Explorer when it broke through a blockade at about 10 p.m. Monday. Troopers were deployed to Buffalo after violence flared downtown this weekend. Officers fired shots at the vehicle before it was apprehended. The driver and a passenger had been shot and were hospitalized with injuries not considered life threatening. A second passenger was uninjured and taken into custody, police said. It was not immediately clear whether the pair in the SUV were wounded by police. Officials in Buffalo initially said they may have been shot at a nearby intersection shortly before the officers were struck. State police say the investigation continues. The unidentified trooper who was run over was treated at a hospital. The other trooper was treated and released for a hand-and-wrist injury. 9:40 a.m. WASHINTON D.C.A man said he sheltered about 70 protesters in his home all night after they got caught between police lines after curfew. Rahul Dubey told WJLA-TV he was sitting on his porch around 8:30 p.m. last night when law enforcement officers began corralling protesters on his street. He let some sit with him, and helped others out through his back alley, but the situation then escalated when officers started pushing protesters to the ground and releasing pepper spray, creating a human tsunami into his home. I was hanging on my railing yelling, Get in the house! Get in the house! he told The Washington Post. Officers also released pepper-spray through the window after he closed the door, Dubey told WJLA-TV. The protesters inside the home screamed, and started pouring water and milk into their eyes in a scene he described as pure mayhem. One officer came to the door to ask for a piece of the pizza that was delivered to the house overnight as Dubey was on the phone with the TV station, WJLA reported. The protesters left the home after 6 a.m. Tuesday when the districts curfew ended. 9:40 a.m. ST. LOUISPolice in St. Louis say officers in a marked police car were fired on early Tuesday from a car occupied by suspected looters. The incident led to a chase that ended in the suburb of Jennings, where one of the suspects was shot. Police said the incident was separate from a shooting around midnight Monday in which four St. Louis officers were shot and injured. The Jennings shooting began when officers in a marked police car on the north side of St. Louis who were searching for looting suspects were fired on from men inside a car, police said. That led to a chase that ended in Jennings, just north of St. Louis, when the three suspects bailed out of the car, and one was shot by a St. Louis County officer, police said. One man, identified only as 21 years old, was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. Police said another man who had been in the car was arrested, and a third escaped. No officers were injured in the Jennings shooting. 7 a.m. LAS VEGASAn officer has been shot in Las Vegas and authorities are responding to another shooting as people protest the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, authorities said. The officer was shot in the area of the Las Vegas Strip and an officer was involved in a shooting in the downtown area, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department reported early Tuesday. BERLINGermanys foreign minister says the peaceful protests in the United States following the death of George Floyd are understandable and more than legitimate. Heiko Maas said in Berlin on Tuesday that his thoughts are with the friends and family of Floyd, who lost his life in a truly terrible and shocking way, or one should say it was taken from him. Maas said that peaceful protests must always be allowed. He added that the peaceful protest we are seeing in the United States with many very moving gestures including by American police officers this protest is understandable and more than legitimate. He added: I can only express my hope that the peaceful protests do not continue to lead to violence, but even more express the hope that these protests have an effect in the United States. Maas also stressed that journalists must be able to do their jobs without risking their safety and criticized violence against them. BRUSSELSThe European Unions top diplomat said Tuesday the death of George Floyd was the result of an abuse of power and that the 27-nation bloc is shocked and appalled by it. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters that like the people of the United States, we are shocked and appalled by the death of George Floyd. Floyd died last week after he was pinned to the pavement by a white police officer in Minneapolis who put his knee on the handcuffed black mans neck until he stopped breathing. His death set off protests that spread across America. Borrell says law enforcement officials must not be using their capacities in the way that has been used in this very, very unhappy death of George Floyd. This is an abuse of power and this has to be denounced. He underlined that Europeans support the right to peaceful protest, and also we condemn violence and racism of any kind, and for sure, we call for a de-escalation of tensions. Borrell says we trust in the ability of the Americans to come together, to heal as a nation and to address these important issues during these difficult times. BUDAPEST, Hungary The Hungarian soccer federation has issued a written reprimand to a player of African origin who showed his undershirt with the words Justice for George Floyd after scoring for Ferencvaros in its 1-1 draw with Puskas Akademia on Sunday. Tokmac Nguen was born in a refugee camp in Kenya to parents from South Sudan and grew up in Norway. The federations disciplinary committee said in its ruling issued Monday that any similar actions by Nguen in the future would result in actual penalties on each occasion. Just hours after Nguens reprimand, FIFA, the world soccers governing body urged soccer competition organizers to apply common sense and consider not sanctioning players demanding justice for Floyd during matches. The German soccer federation is investigating similar actions by four players in the Bundesliga, including American midfielder Weston McKennie, who wore an armband over his Schalke jersey with the handwritten message Justice for George. SEOULSouth Koreas Foreign Ministry says it has far confirmed 79 cases of property damage at stores run by Korean Americans amid U.S. protests over the death of George Floyd. The ministry, which held a teleconferencing meeting with diplomats based in the United States to review the demonstrations impact on Korean Americans and South Korean citizens, said Tuesday it has yet to confirm any injuries or deaths. The ministry says 50 cases of property damage were reported from Philadelphia, 10 from Minneapolis, five form Raleigh and four from Atlanta. SYDNEYMore than 1,000 protesters marched through downtown Sydney on Tuesday in solidarity with Americans demonstrating against the death of George Floyd half a world away. Police escorted a crowd carrying banners that said: Black Lives Matter, Aboriginal Lives Matter, White Silence is Violence and We See You, We Hear You, We Stand With You. The group marched from Hyde Park to New South Wales state Parliament with plans to continue to the U.S. Consulate. The protest proceeded despite some organizers cancelling it Monday for fear of conflict with counter protesters. But no counter protest emerged. Around 2,000 demonstrators gathered in Australias west coast city of Perth on Monday night to peacefully protest Floyds death, and rallies are planned for other Australian cities this week. Referring to the violence in U.S. streets, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said theres no need to import things ... happening in other countries here to Australia. CICERO, Ill.Two people have been killed during unrest in the Chicago suburb of Cicero as protests continued over the death of George Floyd, according to a town official. Spokesman Ray Hanania says 60 people were arrested in the town of about 84,000 located west of Chicago. Hanania didnt provide additional information about those killed or the circumstances of their deaths. The Illinois State Police and Cook County Sheriffs Office were called in to help local police Monday as people broke into a liquor store and other businesses and stole items. Monday June 1 American cities erupted in violence and destruction in a seventh straight night of unrest, with several police officers shot or run over, amid boasts and threats from President Donald Trump to send in troops to dominate the streets. In New York, nonviolent protests Monday night were punctuated by people smashing shop windows near Rockefeller Center and breaching the doors of Macys flagship store on 34th Street, littering the pavement with broken glass. A vehicle plowed through a group of law enforcement officers at a demonstration in Buffalo, injuring at least two. Demonstrations also broke out in such places as Philadelphia, where hundreds of protesters spilled onto a highway in the heart of the city; Atlanta, where police fired tear gas at demonstrators; and Nashville, where more than 60 National Guard members put down their riot shields at the request of peaceful protesters who had gathered in front of Tennessees Capitol to honour George Floyd. The death toll from the unrest rose to at least nine, including two people killed in a Chicago suburb. The police chief in Louisville, Kentucky, was fired after a beloved restaurant owner was killed by police and National Guard members enforcing a curfew. More than 5,600 people nationwide have been arrested over the past week for such offences as stealing, blocking highways and breaking curfew, according to a count by The Associated Press. Multiple Star reporters and editors have contributed article, including Edward Keenan, Bruce Campion-Smith, Tania Pereira and Jordan Tamblyn. With files from the Associated Press Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-03 05:29:26|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HELSINKI, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Automated surveillance of shipping emissions started in Finland on Tuesday as an automated "watchdog buoy" began sending signals in Finnish waters off the southwestern coast, the state-owned Arctia company said in a press release. Commissioned by the Arctia, the buoy detects air pollution particles from vessels exhaust fumes. It monitors the compliance of ships with the International Maritime Organization norms on sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions. This is a pilot trial to last throughout this summer. The buoy is able to connect the results to the right vessel. "By using algorithms the program then assesses if the passing vessel complies with the adequate regional emission legislations," Arctia said in the media release. The trial is a part of the EU-funded Intelligent Sea Project. Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat quoted the company representatives as saying the buoy is a "real breakthrough in the market of marine air quality and emission monitoring". It can be installed "almost anywhere" and can be moved as shipping navigation lanes change. It is using solar power. Finnish authorities have previously noted no over-the-sea monitoring of maritime emissions existed, and they have been monitored with observance from land only. Arctia is a company owned by the Finnish state. It provides, along with its subsidiaries, services related to icebreaking, multipurpose vessels, oil spill response and harbor icebreaking, towing, and waterway maintenance as well as marine surveying services. Arctia developed the automatic surveillance equipment together with Kine Robot Solutions Ltd, another Finnish company. Enditem Mexico has been embroiled in a surging number of violence cases in recent years. With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing residents shut indoors, many abuse victims turned to emergency call centers to report cases of violence against women. In March, the government received over 26,000 reports of domestic violence, the highest the hotline has recorded since it was recorded. However, Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador dismissed the announcement and claimed the majority of the calls were fake. At the new conference, the president compared "ninety percent of the calls" to prank calls similar to "the calls the metro gets about sabotage or bombs." Dismissing Claims The leftist leader won the presidential elections more than a year ago armed with promises to develop the country into an equal society. But his administration has been unable to address the growing number of femicide cases in the country. In multiple instances, Lopez Obrador dismissed reports about the killing of women, claiming the issue was manipulated by the opposition and the media. He also claimed the conservatives were taking advantage of the problem by "dressing up as feminists" to attack him. In March, thousands marched in the capital to protest the growing number of violence against women, including the gruesome murders of 7-year-old Fatima Cecilia Aldrighett and 25-year-old Ingrid Escamilla. When asked about the protests, the president claimed the movement was organized by political opponents who wanted to see his administration fail. The administration previewed a campaign where abusers are asked "not to lose patience" and to "count to 10." Martha Tagle, a legislator for the opposition, claimed the campaign placed the responsibility of domestic abuse on women. Femicide and Violence Against Women Mexico had begun counting femicide data in 2012 when the nation ranked the 16th country with the most incidents of femicides reported. In 2016, the figures of women killed daily rose to an average of 4.5 per 100,000 women. In 2018, the UN Mujeres reported 10 deaths involving women each day. In 2019, the average rose to 10.5 women per day-the same year officials recorded 3,825 killings involving women, with 1,006 classified as femicide. When 25-year-old Ingrid Escamilla was found disemboweled, skinned, and stabbed on February 9, 2020, authorities reported another 239 cases of women or girls who had also been killed. On February 10, the numbers rose to 250. Femicide is considered an intimate crime, with data showing more than 40 percent of victims in Mexico knew their killer. Most murdered women are also likely to be killed by strangulation, drowning, suffocation, and stabbing. Most femicide cases are classified as homicides, where the vast majority of the reports are never investigated. Impunity also contributed to the inaccurate tally of cases of violence against women. According to data, 93 percent of crimes in Mexico in 2018 have gone unreported or uninvestigated, leading experts to believe the number of femicide cases in the country is significantly higher than it is thought to be. Read more here: (Reuters) - A Las Vegas police officer was shot amid protests on Monday night over the killing of George Floyd, AP news agency said. The officer was shot in the area of the Las Vegas Strip and another officer was "involved in a shooting" in the same area, AP quoted the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department as saying. It did not give details of the shootings or the officers' condition. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department declined to comment to Reuters. Four St Louis police officers were hit by gunfire late on Monday during violent protests over the death of Floyd, a black man in police custody, hours after President Donald Trump vowed to use the U.S. military to halt the spreading clashes. (Reporting by Subrat Patnaik and Aakriti Bhalla; writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by Andrew Heavens) The pretrial detention of four former Moscow police officers suspected of the illegal arrest of investigative journalist Ivan Golunov last year have been extended. Moscow's Basmanny district court ruled on June 2 that Akbar Sergaliyev, Roman Feofanov, Maksim Utembayev, and Igor Lyakhovets must remain in a pretrial detention center until September 7. The day before, the same court extended the house arrest of the fifth suspect in the case, former police officer Denis Konovalov, who has pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with investigators. The five men were detained on January 29 as suspects in the high-profile case, which sparked a public outcry in June 2019. A day later, they were charged with abuse of service duties, falsification of evidence, and the illegal handling of drugs. Konovalov, who is charged with forging documents related to the probe, was transferred to house arrest from a detention center in February after he reached a deal with investigators and testified in court that his former boss, Lyakhovets, had ordered him to plant drugs on the reporter. The 37-year-old Golunov, who works for Latvia-based information outlet Meduza, was arrested in June in Moscow for allegedly attempting to sell illegal drugs. He was released several days later after the charges were dropped following a public outcry. The case sparked an investigation into his detainment and also into why Golunov suffered bruises, cuts, a concussion, and a broken rib during the ordeal. In mid-July, the police officers who detained Golunov were fired along with their supervisor for violating the journalist's rights. After Golunovs release, Russian President Vladimir Putin fired Major General Yury Devyatkin, the head of the Moscow police's counternarcotics department, and Major General Andrei Puchkov, the police chief in Moscow's western administrative region, over the case. The authorities announced in November that the case had been classified, a decision strongly criticized by Golunov's lawyers, who called the move an attempt to cover up the "wrongful arrest" of their client. In a very rare move, the prosecutor's office of Moscow's western district apologized to Golunov in February for his illegal prosecution. With reporting by TASS and Mediazona Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/6/2020 (598 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. "Is jubilant too strong of a word?" Sachit Mehra laughs after being asked how people are feeling during lunch hour at East India Company Pub and Eatery on York Avenue, which he owns. The long-standing downtown Indian spot was able to serve dine-in customers Monday for the first time since mid-March, and the atmosphere is fascinating. Mehra said. "People are coming in with giant smiles, they really want to sit down," he said. "My observation of the tables Ive seen is people are sitting down, theyre having these intense discussions with each other, really participating in that social interaction." Phase 2 of Manitobas reopening of the economy began Monday, and with that comes the ability to host dine-in customers at restaurants for the first time in months. With it comes trepidation, and many restaurants are remaining closed for the time being. A slow and steady restart is what Mehras expecting as the weeks go on, but the immediate interest is a good sign: a handful of lunch customers have already come and gone, and there were a few reservations already in the books for Monday night. "What I can tell from what Ive seen so far, the interest in the phone calls, theres a lot of excitement and a lot of curious questions if thats any indication, then I think we should be busy," he said. East India Company owner Sachit Mehra opened his doors to customers on Monday for the first time in over two months. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press) The buffet service is a well-known aspect of East India Companys service, but public health officials are not allowing the return of them with phase two. The restaurant plans to stick to their a la carte menu and offer a thali system meaning customers can pick a few of their buffet favourites and some desserts and have it served to their table on a round platter. Phase 2 snapshots: nails, massage and getting that tattoo finished Two months to the day since provincial public health officials closed non-essential businesses and services, Manitobans began returning to restaurants, getting their nails done, having a massage, or getting a tattoo. Monday marked the second phase of Manitoba's gradual reopening of the economy, after weeks of closure to stop the spread of COVID-19. click to read more Two months to the day since provincial public health officials closed non-essential businesses and services, Manitobans began returning to restaurants, getting their nails done, having a massage, or getting a tattoo. Monday marked the second phase of Manitoba's gradual reopening of the economy, after weeks of closure to stop the spread of COVID-19. Here is how the day went for some Winnipeg businesses: Nails, waxing salon Downtown at the decades-old Magic Room, patrons were able to get their first manicures, pedicures, waxing and sugaring in weeks. Erika Giannini, who bought the business three years ago, said her two hair stylists were able to start last month, when the province allowed hair salons to reopen to customers, but the rest of its services had to wait until Monday. "Lots of people have been calling to book appointments," Giannini said. "The phone has been ringing since we opened... That's good, because we really didn't know what to expect when you've been closed for awhile." Giannini said because of the personal services her 7,000-square-foot salon offers, her staff have always worked to keep the place clean and sterile. However, changes have been implemented. "A plastic shield has been installed at our registration desk, as well as manicure stations," she said. "All esthecians will wear face masks but, for any work being done closer than six feet for an extended period of time, they will wear an additional plastic shield." Giannini said her business was one of many that made the decision to close almost two weeks before the government ordered non-essential businesses and services to do so. "It was when there were beginning to be cases of the virus here," she said. "I think with us and others closing when we did, it had a really positive effect on the number of cases (in Manitoba). It looks like it worked." Tattoo Kapala Tattoo artist Rich Handford's first client Monday had a half-finished polar bear on his body. "He has been waiting for three months to finish the tattoo," said Handford, his voice muffled behind a face mask. "Unfortunately, until (Monday) we couldn't do anything about it. But he was one of the first we reached out to to book an appointment." While Handford was pleased to get back to work, he also expressed frustration when, at the last minute, provincial health inspectors said fewer artists could work at his location. "We knew we could only have 50 per cent of our business coming in, but now they say only half of our staff can be here. That means 3 1/2 people tattooing in a 3,000-square-foot space," he said. "We rescheduled three months of appointments, which we staggered, but now they are saying only half of us can do our job... I think, despite our high levels of training in infection and control, there continues to be stigma to our profession." Yoga Reid Davies, co-owner of the downtown and Waverley Street Modo Yoga locations, said while studios were allowed to reopen Monday, his wouldn't be able to for another week. "We're taking the time to finish renovations and to set up our social-distancing guidelines," Davies said, adding most of the renovations are COVID-19 related. "We're putting in a hospital-grade coating on our floor... which will make it easier to clean. So what we are doing is part aesthetic and part functional." Davies said his locations will be opening June 8 for the customers who continued to automatically pay member fees throughout the pandemic, and a week later for everyone else. "I can't stress enough how great that group was," he said. "But this is like reopening a new business but in the weirdest time ever in history." Spas The Thermea spa and wellness centre has been closed since March 15, but Phase 2 allows the return of some services. Thermea spokeswoman Marianne Trotier said massage treatments are the first services to be offered. "We have started to take reservations last week, and most of our guests mentioned to us how happy they are to be able to receive a massage after a stressful period, working at home, with non-adapted office equipment and space," she said. Trotier said new pandemic provisions include not allowing walk-in appointments all services have to reserved in advance. As well, all guests will be asked at time of booking if they are healthy, and then again when they arrive. The spa has installed contactless check-in kiosks, as well as automatic doors and antibacterial door handles. It is not allowing people to bring their own bathrobes and water bottles. Trotier said Thermea is aiming at a July reopening of its pools and saunas, with the necessary guidance and measures from Manitoba Health. kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca Close Slow and steady seems to be the motto for restaurants opening Monday. Brazen Hall proprietor Kristjan Kristjansson said the Pembina Highway brewery and comfort-food spot took much of the day to train staff on new procedures. "Today was more about being a positive, healthy environment for our staff, and giving them just a nice easy start," he said. Customers have been calling regularly for the last three days, but it wasn't certain if the restaurant would be ready to open Monday the restaurants official Instagram account didnt announce the reopening until early Monday afternoon but interest has been high from those "looking to find a little more of that past normal," Kristjansson said. "I think the biggest challenge is to give people, after the safe and clean peace weve made sure of, provide a fun, good energy," he said. Mehra is the third generation of East India Company owners, and despite that history as a fixture in the local food scene, said there hasn't been a historical event since their start that has shaken the industry more. Salisbury House server Jennifer Check takes an order from two metres away during the first day the restaurant was allowed to reopen with customers inside. (Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press) "Weve kind of seen it all, but weve never, ever seen something like this," he said. Surveys of local restaurants seem to reflect that feeling. A recent poll conducted by Restaurants Canada suggested 70 per cent of Manitoba restaurants may not have the funds needed to survive post-pandemic. Both East India Company and Brazen Hall have had to make considerable changes. Mehra credited the restaurants delivery service and longevity as crucial to keeping it afloat over months of closure, and Kristjansson mentioned some things have been removed from the menu to keep costs low. Despite what could be a tough road ahead, both say customers are already coming in, and they're ready to keep coming back. Small business owner Cindy Rodych works near East India Company, and stopped by for lunch with her team Monday afternoon. Waiters wore masks, people were kept apart, but there was also the "wonderful" feeling of enjoying a shared meal (there was a variety of different dishes, but lots of butter chicken) around a table of eight, something Rodych called a normalizing experience after months spent away. "I was really happy to do it, I think its been a challenge for all of us, and I wanted to make sure were supporting the local restaurants that have been through so much," she said. Meanwhile, it didn't take long for customers to begin showing up at the Salisbury House at St. Anne's Road and Fermor Boulevard. Troy Jeffrey, the location's operations manager, said two patrons were already waiting outside the doors when staff clicked open the lock at 6 a.m. "It hasn't been that bad," Jeffrey said a few hours later. "We thought it would be crazy, but it is a Monday. It has been a steady pace since then. Salisbury House customers Ken Veness (right) and Mario Catacutan eat lunch together Monday, the first time the restaurant has been open for dine-in customers in months. (Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press) "So far, so good. It's just nice to have people back in here again." The restaurant, normally open 24/7, is still limiting itself to 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. It has spaced diners at tables two metres away from each other and has a dedicated person at the door making sure there aren't too many people inside. Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "We came close to capacity a couple of times," Jeffrey said, noting not only do they appreciate the diners coming in, the patrons themselves were glad to be able to come back inside. "We have a lot of loyalty here it's nice to see them again. You miss having people in your restaurant," he said. "And many of the customers themselves haven't seen each other for awhile so they were glad to get together for a coffee." with files from Kevin Rollason malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: malakabas_ Cluster of CSOs in Bono East, Bono and Ahafo regions will on 15th of this month launches its new $10000 Covid-19 response project which aimed at addressing the challenges that vulnerable communities in Bono East, Bono and Ahafo regions are facing in the wake of COVID-19. The project dubbed COVID-19 VULNERABLE COMMUNITIES SUPPORT (CVCS) PROJECT is to support CSOs collaborative efforts around Covid-19 and to stimulate creative interventions that promote resilience within and among vulnerable communities. The CSOs Cluster to implement the project are Global Media Foundation, World Evangelical Alliance Business Coalition Ghana, Citizens Watch Ghana, Indigenous Women Empowerment Network, West Africa AIDS Foundation, Indigenous Youth Alliance Ghana and Global Coalition on Infectious Diseases. CSOs through this project, will provide a small seed grant to community-based organizations, women and youth networks who are able to propose programs aimed at enhancing awareness about precautionary measures, supporting vulnerable households, combating discrimination and stigmatization covid-19 victims, and serving the needs of the most vulnerable individuals and communities. The project is also targeted individuals and organizations deploying direct interventions and community-led mobilization to minimize the spread of the virus and build resilience in urban slums and mining affected settlements that otherwise can be difficult to reach. The Founder/CEO of Global Media Foundation, Raphael Godlove Ahenu who spoke to the media stressed the need for effective on-the-ground prevention and rehabilitation efforts targeted vulnerable communities in urban informal and mining affected settlements characterized by a dense population and acute poverty. According to Mr. Ahenu, urban slums and mining affected settlements are pigeonholed by a dense population and acute poverty, which makes social distancing and hygiene standards difficult to practice, adding that without disposable cash to hoard food and basic necessities, these vulnerable communities cannot afford to stop working Mr Ahenu, who is also the National Coordinator of WEA Business Coalition Ghana, said the consequences of an outbreak in these communities can be devastating with loss of jobs and income, malnutrition and deteriorating health, and will moreover leave entire populations vulnerable by allowing COVID-19 to spread more easily. The project he said has four strategies 1. Raisingof awareness: focus on training of the media, community health workers andvolunteers, combating misinformation through information campaigns, as well asproviding age- and literacy-appropriate COVID-19 prevention information throughrelevant media platforms including social media. 2. Providing access to basic sanitary supplies: focus on provision of hand washing equipment, clean water containers and community toilets as well as production and distribution of critical supplies like water, soap, sanitizers and personal protective equipment 3. Mitigating educational disruption: focus on supporting parents and caregivers to encourage remote learning as well as distance learning practices including low-tech, peer-to-peer learning and gender-responsive approaches 4. Ensuring community resilience: focus on, supporting entrepreneurs with the development of low cost-to-serve solutions that target vulnerable communities, especially affordable access to basic services With this, Mr Ahenu called for partners and donors to support the implementation of this vulnerable community-led initiative that can help deploy rapid responses and build community resilience amidst covid-19. He further called on individuals, corporate companies and institutions as well as Churches to donate to the fund to ensure that vulnerable communities are well catered for in the wake of COVID-19. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment For many westerners, India is an exotic travel destination, offering colorful cultural sites and warm-hearted hospitable people. However, thanks to the new Hindu nationalist leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), todays India is increasingly marred by religious conflict and Christian persecution. The Purty familys double tragedy serves as a sad example of this. And for some Indian Christians, their story is not so unusual. Chamu Hassa Purty was a Christian pastor from Sandih village in Jharkhand State. Late one night in October 2015, he was asked to pray for a sick child. He rushed to the familys home, prayed for the boy and helped the parents admit him to a local hospital. Shortly after Pastor Purty returned to his own home, eight armed men forced their way into his house. He and his wife urgently warned their daughters, Sharon and Neelam, to immediately leave the house through a back entrance. In an interview with Morning Star News, Sharon recalled, As we were about to move, two of them held us and brought us back to the front room. They fired at my father many times Pastor Purty died of gunshot wounds that night. After the murder, the Purty family left their village and rarely returned. But recently, because of the coronavirus, it was necessary that they be reunited in their home. And very soon thereafter, on April 16, anti-Christian terrorists once again appeared at the Purty house. Sharon and her younger brother answered the door and found themselves confronted by two gunmen. Is this the house of the pastor who was killed? one of the intruders demanded. Sharon stared at him as he ranted, That pastor was killed but you didnt learn your lesson. Youre still assembling in large numbers for Christian prayers. And wheres the woman whos working as a spy? There are no spies here At that moment Neelam, hearing angry voices, entered the room. The gunman shouted, Shes the one! Shes the spy! He aimed his gun and pulled the trigger. Our father was shot to death in that same room, Sharon Purty said later. We cried for help as the two gunmen jumped on a motorbike and fled. Neelam Purty sustained serious injuries and was bleeding heavily. She was rushed to a hospital, where it was determined that a bullet was embedded in her thigh and her thighbone was shattered. Only after major surgery was she able to begin her painful recovery. The police were notified. Evidence was recorded. But it should come as no surprise that there have been no reports of the gunmen being apprehended. Attacks like those against the Purty family are on the rise in India due to a dangerous ideology gaining steam in the world's largest democracyHindu nationalism. It asserts that India is a nation for Hindus, marginalizing Christians and other minorities. This movement often inspires mob attacks against Christians. Such attacks, when committed by Hindus, are rarely rebuked by the present Indian government, and the legal system often fails to bring perpetrators of mob violence to justice. In one instance earlier this year, an Indian pastor was dragged out of his church mid-service by a mob of Hindu nationalists and beaten for hours. Yet when the police arrived, they charged the pastor with violating a blasphemy law rather than charge the radicals for their violent assault. Even Indian laws pose a threat to minorities, though according to the constitution, India is a secular country. Yet, anti-conversion laws remain on the books in several Indian states. These laws are intended to prevent forced conversions. In reality, they restrict the right to change one's faith and discourage conversion away from Hinduism. Some Hindu nationalist leaders are deeply paranoid about Hindus converting to Christianity or other religions. One former member of parliament and member of the BJP party called Christian missionaries a threat to the unity of the country. Inflammatory rhetoric from national leaders, a growing exclusionary movement that ostracizes religious minorities, and draconian blasphemy and anti-conversion laws form a perfect storm for the persecution of Christians in India. Indias dire religious freedom problems deserves far more international attention than they receive. India is the world's largest democracy and a strategic partner of the United States, so it is disappointing its government is failing to protect the fundamental human right to freedom of religion. This makes advocating for religious freedom in India a sensitive subject for some. But the United States has prioritized religious freedom in our foreign policy and must urge all governments around the worldwhether friend or foeto protect it. The United States has an obligation to speak up on behalf of religious minorities in India, even if it ruffles the feathers of our ally. SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- GrubMarket today announced it has completed the acquisition of Hung San Foods, a leading supplier of quality produce and specialty foods, serving grocery stores and restaurants in the Seattle area. Hung San Foods was formerly an independent, family-owned food supplier with a portfolio of clients including grocery stores, supermarkets, single unit restaurants, chain restaurants, schools, and large institutional accounts across the Seattle region. This is GrubMarket's first acquisition in the Pacific Northwest, and the company will continue bolstering and building its strategic portfolio of wholesale companies within that region. Hung San Foods will now be able to leverage GrubMarket's robust produce supply chain network and utilize GrubMarket's innovative proprietary WholesaleWare software suite, the company's new Software-as-a-Service platform providing food industry suppliers and vendors with seamless financial management, easy-to-use online ordering and sales, precise inventory management, and engaging CRM tools. Hung San Foods will remain headquartered in the Seattle area, and the company will continue to be managed by its current leadership team. "We are excited to join the GrubMarket family and embrace the new growth opportunities that GrubMarket's technology and network will bring. GrubMarket recognizes the customer centric values of Hung San Foods and shares the same spirit of service as our team. Together, we will offer a wider selection of products and better service to more customers," said Hung Tan, CEO of Hung San Foods. Under Hung's leadership, the company has earned a reputation for its ability to source any food, however rare and unique, that customers seek. During the last 20 years as CEO, Hung has instilled a keen sense of customer centricity in the company's culture. It is with such dedication that the company will continue to serve customers in the future. "Hung San Foods is an incredibly reputable and long-standing food supplier in the Seattle region. We are delighted to welcome them to the GrubMarket family, as we have some exciting plans in the works," said Mike Xu, CEO of GrubMarket. The acquisition of Hung San Foods will deepen GrubMarket's expertise and extend its geographic reach to Seattle, one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. About GrubMarket GrubMarket's mission is to make fresh and healthy food accessible to everyone. We are committed to providing individuals, retailers, and restaurants with the best online food e-commerce experience possible, by regularly offering a spectacular array of farm-fresh foods at prices that are up to 50% OFF what you'd typically find from regular grocers or wholesalers. For Media Inquiries: GrubMarket Social Media Team [email protected] (510) 556-4786 GrubMarket 1925 Jerrold Ave. San Francisco, CA. 94124 SOURCE GrubMarket Related Links http://www.grubmarket.com Gandhinagar, June 2 : Cyclonic storm 'Nisarg' is likely to hit the state on or after June 3 with winds expected to gush up to 100-110 km per hour. The Gujarat Relief Commissioner said on Tuesday that the state is ready to tackle the cyclone with zero casualty aim. The administration has initiated action for shifting around 80,000 people to safer places in southern Gujarat. Speaking to the media, Harshad Patel, Gujarati Relief Commissioner, said, "Nisarg is likely to hit northern Maharashtra and southern Gujarat after June 3. Stormy winds with speed up to 100-110 km/ph are expected. The depression is 670 km away from Surat. The state administration has prepared shelters for the people living in the coastal areas of Surat, Navsari, Valsad and Bharuch." "Approximately 68,971 people living in the low lying areas of these four districts will be evacuated. Till now, 1,727 people have been shifted. Thirteen National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams and six State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams have been deployed. Within the coming 24 hours, the depression is expected to intensify into a cyclonic form," added Patel. "Following this meteorological development, many districts in Gujarat have witnessed rainfall in the past 24 hours," Patel added. According to the latest IMD bulletin, it is predicted that the cyclone might not make a landfall in the state, but it is likely to have an impact in certain parts of Saurashtra and south Gujarat. According to sources, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a telephonic conversation with Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani regarding the state's preparedness for the cyclonic storm, and expressed his satisfaction regarding the steps been taken by the state government. The PM also assured all possible help from the Central government. TORONTO, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- VirgoX announced that it will be partnering with Toronto based firm Canada Stablecorp to list QCAD, the first major Canadian dollar stablecoin on their exchange. Starting today QCAD will be available to buy, sell and trade on the VirgoX exchange platform. Initially, VirgoX will be offering QCAD as a trading pair to USDT but has plans to expand that to other major stablecoins including ones denominated in Asian currencies in the second half of 2020. VirgoX "VirgoX has a strong commitment to build the world's first stablecoin trading center. It actively looks for stablecoin projects across different stages that are well-designed and likely to be adopted by global users both within and outside of the digital asset space. QCAD is the most promising Canadian dollar stablecoin that is backed by a team of experienced capital market professionals in Canada. It is our pleasure to work with the QCAD team and excited to be the first international exchange that lists and promotes QCAD. " -Adam Cai, CEO of VirgoX. This will be Canada Stablecorp's first major international exchange integration and the launch of their first US dollar stablecoin trading pair. This integration with VirgoX will help to accelerate QCAD adoption internationally, enabling it to be the tool-of-choice to move funds in and out of Canada in a more efficient way. "Canada Stablecorp is thrilled to bring QCAD onto the Virgo X platform as we truly believe in the promise and potential of establishing a venue to trade stablecoins against each other. This listing will provide the first major crypto native exchange rail between a Canadian Dollar Stablecoin (QCAD) and a US Dollar Stablecoin (USDT), a use case that we are very excited to be unlocking. The fiat FX market is the largest financial market in the world with over $5 Trillion traded daily. If we can help digitize and execute even a small percentage of that with Stablecoins, we would be helping and adding value to a significant number of companies and individuals." - Jean Desgagne, CEO of Stablecorp Over the last two years, stablecoins have seen a 415% gain in market capitalization, growing from $2.6 Billion in May of 2018 to over $10.8 Billion at the present day, according to CoinMetrics. This year the appetite for stablecoins has resulted in an additional $4 Billion added to the total market capitalization between February and May. VirgoX will accelerate the establishment of a world Stablecoin trading center by launching a series of well-designed Stablecoins and incubate Stablecoin projects from early stages. With its complete ecosystem ranging from spot & contract trading, lending, global payments & remittance, traders can experience a full-functioning Stablecoin trading platform. VirgoX will launch more innovative products, such as Stablecoins empowered FX pairs, meeting the present needs of users and anticipating future demands. About VirgoX VirgoX is a revolutionary one-stop Stablecoin focused digital asset trading platform inspired by global adoptions of Stablecoins and growing demands for integrated exchange services. VirgoX offers spot & contracts trading, crypto lending and multiple currency fiat onramp and offramp, all integrated into one place that truly meets users' needs and beyond. About Canada Stablecorp Canada Stablecorp is a joint venture between 3iQ, Canada's largest cryptoasset manager and Mavennet Systems, a leading firm in the blockchain development space. Canada Stablecorp's first product QCAD, the first major Canadian Dollar Stablecoin was launched in February 2020, and is currently operating with 20 major ecosystem partners. Media Contact: Blair Zhu Email: [email protected] Related Images image1.png Related Links VirgoX Official Website Canada Stablecorp Official Website SOURCE VirgoX Related Links https://virgox.com Standing at a lectern with a backdrop map of the world behind him reminiscent of one at the State Department, the spokesman of Irans Foreign Ministry made a point Monday to criticize the US in English amid ongoing protests over police killings of black people. To the American people, the world has ... heard your outcry over this state oppression, Abbas Mousavi told reporters in Tehran. So too have Washingtons adversaries in Iran and elsewhere. Long the target of American criticism, these nations have used the protests over the killing of George Floyd as an opportunity to hit back at the country held up by US leaders for decades as the shining city upon a hill. By putting forth images of the unrest, they portray the US as a hypocritical superpower unable to secure its own people, as well as normalizing the violence and repression they visit on their own citizens. To be clear, though they are trying to sympathize with protesters in the US, their aim is to leverage the internal divisions in America, ... not to advance the debate on this, said Ariane Tabatabai, a Middle East fellow who studies Iran at the Washington-based German Marshall Fund. Regime officials particularly like the theme of racial tensions in the US because it allows them to point the finger at Washington, which is often front and center condemning human rights abuses by the regime, she said. Thats particularly valuable to Iran, which has violently put down recent nationwide economic demonstrations by killing hundreds, arresting thousands and disrupting internet access. The Islamic Republic has seen its already-ailing economy crater since President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew Washington from Tehrans nuclear deal with world powers, cutting off its oil sales. The American regime is pursuing violence and bullying at home and abroad, Mousavi said. That criticism has extended to Twitter, which Iranian officials use extensively despite the website being banned since the mass protests and crackdown surrounding its disputed 2009 presidential election. Former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose disputed re-election sparked the 2009 unrest, called Floyds killing disturbing & upsetting. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif offered a rewritten statement earlier issued by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, crossing out Iran and replacing it with America. Pompeo responded by tweeting: You hang homosexuals, stone women and exterminate Jews. State-controlled media in China saw the protests through the prism of American views on Hong Kongs anti-government demonstrations, which China has long said the US encouraged. In a commentary, the ruling Communist Party newspaper Global Times said Chinese experts had noted that US politicians might think twice before commenting again on Hong Kong, knowing their words might backfire. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian offered his own criticism at a Beijing news conference. The protests once again reflect the racial discrimination in the US, the serious problems of police violent enforcement and the urgency of solving these problems, Zhao said. He added that China hopes the US will safeguard and guarantee the legal rights of ethnic minorities. Thats as China continues a yearslong, massive crackdown that has locked away more than 1 million ethnic minorities, most of them Muslims. In North Korea, the countrys official Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported about the demonstrations, saying that protesters harshly condemned a white policemans lawless and brutal murder of a black citizen. Three large photos showed protests from recent days from Minneapolis, where Floyd died May 25 after a white police officer pressed his knee on Floyds neck for several minutes. The officer was fired and charged with murder, but protesters are demanding the three other officers at the scene be prosecuted. Rodong Sinmun noted hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the White House chanting, No justice, no peace. It did not make any direct comments about Trump, whom North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has met three times in high-profile summits. Russia said the United States had systemic human rights problems, criticism that followed a pattern dating to the Cold War. The 1957 integration of Little Rock Central High School by nine African American students supported by bayonet-carrying soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division saw one Soviet newspaper use the headline: Troops Advance Against Children! That information warfare continues today in the cyber-realm, as US intelligence agencies say Russia meddled Americas 2016 presidential election. Tabatabai said she and her colleagues had been tracking Chinese, Iranian and Russian social media accounts using the hashtags #BlackLivesMatter and #GeorgeFloyd. US allies as well have been expressing their own opinions on the unrest. British Prime Minister Boris Johnsons spokesman said the arrests and assaults on journalists were very concerning. Zimbabwe summoned the US ambassador over US national security adviser Robert OBriens allegation this weekend that Harare could be one of several foreign adversaries taking advantage of the demonstrations. Meanwhile, Germanys center-left Social Democratic Party, which is a member of Chancellor Angela Merkels governing coalition, on Monday described itself as 157 (years old) and Antifa. Naturally. The tweet appeared to be a response to Trumps assertion that he would designate Antifa, an umbrella description for the far-left-leaning militant groups that resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations and other events, a terrorist organization. Across from the US Embassy in Paris, dozens of people knelt in silent protest, urging the French government to take racism and police violence more seriously. Despite a ban on gatherings of more than 10 people because of the coronavirus, they held signs reading I Cant Breathe in English, or Racism is suffocating us and We are all George Floyd in French. Thousands of people packed Dam Square in central Amsterdam and spilled into several side streets in an unexpectedly large protest to denounce police brutality in the US and Europe. They chanted Black lives matter! raising their fists and holding anti-racism signs. In Perth, Australia, the hundreds of demonstrators who peacefully protested Floyds death also sought to highlight injustices against indigenous Australians. I believe its important as a young indigenous woman to vocalise that this isnt just an American issue, this is a black people issue and indigenous people fit into that category, organizer Tanesha Bennell told Nine Network television. Protesters carried banners with messages including No Pride in Genocide and tears appeared as the names of indigenous people who have died in Australian police custody were read to the crowd. A group called White Clergy for Black Lives Matter has raised $50,000 to help the City of Birmingham defray costs of taking down the 52-foot-tall Confederate Soldiers and Sailors obelisk monument at Linn Park. By Tuesday, more than $56,000 had been pledged, and the amount over $50,000 will be donated to Faith in Action, a group that promotes voting rights and fights mass incarceration, said the Rev. Stephanie Arnold, senior pastor of First United Methodist Church of Birmingham. The city removed the monument on Monday night, after protesters unsuccessfully tried to tear it down on Sunday night. Taking down the monument does not solve the problem of systemic racism, Arnold said. Taking the monument down is great; its a symbolic gesture, Arnold said. Its not what needs to change. The policies need to change, policies that disproportionately affect people of color. Arnold said the idea of setting up a Go Fund Me account to pay for the monument removal happened at a church staff meeting on Monday to discuss what could be done in the wake of protests that turned violent and damaged buildings in the area surrounding the church. The church building was not damaged. We have to look at darkness and struggle, but we cannot forget the light and the hope, Arnold said. People are looking for a way to meaningfully engage. She spoke to Josh Carpenter, a member of First Methodist and also director of economic development for the City of Birmingham, about raising money to help the city pay a $25,000 state fine it would owe for taking down the monument in violation of state law. Carpenter also said the cost of taking down the monument was more than $60,000, she said. Arnold began organizing with other United Methodist clergy including the Rev. R.G. Lyons, the Rev. Dave Barnhart, the Rev. Emily Freeman Penfield, Unitarian Universalist minister Julie Conrady and others, to set up the fundraising account and spread the word. The fundraising goal of $25,000 was met in two hours, as people watched the monument being taken down, she said. The timing worked out, Arnold said. People could see it. They could press a button and give. The goal was raised from $25,000 to pay the fine up to $50,000 to help defray the overall cost of taking down the monument. The group decided to give any remaining funds over $50,000 to Faith in Action. They are fighting for people to vote and mass incarceration to end, Arnold said. Ive never done anything like this before, Arnold said. I tried to thank every person thats given. I wish the country could see this. Its people across the country, from as far away as Vermont, who have given. Its people of every ethnicity, giving from $5 to almost $10,000. The cornerstone for the monument to commemorate Confederates who died in the Civil War went up in 1894 and a dedication ceremony was held in 1905. The Alabama Supreme Court in 2019 ruled that the city of Birmingham violated Alabamas monument protection law when it placed plywood barriers around the Confederate monument in August 2017. The court ordered the city to pay a $25,000 fine. The state passed the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act in 2017 to set fines for removing Confederate monuments on public property. Our history needs to be told accurately, Arnold said. Its a historical artifact. Its not a pretty artifact that tells a pretty story. We dont do that well yet. We sanitize our history and we look for ways to beautify it. Our scars are there for a reason. We need to learn to live with them, to honor the wounds. Memes have poured in poking fun at President Donald Trumps photo opportunity in front of St. Johns Church where he posed with a Bible in hand and promised America would be great again. After news broke that Trump hid in a bunker in the White House on Friday amid growing outrage and protest decrying the police killing of black man George Floyd in Minnesota, the president reportedly wanted to be photographed outside of the White House gates. On Monday evening the president walked to the nearby boarded-up St. John's church, which caught fire in protests on Sunday evening, where he brandished a Bible and posed for photographs. But, social media users are ridiculing his photo op, comparing it to former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis' botched campaign photo posing on an Army tank. Memes have poured in poking fun at President Donald Trumps photo opportunity in front of St. Johns Church where he posed with a Bible in hand and promised America would be great again. This Twitter user compared it to former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis' botched campaign photo where he posed on an Army tank and was ridiculed by the public Some Twitter users edited Trump's photo to make it appear that he's holding a 'Dictatorships for Dummies' book This Photoshop savvy social media critic edited the image to make it seem like Trump was holding a porn magazine with Stormy Williams on the cover This Twitter user compared Trump holding the Bible to Homer Simpson cluelessly leafing through the holy book The photo was meant to beef up Dukakis military stance and toughen up his appearance in the public eye, but it backfired and instead he was ridiculed by the public for the shot. MSNBC host Joe Scarborough shared a photo of Dukakis' failed photo op side by side with Trump holding the Bible, proving that Trump's church photo op was just as big a blunder. Another Twitter user shared an image of Trump raising the Bible but the words on the book saying 'Dictatorships for Dummies'. One Photoshop savvy user edited the photo to be Trump holding a magazine displaying a nude Stormy Daniels, referring to his scandal where Daniels filed a lawsuit against the president for making her sign a nondisclosure agreement following their alleged tryst. One Twitter user noted that the president seemed to awkwardly hold the Bible saying: 'Trump holds a Bible like he's never touched a book before' Meanwhile some social media critics slammed the president for holding the Bible seemingly upside down This Twitter user joked that Trump brought out to Bible to refer to its final book Revelations, which talks about the end of the world Others took a more serious note and compared the Trump's Bible photo to images of other dictators including Hitler and Saddam Hussein who held important religious texts in photo opportunities This Twitter user painted Trump's face to turn him into a clown Others took a more serious note and compared the Trump's Bible photo to images of other dictators including Hitler and Saddam Hussein who held important religious texts in photo opportunities. One Twitter user noted that the president seemed to awkwardly hold the Bible saying: 'Trump holds a Bible like he's never touched a book before.' Meanwhile some social media critics slammed the president for holding the Bible seemingly upside down. The city of Midland Health Department is currently conducting its investigation on five new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Midland County, bringing the overall case count to 137. The 133rd confirmed case is a female in her 60s who was tested by Midland Health. She is currently self-isolating at home. The source of exposure is contact to known case. The woman is a non-clinical employee at Midland Health and last worked on May 27. Employee Health is following up and monitoring employees with known contact. (Adds details) By Jan Wolfe June 1 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday suggested he would use federal troops to end unrest that has erupted following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man killed in police custody last week. "If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them," Trump said during brief remarks at the White House. The demonstrations have been largely peaceful, but police in some cities have used force against journalists and protesters, and protesters have clashed with police. Many U.S. cities have set curfews. To deploy the armed forces, Trump would need to formally invoke a group of statutes known as the Insurrection Act. WHAT IS THE INSURRECTION ACT? Under the U.S. Constitution, governors generally have the authority to maintain order within state borders. This principle is reflected in a law called the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally prohibits the federal military from participating in domestic law enforcement. The Insurrection Act, which dates to the early 1800s, is an as exception to principles later codified in the Posse Comitatus Act. The Insurrection Act permits the president to send in U.S. forces to suppress a domestic insurrection that has hindered the normal enforcement of U.S. law. CAN TRUMP SEND IN TROOPS WITHOUT A GOVERNOR'S APPROVAL? Yes. The law lays out a scenario in which the president is required to have approval from a state's governor or legislature, and also instances where such approval is not necessary, said Robert Chesney, a professor of national security law at the University of Texas. Historically, in instances where the Insurrection Act was invoked, presidents and governors have usually agreed on the need for troops, said Thaddeus Hoffmeister, a law professor at the University of Dayton. In 2005, former President George W. Bush decided not to invoke the Insurrection Act to send active-duty troops to Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in part because the state's then-governor opposed the move. Story continues HAS IT BEEN INVOKED BEFORE? Yes. The Insurrection Act has been invoked on dozens of occasions through U.S. history. Since the civil rights movement of the 1960s, however, its use has become "exceedingly rare," according to a report by the Congressional Research Service. The Insurrection Act was last used in 1992, when the acquittal of four Los Angeles police officers in the beating of black motorist Rodney King led to deadly riots. CAN A COURT STRIKE DOWN TRUMP'S APPLICATION OF THE LAW? Hoffmeister said he did not think invoking the Insurrection Act was warranted because governors can handle the current unrest through their criminal justice systems. "The Insurrection Act should only be used in dire situations and I don't think the circumstances right now call for it," Hoffmeister said. But Chesney said a successful legal challenge to Trump's use of the law was "very unlikely." Courts have historically been very reluctant to second-guess a president's military declarations, he said. "The law, for all practical purposes, leaves this to the president with very little judicial review with any teeth," Chesney said. "That may be a terrible state of affairs, but that's what it is." (Reporting by Jan Wolfe Edited by Noeleen Walder, Gerry Doyle and Steve Orlofsky) Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. This market research report includes a detailed segmentation of the global hemometer market by testing types (laboratory testing and hemometer POC), by application (anemia, diabetes, infection, blood management, and others), and by regions (North America, Europe, APAC , and RoW). Hemometer Market Research Overview Infoholic Research predicts that the global hemometer market will grow at a CAGR of 5.5% during the forecast period 20192025. Hemoglobin is one of the major proteins that carry oxygen throughout the body. The increasing incidence of chronic diseases such as anemia, diabetes, fatigue, poor health, and extreme weight loss is driving the hemometer testing market. Most of the patients undergo blood checkup especially hemoglobin as it determines many medical conditions as blood carries many nutrients with it. Hemoglobin test is useful for diagnosing a wide range of diseases, especially anemia and diabetes. The market is classified into a different type of testing procedure: laboratory testing and hemometer POC and by application types: anemia, diabetes, infection, blood management, and others. Traditional laboratory testing with automated blood analyzers are dominating the market and the portable/handheld hemometer POC devices are expected to see a lucrative growth in the market. Hemoglobin analyzers are the standard device that are routinely used in laboratories to diagnose these conditions. In recent years, with the advent of point-of-care testing has revolutionized the hemometer devices market and the technology is continuously evolving with new kind of devices that includes various kinds of small devices for PoCT that range from the humble so-called dipstick to the sophisticated small cartridge devices. Sysmexs XN-Series of hematology analyzers (XN-1000, XN-2000, XN-3000, and XN-9000) and EKFs DiaSpect Tm are some of the hemometer devices available in the market. Request For Report Sample@ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/sample/11551 Hemometer-Trends The newer techniques in hemometer testing are increasing the adoption of both laboratory testing and POC devices. These testing are performed in every basic medical set up and is widely used in blood centers, diagnostic centers, hospitals etc. The availability of POC devices is maximizing the adoption due to cost-effectiveness and usage in the outpatient department in rural and urban areas. Further, the government initiatives taken by the developing nations is expected to drive the demand for innovative hemometer devices. The accuracy, safety, and usability among patients have helped in many field settings done by medical colleges, government programs, and community programs to measure and understand the blood-related disorders in many regions. The device is popular in all healthcare facilities and the increased use of hemometer devices have bought a significant clinical purpose for treating anemia and diabetes. Hemometer Market by Testing Types: Laboratory Testing Hemometer POC Laboratory testing segment was valued over $1.1 billion in 2018 and is estimated to grow with a similar trend during the forecast period. Hematology analyzers are commonly used to measure hemoglobin levels in laboratories to diagnose anemia and diabetes. Hematology analyzers are computerized, highly specialized machines that count the number of different types of RBC and WBC, blood platelets, hemoglobin, and hematocrit levels in a blood sample. Hemometer POC segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 7% during the forecast period. The rise in technological advancements and increase preference for hemometer in recent years is accelerating the growth in coming years. Cost-effective, safety, accuracy, and smart POCT devices are boosting the market. Hemometer Market by Application: Anemia Diabetes Infection Blood Management Others In 2018, diabetes and anemia led the maximum revenue in the hemometer laboratory testing market with large volumes of diagnostics and treatments globally. Hemometer Market by Regions: North America Europe APAC RoW In terms of regional analysis, the market is dominated by North America due to advancements in technology, presence of leading vendors, increase in regulatory reforms, and changes in reimbursement policies. Europe is followed by North America and has similar potential in growth and development. APAC is the most focused and fastest-growing region due to vast opportunities for vendors to establish their presence. The factors such as the presence of a large pool of chronic patients, increasing blood-related disorders, support from the government, and health & wellness programs are expected to boost the market growth. APAC, Latin America, and RoW are the most focused and fastest-growing regions due to vast opportunities. Moreover, most of the countries in these regions are focusing on increasing healthcare expenditure from the government as there is excess growth in medical technology in Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Indonesia, Iran, South Korea, Nigeria, and South Africa. Competitive Analysis The competition among leading vendors is due to the availability of a wide range of hemometer with different brand names in the market. This provides an opportunity for healthcare consumers (diagnostic facilities) to choose products based on brand, price, features, model, and discount. Most of the vendors are focusing on providing bundling product models for increasing their sales and having a larger market share in terms of revenue. Many vendors have established their market presence globally and focus strongly on marketing and selling their products by competing with small and regional vendors. Therefore, the competition among the vendors is expected to hinder the market growth, yet the market will have more products developed and launched. Most of the vendors are primarily focusing on research and development to offer fast technological progress. Manufacturers including major and mid-sized companies in the hemometer market are competing with newer products, advanced features, quality, safety, and efficacy. Get Complete TOC with Tables and Figures@ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/discount/11551 The competition is growing among the healthcare service providers hospitals, diagnostic centers, and other healthcare facilities where the customer groups are being consolidated for purchasing products. Diversified product portfolio companies, large volume product buyers (hospitals), and primary competitors (single product manufacturers) have strong market positions in certain segments and regions due to their wide range of products and services they offer. New competitors, especially from Asia, are also taking the competition to a new high with quality, safety, and efficacy of the product over the past few years. Key Vendors: Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc Siemens Healthineers Abbott Laboratories Danaher Corporation Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. EKF Diagnostics Holdings Plc Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. Nikkiso Co., Ltd. Diazyme Laboratories, Inc. Key Competitive Facts: The market is highly competitive with all the players competing to gain the market share. Intense competition, rapid advancements in technology, frequent changes in government policies, and the prices are key factors that compare the market. The requirement of high initial investment, implementation, and maintenance cost in the market are also limiting the entry of new players. Responding to competitive pricing pressures specific to each of our geographic markets. Protection of proprietary technology for products and manufacturing processes. Benefits - The report provides complete details about the usage and adoption rate of hemometer systems. Thus, the key stakeholders can know about the major trends, drivers, investments, vertical player's initiatives, and government initiatives towards the medical devices segment in the upcoming years along with details of the pureplay companies entering the market. Moreover, the report provides details about the major challenges that are going to impact the market growth. Additionally, the report gives complete details about the key business opportunities to stakeholders in order to expand their business and capture the revenue in specific verticals and to analyze before investing or expanding the business in this market. Key Takeaways: Understanding the potential market opportunity with precise market size and forecast data. Detailed market analysis focusing on the growth of the hemometer devices. Factors influencing the growth of the hemometer In-depth competitive analysis of dominant and pureplay vendors. Prediction analysis of the hemometer industry in both developed and developing regions. Key insights related to major segments of the hemometer The latest market trend analysis impacting the buying behavior of the consumers. <<< Get COVID-19 Report Analysis >>> https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/covid-19-analysis/11551 With US cities in flames over outrage about police brutality, nations that are usually on the receiving end of Washington's criticism on human rights are gleefully turning the tables. Condemnation of the US record on race came from China, which days earlier faced US counter-measures for tightening controls on Hong Kong, as well as Iran, where officials have been slapped with US sanctions for suppressing protests in November. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijia, addressing reporters here in April 2020, has strongly criticized the US record on race. By GREG BAKER (AFP/File) The United States is experiencing some of its worst riots in 50 years with dozens of cities under curfews following the killing in Minneapolis of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man who pleaded "I can't breathe" as a white police officer pinned him under his knee for nearly nine minutes. "Racism against ethnic minorities in the US is a chronic disease of American society," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said. "The current situation reflects once more the severity of the problems of racism and police violence in the US," he told reporters in Beijing. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi echoed the language frequently voiced by President Donald Trump's administration in its support for opponents of the clerical state. "To the American people: the world has heard your outcry over the state of oppression. The world is standing with you," Mousavi said, in English, in Tehran. "And to the American officials and police: stop violence against your people and let them breathe," he said. Both Iran and China also took to social media to troll the United States, with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeting a State Department condemnation of Iran in which he flipped the names of the two countries. 'Taking some sort of pleasure' Trump's national security advisor, Robert O'Brien, criticized Chinese officials for "taking some sort of pleasure and solace in what they're seeing here." Americans seeking redress are "not going to be thrown in jail for peaceful protesting. There's a difference between us and you," he told ABC News. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi, seen here in May 2019, has voiced solidarity with US protesters. By ATTA KENARE (AFP/File) Many demonstrations have been peaceful but activists have accused police of using excessive force in a number of incidents and a man was killed early Monday in Louisville, Kentucky. O'Brien also singled out Zimbabwe among "our foreign adversaries" that may be relishing the scenes in the United States. Zimbabwe -- which has faced US criticism over violently dispersing protests as well as British-led pressure over its seizures of white-owned farms -- summoned the US ambassador to protest O'Brien's remarks. Diverting attention? Observers say that China and Iran are hardly sterling examples on rights. Activists say China is detaining at least one million Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims in a vast network of brainwashing camps. In the commercial hub of Guangzhou, African residents said that police forcibly evicted them this year from accommodation and that they were refused service at shops and restaurants as part of a coronavirus scare. A destroyed police car is seen after a night of protest in New York. By Johannes EISELE (AFP) In Iran, a lawmaker on Monday acknowledged that 230 people died in last year's protests triggered by a fuel price hike, although outside groups say the number was far higher. "Like every country, America has never been perfect when it comes to human rights. Far from it," said Rob Berschinski, senior vice president for policy at Human Rights First. "But the fact that a human rights advocate like me can say this openly is what differentiates the United States and other free countries from countries like China and Iran," he said. "When the Chinese and Iranian governments criticize demonstrations in America, they're doing so to distract from their own records, not because they care about racial injustice." Berschinski, who served at the State Department under president Barack Obama, said nonetheless that Trump hurt the cause, including by calling on Twitter for the shooting of looters. "When American citizens are brutalized by our police and national leaders like President Trump promote violence, of course America's ability to speak credibly on human rights abroad is harmed," he said. Gentle criticism from friends Solidarity protests have taken place in US friends including Britain, Ireland and New Zealand. Allied governments have spoken in general terms about US police brutality, without criticizing Trump. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the violence "very alarming" and voiced concern over the arrests of journalists, including at least one British national. A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that US police should show restraint "as in any other country in the world" and that police worldwide need human rights training. Trump, who advocates a go-it-alone "America First" approach, has long brushed aside foreign critiques. But in a leaked tape of a meeting Monday with governors, he complained that "the whole world was laughing" -- because police did not respond forcefully enough. The grieving family of a man wrongly declared Australia's youngest coronavirus victim has received an apology from the Queensland government - as his grieving fiancee paid an emotional tribute to him. Nathan Turner, 30, was found dead on May 26 at his home in the Queensland mining town of Blackwater, with state officials later claiming he had died from COVID-19. After nearly a week of fear and panic in the town, a further test revealed Mr Turner never had the virus. On Tuesday, Queensland's premier apologised to his grieving family, who said they endured 'emotional, mental and physical trauma'. Annastacia Palaszczuk admitted the government had got it wrong, and conceded the error had caused the family 'distress'. Mr Turner's fiancee Sharon Devon posted a picture of the miner online with a message reading 'Family is everything' as she broke her silence to pay tribute to her partner on Wednesday morning. Nathan Turner (pictured, left) with his partner Simone Devon (right), who discovered his body last Tuesday after she returned from work Mr Turner's friends have created a Change.org petition calling on Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young to apologise to his family The miner hadn't left the town since February, igniting fears that an infected nurse from Rockhampton - 200km away - may have passed on the virus during a road trip. But multiple tests have since revealed he never had the virus, with officials admitting the family had been put through unnecessary suffering. 'Of course we are very sorry for the distress the family is going through at the moment,' Ms Palaszczuk said. 'I really want to say to the family that we're incredibly sorry that that has happened. 'To the family I know that is still grieving and I don't want them to be stressed anymore, I know it is a very tough time for them but we do know that the coroner made that finding yesterday and we accept that finding.' The state's health minister Stephen Miles said Mr Turner had initially tested positive for the virus, which sparked a testing spree in the small town. Nathan Turner's family demanded an apology from the Queensland government after he was declared 'Australia's youngest COVID-19 victim' only for an autopsy to reveal he never had the virus Nathan Turner's grieving fiancee posted this tribute to social media in honour of her partner 'Our ability to control this virus requires us to respond rapidly to every single positive test,' the deputy premier and health minister told reporters on Tuesday. 'We have to treat ever positive test as though it is a positive case. 'However, I would like to personally apologise to his partner and his family for any distress that our actions in responding rapidly has caused them. 'I know it's been incredibly distressing for them.' Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said false positive tests for coronavirus were extremely rare. She said the results were compromised by the fact that one sample from Mr Turner was contaminated with excessive blood from the post-mortem process. 'There are two potential answers here. One is that it was a false positive. The other is that it was a true positive,' Dr Young said. 'And we won't know which it was, but I am confident about the actions that were taken on that night to protect the community of Blackwater.' Panic was sparked across the central Queensland town, with testing centres popping up - after fears it would became the next coronavirus cluster. Mr Turner's family are demanding Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk also say sorry to the Blackwater community for creating 'chaos and panic' in the small mining town Mystery surrounded how Mr Turner apparently contracted the disease, with no other case ever being recorded in the area. News of a party held at his house in the days before his death only intensified the fears, but all tested locals have returned negative results. His fiancee, Ms Devon, found her partner dead as she returned home from work at a local bakery on March 26. When he later tested positive, according to officials, it fuelled a lockdown of the regional town - with paramedics, policeman and locals all forced to quarantine. Mr Turner's friends created a Change.org petition calling on Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and chief health officer Young to apologise to his family and the community for creating 'chaos and panic'. Nathan Turner (pictured), who was thought to be Australia's youngest COVID-19 victim, didn't die from the virus 'Your leadership created emotional, mental and physical trauma to the loved ones of Nathan's family and friends and especially to his fiancee Simone who endured so much pain then anyone else,' family friend Nicole Muller wrote on the petition. 'Nathan's passing was used as tool to create chaos and panic to a community, state and a country. 'You should be ashamed of yourself and if you had any human decency left then you will apologise for creating trauma to this family whilst you caused panic to our community. 'This is unacceptable behaviour from our leaders in power who forced a family to sit in silence and not to comment about the chaos they were about to inflict on our state.' The petition has already gathered 3,144 signatures. Mr Turner (pictured) had a series of health problems and had been off work since November after suffering seizures Locals are seen queuing to get coronavirus tests on Thursday in Blackwater (pictured) with officials baffled as to how a local man contracted the disease Ms Devon, who works at the town's bakery, broke the news that her fiancee never had coronavirus via her employer's Facebook page. 'We have just got word from our staff member Nathan's partner that his autopsy report has come in and Nathan has been CLEARED as COVID 19 NEGATIVE,' Ms Devon's colleague Kelly Bunyoung posted on Facebook. Queensland Health confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that further tests have returned negative for COVID-19. 'The coroner tonight advised that further tests have returned negative for COVID-19. He is yet to determine the man's cause of death,' Dr Young said on Monday. Ms Devon's mother Lorraine told The Australian Queensland's coroner had confirmed the results of the post mortem to the family. Nathan Turner (pictured) worked as a miner, but had been off work since November, officials said Mr Turner's body was discovered in his Blackwater home (pictured) on Tuesday after his fiancee returned from work at a local bakery 'They have told us that there was no trace of the virus in his system,' she said. 'The autopsy has not been completed, and they can't yet say how he died.' Mr Turner suffered from a series of health problems and had been off work since November after suffering seizures. Since his death, Mr Turner's family had maintained they didn't believe COVID-19 caused his death, as he also suffered from epilepsy and asthma, and regularly caught the flu. Ms Devon tested negative to the virus three times and more than 500 Blackwater residents also returned negative results. On Tuesday, Queensland's deputy premier Stephen Miles (pictured) made a personal apology to Mr Turner's family New Delhi, June 2 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that his government will ensure more policy reforms to speed up economic growth and remove structural bottlenecks in the Indian economy. Accordingly, the country will also implement steps to reduce import-dependence and strengthen domestic supply chains. Furthermore, Modi exuded the confidence that India would get its GDP growth back very soon. In an online address at the 125th AGM of industry body CII, he said that the country has entered into the 'Unlock Phase 1' which focuses on getting the economy back on track and that the Centre will take every possible step to revive economic growth. Besides, the Prime Minister pointed out, the Centre had provided immediate relief to the disadvantaged sections of society via the 'Prime Minister's Garib Kalyan Yojana' in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis. This scheme helps provide free rations to 74 crore beneficiaries. He said that the Centre has provided financial assistance of Rs 53,000 crore and over 8 crore cooking gas cylinders to the poor. Additionally, over 50 lakh beneficiaries of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation saw the government deposit 24 per cent of their EPF contributions in their accounts, the PM said. Modi claimed that India Inc has the ability to bounce back and said that attaining a higher growth level should not be difficult. In his address, the Prime Minister said that the concept of an 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' rested on '5 I's of Intent, Inclusion, Investment, Infrastructure, and Innovation'. He said that while announcing the relief package during the coronavirus crisis, his government took a long-term view of the economy and announced far-reaching measures to reform the economy. The reforms announced have been systematic, planned, integrated, interconnected, and futuristic and are all about creating strong enterprises, generating employment, and robust supply chains, the Prime Minister said. Highlighting the role of MSMEs in the economy, the Prime Minister pointed out that the definition of MSMEs had been changed to foster growth in this sector. The Centre will not float global tenders for procurement up to Rs 200 crore. This, according to him, would enable more MSMEs to participate in these tenders and promote an 'Atmanirbhar Bharat'. In terms of agricultural reforms, the Prime Minister highlighted that the Centre had amended the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act to allow greater freedom to farmers to sell their products in the market. Electronic trading of foodgrains had also been allowed. This, in his view, would remove the dependence of the farmer on middlemen. He said that labour reforms were being undertaken to help provide a boost to employment and that investment in non-strategic areas had been opened up for private sector participation. The coal sector was also deregulated to private sector investment and reduce dependence on imports. Stressing the need to boost the 'Make in India - Make for the World' campaign, the Prime Minister said that there were several products such as air conditioners and mobile phones that could be manufactured in India and reduce dependence on imports. To stress his point, Modi gave the example of the PPE industry and said that within three months, the sector has grown tremendously from scratch. According to him, the 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' or 'Self-reliant India' programme allows for a stronger embrace of the global economy by integrating domestic businesses into international supply chains as reliable partners. "A self-reliant India will integrate with the global economy. The world is looking for trusted, reliable partners and India has that strength and capability," he said. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text The Center for International Health, Education and Biosecurity (Ciheb) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine's Institute of Human Virology was awarded $4 million from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to support coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) response activities in Botswana, Nigeria, Malawi, and Mozambique. "Low-resource regions in Africa are vulnerable to the impact of COVID-19, and Ciheb is engaged and well-positioned to build upon our partnerships with ministries of health in each country to further the understanding of the pandemic, while strengthening their capacity to monitor and control the spread of the disease," said Man E. Charurat, PhD, MHS, professor of medicine, Ciheb global director and director, Division of Epidemiology and Prevention, Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland School of Medicine. In Nigeria, the award of $2.1 million will support a population-based epidemiological study to estimate COVID-19 prevalence in communities, household transmission, the proportion of subclinical infections, and risk factors for infection, using methods similar to the WHO Unity Studies to ensure comparability across countries. The study will be led by principal investigator, Kristen Stafford, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of epidemiology and public health and Ciheb Associate Director, Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland School of Medicine. Data generated from this study will characterize the spectrum of disease resulting from COVID-19 and provide critical information on the clinical course and outcomes of COVID-19. This information will be vital to inform local response efforts, including the development of strategies to target potential prevention and control interventions to high risk groups, develop clinical treatment guidelines to mitigate the effects of COVID-19, and strengthen the health system to respond to the pandemic. In addition, technical assistance will be provided to enhance and strengthen disease surveillance and improve laboratory diagnostics. In Botswana, under the leadership of country director Ndwapi, Ndwapi, MD, the award of $810,000 will support the development of an influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) surveillance systems for the Botswana Ministry of Health and Wellness to capture community circulation and transmission of SARS-CoV-2. This will include establishing sentinel surveillance sites to more rapidly detect SARS-CoV-2. Other measures that will be supported include the development of a web-based surveillance data entry platform to enable real-time situational awareness, the implementation of a standardized approach to data collection and reporting for comparability across sites in Botswana and facilitating timely sharing of surveillance data between human and animal sectors to inform evidence-based planning. The funding will also support measures to facilitate social distancing and decongestion at healthcare facilities by constructing temporary consultation areas and the procurement of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers. In Malawi, the award of $795,000 will enhance the Malawi Ministry of Health's laboratory capacity in five primary areas: training, quality control, supplies, services, and waste management. This initiative is led by Alash'le Abimiku, PhD, professor of medicine, Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland School of Medicine and the executive director of the International Research Center of Excellence at the Institute of Human Virology-Nigeria. Interventions will include bench-level technical assistance and training at 10 molecular labs located across the nation to ensure technicians are skilled in implementing diagnostics for COVID-19, using both the Daan Gene Assay and the CDC COVID-19 protocol. Laboratory quality assurance will also be improved with a focus on specimen collection management and tracking, data collection and management, proficiency testing, and external quality assurance. In Mozambique, the award of $380,000 will ensure maintenance for ABI 7500 and ABI 7900 PCR instruments installed at the National Institute of Health in Maputo Province. These instruments are used for COVID-19 diagnosis and regular maintenance is necessary to ensure accurate diagnoses. The award, also led by Alash'le Abimiku, PhD, will also provide GeneXpert operations training, support the installation of the COVID-19 software and instrument hardware, and ensure DISA-Lab operational connectivity on GeneXpert instruments at 11 locations across the nation. The award will also fund the procurement of SARS- CoV-2 diagnostic test-kits. Additionally, Ciheb is leading cross-cutting COVID-19 response efforts in each of the eight countries in which it works. Ciheb teams are developing clinical guidelines, improving patient triage, developing and implementing clinic safety protocols, and procuring needed personal protective equipment. "The global threat of this pandemic requires that we work cooperatively with other nations on developing and implementing targeted response actions," said Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, who is also Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, UM Baltimore, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor, University of Maryland School of Medicine. "The School of Medicine, through Ciheb and the Institute of Human Virology, is proud to contribute its expertise to the ongoing work on the African continent supported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." ### About Ciheb Ciheb is a leading international education, development and research center within the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Ciheb was founded in 2016 by the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Ciheb's mission is to conduct research, provide training, and implement evidence-based interventions at the patient, community, and population levels for sustainable positive impact. Ciheb's global teams work to expand health service capacity and quality of service in developing nations confronting epidemic diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, and also develop strategies for early detection and rapid response to biological threats as part of the U.S. Global Health Security Agenda. For more information, see Ciheb.org. About the Institute of Human Virology Formed in 1996 as a partnership between the State of Maryland, the City of Baltimore, the University System of Maryland and the University of Maryland Medical System, IHV is an institute of the University of Maryland School of Medicine and is home to some of the most globally-recognized and world-renowned experts in all of virology. The IHV combines the disciplines of basic research, epidemiology and clinical research in a concerted effort to speed the discovery of diagnostics and therapeutics for a wide variety of chronic and deadly viral and immune disorders - most notably, HIV the virus that causes AIDS. For more information, see http://www.ihv.org. June 2, 2020 SpaceX's Crew Dragon has arrived at the International Space Station, both in orbit and on a new postmark. In commemoration of the historic docking the first by a commercial spacecraft with astronauts on board and to be ready for the SpaceX missions that are still to come, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has introduced a new pictorial postmark depicting the capsule and its destination. The SpaceX Crew Dragon design is now available on request from the Houston, Texas post office. "The Postal Service offers pictorial postmarks to commemorate local events," the USPS explains on it website. While SpaceX's Demo-2 mission was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and SpaceX's mission control is located in Hawthorne, California, Johnson Space Center in Houston is home to the space station's flight control room and to NASA's astronaut corps, including the Dragon's first crew members, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley. The rectangular postmark shows the Crew Dragon approaching the space station from below. The capsule has its nose cone deployed, exposing the docking mechanism used to link the vehicle with a port on the station's Harmony module. "ISS Mission Control Station" is written along the top of the postal device. An additional inscription identifies the postmark's depicted scene as "Crew Dragon in Earth Orbit." Stamp and space memorabilia collectors often seek to have stamped envelopes postmarked at relevant post offices on dates associated with milestone events. These "covers," as they are called, document when and where history was made and serve as a memento of the occasion. The new SpaceX Crew Dragon postmark has a configurable date, so it can be used for events associated with the current Demo-2 mission or other Crew Dragon flights into the future. The USPS will honor requests for a specific date for 30 days, such that there is time (as of this writing) to still have the postmark applied for the May 31 "Dragonship Endeavour" docking, if desired. To request the new postmark, the desired envelope(s) or postcard(s) should be affixed with the proper postage in stamps, self-addressed (or addressed to others of your choice) and then placed into a larger envelope addressed to: SpaceX Crew Dragon Postmark c/o Station Manager Sam Houston Station Attn: Mr. Kenneth Cooper 1500 Hadley Street Houston, TX 77002-9998 The USPS recommends inserting a card of postcard thickness into the envelope you want postmarked for sturdiness and then tuck in the flap. "Customers can also send stamped envelopes and postcards without addresses for postmark, as long as they supply a larger envelope with adequate postage and their return address. After applying the pictorial postmark, the Postal Service returns the items (with or without addresses) under addressed protective cover," the USPS instructs on its website. The SpaceX Crew Dragon pictorial postmark is the next in a series of ISS Mission Control Station marks first offered in 2013. The prior postmarks depicted Russia's crewed Soyuz spacecraft and SpaceX's first-generation Dragon, which flew cargo to the space station. A similar postmark featuring Boeing's CST-100 Starliner crew capsule is planned for release at a later date. The SpaceX Crew Dragon pictorial postmark, like the earlier ISS Mission Control Station devices, was designed by Detlev van Ravanswaay of Bonn, Germany. MOUNT PLEASANT, MI Police who recently rescued an injured bald eagle in mid-Michigan are seeking the publics input in naming the bird of prey. The morning of May 27, a police officer in the community of Shepherd responded to a call of the injured bird along U.S. 127. According to the witness who had called Isabella County Central Dispatch, the eagle had flown into the side of semi tractor-trailer and landed in the lane of travel. The officer, along with Shepherd Department of Public Works personnel, was able to pick up the eagle and safely transport it to Wildlife Rehab Center in Midland County. On May 30, staff at the facility informed police the bird was doing well, though it needed some time for its wounds to heal. On the morning of Tuesday, June 2, the Shepherd Police Department created a poll on its Facebook page asking the public to vote on what the eagles name should be. The options are Belle and Liberty, with the latter having garnered 64 percent of the votes as of 10 a.m. Tuesday. Related: Bald eagle with injured wing rescued from ditch in Huron County Rescued bald eagle that had lead poisoning to be released in U.P. Please log in to keep reading. Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever. People asked to self isolate will make very important contribution to you, your family and the lives of other people in Wales This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Jun 2nd, 2020 The First Minister has called on employers to support their staff as the contact tracing system starts up in Wales, with some people potentially being asked to self isolate several times in the coming months. Anyone who has a positive coronavirus test result will be contacted by a team of contact tracers and asked for details of everyone they have had close contact with while they have had symptoms. Close contact means anyone: They have been within 1m of and had a face-to-face-conversation, had skin-to-skin contact with or have coughed on, or been in other forms of contact with for a minute or longer; They have been within 2m of for more than 15 minutes They have travelled in a vehicle with or sat near on public transport. All these close contacts will be followed up and will be asked to self-isolate for 14 days as a precaution to prevent the virus spreading further. We noted that the First Minister Mark Drakeford had told us that the self isolation element of the new contact tracing was voluntary, and there would be no enforcement, rather the expectation that the people of Wales would do the right thing. In a new set of guidance FAQs there was no mention on what would happen to those self isolating in terms of employment or support, or what an employer should do if a member of staff had to self isolate several times. We pointed out that people could be off work for several weeks due to no fault of their own, and asked whats his message to them and employers would be, and asked what support is there for them from Welsh Government to help people to do the right thing. The First Minister told us, Our message to employers, and we put out particular advice for employers today, is that we need you to support your workers. We need you to support your workforce. This is a bumpy business and there will be some places where people may be asked more than once to self isolate for 14 days. I understand that that can have an impact in the workplace, but it is a much less serious impact than having somebody who is tested positive for coronavirus in your workplace, spreading that disease to to other people. So we do rely on the cooperation of employers supporting their workers in this situation, because disruptive as it can be to have people in self isolation, it is a good deal less disruptive than the alternative, which is to have your workforce subject to accelerated rates of the disease itself. Thats why we are having to ask people to help us with this system, and it will have a disruptive effect on some peoples lives but by doing it, by complying with what were being asked to do, we are each one of us making our individual contribution to that big collective effort weve made in Wales. It is a different contribution as we move into a world where the lockdown is being lifted, but it is a vitally important contribution. If you as an individual are asked to do it, you are making that very important contribution to protecting your circumstances, your family circumstances, but the lives of other people in Wales as well. Professor Neil Ferguson. Credit: Imperial College London Imperial's Professor Neil Ferguson says that the UK must keep coronavirus transmission suppressed by around 65% to control the pandemic. Professor Fergusonwho has led Imperial's COVID-19 Response teamgave evidence to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee earlier today. The Science and Technology Committee were speaking with UK academics to hear how modelling informed the UK's response to COVID-19. Speaking about what could happen to transmission as lockdowns start to ease, Professor Ferguson, who is Director of the Jameel Institute (J-IDEA) and the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, said: "Going forward, what the models say is that we have limited room for manoeuvre, that this is a highly transmissible pathogen. "We've reduced transmission by about 80%, but to maintain control we need to keep that transmission suppressed by about 65% or so. "So we have a little bit of wiggle room, but it will be a learning experience as to how we allow society to resume while maintaining control of transmission." Professor Ferguson added that he expects transmission and numbers of cases to remain "relatively flat" between now and Septemberbut after that it remains "very unclear". He said: "I suspect though, under any scenario that levels of transmission and numbers of cases will remain relatively flat between now and September, short of very big policy changes or behaviour changes in the community," Professor Ferguson also explained that transmission from Spain and Italy in late February and early March meant the epidemic was further ahead than modellers anticipated. Reducing transmission Asked about what could be done in the future, Professor Ferguson said that reducing transmission in closed institutions like hospitals and care homes could help further reduce the wider rate of transmission. Professor Ferguson said: "The infections in care homes and hospitals spilled back into the community, more commonly from the people who work in those institutions. "So if you can drive the infection rates low in those institutional settings, you drive the infection lower in the community as a whole." The Science and Technology Committee heard evidence from Professor Ferguson, alongside epidemic modellers from other UK institutes including; University of Bristol's Dr. Ellen Brooks Pollock, Professor Matt Kelling, from the University of Warwick and Dr. Adam Kucharski, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Clarifying inaccuracies Professor Ferguson also clarified several inaccurate reports about the Imperial College COVID19 Response Team's work: Professor Ferguson said that his team's modelling code from Report 9 was written in C and not Fortran, as had been reported in some places Professor Ferguson explained that the forecast by Swedish scientists of more than 90,000 deaths in Sweden was not made using his team's model and the Imperial team was not involved with its assumptions or input parameters. Professor Ferguson also said that his team had published the input files and scripts for Report 9 to allow others to reproduce the results. Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak Leaving the middle seat empty to maintain social distancing on board was one of the most talked-about changes that were recommended by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) before the recent resumption of domestic flights. The airlines opposed the suggestion citing losses they incur and even got the backing of Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri who said that even if the middle seat was kept empty social distancing will not be maintained and that it will drive up the ticket costs by as much as 30 percent. AFP However, the Aviation regulator has repeated its call and asked airlines to keep middle seats vacant. "The airline shall allot seats in a manner that the middle seat or seat between two passengers is kept vacant, if the passenger load and seat capacity permit," DGCA said. "However, members of the same family may be allowed to sit together," it added. If a flyer has been allotted the middle seat due to a high passenger load "then additional protective equipment like a wrap-around gown of the Ministry of Textile approved standards" must be provided to him or her in addition to a three-layered face mask and face shield, said the DGCA order. AFP The regulator did not elaborate on what load factors or seat capacity would require the middle seats to be left vacant. It said the rules would come into effect from June 3. While hearing a petition on whether to keep middle seats in flights vacant or not, the Supreme Court had on May 25 said that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is free to alter its norms in the interest of public health and safety of passengers "rather than of commercial considerations". BCCL The DGCA order said airlines must provide a safety kit to each passenger. It shall include a three-layered surgical mask, a face shield and adequate amount of sanitizer in either a sachet or a bottle. "The embarkation or disembarkation shall be sequential and passengers shall be advised by airlines to follow the instructions and not to rush to the entry or exit gate. The airline shall ensure orderly entry or exit of the passengers," the DGCA stated. BCCL India resumed its domestic passenger flights from May 25 after a gap of two months due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown. Since the passenger loads in flights have been around 50 per cent. Indian carriers operated a total of 3,370 flights till May 31 -- 428 on May 25, 445 on May 26, 460 on May 27, 494 on May 28, 513 on May 29 and 529 on May 30. Wesley Somers pictured after he was arrested for arson: (Metro Nashville Police Department - Twitter) A white man has been arrested by the Metro Nashville Police Department, and charged with attempting to set fire to the citys Historic Courthouse, amid protests in response to the death of George Floyd. The authorities announced that they had arrested 25-year-old Wesley Somers, on Monday, via their Twitter page. The department has been using Twitter to update the community on the peaceful protests, that a minority of residents have used to cause destruction to property. Wesley Somers was arrested at a home on Manzano Road in Madison. Assistance from the community helped lead to his identification, the post read. He will be booked into the Metro Jail shortly. The investigation into the arson attack on the Historic Courthouse and other vandalism is continuing. BREAKING: Specialized Investigations Division detectives & SWAT officers moments ago arrested Wesley Somers, 25, on charges of felony arson, vandalism, & disorderly conduct for setting fire to Nashvilles Historic Courthouse Saturday night. pic.twitter.com/tg0AFrU3OP Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) June 1, 2020 The department confirmed that Mr Somers had been arrested on charges of felony arson, vandalism, & disorderly conduct for setting fire to Nashvilles Historic Courthouse Saturday night. During the protests on Saturday, a few people entered the courthouse and smashed windows, spray-painted graffiti on the walls and attempted to set fire to the building. On Sunday, the authorities appealed to the public to help them find the suspects who attempted to set the courthouse on fire and caused damage to the property. Nashvilles Historic Courthouse was the site of arson, burglary and vandalism Sat night. Tear gas was deployed to disperse the crowd. Do you know any of these 3 persons? Please call Crime Stoppers anonymously and receive a cash reward. 615-742-7463 or https://t.co/a3MbUq0BEk pic.twitter.com/ORyYFmlGRr Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) May 31, 2020 Nashvilles Historic Courthouse was the site of arson, burglary and vandalism Sat night. Tear gas was deployed to disperse the crowd. Do you know any of these 3 persons? Please call Crime Stoppers anonymously and receive a cash reward, the post read. Story continues With the publics help, the department was able to locate Mr Somers, but they confirmed they are still looking for two more suspects. A curfew was in effect over the weekend in Nashville, after a minority of people turned protests violent, and the citys mayor, John Cooper, announced on Monday that it will stay in place until Tuesday morning and will be reviewed daily. Peaceful protests have taken place in cities across the US, including in Nashville, in opposition to police brutality against black Americans, after Mr Floyd died on 25 May, when former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck while detaining him. On Monday, the mayor said he supported equality for the citys black community, but criticised the violence and destruction of property that a minority of its residents took part in. He said: We will not let their behaviour distract us from the work we must do for equal justice for Nashvilles black community. Read more George Floyds brother calls for end to violence at scene of arrest File Photo Chandigarh: Acceding to the Punjab Governments proposal in this regard, the Centre on Tuesday agreed to convert the Punjab stretch of Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway into a Greenfield project by providing a direct spur from Nakodar, onward to the five historic towns of Sultanpur Lodhi, Goindwal Sahib, Khadoor Sahib and Tarn Taran, leading up to Amritsar. Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways of India, Nitin Gadkari, conveyed this to Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh during a Video Conference this afternoon. Advertisement Punjab governmentThe Chief Minister had earlier raised the issue with the Centre, after local citizens and their representatives expressed concern over the projects failure to connect the religious and historical towns of Sultanpur Lodhi, Goindwal Sahib, Tarntaran. Also, the original proposal of the NHAI had entailed widening of the existing GT Road from Kartarpur to Amritsar as Brownfield project, which was proving expensive as it would involve major demolitions due to land acquisition. During the VC today, the Union Minister told the Chief Minister that, after detailed deliberations with the State Government officials and examination of all aspects of the proposal, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) had approved the alignment of Phase-I of DelhiAmritsarKatra Expressway with Delhi-Gurdaspur section (entering the State near Khanauri and passing near the towns of Khanauri, Patran, Bhawanigarh, Ludhiana, Nakodar, Jalandhar Kartarpur, Qadian & Gurdaspur) as a Greenfield project, along with development of existing NH-3 from Kartarpur (junction of proposed Expressway with Jalandhar-Amritsar road NH-3) to Amritsar bypass as a 6-lane Access Controlled Expressway, as a Brownfield project. Advertisement Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder To speed up the process of land acquisition for the new Greenfield alignment, the Chief Minister has agreed to an early meeting between NHAI and State Government authorities, as suggested by Gadkari, according to an official spokesperson. Giving details, the spokesperson said the Greenfield alignment will provide direct Expressway connectivity to Amritsar, starting from village Kangsabu on Jalandhar - Nakodar National Highway connecting Sultanpur Lodhi, Goindwal Sahib, Khadoor Sahib, Tarntaran & Amritsar and merging with Amritsar-Dera Baba Nanak road near Rajasasi Airport. This alignment, covering about 100 kms, will connect the five religious towns established by five Sikh Gurus Sultanpur Lodhi (Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji), Goindwal Sahib (Sri Guru Amardas Ji), Khadoor Sahib (Sri Guru Angad Dev Ji), Tarn Taran (Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji) and Amritsar (Sri Guru Ramdas Ji). Advertisement Capt Amarinder SinghThe Expressway project is being executed by NHAI with assistance of Feedback Infra. The original alignment approved by the State Governments of Punjab and Haryana was not favoured as it entailed longer route, making the toll road less viable. The revised alignment, finalised as per the NHAI proposal, spanned the Khanauri-Malerkotla-Ludhiana-Nakodar-Kartapur-Qadian-Gurdaspur-Pathankot areas, which would now change in view of the brownfield to greenfield conversion. Your browser does not support the audio element. A Vietnamese pho restaurant chain in Moscow, Russia has decided to cook and provide free food for medical employees as physical and mental support during the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic although the business is suffering itself. Phoinmoscow Pham Hong Anhs restaurant chain of pho, a Vietnamese soup consisting of broth, rice noodles, fresh herbs, and beef is one of about 500 Vietnamese peoples catering businesses hurt by COVID-19 in Moscow. High rental fees and fewer jobs for staff caused by the pandemic resulted in an 80-percent decline in revenue of Anhs restaurant chain, the chains manager Irina told the Vietnam News Agency. An attendant shows two bowls of Phoinmoscows pho. Photo: Vietnam News Agency Despite the hardship, Phoinmoscow restaurants started offering 40 free lunches, each worth 300-350 rubles (US$4-5), on a daily basis to health workers on the front line of the COVID-19 epidemic in the Russian capital city in mid-May. Anh said that her family had covered the costs of the meals using their own money in the beginning, but as their capacity lagged behind the demand, they took to their pho business website at phoinmoscow.ru to call for donations from the public. The warm response from the overseas Vietnamese community in Moscow has helped Anh increase the number of free daily lunches to 80 for doctors and nurses at eight different hospitals and medical facilities in the city. An attendant weighs two bowls of Phoinmoscows pho. Photo: Vietnam News Agency Anh intends to run the free lunch charity until June 15, the date social distancing rules in Russia will expire, according to the Vietnam News Agency. In regard to Phoinmoscows meals, a hospital posted a thank-you letter on its Facebook page to express the staffs gratitude toward the donors. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), had a dream: to turn the IDF into the worlds most digital army, taking advantage of Israels decisive technological intelligence edge to catapult the military one or two decades ahead. He planted the seeds for the plan during his term as head of Military Intelligence. Now he is fighting for its implementation. Kochavi was promoted to Israels top military position on Jan. 15, 2019, and it was then that he started transforming his vision into a multiyear project. Those privy to the plan, dubbed Tnufa (Hebrew for momentum) were persuaded that if implemented, it would turn the IDF into a force surpassing the wildest imagination of science fiction creators. We have a historic opportunity and we have to understand its importance and seize the moment, Kochavi explained at the time, when Israel was a wealthy, prospering state with a budgetary surplus. Kochavi and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed an overall allocation of 40 billion Israeli shekels ($11.5 billion) in 10 equal annual increments to fund the ambitious plan. The sky seemed the limit. Then the coronavirus struck. Kochavis blueprint was designed to provide a response to a very different 21st-century battlefield from the one on which the IDF has won its wars in the past. One such challenge emerges from Hezbollah, which has completely blended into the civilian population of Lebanon and maintains an arsenal of sophisticated guided anti-tank missiles (of the Kornet variety and up) bigger than the combined ones of Syria and Egypt in their heydays. In the past, a senior Israeli military source tells Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, you were measured according to your air power, number and mobility of your tanks, firepower and maneuverability. The world is very different now. The arena is complex, urban, with targets taking cover among civilian populations. The enemy is elusive; you are required to display perfect precision in real time, to have the highest quality and most exact intelligence during fighting and to exert control over many more dimensions than you ever knew existed. In addition to air, sea and ground, there are also underground and cyber dimensions. The air dimension is also far more varied. It no longer includes only jet fighters, combat choppers, but also low-altitude gliders, medium-altitude drones and huge unmanned aerial vehicles at higher elevations. Its a new world, much more dangerous and sophisticated. Kochavi moved fast to realize his dream. His goal was to hook up the IDFs F-15s, its submarines and incredible intelligence capabilities to all branches of the military, in real time. The idea was to create a digital military force operating on a common designated internet network, with a single application into which all the data, targets, commands and actions flow. This would provide perfect intelligence cover for even the lowliest company commander in the field, give him his own designated glider and perhaps even a drone. He will have a representative of the signals intelligence unit 8200 in his unit, a helmet straight out of sci-fi with a detailed display of the battlefield he faces, allowing him to even pinpoint the location of an enemy combatant in the housing complex he sees, an Israeli military source familiar with the plan explained to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. The initial stages of the Tnufa program had already gotten underway before the multiyear plan was even finalized or budgeted. Kochavi designated the IDFs Computer and IT Directorate as the main overall system integrator and the final arbiter regarding its operations. Previously, each branch of the military carried out separate intelligence and cyber activity. Under the plan, the head of the Computer and IT Directorate has taken overall charge of the system that includes the air force, Military Intelligence Directorate and ground forces. The goal is to hook up the company commander on the ground, with the tank, the jet fighter, the chopper, the glider, the drone, the smart bomb and all other means, combatants and weapons into one closed-circuit system. The plan envisions having a smart bomb operating according to the protocol of its manufacturer, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, speaking in the language of the drone and of the combat helicopter, and of the jet fighter and division commander and the tanks and down to the individual soldier on the ground. The head of the Computer and IT Directorate is now the chief digital officer, the supreme authority who should operate the designated internet network linking all its components to one address and from there to one application, which combines all the targets and operational commands on one screen. The amazing plan foresees the IDF leapfrogging to a futuristic era, placing it well ahead of its competitors. Our enemies are on a sharper improvement trajectory than we are, a very senior Israeli military official recently said to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. Our goal is to expand the gap between their progression and ours and to achieve a decisive advantage, added the official. However, the 40 billion Israeli shekel windfall that would have allowed Kochavi to turn these ambitious scenarios into reality has now been buried by the coronavirus-induced economic crash. Netanyahu and his new political partner, Blue and White's Benny Gantz, established a very large (and very expensive) unity government. That, together with the cruel cuts forecast in the state budget, does not bode well for Gantz and his plan. His prospects of receiving the planned allocation are akin to the chances of President Donald Trump joining the ANTIFA movement. Kochavi will have to focus on fighting to retain the IDFs current capabilities, not the planned ones. Luckily for him, the pilot stages for some of the most ambitious Tnufa programs are already underway. They include a unique, multidimensional military unit that demonstrates the actions of the future army. This unit has a bit of everything: dog handlers with their trained dogs, small gliders and drones to independently collect intelligence on the ground, a fast human relay to the 8200 signals intelligence unit, a quality infantry force, a small armored force for cover, and constant and instantaneous connection with all air force capabilities. This unit connects the F-15s above and even the submarines below the surface to the infantry force on the ground fighting in the heart of a hostile Kasbah. The force will be able to talk to the pilot, operate the drone or glider as well as tank cover all on a single network in real time, reflected on a fully adapted application, an Israeli intelligence source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. One such unit is already operational, drilling and demonstrating its capabilities. If the plans pan out, it will comprise the basic unit of future IDF warfare, replacing the artificial divisions into air force, infantry, armored corps and intelligence all operating in parallel but not truly integrating with each other. All these branches would operate together under one codename, one operating system and in total synchronization. Kochavi argues that this multidimensional transformation would greatly improve the IDFs capabilities. It would shorten the next war from 50 to 25 days, on average, while dramatically and significantly increasing the IDFs ability to hit dispersed enemy targets taking cover among crowded civilian populations. Kochavi presented decision-makers with the following dilemma: investing additional funds now in order to obtain upgraded supplementary collision, damage and life insurance, or leaving Israel with its current, basic compulsory insurance policy. As of mid-2020, with unemployment at over 20%, a shrinking economy and a deep fiscal deficit, Israel may be forced to make do, at least for now, with the basic compulsory insurance. Dreams and plans are being overtaken by harsh reality. With the COVID-19 outbreak impacting people across the globe, the shift to a remote work environment has been game-changing. Its more important now than ever for organizations to simplify the way they manage and deliver virtual desktops and apps. Eastern Computer Exchange, Inc. (Eastern), a leading global solution provider, announced today that it will host "The Digital Workspace," a VMware VMUG Webcast, on June 10, 2020. The session will cover the evolution of VMware Horizon and options for hosting VDI, with a Q&A session with the experts. Led by Easterns Rick Westrate, SVP, Strategic Alliances & Solutions, with speaker Steve Blake, senior cloud architect, the webcast will cover VMwares VDI solution, VMware Horizon and tips for how an organization can leverage public cloud providers to host their virtual desktop environments. "The Digital Workspace" will also include a review of Horizon 7, Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure and Horizon on AWS, with a discussion on how organizations can extend their on-premises Horizon deployment into a cloud provider. With the COVID-19 outbreak impacting people across the globe, the shift to a remote work environment has been game-changing, said Tomasello, director of Cloud Solutions Northeast, Eastern. Its more important now than ever for organizations to simplify the way they manage and deliver virtual desktops and appson-premises, in the cloud, or in a hybrid or multi-cloud. In addition to the webcast, Eastern is also offering a COVID-19 Tech Plan to help customers respond to the current pandemic. The plan includes resources to help businesses accelerate their Virtual Desktop Infrastructure to support a remote workforce. To register for the webcast, visit the event registration page here. Live attendees who opt in to share their information with Eastern will be entered into a drawing to win a $100 Amazon gift card. About Eastern Computer Exchange, Inc. Celebrating its 30th year in business, Eastern Computer Exchange, Inc. (Eastern) is a Westport, CT-based enterprise technology solutions provider with a proven track record of architecting, designing and deploying complex enterprise Hybrid Cloud, Hyper-Converged, Server, Desktop, Elastic Cloud, Isilon and Backup and Recovery solutions. ECEI is a certified partner for industry-leading IT manufacturers, such as VMware, Dell Technologies, Cisco and others. With offices in 46 locations across five continents, Eastern boasts a team of highly skilled technology strategists to help global organizations deploy the gold standard in enterprise IT solutions. For more information, visit http://www.ecei.com/, Twitter @EasternCompExch, LinkedIn or YouTube A lan Stewart has decided to retire as chief financial officer at the UK's largest supermarket. Stewart, who has been in the role for five years, will step down from Tesco in April next year. Stewart joined from Marks & Spencer at a difficult time for Tesco. Back in 2014 a major accounting error dented the company's profits and knocked billions from its share price. Stewart said: "Being part of the team that has delivered the turnaround at Tesco and set it up for the next stage means an incredible amount to me. I shall continue to focus on delivering the strategy, supporting the business and my colleagues through the next 11 months, knowing that the business is in a strong position as we move forward." John Allan, Chairman, added: "Alan has made an impressive and sustained contribution both as CFO and as a Board Member to Tesco's turnaround. On behalf of the Board I would like to thank him for his continued contribution and, when the time comes, wish him well for the future." Tesco, whose chief executive Dave Lewis is due to leave in October and be replaced by Ken Murphy, said it will now conduct a thorough search both internally and externally to identify a successor. Stewart began his career in investment banking with HSBC before joining Thomas Cook, where he was appointed UK chief executive in 2001. He also worked for WH Smith prior to his move to Marks & Spencer in 2010. Tesco said Stewart has been granted good leaver status for his performance share plan. The status is conditional on Stewart not taking up employment as a director, consultant or adviser with a list of retail sector competitors for six months after he leaves Tesco. Reporter Amelia Brace reporting from protests in Washington DC, seconds after she and her cameraman were hit by riot plice US riot police were broadcast live on air using aggressive force to push and knock down an Australian reporter and her cameraman as they covered the Black Lives Matter protests in Washington DC, prompting an investigation by the Australian embassy. Amelia Brace, a reporter for Australian television network Channel 7, was broadcasting from the White House with cameraman Timothy Myers when police plouged into the crowd with riot shields, firing rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse them. Footage of the police barrelling at the camera and shoving the news team was viewed over a million times in a matter of hours. In another angle of the incident filmed by a protester, an officer can be seen hitting Ms Brace on the back with a baton. News anchors back in the studio can be heard asking Ms Brace if she and her cameraman are okay, and she later replies: Weve just had to run about a block as police moved in, weve been fired at with rubber bullets, my cameraman has been hit. Weve also seen tear gas being used. You heard us telling that we were media, but they dont care. They are being indiscriminate at the moment. They were quite violent and they do not care who theyre targeting at the moment. Craig McPherson, the networks director of news and public affairs, said in a statement: The attack on our reporter and cameraman in Washington today is nothing short of wanton thuggery. They werent in anyones way, just simply doing their job. To be belted with an armoured shield and then our reporter cop a truncheon in the back is abhorrent. The prime minister has informed us hes been in touch with our embassy in Washington to have the matter urgently investigated. We are making our own complaints through the appropriate channels. Foreign minister Marisa Payne told ABC radio the government has asked its embassy in the US to register its concerns with local authorities in Washington about the apparent assault. We have asked the Australian embassy in Washington DC to investigate this incident, she said. Story continues I want to get further advice on how we would go about registering Australias strong concerns with the responsible local authorities in Washington. So our embassy in the United States will approach the relevant authorities and Channel 7 will also provide us with their views on how they wish to deal with it. The incident is the latest in a string of police attacks on members of the press covering the demonstrations erupting across the US, in protest over police brutality against people of colour and the murder of George Floyd. Additional reporting by Reuters Panamas Maritime Authority said it will impose sanctions on vessels, including fines of up to $10,000 and withdrawing its flag from the ship, if they deliberately deactivate, tamper or alter the operation of their tracking transponders. This General Directorate of Merchant Marine will impose sanctions to all those Panamanian flagged vessels that deliberately deactivate, tamper or alter the operation of Long Range Identification and Tracking System or the Automatic Identification System, it said in a statement. The head of Panamas Merchant Marine, Rafael Cigarruista, told Reuters the decision to sanction ships that do not comply with the rules are part of commitments made by Panama to avoid sanctions from international organizations. We want our ships to not deliberately turn off their equipment, said Cigarruista. Panama has the largest shipping fleet in the world with some 8,000 vessels registered. The Panama Maritime Authority said it is constantly monitoring its fleet and it will initiate an internal investigation if it detects a vessels transponder is down or not reporting. That investigation may culminate with sanctions that will be deemed appropriate (and) in some cases where the vessel is found having this conduct on regular bases could be de-flagged or deleted from the registry. The Trump administration on May 14 Thursday issued guidelines to help ship owners and insurers avoid the risks of sanctions penalties, standards that were modified following months of discussions with industry. The guidelines, known as a Global Maritime Advisory, concern sanctions on Iran, North Korea and Syria. The State Department said it is committed to disrupting sanctions evasion and smuggling of goods, including oil exports from Iran, which the Trump administration imposed sanctions on soon after pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018. The maritime advisory was first outlined on March 9 by David Peyman, a State Department deputy assistant secretary. He said then the advisory would, among other things, warn shippers not to turn off transponders and to not store Iranian oil. (Reporting by Elida Moreno; writing by Anthony Esposito; editing by Kim Coghill) Residents in the Kumasi metropolis have expressed mixed reactions over the partial easing of some restrictions imposed by the government to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. While they are very happy about the reopening of schools for final year students to prepare for their final examinations, they are not in agreement with the President for the opening of churches and mosques. Mr Osei Kusi, a businessman in Adum, told the Ghana News Agency that, the opening of the churches could further escalate the spread of the virus. He explained that it would be very difficult for church members to maintain social distancing, especially during singing and dancing in a church. Mr. Kusi said the probability of an infected person passing the virus in the church was very high and wondered why the rush for the reopening of churches. You can be in your house and worship God, we have not been in Church getting to two months, and nothing has happened, so why are we in a rush to go to church at this time when the cases keep on rising every day, he quipped. Madam Mavis Opoku, a trader who spoke with the Ghana News Agency team, pointed out that, out of fear and panic, people won't even come to church because they might think they will get infected by the coronavirus. She said the President should have allowed only the final year students to go back to school to prepare for their final exams, rather than lifting the ban on churches and mosques. Other residents were also worried about the foreign students who left the country when schools were closed, to their various countries before the closure of the borders. Mr Mark Obeng, a trader at the Kumasi Central market questioned how the final year foreign students would be able to return to school. Right now, that the borders are closed, how will the foreign students get into the country whiles the country's borders are still closed, he asked He stressed the need for the government to come out clear of how the foreign students would get into the country and how they would be able to take care of themselves in the midst of the virus. ---GNA Twitter has deactivated an account that it says claimed to belong to a national Antifa organization but was really created by the white supremacist group Identity Evropa. The account, which included the Antifa logo as well as a Twitter handle Antifa America and two hammers and sickles, posted an alert which read: Tonights the night, comrades. It continued: Tonight we say F*** The City and we move into the residential areasthe white hoodsand we take whats ours. The post ended with the hashtags #Blacklives maters and #F***America. The tweet was deemed to have incited violence and was thus suspended by Twitter, the company told NBC News. Twitter has suspended an account that claims to be 'Antifa' but is really a fake account run by the white supremacist group Identity Evropa Thousands put their fists in the air at Seattle City Hall on Monday as they rally against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd Looters take merchandise from a Foot Locker store on 14th St. in Manhattan on Monday Antifa, which is short for antifascist, is a network of loosely organized radical far-left groups that are often seen confronting far-right extremists at rallies and demonstrations. President Trump this weekend pledged to designate Antifa a terrorist organization, though legal experts say that there is no mechanism for the federal government to list a domestic organization as a terrorist entity. Trump and his attorney general, Bill Barr, alleged that Antifa is behind the looting and arson that have been witnessed in dozens of American cities in the week since the police-involved killing of 46-year-old George Floyd. WHO ARE IDENTITY EVROPA? Identity Evropa is an American neo-Nazi and white supremacy organization. It was established in March 2016 and is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The group is also known as the American Identity Movement. The group played a role in organizing the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017. Many of the ralliers at that protest were seen wearing identity Evropa emblem on their shirts. It frequently plastered its white nationalist propaganda on college campuses. Advertisement Floyd, a black man, died in custody of the Minneapols Police Department. Shortly before he died, amateur cell phone video showed the arresting officer, Derek Chauvin, 44, press his knee into Floyds neck while Floyd was bound in handcuffs and lying on the pavement. Meanwhile, Twitter says that accounts are spreading misinformation online about a coverup and a blackout of protests in Washington, DC. The trending hashtags were part of a campaign that alleged that internet service providers were censoring news of protests overnight as part of a secret plot to black out the demonstrators. Twitter told NBC News that it removed the trends from the trending topics section due to coordinated attempts to disrupt the public conversation around the protests. The company blamed several hundred accounts for spreading the false claims. It said it has deactivated those accounts which are also boosted by hundreds of spammy accounts. We're taking action proactively on any coordinated attempts to disrupt the public conversation around this issue, a Twitter spokesperson said. The company added: We want trends to promote healthy discussions on Twitter. This means that at times, we may prevent certain content from trending. These include trends that violate the Twitter Rules. Several journalists reporting from Washington, DC, said they had no indication there was a blackout. - The escapee was to be transported to Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital but escaped before an ambulance could reach his location - The head of surveillance team Reagan Mutebi expressed concern the foreigner could infect other persons - Uganda recorded 106 new coronavirus cases in two days even as the government indicated it would ease lockdown orders Ugandan authorities are looking for a Tanzanian national who tested positive for coronavirus then escaped from an isolation centre. The escapee had been placed isolation at an undisclosed health facility as health officials waited for an ambulance to transport him to Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital. READ ALSO: Coronavirus update: Cases hit 2,093 as 72 more are diagnosed with COVID-19 Minister of State for Primary Health Care Joyce Moriku Kaducu at one of the health facilities. Photo: Joyce Moriku Kaducu. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Kajiado man who lost job due to COVID-19 pandemic takes to streets to create awareness The head of surveillance team Reagan Mutebi expressed concern the foreigner could infect other persons, The East African reported on Tuesday, June 2. Earlier on the day, the Health Ministry confirmed an additional 32 new coronavirus cases increasing total cases to 489. Out of the new infections, 25 were foreign truck driver which also included 12 Kenyans who tested across the border points. The country's director of health confirmed Uganda had recorded total of 79 recoveries and no COVID-19 related deaths. The numbers rose in the last three days, with 40 other patients testing positive on June 1 while 84 confirmed on the previous day. President Yoweri Museveni indicated he was intending to ease the lockdown. He had said private vehicles would be allowed to return to the roads on June 2 as long as the occupants wore face masks. The government promised to distribute free masks to the citizens adding those found without would be arrested. Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly. Why I beat my own mother- Lucy Nyawira | Tuko Talks | Tuko TV. Source: TUKO.co.ke Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 19:19:16|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ANKARA, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Turkish and Russian troops held the 14th joint patrol along a key highway in northwestern Idlib province of Syria, Turkey defense ministry said on Tuesday. "Within the framework of TUR-RF Agreement/Protocol, the 14th TUR-RF Combined Land Patrol on M-4 highway in Idlib was conducted with the participation of land and air elements," the ministry tweeted. The key M4 highway, located about 30 km away from the southern border of Turkey, links Aleppo to Latakia in Syria. On March 5, Turkey and Russia sealed a deal to maintain a temporary cease-fire for "all military actions along the line of contact in the Idlib de-escalation area" and envisaged the establishment of a security corridor 6 km to the north and 6 km to the south of the M4 highway. Nearly 60 Turkish soldiers were killed in tension escalated between the Syrian government and Turkish troops in the region. Joint Turkish-Russian patrols began on March 15 along the M4 highway as part of the deal. Enditem * Philippines, Indonesia up for fifth day * Singapore hits 2-week high * Thailand hits 3-month peak By Arundhati Dutta June 2 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian markets extended multi-day rallies on Tuesday on optimism over an economic rebound from the coronavirus crisis, but caution prevailed globally due to simmering Sino-U.S. tensions and violent protests in many U.S. cities. This week began with the re-opening of several regional economies after weeks-long lockdowns to curb the spread of the virus were eased. Investors also cheered signs of the economy picking up in China, the region's biggest trading partner. World stocks have risen 35% from a late March trough. Markets shrugged off escalating protests in the United States, as well as an on-going Sino-U.S. tensions over Hong Kong, which could threaten the long-drawn trade deal between Beijing and Washington. "The focus had instead been on catching this reopening optimism train with confirmation bias potentially being at works," said Jingyi Pan, a market strategist at IG. Leading the pack, the Indonesian benchmark climbed up to 2.5% in early trade to its highest level since early April. The financial sector contributed to three-fourths of the index's gains, with PT Bank Central Asia Tbk up 6%. Singapore's index touched a two-week peak, led by blue chips such as Jardine Cycle & Carriage Holdings Ltd and DBS Group Holdings Ltd . The Philippine benchmark rose 1.5% to hit its highest level since mid-March. SM Investments Corp jumped 3% while Security Bank Corp added 7.6%. Thai stocks hit a near three-month peak buoyed by utilities, while Vietnam rose on consumer staples. The Philippines and Indonesia extended their winning streak to a fifth session, Vietnam was up for a fourth session while for Thailand, it was a third day of gains. Malaysian shares were flat. For Asian Companies click; SOUTHEAST ASIAN STOCK MARKETS AS AT 0422 GMT STOCK MARKETS Change on the day Market Current Previous Pct Move close Singapore 2582.72 2550.86 1.25 Bangkok 1362.73 1352.37 0.77 Manila 6017.4 5930.17 1.47 Jakarta 4867.293 4753.612 2.39 Kuala Lumpur 1490.22 1490.14 0.01 Ho Chi Minh 881.11 878.67 0.28 Change so far in 2020 Market Current End 2019 Pct Move Singapore 2582.72 3222.83 -19.86 Bangkok 1362.73 1579.84 -13.74 Manila 6017.4 7,815.26 -23.00 Jakarta 4867.293 6,299.54 -22.74 Kuala Lumpur 1490.22 1588.76 -6.20 Ho Chi Minh 881.11 960.99 -8.31 (Reporting by Arundhati Dutta; Editing by Rashmi Aich) Kita, (left) tries to comfort her Aunt Tracey, a West Philadelphia resident who cried when she saw the damage done to 52nd Street, near Market Street, during the looting and vandalism on Sunday night. (Both woman preferred to be identified by their first names only.) Read more Hundreds of National Guard troops rolled into Philadelphia to help restore order Monday, even as new and frightening confrontations erupted between police and protesters on a third straight day of unrest. Fires burned again, and the city remained under curfew following looting and destruction that overtook peaceful demonstrations sparked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. A tired Mayor Jim Kenney declared that Philadelphia is in the middle of one of the biggest crises in the citys history, simultaneously beset by civil unrest, a pandemic, economic devastation, and a primary election. READ MORE: Here's live coverage of what's happening June 2 Guardsmen wearing camouflage uniforms and carrying M4 Carbine rifles took up initial posts outside City Hall, the area of some of the worst losses, as large crowds grew and milled across Center City all day. Who do you protect? Who do you serve? demonstrators chanted at a line of police officers on the Parkway. On Monday evening, thousands of marchers moved onto the Vine Street Expressway, stopping traffic on the citys major east-west thoroughfare. Some lay in the street. Police fired tear gas into the crowd, setting off a blind, chaotic stampede as demonstrators tried to escape, scrambling up walls and steep hills and falling over one another. Tear gas! Tear gas! people shouted as they ran and fell, many digging their hands into the dirt to pull themselves forward. READ MORE: What is the National Guard and why are they here? People who reached the street-level top of the culvert were gassed again. Behind them lay a highway littered with bicycles and backpacks, all left behind as people ran. News footage soon showed at least 30 demonstrators in handcuffs. U.S. Attorney William McSwain threatened to bring federal charges against people who riot or loot in the Philadelphia area, saying it is time to confront any continued violence and stop it in its tracks. McSwain said the unrest endangers the lives and the livelihoods of others and interferes with the rights of peaceful protesters, as well as the rights of other citizens of this city. It also undercuts the work that needs to be done to address peoples legitimate grievances. The cry of anger, sorrow, and frustration echoed across the city on Monday. I have been grieving my entire life, an African American speaker told thousands of sign-waving, fist-pumping protesters outside of Philadelphia Police Headquarters. Stop killing us. The coronavirus crisis suddenly seemed distant, even as it continued to kill and sicken. More than 104,000 Americans have now died. The pandemic has not been canceled, said Rep. Brendan Boyle (D., Phila.). The virus COVID-19 still exists. It doesnt know or care about the sort of tumult that the United States of America is involved in over the last several days. Protesters ignored that danger, gathering in groups of hundreds and thousands at places across the city. Many wore protective masks, others did not. At midday, National Guard and Philadelphia police barricaded JFK Boulevard. Crowds gathered on the south side of City Hall near the statue of Octavius Catto, the great civil-rights leader. A group of city schoolteachers handed out bottled water and snacks to protesters near Police Headquarters, imploring people to keep the peace. Four Philadelphia police officers near City Hill joined demonstrators in taking a knee, a gesture thats become a universal sign of racial and social solidarity against oppression. Early on Monday, there were signs that the city was struggling to its feet, even as looting and violence spilled into suburban counties. Upper Merion instituted a curfew after 12 people were arrested late Saturday while trying to break into the King of Prussia Mall. Upper Darby did the same after looting and vandalism near its border with West Philadelphia. Police in Bensalem Township, adjacent to Northeast Philadelphia, assisted city officers at the Philadelphia Mills Mall, then rushed to the Neshaminy Mall after reports of a break-in at the Sears store. Thank God criminals are not that smart, said Bensalem director of public safety Frederick Harran. To their surprise, they were met with an empty store, because Sears has been closed for about two years. At least 17 were arrested in Atlantic City during widespread looting, and a 7 p.m. curfew was to remain in place there until June 8. Police authorities across 43 cities have made more than 7,200 arrests for charges including burglary, arson, aggravated assault, rioting, and looting, according to data collected by CBS News. In south Minneapolis on Monday, an emotional Terrence Floyd went to the intersection where his brother died and asked for peace. He told those gathered around him that in every case of police brutality the same thing has been happening. You have protests, you destroy stuff. ... Lets do this another way. He struggled for composure his brother died in handcuffs after a white officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes then declared, My family is a peaceful family, words that seemed to echo the prophet Isaiah, who said, My people will dwell in a peaceful place, in safe and secure places of rest. At the White House on Monday evening, President Donald Trump declared himself your president of law and order, declaring he would deploy thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel, and law enforcement officers to bring order. Earlier he castigated the nations governors as weak during a video teleconference, insisting that cities like Philadelphia, New York, and Los Angeles must mimic Minneapolis, where thousands of National Guard members joined police in swarming the streets over the weekend. No domination. You have to dominate, Trump said, according to audio obtained by CNN. Most of you are weak. You have to arrest people. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said he would speak in Philadelphia on Tuesday, though specific plans were still developing. Philadelphia police say at least 429 people have been arrested so far, and at least 18 officers have been injured with two hospitalized. The Fire Department responded to about 250 fires across the city on Sunday. What youre seeing across the country right now is unlike any of us have seen. We have been sitting on a powder keg for quite some time and it has burst, said Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw. In Center City, the day began calmly, the dominant soundtrack the high whine of circular saws, as business owners and others cut sheets of plywood to cover broken windows. At Washington Square, the hallowed Tomb of the Unknown Solider of the American Revolution was defaced by spray paint. Vandals wrote Committed Genocide and ACAB meaning, All Cops Are Bastards on the granite wall behind Jean-Antoine Houdons bronze statue of Washington, the monuments centerpiece. In West Philadelphia, the air was clear, different from the night before, when tear gas wafted after police said people threw bricks, rocks, and Molotov cocktails while setting cruisers ablaze. Residents around 52nd Street were outside on Monday with brooms and garbage cans, trying to clean up. These things can be replaced, said Marietta Wesley, but were coming together. David Thompson, 50, was at Market and 52nd trying to get a bus home on Monday evening. He said the impact of the looting is being felt by residents most in need. The saddest part that came to reality today was its the first of the month. And a lot of people had to go shopping, and they couldnt go shopping because all the shopping places are closed, from ShopRite to Rite Aid. ... A friend of mine, along with other people that I know, they couldnt get their medications. Near City Hall on Monday night, a heavy police and Guard presence was in place as the citys 6 p.m. curfew thinned the crowds. A group of about 12 held a sit-in. We meet you with peace, a protest speaker said. But you meet us with the Army. A police officer told them, "You dont move in two minutes, youre getting locked up. People rose, hugged, and said goodbye, disbanding for the night. Staff writers Wendy Ruderman, Jeremy Roebuck, Vinny Vella, Elizabeth Robertson, Pranshu Verma, Anna Orso, Allison Steele, and Justine McDaniel contributed to this article, as did the Associated Press. India tells airlines to keep middle seat vacant as far as possible. (PTI Photo) NEW DELHI: Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday asked airlines to keep middle seats vacant as far as possible as part of social distancing measure in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic. However, if a flyer is allotted the middle seat, then protective gear, including a wrap-around gown/PPE kit, a three-layered face mask and face shield, must be provided. It added that members of the same family may be allowed to sit together. The DGCA order is in compliance with the Supreme Courts observation which had recommended space between passengers. Meanwhile, Air India pilots' union on Monday suggested to the DGCA that corona-positive pilots grounded for over 14 days should be allowed to fly after being declared negative by an approved medical examiner as the current protocol makes them unavailable for duty for six months. "This (proposed solution) will ensure that precious human resources are not wasted," the Indian Commercial Pilots' Association (ICPA) said in a letter. It said that if a pilot tests positive for Covid-19, s/he goes on a mandatory 14-day "sick" leave and then has to go for a special medical examination in New Delhi or Bengaluru. This process takes at least three months, and then there is medical assessment by the DGCA that takes another three more months, it said. "To sum up, a pilot who tests positive will not be available for flying duties for at least 6 months. We may soon have a situation where hundreds of pilots are not available for flying duties due to the aforementioned problems," said T. Praveen Keerthi, general secretary, ICPA. Radio host Jackie 'O' Henderson has divided listeners over disparaging comments she made about female traffic controllers and construction workers. On The Kyle and Jackie O Show on Monday, the 45-year-old complained that Irish lollipop ladies were blocking Uber Eats drivers and couriers from entering the private street outside her multi-million dollar Bondi Beach apartment. A day later, she snapped at noisy construction workers outside her window. 'Legit I'll never listen to this person again. There's so much wrong with this I don't know where to start,' raged one disgruntled fan on Facebook. Backlash: Radio host Jackie 'O' Henderson (pictured) has divided listeners over disparaging comments she made about female traffic controllers and construction workers 'Jackie O, how much are you earning to talk nonsense into a microphone a few hours a day?' another listener added. 'Love to see her standing in the sun, midsummer, for hours on end... let alone some of the d**khead drivers you have to deal with,' a third fan wrote. A fourth said they would 'love to see' Jackie do the job of a traffic controller. 'How much are you earning to talk nonsense into a microphone a few hours a day?' Listeners have left negative comments about Jackie on social media in response to her remarks It wasn't all bad, however, as Jackie had plenty of supporters who shared her frustrations about female traffic controllers. '100 per cent agree. Uneducated backpackers, earning big money to do absolutely nothing,' one fan wrote on Facebook. 'I still don't get it, a job just to hold up sign can earn you over $100k... give me that job, I'll take it any day,' another commented. On Monday, Jackie told her co-host Kyle Sandilands that one traffic controller had told a food delivery driver he couldn't approach her building, which meant she had to walk up the street to collect her takeaway. 'I'm so sick of these girls': On Monday, Jackie complained that Irish lollipop ladies were blocking Uber Eats drivers and couriers from entering the private street outside her multi-million dollar Bondi Beach apartment As the radio hosts discussed the so-called lollipop lasses, Jackie asked 'why are they always Irish?' before complaining about the situation in Bondi. 'They're paving the road for some reason. It's crazy to me, but I won't question the council's motivations. Only residents are allowed [to drive] on my street and it's been like that for some time,' she said. 'You know me, I get a lot of Uber Eats and the delivery guys get let in [to my street]. But for some reason, a lot of other people don't get let in.' 'It's crazy to me': She said that the stop-go women, who are mostly Irish backpackers, have a vendetta against her. Pictured: a female traffic controller in Sydney on May 16, 2019 The mother-of-one was recently waiting for a taxi with her daughter, Kitty, when their driver was refused entry to the street. She was frustrated because they were standing at the entrance of their home and carrying several heavy bags. 'I could see the Uber guy up there, and he called me and said he wasn't allowed into my street. He told the controller he was picking up a resident, pointed at my garage and said that it's not that far,' explained Jackie. '[The controller] goes, "No, she can walk up." I was like, "Are you joking? It's bloody hot." I just thought, "Let him in for God's sake!" It's not doing any harm, you're not digging up the road right now. I copped it, walked up and shook my head at her. 'She was on the phone talking to a friend and probably didn't even care.' Jackie went on to say this wasn't an isolated incident. Not happy! Jackie was recently waiting for a taxi with her daughter, Kitty, when their driver was refused entry to the street. She was frustrated because they were standing at the entrance of their home and carrying several heavy bags 'It's happening more and more. Another courier couldn't get through to my street and [the traffic controller] said he'd have to walk up,' she continued. 'I said, "They're just dropping something off, can't you just let them through? You let the Uber Eats guy through before. I don't understand why you're letting some through and not others." I'm so sick of these girls, I'm copping grief from them.' Jackie said she had 'never had this problem' before with male traffic controllers, adding: 'Bring back the boys, I say!' 'They just have an attitude about them': The Kyle and Jackie O Show's executive producer, Sonia 'Palestine' Jahshan, also shared her experience of dealing with hostile lollipop lasses Women at war: 'I agree, Sonia,' replied Jackie. 'It's not just my street, it's in general. I'm waiting a hell of a lot longer than I used to when the guys were in charge' The Kyle and Jackie O Show's executive producer, Sonia 'Palestine' Jahshan, also shared her experience of dealing with hostile lollipop lasses. She said: 'They just have an attitude about them, you know? The boys don't, they seem to be doing their job. But the girls, it's like they deliberately leave you at the stop sign for 20 minutes.' 'I agree, Sonia,' replied Jackie. 'It's not just my street, it's in general. I'm waiting a hell of a lot longer than I used to when the guys were in charge.' Young women are earning up to $130,000 a year with hazard pay and various site allowances as traffic controllers - four times more than some teachers and nurses. New York, June 2 : A curfew has been imposed in New York City in an effort to curb violent protests over the death of African-American man George Floyd, according to a joint statement by Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo. The curfew began at 11 p.m. Monday, and will continue till 5 a.m. Tuesday, Xinhua news agency quoted the statement as saying. "While we encourage people to protest peacefully and make their voices heard, the safety of the general public is paramount and cannot be compromised," Cuomo said in the statement. Cuomo and de Blasio also announced that the New York Police Department (NYPD) will double its police presence in all the city's five boroughs to help prevent violence and property damage during demonstrations. They also urged protesters to cover their faces as the city remains the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic. "I support and protect peaceful protest in this city. The demonstrations we've seen have been generally peaceful. We can't let violence undermine the message of this moment," said de Blasio in the statement. Some 40 cities across the US have imposed curfews to curb acts of violence in extensive demonstrations against police brutality and racism. Earlier on Monday, de Blasio said that he was planning to talk with other officials on a potential curfew in the nation's largest city. Over the past four days, some 1,000 protesters were arrested in New York City for looting, attacking police or vandalism, among other acts. More than 40 police officers have been injured since May 28, none with serious injuries, according to NYPD officials. Meanwhile, the NYPD is also under criticism due to some seemingly excessive moves in several encounters with the protesters, such as accelerating their cars while being surrounded by crowds of people. The Mayor said in the statement that he had talked to NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea about the incidents in recent days "where officers didn't uphold the values of this city or the NYPD," adding that Shea would elaborate on how officers will be held accountable later. Nationwide protests, some of which turned violent, have erupted since May 25, when Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old man, died after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, held him down with a knee on his neck though he repeatedly pleaded, "I can't breathe", and "please, I can't breathe". All four police officers involved in the incident that took place in Minneapolis city have been fired, and Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. -- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and members of the U.S. Congress on Tuesday rallied behind city, state and federal laws that would more strictly enforce police tactics when effecting an arrest, and more clearly outline penalties for NYPD officers found to be in misconduct of department protocol. Johnson announced the legislative push at Manhattans Foley Square, alongside National Action Network founder Rev. Al Sharpton, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and U.S. Representatives Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn) and Jerry Nadler (D-Manhattan). Chokeholds have technically been banned by the NYPD for decades, but this law would include any action that restricts the breathing of a civilian and/or suspect while responding to a report of criminal activity. Unfortunately like we saw with George Floyds murder, chokeholds arent the only dangerous tactic that we must end," Johnson said. Our bill will cover any action that restricts breathing. The Council also will vote on a bill to create a disciplinary matrix -- which in some form already exists in cities across the U.S. -- that details appropriate penalty ranges for various forms of misconduct, he said. SOUTH SHORE COUNCILMAN, MAYOR RESPOND Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday during his daily press conference that hes in favor of the bill, so long as there is recognition that sometimes a police officer is in a life or death struggle. Im going to work with the City Council and Im confident we can strike the right balance and get to a bill that makes sense," he said. Also responding to the rally Tuesday was Councilman Joe Borelli (R-South Shore), who accused Democratic leaders of using a critical moment to score a cheap win on progressive legislation that has been previously unable to pass." Chokeholds are already banned, but this will criminalize officers who may be fighting for their own lives," Borelli said. It's time we criminalize chokeholds in making arrests, and it's time for the people of NYC to have the transparency they deserve when it comes to how NYPD officers are disciplined for their actions. The @NYCCouncil has a plan to make it happen. https://t.co/WXUtMAoT9s NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson (@NYCSpeakerCoJo) June 2, 2020 STATE, FEDERAL PUSH In Albany, local leaders are pushing to repeal a state bill that shields police disciplinary records from the public, and create a statewide ban on chokeholds. In Washington, legislation by Jeffries would make the use of a chokehold by a police officer a crime under federal civil rights laws. Following the death of Eric Garner in 2014 -- after former NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo applied a type of chokehold the NYPD already had banned internally -- the U.S. Department of Justice declined to move forward with civil rights charges. Sharpton spoke Tuesday about that incident, and its relevance now amid violent protests across the U.S. New York should set the tone, because the first time we heard I cant breathe was not in Minneapolis, it was in Staten Island," Sharpton said. That was six years ago, and we did nothing about it, and now we must do something about it. HITTING CLOSE TO HOME In both police-involved deaths, video shows both Garner and Floyd repeatedly telling officers they couldnt breathe. After a personnel change at the top of the NYPD and several protests across the city, Pantaleo was fired. A protest on Staten Island in the weeks leading up to the firing shed blame from Pantaleo and other officers, and pointed to Garners long history of interactions with police, his health condition and a bevy of complaints from shop owners on the block where it occurred as reasons for his death. In an exclusive Advance/SILive.com report, Blue Lives Matter extended an offer to Black Lives Matter to hold a joint, candlelight vigil to peacefully honor the death of Floyd. Black Lives Matter New York declined the invite, responding simply: Blue Lives Matter wore T-shirts that said I can breathe after the death of Eric Garner. 10 Over 250 people rally to support NYPD Officer Pantaleo Demonstrations over the past week across the U.S. -- comparable to the days after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated -- were sparked by the alleged murder of Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer after a report of an alleged forgery. The Minneapolis Police Department initially said Floyd resisted arrest when they responded to a report of alleged forgery, while additional video of the incident appears to show Floyd did not resist. Officer Derek Chauvin has been arrested and charged with third-degree murder. The Hennepin County Medical Examiners Office issued a report stating Floyd died as a result of cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression," the Star-Tribune reported. It also listed fentanyl intoxication, recent methamphetamine use and a form of heart disease as other significant conditions resulting in his death. Conversely, two doctors hired by the family have since pronounced he died of asphyxia, which happens when oxygen flow is cut off, causing the brain and other organs to stop working. Expert analysis of what did or did not cause a civilians heart from stopping during an encounter with police is something Eric Garners mother, Gwen Carr, has come to know well since her sons death six years ago. Carr has since turned her grief into activism, traveling across the U.S. to console other mothers grieving from similar tragedies. Do you think it was only the chokehold of Eric Garner and only the chokehold of George Floyd during the six years (in between)? Carr said on Tuesday. "Those are the only ones that were caught on camera. Here are todays top news, analysis and opinion. Know all about the latest news and other news updates from Hindustan Times. Terrorist trying to infiltrate into India killed in south Kashmirs Tral: Army One terrorist trying to infiltrate into India from across the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir was killed on Tuesday, the Army said in a statement. Read more Gilead says Remdesivir Drug helped moderately ill Covid-19 patients A California biotech company said on Monday that its experimental drug remdesivir improved symptoms when given for five days to moderately ill, hospitalised patients with Covid-19. Read more Trump threatens to deploy military amid rising protests against police violence Amid racial unrest across the nation, President Donald Trump on Monday declared himself the president of law and order and threatened to deploy the United States military to American cities to quell a rise of violent protests. Read more Happy Birthday Sonakshi Sinha: Times when Asli Sona proved she has the most badass, edgy style in Bollywood Lootera actor Sonakshi Sinha is celebrating her 33rd birthday today, and much like the rest of us she too is isolating herself within the confines of her home. Read more Shortage of beds, bodies piling up at KEM? What Aaditya Thackeray has to say In the latest episode of On The Record, Hindustan Times Sunetra Choudhury speaks to Maharashtras Tourism and Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray on the opening up of the state. During the interview, Thackeray explained why bodies are piling up at KEM hospital. He also talks about shortage of hospital beds and equipment in Maharashtra. Read more Stolen Apple iPhones apparently show a message on screen stating that the devices are being tracked Last year we came across some instances around the globe wherein some people broke in the Apple Store and stole some iPhones among other products. Read more What must be going through that mind of his: Robin Uthappa says its inspiring to watch Virat Kohli bat Robin Uthappa is surprised at Virat Kohlis ability to switch from one format to another with the minimum of fuss, and calls the Indian captains batting approach phenomenal. Read more New Delhi: Manu Sharma, a convict in the 1999 Jessica Lall murder case, was released from Tihar Jail on Monday on the grounds of good behaviour after serving more than 16 years in prison, jail officials said on Tuesday. Sharma had received the approval of the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi for his release after a recommendation of the Sentence Review Board for the same. Advocate Amit Sahni, while speaking to ANI, had said that Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal had approved the name of Siddharth Vashishth also known as Manu Sharma for release from Tihar Jail. He said that Sharma's name was approved in a sentence review board meeting held on 11 May. Earlier, Delhi High Court had also asked the SRB to consider his name for release. Sharma, the son of former Congress leader Venod Sharma, was convicted for shooting and murdering Jessica Lall, when she refused to serve him liquor at Tamarind Court restaurant at Qutub Colonnade in south Delhi's Mehrauli on 29 April, 1999. Vashishth, 45-years-old, was serving a life term in connection with a case registered under Section 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of the offense or giving false information to screen offender) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). According to officials, the convict has undergone imprisonment for 16 years, 11 months and 24 days in actual, and 23 years 4 months and 22 days with remission. He has availed parole 12 times and furlough 24 times. Earlier, Manu's wife Preity Sharma had approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) claiming that her husband had been illegally detained for more than the prescribed period of incarceration (20 years with remission) as per the prevalent policy of the state. Error. Page cannot be displayed. Please contact your service provider for more details. (27) The owner of the Minneapolis store outside which George Floyd was killed has said he is no longer going to cooperate with the police because it 'always does more harm than good'. Mahmoud Abumayyaleh, owner of Cup Foods grocery store, said he and his family were 'deeply saddened for our part of this tragedy'. He said that the incident should serve to 'teach us all an important lesson about dealing with police'. Mahmoud Abumayyaleh, far left, the owner of Cup Foods, says they will no longer help police Mahmoud Abumayyaleh is pictured center in front of a portrait of George Floyd Floyd died outside the store on May 25 after he used a counterfeit $20 bill, and police were called. Derek Chauvin, a policeman, knelt on Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes during the arrest, and Floyd died at the scene. 'There is no justification for the use of reckless force displayed by the police that murdered George Floyd,' wrote Abumayyaleh on Facebook. Abumayyaleh was not present at the store, which has been owned by his family for 31 years, at the time of Floyd's killing. His nephew, however, berated the police while they tussled with Floyd, he said, and was pushed away by the officers. Mahmoud Abumayyaleh wrote the post on Facebook on Friday, expressing his sadness 'Despite the fact that George never resisted arrest, police proceeded to end George Floyds life over a counterfeit bill,' he wrote. 'Its likely that George did not even know that he had a fake bill to begin with.' Abumayyaleh said that his family will be donating money to pay for Floyds memorial service, and had been supporting the Floyd family as best they could. 'We realize now that escalating situations to the police almost always does more harm than good, even for something as harmless as a fake bill,' he wrote. 'This is not an isolated incident: they have shown time and time again that they do not know how to peacefully handle conflicts in our community. 'By simply following procedure we are putting our communities in danger. 'Until the police stop killing innocent people, we will handle incidents like this one using non-violent tactics that do not involve police. 'We must stand together to fight against institutional racism.' George Floyd, 46, died on May 25 when Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes Flowers are left outside the Cup Foods in Minneapolis where George Floyd was killed Protesters march past Cup Foods in anger at the killing of Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis Clergy from the Minneapolis metro area marched silently past Cup Foods on Tuesday The religious leaders joined thousands of people across the country in calling for justice Protests against Floyd's death began the day after he was killed, and have since spread nationwide. Donald Trump and Joe Biden have both called the Floyd family to express their condolences, and Chauvin has been charged with murder. That has done little to quell the unrest. On Tuesday evening protests were taking place across the country, and police were preparing for more violence. When the decision on the national security legislation for Hong Kong was approved at the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), Chinas top legislature, those in power in the U.S. and its few loyal fans immediately began to clamor, blatantly interfering in Chinas internal affairs by issuing a joint statement, tweeting and holding news conferences. These scaremongers made an inflammatory statement claiming that Chinas decision had replaced the one country, two systems principle with one country, one system. They slammed the NPCs decision, which complied with Chinese laws, as one throttling democracy and freedom enjoyed by Hong Kong citizens. They also lamented the end of the city as an international financial hub. By concluding that the national security legislation for Hong Kong damaged the interests of the world, and challenged the values of democracy and freedom, they vowed to firmly resist the decision and compel China to abandon it, and brazenly announced sanctions against the country. China is an independent sovereign state and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) is a part of China. Its absolutely absurd that some Western countries, the self-styled examples of law-based societies, strongly oppose the NPCs move to establish and improve the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the HKSAR to safeguard national security according to the Constitution of China and the HKSAR Basic Law. Furthermore, their accusations and attacks are based on hypocrisy and lies, which is shameful. One country is the core of the one country, two systems principle, as HK is an inseparable part of China that no other country with ulterior motives is allowed to covet or interfere in. The principles of the people of Hong Kong governing Hong Kong, and a high degree of autonomy representing the difference between HK and the Chinese mainland under the one country, two systems policy has its legal basis in Chinas Constitution and the HKSAR Basic Law. The central governments exercise of jurisdiction over HK under the Constitution and other laws, a right enshrined by the Constitution, should never be challenged or interfered with by any external force. Under the instigation and support of external forces, some radicals have disrupted Hong Kong, harmed its national security, trampled on its national dignity, and challenged the authority of the central government by carrying out violent and terrorist activities. These forces and their foreign sponsors are targeting the whole of China, including Hong Kong. Against this background, the central government needs to take resolute measures to implement the Constitution and the HKSAR Basic Law, and establish and improve the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the HKSAR to safeguard national security. This is what is urgently needed to stabilize the city, and is essential for safeguarding national security from the state level. This is also a fundamental guarantee of the long-term stability of the one country, two systems principle, and Hong Kongs status as an international financial hub. The decision complies with Chinas Constitution and the HKSAR Basic Law, enjoys the support of Hong Kong residents, and follows the general trend. The so-called one country, one system accusation is nothing but calumny and slander. Even mention of the Sino-British Joint Declaration is ridiculous, as it was a historical document that no longer had any practical significance since the citys return to China. The so-called "undermining of democracy and freedom" has long been refuted by the facts. Is the ransacking of the citys Legislative Council building by radicals to obstruct the HKSAR governments administration in accordance with their special status by taking advantage of foreign influence a kind of democracy? Are the actions abusing judicial power by acquitting the rioters arrested by the police and the rebels who trampled on and defaced the Chinese flag and national emblem representative of democracy? Are vandalism, violence against police officers and calling for U.S. military help demonstrations of freedom? The NPCs decision aims to safeguard the democracy and freedom of all Hong Kong residents rather than a few violent radicals, and maintain national security. Support for violence from a few radicals and opposing the upholding of the rule of law thoroughly exposes these hypocrites true faces. No country can allow activities that jeopardize its state sovereignty. When the U.S. President was hurling his accusations at China, he tweeted when the looting starts, the shooting starts in response to the huge protests across America triggered by the killing of African American George Floyd by a policeman. This awkward show being put on by the U.S. and its allies reveal their true nature: strong in appearance but weak in reality. Today's China is not what it was a hundred years ago, nor is the West anything like it was a century ago. Any attempt to interfere in China's internal affairs through Hong Kong-related issues is doomed to fail. Even as major chains boarded up stores and halted operations, they largely sought to convey empathy for protesters following the death of George Floyd while in police custody, and did not condemn the damage to their businesses. People smashed the front doors of a Walmart in Peoria, Illinois. They ransacked an Apple store in Philadelphia and broke the windows at Nordstroms flagship in Seattle, its hometown, while throwing merchandise into the crowds outside. The outbreak of protests and riots during the weekend roiled retailers of all stripes, adding new stress to an industry that has already been upended by the coronavirus pandemic. But even as major chains boarded up stores and halted operations, they largely sought to convey empathy for protesters following the death of a black man, George Floyd, while in police custody, and did not condemn the damage to their businesses. Many large retailers would not discuss the extent of the damage or how many stores they had to close because of the unrest. The events of this weekend are one more painful reminder that injustice remains in our world, Nordstrom said on its website Monday. We can fix the damage to our stores. Windows and merchandise can be replaced. We continue to believe as strongly as ever that tremendous change is needed to address the issues facing Black people in our country today. Walmarts chief executive, Doug McMillon, said in a memo to employees: We must remain vigilant in standing together against racism and discrimination. Doing so is not only at the heart of the values of our company, its at the core of the most basic principles of human rights, dignity and justice. Target, which is based in Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed, said over the weekend that about 200 stores would close or have shorter hours as a result of protests and looting. On Monday, the chain said that it was no longer sharing the number of affected stores as the situation remains incredibly dynamic, and emphasized its commitment to rebuilding and reopening damaged locations while supporting the Minneapolis and St. Paul communities. CVS said that more than 250 locations across 21 states faced varying levels of damage from protest activity and that 60 stores remained closed while repairs were made. Adidas, which also sells the Reebok brand, said that after some stores were damaged during protests, it decided to close all its retail stores in the United States until further notice. Nike and Apple also closed some stores. Companies across the business spectrum issued public statements of support for the protesters. Netflix wrote that to be silent is to be complicit. Black lives matter. Amazon said starkly that the brutal and inequitable treatment of Black people in our country must stop. WarnerMedia brands, including HBO, changed their Twitter descriptions to #BlackLivesMatter. And the influential trade group of corporate America, the Business Roundtable, said its members share the anger and pain felt by so many Americans at the recent killings of unarmed black men and women. Denise Moore, a member of the City Council in Peoria, Illinois, said there seemed to be no obvious pattern for which stores were targeted and damaged. A laundromat, a shoe store that sold largely orthopedic shoes and a Walmart all had their windows smashed. Moore, who is the first African American woman elected to the Peoria City Council and represents a district with a large minority population, said she found the professions of empathy from large retailers like Walmart to ring hollow. It would be better for Walmart to respect their workers and pay them a livable wage, Moore said Monday. They take so much from this community. A Walmart spokesman said total compensation and benefits for full- and part-time store employees averaged to more than $18 an hour. The Walmart in Peoria was one of several dozen that were damaged over the weekend. Social media and local news reports showed images of looting at dozens of Walmart stores from California to Massachusetts, and many locations had to close temporarily because of the unrest. In a statement, the Walmart spokesman said the company was monitoring this situation closely as it develops and will continue closing stores in select markets as a safety precaution for our customers and associates. The retailer said it would continue to pay workers while the stores remained closed. Target and Gap, which also owns Old Navy, Athleta, Intermix and Banana Republic, also said that they would pay employees for scheduled shifts at closed stores and potentially redeploy workers to other locations. Still, the damage comes just as retailers, especially those that sell clothing and other nonessential items, were beginning to open up after they were forced to shutter in March to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Many luxury retailers had already boarded up their stores in March as the pandemic took hold. And retailers like Nordstrom had their sales plummet 40 percent in the first quarter. Were all crossing our fingers that this period will be a short one, said Matthew W. Lazenby, chief executive of Whitman Family Development, which manages the high-end Bal Harbour Shops outside Miami. This pandemic has hit retail hard and of course, just as a lot of these stores are starting to try to bounce back, the civil unrest that spread this weekend has forced a lot of stores to close, Lazenby said. People are already nervous and already have some trepidation around the public health risk so this on top of that doesnt make it any better. Even though the shopping center is miles from the site of protests in downtown Miami and in Fort Lauderdale, a handful of retailers, including Tiffany, Moncler, Saks Fifth Avenue and Intermix, which is owned by Gap, erected barricades in front of their stores Sunday, Lazenby said. The stores took the step as Miami-Dade County announced a curfew from 9 pm to 6 am Sunday, he said, adding that the center had just reopened May 18. Even for retailers that were deemed essential and allowed to remain open during the pandemic, the looting has created another challenge that will mostly be borne by the companies already beleaguered work force. Retailers like Walmart have been paying bonuses to their employees who have faced the daily risk of contracting the virus at work. But now those workers are confronting an additional threat of mayhem in their stores. Employees who were set to return to work at other retailers after being furloughed are being delayed as stores close to repair damage from the looting. When these stores have to close, that is putting more low-income people out of work and that is not any good, said Moore. The National Retail Federation, an industry trade group, sought to address the looting but blamed it on the actions of a few, in a Monday statement that largely focused on the reality of racial injustice in the country and peaceful protests. Defacing, looting and plundering businesses, whether viewed as a direct outgrowth of fury or an opportunistic act of vandalism and theft, impedes progress and healing, said Matthew Shay, the groups president. We urge people to stop looting and destruction under the name of protest. But some retailers were not willing to denounce the looting given the societal issues that unleashed it. Marc Jacobs, the designer who had at least one of his stores damaged during the protests, declared on Instagram, NEVER let them convince you that broken glass or property is violence. Racism, white supremacy and poverty were violence, he wrote. He emphasized that while property can be replaced, human lives CANNOT." Sapna Maheshwari and Michael Corkery c.2020 The New York Times Company Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) New York, United States Tue, June 2, 2020 07:18 598 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb66c48 2 World new-york,curfew,US,Racism,racial-issues,racial-tension,racial-violence,protests Free New York's mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday declared a city curfew from 11:00 pm to 5:00 am, as anti-racism protests grip the United States with regular outbreaks of violence and looting. Saying that "we support peaceful protest," De Blasio said he made the decision in consultation with the state's governor Andrew Cuomo, following the lead of many large US cities. In a joint statement the mayor and governor said the city would double its police presence "to help prevent violence and property damage," especially in commercial areas including lower Manhattan that saw broken storefronts and looting overnight. "We can't let violence undermine the message of this moment. It is too important and the message must be heard," said de Blasio. Speaking on MSNBC shortly after the announcement, Governor Cuomo voiced concern that the protests drawing thousands could spread COVID-19, as a pandemic that once saw New York as its epicenter continues to flare worldwide. Saying he stands "behind the protestors and their message," Cuomo said in the statement that "the violence and the looting that has gone on in New York City has been bad for the city, the state and this entire national movement, undermining and distracting from this righteous cause." National unrest was triggered last week after the killing of an unarmed black man in Minneapolis that saw a policeman kneel on the neck of George Floyd for nine minutes, after arresting him for allegedly purchasing cigarettes with a counterfeit bill. Demonstrations have erupted coast-to-coast and turned violent at times. An internal investigation is underway after a video clip showed a New York City police truck ram into a crowd of protestors over the weekend. On Monday afternoon about 1,000 people gathered at Times Square for a demonstration that remained peaceful as police in riot gear looked on. "Im here today because my life matters, said 23-year-old Shina Moore, a black woman. "I have a right to live and they don't think that, so I'm going to be here every day until they find that out, period." Moore said she would defy the evening curfew, saying "people won't adhere to it." "These protests are going to go on for as long as they need to -- a day, a week, a month, a year," she said. "It's been too long -- you can't oppress us, and then tell us how to react." Some Members of Parliament (MPs) on Tuesday had mixed feelings on the relaxation of restrictions regarding the Coronavirus disease, announced by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo last Sunday. While some applauded the President for easing the restrictions, others were of the view that it was ill-timed, not well-intended and pre-matured; and prayed that the Government would not employ the relaxing of the restrictions for Bio political advantage. However, there was consensus that all the Covid-19 protocols, including; the washing of hands under running water, cleaning hands with alcohol based hand sanitizers, sneezing and coughing into tissue papers and disposing them off immediately; and observing physical and social distancing among others. I want to applaud the President for easing the restrictions that relate to Covid-19, Mr Benito Owusu Bio, MP for Atwima Nwabiagya North Constituency said, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), at the Parliament House, in Accra on Tuesday. But Deputy Minority Chief Whip and MP Ada Constituency Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe-Ghansah said: I'm not in support of the easing of the restrictions, adding that increasing numbers of the people affected by the disease was not good for the relaxation. The virus had affected more than 8,000 people in Ghana, with 38 deaths reported and 2,986 recoveries; and the President in the address, announced easing of some restrictions put in place to prevent the spread of the virus. The GNA wanted to know MPs reaction on the President Akufo Addo's address last Sunday, May 31, On Sunday, May 31, President Akufo-Addo gave his 10th address to the nation since the outbreak of the coronavirus in Ghana. According to the President, while final year students in university, Senior High and Junior High Schools can return to school from June 15 to prepare for their exit exams, congregants of churches and mosques could also meet with a limited number of 100 worshippers for duration of one hour. These directives according to President Akufo-Addo are to be observed amid strict social distancing protocols and other safety measures including the wearing of face masks. Additionally, Ghana's borders were to remain closed while special arrangements are made for Ghanaians stranded outside the country to be brought home. However, beaches, night clubs, sporting activities and political rallies however continue to be banned. Mr Owusu Bio commended the President for engaging in wider consultations, including medical professionals, the Ghana Health Service and international organisations, for which he said the President, came out with sound recommendations at every stage of the development of the disease in Ghana. He welcomed the increase of the number of people from 25 to 100 at social and religious gatherings. Mr Owusu Bio said reopening of schools for final year students was also in the right direction; but he however insisted on the Covide-19 protocols being observed. Mrs Cudjoe Ghansah, however argued that the President should have maintained the restrictions and continue to monitor the disease rather than easing the restrictions. She urged the Government, through the Ghana Health Service to provide updates at the district for MPs, the District, Municipal and Metropolitan Chief Executives to be abreast with Covid-19 figures and the kind of interventions to put in. Deputy Majority Chief Whip and MP for Kpandai Matthew Nyidam, did not understand why the Minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) was crying wolf over the relaxation of the restrictions, recalling that the NDC's General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia had said the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP)introduced the Covid-19 restrictions for political advantage. Mr Nyidam said: Nana Addo announces relaxing the restrictions, and again they are saying, for political gain, for the National Identification Authority (NIA) and the Electoral Commission to help us (NPP) to rig the elections? Which is which? What at all do they want? Whatever they do, the registration will go ahead. He acknowledged that some nations were also easing restrictions in as much as the disease was not yet done away with; and supported the gradual easing of restrictions by the President. Dr Kwabena Donkor, MP for Pru East said he foresaw the announcement of the relaxation of the restrictions, but had serious concerns-such as over congregation of people, inadequate preparation including; more medical vigilance and more education. To him, churches and mosques must still remain closed. As for funerals, the Pru East MP noted that some communities in rural areas may have less than 100 people and as such the 100 people capping may not affect them. On the return of finalists at the Basic, Secondary and the Tertiary Levels, he called on the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to come out with modalities on how the broad policies for reopening of the schools was going to be implemented. Mr Michael Yaw Gyato, MP for Krachi East, praised the President for announcing the relaxation of the measures. It is a good one, he said, but added that it was necessary to still observe the Covid-19 protocols. When the restrictions were announced, we followed them, he said adding that people love their lives. Ghanaians will still observe the protocols in the church and mosque. If it becomes necessary to come up with more restrictions, I think they will be done. GNA Photo: Matt Baron/Shutterstock With many celebrities dispersed around the country and demonstrating in the aftermath of George Floyds death, Riverdale actor Cole Sprouse revealed that he was arrested on May 31 while peacefully protesting in the streets of Santa Monica, California. On his social media pages, Sprouse recounted the series of escalating events that lead to his arrest, which he says occurred with a group of fellow protesters who were targeted and cornered by police officers. Before the voracious horde of media sensationalism decides to somehow turn it about me, theres a clear need to speak about the circumstances: Black Lives Matter. Peace, riots, looting, are an absolutely legitimate form of protest, Sprouse wrote. I was detained when standing in solidarity, as were many of the final vanguard within Santa Monica. We were given the option to leave, and were informed that if we did not retreat, we would be arrested. When many did turn to leave, we found another line of police officers blocking our route, at which point, they started zip tying us. Sprouse reiterated that he wasnt sharing the details of his arrest to make a narrative about a straight white man and a public figure, but rather to prove that institutional consequences can happen to anyone, even if they participate in peaceful protests. This is, and will be, a time about standing ground near others as a situation escalates, providing educated support, demonstrating and doing the right thing, he wrote. This is precisely the time to contemplate what it means to stand as an ally. I hope others in my position do as well. I noticed that there are cameras that roll within the police cruisers during the entirety of our detainment, hope it helps. Sprouse also encouraged his followers to further educate themselves about the Black Lives Matter movement through links on his Instagram Stories. Click here to read the full article. PARIS The economic destruction of the coronavirus crisis might be far from over, but rebuilding has begun in some parts at Paule Ka, for example. The chic, French ready-to-wear label has changed hands again and now belongs to Switzerland-based investor Matthias Thoma, a German national who brings three decades of financial experience to his foray into fashion. More from WWD Any company is the same, it doesnt really matter if you sell bread or fashion, at the end of the day there is a certain way of how you generate profit and generate loss and that part is no different than any other company Ive been involved in in the past, said the entrepreneur, speaking to WWD in his first interview about the purchase. Thoma is familiar with the apparel industry having previously been married to a sportswear designer, which afforded him a view on design, wholesale, quality control, production supervision and merchandising, Ive seen a fair bit of it, he said, even if Paule Ka is a different type of fashion, as he put it. The company still has workshops and production is done in-house, which makes it closer to a haute couture operation than ready-to-wear, especially when it comes to quality, noted Thoma. Thoma bought the label from Compagnie Marco Polo, the holding company of French entrepreneur Xavier Marie, who had acquired Paule Ka in 2017. This change of shareholder comes after two very difficult years, the label said in a statement. Thoma has presented his plans for the label described as a transition phase to its executive committee, works council and employees. The future strategy entails structuring collections around two lines, La Femme Paule Ka and a more youthful Mademoiselle Ka. Marketing efforts will start with a focus on clients in their 40s to 60s, before adding engagement in more mainstream media based at a younger age group. Story continues It is important for the label to remain faithful to its core clientele, noted Thoma, before bringing in new classes of consumers. You can add to them but you cant tell your key followers that all of a sudden they have to buy completely different style, he said. He describes the label having its own niche based on a very elegant style. We need to work with that niche, if we want to be successful we have to stay with that we cant just go and try to copy everybody else and hope that sells, he said. Under the lockdown, I was lucky enough and smart enough, maybe, to close a lot of my investments in the financial markets and in all honestly I dont have a lot of faith in how the financial markets right now are performing, he said, noting that even if some financial services businesses are rising, it doesnt make sense to him. If you dont understand what the market is doing you shouldnt be investing, he said. Looking into buying a business that produces something tangible, he quickly settled on Paule Ka. Thats where the future money is, he said, referring to companies that produce something tangible. If you get something now for the right price thats the right opportunity three four or five years from now these businesses could be worth more, he said. The executive met with employees who were enthusiastic, he said. He has rehired the former chief executive officer Alain Quillet for two weeks to help with a transition, and a new ceo will be announced at a later date. Employee numbers, which are in the range of 150, will finish the year slightly higher than when he bought the company, the new owner predicted, although there will be some changes, he noted. The label has creative directors who have been with the company for 14 or 15 years, he said, noting that institutional memory makes it more valuable. I was particularly happy with the design and the direction, offered by the design teams, he said, referring to the direction not new, but actually old reflecting the brands identity, which had strayed from its roots in recent years, he though. Thoma seeks to return to the ideas of founder Serge Cajfinger, who established the brand over three decades ago. Everything you will see from August onward in the stores is much more in tune with what the original founder had envisioned, he noted. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. The deal was handled by M&A specialist Actoria SA. Paule Ka has struggled in recent years and came close to bankruptcy before being purchased by Marie. Marie, who made his fortune as founder and former ceo of furniture and home decor company Maisons du Monde, initially brought back the labels founder Serge Cajfinger on a one-year contract to help improve the business, and then hired Maxime Simoens to take over creative direction. Marie had set about building a small fashion group, acquiring childrens clothing and homewares label Bonton in 2016 and shoe manufacturer Rautureau in 2017. Following his purchase of Paule Ka, his holding group Marco Polo added another childrens brand, Le Petit Souk, and cashmere specialist Eric Bompard to its portfolio. Paule Kas annual turnover is around 36 million euros a year. It has 310 points of sale and is present in 34 countries with 72 stand-alone stores, including one on Madison Avenue in New York that Thoma plans to keep. During its presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of the year, Germany will continue to support Ukraine both in terms of achieving peace in Donbas and promoting economic reforms. "I want to assure Ukraine of the support of Germany and the EU. Ukraine and the conflict in eastern Ukraine are an important topic for the EU," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told journalists after the talks with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Berlin on June 2, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. During its presidency of the Council of the European Union, Germany plans to promote the Eastern Partnership program, especially regarding Ukraine. This will include, in particular, help to overcome the effects of coronavirus pandemic. Cooperation with the eastern neighbors will play a special role overall. Ukraine moves step by step on the path of reforms, Maas said and congratulated Kyiv on reaching an agreement with the IMF. This sends not only a strong political signal, but also a signal to Ukraine's international partners, in particular German business, indicating that Ukraine advances in the reform of justice, the implementation of the Venice Commission recommendations, and so on. As reported, the Ukrainian delegation led by Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba arrived in Berlin today to hold talks with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. ol Biotechnology companies across the globe are advancing scores of clinical trials in the race to develop effective vaccines and therapies that can be used against the novel coronavirus and the COVID-19 disease it causes. Results from those tests are also trickling out into the news media, offering the public a view of possible vaccine design and manufacture. British American Tobacco (NYSE:BTI), through Kentucky Bioprocessing (KBP) and Reynolds American, is working toward a vaccine against COVID-19 that's being manufactured in tobacco plants. Tobacco plants are considered excellent platforms for producing vaccines at a low cost. Kentucky Bioprocessing: a producer of pharmaceutical proteins Kentucky Bioprocessing specializes in the production of pharmaceutical proteins grown with the use of plants. These proteins can be components of antibodies, hormones, enzymes, and (of course) vaccines. The company's COVID-19 vaccine will prove additionally useful as an experiment regarding the speed of commercialization for such essential medicines. Kentucky Bioprocessing says that once approved for commercial production, its method of producing vaccines via tobacco plants could shorten the manufacturing timetable to as few as six weeks. Before such approval, the vaccine must go through tests; after production was announced in the first quarter of this year, the company now believes the vaccine is ready for phase 1 clinical trials. These will determine the ideal dose amount that provides a benefit while minimizing side effects. A plant design Kentucky Bioprocessing uses Nicotiana benthamiana, a herbaceous plant similar to the tobacco plant that isn't used in smoking-related products. Instead, this variety of plant is used to create recombinant proteins for use in vaccines. A "standard" COVID-19 vaccine could take 12 to 18 months to design and enter into clinical tests. British American Tobacco's vaccine candidate could substantially shorten that timeline -- the company has already submitted a pre-investigative new drug application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has acknowledged the submission. The company is also looking to other world governments for support for the vaccine. Big tobacco fighting for a vaccine share Medicago, a biotech company in Quebec, is developing a coronavirus vaccine using the same variety of plants. Medicago is a joint venture between business units of Philip Morris International (NYSE:PM) and Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation. On May 15, the company announced that its vaccine candidate for COVID-19 had produced a positive antibody response after 10 days in vivo during single dosing of mice. The company produced a virus-like particle just 20 days after acquiring a gene of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, then initiated pre-clinical testing. Medicago notes that it is bidding for a phase 1 clinical trial in the summer, which will evolve toward phase 2 studies by the end of 2020. Broadly speaking British American Tobacco is a buy. Its COVID-19 vaccine is a sign that the cross-industry development of coronavirus therapies and vaccines will be necessary for economic recovery. However, these things will also be affected by the unpredictability of the development of promising vaccine candidates. For The Hill, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that an aggressive investment into production of any successful vaccine could make it possible to distribute millions of doses as 2020 ends. Fauci noted that this is an "aspirational" goal and that vaccine candidates fail more often than they succeed. Fauci's comments offer investors insight into the urgency of the need for a COVID-19 vaccine, the development of which is taking place across industries. Tobacco companies including British American Tobacco and Philip Morris International are getting new attention for their work to develop plant-based vaccines for COVID-19. Healthcare investors should keep an eye on the progress of phase 1 trials to evaluate whether tobacco-based vaccines can deliver on the promises they offer. Opinion Article 2 June 2020 Customer-centricity - or guest-centricity - should be one of the major concerns of managers in the hospitality industry. In fact, in my experience, when interviewing or engaging with hotels directors on this topic, almost all of them have the perception of being fully guest-centred. This is very interesting as our industry needs really to cater to guests during all the stages of their customer journey. However, looking at the academic literature in the field, what appears clear is that there is scant evidence of organizations really addressing customer-centricity in every aspect of their service delivery and operations. Often there is a glaze of cosmetic customer-focus towards the clients, but actually the organization is not really examining the question properly. Advertisements What does it mean to be customer-centred? Customer-centricity deals with a deeply embedded mindset and norms that make customer relationships the top priority within a hospitality organization. Being serious about this issue means to redefine the whole organization's orientation and culture, encouraging employees at all levels to engage with customers, generating value for them and for the establishment. Focusing on the hospitality industry, it is possible to argue that often the success of these particular businesses resides in the differential value the organization is able to provide to their guests, thanks to relationship-building and personalization of certain aspects of the service. One of the seminal academic pieces on customer-centricity (published in 2006 entitled " The Path to Customer Centricity") describes the areas of intervention for achieving customer-centricity in practice: (i) leadership commitment; (ii) organization realignment (i.e. cultural and operational shift); (iii) systems and process support and (iv) revised metrics (i.e. key performance indicators). In a recent exploratory study, we attempted to understand (i) how independent hoteliers are dealing with customer-centricity and (ii) what is the added value for hospitality organization engaging in customer-centred practices. In order to do so, we partnered up with hoxell.com, a Swiss-based company providing an advanced Customer Relationship Management solution for hospitality, aimed at fostering customer-centricity by working on explicit and implicit customers' preferences. Here below are some of the relevant findings from the research. Independent hoteliers and customer-centricity Thanks to a series of interviews, a few hoteliers had the possibility of expressing their opinion about customer-centricity. They agreed on the importance of focusing on guests in their daily activities, highlighting the key role of the hospitality ethos in building a true customer-centric organization. General discourses were related, for example, to (i) the role of leadership in gearing the business towards guest-centricity, (ii) the possibility of impacting the organizations' culture by putting staff 'on stage' as the main characters for the experience delivery and (iii) the need of considering guests' voices to support customization of their stay. However, when confronted with all the factors enabling customer-centricity, there were quite few surprises: All the managers interviewed agreed on the critical role of leadership for customer-centricity, the importance of organization realignment in terms of culture and operations, as well as system and process support (also in terms of digital technology implementation to foster relationship-creation and management). Despite that, what generated misalignment was the issue of revised metrics towards how to measure customer-centricity. The interviewees acknowledged the importance of using customer satisfaction in terms of key performance indicators, but were more concerned with financial metrics that could better represent the success of their business. This conversation was very interesting because it showed the tension our industry is experiencing between customer satisfaction and profit. Let's be clear, the implication here is not that profit-related metrics should be disregarded for metrics about guest satisfaction. However, it seemed that when dealing with high-level strategic discourses related to guest-centricity, general managers had a very clear vision of what should be done; nevertheless, when trying to translate this into successful and practical measurement metrics, there are clearly some adjustments to be made especially regarding performance indicators. The effects of customer-centricity in hospitality In our recent publication, we also looked at what value customer-centricity can bring to the hospitality organizations. We analysed the performances of two independent hotels implementing a smart CRM tool which facilitates customer engagement before, during and after the stay. In essence, by looking at the variation of the customer reviews on tripadvisor.com, we recorded that before the installation of the tool neither of the two hotels experienced a significant improvement in guest ratings over time. After the adoption of the tool, both hotels experienced a significative rise in the average ratings on tripadvisor.com. Moreover, the results further suggested an incremental positive effect associated with the intensity of the digital tool usage, especially in relation to the ability of hotels to secure excellent guest ratings. Furthermore, there was an indication of a possible cultural shift in the properties under investigation. This was demonstrated by the automated text analysis conducted on the online reviews: There was a clear shift in topic-centrality from discussions about 'room' (i.e. the physical assets of the hotel) to discussions about'staff' (i.e. the experience enablers within a hospitality establishment), supporting a more active role for the staff delivering the service experience. In a nutshell Due to their characteristics, hospitality organizations should be leading the way in customer and guest-centricity. However, a full understanding and implementation of the importance of the guests should encompass all the aspects of the hospitality business, in particular successful metrics. The implementation of digital tools to foster customer-centricity could impact the way the organization responds to input from the customers and result in a better level of satisfaction (e.g. tripadvisor.com), as well as an empowerment of staff as the key element for delivering memorable and fully guest-centred experiences. The clear impact customer-centricity has on online reputation could therefore further influence average daily rate, occupation and revenue per available room. This article is based on: Inversini, A., De Carlo, M., & Masiero, L. (2020). The effects of customer-centricity in hospitality. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 86, 102436. Shah, D., Rust, R. T., Parasuraman, A., Staelin, R., & Day, G. S. (2006). The Path to Customer Centricity. Journal of Service Research, 9(2), 113-124. Ulaga, W. (2018). The journey towards customer centricity and service growth in B2B: A commentary and research directions. AMS Review, 8(1), 80-83. Anderson, C. (2012). The Impact of Social Media on Lodging Performance. Center for Hospitality Research Publications. Retrieved from https://scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/chrpubs/5 For further reading: A teenage girl walked into a stranger's cruise ship cabin naked following a threesome with a tradesman and another girl - before false claims flew that he had raped her, a court has heard. Captain Rick Sullivan of the Explorer of the Seas was grilled by a barrister for Sydney air conditioner technician Daniel Rawlings at the New South Wales District Court on Tuesday. Mr Rawlings is suing liner Royal Caribbean for $400,000 after he was locked up for six days of his 10 day holiday cruise after the wrongful claims were made in November 2016. The court heard the undressed 18-year-old - who cannot be named for legal reasons - was seen on CCTV footage walking from room-to-room, trying to open the doors of other staterooms after a late-night romp with Daniel Rawlings and another teenage girl. Pictured is Captain Rick Sullivan (with a passenger unrelated to the case), who was in command of the Explorer of the Seas at the time when Daniel Rawlings, 32, formerly of Fairlight, Sydney, was falsely accused of rape Rawlings (left and right, with a friend unrelated to the case), is suing Royal Caribbean for $400,000 after he was detained for six days of his 10 day cruise over a false rape allegation The woman had fallen ill during the three-way romp, cleaned herself up, and continued having sex, the court has heard. Later, in the early hours of the morning, Captain Sullivan told the court the woman was 'obviously in a hurry' to get out of the stateroom, leaving her clothes behind. 'There was CCTV footage showing a young lady leaving a stateroom into a corridor, naked, and trying to find another place to go,' the seafarer said via video link. 'This is highly unusual, not anything we normally see on a cruise.' The teenager could not remember what happened in the room with the tradesman and the other woman, the court heard. But the other girl present told police that the sex was consensual. Captain Sullivan had claimed in his statement to the court that the young woman was 'disoriented' when she was found in the strange cabin. 'Yes - she was found naked in someone else's cabin and I would assume from that she was disoriented, she was not in her correct cabin,' he told the court. But Mr Rawlings' lawyer said the teenager had entered the room and was found by its occupant 'after she had used the bathroom, used the toilet'. The teenager was described as 'very calm, but smelled of alcohol', and barrister David Stanton put to the captain: 'Those words don't suggest any disorientation, do they?' Captain Sullivan responded that 'smelling of alcohol could indicate she was under the influence.' The tradesman was on board the Explorer of the Seas in November 2016, holidaying with a pal - but it turned to disaster and he was imprisoned for days Rawlings is on left during an evening out with his friend Matthew Champion - who was 'low key' during the holiday The lady occupying the cabin the teenager walked into later took her to the ship's medical centre. She later tested negative to drugs, the court heard. The captain believed he confined Mr Rawlings on the basis he believed the teenager was 'intoxicated and not in a position to consent'. But her blood alcohol reading was only 0.015, a third of the legal driving limit in NSW, Mr Stanton said. The captain told the court the purported victim's mother 'was very emotional' in a meeting.T he court heard the mother said 'words to the effect of, 'she would throw him (Mr Rawlings) off the balcony if he was released'.' Mr Sullivan said: 'I did feel that if they did meet each other it could cause another type of incident that, not necessarily would have led to Mr Rawlings going overboard, but conflict for sure.' Mr Rawlings' barrister Mr Stanton told the court that it was only his client who was confined to isolation, not the other threesome participant nor Mr Rawlings' best mate Matthew Champion. The Captain gave his evidence via video link from the Symphony of the Seas 'The only person who threatened any violence was (the plaintiff's mother), do you agree?' he asked. The captain replied: 'We certainly did not want her to have the opportunity to meet Mr Rawlings in case there was an interaction between the two. 'We know it was a highly charged and emotional response so we needed to be sure they didn't meet'. He described Mr Rawlings as 'the ringleader' of the incident as he had 'organised everyone to be together'. Captain Sullivan admitted never speaking to Mr Rawlings about releasing him from custody with conditions to stop him speaking to witnesses. Mr Stanton put to the captain that the easiest thing was to 'lock him up until (Mr Rawlings) returned to Sydney'. The captain said it was 'the safest thing to preserve evidence so he could not collaborate a story with other people.' Police in New Caledonia and Vanuatu refused to investigate the matter, and it was only when the ship docked in Sydney that NSW Police interviewed witnesses. Captain Sullivan also claimed he wasn't aware that a security guard had emailed the cruise liner's security office and Vanuatu authorities within 'two minutes' of 'being informed a female guest had been found naked in an unrelated guestroom'. The email was headlined 'crime allegation to report'. The cruise ship was travelling from Sydney to Vanuatu, return, at the time. Above, an island near Port Vila Police boarded the Explorer of the Seas cruise ship when it docked at Circular Quay in November 2016 and questioned Rawlings over the threesome incident. No charges were laid No charges have ever been laid against Mr Rawlings, who was investigated by NSW Police when the ship eventually returned to Sydney. The captain told the court he wasn't aware Mr Rawlings had been confined in his underwear for days, but he knew he had asked to see a counsellor while in isolation. Mr Rawlings claims he has suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression over his imprisonment. Earlier this week, the court heard that during the night before the threesome, Rawlings's companion fell ill after going back to the tradesman's room for sex. She may have been 'twitching with her eyes rolling back into her head', the court heard. ''I'd never actually had vodka mixed with Red Bull before because it's not a good drink,' the woman told the court during a tearful appearance. The hearings continue this week in front of Judge John Hatzistergos. Night Curfew in Maharashtra: Check guidelines, rules; what is allowed, what is not allowed Mistakes of 2021 being repeated; unnecessary medication, tests should be avoided: Doctors tells Centre Will schools in Maharashtra reopen next week amid rising Omicron cases? Proposal sent to CM Schools in Mumbai to reopen with rest of Maharashtra on Monday India oi-Oneindia Staff By Anuj Cariappa New Delhi, June 03: Three people died and as many were injured in cyclone-related incidents as cyclone 'Nisarga' made landfall near Mumbai, uprooting trees in nearby districts on Wednesday. The cyclone slammed the Maharashtra coast with wind speeds of up to 120 kmph, making landfall at 12.30pm at Alibaug near Mumbai. The process was completed by 2.30pm, said a senior official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD). Authorities in Indore and Ujjain divisions in the western part of Madhya Pradesh have been asked to be prepared to deal with the impact of Cyclone 'Nisarga', which is likely to hit the state on Thursday, an IMD official said. The cyclonic storm is likely to enter Khandwa, Khargone and Burhanpur districts in the state between 7 am and 11 am on Thursday, the official said. Catch live updates on Cyclone Nisarga here Newest First Oldest First The cyclonic storm is likely to enter Khandwa, Khargone and Burhanpur districts in the state between 7 am and 11 am on Thursday, the official said. Authorities in Indore and Ujjain divisions in the western part of Madhya Pradesh have been asked to be prepared to deal with the impact of Cyclone 'Nisarga', which is likely to hit the state on Thursday, an IMD official said. The power utility said it was working on a war footing to restore power supply in these areas by Thursday. "Due to the cyclone, electric poles at various locations were uprooted and power supply was interrupted. The state utility cut the power supply to many substations in these districts as precautionary measure, the MSEDCL said. Power supply to more than 25 lakh consumers of Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDC) in four districts of Raigad, Palghar, Thane and Pune has been interrupted due to the cyclone Nisarga, which made a landfall in Alibaug on Maharashtra's coast. "Thanking all who protected Maharashtra along with Mumbai in the face of the Nisarga cyclone which had hovered over Maharashtra at a time when the state is already grappling with COVID-19. "But we all warded it (the cyclone crisis) off. The people and administration fought hard and mitigated the intensity of the crisis," the chief minister said. He said and orders have been issued to carry out spot inspections to assess the damages caused by the cyclone. "The unity exhibited by the people will help bring Maharashtra out of all crises," the CM said in a statement. Thackeray said losses have been reported from coastal Konkan and some other regions. After hitting the Maharashtra coast near Alibaug with wind speeds of up to 120 kmph in afternoon, the cyclone weakened into intensity in the evening and moved towards north-east Maharashtra, sparing Mumbai and other areas. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday said the resilience showed by people and officials helped in "mitigating the intensity" of the cyclone 'Nisarga' which had hovered over the state amidst the COVID-19 crisis. As many as 20 teams of the NDRF have been deployed in Maharashtra. Of these, 7 are in Mumbai, 7 in Raigad, 2 in Palghar, 1 in Thane, 2 in Ratnagiri and 1 in Sindhudurg. Two people died and three others were injured in two cyclone-related incidents in Pune district on Wednesday, said officials. Severe Cyclonic Storm NISARGA weakens into a Cyclonic Storm over coastal Maharashtra. Light to moderate rainfall at most places, heavy to very heavy falls at isolated places very likely in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh during next 24 hours: India Meteorological Department Extremely heavy rainfall is very likely to occur at isolated places in Raigad, Dhule, Nandurbar, Nashik districts & heavy to very heavy rainfall in Thane, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Ahmednagar, Pune, Kolhapur, Satara districts in Maharashtra during the next two & half hours: IMD Restoration of power supply has been started in Ratnagiri & Shrivardhan. Power supply in Murud, Mandgaon, Goregaon, Alibag, Mhasala, Guhagar, Dapoli taluquas where power supply was switched off from EHV stations will be restored as soon as wind & rain slow down: Maharashtra Govt Flight operations have resumed at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. Arrivals and departures were suspended at 2:30 pm due strong crosswinds induced by Cyclone Nisarga, says spokesperson. The department has responded to 60 calls related to tree uprooting and 9 calls related to waterlogging till evening today: Fire brigade dept, Pune Municipal Corporation Due to the impact of the gusting winds, many trees and electric poles fell down in Shrivardhan as well as in Alibaug. No untoward incident has been reported in southern coast of Gujarat so far due to the severe cyclonic storm Nisarga, which has made landfall in neighbouring Maharashtra, a senior official said. We expect that Cyclone Nisarga will weaken into a deep depression within the next three hours and further weaken into a depression in the next 6 hours. Currently, it lays centered over Pune in Maharashtra: Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, Director General of India Meteorological Department No other casualties have been reported from the state so far, District Collector, Raigad, Nidhi Choudhary said. A 58-year-old man died after an electric pole fell on him at Umte village in Alibag, as Cyclone Nisarga made landfall in Maharashtras Raigad district on Wednesday afternoon. Chandigarh: Barber shops & salons reopen in the Union Territory following permission from the administration. Pradeep, owner of a barber shop, says, "At our shop, the services can be availed after bookings only. Every instrument is sanitized after each haircut & shave". Severe cyclonic storm Nisarga has crossed Raigad Dist. Now we are experiencing post-landfall effect with a wind speed of 90-100kmph in Mumbai and Thane & moderate to heavy to very heavy rainfall: Shubhangi Bhute, Scientist, IMD, Mumbai The Mumbai unit of the Congress has set up a "control room" to assist people in view of the threat posed by the severe cyclonic storm 'Nisarga' that made landfall in Raigad on Wednesday. A team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) at work in Alibaug, Raigad district. The rear part of wall cloud region is still over the sea and the landfall process will be completed by next one hour, says IMD. In a statement, Pawar noted that the cyclone has caused severe damage to public and private properties and asked NCP workers to help those affected by the phenomenon. NCP chief Sharad Pawar urged his party workers to help people at the time of the natural disaster. After a wait of 72 hours, Cyclone Nisarga made a thumping landfall at Shriwardhan-Dive Agar in Raigad district, hitting coastal Maharashtra with full fury, officials said. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) Tuesday said that the deep depression in the Arabian Sea intensified into a cyclonic Storm, named Nisarga, around noon today. It is likely to intensify further into a Severe Cyclonic Storm (wind speed 90 100 km/hr gusting to 110 km/hr) by the time it makes landfall. "To cross N Mah & adjoining S Guj coast betn Harihareshwar & Daman, close to Alibag (Raigad) a/n 03rd Jun as a SCS with a max sustained wind 100-110 gusting to 120 kmph, India Meteorological Department (IMD) Mumbai's deputy director general of meteorology K S Hosalikar tweeted. Prime Minister Narendra Modi took stock of the situation in the wake of Cyclone Nisarga, which is moving towards the country's western coast and is expected to make landfall near Mumbai on Wednesday. PM Modi has said, "Took stock of the situation in the wake of cyclone conditions in parts of India's western coast. Praying for everyone's well-being. I urge people to take all possible precautions and safety measures." The last cyclone to hit Mumbai was cyclonic storm 'Phyan' on November 11, 2009. The number of cyclones and severe cyclones in the Arabian Sea has risen by nearly 32 per cent in the last five years, according to the IMD data. An official has said that NDRF will be evacuating people from coastal areas of about 13 villages and is prepared to carry out the operation while following social distancing norms. High tides were seen at Tithal beach in Valsad district after the cyclone diverted towards Maharashtra on Tuesday afternoon. Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba chaired the second meeting of the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) to review the preparedness of states and Central ministries/agencies to deal with the cyclonic storm Nisarga. Five teams of the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) have been airlifted from Bhatinda to be deployed in Gujarat in view of cyclone Nisarga. Mumbai Police issues prohibitory orders, restricting movement along the beach, coasts, promenade due to the cyclone. PM @narendramodi has spoken to CM of Maharashtra Shri Uddhav Thackeray, CM of Gujarat Shri @vijayrupanibjp and Administrator of Daman Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli Shri @prafulkpatel regarding the cyclone situation. He assured all possible support and assistance from the Centre. PMO India (@PMOIndia) June 2, 2020 PM Narendra Modi speaks to the chief ministers of Maharashtra and Gujarat over the cyclone situation, assures all possible central help: PMO Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will address the state at 8 pm today. An order under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was being issued, the police said. "With this order Mumbai police has prohibited any presence or movement of one or more persons in public places along the beaches, promenades, parks and other such places near the coastline where people may gather," it said. Those violating the order can face action under IPC section 188 (defying an order lawfully promulgated by a public servant), it added. Mumbai receives rainfall as Nisarga approaches western coast of India. Cyclone is likely to make landfall near Alibaug tomorrow. Cyclone Nisarga at our doorstep, says Uddhav Thackeray. The Army and the Navy have been kept on standby. NDRF teams have been deployed. Home Minister Amit Shah held a review meeting with us. He has assured us that the Centre is with us," he says. "Prime Minister Modi called us too and has assured full support of the Centre," says Thackeray. Thackeray has said that power supply in some places in the state may have to be cut in case there is heavy rain and if it leads to flooding. Indian aviation regulator DGCA issued a circular to airlines and pilots on Tuesday, reiterating its guidelines on adverse weather operations as Cyclone Nisarga approaches the coastal areas of Maharashtra and Gujarat. #CycloneNisarga | During A #Cyclone Warning :: Remember - DON'T PANIC!#Gujarat #Maharashtra #Alibaug #Surat #Mumbai pic.twitter.com/jnX0N86952 NDMA India (@ndmaindia) June 2, 2020 The NDMA has an important reminder for the people: "Don't panic." #CycloneNisarga | During A #Cyclone Warning :: Keep your documents at higher places!#Gujarat #Maharashtra #Alibaug #Surat #Mumbai pic.twitter.com/dxw7Cr9n8V NDMA India (@ndmaindia) June 2, 2020 The NDMA warning Due to the severe cyclonic storm that currently moving towards the countrys western coasts, IndiGo has cancelled 17 flights to and from Mumbai for June 3. IndiGo will only operate three flights from Mumbai on June 3: -6E 495 Mumbai- Chandigarh -6E 6179 Mumbai - Ranchi -6E 5373 Mumbai - Patna We need to evacuate around 21,000 people who live along the coastline. We've made arrangements for hand washing, sanitisers, masks & social distancing will be maintained at the evacuation shelters: Kailash Shinde, Palghar Dist Collector, Maharashtra Cyclonic storm Nisarga over the eastcentral Arabian Sea has moved north-northeastwards with a speed of 13 kmph in the past 6 hours, and lay centred at 1730 hours IST of today over eastcentral Arabian Sea near latitude 16.3N and longitude 71.3E, about 280 km west-northwest of Panjim (Goa), 350 km south-southwest of Mumbai (Maharashtra), 300 km south-southwest of Alibagh (Maharashtra) and 560 km south-southwest of Surat (Gujarat). It is very likely to intensify into a severe cyclonic storm during next 12 hours. It is very likely to move north-northeastwards and cross north Maharashtra and adjoining south Gujarat coast between Harihareshwar and Daman, close to Alibagh (Raigad District, Maharashtra) during the afternoon of June 3 as a severe cyclonic storm with a maximum sustained wind speed of 100-110 kmph gusting to 120 kmph. The BMC issues a reminder to the people, asking them to carry a hammer if they are going to drive to work. RIVERSIDE, CA - JUNE 1, 2020: Demonstrators retreat as Riverside County Sheriffs fire non-lethal rounds after law enforcement announced an unlawful assembly and protesters did not leave during the coronavirus pandemic on June 1, 2020 in Riverside, California. Thousands of protesters marched through the street of downtown Riverside and police alloyed them to stay 90 minutes after the 6pm curfew.(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) (Gina Ferazzi/Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times) Thousands of protesters gathered Monday afternoon in downtown Riverside to call for justice for the death of George Floyd and others killed by police. Mothers stood alongside daughters, young people danced, and students handed out water bottles and masks. Fazein Kennon, 16, came to the march with 10 members of his family his father, uncle, aunt and cousins. My family and I are tired of this, and this is one way to stand up, by peacefully protesting, he said. Christiana Ellis, 15, and her mother, Sherry Morton, 51, came to the protest together. Morton carried a sign that said: There comes a time when silence is betrayal. Her daughter said Morton constantly worries about her safety and that of her family. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco takes a knee with demonstrators after thousands of protesters marched to the Robert Presley Detention Center. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) I dont want to see another black face on the news. I dont know if Im next, Ellis said. I wonder, what if my dad is out driving to get groceries, and he gets pulled over for a speeding ticket and ends up in a casket? Toni Moore and her daughter, Sorrelle Ellis, feared the worst was yet to come. Moore has operated a clothing store in downtown Riverside since 1982 that had become a staple for the community. She thought they had survived the worst blow to their business during the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders but was more afraid of the uncertainty that would come from the planned protest in Riverside. She and her daughter drove to the store to board up the front door and remove merchandise, planning to stay until nightfall to protect the business from being harmed. After all these years, you become a part of the community, and you serve the community, Moore said. This all is unsettling. Ive been there for a long time and have weathered many storms, but between COVID and this, I feel things are so out of control, I just dont know if well make it. Everybody is praying for survival through this, only to have something like this threaten you right on the heels of that. Before the protest began, many downtown businesses had boarded up their windows. Some painted or posted messages in support of protesters. Mexican owned, we stand with you, one said. The sign on the boarded-up window of an Italian restaurant read: The best activism is equal parts anger and love. When the 6 p.m. curfew went into effect, the majority of protesters left, but around 200 remained. Police declared an unlawful assembly and began to disperse the protesters using tear gas and rubber bullets. Bahrain Islamic Bank (BisB) recently obtained the ISO 22301:2019 certification for Business Continuity Management System (BCMS), becoming the first institution in Bahrain, the second in the Middle East, and among the very few institutions worldwide to obtain the certification in its latest edition. This comes as part of the banks efforts to address potential risks or disruptions, and its commitment to adhere to best practices in this field, said a statement. The ISO 22301:2019 standard enables organisations to assess their competencies and ability to meet their business capabilities and obligations to ensure business continuity, even in the event of an emergency. The standard indicates the requirements for continuously planning, implementing, operating, maintaining and improving a BCMS, in which BisB remains committed to developing through its dedicated internal teams. The latest edition of this ISO certification was launched in October of 2019, replacing the previous edition (ISO 22301: 2012) and became certifiable from April 30, 2020. Recently, BisB has implemented several preventive measures and developed various strategic plans with an aim to protect its employees and customers and reduce the impacts of any emergency, it said. This achievement of obtaining the ISO 22301:2019 certification reiterates our commitment to the continuous development of our information security systems with the aim of protecting against, preparing for, responding to, reducing the possibility of occurring and recovering from any emergencies if they arise. We consider the development of our business continuity management system a top priority in order to be able to quickly overcome any emergency that may arise at any given time, the COVID-19 outbreak notwithstanding, in order to maintain the health and continuity of our business while ensuring a seamless delivery of products and services, said BisB Chief Executive Officer Hassan Jarrar. This international system demonstrates the importance of being able to maintain resilience during the occurrence of unexpected events and our ability as a Bank to follow internationally recognized and accepted systems, to ensure that it adheres to best practices, he added. TradeArabia News Service SRINAGAR: The Army on Monday claimed it foiled series of major infiltration bids from across the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmirs twin districts of Rajouri and Poonch by killing thirteen militants over past four days. The search operations were underway in both Naushera sector of Rajouri and Mendhar sector of Poonch as reports last came in, the Army officials in winter capital Jammu said. They added that the anti-infiltration operations were launched on May 28 following intelligence inputs that heavy armed group of militants are readying to sneak into J&K to carry out terrorist and subversive activities in the Union Territory. They said that three infiltrators were killed in Noushera sector on Monday whereas ten others were gunned down in Mendhar earlier. Search operations in several areas including some villages falling close to the LoC in these sectors are going on as we want to ensure no terrorists have managed to move into these populated area after escaping the offensive on the LoC, said an official. He added, Our alert jawans have, so far, killed thirteen terrorists in these operations. The searches are underway in both these sectors. Meanwhile, the Border Security Force (BSF) Director General SS Deswal has reviewed the security situation along the International Border (IB) with Pakistan during a visit of the Jammu frontier. The BSF is tasked to guard the 198-km stretch of the India-Pakistan border in Jammu region called International Border by New Delhi and Working Boundary by Islamabad. The BSF and their counterparts in Pakistan Rangers routinely clash along the stretch of the border like the facing armies do in parts of the 767-km LoC frequently despite the ceasefire understanding reached between the two sides in November 2003. In Jammu region, the 198-km stretch of the 2,912 km India-Pakistan border from Gujarat to J&K starts at Paharpur in Kathua district and ends at Chickens Neck corridor in Akhnoor sector where the LoC begins. The LoC ends at NJ9842 (the northernmost demarcated point of the ceasefire line) down the Siachen Glacier over which both India and Pakistan claim sovereignty. Pakistan has reservations over calling this 198-km stretch of the borderline as IB as it passes through disputed region of J&K and insists on it being a working boundary instead. A BSF spokesman in Jammu said that Deswal, who was being accompanied by Additional DG (WC) S Panwar and IG BSF Jammu frontier NS Jamwal and other officers, visited various forward areas along the IB where he was briefed about the complexities of management of Jammu border under prevailing security scenario. The DG BSF during his two-day trip apart from reviewing the border domination plan visited the critical areas of entire border stretch and held discussions with various sector and unit commanders and senior police officers on border domination and other security measures being adopted, the spokesman said. He added that the BSF field commanders apprised the DG about various ongoing construction works along the border and constraints being faced during their implementation. In Kupwara, the J&K police said that it seized a consignment of ammunition and communication equipment sent to the Valley-based militants by their Pakistani handlers. A police spokesman said that the Kupwara police received a specific input that a resident of Amrohi village of Kupwaras Karnah sector identified as Muhammad Hafeez Raina has received a consignment of some incriminating material from across the LoC and that he has been asked to deliver the same to an unknown militant organisation in the Valley. Upon this information a team of the cops from Police Post Taad apprehended the suspected person and conducted a search of the area which led to the recovery of incriminating material including ten grenades, two hundred rounds of AK 47 rifle and four wireless sets, the spokesman claimed. The J&K police in a separate statement also claimed that it along with the Armys 50 Rashtriya Rifles and the Central Reserve Police Forces D/29 unit busted a narco-terror module linked with Jaish-e-Muhammad in Chadoora area of the Valleys central Budgam district. It identified the five terror associates arrested by the security forces as Mudassir Fayaz, Shabir Ganaie, Sageer Ahmad Poswal, Issaq Bhat and Arshid Thoker but withheld the name of the sixth accused for unspecified reasons. The police statement said that the recoveries from the accused included one Chinese pistol with four rounds of ammunition, one hand grenade, one kilogram of heroine and Rs 155,000 cash. It added, As per initial investigation, it has been revealed that this module was working in close connection with Pakistan based terror handlers and was involved in drug trade, supply of weapons and money to active terrorists of proscribed outfit JeM. With their arrest the inter-connection between drug dealers and terrorists has also been exposed, (sic). Tokyo saw a spike in coronavirus cases with 34 new infections confirmed on Tuesday, the most in a single day in more than three weeks, with the local government reportedly planning to issue an alert to residents to exercise extra caution. The step could lead to businesses in the capital again being asked to close their doors if a surge continues. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike is set to issue what she has dubbed a "Tokyo Alert," broadcaster TBS reported, without citing anyone. While the alert itself won't immediately trigger any new restrictions, if cases continue to climb after it's issued, the city has said it may reinstate its call for companies to shut and residents to stay at home. Koike has laid out three criteria for issuing the alert, including more than 20 newly reported cases in a day, half of those unable to be traced, and infections rising from the previous week. The city's scenic Rainbow Bridge would be lit red if the alert is triggered. The jump in cases comes a week after a national state of emergency order was lifted in the Tokyo region. As newly confirmed cases had fallen in some days to single figures, footfall at major stations and passenger numbers on trains have begun to return to near pre-pandemic levels, with establishments from gyms to schools re-opening their doors on Monday. Hospital Cluster Japanese authorities lack the legal power to enforce lockdown restrictions due to civil liberties enshrined in the postwar constitution. Although there was still a large degree of cooperation during the seven-week state of emergency, the country has been keen to lift restrictions as quickly as possible to minimize further economic damage. Japan has taken a pragmatic approach, with officials stating the virus can't be wiped out, and aiming to resume economic activity so long as the medical system can cope with any increase in infections. "Given the nature of this virus, it is at this point of time impossible to reduce the level of transmission to zero," Shigeru Omi, the deputy head of the expert panel advising the Japanese government, said on Monday, before the latest spike. "After the emergency was lifted, a number of cases have occurred especially in Tokyo and Fukuoka. This kind of small surge of cases was already anticipated." Many cases over the past week have been attributed to Tokyo's nightlife districts, with around 40% of the 90 infections believed linked to areas populated by hostess clubs and other such venues. A number of cases also come from a cluster at a hospital in Koganei in the west of the city, where a total of 31 infections have been reported, including 15 announced on Tuesday. It was not immediately clear if the newest cases are included in the cases reported by the city Tuesday. Interim Chancellor Vincent June on Tuesday conceded his own anger and frustration at events last week in Minneapolis, where a black man, George Floyd, died at the hands of local police, and vowed that South Louisiana Community College would hold civil, collaborative campus conversations to further understanding about race relations. If we want to have change, we must be willing to have these difficult conversations and truly hear one another, June said in a message to the campus. Lets start a healthy dialogue around change and really listen and respect one another. Christine Payton, campus spokeswoman, said the final format for those structured conversations is not complete. But she said SLCCs Center for Minority Excellence was working on workshops and how to deliver those conversations on campus. Tonya Bolden-Ball, Center for Minority Excellence program manager, said the format for the conversations would be ready this week. 2 on-campus UL Lafayette students test positive for coronavirus; protocols in place Two on-campus University of Louisiana at Lafayette students have tested positive for COVID-19, spokesman Eric Maron confirmed Saturday. The st Its just a statement he wanted to put out in light of the times, Payton said Tuesday, describing Junes message as a response to whats happening in communities across the country. She said it was natural for SLCC to start conversations with faculty, staff and students. Top stories in Acadiana in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up In his message, published on the SLCC website, June noted that the campus is inclusive of all races, creeds, origins and ancestries. Our differences in culture, opinion and backgrounds are what make this college so special. These differences make us strong and provide us with an understanding of one another. I, like all of us, have a responsibility to effect change and promote equal justice in our communities and across our country, he said. June said his son, who is 14, had asked him several questions about the current state of events with respect to riots and protests and that he felt himself paralyzed and not sinuous in my responses. Nonetheless, this is a tough conversation that must be had and I plan to have this level of engagement with him shortly. The U.S. Constitution provides unalienable rights to all individuals. These rights cannot be ignored nor taken away. Know when I say this racism and harassment in any form are not tolerated at SLCC, he said. Nokia TV is getting another model in India as early as this month. Having been teased multiple times previously, the Nokia TV 43-inch has been confirmed to launch on June 4. Nokia joined hands with Flipkart to manufacture and sell Nokia-branded smart televisions in India late last year. It was originally launched in the 55-inch model. This also means that the upcoming model will be available to buy only from Flipkart, likely from the launch date. After the launch of the 43-inch model, Nokia Smart TV will come to be available in two sizes. Flipkart has listed the Nokia TV 43-inch model on its website, revealing the launch date and its features. While the upcoming model will borrow most features from the premium 55-inch model, it will be more affordable and take on the likes of Realme TV, Mi TV, and others. The pricing of the Nokia 43-inch model has not been revealed yet, of course, but it would cost around Rs 30,000, per previous rumours. The price of about Rs 30,000 may make it hard for Nokia to sell its 43-inch TV in front of Realme TV that is priced at Rs 21,999 for the 43-inch model. The Nokia 55-inch model is priced at Rs 41,999. Nokia's 43-inch TV will have ultra-thin bezels and Fluid Chrome Pedestal technology for producing "a perfect mix of brightness, contrast, and colour reproduction." There will be a 4K UHD panel that will support Dolby Vision and a wide colour gamut, as per the listing. It will feature JBL speakers tuned by Dolby Audio and DTS TruSurround. The upcoming Android TV will be based on Android 9 Pie and will support Google Play Store. Nokia's 43-inch TV is likely to have a Mali-450 GPU, 2.25GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage. The connectivity options will include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, HDMI ports, USB ports, SPDIF, and more. Since the upcoming TV model from Nokia will run Android TV, it will support major apps such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, ZEE5, YouTube, and others. Most of them will also come preloaded on the app, along with their dedicated launch buttons on the bundled remote control. Users will also be able to sideload apps on the TV, given they are built for large screens. A 40-year-old Greeley, Colorado, man, accused of shooting his fiancee and dumping her body in a North Platte pond, pleaded not guilty Monday to four felony charges. William H. Stanback made an appearance in Lincoln County District Court by video. He pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder along with counts of use of a firearm to commit a felony and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, all stemming from charges filed March 18 in connection with the death of Kimberly Ermi, 42, also of Greeley. He also pleaded not guilty to possession of firearm by a prohibited person when he was arrested during a traffic stop on Interstate 80 on March 17. His next court appearance is set for July 20. Ermis body was found March 3 in a retention pond near the Walmart Distribution Center. North Platte Police Chief Daniel Hudson said March 19 that Ermi died of multiple gunshots. In other court proceedings Monday (parties are all from North Platte unless noted): Tyler Corbit, 30, pleaded not guilty to being an accessory to a felony in a Jan. 4 incident. His next hearing is set for July 20. [June 02, 2020] CURRENT SHAREHOLDERS: Zamansky LLC Investigates VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW) for Potential Breaches of Fiduciary Duties Zamansky LLC announces that it is investigating VMware, Inc. (VMW) ("VMware" or the "Company") for potential breaches of fiduciary duties by VMware's senior officers and board of directors. If you are a shareholder of VMware who still holds your shares, please contact our firm for information. A series of recent revelations have come to light regarding an SEC (News - Alert) investigation regarding a backlog of unfilled orders that was allegedly not in compliance with all relevant accounting and disclosure requirements. On February 27, 2020, VMware filed an 8-K statement announcing that, "[i]n December 2019, the staff of the Enforcement Division of the [SEC] requested documents and information related to VMware's backlog and associated accounting and disclosures." The Form 8-K also advised investors that, although "VMware is fully cooperating with the SEC's investigation," it was "unable to predict the outcome of this matter at this time." According to Jake Zamansky, invstment fraud attorney, VMware's officers and directors owe the Company and its shareholders fiduciary duties. "The recent announcements regarding these very serious allegations raise potential concern for investors," Zamansky says. "Our law firm is investigating whether the officers and directors have breached their duties to VMware and its shareholders." What VMware Shareholders Can Do If you are a current shareholder of VMware who still holds your stock, please contact us to review or discuss your legal rights. You may, without obligation or cost to you, email [email protected] or call the law firm at (212) 742-1414. About Zamansky LLC Zamansky LLC is a leading investment fraud law firm with experience handling securities, hedge fund, ERISA and other shareholder class action and derivative litigation. We are investment fraud attorneys who represent both individual and institutional investors. Our practice is nationally recognized for our ability to aggressively prosecute cases and recover investment losses. To learn more about Zamansky LLC, please visit our website, http://www.zamansky.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005838/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Tokyo: A half-Indian beauty queen with an elephant trainers licence was crowned Miss Japan on Monday, striking a fresh blow for racial equality. Priyanka Yoshikawas tearful victory comes a year after Ariana Miyamoto faced an ugly backlash for becoming the first black woman to represent Japan. Social media lit up after Miyamotos trail-blazing triumph as critics complained that Miss Universe Japan should instead have been won by a pure Japanese rather than a haafu the Japanese for half, a word used to describe mixed race. Before Ariana, haafu girls couldnt represent Japan, Yoshikawa told AFP in an interview after her exotic Bollywood looks helped sweep her to the title. Thats what I thought too. I didnt doubt it or challenge it until this day. Ariana encouraged me a lot by showing me and showing all mixed girls the way. Yoshikawa, born in Tokyo to an Indian father and a Japanese mother, vowed to continue the fight against racial prejudice in homogenous Japan, where multiracial children make up just two percent of those born annually. I think it means we have to let it in, said the 22-year-old when asked what it signified for her and Miyamoto to break down cultural barriers. We are Japanese. Yes, Im half Indian and people are asking me about my purityyes, my dad is Indian and Im proud of it, Im proud that I have Indian in me. But that does not mean Im not Japanese. Yoshikawa, like Miyamoto, was bullied because of her skin colour after returning to Japan aged 10 following three years in Sacramento and a further year in India. I know a lot of people who are haafu and suffer, said Yoshikawa, an avid kick-boxer whose politician great-grandfather once welcomed independence campaigner Mahatma Gandhi for a two-week stay at their home in Kolkata. We have problems, weve been struggling and it hurts. When I came back to Japan, everyone thought I was a germ, she added. Like if they touched me they would be touching something bad. But Im thankful because that made me really strong. Yoshikawa, who speaks fluent Japanese and English and towered over her rivals at 1.76 metres (5 ft, 8 ins), will contest for the Miss World crown in Washington this December. When Im abroad, people never ask me what mix I am, said Yoshikawa, who earned her elephant trainers licence to add spice to her resume. As Miss Japan, hopefully I can help change perceptions so that it can be the same here too. The number of people with mixed race is only going to increase, so people have to accept it. Reaction to Yoshikawas victory failed initially to trigger any real outrage, although predictably some were unhappy. Whats the point of holding a pageant like this now? Zero national characteristics, grumbled one Twitter user, while another fumed: Its like were saying a pure Japanese face cant be a winner. As the Japanese government continues to push its Cool Japan brand overseas to entice foreign tourists for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Yoshikawa promised to win over any doubters. There was a time as a kid when I was confused about my identity, she admitted. But Ive lived in Japan so long now I feel Japanese. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Against the background of the shooting in the Zhytomyr region, rape in Kaharlyk, the shooting in Brovary, another scandal related to the law enforcement sphere goes almost unnoticed in Ukraine the conflict between Prosecutor General Iryna Venedyktova and head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office Nazar Kholodnytsky Against the background of the shooting in the Zhytomyr region, rape in Kaharlyk, the shooting in Brovary, another scandal related to the law enforcement sphere goes almost unnoticed in Ukraine the conflict between Prosecutor General Iryna Venedyktova and head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office Nazar Kholodnytsky. The essence of the conflict is undeniably important. But even more important here is the fact that numerous anti-corruption institutions emerge in Ukraine. They were launched but did not justify the aim of creating them. National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) By announcing a massive fight against corruption in 2014, Ukraine has embarked on the creation of appropriate structures. One of the first to emerge was the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU). Petro Poroshenko created it on April 16, 2015. On the same day, NABU was headed by Artem Sytnyk, who is the permanent director of the Bureau to this day. The creation of NABU was one of the requirements of the International Monetary Fund. What does the Bureau do? The investigation of taking bribes, if their amount exceeds 500 minimum wages, which today is over 1.5 million USD. The Agency consists of a central and seven territorial administrations, while the maximum number of NABU is 700 people. Controlled by NABU to the parliamentary anti-corruption committee. NAPK The National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) arose almost simultaneously with NABU. Actually, NAPK is a little version of NABU. The difference is that if NABU catches large fish, then NAPK sets up networks for corrupt officials of any caliber. NAPK checks the declarations of all government officials without exception. In any case, I have to do it. And officials should record in their declarations any property whose value exceeds 100 minimum wages. This list includes clothes, jewelry, and art. NAPK also checks the finances of political parties. According to the law, every year they are required to submit a report to the agency. The agency has a staff list of 311 people. Now his leadership consists of three people - the chairman and two deputies. The preliminary head of the NAZK was Natalia Korchak, later Oleksandr Novikov repaced her. The launch of the anti-corruption agency was one of the requirements of the European Union regarding a visa-free regime with Ukraine. NAPK is responsible to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and reports to the Cabinet of Ministers. SAP The Specialized anti-corruption prosecutors office (SAP) is mistakenly considered a separate authority, although it is actually a structural unit of the General Prosecutors Office of Ukraine. The SAP was created by the order of Prosecutor General of Ukraine Viktor Shokin of September 22, 2015. December 1, 2015, it was headed by Nazar Kholodnytsky. He reports directly to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, being his deputy in office. Like ordinary prosecutors, the SAP supports the state prosecution in the courts. True, this applies only to corruption cases that are conducted by NABU. The law also imposes on the SAP supervising the observance of laws when conducting investigative activities by NABU detectives. As in the case of NACP, the creation of SAP was closely linked to the prospects of visa liberalization between Ukraine and the European Union. SACC The Supreme Anti-Corruption Court is a long-term construction among other anti-corruption structures. It earned in September 2019, and this despite the fact that back in June 2016, relevant amendments to the law of Ukraine "On the judicial system and the status of judges" were adopted. In accordance with them, for the consideration of cases of a certain kind in Ukraine create the highest specialized courts - the High Anti-Corruption and the High Court on Intellectual Property. Many of the lawyers considered and still consider the VAKS an extra link in the justice system. His mission is indeed quite narrow: according to the plan, this court should consider cases that the SAP deals with. ARMA National Agency of Ukraine for the identification, search and management of assets obtained from corruption and other crimes, the abbreviated name is the Agency for the search and management of assets or ARMA. ARMA was launched in February 2016 by the will of the Cabinet of Ministers and also in the framework of obtaining a visa-free regime. It has not only narrow but very limited functionality since it mainly deals with confiscated resources SBI The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) cannot be called an anti-corruption body, but this is not a completely ordinary structure. The status of the State Security Bureau says that the State Bureau is investigating crimes committed by the "nobility", and then there is a long list of those who can be the "client" of this body, namely: former presidents and current prime ministers, the entire composition of the government along with deputy ministers, MPs, members of the CEC, the Verkhovna Radas authorized representative for human rights, heads of the NABU, NAPK, SAP, the National Bank, etc. SBI also investigates war crimes. The first attempts to create something similar were in 1997 and were practically implemented in 2016. First chairman of the SBI was Roman Truba, who subsequently, not without scandal, was dismissed from his post. Now the State Bureau does not have a leader, Oleksandr Sokolov temporarily performs his functions. MIA + SBU Do not forget that the old-timers of the law enforcement front, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), or rather, the National Police, also fight corruption in Ukraine. As for the SBU, the Service remains the oldest body of Ukraine in the fight against corruption. Branch "K", responsible for this area, was established on January 13, 1992. However, the SBU drawback is the very wide specialization of this department. In addition to corruption, Department K is involved in smuggling and the international drug business, transnational organized crime, human trafficking, and illegal migration. As for the police, it is also obliged to catch bribe-takers. But very small ones - those that are of no interest to NABU. ... and a child without an eye With such a grandiose amount of anti-corruption structures (and each of them, by the way, draws considerable funding from the budget), Ukraine should have overcome this shameful phenomenon for a long time. But no. In 2019 (compared to 2018), our state only worsened its performance. There is the so-called Corruption Perceptions Index, that is, an annual study by Transparency International. The index is a rating from 0 (very high level of corruption) to 100 (extremely low level of corruption). So, according to the rating, in 2019 Ukraine received 30 points and took 126th place among 180 countries and territories. And this result is a certain regression because in 2018 Ukraine took the 120th place with 32 points. Scandals. Sytnyk and ATVs Top 5 scandals involving leading anti-corruption officials are opened by Artem Sytnyk. From 2017 to 2019, he repeatedly "rested" in luxury hunting estate. Strana.ua outlet notes that Sytnyk stayed there at least five times and each time his wishlist contained expensive whims, including elite varieties of alcohol. And some unknown strangers paid for all this luxury. The elite relaxation of Sytnyk each time cost at least 3,500 USD. But for some reason, he forgot to indicate this moment in his declaration. More than a year ago, in March 2019, MP Boryslav Rosenblat, who himself is a defendant in the "amber business," released a recording on which a man with the voice of the director of NABU Artem Sytnyk tells how he helped US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during the 2016 elections year. But this is another story Sytnyk vs Kholodnytsky How did Sytnyk help Americans? According to Rosenblat, by publishing the black bookkeeping of the Party of Regions. Recall that the relevant documentation was found in Mezhyhirya after the ex-president Yanukovych escaped from there. The materials from which it followed that the "regionals" paid for public relations and consulting to Trump's lawyer Paul Manafort, cast a shadow on both Manafort and Trump. So, to ignite this data was beneficial to the then-rival of Trump, the candidate for the presidency of the United States from the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton. On numerous airs, Rosenblatt noted that Sytnyk clearly indicates that he works for Hillary and does everything in the interests of the Ukrainian people, but against the American people on the published record. On the record, a man with the voice of Sytnyk really says: "I helped Hillary." Kholodnytsky vs Venedyktova As already mentioned at the beginning of the article, the scandal between Kholodnytsky and Venedyktova is completely new. As recently as May 26, Prosecutor General Iryna Venedyktova announced that the SAP, in her opinion, was working very carelessly. Venedyktova noted that the investigators of the SAP did not finish a number of resonant processes, for which the perpetrators were not punished, and multimillion-dollar losses were not reimbursed to the state. Venedyktova voiced all her claims in the video for a few minutes, concluding that the work of the SAP could not be recognized as worthy, but rather, shameful. Kholodnytsky was outraged by such estimates. And to put forward counterarguments, they used the Facebook network. On the night of May 26-27, an open letter appeared on the SAP page stating that the Attorney General did not have the right to give them instructions. This is the first. And secondly, the SAP categorically disagrees with Venedyktovas words about the lack of work results and inaction. For every case that is in the department, the people of Kholodnytsky are ready to give a complete and comprehensive report. Truba and records The SBI, as a new institution, caused a lot of complaints even at the time of its creation in 2016. It was headed by Roman Truba, who was considered completely dependent on President Poroshenko, and he really had been devoted to the latter for a long three years - until the end of the cadence of the fifth president. Because after that, Truba changed its "orientation". SIB began to start criminal proceedings against Poroshenko, and now there is almost a dozen of them. Roman Truba considered his number one task bringing of Poroshenkos criminal intent. But he did not manage to finish his intention. Because his first big scandal occurred precisely because he actively persuaded the Zelenskys team in his personal devotion. Trubas conversations were recorded and made public. After this, Roman Truba was dismissed; his department was temporarily held by Venedyktova. According to our sources, the idea of eliminating SAP and NABU has long been hatched at Bankova. Frankly speaking, there are few benefits of both structures. Actually, Venedyktovas latest public statements indicate that the prosecutor general of his subordinate Kholodnytsky has already blamed for dismissal. And the structure he heads is for liquidation. Given the proximity of Venedyktova to the president, this issue can be considered resolved. Or almost resolved. The same applies to NABU, where Artem Sytnyk is unsuitable for our power no less than Nazar Kholodnytsky. And not even because of his interference in Ukrainian-American relations and playing along with the democrats. As you know, the current head of state headed for the support of incumbent Republican President Donald Trump, so the fact of how Sytnyk "helped Hillary" is rather sad for Presidents Office. However, the pro-government faction will need parliamentary votes to introduce appropriate amendments to the legislation for the final elimination of the SAP and the NABU. Will the Servant of the People find enough votes to support this decision? A crew works on a cell tower to update it to handle the new 5G network in Orem, Utah, on Dec. 10, 2019. (George Frey/AFP via Getty Images) The Dangerous Naivety of Narratives We Tell Ourselves Commentary As the superficial facade of well-wishing between the Peoples Republic of China and the United States continues to slip, the brutal antithesis between the totalitarian and republican regimes is becoming clearer. Fervently do we pray to avoid the scourge of actual hot war with China, but we must now face some difficult truths about whatever confrontation lies inevitably before us. It should be considered an act of providence or else extreme luck that during World War II the Allies were able to dominate the Axis powers before the latter were able to develop nuclear weapons. Think how easily things could have gone so differently. We might not be so fortunate the next time. While the U.S. military is concerned about such things as gender discrimination in height requirements for pilots of fighter jets, the Chinese are implementing technology that could potentially neutralize any strategic advantage we currently have. We know the Chinese are currently putting 5G technology to use in their military, and, if reports are to be believed, theyre also already developing 6G technology. Much of their technology was stolen or else easily purchased from the United States and other Western nations. Clearly, we havent taken seriously the military threat posed by China, and weve grossly overestimated our own prestige. Why would we let this happen? One explanation is that we have easily been lulled into accepting complacent narratives. For example, it can be easy now to think that the history of the two world wars is a simple story of good versus evil and that it was inevitable that the good guysthose who favor democratic governmentwould win. This is naivety of the highest order. Yet, our liberal elitesleft and righthave demonstrated a similar naivety by allowing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to gain a foothold in nearly every American institution we depend on for the maintenance of our regime: the academy, industry, news media, and the primary purveyors of culture (viz., sports, music, and cinema). The globalist project has now been revealed for the fixed game it is, one that mostly benefits corporate oligarchs and the CCP. This arrangement has placed the United States in a dangerously weak position, inviting a challenge from China. Its now imperative that the United States leveragenot prostitutethe unique advantages of our free society to maintain independent and overwhelming technological and military dominance as a strategic deterrence against war with the Peoples Republic of China. The integrity of our institutions isnt for sale. Arkansas Sen. Tom Cottons FORCE Act, the aim of which is to thwart Chinese military aspirations in [the] Indo-Pacific, is a good start. But it calls for spending lots of money, and were already running dangerous deficits. The best way to shore up the natural advantages of our free society is to reopen the economy as quickly as possible and to remove all artificial handicaps (i.e., unnecessary regulatory red-tape) to innovation. During the virus pandemic, we have been put in a critically weak position, and though the virus has crippled China, too, we must consider it a matter of national defense to get our economy back up and running soon. As we rebuild our economy, though, we have to reevaluate the narrative and policies weve been operating under for the last few decades. During the Nixon administration, we found it advantageousvis-a-vis the threat of the Soviet Unionto have relations with communist China and to trade with them in good faith. In response, China has abused our trust everywhere weve let them. The narrative that the CCP will become more friendly and democratic if we just share with them the fruits of free society is dangerous naivety. Even more dangerous and more naive, though, is the narrative that the United States will always win great wars simply because we are the good guys and thus deserve to win, for it has led us to think we can afford to be careless in our relations with China. In his masterful Meditations, the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius suggested that when you call someone untrustworthy or ungrateful, turn the reproach on yourself. It was you who did wrong. By assuming that someone with those traits deserved your trust. Thus, we have only ourselves to blame for expecting a totalitarian regime to act in good faith and for forgetting the old Roman proverb, Si vis pacem, para bellumif you want peace, prepare for war. Clifford Humphrey is originally from Warm Springs, Ga. He holds a Ph.D. in politics from Hillsdale College in Michigan. Follow him on Twitter @cphumphrey. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. By Garrett Andrews A former Deschutes County prosecutor plans to sue the district attorneys office for race and sex discrimination for enabling a toxic workplace culture. Jasmyn Troncoso worked there as a deputy district attorney for 10 months, resigning May 15. Last Thursday, she filed an amended tort claim notice with the countys legal department through a Portland-based attorney. Troncoso is Mexican American, and during her employment, she was the offices only nonwhite prosecutor. Ms. Troncoso was a victim of both sex and race discrimination throughout her employment with the county and on a continuing and ongoing basis, the tort claim notice reads. On Friday, Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel issued a statement in response, writing that his office had retained an investigator to look into Troncosos allegations. I was shocked when these allegations were brought to my attention because I have known my colleagues to be dedicated, ethical and open people, Hummel wrote. Ive never see(n) the type of conduct alleged by Ms. Troncoso, and would be surprised, disappointed and angry if it turns out to be true. Regardless, the facts will be determined and the response will be proportional to the facts. In Oregon, before a person can sue a government agency, they must file a tort claim notice to give the agency time to resolve the matter before litigation. There is no other workplace-related litigation against the Deschutes DAs office, according to the DAs office. Troncoso was hired in July and assigned to work in the person crimes division. She claims harassment included false rumors she slept with married coworkers and a male defense attorney. She was told by other staff that Hummel only hired her because she was attractive and he wanted to sleep with her, she states in the tort claim notice. She was called dumb, ditzy, inexperienced and a drama queen, she claims. Coworkers allegedly said she was anorexic for her petite frame. Slight male coworkers were not subject to such comments, the tort notice reads. Troncoso writes that she brought concerns about her treatment separately to three of her superiors. While they appeared sympathetic, they failed to take reasonable steps to stop the conduct, thereby causing the harassment to continue to spiral, according to the tort claim notice. At one point when the offices trial assistants were learning a Spanish sentence to say to Spanish-speaking callers, Troncoso allegedly heard a staff member lash out and say, This is America, speak f-----g English. For a Mexican-American professional, the comment, This is America, speak f-----g English is not a far cry from using the N word to reference an African-American employee, the tort notice reads. Years before she was a prosecutor, Troncoso dropped out of high school and struggled with grades and the law, according to a Bulletin column written on the occasion of her swearing-in at the Deschutes DAs office. She moved to Bend in 2006 to attend the military-style Oregon Youth Challenge Program, a live-in alternative high school associated with the National Guard. There, she thrived among the rules and discipline. Troncoso later attended Loyola Law School then worked for 18 months in the San Bernardino County District Attorneys Office, before returning to Bend to work for the Deschutes DAs office. Speaking by phone, Troncoso said shes moving back to San Bernardino, where she was welcomed back by her former employer. She said Hummel shouldnt be shocked at her allegations, as he wrote in his statement. Theyve known about this for months, she said. This shouldnt be a surprise. To this, Hummel said, Im not going tit-for-tat. The allegations that were made are extremely serious. If theyre true, thats reprehensible and well deal with it appropriately. This article was originally published by The Bulletin, one of more than a dozen news organizations throughout the state sharing their coverage of the novel coronavirus outbreak to help inform Oregonians about this evolving health issue. The latest generation of tetracyclines - a class of powerful, first-line antibiotics - was designed to thwart the two most common ways bacteria resist such drugs. But a new study from researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has found that genes representing yet another method of resistance are widespread in bacteria that live in the soil and on people. Some of these genes confer the power to destroy all tetracyclines, including the latest generation of these antibiotics. However, the researchers have created a chemical compound that shields tetracyclines from destruction. When the chemical compound was given in combination with tetracyclines as part of the new study, the antibiotics' lethal effects were restored. The findings, available online in Communications Biology, indicate an emerging threat to one of the most widely used classes of antibiotics -- but also a promising way to protect against that threat. "We first found tetracycline-destroying genes five years ago in harmless environmental bacteria, and we said at the time that there was a risk the genes could get into bacteria that cause disease, leading to infections that would be very difficult to treat," said co-senior author Gautam Dantas, PhD, a professor of pathology and immunology and of molecular microbiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "Once we started looking for these genes in clinical samples, we found them immediately. The fact that we were able to find them so rapidly tells me that these genes are more widespread than we thought. It's no longer a theoretical risk that this will be a problem in the clinic. It's already a problem." In 2015, Dantas, also a professor of biomedical engineering, and Timothy Wencewicz, PhD, an associate professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, discovered 10 different genes that each gave bacteria the ability to dice up the toxic part of the tetracycline molecule, thereby inactivating the drug. These genes code for proteins the researchers dubbed tetracycline destructases. But they didn't know how widespread such genes were. To find out, Dantas and first author Andrew Gasparrini, PhD - then a graduate student in Dantas' lab - screened 53 soil, 176 human stool, two animal feces, and 13 latrine samples for genes similar to the 10 they'd already found. The survey yielded 69 additional possible tetracycline-destructase genes. Then they cloned some of the genes into E. coli bacteria that had no resistance to tetracyclines and tested whether the genetically modified bacteria survived exposure to the drugs. E. coli that had received supposed destructase genes from soil bacteria inactivated some of the tetracyclines. E. coli that had received genes from bacteria associated with people destroyed all 11 tetracyclines. "The scary thing is that one of the tetracycline destructases we found in human-associated bacteria - Tet(X7) - may have evolved from an ancestral destructase in soil bacteria, but it has a broader range and enhanced efficiency," said Wencewicz, who is a co-senior author on the new study. "Usually there's a trade-off between how broad an enzyme is and how efficient it is. But Tet(X7) manages to be broad and efficient, and that's a potentially deadly combination." In the first screen, the researchers had found tetracycline-destructase genes only in bacteria not known to cause disease in people. To find out whether disease-causing species also carried such genes, the scientists scanned the genetic sequences of clinical samples Dantas had collected over the years. They found Tet(X7) in a bacterium that had caused a lung infection and sent a man to intensive care in Pakistan in 2016. Tetracyclines have been around since the 1940s. They are one of the most widely used classes of antibiotics, used for diseases ranging from pneumonia, to skin or urinary tract infections, to stomach ulcers, as well as in agriculture and aquaculture. In recent decades, mounting antibiotic resistance has driven pharmaceutical companies to spend hundreds of millions of dollars developing a new generation of tetracyclines that is impervious to the two most common resistance strategies: expelling drugs from the bacterial cell before they can do harm, and fortifying vulnerable parts of the bacterial cell. The emergence of a third method of antibiotic resistance in disease-causing bacteria could be disastrous for public health. To better understand how Tet(X7) works, co-senior author Niraj Tolia, PhD, a senior investigator at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the NIH, and co-author Hirdesh Kumar, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in Tolia's lab, solved the structure of the protein. "I established that Tet(X7) is very similar to known structures but way more active, and we don't really know why because the part that interacts with the tetracycline rings is the same," Kumar said. "I'm now taking a molecular dynamics approach so we can see the protein in action. If we can understand why it is so efficient, we can design even better inhibitors." Wencewicz and colleagues previously designed a chemical compound that preserves the potency of tetracyclines by preventing destructases from chewing up the antibiotics. In the most recent study, co-author Jana L. Markley, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in Wencewicz's lab, evaluated that inhibitor against the bacterium from the patient in Pakistan and its powerful Tet(X7) destructase. Adding the compound made the bacteria two to four times more sensitive to all three of the latest generation of tetracyclines. "Our team has a motto extending the wise words of Benjamin Franklin: 'In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death, taxes and antibiotic resistance,'" Wencewicz said. "Antibiotic resistance is going to happen. We need to get ahead of it and design inhibitors now to protect our antibiotics, because if we wait until it becomes a crisis, it's too late." ### I have reservations about it because I worry about, one, a lot of exposure with COVID-19 from many people being out and participating in protests, Hadden said. I also worry about a lot of businesses who have been either completely destroyed or severely impacted through the protests over the last several days, particularly in majority black and brown communities who have so many things on their plate, Im not sure theyre going to be able to reopen." During the telephonic conversation, Trump invited Modi to attend the next G-7 summit to be held in the United States. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump on Tuesday discussed various issues, including the situation on the India-China border, the COVID-19 pandemic and need for reforms in the WHO, an official statement said. During the telephonic conversation, Trump invited Modi to attend the next G-7 summit to be held in the United States. Modi expressed concern over the "ongoing civil disturbances in the US", and conveyed his best wishes for an early resolution of the situation, the statement said. "The two leaders also exchanged views on other topical issues, such as the COVID-19 situation in the two countries, the situation on the India-China border, and the need for reforms in the World Health Organisation," the statement said. Trump spoke about the US Presidency of the Group of Seven, and conveyed his desire to expand the ambit of the grouping beyond the existing membership, to include other important countries including India. "In this context, he extended an invitation to Prime Minister Modi to attend the next G-7 Summit to be held in USA," the statement said. Modi commended Trump for his "creative and far-sighted approach", acknowledging the fact that such an expanded forum would be in keeping with the emerging realities of the post-COVID world. Modi said that India would be happy to work with the US and other countries to ensure the success of the proposed summit. Trump warmly recalled his visit to India in February. Modi said that the visit had been memorable and historic on many accounts, and had also added new dynamism to the bilateral relationship. The exceptional warmth and candour of the conversation reflected the special nature of the Indo-US ties, as well as the friendship and mutual esteem between both leaders, the statement said. Tweeting about their conversation, Modi said, "Had a warm and productive conversation with my friend President @realDonaldTrump. We discussed his plans for the US Presidency of G-7, the COVID-19 pandemic, and many other issues." The richness and depth of India-US consultations will remain an important pillar of the post-COVID global architecture, the prime minister said. The conversation between the two leaders came against the backdrop of Trump maintaining that he spoke with Modi who was not in a "good mood" over the China border issue. Sources in the government here had denied any "recent contact" between the two leaders. Trump had also offered to mediate between India and China. The last conversation between them was on 4 April 2020 on Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 1 By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend: Ventures of Switzerlands EuroChem Group AG operating in Kazakhstans Zhanatas city of Zhambyl region increased ore production by 48.7 percent in 1Q2020, a representative of Kazakh-based subsidiary - EuroChem Karatau told Trend. The official said that phosphorite flour increased by 0.4 percent during the reporting period of 2020. Thus, EuroChem Karatau produced 149,905 tons of phosphorite flour in 1Q2020, which is 0.4 percent more than in 1Q2019 (149,292 tons in 1Q2019). At the same time, ore extraction in Kazakhstan amounted to 110,550 tons in 1Q2019 compared to 164,400 tons in 1Q2020. EuroChem Group AG is currently implementing a project for the launch of chemical complex for the production of high-quality fertilizers and related industrial products in Kazakhstan and development of deposits in the Karatau phosphorite basin in Kazakhstan. The resource base for the future complex will be the Karatau phosphorite basin deposits. The technological feature of the chemical complex will allow the production of high-purity, concentrated phosphoric agrochemical products with high environmental performance indicators. The complexes capacity will be 120,000 tons of calcium chloride and no less than 400,000 tons of gypsum dihydrate a year. The EuroChem Group AG has already successfully implemented the first stage of the project, which oversees exploration and launch of deposits development, as well as the commissioning of a mining complex with a phosmuk production capacity of 640,000 tons per year. Total value of investments into the project are assessed to be $1 billion. The projects implementation will give an impetus to the development of the agro-industrial complex, construction industry, oil and gas production, trade and SMEs, and will also contribute to improving food security, increasing import substitution and the country's export potential. EuroChem Group AG is one of the worlds leading mineral fertilizer producers, delivering the full range of nutrients and driven by the worlds increasing need for food. --- Follow the author on twitter: @nargiz_sadikh Widely heralded as one of the most influential faith films of our time, THE CROSS AND THE SWITCHBLADE has inspired a generation of filmmakers and helped launch a burgeoning new genre of film. Starring Pat Boone and Erik Estrada, and directed by acclaimed actor and filmmaker Don Murray, THE CROSS AND THE SWITCHBLADE was one of the first modern movies to bring a true story of faith to the big screen. Now, 50 years after its theatrical release, Revelation Media is releasing a digitally remastered version of the film for a new generation of audiences. THE CROSS AND THE SWITCHBLADE is available to screen exclusively at watchthecross.com, then releasing on DVD on July 7. Since the site went live, over 36,000 people have already experienced this incredible true story of faith, restoration, and unconditional love. "THE CROSS AND THE SWITCHBLADE is one of the great true stories of faith," shares Steve Cleary, Founder of Revelation Media. "Even 5 decades after it's release, this story of a pastor's faith and conviction to share Christ with a hurting community continues to change lives. We are honored to be able to share this powerful story with a new audience." Originally released in the summer of 1970, THE CROSS AND THE SWITCHBLADE is based on Pastor David Wilkerson's 1963 autobiography of the same name. Wilkerson (Boone), a self-described "skinny country preacher" who moved to the tough crime-ridden streets of New York City as a missionary in 1958. Wilkerson lived in the community rattled by gang violence, including the notorious Mau Maus, led by Nicky Cruz (Estrada). Wilkerson's determination and care impacted the lives of many of the young men immersed in gang culture. Nikki Cruz was fully transformed by the Gospel and later went on to lead a decades-long outreach to at-risk young people. Revelation Media is releasing the film on the heels of an incredible promotion for their CGI-animated film THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS. After it's release in US theaters, it became an instant classic and has been celebrated by audiences around the world, finding sell-out crowds in Australia, South Africa, the UK, and South Korea. Funds raised in these screenings allowed the film to be given free of charge to missionaries serving in regions where the Bible is not readily accessible. Now, since mid-March, THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS has been available for homebound families to screen free of charge in 12 languages. Already, over 437,000 families have registered to watch the free stream of the film. To view THE CROSS AND THE SWITCHBLADE, please go to watchthecross.com. The 50th Anniversary Edition of the film will also be available on DVD beginning July 7, 2020, through Vision Video. The DVD will also be available translated in Spanish, Arabic, Putonghua/Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, Cantonese, and Hindi. Tags : The Cross and the Switchblade The Cross and the Switchblade film The Cross and the Switchblade movie The Cross and the Switchblade 5oth anniversary The Cross and the Switchblade dvd release pat boone Erik Estrada don murray Checkout No resources available in your cart Ontario is temporarily amending its labour laws to help businesses avoid permanently laying off workers and paying out severance, putting non-unionized workers who were temporarily laid off or had hours reduced due to COVID-19 placed on an infectious disease emergency leave. Business advocacy groups are applauding the amendment, saying it could save many businesses from bankruptcy as a result of having to pay severance. The Ontario Chamber of Commerce, Canadian Federation of Independent Business and Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters have all been advocating for the measure. But employment lawyers say the amendment could create confusion for workers and may make businesses vulnerable to lawsuits. Advocates for workers add that employees should not be denied access to their severance pay and that the move indicates that insufficient aid has been provided to employers. The Employment Standards Act requires businesses to officially terminate and pay severance to employees who have been laid off for 13 weeks, or up to 35 in certain cases. Under the amendment, workers will stay on temporary leave, preserving their job while remaining eligible for federal emergency income support programs. This means, for example, that a worker who was laid off March 16, who would have been entitled to severance pay if not brought back to work by the 13-week mark, is now on leave without severance until the amendment ends. The amendment to the act applies retroactively to March 1, 2020, and will expire six weeks after the provinces declared state of emergency ends. When the six-week period ends, employees who have still not been brought back are then considered on a temporary layoff for up to 13 weeks, or 35 if the layoff is extended, according to Toronto employment lawyer Jon Pinkus. The clock restarts, Pinkus said. Premier Doug Ford announced Monday that he is pushing to extend Ontarios state of emergency until June 30. In a statement, Ontarios minister of labour, Monte McNaughton, said the government has heard loud and clear from employers that they dont want to be forced to terminate their employees. As we take the necessary steps to safely and gradually restart the economy, we need to make sure business owners can reopen their doors and workers have jobs to go back to, McNaughton said in a statement. The NDPs employment standards critic, Peggy Sattler, said in a statement Monday that the Ford government is still not properly supporting employers or employees, and that changes to the Employment Standards Act need to be made with workers in mind. Employees should never be denied access to their severance pay and other basic benefits they earned, she said, adding the Ford government has not come forward with the support employers need to keep going. He hasnt provided small businesses the financial support they need to keep their staff on the payroll. According to Statistics Canada, Ontario lost 689,200 jobs in April; the provinces unemployment rate climbed to 11.3 per cent, the highest since 1993. An estimated 2.2 million people in the province have been affected by the shutdown; 1.1 million have lost their jobs, and another 1.1 million have had their hours significantly reduced. Julie Kwiecinski, director of Ontario provincial affairs for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said her organization has been advocating for temporary layoffs to be extended since March. Kwiecinski said the approaching 13-week deadline has been weighing heavily on employers, many of whom are just starting to reopen and dont have the cash to pay severance. She said she sees the amendment as a win-win, since employees will continue to have jobs to look forward to while they claim income support. This is great news to small businesses, she said. However, Toronto employment lawyer Andrew Monkhouse said he thinks the amendment is less straightforward than it could be for example, in early April Alberta extended its temporary layoff period to 120 days from 60 days. But Ontario is going about the extension differently, turning temporary layoffs to leaves of absence. It could well result in an opposite effect to what was intended, he said. Originally, workers could be temporarily laid off as long as such a provision was in their contract, or they agreed to it, Monkhouse explained. Otherwise, the layoff would be considered a constructive dismissal and would result in severance pay or a lawsuit. However, employers could extend this leave to 35 weeks under certain conditions, such as if they continued providing benefits to the employee. Pinkus said while the new amendment prevents employees from pursuing a constructive dismissal claim under the Employment Standards Act, it seems they can still file claims under common law. Pinkus said businesses may not be as protected financially as the government intends, since they are still vulnerable to these lawsuits. Monkhouse agreed: I think we will see more people starting up constructive dismissal claims under the common law. Kwiecinski said she was pleased to see the government address constructive dismissal claims in the amendment, and while claims can still be made through civil court, she said its a more costly option she doesnt think many will consider. Yes, the civil courts still remain an option, but having only one option versus two is a lot better, she said. Pinkus said the amendment appears rushed and not thought through, and he believes it will hurt employees in the short term and businesses in the medium and long term. Richard Charney, global head of employment and labour at Norton Rose Fulbright, said he thinks the amendment isnt clear on whether it prevents constructive dismissal suits in civil court. On one hand, the amendment does not specifically say it only applies to claims under the Employment Standards Act. On the other hand, the power to amend is for the purposes of the act, he said. Charney said he doesnt anticipate many of these lawsuits at least not while employees can still access government income support. The pressure for employers to argue temporary layoffs will become more acute should government subsidies be withdrawn, he said. One benefit of Ontarios amendment versus Albertas approach is that its not a one-time extension, but rather is tied to the state of emergency, which could be extended, he said. (The amendment will) die a natural death when the public emergency dies a natural death, he said. With files from The Canadian Press and Rob Ferguson Read more about: MANILA, Philippines The Senate has approved on third and final reading a bill seeking to grant President Rodrigo Duterte flexibility to schedule the opening of classes in schools during a state of emergency. Voting 23-0, senators on Monday unanimously passed Senate Bill 1541, which proposes to amend Section 3 of the Republic Act 7797, a law which sets the opening of school-year as early as the first Monday of June but not later than the last day of August. The measure covers all basic education schools, including foreign or international schools in the country. Once enacted into law, the bill would authorize the President, upon the recommendation of the Secretary of the Department of Education, to set the opening of classes nationwide or in selected areas at any date during a state of emergency or calamity. A similar measure has been approved in the committee level in the House of Representatives on Saturday. The approval of the proposed measure comes amid the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic which has affected millions of people worldwide. RRD (with details from Correspondent Harlene Delgado) The post Senate OKs bill giving Duterte power to delay class opening during public crisis appeared first on UNTV News. EasyJet aircraft are parked at the Berlin-Brandenburg Willy-Brandt Airport. (Michael Kappeler/Picture alliance via Getty) EasyJet (EZJ.L) will resume operating 75% of its routes by August, the airline said on Tuesday. The budget airline confirmed plans to resume flying on half of its 1,022 routes by the end of July. 75% of routes will be back up and running by the following month. Flights will resume from all its main airports through the summer holiday season. Flights be less frequent than normal, meaning the airline will operate only around 30% of its normal capacity between July and September. EasyJets entire fleet has been grounded since March as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The carrier is due to resume a small number of flights from 15 June. Flights will feature new enhanced safety measures intended to lower the risk of catching the novel coronavirus. These include more frequent cleaning, no food served on flights, and the requirement for all passengers and crew to wear face masks for the duration of journeys. EasyJet will initially focus on domestic flights but chief executive Johan Lundgren said last month the company would closely monitor the situation across Europe so that when more restrictions are lifted the schedule [we] will continue to build over time. Shares in EasyJet were trading 3.5% higher on Tuesday morning, amid a wider rally for travel stocks. The UK Foreign Office is still advising citizens against all but non-essential travel outside of the UK. A number of European countries including Spain and Greece have also said they will not allow visitors from the UK until COVID-19 data here improves. The UK recorded 111 new deaths and 1,570 lab-confirmed new cases of COVID-19 on Monday. An additional 445 new deaths linked to COVID-19 were also added to historic data. Last week EasyJet announced plans to cut up to 4,500 jobs, saying it would likely take three years for the international travel market to recover from the pandemic. By Justin Askins Askins teaches in the English Department at Radford University. After serving in the United States army, my father began his post-war career sweeping streets in Manhattan. Without a high school diploma and the product of the Great Depression, he understood that a permanent job would allow him and my mother to raise a family and eventually fulfill the American Dream of buying a house. However, even with his limited education he rose to become the second in charge of the New York City Department of Sanitation. At that point he had a chauffeur and his daily job was to inspect the incinerators and dumps in each borough. His most important duty occurred during the snowstorms that seemed so immense during my childhood where he oversaw the cleanup efforts and often worked tirelessly until the city was once again moving. I was rather proud of him. He once took me to the largest dump in the world, Fresh Kills in Staten Island (where I grew up), and had one of the bulldozer operators let me sit with him on the largest Caterpillar machine, a D-9 bulldozer, and steer it for a few minutes (you used the treads to turn), a feeling of remarkable power. I remember while I was starting my doctoral work in English in 1980, my father said to me quite seriously that he had hoped I might one day become the Sanitation Commissioner, a position denied him mainly because it was a political appointment. I simply laughed at him. Forty years later I am finishing up my career as a Professor at Radford University. For the past four years I had struggled with many health problems and at one point I was unable to walk 100 yards without resting on my hiking stick. Switch to today and my health problems are under control and I take daily walks in Jefferson National forest and usually an evening stroll on the abandoned Virginia Tech campus. I ride my bike and do some weights every day. It was on a drive one cloudy winter day to Big Stony Creek that the amount of garbage by the side of the road simply appalled me. There was no view of the mountains and no green to buffer the amount of litter. I decided then that I would try to do something about it. For years I have been a one-man patrol on several locations in Jefferson. I collect all the garbage I see and keep an eye on over 3 miles of dirt roads. I dont like picking up this junk but I do like throwing my bag of litter into a garbage can. Now my plan was to set up a website called The 500 Club, which would simply list the names of any people who picked up 500 pieces of litter, with an R next to the names of those who did it more than once. I contacted Josh Nease at RU, and recently he finished the website and the startup has begun. I dont expect significant results (my many years as an environmentalist showed me that despite much effort often the results are meager) but I hope a few people will try to help and even one less piece of litter is a blessing. I think my father would be pleased. I have come full circle I am now a garbage man. CAMBRIDGE Shawn Ridout was getting a haircut from his wife in the backyard when he saw the smoke and flames coming from two doors down. I said, Holy shit, thats my neighbours backyard. And the 38-year-old Glen Road resident leaped into action. Ridout went to the house next door, turned on the hose and started shooting water on the fire at 177 Moscrip Rd. We tried to at least douse some water on it to try and contain it a bit because I didnt want it to spread any further this way. I have family at home and I want to make sure theyre safe 100 per cent, same with my neighbour. I was just trying to do the right thing. Ridout, however, said he had to bow out of battling the blaze rather quickly. It was mad hot. I was right there with the house and there was (stuff) shooting at me. Then it was like, this is not my pay grade. Im not a fireman. Ive done restorations my whole life, so I knew exactly whats going on. Cambridge Fire Department Platoon Chief Mike Pauze said the fire started at about 3:30 p.m. and when crews arrived, they believed two houses were on fire due to the amount of smoke. Flames were also visible through the back roof of the home, Pauze said. Initially, he said, the start of the fire doesnt appear to be suspicious, but fire officials were still trying to determine the cause. What they do know, Pauze said, was the fire began in the shed, spread to the eaves of the house, blew through a window and travelled up the roof to the attic. In total, 24 firefighters responded to the blaze. Firefighters were seen dragging carpets full of insulation out of the house after the fire was extinguished. Pauze said six teenagers and one woman, their mother, lived in the home, but only the woman and three children were home at the time of the fire. The four were already out of the home when firefighters arrived, and no injuries were reported. The initial cost of fire damage was estimated at $500,000. Pauze said the Red Cross was going to help the displaced family. The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington sharply criticized President Donald Trump for staging a visit to the historic St. John's Church across from the White House, where he held up a Bible after authorities had cleared the area of peaceful protesters. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 2/6/2020 (597 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. President Donald Trump holds a Bible as he visits outside St. John's Church across Lafayette Park from the White House Monday, June 1, 2020, in Washington. Part of the church was set on fire during protests on Sunday night. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington sharply criticized President Donald Trump for staging a visit to the historic St. John's Church across from the White House, where he held up a Bible after authorities had cleared the area of peaceful protesters. The Rev. Mariann Budde, whose diocese St. John's belongs to, said she was "outraged" by Trump's visit and noted that he didnt pray while stopping by the church, a landmark known for its regular visits from sitting presidents since the early 19th century. "He took the symbols sacred to our tradition and stood in front of a house of prayer in full expectation that would be a celebratory moment," Budde said in an interview Monday after her statement on Trump's visit was posted to the diocese's Twitter account. "There was nothing I could do but speak out against that," she added, calling for a focus on "the deeper wounds of the country" amid ongoing demonstrations against racial injustice. Trump's visit "did not serve the spiritual aspirations or the needed moral leadership that we need," she told NBC's "Today" on Tuesday. "It did not address the grievous wounds that were are dealing with and the agony of our country." She said the church was off-guard by the visit. As protests nationwide flared following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, St. John's suffered minor damage Sunday night from a fire in the church basement. Budde said "our suffering was minimal" compared with businesses that were destroyed by recent looting, even as she defended the goals of peaceful protesters responding to Floyd's killing. "We can rebuild the church. We can replace the furnishings of a nursery," she said, referring to the damaged area. "We cant bring a mans life back." Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, issued his own statement saying that Trump had "used a church building and the Holy Bible for partisan political purposes." "This was done in a time of deep hurt and pain in our country, and his action did nothing to help us or to heal us," added Curry, the first African American to hold that leadership post for U.S. Episcopalians. Budde took her position at the church in Washington in 2011 after spending 18 years in Minneapolis. "I want to build up the liberal church again so we can be a legitimate conversation partner in the public arena," she told The Washington Post at the time. The bishop, who last year joined other Washington National Cathedral leaders in a statement that excoriated Trump's "racialized rhetoric," firmly aligned her faith with the goals of peaceful protesters driven by Floyd's death to decry systemic racism. "In no way do we support the Presidents incendiary response to a wounded, grieving nation," Budde said in her statement. "In faithfulness to our Savior who lived a life of non-violence and sacrificial love, we align ourselves with those seeking justice for the death of George Floyd." (Bloomberg) -- Twitter Inc. says that Representative Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, violated the companys policy around glorifying violence in a tweet posted Monday. In the tweet, Gaetz called the far-left, anti-fascist protesters known as Antifa terrorists. He then asked, can we hunt them down like we do those in the Middle East? Twitter hid the tweet behind a message saying it violated company rules, meaning that users need to click in order to view it, but the company didnt remove the tweet from the service. Twitter does not remove tweets from well-known politicians who violate its rules, citing a public interest in seeing what elected officials say. President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday morning that he was going to designate Antifa as a terrorist organization. A Twitter spokesperson confirmed Gaetzs tweet is in violation of our glorification of violence policy. Its the second time in a week that Twitter has hidden a tweet from a well-known politician. Late last week, Twitter hid a tweet from Trump, who posted that when the looting starts, the shooting starts -- a reference to protests in Minneapolis that have since spread across the country. Twitter has drawn ire from conservative politicians who believe that the companys rules go too far and that a decision earlier in the week to fact-check comments Trump made about mail-in ballots interfered with the Presidents free speech. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. (CNN) Some Facebook employees staged a virtual walkout on Monday to protest CEO Mark Zuckerberg's decision not to take action on a series of controversial posts from President Donald Trump last week, a person familiar with the plans told CNN Business. As part of the walkout, employees took the day off work. Managers at Facebook have been told by the company's human resources department not to retaliate against staff who are planning to protest, or to make them used paid time-off, the source told CNN. The New York Times first reported the protest. The walkout comes alongside a rare wave of public dissent from Facebook employees on Twitter. Jason Stirman, a design manager at Facebook, said he disagreed with Zuckerberg's decision to do "nothing" about Trump's recent posts. "I'm not alone inside of FB. There isn't a neutral position on racism," he wrote in a tweet on Saturday. "Giving a platform to incite violence and spread disinformation is unacceptable, regardless who you are or if it's newsworthy," Andrew Crow, head of design for Facebook's Portal devices, tweeted over the weekend. "I disagree with Mark's position and will work to make change happen." A Facebook spokesperson told CNN Business: "We recognize the pain many of our people are feeling right now, especially our Black community. We encourage employees to speak openly when they disagree with leadership. As we face additional difficult decisions around content ahead, we'll continue seeking their honest feedback." The public pushback from employees comes after growing scrutiny of Facebook's inaction. Last week, Twitter for the first time affixed a fact-check label to multiple Trump tweets about mail-in ballots and days later put a warning label on a tweet from Trump about the protest, in which he warned: "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." While identical posts appeared on Facebook, the company chose to do nothing. "I've been struggling with how to respond to the President's tweets and posts all day. Personally, I have a visceral negative reaction to this kind of divisive and inflammatory rhetoric," Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post on Friday. "But I'm responsible for reacting not just in my personal capacity but as the leader of an institution committed to free expression." Trump and Zuckerberg spoke on the phone Friday, a source familiar with the call previously told CNN. While only a small number of Facebook employees are currently speaking out compared to Facebook's overall workforce of about 48,000, it nonetheless highlights Facebook's difficult tightrope walk. Taking action on Trump's posts risks angering the White House and conservatives, who have long complained of alleged bias on the platform, but doing nothing could alienate some of Facebook's top talent. Last week's Executive Order concerning social media claimed platforms are engaged in political bias, even as many conservative voices and publishers flourish there. But workers walking out over how the company handles Trump's posts certainly won't help Facebook defend itself against the perception its staff leans liberal. The criticisms from employees only grew as protests over the death of George Floyd spread to dozens of cities around the country. Katie Zhu, an Instagram employee, tweeted that she was taking Monday off and that she's "deeply disappointed" and "ashamed" with "how the company is showing up." Zhu encouraged others who work for Facebook's apps to join her and "organize," while also sharing a screenshot of her paid time off status including the description #BlackLivesMatter. "I work at Facebook and I am not proud of how we're showing up. The majority of coworkers I've spoken to feel the same way. We are making our voice heard," Jason Toff, Facebook director of product management, wrote on Twitter on Monday. In addition to speaking out publicly, some employees also took the symbolic step of changing their profile pictures to a modified version of the iconic Facebook thumbs-up Like icon, designed instead to be a fist of solidarity. In a post on his personal Facebook page Sunday, Zuckerberg said he knows "Facebook needs to do more to support equality and safety for the Black community through our platforms." He also said Facebook would pledge $10 million to groups working on racial justice. This story was first published on CNN.com 'Facebook employees stage a virtual walkout over Zuckerberg's inaction on Trump posts' Myanmar & COVID-19 Govt to Build Temporary Classrooms to Aid Social Distancing in Schools A basic education high school in Yangon in 2016. / The Irrawaddy YANGONThe Basic Education Department in the Education Ministry will build temporary classrooms at schools across the country as needed in order to satisfy social distancing requirements, according to U Ko Lay Win, department director-general. Suppose classrooms are needed urgentlywe can call them temporary learning spaces. They will not be permanent buildings. They are temporary buildings built rapidly at low costs so that students can learn there, said U Ko Lay Win. All basic education schools, which include primary and secondary-level schools, will open in July but they will open in phases, with higher secondary level schools scheduled to open on July 21, according to the Education Ministry. The ministry said that schools must practice safe distancing measures in classrooms, with students at least two meters apartmeaning a maximum of 20 students will be allowed in a classroom measuring 9 by 7 meters. The Education Ministry has allocated a budget to build temporary classrooms at the request of schools from across the country, according to U Ko Lay Win. Some in the education system have expressed doubts about the plan. Temporary learning spaces are not even necessary. Students from crowded schools can be reassigned to less crowded schools. Only some schools in suburban areas will need temporary learning spaces, said retired teacher Daw Htay Htay Win. There will be a total of 9.7 million students in basic education schools for the coming academic year, based on statistics from the 2019-20 academic year. The ministry says it will provide free face shields and masks for students and teachers and will provide digital thermometers to schools for temperature screenings. It also says it will arrange washbasins in schools, as well as other preventative measures. Myanmar has over 47,000 basic education schools (primary and secondary), around 2,500 private schools and some 1,500 monastic schools. There are over 400,000 teachers in public schools, nearly 15,000 in private schools and some 7,700 in monastic schools. Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko. You may also like these stories: Japan to Provide US$46 M Emergency Loan to Small Businesses in Myanmar Myanmars Third COVID-19 Lab Begins Operating in Mandalay NLD Warns Yangon Chief Minister Over Breach of COVID-19 Rules STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo slammed Mayor Bill de Blasio and the NYPDs handling of the city on Monday night after the two implemented a curfew to help control the civil unrest that has taken place over the last several nights. The protests were sparked by the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis last Monday after a white police officer kneeled on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes. The police must stop the looting and criminal activity; they did not do that in New York City last night and I am disappointed and outraged at what happened last night, Cuomo said on Tuesday, making it the focus of his daily press conference. The citywide curfew began at 11 p.m. on Monday evening in response to protests that ended with violence, rioting and looting in Manhattan and Brooklyn over the weekend. Even with the curfew, looters caused severe damage and Cuomo said the curfew was obviously not enough. After seeing the damage caused Monday night, de Blasio said Tuesdays curfew would begin earlier -- at 8 p.m. Cuomo said he has not spoken to NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea since Monday. He said the NYPD should be, and has not been, utilizing all 38,000 of its members to deal with the civil unrest. I believe the mayor underestimated the scope of the problem and the duration of the problem and I dont think theyve used enough police to address the situation, he said. Despite his criticism of the mayors job, Cuomo said he currently has no plans to send the National Guard to the city. Instead, he will continue to keep them on stand-by for if and when they are needed. My option is to displace the mayor and bring in the National Guard as the governor in an emergency, and basically take over the mayors job. I dont think were at that point and that would be such a chaotic situation in the midst of an already chaotic situation. I dont think that makes any sense, he said. I dont think thats ever been done, he added. Rep. Max Rose also slammed de Blasio Tuesday morning, saying he lost control of the city, and said he is in favor of deploying the National Guard to help enforce the citywide curfew that has been extended to Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Cuomo said he will not be deploying the New York National Guard to other parts of the country, which is also seeing violence and looting, because he wants to be ready if it is needed. The governor kept his stance that he believes the protesting is necessary and outrage should be expressed, however, he said the criminal activity takes away from Mr. Floyds murder. New York City was looted yesterday in Manhattan and in communities of color in the Bronx and Brooklyn where weve spent years doing economic development. They hurt the very people were trying to help, he said. FOLLOW KRISTIN F. DALTON ON TWITTER. President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday sought the Senates approval of Tella Rahamon as the Osun State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The Senate, last December, rejected the presidents nomination of Olalekan Raheem, for the same position. Mr Raheems rejection was sequel to his revelation before the Senate Committee on INEC that he was an APC member and had contested for local government chairmanship in Osogbo, Osun State. A day later, though, he backtracked, saying he no longer belonged to any political party, but the Senate held its ground. Mr Raheems replacement, Tella Rahmon, is now subject to the screening by the Senate Committee on INEC. Online footprints of Mr Rahmon show that he is a doctor of management science with a couple of researches under his belt at the National Open University, Oshogbo centre. His first was in business management, while he had his M.Sc in banking and finance as he also teaches in the Federal Polytechnic, Ede, also in Osun. Meanwhile, in a separate letter read by Senate President Ahmad Lawan, President Buhari also submitted the names of 37 members of the Federal Character Commission (FCC). Mr Buhari, in April, appointed Muheeda Dankaka of Kwara State as the chairperson of the Federal Character Commission, alongside 36 other members of the board. He has now substituted some names from the list. Mr Lawan referred the two requests of the president to the relevant committees of the Senate for further legislative action. The Berejiklian government is heading for a showdown with public sector workers in the Industrial Relations Commission after its push to freeze wages was blocked. Conservative crossbenchers joined Labor to stop the government's proposed wage freeze for hundreds of thousands of public servants, including nurses and paramedics. Nurses and midwives protested outside NSW Parliament House opposing the government's 12-month wage freeze. Credit:Rhett Wyman In a significant blow to the government, One Nation and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers supported Labor's motion in the NSW upper house to overturn the wage freeze regulation. Christian Democrats MP Fred Nile was the only crossbencher to vote with the Coalition. The defeat in the upper house will force the government to the Commission on Thursday, where it will ask the industrial umpire to help resolve the impasse over the 12 month pay freeze. If agreement is not reached, full hearings will follow and the process could also be drawn out, with affected workers employed under a variety of public sector awards. The tragic loss of so many Canadians from Covid-19 in our long-term-care facilities must never happen again. On average in our provinces and territories 80 percent of the deaths have occurred in long-term care. There is demand for royal commissions, provincial studies and investigations but is this what is required at the present time? I would argue that the studies are simply a reason for governments to fail to act. The time for change is now and not in three to five years when the studies report. Specialists and those working in the field have known for decades what is needed. In the interim report on Canadas aging population in 2007 and the final report in 2009, the Senate identified the need. We were not the first to do so nor unfortunately will we be the last. There are six initiatives which Canada could and should begin immediately. We must launch the development of a national strategy to establish standards for the size, staff requirements and ratio of staff to clients, training of personnel and safety precautions. There will be a demand on the federal government for additional funding. But new dollars should not flow without clear standards in force in all provinces and territories. If the provinces are more comfortable with the term provincial standards then so be it as long as they all agree to this standard. Only in this way should federal dollars flow. All accommodation should be based on the principle of one client per room with exceptions made for those whose long-term partner is also in care. Alternate accommodation must be made available where there are two in a room when one client needs isolation. This will require infrastructure dollars from the federal government as there are not sufficient beds at the present time. This is the reason so many requiring care fill our acute care hospitals. Renovation budgets for homes will also be required as many of the older residences currently have four clients per room. Data will soon be available for the number of deaths in public, not-for-profit and for-profit homes and funding decisions made accordingly. The staff-to-client ratio must be increased and take into account that care needs of clients have increased immeasurably in the past 10 years. Keeping seniors and other vulnerable Canadians in their homes as long as possible, although significantly lacking in adequate funding, is a good model. It has been known for decades that the cost of caring for a person in their home is considerably less than in an institution but if family cannot or will not provide additional care above home care then the long-term-care facility is the only choice. The majority of clients now entering long-term care have far greater physical and mental needs than a decade ago. Greater consideration must recognize that by far the majority of family care givers are women and compensation must be available for their lost time from employment and the deterioration of their health while they provide care. Inspections of all facilities must be performed at least once a year and much more frequently when deficiencies are identified. No early warning should be given for such inspections in order for inspectors to learn what the place is really like. Inspections carried out by telephone are clearly inappropriate and unacceptable. There must be a two-week supply of personal protective equipment in all homes and ready access to a 90-day supply. Finally, salaries of all staff in long-term-care facilities should be reviewed. It is imperative that staff particularly personal support workers, health aides, cleaners and food preparation staff be paid adequately. They must not be forced to work in more than one facility in order to earn a decent wage. They are providing care to our vulnerable Canadians. They have a right to expect that we show that we value the work they do by ensuring a good wage. If we implemented these changes in the next year and then learn that further studies are needed then conduct them but do not delay action because governments are studying the problem. Normal People actor Sean Doyle has branded the 1m scheme to support Irish artists to create new work during the Covid-19 crisis "a p**s-take". The 27-year-old from Dublin, who plays Connell's school pal Eric in the show, says that he boycotted the controversial scheme when it was announced in April. The award is open to anyone who can demonstrate a track record of professional practice and is willing to create a new type or form of art. The Arts Council said proposals would be assessed on the artistic quality of the proposal and that successful applicants will be awarded 3,000. However, Sean, who is a household name from Fair City where he plays Paul Brennan's son Callum, said that the scheme puts huge pressure on struggling actors. "If you are on the Covid payment, hopefully that will support you, but some actors don't qualify for that," he said. Backlash "I was pretty angry about the announcement of the 3,000 grant for some online work. "It felt like a bit of a p**s-take to be honest and I couldn't even look at it. I boycotted it to be honest. "I remember my immediate reaction and from people in my sphere, there was a big backlash. "One of the worst things that people could do was tell us to 'go out and write a great Irish novel or create the biggest masterpiece of music'. "How dare they in a time when just getting by is a victory. "Creative people seem to suffer with their mental health, to then put the added pressure on to the fear and anxiety that was going around. "For me, it was a time to rest and digest and process. "The first month I didn't really do anything productive in terms of the career and creativity." Tonight, RTE will screen the series finale of Normal People, which has become a runaway success for both the national broadcaster, the BBC and American streaming service Hulu. Sean says that while he is still struggling to take it all in, his close friend Paul Mescal is taking it all in his stride. "It is a bit overwhelming the amount of attention on the show and the reaction is bizarre," he said. "Everyone knew that this was something special but you never know until people watch it, but there was this magic and fizzle on set. "We are all in a WhatsApp group, the cast, and we are constantly posting things like when the Kardashians were watching - so everyone is flabbergasted and blown away. "It is modern and beautiful. You get to see Dublin as a modern metropolis and then these incredible settings in the west of Ireland. "We had a blast on set and then suddenly, a year later, all hell has broken loose." WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Treasuries moved lower over the course of the trading day on Tuesday, extending the modest drop seen in the previous session. Bond prices recovered after an initial drop but moved back to the downside as the day progressed. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, rose by 1.8 basis points to 0.680 percent. The weakness among treasuries came as stocks on Wall Street extended a recent upward trend amid optimism about an economy recovery as businesses reopen. Economists have repeatedly warned that the recovery will take time, but traders have seemingly shrugged off those concerns as stocks continue to recover from their March lows. Traders have also largely ignored the mass protests across the country in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. The protests have turned violent in many instances, but traders appear to believe that the unrest will be curtailed before having any meaningful impact on the economy. Following today's lack of major U.S. economic data, trading on Wednesday may be impacted by reaction to reports on private sector employment, service sector activity and factory orders. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. The former member of Russian illegal armed gang was also involved for tortures of civilians; in 2015, he left the occupied area of Donbas and escaped to Mariupol where he lived before the conflict broke out Open source Ukraine's State Security Service (the SBU) exposed former militant from the so-called "Bezler group" (Igor Bezler, the Russian officer who was in charge of Russian armed gangs in Donbas in 2014, - 112 International). The man is charged with tortures of Ukrainian military servicemen and civilians in Donbas. The SBU press office reported that on Jnue 2. "Counterintelligence of the SBU detected a former militant from Bezler group (...) on the temporarily occupied territories of Donbas", the message said. In 2014, the man voluntarily joined the terrorist group of Bezler. There, he was responsible for anti-Ukrainian propaganda and "information policy". The militant participated in interrogations of captured Ukrainian fighters. He put this on video records and spread them on anti-Ukrainian websites. In 2015, when local criminal gangs got in a number of showdowns, the man feared for his life and escaped to Mariupol where he lived before the conflict broke out. The man was detained thanks to the reports of witnesses of teh events in Mariupol in 2014, when the militant worked for the occupants. During the searches, the SBU agents seized stuff that they added to the case file. The man could face up to 15 years behind the bars. An Iranian scientist imprisoned in the US and acquitted in a federal trade secrets case is on his way back to Iran after being deported, the countrys foreign minister said Tuesday. Sirous Asgari was in the air on a flight back to Iran, Mohammad Javad Zarif said in an Instagram post. Congratulations to his wife and his esteemed family, Zarif wrote. Irans state-run IRNA news agency later reported the news, citing Zarif. Asgari, a professor at Irans Sharif University of Technology, had been indicted in April 2016, accused by federal prosecutors of trying to steal secret research from Case Western Reserve University. The Cleveland school had been working on a project for the US Navy Office of Naval Research to create and produce anti-corrosive stainless steel. Asgari ultimately was acquitted in November after US District Judge James Gwin tossed out the case by the prosecutors. Ken Cuccinelli, the acting deputy Homeland Security secretary, earlier told The Associated Press that the DHS had started to try to deport Asgari on Dec. 12 following his acquittal. However, he said, Iran refused to recognize him as legitimately Iranian and provide him with a valid passport until late February. Once Asgari received the passport, DHS made several attempts to fly him back to Iran, purchasing tickets for flights on March 10, March 18, March 23, April 1 and May 1, according to Cuccinelli. Each of those flights was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, he said. Asgaris supporters told The Guardian newspaper in April he had contracted the coronavirus while imprisoned. He had been held at Louisianas Winn Correctional Center by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement before his deportation, they said. Irans deputy education minister, Hossein Salar Amoli, recently said Asgari had recovered from the virus and would be able to travel, IRNA reported. Iranian officials had associated Asgaris release with US prisoners held in Iran potentially being freed, something Cuccinelli strongly disputed. Iranian officials in recent days had been saying they believed Asgari soon would return to Iran. Among the US citizens held in Iran is US Navy veteran Michael White, of Imperial Beach, California. White was detained in July 2018 while visiting a girlfriend in Iran. He was convicted of insulting Irans supreme leader and posting private information online. He was released from prison in March on a medical furlough that required him to remain in the country in the care of the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which represents Americas interests in Iran. White is among tens of thousands of prisoners granted medical furloughs by Iran, which was one of the first countries to be hit hard by the spread of the coronavirus. In December, Iran released a Princeton University scholar held for three years on widely disputed espionage charges in exchange for the release of a detained Iranian scientist. In March, the family of former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished in Iran 13 years ago on an unauthorized CIA mission, said they had been informed by US officials that they had determined that Levinson was probably dead. They have not elaborated on how they made that determination. Westerners and Iranian dual nationals with ties to the West often find themselves tried and convicted in closed-door trials in Iran, only later to be used as bargaining chips in negotiations. The release comes as the US under President Donald Trump continues a maximum-pressure campaign targeting Iran after unilaterally withdrawing from Tehrans nuclear deal with world powers in May 2018. In the time since, the two countries have seen a series of escalating incidents, including the US drone strike killing an Iranian general in Baghdad and an Iranian ballistic missile attack targeting American troops in Iraq. ___ Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON MasterChef has a reputation for being one of Australia's most wholesome reality shows. But surprisingly the Channel 10 cooking competition has faced one scandal after another this year. As producers struggled to finish the show amid COVID-19 shutdowns, some of the contestants faced a barrage of negative headlines. Controversial: MasterChef has a reputation for being one of Australia's most wholesome reality shows - but this year's season has faced one scandal after another Ben's alleged sexual assault charges Earlier this year, contestant Ben Ungermann was arrested and charged with allegedly sexually assaulting a teenage girl in Melbourne. Producers axed him from the show as soon as they learned of the charges, and reportedly 'tried to edit him out as much as possible' until his exit aired on television. He was charged by Victorian sexual crime squad detectives on March 6 with two counts of sexual assault. The charges followed an alleged incident in Melbourne's Docklands on February 23 involving a 16-year-old girl. Ben will deny all allegations and has hired top criminal lawyer Adam Houda to represent him before the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on June 25. Police matter: In March, Ben Ungermann (pictured) was arrested and charged with allegedly sexually assaulting a teenage girl in Melbourne on February 23. He denies the allegations Edited out: Producers axed him from the show as soon as they learned of the charges, and reportedly 'tried to edit him out as much as possible' until his exit aired on television Reynold's homophobic past Reynold Poernomo's shocking homophobic past was uncovered last week. Daily Mail Australia revealed that the fan favourite had suggested gay people should be 'captured and put on an island' in one of several posts on an Internet forum. He made the homophobic statements on bodybuilding.com forums in 2014, just months before bursting onto screens in season seven of MasterChef. 'I wish the world made a united decision where they will capture all gay people and put them on a remote island full of gays, that way straight ppl [people] will be happy and the freaks can go on and f**k themselves,' the then 20-year-old wrote. In a statement to Daily Mail Australia, Reynold apologised for his remarks and said he was now 'deeply ashamed' of himself. Scandal: Reynold Poernomo's (pictured) homophobic past was uncovered last week after shocking comments he made on a bodybuilding forum in 2014 resurfaced Shocking: Reynold said he 'wished the world made a united decision where they will capture all gay people and put them on a remote island full of gays' Apology: In a statement to Daily Mail Australia, Reynold apologised for his remarks and said he was now 'deeply ashamed' of himself Gay cast members stand by Reynold Despite Reynold's homophobic past, his co-stars appear to have stood by him. In the wake of the scandal, openly gay cast members Brendan Pang, Khanh Ong, Reece Hignell and Courtney Roulston have continued to follow him on Instagram. Khan told New Idea on Monday that he hopes Reynold wins the show - although he may have given the interview before Reynold's hateful past was uncovered. Support: Reynold's gay co-stars, including Brendan Pang, Khanh Ong (pictured), Reece Hignell and Courtney Roulston, have continued to follow him on Instagram amid the scandal Poh's very modern love life MasterChef Australia's inaugural runner-up, Poh Ling Yeow, returned to the franchise this year for the Back to Win season. And while fans are well-versed with her career in the culinary world since her rise to fame in 2009, her personal life is just as interesting. The celebrity cook married her first husband, Matt Phipps, in 1990 when they were both practicing Mormons. When they chose to get divorced after nine years together, Matt went on to marry Poh's best friend of 20 years, Sarah Rich. In 2014, Poh married Jono Bennett, an aspiring actor eight years her junior who was working as a production assistant on MasterChef when they met. In an extraordinary twist, the two couples then went into business together, teaming up to open a cafe in Adelaide called Jamface. Poh's modern love life explained: Poh Ling Yeow (right) is married to her second husband, Jono Bennett (left), and her ex-husband, Matt Phipps, is married to her best friend of 20 years, Sarah Rich. The four are all still friends and own a business together That's different! Poh's first husband, Matt Phipps (left), married her best friend of 20 years, Sarah Rich (right) after they divorced - but Poh remains on good terms with them both Leaked spoilers This year's season of MasterChef has been rife with spoilers, mostly leaked by the cast members themselves. After Channel 10 made it known the show had continued filming throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, several contestants inadvertently confirmed their eliminations by sharing photos to Instagram of themselves back home with their families. Similarly, the finalists that remained in Melbourne to film the show also shared posts while self-isolating together, making it clear who makes it to the end of the competition. It is believed that Reynold, Poh, Laura Sharrad and Emelia Jackson are the final four. Spoilers: Stars such as Hayden Quinn (pictured) inadvertently leaked spoilers by sharing selfies from home after being eliminated from the competition Whoops! Similarly, the finalists that remained in Melbourne to film the show also shared posts while self-isolating together, making it clear who makes it to the end of the competition Emelia's 'secret boyfriend' The contestants' personal lives have proved as interesting as the show this year. After filming wrapped at the end of May, Emelia took to Instagram to share a rare selfie with her 'secret boyfriend' after spending five months apart. Her post sent fans into a frenzy as many were unaware she was in a long-term relationship. After much speculation, Daily Mail Australia identified her boyfriend on Tuesday as finance worker Craig Gersbach. 'Secret boyfriend': After filming wrapped in May, Emelia Jackson (right) took to Instagram to share a rare selfie with her 'secret boyfriend' (left) after spending five months apart In February 2014, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law banning prosecution and punishment of participants in the Revolution of Dignity as many activists had been imprisoned, or otherwise prosecuted on fabricated charges. The Constitutional Court has received a constitutional submission, signed by 50 people's deputies of Ukraine to consider whether the law granting immunity from criminal prosecution to the participants in the Revolution of Dignity is in line with the Constitution of Ukraine. "Today, June 2, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine received the constitutional submission signed by 50 MPs regarding the compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine of the law On the Prevention of Prosecution and Punishment of Persons regarding the Events that Occurred during Peaceful Rallies, and Recognition as Such that Void of Certain Laws of Ukraine, dated February 21, 2014, No. 743-VII," reads the statement published on the website of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. The constitutional submission was co-authored by almost the entire composition of the pro-Russian Opposition Platform For Life faction, non-factional deputies Anton Polyakov, Anna Skorokhod, Vadym Novinsky, as well MP with the ruling Servant of the People party, Oleksandr Dubinsky. They ask the CCU to recognize that the contested law is in breach of the Constitution. In their opinion, while provisions of the law contrary to constitutional requirements, parliamentarians passed it in violation of the constitutional procedure. Read alsoNew chief prosecutor says law on clemency for Maidan protesters contradicts criminal procedural code Among other things, it is noted, the law exempted from criminal liability persons who had been participants in mass protests that began on November 21, 2013, and suspects or those accused of criminal acts; as well as exempted Revolution participants from administrative liability, "thereby creating the impression in society of the permissibility to commit with impunity crimes against human life and health, and also legalized the process of depriving victims of criminal offenses from their guaranteed constitutional rights and freedoms, which contradicts the principle of fairness as one of the basic principles of the rule of law (Article 8 of the Constitution of Ukraine)." As UNIAN reported earlier, on February 21, 2014, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law, authored by MP Yuriy Derevyanko, to prevent prosecution or punishment of persons in relation to the events that took place at peaceful rallies and to repeal several other legislative acts. During the Revolution of Dignity, many activists have been imprisoned or otherwise prosecuted on fabricated charges. The law granting immunity for the participants in the Revolution of Dignity was adopted without prior discussion or relevant committee hearings. The law was set to apply including to individuals targeted in ongoing investigations and possible future ones, related to protests, MP added. According to him, the law also provides for the exemption from administrative liability of all individuals on whom huge fines had been imposed and drivers' licenses revoked. At the same time, as earlier reported by the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, the surge in disinformation and fake news about the Maidan since November 2019 has prompted the Institute for Mass Information and Detector Media to carry out assessments of what both agree are efforts to discredit the Revolution of Dignity. While such attempts are not new, the scale of this campaign is unprecedented, the February report read. At the very beginning of her study, Poptsova notes that "the objective of Kremlin propaganda is to distort the memory of the events and participants in Maidan. That will allow it to place liability for the crimes committed by Russia and the Kremlin-loyal Yanukovych team on 'insurgents'." After a mostly sunny morning, Portland will see the return of some high clouds beginning about noon. Temperatures will remain seasonal, according to the National Weather Service, and no rain is in the forecast during the day. Highs are expected to be near 74. A weak cold front could bring some drizzle to the southern Washington coast and far northwest Oregon later this evening and into Wednesday morning. The clouds are from the tail end of a front expected to move into British Columbia and Washington by tonight. This moisture could make its way into Oregon and leave some sprinkles mostly near the northern Oregon coast. Portland will see skies clear by late morning Wednesday. The high is expected to be about 73 degrees. Mostly clear skies and mild temperatures continue Thursday. The high is expected to be around 74. But that may be the end of the string of dry, mostly clear days for the week. Forecasters are looking at a new system moving in later in the day Friday and bringing rain during the weekend. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 16:05:55|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 2 (Xinhua) -- China has stepped up efforts to improve impoverished groups' communication and vocational skills through strengthened Mandarin Chinese education, reinforcing the fight against poverty, according to the Ministry of Education (MOE). In cooperation with the Chinese Communist Youth League Central Committee, the MOE has dispatched 2,291 university students in 239 teams to 345 poor villages in China's central and western regions to offer Mandarin training, said Xu Xiaoping, an official of the ministry at a press conference Tuesday in Beijing. The MOE underscores the importance of Mandarin training for ethnic minority teachers, rural teachers, young and middle-aged farmers and herdsmen, and primary-level officials, Xu noted. A total of 463,000 teachers, 1.96 million farmers and herdsmen, and 213,000 primary-level officials in 12 provincial regions in central and western China received Mandarin training last year, Xu added. In a three-month online training campaign scheduled from May to August, the MOE plans to help 5,200 teachers from ethnic minority communities and rural areas improve their Mandarin, Xu said. The ministry also endeavored to improve Mandarin learning materials and strengthen research into poverty alleviation through Mandarin popularization, Xu said. More than 88 million people had sat the Mandarin proficiency test by the end of 2019, Xu said. Enditem CHICAGO, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- EZ Blockchain - Chicago-based blockchain technology service company has reorganized its business into two companies with two distinct but equally innovative purposes. As a result of a spin-off, a new power generation business will be called EZ Energy Technologies, Inc., or EZ Energy. The transition separates their work in power generation and flare mitigation from the blockchain mining business. One of the primary objectives in branching EZ Energy off is to diversify the applications of the company's affordable energy sourcing maximizing technologies in sectors outside of cryptocurrency. Following the separation, Vlad Rodinoff, founder of EZ Blockchain will take the position of CEO at EZ Energy, and Sergii Gerasymovych will assume the position of CEO at EZ Blockchain. EZ Blockchain, LLC and its executive team will remain the largest controlling shareholder of the EZ Energy business. The company anticipates the deployment of 9 MWs of its own power generating units, called SmartGrids, through the end of 2020. Sergii Gerasymovych said, "There are other applications to use gas-generated power right on-site on the oil pad. None of that energy has to be wasted anymore with our combined technology. This energy could be used on-lease as prime power for oil and gas producers in addition to powering our mobile data centers." EZ Blockchain originally became known for its services and products designed for cryptocurrency mining, primarily manufacturing mobile data centers known as "Bitcoin mining containers" along with the management of crypto mining facilities. Since the installation of EZ Blockchain's first mining mobile data Smartbox in 2018, designed and built exclusively by and for the company, EZ Blockchain has funneled much effort into an initiative aimed at harnessing wasted energy by reducing gas flaring. The energy project started with a partnership with KTS Engineering, the official distributor of Jenbacher electric gas generators to give oil fields a viable and scalable option to turn excess natural gas into usable energy which otherwise goes into flares and wasted. In two years since the installation of the first mobile data center in Indiana, EZ Blockchain's energy project has grown in scope. The mobile data centers have been designed to be oil field ready and to meet additional requirements of efficiency and remote operation. The new "EZ Smartboxes," coupled with EZ Blockchain's hugely positive footprint around the Midwest mobile data center locations, spurred the final decision to branch this energy effort into its own business line. EZ Blockchain started in 2017 and is based out of Chicago, IL. The company is a full-service crypto mining facility management company that builds and operates physical infrastructures for blockchain-based mining, which has positioned the group to develop sustainable energy alternatives from a unique vantage point. Read more about EZ Blockchain and their projects and investments on their website www.ezblockchain.net. CONTACT: Sergii Gerasymovych, [email protected], 312-846-1354 SOURCE EZ Blockchain Related Links https://www.ezblockchain.net Domus Optima is set to bring about a paradigm shift in the Canadian real estate market by making it affordable to all. The company is looking to raise Ca$ 45,000 via Indiegogo to develop its unique Online Cohesion Auction Platform. NEWMARKET, ON, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Domus Optima is pleased to announce that the Indiegogo campaign for the development of its Cohesion Real Estate Auction system is now live. A small company dedicated to making real estate affordable in Canada, Domus Optima is looking to raise Ca$ 45,000 to introduce an unorthodox approach to real estate purchase. In traditional auctions, buyers compete with increasing bids to secure the product, the Domus Optima Cohesion auction is an innovative take on this approach where the property price is decreased for the bidders by a cohesion amount contributed by all backers via the cohesion crowdfunding campaign. It creates an opportunity for the winning bidder to purchase real estate for a fraction of its market value while providing a fair price in the shortest time for the sellers. Cohesion Real Estate Auction system creates a win-win situation for both real estate buyers and sellers with a plethora of lucrative benefits and adherence to social distancing. "We believe that homeownership should be affordable for every working family. When changes in the real estate market are detrimental to that, we need to reshape the market and find opportunities to make homeownership affordable again," said Domus Optima Founder Vitaly Kaidanov. Domus Optima has plans to launch in areas most affected by rising real estate prices in Ontario. The Greater Toronto area, and to a lesser extent, London are becoming increasingly difficult for homebuyers to afford and many have to opt for rentals. Domus Optima is looking to flip that narrative and make homeownership a tangible goal once again. All proceeds from the Indiegogo campaign will be used for developing Domus Optima's Online Cohesion Auction Platform that will make cohesion auctions possible. Any additional amount raised will be spent on marketing and new products development. The company has created exclusive rewards packages, to show appreciation for the generous support of the backers. To make a contribution to Domus Optima's Indiegogo campaign, please visit https://igg.me/at/DomusOptima SOURCE Domus Optima Co. Ltd. Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu on Monday suggested Japan and Vietnam soon discuss gradual resumption of travel between the two countries, the official VGP News reported. The travel easing was mentioned during Motegis 30-minute phone call to Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, which was the pairs second phone conversation in two months. According to the Japanese foreign minister, the travel reconnection is intended for business managers and experts in order to restart bilateral economic, trade, and investment ties. Earlier the same day, Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan Yoshihide Suga also underlined the importance of considering resumption of travel between countries, according to the Vietnam News Agency. Suga said his country would keep a close watch on the diseases developments across the world and carefully consider the easing of entry bans on specific groups from each country, as well as related procedures. Regarding the entry relaxation, Japanese media have recently reported that their government is likely to include Vietnam in the list of four countries that can be exempted from entry restrictions in the first phase, together with Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand. The Japanese government has planned to provide relevant specific information by mid-June. During Mondays phone talk, Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi and his Vietnamese counterpart also discussed responses to novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and ways to foster cooperation between the two countries in the future. Both sides briefed each other on recent outcomes in the fight against COVID-19 and agreed to work closely together to strengthen bilateral exchanges and economic cooperation. Minh spoke highly of the Japanese governments efforts in containing the pandemic, expressing thanks for the assistance of the government and people of Japan in Vietnams COVID-19 combat as well as the financial support for foreign nationals, including Vietnamese students, in the East Asian nation. Meanwhile, Motegi congratulated Vietnam on its impressive success in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been widely recognized by the global community. He expressed his gratitude to the Vietnamese government and people for their support for Japans battle against the pandemic. Apart from the previously announced assistance, Japan will continue to provide medical supplies to Vietnam to help curb COVID-19, Motegi said. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Hong Kong, June 2 : The Hong Kong government is set to extend social-distancing rules restricting gatherings of people to no more than eight for another two weeks, after the emergence of a new cluster of COVID-19 cases, a source said on Tuesday. The decision to extend the ban on large gatherings is believed to have been made at the Executive Council meeting on Tuesday morning, reports the South China Morning Post newspaper. The move came hours after four more cases of COVID-19 were reported in the city, raising fears of a "super spreader" at the housing estate where all the new patients live. All four are neighbours with a couple who were revealed to have the disease on Sunday. They all live in Luk Chuen House in the Lek Yuen Estate in Sha Tin. Tracking by the Department of Health uncovered the latest infections, but after inspecting the building, health officials said there was no need to evacuate the other residents. Monday's confirmed cases took the total number of COVID-19 infections in the city to 1,087, with four related deaths. The previous local transmission involved a family from Tsuen Wan, with that first case reported on May 13. Hong Kong had previously gone more than two weeks without a locally transmitted case, said the South China Morning Post newspaper report. The ban on social gatherings of more than eight people had been expected to end on Thursday, and the 14-day mandatory quarantine imposed on most arrivals into the city is due to expire later this month. Drugs that treat coronavirus are 'essential' to getting a grip on the pandemic because a vaccine will take years to roll out, a top expert has warned. Dr Nick Cammack, head of the Wellcome Trust's Covid-19 Therapeutic Accelerator project into promising therapies, urged caution to those pinning their hopes on a jab being mass-produced this year. He said it would take several years to scale up manufacturing capacity, even if a vaccine is developed and proven safe in 2020. Dr Cammack emphasised the importance of an effective treatment for potential second and third waves of the epidemic in winter, after countries come out of lockdown and air travel restarts. His comments come after hopes for a vaccine were ramped up in recent weeks following promises by several pharmaceutical giants to deliver jabs by autumn. British firm AstraZeneca said it fully expected to have millions of doses of its AZD1222 vaccine, being developed by Oxford University, ready by September. Brentford-based GlaxoSmithKline and US drugs giants Johnson and Johnson and Pfizer also unveiled plans to roll out their jabs later this year. But Dr Cammack described it as an 'extraordinary undertaking' and said most people will not get their hands on a vaccine for 'several years'. Dr Nick Cammack, who is spearheading UK research into Covid-19 therapies, urged caution to those pinning their hopes on a jab being mass-produced this year, warning it'll be several years before a jab is mass-produced At the start of the crisis, there was hope that existing medicines could be repurposed to treat the coronavirus - because vaccines take so long to develop. But when several of the most promising drugs - including the Donald Trump-touted malaria pill hydroxychloroquine - stumbled, attention turned to a vaccine. Blow for coronavirus treatment hopes as Oxford University scientist behind huge UK trial warns it's 'extraordinarily unlikely' one drug will be effective on its own There is unlikely to be 'one big winner' from the world's biggest coronavirus trial of promising drugs, according to an expert behind the study. The Oxford University scientist running the Recovery trial said there was an 'extraordinarily' low chance of one of the five medicines being effective on its own. Professor Martin Landray, deputy chief investigator of the Recovery trial Martin Landray, professor of epidemiology at the prestigious university, claimed it's more likely a combination of several drugs will have 'modest effect' on patients. In a best case scenario a combination of drugs will be able to reduce the chance of dying from COVID-19 by a fifth, according to Professor Landray. While this does not sound like much, it has the potential to save thousands of lives in the future because the virus will be here 'forever', he said. Advertisement Optimism about a potential vaccine was then ramped up when AstraZeneca promised its jab would be ready for Britons by September. Dr Cammack, the Covid-19 Therapeutics Accelerator lead at the Wellcome Trust, a research-charity based in London, dashed vaccine hopes at a virtual press conference today. He said that 'even if a vaccine comes by the end of the year', it would take 'a number of years' to roll that vaccine out around the world. He described it as an 'extraordinary undertaking that will take years to do'. Estimates suggests the world will need around 4.5billion vaccine doses to put an end to the pandemic. Dr Cammack reiterated the importance of finding an effective Covid treatment before this winter, when there could be a resurgence of the virus. He added: 'Lets not forget there is little movement globally and as the world comes out of lockdown and air travel starts up big time, lets see what happens. We may be seeing second and third waves in autumn and winter.' The Covid-19 Therapeutics Accelerator project is a global effort, funded by Bill Gates, assessing the most effective treatments for the incurable disease. It is one of two major trials being ran in the UK, along with the Oxford Univeristy-led Recovery trial. More than 11,000 patients aged between just one and 109 are taking part in the Recovery trial at 175 hospitals in Britain. Participants are being given the HIV drug lopinavir/ritonavir, marketed as Kaletra and Aluvia; hydroxychloroquine, a malaria medication sold as Plaquenil; dexamethasone, a type of steroid use in a range of conditions to reduce inflammation; azithromycin, a commonly used antibiotic; and tocilizumab, an anti-inflammatory given by injection. Early results on which treatments are safe and effective are expected by the end of June. It comes after a leading member of AstraZeneca's Oxford University vaccine trial said the study has only a 50 per cent chance of being successfully completed. Lower transmission of the coronavirus in the community means it will be harder for trial participants to catch the virus, and for scientists to see if the vaccine is protective. AstraZeneca's chief executive, Pascal Soriot, said he believes there will be 'several' Covid vaccines ready for mass-use this year More than 10,500 Covid patients are taking part in the Randomised Evaluation of COV-id19 thERapY (RECOVERY) trial, which is testing five drugs including hydroxychloroquine Lopinavir/ritonavir, marketed under the brand names Kaletra and Aluvia, is an anti-HIV medicine also being trialled Oxford University's Jenner Institute and the Oxford Vaccine Group began development on a vaccine in January, using a virus taken from chimpanzees. Following an initial phase of testing on 160 healthy volunteers between 18 and 55, the study has now progressed into phases two and three. Researchers are increasing testing to up to 10,260 people and expanding the age range of volunteers to include children and the elderly. Professor Adrian Hill, director of Oxford University's Jenner Institute, said he expected fewer than 50 of those to catch the virus. The results could be deemed useless if fewer than 20 test positive. 'We said earlier in the year that there was an 80 per cent chance of developing an effective vaccine by September,' he told The Sunday Telegraph. 'But at the moment, there's a 50 per cent chance that we get no result at all. 'We're in the bizarre position of wanting Covid to stay, at least for a little while. But cases are declining. If SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease COVID-19, is not spreading in the community, volunteers will find it difficult to catch, meaning scientists can't prove whether the vaccine actually makes any difference. Tasmania is relaxing coronavirus restrictions earlier than expected, meaning intrastate travel is on the cards this weekend. The state has not recorded a new COVID-19 case in seventeen days and just four of a total 226 confirmed cases remain active. Premier Peter Gutwein has announced the state will move from stage one to two of restrictions from 3pm on Friday instead of a slated shift on June 15. 'I'm certain that this will be very welcome news ahead of the June long weekend,' he told reporters on Tuesday. Tasmanians could be travelling to locations like this as soon as this weekend (pictured: The Dock lookout on Flinders Island) Premier Peter Gutwein has announced the state will move from stage one to two of restrictions from 3pm on Friday instead of a slated shift on June 15 Tasmania is relaxing coronavirus restrictions earlier than expected, meaning intrastate travel is on the cards this weekend. Pictured: Quarantine checks at Hobart airport Camping and overnight stays will be permitted, while residents have been given the green light visit their holiday homes, or shacks, across the state. A cap on pub patrons is likely to be lifted to 40 people subject to advice from public health and industry consultation this week, Mr Gutwein said. 'Seated drinking will be allowed as well, there will be no need to serve food,' Mr Gutwein said. CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement Larger gatherings will also be allowed, including funerals of up to 50 people, gyms and bootcamps can have 20 people and beauty services can reopen. Outdoor sport is also allowed to restart with restrictions of 20 people. Indoor sport and recreation centres such as swimming pools will also be allowed to reopen on Friday. High school students in years seven to ten will be returning to classrooms on June 9 with senior years resuming later. 'Measures taken here in Australia and in Tasmania especially have been swift and they have worked,' Mr Gutwein said. Mr Gutwein praised Tasmanians for the efforts in abiding by public health rules but implored people to maintain social distancing principles. 'This isn't over yet, but we can start to move back to a better level of normality,' he said. 'Let's take this bold step to get this state back on track.' Despite the early easing, Mr Gutwein remained firm on his decision to wait until early July before making a call on when to reopen the state's borders. In the first official acknowledgement of a troop build-up along the disputed border with China, defence minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said a significant number of Chinese troops were present along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh and the Indian Army had matched the neighbours military moves. This came on a day the two sides met again to ease the tensions. Achchhi khaasi sankhya mein Cheen ke log bhi aa gaye hain lekin Bharat ne bhi apni taraf se jo kuch bhi karna chahiyekiya hai. (Chinese soldiers are there in large numbers (on the LAC) but India has also done what it had to, Singh told a news channel when asked to comment on the ground situation along the border. Singhs comments came against the backdrop of silence on the issue from the external affairs ministry. The defence minister said differing perceptions of the LAC had led to the standoff, and talks were on at the diplomatic and military levels to break the stalemate. Singh told CNN-News 18 that a meeting between senior Indian and Chinese military officials would take place on June 6 to discuss the border situation. Meanwhile, Indian and Chinese officials, led by major generals, met on Tuesday to ease border tensions but there was no breakthrough, officials said. This was the third meeting between two-star ranked officers. China has marshalled close to 5,000 soldiers and deployed tanks and artillery guns on its side of the disputed border in the Ladakh sector where India has also sent military reinforcements and matched the neighbours military moves, as reported by Hindustan Times on May 26. Northern Army commander Lieutenant General YK Joshi on Tuesday visited Leh, the headquarters of 14 Corps in Ladakh, for a security review of the sensitive sector at a time when Indian and Chinese soldiers are eyeball-to-eyeball at four locations along the LAC. Several rounds of talks between local military commanders have failed to end the standoff that began with a violent confrontation between rival patrols near Pangong Tso four weeks ago. Around 250 soldiers from the two countries clashed near Pangong Tso on the night of May 5-6 with the scuffle leaving scores of troops injured. While an immediate flare-up was avoided as both armies stuck to protocols to resolve the situation, tensions swiftly spread to other pockets along the LAC. HARTFORD A leading member of a prominent service workers union has called on state Rep. Craig Fishbein to resign Tuesday after the Republican retweeted a racist statement linking African Americans to arson over the weekend. Juan Hernandez, the vice president of 32BJ SEIU in Connecticut, called on Fishbein to resign in a statement released on Tuesday. "The apology that Representative Craig Fishbein issued last night for his retweet of an appallingly racist meme left out one crucial elementhis resignation. In the wake of the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, black residents in his district deserve no less, as do the people of Connecticut, said Hernandez. Fishbein, a conservative whose district includes Cheshire and Wallingford, retweeted a post on Monday that featured a picture of former Vice President Joe Biden and the caption: If you arent setting fire to buildings ... then you aint black! says the meme posted on Twitter, which was retweeted by Rep. Craig Fishbein, a conservative whose district includes Cheshire and Wallingford. Fishbein, in an email response Monday afternoon, said he tweeted the post to underscore the issue of free speech, and a reference to a recent remark Biden made and apologized for that a black person whos not sure whether they would support him or Trump aint black. I shared the meme without comment in a subtle attempt to point out a double standard regarding political speech, Fishbein said. Without explanation, there was no context. I was wrong. The meme was offensive, period. I apologize to the people of the 90th district, my colleagues in the General Assembly and to the people of Connecticut. But Hernandez, whose union represents 5,000 property service workers in Connecticut, called the retweet proof of Fishbeins antagonism to issues of racial and social justice. As one of the largest unions representing people of color and immigrants in the state and the nation, we join those calling on House Minority Leader Themis Klarides to demand Representative Fishbeins immediate resignation. The retweet lead to criticism from legislators on both sides of the aisle, including Klarides, R-Derby, and countless others. As of Tuesday afternoon, Klarides has not called her Fishbeins resignation. A lawyer in his fourth year in the General Assembly, Fishbein was one of only three members of the House to vote against the shutdown of the House on March 11, its final day prior to the shutdown for the coronavirus outbreak. The militarization of Crimea, which is currently occupied by Russia, has led to a breach of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe which has far-reaching security consequences not only in the Black Sea region. "Russia's occupation of Crimea has led to a sharp increase in the number of conventional weapons and military equipment in the Black Sea region, which exceeds the limits set by the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe," Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Anton Korynevych said during an online meeting of the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation. According to him, long-range missiles on the peninsula can hit the entire southern part of Ukraine and the territories of neighbouring countries: "The security of the Black Sea states, two of which have already suffered from foreign aggression, is under threat." At the same time, the occupied territories of Ukraine and Georgia have been turned into "grey areas" inaccessible for verification and inspection measures under the CFE Treaty, the Treaty on Open Skies, the Vienna Document on Confidence- and Security-Building Measures and other arms control and non-proliferation regimes. "The actions of the Russian Federation are dominated exclusively by military and political interests in order to turn the occupied Crimea into a military base, along with the Kremlin's intentions to expand beyond the Black Sea," said the President's representative to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. He recalled that the militarization of the peninsula had begun almost immediately after the illegal occupation. This includes, in particular, the deployment of troops, weapons and military equipment to the occupied territory of Ukraine, in particular combat aircraft and missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. "The occupation and further militarization of Crimea has resulted in the expanded use of warships and aircraft in the Black Sea region and far beyond the Mediterranean Basin. Thus, this activity has far-reaching security consequences not only in the Black Sea region but throughout Southern Europe, as well as in North Africa and the Middle East," Korynevych stressed. ol In six days and nights of protests across America in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, journalists have been assaulted, harassed, pepper sprayed, shot with rubber bullets, and arrested on live TV. The volume of incidents and their increasing severity have led some to suggest that President Trumps anti-media rhetoric may have triggered the violence. The reality is that aggressive, militarized policing across much of the country, combined with a growing number of protesters who are hostile toward traditional media, has made covering protests an increasingly dangerous assignment. While we have not recently seen anything on the current scale, this is a reality that existed prior to Trumps election. At the Committee to Protect Journalists, we observed this dynamic in Ferguson, Missouri, after protests erupted in 2014 following the police killing of Michael Brown. In the course of a week of demonstrations, at least 11 journalists were detained. Reporters were harassed or pepper sprayed by the police; others were attacked by protesters. Journalists were also arrested while covering the Standing Rock protests in North Dakota, which began in April 2016, and during the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011. THE MEDIA TODAY: Trump, Facebook, and the weaponization of free speech Over the last decade, police across the country have come to rely on military tactics and equipment, including Humvees, much of it repurposed after the Iraq War. In confronting protesters, police use highly aggressive methods, including kettling, a technique that involves channeling protesters (and sometimes journalists) into a confined area where they are detained and sometimes arrested. Compounding the risk to reporters is the breakdown in their relationship with local law enforcement. Historically, police have had sustained interactions with beat reporters for local media who were provided with credentials they could use to cross police lines. But the decline in local media, along with the expansion of freelancers and bloggers, has made it more difficult for the police to identify who is a journalist and who is not. The response by the police is too often to arrest those who say they are journalists. In most cases, they are later released after their credentials are verified; still, a number faced prosecution. CPJ and others have also documented a series of attacks by protesters against journalists covering demonstrations. The dynamics here are harder to parse, but journalists with whom CPJ has spoken describe hostility across the political spectrum. Physical attacks tended to come from the extremes: Antifa protesters assaulted journalists at a demonstration in Berkeley for taking photos, and white nationalists brandishing a shield assaulted a reporter covering a 2017 rally in Tennessee. The verbal harassment, however, emanates from a wider variety of protesters who often express deep-seated frustrations, including a sense that traditional journalists dont understand their experience or represent their views fairly. Sign up for CJR 's daily email In early 2017, CPJ and the Freedom of the Press Foundation established an online database, the US Press Freedom Tracker, to document press-freedom violations in the United States. In the first year of the Trump administration, a series of protests in different cities resulted in a striking number of attacks on journalists covering demonstrations: 37 journalists were arrested and 49 were assaulted in 2017. In years two and three of the Trump administration, as protests faded, the number of attacks on journalists declined. Now that protests have returned with a vengeance, the numbers are off the charts. The Tracker is seeking to verify and document nearly 150 separate incidents, from New York City to Las Vegas, including dozens of arrests and a number of attacks on journalists carried out by police that appeared premeditated and deliberate. For example, a Reuters journalist, Julio-Cesar Chavez, and his security advisor, Rodney Seward, were struck by rubber bullets while covering the protests in Minneapolis on Saturday night despite being clearly identifiable as members of the press. (CJRs Jon Allsop recounted a number of additional incidents here.) While Trump didnt make covering US protests dangerous, he has made the situation worse. It is certainly possible that the presidents anti-media rhetoric has emboldened local police, who are attacking and arresting journalists at a pace not seen in recent history. And it is also possible that some protesters who have attacked journalists are Trump supporters motivated by his denunciations of fake news. But the fundamental dynamic is a local one. If journalists and media organizations want to confront the violence, they are going to have to engage with police departments across the country. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press is planning to do just that, mustering a coalition to send a series of letters to police and law enforcement agencies around the US. The National Press Club has also sent an open letter to law enforcement, with the backing of leading press freedom organizations. Governors, mayors, and national political figures who support press freedom must speak out, defend the rights of journalists, and demand that police officers who have abused their authority be investigated and prosecuted, if warranted. Media organizations must make sure that journalists have the latest guidance and support to cover the protests safely. On Sunday, Reuters General Counsel Gail Gove sent a sharply worded letter to the mayor and police commissioner in Minneapolis, noting, Unless journalists can safely report the news, First Amendment freedoms are meaningless. Covering protests and demonstrations is vital, both in order to inform the public about the demands of the protesters and also to hold officials accountable. Journalists cant do that job without the respect of the public and the support of local law enforcement. ICYMI: Enough of all the news. Time for whats fit to print. Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Joel Simon is the outgoing executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, which he led for fifteen years. A regular contributor to the Columbia Journalism Review, he has also been published by the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Guardian, and the Wall Street Journal. Egypt is implementing all precautionary and preventive measures required for an anticipated resumption of international flights, a Tuesday statement by the cabinet read. Civil Aviation Minister Mohamed Manar Ennaba reviewed preparations and measures implemented at the countrys airports for the resumption of international flights, the statement read. Ennaba was meeting with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Tourism and Antiquities Minister Khaled El-Enany to discuss a plan for the resumption of foreign tourism. He said domestic flights were currently operating with high efficiency. During the meeting, El-Enany also reviewed procedures for receiving tourists. International flights have been suspended since mid-March due to the coronavirus; cargo, domestic flights and some special charters to repatriate stranded Egyptians have continued to operate. Limited flights are also in operation to a few international destinations, with EgyptAir scheduling a one-off flight to Frankfurt on 5 June. The governments plan for a resumption in tourism will be submitted to a higher committee tasked with managing the coronavirus crisis for a decision. Cabinet spokesman Nader Saad said earlier this week that there might be a gradual resumption of flights during the second half of June or the first half of July. He said several global carriers have expressed readiness to resume flights to Egypt in July, especially as they predict that Egypt is among states which will gradually open its airspace. Egyptian authorities have said they are in the process of reopening the economy in order to allow the country to coexist with the coronavirus. Hotels have been allowed to reopen to domestic tourists if they reduce capacity to 50 percent and are certified to have implemented new, strict safety procedures. The countrys aviation sector has suffered losses of over EGP 2.25 billion ($142.1 million), according to statements by Madbouly in March. Search Keywords: Short link: An uneven federal response to states COVID-19 testing needs and a looming budget crisis cast uncertainty over Michigans next steps to address the ongoing pandemic, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told members of Congress Tuesday. Whitmer told lawmakers on the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations that she appreciates the financial assistance and supplies provided so far during the pandemic, but said more clarity -- and more federal funding -- is needed as Michigan continues to grapple with the fallout of COVID-19. Michigan has been hit exceptionally hard by COVID-19, and our state revenues have been drained because of it, she said. I appreciate the federal assistance provided to states to date, but more is needed to support our response to this crisis. Whitmer testified alongside Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas and Democratic Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado during the three-hour panel, fielding questions about the states COVID-19 response and future plans to reopen the economy. Whitmer said supply shortages continue to limit how many tests Michigan can conduct each day" and said more accurate information on the supplies being shipped to Michigan would help ensure supplies are being used and distributed more quickly. Republicans on the panel grilled Whitmer on various aspects of her administrations COVID-19 response, including the decision to direct COVID-19 positive patients from hospitals into nursing homes and the lack of clarity on nursing home deaths in Michigan. Whitmer said she based her decisions on advice from public health experts, but acknowledged there are "probably a number of decisions we would have made some adjustment in. U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, a Michigan Republican from Tipton, was especially critical of Whitmers handling of economic reopening, noting her decision to keep salons, gyms and other businesses closed while other states have allowed those industries to reopen. That grows our economy. We cant deal with that $6.2 billion shortfall if we dont grow our own economy in Michigan, he said. He also said other states that have reopened sooner should not be expected to help pick up our shortfall. Whitmer responded that the measures Michigan took saved thousands of lives. Michigans had a uniquely hard time with COVID-19 and we have needed help from the federal government, she said. We were in desperate times and thats why we had to take aggressive actions. And they have worked. They have worked. COVID-19 PREVENTION TIPS In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and carry hand sanitizer with you when you go into places like stores. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has also issued an executive order requiring people to wear face coverings over their mouth and nose while inside enclosed, public spaces. Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus. Read more: Whitmer administration calls for federal funding to help fill Michigans multibillion-dollar budget hole Coronavirus prompts projected $3.2B drop in Michigan tax revenue, more losses expected Michigan set to lose billions in tax revenue as coronavirus hits state budgets nationwide Michigan to lay off 2,900 state employees amid budget woes caused by coronavirus outbreak Yes, Michigan is in a recession, and a quick recovery is unlikely Republicans, Democrats at odds about who should return to work and when When and how will it end? Considering the end-game for Michigans coronavirus crisis MIAMI, June 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ehave, Inc., (OTC Pink: EHVVF) (the Company), a provider of digital therapeutics delivering evidence-based therapeutic interventions to patients, announced neuroscience researcher, Dr. Nithin Krishna, M.D., has consented to join the Company's Medical Advisory Board. As a member of the Companys Medical Advisory Board, Dr. Nithin Krishnas main responsibilities will be to assist and advise the Company on human trials for its cognitive and psychedelic opportunities. Dr. Krishna is currently in private practice at Psych Associates of Maryland. Psych Associates specializes in behavioral health services, including psychological testing and neuropsychological testing for a variety of disorders, including ADHD, brain injuries and head trauma, and memory problems. He boasts an extensive publication list and an impressive resume of original scientific findings. Dr. Krishna completed his postdoctoral program at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Maryland Psychiatric Research Center in Baltimore, Maryland continuing on through the University of Maryland/Sheppard Pratt Psychiatry Residency Training Program research track. Dr. Krishna is board certification by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. In addition to his work as a clinician, he conducts research in psychiatry and neuroscience with expertise in genetics, electroencephalogram (EEG), schizophrenia, psychotic disorders, suicide and cranial electric stimulation. "Dr. Krishna is recognized as an expert in both Psychological and neuropsychological testing," said Ben Kaplan, CEO of Ehave, Inc. "His research in the areas of ADHD, brain injuries, head trauma, and memory problems has been his passion. Most importantly, in recent years Dr. Krishna has worked tirelessly to provide superior healthcare to his patients. We are very fortunate to welcome an individual like Dr. Krishna to our medical advisory board and look forward to collaborating with him as we continue to pave the way for the psychedelic medical industry." About Ehave, Inc. Ehave, Inc. is a provider of digital therapeutics delivering evidence-based therapeutic interventions to patients. Our primary focus is on improving the standard care in therapeutics to prevent or treat brain disorders or diseases through the use of digital therapeutics, psychedelics, independently or together, with medications, devices, and other therapies to optimize patient care and health outcomes meeting privacy and HIPAA & GDPR Compliant. Our main product is the Ehave Dashboard which is a mental health informatics platform that allows clinicians to make objective and intelligent decisions through data insight using Blockchain technology. The Ehave dashboard offers Offline Encrypted Digital Records Empowering Healthcare providers and patients and it's a powerful machine learning and artificial intelligence platform using artificial intelligence to extract deep insights from audio, video and text to improve research with a growing set of advanced tools and applications developed by Ehave and its leading partners. This empowers patients, healthcare providers, and payers to address a wide range of conditions through high quality, safe, and effective data-driven involvement with intelligent and accessible tools. Forward-Looking Statement Disclaimer This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements may be preceded by the words intends, may, will, plans, expects, anticipates, projects, predicts, estimates, aims, believes, hopes, potential or similar words. Forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control, and cannot be predicted or quantified and consequently, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements: (i) the initiation, timing, progress and results of the Companys research, manufacturing and other development efforts; (ii) the Companys ability to advance its products to successfully complete development and commercialization; (iii) the manufacturing, development, commercialization, and market acceptance of the Companys products; (iv) the lack of sufficient funding to finance the product development and business operations; (v) competitive companies and technologies within the Companys industry and introduction of competing products; (vi) the Companys ability to establish and maintain corporate collaborations; (vii) loss of key management personnel; (viii) the scope of protection the Company is able to establish and maintain for intellectual property rights covering its products and its ability to operate its business without infringing the intellectual property rights of others; (ix) potential failure to comply with applicable health information privacy and security laws and other state and federal privacy and security laws; and (x) the difficulty of predicting actions of the USA FDA and its regulations. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date of this press release. The Company assumes no obligation to update any written or oral forward-looking statement unless required by law. More detailed information about the Company and the risk factors that may affect the realization of forward-looking statements is contained under the heading "Risk Factors" in Ehave, Inc.s Registration Statement on Form F-1 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on September 24, 2015, as amended, which is available on the SEC's website, http://www.sec.gov. For Investors Relations, please contact: Gabe Rodriguez Phone: (623) 261-9046 Email: ir@ehave.com EBRD and EU support prepared university for remote teaching during coronavirus pandemic With many schools and universities around the world temporarily having to close their doors due to the coronavirus pandemic, public and private learning institutions immediately looked for solutions to continue education programmes and academic curricula. Parents of young pupils suddenly had to refresh their grammar and algebra knowledge, with various degrees of success, but for higher education students, it was all about access to online teaching. In Mongolia, the private Mandakh University wasted no time in launching its courses online shortly after the government ordered the closure of educational facilities. The university was well equipped to move its operations online thanks to a recent business advice project undertaken with the help of the EBRD and funding from the European Union (EU). One of the oldest private universities in the country, it comprises several faculties including Economics and Business, Accounting, Engineering and Information Technology, and enrols up to 400 students every year. With its main campus in the capital Ulaanbaatar and a branch campus in the Darkhan-Uul province, the universitys research papers contribute to international publications and conferences. Mandakhs motto is a policy to nurture prosperity: Wealth is created through knowledge. With the ambition of achieving the best international standards, the university first started working with the EBRD a few years ago. Through the Banks Advice for Small Businesses programme, a consultant, who was funded partly by the EU and partly by the university, helped Mandakh introduce new management procedures and obtain ISO certification for its quality management system, which allows for better monitoring and continuous improvement of its processes. This brought with it several achievements, including a major move to new state-of-the-art premises, with modern classrooms and offices, a gym, a canteen and a library; the expansion of IT, engineering and MBA programmes; and increased cooperation with foreign universities. Upgrading learning methodologies is of great importance to Mandakh University, so the next project, again with the support of the EBRD and the EU, focused on introducing digital technology into all areas, from management to teaching. This could not have been more timely: when the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic forced the physical closure of the campus, Mandakh University was ready to swiftly and effectively move all its courses online. The university immediately developed a plan to improve remote teaching services and students access to research work. Faculty members received instructions on how to organise their lessons, which are conducted via video class, while graduate students have been advised on how to prepare for final exams and maintain regular contact with their supervisors and teachers to keep up with their studies. The director, Nanjid Gombojav, is proud of the universitys accomplishments: During the implementation of the project, we conducted research on school operations and management. The advice from the consultants and the improvements following this are now paying off. The objective of the European Union in Mongolia is to support youth employment. In this crisis period, we are focusing our projects to meet long-term impact of Covid-19. Stakeholders in our projects such as Mandakh University are developing e-learning materials that will also be made available to youth in remote areas. This is an imperative tool for education to reach the youth of Mongolia today and in the future, says Pierre-Yves Lucas, Cooperation Team Leader, European Union Delegation to Mongolia. The EBRD has a strong focus on small and medium-sized enterprises in Mongolia, especially during these challenging times. SMEs have a certain capacity to adapt to new situations, which makes them potentially more resilient, given the right support. Thats exactly what the EBRD and the EU provide, says Baigalmaa Sanjjav, EBRD Principal Manager, SME Finance and Development in Mongolia. The pandemic didnt even stop the annual English Skills Competition from taking place in April, which saw 380 students pit their knowledge online in five skills: linguistics, vocabulary, reading, translation and Q&A. Congratulations to the top winners: B. Nomindar, Z. Namuun-Erdene, B. Temuulen, N. Oyuntungalag and B.Usukhbayar! We hope you are reading this! At least 1,500 people have expressed their interest in ignoring government pleas and attending a Black Lives Matter protest in Sydney on Tuesday afternoon. Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday urged people not to join demonstrations, following seven days of out-of-control riots in the United States after George Floyd was killed, allegedly at the hands of a white cop. 'There's no need to import things happening in other countries here to Australia,' Mr Morrison told 2GB radio. 'Australia is not the United States.' Despite his comments, a protest is scheduled to begin at 5pm in Sydney's Hyde Park. A march planned at Sydney's Hyde Park on Tuesday evening was cancelled after people 'threatened to wreak havoc and protest against the event'. Pictured: Protestors are seen during the Invasion Day rally in Brisbane, January 26, 2020 A Black Lives Matter protest is scheduled to begin at 5pm in Sydney's Hyde Park Protesters are expected to attend the rally in Hyde Park on Tuesday afternoon Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday urged people not to join demonstrations, following seven days of out-of-control riots in the United States after George Floyd was killed, allegedly at the hands of a white cop Mr Floyd, a 46-year-old father-of-two, was filmed gasping for breath as officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for eight minutes before he died in custody of the Minneapolis Police Department last Monday. In the wake of Mr Floyd's tragic death, Australians reflected on inequalities on home soil and vowed to protest the treatment of Aboriginal peoples. A Stop Aboriginal Deaths in Custody & George Floyd Peaceful Protest was organised for Tuesday but later cancelled after organisers expressed concerns it would turn violent. But on Tuesday morning, a second event was created and, according to organisers, approved by both police and traditional indigenous custodians of the land. 'After discussions with the CEO of the Gadigal Aboriginal Land Council, the protest has been given the approval to go ahead this afternoon as planned,' the host said on Tuesday. 'Please bring water, a face mask, and remember to abide by social distancing practices.' More than 1,500 people had signed up to attend the march while 3,900 people had said they were interested in attending. Pictured: Protesters in Sydney's Pitt Street on January 26 On Tuesday morning, a second event was created and, according to organisers, approved by both police and traditional indigenous custodians of the land Harlem: Demonstrators participate in a solidarity rally for George Floyd on Saturday in New York A NSW Police spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia they were aware of the protest, but could not comment on whether or not they had approved of the event All attendees were urged to remain calm and peaceful throughout the evening. A NSW Police spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia they were aware of the protest, but could not comment on whether or not they had approved of the event. It is not yet clear if the rally will gather as much traction as initially anticipated, following days of confusion about whether it would go ahead and the creation of multiple different events. The event comes as tens of thousands of Americans take to the streets after Mr Floyd's death ignited nationwide outrage over police brutality and systemic racism. Minnesota - where Floyd died - has borne the brunt of the protests which began there on Tuesday before fanning out across the country. On Monday, Channel Seven US correspondent Amelia Brace and her cameraman, Tim Myers, were attacked by police while covering riots in Washington DC. Protesters hold a banner at a rally which reads: Always was, always will be Aboriginal land' 'Although Australia is far from where the murder took place, we have a voice,' organisers wrote when cancelling the Sydney event A protester poses for photos next to a burning police vehicle in Los Angeles, Saturday, May 30 during a demonstration following the death of George Floyd An officer used his shield to smash Mr Myers in the middle of Ms Brace's live cross to the Sunrise studio before another officer hit her in the head with his baton. She also said they were both hit by rubber bullets prior to the altercation with the officer, as police used batons and tear gas to push hundreds of protesters back away from the White House at the time of the attack. Ms Brace shouted, 'We're media!' as officers targeted her and Mr Myers. The demonstration was held in front of the White House in anticipation of President Donald Trump's address to the nation following a full week of riots. Ms Brace said riot police aren't differentiating between protesters and media. Officer Derek Chauvin (pictured) was identified as the officer pinning down George Floyd in video footage that was widely shared on Tuesday 'You heard us yelling that we were the media but they don't care. They're being indiscriminate,' she said. 'I'm a bit sore. I managed to get a rubber bullet to the backside and the cameraman got one to the back of the neck so we'll have a few bruises tomorrow.' Organisers of the initial rally in Australia cancelled the event following concerns of brutality and violence similar to that now seen in America. 'This event was meant to be a time for Aboriginal voices to be heard, but due to uncertainty of safety for all involved, we would like to advise a cancellation of the protest,' a spokesman said. 'Safety is always priority, and it breaks the hearts of everyone involved to have to cancel this event.' Meanwhile, a vigil is planned in Chippendale on Saturday called 'Stop All Black Deaths in Custody: Vigil for George Floyd'. A person jumps on a burning police vehicle in Los Angeles, Saturday, May 30, 2020, during a protest over the death of George Floyd Washington DC: Protesters holding banners march from Capitol Hill toward the White House during a rally against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd on Saturday 'This vigil will be held on unceded Gadigal Land. The organisers pay their respects to elders past, present and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded,' the event reads. 'The organisers recognise that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are 12 times more likely to be incarcerated, are targeted by police, and are on the frontlines of resistance against state violence every single day.' Similar protests have been planned for Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne with thousands of Australians expected to attend. A Brisbane protest is planned to begin at King George Square from 1pm Saturday. 'Protest in Solidarity with the uprising in the US and against the murder of Aboriginal people in custody,' the Facebook event for Brisbane reads. The Adelaide event is planned for Victoria Square at midday on Saturday, with organisers describing it as a 'colossal moment in history'. 'The movement (in the US) has unleashed the built-up anger at a system that murders Black and working people in cold blood,' the Adelaide event says. 'The power of ordinary people is on display. 'We are also rallying in protest of police violence, racism, and the murder of black people in this country, and in solidarity with the Aboriginal liberation struggle.' Terror victims across the UK are missing out on compensation payments due to a state row over funding, a leading advocate has warned. Northern Irelands Victims Commissioner Judith Thompson has penned an open letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the Stormont Executive demanding a resolution to the shameful stand-off. Mrs Thompson has also written to all MPs across the UK to stress that the impact of the dispute is not confined to victims from Northern Ireland. Anyone living in the UK, and beyond, who was injured during the Northern Ireland Troubles is potentially eligible to apply for the scheme. The commissioner said the treatment of victims by the authorities was cruel, callous and insulting. After a long campaign for the support payments, which range from 2,000 to 10,000 a year depending on the severity of the injury, MPs passed legislation last year to establish the scheme. Survivors, victims and relatives of those killed in Troubles-related incidents (Brian Lawless/PA) It was supposed to open to applications on May 29 but its future has been thrown into doubt amid a wrangle between Stormont and the Government over who foots the 100 million-plus bill. The Government has insisted it is a matter for the devolved administration to pay for out of its block grant. But Stormonts leaders say the scheme was legislated for at Westminster so that is where the funding should come from. Mrs Thompson said victims had been let down again. They are witnessing a failure to open the scheme and a disgraceful public debate between politicians in Northern Ireland and in Westminster over who should pay, she wrote. It is cruel, callous and insulting that this shameful stand-off played out in public is undoing the acknowledgement of pain, suffering and loss that the Victims Payment was to deliver. It has become the ultimate insult to those victims and survivors who campaigned for years to be acknowledged, respected and valued. It is not good enough. Story continues The commissioner said the fact recipients could hail from anywhere in the UK meant it should not be the executives sole responsibility to pay. However, she also demanded that Stormont fulfil its responsibility to appoint a department to administer the scheme. Mrs Thompson added: Twenty two years after the Belfast Agreement was signed, we are still seeing lives devastated by legacy issues, pain passed down through families, and communities torn apart by mental health crises, substance misuse, domestic and sectarian violence. This law, passed in Westminster, will do something to make life better for those who suffered the most. It is our expectation that this legislation is implemented immediately. Flat-pack frenzy: Hundreds of shoppers queued up as Ikea in Belfast opened its doors yesterday. Photo: Liam McBurney/PA Media THOUSANDS of UK customers have queued for hours in searing heat to shop in Ikea stores for the first time since March - but Irish shoppers will have to wait. The homewares giant reopened its doors at 19 UK stores yesterday, including in Belfast, which experienced some of the longest lines of customers. At several locations, customers snaked around car parks as they waited their turn to go in. But Republic of Ireland shoppers will have to wait potentially weeks more to shop in Ikea's lone branch south of the Border, off the M50 at Ballymun. The Government did not include Ikea in the stores permitted to reopen last month. The second phase of reopenings, set for June 8, specifies only that "small retail outlets" and "marts" can reopen. Phase three on June 29 opens the door for Ikea and other "non-essential retail outlets". That phase excludes any shops in "enclosed shopping centres". Outside the Belfast Ikea, customers Samantha Fisher and her daughter Atlanta queued from 8am to furnish a bedroom that had lain empty during the pandemic lockdown. "I wanted my dressing table. My room is empty because I did it up a few months ago and it is just a big space ready for it to go in," said Ms Fisher, from Groomsport, Co Down. "That will be my husband's job tonight - to build it and put it together." Ikea bosses said wardens would patrol stores to help shoppers and ensure they keep their distance. Families are banned. Ikea is allowing only one adult and one child per household inside the store at any one point. Play areas and restaurants will stay shut. Ikea's popular meatballs will be available in food courts to cook at home. Car parks at Ikea outlets in Gateshead and Wembley in England are operating as drive-through coronavirus testing sites. Ikea advised shoppers to "come prepared with ready-made lists and your own bags" for the reopening. Click-and-collect facilities are also opening in a phased approach and in line with UK government guidelines. Extra hand sanitiser will be laid on and more deep cleans of bags, trolleys, bathrooms, equipment and touchscreens will take place. Cash will not be accepted, with all payments by card or contact-free device. Customers were asked to avoid travelling to stores simply to process refunds because Ikea says it has a 365-day returns policy. US Signal, a leading data center services provider, today announced that the company is expanding its cloud and data protection capabilities to additional data centers. Beginning today, customers have the ability to consume multi-tenant and private cloud services in US Signals Grand Rapids, Southfield and Detroit Metro, Michigan data centers. The same services will be available at US Signals Oak Brook, Illinois data center in July and its Indianapolis, Indiana facility in September. Organizations will now benefit from enhanced disaster recovery, backup and managed security services and solutions. In addition, customers that colocate physical infrastructure in these sites can leverage private Layer 2 network connectivity to US Signal Cloud resources, including its HIPAA- and PCI DSS-compliant Hosted Private Cloud or a direct connection to hyperscale providers. US Signals data center services support the large-scale adoption of cloud-first, hybrid, and off-premises data center strategiesall of which require colocation space. The growing demand for each of these services is highlighted within US Signals recent 2020 State of Data Center Offerings Survey. The report also calls out end-user preferences for third-party edge data center providers with a solid record in security, compliance and network capacityareas in which US Signal continues to demonstrate excellence and leadership. US Signal has seen a 300% growth in its data center business over the past five years, explained Dave Wisz, executive vice president of operations at US Signal. This is a trend thats been steadily increasing over the last year but has come to the forefront in the last few months as companies migrate to the cloud in ever-increasing numbers, due to support of remote work. Todays announcement demonstrates that US Signal remains highly responsive to evolving customer requirements and shows that we offer flexibility to customers at every stage of their digital transformation journey. The dramatic increase of remote work since COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of flexible and scalable cloud-based IT resources. To address these needs, US Signal also enables access to its extensive geo-diverse data protection solutionsall with high-speed connectivity, high availability and extremely low latency of 5 milliseconds or less. US Signal is accepting inquiries from interested colocation customers. To find out more, please visit: https://ussignal.com/contact. About US Signal US Signal is a provider of data center services, offering connectivity, cloud hosting, colocation, data protection, and disaster recovery solutions all powered by its wholly owned and operated, robust, fiber network. US Signal also helps customers optimize their IT resources through managed and professional services. California appellate court justice Jeffrey W. Johnson, 59, was removed from office, the Commission on Judicial Performance announced Tuesday A California judge has been removed from office following years of complaints of sexual misconduct, unwanted touching and undignified behavior, including proposing an affair to one of his colleagues. Jeffrey W. Johnson, 59, of the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles was removed from office, it was announced Tuesday. The Commission on Judicial Performance said that the appellate court justice's misconduct was aggravated by his lack of candor throughout the proceedings. The panel said he should be removed for 18 acts of prejudicial misconduct involving more than 40 proven allegations. Johnson was first formally charged in January 2019 with allegations of misconduct that went back 15 years and named at least 16 women, many of them lawyers who worked for the court, a county prosecutor and three fellow appellate justices. The panel said he should be removed from his office for 18 acts of prejudicial misconduct involving more than 40 proven allegations. Pictured in 2017 'Treating women disrespectfully, including unwanted touching and making inappropriate sexual comments, reflects a sense of entitlement completely at odds with the canons of judicial ethics and the role of any judge,' the panel wrote in a 111-page decision and order. An attorney for Johnson said they want to ask the California Supreme Court to review the order given 'the unprecedented decision' to remove a sitting judge who has never been disciplined and whose legal work is undisputed. 'Not one witness ever claimed him to be unfair in any case, or anything less than brilliant. The entire matter here involved non-judicial social conversations,' Paul S. Meyer said in a statement. Johnson held a justice seat at the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles (above) Johnson is a graduate of Yale Law School and a former federal prosecutor and federal judge who was tapped by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009 to the California Court of Appeal. The complaint said he solicited his colleague Justice Victoria Chaney to have an affair. He said he wanted to squeeze her breasts and touched her breasts. The complaint also said that Johnson proposed sex three times to a California Highway Patrol officer who served as his driver for work functions, according to NBC. Johnson denied the allegations. The panel also found he behaved inappropriately toward judicial assistants and a research attorney, telling them they looked good and soliciting personal relationships with them. Gregory Dresser, director and chief counsel of the Commission on Judicial Performance, said the decision is final in 30 days, at which point Johnson has 60 days to request the California Supreme Court for review. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 2, 2020 16:16 597 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb93799 1 National defamation,journalist,journalist-detained,AJI,South-Kalimantan Free Journalists and members of the public in a coalition of indigenous communities and press freedoms have started a crowdfunding campaign to support Diananta "Nanta" Putera Samedi, a journalist in South Kalimantan who was recently arrested for his report on a land dispute. Ika Ningtyas from the Jember, East Java, branch of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), who helped start the campaign, said that any funds raised would go toward supporting Diananta's wife and children financially through his judicial proceedings. "Since Nanta was arrested and had to go through the legal process, his family lost its main [...] breadwinner," said Ika. Diananta's wife was a full-time housewife who lived in Jember with the couple's children, she added. By Sunday, the campaign had raised Rp 14 million (US$968.29) from journalists, college students, environmental activists, indigenous communities and other donors. "We hope the [fund] will be enough to support Nanta's family over the next two months," Ika said. She explained that the fundraising campaign aimed to strengthen solidarity between journalists, the public and indigenous peoples while providing a channel for them to express their objections over Nanta's arrest. Diananta, the former chief editor of local media outlet banjarhits.id in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, was reportedly detained by police on May 4 after Sukirman, who claimed to represent the Dayak indigenous people, filed a defamation suit. The defamation suit concerns an article Diananta wrote that was published in November 2019. The article covers an alleged land dispute in the province between the local Dayak community and a palm oil company owned by businessman Syamsudin "Haji Isam" Andi Irsyad. "The purpose of journalism is the public interest. Journalists report on data and facts from the field [...] so the public [has] credible information," said Ika. "Without press freedom and independence, it's impossible for the public to obtain credible information. Criminalizing journalists, in this case Diananta, threatens the public's right to [...] information." (nal) Your tax-deductible gift today powers our reporters and keeps us independent. We rely on you, our reader, not paywalls to stay funded because we believe important news and information should be freely accessible to all. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe Our news is free on LAist. To make sure you get our coverage: Sign up for our daily newsletters. To support our non-profit public service journalism: Donate Now. Protests are continuing across Southern California this week in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of police. Demonstrators are demanding change to address police brutality and institutional racism in the United States. We spoke to Isaac Bryan, the director of public policy at UCLA's Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, about what's going on and his thoughts on how the media is covering the events so far: QUESTION: What do you think is missing from the news coverage and conversations around the protests? ISAAC BRYAN: I've seen a lot of this dichotomy narrative between any potential acts of violence or property test being contrasted with people [protesting]. I think that that is a false dichotomy of what's actually happening. It doesn't speak to the righteousness of what's happening in this moment; the desperation, that trauma with the need for adequate policy solutions and really inspiring leadership. But irrespective of all of that, the broader focus of what should be focused on [and] talked about in this moment is the movement for Black lives. It is the righteous and rational reaction from folks that have been unheard for decades on this issue. We saw a man murdered in the street, literally had his neck and spine broken by the knee of a law enforcement officer. The autopsy came out today. And it didn't have to happen. And it's not the first time things like that has happened both in our city and nationally, and people have a right go out and respond, however they see fit. Q: The response we have heard before is, well, you can change things. You can go out and vote, and that will change things. Right. I believe that, let me be very clear about that. But there are some things that move too slow, and there are some fires that have to be lit underneath our leaders to really get them to act properly. This week, the city of Los Angeles going to a vote to adopt a new budget for the new fiscal year. At the same time that 16,000 city workers are being furloughed and asked to take a 10% pay cut, the city of Los Angeles is considering giving $125 to $200 million, in addition to their previous budget, to the Los Angeles Police Department. That is counter to what the people are demanding. That is counter to what the movement is demanding. So going out and, quite frankly, making some noise and being heard might be the fire that some folks need to have to return back to really representing the ideals in the community that they ran for office on. Q: We're in the middle of this now, but what's the next step for this movement? Where we do go from here? I think we need a few more days -- to be honest -- of people really letting it be heard that were unhappy. And I can tell you that 3rd and Fairfax on Saturday, I was at that protest. I was on the frontlines. I got hit with a baton. I got hit with a baton several times. I saw loved ones get thrown to the ground as police, surrounded us, suppressed it and really escalated what was a peaceful demonstration. I think we need a little bit more... we need the city, we need the country, to understand [that] this moment is catalytic. It is a broader, louder exclamation than we have ever seen before, and it requires the proper response in policy decisions in electoral leadership and in reallocation of resources. And then I would like to see people get organized. There are organizations that have been leading this work for decades. There are organizations on the ground here in Los Angeles that have been calling for equitable policing, that are really leading this work. And I would encourage twenty-thousand, thiry-thousand people that were out in the streets trying to be heard to align themselves with these organizations so they can really funnel that energy is a collective power. Q: I'm just curious about your confidence level on a scale of one to 10, 10 being you really think change is coming. Where are you? I am not one of those people who believes that it only gets worse and it never gets better. I think we have the power to change the conditions of life around us. I believe that we have the power. I believe in people power. And right now, when I see as many people out in the streets voicing their frustrations, wanting to be heard as I've seen the last few days, that gives me hope. Now, do I think the city's gonna pass people's budget this week? The pragmatist in me is saying: Probably not, probably not. But do I think the moral arc bends towards justice in the long run? I definitely do. And I'm gonna be doing all I can to push it that way. LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW THAT ORIGINALLY RAN ON OUR NEWSROOM'S ALL THINGS CONSIDERED SHOW ON 89.3 KPCC MORE ON LA PROTESTS The authorities in the upscale New York City have imposed a curfew and ramped up police presence after violence and looting incidents were reported across the city amid widespread protests triggered by the custodial killing of African-American George Floyd. Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio announced on Monday that the citywide curfew in New York City will begin at 11 PM on Monday and will be lifted at 5 AM Tuesday morning. They also announced that the New York City Police Department will double its presence, bringing nearly 8000 police personnel to help prevent violence and damage to property, in angry response to the killing of Floyd, a 46-year-old man who was pinned to the ground in Minneapolis last week by a white police officer who kneeled on his neck as he gasped for breath. The additional officers will be deployed in areas where violence broke out and property was damage during the previous night's protests - specifically in lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn. Videos and photos posted on social media showed that while demonstrators protested peacefully around most areas in the city, there were several instances of looting as well. People were seen breaking into high end stores around Manhattan's Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue, home to almost all luxury and high-end brands from around the world, and running way with merchandise from the shops. Groups of people also looted pharmacies, electronic stores and other businesses across the city. Governor Cuomo said that the curfew was imposed is to help separate the overwhelming majority of peaceful protesters from "people who are looking to exploit the moment by looting". "New York City, they looted high end stores with high end merchandise. That wasn't a coincidence. There were people who knew what they were doing. If you wanted to commit a crime that was the time and night to do it, right?" he told CNN. Cuomo said while there are "extremist groups that just want to propose anarchy", the majority of the people are making a very valid point that discrimination and abuse by police should finally end. The governor said in a statement that while the state authorities encourage people to protest peacefully and make their voices heard, the safety of the general public was paramount and cannot be compromised. "I stand behind the protestors and their message, but unfortunately there are people who are looking to distract and discredit this moment. The violence and the looting has been bad for the city, the state and this entire national movement, undermining and distracting from this righteous cause," Cuomo said. He also criticised President Donald Trump for threatening to call in the military to end protests around the country. "What the president today did was he called out the American military against American citizens. That's what they did. They used the American military to push back a peaceful protest, which everyone watched on TV, just so he could have a photo-op of walking to a church. When was the last time you saw the American military called out against Americans?," he said. Trump, who was taken to an underground bunker in the White House on Friday as protesters gathered outside the presidential residence, on Monday ventured outside the White House grounds to pose for photographs at a nearby church. Before Trump came out of the White House, riot police and National Guard troops used tear gas and flash grenades to disperse a peaceful protest in a nearby park. Mayor Blasio said he supported peaceful protest in the city. The mayor said while demonstrations have been generally peaceful, "we can't let violence undermine the message of this moment. It is too important and the message must be heard". He said there had been incidents over the past few days, as the protests intensified, where police officers did not uphold the values of New York City or of the Police Department. "We agree on the need for swift action," he said, adding that it will be ensured that such officers are held accountable. Considered to be the worst ever civil unrest in the US in decades, the violent protests have engulfed at least 140 cities across America in the days following the death of Floyd. Also read: Minneapolis protests: Facebook employees walk out, say Trump's posts need to be reined in Also read: George Floyd protests: 'We all have a role to play,' says Indra Nooyi Molina Healthcare, Inc. MOH unveiled that its Kentucky health plan subsidiary was awarded a new Medicaid managed care contract. The new agreement is likely to benefit enrollees of the companys Medicaid programs in Kentucky. Per the new terms, the deal is likely to come into force from Jan 1 of the next year. The agreement will expire through Dec 31, 2024, and it even holds the potential to get six contract extensions of two years each. The contract win was in accordance with the statewide Medicaid-managed care request for proposals (RFP) issued by the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) andDepartment for Medicaid Services (DMS) as of Jan 10, 2020. Other managed care organizations that won the contracts include Aetna, a subsidiary of CVS Health Corporation CVS, Humana Inc. HUM, UnitedHealthcare Group Inc. UNH and WellCare Health Plans, Inc. Notably, the companies will manage healthcare services for more than 1.4 million people via TANF, CHIP and ABD Medicaid programs. Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) healthcare provider have gained 26.2% in a year compared with the industrys rise of 19.8%. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Other Initiatives to Boost its Medicaid Business Moreover, Molina Healthcare has constantly undertaken efforts to expand its presence in the Medicaid market. In line with such initiatives, the healthcare provider inked a deal worth $820 million this April to acquire Magellan Complete Care (MCC), which is yet another managed care organization. It also entered an all-cash deal value of around $50 million with NextLevel Health Partners, Inc. this January. We expect such moves to boost the companys revenues from its Medicaid line of business in the days ahead. Further, the entire United States is grappling with financial woes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. At a time when unemployment levels are remaining high, Molinas Medicaid business is likely to witness increased membership. This is because Medicaid health plans generally provide coverage to low-income groups across the United States. Story continues Also, the Health Maintenance Organization industry, to which Molina Healthcare belongs, remains well-poised to benefit from strong demand for health insurance products, owing to a high percentage of the aging population in the United States. 5 Stocks to Soar Past the Pandemic: In addition to the companies you learned about above, we invite you to learn about 5 cutting-edge stocks that could skyrocket from the exponential increase in demand for stay at home technologies. This could be one of the biggest buying opportunities of the decade. See the 5 high-tech stocks now>> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (UNH) : Free Stock Analysis Report Humana Inc. (HUM) : Free Stock Analysis Report CVS Health Corporation (CVS) : Free Stock Analysis Report Molina Healthcare, Inc (MOH) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Burma South Koreas SK Telecom to Help Myanmar Boost Cybersecurity A computer user explores the Ministry of Health and Sports website. / The Irrawaddy YANGONSouth Koreas largest telecom company, SK Telecom, has signed an agreement with Myanmars National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) to help improve the countrys defenses against cybersecurity threats. A government agency under the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the NCSC is responsible for safeguarding national intelligence against cyber threats, including hacking and distributed denial-of service (DDos) attacks, and protecting the nations information and communications networks. The NCSC said the move aims to protect Myanmars national intelligence and intelligence resources from cybersecurity threats. While Myanmar has recently made progress on digitalization, jumping to No. 157 on the e-government index in 2018 from 169 in 2016 (out of 193 countries worldwide), it still has a long way to go. Moreover, the implementation of an e-government program has opened the door to a new threatcybercrime. SK Telecom will work closely with the NCSC to build a sophisticated security operation system in Myanmar to strengthen protections against the ever-increasing cyber threats, said Shim Sang-soo, vice president and head of the Infra Business Group of SK Telecom. SK Telecom said that under the contract signed on Tuesday, the company will dispatch a team of cybersecurity experts to Myanmar to provide consulting services for the design and establishment of a Security Operation Center (SOC) for the NCSC through the end of July. According to the contract, the expert team will use SK Telecoms Smart Guard solution to diagnose security vulnerabilities within the NCSCs existing cybersecurity infrastructure. The company said it will share SK Telecoms expertise and know-how in ICT infrastructure security management to ensure a rapid and efficient response to cyber threats. In a press release, SK Telecom said it will also provide Security Information & Event Management (SIEM), a security solution developed by Korean company Igloo Security, after optimizing the solution for the NCSCs environment. SIEM collects and analyzes informationincluding logs, errors, hacking activity and othersgenerated by diverse systems including servers, network equipment and applications, and immediately notifies the security administrators. At the Fourth e-Government Conference in February, Myanmar State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi pushed for the speeding up of the countrys e-governance plan to drive economic development. The State Counselor said the necessary infrastructures have been set up and a network has been established to link ministries. Plans are underway to build a national data center to safely store information for these ministries and provide efficient services. A number of laws concerned with e-government have been enacted, and more laws on cybercrime and data security are on the way. Rules and regulations are also being developed to target those who commit acts of sabotage and cybercrime, she said. Preparations to issue Certification Authority are underway, providing a digital signature with which online users can identify themselves, according to the Ministry of Transport and Communications. You may also like these stories: Myanmar Parliament Rejects Move to Oust House Speaker Govt to Build Temporary Classrooms to Aid Social Distancing in Schools Myanmars Third COVID-19 Lab Begins Operating in Mandalay For months, Californias Democratic U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris has campaigned hard to convince presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joseph Biden he should make her his vice-presidential running mate. The ever-ambitious, well-spoken and fast-on-her-feet Harris fits into many categories Biden openly seeks to match: Shes black, female and could appeal to foreign-born voters as the daughter of an immigrant. She would likely overwhelm the ever-meek current Vice President Mike Pence if and when they debate. In case of a loss, she would hold onto her seat in the Senate. But many political analysts say thats as far as it goes. For Harris also has political downsides. For one thing, she wont get Biden many votes or states he would not otherwise win. He has Californias 55 electoral votes in the bag before the campaign really starts, holding a 30-point lead over President Trump in the latest polling. And he already dominates among African American voters. Harris sandbagged Biden in the first Democratic debate last year, unexpectedly scorching him for being soft 40 years ago on school busing for desegregation. Her surprise attack derailed Bidens early momentum, which took more than six months to recover. In her only seriously contested statewide California race, Harris won by the narrowest margin of any major officeholder here in decades. While still serving as San Franciscos district attorney in 2010, she barely beat Republican Steve Cooley, then the top Los Angeles prosecutor, in their run for state attorney general during a Democratic California sweep. Harris won by less than 1 percent (74,000 votes out of 9.6 million cast), the outcome in question until a month after the vote. This despite several political blunders by Cooley, who insisted that if elected, he would collect his six-figure Los Angeles County pension while drawing another six-figure salary as attorney general. On the face of it, Harris might have some appeal to progressive, Bernie Sanders-style Democrats. But that lasts only until they look at her record. While a district attorney, Harris backed a proposed law enabling prosecution of parents whose kids were habitually truant from school. This could have disproportionally affected people of color and the poor. As attorney general, she appealed when a federal judge in Orange County ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in 2014. And a federal appeals court found her office willfully hid exculpatory evidence in the case of a stepfather accused of abusing his stepdaughter. As a result, the stepfather remained in prison long after Harris moved on to the Senate, despite evidence his stepdaughter repeatedly lied. Trump and Pence would likely not attack Harris for much of this, but would certainly highlight her very close past association with former San Francisco Mayor and state Assembly Speaker Willie Brown. Then theres the question of whether Biden could trust Harris after her debate surprise attack. Yet, other vice presidents have been chosen despite previous attacks on their future bosses or their close associates: George H.W. Bush famously called some Ronald Reagan proposals voodoo economics and John F. Kennedy despised Lyndon Johnson, yet Bush and Johnson became vice presidents and later presidents. Even Biden at one time disparaged Barack Obama. Biden, aware he can seem hesitant and even occasionally confused, has pledged to run with a woman, but must choose one widely considered ready to step into the Oval Office on short notice. The advantage of Harris is that she might be seen as very independent and outspoken in her own right, which could be a plus with a candidate or a president like Biden, said Arnold Steinberg, a former Republican consultant who recently has advised ballot proposition campaigns. She might upstage Biden at times, but her persona and most of her record are solid. The real question is whether Biden and later the great mass of American voters will consider Harris as prepared to be president as senators like Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts or Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Its Bidens decision and it will come soon, but Californians can be sure of one thing: Whether or not Harris gets the nod, she has a long career ahead, in California and maybe nationally. Thomas D. Elias writes the syndicated California Focus column. He is author of the book, The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Governments Campaign to Squelch It. 'I'm earning 9% on my capital!' Cheap mortgages mean landlords are laughing but will buy-to-let boom last? Tempted by a ten per cent return on your capital, earned from an investment as solid as bricks and mortar? Then you will understand why Britain is, again, in the grip of a buy-to-let boom. Several factors have combined to make buy-to-let popular again after the sector crashed five years ago at the start of the financial crisis. Cheap buy-to-let mortgages are available to landlords while at the same time they are expensive and out of reach of many young people who want to buy a home of their own. Rents, which are already high, are rising in many parts of Britain. Last week Homelet, the tenant referencing agency, said London rents had increased by more than eight per cent in a year. Renting in the capital is today more expensive than it has ever been, Homelet said. Risks and rewards: Landlord Mark Frankland expects nine per cent returns One landlord taking advantage of the situation is chartered engineer Mark Frankland, who bought his sixth property to let two weeks ago. The three-bedroom property near Winchester, Hampshire, cost 165,000. Mark, 51, has borrowed 75 per cent of the price, which is the maximum proportion of a property value that lenders typically advance to landlords. He plans to spend 15,000 refurbishing the home to a high standard, bringing the total cash he has committed to the project deposit plus refurbishment costs to just over 56,000. How - and where - to reap the highest yields Mark believes that rent of 850 a month will be readily achievable. After monthly mortgage costs of 420, this will net him an income of 430 a month, or about 5,200 a year. On his cash invested, that is a return of nine per cent. Of course there is hard work involved and risk. Mark says: Im looking for properties that meet my criteria, one of which is a high level of ongoing return after mortgage costs. Loan deals galore if youre a landlord Lender's eagerness to do business with landlords is reflected in a range of attractive new deals and a trend of falling rates and fees. Virgin Money last week trimmed its two-year fixed rate from 3.99 per cent to 3.79 per cent for landlords with a minimum 40 per cent deposit. There is a 1,995 fee. And Manchester Building Society raised eyebrows by unveiling rates that can be fixed for as long as 25 years. Borrowers need a minimum 25 per cent deposit and must pay a 749 fee. After that they can choose either a capital repayment mortgage at 5.74 per cent, or interest-only at 5.99 per cent. Early repayment penalties apply for seven years, but after that the term can run for up to 25 years at the borrowers choice. David Hollingworth of mortgage broker London & Country says innovative products such as this illustrate that life is being breathed back into the landlord sector. Hollingworth says that the proportion of landlord business that the firm does is back at the level of 2007, before the start of the banking crisis. Our typical landlord client is someone with one or two properties rather than large portfolios, and that is the kind of market that many lenders now focus on, as they seek to limit exposure to any one borrower, he says. David Whittaker of specialist broker Mortgages for Business says lending to professional investors with multiple properties is also recovering. Specialist lenders such as Paragon, Aldermore and others are back in play. Landlords are steadily active, he says. Hollingworth says lenders remain picky. Some, like Yorkshire Building Society, will not lend to first-time landlords while others, such as Precise Mortgages, exclude certain postcodes. The risks are that values will fall, mortgage rates will rise and tenants will default. But with careful choice of property and good management, you can minimise these risks. Its a business. Mark has ten years experience as a landlord. He bought his first three properties before the financial crisis, all in the Winchester area, where he lives and works for computer giant IBM. But, like many landlords, he bought his last three since 2010. Where else can I get this level of return on capital? he asks. Circumstances today favour landlords. Provided they can find at least 25 per cent to put down as a deposit, landlords can easily find mortgage finance at competitive rates. And rates appear set to remain low, encouraging this form of investment. On the other hand, mortgages for aspiring young homeowners are stubbornly hard to come by. This is a further help to landlords as it increases the pool of tenants chasing after properties, driving up rents. Yet another factor in landlords favour is property prices: in most places prices are flat or weakening. This has the effect of pushing up the yield, or rental return, giving investors like Mark their sought-after income stream. Before the crisis, buying to let became almost a cult, with armchair investors snapping up property, principally in the hope of making a quick capital gain. Many of these investors were burnt as prices especially of new-build properties in large blocks fell when the financial crisis unfolded in 2007. Todays investors are different and focused on rental income. Accountant UHY Hacker Young says this is due to the poor returns on investments elsewhere. This explains the phenomenal growth in the number of taxpayers declaring an income from property, which has risen from 1.4 million in 2006-07 to two million. Roy Maugham, a partner at UHY Hacker Young, says: When the financial crisis began, people wrote off buy-to-let, saying it was the end. It was anything but. Despite the risk of volatility in house prices, rents provide a steady income that other investments cant currently match. Mark epitomises this type of investor. I aim for double-digit annual rental returns and Ill take a long term view on what will happen to prices, he says. I buy properties that need refurbishing as that immediately adds value, giving a buffer against a weakening market. Richard Blanco, a landlord who has ten properties in London and several in Nottingham, echoes Marks advice. He established most of his portfolio before 2006. At that point he ceased buying until 2009 when the crisis had taken its toll on prices and when rents were starting to firm. Challenge: Richard Blanco says that being a landlord is not an 'easy win' He then added two houses and two flats to his London portfolio, in the east and south-east of the capital. The housing market is so different around the country, and even within London, says Richard, 45. In Londons most desirable areas rental yields are three or four per cent, which is low, but that is because prices have been driven so high by foreign buyers. In the areas where Richard invests, which are farther out but still offer easy access for professionals working in the centre, yields are about six per cent. Richard says: People may see being a landlord as an easy win. Not so. You are providing a home and thats a big responsibility. The Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo announced today that a new outbreak of Ebola virus disease is occurring in Wangata health zone, Mbandaka, in Equateur province.The announcement comes as a long, difficult and complex Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo is in its final phase, while the country also battles COVID-19 and the worlds largest measles outbreak.Initial information from the Ministry of Health is that six Ebola cases have so far been detected in Wangata, of which four have died and two are alive and under care. Three of these six cases have been confirmed with laboratory testing. It is likely more people will be identified with the disease as surveillance activities increase.This is a reminder that COVID-19 is not the only health threat people face, said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. Although much of our attention is on the pandemic, WHO is continuing to monitor and respond to many other health emergencies.This is the Democratic Republic of the Congos 11th outbreak of Ebola since the virus was first discovered in the country in 1976. The city of Mbandaka and its surrounding area were the site of Democratic Republic of the Congos 9th Ebola outbreak, which took place from May to July 2018.Its happening at a challenging time, but WHO has worked over the last two years with health authorities, Africa CDC and other partners to strengthen national capacity to respond to outbreaks, said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. To reinforce local leadership, WHO plans to send a team to support scaling up the response. Given the proximity of this new outbreak to busy transport routes and vulnerable neighbouring countries we must act quickly.WHO is already on the ground in Mbandaka supporting the response to this outbreak, as part of capacity built during the 2018 outbreak. The team supported the collection and testing of samples, and reference to the national laboratory for confirmation. Contact tracing is underway. Work is ongoing to send additional supplies from North Kivu and from Kinshasa to support the government-led response. A further 25 people are expected to arrive in Mbandaka tomorrow. WHO is also working to ensure that essential health services are provided to communities despite these emergency events.The Democratic Republic of the Congos 10th outbreak of Ebola, in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces, is in its final stages. On 14 May 2020, the Ministry of Health began the 42-day countdown to the declaration of the end of that outbreak.New outbreaks of Ebola are expected in the Democratic Republic of the Congo given the existence of the virus in an animal reservoir in many parts of the country. Six police officers in Atlanta have been charged with using excessive force during the arrest of two of the nicest people during protests over the death of George Floyd. In an arrest captured on body cameras on Saturday night, police allegedly broke car windows to grab and use tasers against college students Taniyah Pilgrim and Messiah Young, leaving them with injuries including fractured wrists and large gashes requiring 24 stitches Fulon County District Attorney Paul Howard said on Tuesday that both the students were innocent and gave corroborating versions of events. In fact my investigators concluded that they were so innocent almost to the point of being naive, Mr Howard said. These were really two of the nicest people that we had ever gotten the chance to meet in the DAs office. Arrest warrants were issued for officers Lonnie Hood, Willie Sauls, Ivory Streeter, Mark Gardner, Armond Jones and Roland Claud. The various charges levied against the officers include aggravated assault, simple battery, criminal damage to property, and pointing or aiming a gun. Two of the officers, Mr Streeter and Mr Gardner, were fired on Sunday by Atlantas mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms. Speaking at a press conference, Ms Pilgrim, 20, said she and Mr Young were driving home from the protests when she suffered the worst experience of her life. I hope every police officer who thinks its okay to drag someone, beat someone, do all this stuff because theyre cops, I hope theyre going to be held accountable as well, Ms Pilgrim said. Mr Young said it was only a small satisfaction that the police were held accountable and that there needed to be a change moving forward so all officers were held accountable in the culture of policing. I feel a little safer now that these monsters are off of the street and no longer able to terrorise anyone else from this point, he added. Mr Howard said a $10,000 (7,975) signature bond has been set for all of the officers, who have been asked to turn themselves in by Friday to be processed by Fulton County Jail. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. Sarah Collins Rudolph thought shed never see what happened in her hometown: Prompted by protests, the city removed a 115-year-old Confederate monument near where her sister and three other black girls died in a racist church bombing in 1963. A wave of Confederate memorial removals that began after a white supremacist killed nine black people at a Bible study in a church in South Carolina in 2015 is again rolling, with more relics of the Old South being removed from public view after the killing of George Floyd by police in Minnesota. In Birmingham, where Rudolph lives, the graffiti-covered, pocked base of a massive Confederate monument was all that remained Tuesday after crews dismantled the towering obelisk and trucked it away in pieces overnight. Other symbols came down elsewhere, leaving an empty pedestal in Virginia and a bare flagpole in Florida. Rudolph, whose sister Addie Mae Collins died in the bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church, had to see the sight for herself. She lowered a protective face mask to take in the absence of an edifice she long considered a symbol of oppression. Im glad its been removed because it has been so long, and we know that its a hate monument, said Rudolph, 69. It didnt represent the blacks. It just represented the hard times back there a long time ago. Confederate symbols across the South have been targeted for vandalism during demonstrations sparked by Floyds death in police custody in Minneapolis. Now, even some of their longtime defenders have decided to remove them. In Alexandria, Virginia, it was the United Daughters of the Confederacy that took action early Tuesday, removing the statue of a soldier gazing south from Old Town since 1889. And outside Tampa, Florida, a Sons of Confederate Veterans chapter lowered a huge Confederate battle flag that has long been flown in view of two interstate highways. Birmingham took down the obelisk a day after protesters tried to remove the monument themselves, during one of the many nationwide protests. Crews were preparing to finish the job by pulling up the base. The monument had been the subject of a protracted court battle between the city and state, which passed a law to protect Confederate icons after rebel monuments were challenged and removed following the killings at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the city of Birmingham, seeking to fine the city $25,000 for violating the state law. Mayor Randall Woodfin said earlier this week that the fine was more affordable than the cost of continued unrest in the city. Online fundraising drives have raised more than enough money to pay the fine. The state lawsuit does not specifically ask Birmingham to restore the monument. Work to remove the monument began Monday, which was Alabamas holiday honoring Confederate President Jefferson Davis, who was sworn in Montgomery. There, on the same day, someone knocked over a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee outside a mostly black high school named for him. Four people were arrested on criminal mischief charges, and the toppled statue was removed. In Alexandria, a city spokesman said the United Daughters of the Confederacy informed the city on Monday that it would remove the statue, and the citys only role was to provide traffic support. By morning, the pedestal was all that was left. City officials were not told where the statue was taken. Titled Appomattox, it depicts a solitary Confederate soldier, his head bowed slightly. In 1890, a state law was passed barring local officials from ever removing it. That law was repealed earlier this year. Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson tweeted photos of the removal on Tuesday, saying Alexandria, like all great cities, is constantly changing and evolving. In Birmingham, Rudolph saw the removal of the monument as unfinished business from decades ago. The more than 50-foot-tall (15-meter-tall) memorial to Confederate soldiers and sailors was located just blocks from the church where Rudolph was badly injured and her sister died when a bomb went off on a Sunday morning decades ago. The things that we were fighting for in the 60s arent solved yet, said Rudolph, who testified against Ku Klux Klansmen convicted in the bombing. We shouldnt be treated the way they treat us. ___ Associated Press writers Kim Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama; and Matthew Barakat in Falls Church, Virginia; contributed to this report. T he film crew for Avatar 2 have been granted permission to fly into New Zealand to begin filming on the sequel, despite the countrys border closure. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern closed New Zealands borders on March 16 in a bid to curtail the spread of coronavirus. New Zealands quick response to the Covid-19 pandemic has been praised internationally. Less than 1,500 cases have been reported and 22 people have died of the virus. Yesterday, Ardern announced that the country was on track to wipe out the virus ahead of schedule after health officials reported the 11th consecutive day of no new cases of the disease. 20th Century Fox The original film proved a major blockbuster hit (20th Century Fox) Director James Cameron and 55 members of his crew, including producer Jon Landau, arrived in the country on a private charter plane over the weekend. They must undergo a 14 day period of government-supervised self-isolation before they can get to work, according to a post shared on Landaus Instagram, which showed him and Cameron, 65, wearing face masks and protective visors. The films crew, who travelled from Los Angeles, were able to enter the country by seeking permission from the economic development minister Phil Twyford. They are classed as other essential workers. According to guidelines set out by the New Zealand government, it must be proved that the job carried out by other essential workers cannot be done by a resident, is urgently needed at this time and is either critical to the Covid-19 response, maintaining critical infrastructure or there will be very significant economic benefits resulting from it. The New Zealand border remains closed and public health remains the governments number one priority in making border exemption decisions, Twyford said in a statement, according to The Guardian. The decision has reportedly angered many New Zealanders whose businesses have been affected by the strict border closure. Families and couples have also been separated due to the regulations. Film and TV productions were given the green light to resume in New Zealand in early May, with Amazons big-budget Lord of the Rings series among the first productions to get back on track. The coronavirus pandemic has had a major impact on the film industry, with filming postponed around the world and the release of many major movies held back while cinemas are closed. LaToya Ratlieff was stumbling away from a cloud of tear gas in downtown Fort Lauderdale Sunday choking, coughing and trying not to vomit when a police officer shot a foam rubber bullet at her head. The round, traveling more than twice the speed of a Major League fastball, smashed into her face just above the right eye, opening up a bloody gash. The impact brought Ratlieff, who was attending an anti-police brutality protest, to her knees. Her eye started to swell shut. Her eye socket was fractured, her medical records show. The projectile that likely struck her, known as a foam baton, has roughly the hardness of a racquet ball and is fired from a rifle-barreled launcher. Foam batons are considered a lethal munition when aimed at the head, according to the manufacturers manual. Shooting Ratlieff in the face as she left the scene would seem to violate the Fort Lauderdale Police Departments policy on proper use of so-called less lethal munitions. The weapons policy, posted on the departments website, states officers should aim for the head and neck only if deadly force becomes necessary. Moments before being shot around 7 p.m., Ratlieff was kneeling on the ground, encouraging other marchers to stay peaceful and join her. From their knees, the group begged police in riot gear to stop using tear gas on protesters, who had been angered after seeing an officer shove a kneeling woman minutes earlier and had tossed water bottles at police in response. The protest had been peaceful all afternoon. As Ratlieff and the other protesters kneeled, the situation seemed back under control. But police resumed launching tear gas canisters from behind a wall of shields. Several protesters backed away with their hands in the air. When the gas began to choke Ratlieff, another woman led her to safety. Ratlieff was off to the side moving away from the gas and the remaining protesters when an officer took aim. Someone yelled at the officer to stop. It didnt work. The officer fired. The next moments were a blur. She wasnt even in pain at first. Story continues It wasnt until I saw all the blood on the ground that it hit me, said Ratlieff, a 34-year-old grant writer for nonprofits who lives in Delray Beach. Ive been shot. I was there and this girl got shot by the garage pic.twitter.com/TGDuTxfYYR JROC (@asu2fiu) June 1, 2020 Miami Herald reporters witnessed the incident. A black projectile hit Ratlieff in the forehead and ricocheted 50 feet down the street. Reporters were unable to locate the munition, but later returned to the scene and found cartridges labeled: 40 mm Foam Baton. The police departments policy for using foam batons states: For safety reasons the deploying officer utilizing a less-lethal weapon should not aim at the head, throat, face, or groin area of a suspect. ... The potential for causing death or serious physical injury by such projectiles is a reality. It also states officers should give a verbal warning to disperse before using projectiles. No such warning was given, according to Ratlieff and more than a dozen other protesters in the area. Herald reporters standing nearby also heard no warning. After a police officer shot LaToya Ratlieff in the face with a foam rubber bullet as she stumbled away from tear gas, other protesters rushed to the aid of the bleeding woman. Fort Lauderdale Police Department protocols say officers should only aim for the head and neck if they intend to use deadly force. We were all running and trying to get out of the way. So it was purposeful in the fact that the officer could have stopped, Ratlieff said. Whichever officer that did this, you could have stopped. You had no reason to continue to do that. In a statement, the Fort Lauderdale Police Department said it did not have specific information about the incident and no officers had been relieved of duty because of it. A civil disturbance is a rapidly evolving situation, where people are moving fluidly, the statement said. In these circumstances, despite our best efforts, a person or persons may be unintentionally struck with a less-lethal projectile. Our policy permits the use of less-lethal munitions such as foam batons. Our intent is to disperse a crowd, not to cause injury. The department has not released incident reports from the protest in response to a public records request. The day had been peaceful until around 7 p.m. when a Fort Lauderdale police officer, Steven Pohorence, shoved a kneeling woman in the head outside a city parking garage. Protesters who witnessed the act began throwing water bottles. Police in riot gear who were staging in the garage even though that is where many of the protesters had parked, seemingly guaranteeing an encounter of some kind responded with tear gas and foam baton rounds. Ratlieff arrived after the first confrontation and attempted to calm the protesters. She was struck minutes later outside the garage. Those nearby helped carry her away. People she didnt know rushed her to Broward General Medical Center in their car. No police, all trained in first response, offered assistance, she said. After that, many people left. Squads of police continued to clash with groups of protesters still in the area. Some protesters threw rocks and launched fireworks at officers as the conflict worsened. The Broward Sheriffs Office was called in for backup. Just before 8:30 p.m., Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis declared a 9 p.m. curfew and police announced over a loudspeaker that protesters would be arrested if they stayed out after that time. More than 50 officers in riot gear formed lines around two sides of the park where protesters had gathered peacefully earlier in the day. At least three armored vehicles were deployed. The piercing din of a sound cannon was used to drive people away. No arrests were made. Pohorence was suspended that evening for shoving the woman, an act caught on video by a protester. The woman he struck has not been identified. The officer who shot Ratlieff has also not been identified. Protesters said police shot another man in the head with a projectile, leaving him unable to recall the day of the week. Protesters said a second person was shot in the head with a foam baton. Scott Ross, who took photos of the protest, said police shot people who were fleeing in the back of the legs. The tear gas is working. People are running away, Ross said. Why are they shooting people in the back? It appeared punitive. A peaceful protest The march, organized by Black Lives Matter Alliance of Broward and other local groups to protest the deaths of George Floyd and people of color at the hands of police, began at 3 p.m. at Huizenga Plaza, a downtown Fort Lauderdale park. Attendees were told not to engage with the police under any circumstances and stay calm. Dozens of volunteers were selected before the protest to monitor officers and the crowd and maintain peace. Police kept their distance from the estimated 1,500 civilians, who marched from the park to Fort Lauderdale police headquarters on Broward Boulevard. Volunteers made sure to stay between police standing guard along the route and a small number of protesters who tried to taunt them. At the police station, the peacekeepers picked up loose rocks and hid them in bushes after one young man talked about hurling them through windows. Several stood with their arms out to prevent anyone from approaching the stations front doors. They also kept a handful of rowdy marchers away from stores along the route. Wed been trained by the organizers to defuse that: Not the time, keep it moving, lets get out, said Jessica Garafola, a peacekeeper and legislative aide to State Rep. Shevrin Jones, a Broward Democrat. The organizers message was the same: It was a peaceful protest. There was no place for taunts or destruction of property. Their mission was to keep everyone safe, Garafola said. Theres nothing constructive that can happen, either their body being put in danger or the cops being irritated and taking it out on other people. The organized effort worked. No windows were broken along the route. No fights with police occurred. Protesters run as Fort Lauderdale police fire tear gas in downtown Fort Lauderdale on Sunday, May 31, 2020. BSO was called in for backup. At around 6:15 p.m., the marchers returned to the park. A pastor gave a final prayer. Organizers told the crowd it was time to go home. Many started heading back to their cars at the Riverwalk Center Garage two blocks away. Among them were a group of young people who had joined the march as it headed back from the police station, several protesters said. When the young people saw a fully equipped riot squad in the garage, they began to chant and shout at the police from the street. Protesters questioned why the riot squad was deployed so close to a non-violent march and why police didnt work more to deescalate the situation. Why was the riot squad in the garage in the first place? said Narnike Grant, a march volunteer who is running for Broward school board. With these young kids, theyre hasty, they dont think, they see the riot gear and they think, Oh youre ready for me, Im ready for you. ... Especially with kids like that whove been cooped up because of the pandemic. The police ignited the situation, Grant added. When you start presenting yourselves as this is war, youre only going to get what you put out there. And youre supposed to be setting the example. What happened next isnt clear. Fort Lauderdale police said an officer sent a distress call, saying her car was surrounded by protesters. That may have led Pohorence into the crowd, where he pushed the woman, police said. The riot squad began advancing from inside the garage toward the street. Then the violence started. Ratlieff was shot. Thor Eells, a retired police commander and executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association, said police may not have intended to shoot Ratlieff in the head. They very easily could have been aiming at a permissible target area. That would not be unusual, Eells said. In public disturbances, people being struck or injured is not uncommon. While not the desirable outcome, it does happen. However, he said, the weapons are highly accurate up to 30 yards. Ratlieff was standing about 10 yards from the first line of police when she was hit. LaToya Ratlieff was being led away from tear gas by another marcher at an anti-police brutality protest in Fort Lauderdale May 31. Moments after this photo was taken a police officer shot her in the face with a foam rubber bullet, fracturing her right eye socket. Latisha Curry, a 23-year-old Florida International University student, was just trying to get her car and go home. Instead she got gassed. It was like wasabi in your eyes, she said. In an interview with the Herald Tuesday, Trantalis said of Ratlieffs shooting, It would be wrongful if we violated any policy. I think its probably worth looking into. However, the mayor said that no one should have stuck around after the protest ended and the violence began. There would be no reason why I would stay there if I saw tear gas and rocks being thrown, he said. Trantalis also blamed the violence on agitators, who he said stashed bricks and concrete blocks in the garages stairwells and showed up with gas masks. People came there intending to provoke violence, he said. Protesters interviewed by the Herald said they didnt see anything like that. Thats a total lie, Grant said. People were carrying signs. 18-year-old Zoe Dobbins made it out of the garage before the violence started. The protest had been outstanding, she thought. So Dobbins was shocked when she got back home and learned what happened. We were watching the news and I said to my mom, How could that have turned so quickly? How could that happen? she said. That was so organized. That went so well. Sick and tired of being sick and tired Just 36 hours after the protest, Ratlieff sat in her parents living room, both eyes so swollen she could barely see text messages coming into her phone. Her tiny white dog, Fluff, waited anxiously at her feet, a watchful post he had maintained since the moment she returned from the hospital. Ratlieff is left with questions and no good answers. She listed them off to a Herald reporter: Why had the officer shot at her and other protesters who were running away? What was the officer thinking who fired the weapon? Was that officer so worried about potential violence that they had somehow mistaken protesters with their hands in the air as a potential threat because of the color of their skin? A woman meditates as tear gas is set off around her in downtown Fort Lauderdale during a Justice for George Floyd rally in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday, May 31, 2020. It hurts. I dont have a lot of words to describe it. I dont really understand why this happens, Ratlieff said. Were here peacefully asking you not do do this, not to be violent, and you meet us with violence? Ratlieffs great aunt is Fannie Lou Hamer, a famous civil rights activist who had been beaten to the point of permanent kidney injury while in jail in Mississippi for protesting Jim Crow laws. A year after the incident, in 1964, Hamer sat in front of the Credentials Committee of the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City and said, Im sick and tired of being sick and tired. The message was broadcast on national television and became a rallying cry of the civil rights movement. Compared to what her great aunt experienced, Ratlieff told reporters this is nothing, gesturing to her eye. She was most concerned about how to explain what happened to her 10-year-old niece. She doesnt want the young girl to live in fear. But now Ratlieff is battling her own fear. She spent her life believing that there are more good cops than bad cops but is nervous about her next interaction with an officer. At a routine traffic stop, I have to make sure this moment is way in the back of my mind, Ratlieff said. I cant react in any way. I cant show any discomfort, because Im not sure how that officer might react. The manufacturers manual on the use of foam batons comes with a warning: The action of pointing and firing a weapon directly at an individual and the associated flash, sound and impact delivers substantial psychological effects in conjunction with the actual projectile impact. Ratlieff plans to march at another protest next weekend. By then, she said, the swelling should be down. Summer travel via recreational vehicle, or RV, could hit record levels this year. Hitting the road in a self-contained cocoon, which travelers can sanitize to their liking, is on a roll as gasoline prices tumble and Americans seek ways to express their pent up demand to get out of the house. RVs provide a great way for consumers to enjoy vacations with their families, while still adhering to social-distancing policies that are likely to remain in place in some fashion moving forward, said RV Industry Association President Craig Kirby. San Francisco-based Outdoorsy.com, a company that connects renters with RV owners, has seen visits to its website hit 2.5 million this month, up 93% compared to the same time last year, according to a spokesperson. Its gross bookings are up 84% year-over-year. "We had our best bookings day on record this week with 300 percent year-over-year growth that day," she said. RV vacations produced some of the fondest summer vacation memories from my childhood, such as the time we booked an "Islander" motor home in Atlanta and rumbled up to Ontario to visit family for summer vacation. Best memory? We stopped in Pennsylvania's Amish country during peak fruit and vegetable season, bought berries and my mother made a pie in the RV's tiny oven while we watched locals clop around in their horses and buggies from our parking spot. A few years later, we rented a 36-foot whopper of a Winnebago to drive to the Rockies for the grand tour from Denver, up through the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone parks and into Montana, then back across the high plains with a stop at Mount Rushmore. Most thrilling for me was that I was 15-years-old at the time and in possession of my learner's permit, and my father let me drive that big rig on those long flat freeways listening to Boz Scaggs and ELO 8-track tapes! Care to create your own memories? Here's what you need to know to start planning your own RV experience for your family or circle of friends. First, get busy. Increased interest in RV travel this summer means higher prices and frequent sellouts. How can you find the right RV? There are several companies that rent their own fleets of motor homes such as Cruise America and El Monte RV. There are also Airbnb-style websites set up that connect potential renters with RV owners, such as RVShare.com, Outdoorsy.com and GoRVing.com. Back in the day, my father saw the Islander parked in a driveway in our neighborhood he approached the owner and they worked out a private deal to rent it, so there's a low-tech option, too. Thomas Winz/Getty Images To get an idea of cost, let's look at Cruise America's weekly rates for a "standard" size motor home that sleeps five. Cruise America's motor homes are midrange functional but not fancy. Pets are allowed. For a one week rental, picking up and dropping off in the Bay Area, you'll pay about $200 per night, or about $1,400 for a week. There is also a fee of 35 cents per mile, so if you plan on driving 1,000 miles, you'll pay $350. And you'll also pay a $3.50 fee per hour for use of the generator, typically used to power air conditioning. Kitchen and bedding "kits" are extra. Then there is gasoline, which is relatively cheap right now (averaging about $2.60 per gallon in California). A standard size RV gets about 10 mpg. So, the all-in price for a seven-day RV motor home rental will be about $2,000 plus gas, campground, parking or park fees, and food/beverages. That's the price for a Class C-style motor home. The larger "bus" style homes (Class A) are more expensive, and offer more room and amenities I even found one with a fireplace! Keep in mind that you'll likely have to park the big rigs overnight in designated campgrounds, with electrical and waste hookups. Camper vans, such as the popular Sprinter models (Class B), vary in price, and are prized because they can be legally parked in most parking lots. These smaller, spryer vans are best for those who want to go "boondocking," where you drive to remote areas, park and camp relying on the vehicle's generator and waste systems. Don't miss a shred of important travel news! Sign up for our FREE bi-weekly email alerts. While I've been writing about driveable motor homes, there are a wide variety of recreational vehicles available, including non-driveable RVs that you tow behind a car, ranging from small teardrop trailers to smooth and silvery vintage Airstreams. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Maskot/Getty Images/Maskot Some other considerations for those ready to hit the road in an RV this summer: You can keep your RV cocoon as sanitized as you like, but keep in mind that gasoline stations, truck stops and restaurants along the road could harbor the coronavirus, so pack latex gloves or paper towels for touching gas pumps, and only allow one person out of the RV. Keep in mind that some state park campgrounds are closed, but many are opening now. (Outdoorsy is keeping track of openings/closings here.) Campgrounds are also places where you'll likely come into contact with others. Most private campgrounds, such as those operated by KOA, are still open. In any case, be sure to call ahead to determine availability you don't want to get stuck driving around in the dark looking for a place to park overnight. With many hotels in the United States still closed, you'll have fewer options for alternate lodging if, like our family experienced back in the day, there is too much togetherness and the need for a long hot shower! Read all recent TravelSkills posts here Chris McGinnis is SFGATE's senior travel correspondent. You can reach him via email or follow him on Twitter or Facebook. Don't miss a shred of important travel news by signing up for his FREE weekly email updates! SFGATE participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. The UK will facilitate citizenship for Hong Kong residents who hold British National Overseas passports if China passes new security laws eroding the former colonys autonomy, the Foreign Secretary has confirmed. Dominic Raab also said the UK will also enact a version of the USs Magnitsky act (named after a Russian lawyer who died in custody in Moscow) to sanction officials who may have been involved in human rights abuses in Hong Kong during crackdowns on protests. Mr Raab said the government is seeking to build an international coalition to pressurise Beijing from imposing the laws that will be a clear violation of international obligations including the ones specifically made to the United Kingdom and be also against Chinas own basic law. A former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a One Country, Two Systems agreement, Hong Kong was meant to be guaranteed a high degree of autonomy. Chinas largely ceremonial parliament voted last week to bypass Hong Kongs legislature and develop and enact national security legislation on its own for the semi-autonomous territory. Critics, including governments in Britain, the US and Canada, are worried that the laws would erode liberties such as free speech and opposition political activities. It would up-end Chinas One Country, Two Systems paradigm, Raab said. And it would be a clear violation of Chinas international obligations, including those made specifically to the United Kingdom under the Joint Declaration. Raab told the Commons: We are setting out our position clearly and working with our international partners and the ball is in the court of the government in China. It has a choice to make here, it can cross the Rubicon and violate the autonomy and the rights of the people of Hong Kong or it can step back, understand the widespread concern of the international community and live up to its responsibilities. We dont seek to prevent Chinas rise, far from it, we welcome China as a leading member of the international community and we look to engage with China on everything from trade to climate change. However, Mr Raab acknowledged that there was now little chance of Beijing pulling back from the legislation and the fate of the people of Hong Kong needs to be considered. The UK will not look the other way if China continues down this path, he wanted to stress. (AP) (AP) The Foreign Secretary continued: the United Kingdom has historic responsibilities, a duty I would say, to the people of Hong Kong. So I can tell the House now that if China enacts this law, we will change the arrangements for British National (Overseas) passport holders in Hong Kong, said Mr Raab. If China follows through with its proposed legislation, we will put in place new arrangements to allow BNOs to come to the UK without the current six-month limit, enabling them to live and apply to study and work for extendable periods of 12 months, thereby also providing a pathway to citizenship. In its current form the proposal will apply to around 350,000 residents of the former colony, along with their dependants. However, the government stated last week that the offer would extend to all Hong Kong who are eligible for the BN(O) status but had not renewed their passports after expiry raising the numbers to almost 2.9 million people. Seven News reporter Amelia Brace who, along with her cameraman Tim Myers was assaulted by US police in Washington yesterday, yesterday became part of the story they were reporting. Brace and Myers were hit with a riot shield and a truncheon, pushed by police and said they had been hit by rubber bullets ahead of President Trump being photographed outside St. Johns Church with a Bible. The incident made news on The New York Times, Washington Post, CBS News, Bloomberg, The Telegraph, Evening Standard, People, Deadline, The Straits Times, Malay Mail, NZ Herald, TVNZ and more. Speaking to The Latest last night, Brace reiterated that media must be allowed to tell stories with safety. The protection of the media is not because were more important, more privileged or more special than anyone, she said. Its because we are everyone. We need to be in there, we need to be in between the police in the protesters, which is where we were, so we can tell both sides of the story. And if we cant do that safely, then the story wont be told. And that is when people and democracy suffers. But she also said yesterday should have been a story even if they werent caught in the middle of it. Thats because these people were legally and peacefully protesting half an hour before that curfew came into place, she said. They had no reason to expect the police to come in at all, let alone with that sort of force and then later to find out that it was all to clear the way for Donald Trump to walk out and pose with that Bible. This happened in broad daylight out the front of the White House in a public park in the United States of America, which is meant to stand up for democracy. And that is not what we saw yesterday. Meanwhile US Ambassador to Australia Arthur B Culvahouse Jr. posted on Twitter. A statement from Ambassador Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr. pic.twitter.com/EW5aPaptjE US Embassy Canberra (@USAembassyinOZ) June 2, 2020 PM Scott Morrison spoke to Seven and ordered the Australian Embassy in Washington to investigate the incident. A Nine Network crew was also detained and searched by Minneapolis Police on Monday. Numerous reports of journalists being attacked by police and arrested have been documented as protests rage across the US. Watch the shocking moment #7NEWS reporter @AmeliaBrace and our cameraman were knocked over by a police officer LIVE on air after chaos erupted in Washington DC. pic.twitter.com/R8KJLnfxPN Sunrise (@sunriseon7) June 1, 2020 Kathmandu, June 2 (IANS) Nepal's Department of Health Services said it does not have a single ventilator in store for hospitals amid a rapid surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in the Himalayan nation. Ventilator is the life saving equipment vital for the survival of critically ill patients, which the Himalayan country lacks in various hospitals, reports Xinhua news agency. "We don't have any ventilator at our store at the moment. We are initiating the process of procuring 10 new ventilators," Bhogendra Raj Dotel, director of Supply Management section at the Department of Health Services under the Ministry of Health and Population, told Xinhua. According to the Nepal's Ministry of Health and Population, the nation currently has only 840 ventilators across the country. Although the Health Ministry planned to buy 235 new ventilators, hardly any of them have arrived, according to Adhikari. "We also have not received ventilators from foreign donors who have supported us with surgical masks, personal protective equipment and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test kits, rapid test kits among others." The ministry said in its Health Sector Emergency Response Plan against the COVID-19 pandemic unveiled last month that there are 840 ventilators, 26,930 hospital beds and 1,595 beds with intensive care unit facilities in 194 hospitals. "As these facilities, particularly impatient beds and ventilators, are being used for other conditions or impatient care services, we assume only one third of it could be available for COVID-19 cases," the Health Emergency Response Plan states. With a record-high 239 new cases on Monday, the total count of COVID-19 in Nepal has reached 1,811. After a slow start, almost all cases had appeared in the last one month, according to the Ministry. The Himalayan country has already witnessed eight deaths from the pandemic. As the number of cases is rising rapidly, Adhikari said the rise in serious cases that require ventilator support could not be ruled out. In the worst case scenario, Nepal expects over 10,000 cases of COVID-19 with a requirement of keeping over 500 patients at intensive care units and over 1,500 at the hospitals with oxygen support, according to the Health Sector Emergency Response Plan. Along with the rise in the number of cases, the Nepali government is also struggling to manage enough the PCR test kits and the Viral Transport Mediums (VTMs) which are used to collect throat swab samples for testing. "There are just over 50,000 PCR kits while the number of VTMs is just over 10,000," according to Adhikari. "As PCR kits are in constant supply, it may not be a problem. We also hope to get VTMs from local manufacturers too, which will offset the current shortage." --IANS ksk/ Bengaluru, DHNS: The state government has formed a new five-member medical committee to differentiate government hospitals for COVID-19 and non COVID-19 care as part of its lockdown exit strategy. These hospitals include Victoria Hospital, Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (RGICD) and the new Infosys Hospital in the city. The notification was signed by M Jyothi Prakash, Additional Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare, said a detailed report needs to be made about a hospitals suitability for either COVID-19 or non-COVID-19 care. Follow live updates on coronavirus here The committee comprises Dr Pradeep Rangappa, an Intensive Care Surgeon at Columbia Asia Hospital, Dr C Nagaraj, Director of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (RGICD), Dr Diwaker of the Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI), Dr Giridhar Babu of the Public Health Foundation of India and Dr Asish Satapathy, Regional Team leader, South, World Health Organization (WHO). Dr Giridhar Babu, one of the members, explained that the move was a result of the governments efforts to promote non COVID-19 services in the city. 12 new cases in the city Twelve new cases were reported in the city on Tuesday, many of whom are known primary contacts of previously identified cases. Four of these are primary contacts of Patient 2796, a 48-year-old man who tested positive for the disease on May 30. However, Patient 2796 has no known source of the infection. These four individuals range in age from 17 to 38, which include two adult women, a man, and a teenager. Two cases, a 40-year-old man and a 45-year-old man, are contacts of Patient 2519, a 61-year-old woman with Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI), who tested positive for Covid-19 on May 28. For two of the 12 cases, no information is known about how they contracted the disease, while the rest four cases are all inter-state travellers - three from Delhi and one 65-year-old woman from Maharashtra. by Luigino Caliaro Over the course of 2020, celebrations will take place commemorating the centenary for an aviation event of exceptional magnitude in its day, and a noteworthy moment in Italian aeronautical history. In 1920, on Valentines Day, two Ansaldo SVA biplanes took off from the runway at Centocelle aerodrome in Rome, Italy. The fragile fabric and wood flying machines were at the start of an epic, 15 week-long adventure, with their ultimate destination being more than 6,000 miles away in Tokyo, Japan. This was an unprecedented feat in 1920; the two pilots Arturo Ferrarin and Guido Masiero, accompanied by engine mechanics Gino Cappannini and Roberto Maretto, headed off into the unknown, awaiting an uncertain fate. The peculiar circumstances which resulted in this historic flight date from the closing days of WWI, when the poet Gabriele DAnnunzio, honorary commander of the 87^ Squadriglia Serenissima suggested that the squadrons pilots should launch an ambitious long-range flight from Italy to Japan. In reality, DAnnunzio, conscious of the valor in his pilots and the capabilities of the Ansaldo SVA which the Squadriglia flew, had developed the concept for this flight with his friend, the Japanese poet Haruki-KichiShimoi. The flight, at its heart was simply a patriotic gesture intended to promote and celebrate the name of Italy in that far off country and bring prestige to the numerous Italians who lived there, but it was also an inspiration to many around the world. The flight would also represent an excellent advertisement for Italys aviation industry too, which was in despair following numerous post-war contract cancellations. Keen for adventure, DAnnunzios proposal quickly gained consensus amongst the pilots of the Serenissima. Tenenti Locatelli and Francesco Ferrarin (the cousin of Arturo Ferrarin) had the task of preparing the flight. However, Gabriele DAnnunzio, along with many of his fellow pilots, soon switched their attention to the cause of Fiume, a self-declared free city state with a heavy Roman influence which existed briefly in Croatia on Italys northeastern border between 1920 and 1924. Nevertheless, Italys Government and Comando di Aviazione (Air Force Command) decided to continue planning for the mission to Tokyo, making a sum of 20 million Lire available (an exorbitant amount for the period), and preparing the technical stops along the planned route where the aircraft could refuel and undergo maintenance. This was not to be a simple flight, it involved many, many stops along the way, which in turn required significant logistical planning. The aircraft selected for the flight included three Caproni biplane bombers (two Ca.3 and a Ca.5) and a Ca.4 triplane, together with five single-seat Ansaldo SVA 9 biplanes. Four additional aircraft were to be pre-positioned as reserves at some of the technical stops along the route. Interestingly, Arturo Ferrarin was not originally intended to take part in the flight; he learned of the preparations by chance while engaged in a series of demonstration flights in Paris. Quickly attracted by the undertaking, he asked to join the mission at a very late stage. He was surprised, therefore, when the organizers granted his request. However, this was only on the condition that he would be ready to leave within seven days, even though the official departure date for the five SVAs was a month away. This limited available time was insufficient to enable an adequate and specific preparation. The Aeronautica proposed that Ferrarin fly an Ansaldo A5 biplane on the journey, but the pilot rejected the type due to his belief that its flying characteristics were unsuitable. He successfully persuaded the flights organizers to allow him to fly the same aircraft type as his friend Guido Masiero and engineer Roberto Maretto. Ferrarin chose the engine mechanic Gino Cappannini as his traveling companion,. Ferrarin originally came from Thiene in the province of Vicenza, while Masiero was from nearby Padova. The two pilots selected the two-seat Ansaldo SVA 9 as their aircraft of choice. The type had a fuel capacity of 400 litres, which afforded around eight hours endurance, covering distances of just over 1,000 km. Unfortunately, just two days prior to his scheduled departure, Ferrarins aircraft was badly damaged in a landing accident with another pilot at the controls. The Italian thus found himself without a plane, however his cousin Francesco sprang to his assistance, suggesting that Arturo use his aircraft which was stored at Centocelle. However, the SVA was not in the best of condition to confront such a long and difficult flight, as Ferrarin would later write in his autobiography: The aircraft that was assigned to me was old and worn out. The original 220 hp engine had been replaced with one with reduced compression that could not develop more than 180 hp. This had been obtained through the expedience of positioning a plate between the engine shaft and the cylinders. This improved its functional reliability, but the take-off, with reduced power, seemed to be much more risky. Furthermore, the aircrafts fuel tanks could hold no more than 300 litres of fuel, in contrast with the 440 litres carried by the other SVA, thus reducing the endurance from ten and a half hours to just eight. It was also necessary to patch the holes in the wings, change the tyres, the undercarriage elastic, and to realign the wings. The aircraft, which furthermore suffered from airframe distortion, has a tendency to yaw to the left, which forced me to constantly hold the control column over to the right to compensate for this defect. To facilitate this, I attached a belt to the left hand cockpit wall for the duration of the flight. In the meantime, between January 8th and February 1st, the Caproni bombers left in waves, since they were notably slower than the SVA. Following the original intentions for the flight, plans called for meeting the five SVA biplanes, after having traversed Asia, for a joint formation over Tokyo, possibly with the bombers as well hence their earlier departure. The mission was divided into well-defined legs. Having departed Centocelle on February 14th, 1920, Ferrarin and Masiero followed their planned route, with pre-arranged landings at airfields where pre-positioned Italian personnel could provide the necessary technical support for the aircraft. However, all of the Caproni bombers had to interrupt their mission early on following landings at airfields with terrain unsuitable for operation, or due to severe technical difficulties. The flight of five Ansaldo SVAs which left Centocelle on March 11th was as unlucky as the Caproni bombers were, and suffered numerous technical issues which quickly delayed their mission. After gradual attrition, just one aircraft in this flight, flown by Ranza, managed to make it as far as India before it too was forced to drop out after a take-off accident. Ferrarin and Masieros two-ship flight soldiered on, however it was no less adventurous than the other flights, and suffered numerous interruptions. The two pilots from the Veneto started their journey from Centocelle, as previously noted, on 14 February 1920 and made an initial stop at Gioia del Colle. They departed the following day for Salonica, but adverse weather forced them to stop over at Valona, delaying their arrival at the Greek city for another day. Ferrarin had to replace his SVA with one of the reserves after arriving in Calcutta, India. Instead of departing straight away for Tokyo, however, Ferrarin and Masiero were ordered, inexplicably, to await the arrival of the other SVA formation (the five-ship), but of course, this never actually happened. After twenty seven days of waiting for news without reply, Ferrarin and Masiero, without the authorization of senior officers, decided to depart again and headed off for their next stage in Rangoon, Burma. After Rangoon came Bangkok, Hanoi, Canton, Foochow, and Shanghai, where Ferrarin stopped over for seven days. The successive leg to Tsing-Taowas was very difficult due to the arrival of a typhoon; this created many problems during the flight. The flight to Peking (Beijing), however, represented an enormous success, and here the men arrived to a triumphal reception. The final phase of the mission was now approaching. The following legs quickly brought the Italian crews to Kowangtze, Shingishu and Seoul in Korea. Despite technical problems and adverse weather, with ability, audacity and not a little good fortune (Masiero among other events crashed his second SVA while taking off from Canton, miraculously emerging unhurt from the wreckage along with his engineer Maretto), Ferrarin and Cappannini, flying in SVA no. 13148, managed to set their wheels down on Japanese territory near Osaka on May 30th. They were greeted by an immense crowd and local dignitaries. Shortly after Ferrarin arrived, Masiero also flew in, having collected a new reserve SVA at Shanghai, thereby confirming the success of the flight. On the following day, the two SVA 9 took off for Tokyo where, despite the appalling weather conditions, they found another massive crowd awaiting them. While Masieros aircraft arrived first, he was technically disqualified since he and his engineer had made the trip between Canton and Shanghai by sea due to the take-off accident in Canton. However, Arturo Ferrarin, despite changing aircraft in Calcutta, had effectively completed all of the flights planned legs. Despite the fact that no other participant in the mission managed to arrive in Japan due to technical problems with their aircraft or accidents (one of which tragically claimed the lives of pilots Gordesco and Grassa), the success of the mission was a clamorous triumph for Italian aviation and industry. These delicate biplanes had managed to fly roughly 18,000 km (11,120 miles) on the journey between Rome and Tokyo at an average of 160 km/h, covering the entire route in the air over 112 hours. This performance was highly respectable for 1920! Arturo Ferrarins triumph was widely celebrated in Tokyo, where he was declared to be a Japanese hero and invested as a samurai, the highest honor in the nation. However, Ferrarins welcome back home in Italy was decidedly different. The enormous expenditure incurred during the voyage resulted in political acrimony which somewhat diminished their exceptional achievement. It also contributing partly to the fall of the Nitti government. The subsequent administration, led by Giovanni Giolitti, did not afford any particular value to the undertaking; it took several years before its merits received justifiable recognition. Only Thiene, Ferrarins native city, afforded the hero the honors he richly deserved. They organized numerous celebrations and awarded him the keys to the city. On his return, Ferrarin would noted the particular problems encountered during the flight, stating: In my opinion, some of the problems encountered during the flight could have been avoided by better mission planning. Above all, the de-rated engine was not sufficient for an aircraft that was essentially operating overweight due to the length of the legs. In fact, not being able to, and not wanting to overload the engine, I never achieved, during the entire voyage, an altitude of two thousand metres, while the take-off was made equally demanding, and I requested landing strips of particularly large dimension, which were not always easy to find. The take-offs were also made difficult when the terrain was not completely dry, as the wheels easily sank in due to the reduced dimensions of the tyres. The undercarriage itself was not sufficiently robust to be subjected to the shocks from operations off not particularly well prepared terrain. The fuselage, being the thickness of just three sheets of plywood, had to be continually repaired, as it was unable to withstand the heavy night time humidity and the intense heat of the day. Another negative aspect was the poor logistical organisation of the numerous technical stops, with runways which were badly prepared or not adequately signalled. This aspect, moreover, was connected to the inadequate selection of the personnel tasked with managing the airstrips, as in some cases their support was minimal and lacking in any initiative or competence. In some cases (at Calcutta and Delhi) I found no-one waiting for me, despite having confirmed the date and timing of my arrival. (These problems were almost certainly caused by communication difficulties between the air strips). The Ansaldo SVA 9 which Ferrarin used for the flight was subsequently donated, again not without controversy, to the Japanese government, which displayed it at the Imperial War Museum in Tokyo. Although the Italian government had initially given instructions that the aircraft should be sold off to the best offer, Ferrarin, commenting on the aircrafts performance during the voyage, noted its condition (in his autobiography) at the conclusion of the mission: My poor aircraft had been reduced to a miserable state. The wings were rotten and the fuselage was deformed, with the metal parts corroded, and I was convinced that by them, that marvelous and much loved aircraft, lacking the most elementary accessories to permit flight in such a difficult climate, was only suitable to be placed into a museum. Before taking my leave, I wrote a goodbye on a section of the wing, which was already covered in signatures and comments, as a final salute: my faithful friend. San Francisco, June 2 : Among the top five wearables device makers, only Fitbit's shipments declined in the first quarter of 2020, leading to a smaller market share - from 5.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2019 to 3 per cent in Q1 2020, according to a report from International Data Corporation (IDC). Fitbit's shipments declined 26.1 per cent during the quarter as much of the company's production was based in China, which faced supply issues for multiple weeks during the quarter, IDC said in its Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker report. While the company remains as one of the leading brands in the wearables space and still has a large user base along with promising tech, the lack of a hearable and strong competition from the likes of Apple and Samsung in key markets has suppressed the company's ability to grow, IDC said. In November last year, Google said it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Fitbit for $2.1 billion. Apple was once again the top wearables company with 29.3 per cent share and 21.2 million units in the first quarter of 2020. While Apple Watch shipments declined due to difficulties in the supply chain, the strength of the Beats and Airpods lineup was more than enough to offset the negative growth. In second place was Xiaomi, which shipped 7.3 million wristbands and watches. Samsung ranked third as its hearables/earwear business accounted for 74 per cent of its total shipments during the quarter, up from 58.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2019. The latest generation of Galaxy Buds and Buds+ have been very well received as the two models shipped over 4 million units during the quarter, IDC said. Huawei and its subsidiary Honor captured fourth place and even managed to grow in China despite the lockdown thanks to a strong online presence and close ties with retailers. Global shipments of wearable devices grew 29.7 per cent year over year during the first quarter of 2020 as total device volume reached 72.6 million units. However, the growth was disproportionately spread across the various form factors as growth in wristbands and earwear/hearables was more than enough to offset the decline from smart and basic watches. Fueled by new product launches such as the Fitbit Charge 4 as well as aggressive price points from mainstays like Xiaomi and Huawei, the wristband category grew 16.2 per cent during the quarter. Meanwhile, hearables grew 68.3 per cent and accounted for 54.9 per cent of the entire market. "The hearables category was seemingly resilient to the market-suppressing forces caused by COVID-19," Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC Mobile Device Trackers, said in a statement. "Consumers were clamouring for these sophisticated earpieces not only for the ability to playback audio but also to help them increase productivity, as many of them were forced to work from home and sought ways to reduce surrounding noise while staying connected to their smartphones and smart assistants." The spread of Covid-19 also had adverse effects on the supply of smart and basic watches as many of these devices share components and resources with smartphones and PCs, which were also impacted during the first quarter of 2020. Despite the decline, a few vendors, such as Huawei, Garmin, and Huami, managed healthy growth thanks to lesser reliance on markets in China and further expansion into the United States, Europe, and other parts of Asia, IDC said. The 2020 Donald E. Knuth Prize is awarded to Cynthia Dwork of Harvard University and Microsoft Research for her sustained record of contributions to theoretical computer science over the past four decades. The Knuth Prize is jointly given by the ACM Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computation Theory (SIGACT) and the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on the Mathematical Foundations of Computing (TCMF). It will be presented at the 61st Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS 2020) in Durham, North Carolina, November 16-19. Dwork's research has transformed several fields, most notably distributed systems, cryptography, and data privacy, and, more recently, fairness in algorithmic decision making. She is widely known for the introduction and development of di?erential privacy, and for her work on nonmalleability, lattice-based encryption, concurrent composition, and proofs of work. She also made foundational contributions in many other areas including distributed systems with her work on consensus, and in algorithmic fairness with her work on the formalization of the "treat like alike" principle. The Donald E. Knuth Prize is named in honor of Donald Knuth of Stanford University, who has been called the "father of the analysis of algorithms." The annual award recognizes outstanding contributions to the foundations of computer science by individuals for their overall impact in the field over an extended period and includes a $10,000 cash prize, in addition to a $1,000 travel stipend for the recipient to attend the award ceremony. Dwork is the Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a Distinguished Scientist at Microsoft Research. She received her BS from Princeton University (1979), her MSc from Cornell University (1981), and her PhD from Cornell University (1983). Dwork's honors include receiving the Dijkstra Prize (jointly with Nancy Lynch and Larry Stockmeyer) for her work on consensus problems; the Godel Prize (jointly with Frank McSherry, Kobi Nissim, and Adam Smith) for their seminal paper that introduced differential privacy; and the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal for her work in privacy, cryptography, and distributed computing, and for her leadership in developing differential privacy. ### About SIGACT The ACM Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computation Theory fosters and promotes the discovery and dissemination of high-quality research in the domain of theoretical computer science. The field includes algorithms, data structures, complexity theory, distributed computation, parallel computation, VLSI, machine learning, computational biology, computational geometry, information theory, cryptography, quantum computation, computational number theory and algebra, program semantics and verification, automata theory, and the study of randomness. Work in this field is often distinguished by its emphasis on mathematical technique and rigor. About ACM ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world's largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting computing educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field's challenges. ACM strengthens the computing profession's collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional networking. SAN MARINO, Calif., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Carzato, a leading automotive online services provider, announces its integration with RouteOne, a leading F&I technology provider, to furnish an optimal experience for consumers and dealers in North America. With the collaboration, Carzato's Online Retailing Experience (ORE) platform integrates with RouteOne's credit aggregation system to present indirect auto financing quotes to consumers and enable full online credit application and eSigning. The integration enhances the automotive digital retailing product offering and empowers consumers with financing quotes that are fully transactable at the dealership. Knowing finance options ahead of time provides car buyers with peace of mind. Dealerships, in turn, can seamlessly fulfill car-buying transactions using their respective processes and systems. "Carzato's integration with RouteOne allows us to provide an industry first cross-tier and brand-customizable car-buying tool that routes high-intent shoppers directly to dealer online retailing tools," said Javier O. Ruiz, Chief Executive Officer of Carzato. "Regardless of where people are shopping - brand website, dealer website, social media, email, search and the like - ORE provides a consistent and efficient experience for the car-buyer, while generating incremental, high-closing leads for dealers." Carzato works closely with automakers to provide a fully modular digital retail experience that is white-label readyoffering a unique platform with advanced customization to meet highly-specific needscurrently servicing over 2,600 dealerships across 6 automotive brands. "RouteOne remains committed to delivering innovative solutions to enhance both the dealer and consumer experience," added Justin Oesterle, RouteOne's Chief Executive Officer. "RouteOne is pleased to integrate with Carzato to solve for current market challenges and support the launch of this Online Retailing Experience that delivers quality leads from OEM and dealer digital retail platforms." Carzato's ORE platform was built to be agile, allowing OEMs and dealers to integrate existing retail tools into the platform. The result is a high-performing retailing experience that does not require dealers to replace their existing sales processes. Creative delivery can also be tailored to the specific needs of each brand with messaging that is both relevant and targeted to the intended audience. About CARZATO Carzato is a California based automotive service provider in Fintech, offering an integrated and customized online car-buying process for dealers to connect with their customers. Carzato's Online Retailing Experience (ORE) saves time for both dealership and customer, increases quality leads and thus sales improvement. For more information, please visit www.Carzato.com About RouteOne RouteOne was formed in 2002 by Ally Financial, Ford Motor Credit Company, TD Auto Finance, and Toyota Financial Services to improve the F&I process for automobile dealers and their customers. Connecting thousands of dealers and finance sources in North America for vehicle financing, RouteOne's platform delivers a comprehensive suite of F&I solutions across multiple channels: in-store, online, mobile, and via third-party solutions. Its product line-up includes credit application, eContracting, menu, online/mobile retail services, and compliance. In addition, RouteOne enables dealer choice across a wide variety of best-in-class providers through open integrations with over 200 DSPs. More information is available at www.routeone.com. SOURCE Carzato Related Links https://carzato.com The escalation of tensions on the Sudanese-Ethiopian border has exacerbated already stalled negotiations on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam between these two countries and Egypt As tensions continue to heighten between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia since the breakdown of the last round of negotiations over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in Washington in February, the Sudanese-Ethiopian confrontation in Al-Fashqa on the border between the two countries has added a new layer of complexity to an already complicated situation. Sudanese positions on the mammoth Ethiopian Dam on the Blue Nile have grown more balanced in recent weeks, finally breaking with the long custom of the former Omar Al-Bashir regime to toe the line with the Ethiopian negotiating position. After stating that his country was committed to the Washington process as a framework for resolving the dispute over the dam, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok rejected an Ethiopian proposal to sign a partial agreement that would consent to Ethiopian plans to begin filling the GERD reservoir in July. His government also launched an intensive diplomatic drive to restart the negotiating process. However, the repeated armed clashes in Al-Fashqa situated along the Sudanese border with Ethiopia have cast a shadow over the future of Sudanese-Ethiopian relations and stirred speculation on the impact of this dispute on the question of GERD which has recently been the chief issue in that bilateral relationship. Since the beginning of this year, Ethiopian militias have been staging increasingly frequent cross-border raids against Sudanese villages in Al-Fashqa, a fertile agricultural region in the state of Al-Qadarif located opposite to the Ethiopian Amhara region. Ethiopian bands of highway robbers and militias known as Al-Shafta gangs have driven Sudanese farmers from their land, seized property by force, stolen livestock, and murdered and kidnapped people to hold them for ransom. Thousands of Ethiopian farmers have moved into the area to cultivate crops or raise livestock under the protection of these armed gangs. Sudanese sources estimate that the Ethiopian farmers currently occupy over a million acres of some of Sudans most fertile land. The phenomenon began decades ago. Ethiopian farmers began to move into the Al-Fashqa region in 1957, a year after Sudan won its independence. The encroachments then persisted, taking advantage of the inability of the two sides to reach an agreement over this border area. Although Ethiopia has not denied Sudans legal title to this land in accordance with the 1902 Nile Waters Agreement followed by a border protocol signed in 1903, it has continually worked to impose a de facto reality on the ground by facilitating the settlement of Ethiopian farmers in Al-Fashqa while procrastinating on border demarcation talks that it has attempted to prolong through endless local subcommittees. Sudan, meanwhile, has always averted confrontation with Ethiopia, whether out of fear that this might escalate into military conflict or in order to preserve strategic interests that it regards as more important. The recent attacks starting at the beginning of this year testify to a number of changes that might have important implications for the future of Sudanese-Ethiopian relations. Contrary to custom, the latest spate of attacks occurred in the winter and spring, whereas in the past they had generally been restricted to the harvest season in the autumn. This suggests that the Ethiopian farmers want to deprive their Sudanese counterparts of the opportunity to sow the soil from the outset, thereby facilitating a bid to secure permanent control over the land. Secondly, the attacks have become fiercer and deadlier. Whereas in the past the Al-Shafta gangs tended to plunder crops after harvest or steal livestock in order to sell the produce themselves, recently higher numbers of Sudanese farmers have been killed or abducted and Sudanese homes and farms have been burned. The intention appears to have been to terrorise the local Sudanese inhabitants in order to lend impetus to designs to drive them off the land. The Ethiopian attacks also appear to be more organised and systematic, rendering it unrealistic to continue to attribute this phenomenon to mere localised strife between neighbouring communities situated on opposite sides of the border. Indeed, there is mounting evidence that the Amhara state authorities have been involved in organising the expansion of Ethiopian farmers into Sudan and that the federal government in Addis Ababa has been unwilling to take any serious steps to deter them and halt the attacks. In the short term, the Al-Fashqa crisis is likely to impact negatively on the GERD negotiations as Addis Ababa may seize on it as another pretext to evade talks or use the evacuation of Ethiopian farmers from Sudanese territory as a means to leverage Khartoum into taking pro-Ethiopian positions at the negotiating table. In the longer term, however, the dispute will put paid to the narrative, dating from the Al-Bashir era in Sudan, that the bilateral Sudanese-Ethiopian was ideal, that Sudan had more to gain from the GERD than Ethiopia, and that Egypt was perpetually scheming to control the Nile and deprive the upstream nations of their rights to Nile water and development. The recent border crisis has opened Khartoums eyes to the reality of Ethiopian intentions. Ethiopias rejection of the 1902 Agreement regulating the construction of hydraulic projects on the Blue Nile and its tributaries is a prelude to a bid to renege on its commitment, under that same agreement, to recognise and respect Sudanese sovereignty over the Al-Fashqa region. The growing Sudanese awareness of this, combined with the increased frequency and hostility of the confrontations in the region, will increase the chances of more strenuous Sudanese objections to the GERD which, indeed, presents a looming threat to Sudan. In fact, Sudanese voices have already grown louder now that the Al-Bashir regime is no longer around to suppress them. RESPONSES: Largely due to the unusual developments in the mode of attacks, official responses on both sides have appeared confused, and in fewer than three months there have been several waves of escalating tensions followed by periods of calm. Faced with the growing belligerence and ferocity of the Al-Shafta gangs since the outset of this year, the Sudanese armed forces have had no choice but to break with custom and actively intervene to protect Sudanese lives and property. On 8 March, a small contingent of the Sudanese army was deployed to drive out the Al-Shafta gangs. Two Sudanese soldiers and three Ethiopian gang members died in the exchange. Then, as the Sudanese became more determined to clear the area, they crossed to the eastern bank of the Atbara River for the first time in about 25 years. Sudanese forces have been absent from this area for so long because they have been preoccupied with engagements on other fronts in Darfour and South Kordofan. But when the Sudanese forces entered Al-Fashqa they clashed with Ethiopian armed forces that claimed they were present on Sudanese territory in order to protect Ethiopian citizens. This development confirmed Ethiopian designs to prevent Sudanese forces from establishing a permanent presence in the areas under dispute. The skirmishes prompted Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan, president of the Transitional Sovereign Council (TSC) in Sudan, to make an unscheduled visit to inspect the state of security in Al-Qadarif. Accompanied by the Sudanese army chief-of-staff and the director of intelligence, the TSC president reviewed the second infantry division in Al-Qadarif and the 6th Infantry Brigade command in the Doka region. The visit also occasioned the redeployment of a full regiment of the Sudanese armed forces to Al-Fashqa. In the aftermath of a round of escalation in early April, Sudan and Ethiopia tried to defuse the crisis. On 9 April, Al-Burhan called Ethiopian Prime Minister Ahmed Abiy. Soon afterwards, Ethiopian Chief-of-Staff Adam Mohamed visited Khartoum at the head of a high-level Ethiopian delegation, after which the two sides announced a new agreement on the border demarcation and the return of Ethiopian farmers to their country. Then, on 17-21 May, a high-level Sudanese delegation visited Addis Ababa to discuss a number of issues of mutual concern, foremost among them being a resolution to the problem of Ethiopian farmers in Al-Fashqa. The two sides agreed that a joint border demarcation committee would begin installing border signs in October and complete its work in March 2021. Despite these efforts, the renewed violence on 27-28 May showed that they were insufficient to resolve the problem. The clashes between the two sides, involving a larger engagement of the Sudanese armed forces, resulted in the death of a Sudanese officer with the rank of captain and six Sudanese conscripts. On 30 May, tensions escalated further when Sudan recalled the charge daffaires of its embassy in Addis Ababa to Khartoum in protest against the latest Ethiopian militia attacks. The Ethiopian Foreign Ministry issued what the Sudanese described as a feeble response on its Facebook page, stating that it sees no reason for a state of hostility and prefers to deal with such matters through diplomatic dialogue. The bumpy road to a resolution of the Al-Fashqa crisis could diverge into three possible courses, one being further escalation. This would occur, for example, if either or both sides thought it to their advantage to try to capitalise on the crisis to enhance their domestic legitimacy or their regional profile. If such a scenario led to a large-scale military confrontation, this could reshape the demographics of the area in a manner determined by the outcomes of the military confrontation. At the opposite end of the spectrum is a quick and definitive solution to the Al-Fashqa crisis. There is no reason why this should not be possible in the light of the close relations between Khartoum and Addis Ababa since the fall of the Omar al-Bashir regime in Khartoum. An agreement that stresses the close and historic relations between the two sides could include important concessions from the Ethiopian side (the aggressor) that would lay the dispute to rest once and for all. Given the tinderbox at the border, the two sides could draw on the unanticipated Ethiopian-Eritrean border resolution initiative in 2018. Option three, which falls between rapid escalation and a rapid solution, is temporary containment. The two sides have traditionally resorted to this option, which assumes the dispute to be limited, local, and apolitical. This would be convenient in that it merely requires some conventional reconciliations between tribal or other local leaderships, with some input from the local administrations in Al-Qadarif and Amhara. Unfortunately, arrangements of this sort have been short-lived in the past, even if they have offered some temporary reprieve to the two sides, which both want to avert escalation at present. Generally speaking, a full-scale conflict seems unlikely in view of various domestic, regional, and international factors. On the other hand, while the prospects of a more permanent solution with the border demarcations that should be carried out by March next year seem positive, the more likely scenario is the middle-of-the-road approach of a fragile, patchwork solution. The writer is head of the African Studies Unit at the Egyptian Centre for Strategic Studies. *A version of this article appears in print in the 4 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Lucknow, June 2 : Vocal for Local, one district one product (ODOP) are the dream projects of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and steps are being taken to accelerate the projects. The Common Facility Centre (CFC) will play an important role in this. The government intends to set up a common facility centre in every district. At present, the government has approved the establishment of 14 such centres at a cost of Rs 92 crore and 17 more centres are in the pipeline. Problems related to the testing labs, design development centres, raw materials, common production, processing, logistics, packaging, levelling and barcoding, etc. will be solved at these ODOP centres. Ninety per cent cost of setting up these centres will be taken care by the government while the SPV will have to bear the remaining expenses. The maximum cost of a centre will be up to Rs 15 crore. Notably, the ODOP is an innovative scheme started on the initiative of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. It aims to develop local and traditional products and skills in the state, economic prosperity at local level and development of micro, small and medium industries in the state. This will help locals in getting job at their hometown itself. This will also enable balanced development of the families and migration of labours will stop. The problems of the entrepreneurs of every district are being sorted out by making an action plan. The problems identified so far include lack of capital, traditional outdated technology, less understanding about marketing and better packaging of products etc. The government is gradually solving every problem. For example, to overcome the shortage of capital, the government is giving large-scale loans to MSMEs linked with ODOP. Recently, a loan of Rs 2,000 crore was given to about 57,000 entrepreneurs. Similar mega loan fairs will also be held in June, July and August. Apart from this, units linked with ODOP are being financed through state and Central government schemes like the PMGP, Chief Minister Yuva Swarojgar, ODOP funding, Mudra, Startup and Standup. On the same lines, loans worth Rs 57,000 crore were distributed in the financial year 2018-19. The government has also signed an MoU with the Bank of Baroda in this regard. The NSE and BSE have also been tied up to enable these units to collect capital from the stock market. A similar agreement has also been signed with the SIDBI for the venture capital fund. Agreements have also been signed with IIT Kanpur, AKTU, IIIT Allahabad, Indian Institute of Packaging, NIT, NID, QCI for quality, better designing and packaging of products. In order to ensure that the manufacturers get better price for their goods provisions have been made to provide them platform at the national and international level exhibitions at concessional rates. An agreement has been signed with Amazon and agreements with Flipkart and Alibaba are under process. Azamgarh, Unnao, Siddharthnagar, Sambhal, Ambedkarnagar, Agra, Moradabad, Bareilly, Saharanpur, Lucknow, Varanasi, Aligarh and Sitapur have got an approval for the CFCs. Principal Secretary of Micro, Small and Medium Industries Navneet Sehgal said, "To encourage ODOP, action plan of every district is being addressed and the problems of the entrepreneurs there are being overcome. Problems that have been identified so far include lack of capital, traditional outdated technology, less market understanding and better packaging of products. The government is solving every problem respectively." Then comes the enlightening sentences: Regardless of how much you say you detest racism, you are the sole reason it has flourished for centuries. And you are the only ones who can stop it. Wow I never thought of that perspective. She is making me change my understanding: Not personally committing a racist act just may not be enough. Relying on others to be active in the fight against racism may not be enough. Raising daughters who have marched in protests this week may not be enough. I have always patted myself on the back for not being a racist. But maybe not being a part of the problem is not enough. For something as ugly as racism, perhaps I need to try to be part of the solution. I am looking in the mirror. I do not know the next steps, but I am looking and pondering whats next. I am looking for that 12-year-old boy who spoke out and confronted a Missouri sheriffs racist acts. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has postponed the entrance exam date for the July-August 2020 Session due to situation related to COVID-19 outbreak The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has postponed the entrance exam date for the July-August 2020 Session due to situation related to COVID-19 outbreak. As per the latest release, AIIMS will conduct the entrance examination on 11 June instead of 5 June. According to the revised schedule, exam for AIIMS Fellowship Programme will be held from 1 pm to 2 pm. Examinations for DM, M.Ch and MD (hospital administration); B.Sc (post basic); M.Sc (nursing) will be conducted from 1 pm to 2:30 pm. The MD, MS, DM (6 years), M.Ch (6 years) and MDS exam will be held from 1pm to 4 pm. The admit card for AIIMS entrance examination for July/August 2020 session will be available on the website - www.aiimsexams.org from 5 pm on 3 June. "The best possible examination city has been allotted to the candidates as per choice and subject to availability. The candidates are required to check allotted city on MyPage of Final Registration" after Login with credentials," the notification stated. Applicants have been advised to follow the guidelines of the Government of India regarding social distancing and sanitization at all the examination centres. Resident doctors at AIIMS are not happy with the revised date of the entrance exam and feel that it discriminates against them. Choosing 11th is discriminatory against AIIMS residents who have to give final exams while the rest of the country has time to prepare for [the] exam, General Secretary of AIIMS Resident Doctors Association Srinivas MD tweeted AIIMS New Delhi : Choosing 11th is discriminatory against AIIMS residents who have to give final exams while the rest of the country has time to prepare for exam. It's a loss for AIIMS residents.There will be less AIIMS MD/MS residents who get selected for DM/MCh. pic.twitter.com/Xk5Beyr6Y0 Srinivas M.D(AIIMS) (@srinivasaiims) June 1, 2020 According to a report by Careers360, AIIMS PG exam is being conducted for admission to 643 MS, MD, MDS, DM and MCh seats across eight AIIMS institutes. Applicants can check the website for information and updates on the AIIMS 2020 entrance examinations. In another appointment, the BJP made S Tikendra Singh its Manipur state president. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday appointed Adesh Kumar Gupta as its Delhi unit chief and tribal leader and former Union minister Vishnu Deo Sai as its Chhattisgarh state president, the party said in a statement. Gupta is a former mayor of north Delhi municipal corporation and replaces Manoj Tiwari, a member of Lok Sabha, at the helm in the Delhi BJP. Tiwari had offered to quit after the BJP lost to the Aam Aadmi Party in the Delhi Assembly polls and his term was also over. Sai was a Union minister in the first Modi government but could not contest the 2019 Lol Sabha polls after the BJP decided to not repeat any of its sitting MPs in Chhattisgarh after losing to the Congress in the Assembly polls. He replaces Vikram Usendi. In another appointment, the party made S Tikendra Singh its Manipur state president. These are the first important organisational appointments in the BJP after the coronavirus outbreak curbed political activities and the party primarily focussed on steering relief work for people affected by the lockdown. The development signals, to some extent, a return of regular political activities as lockdown restrictions across the country are relaxed. Gas and condensate is flowing uncontrollably from an Oil India Limited (OIL) natural gas well in Assams Tinsukia district since a blowout a week ago, and officials believe it could take a few more weeks to bring the situation under control. The blowout, or uncontrolled release of natural gas or oil from a well when pressure control systems fail, has already led to the evacuation of 650 families as a safety measure. Groundwork is being done to bring the blowout at Baghjan well under control, but it could take a few more weeks to get logistics and experts in place to stop the uncontrolled flow of gas and condensate, the low-density mixture of hydrocarbon liquids generally found with natural gas. In 2005, it took nearly 90 days and the help of foreign experts to control a blaze at an abandoned oil well of OIL at Dikom in Dibrugarh district of Assam. The blowout at Baghjan occurred at 10.30 am on May 27, while work was underway to produce gas from a new oil and gas reservoir at a depth of 3,729 metres. The operation to contain the blowout requires a large amount of water and lot of heavy machinery. Therefore, it will take several days to put everything in place before the actual effort to control the well can start, OIL spokesperson Tridiv Hazarika said. A water reservoir is being dug near the well to place two 2,500-gallon pumps and a pipeline is being laid from a nearby river to ensure continuous supply of water. OIL and Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) personnel are pumping water to the well to minimise the chances of a fire. It has been assessed that approach to the vicinity of the well would not be safe due to gas gushing at high pressure. Hence, necessary equipment is being mobilised and fit-for-purpose equipment is being fabricated at OIL workshop, OIL said in a statement on Tuesday. Help from several foreign firms is being sought to contain the blowout. OIL said on Tuesday experts from Singapore-based Alert Disaster Control could reach the site in the next few days. A retired senior OIL executive, who declined to be named, said: The process to control a blowout requires lot of heavy equipment, which will have to be brought from other parts of the country, as well as services of global experts in dealing with such situations. In 2005, it took more than a month to bring things under control. This time could it could take longer. Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal dialled Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan for the second time in a week on Tuesday and sought foreign experts to plug the natural gas flow at Baghjan well. Sonowal also sought adequate compensation for families affected by the blowout. His office said an expert team from Singapore would reach Assam on Wednesday to lend its expertise. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ABOUT THE AUTHOR Utpal Parashar Utpal is an assistant editor based in Guwahati. He covers all eight states of North-East and was previously based in Kathmandu, Dehradun and Delhi with Hindustan Times . ...view detail Following the increase in reported cases of rape and the killing of women and girls in the country, an international development organisation, ActionAid Nigeria, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency on Gender-Based Violence. Speaking through its Country Director, Ene Obi, in a statement on Tuesday, June 2, the group also wants rape to be declared a crime without options of bail or out of court settlement, because, according to Ms Obi, this is the time to take concrete actions before Nigeria collapses into a state of anarchy where women and girls are left to wallow in hopelessness. Since the lockdown in March 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, ActionAid Nigeria and her partners have documented a total of 253 cases of Gender-Based Violence in Bauchi, Cross River, Enugu, Kebbi and Kwara States, Ms Obi said, adding we have never been more alarmed about the cases of Gender-Based Violence in Nigeria than in recent times. Girls, Women, young and old now live in fear as they are no longer safe even in their own homes. Narrating the most recent cases, the group said, Gender-Based Violence is no longer a women issue but a national issue, citing the recent Lagos example where 16-year-old Tina Ezekwe was shot by a trigger-happy police officer. She died 2 days later. In Kaduna, an I8-year-old victim identified as Jennifer remains traumatised after she was gang-raped by five men who drugged her, according to Action Aid which also pointed to the example in Bauchi where a 15 year-old-girl was raped repeatedly by four men to the point that she could barely walk and had to undergo surgery. ActionAid Nigeria also pointed to the incidence of a 12-year-old girl raped by 11 men in Jigawa where all of them confessed to having violated the little girl at different times, as well as the case of 22-year-old Uwavera Omozuwa, an undergraduate, who was raped while reading in a church near her home, in May 2020. She died 3 days later. As a community rooted organisation, we have documented cases on men violating their own daughters and we attest to the fact that this list is non-exhaustive as more cases are reported almost on a daily basis and we worry for the safety of Nigerian girls and women as even our grandmothers are not spared, Ms Obi said. The group, however, commended the efforts of the Nigerian police in swinging to action to investigate and arrest some of the perpetrators but argued that arrest is no longer enough to serve as deterrence, as this is now almost a daily occurrence, and as most of these cases are settled out of court and there is no real justice for the survivors and their families. READ ALSO: ActionAid Nigeria remarked that the issue of greater concern is that, when there is any form of conflict in the country, perpetrators have continued to pounce on women as a form of retaliation. The situation has degenerated to the point that security operatives who are meant to protect are also threatening to rape and kill women and girls in the face of conflict as evidenced in the 26 seconds video where two soldiers threatened to rape and infect women and girls with HIV in Warri over the alleged killing of their colleague by residents. Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh denied the existence of white privilege to the hosts of "The Breakfast Club," a nationally syndicated radio program that features discussions on progressive politics and black culture, during an extraordinary conversation on race relations that aired Monday. During the nearly 30-minute conversation, which also aired on Limbaugh's nationally syndicated program, "The Rush Limbaugh Show," he expressed outrage over the death of George Floyd, the unarmed black man whose death in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, last week sparked global protests. But it was Limbaugh's denial of systemic racism that prompted an astonishing exchange. "I don't buy into white privilege," Limbaugh said toward the beginning of the interview. "You're being delusional," replied Charlamagne tha God, co-host of "The Breakfast Club." They moved on from the topic, but it came up a second time toward the end of the interview when Limbaugh suggested speaking with "The Breakfast Club" again in the future. Charlamagne said he wouldn't be interested if Limbaugh is going to keep denying the existence of concepts like white privilege. Limbaugh, however, doubled down on his position. "White supremacy or white privilege is a construct of today's Democratic Party, and I'm not going to agree with any aspect of it as they put it forth," Limbaugh said. "I'm not denying that there are certain individuals out there that think they are better than other people. But structurally, institutionally, white supremacy that's a construct." "You can't see how white people are just treated better in this country?" Charlamagne asked. Limbaugh replied that he had been "mistreated" his whole life, by companies, groups, and individuals. "I have been fired nine times in my career," Limbaugh said. "But have you ever been thrown out your car because you were driving a nice car?" pressed Charlamagne. "Have you ever got just patted down for being black?" "I've had my car keyed," Limbaugh replied. "I've had my tires blown. Of course." "I'm talking about thrown out your car by a police officer because you're black driving a nice car!" Charlamagne said. "Or walking down the street in Queens, the area where you're from, and the police pulling you over and patting you down. Has these things happened to you?" "No, see I'm a hermit, a recluse, and I don't go out and do all that kind of stuff, "Limbaugh said. "No that kind of stuff has never happened to me, I'll grant you." But then Limbaugh quickly backtracked, saying, "Well, actually, no that isn't true." "Oh, Rush, stop!" Charlamagne said. The interview ended soon after, with Limbaugh and "The Breakfast Club" hosts saying they appreciated the dialogue. Victims of sexual and physical violence at the hands of the Catholic church in Augsburg to receive one-off payments. The diocese of Germanys Augsburg has agreed to pay victims of sexual and physical violence at the hands of the Catholic church up to 75,000 euros ($84,000) each. Bishop Bertram Meier said in a statement on Tuesday that it was time to put the people concerned at ease. It is my priority to send a clear signal and show that we are taking responsibility, he said. The decision comes as a result of a unanimous decision taken by the German Bishops Conference. Augsburg is the second German diocese to make such an announcement. It provides for one-off payments, which depending on the severity of the case amount to up to 25,000 euros ($28,000). A monthly support payment that will not exceed 75,000 euros ($84,000) in total is also possible. Vatican funds The funds will not come from church taxes, with the Augsburg diocese emphasising that only Holy See money will be used. According to a report commissioned by the church, which was released in September last year, 1,670 priests or 4.4 percent of Catholic clerics abused 3,677 people between 1946 and 2014 in Germany. Most of the victims were boys. Following revelations of sexual abuse of children by priests around the world, German bishops last spring announced a reform process called the synodal path that would examine topics including power structures, sexual morality, celibacy and the role of women. Disclaimer: In an earlier version of the story based on the exclusive interview with Rajnath Singh, the headline and story inadvertently said: 'Sizeable Number of Chinese Troops Moved into Eastern Ladakh, says Defence Minister Rajnath Singh'. The minister did not refer to Eastern Ladakh in the interview. The error is regretted, and the story has been corrected. Union defence minister Rajnath Singh has told News18 there will be a meeting between Indian and Chinese military leaders on June 6 to resolve the standoff on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh. Speaking to News18 on Tuesday, Singh said he was informed by Army Chief MM Naravane and other senior army brass about the military-level talks and expressed confidence that the dispute can be settled through dialogue. The defence minister said China has moved a "sizeable number" of its troops to the border areas in Ladakh, and India has taken all the necessary steps to deal with the situation. "Whatever is happening at present...It is true that troops from China are on the border. They claim that it is their territory. Our claim is that it is our area. There has been a disagreement over it, he told News18 in an interview. The defence minister said China should think about the issue seriously so that it can be resolved soon. Indian and Chinese troops were engaged in a bitter standoff in several areas along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh for close to a month. Both the countries are holding talks at military and diplomatic levels to resolve the dispute. "The Doklam dispute was resolved through diplomatic and military talks. We have found solutions to similar situations in the past as well. Talks at the military and diplomatic levels were on to resolve the current issue," Singh said. "India does not hurt the pride of any country and at the same time, it does not tolerate any attempt to hurt its own pride," he said, talking about India's long-held policy. Singh, however, refused to brand China is Indias enemy and said that he considers it just to be Indias neighbour. He added that Pakistan, too, is a neighbour despite its constant attempts to destabilise India by promoting terror. Singh said Pakistan continues to attempt to push in terrorists, referring to the recent foiled attack in Pulwama on the lines of the one that killed 40 paramilitary soldiers last year, and that the Indian armed forces have responded strongly at every turn. He assured that not just Pakistan but no foreign power can destabilise, break or weaken India and warned that whoever makes such an attempt will be answered appropriately. When asked about Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, he added that Indias stand remains that it belongs to us and said the Parliament, too, has passed resolutions to this effect. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 23:54:43|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BLANTYRE, Malawi, June 2 (Xinhua) -- As one way of easing COVID-19 restrictions, the government of Malawi through the Ministry of Education announced that a presidential task force on COVID-19 has recommended to the president a possible reopening of all school institutions by July 13. According to a press release by the Ministry of Education, the development came after consulting several stakeholders in the country. "It is worth pointing out the re-opening of schools, colleges and universities amidst the COVID-19 pandemic that has led to loss of lives globally including four in Malawi, is an attempt to ensure a proper balance between the right to education and the right to life. It is for this reason that the taskforce resolved to consult various stakeholders to come up with a common position that ensures safe return to learning," the press release read. Meanwhile, the task force also announced that it is working in a systematic and fact-based way to ensure that all of its decision making is informed by the best of public health data and global best practices to ensure a safe re-opening of schools. There is a growing debate in the country on whether Malawi should reopen its schools as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise in the country. Enditem VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2020 / Mota Ventures Corp. (CSE:MOTA)(FSE:1WZ:GR)(OTC PINK:PEMTF) (the "Company") a leading ecommerce provider of CBD products to consumers in the United States and Europe, is pleased to announce the completion of its' Cdn$20,000,000 acquisition (the "Transaction") of all of the outstanding share capital of Verrian Ontario Ltd. ("Verrian") effective June 1, 2020. Verrian is an established and well advanced European psychedelic medicine company that is focused on delivering and developing products related to addiction reduction, with a focus on alcohol and opiates. Ryan Hoggan, CEO of the Company stated, "The massive shift towards psychedelic derived medicines is no longer in doubt and this acquisition sends a strong signal to the market that Mota Ventures intends to be a serious participant this coming decade. Unlike some companies that use psychedelics as a marketing term, this acquisition of Verrian brings Mota market ready products, world renowned addiction medicine experts, R&D facilities and a 110,000 square foot facility to make it happen. In my opinion this is the most complete psychedelic asset on the market, and therefore should immediately make Mota a market leader in the space." Hoggan further added, "In 2020, we have proven our e-commerce ability to acquire tens of thousands of customers and generate millions of dollars in monthly revenues from CBD sales. We intend to bring that same market expertise to bear with our psychedelics business in 2020 and far beyond." ACQUISTION PROVIDES MOTA WITH IMMEDIATE ENTRY INTO FAST GROWING $100 BILLION PSYCHEDELICS INDUSTRY The market for psychedelic derived medicines and therapies is estimated to be as high as USD$100 Billion*. Over the past decade, growing societal awareness and acceptance of mental disorders and addiction as real diseases has accelerated the push for new and innovative treatments using psychedelics, including psilocybin. As a result, psychedelic research published back in the 50s and 60s has resurfaced and once again highlighted their curative properties. Moreover, the recent legalization of Cannabis in Canada, as well as, across 33 US states for medicinal purposes, has significantly mitigated any stigma, leading to accelerated interest and investment in the psychedelics industry. Verrian has already developed two psilocybin products that are natural psilocybin extracts, from organically cultivated mushrooms, combined with metabolism enhancing natural herbs. This is only the beginning with further products in various stages of development. ESTABLISHED EUROPEAN PSYCHEDELIC MEDICINE COMPANY Verrian owns and operates a 110,000 square foot pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Radebuel, Germany. Operations within this full suite pharmaceutical manufacturing site include analytical laboratory and finished dose manufacturing, which exceed all international quality standards. The facility and equipment of Verrian have been independently appraised at Cdn$10,600,000 and include an analytical laboratory and full pharmaceutical manufacturing suite. Verrian operates three distinct business segments: Pharmaceutical Manufacturing - A portfolio of medical & wellness products Phyto API - API creation from medical plants Analytical Testing - European Medicine Agency Standards PRODUCTS FOCUSED ON OPIATE ADDICTION REDUCTION Verrian's singular focus is rewiring the mind to overcome addiction through natural medicine. Specifically, the micro dosing of psilocybin demonstrates potential to remove the dopamine reward of addictive substances, potentially diminishing the desire for addictive substances, thereby reducing or eliminating the need for the addictive substance. To date Verrian has developed two psilocybin products: PSI GEN and PSI GEN+. These Psilocybin products are focused on opiate addiction reduction. As natural psilocybin extracts, from organically cultivated mushrooms, combined with metabolism enhancing natural herbs, they are ideal for individuals commencing micro-dosing and capable of being combined with additional anti-addiction therapies. All of Verrian's compounds are derived from organic, glyphosate free naturally occurring plants, grown specifically for its own purposes. GOALS AND VISION In addition to the facility and equipment outlined above, Verrian has invested approximately Cdn$2,400,000 in clinical trial design and development of proprietary formulations for its psilocybin trademarked PSI-GEN products, and cannabis products, including trademarked CBDaily and CBNight. Verrian's world renowned addiction medicine experts are moving ahead to develop new potential treatments for therapy, with rigorous clinical research. Once EU GMP and narcotics handling recertification are secured, capabilities will extend to: specialty pharmaceutical formulations; and psilocybin refinement and production for micro dosing. In consideration for the acquisition of all of the outstanding share capital of Verrian, the Company has issued 54,347,826 common shares (the "Consideration Shares") to the existing shareholders of Verrian at a deemed price of $0.368 per Consideration Share. 50,543,478 of the Consideration Shares are subject to terms of a thirty-six month time release pooling arrangement, during which time they may not be transferred, assigned, pledged or otherwise traded. The Consideration Shares will be released from the pooling arrangement in tranches, of which ten-percent will be released after four months, fifteen percent after six months, and the balance in five equal tranches every six months thereafter. In addition to the Consideration Shares, upon closing of the Transaction, the Company has arranged for repayment of $150,000 of existing shareholder loans of Verrian, and will arrange for repayment of the balance of $950,000 within sixty days of closing. The Company is at arms-length from Verrian, and each of its shareholders. The Transaction does not constitute a fundamental change for the Company, nor has it resulted in a change of control of the Company, within the meaning of applicable securities laws and the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange. In connection with completion of the Transaction, the Company has paid a finders' fee of 5,434,783 common shares to certain arms'-length parties who have assisted in facilitating the Transaction. The Company has also paid an administrative fee of 1,086,957 common shares of the Company to a consultant who assisted with the Transaction. We encourage shareholders and prospective investors to visit the Company's AGORACOM Discussion Forum, a moderated social media platform that enables civilized discussion and Q&A between Management and Shareholders. About Mota Ventures Corp. Mota Ventures is an established natural health products company focused in the CBD and psychedelic medicine sectors. Through its powerful eCommerce business, Mota is a leading is a direct-to-consumer provider of a wide range of natural health products throughout the United States and Europe. In the United States, the Company sells a CBD hemp-oil formulation derived from hemp grown and formulated in the United States through its Nature's Exclusive brand. Within Europe, its Sativida brand of award winning 100% organic CBD oils and cosmetics are sold throughout Spain, Portugal, Austria, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. Through its German-based Verrian operation, Mota is researching and testing the efficacy and application of natural psilocybin products for the treatment of opioid and other life altering addictions. Mota is also seeking to acquire additional revenue producing CBD brands and operations in both Europe and North America, with the goal of establishing an international distribution network for CBD and other natural health products. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS MOTA VENTURES CORP. Ryan Hoggan Chief Executive Officer For further information, readers are encouraged to contact Joel Shacker, President at +604.423.4733 or by email at IR@motaventuresco.com or www.motaventuresco.com The Canadian Securities Exchange has in no way passed upon the merits of the Transaction, and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release, which has been prepared by management. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statement All statements in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, are "forward-looking information" with respect to the Company within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including with respect to the operations and activities of Verrian, and its plans to acquire revenue-producing CBD brands and operations in Europe and North America. The Company provides forward-looking statements for the purpose of conveying information about current expectations and plans relating to the future and readers are cautioned that such statements may not be appropriate for other purposes. By its nature, this information is subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and which give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that assumptions may not be correct and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited those identified and reported in the Company's public filings under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise unless required by law. SOURCE: Mota Ventures Corp. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/592330/Mota-Ventures-Closes-20000000-Acquisition-of-European-Pharmaceutical-Manufacturer-of-Natural-Psilocybin-Extracts The riots that began in Minneapolis are the intended consequence of the fake history dished out by our media, Hollywood, and most colleges and public schools for the past 50 years. This new "institutional racism" falsely blames all whites for every injustice especially whites who are Christian or Republican or who love America. These whites are the new Jews. Minneapolis is the new Kishinev. In 1903, Kishinev was part of Russia and ruled by an emperor, the tsar. Just before Easter, a non-Jewish girl there was depressed and swallowed poison. She was rushed to a Jewish hospital, where she died. Jew-hating newspapers ran sensational fake news about her death. They falsely reported that Jews killed her so they could use her blood for their Passover matzo. That "blood libel" was war propaganda used by Greeks against Jews, who had rebelled against them 2,200 years ago in the days of the Maccabees. That lie became established fake history throughout Europe because it was written in popular books at the ancient Greek library in Alexandria. Things got worse during Holy Week. Priests in the government-run Orthodox churches gave sermons with selected Gospel readings that falsely blamed Jews for persecuting and crucifying Jesus. If Orthodox churches in Russia, like Protestants, had encouraged independent Bible study, many would have disagreed. The Gospels of Mark and Luke tell of large crowds of Jews cheering Jesus as he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Matthew and Luke tell how elites in the capital plotted to arrest Jesus at night, after the Passover Seder, so large crowds of Jews could not protect him. Riots in Kishinev started after Easter Sunday services. Hundreds of young gentile men went through Jewish neighborhoods. They looted 600 Jewish-owned stores and destroyed 700 Jewish houses. They robbed, beat, and killed every Jew they found. My five-year-old grandmother survived because a non-Jewish neighbor took her in. That neighbor taught her to recite a Christian prayer when the mob came. The Russian police did nothing for two days. Then they charged 250 Jews for using clubs, poles, and guns to defend themselves. Government officials openly supported the rioters. One said he understood the frustration of "poor peasants ruined by Jewish moneylenders." Public domain photo. This was good politics for the Russian tsar. When they blamed Jews for their poverty and misery, Russians were not complaining about the corruption, incompetence, and brutality of their government. Unless there is new evidence, it looks as though George Floyd was killed by a brutal, incompetent cop who should have been fired years ago. Three years ago, a 40-year-old white woman was shot and killed for no reason by a black officer of that same Minneapolis Police Department. Do the media, politicians, and black leaders care about fixing problems? If so, why don't they report and protest against corruption and incompetence by this Democrat-run city government? Why don't they talk about how public employee unions and civil service rules make it almost impossible to fire bad cops? Instead, they falsely blame "racism" by all white Americans, just as the 1903 Russian government and media of 1903 falsely blamed Jews. They get away with it because Hollywood, schools, and colleges have taught fake history for the past 50 years. They teach nothing about the Islamic Barbary kingdoms that enslaved black and white non-believers for a thousand years until America stopped it. They teach nothing about the nearly two million whites who fought to end slavery in the Civil War and more than 300,000 who died. They teach nothing of how the KKK was created by white Democrats in the South to terrorize white Republicans as well as blacks after the Civil War. They teach nothing about the fake history Hollywood movie, Birth of a Nation, that revived the KKK and brought it to the rest of the country to re-elect racist Democrat President Woodrow Wilson in 1916. Leave it to "progressive" Democrats to make the worst of Old Russia the "new normal" in America. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee Ignores Victims of Police Brutality NEWS PROVIDED BY June 2, 2020 KNOXVILLE, Tenn., June 2, 2020 / Christian Newswire / -- Thousands of complaints have been filed in the state of Tennessee against law enforcement officers using excessive force, with no end in sight. On December 30, 2010, Christian missionary George Raudenbush was brutally beaten and barely escaped with his life. The individual responsible for the assault, Brian Millsaps, a City of Tellico Plains Police Officer. According to public records, Mr. Millsaps has a past documented history of using excessive force, having federal complaints filed against him, was charged with theft of city property, as well as reckless operation of a police vehicle. He was discharged from the Monroe County Sheriff's Department for violation of department policy. Mr. Millsaps also has had three separate failed marriages during the course of his public rampage of abuse of authority. See release at Christian Newswire What happens next is completely shocking. The Monroe County Sheriff's Department hires Brian Millsaps back and gives him a promotion! Mr. Raudenbush, as a result of the malicious attack is permanently physically disabled from head trauma and spinal injury. "I was attacked that night because I was bringing African American Youth Groups into Monroe County to perform mission work in the community, I was told to stop bringing in these groups by sheriff department officials and I didn't." See summary brief Mr. Raudenbush petitioned Governor Bill Haslam's office in 2018 about the coverup and abuses in Monroe County Tennessee however, the Tennessee Board of Parole obstructed Mr. Raudenbush's petition form ever reaching Governor Haslam's office according to the governor's former chief legal counsel, Dwight Tarawater. In August of 2019, Mr. Raudenbush again petitioned the governor's office asking newly elected Governor Bill Lee, whom Mr. Raudenbush voted for, to hear his petition and conduct an investigation. No such investigation was conducted according to Mr. Raudenbush and reflected by public records and no relief was granted. See summary brief Mr. Raudenbush spends his days in physical therapy under the Americans with Disabilities Act and he continues helping others in his limited capacity. Investigative Reporter Sharon Rondeau at The Post & Email has extensively covered Mr. Raudenbush's story since 2010. SOURCE Appalachian Youth Missions CONTACT: George J Raudenbush III, 865-228-9170, aym@aymissions.org Related Links Inside Hook Its a familiar story: due to concerns over the coronavirus, the scheduled release date for a creative work is pushed back until later in the year. As anyone whos paid attention to the way blockbuster film release dates have been juggled knows, its been an ongoing concern for plenty of industries. But theres one thats experienced this particularly acutely: publishing. A new article by Alexandra Alter at The New York Times explores the dilemma publishers have found themselves in. A number of high-profile books slated for release in the spring were pushed back to the fall which is already a busy season for the publishing industry. Factor in the election and the ongoing pandemic, and you have all the ingredients for a logistical nightmare. Pragmatic Play Debuts John Hunter and the Book of Tut Slot Published June 2, 2020 by Mike P A globetrotting hero marks his return in the newly released John Hunter and the Book of Tut slot from Pragmatic Play. Several iGaming software providers have created Indiana Jones-inspired characters to star in their video slots series. For instance, Pragmatic Play has developed a few John Hunter slots, including Da Vincis Treasure, the Tomb of the Scarab Queen, and the Aztec Treasure. Now joining the cast is the brand-new John Hunter and the Book of Tut slot. Gameplay Options From May 2020, users can hunt for the newest John Hunter slot at participating Pragmatic Play casinos. The five-reel slot is mobile-compatible and has 10 paylines to play, with the total betting value determined by staking up to 10 coins and selecting a coin value of 0.01 to 1.00. The Book of Tut allows for the wagering of 0.10 up to 100.00 per spin. An intuitive paytable can automatically recalculate the values of winning symbol combinations based on the current wagering amount. Four high-value images can payout with only two symbols on a payline, whereas three or more of the playing cards are needed. Uncover Special Features A gilded brown book has been programmed by Pragmatic Play to function in the dual-role of a wild and scatter symbol. As a wild symbol, the brown tome can pay 2x the total bet with three symbols, 20x with four appearances, or 200x after landing five times. John Hunter and the Book of Tut can also deliver free spins, but only if three scatters can be landed anywhere in sight on the reels. The paytable states that 10 free spins are awarded at this point, with no limit imposed on how many times the special feature can be re-triggered. Once free spins begin, a special symbol shall be selected at random to start expanding. After winnings have been determined, the special symbol will then expand vertically on the reels and fill all three positions, thus giving players two opportunities to win. Actor Ananya Panday has some insiders information on the happenings in Bollywood. In an interview to Bollywood Hungama, she has revealed the names of the gossip girls of Bollywood. In the report, she says, I think Kareena Kapoor Khan, Karan Johar and Ranbir Kapoor. Thats what people say, right, that they know everything. So, I think these three can be like the gossip girls. While others have spoken about Kareena, her cousin Ranbirs name figuring in the list comes as a surprise. Only in March this year, appearing on Kapil Sharmas show The Kapil Sharma Show to promote their now indefinitely delayed Sooryavanshi, Akshay Kumar and Karan had revealed how Kareena is the gossip queen of Bollywood. Akshay had said, She (Kareena) knows everything. Genuinely. Karan had added, I say to the Mumbai Police to hire her. I feel she (Kareena) has a business of CCTV. It seems she has installed CCTV cameras in peoples houses. And she seems to have a console through which she can see whats happening in the industry. Theres not a single information about India and the industry that doesnt reach her house. Also read: Shah Rukh Khan to provide aid to child who tried to wake up dead mother at train station, says I know how it feels to lose a parent Director Rohit Shetty, who was also present on the show, giving an example, had said, But its correct about Kareena. I have experienced it myself. I held a meeting with Shah Rukh Khan in the night for Chennai Express. Nobody knew about it. I think only Karan (Johar) knew about it. The next morning, I went to Kareenas house. (She said), You met Shah Rukh? I swear. Ananya, meanwhile, was keeping busy before the first lockdown was announced. She had been busy with Khaali Peeli, which will also star Ishaan Khatter. She also has Fighter with Telugu sensation Vijay Deverakonda. Ananya made an impressive debut in 2019 with Student of the Year 2 and went on to star in the hit film, Pati Patni Aur Woh. In the former she starred with Tiger Shroff and another debutant Tara Sutaria while in the latter, she was cast along with Kartik Aaryan and Bhumi Pednekar. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON With the district administration not allowing the main vegetable market to operate six days a week, traders bodies have decided to take up the matter with cabinet minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu in the coming days. Faced with losses, the arhtiya associations are also contemplating agitation if their concerns are not addressed by the government. During a meeting conducted here on Tuesday, fruit mandi arhtiya association general secretary Charanjt Singh Shera said, Our office-bearers raised the matter before Ashu a few days ago, but we have not received any reply from the minister till now. We have decided to meet him again and if he still fails to provide a solution, the association will chalk out further plan of action. Following the complaints of huge gatherings at the vegetable market near Jalandhar bypass, the district administration had on April 3 restricted the sale of vegetables and fruits at the mandi to three days a week Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Only listed suppliers who sell vegetables to street vendors in the citys 95 wards were issued passes to enter the market. Besides a six-day week mandi, the traders have also demanded that their customers, other than the vendors, should be allowed to enter the vegetable market. Working on their demands, the deputy commissioner had formed a three-member committee led by sub-divisional magistrate (West) Amrinder Malhi, but that too recommended not to allow mandi operations for six days a week till the lockdown is in effect. A market committee official said the administration is already struggling to manage the rush of visitors to the market and it has also failed to stop illegal entry of vendors and customers, resulting in huge gatherings amid the pandemic. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday held a telephonic conversation with his French counterpart Florence Parly during which she conveyed that the Rafale jets will be delivered to India as scheduled notwithstanding the coronavirus pandemic, officials said. The defence ministry said the two ministers discussed matters of mutual concern including regional security scenario and agreed to strengthen the bilateral defence cooperation. It is not immediately known whether the border standoff between India and China in eastern Ladakh figured in the talks. "France reaffirmed its commitment to ensure timely delivery of Rafale Aircraft despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic," the ministry said in a statement. It said the two ministers agreed to work together to fulfil the India-France joint strategic vision on the Indian Ocean Region. India had signed an inter-governmental agreement with France in September 2016 for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 58,000 crore. Singh received the first Rafale jet at an air base in France on October 8 but it is yet to be brought to India. There were apprehensions that the delivery of Rafale jets could be delayed due to the pandemic. The Rafale jet is capable of carrying a range of potent weapons. European missile maker MBDA's Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missile and Scalp cruise missile will be the mainstay of the weapons package of the Rafale jets. Meteor is a next generation of BVR air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) designed to revolutionise air-to-air combat. The weapon has been developed by MBDA to combat common threats facing the UK, Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Sweden. Besides the missile systems, the Rafale jets will come with various India-specific modifications, including Israeli helmet-mounted displays, radar warning receivers, low band jammers, 10-hour flight data recording, infra-red search and tracking systems among others. The IAF has already completed preparations, including readying required infrastructure and training of pilots, to welcome the fighter aircraft. The first squadron of the aircraft will be stationed at Ambala air force station, considered one of the most strategically located bases of the IAF. The Indo-Pak border is around 220 km from there. The second squadron of Rafale will be stationed at Hasimara base in West Bengal. President Donald Trump is introduced by RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel at the Republican National Committee's winter meeting at the Washington Hilton in Washington, on Feb. 1, 2018. (Yuri Gripas/Reuters) GOP Looks to Other States for Republican Convention While Holding Out Hope for North Carolina Update: President Donald Trump announced Tuesday night that he is seeking a new state to host the Republican National Convention in the summer, after North Carolina refused to guarantee the event could be held in Charlotte without restrictions amid the CCP virus pandemic. A top Republican official said the party is moving forward with considering other cities and states for its key summer convention while expressing hope that Charlotte, North Carolina, the GOPs first choice, would still materialize. Republican National Committee (RNC) chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a June 2 statement that the GOP would start visiting the cities and states that have offered to host the partys four-day nominating convention, scheduled to open on Aug. 24, at which Republicans are expected to officially nominate President Donald Trump for a second term. McDaniel said the party still hopes to conduct the business of our convention at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, which Trump, the RNC, and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, have all indicated is their first choice. We have now communicated to Governor Coopers office multiple times that we would like to showcase Charlotte and the wonderful state of North Carolina to the world by hosting the convention we contracted for nearly two years ago, McDaniel said, calling the convention a historic event to show that America is open for business. But the type of full convention that Trump and the RNC are seeking, which Cooper said in a letter (pdf) Tuesday includes around 19,000 people attending along with full hotels and restaurants and bars at capacity, will be highly unlikely. Cooper instead insisted the Republicans plan for a lower-key event due to the pandemic. The people of North Carolina do not know what the status of COVID-19 will be in August so planning for a scaled-down convention with fewer people, social distancing, and face coverings is a necessity, he wrote. As much as we want the conditions surrounding COVID-19 to be favorable enough for you to hold the convention you describe in late August, it is very unlikely, Cooper added. Republican officials so far have submitted proposals for a full convention rather than one with fewer participants and social distancing as requested by the state, Cooper said. Neither public health officials nor I will risk the health and safety of North Carolinians by providing the guarantee you seek, he said in his letter, referring to a guarantee that convention attendance would not be limited by social distancing restrictions. In a back-and-forth that has gone on for weeks, McDaniel said Tuesday Cooper was dragging his feet on giving us any guidance as to how to move forward with organizing the convention safely. Trump told reporters at the White House on May 26 that he wanted assurances that a full convention could be held, and pressed Cooper to commit. We need a fast decision from the governor, Trump said. If he feels that hes not going to do it, all he has to do is tell us and then well have to pick another location, and I will tell you a lot of locations want it. In a letter to Cooper last week, McDaniel asked him to approve a series of safety protocols and logistical measures that Republicans agreed to, including health questionnaires and thermal scans for fever. She later told former state Governor Pat McCrory on his radio show that it seemed Cooper was stalling. Its starting to feel like they are dragging their feet and they dont want to give us their guidelines, McDaniel said on the show a day after she sent the letter, which asked him to commit to a full event by a June 3 deadline. We are hoping to make it work but we are not going to wait indefinitely. Cooper, in essentially rejecting the possibility of a full convention, called for the Republicans to provide detailed plans for a way to hold the event in line with CDC-approved health and safety protocols (pdf) in place. We are happy to continue talking with you about what a scaled-down convention would look like and we still await your proposed plan for that, Cooper wrote, adding that his office had not received answers to safety questions posed by the states health officials, specifically regarding social distancing and face coverings. Republicans in Georgia, Texas, and Florida have offered to host the convention. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 2) The Health Department's new system of reporting COVID-19 cases proves to be more accurate and transparent, its former chief said Tuesday. Iloilo Rep. and former Health Secretary Janette Garin lauded the agency for "admitting the gaps" in the reportage, saying the new approach of identifying "fresh" and "late" cases would give a clearer picture of the degree of the disease's infection in the country. "What we see now, the fresh and the late cases, is more accurate," Garin told CNN Philippines' The Source. "It's accurate because the figures that were being given to us before was not that accurate. Because some reported too late, others had incomplete information so they could not report it." "It's actually being transparent, it's admitting the faults done initially. It's correcting the data so that strategists and people will understand the degree of infection," she added. Garin stressed the importance of the validation process in the COVID-19 testing protocols, adding the alignment of data from laboratories is likewise a crucial part in government's reporting. She said that while testing was ramped up in several laboratories, some facilities were submitting results late, while others delivered reports containing just the positive or negative results "without the benefit of the data of the patient." The Health Department last week changed its way of presenting daily COVID-19 data by separating "fresh cases, or those whose test results were released within the last three days, from "late" cases, or those whose results were released after more than four days. The move, however, drew mixed reactions from netizens and lawmakers alike. Sorsogon Gov. Francis Chiz Escudero, in a social media post, urged officials not to "fudge" the figures, saying the new reporting scheme merely became an "ego saving device." Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, on the other hand, said officials were "not completely honest in their daily situation report before" given the situation in the testing backlogs. DOH earlier assured that accredited COVID-19 testing centers have been working double time to clear backlogs, noting how these "aggressive efforts" have become a factor in the spike of daily confirmed coronavirus infections. To date, the Philippines has logged over 18,000 cases of the infectious disease. Philippine troops in an armored vehicle enter a ruined section of Marawi after government forces took that part of the southern city back from pro-Islamic State militants, Aug. 29, 2017. The Philippine military on Tuesday sought to allay public fears that government security forces could use proposed changes to the countrys anti-terrorism law to crack down on dissent, saying there were enough safeguards in the bill. Amendments to the countrys Human Security Act are meant only to boost the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in the campaign against terrorism, military spokesman Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo said. The new proposed legislation gives more teeth to the existing law and eliminates some provisions that tend to curtail rather than aid security forces to defeat terrorism, Arevalo said. The bill passes through the crucible of intense deliberations to ensure that it will not trample upon peoples rights, but rather defend their rights to life, liberty and property as well as the freedom from fear which the AFP seeks to uphold, he said. The bills provisions include a measure that would fine any government security unit 500,000 pesos (close to U.S. $10,000) for each day it keeps a terror suspect in custody, but who is later found not guilty of links to terrorism, he said. That should make authorities wary of carrying out arrests, Arevalo said. While he noted that it may not end terrorism immediately, the proposed law makes it easier for the government to penalize acts that contribute to deadly attacks, the military spokesman said. The Senate passed a version of the proposed legislation in February, while the House of Representatives is in the process of passing its own version. President Rodrigo Duterte, who had struggled to end a five-month siege of the southern city of Marawi by pro-Islamic State (IS) militants three years ago, on Monday called on Congress to pass the bill urgently. Among its provisions, the bill authorizes officials to carry out warrantless arrests and hold suspects for up to two weeks, as well as impose life imprisonment for anyone involved in the planning, training, preparation and facilitation of terrorist acts. Rights groups have argued that the Duterte administration and government security forces may use the proposed law to go after critics of his drug war that has left thousands of people dead since mid-2016. Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, a former human rights lawyer, emphasized that the existing Philippine anti-terrorism law was weak compared with legislation in other countries. There are no draconian provisions there. The provisions there were based on similar laws by other countries, which are more effective in dealing with terrorists, Roque said on Tuesday. So the provisions in the amendments to the Human Security Act were also based on laws in [Britain], the United States, Europe and Australia, among others, he said. Samira Gutoc, a peace advocate from the southern Philippines, along with other Muslim religious leaders, meanwhile, urged Duterte to reconsider his stance and instead focus on battling the COVID-19 pandemic. She alleged that certain provisions of the bill could be abused by security forces, who would be given sweeping powers under the law. We have seen how one incident of police brutality can instigate riots in the United States of America and are destroying the very fabric of the nation, Gutoc said. She was referring to demonstrations that began in Minnesota and have spread across the U.S. after the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in a Minneapolis street while in police custody last week. We therefore ask you, Mr. President, to reconsider the passage of this measure into law, said Gutoc, a Muslim leader whose ancestral home was also damaged during the 2017 IS siege of Marawi. And if its approval is urgent, then please make sure that safeguards are in place to protect the rights of the people, especially the Moro who may be targeted by this law, she said. Mark Navales in Cotabato City contributed to this report. Representational picture Physical distancing of two metres or more can prevent person-to-person transmission of COVID-19, according to a comprehensive review of studies published in The Lancet journal, which also found that face masks and eye protection may decrease the risk of infection too. The systematic review of existing evidence was commissioned by the World Health Organization, the researchers said. "Physical distancing likely results in a large reduction of COVID-19," said lead author Holger Schunemann, professor at the McMaster University in Canada. "Although the direct evidence is limited, the use of masks in the community provides protection, and possibly N95 or similar respirators worn by health care workers suggest greater protection than other face masks," said Schunemann, who is also co-director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases, Research Methods and Recommendations. The researchers noted that the availability and feasibility and other contextual factors will probably influence recommendations that organisations develop about their use, and eye protection may provide additional benefits. The international collaborative of researchers sought direct evidence on COVID-19 and indirect evidence on related coronaviruses causative of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show They identified no randomised control trials addressing the three coronaviruses but 44 relevant comparative studies in health-care and non-health-care settings across 16 countries and six continents from inception to early May 2020. The researchers noted more global, collaborative, well-conducted studies of different personal protective strategies are needed. For masks, large randomised trials are underway and are urgently needed, they said. "There is an urgent need for all caregivers in health-care settings and non-health-care settings to have equitable access to these simple personal protective measures, which means scaling up production and consideration about repurposing manufacturing," said Derek Chu, a clinician scientist at McMaster University and an affiliate of the Research Institute of St. Joe's Hamilton. "However, although distancing, face masks, and eye protection were each highly protective, none made individuals totally impervious from infection and so, basic measures such as hand hygiene are also essential to curtail the current COVID-19 pandemic and future waves," Chu added. Restaurants across New Mexico opened up for dine-in service on Monday after months of closures in an effort by the State to minimize the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Eateries were allowed to serve customers, provided dining rooms were kept to a 50 percent capacity limit, and social distancing was maintained to keep diners at least six feet apart as they enjoyed their meals. Menus were thrown away after one use, most condiments were kept off tables and tables and chairs were sanitized after every use. But despite the changes, many in Carlsbad were just happy to get out for a bite and to socialize, optimistic that the reopening was the beginning of New Mexico, and the country, returning to normal. We spoke to managers and diners at several local restaurants in Carlsbad, analyzing the impacts of the reopening on local business and culture in the city. Yellow Brix Nine-year-old Melanie Griffin hoped the quesadilla she ordered at Yellow Brix on Canal Street would give her mom Carrie Griffin some respite from having to cook all her meals at home. My mom doesnt have to make food for me, Griffin said with a smile, as her mom and brother Jacob Griffin mulled over the menu. Carrie Griffin said she was glad to be out of the house after months, supporting the local economy. Were happy to be able to support local business again, she said. It does good for your mental health. Were so excited. Were trying to get back to normal. Owner of Yellow Brix Barbara Rempel said the restaurant was already busy last week after patio or outdoor dining was allowed to reopen. Yellow Brix has a large patio area, and the eatery was quickly inundated with customers, Rempel said. Its been very, very busy. We need all of our people back already, she said. We only have so many tables to go around. People need to have some social outlets. Its a pent-up demand. Rempel said she hoped the reopening was a sign of progress in reopening business as the spread of the pandemic dissipated, and resident were allowed to leave their homes. In the short term, were all going to be very busy, she said. The old normal will come back. Its not a matter of if, but when. Were trying to gear up so we can handle it. : Pecos River Cafe One of the busiest spots for breakfast and lunch, Pecos River Cafe is usually packed with tables. To limit contact, half the tables and chairs have been removed from the restaurant to allow for a better flow and to make sure each table is at least six feet away from the others. Diana Cerny, owner of Pecos Valley Cafe, make sure everything stays clean throughout the shift. When a customer leaves the table, everything is taken off and wiped down. New cutlery, salt and pepper shakers, napkins and other condiments remain off the table until a new customer sits down. Every 15 minutes a dedicated employee who sanitizes the unused tables and Pecos River Cafe has someone to clean the doors, windows and bathrooms at specific times. Were following strict hand-washing rules, strong sanitizing procedures, Cerny said. The main thing is wiping down all surfaces and were constantly doing it. We change our gloves every 15 or 30 minutes. The masks we wear are single-use masks. They are allowed to be worn the whole shift. Cerny noted the noon rush saw all available tables occupied during the typical morning rush and the start of the lunch rush. More than anything, shes glad to have dining in return as an eating option. Were excited about being open, she said. We understand why it had to happen at the beginning. We feel its time for everybody to start working. That means everyone who is employed can work their full hours and earn a good living. Lucky Bull Across Canal Street, Lucky Bull was also opened for lunch on Monday, and diners were quick to patronize the local favorite known for its burgers and other American classics. Over a plate of nachos with a thick coating of cheese and jalapeno peppers Mike Dixon of Carlsbad was happy to finally see the local economy active again. I have missed it very much, he said of dining out. It was great news and were just excited to get the world moving again. Its a sign wre moving past this. Hopefully, well continue moving forward. Lucky Bull Manager and Owner JP George said business was quick to resume as news spread of the opening of the dining room. To keep customers spaced appropriately, George said the upstairs taproom usually used to serve beer to the evening crowd was opened for lunch service. Every restaurant in town is glad this is finally over, George said. Were excited to have our customers back in here. It was long overdue. George said the restaurant would not offer condiments on the tables, and throw away menus after one use. Tables, chairs and silverware were also sanitized after every meal and all staff donned protective masks throughout their shifts. For the most part it was easy, he said of the new requirements. Were just looking forward to getting back to our normal business. We think it will build throughout the week. It slowed us down, but were getting back to normal. Mi Casita Mary Molinar owned Mi Casita for the last 15 years and was thrilled to open her doors on Monday for dine-in options. Molinar assures customers every precaution is being taken to avoid the spread of COVID-19. We disinfect everything when someone leaves (the table), she said. We dont put silverware out until theyve sat down. We sanitize the door handles, the chairs and wipe down the salt and pepper shakers after every use. Some of us wear masks some of us dont because the mayor said its up to our discretion. With the 50 percent capacity Mi Casita has half the tables available, with chairs up on tables not intended for dining and to ensure the proper distancing. If someone comes in to put their name on the waiting list, they must return to their vehicle and wait to be called in to be seated. This also includes people waiting in line to pay for their meals or picking up takeout: if theres more than one person at the entrance area, the rest must stay back until the area is cleared. The noon rush wasnt as busy as Molinar was expecting, which allowed her and her staff to slowly ease into the new rules and regulations. Were trying to do the best we can, she said. Its not overwhelming on our first day so we can keep up with everything. Its great to be open. Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on Twitter. Matthew Asher can be reached at 575-628-5524, masher@currentargus.com or @Caveman_Masher on Twitter. 2020 the Carlsbad Current-Argus (Carlsbad, N.M.) Visit the Carlsbad Current-Argus (Carlsbad, N.M.) at www.currentargus.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. American space agency NASA has said that at least five asteroids are headed towards Earth this week, which will give curious minds yet another thing to watch out for from their telescope. According to NASAs Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), four of the near-Earth objects (NEOs) are due to fly past the planet on Tuesday, June 2 (Wednesday in India's case). READ | NASA Astronauts Explain Difference Between SpaceX Dragon Crew's Ride And Space Shuttle Five asteroids Kicking things off will be the 108-foot wide 2020 KK7 asteroid that will fly past the planet at 2:13 pm India time (IST) on Wednesday. This asteroid will cruise along at a speed of 34,000 mph at a distance of roughly 319,000 miles, or just beyond the Moon. The next will be 115 feet wide 2020 KD4, hurtling at a speed of 12,000 mph, at 6:17 pm IST. This will cross Earth at a distance of 2.5 million miles. The 144-foot wide 2020 KF, biggest among them all, will be flying at 24,000 mph some 2.9 million miles away at 9:30 pm IST. The fourth asteroid to fly past Earth will be the 105-feet wide 2020 KJ1, cruising at 11,000 mph at 12:27 am on Thursday, passing some 1.3 million miles from the Earth at its closest point. Then, after a brief respite, an asteroid potentially taller than New Yorks Empire State Building and the London Eye combined, 2002 NN4, will zoom by on Sunday, June 7. This NEO will pass us at a very safe distance of 3,168,993 miles and will measure between 820ft and 1870ft, based on its brightness and the way it reflects light. READ | Newest NASA Arrivals Address Briefing LIVE From ISS; Toy Dragon & Earth Bauble In Tow What is a near-Earth object? According to NASA, a near-Earth object (NEO) is an asteroid or comet whose orbit brings it into or through a zone between approximately 91 million and 121 million miles (195 million kilometers) from the Sun, meaning that it can pass within about 30 million miles (50 million kilometers) of Earths orbit. Like the planets, asteroids and comets orbit the Sun. Although the vast majority of NEOs that enter Earths atmosphere disintegrate before reaching the surface (and more than 100 tons of dust particles disintegrate in Earths atmosphere daily), those NEOs that are larger than around 98 to 164 feet (30 to 50 meters) in size and could cause widespread damage in and around their impact sites. A potentially hazardous object (PHO) is a near-Earth object whose orbit brings it within 4.7 million miles (7.5 million km) of Earths orbit, and is greater than 500 feet (140 meters) in size. (With inputs from agencies) READ | Flat Earth Theory Turns Into Memefest After NASA SpaceX Shows Earth's Spherical Shape READ | NASA Scientist Shows Dinosaurs Wandered On Earth When It Was On Other Side Of Milky Way Thiruvananthapuram, June 2 : The ongoing tiff between the lone Keralaite in the Union Cabinet -- V. Muraleedharan and the Kerala government on Tuesday took a turn for the worse when the former accused the latter of wanting to delay the return of the state diaspora from the Middle East. Quick in denial was State Fisheries Minister J. Mercykutty who blamed Muraleedharan for behaving in a manner not befitting his status. Muraleedharan told the media that Kerala has written to the Centre that the pace of bringing back its diaspora from Middle East should be slowed down. "The letter said there is a limitation on the staff that can be deployed at the four airports in the state to ensure that correct protocols are followed. The same is also said about the arrival of chartered flights," said Muraleedharan. But while remaining non-committal on this request made by the state to the Centre, Mercykutty said the only condition that the state has put forward is that it should be informed well in advance about the list of the arriving passengers. "He (Muraleedharan) has been behaving like this for a while now and it does not match his status. Kerala writes so many letters to the Centre on a daily basis. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has made things very clear and the position is the same, that the state is ready to receive its people," said a peeved Mercykutty. The first flight carrying Kerala diaspora arrived in the state on May 7 and till Monday 21,839 people have arrived and according to the web portal of the Kerala government, more than 3.80 lakh people from across the world have registered to return, with more than 90 per cent from the various Middle East countries. The Congress-led opposition and the state unit of the BJP had taken on Vijayan for going back on the numerous assurances given to the diaspora and all hell broke loose when Vijayan said the diaspora will have to pay for quarantine. Following the outburst, Vijayan backtracked and said an order will soon be out on paid quarantine. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text James Cameron has entered a two-week quarantine after arriving in New Zealand to restart filming on the Avatar sequels. The country, which became a popular movie-making location after the global popularity of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, reopened for film production this month. However after traveling from the United States, the 65-year-old Titanic director is still going to quarantine by government rules. Staying safe: James Cameron and producer Jon Landau have entered a two-week quarantine after arriving in New Zealand to restart filming on the Avatar sequels Producer Jon Landau broke the news with an Instagram post of himself and James wearing masks while on the tarmac at Wellington International Airport. 'Made it to New Zealand. Our 14-day government supervised self-isolation now begins. #avatarsequels #jamescameron #newzealand #airnewzealand #selfisolation,' Jon wrote in the caption to his album. While at the airport he also posed for Instagram in front of a sign that read: 'All passengers must self-isolate for 14 days.' The New Zealand Film Commission told Deadline on May 7 that a number of productions for film and television 'are already safely underway' in the country. The rules: While at the airport Jon also posed for Instagram in front of a sign that read: 'All passengers must self-isolate for 14 days' Throwback: James is pictured in February at a party in Los Angeles There have only been 22 confirmed COVID-19 deaths in New Zealand over the course of the pandemic, which has been nearly eradicated there. When the lockdowns began in New Zealand principal photography had already begun on the Avatar sequels and so was suspended. During the production shutdown, Weta Digital kept working on special effects and James and Jon kept virtual production going in California. Throwback: James released the first Avatar in 2009, the first feature-length fictional movie he directed since his iconic 1997 movie Titanic James released the first Avatar in 2009, the first feature-length fictional movie he directed since his iconic 1997 movie Titanic. Avatar passed up Titanic's record as the highest-grossing movie of all time and remained at the top spot until it was dislodged by Avengers: Endgame last year. The first two Avatar sequels will bow in December 2021 and December 2023, and two more sequels have been greenlit but have not publicized release dates yet. Two months later than usual, much of the metro area will hold elections Tuesday to choose a long list of local officials, including mayors in several cities, and decide more than 40 tax hike or bond issue proposals. Among those in line for new leadership is Ferguson, which over the weekend was the scene of protests and violence reminiscent of the turmoil there in 2014. An executive order issued by Gov. Mike Parson delayed the election, originally scheduled across Missouri for April 7, to try to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. But worry about COVID-19 remains part of the backdrop for Tuesdays replacement vote, with St. Louis County reducing the number of its polling places by more than half because 1,100 election judges refused to work this time around. Eric Fey, the countys Democratic director of elections, said 360 polling places used for the March presidential primary have been consolidated into 160. However, he says long lines arent expected because absentee voting has surged in the county for this election. Election officials in St. Charles and Jefferson counties also report absentee-voting increases and declines in poll workers, although not to as great a degree. Meanwhile, the city of St. Louis wont have an election Tuesday. In St. Louis County, based on mail and in-person advance votes cast by Friday afternoon, Fey said he expects the absentee count to hit 40,000 to 50,000. In the April 2019 local election, he said, there were about 9,000. He said he expects the total number voting in the county Tuesday to be similar to or fewer than the 109,000 last year. Its an extraordinary circumstance, obviously, Fey said. Meanwhile, voters who do show up in person in the three counties will encounter poll workers wearing masks, repeated wiping down of polling stations and markers on the floor guiding people to stay 6 feet apart if waiting. Hand sanitizer will be available. While St. Louis County poll workers are required to wear masks, those in St. Charles and Jefferson counties have only been encouraged to do so. I cant make them wear gloves and masks; Im having enough problems with people canceling (as judges) anyhow, said Jefferson Countys top election official, County Clerk Ken Waller. Jefferson and St. Charles counties are taking one step not being used in St. Louis County placing plastic shields between election judges and voters who check in. Meanwhile, voters in the three counties wont be required to wear masks. Not only has voting been affected by the pandemic, so has campaigning. Ferguson Councilwomen Ella Jones and Heather Robinett, who are vying Tuesday to become mayor of Ferguson, each said they could do less meeting one-on-one with voters in recent weeks, given the need to practice social distancing. We had to go to social media more, said Jones of her campaign. Robinett said, We used the phones more than I planned to do. She added that she and other candidates for office werent able to hear residents concerns at neighborhood meetings, which suddenly ceased. And because of the need to spread out, Jones and Robinett are holding their respective election night events for supporters outside meeting halls instead of inside. The two seek to succeed term-limited Mayor James Knowles III, who became a familiar figure across the metro area and elsewhere during the unrest in 2014 after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, a black teen, by a white Ferguson police officer. Knowles tenure nears its end as Ferguson again became a local focus of protests against the killing of black people by police. This time, the anger was sparked by the death on May 25 of Minneapolis resident George Floyd, a black man, after white officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, according to a criminal complaint. Several buildings in downtown Ferguson were damaged and officers were injured late Saturday and early Sunday when a peaceful protest devolved into violence. Robinett and Jones, in interviews Sunday, expressed sadness at the violence but also said they supported the goals of the peaceful protesters who marched earlier. The country stands with George Floyd, Robinett said. I hear whats happening. ... I feel it. I realize we dont have it right across the country (or in) Ferguson. However, she said she just doesnt understand the rationale for the violence that further harmed our businesses who are barely hanging on in the coronavirus-related economic slowdown. Jones said the peaceful march drew attention to a widespread concern that black men feel so much injustice. But she sharply criticized agitators who come out and break into businesses whose owners are just trying to make a living. Each pledged if elected to help Ferguson continue implementing changes in city practices since the 2014 unrest, including the consent decree worked out with the U.S. Department of Justice. Jones, 65, or Robinett, 49, will each make history if elected. Either would be the citys first female mayor. Jones also would be the first African American to win the office. Both cite their council experience. Berkeley Another notable mayoral election is in Berkeley, where longtime Mayor Ted Hoskins seeks reelection against two opponents at the same time hes fighting felony charges filed against him last year. The charges allege that Hoskins, in the months leading up to the April 2018 election for four city council seats, submitted fraudulent absentee voter applications and other documents from at least three residents. Hoskins, 81, a former state representative, said hes running on his record. My position is youre innocent until proven guilty, he said. If reelected, he said, hell work to follow through on city plans to build a community center and to promote community policing. Hes opposed by Babatunde Deinbo, 69, a former mayor and city councilman, and Barbara Jean Holmes, 80, a retired finance official with the city. Deinbo says hell work to hire more police to fight crime and improve streets. Holmes says the city needs new blood in elective office and that shell work to set up an activity center for kids. Other mayoral races One of the larger cities with a mayoral race is Wildwood, where incumbent Jim Bowlin, 55, is opposed by Councilman Niles Stephens, 41. Also facing opposition Tuesday is Richmond Heights Mayor Jim Thomson, 73, who is challenged by former Councilman Paul Lore, 65. Among other cities with contested mayoral races are Pagedale, Breckenridge Hills, Cool Valley, Sunset Hills and Valley Park. Propositions The various ballot issues are scattered across cities, school districts and fire protection and ambulance districts. School districts seeking bond issues that would not trigger tax hikes include Francis Howell, Kirkwood, Ritenour, Wentzville, Fox and Maplewood Richmond Heights. The Cottleville Fire Protection District is seeking the same. Bond issues that require property tax increases are being sought by the Brentwood School District and Riverview and Monarch fire protection districts. Also seeking approval for property tax boosts are the Wentzville, Orchard Farm and Warrenton school districts and the Spanish Lake, Hillsboro, Pacific and Dunklin fire districts. Among cities weighing sales tax increases are Maplewood, Breckenridge Hills, Dellwood, Byrnes Mill and Herculaneum. A Voters Guide for Tuesdays election, produced by the Post-Dispatch and the League of Women Voters of Metro St. Louis, is available online at stltoday.com/votersguide. This report originally appeared in the Monday, June 1, edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Know the issues and candidates in today's Missouri elections Search the voters guide by address to see what will be on your ballot. Stay up to date on life and culture in St. Louis. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Joe Biden, holding his first non-virtual campaign event in months, listened Monday as activists sharply criticized his record on crime legislation. He took notes as they questioned the Obama-Biden record on race. And posing for a photo with the activists, the 77-year-old presumptive Democratic nominee took a knee - a highly symbolic act that's come to signal support for the demonstrators protesting police violence across the country. The event - and a virtual discussion with mayors struggling to manage the protests - showcased Biden's effort to demonstrate leadership on the crisis and create a contrast with President Trump, whose uneven response drew condemnation Monday from within his own party. In coming weeks, Biden said, he will make "very serious national speeches about where I think we have to go, what we have to do." He also said he plans to release a new economic proposal next week focused heavily on housing, education and access to capital. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., who was among those meeting with Biden, said she appreciated his "showing up," taking issue with those who may feel Biden's response has been insufficient. "For those who are out there complaining, we've got a president that ain't even showing up, that doesn't even care," she said. "Come on." Biden himself tweeted "Leaders listen" after the event, along with a photo of himself seated in a folding chair at the church as a woman addressed him. Trump's day included a conference call with governors during which he called them "weak" and urged them to "dominate" those who've come out to protest police brutality and racism in the country. Trump on Monday criticized the demonstrators for violent actions. "These are acts of domestic terror," he said, calling them a "crime against God" and threatening to deploy the military. Trump has also issued a series of hard-hitting tweets referring to people in the streets as "thugs" and threatening them with "vicious dogs" if they breach the White House fence. Some Trump supporters have urged him to deliver a formal address on the crisis, but he has so far demurred. Biden also has yet to make a major speech on the events, though he has now promised he will, and he met with protesters on Sunday. At a news conference Monday, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, criticized Trump's response, saying, "He is simply nowhere to be found." During Biden's visit with activists at the Bethel AME Church in Wilmington, Delaware, he largely listened to the activists at his first formal in-person campaign event since the coronavirus caused his operation and much of the country to shut down in March. Biden has left the area around his immediate home only a handful of times since then, laying a wreath on his son's grave on Memorial Day and touring some of the protests in Wilmington on Sunday. At the church, the Rev. Shanika Perry, Bethel's youth pastor, pressed Biden on the 1994 crime bill he championed, which many African American leaders blame for the mass incarceration of young black men in the ensuing years. Biden has since disavowed portions of the bill, but Perry said it continues to hurt Biden's cause among young African Americans. "It's been difficult to serve as a surrogate to them, because they have great issues with the participation in that," Perry said. "And so they want to know how do you plan to undo the impact of the mass incarceration and the things that have resulted from that particular crime bill." Saying that "representation matters," Perry also offered Biden advice for picking a running mate: "Let me go on record and say, we want a black woman." Biden has promised to select a woman as his running mate, and a growing number of civil right leaders are pressing him to pick an African American or Latina, given the way the pandemic and the recent killings of black men have laid starkly bare the issues faced by communities of color. Others at the church suggested that former president Barack Obama, and Biden when he served as Obama's vice president, could have done more to help those communities. "Over the eight years you were vice president there were lots of successes, but the African American community did not experience the same economic opportunity and upward mobility that they did in the 90s," said state Sen. Darius Brown, D-Del. "The people in this room, we love you," Brown added. "But we're here not only to love you but to push you, because if we can publicly support every other Democratic base, then we should publicly support the African American Democratic base." Brown also brought up the idea of paying reparations to black Americans, an issue that was debated heavily during the Democratic primary. Biden has said he would study the idea. "It shouldn't be a study of reparations. It should be funding reparations," Brown said as Biden listened, occasionally taking notes. Biden said the multiple crises wracking the nation provide a painful window into long-standing inequalities, echoing a message sent by many civil rights leaders. "The Band-Aid has been ripped off by this pandemic and this president," Biden said. "Nobody can pretend any longer what this is all about. Nobody can pretend who has been carrying us on their back. It's been minorities. It's been blacks. It's been Hispanics." As the meeting wound down, Biden asked for a moment of prayer. Afterward, he posed for group photos, at one point taking a knee in front of the group. Even as Biden took a small step toward in-person campaigning, signs persisted of covid-19's impact. No microphones were used in the church, to avoid spreading the virus. Biden wore a medical mask, and others in the church used face coverings and sat far from one another. Later, during the virtual round table with mayors from Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and St. Louis, Biden pressed the city leaders for ideas on changing police practices. "There is systemic racism, white supremacy - it's real. You see it," Biden said. "I think we all see it, but if you're African American, you see it more clearly, in almost every aspect of your life." The India Meterological Department (IMD) on Tuesday (June 2) said that deep depression in south-east and adjoining east-central Arabian Sea and Lakshadweep area intensified into cyclonic storm around noon on Tuesday and has been officially named as Cyclone Nisarga. The name proposed by Bangladesh is the first in the series of new names. According to IMD, cyclone Nisarga is expected to make a landfall close to Mumbai on Wednesday (June 3). It is to be noted that this is the first cyclonic storm to hit Mumbai in over a century. "Depression over east-central Arabian sea intensified into Deep Depression. To intensify further into a Severe Cyclonic Storm and cross Maharashtra coast during June 3 afternoon.Cyclone alert for north Maharashtra south Gujarat coasts," said IMD. NDRF Director General SN Pradhan said that NDRF teams are deployed in both the states in the wake of the impending cyclone. "10 teams are in Maharashtra and 11 teams are in Gujarat. However, Gujarat has asked for 5 more teams so we're getting them airlifted from Punjab. They should be able to reach Gujarat by late night today," he was quoted as saying by ANI. In Maharashtra, the NDRF teams are deployed in Mumbai, Raigad, Palghar. Thane, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Navi Mumbai. The NDRF team did an inspection of the coastal areas too. NDRF commander, Ishwar Mate, said, ''NDRF teams have been deployed at places oh high alert. The NDRF teams will help locals to deal with difficulties during cyclones.'' According to IMD, very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall is predicted on Tuesday and Wednesday. Cyclone Nisarga is predicted to make landfall with a wind speed of 90 to 105 kilometres per hour (kmph) gusting to 125 kmph. The IMD scientists said that Nisarga can flood the low-lying areas, especially in Mumbai and its adjoining areas and cause noticeable structural damages in the city. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted manufacturing industry across the world. With machinery being the cornerstone of economic development and progress, countries have realized the need for industry upgradation. Taiwans Smart Machinery Industry enjoys a sterling reputation globally because of its ability to deliver outstanding products at competitive prices. With stress on quality, price and service, the industry is known for its significant precision technology and massive ICT integration. On Tuesday, June 2, Taiwan Excellence held the Taiwan Excellence Smart Machinery Online Press Conference with the aim to familiarize global buyers with Taiwanese Smart Machinery. Taiwan Excellence is an international campaign to promote Taiwans superior products. The e-conference saw eight of Taiwans most reputed smart machinery companies showcase their advanced smart manufacturing solutions in a bid to assist global manufacturers in managing industry upgrade and automation. The brands included iconic names like Chin Fong, FFG (Feeler), Grintimate, HIWIN, Manford, Solomon, She Hong (Hartford) and Tongtai. The conference showcased the companies products and solutions including precision components, digitally-controlled machine tools, automation equipment and smart controlling systems. A new concept Taiwan Excellence Smart Machinery Virtual Pavilion was also launched at the conference, which displayed 60 innovative Smart Machinery products from 50 Taiwan Excellence brands. To add to the experience, buyers could also check out superb smart machinery products anytime and anywhere. At a time when most physical exhibitions are being postponed, digitalizing the Taiwan Excellence Pavilion and usage of VR technique means buyers can virtually check products without graphic restrictions. For countries like India, the e-conference aimed to bolster the image of Taiwans Smart Machinery industry as a major global supplier of machine tools, equipment and key components. India is an attractive option for Taiwanese companies who have the potential to play a catalyzing role. Also, in the current situation, as industries grapple with loss of migrant labor and in some cases, spread of the Covid-19 through human to human contact, the need for solutions to counter the absence of human supervision is very high. Taiwans Automated Smart Machinery with zero human intervention will play a vital role in both scenarios. According to a study published by Markets and Markets, the smart manufacturing market is expected to increase from US$214.7 billion in 2020 to US$384.8 billion in 2025, growing at a CAGR (Compound Average Growth Rate) of 12.4 percent. However, to aid this growth in these tumultuous times, the formidable expertise of Taiwanese Smart Machinery companies can go a long way by augmenting indigenous capacity and plugging gaps in manufacturing solutions globally. Besides, countries will now increasingly have to turn to smart automation to manage supply chains and production functions as the need for social distancing will make human intervention and supervision difficult. The world caught a glimpse of the Taiwanese industrys rapid response capabilities and flexible management when it completed the herculean task of establishing 92 mask production lines in 40 days, and boosted mask production from 1.88 million pieces a day to 17 million pieces a day. Along with demonstrating proficiency, this feat also established Taiwan as one of the best options for reviving the worlds manufacturing industry. Chin Fong, one of the worlds top four press makers, shared how it applies smart concepts to its press machines for better performance and service life. Grintimate demonstrated how it applies a unique hydrostatic technique in grinding solutions in order to simplify the production of automotive drive shafts. FFG, one of the worlds top three machine tool group, and the largest machine tool maker in Taiwan, showcased its solutions for automatic production in the automotive industry for improving the efficiency and flexibility of the production line. HIWIN, the worlds No.2 in market share in the field of linear transmission, introduced its precision components which are able to deliver higher performance for automation equipment, with high accuracy and durability. Manford displayed a new energy-saving machining solution that will effectively reduce the use of electricity by 80 percent, lubrication oil by 90 percent, and still maintain (extremely) high performance. Solomon demonstrated how its 3D vision technology can help automation equipment to make complex and precise pick-and-place tasks. She-Hong, the largest machining center manufacturer in Taiwan, introduced the Hartrol Premium smart controller. Its friendly interface and easy operation allow operators to monitor and manage production more efficiently. Tongtai presented an outstanding solution for smart manufacturing and share some examples to show how they help customers construct flexible production lines. Speaking about the conference, Walter Yeh, CEO & President, TAITRA, said, The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the importance of industry upgradation, automation, and accelerated import-related solutions. We have demonstrated how Taiwans award-winning companies can assist by providing innovative solutions to meet manufacturing demands in the post-pandemic era. These companies will become reliable partners in the global industry upgrade. Taiwan Excellence will continue to present the best of Taiwanese technologies to the world even during these difficult times. Mr. Guann-Jyh Lee, Deputy Director General, Bureau of Foreign Trade, MOEA said, Once the COVID-19 pandemic situation slowly starts stabilizing, industries around the world will gradually resume their economic activities. They will need to deploy smart manufacturing solutions to avert similar losses in the future. Taiwan can be the best choice for this industrial upgradation and to help revitalize the manufacturing communities in the post-pandemic period. The number of COVID-19 cases in Gratiot County increased by two overnight to 76, with at least one of them appearing to be a resident of Masonic Pathways. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced in its daily update Tuesday that the outbreak there now included 19 residents, up one from Mondays announced total of 18. Five residents of Pathways Jack F. Saunders Health Care Center have died from the disease, and that facility has been the location for the entire Pathways outbreak. None of Masonics independent or assisted living facilities, nor its PACE Care Center, 1503 E. Bellows, in Mt. Pleasant, nor Warwick Living Center, 525 N. State St., have had any cases. Another four have died at an outbreak at Riverside Healthcare Center in St. Louis. The combined nine deaths at the two account for nearly all of Gratiots 11 deaths from the disease. Nursing homes are a significant source of COVID-19 deaths across the United States. A report released Monday said that approximately a quarter of all Americans who have died were nursing home residents. That is nearly 26,000 people. As of May 24, approximately 1,654 nursing home residents in the state of Michigan have died from the disease, the fifth highest total across the country. Isabella Countys confirmed cases increased by one to 78. Seven people have died of the disease. They were the only two mid-Michigan counties with new diseases. Clare (19 cases, 2 deaths), Mecosta (21/2), Montcalm (66/1), Gladwin (18/1), Midland (82/8) all stayed the same. Statewide, another 199 cases were announced for a total of 57,731, and another 37 deaths for a total of 5,553. Eleven of those deaths, however, came after the causes of death on death certificates were matched against a statewide disease database. Where the state database didnt list a COVID death, those were corrected. READ MORE: Alex Jones honoured the Black Lives Matter movement live on The One Show. The TV presenter, 43, spoke candidly about the Blackout Tuesday campaign which flooded social media in response to the tragic death of George Floyd. She said: 'It is hard to know what to say isn't it. Nearly everything feels inadequate in this conversation and as a white woman I don't know what it is like to be discriminated against because of my skin colour. 'It's difficult to say the right thing.' Candid: Alex Jones, 43, honoured the Black Lives Matter movement live on The One Show as she spoke candidly about the Blackout Tuesday campaign in response to the tragic death of George Floyd Earlier in the show, Alex and co-host Gethin Jones spoke to BBC historian David Olyshoga about the mass protests centred in America. He said that 2020 could mark the turning point for race relations in the USA but added that it is not about people not being racist, they must be 'actively anti-racist'. Racial tensions and rioting have escalated across the United States since footage emerged of a handcuffed Floyd choking to death while being restrained by white police officer Derek Chauvin, who was filmed pinning the 46-year old to the ground by pressing a knee into the back of his neck. She said: 'It is hard to know what to say isn't it. Nearly everything feels inadequate in this conversation and as a white woman I don't know what it is like to be discriminated against because of my skin colour' Earlier in the show, Alex and co-host Gethin Jones spoke to BBC historian David Olyshoga about the mass protests centred in America Earlier in the day, Holly Willoughby, Phillip Schofield and the This Morning production team also showed their support for Black Lives Matter. Addressing the issue on Tuesday's edition of their daily magazine show, Phillip said: 'We at This Morning are pledging to support, reflect and re-educate ourselves because it is such an important issue.' He added: 'We would like to take a moment to reflect, to think about how we educate ourselves, to read as much as we can today, and obviously into the future, not just for today. 'We should take some time to mark todays message, which simply says Black Lives Matter.' Heartache: Racial tensions and rioting have escalated across the United States since footage emerged of a George Floyd (pictured) choking to death while being restrained by white police officer Derek Chauvin A minute of silence followed the statement as the screen faded to black in honour of the momentous day, which has been backed by millions across the world. Social media has entered a 24-hour blackout as people make their voices heard in the fight for equality following the senseless death of Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25th. Reflecting on the emotional outpouring that followed, This Morning co-host Alison Hammond admitted the harrowing footage of Floyd's final moments made her think about her own family. Speaking out: Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield vowed to support, reflect and re-educate as the This Morning team threw their support behind the Blackout Tuesday campaign sweeping across social media Phoning in from her Birmingham home, she said: 'I am a mother to a 15-year-old black boy. When I saw that image of George Floyd I saw my brothers, my father and my son, I saw anybodys son and I was disgusted to my core and it hurt me to the pit of my stomach to think this is 2020 and we're seeing that. 'Lets be honest its been going on forever, in my life, my mum's life, my fathers life, and I believe this movement Black Lives Matter is so wonderful and important. 'When I see my white and Asian brothers and sisters stand by us they understand what we are going through as a black people. Dont think I am trying to offend by saying black people, if you are offended by this then you need to look into yourself. 'Just appeal into your basic goodness. Its not about all lives matter, its about how black lives matter, then all lives will matter, you understand?' Addressing the issue on Tuesday's edition of their daily magazine show, Phillip said: 'We at This Morning are pledging to support, reflect and re-educate ourselves because it is such an important issue' We're behind you: 'We should take some time to mark todays message, which simply says Black Lives Matter,' Phillip added Following the minute's silence, Alison also spoke about systemic racism and how it has impacted her own mental health as she tearfully explained: 'We grow up with it and get used to it, but ultimately it does have an effect on your mental health. 'When I see those images of George Floyd, especially when he's lying on the floor dead that has an effect deeply on my mental health. 'No offence you dont see that image flouting round all the time of white people who have died, you would see an image of a white person who is smiling, even if it was important to see this happen to George Floyd to bring it to the forefront.' Calling for viewers to do their part when they see injustice, she added: 'It is here in England, wake up and see what is going on around us, when there are micro aggressions around us. 'It's stronger when it comes from other people, sometimes I dont say something because I dont want to be seen as an angry black woman. Wake up and help, it is very powerful.' Press Release June 2, 2020 Villanueva: Transport woes in Metro Manila affect workers the most Workers stranded on roads in Metro Manila on Monday only bolstered the idea that the lifeblood of the economy got the short end of the stick once again, according to Senator Joel Villanueva. "Our economy has been the prime consideration in the decision to relax our quarantine restriction, but sadly, it appears we forgot about the mobility of our workers in our desire to jumpstart the recovery," lamented Villanueva, chair of the Senate Committee on Labor, Employment, and Human Resource Development. "For industries to restart successfully, it relies on the labor of the people to spark the economic recovery." "Mass transportation plays a critical role in the successful restart of our economy. We hope our transport regulators are able to make adjustments in their plans in the coming days so that our workers won't have to worry how to get to work," added the lawmaker in the statement on Tuesday morning. Transportation issues hounded the first day of the general community quarantine in Metro Manila as the government deployed trucks to ferry those stranded in major roads. Villanueva reiterated the importance of mobility in the capital, saying that workers cannot afford to miss work or be late because they've already suffered to much in the past three months of the strict movement restrictions. The enhanced community quarantine shut down most industries and businesses and for workers, that meant "no work, no pay." He also called for the government to increase its capacity on disease surveillance, which remains to be the only option to manage the spread of COVID-19 since a vaccine has yet to be successfully made. With more people out, and workers having to fill out contact tracing forms in the workplaces, the government should be able to handle this increase by expanding its capacity for contact tracing. The lawmaker said he supported the funding of the Department of Labor and Employment's Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) which will be used to increase the capacity of the government's contact tracing program. According to the 10th Bayanihan Report to Congress which Malacanang submitted on Monday, the government retained 134 individuals in its contact tracing program, deployed in 61 hospitals, and regional and city epidemiology surveillance units. Villanueva likewise reminded the labor department to proactively monitor the compliance of companies with prevailing occupational safety and health standards, saying that workplaces must always ensure the welfare of workers. This cant go on. So hopefully, you know, the president talking that way will put a little spine in some of these governors that arent calling out the National Guard, to the extent that they need to restore order, said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. WASHINGTON Russian spy services had just carried out a complex campaign to disrupt an American presidential election. But the man who was set to become the White House national security adviser, speaking to Russias ambassador, referred to that effort only as the cyberstuff. The ambassador suggested that the very deplorable sanctions that the United States imposed on Russia in late 2016 were born out of the Obama administrations anger about the election results, and even said that they were aimed at hurting the incoming president, Donald J. Trump. The American agreed. In the transcripts of the phone calls between two men Michael T. Flynn and Sergey I. Kislyak is the kindling of a controversy that fanned into a blaze that has consumed so much of the Trump presidency. The discussions, declassified and released on Friday, illuminate not only the Trump administrations dismissive attitude toward overwhelming evidence of the Russian sabotage effort, but also how the Kremlin worked to manipulate Mr. Trumps advisers by convincing them that the presidents political enemies had concocted a Russia hoax. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 20:47:45|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Wang Lili SINGAPORE, June 2 (Xinhua) -- As the pandemic of COVID-19 imposed panic and even painful memories to people worldwide, there are a few silver linings from the perspectives of Singaporeans, who have just embarked on a phrased reopening from a "circuit breaker" period Tuesday. All non-essential workplaces were closed and students tuned in to home-based learning and later a school break during the circuit breaker, introduced by the Singaporean government to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus from April 7 to June 1. Starting from Tuesday, Singapore will gradually reopen economic activities in three phases. FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS Lee Chih Horng, a local media practitioner, found that working at home offered him more family time than before. He could savor the coffee brewed and served by his younger daughter, or play cards or games with his family in the twilight. For Liu Aiqin, an insurance agent, preparing meals for her family every day became a favorite past-time recently, even though the family has a domestic helper who could do all the cooking. "I love cooking. What's more, my two daughters and my husband all love the food I cook," she said. She also enjoyed posting photos of her food and recipes on the social media from time to time. During the 50-odd-day circuit breaker period, food provided by local restaurants or hawker centers could only be taken away by or delivered to the customers, which in some way propelled the popularity of cooking and even baking at home. Long queues were seen outside stores selling baking ingredients. Luckily, more family time often resulted in better relations. Improved family well-being was one of the main beneficiaries of the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore, with respondents reporting stronger domestic ties across the board, as shown by the Cigna COVID-19 Global Impact Study released on May 28. In terms of the amount of time people were able to spend with their family, 45 percent said this has increased, compared to 33 percent in January, while the quality of time spent with family has also increased, from 31 percent to 38 percent. On the other hand, family-related stress has also decreased, from 13 percent in January to 8 percent in April, said the study, conducted by the Cigna's International Markets business in partnership with Kantar. April Chang, CEO and country manager of Cigna Singapore, said, "it is encouraging to see that family and other relationships have improved during the pandemic, which could be the result of people spending more quality time together, whether virtually or in person. What is of particular interest is how this coincides with a reduction in family-related stress and a decline in feelings of isolation." HEALTY LIFESTYLES During the circuit breaker period, gyms and fitness studios across the island were ordered to shut, but that did not seem to affect the sports-lovers. Lee and his family used the one-hour time, saved by not having to commute, to do jogging outside. Associate professor of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore Gu Qingyang was happy exercising Taiji by himself in the courtyard of his house. Some others took to Yoga which could be done indoors. Besides groceries and food, indoor exercise equipment and gaming tools emerged as the most popular categories for online shopping, according to a report published by the local English-language newspaper the Straits Times on May 25. What Singapore consumers were searching for online also revealed the new ways they were adapting to life with the coronavirus, the report said. The Cigna study also disclosed that the physical well-being of people in Singapore did not appear to have been negatively impacted by COVID-19. "People are reporting better sleep, more energy and an increase in physical activity," it said. In terms of sleep, 32 percent said they were getting sufficient sleep, compared to 26 percent in January, 25 percent said they were exercising on a regular basis, up from 23 percent in January, while 23 percent were reporting good energy levels, a 2-percent increase from January. Interestingly, 36 percent of respondents said they were managing to avoid getting sick, up from 32 percent in January, according to the study. BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES While some businesses were severely hit by the virus, other businesses flourished. Supermarket operator Sheng Siong Group announced on April 28 that its first quarter net profit grew 49.9 percent year-on-year to 29 million SG dollars (about 21 million U.S. dollars). Its revenue went up 30.7 percent to 328.7 million SG dollars (about 234.8 million U.S. dollars), attributed mostly to the impact of COVID-19 and better-than-expected Chinese New Year sales. The company said its employees, excluding directors, would be given an extra month of salary for working hard during the period of greater demand. In another development, the Life Insurance Association Singapore (LIA Singapore) reported on May 22 that Singapore's life insurance industry recorded a total of 965.8 million SG dollars (about 689.9 million U.S. dollars) in weighted new business premiums for the first three months this year, a 10-percent rise from the same period in 2019. Khor Hock Seng, president of LIA Singapore, noted that the industry continued to make headway in bridging protection gaps in the first quarter as more consumers took action to secure their financial future in view of COVID-19's drastic impact on global and local markets. The industries of disinfection and medical supplies also possessed growth potentials in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, while the demand for digital devices and services may be also on the rise as people under the social distancing measures rely more on the technical solutions to get connected. Enditem Rosenberg's Gen 3 EC motor in the ECFanGrid array provides improved airflow, efficiency and greater reliability in a space-saving design. The ECFanGrid is a powerful air movement solution for mechanical contractors, architects, and energy management groups. The Rosenberg ECFanGrid is now available with the companys new Generation 3 EC motor. The new motor, recently named a finalist in the AHR 2020 Innovation Awards Competition, offers users 20-30% more air movement power, greater electrical efficiency and other technological advancements. The ECFanGrid consists of a series of electronically commutated (EC) backward curved fans operating in parallel as a unit. It is a highly efficient, cost-effective alternative to single large belt-driven radial fans for air handling units. Thanks to its modular design, the ECFanGrid can be assembled on site, whether in retrofit or new project applications. The ECFanGrids flat profile also creates up to 50% space savings. Compared to old-style radial fan units, the ECFanGrid is easier to install, provides higher volume and more uniform airflow with less low-frequency noise and built-in redundancy for greater reliability. Rosenberg's Gen 3 EC motor makes the ECFanGrid even more reliable with advanced ModBus RTU functionality, built-in preventive maintenance and reliability features integrated inspection LED, Electronic Quick-Change capability, IT network support and increased failure safety. ECFanGrid fan units can be joined in any quantity or arrangement 13, 22, 23, 33 multiplying the Gen 3 motor's increased power and providing virtually limitless application flexibility. All units within the grid work together, simplifying implementation of airflow, pressure or temperature controls. Rosenberg Gen 3 fans also come with these motor innovations: 200 to 480-VAC 3-Phase Supply. Previous EC motor generations were designed for either 200-230-VAC or 380-480-VAC input power which required manufacturers to inventory both. Our new motor automatically adjusts to the actual input power across the entire range, allowing reduced inventory cost. (Airflow is always maximized at 460-Volt input voltage.) 280 to 680-VDC Power Supply. Motor automatically adjusts from AC to DC-input voltage when required in data centers or in back-up battery applications. Integrated visual inspection LED which displays the motors condition and Modbus operation status. The ECFanGrid is a powerful retrofit solution for mechanical contractors, architects, and energy management groups. While the entire assembly can be purchased from from Rosenberg, it's not the only way to deploy ECFanGrid technology. A "build-your-own" ECFanGrid solution saves money and comes with factory support and access to RoVent10 software for easy configuration, technical drawings, wiring assistance, energy audit testing and air flow measurement. Many mechanical contractors can perform the necessary sheet metal fabrication and the Gen 3 EC fan products needed are available from Rosenberg's North Carolina warehouse for immediate delivery. Complete data on available Gen 3 backward curved fans and additional information on the ECFanGrid is available at http://www.rosenbergusa.com. About Rosenberg The Rosenberg family of companies is headquartered in Kunzelsau, Germany and employs more than 1,500 individuals worldwide. Rosenberg fans and blowers can be found in HVAC systems, as well as industrial and portable air conditioning; in air cooling for variable frequency drives (VFD), wind power generators and power converters, solar inverters, uninterruptable power supplies (UPS), transformers, heat sinks, fan coils, telecom racks and other industrial equipment; in air handling units and fan filter units (FFU); and in railway, marine, military and avionics equipment. Rosenberg USA is located just outside Charlotte in Indian Trail, N.C. For more information, contact Rosenberg USA by phone at (704) 893-0883; fax (704) 882-0755 or e-mail sales@rosenbergusa.com. CENTUM Financial Group announced today that it has acquired the Axiom Mortgage Partners Network, a leading broker network operating predominantly in Western Canada. The move, according to CENTUM president Chris Turcotte, is part of the companys ongoing efforts to become the countrys leading mortgage brand from a value-to-broker perspective. The joining of these two brands brings us one step closer to accomplishing this goal, says Turcotte. The Axiom Network were looking to provide additional technology, tools, and marketing resources for their brokers without incurring additional monthly fees and high royalties. They identified CENTUM as having the most value for their brokers. Gordon Ross, president and co-founder of Axiom Mortgage Partners, is equally enthusiastic about the acquisition. OAKLAND, Calif. Facebook employees are using Twitter to register their frustration over CEO Mark Zuckerbergs decision to leave up posts by President Donald Trump that suggested protesters in Minneapolis could be shot. While Twitter demoted and placed a warning on a tweet about the protests that read, in part, that when the looting starts the shooting starts, Facebook has let it stand, with Zuckerberg laying out his reasoning in a Facebook post Friday. "I know many people are upset that we've left the President's posts up, but our position is that we should enable as much expression as possible unless it will cause imminent risk of specific harms or dangers spelled out in clear policies," Zuckerberg wrote. Trump's comment evoked the civil-rights era by borrowing a phrase used in 1967 by Miami's police chief to warn of an aggressive police response to unrest in black neighborhoods. On Monday, Facebook employees staged a virtual "walkout" to protest the company's decision not to touch the Trump posts according to a report in the New York Times, which cited anonymous senior employees at Facebook. The Times report says "dozens" of Facebook workers "took the day off by logging into Facebook's systems and requesting time off to support protesters across the country." "I work at Facebook and I am not proud of how we're showing up. The majority of coworkers I've spoken to feel the same way. We are making our voice heard," tweeted Jason Toff, a director of product management at Facebook who's been at the company for a year. Toff, who has a verified Twitter account, had 131,400 "likes" and thousands of retweets of his comment. He did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on Monday. "I don't know what to do, but I know doing nothing is not acceptable. I'm a FB employee that completely disagrees with Mark's decision to do nothing about Trump's recent posts, which clearly incite violence. I'm not alone inside of FB. There isn't a neutral position on racism," tweeted another employee, design manager Jason Stirman. Stirman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday. Sara Zhang, a product designer at the company, tweeted that Facebook's "decision to not act on posts that incite violence ignores other options to keep our community safe. The policy pigeon holes us into addressing harmful user-facing content in two ways: keep content up or take it down." "I believe that this is a self-imposed constraint and implore leadership to revisit the solution," she continued. Zhang declined to comment to The Associated Press. Representatives for Facebook did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment Monday. Late Sunday, Zuckerberg again posted on Facebook, pledging a $10 million donation to racial justice groups. But he made no mention of Trump's posts. Instead, he highlighted Facebook's role in the spreading of the video of George Floyd's death. Floyd, a black man who was in handcuffs at the time, died after a white police officer ignored bystander shouts to get off him and Floyd's cries that he couldn't breathe. His death, captured on citizen video, sparked days of protests in Minneapolis that have spread to cities around America. "We need to know George Floyd's name. But it's clear Facebook also has more work to do to keep people safe and ensure our systems don't amplify bias," Zuckerberg wrote. Twitter has historically taken stronger stances than its larger rival, including a complete ban on political advertisements that the company announced last November. That's partly because Facebook, a much larger company with a broader audience,targeted by regulators over its size and power, has more to lose. And partly because the companies' CEOs don't always see eye to eye on their role in society. Over the weekend, Twitter changed the background and logo if its main Twitter account to black from its usual blue in support of the Black Lives Matter protesters and added a #blacklivesmatter hashtag. Facebook did the same with its own logo on its site, though without the hashtag. TEHRAN, Iran, June 2 Trend: Iranian President urged investment companies involved in management of Justice Shares sale to ensure full transparency. "The provincial investment companies that are responsible for sale of people's Justice Shares should constantly provide the report of their work to the share owners," said Hassan Rouhani, Trend reports citing IRNA. Rouhani and the cabinet have discussed the process of liberating Justice Shares and the rights of share owners to manage their shares by themselves or sell them via banks on June 2. "Offering government's share at the stock exchange in various forms of exchange-traded fund (ETF) or directly should continue and all the necessary measures should be used to facilitate the participation of stock companies especially by tax incentives," the head of state said. "The Civil Servant Pension Organization should be financed by domestic resources including property sale interest from stock companies that would increase capital market. The capital of stock companies should increase from the trade of shares," he added. Rouhani requested to facilitate the process of privatization and liberalization of economy. The Iranian president stressed that it is share owners' right to be informed about management of Justice Shares sale and transforming and preserving property, so that the owners could make decisions. The Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance delivered a report on assigning government 's shares of public companies and banks at the stock exchange. Iranian government has previously allowed the sale of Just Shares at stock exchange to help people in need that have been affected by economic pressure amid the coronavirus spread. The Justice Shares was the byproduct of government privatization plan with each share worth 10 million rials (about $238). Earlier, it was decided that 80 percent of public companies were to be transferred to public ownership, 40 percent of which were transferred through the Justice Shares and the rest was to be offered for privatization through the Tehran Stock Exchange. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Editorial Board (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 2, 2020 08:21 598 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb6985d 1 Editorial united-states,#Editorial,black-lives-matter,George-Floyd,Donald-Trump,Racism,riot,protests Free On Friday night, while protesters laid siege to the White House and flames erupted in the surrounding area, United States President Donald Trump seethed from the underground bunker and sent out this tweet: These people are ANARCHISTS. Call in our National Guard NOW. The World is watching and laughing at you and Sleepy Joe. Is this what America wants? NO!!! Trump was referring to Democratic mayors dealing with protests and rioting and his rival in the 2020 presidential race Joe Biden. The truth of the matter is that the world is indeed watching, but it is not laughing at those brave and well-intentioned mayors and the Democratic Party presidential candidate. The world is laughing at Trumps leadership, or its lack thereof, during the countrys national crisis. When he made a pledge that he would Make America Great Again and that he would fight for America First during his 2017 inauguration speech, we did expect that America would abdicate some of its leadership at the global level. Soon after that, the US withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement and put a stranglehold on the World Trade Organization. The decision to sever ties with the World Health Organization is the culmination of Americas withdrawal from the world. It does not help that Trump has a penchant for throwing insults at countries or leaders of countries that happen to cross his path. He called some African nations shithole countries and even started quarrels with close allies like Canadas Justin Trudeau. Trumps transactional approach to politics demanding NATO to pay up for security guarantees that the US military provided for Europe risks undermining the post-World War II security arrangement that had created security, and prosperity, on the continent. On top of that, it was just talking and a lot of talking, even when the death toll from COVID-19 topped 100,000 people and the number of unemployed reached an all-time high of 40 million people. So now, when the US is on the brink of nationwide civil unrest and everyone is calling for national leadership, such leadership is not coming from the White House. On Sunday, some of Trumps campaign advisers recommended that he deliver a nationally televised address to prevent another night of violence. The speech never came, although we can certainly doubt the televised address would help ease the tensions. Many can certainly claim that Trump has no moral legitimacy to say anything that protesters, and other world leaders, could take seriously. No is the answer that Trump got from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, when he sent an invite for the Group of 7 Summit in Camp David in June. Commenting on the move from the US government to revoke Hong Kongs special status, the propaganda arm of the Chinese government Global Times simply wrote: What about chaos in Minnesota? It is unlikely that the current unrest will yield any significant change in the US. But in five months, voters will have a say if they want a national leader who could not only do something about systemic racism, but also bring respect back to America. After remaining silent in recent years, hacktivist group Anonymous has uploaded a video after events in Minneapolis. The video suggests that Anonymous is gearing up to wage war on the Minneapolis Police Department in response to the killing of George Floyd. The video was posted on Anonymous' official Facebook handle, where an individual in a hooded jacket and the signature Guy Fawkes mask speaks out against the police brutality in the US and the history of corruption in the Minneapolis Police Department. The individual in the video says, "Police brutality and murder is a widespread problem in the United States, which has undoubtedly infected nearly every jurisdiction in the country. But the Minneapolis Police Department is among the worst and has a horrible track record of violence and corruption. This week's brutal killing of George Floyd, which has sparked protests and national outrage, is just the tip of the iceberg in a long list of high-profile cases of wrongful deaths at the hands of officers in your state." Anonymous also addressed other people who have been killed by Minnesota police officers, including Jamar Clark, Justine Damond, Thomas Blevines, Brian Quinones and Philando Castle. The hackers also allude to more cases that have been covered up by officials, pointing out that over 190 people have been killed by Minnesota police officers. Derek Chauvin, the officer who murdered George Floyd, has since been fired and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. However, it has done little to quell the protests as several protestors as well as a CNN journalist were arrested before Chauvin. US President Donald Trump has posted several questionable tweets where he called the protestors 'thugs' and said, "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." And while the president has expressed that he would not want people to be shot, the statement itself drew outrage as a sitting president called for violence against his own people. Beyond the events in Minneapolis, Anonymous has also accused President Trump of killing Jeffery Epstein to "cover up his story of child trafficking and rape." Actually, it's in the link we posted, not only was Epstein selling + gathering blackmail material on U.S. and U.K. politicians, he was supported by MEGA group, a mafia of wealthy investors and organized criminals who were also linked to the USSR & Israel. https://t.co/kc0nq3nESI Anonymous (@YourAnonCentral) May 31, 2020 In another post, Anonymous states, "Anonymous did not support Trump; we are apolitical. In 2015, we tried to expose Epstein's links and Trump's organised crime, and we were stifled by an operation of influence by the Russian government and Nazis." Epstein's death has raised several unanswered questions after prison authorities announced that the two cameras outside cell had conveniently malfunctioned in what was set to be the biggest political scandal of our time. The hackers also posted a document in which Trump and Epstein are named as perpetrators of abuse. Anonymous also claimed to have evidence that proves the royal family had Princess Diana murdered as well as the involvement of Bill Gates, Bill Clinton and other prominent figures, including millionaires and billionaires, who took part in Epstein's illegal activities. A retired St Louis police captain was shot dead Tuesday by looters who had broken into his friend's pawn shop. David Dorn, 77, was found dead on the sidewalk in front of Lee's Pawn & Jewelry in the early hours following unrest that followed a peaceful protest over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The shooting and theft at the pawn shop apparently was posted on Facebook Live, but the video has since been taken down. A second Facebook video showed a man walking up to Dorn as he lay dying. The man could be heard pleading with him to stay alive as he lay in a pool of his blood. Police have not released details of what led to the shooting about 2.30am Tuesday and no one has been arrested. Dorn was a friend of the pawn shop's owner and frequently checked on the business when alarms went off, his wife, Ann Marie Dorn, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The retired captain had served 38 years on the St. Louis police force before retiring in October 2007. He then became chief of Moline Acres, a small town north of St. Louis. Retired St Louis police captain David Dorn, pictured, was shot dead Tuesday by looters who had broken into his friend's pawn shop, officials said The Ethical Society of Police, which represents black officers in St. Louis, said in a news release that Dorn was 'the type of brother that would've given his life to save them if he had to'. One witness to the Facebook Live video said the incident had 'sickened' him. Marquaello Futrell wrote: 'The man just was shot and killed outside of Lee's Pawn and Jewelry has me sick to my stomach.' A Facebook video showed a man walking up to Dorn as he lay dying. The man could be heard pleading with him to stay alive as he lay in a pool of his blood He suggested eyewitnesses did not help Dorn after he was shot, adding: 'It's one thing to be a victim of a robbery/assault but to lie in you own blood pleading for help and no help comes other than people standing around on FB Live recording his death. All over social media. I'm upset and can't sleep!' Dorn's death came on a violent night in St. Louis, which saw four officers shot, officers pelted with rocks, and businesses burned and robbed. Cities across the U.S. have seen protests and violence since Floyd died last week after an officer pressed his knee into Floyd's neck for several minutes - even after the handcuffed black man stopped moving and pleading for air. Police investigate the scene of a shooting at Lee's Pawn & Jewelry in St. Louis, Tuesday Diane Davis of St. Louis stops to leave flowers and pay respects to David Dorn on Tuesday Colonel John W. Hayden, Jr., a St. Louis police commissioner, called Dorn a 'fine captain.' 'Many of us, the other officers, looked up to him,' Hayden said. 'Was very well-liked, very pleasant. And his wife still works here. So a very sad time for our agency. We will honor him.' President Trump tweeted his own tribute Tuesday evening, writing: 'Our highest respect to the family of David Dorn, a Great Police Captain from St. Louis, who was viciously shot and killed by despicable looters last night. We honor our police officers, perhaps more than ever before. Thank you!' President Trump tweeted his own tribute Tuesday evening, writing: 'Our highest respect to the family of David Dorn, a Great Police Captain from St. Louis, who was viciously shot and killed by despicable looters last night. We honor our police officers, perhaps more than ever before. Thank you!' Tim Fitch, the former St. Louis County police chief called Dorn 'a true public servant', adding: 'Protecting & serving all the way to the end. None of us who knew you are surprised you went out fighting at Lee's Pawn this morning. God speed my friend.' State Rep. Rasheen Aldridge, D-St. Louis, told the Post-Dispatch that he watched to Facebook Live post before it was removed. 'Very traumatized right now,' he said about an hour after the shooting occurred. 'Im hurting.' The International Federation of Journalists joins 63 global media unions and advocacy groups denouncing the Philippines governments closure of the countrys largest broadcaster, ABS-CBN. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) urges the Philippines government to ensure the timely restoration of ABS-CBNs broadcast. The Philippines National Telecommunications Commission issued a cease and desist order on May 5 to ABS-CBN, a day after the franchise expired on May 4. The order comes after months of protest by media workers and the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines urging the Philippines government to renew the franchise of ABS-CBN, stressing the 11,000 jobs at risk by ABS-CBNs potential closure. While the House of Representatives in the Philippines acknowledged the urgency of renewing the franchise for ABS-CBN to continue operations, Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte and his administration have ensured the delay of the franchise's renewal. The signatories to the IFJ-IFEX letter stand in solidarity with them in resisting all attempts to curtail press freedom in the Philippines and repress its peoples free expression and call for the following: For the National Telecommunications Commission to withdraw the cease and desist order against ABS-CBN, which remains a disservice to the Filipino people, especially at this time of crisis; For the Supreme Court to uphold press freedom and to urgently grant the temporary restraining order for the ABS-CBN units to go back on air to continue serving the public amid the coronavirus pandemic; For the House of Representative to grant ABS-CBN a fresh 25-year franchise. Eleven bills seeking its renewal are now pending and are waiting to be heard. The IFJ said: The closure of ABS-CBN restricts access to information for people around the world, at a time during the Covid-19 pandemic when information can mean life or death. The IFJ demands the National Telecommunications Commission, the Supreme Court and the House of Representatives in the Philippines to allow ABS-CBN to continue operations uninterrupted and ensure the prompt renewal of the ABS-CBN franchise. Read the letter and list of signatories here. Archbishop Nelson Perez giving his homily during Palm Sunday mass that was closed to the public at Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter & Paul in Philadelphia on April 5. Read more As coronavirus spread across the nation and gatherings were prohibited, one of the most complicated decisions has been which establishments should reopen first. In Pennsylvania and New Jersey, houses of worship were not specifically prohibited from being open for worship, but statewide limitations on gatherings precluded them from offering normal services, causing angst for the faithful who wanted to connect with their religious communities. Last week, President Trump vowed to override any governor who refuses to allow places of worship to open their doors, an announcement met with joy in eager faith communities as well as worries about the risk of spreading coronavirus among congregations. As our region prepares for reopening, we turned to a religious scholar and a Lutheran pastor to debate: Is now the time for churches to reopen after the coronavirus shutdown? Yes: Houses of worship play an essential role in hope and healing COVID-19 is taking a toll on Americans minds, hearts, and souls. Houses of worship can play an essential role in treating these problems. The Census Bureau reports that one-third of Americans now show signs of clinical anxiety or depression. The problem is especially pronounced among women, the poor, and young adults, even though they are less likely to become seriously ill from the virus. COVID-19 unemployment could make this worse. Calls to suicide hotlines have spiked as the shutdown drags on. One study projects up to 75,000 deaths from drug or alcohol misuse and suicides over the next decade. With 1 in 4 Americans now facing unemployment, there is great concern about rising deaths of despair. Research reveals a strong linkage between faith and mental health. Studying post-traumatic stress disorder among veterans, Harold Koenig of Duke University Medical Center found that spiritual involvement gave veterans emotional stability that increased their resiliency to trauma. READ MORE: Unemployment, isolation and depression from COVID-19 may cause more deaths of despair Professors Byron Johnson and Christos Makridis discovered a causal relationship between religious affiliation and subjective well-being. They attributed it, in part, to the increased social capital that members of a religious community enjoy. These studies provide a strong public-health rationale for President Trumps May 22 decision to identify houses of worship as essential places that provide essential services. His announcement was accompanied by guidance on social distancing from the Centers for Disease Control and followed by a warning from the Justice Department that: "Even in times of emergency, when reasonable and temporary restrictions are placed on rights, the First Amendment and federal statutory law prohibit discrimination against religious institutions and religious believers. The stricter treatment of houses of worship raises not only the legal matter of unequal treatment, but also questions about public health. Emilie Kao Some governors like Californias Gavin Newsom opened restaurants and bars while keeping houses of worship closed, despite polling that shows most Americans would prefer houses of worship open first. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz allowed malls and casinos to reopen at 50% capacity, but limited gatherings in houses of worship to 10 people until Catholic and Lutheran leaders protested. Will people behave responsibly in a bar or casino, but irresponsibly in a synagogue or mosque? The stricter treatment of houses of worship raises not only the legal matter of unequal treatment, but also questions about public health. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker decreed that liquor stores and cannabis dispensaries could open, but houses of worship could not. Do alcohol and marijuana provide answers for Americans who are out of work and struggling with social isolation? Shopping malls and bars may meet physical and social needs, but they are inadequate for our mental, emotional, and spiritual needs. Many Americans find encouragement through their faith. Even government officials who are not religious would be wise to recognize the power of faith to encourage the struggling. The Founders protected religious freedom not just so that we could worship as individuals, but so that we could practice our faith in community with others. As COVID-19 takes a devastating toll on both bodies and souls, houses of worship should be permitted to play their essential role in hope and healing. Emilie Kao is Director of the DeVos Center on Religion and Civil Society at the Heritage Foundation. No: Churches should choose to open last in service to the safety of all I stood at the corner beside a young woman holding the hand of a toddler. The light for us was red, but looking up and down the street, I saw there was no approaching traffic, so I prepared to cross, without waiting for the green. Something made me look down at the child, causing me to stop in my tracks. Here was someone just beginning to learn that red means stop and green means go." Although I was able to cross, how would my ignoring the traffic light serve the needs of my neighbor, who in that moment happened to be this little girl and her adult partner, who more than likely was trying to teach her the rules of the road to keep her alive? How do I serve my neighbor?even though in a hurry, I found myself planted in solidarity with the two of them, waiting until the light turned to green, indicating we could all go. It occurred to me when the recommendations first started coming out about wearing masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, that this small act represented another example of serving my neighbor. Over and over, we heard from medical and scientific experts: do not wear the mask for yourself, but for others. Wash your hands, distance yourselves, avoid assembling, all in order to safeguard your vulnerable neighborthe beauty in this being that if everyone were to do this, we would all be served. I believe that if Christians were to follow Jesus command to love and serve one another as he loves and serves us, then his church would be among the last ones to physically gather during this pandemic. Kari Hart I believe that if Christians were to follow Jesus command to love and serve one another as he loves and serves us, then his church would be among the last ones to physically gather during this pandemic. The very last ones. With our constitutional right, we could claim our ability to be among the first. We could also claim our need: I know I feel almost desperate to be with my congregation. Thinking back to that street corner, we could believe, as I didI need to, I am able to, so what is stopping me? And then I think of that child, and I know it is the who that will propel me toward the needs of my vulnerable neighbor, and away from my own. Even my spiritual own. Think about this: How would it look if the church refused to gather physically, if by doing so there was even the slightest possibility of harm to our neighborwhoever or wherever that neighbor might be? If the church said: We surrender our right, we relegate our need in consideration of that minuscule chance of one person who might become infected as a result. If we said, yes we can, but no, thank you, we wont. It would look like the most counter-productive strategy for survival the church could come up with. Like we were signing our own death certificate. And yet, we didnt come up with it God did. Two thousand years ago, Christians believe this same strategy got nailed to a cross. The death certificate was signed, sealed and delivered. And just look who got served as a resultevery single, living one of us. Rev. Kari Hart is pastor at the Lutheran Church of the Holy Communion. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 20:58:22|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SHANGHAI, June 2 (Xinhua) -- As the catering industry resumes business amid the subdued COVID-19 pandemic in Shanghai, foreign restaurants are finding ways back into people's lives in the gastronomic capital. The Shanghai Global Cuisine Festival was officially launched Saturday. More than 2,000 foreign restaurants of over 300 catering brands from 42 different countries joined in the three-day event. A series of on-site activities were held during the gourmet festival, while discounts and promotions offered by participating restaurants will last until the end of June. Consumers could taste delicacies from around the globe without leaving Shanghai, helping boost food consumption in the city with regular measures in place for the pandemic prevention and control, according to the organizers. Shanghai has about 12,000 restaurants specializing in foreign cuisines, accounting for about 20 percent of the city's total restaurants. "Shanghai residents are very enthusiastic about exotic food. The city is full of foreign restaurants," said Yuan Lijun, director of the Shanghai Business Information Centre. Yuji Suzuki, head chef of the Japanese restaurant Tsukiji Umisachi Sandaime in Shanghai, said the restaurant's business resumed in May and the turnover has increased by about 20 percent compared with the same period last year. For many years, the restaurant has held a tuna dissection show every month. At the show, a chef uses traditional Japanese techniques to dissect a fresh bluefin tuna of more than 100 kg. "We suspended the show for four months because of the pandemic, but we restarted it on June 1 as the restaurant business is picking up," said Suzuki. Foreign food brands are also developing new cuisines by integrating Chinese ingredients to cater to local customers. New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra coordinated with China's Shen Da Cheng, a catering brand with more than 100 years of history, and launched an innovative dim sum with cheese and salted egg yolk. Wassim Othman, head chef of Dubai restaurant Makan in Shanghai, said the restaurant's dishes blended Arabic and Chinese cuisines to better meet the tastes of local customers. "Shanghai customers have good taste in food. Our fusion food is very popular," said Othman. Enditem CLEVELAND, Ohio An Iranian scientist left federal custody Monday and flew home to Tehran, more than six months after he was acquitted here on charges of stealing trade secrets in a case that drew international attention. Federal agents placed Sirous Asgari, 59, on a plane in Dallas after he spent time in several detention facilities and became ill with the coronavirus. Were happy that he is on his way home, but were frustrated that it took six months for it to happen, particularly after an acquittal, said Stephen Newman, the federal public defender in Cleveland, who represented Asgari at trial. Advocates for Asgari have long complained that he should have been released immediately after U.S. District Judge James Gwin threw out the charges against him in the middle of Asgaris trial in November. He lived with his adult children while out on bond for more the two years before the trial. Instead, federal agents arrested him and placed him in the custody of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement until he could return to Iran. He was moved several times while in custody, with his last stops in Louisiana and Mississippi. Advocates for Asgari said he had been placed on nine different flights on the same day, at one point, while being transported to various facilities. This has been terrible, said Medea Benjamin, an activist in San Francisco who pushed to get Asgari released after his acquittal. There was no reason for him to be held [after the trial]. The way they shuttled him around the country amid the virus was wrong. The whole thing was a nightmare. Asgaris plans to return home stalled, however, partly because of visa issues and the coronavirus, according to interviews and published reports. Newman said Asgari had a pre-existing health condition that made him susceptible to the virus. Asgari, a professor of material science and engineering at Sharif University of Technology in Iran, was indicted in 2016 on charges of theft of trade secrets, wire fraud and visa fraud. They said Asgari came to the United States in December 2011 on a tourist visa and did not say he planned to visit Ohio. In fact, he traveled to Cleveland to meet with faculty at Case Western Reserve University, according to court records. He returned to Ohio the following year and began research at Case. The project was on the hardening of stainless steel. Prosecutors said Asgari obtained a tourist visa, but not one for work. Asgari left the United States in April 2013. Before that, he signed a non-disclosure agreement that said he would not reveal information about the project he worked on because it included trade secrets, prosecutors said. While here, Asgari sent emails to students in Iran, which included some of the projects technical information, prosecutors said. Asgari denied that. He returned to the United States in 2017 to visit his children. Thats when federal agents arrested him on the indictment. Asgari denied the charges, saying he did nothing wrong in the case and in his research. Gov. Pete Ricketts apologized Tuesday for words he spoke Monday to Pastor Jarrod Parker of St. Marks Baptist Church in Omaha and other black pastors and leaders. I chose my words poorly and apologized when it became apparent that I had caused offense, Ricketts said in a statement. Parker posted live on Facebook on Monday evening that Ricketts said in a meeting with him and other black pastors and leaders: "The problem I have with you people ..." The term "you people" is considered derogatory, meant to distinguish the outsiders of a clique, and said to be racist when said about people of a different race than the speaker. Ricketts said in an interview with the Journal Star he did not intend to offend Parker or anyone else, and as soon as he said it, he apologized to those in the room. Parker said he was invited to the meeting Monday with Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert, Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer and Ricketts. He said he met with them for one-half hour alone and then for another hour with other black leaders. In the meeting, Parker said he put context to the issues surrounding the systemic racism that led to the killing of James Scurlock, a black protester who was shot in downtown Omaha early Saturday morning. Ricketts' words came out when they were talking about a bill (LB791) that passed in 2018 that, among other things, allows the Nebraska Crime Commission to subpoena witnesses, documents, personnel records and disciplinary histories relating to law enforcement officer certification revocation. "That was the wrong way to say it," Ricketts said. "Again, I'm engaging with the African American community, and I'm learning and I apologize and I've got to work to do better. I made a mistake and I apologized for it." The goal of meeting with the North Omaha community leaders was to open a dialogue about the protests in Omaha and the decision by Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine to not charge white bar owner Jake Gardner for killing Scurlock. At times, the discussion was emotionally charged, Ricketts said. "There was a lot of raw emotion and a lot of anger in the room for obvious reasons, about what's happened, from everything from the decades of inequality to more recently what happened to George Floyd. And at times, it was a very tense conversation," he said. Parker said that after Ricketts said the words, Parker walked out of the meeting. "Ladies and gentlemen, I walked out on Gov. Pete Ricketts as he said, he called us, 'you people,'" Parker said sitting in a car, posting live after the meeting. "Make this go viral. He called black pastors and black leaders 'you people,' and I walked out on him. That's why the city is going to go up in flames, Mrs. Mayor and Mr. Chief. You're not listening. And you can't listen, because at the top of the state is a racist governor." Because of that, Parker said, the governor does not deserve his attention or his respect. Ricketts said Tuesday afternoon his administration is really working to overcome those perceptions. "I'm very sorry that's what Pastor Parker took away, because that's certainly not what I was intending in my remarks and what we've been working to be able to overcome with regard to responding to the pandemic, and the economic development plans, and hiring companies in North Omaha to work with the state," he said. Ricketts intends to apologize to the pastor in person, and Economic Development Director Tony Goins and Health and Human Services CEO Dannette Smith, both African Americans, are reaching out to arrange that, he said. Not everyone agreed with Parker's choice to walk out of the meeting and the offense taken by Ricketts' words, or even exactly what words Ricketts used. The governor apologized again and answered questions for nearly 25 minutes Tuesday morning on a radio show on 95.7 The Boss, which serves Omahas African American community. The station calls itself "The Voice of the Voiceless" and was hosted by William King Jr. and Martine Quartey. King, who is black, said before his interview with Ricketts that he disagreed with Parker walking out. "When you have the players in the room, you don't get up and walk out when you're supposed to be in the room to negotiate for black people," King said. "We need stronger leadership." There is too much work to do to worry about nouns, adjectives, prepositional phrases, predicates, he said. A written comment during the broadcast from Elizabeth Wakefield agreed: "Address the language if offended and get to the point. Never GIVE UP YOUR POWER." Going forward, Ricketts said, everyone has to work together to try to create opportunities for people in north and south Omaha. King asked Ricketts to commit to a town hall meeting that the station would host and said he would be in touch with his staff to lock down a date. "With closed-door meetings, you get closed-door opinions," King said. Photos, videos: Protests over police brutality Reach the writer at 402-473-7228 or jyoung@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSLegislature Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 A lot of this rage has been locked up for a while, he said. And what were asking now is that you dont destroy your own communities, that you learn how to do it peacefully. And then lets do the things we need to do politically and socially to change the dynamics of our community. Recently, the National Peoples Congress (NPC), the top legislature of China, has adopted a decision on establishing and improving the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) to safeguard national security. The decision, made in accordance with Chinas Constitution and the Basic Law of the HKSAR, is a totally natural and justified move, as Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China, and its affairs fall entirely within Chinas domestic affairs. However, the decision has placed some external forces with ulterior motives on pins and needles. They gave a so-called joint statement regarding the national security legislation, threatened to plan a strong response, and lobbied for immediate attention. These hegemonic actions, with an attempt to interfere in Hong Kongs affairs and blatantly interfere in Chinas internal affairs, cannot intimidate the Chinese people and are doomed to fail. The reason why Hong Kong has become a prominent risk of Chinas national security can be largely attributed to foreign interference. From the illegal movement of Occupy Central in 2014 and the turbulence over proposed legislative amendments in 2019, external forces have been emerging from backstage. They kept on pointing fingers at Hong Kong affairs, fanning the flames of discontent, flagrantly ratcheted up pressure on the Chinese government and the HKSAR government, and encouraged opposition. By particularly taking advantage of Hong Kongs national security loophole in legislation, they colluded with anti-China forces in Hong Kong, clamored for Hong Kong independence, self-determination and referendum, and applied the burn with us tactic in society, politics and economy. With an ill intention to destroy the future of Hong Kong and the principle of one country, two systems, the external forces are turning the HKSAR into a bridgehead of anti-China activities, a base camp of violence, and instigating a color revolution in Hong Kong, so as to contain China. Such an intention is obvious to all. Only thieves hate burglar-proof doors. Those with a sinister intention now begin to act like a cat on hot bricks, as they come to realize that China is going to establish and improve its legal system and enforcement mechanisms for Hong Kong, and their opportunities to divide, overthrow, destroy and make inroads into the country are diminishing. Agitated and flustered, they are repeatedly resorting to threatening and intimidation. Of course, they still need excuses, so they kept on whitewashing the violent rioters as pro-democracy fighters, stigmatizing the law enforcement of Hong Kong police as violent suppression, and hailing the violent acts as a fight for freedom, no matter how these acts have trampled on the laws. The double standards only exposed their ugly faces covered up by human rights, democracy, and freedom, as well as their malicious motives of disrupting Hong Kong and containing Chinas development. Their anxiety now exactly exposes their desperation, and their strong opposition against Chinas decision to make Hong Kong national security laws also reveals their true intention to disrupt China and Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a part of China. Nobody values the special administrative region as much as the central government does; nobody cares about the prosperity and stability of the HKSAR and its peoples well-being as much as the central government does; and nobody implements the principle of one country, two systems and the Basic Law as earnestly as the central government does. Since the modern times, the Chinese people have gone through tremendous sufferings and made huge sacrifices. The painful history of being weak and torn apart is still a fresh memory, and to achieve national rejuvenation and reunification always remains their tireless pursuit. The founding of the Peoples Republic of China signaled that the days are gone when imperialism could conquer the country with just a few cannons. Before Hong Kong returned to its motherland, the country also made it clear that sovereignty is non-negotiable. In the new era when the Chinese nation is marching towards national rejuvenation, it is merely a pipe dream to force China to give ground on core interests such as sovereignty and security by intimidation or coercion. Chinas resolution to safeguard its security can be stopped by no one. The decision on establishing and improving the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the HKSAR to safeguard national security received lasting applause when deputies voted overwhelmingly to approve it on May 28. To safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests, implement one country, two systems and oppose any external interference in Hong Kong affairs is a firm determination of the Chinese people and a strong commitment of China. Do not go against the trend of time, the will of the 1.4 billion valiant Chinese people, or the international law and basic norms governing international relations. Thats a stern warning for the external anti-China forces disrupting Hong Kong. Otherwise, only resolute countermeasures and a shameful failure await them. Protestors are arrested for violating curfew along Sunset Blvd. at Gower in Hollywood. (Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times) Nearly 3,000 demonstrators in Southern California have found themselves in handcuffs after taking to the streets since Friday to condemn the death of George Floyd and the use of excessive force by police. Booking records reviewed by The Times show the vast majority of those arrested in Los Angeles County for looting, vandalism and burglary offenses are from here, seeming to refute perceptions of "outside agitators" coming in to fuel unrest. The bulk of those arrests have taken place in Los Angeles, where authorities have taken approximately 2,500 people into custody between Friday and Tuesday morning after a mix of peaceful protests and property destruction rocked downtown, the Fairfax District, Van Nuys and Hollywood, according to LAPD Chief Michel Moore. Santa Monica and Long Beach police arrested an additional 475 people during largely peaceful protests that were also overshadowed by looting in both cities Sunday. Floyd was an unarmed black Minneapolis man who died in custody after a white police officer kneeled on his neck for several minutes despite Floyd's pleas that he couldn't breathe. Former police officer Derek Chauvin has been charged in his death but calls for the other officers on scene to be prosecuted have continued. Police officials in each jurisdiction have released only general information about who was arrested, and why. The Times has requested specific information about arrests from each city where looting and protests have occurred, and received only a partial response from the Los Angeles Police Department as of Tuesday morning. Long Beach officials promised to provide information "shortly," and multiple calls and emails to a Santa Monica police spokesman were not returned. Based on public statements from officials and booking records reviewed by The Times, it appears the vast majority of those being taken into custody have been cited and released for either failing to obey an order to disperse or violating a city or county curfew order. Story continues On Friday, during large-scale protests in downtown L.A., police arrested 533 people on suspicion of burglary, looting, probation violations, battery on a police officer, attempted murder and failure to disperse. All but 18 of those people were released, according to an LAPD statement. Josh Rubenstein, the department's chief spokesman, said the majority of those arrested Friday were cited and eventually released for failing to disperse after the department declared all of downtown to be an unlawful assembly, but he could not immediately provide a specific number. The department said it arrested an additional 398 people during Saturday's protests and LAPD Chief Michel Moore estimated about 700 people had been arrested Sunday. Moore said about 10% of Sunday's arrests were linked to burglary and looting. An additional 585 people were arrested in Hollywood alone Monday night, mostly for curfew violations, according to two law enforcement sources who spoke to The Times on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the matter candidly. Just 20 of those people were booked in connection with looting, though police also impounded about 50 vehicles, the sources said. During a meeting of the city's civilian Police Commission Tuesday morning, Moore said a total of 2,500 people had been arrested since Friday. Given the department had confirmed upwards of 1,600 arrests had taken place over the weekend, that suggested more than 800 people were arrested Monday night, the most yet during an individual night of unrest. A review of booking records available to The Times shows 575 people have been arrested between Friday and Tuesday on suspicion of crimes likely related to violence during the protests including looting, robbery, vandalism, burglary and attacking police. Those booking records do not show those taken into custody for failing to disperse, curfew violations or other lesser offenses for which there is no bail schedule, meaning those persons would have been cited and released by police on the same day. The booking records seem to throw cold water on national speculation that outside agitators either left-wing anarchists or white supremacists have been driving the violence and looting in Los Angeles. Of the 575 people arrested for related crimes, 537 of them live in Los Angeles County, records show. An LAPD official with knowledge of the situation also told The Times that the department has not developed any intelligence about outside interlopers stoking bedlam during the protests. Asked specifically if anti-fascist demonstrators have been involved in the unrest, as President Trump and others have alleged, the official said, "if they are, they're not getting arrested." Santa Monica Police Chief Cynthia Renaud also estimated that 95% of those arrested Sunday did not live in the city, but she did not offer additional information about where she believed the looters or demonstrators came from. The Times has interviewed several people arrested in Santa Monica on Sunday who say they traveled from other parts of L.A. County to participate in the demonstrations and were arrested for curfew violations. Santa Monica, a city roughly eight square miles in size, is bordered on all sides by Los Angeles neighborhoods. In addition, the LAPD has been collecting evidence throughout the protests, mostly in the form of video that could be used to identify individuals and bring charges against them in the future. The FBI on Monday also put out a nationwide call for pictures and videos that could help identify people actively instigating violence at protests across the country. Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 2) An epidemiologist said Tuesday that there is no data to support the claim that the virus which causes COVID-19 is becoming less deadly. There is no substantial evidence that in one way or another the novel coronavirus is becoming more lethal or less lethal, Dr. Troy Gepta said in a media forum. The scientific name of the novel coronavirus is severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 or SARS-CoV-2. Other coronaviruses known to infect humans include SARS coronavirus and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus. Gepta said the WHO is gathering more evidence about the severity of the SARS-CoV 2. He said that what is proven is that SARS-COV-2 is more infectious than SARS-CoV, but it may be less lethal than the MERS coronavirus. He added that MERS' case fatality rate is over 30 percent, while COVID-19s death rate seems to hover at 2 to 3 percent or 4 to 5 percent, depending on what country. Gepta was made to react to the statement of a top Italian doctor who reportedly said over the weekend that SARS-CoV-2 is losing its potency to infect people. For her part, Health spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said more research is necessary before this conclusion can be reached. Kailangan pang pag-aralan maigi ito. (This has to be studied more.) I am not a clinician but hindi mo masasabi na less fatal na (but you cannot say that [SARS-CoV-2]) is now less fatal). Ang sinasabi nilang (Their claim that) patients are showing significantly less viral load - it has to be studied well dahil magkakaiba ang implikasyon ng sinasabi nito. (because of its different implications). She explained that the viral load or infection dose is the amount of a specific virus in a sample taken from a patient. She said this viral load increases if a carrier shows symptoms. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Prague, Czech Republic Tue, June 2, 2020 06:45 598 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb64ed4 2 World Czech-Republic,open-border,coronavirus,COVID-19,post-lockdown,COVID-19-travel-ban,COVID-19-travel-restriction,pandemic Free The Czech government on Monday decided to allow Czechs to travel to most European countries without submitting a negative COVID-19 test upon return. "We can start travelling around Europe from June 15," Health Minister Adam Vojtech tweeted as the EU member's coronavirus toll reached 9,286 confirmed cases including 321 deaths. The government, which already began easing its anti-virus measures in April, uses three colors to distinguish between European countries depending on their safety level regarding the coronavirus. The safest -- green -- countries include the Czech Republic's neighbors such as Germany and Poland, as well as Switzerland, Finland and the Baltics. Orange countries with a higher level of risk include Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and others. The two red countries with the highest risk are Britain and Sweden. "Czechs can travel to green and orange countries without facing any restrictions when they return," Vojtech said, adding that negative tests would be required from those coming back from Britain or Sweden. "Foreigners coming to the Czech Republic from orange and red countries will have to submit a test result," he added. Vojtech said the government would also allow theatres and cinemas to abandon social distancing rules starting next week. "We are also raising the maximum number of people at mass events to 500" as of the same day, June 8, he added. The government of neighboring Slovakia similarly announced Monday that maximum turnout at public gatherings would be up to 500 people starting June 10, and 1,000 as of July through the end of the year. It also announced that those living in the Czech Republic and Hungary will be allowed to enter Slovakia for 48 hours from Tuesday onwards, while gyms, pools, spas, casinos and indoor zoos will be able to reopen on June 10. A first-ever online art festival for children to play, learn and create with art was launched Monday in Singapore, as part of efforts to bring more art experiences to audiences amid the COVID-19 crisis. Presented by the National Gallery Singapore, its biennial children's festival, Small Big Dreamers, returns for its second edition with a digital twist, said the National Gallery Singapore in a media statement. This year's "#SmallBigDreamersAtHome" festival runs from Monday to March 28, 2021, even as the gallery remains temporarily closed due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation. An interactive website will host fun and engaging activities for children aged six to 12, featuring close to 30 interactive games, hands-on activities, and videos inspired by artworks from Singapore and Southeast Asian artists. These are designed to let them unleash their inner artist while learning about artworks within the national collection and beyond. Suenne Megan Tan, director of audience development and engagement at National Gallery Singapore, said it is a chance for parents to engage their children with art, even as more families spend time at home to curb the spread of COVID-19. "#SmallBigDreamersAtHome allows children to learn while being in their element with the online platform and ignites their imagination through creative play. We hope that it will serve as a springboard for new and regular visitors to take their own self-guided adventures into the world of art," she said. As they scroll through the website, visitors can learn about the artistic process, as well as interesting facts and details behind each artwork. These range from learning about still life painting as shown in Singaporean artist Georgette Chen's "Tropical Fruits", ink painting in Yeo Shih Yun's "My INK-credible Adventure" and the use of lines in Indonesian artist Sudjana Kerton's "Gamelan Orchestra" piece. Using the collection of activity sheets, children can also take part in arts and crafts projects, such as how to make a pendulum painting, a 3D house and shadow art. They also get to play with interactive games which educate them on the artmaking techniques used within the artworks. The children can also explore a series of on-demand tutorial videos facilitated by educational experts, independent artists, and illustrators, and get inspired to embark on projects of their own. Storytelling sessions along with sit-down chats with artists, educators and curators will join the line-up later this year. The festival is supported by the Gallery's development partner, Tote Board. Fong Yong Kian, chief executive of Tote Board, said that they are seeing new ways of community engagement - from online classrooms for students to teleconferencing with vulnerable seniors. "These are trying times but organisations are adapting to new ways of operating, and Tote Board is ready to support the Gallery in devising novel unconventional ways of bringing art to the people." "A dose of art and fun for the whole family can be especially beneficial to mental and emotional well-being," he added. When Ottawa resident Abdirahman Abdi died in 2016 after a violent police encounter, the family and local advocates say they bumped up against a system they felt was more about protecting police than about safeguarding communities. While the officer involved now faces various charges, including manslaughter and is awaiting the conclusion of his trial, the process remains deeply flawed. This despite wide-ranging advocacy on police oversight, including an email campaign led by the Justice for Abdirahman Coalition and actioned by nearly twenty thousand people from across the province, a slew of recommendations by a provincial judge, and the passage of subsequent legislation. When Doug Fords Progressive Conservative government came to power in 2018, it quickly rolled back Bill 175, the Safer Ontario Act. Its replacement legislation was a complete capitulation to police unions, according to Michael Bryant, executive director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. So when Farhia Ahmed, the coalitions chair, learned that Premier Ford expressed support for Black people this week, she could only laugh bitterly. Its one thing to stand there and say you are in solidarity with Black communities, its another to remove the barriers to our full freedom and to the comfort we deserve in knowing that our police are there to protect us and will be held accountable if they dont, she told me in an interview. Ahmed recalled the early days of organizing after the horrific death of the 37-year-old Abdi, a Somali-Canadian with mental health issues who was apprehended after a distress call by patrons of a local coffee shop. He was pinned to the ground and struck repeatedly in the head by a police officer in broad daylight. Like the killing of George Floyd in the United States, Abdis alleged murder was captured on video and similarly spurred protests and calls for justice. While there are similarities in these two deaths, there are striking differences in the immediate response of public officials, reads a statement posted on Monday by the Coalition. The key perpetrator in George Floyds death, Officer Derek Chauvin, was arrested within days and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. While in the nations capital of Canada, Abdirahman Abdis alleged killer, remained employed without charges for approximately eight months. Today, nearly four years after Abdirahmans death, Daniel Montsion remains a free man and earns six figures paid through tax payers dollars. Ensuring that police chiefs could suspend officers without pay in certain cases of misconduct was a key recommendation made by the coalition, and echoed in a comprehensive review of the 1990 Police Services Act by Justice Michael Tulloch. His report included recommendations that would see fines of up to $50,000 of officers refusing to comply with the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), as well as clearer guidelines governing standards of proof. There was also a call for more civilian investigators to oversee complaints, to counter the perception that police are often policing themselves. It is the SIU that is now investigating the mysterious death of Toronto resident Regis Korchinski-Paquet. An Afro-Indigenous woman suffering from mental illness, she died last week after falling from her highrise after police were called to her home. Tullochs recommendations were intended to make the SIU more transparent and accountable to the public, particularly to Black and Indigenous communities, said Ruth Goba, executive director of the Black Legal Action Centre in Toronto. Without those reforms, there is no reason for us to now trust the investigation into [Korchinski-Paquets] death will be unbiased. Gobas clinic has already been coping with other harmful policy decisions, including major funding cuts to legal aid. Its mandate is to combat individual and systemic anti-Black racism. Its a really hard time for our communities right now, she told me. When things like this happen, there is a lot of public outcry and then, when publicity dies down, Black people are left in the same position that they were left in before. Any government must consider substantive change; speaking about discrimination doesnt eliminate the disparities that Black people deal with whether in housing, employment, education or in the justice system. No it doesnt. Besides, Fords record speaks for itself. Amira Elghawaby is an Ottawa-based human rights advocate and a freelance contributing columnist for the Star. Follow her on Twitter @AmiraElghawaby is an Ottawa-based human rights advocate and a freelance contributing columnist for the Star. Follow her on Twitter @AmiraElghawaby Read more about: A struggling restaurant in Western Australia has been slapped with a $5,000 for breaching new COVID-19 dining restrictions by letting too many customers into the venue. Catalano's Cafe in Victoria Park, Western Australia, was found with 28 diners in the establishment when current rules only allow 20 people at one time. The West Australian reported police had given two verbal warnings before returning on May 22 to find eight people over the limit. West Australian cafe Catalano (pictured) became the first establishment fined for breaching new COVID-19 rules restricting the number of patrons to 20 after 28 people were found inside Co-owner Joe Murgia said the way the police entered his cafe shoulder to shoulder made it feel like they were the 'Gestapo'. 'If I was back in 1939, I would think the Gestapo had arrived,' he said. 'Given it was the first week, I would have thought some tolerance would be acceptable so businesses and staff could bed down their system under the new rules.' While Mr Murgia did not dispute the breach and said it wasn't as simple as it looked. He said three people were waiting on their takeaway meals and others were in the process of leaving but had lingered to chat. Co-owner Joe Murgia (pictured) said three officers marched into the cafe shoulder to shoulder in a scene he likened to the 'Gestapo' in 1939 The cafe's income was already down 94 per cent and Mr Murgia said it was a challenge juggling the new restrictions while still being profitable. 'When you hear there are 100 people sitting in the food court at Carousel not following social distancing rules, it is easy to understand why many restaurants are frustrated,' he said. Daily Mail Australia contacted the cafe for further comment. Western Australia is currently under Phase 2 restrictions which allows for 20 people at indoor and outdoor non-work gatherings. Cafes and restaurants are permitted 20 patrons at a time. The state government announced Western Australia will roll back to Phase 3 restrictions from June 6. Deputy Chief Medical Officer Nick Coatsworth says the lifting of restrictions is a balancing act between the socio-economic benefit and the public health risk. 'We're taking a deliberately safe and cautious approach,' Professor Coatsworth told reporters in Canberra on Sunday. 'Most importantly we're taking the time to gather the data over the coming weeks to determine whether it's safe to move to the next round of lifting restrictions.' A National Guard member takes a knee during a Hollywood protest Tuesday. (Dorany Pineda) It was 1 p.m. and thousands of protesters marching through Hollywood had arrived at Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street, where they came across National Guard troops and police. Some in the crowd chanted, Take a knee. After several minutes, at least two of the Guardsmen complied, as the crowd cheered and clapped. One person yelled, Thank you! to the kneeling officers. National Guard troops take a knee with protesters on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. pic.twitter.com/dwxjrYww9g Dorany Pineda (@DoranyPineda90) June 2, 2020 Other protesters encountered a line of police officers and began chanting, Walk with us and Let us walk. The group was trying to reach another crowd of demonstrators father up Hollywood, past Cherokee. The marchers were met with a line of at least 20 LAPD officers who wouldnt let them pass. As the group neared the line, hands raised, police began raising their batons to hold them back. Later, at Argyle and Sunset, there was a tense exchange between protesters and LAPD officers. One officer shoved down a protesters phone. Another threw a flower someone had placed in his pocket onto the ground. Aijshia Moody, 30, was among those holding a cardboard sign that read, Am I next? Her brother is 14 years old and has often dealt with racial profiling in Pacoima, where they live. He cant even get on his skateboard. Thats why Im here, she said, noting that she's dealt with racism her entire life. Carlos Vellanoweth had joined the group from his home in Whittier. I feel like there needs to be change, said the 15-year-old, who marched in downtown L.A. earlier this week with his parents and held a sign that read, #mexicanos for black lives. They matter! Its 2020 and black people are still being oppressed. We need to stop discriminating against one another, he said. The Pentagon has ordered a small contingent of active-duty soldiers to alert status, on standby to join thousands of National Guard troops to help police quell civil unrest amid protest demonstrations across America. But the unprecedented situation is still a long way from martial law, legal experts say. Currently, about 20,400 Guard troops have been activated in 28 states and the District of Columbia as demonstrators clash with police over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died May 25 in police custody in Minneapolis. Read Next: 16 West Point Cadets Test Positive for COVID-19 upon Returning for Trump's Commencement Speech The Pentagon ordered active-duty military police from the XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to the D.C. area to await a request to assist with the Guard response, but so far U.S. Army officials have remained tight-lipped about the deployment. Army UH-60 Black Hawk and UH-72 Lakota helicopters flew low over crowds of protesters in D.C. on Monday night as demonstrations went past the ordered curfew, according to a Fox News report. On Tuesday, Pentagon officials referred questions about the helicopters to the D.C. National Guard. This latest deployment of troops on U.S. soil follows the activation of about 42,000 Guard members since March in response to the COVID-19 pandemic -- an extraordinary chain of events that has fueled fears on social media of the beginning of martial law in America. "It's a horrible situation. The confluence of the virus and the racial incident -- it created powder kegs and there is a lot of pent-up frustration all over the country," said William Banks, a professor emeritus at Syracuse University's College of Law and the author of "Soldiers on the Homefront: The Domestic Role of the American Military." "What you need at a time like this is tremendous leadership on the part of state, local and national figures," he added. President Donald Trump has taken a hard stance on the situation, threatening to use military force to stop rioters and expressing support for Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton's call for the enactment of the Insurrection Act, which would allow for the deployment of active-duty units in law enforcement roles if requested by a governor or state legislature. While the rhetoric may be extreme, the use of military forces, so far, in no way resembles martial law, Pentagon spokesman Army Lt. Col. Chris Mitchell, told Military.com. "We are not even close," he said. "The troops that are responding right now are currently National Guard troops. They are there in support of state and local governments." Mitchell added, "Realistically, it's not something that the military would declare." Martial law occurs when the military chain of command is put in control of civilian society -- usually in a time of war -- when civilian courts and government are not functioning. Martial law is an "extraordinary state of being, and it basically means the government isn't in control at all; there is no law. Martial law is the power of a commander," Banks said. "The last time the law was declared in the United states was in Hawaii during World War II," he said, describing the military's response after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which resulted in Japanese Americans being put in internment camps. In fact, Banks said, there is no longer a "publicly known procedure" for the enactment of martial law. "Years ago, there were some regulations within the [Defense Department] that spoke to the possibility of martial law, but they have been taken off the books," he said. "We can't see them, so we don't even know if they exist anymore." On Monday, Trump told governors during a call -- the audio of which was obtained by the Washington Post -- to "get much tougher" on protesters. He also tweeted support for Cotton's plan to deploy active-duty soldiers from combat units such as the 101st Airborne and 82nd Airborne Divisions to deal with rioters. "There is this feeling that you are going to get your city destroyed by fire, people are going to get hurt or killed and we need to stomp on this," said Richard Kohn, professor emeritus of History and Peace, War and Defense at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. But deploying combat troops to face down demonstrators could provoke the situation further and puts the U.S. military in a terrible position, he said. "They know it's dangerous; they want to defend the American people," said Kohn, who served as the chief of Air Force History and chief historian for the Air Force from 1981 to 1991. "The overwhelming majority of the military leadership understand that they have to stand with and behind the American people and not in opposition to it or even appear to be in opposition to it." Typically, active-duty U.S. military personnel are prohibited from making arrests or serving other law enforcement functions by the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 which outlaws the willful use of any part of the armed forces to execute the law unless authorized by the Constitution or an act of Congress. "It basically reinforces sort of a cultural aversion Americans have had to military involvement with law enforcement," Banks said. Active-duty troops can be empowered to act in a law enforcement role under the Insurrection act, an exception to Posse Comitatus that allows the president to deploy U.S. troops within the nations borders for specific purposes, including quelling disorder and rebellion. The Insurrection Act can be invoked, however, without realizing a state of martial law. But Banks said there is a big difference between governors activating Guard units in their states and the White House ordering active-duty troops into communities. "The National Guard forces that are deployed by governors in the cities inside states are members of those communities," he said. "And presumably they are being called by the governor because the governor has made a determination that the local law enforcement may not be able to manage civil order in their community -- it's a backup to the police. "It's far less heavy-handed than the president federalizing an incident and sending in your military," Banks added. But even if Trump decides to go that route, local, state and federal government officials would still control the response to civil unrest, he said. "Presumably, if Congress is able to meet and if the president is alive and well, there is no need for martial law because they can govern effectively with institutions and the laws we have in place," Banks said. "It's an extraordinary situation, and it's highly unlikely ever to occur in the United States." President Abraham Lincoln declared martial law in several states during the Civil War, but the U.S. Supreme Court put an end to it in 1865, he said. "There is an old case from the Civil War ... and the Supreme Court in that case in 1865 said that, so long as the government is operating, there is no justification for martial law," Banks explained. -- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com. Related: Army Vet Lawmaker: Invoke Insurrection Act, Deploy Active-Duty Troops to Riots Horrifying video shows the moment a black man peacefully protesting in Charleston is detained by police just seconds after he declared that he was not their 'enemy'. Givionne 'Gee' Jordan Jr was seen in footage giving an impassioned speech while kneeling during demonstrations in the South Carolina city that have seen more than 60 arrested. 'We are better than that. We are all people,' Jordan screams to the police as he kneels on the ground. 'All of you are my family. All of you are my family. I love each and every one of you.' Givionne 'Gee' Jordan Jr was seen in footage giving an impassioned speech while kneeling during demonstrations in Charleston on Sunday As Jordan continues talking to the officers, other protesters can be seen coming behind him and kneeling along with him. Some even pat him on his shoulder. 'I cry at night because I feel your pain,' the man said through tears. 'I feel the pain.' The crowd offers a few words of support as Jordan continues with his speech. 'I am not your enemy. You are not my enemy,' he asserts. 'We have to share this land, no matter what.' Jordan continues offering warm words to the officers but soon the police can be seen making commotion. 'We are better than that. We are all people,' Jordan screams to the police as he kneels on the ground. 'All of you are my family. All of you are my family. I love each and every one of you' A group of officers approach Jordan, who extends his hands as police lead him away from the crowd. The demonstrators scream at the officers, shocked that they would detain Jordan for actually protesting peacefully A group of officers approach Jordan, who extends his hands as police lead him away from the crowd. The demonstrators scream at the officers, shocked that they would detain Jordan for actually protesting peacefully. Video of the arrest has been viewed more than 21 million times. The 23-year-old did spend the night in the county jail and has been charged with disobeying a lawful order for being at the demonstrators. The 23-year-old did spend the night in the county jail and was charged with disobeying a lawful order for being at the demonstrators Charleston Police Chief Luther Reynolds said that Jordan's video did not show how tense protests had grown between the crowd and the officers, the Post and Courier report. 'We specifically asked for them, numerous times, to disperse,' he said. 'We said if you don't you will be arrested.' The police chief did not say why Jordan was singled out. Jordan said he was arrested around 5pm, almost an hour before the city's curfew. Charleston Police Chief Luther Reynolds said that Jordan's video did not show how tense protests had grown between the crowd and the officers. The police chief did not say why Jordan was singled out Jordan shared that he had been a part of a volunteer crew that helped clean up downtown Charleston on Sunday. He said he helped sweep up streets and carried plywood to help businesses board up their stores. He headed to Marion Square, soon after, where approximately 200 people gathered. 'My plan was to get all the people beside me, kneeling behind me, kneeling with me,' he said. 'Showing the cops that we are no threat. We are no threat at all. We just want to make the world better.' By Ayya Lmahamad Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has ordered to provide financial assistance in the amount of AZN 3.25 million ($1.91M) to the countrys religious structures, the presidents press service reported on June 2. According to the order, AZN 2 million ($1.2M) will be allocated to the Caucasus Muslim Board. Moreover, the Baku-Azerbaijani Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church and the religious community of Mountain Jews of Baku will receive AZN 350.000 ($205.882) each. Another AZN 150.000 ($88.235) will be allocated to the religious community of European Jews, religious structure of the Apostolic Prefecture of the Catholic Church in Azerbaijan and the Albanian-Udin Christian Community. Furthermore, in order to provide financial assistance to other non-Islamic religious communities, AZN 100.000 ($58.823) will be allocated to the Fund for promotion of spiritual values operating under the State Committee for Work with Religious Associations. The funds will be allocated from the Reserve Fund of the President of Azerbaijan, provided in the state budget for 2020 for provision of financial assistance to religious organizations in Azerbaijan. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 'When the lockdown grounded a billion people, nothing had been planned well: Testing, masks, face shields, protective gear, medical equipment, contact tracing... nothing.' 'Before COVID, if you didn't know that the State had neither the money, nor the intent, nor the capacity to govern wisely and humanely, you were simply blind.' 'After COVID, if we continue to look to the State, look forward to a financial package or ask "What is the government doing" when faced with a calamity, the joke is on us,' says Debashis Basu. IMAGE: Passengers wait to board the Golconda Express at Vijayawada railway station as the railways announce partial resumption of train services during Unlock 1.0. Photograph: Idrees Mohammed/ANI Photo Smart people from the investing world, with years of experience, were waiting for the government to deliver a financial package, which would support businesses -- like the governments of the US and Japan have done. Their hopes were belied -- once again -- and the markets sank in disappointment. And yet, the next time there is a similarly gloomy scenario, you can bet that the same people will have the same expectations. The Indian State has been weak, and remains weak. But our expectations from it remain strong. If we misjudge the State's capacity in an area (economy) where it is easy to get data, draw upon well-documented history, and use well-applied economic concepts, what happens when we are in an uncharted area -- like in a pandemic? Flights have started operating. Soon, the railways will start moving people. Businesses are itching to restart production. No, the COVID lockdown has not ended. While the prime minister made it a point to address us thrice since the fateful night of March 24, he hasn't announced that the lockdown is officially over. Of course, the decision to open up is not his; it has to be taken by each state, under the guidance of the Union ministry of home affairs. What should we expect? To understand that, think back about what happened in the past months. When the lockdown grounded a billion people, nothing had been planned well: Testing, masks, face shields, protective gear, medical equipment, contact tracing... nothing. Doctors, nurses, health workers, and municipal workers were thrown to COVID, without much protection. Soon, the country discovered that there was a huge segment called migrant labour, millions of people who had been living on daily wages and away from home. Overnight they were out of job and wanted to go home. The State had no plans for them. None. Had it not been for NGOs and individuals, there would have been large-scale starvation. The State's poor capability and intent were obvious. To divert us from all this, the prime minister encouraged us to bang thalis, clap hands, and light torches. If all this offers any indication, what should we expect from the State as we exit from the lockdown? I am afraid we will get hit hard in three ways. Rising curve: The main idea of imposing the world's severest lockdown was to break the chain of transmission and 'flatten the curve' of rising cases, thereby avoiding tens of thousands of deaths in a country where health care -- both private and public -- is very poor. Have we achieved this? The official position of the government is that we have flattened the curve. V K Paul of the NITI Aayog has claimed that the lockdown has averted 1.4 million to 2.9 million infections, and 37,000 to 71,000 deaths. By the way, Dr Paul's presentation on April 24 had projected COVID cases to come down to zero by May 16. The facts on the ground are grim. Different states count differently, many deaths are not reported as COVID deaths, and politicians in every state have a vested interest in undercounting. Despite this, on May 23, India reported over 6,600 cases, the highest single-day surge. Now, just add these two facts together: We are opening up and the curve is rising. What could be the outcome? Collapsing health care: In dealing with the rising cases of COVID, the local administration in each state has requisitioned even private hospitals. These hospitals are already bursting at their seams. There are helplines to inform where empty beds are available, and too few beds are free. Or, there is poor coordination between hospitals and helplines and when patients are taken to the hospital, they are told there is no free bed. A Hindustan Times report captures this. The family of a doctor, a COVID patient, could not find a bed even after five hours of trying, and eventually the doctor passed away. 'First, they said there was one bed in Nair Hospital. When I agreed to admit him there, another attendant informed us there was no bed. They couldn't give us any bed in Mumbai,' said his wife. The bigger problem is health care for non-COVID patients. In hospital after hospital, patients and doctors are testing positive. When this happens, either the hospital shuts down or patients shun it. Patients who need regular hospital visits for chemotherapy or dialysis are left high and dry. Those that are open are being accused of hugely overcharging customers. In response, the Maharashtra government has requisitioned 80 per cent beds in private hospital in Mumbai and capped their charges till August 31. As the COVID cases rise, the situation will get grimmer. Licence raj: In an extremely measured and clear-eyed article, Naushad Forbes has warned that in trying to manage COVID, we are sliding back into the licence raj, which would stifle the economy. 'We must sharply limit bureaucratic discretion to just the micro-containment areas,' he has advised. Between them, the Centre and the states have issued almost 4,800 advisories. A businessmen told me COVID restrictions were a great opportunity for petty officials to extort money, and at the very least had unleashed a wave of arbitrary behaviour. This is especially true outside the cities, where district and police officials operate fiefs, interpreting the government notifications as they please. Before COVID, if you didn't know that the State had neither the money, nor the intent, nor the capacity to govern wisely and humanely, you were simply blind. After COVID, if we continue to look to the State, look forward to a financial package or ask 'What is the government doing' when faced with a calamity, the joke is on us. Debashis Basu is the editor of www.moneylife.in Vape manufacturers have long been accused of marketing to teens with flavors such as mango and cotton candy. Now vaping opponents say vape manufacturers are exploiting the coronavirus with face mask and hand sanitizer giveaways and #COVID-19 discounts. One maker of disposable vapes, Bidi Vapor, declared on Instagram: A Bidi Stick a day keeps the pulmonologist away. The national Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids says the tactics are hypocritical. Its president, Matthew L. Myers, said its imperative that young people quit vaping to avoid being susceptible to COVID-19. Never before in our history has it been more important for young people to have healthy lungs, Myers said. U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a D-3, said the marketing is outrageous. It is so irresponsible, said DeLauro, a member of the bipartisan Congressional Caucus to End The Youth Vaping Epidemic. It just reeks of greed. But Andrew OBright, president of the Connecticut chapter of the Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association, said the claim that vape shops are exploiting the pandemic is laughable. Theres not some evil ploy here, OBright said. Our industry is trying to say, Were here to help you. Adam Webster, who owns The Steam Co. vape shops in Manchester and Orange and an e-liquid manufacturer in Denver, said that when the pandemic hit, his plant quickly converted a machine from making e-liquid to hand sanitizer. He said his company lost $7,000 by giving away thousands of free bottles to customers, first responders and hospitals. You know whats better than having $7,000? he asked. Having a healthy customer base who maybe cant find hand sanitizer. The Threat Before COVID-19 The advertising gimmicks are the latest controversy involving the vaping industry, which U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said has hooked a new generation of young people on nicotine. He has proposed a national ban on flavored vapes while DeLauro favors a ban on all vaping products. While no data has definitively linked vaping to COVID-19, Blumenthal points to a 2019 British study that found that e-cigarettes may cause acute injury to the lungs and weaken the immune system. He said vaping is contributing to the danger and deadliness of the coronavirus. Before COVID-19 hit, vaping was linked to a mysterious illness that killed one person in Connecticut and 64 nationwide. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called it EVALI, which stands for e-cigarette or vaping product use associated lung injury. As of February, more than 2,800 people have been hospitalized with EVALI, including 51 in Connecticut, the CDC reports. Twenty-three cases involved patients 24 or younger, the state Department of Public Health reports. Overall, cases of EVALI had been declining nationally since last fall, which the CDC attributes to increased awareness about the risks of vaping and THC and the removal of Vitamin E acetate from some products. A 19-year-old man came to Stamford Hospital in November, complaining of shortness of breath, a dry cough and abdominal pain. Dr. Paul Sachs, Stamford Healths director of pulmonary medicine, said it was a severe case of EVALI. The fluid in the lungs was kind of drowning him, Sachs said. It was a race to treat him with steroids as quickly as possible. If he had waited a day to come in, he might not have made it. The teen, who recovered, told Sachs he had vaped black market juice laced with THC, the ingredient in marijuana that produces a high. The CDC has linked EVALI to the black market vapes and the acetate, a thickener used in some vaping products. Dr. Melanie Sue Collins, a pediatric pulmonologist at Connecticut Childrens Medical Center in Hartford, said 80% of the 10 EVALI patients her hospital treated had vaped THC. They all recovered. Neither Collins nor Sachs has seen EVALI cases since late February, and Sachs said that none of his COVID-19 patients have vaped. Youth And Vaping For years, doctors, educators and politicians have been speaking out about the skyrocketing rates of vaping among teens. In 2017, only 3.5 percent of Connecticut youths reported smoking tobacco cigarettes, while 14.7 percent reported vaping. Between 2017 and 2018, national e-cigarette use by high school students increased by 78 percent , according to the National Youth Tobacco Survey. It also found that 4.9 percent of middle schoolers and 20.8 percent of high school students use e-cigarettes. The Vernon ROCKS Coalition, an anti-drug and alcohol student group, reported this school year that 36 percent of Rockville High School students said they vapeda higher percentage than those who reported using alcohol or marijuana. The use of vaping is seen as cool, but its really ugly, said Emily Guerrero, one of the groups leaders. Senior Sabrina Sault, 18, a Rockville cheerleader, said she started vaping when she was 16. By junior year, school was stressful, and the popular Juul pods calmed her. She hit them in school bathrooms and in class. Every week, every day, every hour, she said. Pretty much anytime I could. The cost$10 to $30 a weekand the stomach problems and mood swings they caused made her decide to quit this year. I can be proud of myself that I dont do it every day, but I want to fully quit, she said. Vape manufacturers say they dont market to youth, but Sachs doesnt buy it. A 40-year-old smoker trying to quit is not going to seek out CapN Crunch-flavored vapes, he said. Webster said adults trying to quit smoking do want the candy and fruit flavors. Cracking Down In December, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration raised the legal age to buy tobacco cigarettes, e-cigarettes and vaping products from 18 to 21 nationally. In February, it banned some types of flavored vape cartridges. It recently warned 14 Connecticut stores, mostly gas stations and convenience stores, to stop selling the prohibited items. New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts have recently passed more extensive bans. Connecticut was considering such a ban before the state legislature suspended its activities on March 12 in response to the pandemic and on April 21 announced that it would not reconvene in advance of the constitutional adjournment on May 6. While vape shops were not initially listed as essential businesses during the pandemic in Connecticut, the dozen shops in OBrights association were granted state exemptions to open. About two years ago, Connecticut had 200 vape shops but now has fewer than 70. OBright blames ill-informed politicians and the media for harming an industry that is saving lives by helping people switch from cigarettes. All known science shows that vaping products are 95 percent safer than cigarettes, so we need to get the stigma away from it, OBright, a smoker-turned-vaper, said. He said some bad players in the industry had questionable product labels featuring cartoon characters, but the vast majority in the industry only targets adults. We have always been, from day one, against the teen use of vapes, OBright said. This story was reported under a partnership with the Connecticut Health I-Team ( c-hit.org ), a nonprofit news organization dedicated to health reporting. Office sales are emerging as the economy comes out of hibernation, with a site at 262 Castlereagh Street set to the test investor demand. Located in Sydney's midtown precinct, the four-storey office building with ground-level retail covers a 291 square metre site area on Castlereagh Street between Bathurst and Liverpool Street, and is being sold by a private investor. No price was disclosed but similar properties have garnered a price tag of about $20 million. 262 Castlereagh Street, Sydney It comes as the Sydney office market remains in demand from investors, albeit at a slower rate due to the impact of the global pandemic. David Green-Morgan, Real Capital Analytics managing director for Asia-Pacific, said so far there have only been few indications of deals being terminated, "suggesting that investors are adopting a wait-and-see approach rather than entering panic mode". Two children of media personnel have emerged winners of the Stratcomm Africa Read IT, Write IT, Say IT Better Competition kids of media maiden edition. Master Adom Adu-Gyasi, aged 10, son of Dennis Adu-Gyasi a freelancer and PRO of the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientist, and Master Darrel Nortey Dowuona, aged 12, son of Samuel Dowuona formerly of Adom FM online, won cash prizes with stationery and T-shirts after beating off stiff competition from other contestants. Stratcomm Africa designed this edition of the Read IT, Write IT, Say IT Better Competition for children of media Personnel to promote reading and writing among them especially during this time that children are having to spend an extended period out of school due to the COVID - 19 pandemic. Children of media personnel who participated in the competition were required to read a book, answer questions on the book they read, and win prizes. Read It, Write it, Say it Better is a Stratcomm Africa initiative for helping to develop in children skills in reading and writing, and communication. The parents of the two children Adom and Darrel expressed excitement about their wards emerging winners in the competition and thanked Stratcomm Africa for organizing the competition. They both described the activity as extremely beneficial. Mrs. Shula Glymin, an accomplished educationist, was the Judge for the competition. Shula had this to say, It was such a delight working on this activity as I came to appreciate once again the amazing talents Ghana is blessed with. Helping children bring out the best in them is such a joy and I am glad this competition provided the opportunity to achieve just that. I applaud Stratcomm Africa for this Initiative she added. Media and Stakeholder Relations Lead at Stratcomm Africa, Mr. Bernard Nii Addotey Allotey said the competition is Stratcomm Africas way of showing appreciation to the media for their contribution in this difficult time. The media alongside health workers continue to provide us essential services to ensure that we stay informed and are safe. He congratulated all participants and saluted the winners saying, Excellence is Stratcomm Africas hallmark and we are always delighted to see people excel. We are very proud of these children who did excellent work. We encourage them to keep it up and use their skills to contribute to Ghanas development. Some of them may also find themselves working in Stratcomm Africa someday! For Stratcomm Africa reading and writing help to develop creativity, analytical thinking, and effective communication skills. Entries for the next competition will be opened soon. It will cover children of interested media personnel and health workers. Age categories will include 5-7, 8-10 and 11- 13 years. Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video PHOENIX Arizonas top school official released guidelines on Monday for reopening the states K-12 schools that includes detailed suggestions on how the districts can decide whether to start traditional classes after summer break or switch to partly or fully digital learning models. But the document released by Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman leaves it up to districts to make those choices, saying school boards should rely on guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the coronavirus pandemic. The 36-page document comes just days after Republican Gov. Doug Ducey said he was allowing schools to reopen in August. Ducey promised that Hoffman would provide detailed guidelines for schools as they prepare to open again to all 1.1 million Arizona public schoolchildren. Hoffman said she worked with state health department officials and educators to come up with the Roadmap for Reopening Schools. It provides a series of recommendations for how schools can approach the 2020-2021 school year and offers adaptable considerations to meet each communitys unique needs, Hoffman wrote. Given the fluidity of the public health situation, this will be a living document that will be updated based on the most current information. She laid out best practices in limiting the spread of the virus, including recommendations on cleaning, limiting large groups, possibly wearing masks and many other details. School districts werent waiting, with most already deep into the planning process for reopening schools that shut down in March. The Alhambra Elementary School District in west Phoenix was among the first to close. Superintendent Mark Yslas announced on March 12 that students wouldnt return from Spring Break as planned on the 16th even though there had only reported nine coronavirus cases at that point. The governor didnt order a statewide closure until March 15. As a school leader responsible for 14 schools and about 12,000 students, Yslas said he just didnt have a plan to deal with the virus. I said Im not closing because I know what to do, Yslas said Friday. Im closing because as a leader I dont know how to keep my kids and my families and staff healthy. In the past several weeks, the district has been planning for reopening. Theyve gone to a fall school calendar that will allow options for scaling back in-person classes, and are considering limiting the number of students on buses. The district is even planning to teach parents how to handle their students after school. That involves telling them to have their child shower and change clothes immediately after coming home from school, before interacting with other family members. Because we have a sense of responsibility to also keep our families as safe as possible, he said. At the Kyrene School District, which covers portions of south Phoenix and parts of Tempe, Chandler, Guadalupe and the Gila River Indian Reservation, Superintendent Jan Vesely is planning a full reopening with distance learning options for students whose parents arent comfortable with sending them back to school. We are absolutely ready to reopen, Vesely said Monday. She said the new state guidelines track closely with those from the CDC and the district is close to finalizing a detailed reopening plan. The district will focus on health and safety and on providing choices for parents. There will be remote and online learning as well as in-person options, she said. Kyrene, which has 25 schools teaching about 16,500 students, also closed before Ducey issued his statewide order. Vesely said she acted because parents who were physicians and advising her became increasingly concerned. They were talking to me and telling me that they felt a school closure was inevitable, she said. When I noticed they started pulling their children out, I felt like they were doing that because it was in the best interests of their children, and I felt like it was in the best interests of our community. Schools are receiving extra federal cash to help pay for more staff and cleaning and other costs of dealing with the coronavirus. But Pedro Lopez, a parent and board member at the Cartwright Elementary School District in the west Phoenix community of Maryvale, said more is needed and called on the governor to provide it. Definitely the (federal) money we received will be put to use to get us through, Lopez said. The question is whether he is willing to support us going back to school in August with money. The Irish Navy plays a "crucial" role as part of Europe's first line of defence against international drug trafficking, according to the former garda leading the EU's maritime war against South American cocaine smugglers. Naval ships, backed up by the Air Corps, are being secretly deployed to monitor the movements of suspect vessels transporting the drug through Irish waters to western Europe. Michael O'Sullivan, chief executive of the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre (Maoc) in Lisbon, has revealed the Defence Forces are regularly called on to shadow suspect vessels in co-ordinated intelligence-led operations which the public never gets to hear about. "The Irish Navy are an invaluable asset and they play a crucial role in what we are doing to disrupt drug supply lines at sea before they make landfall - they are Europe's eyes and ears," said the former garda assistant commissioner who was appointed to lead the EU drugs taskforce in 2017. "Maoc is the EU's first line of defence against drug smuggling along the Atlantic coastline and Ireland's position on the western edge of the continent means the Navy is the only agency with the capability to track ships coming through our territorial waters from South America. "The Navy are unsung heroes in the European fight against drug trafficking: they go out there on the high seas in all weathers at short notice to track suspect vessels we are monitoring - we would be blindsided without them," said Mr O'Sullivan. One operation co-ordinated by Maoc involving the Navy and Air Corps in 2018 led to the seizure of more than two tonnes of cocaine by the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) off the coast of Cornwall. A Navy vessel and an Air Corps maritime patrol aircraft shadowed the catamaran carrying the cocaine from South America for a UK crime syndicate as it sailed close to Irish waters. The Defence Forces monitored the yacht's progress until it reached UK waters where the Royal Navy was waiting to intercept it. "There have been many more operations involving the Navy and Air Corps that are not made public - they are a world class organisation," said Mr O'Sullivan. "For every vessel we successfully intercept there are many more that are empty by the time we get to them because the drugs were offloaded before arriving in European waters - it is a constant game of cat and mouse," he told the Irish Independent. Gangs Maoc was established in 2007 following an agreement between seven EU states -France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Holland, the UK and Ireland - to co-ordinate their collective police, military and customs resources to combat the importation of cocaine along Europe's western coastline. It is staffed by liaison officers from the seven nations who also work closely with the UN and US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). "A typical cocaine shipment coming into Europe will involve several trans-national crime gangs, including the likes of the Kinahans and other Irish groups, who pool their money to buy it through a broker in Colombia," said Mr O'Sullivan. "Our mission is to disrupt the supply line upstream by seizing the cocaine before it reaches land because once it does it is sub-divided and moved on so fast that the police can only play catch-up." Mr O'Sullivan is widely acknowledged as Europe's most experienced narcotics investigator, having continuously worked in the area since first cutting his teeth as a young undercover drug squad detective on the streets of Dublin in the early 1980s. In 1986 he busted a heroin dealer called Christy Kinahan in one of the biggest seizures of the drug at the time. Almost four decades later, he is still targeting and disrupting Kinahan's supply line. In the past three years Maoc has been responsible for the seizure of more than 4bn in cocaine - some of it destined for Ireland. Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit Europe 11 weeks ago, the agency has been responsible for the seizure of more than 750m worth of cocaine after eight ships were intercepted by European navies. Mr O'Sullivan said the scale of the seizures reflect the huge demand across the EU, which grew by 60pc in the three years up to the end of 2019 when it was valued at 9bn. "The production of cocaine in South America is now running at record levels and the demand in Europe, including Ireland, is growing dramatically," he said. "I would say the market will grow to 12bn this year and that is not counting other illicit narcotics. It is making petty criminals rich and dangerous which led to the murder of Keane Mulready-Woods earlier this year - this is a direct consequence of the cocaine trade," he said. Last year intelligence-led operations resulted in the seizure of 2.1bn of the drug - the largest annual haul since Maoc's inception. It included the largest single maritime interception on this side of the Atlantic. Maoc identified a suspect ship from Central America heading towards the African coast and tipped off the authorities on the island nation of Cape Verde. The former garda was on the quayside when the ship was boarded and 9.5 tonnes of high-quality cocaine, worth 800m, was seized. Some of the haul would have "undoubtedly" ended up on Irish streets. Just over a week earlier Mr O'Sullivan's task force co-ordinated the seizure of 2.1 tonnes by the Italian navy when it intercepted a ship bound for Spain. A few days later the Portuguese navy caught a ship carrying another 2.5 tonnes. And last November a specially adapted semi-submersible vessel was caught at Galicia in Spain with three tonnes on board. "The Maoc model of combining intelligence resources has been so effective the Colombians and their European clients are adopting new methods to get the drug to the market place," said Mr O'Sullivan. "The use of a submersible is a game-changer because it shows the technological advances the drug traffickers have made. "When [it] arrived at Galicia the police and navy had the area sealed off so the three-man crew decided to sink the vessel and swim to shore. It was successfully refloated by the Spanish navy and we recovered the cocaine and the crew was arrested." He clearly loves his job and is expected to continue in his role for another two years. "The Maoc concept of a centralised, strategic approach, with everyone working together in a spirit of mutual trust and respect, has been a huge success. "A country trying to do this on its own would be like fighting with one hand behind its back," Mr O'Sullivan said. Challenging "When we receive intelligence from a law enforcement agency like the gardai that a shipment is on its way from South America we sit down with all the stakeholders and put together a plan utilising the sea and air assets of the member states. "Trying to pinpoint a vessel in the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Operations are very challenging and very fast moving. "We have a close working relationship with our colleagues in the DEA (US Drug Enforcement Administration) and South America who play a vital role in our network of global partners," he said. "Intelligence that originates in one country may very likely lead to the Irish, Spanish or French navies being tasked with monitoring the vessel and effecting its arrest. The core strategy is to prevent the drugs reaching land. "There is a great sense of satisfaction when an operation comes together and the credit is due to the people in the background working day and night to bring it to a successful conclusion. Every seizure we make hurts organised crime and denies them huge profits." NASHVILLE, Tenn., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Nashville based indie band veterans Incognito Cartel adds to the legacy their edgy Americana jangle pop roots by signing with Spin Doctors Music Group, releasing their 4th album on SMG Records. The 8 song album is slated for worldwide release on Saturday, June 27, along with a CD release party performance at 8:00 pm that evening at Twin Kegs II in Nashville, TN. The performance will be live streamed. In the event that a spike in COVID-19 ups the restrictions on the in-person show, the live stream will still take place. Spin Doctors Music Group artists Incognito Cartel Spin Doctors Music Group The new album progresses the band in its edgy jangle pop roots with songs such as its carefree title track "Tinker's Damn", "You're to Blame", the Gilligan's Island tribute "Favorite Castaway", the haunting "Beautiful Lies", and "Just for You." The album is rounded out with the more bluesy "What Can I Do" and "Hickory", and the quirky "Mojo." Americana jangle pop is not the genre you expect from a Nashville TN-based band; and retro rockers Incognito Cartel make it very clear from the first downbeat that they are not your run of the mill Music Row group. From their eye-opening 2016 debut CD "In a World Upside Down" 2018 sophomore album "Last Bus Stop" and 2019's "Cold Moon," their sound has spread across the USA and is finding homes in Canada, Ireland, Switzerland, Netherlands, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, and with a surprisingly large fan base in Brazil. The new "Tinker's Damn" album will satisfy the request for more great music from Incognito Cartel's widespread fan base. Incognito Cartel's refreshing style is heavily influenced from the great early '60s bands such as the early Beatles, Byrds, Hollies, Animals, and the '80s jangle pop of Tom Petty. The largely up-tempo songs are flavored with jangly guitars, '60s retro keyboards, and hypnotic 2- and 3- part harmonies that are reminiscent of The Band and the Monkees. Incognito Cartel's lineup consists of songwriter/guitarist Tom Templeman, veteran bassist Terri Templeman, keyboardist/songwriter Don Gaylord, and drummer Frank Larkin. With the various COVID-19 restrictions, many of the band's main shows were cancelled; a number are being rescheduled for the second half of the year. The current remaining shows for 2020 are listed on www.incognitocartel.com, and they may be changed and/or updated as rescheduled shows are confirmed on new dates. For more information on Incognito Cartel: www.incognitocartel.com Reverbnation Bandcamp website: www.incognitocartel.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/incognitocartel/ Reverbnation: https://www.reverbnation.com/incognitocartel Bandcamp: https://incognitocartel.bandcamp.com/releases FOR INQUIRIES /OR / ACCESS TO THE FULL CD FOR REVIEW /OR / TO SCHEDULE AN INTERVIEW CONTACT: Spin Doctors Music Group Al Brock, [email protected], 615-969-2259 or Spin Doctors Music Group Kristin Johnson, [email protected], 615-969-4791 SOURCE Spin Doctors Music Group Related Links http://www.incognitocartel.com/ New Delhi: Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday (June 2, 2020) announced the development of a new Greenfield connectivity to Amritsar City from Nakodar via Sultanpur Lodhi, Goindwal Sahib, Khadoor Sahib as part of Delhi-Amritsar Expressway. Gadkari said that with this expressway, travel time from Amritsar to Delhi International airport would reduce to about four hours from the present about eight hours. He said this would fulfil one of the long-standing demands of the people of Punjab. The first phase of the expressway would cost about Rs 25,000 crore. Gadkari said the road from Amritsar to Gurdaspur would also be fully developed and made completely signal free. With this, traffic would have the option to travel to Gurdaspur onwards from Nakodar via Amritsar or via Kartarpur. The Minister said this greenfield alignment will not only provide shortest and alternate express connectivity to Amritsar city but also to other religious centres of Sultanpur Lodhi, Goindwal Sahib, Khadoor Sahib as well as the recently developed Dera Baba Nanak/Kartarpur Sahib International Corridor in Punjab. Ministry of Road Transport & Highways have taken up the development of Delhi Amritsar Katra Expressway under Bharatmala Pariyojana. The alignment of the expressway was firmed up in January 2019 and the process of land acquisition was initiated. Recently, the issue of alignment of Expressway to Amritsar was taken up by the Minister of Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal, and the Minister of State (I/C) Civil Aviation, Housing & Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri with Gadkari. Notably, the government of J&K had initially proposed Delhi-Katra Expressway. However, Gadkari had envisaged that the proposed expressway would pass through Amritsar looking at religious importance of the city, where over four million tourists visit every year, and hence conceived Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway under Bharatmala. In order to discuss and resolve issue of alignment to Amritsar, a video conference meeting was also chaired by Gadkari today, which was attended by the Chief Minister of Punjab Captain Amrinder Singh, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Hardeep Singh Puri, Jitender Singh, Gen V. K. Singh, Shwait Malik (MP Rajya Sabha), Gurjeet Singh Aujala (MP Lok Sabha) and Anil Joshi, Ex Cabinet Minister, Punjab government. Secretary MoRT&H, Chairman NHAI, and other senior officers were also present in the meeting. Gadkari also requested the Punjab government to provide requisite support to NHAI to expedite land acquisition for the proposed expressway in the State of Punjab. The years since the riots have been marked by more trouble. Baltimore City States Attorney Marilyn Mosby quickly announced criminal charges against the six officers involved in Grays arrest. A judge found three officers not guilty after separate trials, and charges were later dropped against the other three. Homicides have continued to climb, never dropping beneath 300 annually since the riots. Meanwhile, police corruption has continued with the arrest of more than a dozen officers after a federal probe determined members of the citys Gun Trace Task Force were robbing citizens, conducting illegal searches and collecting fraudulent overtime pay. U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) speaks to members of the media outside the hearing Michael Cohen, former attorney and fixer for President Donald Trump, testifies at before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform at Rayburn House Office Building February 27, 2019 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Alex Wong/Getty Images On Monday, Twitter flagged a tweet from Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida as "glorifying violence." The platform turned off replies and likes on a Monday message from Gaetz stating: "Now that we clearly see Antifa as terrorists, can we hunt them down like we do those in the Middle East?" The flagging of Gaetz's tweet comes amid a broader push from Twitter to fact-check politicians' tweets and crack down on those from public figures that violate the platform's rules. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Twitter flagged a message from Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida about wanting to hunt down protesters as "glorifying violence" on Monday. Gatez posted the tweet shortly before 2 p.m. on Monday, writing, "Now that we clearly see Antifa as terrorists, can we hunt them down like we do those in the Middle East? Twitter turned off replies and likes, and added a note that it violated the platform's rules. The flagging of Gaetz's tweet comes amid a broader push from Twitter to fact-check politicians' tweets and crack down on those from public figures that violate the platform's rules. Last week, Twitter similarly flagged a tweet from President Donald Trump as violating their rules against glorifying violence but added a notice stating they believed keeping the tweet available to view was "in the public interest" while disabling likes and replies. Gaetz's tweet was referring to claims from Trump and other Republican officials that Antifa and other left-wing groups are directly contributing to violence. Over the weekend, Trump posted several tweets blaming "anarchists" and "Antifa" on the violence and looting accompanying protests against police brutality in several American cities. H also said that he would designate Antifa, which is not a hierarchical organization but rather a broad, decentralized movement that resists white supremacy, a domestic terrorist group. Story continues Experts, however, have said there is no legal mechanism for Trump to do so. As Business Insider noted on Sunday, the State Department has the authority to designate foreign organizations as terrorist groups, but there is no legal method to designate domestic actors as such. Gaetz, a staunch Trump ally who has vocally criticized Twitter's attempts to fact-check politicians, continued to defend his sentiment in a number of follow-up tweets. "We hunt down terrorists in the Middle East by having our government (not vigilantes) monitor their communications, freeze their money and stop them from committing attacks," he said. "American lives, businesses & property are more deserving of our strong protection than distant sand dunes." Read the original article on Business Insider [June 02, 2020] eCommerce Purchase Volumes Triple in Last Three Months CHICAGO, June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PowerReviews reveals the staggering changes in consumer behavior and interaction with online ratings and reviews over the past three months in its research published today. The June edition of the PowerReviews Market Trends Snapshot is based on analysis of consumer activity across more than 1.5MM review product pages from the websites of more than 1,200 brands over the past three months. It reveals: Digital sales volumes increased 206% from February 2020 to May 2020, but stable over past month Review submission volumes up 2.3x from April to May Consumer review engagement has increased steadily over the past three months; hits high of 89% above pre-pandemic levels in May. Carol Krakowski - Director, Insights at PowerReviews, states: Review submission volumes increased significantly in May, which was the biggest change in all the metrics we analyze. We actually predicted this in last months snapshot because we know review submissions lags behind time of purchase. With sales levels showing no signs of declining, we would expect this figure to either climb further still or at the very least remain at its currently high level. Purchase volumes continue to consistently be at around three times pre-pandemic levels. They did not significantly decrease or increase since last months snapshot report. This implies normalization in the market. Itll be very interesting to see how much of this holds once stores reopen. Consumers continue to rely on ratings and review content to justify purchase decisions, providing the validation and social proof necessary to drive sales. Review engagement among purchases is now at around 70% higher than more typical times and total review engagement has steadily increased in the last three months. PowerReviews will be hosting a webinar on Thursday June 11th offering a deepdive into these findings. Read the full research findings on the PowerReviews blog . Research Methodology PowerReviews research is based on analysis of activity across more than 1.5MM product pages from more than 1,200 retail/brand sites between February 24, 2020 and May 24, 2020. FURTHER INQUIRIES Andrew Smith Marketing Director [email protected] ABOUT POWERREVIEWS PowerReviews ( PowerReviews.com ) is a software and data company that works with 1000+ leading brands and retailers to bring authenticity and transparency to commerce. The PowerReviews Customer Content Platform has four solutions that help our customers collect and manage customer-generated content to improve the product and customer experience across the customer journey. We help clients meet the evolving need for social proof, accelerating the path to purchase and brand advocacy. PowerReviews is known for innovation, consultative partnership, and actionable insights, supported by our open platform and approach. Our dedicated team of experts provides thoughtful analysis and turn-key service. PowerReviews is headquartered in Chicago, IL, USA. Photos accompanying this announcement are available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/4149172d-34a7-4c19-8a3a-affa96f715fb https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/335971de-5816-485a-a6d0-a2ad7607a637 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Quarantine officials disinfect areas outside a church in Suwon, south of Seoul, Monday, as church-linked virus cases were reported. Yonhap By Bahk Eun-ji The health authorities urged citizens Tuesday to maintain intense social distancing measures amid the reappearance of new COVID-19 infections in the metropolitan area. The country's fight to contain the coronavirus pandemic is facing yet another difficulty after new infection clusters in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province were connected to small-scale religious gatherings. The cases associated with churches in Seoul and the surrounding metropolitan area have emerged as a new source of concern as at least 40 infections have been traced to churches in Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) and local government officials. The KCDC said it had found 38 new cases Monday, bringing the country's total to 11,541. Thirty-six were via local transmission, while the other two were traced to recent travelers from overseas one from the United States and the other from Kuwait. Among the local infections, 15 were reported in Gyeonggi Province, 13 in Seoul and eight in Incheon. One additional fatality was reported, raising the death toll to 272. Speaking at a regular briefing Tuesday, Health Minister Park Neung-hoo repeatedly urged people in the metropolitan area to avoid religious gatherings such as bible studies and pastoral meetings. "Infections among such small groups have a high possibility to spread the virus instantly especially to senior citizens and children. It could become a large-scale infections in the Seoul metropolitan area," Park said at the Sejong Government Complex. Park's remarks came as a third group of students are set to return to school, Wednesday. Students have begun attending classes under a government plan since May 20. The first group of 440,000 high school seniors and second of 2.37 million kindergarteners, first and second graders of elementary school, middle school seniors and second-year high school students have been attending classes for around two weeks. Under the third phase of the plan, 1.78 million high school freshmen, middle school sophomores and third- and fourth-grade elementary school students are returning to school, June 3. Korea has observed a downward trend of new infections over the last four days since May 28 as cases linked to a distribution center run by e-commerce leader Coupang in Bucheon and Seoul's nightlife area of Itaewon have seen a slowdown. The KCDC remains on high alert over the possibility that sporadic church-traced cases could lead to a potential new wave of mass infections in the densely populated capital area. "It's time to give up some part of your daily routine for quarantine. These moments will be an important test that stands to determine if we can break the chain of virus transmissions," Sohn Young-rae, a senior health official, said in a briefing. Sohn also stressed that it was important for individuals to follow basic precautions such as washing hands, keeping a social distance, and wearing a mask in daily life. Status messages work similar to Instagram stories where you can post an image, video or text for 24 hours before it disappears. Among the many features that are missing from the JioPhone app, this could be the first of many that the KaiOS team is working. JioPhone users may soon be able to post status messages on WhatsApp, according to a report. The feature is tipped to work the same as how status messages work on WhatsApps Android and iOS apps. And its not just for the JioPhone. The new status message will also work with other KaiOS-powered devices like the Nokia 8110 4G. Status messages work similarly to Instagram stories where you can post an image, video or text for 24 hours before it disappears. Among the many features that are missing from the JioPhone app, this could be the first of many that the KaiOS team is working on. WhatsApp for JioPhone was announced back in 2018, and it launched with bare-bones features, and by July last year, the app was present in all KaiOS-powered smartphones. WhatsApp Status feature in "Gold Master" stage The news broke when the software engineering lead for WhatsApp on KaiOS, Joe Grinstead revealed in an interview to Android Central that the status message feature is at the Gold Master stage, which means its ready to roll out. Considering the minimal set of features present in the app, getting the Status message feature should be welcomed by all JioPhone users. All said and done however, Status message on WhatsApp for JioPhone users isnt the most anticipated by many. Especially when far more useful features like voice and video calling are not present. Grinstead did take up the question in the interview and said the voice calling features, which has been on WhatsApp since January 2015, is particularly challenging to enable on KaiOS smartphones. So, while we know the company is trying to enable it on feature phones, theres no surety it will land up eventually. WhatsApp perhaps the most popular app on JioPhones WhatsApp for KaiOS garnered more than a million users on the platform within two weeks of its debut. The app presently offers the basics which include one-on-one and group chats, end-to-end encryption, sharing videos, images and GIFs and more. The report also mentions WhatsApp is working on introducing more features for the KaiOS version. The app is hands down the most popular and probably the first thing most JioPhone users download when setting up the phone. Portland police say they arrested at least 75 adults during rowdy and sometimes riotous demonstrations Friday through Sunday, with at least a third accused of felony crimes. Among those arrested: A high school senior who isnt in school because of the coronavirus pandemic, two school bus drivers left unemployed because of the recession, two part-time workers for Fred Meyer and Amazon, five people who are homeless and an out-of-work restaurant cook who was described by a court interviewer as very polite and respectful, according to a review of court documents by The Oregonian/OregonLive. It remains difficult to draw broad conclusions about the arrests. The Portland Police Bureaus early morning news releases frequently misstated the charges and ages of those involved. Police reports and court records describing the allegations in detail arent yet available. Its also unclear whether prosecutors will pursue criminal charges against all of those arrested. More than half of the people were accused of interfering with a police officer, a misdemeanor, according to police statements and court documents. The other most frequently cited crimes by police or listed in court records are curfew violations (either a misdemeanor or fine), felony riot and felony burglary. As police reports are submitted and received, the District Attorneys Office will continue to review any potential violation of the law in a thorough manner and if warranted, follow the appropriate charging procedures as outlined under Oregon law, District Attorney spokesman Brent Weisberg said in response to written questions. Its unclear how authorities will pursue charges for violating the 8 p.m. curfew established by Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler. City officials have said violators could face a fine of up to $500 or a misdemeanor prosecution. Weisberg said prosecutors would decide whether to pursue individual criminal curfew charges, and a timeline for making decisions will vary. It isnt clear if someone who isnt charged with a misdemeanor curfew crime could still face a civil fine. About half of Portlands arrests are not yet accessible in the states electronic court system to corroborate the crimes cited by police. The Oregonian/OregonLive found at least 10 instances where the crimes listed by police did not match what had been entered into court records. The Portland Police Bureau did not immediately response to a request for comment. Based on information disclosed by police or in court records, the average age of those arrested was 25 years old, with a median of about 23. On average, the typical person arrested has been accused of about two crimes. Theres no indication that people arrested in the demonstrations Friday through Sunday are from outside Oregon or Southwest Washington. Among 32 cases with available court records listing addresses, 23 had Portland addresses, four are from Vancouver, two are from Gresham, one is from Beaverton and one is from Oregon City. Only one person disclosed a California address. Another person said he arrived in Portland only recently. That individual, a 35-year-old man, told a court interviewer he drove from Arizona a few days ago and is living in his car. The man said he has schizophrenia and isnt taking his medication, according to court records. Among the 32 cases listed in court records with addresses and other information, 25 men and seven women were arrested. Authorities listed 21 of those people as white, seven black, three Hispanic and one Asian. Portland police said they arrested 16 people associated with Monday nights demonstrations, which were described as largely peaceful. That pushed total arrests during the four days to more than 90. Demonstrators have been marching in Portland, and across the country, since last week in response to the in-custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. A white police officer who kept his knee pressed to Floyds neck for minutes, as the black man repeatedly said he could not breathe, has been charged by prosecutors with murder. Portlands mayor on Tuesday noted a significant shift in the tone of protests Monday night and said he would not extend the citywide curfew Tuesday evening. -- Brad Schmidt; bschmidt@oregonian.com; 503-294-7628; @_brad_schmidt Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. SMU Office of Research & Tech Transfer - Within the context of population and demographics studies, the "Third Age" refers to the life stage when individuals ease off on full-time employment, often coinciding with a rise in leisure time. The ideal situation, if possible, is to stretch out the Third Age and minimise the Fourth (and final) Age of disability and death. The assumption is that Third Agers will be healthy and free of economic pressures to not only pursue personal interests, but also give back to society. In Singapore, much work needs to be done to create such an environment. "Our proposal aims to drive evidence-based propositions for redesigning society so that we will be better prepared to receive the Third Agers," explains SMU Professor of Sociology Paulin Tay Straughan, referring to the project "Dynamic and Holistic Monitoring of the Well-Being of Older Singaporeans" which was awarded a Ministry of Education (MOE) Academic Research Fund (AcRF) Tier 3 grant. "Right now when we talk about the Third Agers, the only time they come up are in two conversations. "The first is that they become a liability, such as in the context of the old age support ratio. It is very disappointing because it is a very crude evaluation of who is important in our society. "The second time it comes up, and again not in a very positive light, is when we talk about retirement. Therefore, the way to prepare for an ageing society seems to be to just keep pushing the inevitable forward by extending retirement age. "Money is important but that conversation then gives us false assurance that we have taken care of an ageing population." Building social capital, going beyond economics Money is part of the "Economic" quadrant, which is one of four that make up overall well-being in Rowe and Kahn's model, with the other three being "Social", "Mental", and "Physical". Professor Straughan will build on the Singapore Life Panel (SLP) research done by the Director of the Centre for Research on the Economics of Ageing (CREA), Professor Bryce Hool, and his team. "The first phase of the project was on retirement adequacy, and CREA did an excellent job," Professor Straughan explains, pointing to the active panel of 11,000 Singaporeans aged 50 to 75 who are tracked monthly for their income, expenditure, health, work and housing choices. A main area that needs exploration, Professor Straughan emphasises, is the study of evolving family ties, which has eroded long-held assumptions that the family is the primary source of social help and support. With an increasing proportion of people remaining single, this group of people will not have children to take care of them. Even for those who do have children, they have fewer of them and do so later in life such that they end up having to take care of both young children and elderly parents - the sandwiched generation. "We have to then re-imagine, 'How do you redefine family and social support so that we are not trapped in the traditional mould and as a result, resources are not directed where it's supposed to go?'" says Professor Straughan, who is also SMU's Dean of Students. "One proposition we have is, 'Don't just look at family, look at non-kin support.'" She adds: "In the past, with limited appreciation of social integration and the dynamics of social integration, our questions were always focused on, 'Are you married? How many children do you have? How often do you eat together?' It's all about filial piety. "So now we turn on the other switch: 'In addition to family, tell us about your friends. How many good friends do you have? How much time do you spend with your friends? Who do you call first when there is an emergency?' And then you begin to see that actually the lights are lighting up. So if we know that community is so important, we put in resources to promote community, and we promote it in a way that makes sense and that has to be ground up." Assuming financial planning has been done successfully, Third Agers have plenty of bandwidth to contribute to social capital, Professor Straughan says. "They can be your faithful volunteers. We lament there are not enough volunteers in Singapore but we keep looking at people who are working nine to nine. How can you volunteer when you're married to your job? "You have this fantastic group who are looking for a social role and who want to show they are not dependents. Rather than always relying on the government to come up with a new policy or give subsidies and so forth, the sociologists that I work with have been talking about how we should actually step up on another important asset that we have under-utilised, and that is social capital." Given the project's goal to lengthen an individual's Third Age, the resulting societal-wide shortening of Fourth Age duration could translate to huge savings in the treatment of physical and mental ailments that tend to plague the elderly. "The project will identify what are the challenges and then identify the facilitators so that we can then inform policy to say that, 'Maybe we should have a social policy where if you can prepare a person well when they are still in the pre-retirement age.' "For example, encouraging them to go for health screening because that is critical when you are at that age when chronic diseases are likely to start to flare up. Arrest those so that you can be prepared for a very healthy and engaged Third Age." Doing the work, doing it right Among other things, the project will involve recruiting a refresher sample of 2,500 individuals aged 50-54 to continue the longitudinal study, as well as data modelling and dissemination of findings to academic, government and business groups. It will also bring together experts in psychology, sociology, and economics at Singaporean and international universities in New Zealand and the U.S. While grateful for the heavyweight names and their expertise that lent crucial gravitas to the grant proposal, Professor Straughan had to curate the vast amounts of material to produce what she describes as "a giant jigsaw puzzle". She also points out the speed with which the collaborators from foreign universities responded despite the time difference, which helped in putting together the final proposal. Despite how everything appeared to be coming together, Professor Straughan was mindful that the previous year's proposal had failed to get the green light and made sure nothing was left to chance this time. When the time came to present the proposal to the Academic Research Council (ARC), the hard work paid off. "It was a fantastic presentation in my perspective because everyone spoke," Professor Straughan recalls. "We had very little time, a 10-minute presentation and a 20-minute Q&A. But in that 20 minutes, everyone was so charged up because they were so well prepared that everyone spoke and everyone contributed. "I think the ARC could see that all hands were on deck. And it was a promising team based in Singapore that will be driving this project." ### HAMILTONSeven migrant farm workers are in hospital three in intensive care as 164 workers at a Norfolk County farm have now tested positive for COVID-19. The outbreak is at Scotlynn Group in Vittoria, a large-scale farming and produce transport operation with six locations in Canada and the United States. The farm, which is about 10 kilometres southwest of Simcoe, employs 207 migrant workers from Mexico. Norfolk Mayor Kristal Chopp said the county is ready for its first on-farm COVID-19 outbreak. We have always understood that this was a risk that our community could face and our health unit has been preparing for this possibility, Chopp said in a social media post late Sunday night. The health unit announced the outbreak at Scotlynn on Friday, saying three workers had been admitted to Norfolk General Hospital with COVID-19 symptoms and one had tested positive. Another 140 workers at three different residences were tested and ordered into self-isolation. The scope of the outbreak worsened over the weekend, with the health unit reporting 85 positive cases by Sunday morning before Chopp updated the number to more than 120. In a Tuesday morning update, the Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit said that 164 people have now tested positive for the virus. Scotlynn president and CEO Scott Biddle told reporters that the Vittoria operation had been shut down and disinfected. Dr. Shanker Nesathurai, Haldimand-Norfolks chief medical officer of health, said its not clear how the outbreak at Scotlynn started. He confirmed that all workers had completed their two-week quarantine upon arrival to Canada. Once they serve their self-isolation period, the risk of getting COVID-19 from them is likely the same as getting it from any other person in the community, Nesathurai said. Biddle said the workers had been active in the fields for more than three weeks and living on the farm the whole time, save for occasional trips to the grocery store. The workers shop early in the day, before stores open to the general public, he added. Acting out of an abundance of caution, Chopp said the health unit has tested employees of a local store. This action should not be construed as anything other than our health unit undertaking additional testing to provide peace of mind to a limited number of individuals, said the mayor, who did not name the store. Staff from the Delhi Community Health Centre are evaluating workers who show symptoms of COVID-19, and the health unit is tracing workers contacts and testing Canadian labourers who have worked at the farm. The goal of the public health service is to try to contain the number of cases and also identify people who might be exposed, test and isolate them, Nesathurai told reporters. Although this is a challenge, this is a manageable challenge. The health unit said that the liaison official for the Mexican consulate has been briefed and is available to assist workers. The federal agency that oversees the migrant farm worker program is also up to speed on the outbreak. With so many workers in self-isolation, Scotlynns asparagus crop is in jeopardy. The company has put out a call for groups of five workers to harvest the crop, hoping an inflated wage of $25 per hour will attract locals to do the work. Each group would be isolated in a 10-acre asparagus field, where they would work from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is mandatory that you provide your own group of five, read a message posted to the companys Twitter page. There will be no interaction with other groups. Scotlynn is looking for about 30 five-person teams. Those interested can call 1-800-263-9117, ext. 2225. Chopp encouraged residents to pitch in so the spring crop doesnt wither in the fields. Scott Biddle has since the start of this pandemic did everything that was asked of him, and more, by our health unit, including quarantining his workers individually in hotels. Unfortunately, even with the best efforts, he is now dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak and his operations have been severely impacted, the mayor said. So I ask that you please consider stepping up during this time of crisis, get a group of five friends together, enjoy some days under the sun and make a few dollars for your efforts. The company assured prospective workers that every precaution has been taken to make the workplace safe. We have executed isolation plans to eliminate the spread of COVID-19 both on our farms and throughout the community, Scotlynns statement said. Thank you to everyone that has extended kind words and best wishes to the members of our workforce. The support of our community is greatly appreciated through this difficult situation. In terms of active cases, Scotlynn is now the epicentre for COVID-19 in Haldimand-Norfolk, a grim distinction formerly held by Anson Place Care Centre in Hagersville. The health reported 338 lab-confirmed positive cases across the two counties as of Monday, up from 220 on Sunday. With files from The Canadian Press J.P. Antonaccis reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. Candidates for this year's West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (WASSEC) would have to write 'Country Specific Examinations' due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The WASSCE is expected to commence from August 3 to September 4, this year following the postponement of the original date in June. This has become necessary because countries in the West African sub-region are battling the respiratory disease and at different levels of management and easing of restrictions, and it would be difficult to agree on a common date for writing the examinations. Over the past decade, some countries in the sub region, including; Ghana, Nigeria and Gambia have agreed to allow their students at the secondary school level participate in the WASSCE, which is supervised by the West African Examination Council(WAEC) and enable holders of WASSCE to pursue university education in member countries of ECOWAS. Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Ghana's Education Minister, giving details of the school reopening protocols following easing of restrictions on public gatherings in Accra on Tuesday, said WASSCE candidates would write 'Ghana Specific Exams', instead of the WASSCE. The Minister said all students will start lessons at 0900 hours and close at 1300 hours, break periods will be observed in the classroom when schools re-open on June 15. Government would provide three sets of reusable face masks to students and staff. There should be disinfection of all educational institutions both public and private, while school authorities ensure availability of washing facilities such as Veronica Buckets for hand washing. There would be no religious service and sporting activities in schools while students attend dining hall in batches. The Minister said all Day Students in boarding schools would be accepted as boarders whilst Day Schools would have enhanced daily health protocols. Also, there would be mapping of schools and link them with health facilities for quick response to any medical emergencies. University and SHS students would use six weeks for academic work and four weeks to write their exit examinations whilst JHS students would spend 11 weeks for academic work and a week to write the Basic Education Certificate Examinations(BECE). The Minister stated that parents or guardians who had children in boarding schools would not be allowed to visit their children during the period. In his 10th national broadcast on measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 last Sunday, President Akufo-Addo eased restrictions on public gathering and announced the re-opening of schools for the final year students at the basic, secondary and tertiary levels. He said effective Monday June 15, final year students of the universities should report to campus to prepare for academic work. Final year students at the Senior High Schools (SHS), together with the SHS Two Gold Track students were to report on June 22, while the Junior High Schools (JHS) Student Three are supposed to resume on June 29. All JHS 3 class will comprise a maximum of 30 students, SHS classes 25 and the Universities half the class sizes. Dr Opoku Prempeh said government would embark on aggressive back-to-school and re-entry campaign and entreated the leadership of schools to ensure hygiene and social distancing protocols are observed by the teachers, non-teaching staff and students. The Minister advised parents with sick children not to allow them to attend classes and seek treatment for them. The Minister said all foreign students outside the country would be allowed to return, but would undergo a 14-day quarantine. GNA vmargineanu/iStockBy CHRISTINA CARREGA, ABC News (ATLANTA) -- Six Atlanta police officers have been charged after forcefully pulling two college students out of a car, smashing its windows and using a stun gun in the course of an arrest as protests continued nearby, a prosecutor announced Tuesday. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said that arrest warrants were issued for Lonnie Hood, Roland Claud, Mark Gardner, Armond Jones, Willie Sauls and Ivory Streeter for the caught-on-camera incident. Howard said Hood, Sauls, Streeter and Jones repeatedly used stun guns on Messiah Young and Taniyah Pilgram and pulled them from the vehicle. They were variously charged with aggravated assault and criminal damage to property. Young suffered suffered a fracture of his wrist and received 24 stitches for a large gash. Howard said Young was charged with eluding the police and released on a signature bond. Pilgram was not charged. "I feel a little safer that these monsters are off the street and no longer able to terrorize anyone else from this point on," said Young at the press conference on Tuesday. "We just hope there is a change in the police culture." After the video went viral on social media, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms called for Young's charges to get dismissed and fired officers Gardner and Streeter. The rest of the officers are on desk duty. Howard is giving the officers until June 5 to turn themselves in. "We will ask for a $10,000 signature bond as they are trying to limit the amount of people in jail as the coronavirus pandemic is still an issue in Georgia," said Howard. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. San Diego City Council recently announced it is considering an almost $62 million program in assistance to renters impacted by the pandemic. The program, which the council would be considering on Tuesday, would provide each household that's medically or financially affected by the virus, up to $4,000 for support. Financial aid for renters would be coming from funds that are already allotted to the city from the "CARES, Relief and Economic Security, or COVID-19 Aid, Act." Specifically, San Diego City received $248 million from the legislation which it can use to assist in recovery initiatives. According to Chris Ward, the councilman who proposed the development of the program, the funds can be used for various things. However, he added, "keeping people in their homes" during the global health crisis "should be a top goal." Presently, Ward said on Monday, helping renters who have gone unemployed and may even lose their homes as they can no longer pay back rent will be among their most significant priorities. As the councilman said, the program will benefit San Diegans explaining, "We cannot position" thousands of them to the edge of losing their homes. The Eviction Moratorium In relation to the program, the city had already passed an eviction moratorium for the prevention of renters from being evicted from their home should they fail to pay rent because of the COVID-19 crisis. While the moratorium may be helpful, according to reports, "in the short term," it may also mean that some of the San Diegans hardly hit by the pandemic will owe huge amounts of money when it is over. This would be the city's first try at local direct loan relief although other cities such as Los Angeles, as well as the entire states such as New Jersey, have considered similar proposals. Meanwhile, the program of San Diego would be intended for families earning 60 percent or below of the area median income of the county, roughly $92,000 each year prior to the COVID-19 struck. The said amount is equivalent to around $69,300 for every family with four members. According to city staff, this program could potentially back up to 15,000 households in San Diego. It is more possible that there would be a need for the city to prioritize San Diegans with the lowest income since an estimate of 60,000 families, reports indicate, "are getting 30 percent of the area median income." Possible Change in the Proposal According to the staff report, there is a possibility for much of the proposal to change once it gets to the city council on Tuesday. However, for now, as stated in the report, the allowable maximum amount for a one-time payment is $4,000. The proposal is made as groups of activists in Dan Diego have planned "around rent strikes," in which renters would need not to pay back what they owe. Activists said that renters who have low income could not pay back a huge amount of "rent they owe if and when they" return to their respective works. Meanwhile, the proposal of Ward calls for money to be distributed by the San Diego Housing Commission and directly paid to the landlords. The councilman explained that if an eligible renter owes below $4,000, the amount left in the money could be returned to the fund to allocate for other renters. Check these out! Grab our new app rova and stay tuned to The Sound Stay tuned to The Sound and download our new app rova and take the greatest music ever made with you wherever you go. Beijing, China, June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Internet of People, Inc. (GIOP), a company operates a knowledge sharing and enterprise services platform both online and offline, today announced its Chinese operating entity, Global Mentor Board (Beijing) Information Technology Co. Ltd., is engaged to co-host the fifth annual F50 Global Capital Summit (the Summit Spring 2020) with F50 (a venture capital platform based in Silicon Valley in the U.S.), Bay Area Council Economic Institute, UCSF Entrepreneur Center and Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Community SVE. The Summit Spring 2020, with the theme of Elevating HealthTech Innovation, will take place and livestream on the Internet due to the COVID-19 epidemic. It is expected to have over 100,000 participants including corporate executives, investors, professors, and doctors from different regions across the world. The livestreaming of Summit Spring 2020 will run from 9:00am June 16 to 4:30pm PDT June 17, 2020 on different tracks in the U.S., China, India and Europe. Mr. Haiping Hu, the CEO & Chairman of GIOP will deliver a keynote presentation on Investment and Cooperative Opportunities for Chinas Healthcare Industry and host a roundtable discussion on Cross-Border Investment and Business Cooperation in Healthcare Industry. The two-day summit will feature over 500 executives from over 50 major corporations including Google, Qualcomm, Hunnwell Lake Ventures, UCSF, NetEase USA, as well as angel investors, giving participants multiple opportunities for in-depth interactions through Thought Leader Presentation, Deep-Dive Roundtables, Connect Lounge and the F50 Elevate VIP Lounge, and Emerging Tech Demos. The summit will also feature an expansive roster of successful business founders, who will provide viewers with proven business advice, successful strategies, experience and tactics. We are excited to be the first Chinese company to co-host the Global Summit with F50 and other U.S. partners, said Mr. Haiping Hu, CEO and Chairman of GIOP, the Summit Spring 2020 is going to be an energetic conference that gives attendees the opportunities to network with the industrys leaders and stay up to date with industry developments and investment trends. We believe the two-day summit can provide our participants a valuable experience that are insightful, informative and interactive. Mr. David Cao, Founder and CEO of F50 commented, The limitless intelligent connectivity enables us co-host the summit with our partner Global Internet of People Inc. which operates a supreme ecosystem of mentors and experts from different industries in China. We're proud to bring some of the world's best-in-class industry leaders all under one virtual umbrella at our first ever virtual summit. We have teamed up with NetEase Media Group as our official media partner to ensure this event casts a wide net to participants all over the world. Additional Details on the Summit Spring 2020: Global Insights Keynote and thought leader presentation & insightful panels Pandemic Impact to Global Economic by Bay Area Council Economic Institute Medical Devices Telemedicine COVID-19 AI in HealthTech Global Investment Treads Investment Global Insights Presentation: Angels, VCs, F50 Global Insights The New Global Markets Technology Sub Tracks AI in HealthTech BioTech COVID-19 Food for Health Future of Healthcare Integrated Medicine/Medical Devices/TeleMedicine SVE Elevate Startup Track SVE Demo Global Elevate Innovation Showcase Mentor Sessions Community Leader Forum International Tracks Going Global with China, Going Global with India Europe Mid East Confirmed speakers in the Summit Spring 2020 include: Bill Reichert,Garage Venture, Managing Director Braj Agrawal, MD, Physician (Neurologist), Investor, Author, Chair IGS2020 at UCSF, Asst Prof Stanford Brian Modoff, EVP, Qualcomm Canice Wu, Vlocity, Head of Insurance Practice Che Voigt, North Bay Angels,Board Chair Daniel Kraft, Chair of Medicine, Singularity Exponential David Cao, Partner, F50 | Hunnwell Lake Ventures Dr. Daniel Teo, Founding Partner, Hunniwell Lake Ventures Dr. Guoliang Yu, Crown Biosicence,Executive Chairman Dr. Heldley Rees, Poole Hospital (NHS) Dr. Mang Yu, Stanford University Dr. Minesh Khashu M.B.B.S, MD, FRCPCH, FRSA, Q Fellow (Health Foundation & NHSI), Consultant Neonatologist, Poole Hospital NHS Dr. Oana Marcu, Scientist, SETI(NASA) Dr. Ossama Hassanein, Chairman, Rising Tide Fund Dr. Patrick Carroll, CMO, HIMS/HERS; Former Chief Medical Officer at Walgreens Dr. Sean Randolph, Sr. Director, Bay Area Council Institute Dr. Shafi Ahmed, "Professor, Associate Dean",Barts Medical School Dr. Shiyi Chen, Fudan University Dr. Uli K. Chettipally, MD., MPH., Founder & President InnoMD Dr. Xiang Qian, Medical Director, International Medical Services, Stanford Health Care Gary Goldman MD, DDS, Sutter Enterprise Physician Informatics Lead Haiping Hu, Chairman, Global Mentor Board, Henry Xue, Stanford Angels, James Sowers, Angel investor, PopUp Ventures, Forbes top 50 Angel Investor Jinbo Liu, President, Netease USA Jordan Wahbeh,Bay Angels, Managing Partner Keith Teare, Angel Investor Lu Zhang, Founding Partner, Fusion Capital Nikolai Oreshkin,Elysium Venture Capital, Managing Partner Orrin Ailloni-Charas, MD, MBA, Managing Partner at Global Health Impact Fund Paul Singh, Angel Investor, Board Member, Tie Pavan Kumar, Partner, F50 Elevate Philipe Kahn, Inventor, Founder of FullPower, LightSurf, Starfish,Borland Soft Robert Taylor, Google Health Randy Williams, Keiretsu Forum, CEO/Founder Richard Fang, Hunniwell Lake Ventures, Founding Partner Roger Royse, Partner, Hayne Boone Roger Sanford Cofounder, Healthgrid Sean Randolph, Senior Director, Bay Area Council Economic Institute Stephaine Marrus, Managing Director, UCSF Entrepreneur Center Steve Lau, Founding Partner, Eagle Fund Thomas C. Sudhof, Nobel Laureate, 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Vish Mishra, Managing Director, Bluevine Capital, Former President, TieSV Wei Zhou, Centrillion, CEO The Summit Spring 2020 will be livestreamed on the Internet from June 16-17, 2020 and is open to the general public free of charge. For more information and to register, please visit www.sdh365.com. For sponsorships, demo show, or commercial promotion call 400-991-9228 or email to IR@sdh365.cn. About F50 Global Capital Summit Global Capital Summit is F50s flagship conference, which is held twice a year. F50 is a venture capital platform Founded at Silicon Valley in 2014, that searches for innovative companies and products in North America and connects them with corporate partners and investors. For more information about the F50 Global Capital Summit, please visithttp://f50.io/summit. About Global Internet of People Inc. Headquartered in Beijing and Shanghai, GIOP operates an online knowledge sharing and enterprise service platform, both online, via a mobile application Shidonghui App (the APP), and offline, through local offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou, as well as 51 local centers operated by GIOPs members in 21 provinces throughout the PRC. The main services GIOP offers to App users are (1) Questions and Answers (Q &A) Sessions and (2) streaming of audio and video courses and programs. The offline services GIOP offers to its members are study tours and forums. For more information about the Company, please visit: www.sdh365.com . For more information, please contact: At the Company: IR Department Email: IR@sdh365.com Phone: +86 1082967728 Investor Relations: Janice Wang EverGreen Consulting Inc. Email: IR@changqingconsulting.com The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved President Muhammadu Buharis request to take $22.7 billion in foreign loans. The House approved the request after it considered the report of its committee on aids, loans and debt management. President Buhari had said in 2019 that the loan was intended to fund key infrastructure in the country. The Senate had earlier given its nod to the request in March. Lawmakers at the House of Representatives had earlier kicked against the bill, forcing debates to be suspended. The lawmakers, especially those of the south-east caucus, complained about the governments failure to include projects in the region amongst those to be financed from the loan. However, following debates that were accompanied by pleas from House Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, the loan proposal has now been approved. Last month, both Houses approved an 850 billion loan proposal from the president, which is to be sourced from domestic markets to fund critical capital projects in the 2020 budget. Last week, Mr Buhari also wrote to both chambers, seeking the approval of another $5.513 billion foreign loans. Nigerias rising debt profile, as of September 30, 2019, was 26.2 trillion. Of this amount, total domestic debts is about 18 trillion, or 68.45 per cent. About 8 trillion are owed to foreign lenders. Canadian gender clinic's gruesome photos in trans surgery promotion found in violation of ad standards Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A Canadian gender clinic was found to be in violation of advertising standards following a complaint about its promotion of radical surgeries to young people using gruesome photos and post-operative patient testimonials. In response to a complaint against the McLean Clinic a medical outfit in Mississauga, Ontario, known for performing mastectomies on transgender-identifying females the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario identified photos and content in the clinic's promotional efforts deemed to be misleading and undignified and had to be removed, according to Canadian Gender Report, a watchdog site that monitors the activities of transgender medicalization and activism. One such photo that was found to be in violation of CPSO standards was a picture on the clinic's Instagram account where Dr. Giancarlo McEvenue is seen wearing a Santa hat and holding up two buckets labeled "breast tissue" that had been surgically removed from female patients. Cosmetic mastectomies of this type are euphemistically referred to as "top surgery." The CPSO's decision states that the clinic is in non-compliance with the relevant Canadian law, specifically the Advertising Regulation of the Medicine Act. That regulation states that information communicated must not be false, misleading or deceptive; must not contain a testimonial; and must be readily comprehensible, dignified and in good taste. In response to the CPSO's findings, the McLean clinic has made its account private a feature that requires followers to be approved first but advocates actively monitoring the situation say that such a move does not constitute adequate compliance. "We find the CPSO ruling very reasonable and will be following up to ensure full compliance. Under our socialized medical system, patient testimonials cannot be used to promote a physician's services, so while the McLean clinic has made their Instagram account private, this does not meet the requirements of the ruling," said Pamela Buffone, founder of the Canadian Gender Report who filed the complaint against the clinic on behalf of a coalition of like-minded advocacy groups, in an email to The Christian Post Monday. The CPSO's appropriate use guidelines hold that doctors are expected to adhere to every professional expectation set forth in law, codes of ethics, and as it pertains using social media utilities. Regarding the Instagram photo of the physician holding the buckets of breast tissue, the committee found that it was not in good taste. "The Committee has previously determined that 'before and after' photographs are equivalent to testimonials, and thus the use of these photographs is contrary to the Advertising Regulation which indicates that when physicians communicate their professional services, the information must not contain testimonials as per 5 section 6 (2) b. In this case the post-surgery image of a patient is a testimonial in our view, and contrary to the Advertising Regulation," Canadian Gender Report noted. "The inclusion of a photograph of an 'ideal' male chest in clinic promotional material on the Internet is misleading in that the results depicted are impossible to achieve using female to male top reconstruction surgery, and thus contrary to section 6(2) a of the Advertising Regulation." Though advocates maintained that many of the clinic's posts appeared to market surgeries to young women through use of keywords in their social media channels, the medical body did not find that the clinic was targeting a particular age group. Transgender surgeries and drugs such as puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones have come under heightened scrutiny in recent months particularly as detransitioners individuals who once lived and identified as transgender or nonbinary have become more visible and vocal about their experiences, publicly detailing how their bodies were harmed. "With more and more detransitioners coming forward, the medical community would be negligent if they don't take a closer look at what's going on. And I don't think the general public is aware of how experimental the treatment is and how much marketing and promotion is behind it," Buffone previously told CP in a February interview. Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian's Regular Press Conference on June 2, 2020 2020/06/02 China Daily: It was announced yesterday that the Chinese government has decided to send a team of medical experts to Sao Tome and Principe to support its efforts against COVID-19. Last week, China released information on sending a medical team to Sudan. So we would like to know how many Chinese medical teams are now working in Africa to help fight COVID-19 and if more will be sent. China proposed to help accelerate the building of the Africa CDC. How is work progressing on that front? What are China's considerations? Zhao Lijian: China and Africa are good brothers and good partners through good times and bad. In support of African countries' efforts against COVID-19 and at the invitation of the relevant countries, the Chinese side has sent a total of 148 medical workers to 11 African countries. These medical experts have conducted in-depth exchanges with the health departments and medical staff on the African side, shared their experience, reached out to local communities, visited hospitals and labs, and provided guidance for resident Chinese medical teams in these countries. All these have received positive feedback and praise from the relevant countries. The Africa Center for Disease Prevention and Control (Africa CDC) is an important outcome of the Beijing Summit of the 2018 FOCAC. It is a significant measure to help Africa strengthen its public health system, disease prevention and control, and capacity building. China attaches great importance to this project and is now actively making early-stage preparations together with the African side. We hope that construction will start as soon as possible to further enhance African people's well-being. Going forward, in light of the COVID-19 situation in Africa and the wishes of relevant countries, we will do whatever we can to support our African brothers, enhance cooperation in medical and health sectors, and jointly fight against COVID-19. Shenzhen TV: US Secretary of State Pompeo said in a statement on June 1 that the Trump administration values the important contributions of international students and researchers, including from China. However, the administration "will not tolerate PRC attempts to illicitly acquire American technology and intellectual property from American academic institution and research facilities for Chinese military ends". I wonder if you have any comment? Zhao Lijian: Mr. Pompeo is used to weaving lies as excuses for his wrongdoing, and his statement on this issue is no exception. Chinese students and researchers have been an important bond of friendship and bridge for scientific and educational exchange between Chinese and American people. The latest visa restriction on Chinese students and researchers was imposed by the US side under an abused concept of national security and flimsy excuses. It severely undermines their legitimate rights and interests and runs counter to the common aspiration for friendly people-to-people, especially youth-to-youth exchange. Taking a backward step like that will only bring harm to oneself and others. Macau Monthly: According to reports, last Saturday, US President Trump said he will postpone the G7 summit, which was scheduled to be held at the end of June, to September or even later. He also hoped to invite Russian President Putin and leaders of Australia, the ROK and India to the summit. Sources from the US side say the topic of China will be discussed. Can you comment on that? Zhao Lijian: We noticed that. China believes that all international organizations and conferences should be conducive to mutual trust between countries, multilateralism and world peace and development. This is also the aspiration of the vast majority of countries in the world. Seeking a clique targeting China is not a popular move, and it doesn't serve the interests of countries concerned. Prensa Latina: Yesterday Cuba rejected once again its inclusion by the US in the list of countries that do not cooperate in the fight against terrorism. Cuba considers it a unilateral and arbitrary list that responds only to the intentions to put pressure on countries that refuse to yield to the will of the US government. Do you have any comment about it? Zhao Lijian: In a statement released on June 1, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba states its strong rejection of being included on May 13 in a US State Department list of countries that are allegedly not cooperating fully with US efforts against terrorism. Terrorism is mankind's common enemy. China maintains that the international community should work together to fight terrorism. That said, we oppose the US side using counter-terrorism as a pretext to impose political oppression and economic sanctions on Cuba. The US and Cuba, as close neighbors, should treat each other with amity and continue developing normal state-to-state relations based on equality and mutual respect. This serves the interests of the two countries and will help promote peace and stability of Latin America. Reuters: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in response to proposed new national security legislation, the US is considering welcoming people from Hong Kong to come to America. Do you have any comment on this? Zhao Lijian: China has made clear its principled position on issues relating to Hong Kong. Hong Kong affairs are purely China's internal affairs that allow no foreign interference. We hope the US will do more that is conducive to stability and prosperity in Hong Kong and development of China-US relations. NHK: China and the US have reached a phase one trade deal. But according to some reports, the Chinese government has ordered SOEs to stop purchasing pork and soybean from the US. I wonder if you have a comment? Zhao Lijian: I'm not aware of what you mentioned. China's position on China-US trade issues is consistent and clear. Macau Monthly: According to reports, the US government plans to secretly call for bids for its consulate general staff quarters in Hong Kong on the condition that the properties, after being sold, will remain as they are or be leased to the US. Do you have more on that? Zhao Lijian: I'm not aware of that. You'd better ask the US side. There has been a sharp spike in Covid-19 cases in the northeast with the region reporting over 2,100 infections until Tuesday. Assam, the most populous of the regions seven states, has reported the bulk of these cases (1,514). The other six less populous states have also recorded a significant increase in the cases over the last few days and officials have called easing of interstate movement since last month the prime factor for the jump. The region reported the first Covid-19 case on March 24 when a 23-year-old woman tested positive in Manipur after her return from the UK. The region had reported 103 cases until May 5. Click here for full Covid-19 coverage On Tuesday, Assams tally was 1,514, which included 1,365 patients, who have returned to the state since May 4. The surge in positive cases is because of the homecoming of our residents from other states. Nearly 800 of the new cases are of those who returned from Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Delhi, Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Sunday. Tripura recorded the highest single-day spike on Monday when 107 people were diagnosed with the disease and took the states tally to 421 cases. It rose to 444 on Tuesday and included 166 Border Security Force personnel and their family members. Until May 5, the state had 42 cases. In a tweet on Tuesday, Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga said of the 12 new cases in the state, 10 had returned from Delhi and two from Kolkata. The state had recorded just one case prior to that. A 50-year-old pastor diagnosed with the disease in Mizoram on March 24 was discharged from a hospital following his recovery on May 9. Nagaland reported six new cases on Tuesday and with this, the states tally went up to 49. The first Covid-19 cases in the state were detected on May 25 when three persons returned from Chennai and were found to be infected. Meghalaya had 13 cases until May 5, all of them connected to one family in Shillong. Two weeks later, one person who returned from Chennai tested positive. The states tally now stands at 30 cases. Manipur did not have an active Covid-19 case on May 5 after the first two people diagnosed with the disease in the state had recovered. The state now has 85 cases. Arunachal Pradesh was Covid-19 free on May 5 with the lone patients recovery in April. On Monday, the state recorded 16 new cases which took its tally to 22. Health care systems across Latin America risk being overwhelmed by the coronavirus, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said, as the death toll from the disease in hard-hit Brazil nears 30,000. The warning from the global health body came as a sister UN agency issued new guidelines for pandemic-hit airlines that reveal what flying might look like when passenger planes take to the skies again in earnest. The march of the illness across the Americas comes as other parts of the world return to relative normality after weeks of restrictions on daily life that have wrecked economies and left millions jobless. Schools, swimming pools, pubs and tourist sites have begun to throw open their doors again in Europe as the continent continues easing lockdowns despite the threat of a second wave of infections. The pandemic has now killed more than 377,000 people and infected at least 6.3 million since erupting in China in late 2019. Four of the 10 countries across the globe with the greatest number of new Covid-19 cases on Monday were in Latin America, WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said. Brazil, Peru and Chile are suffering the highest daily increases but numbers are also on the rise in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia and Haiti. The region has logged one million cases and recorded more than 50,000 deaths, with Brazil having more than half of cases and close to 60% of fatalities. The mayor of Rio de Janeiro said on Monday however that the popular tourist city would start gradually easing lockdown measures from Tuesday, beginning with the reopening of places of worship and water sports. Ryan warned that the region faces a tough battle in the weeks ahead. I dont believe we have reached the peak in that transmission and, at this point, I cannot predict when we will, he said. In Europe, however, from Russia to France, Italy and Britain, countries have started to emerge from lockdowns, cautiously adopting a post-pandemic version of normal. Bars began to serve again in Finland and Norway - with social distancing restrictions or shortened hours in place - while some schools in Britain and Greece opened their doors. Greece opened some hotels, schools, pools and tattoo parlours, while Italy reopened the Colosseum, although only to Italians. As violent confrontations between police and demonstrators gripped much of the nation Monday, the third straight day of protests in San Antonio took on a more conversational tone as activists held the attention of the areas two highest-ranking law enforcement officers. So far, the chaos and destruction that marked the end of Saturdays demonstrations downtown have been a one-off. Sundays protest ended without violent confrontations between police and protesters. So did a demonstration held Monday afternoon on the steps of the Bexar County Courthouse and another that started Monday evening at Travis Park and ended at San Antonio Police headquarters without incident. For about four hours Monday afternoon, dozens of Black Lives Matter demonstrators marched around the Bexar County Courthouse complex where for a time they were joined by Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar. From there, they marched to San Antonio Police Department headquarters where they were met by Police Chief William McManus. READ ALSO: San Antonio police chief: Out-of-state extremists infiltrating peaceful protests On their lips were the names of several black men and women, often unarmed, who have died either in police custody or at the hands of officers over the past decade. On their minds was the potent fear that they or one of their loved ones could die in a fateful confrontation with a police officer or that the criminal justice system would treat them unfairly. For 29-year-old Vanessa Salas, that fear was for her younger siblings 8 and 10 years old. I dont want them to have to get up and be scared because of the color of their skin, Salas said. Protesters chanted the name of George Floyd, who died last week after a white Minneapolis officer kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes as Floyd lay facedown on the pavement in handcuffs. In video shot by onlookers, Floyd is heard saying repeatedly: I cant breathe. They chanted the name of Philando Castile, another Minnesota man fatally shot by a police officer in front of Castiles partner and her 4-year-old daughter during a traffic stop in 2016. They chanted the name of Trayvon Martin, a Florida teenager who was walking back to his fathers fiancees house in 2012 when a member of the neighborhood found Martin suspicious and shot him. Valerie Reiffert has closely watched the police shootings of black men with alarm and concern over the years. Reiffert, who is black, has two brothers, one a war veteran who works as a FedEx driver. Josie Norris / Staff Photographer I worry about both of them, but I worry about my older brother a lot, Reiffert said. I worry about him driving him around all day more than I did when he was at war. Over the years, despite closely following issues relating to police violence, Reiffert hasnt taken part in any local demonstrations. But recently, following the birth of her son, she decided to get involved. I want to be able to tell my son that I did something, Reiffert said. Not talking about racism is what got us here in the first place. We need to talk. Changes must be made. Were not going to get anywhere if we continue to sweep these issues under the rug. The protesters laid out those fears for Salazar and McManus and pressed the two men to say how their officers and deputies interact with African-Americans and how they use force. For more than half an hour, Salazar spoke with protesters outside of the courthouse complex and the exchange sometimes got testy. As the highest ranking law enforcement officer in the county, I can honestly tell you what happened in Minneapolis was nothing short of murder, Salazar said. One protester asked if Salazar supports the tactic of kneeling on someones neck. No, we dont train it, we dont teach it, we dont condone it, Salazar said. Can you say black lives matter? Reiffert asked Salazar. Can you say, no police brutality here without repercussions? Black lives do matter, Salazar responded. He later added, Maam, Ive personally arrested deputies for brutalizing people. In front of SAPDs headquarters, McManus told activists that words cant describe the anger he felt watching the Floyd video. Sunday, he labeled Floyds killing a murder a rare assessment from a police chief. OnExpressNews.com: City closes Alamo Plaza for third night as demonstrations continue Im not in disagreement with anything the protesters are protesting about, McManus said. But as much as Mondays demonstrations in downtown San Antonio were about Floyd and police violence, they were also about demonstrators sharing stories about their lack of faith in a criminal justice system they feel doesnt recognize them. Katelyn Menard, 20, a student majoring in criminal justice at Our Lady of the Lake, still remembers some of her first interactions with police. A Houston native, Menard remembers police constantly patrolling her predominantly black neighborhood. Her mom would always usher her and her siblings inside when the streetlights turned on, afraid of what type of violence might erupt after dark. Then, when Menard was 9 years old, her uncle was shot and killed by police in Houston, she recalled. Menard said she doesnt condone the violence that has overtaken several cities nationwide, including the handful of people who broke into businesses and vandalized buildings in downtown San Antonio on Saturday night. But Menard said she understands the anger. Its the result of years of systemic oppression, of people feeling like their voices dont matter. Menard said shes dedicated to fighting such oppression. One day, she wants to work for the FBI, to help people wrongfully convicted of crimes they didnt commit. When is enough going to be enough? Menard asked. We need to see a change. Later Monday night, a group of about 40 protesters echoed the same feelings but they also pressed for more specific action. The group, which included Pharoah Clark, 32, of Uniting America Through Wisdom, 32, and Carlos Vergara, 28, of Young Ambitious Activists, didnt get to meet with police officials, but they read a petition calling for a web site dedicated to receiving and resolving complaints against police, a monthly forum between police and citizens and an end to no-knock warrants in most cases, among other demands. While we have the whole world listening, we need to have something to say, Clark said, urging everyone to vote and get involved. Its very important that we have a goal besides just screaming and standing and marching but no real end in sight. We can show the rest of the country how you behave and how you get back to healing. Emilie Eaton is a criminal justice reporter in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Emilie, become a subscriber. eeaton@express-news.net | Twitter: @emilieeaton Weve long advocated for administrative and legislative reforms to de-militarize American police forces and improve the accountability of overly aggressive officers. Its been a slow and often-frustrating process given the power of police unions to derail reforms and the publics understandable tendency to give officers the benefit of the doubt. Public opinion seemed to change in a flash. The video of Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin pressing his knee against George Floyds neck for several minutes until he died shocked the nations conscience. Even some police unions condemned the killing. A few officers kneeled in support of protesters. Politicians who reflexively back the badge condemned this act of violence. That looked like progress and, finally, an opportunity for policymakers to address some ongoing policing problems. These include a secretive disciplinary process that protects bad cops, laws that provide officers with qualified immunity, and union protections that make it difficult to fire a misbehaving officer. Chauvin reportedly had 18 previous complaints filed against him. But after several days of nationwide riots, all those potential gains evaporated in a cloud of burning buildings and scenes of looted stores. Even Fox News reported, The scale of the protests, spanning from San Francisco to Boston and unfolding on a single night, rivaled the historic demonstrations of the civil rights and Vietnam War eras. Most Americans defend peaceful protests. But radical groups and those more interested in looting than justice co-opted the protests and unleashed terror on American cities. Burning down businesses (including minority-owned stores), destroying historic buildings and carting off consumer goods from vandalized retailers hardly advances the cause of justice. Other people including a security officer guarding a federal building in Oakland died during the protests. By Monday, many Americans who had previously sympathized with peaceful protesters were cheering SWAT teams that were firing rubber bullets at the crowds and even arresting news crews that were reporting on the madness. Instead of hearing thoughtful discussions about the need for police reform, the narrative has shifted toward a frustrated public demanding that police and the National Guard clamp down on street violence. Unfortunately, President Donald Trump has thus far failed to calm the nation. His tweet, when the looting starts, the shooting starts, echoes the incendiary words of a 1960s-era police chief. Thats a missed opportunity because the president had initially struck some of the right notes. He was in tremendous pain, obviously, and couldnt breathe. It was very obvious to anybody that watched it, Trump said, after speaking with Floyds family. The riots have brought out some peoples worst instincts, although there have been encouraging stories. One widely circulated video shows a group of African-American protesters forming a human chain to protect a Louisville, Kentucky, officer from a mob after he was separated from his unit. But most of the stories from the weekend are appalling and will do nothing but undermine the chance to address the legitimate concerns that sparked the initial protests. The riots at the 1968 Democratic convention, by the way, didnt lead to an end of the Vietnam War or advancements in civil rights but to the election of law-and-order Republican President Richard Nixon. Instead of advancing the goals of police reform, the riots shift the focus away from what should be a unified push for reform and toward polarized perceptions of destructive riots. Thats a tragedy for the nation. Jeremy Cooper must stay away from all methadone clinics A suspected drug dealer was seen by gardai "handing out" sleeping tablets on the street beside a city methadone clinic, a court has been told. Jeremy Cooper (49), who was allegedly "caught red-handed" selling drugs, was granted bail on condition that he stays at least 200 yards (183m) away from all methadone clinics. Mr Cooper had the case adjourned when he appeared at Dublin District Court charged with possession of drugs with intent to sell or supply. Objecting to bail, a garda told Judge Flann Brennan the accused was seen in a transaction with a number of drug users on Amiens Street last May 10. It was alleged Mr Cooper was seen "handing out tablets". He was stopped and searched and found in possession of 13 suspected zopiclone tablets worth 13 and 70 in cash, the garda said. Stopped His phone contained communications relating to the sale and supply of drugs, the garda alleged. The garda said the previous day the accused had also been seen in a transaction at the same place. He said the accused had six trays of 60 zopiclone tablets and had 150 in cash. He had also been stopped and searched in the same area on May 4, the garda said. Seeking bail, defence solicitor Daniel Hanahoe said the May 10 allegations were all that was before the court. The accused would say he had been prescribed the sleeping tablet zopiclone. He was currently homeless and living in a hostel on Amiens Street and this was adjacent to the methadone clinic. The judge said the accused was to "stay away from every methadone clinic - it's as simple as that", and he could "organise his life in those terms". "If you break that, you will be in custody," he added. In his first public comments since the May 25 death of George Floyd, Gov. Jared Polis said Tuesday that what happened to Floyd was "wrong, brutal and inhumane," and it was murder. An accreting pulsar. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech A Monash-University-led collaboration has, for the first time, observed the full, 12-day process of material spiraling into a distant neutron star, triggering an X-ray outburst thousands of times brighter than our Sun. The research, led by Ph.D. candidate Adelle Goodwin from the Monash School of Physics and Astronomy will be featured at an upcoming American Astronomical Society meeting this week before it is published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Adelle leads a team of international researchers, including her supervisor, Monash University Associate Professor Duncan Galloway, and Dr. David Russell from New York University Abu Dhabi. The scientists observed an 'accreting' neutron star as it entered an outburst phase in an international collaborative effort involving five groups of researchers, seven telescopes (five on the ground, two in space), and 15 collaborators. It is the first time such an event has been observed in this detailin multiple frequencies, including high-sensitivity measurements in both optical and X-ray. The physics behind this 'switching on' process has eluded physicists for decades, partly because there are very few comprehensive observations of the phenomenon. The researchers caught one of these accreting neutron star systems in the act of entering outburst, revealing that it took 12 days for material to swirl inwards and collide with the neutron star, substantially longer than the two- to three-days most theories suggest. "These observations allow us to study the structure of the accretion disk, and determine how quickly and easily material can move inwards to the neutron star," Adelle said. "Using multiple telescopes that are sensitive to light in different energies we were able to trace that the initial activity happened near the companion star, in the outer edges of the accretion disk, and it took 12 days for the disk to be brought into the hot state and for material to spiral inward to the neutron star, and X-rays to be produced," she said. In an 'accreting' neutron star system, a pulsar (a dense remnant of an old star) strips material away from a nearby star, forming an accretion disk of material spiraling in towards the pulsar, where it releases extraordinary amounts of energyabout the total energy output of the sun in 10 years, over the period of a few short weeks. The pulsar observed is SAX J1808.43658 which rotates at a rapid 400 times per second and is located 11,000 light-years away in the constellation Saggitarius. "This work enables us to shed some light on the physics of accreting neutron star systems, and to understand how these explosive outbursts are triggered in the first place, which has puzzled astronomers for a long time," said New York University Abu Dhabi researcher, Dr. David Russell, one of the study's co-authors. Accretion disks are usually made of hydrogen, but this particular object has a disk that is made up of 50% helium, more helium than most disks. The scientists think that this excess helium may be slowing down the heating of the disk because helium 'burns' at a higher temperature, causing the 'powering up' to take 12 days. The telescopes involved include two space observatories: the Neils Gehrels Swift X-ray Observatory, and the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer on the International Space Station; as well as the ground based Las Cumbres Observatory network of telescopes, and the South African Large Telescope. Explore further Scientists puzzle over massive star system Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 20:24:45|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Residents take nucleic acid tests at a testing post set up at a primary school in Dongxihu District in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, May 15, 2020. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu) WUHAN, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province tested 9,899,828 people between May 14 and June 1 in a citywide drive to screen novel coronavirus infections, according to a press conference on Tuesday. No confirmed COVID-19 cases were found in the process, said Lu Zuxun, professor with Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Meanwhile, 300 asymptomatic cases were found and quarantined, none of which turned into confirmed COVID-19 cases. All the 1,174 people in close contact have tested negative for the infection, according to Lu. On May 14, the city launched a campaign to offer nucleic acid tests to those not tested before. Officials said the move was aimed at tracing asymptomatic cases and reassuring society as the city reopens its factories, businesses and schools. Executive deputy mayor Hu Yabo said the city spent 900 million yuan (126 mln U.S. dollars) on the tests, which was "totally worthwhile" as it reassured Wuhan residents, as well as the whole nation, and will help the city bring its social and economic activities back on track. "After the citywide tests, Wuhan residents, who have made great sacrifices during the city's lockdown, will also lift their psychological lockdown," he said. A resident takes the nucleic acid test at a testing post set up at a primary school in Dongxihu District in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, May 15, 2020. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu) The city's health commission said the tests are voluntary and free, with all costs borne by city and district governments. Li Lanjuan, a renowned Chinese epidemiologist, said the campaign brought the total number of nucleic acid testees in Wuhan to 10.9 million. This means "full coverage" of the city's population, except for children under six, who were not advised to take the tests. Li also noted that no live virus was cultivated from the phlegm samples and throat swabs of 106 asymptomatic carriers, while over 97 percent of Wuhan's residential complexes did not find asymptomatic infections in the testing campaign. "Wuhan is now safe, and Wuhan people are safe," she told the media. HOW DID WUHAN DO IT? Wang Weihua, deputy director of Wuhan's health commission, said 63 testing agencies in the city have been mobilized to greatly raise the testing capacity. National resources were pulled in to support the citywide drive, and batch testing, which mixes no more than five samples in a single test, was employed to improve efficiency, she said. All these efforts helped raise Wuhan's daily testing capacity from 300,000 to more than 1 million samples, the official said. A common ingredient found in many over-the-counter cough and cold medications including Benylin and Night Nurse could cause the coronavirus to multiply, a study has revealed. The discovery was made as part of a global study into pre-existing drugs and ways they could be used to treat the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. An international team of scientists found that dextromethorphan, a common active ingredient in cough suppressants, might cause SARS-CoV-2 pathogens to replicate. While this doesn't mean conditions will always get worse, or lead to a higher risk of severe symptoms, researchers warned against using medication with the ingredient. They say more research is needed into the impact of the ingredient on humans with COVID-19 before it should be used to treat a cough from coronavirus. An international team of scientists found that dextromethorphan, a common active ingredient in cough suppressants, can cause COVID-19 to replicate faster 'We've identified an over-the-counter medication that appears to be pro-viral - actively promoting infection - that people I think need to be aware of,' said Professor Nevin Krogan, of the University of California at San Francisco. 'If I had Covid-19 I would think twice about using cough syrups,' added Krogan. Dextromethorphan is used by cough and cold medication manufacturers to stifle the signals in the brain that set off the reflex to cough. The team say that due to its use in almost all common cough syrups, it is likely to be used by people to settle the cough that is a main symptom of coronavirus. Researchers conducted tests on cells from African green monkeys - similar to humans in terms of drug response - to make their discovery. At the Pasteur Institute in Paris, the team found that when dextromethorphan was introduced to infected monkey cells the rate of SARS-CoV-2 growth increased. MANY COLD AND COUGH MEDICATIONS CONTAIN DEXTROMETHORPHAN Benylin Dry Coughs Benylin Dry Coughs Night Syrup Boots Dry Cough and Congestion Relief Boots Night Cold and Flu Relief oral solution Covonia Hot Dose Cough and Cold Syrup Covonia Night Time Formula Day and Night Nurse Capsules Fedril Night Cold and Flu Multi-Action ACTIFED Dry Coughs Night Nurse Robitussin Dry Cough Medicine SOURCE: Electronic Medicines Compendium Advertisement Professor Brian Shoichet said they felt it was vital to inform the public and officials. 'We should be careful. These are in vitro (laboratory) results - they haven't been shown clinically. We're not necessarily recommending that everyone stop taking dextromethorphan.' 'But because it's a pro-viral effect it would be wrong not to highlight it because it could be detrimental,' the researcher told the I. It wasn't all bad news though, the study team were able to identify drugs that could present potential treatments for the deadly virus that has spread around the world. They found the antihistamine chemastine, the antipsychotic haloderidol and some cough medication ingredients such as cloparastine could help. The 22-person team behind the study, which started in mid-March, looked at blueprints contained in the 30 genes of the new coronavirus. They built the world of the virus from the inside out and synthesised all the proteins the virus makes - recording how each interacts with proteins inside the human host. As part of the work the team discovered the 332 different ways the coronavirus can enter a cell and make copies of itself - they then looked at drugs that could stop it. They say more research is needed into the impact of the ingredient on humans with COVID-19 before it should be used to treat a cough from coronavirus. They looked at a range of different drugs and found 69 existing types of medication, experimental treatments or compounds on their way to being drugs. Of those discovered, they had 62 different ways of disrupting the virus life cycle. Krogan said many of the compounds would be best used in tandem with other drugs - such as remdesivir - a potential COVID-19 treatment. They are still at animal testing stages and haven't said when they will have a combination of medications that could work to treat the virus. The research has been published in the journal Nature. Terrence Floyd was overcome with emotions Monday when he visited a memorial created at the site where his brother, George Floyd, died at the hands of a police officer one week earlier. The younger Floyd's knees buckled when he saw massive painting on a wall in Minneapolis. PHOTO: Terrence Floyd, brother of George Floyd, reacts at a makeshift memorial honouring George Floyd, at the spot where he was taken into custody, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 1, 2020. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters) Flowers and signs, as well as an outline of a body on the ground depicting where George Floyd took his last breath, are nearby. After sitting on the spot where his brother died, Terrence Floyd spoke through tears, pleading with protesters to direct their anger to bring change, not destruction. PHOTO: Terrence Floyd, brother of George Floyd, visits a makeshift memorial honouring George Floyd, at the spot where he was taken into custody, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 1, 2020. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters) He advocated for the arrest of the three other police officers who were at the scene that night. He shouted, "One down..." and the crowd assembled replied, "Three to go!" PHOTO: Terrence Floyd, the brother of George Floyd, sits as people gather at the site where George Floyd died on June 1, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Kerem Yucel/AFP via Getty Images) "Educate yourself and know who you are voting for. And that's how we're gonna hit 'em," Terrence Floyd said. "Keep my brother's name ringing," he told the crowd. "We're still gonna do this peacefully," he vowed. PHOTO: Terrence Floyd, brother of George Floyd, reacts at a makeshift memorial honouring George Floyd, at the spot where he was taken into custody, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 1, 2020. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters) In an interview with ABC News' Alex Perez on Sunday night, Terrence Floyd pleaded with protesters to not destroy their cities. He said he understands why people are angry, but he worries his brother's memory will be overshadowed by the destructive protests. "[S]ometimes I get angry, I want to bust some heads, too," Terrence Floyd said. "I wanna ... just go crazy. But Im here. My brother wasnt about that. My brother was about peace. Youll hear a lot of people say he was a gentle giant." MORE: George Floyd protest live updates: NYC mayor addresses daughter's arrest Speaking to "Good Morning America" co-anchor Robin Roberts on Monday morning, Terrence Floyd said his brother "would want us to seek justice" but to channel the anger "another way." "It's OK to be angry, but channel your anger to do something positive or make a change another way because we've been down this road already," he said. "The anger, damaging your hometown is not the way he'd want." Story continues George Floyd died in Minneapolis on Memorial Day while in police custody. A bystander's viral cellphone video showed a former police officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeling on Floyd's neck, while Floyd repeatedly stated "I can't breathe." Those final words have become an anthem for the Black Lives Matter movement. PHOTO: Terrence Floyd speaks to ABC News about his brother George Floyd. (ABC News ) Following his death, protests in Minnesota have spread across the country. Some have resulted in vandalism and destruction of property, with many cities issuing curfews in response. MORE: Photos: How protests erupted across the country after the death of George Floyd Terrence Floyd urged those protesters to "relax." "Dont tear up your town, all of this is not necessary because if his own family and blood is not doing it, then why are you?" he told ABC News. "If his own family and blood are trying to deal with it and be positive about it, and go another route to seek justice, then why are you out here tearing up your community? Because when youre finished and turn around and want to go buy something, you done tore it up. So now you messed up your own living arrangements. So just relax. Justice will be served." PHOTO: A person holds up a sign as protesters kneel on Canal Street in New York on May 31, 2020, during a demonstration over the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. (Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images) Terrence Floyd said his brother was known around the community for his "positivity" and "motivation," which "is how he should be remembered." "Do something positive. Stop making excuses," he said. "And thats what I feel is going on: Theyre using this as an excuse to be stupid." MORE: Why some police officers stood with protesters outraged over George Floyd's death On Friday, Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in George Floyd's death. Terrence Floyd wants to see justice served for the other three officers who also responded to the scene. MORE: Sister of George Floyd, black man who died after police kneeled on his neck, speaks out "I want to see all of them get punished to the full extent for what they did to my brother," Terrence Floyd said. "Because when I saw the videos, not only was the dude on his neck ... not only that, you got the other three officers behind the camera, behind the car on him. So he cant move." PHOTO: The Rev. Kevin McCall and Terrence Floyd appear on 'Good Morning America,' June 1, 2020. (ABC News) Terrence Floyd said on "GMA" that he is traveling from his home in New York City on Tuesday to visit the site in Minneapolis where his brother drew his last breath. "I just want to feel my brother's spirit," he said. "Just connect with him again." ABC News' Morgan Winsor and Emily Shapiro contributed to this report This report was featured in the Tuesday, June 2, 2020, episode of Start Here, ABC News daily news podcast. "Start Here" offers a straightforward look at the day's top stories in 20 minutes. Listen for free every weekday on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, the ABC News app or wherever you get your podcasts. George Floyd's brother makes emotional visit to site of his death originally appeared on abcnews.go.com While the coronavirus pandemic has left countries across the world reeling with more than 3,77,000 already dead, there have also been some success stories with many countries having kept the virus in check. A lot has been talked about New Zealand and South Korea model and how it managed to keep its mortality figures relatively low despite being among the first to report infections outside of mainland China. While most of the media attention has focused on New Zealand and South Korea, perhaps little light has been shed on Vietnam and Mongolia, the two countries without a single COVID-19 death. Reuters Both countries don't rate well on Human Development Index (HDI) and don't have particularly robust health care systems. While Vietnam has reported 328 confirmed cases and zero deaths, Mongolia has reported 185 confirmed cases and no fatalities. More phenomenal is the case Vietnam, a country with a population of over 9.5 crore. While with little over 30 lakh population, Mongolia's case of successfully containing the spread of coronavirus can't be overlooked. How did Vietnam and Mongolia tackle coronavirus? Vietnam Swift action On 1 February, Vietnam kicked off a series of initiatives to tackle the spread of COVID-19. It suspended all flights to and from China. It also decided to keep schools closed after the lunar New Year break. Reuters Two weeks later, a 21-day quarantine was imposed in Vinh Phuc province, north of Hanoi. That decision was sparked by concerns over the health status of migrant workers returning from Wuhan, China, where the virus originated. Tracing Methods Vietnam also has used effective tracing methods, from much earlier on in the pandemic that many other countries. It has mobilized huge numbers of people to serve as tracers, making it possible to track down all or nearly all the contacts of infected people, and then to track down the contacts of those contacts, to ensure the virus did not spread. Reuters The fact that Vietnam has a pervasive security state, and can enlist the armed forces (as well as large numbers of civilians) makes it easier for Hanoi to do this kind of public health surveillance. Communication The Vietnamese government went all out in taking the message to the people by all possible mediums including TV, radio, newspapers, internet and mobile phones. A pop song promoted by the government that endorsed hand-washing went viral. Mongolia Containment Strategy and strong steps As early as mid-February, when the new coronavirus was beginning to spread within Chinese borders, the Mongolian governments strategy was to adopt decisive preventative measures. By canceling the national holiday Tsagaan Sar, the Mongolian lunar new year, the country was able to slow travel between Ulaanbaatar and provinces outside the capital. Forbes Additionally, Mongolia closed its borders with China and Russia, stopping the inflow and outflow of people, and banned international flights from hotspots like South Korea. These steps have helped immensely to prevent the spread of COVID-19. New Orleans' police chief praised demonstrators and activists for keeping protests over the killing of George Floyd peaceful in the city in recent days, though on Tuesday he warned about potential criminal activity from outside groups that could aim to infiltrate and cause trouble during upcoming protests. During a press conference Tuesday, NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson expressed concern that "outside agitators" would target New Orleans and its so-far peaceful protests in order to potentially take actions seen in other U.S. cities, which have experienced property destruction, looting and violent confrontations between police and protesters. "There are more protests scheduled to be done. We expect them to be peaceful and we will not, and we shall not, let any outsiders or anyone come into our city and destroy our city," Ferguson said. "So I'm asking you, the city of New Orleans, our community, even our visitors now, please do not take the bait." It wasn't clear from Ferguson's statement whether outside groups had already decided to specifically target New Orleans, or if the information he received was about the targeting of cities with otherwise peaceful protests more generally. It also wasn't clear whether the information came from federal or state authorities, the NOPD or other sources. Still, he asked demonstrators to themselves avoid being taken in by any violent elements, and said that any escalations that turned violent from outside groups or New Orleans residents would be met head-on by police. "We are prepared to discourage them and engage them," he said. As fresh protests began Tuesday evening, some demonstrators deplored Ferguson's choice of words, noting that organizers during the civil-rights movement -- including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -- were often derided by segregationists as "outside agitators." Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up New Orleans residents and local activists are set to continue protesting through the end of the week over the killing of Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man, by police in Minneapolis. Demonstrations over Floyd's videotaped death on Memorial Day have taken place in dozens of U.S. cities, with many escalating into violent clashes between police and protesters that included police firing tear gas, and using pepper spray and other measures. Looting, arson and vandalism have also occurred in some cities amid the chaos. Many public officials across the U.S. have warned about people using the demonstrations as a pretext for looting and property destruction, though police departments have nevertheless faced criticism for strong-armed tactics against peaceful protesters. In New Orleans, thousands have taken to the streets to protest the killing as well as broader issues of police brutality and racism. New Orleans police have thus far taken a largely hands-off approach to the protests, with only a handful of uniformed officers present to block traffic and clear the way for marchers. Police haven't erected barricades or turned out in special equipment, such as riot gear or armored vehicles, as agencies in other cities have done. Perhaps 2,000 protesters marched on Monday evening from City Hall through the French Quarter, chanting Floyd's name and "no justice, no peace, no racist police." WATERLOO Nearly 9,000 students confirmed their offers of admission to attend the University of Waterloo in the fall. Monday was the deadline for incoming first-year students to confirm their admission acceptances. The first-year numbers for Ontario universities were released by the Ontario Universities Application Centre in Guelph to schools on Tuesday. But the figure released 8,816 is not the final number of students for September, said UW associate registrar Andre Jardin. From now until Aug. 1, students can defer their year, postponing their education. Although the number of deferrals for UW and Wilfrid Laurier University are typically low, the total number of students enrolled for September could be lower this year because of COVID-19. Both local universities have said they will offer most of their classes online. Even though the number is encouraging, we dont know what the attrition will be over the summer, Jardin said. Universities say their enrolment numbers could be lower because of financial issues or other family dynamics related to COVID-19. We have put all of our energy in continuing to do what we do well and harnessing new approaches, he said. We are hoping that number is a strong indication of people having confidence that we are going to give them a great fall even if it is not what a graduating high school student anticipated, Jardin said. Laurier is not releasing its first-year accepted offers of admission until Thursday, said spokesperson Kevin Crowley. Madhya Pradesh governments applause for states private hospitals contribution in the fight against Covid-19 has not gone down well with the public health professionals, who claim, it has undermined their efforts, sacrifice and challenges. On Monday, health minister Narottam Mishra attended a function organised by Chirayu Medical College, Bhopal, to mark the recovery of about 1,000 Covid patients at the facility. Mishra showered praises on the medical college chairman Dr Ajay Goenka who he said had rendered a yeoman service to people of Bhopal and added, that Chirayu hospital has become no. 1 in the country to send back a 1,000 patients home after successful treatment. In the health bulletin released on Monday night, Mishras department suggested that the total number of patients discharged from hospitals in Bhopal till date stood at 963. As per health department officials, these 963 patients out of the total 1,515 registered in Bhopal, include 125 patients discharged from AIIMS, Bhopal, about 50 from Hamidia Hospital, 43 from Homoeopathy Medical College and two from a private hospital. Bhopal has registered the second highest number of deaths in the state- 59-- after Indore, which has witnessed 135 deaths as per the health department bulletin. Of the 59 deaths in the city, 38 were reported from Hamidia hospital, 11 from AIIMS, Bhopal and remaining from Chirayu. Ujjain has the third highest number of deaths at 58. For Coronavirus Live Updates The function at Chirayu Hospital, Bhopal was followed by advertisement by Sri Aurobindo Institute of Medical Sciences, Indore on Tuesday, claiming to be only such hospital in the country that has discharged more than 1,600 Covid patients. Notably, the medical college also highlighted a Tweet post of health minister Narottam Mishra, which read, Congratulations to Aurobindo Medical college for remarkable achievements in the field of plasma therapy. This has come as a new ray of hope for treatment of Covid-19. Medical fraternity associated with the public health system reacted to the private medical colleges claims and the state governments support to them with disappointment. We expect of the government to highlight the achievements of the public health system too. The government doctors and other health department personnel have risked their lives during survey, screening, collection of samples, test and treatment, said Dr Devendra Goswami, president of MP Medical Officers Association, Madhya Pradesh. The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19 Dr Jyoti Bindal, dean of MGM Medical College, Indore said, Since more patients were admitted to private medical colleges, the number of recoveries is on the higher side. We are also doing well and there is good recovery (rate) of patients in our medical college also. Dr Pravin Jadia, ex-chief medical and health officer of Indore, agreed with Dr Bindal. Both government and private facilities are giving same medical treatment as per WHO guidelines, but since government hospitals have limited number of beds in comparison to private medical colleges, the number of patients discharged from private facilities is on the higher side, he said. A health department official, who didnt want to be named, said, The government must understand that going gaga over private medical colleges claims without knowing the number of serious patients and asymptomatic ones will adversely affect the morale of the government doctors and the para medical staff. Public health expert Amulya Nidhi said, Its unfortunate that instead of focusing on strengthening the public health system and boosting the morale of its own doctors and para-medical staff, the government is sending out a message that public healthcare system is unable to control the situation and treat the patients. Dr Parag Sharma, spokesperson for Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal said there was a reason for more Covid-19 deaths at Hamidia. Hamidia and AIIMS, Bhopal have been receiving such patients who fall under severe acute respiratory syndrome, right from day one, when many hospitals didnt accept patients with respiratory illness. But, still the death rate of such patients in Hamidia has been about 20% as against 25% to 30% at the global level, Dr Sharma said. A health department official, who was not willing to be named, said, Only health minister can comment on the government affairs. The health minister did not respond to phone calls and text messages. However, state BJP leader Dr Hitesh Bajpai said, Praising private facilities doesnt mean criticising the public health system. From our Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to every citizen in the country, all have appreciated the efforts by our doctors and para medical staff for doing their best. An Australian porn star who gave an impassioned speech on a flight in America about the George Floyd protests was escorted off her plane by police. Elle Knox, 28, was flying on a United Airlines flight from Houston to San Francisco, where she is due to catch a flight home to Sydney on Wednesday. But after seeing the George Floyd protests, she decided to make a stand - addressing all 300 people on her flight about 'police brutality'. 'My flight from Houston to San Francisco just landed,' she explained on Twitter on Tuesday. 'I stood up and said This isnt my country, Im an Australian. But Ive noticed your democracy being threatened. Australian glamour star Elle Knox (pictured) made a stand on a United Airlines flight on Wednesday as she protested against police brutality '"Do not be complacent. Decide what side of history youd like to be on. Now police are coming.' Ms Knox, who regularly posts steamy pictures on her social media pages for fans, insisted she was applauded as she was escorted off the the flight. 'I was told I couldnt make a political statements on a United Airline, I told them this was a human rights statement,' she explained. 'Ive been told I scared people when I made the announcement. Even though everyone applauded me when I was escorted off. 'If I stood up and asked people to wish my friend a happy birthday this wouldnt be an issue.' Ms Knox (pictured before her flight on Wednesday) had been travelling in South America and is heading home to Sydney, but made a stand after watching the George Floyd protests Ms Knox filmed the moment she was interviewed by security (pictured) at San Francisco airport on Wednesday She was questioned at San Francisco airport by police and security, who she claimed threatened to prevent her from boarding her next flight to Sydney on Wednesday. 'Im checked into my hotel, Im safe,' she explained to her fans. 'For many peacefully using their voices tonight they will tear gassed, shot at and arrested. 'Democracy is threatened when people in power set curfews, implement martial law and intimidate with violence. Do not be silent.' In a video posted to her social media pages, she repeated her calls for Americans not to be 'complacent' about the issue as she was questioned by airport officials. They eventually let her go to her airport hotel, agreeing that she will be allowed to board her flight home. Protests have broken out across America in response to the death of a black man in police custody (pictured, demonstrators in Washington on June 2) US president Donald Trump has ordered the National Guard into dozens of cities to quell the protests, with crowds tear gassed by police outside the White House. America is enduring its eighth day of mass protests over the death of unarmed black man George Floyd, who died after a policeman put his knee into his neck for eight minutes. A post-mortem found Mr Floyd's death was a homicide, with his cause of death being 'cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression'. His treatment triggered protests across the country about the treatment of black people by police. A small number of protests have turned violent, something which the porn star also addressed. 'One thing thats a huge waste of my time is arguing with idiots who want to focus on riots,' Knox added. Protesters are seen taking a knee at the State Capitol in Denver, Colorado, on June 1 as demonstrations continue across America Police officer Derek Chauvin is accused of killing George Floyd (pictured) on May 30 in Minneapolis 'Youre right, riots are wrong. Where are the police?! They should be focused on them. 'But they are wrecking [sic] havoc at peaceful protests causing more harm then good. This is the problem.' Shocking footage has emerged both of crowds looting and ransacking local businesses, and also of police using aggressive tactics. 'While people on the street are losing their eyes to rubber bullets, I will not be silent,' Ms Knox added. 'While tear gas is being shot at people, I will not be quiet. 'FYI - Rubber bullets are not used in close combat. Tear gas is banned in warfare, but being used on civilians protesting not rioting.' People are seen joining George Floyd's family at a march on June 2 in downtown Houston (pictured), his hometown Empower has commenced phase three of COVID-19 testing with a successful pilot of business employee testing and outperforms expected May 2020 patient volume with over 2,300 physician-patient consultations. VANCOUVER BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 2nd, 2020 / EMPOWER CLINICS INC. (CSE:CBDT) (OTCQB:EPWCF) (Frankfurt:8EC) ("Empower" or the "Company"), a vertically integrated life sciences company, is pleased to announce that Empower has successfully conducted COVID-19 antibody business employee testing, solidifying the importance of phase three of the testing program. In addition, the Company conducted 2,302 physician-patient consultations setting a new milestone in patient volume for the month of May. "We established a four-phase approach to the roll-out of COVID-19 testing, ensuring operational excellence throughout the launch", said Steven McAuley, Chairman & CEO of Empower. "A positive patient experience is imperative to our success, and therefore, establishing precise disciplined pilot programs that are measured, with quantifiable metrics, insure we can scale effectively." In an effort to bolster the the Sun Valley Health division, we have hired three new call centre specialists, two new clinic technicians and a full-time phlebotomist... a trained specialist in drawing blood samples for testing. "During this time of crisis, our team continues to demonstrate patient advocacy and grows stronger in the face of challenges." said Dustin Klein, SVP Business Development "We continue to see a record number of patients each week, and with the new diversified health and wellness services being offered, we are fortunate to be able to hire new staff." Phase One Testing in clinics in Arizona, utilizing a patient blood draw by clinic phlebotomists, then samples are sent to our laboratory test partner for analysis, with test results expected within 48 hours. This program is active and appointment rates are expanding rapidly. Phase Two Offering a Rapid COVID-19 antibody test with results in 1-15 minutes. The service will be offered in-clinics using a drive-up service, conducted by Company clinic staff. In addition, an outbound door-step service, to support a variety of consumer, patient and community needs will be offered using certified mobile technicians. The online portal is open to book appointments. Phase Three Business Employee Testing (BET) programs, offering Rapid COVID-19 testing to businesses on a one-time basis, repeat basis and/or subscription basis, to assist businesses to get back to work safely, has been offered. The phase three pilot programs have successfully been delivered establishing a new revenue stream for the Company. Phase Four U.S. nationwide roll-out, offering all phases of Company services, that can be accessed online at Company websites and call centers, to purchase Rapid COVID-19 test kits. The Company anticipates phase four services to may commence in Q3 2020. ABOUT EMPOWER Empower is a vertically integrated health & wellness company with a network of corporate and franchised health & wellness clinics in the U.S. The Company is a leading multi-state operator of a network of physician-staffed wellness clinics, focused on helping patients improve and protect their health, through innovative physician recommended treatment options. The Company has launched Dosed Wellness Ltd. to connect its significant data, to the potential of the efficacy of alternative treatment options related to hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD) therapies, psilocybin and other psychedelic plant-based treatment options. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Steven McAuley Chief Executive Officer CONTACTS: Investors: Steven McAuley Chairman & CEO s.mcauley@empowerclinics.com 604-789-2146 Investors: Dustin Klein SVP, Business Development dustin@svmmjcc.com 720-352-1398 For French inquiries: Remy Scalabrini, Maricom Inc., E: rs@maricom.ca, T: (888) 585-MARI DISCLAIMER FOR FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This news release contains certain "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" (collectively "forward looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws.All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release.Forward-looking statements can frequently be identified by words such as "plans", "continues", "expects", "projects", "intends", "believes", "anticipates", "estimates", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or information that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements regarding: the Company's expected timing of filing of its Annual Filings, the Company's intention to create psilocybin and psychedelics divisions, that market research on advancements in psilocybin and psychedelics in North America and globally will create greater shareholder value, the Company's intention to open a hemp-based CBD extraction facility, the expected benefits to the Company and its shareholders as a result of the proposed acquisitions and partnerships; the effectiveness of the extraction technology; the expected benefits for Empower's patient base and customers; the benefits of CBD based products; the effect of the approval of the Farm Bill; the growth of the Company's patient list and that the Company will be positioned to be a market-leading service provider for complex patient requirements in 2019 and beyond; the ability of the Company to complete or execute phases One, Two, Three or Four of COVID-19 test programs, and Psychedelic substances remain illegal in most countries, so please reference your local laws in relation to medical or recreational use. Such statements are only projections, are based on assumptions known to management at this time, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, including; that the Company may not open a hemp-based CBD extraction facility; that legislative changes may have an adverse effect on the Company's business and product development; that the Company may not be able to obtain adequate financing to pursue its business plan; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; failure to obtain any necessary approvals in connection with the proposed acquisitions and partnerships; and other factors beyond the Company's control. No assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will occur or, if they do occur, what benefits the Company will obtain from them. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements in this release, which are qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. The Company is under no obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statements in this release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable laws. SOURCE: Empower Clinics Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/592394/Empower-Covid-19-Testing-Expands-to-Phase-Three-and-May-2020-Patient-Visits-Exceed-Expectations STAMFORD A shooting spate around Stamford continued over the weekend when a Bridgeport man was shot at the Southwood Square Apartments a little more than an hour after police broke up a street party on Pequot Drive. Lt. Tom Scanlon said police were called to the emergency room at Stamford Hospital at 11:32 p.m. Sunday on the report of a shooting victim being brought there by a private vehicle. The gunman is still at large. When they got there they found a 24-year-old Bridgeport man who said that he was with some other people at 41 Pequot Drive when he heard gunshots. As he was running to his car he realized he had been shot in the leg and was dropped off at the hospital. Obviously we are following up but there is no suspect information at this time, said Scanlon, adding that the man was shot in the left thigh. The incident came an hour and 20 minutes after police were called to break up a group of 60 to 70 people playing loud music and smoking marijuana at the same location. Two men were arrested on drug and interfering charges. The shooting follows three other shooting incidents from the past week, two of which could have some connection to Sunday nights shooting, although police say there remains much to be learned about the situation. A week ago Monday night police found about 20 shell casings from multiple semiautomatic pistols at the end of Connecticut Avenue near the border with Greenwich. Another shootout involving a moving car occurred 24 hours earlier at Lockwood Avenue and William Street, police said. One man was shot in the leg at the Connecticut Avenue incident while no injuries were reported the night before. A third shooting incident from last week involved a man who police say was high ion PCP allegedly shooting onto Interstate-95. That incident was not related to the others, police said. Where the Connecticut Avenue and Lockwood Avenue shootings are concerned, police say there might be a connection, as yet unknown. I think I can say we are having difficulty determining with much certainty that they are related. But the frequency of the shootings in the recent weeks are making us believe there is a connection, Scanlon said. But we are still working through the details to understand what is behind this rash of violence better. Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call Sgt. Sean Boeger at 203 977-4417. jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 2) The Department of Health set the record straight on Tuesday, asserting that it is not hiding real data on cases of coronavirus disease. We did not withhold any report or any numbers. Lahat parin inilalabas, naglagay lang tayo ng bagong (We publicly report everything. We just included new) classifications, Health spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire told reporters in a media forum. The DOH sparked confusion when it changed the way it presents the COVID-19 case tally last week, separating "fresh" cases or validated positive results reported within the last three days from "late" cases which refer to test results released four days or more after the announcement. The department said it had come up with such a breakdown to clarify that the sudden and sharp spike in infections reported in recent days is an artificial rise, as the countrys COVID-19 testing centers and the DOH work round the clock to clear their backlogs. Vergeire explained there are two backlogs: test backlogs, which are samples left unprocessed or without results 48 to 72 hours after they were taken to laboratories, and validation backlogs, which is a verification process to avoid over-reporting due to repeat tests. Accredited COVID-19 testing centers have backlogs of 1,691 tests as of 6 p.m. on Monday, Vergeire added. The health official said there are now 49 health facilities which could process tests for COVID-19. These centers have the capability to conduct more than 34,000 tests, according to Presidential spokesman Harry Roque. But that is not maximized due to operational issues, Vergeire said. Vergeire also said that the medical supply chain problem is a major limiting factor on how many tests can be done. To date, actual coronavirus tests done per day are between 8,000 and 9,000, she added. Several government officials have criticized the new case reporting system of the DOH, with an opposition lawmaker saying the department may be hiding the real data on cases. If the DOH could not provide logical explanations for this, except for putting the blame on laboratories, then there is a reason to believe that it is underreporting COVID-19 cases. That is not only counter-productive because hiding the real data could be fatal, opposition Senator Franklin Drilon said in a statement on Monday. In a tweet on Saturday, Sorsogon Governor Chiz Escudero told the DOH not to fudge the figures as he conjectured that new classifications may be the agencys ego saving devices. However, Vergeire acknowledged that the new case reports may have caused confusion, but she said this is just temporary, as they would go back to their old system of reporting once they have validated all the test backlogs. She added that Philippines is not the only country, which faces challenges in its data system, citing the case of China and Spain. Union minister Jitendra Singh on Tuesday said that the first-of-its-kind Katra-Delhi Express Road Corridor will be ready in three years and was likely to become functional by 2023. This will reduce the road travel time from Katra to Delhi to around six and a half hours, and from Jammu to Delhi to just about six hours, he said in a statement issued here. After a meeting with Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari, Singh said, the 575km-long express road corridor will cost over 35,000 crore and it will connect Katra to Delhi via Amritsar. Enroute, the other important cities that it will touch include Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Ludhiana in Punjab and, Kathua and Jammu. It is pertinent to mention that Singh, who is a member of parliament (Lok Sabha) representing Katra Vaishno Devi, had been pursuing this project since 2015 and had for the first time about three and half years ago announced during a programme at Katra that he had submitted a proposal to this effect which had been accepted by the Gadkari but it would take time because of procedural issues like survey, land acquisition, forest clearance, etc. However, Singh said that after the completion of the survey by M/S Feedback Consultants Ltd, the process of acquisition of land is nearly complete in the Haryana part of the corridor and will now be taken up in the Punjab area and thereafter in the Jammu and Kashmir segment. The formal approval of the proposal had already been obtained from the Jammu and Kashmir administration and now it has also been obtained from the Punjab government. The unique feature of this road corridor is that it will connect the two holy cities of Katra and Amritsar, and at the same time also offer connectivity for some of the important religious shrines between the two destinations. RICHMOND, Va., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Lower-cost, high-quality radiology services are coming to Richmond with the opening of two new medical facilities. Dominion Imaging and Virginia Interventional & Vascular Associates (VIVA) began seeing patients June 1 in their new offices at 6600 West Broad St. "We determined there was a need for high-value outpatient diagnostic and interventional radiology services in the area based on feedback from Richmond residents who said they wanted more affordable options locally that still maintained high standards of quality," said Christopher Snyder, COO of their parent company. The new offices are near the I-64/West Broad/Glenside Drive interchange in a building that is home to other medical specialists. Dominion Imaging (dominionimaging.com) provides diagnostic radiology services including X-ray and ultrasound. Dominion also has future plans to add additional outpatient imaging services, Snyder said. VIVA (vivarichmond.com) offers outpatient interventional radiology services including, but not limited to, treatments for varicose veins, chronic pain, uterine fibroids, dialysis access management, and peripheral artery disease, as well as vascular ultrasound exams. Physicians working on-site for both groups are fellowship-trained and board-certified. A number of physicians serving the facilities have strong local ties as area residents or graduates of Virginia Commonwealth University and are members of the Richmond Academy of Medicine. Additionally, breast-imaging subspecialists in the group provide services locally to the Virginia Women's Center. Among the physicians providing services at Dominion Imaging are Dr. Narinder Sethi, medical director, and Drs. Roni Talukdar and David L. Glasser. VIVA's team of providers includes Dr. R. Donald Doherty Jr., medical director, Drs. John J. McLaughlin, Samer Hijaz and Gustavo Elias, and Nurse Practitioner Allison Beasley. Referring physicians can consult with physicians at either facility by contacting the groups' concierge, who is listed on their websites. The facilities planned to open earlier this spring but decided to delay appointments due to the pandemic. Both are following recommended Covid-19 precautions based on the latest medical guidance, Snyder added. To reach Dominion Imaging or VIVA Richmond, contact: Dominion Imaging dominionimaging.com 804-486-4635 [email protected] VIVA Richmond vivarichmond.com 804-486-4625 [email protected] SOURCE Dominion Imaging; Virginia Interventional & Vascular Associates Richmond Related Links http://dominionimaging.com Reported civilian casualties in Libya have surged over the past year amid a prolonged battle for the capital, Tripoli, with forces believed to be linked to a warlord based in the eastern part of the country responsible for most noncombatant deaths, a new study has found. The analysis by the New America Foundation and Airwars, which tracks allegations of civilian deaths, showed that forces associated with military leader Khalifa Hifter were believed to be responsible for the majority of reported casualties. Airstrikes and civilian deaths have increased dramatically since Hifter's Libyan National Army launched an operation to take Tripoli in April 2019 from the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA). According to Airwars, at least 429 of the estimated minimum of 727 civilian deaths since 2012, or about 60%, are believed to have taken place since the offensive began. Airwars assigned responsibility to Hifter's group or affiliated forces for at least 270 of the deaths since the start of the Tripoli battle while saying the GNA and affiliated forces were believed to be responsible for 95. In its report titled "Airstrikes, Proxy Warfare and Civilian Casualties," an advance copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, New America found that most of the strikes conducted in Libya since 2019 have been concentrated in the Tripoli area, a change from previous years when they mostly targeted areas populated by suspected Islamist extremists including Benghazi, Derna and Sirte. The shifting nature of the Libyan conflict is another illustration of the failed promise of Libya's 2011 revolution, when many Libyans hoped that the ouster of longtime authoritarian Moammar Gadhafi would yield new openness, stability and prosperity. Instead the country descended into a tangled civil conflict in which competing administrations in the east and west claim legitimacy as they vie for control of oil and other resources. The strife has allowed criminal networks to prey on migrants and extremist groups to flourish, as took place when the Islamic State established one of its most organized and brutal affiliates in 2015. There have been more than 4,000 airstrikes by all parties since 2012, the report found. On Sunday, five people were reported to have died after an artillery strike on a Tripoli park, Reuters reported. The conflict has also given rise to an increasingly complex competition between countries with perceived interests in Libya, pulling in an array of nations that have provided military and other support - most frequently behind the scenes - to both sides despite a United Nations arms embargo. According to New America and Airwars, at least seven countries have conducted airstrikes in Libya since 2012. Foreign supporters to Hifter's faction, the LNA, are believed to include Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, emboldening the LNA to seek a military victory. "Hiftar's ability to attract foreign backing has amplified the LNA's military capabilities," the report said. Last week U.S. Africa Command took the unusual step of publicly condemning the Russian government for allegedly sending advanced fighter jets to Libya to assist the LNA. U.S. officials have also linked the Russian government to the presence alongside the LNA of fighters for the Wagner Group, a private army. Russian officials denied the charge. Foreign support to the U.N.-backed government, the GNA, meanwhile is believed to have increased this year as Turkey has begun to openly provide fighters and aid in an attempt to stave off an LNA capture of Tripoli. Both sides employ paid fighters from a number of countries, including Syria. In another example of the murky nature of the war, The Washington Post last year reported that a U.S. Air Force veteran apparently working as a contractor for the GNA was captured by the LNA and held for six weeks in 2019 before being released. Identifying responsibility for individual airstrikes is difficult in Libya given that many countries do not publicly acknowledge their role in the conflict, but researchers say they attempt to do so by using information that includes the target and the kind of weapon or aircraft involved. While Libyan combatants have had access to aircraft from Gadhafi's aging fleet, it's not clear how much of that remains after years of fighting. The UAE, for example, is believed to have provided Chinese-made drones while Turkey is believed to have provided Turkish-made drones. The report cites an unnamed Turkish government official who said Turkish personnel have been sent to Libya to train and advise GNA forces but denied that Turkey is directly conducting military strikes. The report also identifies a surge in strikes in 2019 attributed to the United Arab Emirates. Authorities from that country declined to comment. A recent U.N. report likewise warned of continued civilian harm as a result of every category of armed activity, documenting at least 64 noncombatant deaths in the first three months of this year. The United Nations blamed the LNA for 81% of those casualties. While President Barack Obama's administration backed the NATO-led intervention in 2011, Libya has not ranked among top U.S. foreign policy priorities in the years since. New America and Airwars found that the U.S. role in alleged civilian casualties since 2012 has been relatively small despite a major military operation conducted in 2016 against Islamic State fighters in the coastal city of Sirte. According to estimates in the report, the United States conducted 550 strikes between 2012 and February 2020, mostly targeting the Islamic State, killing at least 11 people. U.S. Africa Command has not acknowledged any civilian casualties in Libya. - - - The Washington Post's Julie Vitkovskaya contributed to this report. Economic activity in the U.S. manufacturing sector contracted for the third straight month in May amid mounting COVID-19 fallout, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) reported Monday. The Purchasing Managers' Index stood at 43.1 percent in May, up 1.6 percentage points from the April reading, which was the lowest level since April 2009. Any reading below 50 percent indicates the manufacturing sector is generally contracting. "Three months into the manufacturing disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, comments from the panel were cautious regarding the near-term outlook," Timothy Fiore, chair of the ISM's manufacturing business survey committee, said in a statement. Noting that the pandemic impacted all manufacturing sectors, Fiore said "May appears to be a transition month, as many panelists and their suppliers returned to work late in the month." "However, demand remains uncertain, likely impacting inventories, customer inventories, employment, imports and backlog of orders," he said. Among the six biggest industry sectors, Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products remains the only industry in expansion, according to the report. Transportation Equipment, Petroleum & Coal Products, and Fabricated Metal Products continue to contract at "strong levels," Fiore said. Despite the continued contraction, Tim Quinlan, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities, wrote in an analysis that "a reading of 43.1 in May versus 41.5 in April tells us that the pace of decline is slowing." "After some of the worst months on record, this is a step in a better direction," Quinlan said, while noting that "there are certainly challenges ahead." "Supply chain disruptions and implementation of new social-distancing protocols in factories and workshops not just in the United States, but around the world, likely mean that the recovery here will take longer than the quicker turnaround we expect to see in consumer spending," he said. A business executive from the Transportation Equipment industry also highlighted the new protocols, saying in the ISM report that social distancing measures in the manufacturing plant and customer demand are "impacting the rate of production." "Despite the COVID-19 issues, we are seeing an increase of quoting activity. This has not turned into orders yet, but it is a positive sign," a business executive from the Computer & Electronic Products industry said. The U.S. Commerce Department reported on Thursday that economic activity in the first quarter contracted at an annual rate of 5 percent in a second estimate, 0.2 percentage point lower than the advance estimate. That downwardly revised figure, however, still does not fully capture COVID-19's economic damage, and many analysts believe that the decline in the second quarter is expected to be much deeper. U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell recently said the unemployment rate could peak around 20 percent or 25 percent, and the U.S. economy could shrink dramatically in the second quarter, at an annualized rate of more than 20 percent or 30 percent. In a virtual discussion held by Princeton University on Friday, the central bank chief said he was concerned about a second wave of COVID-19 infections, which he believed would dampen consumer confidence and hurt economic recovery. Actor Kangana Ranaut has slammed her Bollywood contemporaries for failing to condemn local injustices, but not hesitating before commenting on the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. Several actors such as Priyanka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor Khan have expressed their anguish on social media, about the killing of a black man by a white policeman, which has resulted in mass protests across the US. Also read: Kangana Ranaut lashes out at Bollywood actors silence over CAA protests, calls them sissies, cowards, spineless In an interview to Pinkvilla, Kangana said, The Sadhu lynching happened a couple of weeks ago; still no one said a word. It happened in Maharashtra where most of these celebrities resideBollywood anyway is a derived name from Hollywood. It is a shame they [Bollywood celebrities] continue to live in a bubble and never fail to jump on the bandwagon, which can give them two minutes of fame, but white people must drive the bandwagon. Perhaps, it is because of their pre-independence colonial slavery genes. Several social media users have made similar observations about Bollywood stars. Politician Omar Abdullah had written on Twitter, So much respect for all the celebrities tweeting #BLACK_LIVES_MATTER. It takes courage to bring your cowardice to the fore when you tweet for American lives but cant tweet for Indian lives. Also read: Step inside Kangana Ranauts elegant office-cum-studio in Mumbais plush Pali Hill. Watch video Kangana continued, Even for environmental issues, you see them fight for a white teenage kid but so many incredible elderly women and even children. They are doing exceptionally well in India on environmental matters without any help or support. Some of them were honoured with the Padma Shri award. I was amazed to see their stories, but they never get the same acknowledgement from the industry. Perhaps, sadhus or tribal people arent fancy enough for the Bollywood crowd or their followers. Kangana had previously slammed her Bollywood colleagues for their perceived silence over recent protests which were organised against the Citizenship Amendment Act, calling a section of the industry sissies, cowards and spineless. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON * Brazil's real up 2.8%, Colombian peso at 3-week high * Argentina extends debt restructuring deadline to June 12 * Analysts see Mexican peso outperforming in near-term By Susan Mathew June 2 (Reuters) - Latin American currencies rallied on Tuesday with Mexico's peso hitting 11-week highs as hopes of recovery from a likely deep recession buoyed sentiment. Regional stocks surged, tracking a higher open on Wall Street. Brazil's Bovespa index scaled 12-week highs, while Mexican stocks hit three-week highs. Mexico's peso rose 2%, extending gains to an 11th session in 12 against a weaker dollar. The peso has gained about 10% over the period with analysts expecting the currency to outperform regional peers in the short term as it benefits from global growth momentum as economies reopen. Given that monetary and fiscal measures have postponed near-term funding distress, it is possible to position for a recovery in emerging markets from March lows, said Goldman Sachs analysts, pointing to the Mexican peso and the Bovespa as Latam beneficiaries. Rising oil prices lifted Colombia's peso to near three-month highs, while Brazil's real led gains in Latam, up 2.8%. Brazil's government launched a new emergency credit line of 20 billion reais ($3.73 billion) to help small and mid-sized companies. But, the economic outlook for Latam's largest economy continued to be bleak, with the country's treasury department expecting Brazil to end 2020 with debt at 94% of GDP unless the government shows commitment to fiscal reforms. An ongoing federal investigation into Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro added to woes. The speaker of Brazil's lower house of Congress on Monday did not dismiss the possibility of opening impeachment proceedings against Bolsonaro. Argentina, meanwhile, extended the deadline to restructure its $65 billion sovereign debt to June 12 and said it may sweeten its most recent offer to creditors. The country is already in default after having missed an interest payment extension on May 22. The government may improve its offer less than what creditors expect, given the International Monetary Fund's backing for its current deal, Citigroup analysts said. "But this argument is unlikely to be very effective as the IMF's debt sustainability assessment treats Argentina's macroeconomic policies as exogenous, which is obviously not the case," they said. Concerns also stem from the widening gap between the official and black market rate of the Argentine peso. The currency is being held artificially high by strict currency controls, even as fears over the economy and demand for dollars drive unofficial rates to record lows. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1430 GMT: Stock indexes Latest Daily % change MSCI Emerging Markets 968.44 1.78 MSCI LatAm 1894.62 4.02 Brazil Bovespa 89996.63 1.55 Mexico IPC 37618.38 1.72 Chile IPSA 3772.83 2.36 Argentina MerVal 41223.64 3.015 Colombia COLCAP 1124.18 0.64 Currencies Latest Daily % change Brazil real 5.2350 2.79 Mexico peso 21.5960 1.98 Chile peso 780.9 1.61 Colombia peso 3649.6 1.66 Peru sol 3.4037 0.47 Argentina peso 68.7000 -0.10 (interbank) (Reporting by Susan Mathew in Bengaluru;) Paul Mescal has admitted the popularity of the chain he wore while filming BBC drama Normal People was the last thing he was expecting. The actor, 24, wore a silver 'Argos' chain around his neck in many scenes throughout the show, and the item has now amassed an Instagram following of 175,000. Paul, who plays Connell Waldron on the show, has since raffled a similar chain for charity Pieta House and managed to raise 55,000 euros (49k) for the organisation. Shock: Paul Mescal has admitted the popularity of the chain he wore while filming BBC drama Normal People was the last thing he was expecting Speaking on 'The Ryan Tubridy Show' on RTE Radio One, he said: 'It definitely wasn't on the list of things I thought people would notice. 'It's kind of grown arms and legs. It kind of became its own entity, and I'm raffling off one of my own chains for Pieta House.' Paul has donated one of his chains to raise money for the charity Pieta House and proceeds will go to Pieta's work in providing free therapy to those engaging in self-harm, with suicidal ideation, or bereaved by suicide. The raffle has already raised almost 55,000 euro and Paul said: 'I couldn't have imagined that response. Chain reaction: The actor, 24, wore a silver 'Argos' chain around his neck in many scenes throughout the show, and the item has now amassed an Instagram following of 175,000 'It shows the popularity of the chain and the show itself. Obviously I'm over the moon, and eternally grateful to everybody who's donated.' Paul recently revealed he had a number of reasons for choosing Pieta House to donate to. He said: 'I am delighted to be able to help out Pieta by raffling off my chain that has taken on a following of its own since Normal People hit television screens. 'Pieta is a cause very close to my heart, having experienced loss due to suicide in my local town while growing up. Proving popular! Paul, who plays Connell Waldron on the show, has since raffled a similar chain for charity Pieta House and managed to raise 55,000 euros (49k) for the organisation 'Episode 10 of Normal People also touches upon depression and suicidal ideation, so it seemed like a very special partnership to want to help those in similar situations. I want to play my part in helping sustain these free services across Ireland.' Paul has also helped to raise the profile of Irish sportswear company O'Neills after his character donned the brand's shorts on the show. Paul has also been papped wearing the shorts in real life and he is bemused by their popularity. He said: 'It's hilarious. I'm aware that, sometimes on my way to the shops I'm being photographed. 'But, to be honest, there's no better item to be photographed in than a pair of Maynooth GAA shorts.' Co-star: Paul starred in Normal People alongside co-star Daisy Edgar-Jones Posting on Instagram last month, Paul said he was keen to raise funds for the mental health charity, following his acclaimed portrayal of depression in the show. 'In light of ep 9 and 10 airing on BBC and RTE today and tomorrow, episodes that deal with mental health and suicide, I've decided to support @pieta.house,' Paul told his followers. Tagging jewellery brand Roxanne First, the actor continued: 'I've personally seen the amazing work this charity has done in terms of helping those in need. I will be raffling one of my chains by @roxannefirst and all proceeds will be going to pieta. Anything you can do to support will be greatly appreciated.' Within just a few hours of Paul's auction going live, the total raised had already reached over 11,000 Euros. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 06:27:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Video: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio tells his daily press briefing on June 1, 2020, New York, the United States, that he is planning to discuss with other officials about a potential curfew, after several nights of chaos have emerged in protests over the death of Minnesota black man George Floyd. (Xinhua) "While we encourage people to protest peacefully and make their voices heard, the safety of the general public is paramount and cannot be compromised," says the governor of New York. NEW YORK, June 1 (Xinhua) -- New York City will be under a curfew on Monday night to curb violent protests following the death of black man George Floyd, according to a joint statement by Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday. The curfew will run from 11 p.m. Monday (0300 GMT on Tuesday) to 5 a.m. Tuesday (0900 GMT), according to the statement. "While we encourage people to protest peacefully and make their voices heard, the safety of the general public is paramount and cannot be compromised," said the governor in the statement. A screengrab from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's Twitter account shows that he tweets on June 1, 2020, "There will be a citywide curfew in NYC starting at 11:00 p.m. TONIGHT (6/1) lasting until 05:00 a.m." and demonstrates the text of his joint statement with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio about the curfew. (Xinhua) Cuomo and de Blasio also announced that the New York City Police Department (NYPD) will double its police presence in all five boroughs to help prevent violence and property damage during demonstrations. They also urged protesters to cover their faces as the city remains the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. "I support and protect peaceful protest in this city. The demonstrations we've seen have been generally peaceful. We can't let violence undermine the message of this moment," said de Blasio in the statement. Demonstrators protest over the death of George Floyd in New York, the United States, May 31, 2020. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua) Some 40 cities across the United States have imposed curfews to curb acts of violence in extensive demonstrations against police brutality and racism. Earlier on Monday, de Blasio said at his daily briefing that he is planning to talk with other officials on a potential curfew in the nation's largest city. Over the past four days, some 1,000 protesters were arrested in New York City for looting, attacking police or vandalism, among other acts. Police officers stand guard outside a store during a protest against police brutality in Manhattan of New York, the United States, May 31, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Ying) More than 40 police officers have been injured since Thursday, none with serious injuries, according to NYPD officials. Meanwhile, the NYPD is also under criticism due to some seemingly excessive moves in several encounters with the protesters, such as accelerating their cars while being surrounded by crowds of people. The mayor said in the statement that he had talked to NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea about the incidents in recent days "where officers didn't uphold the values of this city or the NYPD," adding that the commissioner would elaborate on how officers will be held accountable later. At a time when maintaining required social distancing is a dilemma occupying much of the hospitality industry, a new technology launched this week seems well placed to assist its recovery. The GPS app, which is the first of its kind in the Irish marketplace, allows business owners to document and broadcast their venues compliance standards and the availability of space on their premises to their customer base. The technology equips patrons with the knowledge needed to make real-time decisions around where they can go to socialise safely. Publicans, restaurateurs and so many other business owners throughout the country are preparing to get back to work, but they are struggling to see how they can maintain compliance standards and still operate their business, while keeping costs down, explains Ordee co-founder Anthony Cronin. When the time comes, people will be itching to get out and socialise again - but there is a consistent air of concern amongst the public as to how they can do this safely. "With Ordee we have basically taken these key obstacles that businesses are facing, developed solutions to address them, and centralised these solutions in one easy to use app. Potential customers can check venues in real time to see which currently has space, and can book based on availability. Once the user chooses a venue and arrives at the location, they receive a notification to confirm they are there and how many people are in their party, in which case the app will update the venues status accordingly. The app can also be used to order and pay for drinks and food. In its first week, 200 businesses signed up to arrange a demo of the software. People are cognisant of the fact that they dont want their behaviour, or the behaviour of others, to put themselves or others in jeopardy. "The Ordee app is designed to go some way to alleviating these concerns. Because the app is deemed an e-commerce solution, businesses may be able to avail of the LEO Trading Online Voucher to do so. Cashflow is very tight for most businesses at the moment and compliance with Covid-19 protocols is going to incur additional costs. To offset these, the Government have put in place supports - one of which is the Local Enterprise Trading Online grant and businesses can use it to sign up for Ordee. If your application is accepted, LEO will fund 90% of the cost of the platform for your business. While there are terms and conditions, the process is very simple and effective. The Ordee software emerged from a previous product developed by Anthony and his co-founder, Criostoir OCodlatain Lachtna, called Wowit in 2016. The geolocation app was designed to allow consumers find things to do in their immediate vicinity, and was a finalist in the Waterford best young entrepreneur competition. The pair also developed the award winning payroll app, Flexiwage, a HPSU client with Enterprise Ireland operating in Ireland the UK and Australia with over 15,000 users a month. Flexiwage allows employees to schedule their wages, without impacting on an employers monthly processing schedule. We were able to use the infrastructure and development already completed on Wowit, which saved us months in development time and also insured that the product was robust upon release as the infrastructure has been tested vigorously already. "We have been inundated by requests for Ordee demos and the reaction has been very positive. We have partnered up with the Restaurants Association of Ireland and are beginning demos for their members next week. "The feedback is that this is exactly what is required for them to get back to work safely and compliantly and open as soon as possible, he added. With careful customer flow and the management of safe practices amongst the key issues facing the hospitality industry, the Ordee app is designed to allow venues broadcast their compliance to both customers and government regulations. The queuing features can be used for both crowd management coming into the venue as well as queues for toilet facilities. "No contact ordering and payments are also sent through the app, helping staff to cut down on the difficulty of maintaining socials distancing while serving the customers. The cloud-based platform allows staff log in from any of their own devices to receive notifications, accept or reject bookings and manually update capacity for customers who do not have the app. Capacity can also be divided to maintain available spaces for walk-ins and regulars. In the ever-evolving Covid-19 landscape, the Ordee developers aim to tweak the app further in response to potential industry demands. "As a result of the developing situation weve made the product responsive to changes, and can be updated as required. "The reporting which may be required by authorities is one of the major pieces of feedback we have received, and as a result weve developed a reporting suite for the system in order to show compliance. Another piece of feedback that we have taken on board is the flow of people once they are inside the venue and how to manage this. "We are working with Blackrock hurling club on features such as queuing for the bathroom and checklists which can be rolled out into the app in a future release. "Unfortunately this new normal looks like it will be with us for some time and we will have to evolve along with it, he says. However, while the operation of the Irish pub may have to change with the new safety requirements, Anthony does not subscribe to the idea that this most visible aspect of our culture is now in decline: Hospitality is in our DNA and we are world renowned for it. Im sure if we all work together we will all come out the other side of this and be socialising again and be back stronger than ever. "The current focus has to be on getting as many businesses as possible back on track, he believes, adding that the government will have to play a major role in this in working innovative technologies and solutions to help businesses get back on track and reopen safely. Obviously these are very unprecedented times which nobody could of envisaged even a few months ago. "Ireland as a country and people have responded well during this crisis and although there will no doubt be tough times ahead in the short term, our resilience as a people will see us come back again in all aspects of our economy, not just hospitality. Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, pictured this evening at a Covid -19 update press conference at the Department of Health. Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin People should limit themselves to one intimate partner to reduce spread of Covid-19, chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said this evening. He was asked if he agreed with the advice from the public health team to people in the Netherlands to limit themselves to one partner. He said "that is good public health advice" as a precaution against the transmission of infections generally. Dr Holohan said there was no specific advice around Covid-19 regarding intimate contact for people who are in relationship and live in different houses. We know that is a challenge for people, he said and that there are general guidelines which they can refer to on engagements between different households. He was speaking as the downward trend in the spread of the virus continued. However it has claimed the lives of eight more people, bringing the death toll here to 1,658 . Another ten people, the lowest since March, were confirmed with having the virus, pushing the number of infections to 25,066 here so far. The HSE is working to identify any contacts the patients may have had to provide them with information and advice to prevent further spread. Asked about the Black Lives Matter protest in Dublin on Monday Dr Holohan said that it was not the time to be attending events that could be classed as mass gatherings, however well intentioned they are. He said that although Covid-19 has been suppressed within the community, it still poses a threat to the lives of many people. The public health advice is clear on mass gatherings, and they are not appropriate at the moment. Its too early. Now is not the time to be attending such events. Read More People who attended should beware of the symptoms of the virus if they develop them, he added. Over the past week there have been approximately 500 new cases of Covid-19 notified, 54pc of which are aged between 24-55 years old. Incidences of these cases are spread across 21 counties in Ireland. While we are doing well, the potential for spread remains present across all regions of the country. NPHET will meet on Thursday and submit further recommendations to Government for consideration. Dr Cillian De Gascun of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, said: As of midnight Monday, 348,416 tests have been carried out. Over the past week, 22,621 tests were carried out and of these 389 were positive, giving a positivity rate of 1.7pc. Ronan Glynn, Deputy Chief Medical Office warned that 47pc of people are taking longer than four days from onset of symptoms to being swabbed. We are strongly encouraging all members of the public to know the symptoms of Covid-19 and seek medical attention as soon as symptoms appear. Meanwhile the Oireachtas committee on Covid-19 was told that one in three people every week coming here from abroad on an airplane are not responding to calls to check if they are self isolating as they are advised. UW Releases Plan for Fall Semester Return The University of Wyoming has released a draft plan to restart on-campus educational experiences this fall, including measures to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission and a mixture of in-person and online courses. The university is accepting public comment on the plan, which could be adjusted before it is presented to the UW Board of Trustees during its regular teleconference meeting June 10. It has become clear that our students and our state are depending upon the university to return to some semblance of normalcy this fall, and this plan charts a course to do so as safely as is reasonably possible, Acting President Neil Theobald says. There are risks associated with bringing students back to campus, but the risks of not doing so are greater. We intend to do what we can to minimize the risks for our students, faculty, staff and state. Under the plan, UW would maintain a 15-week semester, with classes beginning Aug. 24 and ending Dec. 4. Students would not return to campus after Thanksgiving; all courses would move to fully online instruction beginning Nov. 23, and final exams would take place through distance technologies. The two-day midsemester break and three days before Thanksgiving would be converted to instructional days. Additionally, the spring 2021 semester would start Jan. 25, one week later than had been planned, and spring break would be eliminated. The idea with these schedule changes is to reduce the risk inherent with students leaving campus during the semester, then returning from other locations where the coronavirus may be prevalent, Theobald says. The plan sets the stage for faculty members and academic departments to develop the best mix of in-person and online instruction, with classrooms scheduled to provide for social distancing. Every student would be offered a combination of online and face-to-face learning to allow for greatest flexibility to provide students the in-person experience. The plan establishes a goal of requiring students and employees to be tested for COVID-19, and provide results, within 14 days before they return to Albany County (or Natrona County for UW-Casper). Those testing positive would have to self-isolate for 14 days and be retested before returning to campus or work. Online COVID-19 training also would be developed for students and employees to take before the semester begins. During the semester, all employees and students would be required to conduct daily temperature and symptom checks, self-reporting through a phone app that will be made available by the university. While in communal spaces on campus, students and employees would be required to wear face coverings, provided by the university; comply with social distancing guidelines; and limit gatherings. Visitors would be encouraged to do the same. Students and employees developing symptoms that might indicate COVID-19 infection would be required to immediately report to health care providers, self-isolate and submit to a coronavirus test. Ultimately, personal responsibility is the key for us to have a successful semester from a public health standpoint, Theobald says. We will be counting on everyone to contribute to the well-being of our community. The plan also provides for extensive physical modifications to ensure adequate social distancing and reduce density. Those may include suspending the use of small classrooms and meeting rooms; spaced seating on rooms that are used; designating entrance and exit areas in highly trafficked spaces such as the Classroom Building and the Wyoming Union; turning off communal water fountains; and installation of protective equipment. Enhanced cleaning and sanitizing of high-touch surfaces also are part of the plan. Work is underway to convert residence hall rooms to single rooms, and to modify the residential dining plan to facilitate social distancing. To see the complete draft plan, go to www.uwyo.edu/trustees/_files/docs/2020-board-meeting-materials/2020_june_supplemental/campusreopeningplan-06.02.20_draft.pdf. Input is being accepted through Friday, June 5, at this online portal. The plan is based on the work of over 100 faculty members, staff, students and administrators in five working groups that have focused on topics including scheduling and instructional delivery; research; social structure; university operations; personnel policies; and community/state interaction. The plan is designed to be adaptable to allow for up-to-date information and changing conditions. Implementation would require the university to secure federal funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act through the state of Wyoming. This will be a heavy lift for everyone, and we will continue to work on many details, but we are on track to be ready for a successful fall semester, Theobald says. Theres no way to guarantee the health and safety of everyone, but this plan puts us on a path to limit the spread of COVID-19 in the UW community while delivering a quality educational experience. To keep the same children with the same teachers in groups of 10 or less, a recommendation by many states, some day cares are limiting the number of kids in attendance and shortening their hours. In some cases, administrative staff has stepped in to cover teacher breaks. The concept of a floater has been eliminated, said Stephen Kramer, the chief executive officer of Bright Horizons, the Boston-based child care company that has kept 150 of its centers across the country open throughout the pandemic. Teachers are also setting up classrooms differently, removing soft toys and dress-up clothes that would need laundering and divvying up supplies for children so they can have individual boxes of crayons, markers, tape, scissors and Play-Doh. At some centers and schools, isolation rooms have been set aside for a child to stay in and await pickup if he or she gets sick. Lunch and snacks that were served family style before are now individually portioned out into foam containers or plastic cups. Some schools have even eliminated lunchboxes, finding it too difficult to disinfect the nooks and crannies, and asked parents to send food in brown paper bags. It seems ridiculous its come down to what kind of lunchbox you can bring to school, said Carla Moody, the director of St. Mark Lutheran Preschool in Charlottesville, Va., who is allowing children to bring food in a self-contained bento box or disposable bag once she reopens June 8. But thats what it takes right now. In Sioux Falls, S.D. at Baan Dek Montessori, which is 10 miles from the Smithfield pork factory that was a national coronavirus hotspot in mid-April, the schools well-known practice of using glass drinking cups has been paused because of contamination concerns and replaced with disposable paper cups, said the head of school, Charlotte Snyder. In Reno, Nev., the family day care A Place of Our Own has kept dollhouse figures in the facility but eliminated their clothing, letting children dress them in tissue and paper towels instead. This month, Dunwoody Prep, a child-care center in a northern suburb of Atlanta, put up privacy dividers around cribs and cots that are alternated head-to-toe because there wasnt enough space to place them six feet apart, the director, Edye Disner, said. On my daughters first day back, instead of finding little plastic chairs encircling the communal table where students gathered each morning, she was introduced to her own space, a little white desk with specific toys and puzzles only available to her. Her schedule was switched so she could play and learn in a socially distant circle outside for two hours each morning, instead of one, to limit the amount of time indoors. Panaji, June 2 : Chinese products should be boycotted and banned in Goa, state BJP chief Sadanand Shet Tanavade said on Tuesday, urging people to buy and endorse India-made products only to support Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for 'Atmanirbhar Bharat'. Addressing a press conference here at the Bharatiya Janata Party's state headquarters, Tanavade also said, that China was indulging in 'masti', but the Prime Minister has handled the situation adequately. When asked if the BJP-led government in Goa should take cue and also wean off dependence on foreign, especially Chinese made articles and products, Tanavade said: "Such things cannot be done overnight, but we will succeed in the long run". The state BJP chief also said that party workers and officials had been directed henceforth to address the media wearing India-made 'swadeshi' clothes only. Accusing China of unnecessary provocation, Tanavade said, that anger against India's eastern neighbour had even irked young children in the country. "Even children in India are angry with China over Covid. A father recently told me that his son had requested him not to buy Chinese products henceforth", he added. A missing 81-year-old man who has dementia and left his home Monday morning has been found in Washington state, Oregon City police report. Earl Ernest Hill, who also has Parkinsons disease, reportedly left his home off Orchard Grove Drive, according to Oregon City police. He was supposed to return that afternoon to meet a family member but didnt come back, police said. Hill left in his silver 2007 Toyota Highlander, which has Oregon license plate 081DEN. Hes been known to frequent Oregon City Fred Meyer and Safeway stores. -- Jim Ryan; jryan@oregonian.com; 503-221-8005; @Jimryan015 Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. O ver the past few months, schools across the UK have remained open to support vulnerable children and children of critical workers. Careful measures have been executed to maximise safety throughout, and theyll continue as schools and nurseries begin their phased reopening this week, starting with nursery and reception, year 1 and year 6, followed afterwards by year 10 and 12. The youngest pupils will return first in order to get key support in reading and writing. Year 6 students will return to help prepare for their transition to secondary school. Years 10 and 12 can get the face-to-face teaching they need ahead of public exams next year. Staggered breaks, smaller classes, and enhanced cleaning regimes will all contribute to a safe environment for pupils, teachers and school staff. Heres how one London headteacher, Helen Rowe, pictured above, has been working hard to ensure her school remains a safe place for staff and pupils... Following guidelines Since schools were closed, staff at Dulwich Wood Primary School and Nursery, south London, have ensured the safety and wellbeing of its pupils from its teachers working remotely to provide online learning, or on-site staff providing packed lunches to children of key workers. Safety at school Here are five steps designed to minimise risks to children, staff and their families: Anyone who is unwell or been in contact with somebody showing coronavirus symptoms should stay away from schools, colleges and childcare settings Hands should be cleaned more often than usual with soap and running water for at least 20 seconds and dried thoroughly. Alternatively, hand sanitiser or alcohol hand rub can be used Promote the catch it, bin it, kill it approach to coughing and sneezing Clean frequently touched surfaces regularly using standard products, such as detergent and bleach Help to minimise contact and mixing by altering classroom layout and timetables By following guidelines and working with parents and her workforce, Rowe has kept the school open over the past 10 weeks, with 10 staff looking after 22 children. When the school closed on 20 March, we had to put into place what would work for us as a school, Rowe explains. We sent letters to parents of critical workers and said, if you need our help, we can open the school for those particular children." It was about looking at what resources the children would be using and how they could be used safely; sticking to a clear regime; and increasing hygiene provisions. All staff and pupils who have been coming to school have remained well. Rowe praises cooperation across the board everyone from the school, to her local authority and network of headteachers. Weve just got to pitch in, manage risks and support each other in doing this in the best way possible. Through conversations with parents and staff, Rowe is planning carefully for the return of more pupils to school, making sure that both parties know the safety provisions thatll be in place. Risk assessment This week, staff will be coming to school ahead of the arrival of more pupils from 8 June. Were going to spend the week preparing as staff, looking at the risk assessment that weve prepared and ensuring that they are part of that consultation and part of that process, she explains. It needs to be a gradual process so everyone is confident that they are doing the right thing for the children as well as for the staff in the school. Rowe understands that there will be anxieties from staff and pupils who have been in lockdown, so is keen to address any concerns beforehand. Aware that some parents decisions to keep children at home could change over the coming weeks, she is preparing to adapt on an ongoing basis. In planning, Ive tried to futureproof, so children will be in groups, but those groups can expand if parents do want to send their children in as well. Inside and out, staggered breaks and smaller classes are crucial to Dulwich Wood Primary Schools phased reopening Praiseworthy approach Overall, the schools response has been praised from parents at home with their children and critical workers whose sons and daughters have been going to school. The key worker parents who sent their children into school have been so complimentary about the provision that has been taking place, says Rowe. And all of the parents at home sending compliments online as well about how the teachers have really supported the childrens learning at home. In an uncertain time, one thing is certain, however: to headteacher Helen Rowe, the safety and wellbeing of Dulwich Wood Primary School and Nursery and pupils is of the utmost importance. Information in this article applies to schools in England only. Please check with your local authority for news on schools openings in your area Your tax-deductible gift today powers our reporters and keeps us independent. We rely on you, our reader, not paywalls to stay funded because we believe important news and information should be freely accessible to all. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe NOTE: This story is no longer being updated. Check "The Latest" in the morning for updates. Our news is free on LAist. To make sure you get our coverage: Sign up for our daily newsletters. To support our non-profit public service journalism: Donate Now. Protests continue for a sixth night around Southern California as people take to the streets to express their anger over the killing of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer -- and over other unjust killings of African Americans and people of color by police. Protestors are making a strong showing despite a confusing Los Angeles County curfew order that went into effect at 6 p.m. Monday and lasts until 6 a.m. Tuesday. Several cities in L.A. County -- including Glendale, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and Long Beach -- instituted curfews that started earlier. Tonight's events come in the wake of President Trump's first public response to a week of mostly peaceful protests, which in some cases devolved into looting, vandalism and notably aggressive behavior by police toward demonstrators, troublemakers and members of the press alike. In his speech today, Trump said: "I am mobilizing all available federal resources -- civilian and military -- to stop the rioting and looting to end the destruction and arson and to protect the rights of law-abiding Americans including your Second Amendment rights," referring to the right for civilians to bear arms. A handicapped man in a wheelchair with his dog confronts a National Guard officer during a march to protest the death of George Floyd in front of the Los Angeles Police Department on June 1, 2020. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images) Trump did not invoke the First Amendment or the right to peaceful protest -- nor did he acknowledge the aggressive police tactics that have played out at protests in multiple cities, where peaceful protestors and journalists have been targeted, harmed or arrested by law enforcement. A few hours later, Mayor Eric Garcetti urged Angelenos to adhere to the curfew and not to destroy property. After Garcetti spoke, LAPD Chief Michael Moore characterized the protests as "criminal acts," without drawing a clear distinction between the protestors and troublemakers, the latter of which were far fewer in numbers, by virtually all accounts. More than 700 people were arrested last night in L.A., Moore said, adding that 70 were burglarizing or looting businesses. "We didn't have protests last night. We had criminal acts. We didn't have people mourning the death of this man, George Floyd. We had people capitalizing. His death is on their hands, as much as it is those officers." Moore quickly walked back his statement, saying that he regretted the "characterization" of his remarks. But he said he will not apologize to those who are out committing violence and "destroying lives and livelihoods." "[Floyd's] memory deserves a better Los Angeles, a better United States, and a better world. It is my hope, and every pure intention, to achieve just that," he said. Floyd, who was black, died last week when a white Minneapolis police officer pinned him to the ground by his neck for nearly nine minutes while he begged for mercy and cried for his mother before becoming limp and unresponsive. The sun sets over downtown Los Angeles on Monday, June 1, 2020 after another day of protests over the death of George Floyd. (Andy Cheatwood/LAist) As the sun went down over the Pacific and most Angelenos hunkered down for the evening, many still took to the streets. WESTWOOD Helicopters have been circling over Westwood all afternoon. Approximately 1,000 people participated in a peaceful protest outside the Federal Building, located at Wilshire and Veteran, holding signs and chanting for justice. At around 4 p.m., some of them walked onto the 405 Freeway and blocked traffic for roughly 20 minutes, reports the Daily News. The protestors were ordered to disperse. It's not clear whether police officers arrested anyone at this protest. A man makes a rude gesture towards a National Guard armored truck on Hollywood Boulevard on May 31, 2020. (Javier Tovar/AFP via Getty Images) HOLLYWOOD Hundreds of people marched in Hollywood. KTLA reports that just afer 5 p.m., the crowd was moving eastward along Sunset Boulevard and a store in Gower Gulch was looted. At around 6 p.m., KTLA reports, the crowd came to a sudden stop at the intersection of Cahuenga Boulevard and Willoughby Avenue, where officers stood along two crosswalks: "Several dozen people, some carrying signs, kneeled and put their hands in the air as they faced one row of about a dozen officers there." Some looting, including at a Walgreens, is reportedly taking place. Residents and business owners in parts of East Hollywood/Thai Town have erected a barricade on their street and are reporting that they're hearing loud booms. LAist has received unconfirmed reports that another group of protestors had gathered by Paramount Studios, near Melrose and Gower, and the two groups of protestors are either merging together or being herded together by LAPD officers. The convergence could potentially occur in the Fairfax District, which saw a large crowd of demonstrators as well as some violence this past weekend. Just after 7 p.m., NBC4 reports, approximtely 50 protesters in the Hollywood area had been detained for apparent curfew violations. There are a lot of of police officers im #Hollywood Hollywood #california They will be arresting people for violating curfew. Felonies if you are found to be part of a group that was looting. #georgefloyd #TheGeorgeFloydProtestThread #LosAngelesProtest #curfew pic.twitter.com/iYv0IfdTgU IT IS HEAVEN (@camerongrey) June 2, 2020 WEST HOLLYWOOD Protestors gathered on the Sunset Strip at Sunset Boulevard near La Cienega Boulevard. "Just a block to the east, in the shadow of the Directors Guild of America headquarters, around 60 uniformed police officers with riot gear were on standby. A block in the other direction, at the base of Laurel Canyon, two National Guard officers in fatigues surveyed the perimeter," Variety reports. Demonstrators reportedly chanted, "Say his name! George Floyd!" as drivers honked in support. Variety also reports that several blocks south, at the intersection of La Cienega and Santa Monica boulevards, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, which patrols West Hollywood, was blocking westbound traffic into the city. HAPPENING NOW: a growing but peaceful #BlackLivesMatter protest on Sunset Blvd. just north of West Hollywood. Minor police presence. Drivers are honking their horns in solidarity. pic.twitter.com/B07ACYi7AA Scott Stenholm (@ScottStenholm) June 1, 2020 At one point, an officer responded to chants and requets from the crowd to take a knee, and the crowd took a knee with him. An LAPD officer just took a knee with protesters in West Hollywood. The entire crowd took a knee with him. @LAPDHQ @ABC7 pic.twitter.com/gRawsK0g6Y Veronica Miracle (@ABC7Veronica) June 1, 2020 Police arrest people protesting the death of George Floyd in downtown Los Angeles on Monday, June 1, 2020. (Andy Cheatwood/LAist) DOWNTOWN L.A. In downtown Los Angeles, National Guard vehicles rolled through the streets as peaceful demonstrators walked and chanted and were occasionally corralled by police. The protestors were mostly in the Historic Core, around 5th at Main and Spring streets. This evening, police began arresting protestors who wouldn't disperse and brought in buses from the Sheriff's Department to haul away the detainees arrests on Main st #DTLA pic.twitter.com/alB1cRUU9w Andrey - 6ft away and masked (@aandr314) June 2, 2020 Demonstrators hold signs in front of police on June 1, 2020 in Van Nuys during a protest over the death of George Floyd. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images) VAN NUYS Around 3 p.m., the LAPD declared an unlawful assembly and began dispersing a crowd of several hundred protestors in Van Nuys, reports ABC7. "Most people were standing on the sidewalks, but some spilled over into the street and were walking between cars... As police began breaking up the crowd, there were scattered reports of looting nearby on Van Nuys Boulevard," according to ABC7. Let it be known that the protest in Van Nuys in front of the courthouse today was peaceful as fuck. pic.twitter.com/6O3L9id390 LordSturg (@STURGGG) June 2, 2020 People protest the death of George Floyd in Anaheim on Monday, June 1, 2020. (Caitlin Hernandez/LAist) ANAHEIM Hundreds of people gathered in La Palma Park and in front of Anaheim City Hall to protest the death of George Floyd. The Orange County Register reports, "The protests remained peaceful for several hours, though after an unlawful assembly was declared around 7 p.m., some people began throwing fireworks near police officers and one person said they believed they had been hit with a less-than-lethal round." Got separated for a bit. Crowd is back at the park near La Palma Avenue and Harbor Boulevard. Sticking to sidewalks, really calm--except for some drivers doing donuts. pic.twitter.com/yXCCLDnBlm Caitlin Hernandez (@caitlinherdez) June 2, 2020 WEST COVINA A demonstration that last for approximately four hours was peaceful from beginning to end, reports the Pasadena Star-News. The paper says "Demonstrators laid down on an overpass in West Covina before getting up to wave signs at the trucks and cars passing below on the 10 Freeway. Traffic below slowed as the demonstrators, about 170 by the mid-afternoon, shouted and hollered. Some drivers laid on their horns in support, getting celebratory cheers in return." Reporting here in Glendora on Route 66 where over 60 people are protesting in the memory of George Floyd. Many honks and cheers from those passing by so far. pic.twitter.com/DZABbmAeOt Javier Rojas (@TheeJavierRojas) June 1, 2020 Minutes after he was struck in the neck while covering a protest in Long Beach, our higher education reporter Adolfo Guzman-Lopez reported his own injury on social media. (Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/LAist) LONG BEACH After a major protest on Sunday afternoon near near 3rd and Pine streets, during which a Long Beach police officer shot LAist/KPCC reporter Adolfo Guzman Lopez with a rubber bullet -- Long Beach has not seen any protests Monday. The Long Beach Press Telegram reports that, "Much of Sunday's demonstration was was peaceful -- and had the backing of city leadership. But after dark, clashes with police erupted, businesses were damaged and stores looted." As of now, there are no reports of protest activity in our city.#LBPD will remain in stage 3 tactical alert until further notice. Please remember to abide by our city-wide curfew order which goes into effect at 4PM. Stay tuned for updates on city activity every couple hrs. Long Beach PD (CA) (@LBPD) June 1, 2020 MORE ON LA PROTESTS Rush Limbaugh and Charlamagne tha God debate white privilege on The Breakfast Club. Doesnt that sound like the premise for an SNL skit? Until Monday, the idea that Limbaugh, the flame-throwing lieutenant of right-wing radio, might wander into the foxhole of a popular syndicated show devoted to Black issues seemed about as likely as Taylor Swift and Scooter Braun getting hitched. But if this pandemic has taught me anything beyond the fact I need a bigger house, new hobbies and way more hats it is to expect the unexpected. The interview begins with a set-up from the Clubs DJ Envy: Today we are having a candid conversation with fellow broadcaster Rush Limbaugh. Why are we having this conversation with someone whose historical viewpoints differ so significantly from ours and who we represent? Because the dialogue has to be open beyond who we know, or who we talk to every morning. Exactly. If any good is to come from the barbaric murder of George Floyd, public figures with contrary viewpoints need to lay down their bayonets and find some common ground. Or as Jane Goodall once put it: Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you dont believe is right. And here, there is a rare starting point of agreement: what happened to Floyd was the opposite of right. It was so beyond wrong it feels like a shared nightmare. The sight of that poor man on his stomach in cuffs, pinned to the asphalt with a police officer kneeling on his neck like it was a yoga mat, cant be unseen. Even as Floyd said he could not breathe, even as he cried out for his mother, officer Derek Chauvin just kept casually kneeling with one hand in his pocket and the ho-hum expression of a traveller on a shuttle bus. It was like watching a bored sociopath drown a kitten for nine horrifying minutes. The inhumanity on display was the reason Limbaugh wanted to talk to Charlamagne. He wanted to express how sickened and disgusted he feels. That may sound banal. But considering the source, its not. From his hot takes on slavery to his mockery of Colin Kaepernick, Limbaugh has spent years shrugging off racism by contributing to it. So early in the interview, Charlamagne tha God not to be confused with Charlemagne the King of Franks asks why Limbaugh is suddenly taking an active interest in police brutality on Blacks. Im fed up with it, Charlamagne, Limbaugh replied. To me, this is not America. Its a sad Oh, no, its definitely America, Charlamagne shot back. Limbaugh: Its not what we can be, its not what we have been. We are the greatest nation in the history of the world and we havent achieved that on the basis of Charlamagne: For who though, Rush? I think its easy for you to say because youre a white male and that comes with a different level of privilege. And I do think America does work. But it works for the people that it was designed to work for. It doesnt work for everybody else the way it works for you. Limbaugh: Well, it can. Thats the point of America. It can for anybody who wants to adapt to it, for anybody who wants to try to take advantage of the unique opportunities I suspect that exchange was the first time Limbaugh fans he also broadcast the interview to his audience heard white privilege in a context not power-sprayed with ridicule. And that the American Dream is still up for grabs may truly baffle listeners of The Breakfast Club. Thats why this interview was such a welcome respite from the polarized bickering and silo shouting, which itself has become a knee to the neck of possible change. To accuse everyone of racism or to suggest racism does not exist at all are two sides of the same trick coin. Heads or tails, and the winner is the status quo. Limbaugh made an important point. As the peaceful protests during the day in cities across America give way to lawlessness when the sun goes down vandalism, looting, agitators brawling with police the narrative is getting disfigured as the memory of the victim begins to vanish. The George Floyd story is being lost, he said. I dont want to forget about George Floyd. Hes right. And the story is being lost because America is at war with itself. Did this interview yield a working blueprint for how the country declares a truce and heals? Not exactly. Is Limbaugh any more willing to believe in white privilege, which he sees as a liberal construct? No. Is Charlamagne less likely to see systemic racism? No. Were there moments that felt like you were eavesdropping on a debate between an astronaut and a flat-Earther? Sure. But the two started a dialogue and, as Goodall notes, thats how change happens. If George Floyds death is to not be in vain, listening is the only path forward. Japan is considering easing the entry ban on Thailand, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand in the first relaxation of travel restrictions that were imposed due to the spread of the new coronavirus, government sources said. Japan is considering easing the entry ban on Thailand, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand in the first relaxation of travel restrictions that were imposed due to the spread of the new coronavirus, government sources said. The current entry restrictions on people from around the world are scheduled to run through June. Therefore, the first round of easing is expected to take place in summer or later. The four countries being considered appear to be containing infections, and businesspeople are calling for the resumption of travel among the nations. Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand are parties to the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP11), and Economic Revitalization Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura had said he was planning to exchange views on easing travel restrictions with them as early as June. Moreover, many Japanese businesses operate in Thailand. Given this, the government is planning an approach under which businesspeople and others will be allowed to enter Japan if they obtain documentation that they were negative in a PCR test before leaving their countries, and also test negative after arriving in Japan. In contrast, the government is cautious about an early relaxation of entry restrictions on China and South Korea, despite requests from both countries. Easing the restrictions on the two countries is expected to take place in the second round or later. The United States is increasingly critical of China for not properly reporting the outbreak of the coronavirus, making Tokyo hesitant to quickly ease restrictions on China, due to fears of a possible backlash from Washington. The government is therefore planning to carefully study the issue. Tokyo is also concerned about infections from a new coronavirus cluster in South Korea after Seoul relaxed restrictions on going out. The government is expected to decide what countries to ease restrictions on in the first round, and when, after studying the number of COVID-19 cases and other relevant factors related to each country. JAPAN NEWS OAKLAND, Calif. President Trumps crackdown on social media companies faced a new legal challenge on Tuesday, as a technology policy organization claimed in a lawsuit that he violated the companies right to free speech with his executive order aimed at curtailing their legal protections. The nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology says in the suit that Mr. Trumps attempt to unwind a federal law that grants social media companies discretion over the content they allow on their platforms was retaliatory and would have a chilling effect on the companies. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is indicative of the pushback that the president is likely to face as he escalates his fight with social media companies, which he has accused of bias against conservative voices. It asks the court to invalidate the executive order. Twitter, which is Mr. Trumps preferred method of communicating with the public, faced off with him last week after adding fact-check labels to two of his tweets and later restricting a post in which he said protesters who engaged in looting would face a violent crackdown. At least 13 people have tested positive for Covid-19 at Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijals office in the national capital, Baijals office stated on Tuesday. According to reports, the first case came from the extended branch of the Lieutenant Governors office following which 13 people were found positive for coronavirus. This comes just a day after a NITI Aayog official in Delhi tested positive for Covid-19. The third floor of the NITI Aayog office in Delhi was sealed for sanitisation work on Monday. 13 persons have tested positive for #COVID19 at Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal's Office: Lieutenant Governor Office ANI (@ANI) June 2, 2020 Earlier this week, at least two officials working with the External Affairs Ministry tested positive for coronavirus. One person who tested positive worked as a consultant in the ministrys Central Europe (CE) division in New Delhi, while the other worked as a legal officer in the law division, news agency Reuters reported. This comes when the Covid-19 tally in the national capital has crossed the 20,000-mark. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, in an online address on Tuesday, said that administration has created an app that will help Covid-19 patients track the availability of hospital beds. If a hospital refuses to provide you bed even when our app shows beds are available in that hospital, then you can call on 1031. Our Special Secretary will take an action immediately and contact the hospital authorities to provide you bed on the spot, Kejriwal said. Kejriwal said that the administration is prepared and has made sufficient arrangements to tackle the rise in severe Covid-19 cases in the national capital. According to Bun B, he and Trae Tha Truth are coordinating with Floyds nephew Brandon Williams to organize the rally and subsequent march. In preparation for the demonstration and increased traffic, the following downtown Houston facilities are scheduled for early closure Tuesday: - Municipal Courts scheduled for closure at noon - HPD 1200 Travis scheduled for closure at noon - HPW 611 Walker - scheduled for closure at 1 p.m. - Central Library/Julia B. Ideson Building scheduled for closure at 1 p.m. - City Hall scheduled for closure at 1 p.m. - City Hall Annex scheduled for closure at 1 p.m. - Houston Permitting Center - scheduled for closure at 1 p.m. ON HoustonChronicle: Houston officials expect large, respectful crowd at Tuesday George Floyd march Jeff Syptak @JeffSyptak on Twitter Trae Tha Truth, a longtime friend of Floyd, told Chron.com . We cant stand back and watch. We have to protect each other. Its important that we fight for justice,. We cant stand back and watch. We have to protect each other. It is not an official city event, the mayor said, but city officials certainly will support the efforts to make sure that things are done in a peaceful and orderly fashion. Floyd grew up in Houston's Third Ward and was a prominent athlete at Yates High School . He was living in Minneapolis at the time of his death and was killed in police custody on Monday, May 25, when officer Derrick Chauvin kneeled in his neck until he stopped breathing. His final moments were captured on video by a bystander, and Chauvin has since been charged with murder and manslaughter, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune grew up in Houston's Third Ward and was. He was living in Minneapolis at the time of his death and was killed in police custody on Monday, May 25, when officer Derrick Chauvin kneeled in his neck until he stopped breathing. His final moments were captured on video by a bystander, and Chauvin has since been charged with murder and manslaughter, "This is a salute to George and an acknowledgment that he should not have died the way he did," said Mayor Turner. "If you are standing for George Floyd, why would you want to create problems for his family? And if you are true to the cause, why would you want to do anything to take away from this special, emotional moment for his family and for his friends?" Aligarh : , June 2 (IANS) The Aligarh lock industry has sought financial assistance from the Yogi Adityanath government to enable it to pay salaries to its workers. According to Sunil Datta, general secretary of the Tala Nagri Industrialist Association, a meeting with the state government is scheduled this week in this regard. "We are not in a position to support our workers any longer. We had no business during the lockdown, but we paid salaries to them, but now things are out of our hands too. We need some financial assistance to survive," he said. District Magistrate Aligarh, Chandra Bhushan Singh, said that he would soon convene a meeting of representatives from the industry to discuss their problems. The famous lock industry in Aligarh, which comprises over 6,400 registered and over 3,000 home units, employs nearly two lakh workers. "There has been no production and no money has been coming in since the lockdown and we cannot pay our staff any longer," said Datta. According to industry members, nearly 80 per cent of the total production of locks takes place in Aligarh and its locks are also exported to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. "Though several units have started functioning, there is virtually no demand in the market right now, hence it is not feasible to employ workers at this time. There is also a shortage of capital money, which is stuck in the market as outstanding payments," Rafiq Khan, a manufacturer. "We need support from the government for survival and if that happens, we can hope to get back into business in another four or five months," he said. Ashok Kumar Pandey, a local politician who contested the 2019 as an independent candidate, said that the lock industry had taken a severe blow in the lockdown and if the government did not offer any support, several units would face closure. "Under the 'One District, One Product' scheme, the government should offer assistance to the industry that is famous all over for its locks," he added. Church settles lawsuit with nonreligious family over forced baptism Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment An Ohio church has settled a lawsuit brought against it by a nonreligious family that alleged their son suffered trauma after he was baptized in a full water baptism when he was 11 years old. On Thursday, the civil rights advocacy group American Atheists announced that parents April and Gregg DeFibaugh settled their lawsuit against a local church, pastor, a youth mentoring organization, and former volunteer mentor for performing a baptism, which they said was forced on their son who is disabled. The DeFibaughs, who are said to be nonreligious but dont identify as atheist, filed a lawsuit in county court against Morning Star Friends Church in Chardon, Pastor Matthew Chesnes, and Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Northeast Ohio. The lawsuit claimed that despite instructions from the DeFibaughs to refrain from religious activities with their son, his Big Brother mentor often discussed religion with him. The lawsuit said that on Aug. 28, 2016, the mentor, church member David Guarnera, took the child to a group baptism at Morning Star Friends Church. Along with Chesnes, the mentor was accused of forcibly baptizing the child by pushing him underwater. Defendant Chesnes, with the assistance of defendant Guarnera, conducted the baptism by forcing V under water and holding his head under water to the point where V felt like he was choking and could not breathe, the lawsuit says in part. The parents claim that since the incident, their son suffers from anxiety and emotional distress. According to American Atheists, the child suffers from nightmares of drowning that have prevented him from sleeping. The legal group could not disclose the details of the settlement. Although no settlement or verdict could undo the anguish their son suffered, the DeFibaughs are pleased with the outcome, American Atheists Litigation Counsel Geoffrey Blackwell said in a statement. They are glad that he will not have to go through the ordeal of a trial. The lawsuit was originally filed in March 2016 in federal court but was dismissed when a federal court concluded that guardian ad litem, Margaret Vaughan, a member of the church who worked for CASA for Kids of Geauga County, did not act as an agent of the government by proselytizing to the family and arranging Guarnera as a mentor. The family refiled the case in a county court in 2018 for alleged violations of state law. According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, court records indicate that a Geauga County Probate Court judge approved the settlement last week. The Christian Post reached out to Chesnes and Morning Star Friends Church for comment on the lawsuit and legal settlement. A response is pending. Morning Star Friends Church describes its mission as making disciples who love Jesus, connect people, share hope, and celebrate life. Chesnes received a doctorate of ministry from Fuller Theological Seminary and has taught online classes at Barclay College. He also serves as an adjunct professor at Malone University. Newmont Goldcorp has set up a US$20 million global fund to help its host communities, governments and employees around the world to combat the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19). According to Mr. Bernard Wissels, the General Manager, Newmont Goldcorp Ahafo Mine, Ghana was among the countries across the globe qualified to access the funds to support her efforts in fighting the deadly virus disease. He said earlier this year Newmont supported Ghana's public health efforts with US$100,000 to minimise the spread of the COVID-19 in the country. Mr. Wissels disclosed this when on behalf of the Ahafo Mine presented personal protective equipment (PPEs) to protect health officials and workers of the Sunyani Regional Hospital from contracting the COVID-19 and to stem the spread of the virus. The PPE comprise 900 pieces of N95 respirators, 5,000 pieces of surgical face masks, 500 reusable face masks, three digital pulse oximeters, a thermometer gun, 120 rolls of tissue towels as well as a number of storage and veronica buckets. Mr. Wissels said the Ahafo Mine has contributed US$20,000 to the Asutifi North District Assembly's relief efforts towards the provision of PPEs, personal hygiene items, community sensitization on COVID-19 among others. In the coming weeks and months, we will be implementing additional interventions with the Ahafo Mine's share of the fund to support our communities in preventing the spread and managing the impact of the disease, he said. As a company that exists to create value and improve lives through our operations, it is our hope these items will be put to good use and that our contribution will go a long way to facilitate the work of our frontline workers in fighting COVID-19 in our district and region, Mr. Wissels said. Dr. Kofi Amoh-Kodieh, the Deputy Director, Clinical at the Bono Regional Directorate of Health, who received the PPEs, thanked the mining company for the support and appealed to other corporate bodies to emulate the gesture. ---GNA VANCOUVER June 1, 2020 Canada's North America Asia Europe the United States Spain Portugal Poland Malta Ireland Denmark Cambodia US$39 billion Europe Employee Equity Participation Plan April 1 Timing of Q2 2020 Financial Results June 2 to August 31, 2020 the Company's interim financial statements for the three and six month periods ended March 31, 2020 and related certifications; and and related certifications; and the Company's management discussion and analysis for the three and six month periods ended March 31, 2020 . British Columbia July 16, 2020 December 31, 2019 Canada's United States /PRNewswire/ - Nextleaf Solutions Ltd. ("", "", or the "") () (),most innovative cannabis extractor, announced today that it has been issued more patents in, and. These additional patents were awarded in jurisdictions including, but not limited to:; and,. These latest issued patents pertain to the Company's unique method of extracting and separating cannabinoids and terpenes.These patents extend the Company's existing patent portfolio to protect methodologies relating to the removal of fats and waxes during the extraction and purification process, achieving more efficient throughput rates and a higher quality distillate. Less refined cannabis extracts contain chlorophyll, fats, and other impurities that result in undesirable flavours and aromas.With the latest patent issuances, OILS has advanced its intellectual property ("") stack to over 35 issued patents, and 65 pending patents, for the industrial-scale extraction, and distillation of cannabinoids. With a 100% pending application to issued patent success rate, the Company has developed defendable IP around the most efficient methods for producing distilled THC and CBD at scale within a regulated environment.OILS considers European IP protection to be particularly important due to the increasing demand for medical cannabis and CBD products in these rapidly legalizing markets. Prohibition Partners projects the legal European cannabinoid market will be worth more thanby 2024, compared to US$37 billion for the more mature North American market by the same time.The Company's patent portfolio includes protection around the methodologies and technology necessary to efficiently process dried cannabis and hemp biomass into high-purity THC and CBD oils that are used in the manufacturing of cannabinoid formulations and products."We expect these patents will have a major impact on the production and sale of standardized cannabinoid-based products inover the twenty year life of the patents," said Paul Pedersen, CEO. "These are jurisdictions that collectively manufacture and export over 70% of all drugs and medicines consumed globally, making European IP protection very important to our long-term global strategy", continued Pedersen.The Company announced today that it has issued shares under its Employee Equity Participation Plan (the "") implemented onin response to the COVID-19 pandemic to align the efforts and compensation of non-executive employees with the Company's long-term business strategy.The Plan is fully voluntary and permits non-executive employees to receive common shares in the capital of the Company in lieu of a portion of an employee's cash compensation. The Plan allows the Company to reduce the cash component of employee compensation and further align incentives across the team.Under the Plan for the month of May, Nextleaf has issued an aggregate of 88,701 common shares at a price of $0.315 per share.Due to logistical issues and delays caused by the COVID-19 virus, the Company is relying on the exemption provided in BC Instrument 51-517(and similar exemptions provided by other Canadian securities regulators) (the "") to postpone the filing of the following continuous disclosure documents (collectively, the ""):The BC Instrument provides the Company with an additional 45 days from the deadline otherwise applicable undersecurities laws to make the filing. Until the Company has filed the Documents, members of the Company's management and other insiders are subject to a trading blackout reflecting the principles contained in section 9 of National Policy 11-207such that they are in a blackout period until the end of the second trading day after the Documents have been disclosed by way of a news release.At this time, the Company expects to file the Documents by. There have been no material business developments since the filing of the Company's audited annual financial statements and associated management's discussion and analysis for the three months endedthat have not been otherwise disclosed by the Company by way of news release.OILS ismost innovative cannabis extractor, developing technology for extracting and distilling THC and CBD oils. Nextleaf's industrial-scale extraction plant in Metro Vancouver has a design capacity to process 600 kg per day of dried cannabis biomass into distilled oils. The Company owns a portfolio of over 35 issued patents and 65 pending patents for the extraction and distillation of cannabinoids. Nextleaf Solutions commercializes its patent portfolio through IP licensing, and supplying THC and CBD oils through Nextleaf Labs, a Health Canada licensed standard processor.Nextleaf Solutions trades ason the Canadian Securities Exchange,on the OTCQB Market in the, andon the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.Follow OILS across social media platforms: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.www.nextleafsolutions.comFor further information, please contact:604-283-2301 (ext. 219)investors@nextleafsolutions.comCertain statements contained in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements". All statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this press release, including, without limitation, those regarding the Company's ability to capitalize on its IP portfolio, expectations regarding lower costs resulting from utilization of the Company's technology, changes in the global market for cannabinoid-based products, the potential for shareholder value creation through the formalization and protection of IP, expected IP licensing revenues, the Company's strategy, plans, objectives, goals and targets, and any statements preceded by, followed by or that include the words "believe", "expect", "aim", "intend", "plan", "continue", "will", "may", "would", "anticipate", "estimate", "forecast", "predict", "project", "seek", "should" or similar expressions or the negative thereof, are forward-looking statements. These statements are not historical facts but instead represent only the Company's expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual results may differ materially from what is expressed, implied or forecasted in such forward-looking statements. Additional factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially include, but are not limited to the risk factors discussed in the Company's MD&A for the most recent fiscal period. Management provides forward-looking statements because it believes they provide useful information to investors when considering their investment objectives and cautions investors not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Consequently, all of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and other cautionary statements or factors contained herein, and there can be no assurance that the actual results or developments will be realized or, even if substantially realized, that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, the Company. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect subsequent information, events or circumstances or otherwise, except as required by law. The CSE has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the contents of this press release. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nextleaf-solutions-receives-patents-for-cannabis-oil-extraction-in-north-america-europe-and-asia-301068340.html SOURCE Nextleaf Solutions Ltd. Nor does he seem to listen to the voices of protest, which have largely been nonviolent. Demonstrations across the country were sparked by the death of a single unarmed black man in Minneapolis, George Floyd, who was asphyxiated as a white police officers knee bore down on his neck. But the grievances they represent go back further than the nation itself. LONGMONT, Colo., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- High Grade Hemp Seed , global leaders in the production and sales of premium hemp genetics, has a solution for farmers looking for diversification during economic uncertainty: grow hemp. The industrial hemp industry has been expanding exponentially in the past few years as more states legalize hemp production. Yet, the industry is still maturing and farmers are navigating new, uncharted ground. Matterhorn CBG Hemp Strain by High Grade Hemp Seed High Grade Hemp Seed is leading the charge in helping farmers stay ahead of the trend and meet the growing market demand. The company, founded in 2011, is continuing to test new varietals, develop diverse strains, work within the industry to ensure compliance, and foremost: sell high quality hemp seed to farms around the United States and the world. Its most recent debut is a highly anticipated new strain, Matterhorn CBG . Cannabigerol (CBG) is the mother of popular Cannabidiol (CBD), and is lower in Tetrahydrocannabinolic Acid (THC), easy to farm and highly resilient. Matterhorn flowers have up to 15 percent CBG, and Matterhorn is remarkably even lower in THC. In addition, adding CBG crops allows farmers to diversify. Matterhorn CBG is a vigorous, revolutionary strain of European industrial hemp, with potential uses in both the medical field and in consumer goods. Matterhorn CBG is a smart choice for both smokable flower growers and farmers concerned with regulatory compliance. This terpene-focused varietal has a palate of effervescent lemon and lime with skunky notes of hops. When grown properly, even harvested late, Matterhorn delivers reliable compliance with recent USDA interim draft rules for hemp production. Through two years of field trials, Matterhorn CBG has proven to be uniform, stable, and unique. Germination rates are at 95 percent and feminization rates at 99.98 percent, producing one male to every 4000 females. A high level of CBG combined with reliable THC compliance make the strain a good option for farmers entering the hemp market or diversifying beyond CBD-rich hemp or non-hemp crops. "Never has there been a more important time to focus on hemp genetics," says Bodhi Urban, CEO of High Grade Hemp Seed. "Sourcing your seeds from the right partner is crucial. High Grade is committed to the highest quality hemp seed in diverse strains, and also offers farmers the resources and assistance to succeed." What is CBG and why is it a good alternative to CBD? CBG is a precursor to all other cannabinoids such as CBD, CBN (Cannabinol), CBC (Cannabichromene) and THCA (Tetrahydrocannabinolic Acid). As with CBD, CBG has several early studies1 showing potential health benefits , including studies on cancer, Parkinson's disease and general pain relief, but with even lower THC implications. CBG attaches to both CB1 and CB2 receptors. This means that the entire endocannabinoid system can be targeted, opening doors to new treatments. The genetics of the plant is the primary price factor. Breeding strains with higher CBG levels lowers the cost to extract the CBG as less biomass is needed. Matterhorn CBG is a viable force in the hemp industry with high levels of CBG, consistently testing at 12.46 percent and up to 15 percent CBG. These high levels are reached while maintaining compliance with THC regulations. Matterhorn CBG's THC levels test at 0.09 percent. Bright Future for Hemp Farming Despite Pandemic Since the end of the decades-long prohibition on industrial hemp, there has been a surge in market demand for hemp-derived products. Passage of the 2018 Farm Bill has led farmers across the country to transition their operations to include fields or greenhouses of industrial hemp. Industrial hemp markets are poised to continue their upward growth. Projections are that the industrial hemp market will grow from 4.6 billion in 2019 to 26.6 billion by 2025.2 Diversifying into hemp farming offers farmers a way forward during times of economic uncertainty. "High Grade is helping the hemp industry move forward so farmers can come back strong after this pandemic," adds Urban. "Those considering a 2020 harvest can order seeds now, and seedlings are delivered on-demand with a two-week lead time customized to meet field preparation timelines." "High Grade is on the forefront of innovation in the hemp genetics industry," says Christy Thiel, Director of Education and Partner Relations at Seed2System, a Colorado producer and distributor of high quality hemp CBD products. "We are really excited about the potential of this new Matterhorn CBG strain, both for its usage potential, but also what it could mean for farmers' livelihoods." About High Grade Hemp Seed HGH Seed, Inc., is a Colorado-based hemp genetics company committed to farming top-quality, consistent strains of hemp. High Grade has been pivotal in the reintroduction of industrial hemp to the global supply chain. CEO Bodhi Urban and the High Grade team introduced foundational strains such as Cherry Wine and Berry Blossom that are the basis of hemp genetics today. The company is known for its proven track record of compliance, high feminization and germination rates, and high cannabinoid levels. To learn more about High Grade, or to inquire about CBG hemp seeds and starts, visit highgradehempseed.com or call (833) 867-7333. Contact: Pamela Stewart [email protected] 303.570.1678 1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2503660/ 2 https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/industrial-hemp-market-84188417.html SOURCE High Grade Hemp Seed Related Links http://www.highgradehempseed.com World leaders and their spouses pose for the family photo at the G7 Summit in Biarritz, France (Andrew Parsons/PA) The European Union has joined a growing chorus of members of the Group of Seven major economic powers to insist that Russia must not be allowed back into the fold, after US President Donald Trump said that he plans to invite the country to a G7 summit next autumn. Mr Trump said on Saturday that he is postponing next months G7 summit, and plans to invite Russia, Australia, South Korea and India when it does take place. Mr Trump told reporters that he feels the current make-up of the group is very outdated and does not properly represent whats going on in the world. The G7 members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, while the 27-nation EU, the worlds biggest trading bloc, also takes part. Russia was suspended in 2014 from the then G8 following its invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that Russia should not be allowed back in until it changes course and the environment allows for the G8 again to have a meaningful discussion, and this is not currently the case. Expand Close Russian President Vladimir Putin (Clive Marshall/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Russian President Vladimir Putin (Clive Marshall/PA) Mr Borrell said that it was up to Mr Trump, as G7 chairman, to issue guest invitations, and guest invitations reflect the host priorities. But changing membership, or changing the format on a permanent basis, is not the prerogative of the G7 chair. Mr Borrell said G7 members sit together because they share values, interests and commitments, and he insisted that given the coronavirus pandemic cooperation among like-minded partners is crucial even more in such difficult times. On Monday, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau said Russias continued disrespect and flaunting of international rules and norms is why it remains outside of the G7 and why it will continue to remain out. Prime Minister Boris Johnsons spokesman has said the UK would look at the detail of what the US is proposing, and also noted that it was customary for the host to invite other leaders as guests. Asked whether Russia should be let back in, he said were yet to see evidence of changed behaviour that would justify its readmittance. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that she will not personally attend a meeting in the US if Mr Trump goes ahead with it unless the course of the pandemic changes by then. Global crisis or not, some of the worlds biggest companies march toward ubiquity appears unstoppable. Facebooks (FB) V-shaped recovery since the mid-March collapse has resulted in a new all-time high, with the landmark being achieved on May 21. According to SunTrust Robinson analyst Youssef Squali, Facebooks latest venture is about to propel it even further ahead. The social media colossus recently unveiled Facebook Shops, its new eCommerce arm. Businesses are now able to use Facebook as a digital shopfront to sell their products to customers, who can do all of their online shopping directly through Facebook or Instagram without ever leaving the FB eco system. Facebook already made its debut into the eCommerce space with the addition of Marketplace in 2016. The feature now attracts over 800 million MAUs (monthly active users), but the C2C focus has meant it has remained unmonetized. The new Shops, according to Squalis analysis, indicates every incremental 1 million SMEs (small to medium enterprises) could drive ~300bps of top line growth. So, how will Facebook make money from the new addition? Well, for one, through fees. Facebook will charge a 5% fee for sales over $8, or $0.40 otherwise on each transaction. However, this is not really where Facebook expects to monetize the platform, as it will use the fees to cover payment processing, taxes, and development. The real opportunity is in a segment from which Facebook already derives much of its revenue through advertising. Squali believes using Facebook Shop will be a no brainer for advertisers who will be more willing to spend on the platform given the likely improvement in conversion, due to the seamless checkout and more accurate ROI measurability. Squali added, We believe this approach for a B2C offering should start yielding green shoots relatively quickly, as FB converts a subset of the ~160 million mostly free and mostly small businesses on its platform into paying advertisers. It should also benefit from higher ad prices driven by greater advertiser bid density, the ability to close the loop and improve ROAS visibility with higher conversion rates from a fully integrated checkout. Story continues Accordingly, the 5-star analyst has a Buy rating on Facebook, accompanied by a $245 price target. The analyst forecasts upside potential of 6% from current levels. (To watch Squalis track record, click here) The view from the rest of the Street is similarly bullish. Facebooks Strong Buy consensus rating is based on 31 Buys and 4 Holds. Yet, at $243.21, the average price target implies the analysts expect upside potential of 5% in the coming months. (See Facebook stock analysis on TipRanks) To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights. Regulations to protect workers in Japan from abusive bosses and colleagues took effect Monday to criticism that it only provides a road map to desk-bound bullies. Large companies now must combat so-called power harassment -- which includes such acts as striking an employee with one's bare hands or an object, according to the labor ministry. But an accidental collision does not count. Critics say the overprecise cases provided by the ministry will only allow abusive colleagues at the office to evade responsibility by basing their defenses on the counterexamples, eroding the effectiveness of the regulations. "It was not appropriate to list examples that are not applicable," said Naoto Sasayama, a Tokyo-based attorney. Large companies are now legally required to have strict policies against workplace bullying. They must train employees and have a contact point for reporting cases of abuse. Companies allowing egregious abuse to occur will have their names made public by the government. Small and midsize businesses must make efforts toward prevention through March 2022. Afterward, the rules will fully apply to them as well. RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's mosques opened their doors to worshippers on Sunday for the first time in more than two months as the kingdom, the birthplace of Islam, eased restrictions imposed to combat the coronavirus. "It is great to feel the mercy of God and once again call people for prayers at mosques instead of at their homes," said Abdulmajeed Al Mohaisen, who issues the call to prayer at Al Rajhi Mosque, one of the largest in the capital Riyadh. Worshippers headed to mosques for dawn prayers amid strict regulations requiring use of face masks and personal prayer mats, avoiding handshakes and standing at least 2 metres apart. The elderly, children under 15 and people with chronic diseases are not permitted. People must perform the ablution rite, the act of washing the face, arms and legs before prayer, at home. "My eyes filled with tears when I entered the mosque and when I heard the call to prayer. Thank God for this blessing that we are back to the houses of worship," Said Maamoun Bashir, a Syrian resident in Riyadh. Saudi authorities said earlier this month that restrictions would be lifted in three phases, culminating in a curfew ending on June 21, with the exception of the holy city of Mecca. The haj and umrah pilgrimages, which attract millions of Muslims from around the world, remain suspended. The country of some 30 million has reported more than 83,300 infections and 480 deaths from the disease, the highest among the seven Gulf Arab states. (Reporting by Nael Sheyoukhi and Mohammed bin Mansour from Reuters TV; Writing by Marwa Rashad; Editing by Susan Fenton) Two people were shot dead and a police officer was wounded in a night of rioting and violence that occurred on Sunday night in the town of Davenport, Iowa. One victim has been named as 22-year-old Italia Marie Kelly, who had been attending a protest against police brutality and the death of George Floyd at a Walmart parking lot. Kelly's aunt, Amy Hale told the Des Moines Register that her niece had begun to feel uncomfortable as the demonstration became more heated and decided to leave. Kelly, who is biracial, was shot in the back just as she was getting into a friend's car and despite being taken straight to hospital she was pronounced dead 30 minutes later. Italia Marie Kelly, 22, was leaving a protest in a Walmart parking lot to protest police brutality when she was struck by a bullet The bullet reportedly hit her in the shoulder and chest, and she was likely killed instantly. 'She was always smiling, always laughing. That's why it's so sad that she was taken in such a violent way', Hale told the Quad City Times. Kelly was one of two people to be killed on Sunday night in separate incidents in the town, however police have not yet released the names of the other victim. In another incident an officer was shot when their police cruiser was ambushed while they were out on patrol. Several shots hit their vehicle. Two other officers in the car returned fire. The wounded officer who was injured was said to be 'in good spirits.' The disturbances began suddenly at around 10pm on Sunday night after a day of peaceful protesting. Heavy police presence surrounds the Walmart on West Kimberly Road after reports of gunfire in a round of rioting and violence that occurred Sunday night into Monday morning in Davenport Protesters stand on an SUV while marching on in Des Moines Iowa on Sunday The situation became so dire that police from ten other police departments from surrounding townships were all summoned to Davenport to help deal with the 100 or so rioters. First responders had to deal with 20 shooting calls during the night along with reports of three suspicious fires. Protesters have taken to the streets across the country to voice anger about last week's death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who pleaded for air as an officer pinned him to the pavement with his knee on his neck. Davenport mayor Mike Matson, left and Davenport Police Chief Paul Sikorski speak during a press conference regarding the overnight violence in Davenport, Iowa on Monday Police take their knees, uniting with protesters, in Des Moines on Sunday On Monday, Mayor Mike Matson said that earlier in the weekend he had more than 700 people who peacefully protested the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer. 'I stood with them and I will stand with those peaceful protesters.' But he said that what happened on Sunday night was not about justice or honoring the memory of George Floyd. 'They were intended to create chaos and purposely inflict damage throughout our community,' Matson said. 'It is appropriate to grieve what our community has been put through,' Matson said. 'It is OK to be angry, OK to be scared. But let us not grow wary of doing what is right. Our community, like so many others across the country, is at a crossroads. We must rise to the occasion for the safety of all people and address the strife we are experiencing with peace, civility and decorum.' Matson vowed to bring those involved in the Davenport shootings to justice. Two people were dead and a police officer was wounded in a round of rioting and violence that occurred Sunday night into Monday morning in Davenport Heavy police presence is staged at the NorthPark Mall early on Monday where the riot occured On Monday night the city set a curfew for 9pm Monday, and the mayor called on Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds to send in the National Guard. 'This violence is unacceptable. Our thoughts and prayers are with this officer, his family, and the people of Davenport, as they experience these horrible tragedies,' Reynolds said. George Granderson, 57, is a Davenport resident who lives a short distance away from where the disturbances occurred and was recently released from 12 years in jail. He says that he believed those involved in the riots are not thinking about the impact an arrest will have on their lives. 'I've never seen anything like this,' he said. 'These kids are pumping each other up. They're seeing this stuff on TV. And now you're pumping yourself up. You're not no gangster.' Protesters cheer as members of the Des Moines Police Department take their knees in solidarity in Des Moines, Iowa on Sunday Protestors march up the steps of the Iowa State Capitol before being pushed back to the Court Avenue District on Saturday night in Des Moines. The protests echoed the protests around the country following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis LONDON (Reuters) - It is too early to be able to exclude some international travellers from quarantine measures due to be introduced next week to prevent a resurgence of the coronavirus, Britain's COVID-19 testing coordinator said on Tuesday. John Newton said one of the reasons Britain might choose not to impose the 14-day quarantine on particular individuals would be if the risk of that person having the virus was "so low that we would just take the chance." "At the moment the judgment is that it is too early to say that and therefore it is better to be cautious for people travelling," he told a news conference. (Reporting by William James and Paul Sandle, Writing by Kylie MacLellan; editing by Stephen Addison) In an effort to address the outcry in Africa over the killing of George Floyd, President Donald Trump's ambassador to Kenya issued a statement on Tuesday claiming that "while no action can bring George Floyd back to his family, the officers involved have been arrested." The claim, which Ambassador Kyle McCarter delivered in a video address that was transcribed and echoed on the U.S. Embassy's Twitter account, is not true. While the four police officers involved in the incident were fired, only one, Derek Chauvin, has been arrested - a key complaint of protesters who have demonstrated in cities across the globe. The State Department did not provide comment when asked about the remarks. In recent days, several U.S. embassies in Africa took the unusual step of openly criticizing the killing of Floyd in response to a wave of condemnations by African governments and everyday citizens on social media. But McCarter's statement is the only one that mistakes a fundamental aspect of the case, a fact analysts said will not go unseen as Africans question Washington's visible promotion of human rights on the continent amid a persistent inability to ensure the safety of black Americans at home. "This feeds fuel to the fire," said Laura Seay, a scholar of Africa's Great Lakes Region at Colby College. "Providing misinformation to Kenyans, whether intentional or not, is harmful to the United States' interests in East Africa and further undermines the efforts of diplomats there to build support for the United States." Floyd, a black man who was handcuffed on the street in Minneapolis, died after Chauvin pushed his knee onto his neck for several minutes even after he gasped for air and then stopped moving. The head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, has sharply criticized the "murder" of Floyd, saying on Friday that the organization condemns the "continuing discriminatory practices against black citizens of the USA." McCarter, a political appointee and former Illinois state senator, made the remarks in a video that also called for "justice and accountability for those responsible." His claim about the arrests was reiterated on the U.S. Embassy Nairobi Twitter account. It has not been corrected, though when The Washington Post inquired about the tweet, it was late at night in Nairobi. "I'm surprised the embassy hasn't yet issued a correction," said Seay. "The State Department and the Foreign Service have long placed a premium on ensuring that their messaging - including from politically appointed ambassadors like Kyle McCarter - is precisely worded and accurate. I don't know if Ambassador McCarter misspoke or is misinformed in this case, but it's unfortunate either way." Unlike some political appointees, McCarter does have experience in Kenya where he and his wife founded a charity aimed at helping abused and orphaned children. He has faced criticisms for his tweets in the past, including a missive referring to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton that read: "Hillary for prison. No really." During his confirmation hearing last year, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., warned about the risks of the digital platform. "[It's] probably worthwhile for anybody taking a diplomatic post to just stand down on Twitter," Murphy said. "These are not helpful comments to someone who is being asked to represent the United States abroad." A Pennsylvania woman found dead Monday evening in the basement of a Ewing home was killed by an air gun pellet. Her death was ruled a homicide Tuesday, authorities said. Ewing police were called to a home on Glen Stewart Drive at 6:30 p.m. and found Ashley Davis, 32, of Levittown, Pennsylvania in the basement with visible wounds on her body, according to a statement from the Mercer County Prosecutors Office. Davis was pronounced dead at the scene, in a room where police found two long BB guns and a short BB gun, the office said. Used bags of heroin with various stamps were also found during the search. Davis boyfriend, Aaron Adams, 38, who lives at the home, was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm while homicide detectives investigated. He is currently at the Mercer County jail awaiting court hearings, the office said. On Tuesday, an autopsy revealed that Davis suffered a gunshot wound by a metal air gun pellet that struck internal organs and caused massive internal bleeding, the office said. Her death was subsequently ruled a homicide and additional charges were being reviewed Tuesday afternoon, a prosecutors office spokeswoman said. The homicide remained under investigation and anyone with information was asked to contact the Mercer County Homicide Task Force at 609-989-6406 or mchtftips@mercercounty.org. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription. Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 17:56:15|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HARARE, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe recorded 26 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 203. The number of active cases is 170, deaths remain at four while those who have recovered are 29, the Ministry of Health and Child Care said in a statement Tuesday. According to the Ministry, 25 of the new cases are Zimbabweans who returned from neighboring South Africa and Botswana while one case is a local transmission and a contact of a known confirmed case. The country has conducted a total of 46,021 tests for COVID-19 since the first case was recorded in March. Enditem New Delhi, June 2 : Thirty-four National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams have been deployed as the cyclone Nisarga brewing in the Arabina Sea is likely to hit coastal districts of Maharashtra and Gujarat on Wednesday. Of the 34 teams, 16 have been deployed in Gujarat, 15 in Maharashtra, two in Daman and Diu, and one in Dadar and Nagar Haveli, NDRF Director-General S.N. Pradhan said, here on Tuesday. Most of the teams had been deployed in coastal districts facing the Arabian Sea, he added. "We have stationed 34 NDRF teams at required tasked areas for timely evacuation and coordination with state agencies. Awareness drive has begun," Pradhan told IANS. On request of Gujarat and Maharashtra, Pradhan said, additional NDRF teams had been airl-ifted and they were expected to reach these states by afternoon or evening. One NDRF team comprises about 45 personnel. The NDRF has also kept some teams as standby to provide help in extreme conditions. "Although this is not a severe cyclone, all precautions are being taken," Pradhan said. Days after the country's eastern coast was battered by Amphan, cyclone Nisarga started brewing over the Arabian Sea on the western coast. At present, Nisarga lies as a depression 490 km from Mumbai, 280 km from Goa capital Panaji and 710 km from Surat district in Gujarat. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the depression intensified into a deep depression at 5.30 a.m. on Tuesday. It may turn into a cyclonic storm in the next 12 hours and then into a severe cyclonic storm in the subsequent 12 hours. The cyclone is likely to cross north Maharashtra and south Gujarat coasts between Harihareshwar town in the Raigad district and Daman as a severe cyclonic storm on Wednesday. IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said the severe cyclonic storm would have a wind speed of 90-105 kmph when it crosses the coast on June 3. After May 1961, Nisarga will be the first cyclone to hit Maharashtra coast in June. The cyclonic storm will affect Mumbai and other coastal districts of Maharashtra, Gujarat and neighbouring states. As per predictions, Maharashtra coastal districts, like Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Thane, Raigad, Mumbai and Palgarh will also be affected. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Hundreds of Facebook employees staged a 'virtual walkout' on Monday to protest the company's decision not to act on recent controversial posts by President Donald Trump on the social media platform. The employees criticized Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg's decision to not moderate a post from Trump last Thursday, in which the president said that 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts.' Trump's controversial comments were posted on both Facebook and Twitter. As most Facebook employees are working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic, they refused to work on Monday to show their support for protesters across the country and conducted a virtual walkout. Trump had vowed military support for the governor of Minnesota after a night of violent protest in Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in police custody. Floyd died on Memorial Day after he was pinned down by a white police officer in Minneapolis. Floyd's death has sparked outrage and protests in Minneapolis and across the U.S. Several cities, including New York City, are under curfew. Facebook employees, critical of their own company, praised Twitter for its response to the same message from Trump. Twitter had flagged and hidden Trump's tweet from his profile, saying his remarks referring to protests over the death of Floyd violated rules about glorifying violence. Twitter also added a warning label and prevented users from liking or retweeting Trump's tweet. Rather than deleting the post, the social media giant allowed the public to still view the tweet. In a Facebook post on Friday, Zuckerberg said that while he found the remarks deeply offensive, they did not violate the company's rules. In response, several of Facebook's employees publicly expressed their unhappiness with Zuckerberg's decision and announced on Twitter their participation in the virtual walkout. Facebook has frequently come under heavy criticism for high-profile content moderation issues. In early May, the company announced the first members of its new Oversight Board, which will make final decisions about what content should be allowed or removed from Facebook and Instagram, even if the company or Zuckerberg disagree. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de One new national COVID death confirmed, one new case THAILAND: The government reported one new coronavirus case and one new death today (June 2), taking the total number of infections to 3,083 and the accumulated death toll to 58 since the outbreak began. CoronavirusCOVID-19deathhealth By Bangkok Post Tuesday 2 June 2020, 02:10PM People in need because of the COVID-19 lockdown receive help from the Thai Red Cross Society at Wat Pathum Wanaram in Bangkok. Photo: Somchai Poomlard The new fatality was an 80-year-old man in Narathiwat. The latest patient was a 32-year-old male student who recently returned from Saudi Arabia. Dr Taweesilp Visanuyothin, spokesman of the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration, said the student returned from Saudi Arabia via Malaysia. He entered the country through the Padang Besar border checkpoint in Songkhla province on May 25 and was quarantined there. He tested negative for the disease on May 25 but on May 30 he developed a mild fever and runny nose. On May 31 he tested positive for COVID-19 and was admitted to a local hospital. Thirty-nine people have returned from Saudi Arabia through Malaysia and eight of them were infected. That forms 20.51% or one-fifth of the total, Dr Taweesilp said. The new fatality was a Thai man aged 80 who had asthma. On April 28 he went to a hospital in Sungai Kolok district of Narathiwat for a hip surgery. He was then taken to recuperate in a ward where another patient was later found infected with COVID-19. The elderly man tested positive on May 9, as did his daughter and son-in-law, who visited him at the hospital. The man was placed on a ventilator and received plasma on several occasions. He died of COVID-19-related pneumonia yesterday (June 1). The infections in Sungai Kolok, including an earlier case, led to the quarantine of 191 medical personnel and relatives. The previous patient recovered and all the quarantined medical personnel and relatives proved to be uninfected, Dr Taweesilp said. Of the 3,083 accumulated cases, 2,960 have recovered. One patient who was released in the past 24 hours, leaving 59 hospitalised. The average age of COVID-19 patients in Thailand has been 37, with the oldest 97 and the youngest a 1-month-old baby. Worldwide, COVID-19 cases increased to 6.36 million in 211 countries with 377,437 deaths. The United States had the most cases at 1.86 million and the most deaths at 106,925. BERLIN, June 2 (Reuters) - Germany's economic downturn this year could be even sharper than previously expected, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said on Tuesday. The government's latest forecast is for Europe's largest economy to shrink by 6.3% in 2020, its biggest post-war slump, as the coronavirus pandemic has paralysed large swathes of the economy for months. But Altmaier told a business forum hosted by Bitkom, the industry association for the information technology sector: "I don't rule out that it could be more." Neighbouring France earlier on Tuesday revised down its forecast. Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said he expected the French economy to contract by 11% this year due to the coronavirus crisis and the nationwide lockdown to contain it. Paris had previously forecast an 8% contraction. (Reporting by Christian Kraemer; Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Mark Potter) For the second day in a row, protestors marched on downtown Mt. Pleasant, demanding justice for George Floyd and calling for changes to make life more equitable for all Americans. A crowd, much larger than the one that marched to the intersection of Main and Broadway Sunday night, gathered at Central Michigan Universitys Bovee Center. They were addressed by CMU President Bob Davies, who led them in a chant of, I cant breathe. Soon after, they assembled on Preston Street to march on the Isabella County Sheriffs Office, 200 N. Court St., in downtown Mt. Pleasant. Originally, they planned to march on the Mt. Pleasant Department of Public Safety on High Street, but when it became apparent that the number of people it would attract were too many, they changed to the sheriffs office. How many? Hundreds. Black, white, Native American, Asian. A similar protest Sunday night attracted mostly younger people. Monday night was also mostly youth, but there were a fair numbers of older people and people who brought small children. As the procession made it into the northbound lanes of Mission Street, people kept coming from Bovee. And kept coming. And kept coming. When the din of chanting protestors in the front died, the next group filled the air with their own. I cant breathe, gave way to No justice, no peace, which gave way to, Black Lives Matter. By the time the protest reached Broadway, it more or less occupied both sides of the road. As it went, people parked in lots raised phones to record the moment. Some people took packages of bottled water to the street curb to distribute. It barely fit into the area set up for them in front of the sheriffs office. Protestors stepped forward, demanding justice for Floyd or, with officers from most of Isabella Countys police agencies present including Sheriff Michael Main, shared their own experiences with law enforcement. A common theme: Change will not happen overnight, but is a constant process. In the middle of it, everyone went to the ground put their hands behind their backs and for nine minutes said in unison, I cant breathe. It was the amount of time that the officers who killed Floyd knelt on his neck. An independent autopsy released its findings Monday. The kneeling is what killed Floyd. At the conclusion of the event in front of the sheriffs office, protestors gathered again and marched back to campus down Main Street. Like Sunday nights protest, there were no incidents of violence that erupted during protests in other cities. On Sunday night, protestors gathered for what was originally billed as a picketing of cars at Red Lobster, at the intersection of Business-127 and Bluegrass Road in Union Township, and instead walked north on Mission Street and eventually made their way down Broadway to where it meets Main Street. They had a police escort. Officers from the Mt. Pleasant Police Department and Michigan State Police blocked traffic and created walking space for approximately 150-200 people. At first, rumor was they were heading to the Isabella County Sheriffs Office on Court Street. Instead, they kept walking to Main. They stopped and gathered around a trailer parked next to where the deck is being assembled at Midori, and a Saginaw man got up to address the crowd. There was a man standing next to him with an AR-15. He addressed the crowd, hitting on themes of racism and justice for George Floyd. Other speakers followed, hitting on the same points. What they didnt do was attack police officers as a whole. In fact, they thanked the officers present and invited Mt. Pleasant Director of Public Safety Paul Lauria up onto the trailer to address the crowd. Lauria addressed the crowd after the protestors got onto the ground, holding their hands behind their backs. They spent several minutes saying, I cant breathe over and over again. At the conclusion of his remarks, he said theyd walked downtown and then said theyd make room for everyone to walk back to their cars at Red Lobster. Elsewhere, protestors or agent provocateurs, as some alleged left in close confines with businesses ended in destruction and mayhem Friday and Saturday nights. In Mt. Pleasant, protestors walked back down Broadway to Mission, where they marched back to Red Lobster. Along the way, they waved signs and repeated slogans like Black Lives Matter and F**k racism. They were greeted by supporters who honked and raised fists out of open car windows along the way. The crowd dispersed as it reached the Red Lobster parking lot, with some people hanging around, talking. A second protest is planned Monday afternoon at 4:30, starting at Central Michigan Universitys Bovee Center and going to the citys Department of Public Safety building on High Street. READ MORE: Biomedical scientists working with COVID-19 have a new tool to help them better understand the virus and feel confident about the structural models they are using in their research. Wladek Minor, PhD, of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, and other top structural biologists have led an international team of scientists to investigate the protein structures contained in the virus - structures that are vital to developing treatments and vaccines. The team has created a Web resource that provides scientists an easy way to see the progress of the structural biology community in this area. It also includes the team's assessment of the quality of the individual models and enhanced versions of these structures, when possible. "We have carefully analyzed the available models of SARS-CoV-2 proteins and present the results with the aim of helping the broad biomedical community. Structural models are ultimately the interpretation of the original researchers and sometimes are suboptimal. This is why a second set of eyes to validate important structures is so crucial," said Minor, of UVA's Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics. "In most cases, only minor corrections could be suggested. However, in several cases, the revisions were significant, especially in the sensitive area of protein-ligand complexes that are critical for follow-up research, like drug discovery work. The current health crisis demands that all SARS-CoV-2 structures are of the highest quality possible." Science at Lightning Speed When the threat of the coronavirus became apparent, scientists worldwide responded at an unprecedented pace to determine the atomic structure of the virus and its protein constituents. Researchers are using the resulting structural models in a variety of applications, ranging from structure-based drug design to planning a range of biomedical experiments. For that reason, it is essential that the atomic models are as accurate as possible. Because of the urgency of the pandemic, most of these structures are deposited in the Protein Data Bank (PDB), a global repository of macromolecular structures, before publication and peer review. The members of the team, who are experts in structure validation and interpretation, noticed opportunities to improve several SARS-CoV-2 models using state-of-the-art refinement approaches. That led them to create the new web resource. It is updated with new structures weekly, in sync with the PDB. In some cases, the team has worked with the researchers who generated the original structure to ensure that the site contains the most accurate models. This team has longstanding experience in correcting biomedically important structural models - for instance, in the field of antibiotic resistance. "Working on a project driven by strong international collaborations is an enormous opportunity for younger scientists, like Ivan Shabalin and Dariusz Brzezinski, who will undoubtedly lead other highly impactful studies in the near future," Minor said. "It is extremely rewarding to be able to add my expertise to a project that has the potential to make an immense impact on the lives of millions of people," Shabalin said. ### COVID-19 Resource The team has described the new resource in a free access article published in the FEBS Journal. Project collaborators include Alexander Wlodawer, of the National Cancer Institute (NCI); Zbigniew Dauter, of the NCI & Argonne National Laboratory; Shabalin, of UVA; Miroslaw Gilski, of A. Mickiewicz University (AMU) & Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry (IBCH), Polish Academy of Sciences; Brzezinski, of the Poznan University of Technology & IBCH, Poland, and UVA; Marcin Kowiel, of IBCH; Bernhard Rupp, of k.k. Hofkristallamt USA and Medical University Innsbruck, Austria; and Mariusz Jaskolski of AMU and IBCH. The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute, Center for Cancer Research, grant R01-GM132595; the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, contract HHSN272201700060C; the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange, grant No. PPN/BEK/2018/1/00058/U/00001 and the Austrian Science Foundation. To keep up with the latest medical research news from UVA, subscribe to the Making of Medicine blog at http://makingofmedicine.virginia.edu. News of racially motivated police brutality is always devastating, and now more than ever non-black and particularly white people are being called on to show proactive allyship. For an issue as complex and systematic as this you may be wondering what exactly you can do to help. While making donations and initiating difficult conversations go a long way, arming yourself with the knowledge of white privilege and the disadvantages people of colour face is the first step to winning the fight against structural racism. Weve put together a list of books, podcasts and TV programmes to get you started. Books Why Im no Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge The seminal debut book from Reni Eddo-Lodge pulls no punches in addressing the failings of white Britons in acknowledging their privileges. The book gets right to the point, imploring its white readers to take accountability for the continual oppression of people of colour. Why Im No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge (Bloomsbury, 7.99) | Buy it here. Slay in Your Lane by Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinene Though this book is aimed at black women and girls, it offers eye-opening insights into the more covert micro-aggressions black women face on a day-to-day basis. The book contains anecdotes from a number of high-profile black women in the UK such as June Sarpong and Afua Hirsch, on topics like dating and higher education. Slay in Your Lane is a stark reminder that theres much more to racism than police brutality and derogatory slurs. Slay in Your Lane by Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinene (HarperCollins, 9.99) | Buy it here. The Good Immigrant by Nikesh Shukla If you thought racism was more of a Stateside issue, the compilation of essays that make up The Good Immigrant (edited by Nikesh Shukla) dispels that notion entirely. Each essay has been written from different contributors and delves into the experiences of being a person of colour in Britain. A vital read for white people looking to understand the nuanced ways that discrimination show up for different ethnic groups. The Good Immigrant by Nikesh Shukla (Unbound, 8.99) | Buy it here. Natives by Akala The fallout from Britains troubled history of colonialism and structural racism is deconstructed in this book from the musician and political commentator Akala. Natives is ideal for anyone who is unaware of how institutions like the police and education consistently fail young black people, particularly from working class backgrounds. Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala (John Murray Press, 8.99). Buy it here. Television and Film When They See Us by Ava DuVernay If you saw the shocking video of Amy Cooper calling the police on an African American man in Central Park and didnt quite grasp the severity of the situation, this drama series is essential viewing. The series recounts the harrowing true story of the Central Park Five - a group of young black boys who were wrongly accused of raping a white woman in the very same New York park. Watch it on Netflix. 13TH by Ava DuVernay This splintering examination of the American prison system (also from Ava DuVernay) goes into everything from harsh sentencing for black offenders, to how the American education system puts black and Latino children at a disadvantage in comparison to their white peers. Watch it on Netflix. Dear White People by Justin Simien This American Netflix series centres a group of black university students who are exploring their own cultural identities while trying to tackle growing racial tensions on campus. The series is a more light-hearted watch in comparison to DuVernays projects but a necessary one all the same. Watch it on Netflix. Podcasts Say Your Mind This podcast from British influencer Kelechi Okafor is not for the thin-skinned. Kelechi has a way with words that means she can deliver heartfelt and emotive messages as expertly as she can tear ignorant people and ideologies to shreds. Kelechi is funny, scathing and endearing all at once, presenting black issues both frivolous and pressing with clarity and unflinching honesty. Definitely one for those who like it told as it is. Listen on Apple Podcasts. The Code Switch With a title that references the ways in which black people often have to adjust the way they speak to suit predominantly white spaces, The Code Switch unpacks the way race affects everything from the workplace to portrayals in the media. Listen to this for fascinating insights into moments in black history that you wont have been taught in school. Listen on NPR. Bound For Justice If you're looking for more reading material to pore though, this podcast engages with books and authors who draw from history to discuss how racism shows up today. From books that revisit the harrowing story of Emmett Till to the unpacking of the term White Fragility, there's plenty here to add to your reading list. Listen on Apple Podcasts. Designers working on new, more powerful Long March 11 rocket PLA Daily Source: China Daily Editor: Yang Tao 2020-06-01 13:44:18 Designers have begun to develop an upgraded version of the Long March 11 carrier rocket called the Long March 11A, which they said will be wider and taller than the current model and have greater thrust. A Long March 11 was launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province for the first time on Saturday, sending two technology demonstration satellites into orbit. China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp said the solid-propellant rocket blasted off at 4:13 am from the Xichang center, marking the 332nd flight of the Long March series. The mission also marked the first use of a 2-meter-diameter fairing on a Long March 11 and the first use of a new rocket launch vehicle, it said. Designed and built by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, the Long March 11 is the first and only solid-fuel rocket in the Long March family, the pillar of China's space programs. It is 20.8 meters long, has a diameter of 2 meters and a liftoff weight of 58 metric tons. It is capable of sending satellites to low-Earth orbit or sun-synchronous orbit, the academy said. Its first flight was in September 2015 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert. Its nine launches have also included a seaborne mission from the Yellow Sea in June last year that was China's first sea-based space launch. It has successfully placed 39 satellites in orbit in those nine missions. The new Long March 11A will be able to send 1.5 tons of payload to a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 700 kilometers, nearly four times the Long March 11's capacity to that orbit, designers said. The new model's design work will be finished before the end of this year, and it is expected to make its maiden flight around 2022, said Jin Xin, deputy project manager of Long March 11 series. The two satellites lifted into orbit on Saturday were developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Innovation Academy for Microsatellites in Shanghai and the National University of Defense Technology in Changsha, Hunan province. They will conduct intersatellite data link and Earth observation tests, the company said, adding that the Long March 11 will make several more flights from land-based launch centers and its sea-launch platform this year. Saturday's flight was the first launch of a solid-propellant rocket mission from the Xichang center. Dong Chongqing, Party chief of the center, said the mission showed Xichang has made strides in its rapid or emergency launch capabilities and that will strengthen its role in disaster-relief and emergency-response efforts. The center has carried out more than 150 launches since 1984 and is now capable of launching more than 10 Long March rocket models. Dong said Xichang is the most used of the country's four launch bases and the best in terms of launch capability. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address ALBANY Jason Bowers was at home late Saturday when alarming messages from friends told him to check out live online videos originating from right in front of The Excelsior Pub, a business he's spent nearly five years building. All I could see were flames around it, he said Monday. I though I was going to watch my place burn in front of my eyes. It was one of the lowest points of my life. The pub sits on Madison Avenue in Albany in the shadow of the Empire State Plazas East Garage. The venerable Hill Street Pub is across the street; about a block away is the Governors Mansion. After peaceful protests Saturday afternoon gave way to a night of violent clashes with police, followed by vandalism and looting that started about 10 blocks away, at the Albany Police Departments South Station, unrest spread to include the intersection where Excelsior Pub is. One of the videos from the scene was streamed live by local videographer Chris Famelette, who lives nearby and whose glass front door was later smashed by a brick. A few minutes into Famelettes video, he says, as he walks across Madison toward Excelsior Pub, Theyre looting this bar. Seconds later, though, Famelette amends the narrative: There was vandalism, but, he says, People are holding them out. In the video, men can be seen in front of the pub, waving their arms to keep others away from the pubs door and windows. One can be heard telling the vandals, Thats not right. We love this neighborhood. From what Bowers has been able to piece together, a regular customer is the person who stepped in front of the entrance after Excelsior's front door and some windows were broken. Then another took up guard. They told Bowers that 90 percent of the people nearby were not interested in vandalizing or looting Excelsior. One or two got inside the bar, according to Bowers, but damage was negligible. Another neighbor soon brought plywood to cover the broken glass. More showed up Sunday morning to help. Remarkably, Bowers alluded to but did not focus on the overnight damage in a Sunday-morning Facebook post that thanked people for checking in on him and the business. Instead, he opted for a positive, forward-looking approach that invited people for takeout, and he used a photo of one of his windows emblazoned with a rainbow. In a statement Sunday morning, Bowers said: The Excelsior Pub is proud to be a downtown Albany small business with incredible neighbors that are key to making these past few unprecedented months a little easier to handle. Last night and today, we were again embraced by this caring community with support that has helped us quickly get back to business. Elsewhere Sunday, a tense uncertainty remained. A long, impassioned but peaceful protest in Schenectady on Sunday eventually produced a scene rare in a nation riven by protesters clashing with law enforcement for the past week: Schenectady police Chief Eric Clifford and other officers knelt in a show of solidarity with protesters demanding an end to police brutality. Clifford later marched with them. But, as the city of Albany imposed another curfew for Sunday night to Monday morning, many businesses on Albanys Lark Street pre-emptively boarded over their windows, as did some on Central Avenue, at least among those that had not had theirs smashed Saturday night and early Sunday. Downtown, McGearys pub and the restaurants dp: An American Brasserie and Yonos, both at the Hampton Inn, put plywood over windows and the front door. Owners and friends of Lodges department store and The Hollow Kitchen + Bar, across-the-street neighbors on North Pearl Street, guarded their front doors and windows until late Sunday and beyond. In Troy, word spread and sentiment was galvanized on Sunday in large part by Vic Christopher of Clark House Hospitality. He wrote on Facebook, Troy is preparing for the potential of a riot, and he told the Times Union, People are saying they want to destroy Troy. By evening, it seemed like much of the Collars Citys downtown was boarded up. Christopher even patrolled Troy during a live Instagram video late Sunday, driving around and marveling at how eeriely empty downtown was. The Lark Street Business Improvement District said Sunday it is advising its members that, as long as the citys curfew was not extended another night, they should consider uncovering their windows and reopening to the degree that they are allowed under the states phased reopening plan i.e., still only takeout and delivery for restaurants. The Central Avenue BID, in contrast, told member to keeps the boards up for a couple of more days, a representative said. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. In Troy on Monday, Christopher cut a takeout window into the one-day-old boards on the front of his Little Pecks cafe, and he continued with Mondays relaunch of the Donnas Italian restaurant brand. He said his decision to leave the boards up is informed in part by a poster, from an organizer of Sundays Black Lives Matter protest in Schenectady, of another protest, this one at noon Wednesday in Troy. (A flier from the local YWCA, however, says Wednesdays rally has no organizer and asks people to attend one on Sunday, June 7.) Boards briefly covered the front of Plumb Oyster Bar on Second Street in downtown Troy, across from Christophers Lucas Confectionery. But Plumb owner Heidi Knoblauch took them down. Now, in big letters, a message on the window says, We are sorry. Knoblauch wrote on Facebook, for a moment, I lost myself to fear today. Property developer Jeff Buell, who got his big start in Troy, congratulated her, writing, She chose the power of words over the power of the shield. I watched my friend process life in real time. What is happening. What needs to happen. Who is listening. Who is paying lip service. Regardless of result, she made the Right decision. With neighbors help, Bowers was able to reopen Excelsior Pub for Sunday brunch. (The pub currently serves takeout from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekends.) He said he expects to be open again starting Thursday this week. Im blessed. I know Im not in as bad a shape as a lot of others, he said. I dont even want to think about what would have happened if (neighbors) hadnt been there and stepped up. He said, Im completely and totally overwhelmed by the support. At the same time, I am completely and totally devastated by what happened. Excelsior Pubs fifth anniversary is in August. Said Bowers, Im so looking forward to that. A plane chartered by the UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF) landed at Sanaa airport on Saturday with lifesaving supplies to help curb the spread of COVID-19 in conflict-torn Yemen. The UN agency said that the supplies include a range of medical assistance including Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) items such as aprons, boots, facemasks and gloves for frontline health workers More supplies, including COVID-19 testing kits are in the pipeline to arrive into the country in the coming weeks. These supplies will allow our courageous partners the health workers, who are working around the clock, to safely and more effectively address the spread of COVID-19, said Sara Beysolow Nyanti, UNICEF Representative in Yemen. The outbreak of COVID-19 has created an emergency within an emergency in Yemen where only half of health facilities are functional and with almost every child in Yemen (over 12 million in total) already in need of humanitarian assistance, including nearly half a million suffering from severe acute malnutrition, according to UNICEF. Despite the uncertainty that the pandemic brought, UNICEF is staying and delivering to reach children and families in need across the country. A robust and sustainable supply chain will allow us to continue doing our share, Ms. Nyanti stressed. The PPE items will help at least 1,600 health workers in primary health centers, hospitals and isolation units across Yemen to provide safe primary health care and nutrition services for a period of three months. These lifesaving supplies were provided with thanks to generous support from the Government of Australia and the International Development Association-World Bank. Ahead of a planned virtual donors conference to boost the Yemen humanitarian response, set for this Tuesday, 2 June, UNICEF is appealing for $50 million to fund its COVID-19 response for children and communities across the country. Recent funding gaps and other challenges in Yemen will put an additional estimated 5.5 million people in the war-torn country at risk of losing access to life-saving aid, such as food, cash and clean water this year, 24 international humanitarian organizations said ahead of the conference. With Covid-19 spreading rapidly in the country, the withdrawal of donor funds from the largest humanitarian crisis in the world will cost lives, these organizations warned. (Reuters) - World Health Organization (WHO) head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised on Monday the United States immense contribution to global health and urged a continuation of good ties despite President Donald Trumps move to quit the U.N. body. Trump said on Friday he would cut ties with the WHO, accusing it of becoming a puppet of China during the global coronavirus crisis. Asked about health risks during protests in the United States, another WHO official, epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove, told the same briefing that close contact could heighten the risk of spreading the COVID-19 disease. Air Force update for COVID-19 By Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs / Published June 01, 2020 WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- In an effort to minimize the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 and to prioritize the health and safety of Department of the Air Force personnel, the following modifications have been made: June 1, 2020 NOTE: Starting June 1, we will only send out this update on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday Secretary of the Air Force Barbara Barrett toured Cannon AFB and visited several units May 20. The day-long visit gave Barrett the chance to see first-hand the readiness capabilities of the 27th Special Operations Wing. Read more about her visit here: https://www.cannon.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2203613/secretary-barbara-barrett-meets-cannon-airmen-learns-base-readiness/ Amidst COVID-19, Gen. Stephen W. "Seve" Wilson, vice chief of staff of the Air Force, visited Goodfellow AFB, May 29. During his visit, Wilson saw how Goodfellow AFB is fighting and adapting through COVID-19 to carry out the mission of training and inspiring the future force. Read more about his visit here: https://www.aetc.af.mil/News/Article/2203187/vice-chief-of-staff-of-the-air-force-visits-goodfellow/ Medical personnel from the 90th Medical Group tested more than 250 troops from across the 90th Missile Wing, May 20 on F. E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming. The personnel, composed of maintainers, operators, facility managers and missile chefs, were directed to receive testing to ensure minimization of COVID-19 infections to personnel traveling to the missile field. Read more about their efforts here: https://www.warren.af.mil/News/Article/2201618/90th-medical-group-conducts-mass-covid-19-testing/ The Michigan National Guard conducted drive-thru and walk-up testing for local residents of Calhoun County, Michigan at the Marshall Opportunity High School, Albion, Michigan, May 30. The Michigan National Guard has more than 60 trained testing teams ready to assist, of which 21 are currently assigned to support the community testing mission. These three-member teams include a certified medic to conduct the testing and two members to assist with paperwork, logistics, and non-medical tasks. More than two months after Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine activated members of the Ohio National Guard to assist with food distribution at food banks statewide, the need in the community for the Ohio National Guard's assistance is still prevalent. As the state slowly begins to reopen and life returns to a new normal, Ohio National Guard members across the state continue to work hard in supporting their local community members through food packaging and distribution. Read more about their efforts here: https://www.dvidshub.net/news/371042/178th-wing-airmen-serve-their-community-local-food-bank North Carolina National Guard Soldiers and Airmen assigned to the 42nd Civil Support Team supported a drive-thru COVID-19 test site at Deep River Elementary School in Sanford, North Carolina, May 27-28. The Guardsmen collected about 500 samples in two days. This is the second time they have supported a COVID-19 test site; the first tested employees at a Chatham county chicken processing plant on April 23. Read more about their efforts here: https://www.dvidshub.net/news/371057/covid-19-testing-continues-with-nc-national-guard-support The Georgia National Guard deployed more than 2,600 Soldiers and Airmen in support of military operations and training missions around the world in 2019. Now in 2020, many of these service members serve a different kind of mission to fight the COVID-19 virus. Read more about their efforts here: https://www.dvidshub.net/news/370936/they-now-georgia-guardsmen-deployed-2019-respond-covid-2020 Senior Airman Ledarius Carpenter is a Mississippi National Guardsman traveling around the state helping to facilitate community-based COVID-19 testing sites with his team from the 186th Air Refueling Wing of Meridian. Essential missions throughout the Air Force still continue even during this pandemic. Below are some links to stories on how these units have adapted to make sure they can continue to execute these missions despite COVID-19. Joint Base Charleston hosts rescue team ahead of NASA human space flight mission - https://www.amc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2203514/joint-base-charleston-hosts-rescue-team-ahead-of-nasa-human-space-flight-mission/ AFRL centrifuge part of NASA's history-making launch - https://www.afmc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2203373/afrl-centrifuge-part-of-nasas-history-making-launch/ B-1 Lancers integrate with Ukraine aircraft for first time - https://www.usafe.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2203357/b-1s-integrate-with-ukraine-aircraft-for-first-time/ Hill AFB F-35 fighter wing members arrive at ADAB - https://www.acc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2203615/hill-afb-f-35-fighter-wing-members-arrive-at-adab/ The 28th CONS trains for future deployments - https://www.ellsworth.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2192898/28th-cons-trains-for-future-deployments/ USAF Weapons School continues to innovate air superiority - https://www.acc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2203574/usaf-weapons-school-continues-to-innovate-air-superiority/ Little Rrock AFB surges airlift operations in the face of COVID-19 constraints - https://www.amc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2201744/lrafb-surges-airlift-operations-in-the-face-of-covid-19-constraints/ AFLCMC division to launch new feedback app - https://www.afmc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2203362/aflcmc-division-to-launch-new-feedback-app/ F-22 CTF implements EAFB's first operational F-22 rapid crew swap to overcome COVID-19 limitations - https://www.afmc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2203428/f-22-ctf-implements-eafbs-first-operational-f-22-rapid-crew-swap-to-overcome-co/ Air Force Civil Engineer Center consolidates program to maximize lethality, readiness - https://www.aetc.af.mil/News/Article/2203652/air-force-civil-engineer-center-consolidates-program-to-maximize-lethality-read/ Air Force Totals of COVID-19 Positive Cases as of 9 p.m., May 31, 2020. CASES HOSPITALIZED RECOVERED DEATHS Military 526 (+22) 7 272 (+5) 0 Civilian 229 (+8) 8 (+2) 119 (+2) 1 Dependents 269 (+8) 6 133 (+4) 1 Contractors 124 (+4) 7 41 (+1) 2 Total 1,148 28 565 4 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address When it comes to speaking out on a topic like this, a brand's history with an issue matters. Advertising and marketing experts spoke with CNBC about the right and wrong ways to weigh in. Amazon tweeted its solidarity with the black community. But, it drew criticism on social media from those who noted the company had fired people who protested its treatment of employees during the coronavirus pandemic . Amazon was also called out for its role in selling facial recognition technology to law enforcement. "We at [Brand] are committed to fighting injustice by posting images to Twitter that express our commitment to fighting injustice," reads a parody statement in a tweet from game critic Christopher Franklin that has been shared more than 20,000 times. "To that end, we offer this solemn white-on-black.jpeg that expresses vague solidarity with the Black community, but will quietly elude the specifics of what is wrong, what needs to change, or in what ways we will do anything about it." Microsoft used its social handles to "amplify voices from the Black and African American community at Microsoft." Some companies let their wallets talk: YouTube tweeted it would be pledging $1 million to the Center for Policing Equity. Peloton said it would donate $500,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Glossier published an Instagram post saying it would give $1 million in total to organizations combating racial injustice and grants to Black-owned beauty businesses. And while some responses have been well received, others have fallen flat for appearing hypocritical or opportunistic. Countless companies have come out publicly in recent days to condemn racism or police brutality or to reflect how they're responding following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota. Floyd was killed by a white police officer who kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. "People want to feel that black lives matter to brands before we get to the streets. Before something is burning. Before we are marching for our lives," God-is Rivera, global director of culture and community at Twitter, told CNBC. "I think it's really important that brands first have to really think about, have they built equity with this community?" Nike's ad against racism has been called out for the company's lack of racial diversity on its executive leadership team. (Nike responded by sharing the names of a few black executives who lead brands or are part of its leadership team.) Tweet But Rivera said Nike built equity with its inclusion of Colin Kaepernick in a 2018 ad campaign, after he protested police brutality against African Americans by "taking a knee" during the national anthem in 2016. "Nike, although they absolutely are not a perfect company I don't know that there is one that exists right now but I do know that they have done some work," Rivera said. "They built some equity in saying that these types of issues matter to them and this community matters to them." Companies also shouldn't pull a one-off publicity stunt. It should be a deeper look inward, she said. "If brands are going to talk, they need to be really clear on what is the action they're going to take," she said. "If they're saying that they stand with this community, the brands should be aware that obviously they're in a position of having resources, having a platform to be able to support the community in ways that have much more outsized impact than, say, many who are marginalized within that group can do." She said brands should figure out what they can do to provide value. "Listen before doing. Listen and ask what is needed," she said. Rivera said that means digging in with the community and organizers to figure out what has the most impact. Doug Melville, chief diversity officer at Omnicom Group's TBWA\North America, said companies should communicate with their employees first. "Have them feel comfortable knowing that this is the corporation that they work for ... it makes them aware and they're set up to be allies of the messaging of the brand," he said. Melville said he acknowledges that brands may not have it all figured out, but that this is a moment to learn and move forward. "Criticizing is not the answer," he said. "We need to use these times to teach each other and not criticize." Bozoma Saint John, chief marketing officer at Endeavor, who was previously chief brand officer at Uber and the head of consumer marketing for Apple, said Monday on CNBC's "Squawk Box" that it's important to employees for companies to "put their money where their mouth is." Saint John also praised Twitter, mentioning that the company put "Black Lives Matter" in its social media bio. "Even if it's not perfect, acknowledging this very moment in time is extraordinarily important," she said. Wendy Melillo, an associate professor of journalism in the School of Communication at American University, said brands should start by deciding their position on corporate social responsibility, and then figuring out what the company believes in and goals it hopes to accomplish. "That means they have thought through where they stand as a company, so that each time a national or international event happens and they want to weigh in, they're not just giving a knee-jerk reaction," she said. She said doing this in an ad-hoc way and just putting out a statement for the sake of being in the conversation is not the way to go about it. "People are just going to call that out. It's not truthful, it isn't transparent, and most importantly, there's no action message, it's just words," she said. Vague platitudes also aren't the way to go. "The more vague the messaging, the more consumers are going to call companies out," She said. "It looks inauthentic and it looks opportunistic." The Russian Cultural Center is to start Russian lessons and a variety of other classes, that will strengthen relations between Russia and Syria writes SANA. On Sunday, the Russian Cultural Center in Damascus announced the start of Russian language courses and the gradual return of its activities after several years of stoppage due to the terrorist war against Syria. The deputy head of mission at the Russian Embassy Eldar Qurbanof highlighted the strength and depth of the Russian-Syrian relations and the importance of resuming Russian language courses. He expressed his hope that it would be a first step towards developing educational and cultural work that contributes to strengthening relations between the two peoples and fully resuming the work of the center. For his part, Director of the Russian Cultural Center Nikolai Sukhov, explained that the start of the Russian language courses is a gradual return to the full activity of the center with precautionary measures being taken to address the coronavirus. He explained that there will be Russian language courses at various levels and for all ages, in addition to courses in music, drawing and other fields. This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a meeting with his employees expressed disgust over the US President's comment on the recent happenings in Minneapolis. In an audio obtained by The Verge, Zuckerberg said, "How to handle this post from the president has been very tough." He was joined by his head of policy management, Monica Bickert. The report quoted Zuckerberg as saying, "It's been something that I've been struggling with basically all day, ever since I woke up...This has been personally pretty wrenching for me." "This is a moment that calls for unity and calmness and empathy for people who are struggling." However, Zuckerberg along with Bickert said that the comment did not violate any Facebook policies. He further said that Facebook will reconsider its policies and if they want their policy "around the discussion of state use of force." Zuckerberg, in reference to Twitter's decision to screen Trump's post behind a warning said, "If you really believe that a post is going to cause people to go do real-world violence, then that's not the type of thing that I think we should have up even behind a warning." He further said that people might be comforted that Twitter took a step. "But I don't personally agree with that step." Facebook's senior employees were not satisfied with Zuckerberg's stance of letting the post stand and so they voiced out their dissent taking to Twitter. On late Monday evening, hundreds of Facebook employees participated in a virtual walkout to protest Zuckerberg's stance to Trump's comment. A report by NYT stated that the employees participating in the protest requested time off and then added an out-of-office response to their emails informing senders that they were protesting. It is very rare that Facebook's employees show a collective emotion of dissent. Among the employees who staged the virtual walkout, were all seven engineers on the team maintaining the React code library which supports Facebook's apps, Reuters stated. "Facebook's recent decision to not act on posts that incite violence ignores other options to keep our community safe. We implore the Facebook leadership to #TakeAction," they said in a joint statement published on Twitter. Facebook has reportedly acknowledged their walkout and told the employees it will not require employees to use their paid time off. Facebook Inc will allow employees participating in the protest to take the time off without drawing down their vacation days, spokesman Andy Stone said. Trump, in his social media posts, wrote "When the looting starts, the shooting starts." This post came in the backdrop of the death of George Floyd, a 42-year-old unarmed black American on May 25 and the protests that followed. Many shops have been looted in the US in the name of protests. While Twitter has flagged Trump's posts for inciting violence, Facebook has not taken any action against it. Tim Fischer/Midland Reporter-Telegram Midland County, the city of Midland and Midland Health confirmed Tuesday Midland County's 13th COVID-19-related death. The patient, a male in his 80s, died Monday at Midland Medical Lodge, where he was a resident, according to a press release from the citys spokeswoman. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sunniva Inc. ("Sunniva", the "Company", "we", "our" or "us") (CSE:SNN) (OTCQB:SNNVF), is providing an update on the status of the filing of its first quarter financial statements and accompanying management's discussion and analysis, and related CEO and CFO certifications for the financial quarter ended March 31, 2020 (the "Quarterly Filings"). Quarterly Filing Update The British Columbia Securities Commission has enacted BC Instrument 51-515 - Temporary Exemption from Certain Corporate Finance Requirements ("BCI 51-515") which allows for a 45-day extension for certain periodic filings required to be made on or prior to June 1, 2020. The Company will be relying on this extension and on the temporary exemption of its Group A filings pursuant to BCI 51-515 in respect to the following provisions: the requirement to file unaudited financial statements for the three months ended March 31, 2020 (the "Financial Statements") within 60 days of the Company's financial quarter end as required by section 4.4(b) of NI 51-102 Continuous Disclosure Requirements ("NI 51-102"); (the "Financial Statements") within 60 days of the Company's financial quarter end as required by section 4.4(b) of NI 51-102 ("NI 51-102"); the requirement to file management discussion and analysis for the period covered by the Financial Statements within 60 days of the Company's financial quarter end as required by section 5.1(2) of NI 51-102; and the requirement to file certifications of the Financial Statements pursuant to section 5.1 of National Instrument 52-109 Certification of Disclosure in Issuers' Annual and Interim Filings. The Company intends to file the Quarterly Filings as soon as practicable. Prior to completion of the Quarterly Filings, management and other insiders of the Company are subject to a trading black-out policy as described, in principle, in section 9 of National Policy 11-207 Failure to File Cease Trade Orders and Revocations in Multiple Jurisdictions. On November 26, 2019, the Company filed its interim consolidated financial statements and management's discussion and analysis for the period ended September 30, 2019. The Company confirms that since the filing there have been no material business developments other than disclosed through prior news releases, or as disclosed herein. Since November 26, 2019, the Company has issued the following press releases with respect to material business developments: November 28, 2019 - Sunniva Updates Expected Closing Date for SMI Transaction ; - ; December 4, 2019 - Sunniva Responds to Notice of Claim With Respect to Promissory Notes ; - ; December 13, 2019 - Sunniva Provides Update On California Operations As A Result Of Current Legal Disputes ; - ; December 16, 2019 - Sunniva Responds to Ex Parte Application Against CP Logistics With Respect to Promissory Notes ; - ; December 18, 2019 - Sunniva Reports The Ex Parte Application Filed in California was Denied ; - ; December 19, 2019 - Sunniva Announces Amended Terms and Closing of NHS ; - ; December 23, 2019 - Sunniva Provides Update on SMI Transaction ; - ; December 24, 2019 - CP Logistics Files for Temporary Restraining Order and Initiates Arbitration Process ; - ; December 26, 2019 - CP Logistics Reports the Application For A Temporary Restraining Order was Denied ; - ; January 2, 2020 - Sunniva Responds to Notice of Claim With Respect to Finders Fee ; - ; January 14, 2020 - CP Logistics, LLC Files Motion to Compel Arbitration ; - ; January 27, 2020 - Sunniva Announces Shut Down of Full Scale Distributors ; - ; February 20, 2020 - Sunniva Provides Update on Current Liquidity Position ; - ; February 24, 2020 - Sunniva Responds To Filing of Claim with Respect to Sale of NHS ; - ; March 17, 2020 - Sunniva and CannaPharmaRx Update Terms of Sunniva Medical Transaction; - April 28, 2020 - Sunniva Provides Update on Annual Filings, Staff Reductions and Status of Previously Announced Sale of Sunniva Medical Inc.; - May 8, 2020 - Sunniva Responds to Filing of Court Petition with Respect to Its Okanagan Falls Property; - May 14, 2020 - Sunniva Responds to Filing of Notice of Motion by Matrix Venture Capital Management Inc. Seeking Bankruptcy Order; and - June 1, 2020 - Sunniva Updates Status of Hearing for the Previously Filed Notice of Motion by Matrix Venture Capital Management Inc. Seeking Bankruptcy Order. Copies of the press releases listed above are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com . For more information about the Company please visit: www.sunniva.com. The Canadian Securities Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information or Statements This press release contains forward-looking information or statements. All statements that are or information which is not historical facts, including without limitation, statements regarding future estimates, plans, programs, forecasts, projections, objectives, assumptions, expectations or beliefs of future performance, statements regarding Sunniva's intention to rely on the extension and temporary exemptions pursuant to BCI 51-515, including the intention to file the Quarterly Filings as soon as practicable are "forward-looking information or statements". Forward-looking information or statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "estimates", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. With respect to forward-looking information and statements contained herein, Sunniva has made numerous assumptions including, among other things, assumptions about general business and economic conditions. Such forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, events or developments to be materially different from any future results, events or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking information or statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, the risk factors included in the Sunniva's continuous disclosure documents available on www.sedar.com. These factors should be considered carefully, and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking information or statements. Although Sunniva has attempted to identify important risk factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information or statements, there may be other risk factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking information or statements. Sunniva assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information or statements, even if new information becomes available as a result of future events, new information or for any other reason except as required by law. Company Contacts: Sunniva Inc. Sunniva Investor Relations Dr. Anthony Holler Rob Knowles Chairman and Chief Executive Officer VP Corporate Development Phone: (866) 786-6482 Phone: (587) 316-4319 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Sunniva Inc. Related Links http://www.sunniva.com Chancellor Gary Brahm congratulates a Brandman University graduate. Brandman University will hold virtual ceremonies for the Class of 2020, ensuring graduates receive well-due acclaim for their achievements at a time when public health orders preclude traditional ceremonies from taking place. Commencement is a red-letter day for all colleges and universities, and the occasion is particularly meaningful for Brandman graduates. Brandman fulfills a special mission of serving working adults who earn their degrees while they are also building careers and raising families. Many Brandman students are veterans, or enroll while on active duty. Commencement is a time for families to cheer while their loved ones enjoy the triumph of earning a degree and mastering valuable knowledge, Chancellor Gary Brahm said. Our Virtual Commencement will ensure Class of 2020 graduates are recognized for their accomplishments. Although we will be unable to gather in the same places this year, Brandman is committed to showing graduates and their families the high value we place on their futures. Virtual Commencement events will take place over the weekend of June 12-14. Brandman is inviting graduates, their families and friends to view streaming ceremonies that will be particular to their chosen degrees. The university is also encouraging graduates to provide personal statements and photos to be included in Commencement webcasts. Graduates earning bachelors degrees can also provide videos of themselves turning their tassels as a ceremonial affirmation of their promotion from undergraduate student to university alumnus or alumna. Ceremonies will also include the traditional readings of graduates names. Brandmans Virtual Commencement planners are also looking forward to graduates, as well as their friends, families, and university faculty and staff, using social media to share their enthusiasm and congratulate each other in real time during this years celebrations. Class of 2020 graduates who also want to experience a more traditional in-person Commencement will be able to join 2021 events, provided the future public health situation is such that large gatherings can be held safely and in compliance with any and all applicable government directives. Brandman had scheduled 11 Commencement events in California and Washington before the new coronavirus made large gatherings impossible. The schedule would have included multiple large-scale celebrations in California; smaller affairs in Washington State, where many of the graduates studied at military bases, and one ceremony at Naval Air Station Lemoore in Central California that would have been strictly reserved for active duty graduates. More information on 2020 Virtual Commencement is available here. ### ABOUT BRANDMAN UNIVERSITY Brandman University is a private, nonprofit institution accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission. As part of the Chapman University System, Brandman blends a legacy of academic excellence with innovative programs and support services designed for students with busy schedules. The university offers more than 80 undergraduate, graduate, credential and certificate programs. Brandman serves about 24,000 students, more than 14,000 of whom enroll in academic credit programs, at 25 physical campuses in California and Washington, as well as online. Brandman offers fully-online courses for students anywhere in the United States and for military personnel serving abroad. For additional information, visit the universitys website. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Andy Bruce (Reuters) London, United Kingdom Tue, June 2, 2020 17:00 597 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb965e4 2 World UK,Britain,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-death-toll,COVID-19-infection,pandemic,SARS-CoV-2,novel-coronavirus,virus-corona Free The United Kingdom's COVID-19 death toll neared 50,000 on Tuesday, confirming its place as one of the worst hit countries in the world just as Prime Minister Boris Johnson tries to ease the stringent novel coronavirus outbreak. The toll now stands at 49,646, including death certificate data for England and Wales released on Tuesday up to May 22, previously published figures for Scotland and Northern Ireland, and recent hospital deaths in England. Such a large death toll has prompted criticism of Johnson, who opposition parties say was too slow to impose a lockdown, too slow to protect the elderly in nursing homes and too slow to build a test and trace system. Johnson's government says that while it may have made some mistakes it is grappling with the biggest public health crisis since the 1918 influenza outbreak and that it has ensured the health service was not overwhelmed. Still, the grim death toll surpasses even some projections by the government's own scientific advisers. In March, Britain's chief scientific adviser said keeping deaths below 20,000 would be a "good outcome". In April, Reuters reported the government's worst-case scenario was 50,000 deaths. Unlike the daily death toll published by the government, Tuesday's death certificate figures include suspected cases and confirmed cases of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Epidemiologists say excess mortality - deaths from all causes that exceed the five-year average for the time of year - is the best way of gauging deaths from a disease outbreak because it is internationally comparable. Some 62,000 more people than usual have died in the United Kingdom during this year's coronavirus pandemic, according to the latest available data, an expert from the Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday. An innocent nail technician who unknowingly took a fugitive into her home days after he allegedly murdered his girlfriend says she had previously never met him. Ricardo Barbaro, 33, was arrested inside 27-year-old Crystal Shihada's penthouse when police stormed the property in Sydney's inner west on May 14 after a 10-day manhunt. Barbaro's on-and-off girlfriend Ellie Price, 26, was found dead in her south Melbourne townhouse on May 4. He has since been charged with her murder. Daily Mail Australia does not suggest Ms Shihada was involved in any wrongdoing. She told her real estate agent she was shocked when crime squads made the dramatic arrest. 'I don't know him personally. [Someone] asked me to help him out as he had nowhere to stay,' the nail technician told Morton real estate agent Felix Fang, according to The Daily Telegraph. Mr Fang added: 'She told me he stayed just a few days, that she has spoken to the police and told them everything, and they know she doesn't know him.' Ricardo Barbaro, 33, was arrested inside the apartment of 27-year-old Crystal Shihada (pictured) Ricardo Barbaro leaves Burwood police station in hand cuffs after the arrest over the death of Ellie Price Barbaro was alone in the apartment when he was found by police. He is accused of murdering Ms Price who was found dead in their south Melbourne townhouse. Calabrian Mafia-linked Barbaro fled Melbourne sometime between April 29 and May 4, police alleged in court papers. Ricardo Barbaro (pictured) is led from the cells at Burwood Local Court on Thursday afternoon. He will be taken to a nearby jail to spend the night, before returning to Melbourne on Friday Barbaro is accused of murdering is on-off girlfriend Ellie Price (pictured), 26, who was found dead in their south Melbourne townhouse on May 4 Ms Price's mother Tracey Gangell was forced to break the news to her four-year-old grandson, Mostafa, that his mum was in heaven and never coming home. 'He walked up to her photo on the fridge and kissed it and said "I love you mum",' she previously told the Herald Sun. Following Barbaro's arrest she said: 'I am relieved. The police have done an amazing job. 'I hope justice prevails.' Barbaro faced the Melbourne Magistrates Court on May 16 where he was asked is he was withdrawing from drugs. Ms Gangell said she told Mostafa a few days ago that his mum was in 'heaven' and never coming home 'Valiums and Xanax,' the 33-year-old replied while nodding his head. Xanax and Valium are prescription drugs from the benzodiazepine family, which are commonly used to treat anxiety. Barbaro, from Southport in Queensland, was asked whether he needed a nurse. 'Yeah I'm seeing a doctor,' he told the magistrate. Barbaro's lawyer Campbell MacCallum dialled into the hearing from Queensland but no application for bail made. His next court date is in September. [June 02, 2020] QuintessenceLabs Wins Prestigious Global CyberTech 100 Award QuintessenceLabs, the leader in quantum-cyber-security solutions, announced today that it has been selected as a CyberTech 100 award winner, from a field of over 1,000 companies. The recognition underscores the importance of the company's technologies to the financial sector - addressing some of today's most pressing cybersecurity challenges while providing a pathway to a future quantum-safe posture. CyberTech100 identifies the 100 most innovative companies that every financial institution needs to know about when they consider and develop their information security and financial crime fighting strategies. The standout companies were selected by a panel of industry experts and analysts who reviewed a study of over 1,000 CyberTech companies that was undertaken by FinTech Global. QuintessenceLabs' success follows February's announcement of funding by In-Q-Tel (News - Alert), a strategic investor that accelerates the development and delivery of cutting-edge technologies to US government agencies. It also coincides with the recent release of QuintessenceLabs' qStream Plus Quantum (News - Alert) Entropy Appliance. qStream Plus combines the power of high-speed quantum random number generation with entropy management software, to provision enterprise-scale performance and security for applications requiring high quality random numbers. QuintessenceLabs is the global leader in the delivery of quantum-safe data protection solutions, including the world's fastest quantum random number generator, crypto-agile key management, and second-generation quantum key distribution. The company has also been the recipient of numerous other awards, including recognition as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer and a Westpac Top 20 "Business of Tomorrow." QuintessenceLabs founder and CEO, Dr Vikram Sharma, said, "We are honoured by this recognition which highlights the importance of our quantum cybersecurity capabilities to securing sensitive data for financial services firms. QuintessenceLabs' solutions provide a powerful cybersecurity foundation for enterprises - addressing some of today's critical challenges while preparing for the future threat of quantum-enabled adversaries." FinTech Global director Richard Sachar said, "Established financial institutions need to be aware of the latest security technology in the market to protect their organisations from data leaks and cyber attacks. The CyberTech100 list helps senior management filter through all the vendors in the market by highlighting the leading companies in sectors such as Threat Management, Data Governance, Cloud Security, Employee Risk and Fraud Prevention." About QuintessenceLabs | www.quintessencelabs.com QuintessenceLabs is the global leader in quantum-enhanced cybersecurity solutions. We deliver unique products to deliver the strongest protection, integrating quantum technology with high-value security capabilities. These include the world's fastest commercial quantum random number generator, our crypto-agile key and policy manager, integrated encryption solutions, and second-generation quantum key distribution. These quantum-safe solutions help keep organisations secure today while building the strongest foundation for tomorrow's quantum computer security threat. The company is headquartered in Canberra, Australia. About the CyberTech100 The CyberTech100 is an annual list of 100 of the world's most innovative CyberTech companies that every financial institution needs to know about. The list recognizes the next generation of solution providers shaping the future of the information security and CyberTech industries. The list aims to help senior executives and cybersecurity professionals evaluate which technology solutions have market potential and are most likely to succeed and have a lasting impact on the industry. About FinTech Global FinTech Global offers the most comprehensive data, the most valuable insights, and the most powerful analytical tools available for the global FinTech industry. The company serves the leaders of technology and innovation divisions as well as investment divisions at financial institutions globally, providing them with the most comprehensive, reliable information, research, and intelligence on all FinTech sectors to help them make superior business decisions. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005293/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A Civil Guard colonel was sacked from his post by Spains Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska after he lost the confidence of his superior for not reporting on the progress of investigations and actions by the Civil Guard. Thats according to a classified document that was signed on May 24 by the general director of the Spanish law-enforcement agency, and which was published today by Spanish online newspaper El Confidencial. The revelation compromises the version of events offered up until now by Marlaska, a minister in the Socialist Party (PSOE)-Unidas Podemos coalition government, who last week insisted that the firing of Colonel Diego Perez de los Cobos was solely due to an internal restructuring. Opposition parties have called on Marlaska to immediately resign, on the basis that Perez de los Cobos was sacked for not leaking the investigation into the Womens Day marches Marlaska also denied that anyone from his team was seeking information about the content of a report that Civil Guard chiefs in Madrid were preparing for a judge, who is investigating the central governments delegate in Madrid for allowing feminist marches to go ahead on March 8 of this year, despite the fact that coronavirus cases had already been detected in the country. Opposition parties have called on Marlaska to immediately resign, on the basis that Perez de los Cobos was sacked for not leaking the investigation into 8-M, as Womens Day is referred to in Spain, and for complying with a judicial order, said the head of the conservative Popular Party (PP) Pablo Casado on Tuesday. Earlier, however, and just minutes after the internal document was published, the Interior Ministry offered explanations for the exit of Perez de los Cobos. He failed to comply with the procedure for communicating operations, for the sole purpose of awareness, not the actual content of the same, which is the duty of the leadership of the Civil Guard via the chain of command, the ministry said on Tuesday. According to the Interior Ministry, Perez de los Cobos reported at the end of March that the judge in question had tasked the Civil Guard with an investigation into all of the demonstrations that were held as the coronavirus was spreading through Spain, and which included, among others, the 8-M march in the capital. Days later, the ministry stated, it was reported that the proceedings had been halted due to the state of alarm, which was implemented by the Spanish government to halt the spread of the coronavirus. But the Civil Guard chief did not report to his superiors that in the end the investigations did not stop or at least were restarted. All of these new explanations are in conflict with the version offered by Grande-Marlaska last week, when he repeated on a number of occasions that the exit of the colonel was nothing more than a reorganization. He also denied in parliament, and in contrast to Perez de los Cobos version of events, that anyone in his department was interested in the report being prepared for the judge. Its a change of teams, the minister said at the time. Nothing more. The publication of the classified document has once again put the version of the Interior Ministry into doubt and has invited fresh attacks from the political opposition Perez de los Coboss side of the story is very different, according to sources close to him, who said that Interior Ministry chiefs called him on May 24 asking about the information in the report that was sent to the judge. The colonel is said to have told them that he did not know the details, and that in any event, he wouldnt be able to get them from his subordinates, given that the investigation was under judicial orders and as such was confidential. Perez de los Cobos was dismissed the next day. The sacking caused a political earthquake in just a few hours. The opposition claimed that the government was trying to interfere in the Civil Guards affairs, and the judge investigating the demonstrations sent a brief to the State Secretariat for Security in which it warned the ministry that she had given strict instructions to the investigators that they should only report their findings in the case to her. The publication today of the classified document has once again put the version of the Interior Ministry into doubt and has invited fresh attacks from the political opposition. The PPs spokesperson in Congress, Cayetana Alvarez de Toledo, announced that her party is going to call for Marlaska to be censured in Congress, as well as demanding his immediate resignation. Far-right Vox and center-right Ciudadanos (Citizens) have also called for the minister to go. The government, meanwhile, is backing the Interior chief. Maria Jesus Montero, the governments spokesperson, said today that any team, when it comes to the carrying out of its functions, has the right to appoint trusted staff. A loss of confidence comprises many different aspects, she added. There was no interference. The report The Civil Guard report in question was commissioned by Judge Carmen Rodriguez-Medel, who is investigating the central governments delegate in the Madrid region, Jose Manuel Franco of the Socialist Party (PSOE), for authorizing mass events in early March that may have helped spread the coronavirus. This included the feminist marches held on International Womens Day, March 8. The 83-page document, which EL PAIS has seen, analyzed 177 public gatherings in the Madrid region between March 5 and 14, and concluded that from March 5, 2020 onwards there should not have been any demonstrations due to the health crisis. But the report, which took two months to draft, omitted relevant information, got important dates mixed up, offered erroneous contagion figures, and made reference to numerous false news stories. In one instance, the authors claimed that authorities cancelled 12 demonstrations between March 5 and 14 due to health concerns, proving that the government already knew about the risk of coronavirus transmission. But there were no records of the telephone conversations in which government authorities allegedly informed organizers that their events were being cancelled. And nine of the organizers told this newspaper that this was not the case. On March 7, Spanish health authorities were still saying that the coronavirus situation was under control, based on figures provided by regional governments, which were reporting a few hundred cases, mostly in Madrid, La Rioja and the Basque province of Alava. In reality, a national epidemic was already underway but going undetected due to lack of testing. It was not until Monday, March 9, when the scenario officially changed. English version by Simon Hunter. Adventure tours have become more popular among locals in Da Lat city. (Photo: dulich.tuoitre.vn) To prevent the spread of COVID-19, visitors to Da Lat are skipping crowded, popular tourism spots. This is the perfect time for local travel agencies to launch tours that involve overnight camping in pine forests, kayaking, and zip-line swinging, among other adventure activities. Most of the sightseeing and camping tours often start at 3pm daily and end the next morning, with prices ranging from 400,000 VND (18 USD) to 450,000 VND (20 USD) per person. Tourists are offered a discount of 10 to 40 percent if they pursue more active activities. The discount aims to encourage groups of fewer than 15 people for adventure tours, which formerly were mostly embraced by foreigners. According to the provincial Peoples Committee, the number of visitors to Da Lat as of mid-May was 160,000, down more than 70 percent year-on-year. Of the total, the number of foreign visitors was 1,800, down 95.7 percent year-on-year, while domestic visitors totalled 158,200, down more than 68 percent compared to 2019. Da Lat, however, has witnessed a growing number of visitors in recent weekends. It is expected that by September, the number of tourists to Da Lat will reach 70 percent of the same period in 2019. The Lam Dong Tourism Association plans to organise more night activities for visitors in an effort to lower the density of visitors during the day. The new plan will ensure safety during COVID-19 and increase tourism revenue for the province. Phlexglobal has processed thousands of clinical trial documents in support of COVID-19 studies and has supported Investigational New Drug (IND) applications for multiple potential treatments during the crisis. Phlexglobal, a leading innovative technology and services provider for the life sciences industry, today announces its substantial contribution to COVID-19 clinical trial activities. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Phlexglobal has provided extensive support for multiple pharmaceutical companies developing effective treatments for those who have been impacted by the virus and vaccines to prevent its spread. These services are vital to developing life-saving treatments for the most important health crisis facing the world today. As pharmaceutical companies race to develop these vaccines and treatments, they must still follow regulatory guidelines to ensure patient safety and trial legitimacy. To help meet these needs, Phlexglobal is providing specialized technology and services to fast track COVID-19 trials without compromising quality. To date, fifteen different companies have turned to Phlexglobal for clinical or regulatory support for COVID-19 studies or submissions. Phlexglobal has made it the highest corporate priority to support COVID-19 research while maintaining clinical and regulatory business continuity for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, said John McNeill, Chief Executive Officer of Phlexglobal. Phlexglobal has processed thousands of clinical trial documents in support of COVID-19 studies and has supported Investigational New Drug (IND) applications for multiple potential treatments during the crisis. The disruption of regular clinical trial workflows and the updates from regulatory agencies are creating major challenges for pharmaceutical companies. The FDA alone has issued over 80 guidance updates related to COVID-19, and the EMA almost 40. With so much at stake, companies are turning to Phlexglobal to ensure their trials run uninterrupted and that their submissions meet all regulations. In the early stages of the pandemic, Phlexglobal began support for a top-20 Biotech Company engaged in a global COVID-19 clinical trial. The Company sought expert support for their TMF to ensure documents were filed in a timely manner with the highest possible accuracy to ensure both speed and quality of the trial. Phlexglobal streamlined processes to ensure documents would be processed as quickly as possible without impacting quality, processing hundreds of documents in the first week. By using electronic signature workflows and taking ownership of metadata requirements, Phlexglobal reduced indexing and quality check timelines to less than 24 hours, increasing the availability of the documents by more than 60%. One of the worlds leading pharma companies with a Trial Master File processing facility in China experienced a government-mandated closure due to the COVID-19 outbreak. As documents continued to be produced worldwide, the Company faced a serious backlog risk with hundreds of documents remaining unprocessed every day the office was closed. Phlexglobal mobilized a team of in house specialists and utilized technology to support the Companys document processing needs. Phlexglobal processed nearly 10,000 documents in record time, preventing a major backlog that would have slowed trial operations and delayed submission at trial close. Phlexglobal has been able to provide seamless support by taking extensive measures to maintain business continuity in support of drug development while ensuring the safety of its employees. The companys global offices have shifted to a hybrid operational model whereby employees are working remotely. Phlexglobals United States office, located 30 miles outside Philadelphia, has been granted Essential Business status by the commonwealth of Pennsylvania which allows the company to open its office as needed for high-volume paper scanning projects. This model also facilitates the companys ability to provide trial continuity services to pharmaceutical companys facing facility closures. Phlexglobals speed in adapting to pandemic conditions, combined with its innovative technologies and deep clinical and regulatory expertise, make it a crucial partner in COVID-19 drug development as well as ongoing clinical trials. Companies engaged in drug development should contact Phlexglobal at phlexglobal.com/contact for immediate regulatory and clinical support. S MALL firms today welcomed a 15 billion support fund backed by UK banks to aid businesses struggling with debts. The Business Growth Fund was founded in 2011 by big banks including Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds, and is run by former JP Morgan banker Stephen Welton. Welton warns that a large number of businesses will fail in the fallout from Covid-19 and that unless there is some degree of debt flexibility an economic crisis could turn into a banking crisis. The BGF scheme would aim to help firms that have taken a CBIL a coronavirus business interruption loan but are struggling with repayments. A Federation of Small Businesses London spokesman said: Many small firms across London have taken a significant financial hit as a result of the pandemic and a vast swathe will have turned to debt finance to support them. "But it is important that we see alternative forms of finance such as equity finance being offered to small firms as many are informing us that they dont want to store up more future debt. It is vital that we give small firms wider options at this time as it is not simply a case of one size of finance fits all. BGF will seek to raise perhaps 7.5 billion from the City with the rest to come from the government. In the grand scheme of things, its very easy to get caught up in the cool starfighters, lightsaber duels, and effects of Star Wars. How can you not, right? But the underlying message of all of George Lucas movies in the faraway galaxy is anti-authoritarian and always has been. It was social commentary parallel to the Vietnam War back when it first came out and is still relevant today. 1977 special edition Star Wars comic books once owned by Carrie Fisher are displayed during an auction of Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher items at McManus Auctions on February 11, 2018 | Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images RELATED: The Sith in Star Wars Had Their Own Chosen One Prophecy; Will Fans See It In Canon? The Vietnam War inspired the rhetoric in Star Wars and was anti-authoritarian In 2018, filmmaker James Cameron interviewed Lucas for AMCs James Camerons Story of Science Fiction series on YouTube. They talked about how the movies were anti-authoritarian and why Lucas wrote them that way. To answer that, Lucas explained how he came out of anthropology and focused mainly on social systems. He was far more interested in asking the question, How do the people react to [fancy tech], and how do they accommodate them? rather than focusing said tech and other sci-fi aspects. In doing so, Lucas created a world that was not too different from our own, but from the side of the little guy in contention with a big empire or government. Star Wars is fundamentally anti-authoritarian. And purposefully done because of the Vietnam War, which ended around two years before A New Hope premiered. RELATED: In 2006, George Lucas Believed Star Wars Should Start and End With Anakin Skywalker Cameron points out that the Rebels would be considered modern-day terrorists by some, and Lucas noted that they would have been equivalent to the Viet Cong in Vietnam in 1977. He said it was very colonial, were fighting the largest empire in the world and it was the same thing with the Vietnamese. He also said that, in 2018, there was some irony because, in both his science fiction and in real life, the little guys won. He continued with, And the big highly technical, English Empire, the American Empire, lost. That was the whole point. Star Wars has never been about war, but rather striving for peace and justice amid bad leadership When audiences watched Star Wars in 1977 and when they watch it now, Americans were the big scary Empire they saw on-screen. America wasnt the only nation to inspire the bad guys though; the overt parallel between the Empire and Nazi Germany is rampant. From the literal name Stormtroopers to the dictatorship we see with Palpatine, its obvious that they mirrored the once fascist regime. Star Wars has always been anti-war and anti-imperialism, in addition to the aforementioned themes. Sure, it has war in the title, but it has always been for the smaller powers. It focused more on how their heroes can achieve peace within a wartorn society. The Empire is a parasitic dictatorship; how can these rebels dismantle that huge power structure? During the interview for AMC, Lucas said that America never got it. He continued: We never said, Wait this isnt the right thing to do. And were still struggling with it. Cameron brought up the reason these empires in the past have fallen, which is because of poor leadership and government. With Senator Padme Amidalas line So this is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause it really hits home that whole message. RELATED: This Padme Line in Revenge of the Sith Is a Perfect Parallel To The Current Political Climate, According to George Lucas The Jedi Order is the best example of a noble system that is soured by war Maybe the best example where Star Wars showed how power and war destroyed something meant for good is the Jedi Order. Theyre meant to be peacekeepers, sheriffs to the galaxy. Even down to their weapons, they were meant for peace. Sure, the lightsabers are used in battle, but its meant for peace against aggressors who would want nothing less than chaos, hate, and destruction. As Obi-Wan Kenobi said when he shot General Grievous, guns are an uncivilized weapon in comparison to the lightsaber. Jedi arent meant to use it to kill, unless they have no choice. And the fact that the heat from the laser can cauterize a wound instantly is another important, peaceful (if you will) feature. However, when the Republic falls into a war against the Separatists, which are planets that left the Republic because they didnt feel seen, the Jedi choose a side. They no longer were working toward peace by being mediators or neutral. They sided with the Republic and furthered war. They became generals in the military and really played into the politics of it all. There were so many casualties and collateral damage, which we see a lot through Ahsokas story, specifically. The whole reason she left the Order is that she didnt see herself aligned with the Jedi anymore. And in Season 7, she hears about the death of the Martez sisters parents, due to a Jedi mission. She then sees it through Obi-Wans reluctance to help Mandalore. I understand, that as usual, youre playing politics, she tells him. This is why the people have lost faith in the Jedi. I had too. From peacekeepers to generals, the cost of violence and war is what essentially leads to a lot of mayhem. And, of course, the establishment of the very authoritarian Empire. Colorado Politics is published both in print and online. Our website features subscriber-only news stories daily, designed for public policy arena professionals. Member subscribers also receive the weekly print edition of our award-winning newspaper, containing outstanding features and news stories, in their mailboxes every Saturday. A 22-year-old man was tied to a tree and burnt alive in Uttar Pradeshs Pratapgarh district for allegedly sexually harassing a girl few months ago, police said on Tuesday. A police team immediately reached the spot but agitated villagers in Bhujaini clashed with them and set afire two vehicles. Ambika Prasad Patel was tied to a tree on Monday night allegedly by Harishankar, Shubham, Ram Milan and others, who set him on fire, Superintendent of Police Abhishek Singh said. Harishankar and Shubham have been arrested, and an FIR was registered, police said, adding that the situation was under control now. Harishankar had lodged an FIR against Patel on March 1 for allegedly harassing his daughter and posting an objectionable photo of her on social media. Police suspect this to be the cause behind the killing. Patel was arrested at that time and also sent to jail. An FIR was lodged against Patel under sections 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material) of the Information Technology Act, and 354 (outraging the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A big karaoke parlor chain in Ho Chi Minh City has filed a document, pleading with local authorities for permission to reopen after a three-month closure over novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The Nnice karaoke chain operator sent the plea to the municipal Peoples Committee and the Department of Culture and Sports, asking for their help with business resumption. A karaoke brand in Ho Chi Minh City, Nnice has seven locations in different districts. The operator said in the plea that it had become exhausted after suffering for three months since its temporary shutdown, ordered by the city admistration to stem COVID-19 transmission. Nnice has halted all operations since March 15, leading to hundreds of jobs lost and huge damage to the chain, the operator elaborated. Karaoke parlors have incurred great losses, made zero revenue, and had to take out loans to support staff, pay for location rent, and settle bank interest, the operator said, adding that each suffers billions of Vietnamese dong in damage a month. (VND1 billion = US$43,000) The Nnice operator suggested in the plea that Ho Chi Minh City authorities ask the central government for permission for karaoke businesses to reopen, as Vietnam has kept COVID-19 at bay. Such resumption will create jobs and keep the business afloat, Nnice said, promising to take preventative measures to prevent COVID-19 spread. The Peoples Committee ordered a series of businesses, including karaoke parlors, to close down from March 15, when the country was at the peak of the pandemic, in order to curb COVID-19. The committee allowed the majority of businesses to come back on stream on May 9, except for discos and karaoke lounges. Vietnam has well kept the novel coronavirus under control, with 293 out of 328 patients having beaten the disease. No virus-related death has been documented in the country so far. The government is still reminding citizens to keep an eye on the virus to prevent its resurgence. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! A few weeks ago, Reforma started receiving threats that its headquarters in Nuevo Leon would be bombed if they did not stop production of content with direct criticisms against the Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador administration. The most extreme case of which being rhetorical attacks, or of open hostility between Lopez Obrador's administration and the press might become serious threats. Earlier this month, journalist Jorge Miguel Armenta Avalos was murdered near Ciudad Obregon, Sonora. Systematic smear campaigns International journalism organizations like the Inter-American Press Association criticized Lopez Obrador's recent attacks on the media. The president called the content the press published as a way to "incite violence". As a nonprofit organization with beyond 1,300 published articles from Miami, Florida. They issued a statement that denounced Lopez Obrador's response to news reports about himself, especially ones targeted at El Universal and Reforma. President of the IAPA Christopher Barnes said that Lopez Obrador's authoritarian, ideological and derogatory bias towards the media would only serve to motivate individuals who would be able to assault and wreak havoc among journalists to rid the country of freedom of expression. In Mexico, a country with high rates of violence, Barnes said that the president's attitude was not unlike "throwing gasoline on the fire". President of an IAPA committee Roberto Rock said that Lopez Obrador's "systematic smear campaigns" often targeted large media corporations that have wider reach, such as those with international publications. Director of the Human Rights Watch Americas division Jose Miguel Vivanco believed that Lopez Obrador often discredited the media through his daily press briefings. He said that whoever published a story that the president did not like would become an enemy. Check these out! "Alarmist reports" gain president's attention Earlier this month Lopez Obrador's disapproval of the press intensified tenfold as he called out the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Financial Times, and El Pais for lacking media ethics. He then accused them of reporting with an extreme slant against his administration instead of remaining neutral. He asserted that with the coming of nueva normalidad, which was the resumption of regular operations in the country after the coronavirus measures, the media must reconsider the role they played in society. In mid-May, Lopez Obrador expressed his dissatisfaction at a press conference with regards to reports about the activity in crematoriums and pantheons that were related to the overwhelmed capacity of the country's response to the coronavirus. He was especially disappointed by how the press appeared to frame the events as though only Mexico was experiencing the debilitating impact of the pandemic. The president acknowledged that the market was indeed declining. He continued to say that the crisis not only affected the economy, but also social welfare, and the lack of ethics when it came to information management in the country and the rest of the world. Lopez Obrador then accused the national media of publishing "alarmist reports". He added that in the following weeks, he expected the cases of COVID-19 would decline. Some analysts saw the reversal as a strategic gain for the United States, given that the Philippines is the only U.S. treaty ally bordering the South China Sea, a vital maritime shipping route. In light of Chinas continued assertion of its historic rights in Vietnamese and Malaysian waters over the last year, Manila may have concluded that its previous rapprochement with Beijing would not protect Philippine interests, said M. Taylor Fravel, a political-science professor who is director of the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said it remained unclear how the move by the Philippines to at least temporarily prolong the pact, known as the Visiting Forces Agreement, would affect the countrys South China Sea policy. But she also saw it as a setback for China. Beijing has long sought to weaken U.S. alliances, and has benefited from the friction in recent years in U.S.-Philippine relations, she said. So a decision by Manila to suspend plans to terminate the V.F.A. will be seen as contrary to Chinese interests. There was no immediate comment from China on the Philippiness decision. In February, Mr. Duterte had ordered the termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement, endangering a security blanket for the Philippines, which has been facing increasingly hostile Chinese actions in the South China Sea. Under the agreement, Washington and Manila had 180 days after the issuance of a termination notice until August, in this case to try to salvage the deal. The Tennessee Department of Education announced Tuesday the five educators selected to participate in the Tennessee Education Leaders Summer Fellowship to support the Best for All strategic plan and provide critical perspective as the department supports districts and educators navigating the COVID-19 reality.Teacher leadership is critical, especially as we work together to address the challenges presented by COVID-19, and we are excited to welcome these five outstanding individuals to the department this summer, said Commissioner Penny Schwinn.The five teacher fellows are:Laura Cassetty, kindergarten teacher at Westmoreland Elementary School, Sumner County Schools, will be working with the Educator Effectiveness Team.Raven Redmond, 5th grade lead teacher/3-5 math content lead at Memphis Delta Preparatory Charter School, Shelby County Schools, will be working with the Standards & Materials Division.Lauryn England, 2nd grade teacher at Fall-Hamilton Elementary School, Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, will be working with the Human Capital Division.Ashly Ray-Fournier, professor of English, journalism, and creative writing at City University School, Shelby County Schools, will be working with the CCTE Division.Stacy Jones, 10th-12th grade English teacher at McNairy Central High School, McNairy County Schools, will be working with the Standards & Materials Division.Beginning June 1, the fellows will be working with divisions within the department over the next eight weeks to directly impact the work of the Best for All strategic plan, build relationships with key leaders and participate in professional development, while helping prepare for and address the unique challenges presented by COVID-19.As a kindergarten teacher, I am excited for this fellowship because it will allow me to learn even more of the growth portfolio process, an important tool for measuring the growth of our students, said Ms.Cassetty. Kindergarteners grow so much academically, and I'm excited to learn more about presenting that growth in the portfolio.Through a "rigorous" application and interview process, which took place this March, the five fellows were selected from an applicant pool of 160 individuals based on their unique skillsets and expertise. The fellows will each receive a stipend and be provided technology and other tools during the eight-week fellowship.I am honored to be selected for the Tennessee Education Leaders Summer Fellowship. The Best for All Initiative provides more opportunities for all students to be successful and I am looking forward to working on and implementing these strategies, said Ms. Redmond. This fellowship is an opportunity to learn new skills and develop my teaching, which will have a positive impact on my students.This is the second year of the Tennessee Education Leaders Summer Fellowship. Ahead of the distribution of house site 'patta' next week, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday directed officials to clear Rs 1,323 crore housing dues to the poor. The amount aggregating to Rs 1,323 crore was spent by the poor people on the previous government's assurance and they did not get any reimbursement, an official statement said. In a review meeting on housing matters, the chief minister told the officials to clear the dues of the previous government towards 3,38,144 houses, it said. He also asked the officials to take up the housing scheme on a larger scale to benefit the poor sections. Reddy also decided to go ahead with the house site patta distribution programme on July 8 coinciding with his father YS Rajasekahr Reddy's birth anniversary. In the first phase, over 15 lakh houses would be taken up for construction at Visakhapatnam, Kurnool and Nellore districts. The chief minister discussed the design of houses and reiterated that standards should be maintained at any cost. Each house would have a living room, kitchen, bedroom, toilet and veranda. He insisted that the poor should not face any financial burden for getting their house, the statement said. "Our mega housing programme should be transparent and of high quality and standards. Other infrastructure should also be taken into account in the colonies that would emerge with the building of houses," Reddy said in the meeting. He asked the officials to ensure that the house registration papers are in the name of the women of the household and the same should be ready by July 8 when the house patta will be distributed. Housing Minister Ranganadha Raju, Principal Secretary Ajay Jain and other officials were present in the meeting. Meanwhile, the State Housing Corporation donated two day's salary of its employees amounting to Rs 74,40,112 to the Chief Minister Relief Fund for containing COVID-19. (With inputs from PTI) Successful content is usually well-written and composed with an understanding of its target audience. However, it's also written with a clear goal in mind, whether that's traffic, rankings, conversions, or simply engagement. Daniel Page, Director of Business Development at search engine optimization focused web host ASEOHosting, announced that the importance of a success-based approach to content creation. Quality content is not defined by any measurable traits, but simply by whether or not it succeeds. First popularized by marketing expert Larry Kim, this is an idea that's come to be known as unicorn marketing. "There are obviously metrics for a content's success or failure," said Page. "Successful content is usually well-written and composed with an understanding of its target audience. However, it's also written with a clear goal in mind, whether that's traffic, rankings, conversions, or simply engagement." Many content marketers, he continues, fall into the trap of either not understanding or not focusing on their goal with the content they produce. As a result, they end up with a large volume of what Kim refers to as 'donkeys' rather than unicorns. They promote and re-post this unsuccessful content, hoping they'll eventually hit on success. "The core idea behind unicorn marketing is that once you find a piece of content that's wildly successful, you should use that content to generate more content," said Page. "A blog post can be turned into a series or an infographic. You can use its success as a jumping-off point, building on that success to great effect." In the interim, said Page, the best any brand or marketer can do is strive to understand both their industry and their audience. He advises looking at unicorns created by other successful businesses to get an idea of what form their own successful topics might take. And most importantly, he advises that marketing professionals learn to recognize when a piece of content they've created is a dud, even in spite of their best efforts. "All content should be written to the highest standard of quality, so with that in mind, success is all about being strategic," said Page. "No one wants to admit that something they've created is unsuccessful. But the humility and wisdom to do that and keep trying to create something that does succeed is, in many ways, the hallmark of an effective marketer." About ASEOHosting: Launched in 2002, ASEOHosting is a leader in providing SEO Hosting, including Shared SEO Hosting, Dedicated SEO Hosting, US Dedicated SEO Servers, and EU Dedicated SEO Servers. Based in Orlando, FL, and Detroit, MI, ASEOHosting has established one of the webs premier solutions for reseller web hosting, multiple IP hosting, dedicated servers, and VPS hosting. For more information, visit https://www.aseohosting.com. Dear Editor: On May 31, Bard College President Leon Botstein circulated a letter addressed to the entire Bard community, including students. It called on members of the community to fight for justice. It is appropriate for college presidents, and educators in general, to issue appeals on behalf of justice. However, justice is not the main calling of educators. Their sacred vocation is to cherish, care for and nurture students. Parents entrust them with their most precious possession: their children. Educators are custodians and guardians of future generations. Their first instinct, like that of a parent, should be to protect students and get them out of harms way. Educators who fail in this vocation lose the moral right and authority to be teachers. Botsteins letter contains numerous factual mistakes, distortions and unwarranted conclusions. However, its main flaw lies in omission, rather than commission. It fails to warn students to stay out of harms way in this difficult and confusing time. It does not caution them against fateful decisions that can cost them their lives and inflict unspeakable tragedy on their parents. Botstein must send another letter that entreats students to stay out of harms way and forgo decisions that can result in tragedy for them, their parents and all who love them. He owes this letter to the Bard community, to students and their parents; he owes this letter to his profession. Gennady Shkliarevsky Rhinebeck, N.Y. The writer is a Bard College professor emeritus of history. The Senate on Tuesday said it is only through effective administration of stricter punishment to sex offenders that cases of rape would reduce in Nigeria. On this note, the red chamber urged security agencies to employ strategies to check the rising cases of rape while also enforcing the Child Rights Act which prohibits forced marriage. It urged state Houses of Assembly to amend their laws on rape to make the crime more punishable. Going by the punishments for rape in other countries where the crime is a capital offence, more punishable could mean castration as in China; life imprisonment as in India and the U.S.; and death as in Saudi Arabia, Iran, among others. The discussion around rape and sexual assaults came to the front burner over the week after reports of the murder of some women in Nigeria after being raped. The police in Jigawa state on Sunday said it arrested 11 men who allegedly raped a 12-year-old. On Monday Nigerians expressed outrage over the rape and murder of a 23-year-old female 100-level Microbiology student of the University of Benin, Vera Omozuwa, inside a church in Edo State where she reportedly went to study on May 13. She died 18 days later at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, the police said. While some reported she was raped, the police said they were waiting to be guided by her autopsy report. These reports triggered the hashtags #JusticeForUwa and #WeAreTired on social media as Nigerians demanded reforms in the criminal and justice system in the country. On Tuesday, a 30-second footage shared on social media that trended the #AkureToAbuja filmed a man pulling the gown of a lady that sat beside him in a bus, rubbing her thigh in the process. Now this Abuja to Akure kind of sexual harassment allegations are the ones I like . The ones with proof. RAPE IS BAD and should be punished but ladies that lie against men should also be served the same punishment. Now how can we find this man and get him charged? pic.twitter.com/ifryqw9Dgq Gbenusola (@mmgbenusola_) June 2, 2020 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js The Senate, in a motion moved by Sandy Onor (PDP, Cross River), joined Nigerians in condemning the rising cases of rape. In her remark, Biodun Olujimi (PDP, Ekti) urged authorities to take proactive measures so the girl child is protected. Anything that injures the girl child injures the nation. Rape is real and we must not allow it to go on, Ms Olujimi noted. It is not just arresting the culprits and taking them to the police station, the court and then sentenced to a few years of jail time that is enough. A severe penalty should be given to such culprits, another senator, Akon Eyakenyi (PDP, Akwa Ibom), remarked. MINNEAPOLIS (AP) An Illinois man who allegedly traveled to Minneapolis to participate in riots after the death of George Floyd has been arrested and charged with federal counts, after prosecutors say videos posted to his Facebook page showed him handing out explosives and damaging property. Matthew Lee Rupert, 28, of Galesville, Illinois, was arrested in Chicago and charged Monday by criminal complaint with three counts, including civil disorder, carrying on a riot and possession of unregistered destructive devices. According to an FBI affidavit, Rupert posted self-recorded videos on his Facebook page last week that show him in Minneapolis. In one video, he is seen handing out explosive devices to others and encouraging them to throw them at law enforcement. He's also shown damaging property and attempting to light a business on fire. In that video, Rupert says: We come to riot, boy! This is what we came for! Floyd, a black man, died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyds neck while Floyd was handcuffed and saying that he couldnt breathe. The arrest was recorded by a bystander and viewed widely. Floyds death sparked protests in Minneapolis and around the country, some of which became violent. A medical examiner said Monday that Floyd's heart stopped as police restrained him and compressed his neck. The charges against Rupert come as civic leaders nationwide have frequently blamed outsiders for bringing trouble into their communities. In Minnesota, Gov. Tim Walz made the assertion in the early days of protests that outsiders were responsible for most of the violence. He later backed away from that, and arrest data so far have showed most people taken into custody were from Minnesota. But authorities have also said they have made arrests involving people with equipment, including incendiary devices, that could be used to burn and damage. Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington said authorities in the Minneapolis area had stopped cars without license plates, driving without lights, then found such material inside. Harrington said Monday he had at least two confirmed incidents and was working to verify other reports. Story continues The FBI affidavit says that on Thursday, Rupert posted references to the protests in Minneapolis on his Facebook page, and later that night he said he was heading there. By Friday, he was posting videos of himself in Minneapolis. One video lasts more than two hours. In it, Rupert references SWAT vehicles and says, Ive got some bombs if some of you all want to throw them back bomb them back here I got some more light it and throw it. As he is making the comments, he hands out an item with a brown casing and a green wick. Shortly after one person throws a device, an explosion can be heard in the background. In that same video, he is seen entering a boarded up liquor store, then asking for lighter fluid and entering a Sprint store which he says he lit on fire. He is then seen entering and stealing from an Office Depot, according to the affidavit. The FBI affidavit says that on Saturday, Rupert posted on his Facebook page that he was headed to Chicago, and that he would loot there. Early Sunday morning, he posted more videos of himself in and around Chicago. In one video, he talks about starting a riot and causing damage. He was arrested early Sunday by Chicago police for violating an emergency curfew in the city. Officers found several destructive devices, a hammer, a heavy-duty flashlight and cash in his vehicle, according to the affidavit. Rupert appeared in federal court in Chicago for a hearing to have him moved to Minnesota to face charges. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney to comment on his behalf. __ Follow Amy Forliti on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/amyforliti While Tennessee has an imperfect track record on the issue of civil rights, we should be proud of our state. Because we know that while our citizens may argue amongst ourselves, debate issues, and drag our feet, in the end, we usually get it right. It was almost 100 years ago that Tennessee provided the 36th and final state needed to ratify the landmark 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving millions of women the right to vote. If not for the economy and COVID-19 crisis we would be celebrating that centennial event this August. George Floyd, an African-American man, was murdered in Minneapolis, Mn. on May 25, 2020. This unnecessary homicide has sparked national riots. A legitimate, peaceful protest to raise awareness in cities across America soon escalated to violent protests when many people not even connected to the issue began using it as an excuse to engage in looting and destruction. It is a teachable moment when we can discuss the treatment of our fellow citizens. President John F. Kennedy said in a speech in Nashville on May 18, 1963 only a respect for the law makes it possible for free men to dwell together in peace and progress. Kennedys words were as timely then as they are now. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis in 1968, over 52 years ago. Few know of the significance that Tennessee has played in Civil Rights. First, Tennessee played a pivotal role in the passage of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote in 1920. This year marks the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Second, Tennessee was at the forefront of Civil Rights and integrating America. We should remind ourselves of this history on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2020. The groundbreaking 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was the case in which the Supreme Court Justices ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. It signaled the rightful end of the separate but equal principle outlined in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case. The Ferguson case constitutionally allowed laws barring African Americans from sharing the same buses, schools, and other public facilities as whites known as Jim Crow laws and established the separate but equal doctrine that would stand for the next six decades. Linda Brown, then a nine-year-old girl, became the face of the issue. Ms. Brown died at age 75 on March 25, 2018. Her national legacy in Civil Rights went far beyond public education. Brown said in a 1985 interview: I feel that after 30 years, looking back on Brown v. The Board of Education has made an impact on all facets of life for minorities throughout the land. I really think of it in terms of what it has done for our young people, in taking away that feeling of second-class citizenship. I think it has made the dreams, hopes, and aspirations of our young people greater, today. Few people know the role Tennessee played in Civil Rights and public education. Avon Williams, Jr., a Knoxville native, became a cooperating attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in 1949 and began a long career in civil rights activism. In 1950, four years before the Supreme Court outlawed school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education, Williams filed Tennessees first public school desegregation suit case when he sued to integrate the public schools in Anderson County, Tennessee. (McSwain v. Board of Anderson County). Williams first cousin, Thurgood Marshall, was the chief lawyer for the Legal Defense and Educational Fund of the NAACP. Marshall later became the first African-American to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Williams and Marshall worked closely on racial discrimination cases. Williams went before the Supreme Court seven times to argue cases involving discrimination in public schools, public housing or other public accommodations. In 1955, Williams, Marshall and Z. Alexander Looby, a fellow African American lawyer focused on civil rights, filed suit Kelley v. Board of Education against the Nashville city schools on behalf of African American children. Looby and Williams were without a doubt the most prominent civil rights attorneys in Tennessee during their lifetime. The Journal of African American History stated that Looby and Williamss work in school desegregation cases alone encompassed every major case in the state (with the exception of Northcross v. Board of Education) and entered the highest realms of legal activity. Federal judges at the circuit, appeals, and U.S. Supreme Court levels cited and considered many of their cases as the post-Brown v. Board of Education (1954) litigation world unfolded. In 1968, Avon Williams, Jr. was elected to the Tennessee State Senate. He was one of the first African-Americans to serve in that body since the Civil War. As a senator, he worked to put guidance counselors in elementary schools and to establish kindergarten classes in Tennessee. The state has a proud, but often untold, history in Civil Rights, which greatly enhanced education in our state. Racism, bigotry, and vitriolic hate have no place in modern culture. All children are created in the image of God. Martin Luther King, Jr. poignantly stated: I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. Does character still matter? Of course, it does. For centuries, our country has attracted people in search of a share of the American dream from all corners of the world. E Pluribus Unum (From Many, One) remains the national motto, yet it appears that there is no longer a consensus about what that should mean. If you step into our public schools today, the many different cultures are on full display. Americans like Martin Luther King Jr., Linda Brown, Avon Williams, Alexander Looby, and Thurgood Marshall helped integrate America, and move the nation past the old paradigms and backward thinking that dominated our society. We need to remember and reflect on that history. More importantly, we need to fulfill our destiny as a nation where all citizens can realize the benefits of integration and equality of opportunity regardless of the color of their skin. The dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. did not die in Memphis in 1968, it is still alive in 2020. JC Bowman Executive Director of Professional Educators of Tennessee By Choi Sung-jin Few nations in the world may yearn more for international recognition than Korea. That explains in part why Koreans are proud of Tottenham Hotspur forward Son Heung-min much more than Argentinians are boastful of Lionel Messi, and the Portuguese are of Cristiano Ronaldo. On the flip side, Koreans are one of the world's most self-deprecating people, habitually saying their country is small and weak. It must be due to their tumultuous modern history, marred by foreign interventions, colonial rule and a fratricidal war. Most Koreans realize, however, that Korea South Korea, of course has become a small but influential country. It is the world's 11th-largest economy and the seventh largest military power. As such, it was not wide off the mark for U.S. President Donald Trump out of his usual character to express his intention last Saturday to invite Korea to what has now been dubbed the "G11" meeting in September. Ironically, Korea can ill afford to enjoy its long-awaited rise in national status. If Trump sends an official invitation, it will be neither because he respects Korea and its exemplary response to the COVID-19 pandemic, nor because he likes President Moon Jae-in personally. It is mainly because Washington wants to include Korea in its net encircling China. Russia used to be a frequent member of the G8. Still, the other two invitees India and Australia are key players in the U.S.' Indo-Pacific Strategy to contain China. Beijing is not just sitting and watching Washington haul in Seoul to its side, either. In an interview with China Central Television, May 24, Chinese Ambassador to Korea Xing Haiming said he believed Seoul would "understand and support Beijing's enactment of a new national security law in Hong Kong." Last Friday, new interceptor missiles were brought onto a U.S. THAAD missile defense base in Korea in an overnight operation. China's Foreign Ministry wasted no time reiterating Beijing's "resolute opposition" to the U.S. missile shield. The COVID-19 pandemic has turned the long-simmering rivalry between the G2 into a full-blown Cold War, in which they compete for almost everything. And nowhere else is their war-of-nerves tenser than in East Asia, including the Korean Peninsula. Already, some all too familiar headlines are reappearing in local media, saying Seoul is "sandwiched between Washington and Beijing" and comparing it to a "shrimp that gets hurt in a fight of whales." Editorials and columns say in unison that the Seoul government should "pursue a well-balanced diplomacy by putting the national interest ahead of all else." Nothing's wrong with that. It's far easier said than done, however. At stake is how. So far, Korea has maintained a strategic ambiguity by resorting to the U.S. for national security while depending on China for economic prosperity. That won't work much longer if Washington and Beijing demand Seoul to choose one or the other. In the not so distant future, Korea could become like a little boy stressed by his parents often asking, "Who do you like better, mom or dad?" The best answer, of course, is "I love you both," but it would satisfy neither. How about "I like neither of you" as an alternative reply, then accompanied by logical reasons and justifiable demands for rectification? There seems to be no better time for Korea to do so than now. COVID-19 has starkly revealed the limitations of the G2. China opened up the "pandemic's box" because of its authoritarian rule, undue secrecy, and empty self-propaganda. America's incoherent and disorderly response to it under an unprecedentedly incompetent and irresponsible leader came as a greater shock to most, including Koreans. The fatigue and discontent from the prolonged pandemic, coming on top of extreme inequity of wealth and deep-rooted racial discrimination, is splitting American society into shreds. The era of the G2, or G0, will likely continue, however. China, albeit embittered and emboldened by the U.S., can hardly challenge the latter, militarily and economically. A middle power like Korea cannot go anywhere near those superpowers in physical terms. The nation's weapons should be spiritual the moral high ground and ethical superiority namely the principles of openness, transparency, democracy and the protection of people and Earth. The efficient, systematic dealing with an infectious disease may not change, let alone upgrade, this country abruptly. However, the experience of coping with COVID-19, still ongoing, has taught Koreans at least two lessons. One is what they should do to preserve their land and the entire planet on which all people could coexist, if not co-prosper. The other is their newfound confidence in themselves and their country to persuade the rest of the world to move in this direction. This is no time for states, let alone global leaders, to point fingers at one another while clamping down on domestic dissent out of greed and hegemonic ambition, but to seek worldwide cooperation to preserve the environment from the climate crisis and plastic garbage. The process should start at home a shift of priority from short-term growth at any price to valuing all living beings and their safety and long-term sustainable growth. For instance, the nation ought to shed off its stigma as a "climate villain" as soon as possible. Based on a plausible strategy and agreeable principles, Korea should be able to gather like-minded middle powers and move with them. For now, all this may be close to a dream. However, any change is better than living a life of subordination, always studying the faces of surrounding powers and their unjustifiable ambitions. And nothing can change without taking the first step. Korea should no longer remain a sandwiched nation or a shrimp. President Moon has just accepted Trump's invitation over the telephone. I hope it is the first step in the right direction. Choi Sung-jin (choisj1955@naver.com) is a Korea Times columnist. By Laman Ismayilova Azermarka LLC has issued a series of post stamps timed to the 100th anniversary of the outstanding Azerbaijani actress Leyla Badirbeyli. The stamp, designed by the main artist of "Azermarka" Vugar Ayyubov depicts a graphic portrait of the actress. The vertical arrangement of stamps on a sheet of 16 (4x4) stamps resembles a film tape. Stamps were printed by the Bobruisk United Printing House in Belarus with a circulation of 300,000 copies. At the same time, about 200 envelopes under the name "First Day" have been designed as well. Leyla Badirbeyli left a bright mark on the history of Azerbaijani art. For many years, she has served as a source of inspiration for young artists. Her internal spirit made her an outstanding actress and dancer. When she was a child, she often visited an all-girls club with her mother, where she discovered her dancing and artistic skills. Her passion for art strived future actress to continue dancing lessons even when she went to school. However, in 1936 dancing turned from hobby to livelihood when Leyla was offered a spot in the Song and Dance Ensemble named after Muslim Magomayev, successfully touring throughout the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, Leyla recognized in herself an actor talent and became an actress of the Azerbaijan Drama Theater. A timeless duet between Rashid Behbudov and the beautiful Leyla Bedirbeyli championed the film "Arshin Mal Alan" to audiences in almost 50 countries! The film, created in a time of war, delighted the entire post soviet area. Bedirbeylis art coincided with the "golden age" of Azerbaijani theater in the 1940s to 70s, when the nations greatest artists of several generations met on the stage at the same time. --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz WASHINGTON As protests and violence erupt in cities, the United States faces a new threat: The country is running out of blood. Several months of social distancing and stay-at-home orders have resulted in fewer people donating blood, according to health care workers, with collection drives at offices, schools and churches canceled en masse. For a while, the drop in donations was not critical because supply and demand fell in tandem as most surgeries were canceled and far fewer people were getting injured in car crashes and other accidents. But now, even as hospitals have resumed elective surgeries and many Americans are venturing out of their homes again, the rate of blood donations has yet to bounce back. The result is what Chris Hrouda, president of biomedical services for the American Red Cross, which collects about 40 percent of the countrys blood donations, called a staggering drop in supply. Our inventories have been cut in half, Mr. Hrouda said. Were starting to get into a critical situation. Subscriber content preview ALGONA, King County The Specialty Forest Products property, at 306 Ellingson Road , sold for a little over $4.6 million, according to King County records. The sellers were the business owners, who had owned the property for decades. . . . Indigenous Studio 10 host Narelda Jacobs has warned Australians cannot 'bury their heads in the sand' about racism in their own country in an emotional segment about the US protests. The broadcaster said the mass demonstrations over the death of African-American man George Floyd were a stark reminder of Indigenous Australians who had lost their lives in police custody. Addressing the similarities between the two countries, Jacobs also referred to the two police officers charged in the past year with the murder of Aboriginal Australians. Pictured: Protesters run from tear gas used by police in Washington DC to clear the street near the White House on Monday night Indigenous Studio 10 host Narelda Jacobs has warned Australians cannot 'bury their heads in the sand' about racism in their own country 'A lot of people here over the weekend - I've heard them say how lucky we are to live in Australia,' Jacobs said on Tuesday. 'I quickly thought well it's not so lucky for 420 families who have had loved ones die in custody since 1991 in Australia.' She mentioned the case of Joyce Clarke, 29, who was allegedly shot dead by a police officer on a street in Geraldton in mid-western Western Australia last September. A policeman is also accused of shooting dead Kumanjayi Walker, a 19-year-old Aboriginal man, during a botched arrest in the Northern Territory in November. 'I have the utmost respect for police for authorities in general - they are keeping us safe during the pandemic,' Jacobs said. Mother-of-one Joyce Clarke, 29, was shot on a street in the Geraldton suburb of Karloo in WA's Mid West region at 6.30pm on September 17, 2019 'It's important though we don't live under a cloud and we don't bury our heads in the sand or are ignorant - we have two police officers in Australia currently who are charged with murder.' It comes as Australia marks National Reconciliation Week, which celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and encourages different cultures to learn about their shared histories. 'All we can hope for - especially during reconciliation week - is we have a chance to respect each other not for the colour of their skin but the way they would want to be treated,' Jacobs said. On Monday, a day of peaceful protests in New York gave way to reports of looting at Manhattan businesses, including the Macy's flagship store. Clashes between police and protesters broke out in many other cities including Minneapolis, Washington DC, Philadelphia and in the Chicago suburb of Cicero, where two people were fatally shot and at least 60 others were arrested. In Buffalo, New York, shocking video showed police confronting a group of protesters in the street before a car rammed into officers. Officials said two people were injured in that incident. Meanwhile, an active duty military police battalion is making its way to the nation's Capitol to help patrol the streets. A policeman is accused of murdering Kumanjayi Walker, a 19-year-old Aboriginal man, during a botched arrest in the Northern Territory From the black gravel passKarakoram, in the Turkic dialects of the traders who traversed the HimalFrank Ludlow descended into the Chip-Chap, the silent river, headed to Daulat Beg Oldi, the place where a rich noble had died. From there, the route led to an open plain, Depang, and then Haji Langar, where a pilgrims to Mecca were fed. Following that was the camp-ground at Burtse, named for a medicinal shrub. There was one last obstacle before the Galwan river, which climbed through the mountains into the Aksai Chin plateau: Murgo, the gate to hell. Ludlows map, he wrote in his memoirs of his 1928 expedition, showed the location of a safe campite: a pile of stones and mud had been erected against the face of a cliff to form a shelter from the wind. I looked inside this shelter and found it contained three skulls and other gruesome human remains. A hundred years on, almost, those names mark the frontlines the of still-unfolding confrontation between China and India on the worlds roof. In both countries nationalist discourse, each centimetre of this savage mountain terrain is seen as sacred groundsanctified, as it were, by the blood shed in the 1962 war. Theres another story to be told, though, about how this conflict came about, and why: a story about how boundaries, and myths, were etched on to map of lands which had none, as the two great Asian nation-states born in the last century struggled to imagineand will into beingtheir borders. A team of horses cannot overtake a word that has left the mouth, observes the novel Journey to the West, counted as one of the four keystones of classical Chinese literature. Nine centuries after the monk Xuanzang journeyed to India and Central Asia to collect the great sutras of Buddhist cannon, his incredible, seventeen year journey became the foundation of the novel, attributed to Wu Chengen. In 1762, a map compiled on the orders of the great Emperor Qianlong was appended to the book, to illustrate the magnificent scale of Xuanzangs journeys. The map showed Hindustan lay somewhere south of the Kuen Lun range. The word had been given life: This map would, centuries later, come to form the foundation of Indias claims to Aksai Chin. From soon after independence, Indian diplomats had become concerned over the slow, westward drift of borders in Chinese map a process that had begun long before the communist revolution. Beginning in the 1920s, the Ministry of External Affairs noted in a 1960 document Chinese map have departed from the traditional boundary, and included large areas of Indian territory. The idea of a traditional boundary, though, wasnt as uncomplicated as it seems. From the 1850s on imperial British map had begun to mark the borders of their colony with Tibet, sometimes expanding east and north, as explorers penetrated ever-deeper into the Himalaya. Indian site like Sarat Chandra Das, Ghulam Muhammad Galwan and Mohan Lal Kashmiri played a key role in this endeavour, posing as mendicants and traders to gather intelligence for the empire. Few of these regions generated any worthwhile revenue, though. Empire had little interest in asserting territorial control of these lands, leaving their policing to local vassals of regional rulers. For the most part, trade and access to pastures were established by convention, not law, and wereat bestloosely enforced. Berenice Guyot-Rechards path-breaking scholarshi on state-formation in the Himalayas teaches us, moreover, that the populations caught up in these cartographic processes often had no sense of being subjects of either the British or Qing empiresnor involvement in the nationalist projects that would replace them. The process of imperial map-making, though, was to have real-world consequences. In 1914, British administrator Henry MacMahon negotiated the borders between Indias north-east and Tibet in Shimla. The border he arrived atlong rejected by China, which argued it had been enforced under duress drew on the cartographical work of Christian missionaries operating in Tibet in the 1870s.&nbs; Kuomintang map made in the 1930s and 1940sso worrying to Indian diplomatswere efforts to push back against this imperial cartography, with Chinese nationalist fictions of their own. Put another way, map-making wasnt just a reflection of politics or geography: in some key ways, it had begun to shape reality. Late in 1950, the Peoples Liberation Armys Eighteenth Army marched into Lhasa: a savage crime, in the eyes of some, against small, independent mountain kingdom; a restoration, to others, of land that had been rightfully ruled by China from 1720 to 1911, and lost by a civilisation enfeebled through Western colonial onslaught. New Delhi, it isnt widely known, did consider its options: The Foreign Secretary, Director of the Intelligence Bureau and Army chief met amidst calls for Indian military assistance to Tibet.&nbs; The consensus that emerged from that meeting, Indias war history records,, was that India was in no position whatsoever at that time to intervene militarily. Even as New Delhi went along with Chinas claims on Beijing, China began survey-work for a road through Aksai Chin in 1951, and announced its completion six years. The road through the uninhabited plateau was of critical strategic importance to Beijing, allowing to maintain logistics for its garrisons in Tibet through Xinjiang. The Indian government, Indias official history of the war of 1962 admits, did not come to know of the building of this road as Indian forward posts in this inhositable and uninhabited region were far behind the map-marked boundary. Put another way, India believed Aksai Chin to be its ownbut had never staked its claim. In the summer of 1958, Deputy Superintendent of Police Karam Singh and Lieutenant Ram Tiny Iyengar headed out into the Aksai Chin, to determine just where the highway ran. Lieutenant Iyengars patrol was detected, and detained, but Karam Singhs reconnaissance established the road ran from Haji Langar in the north to Amtogar in the south, cutting some 160 kilometres through Aksai Chin. Even before these events, there were signs that Beijing wasnt content with the borders as India understood them. Inside weeks of Prime Minister Chou En-lais 1954 visit to Indiawhere he made no suggestion China contested Indias understanding of the borderBeijing protested the presence of the Indian Army on the Barahoti Pass in Uttar Pradesh. From 1955 on, there were a succession of military intrusions: at Barahoti, the Hipki La in Himachal Pradesh, Kaurik and Hipang Khud. In each case, China insisted the PLA was on its own territory. Khurnak Fort, in Ladakh, was occupiedand used as a base to supply outposts in Sanggur and Digra. Then, in 1958, came the map that made those claims explicit: China Pictorial, an official map, asserted claims over the whole of what was then Indias North-East Frontier Agency, with the exception of Tirap, as well as parts of Ladakh, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. Chou En-Lai responded to Indian protests by repeating that the map were based on old Kuomintang cartographybut added that China hadnt surveyed its boundaries, nor consulted with other countries on the issue. Chou En Lai was to offer a joint survey to delineate the borderbut Prime Minister Nehru shot down the proposal outright. There can be no question about these large parts of India being anything but India, he wrote on December 14, 1958. I do not know what kind of surveys can affect these well-known and fixed boundaries. The next year, Chou En-Lai offered another deal, proposing both sides withdraw 20 kilometres behind the MacMahon Line in the eastern sector, and a similar distance from their actual ground positions in Ladakh. Feeling this arrangement would cede China control of areas in Ladakh it had occupied, Prime Minister Nehru again rejected the offer. Meg Brittons mailbox was full Saturday with 10 separate letters from the Oregon Employment Department. All said the same thing: her March claim for jobless benefits had been denied either because she worked too much, made too much money or had stopped claiming benefits. None of that, Britton said, is true. The freelance yoga instructor has been out of work since the middle of March, as each of the yoga studios she works at shut down in rapid succession during the early days of the coronavirus outbreak. Britton, 62, applied for jobless benefits at the end of the month, after Congress expanded the program to include self-employed workers like her. Two months later, Britton is among the tens of thousands of Oregonians still waiting for their first check and some clarity from the Oregon Employment Department on the status of their claims. Thats what makes me the angriest, is Im doing everything Im supposed to be doing and the state isnt holding up its end of the bargain, said Britton, who lives in Mill City, east of Salem. Gov. Kate Brown fired Kay Erickson, director of the Oregon Employment Department, on Sunday amid revelations that the state has 200,000 unpaid jobless claims on file but has no idea how much money it really owes, or to whom. Interim Director David Gerstenfeld, who has been with the department since 2011, takes over an agency that has stumbled repeatedly during the sharpest economic downturn since the Great Recession and has left thousands of Oregonians without income during the heart of the pandemic. In addition to the huge volume of unpaid claims, the departments phones its primary way of communicating with filers -- have been rendered all but useless by a flood of calls from jobless Oregonians who want to know the status of their applications and why they havent been paid. And Gerstenfeld must work with a claims processing system that relies on a rigid technology from the 1990s that routinely makes erroneous claims denials and has been unable to cope with the volume of claims or recent changes to the benefits program. On Sunday, the governor directed Gerstenfeld to communicate directly with workers and to set a timetable for addressing the departments claims backlog. Gerstenfeld told a Senate committee Monday that the department is moving forward, but he acknowledged significant risks. Overall I do think we are making progress but we are certainly not on an easy, coasting path at this point, Gerstenfeld said. Erickson earned $185,000 annually and received no severance, according to the governors office. The state will pay Gerstenfeld $177,000, a 23% boost over what he earned as Ericksons deputy. Gerstenfeld has been with the employment department since 2011, including nearly nine years running its unemployment insurance division. So hes well versed in the departments problems. Those include: Unpaid benefits: Testifying Wednesday before a legislative committee, Gerstenfeld dropped a bombshell of more than 440,000 jobless claims filed in Oregon since March, roughly 200,000 are unpaid. Two days later, Gerstenfeld said many of those 200,000 are duplicate claims, ineligible filings, or covered by other benefits programs. But he acknowledged the department cannot estimate how many valid, unpaid claims it owes. Communications: The department replies almost exclusively on phone calls to communicate with claimants and resolve problems with their claims. But phone lines for regular claims are hopelessly jammed few calls get through and those that do spend hours on hold. Exacerbating the problem, the department hasnt set up phone lines to communicate with self-employed workers like Britton. Gerstenfeld said those phone lines will be set up this week. New programs: Congress significantly expanded jobless benefits in March to include out-of-work, self-employed workers. Oregon began accepting their claims a month later, aiming to pay claims retroactively. But the new program has been beset with problems as the department sought to integrate expanded benefits into its service it frequently issues incorrect denials and has no phone lines for workers to call with questions or to resolve problems. Gerstenfeld said last week there are tens of thousands of self-employed workers waiting for benefits, but he said he doesnt know whether that number is closer to 20,000 or 100,000. Waiting week: Laid-off workers usually have to wait a week before they are eligible for benefits. In March, Congress funded a waiver of that waiting week but Oregon hasnt implemented it. It already owes laid-off Oregonians at least $200 million in federal money from that waiver, several hundred dollars for each jobless worker. The department said last week that it will take 4,000 hours of computer programming to waive the waiting week. If the state doesnt meet a Dec. 31 deadline for implementing the waiver laid-off Oregonians could lose that federal money forever. Erickson declined last week to commit her department to meeting that deadline. Old computers: The federal government gave Oregon $86 million in 2009 to upgrade the departments computers. Despite successive audits warning the systems couldnt handle an uptick in jobless claims, the state still has that federal money and isnt due to complete its computer upgrade until 2025 so Gerstenfeld will have to cope with that obsolete system as he works to resolve the current crisis. At Mondays Senate hearing, Gerstenfeld said the computer upgrade was delayed by a succession of leadership changes at the department and then by a long review of other states own modernization program. He said its not possible to speed up the timetable for completing the project, but the department indicated last week it is talking with Google about developing new systems to handle more claims. Mondays presentation included no new programs the department hadnt outlined before Erickson left. The employment department says it has paid out $1.5 billion in claims since the middle of March. The safety net is working quite well for a number of people, Gerstenfeld said at Mondays hearing. We know it is not working well enough. In Mill City, Britton said she feels for Gerstenfeld. He cant turn this around on a dime. Still, she said shes confounded by the confusing messages and rudimentary communication from the employment department. On Monday, the department acknowledged on Twitter that its system frequently spits out vague and sometimes confusing standardized letters," but said it cant work around its antiquated computers to send out accurate information. 2/4 Our system does send vague and sometimes confusing standardized letters. It seems like it should be as easy as editing a Word document or typing in a text message to change those automated responses. Unfortunately, thats not the case in an older mainframe system . Oregon Employment Department (@ORemployment) June 1, 2020 The 10 letters Britton received over the weekend included no phone number or email address for contacting the employment department to correct its mistakes only a fax number. As it happens, Brittons boyfriend owns a fax machine so she broke out the 1970s technology to respond. New leadership at the employment department may be a start, she said, but its not enough. Britton called the governors tweets about the crisis laughable. What I would like to hear is, This is what were doing to make the process work more quickly. This is how were going to communicate. -- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway | Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. I was discussing the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis. As you have probably seen by now, with his hands cuffed behind his back, lying face down in the street, the officer kneeled on Mr. Floyds neck for approximately 10 minutes until he died. One person in the discussion recalled a question they heard in a separate conversation on the same topic. While expressing their frustration and outrage about the all-too-numerous examples of white police killing unarmed black men in this country, the question was asked: How do you know it was racially motivated? How could there be any question about that? I cannot definitively tell you what that officer was thinking. However, I have absolutely no doubt that George Floyd would still be alive if he was white. In 2020 America there are very few opportunities to be a racist 24 hours a day. Companies cannot tolerate openly racist behavior. But todays racist can work alongside people of color while still accepting every negative stereotype about them as fact, only sharing their racist views when they believe they are among friends. This is where there is sometimes skepticism. Racism is not only about hate. It is also about power, privilege, ignorance and perceived superiority. Racism and racial bias can take many forms, and some people in the absence of hooded Klansmen want to question the legitimacy of the claim. In the 21st century, racism is rarely as open and blatant as we saw in the case of George Floyd. In this case you could say that hoods may have been all that was missing. The callous disregard and pompous abuse of power were all on clear display. That officer took his life, simply because he could. And he obviously expected to do so without repercussions or consequences. This is the America we live in. You do not need to hate all black people to be a racist. If you accept and perpetuate negative stereotypes about black people, you are probably a racist. If you accept the idea that black people are scary, dangerous, criminals and drug addicts, you are a racist. Consequently, this mindset cultivates a superiority complex, and a blatant lack of respect or concern when interacting with minorities. I would bet that this same officer wouldnt treat a dog like he treated George Floyd. That is racist. Consider, we saw white men openly carrying military-style assault weapons, descending on the Michigan state capitol to participate in a protest. There was no police intervention or interference - vs. Philando Castile, who was pulled over by police for an automobile violation. When Castile voluntarily and appropriately informed the officer that he had a licensed firearm in the vehicle, presenting no threat or resistance, he was shot multiple times and killed in the car with a child in the back seat. Dylann Roof was apprehended after a manhunt that stretched into North Carolina. While in police custody, he was given a meal from Burger King. This occurred after he murdered nine people in a church in Charleston, S.C., the day before - vs. Eric Garner, approached for the crime of selling single cigarettes on the street in New York. During his arrest he is choked to death by police. How about the woman with her dog in Central Park? A black man asked her to leash her dog as required. She was so offended she called the police, intentionally invoking the scary black man stereotype, knowing full well her lies would be believed given the other party was a black man. The callousness of not caring that this mans life could be altered or lost based on her words alone -- I can only imagine the awesome power in that feeling. She now proclaims she is not a racist, although every action she took was clearly and unequivocally racist. Reports have stated that Mr. Floyd was detained for suspicion related to a fake $20 bill. There was no trial and no conviction. He may have been detained for some nonviolent criminal offense, but he was murdered because of his dark skin. How does this make any sense? How can this be explained? As a black man in America, I know what racism looks like. This is an unfortunate fact. Kevin Cothran lives in West Haven. NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Mayor Bill de Blasio called on New Yorkers to cut protests short by gathering in the daytime and going home in the evening over fears of further spread of the coronavirus in the city if large protests persist. If you choose to protest today, do it in the daytime hours and then please go home because we have work to do this evening to keep a peaceful city, de Blasio told reporters during a press conference Tuesday. I would remind everyone theres been a lot of protests, the message has been heard loud and clear, action will be taken, but Im very worried also that protest is leading to the potential of the spread of the coronavirus and that is not a minor matter at this point, he warned. One day, two days, thats one thing, as this continues, that danger is increasing, and Im asking everyone to think about that personally about yourself, your family. However, he refused to say whether he feared a second wave of the virus was on the horizon amid large protests and gatherings taking place around the city in recent days. Over the weekend, the Advance observed large crowds congregating outside of bars in Hells Kitchen, Manhattan with no police presence to enforce social distancing measures. It feels like a spring break party around the bars in Hells Kitchen tonight. People Congregating in large crowds on one of @NYCMayor and @NYC_DOTs open streets on 9th Ave. I Havent seen any cops out pic.twitter.com/UhFpT7MQF5 Sydney Kashiwagi (@SydneyKashiwagi) May 30, 2020 De Blasio previously said any large gatherings would be met with summonses or even arrests. The Advance observed cops arrive to remove a police barricade over the weekend where people were gathered in large crowds around bars in Hells Kitchen, but saw people go right back to congregating after police left the scene. The NYPD not been able to say whether any social distancing related summonses or arrests were handed out to bar patrons that night. Instead, de Blasio said cops would go back to enforce social distancing measures once the situation in the city calmed and sharply responded to the Advance for asking whether the city was still enforcing social distancing measures and large crowd crackdowns. Im a little confused what you think was happening Saturday night in New York City? The NYPD was dealing with a lot of very complex issues all over the city, protests, peaceful people, not peaceful people, that was their focus, not bars, de Blasio said. We will go back to enforcing on bars and restaurants as we were many times very effectively. Well go back to that. Were going to restart the city on Monday, June 8th, but for the last few days has been a national crisis. Maybe youve read about it. And thats what the NYPD has been focused on, de Blasio said to the Advance/SILive reporter. MAYOR SAYS CITY ON TRACK TO START REOPENING JUNE 8 He also insisted Tuesday that New York City was on track to reopening June 8 despite protests and looting all around the city. In order for regions across the state to begin reopening, they need to reach seven reopening goals outlined by the state. Staten Island is considered one region with the rest of the city. As of June 1, New York City as a region met five of those goals -- the only region in the state yet to reach all seven. But Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday that New York City is expected to meet all necessary coronavirus metrics and begin Phase 1 of reopening on June 8. We will go to Phase 1 on Monday, June 8 and begin to reopen this city we will work together to make that happen to make that work, de Blasio said. Were going to work with the state to make that work, were going to work with the MTA to make that work, were going to continue to expand the testing, were going to continue to expand the test and trace effort, were going to fight back the disease. A citywide curfew, beginning each night at 8 p.m., will remain in place through Sunday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday, as he refused to bring in the National Guard or any armed forces to New York City on the heels of consecutive nights of looting across the city. A citywide curfew began at 11 p.m. Monday evening in response to protests that ended with violence, rioting and looting in Brooklyn and parts of Manhattan over the weekend. The protests were sparked by the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis last Monday after a white police officer kneeled on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes. But despite the 11 p.m. curfew Monday, looters broke into stores across Midtown and the Bronx Monday evening. In Brooklyn, where police had clashed with protesters over the weekend, protests reportedly were peaceful on Monday evening. The mayor and Gov. Andrew Cuomo had initially imposed an 11 p.m. curfew for Monday evening, but after seeing the destruction caused by the looting, de Blasio announced that curfew would begin at 8 p.m. Tuesday evening. FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER. *** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK*** More than 250 years ago, the territory that now comprises the state of Michigan was part of New France, and remained so until the conquest of New France by the British in the early 1760s. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 2/6/2020 (597 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion More than 250 years ago, the territory that now comprises the state of Michigan was part of New France, and remained so until the conquest of New France by the British in the early 1760s. In 1701, the French erected Fort Pontchartrain du Detroit along the Detroit River that leads into the Great Lakes system "detroit" translates as the word "strait." After the establishment of the United States, the territory of Michigan was initially part of Ohio, and then Indiana, before it was formally admitted as a state in 1837. Michigan today epitomizes the bitter partisan divide that affects nearly every aspect of American life, from access to guns to wearing a pandemic-protection mask in public. Democrats have generally supported the state mandate about masks during the COVID-19 crisis; a majority of Republicans, taking their cue from U.S. President Donald Trump, have denounced it. You have to both admire and sympathize with the states 48-year old governor, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer, who in the 2018 gubernatorial election soundly defeated her Republican opponent, the former attorney general Bill Schuette. In the past few months, as she has attempted to protect the citizens of her state as of May 31, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, Michigan, with a population of about 10 million, had recorded 53,300 confirmed COVID-19 cases resulting in around 5,400 deaths she has been publicly derided by Trump as "the woman in Michigan" for criticizing the U.S. federal governments lack of assistance in battling the pandemic. He has also regularly referred to Whitmer on Twitter as "Half-Whitmer," as poor an elementary school-level insult as you could conceive (Trump has also fired up Michigan Republicans with false claims about mail-in voting fraud). Then, on May 15, a 32-year-old Detroit man was arrested for what the police stated were "credible threats to kill" the governor. A Washington Post-Ipsos poll conducted in mid-May found that 72 per cent of Michigan residents Democrats as well as Republicans approve of Whitmers management of the coronavirus outbreak (the mask issue aside). Nevertheless, the Republican-dominated state legislature, which was at first supportive of her safety measures, following Trumps lead recently turned on her and filed a lawsuit challenging her authority. The case is headed to the Michigan Supreme Court. Prior to this, there were several organized protests at the state capital in Lansing by white demonstrators, mostly from rural areas, who condemned the shutdown of businesses and stay-at-home orders. Many of them, members of so-called militia groups, were armed with guns and rifles, carrying Confederate flags, pro-Trump signs and "Make America Great Again" red hats. Some were also observed to be sporting swastikas. During the "American Patriot Rally" on April 30, a mob of more than 100 people stormed into the capital building chanting "Let us work." The Michigan state police did not allow the demonstrators to bring their signs into the capital building, which is prohibited by law, but rather curiously (from a Canadian perspective, at least) they did permit the protesters to keep their weapons as long as they were not concealed; theres no law prohibiting that. A government commission is currently reconsidering whether it might be "wiser" to ban visitors from carrying guns and rifles in the building. The sharp political and socioeconomic divisions in Michigan have made it a key swing or "battleground" state (Michigans population is 70 per cent white, but the city of Detroit proper, with a population of about 670,000, is 82 per cent African-American, many of whom live in poverty.) Due to the realities of the American electoral college system which requires 270 electoral votes to win the presidency the election results in Michigan, along with those in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Florida (in total, 75 electoral votes) may well determine the 2020 presidential election in November. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. In 2016, the vote in Michigan was close. In the popular vote, Trump defeated Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton by only 10,700, but according to the rules, he received all of Michigans 16 electoral votes. At the same time, of the approximate 7.7 million eligible voters in the state, an estimated 3.5 million did not bother to vote (across the U.S., about 100 million people who could have voted did not). Hence the current vocal campaign by Barack Obama, Joe Biden and other Democrats to encourage all Americans to vote in November. Whitmers election in 2018 was a positive sign for Democrats. In all-important and affluent Kent County in the western region of the state, which includes the city of Grand Rapids, the total population is estimated to be 657,000, of which about 77 per cent are white, and the majority identify as Republican. In the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, Barack Obama won the county, but Trump narrowly won it back for the Republicans in 2016. But in the 2018 gubernatorial race, Whitmer defeated her Republican opponent by nearly 12,000 votes (or four per cent), the first Democratic nominee to do so in Kent County since 1986. If that trend continues and moderate Republicans in Kent County turn against Trump, who knows what might happen? Whitmers success and her high profile also account for her being among the top contenders under consideration as Bidens vice-presidential candidate. Now & Then is a column in which historian Allan Levine puts the events of today in a historical context. A Texas mother has been detained after authorities believe they have found her two-year-old son's body in a dumpster a day after he went missing. Laura Sanchez was charged with injury to a child on Tuesday after a body was found in a dumpster near a church roughly 3.1 miles away from the park where the mom last reported seeing him on Monday. Local Texas authorities believe they have found the body of a two-year-old boy just a few hours after a statewide Amber Alert was issued for him. Laura Sanchez was charged with injury to a child on Tuesday after a child's body was found in a dumpster near a church in Waco (an old mugshot) A spokesman for the Waco Police Department said that crews found the body of a small child in a dumpster early on Tuesday Police shared that Frankie Gonzalez was last seen on Monday afternoon at Cameron Park near University Parks and Herring Drive under the bridge A spokesman for the Waco Police Department said that crews found the body of the small child in a dumpster early on Tuesday. The dumpster was located in the area of 27th Street and Alice Street, KCEN reports. Police shared that Frankie Gonzalez was last seen on Monday afternoon at Cameron Park near University Parks and Herring Drive under the bridge. That is roughly 3.1 miles away from the area the body was found. Gonzalez was last seen wearing a gray shirt with Mickey Mouse on it, gray pants with Mickey Mouse on them and black and white Nike Shoes Gonzalez was last seen wearing a gray shirt with Mickey Mouse on it, gray pants with Mickey Mouse on them and black and white Nike Shoes, KPRC reports. Crews were seen searching the area on Monday and multiple departments assisted in the search. The Waco Police Department used rescue boats to search the river and the McLennan County Sheriff's Office also sent a helicopter. The police also used a drone in the search. Police are still investigating. "Our goal is to resume normal business operations as soon as possible in a phased approach, but ensuring the safety and wellbeing of all our employees, their families, and Thai society is our priority right now given the COVID-19 pandemic," said Ramesh Narasimhan, president of Nissan in Thailand. Now, there's more good news to come out from Nissan. As of June 1, 2020, the company has announced the resumption of production in one of its biggest hubs, Thailand. There's a lot on Nissan's plate at the moment. They're reeling from the whole Carlos Ghosn fiasco, slumping profits, and factory shutdowns due to the pandemic. Still, it's not stopping them from launching 13 all-new and updated models within the next 18 months. To ensure the health and safety of the plant employees, not all are required to report for duty at the same time. This is to maintain physical distancing within the facility and minimize the risk of people around the plant from getting sick. At the same time, Nissan is still implementing work-from-home measures for staffers that don't have to report to the plant daily. Nissan Thailand is also implementing cleanliness and preventive protocols within their dealerships and service centers. These include disinfecting the service center every 30 minutes; temperature checking all employees and customers when they enter the dealership; ensuring that staff wears face masks at all times; providing alcohol gel throughout the premises; and consistently disinfecting key vehicle touchpoints like the steering wheel, gear shift, seats, door handles, and front console panels. Some of these measures are also being implemented in the Philippines Thailand is one of the biggest production hubs for Nissan, as many of the models made for Southeast Asia are assembled there. The plant in Samut Prakan is where the Navara and Terra are made, along with other models such as the Almera and, soon, the Kicks. It could be said that the Thailand plant is vital to Nissan's reach in the region. For them to restart operations will be a big boost for the brand, especially now that the Terra and Navara will be facelifted soon. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-03 06:06:22|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Demonstrators take part in a protest in Uptown neighborhood of Chicago, the United States, June 1, 2020. (Photo by Chris Dilts/Xinhua) The infection risk is even higher when demonstrators have been arrested. "Jails are crowded indoor spaces. The aggregation of protesters in jails will increase the risk for onward transmission of the virus," said Zhang Zuofeng, a professor of epidemiology. WASHINGTON, June 2 (Xinhua) -- As tens of thousands of demonstrators continue to take to the streets across the United States to protest the killing of George Floyd, an African American who died in police custody last week, health experts warned that mass gatherings may speed up COVID-19 transmission. "Mass gatherings occurred in many locations across the country, resulting in close contacts and lack of social distancing. Though many demonstrators wear masks, the chances of COVID-19 infections increase tremendously," Zhang Zuofeng, professor of epidemiology and associate dean for research with the school of public health at University of California, Los Angeles, told Xinhua on Tuesday. An SUV of New York police department is burned during a protest over the death of George Floyd in the Brooklyn borough of New York, the United States, on May 30, 2020. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua) Many of the weekend's protests culminated in police officers shooting tear gas and using pepper spray and protesters setting fire to cars and buildings. Smoke, tear gas and pepper spray cause coughing, and coughing aerosolizes the virus, increasing the risk that it will spread, said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least a third of COVID-19 patients are asymptomatic. The infection risk is even higher when demonstrators have been arrested, Zhang told Xinhua. "Jails are crowded indoor spaces. The aggregation of protesters in jails will increase the risk for onward transmission of the virus," Zhang said. More than 5,600 people have been arrested over days of nationwide protests, according to The Associated Press. On Monday, mayors and governors across the country urged demonstrators to stay home, and if they do go out, to wear a face mask and maintain social distancing. Although government officials have warned demonstrators about the health risks posed by protesting during a pandemic, only a few have offered actionable guidance about the role COVID-19 testing can play in preventing the virus from spreading, said a report by ABC News. Demonstrators take part in a sit-down protest in Uptown neighborhood of Chicago, the United States, June 1, 2020. (Photo by Javage Logan/Xinhua) Since most people who are infected with the coronavirus develop symptoms within 14 days of being infected and can spread the disease days before they feel sick, the window to get tested and avoid infecting others is small. "The impact of the ongoing protests on COVID-19 case counts may be revealed in about two weeks. Some testing sites have been closed due to demonstrations, which also affects timely diagnosis of COVID-19 cases," Zhang said. Protests over the death of Floyd entered the eighth day across the United States on Tuesday, with incidents of arson, vandalism and looting occurring in various places. Cities and states, including California, the District of Columbia, New York City and Cleveland, have extended curfews. (Photo : Jonathan Ernst On Reuters ) [BREAKING] White House Calls National Guard Troops to Alert High Level 'Military Show of Force' vs. Protesters (Photo : Jonathan Ernst On Reuters ) [BREAKING] White House Calls National Guard Troops to Alert High Level 'Military Show of Force' vs. Protesters On Monday, June 1, United States President Donald Trump speaks in a press conference saying he already sent 'heavily armed' National Guard troops to protect the White House and the nation from protesters. Active-duty military men units will be positioned in Washington, D.C. The state's Mayor said that a strict curfew will be declared beginning at 7:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. Tuesday, June 2. U.S. government now sends National Guard Troops Tonight, June 1, Washington D.C, is placed in a high alert military presence after Pres. Trump sends its 'heavily-armed' military units to protect the state from protesters that are looting, damaging properties, and such. In his press conference, he said that he is the 'President of law and order' and 'ally of all peaceful protesters.' Trump mentioned that his role as the leader of the U.S.would is to defend the country, and that's what 'he will do.' He even called the blame to 'domestic terrorism' as he speaks to the nation. POTUS also reiterated that he will do everything for the protests to stop and 'end now.' The President did not cater to any questions from the media on his announcement but said that "thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel and law enforcement officers" will be sent all over D.C. to bring order. "As we speak, I am dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel, and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting, looting, vandalism, assaults, and the wanton destruction of property," he said. "We will end it now." Even before his public conference, numbers of military men were already heading inside the White House and onto Pennsylvania Avenue. Trump: 'We support the right of peaceful protests' Tech Times reported early today, June 1, that White House had experienced a major blackout outside the building early today due to the extreme violence that was happening on the most historic buildings around White House. It was not said whether it was intentional for the protesters to leave the place, but unfortunately, it even outraged the protesters to continue what they were doing. Pres. Trump said that he supports all the 'peaceful protests,' but the damages now that resulted in the protests are no longer related to the memory of George Floyd, the black man that was killed during the arrest. "We support the right of peaceful protests, and we hear their pleas, but what we are now seeing on the streets of our cities has nothing to do with the memory of George Floyd," Trump said in his remarks after watching the first manned U.S. space launch in nearly a decade. "The mobs are devastating the life's work of good people and destroying their dreams." ALSO READ: Zuckerberg vs. Facebook: Thousand Workers Stage 'Virtual Walkout' vs. Trump Issue Saying CEO has 'Lack of Backbone' 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. T ravellers arriving in the UK under the new quarantine rules will be allowed to leave isolation in order to shop for food and other essential supplies. Boris Johnson announced in May that all arrivals in Britain will be forced to quarantine for a fortnight in a bid to fight the coronavirus pandemic. But the quarantine order has been met with criticism by businesses and has led to unease in the Tory ranks with concerns the quarantine will be "unenforceable". The new rules are expected to be set out by Home Secretary Priti Patel on Wednesday. The restrictions, which are due to come into force on June 8, will be similar to those imposed during the coronavirus lockdown. Mr Johnson's official spokesman said: I think there will be a limited set of exemptions, just as there was during the nationwide lockdown. For example, I would expect people only to be able to leave the property in which they are quarantining if they need urgent medical treatment, support from social services, food or medicine which they cannot get delivered or get anybody else to bring to them, an emergency in the place they are staying such as a fire or to attend a funeral of a close relative. Priti Patel is due to set out the new quarantine travel rules on Wednesday / 10 Downing Street/AFP via Getty Travellers will also be able to board public transport from the port or airport to where they will quarantine, although they will be encouraged to use private vehicles instead. The guidance suggests that people should take private vehicles wherever possible, the spokesman said. The Government is still looking at the prospect of air bridges between the UK and other countries which would be exempt from the quarantine rules, with Boris Johnson reported to be in favour of the plan. The Prime Ministers official spokesman said: There is no change on air bridges, we have said its something which the Government is looking at. The new rules will require UK arrivals to self-isolate for 14 days / REUTERS But the spokesman added that the policy was focused on stopping imported cases of this virus and one of the most devastating things which could happen to the economy is to have a second spike. Former transport minister Stephen Hammond called for the plan to quarantine all people arriving from outside the UK to be scrapped. TODO: define component type apester The Tory MP told BBC Radio 4s Today programme that air bridges would be a sensible, targeted response between low-risk countries. I think the idea of air bridges are the right way forward, he added. I think, as weve seen across the world, people are taking measures out of the lockdown and this targeted approach would be a much more sensible way to behave. George Morgan-Grenville, CEO of tour operator Red Savannah, said: By pursuing its quarantine plans without due regard for the economic consequences, the Government is choosing to ignore the devastation it will cause to companies, to employment and to the lives of all those whose jobs will be lost. The quarantine measures are a blunt weapon which will bring only economic disaster. Professor John Newton, the national testing coordinator, said contact tracing for travellers arriving in the UK could be used instead of quarantine measures. He told the Downing Street briefing that the 14-day self-isolation for arrivals would not be necessary if the risk of the traveller having coronavirus is sufficiently low, or if a case can be quickly responded to with a test and trace programme. If travellers are able to be tested and self-isolate in response to contact tracing just like a domestic new case then that would also be a way of dealing with it. (Alliance News) - Security systems provider Westminster Group PLC on Tuesday said holders of its loan notes holders have opted to convert the notes into shares. The convertible loan notes, with a value of GBP93,750, will be converted into 937,500 shares. The company now has 160.4 million shares in issue. Shares in Westminster Group closed 7.7% higher at 10.50 pence each in London on Tuesday, giving it a market capitalisation of about GBP16.7 million. By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. Parineeti Chopra reveals the best piece of advice she has ever... 1 day ago These are the times that try the souls of Americans. Those that stand by the country deserve the love and thanks of their fellow citizens. Difficulties are not easily conquered. The scene is depressing with two factors: the continuation, if some mitigation, of the pandemic, and the violent protests over the murder of a 46-year-old African-American man by a police officer in Minneapolis. The fight against the virus has been a collective national effort, with medical staff, doctors, nurses, going far beyond their normal duties, and a considerable part of the U.S. population helping in mutual aid and abiding with the official advice of social distancing. But the death of George Floyd has caused divisions, not unexpected, if more acute and violent than envisaged. The U.S. is politically and culturally a federal system, a divided nation with people of widely different background, socially, financially, and geographically uneven and disproportionate. The murder of the black man has led to agitation, not only peaceful protests but also violence and chaos. The agitation continues even after the main suspect, the police officer pictured in videos, has been charged with murder. The country is witnessing violent street protests, fires, window smashing, torched vehicles, blocked roads, and clashes with police in more than 30 major cities. It has even taken the form of calls for the removal of Confederate monuments in cities in a number of states, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Mississippi. If the country is not tearing itself apart, events have not brought a wave of unity. What is missing is the spirit of Dunkirk, a reminder of history and a rallying cry exactly 80 years ago in May 1940 with the extraordinary rescue of British and French armed forces from almost certain death or capture. The setting is well known, if only from movies depicting the period. Britain was threatened with defeat by Germany in the dark days of 1940 when Nazi forces after the phony war had advanced in France through the Ardennes forest and were moving towards the French coast and the English Channel. A British unit of 4.000 under the command of Brigadier Claude Nicholson with a battalion of tanks and 1,000 French military held Calais for a time but were overcome by two Nazi armored divisions. British casualties were heavy, but the Allied defense delayed the attack on the port of Dunkirk 38 km away, which was kept open. The rapid Nazi advance had cut communications between parts of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), and French forces, and several hundred thousand Allied troops were retreating to a small area of the French coast. They faced annihilation, and one option, reluctantly suggested at first, was evacuation by sea of as many of the military as possible. This had to be considered by Winston Churchill who became prime minister, replacing Neville Chamberlain who had lost a vote of confidence in the House of Commons, on May 10, 1940, the day that Germany invaded the Low Countries and France. Prime Minister Churchill, in an attempt to rally the BEF called for our people to call forth the last ounce and inch of effort of which they are capable. Panzer divisions of the German Army had reached the Channel coast and fierce fighting broke out in the area. The perilous situation was worsened by the defeat of Belgium, followed by the surrender of the Belgian army by King Leopold III on May 28, 1940, and soon by the defeat of France with the fall of Paris on June 14, 1940, the fall of France, and the armistice with Germany signed by Marshal Petain on June22 at Compiegne. Adolf Hitler, for reasons still disputed and not fully understood, had on May 24, 1940 decided to halt the advance for two or three days. Britain took advantage of this break, in a sense the salvation of Britain, and eighty years ago, on May 26, 1940 began the miracle of deliverance in Dunkirk, rescuing the troops before the Nazi panzers struck. The event, Operation Dynamo, lasted fourteen days until June 4, 1940 during which evacuation of Allied military forces by sea took place. The miracle was that about 338,000 Allied troops, including 198,000 British and 140,000 French troops, were saved and shipped to safety in the UK. It was a crucial moment in the war. In an extraordinary effort, the Royal Navys overloaded destroyers, light warships, and countless merchant seamen in 850 small vessels and with 106 aircraft proving air cover, risked their lives rescuing the troops. Courage was displayed in this armada of small ships in which amateur sailors risked their lives in fishing boats, lifeboats, and sailboats. Casualties were heavy. The Nazi Luftwaffe, using Stuka dive bombers, attacked Allied personnel and the harbor of Dunkirk. On one day, May 29, they destroyed ten destroyers, eight personnel ships, and many small vessels. In all, German attacks put more than 170 ships, including 25 destroyers out of action, while Britain lost 177 aircraft. About 17,000 soldiers died during the operation. About 90,000 Allied troops were left behind, along with more than 700 tanks and military equipment, enough for 8-10 divisions. On June 4, 1940, in the House of Commons, Churchill in a dramatic speech spoke of the event the week before when the troops seemed about to perish or to be led to ignominious and starving captivity. Churchill confessed that he thought only 20,000-30,000 would be saved. The miracle had been achieved while under constant enemy attack, by valor, perseverance, perfect discipline, faultless service, skill, and unconquerable fidelity. It was the 20th example, he said, of the defense of civilization by the skill and devotion of noble individuals, more important than the Knights of the Round Table and the Crusaders. Dunkirk did not have, as Churchill said, attributes of victory, but it was a remarkable defense of the cause of civilization. That defense turned into more aggressive activity. Churchill made it clear that he and the country could not be content with a defensive war -- wars are not won by evacuations . At the same time, British defenses had to be put in into a high state of organization. Churchill uttered some of his most famous words, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields, we shall fight in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall go on to the end, we shall never surrender. Dunkirk was a turning point in World War II by stopping Nazi momentum. Though Churchill did not coin the term, the British action exemplified the Dunkirk Spirit. There is no exact definition of the term, but it can be equated with courageous behavior, with fortitude and refusing to accept defeat in a difficult situation. The world today is facing the enemy of the pandemic, and leadership, fortitude, perseverance, and courage are necessary to fight it. This is the moment for the U.S. and democratic countries to emulate the glorious memory of Dunkirk and arouse the Spirt of Dunkirk. We should not flag or fail. President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the provision of security for telecommunications infrastructure nationwide, a statement said on Tuesday. This development was disclosed by Uwa Suleiman, the spokesperson of the Minister Of Communications And Digital Economy, Isa Pantami. The statement revealed that the office of the National Security Adviser, Defence Headquarters, Nigeria Police Force, Department of State Security Services and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, have been notified of the presidents directive. The Nigerian telecommunications industry depends on a number of infrastructure, which play a critical role in the smooth delivery of telecoms services. These are part of critical national infrastructure because of the important role they play, in ensuring security and in the delivery of other essential services. The statement revealed that the minister, Mr Pantami, championed efforts to identify telecommunications infrastructure as critical national infrastructure, with a view to protecting them from vandalism and theft, amongst other hazards. It said the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, has led to a massive migration to digital platforms and has increased the level of importance of critical national infrastructure to the sustenance of the economy and the security of the nation. We are also working towards the reinforcement of these directives through appropriate regulatory instruments. Dr Pantami specially appreciates the security institutions, and commends the commitment they have demonstrated in securing these infrastructure, the statement revealed. The statement highlighted that the implementation of the National Broadband Plan and the implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy, both unveiled by Mr Buhari, has repositioned the ICT sector. This is evident by the recent Nigerias Gross Domestic Product Report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which showed that the ICT sector contributed an unprecedented 14.07% to the total real GDP in the first quarter of 2020, it said. Finally, the federal government urged the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to ensure that they further reduce the price of data and calls for citizens. A slight majority of Americans believe President Donald Trump is a racist, a new survey showed. A Yahoo News/YouGov poll found 52 per cent of U.S. adults believe the president is a racist, while another 37 per cent of those polled said he was not. Eleven per cent answered that they didn't know. Americans were divided by political party and race on how they viewed Trump. Democrats, like Sen. Ed Markey, who referred to the president as a 'racist' and 'scum' Monday on Twitter, were most likely to believe he's a racist. President Trump is viewed as a racist by a slim majority in the United States. A new poll found 52 per cent of Americans said yes when asked if he is a racist Democrats were more likely to consider Trump a racist. Sen. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, tweeted Monday that Trump is 'racist' and 'scum' Americans are split by political party and race on whether they believe President Trump is a racist Republicans are nearly twice as likely to approve of President Trump's tweeting than the average American adult Only a third of adult Americans said President Trump, photographed during his photo-op Monday, should still be tweeting 'Donald trump is scum for fueling racist hate and violence in our country,' the Massachusetts Democrat wrote. Sen. Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, called President Trump 'racist' and 'scum' in a tweet Monday Of the Democrats surveyed, 86 per cent believed Trump is a racist, while just 6 per cent did not. Only 13 per cent of Republicans believed Trump is a racist, while 80 per cent said he's not. Among independents, 56 per cent said they thought Trump is a racist, while 33 per cent did not. Black Americans were most likely to think Trump is a racist. Seventy-four per cent of black Americans surveyed said they believed Trump is a racist, while 13 per cent did not. Among Hispanic Americans surveyed, 71 per cent said Trump is a racist, while 19 per cent did not. White Americans were split on whether they viewed Trump as a racist. Forty-three per cent of white Americans said yes, while 46 per cent of white Americans said no. Pollsters also asked Americans about Trump's Twitter account. Just 33 per cent of all adults surveyed believed Trump should continue tweeting, while more than half - 54 per cent - said he should stop. Republicans most approved of Trump's continued tweeting. Sixty-two per cent of Republicans surveyed said Trump should keep tweeting. That's in comparison to 12 per cent of Democrats and 29 per cent of independents. The Yahoo News/YouGov was conducted on May 29 and May 30 with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 per cent. A parliamentary inquiry into the Electoral Commission of Queensland's failure to deliver vote counts on council election night has made no recommendations, with the cause identified and fixed. The commission's vote count website for the election in Queensland's 77 council areas provided barely any results on the night, March 28, which frustrated candidates, politicians and the public. Gloves and face masks featured in this year's local government elections, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit:Jono Searle/Getty Images The 44-page inquiry report, tabled on Tuesday night, made only one recommendation - "that the Legislative Assembly note the contents of this report". The parliamentary inquiry concluded in its report that the delay in posting results online earlier this year was "attributable to poorly formed data", which was later fixed. By PTI PALGHAR: A 30-year-old prisoner, who was out on parole from Thane Central Jail, has tested positive for COVID-19 in Maharashtra's Palghar district, an official said on Tuesday. Following his release on Saturday, the patient had travelled to his sister's place in Wada and later proceeded to Jawhar, where he was not allowed to enter his village without a COVID-19 test, Palghar district civil surgeon Dr Kanchan Wanere said. The patient was taken to a medical centre, where he tested positive for the deadly infection on Monday night, the official said. The health department has so far traced eight of his contacts, including the police constable who had travelled with him to Wada in a bus and his sister's family, she said. At least 888 cases of COVID-19 have been detected in Palghar district so far, of which 31 persons have succumbed to the infection, the official said. A South Korean health worker tests a man at a temporary COVID-19 testing centre in Bucheon, south of Seoul. The country is reimposing some lockdown measures after a spate of new infections cropped up. (Photo: AFP/Ed Jones) The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 35 new cases on Monday, including 30 local infections, raising the total number of COVID-19 cases in the country to 11,503. Of the new cases, 23 patients were traced to 11 churches in Incheon and two churches in the Gyeonggi province. Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi make up the capital's metropolitan area, home to half of South Korea's population. "It is presumed that transmission occurred between participants through events such as prayer meetings and praise meetings which the churches took turns hosting," KCDC said on its website. "Contact management and investigation on the source of infection is underway." A separate cluster of nine cases was also identified, related to a "pastors group" in the Gunpo and Anyang area of Gyeonggi province. "It is presumed that transmission occurred through a gathering Jeju Island during May 25 to May 27, (which) 25 members from 12 churches participated. Investigation is underway for contacts of each church of the ministers," said the KCDC. The new church-linked cases add to a total of 74 patients detected in May who are related to various church groups. "In light of the recent ongoing spread of COVID-19 through bible studies, weekday meetings, and other religious gatherings, KCDC urged faith communities to refrain from gathering and switch to non-face-to-face meetings," the agency added. South Korea also reported one more death from COVID-19 on Monday, taking its total number of deceased to 271. Seventeen more people were released from isolation, bringing the country's total to 10,422. A series of mass infections tied to night clubs and an e-commerce warehouse occurred recently in Seoul, after the country eased social distancing measures and millions of students went back to schools. There were 270 cases linked to clubs in Seoul's Itaewon district as of Sunday. As of Monday, 112 cases were linked to the Coupang logistics centre cluster in Gyeonggi. South Korea re-imposed some social distancing measures on Thursday in response to the fresh outbreaks. Authorities also announced on Friday that only a third of pupils going to schools in the Seoul metropolitan area can physically attend school each day, with the others remote learning. Ukraine expects record high yield of maize due to rains in May 10:55, 02.06.20 3434 Ukrainian farmers will be able to harvest 68 million tonnes of grain this year if the weather remains favorable for maize crops. Upon the completion of one year of Modi Government 2.0, Home Minister Amit Shahin his most comprehensive interview yet will speak about a range of important issues from politics to economy to current COVID-19 situation. From topics such as upcoming elections in West Bengal to current COVID-19 situation and the resulting migrant crisis, Amit Shah will address all the current crucial subjects in a free-wheeling chat withRahul Joshi,Editor-in-Chief, Network18. Watch the power-packed interview on News18 India, CNN-News18, and across Network18 news channels on Monday, June 1st, 2020 at 8 PM The lights and sounds and the sight of more than 10 people inside jar the senses as you step off the elevator onto the main gaming floor at Foxwoods Resort Casino. As visotors eyes adjusted to a view unseen in nearly three months, the differences were obvious. Everyone wore a mask likely an advantage for those with a poor poker face and plexiglass divided groups that didnt arrive together. In the long rows of video slot machines, every other one was still dark, and silent. Still, those restrictions and the LED signs on the highways leading to both Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun that said Dont gamble with your health, avoid large crowds, did not deter thousands of people of all ages from visiting Monday. We honestly didnt know what to expect, said Rodney Butler, chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council, which owns Foxwoods Resort Casino. But its going well. Butlers excitement was evident as he meandered through the open portion of the casino. He stopped frequently to say hi usually accompanied by an elbow bump with people he hadnt seen in a while, and he was never too busy to help a guest locate an ATM or a bathroom or anything else they might need. After months of silent machines, dimmed lights and empty corridors, Butler was just happy to see customers enjoying the casino alive again. People are looking for ways to entertain themselves, he said. Elma Velderema, a health care worker from Putnam, was one among those who couldnt wait to return to Foxwoods. A weekly visitor before the pandemic with her friend and coworker, Donna Desilets, Velderema is already planning another trip to the casino on Saturday. She likes to play the slots while Desilets prefers to shop at the Tanger Outlets. Of course, most of the stores arent yet open, though the mall itself is. This is different for sure, Velderema said. We feel totally safe. Everything is spaced out, its explained everywhere. Theres not too many people. Desilets interrupted to note, We work in nursing homes, and we were in the Philippines in November, and China for a day, and were definitely safe here. Both casinos opened their doors early to alleviate lines, and people were there, waiting to get in, at 7 a.m. Butler and Jeff Hamilton, the president and general manager of Mohegan Sun, said there were no problems to report as of Monday afternoon, several hours after opening for both casinos. The casinos had been closed since early March in response to the coronavirus pandemic. It was the first time in either casinos history 1992 for Foxwoods, four years later for Mohegan Sun that the doors closed. But expenses didnt stop, Butler, noted. You cant just totally shut everything down. Its all mechanical, Butler said, noting a waterfall that continues to run in a portion of the casino thats not yet open to the public. He said the casinos weekly operating expenses amounted to $5 million per week during the closure, counting employee expenses. Hamilton didnt provide a dollar amount, but said the financial burden during the shutdown has been significant. Butler said with only a small portion of the casino open about 10 percent of the total capacity the casino might break even on a given week, but that wont make up for losing a couple million dollars every week the casino was closed. Hamilton decided to open up most of the floor space at Mohegan Sun to help people spread out more, though most stores and restaurants still remain closed. One employee at Mohegan Sun who asked not to be named said he still wasnt comfortable being back at work, but felt he didnt have a choice. And Gov. Ned Lamont again reiterated his view that the casinos opened too soon. I wanted to be fairly strict on a number of things, Lamont said during an afternoon briefing at the State Capitol. We have an advisory out that is clear. People over the age of 65 should not be in large congregate settings. We think it is dangerous even now. We put electronic billboards up saying over-65 dont gamble with your health, and its not just your health. Its the health of everybody you live with as well. We tried to put some good strong advice in place as people are on their way to taking a gamble. kkrasselt@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2563; @kaitlynkrasselt The Public Schools of Brookline, a district located in Greater Boston, Massachusetts, handed out just over 300 pink slips last Friday, nearly half of the districts 645 teachers. These drastic cuts follow the similar elimination of all art, PE and music classes in the nearby working class town of Randolph. The fact that such devastating cuts can take place in a middle class town like Brookline, where the median income stands at $111,289, demonstrates that only the wealthiest layers of society are safe from the pandemics fallout and many similar stories will soon emerge with horrifying frequency across the US. Although the full list of staff that received pink slips is not public, based on discussions between teachers it appears that the departments most affected by the layoffs are physical education, art, early education and special education, with entire departments being laid off, along with many paraprofessionals and librarians. Perhaps most disturbingly, all school nurses were laid off, whose work will be more essential than ever if schools reopen in the fall. The Brookline School Committee (BSC) announced in a letter sent to the school community that they had no choice but to provide layoff notices to some of our valued teachers and staff, citing the COVID-19 induced budget crisis in the Town of Brookline and the contractual obligation with the Brookline Educators Union (BEU) to provide notices of layoff by May 30. The letter also falsely states that no departments are being cut, even though many could be staffed by zero teachers come September. The night before the pink slips were distributed, a community member broke the news in a local Facebook group, writing, the school committee plans to lay off hundreds of Brookline teachers, and adding that they had just learned about this tonight. The group was immediately alight with hundreds of comments, largely consisting of parents in distress. This is beyond horrible. I am sick, wrote one Brookline parent, quickly capturing the sentiment of many. In reaction to a shocked community, the Brookline Parents Organization quickly organized a video conference for Sunday, where Suzanne Federspiel and David Pearlman, two BSC members, and State Representative Tommy Vitolo answered questions posed by moderator Meghna Chakrabarti, a local radio host and Brookline parent. The discussion began with an overview of the budgetary situation, clarifying what was sent out in the letter to the community. Though a deficit of a couple million was projected in early 2020, Federspiel explained, after the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the BSC was informed by the town mid-May that it was responsible for actually handling a $6.3 million deficit. According to Pearlman, 71 percent of the towns revenue comes from property taxes, largely unaffected by the pandemic, while the other 29 percent which largely depends upon sales tax and fines has been massively impacted, thus tripling the schools deficit. Matters are complicated by the fact that Massachusetts has not yet dictated how schools will operatewhether online, in person, or via some hybridand possibly will not until as late as July, said Pearlman. Additionally, money from the towns $26 million rainy day fund cannot be allocated until a town meeting on June 23, and, similarly, state and federal funds, which are less reliable than ever, operate on different calendars than Brooklines. The discussion then steered towards the pink slips, which dominated the rest of the conference. The pink slips were released on May 29, the last business day before the May 30 deadline stipulated by the BEU. Chakrabarti then pointed out the fact that the pink slips amount to $20 million in savings, more than triple the size of the deficit, asking, so why send out so many? Federspiel laid out the committees reasoning, which amounted to a desire for flexibility. The BSC currently has no idea what their budget truly is or what staffing needs the district will have come September, so it has laid off a plethora of teachers so it can later decide which of them might be invited back. With so many unknown variables, the logistical calculations were evidently too complex for district officials to handle this situation humanely. Pearlman clarified that teachers with pre-professional status, those who have been teaching at Brookline for less than three years, are more readily considered for layoffs than those who are essentially tenured. Giving a theoretical example, Pearlman said that if fewer physical education teachers are needed, one who is licensed to teach 2nd grade would be kept over one who is not. The committee would need to then find a 2nd grade teacher with pre-professional status and that person would then be terminated. This falls in line with the national trend of massive unemployment for young workers. The BSCs actions have left hundreds not knowing whether they will be employed this fall, forcing them into extreme financial uncertainty and psychological distress. As one teacher put it, I hope there will be massive rehiring in the fall, but all bets are off at this point. She has every reason to worry. The University of Chicago has predicted that 42% of jobs lost to the COVID-19 pandemic will not return. The ruling class is using the pandemic as an excuse to cut jobs and slash wages and these layoffs will provide plenty of flexibility to direct tax revenue away from education and into the pockets of the ultra-wealthy. Though wealthier than Randolph, similar themes have emerged in both towns. One is the shameful way by which news came to teachers losing their jobs. I have no first-hand information and Im reeling at this moment, wrote one performing arts teacher the night before pink slips were distributed. Another similarity is their communitys understanding of the need for more teachers under these circumstances. It is self-evident that more teachers are required to either enable and enforce social distancing among students or to effectively teach online, not fewer. Lastly, in both districts physical education and the arts are among the departments facing the most severe layoffs. Vitolo explained during the conference that Chapter 70 fundsthose that come from the statewill almost certainly not be available. Painting a dark picture for the future, Vitolo compared the ongoing situation to the 2008 financial crisis, where state aid was cut pretty severely, and theres no reason to think it wont happen again. He said the problem facing local and state governments is what do we harm the most and what do we harm the least? This question has already been answered by the response of the political establishment to the pandemic, as both the Republican and Democratic parties united to pass the misnamed CARES act, handing over trillions to Wall Street while starving public education and all the social services upon which the working class depends. In response to the layoffs, BEU sent out a feckless letter to the Brookline community. The union urged teachers and local residents to pressure the school to ask for and accept donations from people of means, a stop-gap solution which would subordinate the right to a proper education to the philanthropic whims of wealthier residents. The letter emphasizes the failure of the BSC to enlist the services of the union, which could have provided educators' advice and expertise about what our students need and deserve. In other words, they bemoan the fact that the union was not more directly involved in deciding who to lay off. The BSC and BEU are ultimately playing a fruitless game of finger-pointing and neither presents any plan to save teachers jobs and the state of public education in Brookline. Notably absent from the unions statement was any connection made to the broader crisis facing public education across the US. While the video conference was taking place, protesters in Boston were marching to the Massachusetts State House, not four miles away from Brookline High School, as part of the international wave of protests against police brutality sparked by the gruesome murder of George Floyd. The crisis of capitalism, which is responsible for the unending police brutality, as well as the mass social dislocation and austerity wrought by the pandemic, has impelled hundreds of thousands into struggle. The urgent necessity is now to unite this movement with the broader working class, including educators, to transform society in a revolutionary socialist manner. We urge all educators facing joblessness and austerity in Brookline, Randolph and across the country to take up this fight, and to contact us today at teachers@wsws.org. India is far from the Covid-19 peak, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) expert Dr Nivedita Gupta said during a joint briefing of the ICMR and Ministry of Health briefing on Covid-19 on Tuesday. The expert said that Indias measures to curtail the disease have been effective and had been very good in the reduction in mortality. Instead of the use of the word 'community transmission', we need to understand the extent of the spread of the disease. We are far from the peak.Our measures to curtail the disease are effective. India has been very good in the reduction in mortality:Nivedita Gupta, ICMR#COVID19 pic.twitter.com/UxMEgcHVAk ANI (@ANI) June 2, 2020 Instead of the use of the word community transmission, we need to understand the extent of the spread of the disease. We are far from the peak, she said. During the briefing, Ministry of Health, joint secretary, Lav Agarwal said that the Covid-19 fatality rate in India is 2.82%, one of the lowest in the world. Also read: Covid-19 reaches Delhi L-G Anil Baijals office, 13 test positive The fatality rate in our country is 2.82%, one of the lowest in the world: Lav Agrawal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry pic.twitter.com/Kcd6KwygX5 ANI (@ANI) June 2, 2020 73% of Covid-19 deaths in India are in people with co-morbidities, Agrawal stated, adding that 10% of Indias population accounts for 50% of Indias Covid-19 linked deaths. Agarwal said that, till now, 95,527 coronavirus patients have recovered across the country. The recovery rate is now 48.07%, he added. The officials also said that Covid-19 testing has been ramped up in the country. Today, we are conducting 1 lakh 20 thousand tests every day, Gupta said. Also read: Govt says Indias ranking as 7th worst affected nation misleading, its faring better than the rest 10% of India's population accounts for 50% of India's COVID19 linked deaths: Lav Agrawal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry pic.twitter.com/TOH1QzVgq1 ANI (@ANI) June 2, 2020 Agarwal said that states governments have been asked to analyse the trajectory of Covid-19 cases. If a state thinks that it needs to set up temporary Covid-19 care centres then it must do so, he stated. Indias Covid-19 cases touched 198,706 on Tuesday. While 95,526 people have recovered or have been discharged from hospitals across India, 5,598 have lost their lives. See Full Image Gallery >> Collectors who find limited-edition hypercars with a multi-million-dollar price tag a little bit too stodgy will soon have a rare opportunity to add a real Formula One car to their fleet. Toyota donated the first example of the last car it built to compete in the series to a charity auction whose proceeds will go towards COVID-19 relief. Wearing chassis number 01, this TF109 participated in a battery of tests leading up to the 2009 Formula One season. It was driven by several professional pilots, including Henkie Waldschmidt, Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock, but it never lined up on the starting grid of a race. Instead of stuffing it in a dimly-lit museum, Toyota passed the TF109 to Pirelli who used it as a high-speed test mule for tires. It was stripped of its red and white livery and put in the hands of well-known pilots (including Romain Grosjean) until it finally retired in 2011 after covering about 30,000 kilometers (approximately 19,000 miles), which is enormous for a Formula One car. There's little evidence chassis number 01 has moved much since 2011. It's being sold as a complete car and it's still fitted with its 2.4-liter V8 engine, but we don't know whether or not it runs. That's likely of little interest to its future owner; starting a Formula One car is a dauntingly complicated task, and maintaining it requires a full team of technicians. It's more likely to become a rolling work of art than to start a second racing career. It's difficult to put a value on a Formula One car. It's not like you can browse Bring a Trailer until you have an accurate idea of how the last 27 examples sold have performed. RM Sotheby's hasn't provided a pre-auction estimate, but we wouldn't be surprised if bidding crosses the seven-digit mark, especially considering the proceeds from the sale will be donated to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Story continues RM's Race Against Covid auction will take place online where else? between June 15 and 22. Eight lots have been detailed as of writing, including the aforementioned TF109 plus a racing suit worn by Sebastian Vettel in 2019, a bundle of equipment signed by top drivers like Lewis Hamilton, and a day in Ferrari's racing simulator. RM previously announced the auction will include over 60 lots, so there may be other cars up for grabs. Related Video: Click here to See Video >> You Might Also Like Retailer Card Factory said online sales at its main website have more than quadrupled since the start of the coronavirus lockdown as it confirmed plans to reopen 10% of its shops. The chain said like-for-like sales at cardfactory.co.uk have surged 302% since lockdown and are 153% higher in its financial year so far, with sales at gettingpersonal.co.uk up 68% since lockdown. But the firm which has furloughed more than 90% of its staff cancelled its 2019-20 final shareholder dividend payout and said it does not expect to pay one for the current year due to the impact of Covid-19 on overall trading. Card Factory, which has more than 1,000 stores in the UK and Ireland, is planning a slow reopening of shops from around June 15 but said it had plans for further openings subject to our early learnings. It said it believes social distancing can be achieved in most of its stores. Card Factory said: It is clear that in some shops social distancing will impact the number of transactions that we are able to deal with; however our teams are looking to introduce innovative ways to process customer transactions to optimise sales in stores, including helping customers reduce the frequency of their visits, but increase the average basket value in each shop. The group said it had launched a second warehouse unit in Wakefield to meet rocketing demand for online orders amid the coronavirus crisis. It also plans to launch a new website for cardfactory.co.uk in the second half of the year. Results for the year to the end of January revealed an 11.8% drop in underlying pre-tax profits to 67.2 million, with the group blaming a very challenging market and soaring costs. It saw like-for-like sales at Card Factory fall 0.5% over the year. Karen Hubbard, chief executive at Card Factory, said: Before the impact of Covid-19, we had made a satisfactory start to the year. In the first major season of the year, Valentines Day, we achieved our fourth consecutive year of record sales growth in both volume and value. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted trading and, given the uncertain economic backdrop, we are unable to provide financial guidance for 2020-21. Jake Paul has found himself in yet another controversy. After video footage showed the YouTuber and his crew amongst looters vandalizing/stealing from a shopping mall in Scottsdale, Arizona, many were convinced that he, too, was demolishing stores and businesses to gain attention. However, Paul insists that he was not taking part in any wrongdoings that night, which Twitter has a hard time believing. Jake Paul | Leon Bennett/Getty Images Paul and his team were spotted amongst looters Although Paul claims he didnt take part in any looting at the Scottsdale Fashion Square mall in Arizona on May 30, he and his team were right in the middle of all the action that night. In a series of videos shared to his videographer Andrew Blues Instagram Story, Paul and his team are seen wandering around the mall as rioters smash store windows and, in one instance, strike a car on display. The looting came amid a wave of protests across the country following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes. While many people have been peacefully protesting to seek justice for those minorities whove died at the hands of white officers, others have been resorting to violence and destruction taking their frustration out on various stores and businesses. Though a handful of individuals were recorded vandalizing the Scottsdale mall, Paul wasnt shown stealing or breaking anything. However, the videos have since prompted a wave of criticism online from people accusing the YouTuber of using the nationwide protests for his own personal gain. RELATED: Jake Paul Tries to Start Beef With Zayn Malik, Gigi Hadid Shreds Him [Why] destroying a mall and taking stuff? thats peacefully protesting to you? im just gonna leave this here.. HES USING THIS IMPORTANT RIOT FOR LIKES, one Twitter user wrote. Someone else noted that Paul and his team werent even in the same town the Black Lives Matter protests were taking place, which was in Phoenix. They wrote, Then why were you not in downtown Phoenix where the protest was actually happening. The YouTuber claims he wasnt looting After many Twitter users called him out for vandalizing property and being the epitome of white male privilege, Paul responded to the ongoing backlash on social media. In a lengthy statement released on Twitter, Paul denied accusations that he was involved in the malls vandalism, claiming that he does not condone criminal acts of any kind despite what others might think. To be absolutely clear, neither I nor anyone in our group was engaged in any looting or vandalism, he wrote. I do not condone violence, looting or breaking the law; however, I understand the anger and frustration that led to the destruction we witnessed and while its not the answer, its important that people see it and collectively figure out how to move forward in a healthy way. RELATED: Literally No One Is Surprised Tana Mongeau Left Jake Paul Forever Paul wrote that he and his team did attend the protest in Phoenix but were tear-gassed and told to go somewhere else by police. The vlogger and his crew eventually found themselves in the middle of a break-in at the Scottsdale Fashion Square mall, where they decided to film everything they saw for his YouTube channel. After sharing the tweet, many responded with confusion, as some pointed out that Paul seemed to be encouraging the looters in the videos. You walked around filming them excitedly saying sh*t is going down, sh*t is going down with a vlog camera, one person highlighted. While another pointed out, He literally tried to break a window of a car inside the mall and its on video hes just straight lying. He was also hyping up the people doing most of the looting going woo and making loud noises and getting all excited. Never seen someone so dumb. Though Paul says he does not condone violence, it sounds to followers that he and his crew were doing just that. Hong Kong Leader Blames City Protests and Independence Movements For Beijings National Security Law Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam defended Beijings decision to implement a so-called national security law in the city, while accusing Washington of using double standards to criticize the law in her weekly press conference on June 2. Tuesday marked Lams first public appearance since U.S. President Donald Trump announced on May 29 that it will curtail ties with Hong Kong, adopting measures, such as revoking the citys preferential trade treatment under U.S. law. Beijing passed its national security law for Hong Kong a day earlier. Before addressing the issue of the national security law, Lam cast the ongoing anti-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong in an ominous light, defending Beijings need for a security law. The threat to national security in Hong Kong is constantly rising, Lam said. We can look back over this past year and see that Hong Kong has undergone every kind of riot, which has been widely reported. These Hong Kong independence movements, the foreign interference, and people trying to subvert the operations of the Special Administration Region governments operationsthese activities, these behaviours, endanger the nations safety and endanger the life and well-being of the people. That is why some people ask if Hong Kong has now gone from a society of rule of law to that of rule of fear, she continued. Lams popularity has plunged since over 1 million Hongkongers took to the streets on June 9 last year to voice their opposition to the governments controversial extradition bill that has since been fully-scrapped. Many feared that under the law, the citys judicial autonomy would be compromised given that people living in and traveling through Hong Kong would be at risk of being put on trial in Chinese courts, which are notorious for the absence of rule of law. Before the protests in May last year, Lams popularity stood at 44.7 percent, before plummeting to 18.2 percent in mid-February this year, according to polls by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (HKPORI). In a separate HKPORI poll, which asked respondents in April about their satisfaction towards the Hong Kong governments performance on protecting human rights and freedom in the city, 63.1 percent of 1,005 respondents said they were dissatisfied. Hong Kong police have arrested over 8,000 people since June last yearamong them 81-year-old Martin Lee, a former lawmaker who is also known as the father of democracy in the former British colony. Many rights groups have slammed Lams pro-Beijing government for failing to protect human rights during the protests, as there have been many instances in which peaceful protesters and journalists were victims of police violence. Lam said that Beijing couldnt turn a blind eye to whats happening in Hong Kong and the necessity of passing the CCPs national security law, especially since Hong Kong authorities havent been able to pass the Article 23 anti-subversion legislation for more than a decade. Article 23 was first proposed by the Hong Kong government in 2003, only to be quickly scrapped due to mass protests amid concerns that the bill would mean an end to Hongkongers civil liberties. Lam Take CCP Line, Blasts US Double Standard Lam also echoed the CCPs line when she equated current protests in the United States to those in Hong Kong, calling them both riots. They are highly concerned about their own national security, but when it comes to our national security, especially the situation in Hong Kong, they look through tinted glasses, Lam said when talking about possible measures by foreign governments against the CCPs security law. She added: People can see this double standard very clearly when looking at how riots were handled in the U.S. by the local authorities, and how it compares to the stance they took when almost the same kind of riots took place in Hong Kong last year. In the last few days, Chinese diplomats and state-run media have taken to social media to exploit the unrest in the United States triggered by the death of Black American George Floyd while in police custody. For instance, Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of Chinas hawkish state-run media Global Times, in a tweet on May 31, made the incredible claim that Vicious HK rioters obviously are mastermind of violent protests across the US. US Perspective But U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News on Sunday that he believes what is happening in Hong Kong and the United States is completely different, since Americans can speak freely and have access to a free press. Meanwhile, the CCP is seen to suppress freedom of expression and a free press for the Chinese people. Gary Fan, a pro-democracy district counselor in Hong Kong, posted a diagram on his Facebook page on May 31 explaining four differences between the protests in Hong Kong and the United States. Fan pointed out that not a single Hong Kong police officer has been charged, while in the United States, the officer responsible for kneeling on Floyds neck has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, and his three colleagues involved in the deadly arrest have been fired. Fan also pointed out that the Minnesota governor had issued a public apology after state police arrested a CNN news crew. On the contrary, Fan said that the Hong Kong government has remained silent about the polices body searches and arresting of reporters. Lam added that Washingtons plan to strip the citys special trade status with the United States will hurt both sides. In one example, she said that American companies in the city can currently access Chinese markets under a local trade agreement with China. Tiananmen Anniversary Event Banned When asked by a reporter whether the citys annual vigil to mark the Tiananmen Square Massacre would still be allowed in Hong Kong after the security law is implemented, Lam refused to comment, saying that she did not know the details of the law. Any discussion of the Tiananmen Square Massacre remains a taboo in communist China. The CCP continues to deny having killed protesters and deploys its censorship apparatus to wipe out any mention of the mass killing by authorities at the event. On June 1, Hong Kong police issued a ban against the vigilheld annually in Hong Kong since 1990arguing that the gathering would violate current social distancing rules to prevent the spread of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. In response to the police ban, Johnny Patterson, director of British NGO Hong Kong Watch, said on Twitter: The sadness is that, once the national security law is passed, this vigil may never be legal again. Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) stated: While Americans protest injusticeChina bans in Hong Kong any remembrance of the 1989 massacre in Tiananmen Squarefreedom is noisy but much better than the silence of oppression. Reuters contributed to this report. As protests over the death of George Floyd continued across Alabama Tuesday, Hoover police Sgt. Julius Wainwright got down on one knee and spoke with a demonstrator. We hear you. We understand, Wainwright said. Although a protester yelled over him, others cheered as he walked away. About 30 minutes later, Hoover police arrested 14 protesters for being out past 7 p.m. in violation of Jefferson Countys newly-implemented curfew. That followed three earlier arrests when people allegedly stepped off the curb, violating the instructions given by police. Fellow protesters pooled money earlier in the afternoon via Venmo to pay bail for those who were eventually taken to jail in a black van. The Rev. Julie Conrady of the Unitarian Universalist Church watched the protest from the side. Her goal was to help the young group protest safely. We were all young and idealistic once, she said. So we just want to keep them safe. Satura Dudley, 20, was one of the organizers of the Hoover protests. She was arrested on Saturday and Sunday evening, and claims several Hoover police officers threw her to the ground on Saturday. Look at how many cops are out here... 13? For little old us?, she said. Dudley said she has been involved in activism since she was 16. I just get bothered easily by injustice, she said. Our generation needs to take action. When asked about why she was protesting in Hoover, Dudley said her group was in Hoover for both Emantic E.J. Bradfords 2018 shooting death and also to be a distraction for the protests unfolding across Birmingham. Dudley said while she wont personally loot, break windows, or attack media, she understood why others would. Im not going to do it, but I get the frustration, the anger... whatever we got to do, its on them. In Homewood, hundreds gathered; a few people were briefly detained by law enforcement and then released. At the end of the Homewood rally, all of the attendees got face down on the grass in memory of Floyd, while one of the speakers cried, Mama, please help me. Theyre gonna kill me. I cant breathe. Im really proud of the turnout, the fact that it is disproportionately young folks who are involved and impassioned to continue the fight. That is extremely replenishing for such an exhausting battle that we know will continue to flow for a very long time, said organizer Celida Soto. Hopefully it will not exhaust until true change is made - revolutionary, radical changes made in our nation. This is a sanctuary, a safe place for many to cathartically release a lot of the hurt and the pain people have been feeling but also its a space to recognize that we are united clearly beyond races, she said. All lives do not matter until black lives matter. Theres an emphasis on those lives that are oppressed and that are brutalized in our nation. The hope, Soto said, is that folks will not only be reformed but also enriched and emboldened. Only three Homewood police officers were present in the actual area of the rally. A plan and reinforcements were in place should the protest turn away from peaceful. Police said they were not expecting that to happen but prepared if needed. We hope in this free land that folk are able to continue to freely express themselves as needed according to the current times, Sodo said. One of the attendees was 16-year-old Caleb McLendon who, along with several friends, arrived early and stood on Oxmoor Road holding signs. Out here are people who really care, who really want to see change, McLendon said. This is the first real movement like this that Ive been able to take part in and really understand. We really want to see change and were tired of oppression. In Mobile, where recent weekend protests resulted in some unrest, a small group of young college-aged activists turned up at parking lot to the west of the city. As people began to arrive, Mobile Police Department Chief Lawrence Battiste greeted them and the events organizer, Dantjuan Miller. He told them to be careful and not to become involved with people they did on recognize or who appeared ready to cause unrest. The chief and Mobile City Council have claimed that much of the recent unrest, which resulted in pepper gas being deployed twice on Sunday, was because of outsiders. Battiste told Miller that he would not allow them to walk the intended route on Airport Boulevard, from a Dollar General Parking lot to Bel Air Mall. In all, the congested route is about 1.7 miles. I told them we cant support a march from this location to Bel Air mall, said Chief Battiste as he address waiting media. Its a major roadway. We cant guarantee the safety of protesters or the motorists. I told them they can protest from this lot but we will not support them for a march from this location. Ive advised them if they get into the roadway and impeded the normal flow of traffic we will make arrests. After all police units left, Miller led the group on a short march around the parking lot. The protest was well observed and no police were present. Miller said: The plan for the demonstration was to have our voice be heard here in the south. We are not exempt from police brutality down here. We need to make sure change gets done. The protest was broken up by heavy rain. Updated at 9:44 p.m. to correct the misidentification of the kneeling Hoover police officer. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-03 01:15:17|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Chief Executive of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam meets the press on June 2, 2020 in Hong Kong, China. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai) Some foreign governments treasure so much of their own national security but look through colored spectacles when viewing China's security and Hong Kong's current situation, Lam said, blasting those foreign governments of taking double standards. HONG KONG, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Chief Executive of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam said Tuesday that the decision by the national legislature to establish and improve the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the HKSAR to safeguard national security demonstrates the commitment of the central authorities, while some foreign countries applied double standards on the matter. Speaking at a media session on Tuesday, Lam pointed out that national security embodies a nation's sovereignty and sets up the foundation of the governance. It is the jurisdiction of the central authorities to enact laws on national security, as all other nations do, and current laws in Hong Kong are nowhere near adequate to deal with issues related to national security. Lam said China's national security law should be applied in each part and corner of the country, and the central government had thus authorized the HKSAR to complete on national security legislation in accordance with the "one country, two systems" principle, "Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong" and a high degree of autonomy. Hong Kong however has yet to enact such laws. Lam said there has been an increasing threat on national security in Hong Kong since last year, with some advocating "Hong Kong independence," as well as foreign interference harming the national security. Lam, rebuffing some foreign countries' criticism on China, said the central authorities shoulder the responsibility by making the decision under the special situation. Some foreign governments treasure so much of their own national security but look through colored spectacles when viewing China's security and Hong Kong's current situation, Lam said, blasting those foreign governments of taking double standards. Any sanctions or removing of Hong Kong's special status would hurt the United States itself and would not benefit anyone, Lam warned. She said that the United States, for the past over 10 years, has enjoyed its large trade surplus with Hong Kong, the non-reciprocal visa-free access and etc. Lam said that the acts and behaviors to hit businesses and people will only make the economy and people's livelihood worse as the COVID-19 epidemic has already weakened the global economy. Two alleged victims, each described as vulnerable and each of whom met their accused attacker through martial arts classes. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/6/2020 (598 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Ruiz, right, is on trial charged with nine offences, including sexual assault, uttering threats, and forcible entry dating back more than 20 years. Two alleged victims, each described as vulnerable and each of whom met their accused attacker through martial arts classes. But those and other similarities in the cases of two women allegedly assaulted by firefighter and martial arts instructor Manuel Ruiz werent enough to convince a judge she should use the evidence of one woman to corroborate the evidence of the other. "This type of evidence is only accepted in exceptional circumstances," Justice Joan McKelvey ruled Monday, rejecting a "similar fact" application by Crown prosecutor Michelle Bright. McKelvey said there were enough dissimilarities between the two womens allegations that the "prejudicial effect outweighs the probative value of this evidence." Ruiz, 54, is on trial charged with nine offences, including sexual assault, uttering threats, and forcible entry dating back more than 20 years. Court heard testimony last week one alleged victim first met Ruiz in 1986 when she was 12 and they were attending the same taekwondo studio. The second woman, now 35, met Ruiz when she was turning 18 and taking classes at his Sherbrook Avenue jiu-jitsu studio. Both women testified when they were adults, Ruiz would go on to force sex on them against their will, intimidating them into silence and ignoring their pleas to stop. "There are distinctions and similarities which the Crown says cannot be coincidences," Bright said. "There are similarities in their evidence that do show a pattern of behaviour on the part of the accused. Bright said acceptance of the similar fact application would allow the Crown to show Ruiz employed a "modus operandi" in exploiting the alleged victims, and assist the court in assessing their credibility. "The similar fact evidence establishes that the accused uses a specific system or modus operandi in committing the assaults and creating opportunities for the assaults to be committed," she said. "The Crown says he did this by forming relationships with them in which he was the one with all the power They felt intimidated by him, afraid of him, and physically threatened by him, and as a result, they did not resist when he forced intercourse on them without their consent." Defence lawyer Matt Gould argued the alleged use of power and control over the victims was not distinctive enough a factor to support a similar fact application. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "Every offence of sexual assault involves exerting power and control," he said. "If that werent present, there wouldnt be an allegation in the first place." Gould said the reliability of one womans evidence was so severely compromised that a similar fact finding would be impossible. That woman testified she had lived with Ruiz for several months just a short time after meeting him, but under cross examination insisted she had in fact moved in with Ruiz three years later. The woman told court years of substance abuse had left her memory "foggy." The defence opened its case Monday afternoon, with Gould questioning Ruiz for over 90 minutes about his work, home and martial arts history, setting out a timeline expected to refute the allegations of his accusers. Ruiz will resume his testimony Tuesday morning. dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca With over 6.26 million cases and 375,000 deaths in just five months, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused great fear and devastation in many parts of the world. Many studies show that, generally, there has been an accompanying increase in fear, anxiety, and depressive symptoms during this period. Now, a new study published on the online preprint server medRxiv* in May 2020 shows that patients with a history of mental ill-health often underwent a worsening of their symptoms with the onset of the pandemic. Earlier Findings An earlier study by the same team of international researchers showed that psychological conditions, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder were more common in people who already had mental disorders. Moreover, it found that those individuals whose conditions were self-perceived to have become aggravated because of the pandemic were more likely to be psychologically disturbed, overall, to be infected, and to have a psychiatric relapse, as well as to have suicidal ideas. Mental ill-health requires considerable healthcare resources, and have a significant death rate, disability number, and more reduced productivity. Against this background, the pandemic has caused the burden on these resources to increase significantly, with extra care being required for frontline healthcare workers, psychiatric patients, and the people in general. As a result, it is essential that the groups in greatest need of psychiatric services be identified. The Study to Identify Worsening of Psychiatric Health The current study is aimed at analyzing different groups of mental health patients to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on them. Using an online questionnaire that was placed online for 15 consecutive days from March 29, 2020, by April 14, 2020, the researchers extracted data dealing with only those groups which had a history of psychiatric ill-health a total of 2,734 patients. They then looked at those patients above 18 years, who reported a decline in their mental health. They adjusted the reports of worse psychiatric health for various factors like: demographic factors; social conditions, satisfaction with interventions taken by employer or state during this period personality factors like optimism, extroversion, family conditions like working at home, home isolation, having one or more pets, how much social contact was present, exercise; prior history of trauma or mental ill-health; and COVID-19-linked factors like knowing someone nearby at work or home who became sick or died from COVID-19. They looked specifically for risk factors and factors that indicated a resilient personality, to predict if the psychiatric condition would worsen or not. The researchers then tested another cohort of 318 patients from an independent practice during this period during the pandemic to verify their results. Worsening of Mental Health Among Those with Psychiatric Disorders Among the 2,734 patients, the most significant number of responses was from the USA, at over 850, with the next four countries at a level of below 250 each. The highest percentage of self-reported aggravation of symptoms was among Canadians, at 81%, and Pakistan, with 72%. However, the survey results were skewed with almost 80% of responses from females, living in urban areas, and with higher educational attainments. Most of them were working or studying from home or isolated at home with family or others. Just over half and two-thirds of the responses expressed satisfaction with the response of the government or employer to the pandemic. Half reported less than 15 minutes daily of exercise. Two-thirds said they were spending more time on social media, less with family and friends even virtually, and the vast majority said they were feeling out-of-control to some extent. The self-reports of decline in mental health were verified against the compared scores from the questionnaires and indices used in both groups, those with and without worsening psychiatric health. As reported, all scores were higher in the first group, and patient distribution, along with the score graphs, also followed their self-reported change/no change in mental condition. Psychiatric Patients at Highest Risk The adjusted analysis showed that the highest odds of worsening of mental health (90%) were linked to a feeling of loss of control. Being female, a lack of interaction with others, and dissatisfaction with state response to the outbreak was linked to a 70%, 56%, and 31% increase in the odds of worsening of the psychiatric condition. Factors that prevented such worsening included the freedom to share concerns with those close to the patient, normal usage of social media, and having a realistic view of conditions. The validation study was also skewed, with almost 72% being females and 82% having a major depressive disorder. About 44% of patients had new clinical symptoms, mostly sleep disturbances. Almost half the patients needed a new mode of treatment or adjustment in the current therapy, according to the clinicians evaluation. General Findings Overall, the study showed that the pandemic had a substantial effect on psychiatric patients globally, with at least half the patients in 8 of 12 countries in the study reporting that their psychiatric condition had worsened. The factors that tended to worsen the psychiatric disorder at this time were also identified, as were the risk factors underlying this change. The patients reports of worse mental health were validated with their scores on self-scored validated patient scales used to evaluate depression, PTSD risk, and general mental disturbance. These findings are strengthened by the clinical study showing that over half of the patients had new findings and needed treatment adjustments during the pandemic period. The studys strengths include a large sample size, a large number of countries, the use of 11 different languages for generalizability, and direct collection of data at the pandemics peak, with a particular endpoint and validation by an independent clinical study. Of course, it has limitations such as the non-randomized nature of the sample, the online nature of the survey, which could exclude a large part of the population who do not have access to equal resources. The Implications of the Study The study shows the vulnerability of this group of people to adverse impacts from the pandemic. The findings can provide the insight necessary to improve mental health systems. Health systems can become better equipped to address the concerns of this population, mitigate the risk of further mental deterioration, and reduce the prevalence of suicidal ideation. In addition, the study shows that women are at higher risk, both because of the increased prevalence of such conditions as depression and anxiety, and the gender disparity in the violence and abuse they face during the pandemic. The latter can be traced partly to increased risk of economic insecurity, reduced mobility, fewer health services, and social isolation. Hence, say the investigators, Governments and public health experts should recognize the needs of women and women with psychiatric diseases to counter the vulnerability and risk they face. *Important Notice medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information A lmost half of Britons have been exposed to misinformation about coronavirus online, a poll has found. Health officials were told to "step up" their efforts to combat the spread of fake news data after research showed that 48 per cent of people in the UK had seen false information about Covid-19. The IPPR, which conducted the survey, said that misinformation is a "constant menace online that endangers lives" as it called on the Government to combat misinformation, even when the pandemic is over. The authors of the latest IPPR paper said that the Covid-19 pandemic has "exposed the dangers of new technology as a harbinger of false, potentially dangerous information". But it has also shown how these platforms can be used to alert the public to the crisis, they added. Looking past the pandemic, the survey found that people would welcome more public health communication from officials - with 78 per cent in favour of more public health television adverts and 64 per cent in favour of text messages including public health information. The think-tank said technology has changed the way people seek information about their health, with 61 per cent of the 2,000 Britons polled saying they go online to check symptoms or self-diagnose. Three-quarters (75 per cent) said the most trusted online site for health information was the NHS website. The poll also found that online misinformation also led to some misunderstandings around vaccines - 6 per cent falsely believed vaccines can cause autism, with a further 32 per cent saying they were unsure about the claim. It called on the NHS to forge partnerships with tech giants to create tailored public health messages and address disinformation. And the disinformation unit established in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak should be made a permanent feature of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), with the express aim of combating the spread of misinformation, the authors added. "The internet has been a powerful tool in communicating helpful NHS advice on how to halt the spread of this terrible disease, but misinformation remains a constant menace online that endangers lives," said Dean Hochlaf, IPPR researcher and lead author of the report. "Unfortunately, conspiracy theories are a common side-effect of all public health issues and crises. "It's therefore paramount that the Government continues to play an active role in combating misinformation, even after the pandemic. "Official health information is always beneficial, so the Government should step up its efforts to ensure that the public is always up to date and well informed about any health threats we may face." A Government spokeswoman said: "Our priority is ensuring the safety of the British public and we are committed to tackling the spread of dangerous disinformation about coronavirus. "Specialist units in the Government are working around the clock to identify and rebut false information during this pandemic. "We are also working closely with social media platforms to help them identify and remove incorrect claims about the virus that could endanger people's health, as well as directing people towards the latest public health information." An NHS spokeswoman added: "The NHS been rightly focused on delivering care for every single person who needs it, and while we have already forged relationships with tech giants to help tackle misleading information online, ultimately it has to be first and foremost the responsibility of those people, organisations and campaigners spreading fake news to stop doing so, while the public rightly look to social media firms to take a zero-tolerance approach to dangerous and misleading information on their platforms." RICHMOND, Va. - The black mayor choked back tears. An African American state delegate thundered her sorrow. Black preachers preached, a vocalist sang, and then - with the crowd wrung out after three days of protests and mayhem over police violence against blacks - the white police chief took the podium. "I stand before you today humbled and ashamed," Chief William Smith began, speaking at the foot of a slavery reconciliation statue. But his microphone cut off and he was quickly drowned out by angry protesters. Fatigue and outrage hung over Richmond on Monday like the odor of tear gas from the night before, when police used an 8 p.m. curfew to break up a massive demonstration and wound up in skirmishes with protesters into the night. Less violence and property damage was reported than on the two previous nights, but police arrested more than 230 people overnight Sunday, about half of them from elsewhere. Twenty-three firearms were recovered and 16 cars related to the protest were towed, two of them registered in the city, officials said. A rally Monday evening marked four straight days of demonstrations, though it was intended to be peaceful and to end before the curfew, which is in effect indefinitely. Thousands gathered at Monroe Park at Virginia Commonwealth University, marched to the Capitol and returned without incident. The mood ranged from angry shouts to offers of free water and vegan burritos, from children holding signs to at least one pair of young men holding long guns. "I'm just trying to look after everybody," one of the armed men said, declining to give his name. "We know that right-wingers and Confederates have been roaming the streets with rifles and weapons, and we want to be a deterrent to that." As curfew grew closer, the tone shifted. Protesters at the Robert E. Lee statue on Monument Avenue were tear gassed by police, who had warned demonstrators against trying to topple another heavy statue nearby. Police later said they had been trapped by violent protesters and used the gas to escape safely; videos posted online did not show the threat or indicate that officers asked the protesters to leave before gassing them. Smith later apologized for the actions of his officers. "These RPD officers have been pulled from the field. They will be disciplined because their actions were outside department protocols and directions given," Smith said. Mayor Levar Stoney, a Democrat, tweeted that he would appear at City Hall on Tuesday to apologize to the protesters who were gassed. By 9 p.m., most of the protesters had dissipated, though a number of them reassembled in another area as police continued heavy patrols. Like other cities across the country, Richmond has been racked by unrest. On Saturday night, activists tore down a temporary fence at the entrance to the Capitol, pelted police with bottles and ravaged shops in the city's historically black Jackson Ward neighborhood. Protesters also set fire to an apartment building and blocked a firetruck from reaching the scene, where a child was trapped. Police eventually pushed through and the child and other occupants were rescued. Earlier Monday, political and community leaders met at the reconciliation statue, near the site that was once one of the South's biggest slave markets, to renew charges that much of the violence was perpetrated by outsiders. "For God's sake, I call for peaceful protests," said Del. Delores McQuinn, D-Richmond, a longtime black community leader and pastor. "We must find our best selves in the midst of both this covid pandemic and the institutional racism crisis." She said her heart was "bruised and broken," by both the repeated killings of unarmed black citizens at the hands of police around the country and the destruction wrought on her city over the weekend. Stoney, who is African American, told the group of about 100 onlookers that he was struggling to contain his own emotions. "I'm telling you today it's OKto be frustrated," he said. "It's OK to hurt right now and express that using your First Amendment rights. But what I'm here to say is that if we want to go further, in a faster manner, the only way, the only way we do that is doing that together." Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who has served as mayor of Richmond and as governor, said the recent violence is a distraction from real issues of racism and suffering. "People are living under too much trauma in this country," he said. "Don't let people change the subject." But after a series of speeches under the hot sun, some in the crowd grew restless, shouting back at suggestions that lashing out was the wrong response to centuries of systemic racism. By the time Smith took the podium and his microphone failed, so many people were shouting that he struggled to continue speaking. McQuinn and other black leaders eventually closed into a tight circle around him, not in protection but as a show of support. When Smith finally stepped aside, four young black women - all wearing black shirts and pants - threaded through the crowd and asked him to talk. He sat down with them on a low wall behind the statue. Carmen Hamlett, 29, of nearby Chesterfield County, was holding a sign that said "My sons matter." What needs to happen, she asked Smith, so that her two little boys don't have to fear the police? "What are we doing to change this - to ensure that my boys are treated as humans?" Hire more diverse officers, Smith said. Train them. Be respectful. "Be aware of the injustices that have occurred to people of color throughout our history," he said. Fight the "evil in people's hearts" that lead to both police violence and the looting of black-owned businesses. On this, they agreed. "I personally don't believe we are burning down our community," Hamlett said. "We are not!" Smith exclaimed. "Richmond is not doing the burning." It's outsiders, he said. "But what's the next step from here? Because I feel hopeless sometimes," Hamlett said. Smith said he planned to make all departmental policies available online, so the public can critique them. "We're trying to protect people from violence," he said. "We've got young men killing other young men who look exactly like one another." "But you've got to acknowledge where that came from." "Absolutely," Smith said. People were already suffering, then came the coronavirus, Hamlett said. And the killings by police. "It's such a dangerous combination that we're seeing implode right now." "Passion is good," Smith replied. "Passion means you care about our community." So it went, until Hamlett and her three friends thanked Smith and moved away. It didn't solve anything, she said later. But she appreciated Smith's attention. "I think he's genuine about wanting change," she said. "If nothing's getting heard, nothing gets done." Here below is a segmented portion of the June 1, 2020 general meeting regarding the passage of this resolution to protect the Civil Liberties of our citizens. Raleigh Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown sanctioning cowardice within the ranks of her publicly financed police department after numerous nights of rioting, looting and thuggery: Below. Beaufort County is Resolved to Protect the Civil Liberties of All Citizens by Enforcing All of Our Laws Regarding the coordinated riots of 2020, is this Lawless Anarchy threatening our American society, and is our Representative Republic being handled properly by the elected authorities in the effected areas? No, violent anti-societal lawlessness must be put down immediately to protect all law abiding citizens. Yes, we must be a more inclusive society that embraces those who are disaffected and disenfranchised, even those who are lawfully challenged. Don't know, don't care. 77 total vote(s) What's your Opinion? Postscript: At some point very soon, there will be a large discussion, probably a rant or two as well, on the subject of "The Memorial of George Floyd and the Useful Idiots" ... Wait for it, but this here now. Publisher's note: If you are interested in our Archive of the Beaufort County Commissioners' General Meetings can be found here in this aforementioned enhanced format. Additionally, if you wish to catch up on some of the most important Beaufort County Commissioners meeting of 2019 through 2022, click here. As the spread of police cowardice is insuring that rioting events, beginning as peaceful protests, prove to be fertile soil for lawless looting and thuggery, Beaufort County's Commissioners voted to aggressively defend local businesses that could become targets of destruction by anarchists. The vote was 4 to 2, with commissioners Ed Booth and Gerry Evans voting against the measure when the commissioners met in their general meeting, June 1, 2020 The purpose of this measure is to boldly exhibit the commissioners' resolve to endorse that Beaufort County's sheriff willto protect theWhile this level of dedication to position would appear to be manadatory, municipal police chiefs and county sheriffs from all over our nation, in states and cities that are governed by Democratic Socialists, have heretofore often chosen the coward route to neglect their public duty, to put their publicly paid force in a positition to protect the public, irrespective if it puts them in "harmsway".The resolution here below was written and ratified, with one paragraph removed to satisfy Commissioner Frankie Waters, to insure that any cowardice in Beaufort County will not be polically tolerated, while insuring Sheriff Ernie Coleman that we will support all efforts to maintain order using all "reasonable force" necessary.Beaufort County citizens all enjoy the civil liberties of American citizenship purchased by the patriotism of our Forefathers, guaranteed by our United States Constitution, and,Beaufort County citizens' civil liberties, protected by our United States Constitution, affords our citizenry the right to own property, and therefore benefit from that liability of ownership; an ownership under tax lien, taxed with yearly demand for payment, and,Beaufort County citizens' purchase of that public protection of their property, through their representative government's obligation to provide for a Beaufort County Sheriff Department to protect and serve its people, and,Raleigh, the state capital of North Carolina, and, far away from Minneapolis, Minnesota, has been attacked by anti-American anarchists for two straight nights, May 30th /31st, with many downtown businesses victimized by these thugs who hate America and its People, and,Beaufort County's Sheriff was elected to serve its citizens, with the responsibility to protect property and preserve the safety of our citizenry, therefore,, that Beaufort County's Commissioners are resolved to protect the civil liberties of all citizens by enforcing all of our laws; thereby promising the Beaufort County Sheriff the Commissioners' full support to employ all of the rightful, and swift force necessary to achieve that charge, and to responsibility do so, thus prospectively restoring order from lawlessness should anarchist insurrection visit Beaufort County., that Beaufort County's Commissioners request that the Beaufort County Sheriff have the ultimate resolve to plan for action to effectively stop any prospective lawless destruction and theft of property, to and including deputizing capable volunteers, requesting the national guard, etc., or any other feasible stratagem to quell any possible anarchist insurrection here in Beaufort County. THE NEXT GREAT MIGRATION The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move By Sonia Shah Every spring, more than 300 species of bird migrate north along traditional geographic flyways from their winter ranges in the Caribbean and Central and South America to their breeding grounds in the United States and Canada. One day in May, a migration hot spot near my home provided me with hard-earned glimpses of migrating thrushes, vireos, orioles and 21 species of wood warblers the most brilliant and sought-after of the migratory celebrities of spring. My reunions with a stunning hooded warbler, a crisp but shy worm-eating warbler and the flame-throated Blackburnian warbler were the highlights of my mostly homebound week of social distancing. Migration is occurring all around us, if we have the time, dedication and luck to observe it. Migration is also in the news. On nearly every continent, human refugees are fleeing from war, ethnic and gang violence, political oppression, famine, climate change and poverty. Their travel has instigated humanitarian support efforts, military and police actions, governmental crises, political movements, xenophobic rhetoric and massive border construction projects. Refugees are risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean Sea, the Rio Grande and the Sahara, and are being detained in fortified camps on Greek islands, Australian atolls and in Bangladeshi and Texas borderlands. In her new book, The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move, the science journalist Sonia Shah explores the history of intellectual connections among all these migration phenomena, tackling with compassion and insight a deeply complex and challenging subject. The author of four previous books, including her prescient Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, From Cholera to Ebola and Beyond, which came out in 2016, Shah makes clear that her interest in migration is personal. The daughter of a couple who emigrated from India to New York, she writes that her parents relocation instilled in me an acute feeling of being somehow out of place, one thats taken nearly five decades to quell. After enduring a lifetime of questions from fellow Americans about where she is really from, she aims to unpack the contributions of science in shaping our expectations about the relationship between people and places. Jim Dey, a member of The News-Gazette staff, can be reached by email at jdey@news-gazette.com or by phone at 217-351-5369. Subscriber content preview Many jurisdictions faced the double-whammy of increased overtime pay for essential workers and declining revenues in the wake of stay-home orders. By LISA MASCARO AP Congressional Correspondent WASHINGTON One small-town Oklahoma mayor testified before Congress she's worried the city's 18-bed hospital can't handle a second Covid-19 wave. Many counties are slashing sizable chunks of their government work force. States are staring down red ink as the fiscal year comes to a close. As local leaders are pleading for more federal aid even before protests over police violence erupted in almost every corner of the country the Senate resumes session Monday with no immediate plans to consider a fresh round of relief. . . . Thousands of new patients who suffer from chronic pain will soon be able to join the states medical cannabis program, following a vote Tuesday morning after no debate by the General Assemblys only bipartisan committee. Connecticut will now become the last state to allow chronic pain as a reason for a marijuana prescription among 33 states with medical pot programs. Michelle Seagull, commissioner of the state Department of Consumer Protection, said the new afflictions could eventually double the number of participating patients to over 80,000. The unanimous vote of the Regulation Review Committee sends the regulations to Secretary of the State Denise Merrill, where they immediately become law more than eight months after a panel of physicians recommended two new pain-related ailments to three dozen others. The vote brings the total number of afflictions for adults to 38, while there are 10 for those under the age of 18. Many of the conditions on the list already include pain, but not generalized pain without a specified cause. But compared with other states, the exact language of the bill allowing chronic pain as a reason for doctors to prescribe pot remains exceptionally restrictive, said Karen OKeefe, director of state policies at the Marijuana Policy Project, an advocacy group. Thats because under the new rule in Connecticut, a patients pain must persist for at least six months and be resistant to other treatments. Todays addition of chronic pain to the medical cannabis program is a step forward, and will provide desperately needed relief to individuals living with debilitating pain, said OKeefe. However, the narrow definition forces individuals to suffer for six months before qualifying, and steers them to more dangerous treatment options. That includes persistent use of opiates, she and other advocates of medical marijuana say. New Jersey, the last state to adopt pain as a marijuana designation, did so exactly a year ago. Some critics have said chronic pain opens the way for more and freer recreational adult use of marijuana, since pain is by definition general and very common. But OKeefe said in most states the number of people signed up for medical marijuana is far smaller than the total number of users as measured by surveys. For participation in the states medical marijuana program, patients must be certified by doctors with whom they have established relationships. During a quick, three-minute discussion and vote hindered only slightly by the video conference for committee members and staff the legislative Regulation Review Committee approved the rules, which will now allow patients suffering chronic pain of at least six months duration, as well as those with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome to join the eight-year-old medical marijuana program. More Information For Adults, Debilitating Medical Conditions Include: Cancer (Effective 2012) Glaucoma (Effective 2012) Positive Status for Human Immunodeficiency Virus or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (Effective 2012) Parkinson's Disease (Effective 2012) Multiple Sclerosis (Effective 2012) Damage to the Nervous Tissue of the Spinal Cord with Objective Neurological Indication of Intractable Spasticity (Effective 2012) Epilepsy (Effective 2012) Cachexia (Effective 2012) Wasting Syndrome (Effective 2012) Crohn's Disease (Effective 2012) Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Effective 2012) Sickle Cell Disease (Effective 2016)* Post Laminectomy Syndrome with Chronic Radiculopathy (Effective 2016)* Severe Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (Effective 2016)* Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Effective 2016)* Ulcerative Colitis (Effective 2016)* Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, Type 1 and Type II (Effective 2016)* Cerebral Palsy (Effective 2016) Cystic Fibrosis (Effective 2016) Irreversible Spinal Cord Injury with Objective Neurological Indication of Intractable Spasticity (Effective 2016) Terminal Illness Requiring End-Of-Life Care (Effective 2016) Uncontrolled Intractable Seizure Disorder (Effective 2016) Spasticity or Neuropathic Pain Associated with Fibromyalgia (Effective 2018)* Severe Rheumatoid Arthritis (Effective 2018)* Post Herpetic Neuralgia (Effective 2018)* Hydrocephalus with Intractable Headache (Effective 2018)* Intractable Headache Syndromes (Effective 2018)* Neuropathic Facial Pain (Effective 2018)* Muscular Dystrophy (Effective 2018)* Osteogenesis Imperfecta (Effective 2018)* Chronic Neuropathic Pain Associated with Degenerative Spinal Disorders (Effective 2018)* Interstitial Cystitis (Effective 2019)* MALS Syndrome (Median Arcuate Ligament Syndrome) (Effective 2019)* Vulvodynia and Vulvar Burning (Effective 2019)* Intractable Neuropathic Pain that Is Unresponsive to Standard Medical Treatments (Effective 2019)* Tourette Syndrome (Effective 2019)* For Patients Under 18, Debilitating Medical Conditions Include: Cerebral Palsy (Effective 2016) Cystic Fibrosis (Effective 2016) Irreversible Spinal Cord Injury with Objective Neurological Indication of Intractable Spasticity (Effective 2016) Severe Epilepsy (Effective 2016) Terminal Illness Requiring End-Of-Life Care (Effective 2016) Uncontrolled Intractable Seizure Disorder (Effective 2016) Muscular Dystrophy (Effective 2018)* Osteogenesis Imperfecta (Effective 2018)* Intractable Neuropathic Pain that Is Unresponsive to Standard Medical Treatments (Effective 2019)* Tourette Syndrome for patients who have failed standard medical treatment (Effective 2019)* Source: State Department of Consumer Protection See More Collapse A total of 41,292 patients, or 1.2 percent of the state, participate through 1,270 enrolled physicians. The rulemaking was an example of a not-so nimble process that resulted from a recommendation by a board of physicians and months of review and rewriting by the state attorney general and the nonpartisan Legislative Commissioners Office. The discussion about chronic pain has been informed and thoughtful, Seagull said in a written statement. I am pleased that we have been able to hear from the public, and the board has been able to make recommendations that will give patients and the medical professionals who treat them more options for care. Later on Tuesday afternoon, she said that tens of thousands of new patients could eventually join the states medical cannabis program. Today's addition to the list of qualifying conditions has the potential to lead to significant growth in the states program over a number of years, consistent with how the program has steadily grown in the past, she said. Our Drug Control Division estimates that the number of patients could nearly double. Connecticut is already in the middle in percent participation among states with medical marijuana programs. Figures vary widely from just a few thousand in some states to 7 percent of the population of Oklahoma, which has few restrictions. Unlike other General Assembly panels, Regulation Review has both Democratic and Republican co-chairs and the 14 members are evenly divided along party lines. The two committee chairs, Rep. Susan Johnson, D- Windham and Sen. Craig Miner, R-Litchfield, ran the video conference meeting. Obviously we are trailblazers here on the Regulation Review Committee, Johnson joked during the 15-minute meeting that was available to the public on CT-N. In fact, the committee is the only one that has met during the coronavirus pandemic, first in-person last month, then during a trial video conference last week. Administered by the state Department of Consumer Protection, the medical cannabis program is advised by its Board of Physicians, which approved the two new conditions on September 27 of last year. Attorney General William Tong approved the draft in February. Dan Haar contributed to this report. We all like to save a little money, and one way to do that is by frequenting a thrift store. For some folks, a trip to the thrift store is a regular occurrence and bargain hunting is an avocation. But that all stopped when coronavirus required statewide shutdowns of retail stores that did not sell grocery items. The Rescue Mission, Goodwill, and The Salvation Army were forced to close down their retail stores in March, which meant layoffs for some and put a stop to their receiving donations of goods. Many donation sites struggled as people continued to leave things in front of their doors or on loading docks and responded by having to put caution tape or fences around donation sites to discourage dumping. For these organizations, their retail stores are a major source of funding for programs to help those who struggle with homelessness and life issues. And they are a source of employment. With retail outlets reopening as part of Phase II, that means that thrift stores can open back up to shoppers. The Rescue Mission Thrifty Shopper and 3fifteen stores reopened May 29. Store employees were greeted with customers who seemed genuinely happy to come back, and we were happy to have them states Chief Development officer Tori Shires. Shopping in the thrift stores is a little different as they have made accommodations to meet state guidelines. Hand and cart sanitization stations have been installed, and they will provide shoppers with gloves if they request them. Stickers on the floor remind customers to social distance.Courtesy of Rescue Mission Alliance Customers must wear masks and maintain social distancing while shopping. Plexiglass barriers have been installed at cash registers to protect workers and the public. Inventory has been flipped over to summer items, and all of the stores have been thoroughly cleaned. Shires stated that everything pretty much ran smoothly with the reopening and there were no real issues with the protocols. Click the link for a list of Rescue Mission stores and hours. Salvation Army stores reopened today to customers and donations. They have made accommodations and are ready to meet the challenges of shopping with Covid restrictions. The Salvation Army stores in Auburn, Chittenango, Fulton, Ilion, Rome, and Watertown were looking forward to welcoming customers and accepting donations again. (The Syracuse Erie Boulevard location will remain closed for another two weeks to complete renovations.) As Maj. Robert Miga, administrator for business said yesterday, were so happy to see our customers tomorrow. The stores have protocols in place for social distancing and all stores have an occupancy requirement that employees will monitor. Directional arrows have been placed in aisles to restrict traffic flow. Masks are required to enter the store, and employees will be provided with gloves. Plexiglass has been installed at the registers for customer and worker safety. For the time being, fitting rooms will have to remain closed. Cart sanitizing will be done by employees and hand sanitizer will be available on entry to the store. Click the link to find a Salvation Army store. Some Goodwill stores reopened on Monday, while the Syracuse stores reopened today. At the Goodwill stores, the same protocols have been put in place for sanitizing, social distancing, and protection of employees and the public. Employees have their temperatures taken and answer health screening questions when reporting for work. Fitting rooms will remain closed. Contact-less donation protocols have been implemented at the stores and donation sites. When dropping off, donors will drive up to the doors and an employee will remove donation items from the trunk of the car. Receipts are available, if desired, and will be left in the trunk. Mary Boland, VP of Communications also says that all donations are quarantined for at least three days." Click the link for a list of Goodwill stores and donation sites. Contact me by phone (315-282-8675) or email anytime. I cleaned out my closet. how can I make a donation? Another update: Rescue Missions 18 thrift stores are officially open Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources NY releases guidelines for offices, retail shops, real estate and other phase 2 businesses Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com For those who prefer that someone else do the hiking, horseback riding in Iceland is a special experience. The descendants of ponies brought here by Viking settlers, Icelandic horses are small, strong and docile. Theyre renowned for their five gaits: Along with walk, trot and gallop, they have two extra gears the tolt, which is fast and extremely smooth, and the skei, a high-speed flying pace. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Even before protesters across the country took to the streets in rage and grief over police brutality, Americans were already facing unprecedented stress, isolation, depression and fear brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier this month, as the country began to consider relaxing stay-at-home orders and reopening businesses, experts warned that the months of isolation and unemployment prompted by the coronavirus pandemic may increase deaths of despair, a term for an alarming rise in early deaths among young and mid-life Americans, from suicide, drug overdoses and alcoholism. Such deaths have pushed down overall life expectancy in the United States by roughly three years, according to a 2019 report in the Journal of the American Medical Association. And for American Americans, the stress of experiencing and witnessing police brutality can also worsen mental health. In recent days, prominent medical organizations including the American Medical Association have decried police brutality and warned that racism is in itself a public health issue. A 2018 study found that police killings harm the mental health of black people living in states where such violence occursand does not affect white people in the same way. That pressure is now piling on top of the toll of an unprecedented pandemic that had already upended life in the United States. As the pandemic spreads, health experts have become concerned about how COVID-19 will affect risk factors for deaths of despair, including increased unemployment and social isolation. Preliminary research from China has shown that people are experiencing higher rates of anxiety, depression and hazardous and harmful alcohol use due to coronavirus-related stress. In a report released in May by Well Being Trust, a national foundation focused on mental wellness, and the Robert Graham Center, an independent research unit associated with the American Academy of Family Physicians, researchers predicted that additional deaths of despair over the next decade could range from just under 28,000 to over 154,000, depending on the speed of economic recovery. All of this, researchers conclude, is driving a need for more and better mental health and substance abuse treatment. In the United States, statisticians are warning that there will be sobering consequences if COVID-19's effect on behavioral health is inadequately addressed, especially as the country already has one of the highest suicide rates among wealthy nations and substance abuse remains persistent. Though fatal overdoses decreased nationally in 2018, that drop was the first in decades. And in Philadelphia, after a drop in 2018, overdoses ticked back up in 2019. Deaths of despair have been increasing since 2008, said Benjamin Miller, the chief strategy officer at Well Being Trust and an author of the report, which includes nine different scenarios to predict additional deaths of despair using a baseline number from 2018, projected unemployment rates from 2020 to 2029 and three recovery rate estimates. In the report's middle-of-the-road estimate, Philadelphia would see an additional 11.5 deaths per 100,000 residents over the next decade, and the suburban Pennsylvania counties would see an average increase of 6.65 additional deaths per 100,000 residents. Across the river, in Camden County, deaths of despair were projected to increase by 12 per 100,000 residents; in Burlington County, by 8.2; and in Gloucester County, by 11.3. "The premise was that deaths of despair don't look like they're going to get better, and COVID is exacerbating all the worst things we know cause deaths of despair," Miller said. For example, avoiding isolation is one of the central tenets of harm reduction, which encourages people with addiction to use drugs as safely as possible until they are ready to quit. Having someone else nearby to monitor drug users for overdose can mean the difference between life and death. But during a widespread quarantine, that often isn't possible, leading to fears from outreach workers and treatment providers that their clients could relapse or fall into riskier drug use. "We're quite concerned with what we're learning from the field, what's going on in communities that have been under stay-at-home orders," said Elinore F. McCance-Katz, the Health and Human Services assistant secretary for mental health and substance use, who runs the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. "Those are situations in which people have lost employment. They've lost their jobs, the structure to their lives. This puts them in a position where they have a lot of time on their hands, stress, anxiety, and boredom." Nationwide, she said, alcohol sales are up substantially, and, anecdotally, her agency has been hearing "more about overdose deaths and the use of other substances." Overdoses and unemployment have long been linked in years of research studies. A 2019 study out of the University of Pennsylvania found that manufacturing counties who lost auto plantstheir economic anchorssaw a spike in opioid overdoses in the five years afterward. Those findings, the study authors said at the time, are a window into how economic instability can drive a public health crisis. The Well Being Trust report also cited research that links unemployment and suicide risk. A 2014 study found that during the Great Recession between 2007 and 2009, a one point increase in unemployment rates correlated with a 1.6% increase in suicides. According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide rates have risen 30% since 1999. While it's impossible to speculate on projected numbers given that suicide is the result of a combination of factors, the pandemic can increase vulnerability to suicide, said Kelly Green, a senior researcher at the Penn Center for the Prevention of Suicide in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. "Economic factors like unemployment and financial strain are tied to suicide risk, and we're going through an unprecedented time," she said. "We haven't had a time where so many risk factors have coalesced together before." While it's too early to tell what kind of effect the pandemic will have on suicides, Nicole Brown, the chief operating officer at Holcomb Behavioral Health Systems in Exton, said that behavioral health issues are getting more severe. "We're seeing greater cutting behaviors and more suicide ideation," Brown said. "People are really struggling with the social isolation component of this." Brown said there's also been an uptick in referrals for those with substance abuse issues over the last two weeks. "The longer people are isolated and quarantined at home, coupled with pre-existing mental health struggles, the more of a toll it's going to take," she said. But Brown said that one silver lining of the pandemic is the widespread shift to telehealth. Before the pandemic, she said between 70% and 75% of patients showed up for scheduled appointments. That has now increased to 80% to 90%, thanks to telehealth, which has prevented higher rates of hospitalizations, she said. Miller stressed that the report isn't a call to recklessly open the economy and risk more deaths from COVID-19. Rather, he said, he hopes the report will lead state and local officials to see the need for strengthened mental health and substance abuse resources. Although budgets are "being decimated overnight," he said that training first responders to properly address issues of mental health and addiction and staffing hotlines is crucial right now. "We hope that anyone who sees this understands it's a big issue," Miller said. "These deaths do not have to occur if we invest the right amount of resources and attention into figuring out what's causing deaths of despair." Green, of Penn, said that increased attention on mental health during the pandemic has created an opportunity to strengthen suicide prevention resources. She said government officials should create ways to reduce financial strain for people during this time and increase funding to nonprofits offering mental health resources. And hospitals should implement suicide-prevention practices like standardized screenings and suicide-focused treatment, she said. For individuals, she stressed the importance of checking in on family members and friends who might be struggling with isolation and stress. "The benefits of connection and care can't be understated," she said. "Making an extra effort to reach out to someone you know is struggling can be life-saving." People in crisis can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (-8255) or use the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak 2020 The Philadelphia Inquirer Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Raffles Place central business district in Singapore. (PHOTO: ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP via Getty Images) By Chanyaporn Chanjaroen (Bloomberg) -- Mostly empty offices, staggered work hours, face shields and contact tracing -- thats what Singapores cautious return to work will look like under the watchful gaze of the hubs financial regulator. Banks will start the slow process of returning employees to the office on Tuesday, when the government begins to reopen the economy. The Monetary Authority of Singapore has advised firms to keep staff on site well within 25%, according to people with knowledge of the matter. They will need permission to host meetings with clients, and safety is to be assured with staff wearing clear plastic shields in addition to masks. The authoritys approach is part of a phased reopening of the city-state, which has been under one of the longest lockdowns in Asia as authorities battled a second wave of coronavirus infections. Banks including DBS Group Holdings Ltd., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and UBS Group AG have responded by deciding to keep most of their workers at home during the first stage of the easing. How quickly banks get back to business as usual will be closely watched in a country where the finance and insurance industry makes up about 14% of gross domestic product. With the economy facing its worst contraction since independence in 1965, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. says its keen to have more bankers return to the office to process applications for relief loans. Banks that wish to exceed the limit on the number of staff in offices must provide justification, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. MAS has allowed financial institutions to have some on site staff to meet increased customer needs as more businesses restart operations, as well as to serve customers more efficiently, a central bank spokesperson said in a statement. We have asked financial institutions to continue to exercise discipline in the number of staff brought back onto work premises and meet strict safe management measures. Story continues Meetings between wealth and other advisers and their customers will be held by appointment only, and both sides will need to use an app that allows contact tracing, according to a MAS statement released last month. For some other industries, about a third of staff will be able to go back to their workplaces from Tuesday. The city-state has reported more than 35,000 cases of Covid-19 with 24 deaths as of Monday. Most active cases are migrant workers residing in dormitories. Singapores stringent approach differs from Hong Kong, where the regulator didnt impose a cap on the proportion of staff who could go back to work after the city relaxed its social-distancing requirements. Morgan Stanley and Barclays Plc had more than half of their Hong Kong workers go back to the office, while almost a third of Citigroups employees returned to the financial hub. Here is how banks are approaching the easing of restrictions in Singapore. DBS Clients can expect to see wealth planners at branches wearing face shields, while some elevators have been recalibrated to take fewer passengers to ensure safe distancing, Singapores largest bank said in reply to questions from Bloomberg. About 80% of DBS staff have been working from home and most will continue to do so even after Tuesday, it said. Goldman Sachs The U.S. bank will begin the first phase of a gradual and careful return to office in Singapore from Tuesday, Hong Kong-based spokesman Edward Naylor said. Client meetings will resume but in a limited way. Citigroup Citigroup Inc. plans to keep 88% of its 8,500 Singapore employees at home until July. I see benefits in being deliberately slow and measured in our return to ensure their safety and wellbeing, said Amol Gupte, the U.S. banks country officer for Singapore. UOB United Overseas Bank Ltd. said it will bring workers back to the office gradually over the coming months. Its using staggered hours, along with split and shorter shifts to manage safe-distancing requirements. OCBC Singapores second-largest bank wants to gradually increase office staff numbers to disburse funds to struggling households and small businesses. For now, its not planning to reopen the 22 branches that were closed during the restriction period. It will monitor traffic at its 24 open outlets and encourage customers to use digital platforms. UBS The Swiss banks return-to-office plan will initially involve key front-office functions including client-facing colleagues and traders, a spokesperson said. Most employees will continue to work from home for the immediate future. HSBC HSBC Holdings Plc will have 23% of its employees in offices as of Tuesday, and will return more in increments as Singapore eases restrictions further, with each wave to be spread over many weeks, said Olfert de Wit, country operating officer. (Updates with latest cases and deaths in eighth paragraph) 2020 Bloomberg L.P. Steven Steeves, a journeyman and mechanic from Fort Liard, N.W.T., divides his work time between road maintenance contracts in northern British Columbia, and general labour work for companies in Liard and Fort Smith, N.W.T. But since the coronavirus outbreak, work has dried up, he said. "I've had these contracts for 12 years and that's where I wanted to retire and work from my cabin, but I don't think that's going to happen anymore," Steeves told CBC. The B.C-N.W.T border, along with Highway 7 into B.C., is currently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic making it harder for him and other labourers that do cross-border contracts. Steeves said journeymen like him generally share the little amount of work that they can find but now, he along with others, are turning to the $2,000 monthly cheque from the federal Canada Emergency Relief Benefit (CERB). "It's really hard to make long-term predictions right now." - Matt Belliveau, executive director of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut Construction Association Steven's story is not unique throughout the N.W.T, contract workers and their employers said the economic restart after the pandemic is an opportunity for the territory to prioritize local companies in the procurement process. If the government doesn't, they said they might have to look for work elsewhere. Construction company might consider leaving N.W.T. Matt Belliveau, executive director of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut Construction Association, said that members are eager to see "more work out the door," during the summer but that it's hard to figure out when things will go back to normal. "It's really hard to make long term predictions right now," Belliveau said. Jack Rowe, the president of Rowe's Construction, said his company has been able to weather the storm so far during the pandemic, because they had a steady stream of work from late December until the end of March. Story continues Anna Desmarais/CBC The company has four or five ongoing projects in the South Slave and Dehcho regions, which will keep labourers busy until July. "If there's not going to be work afforded to you then you have to find other markets or get out of the business." - Jack Rowe, president of Rowe's Construction That's when the true impact of the pandemic could be felt, Rowe said, because the number of projects could slow down or the tenders could be given to competitive southern bidders, largely from Alberta and B.C. Rowe said the territory has to consider a new way to support local over southern businesses in the procurement process otherwise their company might have to think about leaving the N.W.T. or shutting down completely. "We were born and raised here so we really don't want to go," Rowe said. "But if there's not going to be work afforded to you then you have to find other markets or get out of the business." Supplied by Matt Belliveau The territorial government already has a Business Incentive Policy (BIP) in place that gives preference to N.W.T. businesses in the procurement process. Companies registered with the program receive a reduction on their bids over southern companies, which helps them improve their overall ranking for the project. The territory says on its website that it will start updating the procurement processes this year with the goal of completing a review by 2022. Short-term housing contracts possible solution for northern companies Belliveau said the focus should be on hiring local workers for fast, "shovel-ready," short term housing contracts. That will help the government immediately create jobs and training opportunities in the communities, he said, while working toward improving housing conditions in the north. "We know that small companies will be having cash flow issues and shortages of work due to COVID," Belliveau said. "Housing is a good option to put companies and people to work right now." Paulie Chinna, the territory's housing minister, confirmed to CBC News that the territory will be providing over 100 units that were identified during the coronavirus pandemic for the territory's homeless. More than half of these units will need to be renovated before they can accept tenants, Chinna said. The N.W.T Housing Corporation has recently opened tenders for housing construction projects in Fort Smith, Fort Simpson and Hay River. Anna Desmarais/CBC However, Rowe said focusing solely on short term housing contracts will not solve his company's woes in the future. Instead, he said there needs to be a shift into prioritizing northern companies for larger contracts. Belliveau said their association runs a reverse job board for contract labourers looking for work this summer. Prospective employees can submit their information and it will be sent off to companies looking for workers. VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2020 / Chemesis International Inc. (CSE:CSI) (OTCQB:CADMF) (FRA:CWAA) (the "Company" or "Chemesis"), announced its financial results for the third quarter of 2020 ended March 31, 2020. Unless otherwise stated, all references to currency are in CDN dollars. Third Quarter 2020 Financial & Operational Highlights Revenues of $4,529,524 and gross profit margin of 36% before biological assets, the comparative period of the prior fiscal year generated $3,762,139 million with gross profit margin of 25% for a year over year improvement of 11%. On February 3, 2020, the Company received a favourable result pursuant to an injunction filed in Puerto Rico and was able to resume licensed activities. In addition, the Company realized an increase in demand for our products amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Both of these factors have led to a considerable turnaround compared to the prior quarter's revenues of $944,457. Management expects to see this positive trend continue into Q4 and fiscal 2021. Subsequent to the period ended March 31, 2020, The Company announced the appointment of Josh Rosenberg as President of Chemesis. Mr. Rosenberg is a seasoned corporate executive with a proven track record in global foodservice and other product distribution and executive leadership. Josh led the successful buyout of Accent Food Services and transitioned the enterprise to private equity ownership and management. During Josh's six years at the helm, the company grew top line revenue by more than six-fold, expanded operations to cover 11 U.S. states, and grew to encompass more than 600 associates, 14,000 customers, and the service of more than 750,000 customers a day; Chemesis announced its exclusive partnership with Via-Touch Media for its VICKI IoT ("Internet of Things") self-checkout solution for retail. Chemesis has exclusive rights across North America for VICKI machines containing cannabis products and will announce its initial roll-out plan in the coming weeks. In the month of May 2020, Chemesis closed two private placements for an aggregate gross proceeds of CDN $1,346,250. The Company announced the intention to spin out La Finca Interacviva-Arachna MED SAS ("La Finca"), its integrated Colombian cannabis company, into a wholly-owned subsidiary, 1247262 B.C. Ltd. ("SpinCo") through a plan of arrangement under the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia) (the "Arrangement"). Upon completion of the Arrangement, La Finca will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of SpinCo. The Company has entered into debt settlement agreements to settle outstanding accounts payable liabilities of CDN $639,070 with 660,800 common shares and convertible debt with a balance of USD$1,073,056 with 1,552,186 common shares of the Company at a conversion price of USD$0.69. Josh Rosenberg, President of Chemesis International Inc., remarked, "The Company continued to see significant demand for its products throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The team continues to ensure our dispensaries are operational throughout the pandemic and will continue to ensure consumers can safely receive the products they need. The team does recognize the reduction in new patient traffic at dispensaries due to the pandemic, however, to ensure safety and compliance the Company will continue to adhere to regulations regarding reduce business hours and other safety restrictions. Chemesis remains in a stable financial position and we will continue to build our footprint and execute a sustainable business plan moving towards a path of profitability." On Behalf of The Board of Directors Josh Rosenberg President About Chemesis International Inc. Chemesis International Inc. is a vertically integrated U.S. Multi-State operator with International operations in Puerto Rico and Colombia. The Company focuses on prudent capital allocation to ensure it maintains a first mover advantage as it enters new markets and is committed to differentiate itself by deploying resources in markets with major opportunities. The Company operates a portfolio of brands that cater to a wide community of cannabis consumers, with focus on quality and consistency. Chemesis has facilities in both Puerto Rico and California. The Company is positioned to win additional licenses in highly competitive merit-based US states and will expand its footprint to ensure it maintains a first mover advantage. Investor Relations: ir@chemesis.com 1 (604) 398-3378 Forward-Looking Information: This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws relating to statements regarding the Company's business, products and future of the Company's business, its product offerings and plans for sales and marketing, including with respect to the Company's expectations regarding its supply and distribution arrangements, ability to realize benefits from its recent contractual arrangements, its plans to continue to develop dispensaries in Puerto Rico, and its ability to obtain licenses in additional jurisdictions. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance and developments to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements depending on, among other things, the risks that the Company's products and plan will vary from those stated in this news release and the Company may not be able to carry out its business plans as expected, including, but not limited to, in relation to executing on and maintaining its supply and distribution arrangements and recent contractual arrangements, in relation to developing dispensaries in Puerto Rico, and its ability to obtain licenses in additional jurisdictions. Except as required by law, the Company expressly disclaims any obligation and does not intend to update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information in this news release. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct and makes no reference to profitability based on sales reported. The statements in this news release are made as of the date of this release. The CSE has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the content of this press release SOURCE: Chemesis International Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/592410/Chemesis-International-Inc-Reports-Q3-2020-Financial-Statements RAMSEY, N.J., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Arcline Investment Management ("Arcline"), a growth-oriented private equity firm with $1.5 billion of committed capital, today announced that it has acquired a controlling stake in Glebar Company ("Glebar" or the "Company") from management shareholders, led by Chairman and former CEO Adam Cook, as well as the electrochemical grinding ("ECG") assets of Everite Machine Products ("Everite") from Eureka Equity Partners. Glebar designs, manufactures and services turnkey micro machining, centerless grinding and electrochemical grinding systems used primarily in the production of medical guidewire and minimally invasive surgical components, as well as in aerospace, consumer and other industrial applications. The Company is the original equipment manufacturer and supplier of consumables, replacement parts and repair and maintenance services to its installed base of systems. Glebar's headquarters and primary manufacturing facility is located in Ramsey, New Jersey. The Company also has ECG manufacturing operations in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Pennsauken, New Jersey, following its recent acquisitions of Tridex Technologies and Everite, which bring decades of experience and technological leadership designing and manufacturing ECG solutions, as well as extensive installed bases to which the combined Company provides aftermarket parts and services. Arcline commented, "We are excited to partner with Glebar management and to continue the Company's focus on maximizing its customers' return on investment and throughput in the production of increasingly complex components used in minimally invasive surgery, aerospace and other mission-critical industrial applications. We are committed to investing both organically in the Company's engineering, technology, and aftermarket service capabilities, as well as through acquisitions such as Everite, to continue to build Glebar into a leading, full-service provider of innovative process improvement solutions for its customers." Mr. Cook stated, "As the owner of Glebar, I focused on finding the right partner for the Company and the management team to continue building on what we started. We chose Arcline because of their growth mindset, passion for building market-leading companies, and reputation for doing what they say. I am excited to watch the value creation that the partnership between Glebar and Arcline will create for its customers, stakeholders and employees." Glebar CEO Robert Baker added, "We are excited for the next chapter in Glebar's nearly 70-year story and thank Adam Cook for his commitment to employees and the success Glebar has experienced under his tenure. As we move forward, we know our future with Arcline is bright as their deep experience with our business model and in our markets make them a great fit as we look to aggressively grow the business over the coming years." Piper Sandler acted as financial advisor to Arcline. Cowen acted as financial advisor to Glebar. About Arcline Investment Management Arcline is a private equity firm with $1.5 billion in committed capital, investing in niche, market-leading companies that we are passionate about growing. We approach investments from multiple perspectives but share a single vision to identify and unlock the breakout potential in our companies. While we are deliberately sector generalists, some of our primary interest areas include Industrials, Technology, Life Sciences, and Specialty Chemicals. www.arcline.com Contact Information: [email protected] (415) 801-4570 www.arcline.com Contact (For Press Inquiries Only): Julie Oakes Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher (212) 3554449 SOURCE Arcline Investment Management Related Links http://www.arcline.com Austria moves to turn Hitler's birthplace into a police station: Austria presented an architectural plan to turn the house where Adolf Hitler was born into a police station in the hope of "neutralizing" the space and ensuring that it does not attract neo-Nazis. After decades of debate about what to do with the building, in the town of Braunau am Inn on the border with Germany, Austria carried out a compulsory purchase in 2017 and said last year that the site would be turned into police offices so that it "will never again evoke the memory of National Socialism." The renovation is expected to be completed by early 2023 at a cost of 5 million euros, or $5.6 million. Oregons state parks have begun to reopen, but the agency that manages them is now hurting for money amid the economic collapse caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department announced Tuesday that it will lay off 47 full-time employees by June 30, in addition to the 338 seasonal staff that will not be rehired this year. Parks officials said the number of layoffs could change before the end of the month, and did not specify which positions will be cut. Seasonal employees who work in the field have already borne the brunt of staff reductions: only 77 of 415 seasonal positions have been filled for 2020. The source of the staff reduction is an estimated $22 million budget shortfall between now and next June, due to the economic collapse caused by the coronavirus pandemic, officials said. Unlike other state agencies, the parks department is not funded by tax dollars but by a trio of separate revenue sources: Oregon Lottery funds, camping and parking fees, and RV registration fees. Oregon state parks closed to the public at the end of March, just before Gov. Kate Brown announced her stay-home order that closed most businesses across the state. Lottery funds subsequently reduced dramatically, while park fees were down to zero. Its a gut punch, weve never been through anything like this before, parks spokesman Chris Havel said. This just shows what happens when you kick not just one, but two legs out from under a stool, it tips over. The layoffs will translate to reduced services at day-use sites and campgrounds across the state, including trash collection, restroom cleaning and maintenance. Those are cuts that visitors to newly-reopened parks have already experienced, Havel said. Starting in May, day-use park sites began to reopen with limited services across the state. On June 9, several popular campgrounds will also reopen, with online reservations starting Wednesday, June 3, at noon. That will provide some revenue to the parks department, but its not expected to be enough. That means some facilities, and even some parks, might remain closed for the foreseeable future. Havel said the parks department is not planning on reopening every park site this spring, though he declined to specify which parks would remain closed or for how long. Visitors to Oregon state parks had become accustomed to finding clean restrooms, campground showers and running water, but parks officials now caution that those amenities should not be counted on. People are asked to bring their own water, hand sanitizer and toilet supplies, and to be as self-sufficient as possible, just in case. We dont know what kind of service we can offer over the next year, Havel said. It could change, we could see a recovery in revenue that allows us to provide more service, but we could equally see a decline in revenue. One way visitors can help support the state parks department is to simply use fewer of its resources, he said. Packing out your own trash, bringing your own water, using your own hand sanitizer or even toilet paper means less of a cost for the department. But there are also long-term costs to keep in mind. Maintenance projects like ruptured water lines, out-of-order restrooms or damaged trails will need to be shelved, Havel said. Two major projects on the Oregon coast will be put on the back burner: a new campground at Fogarty Creek and long-awaited trail repairs at Ecola State Park. With the budget shortfall, layoffs and lack of seasonal hires, there simply are not enough resources to care for state parks completely, officials said. Oregons parks havent been in such dire straits since the early 1990s, when the parks department was cut off from the Oregon Department of Transportation and left to fend for itself. Officials faced the closure of some 60 state parks before voters approved parks funding through the Oregon Lottery. Theres still a chance funding could increase in 2020, but with so much uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, the parks department isnt betting on it. We accept that theres a lot of things that are out of control, Havel said. We truly dont know not just what the next six months look like, but the next one to two years. For now, officials are focusing on taking care of the staffers who will face layoffs at the end of the month, when crowds will begin to stream into day-use areas and campgrounds across the state. This is a heartbreaking time for our agency family, both for those who face a heavy workload as we roll into summer and for the dedicated professionals we have to release from service, Lisa Sumption, state parks director, said in a news release Tuesday. Well do everything we can to help them land on their feet. With support from Oregonians, the agency will rise to this challenge and adapt. --Jamie Hale; jhale@oregonian.com; 503-294-4077; @HaleJamesB Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. (Newser) Hong Kong's leader has defended China's new national security law blocking secession, subversion, terrorism, and foreign interference in the city while accusing the US of a double standard. "For some countries that have had a high-profile response and claimed they will take action, I can only describe them as upholding double standards ... [They] value very much their own national security, but are biased in viewing ours," Chief Executive Carrie Lam said Tuesday, per the South China Morning Post, before singling out the US. She said local governments in the US were approaching anti-police protests from a very different position "compared to the stance [the US] adopted when almost the same riots happened in Hong Kong last year," per Reuters. President Trump had offered his support for pro-democracy protesters in the city. story continues below On Monday, Trump promised to unleash an "overwhelming law enforcement presence" on US streets until the violence had ended. As protests over George Floyd's killing erupted in cities across the US over the weekend, Trump vowed to revoke Hong Kong's preferential treatment as a separate territory. This came days after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo concluded Hong Kong was "no longer autonomous" from mainland China. Protesters fear the new law will disrupt the "one country, two systems" framework in place since 1997, meaning a loss of freedoms. But Lam said the former British colony is facing increasing security issues and foreign pressure, with residents "living in fear," per the SCMP. While draft legislation isn't yet available, Lam said Beijing's assurances that the law will not affect autonomy and judicial independence are "very reassuring." (Read more Hong Kong stories.) An independent autopsy that found George Floyd died solely from asphyxiation could actually bolster the defence of the former Minneapolis police officer charged with killing him, legal experts said. The autopsy released on Monday said Floyds death, which sparked nationwide protests, was a homicide and that he had no underlying medical conditions. Later on Monday, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner released details of its autopsy findings that also said Floyds death was a homicide caused by asphyxiation but that he had possible underlying health conditions and intoxicants in his body that may have been contributing factors in his death.. On the surface, the independent autopsy would seem to bolster the prosecutions case against Derek Chauvin, the police officer who knelt on Floyds neck for several minutes before he died last week. But legal experts said it could do the opposite by creating confusion in the mind of the jury. It will be part of the defence strategy to say they cant even get the cause of death right, said Gerald Lefcourt, a criminal defence attorney. The independent report was prepared for the Floyd family by Dr. Allecia Wilson of the University of Michigan and Dr. Michael Baden, who has worked on several high-profile murder cases. Graphic video footage showed Chauvin, who is white, pressing his knee into Floyds neck. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, gasped for air and repeatedly groaned: Please, I cant breathe, while bystanders shouted at police to let him up. Chauvin was charged on Friday with third-degree murder and manslaughter. He has been fired from the Minneapolis police department. The video reignited an outpouring of rage that civil rights activists said has long simmered in cities across the country over persistent racial bias in the U.S. criminal justice system. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who is leading the prosecution, is not obligated to use the independent autopsy or introduce it as evidence at trial. Dan Alonso, a former chief assistant district attorney in Manhattan, said the prosecution wouldnt be doing their job if they ignored it. Former prosecutors and defence attorneys told Reuters that Chauvin faced a very difficult case given the strong video evidence. If prosecutors introduce the independent report, the defence could seize on the conflicting autopsies to create questions in the jurys mind about the cause of death. Under U.S. law, prosecutors must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Introducing the report would also allow the defence team to cross-examine Baden and use his long history of work in celebrity trials to cast him as a hired gun, according to defence attorneys. This report created a lot of ammunition for a defence team to use in a criminal case or a subsequent civil case, said Paul Callan, a former New York prosecutor. We are now, as one TD said, in crunch time in government formation talks. Many of the more complicated issues housing, agriculture, and emissions had been moved back to allow negotiations be held against a backdrop of cohesion and with the programme for government in shape to be completed. But with the so-called easier negotiations having taken place, there is still much work to be done, especially with Taoiseach Leo Varadkars hard deadline of the end of June now looming into view. Over the weekend, TDs remained optimistic that a deal could be done, but that optimism has waned somewhat as greater gaps in the positions of all three parties have appeared. Sources say there is no reason to believe a deal wont be agreed, but the time to find a balanced programme, that will be passed by all three memberships, is running out. TDs and officials due to attend the talks are now preparing for a long week of discussion of issues that would have been difficult even before a global pandemic sent shockwaves through our economy. It is now clear that the differences between the parties are not just differences of opinion on the minutiae of policy: There are fundamental ideological differences between all three parties. Nowhere are these fault lines more clearly crystallised than in the Green Partys suggestion of a cap on the profits of private developers building on public land. Many will see the idea as perfectly reasonable if the land belongs to the State, it isnt outlandish to suggest that whatever project is built comes at a set value for money. However, the idea is anathema to some in Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. This issue alone is not an insurmountable gap between the parties, but, at its core, it underlines that these parties are trying to reach a consensus when their manifestos, approaches, and personalities differ hugely in places. There is some suggestion that the flare-ups of tension over the long weekend could be familiarity breeding contempt these long negotiations have been stilted because of the two-hour limit on meetings. Those hopeful of seeing a deal agreed will remain so, but comments from Fine Gael figures dont inspire confidence. There is no way this can work: The Greens arent up to it, one minister told the Irish Examiner. I cant really talk about the Greens without trashing them, said another. That kind of language isnt uncommon in politics. Indeed, it is more polite than some of the language that is commonly used. However, it is also not the kind of language politicians use about people with whom they are expected to lead a country for the next five years. That the parties differ is not revelatory. Their differences were interrogated in a general election in February. But now those differences have been brought into sharp focus and they could prove to be the difference between a new government and a second election. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- There are no shortages of fresh mozzarella, sausages and other Italian specialties on Staten Island thanks to the boroughs Pastosas. Going forward in the pandemic, the three operations continue to evolve with new hours and procedures. The Eltingville Pastosa -- 3817 Richmond Ave., 718-356-4600; pastosa.com -- will reopen to the public on Tuesday, June 9. Hours at that time will be Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Right now there is curbside pickup with one-day in advance ordering. The last day of that format will be Saturday, June 6 for Sunday, June 7 pickup. Said Danny DeRosa of the Eltingville Pastosa, We took a break from walk-in shopping when the number of cases of people infected with the virus was reaching its peak. While waiting for the numbers to decline, we still did our best to serve the community by providing a contactless, curbside pickup system. With doors shut for the moment, theyve overhauled the store. We took apart the store top to bottom, cleaned and disinfected every refrigerator, every shelf and every piece of equipment in our store. We greatly appreciate all of the support and kind words weve received while providing the community with this new service. But we are eager to return to a more normal way of conducting our business, said DeRosa. The Pastosa crew in Eltingville George Montedero, co-owner of the Concord Italian specialty shop -- 1076 Richmond Rd.; 718-667-2194; pastosa.com -- established hours during the pandemic from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday and Sundays from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Patrons must come into the store and are allowed in with masks and social distancing. Those hours will stick going forward until further notice. - Pastosa in Concord features prime meat and aged steaks. PastosaPastosa Montedoro is ready for the Fathers Day rush with extra beef in the inventory. We have tomahawk steaks, T-bones, porterhouses and a good deal of meats ready for the grill," he said. He also features Peter Luger burgers plus skirt steak burgers, sliders and gourmet hot dogs. Aged beef at Pastosa in Concord The Pastosa of West Brighton -- 764 Forest Ave., pastosa.com; 718-420-9000 -- had closed briefly in April. It will reopen with new hours that are still in effect Tuesday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The store will shut indefinitely on Mondays for cleanup and sanitizing. Curbside orders are welcome. It works out great. You call in the morning youll get the same-day -- extra large orders would be the next day, said Vincent DAntuono. The shopkeep is proud of his quality meats from his main purveyor, Allen Brothers. He also carries Thumanns hot dogs which, DAntuono said, have become one of the biggest sellers in the store during the pandemic. He also makes customer meat patties. I make burgers right in front of you with whatever you want in them, said DAntuono. He also carries fresh fish plus prepared seafood and meat-centric dishes that are heat and serve. From left, Rev. Terry Troia, and Vincent DAntuono and his dad, Vincent DAntuono Sr. of Pastosa Ravioli, West Brighton. (Courtesy Pastosa Ravioli) Pamela Silvestri is Advance Food Editor. She can be reached at silvestri@siadvance.com. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Hugo Greenhalgh (Reuters) London, United Kingdom Tue, June 2, 2020 09:05 598 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb6b275 2 People family,LGBT,LGBTQ,transgender,gay,abuse Free Family members are often the main perpetrators of abuse against lesbians, bisexual women and transgender people, according to a major global report published on Monday. The study of 24 countries by Britain's leading LGBT+ rights organisation Stonewall found participants in Zimbabwe in particular were more likely to suffer violence from relatives than from strangers. More than half of the people in the southern African nation who took part in the two-year "Out of the Margins" project said they had experienced physical abuse at the hands of family members. In Venezuela, all of the trans men who were surveyed reported attacks by relatives. Mothers in Venezuelan families were cited as the main aggressors by 71 percent of bisexuals and 48 percent of lesbians. Dima, a respondent to the report in Russia's Chechen Republic who did not give his surname, told the researchers that a lesbian friend of his was killed by her husband's relatives when they found out she was gay. "Out of the Margins", which also conducted reports on nations including Trinidad and Tobago, Montenegro, Burundi and Peru, found "striking levels of discrimination and violence against trans children and young people in schools". Read also: LGBT+ visibility builds acceptance, research finds The report noted that many people in Burundi had been unable to complete their education after being thrown out of their homes because of their sexuality or gender identity. One respondent from the African country told researchers she was forced "to quit school because I couldn't find money to pay my school fees" after her mother ordered her to leave home due to being involved in a same-sex relationship. "Out of the Margins" examined the global situation across Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and Central Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean from the perspective of five of the 17 United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Focusing on health, economic well-being, education, personal security and violence, and civic and political participation, the report uncovered significant issues, particularly in terms of economic inequality and access to healthcare and education. Alexandra Hernandez, executive director of Peru-based LGBT+ rights group Mas Igualdad (More Equality), said trans and non-binary people - who do not define themselves as male or female - faced discrimination and violence in the Andean country and elsewhere in Latin America. "For lesbians and bisexual women, (reports of) sexual violence were particularly high," Hernandez told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone last week. Topics : family LGBT LGBTQ transgender gay abuse Jennifer Aniston had five wonderful years of marriage with Brad Pitt. Despite that, however, she still experienced the biggest regret of her life with the actor. Late last year, Jen and Brad sparked romance rumors after they publicly interacted multiple times during the 26th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in the U.S. On one of the pictures posted by The Hollywood Reporter, the 56-year-old "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" actor was "affectionately" watching Jen as she delivered her acceptance speech. Nonetheless, Jen was quick to debunk the news and rejected the concept of the two getting back together during the event's red carpet. Interestingly, what she said right after their separation might be the perfect explanation why she keeps brushing off the idea of her and Pitt getting back together. In September 2005, Jennifer sat for an interview with Vanity Fair following her split from Brad. Jen opened up how she dealt with tabloid rumors and the struggles she faced since the breakup. In one part of the discussion, she honestly admitted that though she was happy falling in love with Brad, she regretted "giving so much of herself" in the marriage. "There's a lot I would probably do differently," Jen said at the time. "I'd take more vacations-getting away from work, enjoying each other in different environments. But there was always something preventing it; either he was working or I was." She added that she loves taking care of people so much. However, she was not aware that she already lost herself as she always put his needs before hers. Because of what happened, the actress blamed herself for the unhealthiest relationship she ever had. And amid all the negative emotions she felt, Jen pledged that time that she will never let herself down "like that" again. Aniston BETTER After Divorce Although she learned it the hard way, Jen discovered that she could see peace in being alone. Part of her transition included moving into a new place at Malibu and decorating it the way she wanted to. "I'm enjoying simplifying things... Brad and I used to joke that every piece of furniture was either a museum piece or just uncomfortable," Aniston recalled. "He definitely had his sense of style, and I definitely have my sense of style, and sometimes they clashed. I wasn't so much into modern." Ever since she started living on her own, she is enjoying her life to the fullest, especially since she finally got to have "a comfortable couch for herself." After Brad, Jen married Justin Theroux in 2015 and moved in their Los Angeles home after they started dating in 2011. However, on February 15, 2018, Jennifer announced her split from Justin. "In an effort to reduce any further speculation, we have decided to announce our separation. This decision was mutual and lovingly made at the end of last year," the ex-couple said in a joint statement through Associated Press. Currently, both Brad and Jen are single again, but they are not showing any signs of relationship reconciliation at all. Eric Walters had an idea on April 22. Forty-one days later, that idea is a book. This is not the way things usually work in publishing; between writing and editing and designing and printing, it can be years before copies digital or physical are on the shelves of your local or virtual bookstore. But necessity is the mother of invention the necessity in this case being a desire to help kids during a pandemic and give a boost to a small publisher whose sales, like other publishers, have dropped during a pandemic. Heres how it happened: As COVID-19 closed schools for a few weeks, and then months, Walters says he began to get emails from teachers, students, librarians. They wanted to know when he was going to write a pandemic book. I was just saying I dont think Im going to be doing that at this point, says Walters. Hes known for being prolific: hes got 115 novels and picture books to his name, and almost as many awards. But the emails kept coming, and teachers kept saying kids they knew didnt understand elements of what was going on. They were confused. So, on April 22, he figured out a way to tell it, in a book aimed at middle grade kids aged 9 to 12. What I was trying to do, says Walters, is not just entertain, but educate. On April 23 he phoned up Andrew Wooldridge at childrens book publisher Orca Books. My first thought with Eric is almost always yes, says Wooldridge. He has lots of ideas and he really does know the market. So when he had this thought, I thought, definitely, well give it a go and see what happens. And on April 24, says Walters, I started writing. After a week of 14-hour days at his computer, standing to eat while he walked around the room, he turned in a first draft of around 18,000 words. Heres the story: The kids at Switzerland Point Middle School find out school is closing because of COVID-19. Their teacher, Miss Fernandez, takes great pains to explain how social distancing works, how the virus spreads, and so on. The kids, with main character Quinn, live through social distancing, holding Zoom classes, making masks and trying to figure out how to deal with the looming cancellation of the spring dance. He handed it in and handed it out to a group of beta readers at the same time. Normally, a book can take several rounds of editing to get a book to where it should be. In this case, it was a much more severe edit right away, says Wooldridge. The editor made her suggestions, Walters made the changes. The beta readers, too teachers, students, librarians were getting back with their feedback on the book: what they thought the kids were doing and saying, what videos they were watching and music they were listening to. One of those readers was Kristen Badger. Shes a library media specialist in Florida, at Switzerland Point Middle School. Sharp readers will notice the name of her school is the same as the school in the book. I know after other big events that have occurred like Hurricane Katrina or even 9/11 it took several years for there to be fiction books about those events, she said in an interview. And to have a book so recent and current, its amazing. Im wondering if its going to change the writing and publishing industry ... because people realize that they can actually help kids at the time instead of looking back. Badgers daughter, Maddie, is in Grade 8, just like the kids in the book and was also one of Walters beta readers. There was one comment she had, notes Badger. One of the characters talked about her future career and how she wanted to become a (doctor) and my daughter commented that she didnt really think that was necessary. That bit stayed in, but Walters said he did change dialogue and a few names based on some of the feedback he received. Keep in mind: this all happened with the first eight or nine days of the book being turned in. The team was also working at home so there werent a lot of group meetings, Wooldridge says. It was mostly by email although the marketing team, designers and editors did meet on Zoom a few times. The idea of this being a digital-first book (a print version will be released in the fall) also speaks to some of the challenges facing publishers right now. With booksellers closed to all but online sales, revenues are down. As print sales have largely collapsed, we have seen renewed interest in ebooks and digital content, says Wooldridge. And so, this becomes an interesting project an interesting experiment in nimbleness, pivoting and offering something in a way that wasnt possible before. This is an interesting project, says Wooldridge. It began because we have such difficulty right now actually reaching the market with print books. Our timeline can (normally) be so long because we send out review copies, were trying to get the review attention before the book comes out. You need to get the data together, which is a much bigger process than it used to be in terms of all the information that has to go out to all of our partners so theyre able to list the book and make it available for sale. While not all writers are able to do this, Walters decided not to ask for an advance, and hes asked Orca to delay when they actually pay him any royalties. When he does get paid, hes donating a portion of the proceeds to Lakeside Hope House in Guelph. I want this book to help support the company ... I want this book to help them through a difficult time and for them to be able to pay other writers during this time, he says. Now, 41 days after inspiration first hit, Dont Stand So Close To Me is for sale in digital form in virtual bookstores across North America with a pricing structure that allows for individual ($7.99), classroom license ($29.99) and school license ($59.99) purchases. And, in this process, what Walters might also have done is given kids hope. Knowing that theyre going through the same thing as the characters in the book. And knowing that, Badger points out makes them feel that theyre not alone. If were all in this together, thats a good place for a book to be. Daksha Devnani writes stories about life, traditions, and people with uncompromising courage that inspire hope and goodness among humanity Robb Forman Dew, whose carefully etched novels of family life made her, as one critic put it, one of our premier chroniclers of the everyday, died on May 22 in Springfield, Mass. She was 73. Her son John said the cause was complications of endocarditis, a disease that affects the heart. Mrs. Dew made a splash in 1981 with her first novel, Dale Loves Sophie to Death, about a woman who returns each summer with her children to her hometown in Ohio. Katha Pollitt, reviewing it in The New York Times, acknowledged that some readers might be put off by its unhurried pace. In a way, though, she wrote, I respect Mrs. Dew all the more for risking our impatience in order to tell her story her own way, and for forcing us, by her own considerable talent, to listen and admire. It takes a certain artistic courage to write the traditional novel of domestic feeling today, a novel with no violence, no million-dollar deals, no weird sex and perhaps as much editorial courage to publish it. Dale Loves Sophie won an American Book Awards citation for first novel. The honors are now known as the National Book Awards, although Mrs. Dew was careful to note that her distinction was for a first novel, not for the more prestigious best fiction. Assystem acquires Corporate Risk Associates Paris-La Defense, June 2 2020, 5.35 p.m. (CET) - Assystem S.A. (ISIN: FR0000074148 - ASY), an international engineering group, has acquired 100% of the shares in Corporate Risk Associates (CRA), one of the largest teams of Risk, Safety, Operations and Human Factors consultants in the UK, recording revenues of 3.7 million (4.1 million) in its financial year ended 31 March 2020. This acquisition will significantly enhance Assystem's offering in risk and safety management consultancy across the entire nuclear plant lifecycle, as well as supporting its work in the defence, transport and infrastructure markets, where CRA has significant UK-based experience. CRA will gain access to Assystem's projects across the world such as supporting the development of nuclear power plants in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, as well as the work supporting the development of the world's largest nuclear fusion prototype ITER. CRA will also support the development of major infrastructure projects in France and the Middle East, becoming an integral part of Assystem's growth ambitions. CRA will retain its UK operating base, and all of its current team of employees, as part of the move. Christian Jeanneau, Senior Vice President of Nuclear at Assystem said: "We are delighted to announce that CRA will now become part of Assystem. Their expertise and strong reputation in the delivery of safety case consultancy will significantly enhance our offer to our customers operating across the nuclear plant lifecycle and in the transport and infrastructure market. The integration of CRA is a key part of our growth strategy to strengthen and develop our offer supporting company owners for their licensing process, as well as providing support in setting-up a Design Authority Consultancy Organisation." Jasbir Sidhu, Managing Director of CRA said: "This merger is very exciting news for CRA and Assystem. Over the last year, CRA have been actively engaged with Assystem, understanding each other's company culture and values. Early on, we realised that our culture and values are aligned. We invest significantly in our human capital and although Assystem is a large corporate body it maintains a family feel to the organisation, an important core value. We both have ambitious growth plans - we genuinely believe that our combined offering will be second to none in the marketplace. I am fully energised by this merger and am looking forward to continuing the CRA journey within Assystem - there is plenty to do, achieve and accomplish ahead for us all." ABOUT ASSYSTEM Assystem is an international engineering group. As a key participant in the industry for over 50 years, the Group supports its clients in managing their capital expenditure throughout their asset life cycles. Assystem S.A. Is listed on Euronext Paris. For more information please visit www.assystem.com Follow Assystem on Twitter: @Assystem @AssystemUK ABOUT CRA CRA is one of the largest integrated teams of Risk, Safety, Operations and Human Factors consultancies in the UK, with a reputation for supplying high quality and value-for-money services to a broad range of safety-critical industries, thanks to its multi-disciplinary team with wide-ranging experience. CRA's clients operate in both the private and public sectors and play a key role in the UK and international economies. For more information please visit www.crarisk.com / Follow CRA on Twitter: @tweetcrarisk CONTACTS Philippe Chevallier CFO & Deputy CEO Tel.: + 33 (0)1 41 25 28 07 Anne-Charlotte Dagorn Communications Director acdagorn@assystem.com (mailto:acdagorn@assystem.com) Tel.: + 33 (0)6 83 03 70 29 Agnes Villeret Investor relations - Komodo agnes.villeret@agence-komodo.com (mailto:agnes.villeret@agence-komodo.com) - Tel.: + 33 (0)6 83 28 04 15 Attachment Total SA (NYSE:TTE) is one of the world's largest integrated oil companies. However, you wouldn't know it from some of its recent acquisitions in the utility space. The company isn't exactly looking to get out of the oil business, but it is attempting to prepare for an energy future that is very different from the one that exists today. Here's what investors should make of its purchase of electricity assets from Energias de Portugal. Oil is still important The world needs oil and natural gas, which is something that most major integrated energy companies agree on. The two fuels are so integrated into the world's energy needs that it will take a material amount of time to dislodge them. ExxonMobil, for example, has noted that it took 100 years for oil to take over from coal as the world's most important energy source. And coal is really only just falling to the wayside as renewable power sources become more economic. Royal Dutch Shell, meanwhile, has explained that even if news headlines are negative about oil and natural gas, the world is still demanding these energy sources. As such, companies like Exxon, Shell, and Total will still need to drill for them. And while the oil sector is highly cyclical, the near-term ups and downs don't change the long-term picture -- which, as peer Chevron has pointed out, is what integrated oil giants focus on most. However, that doesn't mean that any of these integrated energy giants is ignoring what is an obvious, if slow, shift taking place in the world today. Electrification is definitely here to stay, and as the growing presence of electric vehicles around the world highlights, the shift is going to be a net negative for oil companies. Electricity is the future One of the ways that large energy companies have been dealing with this transition is to invest more in natural gas. This fuel is used extensively in the generation of electricity, partly because it is cleaner than coal but also because it is increasingly cost-competitive with the dirtier fuel. This is the main approach that Exxon and Chevron have taken, effectively sticking with what they know best. They are basically shifting things underneath the surface but doubling down on their core. Shell and Total have taken a more aggressive approach, looking to invest directly in electricity-related assets. Shell, for example, owns things like renewable power generation and auto-charging networks. Total, meanwhile, made a splashy electricity-focused bet, paying $1.8 billion in 2018 to buy Direct Energie, a European utility company. This added to other assets, but was a fairly sizable move to gain scale in the company's core European market. The company just augmented that purchase with the acquisition of 2.5 million customers and two gas-fueled power plants from Energias de Portugal in mid-May of 2020. Once completed, the company expects to have roughly 8.5 million utility customers in Europe. That puts it well on its way to achieving its 2025 goal of 10 million customers. This move follows the company's February acquisition of 2 gigawatts of solar power development projects in Spain. However, that isn't the only country in which the company is inking renewable power deals. Since February it has started an offshore wind project in the United Kingdom, acquired a gigawatt worth of onshore wind assets in France, and expanded its solar footprint in France. Total even adopted a "net zero" emissions goal for 2050 earlier in the year. Net zero is a pretty ambitious target for a company whose core business is drilling for oil and gas. But all of the moves it is making on the electricity side of the portfolio are key to the long-term future management is laying out for the business. The use of the term "net" is important, too, because it means that the pluses and minuses on the emissions front will total zero -- not that the company will stop emitting greenhouse gases. In fact, even in the net zero announcement, Total highlighted that it planned to remain an integrated oil giant, albeit one with a material presence in the electricity space. It described itself as a "broad-energy" company. There should be no questions about what Total is looking to do at this point. Total's First-Quarter 2020 Net Operating Income (in billions) Integrated Gas, Renewables & Power $0.9 Exploration & Production $0.7 Refining & Chemicals $0.4 Marketing & Services $0.3 For the company as a whole: $2.3 What's particularly interesting is that the company's integrated gas, renewables & power division made up roughly 40% of net operating income in the first quarter -- so in some ways, the shift toward electricity is well under way. Of course, that number has to be put in context: Oil prices are painfully low today, which is depressing the results of the other businesses the company operates. When oil prices recover, these divisions should see revenue and earnings move sharply higher. But strength in the integrated gas, renewables & power division today just goes to show the benefit of the diversification effort management is working on. The long-term view For energy investors who believe that oil is important but under a material threat from cleaner energy sources, Total could be a good way to invest in the energy space. The company isn't giving up on this core business, but it is looking to use oil as a foundation from which to expand into a new area. And it is taking sizable steps that are already showing up in its results. In the down-and-out energy sector, Total looks like an interesting way to pick up an out-of-favor name that's actively working to ensure it has a long-term future. Things have changed. On that, we can all agree. But will they be forever changed, especially regarding the use of technology in K-12 education, once school buildings reopen after the coronavirus pandemic subsides? The answer is just beginning to emerge as school districts begin crafting their strategies for what teaching and learning will look like for the 2020-21 academic year and beyond. Consider the case of the Joliet public schools, a K-8 district in Illinois. In 2018, it began piloting a 1-to-1 computing program for its 6th graders. Until then, students across the district had been using laptops stored in shared carts that never left the school building. The plan had been to begin providing the students with devices they could take home and keep until high school, so that within three years, all students in grades 6-8 would have take-home devices. Students felt more ownership of the devices than they did previously because they knew theyd get to keep them through middle school, said Theresa Rouse, the districts superintendent. It was a really good plan and it was working really well, Rouse said. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. It became crystal clear that many elementary students would need take-home devices during state-mandated school closures. The districts technology team quickly set to work cleaning, repairing, and updating classroom devices for home use. That process took almost a month. Now, all students in grades 2-8 have their own devices at home, and the district is hoping to procure even more for youngsters in kindergarten and 1st grade. Those devices, and the round-the-clock learning they can facilitate, wont evaporate once the imminent COVID-19 threat has passed. What will come out of this is an acceleration toward using more and being more confident and competent using digital tools, said John Armstrong, the districts director of technology and information services. A Higher Level of Digital Savvy Despite widespread frustrations with the downsides of remote teaching and learning, many teachers are seeing how online learning can make it easier to move students in the same class at different paces and provide one-on-one feedback for struggling students, when theyre not all in the same physical space. Plus, students are getting more opportunities for independent, self-directed learning, and the emphasis during COVID-19 has been more on projects and completion than assessments that demonstrate aptitude. The question is whether those approaches will continue and maybe even expand once school buildings reopen, or whether teachers will revert back to the ways they used technology to teach before school buildings were shut down. Tips for More Effective Ed-Tech Strategies To build more effective ed-tech strategies for the 2020-21 academic year, experts say schools should use five key approaches. They range from looking to early tech adopters for guidance to preparing for a range of scenarios. Look to early adopters of technology within your school district or others for guidance on how to proceed. Carefully evaluate technology tools to ensure theyre appropriate for classroom use and meet student data-privacy guidelines. Survey teachers and families to find out how they are using technology both at home and in school buildings to determine whats working and what could be improved. Think creatively about how remote learning might be applied in your district even when its no longer mandatory, such as for extending the school day or offering more summer school learning opportunities. Prepare for a range of scenarios for the use of technology next school year, including the possibility of rolling unexpected school closures or social-distancing requirements that limit school buildings occupancy. The net on this is at least, lets just say everything goes back to normal, weve got a lot of teachers that received a lot of training on how to use digital content, said Antonio Romayor, the chief technology officer for the El Centro Elementary school district in Southern California. But how much will the traditions that define the American school experience change to accommodate new technology, and a much higher level of teacher tech skills, once the dust settles? The answer will depend largely on some of the same factors that perpetuated inequities before the coronavirus: access to resources and professional-development opportunities; willingness and capability to experiment; support from federal and state policymakers to rethink long-standing conventions; and a willingness to invest in transformation. While pondering the future may not be the first priority during an unprecedented crisis, it may be necessary from a technological perspective. Public-health officials have warned of a possible resurgence of COVID-19 cases this fall, and the specter of the virus will loom until a vaccine is widely available. Seventy percent of educators who responded to an EdWeek Research Center survey in early May said theyre already planning for multiple reopening scenarios for the fall. It seems prudent, if youre a district leader, to be planning for the possibility that sometime in school year 2021, or multiple times, youre going to have to close for one, two, maybe three weeks at a time, said John Watson, the founder of Evergreen Education Group, a K-12 digital learning research and consulting firm. School leaders who work with Evergreens Digital Learning Collaborative have told Watson theyre preparing for a significant percentage of parents who dont want to send their kids back to the physical school. New PD Approaches Emerge Brian Toth, the superintendent of Saint Marys Area public schools in Pennsylvania, has long been a proponent of technology as a classroom tool. Until recently, though, he had no way of knowing how many of his districts 2,000 students would be able to access assignments from home. That all changed when his team sent a survey at the start of the pandemic, asking every family in the district to share the number of devices and the quality of internet accessif anyin their homes. To his surprise, more than 98 percent of families respondeda marked increase over any similar survey the district had previously sent. We were very pleased to find out that we had a lot more connectivity in households than we thought we did, Toth said. In some cases, families with multiple children needed extra devices so their students werent competing for them. Toth sees online learning as an opportunity for students to learn on their own time for any number of reasons, whether they have to care for younger family members or take a part-time job during the day to help cover family expenses, or because they simply prefer doing schoolwork outside typical school hours. One high school principal told him a majority of students have been turning in assignments and answering emails between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. If that fits better for kids to do that, whats wrong with that? he said. This fall, regularly scheduled professional development for teachers will for the first time include sessions on online instruction, Toth said. Hes expecting more students to request online options even once the pandemic ends. And he foresees far more virtual staff meetings and education conferences in the future. Even those who were scared to death of doing something online, theyre going slow with it and theyre seeing some wins, Toth said. Lessons Learned Teaching remotely has prompted Megan Mullaly, who teaches 6th grade English and social studies at Dartmouth Middle School in San Jose, Calif., to provide more specific feedback to students than she normally would, because students arent often hearing from her otherwise. Looking ahead, she envisions continuing to offer flipped instruction, in which students complete assigned readings on their own time and then conference with her for discussion, even when its no longer required. It takes hard work and practice, though. Alexandra Griffith, an English teacher at Oshkosh West High School in Wisconsin, has adopted a more personalized approach during remote learning than she has ever used before. Her students are currently writing memoirs. Some grasp the concepts of writing a memoir more easily than others. In person, Griffith wouldnt be able to pull aside a single student for extra help without slowing down or neglecting the rest of her students. Now, if I notice a kid is really struggling to understand one of the concepts thats necessary for memoir writing, I can stop them from moving on to other assignments while other students proceed, Griffith said. She hopes states will begin to relax regulations around seat time and instructional days, shifting instead to focus more on measuring quality learning that promotes mastery as evidence of a childs academic progress. For a number of reasons, many districts may need to continue offering remote teaching and learning opportunities for some educators and students even if state-mandated closures have lifted. For example, teachers and students who have underlying health conditions, such as asthma, may choose not to return to school buildings until the pandemic has passed. That is a scenario many districts are eyeing right now. But ongoing remote learning will present challenges for some districts more than others, said Justin Reich, an education researcher and the director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technologys Teaching Systems Lab. Districts that have already identified successful practices this spring will be able to replicate them going forward, but others will have to admit, Yep, that didnt work, he said. At least a few teachers in almost any school have the aptitude and the disposition and life circumstances to be able to do a bunch of innovative things right now, Reich said. Struggling schools with limited resources should look to those early adopters for lessons learned that they might replicate, he said. Brian Seymour, the director of instructional technology for the Pickerington school district in Ohio, echoed Reichs concerns about making sure all teachers get the help they need whether they are teaching remotely or in physical classrooms in the fall. Those teachers that have embraced the tech training, and all of the different programs and platforms that we have in the regular classroom, have been very successful in a digital classroom, but others are lagging behind, he said. Educational Technologists Dream Rick Ferdig, a professor of educational technology at Kent State University, is excited by the potential for the increasing use of technology over the past several months to bring about long-lasting changes in instructional practices. But hes also worried that schools will overinvest in new technologies without having a solid instructional plan in place. I know some really good districts that are doing very well with low amounts of technology because they have a deeper understanding of pedagogically supporting students, he said. Still, Ferdig describes the current K-12 landscape as an educational technologists dream. That is especially the case for schools that have the technology resources available to try new approaches but have not yet had compelling reasons, until now, to do so. He is looking forward to seeing what emerges from that kind of experimentation over the next year. But many educators are skeptical that the technologies used during closures will transform teaching. In a Consortium for School Networking survey of more than 500 K-12 tech leaders conducted last fall, more than half of respondents said their staff isnt large enough for helping teachers implement technology. School budgets are likely to tighten further this fall. Schools will have to get creative. Sal Pascarella, superintendent of Danbury public schools in Connecticut, believes schools have learned important lessons this spring on using online learning to bridge equity gaps, like creating opportunities to extend the school day and opening more remote summer school options. He sums up what many in education feel: It certainly has caused us to change in a way that would have taken a longer time to change mindsets had we not had the virus. WESTBROOK Happenstance and curiosity led 29-year-old Evan Honeyman to the surprise discovery of an object believed to be more than 1,000 years old: a chiseled stone that offers a window to a time when humans honed their wits to hunt for food. On Memorial Day, the Farmington man was visiting his parents beach house in Westbrook and ventured out for some exercise, breathing in the fresh air as he made his way along the beach. Honeyman, a director of business development at a consulting firm, often uses the opportunity to clear his mind, something he likes to do as often as he can. When he visits, Honeyman makes it a point to walk the shoreline a couple times a day, picking up discarded items, such as deflated balloons, water bottles and old fishing line: trying to get it off the beach and out of the ocean. He was on his way back to his parents home when something caught his eye. Washed up on Quotonset Beach on Long Island Sound was an artifact experts date between 1,000 and 6,000 years old. A big wave had pushed something right in front of my feet, said Honeyman, who quickly picked it up. Something in his gut told him the chiseled stone was a notable find. Let me get it confirmed first before I get too excited, he told himself. Honeymans first thought was he had discovered an arrowhead, so he turned to an archaeologist in town, Gary Nolf. Hes been called the modern day Indiana Jones. He has a huge collection of artifacts dating back 10,000 years. He sent pictures of the 1-inch piece to Nolf, who confirmed it was authentic. Next, Honeyman reached out to the State Archeologist Sarah Sportman for a second opinion. She agreed with Nolf, and provided some historical context to his discovery. He contacted his alma mater, and consulted Bentley University Dean of Arts & Sciences Rick Oches, who arrived at the same conclusion. The experts placed the artifact at between 2,000 and 3,000 years old, and possibly composed of basalt, rhyolite or mudstone. As he spoke to each one, his excitement grew, Honeyman said. People often find things that wash up on the beach for various reasons, Sportman said, one of the reasons being that our shorelines are more inundated by water than they were at different times in the past, so a lot of archaeological spots are actually underwater. Those areas that would have been land are now underwater. The object could have been used as a spear or an arrow or anything that required a sharp point, she said. They were kind of like a multi-tool because it was a sharp end so you could cut things with them or scrape things with them. People used them for a lot of different things. Honeyman, who studied New England Native American culture for many years, acknowledged a lot of people wouldnt be as interested as he is about the stone, but, for me, Ive always wanted to discover an arrowhead or spearhead or something of that nature. Ive never been lucky enough, he said. It only fuels my curiosity even more. Honeyman was told it was likely the tip of a spear, although of the features have been eroded. It could have been in the ocean for a couple hundred years, if not a couple thousand. Its possible it was buried on land before all those houses went up. It could have been taken into the ocean. The bow and arrow didnt come into this area until 1,500 years ago, so thats relatively new, Nolf said. So not everything you find are arrowheads, more so what you find are spear points used with what we call an atlatl. An atlatl is a weapon designed to hurl a 5- to 8-foot spear that dates back to sometime about 15,000 years ago. When Honeyman first picked it up, he experienced a surreal feeling, he said. I may have been the first person to hold it in maybe 2,000 years. Its possible no other human touched it besides the person who actually carved it, he said. In my gut, I knew this was something different from anything else Id seen before, he added. Had I been five minutes earlier five minutes later the ocean could have easily pulled it back out or pushed it back in. Honeyman plans to reach out to the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven for further guidance. He would like to keep it in the family, and place it in a shadow box frame for display. Its such a reminder of our beginnings. His find isnt necessarily a unique one, but Honeyman now feels an extra special connection to nature, something he found in a tiny relic of Connecticut history. Because its so exciting for me, I hope it helps other people, Honeyman said. If it encourages just a few people to go for a walk in the woods or on a trail around the beach, help clear their minds. Maybe theyll find something, he added. Who knows? Reporting by Shoreline Times correspondent Sarah Page Kyrcz contributed to this article. Lea Michele has been fired by HelloFresh in the wake of her former Glee co-star Samantha Ware claiming she made her life a 'living hell' on set. The recipe kit delivery company revealed its decision to no longer work with the actress, 33, while responding to a Twitter user on Tuesday who suggested it should cut ties. The company wrote: 'HelloFresh does not condone racism nor discrimination of any kind. We are disheartened and disappointed to learn of the recent claims concerning Lea Michele. Backlash: Lea Michele has been dropped by HelloFresh after allegations she bullied a castmember on the Glee set in 2015 (this is the last ad Lea posted for the brand on May 20) 'We take this very seriously, and have ended our partnership with Lea Michele, effective immediately.' Lea's former castmate Samantha Ware, who played Jane Hayward on the show, made the claim on Monday that the actress made her life 'a living hell' on-set - even once threatening to defecate 'in her wig.' Lea, who played Rachel Berry on the show, took to social media on Friday to pay tribute to George Floyd. 'George Floyd did not deserve this. This was not an isolated incident and it must end' she wrote. Effective immediately: HelloFresh revealed their decision when responding to a tweet by someone who called for them to cut ties with the actress Mean girl? Lea's former Glee co-star Samantha Ware claimed the actress made her life 'a living hell' on-set - even once threatening to defecate 'in her wig (Lea, pictured left in character as Rachel Berry, Samantha, pictured right in character as Jane Hayward) Ware, who appeared in 2015 in the show's sixth season, swiftly hit back, 'Remember when you made my first television gig a living hell?!?!... 'Cause I'll never forget... I believe you told everyone that if you had the opportunity you would 's*** in my wig!' amongst other traumatic microaggressions that made me question a career in Hollywood.' Alex Newell, Amber Riley and Dabier Snell - who all co-starred in 'Glee' - reacted to the tweet in support of Samantha. Tough times: Michele played the role of Rachel Berry (back row) on the show's six seasons, getting nominated for an Emmy and two Golden Globe awards with the part Alex and Amber shared gifs, with Alex posting the 'Get her, Jade' meme from Drag Race, while Dabier wrote: 'GIRL YOU WOULDNT LET ME SIT AT THE TABLE WITH THE OTHER CAST MEMBERS CAUSE 'I DIDNT BELONG THERE' F**K YOU LEA (sic).' Community actress Yvette Nicole Brown showed her support for Samantha by writing: 'I felt every one of those capital letters.' And Alex replied: 'Felt like claps!!' Lea, who is currently pregnant with her first child, posted her most recent ad for HelloFresh on May 20. Statement: The leading lady, 33, took to social media on Saturday to pay tribute to George Floyd and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement Remember me? The message was met with an acerbic response from Samantha, 28 Shortly after Ware's accusations went viral, Lea's pal and Scream Queens co-star Ariana Grande, as well as her Glee co-star Keke Palmer unfollowed Lea on Instagram, suggesting that the accusations against the actress carry weight. Amber Riley, who played Mercedes Jones in the through all six seasons, shared two GIFs of herself, one raising her hand, while the other sipping tea, caused a stir among fans who saw it as a subtle way of the actress chiming in. In fact, fans began to beg Riley to tell her side of the story, with one saying: 'Speak your truth you and @NayaRivera were right all along!!!! Yet you were dragged!' Meanwhile, Alex Newell, who starred as Unique Adams on series for four seasons, wasn't so subtle - and began replying to fans about the drama. 'We ain't got not a damn thing to lie about 6 years later!' he replied to one fan who suggested they were making false accusations about Michele's behavior. He also added: 'I'm gonna say this one time... when my friends goes through something traumatic I also go through it... that's what friendship is...' 'And if you can't understand that then you're part of the problem... and that's on PERIODT! And I mean that for both sides of this coin!' Actor Dabier Snell, who appeared in an episode of the show, retweeted one of Ware's tweets, and responded, saying: 'GIRL YOU WOULDNT LET ME SIT AT THE TABLE WITH THE OTHER CAST MEMBERS CAUSE 'I DIDNT BELONG THERE' F--K YOU LEA,' Shortly after Ware's accusations went viral, Lea's pal and Scream Queens co-star Ariana Grande, as well as her Glee co-star Keke Palmer unfollowed Lea on Instagram He also wrote: 'I try to bring good vibes and create content for ppl to laugh and enjoy! Seeing her message brought back bad memories of being less than on set of glee. Aint goin stand for her being fake like she care.' Actress Yvette Nicole Brown who did not star on the show, also chimed in and gave her support to Ware. 'I felt every one of those capital letters,' the Community actress tweeted. 'EVERY person on a set matters. EVERY person on a set deserves respect. And it is the RESPONSIBILITY of every series regular to make EVERY person who visits their home feel welcome. This dismissive attitude is whats wrong in Hollywood AND the world.' This week Supergirl star Melissa Benoist, who appeared on Glee with Lea liked a series of posts describing star's bullying and abusive behavior toward castmates. Not so subtle: Glee's Amber Riley posted this GIF of her raising her hand, amid rumors that Lea Michele was less than kind to work with on the Ryan Murphy show Not happy: Community star Yvette Nicole Brown, who did not appear on Glee, also voiced her opinion In agreement: Alex Newell, who starred as Unique Adams on series for four seasons, wasn't so subtle - and began replying to fans about the drama. Ouch: Actor Dabier Snell, who appeared in an episode of the show, did not hold back Staying out of the matter: Kevin McHale, who played Artie Abrams from the show's debut, swerved a response when asked about the controversy on Twitter Prior to getting the covered role of Supergirl and her alter ego Kara Danvers on The CW series, the Littleton, Colorado-born Benoist appeared on Glee's fourth season playing a character named Marley Rose. She sang a duet with Michele on the series. Benoist - who has used her social media to focus on the Black Lives Matter movement amid ongoing societal upheaval in the wake of the killing of George Floyd - liked tweets from Samantha Ware, who broke her silence about Michele's behavior on Tuesday. She also pressed the heart button on tweets from Glee's Alex Newell and Amber Riley that essentially endorsed the spirit of Ware's sentiments. The latest: Supergirl star Melissa Benoist, 31, who appeared on Glee with Lea, liked a series of posts describing star's bullying and abusive behavior toward castmates Meanwhile, back in 2011, Hailee Steinfeld, now 23, revealed how Lea made her cry on the Paramount lot. She told J-14 magazine: 'When I was auditioning for 'True Grit', I was on the Paramount lot. I was wearing clothes from the 1800s that were big and uncomfortable. Glee' also films on the lot and I love that show... 'I saw Lea Michele just walking to her trailer, and I was like, ''That's the girl from 'Glee'. I've got to go ask for her autograph!' 'So I walked up to her and asked for her autograph, but she walked by and a guy came and said, 'Sorry, now's not a good time!' I was so sad! I was practically crying on the way home.' Expecting: Lea is expecting a child with her husband, businessman Zandy Reich Michele, who is expecting a child with her husband, businessman Zandy Reich, 37, played the role of Rachel Berry on the show's six seasons, getting nominated for an Emmy and two Golden Globe awards with the part. Ware was on the show for 11 shows in 2015 in its sixth season. Her career has flourished with turns on shows such as What/If, Chicago Med and God Friended Me. MailOnline has contacted representatives for Lea for comment. Oh dear... Four years ago, former Glee star Naya Rivera said Michele brought ego, tension and hostility onto the set with her Four years ago, former Glee star Naya Rivera said Michele brought ego, tension and hostility onto the set with her. In her 2016 book, Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes and Growing Up, she wrote: 'If I'd complained about anyone or anything, she'd assumed I was b****ng about her'. In the tome, Naya said Michele eventually stopped speaking with her altogether. 'She started to ignore me, and eventually it got to the point where she didn't say a word to me for all of Season 6,' Rivera said, 'Lea and I definitely weren't the best of friends, and I doubt we'll ever sit on her couch and eat kale together again.' Tough times: Meanwhile, back in 2011, Hailee Steinfeld, now 23, revealed how Lea made her cry on the Paramount lot Piling on: Another actor who starred on GLEE, Dabier Snell, also chimed in claiming Michele did not let him sit at the table with other cast members Interesting:Transgender NYC nightlife star Linux TheRobot was an extra on Glee and said Lea was a 'tyrant' Bookstores across the United States are showing support for the nationwide protests over police violence against African-Americans in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis by a police officer who has since been arrested. Some stores are offering material support for the protests by opening their doors to provide safe haven or first aid; most store owners have asked for discretion, lest they become targeted for violence, looting or raids during the protests. Loyalty Books in Washington, D.C. and Silver Spring, Md. used their Bookshop.org site to promote a list of recommended antiracism titles, a service several other stores, such as BookPeople in Austin and Raven Bookstore in Lawrence, Kan., have also provided. WORD Bookstore, with locations in Brooklyn and Jersey City, N.J., is donating a portion of book sales this week to The Bail Project, which is fighting mass incarceration. At Libro.fm, the audiobookstore, the bestseller list is dominated by antiracism titles. In response to a request from author David Epstein, Libro.fm donated 20 copies of Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi so Epstein could them away to readers. In addition, Epstein purchased 20 copies of Kendi's How to be an Anti-racist to give away as well. Kendi himself contributed an antiracist reading list to the New York Times. The Key Bookstore, which describes itself as "an Afrocentric interactive online bookstore," published a white ally reading list and encouraged readers to show their support for the protests by buying from black businesses. Noelle Santos, owner of The Lit. Bar in the Bronx, N.Y., tweeted, "My team collectively asked me if I would fire them if they got arrested for protesting. I can't emphasize enough how important black business ownership is today." As noted in a recent article on BookPost, the Black Stone Bookstore in Ypsilanti, Mich. posted to their Facebook page, that their bestselling titles for the week include, How to be an Antiracist, as well as White Fragility by Robin Diangelo; Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad; So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo; and The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. "This bestseller list is a sign of hope for humanity, and at the same time, not nearly enough," the owner Carlos Frank added. Social media has encouraged supporters to buy their books from black-owned bookstores. Among the stores that have been referenced are: AfriWare Books in Maywood, Ill.; Ashay By The Bay in Vallejo, Calif.; Eso Won Books in Los Angeles; EyeSeeMe Bookstore in St. Louis, Mo.; Hakim's Bookstore in Philadelphia Harriett's Bookshop in Philadelphia; ; Mahogany Books in Washington, D.C.; Semicolon Bookstore in Chicago; Sisters Uptown in New York City; Source Booksellers in Detroit, Mich.; Source of Knowledge Bookstore in Newark, N.J.; Turning Page Bookshop in Goose Creek, S.C. and Uncle Bobbie's Coffee & Books in Philadelphia. (See PW's developing list of black-owned bookstores.) Marcus Book Stores in Oakland, Calif., the oldest independent black-owned bookstore in the country, is in the midst of a $200,000 GoFundMe campaign and has seen a number of recent donations given in the name of George Floyd or Black Lives Matter. The campaign has so far raised more than $144,000. The African American Literature Book Club, which opened in 1997 and claims to be the oldest online black bookstore, offers numerous resources, including interviews, a listing of book festivals, links to bookstores, and information about 13,000 titles. And Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis, which is next door to the police precinct where the protests that have now swept the nation first erupted, has posted on its website a petition that the Minneapolis City Council "divest" from the police department by defunding it and provide funding instead for community-led initiatives. Last week, when protests raged outside the store, Moon Palace staff provided protesters with free pizza, let them use store bathrooms, and set up a medic area and a supplies drop off hub in the store's parking lot. This article has been updated with additional information. KYODO NEWS - Jun 2, 2020 - 21:29 | World, All, Coronavirus Elementary, junior high and high schools in North Korea have resumed classes since Monday after a monthslong-closure over the new coronavirus pandemic, a state-run newspaper reported Tuesday. Other facilities, such as nursery schools, kindergartens and nursing homes for the elderly, are also about to restart their operations, according to Minju Choson, the official Cabinet newspaper of North Korea. As the virus outbreak may be dealing a crushing blow to the country's economy, North Korea appears to be trying to bring social and economic activities back to normal as fears of an explosion in infections are apparently receding, foreign affairs experts say. North Korea has cut off traffic to and from China and Russia for more than four months following the virus spread, making it more difficult for the nation to procure daily necessities and other commodities, a source familiar with the situation in Pyongyang said. The total volume of China's trade with North Korea has plunged 90 percent at least for two months through April. Beijing is known as Pyongyang's closest and most influential ally in economic terms and North Korea depends on China for over 90 percent of its trade. While North Korea has claimed to have zero cases of infection within its borders, citizens in Pyongyang have been wearing protective face masks in public places. North Korea's authorities have remained on guard against the pneumonia-causing virus, urging workers at commercial facilities to measure their body temperature and calling on restaurants to use delivery services more frequently, Minju Choson said. Recently, North Korea has resumed some exports, but air and rail services between the country and its two neighbors are likely to be suspended for an extended period. Foreigners living in North Korea have been stranded there. Britain has temporarily closed its embassy in Pyongyang since last Wednesday and its diplomats left North Korea for China by land. North Korea is believed to be vulnerable to infectious diseases against a backdrop of chronic shortages of food and medical supplies triggered by international economic sanctions aimed at thwarting Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile ambitions. In the past, North Korea barred foreigners from entering the country during the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2014. The new coronavirus that causes the respiratory disease COVID-19, first detected late last year in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, has infected more than 6.2 million people globally and killed over 375,000, a tally by Johns Hopkins University showed. The Kaneshie District Court has remanded into Police custody a 50-year-old cargo agent who lodged at a hotel from January 11 to May 21 this year and later issued dud cheques to cover his bills. Michael A. Gyasi denied issuing the two dud cheques of the Access Bank. He will be brought back to the Court on June 24. Police Inspector John Baidoo told the Court presided over by Madam Rosemond Dodoa Agyiri that Mr Kofi Agyare, a receptionist of the AMPAQX Grand Hotel is the complainant. He said the accused, a cargo agent at the Tema Harbour on January 11 this year, went and lodged at the hotel located at Asylum Down in Accra. Inspector Baidoo said the daily charge was GHC150.00, and his bill accrued to GHC19,000.00 as at May 21. He said Gyasi then paid GHC8,350.00 and afterwards issued two separate cheques of GHC1,700.00 and GHC2,000.00 for the outstanding balance but the cheques were dishonoured when presented at the bank. The Prosecution said this led to his arrest and after he was cautioned, he was arraigned. ---GNA In partnership with Delivering Good a nonprofit organization that unites retailers, manufacturers, foundations and individuals to support Americans affected by poverty and tragedy Banana Republic will donate clothing to a variety of partner organizations in states that have been most impacted, including Hour Working Women Program in New York, Central City Neighborhood Partners in Los Angeles, Family Focus Englewood in Chicago, among others. This donation will help people as they build a brighter future. "During this unique moment in history, it's more necessary than ever to work together to support one another, especially those in need," said Mark Breitbard, Head of Banana Republic and Gap Inc. specialty brands. "As America faces historic unemployment rates, Banana Republic Will Work for a Better Republic, helping Americans get back to work by providing confidence through clothing they can wear for interviews and in different work environments, including working from home." "By supporting Delivering Good, Banana Republic is helping men and women across the US, including those facing poverty, homelessness, and job loss," said Delivering Good President & CEO Lisa Gurwitch. "Among our network of more than 700 community partners, we will focus this donation on nonprofits with workforce training and re-entry programs and markets that have been especially affected by the current crises. This donation will have such a positive impact on men, women and disadvantaged young adults." This donation is the latest in Banana Republic's ongoing efforts to support its communities and be the change, together. Banana Republic believes we are stronger together and better together. WE belong. We believe in a world of equality and opportunity, for everyone. Banana Republic, along with Gap Inc. brands Athleta, Gap and Old Navy, have come together to donate $250,000 to support the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and EmbraceRace to fight for equal rights. The Gap Foundation also previously announced a $1 million donation to local, state, national and international non-profit organizations to support underserved families during the coronavirus crisis. Banana Republic and the Gap Inc. family of brands will continue to support Americans in need. In addition, parent company Gap Inc. has leveraged its supply chain to connect hospital networks with millions of critical personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline healthcare workers in response to COVID-19. Banana Republic's first reusable face mask was sold in benefit to Feeding America's COVID-19 Response Fund. This is just the beginning of how the brand Will Work for a Better Republic and is dedicated to doing more than selling clothes. About Banana Republic @bananarepublic Banana Republic is a global apparel and accessories brand focused on delivering modern, versatile pieces designed for a life with no boundaries. Curious, connected, and out in the world, Banana Republic provides a wardrobe of favoritesclothing, eyewear, jewelry, shoes, handbags, and fragrancesall made for a life in motion with the finest materials and fabric innovations. Founded in San Francisco, Banana Republic is located in nearly 600 company-operated and franchise retail locations worldwide. Visit www.bananarepublic.com for more information. About Delivering Good @deliveringgood The national charity Delivering Good helps people impacted by the challenges of COVID-19 by providing new, essential products donated by manufacturers and retailers. Delivering Good has 35 years of crisis experience and a network of more than 700 community partners to distribute the donations to low-income and disadvantaged individuals and families. This new merchandise can provide hope, dignity and self-esteem to families and individuals, especially for people facing poverty, homelessness, job loss and more. Learn more at www.Delivering-Good.org. SOURCE Banana Republic Related Links http://www.bananarepublic.com [June 02, 2020] Integra Technologies Wins $3 Million Contract Award From Northrop Grumman Integra Technologies, a world leader in semiconductor packaging, assembly, test, characterization and related services, was awarded a $3 million contract from Northrop Grumman (News - Alert). Integra Technologies' Wichita manufacturing facility will utilize upwards of one hundred current employees to service the new order. Integra Wichita will supply the value-added services required for the components to properly function for their final destination in military applications. "The technologies being utilized by our troops are becoming more advanced each and every day," said Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) "Wichita-based Integra Technologies is leading this charge. Integra's ability to manufacture and test military-grade microelectronics within the confines of our nation's borders helps our military accomplish its missions while decreasing our reliance on foreign supply chains. I applaud Integra and the many Kansans who work there as they support our nation's warfighters." "Integra Technologies has over 35 years of experience in developing sophisticated and comprehensive solutions for our customers. Our experienced Engineering and Operations groups look forward to working with Northrop Grumman to provide superior workmanship, and customer service. I also wan to thank Senator Moran for making sure the U.S. military has the needed funding to engage with industry so we can develop and manufacture this new enhanced technology. We are proud to support Northrop Grumman and the U.S. military by making sure they have access to U.S. manufactured state-of-the-art technology," said Brett Robinson, President and CEO Integra Technologies. With the new Northrop Grumman contract and over 290 active aerospace and defense customers, Integra's 250 Wichita employee owners are working at full capacity to meet customer demands. Integra Technologies remains strong during the COVID-19 pandemic with no employment reductions, salary reductions or reduction in regular business hours. About Senator Moran Senator Moran serves on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and plays a vital role making sure the Department of Defense is provided with the funding to procure the most advanced military technology systems for the warfighter. About Integra Technologies Established in 1983, Integra Technologies, LLC, is a solely U.S.-based and employee owned company with DMEA accredited Category 1A Trusted. Integra is one of the largest, most experienced semiconductor die prep, assembly, test and qualification facilities in the United States with locations in Wichita, KS, Silicon Valley, CA (News - Alert), and Albuquerque, NM. The company's world-class operations have been satisfying customers for over 35 years by demonstrating industry leading quality and on time delivery performance. Implemented in 2018, the Go-To-Market strategy (GTM) has positioned Integra Technologies as the leading single-source to the Aerospace and Defense, Space, semiconductor and medical customer. For more information, please visit https://www.integra-tech.com/. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005685/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Piyush Goyal interacts with the captains of the Pharmaceutical industry and Associations The Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal interacted with the captains of the Pharmaceutical industry, and Office-bearers of the Pharma Associations, through the Video Conference recently. The meeting was attended by the Ministers of State H.S.Puri and Som Parkash, Secretaries of the Department of Commerce, and Pharmaceuticals, and Officers from Departments of Commerce, Pharmaceuticals and Health. During his interaction, Goyal lauded the pharma industry for making India proud, by rising to the occasion during the Covid crisis. He said that India has been recognized as the Pharmacy of the World, as over 120 countries got some essential medicines, during the last two months, including 40 of them getting them in the form of grant, free of cost. He said that during the crisis, the officials of DGFT, MEA, Health and DoP burnt midnight oil to ensure that the export consignments are delivered at the earliest. The whole world appreciated Indias gesture, and this has swelled Indias goodwill and reputation. He said that India had adequate production capacity and abundant stock of HCQ and PCM for its projected domestic requirements, and putting restrictions on their exports was to ensure that the medicines are made available to all the needy nations, and no unscrupulous element stocks them for unwarranted gains. The Pharma industry received accolades from the Minister for their extra-ordinary performance, in ensuring that the Country did not face any type of shortage of medicines during this period. Goyal said that early announcement of the Lockdown helped the country in preventing and containing the scourge of pandemic, and also scaling up the health infrastructure and build capacity, besides generating awareness among the people about the precautions and preventive measures. He said that India has set an example, under the able guidance and leadership of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in being pro-active in management of Covid-19, and also following it up with welfare and relief packages for mitigating its consequences. Goyal assured the industry that the Government will fully support the industry in its expansion, diversification and strengthening. He said that the industry has an important role to play in the Aatamnirbhar Bharat campaign. The country should become Aatmanirbhar in APIs as early as possible, as the government has taken a number of steps in this regard. It has already approved the scheme on Promotion of Bulk Drug Parks for financing Common Infrastructure Facilities in 3 Bulk Drug Parks. Also, Production Linked Incentive Scheme for promotion of domestic manufacturing of critical KSMs/Drug Intermediates and APIs in the country has been given a go ahead. The Minister said that anti-dumping investigation process has been expedited. The Minister said that in case of ongoing bilateral FTAs, if any roadblock or unfair competition is being noticed, the Government may be informed and prompt remedial action will be taken. He said they should look at large untapped market in Eastern Europe and Russia. Calling upon a collaborative route in the R&D efforts, Shri Goyal said the Academicians, Universities, ICMR and private sector should join hands. Informing the gathering that the Government has decided to disinvest in certain Pharma PSUs, the Minister invited the Indian companies to use PSUs for plug and play model of manufacturing. The Minister assured the industry that all suggestions presented in the meeting will be quickly examined and wherever required, the inter-ministerial consultations will be completed at the earliest. Representative Image (Reuters) The novel coronavirus pandemic has hit the technology sector very hard. According to the latest industry research report from Gartner, global smartphone shipments declined by 20.2 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of the year. Samsung, Huawei, Apple, and OPPO, four of the top five smartphone brands in terms of market share, saw a sharp decline in their sales figure. While Apple witnessed a smaller decline by 8.2-percent as compared to other brands, Chinese device maker Xiaomi was the only brand to record a growth in this quarter. However, other top OEMs, including Samsung, Huawei, and Oppo saw the percentage of dropped shipments slump into the double digits. Brand Q1 2020 (Units) Q1 2020 (Market Share) Q1 2019 (Units) Q1 2019 (Market Share) 1Q 2020-1Q 2019 (Growth) Samsung 55,333 18.5% 71,621 19.1% -22.7% Huawei 42,499 14.% 58,436 15.6% -27.3% Apple 40,920 13.7% 44,569 11.9% -8.2% Xiaomi 27,817 9.3% 27,424 7.3% 1.4% OPPO 23,949 8.0% 29,589 7.9% -19.1% Others 108,621 36.3% 143,279 38.2% -24.1% Total 299,138 100% 374,917 100% -20.2% Samsung, Huawei, and Oppo saw the biggest declines in the Q1 2020. Despite having the worst decline of all the top five brands, Huawei still managed to maintain its second position. Anshul Gupta, senior research analyst at Gartner, said, Huawei will have a challenging year. It has developed the Huawei Mobile Service (HMS) ecosystem, but with the lack of popular Google apps and Google Play store, Huawei is unlikely to attract new smartphone buyers in international markets. Despite its declining sales figures, Apple still managed a relatively strong quarter as compared to the other brands. Oppo, Huawei, and Vivo were faced with supply constraints and store closures due to the early impact of the virus in China. The declining trend is expected to continue through the second quarter in 2020 as the pandemic hit several major markets towards the end of Q1 2020 and continued for more than a month in the second quarter. STORY LINK Pound to Norwegian Krone (GBP/NOK) Exchange Rate Falls on Bright Outlook for Norways Economy GBP/NOK Exchange Rate Sinks as Norwegian Economic Outlook Brightens Pound (GBP) Falls as UK-EU Brexit Talks Renew GBP/NOK Forecast: Could a Weaker-Than-Expected UK Services PMI Send the Pound Tumbling? Like this piece? Please share with your friends and colleagues: The Pound to Norwegian Krone (GPB/NOK) exchange rate rose fell by -0.4% today, with the pairing currently trading around 11.98kr.The Norwegian Krone (NOK) has benefited from growing signs that Norways economy is picking up. This follows reports that Norways coronavirus infection and death rates have remained low, allowing the economy to recovery.Kjersti Haugland, chief economist for DNB Markets, said that Norwegians have reacted very differently and that [c]onsumers feel confident that they dont really face economic ruin. Thats good news for the economy as a whole.Goldman Sachs analysts commented:[Norways] demographics and domestic medical infrastructure make it better equipped for the outbreak than many other countries, and its strong fiscal position puts it at a distinct advantage.Meanwhile, growing oil prices have also boosted optimism in Norways economic strength going forward. With Norway being one of the worlds top seven exporters of crude oil, todays growing prices of crude oil have further strengthened hopes for the economy.The Pound (GBP) fell against the Norwegian Krone (NOK) despite renewing UK-EU Brexit talks. As a result, some Sterling traders are optimistic that the UK may ask for an extension to the transition period beyond 31st December.However, the UKs economic situation has continued to drag on the Pound after it was revealed that UK consumers are set to repay a record 7.4 billion o debt in Covid-19 lockdown.Laura Suter, a personal finance analyst at AJ Bell, commented:The lockdown has created a divide in the country, with some households seeing cuts to income, job losses or being furloughed, while others are seeing their finances benefit from an enforced halt to much of their spending.This followed a record plunge in spending in April as people stayed indoors.Today also saw the release of the UK Nationwide Housing Prices figure for May, which fell below forecasts from 0.9% to -1.7%.The EY Item Club said in its statement:Housing market activity is likely to be limited in the near term Many people have already lost their jobs, despite the supportive government measures, while others will be worried that they may still end up losing theirs once the furlough scheme ends.Norwegian Krone (NOK) investors will be looking ahead to Fridays release of Norways Manufacturing Output data for April. Any signs of improvement in Norways manufacturing sector would prove NOK-positive.Sterling traders will be awaiting tomorrows release of the final UK Services PMI for May. However, if this falls below consensus and shows a weakening in the UKs largest sector, we could see the GBP/NOK fall deeper. International Money Transfer? Ask our resident FX expert a money transfer question or try John's new, free, no-obligation personal service! ,where he helps every step of the way, ensuring you get the best exchange rates on your currency requirements. TAGS: Norwegian Krone Forecasts Pound Norwegian Krone Forecasts Vodafone Foundation has donated Personal Protective Equipments (PPE) to the La Dade-Kotopon Municipal Assembly (LaDMA) in line with its commitment to help the country combat the global pandemic. The donation was in response to a call made by the Assembly to support its on-going COVID-19 awareness campaign, which includes the distribution of nose masks to residents, drivers, traders and market women within the various communities in La. Speaking at the presentation ceremony, Head of Vodafone Ghana Foundation and Sustainability, Mr. Amaris Nana A. Perbi, said the donation is part of Foundations support in the fight against COVID-19 The donation is one of the many initiatives from Vodafone as part of our commitment to help the country combat this global pandemic and minimise its impact on Ghanaians and businesses. Since the outbreak, the Foundation has donated PPE including protective gowns with shoe covers, face shields, boxes of N95 facemasks, disposable tissues and surgical gloves as well as thermometer guns to various hospitals across the country. Similar presentations will be made to two key hospitals in the Ashanti and the Upper West regions this week, he said. Mr. Perbi added that the Foundation has launched its pioneering Healthline Medical Call Centre to help provide guidance and dispel the misinformation out there about COVID-19. The Vodafone Healthline Medical Call Centre is open daily from 8am to 8pm and can be accessed by simply dialing 255 from any Vodafone or MTN number. Fifty medical doctors, who have been trained in partnership with the Ghana Health Service to offer expert advice on the pandemic. Again, Vodafones Big Data initiative, which is in partnership with Ghana Statistical Services (GSS) and the Flowminder Foundation, is helping government understand peoples movements to help contain the virus. Our e-learning platform (www.instantschools.vodafone.com.gh) continues to provide free access to a wide range of educational materials for Ghanaian students. This covers English, Science, Math and a variety of other subjects, he said. We will continue to support the fight against this pandemic with unique initiatives that address the countrys specific needs, he concluded. The Reverend Solomon Kotei-Nikoi, Chief Executive of LaKMA, lauded Vodafone Ghana for its continuous support to the public and their timeliness in rendering assistance to their corporate partners. Nose masks serves as one of the effective weapons to fight the pandemic, as such, the Assembly would ensure that they were used effectively to meet the needs for which they were requested. On his part, Mr. Daniel Nkrumah, the Municipal Coordinating Director of LaDMA, said one could not undertake his or her normal duties without nose masks hence the Assembly had provided members with 20,000 nose masks. He called upon other corporate bodies to complement their efforts in providing their community members with the nose masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video ARLINGTON, Va., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Tantus Technologies, Inc. (Tantus) today announced its recent Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract award to provide the District of Columbia (the "District") Information Technology (IT) Staff Augmentation and Support Services related to its Oracle Enterprise Resource Planning applications. Under this contract, Tantus will provide staff augmentation support related to a financial system implementation in the following service areas: Project Management, Change Management, Technical, Functional, and Testing. The District benefits from Tantus' record of success and lessons learned from multiple, large-scale, Oracle Financials systems implementations across government agencies, including Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Department of Education (ED), Health and Human Services (HHS), and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). "We look forward to supporting the District," said Tantus CEO, Buck Keswani. "Our team is organized to provide the right balance of strong management disciplines at the program level and extensive technical and Oracle Financial Management domain expertise at the team level." About Tantus Technologies, Inc. Tantus provides technology and business solutions to solve the federal government's health, financial, and transportation challenges. The company brings nearly two decades of experience collaborating with government to make "Our World Better," delivering solutions that span Artificial Intelligence, Agile, Human Centered Design, DevOps, Strategy Realization, Program/Project Management, and Cyber Security. Recognized by The Washington Post as a "Top Workplace" two years in a row, Tantus realizes its core value of "Do the Right Thing" with a robust community service program focused on improving the lives of children and young women diagnosed with cancer and other life-threatening medical conditions. SOURCE Tantus Technologies, Inc. As the voting in Montana's primary election wound down Tuesday evening, hints of tension permeated the air on the Missoula County Courthouse lawn, where demonstrators in recent days have been protesting the death of George Floyd. Floyd died last week when a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck, despite Floyd's pleas that he couldn't breathe, an incident that has touched off days of protests around the country and the world. At 8:30 p.m., the protesters who initially gathered in Missoula announced they were calling off the rest of the demonstration for the night. Counter-protesters remained, though, and more arrived with bulletproof vests and firearms strung over their shoulders. One man, Kolter Beneitone, described the group as "concerned citizens" looking out for people and businesses, referencing looting that has happened in some cities around the country, although not in Missoula. A handful of police remained a block away, with patrol cars and bicycles but allowed close-contact conversations to play out. Chanting eventually gave way to loud music pumping from one of the counter-protesters vehicles. The counter-protesters began to arrive late Tuesday afternoon, first in a couple of pickup trucks parked down the block from the protesters, waving large American and Trump campaign flags. Across the street, armed men stood outside a pawnshop. Organizers who had planned the rallies in recent days to protest Floyd's death walked to those waving flags and hoped to maintain peace, said Mahogany Howard, 19. Two Missoula police lieutenants who had been on scene earlier in the day arrived and assured demonstrators on both sides their right to protest was intact as long as they remained law abiding. Officers remained nearby later into the evening as those protesting Floyd's death began to leave the area. Both sides, when leaders spoke one on one, agreed they opposed a common evil: destruction and violence in the community caused by any protesters. An unfounded Facebook post published earlier in the day claimed antifa would descend upon Missoula at 6 p.m. Tuesday. That never happened, but served perhaps more as a bogeyman to stir up the demonstration. Earlier Tuesday, the demonstration was peaceful with protesters batting back one counter-protester and at one point joining with police for a photograph. Demonstrations around the country have continued to escalate in violence, from protesters torching buildings to police pepper spraying peaceful ralliers, as President Donald Trump on Monday urged governors to crack down on protesters. No reports have emerged of protests in Montana rising to any level of violence. "We have had one of the most peaceful protests, and I am so proud of that," Howard said. "We have to show why we should be respected." Tuesday's stalwart crew in Missoula started small, and grew through the morning to a crowd of 50 by noon. Howard had taken something of an informal leadership role over the crowd Tuesday, wielding a megaphone to build the tempo with chants and speaking calmly with people with raised tensions. At one point a man approached the demonstration while the protesters lay face-down with their hands behind their backs. "You're inciting violence!" the man hollered at them, a video camera in hand. Dozens leapt up from the ground and countered him at close range, chanting "Black Lives Matter" at him until he left. "This is free speech, you morons," he said as he turned away. Howard alerted the authorities, and two Missoula police lieutenants were on scene within a few minutes. They told Howard they would keep an eye out for the man, but asked if they could get a picture with the protesters before they left. As the crowd swelled around the two officers for a photo, a white woman chastised the crowd, calling the suggestion a "photo op." Howard stepped in to calm the woman, telling her, "I'd rather take a picture with them than be pepper sprayed by them." Montana law enforcement officials across the state on Monday denounced the actions of Derek Chauvin, the white Minneapolis police officer who was seen on video kneeling on Floyd's neck until a stretcher carried his limp body away. Helena Roche on Tuesday was among the small African American population represented at these Missoula rallies, bringing with her Addis, her 9-year-old daughter. She loves Missoula and its people, she said Tuesday, but added she has to be honest with her children about racism in the world. She has explained to them the details of Floyd's killing, and they know why it's important to rally here, Roche said. "It's very difficult sometimes to have these conversations" with her kids, she said. "I don't mention black and white, I mention what's right. It doesn't matter the color. America is great, we have to stand up for ourselves and support one another. That's why I'm here." "That was hard, but you see what's happening," Matt said through tears, waving an arm towards a small group of children dancing together. "That's a unity song." You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 19 Funny 3 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 5 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Mrin Agarwal It has been a month since the news of Franklin Templeton winding down six funds came out. In June, I have come across various new offerings like a rental yield fund, a bills discounting product and commercial real estate structure. The key thing highlighted in the marketing material of all these products is the returns of 12-20 percent that too it seems that these are guaranteed returns. These exotic products are peddled to high network individuals (HNIs) by wealth management firms and banks that market the exclusive and specially structured card to make clients feel that this product has been designed for people like them. Investors invest with a false sense of security that their money is growing but do not think about return of principal over return on principal. While there is no dearth of imagination on the side of the wealth management firm, if it is too good to be true, it is. What are these alternate investments? There are various types of market-linked debentures, alternate investment funds, bills discounting, partial investing in an under-construction property and so on. The most popular one currently is the market-linked debenture where the returns generated on the product are based on the movement of a particular index or set of securities, in a specific time period like 18 months to three years. These products supposedly offer principal protection along with gross returns ranging from 15-18% per annum. Within the alternate investment funds (AIF), there are different types of funds like real-estate funds, which invest in under construction property, or funds, which invest in commercial real estate for the rental yields. There are also AIFs that follow a credit risk strategy; these invest in companies that come with low credit ratings. And then, there are the traditional private equity funds. Then there is a real estate product where investors can invest partially in an under-construction property. Here an investor can invest Rs 10 lakhs in an apartment and exit after 18 months with a 16-18 percent return. This is literally like giving a short-term loan to the builder. Bills discounting has been around for a long time but now it is available through platforms, which essentially provide money to borrowers against invoices that they have raised on blue-chip companies. These platforms raise money from individual investors to lend out. There are many other alternate products, commodity-linked products etc. Problems with alternative investments These products are sold on the basis of high gross returns, but the investor return which is post-expenses (including profit share) & post-tax, barely beats regular mutual funds. AIFs typically have a profit sharing of 20 percent of the returns. One the earliest real estate funds ended up giving investor returns similar to a short-term debt fund. There was no point in locking in funds for 6-8 years and having a large part of the return go as profit share with the fund. Investors are inherently biased with real estate and hence do not question the ability of the AIF to get back monies. The risks in these products are very high and investors are not made aware of the same. With bills discounting there is a risk of default from the company, which was the case last year when Cox & Kings did not honour the invoices. With market-linked debentures, my observation has been that the funds raised are mostly used for the lending business of the firm, which is not known to investors. Essentially, the investor is lending money to the NBFC to lend out further. Most investors wouldnt do so and hence the MLD structure is brought in. The biggest issue that is plaguing any market today is liquidity and even if the borrower has good intentions, not being able to sell and generate cash is a problem. In such a situation, how would a MLD or a rental yield fund or a fund that buys under-construction property give back principal to the investor? And it doesnt look like the liquidity situation is going to get better soon. Further, there is not enough regulatory oversight and most of these investments are neither rated nor listed. Rating and listing means scrutiny by a third party and certainly some information in public versus the current black box. While rating itself is not enough (as we have seen the issues with rating), it serves as a sanitation check. Finally allocating large amounts to structured products leads to higher concentration risk for the investor and one default can have a significant impact on the portfolio. But don't some of the sales pitches claim that investments are secured and provide principle protection? Over the last two years, with successive defaults like IL&FS, DHFL, Essel etc., the much-touted covenants could not be implemented and legal recourse is long drawn. The covenants like pari-passu charge on assets, promoters guarantee, pledges shares etc. are taken to protect against delinquencies and to some extent show the borrowers intentions. However, physical assets have a long unwinding process and promoters guarantee cannot be enforced. Further, priority of the security also matters and banks that are senior lenders would typically have the first right on a security. Investors would be way down in the priority list. What should investors do? First, do not fall for pedigree. Even the largest private equity fund in the world is struggling to get back its investments in its lending business in India. Pedigree does not guarantee anything. Investors are in fact scared to even put a class action suit against influential firms. A real estate fund raised in 2006 by an influential real estate investor, close to Indias largest business group has not yet given any return and has neither paid back principal. No one wants to or has the time to take legal recourse against such firms, even though they have taken lousy investment decisions and have lost investors money. So much for their capabilities! Second, if you have invested in an alternate product, ask for returns calculation. I have seen wealth management firms giving out excel spreadsheets, which have no standing legally. Unless there is an audited report, do not believe in these spreadsheets. Third, given the heighted liquidity situation, what if you wish to redeem your investment? Relationship managers who peddle you such products or product manufacturers would most likely tell you tales about why this is not such a good time to redeem, markets are down, so lets wait etc. Investor should read up the exit clause and try to exit at the earliest. Four, before you invest in these products, evaluate how the fund makes the high promised returns. Recently, I came across an AIF, which invests into warehouses and is providing a net yield of 9.5% pre tax with an expected internal rate of return (IRR; a method to calculate returns consisting of uneven outflows and inflows) of 12-20%. As an investor, do you understand how warehousing works? With the performance-based expenses, what will the 20% gross return actually work out to? Probably 9-10% post tax. Is it worth investing with an unknown firm for an unknown opportunity for a 9% return? Similarly with market linked debentures, if they are so bullish on Indian stock indices, why not just buy a low-cost index fund instead of concentrating your investment in the non-convertible debenture of an unrated and unlisted non-banking finance corporation? Given all that one is hearing about related third-party transactions, it is not advisable to do so, especially since the funds raised are used to lend to lower category borrowers, who cannot avail loans from banks. Most structured investments are opaque and have high concentration risk. They have low liquidity, minimal regulatory oversight and the guarantees provided do not work. Finally the post expense, post tax return is not much more than what you can get in a mutual fund. Your best bet is to stay away. (The writer is a financial educator, money mentor and founder of Finsafe India) Four workers were killed and three others injured in an explosion in an opencast coal mine in Telanganas Peddapalli district on Tuesday, police said. The four were identified as Rajesh, Arjaiah, Rakesh and Praveen, who were in their 30s and were contractual workers. Investigators said a preliminary probe has revealed that explosive material used to blast stones in open cast mines went off accidentally. The blast is learnt to have occurred while fixing detonators in the holes, a police officer said on condition of anonymity. Peddapalli Parliament member Venkatesh Netha, Ramagundam assembly member Korukanti Chander, Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) general secretary Janak Prasad and BJP district unit president Somarapu Satyanarayana visited the injured in the hospital. INTUC leaders demanded ex gratia of 1 crore to each of the families of the deceased. We demand ~50 lakh each for the three injured and a judicial probe into the explosion, Prasad said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON (Natural News) To keep Chinese dissidents from telling the truth about the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) online, Twitter recently hired a Chinese-American artificial intelligence (AI) expert by the name of Li Fei-Fei to police the social media platform. In a press release, Twitter informed the public that Li is now the new independent director of the companys board, effectively immediately. And right after she was installed, numerous accounts of Chinese dissidents simply disappeared, suggesting that the communist takeover of Twitter is just about complete. Prior to working for Twitter, Li worked at Google. But she quit that company in 2018 after leaked emails showed that she had been covering for Googles Project Maven, a Department of Defense (DOD) machine learning program that actively gathers intelligence from user data in order to provide targets for military drones. Rather than express her own concerns about the serious privacy breaches associated with Project Maven, Li was more concerned with how leaked information about the program might taint Googles public image. While at Google, Li similarly expressed no concerns about the duly controversial Project Dragonfly program, which involves altering search engine results in communist China to curb the information that Chinese people are legally allowed to access there. Rather than champion free speech, in other words, Li was an active communist asset within Google, and has since taken her communist expertise over to Twitter where censorship is likewise problematic. In addition to infiltrating these two American companies with her communist agenda, Li also helped set up a new Google AI research facility in Beijing. And while speaking to the media about its opening, Li used the CCP slogan that she would stay true to our founding mission, adding that China has awakened. Listen below to The Health Ranger Report as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, talks about how President Trump could defeat Big Tech and its communist agenda in a matter of seconds: Li Fei-Fei also tied to communist student association According to Radio Free Asia, Li also has ties to a student association that is supposedly affiliated with the CCPs United Front. This suggests that she could be involved in teaching the next generation of young people the same communist methodologies that she helped implement at Google, and now at Twitter. One writer who was targeted by Twitter almost immediately after Li was hired onto its board says that Li is an actual member of this student association, which is also tied to Second Generation and Third-Generation Reds, two other communist movements. This writer, along with several others, have expressed criticism towards Li in the past, which probably explains why they were specifically singled out for silencing. One of these other writers, French-based Chinese dissident Wang Longmeng, wrote that Lis communist background: was undoubtedly related to Li Feifeis appointment as a director, because criticism and negative information were banned, which is Beijing characteristic. This same individual stated, chillingly, that Twitter was quickly dyed red red referring to communism right after Li was brought on board. News about Lis appointment at Twitter has so disturbed those who know her communist background that a petition is now circulating that calls for a full investigation into Twitters violation of freedom of speech. The creator of this petition says that Twitter is actively suppressing all criticism of the CCP and suspending dissident accounts, even as pro-Beijing accounts remain untouched. Because Li continues to have close ties with top leaders of the CCP, she does not belong at Twitter, this petition says. Twitters violation of freedom of speech, and on Dr. FeiFei Lis collaborations with the CCP, (represent) a threat to national security, it goes on to warn. More of the latest news about Big Tech censorship is available at Pandemic.news. Sources for this article include: TaiwanNews.com.tw NaturalNews.com Trump spoke to Putin on Monday and informed him about his plans to hold an expanded G7 meeting later this year, the Kremlin said on Monday. Canada does not support Russia's return to the Group of Seven, proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump over the weekend, because Moscow continues to flout international law, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday. "Russia was excluded from the G7 after it invaded Crimea a number of years ago, and its continued disrespect and flaunting of international rules and norms is why it remains outside of the G7, and it will continue to remain out," Trudeau said during his daily news conference, Reuters reported. Trump said on Saturday he would postpone a Group of Seven summit he had hoped to hold next month until at least September and expand the list of invitees to include Australia, Russia, South Korea, and India. Read alsoReuters: Trump postpones G7 summit, seeks to add countries to invitation list On Saturday Trump said the G7, which groups the world's most advanced economies, was a "very outdated group of countries" in its current format. When asked if he would attend the G7 if Russian President Vladimir Putin came, Trudeau did not answer, saying that there were still "many discussions" needed before the meeting. But he did say the G20 group, which includes Russia, was a forum that included countries "we don't necessarily have great relations with." "The G7 has always been a place for frank conversations with allies and friends who share so much. That's certainly what I'm hoping to continue to see," Trudeau said. Trump spoke to Putin on Monday and informed him about his plans to hold an expanded G7 meeting later this year, the Kremlin said on Monday. Russia was expelled from what was then the G8 in 2014 when Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, was U.S. president, after Moscow annexed the Crimea region from Ukraine. Russia still holds the territory, and various G7 governments have rebuffed previous calls from Trump to re-admit Moscow. Chinese authorities on Monday released a master plan for the Hainan free trade port, aiming to build the southern island province into a globally-influential high-level free trade port by the middle of the century. A free trade port system focusing on trade and investment liberalization and facilitation will be "basically established" in Hainan by 2025 and become "more mature" by 2035, according to the plan jointly issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the State Council. The authorities expect to make Hainan, China's largest special economic zone, the frontline of China's integration into the global economic system, according to the plan. A strategic move Supporting Hainan's construction of a free trade port system with Chinese characteristics is a significant move designed, arranged and promoted by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, said the document. It has also been a strategic decision of the CPC Central Committee based on the domestic and international situations, it said, noting that the world is facing a new round of major development, changes and adjustment, with protectionism and unilateralism on the rise and economic globalization facing greater headwinds. Building the Hainan free trade port is of vital importance for pursuing an open economy, deepening market-based reform and improving the business environment, as well as a strategic choice for advancing high-quality development and concrete action to support economic globalization and building a community of shared future for humanity, said the plan. Instead of rushing for quick results, China will advance the plan gradually. Hainan will be given more autonomy in reform and will be encouraged to make both the laws and the regulatory system more flexible and efficient, thus clearing institutional obstacles hampering the flow of production factors. The construction of the free trade port will provide support to national strategic goals in terms of institutional innovation, growth impetus and greater opening-up. Hainan will enhance exchanges and cooperation with Southeast Asian countries, and promote joint development with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The master plan also envisions grasping opportunities in the technological and industrial revolution, focusing on tourism, modern services and high-tech industries to foster new competitive edges for the island. The rules and regulations will be made to align with international norms, while a system for risk prevention and control will be in place, it said. Broader reform and opening-up Focusing on trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, the free trade port will adopt a modern industrial system that allows for a smooth flow of key production factors, supported by tailored taxation mechanisms, efficient social governance and the rule of law. To enable the free flow of trade, the island province will introduce measures that center on zero tariffs for the trade of goods, while facilitating both entry and business operation for services providers. Market entry will be markedly widened for investments in an open, transparent and predictable environment featuring strengthened intellectual property rights protection and fairness in competition, in order to further unleash the vitality of market entities. Cross-border flow of funds will be ensured, with efforts including the further opening up of the free trade port's financial sector, which entails support for setting up trading venues for financial products related to energy, shipping, property rights and equities, as well as clearing centers. The general plan also called for more accommodative traveling regulations to encourage talent in high-end industries to stay, reside or work in the free trade port. Logistics will be smoothed under the construction of shipping hubs in the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, with airspace control over the free trade port relaxed and more flights and air routes launched, according to the plan. While ensuring the security of data flow, China will expand the opening-up in the data field, innovating institutional design, and cultivating and developing the digital economy in the free trade port. The document underlined establishing an internationally competitive taxation system that should be suitable for the high-level free trade port by sticking to the principle of zero tariffs, low tax rates, simplified taxation system and the rule of law. Efforts will also be made to advance the reform of government institutions and the transformation of government functions, said the master plan, encouraging the application of blockchains and other technologies in the modernization of China's system and capacity for governance. A system of rule of law for the free trade port will be established in a bid to create an internationally leading rule-of-law environment. In the meantime, effective measures will be rolled out and implemented to forestall and defuse risks in fields including trade, investment, finance, data flow, ecology and public health, in a targeted manner, according to the document. Rochas Okorocha A former Governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha has called on Northern Governors to stop the unfair treatment of Almajiri children. The lawmaker stated this in an interview with the BBC Hausa Service. Okoricha advised the governors and other rich individuals in the region to help transform the Almajiri system of Islamic education, instead of subjecting them to humiliation. Many of our prominent people now, were once, Almajiri, Okorocha said. Help to educate these children, give them jobs, who knows one of them could be a President some day, he said. The former Governor identified poverty and hunger as a major problem and not the Almajiri. He explained further that The system had its origin from the migration of Prophet Muhammad, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. When he migrated from Mecca, some people followed him in search of knowledge and they were catered for. They were not left hungry. They were fed. According Okorocha the abandoned children needed care while the system be reformed by all. Some of us have excess that others dont need. Channel such towards enhancing the living standard of such children. They are our children, he added. The body of a five-year-old boy has been found after he was reported missing yesterday. It is believed the young boy fell out of a dinghy at Lough Mask in Co Mayo yesterday evening. The alarm was raised at 6.30pm yesterday after the dinghy was seen floating empty in the water near the Toormakeady side of the lough. Gardai in Castlebar assisted by Coast Guard, Civil Defence, Lough Mask Water Rescue and local divers have confirmed that the search operation has been stood down as his body was recovered from Lough Mask this morning. An Garda Siochana have requested respect the family's privacy. Local councillor Michael Kilcoyne has expressed his condolences to the family of the boy. "This is terrible news, and my heart goes out to his family," he said. "All I can say is I'm devastated to hear this news. It's most traumatic for his family. All I can do is extend my sympathy to the family and say a prayer for them because they are facing a nightmare." Earlier: Search resumes at Lough Mask for missing five-year-old boy The search for a boy missing in Co Mayo has resumed this morning. The five-year-old was last seen at Lough Mask yesterday evening. It is believed the young boy fell out of a dinghy at the lake yesterday evening. The alarm was raised at 6.30pm after the dinghy was seen floating empty in the water near the Toormakeady side of the lough. The Irish Coast Guard helicopter resumed a search of the area at 5.30am today. The Coast Guard operation Is being co-ordinated from Malin Head. Specialist divers and Civil Defence teams will also continue to be involved in the operation today. (CNN) US government leaders and health officials have expressed their concern that coronavirus could rapidly spread during protests over the death of George Floyd. Floyd died after since-fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes. Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. People across the country have taken to the streets to vent their frustrations over the seeming lack of value for the lives of black Americans. It was the same week the nation crossed the 100,000 death count from coronavirus. "There's going to be a lot of issues coming out of what's happened in the last week, but one of them is going to be that chains of transmission will have become lit from these gatherings," Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former US Food and Drug Administration commissioner, said during CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. Cases rising in some areas Sunday alone saw an increase of almost 20,000 cases nationwide, according to the CNN count compiled with data from John's Hopkins. In Washington DC, the health department on Monday reported a new peak in cases meaning a delay to moving from phase one of the District's reopening program to a less restrictive phase. In California, cases jumped 11% in days, from 98,980 reported Wednesday to 110,583 cases Sunday, according to the health department's data. In the past week, 18 states had an increase of cases of at least 10%; cases decreased in 21 states, and 11 were holding steady, according to a CNN analysis of the seven-day average of new cases between Memorial Day and Sunday. As of Monday evening, at least 1,809,109 Americans have contracted the virus and 105,099 have died. Spike in cases expected With large groups of people out in hoards close together during the protests, Minnesota Governor Walz said he expects a sharp increase in cases of Covid-19 in his state "I am deeply concerned about a super-spreader type of incident," Walz said. "We're going to see a spike in Covid-19. It's inevitable." Minnesota has been "seeing an uptick in cases to begin with. Even before these protests started, we saw rising hospitalizations in that state," Gottlieb said. Officials in New York shared the governor's worry about a potential for rise in coronavirus among protesters. "I would still wish that everyone would realize that when people gather it's inherently dangerous in the context of this pandemic, and I'm going to keep urging people not to use that approach and if they do they focus on social distancing and wearing face coverings," New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Saturday. The mayor said he recognized the need to demonstrate following the death of Floyd but "It's a very, very complicated reality." "You cannot see overt racism, you cannot see overt racist murder and not feel something profoundly deep, so I understand that," de Blasio added. "But the last thing we would want to see is members of our community harmed because the virus spread in one of these settings." New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that while people have the right to protest, even during a pandemic, they also have a duty to protect the health of themselves and others. "You have a right to demonstrate you have a right to protest, God Bless America," Cuomo said at a Saturday press conference. "You don't have a right to infect other people, you don't have a right to act in a way that's going to jeopardize public health." "Demonstrate with a mask on," he said nodding to its effectiveness. "You're wrong not to wear a mask, I think you're disrespectful, I think you're putting other people's lives at risk needlessly." Racial disparities Cuomo also noted how the coronavirus has brought long standing health disparities for the African American community to light once again. "The coronavirus crisis has created a depth of pain that still has not been accounted for. So many New Yorkers have lost someone but that is particularly true in communities of color and particularly true in the African American community," Cuomo said. "That loss is being felt so deeply because every knows it's not based on equality ... communities of color lost so much more." Health experts have also spoken out about the need for masks and other protective measures in light of racial disparities in the data showing minorities have an increased risk of serious complications from the virus. "We know that blacks are two to four times more likely to die from Covid-19 compared to whites," Dr. Megan Ranney, an emergency room physician and researcher at Brown University, told CNN's John King. "And of course, other communities, like Native Americans and Hispanics, are disproportionately affected, as well." Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms also said she's worried about the impact the virus is having on the community during the protests. She told CNN she's been so busy with ongoing unrest in her city that she neglected to look at infection data for days. "Last night I realized I hadn't looked at our coronavirus numbers in two days," Lance Bottoms told CNN's Jake Tapper during State of the Union. "That's frightening because it's a pandemic and people of color are getting hit harder." "I am extremely concerned when we're seeing mass gatherings. We know what's happening in our community with this virus," the mayor explained. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan shared a similar sentiment saying the priority has been to keep people safe during the demonstrations but the focus has to also include the months long fight against the spread of coronavirus. Speaking to Jake Tapper on State of the Union, Hogan said he, too, is concerned about the coronavirus amidst the fallout from the death of Floyd. "There's no questions that when you put hundreds or thousands of people together in close proximity when we've got this virus all over the streets is not healthy," Hogan said. "Two weeks from now across America we're going to find out whether or not this gives us a spike and drives the numbers back up." "Most states had rules about no crowds of 10 or more and now we're seeing thousands of people jammed in together in close proximity," Hogan added. This story was first published on CNN.com "The protests are raising fears of a spike in coronavirus cases" VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2020 / PowerBand Solutions Inc. (TSXV:PBX) (OTCQB:PWWBF) (Frankfurt:1ZVA) ("PowerBand", "PBX" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce that MUSA Auto Finance, LLC ("MUSA"), its 60% controlled leasing platform in the United States, is expected to begin lease originations in June on its proprietary cloud-based platform for consumers and auto dealers. MUSA will be enabling consumers and dealers to access extensive funding facilities from national financial institutions through the platform. These exclusive finance arrangements with national financial institutions, which consumers and dealers will be able to access from smart phones and other digital devices, will be made public upon completion of each specific financing agreement. "This is a major advancement for MUSA and PowerBand," said Jeff Morgan, MUSA's CEO. "We have a proprietary auto lease platform that we believe is the first of its kind, and now we are finalizing exclusive agreements, with national financial institutions, so we can roll out our technology to dealers and consumers nationally." "I want to thank MUSA CEO Jeff Morgan and the MUSA team for their hard work and steadfast commitment to developing this innovation," said PowerBand CEO Kelly Jennings. "Once all the financial institutions are onboarded, we anticipate the platform will be originating significant lease contracts for consumers and dealers. It will enable people to acquire just about any vehicle - electric and non-electric - from any location using a smart phone or other digital device." MUSA is working to lead the modernization of the new- and pre-owned vehicle leasing experience, providing dealers and consumers with the most advanced on-line leasing options in the industry. The technology takes an application, calculates a lease, auto-decisions the application, provides an approval back to dealer partners and prefills a lease contract accurately. Approvals can occur in a few seconds. As a result of its proprietary technology, MUSA was awarded a contract by Tesla Motors to become a national leasing partner in 2018. The Company has also agreed to make PowerBand's virtual transaction platform, which includes MUSA, available up to thousands of dealerships working with RouteOne LLC ("RouteOne") in the United States and Canada. RouteOne, formed by way of a joint venture between Ally Financial, Ford Motor Credit Company, TD Auto Finance, and Toyota Financial Services maintains a footprint of over 16,000 automotive dealers and 1,500 finance sources. RouteOne provides a comprehensive suite of finance and insurance tools, ranging from credit applications and eContracting to digital retail and compliance. The company continues with other negotiations to further the availability of credit facilities in the United States and Canada on the PowerBand platform, which the Company intends to make one of the world's leading platforms in automotive retail for on-line transactions. About PowerBand Solutions Inc. PowerBand Solutions Inc., listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and the OTCQB markets, is a fintech provider disrupting the automotive industry. PowerBand's integrated, cloud-based transaction platform facilitates transactions amongst consumers, dealers, funders and manufacturers (OEMs). It enables them to buy, sell, trade, finance, and lease new and used, electric- and non-electric vehicles, on smart phones or any other online digital devices, from any location. PowerBand's transaction platform - being trademarked under DRIVRZ - is being made available across North American and global markets. For further information, please contact: Richard Goldman, VP Corporate Development P: 1-866-768-7653 rgoldman@powerbandsolutions.com FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This news release contains forward-looking statements relating to the Company and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will", "may", "should", "anticipate", "expects" and similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding future plans and objectives of the Company, are forward looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. As a result, we cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will materialize and the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as at the date of this news release, and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the included forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by Canadian securities law. Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws, unless an exemption from such registration is available. SOURCE: PowerBand Solutions Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/592402/MUSA-Auto-Finance-PowerBands-US-Subsidiary-To-Access-Extensive-Lease-Financing-From-US-Financial-Institutions With health officials still urging social distancing to combat the spread of COVID-19, the Albuquerque City Council on Monday night approved several bills meant to reduce crowding at businesses and elsewhere in the community. That includes a bill that would allow restaurants to temporarily expand their service area into parking lots, landscaping and other outdoor areas on the property. Another will let businesses incorporate adjacent on-street parking spots into their operations through the creation of parklets. Council also passed legislation urging state regulators to let bars and restaurants expand their alcohol service area to parking lots and outdoor areas for the duration of the public health crisis. Councilors said they were looking to create more physical space for businesses that are facing capacity restrictions mandated by New Mexico public health orders. A separate bill passed Monday would create an active street initiative, through which the city will temporarily close certain roadways to vehicular traffic in favor of dedicated recreational uses and active transportation opportunities. Sponsor Isaac Benton said it could alleviate crowding at other city spots during the pandemic. A lot of people are out trying to get some exercise and maintain social distance (but) if you go out on the bosque trail right now, Id say its questionable how well the social distancing (is going), he said. The first 200 Marines of an American force that will total 1,200 has flown into Australia amid ongoing tensions between Western nations and China over the coronavirus pandemic. The troops began arriving in Darwin on Tuesday and the rest will enter the country over the next eight weeks to train in the Northern Territory until September. The Marines underwent biosecurity screening and COVID-19 testing on arrival and will be quarantined for 14 days at defence facilities in the Darwin area. Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds said the arrival of the ninth deployment of Marine Rotational Force - Darwin came after extensive planning to address challenges posed by COVID-19. Scroll down for video The first 200 Marines of an American force that will total 1,200 has flown into Australia amid ongoing tensions between Western nations and China over the coronavirus pandemic (pictured) The troops began arriving in Darwin on Tuesday and the rest will enter the country over the next eight weeks to train in the Northern Territory until September The Marines underwent biosecurity screening and COVID-19 testing (pictured) on arrival and will be quarantined for 14 days at Defence facilities in the Darwin area 'MRF-D is an important initiative that deepens inter-operability between the Australian Defence Force and the US military,' Ms Reynolds said. 'Australia's alliance with the United States is our most important defence relationship. It sends a clear signal about our commitment to the security and stability of our region. 'The fact that we were able to modify MRF-D and mitigate risks associated with COVID-19 to allow it to proceed is a strong testament of the resilience of our alliance.' The Marines will train with Australian defence personnel at various facilities around the greater Darwin area, including Mount Bundey and Kangaroo Flats. An advance advance party of 54 Marines has been stationed in the Northern Territory for two months. The US and Australian governments postponed this year's deployment of Marine Rotational Force - Darwin in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. The United States will send 1,200 Marines to Australia in coming weeks amid increasing tensions between Western nations and China over COVID0-19. A Marine is pictured stepping off a flight to join the Marine Rotational Force - Darwin in April 2018 All Marines will undergo 14 days of quarantine when they touch down in Australia and be submitted to a rigorous coronavirus testing regime. A Marine is pictured walking to get screened for symptoms of COVID-19 in Okinawa in April That month US Defense Secretary Mark Esper barred almost all official movement overseas for military personnel. The risk of spreading COVID-19 into vulnerable remote Aboriginal communities was also considered too great for the rotation to go ahead. This year's rotation had originally been scheduled to involve 2,500 Marines, about the same number of troops who were stationed in Darwin last year. The troops flying into Darwin will have already been in isolation for a fortnight since arriving at their staging base in Okinawa, Japan. Each Marine will be screened for COVID-19 four days before departing Japan and tested again in Darwin before and after quarantine. The US and Australian governments postponed this year's deployment of Marine Rotational Force - Darwin in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. Marines are pictured being screened for COVID-19 at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan, on May 15 Marine Rotational Force-Darwin is a US Force Posture Initiative designed to deepen inter-operability between the Australian Defence Force and US military. It supports increased regional engagement with partners in the Indo-Pacific, and is meant to better position both country's forces to respond to crises in the region. The first deployment was announced by then US president Barack Obama and then Australian prime minister Julia Gillard in 2011. The initial rotation of 200 troops arrived in 2012 and until this year had been increasing in size and complexity. Stars and Stripes newspaper has previously reported some Marines from 3rd Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, equipped with M777 howitzers would be involved this year. The Northern Territory has not had a new case of COVID-19 detected for more than seven weeks and is now effectively considered coronavirus-free. Troops taking part in this eyar's Marine Rotational Force - Darwin will be subjected to strict COVID-19 prevention measures before, during and after their arrival in Australia US Marine Corps Lance Cprporal Angelina Powell screens personnel for symptoms of COVID-19 at Air Force Base Kadena in Okinawa All 30 cases in the territory were related to domestic or international travel and there had been no examples of community transmission. Two of the territory's last cases of COVID-19 were found in Australian Defence Force personnel who had returned from the Middle East. Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner has welcomed the arrival of the Marines, saying local businesses would get a 'massive boost' by their presence. 'That is exactly what we need right now,' Mr Gunner said in a Facebook post. 'We've also secured a number of guarantees to ensure the Territory remains the safest place in Australia.' This year's deployment comes as Australian and US relations with China continue to deteriorate amid the coronavirus pandemic. China has reportedly been infuriated by Australia's demands for an independent inquiry into the origins and spread of COVID-19. The Northern Territory has not had a new case of COVID-19 detected for more than seven weeks and is now effectively considered coronavirus-free. Marines are pictured being screened at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, on May 15 The country's Communist rulers have slapped an 80 per cent tariff on Australian barley and suspended imports from four Australian beef suppliers in apparent revenge. China's foreign minister Wang Yi warned last month that US criticism of his country's response to COVID-19 was pushing the two superpowers to 'the brink of a new Cold War'. Friction between the countries over issues including trade and China's military build-up in the region has worsened since the virus outbreak was first detected in Wuhan. US President Donald Trump has accused China of covering up the emergence of the virus late last year and being too slow to act on it spread. Mr Wang said last month the US had been infected by a 'political virus' which was causing continual malicious attacks by Mr Trump and others on China. 'It has come to our attention that some political forces in the US are taking China-US relations hostage and pushing our two countries to the brink of a new Cold War,' he said. Over 200 top UK businesses, organisations and investors have called on the government to seek an environmentally focussed recovery from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. They say a recovery plan to rebuild the economy should have a clear emphasis on meeting existing commitments to tackle the climate crisis, with greater levels of sustainability and resilience to future environmental risks. Signatories to the letter include Asda, The National Grid, PwC, Britvic, Lloyds Bank, Siemens UK, BT, Coutts, Greggs, Heathrow Airport, Natural England, Scottish Widows, Sky, and Tesco. Writing to Boris Johnson, the organisations outlined proposals for a plan which they said would: Drive investment in low carbon innovation, infrastructure and industries, as well as improved resilience to future environmental risks Focus support on sectors and activities that can best support sustainable growth, increased job creation and accelerate both the recovery and the decarbonisation of the economy Implement financial support packages which ensure receiving businesses are well managed and their strategies are science based and aligned with national climate goals In the letter the signatories said they acknowledged the climate leadership of the UK and are calling for continued ambition to drive action towards next years COP26 climate summit and the G7, both of which will be hosted in the UK. The united front, from business sectors including finance, energy, retail, construction, finance, transport and communications, comes as progress on meeting existing climate targets has been faltering. Though the UK is legally committed to reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050, it is not expected to hit its targets. Currently, an increase in the projection of future emissions is outweighed by the small impact of just a few new climate policies, according to Climate Action Tracker, which examines data used by the governments Committee on Climate Change. The committee has previously highlighted the lack of plans for decarbonising UK heating systems, the lack of progress in developing carbon capture and storage capability, the failure to meet afforestation targets, and said the current 2040 target for banning fossil fuel vehicles is too late. The letter from business leaders also comes days after MPs called on the government to spend 30bn in green aid to help tackle the climate crisis amid the impact of the coronavirus. The letter said: With the UK facing major economic and social concerns including the risk of high unemployment and rising regional inequality, we believe that an ambitious low carbon growth and environmental improvement agenda can do a lot to address these concerns, as well as make the UK economy better prepared to deal with future shocks such as those related to climate change. We are therefore writing to ask that the economic recovery plans you are developing align with the UKs wider goals and deliver a clean, just recovery, that creates quality employment and builds a more sustainable, inclusive and resilient UK economy for the future. It added: As we enter the recovery period, we are ready to work with you and your government to implement the steps needed to rebuild and strengthen the UK economy, while accelerating decarbonisation and ensuring we are on track to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at the latest. The letter was coordinated by The Prince of Waless Corporate Leaders Group. Eliot Whittington, director of the group said: The UK needs a strong, sustainable economy able to withstand future shocks, and the Prime Ministers plans to support a recovery after the Coronavirus pandemic must be cost-effective and focussed on building back better. The evidence is clear that a clean, resilient recovery is best for jobs, business, society and our environment. Antonio Horta-Osorio, chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group and a signatory to the letter, said: We have all experienced the devastating effect that Covid-19 has had on our families, communities and businesses. We must make this experience count by working together to tackle the impacts of climate change. Financial Services has an important role to play, working with others to finance the solutions that will accelerate progress. Thats why were supporting this call to put low carbon growth at the centre of the economic recovery. Working together we can build a cleaner, greener and more resilient economy for the whole of the UK. Roger Burnley, chief executive of Asda, said: This crisis has upended the way we do business, even for those of us that have continued to trade, but in recovery there is always opportunity. Our new normal must be one that is more sustainable and more resilient to the challenges of climate change than before, and it is incumbent on all businesses and government to work together to make this happen. Andy Wales, the chief digital impact and sustainability officer at BT said: At BT, we have long recognised the importance of setting ambitious carbon reduction targets, and were using our influence, technology and reach to inspire and enable others to do the same and help tackle the climate emergency. Government, businesses and policymakers must put action on climate at the heart of their efforts to revive the economy working together to create a more sustainable, resilient, low carbon economy. The Independent has contacted the government for comment. ALBANY - A Glens Falls men who admitted to robbing a Lake George Trustco Bank in 2018 was sentenced on Tuesday to five years in prison, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Nelson L. Gouge, 47, made off with $4,301 on Jan. 12, 2018 when he robbed a teller station oat the branch on Route 9L. Gouge admitted to hiding his face with a neck warmer and handing the teller a note that read, "I Have a weapon this is a robbery Just put all money in the bank think about you and your employees + friends." Twilight star Gregory Tyree Boyce and his girlfriend died after taking cocaine and fentanyl, a Las Vegas coroner found. Boyce, 30, and his partner Natalie Adepoju, 27, were found dead next to white powdery substance inside the bedroom of their Las Vegas home by their roommate, Louis Ledbetter, on May 13. Officers said the couple - who were found lying naked - were beyond help by the time the tragic discovery was made. Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg said the pair died from the effects of cocaine and fentanyl intoxication and their deaths were accidental. Twilight star Gregory Tyree Boyce and his girlfriend Natalie Adepoju (pictured) died after taking cocaine and fentanyl, a Las Vegas coroner found Fentanyl has been blamed for illegal-use drug overdose deaths nationwide. Ledbetter told police he'd last seen the couple alive 48 hours before he found them. The 33-year-old said he'd woken up in the afternoon of May 13 having worked a night shift the previous evening to find the couple's bedroom door closed. Presuming they were out of the apartment, Ledbetter left the condo to return to work just after 2.30pm when he noticed the couple's car was still in the driveway. Concerned, he knocked on their bedroom door and, after receiving no response, he forced his way into the room to find them both dead. Boyce, 30, and Adepoju, 27, (pictured) were found dead next to white powdery substance inside the bedroom of their Las Vegas home by their roommate, Louis Ledbetter, on May 13 According to a police report observed by DailyMail.com, next to their bodies officers found a unknown white powder substance on a nightstand, in addition to a straw and a plastic card. Investigators said the couple appeared to be 'deceased for some time' when they arrived at property on Casey Drive on the evening of May 13. There were no signs of trauma to either subject and the bedroom was undisturbed, officers noted. Both Boyce and Adepoju were found lying naked on their backs in bed. Boyce was best known for his role as Tyler Crowley in the first Twilight franchise movie in 2008 In the film, he almost crashed into Kristen Stewart's character Bella Swan (above) with a car before she was saved by Robert Pattinson's character, Edward Cullen Investigators said each body showed signs of rigor mortis and blood pooling, indicating they'd been deceased for some time. Boyce was best known for his role as Tyler Crowley in the first Twilight franchise movie in 2008. In the film, he almost crashed into Kristen Stewart's character Bella Swan with a car before she was saved by Robert Pattinson's character, Edward Cullen. Boyce, who also appeared in the film short Apocalypse in 2018, had a 10-year-old daughter Alaya and his girlfriend had a young son called Egypt from a previous relationship. The couple, who had been dating for about a year, were found dead in their condo on May 13 after Boyce's cousin noticed the actor's car in the driveway when he was supposed to have been in Los Angeles His brother Chris Wayne described him as an 'awesome person'. In a tribute on Facebook, he wrote: 'You were my baby. Worried about you all the time. 'I was always there for the rescue. I wish you were still here bro. The world lost an awesome person.' In an Instagram post from December when Boyce celebrated his 30th birthday, the actor wrote that he didn't think he'd ever reach the milestone age. 'At one point I didn't think I would make it to see 30 years old,' he wrote. The official cause of their deaths has not yet been released but law enforcement have said it was not criminal. They are pictured together in a 2019 Instagram post 'Over the years like everyone else I have made mistakes along the way, but today is one of those days I only reflect on the great ones. What a time to be alive. Happy Dirty 30 self! Let's make the rest of these years your best!!' Boyce had moved to Las Vegas to help his mother but would commute to Los Angeles for acting roles and to see his daughter. Boyce and his girlfriend were last featured together on his Instagram page when he wished Adepoju a Happy Mother's Day. 'Happy Mother's Day again to my right hand/ my roll dog/ my Queen! Love you,' he wrote. In a statement on GoFundMe page set up for Adepoju, she was remembered as a 'loving daughter, niece, sister, cousin, and friend'. Tuesday will be a lot quieter than it might be otherwise, as recording artists, music executives and producers, and streaming services have all announced their intent to go silent in order to draw attention to racial injustice. The protest, dubbed Black Tuesday by participants, is a music industry black out, and has drawn support from artists including Quincy Jones, The Rolling Stones, Peter Gabriel and Billie Eilish. In response to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and countless other Black citizens at the hands of police, #TheShowMustBePaused is an initiative created by two Black women in music in observance of the long-standing racism and inequality that exists from the boardroom to the boulevard," reads a post on a website titled The Show Must Be Paused. We will not continue to conduct business as usual without regard for Black lives. The two black women who created the page are music executives Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang, and it includes links to resources for supporting the families of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, as well as links to Movement for Black Lives and donation info for community bail funds. Mick, Keith, Charlie and Ronnie stand with all who object to racism, violence or bigotry.#theshowmustbepaused #blacklivesmatter The Rolling Stones (@RollingStones) June 1, 2020 Music industry organizations and record labels have also made posts on social media in support of the cause, including Capitol Records, Warner Records, Def Jam Recordings, Interscope Records, Columbia Records and ASCAP. Many of them have announced that they will not be releasing music or conducting any business on the day. And some music streaming platforms will also go silent, at least temporarily. Video sharing service TikTok announced that we will stand in solidarity with the Black community and the music industry by participating in Blackout Tuesday, when we will turn off all playlists and campaigns on our Sounds page to observe a moment of reflection and action. The company also announced that they would be donating to nonprofit organizations that support the black community, which has been disproportionally affected by COVID-19. In a blog post, the streaming service Spotify stated that they would be adding an 8 minute, 46 second long track of silence to some playlists, which is the same length of time that George Floyd was restrained by police officers in Minneapolis before dying. An autopsy showed that he died of asphyxia. Floyd was restrained by several police officers, including Derek Chauvin, who was recorded kneeling on Floyds neck while ignoring pleas from both Floyd and bystanders to allow him to breathe. Chauvin has been fired and is now facing charges for third degree murder and manslaughter. Ahmaud Arbery was killed in Brunswick, Georgia after he was pursued and confronted by two white men, Gregor and Travis McMichael, while jogging through a residential neighborhood. The father and son were recorded on video as they drove after Arbery and, while armed with guns, demanded he stop. A confrontation led to Arbery being shot, and no charges were filed against the McMichaels for two months until after the video circulated through national and social media. Breonna Taylor was shot and killed when police raided her home to enforce a no-knock search warrant. A lawsuit filed by Taylors family claims that the narcotics officers came into the home in plain clothes and without announcing themselves as police. No drugs were found in the home. The series of deaths have triggered protests across the country, re-igniting outrage and complaints about racial biases in law enforcement which led to the Black Lives Matter movement. Many of the protests have turned violent or destructive as police have clashed with protesters. Other music and media platforms have also made gestures of support for Blackout Tuesday. According to The Verge, Apple Music has replaced their regular Beats 1 radio programming with a streaming station that celebrates music produced by black artists, and Amazon Music has posted that it will be pausing all social media for the day. YouTube issued a tweet of support to the Blackout Tuesday cause, and has previously pledged a $1 million donation to the Center for Policing Equity. Premier Doug Ford is pushing to extend Ontarios COVID-19 state of emergency until June 30. As the current emergency declaration, which has been in effect since March 17, expires Tuesday, Fords majority Progressive Conservatives want another 28-day extension. We need the ability to go out there and make quick decisions absolutely immediately, the premier told reporters Monday at his Queens Park teleconference. That will hopefully get us over the hump, per se thats another four weeks. We just want to make sure everyones safe and healthy and we want to get the economy going and we need that tool to make that happen, he said, adding the options on the table for yet another extension. It all depends on the situation that were facing. We have no plan right now four weeks down the road are we going to extend it or not. But Independent MPP Randy Hillier (Larnark-Frontenac-Kingston) is trying to force the Tories to be more transparent on their intentions. Hillier will introduce a motion in the legislature on Tuesday that would compel the government to make public all the agendas, minutes, and discussions of the COVID-19 command table that justify the need for another four weeks of emergency measures. We need to see the decision-making information, the veteran MPP said in an interview. I dont believe the state of emergency is warranted. Theres a difference between the state of emergency and the emergency orders, he said, referring to the various restrictions on businesses and services that are designed to curb the spread of the virus. I am not opposed to the emergency orders its the decision-making process behind closed doors that I oppose. Hillier, who was ejected from the Conservative caucus last year after butting heads with members of the premiers inner circle, said people are getting wary of the government. He says he was in favour of the initial two-week state of emergency. Eleven weeks later, however, the MPP is concerned that Ford who skipped both of the legislatures question periods last week wants to continue governing without adequate accountability and transparency. I dont see how you can come to any other conclusion, said Hillier. Ontarios state of emergency gives sweeping powers to the government under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act. Introduced March 17, it was extended on March 30 and then on April 14 and again on May 12. Tory House Leader Paul Calandras motion to extend it until June 30 will be debated by MPPs on Tuesday, but the PC majority ensures it will easily pass. That means much of Ontario will have effectively been locked down from St. Patricks Day until Canada Day. Ontario is currently in stage one of its framework for reopening the economy. That allows stores with street entrances to reopen but limits gatherings of groups to five or less unless those people reside in the same household. In the second stage, which will only begin when public health officials declare that the number of new COVID-19 cases is declining, the government will consider opening more workplaces, including some service industries and more shops; opening more public spaces, such as outdoor play structures and public pools; and allowing slightly larger gatherings of perhaps up to 10 people. In the third stage, all workplaces would be allowed to reopen, including indoor restaurants and bars, which are currently limited to serving takeout meals and alcohol. Restrictions on public gatherings would be relaxed, but large public gatherings such as concerts and sporting events would continue to be restricted for the foreseeable future. On Friday, Ford reversed course on his previous one size fits all reopening strategy for the province, and will now allow regions with fewer COVID-19 cases including North Bay, Parry Sound, Sudbury, Algoma, Kenora, Kingston, Renfrew, Huron-Perth, Prince Edward County, Peterborough and most of the southwest other than Windsor to reopen earlier. The Greater Toronto Area, where two-thirds of Ontarios 2,330 coronavirus deaths occurred, will likely be the last region to be opened. Read more about: Rights activists in Indonesia has warned of the possible "domino effect" of honor killings in Indonesia following the death of 16-year-old, Rosmini binte Darwis, in the hands of her brothers after she allegedly confessed to having relations with a 45-year-old relative. The most Muslim-populated nation in the world, known for its moderate branding of the Islamic faith and diversity, was shocked by the death of Rosmini. Honor Killings in Asia and the Middle East A common phenomenon in the Middle East and parts of South Asia, honor killings are centered on girls and women wherein they are killed if they are believed to have brought disgrace or shame to the family. While sleeping, a 14-year-old girl in Iran was decapitated by her father using a sickle last week. Few days before the incident, Romina Ashrafi had run away with her boyfriend but she was recovered by the police, the authority allowed her father to take her custody despite Romina's claims that she will be punished violently because of her actions. Based on the data of the United Nations, an estimated 5,000 girls and women across the globe die annually due to honor killings, but the practice is rarely heard in Southeast Asia. According to Daily Mail, Human Rights Watch Indonesia researcher, Andreas Harsono believed that the case of Rosmini was the first recorded incident of such practice in the country. Harsono showed his concern regarding the possible effect of the incident as it can trigger other families to replicate the practice. He also added that the country currently experiencing a build-up of a brand of Islam that was a result of 700 sharia-inspired laws mixed, starting from the wearing of the hijab which is mandatory, to curfews for girls. South China Morning Post also reported that Harsono emphasized that the country has an obsession to control women's bodies, even from their hair down to their vaginas which reflects in the case of virginity testing practice in the country. Before women will be part of the nation's military in Indonesia, they are required to undergo a virginity test. Read also: George Floyd Autopsy: Family Rejects Findings by Medical Examiners, Will Seek Private Autopsy Gusdurian Network Indonesia, an organization with activists around more than 100 cities in the country and its National director Psychologist Alissa Wahid believes that currently, Indonesia has a tendency towards ultra-conservatism based on primordial values. Daughter of the late famous Muslim cleric and former President Abdurrahman Wahid, Alissa worries that the honor killing even without death is still dangerous to well-being specifically for daughters. In her studies, Alissa shared that women in Indonesian families were treated differently, for some women were tagged as a burden, blamed if unmarried because it is like bringing shame for them, they are also not encouraged to be educated. Despite many Indonesians condemned the honor killing, a domino effect is still possible according to Indonesia's Nahdlatul Ulama Islamic University's social lecturer, Any Rufaedah. According to her, since the incident was because of the cultural values, it has a higher chance of encouraging others to do the same thing. She also mentioned that this happens in other countries as well even in the US, clearly because family members are the closest individuals around a person, so when a member gets angry, members of the family are made scapegoats. Related article: Couple Who Starved Foster Kids, Left Dead Body of a Girl in Basement, Also Hid Skeletal Remains of Their Own Son @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. President Donald Trump speaks to the press after meeting with Republican Senators in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 19, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Trump Calls on New York to Activate National Guard After Being Ripped to Pieces President Donald Trump called on New York City authorities to call in the National Guard to deal with unrest, arson, and looting amid protests over the death of George Floyd. In calling on New York to activate the Guard, Trump said that lowlifes and losers are ripping the city apart. Dont make the same horrible and deadly mistake you made with the Nursing Homes, he said, referring to a controversial state directive that was ultimately scrapped during the COVID-19 pandemic. Minutes before, Trump wrote that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo refused his offer of a dominating National Guard as the city was ripped to pieces. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a citywide curfew from 8 p.m. until 5 a.m. following destruction in various neighborhoods. Last night was a bad night in New York City, the governor said on Monday. Its New York City, where I do believe there are people who use the chaos of the moment. Its an opportunity. If you want to steal, thats the night to do it. If you are an extremist group, and you want to preach anarchy, thats the night to do it. Cuomo said that while he stands behind protesters, there are people who are looking to distract and discredit this moment. Police vehicles park outside Macys store after it was broken into hours after a solidarity rally calling for justice over the death of George Floyd Monday, in New York on June 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E) Protesters loot a NY Yankee store during demonstrations over the death of George Floyd, in New York City on June 1, 2020. (Bryan R. Smith/AFP/Getty Images) The violence and the looting has been bad for the city, the state and this entire national movement, undermining and distracting from this righteous cause. While we encourage people to protest peacefully and make their voices heard, the safety of the general public is paramount and cannot be compromised, he said in a news briefing. However, the curfew imposed by the mayor failed to prevent another night of destruction, including arrests after a break-in at the iconic Macys store on 34th Street, following protests over Floyds death. As the 11 p.m. deadline to get off the streets approached, bands of protesters marched peacefully through Manhattan and Brooklyn, but police simultaneously responded to numerous reports of roving groups of people smashing their way into shops and emptying them of merchandise. The doors of Macys flagship Manhattan store were breached. Police pulled two handcuffed men out and put them in a van. People also went into a Nike store and were seen carrying out armloads of clothing. Bank windows were also smashed in the area. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Several efforts are underway to help businesses damaged by unrest Sunday night and early Monday in downtown Birmingham. The Birmingham Business Relief Fund will support small businesses and storefronts in the downtown Central Business District that sustained damage. Some participants in a Sunday night rally downtown broke off from the main group after attempts to bring down the Confederate monument in Linn Park failed. They then went through the city, breaking windows, looting stores and setting fires until early Monday morning. Yesterday city officials said there were at least 14 burglaries and 13 businesses reported significant property damage, with firefighters responding to 22 fire calls and five commercial fires. The business relief fund is a joint project of the City of Birmingham, Birmingham Business Alliance, Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, REV Birmingham and Urban Impact. To get more information or to make a contribution, click here. At the same time, three groups are working to provide relief to black and locally-owned businesses. Woke Vote and LRY Media Group have partnered with the Penny Foundation on the Recover. Restore. Rebuild initiative. "These businesses have served us. They have been committed to our community. Now we will serve them as recover, rebuild and restore, Woke Vote founder DeJuana Thompson said. Rashada LeRoy, CEO of LRY Media Group, said the damage has affected businesses already reeling from the measures to combat the spread of COVID-19. Woke Vote is a voter mobilization group, while LRY Media Group is an event planning and production company. The Penny Foundation works to eliminate economic inequality in the Black community. Participants can donate at the website or volunteer through it for clean up efforts. Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi (Photo: VNA) During a 30-minute phone call to Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, the Japanese official praised the COVID-19 prevention and control in Vietnam, and expressed his gratitude to the Vietnamese Government and people for their support to Japans fight against the pandemic. The two sides agreed to strengthen cooperation in recovering their economic growth in the coming time, saying that this is also an important issue besides containing the spread of the disease. Earlier the same day, Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan Yoshihide Suga said the COVID-19 pandemic is still spreading worldwide, especially in developing and emerging countries, so the Japanese government still needs to maintain vigilance with the entry into the country. However, he also underlined the importance of considering resumption of travel between people of countries. Suga said his country would keep a close watch on the diseases developments in the world and carefully consider the easing of entry with specific groups from each country, as well as related procedures. Japanese media recently informed that the Japanese government is likely to include Vietnam in the list of four countries that can be relaxed the entry restriction in the first phase, together with Thailand, Australia and New Zealand. According to Japans scenario, those being entrepreneurs will be given priority for entry into Japan in the first phase. The Japanese government has planned to provide relevant specific information by the middle of June. Since the death of George Floyd on May 25, people across the world have been protesting and rioting for justice and the end of police brutality. While some have been placing their boots on the ground in real life, others have been showing support by using social media to highlight different places to donate, hotlines to call, and black-owned businesses to buy from. After all, while posting about racial injustice on social media channels is a great first step in supporting Black Americans, we can do more as a community to give back and lift up Black people by reaching out directly and financially supporting the companies they have created. If you dont know where to begin, we provided ideas on how you can support Black-owned businesses today (and always), and also rounded up a list of a few Black companies you can shop at ASAP. How to support Black businesses 1 Provide services for free. If you have a particular set of skills that you think could benefit a Black-owned business, offer your services for free. For instance, if youre a graphic designer and think you can create menus for a restaurant, ask if they need help. If youre a photographer who wants to take headshots of Black business owners, do it. All you have to do is send a call out on your social media channels explaining what skills you have to offer and how you want to help. 2Donate money. If you already know a small business you deeply love and want to support, why not donate directly to it? Email the company to see if it has a financial account (like Venmo or PayPal) to which you can directly send money. If there isnt an account and you still want to show support, ask if the business has an organization or relief fund that you can donate your money to instead. Either way, its a win-win for the company, for you, and the community. 3 Reach out to owners directly. You can also email or DM a company/owner and ask how you can be of service. Because business owners know the ins and outs of their own companies, theyll be able to tell you exactly what they need help withand you never know, it might be something you didnt even realize was needed but that you can help out with (i.e. social media services, product packaging, etc). Story continues 4 Shop their stores. Of course, the easiest way to support Black businesses is directly shopping at their storesin real life (when possible) or online. Not only will purchasing products or services from these companies show that youre an ally, but it will help keep them afloat. If you dont have anything in particular that you want to purchase for yourself, think about sending a random gift to a loved one. Your friend will appreciate the present and the business owner will appreciate your purchase. Not sure where to shop exactly? Consider downloading the Official Black Wall Street app. This app is the largest Black-owned business discovery app in the country, with over 1.16 million users. 5Share info about the brands on social media. If finances are tough right now, you can also show support for Black-owned businesses by simply posting about them on your social media channels. Share the companies stories, the owners histories, and the reasons that you want to support these businesses right now. Not only will this get the company names out there, it could also provide income to ownerswhich is incredibly important given how the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has affected small businesses. 4 Black-owned businesses to support 1Golde Golde Golde is a wellness/self-care company with the intention to bring good, healthy vibes into homes through the use of superfood essentials and beauty products. Co-owner Trinity Mouzon Wofford and her partner, Issey Kobori, created the brand in 2017 and work out of their home in Brooklyn, New York. 2Pur Home Pur Home Pur Home, which was created by Angela Richardson, provides natural cleaning products for the bathroom, kitchen, and laundry room. All ingredients are non-toxic, eco-friendly, and biodegradable. 3 Pattern Beauty Pattern If youre not familiar with Pattern, you may be familiar with the owner, who happens to be Tracee Ellis Ross. NBD. The actor created Pattern to help Black women fall in love with their curls again. The company uses ingredients meant to aid Black womens hair (i.e. jojoba oil, argan oil, and shea butter), and the products packing materials are reusable. 4 The Honey Pot Co. The Honey Pot The Honey Pot is the first plant-based feminine care system on the market. From tampons to menstrual liners and sponges, the company was created by Bea Dixon to make women feel confident and secure in the feminine products they use. The government on Tuesday ordered Armenias largest textile factory to close for three days after at least three of its 2,600 employees tested positive for coronavirus. Officials in the northern city of Vanadzor, which is home to the Gloria company factory, said about two dozen other workers have been placed in quarantine and may also undergo coronavirus tests. Some of them have a fever. According to the Vanadzor-based governor of the surrounding Lori province, Andrei Ghukasian, two of the infected workers were hospitalized. One of them, a pregnant woman, was taken to a hospital in Yerevan. They are alright, Ghukasian told RFE/RLs Armenian service. They just had a slight fever. Thats how [their infection] was detected by one of our policlinics. They will now be under doctors surveillance. Glorias owner, Bagrat Darbinian, insisted that he has followed all anti-epidemic rules that have been set by the Armenian government for manufacturers. He said the factorys premises have been disinfected twice a day and all workers have been provided with hand sanitizers, medical masks and rubber gloves. Its only natural that people get infected just like they do all over the country and around the world, Darbinian declared at the same time. The businessman claimed that despite the coronavirus outbreak all of his mostly female employees want to keep working. If they dont want to work or if the government decides that they must not work we will not work, he said. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian announced later in the day that a government body enforcing the coronavirus-related state of emergency in Armenia has ordered a three-day shutdown of the Vanadzor factory. He said Gloria will have to suspend production operations on Wednesday morning. It was not clear if the Gloria management will also have to take additional safety measures. Gloria and other textile plants were allowed to resume their work in late April following a month-long stoppage ordered by the government as part of a nationwide lockdown. Pashinian said on April 12 that the textile industry should be able to restart its activities despite being the main driving force of coronavirus infections in the country Following Pashinians statement, a government task force set concrete social distancing rules and other precautions for the export-oriented industry. Darbinian claimed that those requirements are too strict when Glorias employees defied the government ban and returned to their workplaces on April 21. The angry workers said they want the factory to immediately resume its work because they cannot support themselves and their families after the month-long lockdown. Darbinian told them that they should not be afraid of contracting COVID-19. If we get infected, well recover, the Gloria owner said at the time. Authorities shut down the plant again the following day. Still, they agreed to soften the rules. The daily number of coronavirus cases registered by the health authorities has increased dramatically since then. The main reason for the rise in the number of cases is industrial enterprises, Pashinian said on May 24. The prime minister accused businesses of failing to follow social distancing and hygiene rules. He said the government will now enforce tougher penalties for such violations. The authorities have recorded just over 10,000 coronavirus cases across Armenia to date. Less than 100 of them have been registered in Lori, according to the provincial administration. Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - Tunisian authorities Monday decided to reopen from 27 June the country's land, air and maritime borders closed since March due to the coronavirus (COOVID-19) pandemic Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 18:19:44|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CHICAGO, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Four police officers were hit by gunfire in St. Louis, Missouri state late Monday during violent protests over the death of George Floyd, the city's police department said Tuesday. "We have had 4 officers struck by gunfire tonight. All have been transported to an area hospital. All are conscious and breathing. Their injuries are believed to be non-life threatening," the St. Louis Police said on Twitter. "Officers are still taking gunfire downtown & we will share more info as it available." The riots in downtown St. Louis began Monday evening and turned into violent clashes between protesters and the police, the St. Louis-based Fox 2 News broadcaster reported, adding that the shooting occurred near the Metropolitan Police Department headquarters. Floyd, aged 46, died on May 25 after a white police officer held him down with a knee on his neck for at least eight minutes, though he repeatedly pleaded, "I can't breathe," and "please, I can't breathe." Demonstrations and riots have spread to cities across the United States after a video recording the moment went viral on social media, sparking a national outcry for justice. Enditem The people of Bimbilla in the Nanumba North Municipality of the Northern Region woke up to a video of persons looting a grave at the Bimbilla Cemetery last week. Some persons believe the looters steal human parts from the grave for rituals. The caretaker of the cemetery, Afa Zakaria, is heard in the said video expressing his disgust. He attributed the looting to the poor security of the cemetery which has been in existence for close to 50 years now. Why people easily enter here is because the graveyard is in the open. There is no fence so one can enter through any direction. Due to population increases, the cemetery is now closer to settlements. Some residents use the cemetery as a thoroughfare as well as for easing themselves. Animals also stray into the cemetery to graze. My appeal to the entire community and civil society organizations, NGOs, the government is to fence the Bimbilla graveyard. There are so many unapproved routes to the yard and I think it is a contributory factor to the menace, a resident said to Citi News. Another resident said, this is about the third time, we are experiencing this kind of thing in the graveyard and it's bad. I look at this as the work of the youth. The Municipal Chief Executive for Nanumba North, Abdulai Yaqoub told Citi News plans are in place to improve security in the area starting with lumination. The assembly embarked on a project to extend electricity to the place. Its ongoing not yet complete. We have a number of streetlights and by the end of this week, it would be done. We are thinking of beefing up security there because he's just one person, we would add one person and alert to security at the checkpoint close by to also support in case they need their assistance, he added. Mr. Yaqoub, however, conceded that securing the borders of the cemetery was beyond the assemblys means. My appeal is that financially we are constrained. This cemetery is very large and to leave for the assembly alone to wall, will be an impossibility, he said. So I am appealing to all well-meaning persons especially Nanumbas in the diaspora and to all Moslem communities to come to our aid to protect our last resting place. Making the two-metre social distancing guidance enforceable by law would heap enormous pressure on an already-stretched police service, Stormonts health minister has said. Robin Swann said he does not favour beefing up Northern Irelands Covid-19 regulations to give police more powers to stop people congregating. At present, the two-metre social distancing measure is a guideline, not a rule. Mr Swanns comments came as several beaches and visitor spots in the region have witnessed large crowds in recent days, with reports of drinking and anti-social behaviour by some young people. Expand Close A large crowd of young people at Crawfordsburn beach in Co Down (Andrew Muir/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A large crowd of young people at Crawfordsburn beach in Co Down (Andrew Muir/PA) Addressing the daily Covid-19 briefing at Stormont, Mr Swann warned that the lockdown should not be treated as an extended holiday. He said he did not intend to lecture young people, but he urged them to show restrain, stressing that lives were still at risk. On Tuesday, Stormonts Department of Health said two more people with Covid-19 had died, bringing the total recorded by the department to 526. I dont think were in a place yet where we need further legislation to actually bring in further penalties on those young people who are gathering, said Mr Swann. What Im asking them to do is act responsibly, to think about their actions and the effect their actions will have on their loved ones should Covid be found in their group of friends and the onward transmission that will have. In regards to empowering police to enforce a two-metre distance, I think that would put enormous pressure on an already under-pressure police force at this moment in time. Expand Close (PA Graphics) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp (PA Graphics) On Tuesday, an octogenarian who has shielded for 10 weeks was among those to criticise people gathering on beaches. Robert Atkinson, 82, was paralysed down one side by a stroke and has been treated for prostate cancer. The former meat plant manager from Belfast feared the authorities were moving too quickly to ease the pandemic lockdown and were asking for trouble. I am livid, he told the PA news agency. People like us stayed in for 10 weeks and followed the rules and regulations. To think that they could actually dismantle everything that we have done. I think any sane person would think it is right that they should have thought of other people before social distancing went out the window. Expand Close Robert Atkinson (Liam McBurney/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Robert Atkinson (Liam McBurney/PA) Northern Ireland is set to introduce a series of lockdown relaxations next Monday if the data presented to Stormont ministers on Thursday shows the transmission of the virus remains under control. If the R rate the number of people an infected person infects remains below one this week, ministers will give the go-ahead for those shielding to go outside with people from their own household, or one person from another household if social distancing is observed. They will also sanction the reopening of more retail outlets and give the go-ahead for small outdoor weddings. Mr Swann did not disclose the current R number on Tuesday but said he was hopeful the changes could be approved as planned on Thursday. The minister also announced a further 11 million-plus funding package for the regions care homes. It was also announced that dental services are to return in Northern Ireland on a phased basis. Meanwhile, the first McDonalds restaurants reopened in Northern Ireland on Tuesday morning. Bangor and Newtownards branches opened for drive-thru customers, with a limited menu and a 25 maximum spend. Paris McDonagh, business manager at the Bangor branch, said there had been a lot of work behind the scenes. There was a lot of training, a lot of preparation goes into making sure the store is clean and sanitised and ready to go, he told PA. There are a lot of restrictions in place, screens to keep our staff and customers safe and following all the guidelines to ensure everyone that does come back stays safe. Lex Machina, a LexisNexis company, today announced an exciting expansion of the companys state court analytics. Consisting of more than 170,000 combined civil court cases in Sacramento County Superior Court and Clark County (Las Vegas) District Court, the new modules give practitioners critical insights about judges, courts, law firms, individual attorneys, and parties in these state courts. By applying its Attorney Data Engine and other natural language processing technologies to state court documents, Lex Machina is the only legal analytics solution providing comprehensive coverage about the behavior of judges, law firms, attorneys, and parties in state courts. Lex Machina is solving an immense technical challenge by taking complex, unstructured data and utilizing its software to allow practitioners to make data-driven decisions, develop winning case strategies, and win new business in state court venues. Because there is no unified system for state courts analogous to PACER for federal courts, Lex Machinas technology platform emphasizes strict data quality and integrity to ensure that legal professionals have access to the most complete, comprehensive, and accurate analytics available. Lex Machina worked closely with the court systems to understand their docketing practices and create analytics that reflect the unique aspects of individual courts. The two new state courts Sacramento County Superior Court (89,000+ cases) and Clark County (Las Vegas) District Court (83,000+ cases) each have their own data collection infrastructure and nuances. These modules cover four years of court activity beginning with cases filed January 1, 2016 or later. The Sacramento and Clark County courts were selected for the next module expansions because they represent important state court venues. Building on Lex Machinas existing coverage of Los Angeles County Superior Court (the largest state trial court in the U.S.), Sacramento County Superior Court is an important venue for California state litigation. Located in the California State Capitol, Sacramento is a key court for civil cases involving government entities and businesses. Clark County District Court is the largest general jurisdiction court in Nevada, serving more than 2.1 million citizens in the Las Vegas area. It encompasses all municipalities and outlying communities of Clark County. Lex Machinas expansion into a seventh and eighth state court is an exciting milestone in accomplishing the companys mission of bringing Legal Analytics to all areas of the law. What's really groundbreaking about our ongoing expansion into state courts is the depth to which we are delving into the documents and data, said Karl Harris, Lex Machinas CEO. We are not only obtaining documents from notoriously inconvenient state court docket systems, but we are combining that with our cutting-edge technology from our natural language processing team to produce a set of legal analytics that is not available anywhere else. Lex Machina gathers raw information from state court cases, including downloading millions of state court documents, to present the most comprehensive and accurate data possible. Both new and existing Legal Analytics users will appreciate the easy-to-use interface that lets them access a wealth of new state court features including: Searching by judge, law firm, attorney name, or party Timing analytics, trial resolutions, trial damages, and trial rulings Keyword searching within docket entry text and downloaded documents Viewing analytics across all state courts or in one particular court Court-specific filters, such as case types and case tags The introduction of these new state court modules continues Lex Machinas expansion into state court analytics. Lex Machina has previously released modules for the Delaware Court of Chancery, Los Angeles County Superior Court, and the Houston Area (including Harris County District Court, Harris County Court, Fort Bend County District Court, and Fort Bend County Court). San Bernardino County Superior Court is slated for release in 2 weeks on June 16th. About Lex Machina Now celebrating the 10th anniversary of Legal Analytics, the Lex Machina platform fundamentally changes how companies and law firms compete in the business and practice of law. The company provides strategic insights on judges, lawyers, law firms, parties, and other critical information across 16 federal practice areas and select state courts. Lex Machina allows law firms and companies to predict the behaviors and outcomes that different legal strategies will produce, enabling them to win cases and close business. Legal Analytics was named Best Legal Analytics (The Recorder, 2014, 2015, 2016), Best New Product of the Year (American Association of Law Libraries, 2015), a Legal A.I. Leader (The National Law Journal, 2018), Best Decision Management Solution (AI Breakthrough Awards, 2019), and Disruptor of the Year (Changing Lawyer Awards, 2019). Based in Silicon Valley, Lex Machina is part of LexisNexis, a leading global provider of legal, regulatory, and business information and analytics. For more information, please visit http://www.lexmachina.com. Vice President Joe Biden is calling George Floyds dying words a wake-up call for our nation, and criticized President Trumps decision to unleash tear gas on peaceful protesters outside the White House, in a civil rights speech from Philadelphia on Tuesday. Why it matters: Biden in the address drew a sharp contrast between himself and Trump, whose first remarks addressing nationwide unrest Monday highlighted law and order, extreme demonstrations of militarized strength and other blustery threats. What he's saying: Floyd's dying words, I cant breathe, are still "echoing across this nation," Biden said in the ornate Mayor's Reception Room in City Hall. "They speak to a nation where too often just the color of your skin puts your life at risk," Biden said. "They speak to a nation where more than 100,000 people have lost their lives to a virus and 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment with a disproportionate number of these deaths and job losses concentrated in the black and minority communities." "Its a wake-up call for our nation," Biden said. "For all of us." Biden called on Congress to act on police reform measures, endorsing a bill by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D- N.Y.) that would outlaw chokeholds. He also supported measures to create a national standard for the police use of force and to stop transferring excess military equipment to police departments. Biden said he will create a national police oversight commission in the first 100 days of his presidency. We need each and every police department to undertake a comprehensive review of their hiring, training and de-escalation practices, Biden said. Shortly before Trump's address on Monday, law enforcement officials used physical force and tear gas to break up a group of peaceful protestors to clear Lafayette Park, north of the White House, so that Trump could walk to a historic church that was damaged by fire on Sunday, to "pay respects." "[W]e can be forgiven for believing that the president is more interested in power than in principle," Biden said about the move. Biden indicated America is a long way from achieving justice, and that Trump "is part of the problem, and accelerates it." He recalled Trump's tweet which appeared to glorify violence in Minneapolis in the first several days of the city's unrest. "They weren't the words of a president, they were the words of a racist Miami police chief in the 1960s." Biden called Trump's tweet threatening to greet protesters at the White House with dogs "the kinds of words Bull Connor would've used unleashing his dogs on innocent women and children," comparing Trump to the racist Birmingham public safety official known for unleashing fire hoses and police attack dogs on mostly-black protesters in the 1960s. "I promise you this. I wont traffic in fear and division. I wont fan the flames of hate," Biden said. "I will seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued this country not use them for political gain." Morning Consult data from this past weekend shows Biden leading Trump by double digits on trust in addressing police reform and racial inequalities. Biden leads Trump on addressing racial inequalities (47% to 30%) and police reform (44% to 32%). Bidens advantage over Trump on addressing racial inequalities carried across black voters (56 percentage points), college-educated whites and suburban women (26 percentage points) and voters over 65 years old (10 percentage points). Of note: Pennsylvania, a crucial swing state, holds its primary today. YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. President Armen Sarkissian had a video talk today with Ambassador of Italy to Armenia Vincenzo del Monaco to congratulate him and the Italian people on the Republic Day, the Presidential Office told Armenpress. President Sarkissian once again expressed his support to the friendly people of Italy, expressing confidence that the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic will soon be eliminated, and the two countries will continue further developing the relations. The Ambassador thanked for the congratulations and wishes and stated that during the pandemic in Italy he always felt the warmth and friendship of the Armenian people. Talking about the deep friendly ties between Armenia and Italy, the sides highlighted the importance of constantly strengthening and developing the mutual cooperation. In this context they touched upon the expected state visit of the Armenian President to Italy this year in autumn, the cooperation prospects and opportunities between the two states in economic, scientific-technical, cultural and other areas. The Italian Ambassador said this visit will be very significant in terms of expanding the bilateral ties and deepening the cooperation in the aforementioned sectors. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan Pash Global, a subsidiary of multinational commodity trading company Trafigura Group, has signed a power purchase agreement for renewable energy on the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena. The project is in line with the South Atlantic island's aim of investing in renewables, reducing its reliance on diesel and increasing fuel security and price stabilization.UK-based impact investment company and renewable energy project developer Pash Global has signed a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Island of Saint Helena's sole utility company for the development of a 3.2 MW hybrid-technology ... Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. If Bayer AG wants to keep total Roundup liability capped at $10 billion, it may be crucial to get a 2018 California court verdict overturned. On Tuesday, the German chemical giant will ask the state appeals court to toss a jury conclusion that Roundup caused grounds keeper Lee Johnsons cancer. Johnson was awarded $289 million before a judge cut the damages to $78.5 million. By comparison, the company has been reaching settlements in thousands of other cases that range from a few thousand dollars to several million per claim, people familiar with those agreements said last month. While Bayer has reached verbal deals on many of the estimated 125,000 Roundup lawsuits in the U.S., tens of thousands remain unresolved. Legal experts say the company wants to limit payouts on those claims, and to reduce the incentive for new lawsuits, by fighting the only three cases that have gone to trial all losses, including a $2 billion award to a California couple in 2019 that was later cut to $86.7 million by a judge. Its a gamble by Bayer, but a reasonable one, said Anna Pavlik, an attorney who provides legal and regulatory analysis for investors at United First Partners LLC in New York. If Bayer were to settle the cases with jury verdicts now, those verdict numbers could be perceived by the lawyers in the remaining plaintiff cases as a tempting benchmark, and would likely push the outcome of the negotiations toward a higher ultimate number. Bayer shares rose as much as 5.4% in Frankfurt trading Tuesday, reaching the highest level in more than a month. The company has been working to end the costly legal battle it inherited when it acquired Monsanto in 2018. Since that deal, Bayer lost those three court cases and new claims about Roundup surged, dragging down shares more than a third and wiping billions of dollars from the companys market value. Because theres still a serious risk that the Johnson jury verdict is upheld, the company may be pushing to reach agreements on the global settlements before the state appeals court rules, according to Pavlik. Bayer declined to comment on its legal strategy. But in a statement, the company said the Johnson verdict should be reversed because the evidence at trial did not meet the legal burden required to prove causation and failure to warn claims under California law. A key Bayer argument is that federal regulation of Roundup preempts laws of the state, which could undermine evidence that proved so damaging at trial and dissolve tens of thousands of pending cases. Johnsons lawsuit is based on California law, including a claim that Roundups cancer risk should be disclosed on a warning label. Bayer argues that it cant add a cancer warning or reformulate the herbicide without the approval of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which says Roundup doesnt cause cancer. No Warning EPA would have rejected a cancer warning had Monsanto proposed one, Bayer said in a court filing. The agency would not possibly have required a cancer warning for a product that it determined was not likely to be carcinogenic. While theres a strong likelihood that Bayers argument will win on appeal, the company is facing liability exposure of hundreds of billions of dollars if there are more verdicts like the three its already faced, said Holly Froum, a legal analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence. Given timing pressure and comparable mass-tort settlements, Bayer may spend between $10 billion and $12 billion to resolve the Roundup litigation, according to Froum. In May, the San Francisco-based appeals panel told the parties to present arguments assuming the panel agrees that Johnsons award for future, noneconomic damages should be reduced. According to Brent Wisner, who won Johnsons case at trial, that move by the appeals court is a strong suggestion that it is rejecting the preemption argument and is more focused on the amount of damages not the viability of the verdict itself. An appeals court loss for Bayer could spark more Roundup lawsuits, just as the original jury verdict did, Wisner said. Mike Miller, Johnsons lawyer for Tuesdays appeal, didnt return a phone call or an email seeking comment. Bayers Leverage Still, Bayer has leverage in its settlement talks, especially during the pandemic, said Thomas G. Rohback, a trial lawyer at Axinn in New York who isnt involved in the litigation. The Roundup lawsuits Bayer faces are filed by users who developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma. For plaintiffs who are already ill, the coronavirus crisis has only added urgency to settle with a corporation willing to finance multiple layers of appeals in the three verdict cases, Rohback said. Time is something people dont have, Rohback said. The pandemic has created a good environment for pressuring plaintiffs to settle. The case is Johnson v. Monsanto, A155940, California Court of Appeals (San Francisco). With assistance from Tim Loh. Copyright 2022 Bloomberg. Vice Prime Minister Oleksiy Reznikov believes that there is no threat of Russian troops advancing deep into Ukraine. "The war, the armed aggression of the neighbouring state has been ongoing in Ukraine since 2014, and it is difficult to think of greater threats. I no longer see the advance of Russian troops deep into the territory of Ukraine as a threat. Because 350,000 Ukrainian fighters have gone through trials on the eastern front, and this is a serious potential which many European countries lack. Therefore, I think that there can be no large-scale war today, especially in the context of the economic crisis and the coronavirus pandemic," Reznikov said on the air of ICTV channel, an Ukrinform correspondent reported. He stressed that there was a challenge, "but we have been living with this challenge for six years, and today Ukraine is paying for Europes peace with its blood." "In fact, the war takes place not in eastern Ukraine the war takes place in Eastern Europe. That is why we urge and invite our Western partners to review the Budapest Memorandum, to give open and honest appraisal of it, and to think what to do next," the Vice Prime Minister said. In turn, Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Refat Chubarov agreed that "no one will declare military operations." At the same time, he said, "all sanctions should be imposed to force Russia to leave our territories." ol June 02 : Suddenly smartphone prices are going up in India. While Chinese company Xiaomi increased the prices of three smartphones, which it had launched recently, its previous sub-brand Poco has also hiked the prices of its smartphone without any announcement. Xiaomi has increased the prices of Redmi Note 8, Redmi 8A, and Redmi 8A Dual in India. While Redmi Note 8 was launched in India in October 2019, Redmi 8A was launched in September 2019 and Redmi 8A Dual in February 2020. Meanwhile, Poco has also hiked the price of Poco X2, which was launched in the country in February 2020. Revised prices Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage will now cost Rs. 11,999 and Rs. 14,499 for 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. It was earlier Rs. 11,499 and Rs. 13,999, respectively. Redmi 8 hiked its price by Rs. 200, and will now retail at Rs. 9,499 (4GB/ 64GB). Redmi 8A Dual price has also increased by Rs. 200 and now costs Rs. 7,299 for (2GB/32GB) and Rs. 7,999 (3GB/32GB). Redmi smartphones can be bought online at Mi.com and Amazon India. After three months of its launch in India, Poco increased the price of Poco X2 by Rs. 500. Poco X2 6GB/64GB model will now cost Rs. 17,499, whereas 6GB/128GB will now retail at Rs. 18,499. The price of its top-end model (8GB/256GB) is still the same at Rs. 20,999. Both 64GB and 128GB storage variants of the Poco X2 are now available on Flipkart. After its launch in February, Poco X2 made the first revision of its price in April this year, following increased GST rate. Features and specifications Poco X2 features a 6.67-inch full-HD+ RealityFlow 120Hz display, and runs on MIUI 11, based on Android 10. The smartphone is powered by octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G SoC, paired with LPDDR4X RAM. Poco X2 comes with a quad rear camera with a 64-megapixel primary sensor, an 8-megapixel secondary sensor, and two 2-megapixel sensors. Redmi Note 8 comes with a 6.3-inch full HD+ display and is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 processor. It has a quad rear-camera setup and a front camera. Redmi 8 has a 6.22-inch display and is powered by the Snapdragon 439 SoC. It has two rear cameras. Redmi 8A Dual comes with a 6.22-inch HD+ display and is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 processor. It has two rear cameras and a selfie snapper. The 1st Counselor of the West Africa Area Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, Elder Edward Dube, has called on the Church and Ghanaians at large to adhere to the government protocols in the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic. To him, he appreciated the excellent safety measures instituted by the President and gave an assurance that the leaders and their followers would follow religiously the measures to prevent the spread of the disease. Speaking to Pink FM Reporter Agyei Darkwah, Elder Dube said the members across the country must know that these are not normal times and that extra caution is needed to deal with the situation, safeguard the health and lives of the people as well as secure the economy and prosperity of the current and future generations. He further urged members of the religion to resort to information from accredited health professionals to educate their families, clients, and the general public. He urged members to constantly wash their hands with soap for over 20 seconds and wash them under running water, use alcohol-based sanitizers, keep a distance of, at least, two meters from people they interacted with and sneeze into tissues and immediately dispose of them. For his part, Elder John Attah Koranteng, Area Seventy, Africa West Area, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said although we are not in normal times the global pandemic (COVID 19)has a positive side which in other way has united families by making them work from home through technology. "We must not put unnecessary pressure on the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to lift the ban on all public gatherings, including conferences, workshops, funerals, political rallies, sporting events and religious activities, such as churches and mosques rather we must know that we have the gospel in our hearts and not in buildings" he quizzed. He is of the view that the government is on top of issues with regards to the coronavirus pandemic and there is the need for Ghanaians especially religious leaders to pray and have faith in our leaders. About the Church The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, (We are no more referred to as Mormons, We are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or in short Latter-day Saints) was founded in 1830, in Fayette, New York, the USA by Joseph Smith Jr. From its earliest days, the Church has followed Christ's charge to his disciples: Go ye into all the world" If you took part in the recent Tiger King craze, you might not want to miss The Truth Behind Joe Exotic: The Rick Kirkham Story on ID Investigation Discovery tonight, June 2, at 9 p.m. ET. You can also live stream the explosive behind-the-scenes special on fuboTV and Sling. In what he vows will be his last interview about Tiger King, TV producer Rick Kirkham reveals the shocking events he witnessed at the G.W. Zoo during his time with eccentric big cat breeder, Joe Exotic. Kirkham traces the nightmarish chain of events that started when he was hired to produce Exotics internet show and culminated in Kirkhams entire collection of footage being ravaged by an arson fire. After a second blaze in his home, Kirkham fled to Norway for safety. Get juicy new details on the saga and quirky cast of characters that captured the nations attention from a witness who saw it all. The Truth Behind Joe Exotic: The Rick Kirkham Story is part of ID Presents: Nine at 9, a series delving into some of true crimes most chilling cases. What channel is ID on? You can find which channel it is on by using the channel finders here: Verizon Fios, AT&T U-verse, Comcast Xfinity, Spectrum/Charter, Optimum/Altice, DIRECTV and Dish. Where can I watch it if I dont have cable? FuboTV ($54.99/month) offers you access to your favorite TV shows, live sports events and much more. Theres a 7-day free trial when you sign up. You can also watch The Truth Behind Joe Exotic: The Rick Kirkham Story on Sling ($20/month). Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 16:18:02|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Following the death of African American George Floyd, thousands of protesters have gathered for demonstrations across U.S. cities as well as around the world to show solidarity. Floyd, 46, died after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes. Two separate autopsies released Monday both found Floyd's death to be a homicide. CURFEW IMPOSED Floyd's death on May 25 triggered nationwide protests against racial discrimination and police abuse - some of them turning violent, prompting mayors and governors to impose curfews in more than 40 cities, while thousands of people have been arrested around the country. In Minneapolis, thousands of people swarmed the city on another day of protests despite an 8 p.m. curfew imposed at the nation's center of protests. Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said on Sunday night she was imposing a citywide curfew amid rising tensions between protesters and police outside the White House. The curfew lasted from 11:00 p.m. on Sunday (0300 GMT Monday) until 6:00 a.m. on Monday. Bowser also activated the D.C. National Guard to support local police. With helicopters hovering above Lafayette Square, U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday declared himself "president of law and order" and an "ally of all peaceful protesters." Just as he spoke, protesters gathering near the White House were being dispersed by police using tear gas and rubber bullets. New York City was also put under a curfew on Monday night to curb violent protests, according to a joint statement by Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday. The curfew runs from 11 p.m. Monday to 5 a.m. Tuesday, according to the statement. "While we encourage people to protest peacefully and make their voices heard, the safety of the general public is paramount and cannot be compromised," said the governor in the statement. GLOBAL SOLIDARITY Floyd's death has sparked international outrage as protestors head to the streets to voice support around the globe. Despite the ban of mass gatherings in Britain, thousands of people gathered Sunday in London and Manchester to protest over the death of Floyd. Chanting "no justice, no peace," protesters gathered in London's landmark Trafalgar Square shortly after 1 p.m. before marching through Westminster to Downing Street. Videos posted on Twitter showed people shouting Floyd's last words "I can't breathe" on the square. Taking to their knees, they also chanted "George Floyd," as some of them held banners reading "Black Lives Matter." Protests were also held in Manchester and outside the U.S. Embassy in London. Two separate protests were held in Dublin on Sunday, reported Irish national radio and television broadcaster RTE. One was held outside the U.S. Embassy in Ballsbridge, an area in Dublin where many diplomatic missions are located, while another was carried out outside the official residence of the U.S. ambassador to Ireland inside Phoenix Park, the largest public park in the country, according to the report. About 100 people took part in the protest outside the U.S. embassy, said the report. In Greece, hundreds of members of the youth wing of the Greek Communist party KKE protested peacefully on Monday outside the U.S. Embassy in Athens and the U.S. Consulate in the northern city of Thessaloniki. Raising banners of "I can't breathe," protesters outside the U.S. embassy chanted slogans such as "No to a system giving birth to crises, wars, and racism." "We join Greek peoples' voice with the voices of all people across the world against barbarity ... We join our voice with the U.S. people who are struggling these days for their rights, to be able to breathe," KKE General Secretary Dimitris Koutsoumbas said earlier. Developing a global set of transparent hospitality standards relating to health, safety and hygiene will be key to regain the trust of travellers in a post Covid-19 landscape, a panel of industry experts explained during the opening day of Arabian Travel Markets inaugural virtual event, ATM Virtual. The Hotel Landscape in a Post-Covid-19 World session which took place on June 1, discussed the importance of hotel brands providing both hospitality workers and consumers with confidence that their property, and indeed the wider destination, is safe and secure to visit. The panel which was moderated by industry consultant Gemma Greenwood, also included Tim Cordon, Senior Area Vice President for Middle East & Africa, Radisson Hotel Group, Christopher Lund, Head of Hotels, Colliers International, Middle East & North Africa, Simon Casson, President of Hotel Operations, EMEA, Four Seasons and Raki Phillips, CEO, Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority. There has never been a global pandemic of this scale in modern times, building confidence will be key as we look ahead to the post-Covid-19 hospitality recovery. Not only is it important that our workers have confidence that their health and wellbeing is of prime importance, but for consumers too. They will need full reassurance that our properties are safe, secure and following the highest standards when it comes to hygiene and cleanliness, said Cordon. Our properties rely predominantly on corporate and business travel. So, having a global standard will be essential before we start to see large organisations send their employees all over the world again. It is important that everyone can understand that whats being offered is consistent and trustworthy. While the global pandemic has severely impacted the hospitality industry worldwide, the Mena region alone has witnessed an estimated 42 per cent decrease in occupancy since March, according to the latest data from Colliers International, with many people forced to cancel or postpone their travel plans in the first half of the year. Phillips said: Our industry is very resilient and will recover and for this reason its important that hotels dont drop their room rates. Tourists will come back, we are already seeing this in Ras Al Khaimah where we are lucky to have large, spacious resorts with some offering private villas, making the implementation of social distancing measures much easier. Hotels need to adapt to a new normal with increased sanitisation at the forefront, while being creative with their offerings and embracing innovative technologies which can help differentiate them from their competitors. Travellers still want to go on holiday, but safety has now become a top priority over price, location, facilities, and services. In preparation for the resurgence, it is crucial hospitality companies can provide consumers with peace of mind by implementing and virtually showcasing the stringent hygiene and deep cleaning procedures performed rigorously across their properties. One way of achieving this consumer trust, and I believe the hospitality industry in the UAE is leading the way in this respect, is by partnering with accreditation agencies such as the Bureau Veritas to ensure your property is following disinfectant and sanitisation protocols implemented by government bodies and abiding by the highest levels of hygiene. Passing these audits provides your property with a label that guests can view and take reassurance from, said Lund. In addition, the implementation of immersive technologies that provide potential guests with virtual 3D tours of properties, as well as phone apps which allow you to enter your hotel room, change the temperature, call the elevator, book excursions and order room service are going to be vital in helping hotels recover and stand out from their competitors. Casson added: At Four Seasons we have been spending a lot of time exploring how the new guest journey, from the moment they arrive to the moment they leave, will look. While we are doing everything we can to ensure the wellbeing and safety of our guests, were also guided by global advisory, supporting each other, and sharing information on hygiene and santisiation between all relevant local partners. The hospitality industry will be a recurring theme throughout the three-day virtual event and will include a series of roundtables including Will hygiene surpass price, facilities and services, in the new normal hotel experience, Effects that Covid-19 could have on food-driven travel and The Changing Face of Luxury Family Travel. The third and final day of the debut ATM Virtual will feature an interview with Wizz Air CEO, Joszef Varadi, taking place from 10:00am 10:45am GST (7.00am 7.45am BST), while the International Travel Investment Conference summit, will discuss sustainable investment measures for the Middle East travel and tourism sector to restore travellers confidence post-pandemic. A webinar titled What are you doing to energise your operational performance?, which will discuss the power of data analytics in helping to maximise performance and the responsible tourism session, The Implications of Covid-19 for Responsible Hospitality, will also take place on day three. Concluding the event is the Influencers session titled Make Your Connection: Influencers as a Key Part of the Marketing Mix Covid-19 The Road to Recovery. This session will feature a panel of prominent travel and lifestyle influencers discussing the importance of creating relevant, engaging, and impactful travel and lifestyle content in the current climate of best practices. A special networking event focusing on the Influencer Tourism market will follow. There will also be a series of independently moderated, roundtables designed to discuss emerging hot topics such as domestic travel, luxury travel trends, corporate travel, food travel and tourism recovery plans. Day three will kick-off with the Will Hygiene Surpass Price, Facilities and Services, in the New Normal Hotel Experience? live webinar from 10am 10.45am GST (7am 7.45am BST), moderated by Hotelier Middle East editor Claudia de Brito. Other round tables are available on demand and include The Future of Corporate Travel led by Breaking Travel News; The Changing Face of Luxury Family Travel hosted by Destinations of the World News; The New Normal: What the Future Looks Like for the Hotel and Tourism Industry and Middle East: The New Asian Source Market both by Trav Talk Middle East, as well as TTN Middle Easts Challenges Faced Today by the Travel Providers and Latest travel updates, projections and upcoming trends and focus on near-, mid- and long-term travel prospects. ATM Virtual runs until June 3. To register for the event, please visit: atmvirtual.eventnetworking.com/register/ . - TradeArabia News Service A policeman tries to close the doors to the CVS store at 15th and Spruce St. in the early morning hours of May 31, 2020. The store was looted and ransacked after the George Floyd Philadelphia protest on May 30, 2020, and still temporarily closed as of Tuesday, June 2. Read more Philadelphia has experienced extensive protests since May, as thousands of people have taken to the streets to oppose police brutality in the wake of the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Walter Wallace Jr., among others. As a result, the city has seen heightened police activity, city curfews, and business closures among them, pharmacies. CVS, for example, saw more than 250 stores in 21 states damaged earlier this year, a CVS Health representative said. Now, with ongoing protests and a city curfew scheduled for 9 p.m., some pharmacies are reportedly closing early though, according to a statement from the city, some business including pharmacies may choose to operate only for delivery services later than 9:00 p.m. But as Dave Thompson, 50, who lives near 63rd and Lansdowne, told the Inquirer that some residents feel that impact. A lot of people had to go shopping and they couldnt go shopping because all the shopping places are closed, from ShopRite to Rite Aid and all these shopping centers in the neighborhood because they got ransacked, Thompson said. "So that puts everybody in a bind you cant get anything to eat, you cant get your medications. Its rough. READ MORE: Kenny defends tear gas on 676, but blasts 'vigilantism' in Fishtown If you are having trouble getting your medication at your usual pharmacy, you may be able to get it elsewhere. Pennsylvanias Pharmacy Act allows pharmacies to transfer prescriptions to other pharmacies. The access to medicine is essential, said state Department of Health spokesman Nate Wardle. The department frequently recommends that during a disaster, people take steps to ensure they have extra medication on hand should they not be able to get to the pharmacy. This time is no different. Individuals should work with their physician and pharmacies that are open to make sure they have access to their medication. Here is what you need to know: Contact your usual pharmacy first Should your regular pharmacy be closed, the first step is to try to contact that location to see if your prescription can be transferred. Or, if your usual pharmacy is part of a chain, said Philadelphia Department of Public Health director of communications James Garrow, you may be able to go to another location in that chain. You should first go to another store in the same pharmacy chain, because all stores within a chain will have your prescription information, Garrow said. Some chains, such as CVS, may set up call-forwarding services that will connect you to a nearby location if you call your usual store and it is closed. That way, all patients will continue to have access to care, said Amy Thibault, CVS Health senior manager of corporate communications. There can be a delay for this automatic phone transfer to occur due to the status of neighboring stores as well, so customers should continue to check back to be directed to the nearest open store, Thibault added. Try another chain If you are unable to find a store that is part of your usual pharmacy chain, Garrow said that the next step may be to try finding an open store that is part of another chain. That way, you may be able to have your prescription transferred. Go to an open store from a different pharmacy chain and ask the pharmacist to request your prescription information from the chain you regularly go to, Garrow said. When choosing a new store to pick up your medication, you may be able to price it out via the website GoodRX.com. That site allows you to check the cost of prescriptions at various pharmacies, and may offer a discount. Contact your physician Garrow added that if your usual pharmacy is not part of a chain, or other pharmacists are unable to get your information, you should contact your physician for a new prescription. The patient will need a new prescription from their prescriber that can be filled by an open pharmacy, said Laura Weis, the Pennsylvania Department of States deputy director of communications. However, said Michael Ingeno, a retired pharmacist with more than 30 years of experience at Bryn Mawr Hospital and Pennsylvania Hospital, you may need to provide an open pharmacy where your doctor can send your prescription. So this route may require some legwork. The doctor can write, say, one months worth of a blood pressure prescription, Ingeno said. The doctor will ask you where to send it. You need to know a pharmacy that is open. Staff writer Wendy Ruderman contributed to this article. The Logo of social media app TikTok (also known as Douyin) is displayed on a smartphone on December 14, 2018 in Berlin, Germany. TikTok has said sorry after users complained that posts with the hashtags #BlackLivesMatter and #GeorgeFloyd were shown to have zero views. Users questioned why the short-video app, which is owned by China's ByteDance, was supressing the hashtags as protests sweep across the U.S. following the death of George Floyd, who was killed in police custody in Minneapolis just over one week ago. A number of users changed their profile pictures to a raised black fist, which is a symbol for the Black Power movement, and several told others to unfollow TikTok users that are against the protests. "We acknowledge and apologize to our Black creators and community who have felt unsafe, unsupported, or suppressed," wrote Vanessa Pappas, TikTok U.S. general manager, and Kudzi Chikumbu, director of creator community, in a blog post. The issue was contained to the compose screen when users were adding hashtags to captions. Users who typed #BlackLivesMatter or #GeorgeFlyod into their video captions were told the hashtag had zero views. However, the true view count was shown when users searched the app for videos that had been given the hashtags. "A technical glitch made it temporarily appear as if posts uploaded using #BlackLivesMatter and #GeorgeFloyd would receive 0 views," they continued, adding that posts with these hashtags actually had over 2 billion views. Other popular hashtags including #cat and #dad were also affected by the issue, which started on Thursday and was fixed by Friday. TikTok said it plans to set up a "creator diversity council" that will be tasked with "recognizing and uplifting the voices driving culture, creativity, and important conversations on the platform." The company has pledged to donate $3 million to charities helping the black community during the coronavirus pandemic and commit another $1 million toward fighting racial injustice and inequality in the U.S.. In a separate post on TikTok, the company's incoming CEO, Kevin Mayer, said: "As I begin my work at TikTok, it has never been a more important time to support Black employees, users, creators, artists, and our broader community." "Words can only go so far. I invite our community to hold us accountable for the actions we take over the coming weeks, months, and years." Hundreds of TikTok users have posted images of black squares to the platform with the #BlackLivesMatter and #BlackOutTuesday hashtags. However, some users are concerned the sheer number of users doing this is clogging up the hashtag and making it harder for protest videos and other important information to get through. This is not the first time TikTok has been accused of censorship. The company acknowledged that it suppressed disabled users' videos and it also reportedly hid videos of the anti-government protests in Hong Kong. The vast majority of the tens of thousands of patients in the UK who have tested positive for Covid-19 will be counting their lucky stars that they have had only a mild encounter with the deadly virus but they may not be able to relax just yet. There is growing evidence from China, where the virus originated, and from Italy, the first European country to report cases, that patients diagnosed with even a mild case of Covid-19 may be left struggling with long-term health problems long after the virus has left their bodies. 'What we have been seeing in hospitals is the tip of the iceberg,' Professor Roberto Pedretti, head of cardiology at the Clinical Scientific Institute in Pavia, Italy, told Good Health. 'Our focus at the moment is treating patients at the acute stage to help them recover from Covid-19. But we also need to consider the future health impacts of the virus.' One of these is potential long-term lung damage, which Professor Pedretti fears is going to leave health services worldwide struggling to cope with increasing numbers of Covid-19 survivors who are disabled by reduced lung capacity and require extensive rehabilitation to restore their quality of life. Patients diagnosed with even a mild case of Covid-19 may be left struggling with long-term health problems long after the virus has left their bodies In severe cases, SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes Covid-19 infection) gets deep into the lungs, inflaming the tiny air sacs and filling them with fluid. This prevents the air sacs doing their job of transferring oxygen from the lungs into the bloodstream and taking carbon dioxide out. This is pneumonia, which in many cases of Covid-19 has been found to affect both lungs. As it progresses, patients struggle to breathe, leading to the potentially fatal condition acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) where the lungs become severely inflamed. Many patients affected are unable to breathe unassisted and need to be put on a ventilator. Even when Covid-19 patients recover from ARDS, they may be left with pulmonary fibrosis scarring of the lung tissue, which can lead to increasing breathlessness. Several recent studies have highlighted the growing evidence that Covid-19 causes fibrosis. A research paper published in a Chinese journal in March reported that 'extensive' evidence suggests that 'pulmonary fibrosis may be one of the major [long-term] complications in Covid-19 patients'. This echoes the findings of a study in Wuhan, China ground zero for the coronavirus where researchers analysed the CT scans of 81 patients with Covid-19 and found signs of fibrosis even in those who had had no symptoms, such as a cough or a high temperature (but who had tested positive for the disease). In the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases in April, researchers said it was unclear if these lung changes were 'irreversible'. NOT JUST A RISK FOR HOSPITAL PATIENTS Health authorities in Hong Kong revealed in March that among the first dozen patients who had been discharged from hospital after treatment for severe Covid-19, 25 per cent were still suffering from shortness of breath, and 'gasping' when walking a bit more quickly. Despite apparent recovery, 'some patients might have a drop of around 20 to 30 per cent in lung function', says Dr Owen Tsang Tak-yin, medical director of the Infectious Disease Centre at Princess Margaret Hospital in Hong Kong. The UK's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies has warned that Covid patients could be left with 'extreme tiredness and shortness of breath for several months'. Medical staff transfer a patient of a highly suspected case of a new coronavirus at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Hong Kong, China January 22, 2020 Some experts believe that even those who don't require hospital admission could be affected. The chairman of the Dutch Association of Physicians in Chest Medicine and Tuberculosis warned that thousands of people in the Netherlands who recovered from Covid-19 may be left with permanent damage to their lungs, adding that while many who tested positive weren't ill enough to need hospital care, it was still possible for them to suffer permanent problems. One theory is that fibrosis occurs as the virus disrupts the wound-healing process. This is what occurred with the SARS coronavirus, the forerunner of Covid-19, according to a paper published in the Journal of Virology in 2017. Research published in the journal Thorax in 2005 found that six months on, SARS survivors' lung function 'was considerably lower than that of a normal population'.Part of the problem is the length of time some patients undergo invasive ventilation in intensive care, says Ema Swingwood, chair of the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Respiratory Care. Those on a ventilator need it for 'much longer' than normal, she says 'up to 14 days or more'. Lengthy exposure to high levels of dehumidified oxygen delivered by ventilation can dry out and damage the mucociliary escalator, the mucus and microscopic 'hairs' that help transport secretions and debris up and out of the airway. Oxygen delivered non-invasively, through masks or nasal tubes, can have the same effect if used for prolonged periods. Ema says that 'we are seeing a group of patients left with extreme breathlessness and fatigue'. EVEN FIT PEOPLE HAVE BEEN AFFECTED It is not simply that people in poor health before getting Covid-19 suffer worse. 'We're seeing patients we'd never normally expect to see at all who are totally fit and well and have amazing exercise capacity and lung function, and yet they are still suffering lung problems,' says Ema. How much scarring patients develop and how well the lung recovers 'is very difficult to know at the moment', says Dr Noel Baxter, a GP and a medical adviser to Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation. 'But there are likely to be some people who end up with some sort of long-term problem'. So does the virus affect our eyes? By Alice Jaffe THE Prime Ministers chief adviser Dominic Cummings last week claimed he had travelled with his family to Barnard Castle in County Durham to see if I could drive safely. His explanation was that he had thought his vision might have been affected by coronavirus. Eye symptoms are recognised as a possible symptom of the disease conjunctivitis, sticky eyes and red eyes have been reported in around a third of patients according to a small study in Wuhan, China, published in March. Conjunctivitis is also included as a less common symptom in the World Health Organisations official list. But could Covid-19 affect vision? Robert MacLaren, a professor of ophthalmology at Oxford University, says: You would be expected to make a full recovery from the eye problems reported so far, although it may cause temporary difficulties such as blurred vision. The Royal National Institute Of Blind People says: There is no evidence of sight loss caused directly by the virus, but noted research is being carried out into some very rare cases that appear to be secondary to other complications such as blood clots caused by the virus. Advertisement The British Lung Foundation and Asthma UK have launched the Post-Covid Hub, a website where patients can be put in direct contact with clinicians. The advice from the foundation for those affected includes techniques for coping with breathlessness and tips on breaking 'unhelpful breathing habits' that can make the problem worse. For instance, people tend to breathe faster automatically when they feel breathless, and end up using the top of their chest to breathe instead of the whole of the lungs. But this is more tiring for the muscles. The foundation's advice on how to breathe more effectively can be accessed through the Post-Covid Hub website. Rehabilitation with a tailored programme of exercise for patients who have had Covid-19 will be essential, particularly for patients who have been in intensive care. But a wider group of people may need help. Karen Middleton, chief executive of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, has predicted that 'in the coming weeks and months, there will be a tidal wave of rehabilitation need'. Professor Pedretti has begun trials of a potential new rehabilitation treatment for Covid-19 patients unable to exercise enough to restore lung capacity. The trial will use ReOxy machines, which provide interval hypoxic-hyperoxic treatment (IHHT). This has been used previously to boost fitness in heart patients. It involves using an alternating mixture of reduced, then either enriched or normal levels of oxygen, administered through a face mask. Intermittently depriving the body of normal levels of oxygen brings about cell changes at a molecular level that make the cardiovascular system more efficient at transporting oxygen. Research published in the journal High Altitude Medicine & Biology in 2018 found that five weeks of IHHT training was as effective in improving cardiorespiratory fitness in patients as an eight-week conventional exercise programme. HOW THE VIRUS CAN HARM THE HEART Evidence is emerging that in some cases the virus may affect the brain, causing seizures and stroke, as well as harming the liver, kidneys, heart and blood vessels. A paper in the journal JAMA Cardiology in March reported that one in five of 416 Covid-19 patients hospitalised in Wuhan, China, had suffered heart damage. The researchers also found problems could occur even in those without underlying heart problems. Another study from Wuhan published in February noted that of 36 patients transferred to intensive care, 16 (44.4 per cent) were suffering from arrhythmia (irregular heartbeats). The heart problems are thought to occur as a result of the virus triggering a 'cytokine storm', where the immune system overreacts to the infection, leading to inflammation of the heart muscle (myocarditis). As a result, the heart pumps more weakly, causing symptoms such as breathlessness. Myocarditis can also affect the heart's electrical system, leading to heart rhythm problems. 'Covid-19 can affect the cardiovascular system through multiple pathways,' says Dr Mohammad Madjid, a cardiologist at the University of Texas. 'The virus may directly affect the heart muscle, which may not work as strongly as it should, causing the heart rhythm to become irregular.' In severe cases, he adds, there is a high risk of developing clots, which can cause problems in the heart or lungs and may even lead to a stroke. Yuchi Han, an associate professor of medicine and radiology and director of cardiac MRI at the Perelman Centre for Advanced Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, says that people with heart and vascular conditions seem to have more severe damage from the infection. Dr Han co-authored research published in the journal Heart in April, which reviewed a series of clinical reports from around the world and concluded that damage to heart muscles 'is common in Covid-19 and portends a worse prognosis'. But people with no history of heart problems appear to be equally vulnerable. He says: 'The inflammation that occurs in the heart is not limited to people who have heart or vascular disease and could occur in anyone. However, we don't yet know why in people who do not have risk factors some experience severe disease and others don't.' Such is the feared scale of the heart problems associated with the virus that on April 23 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence issued urgent guidelines 'to help healthcare professionals who are not cardiology specialists identify and treat acute myocardial injury and its cardiac complications in adults with known or suspected Covid-19 but without known pre-existing cardiovascular disease'. In the first week of the pandemic, Professor Nicholas Hart who treated Boris Johnson during his battle with Covid-19 in St Thomas' Hospital, London warned that many patients will emerge from the shadow of the immediate threat of the disease only to face a range of long-term problems. The expert in respiratory and critical care medicine tweeted: 'Covid-19 is this generation's polio.' It was a stark prediction that is now appearing to be worryingly accurate. SEE the Asthma UK and British Lung Foundation Post-Covid-19 Hub at post-covid.org.uk. Super-fit mum left at risk of having a heart transplant Amanda Cable, 51, a journalist, lives in Blackheath, South-East London Amanda Cable, 51, a journalist, lives in Blackheath, South-East London, with husband Ray, 51, a photographer, and their three children Ruby, 21, and twins Charlie and Archie, 18. By Amanda Cable for The Daily Mail A few days ago, I climbed the stairs in my house, as I have done countless times over the years. When I reached the top after albeit painfully slow progress I paused to reflect on my 'achievement'. The enormity of how life had changed hit me, and I felt tearful. It's been ten weeks since I fell ill with what at first appeared to be mild coronavirus. Since then, I've struggled to walk a few steps, let alone tackle the stairs. I've spent most of my time in bed and any trips downstairs have meant lengthy rests mid-flight. Scaling the 15 steps has become such a symbol of recovery that my cardiologist has told me to make it a measure of my improvement. I was fit and well before I became ill, but I've been warned that as a result of the virus, my health may never recover. I now have heart and lung damage and I've been warned I may one day need a pacemaker or, if I'm really unlucky, a heart transplant. I fell ill on Friday, March 20, when Covid-19 felt like a remote nightmare. We'd all had warnings from Spain and Italy, but like so many others, I watched horrific footage on the news and tried to believe it wouldn't hit the UK as hard. In truth, I thought I had little to fear. On that day, I went on a three-mile dog walk with Ray and felt unusually breathless. On the Monday, I woke with a headache, fever and a sore throat. I wouldn't have even known it was Covid-19, save for my strangely swollen left eye which I'd heard was a symptom. I self-isolated at home. 'I fell ill on Friday, March 20, when Covid-19 felt like a remote nightmare.' As the days continued, I had mild muscle ache, shivers and a slightly heavy chest. I remarked happily on Facebook, 'It's very mild I've been lucky.' But eight days after my first symptoms, my chest felt heavy and I struggled to breathe. Soon after, on the advice of NHS 111, I went to hospital. At A&E at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich, a doctor said my symptoms were so textbook they now included a black 'dot' on my toe there was no point testing for the virus, but the doctor did order an electrocardiogram (ECG), which measures the heart's electrical activity. The technician checked the printed trace, then re-did the test. He sent me straight back to the doctor, who explained it was so erratic I was possibly having a heart attack. I was rushed for X-rays. A doctor explained I wasn't having a heart attack, Covid-19 had caused inflammation to my heart and lungs. I was the third patient that day with similar symptoms. Each had been under 60, active and fit. I was sent home on strict bed rest and warned movement could cause more damage to my weakened heart muscle, and that the scarring to my lungs may be permanent. The change in my health has been difficult to grasp. At times, my breathing has been so laboured I have been utterly convinced I would die. At one point, instead of planning my next birthday, I planned my funeral with my husband. As I fought for every breath, I kept thinking of the years I would miss. My sons going to university. My daughter marrying, and having children. It felt like my entire life and future had been taken so fast. I've since seen two more cardiologists and after an ECG and echocardiogram where sound waves create moving images of the heart I have been told the inflammation to my heart has progressed to myocarditis, severe inflammation of the heart muscle. It affects the heart's electrical system and reduces its ability to pump. It's now associated with Covid-19 and can lead to heart failure, heart attack, stroke, or sudden death. I'm assured that in many cases myocarditis improves on its own. Some cases require medication, surgical treatment for instance, a pacemaker and in rare cases, heart transplant. And yes, there's a chance that could be me. So here I am all these weeks later hoping my heart mends and trying to rebuild my fitness. The scarring to my lungs makes breathing painful and stiff. I await an MRI scan to look for signs of permanent damage. My breathlessness affects my ability to talk, and a sore throat limits conversation. There are other knock-on effects, too. A few weeks ago, I started having strange stabbing pains in my left leg, so I'd dramatically collapse, clasping my thigh, like a cowboy who had been shot. Norah Jones - Will you still love me tomorrow TEHRAN, June 1 (Xinhua) -- An Iranian medical expert said unprotected social interactions and an increase in the number of tests are the reasons for the recent surge in the tally of the novel coronavirus cases in the Islamic republic. On Monday, Iran's confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 154,445, continuing a new rise in daily cases over the past weeks, while the death toll rose to 7,878. Iran reported the first cases of the disease on Feb. 19, and the officials decided to impose a major lockdown on economic and cultural sectors thereafter. In early April, Iran announced a gradual reopening of its economy and easing of restrictions on social interactions under the plan of "smart distancing." Last week, Iran allowed partial reopening of the holy shrines. All employees have returned to work since Saturday and high-risk places of businesses, such as gyms and beauty salons, have also reopened for business. Mosques, malls and holy sites have opened under social distancing rules, but wedding ceremonies remain banned. However, following the recent rise in the number of new infections, the Iranian health authorities raised the alarm over a new spike in different regions in Iran. Seven provinces are in alarming state over the virus' return, and the southwestern province of Khuzestan is in a state of emergency, Kianush Jahanpur, head of Public Relations and Information Center of the health ministry, said Sunday. "An increase in the social interaction has resulted in the re-spike of the disease," Seyyed Ahmad Hashemi, head of North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences, said in an interview. "Some people think the disease has ended, so they do not care the health protocols," Hashemi warned, noting in some gatherings the health instructions are not observed. Hashemi, an expert in infectious diseases, said the soaring infections are also linked to the increasing number of tests across the country and the tracing factor. According to the health ministry, more than 100 laboratories across the country have been equipped with the testing kits. On Monday, Iran announced the administration of 955,865 lab tests since the outbreak of the COVID-19 in the country in February. On Monday, Jahanpour urged the public to wear face masks in crowded places and respect distancing. The United States should brace itself for a decade of economic misery which will cost the economy almost $8 trillion thanks to covid-19, the Congressional Budget Office has warned. In its latest assessment, published on Monday, the CBO issued dire warnings about the lasting impact of the pandemic. Phillip Swagel, director of the CBO, projected the virus will reduce U.S. economic output by three per cent through 2030 - a loss of $7.9tn. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that business closures, unemployment and travel restrictions due to covid-19 will wipe $8 trillion off the U.S. economy over the next decade The unemployment toll caused by COVID-19 layoffs continues to rise with another 2.1 million American filing new jobless benefit claims last week. It is the 10th straight week that new claims have been above 2 million, figures released by the Labor Department on Thursday show 'Business closures and social distancing measures are expected to curtail consumer spending, while the recent drop in energy prices is projected to severely reduce US investment in the energy sector,' he wrote, in response to an inquiry from Senator Chuck Schumer. 'Recent legislation will, in CBO's assessment, partially mitigate the deterioration in economic conditions.' Nominal GDP is expected to be $15.7 trillion, or 5.3 per cent less than originally forecast. The U.S. government has poured trillions of dollars into the stuttering economy via the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, government stimulus programs and actions by the Federal Reserve. But the moves have not stopped unemployment soaring to levels unseen since the 1930s Great Depression. Thousands of unemployed people gather outside City Hall in Cleveland in October 1930, during the Great Depression, after some 2,000 jobs were made available for park improvements and repairs. Unemployment is now at levels not seen since then So far some 40 million Americans have lost their jobs and on Friday the Labor Department is expected to announce the unemployment rate reached 20 per cent in May - up from 14.7 per cent in April and just 4.4 per cent in March. Congress is currently debating another $3tn aid package and the renewal of several federal aid programs that are set to expire, including a temporary boost to unemployment benefits that will lapse at the end of July. Republicans have balked at the size of the new stimulus program. Schumer seized on the CBO release to press for action. 'In order to avoid the risk of another Great Depression, the Senate must act with a fierce sense of urgency to make sure that everyone in America has the income they need to feed their families and put a roof over their heads,' said Schumer in a statement. 'The American people cannot afford to wait another month for the Senate to pass legislation. They need our help now.' Nearly one in five households with children have reported food insecurity during the pandemic, and about a quarter of respondents in a recent Census poll said they were struggling to pay their rent or mortgage. Unemployment reached record high rates across 43 US states in April, with Nevada, Michigan and Hawaii hardest hit by the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic People wait in line for a food bank in New York City. Millions of Americans across all industries have found themselves jobless overnight amid the pandemic The only assistance most Americans have been able to access since the crisis began is a one-time $1,200 direct payment, which Republicans are reluctant to repeat, and $600 per week on top of regular unemployment benefits, which the Republicans do not want to extend after July. Bernie Sanders, senator for Vermont, joined Schumer in criticizing Mitch McConnell, the most senior Republican in the Senate, for dragging his heels on relief efforts. The House recently passed a second bill to help those affected by covid-19. McConnell derided the Democratic-led HEROES Act as a 'liberal wish list' and said on Monday that Republicans and the White House are drafting a new package which, he vowed, will be the last covid-19 relief any Americans get. A key component of the bill will be protection from legal liability for companies if their employees contract covid-19 after returning to work. 'How can Senator McConnell look at these catastrophic economic numbers and believe there is no 'urgency' to protect America's working families?' said Sanders and Schumer. The office also warned that further adjustments to its projections are likely as more is known about the coronavirus's path, its ultimate economic damage and the impact of congressional funding measures. 'An unusually high degree of uncertainty surrounds these economic projections,' Swagel wrote. 'Particularly because of uncertainty about how the pandemic will unfold this year and next year, how the pandemic and social distancing will affect the economy, how recent policy actions will affect the economy, and how economic data will ultimately be recorded for a period when extreme changes have disrupted standard estimation methods and data sources.' NEW YORK, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Attorney Randy Adler has joined nationally-recognized powerhouse Barton LLP in New York as the Co-Chair of the firm's Emerging Companies and Venture Capital Practice. "The BigLaw model just doesn't fit my innovative clientele anymore. Clients want lawyers and firms with the sophistication of the AmLaw 50 and the collaborative spirit of an entrepreneur," said Adler. "Barton's model is already incredibly successful and continues to flourish because it provides my clients with exactly what they've been asking for over the past year. I can't believe a firm like Barton actually exists." Adler has a talent for identifying unseen opportunities involved with business models which thrive and grow in the marketplace. He co-founded RK ADLER LLP, modeling it as a "startup for startups," and built it into one of New York's premier boutique law firms. The success of that firm led to its merger with Dentons LLP. "Randy is a perfect fit inside the Barton model," said Roger Barton, managing partner of Barton LLP. "Even in the pandemic, we continue to bolster our team by attracting and retaining major BigLaw talent because of our client-driven platform. Randy is an incredible addition to our Emerging Companies and Venture Capital practice." Barton's nationally-recognized law firm has a proven record of attracting next generation BigLaw partners and their clientele due to its high quality services combined with an innovative and visionary mindset. "Barton brings the best elements of a law firm in under one roof," said Adler. "You have sophisticated partner-level expertise and work product mixed with a welcoming, entrepreneurial, collaborative environment. My clients are of the same mindset. It's a winning formula." Adler began his legal career at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP before creating RK ADLER, LLP. After the success RK ADLER led to its merger with Dentons LLP, Randy joined Fox Rothschild as the National Co-Chair of the Emerging Companies & Venture Capital Practice Group. Adler is a nationally-recognized leader in emerging growth companies and venture capital. About Barton Barton LLP, is a mid-size transactional and litigation boutique based in New York with an office in Nashville, providing services to domestic and international businesses, investment funds, financial service firms, and owners of privately held businesses. Contact: Roger E. Barton [email protected] 711 Third Avenue, 14th Floor New York, NY 10017 Tel: 212.885.8816 www.bartonesq.com SOURCE Barton LLP Related Links https://www.bartonesq.com live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Strides Pharma Science on Tuesday said it has received US health regulator's approval for its generic version of triamcinolone acetonide ointment used for treatment of various skin conditions. The approval is granted to the company's step-down wholly owned subsidiary, Strides Pharma Global, Singapore, by the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for triamcinolone acetonide ointment USP, 0.05 per cent, Strides Pharma Science said in a regulatory filing. "The product is part of the niche and small volume product portfolio with limited competition in the US market," it added. Citing IQVIA data, the company said the US market for triamcinolone acetonide ointment USP, 0.05 per cent, is approximately USD 15 million. "The product will be manufactured at the company's flagship facility at Bengaluru and will be marketed by Strides Pharma in the US market," it added. The company has 124 cumulative abbreviated new drug application filings with USFDA of which 86 have been approved and 38 are pending clearance. TRENTON Nows not the time for penny-pinching. Police sources went on the attack against Trenton Police Director Sheilah Coley following Sundays widespread rioting in downtown Trenton, blaming her decision to send anywhere from 12 to 20 officers home as part of the reason TPD was outflanked by violent protesters late Sunday. Sources believed concerns about ballooning overtime costs drove her decision rather than public safety. They were caught with their f***ing pants down, one police source said. Today was like a volcano about to erupt. Officers disappointed, mad, felt there was no plan in place. Theyre all pointing the finger at her. Trenton had all hands on deck for most of Sunday, expecting another round of protests over the death of George Floyd. Coley said at a news conference Monday that TPD had at least 70 officers on duty, but that changed around 7 p.m. as the crowds once in the thousands dissipated. At that point, Coley estimated 12 officers were sent home for the night but characterized her decision as data- and intelligence-driven rather than over budgetary concerns for the always-struggling capital city. We still had more than enough people to step in, she said, defending her call. We never missed a beat in terms of the coverage we had. Police sources accused Coley of downplaying the manpower shortage claiming TPD officers were called back in once the violence erupted shortly after 8 p.m. Luckily, TPD got huge swarms of statie reinforcements and mutual aid from neighboring municipalities to deal with the escalating rioting and looting otherwise things couldnt have gotten worse, the police source said. The source took issue with Coleys claim that only a dozen officers were sent home, claiming the number was closer to 20. The police source compared Coleys figures to the horrendously inaccurate crime stats TPD put out to justify the curfew. What are they saving it for a rainy day and not a riot, the police source said. We sent our cops home, and then 45 minutes later, were calling for mutual aid. Coley insisted the crowd was manageable by the time the TPD cops were sent home, but then quickly spiked. Hindsight being 20/20, the TPD director refused to back down from her decision saying it was absolutely the right one given the intelligence. And she received a ringing endorsement from her boss, Mayor Reed Gusciora. It was based on the same intelligence that this was dwindling down, he said. You dont know if this was specifically planned. It was brilliant on their part if it was to act like you were dissipating then come back with a vengeance. (CNN) As India continues its battle with the coronavirus pandemic a new kind of invasion is threatening to destroy vital crops and vegetation -- the worst locust swarm the country has seen in almost 30 years. Waves of desert locusts -- millions strong and stretching up to 7 kilometers (4 miles) long -- crossed into India's western state of Rajasthan from neighboring Pakistan in early May and swarms have since pushed into five different states in search of food. The desert locust is the most destructive of all food-eating locust species because of its speed and ability to multiply rapidly, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. Adult locusts can fly up to 150 kilometers (93 miles) a day and eat their own body weight -- equal to 2 grams -- worth of fresh vegetation in that period. A swarm can vary from one to several hundred square kilometers -- with each square kilometer containing up to 80 million adult locusts. The FAO said much of the locust movements were driven by the strong westerly winds in the wake of Cyclone Amphan in the Bay of Bengal, which slammed into India and Bangladesh on May 20, killing at least 90 people and causing more than $13.2 billion dollars in damage. From Rajasthan, the swarm entered Uttar Pradesh -- which borders the capital New Delhi -- in the north, Madhya Pradesh in central India and Maharashtra and Gujarat in the west on Thursday, according to India's agriculture minister. Other states have been put on alert. Jharkhand in the country's east, issued a state-wide alert to farmers on Sunday to prepare for locust swarms, according to P K Sannigrahi, senior scientist at the Krishi Vigyan Kendra Knowledge Network in the state. "Lighting a fire, bursting crackers, banging plates and tins, and playing the drums as well can chase locusts away, these insects can't tolerate loud noises," the advisory issued to farmers read. The New Delhi government also issued an advisory to be prepared if the swarms turned toward the national capital. Controlling the swarm Hard-hit states have been carrying out locust control operations that include dispersing the flying insects with drones, tractors, and fire engines. Rajasthan, which was the first to be impacted by the locusts, has been conducting daily operations since May 22. "The locusts were sitting in an area that was 7 kilometers (4 miles) long and 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) wide. We started the control operations around 1 a.m. (Tuesday) along with the Locust Organization team," said B R Karwa, a deputy director of Rajasthan's Agriculture Department. Karwa added that 11 swarms initially entered the state and three followed the winds onwards toward Madhya Pradesh. State officials are using 100 tractor-mounted sprayers and 20 fire engines across 11 districts to spray water and pesticides. Drones provided by the central government were also used to spray pesticides in two districts in Rajasthan, according to Karwa. He added that about 70% of the locusts there had been destroyed. Despite dispersal operations, locust infestations could continue into next month. "Several successive waves of invasions can be expected until July in Rajasthan with eastward surges across northern India as far as Bihar and Orissa followed by westward movements and a return to Rajasthan on the changing winds associated with the monsoon," according to the Desert Locust Situation Update issued by the FAO. Breeding season The locusts have flown into India from their breeding areas in Pakistan, according to Om Prakash, a Rajasthan-based plant protection officer for the Locust Warning Organization. While locust invasions can be devastating for communities because they pose a threat to food security, India has so far appeared to have escaped from the worst as farmers have not yet begun to sow the new season's crops. "The locusts were sitting on barren land. The winter crops have been cut and it hasn't rained yet so the new season's crops have not been sown. Those who planted fodder crops or vegetables could chase the locusts away. This time, there wasn't much loss," said Karwa. Earlier this year, the Horn of Africa was hit by the worst invasion of desert locusts in 25 years, devastating large swaths of food and pasture in the region. This story was first published on CNN.com, "India is using drones and fire trucks to fight its worst locust invasion in almost 30 years." Haiti - FLASH : 2,226 cases, the Covid-19 continues to progress The Ministry of Public Health informs that 102 new cases were confirmed in Haiti (the day before: 259), for a total of 2,226 cases throughout the national territory (40.5% women and 59.5% men) since the first case (March 19, 2020 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30319-haiti-health-origin-of-the-first-2-cases-of-covid-19-in-haiti.html ). 1 new death has been recorded in the West bringing the total to 45. The number of active cases (less death and recovery) is now 2,157 (+ 4.91%) +101 cases in 24 hours (the day before: +256) Number of suspected cases : 5,270 cases (+ 14.57%) +26 (the day before: +667) All the details in our daily report of 11:00 am See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30920-haiti-covid-19-daily-report-june-1-2020.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30914-haiti-flash-the-country-crosses-the-bar-of-2-000-cases.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30319-haiti-health-origin-of-the-first-2-cases-of-covid-19-in-haiti.html S/ HL/ HaitiLibre Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called for an investigation after two of the country's journalists were attacked by police in Washington DC on Monday. During a live morning newscast on the program "Sunrise" on Tuesday in Australia, police were seen using their shields to clear Channel 7 News US correspondent Amelia Brace and photojournalist Tim Myers from the scene. The Australian outlet is a CNN affiliate. The video shows police hitting Myers and punching his camera. Another officer then directs the pair, who were trapped against a wall, to move on, before appearing to smack Brace in the back with a baton. Marise Payne, the country's foreign minister, said that Morrison had "contacted the Australian Embassy in Washington DC on Tuesday instructing them to investigate the troubling incident and provide further advice on registering the Australian government's concern." Payne added in an interview with ABC Radio National on Tuesday that "I want to get further advice on how we would go about registering Australia's strong concerns with the responsible local authorities in Washington." Australia's Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade "reached out to Amelia and to Tim, the Channel 7 team, to check on their wellbeing through the embassy and Channel 7 here in Australia," Payne said. The US ambassador to Australia, Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., said in a statement posted on Twitter that "freedom of the press is a right Australians and Americans hold dear. We take the mistreatment of journalists seriously." "We remain steadfast in our commitment to protecting journalists and guaranteeing equal justice for all under the law," he added. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 125 press freedom violations have been reported in the United States by journalists covering protests triggered by death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota. At least 20 journalists have been arrested, according to the media watchdog. CNN's Omar Jimenez and members of his crew were taken into police custody during a live broadcast at the site of protests in Minneapolis last week, even though he clearly identified himself as a journalist. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office is investigating the alleged assault of a Wall Street Journal reporter covering the protests by members of the New York Police Department. In an interview with "Sunrise" following the incident in Washington DC, Brace said that "we have regrouped we are not too bad. It is actually the tear gas that gets you the most, it is very hard to continue speaking in that situation." Brace said that she and Myers were both shot with rubber bullets. "There was no escape at that moment, we had the [National Guard] behind us the police coming through so quickly there was nowhere for us to go," Brace added. LUDINGTON, MI The former finance director for the Ludington Badger car ferry has pleaded guilty to bank fraud and tax evasion related to his theft of between $550,000 and $3.5 million from the ferry operations. Paul Patrick Piper, 57, worked as the financial controller for the Lake Michigan Carferry for many years and stole from the ferry operations over 11 years, according to according to a plea agreement filed in the U.S. District Court for Western Michigan. Lake Michigan Car Ferry operates the S.S. Badger, which carries vehicles and passengers across Lake Michigan to Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Pipers plea to bank fraud and filing false tax returns was entered on Tuesday, June 2. He faces up to 30 years in prison. Proceeds of his thefts were used to support Piper Tax & Accounting, a coffee shop he owned and personal living expenses, according to the agreement. The amount of the thefts and the amount Piper will be required to pay back is between $550,000 and $3.5 million, according to the plea agreement. The amount will be determined later either through negotiation or by the court following a hearing. Related: Ex-finance director faces federal charges of stealing from SS Badger cross-lake ferry He agreed to pay nearly $364,000 in restitution plus interest and fees to the Internal Revenue Service for the four tax years from 2014-17 during which he didnt report the money he received through his fraudulent activity. That figure is based on the excess income upon which he did not pay tax, the plea agreement states. For example, in 2017, he reported $323,000 in gross receipts in business income for his accounting business, when in reality they were more than $700,000, according to the agreement. Details of his crimes are provided in the plea agreement. It states that he would remotely access the car ferrys accounting software from his Piper Tax & Accounting business. On numerous occasions from 2007 to 2018, Piper wrote car ferry checks to himself or his businesses and either forged signatures of authorized car ferry personnel or used signature stamps without their authorization. After printing the checks at his accounting firm, Piper deleted his name from the computer system and entered the names of various insurance companies. He indicated in accounting ledgers that some of the checks were for insurance expenses. Other times, he overpaid his company for accounting services, according to the plea agreement. Sentencing before Chief U.S. District Judge Robert J. Jonker is set for Aug 11. Piper faces up to 30 years in prison for bank fraud and three years for filing a false tax return. He has forfeited a 2018 Dodge Ram Truck, a 2008 Glacier Bay recreational vehicle and cash in lieu of forfeiture of other assets, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Some of his fraud proceeds were transferred to other people or co-mingled with other property that cant be divided without difficulty, the plea agreement states. Also on MLive: Details released of proposed new Lake Michigan park near Muskegon Takeout Tuesday: Five more Muskegon-area restaurants to try this week Silver Lake State Park announces ORV area opening date Majek Fashek, a Nigerian reggae musician, has died, his manager said on Tuesday. Majek, who toured the world with the sound of African reggae with hits such as the Prisoner of Conscience and Send Down the Rain, died in New York, Omenka Uzoma, who has served as his manager and publicist for about seven years, said Tuesday morning. His age was not immediately clear. The legend has gone to meet with the Lord, Mr Uzoma said in a video uploaded by HipTV. We should all celebrate him his achievement. Mr Uzoma did not immediately disclose the cause of death, which could be deliberate considering his past refusal to disclose the nature of the artists illness. Majeks 1988 album Prisoner of Conscience and the single Send Down the Rain became a major hit worldwide and garnered multiple awards, including Performing Musicians Association of Nigerias album of the year in 1989. It was followed by So Long for Too Long in 1991, which incorporated haunting vocals with the artists captivating rhythm. READ ALSO: In the early 2000s, Majek, whose stage name was a condensed form of his full name Majekodunmi Fasheke, featured in some local film productions in Nigeria, including Mark of the Beast. The last few years of his life were replete with multiple allegations of excessive drug use and illness, most of which the artist declined to publicly confirm. In 2019, there were rumours of his death, but he debunked them by confirming that he was receiving treatment at a rehabilitation centre on the outskirts of the Nigerian capital, Abuja. In September, his publicist sought financial help from the public to help care for the Nigerian legend, a call that was heeded by many, including businessman Femi Otedola. He was treated at a hospital in London for several months before he moved to the United States in January 2020 to be with his family. He was survived by four children and his ex-wife, Rita. LONDON -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnsons government faced widespread mockery on Tuesday over coronavirus rules which were cast by some media as a sex ban, though a junior minister said the regulations were aimed at keeping people safe. Under amendments introduced to the rules on Monday, no person may participate in a gathering which takes place in a public or private place indoors, and consists of two or more persons. Britains tabloid media cast it as a bonking ban. What this about is making sure we dont have people staying away from home at night, British junior housing minister Simon Clarke told LBC radio when questioned about the so called bonking ban. When asked if the rules allowed couples to copulate outdoors, Clarke chuckled and said: It is fair to say the transmission risk of coronavirus is much lower in the open air than in internal space, but obviously we do not encourage people to do anything like that outside at this time or any other. On Twitter, #sexban was trending in the United Kingdom. Over the weekend, several Twitter users had reported the website of Amazon U.K. after seeing racial comments from a user on the Apple Airpods listings page. Interestingly, the said comments were not deleted right away by the online store. This caused controversy between the customers that had seen the discriminatory words and the fact that they don't know how long these racist posts were flashed on the page before Amazon deleted it. Amazon UK website bombarded with 'N-Word'; Store now deletes them As reported via BBC on Sunday, May 31, multiple listings on the Amazon UK website contained insensitive and racist comments on their pages. If you happen to search for 'Apple Airpods' and similar products over the weekend, here's what you might have seen in the online store. Several racist remarks are saying the 'N-word' had been all over the place on the website. It was unclear whether how long the posts were active on the Amazon U.K. website before it gets reported and deleted by the management. However, it seemed like it had been a long period since screenshots of the posts already circulated on Twitter. If you search airpods on @amazonuk you're greeted with pictures calling you a nigger. And it's been up like this for a couple of hours. Despite Amazon being a 24 hour company. I'm tired. aji (@ajibolajosiah) May 30, 2020 Nadine White, a journalist for the Huffington Post, tweeted that the abuse "needs to be acknowledged, removed, explained, apologised for asap. Being Black right now is hard enough; we don't need to be called the 'N-word' while shopping online, to boot". Amazon now deleted the listings with 'N-Word' The Amazon website said that a 'bad actor' did all the changes on the listings. The management did not elaborate on the details about the said 'bad actor.' "We investigated, removed the images in question, and took action against the bad actor," Amazon told the BBC. George Floyd's case stirs racism in the U.S. Racism is now one of the most-talked-about issues in the United States over the story of the Black man George Floyd's death circulated online. Law enforcement has been in total lockdown on Minneapolis, Minnesota to control the extreme violence that is still happening right now on the state. Shots fire, looting of stores, and multiple injuries were already reported. The issue of racial discrimination was also heightened during the event. Even the U.S. Pres. Donald Trump was bashed online for posting phrases like "when looting starts, shooting starts." Some Twitter users connected this issue to this past event. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Nearly a dozen protesters were arrested Monday night at Birminghams Linn Park for refusing to abide by the citys new curfew. Mayor Randall Woodfin on Monday morning implemented a 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for the city. Additionally, he has closed the streets around Linn Park, which was the site of overnight protests that turned violent. Shortly before 7 p.m. Birmingham Police Departments SWAT Team arrived at the park on Park Place and 20th Street, giving warnings over a loudspeaker that protesters must evacuate. SWAT officers cleared the park during which time most of those in the park, including the homeless who routinely say there, left. However, a dozen or so protesters, citing their right to assemble, refused to leave. They were handcuffed, placed into a police paddy wagon, and taken to the Birmingham City Jail. The SWAT team about 7:20 p.m. left the park but more than a dozen uniform patrol officers are standing in front of the the 115-year-old Confederate Soldiers and Sailors monument in Birminghams Linn Park that became the target of demonstrators during a Sunday night protest. Protesters, part of the nationwide demonstrations over the death of George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer, had unsuccessfully tried to tear the Confederate monument on Sunday night. AL.com coverage of protests PITTSBURGH-- Some people look at an equation and see a bunch of numbers and symbols; others see beauty. Thanks to a new tool created at Carnegie Mellon University, anyone can now translate the abstractions of mathematics into beautiful and instructive illustrations. The tool enables users to create diagrams simply by typing an ordinary mathematical expression and letting the software do the drawing. Unlike a graphing calculator, these expressions aren't limited to basic functions, but can be complex relationships from any area of mathematics. The researchers named it Penrose after the noted mathematician and physicist Roger Penrose, who is famous for using diagrams and other drawings to communicate complicated mathematical and scientific ideas. "Some mathematicians have a talent for drawing beautiful diagrams by hand, but they vanish as soon as the chalkboard is erased," said Keenan Crane, an assistant professor of computer science and robotics. "We want to make this expressive power available to anyone." Diagrams are often underused in technical communication, since producing high-quality, digital illustrations is beyond the skill of many researchers and requires a lot of tedious work. Penrose addresses these challenges by enabling diagram-drawing experts to encode how they would do it in the system. Other users can then access this capability using familiar mathematical language, leaving the computer to do most of the grunt work. The researchers will present Penrose at the SIGGRAPH 2020 Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, which will be held virtually this July because of the COVID-19 pandemic. "We started off by asking: 'How do people translate mathematical ideas into pictures in their head?'" said Katherine Ye, a Ph.D. student in the Computer Science Department. "The secret sauce of our system is to empower people to easily 'explain' this translation process to the computer, so the computer can do all the hard work of actually making the picture." Once the computer learns how the user wants to see mathematical objects visualized -- a vector represented by a little arrow, for instance, or a point represented as a dot -- it uses these rules to draw several candidate diagrams. The user can then select and edit the diagrams they want from a gallery of possibilities. The research team developed a special programming language for this purpose that mathematicians should have no trouble learning, Crane said. "Mathematicians can get very picky about notation," he explained. "We let them define whatever notation they want, so they can express themselves naturally." An interdisciplinary team developed Penrose. In addition to Ye and Crane, the team included Nimo Ni and Jenna Wise, both Ph.D students in CMU's Institute for Software Research (ISR); Jonathan Aldrich, a professor in ISR; Joshua Sunshine, an ISR senior research fellow; cognitive science undergraduate Max Krieger; and Dor Ma'ayan, a former master's student at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. "Our vision is to be able to dust off an old math textbook from the library, drop it into the computer and get a beautifully illustrated book -- that way more people understand," Crane said, noting that Penrose is a first step toward this goal. ### A video shows Penrose in action: https://vimeo.com/416822487 The National Science Foundation, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Sloan Foundation, Microsoft Research and the Packard Foundation supported this research. We're sorry, but we're unable to locate the page you requested. The page may have been removed, renamed, or deleted. You can try searching for the topic using the search button in the right hand corner above. Johnny C. Taylor Jr., a human resources expert, is tackling your questions as part of a series for USA TODAY. Taylor is president and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management, the world's largest HR professional society. The questions are submitted by readers, and Taylor's answers below have been edited for length and clarity. Have a question? Do you have an HR or work-related question youd like me to answer? Submit it here. Question: My company is starting conversations about returning to work. One of the stipulations is that we get a temperature screening before we come into the office each day. Isn't this an invasion of health privacy? If I feel fine, why should I be subjected to a screening? Anonymous Johnny C. Taylor Jr.: In short, yes, your employer can require temperature screenings during this outbreak. That said, heres the longer answer. Ordinarily, taking employee temperatures would be a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). However, these are extraordinary times. Because of COVID-19, employers may require temperature checks for people returning to the office for work. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued guidance that allows organizations to ask employees if theyve experienced symptoms associated with COVID-19 and check their temperatures. In fact, some states have mandated that employers must check employee temperatures every day. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), COVID-19 has an incubation period of up to 14 days. This means even if you feel fine, you could be unknowingly spreading the virus to the people around you for as long as two weeks. Catching an elevated temperature early on mitigates that risk. While Im no doctor, I do know employers are obliged to ensure the workplace is reasonably safe. Temperature screenings, whether done at work or by employees at home, can be an important precaution to protect workers and the workplace. While it is a departure from normalcy, this measure like facemasks, hand-washing, and social distancing is intended to protect the health of both the workforce and the public. Story continues My view, however, is were all adults. If you wake up feeling sick or exhibiting any symptoms of COVID-19 (e.g., fever, coughing, shortness of breath) as described by the CDC, trust your gut and stay home. I know some of these measures may seem bothersome. But they are sensible steps that can give employees peace of mind, and help us all return to work swiftly and safely. Question: I would like to know as a furloughed employee, does my company have to let me know when they'll bring me back to work? Anonymous Taylor.: Good question, though, Im sorry to say employers are not required to provide furloughed employees with a precise return date. This answer might be disappointing. But with 52% of U.S. employers changing employee hours, furloughing, or laying off workers to reduce costs during the pandemic, youre certainly not alone. And, given the novelty of this new normal, it is understandable. Much remains uncertain and especially so for certain industries and organizations. COVID-19: Explaining a layoff: Ask HR Working during coronavirus: Can I get fired for refusing vaccinations? Ask HR However, I will add this. Although your employer may be unable to give you a concrete return date, they should be consistently communicating with you and providing regular updates. If you feel left out of the loop, you should reach out to HR and ask when you might expect to return to work. That said, dont be surprised if theyre either unable to provide one yet or if that date is subject to change. Remember: Companies want to get back to business as usual, too. However, there may be certain state or federal guidelines restricting or inhibiting an employers ability to resume operations and bring workers back. Ultimately, your best decision will be determined by the details I dont have, such as where you live, what you do, or in which industry. Yes, this may be a pandemic. However, its impact plays out locally; so, certain communities and sectors may expect a quicker recovery than others. Consider your situation carefully. If you suspect a long wait before being recalled, it might be wise to begin searching for a new job now. (For advice on landing a new gig after being furloughed due to COVID-19, see my recent response to a reader here.) Alternatively, if you feel your job is worth the wait, you could apply for unemployment benefits during your furlough. I hope your wait isnt too long. Stay well! This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Temperature checks are allowed for those returning to work: Ask HR Actress Debra Messing has drawn backlash for a Twitter post about Trump and Hitler Actress Debra Messing has drawn backlash after posting photos purporting to draw a link between President Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler. 'A dog whistle to white nationalists and Nazis,' commented Messing above the images of Trump holding a Bible on Monday and a doctored photo of Hitler holding a book. 'This is not an accident' read the caption on the two photos. The Will & Grace star's tweet was met with an avalanche of replies pointing out that the photo of Hitler had been edited from the original to add a book to the Nazi dictator's hand. 'You DO realize the Hitler photo is a fake, don't you? It was photo-shopped you mindless twit,' wrote radio host Neal Boortz. 'Please check stuff before you spread it. The Hitler photo is fake,' BuzzFeed News media editor Craig Silverman told Messing. Others questioned why the act of holding a Bible would be viewed as a secret reference to Hitler, even if the photo were real. 'Hollywood elites: anyone holding a Bible is Hitler! This is idiocy,' said Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican. One person posted side-by-side photos of Trump and Hitler drinking a glass of water, with the caption 'well well well.' Messing has been outspoken about her anti-Trump politics in recent years. Trump also faced harsh criticism for the photo-op that produced the image of him holding the Bible, after riot police cleared away a crowd on Monday for him to walk to St. John's Episcopal church from the White House. Attorney General Bill Barr personally ordered federal police forces to clear Lafayette park of protesters shortly before President Donald Trump staged the photo-op. The order set in motion a brash use of force where federal law enforcement reportedly used tear gas, rubber bullets, and mounted officers to push protesters out of the square across the street from the White House. The move led to howls of protest from Trump critics but not his traditional allies after Trump staged a photo-op in front of St. John's church just minutes after the use of force. The acting chief of the U.S. Park Police police claimed in a statement that his forces did not use tear gas, despite eyewitness accounts and a priest at St. John's who says she was 'coughing with tear gas in my clergy collar.' THE NUMBER of Covid-19 cases in Limerick has fallen for the second day in a row. On Bank Holiday Monday, the number of confirmed cases of the disease in Limerick was 594 - a drop of 35 on Sunday. This Tuesday, the figure stands at 581 - 13 less cases than Monday. It appears to be due to cases which had been attributed to Limerick being, in fact, detected in County Clare. On Monday, Covid-19 cases in Clare rose by 37. Today, they went up a further eight - from 360 to 368. In reply to a query from the Limerick Leader on the reclassification, a spokesperson for the Department of Health said: "The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) has advised that in the process of validating data and reviewing addresses, cases may be reassigned to another county. "It is also possible for cases to be denotified so it is important not to draw inferences from statistically small changes in data that is constantly undergoing validation." Separately, the HPSC has today been informed that a total of eight people with Covid-19 have died. There have now been a total 1,658 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland. As of midnight Monday, June 1 the HPSC has been notified of 10 confirmed cases of Covid-19. There is now a total of 25,066 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland. Dr Tony Holohan, chief medical officer, Department of Health, said: "Over the past week there have been approximately 500 new cases of Covid-19 notified, 54% of which are aged between 24-55 years old. Incidences of these cases are spread across 21 counties in Ireland. While we are doing well, the potential for spread remains present across all regions of the country. "NPHET will meet on Thursday, June 4 and submit further recommendations to Government for consideration." Dr Cillian De Gascun, director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, said: "As of midnight Monday, June 1, 348,416 tests have been carried out. Over the past week, 22,621 tests were carried out and of these 389 were positive, giving a positivity rate of 1.7%. Dr Ronan Glynn, deputy chief medical officer, Department of Health, said: "47% of people are taking longer than four days from onset of symptoms to being swabbed. We are strongly encouraging all members of the public to know the symptoms of Covid-19 and seek medical attention as soon as symptoms appear." Todays data from the HPSC, as of midnight, Sunday, May 31 (25,056 cases), reveals: 57% are female and 43% are male. The median age of confirmed cases is 48 years. 3,292 cases (13%) have been hospitalised. Of those hospitalised, 408 cases have been admitted to ICU. 7,986 cases are associated with healthcare workers. Dublin has the highest number of cases at 12,090 (48% of all cases) followed by Cork with 1,517 cases (6%) and then Kildare with 1,419 cases (6%) Of those for whom transmission status is known: community transmission accounts for 39%, close contact accounts for 58%, travel abroad accounts for 2%. The developing severe tropical cyclonic storm Nisarga in the Arabian Sea is expected to make landfall in Raigad district, located south of Mumbai, by Wednesday afternoon, India Meteorological Department (IMD) authorities said on Tuesday morning. However, private weather forecasters maintained that the landfall would be in Palghar, located north of Mumbai, in line with their earlier predictions. The weather system, currently a deep depression, is located about 280 kilometres (km) west-southwest of Panjim, 490 km south-southwest of Mumbai, and 710 km south-southwest of Surat. It is likely to intensify into a cyclonic storm by 11:30 am on Tuesday and a severe cyclonic storm in another 12 hours. The maximum wind speed is expected to range between 100 and 110 km per hour (kmph) on Wednesday afternoon gusting to 120 kmph along the coast of Mumbai during landfall. The current trajectory of the system shows landfall in Raigad district just brushing south of Mumbai, which is likely to impact the countrys financial capital with the possibility of extremely heavy rain and high-speed winds, said Sunitha Devi, in-charge of cyclones, IMD. The district authorities in Mumbai, Thane, Raigad and Palghar have been warned about the severity of the weather event, as Nisarga moves closer to landfall on Wednesday afternoon, she added. On Monday morning, the IMD authorities had expected the landfall in Palghar district, but based on studying the trajectory of the system revised their prediction by Monday evening. Skymet, a private weather forecasting agency, on Tuesday, said the landfall is still expected in Palghar district. Our weather models are showing the landfall north of Mumbai with a crucial period of extremely heavy rain and gale winds expected from Tuesday evening to Wednesday afternoon, said Mahesh Palawat, vice-president (meteorology and climate change), Skymet. Heavy rain over Mumbai may lead to intense flooding, he added. IMDs latest bulletin issued warnings for the expected storm surge and damage across Mumbai, Thane, Raigad and Ratnagiri districts on Wednesday. Storm surge of about one-two metres high above astronomical tide (tidal characteristics associated with gravitational effects) is likely to inundate low-lying areas of Mumbai, Thane and Raigad districts, and up to one metre high above the astronomical tide likely to inundate the low-lying areas of Ratnagiri district during landfall, the IMD release said. Major damages are expected for thatched houses, huts and those with unattached metal sheets as rooftops, which could be blown away due to high-speed winds, the IMD bulletin said. Power and communication lines are expected to be damaged along with uprooting of trees and breaking of tree branches. Coastal crops would bear the brunt, embankments might get eroded, the IMD has warned. Dr. Roxy Mathew Koll, senior scientist, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, said if landfall occurs in Raigad, maximum rainfall is expected over northern regions, including Mumbai. The forecasts indicate heavy rain up to 200 millimetres (mm) while the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services has forecasted storm surges with waves rising up to six metres, as the cyclone approaches landfall, he said. If this happens during high tide on Wednesday, then flooding will be a major concern for Mumbai, which is already clogged and bursting at its seams. Dr. Koll pointed out that natural defences such as mangroves and river flood plains had been constructed in many parts of Mumbai for infrastructure and real estate projects and that may cause prolonged inundation concerns. How the forecasts changed over the last three days Cyclone Nisarga to develop in the Arabian Sea, heavy rain alert for Mumbai coast for Wednesday and Thursday. A red alert issued for the entire Konkan coast for Wednesday and Thursday. IMD, Mumbai, issued rainfall warnings in the form of an orange alert (be prepared -- heavy to very heavy rain) for Mumbai and Thane, and a red alert (take action --- extremely heavy rain) for Palghar district on Wednesday and Thursday. Monday: Tropical cyclonic storm in the Arabian Sea likely to make landfall in Palghar district, located 100-km north of Mumbai with impact across the Union Territory Daman in south Gujarat to Harihareshwar in Raigad. Damages are expected across four districts --- Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad -- in north Konkan, as landfall is expected on Wednesday evening or at night. A red alert is sounded in all the four districts and also for Nashik, Dhule and Nandurbar for Wednesday. Tuesday: Developing tropical cyclone in the Arabian Sea is expected to make landfall by Wednesday afternoon in Raigad district just brushing past south of Mumbai. Storm surges and damages identified. The severe cyclonic storm may lead to extremely heavy rains in Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad with high-speed winds gusting to a maximum of 120 kmph along the coast. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Hundreds of protesters marched peacefully through the streets of Jersey City Monday and convened outside the South District police precinct, joining a string of demonstrations across the nation following police killing of George Floyd. Led by Nevin Perkins and the Rev. Keion Jackson, both of the Jersey City-based Black Men United Coalition, marchers called for the end of police brutality as they set out from Berry Lane Park and chanted names of Black Americans who have been killed by police. Our goal here is not to combatively engage the police, Perkins said before marching. But to proactively engage the community, so when youre outside on Martin Luther King (Drive) dont be afraid of your brothers and sisters. Engage them. Protesters made their way down Bramhall Avenue to Martin Luther King Drive carrying signs that read I am not a Target and No Justice, No peace. As they made their way down MLK Drive to walk up Wilkinson Avenue, protesters called those along the street to walk with them as they reached the precinct. George! Floyd! the crowd chanted in unison. Ahmaud Arbery! Breonna! Taylor! Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, killed Monday after Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, knelt on his neck for several minutes while Floyd was handcuffed. Floyd, who wasnt armed, later died. Four police officers who were at the scene have been fired. Chauvin was later arrested and charged with third-degree murder. Arbery was shot and killed by white men last month while jogging in a residential neighborhood in Georgia. Taylor, an EMT in Louisville, Kentucky, was shot and killed by police who were executing a search warrant in her apartment in March. In Minneapolis, thousands have marched in response to the death of Floyd, whose killing has also set off riots and looting throughout the city. Floyds death has also sparked protests across the United States in cities that include New York, Atlanta, Detroit, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Portland, Oregon, and Washington, D.C. Many rallies had turned violent, with people setting police vehicles on fire, smashing windows and burning buildings to the ground. But Mondays demonstration in Jersey City remained peaceful. Harlem Taliaferro, a 28-year-old black man, said he is just trying to be heard. He said police just dont like them. Greg Smith, 31, said he has trouble relating because he grew up in a totally different world. The only way for me to change and to change the people around me are to expose myself to other cultures and the other experiences, Smith said. The best way I can do that is to be here today and support everybody who is more directly affected by this. Once protesters reached the South District precinct on Bergen Avenue, over 20 officers in riot gear lined up outside the building. Two officers awaited at the top of the building and another two officers stood on the roof of the Academy 1 Middle School next door watching from above. Officers did not directly engage the crowd but stood by and let the leaders speak. Some officers occasionally applauded Jackson and Perkins, who spoke at the precinct and credited the department for working with them. Mondays protest will be followed by another on Tuesday. Demonstrators plan to meet on the steps of City Hall at 4 p.m. before marching to the Newark Pedestrian Plaza nearby. Well be peacefully protesting but demanding change, said Pamela Johnson, the founder and executive director of the Jersey City Anti-Violence Coalition Movement. Johnson, a prominent voice in the citys African American community, was critical of the police department following a street fight on Bostwick Avenue last month that ended with police using pepper spray and striking people with batons. If looters can change the narrative surrounding protests around the country casting a negative light on those demonstrations she cautioned that bad cops can do the same to sully entire police departments. Were going to highlight those times where we have had police misconduct in the last four years and what actually came out of that, she said. We see what happens nationally, so folks dont know whats going on here in your own town, borough or city. Upcoming demonstrations in Hudson County in response to the death of George Floyd: June 2, 5-6 p.m., Boulevard East, between Hudson and Eldorado Place, Weehawken A silent vigil will be held. June 2, 6 p.m., Newark Avenue Pedestrian Mall, Jersey City Participants are to meet at City Hall, where there will be a march to the pedestrian plaza for an eight-minute moment of silence. June 5, 1 p.m., Maxwell Place Park, Hoboken The event is being planned by a group called Allies4Justice. June 6, 4-9 p.m., outside City Hall, 280 Grove St., Jersey City The Rally to End Police Brutality is organized by a group called the Black Diaspora Club. Hong Kongs Tiananmen vigil organizers said they still planned to go to Victoria Park, where the event had been regularly held, even though they expected police to disperse any gathering. They have asked supporters in Hong Kong and around the world to light candles in their homes or other private places and post the images online. Ready to go: Primark already has reopened 112 outlets in Europe and US, and its England stores soon will follow. Photo: Reuters FASHION retailer Primark plans to reopen all 153 of its stores in England on June 15 as coronavirus restrictions are eased, encouraged by European stores which have already resumed trading. The faster than expected reopening drove the shares of Primark's owner, Associated British Foods, 8pc higher in London trade yesterday. All Primark stores were closed over a period of 12 days from March 11 as the virus spread, costing it 650m (725m) a month in sales. With governments now easing restrictions, Primark is trading from 112 stores across Europe and the United States, representing 24pc of its total selling space. By June 15, it plans to have 281 stores open, or 79pc of selling space, including all stores in England. It hopes to have all of its 378 shops open by late June, including those in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. "Trading in our reopened stores - including in Germany and Spain - has been both reassuring and encouraging, with customer queues outside most stores," AB Foods said. But it cautioned that cumulative sales since reopening, on a like-for-like basis, were lower compared with the same period last year. The company said social distancing measures will probably affect sales only in its busiest stores, representing between 10pc and 20pc of total Primark sales before the virus struck Europe and the US. AB Foods finance chief John Bason said Primark has also placed hundreds of millions of pounds of orders with suppliers for autumn and winter stock, adding to existing stock worth 1.9bn (2.1bn). Mr Bason said Primark had no plans for a fire sale of excess stock because it would store much of it for sale next year, and would not rethink its lack of an online business. AB Foods said it was too early to resume overall earnings guidance for its 2019-20 fiscal year, but said grocery operating profit would be ahead of previous expectations and it now expects a lower profit from AB Sugar. Primark, which trades in Ireland under the Penneys brand name, is expected to reopen its 37 stores here only when the Government lockdown-easing calendar permits. Currently, June 29 is the date for phase three of reopenings, when the Government specifies that most retail outlets can reopen their doors. "We will reopen our stores in Ireland only once we are convinced that it is safe and right to do so," a Penneys spokesperson said. Reuters A majority of Americans do not trust President Donald Trump to provide accurate information about the coronavirus, but many question the veracity of local officials as well, according to a poll released Tuesday. And less than 6 in 10 have a great deal of trust in the information they are receiving from doctors and scientists, according to the Fairleigh Dickinson University Poll. These findings point to the immense level of distrust Americans have in the ability of elected officials to communicate critical information needed to manage the COVID-19 pandemic and the obvious lack of meaningful leadership at the federal level, said Bojana Beric-Stojsic, director of the masters in public health program and an associate professor of public health at FDUs School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in New Jersey. "What is most surprising and very distressing is that only 58% of Americans have a great deal of trust in doctors and scientists in the midst of a health crisis. Thats the highest level of trust in the poll, however. Only 36% had a great deal of trust in government websites, 27% in their local elected officials and 22% in the president. A majority of Americans, 55%, had little or no trust in Trump to provide accurate information, compared with 28% for government websites, 36% for local officials and 13% for doctors and scientists. The remainder had some trust in the information they were receiving. You would hope that at this point, the information that is given to people from elected officials should be higher than what were now seeing, FDU Poll Director Krista Jenkins said. The numbers just show just a deep well of distrust across the board. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage Jenkins said that the continuing changes in guidance may have contributed to the lack of trust. For example, Americans were told they didnt need to wear masks to protect against the coronavirus, and then were told they did. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention edited its coronavirus transmission page in such a way that it appeared that it was not possible to be infected from a touching a surface that contained the virus, and then had to change it again. And Trump has touted the use of hydroxychloroquine, and even claimed he was taking it, even though Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said it was not an effective treatment against the coronavirus. Even so, 77% said that doctors and scientists change their recommendations based on new evidence, while 23% blamed political pressure. As for Trump, 53% said he changed his recommendations due to political pressure and 47% said it was based on science. Were talking about issues of health and wellness, Jenkins said. Maybe a standard of trust is a little bit higher. Were not talking about normal politics. You really want more trust than you would want normally. Still majorities approved of the job that their governors were doing in handling the pandemic, 69% to 31%. Not so Trump, where a majority, 51% disapproved of his job and 49% approved. As governors continued to reopen parts of their economies, 46% said they were moving at a safe pace and 31% said they were moving too quickly. Only 23% said they were moving too slowly. The poll of 1,003 adults was conducted May 20-25 and had a margin of error of 3.6 percentage points. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) Cambodias leader declared Monday that China has not been given exclusive rights to use a naval base on the countrys southern coast, and that warships from all nations, including the United States, are welcome to dock there. Prime Minister Hun Sen was responding to persistent news reports and concern expressed by Washington that Beijing had been granted basing privileges at Cambodias Ream naval base on the Gulf of Thailand. Speaking at a road construction ceremony in the coastal city of Sihanoukville, Hun Sen said he recently received a message from foreign envoys in Cambodia about the issue. He repeated denials he issued last year after The Wall Street Journal reported that an early draft of a reputed agreement seen by U.S. officials would allow China use of the Ream naval base for 30 years, where it would be able to post military personnel, store weapons and berth warships. Hun Sen pointed out that Cambodias Constitution does not allow foreign military bases to be established on its soil, but visiting ships are welcome. If one countrys warship is allowed to dock at our navy base, the other countries warships will be able to dock, too. We are not going to close it to anyone, he said. Hun Sen questioned what benefit Beijing would get from having a base in Cambodia while it already has bases in the South China Sea, to the east. Chinas bases were established in waters that are also claimed by other Southeast Asian countries. Many analysts believe basing rights in Cambodia would extend Beijings strategic military profile considerably, and tilt the regional balance of power in a manner that would pressure adjacent countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations whose security concerns traditionally have been aligned more closely with the United States. Hun Sen also said Cambodia was open to holding joint military exercises with all foreign countries, but they would have to be conducted after the threat from the coronavirus has passed. Cambodia has been only mildly affected by the virus, according to official figures. In 2017, Cambodia informed the United States that it was canceling an annual joint military exercise that year and the next. It has not been resumed. Cambodia hosted a joint military exercise with China in March as the coronavirus crisis was growing. China is Cambodias biggest investor and closest political partner. Chinese support allows Cambodia to ignore Western concerns about its poor record in human and political rights, and in turn Phnom Penh generally supports Beijings geopolitical positions in international forums on issues such as Chinas territorial claims in the South China Sea. Turning to an ex may be the last resort to beg for cash. Katie Holmes is allegedly too desperate that she submitted to this option. The rich and famous are not exempted from the ill effects of the COVID-19 outbreak. In Katie Holmes' case, her television and film gigs have dwindled due to the global health crisis. According to a report by New Idea, the Dawson's Creek actress had given up her pride and turned to her former husband to alleviate financial ruin. The actress reportedly has many expenditures but is not capable of paying them off due to scarce projects. "Katie was proud of walking away from Tom without securing a hefty financial settlement but in hindsight, that may have been a huge mistake," an anonymous source affirmed. The insider noted that Holmes is desperate for cash because she is not bringing home a stable paycheck. It is not just her acting career that has been put on respite. Meanwhile, Tom Cruise's shooting of the film "Mission Impossible 7" was immediately halted. It was supposedly underway in Venice at the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic. After her divorce from Cruise, Holmes was regularly provided financial assistance of an estimated $400,000 dollars annually as child support for their daughter, Suri Cruise. The 41-year-old came to the undignified resolve as she was in a close financial ruin as depicted by the unidentified source. The coronavirus pandemic is potentially prompting the "Batman Begins" star to have remorse over her divorce from her actor ex-husband. The supposed tipster added that Holmes has also not been bringing in the income coming from hawking products and regular guestings at events. Also Read: Tom Cruise wants Katie Holmes back? Jamie Foxx finds a reason to break up with girlfriend Business Times noted that show business has been struck hard by the coronavirus pandemic as numerous movies, television shows, concerts, and other activities have been postponed or canceled due to the virus' prevalence. The tabloid concluded by alluding that Holmes has no other choice than to resort to pleading for monetary help from Cruise after breaking up with Jamie Foxx. Devoted Scientologist Tom Cruise, 57, has supposedly acknowledged that he had a major role in his family's failure. Since the devastating divorce with Holmes and alienation from daughter Suri, the "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" actor has divulged that he regrets not handling things better. Another insider apparently asserted that Cruise feels that he is still making errors. The financial problems of Holmes is a running narrative in the tabloid media. They have been circulating even before the advent of COVID-19. Gossip Cop discredited rumors that she had sold her home in California and was thriving on paycheck to paycheck due to her despair over monetary concerns. A representative for Holmes ensured that she is doing just fine in her finances. Gossip Cop said all the tabloid had merely accomplished is paint another coat on the old narrative to fit in with the bigger picture of the pandemic. Related Article: Katie Holmes Dating Kiefer Sutherland After Jamie Foxx Split Despite Tom Cruise Wanting Her Back @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-02 10:34:03|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LISBON, June 1 (Xinhua) -- The Ministry of Territorial Cohesion of Portugal announced on Monday that it quadrupled the amount to 108 million euros (around 120.2 million U.S. dollars) offered to companies that modified their production to support the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. This measure was taken, according to the ministry, to encourage the production of materials considered essential to control the novel coronavirus, such as visors, masks and alcohol gel. "The non-repayable support of Portugal 2020 regional operational programs was extended to 108 million euros, aimed at companies that converted their production to respond to the challenges of the pandemic," the ministry said in a statement. Investments were made through the Norte 2020, Centro 2020, Lisbon 2020, Alentejo 2020 and CRESC Algarve programs, which are part of an incentive system for productive innovation and finance around 440 projects. According to official data, so far contracts have been signed with 195 production initiatives, which allocated 40 million euros (around 44.5 million dollars) from European funds, including the Portugal 2020 program (PT 2020), a partnership between Portugal and the European Commission. In addition, a program to support scientific research in the fight against the pandemic was launched, which is projected to invest 13 million euros (nearly 14.5 million), of which 3 million euros (around 3.3 million U.S. dollars) have already been allocated to 18 research projects. Portugal has reported a total of 32,700 cases and 1,424 deaths from COVID-19, with 14 new deaths and 200 more cases recorded over the last 24 hours, the health authorities said. Enditem Rather than seek for straws to cling on, Senator Nwaoboshi should address the grievous allegations of the NDDC that he mindlessly wrecked the NDDC budget for his personal benefits, a practice that has been perpetrated over the years and throwing the Commission into near insolvency which the present management is trying to clean up, he said. Tuesday, 02 June 2020 16:12:44 (GMT+3) | Istanbul Algeria-based Ozmert, a Turkish investment, has recently started operations at its second melt shop, which brings the company a step closer to self-sufficiency in billet. The producer has recently had the first heat at its 240,000 mt per year steel melt shop, which is an addition to an already operational 150,000 mt facility. We plan to reach full liquid steel production in April-March 2021, the companys CEO told SteelOrbis. Previously, Ozmert had started operations at its 450,000 mt per year rebar rolling line, with the products to be mainly sold to the local Algerian market. In addition, Ozmert has an investment to build a 22 MWA power plant in order to secure its energy needs. Competition in Algerias rebar market has gradually tightened with new production capacities emerging. According to sources, local producer Cevital started production at its 750,000 mt line around two to three weeks ago. Tosyali Algerie and AQS, the largest mills in the country, are capable of producing around 4.7 million mt per year. Advertisement The weekly coronavirus death toll in England and Wales has dropped to its lowest levels since the lockdown began in March, promising statistics today revealed. Data from the Office for National Statistics showed 1,983 people died across the two counties in the week ending May 22, down from 2,766 a week earlier and the lowest figure for two months. Every week since March 27 has recorded more fatalities from the virus, showing that Britain is now en route to how it was before the unprecedented lockdown was imposed on March 23. At the peak of the outbreak, a staggering 16,000 people in England and Wales died of the coronavirus in just two weeks in April. But the sobering statistics also show that there have now almost certainly been more than 50,000 people killed by Covid-19 across the UK this year. The coronavirus was listed as a contributing factor on the death certificates of at least 47,871 people by May 22, cementing Britain's position as one of the worst-hit countries in the world. It comes as the UK Government this week starts to move the nation out of lockdown and back to work and school as the number of new deaths and cases continue to tumble. The true number of people who have died as a result of the pandemic already appears to be more than 60,000 - there have been 61,795 more deaths than average since March 21 in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. This number of 'excess deaths' includes people who died without actually catching the virus - those who were denied medical care, for example. Hospitals are now seeing lower-than-usual numbers of deaths, the statistics show. There were 24 fewer hospital deaths in the week ending May 22 than there were in an average week at this time of year, but deaths were 1,289 higher in care homes. Hospital deaths have dropped because they have been seeing fewer non-Covid patients. The week ending May 22 had the fewest coronavirus deaths of any seven-day period since Britain's lockdown began in March. The Office for National Statistics showed that 1,983 people died in England and Wales in the week ending May 22, down from 2,766 a week earlier The Office for National Statistics today confirmed that 43,387 people in England and Wales died with confirmed or suspected Covid-19 by May 22. In Northern Ireland, that figure was 705 by the same date, the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) has confirmed. National Records Scotland said 3,775 people had died north of the border by May 24. The counts are 10 days behind the Department of Health because they wait until as many deaths as possible for each date have been counted, to avoid having to revise their statistics. By comparison, the Department of Health announces deaths for each day as soon as it receives them, meaning they are continuously updated as more registrations filter through the system - one announced by the NHS yesterday, for example, dated back to March 19. AREAS WITH THE MOST AND LEAST COVID-19 DEATHS According to ONS data for England and Wales up to May 22, these are the areas with the most and least deaths caused by the coronavirus: MOST DEATHS Birmingham (1,082) Leeds (605) County Durham (567) Liverpool (529) Sheffield (498) Brent (465) Croydon (458) Barnet (442) Cheshire East (417) Bradford (416) FEWEST DEATHS Isles of Scilly (0) City of London (5) Ceredigion (7) Hastings (8) South Hams (12) Rutland (15) Mid Devon (15) West Devon (15) Norwich (17) Mendip (18) Advertisement Because of this, the number of deaths announced on any date is significantly higher by the time the ONS has calculated it. The difference between the statistics agencies' total and the Department of Health total for May 22 is 31.5 per cent (47,871 compared to 36,393). If the most recent death toll announced by the Government was increased by the same amount it would mean that there have already been 51,344 Covid-19 victims who died after testing positive for the disease. The Government does not count people who never tested positive. And by counting excess deaths - those which happen on top of the ones that would be expected in an average year - statisticians can see that the pandemic appears to have contributed to the deaths of around 62,000 people already. There were 56,308 excess deaths in England and Wales between March 21 and May 22, compared with the average number of deaths for that period over five years. Equivalent numbers for Scotland and Northern Ireland take the total number of excess deaths in the UK to 61,795. In England and Wales, Covid-19 was responsible for 77 per cent of those excess deaths. The others are likely people who died as an indirect result of the pandemic, for example if their medical treatment was postponed because hospitals were busy, or if they avoided going to hospital out of fear of the virus. They may also have died with the virus but never been diagnosed by a doctor or a test. Out of all deaths involving Covid-19 in England and Wales, 64 per cent (28,159) had occurred in hospitals by May 22. A further 29 per cent (12,739) took place in care homes, with 5 per cent (1,991) in private homes, 1 per cent (582) in hospices, 0.4 per cent (197) in other communal establishments, and 0.4 per cent (169) elsewhere. The drop in the number of deaths registered each week by the ONS represents a fall of more than a quarter in just a single week. There were 28 per cent fewer deaths that happened in the week ending May 22 than the week before, the stats show (2,766 down to 1,983). The ONS said there were 12,288 deaths of all causes registered in England and Wales in the week ending May 22 - a drop of 2,285 from the previous week but still 2,348 more than the five-year average. Shock new data has laid bare the coronavirus regional divide in Britain, with the north of England having almost twice the infection rate of London There were 1,289 excess deaths in care homes during the seven days, compared with the five-year average, and 24 fewer deaths in hospitals. In total, the ONS said there have been 286,759 deaths to date in England and Wales - 51,466 more than the five-year average. DEATHS OF PEOPLE WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES ARE TWICE AS HIGH AS LAST YEAR More than twice the number of people with learning disabilities died over five weeks during the coronavirus pandemic compared to the same period last year, the care regulator says. Between April 10 and May 15, 386 people with learning disabilities, some of whom may also be autistic, who were receiving care from services died, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said. This is a 134% rise compared with the same period in 2019, when 165 people with learning disabilities and/or autism who were receiving care died. Working with the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the CQC analysed all death notifications during the five weeks from registered providers providing care to people with a learning disability and/or autism in the community and in hospitals. Just over half of the deaths - 206 - involved suspected or confirmed Covid-19, while 180 were not related to the virus. Some 184 people were receiving care from community-based adult social care services, and 195 from residential social care settings. There were fewer than five deaths notified in each of the other settings, including community health, hospice services and mental health services, the CQC said. It said its findings should be considered when decisions are made over prioritising tests. Kate Terroni, chief inspector of adult social care at the Care Quality Commission, said: 'Every death in today's figures represents an individual tragedy for those who have lost a loved one. 'While we know this data has its limitations, what it does show is a significant increase in deaths of people with a learning disability as a result of Covid-19. 'We already know that people with a learning disability are at an increased risk of respiratory illnesses, meaning that access to testing could be key to reducing infection and saving lives. 'These figures also show that the impact on this group of people is being felt at a younger age range than in the wider population - something that should be considered in decisions on testing of people of working age with a learning disability.' The CQC said it is not mandatory for providers to tell them if a person who has died has a learning disability. Its analysis does not account for patients detained under the Mental Health Act. The regulator is reviewing how it works with providers to ensure data it receives is accurate and accessible. Dr Rhidian Hughes, chief executive of the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group (VODG) welcomed the analysis but said it had taken the CQC 'too long' to produce it. He said: 'These findings are a sad and stark reminder to us all of the impact that coronavirus is having on people with a learning disability and/or autism. 'The figures are a wake-up call for Government to put right its testing programme that is currently neglecting disabled people of working age who use care services. The current focus of the testing programme is on older people in care homes with a diagnosis of a dementia. 'That decision needs to be reviewed urgently so that symptomatic and asymptomatic disabled people can readily access tests.' Edel Harris, chief executive of the learning disability charity Mencap, said the increase was 'deeply troubling'. She said: 'The devastating impact of Covid-19 on our community is shocking, but sadly not surprising, when we have long been warning that the healthcare rights of people with a learning disability are under threat like never before. 'Throughout this crisis, we have repeatedly challenged discriminatory healthcare guidance and practice, and we continue to support people with a learning disability and their families to access the treatment and support they have a right to.' A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: 'Every death from this virus is a tragedy and we are working hard to save lives and protect people most in need of support. 'We have significantly increased testing capacity so everyone with symptoms of coronavirus can be tested, and have already carried out more than four million tests. 'We are working to improve our understanding of how different groups may be affected by the virus, including those with learning disabilities or autism, to ensure we can provide the best support and protect those most at risk.' Source: Press Association Advertisement Of the deaths registered by May 22, 43,837 mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate - 15.3 per cent of all deaths. Detailed analysis on non-Covid-19 deaths will be published by the ONS on Friday. The proportion of deaths in care homes involving coronavirus fell to below a third in the week ending May 22. Some 32.5 per cent of all deaths in care homes involved Covid-19 during the seven days, compared with 37.2 per cent the week before. More than twice the number of people with learning disabilities died over five weeks during the coronavirus pandemic compared to the same period last year, according to the care regulator. Between April 10 and May 15, 386 people with learning disabilities, some of whom may also be autistic, who were receiving care from services died, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said. This is a 134 per cent rise compared with the same period in 2019, when 165 people with learning disabilities and/or autism who were receiving care died. Working with the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the CQC analysed all death notifications during the five weeks from registered providers providing care to people with a learning disability and/or autism in the community and in hospitals. Just over half of the deaths - 206 - involved suspected or confirmed Covid-19, while 180 were not related to the virus. Some 184 people were receiving care from community-based adult social care services, and 195 from residential social care settings. There were fewer than five deaths notified in each of the other settings, including community health, hospice services and mental health services, the CQC said. It said its findings should be considered when decisions are made over prioritising tests. Kate Terroni, chief inspector of adult social care at the Care Quality Commission, said: 'Every death in today's figures represents an individual tragedy for those who have lost a loved one. 'While we know this data has its limitations, what it does show is a significant increase in deaths of people with a learning disability as a result of Covid-19. 'We already know that people with a learning disability are at an increased risk of respiratory illnesses, meaning that access to testing could be key to reducing infection and saving lives. 'These figures also show that the impact on this group of people is being felt at a younger age range than in the wider population - something that should be considered in decisions on testing of people of working age with a learning disability.' The CQC said it is not mandatory for providers to tell them if a person who has died has a learning disability. Its analysis does not account for patients detained under the Mental Health Act. The regulator is reviewing how it works with providers to ensure data it receives is accurate and accessible. Dr Rhidian Hughes, chief executive of the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group (VODG) welcomed the analysis but said it had taken the CQC 'too long' to produce it. He said: 'These findings are a sad and stark reminder to us all of the impact that coronavirus is having on people with a learning disability and/or autism. 'The figures are a wake-up call for Government to put right its testing programme that is currently neglecting disabled people of working age who use care services. The current focus of the testing programme is on older people in care homes with a diagnosis of a dementia. 'That decision needs to be reviewed urgently so that symptomatic and asymptomatic disabled people can readily access tests.' Edel Harris, chief executive of the learning disability charity Mencap, said the increase was 'deeply troubling'. She said: 'The devastating impact of Covid-19 on our community is shocking, but sadly not surprising, when we have long been warning that the healthcare rights of people with a learning disability are under threat like never before. 'Throughout this crisis, we have repeatedly challenged discriminatory healthcare guidance and practice, and we continue to support people with a learning disability and their families to access the treatment and support they have a right to.' A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: 'Every death from this virus is a tragedy and we are working hard to save lives and protect people most in need of support. 'We have significantly increased testing capacity so everyone with symptoms of coronavirus can be tested, and have already carried out more than four million tests. 'We are working to improve our understanding of how different groups may be affected by the virus, including those with learning disabilities or autism, to ensure we can provide the best support and protect those most at risk.' The president held up the Bible at St. Johns Church yesterday, Mr. Biden, a practicing Catholic, said, referencing the photographs for which Mr. Trump posed. I just wish he opened it once in awhile instead of brandishing it. If he opened it, he could have learned something. That were all called to love one another as we love ourselves. Yet Mr. Biden, who spent much of the presidential primary campaign casting Mr. Trump as an aberration, also said that defeating him would not be enough to heal the nations centuries-old divisions, which are growing deeper seemingly by the day. Seeking to acknowledge both the pain and the chaos of the moment, he warned, we must not let our pain destroy us." Were a nation enraged, he continued. But we cannot let our rage consume us. Were a nation thats exhausted, but we will not allow our exhaustion to defeat us. Declaring this the time for our nation to deal with systemic racism, Mr. Biden called on Congress to pass measures including a ban on police chokeholds. He urged a model use-of-force standard. He highlighted his promise to create a national police oversight commission. And he pledged that as president, he wouldnt fan the flames of hate. Ill seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued our country. Julian Castro, a former presidential candidate who made police reform a focal point of his platform, endorsed Mr. Biden on Tuesday, citing the plans Mr. Biden sketched out on the issue. As Mr. Trump cracks down on protesters, how Mr. Biden handles the coming weeks could define his candidacy for the final five months of the presidential contest. There is an increasing sense of urgency among his allies to see him leading from the ground, and his speech Tuesday marked the third straight day he appeared in public. This is a moment in our nations history that is as unique as if we had the 1918 pandemic and the 1929 stock market crash and the 1968 riots all happen at the same time, said Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware. Theres a limit to how much leadership you can show without seeing people, hearing from people, connecting with people. Joe Biden has always been at his best when people can feel and see his empathy. Phil Hogan is in the frame for one of the globe's most prestigious jobs as head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). A move by Ireland's EU Commissioner, who currently holds the pivotal trade portfolio, would have big implications for the policy-guiding Brussels executive. It would also have a major impact on coalition-framing talks, involving who should replace him in the job, while it would also alter the division of cabinet seats, junior ministries and even Seanad nominations. First things first, let's explain what this job is. The WTO is based in Geneva and is the only body governing global trade, making big-picture trade deals among the 164 member states and also ruling on often bitter trade disputes. Ireland's former attorney general and EU commissioner, the late Peter Sutherland, was a prestigious holder of the post. Sutherland drove through a global trade deal in 1994 as head of its forerunner, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and then vastly expanded the role of the successor body, the WTO, which he led for two years. The vacancy arises at the end of August because the current incumbent, Roberto Azevedo of Brazil, is quitting a year before his term ends. Nominations open next Monday, June 8, and will close on July 8, so it is something likely to happen immediately after a new Irish government takes office and the issue has to come into play in the coalition talks. Can Phil Hogan get this job? The short answer is yes - but he will need some luck and a great deal of backing. Two crucial questions remain to be answered. Is the job likely to go to somebody from the EU? And, if so, is Hogan the EU's favoured person? There are sound arguments suggesting it could go to the EU if you go with the custom and practice that it has alternated between a developed country and one from the developing world such as Brazil. A counter is that the post has never gone to an African nation so this could be a factor. So far Hogan has admitted only to "exploring the possibility". One "possibility" would be whether he can get US backing and he has dealt well with his American counterpart, Robert Lighthizer, who has strong Irish family ties on his mother's side. He appears to be the EU's strongest potential candidate as the current Trade Commissioner, who formerly engaged in agri-trade talks as agriculture commissioner. More generally, Hogan is well got in Brussels and seen as a very competent operator. But he is not the only European name in the frame for this job. A predecessor as EU trade commissioner and Blairite Labour minister, Peter Mandelson, is cited, as are Dutch Trade Minister Sigrid Kaag and Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez. The issue will be discussed by EU trade ministers meeting on June 9, while EU leaders are expected to deal with it via a special videolink summit on June 19. The new appointee is expected to take up office in September. If Hogan's move happens, there would very probably be a rejig of EU Commission jobs with no guarantee Ireland could hold the politically hefty trade portfolio. But the immediate fallout in Dublin would be significant too. Assuming a policy deal is done in the coming fortnight, the three party leaders will sit down to divide up posts of responsibility. The five-year EU Commission posting - which in Hogan's case began only on December 1 and has a long time to run - is the biggest plum in the gift of a government and in practice is usually given by the Taoiseach of the day. Already, names are circulating as potential successors with senior European Parliament vice-president Mairead McGuinness being cited. Tanaiste Simon Coveney's name would also be mentioned among others. Others mischievously suggest the current Taoiseach might take the opportunity to sign off and begin another facet of his career. Four community groups and businesses are joining forces to appeal for food items for Wellsford foodbank Loaves & Fishes. Wellsford Plunket, Citizens Advice Bureau, Wellsford Four Square and Warkworth Food Rescue are collecting non-perishable food and other essential items for families in need. Together, they are appealing for donations of flour, sugar, milk powder, cereal, rice, pasta, canned foods, crackers, biscuits, toilet rolls and paper towels. Loaves and Fishes coordinator Irene Rockell says the drive is part of a range of extra support thats been offered to the foodbank since Covid-19 restrictions were first put in place by the Government. Donations can be dropped off between 9am and 4pm on weekdays at five Wellsford locations the Citizens Advice Bureau at 1 Matheson Road; Mike Pero Wellsford at 195 Rodney Street; the Hospice Shop at 179 Rodney Street; PGG Wrightson at 2 Port Albert Road; and Wharehine Contractors at 1650 State Highway 1. U.S. President Donald Trump has invited South Korea to attend the G7 Summit later this year. Earlier Trump told reporters the G7 is out of date in its current form and he wants to stack it with more "nice countries." That raised the option of including Korea, Australia, India, Russia and Brazil to the G7 Summit, and it seems Korea will be a full participant rather than a mere observer. Moon said, "I will gladly accept [Trump's] invitation and Korea will play all possible roles in the areas of quarantine and the economy." Korea's inclusion into the G20 through its recognition of speedily overcoming the 2008 global financial crisis was a monumental achievement for the country. The event signified Korea's entry onto the global stage from the outskirts. This new invitation is perhaps a similar milestone. Still, global leaders need to cooperate now more than ever. The U.S. and China are locked in a new Cold War over trade, with the U.S. citing the coronavirus pandemic and China's draconian interference in Hong Kong. He wants to use the G7 as a battleground targeting China. The U.S. is also leaning on Korea to join the anti-China Economic Prosperity Network, which ostensibly aims to diversify supply chains and could be a good thing. Seoul may be concerned that its acceptance to attend the G7 Summit could be viewed as an affront to Beijing. But Korea's participation does not necessarily have to undermine its relationship with China. Other countries that are friendly to China do not hesitate to criticize certain of its policies when they go too far. In short, Korea's participation in the G7 meeting is a golden opportunity for the world's 12th-largest economy to play a role befitting its global status. Opportunities like this to discuss global issues with the leaders of major countries do not come often, regardless what Trump's immediate motivation may be. If excessive steps are pushed to sideline China, Korea could even play a mediating role and earn the gratitude of many others. CINCINNATI, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- SEI, an employee-owned business and technology management consulting firm with offices in ten U.S. markets and more than 300 consultants and staff, launched a refreshed brand identity and dramatically transformed web presence today. The update preserves the foundational elements of the company brand namely, the signature SEI swirl logo and guiding principles grounded in employee ownership and a culture of collaboration yet represents a meaningful step forward for an organization that has garnered national recognition as one of the fastest growing companies in America, as well as one of its best places to work. "This is just another part of SEI's ongoing commitment to excellence," CEO Bill Gallagher said. "We approached this project the same way we've approached working with our clients for almost 30 years: collaboratively, and with an eye towards driving long-term value." SEI was founded in Cincinnati in 1992 as a locally focused, employee-owned alternative to a traditional consulting model known for heavy travel schedules and transactional, impersonal engagements. Founder Dan Pierce started the company with the goal of empowering consultants all over the country to view individual and organizational success as one and the same while embracing a people-first culture that values teamwork and participation in building and growing the business. In the years since, the company has added hundreds of consultants and support staff and nine new office locations. SEI launched the broad-based digital transformation and rebranding effort in the fall of last year. "We realized that investing in our brand would enable us to strengthen our culture, create better business opportunities, and improve our ability to recruit best-in-class talent," Gallagher recalls. "The end product has reaffirmed that decision." The key to a successful project, however, was to ensure the transformation remained true to the company's roots. "Since our founding, SEI has always had a strong sense of who we are and what we stand for," said Jason Davis, a Managing Director and key project stakeholder. "As such, we focused our efforts on refining our image and voice while retaining the legacy of our foundational identity, values, and vision." Following the launch of the website, the firm will now turn its attention to enhancing and expanding its capabilities and message to the market especially in light of unprecedented disruption and demand for technology and workplace organization solutions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. SEI leadership expects the new digital presence and supporting marketing materials to play a key role in supporting the company's growth in 2020 and beyond. For more information, contact [email protected] or visit www.sei.com . About SEI: SEI is a business and technology management consulting firm comprised of highly experienced professionals focused on delivering superior value to local clients. Founded in 1992, the company has more than 300 consultants and services staff based in 10 locations: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C. SEI's world-class consultants collaborate with organizations across a wide range of industries to solve complex business challenges and lead large-scale projects and initiatives. SOURCE SEI Related Links http://www.sei.com The Lagos State Government says it has licensed 184 money lenders to enhance money lending activities in the state. The Commissioner for Home Affairs, Anofiu Elegushi, said this on Tuesday at Alausa, Ikeja, during the Ministerial Press Briefing to mark the first year in office of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu. Mr Elegushi said the money lenders were the mini-micro economic stimulants in Lagos State that created jobs, generated wealth, alleviated poverty and widened the tax net. He said that their activities were increasing the socio-economic status of the state through the provision of enabling environment for small scale businesses and entrepreneurship. They make easy loan accessible for our citizens. They aid commerce and provide employment for the youths. It is cost-effective for grassroots financing and the requirements are simple and straightforward. The forms are available and the processes are simple and friendly. During the COVID-19 lockdown, the ministry automated the processing of money lending licenses, so as to ensure a hitch-free renewal and fresh applications. As at today, we have issued 184 licenses, 22 applications are in progress while one was outrightly declined out of the total number of 207 applications received, Elegushi said. He said automation of the money lending processes would help address several issues of trust that had overtime, bedevilled the practitioners. The commissioner said that prior to the automation of the money lending processes, the ministry had held a Stakeholders Forum on the need to examine the laws guiding the activities of money lenders in the state. According to him, reviewing the laws will make members of the public repose more confidence in the practitioners. He reiterated the support of the administration of Mr Sanwo-Olu in creating an enabling environment for easy loan accessibility to the citizens. Mr Elegushi said that this was with an emphasis on pragmatic strategies for achieving positive and cost-effective results in grassroots financing, which would invariably help in achieving the T.H.E.M.E.S Agenda. He said the money lending practitioners constituted key players in small and medium enterprises and were promoters of economic growth and prosperity of the state. The commissioner said that he was hopeful that other practitioners in the business of money lending would key into the initiative by the government. He called on all money lenders operating in the state to obtain a valid license from the ministry for a smooth and legal operation of their businesses. Mr Elegushi also advised borrowers to only patronise licensed money lenders. (NAN) Did Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge play a role in helping to heal the rift between Prince Harry and Prince William? In 2019, Prince Harry admitted that the rumors about him and Prince William feuding were true. It appeared that when Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex were set to exit the royal family, the relationship between the brothers hadnt improved. Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, Prince William, and Kate Middleton | PHIL HARRIS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images Prince Harry admitted he and Prince William were fighting During the 2019 documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, Prince Harry shared that the reports of tension between him and Prince William were true. Part of this role and part of this job and this family being under the pressure that its under inevitably, you know, stuff happens, Prince Harry said at the time. He assured that, despite any differences, there was still love between them. But, look, were brothers. Well always be brothers. Were certainly on different paths at the moment but I will always be there for him and, as I know, he will always be there for me, Prince Harry explained. In January, Prince Harry and Meghan announced their plans to step back from their royal duties and arrangements were made for their official exit on March 31. Before that date, they fulfilled a handful of commitments, including their final appearance at the Commonwealth Day service that was attended by Prince William and Kate. All eyes were on the brothers and duchesses and their body language revealed that things were still tense between them. 'As brothers you have good days, you have bad days' Prince Harry says the 'majority of stuff' written about his relationship with his brother William is 'created out of nothing' and adds: 'I love him dearly' #HarryAndMeghan https://t.co/GWs5KfuovM pic.twitter.com/bW7GVALZR6 ITV News (@itvnews) October 20, 2019 RELATED: The Heartbreaking Reason Prince Harry and Prince William Will Always Be Close Kate reportedly tried to pacify things In a Tatler article about Kate, writer Anna Pasternak shares the source of the tension between the brothers and the duchesses. Not everyone is pro Kate, Pasternak writes. Its no secret that the royal sisters-in-law never got on. A friend of Kates told Pasternak, I dont think that she ever pulled Meghan under her wing and said, Ill show you the ropes. Catherine and William were very circumspect from the beginning about Meghan, which hurt and incensed Harry. William rightly cautioned Harry to slow the relationship down. Thats why they all fell out, the insider continued. As the rift got deeper between the brothers, Kate, who used to be so close to Harry, tried to pacify things. But her loyalty will always be to William, the source added. Kensington Palace issued a statement about the articles claims Kensington Palace issued a statement in response to the Tatler article, noting that there were inaccuracies in the reporting. This story contains a swathe of inaccuracies and false misrepresentations which were not put to Kensington Palace prior to publication, a palace spokesperson shared in the statement. A spokesperson for the magazine told ET, Tatlers Editor-in-Chief Richard Dennen stands behind the reporting of Anna Pasternak and her sources. Kensington Palace knew we were running the Catherine the Great cover months ago and we asked them to work together on it. The fact they are denying they ever knew is categorically false. The UG2 chrome ore market rose for yet another week on Friday May 29, supported by Chinese buyers attempts to restock, and ferro-chrome prices stabilized on firm market conditions. Fastmarkets chrome ore South Africa UG2 concentrates index basis 42%, cif China climbed up for a fourth week in a row to $169 per tonne on Friday, up 3% from $164 per tonne a week earlier and up 15% from $147 per tonne at the start of May. Several deals were reported above the latest index level, showing that the bullish run of the chrome ore market will continue for the time being. Some ferro-chrome producers, especially those in the south [of China], were running out of ore stocks, and they had to purchase even though the prices went higher this week, a smelter said, adding that portside prices were in excess of 31.50-32 yuan ($4.41-4.48) per dry metric ton unit (dmtu). On the supply side, South African producers lament ongoing logistical issues that continue to slow down the transport of cargo to ports. The border crossing with Mozambique is still highly congested and trucks can cross over only after long delays. For this reason, Maputo port has reportedly lower than average cargo to handle. While producers within South Africa are expected to ramp up operations from June 1, the logistical hurdle is thought to continue to hinder the flow of material out of mines. Some participants believe the transportation issues will support prices further in the near term, others were skeptical of additional price hikes. Some ferro-chrome producers have already turned down the offers that were higher than $170 per tonne because they have sufficient stocks for the next months or so, a trader said. And even though we are seeing depleting stock levels of chrome ore, there is still a lot at ports. Fastmarkets assessment of chrome ore inventories at the main Chinese ports of Tianjin, Qinzhou, Lianyungang and Shanghai dropped to 3.56-3.81 million tonnes on Monday June 1, down by 2.9% from 3.65-3.94 million tonnes a week earlier. Steady alloy markets Both domestic spot ferro-chrome prices and imported charge chrome prices remained stable week on week on Friday. Steelmaker Tsingshan Group increased its June high-carbon ferro-chrome tender by 500 yuan per tonne on May 21, with Taiyuan Iron & Steel and Baosteel both following suit to raise their own tenders by the same amount. As a result, Fastmarkets ferro-chrome contract 6-8% C, basis 50% Cr, ddp China jumped to 6,200-6,400 yuan per tonne on Friday, up 8.6% from 5,700-5,900 yuan in the previous month. This uplift has consolidated the stability in the domestic spot ferro-chrome price. Fastmarkets weekly price assessment for ferro-chrome spot 6-8% C, basis 50% Cr, ddp China settled at 6,400-6,600 yuan per tonne on Friday, unchanged from the previous week. In the seaborne market, while improved sentiment supported a gradual rise in the imported charge chrome price over the past month, market participants described an existing standoff between buyers and sellers that has capped further rises in the latest assessment. Fastmarkets assessed the ferro-chrome 50% Cr import, cif main Chinese ports price at $0.73 per lb on Friday, unchanged from the previous week. Availability of charge chrome from South Africa remains limited due to closures at some mines, and production and shipping delays. Sellers that are still in operation reported significant delays in their ability to put cargo on ships. On their part, consumers have been experiencing market tightness out of South Africa, but have so far been unwilling to commit to consistent new purchases. No liquidity was seen last week, while a deal was reported the week before. The market is firm right now and the tightness that weve seen so far is not going to ease that quickly, one seller said. Because of the shipping delays at origin, it is thought that availability of charge chrome within China will further reduce since local stocks are being sold and not replenished. All the shipments for June are late. You wont be able to ship anything over there for arrival before July that will necessarily affect market conditions, a second trader said. The owner of a nightclub who employed George Floyd has described his death as a "horrible moment". Mr Floyd died after police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on the back of his neck for nearly nine minutes in Minneapolis on May 25. Video of the incident shows the unarmed Mr Floyd repeatedly telling the policeman I cant breathe before losing consciousness. On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Maya Santamaria, former owner of El Nuevo Rodeo nightclub, said both men worked for her at the same time, but they may not have known each other well. Their paths would have crossed but that doesnt mean that they necessarily had any real interaction because the police work the exterior," she said. "They are in a patrol car. The security guards would have been inside the nightclub, on the second floor perhaps, near the stage and the backstage area and dealing with the clientele inside the club. She said she knew both men well and was "extremely shocked" when she saw how Mr Floyd died. She said: Particularly when I saw the video and saw this gentleman that I had revered effectively killing another person that I also revered. It was a horrible moment in my life. She said her club was completely burned down by looters and arsonists in the days after the death and described Minneapolis as effectively a war zone over the past week. We need to get the outsiders out of town because really all of the violence came at the hands of people that come from out of state, she said. We know that this was not our local people. This was not us that did this to us. These were people that came from third parties, from different factions and different groups in society. A protester holds a sign during a demonstration last week at the Government Center in support of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' call for the arrest of the police involved in the death of George Floyd. I am not going to pretend that I know everything about who they are, I think that is still something that is being investigated, but a lot of people from out of state are being arrested. We are seeing a lot of cars rolling around without licence plates and we are seeing a lot of people with white supremacist stickers on their trucks that usually do not drive around in this neighbourhood which is heavily Latino and African American and Native American. Ms Santamaria described Mr Floyd as a lovely man. He was a person that always smiled a big smile and was very charismatic and very friendly and had a lot of friends, she said. He had a lot of friends; he was loved in our Latino community and he was loved in his own African American community so he had many allies. Street artist Nath Murdoch touches up his anti-racism mural in England today. She said Mr Chauvin was also quite pleasant when he was interacting with her. Of course, I was the one who paid him and most people are nice to the people who pay them but he was nice and he was very responsible in his work, she said. She said he had his issues while working at the club but never showed her any kind of disrespect whatsoever. I did get some complaints from some of my patrons throughout the years of course - but to put it in context, that is not unusual for a nightclub to get complaints about security and police, she said. People are not always thrilled to be bounced out after they have had too much to drink and patrons always think they are right. Sometimes thats true and sometimes it is not true so you get a little bit of everything. By PTI MUMBAI: Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari insisted on holding the final year exams of degree students in the current situation, but Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray rejected the demand showing "the spine Thackerays are known for", the Shiv Sena said on Tuesday. The ruling Shiv Sena also said it is not possible to hold examinations in the current situation, triggered by the COVID-19 crisis. Referring to the lockdown, imposed in March to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, an editorial in Shiv Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' said people faced strict imprisonment (due to movement restrictions) for two-odd months. The Thackeray government in the state has eased lockdown to a certain extent, but asked people to observe restraint to ensure the disease is contained, it said. The direction of life stands completely altered now and there will be restrictions on the undisciplined behaviour of many, the Marathi daily said, adding that not observing discipline can cost life. Governor Koshyari insisted on holding the final year examinations of degree courses. The chief minister rejected the demand showing the spine Thackerays are known for. It is not possible to hold the final year examinations of universities in the current situation, the Shiv Sena said. Students can be considered as having passed on the basis of semester examinations held in colleges, it said. The chief minister has made it clear that the academic year will begin from June itself. "This means schools will reopen in districts where there is no transmission of coronavirus," the Thackeray-led party said. Shops will be reopened in phases, while temples will remain closed, it said. The Shiv Sena also suggested the people to use bicycles while going to markets or shops. The coronavirus crisis is not yet over. Therefore, Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi too has said that (people) cannot afford to behave irresponsibly, the Sena said, citing a spike in COVID-19 deaths in countries like the US. It said the US government had eased restrictions to boost economic activities there and people moved out, but the step proved detrimental (with rise in COVID-19 cases). The Thackeray government has supplied limited oxygen to begin certain business activities, but people will have to move out in a fettered manner, the Marathi publication said. It noted that late freedom fighter and social reformer Lokmanya Tilak had given a call of 'Punashch Hari Om' (bugled resumption of his activities) when he restarted work at Kesari newspaper in 1899 after being released from jail during the British era. Now, to revive public life, the Thackeray government has given the call of 'Punashch Hari Om' (by easing lockdown to some extent), when the country is independent and people are fettered by the lockdown, the Sena said. People should not run amok (after easing of restrictions). People should not cause one to chant Hey Ram instead of Hari Om. For now, lets welcome the Punashch Hari Om', it said. What does qualified immunity look like? In practice, qualified immunity makes it difficult for people to bring suits against police officers, to say nothing of winning them. Consider the case of Malaika Brooks: In 2004, Ms. Brooks, a black woman who was seven months pregnant, was pulled over by the Seattle police for speeding while driving her 11-year-old son to school. Ms. Brooks believed she had been wrongly stopped and refused to sign the ticket, thinking, mistakenly, that her signature would be an admission of guilt. The officers then threatened to throw her in jail, twisted her arm behind her back and tased her three times first on her thigh, then in an arm and then in her neck before dragging her into the street, laying her face down and cuffing her. Ms. Brooks sued the officers, and in 2011 a federal appeals court argued that a reasonable person could conclude that the officers had indeed violated her constitutional rights. But those same judges dismissed her case, arguing that no precedent had clearly established that tasing a woman in Ms. Brookss circumstances was unconstitutional at the time. Ms. Brookss story is far from unique: An investigation by Reuters found that in the past 15 years, the courts have shown an increasing tendency to grant police officers immunity in excessive-force cases. The Supreme Court, for example, has denied immunity only twice in its 30 most recent relevant cases, according to George Will. [Read the investigation: For cops who kill, special Supreme Court protection] Who wants to reform qualified immunity? People all across the political spectrum, actually. Justice Sotomayor is arguably the Supreme Courts most left-leaning member, but her concern about police impunity is shared by one of the courts most conservative members, Justice Clarence Thomas. From the right: In The Wall Street Journal, Robert McNamara, a member of the Federalist Society, raises the case of Shaniz West, an Idaho woman who gave her house keys to the police to search for her ex-boyfriend, who was wanted on firearms charges. He wasnt inside, but the police bombarded the house with grenades and shotguns until it was uninhabitable, leaving Ms. West homeless. Ms. West sued the officers for violating her Fourth Amendment rights, but her claim was rejected because of qualified immunity. Nobody seriously believes that consent to enter a home is permission to lob grenades into it. But no court has ever decided the question, because as far as I can tell, this is the first time anybody has made the argument, Mr. McNamara writes. Since no court has considered it, qualified immunity means Ms. West loses. As long as an officials conduct is uniquely outrageous, its impossible to hold him liable for it. From the left: In the New Republic, Matt Ford notes the case of three California police officers who were accused of seizing more than $275,000 in rare coins from a persons house while reporting that they had seized only $50,000. The federal Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said the alleged theft of $225,000 was deeply disturbing, but it dismissed the suit anyway because it said no precedent had ever established that officers cant steal on the job. Second, the Supreme Court has never expressly held that it would be unconstitutional for Congress to pass a law applying the statute to a domestic terror organization. Rather, when the Supreme Court upheld the statute in reference to foreign terrorist organizations, it said that it was not addressing the question of whether Congress could do so. As Chief Justice John Roberts put it in writing for the courts majority in the landmark 2010 case of Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, We ... do not suggest that Congress could extend the same prohibition on material support at issue here to domestic organizations. That counts as a hint that such a law might be unconstitutional if applied domestically, but a hint is not the same as a holding. An independent autopsy commissioned by George Floyd's family found that he died of asphyxia due to sustained pressure to his neck and back, his family said in a statement on Monday. IMAGE: A man kneels and holds up his fist at a memorial site where George Floyd died in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photograph: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images "The evidence is consistent with mechanical asphyxia as the cause of death," Dr Allecia Wilson, one of the examiner was quoted as saying by CNN. "Sustained pressure on the right side of Floyd's carotid artery impeded blood flow to the brain, and weight on his back impeded his ability to breathe," he added. The statement further said the medical examiners believe, based on all available evidence, that Floyd died at the scene due to "asphyxiation from sustained pressure." The independent autopsy, however, contradicts the Hennepin County autopsy report that found heart disease, hypertension and potential intoxicants contributed to Floyd's death. A preliminary report had found "no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation." IMAGE: Terrence Floyd arrives at the site where his brother George Floyd was killed by police one week ago in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Floyd called for peace and justice after his brother's death, thanking those who continue to protest and imploring people to cease the damage and destruction which has followed. Photograph: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images Demonstrators across the United States have been protesting since May 25, when Floyd, died under the police custody in the city of Minneapolis. Around 4,000 people across the United States have been arrested during the massive protests over the death of African-American man George Floyd last month, CNN reported. The Trump administration will deploy more federal resources throughout the country to reduce violence linked to recent anti-racism protests, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said. "There will be additional federal assets deployed across the nation," McEnany said. "There will be a central command center in conjunction with the state and local governments that will include General [Mark] Milley, Secretary [Mark] Esper, and [Attorney General William] Barr." * SPDR Gold Trust holdings rose on Monday to a fresh 7-year high * Trump vows to use U.S. military to halt protests in America * For an interactive graphic tracking the global coronavirus spread, open tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser (Adds comments, updates prices) By K. Sathya Narayanan June 2 (Reuters) - Gold eased on Tuesday, weighed down by gains in stock markets, but concerns over civil unrest in U.S. cities and growing tensions between Washington and Beijing limited the decline. Spot gold was down 0.2% at $1,736.92 per ounce at 0947 GMT, having gained as much as 1% on Monday to hit its highest since May 21. U.S. gold futures were steady at $1,750. The U.S.-China tensions support (gold) because of the safe-haven demand but there are also concerns about a second wave of the coronavirus, Bank of China International analyst Xiao Fu said, adding investors were also worried about unrest in U.S. cities and whether it would come under control. Gold is now range bound ... The equity market rally has been capping further gains in gold, Fu added. World stocks climbed towards three-month highs as the global coronavirus recovery effort won out over the trade tensions and the unrest in the United States. Concerns about deteriorating Sino-U.S. relations increased after reports of an order from Chinas government to halt U.S. soybean purchases. Bullion, which is widely viewed as a safe-haven investment during times of political and financial uncertainty, got further support after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to use the military to halt the violent protests in U.S. cities. Meanwhile, in a sign that the worst of the economic downturn from the coronavirus pandemic might be over, U.S. manufacturing activity edged up from an 11-year low, and Chinas factory activity unexpectedly returned to growth in May. Reflecting investor sentiment, holdings in the worlds largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, rose 0.5% to 1,128.40 tonnes on Monday, the highest in seven years. Elsewhere, palladium dropped 0.2% to $1,958.25 per ounce, while platinum climbed 0.5% to $851.46 and silver was unchanged at $18.27. (Reporting by K. Sathya Narayanan in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Potter) Democracy Dies in Darkness is the marketing slogan of The Washington Post. The line credited to Bob Woodward was incorporated into the papers masthead a few years ago, and now you can find it stamped on T-shirts, umbrellas and car magnets. Its also what were waking up to daily as we read overnight reports of journalists arrested and harassed for doing their jobs. It started last week with a CNN reporter in Minneapolis and has spread around the country to Los Angeles, Louisville and Denver as fast as the organized protests over the killing of George Floyd. Monday night it was New Jerseys turn. Gustavo Martinez Contreras, a reporter for The Asbury Park Press, was arrested in Asbury Park for failing to disperse. He was live-streaming as police tried to clear the streets after curfew amid a chaotic clash with a small group of protestors. You can watch the video of what was happening here as he was taken into custody (the language is rough). Its important to note that journalists, including ours from NJ Advance Media, were granted permission to work past the curfew because our society at least outwardly recognizes the importance of a free press. This is one example, happening here in New Jersey. Journalists from Asbury Park to Atlanta are being arrested, pepper sprayed, shot with pellets and rubber bullets, and harassed for doing their jobs for trying to inform you for trying to collect the words, pictures and video images our country has been hanging on nightly for the past week. Also on Monday night, in Philadelphia, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Kristen Graham was arrested. She said she was walking to her car and wearing her press pass. Journalists in Philadelphia, like Asbury Park, had been exempted from local curfews. Still, two other reporters from a Delaware news organization also were detained and loaded into a police van in Philadelphia before eventually being released. When they showed their credentials to police, they said, they were told We dont believe you. This is troubling on every level to journalists and, more importantly, our democracy. You may not care about the extraordinary challenges journalists confront daily or the way the coronavirus pandemic has slammed our industry. But if you care about democracy and the principles our country was founded upon pick an amendment, any amendment then reporters being arrested for lawfully doing their job can only represent a further trampling of the Bill of Rights. We can disagree on politics and we can disagree on strategy for dealing with demonstrators, but we cannot and should not disagree on the value of a free press. Our journalists are not asking for special treatment, access or favor in covering news events. We merely want the freedom to exercise our Constitutional right to do our jobs and keep you informed. We hope you will join us in demanding this of our governor, our attorney general, our local mayors and our local police leaders. None of these people has an easy job, but each has the authority to make sure a free press keeps you informed. For two months now, we have been having conversations about the value of a free press as our industry has been thrown into another crisis. This is my fifth Letter from the Editor after we launched a voluntary subscription campaign to support our work on NJ.com. The events of the past week are a powerful reminder of the value of a free press, and its important today for me to reinforce this message to our readers, the people we cover and, especially, our journalists. To the point of our state needing a free and healthy press, we again ask that you again consider supporting all journalists working in New Jersey. To our existing print and digital subscribers: Thank you. We remain grateful. For everyone else: If you can help in these difficult times, please click this link to start your voluntary subscription to NJ.com. You can and do make a difference. If you would prefer to support another organization, the Asbury Park Press, where Gustavo Martinez Contreras works, is certainly one worthy option. There are other newspapers, websites, blogs and radio stations that are just as deserving. The New York Times published a helpful list recently. Our state needs more journalists and journalism. Without reader support, that will not happen. As always, you can reach me with questions or comments at kwhitmer@njadvancemedia.com. We remain grateful for your readership and encouragement. Kevin Whitmer is Senior VP for Content, Expansion and Development for NJ Advance Media. SonaCare Medical, the leading developer and manufacturer of high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) technologies, is pleased to report a new study that has shown that targeted treatment to areas of cancer inside a prostate previously treated for cancer using radiotherapy is effective and has low risk of side effects. The study was carried out in men in whom prostate cancer had recurred following radiotherapy. The study is to be presented at the international ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) cancer meeting on 29th May 2020. Every year, about 30,000 to 50,000 men with prostate cancer in the U.S. are treated with radiotherapy. This is an effective treatment for prostate cancer but about 30% of men will have evidence of recurrent disease within five years. Patients who have a cancer recurrence contained within the prostate are traditionally offered anti-testosterone hormone treatment. While effective at limiting the disease, it does not eliminate the disease and must be taken for life in lieu of another intervention. Courses of hormone treatment can cause side effects such as obesity, tiredness, and bone thinning, and can also increase the risk for diabetes and heart disease. An alternative is radical salvage surgery (called salvage prostatectomy) which removes what is left of the prostate after radiation. This procedure is difficult to perform after radiation therapy because the tissues surrounding the prostate are scarred and stuck down secondary to the radiation. Among men who receive a salvage prostatectomy, 50-100% get urine leakage needing daily pads and 5-10% get rectal injury that may require a colostomy or other major reconstructive surgery. Focal therapy uses different forms of energy, noninvasively or minimally invasively, to target and treat selectively only those regions of the prostate where cancer has recurred. The form of energy used by Sonablate is high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU). Unlike prostatectomy surgery, HIFU is delivered without incisions. Most men go home the same day pain free and are back to work within several days; this is weeks to months sooner than what is seen with a salvage prostatectomy. At 356 patients, this current study is the largest ever and with the longest follow-up to come out of the UK. At six years, 3 out of 4 patients treated with focal therapy had their cancer controlled and did not need hormones or surgery. Cancer specific survival was 97.2%. The procedure is also safe; less than 1 in 100 patients had a significant complication. Rectal injury was 0.3% while the researchers have shown in another study that urine leakage needing pads after salvage HIFU was only 12.5%. Professor Hashim Ahmed, senior researcher for this study, which was performed at Imperial College NHS Foundation Trust and Imperial College London, said that, Radiotherapy is effective in most men but for the thousands of men with recurrent prostate cancer after radiotherapy, the options are very limited. Focal therapy for these patients offers a treatment for their cancer that does not carry the high risk of side-effects from traditional hormones or major surgery. Dr. Deepika Reddy, a urology research doctor, and lead author on the study, based at Imperial College NHS Foundation Trust and Imperial College London, said, This study provides more evidence that focal therapy should be considered in men whose cancer is suitable for a minimally-invasive approach. Such evidence in combination with well-structured clinical trials will help patients, in partnership with their doctors, work out the most suitable option for them. Dr. Mark Carol, SonaCare Medical CEO and President, said, One of the first clinical uses for Sonablate HIFU in the U.S. was for the treatment of recurrent prostate cancer status post radiation therapy. The U.K. has taken the lead in developing and demonstrating the value of HIFU for many stages of prostate cancer. This paper continues the amazing track record Professor Ahmed and his team have established in proving and promoting the value of HIFU. Link to Abstract Since Sonablate received FDA clearance on October 9, 2015, thousands of patients have had a Sonablate HIFU prostate procedure across the 60+ locations in the U.S., including top-tier academic institutions in California, Indiana, Oklahoma, Maryland, New York, Arizona and Texas. Over 70 U.S. physicians now offer HIFU prostate tissue ablation to their patients as a minimally invasive alternative to surgery or radiation. Sonablate is also used in more than 30 countries worldwide, and is the de facto standard for delivering HIFU to men in the U.K. Sonablate has 501(K) clearance in the U.S. and is indicated for the transrectal high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) ablation of prostate tissue. Caution: Federal (USA) law restricts this device to sale by or on the other of a physician ABOUT SONACARE MEDICAL, LLC SonaCare Medical is a world leader in minimally invasive focused ultrasound technologies. SonaCare Medical is committed to developing focused ultrasound related technologies that support precise and innovative procedures for the treatment of a range of medical conditions. SonaCare Medical, with its subsidiary Focus Surgery, Inc., designs and manufactures medical devices, including the following: Sonablate, which has 501(K) clearance in the U.S.; Sonablate500, which has CE Marking and has obtained regulatory authorization in more than 50 countries outside the U.S., Sonatherm laparoscopic HIFU surgical ablation system, which has 510(K) clearance in the U.S., has CE Marking and has obtained regulatory authorization in more than 30 countries outside the U.S. For additional information, visit http://www.SonaCareMedical.com COMPANY CONTACT: SonaCare Medical, LLC Karen Cornett (704) 805-1885 KarenCornett@SonaCareMedical.com ABOUT IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON Imperial College London is a world top ten university with an international reputation for excellence in teaching and research. Consistently rated amongst the world's best universities, Imperial is committed to developing the next generation of researchers, scientists and academics through collaboration across disciplines. Located in the heart of London, Imperial College is a multidisciplinary space for education, research, translation and commercialisation, harnessing science and innovation to tackle global challenges. ABOUT IMPERIAL PROSTATE Imperial Prostate is a world-leading team of researcher-practitioners who work towards improving the lives of men who develop or are being investigated for prostate cancer and other prostate diseases. The groups mission is to improve the speed, accuracy and safety of prostate disease diagnosis, and to evaluate new treatments which have fewer side effects than standard techniques without losing treatment efficacy. It is partnered with scientists at Imperial College, who help us develop our research based on the latest scientific discoveries, techniques and technology. Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust is one of the largest hospital Trusts in England, providing acute and specialist healthcare for a population of nearly two million people. The Trust has five hospitals Charing Cross, Hammersmith, Queen Charlottes & Chelsea, St Marys and The Western Eye as well as community services. ABOUT PROST8 UK CHARITY Prost8 UK charity: 1182590 is a UK charity concentrating on the major advances in minimally invasive prostate cancer treatment enabled through focal therapy. Among the important benefits this treatment pathway provides is low cost treatment at point of delivery with fast recovery times and low lifestyle impacting outcomes over a long period. Focal therapy includes HIFU (high intensity focal therapy), which uses ultrasound to generate points of heat, and cryotherapy, which uses extreme cold, to target and destroy cancer tumours with minimal damage to surrounding tissue and organs. Prost8 UK are campaigning to create awareness of the availability of focal therapy for prostate cancer as up to 12,000 men each year in the UK could benefit from this treatment, if they know to ask. More than 95% of men with a diagnosis will currently not be informed of this less invasive treatment option which will be the primary focus of Prost8s Prostate Cancer - Know Your Choices campaign launching in June 2020. The charity is currently also actively fundraising 5m to buy, donate and deploy focal therapy equipment into the NHS across the UK to rapidly increase access to this treatment. Following the important outcomes of this trial Prost8 UK will also be actively supporting Imperial Prostate to promote awareness among the general public, GPs and urological practitioners of the potential for prostate lumpectomy treatment via focal therapy for men with recurrent cancer following earlier radiotherapy treatment. Contact Details: Paul Sayer (CEO) 07946 511176 paul.sayer@prost8.org.uk prost8.org.uk IMPORTANT Men who are concerned about prostate cancer should in the first instance discuss this with their family doctor (GP). Queries from patients, GPs and consultants can also be forwarded to imperial.prostate@nhs.net but GP or consultant referrals will be needed for those men who wish to discuss their eligibility for the treatment. The following websites have further information: http://www.imperialprostate.org.uk and https://www.prost8.org.uk FOR FURTHER INFORMATION Contact Details: Imperial.prostate@nhs.net Deepika.reddy06@imperial.ac.uk SONACARE MEDICAL FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS The Company's forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and assumptions regarding the Company's business and performance, the economy and other future conditions and forecasts of future events, circumstances and results. As with any projection or forecast, forward-looking statements are inherently susceptible to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. The Company's actual results may vary materially from those expressed or implied in its forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement made by the Company speaks only as of the date on which it is made. The Company is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any obligation to, update or alter its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, subsequent events or other factors. Australia's favourite weather presenter Jane Bunn got caught on a wild girls' night last month in Melbourne. And the 40-year-old weather presenter was back at her best on Tuesday, while filming a weather segment in regional Victoria. Taking to Instagram, the blonde beauty showed herself looking chic in a black skivvy and a peach overcoat as well as a purple beanie. Glamorous! Australia's favourite weather presenter Jane Bunn, 40, rugged up against the chilly weather as she filmed on location in the Victorian town of Beechworth on Tuesday Jane was filming in the historic town of Beechworth, appearing to promote the stunning town as a domestic holiday spot. 'We're in Beechworth tonight, showing you lots of exciting things to do when you next holiday in Australia,' she wrote. She finished with the message: 'It's chilly but we're dressed for it and loving it!' In another photo on Monday, Jane was pictured elsewhere. Cold: In another photo on Monday, Jane was pictured elsewhere. 'Starting our week off exploring Victoria and tonight were in Bright!' 'Starting our week off exploring Victoria and tonight were in Bright!' She continued: 'Chilly but that really nice crisp and calm chill that makes you want to head out and explore.' It comes after Jane enjoyed a post-isolation house party with two girlfriends in Melbourne last month. 'Girls night': Jane and her friends Leonie (right) and Alecia (left) laughed the night away as they documented their reunion on Instagram Party time! Jane Bunn (centre) was a force to be reckoned with last month when she enjoyed a post-isolation house party with two girlfriends in Melbourne Sipping Champagne and eating caviar, she celebrated being able to see her friends in person again after Victoria eased its COVID-19 social distancing rules. 'Saturday night with other people,' Jane told her Instagram followers as she headed out for the evening. The Channel Seven star, who has continued working throughout the pandemic, added: 'Almost feels like pre-coronavirus.' Feeling good: 'Saturday night with other people,' Jane told her Instagram followers as she headed out for the evening. 'Almost feels like pre-coronavirus' Jane wore stylish black pants, a matching sweater and wool coat. She accessorised her look with strappy snakeskin heels and a clutch bag. Jane's friends Leonie and Alecia shared posts to Instagram of the TV presenter having fun. The trio laughed the night away as they documented their reunion. Jane is rarely seen outside the Seven News studio or in such a relaxed atmosphere. The ordinance the council is considering would remove the 21-day application period and also allow the City Clerk's office to administratively approve licenses on public property, as it does now for special licenses on private property. City Attorney Jeff Kirkpatrick said the proposed temporary rule changes on special licenses is part of the city's efforts to help restaurants and bars, "which have really been challenged by this pandemic situation." Doug Dittman, owner of The Hub Cafe at 250 N. 21st St., said money he got from a Paycheck Protection Program loan runs out in less than two weeks, and he has to figure out how to make payroll after that while only being able to use half of his restaurant in what's considered kind of a "make-or-break month" for the restaurant industry. People are hesitant to come inside the restaurant, he said, but many also don't want to sit outside if they can't drink alcohol. "Let's face it, alcohol sales are an important part of making it," Dittman said, expressing his support for the change. Brian Kitten, owner of Brewsky's, said he was in favor of it, too. But he also noted that it is not an "end-all fix." Meghan Markle and Prince Harry stepped away from the royal spotlight in part to give their son, Archie Harrison, a semi-normal life. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have tried to keep Archie out of the public eye since day one when they opted against giving him a royal title. Although Archie does not have a His Royal Highness HRH title at the moment, he is destined to be a prince and a duke whether the Sussexes like it or not. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle with their newborn son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor | Dominic Lipinski WPA Pool/Getty Images Prince Harry and Meghan Markle avoid giving Archie a royal title Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Harry moved to Los Angeles a few months ago and will reportedly live in the area for at least half the year. As part of their exit plan, the couple wants to split their time between the United Kingdom and the United States, though exactly how that will work out with Archie remains to be seen. Experts believe that the two will mostly raise Archie in the US, a move that will keep him out of the royal spotlight until he gets older. The family will likely return to the UK for big family events, but Archie will likely remain away from the cameras. Upon his birth, Archie was eligible to receive the title of Harrys Earl of Dumbarton. But the Sussexes decided against giving him any royal titles and simply named him Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. Archie does not currently hold any royal titles, but that will change in the future. Archie Harrison will get a royal title no matter what Despite not receiving any royal titles at birth, royal expert Iain MacMarthanne revealed that Archie will be a prince and a duke someday. According to Express, MacMarthanne explained that upon Harrys death Archie will inherit his fathers title as the Duke of Sussex. There is a loophole in the law that will allow Archie to reject the title of duke, but MacMarthanne says that is unlikely to happen. The expert also pointed out that Archie will be named a prince when Queen Elizabeth passes away, whether his parents like it or not. RELATED: Will Archie Harrison Be Allowed to Work For the Royal Family Now That Harry and Meghan Have Left Royal Life Behind? In the case of Archie things however change on the death of the Queen, he shared. At that moment, by law, Archie will become whether he chooses to be or not HRH Prince Archie of Sussex for life. Although Archie will have an HRH title someday, he cannot pass it on to his children. He can, however, give his offspring his dukedom, though that will depend on whether or not he chooses to keep it. What is Archie Harrisons title? Royal titles can be a bit confusing on the best of days, and they get even trickier when you get outside of the direct line of succession. Most members of the royal family who are in the direct line of succession are given a prince or princess title upon birth. Prince William and Kate Middletons children, for example, were all given HRH titles, as were Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, who are Prince Andrews daughters. We have already established that Archie does not have an HRH title, but he is called something different than the average Joe. Upon his birth, Archie was given the title of master instead of prince. This is similar to what Princess Anne did with her children, Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips, both of whom do not have HRH titles. Did Prince Harry and Meghan Markle give up their titles? Harry and Meghan may have ditched the royal family, but they did not give up their HRH titles. Instead, the couple has agreed to stop using their titles, plus anything with the word royal in it. This includes dropping their main charitable brand, Sussex Royal, which they have replaced with their new foundation, Archewell. RELATED: Prince Harry Insists It Was His Decision to Move to Canada With Meghan Markle and Archie Harrison This is why Harry and Meghan are still referred to as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and will retain their dukedom throughout their lives. Prince Harry and Meghan have not commented on the reports surrounding Archie Harrisons HRH titles. The decades-old debate over nuclear fusion vs. fission is on the edge of a breakthrough as startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems wins over Bill Gates and other backers. Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor is one of them. Commonwealth Fuel Systems has a system powered by high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets that are key to a push to get a commercial fusion energy system operating by the early 2030s years earlier than several major fusion projects around the world. CFS, a US-based startup that came from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is developing its HTS technology to deliver what it claims will commercialize nuclear fusion power. That comes with unlimited zero-carbon energy, and a much more reliable renewable energy source for power plants than intermittent wind and solar. CFS efforts come from a joint project with MIT that by 2025 aims to become the first fusion reactor to show net energy gain by producing more energy than it consumes. It will be able to generate 50 to 100 megawatts thermal that could be harnessed to produce power in a conventional steam cycle. Nuclear fusion has been seen as the answer to diminishing support for nuclear power overall since Japans Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011. That crisis was followed in 2013 when the San Onofre nuclear power plant in California was shut down after replacement steam generators failed; and has so far remained out of commission. Fusion has been championed as the solution as it creates less radioactive material than fission, and has a nearly unlimited fuel supply. Equinor sees CFS as a good fit for its zero-carbon investment portfolio that already includes offshore wind and solar. The Norwegian company was part of an $84 million funding round for the startup that joined an existing group of investors including oil and gas company Eni and Bill Gates Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Nuclear fusion has always faced the same challenge that hydrogen has endured as an alternative energy. The standing joke is that fusion is always 40 years away. Nuclear power advocates may be seeing a sign of hope in hydrogen with the potential of green hydrogen coming to be, fueling stations becoming competitive to gas pumps, and applications of the fuel coming to energy storage and commercial vehicles of all types. Nuclear has the edge of being taken quite seriously in markets around the world such as France, where the county gets about 75 percent of its electric power from nuclear energy. Fusion does offer a consistent, steady energy source versus wind and solar facing intermittent weather conditions. Related: Worlds Top Solar Panel Producer Opens New Mega Factory Nuclear fusion advocates face the challenge of the energy being perceived as being theoretical without any real, tangible examples of what the cost of the fusion energy will be. Gains made by other renewables could also hurt their arguments. Wind and solar prices have been falling in recent years, storage units have been taking away some of the intermittent risk, and smart network systems being deployed by major utilities are helping build support. Hydrogen also makes the renewable energy classification, offering government incentives for development and distribution. CFS is facing serious competition to take the clear lead in nuclear fusion. One of these comes from the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project thats currently being completed in France. It started as a collaboration in the 1980s between the US, the Soviet Union, various European nations, and Japan. India, South Korea, and China joined the consortium years later. The backers are hoping to bring ITER live in 2025, but the cost has been high over $14 billion invested so far. The project began construction in 2013, a much longer timeframe for completion than CFS says it can do. CFS also benefits from the fact that ITER and other major test projects wont even start experiments until 2040 or later. CFS is also making gains by winning over impressive financial backers. Along with the Gates-backed Breakthrough Energy Ventures, others include MITs affiliated investment fund, The Engine; the Italian energy firm ENI Next LLC; and venture investors such as Future Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Moore Strategic Ventures, Safar Partners LLC, Schooner Capital, and Starlight Ventures. We are investing in fusion and CFS because we believe in the technology and the company, and we remain committed to providing energy to the world, now and in a low-carbon future, said Sophie Hildebrand, Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President for Research and Technology at Equinor. By Jon LeSage for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: "While we at Subaru of America continue to feel the effects the pandemic has had on both the auto industry and the country as a whole, we are hopeful that our May results show a positive change," said Thomas J. Doll, President and CEO, Subaru of America. "Our retailers have gone above and beyond to sell 51,988 during these difficult times, a great sales month under the current conditions. As always, we continue our efforts with our Subaru Love Promise as Subaru's donation of 50 million meals to Feeding America begins to take effect, and also through our continued community outreach through the charitable works of our network of retailers, distributors and employees in our efforts to remain a force for good during this adverse times." "Subaru sales exceeded our expectations, including a best-ever May for Forester, and we have the hard work and dedication of our retailers and their employees to thank," said Jeff Walters, Senior Vice President of Sales. "We are appreciative of their commitment to safely sell and deliver Subaru vehicles to our customers." Carline May-20 May-19 % Chg May-20 May-19 % Chg MTD MTD MTD YTD YTD YTD Forester 17,859 16,028 11.4% 66,370 71,466 -7.1% Impreza 3,085 5,532 -44.2% 15,231 24,130 -36.9% WRX/STI 2,255 2,110 6.8% 8,163 10,510 -22.3% Ascent 5,740 7,509 -23.6% 25,318 33,094 -23.5% Legacy 1,954 2,994 -34.7% 9,847 14,204 -30.7% Outback 11,382 18,017 -36.8% 52,055 76,206 -31.7% BRZ 227 231 -1.7% 724 1,337 -45.9% Crosstrek 9,486 11,551 -17.9% 35,491 47,067 -24.6% TOTAL 51,988 63,972 -18.7% 213,199 278,014 -23.3% As the COVID-19 crisis continues, Subaru and its retailers are following the most up-to-date guidelines from the CDC, adapting services and undertaking enhanced measures for cleaning and sanitation to help support the safety of employees and customers. In addition, many stores are providing alternative methods of vehicle service including pick-up and drop-off, expanded service loaner fleet, and mobile repair. For information on the Subaru Payment Deferment Program, please contact your local Subaru retailer or visit Subaru Motors Finance. * $1 helps to provide at least ten meals secured by Feeding America on behalf of local member food banks About Subaru of America, Inc. Subaru of America, Inc. (SOA) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Subaru Corporation of Japan. Headquartered at a zero-landfill office in Camden, N.J., the company markets and distributes Subaru vehicles, parts and accessories through a network of more than 630 retailers across the United States. All Subaru products are manufactured in zero-landfill production plants and Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc. is the only U.S. automobile production plant to be designated a backyard wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation. SOA is guided by the Subaru Love Promise, which is the company's vision to show love and respect to everyone, and to support its communities and customers nationwide. Over the past 20 years, SOA has donated more than $190 million to causes the Subaru family cares about, and its employees have logged more than 40,000 volunteer hours. As a company, Subaru believes it is important to do its part in making a positive impact in the world because it is the right thing to do. For additional information visit media.subaru.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Dominick Infante Director, Corporate Communications (856) 488-8615 [email protected] Diane Anton Corporate Communications Manager (856) 488-5093 [email protected] Nicholas Saraceni Corporate Communications Specialist (856) 488-3330 [email protected] SOURCE Subaru of America, Inc. Related Links http://www.subaru.com Yosemite is still closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the Sierras other granite marvel, Kings Canyon, will open its gates to visitors Thursday, June 4. Kings Canyon National Park and its adjacent neighbor, Sequoia National Park, home of the worlds largest trees, are opening roads, trails, restrooms, parking lots and picnic areas. The bad news for campers is that campgrounds will remain shut, and the parks dont expect to reopen them until at least after July 4. All campground reservations have been canceled. Reservation holders can get a full refund through recreation.gov. Park amenities will be sparse during the phased-in reopening. For now, visitor centers, bookstores, ranger stations and wilderness permit stations are closed, as are lodging, restaurants, markets and gift stores operated by concessioner Delaware North. Horseback rides at Cedar Grove and Grand Grove will not be offered until later phases. If campgrounds are reopened this season, park-goers will again be able to make reservations, but campsites may be limited as some will be closed to ensure safe distancing. Group camping has been suspended for the rest of the year. Reservations are required for overnight access. Existing wilderness permits for June 5 and later will be honored, but no walk-up permits will be issued this summer. The Wilderness Office is still processing wilderness permit applications for the remainder of June, and July-September, in anticipation of the parks phased re-opening. Mike Moffitt is an SFGATE Digital Reporter. Email: moffitt@sfgate.com. Twitter: @Mike_at_SFGate Technavio has been monitoring the global gift card market size and it is poised to grow by USD 10.19 billion during 2019-2023, progressing at a CAGR of over 13% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200601005533/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Gift Card Market 2019-2023 (Graphic: Business Wire) Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Latest Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc., DOCUMAX Inc., Fidelity National Information Services Inc., Givex Corp, InComm Holdings Inc., National Gift Card Corp., Plastek Card Solutions, Inc., Qwikcilver Solutions, Pvt. Ltd., Stored Value Solutions, Inc., and Village Roadshow Ltd. are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments. The growth of the e-commerce industry has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. Gift Card Market 2019-2023: Segmentation Gift Card Market is segmented as below: Type E-gift Cards Physical Gift Cards Geography APAC Europe North America South America MEA To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR32177 Gift Card Market 2019-2023: Scope Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our gift card market report covers the following areas: Gift Card Market size Gift Card Market trends Gift Card Market industry analysis This study identifies the launch of new products in the gift cards category as one of the prime reasons driving the gift card market growth during the next few years. Gift Card Market 2019-2023: Vendor Analysis We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the Gift Card Market, including some of the vendors such as Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc., DOCUMAX Inc., Fidelity National Information Services Inc., Givex Corp, InComm Holdings Inc., National Gift Card Corp., Plastek Card Solutions, Inc., Qwikcilver Solutions, Pvt. Ltd., Stored Value Solutions, Inc., and Village Roadshow Ltd. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the Gift Card Market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports. Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Gift Card Market 2019-2023: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2019-2023 Detailed information on factors that will assist gift card market growth during the next five years Estimation of the gift card market size and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the gift card market Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of gift card market vendors Table Of Contents : Executive Summary Market Landscape Market ecosystem Value chain analysis Market Sizing Market definition Market segment analysis Market size 2019 Market outlook: Forecast for 2018-2023 Five Forces Analysis Five forces summary Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market condition Market Segmentation by Type Market segments Comparison by Type E-gift cards Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Physical gift cards Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Market opportunity by Type Customer landscape Customer landscape Geographic Landscape Geographic segmentation Geographic comparison North America Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Europe Market size and forecast 2018-2023 APAC Market size and forecast 2018-2023 MEA Market size and forecast 2018-2023 South America Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Key leading countries Market opportunity by geography Market Driver Market Challenges Market Trends Vendor Landscape Overview Vendor landscape Landscape disruption Vendor Analysis Vendors covered Market positioning of vendors Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. Documax Inc. Fidelity National Information Services Inc. Givex Corp. InComm Holdings Inc. National Gift Card Corp. Plastek Card Solutions Inc. Qwikcilver Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Stored Value Solutions Inc. Village Roadshow Ltd. Appendix Scope of the report Currency conversion rates for US$ Research methodology List of abbreviations About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200601005533/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: media@technavio.com Website: www.technavio.com/ This is an opinion cartoon. A riot is the language of the unheard. - Martin Luther King, Jr. I dont have the words to describe the anger and sadness I feel about the senseless violence and rioting that ignited in Birmingham, and to a lesser degree in Mobile, Sunday night. What started as peaceful protests in response to the death of George Floyd at the knee of a bad cop in Minneapolis, turned into an explosive event that Martin Luther King preached against until his last breath. Riots defeat the purpose of peaceful protesters and tarnish the name of George Floyd. George Floyd protests: Full coverage I am beyond proud of the courage of my AL.com colleagues who waded in to get the story as it ignited around them. Thankfully, theyre OK. After chaotic Sunday, where does Birmingham go from here? Johnson: We will breathe again, Birmingham Peace, please. Stay safe and sane. Check out more cartoons and stuff by JD Crowe Nobody died when Colin Kaepernick took a knee Over the past week, people across the United States have been protesting the death of George Floyd. The 46-year-old black man died while being held by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Videos of Floyds death show a white police officer keeping a knee pressed on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes. Floyd can be heard repeatedly saying, I cant breathe. The protests -- and police actions to control them -- are threatening to undo American health officials efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19. Health experts need newly infected people to remember everyone they were in contact with in the days leading up to their confirmed sickness. This helps to let others know they may have been exposed -- and prevent those people from spreading the disease even more. The process is known as contact tracing. It depends on people being able to know who they came close to. That is no easy task if someone has attended a protest with hundreds or even thousands of other people. The process also depends on something that may be in especially short supply right now: Trust in government. These events that are happening now are further threats to the trust we need, said Dr. Sandro Galea. He leads Boston Universitys School of Public Health. Government officials hope to continue reopening businesses, religious centers and other organizations after months of stay-at-home orders and other infection-prevention measures. But health experts also hoped that reopening would include widespread testing, contact tracing and isolation to prevent new waves of illness from beginning. It is unclear if the protests will lead to new outbreaks. The protests have taken place outside, where the virus does not spread as easily. Also, many of the protesters have been seen wearing face masks. But experts still worry that public efforts to contain the disease in the future could be harmed. In Los Angeles, the citys mayor announced Saturday that COVID-19 testing centers were being closed because of safety concerns related to violent protests. And some medical centers in Minneapolis that provide testing have been damaged in the protests, a government spokesperson said. Reduced testing could be giving the virus another head start, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. Concern over contact tracing Contact tracing, which is only just getting started in several states, is an even bigger concern. It involves people who work for or with health departments asking questions about where a person has been and who they have been talking to and getting full, truthful answers in return. Schaffner said the current situation in the U.S. could make people less likely to speak with anyone working for the government. That is especially true in black communities dealing with police violence and long-held frustrations with how they are mistreated by people who work for government agencies. Those are also the communities that have been hit hardest by the coronavirus and are most in need of public health measures to help control the spread. In a press conference last week, Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington used the term contact tracing when describing an investigation into protesters who had been arrested in the state. He said the goal was to see if there are any crime or white supremacy organizations that caused violence and destruction and to understand how...we go after them, legally. Harringtons use of contact tracing by law enforcement may make the job of health workers more difficult, some experts said. That was an abuse of the word contact tracing. That is not what contact tracing is, said Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Contact tracing is a service to patients and their contacts to provide services for patients and warning for contacts, Frieden said. "It has nothing to do with police activity. Nothing. Boston Universitys Galea said he hopes many people will separate in their minds the contact tracing done by public health workers from crime investigations by the police. But, he added, I do think sometimes its difficult to make a distinction when you feel...targeted by the entire government. Im Ashley Thompson. The Associated Press reported this story. Ashley Thompson adapted it for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor. Quiz - Protests, Lack of Trust Undo COVID-19 Control Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story expose - v. to leave (something) without covering or protection isolation - n. the state of being in a place or situation that is separate from others mayor - n. an official who is elected to be the head of the government of a city or town frustration - n. a feeling of anger or annoyance caused by being unable to do something white supremacy - n. the belief that that the white race is better than all other races and should have control over all other races epidemic - n. an occurrence in which a disease spreads very quickly and affects a large number of people distinction - n. the separation of people or things into different groups Today is Monday, June 1, 2020. Let's get caught up. The latest developments this Monday morning: The country enters a new week shaken by violence and unrest as fallout from the death of George Floyd continues; Minnesota's governor appoints the state attorney general to take the lead in the case; Trump, Biden take different approaches to the crisis. Read on for these stories, celebrity birthdays and more. Top stories US heads into a new week shaken by violence and pandemic With cities wounded by days of violent unrest, America headed into a new week with neighborhoods in shambles, urban streets on lockdown and shaken confidence about when leaders would find the answers to control the mayhem amid unrelenting raw emotion over police killings of black people. All of it smashed into a nation already bludgeoned by a death toll from the coronavirus pandemic surging past 100,000 and unemployment that soared to levels not seen since the Great Depression. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Global Data Erasure Solution Market is valued US$1068.4 Mn in 2017 and is estimated to reach US$5245.3 Mn by 2026 at a CAGR of 19.6%Data erasure solution market is segmented by component, by device type, by the end user, and by region. A component is divided into Software, Service & Managed service. Device types are classified into PC, Laptops, Servers, Data center equipment & Mobile. End users are the Home solution, Enterprise, ITADs, & Data Centres. Region wise the market is divided into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America Based on device type, mobile devices segment accounted for the major share in the global data erasure solutions market in 2017 and is projected to maintain its position in the coming years. Mobile device market, resale values can be much higher, particularly for iPhones. Thus, the move to upgrade a device creates a demand for data erasure. As a result, application of data erasure solutions in mobile devices is expected to witness potential growth in the coming years across the globe. The increasing acceptance of cloud infrastructure in different organizations and expansion of the electronics industry is expected to boost the data erasure solutions market in the coming years. Presence of a large number of data erasure solutions providers and post-sale service providers across regions has led to a subsequent rise in demand for data erasure solutions. This is likely to propel the growth of the market during the forecast period. Also, increasing threat of data loss from old assets such as PCs, mobile devices, servers, and many others has offered data erasure solutions manufacturers an opportunity to develop certified data erasure solutions in order to minimize the risk of data leakage. Request for Report Sample: https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/sample/11037 In terms of region, the market is segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America. North America is anticipated to contribute significantly to revenue in the near future due to a large base of existing users in the region. The market in Europe and South America is anticipated to follow a similar trend between 2018 and 2026. Furthermore, the market in the Asia Pacific and Middle East & Africa is likely to expand at a robust CAGR in the coming years. Key players operate, Kroll Ontrack Inc.,Blancco Technology Group Plc,Stellar Information Technology Pvt. Ltd., IBM,WhiteCanyon Software, Inc., MTI Technology Limited ,ITRenew, CHG-MERIDIAN, Ultratec Limited,RAS Infotech Limited, EOL IT Services Limited, XTechnology Global, CHG-MERIDIAN, Sinocorp, MDSi, Inc., DBTRONIX (Far East) Limited, Labgroup, Green Safe IT Disposals, Secure IT Services Ltd, DestructData, Ynvolve(Infinite Group), Prolimax,PT. Sistemindo Teknotama Mandiri, PhoneCheck, LLC, Vibrant Technologies, Reciprocal Group, DCMind GmbH The scope of Report Global Data Erasure solution Market: Global Data Erasure solution Market, by Component: Request for Report Discount: https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/discount/11037 Software Services Managed Service Global Data Erasure solution Market, by Device Type: PCs Laptops Servers Data Centre Equipment Mobile Devices Global Data Erasure solution Market, by End-user: Home Solutions Enterprise ITADs Data Centres Global Data Erasure solution Market, by Region: North America Europe Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa Latin America Key Players Analysed in the Global Data Erasure solution Market IBM White Canyon Software, Inc. MTI Technology Limited ITRenew CHG-MERIDIAN Ultratec Limited RAS Infotech Limited EOL IT Services Limited XTechnology Global CHG-MERIDIAN Sinocorp MDSi, Inc. DBTRONIX (Far East) Limited Labgroup Green Safe IT Disposals Secure IT Services Ltd, DestructData Ynvolve(Infinite Group) Prolimax PT. Sistemindo Teknotama Mandiri PhoneCheck, LLC Vibrant Technologies Reciprocal Group More Info of Impact Covid19@ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/covid-19-analysis/11037 Farmers have enough worries - between bad weather, rising costs, and shifting market demands - without having to stress about the carbon footprint of their operations. But now a new set of projects by scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) could make agriculture both more sustainable and more profitable. The three projects, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), leverage Berkeley Lab's strengths in artificial intelligence, sensors, and ecological biology. They aim to quantify and reduce the carbon intensity of agriculture, including the farming of biofuel feedstocks such as corn, soy, and sorghum, while also increasing yield. Crop-based biofuels have the potential to supply up to about 5% of U.S. energy demand, according to the DOE. Two of the new projects are part of the SMARTFARM program of DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). This initiative aspires to make the biofuel supply chain carbon negative - meaning it removes or sequesters more carbon than it emits - which would greatly improve biofuel's benefits to the broader economy and environment. Scientists also hope that the increased productivity will have the effect of lowering costs and increasing farmers' income. "How can we make this Earth work for 7 billion people?" said Michael Schuppenhauer, who is leading one of the projects for an industry partner, Arva Intelligence, a startup based in Park City, Utah. "If we can develop a pathway for farmers to have a better bottom line and help the environment, that's where everybody wins." A third project is supported by a DOE small business grant and is in partnership with Arva Intelligence. Gathering massive amounts of data In the first project, researchers led by Blake Simmons, director of Berkeley Lab's Biological & Systems Engineering (BSE) Division, working with project lead, Arva Intelligence, will monitor five commercial farms in California and Arkansas growing corn and crops for straw. The farms will be equipped with state-of-the-art sensors to assess fertilizer, water, energy use, and crop yield, while monitoring towers registered with DOE's AmeriFlux network will measure emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane at subsecond resolution. The environmental and emissions impacts of biofuel production -- one of the largest consumers of grain crops in the U.S. -- are well understood, but emissions and opportunities for improvements at the field-level remain unclear. The Arva/Berkeley Lab team is one of four selected by ARPA-E to establish validation sites to "ground truth" solutions for emissions monitoring, with a variety of crop species included across the teams. The Berkeley Lab team is considering anaerobic digestion of crop residues, which are the parts of the plants left on the field after the food crop has been harvested, to biogas as a viable pathway for farmers. "Crop residues are actually the largest pool of readily available sustainable biomass that you can efficiently convert into biofuels and bioproducts," Simmons said. "We can use that as the feedstock. So, you're producing food and fuel and fiber from the same field and maximizing the carbon conversion efficiency on a per-acre basis. That is the reason why, ultimately, we believe this pathway has a much better eco- and carbon-balance than other pathways." As part of the project, Berkeley Lab scientists will conduct atmospheric sensing of greenhouse gases, genomic analyses to characterize the soil microbiome, and life cycle analysis to determine the ratio of carbon input to output. The field experiments will generate massive amounts of data. Arva will use the data to build mathematical models and improve precision agriculture algorithms to help farms become carbon-neutral or even carbon-negative. "The end products aren't just looking at greenhouse gas emissions," said Schuppenhauer, the project's lead for Arva, who is also a BSE affiliate scientist. "The end products will be things such as: How much fertilizer do we really need? If we can reduce the amount of fertilizer use by half or a quarter, that has implications on fossil fuel use, as it is used in fertilizer production." ARPA-E awarded Arva $2.95 million for the project, of which $1.6 million will go to Berkeley Lab. In addition to Simmons, researchers from Berkeley Lab's Earth and Environmental Sciences Area, the DOE Joint Genome Institute, and the University of Arkansas are also involved. Making sense of all that data In the second project, also funded by ARPA-E, Berkeley Lab researchers led by Yuxin Wu will take in the data from the other ARPA-E SMARTFARM teams and develop a common standard for carbon accounting. Currently, established low-carbon fuel markets can confer sizable financial rewards to products that are produced with low greenhouse gas emissions, bringing farmers as much as $100 per acre in additional revenue. Yet farmers lack a way to measure their carbon footprint. "If you really want to put a price on carbon from biofuels production, you have to be able to accurately measure emissions of carbon and carbon-equivalents from each farm," said Wu, head of Berkeley Lab's Geophysics Department. "That could incentivize farmers to move away from resource-intensive farming, where they are driven to maximize yield by using more fertilizer." But carbon accounting is no easy task. "Greenhouse gases are released by plant and root respiration, by the soil, by fertilizer use, and when you pump water or use machinery. It's a complex equation," said Wu. "And each farm operates in their own way. How we put together these very different datasets is a challenge." ARPA-E awarded Berkeley Lab $1 million for the project. A software system for farmers Lastly, Berkeley Lab researchers, led by Nicola Falco and Haruko Wainwright, are partnering with Arva to develop machine-learning software to integrate DOE's environmental databases with local-scale monitoring and sensing. The DOE databases and facilities - such as AmeriFlux and ESS-DIVE, a repository for Earth and environmental science data - provide critical datasets for understanding agro-ecosystem functions on the regional and national scales. These functions include greenhouse gas fluxes, evapotranspiration, and soil biogeochemistry. In this project, the researchers will develop a scalable software system to couple the local-scale datasets - such as from sensors monitoring water, nutrients, and fertilizers - with the DOE datasets. "The DOE's databases and user facilities offer powerful assessments, yet they have been rarely used for ecosystem management," said Falco. The software will be able to, for example, couple evapotranspiration estimates derived from Ameriflux with local soil sensors and drone images to provide information on water management practices. DOE has awarded Arva a small business grant of up to $200,000 for this project. Berkeley Lab's efforts to leverage machine learning for sustainable agriculture started in 2018 on a farm in Arkansas. Falco and Wainwright have since developed a suite of algorithms, now available for licensing, to help farmers estimate sprout and plant density using images taken by drones. These estimates, in turn, enable real-time adjustments to boost productivity. "Berkeley Lab has extensive expertise characterizing soil-plant interactions and other terrestrial ecosystem properties across scales," said Wainwright. "By working with Arva and its machine-learning capabilities, we hope to transfer our tools and knowledge more quickly for operational management." ### Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest scientific challenges are best addressed by teams, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and its scientists have been recognized with 13 Nobel Prizes. Today, Berkeley Lab researchers develop sustainable energy and environmental solutions, create useful new materials, advance the frontiers of computing, and probe the mysteries of life, matter, and the universe. Scientists from around the world rely on the Lab's facilities for their own discovery science. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory, managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science. - Emily Scott contributed to this article. The powerful cyclone that struck India and Bangladesh last month passed through the vast mangrove forests of the Sundarban Delta, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The mangroves dissipated some of Cyclone Amphans energy, shielding densely populated cities like Kolkata. But the storms impact was devastating for the millions who live in the Sundarbans. Mud homes were swept away, embankments destroyed and farms inundated by saline water that made them unfit for cultivation. The impact of climate change, including increasingly furious storms and coastal erosion from rising oceans, has forced many to migrate to the cities in recent years. But now, with the coronavirus pandemic shutting down businesses and limiting mobility, villagers no longer have the option of moving in search of work. It is a recipe for disaster, said Annu Jalais, a professor at the National University of Singapore who has been studying the Sundarbans for 20 years. Cyclone Amphan hit on May 20 with heavy rains, a massive storm surge and sustained winds of 170km/h (105 mph) and gusts of up to 190 km/h (118 mph). It passed directly through the Sundarbans, devastating it. Jafar Iqbal, a village teacher, spent a night in a shelter while the cyclone raged outside. When he went home the next day, he found his house badly damaged. My home didnt have a roof. It was lying crumpled on the floor, he told The Associated Press news agency. The Sundarban Delta has 102 islands, of which 54 are inhabited. The rest constitute the worlds largest mangrove forest. Most famous for its population of tigers, the mangroves dense thickets of small trees with exposed supporting roots act as a buffer during storms, slowing down tidal waves and dissipating a storms energy, said KJ Ramesh, Indias former meteorological chief. The lives of the estimated 4.5 million people in the region are tied to the fragile ecosystem. Farming, fishing, collecting honey, and tourism are the few employment opportunities available. But climate change has been making their lives harder. Cyclone Amphan also damaged almost the entire length of the 100-kilometre (62-mile) nylon fence that had been erected to prevent tigers from straying into human habitations, said Krishnendu Basak of the private Wildlife Trust of India. The fence is key in reducing the number of tiger attacks on people. But it is the breaking of embankments, resulting in saltwater pouring onto the land, that will have the most durable impact on livelihoods. Saline water kills freshwater fish in ponds in a day, most sources of drinking water disappear, and land cannot be used for cultivation for up to five years, Jalais said. A May 22, 2020 photo shows villagers inspecting the damage caused by Cyclone Amphan in Deulbari, South 24 Parganas district, the Sundarbans [File: Samrat Paul/AP] Amites Mukhopadhyay, a sociologist at Jadavpur University who has been researching the Sundarbans, said the ebb and flow of the tides make it difficult to build new embankments. The tides change every six hours. You need a very strong initiative from the government, he said. A cyclone in 2009 and another last year left similar devastation and triggered mass migration out of the islands. Before Cyclone Amphan struck, many of those migrants had started returning home after losing their jobs in the cities due to the coronavirus lockdown. Elema Bibi, a fisherwoman whose son returned home days before the cyclone, said: We are left with nothing, with nowhere to go. There is no source of income. I just have a pile of rotting fish. Coronavirus pandemic The state has announced $827,000 in aid for rebuilding houses, helping farmers, and repairing wells in the Sundarbans, and the national government has announced a $130m relief fund for the state. 200527163136894 The coronavirus is complicating relief work. During the cyclone, villagers huddled in crowded storm shelters, which authorities feared could spread the virus. Since the storm, the number of cases in the state has risen above 5,500 with more than 300 deaths from 3,103 cases and 181 deaths on the day of the cyclone. Most families left the cyclone shelter as soon as they could, Iqbal said. No one wanted to risk getting infected by the virus. Some villages have blocked the entry of outsiders and asked for relief materials to be left on other islands for them to pick up, news reports say. Mukhopadhyay said the region is no stranger to disasters, but the combination of the cyclone and the pandemic make the situation look completely bleak. People are resilient, but how much resilience can they have? he said. By John Shjarback The eyes of the nation are once again focused on race and policing. Last Tuesday morning, video emerged of one of most egregious deaths in police custody ever recorded. George Floyd was handcuffed and lying on his stomach with a Minneapolis Police Officers knee on his neck for more than eight minutes half of which he was non-responsive. Three other officers watched, neglecting their professional and moral obligation to intervene. Since the video surfaced, there have been renewed calls for police accountability and reform, and this past week showcased perhaps the worst large-scale unrest between officers and citizens in Americas history. We, as a country, have been down this road before: most recently 5 to 6 years ago following the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Eric Garner on Staten Island, Freddie Gray in Baltimore, and Tamir Rice in Cleveland to name a few. Remember? This time, however, feels different. Unlike in 2014, following Ferguson, there appears to be near universal agreement by both the law enforcement community and ordinary citizens that what we witnessed in that video has no place in American policing. We saw a failure to follow training and policy and, most importantly, an error in the mindsets of those officers who should be committed to the preservation of life above all else. Never before have we seen this level of condemnation coming from all ranks of policing. Never before have the narratives found on MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News echoed similar sentiments. This suggests that the time is now to enact meaningful crisis-driven police reform. What has changed since 2014-2015? The video itself eliminates much, if not all, of the ambiguity used for debate in past incidents. There is not a question as to whether the officer could have mistaken an item for a gun or whether the level of suspect resistance justified such force. In this case, there is no defensible policy or training argument to validate the four officers behaviors (or lack thereof). But maybe it is much broader than the video itself. The social-political climate today is different. By some accounts, there was an adversarial relationship between President Obama and his Department of Justice (DOJ) and state/local law enforcement more broadly during the last crisis. While the reasons are unclear, it could be attributed to the DOJs Civil Rights Division opening up a record number of federal investigations and interventions into local police departments for a pattern or practice of misconduct during his tenure. Regardless, the country in 2014-2015 was divided along racial and political lines Black Lives Matter versus Blue/All Lives Matter. Law enforcement itself was divided along racial lines according to a Pew Research survey of nearly 8,000 officers. An onslaught of criticism was being directed toward American police. During Trumps first term, the heat on law enforcement was toned down. Similarly, up until last week, the media generally tended to focus their attention elsewhere. Trumps DOJ under Jeff Sessions all but eliminated federal investigations into problematic police departments and Trump himself is an outspoken and ardent supporter of law enforcement. Is it possible that the law enforcement community is less defensive now because their backs are no longer up against the wall like they perceived five years ago? Whatever it may be, a large and growing number of law enforcement professionals at all levels appear ready to serve as partners in search of solutions. The window of opportunity for change is here, but it is narrow and fleeting. It can be easily dismantled, however, by leaders without a sophisticated understanding of history and race relations. We are already beginning to see the ramifications of this type of faux leadership. One that threatens violence against protestors (e.g., when the looting starts, the shooting starts; greeted with the most vicious dogs) and pushes heavy-handed, aggressive tactics as if it were still the 1960s some of the darkest moments for police-minority citizen relations in this country. Instead, what we need are stricter administrative policies that remove ambiguity and make it clearer when officers can use force. We need more accountability to track/monitor problematic officer behavior and correct it through counseling and retraining. We need oversight bodies with actual power to investigate complaints. We need to prevent officers who are appropriately fired from getting their jobs back through arbitration/police union interference. We need agencies to make reporting to and consultation of the National Decertification Index a priority so fired cops cannot find employment in the profession elsewhere. We need national use of force standards and the mandatory reporting of such statistics to a central database. Furthermore, we need to reexamine the types of individuals we want to hire and promote. We need officers committed to the Hippocratic Oath of policing to do no harm and protect life. We need more guardians, who only turn into warriors if/when it is necessary to do so. We need changes in organizational culture that not only reward bravery, but community relationship building, problem-solving, and de-escalation. We need officers and citizens to stop using phrases like rare, isolated incident and a few bad apples dont represent the whole profession. Rather, policing moving forward requires a hard, honest look inward with organizations engaging in a continuous process of self-reflection. The time is now to make a change, and law enforcement must be willing and able to have a seat at that table. John Shjarback, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the Department of Law and Justice Studies at Rowan University. His recent work has focused on police use of deadly force and transactional violence between officers and citizens. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. The Star-Ledger/NJ.com encourages submissions of opinion. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow us on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and on Facebook at NJ.com Opinion. Get the latest news updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. Matt Hancock insisted 'black lives matter' and he 'shares the anger about racial injustice felt around the world' tonight as he denied delaying a report on the heightened BAME risk from coronavirus. The Health Secretary said he 'gets' the anger people feel as he nodded to the wave of protests around the world - including in London - over the death of George Floyd in Minnesota. Footage has emerged of a police officer kneeling on the 46-year-old's neck as he pleaded that he could not breathe. Denying that the government tried to hold off publication of an official inquiry into high BAME deaths rates to avoid inflaming tensions, Mr Hancock told the daily Downing Street briefing the findings were 'timely'. 'This is a particularly timely publication, because right across the world, people are angry about racial injustice,' he said. 'And I get that. Black lives matter.' The Public Health England report appeared to be rushed out this afternoon after a wave of criticism that it might be withheld amid the angry scenes on the streets in the US. Labour's Keir Starmer had demanded the government stop making 'excuses' and reveal the findings. On another rollercoaster day in the coronavirus saga: Health chiefs across Britain today announced 164 more coronavirus deaths - while separate promising data showed the weekly death toll in England and Wales has dropped to its lowest levels since the lockdown began; Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people are more likely to die from the disease, a government review has confirmed; The government 's daily coronavirus briefings are being ditched at weekends with No10 saying viewing figures are lower; The Government believes the two-metre social distancing rule should remain in place, Number 10 has said; Ministers are facing a backlash over plans for 14-day quarantine for all UK arrivals, amid a push for air bridges to be introduced to low infection countries. Denying that the government tried to hold off publication of an official inquiry into high BAME deaths rates to avoid inflaming tensions, Matt Hancock told the daily Downing Street briefing the findings were 'timely' wave of protests around the world - including in London - over the death of George Floyd in Minnesota. Footage has emerged of a police officer kneeling on the 46-year-old's neck as he pleaded that he could not breathe George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died on Memorial Day as he was arrested by four police officers over allegedly trying to buy cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. He was seen in a video pleading that he couldn't breathe as white officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee against his neck Mr Hancock said he valued the contrbutions 'equally' of 'everyone who works in the NHS and in social care'. 'I want you to know that our whole country cares about your wellbeing,' he said. 'And I value those who come to our country to work in the NHS and in social care. 'And I love that this country is one of the most welcoming and tolerant and diverse.' The study, from Public Health England (PHE), looked at the risk factors for coronavirus and found BAME individuals have a much higher risk of death than white people, as do those from poorer backgrounds, men and anyone who is obese or suffering from diabetes. The PHE report showed that, after accounting for the effect of sex, age, deprivation and region, people of Bangladeshi ethnicity have around twice the risk of death than people who are white British. Urban Outfitters was one of several stores hit by looting at Herald Square in New York overnight. Shown, the aftermath on Tuesday morning A looted souvenir shop in Manhattan on Tuesday morning after another night of violence There were some arrests at protests in London yesterday as racial tensions run high Those of Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Other Asian, Caribbean and Other Black ethnicity have between a 10 per cent and 50 per cent higher risk of death when compared to white British. Meanwhile, the highest diagnosis Covid-19 rates per 100,000 population are in black people (486 females and 649 males), and are lowest in white people (220 in females and 224 in males). Compared to previous years, death from all causes are now almost four times higher than expected among black males, almost three times higher in Asian males and almost two times higher in white males. Among females, deaths were almost three times higher in black, mixed and other females, and 2.4 times higher in Asian females compared with 1.6 times in white females. The study said the 'relationship between ethnicity and health is complex and likely to be the result of a combination of factors'. Brits from BAME backgrounds ARE more likely to die of Covid-19, Public Health England review confirms - while the disease is 70 TIMES more likely to kill over-80s, diabetes is a major risk factor and men in lower-paid jobs are dying at 'significant' rates Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people are more likely to die from Covid-19, a government review has confirmed. The Public Health England (PHE) report revealed Britons of Bangladeshi ethnicity had around twice the risk of white Brits of dying with the coronavirus. And it showed black people, as well as those of Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, other Asian, or Caribbean backgrounds had between a 10 and 50 per cent higher risk of death. The analysis did not take into account higher rates of long-term health conditions among these people, which experts say probably account for some of the differences. Evidence compiled in the report also revealed that age is the single biggest risk factor that determines how likely people are to die with the virus - those over the age of 80 are 70 times more likely to be killed than under-40s. And health conditions which appeared often on people's death certificates were heart disease, diabetes - understood to be type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and dementia. More than one in five victims had diabetes, the data showed, which was a significantly higher rate than in people who died of other causes. Data in the Public Health England report showed that the mortality rate - the number of people dying with the coronavirus out of each 100,000 people - was considerably higher for black men than other group. The risk for black women, people of Asian ethnicity, and mixed race people was also higher than for white people of either sex. The report warned the rate for the 'Other' category was 'likely to be an overestimate' Covid-19 can be seen to have had a significant effect on the numbers of men dying (dark green) in all ethnic groups but particularly for black and Asian men Covid-19 can be seen to have had a significant effect on the numbers of women dying (dark green) in all ethnic groups but particularly for black and Asian women Poorer, more deprived people faced a higher risk of dying and men working in lower-paid jobs - such as security guards, bus drivers and construction workers - also had worse chances of survival if they contracted the virus. Health chiefs launched a probe to investigate the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on BAME Brits in April, prompted by a wave of evidence that showed white people were less likely to die from the disease. Health Secretary Matt Hancock, speaking in Parliament today, said: 'Black lives matter,' and pledged action to try and reduce health inequalities between different communities in the UK. He was pushed to deny that the release of the report - which was supposed to happen in May - had not been delayed because of political tensions in the wake of the death of American man George Floyd. He said in the House of Commons: 'We've published it and brought it to the House at the earliest possible opportunity.' Mr Hancock admitted that the report has 'exposed huge disparities in the health of our nation' and his counterpart in the Labour Party, Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth, noted: 'Covid thrives on inequalities'. Doctors still don't know exactly what is increasing non-white people's risk of death, but PHE's report adds to a growing body of evidence proving the link exists. One paper presented to government advisers in SAGE suggested that higher-than-average rates of type 2 diabetes among black and south Asian people may be to blame - the condition is known to increase risk of Covid-19 death. And another study done by King's College Hospital in London found that BAME coronavirus patients there were, on average, 11 years younger than the white patients - 63 compared to 74. The Public Health England report found: Anurag Kashyap has launched a new production company, Good Bad Films, with his upcoming film Choked being the first project made under the banner. Making the announcement on Monday, Anurag released the logo of the new production house and introduced his partners Dhruv Jagasia and Akshay Thakker on Instagram. Sharing a small video on Instagram, Anurag wrote, So here it is .. our new company @goodbadfilmsofficial . Introducing the good, the bad and the films of the @goodbadfilmsofficial on the Monday of the release of our first production #chokedpaisaboltahai on @netflix_in . @jagasiadhruv in black and white and @akshaythakker . My two pillars of support. Only thing I cant figure is that which one of my two producers is good and who is bad .. so leaving it to you all to decide .. lets have fun #chokedpaisaboltahai releasing June 5th Logo design by @sam_madhu pics by @khamkhaphotoartist. Anurag was earlier the co-founder of the now-dissolved Phantom Films. The company was dissolved in 2018 after sexual harassment allegations surfaced against one of its partners, filmmaker Vikas Bahl. Before its launch, the Gangs of Wasseypur director had started his first production house in 2009 with Anurag Kashyap Films. Choked stars Saiyami Kher of Mirzya fame as the lead and will premiere on Netflix on June 5. She was last seen in Kay Kay Menon-led Special Ops. The film follows a hapless bank cashier whose life takes a turn when she finds a source of unlimited money choked in her own kitchen. Also read: Wajid Khans mother Razina tests positive for Covid-19, was taking care of ailing son at hospital: report Opening up about the film Choked, Saiyami told PTI in an interview, Sarita is a middle-class woman. She is the sole breadwinner. She is overworked and frustrated yet tenacious and always scheming to build that dream. At one level Sarita is that every-woman. Nihit Bhave, our writer, has beautifully woven the complexities of this middle-class family. Working on Choked has been a life-changing experience for me. Follow @htshowbiz for more Tuesday, June 2, 2020 Siri, the artificial intelligence assistant of Apple, is impressive. She is sassy, efficient, and articulate. She is also the result of thousands of hours put in by hundreds of people who are experts in language, machine learning, and software development. When you see the end results of some of the most extensive AI projects, its easy to believe AI is replacing humans, but that is far from true. Harvard Business Review researched 1,500 companies that implemented AI to automate processes. They found that businesses only reap the true long-term benefits of AI when humans and machines work together; companies that deploy AI in the hopes of displacing employees only see short-term productivity gains. Standing on the Shoulders of Humans AI is not a stand-alone product. It needs to be trained to perform tasks, educated about the outcomes, and regularly maintained and updated. Millions of people around the globe earn their livings by teaching AI to make diagnostic decisions, to identify images, to recognize speech, and more. Has a website ever asked you to prove you are human by choosing the images that contain a certain street sign? If you filled in one of these image captchas, you were, in a way, teaching Googles AI to identify that street sign. Virtual support bots are one of the most common usages of AI today. One such example is Aida, a virtual assistant used by SEB, a bank headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Aida is trained to understand and to handle natural language conversations in order to answer customer queries. In about 30 percent of instances, the virtual system fails to resolve the issue, and it passes on the call to a human customer experience (CX) rep. It then monitors this human interaction and learns from it. Complementing Each Other What comes naturally to humans (reading complex facial expressions, creating art, making jokes, understanding implied meanings, and more) is not easy for machines. Whats easy for machines (such as crunching tons of data and doing repetitive tasks for months on end, for example) is practically impossible for people to accomplish. Through smartly executed collaboration, AI and humans can complement their respective skill sets to help businesses scale faster and better. These things are no secret, of course. More instances of human experts powering AI are now seen worldwide. Directly, a support automation company based in San Francisco, California, United States, is one example. The company helps enterprises launch and train virtual agents. Their platform has human experts from all walks of life training CX AI agents for numerous enterprise companies, including Microsoft, SAP, LinkedIn, and Samsung. The human experts feed training phrases and intent to the companys support AI, create authentic content the AI can use to automatically answer queries, and provide live assistance when needed. When the expertise of human workers is systemically injected into the AI system, AI becomes more accurate and paves the way for continued coexistence, says Antony Brydon, CEO and cofounder of Directly. Since AI will rely on the expertise of human workers to be successful, theres no danger of people training themselves out of jobs because the AI systems need constant maintenance. And because the more input from domain experts an AI receives, the better it becomes, the demand for workers to train AI will only grow. Directly won the Bronze Stevie Award in the Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Solution subcategory of the Product Management & New Product Awards category at The 2019 American Business Awards. Interested in entering The American Business Awards? NEW YORK, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- KEY FINDINGS The global immunosuppressant drugs market is projected to register growth at a CAGR of 4.17% during the projected period, 2019-2028. The growing incidences of autoimmune disorders, the growing pharmaceutical industry, and the increase in organ transplantation, are the major factors fueling the market growth. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05903634/?utm_source=PRN MARKET INSIGHTS Organ transplantation has been on the rise across the globe.This is because of the prevalence of genetic conditions like cystic fibrosis, heart defect, and polycystic kidney disease. Infections like hepatitis, damage to organs due to chronic conditions like diabetes, physical injuries, are other factors that are responsible for an organ transplant.Immunosuppressive drugs come into the scene post organ transplantation, while combatting the hyper-immune response of the patient's immune system. Thus, the growing demand for organ transplantation procedures is estimated to have a major impact on the growth of the market. Though immunosuppressive drugs have improved the outcome of organ transplantation, the side effects of such drugs can be serious, and this is one of the major factors hindering the market growth. REGIONAL INSIGHTS The global immunosuppressant drugs market is geographically analyzed through the regions of Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and the rest of the world.The North America region garnered the largest market share, while the Asia Pacific region is slated to record the highest growth rate by the end of the forecast period. The government funding, prevailing auto-immune diseases, and increasing demands for organ transplantation, contribute to the market prospects of North America. COMPETITIVE INSIGHTS The competitive environment of the market is evaluated to be stiff, given the workings of the pharmaceutical business. Some of the leading companies in the market are Allergan Plc (Acquired By AbbVie Inc), Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Cipla Ltd, AbbVie Inc, Astellas Pharma Inc, etc. Our report offerings include: Explore key findings of the overall market Strategic breakdown of market dynamics (Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities, Challenges) Market forecasts for a minimum of 9 years, along with 3 years of historical data for all segments, sub-segments, and regions Market Segmentation cater to a thorough assessment of key segments with their market estimations Geographical Analysis: Assessments of the mentioned regions and country-level segments with their market share Key analytics: Porter's Five Forces Analysis, Vendor Landscape, Opportunity Matrix, Key Buying Criteria, etc. Competitive landscape is the theoretical explanation of the key companies based on factors, market share, etc. Company profiling: A detailed company overview, product/services offered, SCOT analysis, and recent strategic developments Companies mentioned 1. ABBVIE INC 2. ALLERGAN PLC (ACQUIRED BY ABVIE INC) 3. ASTELLAS PHARMA INC 4. BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB COMPANY 5. CIPLA LTD 6. DR. REDDY'S LABORATORIES LTD 7. F HOFFMANN-LA ROCHE AG 8. GLAXOSMITHKLINE PLC 9. INTAS PHARMACEUTICALS LTD (ACCORD HEALTHCARE LTD) 10. JANSSEN PHARMACEUTICALS NV (JHONSON & JHONSON) 11. MYLAN NV 12. NOVARTIS INTERNATIONAL AG (SANDOZ) 13. PFIZER INC 14. SANOFI SA 15. VELOXIS PHARMACEUTICALS Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05903634/?utm_source=PRN About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker Related Links www.reportlinker.com Right now, the Travel and Hospitality industry is hurting. Above Property, LLC, today announced it has successfully implemented direct distribution to Booking.com, one of the worlds largest online travel companies and a digital technology leader. While this key distribution channel has been available for years on its enterprise platform, this enhancement provides the same functionality to independent hotels. Above Property for independent hotels offers a one-stop shop of cloud-native apps including Property Management, Reservations, Revenue Optimization, Distribution, Call Center, Pantry, Housekeeping, Maintenance, and Advanced Analytics. By leveraging the single Above Property Travel Platform, Independent hoteliers are leveling the playing field against their much larger counterparts, all while simplifying the number of systems they need to manage. Right now, the Travel and Hospitality industry is hurting. That said, in preparation for when it returns, Above Property is working hard now to ensure our independent hotel clients have the best technology the industry can offer,'' said Aaron Shepherd, CEO and Co-Founder of Above Property. Providing direct access to our inventory creates a level of efficiency for both Booking.com and our independent hotels. Above Propertys vision is to bring flexibility, reliability, and innovation to hotel chains and independent hotels of all sizes. Since inception, Above Property has focused on enterprise level clients. Over the past 18 months, Above Property has worked to simplify the complexities of todays hotel technology for independent hoteliers. From traditionally on-premise systems to world-wide distribution, Above Property is bringing a next level of innovation that will enable hoteliers to be successful in the post COVID-19 travel industry. About Above Property LLC Above Property LLC provides a market leading always-on multi-cloud global travel solution that solves the technology and business constraints of todays legacy based CRSs (Central Reservation Systems), RMSs (Revenue Management Systems), and PMSs (Property Management Systems). By leveraging over 1,100 open web service APIs, Above Propertys groundbreaking, multi-tenant, rules-based, big-data driven, globally Distributed Reservation System (DRS) has been architected to serve every size of property from independents to large chains. Above Property LLC, is headquartered in Naples, FL. For more information, please visit http://www.aboveproperty.com. About Booking.com Founded in 1996 in Amsterdam, Booking.com has grown from a small Dutch startup to one of the worlds leading digital travel companies. Part of Booking Holdings Inc. Booking.coms mission is to make it easier for everyone to experience the world. By investing in the technology that helps take the friction out of travel, Booking.com seamlessly connects millions of travelers with memorable experiences, a range of transportation options and incredible places to stay - from homes to hotels and much more. As one of the worlds largest travel marketplaces for both established brands and entrepreneurs of all sizes, Booking.com enables properties all over the world to reach a global audience and grow their businesses. Booking.com is available in 43 languages and offers more than 29 million total reported accommodation listings, including more than 6.5 million listings alone of homes, apartments and other unique places to stay. No matter where you want to go or what you want to do, Booking.com makes it easy and backs it all up with 24/7 customer support. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, like us on Facebook, and for the latest news, data and insights, please visit our global media room. By Clare Jim HONG KONG, June 2 (Reuters) - When Ming Wong saw that Britain was prepared to offer extended visa rights and a "path to citizenship" for British National Overseas (BNO) passport holders in Hong Kong, she seized the moment and re-applied for her lost passport. Beijing's push to impose national security laws in the former British colony has stoked worry about its future and prompted Britain to offer refuge to almost 3 million Hong Kong residents eligible for the passport. "I started filling out the applications in December after the protests, but it's the national security legislation now that really prompted me to finish the process," said 39-year-old Wong who has two small children. Her husband, brother and parents are also applying, she said. The BNO passport was created for Hong Kong people before Britain returned the territory to Chinese rule in 1997. Though they are British passports that allow a holder to visit Britain for six months, they do not come with an automatic right to live and work there. But British foreign minister Dominic Raab said the six-month limit could be removed if China imposed its national security legislation on the city. Beijing and Hong Kong authorities reject criticism of the legislation, which they say is aimed at tackling sedition, secession, terrorism and foreign interference, and insist the city's high degree of autonomy will remain intact under the "one country, two systems" formula established in 1997. The formula guarantees freedoms, including the right to protest and an independent judiciary, not seen on the mainland. But Beijing's insistence on its national security laws has thrown the future of those freedoms into question. "The national security law is about to be implemented but the details have not yet been confirmed so I want to apply for it before anything happens," said Don Wong, 35, who works in a government organisation, as he queued outside a courier company to send his BNO renewal application to Britain. "I'm worried that I may not be able to use Facebook after the law is enacted ... I may get prosecuted due to my words." Story continues SAFETY NET But even before China announced its plan for the security law there was a surge of renewals of BNO passports, highlighting what many Hong Kong people see as an urgency to secure a back-up plan. According to figures obtained by the Mingpao newspaper from the British Passport Office, BNO renewal applications increased in the second half of last year, amid sometimes violent anti-government protests, with the number totalling more than 120,000 in 2019 compared with about 14,000 in 2017 and 2018. The Passport Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Immigration consultants have reported a rush of enquiries about moving away from Hong Kong since China's announcement on May 21. "Last week alone, the number of enquiries surged to about 100 a day, said Swing Wong, a director the Midland immigration consultancy, from about 50 a day earlier this year. As well as Britain, people ask about the United States, Canada, Australia, Taiwan and Malaysia, consultants said. "Most people who enquire about the U.K. think it would be a safety net for their children," said Ivan Yam, director of immigration consultant Golden Emperor Properties. "Many people in Hong Kong are really interested in such a scheme," he said of the possibility of extended visa rights for the BNO passport. "No country offers a faster way of immigration." (Reporting by Clare Jim, Yanni Chow and Carol Mang Editing by Anne Marie Roantree, Robert Birsel) Louisville, Kentucky, Mayor Greg Fischer said Monday that he has fired Police Chief Steve Conrad after the killing of a local restaurateur overnight Monday. David McAtee, the owner of a Louisville barbecue restaurant, was shot and killed amid what Louisville officials said was an exchange of gunfire near an intersection after midnight Monday that involved metro police and members of the Kentucky National Guard. Fischer, a Democrat, said that investigations are underway into McAtee's killing, and that he fired the city's police chief upon learning that the police officers involved in the shooting had not activated their body cameras. "This type of institutional failure will not be tolerated," Fischer said during a Monday afternoon news conference. Deputy Police Chief Robert Schroeder will assume duty as interim chief, he added. In a soundless police surveillance video released by the mayor's office, police officers and national guardsmen are seen, from a distance, arriving at the edge of a grocery store's parking lot, and then dispersing pedestrians and cars from the lot. Officials said the police were enforcing the mayor's dusk-to-dawn curfew in response to protests and riots that have convulsed the city, like many others in recent days. Schroeder said two Louisville police officers and two National Guardsmen fired their guns in response to shots fired, and that the two police officers have been placed on leave, pending the outcome of the city's investigation. An audio recording of police radio communications, also released by the mayor's office, conveys the voices of multiple police officers and dispatchers reporting "shots fired" at the grocery store's intersection at about a quarter past midnight. As officers coordinate their response over radio, they report the apprehension of a black male suspect in a nearby alley; "people barricaded" inside a short gray and red building across from the grocery store; and then, that "somebody's in there dying" and that medics were needed. McAtee's family told local media Monday that he regularly provided free meals to police officers and residents of Louisville's California neighborhood, where he ran his barbecue shop. Schroeder described him as "a good friend" to many. Earlier Monday, Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, ordered the Kentucky State Police to pursue an investigation into the shooting and said the police department would quickly release body camera footage from the incident. "I think it's important the truth gets out there, but also for ensuring we don't have violence," Beshear said, signaling that swift transparency from police could quell another night of unrest. "Let's put it out, let's let people see it." McAtee's death comes two months after Louisville police officers shot and killed another black resident, Breonna Taylor, 26, as she slept in her bed, after the officers burst into the home to execute what city officials call a "no-knock" warrant. At Monday's news conference, Beshear invited Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, to the lectern, where she called for justice but not violence. "I don't think I'm asking for too much. Just justice for her," Palmer said. Taylor's family is still calling for the officers who shot her to be fired and face charges - an absence of accountability that residents said has added fuel to the anger over George Floyd's death in Minneapolis, and McAtee's on Monday. A family spokeswoman noted that in other municipalities, including Minneapolis, the officers involved in a fatal incident were swiftly terminated. "There's no reason they should be on LMPD payroll," the family spokeswoman said. Fischer said that "very good demands" for police reform had come to light as a result of Taylor's death, but that local frustration over the fate of the officers involved has remained "a sticking point," that he said an investigation will help resolve. Video may contain images that are offensive. Viewer discretion is advised. The latest: The ex-Minneapolis officer who was seen on video kneeling on the neck of George Floyd has been arrested and charged with murder. Thousands of people have been arrested in more than a dozen cities since Thursday. At least 40 cities across the U.S. have imposed curfews. The National Guard has also been activated in around a 15 states and the District of Columbia. U.S. officials sought to determine Sunday whether extremist groups had infiltrated police brutality protests across the country and deliberately tipped largely peaceful demonstrations toward violence and if foreign adversaries were behind a burgeoning disinformation campaign on social media. Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo spoke directly to the Floyd family in a live interview on CNN Sunday. Arradondo removed his cap and said, in part, "I would say to the Floyd family that I am absolutely devastatingly sorry for their loss." 7:15 a.m. ET Hundreds of people have been arrested overnight after taking part in protests across America. The New York Police department arrested more than 200 during protests overnight, the departments press office told CNN early Monday morning, adding most of the arrests were made in Manhattan and Brooklyn. At least seven officers were injured and about a dozen vehicles were damaged during the protests, the NYPD said. Hundreds of people were also arrested in the Los Angeles area on Sunday, according to officials there. There were at least nine fires in the city of Santa Monica, and the police and fire department responded to over 1,000 9-1-1 calls since 12 p.m (local), according to a news release from the City of Santa Monica. The city said in a tweet, On the average day, the City responds to 200 emergency calls. The San Diego Police Department tweeted that over 100 people were arrested & booked in to jail for charges ranging from failure to disperse, burglary, assaulting officers & vandalism from May 31 to June 1. San Diego Police Sgt. Clinton Leisz said protests had calmed down quite a bit," but told CNN that several businesses had been vandalized or looted. 6:30 a.m. ET LOUISVILLE, Ky. Protests in Louisville, Kentucky turned fatal early this morning after at least one person was killed, police said. At around 12:15 a.m ET, the Louisville Metro Police Department and National Guard units were dispatched to Dinos Food Market to clear a large crowd in the parking lot, the police chief said during an early morning presser. Officers and soldiers begin to clear the lot and at some point were shot at. Both LMPD and National Guards members returned fire, we have one man dead at the scene, Louisville Police Chief Steve Conrad said during a new conference. The chief said they have several persons of interest who they are interviewing. Authorities are also collecting video from the incident. More information is expected to be released Tuesday, the chief said. 6 a.m. ET Protesters around the world have taken to the streets this week in solidarity with those demonstrating in the U.S. against police brutality and racial inequity, following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white officer in Minneapolis. In London, crowds gathered in Trafalgar Square on Sunday morning to show their support, despite UK lockdown rules that prohibit large crowds from gathering together. A total of 23 protesters were arrested for a series of offenses including breaches to coronavirus legislation. In New Zealand, thousands gathered across multiple cities for Black Lives Matter demonstrations and vigils for Floyd, including in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch. In Berlin, protesters gathered in front of the U.S. embassy on Saturday and Sunday, holding signs that bear slogans of the Black Lives Matter movement like "I can't breathe" and "No justice, no peace." In Australia, multiple protests are being planned this coming week. One is scheduled in Sydney on Tuesday, one for Brisbane on Saturday, for Melbourne on Saturday, and more. Thousands have marked themselves as attending in each of the protests' Facebook event pages. 3:30 a.m. ET SAN FRANCISCO - The state Department of Human Resources sent a directive to close all California state buildings with offices in downtown city areas on Monday, a sweeping mandate that covers everything from Department of Motor Vehicles offices to those that license workers and provide health care. After consultation with the California Highway Patrol and Office of Emergency Services, the decision was made this evening to advise all state departments with offices in downtown city areas to close tomorrow, and to notify staff of the decision, said Amy Palmer, a spokeswoman for the state Government Operations Agency. The directive was sent Sunday evening and it was left up to officials at individual agencies to determine which buildings should be closed. A state Department of Justice memo sent to employees said the attorney generals offices in Sacramento, Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego would be closed, though employees who can work from home should do so. Staff assigned to these offices should not report to work for any reason. Staff who are able to telework should continue to do so despite the office closures, the memo said. 3 a.m. ET PORTLAND Police in Portland deployed tear gas to disperse a large crowd downtown late Sunday night after authorities said projectiles were thrown at officers. Earlier, police said protesters smashed windows at the federal courthouse, and authorities on loudspeakers declared the gathering a civil disturbance. Thousands of people marched throughout Oregons largest city on Sunday, the third day of George Floyd protests in Portland. For much of the afternoon and evening protesters were largely peaceful, but there were reports of increased violence directed at police into the night. 2:30 a.m. ET CHARLOTTE More than 15 people were arrested during protests in Charlotte on Sunday night, the citys police department said. Police said four demonstrators were arrested for assaulting officers, including one for hitting an officer with a rock. Three others were arrested on illegal weapon charges, police said. 1: 30 a.m. ET AUSTIN Police fired rubber bullets and pepper spray late Sunday night at demonstrators who gathered outside the downtown police station in Austin. Live television cameras on Spectrum News showed officers firing several shots into the crowd and several people on the ground. Some people could be seen throwing water bottles at police. The officers were stationed above the crowd on the steps of the police station and a raised section of Interstate 35. Unlike Dallas, where police made dozens of arrests to enforce a downtown curfew, Austin doesnt have a curfew and demonstrators have been roaming downtown from the police station to the state Capitol several blocks away for nearly 10 hours. The crowd has ebbed and flowed from a few thousand to a few hundred. Demonstrators could not get on the Capitol grounds, which were protected by a large police presence. 12: 45 a.m. ET DENVER Police fired tear gas and projectiles at demonstrators defying a Denver curfew Sunday night following a day of peaceful marching and chants of Dont shoot alongside boarded-up businesses that had been vandalized the night before. Dozens of demonstrators, some throwing fireworks, taunted police and pushed dumpsters onto Colfax Avenue, a major artery, in the sporadic confrontations that occurred east of downtown. The demonstration over the death of George Floyd came after turbulent protests that led to the arrest of 83 people Saturday night. Denver Mayor Michael Hancock called the behavior of unruly protesters reckless, inexcusable and unacceptable. 12 a.m. ET WASHINGTON D.C. As demonstrations continued past an 11 p.m. curfew, D.C. police said they were responding to multiple fires that were intentionally set around the city. One was at St. Johns Episcopal Church, which is located across Lafayette Park from the White House. The church says every president beginning with James Madison, until the present, has attended a service at the church, giving it the nickname, the church of presidents. The first services at the church were held in 1816, according to its website. 10:55 p.m. ET WASHINGTON D.C. Protesters started fires near the White House as tensions with police mounted during a third straight night of demonstrations held in response to the death of George Floyd at police hands in Minnesota. An hour before the 11 p.m. curfew, police fired a major barrage of tear gas stun grenades into the crowd of more than 1,000 people, largely clearing Lafayette Park across the street from the White House and scattering protesters into the street. Protesters piled up road signs and plastic barriers and lit a raging fire in the middle of H Street. Some pulled an American flag from a nearby building and threw it into the blaze. Others added branches pulled from trees. A cinder block structure, on the north side of the park, that had bathrooms and a maintenance office, was engulfed in flames. Several miles north, a separate protest broke out in Northwest D.C., near the Maryland border. The Metropolitan Police Department says there were break-ins at a Target and a shopping center that houses Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue Mens Store, T.J. Maxx, a movie theater and specialty stores. Police say several individuals have been detained. 10:35 p.m. ET ATLANTA Riot police firing volleys of tear gas dispersed hundreds of demonstrators as a curfew took hold Sunday night, scattering a crowd that had protested for hours in downtown Atlanta over the deaths of George Floyd in Minnesota and Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia. Hundreds of police, National Guard troops and other forces lined up in positions around downtown Centennial Park, a focal point of the weekend of protests. An overnight curfew took hold at 9 p.m. as some on the fringes of what was a largely peaceful afternoon protest were setting off fireworks and burning construction materials near the park. An Associated Press photographer saw police then begin firing many 40 millimeter canisters of tear gas toward the crowd. People were choking, gasping and some throwing up as they scattered, leaving only a few still in the streets. As police and National Guard troops took up positions with plastic shields on major streets, crowds melted away. WSB-TV showed footage about an hour later of officers taking people who lingered in the streets into custody, using plastic ties to handcuff them on street corners. 10:05 p.m. ET BIRMINGHAM - People have damaged a confederate monument in Birmingham, Alabama. It's unclear who is taking part, but people were using tools and rocks to chip away at the concrete monument in Linn Park. 9:40 p.m. ET BOSTON Boston Police were seen using pepper spray and hitting a man with a baton after officers were pelted with water bottles and other objects. Crowds had been gathered in the city throughout the day, however, the atmosphere in Boston changed dramatically after sunset. The glass door and window of a shoe store were smashed during the violence. Bricks and rocks were also thrown at police in another area, officers told WCVB. Later in the evening, an SUV drove through a crowd during a live report on WCVB. It appeared to hit several people. WARNING: The video below may be considered graphic or disturbing to some. 9:30 p.m. ET AUSTIN During a demonstration in Austin, officers reportedly fired rubber bullets at protesters throwing water bottles at them. One of the rubber rounds hit a woman in the abdomen, according to the Austin American-Statesman, and she writhed on the ground, crying, My baby, my baby. Officers reportedly pushed through the crowd to carry her away on a stretcher. Police did not immediately respond to questions about the incident. 9:05 p.m. ET MINNEAPOLIS Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo spoke directly to the Floyd family in a live interview on CNN Sunday. "To the Floyd family, being silent or not intervening to me, you're complicit," the chief said in regards to the other officers who were present when former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was kneeling on George Floyd's neck. "So I don't see a distinction any different." Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second degree manslaughter. Three other officers were also fired from the department in relation to the incident. When speaking directly to the Floyd family, Arradondo removed his cap and said, in part, "I would say to the Floyd family that I am absolutely devastatingly sorry for their loss. If I could do anything to bring Mr. Floyd back, I would do that. I would move heaven and Earth to do that. So I'm very sorry." Watch the powerful interview below: 8:06 p.m. ET WASHINGTON, D.C. At an intersection in downtown Washington, there is a standoff between protesters and officers in riot gear from the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington. At one point during the standoff, protesters threw water bottles at the police officers who used flash bangs and pepper spray to disperse those demonstrators. Several flash bangs caused the protesters to run. The New York Times has reported that as protesters gathered outside the White House Friday night, President Donald Trump was briefly taken to the White House underground bunker for a period of time, according to a White House official and a law enforcement source. He was there for a little under an hour before being brought upstairs. It's unclear if Melania Trump and Barron Trump were also taken down with him. Trump has repeatedly praised the Secret Service for its handling of the protests outside the White House Friday night. 7:26 p.m. ET MINNEAPOLIS A tractor trailer was driving on a freeway in Minneapolis as protesters swarmed the roadway Sunday evening, aerial footage from CNN affiliate WCCO shows. As the driver tried to speed up, protesters overtook the vehicle and the driver stopped, video shows. It then appears some protesters pulled the driver out of his vehicle before police arrive on scene and the group runs away. According to tweets from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, the truck driver was injured, taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries and is under arrest. 7:16 p.m. ET SANTA MONICA Vandals hit shops in Santa Monica at midday Sunday as armed National Guard soldiers patrolled Los Angeles streets and cities across California declared another night of curfew to prevent violence after unruly demonstrators torched police cars, broke into stores and clashed with officers in riot gear. The unrest in coastal Santa Monica happened not far from a peaceful demonstration near the citys famous pier and headed for its popular Third Street Promenade shopping area, where they broke into a Gap store and a Vans sneaker store, where they could be seen walking out with boxes of shoes with no police in sight. A woman holding a sign saying End All Violence managed to stop a man using a hammer to break the glass on the doors of an REI store. Another protester joined her and would-be burglars moved on. A citywide curfew started at 4 p.m. PT. 7:06 p.m. ET SAN DIEGO Protesters are clashing with police in San Diego. Officers are using tear gas in an effort to disperse the crowds, and tweets from the San Diego Police Department say they have been targeted by an aggressive crowd. Police urged crowds to disperse due to the escalation of "violence" and "vandalism." 6:53 p.m. ET ATLANTA Atlantas mayor says two police officers have been fired and three placed on desk duty pending review over excessive use of force during a protest incident Saturday night. Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said at a news conference Sunday that she and police Chief Erika Shields made the decision after reviewing body-camera footage. Shields called it really shocking to watch. Officials say the incident came to light via video that circulated online. It shows a group of police officers in riot gear and gas masks surround a car being driven by a man with a woman in the passenger seat. The officers pull the woman out and appear to use a stun gun on the man. They use zip-tie handcuffs on the woman on the ground. Local reporters, who captured footage of the incident, said the police had earlier broken the glass on the car. A reporter said police also flattened the tires. 6:48 p.m. ET MINNEAPOLIS Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin, who faces charges in the death of George Floyd, was moved to the Hennepin County Jail Sunday, Hennepin County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Jeremy Zoss confirmed to CNN in an email. The Hennepin County Jail phone system and website also show Chauvin was moved to the Hennepin County Jail Sunday. Chauvin was initially booked in the Ramsey County Jail due to potential threats to Hennepin County Facilities, according to Bureau of Criminal Apprehension spokesperson Jill Oliveira. "The BCA communicated with the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, which was dealing with potential threats to their facilities at the time of the arrest, they directed us to book him into the Ramsey County Jail," Oliveira told CNN Sunday. 6:40 p.m. ET DENVER Demonstrators filled the streets of downtown Denver again Sunday, marching peacefully and chanting Don't shoot" as they walked past boarded-up businesses that had been vandalized the night before. In an attempt to prevent another night of violence, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock ordered a curfew that begins at 8 p.m. and said it will be enforced by officers who will respond to maintain people's safety and protect themselves and property. He had already called in the Colorado National Guard to help enforce it. Esther Okanlawon was among the demonstrators Sunday afternoon when things remained calm. She said brought her 6-year-old daughter to the protest to show her how to make change. Shes talked to her daughter about racism, the Denver Post reported. We tell her that unfortunately people are going to treat her differently because of the color of her skin, Okanlawon said. 6:01 p.m. ET MIAMI Reporters say police have declared a protest on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami is unlawful assembly and ordered the crowd to disperse or face arrest or less lethal action. 5:35 p.m. ET DALLAS The mayor of Dallas, Texas, has declared local state of disaster in response to protests. "I have issued a Proclamation Declaring a Local State of Disaster in Dallas to help the City address the criminal looting, vandalism, and violence we have seen in our Central Business District and the surrounding areas," Mayor Eric Johnson tweeted. Protestors there were ordered by police to disperse Sunday afternoon. 4:53 p.m. ET WASHINGTON, D.C. A large group of protesters are in a standoff with law enforcement at Lafayette Park across from the White House, according to CNN video from the scene. The protesters are abutting temporary "bicycle" fencing while on the other side are officers with riot shields. A law enforcement source told CNN that U.S. Park Police, in a situational report Sunday afternoon, informed law enforcement stationed in Lafayette Park that demonstrators brought boxes of rocks to the protest. Another person was observed with a bat, the report stated. The information was shared with other law enforcement agencies on hand for the protest, the source said. 4:39 p.m. ET MINNEAPOLIS Protesters have gathered at the arrest site of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They plan to march to the government center in downtown Minneapolis. 4:36 p.m. ET LONDON Metropolitan Police arrested at least 23 protesters in London Sunday at demonstrations showing solidarity to George Floyd for a series of offenses including breaches to the European country's coronavirus legislation. Protesters gathered in central Londons Trafalgar Square to show support to Americans protesting the killing of George Floyd, despite UK lockdown rules that prohibit large crowds from gathering together. In a series of tweets, police said the arrests varied in offenses including breaches to coronavirus legislation, possession of an offensive weapon to "assault on police" and obstructing a public carriageway. 4:27 p.m. ET CHICAGO Throughout Chicago, journalists are reporting that protests have turned violent. There have been reports of gunfire, a Walmart on fire and attempts to run over police officers as protests continue. One shop owner was seen shooting at people who were trying to break into his business. Several shootings resulting in injuries are being reported, along with looting of businesses and delivery trucks in residential areas surrounding the city. 4:07 p.m. ET PHILADELPHIA Officials in Philadelphia moved up a citywide curfew by two hours Sunday amid reports of police cars on fire and stores that had been looted. Reporters there also said protesters were throwing fireworks, damaging lines of parked cars and causing road closures throughout the area. Police were given permission to use chemical dispersant on protesters in some areas of the cities, reporters said. Television news helicopter footage Sunday afternoon showed people running into multiple stores in northeast Philadelphia, well outside the city center, and emerging with merchandise as disorder continued for a second day elsewhere in the city. WCAU-TV showed live aerial shots for more than an hour Sunday afternoon of people running from store to store in strip malls in northeast Philadelphias Port Richmond section, emerging with armfuls of merchandise as police units tried to keep up. CNN and the Associated Press contributed to this report. Its probably not a coincidence that the legal words spiraling through the ether today are either in Latin or just plain archaic: posse comitatus, Insurrection Act, no quarter orders. This is not the nomenclature of the Trump era, which has tended to coalesce around such concepts as Stupid Watergate or Cheeto in Chief. This is the language of the founding era, of the Civil War, of revolution and wartime. And thats because, as much as President Donald Trump may believe that people have taken to the streetsin the midst of a lethal pandemicto protest him and his policies, the very opposite is true. These protests we are seeing are not specific to Donald Trump. Yes, they are complicated and multifaceted, seeded in some cases with white supremacist agitators and gratuitous police violence that is enabled and cheered by Donald Trump. But these protests are at bottom about the original sin of slavery, inequality, and police powers used in their service. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dont get me wrongTrump doesnt make anything better. Just as Trump himself didnt cause COVID-19, he is still surely culpable for the incredibly insufficient federal response, leading to tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths. Neither did Trump cause systemic and invidious race discrimination in a nation founded on the same, though he is certainly going to react as poorly and recklessly as possible to the protests unfolding on the streets. But that still doesnt make this about him. For years now I have been asking what it would take to have Americans on the streets under Trump, and for years I have attended well-meaning marches, with ironic signs amid well-meaning, mostly white liberals, that received little attention and changed nothing. Those marches were important, they served as warnings and democratic markers, and they kept many of us sane. But I now see that I was wrong about why people take to the streets, because those were Trump protests, and Trump doesnt matter. Advertisement Advertisement Why bother protesting a reality show when reality itself is a nightmare? The paradox of the Trump presidency is and has always been that Trump is tiny, far too tiny to matter, and also that he is at the epicenter of everything. The central koan of the Trump era was always How did someone so small come to matter so much? And because dont pay attention doesnt work when the guy youre meant to be ignoring has the nuclear codes, it was a loop from which we couldnt extricate ourselves. So long as we believed that Trump was the cause of the problem, we were doomed to our civil outings around Foley Square, as the police stood mildly by, and guys sold quirky anti-Trump buttons from pushcarts. Advertisement Advertisement But Trump was never the cause of the problem; he is the result of the problem. As Bryan Stevenson explains (for the thousandth time), there is not one single thing about the death of George Floyd that is remarkable or new. Not the killing in plain sight, not the complicity of the officers on site, and not the fact that it was captured on video. Everything we are seeing is a symptom of a larger disease, Stevenson says. We have never honestly addressed all the damage that was done during the two and a half centuries that we enslaved black people. The great evil of American slavery wasnt the involuntary servitude; it was the fiction that black people arent as good as white people, and arent the equals of white people, and are less evolved, less human, less capable, less worthy, less deserving than white people. The killings of George Floyd or Breonna Taylor or Ahmaud Arbery all could have happened in the Obama administration. Killings did happen then. The fact that the current president has praised Nazis and given succor to white supremacists didnt cause this weeks mass protests; it merely coincides with them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Because Donald Trump is so laugh-out-loud absurd, so vain and fussy and so lacking in substance, protesting him was never quite serious. It was important, yes, and the policies he has enacted do real harm to real people, harm that should be loudly denounced. But these protests always had a bit of a street festival quality to them: Look at the silly carnival barker and laugh at his bad spelling and his bad hair and his poor captive wife. Even as he was stealing migrant children from their parents and locking them in iceboxes, the fundamental stupidity of the president was still center stage. But even these protests, often featuring tens of thousands of protesters, didnt break through precisely because the predominantly white people in them could fist-bump the cops as we politely and whimsically strolled by. Advertisement Most Americans intuitively understand that Donald Trump, with his failures of cognition or compassion and his incomplete theory of mind, was a symptom and not a cause of Americas original, founding sin. Protesting a symptom occupied us for a while. But protesting the sin itself is what has finally brought people to the streets, in a sustained and combustible way. Why bother protesting a reality show when reality itself is a daily nightmare? Long before the advent of the Donald Trump presidency, Chief Justice John Roberts and his colleagues declared America over its racism problem. Long before the advent of the Trump presidency, police departments were hiding evidence of wrongdoing and exonerating and protecting the worst malefactors. Advertisement Now, law enforcement is armed with military weapons, military leaders are parading around D.C. in uniform, the free press is being punched, and protesters are being tear-gassed and pepper-sprayed by state actors who insist there was no tear gas or pepper spray. Just as the coronavirus again instructed us all on how Americas racism savages black lives and black livelihoods disproportionally, these protests are a master class in the same. The brokenness is centuries in the making. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Things are very bad, and they will get worse. They will get worse because Donald Trumps weakness and vanity have made space for authoritarianism to creep in all around him, at a politicized Justice Department, and with a complicit GOP. The nation is shuddering to a crisis because Trump has enabled and allowed every single element of authoritarian rule to flower around him, and because even if you just play a strongman on TV, a compliant police state can happily comply to make it reality. This too was invisible to many of us, amid the preening and the clowning, but it has certainly happened. Things will also get worse because Donald Trump believes this is about him. That is why he has enrolled the military and the National Guard and why we are talking, suddenly, about posse comitatus laws and no quarter orders. It is also the reason he needed to catwalk his way to St. Johns Episcopal Church on Monday night, with state actors assaulting peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square to do so. Donald Trump didnt create the problems of racialized policing or overincarceration or grotesque inequality or a media ecosystem that forgot to cover Joe Biden this weekend because #ratings. But he has benefited and profited and profiteered from all of it, each and every day, to the point that he now finds himself in the unique position of being in charge of it now. Perhaps it is just subconscious, but he might even realize that those exact things are being protestedthese underlying life-and-death truths about life in America, and by that I do mean this nations foundation upon white supremacythat made it possible for Donald Trump to become president in the first place. And he might be most threatened when the target is not him specifically, but the very world that makes him possible. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The other lingering koan of the Trump years is how he has inevitably managed to take credit for things outside his control (the Obama economy) and also to accept no responsibility for things he caused directly (doctors and nurses without personal protective equipment). The present moment has scrambled that equation as well. Donald Trump didnt cause the death of George Floyd and the resulting outrage, but if he has his way, he will now cause a historic suspension of civil liberties, the arrests and deaths of peaceful protesters, mounting assaults on journalists, and the militarization of policing around the country. I have no idea what will come in the next few days and weeks, but it may be violent and painful, and we should recall that for millions of Americans who are out on the streets, daily life has been violent and painful for a very long time. Donald Trump is going to make everything that was already bad much, much worse in the days to come. But we arent just spectators anymore. There are no orange Cheeto signs on the streets because he was the culmination of a centurieslong sickness, not the cause of it. This moment is not about him, but about what created him, and whether we can finally break the spell. For more of Slates news coverage, subscribe to What Next on Apple Podcasts or listen below. OAKLAND, Calif. Google violated federal wiretap laws when it continued to collect information about what users were doing on the internet without their permission even though they were browsing in so-called private browsing mode, according to a potential class-action lawsuit filed against the internet giant on Tuesday. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, said Google tracked and collected consumer browsing history even if users took steps to maintain their privacy. The suit said Google also violated a California law that requires consent of all parties to read or learn the contents of private communication. The complaint focuses largely on what the company does to collect and track online activity when users surf the web in private browsing mode. Even when a user opts for private browsing, Google uses other tracking tools it provides to website publishers and advertisers to keep tabs on what websites the user visits, according to the lawsuit. Google tracks and collects consumer browsing history and other web activity data no matter what safeguards consumers undertake to protect their data privacy, said the complaint, which was filed by Mark C. Mao, a partner at the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner. The two government agencies responsible for carrying out the executive order the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission should politely ignore it (or in classic Washington style, put the matter under indefinite consideration). By design, neither agency has a legal duty to obey the president. Their chairmen, Joseph Simons of the F.T.C. and Ajit Pai of the F.C.C., cannot be fired for disagreeing with Mr. Trump, and they have a higher duty to uphold the Constitution. Those targeted by Mr. Trumps order Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and any other host of content on the internet should take this as an opportunity to demonstrate that they cannot be intimidated by groundless threats. Twitter, to its credit, has taken this path, having declined, so far, to budge. Facebook, less honorably, has reacted to the threats by taking great pains to assure the White House that it thinks it wrong to fact-check politicians. That may be the companys genuine position, but its assertion in the face of threats is cowardly. It is worth noting that the problem with the executive order goes beyond the issue of retaliation. The order is also what the law calls a prior restraint on the speech of other social media companies that might consider adopting policies similar to Twitters fact-check labeling. In addition, the order is an effort to rewrite a congressional statute the Communications Decency Act of 1996 is the source of the liability protections at issue which is a power the presidency does not have. Finally, the order evokes statutory authority that the Federal Communications Commission lacks and asks the Federal Trade Commission to take actions that are likely to violate the Constitution. In short, the order is a legal dumpster fire. Any second-year law student could tell you this, and in a more responsible administration, the White House Counsels Office would regard it as its duty to prevent such an order from seeing the light of day. But the order was issued, and the danger is that even if and when it fails in court, it may nonetheless have succeeded in its goal of intimidating social media companies into not doing what the First Amendment gives them the right to do. This is not to say that Twitters labeling and fact-checking policies necessarily strike the right balance between censure and tolerance of user conduct. The speech policies of internet platforms have been disputed and discussed at length since the 1990s, and for good reason: Getting content moderation right is not easy. Different platforms approach the problem differently. In brief: Plaintiffs in the case including Hachette Book Group, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins Publishers and John Wiley & Sons said the Internet Archive has taken the intellectual investment of authors and the financial investment of publishers and are giving it away. The Internet Archive back in March created the National Emergency Library, a controversial program that made more than 1.4 million eBooks available to borrowers without any wait times. The idea was to assist students through the remainder of the academic year and make it easier for ordinary citizens to access books during Covid-19 stay-at-home orders. Publishers, however, categorized it as theft and have filed a lawsuit against the Internet Archive. There is nothing innovative or transformative about making complete copies of books to which you have no rights and giving them away for free, said Maria A. Pallante, president of the Association of American Publishers. The suit, filed in federal court in Manhattan on Monday, accused the Internet Archive of willful mass copyright infringement. The Internet Archives founder and digital librarian, Brewster Kahle, told The New York Times that as a library, the archive acquires books and lends them, as libraries have always done. This move, he added, supports publishing, authors and readers. Publishers suing libraries for lending books, in this case, protected digitized versions, and while schools and libraries are closed, is not in anyones interest, Kahle added. Where the Internet Archive runs into a snag is in the fact that it doesnt operate like a traditional library. With lending restrictions lifted during the pandemic, a digital book can be in the hands of many readers simultaneously. With physical books at your local library, only one lender has access to a book at any given time. According to this Internet Archive FAQ, users can check out up to 10 books at a time for a period of 14 days. If you are still reading your book when the loan is up, simply check the book out again. Where do you stand on the matter? Should the Internet Archive be allowed to distribute books in this manner or will publishers prevail in court? Should an exception be made during Covid-19? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. Masthead credit: Maglara The Education Minister, Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has revealed that the Ashanti Region has the most completed Senior High School (SHS) projects among all the regions in the country. The region has 56 completed projects out of a total of 236 projects, followed by the Northern Region with 26 projects. Responding to questions in Parliament on Tuesday, Mr. Opoku Prempeh said a total of 822 projects were under construction in Senior High Schools across the country. The Ministry, till date, has awarded a total of 822 contracts for various infrastructure projects at the Senior High School level across the country. He added that the projects include six-unit, eight-unit, 12-unit and 18-unit classroom blocks, single dormitory blocks, single one storey or two storey dormitory blocks, and toilet blocks, among others. 962 SHS infrastructural projects ongoing nationwide With over 1.2 million children currently enrolled in Senior High Schools across the country, the President, Nana Akufo-Addo has explained that the expansion in access, has automatically, brought with it a problem of infrastructure which has necessitated the implementation of various infrastructural projects to meet the demands. In March this year, he revealed that a total of 962 structures were being constructed in all Senior High Schools across the country to address infrastructural challenges. According to him, the government has put in place an elaborate program to ensure that the many problems faced by second cycle schools as a result of the introduction of the Free SHS are addressed. Government owing contractors In June 2019, there were claims that there is a shortage of boarding facilities because the government has failed to pay contractors who were awarded contracts to put up structures in various Senior High Schools across the country. There were threats by the contractors to stop work if they were not paid the money owed them. Reacting to this, the Education Minister chided the Association of Building and Civil Engineering Contractors of Ghana for threatening to close down all Senior High School projects across the country. According to him, the Association's claims were not justified. We don't owe any contractor doing a project in any Senior High School in the country whether new or old. I have told them that all those who have not completed their projects will not be awarded any other contracts in this regime. A lot of contractors are not owed but they have abandoned their sites because they want to come back for variations, he said to Citi News. citinewsroom Embedded in the fabric of America is the right to peacefully protest our government. There is no such right to riot, loot, and burn down our cities, yet in many leftist-run cities across America, this unwritten right appears codified. Our founders correctly believed that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. George Floyd's rights were snuffed out. The perpetrator of this despicable act is now awaiting a murder trial. This should have happened sooner, along with the arrest for accessory of those who stood silent, while Derek Chauvin used an improper restraint technique against George Floyd. Nonetheless, justice for the perpetrators is underway. The wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine is an adapted old expression that requires us to have patience and trust in an imperfect system that by all accounts is the best in the world. It's system that through our representative government can be changed by a deliberative process put forth by our founders and enshrined in our Constitution, not by the emotional tantrums of an out-of-control, radical mob. At no time is our civil society more at risk than when lawlessness is encouraged and allowed to overtake our justice system. "No justice, no peace" is an often heard rallying cry. Except whose justice and by what measure peace? The constant drum from the left that America is endemically racist, that we have "systemic and institutional" racism has been harmful to any progress or healing. "Repeat a lie often enough, and it becomes the truth" is a law of propaganda often attributed to the Nazi Joseph Goebbels. The N.Y. Times 1619 Project is an example of this type of propaganda. I have been a volunteer reserve deputy for a local law enforcement agency for many years. I was recently deployed as a tactical medic for a SWAT team to help with local protests/riots. In my many years involved in law enforcement, I have never seen "systemic or institutional" racism. Our SWAT team is mutli-ethinic and multi-racial. I have never viewed my team members through any lens other than competency. I read a recent opinion piece where the author stated: "A majority of white Americans still cannot come to terms with what black people have known forever: Racism is systemic, systematic, and nowhere near gone." There are many black conservatives who differ, and we had a two-term black president who got the majority white vote overwhelmingly. There are bad apples in every profession and every walk of life. It is the nature of human existence. We must not generalize the few with the majority. We must not allow peaceful and righteous protesters to be overtaken by Antifa or any other radical groups that use the cover of an unjust act to further their own socio-political agenda. Peaceful protesters and politicians must speak out loudly against this anarchy. Where are the justice and peace for store-owners whose establishments are looted and torched? Where are the justice and peace for the innocent bystanders who are injured or killed? Where are the justice and peace for injured or killed law enforcement officers taking a stand to protect innocent life and property? Where is the outcry when a church in Washington, D.C. built in the 1800s is torched? The path forward must include an intolerance of lawless acts of violence and looting. We must use the full extent of law enforcement bolstered as necessary by the National Guard to shut down the riots immediately and return civility to the streets. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said: The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility. That futility must be followed by an open dialogue where feelings are discussed but facts drive policy. Racial division is a useful tool for those who want a radical progressive change to our government institutions. Saul Alinsky knew this well when he stated, "The despair is there; now it's up to us to go in and rub raw the sores of discontent." Our American founders had a different vision for America: one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all. I hope (pray) most Americans today feel the same. The St. Helena Public Library was selected out of hundreds of other libraries to receive a special $1,000 grant from the California State Library for programming supplies to pair with the Breakfast at the Library program. Normally this program is a partnership with the St. Helena Unified School District in which breakfast is prepared by the school and brought over to the library for kids ages 1-18. Kids would be able to use library resources and enjoy a meal at the same time. Because of a change in the grant program, the library discovered it could be a pop-up site at the high school where the school district was handing out meals to its students. Outreach Services Librarian Mariah McGuire quickly reached out to the school district to see if they could team up once again. The district loved the idea and was fully onboard. Library staff knew its young patrons had to be struggling with all the sudden changes in their lives, lack of physical books and art supplies. Childrens Librarian Leslie Stanton and McGuire quickly devised a plan to create book and craft kit bags to be distributed at the high school alongside the school districts grab-and-go meal kits. McGuire and Stanton soon realized $1,000 would not be enough money to buy everything they needed; that is when the Federated Women of Upper Napa Valley stepped in. The organization oversees the RIF (Reading is Fun) program, giving out hundreds of free books to children three times a year at six Upvalley sites. With schools and Boys and Girls Clubs closed, the Federated Womens Club was no longer able to continue their RIF program. But they still had all their books. Stanton explained the situation to RIF chair Donna Kelly, who immediately offered to donate books to the librarys program so their books would still reach children. With their help, the library was able to buy enough craft supplies and additional books for 180 kids. These giveaway bags featured three different age groups: preschool, primary, and elementary school. Each bag contained two books, crayons, a paintbox, a glue stick, pom poms, construction paper, and many other craft supplies based on age. On Monday, library staff members McGuire, Stanton and Clara Ibarra set up shop outside Vintage Hall next to the meal kit distribution and handed out the giveaway bags to thrilled parents and students. While the pop-up event was still going on, Stanton received several pictures of children already diving into their books. As online child sexual exploitation in the Philippines has more than tripled during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Catholic Church is calling on families to protect their children. By Robin Gomes These human traffickers and sexual predators are a more dangerous and extremely deadly virus lurking around us aside from Covid-19. The warning comes from Bishop Ruperto Santos of Balanga, Vice Chairman of the Episcopal Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People (ECMI) of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP). They prey on our young people who are restricted to their homes due to coronavirus lockdowns, the bishop said in a statement. They take advantage of the situation, with our youth who are preoccupied with the internet at home. These predators are heartless, motivated by insatiable greed and addiction to their craving of flesh trades, Bishop Santos said, speaking on behalf of the Church in the country. Preying on poverty The alert comes following reports that online child sex abuse has more than tripled in the Philippines during the coronavirus pandemic as poor families try to make easy money during hard times. Bishop Santos described these predators as the viruses of our society who use physical vulnerability and poverty to lure and victimize our people. These are human traffickers and sexual offenders, the worst and most venomous virus on earth, taking every opportunity to target our youth and even young children who are bored at home and have nothing to do but navigate the internet, the bishop said. The Philippine Department of Justice said on May 25, it received 279,166 cyber tips from March to May 2020, compared to 76,561 cyber tips over the same period in 2019. Authorities believe poverty, job loss and extreme difficulty in feeding families are reasons why parents are increasingly selling their children online. Surge in online sexual abuse On May 30, police arrested a 35-year-old mother in Manilas Caloocan City for selling livestream feeds of the sexual abuse of her minor children on an adult website for about USD 100-200. Police inspector Aldrin Marcelo told UCA News that parents or relatives engage in this kind of abuse believing it is not harmful to their children as there is no physical contact between them and the predator. Social worker Amanda Grajo explained that many of those who sell images of their children online live below the poverty line. Maybe they really have no choice but to do this to their children. They need money to eat. Bishops vow to fight the scourge The Philippine bishops are urging families to be vigilant about the online habits of their children to prevent them from being unwilling victims. Bishop Santos suggested a few ways that parents can take action such as by limiting their childrens' use of their devices, being physically present with them or engaging them in conversations about their friends or what they are undergoing. At home, parents can also help their children develop their talents such as in baking, painting or making designs, or introducing them to their own childhood games, such as dama, chess or sungka. Reiterating the Philippine bishops commitment to protecting children, Bishop Santos said that the Church as a mother speaks and stands for her children, especially for the vulnerable and voiceless children. She must see to it that they are truly safe at home, he said, adding, We will never end up victims but victors over the viruses of trafficking and online sexual exploitation. World Health Organization Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday (June 1) that health officials have confirmed a second outbreak of Ebola in Democratic Republic of the Congo. The announcement by WHO chief comes at a time when a long, difficult and complex Ebola outbreak in Congo in its final phase. According to Congo's Ministry of Health, six new Ebola cases have so far been detected in Wangata, of which four have died and two are alive and under care. The ministry has expressed fear that more cases would come up in future as surveillance activities increase. This is a reminder that COVID-19 is not the only health threat people face, said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. Although much of our attention is on the pandemic, WHO is continuing to monitor and respond to many other health emergencies. It is to be noted that Ebola outbreak was first discovered in Congo in 1976. The city of Mbandaka and its surrounding area were the site of Congo's 9th Ebola outbreak, which took place from May to July 2018. Its happening at a challenging time, but WHO has worked over the last two years with health authorities, Africa CDC and other partners to strengthen national capacity to respond to outbreaks, said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. To reinforce local leadership, WHO plans to send a team to support scaling up the response. Given the proximity of this new outbreak to busy transport routes and vulnerable neighbouring countries we must act quickly. WHO team is stationed in Mbandaka in order to support the response to this outbreak. The WHO team supported the collection and testing of samples, and reference to the national laboratory for confirmation. Contact tracing is underway. (Photo : REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth) The logo of AstraZeneca is seen on medication packages in a pharmacy in London, April 28, 2014. (Photo : Bjoertvedt/Wiki Commons) Astra Zeneca headquarters in Molndal, Southern Gothenburg (Sweden) AstraZeneca proves to be the most valuable London-listed company as it scores approvals for two medications while it continues to develop its coronavirus vaccine. A panel of the European health regulator has recommended on Monday, June 1, the use of Lynparza as a follow-on treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer. Meanwhile, the company's heart medication Brilinta also received a nod from U.S. regulators. Also, Oxford Biomedica, AstraZeneca's manufacturing partner, has hired French pharma veteran Roch Doliveux as a non-executive chairman as the pharma company strives for a major role in the coronavirus vaccine development. Last week, AstraZeneca struck a one-year deal with Oxford Biomedica to produce multiple batches of the vaccine which is currently going through human testing. The vaccine, AZD1222, was developed by the University of Oxford researchers and licensed to AstraZeneca. The pharmaceutical company has been meeting with various governments and global partners in its efforts to boost its vaccine production. It received international attention in pursuit of a coronavirus vaccine, clinching funding from the U.S. government last month as it aims to produce a billion doses until 2021. AstraZeneca receives 2 drug recommendations while their coronavirus vaccine makes progress While AstraZeneca is busy signing signs deals for its vaccine, its other drugs for cancer and heart illnesses continue to do well. Lynparza is being developed in partnership with Merck, a U.S. pharmaceutical company. If the European Commission confirms the endorsement from the European Medicines Agency's human medicines committee, then it can be promoted as a pancreatic cancer medication in Europe. Last year, it gained U.S. approval for the same indication. According to the Lynparza website, the drug is "a non-chemotherapy oral medication" that may give doctors other ways to treat certain advanced cancers like ovarian cancer, fallopian tube cancer, or primary peritoneal cancer. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also approved AstraZeneca's Brilinta for reducing the risk of a first heart attack or stroke in high-risk patients, as reported by Pharmaceutical Technology. "Today's approval of Brilinta is important news for patients with coronary artery disease who will now have a new therapy option to reduce the risk of a first heart attack or stroke," said Ruud Dobber, AstraZeneca BioPharmaceuticals' executive vice-president. Brilinta is an oral, reversible, P2Y12 receptor antagonist that prevents platelet activation. It has already received approval in more than 110 countries preventing atherothrombotic events in adults with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Similarly, the company has already received approvals in over 70 countries for the secondary prevention of cardiovascular (CV) cases among high-risk patients who previously had myocardial events. On its website, Brilinta is introduced as a "prescription medicine for people who have had a heart attack or severe chest pain," which is caused by the lack of oxygen. It is usually taken with aspirin to reduce the risk of having another serious heart or blood vessel issues like heart attack, stroke, or blood clots, which can be lethal. However, the heart drug should not be taken by patients with a history of bleeding in the brain or are allergic to any of the Brilinta components as cases of slow heart rhythm for those taking the medicine have been reported. Last month, the company and its partner Daiichi Sankyo acquired breakthrough therapy designation (BTD) from the FDA for its Enhertu to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Read also: Mental Health Amid COVID-19: New Google Tool Offers Free Anxiety Assessment 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Drivers should choose wisely between sticking to liability only coverage or going full coverage. Check our website for more info and free quotes, said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company. When it comes to car insurance, drivers have to choose between liability only or full coverage. In some cases, their decision does not depend solely on them. Full coverage is optional only if the policyholder owns the car. The holder of the car loan will require full coverage to the extent the policyholder owes on the car. Liability provides coverage to other people for their injuries and property damaged sustained during an accident caused by the policyholder. Basically, it covers the victims of the policyholders wrongdoings. This policy is also referred to as third-party coverage. Without liability coverage, the policyholder will have to pay for everything from his own finances. Most insurance companies split liability coverage into two main components: Bodily Injury. It includes medical bills, lost wages and other costs related to treating physical and psychological traumas. Bodily Injury is represented in contracts with 2 different numbers ($50.000/$100.000), which represent the maximum amount the insurer will pay out per persons and the maximum amount paid for the entire accident. Property damage. It includes the costs of repairing a car that has been damaged by the policyholder. It is usually the third number from the liability coverage limits (($50.000/$100.000/$50.000) Full coverage extends the basic protection offered by liability only. Unlike liability coverage, full coverage will also cover the costs of repairing the policyholders car, no matter who caused the accident. Full coverage provides the following policies: Comprehensive coverage. It covers damage caused by other factors than a collision. If the car is damaged by extreme weather, objects or debris falling from the sky, animal attacks, riots, comprehensive will cover it. Furthermore, comprehensive car insurance also covers car theft. Collision coverage. If the car is damaged during a collision with another vehicle or structure, this portion of the auto insurance will reimburse the driver. It also covers cases when the owner flips over his car and damages it. Additionally, clients can access: Roadside assistance. A team of experts will provide the following services: jumpstarting the cars battery, delivering fuel, towing the car or locking/unlocking services. Rental coverage. Covers the cost of renting a new car while the covered one is in service. Compare-autoinsurance.org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc. For more information, please visit http://compare-autoinsurance.org. Facebook Inc. employees became increasingly bold in expressing their dismay at chief executive officer Mark Zuckerbergs decision not to take action on incendiary comments posted to the social network by U.S. President Donald Trump, tweeting out criticisms and staging a virtual walkout. After the president tweeted a message with the words when the looting starts, the shooting starts in response to protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Twitter Inc. for the first time obscured one of his posts, marking it with a warning that it breached service rules by glorifying violence. Facebooks response to the same content, in a post from Zuckerberg on Friday, was to say, We think people need to know if the government is planning to deploy force. Several senior figures at Facebook declared their strong disagreement online over the weekend, and some employees working from home because of the pandemic held a virtual walkout, deciding not to log in to work on Monday in protest. Mark is wrong, and I will endeavour in the loudest possible way to change his mind, said Ryan Freitas, director of product design for Facebooks News Feed. I apologize if you were waiting for me to have some sort of external opinion. I focused on organizing 50+ like-minded folks into something that looks like internal change. Giving a platform to incite violence and spread disinformation is unacceptable, regardless who you are or if its newsworthy, wrote Andrew Crow, head of design for Facebooks Portal product line. Joining them with individual messages against the passive policy were design manager Jason Stirman, director of product management Jason Toff, and product designer Sara Zhang, who tweeted that Internally we are voicing our concerns, so far to no avail. One entire engineering team walked out, using a logo that displayed a fist with a heart and the hashtag #takeaction. Many tweets quote Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a South African human rights activist: If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. Daniel Lo Nigro, a senior front-end developer at Facebook, said he hopes something positive comes from the effort. Ive been at the company nearly seven years and I have never seen a protest or walkout anywhere near this large, he said on Twitter. In a post late Sunday, Zuckerberg said Facebook is committing an additional $10 million (U.S.) to groups working on racial justice. Noting that the company has more work to do to keep people safe and ensure our systems dont amplify bias, the CEO did not address the concern surrounding Trumps posts on the platform. Trump made a phone call to Zuckerberg on Friday to discuss the situation, according to people familiar with the matter. Zuckerberg expressed disappointment in Trumps tone and told him he was putting Facebook in a difficult position, the people said. Facebook had earlier reached out to the White House to see if Trump would change the post. The communication was earlier reported by Axios. Its rare for Facebook employees to speak publicly about internal activity unless they have permission from the communications team. The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company in the past has punished and discouraged leaking. Now, Facebook has changed that approach. We recognize the pain many of our people are feeling right now, especially our Black community. We encourage employees to speak openly when they disagree with leadership, a Facebook spokesperson said Monday in a statement. As we face additional difficult decisions around content ahead, well continue seeking their honest feedback. Employees walking out wont have to use up one of their vacation days for the time off, Facebook said, and on Tuesday Zuckerberg will address the situation in a company-wide meeting. Read more about: The first of seven groups of Birmingham City Schools seniors held graduation ceremonies at Legion Field Tuesday morning. More than 150 seniors accepted their diplomas, socially distanced in seats on the field, and wearing masks. Family members, also required to wear masks, sat in the stadium. The mood was celebratory, with families cheering as graduates' names were called. There was no talk of the protests happening across Alabama and across the country to end police brutality after George Floyd was killed by a white Minneapolis policeman. Temperatures were hot, with humidity making mid-80s feel like upper 80s, and with no shade, programs came in handy as fans. Masks were emblazoned with the Wenonah High School motto, a trend seen among other schools requiring masks during in-person ceremonies. As the first speaker during the ceremony, Salutatorian Aissatou Diallo acknowledged a senior year sidelined by coronavirus. "Even though we are considered to have 20/20 vision," she said, "we have failed to envision the pandemic that came before us. COVID-19 has interrupted our senior year and stripped away half of our senior year." "There is no doubt that this class will overcome any obstacles that stand before us." This ceremony, the first of the seven Birmingham high schools to graduate this week, almost didn't happen. District officials initially planned to hold a drive-through ceremony, but after pushback from students and families, they decided to hold in-person ceremonies as other schools in the area are holding. Wenonah senior Justin Smith started a petition, and after what Smith calls "a lot of going back and forth" with the district, officials granted the students' wishes, making way for Tuesday's graduation. Smith's mother, Nicole, said at first she didn't agree with the idea of an in-person graduation because of the pandemic. She softened after seeing more than 2,000 signatures on a petition agreeing with Justin. He was determined to have his fellow classmates have an in-person graduation, she added. Wenonah High School is the first of Birmingham's seven high schools to hold graduation ceremonies this week at Legion Field. After the ceremony, Smith, reflected on recent events. I definitely can say 2020 has been a trip, he said. It has thrown us for many loops, but I feel like, especially us here in Birmingham, one thing weve always done well, and that is stick together. After the ceremony, Interim Superintendent Mark Sullivan told AL.com he is proud of the districts 1,200 seniors. Our kids are having to face a pandemic, he said, unprecedented economic times, as well as social unrest. Sullivan said the decision to move from drive-through to in-person graduation was made after officials talked with students. "They gave us their input, we told them our concerns about social distancing, making sure everybody had masks," Sullivan said. "We were able to come to a compromise where we recognized our students in a really dignified way, and we also tried to ensure they were safe and their family members were safe. "That just shows the leadership that this group of kids have." A second adjustment to the slate of ceremonies was needed after Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin enacted a city-wide 7 p.m. curfew in the wake of late-night violence in downtown on Sunday following a day of peaceful protests. The afternoon ceremonies, originally scheduled for 7 p.m., were moved to 4 p.m. after a city-wide 7 p.m. curfew was enacted, starting Monday. Ceremonies are being held at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday with a final ceremony Friday at 10 a.m. All graduation ceremonies are being livestreamed. Smith reflected on recent events, including recent protests against police brutality and the killing of George Floyd. He has been politically active for a few years now and spoke at a rally on Sunday held in Kelly Ingram Park in downtown Birmingham. Asked what he would say to the young people of Birmingham that he will soon leave behind in August to attend Boston College, Smith had this to say. "As I said before, I want you to know you're not in this fight alone. You can still make your voice be heard, the peaceful non-violent way. There's always way to protest and always ways to make your voice be heard. Go vote. Make sure you register to vote." In turn, Smith's father, Orlander Juddine, had this to say about his son: "I'm just very proud of him, very proud." Smith plans to return to Birmingham after he graduates from college. Sen. Rod Scott, D-Fairfield, attended the graduation and told AL.com he looks forward to seeing what Birminghams graduates do next. But first, he said, I want them to put their energy into excelling at the next level of life. The following Twitter thread contains short videos of the mornings events. Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images Millions of Americans are suffering financially amid the gradual reopening of the U.S. economy. And there are multiple ways the U.S. government could extend more relief. The question is which one it will choose and exactly how much cash could end up in your wallet. As the coronavirus pandemic swept the nation in March, Congress ushered in a $2 trillion package that sent checks of up to $1,200 per adult to low- to middle- income individuals. Families were also eligible for $500 per child under age 17. Americans would love to receive more financial help. One WalletHub survey found that 84% want another stimulus check. More from Personal Finance: That $600 unemployment benefit is likely going away What the IRS says about inaccurate stimulus payments Four simple things to shore up your pandemic finances Meanwhile, Bankrate found in early April that 31% of Americans said the first stimulus check wouldn't boost their financial well being for more than a month. More than 40 million people have filed for unemployment since the coronavirus pandemic began. Those numbers don't tell the whole story, according to Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate. "There's a lot of people that are still working, but they're working for less money," McBride said. "They're not making the money they were before." Among the proposals are another one-time round of $1,200 stimulus checks or sending Americans $2,000 per month. Some Republicans have pushed for $450 a week in so-called back-to-work bonuses. Meanwhile, others are pushing to extend the extra $600 per week in unemployment benefits. Guaranteed income of $2,000 a month Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) speaks during the Democratic Presidential Debate at Tyler Perry Studios November 20, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. Alex Wong | Getty Images On Monday, former presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., spoke out in support of creating a universal basic income to help Americans weather the coronavirus pandemic. Harris, along with Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., proposed a bill in May that would give $2,000 per month to people making under $120,000, plus $2,000 per child for up to three children. "The government should be here for the people in a moment of crisis," Harris said during a Monday webcast hosted by news website The Appeal. The one-time $1,200 checks sent out by the government are not enough, according to Harris. We need a strong federal response. Shai Akabas director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center "Can you imagine someone saying, 'You only need to pay rent once ever?'" Harris said. "The reality of life is that people have recurring expenses." A petition with Change.org has gathered 1.2 million signatures supporting the idea. Other proposals in the House have called for sending Americans the same amount of money. Yet some experts aren't convinced the proposal is the best strategy for helping those in need. "We need a strong federal response," said Shai Akabas, director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. "But using up a lot of those federal dollars on sending $2,000 a month checks to people who don't really need it would not be an effective use of federal intervention." Another round of $1,200 checks House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., delivers a statement on the Heroes Act aid package on May 12, 2020 on Capitol Hill. Graeme Jennings-Pool/Getty Images The Democratic-led House of Representatives has passed a sweeping $3 trillion bill that would include another round of $1,200 stimulus checks. The terms of the payments would be similar to the first round. That includes payments of up to $1,200 for individuals or $2,400 per married couple. But children would get $1,200 apiece, up from $500 in the first round, up to a maximum of three children. That means families would stand to get as much as $6,000. To be eligible, you would have to meet certain income thresholds, based on either your 2018 or 2019 tax return. Individuals who make up to $75,000 would get full payments, which would be reduced for income above that amount and eliminated altogether at $99,000. Married couples who file jointly would get full checks at up to $150,000 in income. Those who earn above $198,000 would not be eligible. The proposal is a starting point for negotiations with the Republican-led Senate, and could be subject to change. The problem with the checks is that they don't necessarily target those who most need them, said Chuck Marr, director of federal tax policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "What's most important is that top priority be given to the people who are harmed," Marr said. Extending $600 unemployment bonus Florida resident Joseph Louis at a May 22 protest in Miami Beach asking the state to fix its unemployment system. Joe Raedle | Getty Images The House Democrats' proposal, if passed, would also extend the extra $600 per week in federal unemployment benefits through the end of January 2021. Currently, that extra money is set to stop in late July. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said the next coronavirus stimulus bill will not extend those benefits. However, experts argue that money would target the people who need financial help the most. "The case for much, much more generous unemployment insurance at a time when jobs are going to be super-scarce is really strong," said Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute. "It's just incredibly well targeted." We will likely need extended unemployment benefits for 12 months or more, Bivens said. A $450 weekly bonus to get back to work Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, talks with reporters before the Senate Policy luncheons in the Capitol on June 5, 2018. Tom Williams | CQ Roll Call | Getty Images One proposal from Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, seeks to give Americans who return to work a $450 weekly bonus. The money would be in addition to the salary they are earning. The incentive would make it more lucrative to return to work. A recent study from the University of Chicago and American Action Forum found that 60% to 70% of people on unemployment are making more than they did at their regular jobs, because of enhanced federal benefits. "The point is to have a bonus to go back to work, which helps everybody, helps the worker, helps the small business and helps the taxpayer," Portman said in an interview with CNBC. Such a strategy would not fully replace unemployment benefits, which millions of families in need are relying on, Akabas said. It could also unevenly reward people because some individuals never stopped working, he said. Money moves to make while waiting for government help Fertnig | E+ | Getty Images [June 02, 2020] iDS Offers A Fast, Cost-Effective Way To Gauge Employee Risk With ERA iDiscovery Solutions (iDS), a leading legal expert services firm, has announced the latest version of Employee Risk Assessment (ERA). ERA, an iDS Expert Solution, leverages iDS's forensic expertise and technology to provide a cost-effective option for early review of potential risks associated with an employee's activity. "Intellectual property has immense value," said Julian Ackert, Managing Director of iDS. "For businesses concerned about current and departing employees misappropriating secrets and confidential information, ERA provides insight into unusual activity, allowing them to quickly understand their risks." ERA evaluates a series of artifacts from devices and systems that can provide companies a view into employee activity, their potential risk, and the appropriate next steps. These artifacts can provide insights about things such as cloud activity, USB access, and recently opened files. Fast, affordable, and scalable, ERA can provide insights in as little as 24 hours and can be deployed as often as neded, all at a fixed cost. ERA allows companies to have actionable intelligence so that they can make informed decisions related to deeper dive analyses, including whether to launch a full-scale digital forensic investigation. Offered under a flat-fee model, ERA is commonly leveraged in three ways: To investigate a former employee who may have exfiltrated confidential information Investigating team moves, such as when multiple employees exit at or near the same time, possibly for a competitor Internal investigations regarding instances of inappropriate access or activity "Fixed pricing allows businesses to deploy ERA as needed at a predictable cost," Ackert said. "They can look at an employee's computer for a flat fee. If they want to dig deeper, they can add mobile devices or other data sources, such as email, CRM logs, or badge swipes, for another flat fee." About iDiscovery Solutions iDiscovery Solutions, Inc. (iDS) is an award-winning, global, and expert services firm that delivers customized, innovative solutions for legal and corporate clients' complex challenges. iDS' subject matter experts testify and consult in connection with electronic discovery (eDiscovery), digital forensics, data analytics, and cybersecurity/information governance. To learn more, visit www.idsinc.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005008/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Technavio has been monitoring the lignite market and it is poised to grow by USD 2.71 bn during 2020-2024. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005082/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Lignite Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire) Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Latest Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will decelerate during the forecast period. ALLETE Inc., China Shenhua Energy Co. Ltd., EP Power Europe AS, JSC Siberian Coal Energy Co., Lanna Resources Public Co. Ltd., Lignitiki Megalopolis SA, NACCO Industries Inc., NLC India Ltd., PT Bukit Asam Tbk, and RWE AG, are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments. Increasing demand for fertilizers has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. Lignite Market 2020-2024: Segmentation Lignite Market is segmented as below: Application Power Generation Syngas Generation Others Geographic Landscape The Americas APAC EMEA To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR40066 Lignite Market 2020-2024: Scope Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our lignite market report covers the following areas: Lignite Market size Lignite Market trends Lignite Market industry analysis This study identifies the increasing adoption of CTL as one of the prime reasons driving the lignite market growth during the next few years. Lignite Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the lignite market, including some of the vendors such as ALLETE Inc., China Shenhua Energy Co. Ltd., EP Power Europe AS, JSC Siberian Coal Energy Co., Lanna Resources Public Co. Ltd., Lignitiki Megalopolis SA, NACCO Industries Inc., NLC India Ltd., PT Bukit Asam Tbk, and RWE AG. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the lignite market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports. Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Lignite Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024 Detailed information on factors that will assist lignite market growth during the next five years Estimation of the lignite market size and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the lignite market Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of lignite market vendors Table Of Contents : PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT 2.1 Preface 2.2 Preface 2.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE Market ecosystem Market characteristics Value chain analysis Market segmentation analysis PART 04: MARKET SIZING Market definition Market sizing 2019 Market outlook Market size and forecast 2019-2024 PART 05: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market condition PART 06: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY APPLICATION Market segmentation by application Comparison by application Power generation Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Syngas generation Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Others Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Market opportunity by application PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE Geographic segmentation Geographic comparison APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024 EMEA Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Americas Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Key leading countries Market opportunity PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES Market drivers Market challenges PART 11: MARKET TRENDS Improvements in ash-handling technologies Advances in mining industry Increasing adoption of CTL PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE Overview Landscape disruption Competitive scenario PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS Vendors covered Vendor classification Market positioning of vendors ALLETE Inc. China Shenhua Energy Co. Ltd. EP Power Europe AS JSC Siberian Coal Energy Co. Lanna Resources Public Co. Ltd. Lignitiki Megalopolis SA NACCO Industries Inc. NLC India Ltd. PT Bukit Asam Tbk RWE AG PART 14: APPENDIX Research methodology List of abbreviations Definition of market positioning of vendors PART 15: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005082/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: media@technavio.com Website: www.technavio.com/ Offshore health checks for returning Thai crew PHUKET: Nine Thai crew members of a cargo ship returning to Phuket were screened and placed into 14 day quarantine yesterday (June 1) by health officials. marineCoronavirusCOVID-19healthSafety By The Phuket News Tuesday 2 June 2020, 05:12PM The SCHUMI, an international LPG carrier owned by Thais but registered in Panama, had come directly from Myanmar with a total 17 Thai crew aboard, nine of whom were returning to Phuket after their employment contracts had expired. According to the requirements issued under article 9 of the Emergency Decree, the vessel had requested permission via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to travel to Thailand via the port of Phuket in order to transfer the nine crew members. The boat traveled from Myanmar and anchored at the Phuket deep sea port near Phuket Town, explained Mr Onpat Korvanich from the Phuket international communicable disease control office. Mr Onpat led a team of health officials aboard the ship to test the nine crew members wanting to embark for any signs of COVID-19. Their temperatures were taken and it was confirmed none had a body temperature higher than 37.3 degrees; likewise no unusual symptoms or respiratory problems were exhibited. After the tests the crew were brought ashore at a private port in Wichit, Phuket Town, Mr Onpat added. They were then escorted to designated cars prepared by the Provincial Administration Organisation and transferred to the detention centre at the Grand Supicha City Hotel, Phuket Town. They will remain there in quarantine and under observation for 14 days before being allowed to return to their hometowns, assuming they remain healthy, confirmed Mr Onpat. PLYMOUTH, MA The Plymouth School Committee announced that a familiar face has been chosen to guide Plymouth Public Schools as they recover from the coronavirus health emergency. Dr. Christopher Campbell, who has the been the assistant superintendent under Dr. Gary Maestas, was announced as the pick at the school committee's meeting Monday night. "Thank you to our staff, families, screening committee, and school community for the valuable input and time invested in this search," Plymouth Schools said Tuesday morning. Campbell was announced as one of the finalists on May 12, along with Erik Cioffi, current principal at Fannin County High School in Blue Ridge, Georgia. Maestas will retire at the conclusion of this school year after 12 years as Plymouth Superintendent of Schools. This article originally appeared on the Plymouth Patch Cyclone Nisarga is now heading towards India and is expected to hit the shores of Maharashtra on Wednesday. The deep depression titled Cyclone Nisarga is currently moving northwards in the Arabian sea. The cyclone is expected to cause significant damage in cities like Mumbai and hence a red alert has been issued in several of the city's districts. According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) weather report on Tuesday morning, Nisarga became a cyclonic storm on Monday morning and will turn into a cyclonic storm by 5:30 pm on June 2. The cyclone is currently moving at a speed of 11 kmph. "It lay centred over East-Central Arabian Sea about 280 km west-southwest of Panjim (Goa), 490 km south-southwest of Mumbai (Maharashtra) and 710 km south-southwest of Surat (Gujarat)," said the IMD in their weather outlook. The report also says, "It is very likely to move nearly northwards during next six hours and recurve north-northeastwards thereafter and cross north Maharashtra and adjoining south Gujarat coast between Harihareshwar (in Maharashtra's Raigad) and Daman during the afternoon of June 3." IMD scientists say the speed of the cyclone will reach 125 kmph just before it lands on the coast of the country. They warn that the cyclone could cause structural damage to low lying areas especially in cities like Mumbai. The weather department has requested fishermen to not travel into the Arabian Sea, Lakshadweep area and along and off Kerala coast during next two days. Red Alerts have been sounded in several of Mumbai's suburban districts including Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg. The IMD has said that these areas will remain on alert on June 3 and 4. According to IMD standards, a red alert indicates the prevalence of extremely heavy rainfall of more than 205.5 mm. It is a warning for residents to take action and follow safety measures. Both Maharashtra and Gujarat governments have ordered their citizens living in low-lying areas on the coastal regions to be evacuated and shifted to safer places. Also Read: Cyclone Nisarga update: BMC gears up to ensure 'zero casualties' in Mumbai Also Read: Cyclone Nisarga LIVE Updates: IMD issues red alert; NDRF teams on standby The profitability of Australia's big four banks has declined markedly because of the slowing impact of the coronavirus pandemic on economic activity. With less money being made, the banks have slashed or deferred their dividends. The big four banks' return on equity has halved and is continuing on a downward trend. Credit:AAP Now is an ideal time for investors to reconsider their exposure to the bank titans before any more potential profit downgrades. Over the past few years, the big four could be relied upon for steady dividends, despite low earnings growth and falling profit margins. Now, COVID-19 has halted the dividend bonanza. Asbury Park is imposing an 8 p.m. curfew on Monday as protesters gather in the latest demonstration in New Jersey stemming from the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. The curfew will conclude at 5 a.m. Tuesday. In a joint statement, the citys mayor and council said they are expecting a peaceful protest," but also want to protect the safety of the organizers and attendees of the protest. The City of Asbury Park, its Mayor and Council, and the Asbury Park Police Department stand in full solidarity with the Asbury Park community in promotion of a peaceful demonstration and denounce the actions of the officers involved in the murder of George Floyd and any acts of police misconduct, read the statement. Atlantic City and Trenton imposed curfews starting Monday, after peaceful protests in both cities on Sunday afternoon was followed by looting and damage in the evening. Several major cities across the country were also under a curfew Monday night. Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com. Sahaya Novinston Lobo By Express News Service CHENNAI: Planning to dine out during unlock 1.0? You may have to wait a little longer to savour your favourite dishes. Thanks to the mass exodus of workers, most of them natives of northern States, restaurants in the city are struggling to reopen even as the government has relaxed restrictions. Restaurant owner A Rajendran in Santhome is a worried man. We had 13 workers from Assam and Meghalaya, besides five local employees. I tried to convince them not to go home but I didnt have the money to hold them back. We tried cooking just for home deliveries and parcels but ended up making losses. Now that things are coming back to normalcy, we dont have enough people to work, he said. The G.O. on lockdown relaxations has stated that restaurants may allow customers to dine in their premises from June 8, by following hygiene and social distancing norms. However, several eateries, which are heavily dependent on migrant workers, are now left scrambling to gather their workforce. Eateries in the city-owned by people from neighbouring Kerala and Andhra Pradesh are equally hit as their cooks, including those from Tamil Nadu, have gone home. We are trying to get e-passes for our main cook and some others to restart business, said Nithin Praveen, who runs a restaurant serving Kerala food in Adyar. A barber working with protective equipment | Debadatta Mallick No local flavour Meanwhile, some attempts to employ locals failed to take off due to high labour costs. We thought of hiring locals at least until normalcy returns. We had to abandon the move as they demanded higher wages. Some of them even demanded permanent job, said G Kanagavel Raja in Egmore, adding that his North Indian workers have promised to return once transport facilities restart. Kanagavel said local workers were demanding Rs 700 to Rs 1,000 per day against the migrant workers pay of Rs 300-Rs 800. As business prospects remain uncertain, eatery owners like Kanagavel are apprehensive about taking the risk. Some restaurants, however, are ready to restart normally as their workers didnt go. I convinced them that returning home now may not be a wise move. I also paid them during the lockdown. We have been delivering food as parcels and through food aggregators, and now we are prepared to welcome diners, said T Srinivasan Rao, who runs a restaurant in Royapettah. Salons flooded After a gap of almost 60 days, salons and spas in the city reopened to a flood of customers on Monday. Hairdressers used hand sanitiser, wore masks and gloves and sprayed disinfectants before customers entered the shop. The customers too had to sanitise their hands. Many had to return home as the salons were packed. After experiencing the coronavirus global pandemic for the past few months, everyone should all know by now that no person gets immunity from this novel virus. Anyone from all walks of life, status, gender, and race could be infected. Even the most prominent world leader or aristocrat is not safe from COVID-19. In the most recent royal family news, another member of the royal family tested positive for coronavirus. However, instead of getting sympathy and good health wishes, the Prince felt the need to apologize for contacting the deadly disease. On Sunday, it was confirmed that Prince Joachim of the Monarchy of Belgium tested positive for COVID-19. In a statement through his attorney, the 28-year-old Prince apologized for contracting the virus after attending a party amid Spain's lockdown restrictions. "I would like to apologize for traveling and not having respected the quarantine measures," the statement read, as per People. According to a BBC report, the Prince flew from Belgium to Spain on the 26th of May for an internship. But after two days, the Prince attended a party in a private house in the southern city of Cordoba. "In these difficult times, I did not intend to offend or disrespect anyone in these very difficult times and deeply regret my actions and accept the consequences," the statement added. It turns out that the Prince of Belgium is one of the 27 "high society" guests who were present in the said fiesta. Under Cordoba's protocols, any gatherings should observe social distancing rules with only 15 participants or less. The Spanish police immediately conducted an investigation, and those who will be proven to have broken the lockdown rules could be subjected to a penalty of at least $11,000. As of writing, all 27 individuals present at the party are now observing self-quarantine to avoid spreading the virus, in case others have contracted it. Meanwhile, Prince Joachim is said to have exhibited mild COVID-19 symptoms after attending the fiesta. Who Is Prince Joachim? The royal bachelor is the third child and youngest son of Lorenz, Archduke of Austria-Este and Princess Astrid of Belgium. His siblings include Prince Amadeo, Princess Maria Laura, Princess Luisa Maria, and Princess Laetitia Maria. Prince Joachim is King Philippe's nephew and the 10th in line to the Belgian throne. He is often referred mistakenly as Tom Felton, the English actor who played Draco Malfoy in the famous "Harry Potter" series. Prince Joachim is also considered one of the most eligible royal bachelors in the world. When Prince Harry married Meghan Markle in 2018, Prince Joachim is the one who replaced him on the said title. He is currently dating Spanish socialite Victoria Ortiz Marinez-Sagrera, a glamorous designer and law graduate. As per the Telegraph, Prince Joachim has lived with Victoria Ortiz in Spain for several years now. Another report states that the couple has been living in South Africa, where the Belgian Prince holds a position at a renewable energy company. Sixteen policemen from Dharavi police station who contracted Covid 19 have resumed work after successfully overcoming the infection. The police stations jurisdiction covers the congested Dharavi slum in central Mumbai that has been hit hard by the pandemic. A total of 32 policemen working in Mumbais worst Covid-19 hotspot contracted the virus, of whom 31 have recovered. Those who were affected and recovered include one assistant police inspector, two police sub-inspectors and 29 constables. They tested negative for the virus and rested for a week, said Ramesh Nangare, senior police inspector at Dharavi police station. One policeman is hospitalised and is said to be making a recovery. The rest who have been discharged are currently under self-isolation as a precautionary measure. As Dharavi, Asias largest slum, has been reporting a steady rise in Covid-19 cases, policemen have decided to take no chances. We have had regular counselling sessions for our staff. Experts have been roped in to brief policemen on the precautionary measures required to enter congested areas, said Nangare. Policemen have been provided thermos bottles which they are encouraged to fill at home so that they can drink warm water while on duty. They have been asked to use masks and sanitisers and to keep themselves hydrated. All of them are bringing lunch from home and avoiding eating or drinking anything outside, including tea, said Nangare. The policemen were also asked to take hydroxychloroquine, the homoeopathic medicine Arsenic Albumin 30, Vitamin C and D supplements and proteins to boost immunity. The precautionary measures have worked, officials said, as the latest case of infection involving a policeman from Dharavi was reported on May 19. Those who resumed work after getting infected decided to come back voluntarily. The policemen who resumed work were given a warm welcome at the police station on Tuesday. Those joining back have resumed work gradually over the past few days. All of them were given bouquets and welcomed on Tuesday, said Sandeep Patil, assistant police inspector at the police station. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Huaweis fully owned chipmaker HiSilicon might be looking to become self-sufficient following the recent US sanctions. The company has launched a new global recruitment program hiring fresh IT graduates from around the world. According to a recruitment poster released by HiSilicon, the company is looking to hire people who have completed their post-graduation degree after 1 January 2017. People currently pursuing post-graduation and completing their degree on or before 31 December 2021 can also apply. The recruitment process is underway and will continue until next year. Advertisement The new recruits will work in various next-gen technologies, including computer software architecture, semiconductor development, and chipset technology. The company is reportedly offering up to five times the salary a fresh post-graduate would earn elsewhere. A rough translation of the official poster (in Chinese) reads: We have been looking for talents with Core Star to shine, looking for brave people who are brave to challenge in the new world, and have the world together and insight into the new knowledge. Faced with the limits of Moores Law, von Neumanns bottleneck, Shannons limit, etc., we hope that our peers will explore the world-class problems that will eventually face, find methods and paths of world-leading computing architecture, and jointly expand the boundaries of civilization and progress. Advertisement Huawei HiSilicon hiring fresh graduates globally Huawei is battling several US sanctions since May last year. Most recently, the Trump administration blocked foundries around the world that use American chipmaking equipment from supplying chips to the Chinese phone maker. This essentially means HiSilicon, the company behind Huaweis Kirin processors, can no longer source chips from TSMC, its main supplier. While the company is already investing in alternative suppliers, it has yet to decide on a long-term partner. Huawei executives had last year said that survival will be the top priority for the company in 2020. Advertisement They also said the company will be looking to develop self-sufficiency in everything from semiconductors to software. HiSilicons latest mass recruitment move might be a step towards this long-term goal of self-sufficiency. As for Huaweis immediate future, reports suggest it has stocked enough reserves of key American tech to continue its operations in the smartphone business, at least for the time being. It has reportedly reserved enough 5nm chips from TSMC to produce a decent number of Mate 40 flagships. For its mid-range and low-cost smartphones, the company is tapping on MediaTek and SMIC for chips. It has reportedly increased orders for MediaTek chips by 300 percent this year. Plymouth, Massachusetts--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2020) - Plymouth Rock Technologies Inc. (CSE: PRT) (OTC: PLRTF) (FSE: 4XA) (WKN# A2N8RH) ("Plymouth Rock", "PRT", or the "Company") a leader in the development of cutting edge threat detection technologies, announced today that Marshall Sterman has been appointed to PRT's board of advisors. Marshall Sterman brings decades of extensive financial experience to PRT including positions at: Burbank & Co.; Sterman & Gowell (private placements, underwriting, venture finance); Croesus Capital (reorganization/work-outs for institutional clients); Managing Director at The Bank House (Merchant Bank); and The Mayflower Group (private equity, restructuring). Mr. Sterman sits on the board at TABS Score and is the Chairman and CEO of BioChemics. He is also an active founding partner of Innovation Capital Management who helps companies without a U.S. presence to establish working relationships in the U.S. and build operations from the ground floor. Mr. Sterman holds a BA from Brandeis University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. "Marshall brings a wealth of experience, global awareness and proven leadership to PRT and will provide key strategic guidance and direction to the board and executive team of Plymouth Rock Technologies at this critical time in our company's growth cycle," stated Dana Wheeler, CEO & President of Plymouth Rock Technologies. About Plymouth Rock Technologies Inc. We are on a mission to bring engineering-driven answers to the most critical problems that threaten our safety. We work with government, law enforcement and military to innovate solutions for national security, defense and space systems. The Company is developing the next generation of threat detection solutions. The PRT X1 is a purpose built multirotor Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). The unit contains an integrated sensor package that combines Thermal detection with 4K HD real-time air-to-ground streaming. Our advanced threat detection methods fuse artificial intelligence with augmented reality interfaces to eliminate human operating error. Plymouth Rock products, both airborne and land-based, will scan for threat items at greater "stand-off" distances than current existing technologies. Our unique radar imaging and signal processing technology creates new opportunities for remotely operated, none intrusive screening of crowds in real time. Plymouth Rock's other core technologies include: (1) A Millimeter Remote Imaging from Airborne Drone ("MIRIAD"); (2) A compact microwave radar system for scanning shoe's ("Shoe-Scanner"). www.plyrotech.com ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Dana Wheeler President and CEO +1-603-300-7933 info@plyrotech.com Investor Information: Tasso Baras +1-778-477-6990 Forward Looking Statements Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding future financial position, business strategy, use of proceeds, corporate vision, proposed acquisitions, partnerships, joint-ventures and strategic alliances and co-operations, budgets, cost and plans and objectives of or involving the Company. Such forward-looking information reflects management's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to management. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "predicts", "intends", "targets", "aims", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. A number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause the actual results or performance to materially differ from any future results or performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. These forward looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions and dependence upon regulatory approvals. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by securities laws. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/57037 Protesters staged marches in cities around the country after a night of arrests and destruction; President Trump was criticized over his visit to a church; George Floyds death was ruled a homicide. Watch the key developments. Photo: Richard Vogel/Associated Press Russian banker accused of $48 mln embezzlement arrested in absentia Fotolia/ Irochka 13:58 02/06/2020 ST. PETERSBURG, June 2 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) Stockholder of the bank Severny Credit (North Credit) Alexey Zhelezov, who stands charged with organized embezzlement of 3.3 billion rubles ($48 million) from the customers bank accounts and their legalization, has been arrested in absentia, RAPSI has been told in the United press service of Vologda Region courts. The defendant is to be placed in detention for 2 months on the date of his arrest in Russia or extradition. He was put on the international wanted list on March 27. According to case filings, from 2015 to 2017, Zhelezov along with other management of the bank and its employees by executing fictious loan agreements committed several counts of embezzlement totaling to more than 3.3 billion rubles belonging to the credit organization. Zhelezov was a board chair of the bank Severgasbank from 1994 to 2011. Later, he was a head of Severny Credit until 2015, and then he left the post but remained its shareholder. After embezzlement the bank was closed and declared bankrupt. The Vologda Region government was its main stockholder. Tens of thousands of people joined protests and vigils in New Zealand yesterday in solidarity with the mass movement that has erupted in the United States following the brutal murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers. Media reported that at least 4,000 people gathered in Auckland's Aotea Square and marched to the US consulate. Photographs and videos shared on social media appear to show far larger crowds, with some estimating the number to be in the tens of thousands. In Wellington, at least 2,000 people held a vigil outside parliament and hundreds marched to the US embassy. About 500 joined a protest in Christchurch and hundreds more in Dunedin. Protesters at the Auckland rally (Photo: Facebook) The rallies were part of a powerful wave of international protests. About 2,000 people gathered in Perth, and rallies are scheduled for other Australian cities over the coming days. Protests have been held across Europe, Canada and in Japan, among other places. The international movement reflects the intense opposition that has built up in the working class, over decades, not only against police brutality but also never-ending war and unprecedented levels of social inequality. The failure of governments to stop hundreds of thousands of deaths from COVID-19, and the destruction of tens of millions of jobs, has further fuelled the outrage. The New Zealand crowds were largely made up of young workers and students, of all ethnicities including white people, Maori, Pacific Islanders and immigrants from many nationalities. Marchers chanted Black lives matter and I cant breathethe last words of George Floyd as he was choked to death by police officer Derek Chauvin. One of the organisers in Wellington, Nicole Inskeep, who moved to New Zealand from Charlottesville, Virginiathe scene of a white supremacist rampage that killed one person in 2017read from a list of names of black men and women killed by police in the US. In Auckland, Nigerian-born mixed martial artist Israel Adesanya was among those who addressed the crowd. He thanked people of all different races for being here, cause we need you to speak up against racism. Also attending the Auckland protest was Randy Pollard, who migrated from Minneapolis where he was friends with George Floyd. He told the New Zealand Herald: He was genuine, kind-hearted just a wonderful guy. He was very approachable and easy-going. I had a lot of respect for him. Pollard said there would be no peace until all the officers involved in the killing were brought to justice. He added: At the same time, the president is saying, if people resist, shoot. Thats ridiculous. How can you have peace if that is coming from the president? Many protesters also denounced the further militarisation of the New Zealand Police by the Labour Party-NZ First-Greens coalition government. There is widespread public opposition to Police Armed Response Teams (ARTs), with thousands of people tweeting the hashtag #ArmsDownNZ in recent days. Many tweets said they did not want New Zealand to become like the US. In recent years there has been an increase in the number of killings by NZ Police, with the victims disproportionately working class, Maori, and mentally ill people. The police, backed by the Ardern government, used the Christchurch massacre of 51 Muslims by a fascist gunman last year as a pretext to test the ARTs in three working class areas: Christchurch, Waikato and South Auckland. The armed units could soon be made permanent and expanded. While Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern claims that she does not want police to be routinely armed, the ARTs have been deployed hundreds of times for routine policing throughout the six-month trial period. Responding to yesterdays protests, Ardern told TVNZ this morning, I understand the strength of feeling, stating she was horrified by the killing of Floyd. At the same time, however, she said the protests were a clear breach of COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings. Asked whether police should have intervened to stop the rallies, Ardern said those decisions are for the police. Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, who leads the right-wing nationalist New Zealand First Party, went even further, asking on Newstalk ZB: Why arent we prosecuting those people who organised those protests? Seconds later, Peters called for the immediate lifting of the countrys social distancing restrictionssomething demanded by big business but opposed by leading health experts, who warned that this would risk a resurgence of the coronavirus. Ardern has indicated that remaining restrictions could be lifted as early as next week. Far-right ACT Party leader David Seymourwho fraudulently poses as a defender of free speech, similarly denounced the protests as a slap in the face for every business that has restricted its operations. Yesterday, Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson declared that her party stood in solidarity with Floyds family and other victims of US police killings, and against the culture of systemic racism and violence built on centuries of injustices and social inequities. The partys justice spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman also stated that they oppose the Police ARTs in New Zealand and would push to demilitarise our police force from within government. These statements are thoroughly hypocritical. The Greens are a crucial part of the government, which was formed with a platform of further militarising the police. The 2017 coalition agreement between Labour and NZ First promised to recruit an extra 1,800 front-line police officers, an increase of about 20 percent. The number of police training programs in schools has also been expanded. The government has used the COVID-19 pandemic to give the police much greater powers to make arrests and carry out warrantless searches. Emergency laws also allow the military to be deployed to assist police. As New Zealand enters into the worst economic and social crisis since the 1930s, the police will inevitably be deployed more and more openly against the working class, to suppress opposition to inequality and militarism. Ardern, who is hailed in the media internationally for her supposed kindness and leadership, has not denounced Trumps threat to deploy the military against protesters. Labour, NZ First and the Greens, along with the opposition parties, are all committed to the alliance with US imperialism, along with a vast increase in military spending, to integrate New Zealand into US war plans. If 2019 was the summer of the tank top; summer 2020 is set to be ruled by the padded shoulder tee. Part everyday basic, part eighties rock band icon, not only is a shoulder pad t-shirt or muscle tee as some are referring to them an uncomplicated and versatile wardrobe workhorse, but wearing one also comes with the advantage of making one feel just that little bit more powerful, a feeling we could all use right now. The trend kicked off with cool-girl label Frankie Shops Eva muscle tee, and particularly exploded last week when the brand launched a yellow version of its popular shoulder pad tee in collaboration with fashion influencer Camille Charriere. For every tee sold, 100 per cent of the profits of which will go to the Red Cross as a part of its #letthesunchainin initiative. For those that dont purchase a tee, the brand has also committed to donating $1 to the Red Cross for every Instagram post which features the colour yellow alongside the hashtag #letthesunchainin. As the style set has demonstrated already, the Big Shoulder Energy tee looks great styled with tailoring, jeans and even leather trousers. And Frankie Shop isnt the only place to power up your shoulders, the high street has already cottoned on, with excellent offerings available at Mango, H&M and Monki. Shop the look: Eva padded shoulder muscle t-shirt in yellow, 75, Frankie Shop x Camille Charriere | Buy now Eva padded shoulder muscle t-shirt in white, 75, Frankie Shop | Buy now Shoulder pad t-shirt, 17.99, Mango | Buy now Shoulder pad t-shirt, 17.99, Mango | Buy now Shoulder pad tank top, 15, Monki | Buy now Structured shoulders t-shirt, 63, Federica Tosi | Buy now Shoulder pad t-shirt, 6, H&M | Buy now Cotton jersey t-shirt with shouder pads, 200, MaxMara | Buy now Madam Zenabu Alidu, a 55-year-old female farmer from Taffiasi in the Sissala East municipality has sustained severe machete wounds after she was allegedly attacked by a suspected mentally ill man over farmland. Madam Zenabu was rushed to the Sissala East Municipal Hospital in Tumu at about 011hrs time last Sunday with various degrees of wounds all over her body. According to medical authorities at the Hospital, the victim spent about five hours in the theatre, but was later referred to the Wa Regional Hospital for further medical attention due to the severity of the wounds sustained. A theatre staff of the Hospital, who spoke to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on condition of anonymity, said Madam Zenabu was referred to the Wa Regional Hospital due to the deep wounds she sustained on her skull. Narrating her ordeal to the GNA, Madam Zenabu said few days before the incident, while visiting her two-acre farmland together with her daughter, she saw Mr Saworu Salia, 49, the alleged mentally ill man on her farm unpacking some wood she had already packed to be burnt. I then asked him what he was doing on my farm unpacking my wood and he insulted me and my daughter, but we ignored his insults and returned home, she said. Madam Zenabu noted that upon her return to the farm the following day, she again met Mr Alidu who had already kept some grass on top of the wood she planned to burn. I asked him why he did that and he answered that he was also going to farm on the land. I then asked him to leave the place whilst I repack the wood, but immediately I bent down, he hacked my neck with the cutlass and I fell down, she narrated sorrowfully. I tried to get up and wrestle him but fell down again giving him the chance to inflict more cutlass wounds on my head, hands, back, and legs until I started wailing and calling for help, she added. Madam Zenabu noted that while she was going through the ordeal, a pregnant woman closed by, heard her screaming and decided to come to the scene, but upon seeing her, Mr Alidu took to his heels. She then went for her donkey truck and brought me to the chief's house where I was later carried on motor bike to the hospital in Tumu", he said. Meanwhile, Inspector Thomas Mensah, the Station Officer, said Mr Alidu has been arrested and charged with unlawfully causing harm and attempted murder. He has since been arraigned before the Tumu Magistrate Court and has been remanded in police custody. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Joe Biden has suggested that police should be trained to shoot knife-wielding suspects in the leg instead of the heart in an effort to reduce the numbers of people killed by police. 'Instead of standing there and teaching a cop when there's an unarmed person coming at 'em with a knife or something, shoot 'em in the leg instead of in the heart,' the former vice president said. The presumptive Democrat nominee for November's presidential election was addressing black community leaders in Wilmington, Delaware on Monday. Without offering specifics, he promised to 'deal with institutional racism' and set up a police oversight body in his first 100 days in office, if elected. 'There are a lot of things that can change regarding police training,' Biden continued. Former Vice President Joe Biden suggested that police be trained to shoot knife-wielding suspects in the leg and not the heart in order to avoid deaths Biden spoke to black community leaders in a church in Wilmington, Delaware His comments of urging cops to practice a policy of 'shoot-to-wound' rather than 'shoot-to-kill' come after five days of protests over the death of George Floyd last Monday. During his address, Biden spoke of his time when he worked in the Obama administration. 'We set up, in the Justice Department, the ability for the Civil Rights Division to go in and look at the practices and policies of police departments. That's why we were able to stop stop-and-frisk. Biden has pledged to set up a police oversight board in the first 100 days an re-evaluate how officers are trained to deal with people 'I would re-establish that with more teeth in it. Because we also have to fundamentally change the way in which police are trained,' he said. Biden's record on law and order has been far from perfect. He came under criticism after being at the forefront of the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. It saw the death penalty expanded and drove the number of incarcerations up after encouraging tougher rules, according to Fox News. Last year, Biden ended up apologizing for views he had previously held on criminal justice and is now proposing to repeal some of the parts of the 1994 law giving second chances to those who are in jail and eliminating racial disparities. A police officer aims a pepper ball gun at people during a protest on Friday in Denver, Colorado. Demonstrations are being held across the US after George Floyd died in police custody last Monday in Minneapolis, Minnesota Biden offered emotional support and promised bold action during the in-person discussion with black leaders in Delaware and a subsequent virtual meeting with big-city mayors who are grappling with racial tensions and frustrated by a lack of federal support. 'Hate just hides. It doesnt go away, and when you have somebody in power who breathes oxygen into the hate under the rocks, it comes out from under the rocks,' Biden told more than a dozen African American leaders gathered at a church in downtown Wilmington, his face mask lowered around his chin as he spoke. The former vice president also said he'd be releasing an economic plan focused on education, housing and 'access to capital' and investments, especially for minority Americans, later this month. 'I really do believe that the blinders have been taken off. I think this tidal wave is moving,' Biden told the mayors of Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and St. Paul, Minnesota. 'I realize weve got to do something big, we can do it, and everyone will benefit from it.' Largely sheltering in place amid the coronavirus, Biden has struggled in recent weeks to be heard from his makeshift home TV studio over the noise of dueling national crises. But after another night of violent protests, he ventured out into public for the second time in two days and just the third time since the pandemic arrived in mid-March. His hopeful and collaborative approach marked a sharp contrast to that of President Donald Trump, who has made little effort to unify the country. The Republican president slammed governors as 'weak' during a video teleconference on Monday and demanded tougher crackdowns on protesters. Trump also lashed out at Biden on Twitter, writing that 'Sleepy Joe Bidens people are so Radical Left that they are working to get the Anarchists out of jail, and probably more.' Liberia's Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MGCSP) welcomes the arrest and detention of an alleged rape suspect Johnson Chulutah by the Liberia National Police (LNP). The suspect is a 48-year-old man that allegedly raped and impregnated his then 12-year-old stepdaughter. It can be recalled that a week ago, a video was posted on social media in which the survivor narrated a dreadful rape experience meted against her by her stepfather, which eventually led to an unintended pregnancy. According to the survivor, the unfortunate incident took placed in Monrovia about two (2) years ago but was never reported. On May 27, 2020, the Liberia National Police picked up the mother of the survivor, Mary Chulutah, who is still married to suspect Johnson, for questioning. LNP's Inspector General Police Patrick Sudue placed a call directly to MGCSP's Minister W.E. Saydee-Tarr and informed her that the alleged perpetrator Johnson Chulutah was arrested in Mount Barclay Community, Montserrado County. This arrest occurred on Sunday, May 31, 2020 following a tip-off. The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection is also pleased to announce that with the direct intervention of the Minister of Justice and the LNP Team led by the Inspector General, the survivor and her child have been transferred to Monrovia and placed into the custody of the MGCSP. The Survivor and her baby are presently in a safe home, receiving wellness care, including psychosocial counseling, medical care for both, as well as the provision of basic necessities. The Ministry assures the public that it will remain fully engaged in pursuing timely justice for the Survivor. We shall continue in our quest for Justice for all Survivors of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) that are still lingering. Gender again applauds the public on reporting of SGBV cases but at the same time, cautions all whistle blowers, the media and the public at large, to kindly protect the names and faces of survivors as they have a right to privacy under the law. President Muhammadu Buhari is currently meeting with the president of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, at the presidential villa in Abuja. Mr Adesina, who previously served as Nigerias Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, is facing allegations of corruption at the bank and is being investigated. He denies the allegations and had earlier been cleared of the claims raised by a whistleblower group, but the United States, the banks second-largest shareholder, has called for an external probe. The Nigerian government and other African leaders have been rallying support for Mr Adesina who is seeking a second five-year term. The argue that the bank should stick with its internal rules of dealing with such complaints and not invite an external investigator as requested by the U.S. New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday (June 2) has dismissed a petition seeking direction to the Centre to de-freeze and release the enhanced Dearness Allowance (DA) to the Central government employees and pensioners along with the Government servants and pensioners of Delhi government. The plea also sought withdrawal of such notification. Dismissing the petition, the court observed that there was no obligation in law upon the Central government to disburse the increase in Dearness Allowance within a time-bound manner. The High Court order said, "Rule 3 of All India Services (Dearness Allowance) Rules referred to above, itself empowers the Central government to lay down the conditions subject to which Dearness Allowance may be drawn by officers of Central government." The petitioner's submission before the court was that Central government employees and Central government pensioners have a vested right to receive the enhanced Dearness Allowance effective from January 1, 2020. The court observed that seeing the rule mentioned by the petitioner it is clear that there is no statutory rule which obliges the Central government to continue to enhance the Dearness Allowance or Dearness Relief at regular intervals. It observed that by the impugned office memorandum, the Centre has frozen and not withdrawn, the DA and Dearness Relief. With regard to increase of 4% DA, the said notification does not seek to take it away but to postpone its payment till after July 1, 2021. That power, resides with the Centre by virtue of Rule 3 of the All India Services (Dearness Allowance) Rule, 1972. In another submission, the counsel for the petitioner said that the Central government has referred to COVID-19 pandemic as the reason for its decision. However, the impugned office memorandum has not been issued by the competent authority under the Disaster Management Act. Observing that there was no merit in the submission, the court said the provisions of the Disaster Management Act are not the only repository of the power of the government to take action in the light of the pandemic. By Express News Service ROURKELA: The crisis handling skills of officials of the district administration and Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) were put to test as a Shramik Special train from Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu arrived here with more than double the anticipated passengers on Monday. The train, with stoppages at Rayagada, Balangir, Sambalpur and Rourkela brought in 699 migrants including a few women. As the officials had not expected such huge rush at the railway station, they hurriedly made arrangements for screening, food and transportation of the passengers. While 72 of the migrants, who arrived in the train were from Sundargarh district, 617 were from other districts of the State and two each from West Bengal and Bihar. RMC Commissioner and nodal officer for Covid-19 Dibyajyoti Parida said the workers were sent to their respective destinations by buses. The natives of Bihar were dropped at Birmitrapur border while the ones from West Bengal were sent to Mayurbhanj district on a bus. He said none of them had any symptom of coronavirus. On May 21, the first Shramik Special train to the city from Tamil Nadu, arrived with only 59 workers while a couple of days back another such train had brought in 93 migrants from Gujarat. Meanwhile, the SER has geared up to run two express and as many mail trains through Rourkela on the Howrah-Mumbai main line. SER Area Manager informed two Up trains and as many Down trains would have halt at Rourkela between 11 pm to 7 am. The trains are 02809/02810 Howrah-Mumbai Mail and 02833/02834 Ahmedabad-Howrah Express. A retired St. Louis police captain who became a small-town police chief was found fatally shot early Tuesday outside a pawn shop that was looted after protests over the death of George Floyd turned violent. David Dorn, 77, was discovered on the sidewalk in front of Lee's Pawn & Jewelry in St. Louis around 2:30 a.m., said Police Commissioner John Hayden. He said Dorn, who retired from the St. Louis Police Department in 2007 and had been serving as police chief of Moline Acres, Missouri, since 2008, was killed when he apparently tried to stop the looting of the shop. "David Dorn was exercising law enforcement training that he learned here," Hayden said. No further details were immediately released. His widow, Ann Marie Dorn, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that her husband was a friend of the pawn shop's owner and frequently checked on the business when alarms went off. PHOTO: David Dorn, a 77-year-old retired St. Louis police officer who served 38 years on the force was shot and killed by looters at a pawn shop early, June 2, 2020, police said. (Scott Bandle/Suburban Journals/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP) The death came on a brutal night for police across the country. A Las Vegas police officer on life support was last listed in critical condition after being shot Monday night attempting to disperse a large crowd of protesters outside a casino, authorities said. An officer was attacked in New York City, and four cops were shot in St. Louis as demonstrations across the nation in the aftermath of George Floyd's death have turned increasingly violent for both protesters and police. MORE: Biden addresses nationwide Floyd protests, condemns Trump church photo op in Philadelphia speech At least five deaths have occurred during the widespread unrest, according to The New York Times. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Officer Shay Mikalonis, 29, was critically wounded engaging with violent protesters outside the Circus Circus Hotel & Casino on the famed Las Vegas Strip. Separately, police fatally shot a heavily armed man who appeared to be wearing body armor outside a federal courthouse nearby. "This is a sad night for LVMPD family and a tragic night for our community," LVMPD Sheriff Joe Lombardo said at a news conference. "With these protests, which are leading to riots, one tragedy is only leading to another." Story continues Lombardo said his officers were being pelted with rocks and bottles. MORE: 'Its a tough place to be in right now': US police face scrutiny and violence amid angry George Floyd protests "Our officers were attempting to get some of the protesters in custody when a shot rang out and our officer went down," he added. Mikalonis was taken to Las Vegas University Medical Center, where he was in "extremely critical condition." Police officials said he underwent surgery to remove a bullet from his neck. A suspect was arrested by a SWAT team, but that person's name wasn't immediately released, Lombardo added. PHOTO: A member of the St. Louis Fire Department removes a hose outside a vandalized and burned convenience store, June 2, 2020, in St. Louis, the morning after protests against the death of George Floyd. (Jeff Roberson/AP) While LVMPD officers were investigating the shooting, officers guarding the Foley Federal Building were confronted by an armed man around 11:22 p.m., Lombardo said. That suspect, who appeared to be wearing body armor, had multiple firearms. "During the interaction, the subject reached for his firearm and our officers engaged him," Lombardo said. The suspect, who hasn't yet been identified, died at the hospital. It's unclear whether that individual had been among the protesters, Lombardo added. MORE: Coronavirus updates: US reports over 21,000 new cases amid mass protests The four officers wounded in St. Louis on Monday night were shot near police headquarters, where clashes with rioters lasted well into the night. "They were standing near a line and all of a sudden they felt pain," Police Commissioner Hayden said during a news conference Tuesday morning. "They were just standing there. So some coward fired shots at officers, and now we have four in the hospital ... and thank God they're alive. Can we make some sense out of this? ... This is horrible." MORE: Bishop blasts message of Trump's church photo-op as 'antithetical to the teachings of Jesus' The officers, ranging in age from 28 to 52, suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Before the shootings, demonstrators hurled rocks and fireworks at police, and some officers had gasoline dumped on them, Hayden added. Meanwhile in New York City, video emerged that appeared to show an officer being attacked with a heavy object by a group of men in the Bronx. The New York Police Department said it made nearly 700 arrests Monday night as looting and vandalism targets included stores at Rockefeller Center and some in the Upper East Side. A curfew of 11 p.m. had been put in effect. PHOTO: Police confront protesters in Union Square on May 30, 2020, in New York. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images) "We saw stuff last night that we will not accept. And we can fight back, and we will fight back," Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference on Tuesday. "I have confidence in the people of New York City, I have confidence in the leaders in communities, I have confidence in the NYPD. "There's a lot of people trying to express fear, a lot of people trying to tear down, a lot of people say they don't believe in the people of this city, they don't believe in people in our communities, they don't believe in our police officers. To hell with all of them. I don't care if they're left or right or center -- I am sick of people attacking New York City." Floyd died May 25 in Minneapolis. His final moments were captured in a searing video of a white officer with his knee on Floyd's black neck as he pleaded for his life. "I can't breathe," Floyd said. Small-town police chief killed as officers in 3 cities wounded during violence at George Floyd protests originally appeared on abcnews.go.com A teenager tried in vain to save his father being attacked by a water buffalo - but both were killed by the rampaging beast on the family farm, an inquest heard today. Wealthy business owner Ralph Jump, 57, and son Peter, 19, were crushed to death by the giant animal in Gwehelog, Monmouthshire, Wales where the family ran a firm selling soap made from buffalo milk. Mr Jump's daughter Isabel was also injured in the attack by one of the herd last month. Peter Jump (left), 19, suffered fatal injuries when his father Ralph (right, with a water buffalo), 57, was crushed to death by the giant animal rampaging at their farm in Gwehelog, Monmouthshire, Wales One of their buffalo escaped its pen and attacked the pair and daughter Isabel as they tried to return it to safety at the farm (pictured) Mr Jump's daughter Isabel, pictured, also suffered injuries in the attack on the family's farm Gwent coroner's officer Paul Richardson told the court the father - known as Jon - 'entered a field at his home farm' where they made the fashionable soap. He said: 'Grazing in the field were water buffalo when he went in. 'Mr Jump was attacked by one of the buffalo and sustained fatal injuries. 'Peter had come to the assistance of his father who was being attacked.' But Peter 'sustained serious injuries' when he went into the field. His sister Isabel, 22, suffered leg injuries. Company director Mr Jump was pronounced dead at the scene at their farm on May 5. Peter was airlifted to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, but died 'later that evening'. The court was told there were 'no suspicious circumstances' in either of the deaths. Peter's mother Jo was described as 'devastated' after losing both her son and husband. Father-of-three Mr Jump - who was recovering after a heart attack last year - rented the idyllic country farm near Usk, Gwent, to start a sustainable buffalo soap business with his family. Mr Jump - managing director of a heating company - hand-reared the buffalo at their three-acre farm along with his youngest two children. Daughter Isabel organised the sales of the hand-wrapped bars of scented soap - and the Bufalina Soap Company started selling them ahead of last Christmas. Son Peter worked full-time at the family farm while older brother Sam is a talented musician and aspiring songwriter. But their green business dreams were shattered when one of the buffaloes attacked at their picturesque farm in the Wye Vallley. The buffalo has now been put down. Ralph died at the scene on May 5 before Peter (right) died of his wounds the following day. Isabel (centre), 22, suffered leg injuries but was released from hospital while the buffalo was destroyed. Left: Other son Sam is a musician Father-of-three Mr Jump (left), who was recovering after a heart attack last year, rented the country farm near Usk to start a sustainable buffalo (right) soap business Neighbours described it as 'a terrible shock when ambulances and police suddenly turned up', pictured last month Mr Jump was MD of the Wunda Group, based at nearby Caldicot, Gwent. The company supplies heating equipment and employs 56 people - but is on lockdown. The farm is the base of The Bufalina Soap Company - selling a range of scented buffalo soap from 4 to 42. The company says: 'We make our soap with the milk from our herd of Mediterranean Water Buffalo, located in the Welsh Marches. 'Around the World this buffalo breed is famous for its dairy products such as mozzarella, gelato and ice cream. The richness of the milk makes it ideal for making a creamy, luxurious and gentle soap which leaves the skin feeling soft and moisturised. 'Our unscented and scented soaps (mainly made with essential oils and a couple with parfums) are all free from Palm oil, Parabens, Petrochemicals - made only from Water Buffalo milk, Coconut oil, Olive oil, Sunflower oil, Bees wax and Shea Butter.' The buffalo, similar to the one pictured, was put down after the shocking attack on the father and son last month The inquest into their deaths was opened and adjourned in Newport but it heard there were no suspicious circumstances. Senior coroner for Gwent Caroline Saunders said the circumstances surrounding both deaths were 'unnatural'. She said the death of Peter Jump was 'aligned' with the death of Ralph Jump, but said there will be separate inquests which will be held at the same time. A family friend said after the tragedy: 'Jon spent all his life in a shirt and tie but loved pulling on his wellies to get stuck in at the farm. He was as happy as anything there.' Relatives raised money in memory of the father and son for the Wales Air Ambulance that tried to pluck them both to safety, while Mr Jump's brother Richard said he had lost his 'best friend' and 'wonderful nephew' and described the loss as 'surreal and insurmountable'. He said: 'Thank you so much for all your thoughts at an extremely difficult and tragic time for Jo and Jonny's family primarily - and then for the rest of us. 'I can only share from my own feelings also - the loss of my best friend Jonny and our wonderful Pete, my nephew, well it's really quite surreal and insurmountable at present. 'Thank you all so much for the wonderful support and all our thoughts always to Jo and the family. 'No more flowers please as Jo's house is full and can't fit anymore in. So now only contribs to Wales's air ambulance - should any of you feel the need. 'Love to you all and massive thank yous again X.' The inquests were adjourned until August 2021. RTHK: It's not your job to change G7, Eu tells Trump The EU's chief diplomat on Tuesday warned President Trump he did not have the power to change the format of G7 summit, after the US leader said he wanted to invite several other countries, including Russia. Moscow was expelled from the club of the world's leading industrial nations in 2014 after annexing Crimea from Ukraine, but Trump says the current membership is "outdated". Trump said on Saturday he would delay the summit scheduled for this month and invite other countries, including Russia, to join the meeting. But EU foreign affairs high representative Josep Borrell said that Russia had not changed course since 2014 and so should not be re-admitted. "The prerogative of the G7 chair, in this case the United States, is to issue guest invitations -- guest invitations reflect the host's priorities," Borrell said. "But changing membership, changing the format on a permanent basis, is not a prerogative of the G7 chair." Leaders from the Group of Seven -- the US, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan -- had been scheduled to meet by videoconference after coronavirus scuttled plans to gather in-person at Camp David, the US presidential retreat outside Washington. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rejected the idea of inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin, citing his "continued disrespect and flaunting of international rules and norms". (AFP) This story has been published on: 2020-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. New regulations released by the Ontario government are rewriting history by changing what was formerly a temporary layoff into an emergency leave. The new rules, which apply to the period from March 1 until six weeks after Ontarios emergency order is lifted, have both good and bad implications for employees. It generally strengthens job and benefit rights, but it reduces some rights to take legal action for constructive dismissal. The Star talked to Stuart Rudner, an employment lawyer with Rudner Law based in Markham, to find out what workers and employers should expect. Theyve rewritten history and changed all those (temporary) layoffs into leaves of absence, says Rudner. He says the new regulations under Ontarios Employment Standards Act (ESA) will have several major direct impacts. Firstly, if you have been temporarily laid off, your employer is required to give you your old job back by the end of the emergency period. While you had rights to getting your job back under existing temporary-layoff provisions, your rights werent as explicit and the timing was less clear-cut. Secondly, under the emergency leave provisions, your employer is now required to continue to pay benefits, whereas employers doing temporary layoffs didnt always have to do that previously. However, the regulations wont require employers to start paying benefits now if they had temporarily laid off employees in the early stages of the crisis without benefits, says Rudner. Thirdly, the regulations defuse the ticking time bomb created by time limits that go with temporary layoffs made previously under the ESA, says Rudner. The temporary layoffs as defined by the original act are limited to 13 weeks (although they can be extended to 35 weeks under certain circumstances), after which they are deemed to be permanent terminations. The 13-week limit was fast approaching for layoffs which took place in the early phases of the COVID-19 crisis in mid-March. The new rules suspend that 13 week period, which will resume for temporary layoffs after the temporary measures are lifted. The changes also curtail some employee rights to bring legal action for constructive dismissal during the COVID-19 period. Temporary layoffs, reduced hours, and cuts in pay will not be considered constructive dismissal under the ESA during this period. However, the larger and more substantial legal actions for constructive dismissal usually come under common law, and employees continue to have those rights, says Rudner. Singapore Airlines and its subsidiary serving regional routes, SilkAir will reinstate certain flights in June, July while also increasing the number of destinations as the aviation industry is opening up for the travellers after the COVID-19 induced travel restrictions, according to media reports. Scheduled flight services would include Adelaide, Amsterdam, Auckland, Barcelona, Brisbane, Cebu, Christchurch, Copenhagen, Hong Kong, Medan, Melbourne and Osaka, the Singapore Airlines (SIA) said in a statement on Monday. The airline will be flying to 27 cities in June and July, up from the 15 that had been earlier announced for June, the Straits Times reported. The national carrier had announced in March that it would cut 96 per cent of its capacity and ground 138 planes from SIA and SilkAir, out of a total fleet of 147, as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, which has sunk the demand for air travel globally. "SIA and SilkAir will continue to adjust our capacity to match the demand for international air travel," the SIA said. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show With the reinstated flights, the SIA has cut about 94 per cent of the passenger capacity originally scheduled for June and July, it said. Customers whose flights have been cancelled will retain the full value of the unused portion of their tickets as flight credits. These can be used to book their new travel up till December 31 next year. Customers will also be awarded bonus flight credits when re-booking their travel, the SIA was quoted as saying by the Channel News Asia. "This is our way of thanking them for their support during this challenging period," said SIA. Rebooking requests can be submitted through an online form. Customers with tickets issued by travel agencies should contact their agents for assistance, the company added. The SIA reported on May 14 its first annual net loss of Singapore dollars 212 million in its 48-year history, after COVID-19 crippled travel demand. This compares with a SGD683 million profit in the previous year. From Tuesday, travellers will be able to transit through Changi Airport, as Singapore gradually emerges from an almost two-month long "circuit breaker" which was to control the spread of coronavirus. "Stringent measures" will be put in place to ensure that the passengers remain in designated facilities in the transit area and do not mix with other passengers at the airport, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore had said on May 20. The SIA said that it will announce its plans for its transfer lanes within the airport when they have been finalised. "Until then, Singapore Airlines customers will not be able to transit through Changi Airport," the Channel quoted the airline as saying. The top US military commander for operations in Africa suggested sending US Army trainers to Tunisia in light of Russias military involvement in neighboring Libyas civil war. As Russia continues to fan the flames of the Libyan conflict, regional security in North Africa is a heightened concern, AFRICOM commander US Army Gen. Stephen Townsend said in a press release May 29. Were looking at new ways to address mutual security concerns with Tunisia, including the use of our Security Force Assistance Brigade. The command later clarified that the unit does not include combat forces. AFRICOM issued the statement after Townsend spoke on the phone with Tunisian Defense Minister Imad Hazgui on Thursday. The call came days after AFRICOM publicly accused Russia of surreptitiously delivering 14 fighter aircraft to support Wagner Group mercenaries in Libya on behalf of Khalifa Hifter's offensive against the United Nations-backed government in Tripoli. A top US Air Force commander warned last week that if Russia establishes coastal bases in Libya, the Kremlin could introduce long-range air defenses, possibly denying NATO full access to its southern flank a concern Townsend has raised previously. The Trump administration has been seeking to free up US military assets around the world to focus on countering strategic ambitions by China and Russia. With his commands priorities under review by Defense Secretary Mark Esper in January, Townsend appealed to Congress, advocating stronger US military partnerships with African governments as a way to counter foreign influence on the continent. I believe Africa offers America a competitive edge over Russia and China, and we should take advantage of it, Townsend told the Senate Armed Services Committee in January. China maintains a military base in Djibouti, and Russia has reportedly sent Wagner Group mercenaries to Libya, Sudan, Mozambique and the Central African Republic. Russia is executing the same playbook as it successfully employed in Crimea, Ukraine and to a lesser extent in Syria, AFRICOMs deputy director for intelligence Brig. Gen. Gregory Hadfield told reporters during a conference call on May 29. The United States has expanded its relationship with Tunisias military in recent years, investing more than a billion dollars since the countrys 2011 revolution that deposed former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, AFRICOM said. Tunisias military has been tasked with securing the countrys eastern border with war-torn Libya and combatting al-Qaeda-affiliated groups and Islamic State fighters in the countrys western mountains near Algeria. We know many of our African partners are under siege from malign actors and terrorist networks, Townsend said, adding, We also know we cant surge trust. The US Armys 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade (SFAB) deployed to Senegal in March at Espers direction, after he previously said he was considering bringing home some of the roughly 6,000 US troops then in Africa. The army established its first SFAB in 2017 in order to free up brigade combat teams from training foreign military forces. Northern Ireland's care sector is set to be reshaped in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic (Jonathan Brady/PA) The Health Minister has announced an 11.7m funding package for care homes in what he said was the first step in reshaping how Northern Ireland looks after its elderly. Speaking at the Executives daily conference on the Covid-19 crisis, Robin Swann said the package was additional to the 6.5m already promised to the care home sector. There were two further deaths announced from Covid-19, but the Minister said that only four new cases were confirmed - the lowest daily figure since March. The Minister said the 11.7m financial package will enable care homes to pay staff 80% of their salary when on sick leave for Covid-19 related reasons. The financial support also includes support for cleaning costs and the provision of specialist equipment. Expand Close Chief Social Worker Sean Holland during the daily media broadcast in the Long Gallery at Parliament Buildings, Stormont on Tuesday. Photo by Pacemaker / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Chief Social Worker Sean Holland during the daily media broadcast in the Long Gallery at Parliament Buildings, Stormont on Tuesday. Photo by Pacemaker Northern Irelands chief social worker Sean Holland said the new funding package must be the beginning of a programme of investment for the care sector. Care homes have always been a priority in the battle against coronavirus, he said. This pandemic has drawn wider attention quite rightly to care homes, and the experience of staff working, the residents who live in them and their families. When we come out on the other side of this we cannot as a society afford to lose that focus. The Health Minister had words of warning following the continued gatherings of young people around the country. He said that while everyone would understand the sense of frustration over lockdown regulations, the gatherings were a cause for real concern. It does appear that for some people the compliance with restrictions is starting to fray. Our battle against Covid-19 is finely balanced. We have started the progress of easing restrictions cautiously and gradually. But I remind people that this is not an extended public holiday. Dont think this is all over. My message is simple. Dont put yourselves and others at risk. That kind of complacency will undo all the progress we have all achieved so far. With the Executive doe to consider a further easing of restrictions on Thursday he added: That would ruin any hopes of further relaxations of restrictions. With more freedom comes more responsibility. He called the attack on a police office last weekend at Ballyhome beach despicable and said that young people gathering needed to catch themselves on and wise up. But he added that he saw no reason yet to give police more powers to enforce restrictions. There was also a call for people who need medical attention for complaints other that coronavirus to seek that medical help. I remain very concerned that not all people who should be contacting their GP or attending hospitals are doing so. Coronavirus is not the only thing out there thats killing people, said Mr Swann. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have paid tribute to Australia's frontline workers in a video message released today to mark the country's Inaugural Thank a First Responder Day. Kate Middleton, 38, recycled a 900 bright yellow Roksanda Ilincic dress which she first wore in Sydney in 2014, as she joined Prince William, 37, to thank those working 'tirelessly to risk their lives' during the coronavirus outbreak. The royal added a touch of glamour to the outfit by also opting for her 165 gold leaf Catherine Zoraida earrings. Speaking from their Norfolk home of Anmer Hall, where they are isolating with Prince George, six, Princess Charlotte, five, and Prince Louis, two, the couple said the country's first responders deserved 'our huge thanks.' The Duchess of Cambridge, 38, wowed in bright yellow as she joined Prince William, 37, to thank Australia's first responders in a video message The Duchess opted for a natural makeup look for the call, with a touch of lip gloss and a sweep of dark eyeliner across her lids. Meanwhile the royal swept her hair into a stylish up-do, revealing her set of Catherine Zoraidia gold leaf earrings. The pieces have proved a stand-out piece throughout lockdown for the Duchess, who has worn them on multiple occasions during quarantine. Meanwhile the royal also paid tribute to Australia by selecting a gown she first wore during the couple's tour of the country in 2014. The Duchess recycled a sunny 900 dress from London-based designer Roksanda Ilincic which she first wore during the couple's trip to Australia in 2014 The Duchess' sunny 900 dress mirrored the gold of the Australian flag and was created by the London-based Serbian designer, Roksanda Ilincic. According to Matches, a retailer that stocked the dress at the time, it was inspired by the work of Brazilian artist Helio Oiticica and incorporates his trademark bold block colours. Prince William said their efforts came on the back of their battle against wildfires that decimated vast swathes of the country. As he paid tribute to the frontline workers in the video clip, the Duke said: 'Earlier this year, we witnessed thousands of firefighters, supported by the wider first responder community, as they worked tirelessly risking their own lives to protect Australia's communities from the devastating wildfires. The mother-of-three swept her hair into a glamour up-do to reveal her 165 Catherine Zoraida earrings 'The world was watching your efforts and we were deeply moved by what we saw.' Kate added: 'Sadly, you're on the frontline of yet another emergency. The covid-19 outbreak has brought first responders across Australia together again. 'Day in, day out, paramedics, police, firefighters and support staff, work tirelessly to keep everybody safe, often risking not only their physical health but also their mental welbeing.' William explained: 'We must mention Australia's volunteer first responders, who choose to put their lives on hold to support communities at times of need. The Duke paid tribute to first responders in the country, as well as their family and friends, during the short video 'And we should not forget these incredible people are supported everyday by their family and friends.' Kate continued the tribute, saying: 'Today, on Australia's inaugural Thank a First Responder Day, you all deserve our huge thanks.' Sending their very best wishes to all emergency personnel and their families - including volunteers - William added: Time and time again when Australia has needed protecting, you have answered that call. You should be immensely proud of everything you do, and we send our very best wishes to you all, and to your families.' In February this year, it was revealed the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were set to travel to Australia to tour bushfire-ravaged towns, after being 'shocked and deeply saddened' by the devastation. Kate last wore the bright gown for a visit to Sydney during the couple's 2014 Australia tour (pictured, at Sydney Harbour Bridge) The royal couple were in talks with Prime Minister Scott Morrison to negotiate the details of the trip before he extends an official invitation, with potential visits to New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia in the planning stages. It would have been William's fifth trip to Australia, and the couple's first since 2014. Hundreds of towns were affected by the unprecedented bushfire season, with some experts saying it was the worst in Australian history. It is unknown if the Duke and Duchess' trip to go Australia will still go ahead later this year. Kate (pictured in March), Camilla and Sophie Wessex have all been calling UK residents to check in on them during the coronavirus pandemic, according to People It comes after it emerged Kate, as well as Camilla and Sophie Wessex, have made phone calls to people who are elderly, self-isolating or vulnerable to check in on them during the coronavirus pandemic. According to People, the trio took part in the NHS Volunteer Responders programme, which is coordinated by the Royal Voluntary Service (RVS), and sees participants 'check-in and chat' with people. The Duchess called Donna Williams, 42, a mother-of-two who is caring for her daughter Alessandra, who suffers from a rare form of Type 1 diabetes. Maharashtra and Gujarat remain on standby as the deep depression in the Arabian Sea intensified into a cyclonic storm on Tuesday. The cyclonic storm will cross the north Maharashtra and south Gujarat coasts on the evening of June 3, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has confirmed. The cyclonic storm is expected to inundate low-lying areas, especially in cities like Mumbai and cause structural damage from falling trees and power poles. Also read | Cyclone Nisarga: How the forecast changed over last three days The severe cyclonic storm, according to IMD, will have a wind speed of 90-105 kmph when it crosses the coast on June 3. Here are the latest updates: -- IndiGo cancels 17 flights to and from Mumbai The IndiGo airline has cancelled 17 flights to and from Mumbai due to severe cyclonic storm currently moving towards the countrys western coasts. The airline will only operate three flights from Mumbai on June 03, 2020. All the passengers of the affected domestic flights are being notified. -- PM Modi has assured all help in combating cyclone: CM Thackery The chief minister said that Prime Minister had called him and assured of central help in combating cyclone,- -- Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray addresses people through social media Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray has appealed to people to stay indoors on Wednesday and Thursday - Deployment of NDRF teams increases in Maharashtra With the cyclone expected to make the landfall in Mumbai in less than 24 hours now, 3 teams of NDRF have been deployed in the city. More NDRF teams have also been sent to Raigad (4 teams with 2 enroute), Palghar (2 teams), Thane (2 teams with 1 enroute), Ratnagiri (2 teams with 1 enroute), Sindhudurg (1 team) and Navi Mumbai (1 team enroute). - Indian Navy gears up for relief and rescue ops in Cyclone Nisarga With the impending landfall of Cyclone Nisarga in the next 24 hours, authorities are racing against time to deal with it and ensure minimum damage to life and property from the cyclonic storm. Nisarga is expected to make landfall very close to Alibagh in Maharashtra on the afternoon of June 3. An alert has been sounded in Mumbai, its suburban districts, Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts in view of the cyclonic storm. - Deep depression in Arabian Sea intensifies into cyclone: IMD DG The deep depression in the Arabian Sea has intensified into a cyclonic storm and will cross the north Maharashtra and south Gujarat coasts on June 3, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Tuesday. - PM reviews cyclonic conditions in western coast Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday took stock of the situation in the wake of cyclonic conditions in western India. Took stock of the situation in the wake of cyclone conditions in parts of Indias western coast, the prime minister tweeted.Praying for everyones well-being. I urge people to take all possible precautions and safety measures, he said. - 10 NDRF teams deployed as cyclonic storm approaches, says Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has deployed 10 teams at various places in Maharashtra. The NDRF teams have surveyed the region and have been conducting briefing for the people to explain the damage likely to be caused by the cyclone. - Indian Coast Guard ships, aircraft relay warnings Indian Coast Guard ships, aircraft and on shore stations are continuously relaying warnings about impending adverse weather to merchant vessels and fishermen. - 5 teams from Andhra Pradesh will also be deployed in Mumbai for rescue operations A premier data analytics and advisory firm, Quantzig, has announced the completion of its latestsuccess story that highlights how a leading fintech industry player used customer segmentation and analytical insights to drive retention rates by 20% in the Asian market. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005366/en/ Mining Changing Customer Preferences in the Dynamic Asian Fintech Market (Graphic: Business Wire) This success story offers in-depth insights into Quantzig's customer segmentation analytics capabilities and also sheds light on the importance of segmenting the customer base into cohorts based on their needs and requirements. Quantzig's customer segmentation analytics experts can help you leverage understand the patterns that differentiate your customers by collecting, structuring, analyzing data obtained from various sources. Request a FREE proposal to gain comprehensive insights into our offerings. The Fintech industry is characterized by technological innovation and the dire need to improve process efficiency. The most significant opportunity presents itself in the fintech industry's ability to disrupt the global financial services industry. As a result, major participants in the fintech industry are actively seeking new data-driven solutions to remain relevant by catering to the dynamic customer needs. Quantzig's advanced analytics solutions harness the power of data clustering and natural language processing to instantly turn customer data into insights to dramatically improve customer retention and satisfaction across all channels. The comprehensive portfolio of customer segmentation analytics solutions offered by us is a unique solution that combines sophisticated data clustering techniques and data mining to classify customers into diverse groups. What makes us unique is that our solutions empower businesses to build customized strategies to address customer related issues. By classifying customers based on their specific business objectives, our portfolio of customer segmentation analytics solutions helps businesses achieve far more accurate insights regarding customer preferences and help develop forward-looking perspectives. Understanding the context, goals, and motivations of customers will help you to identify gaps in product features and opportunities for improvement. Talk to our analytics experts to learn how our cutting-edge customer analytics solutions can help you gain granular customer insights. Quantzig's customer segmentation analytics solutions offered benefits that helped the Fintech client to: Gain a deeper understanding of customers' preferences Divide the customers into need-based and value-based segments Maximize cross and up-selling opportunities Extracting data-driven personas of their customers helped them achieve a 20% increase in customer retention rate. Our customer segmentation analytics solutions enabled the client to discover the value of each segment and accordingly tailor marketing efforts. With a detailed understanding of each customer segment, the client was able to drive customer retention through suitable cross-selling strategies. According to Quantzig's customer segmentation analytics experts, Machine learning-based dynamic customer segmentation processes combined with our domain-specific expertise results in an unparalleled degree of customer-centricity and unique value propositions.' The ability to segment customers into value-based and needs-based segments is crucial to thriving in today's competitive Fintech industry. Book a FREE solution demo to learn how we can help you bring out a clear differentiation in customer groups. The customer segmentation analytics solutions offered predictive insights on: Determining the profit potential of each customer segment Leveraging analytics to offer intent-driven experiences and service recommendations Request more information to gain experts recommendations on the role of clickstream analytics in your business. About Quantzig Quantzig is a global analytics and advisory firm with offices in the US, UK, Canada, China, and India. For more than 15 years, we have assisted our clients across the globe with end-to-end data modeling capabilities to leverage analytics for prudent decision making. Today, our firm consists of 120+ clients, including 45 Fortune 500 companies. For more information on our engagement policies and pricing plans, visit: https://www.quantzig.com/request-for-proposal View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005366/en/ Contacts: Quantzig Anirban Choudhury Marketing Manager US: +1 630 538 7144 UK: +44 208 629 1455 https://www.quantzig.com/contact-us David Hess walked up to his polling place in Swatara Township Tuesday and noticed campaign workers milling near the door, not wearing masks. That sparked some concern, but he proceeded into Rutherford Elementary, where he was surprised to see only half of the poll workers masked even though a sign was posted asking voters to wear masks to be respectful of the poll workers. Hess asked them why they werent wearing face protection and they told him masks werent required by county officials. So Hess, 67, said he turned and left, without casting his votes in the Republican primary as he had intended. I didnt feel safe, he said. The governor strongly recommends wearing masks. So does the secretary of Health. Every store you walk into, you have to wear a mask. Yet when you go to a polling place, they arent wearing masks? Hess called Dauphin Countys election bureau, where he was told that they could not force volunteers to wear masks. Jerry Feaser, the countys director of elections, told Hess they had enough trouble as it was to recruit volunteers this year amid the pandemic and were not able to mandate masks. Poll workers at Rutherford Elementary, at 6500 Clearfield Street, told a PennLive reporter who visited the gym that its hot in here, and they werent required to wear masks. Still, two of the three women volunteers greeting voters were wearing masks when PennLive stopped by and the large gym was empty of voters. The county provided each polling location with masks, face shields, hand sanitizer, gloves and wipes, according to Amy Richards, the county spokeswoman. Poll workers were asked to wear masks, Richards said. The county has limited ability to enforce, but we can certainly look into this further. Hess said the situation proves that mail-in balloting should be expanded or required for the fall election statewide to encourage participation while keeping voters safe. Frankly if its that much trouble getting poll workers then the General Assembly should authorize all mail-in ballots, because this situation isnt going to work, said Hess, who served as the states Secretary of Pennsylvanias Department of Environmental Protection under Gov. Tom Ridge. The bottom line here is poll workers need to have enough respect for me so I could vote in person and that didnt happen today. I thought they would protect my health when I went in, but I guess that was my mistake. The level of public health preparations varied by polling site on Tuesday. At Hess polling place, they had small bottles of hand sanitizer available at the table with poll workers, but voters were expected to use the same pens. (Workers said they wiped down the pens after each use.) There were no markings on the floor for social distancing. Jugs of hand sanitizer greeted voters at the Immanuel Alliance Church at 800 S. Market St., in Mechanicsburg. But in Cumberland County, at the Immanuel Alliance Church at 800 S. Market St. in Mechanicsburg, voters were greeted with giant jugs of hand sanitizer, blue tape on the carpet to mark for social-distancing and fully-masked volunteers, some of whom also wore face shields. The county purchased bulk pens so each voter could use and keep their own pen; and workers switched from plastic reusable cards that voters use to signify their affiliated party to separate slips of paper that were discarded after each individual use. The county also provided special wipes that could be used on the new electronic voting machine screens to keep them clean and disinfected. The county really has done a good job to protect voters and workers, said Linda Schultz, the judge of elections at Immanuel. Fran Gagliano said she has been voting regularly at Immanuel in every election since she moved to Central Pennsylvania in 2005. She didnt have any qualms about voting in-person during a pandemic. Its just in and out, she said, and they had plenty of protection. Its just like going to the store with everyone wearing masks. Cumberland County Spokeswoman Samantha Krepps said they prepared in advance by buying pens in bulk for 4-cents each and distributing plastic face shields provided by the Department of State. They also provided masks, wipes and some hand sanitizer, but the giant jugs were provided by the church. Krepps said poll workers were encouraged to wear masks unless they had a medical problem that prevented it. That said, she said the workers were instructed to allow anyone to vote, mask or not. She said she believed most voters wore masks since they are voting with their neighbors and would want to keep neighbors and volunteers safe. Turnout was lower in Cumberland County Tuesday compared to prior primary elections, she said, likely because many voters turned in mail-in ballots. The county received 37,311 mail-in or absentee ballots when they normally received a fraction of that, or about 7,000, she said. Mail-in ballots must be returned to the county office by 8 p.m. Tuesday to be counted, she said. Turnout also was light in other counties across Pennsylvania with mail-in ballots and possibly some voters reluctant to visit the polls amid the pandemic. READ: COVID-19 keeps some voters, volunteers away from central Pa. polls, but doesnt stop them from voting READ: You can flush, but the virus cant hide: Harrisburg starts testing sewage for COVID-19 READ: Poll workers say its their duty as citizens, even during coronavirus pandemic Sean Welch, 40, protests the death of George Floyd during a rally Monday at Laurel Avenue and Sunset Boulevard. (Julia Wick / Los Angeles Times) Sean Welchs homemade T-shirt said it all: DYING BREED was scrawled across his chest in red and black, just above the name of George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis a week earlier after a white police officer pinned a knee on his neck. Thats what brought the 40-year-old West Hollywood apartment manager to the protest at Laurel Avenue and Sunset Boulevard late Monday afternoon. Anger and mortality. His own and that of millions of others like him. Black men in America in the 21st century. We a dying breed out here, said Welch, who was 12 and living in South Central Los Angeles the last time National Guard Humvees rolled through the streets. That was 1992, when the city burned after four L.A. police officers were acquitted in the savage beating of Rodney King. Cops have been killing us for years, he said, as a crew of disaster recovery workers boarded up a furniture store behind him. What makes them believe its OK? People dont even realize it until it has some massive effect like this. This being thousands of Americans drawn to the streets from coast to coast, day after day since May 25, protests that tend to start out peacefully and often devolve into tear gas and riot gear, vandalism and looting, fear, injury and arrest. The women and men demonstrating on Southern California streets have been as varied as their motives a mix of ages and races and ethnicities, fueled by anger at needless death and at inequality laid bare by a pandemic whose victims have been disproportionately low-income people of color. As darkness falls, it can be difficult to tell protester from agitator from opportunist. One thing is certain: They are all there. We are seeing people who are out because theyve been pent up for months due to the stay-at-home order and intent on causing anarchy, said Allissa V. Richardson, author of Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones and the New Protest #Journalism. There are factions from either left or right interested in using the Black Lives Matter name to discredit the movement. Story continues But then you have genuine concerned citizens willing to risk their lives in a pandemic, said Richardson, a professor of journalism at USC. There are not just bad actors but brave actors. People of all races out risking their lives to march. They know they could bring home the disease, but they say this is important enough to come out after more than 10 weeks of sheltering in place. L.A. Police Department spokesman Josh Rubenstein said the agency was still learning about the protesters, and could not immediately comment on the makeup of the crowds. David Colker, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said the group had no information about anarchists or white supremacists at the protests. When Amma "Satomaa" Fordjour headed out Saturday to attend her first-ever protest, organized by the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter, she didnt expect to end up helping lead more than 1,000 people for 12 miles into Beverly Hills. At noon, she was at Pan Pacific Park in the Fairfax District. Protesters peacefully headed west toward the Beverly Center, where organizers stopped to give speeches and lead chants. At Fairfax Avenue and Third Street, she saw an LAPD cruiser in flames. She carried a sign painted with the face of Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old black woman found hanged in a Texas jail cell three days after a state trooper pulled her over for failing to signal a lane change. Locals waved from their patios and cars honked in support. Police gave them space. On Rodeo Drive, people knelt and listened to more speeches. But by 5 p.m., Fordjour was in a Lyft vehicle heading back to her car at Pan Pacific Park, watching people drive up and start looting. It was frustrating to see five hours of nothing but positivity and to get in my car and know that I was driving away from violence, she said Monday. She was saddened, she said, that the lasting images of the protest would be police vehicles on fire and vandalism that was mostly disconnected from the heart of the event. I personally do not want to be anywhere in public because of violence, she said. Now Im sitting at home because Im scared. Cerys Rotoneo, a 19-year-old political science student at Cerritos College, and Guadalupe Juarez, 18, had originally planned to protest Monday near Los Cerritos Center and help raise money for a nonprofit organization. But when the event went viral, they worried about the effect of outsiders on their peaceful protest. So we were, like, we should probably change the location, just to make sure that looting doesn't happen and so forth, Rotoneo said. Dozens of sheriffs deputies still staged in the malls parking lots and blocked off entry points, fearful of looting. But other officers traveled with the protesters, on foot and in squad car, as they walked to City Hall and chanted. This is not about us. This, it is not about politics, nor is it about our opinions," Rotoneo told about 100 people gathered in Gridley Park before the march. "This is about morality and humanity and our efforts to stand together in unity for Black Lives Matter. Tia Reed, a 30-year-old child psychologist who lives in Northridge, showed up at 7:30 a.m. Monday knowing that the protest near the LAPD's Van Nuys Station had been canceled. It would have been her first demonstration. It was still important, she decided, for her and her friends to make their voices heard. So they moved their protest to a more visible location a few blocks away. By early afternoon, microphone in hand, Reed was leading the crowd. "No justice!" she shouted. "No peace," dozens of people responded. "There's no hard feelings toward peaceful cops," Reed said in an interview. "There's no hard feelings toward anybody in the world that's peaceful. Our feelings are toward racism and police brutality." Sometimes protesters argued with each other over tactics and what they were trying to achieve. Reed said some looters showed up about 10 a.m. and started tagging buildings, and she and her fellow protesters demanded they leave. Across the street from the protest, several men leaned against the boarded-up front windows of the Country General Store. Other businesses in the areas had also boarded up their windows. Everybody handles their pain in different forms," she continued. "So I don't really want to speak up on that. But at the same time, there's a way of handling and conducting business to be heard. And looting is not one of them, and vandalism is not the other. I just want us to have a peaceful protest and you know, say it loud." A South Los Angeles high school senior who asked to be identified by just her last names to avoid retaliation also went out to protest peacefully in the wake of Floyd's death. Hernandez Cruz had been attending protests for more than a year, since she joined the ACLU's youth liberty squad. And nothing, not even her parents, could keep her from the Fairfax District on Saturday. Hernandez Cruz said that police got aggressive and began hitting people with batons. She sustained an injury to her head, just above her right ear. It took six stitches to close, and she suffered a concussion. The 18-year-old has a week left of high school, but as of Monday wasnt able to use her computer to finish the remainder of her schoolwork yet her head feels tight, its hard to move her neck and shes not supposed to look at screens. Hernandez Cruz said she attended the protest to support the people she sees as part of her community. She wants the police defunded to prevent further violence from the law enforcement community. She hopes that her actions will play a role in the arrest and first-degree murder conviction of the four police officers involved in Floyds death, at the very least. Im a Latina and its like ... where I live, were all united and I feel like we should all speak up for one another and be there for each other, she said. At times it does get me really mad because its like we dont deserve this. black people and immigrants basically built this country and now people are getting mad that were standing up. And yet, she said, she still has hope. I know its been happening for centuries, but if we continue to apply pressure on the cops and the system then I feel like something will be able to change. Even if its small, its still progress, she said. Eventually something will happen. We just all have to stay together ... my parents have gone through this, my grandparents have gone through this. Times staff writers Dakota Smith, Andrew Campa, Ruben Vives and Seema Mehta contributed to this report. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump's former national security adviser, leaves the federal court following a status conference with Judge Emmet Sullivan, in Washington, on Sept. 10, 2019. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo) Justice Department Urges Circuit Court to Allow Dismissal of Flynn Case The Justice Department (DOJ) has urged the appeals court to compel a lower court judge to dismiss the criminal case against former national adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. Flynns case generated great debate after District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan declined to immediately throw the case against the retired general. The DOJ moved to drop the Flynn case on May 7, explaining that they believe the FBI had no justifiably predicated investigation when bureau agents went to interview Flynn on Jan. 24, 2017. Sullivan did not immediately act on the request, and instead has appointed former federal judge as an amicus curiaeor friend-of-the-courtto present arguments in opposition to the governments Motion to Dismiss in the criminal case against Flynn and address whether the Court should issue an Order to Show Cause why Mr. Flynn should not be held in criminal contempt for perjury. He also invited outside parties to weigh in on whether he should dismiss the case and potentially charge Flynn for contempt of court. His move prompted Flynns lawyers to seek an ordera writ of mandamusat the appeals court to force Sullivan to grant the dismissal. The DOJ filed a brief in these proceedings on Monday, arguing that Sullivans move was not appropriate as it is not the courts role to make prosecutorial decisions. Instead of inviting further proceedings, the court should have granted the governments motion to dismiss. And given the courts infringement on the Executives performance of its constitutional duties, a writ of mandamus is appropriate, the DOJ wrote in its brief (pdf). The judicial or legislative branches may not interfere with the prosecutorial discretion of the executive by compelling that branch to prosecute certain individuals, the attorneys for the department argued. Referring to a similar prior case, United States v. Fokker Services B.V., the attorneys argued that the U.S. Constitution allocates the primary prosecutorial discretion to the executive branch and that the judiciary generally lacks the power to second-guess those decisions, much less to impose its own charging preferences. The district court plans to subject the Executives enforcement decision to extensive judicial inquiry, scrutiny, oversight, and involvement. Under the Supreme Courts and this Courts precedents, it is clear and indisputable that the district court has no authority to embark on that course, the attorneys wrote. The DOJ filing also addressed Sullivans move to appoint an amicus curiae to help with the decision on whether to charge Flynn for contempt of the court for perjury, when he moved to change his plea. The attorneys argued that Flynns move to change his plea to assert his innocence did not expose himself to prosecution for criminal contempt of court. They also added that even if Flynn had committed criminal contempt, the district court lacks the authority to bring its own case against the general. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, former national security adviser to President Donald Trump, departs the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse following a pre-sentencing hearing in Washington July 10, 2018. (Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images) The DOJ brief was signed by a number of attorneys including Noel Francisco, the Solicitor General of the United States. John Reeves, an appellate attorney and former assistant Missouri attorney general, said it was highly unusual and rare for the solicitor general and five of his deputies sign the brief. Usually, he said, the solicitor general authorizes a U.S. attorney to draft and submit the brief, let alone sign and participate in the drafting. It show[s] that the DOJ is gravely concerned about Judge Sullivans actions, and wants them rectified immeidately [sic], Reeves wrote in a Twitter thread reacting to the DOJs filing. The DOJ brief comes hours after Sullivans lawyer, Beth Wilkinson, submitted a brief telling the appeals to stay out of the case. Wilkinson said the DOJ May 7 motion to dismiss is so unusual, the judge needs more information to evaluate it. She argued that the motion included no affidavits or declarations, was signed by the Acting U.S. Attorney alone, with no line prosecutors joining, and didnt address other allegedly false statements of Flynns included in his statement of offense. Wilkinsons argument did not mention any of the documents the DOJ cited as a reason for dismissing the case. These documents, recently released, included handwritten notes that revealed top officials in the agency had questioned whether the goal of questioning Flynn was to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired? The documents also revealed that Peter Strzok, the FBIs then-deputy assistant director for counterintelligence operations, urgently reached out to agents handling the Flynn case to advise them not to close the case after the agents determined there were no more leads to follow in the Flynn probe. In December 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying in the FBI interview about his call with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak but afterward sought to withdraw that plea. Flynns lawyers argued that he had been entrapped by the FBI in the interview. Petr Svab contributed to this report. A renowned Nigerian cleric, Johnson Suleman, has pledged N1 million reward for anyone who would give information that could lead to the arrest of those behind the murder of an undergraduate, Vera Omozuwa. Police have declared a manhunt on the killers of Ms Omozuwa who was violently attacked inside a parish under the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) in Benin City, Edo State. Ms Omozuwa, a 23-year-old undergraduate student of the University of Benin, died at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, some days after the attack. Police in Edo said they were searching for witnesses who could give useful information on the incident which has attracted nationwide outrage. I would give N1million to anyone willing to provide reliable information to the apprehension of those behind the rape/murder of vera uwaila who was murdered in the church, Mr Suleman (@APOSTLESULEMAN) said in a Twitter post on Monday. Mr Suleman runs his church, the Omega Fire Ministries in Auchi, Edo State. READ ALSO: The cleric, in a previous tweet, had condemned the students murder. The General Overseer of RCCG, Enoch Adeboye, on Sunday, said the church would cooperate with the police in their investigation. Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has deployed forensic experts from Abuja to Edo to help in the investigation. Mr Adamu condoled the family, friends, and colleagues of the late student and vowed to bring her attackers to justice within the shortest possible time. DEAR DR. ROACH: I had two blood transfusions in 2012 during an almost yearlong bout with an out of control infection that ended up in a fused knee. In a recent antibody screen, I was identified as having anti-jkb. The information on this that I was able to find on the internet was incomprehensible to me. In simple terms, what does this mean? Am I able to donate blood? Can I receive donated blood? S.L. ANSWER: Most people know about the ABO blood types and the Rh factors that are the primary considerations that govern how we can transfuse blood, but there are many other blood antigens that can also cause transfusion reactions. "Antigen" is a general term for a substance than can provoke an immune response, usually a protein, sometimes connected with sugars. One of the families of antigens that may cause a transfusion reaction is called the Kidd blood group system. It's named after the first patient in whom this was found. Antibodies to these antigens can cause transfused blood to be destroyed. This is called a hemolytic literally, "blood-breaking" transfusion reaction. Worse, Kidd antibodies (anti-jka, anti-jkb and anti-jk3) can be difficult to find. The level in the blood goes down to very low, sometimes undetectable levels after transfusion, but the antibodies are still capable of causing a transfusion reaction. The transfusion reaction in this case is typically delayed, not immediate. For this reason, it would be worthwhile for people with anti-Kidd antibodies to wear a medical alert bracelet in case of emergency transfusion need. People like you, with anti-jk antibodies, may still donate blood, but the blood bank must give this blood only to people who lack the antigen. DEAR DR. ROACH: I am a healthy and active 65-year-old male. I had hepatitis B as a teenager. I then had hepatitis C, which was treated and now has been non-detected for five years. Will I ever be able to give blood? Before being treated for hepatitis C, doctors told me to stay away from shellfish, especially raw oysters. Is it OK to eat them now? My liver functions are normal. D.B. ANSWER: At the present time, most blood banks, such as the American Red Cross, do not accept blood donations from anyone with any history of hepatitis C, even those who are apparently cured, as you are. Raw oysters, and some other raw shellfish, may carry bacteria called vibrio vulnificus. This species is in the same family as cholera, and is a problem in people with liver disease. Cirrhosis is the major concern, but people with fatty liver, alcohol use without known liver disease and liver disease due to hereditary hemochromatosis a genetic disease leading to iron overload are at risk, as are people with other chronic illness, such as diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis, though at a much lower level of risk. Check with your doctor. If you have no liver disease now, and normal lab tests are a hopeful sign, you might be able to eat them, though it would certainly be safest not to. Dr. Roach regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but will incorporate them in the column whenever possible. Readers may email questions to ToYourGoodHealth@med.cornell.edu or send mail to 628 Virginia Dr., Orlando, FL 32803. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Baghdad, June 1 (IANS) Iraqi Health Ministry confirmed 10 more deaths from COVID-19 and 260 new cases, as the total number of infections climbed to 6,439. The new cases included 95 in the capital Baghdad, 31 in Maysan, 26 in Babil, 24 in each Sulaimaniyah and Basra, 21 in Muthanna, nine in Diwaniyah, seven in each Wasit, Najaf and Kirkuk, four in Duhok, two in each Diyala and Dhi Qar and one in Anbar, the ministry said in a statement on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported. Ten of the infected people died during the day, five of them in Baghdad's hospitals and two in Maysan and one in each Kirkuk, Diyala and Sulaimaniyah, bringing the death toll in the country to 205, while 3,156 have recovered so far, the statement said. The latest cases were recorded after 5,381 test kits were used across the country during the past 24 hours, and a total of 227,756 tests have been carried out since the outbreak of the disease, according to the statement. Meanwhile, Sayf al-Badr, the spokesman of the Health Ministry said in a statement that the current increase of the infections of the disease is within the capability and the capacity of the ministry. "The latest increase of the coronavirus cases is a natural result for the increase of test capacity, as the number of laboratories has increased to more than 20 across the country," al-Badr said. The ministry's strategy also includes searching for the infected people in their homes, as a large number of cases were detected in the neighbourhoods, he said. The latest COVID-19 infections came a day after the Iraqi authorities imposed a week-long curfew starting from May 31 to June 6 after a meeting of the Higher Committee for Health and National Safety, headed by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. The committee ordered the security forces to tighten the control of the implementation of the health restrictions through preventing all forms of gatherings that contribute to the spread of the virus. Since the outbreak of the disease, Iraq has been taking measures to contain the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, including a nationwide curfew. China has been helping Iraq fight the COVID-19 pandemic, through enhancing Iraq's capability of containing the spread of the contagious disease. From March 7 to April 26, a Chinese team of seven medical experts spent 50 days in Iraq to help contain the disease, during which they helped build a PCR lab and an advanced CT scanner in Baghdad. Since March 7, China has also sent three batches of medical aid to Iraq. --IANS rt/ GENESEE COUNTY, MI -- One candidate for Genesee Circuit Court judge has been disqualified from the August ballot after another candidate in the same race complained he used the address of his law office rather than his home on nominating petitions. Candidate Chris Christenson was disqualified by the Michigan Office of Secretary of State before the August primary ballot list was finalized Friday, May 29, a spokeswoman for the department said, leaving two candidates on the ballot -- Genesee District Court Judge Herman Marable Jr. and Stephanie Witucki, an attorney from the Grand Blanc area. Marable challenged Christensons nominating petitions, saying he used his law firms address in Flint rather than the address where he is registered to vote in Grand Blanc on the petitions. Christenson argued that he complied with the laws governing residential address requirements, and said Marable waited too long before filing his challenge. In a filing with the Secretary of State, attorney Timothy Knecht, who represents Christenson, also says Marables objection was in retaliation for Christenson having challenged the validity of some of the signatures on Marables nominating petitions. Knecht said Monday, June 1, that Christenson may challenge the disqualification by the Office of Secretary of State in the Michigan Court of Claims. Marable and Witucki are seeking to fill the position of Judge Michael J. Theile, who is not seeking re-election. Genesee Circuit is the trial court of general jurisdiction in the county -- the court of original jurisdiction for all civil and criminal matters except those that are designated to be handled by district and probate courts. The Circuit Court also acts as the appellate-level court for Genesee District Court. Judges are elected on a staggered basis for six-year terms on a non-partisan basis. NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / June 1, 2020 / Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors Gossamer Bio, Inc. ("Gossamer" or the "Company") (GOSS). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980. The investigation concerns whether Gossamer and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices. [Click here for information about joining the class action] Gossamer's most advanced product is its GB001 drug, a DP2 antagonist, in development to treat asthma. On or around February 8, 2019, Gossamer conducted its initial public offering ("IPO"), selling 19,837,500 shares of common stock priced at $16.00 per share. Then, on December 16, 2019, Novartis announced that it was terminating the development of its DP2 antagonist for asthma after it failed a pair of phase 3 clinical trials. Following this announcement, Gossamer's stock price fell $9.41 per share, or 37.09%, to close at $15.96 per share on December 16, 2019. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com. SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/592369/SHAREHOLDER-ALERT-Pomerantz-Law-Firm-Investigates-Claims-On-Behalf-of-Investors-of-Gossamer-Bio-Inc--GOSS Australia outperformed the world dealing with the coronavirus pandemic - and the nation's consumers out-shopped their international counterparts when it came to panic buying. New research by two University of New South Wales academics into coronavirus-related panic shopping shows that Australian consumers were the quickest in the world to raid supermarket aisles in search of toilet paper and canned soup. This Melbourne IGA store introduced elderly-only shopping hour amid coronavirus panic buying, the big supermarkets soon followed suit. Credit:Jason South Mike Keane and Tim Neal from the university's school of business used Google search data from 54 countries, covering January to late April, to pinpoint the scope and intensity of panic buying in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Consumers in almost every nation stockpiled goods as governments shut down key parts of their economies. These included internal and external travel bans such as Australia's decision to close the borders to non-nationals travelling from China on February 1. For what seems an eternity, one of the ongoing accusations leveled by secularists against Christians and the Church was that Christians kept their heads in the clouds. Believers have been told they have been too heavenly minded to be any earthly good, that they needed to be where the action really was, directing their energies to down-to-earth, pragmatic deeds. So it is with some astonishment that the faithful see Governor John Carney of Delaware, along with other state governors such as California's Gavin Newsom, order church leaders and congregants to keep their nonessential heads in the tech cloud. Carney's recommendation? "Do your best to practice your faith virtually." No matter how virtuous or sentimental their motives, the almost complete capitulation of priests and pastors to banishment by government leaders like Carney has been astonishing. Few have meaningfully protested the exile of the Church into the cloud. In fact, nearly all churches voluntarily have closed their sanctuaries and ascended into cyberspace. The nearly universal retreat into the cloud meant that the Church accepted social distancing more severe than the six feet enforced by grocery stores. It meant church leaders distanced themselves from their congregations altogether, consigning their flocks to a cyber-environment that is COVID-19 free but certainly not free from the virus of political correctness enforced the church of Big Tech minders. Basically, the Church acceded to a definition of itself as non-essential, thus relegating itself to the status of any other business or institution. By beating a retreat into the cloud, the Church shrank itself into the tech matrix, subjecting itself to the arbitrary touch of a fingertip or click of a mouse, becoming just another one of the gods inhabiting the cloud above Mt. Tech Olympus. But what is just as important as the ascension of the Church into the cloud is the fact that state governments, now fortified by SCOTUS, will expect churches to continue to follow severe restrictions set up during and after the total shutdown. Churches will be expected to follow regulatory requirements for reopening that amount to the equivalent of a "fundamental transformation" of the churches. Government leaders, now heartened by the swing decision of Chief Justice John Roberts, will continue to commandeer the way church is done by altering the liturgy, the habits, and the ways and means of worship as surely as if an altar devoted to Zeus were placed in the sanctuaries and congregants were forced to bow down and offer incense to the god. Delaware is but one example of the establishment of the new state churches. As of May 18, Delaware's governor issued his state church initiatives, including the new liturgical practices conforming to COVID correctness: Attendance is limited to a maximum of 30% of occupancy. Social distancing of 6 feet or more is required (except for members of the same household). The length of the service can be no longer than one hour. Individuals age 13 and up are required to wear a cloth face covering. Services are limited to one day per week. Gathering times must be staggered to permit cleaning before the next service. Churches are asked to establish a system for staggering the arrival of worshippers. Older citizens are advised not to attend at all. When have we seen similar draconian restrictions on the Church? It may help to review the Bolsheviks' responses to the Orthodox church that formed Russia's spiritual life from 988 A.D. on. Robert Conquest, the author of Harvest of Sorrow, relates that Lenin's letter of November, 1913 to Maxim Gorky stated the party position quite flatly: Every religious idea, every idea of God, is unutterable vileness ... of the most dangerous kind, contagion of the most abominable kind. Millions of sins, filthy deeds, acts of violence and physical contagions ... are far less dangerous than the subtle, spiritual idea of God decked out in the smartest ideological costumes. Every defense or justification of God, even the most refined, the best intentioned, is a justification of reaction. In other words, the Russian Orthodox Church itself was considered a pathogen within society. Churches were regarded as ideologically germ-ridden places to be sanitized by correct thinking. Lenin went on to say it was best to start the eradication of the church by giving "an impression of toleration with control, humiliation of the churches rather than with overt suppression." (Italics mine.) In sum, church activity was to be reduced to the performance of services alone. Russians were to practice their faith by ritual only, much as governor Carney advises when he suggests Christians should learn to practice their faith "virtually." The exile of the churches into virtual reality provides an opportunity for some self-examination. Perhaps the COVID-19 crisis will encourage church leaders to think about how and what happens when sanctuaries are vacated and seven devils loosed by the State enter as the shutdown is somewhat lifted. They might wish to reflect about what to do when the State wishes to cleanse the church of "diseased" doctrines to think about what to do when the Church's beliefs are declared hate speech pathogens. Just as importantly, leaders also might think about how the flock has been deprived of community and thus of corporate worship and corporate prayer. They may wish to meditate on the sacramental aspect of the community of the saints. For many if not most churches, the celebration of Holy Communion is when the body and blood of Christ are offered as essential spiritual food pastors and priests are required to dispense. But the shepherds of the flock almost universally have quit offering spiritual wine and bread, leaving their sheep to fend for themselves. In short, within a space of weeks, Americans have seen the entirety of American Christendom shut down and the overnight ascension of what is essentially a secularist state church. The initially nascent state church has now been more firmly established by SCOTUS's decision to allow state control of churches for reasons of "health." When any government even temporarily takes over the churches for any reason, it has essentially shattered the autonomy of the Church, making it subservient to the State. The Church under orders from the State is then subject to forcible conformance to State dogma. The state that dictates when and where and how and to whom the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is administered is the state that has taken over the church and substituted its own sacraments. The state that dictates the how, when, and where of the baptism of children is the state that has created its own church. The state that decides when, where, and how many of the faithful can listen to the preaching of the Word or how many can assemble to pray together is the state that also dictates what is to be preached and prayed. The state that insists that worshipers wear and sing through face masks is the state that determines the way virtues of the state churches are signified. The state that ranks the Church of God to be an institution equal to bars, restaurants, and public schools is the state that will disregard the unique status of the Church and its constitutional rights. As the directives from the state begin to strangle the Church, the latter is faced with a choice it probably should have made at the beginning of the state takeover. Pastors and priests must make the decision to open their churches to worship services and to continue the churches' ministries as they were before the coronavirus coup. They must remember what the Church is and obey God rather than the State. For if they do not, it's predictable that the almighty State will squeeze the churches harder, requiring total conformity to the State that certainly seems ready to hijack the Church's mission, to vitiate its standing in constitutional law, to appropriate its wealth, and to take over its institutions by force if necessary. It's time for all believers, leaders and congregants alike, to remember the words of St. Ambrose: "Not only for every idle word must man give an account, but for every idle silence." Fay Voshell holds a M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, which awarded her the prize for excellence in systematic theology. Her thoughts have appeared in many online magazines, including American Thinker, National Review, RealClearReligion, Russia Insider and the Christian Post. She may be reached at fvoshell@yahoo.com. Retrospective studies, published in the Lancet and elsewhere, have shown that the first known patients fell ill with the virus at the beginning of December or even earlier, but those cases were not detected until much later. Health experts say it is extremely difficult to detect a new pathogen, especially during the winter flu season, and that Chinese doctors identified the new coronavirus quickly by global standards. There is no evidence that top Chinese officials or WHO were aware of the virus before Dec. 30. Our directory features more than 18 million business listings from across the entire US. However, if we're missing your business, add your business by clicking on Add Your Business. OAKLAND (BCN) Oakland police arrested about 40 people at the latest demonstration Monday following last week's death of an unarmed black man under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis. A large youth-led protest and march with thousands of people had started earlier Monday at Oakland Technical High School at 4351 Broadway and ended in the downtown area. The action was a week after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody on Memorial Day. Then what Oakland police spokeswoman Officer Johnna Watson described as a second group of people separate from the youth-led march began throwing rocks and bottles at officers in the area of Broadway and Eighth Street. Watson said officers declared an unlawful assembly order and then used tear gas to try to disperse the crowd. The group moved north to the area of Broadway and 14th Street, where officers surrounded the protesters and took them into custody, she said. Along with the roughly 40 people arrested on suspicion of assaulting officers, Watson said many others received citations for not complying with the unlawful assembly order. Many people on social media Monday night criticized the use of tear gas by officers following a peaceful demonstration that started with the high school students. "I'm so proud of the youth & today's peaceful protest in Oakland was huge testament to that," one person wrote on Twitter. "It just makes me sick that after the protest the police decided to tear gas & and arrest teenagers." MORE: Bay Area protest updates: Police shoot break-in suspect in Vallejo Watson said police late Monday night "are patrolling throughout the city of Oakland for safety to our citizens and preventing additional looting and destruction of our valued, vulnerable businesses." Copyright 2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Economic liberalisation has done good to India, and the country needs to knock down import tariffs imposed on many products in the last three years, former Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya said on Tuesday. Panagariya also pointed out that Covid-19 pandemic may lead to integration of global labour market. "Liberalisation has done good to us. We are reversing something from which we benefited. I thought that in 1991, India had give up import substitution, but in the last three years, import tariff on many products have been raised," he said while addressing CII ... The government said on Tuesday it has approved Gilead Sciences Inc's antiviral drug remdesivir for emergency use for five doses in treating COVID-19 patients. Remdesivir, which is administered intravenously in hospital, is the first drug to show improvement in COVID-19 patients in formal clinical trials and is at the forefront of the battle against COVID-19, which has no approved treatment or vaccine. The drug was granted emergency use authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration last month and has received approval by Japanese health regulators. The drug is being administered in some countries under compassionate use rules. "(Remdesivir) approved on June 1 under emergency use with condition for five dose administration," the Drugs Controller General of India said in an email statement. The approval comes a day after the US drugmaker reported that remdesivir showed modest benefit in patients with moderate COVID-19 given a five-day course, while those who received it for 10 days in the study did not fare as well. The drug has been approved for the treatment of adults and children with severe COVID-19, according to a report on Tuesday. The regulator has decided against extending the use of the drug to 10 days, based on existing evidence presented to it at the time of approval, according to the paper. Gilead did not respond to an email seeking further details. The company signed non-exclusive licensing pacts last month with five generic drugmakers based in India and Pakistan, including Cipla Ltd and Jubilant Life Sciences Ltd, to expand supply of the drug. As of Tuesday, India has 1,98,706 cases of coronavirus and has recorded 5,598 deaths, health ministry data showed https://www.mohfw.gov.in. Governments are racing to bolster supplies of remdesivir, with European and South Korean authorities vying for the potential COVID-19 treatment. INDIANAPOLIS -- In a peer-reviewed commentary published in npj Digital Medicine, experts from Regenstrief Institute, Mayo Clinic and The Pew Charitable Trusts write that matching patient records from disparate sources is not only achievable, but fundamental to stem the tide of the current pandemic and allow for fast action for future highly contagious viruses. Specifically, rapid identification of COVID-19 infected and at-risk individuals and the success of future large-scale vaccination efforts in the United States will depend, in part, on how effectively an individual's electronic health data is securely shared among healthcare providers, care settings including hospitals and pharmacies, and other systems used to track the illness and immunization. For data sharing to be effective, electronic health records (EHRs) -- both those held within a single facility and those in different healthcare organizations -- must correctly refer to a specific individual. Is Billy Jones known at a different doctor's office as William Jones and are all his health records linked? To which Maria Garcia do lab test results belong? Which John Smith was referred to during contact tracing? Unfortunately, the commentary notes, patient matching rates vary widely, with healthcare facilities failing to link records for the same patient as often as half the time. Authors Shaun Grannis, M.D., vice president for data and analytics at Regenstrief Institute and Regenstrief Professor of Medical Informatics at Indiana University School of Medicine; John D. Halamka, M.D., president of Mayo Clinic Platform and Ben Moscovitch, director of The Pew Charitable Trusts' health information technology initiative, call for stakeholders to urgently address the patient matching conundrum. Otherwise, the commentary says, efforts to curtail the current pandemic and future ones will be ill-advisedly delayed. "...the sharing of more data and use of standards -- reflect near-term opportunities that government and health care organizations can implement to respond to the current pandemic and prepare for future ones. In the longer term, there may be other opportunities -- such as use of biometrics, unique identifiers, or multi-factor authentication -- that could further enhance patient identification and matching, including for routine care. However, those options -- and the associated standards that underlie their success -- while worthwhile to examine, cannot be designed, deployed, and implemented in a near-term manner that could help mitigate the effects of this pandemic," the commentary states. ### M inisters were accused today of fuelling public mistrust in the middle of the battle against Covid-19 by publishing inadequate figures on coronavirus tests. In a bombshell intervention, Britains statistics watchdog accused the Government of putting out figures which fall well short of expectations. The criticism came as the official death toll from coronavirus in the UK rose towards 50,000. The shocking figure put Britain among the countries hardest hit by the killer virus and comes amid growing questions over the Governments handling of the epidemic. The Government has been accused of ordering lockdown too late, blunders in providing personal protective equipment to NHS staff and care workers, failing to do enough to protect care homes and being too slow to ramp up testing all claims it denies. Ministers have set a series of targets for increasing testing to 100,000 and now 200,000 which they say have been met. They have succeeded in hugely expanding Britains testing capability and setting up a new test-and-trace system at pace. But in a letter to Health Secretary Matt Hancock, Sir David Norgrove, chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, was highly critical of the figures being issued by the Government at the No 10 daily press conference to justify that targets are being met. I warmly welcome of course your support for the Code of Practice for Statistics. But the testing statistics still fall well short of its expectations, Sir David wrote. It is not surprising that given their inadequacy, data on testing are so widely criticised and often mistrusted. He warned that figures being used are still far from complete and comprehensible, adding: The aim seems to be to show the largest possible number of tests, even at the expense of understanding. Sir David highlighted several issues including: The headline total of tests adds together tests carried out with tests posted out. There are no data on how many of the tests posted out are in fact then successfully completed. Notes to the daily slides rightly say that some people may be tested more than once and it has been widely reported that swabs carried out simultaneously on a single patient are counted as multiple tests. But it is not clear from the published data how often that is the case. The presentation of figures gives an artificially low impression of the proportion of tests returning a positive diagnosis. Housing minister Simon Clarke denied the Government was playing silly games with the data. He told BBC Breakfast: These figures are independently compiled, these are not produced by government ministers. They are published by Public Health England and all the health service parties who are working with us. Nobody here is playing silly games with data. Its absolutely about making sure that when we do issue it, it is accurate. Mr Hancock spoke to Sir David this morning and assured him he was committed to continuing to work with the watchdog to further improve how the test data is presented. Officials stressed that the figures were being prepared at great speed, in challenging circumstances and that the Government had sought to be transparent throughout. The Department for Health said that as of 9am yesterday, the number of daily tests was 128,437 but it has not published figures on the number of people being tested for more than a week or on the number of people being dealt with through the test-and-trace system. The Office for National Statistics today said latest figures showed 44,401 deaths involving Covid-19 occurred in England and Wales up to May 22. The latest figures from the National Records of Scotland, published last week, showed 3,779 deaths involving Covid-19 had been registered in Scotland up to May 24. Loading.... And the latest figures from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, also published last week, showed 716 deaths involving Covid-19 had been registered in Northern Ireland up to May 27. A further 819 deaths occurred in hospitals in England since May 23, according to figures from NHS England, taking the total to just over 49,700. Loading.... The figures also revealed the shocking death toll in care homes, with 12,142 Covid-linked deaths in such settings in England by this date and 591 in Wales. Loading.... The full impact of Covid-19 is widely believed to be even higher, with the number of excess deaths since the start of the epidemic now 56,308, compared to the average over the previous five years. Just under two thirds of the Covid-linked deaths in England and Wales happened in hospitals. The following editorial appeared in Tuesday's Japan News-Yomiuri: - - - Due to the spread of the new coronavirus, start-up companies have fallen into difficulties. Strategic support from the government, large companies and others is needed to prevent the disruption of technological innovation and the creation of new businesses. Many start-ups that have just launched their businesses are in the red. It is difficult for them to obtain ordinary bank loans, and their operating funds are mainly financed by loans from government-affiliated financial institutions and investments from investment funds and large companies. But because of the influence of the new coronavirus, the environment in which they procure funds has suddenly become difficult. This is because funds that are concerned about sluggish markets and large companies whose core business performance is deteriorating have become cautious. A situation should be avoided in which promising companies with superior technologies cannot make upfront investments and go bankrupt one after another due to a shortage of funds. Government support for start-ups has lagged behind. In May, the government launched a system to sustain the businesses of small and midsize companies, in which a cash benefit of up to 2 million yen ($18,558 U.S.) is distributed to them. Because an initial requirement for eligibility was sales being halved from the previous year, companies that have just started up were not able to receive the benefits. The government made start-ups eligible for additional economic measures incorporated in the second supplementary budget plan. But it is urgent to rescue start-ups with insufficient funds on hand. The government should make efforts to promptly provide benefits to them. In the budget plan, the government will come out with measures to strengthen the capital of companies, including start-up firms. The move is aimed at stabilizing the companies' financial bases and making it easier for them to raise funds. It is hoped that the measures will lead to effective support through careful examination of the businesses' potential. Original ideas and technologies are indispensable for promoting social change in line with a "new way of life." In order to prevent the spread of infections and also resume economic activities, the presence of start-ups is becoming more important. Some new businesses have already been expanding. They include medical services in which advice on advanced treatments can be remotely provided online, and educational services that deliver digital materials. To avoid crowding, a service has appeared that provides smartphone users with information on the crowd situations at restaurants and commercial facilities. Some businesses are also emerging that identify challenges related to sales activities by teleworking. If the creation of such new businesses increases, it is expected to lead to the creation of new jobs. The government also needs to exercise wisdom to support businesses that lead to coexistence with the coronavirus. With the promotion of digitization, there had been growing momentum for large companies to expect close cooperation with start-ups. This trend should not be terminated by a temporary economic downturn. Large companies and funds need to make investment judgments from a long-term perspective. Ukraine works to reach a consensus among the Allies on its participation in NATO Enhanced Opportunity Partnership program. "I raised the issue of Ukraine's participation in NATO Enhanced Opportunity Partnership program. We rely on Germany's support in this matter. This is very important not only for Ukraine but we are also convinced that it is important for strengthening the capacity of the Alliance as a whole," Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said after a meeting with German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer in Berlin, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. He added that most NATO member states share this view. "We are working to reach a consensus because the decision on Ukraine's participation in NATO Enhanced Opportunity Partnership program is consensual," the diplomat explained. Kuleba also said that German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer had confirmed full support for Ukraine. "She said that this meeting allowed her to understand much better what is happening in eastern Ukraine, what security situation is there. And the statement that Germany will support Ukraine's rapprochement with NATO was very clear. This is very important for us," the Foreign Minister stressed. As reported, in May, Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Vadym Prystaiko stated that Ukraine was almost ready to join NATO Enhanced Opportunity Partnership program. He added that "certain home task needs to be done in this area, but the work is well planned." Former Ukrainian defence minister Andriy Zahorodniuk forecasted that a decision on Ukraine's participation in NATO EOP program could be made in October this year. ol >>> Vietnamese businesses ready to be connected with avenue EVFTA During its ongoing ninth session, the 14th National Assembly (NA) will press the button to ratify the EVFTA, creating new momentum for comprehensive and sustainable development and an expectation to facilitate the countrys deeper integration into the world economy via appropriate solutions. A report on how the deal will affect Vietnam, presented by a Government representative at the NA, showed that in terms of growth, the EVFTA is expected to increase the countrys GDP by an annual average of 2.18-3.25% (in the first five years of implementation), 4.57-5.30% (in the next five years) and 7.07-7.72% (in the five years after that). Regarding exports, the EU is now one of the major trading partners of Vietnam, with the economic structure between the two being complementary rather than directly competitive. Given that fact, the EVFTA will surely see a big push on exports after coming into force. The commitment to reduce or eliminate tariff barriers for goods into the EU is a great advantage for Vietnamese businesses to tap into this US$18 trillion market. As calculated, the agreement will help Vietnams export turnover to the EU expand by 42.7% by 2025 and 44.37% by 2030 compared to a no-deal scenario. During the first-phase sittings of the ninth session, NA deputies profoundly analysed the significance, impacts and contributions of the EVFTA to Vietnams sustainable development across an array of immediate, middle-term and long-term aspects. They also commented on a number of issues in building and perfecting legal institutions, identifying new motivations associated with renewing the growth model, improving the investment and business environment to attract foreign investment, promoting the business communitys linkages to create a closed supply chain and together improve competitiveness. The EVFTA not only brings opportunities and challenges regarding economic terms, but also features pressure across the spheres of politics, culture, social security and external relations, including the risk of falling behind and a middle income trap. To prepare for such a large playground, the Government has drafted an action plan so that after the NAs EVFTA approval, ministries and sectors will get down to carrying out their assigned tasks. The EVFTA features strict regulations and rules on investment procedures, customs, trade facilitation, technical standards, quarantine measures, intellectual property, and sustainable development. The full observance of these provisions requires reforms of the legal system. However, in fact, a series of international institutions to which Vietnam is a signatory have unveiled limitations in turning opportunities into reality, which mainly stems from delays at the stage of finalising legal institutions. As noted by a NA deputy, nearly two years ago, the NA approved the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) with the expectation that Vietnamese goods would flow steadily into the CPTPP member nations. However, Vietnams exports to the market has have increased by only 7.2% thus far, which means that the country has not yet benefited much from the CPTPP. The EVFTA facilitates Vietnamese goods entry into the EU market, but it also sets many higher standards than those committed in the CPTPP. Deputies Hoang Van Cuong (Hanoi) and Vu Tien Loc (Thai Binh) suggested that, in the immediate future, the Government should identify the strongest products to be exported to the EU market, thence assessing their ability to meet the EUs requirements and technical standards, as well as implementing measures to help those goods satisfy EU standards. In the long term, the Government needs to drastically reform economic institutions, while strengthening the publicity, transparency and validity of policy and law systems to fully implement international commitments and create a healthy business environment with fair competition. Administrative reforms should be accelerated in all fields, especially those directly related to EVFTA commitments on investment, construction, land, tax and customs. Moreover, attention should be paid to completing economic restructuring associated with renewing the growth model towards improving quality and efficiency, in addition to effectively exploiting complementary and mutually supporting factors in terms of the labour force, capital, natural resources and science and technology. Internalisation of technology, technology transfer and high-quality industrial human resources must be Vietnams labour advantages in the future. However, at present, the majority of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam (accounting for nearly 98% of the total number of businesses) have low competitiveness with limited financial resources, technological capabilities and labour productivity. To support enterprises, many NA deputies recommended that the Government should synchronously develop all types of markets and strongly develop export markets; perfect the management mechanism and implement new import and export management tools in line with requirements; and continue to bolster communication to raise firms awareness of the regulations and commitments in the EVFTA. Ministries and sectors should proactively study and apply appropriate measures to support and protect the legitimate interests of domestic manufacturing industries above competition from foreign goods, otherwise, most Vietnamese businesses will face great challenges in participating in and taking advantage of the opportunities presented by the EVFTA. The unmasking of General Flynn and others in the Obamagate scandal was egregiously wrong. However, the unmasking of America in the context of COVID-19 is necessary and right if we are ever to regain a semblance of American normalcy and strength. There are times when a medical face mask is necessary, for instance when medical workers are dealing with infectious patients. Masks are probably a good idea for family and friends to wear when visiting shut-in, vulnerable seniors. But for most people, wearing a face mask now, after several months of COVID-19 experience, is not likely to be doing much medical good, but rather is likely doing harm in many ways. Masks are of questionable use. The medical "experts" initially said that there was no need for face maskwearing for most people going about their normal business. In April, the experts changed their tune, including the U.S. surgeon general and the CDC. The so-called experts have gotten virtually everything wrong about this pandemic, including the modeling; the mortality rate; and insisting we stay indoors, thus depriving us of immune systemstrengthening vitamin D and other outdoor benefits. Now the World Health Organization says masks are not a good idea for the general population to wear and should be reserved for those taking care of coronavirus patients. So which is it? How can we, and why should we, rely on recommendations as inconsistent as these? There is also evidence that masks are often incorrectly worn, thus causing more harm than good, and that masks can cause increased levels of carbon dioxide in wearers, leading to deleterious health effects. Masks are dehumanizing. We relate to other human beings through our highly expressive faces. We get great joy out of seeing warm smiles. We can read others' moods and intentions through their facial expressions. Mask-wearing clearly prevent all this. Face masks subconsciously tell us to relate to others as toxic virus receptacles, not fellow humans. Masks are a control symbol. There appears to be little doubt that the arbitrary dictates mandating mask-wearing, almost always in blue states, are part of the lockdown power trip. The mask is a ubiquitous physical reminder that citizens, treated more like subjects, are under the jackboot of these area leaders without any properly passed laws by the people's representatives. These mandates also take away the agency that full-fledged adults should have to make their own responsible decisions. Masks foster crime. Robbers and burglars have been wearing face coverings for hundreds of years to avoid recognition and identification. Not surprisingly, there has been a clear uptick in mask crimes since the COVID-19 lockdowns and mask encouragement. Also, during the recent rioting that began in Minneapolis and spread to other mostly Democratic Partyrun cities, mask-wearing by thugs and anarchists has conveniently made it much more difficult to identify and prosecute the mayhem perpetrators. (Granted, there does not appear to be much political will in these Democrat-run cities to prosecute these criminals anyway.) Masks suggest fear. For a great nation such as the U.S. that fought and won world wars and built the most dynamic society in human history to be walking around wearing "face diapers" is a sad, fearful look. No wonder President Trump refuses to wear a face mask in public. Mask-wearing telegraphs fear and weakness. It is disturbing and disappointing to see 20- and 30-year-olds, cohorts extremely unlikely to be harmed by COVID-19, wearing masks. This mask-wearing is often outdoors, sometimes while exercising and even while driving alone! How can a generation exhibiting this kind of knee-jerk obedience be counted on to step up when real courage is called for? To quote Edward R. Murrow, "[w]e will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men[.]" We are at risk of losing this legacy, even if it seems a small thing to wear a face mask out of "an abundance of caution." Masks could become the new normal. The longer Americans wear face masks, the more difficult this habit will be to break. After all, there are germs everywhere. Colds and flus come along every year. There is no shortage of politicians and media scolds looking to constantly ratchet up fear in the population. The sooner we break this timid habit, the better. Jeffrey Wright, is a Minneapolis-based investment banker, entrepreneur, and concerned citizen. US President Donald Trump spurred fresh outrage on Monday after police used tear gas to clear protesters from outside the White House so he could pose for photographs at a nearby church damaged during the civil unrest. The move earned him a sharp rebuke from the city mayor, the Episcopal bishop, and leading Democrats, including former vice president Joe Biden, who decried the use of force merely for a photo. Trumps visit to the historic St Johns Church, across the street from the White House, came after he delivered an address denouncing vandalism that followed anti-racism protests gripping the country for a week. As he spoke, law enforcement, including military police, could be seen firing tear gas to clear peaceful protesters in Lafayette Park, outside the White House, so the president could walk over to the church. Known as the Church of the Presidents, St Johns was sprayed with graffiti and partially damaged by fire during unrest on Sunday. The protests were triggered following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Minnesota last week. Carl Michael checks the possibilities for conflict that may be caused by Belt and Road Initiative in his sixth blog post for our Emerging Fellows program. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the APF or its other members. Conflict creates conditions that cause people to act in unaccustomed ways, as noted by Thucydides. It is essential, therefore, to accustom oneself to divergent thinking about approaches to conflict resolution. Chinese strategists base their fundamental thinking on Sun Tzus classic, The Art of War as well as on the ancient game of Weiqi, known as Go in the West. These core cultural artefacts have a remarkable association with each other, not only in the context of conflict but also in a cultural, political and philosophical sense. Weiqi can be contrasted with Chess, which has a somewhat comparable status in Western culture. The two games have different approaches, with one presenting a decisive clash of forces between players using prepositioned elements and the other presenting a relative accumulation of advantage with elements introduced after the start. Bearing this in mind, it may well be that the most effective grand strategy for dealing with black-swan conflict events, is contingent adaptability rather than a friend-enemy approach. The relationship between the US and China will be the key factor in managing international conflict. China has become an increasingly potent military rival to the US, though overall the US will remain regnant with is significant power advantages. The BRIs evolution has already caused powers such as Australia, India and Japan to create counter-initiatives for the Indo-Pacific region to emphasize the need for power balance. At the same time, fear of containment will underpin Chinese-Russian relationships, with Russia continuing to address its own concerns about Chinas agenda. Elevated levels of military spending show the potential for conflicts in flashpoints within the vast potential conflict geographical space which covers oil and rare-earth regions, the Indian Ocean, the South-China Sea, and East, Southeast and Central Asia. Rapid technological innovation has blurred the boundaries separating war and peace resulting in the growth of hybrid conflict. This coupled with the potential for sub-threshold conflict and increasing involvement by non-state actors means that hybrid conflict could be a pervasive part in future, occurring without the limits of geography. This is especially notable in cyberspace which has become a volatile zone with military, business and non-state capabilities becoming increasingly based on critical real-time systems. Power in cyberspace can provide decisive advantage but cyberpower needs mature conceptual, technological and operational foundations. Cyberpower in combination with grand strategy provides the ability to orchestrate military resources to advance the national interest in a business or military sense. Rapid technological improvements suggest that more fighting may take place between human-controlled or autonomous machines, and this coupled with growing artificial intelligence could alter not just the approach to war but the very nature of war itself. Increased use of artificial intelligence in all spheres could inadvertently trigger conflicts if there is not enough joint governance available. The risk of both state and non-state conflict could be worsened by forceful use of soft power, social fragmentation, inequality, and the negative impact of social media as peoples identities and norms become more nuanced. Conflict accelerators such as violent extremist organisations and weapons of mass-destruction will continue to exist although their future impact will not be easily quantifiable. Other macro-accelerators include the force of Easternization, the driving logic of Eurasian integration, obsession with sea-power, the cloak of uncertainty, the new embodiment of Maos Red Guards and the din of Indian neo-nationalism. The evolving BRI could lead to hegemonic conflict, but possibilities for conflict could be reduced by increasing economic interdependency and working towards all parties becoming further accustomed with each other. Additionally, global institutions will have to adapt to dampen volatility caused by changes in the evolving balance of power, where relative differences are greatest and where power is most contested. Carl Michael 2020 BISHKEK -- Kyrgyzstan's state security service has made unsubstantiated claims that reporters with RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service received $100,000 from a self-proclaimed money launderer who served as the journalists' source in a major investigation into corruption in the Central Asian state. The claim was made by investigators on June 2 at a parliamentary hearing into the murder of Aierken Saimaiti, a Chinese-born Uyghur businessman who funneled hundreds of millions of dollars out of Kyrgyzstan over the course of several years. RFE/RL President Jamie Fly said the allegations appeared to be "retaliation" against journalists "by corrupt individuals seeking to protect their wealth and power." Prior to his killing in Istanbul in November, Saimaiti provided a trove of financial records to reporters showing how he moved the money out of Kyrgyzstan via murky wire transfers and cash couriers. Following Saimaiti's death, RFE/RLs Kyrgyz Service, OCCRP, and the Kyrgyz new site Kloop published an award-winning investigation based on these records and their own independent reporting, titled Plunder And Patronage In The Heart Of Central Asia. The investigation, which also implicated former Kyrgyz State Customs Agency Deputy Chairman Raimbek Matraimov in widespread corruption linked to the money Saimaiti moved out of the country, triggered street protests in Kyrgyzstan following its publication in November. Matraimov, an influential political power broker, and his family have denied any links to Saimaiti or corruption in the Kyrgyz customs service. He and his family have filed a libel suit over the investigation. Sagynbek Samidin-uulu, head of the State Committee for National Security's (UKMK) investigative team, told the parliamentary commission that investigators obtained testimony from two witnesses who said Saimaiti had paid $100,000 to journalists from RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, known locally as Radio Azattyk. Asked by an Azattyk journalist whether investigators had other evidence of the purported payment, Samidin-uulu said they did not. The lead reporter in the investigation, Ali Toktakunov of Radio Azattyk, has received credible death threats in connection with the publication and has been named along with Azattyk by Matraimov and his family as a defendant in the libel lawsuit. RFE/RL's Fly said the allegations "appear to be the latest attempt in a longstanding campaign of retaliation against journalists by corrupt individuals seeking to protect their wealth and power." "Indeed, Mr. Matraimov is currently suing Ali and our Kyrgyz Service, and earlier this year sought to freeze our Kyrgyz Services bank account," Fly said. "We condemn such efforts to distort the truth, and once again call on Kyrgyz authorities to ensure that those responsible for threatening and attempting to intimidate the journalists related to this story are held accountable for their actions," he added. Investigators said that prior to his death, Saimaiti was entangled in a conflict over money with Khabibula Abdukadyr, a secretive Uyghur businessman with a Kazakh passport who has built a murky cargo-and-real-estate empire in Central Asia, Europe, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Saimaiti moved hundreds of millions of dollars throughout the world for Abdukadyr, who was virtually unknown to the broader public until the investigation by RFE/RL, OCCRP, and Kloop was published in November. Citing testimony from the alleged witnesses, Samidin-uulu of the UKMK alleged that Saimaiti had hired journalists to pressure Abdukadyr to resolve their purported financial conflict. One of the witnesses whose video testimony was shown to the hearing is Erkin Sopokov, Kyrgyzstan's former consul-general in Istanbul. Sopokov's car was found parked near the Istanbul cafe where Saimaiti was slain on the night of the killing, and the diplomat was subsequently fired. Following his dismissal and return to Kyrgyzstan, Sopokov was detained on suspicion of abuse of office for allowing Saimaiti and others to use the car. He was also accused of illegal enrichment. Investigators provided no documentary or other evidence supporting the witnesses' claims, which included allegations that Saimaiti fabricated documents he provided to reporters. OCCRP said in a statement that the UKMK had "focused squarely on investigating a murder victim -- one of the sources for the story -- and on the journalism itself." "The agency relied on two witnesses, one who alleged that reporters had used fabricated documents and one who alleged improper behavior on the part of an RFE/RL reporter. Neither claim was backed by documentary evidence and both relied on hearsay," the OCCRP statement said. The investigation by RFE/RL, OCCRP, and Kloop in April was awarded the prestigious 2019 Tom Renner Award from Investigative Reporters and Editors, which recognizes outstanding reporting on organized crime. California erupted in protest alongside the rest of the country over the weekend, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Across the state, protesters marched and chanted, calling for justice for not just George Floyd but all victims of police brutality and systemic racism in recent years. The demonstrations sprung up not just in cities known for protest, such as Oakland and Los Angeles, but throughout the state, from Eureka, near the Oregon border, to La Mesa in southern California , from the coastal Santa Cruz to the conservative stronghold of the Central Valley. Among the cities where protests emerged: Los Angeles Oakland San Francisco San Jose Sacramento Bakersfield San Diego Fresno Santa Cruz Santa Rosa Eureka Visalia Stockton In many cities, the protesters remembered and honored the lives of their own who were killed or mistreated by police. In Oakland, they marched from a plaza renamed during the Occupy protests for Oscar Grant, the 22-year-old black man who was fatally shot in the back as he laid handcuffed on the ground by a transit police officer in 2009. In Sacramento, much of the action was led by Stevante Clark, brother of Stephon Clark, an unarmed black father of two killed by police in his grandparents backyard when officers mistook his cellphone for a gun. In Los Angeles, the mother of Kenneth Ross Jr, a black man who struggled with mental illness, protested in her sons memory. Demonstrators stand in front of San Diego police on Sunday. Photograph: Ariana Drehsler/AFP/Getty Images Throughout the weekend, protesters marched and kneeled in George Floyds memory, their frustration with the continuous loss of black lives clear. Protesters shut down freeways and bridges in Oakland, Sacramento, San Jose and Los Angeles. On Sunday, protesters in Oakland conducted a car caravan demonstration to comply with social distancing guidelines. But in some cities, the widespread gatherings eventually devolved into chaos as police tried to break up demonstrations, with hundreds arrested and law enforcement sending teargas, rubber bullets, flash bangs and pepper balls into the crowd. Story continues More than a mile of cars lining up to get into Middle Harbor Shoreline Park in Oakland for @APTPactions Car Caravan for Justice for #GeorgeFloyd pic.twitter.com/vQvPGUZJtP Kari Paul (@kari_paul) May 31, 2020 Looters smashing windows and setting fire to stores and property prompted the Los Angeles mayor, Eric Garcetti, to call in the national guard and set a curfew. Californias governor, Gavin Newsom, who expressed support for the protests, declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles. The unrest spread to the rich suburbs of Beverly Hills, Long Beach and Santa Monica, prompting curfews in those cities as well. In the Bay Area, similar looting and vandalism targeting the citys high-end retail in Union Square prompted Mayor London Breed to impose an 8pm curfew. The unrest spread to the suburbs of Emeryville and Walnut Creek, where a woman was shot in the arm during the chaos. In all, at least nine cities in California set a curfew, with all of Los Angeles county under a 6pm curfew and several of its cities following stricter guidelines Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, for example, set a 1pm curfew. While protests raged in Oakland on Friday, a federal contract security officer was killed and another injured in a shooting outside the US courthouse. In Bakersfield, police arrested a 31-year-old man for driving his Toyota Rav4 into a crowd of protesters, striking and injuring a 15-year-old girl. In Visalia, a driver in a blue Jeep flying a Trump flag hit two protesters. Protesters embrace during a rally in San Francisco on Monday. Photograph: Stephen Lam/Reuters On Monday, Newsom decried the looting, the violence, the threats against fellow human beings, saying that has no place in this state and in this nation. But he emphasized that now more than ever we have to own up to some very difficult things. The black community is not responsible for what is happening in this country right now, he said. We are. Our institutions are responsible. We are accountable to this moment. Lets just call that out. We have a unique responsibility to our black community in this country and we have been playing lip service about that for generations. More than 4,500 national guard personnel are available for deployment throughout California, though right now they are mostly in southern California, Newsom said. Despite this, he said he recognized that an armed camp is not a place of peace and the answer to violence is not more violence. In his briefing, Newsom addressed protesters, telling them your rage is real. Express it so we can hear it, he said. Youve lost patience, so have I, he said. You are right to feel wronged. You are right to feel the way you are feeling. We collectively, society, has a responsibility to you to do better and be better. Ben Roberts-Smith was involved in seven unlawful killings as an Australian soldier in Afghanistan, including the blooding of a junior soldier by ordering him to kill an unarmed man, fresh witness statements allege. Mr Roberts-Smith, a Victoria Cross recipient and former Special Air Service soldier, is suing The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald over reports he allegedly committed murder on overseas deployments. He denies the allegations and says the news reports are defamatory because they portray him as a war criminal. The newspapers are defending the claim. A trial was to start in the Federal Court this month but has been adjourned because of social-distancing restrictions arising from the coronavirus crisis. Ben Roberts-Smith. Credit:Darrian Traynor In an application to amend its defence, lawyers for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald have lodged with the court new allegations Mr Roberts-Smith was involved in two more unlawful deaths in Afghanistan in 2012. FRONT PAGE Because of an editing error, an article on Saturday about interactions between George Floyd and Derek Chauvin, the officer now charged with Mr. Floyds death, misidentified the individual who sometimes acted aggressively while working at a nightclub. It was Mr. Chauvin, not Mr. Floyd. An article on Sunday about the resistance faced by efforts to hold police officers accountable misspelled the surname of an expert on police training and discipline at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. She is Maria Haberfeld, not Haberman. NATIONAL An article on Saturday about Senator Amy Klobuchars record as a Minnesota prosecutor misstated when Ms. Klobuchar called for charges against Mr. Cauvin. She first mentioned the need for charges on Tuesday, not Friday. Because of an editing error, an article on Sunday about the American priest who founded the Knights of Columbus omitted his given name. He was the Rev. Michael J. McGivney. Binita Jaiswal By Express News Service CHENNAI: Kia Motors India on Monday launched the newer and advanced version of Seltos, equipped with 10 novel features. With the refreshed and feature packed model, the carmaker aims to strengthen its position in the countrys mid-SUV segment. The South Korean autombile manufacturer entered Indian market in 2019 with Seltos as its first product. Within a year, Kia has launched its advance version to keep the interest of customers intact in the model. It is likely that Seltos has been upgraded to pose a challenge to Hyundais Creta, which has gained popularity after its launch earlier this year. The refreshed Seltos now comes equipped with 10 novel and exciting features, encompassing the facets of safety,convenience, connectivity and design. Along with featurrs like Emergency Stop Signal, Smart Key Remote Engine Start, the sunroof is also now available in lower variants too. The price of the model starts at Rs 9. 89 lakh. Further, based on market research and customer preference, the company has announced to discontinue its two variants of Smartstream Petrol 1.4T-GDI GTK and GTX 7DCT.Kookhyun Shim, MD & CEO, Kia Motors India said, The Seltos marked the arrival of the Kia brand in India and it has been a true game-changer in the Indian automobile industry. With the refreshed Seltos, Kia Motors India makes Indias favourite SUV even more attractive. The Seltos enabled us to address all the unmet needs of the segment, and with the next-gen technology in the refreshed Seltos, we are confident we will deliver customer delight that is unparalleled.Shim added, We have innovated to ensure the safety of our customers during these unprecedented conditions, as well as that of our employees, business associates and staff at our dealer and service network. Mizoram reported 12 new coronavirus disease (Covid-19) positive cases on Tuesday over two months after its first case was recorded. Mizoram has 12 new Covid-19 positive cases. The patients are undergoing treatment at the Zoram Medical College (ZMC) near Aizawl. All are under professional care, chief minister Zoramthanga tweeted early on Tuesday morning. Click here for full Covid-19 coverage Mizorams department of information and public relations (DIPR) authorities said 11 females and one male have tested Covid-19 positive. The authorities detected 11 Covid-19 positive cases at Kolasib quarantine centre and admitted the patients to ZMC. All the patients are aged between 18 and 40 years, and asymptomatic. The authorities said 10 and two Covid-19 patients returned to Mizoram from Delhi and Kolkata, respectively. The fresh Covid-19 positive cases have been reported after thousands of stranded people started returning to Mizoram amid the easing of lockdown restrictions and lifting of the ban on the interstate movement from May 4. On March 24, Mizoram reported its first Covid-19 positive case after a pastor (50), who had returned from the Netherlands, was found infected with SARS-CoV-2, which causes the disease. He was the second Covid-19 patient from the north-east, after a student (23) from Manipur, who had returned from the United Kingdom on the previous day, was found to have contracted the viral infection. The pastor spent a month in a hospital in Aizwal and was found to have recovered on April 27. He was discharged from the hospital on May 9 after four consecutive tests proved Covid-19 negative. Mizoram has conducted 896 Covid-19 tests until Monday. The state has placed 6,832 and 8,339 people in institutional and home quarantine, respectively. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON By West Kentucky Star Staff Jun. 02, 2020 | 02:37 PM | MURRAY Murray State officials say Lisa Robin Sanford's facility, Sacred Break Throughs, offers a variety of mental health services for Mayfield, Hickory, Paducah, and Benton. She is offering individual sessions, group sessions, couple's therapy, and online sessions. Sanford has worked at Recovery Works in Mayfield since April of 2018 as an inpatient substance abuse counselor. She is also an active member of the American Counseling Association, Indian Education Foundation, Women in Wellbriety, and the National Alliance in Mental Illness, and was recently awarded a registry into the Marquis Who's Who in America registry for her professional contributions in counseling and mental health advocacy and other personal achievements. She says her own recovery over the years has formed her approach to therapy, which includes her strong belief in human resilience, the ability to overcome obstacles, and empathy toward others and themselves. In her practice, Maple Street Counseling Center LLC, Lisa Frost has specialized in assisting clients with anxiety, depression, substance use disorders, and coping with trauma. She works under the clinical supervision of Dr. Justin Brogan. She obtained additional education in addition and substance use disorders, as well as trauma-informed care, anger management, and domestic violence practices. She is a member of the Kentucky Counseling Association, and the American Counseling Association, she was also the 2017 recipient of a KCA scholarship. Frost completed her internship and practicum at the Murray State University Counseling and Assessment Center, and University Counseling Services, as well as Four Rivers Behavioral Health. She has been employed by the Massac County Mental Health Center as an outpatient substance abuse coordinator with Recovery Works as their inpatient substance abuse counselor. Two Murray State alumnae have opened their own mental health facilities in western Kentucky. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- June is National Indigenous History Month which recognizes the first peoples across Canada, their rich and distinct cultures, languages and diversity. This is a time to embrace important work and conversations about the shared history of Canada and how we all can honour our relations with one another. This month also marks the 5th anniversary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) Calls to Action, the formation of which is a direct result of the courage and resilience of residential school survivors. Chief Commissioner Celeste Haldane states, the Calls to Action are a pathway to shared responsibility of critical change in Canada. I call on every Canadian to find meaningful ways to build positive relationships for the betterment of all, especially for our future generations. Reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples is the responsibility of all Canadians. The TRC final report and Calls to Action address the history, injustices and lasting impacts of the Canadian Indian Residential school system. The legacy of residential schools and colonialism is still with us today, part of our shared history, and provides important context to land and Indigenous rights recognition and negotiations currently in BC. There are over 630 First Nations communities across Canada, and roughly 200 distinct First Nations in BC; 65 First Nations are in the BC treaty negotiations process. The BC treaty process supports underlying principles and the rights in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (the UN Declaration) especially the right to Indigenous self-determination and self-government, corner stones of modern treaty negotiations. The negotiation of modern treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements is one path to reconciliation and recognizing, protecting and partnering with Indigenous peoples for a more prosperous British Columbia. Story continues In celebration of Indigenous History Month and the anniversary of the TRC work, each day in June, we will highlight Calls to Action through social media. The TRC report calls for all Canadians to commit to concrete actions to address legacies of colonialism and create a more equitable and inclusive society. Quick Facts: About the BC Treaty Commission The Treaty Commission is the independent body responsible for overseeing treaty negotiations among the governments of Canada, BC and First Nations in BC. It has three roles: facilitation, funding, and public information and education. FOR MORE INFORMATION Mark Smith / Director of Process / msmith@bctreaty.ca Congress could make the second round of stimulus checks meant to help coronavirus victims possible in June. If it passes, it could be the last financial relief given to the citizens amid the global pandemic. The official government body seems to be deciding whether to release the second set of financial support. Congress is currently working on the details and information regarding the aid, and last week, they are likely to come to an agreement this month, as reported by CNET. Second stimulus check If the administration does decide to move forward with distributing the relief meant to help individuals in supplying their basic needs, it could be the last. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, on Friday, said that if Congress does decide to put out the second round of checks, it would be the "final" one. McConnell also said "We're taking a careful look at a fourth and final bill," to his home state of Kentucky. He added that you could anticipate the decision to come out in about a month. McConnell said it would be specifically designed to help us in how our circumstances will be in a month and not how it was three months ago. According to CNBC, several democrats who are expressing pushing for additional support to be given to the citizens shared their belief that more immediate actions must take place to cover their basic needs and necessities. Also Read: COVID-19 Stimulus Funds End Up in Trash as They Arrive in Debit Cards That People Thought Were Scam "We need a pause? Tell that to the virus," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday. She argued that the coronavirus pandemic is not slowing down or taking a pause and neither is the hunger that has hit the American population. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schummer wrote in a separate letter on Friday that addressed his colleagues that urged the Senate to hasten their actions in addressing the global pandemic once they return next week. Schummer also told Republicans to join Democrats at the negotiating table as soon as possible. Fewer funds The possibility of a second stimulus check is not a guarantee as McConnell suggested that his arm of Congress has not come to an agreement yet. If they do release it, he said that it would likely be a small amount compared to the previous CARES Act. McConnell also outlines a list of conditions to take into consideration with the second set of financial aid. He added the Senate would be the one to write it and that the Trump administration will support it, with Democrats giving their inputs. A House schedule released Friday, along with McConnell's comments, suggest that a separate relief bill will likely not be implemented as law for several weeks. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's office sent a summer calendar that does not list votes until June 30. "I expect, then, that the House will be in session at some point in June, once the Senate does act, for further Floor action on this critical issue," read a letter Hoeyr wrote to representatives. He also stated that he would give them a 72 hours' notice before they return to the Capitol. Related Article: COVID-19 Stimulus Checks Fund Second Wave Comes in Paper or Card? @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. When Georgia Whip watched as her neighbour's moving truck drive away she had no idea it was about to turn into a 2,500km round trip for her beloved pet moggy. Mrs Whip and her husband Toby live in Longreach, in central Queensland with their two cats P-Puss and Smelly. Last Friday Mr and Mrs Whip waved off their neighbours, who were relocating to Brisbane, and thought nothing of it when P-Puss failed to make an appearance. It was only when P-Puss was still missing on Saturday morning that Mrs Whip called her former neighbours to check that the cat had not climbed into their truck. Georgia Whip and her husband Toby (pictured with P-Puss) had no idea their cat P-Puss has climbed into the back of a moving truck bound for Brisbane last Friday. P-Puss travelled from her Longreach home, in central-west Queensland, to Brisbane before she was brought home by strangers 'I did wonder if she had gotten into the truck because if there is a car with its windows down she will just jump in and have a stickybeak so it wasn't unusual,' she told Daily Mail Australia. After making a call to her neighbour, the truck company confirmed on Sunday afternoon that P-Puss was stowed away in the back of their shipping container that was now parked in a depot in Brisbane, over 1,200 kilometres away. Not content to sit still P-Puss had escaped into the depot and was now giving staff the run around. 'I was really worried because I knew she would be really scared in Brisbane, especially coming from Longreach as it is very quiet out here,' Mrs Whip said. The driver of the truck tracked P-Puss down to a shipping container before the cat escaped into a warehouse where she spent Sunday night setting off motion detectors until she was caught P-Puss spent the night setting of motion detectors in the warehouse until a determined driver at the depot, armed with a can of tuna, tracked her for two hours until he secured the cat at midnight on Monday. Mrs Whip now needed someone to drive her cat the nine and a half hours home to Longreach, so she put the call out on Facebook. Loz Batley, who is the president of Central Queensland Animal Society in Rockhampton, spotted the plea for help and started to put together a rescue team. Loz Batley put together a rescue to team to help get P-Puss home safely to Longreach Ms Batley had one of her staff Trish go down to pick to pick up P-Puss who brought her the first hour of the trip. Once the pair where at Rockhamptop she was passed to another woman, who had seen the post online and had taken the day off just to drive P-Puss upstate. 'Bron took P-Puss from Rockhampton to Emerald and then Sam, who is a friend of Georgia's, took her from Emerald to Longreach,' Ms Batley said. 'This was all purely volunteer there was no payments made to transport companies at all,' she said. Ms Batley said P-Puss was in the car for more than 1,200 kilometres. A team of three friends and strangers went out of their way to drive P-Puss over 1,200 kilometres home P-Puss finally arrived back home on Saturday night after a full week away and has been placed under a strict lockdown order by the vet. Mrs Whip said they family was very lucky their cat made it back alive and was thankful P-Puss was not trapped inside the container during the summer. She praised the generosity of the compete strangers who helped get their beloved family pet home and joked that P-Puss was the right pet to go missing. 'My other's cats name is Smelly, so I'm glad she wasn't the one that went missing,' she said. A 27-year-old gang member who reportedly stole 4million worth of gems from a Mayfair jeweller in one of the biggest thefts in British criminal history has been jailed for nearly four years. According to an international media outlet, Mickael Jovanovic was part of a crack team who tricked the staff at Boodles into handing over jewels then used sleight of hand to swap the diamonds for pebbles. Jovanovic and his gang members then fled to their native France within hours of the heist in 2016 and evaded capture until this year. After an international manhunt, the 27-year-old was reportedly extradited from Italy and arrested in January. The day he was arrested the authorities charged him with conspiracy to steal. As per reports, back in 2016, a Boodles director was invited to a meeting in Monaco by members of the gang posing as Russian businessmen. They even struck a deal to buy seven diamonds, including a heart-shaped jewel worth 2.2 million. READ: UK Chancellor Visits Market Marking Lockdown Ease A spokesperson from Boodles reportedly said that the company received a phone call stating that the buyers representative, a gemologist named Anna, would be attending the Mayfair shop under the pretence of appraising the diamonds. Boodles gemmologists Emma Barton then met with Anna, who was then taken to the basement of the jewellery store for viewing. The prosecutor Philip Stott reportedly told the court how the incident took place. Stott explained that Anna entered Boodles to view the diamonds and waited for a diversional telephone call from one of her accomplices. Stott added that Anna then swapped the gems for pebbles and sliced the stones into pre-cut tissue paper, placing them inside opaque boxes she had brought with her. After leaving the shop, Anna then met up with her gang members on the street and handed the diamonds over before the group split up. READ: UK: Protest Leads To Vandalism, Arrests In Birmingham Stott added that within three hours of the theft, the gang had all returned to France either by train or car. Following the day, the Boodles director then spoke with the fake buyer, who reportedly confirmed the money would be transferred. However, once the staff x-rayed the bag, they discovered they had been left with pebbles. Largest value incident of shoplifting in British criminal history While calling the 2016 theft the highest possible sophistication, planning, risk and reward, Stott said that he thought the theft to be the largest value single incident of shoplifting in British criminal history. Soon after the theft the Flying Squad detectives launched an investigation and retraced the groups movements across London as hey plotted the heist. The images of gang members were circulated after which Jovanovic was extradited from Italy. As per reports, Jovanovic was jailed for three years and eight months imprisonment at Southwark Crown Court. Another member Stankovic, on the other hand, was caught and jailed back in 2016. James Amod, Director of Boodles, reportedly said that the incident was an unfortunate. He added that the store has moved on. He also lauded The Flying Squad, who spent nearly four years to bring the criminals to justice. (Image: Rep/Pixabay) READ: Some School Pupils Return To Classroom In England READ: No Surprise: UK Records Sunniest Month On Record In May Today, the McDonalds Drive Thru restaurant on Hebron Road, Kilkenny, re-opens! There will be new measures in place to help keep employees and customers safe. With restaurant teams adjusting to new procedures to enable safe working and social distancing, things may take a little longer and high demand is anticipated. The restaurants will be operating with reduced hours, between 11am and 10pm. McDonalds and its franchisees are working closely with An Garda Siochana, and may determine that it is necessary to close Drive Thru lanes if queues cause disruption at busier sites or put employees or customers at risk. To help create a safe experience for everyone, McDonalds has introduced a number of changes to their restaurants, including: * Social distancing has been introduced in the kitchens and service areas to help create a safe working environment for restaurant teams. * Perspex screens at Drive Thru windows and employees wearing protective equipment, as well as Perspex screens and floor markings in specific areas in the restaurant and kitchen. * All McDonalds employees will be asked to confirm they are fit and able to work and contactless thermometers will be used to take employee temperatures on arrival at work for every shift. * Ensuring our delivery procedures with couriers are contactless for both our people and our customers. Restaurants will return with smaller teams, offering a limited menu and operating reduced hours. There is a limit of 30 per order, and customers are encouraged to pay by contactless payment methods. As employees and the business adapt to a new way of working, McDonalds would like to thank customers for their continued support and patience. Between 2nd and 4th June over 1000 McDonalds restaurants will be open in the UK and Ireland, either for Drive Thru or McDelivery. The Kilkenny Drive Thru is one of eight McDonalds restaurants reopening in Ireland today. The other McDonalds restaurants reopening today are as follows: Donaghmede Shopping Centre, Co. Dublin Drogheda, The Waterfront, Co. Louth Dundalk Drive Thru, Dundalk Shopping Centre, Co. Louth Swords Drive Thru, Airside Retail Park, Co. Dublin Balbriggan Drive Thru, Millfield Shopping Centre, Co. Dublin Dublin Airport Drive Thru, Corballis Road, Dublin Carlow Drive Thru, Rathcrogue, Carlow Like a lot of high school seniors, Megan Brown is disappointed. The first half of her year at Deptford was going along as planned. She wrapped up a four-year career on the cross country team in the fall and her third season on the bowling team during the winter. Brown was also part of student government and sound manager for stage crew during the school musical. There was some volunteering outside of school, too. Then the coronavirus outbreak hit. No prom. No senior trip. No traditional graduation. The rest of classes would be held online after Gov. Phil Murphy announced the closing of schools on May 4. For the Class of 2020's valedictorian, the remaining months of high school would be the unimagined. "It was difficult not to see everyone, inter-act with teachers and participate in clubs," said Brown, who will attend Georgia Tech and major in aerospace engineering. "Prom and senior trip were things I was looking forward to for four years. It's pretty disappointing but I got through it OK. "What I missed most was seeing everyone in person. I picked my classes because I knew the teachers and would enjoy the classes and people in them. I missed talking to friends and teachers about life; I could go to them with problems. "I barely remember what high school was like." A member of Deptford's engineering program throughout her four years, Brown split time between her five classes at the high school and taking classes at Rowan College of South Jersey (Gloucester County campus). She will go into college this fall with a lot of her general education requirements already completed, basically focusing on engineering and math requirements. The means to the end wasnt in her initial plan, but Brown persevered. She continued to do the work necessary to finish as Deptfords top academic student, even as others may have struggled with the process. "Megan is obviously an incredible student. She works very hard and is also a great young lady," Deptford principal Jeffrey Lebb said. "Megan has set the bar very high for herself as she moves into the next chapter of her life. I believe she is only scratching the surface for the success she will have in her life, whatever she chooses to do. "She is a wonderful representation of what type of students Deptford Township High School has. We are very proud of all of the members of the Class of 2020." With Deptford holding mini, in-person graduations - two people at a time over a period of several days, while maintaining social distancing and other guidelines - Brown won't give her valedictorian speech to the graduating class in a traditional manner. She recently taped it for a virtual ceremony, deciding to take the focus off the last few months and deliver a heartfelt message. "I didn't want the whole thing revolving around coronavirus and talking about the worst part of my senior year," she said. "My message was to follow your passion. Being valedictorian is just a title. Everyone else has amazing talents that they do and I can't. "Outside of school, I didn't follow my passions as much as I wanted to. You should go for what you love doing and what you're good at." Brown is scheduled to have her personal graduation ceremony Thursday. She still has a few things to finish up, but her high school career will essentially be complete that day. It's clearly been an interesting finish to a fantastic journey, one Brown will never forget. "I'm pretty proud of myself. I wanted to be able to show people if you work hard you can achieve what you want to achieve," Brown said. "Since elementary school, people kept saying 'Megan is the smart kid, she gets good grades.' I wanted to keep working because dedication can lead to something and make you proud. What I take away from high school is definitely try not to stress too much about what others think. You need to love yourself when others might doubt you. Expect the unexpected and you have to keep pushing when things get hard. To be successful, just keep going. Have you seen an inspiring story in your community during this troubling time? Tell us about it. See more uplifting stories in #TogetherNJ. Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Kevin Minnick may be reached at kminnick@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here. (Newser) Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage's worst nightmareother than landing in prison, which is where he already isjust came true. Per the Hollywood Reporter, Carole Baskin, depicted as the archenemy of "Joe Exotic" in Netflix's Tiger King, has been awarded his former zoo in Wynnewood, Okla., after a judge found Maldonado-Passage had fraudulently transferred the properties to his mom so he wouldn't have to pay Baskin under a $1 million trademark judgment. Per the decision cited by Courthouse News, US District Judge Scott L. Palk ruled that Baskin's Big Cat Rescue "has sufficiently traced funds to allow for the imposition of a constructive trust under Oklahoma law," meaning she now gains control of the 16-plus acres currently owned by Jeff Lowe, who was also featured in the documentary series. story continues below Big Cat Rescue filed suit against Shirley M. Schreibvogel, Maldonado-Passage's mother, in 2016, with its complaint noting that "Schreibvogel later admitted under oath that the zoo land was transferred to her by Joe Maldonado to remove it from the reach of creditors, including BCR, should BCR win its Florida lawsuit." BCR was also awarded multiple cabins and vehicles on the property. As for Lowe, his attorney says the ruling came as no surprise. "We anticipated Carol Baskin getting the title to the former park that once belonged to Joe Exotic, and we did not challenge her attempts to do so," the lawyer tells CNN, noting his client's focus is on opening a new park sometime over the next few months. Per People, Lowe has 120 days to vacate his current one. Maldonado-Passage is in federal prison serving a 22-year sentence after being convicted last year of trying to hire a hit man to kill Baskin. (Read more Tiger King stories.) Basel, June 2, 2020 - Novartis today announced that it has received notice from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that the agency has extended its review of the Supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for ofatumumab (OMB 157), a self-administered, targeted B-cell therapy for patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis. Regulatory action is now expected in September 2020. "Novartis will continue to work with the FDA to complete the review as soon as possible," said Marie-France Tschudin, President, Novartis Pharmaceuticals. "We are well prepared and ready to launch ofatumumab upon approval. We are committed to the MS community and look forward to bringing this important advancement to patients with MS." Additional regulatory filings are currently underway and regulatory approval for ofatumumab in Europe is expected by Q2 2021. About ofatumumab Ofatumumab (OMB 157) is a fully human anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody (mAb) in development for RMS that is self-adminstered by a once-monthly injection, delivered subcutaneously1,2,7. As shown in preclinical studies, ofatumumab is thought to work by binding to a distinct epitope on the CD20 molecule inducing potent B-cell lysis and depletion3. The selective mechanism of action and subcutaneous administration of ofatumumab allows precise delivery to the lymph nodes, where B-cell depletion in MS is needed, and may preserve the B-cells in the spleen, as shown in preclinical studies4. Once-monthly dosing of ofatumumab also allows fast repletion of B-cells and offers more flexibility5. Ofatumumab was originated by Genmab and licensed to GlaxoSmithKline; Novartis obtained rights for ofatumumab from GlaxoSmithKline in all indications, including RMS, in December 20156. Disclaimer This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by words such as "potential," "can," "will," "plan," "may," "could," "would," "expect," "anticipate," "seek," "look forward," "believe," "committed," "investigational," "pipeline," "launch," or similar terms, or by express or implied discussions regarding potential marketing approvals, new indications or labeling for the investigational or approved products described in this press release, or regarding potential future revenues from such products. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on our current beliefs and expectations regarding future events, and are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. There can be no guarantee that the investigational or approved products described in this press release will be submitted or approved for sale or for any additional indications or labeling in any market, or at any particular time. Nor can there be any guarantee that such products will be commercially successful in the future. In particular, our expectations regarding such products could be affected by, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including clinical trial results and additional analysis of existing clinical data; regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; global trends toward health care cost containment, including government, payor and general public pricing and reimbursement pressures and requirements for increased pricing transparency; our ability to obtain or maintain proprietary intellectual property protection; the particular prescribing preferences of physicians and patients; general political, economic and business conditions, including the effects of and efforts to mitigate pandemic diseases such as COVID-19; safety, quality, data integrity or manufacturing issues; potential or actual data security and data privacy breaches, or disruptions of our information technology systems, and other risks and factors referred to in Novartis AG's current Form 20-F on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Novartis is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. About Novartis Novartis is reimagining medicine to improve and extend people's lives. As a leading global medicines company, we use innovative science and digital technologies to create transformative treatments in areas of great medical need. In our quest to find new medicines, we consistently rank among the world's top companies investing in research and development. Novartis products reach nearly 800 million people globally and we are finding innovative ways to expand access to our latest treatments. About 109,000 people of more than 145 nationalities work at Novartis around the world. Find out more at https://www.novartis.com (https://www.novartis.com). Novartis is on Twitter. Sign up to follow @Novartis at https://twitter.com/novartisnews (https://twitter.com/novartisnews) For Novartis multimedia content, please visit https:// (https://www.novartis.com/news/media-library)www.novartis.com/news/media-library (http://www.novartis.com/news/media-library) For questions about the site or required registration, please contact media.relations@novartis.com (mailto:media.relations@novartis.com) References 1. Hauser S. Efficacy and safety of ofatumumab versus teriflunomide in relapsing multiple sclerosis: results of the phase 3 ASCLEPIOS I and II trials. Presented at the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) Annual Conference; September 11-13, 2019; Stockholm, Sweden. 2. Bar-Or A, Fox E, Goodyear A, et al. Onset of B-cell Depletion with Subcutaneous Administration of Ofatumumab in Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis: Results from the APLIOS Bioequivalence Study. Presented at Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis Forum; February 27-29, 2020. 3. Smith P, Kakarieka A, Wallstroem E. Ofatumumab is a fully human anti-CD20 antibody achieving potent B-cell depletion through binding a distinct epitope. Poster presented at ECTRIMS; September 2016; London, UK. 4. Smith P, Huck C, Wegert V, et al. Low-dose, subcutaneous anti-CD20 therapy effectively depletes B-cells and ameliorates CNS autoimmunity. Poster presented at ECTRIMS; September 14-17, 2016; London, UK. 5. Savelieva M, Kahn J, Bagger M, et al. Comparison of the B-Cell Recovery Time Following Discontinuation of Anti-CD20 Therapies. ePoster presented at ECTRIMS; October 25-28, 2017; Paris, France. 6. GSK press release. GSK completes divestment of rights to ofatumumab for auto-immune indications to Novartis. December 21, 2015. Available from: https://www.gsk.com/en-gb/media/press-releases/gsk-completes-divestment-of-rights-to-ofatumumab-for-auto-immune-indications-to-novartis/ (https://www.gsk.com/en-gb/media/press-releases/gsk-completes-divestment-of-rights-to-ofatumumab-for-auto-immune-indications-to-novartis/) [Last accessed: June 2020]. 7. Efficacy and Safety of Ofatumumab Compared to Teriflunomide in Patients With Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis (ASCLEPIOS I & II clinical trials), data on file, Novartis. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02792218 (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02792218); https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02792231 (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02792231). # # # Novartis Media Relations E-mail: media.relations@novartis.com (mailto:media.relations@novartis.com) Antonio Ligi Novartis External Communications +41 79 723 3681 (mobile) antonio.ligi@novartis.com (mailto:antonio.ligi@novartis.com) Eric Althoff Novartis US External Communications +1 862 778 3243 +1 646 438 4335 eric.althoff@novartis.com (mailto:eric.althoff@novartis.com) Michael Amos Novartis Global Pharma Communications +41 79 123 7806 (mobile) michael.amos@novartis.com (mailto:michael.amos@novartis.com) Novartis Investor Relations Central investor relations line: +41 61 324 7944 E-mail: investor.relations@novartis.com (mailto:investor.relations@novartis.com)